Chapter Text

Chapter 1

☆What Now?☆

“Uhm before that whole thing...we’re like dating , right?”

“Oh...? Y-yeah!”

...

-N and Uzi during “Absolute End”

。。。

They didn’t know if they'd come out alive after the whole ordeal, nor if there would even be a

way to defeat Cyn.

yet they were still contempt with their decision, because they knew what was on the line and

wanted to say their peace before what they feared was to come.

Then they came out successful and 12 hours later the two would be resting on the bed in Uzi's room. N borrowing her headphones to listen to a night core version of Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream that Uzi had added to a spotify list she made for him not too long ago.

The purple haired drone looked down to the floor, where her other disassembly drone friend was sleeping, similar to that of a sleeping cat, with her body curled up, and snoring which had just enough similarity to that of purring.

V was pretty beat as well, and it was no mystery as of why considering the Jurassic madness she might have gone through, that she still wouldn’t talk, (which was pretty bad considering how tough she was usually)

It was actually amazing, what they all went through and somehow came out alive.

Uzi then turned back around to see N.

N's head was resting on his arms, she theorized he was sleeping, but thanks to that shaggy but silk mop of hair on his head completely hiding his screen, she couldn't even tell.

Forget those stupid storybooks, this is the real “sleeping beauty” Uzi thought eyes softening at the sight.

She placed her head onto her own hand, like he had done, still watching him with eyes full of admiration.

It was still so surreal to think that her and him were dating now, and that N, was her’s, and she was his.

Her e-stomach lurched, robo-God, even the thought of it, gave her butterflies. She started to wonder to herself when or if that would go away.

However, her train of though was quickly interupted when N had started to move, his right arm began to stretch and a soft yawn escaped his mouth, revealing his large canids.

Uzi gasped in response to this, he then placed his hand onto Uzi’s side.

Her eyes turned hallow in alarm, and her core's beat began to skip. The moment was far to intimate for her liking, so she did what any panicked teen would do and pull away from his grasp.

Once she had done so, she sat back up, unfortantly it awoken N, and the sleep icon (that she had finally seen when he had stretched) flickered to a pair of shut eyes, that slowly opened up. N turned his head up to see her.

Great, he was probably mad at her now. Uzi felt guilt rise up in here.

N smiled ”Hi.” he looked at her, a toothy grin beginning to creep across his face, and digital brows furrowing across his screen

“H-hi.” Uzi chortled nervously and smiled right back at him, robo-God she felt like a mess right now-

N began to rub his eye, “You feeling okay?”

He sat up with her, causing the headphones on his head to flop onto his shoulders.

Uzi core began to race once again as he towered over her, she began to question, had he always been that tall? She hoped not, nobody should ever be that tall!! She continued eyeing him in surprise.

However she was quick to hide her feelings with a slow swallow of spit.

“Yeah, I think I’m okay.” She mumbled looking away for a moment, “You?” She pointed to him, eyebrows raised.

"My neck really hurts, other than that though, I'm okay.” he nodded closing his eyes for a moment.

Uzi beamed hearing this, “Good.” she declared

Despite being clearly tired, with his back arched, and head tilted, he was happy with a crooked smile on his face, sadly though a realization had hit him, and he was quick to switch up to a frown of worry.

Biting his lip, and moving in closer on his new girlfriend he brought his hand over to her chest, and placed it onto the center where her core would be. His fingers near wrapping around her shoulders and sides, as he looked down at her chest.

Uzi grabbed his wrist, at first she was alarmed, wondering just what he doing, but that’s when it had hi her. 

Her expression hardened as well "N," she pulled his arm down onto bed, “You don’t after worry, I’m okay.”

N still continued to look at her core. “But what if you're not though?” He murmured, so quiet you had to watch his lips move in order to know what he was saying.

“Trust me, I think if it wouldn’t have been, I probably would have exploded or something.” She joked,

“Besides, dad’s gonna take me to see a docter in a few days to check, to make.” Uzi said

N didn’t say anything to it, he simply frowned looking down at the ground,

Uzi seeing how upset it made N, decided to switch the topic to something better to think about.

”So now that we defeated the absolute solver, and saved the whole planet, what do we do now?” Uzi asked

N sighed “Honestly, I don’t know, as horrible as it sounds, I didn’t think we were gonna make it out alive.” he awkwardly chuckled as he said the last bit of the sentence

Uzi frowned at his declaration, the worst part was she felt the same thing…

N then noticed how upset she was, and tried to lighten the mood just as she had done.

”But, it’s okay now!” N’s tone changed, “Because we came out of it alive, and now I got all the time in the world to spend with my new super awesome girlfriend.”

He looked at her with nothing but pride gleaming in his beautiful gold eyes.

Uzi felt her core knocking roughly on her metal ribcage, as a faint grin crept on her face.

Hearing this, she felt both happy and panicked at this.

Of course that was expected though, this was her first ever relationship, and it was with her first ever friend after all.

What did couples do anyway? She thought to herself, what was her and N supposed to do.

Then one thing came to her mind.

“So like…” she stopped herself, her mind felt like it had just turned to jelly.

Her lips pierced together for a moment, and her legs awkwardly shifted onto each other where she sat, “Do you maybe wanna go on a date?”

“Oh?”

N tilted his head, processing what she had said.

“Oh!” it finally hit him “Yeah!” he nodded happily “Where do you want to go?”

He asked

Uzi meekly shrugged, “I dunno you choose.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

N buzzed, tapping his chin for a moment, thinking for a moment.

“Ooh I know a place we can go,” he realized.

“Where is it?” Uzi asked,

N opened his mouth to speak, but stopped, realizing the presence of another drone.

He looked over to V, who tossed and turned a few times in her sleep, he looked back to Uzi.

“It’s a secret.” he whispered to his girlfriend, “I’ll show you tomorrow, okay?”

Uzi thought about this for a moment, “Okay,”

she whispered back to him

After that, they talked for a few more minutes, before eventually they fell back asleep, N being first, and Uzi being 30 minutes late to him still wracking her brain of where he would be taking her tomorrow.

。。。

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

☆Nightmare☆

Just sleep…

Just dream…

Just sleep…

Just dream…

*FLICK*

-3/2/3053-

-3:30 AM-

-Cam03: hallwayL1-

Inside a hallway, dimly lit by five lamps placed on the ceiling, one of them flickering every few seconds, four drones, three disassembly drones, and one worker, each one of their bodies blurred, and their faces hidden by a black square. The censoring was done just enough where you couldn’t see who they were and exactly what they looked like, but not bad enough where you couldn’t see what was going on.

They were fighting it looked, the disassembly drones would attempt to attack the worker drone, but the worker would fight back, using surprising enough solver powers to dodge their attacks and attack them back.

Get her.

Get her..!

One of the three lunged for the worker, a solver glyph appeared onto it, they were brought into the air, and  was thrown against each and every wall before being flung out of view, colliding into another and dragging it with them as this happened.

No!

She went for only remaining disassembly drone, at first it pushed the worker to the ground, a went to bite her, but the worker picked up what felt to be out of nowhere a pickaxed and slammed it into what looked like their screen judging by the amount of shards that exploded.

The killer sprung into the air and fell backwards.

Frustration.

The worker stood atop of it, and rised the pickaxe high up into the air, preparing to place on final blow into it’s head.

It looked like it was the end of the line for bigger drones, that was until out of nowhere…

The third disassembly drone flew right back into the view, lashing out once at the worker with their chainsaw as they done so.

It was hard to see, but it appeared that they had taken the arm clean from it’s target, so clean that it’s limb had became unblurred as it flew into the air and dropped onto the ground.

They stumbled back, and oil began to squirt out from the fresh cut each passing second.

Yes!

The two began to fight, the worker swinging the axe each few times, and the disassembly drone trying to get her with claws, this happen for a minute or so, before the disassembly drone had done something even more unexpected.

He headbutted the worker drone, so hard they flew into the air and out of view, afterwards they dashed right for them once more.

YES!

The screen went black.

⚠NO CONNECTION⚠

*FLICK*

-3/2/3053-

-3:40 AM-

-Cam01: OfficeEntry-

The worker had been pinned to the wall by the disassembly drone, it still tried to fight but it was no use, they were trapped like a rat.

The killer’s dragged them down to the ground, and with a swift swing of the tail, forced it’s nanite acid needle right into the worker’s head.

The worker tried to kick and push away from the bigger drone for a moment, but then…

It’s movements died out.

They went limp.

The disassembly drone pulled away, and the body dropped the ground, it made a run for it.

An emotionless chuckle,

Good  Job 01000101 01010010 01010010 01001111 01010010 ERROR 01000101 01010010 01010010 01001111 01010010

⚠⚠THIS MESSAGE CANNOT BE DECRYPTED; TRY AGAIN⚠⚠

The footage began to glitch out, bits and pieces of it cutting out, and static beginning to form on the screen. Until finally…

*CRACK*

The glass screen shattered and Uzi’s vision went black.

For the next seven seconds nothing.

Then….she woke up!

Her little sleepmode icon disappeared showing her two purple pupils staring down at the ground, which was now clear of V’s presence.

She lied there for a while, trying to process whatever she had just seen, shaking a little…? She couldn’t really tell.

After what felt to be forever she finally sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes.

What was that about? Though the lady drone looking over at her boyfriend who still slept peacefully next to her, a little line of drool leaking from the corner of his mouth and onto Uzi’s pillow.

She cringed with a groan of disgust before lying back down next to him.

She clasped her hands together and placed them over her chests, looking up at the posters and drawings N had made plastered all over her ceiling, trying to wonder what that dream could possibly have meant, or been about.

And then…then something appeared on the corner of her screen…a notification for a text, a little letter icon with a one on the corner of it.

Curious she tapped on it, a message appeared in the middle of her screen.

This is what it read:

*D i d  y o u  r e a l l y  t h i n k  y o u  c o u l d  g e t  r i d  o f  m e  t h a t  e a s i l y :)

Uzi felt her core skip a beat.

No.

Nononono.

Her hands began to tremble.

Another letter, she opened it up as well.

A picture of Uzi’s room, at that exact moment of time, she knew this because it was a picture of her computer, with the exact same lightning position and the exact bottle of oil she had left their a night before.

“No.” Uzi swiped it away, and shook her head a few times.

This wasn’t happening, this couldn’t have been happening.

Then three more letters, three more pictures.

One of V sleeping.

One of the ceiling.

Then one of N

At this point panic had completely over took her, Cyn was still alive, she lived, and was somewhere in this room, her core beat so fast she thought it would explode, and she sat down on her bed holding her chest, feeling her breathing become labored.

This couldn’t be real, Cyn was gone, she had to be!

“N.” she got on her knees and pushed him onto his back.

“Hm…” he hummed in mild annoyance trying to stay asleep, Uzi however continued to bother him.

“Wake up!”

“What?”

He finally opened his eyes to look to her.

“Cyn’s alive.”

“What?!”

“Cyn’s alive!”

Her boyfriend finally sprung up from where he was lying down, and got up.

Uzi jumped down from bed, and began to stumble back.

“I-I-I don’t where, but she’s here! She’s-She’s messaging me or something.”

The purple haired drone waved her hands about in the air, before pointing a trembling finger to her icons.

“She’s sending me pictures, just now taken pictures!” she tried to tell him each and every detail that had come to her scattered brain at that moment.

With worry written all across his face, N looked all over the room, keeping close eyes on spots where someone could possibly hide, such as the closat, under the bed or one of the vents.

He summoned a machine gun from the left parto of his arm, and furrowed his brow, bracing himself for melle “Do you know where she could be?” he walked over to her, taking one last look under the bed as he done so.

“No!” she shook her head, “I have no idea where she could be.” she made a run over to the closet and grabbed her railgun which was perched on one of the doors of it.

"Then we need to find her!”

“Well obviously we do!”

Around this point, both the drones were incredibly panicked; One of the most powerful and most destructive creatures was in the room with them, and the worst part was they didn’t even know where she was.

Uzi trotted over to N, dusting off her railgun as she done so, as she made her way over to him, the boy had realized something about his girlfriend.

He looked deeper into her eyes with skepticism.

Uzi noticed this, and her two pupils shifted into rings.

“What?” she said

“Their purple again.”

His girlfriend tilted her head, a brow raising in confusion, “what?” she worded under breath.

She repeated what he said internally, what could that possibly mean? She was lost, but then she saw her reflection in her own monitor.

Her face, staring back into his own, her eyes were back to their original purple color.

Then her screen began to flicker, yellow writing appeared on it.

*B e h i n d  y o u :)

It disappeared, and they both looked at each other with alarm.

Uzi stayed holding onto N, she didn’t dare look behind her, she didn’t want, and N understood completely, he moved closer to her, wrappd a singular arm around her back, then he got up on his tippy toes and looked over her.

Their he had seen…

Nothing?

His lips curled downward in confusion, looking left and right, but then, he looked down and he saw Uzi’s solver tail, looking up at him with yellow eyes.

It opened it’s mouth, appearing as though it was smiling.

“Uzi.” N spoke up.

“What?”

His girlfriend pushed off from him and turned around, her tail curled so it’s head would still be in front of them.

“We meet again, Uzi.” A familiar monotone voice had escaped it's mouth

Both the two looked in complete disbelief.

“What the-” Uzi stuttered out

“Cyn?” N got down to the creature’s level.

“Is that…you?” He poked her eye once.

The solver backed away and snapped her jaw at N’s finger, but he quickly pulled back, and stand up straight.

The partners looked to each other, then back to the tail creature.

。。。

Uzi sat on the counter of the doctor’s office, Dr. Ratchet was in front of her writing something down on his note pad.

Khan was sitting on of the chairs at the left of the room, looking with worry at his child, N and V would be their too, however the docter had told them to stay in the waiting room, because the docter didn’t feel comfortable with having disassemble drones in his office, which was understood considering they were at fault for multiple emergency docter visits.

Cyn appeared and began to pester Uzi, headbutting her side ever few seconds, Uzi tiredly tried to push her away.

Dr. Ratchet made his way over to Khan.

“Yup, it’s a parasite.” he declared. “Found it while I was searching through her files, right between “Mother and father issues” “teenage angst arc” and..." he bit his lip moment.

“crush on tall hot golden retriever vampire drone...?” he looked to Uzi with skeptism in his eyes, Uzi hid herself way, he looked back to Khan.

The father sighed

”I-Is it going to kill her?” He asked.

”With what I saw, no it won’t,” Dr. Ratchet explained, “It as matter doesn’t cause any type of harm.”

That managed to bring relief to Khan, it wasn't going to kill her, that was good.

“Well can we get rid of it?” He asked,

Dr. Rachet shook his head, "It doesn't look like it.”

Khan's face fell.

“OW-STOP HEADBUTTING ME!”

The two turned to see what was going on.

Uzi was now trying to grab for her tail spinning on the counter as Cyn done all she could to avoid her grasp.

Khan and the Docter looked at them both.

“Honestly, the hardest part of this, should be getting her to accept the fact.” Dr. Ratchet

crossed his arms, "Atleast, that's what it looks like from my perspective." he shrugged, unsure of what too say.

Khan looked back over to the scene going on, with a hint of worry.

Right the docter was about getting use to it! Because despite the constant efforts of termination, that pesky parasite never left.

V N and Uzi tried to cut Cyn off, all that happened was the skin of Uzi’s tail had broken, and it made her bleed.

They tried to prune Cyn, it worked for the time being, but Cyn grew back fast. Then when they’d pruned her again, she grew back even faster, the next time

They even tried to set fire to Cyn, which she was flammable...and so was Uzi.

They could still hear Uzi swearing like a sailor after that whole ordeal. yeah THAT was fun...

Finally Uzi, desperate for a last resort, thought to kill Cyn by antifreeze poisoning, so for a whole 24 hours she only drank coolants.

The plan did not work, all it had done was cause both of them to get severely drunk, made Uzi to throw up on N twice, Cyn to be so off balance she’d trip peoples’ legs multiple times,

Khan was completely unaware of this, until he had seen his daughter passed out in the middle of the hallway.

When he found out what had happened Khan was not at all happy, which resulted in Uzi being grounded for a week, and threatened to have her wifi and railgun privileges taking away if she ever done something like that again.

Needless to say Uzi had stopped after that little ordeal (which was a shame since she didn’t even get to try what magnets and battery acid would do to Cyn) and done just as the doctor told her and accepted the filthy parasite as part of herself, not happily though.

”Shove! Push! Toss! Drag!”

N, sitting on Uzi’s floor, drawing in his new sketchbook, watched blankly as all items on Uzi’s nightstands were thrown in the air and placed astray across the bedroom, his girlfriend however paid no mind to this, and instead lied down on her bed face stuck in a magazine about firearms, until Cyn had snatched it up and tossed it feet into the air, before falling right for N’s head.

He gripped it tightly. And looked to see Uzi didn’t even bat an eye.

“Giggle giggle, I am so naughty.” Cyn twirled for a moment, bobbing her head left and right as though she was dancing.

Uzi rolled her eyes watching the sight.

”Maybe once she gets use to her new body, she’ll calm down?” N sat up handing Uzi her

book.

”It’s been like a week since she’s gotten her “new body ". I don’t think she’s gonna calm down.” Uzi snatched her book back, and flicked the pages back to her spot.

“Open! Close! Open! Close!” Cyn began to mess with the drawer on the nightstand.

Uzi and N both flinched, with each slam of the drawer, it was like nails on a chalkboard.

The purple haired drone’s hands shook violently causing her to crumple her poor magazine up into near nothing.

MAKE IT STOP!

“It SUCKS N!” Uzi exclaimed sitting up and looking to her boyfriend “Everyday when I

wake up, she’s there shouting at me and tossing crap all over the place!” She pointed to her tail “When I get dressed, she pops up and starts giving me fashion advice about what I should be wearing something more pretty so I don’t look so dirty or something, then when I go to bed she starts singing lullabies! I CAN’T EVEN DRINK OIL WITHOUT HER OVER HERE BEGGING ME TO GIVE HER A SIP!” Uzi cried, tearing at the hair of her wig.

N tilted his head, “but I thought the doctor said she gets half your oil anyway, why would she want something she'll end up having anyway?”

Uzi grit her teeth into a crazed grin, "Good question." She pointed to N

Afterwards she fell back onto her bed with a groan, placing her hands over her eyes, Cyn noticed this, and moved right in front of Uzi’s face.

”Uzi? What’s wrong, confusion.” She asked.

The purple haired drone began to shake, slowly and quietly pulling her hands away from her screen, revealing deranged hollow eyes.

Noticing her alarming change of demeanor, N pushed Cyn far away from Uzi, and hopped onto the bed, sitting down next to Uzi, keeping both her and the tail monster far away from each other

”I'm Sorry, you're so stressed, I wish there was something I could do to make you feel better.” N apologized.

Uzi sighed softly, guilt creeping onto her.

”No...” Uzi shook her head “It’s not your fault, I mean I was the one who swallowed a being of eldritch horror and mass destruction, so I’m gonna pay for it.”

N lied down next to her, “And it didn’t kill you.” He pointed out “That’s always A win.”

”Yeah that’s true too I guess,”

N scooted himself close enough to where their thighs where touching, she felt him then intertwine their fingers.

Her core began to race, and her body began to overheat, in order to stop this, the fans built into her core turned on, and began to spin, making a faint whirring noise inside of her.

uzi silently hoped and prayed he wouldn't notice as she awkwardly turned away from N. maybe if she acted like it wasn't their he wouldn't ask anything about it?

and since it didn’t kill her, that also meant they could go start dating now. N thought, tail wagging,

but wait a minute

N's expression went blank for a moment.

“I just realized something.” N said aloud, straightening his body out to where he was sitting up straight, and his tail quickly brushed up against Uzi's back, causing her to practically melt.

Oh no, he noticed. “What?” spat the purple haired drone, still trying to avoid his contact.

”We haven’t gotten to go on our date yet.” N answered.

Uzi felt herself calm down, oh okay she was fine.

She sighed, ”It’s because I’ve been so wrapped up with this whole Cyn thing.” She finally

turned to face him, her flustered mood now replaced with the disappointment of that fact..

”Well...” N took Uzi’s hand into his own, “Maybe we should go on a date, so you can have distraction from the whole thing..”

Uzi thought about it, you know what, a distraction would be nice… She smiled crookedly "Sure, I'd like that."

。。。

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

☆The First Date☆

They planned to have their first date tomarrow after school, with both meeting at the front of Outpost 3 at around 7 pm so it was dark out, gussied up for the night on the town.

Uzi came out with the typical goth kid look; wearing her beanie, a short hello kitty tank top, her jacket tied around her waist, and combat boots with striped leggings.

N joined her, wearing his coat unbuttoned along with his dapper tux from Prom, and a bow he borrowed from Lizzy tied to his nanite acid tail.

Cyn appeared rising a head above Uzi's waist ”You both look lovely on this fine night, but personally I think you could’ve done better, as you look like something a cat dragged in, disgust.” Cyn whispered to Uzi.

she scoffed ”Just shut up and go into sleep mode.” Uzi hissed to the tail creature.

Cyn did just that, not because she was told but because she didn't want to be around to see whatever gross coupley things the two would be doing later that night.

”Hi.” N greeted his girlfriend, crouching down to meet her level.

Uzi felt her core beat like a drum, “Hey.” She greeted him, clasping her two clammy hands together.

N asked if she was ready to go, placing his hand out to her.

Uzi hesitantly said yes and took his hand.

They then began the date, heading off from Outpost 3 and down to the city

-Once they had made it to the city-

N and Uzi both trudged on the sidewalk, still holding hands, scanning the location setting top to bottom though having seen it multiple times before.

It was always nice to admire the big beautiful city, it was such an upgrade from the same old metal hallways at the bunker, well except for one detail.

They both turned a corner, seeing the silohette of the large large ever lasting corpse spire.

Both the teens stopped, they both cringed, at the sight.

"Woof." Uzi shook her head.

N looked the spire up and down, all the memories of those dead drones and their stories coming back to him all at once, darkening his mind for a moment.

"I always forget how big it is."

Uzi's mouth curled into a discomforted frown.

N squeezed Uzi's hand a little tighter, "I hate it." he confessed "It brings back too many bad memories."

In order to avoid looking at it any further, the two went down a different road.

“I think my dad’s been talking about getting all the other drone colonies together so they could get rid of the whole corpse spire.” Uzi explained

“Really? That’s great.” N said “When’s he gonna do that?”

“Well he hasn’t confirmed it yet, but if I had to guess about a week or so? That’s what he’s been saying.” Uzi replied

N thought that sounded perfect, get rid of that horrible reminder of his past.

"So...where's that secret spot you were talking about at?" Uzi changed the topic.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" N declared "The entire point we're here."

He slipped his hand away from her own, ”Come on, I’ll show you where it is.” He walked in front of her.

。。。

“I remeber finding it one night, when J was mad at me,” He explained as they walked up a sidewalk on a hill "She had kicked me out of the corpse spire because she got mad at me because I didn't kill enough drones that day, and it was almost day time so needed to find a place to sleep or else I'd melt."

Uzi frowned at this.

”When it came day time I stayed at the building, but I couldn't sleep because I got really bored so I just wondered around the place for a while, until I finally found it!”

Uzi grinned "The secret spot?" she questioned

"Yup! My secret spot." he chirped proudly.

”It was pretty nice too, I got to decorate it and all that.” N explained

。。。

Apparently the ”secret spot” wasn’t as secretive as she thought, for when she was brought to location, it was nothing more than the JC Jenson products factory, which was right in the middle of the city.

”We’re here!” N happily declared, as he showed her the front of the factory building’s front, where two metal doors lied

Uzi was not at all amused, “N, This isn’t a secret spot! Everyone and their grandma knows about this factory.” She declared

N pursed his lips together, and looked away, a little upset about her response. “Well yeah I know that!” He shrugged “but the spot isn’t specifically the whole building!”

He perked his face up as though he had a gotcha moment.

Uzi looked up at him with her arms crossed

”Then why’d say we’re here when we’re at specifically the front of the building?” she waved a questioning hand to him.

N's mind went blank.

"Uhh..." he placed a palm under his chin, confusingly scratching at it.

He then let out a hearty chuckle, with a grin on his face, "I actually don't know." he shrugged

Uzi simply stared at him stumped.

"I swear know what I'm doing, trust me." he akwardly promised her.

”No I mean I trust you-I just don’t understand you sometimes.” Uzi mumbled.

N then walked past the front and over to the side, “Here come with me..” He waved her hand for her to follow

Uzi reluctantly done just that, walking with him all the way to the back of the building, to a door, which was bent open.

The door just like the front one was made of metal, and just like the front one frosted over thanks to the cold, their was a sign on it, it read this.

NOT AN ENTRY, DO NOT OPEN

Must’ve been a fire exit.

Another thing Uzi had noticed was it wasn’t open like one would normally open a door, it was actually opened by it’s hinges, the nails from them completely missing.

If her dad had seen this he would’ve died of heart failure, he just hated to see a perfect door be broken.

N went to the front of the emergency exit, and started to squeeze in between the opening of the door, and somehow managed to pull through, which Uzi personally thought insane since the crack looked too small for even a worker to get through let alone a whole 5 foot disassemble drone!

She watched his syringe squeeze through with the rest of his body

“You coming?”

She heard his voice echo from inside.

Uzi wrinkled her face in discomfort, oh what the heck? If that big lug could get in there, what was stopping her??

She pulled herself in head first, trying her hardest to suck in her (nonexistent) gut.

she pulled herself in nearly falling onto the ground Luckily though N was quick to her rescue, and grabbed the scruff of her jacket.

”I got you, little buddy.” He grabbed her by her side and pulled her through, and gently placed her onto her feet.

"Don't call me little." she hissed pointing a finger to him, causing N to place to hands up in front of him.

"but thank you, for catching me before I fell." her expression quickly changed to a smile "that does mean a lot to me."

N smiled wagging his tail "Of course, you can always count on me!" he done a salute.

Uzi smiled watching him, fricking adorable. She thought, prideful that he was her boyfriend.

The inside of the factory, or atleast the back room of it, was a storage area, with isles of shelves with every single JCJenson product, from their bottles of windex to little branded pens on small containers, all neatly packaged and taped up in brown cardboard boxes.

Uzi personally found interest in this, for her father had told her many stories way back when he was forced to work for Jcjenson around the same age she was at now.

Uzi hummed impressed as she wandered around the building, looking at all the shelves and safety signs placed all over the walls and such.

The place actually seemed pretty gnarly when their wasn’t any humans around to enslave her and her entire race.

She then looked onto one of the shelves and noticed a default worker drone bauble head with the logo JCJENSON written on it’s hardhat.

She put her hand onto it’s head and pulled it back, the head sprung frontwards and wobbled all about the place, making a light tapping noise when it’s head would collide with the body.

She smiled, Okay that was kinda cool, she might need to keep that.

Before she could grab it however, she heard a loud screeching noise, so loud and deafening she had to flinch and cover her sound processors.

She looked to where she had heard the noise.

It was N, he at the right side of the building pushing a shelf that was placed onto the wall, farther down.

SCREEEEE She held the sides of her face once more, gritting her teeth.

N stopped for a moment to catch his breath, he then continued moving the shelf.

He done this about three more times until finally the shelf had been within five feet of it’s originally positon, revealing a vent on the on the lower side of the wall, and closet to the floor.

Seeing their was no longer an earbleedingly loud noise to worry about, Uzi took her hands from her hearing processors.

“What are you doing?” She walked to her boyfriend’s side.

“Hold on...” N mumbled, bringing himself to his stomach, bringing his face close to the vent.

Uzi, curious of what he was about to do, crouched down to watch.

The male drone raised his right hand, and swapped it out for his talons, he places the index of it unto the slit of the screw and began to twist it, slowly but surely pulling and popping it out from the hole of the vent.

His girlfriend raised a brow impressed at the use of his claws, well that was something she didn’t know he could do.

N then untwisted the new screw, and afterwards with a loud CLANG! The vent fell onto the ground.

“Got it.” N smiled triumphantly.

“Is that why the back door's opened like that?” She looked to her boyfriend.

“Heh.” N bubbled “A Magician never tells reveals his secret.” He winked to her as he prepared to slide into the vent.

He pushed his head in, but quickly pulled it out, “but yeah, that is how it got opened.” he nodded to her, before finally officially going in.

“Hey!” his voice echoed through the vent “You coming up or not?”

At first Uzi was confused, but then she realized it.

Oh no…

“It's in their?!” She exclaimed

“Yup!" He popped the p, as his voice echoed through the location.

Uzi looked up with dread, she'd seriously have to climb up all the way their??

“Come on Uzi! It’s not as hard as it looks to get up here.” N said happily eyes turning to two ^ shapes

Uzi looked up for a moment, before finally folding.

She let out a loud groan, her head turning up to the Heavens and hands falling to her side as she done so.

“Okay okay…” she went to the vent, getting down on her knees, preparing to go into the vent just as N had “I'm going in I guess."

"Great! I'll wait for you till then."

Uzi mumbled to herself, he didn’t even pay any mind to her annoyance.

The girl just as boyfriend had done, pulled herself into the vent, wasn’t as tight of a squeeze as the door thankfully, but was it cramped? Oh you better believe it.

Being in the vents was like being placed in an icy cold metal box, it was slippery, and bits of ice that had frozen inside of it did not help.

In order to get up to where N was, she had to somehow find a way to stand back up, and she had to figure out how to climb, by pushing her arms and legs on opposite sides of the walls and climb up one limb at a time (think of a spider going up a water spout)

Until finally she got into that pesky vent shaft that went across the ceiling, where she seen her boyfriend still crawling around in.

Since it was such a tight squeeze, N couldn't turn to face her, so he had to twist his head by an inch in order to see her.

“There you are!” He bubbled

Uzi sighed with relief. She pulled herself up into the vent shaft and crawled over to him, a big upgrade from climbing upwards.

“Okay…” she muttered “How much farther?”

She hoped for a not too long.

“A little bit farther.” N turned back around.

Uzi groaned once again, falling onto her stomach face first into the vent.

“I’ll tell you when we’re their, c’mon.” N still coerced her, and for whatever reason she still followed behind him.

This was not what she had in mind for a first date…

—A few twists turns, and climbs in the vents later—

Their long agonizing journey had came to an end.

He stopped at what looked to be a deadend, Uzi stopped with him.

"Okay, I think were here." N said

“Ugh, finally!” Uzi crawled to his side.

“This better be good with how many times your tail slapped me.” she muttered to herself.

“Oh ROBO GOD-NONO-”

She began to fall, but luckily for her, N grabbed her wrist before she could fall all the way down.

She saw him smiling down at her, before next thing she knew she pulled her up, and she fell into the area

“OOF!”

The two drones grunted in unison.

At first she wasn’t entire sure what had happened, before impact, she had shut her eyes, but she felt her hands and knees now places on that same wooly texture, as well as a strange feeling of warmth touching her chest and waist.

She opened her eyes, her now equally as hollow eyes met with N’s.

Aaand she was on top of him.

She puffed her lower lip out and furrowed her brow in alarm at this.

“Your eyes are really beautiful, Uzi.” N finally broke the silence, in what Uzi believed to be the worst way possibly.

“GROSS!” Uzi sat up on him, pushing his face away in disgust “GET OFF ME!” she exclaimed falling back onto his knees, and climbing off from him

N whined in response to this aggression. which was reasonable because he didn't even do anything wrong.

Finally when pulled off from each other, Uzi could get a clear view of the secret spot.

The secret spot, was a vent shaft, that’s right a vent shaft.

The vent shaft was about as large was a big early 2000s tv, not even room to stand up and walk around, but enough room to sit down and crawl over to different spots.

There was more to it however.

On the bottom part it, their was a crypto superdog blanket, textured like that of a itchy old lint covered sweater no one in their right mind would want to wear.

A few pillows on the right side, then some dog plushies on the left.

Then finally where the iron bars revealing where the outside floor was of it was, an old comforter shoved between the top parts of it, hiding away the outside world.

Well this certainly was not what Uzi she expected…

“So this is the place?” Uzi asked, crawling over to the pillows and leaned down onto one of them

“Yeah.” N nodded hesitantly, as he went to sit by her side.

“I’m sorry, I know it isn’t much, but it’s where I used to have to hangout I guess.” he explained

Uzi continued to look around, the more she looked she more she actually kinda liked it, though it was more a crawl space than a hangout area, it was a little comfy and cozy, and admitably it was nice, and felt like a place N would specifically have made, and she loved it because of that.

 “No, no it’s nice.” Uzi said “It is actually kinda homey in here.” She laid down onto the pillows “It’s not big, but it is peaceful.”

“Plus the view’s not bad either.” N said, as he grabbed the top part of the comforter, and pulled it off from the bars, causing moonlight to flood through the filter, revealing the beautiful night sky, painted in stars, impressive .

”It is pretty cool.” She admitted, as N placed the comforter over both her and him.

He scooted close enough to where Uzi could feel their hips touch, she felt a light headedness from this.

“I actually remeber wanting to show you this place earlier.” N confessed, “like a few days after the prom fight with Doll.”

”Really?” Uzi looked at him, stumped “What made you want to do that?”

N looked out to the sky, with a smile.

”Because you were the only person that I felt would care.” he explained “That means a lot to me.”

”Don’t mention it, dude, you know I’d do anything for you.” Uzi pointed out

”I do, and you know I’d do anything for you too.” N said.

They both looked to each other with half smiles, and their hands met in the middle.

This hand holding and soft smiling went on for what felt to be forever, until a moment when N would closed his eyes, and slowly leaned towards Uzi, his lips puckered out.

His girlfriend soon noticed and realized what he was trying to do, she froze.

Needless to say she was taken aback at first, but hesitantly she puckered her lips back and shut her eyes, shakily trying to bring herself closer.

The two got closer, and closer, until…

Uzi pulled away, and with a sigh of defeat looked away, and shook her head

She couldn’t do it.

Uzi scooted away from him, and pulled her phone out from her coat pocket.

N, realizing nothing was happening, opened his eyes.

He looked down to Uzi, a confused expression across his monitor.

”You wanna watch one of these movies now?” Uzi pointed to her phone screen.

N still appeared dumbfounded

He tried to speak up, but failed a few times.

”Uh—yeah! Sure, let’s do that.” N sputtered out, feeling a bit embarrassed that his attempt to kiss her might have not been reciprocated.

They looked for one of the Ghibli movies Uzi had pirated on her phone, but then N seen another movie called “How to Train your Dragon” and thought it looked cool, and asked if they could watch that instead, Uzi seen no problem in it, since she  loved that movie and decided they could watch that instead.

The entire time they were watching it, N was completely sucked into the plot.

He was very interested in world building and related to Hiccup about how he had to kill dragons just because “he was told to” and loved the part when he began to train toothless and the two started to form a bond.

The drone also freaked out during Hiccup’s possible death, and begged Uzi to tell him whether he was going to live or not, but Uzi simply smirked to him and told him he was just gonna have to wait and see.

Then the ending, the ending completely blew him away! He didn’t think in a million years that Stoic would let Hiccup keep Toothless or all of the Vikings would accept dragons into their society. Maybe their was hope for him.

After watching the movie, the two decided to leave N’s spot and head back for Outpost 3.

While walking down the street was N really began to speak his mind

”WOW! That was amazing, Uzi!” N exclaimed “You have great taste in movies.”

Uzi smirked “Yeah, I know.”

They took a turn down one of the streets “Their’s two more movies in the franchise, I’ve watched the second one, but I haven’t gotten around to the third one yet.”

”Well if there's anything like the first one we should watch them both some other time!”

”Sure! I like that idea.”

N ran over to a street lamp, placed his hand on it, and began to spin around, Uzi watch him

”Can you imagine that? If I was Hiccup, and you were Astrid, and Toothless was like a dog, and I got to train a dog and I convinced you to join me and the dog and we just flew around the sky for half an hour?” N asked her.

Uzi looked to him in amusement.

”N, I don’t think with what you told me dogs work like that.” She chuckled.

”Oh yeah, no you’re right” N stopped spinning, and went back over to his girlfriiend, “Well then we can switch and we’d fly around in the sky while the dog was on our backs or something.”

Uzi hummed in confusion.

”You know, because we can fly.’ He explained “Obviously.” 

Uzi’s eyes went hollow, “Uhm…”

”Or maybe me and the dog on your back?” She quickly replied, an akward grin.

N looked to her with a stumped expression “but why, wouldn’t you rather be flying on your own?” He asked

She didn’t respond, she couldn’t tell him, she was far to ashamed.

Unfortantly for her the parasite decided to appear to market the moment much worse and woke up from her slumber. ”It’s because Uzi can’t fly!” Cyn exclaimed, popping up and in front of Uzi

Uzi snatched Cyn’s neck up, looking her directly in the eye as she did it, with a death grip that matched even V’s (“EEP.” Cyn cried her voice unusually high)

”Bite. Me.” She hissed.

”Uzi, you can’t fly?” N asked

With a nervous sigh her expression softened.

She shoved Cyn behind her, still holding onto the creature’s neck.

”I tried to do it one time by jumping off of Outpost 3, but when I jumped all I did was freeze up and fall right on my head” She nervously blabbered “I couldn’t do it, and I don’t know why, I think it’s just not for me or something.” She twisted and turned Cyn’s neck nervously.

”CHOCK-STOP.” Cyn shouted from behind her, trying frantically to go back into sleepmode, but failing thanks to Uzi’s grip.

N looked with a look of sympathy.

”You never learned?” N couldn’t belive that, “Aww, Uzi you should’ve said something!”

“Their’s nothing to say! it’s just something I I’m not supposed to do.” The female drone insisted

”but If it wasn’t something you were supposed to do, then you wouldn’t have wings that are specifically made for flying.” N said

Uzi realeased Cyn’s neck and crossed her arms.

”Oh yeah? Well how do you know their made for flying?” She asked.

Cyn then fell back into sleep mode, Uzi’s tail unforming.

N got closer to her, “Show me your wings.” He said

Though confused, Uzi transformed into her Solver form, unsheathing her wings and her now unpossessed tail. N grabbed her left wing and spread it out, examining it.

He hummed softly, “Thin membrane of the wing.” He drug his hand across the skin of the wing, Uzi felt a tingle crawl across her spine from this.

He then tapped the top of the wing “Hollow metal structure, just like a disassembly drone’s wings” He pointed out ”Yup! Meant to fly.“ he smiled to her

She folded her wing back with a scowl, and turned her front to N so he wouldn’t touch her wings again, trying to suffocate whatever unholy feelings him touching her wing had caused.

That fact made her feel more ashamed, she was meant to fly, but was possibly too dumb to even know how.

”It’s okay Uzi!” N said “I’m sure me and V had to learn sometime that I can’t remember, don’t feel bad.”

Uzi ignored his advice, and simply looked down to the ground, blushing from embarrassment.

”As matter of fact, why don’t you let me teach you right now?” N asked, “I’d be happy to do so.”

She could recall the pain of slamming into the ground, when she had jumped from the roof, and how sore she had felt the entire day.

”Forget it.” Uzi murmured “It’s not that important, let’s just go back home, and pretend this conversation never happened, okay?”

”Come on Uzi! It clearly is if it bothers you so much.,” he reached out for her hand

”Why don’t we just find a building and-

”Quit it, N!” She spun to meet his face, fiery eyes full of rage and gritted teeth meeting his shocked facial expression finally snapped at him, slapping her hand away, and putting her foot down.

N backed up from her in surprise.

“I said no,” She exclaimed. “Stop talking about it.”

That tone of voice, Uzi had never spoken to him like that, he had crossed a line, and if he didn’t stop, he was going to cross more.

N’s tail dropped to the ground, and he felt a sickness in his e-stomach,

“I’m sorry,” He apologized “I didn’t know it was that big of a deal.” He really didn’t.

Uzi didn't reasure him or anything, instead she simply walked past him.

She stopped once she was a few yards away “Let’s just go back home, okay?” She said as she continued to walk.

N hesitantly nodded, seeing this a good idea.

The walk back was awful. the former warm atmosphere full of socialization and lame attempts of flirting was now replaced wit a tenseness in the air and both teens didn’t want to confront, and the two stayed far away.

They had their first date, and the same day as their first fight.

***

Later that night

Khan and V would be in the kitchen, looking at blueprints of Outpost 3 on the island counter

”See I think you could probably live in there, where the Rustbuckets used to be.” the father pointed to an empty dorm that use to inhabit an elderly drone couple.

”Oh I remeber those two jerks, I could never get a hold of them.” V explained “Always with those smoke bombs, and tear gas canisters.”

”Heh, yeah I remember Uzi saying she was inspired by them one time.”

The door creaked open, Khan and V turned to see Uzi and N outside the front door, neither looking as happy as they thought they were when they had left.

”Well hello you two!” Khan waved to them both

”Hey N, hey Uzi, you guys have fun on your little date?” V sneered

Uzi glared daggers to V.

”Bite me,“ she monotoned “What are you two doing anyway?” Uzi walked over to them both and looked down.

”We’re Looking for a nice dorm your friends could live in.” Khan explained “You know, so I don’t have to keep them here and feed them all the oil that I have.“

”Or we get hungry enough to eat you two.” V commented with a devious grin.

Khan looked at her in horror.

”What?" V tilted her head "I was Kidding! Sheesh it was a little joke.”

Uzi went to the fridge to get a bottle of oil to drink.

”Yeah, that’s probably not a bad idea, I wouldn’t mind having place of my own to live besides here sometimes.” N said as he took his black ice scentsy off from his neck and placed it on a hanger that was by the door.

”Really? And here I thought you had said you wanted to live with us forever.” Khan reminded him

N’s expression grew even darker.

 “Yeah, I guess I did say that.” He recalled “it’s just, probably would be a good thing for us to not be here all the time-.”

SLAM!

Completely avoiding eye contact with everyone, Uzi shut the fridge door and marched to her room taking a big sip of the bottle.

N watched biting his lip with guilt, V looked with curiosity, while Khan completely paid no mind to her.

V giggled nervously, taken aback by her change of demeanor

”Uhhh…N? Did you two have a good date?” V asked, a half smile on her face.

The male drone simply went to the living room couch and sat down, wrapping his tail around himself in shame.

Both V and Khan were confused at this.

”What’s wrong with them?” V whispered to Khan.

”I don't know maybe their date didn’t go as planned.” Khan replied

V thought the same thing, and looked to N with confusion.

。。。

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

☆First Flight☆

The next day right at the crack of dawn , Uzi would be rudely woken up from sleep mode.

”Uzi…wake up.”

She felt tapping on her screen.

The icon on her screen flickered revealing eyes squinting with irritation.

In front of her was just as thought, beady little eyes staring back at her.

She sat up in bed, pushing Cyn away from her face, and looked around to see where her two friends V and her boyfriend were.

V was sleeping on the desk of her computer, lieing on her back, tongue sticking out of her mouth and limbs sprawled out, with everything that was on the desk besides the computer and monitor knocked to the floor.

Uzi scowled, she told her multiple times not to do that.

Without hesitation Uzi grabbed her pillow and threw it smack dab onto V’s stomach.

V yowled in annoyance, as the pillow rolled off of her, Cyn flinched at the noise.

”GET OFF THEIR YOU IDIOT!” Uzi shouted

”Five more minutes, you emo toaster!”

The pillow was tossed right back at her, both Uzi and Cyn ducked.

“Tee hee, silly silly V.” The tail creature snickered

Uzi groaned. Just wait till she can get a spray can She smiled imagining V squirm about when being sprayed with cold polish (not water, cuz y'know robots n all that).

She continued to look around the room, N was nowhere to be seen, Which was strange since he always slept in her room on the floor, or sometimes on the foot of the bed? Where was he? She wondered for a moment.

Suddenly the events of last night came back…

”Come on Uzi! It clearly is if it bothers you so much.,”

”Why don’t we just find a building and-

”Quit it, N!”

“I said no,” 

“Stop talking about it.”

She pursed her lips together.

Oh yeah…that happened.

Her core ached remembering that, and that date started out so fun too.

The girl shook her head in disappointment, as she got up from her bed and headed out the door, grabbing her beanie and hat that hung from the doorknob as she done so, then to get V’s attention she loudly slammed the door behind, shaking the wall as she did so.

” I wanna ride the rocking horse ..!” V muttered a response, shockingly back in sleep mode.

Uzi and Cyn made their way down the hallway.

”You should have let me bite her, that would have woken her up, cheeky smile.” Cyn said

Yeah no-way was she going to let Cyn do that again, the first and last time she let Cyn do that, V woke up completely blowing a gasket out from hearing Cyn’s voice, and then in a blind panic tased the nearest drone next to her, which was who would’ve guessed, Uzi!

which V had apologized afterwards, saying it might have been a trauma response but that didn’t really help the taser mark that was on Uzi’s back for a good week, so yeah.

Besides, their was no time for jokes, she needed to make sure N was okay.

Recalling how he responded to her voice, how he jumped back, how his tail went between his legs, and that face he gave her.

She never yelled at him like that before, and of course she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, and she knew he didn’t want to do the same to her, it's just he upset her with all the pressure it felt like was being placed on her and she just kinda lost her temper..

Uzi snopped for a moment, letting out a soft sigh as she brushed hair from her face nervously

That was it, nothing more than that, and she needed him to know that too.

She was now in the living room, where finally she found N, who was sleeping away on the couch, curled up into a little ball, with his tail wrapped around his body, if it wasn’t for that frown on his face, he would’ve looked so peaceful, was that a frown or did he just look like that? She hoped that latter for her consiouce's sake.

”Hi brother.” Cyn greeted

”He’s asleep, Cyn.”

”Oh.”

Uzi reluctantly walked over to him, looking down solomnly at N’s sleeping body. 

Cyn then began to headbutt N’s shoulder.

”Wake up, big brother, it's rude not to engange in conversation with others.” She ordered.

N grumbled in confusion, his sleep mode icon disappearing revealing shut eyes, pulled out of sleep mode, but entirely awake yet.

Cyn used her last resort an went to N’s hand, she opened her mouth revealing a big yellow tongue

”Lick—lick—.” she drug her tongue across his palm.

As fast as lightning N's eyes sprung open, revealing eyes hollow as egg shells in shear utter alarm.

Well if he wasn't awake then, he sure as shoes is now.

Uzi looked as though she had just seen a ghost, horrified as of what Cyn had done.

N sat up, still unsure of the wet slimy substance on his hand, he looked at his palm, then to Cyn, he realized what it was.

 N smiled to her as friendly as could possibly be but the pain was still clear in his eyes “Little buddy, please don’t do that.” N said rather happy for the situation he had found himself in.

“It’s okay, big brother.” Cyn declared happily

”No, no it’s really not.” He shook his head, still holding that pain grin on his face.

”Yes it is, big smile.”

N wiped the saliva off on his coat pocket, his grin now replaced with a wrinkled frown on his face with his lip puffed out, eyes squinting in discomfort.

”Hey N, morning.” Uzi said, causing her boyfriend’s expression to go blank before quickly lowering into sadness.

“Oh, hi Uzi.” He avoided her gaze.

”Sorry, I didn’t notice you at first.” He explained  “Which I know that sounds dumb because Cyn’s attached to you and all that, but uh morning to you too.” He continued to look away, lightly kicking his legs into the air, a nervous habbit he had.

Uzi sat at the far left side of the couch, which was the opposite of where he was now sitting.

”Soooo…” she began “about yesterday-” She mumbled

”I’m sorry, again.” He once more apologized “I didn’t mean to upset you like that.”

”I know, I know you didn’t mean to, it’s okay.” She told him raising her hand up, 

”But,” she began “ You need to slow it down,” She pointed to him

“because you coercing me into learning how to fly, WASN'T okay if anything it made me even more scared to do it because I was being pressured into it!” she confessed.

”I know that now, I wasn’t trying to make you feel like you were forced into it, honest!” N tried to defend himself “It just made me feel sad, because flying is such a free feeling, and I wanted you to feel that same way, and the idea of teaching you…it sounded nice” he smiled thinking about it. “I thought it could possibly bring us closer together.”

”Well maybe it would, you need to wait until I’m ready for that though.” She declared “The idea of it really freaks me out, still”

”Why are you freaked out about it?” N asked

”Because I don’t want to fall again!” She confessed, the cowardice of her words, burning like venom on her tongue, turning away from not even able to look him straight in eye, far too ashamed of herself.

”And yes! I know it’s a dumb fear but it's a fear I have.” Uzi muttured, crossing her legs and hugging herself in embarrassment.

”No it’s okay it's not dumb,“ N insisted, shaking his hand

“I get it, falling’s really not a fun feeling.” N explained “I mean I’ve hit the ground before, more than once. It’s reasonable to not want to do that.”

Uzi nodded, Atleast he had understood her fear, that made her feel a little better.

”But I don’t think you should be afraid to try, because even if you fall the first few times, eventually you’re gonna get it right, and figure out how to fly.”

Uzi thought about this, still hugging herself tightly.

He had a point, you really couldn’t learn if you didn’t fail, the thing was though, just knowing that wasn’t going to help her get over the fear of it, but then again? Would she ever get use to that fear?

A glint was seen crossing her eyes for a moment, but only for a moment.

”Again...” N began “I am so sorry I made you feel like that, if I knew how uncomfortable I that was making you, I would have never done that. Ever, you know I wouldn’t have.” He emphasized the ever

“but I still stand by what I said. So please, I don’t mind when or if you do it without me, but don’t knock it until you actually try it, okay?" he asked her, scooting a little bit closer to her.

Uzi sighed.

”I’ll have to think about it.”

N nodded, wanting the decision to be soley up to her.

Thus the conversation it was dropped.

That was until...

-Later that night-

Around 3:00 AM, N would be found at the kitchen island, doodling drawings of golden retriever puppies in a sketchbook Khan had bought him, when Uzi had walked up to him.

”N.”

Hearing his girlfriend’s voice, the silver haired teen looked up to her.

She bit her lip for a moment, he waited for her to speak up, clasping two fists, together nervousy

She exhaled sharply ”I want to learn." she bit her tongue looking away for a moment "and I want you to be the one to teach me.” she added.

N’s expression stayed the same, as he stood up and looked to her, “You’re sure?” He asked, to be certain.

She felt her legs buckle, and a lump form in her throat, she was quick to swallow it however.

”I’m sure.” She confirmed

N couldn’t believe it, he really didn't know what to expect after what she said earlier today, it really felt like a will she won't she type of deal, honestly this felt sureal.

"Okay." N told said.

They then left the dorm, sneaking off through an emergency exit so no one would see them, returning to the city to find an area appropriate for learning.

N suggested going to the factory, and climbing on the roof to learn since it was high enough for her to gain traction, Uzi quickly said no to this, and told him it was WAY to high up, and she that didn’t feel comfortable at all with the idea, N said this was perfectly fine, but they still needed to learn from somewhere high up.

That’s when the two had found an seven eleven, the roof was high up, but not too high to where Uzi wouldn’t hit the ground and splatter.

Uzi and N stood on the edge of the roof both her solver form and N’s wings out.

first thing was the basics…

“Okay, so if your going to fly, the first thing you need to be able to do is to make sure you can move your wings properly.” He explained “You can do this like you can make your arms and legs move, by simply thinking about it.”

N showed her an example by slowly flapping his wings in the air, Uzi watched with great focus, prepared to copy him.

He stopped “Now you try.” He gestured to the girl.

Uzi done just as he did, atleast at the beginning, moving her wings slowly, before within a split second speding them up and they became nothing but blurs as she began to fall back to the edge

N shouted as he grabbed hold of her legs, holding her like a kite in the air, and forcing her back onto the roof “NO! DON’T DO THAT!” He yelled and he dropped her legs, she stood up.

“Move them… slowly. ” N emphasized the slowly part .

Uzi looked back at her wings, they began to sway in the air, before doing a weak flapping motion, she looked to him as if to ask if she was doing it right.

”Yes! Yes, you’re doing good!” N gave her thumbs ups.

Now second base, getting her feet off the ground.

”Now the next part, this is another really important part.” N declared “Being able to hover.”

”hover?” Uzi parroted

”Well something like that, I can’t really think of a name for it,” N confessed, “but it’s probably useful to know.” He said

”How to do this is you jump up from the ground, but only by an inch, before using your wings to keep yourself up in the air.” He explained “Like this.”

He shown her example by hopping up from the ground and moving his wings about like he had done earlier but this time at a medium pace causing him to float. “See?” He said “Now your turn.”

Uzi nodded, and hopped lightly in the air, and moved her wings, but not how N had done it, it appeared more of…to that of a chicken, by springing into the air and flapping her wings at an extreme pace, before landing on the ground.

This happened about three times before she stopped letting out a cry of irritation.

”Okay, don’t do that.” N shook his head putting his hands on her shoulders. “You have to do it slower than that, you're moving your wings too fast.”

”Sorry.” She mumbled feeling a bit stupid.

”It’s okay,” He reassured, “just try again.”

Uzi done just that, springing in the air, and while she was a lot slower with it this time, she was now too slow.

N sighed, “Oh dear.” He gave her a crooked smile.

Uzi, out of embarrassment hid in the shelter of her wings and tail,  N did not let her hide however, and went over to her, and pulled her wings off from her face, “You need a little more help?” He asked, in a tone as soft as satin.

”No, I wanna go home now.” She muttered, pulling her wings together once more

N mouth fell slightly agape, “You do?" he asked for confiermation

”Yes!” Her wings pulled off from her front body and back into the air.

“I mean…no? I mean..!” She groaned placing her face into her palms.

”I don’t know! I want to learn but I also don’t like how stupid it’s making me feel!” She confessed, crossing her arms, and quickly turning her back to N.

”You’re not stupid,” N put a hand on her back, “You just don’t know what you’re doing, and that’s fine! You just have to learn it is all.”

”I can’t learn!”

”You can though!“ retorted her boyfriend, placing his hands out as he spoke.

“You HAVE to have more faith in yourself..” He declared.

She didn’t respond, instead simply looked to the ground, hugging herself in embarrassment.

“Here, give me your hands.” N placed his hands out to his girlfriend.

”Why?” She Murmered, not even bothering to look up.

”I wanna try a different method,” He said “May I?”

Finally Uzi looked up to hm, blush on her monitor.

Uzi sighed “Okay…”

She took N’s hands.

”Good, now I want you to put your feet on top of mine.” He said

she reluctantly done that, the weight of her feet on his own hardly even noticeable, being small compared to him.

They were now together, making an upside down triangle shape where her feet were atop of his, and their hands intertwined, Uzi dangled opposite side to N, which he noticed.

”Uh…maybe get a little closer so you don’t fall?” N said

Uzi bit her lip, this was getting to close for her liking. She hesitantly done as he said, pulling her upper body closer to him, their hands now both to their chastice, being the only space between them. what was he even trying to do anyway, slow dance?

”Okay, now don’t freak out when I do this, alright?” He told her.

"Do what?"

His wings began to flap, not even doing the hop method that Uzi was taught, slowly but surely she felt them both leave the ground and floating up into the air.

She looked to the ground with hollow eyes then back to N with uncertainty.

”You see the pace at which I’m flying?” asked N. “I’m moving just fast enough to where I can move off from the ground, but slow enough to where I can keep the wind beneath my wings and not fall.”

She said she could, but didn’t seem too convincing.

She slowly pulled herself farther into N, to where her head was resting on his shoulder, and eyes shut tight, as if she was freaked out, oh how humiliating!

He giggled in amusement at this. “You’re good, it’s okay.” He insisted.

”Just do the same thing as me now.” He said

”Okay...I guess.” She agreed.

She tried to do this, deciding to flap her wings in sync’s to N, moving her’s with each sound of a woosh, this caused them to go higher up by a few more inches from the ground.

Uzi gasped looking down as the ground grew farther away.

She pushed her head off of his shoulder.

”Great!” N smiled to her

She felt butterflies in her stomach, stupid cute robot she blushed.

He continued to give directions.

”Now slow it down, so we can go back to the ground.”

He started to slow his wing movement, Uzi did the same and they slowly came back to the ground.

”Good, good.”

he complimented

Look at that, they both were in sync N wagged his tail at this fact, Uzi grew flustered at it.

Once back down on the roof, N supposed it was time for the final step, actually flying.

Uzi took a stop closer to the edge of the roof, N done the same, right by her side.

The wind had noticbly began to pick up, and a loud whistling was heard in the sky

Uzi stood at the edge of the roof, “This—feels like an accident waiting to happen.” She shouted to N, trying to talk over the loud whirr of the wind.

”It’s okay! If I see you falling I'll catch you, I swear!” N promised, hands held out for her.

Uzi shook rapidly as she eyed the ground, despite it.

She recalled the first time she dived off the roof, how quick she fell how numb she got and how bad it hurt to crash into the ground.

She felt her core beat quick and her tail wrapped around her legs, it’s okay it’s okay she tried to tell herself

but it was not okay Her body tensed up.

”H-how do you plan on doing that?” She asked him.

”I’ll be right by your side, if I see you falling for the ground, I catch you, simple.” He promised her, it still did not convince her unfortunately.

Uzi nervously chewed on her lip.

”My mind went blank, what’d you tell me to do again?” She blurted out looking up to her boyfriend with unease.

This was a horrible idea, her mouth was so dry, her legs buckled from under her, and her mind felt like it had turned to jelly, what was she thinking!?! She wasn’t ready for this! This is horrifying!

”Getting a running start, then dive from the roof, and flap your wings faster by the second and raise your upper body up in the air before you touch the ground, and you should fly, it’s that easy!” N explained making gestures and moving his hands about as he explained.

That easy? Yeah right! Nothing was easy about this!! NOTHING!!

“Okay, so on the count of three, we jump down okay?” N asked.

Uzi stared down to the ground with unease.

“Mm…hmm…” she replied

The sound of the wind kicked up, strong enough to nearly push Uzi away

“Good, now take a few steps back, alright?” N grabbed her hand and began to bring her away from the edge

He began to count “Okay one…Uzi.” he looked to see she was still frozen in place

His voice was nothing more than white noise at the moment, batting her eyes from the ground to the sky, it looked far down, since when was the drop that big? Or has it been like that and she just hasn't noticed?

“Uzi!”

She turned to see her boyfriend

“You need to focus when you’re doing this, it’s very important.” N pointed out

“I'm focused.”

"Are you though-"

"I said I am!"

"Okay." Having her undivided attention once more, N took a few steps back and this time Uzi done the same.

“One.” he began the count down again.

Uzi looked up to the sky.

“Two…”

N began to crouch, Uzi repeated this action, locking her eyes in front of her, preparing for take off.”

“Three!”

They made a run for it.

Once close enough to the edge N unsheathed his wings and sprung into the air, Uzi did not.

Once she had took one step off the roof, she froze, like a deer in the headlights.

A few seconds of wobbling later and she slipped from the roof with a shout.

N who was a few feet above her was quick to notice this and gasped.

He dove down, and swiped Uzi up before she could hit the ground.

Once in his arms she clung to him like a scared cat.

"Uzi!" he cried

She simply held him tighetr, burrying her face into his chest, she was shaking so bad, bless her soul.

N flew back up to the roof, placing both of themselves on the ground.

Uzi hesitantly pulled away from his and backed up.

"What happend did you-"

"N I can't do it!" she spat hiding in his chest, "I can't do it, it's too much!"

Uzi placed her hands to her knees and cowered in shame, she couldn’t do it, and you know what? That was okay, she’s done scarier before! This was just one of those acceptances that’d she’d just have to live with-

But wait…

Deep deep in the back of her head, a question had popped into her mind.

What was V gonna say when the day came she would find out Uzi couldn’t fly?

Well it was simple, first she’d probably point, and laugh at Uzi, then start patronizing her for hours on in and then Uzi would never ever live it down.

N sighed sadly, frowning crouching down next to his girlfriend, “It’s okay Uzi, you we’re close at least.” he tried to reassure her, but it didn’t work, for her mind was somewhere else.

“Uzi? You can’t even fly?” Uzi imagined V saying “honestly, with how you talked I wouldn’t have expected you to be such a pussy.”

…

A determination like none other hit the girl like a train, fury marked her screen as she looked up to the sky. 

N didn't even notice, he was still comfort her “Look if you want we can always go back home and do this another day, okay?” N tried to place a hand on her shoulder, but then she stood up, dusting herself off, and going all the way to the back of the store.

Confused N stood up and watched her.

“Uzi?” at first he was confused, calm about it, but still dumbfounded of what she was doing.

Uzi placed one foot behind her, and one in front of her, crouching lowly preparing herself.

It was an admittedly far drop, but the thing was Copper 9 would have to boil over and her screen would have to shatter as she hit the ground before the day Uzi would dare give V even an inch of right to ridicule her in any way.

“What are you-”

She spread her wings out and made a mad dash past N and to the edge, where she then swan dived from the building.

N’s mind was at first blank watching her do this, most likely he hadn’t processed whatever just happened, but when it did, oh how panic overtook him.

He screamed bloody murder placing his hands on his temples, and without missing a beat he ran to the edge preparing to jump down and catch his lover before she’d hit the ground.

However, she was nowhere to be seen.

He fell silent for a moment, mortified expression on his face.

“UZI!?” He leaned farther down and looked to where she thought she would have been, eyes hollow in utter shock. Did that just happen!??? Where did she go??

He looked up in the air, she was nowhere to be seen, he didn’t hear her either, was she okay? Maybe she fell into the snow and got burried? How could he let her go off like that!?

”Uzi are you okay?” His neck practically snapped as he looked to the sky, “Where’d you go?!”

All that responded back to him was the sound of the wind.

He looked all around the place, using both his monitors and five eyes to try to look for her, unfortantly though he couldn't pick up a trace of her.

"Where even is she..?" he whispered to himself completely in disbelief. As he once more looked at the egde, a little question mark icon appearing on the upper left corner of his face.

Then…finally after around 30 seconds.

Flap!

Flap!

FLAP!

FLAP!

N turned around to where he heard the sound.

He gasped.

It was his girlfriend! Looking down at him from feet in the air, FLYING ABOVE HIM! SHE WAS FLYING!

”Uzi!” He smiled, nothing but pride in his tone

”I’M DOING IT!” She cheered and done a spin in the air.

”YOU’RE DOING IT!” He cheered

She done a lame little twirl in the air.

It was clear that Uzi was still an amature flier, her wings flapped like that of a humming bird, and her body hung low in the air, only being kept in the air by the force of her wings, and even then she’d fall to the ground for a moment before managing to pull herself back up to where she originally was, it was okay though! She was flying that’s what mattered.

N decided to join her in the sky, jumping up from the air, and flying over to her.

Uzi who was just as ecstatic as he was hopped into the silver haired drone's arms, who wellcomed her whole heartily pulling her closer to him.

”Oh Uzi! I knew you’d be able to figure it out!” He nuzzled her lovingly, tail wagging like mad “I’m so proud of you!”

Uzi giggled holding him tightly.

”I was in the air for so long,” she looked up to him with a grin “I didn’t even know if I’d be able to come down, it was so sick!”

”It‘s great isn’t it!” N asked

“It is! It really is!” Uzi pulled away, and began to pump her fist into the air, “Like I feel like I can fight a God now! A God!!”

N giggled, placing a hand over his mouth for a moment admiring Uzi’s excitment.

The way she acted, how happy she was, it was so cute to N, and now that she knew the basics of flying, he could show her the ropes.

He placed a hand out to her, “Here, come with me, I wanna show you some stuff.” He said

Uzi’s attention went on to him, “Show me what?” a grin crept on her face, beganing to wonder excitedly of what he wanted to show her.

He wrapped his finger’s around her palm “You’ll see.” He promised her

Uzi tilted her head for a moment, before quickly, she felt herself being pulled up into the air, she let out a noise of confusion.

Thus they were off, with Uzi holding’s N’s hand tightly as they flew about the sky.

They flew about in the air for a moment, going through the city, doing twists, turns and a few spins in order to avoid all the buildings.

N then done a dip for the ground, to Uzi’s dismay.

As this had happend, Uzi shut her eyes, and looked away, holding N’s hand as tight as she could bracing for the impact, strangely enough the impact didn’t happen.

Curiously she opened her eyes and took a look.

They were feet above the ground.

N noticing she was paying attention, used his free hand, and drug it across the snowy ground.

Before she knew it flicks of white powder where flicked onto Uzi's face.

She flinched feeling cold crystalized ice hit her face, “N!” She scolded the boy, who simply looked to her with a cheeky grin.

After the little prank, N aimed upwards and the two began to fly, doing a spin for a moment.

He looked to Uzi from the corner of his eyes, “I’m going to let go of you when we get far enough up, you okay with that?” He asked

It took Uzi a moment to process what he had said

”What? No! We’re too high up don’t do that!” She frantically sputtered out.

”No no! It’s okay trust me.” He reassured her “It’ll be okay, I promise.”

They flew farther into the air, beginning to get closer and closer to the clouds from above.

“When we get to the clouds, I’m going to let go, and your going to fly, okay?” N said “Think of it as a final exam.”

”N! You told me you wouldn’t let me fall!”

”And I won't, I promised you that, just don’t freak out, okay?” He said

Uzi tried to look down to the ground, unfortunately it was nowhere to be seen, instead what she seen was fog, they were that high up.

She let out a nervous groan, very uncertain of whatever N was trying to do.

”I’m about to do it, okay?” He declared, Uzi may not have been listening however, for she was still looking down at the ground.

The clouds were getting even closer.

”Three…”

Okay okay, so she was being left for dead, that was fine, just do what she did the first time.

”Two…”

She prepared her wings.

Besides N said she’d catch her if she fell, so she’d just have to believe that.

The clouds were within arms lengths.

”ONE!”

N pulled her in front of him, doing a flip into the air, raising his hands up midway and throwing Uzi high up into the clouds.

Uzi let out a cry as she broke the barrier from the clouds, before falling backwards for the ground.

She held her breath, and began to flap her wings back and forth, starting out slowly but getting faster.

She continued to richochet to the ground, but before she had hit, to her surprise she stopped herself, and began to hover in the air.

Uzi looked down at the ground, looking down, with her arms and legs limply swaying about in the air.

She looked down with wide eyes, the ground she still couldn’t see it, but it was noticeably closer, a sigh of relief escaped her lips.

A shadow fell over Uzi, she looked up to see N flying over her.

”See? Now was that so bad?” He asked

”Yes!” Uzi said starighting herself out to where she appeared to be standing “What if I didn’t start flying!?!” She shook her two hands in the air

”Then I would’ve caught you,” N flew to her side, “but I didn’t have to, because you managed to catch yourself, good job by the way.”

He gave her a thumbs up which admitably caused a blush to appear on Uzi’s screen.

She looked away from annoyance, and up to the sky.

Her eyes brightened in surprise “Woah.”

They were right in front of the exo moon, which shun brightly in the dark void of the night sky.

”You like the view?” N asked.

”It's beautiful.” She muttured

N nodded in agreement, and went to her side.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and snuggling close to her, Uzi noticed this but didn't say anything.

They both looked up to the moon, in peaceful silence for what felt to be forever.

“So…” Uzi began “This was fun, or whatever.” 

N turned to her “You really thought so?” He flashed a toothy grin

“Yeah I guess..” she shrugged “and you actually did do pretty good with teaching me, thanks N.”

That compliment nearly made his core explode, his tail spun wildly in the air, and blush of flattery burned on his screen.

N then pulled her into a hug, holding her like that of a teddy bear, and squeezing her (but not too tight because she was still much smaller than him)

"Thanks Uzi!" N smiled at her, 

Uzi smiled crookedly to him, cute… ”Yeah, yeah, don’t mention it.” She shoved his head away.

"Also if you throw me in the air like that again, I will shoot you again, got it. she told him.

"Hehe." N stuck his tongue stopping himself from hugging her, finding her joke funny (atleast he thought it was a joke)

"Okay, okay, I won't do it again," he assured.

"Least, not unless your ready." he winked.

Uzi flew back from him crossing her arms and scowling, however she quickly brushed the annoyance off, and her expression softened.

She looked back over to the moon.

“You know, it’s kinda weird to think this is all real.” Uzi declared

N replied with a confused hum.

“Like if someone told me a month ago I’d have been on the roof learning how to fly right after defeating a whole demon creature bent on the destruction of the entire universe, with you…” she looked to N he looked back to here.

 “I wouldn’t have believed it, like at all.”

N nodded “Yeah, same here.” he agreed.

“Isn’t it great?” he asked, “That through everything, we managed to be here? Together.” he looked back over to her.

Uzi lowered her head, crossing her legs together, “It’s kinda weird, don’t you think?” she asked him, “All this new stuff, with us ?”

N flew closer and held her hand, “It’s a good weird.” he said “Like when someone hugs you while you’re crying, it’s scary at first, but after a moment, it’s comforting.”

Uzi thought on it You know what? Yeah, that’s exactly what it felt like.

。。。

Once they had left to go back to the bunker, and they were walking down the hallway to Uzi's dorm, holding hands.

Uzi couldn't help but stare up to N through the corner of her screen.

She wasn't sure why, but ever since they had came back to ground, she couldn't help staring at N.

For some reason, she felt he looked more attractive then he already had, and she noticed smaller details.

Such as; his feathery snow white bangs that shun in the dimly light ceiling lights of the hallway, those golden yellow eyes, and that happy little smile that he had, even that walk of his, for some reason she liked his walk, though it was about like all the other drone walks.

She squinted her eyes for a moment,

What if she just..?? She thought for a moment,

Nah, she probably shouldn't do that.

Should she?

She slowly turned her head to him, eyeing him up and down, what would he even do? How would he react??

Only one way to find out

She froze, N only realized this after he walked farther up a few feet from her, and felt himself be dragged by her hand.

He looked to her with a bit of confusion.

Uzi stared at for a moment.

You know what? Screw it.

She walked right in front of him, grabbed his arm with boths hand and pulled him down to her level

N nearly jumped out of his exo skin completely unsure as of what was happening, and before he knew he felt a pair of warm lips pressed up against his forehead.

He nearly lost control of his body, almost falling right on top of her, his tail sprung up in surpirse, as well as his foot kicking up.

It only lasted a second though, when Uzi had shoved him away and he still was off balance, before finally catching himself.

He looked to her in complete shock.

Did she just..??

Uzi, looked to him dead in the eyes, glaring daggers, on edge of how he would act, wiping her mouth on the sleeve of her jacket

They continued staring at each other, OH ROBO GOD! SHE DID! SHE KISS HIM! SHE DID, SHE KISSED HIM RIGHT ON THE HEADHEAD, this was amazing! She KISSED HIM ON THE FORHEAD!!! She still liked him!! His tail swayed back and forth.

Blush burned on her monitor, don’t say anything, he better not say anything, or else she’d…SHE’D KICK HIS SHINS! Yeah! That’s what she'd do.

They stared at each other big eyed and N's tail wagging for what felt to be forever, all up until he lowered himself down to Uzi's level, staring even deeper into his soul, hoping for either another kiss or some kind of explanation.

Uzi backed away from him, pushing his head a way bit, before jumping back and walking past him "Tell no one." she pointed to him as she walked past.

N smiled happily, and ran next to her, staring at her with a happy little smile, and tail stilling whipping all about, Uzi tried to ignore him, semi regretting the kiss but also semi not because of his reaction.

You know what, maybe they'd be okay, maybe no matter what everything would be okay, no matter that's fighting, no matter whatever fears they had it would all be okay-

Nori’s core was standing at the front door of Khan and Uzi’s residence.

Both the stopped froze dead in their tracks seeing this.

”MOM!?!” Uzi shouted getting the creature’s attention

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

☆Nori's Return☆

“Uzi!?!” The mutated core exclaimed, “And YOU!?!” She pointed to N.

“Mrs. Doorman! What are you doing here?” N asked

he then realized it “Wait…”

N gasped “YOU CAME BACK TO REUNITE WITH YOUR FAMILY!” He said excitedly pointing at her.

”What I-Wait a second…WHY ARE YOU TWO STANDING SO CLOSE?!” The core pointed to the two.

Uzi looked to N, noticing that they were as matter of fact very close together.

Uzi quickly tore apart from N, and tried to play it as cool as possible.

N chuckled nervously, and placed his hands behind his back.

The situation was bad, but was quick to get worse when Khan had become involved.

”Hey!” A muffled voice was heard through the door.

The door swung open revealing a Khan Doorman, wearing his usual nighttime fit; a blue robe and bunny slippers, plus a cup full of warm oil in his left hand too sooth him to sleep.

”What is with all the screaming out here?!” Khan opened the door his free hand placed onto his hip, he looked down to see the core.

“oh! It’s you again!” his expression changed to shock.

”What are you doing here? And more importantly, how’d you get this address?” He asked her.

Nori completely ignored the question.

”Khan, are you letting our daughter date a murder drone!?” The core exclaimed and placed pointing at him with one of her tendrils “and the dumbest one at that matter?”

“Hey!” N and Uzi exclaimed, N looking more hurt while Uzi looking more angered at the comment

”What? Well I mean, no I’m not letting her, but I’m not stopping her either,” Khan exclaimed “I mean she seems happy, and wait- our daughter!? Excuse me??”

His squinted his eyes in confusion, completely lost of why she had said that, Nori tried to explain.

”Khan it’s me!” The core gestured to herself, “Don’t you recognize my voice?” she walked right in front of his feet..

The father continued examing creature, tapping his chin deep in thought.

N and Uzi watched with anticipation if he would realize it was his wife or not.

”I'm sorry, but no” Khan shook his head, “Doesn’t ring a bell at all.”

The creature though not having a mouth, and only one eye, was clearly saddend by this.

N sighed in disappointment

“Seriously?” The core said, “*sigh* That’s sucks.” She shook her head

”Honestly, I’m not shocked, my dad’s pretty dumb.” Uzi declared

”HEY!” Nori hissed, spinning around to meet her daughter's face “You don't dare call your father dumb, espicially while I'm around!”

”He is dumb! Besides it's payback for you calling him dumb!” Uzi pointed to her boyfriend

”BITE ME!”

”NO YOU BITE ME!”

The two then began to argue, as they had argued, Khan watched them both closely, before it had hit like a bus speeding in oncoming traffic.

No other drone on this entire planet would “exclaim bite me” as often as Uzi, all except for the one she had learned it from…

Khan’s jaw dropped to the floor,

His hand went limp, letting the cup of oil pour down onto the floor.

“Nori?” He sputtered out.

The mother and daughter fell quiet, and both turned to see Khan.

”Is it really you?” He asked.

Nori stared up into his eyes,

“It’s really me.”

”You’re alive..?”

she nodded, her husband gasped.

No, that couldn’t be. His mind went into a spiral She was dead, she has been for 18 years, he saw her die, he was the one who killed her, put her out of her misery, a clean swing right into the screen RIGHT INTO HER PROCESSORS HOW COULD SHE POSSIBLY BE ALIVE!?!

Then all of a sudden, with one singular error doot!

He blacked out,

and fell smack dab face into the floor.

BANG!

The couple and the mother all three shouted for him in alarm, all quickly crowded him.

"MR DOORMAN!?!" N cried

”OH GREAT! I GET MY MOM BACK, AND NOW MY DAD DIES!?” Uzi exclaimed “THIS IS SO NOT CASH MONEY!”

”Khan, sweetie, speak to me! Are you okay!?!” Nori latched her body onto the back of his head “Dangit, I didn’t come back just to lose you again!”

N pulled Nori off of Khan's head and onto the floor, as well as pushing gently Uzi away, he turned Khan onto his back.

*KHAN.EXE HAS STOPPED WORKING* was what his screen had said.

”Is he good?” Uzi looked over her father's unconscious body once more.

N placed a hand on the man's chest, the core was still online so that was a good sign.

”I think he passed out from shock.” N replied.

”Passed out from shock?? that’s stupid, how does someone even do that anyway?” Nori scoffed

”Yo Khan, thanks for letting me come with you and your employees for your spa day,” V walked out, wearing a towel on her head, glowing in dim lights on the ceiling from the polishing she had gotten early. “Now I know why Lizzy is always such a big advocate for self care, this feels great.” She looked down at her nails.

Nori seemed as though she had seen a ghost.

She turned to her daughter, “Why is she in here?” She pointed to V.

”Uh, because I live here?” V shrugged

“You live here?”  Parroted the core, a digital brow raising on her screen

”Yeah, we both do as matter fact!” N chimed in “It’s fun too, like a forever sleepover at Uzi’s house.”

Nori was in complete disbelief.

”Oh!” She began to laugh “The two murder drones, the hitmen sicked on us by Cyn, they-they live here in my house, with my two loved ones who I’m really attached to hahaha that’s a good one!”

”Any other freaks of nature I should know about living with my husband and daughter?”

”Uhh we'll ya see…” N began

”Actually one of them livess inside your daughter!” Cyn finally made her debut, popping out from Uzi’s solver tail and looking directly to Nori.

Uzi grabbed Cyn’s neck and pulled the tail back behind her.

Just like her husband, Nori blacked out as well, falling right by Khan,

THUD!

N and Uzi simply stared in shock

“So what’d I miss?” V asked, as though it was just another day in the bunker.

。。。

A half an hour later…

The three teens brought Uzi’s parents into the living room, letting them both lie on the couch for a moment, until they woke up again.

Once they woke up again, they all decided to sit at the kitchen island where Nori would tell them how she had escaped death and how Khan kept the colony alive for the past two decades.

”So let me get this straight,” Khan began. “You’ve been alive this whole time, living under us, as a…core thingy?”

”Yup.” Nori nodded

”And you modified this building to have these big metal doors in order to keep all the drones inside safe?” Nori asked her husband.

”That’s right.”

”But then you let their killers in when you just decided to change your mind one day?”

”Uhh…” Khan scratched his head “Not exactly.” He corrected her.

”See.” Khan began “I only changed my mind when I’d seen N had changed and truly was: on our side, now”

Nori was not moved, “And what about her?’ She raised a claw to V ”Did she have a change of heart at all?”

“Honestly, I was just doing what N was doing.” V shrugged “Otherwise they would have kicked my butt.”

”That, and she also got attached to one of the drones!” N said

V shoved him, flustered.

”And what do the others think about this?” Nori asked

”They didn’t take it too well at first,” Khan said “Eventually though they got used to the idea, and don’t mind them being here now! Some of them actually like the drones now.”

”Sounds like Stockholm syndrome.” Nori declared without missing a beat, Crossing her tendrils together

”It’s okay, they-they all understand!” Khan insisted

“Oh yeah, sure Khan. You’ve–uh–you’ve forced innocent drones to live together with two oil thirsty serial killers that took out at least one of their loved ones, I’m sure they all understand just fine.” The core waved a claw about in the air.

Uzi looked at her mother as though she had slapped her, and Khan simply stared down at the table, nervously scratching his arm, like a kid who had been scolded.

“Well when you put it that way…” the man sheepishly began

Nori groaned tiredly rubbing the upper part of her screen where her forehead would have been “And did Yeva and Mitch take this? Because I’m sure they wouldn’t be okay with this either.”

Immediantly after the words had left her mouth, everyone at the table went dead silent, eyes as wide as saucers at what she had said.

Nori noticed this and quickly knew something was wrong.

“What?” She asked.

She was met with the uneasy quiet once more.

Khan and Uzi sneakily looked to each other from the corner of their eyes, who was gonna tell her? They silently asked each other.

N looked over to V, is she talking about who I think she’s talking about? Was what his eyes said to her.

V pursed her lips together, and nervously pushed her hair out of her face.

That was who she was talking about.

N and V both learned of Mitch and Yeva through Uzi, when she had explained them both that that was Doll's parents, that was all they knew though, because Uzi as well didn't know about them and their history with her parents either.

”Nori…” Khan slowly placed a hand onto the table, trying his hardest to place down the horrible fact as gently as he could.

“I don’t know how to tell you this…” Khan confessed, “But, Yeva and Mitchel…”

Nori’s panic grew even larger, “No.” he didn’t even finish, and she was already denying what he was saying

That couldn't be it.

They we're always so careful.

It didn't make any sense.

”They’re gone.”

The eye on her screen flickered, and Nori completely froze.

When Khan had this, it felt as though Nori had died for the second time, her best friend, her sister, gone, but how?

”What do you mean she’s gone?” She asked, “What happend to her?!” She roared out.

Again, she was met the quietness of everyone, she noticed the two murder drones in front of her.

She crawled over to them both ”You! One of you did this, didn’t you?!” She pointed one of her tendrils to them both, turning to them both at least once.

They both looked away in shame.

”I’m sorry…” V said voice not even above a whisper.

”Oh?? You’re sorry?!” Nori spat “What do you mean you're sorry?! You killed my best friend, and all you have to do is say you're sorry!?!” She slammed a claw onto the table

N akwardly scratched his arm, unsure how to respond, V simply tried to ignore her.

“Nori please calm down.” Khan said

“Calm down?” His wife turned her attention to him, “Did you seriously just tell me to calm down, meanwhile two ex serial killers are sitting in a house with my family who I love dearly?!”

Khan bit his tongue, knowing their was nothing he could say to make the situation any better.

Finally Nori’s anger subsided, she sighed, looking down at the table for a moment, “What about Doll?”

Khan raised a brow “Pardon?”

”What.About.Doll.” Nori repeated “Is she okay?”

Khan’s eyes turned hollow, and his mind went completely blank.

N placed a hand over his mouth.

Nori learning from last time already knew what that meant, and her heart shattered once again.

The claws that held her up, went numb, she dropped onto the table, like a newborn deer who failing to walk, ”Oh my God.”

Not only was Yeva and Mitchell both gone, but Doll was as well? That hurt even worse, Mitchell and Yeva, they lived their lives, but Doll? Doll was just a baby, she didn't even get to experience the world, fall in love, have a family, all of that was gone for her.

"You killed an entire family!!?" she shouted to V, causing her to flinch.

"No!" Uzi quickly came to V's defense "S-she didn't kill her!"

"Doll had snapped after her parents death and she ran off," frantically explained the purple haired teen "We don't know what happend, but I think Cyn had gotten to her."

"What?!" Nori cried

"If it makes you feel better, she down fighting it looked," N pointed out "She was really brave Mrs. Doorman."

Make her feel better? How would that make her feel better. Nori stayed limp, a whole family gone, what a sick sad world, the only good thing about this was her parents didn’t have to feel the pain of their daughter’s loss.

Coming back, it felt as though Nori had returned from a nightmare only to find reality was even worse.

Her daughter was dating a murder drone, who her husband had wellcomed in their colony with open arms.

Yeva and Mitch both gone, along with their onyl daughter doll? This had to be fake right?

This couldn't have been real, could it?! Please, please God just let her wake up.

She closed her eye tears threating to fall down her screen, hoping that maybe if she opened and closed her eyes it would go away, and she'd instead be woken up by her husband while slept in bed being told it was just a bad dream and that it would be okay.

It didn't happen though.

All she seen when she opened her eyes was her husband in front of her her daughter beside both looking in pained shock, then those...things...filthy things.

Rage began to boil inside her, threatening to erupt, like an unstable volcanoe preparing to spew lava out onto any undeserving indivual and melt their skin off.

Finally Nori found her words. “Get out…” she mumbled so quiet that nobody had heard what she said.

N closer to her. “What did you say Mrs. Doorman?” N asked

Hearing him dare even speak her last name, was the straw that broke the camel's back.

The glyph of the solver appeared on the two white haired drone’s chest, and they were thrown from their seats, Uzi gasped as this happend.

BANG! With a cry they were slammed to the floor, the glyph disapeared off from their bodies.

Nori sprung down the from the table, and ran in front of the two.

”GET THE F### OUT!” She shrieked

They both looked to Nori, then to each other, then to the front door, they got up from where they sat.

Both N and V, stil flat on their books, looked at her like two deer in headlights

N was first to make a move, sitting up, hands far behind him

”And I swear to robo God if I see you guys in this house ever again, I WILL F###ING KILL YOU!” She threatening tendril waving in the air “Do you understand me?!”.

”MOM!” Uzi jumped up and tried to run to her two friends.

The disambley dromes were shocked, never in all their lives had they ever been threatend like this by anyone, espicially someone of her size.

V still gawking at the heart monster, hesitantly nodded her head, N shakily followed behind her.

”Nori calm down!” Khan ran preparing to pick his wife up.

”No, they need to know their place...” Nori stopped Khan placing the solver symbol on his hand freezing it for a moment.

N and V both scrambled to their feet.

“Wait, no!” Uzi jumped up from the chair and tried to head after them, but it was too late.

V was first to make it to the front door, not even bothering to say anything, N was next, but as he had left he did bid farewel

“Goodbye Uzi.” N whispered peaking over the edge of the doorframe and waving as he shut the door.

Uzi felt her heart ache seeing the fear on her boyfriend’s face “N…” Uzi softly whispered back to him, stopping, in her tracks and watching as he had left.

Nori watched the door closely for atleast a minute, making sure they had officially, until finally turned to face her family, her singular eye slanted in anger,

”What are you doing Uzi?!” Nori scolded coldly, scurrying in front of her daughter “Have you seriously gone this whole time being buddy buddy with those things ?!”

Uzi felt anger boil up inside of her, hearing how her mother talked about them both “Those “things” are my friends!” Uzi corrected her, “And you have no right to talk to them like that!”

”I have EVERY right to talk to them like that!” Nori retorted “Those things killed half the people I’ve known and loved, and you’re an idiot for taking up for them after everything they’ve done!”

Her daughter clinched her fists up

”Excuse me?!” She stomped a foot closer to Nori, fists clenched and teeth gritted in rage,

Khan realized that the conversation was going to far, quickly stepped

He ran in between them both ”Now girls—“ he tried to speak, raising his hands up, but was quickly interupted.

”No. Uzi thundered pointing to her dad, “Don’t ” now girls ” me.” She mocked her father’s tone.

Uzi stomped down the hall.

”That woman hasn’t been in my life for eighteen years,” She pointed a finger right at her mother’s screen.

Nori was unphased looking right back at her daughter, with her eyes full of as much hatred and visceral as her daughter’s were to her’s.

”You have no right to judge me for ANY of my decisions,” Uzi said “because if you had even cared, you wouldn’t have left me and dad for dead in the first place!”

Nori flinched hearing this, that managed to strike a nerve inside of her.

”You…” she tried to defend herself, but she just couldn’t.

Nori shook her head “You don’t know what I’ve been through.” She sighed.

Uzi looked it her, without even a lick of sympathy, “And you don’t know what I’ve been through.” she snarked.

And just like that, Uzi marched her way to her room for the night, not to speak another word to either of her parents for the rest of the night.

Thus it was only Khan and Nori left in the room, with V and N escaping the fiasco, and Uzi retiring to her room for the rest of the day, Nori was still not satisified with her scoldings.

“How could you let this happen, Khan?” Nori looked to him “Our daughter? And a murder drone?! Together!?!”

”I didn’t let it happen!” Khan looked to her, raising his hands up in the air “She was just dating him one day, I couldn’t stop her!”

“Couldn’t stop her?!” Nori repeated this line in disbelief “What do you mean you couldn’t stop her?? You’re her father!”

”I’m a very busy man,” Khan shrugged “and Uzi’s a handful! I don’t want to come home from a long day of work and have to battle it with my daughter about whether she gets to date her weird vampire boyfriend or not!”

“How can you be too busy to worry about your daughter’s safety?”

“Well how can you be too busy to even be here and raise the child that YOU specifically wanted to have?!” Khan exclaimed

He pointed a finger to her.

Nori still tried to defend herself

"I-"

"NORI! I had to raise a child alone, for EIGHTEEN YEARS!"

Nori jumped back in shock.

"Eighteen years! Do you understand that?" Khan continued

"I raised her from childhood to adulthood, all alone!"

guilt quickly crossed her face,

No He had a point, him and Uzi had.

Nori had left them both for dead, and she did leave Khan alone to raise their child, when in hindsight he really was a very busy man.

All because she was too ashamed of all the problems in fear of the pain it would cause for people to know she was the reason for half of it all. 

In reality though?

Her running away from her mistakes made it even worse, it was descipably cowardly, so very irresponsible, and only caused her family undeserving turmoil.

A tear began to fall from her eye, her claws wobbled under her, a throbbing pain all across her body from anxiety. She felt disgusted with herself, and honestly she was disgusting.

Realizing the direness of the sitation she realized how low a chance she had of fixing the situation, despite that though, she still pathetically tried.

“Oh Khan, I had no idea how much pain I had put you  both through…” she explained “I’m…I’m so sorry.”

Khan shook his head, still staring down at his wife.

Nori looked away, she wasn’t even able to look him in the eyes, her husband however placed a hand below her eye, and made her look to him.

Nori wrapped a claw around his finger.

”Why did you leave in the first place?” Khan asked, voice cracking, in an attempt to keep from crying, “And why didn’t you tell me about you’re solver powers?”

Nori squeezed his finger

“I was scared of what you’d say.” She confessed “If you’d be afraid of me, and if you’d treat me how they treated me.”

Hearing his wife say that shattered him, was she serious? No matter what had happened, nothing would have been able to change the way he saw his wife.

”Nori…” He cooed softly, “No matter what you are, or what you have, I would still love you all the same.”

”But what about everything else? How I caused those things to come here, how I ruined our daughter’s life? Does that not bother you in any way?

Khan shook his head, pulling his hand off from her “It’s not your fault that they came here, and if anything, you not being there caused Uzi more problems than she already had.”

Nori sighed softly shaking her head “I know that now…”

She let out a shaky sob.

”But it’s okay, because you're here now, and even if she's an adult you can still make a difference, in Uzi’s life.” He picked his wife up and held her close to his chest, in an attempt to hug her.

Nori felt herself choke up, she hiccuped once.

”I hope you're right.” Nori snuggled closer to him

She really really did, because the direction her daughter seemed to be heading into, was not a positive one in Nori’s eyes.

Even now when they were having this moment, she still wanted to ring her husband’s neck thinking about what he had let happen, despite that, she kept the urge down.

”So, are we going to be okay now?” She asked him, “You’re not mad now?”

Khan shook his head with a soft giggle “oh no, I am furious.” he grinned passive-agressively

He then squeezed his wife just a little tighter "It IS a start though."

Just hearing him say that made Nori feel much better, their relationship while it was still gonna be rocky, as long as they stayed honest with each other, it would get better.

Hopefully she’d manage to fix her relationship with Uzi as well.

。。。

Chapter Text

Chapter 6

*A Quarrel*

The Rustbuckets’ dorm, that was where N and V were at.

The dorm was just exactly what one would imagine an old married couple would live,

All the walls were colored like copper, and each room had a concrete floor except for the living room which had a cobalt blue greasy old carpet

Just as the doorman’s residence, the kitchen and living room shared the same space, however contrast to it, instead of an island to eat at, their was a metal table with a sheet over it and chairs, which was the threshold between both areas.

then their was a hallway, on the right wall their was the entry to the master’s bedroom (that was going to be V’s room) then on the left wall was the door to the guest’s room (that was N’s), then finally the door to the laundry room where on one of the walls they found was a door to bathroom.

Was it a weird little home? Yes yes it was, but it was theirs, and they were gonna have to get used to it, because Heaven nows they weren't going to back to Khan's home for a loooong while.

Currently the two were sitting in the living room, N on a sofa had, back to a wall, with an oil painting of two cats playing with yarn over it, he was looking down at his legs, kicking them up in the air, trying to get his mind somewhere else.

then V on the left side of the living room, talking away on her phone.

”Okay, so that’s the plan?” She asked “Okay good.” She nodded

”Cya at school tomarrow, bye.” V then hung up, and placed the phone back into her jacket, not even taking the surfaces anywhere as an option because of how dusty they were.

”Okay so good news,” she got N’s attention “If Khan’s wife tries to get us evicted, Lizzy says we’re more than wellcome to stay at her house, which is a down grade from this, but hey! Still good to have a plan B, right?”

N simply stared at him with sad little puppy dog eyes, which admitably caused V's heart to ache a decent amount.

He looked back down to his legs head hung low.

”Did you hear how she talked to us?” N finally spoke.

V pursed her lips together shaking her head as she sighed, she should've known he would have taken a response like that so personal.

”She really hates us, doesn’t she?” N asked

"Guess so." V simply shrugged.

N lowered his head, How awful, this was the second time he had met his girlfriend’s mother, and she hated both him and V’s guts.

“Hey.” Once again V got N”s attention, and he looked up to face him.

V waved her hand in the air, “Don’t…don’t think about it too much on it, okay?’ She said

”Alot of people feel that way about us, don’t dwell on it, okay?” V explained “I did that once, and it really messed me up.”

"Well maybe we should show them that we're different now, and get their opinions to change!" N exclaimed "Because I never want to feel the way I feel tonight!"

Tears began to form in N’s optics “I know that, but I don’t want it too be people who I’m close to that hate me.”

V looked at him, with not an inch of confidence, "N, I hate to break to you, but people's opinions don't just change." she shook her head.

N stood up from his seat, "but what about our friends?" he asked

"What?"

"Our friends!" N cried "Uzi, Thad and Lizzy even! They all changed their opinions on us." he pointed out, managing to put a dent into V's arguement, and a hesitant expression to cross V's face, but only a split second before it changed to annoyance, with her slowly growing irrtated with N.

"That's different! We didn't give them a reason to hate us." she retorted.

"Me and Uzi tried to kill each other when we first met, and you planned to eat all of Lizzy's friends during prom, that feels like a pretty good reason to me, and yet they still choose to be our friends, because they know we're changed." he declared confidently "What makes you think we can't do the same for anybody else-"

V slammed her peg leg onto the ground, and balled her hands into tight hands, now completely over her friend's foolish optimism.

"Because that's not how the world works N!" V yelled

N backed up, flinching her voice so loud it rang through his hearing processors, for over a minute.

V seeing N's noticble alarm, felt a twinge of guilt.

She exhaled deeply, pinching the bridge of her nonxestic nose for a minute, before finally musturing up the courage to look him in the eye and have a civil conversation with him once more

"That's now how people are," she began "People's opinion don't just change, espicially about drones like us, and the sooner you except that, the better it's gonna be."

N looked at him like he was kid, told that santa clause didn't exist, which she believed had meant he would now drop it.

Believing she had won, V turned away, knowing the words she had said hurt N, but would in the end help him, but as she went to go to her bedroom to retire for the night, N once more broke the silence.

"That's really how you see it?" he asked

V stopped, biting her tongue.

N shook his head "That's a horrible way to look at this."

It wasn't a horrible way to look at things, it was the real way.

"You're wrong," N declared, "We can change how people see us, and we can start with Uzi's mother."

V kept her back to turned to him.

"I'll believe it when I see it." was the last words she said to them.

Then that was that.

So just like that they left the conversation be for the night, ignoring each other for the rest of the night, knowing they were getting nowhere with the conversation, neither taken each other point of view into their own persepctive.

Chapter Text

Chapter 7

☆Stay together☆

It sounded pretty screwed up, if someone asked Uzi if she would rather have a boyfriend and be motherless, or have a mother and be boyfriendless,.

She couldn’t be blamed though, Uzi didn’t know her mom from a can of paint, meanwhile her boyfriend, N, not only was he the only person she had truly let in, but her and him were as close as two peas in a pod, and she wasn’t going to give that up for some rando she hardly known.

Besides if her mom was really serious about caring for her, she wouldn’t have left in the first place, because now it was too late, eighteen years too late as matter of fact, and she would make sure her mom would know this.

During breakfast time at the island counter, Uzi would glare daggers at her mother the whole time.

When Uzi would leave her room to get something and she seen her mom, she’d give her the stink eye as she done her task, stomping her feet leaving and returning to her room, slamming the door behind her as she done so.

Even while watching Tv, if her mom was their, Uzi would you guessed it! Give her a stare at her like she was stain and on her shoe.

This went on for the entire weekend, which went by slower than both Christmas and Easter combined, it would be worth it though because finally when the next week had come passing by, she’d get to her see her dear loveable fool of a boyfriend.

For once she was glad it was Monday…

The entire walk to the educational center of Outpost 3, Uzi had a  skip in her step, causing the big bat winged book bag on her back to slide up in down.

Finally she got to the locker hall where she was met with atleast 100 idiotic teens.

Ugh… smells like learning and puberty. Uzi cringed, feeling the hot sticky school air hit her monitor.

She scanned the entire area, pushing and shoving through the hallway trying to search for her boyfriend, but found him nowhere.

She stopped at her locker, two digital brows furrowing in worry, did he not come today? Where was he?

She looked to the right, then to the left.

Just a bunch more forgettable faces and dumb classmates of her.

Her face fell, was he wasn't here today, how could he not be here?

She frowned, turning to her locker, and then placing her backpack in the locker and grabbing a few items for class, because even if she was looking for someone, she still had to get ready for whatever crap the schools was about to throw her way.

“Uzi!”

She sprung back up hearing that soft yet outspoken voice.

She turned around, seeing her boyfriend looking down at her wagging his tail “N!” she smiled.

The boy skipped over to her.

“I’m so happy to see you after that stuff that went down with your mom!” N confessed leaning to her level.

Uzi sighed, shaking her head “Me and you both.” she chortled, giving him a crooked smile.

Uzi then shut her locker door, “Come on let’s go to class.” she said

N agreed to this, and holding hands they both went too class

-Once they got to class-

”Alright class,” The teacher stood up in front of the smartboard “Today, I’m going to put on a documentary about lion prides and their behavior while I go and swallow a handful of magnetic balls in order to pass out until the next class hour.” The teacher held a remote in his left hand, and a container of little ball magnets in the other. He aimed the remote to the smart board, clicked on the movie, then opened the container and shoved a handful of the magnets into his mouth.

His eyes flickered to two xs for a moment, “Ugh…” he groaned.

The teaacher stumbled over to his desk, and fell right into his chair, face falling flat onto the surface, loud muffled snoring was heard.

After a minute of staring at the teacher, his pupils had gone haywire.

Everyone began to talk loudly, paper airplanes were being thrown across the room, and even one of the kids pulled out a laptop and started looking on the dark web for images of human skeletons.

Seeing they didn’t have to pretend to pay attention anymore, N decided to talk with his girlfriend about something relatively imported.

N tapped on his Uzi’s shoulder to get her attention, she turned to look at him

“So…” N began, “What happened when me and V had left yesterday?”

Uzi cringed looking away for a moment

“To put it simple…alot.” she answered  “like the minute you guys left we had it out, then I left for my room, and I think after that I heard her and dad start shouting at each other as well, but I was trying not to pay attention, I was too upset to be bothered, so…”

Uzi shrugged “two Christmases I guess, yipee.” she lamely pumped a fist into the air.

N didn’t even bother to even laugh at the joke, instead he got onto a much more important topic

“Did she say anything about us dating?” 

“That’s exactly why we got into a fight!”

N lowered his head “I was afraid you were gonna say that…” he groaned.

he turned to her, "What did she say?"

Uzi explained exactly what her mom had said, and what she responded with, N looked with concern.

"Oh biscuits, yeah she still sounds pretty upset." he grit his teeth.

"Yeah, she is."

"But she didn't say anything about forbiding us from seeing each other?" N asked

Uzi scoffed "No, and besides even if she did, I'm not gonna listen to a word she says." she shrugged.

"She might be my mom, but she's never been my mother," she began

"My whole life, I had to fend for myself, during preschool I had to teach myself how to write and spell, because dad was too busy with work to help me, in junior high I had to get tougher and fight off the older kids who were always trying to shove me in a locker or keep me trapped in the bathroom until I said bloody marry three times, then finally highschool I started to be forgotten about, only being known as that one scary girl with the purple hair that you should stay away from," Uzi explained "and the only time anyone ever asked me if something was wrong was when I'd be forced to go to the counciler, and even then I couldn't tell them, because you could never trust them to keep their mouth shut."

She sighed bitterly, recalling all of this.

She placed a hand on the desk, "and I always remebered, always thinking...that if my mom was alive, life wouldn't be this awful, because I'd atleast have someone their to lean on, or talk to have help, be understood, something, anything!"

"And then!" Uzi chimed "I get to find out, that not only is my mom actually alive, but she's been alive this whole time, off doing God knows what under the planet, while I had to stay in this rinky dink bunker, being treated like a problem child by everyone and everything!" she cocked her head to N with her teeth gritted into a pained smile.

After a while, Uzi looked down to her desk, a digital tear appearing on her face, she crossed her arms.

"So yeah...I'm not gonna let her come in my life, just to turn it back upside down again." she declared.

N grimmaced, feeling nothing but sympathy for her, Uzi noticed this from the corner of her eye.

"I'm sorry," she apologized "I probably should have kept to myself, it's just...hard, yknow?"

She continued

"Knowing it could've been different, knowing I could've not became this person that I am now."

"What's the matter with the person you are now?"

"What's the matter with the person I am?" she scoffed "Where to began their..."

"Well for starters, how about all the emotional baggage I carry around?" She joked looking to him with a half smile

N smiled to her as well "I like the person you are, emotional baggage and everything." he replied honestly.

Uzi felt her face heat up, and she looked him, jaw slightly agape, feeling as though she was about to cry, touched knowing he liked her, even when she was as flawed as she ways.

After a while, the eyes on her screen disapeared switching to some loving words on his screen, that she was not yet brave enough to say out loud.

Your the best thing that's ever happend to me, you know that?

N smile went ear to ear, not only because he was enamored by this, but also because of the clear typo, he cheekily changed his eyes to a sentence as well

Same, life would not be as good as it was without you,

Sadly though the moment was quickly ruined when both V and Lizzy who sat to the left of them both noticed the two and their mushiness.

”Eww, their talking through screen texts.” Declared Lizzy, placing a hand in front of her,  acting as though the two were disease ridden dogs trying to nip at her.

“Gross.” V mumbled, side eyeing them both

“BITE ME!” Uzi pulled slammed  her hand on the her desk, "You’re just just jealous of us both!” she pointed an accustory finger to Lizzy

The blonde scoffed “Jealous of you two? As if!”

”Oh yeah Uzi, we’re just writhing with envy of you guys and whatever gross things you guys do when you’re alone.”

”Huh??” N gawked, afraid what they meant by that.

”Excuse me!?!” Uzi exclaimed “We do not do gross things, we just hold hands and act all sappy, nothing else!”

The two girls responded in laughter, as thought to say uh huh sure..

Lizzy and V began to gossip to each other, but loud enough for where the couple could her

"He's probably biting her or something," Lizzy whispered

"Yeah, and knowing her, she's probably into it."

"Like Eduard and Bella or something."

Both Uzi and N gawked at this horrified that they didn’t believe her.

N placed a hand on his mouth.

A overheating warning went on Uzi's screen before she slapped it off

”You guys are the worst! You know that?” Uzi exclaimed “I mean how do you even sleep at night? With the stuff that comes that comes out of your mouth!?"

”On my sleep number bed, wearing cookie monster pajamas. snoozing away like a little pill baby.” Lizzy declared, with pride that competed with that of a lion.

”Whatever!” She spat crossing her arms, “My point still stands, and you guys still suck.”

N nodded his head once in agreement to this statement, glaring daggers to both V and Lizzy as he did so.

The two then tried to disassociate from the conversation, both turning back to the board, however V and Lizzy still prodded at them though.

”And you guys don’t?” They heard V say, following by Lizzy snickering.

Uzi’s eyes grew wide, nearly popping out of her head, she began to get up from her seat, but N quickly stopped her, placing a hand on back, and pulling her back up.

”Don’t, it’s not worth it.” He whispered to her.

Uzi looked to N, then back to V and Lizzy, she bit her tongue, and looked back to the board, she grumbled a few curses under her breath, slipping farther down into her desk, one singular question coming to mind.

What would she do without N?

Well it simple, first she’d pull out her railgun, then she’d blow Lizzy’s head clean off.

She sighed happily, day dreaming of this, yeah, that’s what she would do.

Then everyone would freak out, and she’d either get go to the bunker’s solitary combfinment room or get exiled for this time.

That realization pulled her right out from her dream world, she sighed once more but not with happiness.

Yeah it was for the best N was their to make sure she stayed on her rocker, because if it wasn’t for him, she probably would’ve snapped, especially considering how insufferable most everyone around her was.

See? This is why she would rather be motherless, than boyfriendless, because unlike her mother N worried about Uzi and her well being, and actually wanted to keep her away from trouble.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8

☆Tresspassing☆

“Thanks for saving me! You guys are so invited to my next shin dig!”

-Thad in Heartbeat

It was no secret that Thad hosted some pretty metal parties. The reason for this was because his family was very wealthy, with his father being apart cheif of the WDSF (Worker Drones Security Force, basically the police of the bunker), and his mom working as one of the door test operators in the WDF, making around a whopping 1,000,000 between them both, that made them able to luxuries that other drones couldn’t afford.

An example of this being two pairs of huge Bluetooth speakers for his parties, that Blaired music so loud it played throughout the house and the walls to the neighbors house, plus a gaint prismatic disco ball that reflected rainbows all over the room.

While his party were well received by his classmates, however, he always kept it on a downlow with his family, making sure his mom and dad we're both working nightshift, and his little sister Athena was with sleeping over with her friends.

That was until his neighbors had enough and snitched on him.

While Thad had been getting ready for his next shin dig (the one he invited N and Uzi to) the neighbors, which was a middle aged couple, whose kids had already graduated, had seen him getting ready for the party, and immediately confronted his parents, asking both of them if they had lost their mind and told them how rude it was to be playing music at the 3am while people had work in the morning, which did not go over well, and Thad's father wanting to be considerate of the neighbor's immediantly confronted his child on the issue, forcing him to cancel the party, as well as possibly get grounded for the last few parties.

Which wasn't good, because this party was going to be a big thing, for each year of high school he had atleast one party for both school semesters, This one would take place around the later month of second semester senior year, making this the last party for him during his years as a highschooler, which would be big. So Thad rightfully made a fuss about this, doing so when they’d all be sitting around the table eating wire and chips (robot spaghetti and meatballs) for dinner.

”but dad! This is going to be my last party, everyone’s going to be counting on me, what am I supposed to do? Just let them all down?!” cried Thad, waving the wire wrapped spoon about in the air, throwing oil sauce all over, and even onto his little sister Athena, who tried to ignore it as well as she could.

Thad’s father, who was sitting in front of him jabbed a fork into one of the chips and shoved it into his mouth, before responded.

“Well son, yes, yes we do expect that, because it sounds like you've all been party a little too much.” His father replied in his gruff smoke-a-pack-of-cigarettes a day voice

Thad’s father, Mr. Edward was a tall drone, with dirty blonde hair like Thad’s and rusty red eyes, however both these features were hidden under a hardhat hat and pitch black sunglasses, he had a mustache and wore a cobalt colored police uniform and pants.

Thad exhaled in irritation at this.

“The neighbors will be fineeee!” Thad whined, waving his hand in the direction of where their dorm was, “I promise I’ll keep the music down, and I’ll only serve a gallon of coolant at the party!”

Mr. Edward hummed in disapproval as he shook his head.

”Maybe you should just host a sewing circle party!” Athena happily chirped to Thad.

Hearing that, her brother’s fork dropped from his hands and onto the floor, where their pet Roomba Mr Wiggles went to clean up whatever food was left on it.

”A sewing circle party!!?” Thad repeated in disbelief “Nobody would go for that!”

”Well maybe the kids in art and theater,”

he mumbled turning away for a minute “but their a small percentage, the other kids would hate that!”

”You can’t have anymore parties here, no raves, no karaoke nights no sewing circles, no nothing, do you hear me?”

Thad's father pointed a fork to the boy, "And just in case you try to pull any funny stuff, I'm gonna get Mr. Vickers over here to babysit you and your sister when me and your mom are both working night shift."

"What!?!" Thad cried "You can't do that!"

"Well I am, cuz' clearly I can't trust you, to watch the house without hosting a rave."

"But dad-"

"Thaddues Reed Edward, you listen to your father, boy!" ordered Thad's mother Mrs. Edward, her soft but outgoing southern voice ringing through the entire room, "No more parties, and that's that."

Thad’s mother, Mrs. Edward was a strawberry blonde drone, a little bit shorter than her husband, her hair was short cut but very curly and wild, she had spring green eyes, plus a chipped tooth from an accident she had when she was younger, she wore a wooly old pink sweater.

Thad, knowing that the moment his mother spoke up meant the fight was over, immediantly backed down with what little dignity he had.

He huffed to himself hanging his heasd low to his plate, with his lips peirced shut.

Athena looked to Thad from the corner of her screen, rings of surprise replacing her eyes, with nothing but sympathy in her core, before turning back to her meal and continueing to eat silence, thankful she wasn't the one dealing with whatever was going on with him.

For the eighteen years of experience Thad had, along with Athena 9 years of experience, both of them had learned very quickly, that while you could win an arguement with their dad, the moment good old mom got involved, it was curtains, and they were to shut little traps, or they were gonna have a storm coming their way.

Afterwards the family ate their meal in silence, and once it was over with Mr. Edward decided to do his favorite thing, that being sitting on the couch wearing nothing but boxers and a wife beater, while drinking a nice tall one, Mrs. Edward was busy doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen from that night's dinner with the help of Mr. Wiggles,

Thad was in his room, playing catch with his sister, using a little green stress ball, since last time they used an actually ball it broke one of Thad's trophies he got during his freshmen year of Football.

"Man that really sucks eggs about your party." Said Athena who was sitting on an office chair at the desktop placed up to the wall.

Athena had that same dirty blonde hair as their mother, but she had the same eyes as her father, her hair was long and messy, and a red hardhat and a red and yellow baseball jersey, she had long socks and black cleats on.

Athena and Thad had a decent sibling relationship, half the time they fought like cats and dogs then the other time they had civil conversations such as now.

Thad sighed catching ball, he was lying down on the bottom part of his bunk bed, "It's not fair!" he moped not even bothering to look over at his sister.

"The neighbor's didn't have a problem with the last few parties, what's so different now!?" he tossed it back to Athena

"Maybe they just wanted to snitch to snitch?"

she caught the ball, she tossed it back even faster than last time.

It richochet over Thad and onto the wall, fallingi nto the crack between it and the bed.

Thad sat up and looked down through the crevice.

Great, didn't look like he was gonna get that back anytime soon.

He scowled at his sister for a moment, admitably annoyed at what she done, however he was too upset about his aborted plan for a party than that.

"What am I supposed to do next month? They are all expecting the coolest party of the decade, and now I'm just gonna have to tell everyone that!" he ranted.

Athena listened to him as she examined his desktop, looking at all the items on top of it, from a lamp to a few notebooks, and some pencils on the desk, and finally a JCJenson Magazine, she pulled it up and flicked through all the pages, spinning around in the office chair for a moment, until she noticed something interesting in one of the sections.

She squinted her eyes to read it for about five minutes, then she got up and went on over to her brother, who know lied down on his bed, with his hands on his eyes.

She placed the book behind her back and crouched to his level.

"Why don't you have the party somewhere else?"

Thad rolled his eyes and sat up "Like where?" he shrugged to her "The school??"

"No dummy! Like outside the bunker, in the city."

Without warning she shoved the magazine into right his face "Look."

Thad didn't take well to this, and slapped the magazine out of his face, hitting his sister's arms a few times, she responded to this by slapping in back, they both got into a slap fight for about a moment before finally stopped.

Thad then grabbed the magazine from her, but not without one last scowl before looking down at the magazine.

His eyes widened

Two pages worth of the entire JCJenson Factory, located in the city of Copper 9, with a map of the building along with a few pictures and fun facts about the building

It was huge, about the size of a mansion, was atleast 20 rooms or more in it.

The rooms all looked to be made with stone brick walls, and it was located over right in the center, far enough away where no colony could hear anything.

Okay, that would actually be a pretty cool place to have a party, he could have room specifically for food and drinks, one for dancing, and probably another to just chill out, holy crap, that could actually work.

Thad tapped his chin for a moment

”You know what? that might not actually be a bad idea.” he pointed to his sister, actually coming to like the idea.

"I might actually have to think about that." he looked down at the magazing for a moment.

He told his sister thank you, she said don't mention it.

-Two days later-

”So let me get this straight, we’re not having the party at your father’s house?” A sharp, bit nasally voice asked.

”Nope.”

”But we are still having it, right?” A more monotone deeper voice added

”That’s right.”

In the dark of the night, three drones trudged through the snow, one of them being Thad, and the other two being his jock friends, Brad and Chad (Yes their names rhymed, yes people made fun of that, no the three didn’t care)

All three of them wore the same red and yellow jacket plus same hat on their head however they did have differences between them all.

Such as Brad having spikey ginger hair, placed into a high up pony tail plus lapis colored eyes, he wore his cap the right way, and had a white shirt, and red cleats.

Chad had a curly brunette perm, that he unfortantly his under his hat which he had turned a 90 degree angle to his left, he had reddish orange eyes and braces. He wore a black shirt and and yellow tennis shoes.

Plus all three acted incredibly different, Thad was friendly and very social, Brad was cool and collected, and Chad was loud and a bit obnoxious.

Finally after walking a long while they were all now at the front of the surprise location for the party.

”Aaand here we are gentlemen!” Thad gestured to the front of the building

The two’s jaws dropped looking at the building, they couldn’t believe it, this was the place Thad was going to host his final high school shin dig??

Chad looked the building up and down, wide eyed, he looked to Thad for a moment, teeth gritted, with his braces shining in the moonlight “What?!” He spat.

He looked back over “The old JcJenson Windex factory?!??” He exclaimed in complete disbelief.

With his hands on his hips, looking at it with utmost pride. “Sure is.” He grinned

”Yeah, cuz nothing screams celebration then a building that symbolizes oppression of all our decendents.” Brad chimed in arms crossed, looking to Thad with half opened eyes, not in anyway impressed.

”I know, I know.” Thad said, “It looks bad, but hear me out…okay?”

In response to this Chad wrinkled his face in discomfort, and Brad shook his head, deadpan expression still on his face.

They were, as matter of fact; not hearing him out.

Thad then brough them inside, and just like when he first found the place they were in awe.

”Woah!” They both looked all over the place.

The inside of the factory was huge, the roof looked to be nearly a mile high.

“Woah this place is massive!” Chad walked e into the building, spinning all around as he scanned the entire area.

Brad walked in as well, noticing the amount of blank space in the area.

”and shockingly very empty for a factory..?” he said confused.

”Yeah, I think it’s an entrance or something.” Thad finally walked in with them, “Cuz when you go farther in you can see a bunch of factory crap over there.”

He pointed deeper into the factory, where they all three could see silhouettes and figures of shelves and heavy machinery.

”But yeah this place is huge.” Thad said “ and get a loud of this.” He raised a finger up.

He took a breath in, cuffed his hands across his mouth and at the top of his lungs shouted “HELLOOOOOOO..?”

The building repeated it back to him, echoing the word at least 5 times.

”Hmph.” Brad hummed, impressed “Accoustics.”

”Nice.” Chad smiled.

“It gets better though,” said Thad “Come with me upstairs,

He went to farther into the building, Brad followed him, Chad, however he was still busy looking around before he had noticed his two friends walking down.

He began to follow them, but then high up above him...

”Hello?”

He froze dead in his tracks.

A voice, a voice that didn't belong to Brad nor Thad.

But they were the only ones in here, weren’t they?

”Who said that?” Chad asked, speaking hardly above a whisper with his voice higher than usual thanks to the anxiousness that was beginning to creep onto him.

Nothing, no response of any kind, just the white noise of the weather outside.

Must've been the wind

Nervously, Chad brushed off what he had heard, and hesitantly scurried off to go join his friends once more.

He didn’t know what that was he heard, if it was just some weird factory noise, another drone who for some reason was their as the same as them, or some supernatural entity that haunted the factory living in it’s walls, he did know one thing for sure though, he WAS NOT going to stick around and find out, he was a football player from a high class family, not a knight of the round table.

When he went to join his friends he found them halfway up a stair case leading to the second floor of the factory.

”Yo wait for me!” He exclaimed running up the stairs as fast as he could, still very much so on edge.

They then followed Thad into a obversation deck that loomed above the first floor, with a large window over it in order to watch everyone work it appeared.

A control room it looked with a panel full of buttons, gadgets and doohickeys all attached to it, along with some security cameras built on the left side of the surface in it.

“Behold!” He gestured “The watch room.”

He went over falling down into a chair and spinning right in front of the control panel.

”Now out of the entire factory which i scoped out, out of all the places this is my second favorite place, for THIS specific reason.” Thad pointed to a microphone with a wire leading into a socket.

Brad looked it up and down “A speaker?”

”Yup.” Thad smirked.

He tapped the mike’s windscreen, admiring it, thinking of all the cool songs he could start playing on it, and how they would ring throughout the factory walls.

”Yeah that is pretty neat I guess,” Chad said “does it work though? I mean this place hasn’t had proper working power for like decades.”

The blonde’s face went blank for a minute.

He loudly stared, reeling his head back as he done so. ”I didn’t even think of that until now!” He banged his hand on the panel

“Dude this place is completely deserted, how did it take someone telling you to just now realize that there was completely no power in the building??” Asked Brad, with genuine interest in his friend’s cluelessness.

”Maybe we could fix the power?” Chad shrugged

”Yeah, but it probably cost lots of money.” Brad said

”True.”

The blonde jock sighed “It’s fine, we can use some of my Bluetooth speakers instead.” He stood back up, “I mean, at least I have a place to host my party, that’s better than nothing right?”

Brad opened his mouth to speak, but before he could .

BOOM! BANG…CLING! CLANK! RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!

They all nearly sprung out their exoskins.

Immediantly silence, like a trio of mice, who had just heard that of cat's meow.

After a moment, they looked above and up at the roof, where they had heard the sound.

Quiet.

They all lowered the heads and looked back to each other.

“Uhm…” Thad buzzed silently, skeptically still looking up to the roof from the corner of his eye, “Did you guys hear that?”

he hesitantly pointed up to the roof.

His two friends stared right into his screen, giving him a quick nod of the head.

Now getting confirmation that he wasn’t insane, Thad asked them what they thought it was.

In unison Brad said Santa Clause and Chad said ghosts, not helpful answers, but something was better than nothing Thad pressumed.

Thad tried not to freak out, but was still completelty on edge, continuing to look up at the ceiling once and while, until finally deciding to call it a night.

“Hey guys maybe wanna head home now?” he asked silently hoping for a yes.

“Sure, I’m okay with that.” Chad answered, a pained grin on his face and a sweat icon on his screen, trying not to seem as creeped out as he actually was.

“Yeah, this place is starting to make me uneasy.” Brad replied, ironically still having his cool despite being more honest about his fear.

They then left the room and started going down the stairs, with Thad being the lead and Brad being the last one.

“Honestly I had some stuff to be doing today anyway.” Chad explained hands placed on the back of his hands, marching with a confident stride, and the eyes on his screen closed.

“Oh yeah?” Thad mumbled absentmindedly, looking down at his feet counting all the steps he went down and which ones were rusted or not.

Chad explained proudly “Oh you know cool stuff, like heading off to go makeout with one of the hot cheerleaders.”

“Dude, the only lady that’s ever kissed you was your grandma, and even then she probably only did it to be nice.” Brad replied, cautiously moving down the steps, both hands grabbing onto the stairrailing.

Chad turned to him with a look of disbelief, “Shut your mouth Brad!” he hissed “chicks want me, and you know it.”

The ginger chordleted, with a nasty little grin, “Pft, yeah they sure do want you.”

“For your lunch money.”

In response Chad scowled at him, and Brad giggled.

It was true, Chad had did have a reputation of getting shaked down for his money, specifically by Lizzy, which wasn’t really humiliating since she was a pretty mean girl and would bully anyone who she thought weak enough be it boy or girl, but Chad being one to always try to appear as a “big strong man” was very self conscious about this.

He huffed, and swallowed the humiliation he felt, “Jerk…” he muttered under his breath orange blush of embarsement burning his face.

Finally Thad had gotten to the bottom of the stairs, but as he got down, another loud sound rang out through the building.

BOOM!

Once more all three of them jumped in alarm.

Thad shoved his hands over his hearing processors, upset by the sound.

Chad backed up right into Brad before slipping past him and behind him.

Even Brad had shown a bit of emotion this time.

“Yo What the-!?” he exclaimed

The panic all three of them had felt hearing the last sounds, came back twice as worse as before, now completely freaked out, realizing that the noises was 100% NOT the wind.

“OKAY.” Thad turned to face them both, “Either there's toxic fumes in the air making us hallucinate, or something is in the building with us making those noises.”

Brad placed his two hands together “Oh please let it be toxic fumes!” he prayed

Chad added onto this “And don’t let it be santa clause or ghost, but really especially don’t let it be ghost!!!”

“I don’t know if it’s that, but I think that noise came from over there.” Thad pointed to the back of the factory, “maybe it’s a pipe?” he tried to think about it

“You think we should take a look?’ He looked at them both for guidance.

“Are you crazy!?” Brad whisper-shouted “No we shouldn’t check, we should make a run for it the front door!”

he pointed to the two doors

Chad frantically nodded in agreement

A beacon of light then beamed down the hall, and hit the front door.

”Oh my gosh-That’s a flashlight!” Chad cried

Brad placed a hand in front of him in defense ”Someone else is in here.”

Originally the presence of another person in the building with them was simple a fear driven by paranoia, however the bright light being shun down the hallway confirmed the suspicion, and if wasn’t bad enough they heard footsteps getting louder with each second and light dancing on the walls as it happened.

While his friends panicked, Thad’s mind raced everywhere, from who it was, to what his family would think, and how he could possibly get his and friends out of their before whatever threat was moving down the hall had gotten to them.

They weren’t alone in here? But who could possibly have been in here? None of their other colony mates except for Uzi had went outside, and he knew it wasnt her because she told him she was gonna stay up late tonight stripmining on Minecraft, and the other Colonies weren't ballsy enough to head outside in the day time let alone in the middle of night! Could it be a murder disassembly drone, and if so which one?

V...N?

...

He recalled the third one, the former leader of them both, whose name failed to cross his line, a tall girl one wearing her hair in bowed pigtails, unlike V and N, she did not change her ways.

A feeling of unease boiled down in his stomach, and his muscles quickly tensed up, and his mind rushed all over the place, trying to recall what had happend to her, and if they could escape in case it was here.

Maybe if they were fast enough they could make a run for the front door? No, that was an incredibly flawed plan, that door was loud, it’d bring attention to them, and if he’s learned anything about murder drones, is they were fast, armed and incredibly agile and the chance of outrunning one was far too slim, their best bet would to be lay low and hide from them until they had left, and if they did find them?

Then just prepare for a fight and hope for the best.

He looked to the back of the building then walked back up the stairs, “Go back to the control room.” He ordered

Neither of the two were okay with that idea.

”No way!” Said Chad

”Absolutely not.” declared Brad.

”Yes way,” Thad hissed, “If it’s a disassembly drone it’ll see us run to the door and pick up the chase, trust me I tried to fight one of these things once, they’re crazy fast.”

Brad didn’t buy this idea

”Well what if it’s not one?”

”And if it is??”

That shut him right up.

Just like that, they all slowly began to back up the stairs, not being quick enough it felt though because halfway up, They seen somebody come to the front of the factory.

The drone was hard to see since they were high up and parts of it where hidden in the dark of the night, but he did notice a few things, long gray colored hair, and arms built to that of a funnel.

His core completely dropped, a disambley drone, and one it looked that he had never seen before.

The stranger hadn’t seen them up the stairs, thank God, but it was clear that it was aware of some type of presence in the building, because it began to wander around, investigating each nook and cranny, and shining it's light in all the dark spots.

They all watched them interested in the drone’s movement, which was shockingly smooth for a robotic it’s size, which certaintly had them awe struck, that was until the thing froze by a column it was looking behind for a moment,

Then slowly reeling its head up and stairing them dead in the screen with it’s two bright yellow eyes.

The three teens looked to him, and the disambley looked back to them, this going on atleast a minute until finally, the stranger, turned it’s body to face them and began to head for the staircase they were on.

That’s when something hit the three teens, a primal urge, to run, hide, or escape the danger that reared it’s ugly head towards them and risked their chances of living to see another day

Their slow backing up the stairs, quickly went running up the steps, nearly on all fours like a terrified dogs that just heard an amble of fireworks on the fourth of July, howling and screaming the entire way, to play even more into the part.

Finally the  hearing an amble of fireworks on Independance day, even howling and screaming to make the scenes near completely the same.

Once they had gotten to the control room, Thad slammed the door shut, trying to twist the broken lock on it in a desperate attempt to keep the thing out, unfortantly the knob simply broke off.

He swore a few times, talk about crappy luck!

Brad then noticed an opening under the control panel, around 3 ft tall, perfect for a worker to squeeze into, not even hesitating they all scrambled to hide under it, pulling their knees to the chest to make them even more disclosed.

The spot was tight, but it was dark under so you’d really have to look in order to figure out if someone was under their.

Chad was at the left side, Brad was on the right and Thad sat in the middle, where the office chair was in front of him all shaking from the feeling of vulnerability thinking of how if that drone had gotten close enough, and peaked it’s head down to see them, they’d have nowhere to go.

”Oh my robo-God..!” Chad tightly hugging onto his legs “You killed us Thad! You killed us and know where we're all dead!”

 “Oh my God, Chad shut up this is not the time!” Hissed Brad trying to stay as quiet as possible.

Creeeaaaaaaaak……. Slowly the door slid wide wide open, revealing a pair of legs and feet, built like a pair of knee high combat boots, and a tail behind it sticking up in curiosity.

All three of them in fear somehow tried to squeeze farther under the control panel.

The disambley drone took a step into the room, and stood their, what he was doing was a mystery, but it was mystery neither of them wanted to solve.

Thad tried to look closer to it, but his vision was blocked by the office chair that was right in front of him.

Honestly the chair annoyed him, it completely blind to what the stranger in front of him was doing, maybe he could kick it away? No, that would cause too much attention to him.

but wait…An idea quickly hit him.

He looked at the chair, then back to what little he could see of the disassembly drone, who was right in front of it, he then looked to his feet, reeling his left foot back, and without missing a beat, he slammed it into the back of the chair.

the chair rolled right into the disambley drone’s stomach, showing it was hurt by letting out a yowl of pain, and buckled down to hold it’s stomach, a few stuffed animals dropped onto the floor and into their view (???)

Thad seeing he had managed to stun it, sprung up from his hiding spot, picked up the chair, spun around for a moment and swung it onto the still buckled down in pain drone, hitting him smack dab across his face, causing it’s neck to snap, turning tit's head a whole 180 degrees, and causing the stranger to stumble back before tripping and falling down the stairs, rolling the entire way, before finally hitting the ground with a loud BANG!

Finally knowing he berid the threat, Thad walked out of the room and looked down, beads of sweat dripping down from his visor, in complete denial that his crazy idea had worked.

“Oh my God!” His brunette friend ran beside him and looked, 

Brad was next to walk out “Did you seriously just do that?!?” He gawked looking at Thad, eyes as wide as sand dollars.

”Yeah.” Thad panted, the adrenaline rush he had starting to slow down. “I guess I did.”

Once realizing the threat was gone, they all now feeling morbid curiosity looked down at the murder drone’s body, now getting a better look at him.

The disassembly drone, looked to be a big stocky male, lying face first on the floor, with a trail of oil leaking out from his head, he wore what looked to be a trench coat, plus a hat was beside him-wait a minute…trench coat and a hat?

OH NO.

”N!?” Thad screamed placing his hands on his heads

The poor guy, who Thad had brutally assaulted without realizing it, responded with a pained low groan.

“Ow…” he sounded on the brink of tears, bless his soul.

Needless to say Thad had quickly ran down to his rescue with both Chad and Brad following behind.

。。。

Apparently what had happened was that N was at the factory getting stuff to put inside the bedroom of his new house, being there around the same time Thad and his friends had came inside the factory, then hearing Thad shouting hello, he realized someone was inside the factory, so he tried to call out and search for them, not because he was going to attack them or anything, but because he was curious and wondering who else was in the factory with him at the exact same time.

All four of them were now outside the front door of the factory.

N was in the middle of them all, his screen had completely healed from where it had cracked once it hit the floor, however his tooth was chipped, and one arm was leaking oil, only stopping the open wound with a stuffed dog he was carrying around, while the other one’s surface had metal completely scrapped off where it brushed against one of the metal parts, just looking at it made the other jocks wince in pain.

N licked at the scrap trying to fix it with his healing saliva, with Brad trying to help, offering him an old napkin he had in his pocket in case he wanted to spit on it and rub it over his arm so the saliva would spread quicker, N however declined the offer.

“I’m good, thank you though.” he said not bothering to look up to him as he continued licking the wound, and just like that Brad pulled it away and placed it back in his pocket.

“N, again I am SO sorry.” Thad apologized for the up-teenth time “That wasn't cool of me at all.”

The silver haired drone finally cleaned off the rest of his wound, and then looked to Thad.

“It’s okay, I understand why you did it.” N said, not even angry.

He then pulled the stuffed animal off his bloodied up arm, and started licking it as well.

Chad cringed at this.

“Mm.” N tasted a bit of his oil licking over the gash, definitely much warmer and sweeter than the stuff that came in the packs and bottles…

“By the way,” he flicked his tongue back into his mouth “What are you guys doing here?” he asked “Shouldn’t you be at home or something?”

“Not that it’s any of my business.” N added on realizing how nosey he may have sounded saying that.

Thad shifted his legs, crossing them a bit “Uhh, well ya see…” he began

“Apparently I’ve been forbidden from having my totally turnt shindig at my house now, but since I don’t want to have to cancel this party cuz it’s gonna be the special senior year final party, I went and found another place to have, being this factory.”

He continued on “Afterwards I wanted to show it off to my friends, which I did.” Thad pointed to Brad and Chad “Say hi fellas!”

the two said hi to him.

Then we heard you and the rest was history.” he mumbled

It took N a moment to process the story, but once he did, he completly understood it.

“Well I must admit this des to explain, and while my head and arms hurt really bad I’m happy to have properly met you now Brad and Chad!” N explained jubilantly

Both Brad and Chad greeted him warmly.

“Don’t mention it N, it's cool properly meeting you too.” said Brad.

“Same here! By the way I was first to hear you talk.” bragged Chad, as though what he said would accomplish anything, gaining a frown of annoyance from Brad for a third time.

Finally N had healed up his left arm, and the cut was no more.

”One more thing by the way.” N declared “Why exactly did you attack me?”

Thad cringed, “We thought you were someone else.”

”Well Who’d you think I was?”

Thad’s eyes batted away, and he awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

He hummed deep in thought trying to figure out what the third disassembly drone’s name was, however his efforts went fruitless, and the girl’s name had completely slipped his mind

He finally looked back to N ”What was the name that one crazy chick that’s not V but she did work with you guys’?” He asked placing out a confused hand.

N wrinkled his face in confusion dumbfounded by his question, Thad continued to try and jog his memory.

”Y’know she had this really cool haircut, a tie and Uzi blew her head clean off that one time.”

It took N a minute but then it hit him who Thad was talking about

“You mean J?” He questioned

“J!” Thad pointed, triumphantly being reminded of the name that was on the tip of her tongue “We thought you were her.”

”What ever happened to that girl by the way?” Brad chimed in, genuinely curious.

”Yeah she was kinda a baddie, why did she just disapear like that?” Chad added, zero shame in his game.

N shook his head, “honestly…” he began “I’m not entirely sure.” He shrugged

”After that whole final boss fight she just up and disapeared!” N said “Though, me and V think she might’ve made off in our spaceship, because when we tried to search for it it was completely gone.”

Chad stood up and went over to N ”Wait! So she for real just dipped off the face of the planet?”

”Possibly, flying right into the deep ol’ atmosphere of space.”

Everyone looked up to the sky, where above them was a deep endless vast expanse of space covered in stairs and planets of all kind, with a small possibility that N and V’s old boss could have possibly lurked.

As he looked up, a question than crossed Thad’s mind, “but wait, don’t you guys need oil to live?” He looked to N “What’s gonna happen when she doesn’t get any?”

Hearing this question felt like a needle being jabbed into N’s back, and was just as uncomfortable as one.

He sighed softly, faintly chewing on his lip as he done so, “I guess…she’ll just…overheat and die.” N hesitated.

After what he said, his tongue burned, and chills went down his spine.

The other three went deep into thought on this.

Only one of them understood exactly what overheating was, but the other two had a faint idea just by the name.

Chad shook his head in disbelief, ”Wow, that’s like-really morbid.“ he gawked

”Yeah...” N nodded “It really is isn’t it?”

Then it was dead silent, other than the soft whirring of wind.

Honestly, N had been told multiple times not to think too much about J, and what could be going on with her,

”Why do you care so much about what happens to J? She’s been nothing but mean to you.” Was something told to him by Uzi, over a hundred times.

Still though hurt N.

Believing J was up in space, all alone slowly starving to to death, completely helpless to the fate of burning up in the atmosphere.

Of course she was horrible, and Uzi was right about how wrongly N had been treated, he couldn’t help it though, it was in his nature to care, and yeah while she was a horrible person, she didn’t deserve to die like that, did she?

After all N and V got a second chance, and they had done some terrible things in the past as well, what made J so different?

Brad crossed his arms, “honestly good riddens,” He said “I don’t fancy having a murder machine who’s still bent on our destruction living here.”

"Yeah I guess that is true." Chad agreed with this statement.

”Hey Thad she was that one chick who threw you into a wall, right?” The brunnete looked to his friend.

Thad hissed recalling the pain “Sure was, and it hurt like balls when I did.” Thad said

”As matter of fact, I couldn’t bend too well for a week after doing that. Crazy stuff.”

The three continued to talk with each other about J, with Brad and Chad joking about the situation she was in, and Thad telling them the story about when him and Lizzy had some rail guns given to them by Khan and it they seen how it scared the daylights out of J.

Meanwhile N watched them, cocking his head left and right wherever he heard them talk, completely sidelined from the conversation.

The way they talked about J, how they didn’t care that she was possibly burning up in the atmosphere, how they joked about her fear, he wasn’t too sure why, but it made N feel a little uncomfortable.

Though he didn’t want to cause any issues, so he tried to laugh it off, with a fake little grin on his face.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10

☆As you’re mother I expressively forbid it☆

It was a stormy morning on Copper 9, so bad that their was alerts on Khan’s radio from the Weather Watching Drones, a group of workers who lived at Colony 9, a Colony at the edge of Outpost 3, where the weather events would show up at first.

Khan sat at the island listening to the men on the Radio, his nightwear on which was a grayish blue shower rob, a pair of bunny slippers, and what little hair he had left in curlers, as well as having his breakfast, which was a bowl of nuts and bolts plus a cup of gasoline on the side to get him through the day.

”Well ladies and gentlemen, it seems it’s that time of the year again.” The weather watcher, James Nimbus explained. “A series a Thundersnow that looks like it’s gonna last for the next week with a few blizzards scattered out during it, in other words all you folks out their better get whatever you’re living in prepared, bunkers campsites, trailer parks, whatever.”

The other weather watching Culio Jordon then chimed in “Yeah, because while you don’t have to worry about those pesky murder drones killing anyone anymore, you still gotta worry about all that snow coming in!”

Khan sighed.

”Haha yeah you got a point their,” Mr. Nimbus declared “Anyway folks, stay in doors prepare for bad weather cuz it is coming.”

The Weather Watching Drones then signed off for the week, saying that they would come back if there looked to be any other events in weather.

”Great.” Mumbled the father under his breath.

While Copper 9 was pretty stagnant weather wise, on occasions the weather would do something different, such as snowstorms, a few blizzards, and another phenomenon called a Thundersnow, which was rare on Earth, but something common on Copper 9.

Khan hated when these types of things happened, because if he didn’t want the bunker to completely loose power, freeze over, and then have all the drones inside die from frost bite on their processors, security measures and daily checkups were needed, and since Khan was the leader of the bunker, that meant he’d be the one having to do all of this.

He took a sip of gasoline from his mug, reading “Worlds Best Dad”

”Not a moment of peace.” He muttered under his breath.

Creeeeaaaak he heard one of the bedroom doors whine out, followed by the sound of claws tapping on the wood floor, before then enter into the kitchen area his wife.

Nori moved over to the counter where the coffee pot was, and climbed up the drawer handles of it.

“Good morning Nori, did you sleep well?” Khan asked, a concern in his tone.

Nori went over to the fridge and popped it open with her solver power, “Ehh...” she groaned tiredly, pulling out a bottle of oil "Could've been better, if I didn't have such a bad dream." she muttured

“Oh? About what?” her husband asked.

Nori flinched, everything that happened in that dream rushing back to her once again.

“I don’t really want to talk about it.” she declared dryly.

Khan mumbled that that was okay.

The two of them heard another door open, followed by the sound of cushiony footsteps hitting the wood floor.

Then walked into the kitchen, their daughter Uzi doorman, looking like a complete wreck.

Her purple hair was messy, her jacket was off, revealing her pink tunic shirt, plus a pair of unicorn stompeez.

She placed a hand over her mouth and yawned at the top of her lungs.

“Morning.” she mumbled sluggishly.

Khan looked at her in amusement “Well good morning to you too Uzi, did you sleep well last night?” a smile crept onto his face.

“Oh yeah dad, I…I slept like a baby.” she rubbed her screen, and once placing her hand off from the screen, revealed two eyes with little lines under them to signify bags.

“Really because it doesn’t look like it.” Khan pointed out

”That’s because she was up late last night playing Minecraft until 3:00.” Nori chimed in.

Uzi glared daggers to her mom, Nori done her best to ignore this.

”And how did you figure that out?” The teen crossed her arms.

Nori took another drink of her gasoline once more, “Let’s just say those noise canceling headphones of yours don’t work as well as you think they do.”

Uzi mumbled something under her breath as she took a sip of her oil.

SO-O-O-O-O COULDDD YOU-

Nori nearly choked as the ringtone blared loudly through the hall

TELL ME HOW YOU’RE SLEEPING EASY HOW YOU’RE ONLY THINKING OF YOURSELF-

“Mph!” Uzi looked down the hallway, and stood up from where she sat “I’ll get it.”

SHOW ME HOW YOU TESTIFY TELLING ALL YOUR LIES LIKE SECOND NATURE

”Is that your ringtone?” Nori asked

Uzi said it was as she went to her room to answer the call, tossing her drink on the counter.

“Huh, look at that,” Nori looked to Khan, “Girl of culture.”

“She gets her music taste from you.” Khan shrugged

“Hi you! They heard their daughter talking on the phone.

Khan eavesdropped with curiosity.

“I’m doing good, how about you? Are you liking your new house?”

Nori, took a sip of oil, drinking it like an octopus would before squinting her one eye down the hall her curiosity now peaked.

She crouched low and sprung into the air landing right onto the table, nearly into Khan’s bowl, she scurried beside him so she could hear her daughter’s conversation better as well.

”Well that’s good to hear!”

She stopped for a moment.

“Wait, you want me to what?”

”What are they talking about?” Nori whispered, turning to face her husband

Khan shrugged.

“Ah, I don't know about that N, I have a pretty busy schedule of going to the nether in minecraft today.”

Hearing that name, Nori felt even more inclined to listen into the conversation, now beganing to lean over the table, to hear her better.

“Maybe he’s asking her to an online game?” Khan suspected, twirling his mustache with skeptism.

“You know what? Screw it, It’s the weekend, Not like I have school or something.”

“Okay so it’s a date, I’ll be there around nine.”

Wait , where is she gonna be?? Nori questioned to herself.

“Okay talk to you later, bye!” 

After that line, they both then assumed she hung up, Khan quickly looked down at his bowl and continued to eat, pretending he didn’t hear anything knowing how his daughter would react, Nori on the other hand, continued staring down the hallway, watching her daughter’s every move, once she left her room.

When Uzi grabbed her drink and sat at the island., Nori began to integrate her.

“What we’re you and hi-N talking about?” she asked, gaining a side eye from Khan.

“Nothing much, besides what’s it to you?” Uzi asked.

“You'd be surprised.” Nori replied

Her daughter hummed in response to this, now on her phone, scrolling through a wikipedia page about firearms.

A claw was then placed on the screen, Nori pushed Uzi’s phone down on the table to the girl’s confusion.

“Where are you going?” Nori looked her daughter dead in the eye.

Uzi pulled her phone out from under Nori, looking away for a moment, trying to think how she could avoid answering her mom’s question, however she came to the quick realization that she couldn’t do so, and faced the music.

She huffed irated as she faced her mom once more.

“Him and V's new home, he asked if I wanted to come over, and I’m curious about what the house looks like.” she explained honestly.

She brought her phone closer to her face and continued her scrolling.

”Oh no you’re not going to his house!” Nori stomped a tendril onto the table.

”Oh yes I am! And you can’t do anything to stop me!” Uzi slammed her phone face first onto the table, pointing at her mom.

Nori retorted ”I sure can do something about it! You may be eighteen, but legally you’re still a child! Which means I have the right tell you what you can and can’t do! And I say you can't go to your boyfriend’s house!”

”And why not!?!”

”I’ll give you three reasons!” Nori began

”One: he’s a murder drone.” She raised one claw into the air

”Two he’s a complete moron.” She raised another.

”and THREE: I hate his guts!” she raised a third on, and the bottom of her core body hit the table’s surface.

”Well you know what mom?” Uzi pulled herself up from the table, “I don’t think you know how little I CARE about your opinion, and no matter what you tell me, I’m going over there whether you like it or not.”

The purple haired drone made her way over to the front door, but when she went to open the door, she found it locked.

A solver glyph appeared over it.

Uzi’s jaw practically fell to the floor, she looked to see her mom.

Nori nodded triumphantly

“That’s right! How do you like them apples?!” Nori asked

”Are you serious?!”

“Sure am, now you better head back to your room, before I drag you in their myself.”

Completely in shock of what her mom was doing, Uzi simply gawked at this.

”Go on.” Nori coerced her.

At first, she felt hopeless, but then one last resort quickly came Uzi's mind, was it good one? With how rare it was for him to actually make a difference in her life, no. The chance of this working was slim, however she was desperate, and desperate people did crazy things

Khan raised his coffee cup in front of him and took a big drink from his mug, trying to ignore what was going on.

“DAD!”

“PPSSSH” Khan violently coughed up the fuel he was sipping upon, leaving the fuel covering the table, with eyes as hollow as egg shells he looked over to his daughter “Hm!?” his lips were tightly peirced together.

“You’re not seriously going to let her do this are you!?” Uzi cried.

He stayed quiet as a mouse, mind racing knowing very well he had not been listening to a word they were saying.

Do what? What was going on? He was out of the loop right now.

He darted his eyes over to his wife.

Nori tapped an impatient claw on the desk, Khan looked over to his daughter.

Uzi had her hands on her hips, tapping her foot on the ground every few seconds, just as her mother was doing, behind her was the door locked up tight under a three arrowed glpyh.

Khan hissed through gritted teeth, ohhhh... he realize what was going on, and honestly he didn't like it.

He then turned to face his wife, "Nori," he began, clasping his hands together with the most sincere look on his face, "Could you come with me in the room so I can talk with you alone for a moment?"

Both female drones looked to him with confusion.

"What for?" The mother and daughter said in unison, Nori sounding more unphased while Uzi seemed more curious.

Khan looked at Uzi through the corner of his eye, he didn't mind letting her hear this, what he was worried about was the reaction Nori would have in front of their daughter, he hadn't seen her for a few years but he still remebered vividly how much of a firecracker she was.

"Just come with me for a moment?" He pulled his chair back and stood up, the legs of it dragging against the floor causing a screeching noise for a split second.

Nori though skeptic, done just this, and the two headed off to their room.

Uzi tried to follow behind so she could hear them, but Khan knowing what she was doing, shut the door once him and Nori were inside.

Despite that though Uzi still pressed herself up to the door, hoping she could hear what they could say.

They both stood in the middle of the room, with Khan closer to the left side and Nori closer to the right.

"Okay, I'm going to try to be as nice as I can about this," Khan pinced the bridge of screen, sighing that even had to explain this, "but you cannot gatekeep Uzi from seeing her boyfriend." he placed his hand in front of him now.

Both Uzi and Nori's jaws dropped to the floor, shocked that he would take Uzi's side over Nori.

"WHAT!?" Nori cried

"YES!" Uzi whispered, pumping her fist into the air.

Nori continued to stare at her husband as though he was insane, "Khan, are you serious right now?!" she cried

“Yes, yes I am.” Khan exhaled sharply, hiding behind the shelter of two shut eyes “Because you are overreacting.”

”Excuse me?” Nori’s tone hardened

Satisfied that her father was in her side, Uzi joyfully soaked in her victory, like a sponge in water, before doing a little dance of truimph

"Thank you dad!" she said to herself, before heading off to her room so she could go get dressed, now officially giving her parents their privacty back.

”I’m overreacting?” Nori gestured to herself

”I’m overeacting, because I don't want my daughter around a 5 foot something killing machine?” The mother gestured to herself.

“I know you're worried about it,” Khan explained. “but I promise you she's in good hands, I've gotten to know N, he's a good kid and I trust her with him."

”THAT. DOESN'T. MAKE. IT. BETTER!” Nori clapped her claws together with every word spoken "It doesn't fix what he's done!"

"We seen what they do, when they know how they think! They might be changed now, but do you really want our baby hanging out with someone who not too long ago would've killed her without hesitation!?" she frantically explained "Does everything they've done not bother you!?!"

“Of course it bothers! It haunts me everyday!” Khan cried "But I can't just keep her from seeing N in good consious!"

"Look! I know I'm not the best parent." he confessed "I'm hardly their, I don't understand a word that comes out of her mouth, and I don't try to, nor can I say that I've always been their for her, and I MIGHT have left her for dead once before!"

He mumbled the last part, scratching the back of his head.

"But dangit, I love her, and I'm not going to forbid her from seeing N," Khan explained "Because he's really the only person she has."

Though scowling at her husband, hearing those words, her expression began to softened, and her furrowed brow straightened out over her eye.

Nori knew that feeling all too well of being all alone with only one special person their for you.

Stuck at the cabin fever labs, being experiemented on trated like a freak, ever day being like a horrible nightmare she couldn't wake up from, only one person was their for her...

Yeva.

Yeva was the only person their for her, the only person who understood Nori and what she was going through, and how it felt to be completetly dehumanized, it felt like they were both falling into a spiral, but the thing about falling together was that falling didn't feel to bad when you knew someone was by your side was falling with you too.

Misery loves company as they say, and honestly that was true, because if Nori didn't have Yeva, she probably wouldn't have surived everything she had been put through, because she wouldn't have had a reason to live, would've been too bleak.

Nori's eye went to ground, and her body muscles tensed up, she couldn't do it, she didn't approve of her daughter and N's relationship, but she couldn't rip them apart like that.

Nori sighed, admitably with a bitterness, still annoyed despite her guilt, "You're right." she said solomny "I can't do it to em'."

"Really?" Khan questioned with surprise, "You won't fight me on this?"

"No, I won't." Nori shook her head, (more correctly her body) "You two win."

。。。

Uzi placed on her two boots and zipped her jacket looking at herself through the mirror in her closet, she believed she looked decent and prepared to leave, before she left though, her door swung open.

"Uzi." a strict voice called to her.

Uzi turned around, sitting in the doorway was her mother.

Uzi looked at her with skeptism of what she was going to say.

"Yeah mom?" she asked

Nori sighed irritatedly, looking away from her daughter a moment, she couldn't believe she was saying this.

"You can go to your boyfriend's house."

Uzi stayed calm, but on the inside she was dancing, she couldn't let them know she already knew.

"but come back before dark, okay?" Nori said

Uzi said she would, not really caring much about the question, knowing she wasn't planning on staying that long, afterwards she walked past her mom and over to the door, not even bothering to say goodbye before heading off into the hallway.

As she headed off to where N's home was, she pulled her phone and texted her father one message.

Uzi: Thanks Dad.

Chapter Text

Chapter 11

☆Not a monster☆

N stared right into the soul of the drone in the mirror, trying to make sure he looked absolutely stunning before Uzi would get there, and not just because he liked to look his best around her, but also because it felt nice to look nice.

He noticed his feathery bangs didn’t seem to have much fluff to them like they usually did, so he grabbed a brush from the counter and pulled it through his hair a few times, puffing up his hair even more than it already was.

He then noticed some smudge marks on his screen, he licked his palm and rubbed the areas until it shun in the yellow hue of the bathroom light.

He straightened himself up, “Looking good.” he aimed two finger guns to the mirror, with a grin,

He then left the room, Uzi’s words still buzzing around in his mind like a mad hornet.

He then went to the living room, and started to clean it up, spit shining the tv, using the lower part of his jacket to dust off the Garfield phone on the coffee table by the sofa, and pushing the painting of the cat to where it was hung up, to where it would be straight.

Then just as if on cue, he heard a knock on his door.

He turned to it, face emotionless but tail wagging at the speed of light behind him.

He dashed over and swung the door open, doing a spin as he done so.

Sure enough in front of him was his girlfriend.

A wide smile crept onto his face.

“Well hello their my darling!” he cooed to her, clapping two hands together “You look great today, as always”

Uzi grinned at with amusement “Darling?” she parroted.

N dropped his hands to his side

“Sorry, is that too much?” he asked.

Uzi giggled, trying to hide her mouth behind a hand, “Nah it’s fine.” she shrugged “Just didn’t take you for the type to use pet names.”

Uzi walked in, her boots sinking into the old dirty carpet, she scanned the room.

“So this is the place?” she looked back to N.

N shut the door behind her, and pushed his back to it.

“What do you think?” he asked for her input, anxious awaiting her response to this

She went into the living room then into the kitchen, all the furniture looked so dull to her, and the room was tinted yellow by the dim old lights.

She looked at the right side of the kitchen wall, where she noticed a large crack in the paint.

She buzzed skeptic.

“Definantly something.” she replied with an intentional dryness in her tone.

N went to her side, “I get it, looks pretty run down, doesn’t it?” he asked looking down to his hands placed together, Uzi was quick to try and explain

“No! No, it's nice! just-”

Uzi looked to him waving her hand in front of her.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to lie.” N insisted, perfectly fine with her opinion, “I know, it’s not the best.”

“Besides, me and V are planning on getting it fixed up.” he explained “As matter of fact, I just got done decorating my room!”

“Wanna see.” he bent down to her level placing his hands behind his back.

"Sure."

She followed him down the hall and over to a door on the left hall, leading to his room.

N opened the door, "Ladies first."

“Oh wow!” Uzi’s eyes turned to rings, surprised at the contrast of his room and the rest of the house.

“Tada!” He went into the center of the room and raised his arms up.

Uzi hesitantly steped into the room, taking in her surroundings just as she did before.

N’s bedroom’s walls were spray painted a pale rose color, she knew it was specifically spray paint because their was around 15 cans of empty spray paint littered all around the room, then in the middle of the room was a big queen sized bed, with that same Crypto the superdog blanket placed on top of it, with a bunch of dog plushies piled on top of it.

Then a shelf on the left side of the room, with hardly anything on it except for a colored book with a present bow stuck on the front of it, and a pair of colored pencils, and then dog posters everywhere.

She then noticed the shelf had both been spray painted as well, in an acrylic gold color.

The room was brightly colored, even with the bad lightning, and honestly it was a little jarring to Uzi for the most part.

Despite that though she expected nothing more from her golden retriever of a boyfriend.

N walked in beside her, tweedling his thumbs together, “So you like my room?” he asked.

A hint of insecurity teetered in the kind tone of his voice.

Uzi placed a hand on her hip, “I’m gonna be honest with you,” she began “It’s really bright shiny, and is way more happy then most things I’ve seen around here.”

A frown crossed N’s face, and his head hung low.

“Just like you.” Uzi looked up to him with a smirk,

N looked back up to her, yellow blush burning his screen.

“Hm?” he titled his head.

He thought on it for a moment, and it finally hit him, "OH."

he placed a hands on his cheeks and smiled bashfully “Awww!” he gushed lovingly.

Uzi snickered, proud with herself and the response she had gotten out of him, that was until she was pulled off from her feet and into N’s arms.

“Hey!” she cried

“Oh Uzi! You're so sweet when you wanna be!” N rubbed the tips of their noses together, which while making Uzi nearly melt into nothing but putty, flustured her.

“Just because your twice my size doesn’t mean you can pick me up like this!!” Uzi exclaimed, pushing away from him. “Now put me down!!”

“Hehe! Okay! Okay! I’ll put you down.” her boyfriend chirped happily.

He raised her up and tossed her onto the bed.

With a shout of alarm, she hit the bed back first, bouncing a couple of times, the dog plushies all launching into the air and falling onto the air for a moment.

She sat back up and crossed her arms, lower lip puffed at N.

“Also, for the record I think I’d be three times your size.” N placed one hand behind his back and one in front, with a finger pointed into the air.

Uzi furrowed her brows.

“Excuse me!?”

She leaned closer to him so she could hear him better did she hear that right?

“Yeah! No offense, but you're really short!” N replied, completely oblivious from the offense she had taken from his comment.

Uzi’s jaw fell to the floor, and she recoiled back for a moment.

She then started to slowly lean over to him, bringing her now shaking hands around him, “You little-”

“Wrong,” N shook his head, “You’re the little one here, not me!”

Uzi grabbed him by the scruff of his collar and pulled him onto the bed with her.

N screamed, feeling his girlfriend wrap her self around him. and jokingly try to ring his neck, N responded to this by grabbing her by the scruff of her jacket and pulling her off.

They then began to play fight, their deafening laughter beginning to feel the room.

They both ended up rolling off the bed, N being first, and Uzi being last.

The lied down beside each other for a moment, before N placed himself over his girlfriend, pinning her to the ground.

“Gotcha!” he said, triumphant.

She giggled, and tried to push him off of her,

"Get off me! Let me go!!" she laughed weakly trying to kick his into his chest, trying to push him off her.

N simply leaned closer down to her, smirking for a moment, and his tail whipping in each direction, peircing the air like a needle through fabric.

He shook his head, "Nah uh uh!" he bubbled, still not budging.

That was until the grin on her face turned into a grimace.

“Ow...OW!” his girlfriend cried, trying to pull herself out from under him.

N sat up confused for a moment, but then he looked down and to his horror, he the tip of his tail an inch worth dug into her leg.

He gasped, and quickly pulled off from her, gently sliding the needle out from her calf.

The purple haired drone pulled herself up, her left leg bending as she began to rub the wound, mumbling something under her breath as she done so.

“Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I-I didn’t even notice!!” he frantically tried to explain, pulling at the hair near off his scalp “I was just-”

“Ah…it’s fine!” Uzi hissed through gritted teeth.

She continued to caress the wound. “I know you didn’t mean to.”

they both looked at the wound, the nanite acid was lining out the hole, continuing to each away at the metal, and oil that leaked out from the wound, N placed two hands over his mouth, nervously crossing his legs.

Uzi grabbed his shoulder, “Here, just fix it.” she ordered, her grip tighting from the pain.

She straightened her leg otu for him, and with a nod N done just as he was asked

He brought his hand up to his face and drag his tongue over the palm of it, afterwards placed his hand onto the wound.

Uzi shuddered as the warm liquid seeped into the wound.

The healing saliva burned for a moment, and the area where the gash was began to shrink, previous metal began to form back where it was.

She sighed with relief, and then looked up to N with a half smile.

“For the record, I’m only this short because dad stopped bringing me to the doctor to get my size fixed up 'cuz he was too busy with building doors.” she explained

“Seriously?” N found that hard to believe.

Actually...no he didn't.

“Uzi, that’s actually kinda sad.” he looked to her wiht a frown

Uzi shrugged "Yeah I know."

She then pulled herself up from the ground, N watched her closely, it bothered him how casually she just admited to her father being so negligent of her, and knowing it was wrong.

“Anyway... " the purple haired drone stretched "I’m feeling tuckered out.”

“Heading back home?” N pulled himself right next to her.

“Nah.” Uzi pulled herself out onto the bed, N's eyes went hollow watching this.

Uzi let out a peaceful noise, burying her face into the blanket, pulling herself onto her side, back faced to N, who still stared at her with wide eyes, wondering just what she was doing. Uzi turned to him.

“How about we just lie down together for a few minutes?” she asked “Just the two of us?”

N blinked in surprise at this, knowing how stand offish she usually was with physical contact such as this, however being the touch = love language kinda guy he was, he didn’t question it, and done just as was asked of him.

“Sure." N slid onto the bed next to her, “We can do that.”

Uzi turned to face N, looking at his with soft eyes and a smug smile, which caused his core to beat quick against his chastice.

“So how’s life been not living at our house anymore?” she asked the one question that had been on her mind ever since she had came to his home.

“Honestly,” N began turning to look up at the fan “I like having a new house, it’s nice to have my own room that I can decorate,”

He smiled for a moment thinking of that, but his expression quickly lowered

“But…I really miss living with you,” he confessed. “How we’d stay up at night talking about stuff that really didn’t matter, when I’d fall asleep at the foot of your bed, and how we’d watch anime on your laptop first thing when I woke up.”

He chordleted “Even when you and V fought about who got to use the bathroom first at morning time, I miss that from time to time.” he grinned.

A pained expression came onto Uzi’s face, and a tear began to form at the edge of her right eye. Great , now he was gonna get her going.

“Yeah…” she exhaled softly, “I hate to admit, but I miss you guys too.” she looked him dead in the eyes, “You especially, but V ON THE OTHER HAND-”

“Uzi…”

“Okay! I miss V alot too.”

“Thank you.” N said.

“That’s a secret between us though, you tell anyone and I will murder your absolute face off!” she threatened her boyfriend.

N snickered softly at this.

“Still though,” continued Uzi “I do miss you guys, and mom was really a downgrade compared to you two.”

She cleared it up “I mean I know that sounds mean, but my mom, she’s just so…so…”

She grunted in annoyance

“Unbearable!” She sat up in front of the bed, “Like she thinks she can come into my life and tell me how to live it, and tell me who I can and can’t hang out with, but that’s NOT how that works.” She crossed her arms.

“It’s annoying and I can’t stand how she talks about you,” Uzi said.

N’s eyes flickered with curiosity, “What does she say about me?”

“Awful stuff.” Uzi replied “She talks about you as though you're this mindless murder machine, bent on the destruction of the worker drone race.”

N’s eyes flickered at those last words, being reminded of what Brad had said to them about J, both sentences being the exact near same.

It seemed a few people may have thought that about disassembling drones, it was okay though wasn’t it? He understood it, after look at all the problems they had caused in the past, he understood where they were coming from, and it was okay if they thought that about him.

Uzi didn’t think that about him did she?

N looked away nervous for a moment, “And...you don't agree with her, do you?”

“What? No!” Uzi cocked her head to him, "Why would I do that?"

“Well I mean…I’ve done some pretty bad stuff in the past.” N sat up next to her.

“All the maiming, the killing, lots of other things I’m not proud of…” he explained.

N nervously crossed his legs, “I don't blame your mom thinking that, and I don't think I'd blame you either, I have trouble brushing past it myself aswell.”

Memories upon memories then played through N’s mind of thousands upon thousands of drones he had killed in the past, how he found them, if they had run or not, and what had happened in their last moments of life.

He felt his stomach lurch, and he would have thrown up if he hadn't caught himself just in time.

He sighed “but, I would still want you to tell me if you thought that, so I would atleast now.” his voice lightly cracked.

“N…” his girlfriend placed her hand on his shoulder.

She scooted closer to him, “No I don't think your a monster, as matter of fact I know you’re not a monster, you were just following directions given to you, nothing more.”

N exhaled, wrapping his hand aroud her wrist

“I've  killed people before, Uzi.” he pushing her away, “Men, Women, Children, and I didn't spare anyone.”

“You didn’t know any better!” her voice raised to a shout

“It doesn’t help anything though!” he cried, “No matter whether I was doing it as a job, or if I didn’t know any better, it won’t change the fact that I am a cold blooded killer.”

A tear formed on his screen, he tried to blink it back, but ultimately failed.

He then turned away from his girlfriend, wrapped his arms around his legs and burying his face into his knees

“And your mom is half right! I am a big murder machine, and at one time I really was committed to killing you all,” he sadly explained “but I do regret it! And it haunts me to this day what I’ve done, and I’m sorry, and I wish people could see that!”

N sniffled softly, burying his face deeper into his knees.

And then it was just deafening silence, for the next 30 seconds, the only noise was N’s soft cries, and the gentle whirr of the dusty old wood fan above them.

Uzi stared at him for a moment, she was at a complete loss for words, she had no idea N was carrying this big of emotional baggage, he always seemed so happy now a days, she didn't know he felt this way, about what he done, or what he as a drone was.

It hurt to see him so upset, and though she wasn't entirely sure what to say, she had to try to comfort him, somehow.

Uzi pulled herself beside him, N still tried to ignore the gesture, but before he had known, a pair of arms had wrapped around his neck..

With a shaky gasp and a jolt of his body, N stopped his crying, he straighted his legs out, Uzi burried her face into his neck, her purple locks brushing up against his chin.

N's eyes dialted as he looked down at the smaller drone holding herself close to him.

“A monster wouldn’t apologize for what they’d done in the past, and they wouldn’t care if people forgave them or not.”

Uzi explained, squeezing him just a little tighter than before.

“But…what about those people..?” he asked “All those people that I-”

“So? I killed people too,” Uzi recalled, “You don’t treat me any differently, do you?”

“But...you weren’t in control of yourself or what you did.” N pointed out

“Doesn't change anything. Still killed a bunch a people, didn't I?”

N bit his lip.

His girlfriend looked up to him, N looked down at her,

“I don’t care what you tell me, the things anyone says about you, or what you’ve done in your past, because I know what kind of person you are,” she explained, a look of shear determination clear on her face “Just like you said to me; I like the person the person you are, emotional baggage and everything.”

She her brows raised, as tears began to form on her screen as well.

N didn’t even know what to say to this, both touched and in disbelief that she had turned what he said back onto him.

She had confirmed, she didn't see him as a monster, they were still friends, no matter her mother would tell her.

His expression softened, he brought his hands above her and pulled her even closer into him.

“Thank you.”

Whispered N, voice as fragile as cracked porcelean.

And then, they two just sat their, arms wrapped around each other in comforting silence, understanding that no matter what either of them had done, they still cared deeply for each other and nothing was going to ruin the relationship between them.

It was around 9 when Uzi had returned to her dorm, she wanted to stay longer, but N had gotten low on battery so he had to go to sleep, (y’know being nocturnal and all that he had to have himself a sleep schedule.) and Uzi being the good girlfriend she was and knew he wasn’t insomniac like she was, let him be and parted ways, telling him good morning before she left, because well that made more sense that good night, didn't it?

。。。

Chapter Text

Chapter 12

⚠Late Night Murder⚠

♫♪Toss your dirty shoes in my washing machine heart, baby bang it up inside.♫♪

♫♪I’m not wearing my usually lipstick, I thought maybe we would kiss tonight.♫♪

♫♪Baby~ Will you kiss me already?♫♪

The Worker Drone Employee, Kenneth DeWolfe, was the only WDF employee with his boss, helping at the corpse spire.

Kenneth had ark grey hair and bright green eyes, but just like most WDF employees he wore silver hat and a jacket with the logo on it.

Their was three jobs to choose from, pulling the bodies out from the spire, placing them in bags, and finally bringing them for identification, Kenneth was in the second job.

Currently he had bagged around 15 corpses, and was on the sixteenth one, the only thing keeping him from losing his cool and staying desentized to the amount of dead bodies he had to clean up and place into bags, his headphones playing Mitski songs into his processors.

The sixteenth also appeared to be the last body for the day, they had taken down half the pile, leaving the top cut in half, making the corpse spire appear more like a funnel.

He looked down at the final body, it looked to be a child, around 4 judging by it’s size, long silver hair, a blue dress and red hard hat, neck snapped completely around, and screen pitch black from how long it had gone without power or oil.

His stomach lurched, noticing the similarities between the poor girl and his own daughter.

“*Sigh*, fly high little one.” He unzipped the body bag in his grasp, and got down on his knees.

Khan had given him and the other WDF employees clear instructions of what to do;

1st: always wear gloves, robots couldn’t exactly catch germs, but drones still rusted, and if that stuff got into an open wound you could be at risk for an infection, Ken seen this happen before with his grandpa, and it wasn’t pretty, so he knew not to play around with the danger of rust.

2nd: Be careful when picking the bodies up, they had been through a lot already, and if you weren’t careful they may become more banged up than they already where, everyone unfortantly got an example of this, when one of the people on body duty had accidentally hit the head of a corpse on a rock, and it came clean off, yes it was a brutal sight, no Kenneth did not want to talk about it.

Then 3rd and it Khan’s personal opinion most important, be very very VERY delicate with the victims’ family when they came back for the bodies, keep firm eye contact, be understanding, and do not judge them, they had been through enough as it was, and didn’t need to be put through any more pain or pressure then they had already been through.

Thankfully Ken didn’t have to follow the third one since he wasn’t one of the drones handling the family issue, even though that probably would have been more savory then was he was doing now.

He zipped the bag up, the child’s screen being the last thing he had seen before doing so, afterwards he pulled out his tag gun, and popped a label onto the chest area of the body bag.

A.4-146421 it read, on the small yellow bag.

He stood up, continuing to look down at the bag still not over the fact, that their was a child inside of it, one he knew nothing about, not even her name, just shoved into the bag and turned into nothing more than a number.

He shook his head, lips pierced, who was she? he began to think What would she have become if she had gotten to grow up? He wondered.

He decided it best not to think to much on it, and instead left her her be with the rest of the bodies.

Ken then turned his music off, and pulled his headphones off, afterwards he went to front of the corpse spire where his boss would be.

Khan was over with one of the other Bunker leaders, Mr. what’s his face from Outpost 5, appearing like an unholy mix between a military kernel and a boyscout leader, wearing brown khaki pants and a uniform with a french flag pin on it, plus a fishing hat on his head.

Ken walked over to the two, “Excuse me sir,” he gained his boss’s attention “I think I’m callin’ it a night, you mind?”

“Not at all, Kenneth!” Khan said “After all, you earned it for the overtime you did, cya tomorrow!”

He waved to his employee.

“Yeah, thanks.” Ken mumbled turning and heading down the road in the city.

And he probably still isn’t gonna get that raise.

He trudged down the trail listening to the sound of the wind hissing softly in the distance, hinting at a blizzard that would be coming in, he then peeled gloves off and tossed them off into the distance, making sure to look at his hands for any cuts he’d possibly have to clean up when he’d get home, he had gotten very paranoid about that when they started the corpse spire cleanup

When he graduated from Highschool last year, and given the Opportunity to work in the WDF, This isn’t what he had in mind.

He shuddered, thinking of all the cold lifeless worker drones he had the curse of having to not only witness but also pick up and bag like they were trash, nobody should have to do that, at least not against their will! Like seriously, hire a morgue or something!

He then got a notification on his phone, he pulled it out from his pocket and looked at the text message.

A picture of his daughter standing up in her crib and reaching out for the person taking the photo, followed by his wife's text.

Siri: You coming home yet? Someone’s waiting for you <3

Ken felt a smile creeping onto his face, his heat warming at the picture, having feeling the weight of his troubles be lifted off from his shoulders.

He chuckled softly as he responded to the text.

Ken: Tell her to hold on tight, just got off work, I’ll be there in a moment you both.

He sighed softly placing his phone back in his pocket, at least he’d get to go home and see them both, that always made his day better.

Though he did wish he could get home earlier so he could see his daughter before she had to be put to bed.

He was now about halfway across the city, with the archway showing he was exiting being a faint blur in the difference.

Little did he know however...That he was not alone.

He continued marching down the road. In one of the ally ways, a yellow X shape beamed from the darkness, not enough to show the owner of the optics but enough to show a mouth opening wide, revealing a large set of teeth with grey colored saliva dripping down from them.

Hisssssss...

Smoke escaped the mouth as it hissed, just loud enough for someone close by to here.

Ken froze in his tracks, the sound of his boots crunching against the snow coming to a quick stop.

“What the…” he mouthed.

He chewed his lip for a moment, that sounded like it came from behind him.

He turned around squinting his eyes with skeptism curious if it may have been one of his coworkers pulling a prank on him.

Looking all he seen was the road, sidewalk and the buildings lining it out

Nobody was their.

Confused Ken bit his lip for a moment

"Uhmm...hello?" he said aloud.

...

...

nothing.

Just wind and fresh falling snow.

Ken then turned around and continued walking, brushing off the incident, once more filling the atmosphere with the sound of his feet trudging through the snow.

But then...He heard the sound of someone else's feet on the ground, moving much quicker and faster than he was.

Once again, he stopped, this time feeling a burning pain in his core.

He heard something else this time, and this time it was even more clearer, was he sure someone wasn't behind him? Maybe Khan just left to?? That had to be it, it just had to be.

He turned back around, this time looking with his lower lip bitten down on, and his brow furrowed with wrinkles of unease around his eyes.

Once again, he had seen just the typical things one would see around a city.

Streetlights, sidewalk pavement, mail boxes and newspaper vending machine, and old abandoned cars.

Was that a hand he seen gripping onto the back of that vehicle? Surely not

Rrrrr....

He looked up at the sky, bluish grey clouds above hand, a thundersnow was coming, he needed to get home quick, maybe that was where the noise came from?

Once again, he turned around and continued his journey, ths time picking up the pace, and trying to get his mind somewhere by reading signs he came across.

Tag office-->

Conch St.

Subway Station 44 miles and 20 ft under

Watch out for children at play!

Thunder rolled and lightning striked the sky, causing him to be near completetly skittish looked left and right up and down with each noise he heard.

It was just the weather, nothing more! So why was he feeling more on edge than he had before.

He knew he wasn't in any danger, for the past week he had been walking to and from the corpse pile, and nothing had happend to him yet, why would something happen now.

Then out of the blue, the sound of thunder and lightning stopped, giving him a minute to breath, atleast that's what he thought until...

whirrrrrrrrrrrr.

He heard it.

He didn't know what it was, but it was clear as day, and it sure wasn't the weather.

It sounded industrial, like a fan? A car engine, tv static? Somethin along those lines.

And it was right behind him.

Something was right behind him.

Or...Someone

He felt himself be completetly paralyzed with fear, and he didn't know if he even had the balls to turn around, and honestly he didn't even know if that wasn't for the best, maybe if he waited long enough the noise would stop.

30 seconds, it continued on, evolving even louder, like ringing in his ear.

It was clear he was going to have to turn around and confront the issue.

He spun around and looked.

Once more nothing! Just the buildings, the mailboxes the road and-Oh my God.

In front of was another drone; one he had never seen before.

he couldn't tell much about it, thanks to the darkness that blanketed it, but it was clear that it was much taller than him, even while hunched over, on it's back a pair of wings, then finally that infamous golden X, that ever worker drone knew symbolized death and destruction for their race.

Shaky breath was caught in his throat, Ken's leg's felt like a pair of shaky toothpicks, he couldn't move he couldn't even breath, his mind had went completetly blank, all he could do was look at the beast in front of him.

The stranger in front simply stared back to him, it's golden yellow optics burning holes into his own, standing so unnatural still as it done so, making him almost question if it was online or not.

Cracka-BOOM!

A flash of lightning striked, lighting up the sky and the drone in front of him, revealing her horrifying details in perfect crystal clear quality.

The drone had long unkept grey hair,it wore a suit completely torn and tattered at the bottom part, and her palms were wrapped in some type of fabric stained with black, she had oil leaking from her screen and near every orphus of her body. it's jaw near completetly unhinged with sharpened teeth, and smoke escaping from deep in it's throat.

CRACK He crouched low to the ground tilted it's head to left, it's wings bounced from the force for a moment, and it's nanite acid tail began to swish around in the air.

It was a murder drone,

but something was wrong with it.

Very wrong,

and personally he wasn't willing to find out what, and he realized that withen seconds of the lightning.

Kenneth made a run for it.

His breathing became labored as he run fast as he possibly could.

He then heard the sound of snow crunching behind him, it was medium pace.

That thing was following him, and it was getting closer, he didn’t know how close, but he wasn’t going to check, he didn’t dare to check.

Just run, run and don’t look back no matter what, and sure don’t stop until you got to the bunker.

He couldn’t die, not that night, not right now, he had to go home, to see his family, his wife and little baby, he couldn’t leave them!

He noticed the archway that led out of the city, and the sign next to it saying “You are now leaving Copper 9 City, please come back soon!”

He let out a shaky sigh of relief, just a few more laps closer to the bunker.

He continued running down, kicking inches worth of snow from his boots as he done so.

The wind began to pick up, so strong it nearly knocked him off his feet, he felt himself be pushed back for a moment, his hair being pushed into his face impairing his vision for a moment, giving the murder drone behind him a chance to strike.

Running up to him on all fours, the murder drone latched onto his left leg and sank her teeth right into his calf.

He wailed out in pain and fell to the ground, the other drone hungrily lapped up the oil that leaked down from the holes pierced into his calf, each drink she drank her grip grew even tighter.

Ken kicked and screamed, trying to pull himself away, digital tears falling from his eyes.

Five kicks it took to get her off, and she sprung up, dropping his leg, and letting him roll onto his back, still sobbing from the pain.

The murder drone still didn’t give in, instead she grabbed his head, and slammed it into the snow, digging her claws on each side of his head.

Her claws were burning hot to the touch, and hissed violently as they made contact with his face.

A loud blood curdling scream escaped his mouth as he felt his face be branded by the hot metal of her claws, trying to push her off with his face, she simply responded to this by shoving his head deeper into the snow, so deep she was causing the parts of snow her claws touched to evaporate into steam and escaped into the sky.

Thunder rumbled lightly above them both

His vision began to go blurry, whether it was from the loss of oil or the pain he was feeling was unknown, but either way he was beginning to believe it to be the end, that was until he had recalled the pair of keys in his left pocket.

He caught hot breath in his throat for a moment, using all his might to pull his hand to his pocket, and search inside of it.

He felt everything, his lanyard with his door card in it, a pencil and finally the rubber surface of his skeleton key chain, and eventually the smooth metal key attached to it.

He pulled his hand, balled into a fist out from the pocket, paying no mind to the items that where pushed out with it, and then snapped his arm straight for the killer.

He couldn’t see what was going on thanks to the palm placed right in the middle of his face, but he did hear the keys make contact with her face with a wet squealching like noise, and seen through the corner of his screen some type of liquid escape from her face.

The murder drone sprung up with a disheveled and metallic sounding shriek, clasping her hands onto her face.

He pulled himself up as well as he could, pain still coursing up his leg, and the burning sensation still remaining on his face which had been completetly branced by her claws, and the middle of his screen lined out with a prism like effect that a computer would get when they had been shattered

He still tried to run, or run as well as he could atleast, holding his face as he done so.

Words couldn’t describe the agony he was in, but still; he couldn’t give up, he had to keep going, he needed to get home to his wife and child.

He couldn’t die, he couldn’t not now, not when he had so much to live for.

He saw the building in the distance and hope swelled in his heart.

It was quick to be replaced with panic though when he heard the murder drone behind him began to do what sounded to be a mix of over the top crying and hysterical laughter

He turned around for a moment, the female drone was cowering hands still covering her face, and trembling with each sob that escaped her mouth, he felt chills go down his spine at the sight.

She sounded so distraught, yet so enlightened, it was disturbing.

He shook his head in disbelief, eyes like rings, before turning back around and making a run for the bunker.

When he got to the bunker, he practically slammed into the metal door, near hugging it almost feeling a relief he hadn’t felt since the incident with the break in.

“Oh, thank you thank you thank you.” he shook his head, with a smile, he went to grab his lanyard

He had gotten their, he was gonna live, he was gonna see his family again he was gonna…

Wait.

He felt around in the pocket.

No.

Nonono.

He moved his hand all around it.

Where was his card?

WHERE WAS IT!?

“Oh come on! No! NO!” he pulled the pocket inside out.

Nothing, just crumbs of lint.

It was in his pocket, it was right in their, he felt it in their, he felt them as he had…wait.

Oh no.

His key card, it must’ve slipped out when he had his keys, he had left them behind!

NO!

His whole world felt as though it had come crumbling down, and the feeling in his legs was completely nonexistent.

A sound of laughter was heard behind him.

He looked behind him for a moment, and seen the glow of a yellow X in the distance.

The wind got even more violent.

He swallowed a shaky breath, and pulled out his phone which was in the other pocket, he couldn’t give up, he couldn’t give up, not now, not now.

He brought his contacts up and called the one person he knew could help him at this moment and shoved his phone to his hearing processor.

Pick up, please pick up. His breaths grew even more labored as he silently begged and pleaded for an answer

Another series of giggles, closer behind him.

His core knocked against his chest with each moment of silence.

Come on pick up…pick up please.

Ringggg

...

Ringgggg

...

“Were sorry the person you were calling is not here right-"

“FOR ROBOGOD’S SAKE!” he shrieked, not even bothering to listen to the full message before trying to call again.

Ringgggg

...

Ringgggg

...

...

*click*

“Yeah?” his higher up's calm and nonchalent voice came through on the line, finally.

“Ron I-”

Before he had known it, a blur of silver and white jumped right at him, colliding into his side and sending him flying, and causing him to drop his phone into the snow.

Their the killer had him pinned down in the snow, straddling his arms together, with her jaw unhinged leaking boiling hot spit onto his face.

He screamed at this, both in agony from the saliva once more melting his face and the horror and anguish he felt knowing he was about to be torn apart.

The killer’s nanite acid tail then rose up into the air perfectly in line with Ken’s eyesight.

He didn’t even get a chance to reason with her, before he had been ravaged.

Sounds of screams and splattering of oil muffled the wind that whirred loudly in the air.

Ron managed to hear everything, but thanks to the pour quality of the audio, it had came out staticy.

“Hello?” Ron called out

“Ken?”

…

“Kenneth?”

…

“You there?”

Particles of snow began to fall onto the phone, and its screen went black.

The commotion in the background died down as quick as it had begun, and then the only sound left was the weather, and an occasional slurping noise.

Then a ding from a notification on his phone, a text message preview showing up at the notifications bar.

1 message:

-Siri: Where are you?

Chapter Text

Chapter 13

It happened again.

When N and V both moved into their new dorm, they were moved at the end of a corridor with 5 other neighbors, a pair of brothers in a dorm on the wall in front of them, named Keanu and Alex Reece, two very old brothers who were retired security guards for another bunker.

Then a family of three known as the Dewolfes, with the father Ken, who N knew because he had gotten to meet him during a game of cards with Khan and his friends, and then Siri and their little baby Maria, both V and N didn’t know much about those two, because they hardly got to see them, but they had given a fun fact by Lizzy, that being apparently the two parents were apparently the “popular seniors” last year, with Ken being a jock and Siri being the cheer captain, and they had actually ended up adopting the baby at the second semester when her parents had went missing, Which N personally thought was insane, because that was pretty young to be taking care of a baby. Despite that, he never racked his brain about, wasn’t like he was the one taking care of the baby.

Currently one of their neighbors; Siri was up at 11, something very out of the ordinary considering how tight of sleep schedule she had since her and Ken had a baby.

Siri, a short drone with long curly hair, colored with light shades of purple and sky blue eyes paced around the living room, her phone placed to her head, waiting for her husband to answer her call for the fifteenth time, once more it went to voicemail, and as well once more she left a message

“Can you please answer my calls? I don’t know if this is a joke or not, but whatever you’re doing is really worrying me!”

After she left the message she tried to call him once again.

She had been doing this for about an hour and a half now, at first when her husband hadn’t come home at 9, she didn’t think too much on it, after all he was working pretty hard at that corpse spire.

When she began to panic was when it turned 10, and she started to call him, only for all attempts to call him to inevitably end up with her on voicemail, I mean one two calls that he had missed? Yes that was expected, but each and every one of her calls ignored? Something was wrong here.

If the situation wasn’t bad enough, she then heard her baby began to cry for her.

“Mama!”

Siri groaned loudly, dropping her hands to her side, great…now her kid was gonna have to be involved in what was going on right now.

She made a dash for her kid’s bedroom and over to her crib scooped her up, and holding her in one hand her phone still in the other.

Okay, so her husband wasn’t replying to any of her calls, which meant she should try to call someone else.

She typed a number into her phone as she went of the room.

“Mama.” Maria cooed trying to reach out to her mother.

“Not now Marie.”

She put the phone back to her ear, and waited, impatiently tapping her foot on the ground.

Ringgggg..ringgggg

“Hello?” Khan, her husband’s boss greeted

 “Khan! Is Ken still with you guys over at that Corpse Wall thingy?” 

“Uhm-No? We all left there about two hours ago.” Khan explained.

Siri felt her core stop, and she near dropped both her baby and phone in surprise.

“Two hours ago..!?” she couldn’t believe it, “Then he should’ve been home by now!” she cried

“I would think so, yes.”

“Oh my God,”

She couldn’t hardly stand, she went over to the sofa and fell onto it, placing her baby beside it.

“Baba?” Maria placed her hands on her mom’s thighs and looked up to her with orange eyes, being completely ignored

“Oh my God.” Siri repeated.

The mother began to drag her fingers through her thistle and mauve colored locks.

“Maybe he didn’t go straight home when he left and went somewhere?”

“went somewhere else!?!” she parroted in disbelief “Where could he have possibly gone!?” she cried.

He wouldn’t have done that, Siri knew her husband, and he wasn’t the kind of person to just head off somewhere without giving her a heads up of any kind.

“An excellent point, Mrs. Dewolfe.” Khan declared, accepting how outlandish his statement was, however despite his modesty it didn’t comfort Siri, just made her feel more panicked.

Maria leaned her head onto her mother’s side, and tried to rest her eyes.

“Look, how about this? If he’s not back by tomorrow, you can file a missing person’s report, and I’ll get the guys to host a search party, okay?”

“Tomarrow!?!? Oh f### that!” Siri sprung up from where she sat, “What if he’s out there injured?! He’ll rust out in this weather!”

“And I understand that, but nobody here has ever done a search party at this time of the night, and I’m not sure if they would be ready or not!”

“Again, I’m sorry about you’re husband, but we’ve already lost so many people this year, and I don’t want to risk anymore.” the father apologized.

Siri began to clench her fists in anger “Well fine, in that case I’ll go and search for him myself!” she exclaimed sharply.

“What no!-”

Before he could say anything else she hung up on him, tossed the phone onto the couch next to her daughter and marched to her and her husband’s room.

Once in their she grabbed her grey parka from the dresser it was placed on and began slipped it on, plus a pair of black snow boots in the closet

Her phone began to ring out, curious if it was her husband, though cautious if it wasn’t, she went back to answer it.

She found her daughter with it in her mouth, teething it with what little teeth she had, she pulled it away from her daughter’s mouth.

Maria responded to this with an annoyed bellow, Siri picked up a little teething ring from the floor, wiped it off on her parka and gave it to her baby.

Maria popped it into her mouth and began to teeth it like she had done the phone.

Siri looked at the person calling, it was Khan.

She huffed with irritation as she swiped the answer button.

“What!?” she spat

“Now Mrs. Dewolfe, you cannot go out their, you’re even more under prepared then both the WDF or WDSD combined!”

“And I can’t just leave my husband outside to rot in a blizzard either!”

“Siri-”

“KHAN! He’s the father of my child! You of all people HAVE to understand what I’m going through right now!”

Dead silence met her on the other line.

That managed to hit him right where it hurt, and it seemed she had known it, maybe now she would get the help that she needed right then and their.

After several long seconds of silence, she heard a soft sigh from the other voice on the line.

“I’ll see what I can do.” said Khan, his voice solemn

She sighed, relief swelling inside of her

“Oh thank you, Khan.” she replied, greatfully.

“Please, find him.”

…

Khan sighed turning off his phone.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” he pinched the middle of his screen.

Khan went to the bathroom in his room, where he had left his work clothes hanging on the door, as he done so he woke up his wife.

Nori was sleeping on the left side of the bed, the remote to the tv placed under one of her claws, since she was watching one piece before going out cold.

“Khan?” she turned to the door leading to his bathroom, which was now closed.

After a moment the door swugn open and her husband now fully dressed marched out of their, his face wrinkled in a grimace.

“Nori, I’ll be back in a moment, can you watch my things while I’m gone?” he asked her.

Nori said she’d do just that, and Khan left their room.

As he walked down the hall, his daughter’s door opened up, revealing her wide awake, headphones placed on her shoulders, and hair a rat’s nest.

Uzi who had managed to hear him talking on the phone, and more of a meddler then her mother, began to probe.

“Dad, what’s going on?” the purple haired drone asked “Who was that on the phone?”

“One of my employees went missing, and his wife is worried for him.” he didn’t even sugar coat it.

“Wait, what!?” Uzi began to follow behind him, “Who!?”

What did he mean by missing? Did someone leave

“Don’t worry about it yet, just play your minecraft or something.” Khan replied dryly, as he left the dorm.

Uzi simply stood at the door in disbelief.

Nori crawled over to the door, “Somebody’s missing?” she parroted, worry in her tone.

***

In the front of the Outpost 3 Bunker, the door began to rise up, revealing around a search party of five, two of which had oil hound, (originally called a search drone, basically a living metal detector, appearing to that of a robotic walking stick with the head of a vacuum cleaner.) then in front of them Khan Doorman.

It was still incredibly stormy out, and the first thing each one of the robots were met with was the violent gust of wind hitting their face, so strong they had scrunnched their faces up.

However they wouldn’t let that stop them, as matter of fact they had dressed for the occasion all of them wearing big stuffy parkas and helmets over their eyes, that weighed enough to keep them from going flying if the wind kicked up, even the hounds had protective armor on such as a thick vest, and a chain linked leash wrapped around them.

The first one to walk out was their manager, scanning the entire area, their was clouds of snow moving everywhere and it was near pitch black outside, they were gonna have to be very careful while doing this.

He turned to face his search party.
“I want this entire area, and this area alone scanned up and down for any signs of a drone, “Don’t go past the trees and don’t go into the city limits, if you get stuck somewhere call for help.” he explained “Does everyone understand?”

“Yes sir.” his men (plus one lady) nodded their heads.

Thus the search was on, all the drones starting around 15 yards away from the bunker, digging up any suspicious appearing clump of snow, calling out Kenneth’s name, slowly but surely closing in on the building.

So far, their search grew hopeless, with the oil hounds only managing to find scraps of metal here and their, and the only response they got to the shouts being the loud whirr of the wind.

That was until finally they were withen arms reach of the building and they started too scan it all over.

One of the hound handlers was on the left side of the building, their hound trudging along the snow, beeping every two seconds, as lined out the walls, moving over the bumpy trail of snow.

Beep…beep…beep…beep…beep…beep!

The hound originally moving with’s head to the ground, sprung right up, freezing dead in it’s tracks, the handler, A Jorden Keeler, brunette female drone with blue eyes, continued to walk, ending up bumping into the creature, before backing up.

“*sigh* What is it boy?” she muttered, all hope she had for finding the 19 year old male gone, thanks to countless false alarms from her helper.

He dashed down the trail, with each step it took it’s sound becoming even more frequent and it’s speed kicking up

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

At the point he had stopped, they were at a large clump of snow, and that noise was all the guard had heard.

The hound’s body bounced up and down with it’s nozzle appearing snout on the clump moving it all across it before beginning to dig it up.

The creature had feet shaped like a garden trowel, and toes like honey badger claws, making it easy for it to dig through both snow and dirt.

It tossed deep clumps of snow into the air, hitting the handler, and despite having a guard over her eyes, she held an arm out to protect her face.

“Did you find something??” she asked with genuine curiosity, trying her hardest to speak over the beeping.

She then seen something blue and black that was no longer hidden in the snow, curious she tried to look over her metal detecting companion to see what it was.

It looks like a jacket, the kind a wdf employee would wear.

A jacket, nothing more, atleast that’s what she thought for half a minute, before the hound had scooped a few more clumps of snow, and then she seen something even worse than just a jacket, so bad it caused her core to drop.

That being a horribly disfigured head of a worker drone.

“Sweet mother of JCJenson products.” the officer placed to her mouth.

After she had seen it, the oil hound, oh so proud of what he discovered walked in front of his find, and sat down wiggling his backside as he stared up, as if to say arn’t you proud of me master? I found what we're looking for!

After staring at the corpse which felt to be entirely the drone finally found it in her to notify her party.

“KHAN! I FOUND THE KID!” she cried

Khan plus three drones peaked down the edge of the building.

“Oh no.” said Mr. Doorman, already knowing by her facial expression it was bad news.

They all made a run for it, and gathered around.

。。。

Chapter Text

Chapter 13

★The Day After★

Ever since N and V had redeemed themselves, everyone thought Copper 9 would be a safer

than it was, they didn’t have to worry about getting brutally killed if they went outside, safety regulations could be limited, and the iron blinds on the windows could be optional and not mandatory at night time.

So you imagine the devastation as well as the panic when everyone had heard that actually scratch that! You’re still in danger, here have this dead body for proof!

Not a fun way to start Monday…

not at all.

The gossip spread like wild far, with ironically the socially outcasted Uzi being the one to start it, telling everyone her father found Kenneth Dead outside the bunker, most everyone was devastated, all the teens in the school had known each other since kindergarten, and when you know someone that long, chances are you get pretty attached to that person.

everyone’s reaction was pretty different, some cried, others denied his death, and a few were just plain disturbed, but for the most part no matter what everyone was feeling, it was pretty quiet that school day.

Even during lunch time, when it was usually a battlefield of hoots and hollers there was barely any conversation amongst any of the drones.

Currently, At the far left corner, was the Cool girls table, aka all the cheerleaders sitting side by side and in front of each other, except for Lizzy’s murder drone companion V.

All the cheerleaders were speaking in hushed voices, talking about how they couldn’t believe Kenneth was gone, and wondered what Siri could’ve been going through at the moment, one of them even crying because she had a crush on him way back when.

V listened to each and every one of them, placing her eyes on whichever drone was talking, while picking bits of robobugs she had eaten earlier that morning from her teeth and then popping them back in her mouth to eat, sure she could’ve conversed with them, however her mind was somewhere else at the moment, something more important than their grievances…

Lizzy wasn’t talking at all at all, which was especially unusual for her loud self, she just held her head up with her hand, looking down at the tray of lunch given to her, a bowl of gasoline and screw soup with a side of fried batteries on the side, stirring the soup robotically.

V thought to ask her if she was gonna eat that, but she ultimately decided against it, their was something on the blonde’s mind, it was clear in her eyes, written in her lips that curled into a thoughtful frown, her conscious was hidden deep in the back of her mind, off in another world.

V attempted to pull her out of it.

“You good?” she asked, slightly mumbling from either tiredness or laziness.

Lizzy continued playing with her food.

“E–yeah.” she finally spoke up, “I’m upset about him or whatever.”

She waved her hand in a dismissive manner.

With skeptism V squinted at her best friend.

。。。

RING!

The final bell went off, all the kids in the classroom stood up grabbing their stuff and heading out of the room, Lizzy and V was last to get up, with Lizzy staying frozen in her seat, and V staying because she didn’t wish to leave her alone.

Lizzy pulled herself up, picking up her glittery notebook, mathbook and golden retriever themed pencil holder up from her desk.

V grabbed her headphones for her.

The two made their way over to the door.

Lizzy looked back at her father, who was still sitting in his seat, with a pile full of papers on his desk.

“Go on, I’ve work to do.” he waved a dismissive hand to her as well.

Lizzy and V made their way to the hallway where the lockers were.

Lizzy went to get her backpack, while V leaned back first onto Doll’s old locker, arms crossed and tail slightly curled around her leg.

“So…think we’re gonna have to have safety regulations put back in place thanks to that murder last night?” Lizzy asked looking to V from the corner of her screen.

“Most likely.”

Her friend replied, looking down at her unsheathed and rather unsharped claws, which bothered Lizzy.

The cheerleader cringed, “Ugh… she took a pink pocket knife out of a pocket in the middle of her backpack, and handed it to her friend, “Here, fix your claws, they look terrible.”

V mumbled a thanks as she began to drag the blade’s surface across her talons.

Lizzy shut her locker, and tossed her backpack into the floor, and packed her items into it.

“Who do you think did it?” V asked

Lizzy froze.

She hoped it was a certain someone.

She huffed “No idea…” lied the girl, zipping her book bag up and then tossing it onto her back.

The two headed off.

“I have an idea who it is, just can’t prove it yet, though.” V said

Lizzy hummed something in response to this.

“So you coming over?”

“Nah, I think I’m gonna stay at my house.”

“Kay…”

。。。

N was moving back to his apartment.

He looked near lifeless, dragging his feet across the floor, with his tail limply following behind, his neck was slouched and his head hung low.

Not only was Ken his neighbor, but he was also becoming a friend in N’s eyes. Sometimes when him and Uzi would go play cards with Khan and his employees he would be their, and when N and V moved into the apartment, they were giving that Garfield phone from Ken and Siri as a housewarming gift, which N really loved, mainly because at first he thought it was a dog, but then Ken told him it was cat, which didn’t really make a difference, they were the same thing after all, weren’t they?

Finally he got to the corridor where his apartment was and made a turn down the hall, but as he was getting there he had noticed something.

The the baby of the Dewolfe family, sitting out in front of him and V’s dorm playing with a rubber ducky.

“What the...?” he straightened his back out and his tail raised in curiosity at the sight.

Now don’t get him wrong he wasn’t exactly a baby whisperer but he did know those littles guys were probably not supposed to be left out of their house without any adult super vision like that.

He made a run over to her, giving the poor thing a scare at first causing her to nearly falling down for a moment, holding the rubber ducky in her little arms.

“Maria??” N recalled her name being as crouched down to her level, “What are you doing out here all alone?”

He went to pick her up, shockingly she didn’t fight him, just looked up and dropped the rubber ducky on the floor.

Marie was an “undertrained neutral network” basically the toddler equivalnce of a drone, she

had the body of a worker drone but was still the size of a pill baby, she wore a purple onsie and a beanie, and had shaggy bubblegum pink hair and orange eyes.

While looking at her, N then noticed behind her the door to the apartmen she lived in wide open, with a sound of yelling from inside.

Not only curious, but also needing to bring the baby back in, he placed Maria to his chest, went over and peaked through the opened door

“What do you mean you didn’t see him when you came home!?” he heard Siri’s voice ring

out “There was clear as day evidence that his oil was all over the door, how could you have

not seen it!?”

N seen Maria’s mother pacing in the kitchen with a phone to her head, she was as a mad as hornet, buzzing like one as well, with her hand moving in the air as she explained and digital tears falling from her eyes.

N felt his heart ache watching her, he had an idea what she was going though, losing

someone you loved. He felt that same way when V had sacrificed herself, but it was different, she had come back, Kenneth...he wasn’t gonna come back.

“I don’t care how dark it was! My husband is gone, he’s dead! I’m never going to see him

again and my baby girl is going to grow up without her dad in her life because one of those

THINGS you let in here probably went and killed him last night!” she screamed even louder,  voice like fragile glass cracking under pressure.

Maria flinched hearing her mom speak, and she turned her head to look up and N, as if she knew who her mom was talking about.

Feeling even worse N looked away, once more feeling guilty of the reputation he held, and here he thought his neighbors liked him...

Siri then collapsed onto the wall of the hallway with a devastated hiss from her mouth, She

cried out pinching the bridge of her screen, and then her legs buckled and she dropped the phone to her side.

Her crying turned to wails, the wails turned to a scream so loud it rang through both N an Marie’s processors.

As her mom cried out, it had a chain reaction, and Maria was next to break down, probably

not because she was sad for her father, she was probably to young to know better. most likely

because her mom was crying and made her believe she was entitled to cry with her.

Tears formed on her screen and her lower lip began to quiver before she started to whine as well, which caused N to recoil in surprise.

Maria then started to wiggle out of N’s grip slipping off from his chest and to the floor which he helped her do, holding her by her hands as she done this.

After she got to the ground, Maria not sure what to do, stumbled as quick as she could over to her mom and just hugged her legs continuing to cry.

N felt horrible watching this, and was completely lost what to do.

After a few seconds of watching he could bear it no longer and he shut the door behind him,

only managing to muffle the crying that happened behind them.

He then turned around and made his way back to his apartment, but then he was met with

another sight.

The two brothers that lived next door to him, walking together with grocery bags in hand, one

of them gossiping to others who looked completely aghast by it, and once noticing N, scowled.

N felt his stomach lurch at this, and quickly went back into his apartment, making sure to lock the door as he done so.

N then made his way into the bathroom where and over to the bathroom counter. It didn’t take long for rumors to spread in the bunker, no matter how outlandish they were, people got bored just being cooped up in their, and a situation like this occurring made an atmosphere the perfect breeding ground for one.

It was clear that a few people did suspect N or V had went back to killing, N knew they did!

He could tell, just by how they looked and acted around him.

The horror or visceral hatred in their eyes, how uneasy or tense they were to be around him, the whispers...Oh the whispers he was beganing to hear, they were all over the school, about him and V, talking about all the terrible things they had done to poor Kenneth, it was terrible, and it made him feel worse than he already had felt about himself.

N looked directly into the mirror, but instead of seeing his usual reflection of a teenage boy, with shaggy white hair and gold yellow eyes, all he seen was a monster, a sharp fanged, oil thirsty monster with an X written on his screen, being given undeserved shelter with the innocent people he had been ordered to kill.

Like a wolf living amongst sheep, not even having enough dignity to wear a cloak and instead just leave the flock fear struck each time he would rear his ugly face to them.

He placed his hand onto his face, lining out screen, going back to a time when he used to be like the other workers.

How short he used to be, when his eyes used to be a bright white instead of that ominous gold

color, and his hands used to be small, not hiding a pair of sharp metal talons underneath.

He missed that time when he used to be normal, and most dark his past was was the fact his hair and clothes came from a cadaver.

Why did it have to be him?

Out of all the drones Cyn could’ve chosen to her dirty work, why was it him? Why couldn’t it have been someone else? If she really saw him like a brother, like family, why would she put him through something as horrible as this?

Why?

He placed a hand onto the glass, the drone in the mirror done the same.

It was him, it was clear that was who it was, but he just felt so disgusted looking at them, knowing what that person had done, all the people he had hurt.

He wished he could make that person feel the same pain those people had.

His fingers curled into a fist as he pulled his hand away.

-An hour later-

N sat on his bed, drawing in his sketchbook, lying on his stomach, with head resting on his left hand, and his right one being to used to draw with an old 2B graphite pencil he found one time walking in the school hallway.

For how he was drawing a couple months ago, his art was looking pretty decent. It went from his little stick figures, to something that somewhat resembled some type of manga.

Usually when N was drawing in his book it was mostly just animals, like wolves and dogs with these crazy hair cuts, but occasionally he did draw humans, as matter of fact that’s what he was drawing right now; humanized versions of him and Uzi, plus a few lot of scribbles of hearts on the side.

He had finished with the drawing of his girlfriend a minute ago, and he was now onto himself, unfortunately he was having a lot more trouble, erasing details and going over them again, to the point where the part of the page he was at was complete covered in previous chicken scratch marks and smudges from the blackened tip of the eraser on the pencil.

He usually enjoyed drawing, but right now was different, and he was being completely bombarded by a small but noisy voice of criticism that was buzzing around in his mind like an angry hornet.

No! No! No! He didn’t look anything like how he was portraying himself, the hair was way too controlled, his eyes were too friendly, no he didn’t know what any of that meant, but it sure felt like it made sense.

With a loud annoyed groan, he finally had enough and just ripped half the page, specifically the part with him drawn on it, sat up and tossed it, but since it was a piece of paper, it didn’t exactly go anywhere, instead just rocked gently in the air as it sunk all the way down and onto the floor, N watched with a burdened glance. Perhaps he should’ve crumpled it up before he did that?

He flopped onto his mattress, a loud rumble escaped the bed and the springs groaned as his body hit the bed, appearing to that of a whale who had jumped into the air and fell back first into the ocean.

N turned onto his back and picked up his book, and held it up to his chest, pulling his knees and tail up to his own level.

Why did he feel so hateful towards himself right now? He didn’t have any reason, like Uzi told him he wasn’t a monster, he was trying to be a better person.

So why did he feel so horrible, so disgusted with himself? Why couldn’t he see himself, like she saw him? Like how he saw her? Like an amazing drone, who was flawed, but still someone deserving of kindness and a chance to grow? Why couldn’t he feel that way about himself??

Why?

Chapter Text

Chapter 14

★It’s a takedown★

*Ringggg*

…

*Ringggg*

…

*Ringggg*

…

We’re sorry, the number you’re trying to contact is unavailable right now, please leave a message at the sound of the beep

*BEEEEEEP*

“Uhm hey…”

“If you were still alive, you would tell me so, right?”

。。。

Doll: Traitor.

Lizzy: I’m sorry

I couldn’t do it tho

Doll?

Read 1 month ago

Are you alive?

Please don’t ignore me if you are.

I’m still your friend, even if your not mine anymore.

Sent at 12:23 AM Unread

。。。

wearing a blush pink parka with fluffy white collared sleeves and hood, plus two tassels with pom poms on the end, plus a pair of ear warmers hanging over her shoulders and a sky blue scarf wrapped around her neck.

Lizzy stomped down the hall, her barbie themed boots making a squeaking sound with each step she took.

Did she look extra? Absolutely? But their was a snow storm out right now, and she didn’t want to get anything caught up in her processors, that and fashion was very important to her.

Finally she got to the second door, she knocked thrice.

“Hold on a sec.” She heard Ron’s voice through the door.
About a minute or so later, with a loud grumble the door slid open, revealing the ushanka hat wearing silvered eyed male drone in front of her.

“Yes?” he said aloud.

He then noticed who was standing in front of him “Oh hello their Lizzy.” he said in a less than enthusiastic tone than usual “What can I do for you?”

Everyone knew Ron, he was a pretty cool fella, he used to babysit for Lizzy’s dad before he got the job as the doorkeeper as matter of fact!

Normally he was much happier though, but to be fair nobody was exactly happy right now, and a rumor had gone around that Ken had called Ron before he had died, so their was a high chance he was facing survior’s guilt at the moment.

“Hi Ron,” Lizzy waved. “You mind letting me out for a minute? I wanna check on something.”

“Check on what?”

“Uhhhhh…” Nervously humming Lizzy’s eyes wandered off, nervously scratching the back of her head as she did so.”

“Something.”

She finally found her words, and shrugged once with a cheeky grin on that face of her's.

It didn’t take Ron too long to decide.

“Sorry Liz, no can do though.” he shook his head. “I’ve been strictly prohibited from allowing any drone without a permission or a warant to go outside right now.” explained the drone.

“Well I won’t be out for long.”

“Well whether you are or not, I’m not letting you outside, orders are orders.”

Lizzy scoffed in annoyance, “Fine!” she twirled her back to him, “I guess authority wins, then.”

She began to sashay out of their.

Ron paid no mind to her and shut the second door.

Despite "giving up" Lizzy was still determined to find her way outside, and she was willing to do that whether that meant doing it legally or not.

Lizzy marched on down the hall.

When they had found the doors were working enough for the murder drones not to get out, Khan then had an idea to place security shudders ont he windows as well.

The shudders were made of heavy detal metal and were very bulky, and almost always they were plastered with warning signs and caution stickers, every day around the time that it would get dark out they'd close atomatically, after N and Uzi had a showdown with V and J however they had taken them off thinking they didn't have to worry; Their leader was dead, the scary one was chained up and the big one was now on their side! What was their to worry about now? Also Khan wanted to keep the windows open for his daughter to sneak in through if she changed her mind about running away.

However know that their fears had been reconfirmed they put those stupid metal shudders back in running order, as matter of fact when she went to check on her dad at the school, the window’s security shutters had been activated once more, LUCKILY FOR HER HOWEVER, their was hope for her yet!

In her room right beside her bedroom, one of those windows the shudders completetly busted off of it.

It happend one time when Thad was over at her house, he grabbed onto one of the shudders and leaned on it for some stupid reason then he broke it off the window, it leaned lopsided for a few days or so before it completetly broke off,

Then V had found her window to be the only one without the shutters over it, and being her sick sense of humor self she went to it and tapped on the glass to get Lizzy’s attention while she was brushing her hair.

The first night it scared Lizzy, but a few more times when she realized V wasn’t actually going to harm her, she got used to her, and actually started seeing her as more hot then scary. So she tried talking to her, and thus their relationship of occasional stalker of popular cheerleader girl evolved into a sick friendship between two school bullies. It was awesome.

Once she got home, she found her father in his room, tucked in his bed covers puffing on a cigarette with his head dug in a harlequin novel.

“Hey dad.” Lizzy waved at him, as she walked past his room and to her own room, as unsuspious as ever.

“Hey Lizzy.” he greeted her as well, before puffing on his smoke.

After saying hello to her father Lizzy went to her room.

She shut her door and leaned on it for a moment, "Alright." she clicked the lock on the door

Lizzy's door, it looked about like Elle from Legally Blonde's room.

Preppy pink walls and oak colored woodplank floor, the door was white and it was covered in pictures of pretty blonde singers from way back when.

She had a tie dye rug in the middle, and a big dresser by her door filled with all types of fashional clothing and a drawer on the lower part with all types of fashionable shoes in their as well, then on the right side she had a mirrored vanity table and chair painted pink white and grey; the mirror had hello kitty stickers on it's corners.

Then the final area, the rightside.

Their just as she told Uzi and N that one time a sleepnumber bed with a patterned blanket on top of it and the window with the same patterns on the curtains placed on it.

Lizzy snuck her way on over to it unlathced the lock, pulled the window opened and slipped right through, and Lizzy being a girl with more self respect then inteligence she didn't even bother shutting the window, typical behaviour from her.

Once out she was out she fell feet first into the snow, her boots sunk into the snow, so she had to pull them out, afterwards she started to head off to the back of the bunker, wind trying to push her way the entire way.

Though Lizzy wasn’t one to own a caring bone in her body, when learning about Doll’s death, she was very distraught.

She knew she had it coming, what with everything Doll had done, from the prom night massacre and the amount of bodies piled up in her home that she may or may not have been eating, it was clear she probably wouldn’t have been left to live long.

When she was younger, Lizzy heard stories about stir crazy workers killing other drones because they had gone mad from being stuck in spots for long amounts of time, she remebered her dad even saying he dated a woman who had lost it being stuck in some type of basement and she tried to dissect him because of it, (obviously he escaped though, because he was okay)

It was rare, but when it did happen, they didn’t even put them in the detention, they’d just toss them outside, let the disassembly drones handle them, Doll would’ve had that same thing be done to her if she hadn’t done it to herself.

Anywho, when Doll’s death was confirmed, though Lizzy would never admit it, she broke down bawling and squawling like a baby, lying stomach first on her bed screaming into her pillow.

She thought nobody had seen her, but she could’ve swore on her own life, that when she raised herself up from that pillow for a moment she saw in the window for a split second, the eyes of the meddling silver haired diva herself watching her.

She asked V about it, V denied it, but Lizzy didn’t believe her, and she had even more reason to believe it because the next day later her and N had came back to the bunker carrying Doll’s gutted corpse, whether it was N, V or even Uzi’s idea was a mystery to her, she didn’t complain though, atleast her friend could be put to peace now,

The whole lot of the bunker decided to lay both her and her parents to rest behind the bunker all three of them to be together, so they could be atleast be together in the afterlife after being torn apart through life.

And so with the help of V, Thad, Mr. Doorman plus his daughter and son in law, dug up three good holes in the snow and dropped their bodies in their never to be seen again, with three heavy rocks placed behind them with their names written on them.

Even now…

When Lizzy stared down at the three graves, all of which had been completely undisturbed other than the growing snow on them and the memorial shrine that Lizzy and the cheer team left Doll when she had been placed to rest; a border of cheerleader memorabilia plus some pictures of Doll and her family.

Lizzy continued to stare down at the grave, she felt…disapointed? Like she had actually expected something different, hoped for it, though deep down in the darkest depths of her core, she knew that in reality…

Doll was gone and she wasn’t coming back. No matter how much Lizzy hoped she would

Lizzy bit her lip pressing her teeth tight against them with internal pain, she sighed softly “I guess you aren't coming back are you?” she said

Lizzy walked in the space between Doll and her mother’s body, (She still respected them after all) and then began to dust the snow off from Doll’s shrine

“That’s okay…it’s probably for the best.” she explained “I mean you were pretty ticked when I saved V’s life, if you saw how we were now, you’d probably die of shock anyway.” she half shrugged.

Lizzy froze for a minute, what was she was doing? Why was she talking to a corpse?? It wasn’t like it was listening!

The cheerleader groaned as she stood back up, “Cya.” Despite the stupidity of it all, she told Doll goodbye, however before she had heard a loud rumbling from the frot of the bunker.

Her optics went hallow. “Huh?” she turned her head to the left.

Curios she went to go look, tip toeing across the left wall of the bunker and taking and peaking over the corner of it to see who would be see.

Her eyes turned to rings. Why it was V!

The silver haired drone waved goodbye to Ron as she marched on out of the bunker and outside, the door closed behind.

V continued to watch her, now what in the world was she doing outside??

A bad feeling had came across Lizzy, wait…she wasn’t the one who killed Kenneth right? She didn’t go back to her old ways or something did she?

Curious but cautious, Lizzy followed V away from the bunker wishing to know just what she was doing.

V didn’t even notice.

。。。

Tonight there was a blizzard, violently wind from what felt to be both sides with snow falling sideways, looking like the end of the world had just happened outside.

In this awful weather marched away from her new found home the short disassembly drone, V

hidden under the shelter of her fur colored jacket, and a pair of glasses, cold unforgiving wind hit her with exact force of a car going over 90, despite that though she moved completely unphased through the cold weather, for she was a robot yes, but being in this weather for as long as she had, her tolerance was through the roof.

Her two arms had a pair of weapons attached to them, her right arm holding a pair of metal talons, appearing dull in the darkness of the night, her claws were to be used for melee purposes, then her left hand held a large blade at the end of it, this is what she was hoping could be used for the final blow, a clean impalement through the chest and into the core if she could get close enough, ending this war before it had gotten a chance to begin, before J would get a chance to hurt anyone him again.

Finally she had seen the archway to the city.

J had a few spots around the city she enjoyed going to; City hall, the hot topic in the strip mall, specifically in the comic book isle, any JC Penny's (their was approximately 4 in the city) and then finally the windex factory (she liked to brood on the roof sometimes), V’s plan was that she was going to scout all those areas and once she found who she was looking for well…

She presumed she’d have to do what she had to do.

“Okay, you can do this.” she continued to repeat herself as she went into the city.

“Okay J…” she marched down the sidewalk, “Where could you be right now?”

She scanned up and down all the buildings and roads of the city as she made her way to the strip mall.

But little did V know…

As she went to the strip mall…

She was being followed…

By another drone and another something.

On one of the roofs, a pair of red eyes looked down at her, brightened and dimmed once at the sight of her.

Then behind that exact same building a little drone in pretty pink atire.

Lizzy didn’t follow V inside, she simply stayed behind a building close to the 

She had been following her for 30 minutes now, she was certain she wasn’t doing anything malicious now, just walking around..?? She was really curious what V was doing though, but she didn’t dare go confront her! Whether V was trying to hurt someone or not, it wouldn’t be pretty, and Lizzy wasn’t in the mood to get chewed out right now, she was already feeling a big enough tidal wave of emotions right now…

Lizzy yawned, honestly she was getting pretty bored right now, bored enough to not care what her friend was doing know, she was probably about to head home, and just ask something later, in a public place of course...

At least that’s what she thought was gonna happen.

“MRAP.”

Lizzy turned to face what made that sound.

Standing right in front of here, a sentinel, but their was something much smaller and innocent in apperance about it...

It had a body about the size of a chicken, but it had a large apple head like a regular sentinal's head, Lizzy wondered how it even managed to stand up straight with the big ol’ noggin it possessed.

Three ruby red eyes on each side of it’s head, all of them protruding out of the sockets, looking like they would pop out at any time.

An exact definition of “scrunkly”.

“MRAP.” it squeaked out, its head rising up into the air, with its body jittering from the force.

“What the…?” Lizzy coiled back squinting her eyes, which she believed to have possibly deceived her.

They came in that size??? Wait was it like a baby? Wait-It didn’t have a mom, did it?

She batted her eyes nervously coming across the possibility of that.

“Uhm…” She hummed nervously backing away from it, “Go…Go back to your parents errrr something.” She weakly shooed it away

It simply stared at her, with not a thought behind its pretty ruby eyes.

Lizzy then felt something cold touch the back of her legs, and she nearly jumped out of her posh jacket.

She looked down, and to her surprise, saw another one!

Its snout was buried a little too deep in the bend of her knee, an aggressively sniffing noise coming from it as she did so.

Her mouth curled into a look mixed between being absolutely uncertain and uncomfortable.

“Oh, that’s not…”

The second one then looked up to see Lizzy, it gave her a toothless grin, and then…

POOF!

A bright red light emitted from it’s eye causing Lizzy to freeze, but only for a split second, for it’s bootloop stun wasn’t strong enough, not yet at least.

After being stunned and the loading icon on her face had disappeared showing to her eyes, she had finally decided enough was enough.

“Okay! no!” she pushed it a good length away with the bottom of her boot, shockingly it didn’t fight back.

The other one jumped over to what she assumed was his sibling, hopping like a kangaroo as it done so. “That’s it, both you, scram!” she shooed them away.

“MRAP MRAP!” she two snapped their jaws at her.

“I’m not playing! Get lost you prehistoric death traps!”

Unfortunately for her though, the unknown sibling number three had different plans, when next thing Lizzy had known she had a small metal body jump right ontop of her head, and seen a pair of little chicken like claws dangling from the top of her head.

“Mrap.”

She heard it from above her.

Meanwhile, V had just finished looking around the hot topic when she had walked out from the store, only to hear a blood curdling scream ring out into the cold atmosphere that somehow didn't get muffled from the sound of the wind.

She jumped a few feet in the air before, and a hazard symbol apperin on her face thanks to the alarm.

Panicked, she dashed to behind the building across the street where she had heard it from.

She found the sound was behind a building and the creator of it, certainly shocked her.

“LIZZY!?!” she shrieked.

She saw a blur of pink, blue and grey rolling all in the snow pile.

“GET IT OFF ME! GET IT OFF ME!”

Her friend screamed at the top of her lungs

Finally when she stopped moving, she had seen her friend on her back folding her body in and out as she tried to pull something off her head, ripping off her hoodie, and a pair of fuzzy ear muffs and patting her head as if she was dusting it off, looking completely deranged.

Afterwards she sat up, a horrible wailing escaping her mouth, sounding like she was going to break down in tears at any time, and holding a thousand yard stare on her face, looking all over the place for whatever jumped off her head, yet somehow not noticing the angry disassembly drone looking right down at her hands on her hips.

“LIZZY!”

She finally saw V.

“WHAT are you doing here?” V placed her hands on her hips, and her tail curled angrily.

Within a blink of an eye her body language shifted from the panicked and disoriented to calm and collected, and in a reasonable voice she spoke up, clasping her hands together.

“Uh…what are YOU doing here?” Lizzy pointed an accusatory finger towards her.

“I asked first!”

V crossed her arms.

Lizzy scoffed with a roll of the eyes, “Okay fine you caught me!” she spat

“I was…uh doing something, when I heard you go outside,” the blonde began to explain “Curious I followed you, to-you know make sure you weren’t getting into trouble or anything.”

“Which your not…are you?”

Lizzy pointed to her with a brow raised, and teeth gritted into a frown.

V drew a sigh of annoyance.

“No.” she deadpanned.

The blonde sighed with relief “Good,” Lizzy rubbed sweat from her forehead “Anyway, I answered you’re uh-question, I answered it! so now you have to answer mine!” she spat.

V looked away from her friend for a moment, staring off into the fog for a moment.

Lizzy felt her fiery authority be put out, and a slight hunch fall in her back, realizing V may or may not tell her no matter what was asked of her, leave it to V, to show her who was really wearing the pants in this relationship.

“Look Lizzy…” V began “I know I know it sounds crazy, but-”.

“MRAP!”

Lizzy screamed like a banshee watching as three sentinel triplets poked their heads out from the other side of the building.

V who had her back to them was at first spun around gun blazing and wings pulled out from her back in a defensive pose prepared to attack, but once she saw what was there, her wings folded and she stood up straight with a confused look.

“What the?!” she gawked

The three dingo pups trotted in front of her, heads bombing left and right as they did so looking up at her with their tails wagging.

Noticing they were distracted by V, Lizzy took the opportunity to sneak over behind her friend and place two hands on her shoulders and loom over her cautiously.

“They come in that size??” V muttered looking the creatures up and down

“That’s what I thought too.” Lizzy whispered to her, “Where did they even come from??”

Looking at three pups V had noticed something about them and the details about them all three.

The first one, he was the biggest of the bunch, widest and tallest was how you could tell who he was.

The second one, he was medium sized, stubby but shorter fella, he was a little hard to diffrentiate that was until you had seen one of his eyes were cracked was dimly lit, along with his mouth being the only one that stayed open with it's tongue sticking out.

Then finally the third one, she was the smallest, both very scrawny and its little hands tweedling like a racoon, it was clear she was the more shy of the two, and to differentiate her from the two, she had three patches of random metal on her, one on the left part of her face, one on her back, and on completetly covered her right arm.

"Hmm..." the silver haired girl tapped her chin, "Why do I feel like you all three look weirdly familiar?"

Then It hit V like a stone.

“Wait a minute, I think I know where they came from.”

They heard a loud shriek come from behind them.

The two drones turned around, and a blur of grey and red ran right towards.

V quickly pulled Lizzy behind her by the scruff of her jacket, as the robotic reptile ran in front of her.

“Sparky…” V couldn’t believe she had seen him again.

A ghastly roar out from Sparky’s mouth, chrome texture saliva dripping from his teeth.

The three pups behind the two teens squeaked out as they made a run right for their parents, and nuzzled him lovingly.

Sparky bent down to give them all loving licks.

He then looked up to V and with a friendly grumble from his throat, rubbed up against her lovingly.

Afterwards The red eyed sentinel then turned his back to her and scurried down the road, his two babies following behind, with the middle one still standing with V and Lizzy looking up at them both with a toothless grin, before Sparky called for him.

That’s when he decided to join his family, chattering with each step in the snow.

V chuckled once hearing this, “I can’t believe that, he has kids.”

"Wait, so it's a mom??” Lizzy said “Is that even possible??”

“Guess so.” shrugged V “What I'm wondering about is why he's so far away from the labs."

“Midnight snack?” Lizzy half joked.

A loud clicking and grumble was heard from the sentinel who was now standing in the middle of the road, looking at both V and Lizzy now, he crouched down and grumbled once again, before straightening his back out again, it was as if he was trying to tell them something.

“What’s he doing?” whispered Lizzy to her friend, still cautiously standing behind her, still nervous if the pups would come back to heckle her.

“I don’t know…” V said

Sparky tried to make it more simple; he trotted down the road a few feet, turned around and clicked at them a few more times, leaning his head as he did so.

“I think he wants us to follow him?” V whispered, taking a few steps upwards.

“Follow him??” The blonde’s voice raised in alarm.

Sparky roared at them both, and continued trotting down the road.

V and Lizzy both watched him for a moment, before V looked at Lizzy.

She gestured for them to follow.

Lizzy rightfully shook her head no at this.

V did not care, and marched after Sparky.

Lizzy stared off in irritation, before with one annoyed sigh and roll of the eyes she followed fast behind V.

They followed far behind Sparky, 

“I’m telling you, girl…” Lizzy said aloud “This is a bad idea.”

She tried to reason with the drone, V was not having thought, Lizzy had already gotten on one too many nerves of V’s to be trying to change her mind now.

“You wanted to follow me here, you’re staying.” She spat

“You know what? Nah I think I’m gonna head back to the bunker…” she tried back away.

Her friend picked her up by the scruff of her jacket and pulled her back to her side.

“Why? So you can end up like the other guy?” V said “I’m not letting you go back to the bunker by yourself after that, it’s clearly not safe. With your dumb luck you’d get yourself killed.”

“Well I didn’t say I was gonna do that,” Lizzy looked off into the distance for a moment, “but do you really think it’s smart to be following the same dog thing that mauled you to death?”

“Sparky’s trustworthy now, I gained his respect when I had to fight for my life.” V said “Besides I’m a lot less scared of the sentinels then I am of J trying to hurt anyone else that I care about,”

V continued to walk.

Lizzy gave her a sideway glance.

“J?”

She parroted back to her friend.

V’s expression darkened,

It hit Lizzy like a ton of bricks.

“So that’s why you’re out here.” she pointed out

V nodded “Uh huh.”

Sparky and his pups took a left turn, they followed them both.

“She’s out there, I can’t prove it, but it’s the only thing that’s plausible right now.” V said “Their’s noone else, who would’ve done it, the sentinels don’t come that close to the bunker, N's quit cold turkey, and I'm not about that life anymore.

After a few more blocks they had followed the sentinel family to the middle of the city, once their the three baby sentinels all chattered happily running into the center of it, with their father watching proudly.

V and Lizzy walked beside Sparky, and gasped.

“Oh my God.” Lizzy sputtered out.

They were brought to the corpse spire, or at least...

What was left of it…

The blonde placed a hand over her mouth, V's jaw dropped to the floor.

A blood bath, Body parts all scattered completely around the spire, like confetti frosted with snow.

Torn up yellow plastic from the body bags sprinkled the entire area, looking to that of birthday presents decorated in yellow wrapping paper that had just been ravaged by an overzelous child, the bodies inside, they couldn't even find them high likely hood they had been ripped up into nothing as well, which would explain the abundance of severed limbs and heads scattered about.

Sparky’s three babies scurried over to some piece of metal wedged in between snow and fought fang and claw for who got to have it, nipping at each other like three chihuahuas attempted to assert dominance over one another.

Both V and Lizzy looked with shear and utter horror, they were at a lost for words, who could blame them though? It looked liked something you'd find a disturbed serial killer's home, no mercy, no respect, no nothing for all the bodies.

The WDF had been here for about a week or so trying so hard to fix the mistakes of the disassembly drones to take down the corpse spire and give the bodies back to all the people, heck V even remembered Khan talking about putting a memorial their, and somehow it looked worse than when it had begun.

She recalled N wanting to over their as well and though she wouldn't admit she did too, but Khan said it was first they didn't come he wasn't sure what the other workers would say to it, so they didn't get to come.

It upset them both, but honestly...Guess it didn't matter. Not now.

Sparky roared as he made his way over to a severed leg on the ground.

Lizzy nearly fell over if not for leaning onto V for balance, with a large alert appearing on her head

WARNING STRONG EMOTIONS CAUSING GLITCH IN FUEL TANK, IF FEELINGS CONTINUE TANK WILL ATOMATICALLY CLEAR CONTENTS...

She weakly raised a hand over her mouth, trying to bury her face into her friend's shoulder.

Unfortantly for her however, the silver haired drone left her be, and marched her way towards Sparky, her fists balled up in raw fury.

The sentinel raised his head to her, his body perked up and he wiggled the leg about in, clicking at her, as if to say for you!

V was not in anyway amused

“What did you do, Sparky?” She shouted at the top of her lungs “What did you do!?!” she became even more frantic.

Confused he crouched down still holding the leg in his mouth, his little tail curling between his legs, and a low canine like whine left escaped his throat he didn’t even know what he did wrong.

Lizzy was now over in the crime scene, walking around her boots sinking into the snow as she did so, before crouching down beside a body shockingly intact, other than three large cuts tearing in the middle of it.

She pulled out her phone and took a picture of the marks, still in disbelief of the horrors they had both just came across.

“V, I don’t think the dog was the one who did this!” Lizzy said aloud turning to face her friend

“Mrap! Mrap! Mrap!”

The middle pup was happily scurrying across the snowy landscape holding the exo spine of a drone with it’s head attached and it’s jaw barely hanging on, which clicked to the upper mouth with each step the little sentinel took.

Before Lizzy knew what was happening, something acidic rose from her throat and pushed up against her lips.

She fell to her knees and upchucked onto the ground, causing some of the snow to melt even.

V walked past Sparky and over to Lizzy to hold her up,

“Do you think it could’ve been J??” she said taking another look up at everything.

Once finsihed, The blonde simply looked up at her, black drool staining the bottom part of her lip.

"Ugh..." She stood up and wiped it off from her sleeve." “Does J do stuff like this??” Lizzy shrugged to her.

“No, this is more on my level of brutality.” V pointed out looking down at the corpse her friend was examining

“But then again she’s been without oil for who knows how long, so she’s probably capable of anything right now.” she mumbled nervously.

She placed a hand on on her temple, coming to the realization of just what her and Lizzy could be dealing with at the moment.

V had only seen a drone overheat twice in her life, one time with N and Uzi and two times with J, and all of those times it was a nightmare.

Trying to defend yourself from an overheating drone was like trying to fight off a starving dog, they lost any morality they had, all the fear was replaced with the urge to sanitate their hunger and all their abilities had been heightened for the sake of survival.

She couldn’t imagine what a drone who had been starving for the past month would look like…

Could she even fight one?

She didn’t even think about that.

She recalled the time she tried to kill Uzi, how easily the overheated drone had managed to pin her down, and nearly kill her if it wasn’t for N jumping in at the last moment.

Her eyes shifted nervously

Lizzy went to her side, continuing to take pictures of all the horror in front of her, until she had noticed something above them.

“V, can those dinosaurs fly?” asked Lizzy her head raised up to the sky.

“I don't think so why, why?”

The blonde pointed to the air, V looked to where she pointed. Her pupils turned into rings in alarm.

In the sky sure enough was a sentinel, but it wasn’t flying, not at all.

It’s body was limp in the air, like a ragdoll tied to a fan being spun around in circles.

What the-

Then as fast as they had seen it, the body then dropped to the ground with a loud KABOOM! Sinking feet into the snow, splashing it everywhere.

V and Lizzy backed away, Lizzy with her hands over her face, and V shieldding herself with her wings.

Sparky roared at the body and his three babies running behind their father, squeaking at the body a few times as they done.

Once they seen it wouldn’t move, V and Lizzy unhid themselves and looked down at it.

The sentinel corpse was covered in scratchmarks a large bite in its jugular and around 15 holes and big black splotches of oil leaking out of each and everyone of them.

Before either the two drones or four sentinels could even process what they had just witnessed a large blur of silver launched onto the body, WOOSH! A violent gust of wind hit them as at it landed.

Standing with one foot placed on the sentinel’s back and another on it’s head, was the infamous and unforgettable J, in all her horrible glory.

V gasped at this, Lizzy snapped a picture of her.

She was spewing smoke out from her unhinged jaw, her skin had been completely melted dripping over her screen and off from the sides of her face giving her jaw a look as if it was only attached by a few wires and bits of metal, her mouth looked to that of a shark’s with sharp pointed teeth all spaced out from each other, her back was hunched over giving her the appearance that she was twice her average size, her her hands were normal until the second part of the knuckle where her claws had begun, her wings were out and her tail slowly swayed into air.

“You…” J uttered out

Her voice was low, and she drawed out the words, sounding as though she was going to snap at any moment, yet her expression stayed the same a long yellow X and a large unhinged jaw revealing her sharpened canids.

“J…” V repeated her own name back to her, noticeably backing up at the sight of her old boss and ally looking down at her like a crazed animal.

Her boss’s wings folded and unfolded a few times, “Do you have any idea what I have been through?” She took a step closer.

“I thought you left, the spaceship...it was gone, me and N thought you fixed it up..! Why are you-How did you-”

“You left me for dead, you both left me behind, for her!”

“You left us for dead, and you lied to us about everything!”

“I was trying to protect you both!” J roared, her tail whipping to the left once, jumping down from the sentinel body, “And now look at me! I’m a monster now!”

The two friends began to back away, Lizzy began to cling to V, usually she trid not to seem calm and collected, but this was too much even for her.

“Cyn was lying to you, J!” V cried, sounding on the brink of tears, “She wasn’t going to spare us! She was manipulating you!”

V hung her head low, sighing softly.

“Why couldn’t you see that..?” she asked

J went silent at this, and after a couple of seconds her head lowred down, and digital tears began to fall from her screen.

"You didn't know that for certain..."

it seemed she was beginning to calm down, V took this as her moment to respond.

She snuck a few feet over to her, and as casual as she could slipped her arm behind her back

Her hand began to sink into it's socket, and slower than Christmas, morphed into that of a sharpened blade "That's the thing though, nobody knew that for certain, not even you."

"And now you're gonna have to deal with the conesquences, of what you did, and everything you'd put both me and N through."

V explained

J nodded her head.

"I'm sorry..." she croaked.

"Are you though? Because you've lied to us before..."

J started to cry, she was about to crack, to just slink down to the ground and have a good cry, but then...She had seen it.

Just the sliver of that blade, lurking behind V's back.

She gasped silently, why did she have that?

V realized she seen it, it was time to strike. She placed her other hand onto J's shoulder gripping her as tightly as she could, then she went to swing the blade, aiming right for her chest.

J though disoriented and mentally unwell was still aware and still not ready to die, she grabbed the blade with her bare hands wrapping a fist so tight the fabric tied on her palm cut and oil began to seap out from the wound.

V let out a shout of alarm before being tossed into the air having her body be flipped a whole 180* and onto the ground to the ground J jumped on top of her.

“V!” Lizzy cried out, Sparky roared and ran to her, pushing into Lizzy causing her to fall the other way as he ran for the two drones.

The two girls were now on the floor, fighting each other tooth and tail, before Sparky had came to V’s aid, clamping his jaw onto J’s pigtail and flinging her feet into the air and sending her rolling in the snow.

Sparky roared as an intimidation tactic, and V pulled herself up putting her back into place, and switching her hands out for a pair of talons

J was next to stand up, not even needing to do the same thanks to her long claws at the end of her knuckles.

“You tried to kill me!!” J cried the x on her screen flickering to a pair of eyes, ring shaped eyes with two brows wrinkled with both fear and betrayle

V felt her core drop, but despite that though held her ground, was she scared? Absolutely, but she wasn’t going to leave without a fight, not like she'd have a choice anyway.

V huffed looking down at the ground for a moment

“I’m sorry J, it has to be done.” she declared solemnly, voice cracking still pained by what she was about to do. "You're just...you're too far gone."

J looked at her, face a whirlwind of emotions, a mix of sadness for what she said, betrayle of what was nearly done to her, and anger of V's audacity to try to kill her in such a dirty manor, she was taught better than that and she knew it.

Frantically the former boss shook her head, lips quivering showing her sharpened teeth, like a dog's snarl “You…!” she couldn't her words.

V took one last look at Lizzy for a moment,

“No matter what, I don’t want either of you getting involved.” she told them both dryly,

Sparky plus his pups backed up, and Lizzy hugged onto the sentinel gritting her teeth with fear of whatever she was about to witness.

knowing the high chance it could have been her last fight V stayed stairing at them all, before turning closing her eyes, and taking a deep breath, she then she lunged for J.

The girl's old boss did the same.

Thus the fight was one, even more personal then the first one, with J now knowing her life was on the line, and in the back of V’s mind all the abuse and torment that J had placed N through as well as all the lies she had told and trickery she had committed to.

The battle was horrible, they two spent half cutting and slicing each other up, a few times they'd shoot at each, and each attack was more personal than the last.

V had always thought that being ripped apart by the sentinals was the worst pain to go through.

J thought it was when her body had been modified by that "thing" afterwards

but this was the worst pain that could inflected on either of the two, because it was coming from someone that was their friend at one time.

As the fight went on, V seen Lizzy and the Sentinel family still watching her from the sideliness, she didn’t want them to watch this, nor did she want J to hurt them if when she had enough of taking knocks at V, so she done the only thing she knew she could do, and unsheathed her wings and flew up into the sky, pulling out a machine gun and shooting circles around J for a moment.

When J noticed this thankfully she had taken the bait and launched into the sky with her, continuing their combat in the windy dark grey sky.

Lizzy and Sparky both tried to watch them as well as they could, with the blonde placing a hand above her eyes so she could get a better view, however it was very foggy, and all she could see was two blurs occasionally colliding into each other followed by sparks falling to the ground from where their wings had collided into each other, flooded with anticipation of who would win.

The two spun circles around each other as they went even deeper into the sky, letting the clouds completely swallow them up.

POP!

POP!

POP!

Both V and J’s bodies had been completely sheltered by the darkness of the clouds, except for the occasional flash from gunfire showing their silhouettes.

This went on for about five minutes until finally.

BANG!

A black thick and murky trail of murder drone blood fell from the sky and onto the ground

SPLATTER!

Next to fall; A decapitated body of one of the female disassembly drones right out the sky, positioned like a fleshly killed game bird before colliding into the snow underneath it, causing a large explosion of the white powder.

At first, neither Lizzy nor Sparky and his pups had knew which of the drones it was, until one of them had caught the sight of the fur collar, stained with her thick black blood.

Sparky roared loudly as he made a run for the corpse, his pups done the same except for the second one who stood right beside Lizzy

“V!” Lizzy cried and made a run towards her as well.

The second killer flew down, hitting the ground so hard the force from it sent Lizzy falling to the ground.

V’s body pulled itself up, her missing head forming back where it had been blown off, and one of the four “eyes” on her band being changed to a shade of bright glowing red.

"V...? V!"

Lizzy unlike Uzi was unaware of the drone regenorational system,  so needless to say she was panicked seeing her headless friend rebooting, Sparky was aware of it, he got to see it first hand but he was animal so he didn't know exactly what it was so he stood by her roaring to get his owner's attention.

"Come on...answer me will you!" the blonde begged.

Then J fell from the sky, landed feet first onto the ground, with a loud BOOM! as well, Lizzy' cocked her head to her and let out a shooken gasp.

"Try to kill me of all people why don't you?" the killer said, making her way on over to her. "Tell me I'm: Too far gone~" she mocked her friends tone, batting her head about with sing songy tone, "Oh that's rich, rich coming from YOU of all people!"

"Little Miss Do everything feel nothing!" she morphed her hand to a blade as well, "I'll give you a reason to think I'm too far gone, I'll give a FEW OF THEM AS MATTER OF FACT!"

Before she could get close enough to V however, Lizzy ran in front of her and pushed her back, "NO! Don't you touch her you freak!"

Lizzy trembled, trying to mustur as much bravery as she could have in a moment like that, J thought that was cute.

She looked down at the blonde, face emotionlesss by the looks of it.

"You're attempts at protection will go without avail, toaster. Move, now. This is your only warning."

J's voice was calm but irritated, and her voice was as sharp as glass, and cut through Lizzy like it as well.

Despite that though the cheerleader wouldn't move, she already lost one friend she wasn't prepared to loose another.

"I won't move! Not until I know you'll leave her-"

"I told you to MOVE!"

Before she knew it J walked right withen arms reach of her and with a quick lash of the claws, three talons cut right through Lizzy's stomach.

Lizzy let out a cry of pain, and buckled forward, J slammed her peg leg into her chest pushing her down to the ground.

At this time V had finally came back to it, but she didn't have time to realize what was going on, she gasped "LIZZY!" V cried out.

Sparky roared and made a run for it, however it was Sparky’s second pup was the first to come to Lizzy’s aid, with a little battle cry running over and nipping at J’s legs and tugging on her outfit,

“Mrap! Mrap! Mrap!” It squeaked trying so hard to get her mind somewhere else, which it worked J had looked down at him with unbridle rage, seeing she got her attention he used his stun trick around three times.

She didn’t freeze however, not even for a second instead she lost interest in Lizzy and held her eyes with a yell of annoyance, at first not knowing what had happened but when she did she was beyond livid.

“Little jerk!” She put a death grip around the pup’s neck, who squealed like a stuck pig, before tossing it into the snow, doing so in such a violent and ruff manor, a small crack was heard from it's neck.

The little third baby lied on it's back, mouth wide open and head far back to the ground, slowly rocking lightly, the creature wasn't even a month old.

Sparky noticed this, and he had completetly lost, he roared out and lunged right for J.

V ran past them both, not bothering to help with the commotion, she hated it for Sparky and his children, but she didn’t hardly know the baby, Lizzy was her friend, and her friend was the one that would come first over anything.

Lizzy just like the baby was lying limply in he snow, V ran over falling to her knees and pushing her onto her back, the only difference? Three large cuts on her stomach, oozing out oil.

One the lower part of stomach was a large gash on the left part of her stomach

“Lizzy? Are you okay!?” V shook her once.

With a gasp for breath Lizzy responded

“I’m bleeding out of my freaking guts, does it look I’m okay??” she sobbed violently, trying so hard to mask the fear she was feeling with her infamous sass.

“Oh my gosh…” V gripped her head tightly.

Okay so the exact thing she feared would happen, happened! Okay this is fine, this is fine, not panic inducing at all, this situation was gonna be aye okay!!

She took a shaky breath, “Look your gonna be fine, okay? I-I can use my healing saliva on you or something.”

“*hic* is that gonna work?”

“Well I don’t know why it wouldn’t!”

The two heard Sparky screeching from behind them, V turned to look and Lizzy tried to sit up as well as she could with a soft escape from her lips as she done so.

With his only two little pups left running circles around him and yipping and yapping, Sparky was trying his hardest to keep J off of them both, bitting scratching headbutting all the works, but yet somehow it wasn’t working, why wasn’t he stunning her? Why wasn’t he doing that? Was a question they both had, that was until he had actually done it.

She simply flinched, that was all, she hardly had any reaction to it, like when you shined a flashlight into someone’s eyes, just minor annoyance, why wasn’t it working on her??!!

But then... V noticed something... near all the lights on her band, were red except for two.

One of the filters in her vision had been messed up, that must've been making her be immune to the sentinels effects.

V realizing that J had more of an advantage, not only having her senses heightened but also being unable of getting stunned by the sentinel, deciding to fall back, and make a run back for the bunker, hoping and praying Sparky could keep J off them long before she had known they were gone.

She looked back down to Lizzy, and wrapped her arms around her, “Lizzy, hold on tight.” she told her friend, who nodded in response to this and place her arms around her back as well.

Afterwards V summoned her wings and launched both her and Lizzy into the sky.

Unfortunately, J had noticed this, however she simply stared at them both brow furrowed in anger, before continuing her battle with Sparky.

。。。

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

“Open up! Please!!”

V cried from behind the door.

Ron sprung up from the desk where he was sitting, he made a run for the door, looking through the peephole before opening it.

He gasped at what he seen,

He went to open the door for them both.

Sure enough as the door opened up, it revealed the girls, V with Lizzy clinging to her side, holding her abdomen.

“What the-what happened?!” he cried

He was met with silence from the two.

The girls both looked at each other for a moment.

。。。

V: N, I have some really bad news…

N: What do you mean?

What’s the matter?

V: J came back.

I’ll tell you what happened when I leave the Emergency Room.

N: What are you doing in the emergency room?

What happened!?!

I’m calling Uzi

Chapter Text

Chapter 15

🎔I love you🎔

Knock! Knock! Knock!

The Bunker’s teacher opened the door, wearing a pair of camo green pajamas and black fuzzy slippers, he looked at his daughter with that same monotone expression but with a mild appearance of irritation added on to it.

He place his hand on his hip and tapped his foot on the ground.

In the doorway, V and Lizzy stood, with the blonde leaning on her friend, smiling awkwardly at her father.

“Hey dad! So your probably wondering where I went tonight!” she tried to sugar coat it, but he didn’t even give her a chance to explain

“You're grounded.”

“Yeah I sorta expected that.” The blonde’s face fell.

“Get in the house, and go to your room.” The teacher pointed down the hall “And don’t sneak out of the window again please.”

Lizzy waddled into the house, still feeling pain in her side, V cringed watching as she held the gash in her side.

Then the teacher shut the door, mumbling something about having to pause his Grey’s Anatomy for this as he done so.

V waved goodbye, then she made her way to her own dorm room, dreading the entire walk there.

。。。

Knock! Knock! Knock!

The door to the apartment swung open, revealing N in his own night attire, a oversized pink shirt with a golden retriever on it, plus a pair of silky soft pajama bottoms with bone patterns, and a pair of pink slippers.

Then from the corner of her eye, she saw Uzi sitting at the table, looking very angry.

“What do you mean J’s back??” she said with what V thought was irritation, as if it was her fault.

V took a double take at Uzi as she went into the apartment, “Why is she here?” she said, sounding a little ruder than she meant.

“I told you I was gonna tell her.” N said “Didn’t you see the text?”

V thought for a minute, she sighed.

。。。

“...After Lizzy got hurt, I realized I couldn’t fight her, especially not knowing when someone else’s life could be on the line, so I had to take what little strength I had left and used it fly away, leaving Sparky there to deal with it.” V huffed shaking her head in dispair.

Why did she do that..? She should’ve fixed Lizzy up left her somewhere and went back for him, and his pups were there too, what if something happened to them? Something already did happen to third one as matter of fact! She seen him be thrown, how limp his body had went and she just ran off leaving Sparky to deal with it. She should've helped him!

V silently hopped he hadn’t died, and her tail nervously curled around her leg, and that was the end of the story.

She told them everything that happened that night, from Sparky’s little spawns to Lizzy getting stabbed, sitting on the couch as she done.

Both the drones, one sitting in the chair, and the other leaning on it, had different reactions, Uzi looked angered, and N looked upset, but a different one from Uzi’s, disappointment maybe? Heck if V knew.

“Why would you go and face her head on without telling us?” N finally said fixing his position up.

V sighed “I don’t know…” she shook her head, looking away for a moment

That was a lie, she did too know.

She tried to correct herself.

“I just…” she hissed biting her tongue for a moment, “I guess I didn’t want her to try to hurt you again.” she shrugged.

N glared at her, now she could see another emotion on his face, offense.

“I can take care of myself you know.” he said

“Can you though-”

“Yes, I can.” N straightened his back up, “I know I haven’t been the best at standing up for myself in the past, but I’ve gotten better, and you should’ve gotten help if you were trying to confront J, not just lone wolf it like that.”

V pushed her legs together, and crossed the two arms on her lap together, feeling shame, knowing N as matter of fact had a point, that what she did was dumb, and she should’ve had help before going after J.

“Got me their…”

She said in a hushed tone.

For sixty long seconds, ear ringing silence.

Finally Uzi chimed in.

“So know what?” she asked “We just gonna let her roam around Copper 9 like it’s an all you can eat buffet or something?”

“I say we wait for her to stop overheating, her instincts are working overtime right now because of it.” V said “I mean she shot my head clean off…We’ve spared before, and J’s never managed to do something like that no matter how much she tried.”

“So how long will it take for her to get back to normal so we can kill her?” Uzi said

N flinched hearing her say kill, for some reason it felt wrong.

“I don’t know.” V shrugged

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I mean I don’t know.”

“Well you said she gorged herself on the bags of bodies at the corpse spire, so it shouldn’t be long right?” Uzi said

“I don’t even know if that was her or the sentinels.” V said

Making her way in the middle of the living room.

“Maybe we should just wait for a minute.” N said

“Well what if we don’t have a minute though?”  she turned to her boyfriend, “Dad just told all the colonies it was safe to come out! There's no way she’s not gonna get a hold of another drone!”

Her hands flopped to her side.

“Forget it, Uzi.” V said “I already told you, she’s too strong right now, just wait…okay?”

“I don’t!-”

Rudely interrupting the conversation, the purple haired teen’s ringtone blared through the living room.

A loud grumble of annoyance escaped her mouth, as she grabbed the phone.

She answered it, “What?” she spat, with clear agitation which N had noticed.

He got up from the couch, and reached out for her.

“Where are you?” The two disassemble drones heard Nori’s voice on the lines, their eyes turned to rings.

“A friend’s house?”

“What friend’s house?”

“Do the math mom!”

“She’s at N and V’s!”

If it wasn’t bad enough Cyn woke from her slumber and chimed in to stir the pot.

N placed a hand on his mouth.

V scowled at Cyn, and marched over to her.

Cyn slipped back into slumber.

“You didn’t even tell me.” Nori said

It’s a mystery why. Uzi thought to herself bitterly.

Before her mom could say anything Uzi hung up on her mom and buried her phone back in her pocket.

She rubbed her forehead, with a pained expression written all across her face.

She felt like her head was gonna explode at any minute, she wanted to scream at the top of her lungs, throw herself at a wall until she concussed so she could forget the events of this past month.

She then felt something touch her shoulder, she glanced behind herself, and seen her boyfriend, with his hand on her shoulder, her expression softened, feeling guilt that her boyfriend was having to see her being so insufferable right now.

She sighed, biting her lip for a moment.

“I’m…I’m gonna go.”

To N’s confusion and disappointment she pulled away from him and went across the floor to the front door.

“See ya.”

Then she left, not even giving either of the two a chance to respond.

。。。

The walk back home, was slow, Uzi was practically dragging herself home, like she was half dead and in a zombie like state, just dreading to have to hear whatever her mom was gonna stay, and she was right to do so, because the minute she opened the door, she seen her mom, sitting smack dab in the middle of the couch waiting for her.

Uzi froze in the door, and simply stared at her.

A little message popped up in the corner of the screen.

*Somebody’s in trouble ;)

Uzi clenched her fists and made a reminder to herself to repeatedly slam Cyn’s neck in between her bedroom door when she got the chance.

She tried to sneak past her mom, but of course, it didn’t work, and the shriveled up worm cake spoke up, so now Uzi HAD to acknowledge her existence.

“So you snuck out at 3 in the morning to go hang out with them?” Nori asked

“Yeah, is that a problem?” Uzi asked

“Well kinda.” Nori weakly shrugged “I would’ve liked it if you told me.”

“I mean  it would’ve been nicer to hear my daughter tell me where she was, instead of the solver of the absolute.” declared Nori.

Uzi marched down the hall to her room. “Well maybe I had good reason not to tell you, considering what happened last time.”

Nori crawled in the middle of the hall looking down at Uzi.

Uzi went to grab the doorknob.

“Well maybe I had good reason for how I was acting about, considering everything that has happened.”

The teen stopped herself.

She turned around

“Well maybe you should just go back to what you've been doing and just stay out of my life!”

Flinching from her voice being raised, Nori recoiled in shock.

She opened her eyes once more.

Her daughter looked at her with eyes full of fed up fury.

She continued on “It’s what you’ve been doing for the past eighteen years, and honestly, it’s the one thing I’ve realized you're good at..!” Uzi’s voice cracked

“Is just hiding away and leaving me to deal with my problems by myself with no guidance whatsoever." she turned back around opening the door while blinking back tears. “Just go back to doing that, I’ve gone this long without a mom, I can go longer even without one.”

With a loud slam she left to go back inside her room.

Nori simply continued staring at the door.

At first she appeared with complete shock, but then her eye shut tight, and then sprung back open, tears falling down from it.

She turned around and scurried back into the living room, trying to keep herself from having a mental breakdown.

。。。

Once Uzi crawled on top of her bed, she practically dropped dead on top of it, burying her head deep into her pillow.

She couldn’t do this anymore, just one problem after another. It felt like nothing was gonna give.

Everything should’ve been perfect now, Cyn was defeated, and she was dating N, but she felt like she was losing her mind!

BZZRT! BZZRT! Her phone vibrated with a text notification, she rolled onto her back and grabbed her phone out from her pajama pants pocket and took a look.

1 Message

N: Are you okay?

Her arms shook and her grip on the phone tightened.

She sat up in her bed, and swiped the lock screen, beginning to respond.

Uzi: No, I’m not.

Everything sucks

N: I know, I’m not happy J’s not back either :(

Uzi: It’s not just that tho

It feels like everything’s going wrong, Cyn’s still alive, and I can’t enjoy my time with you because my mom’s here, and that guy being murdered.

Plus the corpse spire apparently being torn to shreds?? Idek what she meant by that.

N: V showed me the pictures of it Lizzy shared with her, it’s not pretty.

Uzi: I just wish I could have a minute of peace, without being woken up each morning by Cyn, or having to deal with my mom’s disapproval. It gets exhausting.

Uzi let out a huff overwhelmed, a small tear fell from her optic, she pierced her lip tightly.

N texted her once more.

N: I’m sorry you feel that way. I wish I could help you somehow.

Uzi: It’s okay, tbh just talking to you does make me feel better.

So thanks for that.

N: Happy to help.

The teen did a double check, she giggled.

Grinning with amusement she tapped out another response.

Uzi: What is that?

Is it one of the dogs you like?

A yellow golden?

N: A golden retriever!

I found it on google at night and saved it to my images.

Phones are realy cool

*really

Uzi giggled, placing a hand over her mouth trying to muffle the laughter

Uzi: Oh my robo-God

I love you so much.

N is typing…

She waited for him to respond.

He stopped.

She was left on read.

Her expression fell.

Oh no, did she say the wrong thing? Was that too quick?? Had he just gotten scared off? She didn’t even think when she said that!

Uzi silently scolded herself staring down that message as if it was a blemish.

After a minute, she finally decided to delete the message as quickly as she could, and tossed her phone onto the table, and tossed her self back into her pillow.

Aaand…she just ruined that moment.

。。。

N was hanging upside on the shelf, holding himself up with only the strength of his legs, holding his phone close to him.

Did he read that right? Did she really just say that? Or was he just insane? It was the latter, right??

No, he looked at it like three times, it didn’t disappear, and he reread fifteen times exactly, that I love you was as real, as real as the snow on the ground.

He shielded himself by the shelter of his wings, screen burning with yellow blush.

What was he gonna do? Noone’s ever said that to him. How did he respond.

He thought deep on it.

He got an idea!

He’d ask the most experience person he knew on the issue of girlfriends!!

Yeah that’s what he’d do!

N quickly brought his phone back to his face and went to his contacts, and texted Thaduess Reed Edward.

N: Thad!

Hey

Are you asleep

Yes or no

ples respond

*pleaase

*please

I'm desperate

-Thad is typing-

Thad: Well I was...

Why?

N: You’ve dated girls before

How do you respond if one says I love you you

Thad:???

You texted me at 3 in the morning to ask me that??

????

N: Yes

Thad: .

Man idk! just tell her you love her back.

How hard could it be? 🤷 

N: Okay I will

Thank you for the advice

N then switched back to his conversation with Uzi, he went back to typing, but stopped when he had seen that the message was gone.

Where’d it go?

It was right their! He saw it with his own four eyes.

Did she delete it?

Why’d she delete it? Did she end up regretting it?? He hoped not.

N’s wings went limp, and a wide frown spread across his face.

“Aw…” a soft hum of disappointment escaped from his near completely shut lips.

Well, despite the panic it brought, the giddyness of it all was nice while it lasted.

。。。

Chapter Text

Chapter 16

★Mother's Desperation★

It was around 3am, when Uzi would rudely be awoke by the sound of scratching on her door.

She groaned loudly, “What the..?” she pulled herself up and looked, she didn’t even know what that was?

A few seconds worth of silence, and once more scratching.

Uzi tilted her head in confusion, sitting up in bed, “Come in…I guess?” she said aloud

BOOM! The door swung open, revealing the infamous core creature that had Uzi unfortunately had to call her mother.

Uzi grunted with annoyance, great… she thought bitterly.

“What do you want?” she glared daggers to the heart.

Nori’s body was facing Uzi, but her eye was aimed for the ground, with a brow furrowed on it, she appeared weak where she stood, her tendrils were buckled and she was barely above the ground.

“Can I come in…please?”

She sounded even more defeated than she looked… just a deep hardened voice, below average volume, enough so Uzi could nearly not hear what she said.

Uzi continued glaring at her, her mom actually seemed kinda sad, if she hadn’t been so harsh on N, Uzi would’ve probably actually felt bad for her.

“I guess.” the daughter muttered, still looking at her mom as if she had just said the most offensive word one could say to another person.

Nori crawled over and up the sheet of Uzi’s bed, and sat right beside her.

Uzi’s eyes changed to rings, taken aback by the woman’s audacity, to just get comfy right next to her.

After a while of staring, she decided to turn the opposite direction, unfortunately for her though, this was the exact moment Nori decided it was time to start talking.

“You and your father are right about me, you know?” Nori said “I really am a deadbeat, and I have no good reason for it either.”

“Yeah, you are, and I’m not gonna lie to you so you can try to feel better.” Uzi crossed her arms

“And I wasn’t asking you too.”

Her daughter hardly believed that, she didn’t have reason to think her mother was like that of course, but she didn’t have reason not to believe that either.

“I also am very judgemental towards your boyfriend, I disapprove of him, I’m uncomfortable with you two dating, and I probably don’t have room to judge him because I’ve done things in the past that were probably as bad he had done, and considering you’ve had the solver too, I’m sure you have as well.” the heart’s eye landed on her daughter

Uzi felt her core stop for a split second.

She looked at her mom from the corner of her screen.

“O-okay..?” Uzi said, trying to sound tough, and not nervous her mom would figure out what she had done at the Cabin Fever Labs, “Why are you here though, did you just come in here to remind me of all the things you’ve done?”

“No I’m not.”

Nori crawled onto the bed and in front of her daughter, “I’ve come in here to…” she hissed under her breath “I’ve come in here to say I’m sorry." She finally mustered up the courage to finish that sentence

Despite raising a questioning brow in confusion, Uzi’s bitter expression still stayed the same “Sorry?” she parroted

Nori nodded

“Yes, I’m sorry about everything, okay?”

The mother continued “I’m sorry for trying to lock you in the house that one time, I’m sorry for being judgemental of your decisions and of the people you date…” she cringed at that last part “And I’m especially sorry, that I wasn’t there for you, and that I didn’t guide you through life or protect you like a mother should’ve.”

That’s when Uzi’s wall has started to show their cracks, hearing her mom name off everything she should’ve done but didn’t, it brought back memories, not good memories, but memories that were enough to cause a flicker in her hardened expression.

Her lip quivered lightly, and one of her eyes had twitched, she was quick to hide it away however, she didn’t want her mother to know those words had affected her, for she wasn’t sure what she would do with that type of knowledge, once more she didn’t know her mother enough to know if she would use her weakness to her advantage but she also didn’t know her enough to believe she wouldn’t.

“Okay..?” Uzi shrugged, “Just because you apologized doesn’t mean it’s going to fix our relationship!” she slipped out of the bed,

 “And it doesn’t help the damage that was done either.” she stormed out of her room.

She didn’t know where she was heading, she just needed to get out of their, away from her mom, she wasn’t sure what she was trying to do, but she wasn’t going to let it get the best of her.

Unfortunately for Uzi however, her mother jumped down from the bed, and scurried after her.

“I know it doesn’t help anything, and I don’t expect it to fix our relationship, but it is a start, and I want to start somewhere with you,” she frantically explained chasing after her daughter.

Uzi made a beeline for the kitchen, her mom still followed after her, “Because like it or not, you’re still my kid, and I do love you more than anything in this world, even though I know it doesn’t seem like it!” She was hot on her daughter's heels now, Uzi was still trying to shake her off, and headed off for the living room, before making a sharp u turn back into the hall.

“Uzi please stop ignoring me, I am trying to reason with you here!” roared Nori, sounding as though she was to have a mental breakdown at the tip of a hat.

Finally Uzi made it to the bedroom, she went in the door and spun to face her mother “Leave me alone!” she cried before slamming the door shut.

Her daughter’s voice cried out, Nori jumped onto the knob and attempted to twist it open it with her body, but it was no use, Uzi had already locked the door she dropped to the ground and began to scratch at the door like a desperate cat trying to break into it’s owner’s room.

“What are you even getting at anyway?” cried Uzi.

“What, I'm tired of fighting with you over dumb crap. I know I wasn’t there before but I wanna be here now! I want to have a relationship with you! I want to give you advice. I want to help you! Be your mother! Please!”

Finally the heart creature tuckered herself out; her legs went limp and her body dropped to the ground.

And then for several long seconds…She just lied their, wallowing on the cold dirty floor, with her three lanky tendrils sprawled all around her.

Finally Nori let out a huff, “Please…just let me in.” she finally spoke up.

“I can’t take this anymore…

I'll do anything..!

I want us to have a relationship…”

Please…?”

…

…

Silence.

That was all she got.

Honestly all she thought she would get.

Her daughter was still their though.

Back up to the door, sitting cross legged on the floor as well, arms crossed and tears staining her screen, she wanted to be touched by what her mom said, she wanted to believe it, she just couldn’t to bring herself to do it though, she could hardly even bring her to see Nori as her mother, and not just some woman who just so happened to give half her code to create her.

Don’t get her wrong though, the stuff she was saying impacted Uzi, but it felt like a trap, like bait, bait that she’d take just to see her mom would let her down again.

She needed to know that wasn’t what was gonna happen, she needed proof her mom was being truthful and not just talking the talk, but walking the walk, that she as matter of fact willing to do whatever if it meant they would have a relationship.

That night, Uzi ended up falling asleep with her back to her door, her mom done the same.

。。。

The next morning…

Nori sat on the couch, watching an episode of some type of anime she liked, still looking as guilty and defeated as last night if not worse, Khan wasn’t up yet as it was his day off and Heaven knew he needed a day to sleep with how hard he had been working lately.

She then heard the clicking of shoes on the floor, she looked to the left where she had heard it, and seen her daughter walk into the room.

Nori felt a bit a twinge of pain go through her, and she tried to get her mind somewhere else by continuing to watch the tv.

She expected her daughter to ignore her, and instead walk out the door, but to Nori’s surprise, she actually walked right in front of her, blocking the view of the tv.

“If you’re really serious about a relationship with me, then you’re gonna have to accept him, you know that right?” Uzi explained, arms crossed.

Nori looked up at her daughter, and her one eye turned hollow.

“If you really want a relationship with me, you’ll have to accept N.” she turned her head to face her mom, “You don’t have to treat him like he’s family or something, but you have to respect him and my wishes to be with him, you can’t call him a murder machine or a monster, you can’t try and stop me from seeing him, you can’t get mad at me if I do go and see him and one more thing-” she began to stutter.

“And mom…one more thing,” Uzi raised her voice on the final request, and raised a finger up in the air. “I want him to be allowed back in this house, and if I invite him over or he comes home after school or anything I don’t want to hear anything about it.”

Nori stayed silent, completely blown away by her daughter’s assertiveness.

She looked away from daughter and back at the TV, but despite her glance on it, she wasn’t paying attention, and it looked as though she was in a different world, as she tried to process what was said of her.

“I want to trust that you actually wanna fix this, I really do. The thing is though is that you’ve had a track record of not exactly being the most reliable person, so In order for me to trust you I need proof that you're being serious about this.”

Nori looked back at Uzi.

“Because like it or not, N is a big part of my life, and you’re gonna have to take him with me.” Uzi said “Again, you don’t have to like him, you don’t have a relationship with him, but you need to respect him."

Her mom couldn’t believe it, was she hearing this right? Was this seriously happening?

Was her daughter really over here basically holding her gun point, giving her these conditions and basically telling her to take it or leave it?

She felt heat behind her screen, from irritation, and one of her claws began to scrap the fabric on the couch, in a lame attempt to calm her nerves, no way, she wasn’t gonna let someone do her like this, especially not her own kid!

That wasn’t like Nori at all, she was high strung assertive and aggressive, nobody could hold her down or tell her what to do, not even marriage or motherhood, right?

Right???

Not even noticing, her claw cut through the fabric of the couch leaving a small gash in the middle cushion, like a metapohor for her grated down nerves.

Uzi continued to stare her mom down.

Chapter Text

Chapter 17

★Near Death Encounter★

Deep in the city of Copper 9, inside of the corpse spire, flashed multiple sparks and sounds of clicking and clankering heard inside of it, with occasional swears coming from that of a soft but outgoing girl’s voice.

That voice belonged to a female disassemble drone, working on her old but reliable spaceship, reparing as well as she could with all the scrap metal she could find and deem useful for it.

She groaned loudly, using a torch to burn a patch of metal onto the the top of it, she couldn’t believe it, she didn’t expect the battle to go that badly.

Never in all her years of being alive did she expect Cyn, Cyn of all drones beings of unimiginable horror to ever meet her match, and that match to be…she couldn’t believe what she was saying.

An edgy teen girl with God-like powers? Was that right??

She bend down and grabbed a wrench, she started to twist a few screws in place on the door.

Though if she was being honest, she wasn’t putting that much effort in the fight, (she hoped Cyn didn’t figure that out) either situation she would be in was a win win.

If The Absolute Solver won, she’d live to see another day, and if Uzi and J’s ex teammates her friends won the world would be saved and J would once more be allowed to see another day.

Of course even the latter was better for civilizations sake, their was one large con now.

That being she was all alone now, no friends, no teammates, no Solver, no nothing, all she had for companionship was the clothes on her back plus this old spaceship.

She fell still for a moment, placing her hand on the corroded metal surface of the machine, her lip curled under her mouth, and tears fell from one of her optics.

She stayed sitting their shivering for a moment, but then she sprung up and back to what she was doing.

She dropped the wrench and grabbed a few more tools from the ground.

Don't think about it, if you think about it, it just hurts worse.

Besides it wouldn't be the first time she's lost people close to her...

No reason for her to show her emotions now and actually confront that horrible trauma that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Finally an hour later, with a loud sputtering cough from it’s systems the spaceship came back to life, “Ha…” she grinned at it, not bad for three days straight of work and very little oil breaks.

Get a loud of that, half burnt, corroded and covered with dents and scratches and still worked!!!

Satisfied with her work, she opened the door up, slipped in and went into the swivel seat on the control panel.

Honestly she never flew that spaceship, but how hard could it be? N did it, he crashed but he did it, and if a fool like him could do, that what made her any less capable-

WOAH! Her eyes widened and her mouth opened in surprise That was an intimidating amount of buttons on that panel…

Her eye twitched with nervousness as she looked at the panel.

All types of doohickys and gears, atleast a hundred button, a few sliders, some switched plus one lever and a joystick it looked.

“Oh my goodness…” she muttered

J’s expression began to shift about, “Alright then…” she cracked her knuckles and hovered her hands around all the buttons, “Let’s do this I suppose…” she still felt hesitant.

It couldn’t be that hard. She repeated to herself

Trying to get the ship to drive was near impossible it felt, she’d press a few buttons here and their, then flick that lever and mess with the sliders a few times, and afterwards move the joystick about, and no matter how many times it didn’t budge, just stay sitting whirring loudly on the ground, until finally she figure it out, and after putting the tabs a certain way, she felt it rattle and rise from the ground.

She chortled, in disbelief but happiness at the same time, her face possessing a large open mouth smile, now she was feeling jittery with excitement.

She pushed up on the joy stick, the spaceship raised for the sky and began to fly up slowly but surely, a loud WHOOOSH! Escaping from it’s exhaust pipe.

Finally she could leave this awful place, no more being reminded of the past and what she lost, no more murder, no more Cyn.

She broke through the graviational pull and into the large vaccum of space, she was officially free!

She could start over! Find a new place to live, find another planet, another world, a better world.

。。。

Their was nothing.

Everywhere she looked, their was nothing their.

All the planets that had life on it were completetly terraformed, with nothing their.

Everything was gone.

it was all gone.

No matter how far she looked, no matter how long she looked, it all went fruitless.

Their was nowhere else for her to live, to start over, and no matter how much large of a tantrum she had thrown about it, nothing changed.

。。。

She took two whole weeks scouting the entire galaxy to search for a new place to live, and only stopped when she had realized the ship's power was less than half empty, so she stayed put in the middle of the area.

For another two weeks she stayed their, starving because she was too foolish to think to bring any rations, and it started to show.

She began to overheat, she was actually doing it during her search, but it was easy to swallow down, however when that was all she had to do it was beganing to show, even worse than when a drone usually overheated.

She was growing from hot to scolding, smoke would occasionally escape from her mouth, she began to sweat oil, something none of the dissasembly drones had ever done.

And the sounds of her cooling fans desperatly trying to fight the smoke was so loud she couldn't even think! It was enough to drive a person crazy.

Eventually she began lose both her mind and control of herself, she started to run to run across the walls on the spaceship, before passing out from low power, than she'd do it again, her wings and claws completetly out and laughter filled the room to mix in with the sound of the fans whirr.

Around the fifth week of being by herself, it looked like it would be the end for her, she was starting to get weak, barely able to move, just lie down in the middle of the spaceship, buckled down in pain with boiled over oil coarsing through her wiring and cogs.

Until for whatever reason, in a heat exhausted state, she don't know what possessed her to, she pulled herself up, on the control panel, and looked at one of many computer screens on the right wall, looking specifically at the one on the lower left corner which showed a map of where she was.

The spaceship was in the middle of the galaxy, what looked to be nothing around it, but then when she seen something, a planet around 22 miles up ahead..?

That accursed God-forsaken planet she swore she would never return to, that was swarming with worker drones of all kinds.

Workers with warm sweet sweet oil, that could quench her burning thirst.

She looked at the icon for Copper 9 for what felt to be forever, mouth wide open, drooping from her fangs and tongue grey colored saliva, and her large X shaped eye on her screen growing a ghoulish yellow color, using all the remaining strength she had left to stand up.

Finally she made another move, raised a shaky weak but determined hand up, and brought it over to the joystick.

She put a tight grip on it and pushed it forward, causing the spaceship to richochet sharply across the vaccum of space right for Copper 9.

She was driving it so fast, she didn't take over an hour to get to the planet.

Once she got their, she ordered the spaceship to take a sharp nose dive, right into the forest, crashing it right into a tree.

Coindidently the sun had just went down when she got their, so ripping the door of the spaceship off, she crawled out of it, and began to roam around searching for some unlucky drone to sink her teeth in.

It wasn't gonna hurt her to make a quick stop to catch a quick meal would it? 

。。。

J stayed crouched down under what little shade of the corpse spire was left, breathing rather heavily, outside of the spire, she heard that awful creature screeching out for its late baby.

She could even see him once in a while through the cracks, and hear it’s claws sink into the snow.

Their was sunlight flooding down from the large opening where top of the spire used to be, and occasionally if she had slipped up, she would slip out from under spire and the light would touch her rubbery robot skin and burn it even worse than it already was.

The sentinel let out one last roar, and she swore she seen one of it’s eyes, peaking through a corpse with a large whole in it’s chest, looking her dead in the eye, oh how she hoped those weak shadows of the day would keep her covered.

It continued to watch her.

J held her breath as he done so.

The sentinel stood still…just watching…and waiting…until finally…

Snap…FWOOMP!

A noise in the distance caught his attention he snapped his neck what felt to be a complete 180, and then he made a run right into the distance.

Once he was completely gone, J let out a sigh of relief, unfortunately though.

The sun had rised completely over her, and the shade of the shadows grew small enough to where the tips of her heels were exposed in the light.

Hiss a subtle sizzle and a stream of smoke began to escape from the cracks, she let out a cry of pain as she sprung onto her feet and backed into the wall.

She bit her tongue, trying not to whine from the pain,

It was funny honestly..! She had been over heating so bad it got to the point where her body was literally SWEATING out oil in order to cool her down, yet she never got used to the pain of burning up! Crazy right??

The shade shrinked even more, giving her only two feet worth of space between the darkness and the light, and it was gonna get worse before it would get better.

“I need to find a different spot.” she said, breath caught in her throat, trying to keep herself from having a mental breakdown.

Of course she had to, if she stayed their, she was probably gonna melt, and this time she probably wouldn’t make it out, but how could she get out?
The sun was bright right now, brighter than it had been these past days thanks to countless blizzards and snow storms, it was like a short break from it all, of course it would continue, in J’s mind not quick enough but it would.

She pulled off her already tore up suit, revealing her undershirt.

A silk gold colored tunic, still a bit tore, but not completely in tatters like the top shirt.

J then placed it over her head, and tore a large hole into the corpse spire, with the help of her larger than average talons, afterwards she squeezed through it and started making her way down, walking fast.

Despite her attempt to hide under her shirt, she still felt the heat burning up her back.

She hissed face wrinkled into a pained expression, hoping to Robo-God that this wouldn’t take away what little flattery was in her appearance then burning up on that spaceship already done to her.

Then a sound of alarm a warming popping on the upper right side of her screen

Critcal Warning! SD Unit overheating! Please refill oil supply to prevent heat exhaustion.

“Oh..please no!” she cried out “Not now!”

She felt a burning sensation in her chest, it was getting harder to breath now.

She began to breath heavy, the heavy breathing evolved to coughing, out from her throat, smoke began to outpour, something she had learned to be an sign of extreme overheating from her time on the ship.

How could this have happened?? She had consumed at least 4 gallons worth last night, and she was still burning up? She didn't understand! what the was the problem??

Then another warning popped up.

Critical Warning! Internal Damage on SD Unit! Please Repair program immediately

Oh no, that’s because the damage she had wasn’t just external, it was internal too! Her insides-they must’ve melted together or something!

What was she possibly gonna do? If something like this had happened before Cyn would’ve been there to repair her, but now she doesn’t have that, she’s stuck like this now! She had no help, no friends, followers, no anything to pull her out of rock bottom.

One of her eyes began to flicker, changing into an X, she was about to lose it but she couldn’t do it! Not right now, not in the middle of the day! She’d burn up into a crisp.

In a desperate attempt to fight back the overheating process, she dropped onto the ground and started picking up scoops and scoops worth of snow and throwing it onto her face, but sadly it was only working so much.

A sharp pain began to go through her head, she let out a cry and sharply grip onto the roots of her hair.

This was it, she was about to go feral, loose all sense and everything out of shear unsanitational hunger, and she couldn’t even doing anything, she was about to go out the same way she went in this world, completely stupid, lost and confused of what was going on around her, but this time Tessa wasn’t going to be there to guide her.

She was all alone, no drone or anyone around to help for the next mile or so.

At least that’s what she had thought, before she had heard it.

A faint sound of talking from right behind her.

Within a split second of hearing it, J froze like a deer in headlights.

Slowly she turned her head around, that same crazed look in her eyes from when she saw V last night back.

Could it be? Was it another drone, or was she finally seeing things? Heck if she knew, but if she had the strength she was gonna go look anyway, it might have been pointless to try but it’s not like she had anything else to loose now.

J weakly pulled herself up, turning around, lowly crouched to the ground as she went to find the owner of that voice.

Once around the corner, she snuck over behind a corner of a building and peaked her head  over it.

She couldn’t believe it.

It was him.

That stupid stupid blonde boy from Uzi’s bunker, the one who tried to stop them once they broke in.

Just off in the distance, walking off to the factory pulling a box worth of who cares what? another one, all alone just like her! Could you believe that?

She let out a sharp sigh of relief, finally, another source of fresh oil.

She began to shiver, and she dragged her claws on the corner of the building.

She quickly sprung to action so fast the over shirt she used to shield herself had slipped right off from her back.

“And you're sure it’s safe for you to be out there all by yourself, sugar?” Mrs. Edward’s voice was heard from the phone on top of the box of beverages Thad was carrying.

“I’m sure mom,” Thad insisted ”trust me if you seen how N acts when he’s in the sun for too long you’d know their wasn’t anything to worry about.”

“Alrighty then…but you need to come back home before night fall, ya got that?” Mrs. Edward ordered “You’re sister’s here with the worst jitters ever right now because of you being out alone.”

“Okay mom, I’ll probably be back around 12 okay? I love you.” Thad said

His mom said she loved him too, and then ended the call.

Thad rolled his eyes with a friendly smile on his face, he loved his mom, but she really needed to understand that he knew what he was doing, and he could go a day without his friends helping out-

A sound of running was heard behind him.

His eyes squinted in confusion, Thad looked around

“What the-”

He screamed bloody murder as a blur of silver and yellow got right in front of him, with a claw grabbing him right by the scruff of his shirt collar, causing him to drop both the box and phone.

Despite wanting to finish the job immediately J was interrupted by searing pain shooting down from her spine, thanks to the sun beaming down on her, however she managed to ignore it, for the time being as she made a run for another building, a post office it looked, once their she kicked the door twice, causing it to bust open and then tossed the blonde smack dab in the middle, right onto his chest, thankfully he didn’t break anything because he managed to break his fall on the palms of his hands.

Thad turned onto his back, “WOAH! WOAH!” he cried out desperately trying to back away from her.

J flashed a large toothy grin, “And I hear I thought that pink one I’d seen a few days ago was the dumber one.” she unsheathed a blade and started to march on over to him.

“Wait-wait-don’t do this please!”

“She never came out here alone though, but then here you are just waltzing around as if you own the place!” she took a few steps closer to him.

“Usually I would put a worker down for this level of stupidity, but right now, I’m just grateful to find one out here on such short notice,” she said “and for that I’ll make sure your death isn’t half as painful as the last one’s.”

“Please! I have a family and friends!”

“Must be nice.”

She raised the blade up in the air, and prepared to cut him when suddenly, a course of pain went through her body, before she began to cough up smoke once again.

She buckled down in pain, falling to her hands and knees as she frantically hacked up the oily black smoke.

Thad watched her with cautious confusion.

At first he was confused, but then he realized it, she was overheating…

He nervously pulled himself up, now seeing a chance to escape as she was distracted with her…issue.

Thad began to slowly approach the front, unfortunately though, J caught wind of this, she pulled herself up and stumbled back, falling onto the door, still continuing to cough, Thad took five steps back to the original spot he was at.

After several long seconds J inhaled deeply, and she took a break from the coughing, her tired eyes fell to her own feet as she backed deeper into the door, letting the cold metal from its surface soothe her burning hot body.

She shut her eyes for a moment, and let her body rise and fall with each pained breath she took.

Thad continued to watch her, uneasy.

Despite how stupid it would be to try, he tried to reason with her, “Please let me go.” he begged, weirdly calm for the situation he was in “If you do I’ll let you have all the oil I was bringing here.”

That was a good deal right? Probably wasn’t smart letting her refuel, but hey! At least he’d get out of this whole situation, right?

J opened her eyes, “Nice try, you really think I’m gonna let you go for just a few quarts of cold oil?” she growled lowly.

“Uhh…maybe?” he shrugged “I-it worked for V and N atleast.”

J felt a change of her brain chemistry hearing that, but only for a split second, before that cold hearted hopeless way of thinking had come back to her.

“Well I’m not either of them, now am I?” she deadpanned.

She shook her head “You might as well start counting your minutes, because when I get my strength back you’re as good as gone.” promised J.

“Though…I don’t even know what I’m doing this for anymore…” she looked off for a moment.

“It’s not like I have any reason to be alive now.”

He heard her mumble under her breath.

J let out a long sharp sigh “trying to…live it’s just prolonging my misery and wait for the inevitable it seems.”

Well she actually did now why she was doing it for, Tessa. That was always the reason she kept going atleast, because that’s what her creator would’ve wanted, even though she knew that girl would probably be disgusted if she seen her now.

Thad frowned awkwardly, and scratched the back of his neck, he was never good when it came to people being self deprecating, so he didn’t exactly what to say, unfortunately though it wasn’t like he was able to make an excuse to leave, he was literally being held at knife point, and he was reminding of this any time his eyes wondered onto J’s weapon.

He had to try to talk his way out of this, otherwise he was 100 % gonna die, and after he told his mom he’d be just fine too…

He placed a fist to his mouth “Ahem.” he faked a cough gaining the killer’s attention, being as brave as he possibly could, using a mental image of his sister as help to get through it as he done so.

“Ya know it doesn’t have to be that way.” he placed out a hand, “If you want you could probably join the bright side.”

“Do like your two coworkers did and go get free oil without all the murder in the nice warm sunlight proof bunker.” he explained “Just a thought though, even though it does seem a lot better than whatever you’re doing right now.”

Thad took a few more steps on over to her.

The girl remained unphased “I doubt that.” J shook her head. “why would they do that after everything I’ve done to them?”

Thad nervously looked away for a moment.

“Well they let N and V in, what makes you different from them both?” he pointed out.

J opened her mouth to argue, but she stopped herself, why is she trying to disagree? Why would she try to argue against the possibility that she might survive, instead of stay scrambling out in the cold for the rest of what little life she was gonna live if she did so??

She crossed her arms and looked away for a moment.

The blonde boy was now within arms length of her, every few minutes looking to the door than back at her, relatively agitated.

He then noticed some warning come onto her face, he couldn’t tell what it said though.

“Do you really think I should go back their? What would I even say??”

“Well I dunno, just cross that bridge when you get their I guess.”

“Look I’m seeing how you're talking, honestly you seem super smart, I’m sure you can tell this is a better decision than whatever you’re doing here.” he pointed out.

J stayed silent for a moment, then to Thad’s disbelief, she pulled her body off the door.

Once more he stepped back cautiously, afraid she would still try to hurt him. She didn’t however, but she did bend down to meet his level, placing her to hands atop her thighs.

Her tail rised into the air “How do you think they’d even respond to that?” she asked

The corners of Thad’s mouth curled into a discomforted grimace, as he thought for a moment, “I’m guessing…” he tried to think “Better than they would if you kept trying to kill everyone.” he weakly grinned, feeling sweat drip from the back of his neck (Why did they even program that in the first place??)

He still felt fear towards her, however he was beginning to feel sympathy as well, it had become clear to him she wasn’t a monster, just desperate and hungry, and admittedly he sorta did want to help her, (even though she did invoke some primal fear in him)

“You should come back with me, right now as matter of fact.” he insisted, “I’ll even let you hide under my varsity jacket while we walk back so you don’t get barbequed.”

He said as he pulled the item of clothing off from his back and showed it to her.

J looked at the jacket, that was a nice idea, especially since she had lost her other shirt while she was out in the street earlier.

J placed her arms in front of her in a rather defensive manner, “I don’t know what to say to that.” she said, trying to avoid his eyes, “It just sounds too foolishly optimistic to be a good idea.”

“It doesn’t have to be though,” he tried to explain it, “Their’s already proof it can happen, just look at your best buddies now.”

Before J could correct him on that statement he put the jacket even closer to her, “Come on back to the bunker with me, I’m sure you won’t regret it.”

J simply watched the jacket, looking at the clothing as though it would bite her, but slowly but surely she had decided to reach out for it.

Maybe it wasn’t a bad idea, maybe she shouldn’t be so doubtful, and possibly this could be a new chance.

Just say yes, see if you have a chance to fix your life-

But then she recalled her two teammates.

V, how much she had use to trust and respect J, but now had grown so distrusting of her her, that she had thought killing her was a more reasonable suggestion that trying to talk it out.

Then N, the golden retriever underdog of the team, that she had took all her emotions out on just to make herself feel better about the situation.

If she went back with him to the colony, this would mean she'd have to face them both, and confront the issues, her lies and the abuse she had put them both through, completetly unsure how either of them would respond.

“No.”

She pulled her hand back, “I can’t go back-I can’t!” she cried out “I can't! I just caint'!!” her voice rose, backing into the door once more.

“What..?”

Before anything else, not one not two but three notifications appeared on her face all at once, with warnings all ringing out loudly

Critcal Warning! SD Unit overheating! Please refill oil supply to prevent heat exhaustion.

Critcal Warning! SD Unit overheating! Please refill oil supply to prevent heat exhaustion.

Critcal Warning! SD Unit overheating! Please refill oil supply to prevent heat exhaustion.

She backed away and slapped at her face trying to get rid of them all, but then that awful coughing had started up once again.

Once more she started hacking up the thick black smoke, but this time leaning onto the door did nothing, it wasn’t gonna stop now, no matter how hard she tried to fight it.

J once more buckled down onto her knees.

“Woah!” Thad cried “Hey are you okay? What’s the matter with you..?”

Despite the danger he was in, Thad still tried to reach out to her, still wanting to help her, what was the matter, was she having a panic attack? He thought

He dropped his jacket to the floor and placed his hand in front of her.

She trembled violently, her nails dug into the concrete.

“J…?”

He tried to speak to her.

Her head raised, revealing a large X written on her screen, her mouth was wide open revealing those awful uneven and raizer sharp teeth.

He gasped.

Suddenly a quick bite pierced into his hand.

Thad shrieked at the top of his lungs, she let go, but she then grabbed him by the waist and brought him up into the air.

“HEY!”

Finally it hit him like a ton of bricks, what was going on.

She spun him around and slammed his body onto the door. BANG! He held his eyes shut as the pain burned his body.

J let out laugh mixed in with crying looking at him with that monstrous toothy grin to Thad’s horror.

She then went to bite his neck, luckily for Thad however, thanks to playing football he was quick with his reflexes, and managed to stop her, placing both hands on her face and pushing her away as well as he could, a few of his fingers slipped into her mouth, managing to show her sickly grey gums hidden by her lips.

Despite being held away, J was still as determined as ever, and though in her state of mindless autopilot she had gotten the idea to let go of Thad and take his hands off her face, but as she let go for that split second, he slipped down onto the ground.

She went to bite him once more, he ducked down, her head slammed into the door, right in between the knobs, so hard she managed to bust them both off, and cause the doors to pop open.

The two drones fell out and onto the snow covered entrance way of the building , with J falling on top of Thad.

Once out, the sunlight hit her body, and sure enough the burning started.

The feral disassembly drone stood up, screaming and desperately trying to hide from the light with the shelter of her large hands.

Thad took this as a chance to escape and crawled away as quickly as anyone could have possibly done.

Finally having hit her, and thad being sixteen feet exactly away from her, J ran back into the factory, where it was dark and cold.

Thad went behind the box of oil he had, his core was beating so fast his chest was hurting, he shook like a flag in the wind, and his eyes were nothing more than a pair of rings with wrinkles of fear beside them both.

He took deep breaths of air, but exhaled fast and sharply, he then brought his right hand up to his eye sight, eight holes lining out his palm, each one different from the rest, all lined out with his oil.

He hesitantly turned it upside down, on the bottom part of his hand, same thing. He weakly curled his fingers into a fist, feeling the stinging from that bite.

The blonde cursed with his voice hushed as he turned to look back at the building.

Their he seen she was still their, standing in the doorway with her two hands dangling, continuing to look at him with her glowing yellow optics and those yellow and red orbs resting on in her headband, still their waiting and hoping he would come back to her.

He heard her began to make some type of noise, it was the same noise Uzi had made that time she went “Sicko mode” as he called it during that school camping trip; A weird mix between maniacally laughter and crying, It felt like a way of saying “I’m enjoying what I am doing, but I also hate it and want to stop.” Haunting and Disturbing.

He stood back up, rubbing his hurt hand, though she just tried to kill him, he still managed to feel guilt for her. It was weird, he didn’t use to feel sympathy for her, espicially after she tossed him into that wall, but when he watched her up close and personally struggling to keep her head above water, it made him a different perspective.

“Uh…” he scratched his hand and looked down at his shoe which he was twisting in the snow awkwardly.

“Look I’m sorry I can’t help you!” He placed a hand to his mouth “I want to, don’t get me wrong, but I really don’t know if you're gonna eat me or not! So yeah…”

She continued to giggle/cry.

Thad still feeling bad, decided to try to at least give her a fighting chance, so he took his phone from on top of the box, put it back in his pocket, then picked up the box of oil and went around 4 feet close of her, she tried to reach out and grab him as he placed the box down and kicked across the snowy surface, the box hissed as it glided across.

Thud! It hit the factory wall, J simply tilted her head examining the box, her yellow optics glowing brightly in the dimness of the factory.

“If it makes you feel better, you can have all those! Maybe you’ll get your good sense back!” he explained

“Bye…crazy…murder lady.”

Thad waved a final goodbye and turned around, at first he was walking, but then it evolved jogging, then sprinting, and full blown running.

J watched him until he was completely out of eyesight, she then looked down at the box, now catching onto the sweet smell from inside of it.

She used her long lanky claws to grab into it by the slit on top and pulled it into the building with her.

By the time Thad got done running, sweat clung to his forehead, and his core once again raced.

He crouched lowly with labored breathing that once he caught onto was slowing down pulled his phone out from his shirt pocket, which was now the only thing he was wearing besides shoes, for his jacket as much as he hated it was stuck with J in that building.

The tired blonde dialed a number on his phone, and then placed the device to his hearing processor.

His friend Bradford answered, “Hey Thad, what’s up?”

The jock replied as he continued his journey back to his bunker “Hey! So uh, I get you two were busy today, but I don’t think I can go back to that factory by myself again…”

。。。

That next night, J tried to return back to the corpse spire with the canisters of oil given to her, unfortunately she ended up having to seek refuge on the roof of a building above thanks to a certain red eyed sentinel, who was no longer alone like he was in the early morning.

Sparky, the red eyed beast reeled his head back and released a blood curdling screech at the top of his lungs.

As if his roar was an order at least several more sentinels plus his only remaining children throated out from behind him and to the corpse pile.

All the sentinels began to tear it apart, one body and limb at a time, not even trying to eat the worker corpses, just pulling off from the pile and onto the snowy surface, it was clear they weren’t here for a meal, but had different motives.

A few decent sized holes were made of the spire, once done so the robotic dinosaurs made slipped inside of their, with Sparky being last in.

J watched from above, on the safety of the giant apartment like building, both angered at what they were doing but also uneasy knowing the reason they did it was most likely vindictive.

That was her only sanctuary, the only place she truly felt safe, and they were taking that away from here.

She agitatedly scratched the top of her arm watching as her hand morphed into a weapon.

How she wished she could stop them, just gun those overgrown lizards down and call it day, she couldn’t though, not only was she unsure if she had enough in her system for her to even do it properly, but she was afraid if she’d miss, and what those things could do, of course she never seen them start climbing up a building, but in the state she was in, she didn’t want to find out.

So she just continued watching, watching in sheer pain as the sentinels tore her only place of security into nothing more than a crumpled pile of old rusty bodies tore about recognition.

The former leader groaned and pulled her ratted out from in front of her face.

Honestly what was she even trying to do now? Why was she trying so hard to survive right now? What for? What could she possibly be livng for???

Tessa was dead.

N lost all respect he used to have for her.

There was a bounty on her head courtesy of both V and that weird dog.

And the most hostility she was met with since since the battle with Uzi was from that drone boy with the jacket, and even then she didn’t know if his niceness was authentic or not, of course it didn’t matter now, because her overheating episode probably scared him off!

Honestly if she had to gaul to, she really would’ve just given up, in her eyes, it really wasn’t worth it, she literally had nothing to live for, and she really wasn’t expecting that to change anytime soon.

Sparky marched out from the corpse pile, there was no longer any area of shade, it was now nothing more than  a row of shrubbery built with dead drone parts, the corpse spire, the one mind you that J V and N all spent years making, completely destroyed with one hour by the pack of sentinels, that was the last thing she had, now she was out in the open, unsafe from the sentinels, V, sunlight and-

On the tip of her nose a small little dendrite shaped snowflake landed, following it, more of the fresh falling powder it’s origins being three large oyster appearing clouds in the sky.

Ruummbbble…rumble…

The weather…

A few flickers of lightning crossed the sky for a moment.

The murder drone slapped her hands onto her screen groaning even louder than she had, “For Robo-God’s sake!!” she shouted

It was really a shame, she used to be on top of the world, respected, cared about, now look at her. Hiding on a roof from giant lizards, getting covered in snow. Was this really her life now? Was she just gonna be like this until one of the many threats finally got to her? It had to be better than this, it just had to.

After one final look down at the corpse along with what her life had become J finally decided to try to get more rest then what she got earlier that day thanks to going feral, and not figuring out what was going until she cleared out half those quarts in the box.

The girl flopped onto her back and emerged from their, her wings.

Thanks to excess overheating J’s wing had became twice as large as before. With scratch marks on the feather like blades, and oil staining the white bits of the wing.

She wrapped them around her body, as a makeshift cocoon for her, to hide from the elements that night. Her tail wrapped around her two legs, and eventually she somehow managed to fall asleep, her cooling fans whirring inside making the noise to that of snoring.

The sentinels were still their at the corpse spire continuing to tear it apart, leaving not even a trace of once was, but maybe that was for the best.

。。。