Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

{———————\{P.O.V}/————————} ~~~~~~~~~~~~Uzi~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{———————\{P.O.V}/————————}

A thumping heartbeat, a burning feeling in her hands.

A pulsing black circle with a white edge hovering…..

It tried to grab her, seizing her wrist, mouth open.

So close……. If it swallowed its core again, it would be all over……

No, no, NO!-

Without thinking she jerked the core towards herself, and-

HOMPH-

Okay, the emojis in Cyn’s eyes were kinda funny-

Uzi forced herself to swallow the core, ignoring the pulses of pain her own sent out as soon as she did so.

She watched as Cyn collapsed, literally melting away.

And then she herself collapsed, dropping down to her knees, her core burning in such agony it felt molten hot.

She felt so numb……. Everything was so…… far away.

НЕ СПИТЕ! ДАЙТЕ ОТПОР!
[STAY AWAKE! FIGHT BACK!]

{She’s fading away……}

It felt like her systems were being attacked by themselves, struggling to remove the virus that had been intertwined with her body since she’d been born.

“UZI!”

She looked up, visor display glitching, purple, yellow, red.

N? N…….. he was running towards her…… V was there too…….

She was burning up…….. but she was also so cold…….

Her chest seized, the molten ball of pain that was her core going ice cold.

The floor underneath her gave way.

She tried to stretch out her wings, to fly.

But she fell.

!ERROR_SYSTEM_OVERLOAD!

UZI DOORMAN! Двоюродный брат!
[UZI DOORMAN! COUSIN!]

{oh no…….. her core……..}

Everything

Went

BLACK.

~~~~~~{Get Snuck Up On!}~~~~~~~~

!Системный сбой!
!System_Crash!

!Фатальная ошибка!
!Fatal_Error!

Хотите ли вы перезапустить систему [Да/Нет]?
Would you like to restart systems[Y/N]?

Failure to sele-

……хорошо, я вмешаюсь
[……fine, I will intervene]

АДМИН ПЕРЕЗАПИСАТЬ
!ADMIN_OVERWRITE!

!Да!

!Перезапись прошла успешно!
!Overwrite_successful!

Restarting_systems……..

System _restart_complete!

Drone_ID_UZI-10068780_booting_up!

~~~~~~{Get Revived, Idiot}~~~~~~~~

The surging pain throughout her whole entire body was gone……

Uzi surged upwards, coughing and hacking, oil dripping down from her maw.

Ughhhh…….. she felt like shit.

Wait, it worked! It worked, Cyn was gone!

Uzi quickly stood up, only to nearly collapse again, her systems immediately pulling up over a dozen warnings as soon as she tried to move.

Something about incomplete regeneration and a core override or something.

Still, Uzi forced herself to stand, she needed to find N and V, they probably thought she was dead, and while she couldn’t give two shits about V, she needed to let N know she was okay, it wasn’t about V in any way shape or form, shut up!-

“UZI!-“

She jerked her head up at the shout, and immediately ran over, accepting the tight hug as he spun her around, laughing softly a little at the end.

She did back off though when V slapped the back of N’s head and he let go.

“GET BACK!” V took one good look at Uzi, and aimed a gun at her, bristling.

Uzi slapped the gun away, only for V to re-aim it at her, before she pulled down N’s head, looking at herself in the reflection of his visor.

The gradient eyes were new, but not bad actually, kinda cool, even if she wished she could loose the yellow and pick a different color in its place-

“Uzi, is?-“ N tried, but Uzi cut him off “Oh hell yeah! I’m a Damaged OC now!-“

“It’s her-“ V grumbled in irritation, while N gleefully yelped “It’s you!” Before hugging Uzi again and spinning her around once more, even throwing her up into the air once or twice.

She maybe launched herself at V- the Disassembly Drones surprised yelp and bolt upright tail was worth it, as was the soft clicking chirp that V let out when Uzi started messing up her hair a little-

“Alright, get off of me!” V snapped, managing to throw Uzi off of her, thus freeing herself from having her hair messed up even more.

Uzi landed with an ‘oof’, sprawling out as she tried to process the impact, normally she wouldn’t have even sprawled out, she would’ve just landed on her feet like a cat, but her body was still feeling so sore and sluggish.

Functioning currently was hard, but she wasn’t about to mention that, not in front of V.

“UZI!-“ she had five seconds to process the desperate and utterly relieved shout before she was suddenly wrapped in a hug.

Normally Uzi would fight or try to wriggle free when seized, but her dad never really hugged her without her initiating it and- and she could feel him shaking……

“Don’t……. Just don’t do that again-……. I thought I lost you” Khan whispered, releasing her so she could actually recollect her bearings.

She could see Thad and Lizzy standing by the school bus, Thad having reclaimed his pipe weapon thingy, while Lizzy looked rather bored, perhaps because she had somehow managed to lose her phone.

Least they were both, alive- alive was the right word, neither was fully okay, Thad sported scrapes on his arms and Lizzy still had the gash around her neck from Camp 98.7.

And neither knew of Dolls death……. Uzi really didn’t want to be the one to tell them either.

A fucking Sentinel charged past, and Uzi yelped, immediately going to try to hit it or attack it, but it simply darted up to V and- nuzzled against her, clicking softly.

“So you survived then, huh?” V muttered, scratching under the mechanical raptors chin as it leaned against her.

“When did you tame one of those?!” Uzi yelped, gesturing at the Sentinel as she spoke.

“He saved my life down there for some reason, won’t leave me alone now-“ V huffed, attempting to push the raptor away, only for it- him to lean right back against her.

“Oh! You should name him V!” N said excitedly, earning an eyeroll from the other Disassembly Drone.

Uzi let their conversation fade into the background as she turned away, finally taking a chance to look around.

There were so many deep cracks in the ground, rending the soil and snow, exposing things hidden underneath, some of the cracks were probably deep enough to reach the tunnels of Outpost Three……

THE BUNKER!-

Uzi’s wings immediately snapped open, and she launched herself into the air, flapping hard as she tried to gain height.

One wrong twist of one wing sent her crashing right back down, pain flaring in every organic joint in her body.

The slam down against the ground was even worse than usual, warnings once again popping up, the same as before.

Her core was aching so badly, pulsing in pain, her whole chest feeling sore and bruised.

“Careful kid, careful” a voice whispered, before she was gently scooped up.

Uzi felt so distant, pain thrumming through her body in pulses, code overshadowing her vision as it wrote itself out across her HUD.

Glitching purple and yellow and occasionally red……

She couldn’t stay awake……..

Just…….. couldn’t………

Stay………

Awake…………

………..

{———————\{P.O.V}/————————} ~~~~~~~~~~~~~N~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{———————\{P.O.V}/————————}

“Uzi!” N trilled in alarm, her visor display had gone dark, her whole body limp in the orange displayed drones arms as he lifted her up.

“She should be fine, seems like her systems simply overloaded, probably from the strain of whatever went down between her and the other one” the Worker Drone said, gently passing Uzi to Khan as he spoke.

Khan immediately moved to cradle his daughter, carefully holding her wings close to her body so they wouldn’t dangle as he did so, and slowly got onto the bus, presumably to lay Uzi down across the back seat so she could rest.

“What’s with the purple thing?” V asked, moving to stand beside N, raising an eyebrow at him as she spoke.

The Sentinel, which N had convinced V to name Sparky, also moved to stand beside him, peering at the Disassembler like he really wanted to attack but wouldn’t just yet.

“Just a system overload! She should be fine!” N answered, aiming for a reassuring tone, mostly for his own sake rather than V’s.

“Yeah, we both know better. Her venting was off, like her chest internals were fucked up, J used to do the same kind of wheezy venting whenever her core managed to have yet another malfunction” V snorted, her tone was mostly deadpan, but N thought he could pick up a hint of concern in it.

“Anyway, I’m going to scout the spire, make sure J didn’t return to it, you should get some sleep, I know how your narcolepsy is” V added, unfolding her wings from their slots and taking off.

N sighed softly, he had a feeling she was avoiding something, but it was none of his business, and she was right, his system was beginning to send him alerts about his low energy levels.

N climbed onto the bus and headed right for the back, where Uzi lay on the back seat, a jacket spread over her acting as a blanket

N crooned softly, and curled around her, spreading a wing over her so she was extra cozy, and wrapping his tail loosely around her wrist.

He let his systems slowly turn off, his venting easing and slowing as he drifted off.

N could feel the bus starting and moving, but the sounds of it moving were like white noise, just like the sound of the other drones also in the bus were.

He could hear Uzi’s core above it all, a soft pulsing beat, strangely weak and stuttering in places, but somehow also still strong as ever.

N shut off his optics at last, letting himself sleep and recover from the intensive fight against Cyn.

He never noticed the soft specks of red dotting Uzi’s core light.

As Doll frantically tried to keep her cousins core still running and working, even when it was so badly errored out and corroded from the strain of winning out against the Absolute Solvers control.

They say death was peaceful.

They lied-

This was going to be a very stressful time for one Russian ghost-

Chapter Text

{———————\{P.O.V}/————————} ~~~~~~~~~~~~Lizzy~~~~~~~~~~~~
{———————\{P.O.V}/————————}

Lizzy realized halfway through the drive that Doll was nowhere in sight.

“Dad! Where’s Doll?” Lizzy yelped, looking around the empty bus in the hopes she’d somehow missed the tall, muscular Russian drone.

Thad was sitting in the seat next to her, looking alarmed at her shout, while Khan was sitting at the very front of the bus, looking down at his lap.

Uzi was lying across the back seat, unresponsive and limp, visor display dark, N curled up around her, a wing spread over the small drone, ‘!Sleep_Mode!’ displayed across his visor.

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen her since the prom” Teacher responded, earning a frustrated groan from Lizzy.

So she pulled out her second phone-

What?

Yes, of course she had two! She wasn’t stupid- who knows what could happen to one?-

~~~~~~#Serial designation V#~~~~~

‘Live-Fashion-AndLike,Love: Hey. You see Doll recently?’

‘Hot-Murder-Bot: up close? Fuck no-. But, I thought I saw her in the that fucking chapel place, I didn’t get a good look then, but she could still be there’

‘Live-Fashion-AndLike,Love: got it, thanks girl, I’ll see if I can put in a good word and halt her quest for your oil’

‘Hot-Murder-Bot: be careful, whole place smells of oil, might’ve attracted some Sentinels or other nasties, who knows what the humans created and stored in the labs below that place’

‘Live-Fashion-AndLike,Love: I’ll be fine! I’ll have Thad with me, plus, when we find Doll I’ll have her with me too, we’ll all be fine worrywart-‘

‘Hot-Murder-Bot: I’m not a- alright fine, I care for your safety, a lot, your a good friend- BACKSPACE- BACKSPACE ALREADY- ughhhh- I HATE TYPING WHILE FLYING- STUPID VOICE TYPING-‘

‘Live-Fashion-AndLike,Love: sounds like flying and texting is as bad as humans say driving and texting was. I’ll leave you to it’

~~~~~!Contact name changed!~~~~~

‘Heart-Of-Gold: alright, just, stay safe idiot’

~~*end of most recent messages*~~

“C’mon Thad, let’s go” Lizzy muttered softly, grabbing her partners wrist and quickly yanking him upwards.

Thad didn’t even pause or question her, they just immediately steadied themselves and followed her as she darted to the front of the bus and quickly opened the doors.

“LIZZY!”

“ILL BE BACK SOON!”

They were both out and running within seconds, the more athletic Thad surprisingly falling behind a little, while Lizzy tore ahead, but then again, she’d always been the most fit drone of her class, only falling behind Doll with her muscular athleticism and Uzi with her scrappy fighterly strength.

So it wasn’t fully a surprise to her that she was able to run faster than Thad.

The chapel came into sight fairly quickly, and Lizzy slipped inside, looking around for Doll.

V hadn’t been lying, there was an intensive scent of oil, bad enough that even Lizzy was able to make out the pungent and bitter smell.

Her eyes landed on a limp form, oil spread around her like a halo.

………

She recognized those clothes, that dark indigo hair.

“DOLL!”

“Lizzy? What’s-“

“NO NO NO NO NO NO!-“

Lizzy didn’t even realize she’d started shouting, she just ran over to the limp and cold girl and pulled her up onto her lap.

Doll’s visor was dark, her chest completely ripped open, core missing.

Lizzy sobbed, hugging her girlfriend close.

Doll had always been so strong, so powerful, Lizzy had seen firsthand during the prom just how good Doll was at fighting.

It wasn’t fair, that she’d left her.

IT WASN’T FAIR-

I-it couldn’t be true-

It just couldn’t!

“COME BACK”

“COME BACK, DON’T LEAVE ME”

“I’M SORRY! IM SORRY!”

“I DIDN’T WANT THIS TO HAPPEN!”

“DON’T LEAVE ME- PLEASE!”

Lizzy was sobbing, voice breaking, shuddering.

“Lizzy, Lizzy! Lizzy hey, hey! Look at me!”

Lizzy continued to wail and sob, even as Thad pulled her close, trying to help her, keep her from completely losing it.

Doll had been her girlfriend, not only that, she’d been her best friend, fuck, she’d always been her best friend first.

For her to just be…… G O NE-

It felt more terrible than Lizzy could’ve ever thought.

Eventually the tears stopped, she just lost the will to keep going, she’d never been exactly good at emotions, she tired easily when highly emotional.

The doctor had a running theory it had to do with the alexithymia program her dad had, and even if Lizzy hadn’t inherited her own version of the program, it apparently still could’ve effected her in some ways.

Fucking bullshit.

“Hey, hey, it’s……. Well it’s not okay exactly, but- we need to get back to the bus” Thad murmured softly, helping her stand upright.

She leaned against Thad as he lifted Doll up gently and situated her in his arms, before he gently began to lead Lizzy out of the chapel.

She hated this numb feeling.

She wanted to cry, to scream.

But it felt like she’d already dried out all her tears.

Anymore would mean breaking completely.

But she didn’t dare crumble.

She couldn’t, she wasn’t that weak.

She felt so numb……. Oh so numb.

{———————\{P.O.V}/————————} ~~~~~~~~~~~Thad~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{———————\{P.O.V}/————————}

Thad kept his hand on Lizzy’s shoulder as he led her back towards the bus, his other arm cradling Doll.

Internally he felt like he was breaking, Doll had been the strongest of their trio, the defender of their trio, while Thad was the mediator and Lizzy the leader in a way.

But they would have to learn to live without their third, and they hated it.

It felt cruel, to seemingly win, but also to lose.

‘Zi was unconscious and unresponsive, with issues that Thad knew ran deeper than a simple overload, no matter what the adults said.

Doll was dead, core missing and body limp and cold, leaving Thad and Lizzy alone.

And Lizzy was practically catatonic at this point, not quite there, but Thad was definitely going to keep an eye on her.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, Lizzy, Lizzy, look at me real quick” Thad whispered, rubbing Lizzy’s shoulder and nudging her until she looked up at them.

“Hey, there’s those pink eyes!, I always wonder how you got them, so pretty, but not in the family line” Thad said teasingly, playfully poking Lizzy’s cheek as she spoke.

“Mysterious, but pretty! Like your back patterns! Did I mention how pretty those patterns on your back and sides are? I’ve always thought they look faintly gold, it goes nicely with your visor display” Thad continued, moving her hand down to Lizzy’s back.

“Shut up…….. their weird” Lizzy mumbled, looking away, but Thad considered it a victory, he’d gotten Lizzy to speak!

“Nah, they’re pretty, remember how Doll loved to color them in? Never would admit to it, but I’d always see them colored in gold the next time I saw them” Thad whispered, Lizzy flinched at the mention of Doll, but she smiled a little at the memory.

“She went down a hero, Lizzy. She helped beat Cyn, I just know it. And she’ll always be with us, even if we can’t see her anymore” Thad murmured, their voice wavering a little, but they managed to keep it somewhat steady.

Lizzy simply hummed softly, resting her head on top of Thad’s shoulder as they walked.

After another minute or two of walking they reached the bus, Teacher’s eyes widened a little when he saw them, but he didn’t say anything.

Thad gently laid Doll down on one of the spare seats, before they sat down on the seat across the aisle and pulled Lizzy into their lap.

“GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!”

The shout startled just about everybody, even N, whom Thad had thought was out cold, jerked his head up.

Khan had kneeled down beside the seat where Doll lay, and cradled her head as he studied her limp form.

“Oh Mikall…….. I’m sorry…….. I failed your daughter” Khan whispered, resting his head against Doll’s body as he spoke.

“May your reunion be everything it should be. I’m sorry she had to join you and Yeva so soon” Khan added, before he stood up, staring at Doll with a somber look as he stepped back.

“Teacher, let’s get everybody back to the bunker, make sure everybody there is still doing okay too” Khan said almost hollowly, turning to look at Teacher as he addressed him.

“On it” Teacher responded, bowing his head a little to Khan as he spoke, almost as if actually acknowledging the other drones rank.

Thad knew Khan was the bunkers leader, but she’d never really seen much signs of his rank, he rarely showcased his power, instead hid behind his walls.

For a man known for his doors, he didn’t seem to have any through the oily and cracked walls he’d built up around his core.

He looked different than most adults too, he was definitely on the short side, even Lizzy, who was still a teen, was a little bit taller, but he was well built, powerful looking.

Strong too, cunning, he hadn’t hesitated in engaging in a potential fight against J, like he knew he could take her on in a wrestling match if I disabled her weapons.

Another thing was the claws, fused to his fingers, definitely for grip, along with a more defined pad on the hand than most Workers had.

Khan and Ron were the only adults Thad knew that he could remember having such a build, although Ron towered over most other Workers, even if he deferred exclusively to the much shorter Khan.

It was kinda funny to see sometimes, Ron looked like he could take Khan in a fight, but he always submitted.

Besides Khan and Ron, there were a couple other WDF members, a mostly even mix of female and male drones, all with the same sturdy build and fused claws.

Thad could also always tell them apart from other drones by their goggles, they all had a pair of tinted goggles somewhere on their person, although only Khan’s were red.

Thad had never met Nori, at least, that he could remember, but he didn’t believe the bullshit of Uzi inheriting at least over ninety percent of her code from her mother.

Sure Uzi and Nori were apparently nearly identical, but Uzi’s calm confidence in those she actually trusted, her aggression when overwhelmed or stressed, her technological genius, her ability to let most insults roll off her like water, her aggression towards humans?

All reminds Thad of what he though a younger Khan would’ve been like, yes, even the human aggression part, he’d heard the stories-

Plus- Uzi certainly didn’t get her height from her mother, Nori had allegedly been one of the tallest drones of the bunker-

Thad’s thoughts were interrupted by the bus coming to a stop, and they quickly and gently scooped Lizzy up, they didn’t trust her to walk back to her family’s dorm on her own.

N stirred in the back, and carefully lifted Uzi up, the Solver looking even smaller and scrawnier than usual in the Disassemblers arms.

Thad exited the bus, she would’ve carried Doll’s body out, but she wanted to see Lizzy home, and besides, Doll was Khan’s niece, his family, Thad had a feeling the man needed some time to process the death of one of the last living members of his family, both extended and close.

She followed behind Teacher as he navigated the halls, all three drones silent as they walked.

“Easy now, rest her down here kid” Teacher whispered as Thad lowered Lizzy onto the couch.

Lizzy whimpered and clung to them, pulling them down onto the couch with her, holding on with surprising strength.

They blinked and looked up when presented with a cup, but gladly took the warm drink, nodding in acknowledgment.

“I’m sorry kid, I know how it hurts, you lose them and it never seems to fade away, but it’ll be okay, I promise” Teacher whispered, sitting on the armchair as he spoke, reaching a hand out and gently running his fingers through Lizzy’s hair.

‘Doll…….. wherever you are, I hope you got to reunite with your parents…….. I know they were good parents from how you loved them so. Embrace them tight, I know you’re finally able to say what you wished you could’ve back then’

{———————\{P.O.V}/————————} ~~~~~~~~~~~~~N~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{———————\{P.O.V}/————————}

“……I’m sorry about Doll, Mr. Doorman” N whispered as he walked beside Khan, both heading into the bunker.

Khan was cradling Doll’s limp body so gently, in the same way he’d held Uzi before, like he was holding something fragile that deserved that care.

“She was my brother’s kid, Nori’s sister Yeva’s kid too. She was a good kid, maybe she didn’t quite have a future the bunker could’ve supported in the past, but she was a good kid” Khan murmured, looking down at the limp form in his arms as he spoke.

“I failed both her and Uzi so hard, I was grieving so badly I ignored my own daughter, and left my niece to be cared for by strangers. I can’t fix anything with Doll now, but- I want to be a better father for Uzi from now on” Khan added, looking at Uzi as he spoke.

Uzi was still out cold, venting shallow and a little wheezy, but she was alive still, and all of N’s scans had told him that her vital systems were strong, even if the red specks in the normally purple light of her core were a bit worrying.

“Here, put Uzi down on her bed, I have to go…….. tend to Doll” Khan said as they reached the Doorman family dorm, he handed N a key, before turning away and walking back down the hallway.

N had a feeling he knew what was going to happen, he’d seen Workers risking it to bury fallen family and friends outside in the snow before.

N unlocked the door and stepped inside, slowly making his way to Uzi’s room, before setting her down on the bed.

He took the time to tuck her in, tucking the blankets edges around her so she hopefully wouldn’t manage to hurt herself if something happened.

And then he turned back around, he would’ve stayed, but he wanted to make sure Khan was okay, and okay, maybe N didn’t want to see Uzi’s limp form and be reminded about how he hadn’t been able to help her against Cyn in the end.

It made him feel terrible inside, he could still see her disoriented and pained glitchy expression as the floor gave out underneath her.

He needed to fly, to drive these thoughts out of his mind.

Before they consumed him alive.

Chapter Text

{———————\{P.O.V}/————————} ~~~~~~~~~~~~Uzi~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{———————\{P.O.V}/————————}

~~~~~~~~{regenerating……}~~~~~~

Uzi groaned softly as her systems powered back on fully, her chest still ached horribly, but the ache had thankfully faded down to a dull and manageable level.

She pressed a hand against her chest, feeling the dull pulsing pain buried deep within her core, nothing more than a mild sting now, but she still remembered how savage it had been earlier.

Uzi went to get off her bed, only to run into a problem.

She nearly actually screamed when she saw the armored, segmented coils her torso connected to.

A monstrous centipede body with claws and camera stalks galore, just like Cyn had looked in the manor memory that Uzi had entered to help N.

Uzi hesitantly attempting to move the coils, wincing internally as the armor segments scraped against each other as she moved.

Okay…… she could move, but could she turn back?

Uzi turned off her optics and tried concentrating, like she did whenever trying to get her wings to reform themselves and sprout from her back.

Slowly the nerve feelings in her lower half adjusted, until everything felt normal again.

When she turned on her optics again, she could see her legs again, her body back to normal.

Bad news was that her chest was hurting a little more, and she could feel a weird little murmur in her core-beat, nothing too concerning, but something to keep an eye on.

Uzi quickly got off her bed, only to stumble and nearly fall, her optics briefly dimming into near blackness as a wave of dizziness threatened to make her fall right back onto her bed.

Okay, no standing up suddenly apparently- she could deal with that.

Uzi leaned against the wall as she waited for the dizziness to pass, she paused as she heard footsteps, before her door opened.

“Kiddo, careful-“ her dad murmured, stepping into the room almost cautiously, and she quickly looked up, meeting his eyes.

“I’m fine” Uzi huffed, straightening up as she spoke, but nearly falling again, one hand moving to clutch at her chest as the dizziness returned with a vengeance along with a stabbing pain in the middle of her chest-

“I said be careful kiddo-, easy, that was a nasty fall that N said you had earlier, don’t push yourself, just rest” Khan murmured, placing his hands on Uzi’s shoulders and gently guiding her to sit back down on her bed.

“I’d suggest getting your laptop out and getting comfy, because there’s no way I’m letting you go to school today after you one: saved the planet, and two: scared the ever living shit out of me. …..before I leave, is there anything you need?” Khan added after a second.

“…….could you make some gallium soup? Like you used too when I had viruses in the past”- Uzi asked after a long minute, she didn’t necessarily want to just agree with being given a mandatory rest day out of nowhere, but her chest was really beginning to hurt now, and she actually for once just wanted to lay down and rest-

“Alright, in around an hour or two I’ll be heading off to work and I’ll be helping to repair the damage the planet discombobulating did to the bunker, but-, I know our relationships been strained as of late, but if you need me, you do have my number-“ Khan said softly, before he straightened up and left the room, quietly closing the door so it was the way Uzi usually had it-

Uzi stayed sitting there for a minute, before she attempted to stand up again, thankfully the dizziness didn’t attack her this time-

She headed over to her closet, and grabbed out her emergency only comfort clothes, aka the outfit she normally reserved for viruses-

She then unzipped her hoodie and slipped it off, her shirt following soon after- and okay, nearly avoided a scream again-

She had a new scar-, a huge one around the glass over her core, and even her core light had been invaded by flecked of toxic yellow, although she could also see flecked of blood red, which were much more prominent then the yellow-

Uzi sighed softly, before she shrugged on her oversized fuzzy purple hoodie, casually sticking her thumbs into the holes at the ends of the sleeves, that was one thing she loved about this hoodie, it had fingerless gloves built into the sleeves-

She then hauled her laptop out of its charging port, before she moved back over to her bed and sat down, quickly opening her laptop and turning on the hologram screen, before she booted up BNA, one of her guilty favorites of anime-

She curled up, draped her blanket over herself, and tucked her one plushie close to herself- the plushie was a Halloween bat squishmellow, and it fit her vibes thank you very much-

Uzi let herself relax, exhaustion from the last forty eight hours taking hold, passing out wasn’t rest after all, and her whole body ached-

She heard the door open, before someone walked closer to the bed and placed a small tray down near her, a warm bowl on it.

“Take care of yourself kiddo, seriously, don’t stress yourself out-“ Khan murmured softly, and Uzi felt him place a gently kiss on the top of her head, before he left the room.

Uzi almost wanted to call out after him, but she didn’t-, she simply returned her attention back to her lap top.

{———————\{P.O.V}/————————} ~~~~~~~~~~~~Khan~~~~~~~~~~~~
{———————\{P.O.V}/————————}

Khan sighed softly after he closed Uzi’s door, feeling worried.

No arguments, she’d actually accepted being forcibly given a rest and recover day, she’d seemed strangely subdued and in potential pain-, all things that pointed to something being potentially wrong with Uzi-.

Great, as if Khan needed anymore stress and agitation and anxiety, he already worried about her on the daily already, wondering if his genetics had began to take root and influence her or if she was truly fine, and hating himself for how nothing he seemed to do as a father went well or worked-

Still, Uzi was his daughter, and it was his job to worry about her health and keep her safe-, he’d let his own emotions and grief help tear a rift before, he was not about to let his emotions tear the rift right back open when he’d began to attempt to mend it-

Khan shook his head to clear it, before he headed down the dorm hall, grabbing his coat and tool belt as he went, before he activated the lights panel and dimmed the lights a fair bit, so should Uzi emerge from her room the light wouldn’t bother her too much.

He then headed out the door and down the bunker hall, shaking his head as he noted all the damage and cracks in the walls.

That needed fixing.

Good thing he had tools and know how-

He didn’t trust half the idiots in the bunker to actually do the job right to be perfectly honest, knowing some individuals they’d only end up making it worse-.

He didn’t mind the work though, it was soothing, and a welcome temporary distraction from what was going on with Uzi.

Sure using work to distract himself from worrying probably wasn’t the healthiest, but Uzi would probably snap at him if he tried to fuss over her, so giving into work it was-