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A prank. Just a prank.
A prank to pull the reactor, and then push someone down a dark hallway, running away laughing.
Harmless. In theory.
Droid's ears are ringing, louder than anything he's ever heard before. He tries to cover them, but his hand comes away sticky.
Blood.
He winces at the pain, trying his best to see in the darkness. He's on something warm… someone warm.
Matt? Oh shit.. yeah.
Matt and him got pushed, and then a thumper had come behind them, chasing their friends away. But as they stumbled in the dark, one of them had hit a landmine.
Droid's ears are still ringing, as he feels around for Matt. He rolls him over, using the light from his scanner to check on the older man.
Matt's apparently saying something, but Droid can't hear him over the ringing. Matt won't pull his hands away from his eyes.
“It's okay.. let me see.” Droid mumbled, slurring a little because he couldn't hear his own voice.
Matt shakes his head, saying something before pulling his hands away.
Droid winces. It's bad.
Matt's one pretty green eyes are utterly fucked. He's got glas from his broken helmet all around his face, and his eyes are… well… one of thems just gone, the others bleeding badly.
Matt's feeling around, and Droid takes his hand.
“It's okay… I've got you..” he mumbles, wrapping his hands around Matt's shoulders.
He can feel vibrations coming from Matt's chest, and he doesn't know what Matt's saying.
The walkie talkie! Maybe he could?
He eyes the shattered communication device, sighing.
They may need to stay put, and wait for help… but there's a thumper around… A thumper Droid can't hear, and Matt can't see.
“Matt… I can't.. I can't hear anything… I'm going to need you to shake or nod your head.”
Matt stops trying to talk, immediately nodding.
Droid sighs. “D-do you hear the others?”
Matt shakes his head.
“Do you hear monsters?”
Matt pauses, before nodding.
Droid immediately tries to whisper. “Can you point which way you hear them from?”
Matt points towards where they came from, and Droid sighs. He helps Matt to his feet, using his tail to keep Matt close. He pauses, placing his own helmet on Matt's head.
“So that you don't get anything else injuring you, before the ship heals us.” He mumbles, chucking on Matt's broken helmet.
They start shuffling to where someone had reported there being a fire exit. It's slow going, because he's pretty sure Matt's scared of falling, and Droid’s worried he's being too loud.
..
The door, they made it!
Sighing, they exit the building, Droid looking around, and seeing their friends. Their friends who are just laughing and running around like nothing's happened.
He flinches a little, Matt turning a bit.
“They.. they didn't even check on us.. they don't even..” Droid cuts himself off.
“Let's go back to the ship and sleep until take-off. Hopefully the med-scan fixes us up, and they never have to know.”
Droid walks past his friends who are playing catch with a wasp nest, trying his best to not look angry. He's pretty sure no one bothers them, and he helps Matt back up onto the ship, and then guides him to the bunkroom.
They both pause, before ducking in the Medbay instead.
Droid locks the door behind him, before removing both of their helmets. He sighs.
“Ladies first.” He jokes, helping Matt onto the chair, watching as the company's tech gets to repairing Matt's skin and eyes.
Droid watches it all, tapping his fingers anxiously. He sees the nanobots rebuild Matt's eye, grinning a little. He eyes the numbers;
95%, 96%, 97%
Without warning, the lights go out, and Droid looks around, frowning. That shouldn't happen,unless someone's playing with the outlet…
The power boots back up, and Droid looks back over, groaning at the “error, unable to complete repair” warning, flashing on the screen.
“No, no, no.” He mumbles, punching the wall. “Fucking..”
He sees Matt's lips move, but he can't understand him. Matt opens his eyes, which look mostly normal now, just slightly cloudy, and he looks around, immediately deflating.
“It… something went wrong… it errored out.” Droid says quietly, Matt just sagging forward. Droid's eyes filled with tears, as Matt moves to the side, letting him sit down.
Much the same as Matt, he lets his ears start to get repaired, but he's not even 75% of the way through when the power goes out again, and the red lights flash up on the screen. Droid flinches, biting his own knuckles as he tries to swallow a sob.
The company has no need for disabled employees. The second it finds out about this, they're going to be terminated. Ejected.
Droid doesn't want to die!! What can he do?
Biting his lip, he paces around, Matt just staring at the wall next to him.
His eyes fall on the weird device they'd stolen from a library on some weird planet… it gets him thinking.
Masked enemies operated on a hive mind, transmitting thoughts and emotions through a neural network. See through each other's eyes.
Maybe Droid's cyborg tech could create a private network, one for him and Matt only?
Mind melding had been outlawed for a reason though… it was so fucking dangerous… You could turn your mind to mush, lose yourself.
Droid bit his lip, looking at Matt, who was waving a hand in front of his eyes, squinting and relaxing, trying to see movement.
“Matt..” He says quietly, the other looking over.
“We have the… uh.. mind machine thing… I could try that… otherwise..” Droid swallowed, looking around. “We might be cooked.”
Matt frowns, opening his mouth, before closing it. He grabbed at the air, Droid clasping his hand, as Matt traced letters into his palm.
“I. T..R…U…S…T…U…”
Matt nodded, looking at where he thought Droid was. Droid's heart swelled, as he led Matt over to the machine.
He wasn't really sure how it worked, all he knew was you could put your hand in the slot, someone else did the same, and then it created a psionic link between the two of them…
Droid helped Matt feel his way around, before slotting his hand inside the machine. Droid sighed, clicking the activate button, before watching the countdown start. He slipped his hand inside, before wrapping an arm around Matt's waist.
They gently lean their heads together and then…
It starts to hurt.
And it's bad.
Everything is hurting and his brain feels like it's being compressed and expanded all at the same time. He can feel himself, his very soul splintering, splitting into dozens of tiny pieces. He squeezes his eyes shut as he grits his teeth, praying the pain will ease up soon.
It gets worse.
They both pull apart from each other, clutching at their own heads, but the loss of contact brings out something inside them. A sense of loss, a longing so great, it feels like Droid’s just severed his own arm. He feels himself crying out in anguish at the loss.
He stumbles into Matt, and suddenly it's agony and all too much.
He thinks he's screaming. Matt’s probably also screaming. They're probably dying now. Maybe that's a good thing… although he wishes the pain would ebb away already if they're both dead now.
Maybe he's just gone insane, neurons misfiring like this forever?
He realises that beyond the ringing in his ears, he can now hear voices. Lots of voices. Too many voices… they're echoing back now!
It should just be his inner monologue… but that's not the case.
He takes notice.
Some of it's his own voice, some of it Matt's, but a lot of it is other people.
Oh, these are memories.
He sees his childhood, the lab, his friends. He sees Matt’s parents, meeting Smitty, meeting other people.
They both see happiness, sadness, anger, love and misery.
Memories of heists gone wrong, explorations, discoveries. Of walking across brilliant planets, of fighting for their lives.
They're bearing their full soul to each other, taking in each other fully. It stops hurting, for a brief second.
Droid and Matt both then scream again as their shattered minds begin to try and repair the damage. Unfortunately, they're very jumbled now, pieces of Matt slipping into the cracks in Droid's brain, Droid’s soul spreading inside the gaps in Matt's.
It hurts again. All they can do is scream and hold onto each other.
Droid notices that it's getting louder. He can hear yelling. Is that from a memory, or from now?
It hurts. Hurts so fucking bad.
Their consciousnesses are fusing together, and finally, Droid accepts the darkness that's been sitting nearby. He welcomes it eagerly, as he passes out.
….
Droid opens his eyes, some time later. He can see his friends nearby, standing around him and Matt worried. Matt can also see them.
Wait what…
Things get… hazy quickly.
There's post merge Droid and post merge Matt. Simple enough and separate.
Now, it's Matt and Droid. Together, fused at their very being.
Matt?
Droid?
Yes?
They blink, and Droid's body blinks. Droid's body is the one with the vision, Matt's is the one with the hearing… well…kind of.
They open Matt's eyes too, noticing that they too can see using his eyes, but it's a blurred mess. The only clear thing is Droid.
“Matt?” Droid hears himself say out loud, able to hear again, (but it's mostly coming from the part of himself inside Matt).
“Droid?”
Matt replies as well, as they both hold each other's faces.
“Matt… I feel heavy..”
“Droid, everything is too much…”
“Focus on me… not on them.. ignore them..”
“It's hard.. I… Okay.”
“Use this body to talk to them, rest the other.”
Yes.
One of their hands pushes up, sitting themselves up. They both looked at their hands.
These aren't my-
They're mine.. I-
Droid collapses, passing out. Droid also hears himself pass out, shocked to his core. How did he?
I'm in two places?
We're in two places at once?
I'm in you too?
Yeah, I'm in you and you're in me!
“Matt, what happened? We came after we heard you guys screaming… You were both passed out on the floor!” Smitty asks frantically.
How do I respond?
Let me. I know how to calm him down..
“Nothing… I just… we just saw a spider… Sorry to… make you worry.” Matt replies.
“A spider made you both pass out after you screamed bloody murder?”
“Well… Matt's not the- I mean I'm not the bravest… Maybe we just tripped a little? Honestly, that does sound like us..”
I'm sorry, I don't mean to speak.. It's just happening.
I can feel your panic. It's okay. They won't understand.
“Seriously? That's all you're telling us?” Puffer snaps.
Droid and Matt tune him out. They tune everyone out, moving into a weird slumber.
…
Droid and Matt wake some time later.
Droid speaks, his voice funny through Matt's lips. “Matt?”
He sees his body move, seeing himself in Matt, and Matt in him.
“Droid?”
“What did we do?”
They say in unison, both of them sharing senses.
It's like.. a bridge.
Like a walkway, between the space in our heads
I can just float between us.
I'm seeing from you, and hearing from me
Is this what it's like?
Yes.
Our heads still hurt.
Droid winces, as he feels the pain throbbing through both bodies.
We can't leave one to rest, we need both senses.
“HELLO? ARE YOU LISTENING TO US?”
Loud, pain, hurt.
Why are they yelling?
“Too loud. It's too loud.”
“Did they both… Did they both say the same thing, at the same time?”
“Stop talking! Too much.”
Matt winces again, letting go and then it's just Droid. Droid in Droid.
When did I leave my own body? I didnt realise I left?
Did you leave?
Maybe? I don't…
Droid's in Matt again. Matt's in Droid.
“I'll explain later guys… give us some space… we both got concussions…” Matt in Droid slurs out, the sound of people fading to more of a hum.
Better?
Much better.
Close our eyes.
The darkness immediately helps relax Droid's body. They curl into each other, flinching as their thoughts jump between each other. Sometimes both, sometimes just one.
It's okay.
I know
I'm here.. for you… me… us
When Droid touches his leg, it's weird. He feels himself touch the skin of his leg, but he also feels the feeling of Matt's hand pressing into the skin. He's feeling every touch twice, and it's weird. A double feedback loop.
It's like he's a balloon, tied to two different bodies, pulling himself close to one, before dipping and fluttering into the other.
Hi.
Hey.
I'm here.
Together.
Me.
You.
Us.
It still hurts. It's still loud, right to the very core. Droid thinks Matt slips off first, but maybe it was him. Either way, their individual thoughts both scatter, much like seed pods in the wind.
When they wake, it's only slightly better, the noise having faded at the very least.
The feeling of Matt seeing out his eyes too, fills Droid with some kind of warmth.
They stand his body up, and then stand up Matt's. They both wobble, getting used to piloting two bodies at once.
Body with sight in front?
Good idea… link hands though..
Can't afford to lose us.
….
Puffer watches as Droid shuffles into the living quarters, his hand linked with Matt's. They move at a slow pace, everyone around keeping quiet, waiting for them to explain.
Matt's wearing Droid's glasses. That's the only thing Puffer can see now. The two of them sit on a bench, shuffling into each other.
Smitty sighs, speaking quieter this time. “Can you guys explain what the fuck is going on?”
Matt turns to look at Smitty, tilting his head a little. “Can.. Can you explain why someone pushed us into a mine?”
“Why.. Why didn't anyone check?” Droid says in a quieter tone, accent sounding wrong.
Puffer cuts in. “I didn't hear any explosion… I didn't even realise that happened….”
“I mean, it was dark… we push each other all the time… it's just how it is…” Pezzy shrugs, as everyone nodded.
“Okay.”
Puffer jumps, as Matt and Droid both speak at the same time again.
“That's weird… right…. Anyone else think that's kinda creepy?” Grizzy mumbles, most people nodding.
“Our old crew got terminated… Smitty-” Droid starts, making Smitty frown.
“Uh… yeah, Matt, John and I's crew had a few… terminations.. but Droid you werent-?”
“Sorry… Our old crew got terminated… Surely you'd not want that to happen again, Smitty?” Matt says this time, voice sounding normal. Matt's looking over at Yumi though.
“Nobodies going to get thrown into space, man!” Yumi says weakly.
“What did you do? Why do you think you would be terminated?” Puffer asks nervously.
“The company doesn't like broken employees.” the two of then say, making everyone in the room shiver.
“What do you mean?” John repeats the question.
Matt takes off his glasses, making Puffer jump. His eyes are milky and unseeing.
Matt snickers. “Don't look so… horrified Puffer.” he teases, not looking exactly at Puffer, but near enough to unsettle Puffer.
“Are… are you blind?” Pezzy asks, shocked.
“Yep, Matt's totally… well mostly blind.” Matt says, accent changing again.
Smitty swallows. “Surely the medbay… we can-?”
“You idiots messed with the power,” Droid says, his accent funny again, before he groans. “You shorted out b-both repair cycles…” he says, voice slurring a little.
“Droid, are you okay?” Pezzy asks, leaning closer to him.
“Yeah. Fine.” Matt replies.
“I want to hear Droid say it…” Pezzy says, voice shaking, nervous.
“And I want to fucking hear, Pezzy, but I won't be doing that again either!” Droid snapped, his head turning to Pezzy.
Puffer frowned. “How did you know what to say then? How did you reply?”
Droid turned and looked at Puffer, rolling his eyes. “Because.. I”
Matt cut in. “Listened to him speak. And then I replied. But Pezzy wanted Droid to say it, so-”
“I jumped back across.” Droid finished.
“Simple… Isn't it?” they both said.
Puffer swallowed, unease creeping in. “What did you guys do?”
“We avoided redundancy.”
“Um… The machine we stole from the library is going haywire…” Eli said, poking his head in.
“You melded?” Puffer says in a shocked tone, Droid just rolling his eyes.
“What choice did we have?” he snaps.
“But you're still Matt, right?” Smitty says, looking at Matt.
Matt blinks, tilting his head. “I'm Matt… now I'm Droid, now I'm both-”
Droid starts speaking. “Now Matt is neither.”
“It's like-” Matt says.
“We're separately Droid and Matt.. but we're also both together Droid and Matt.” Droid then says.
“Their brains are woven together so tightly, it would be nearly impossible to revert them as separate as they used to be… They're kinda just… like this for a while now…” Eli mumbled, looking at the results.
“Doesn't that… Doesn't that bother you?” Grizzy asked.
“It sounds like it bothers you more.” Droid-in-Matt says.
“Do you guys not like being reminded of your mistakes?” Matt-in-Droid asks.
Everyone looks around the room, feeling uncomfortable.
“At least you don't have to live with the repourcussions.”