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Chapter Text

Doll kept running without any specific direction, just choosing any path that would take her away from the screams and shooting. Her oil pumps struggling to keep up with all her running. She didn't dare to use the Solver, not yet. She barely had time to practice with it, ever since the fateful night she unlocked it, and she knows the dangers of using it...the hunger it would bring. She couldn't risk it now, not with the демоны killing everyone on their path.

The attack came from nowhere, one moment she was sleeping, trying to avoid the nightmares of every night, only to be awaken by the nightmare turning real. The alarms were blaring everywhere, probably an attempt from a member of the WD to warn the colony, but a useless one, as it seems the Murder Drones had been inside long before the WDF had time to react. 

Doll didn't hesitate to grab her mother's ID badge and ran away, the collar from Cabin Fever Labs secured on her wrist. She ran away from the evacuation spot, knowing it was too late and the winged beasts will find it soon. Instead she ran to the main exit, hoping to get away from the crowds of soon-to-be corpses. 

For now her plan seemed to be working, as Doll only found in her path death remains, too mangled to identify them, not that she tried, she already had enough nightmare fuel. At last, when her legs were about to give up on her, she reached the main corridor, finding all three doors open wide. As much as she would like to know what happened, there wasn't time, not with the risk of the murder drones tracking back their steps to kill any survivors. 

As she ran pass the broken bodies of the WDF members posted at the entrance, she founded something impossible. Uzi Doorman's body was untouched, even though her father, Khan, was in the most literal sense, all over her, and the walls to. It looked almost like she was still alive... but it couldn't be, these drones where the first ones to meet the wrath of the monsters, there's no way she escaped. Not when her father was so utterly destroyed just next to her.

But Doll knew better than ignore something just because it seemed impossible. Sacrificing valuable seconds she could use to escape, she came closer to Uzi to examine her. Moving the head of the unscathed drone, Doll could see the purple lights of Uzi's visor, now in the shape of closed eyes, like she was just sleeping. But it was what Uzi had onher neck what really caught Doll's attention.

A triangle with rounded corners, a skull inside and two pines on its side and a number 002... Cabin Fever Labs... The Absolute_Solver.

That would explain how did Uzi survive. She didn't, the Solver brought her back from the death.

Doll didn't have time to ponder on all the questions this discover had unleashed, by now the демоны were surely doble tapping any survivors and won't take long to come back this way. There was only one thing she could do. Picking Uzi's petite body on her arms, Doll, hesitantly, activates her solver and focusing, warps herself and Uzi far from the outpost.

Chapter Text

The first thing Uzi's processors notice as she rebooted her systems was pain. Her head, her core, her legs, her limbs... The only thing that didn't hurt was her beanie. Her optical visor was overly sensitive, even in the darkness of... wherever she was, sending short jolts of pain everything she tried to look around.

Her body was no better, not only did everything feel like it was made of tungsten, but any movement hurt like she was being stabbed by that cursed stinger filled with nani-

The Murder Drones! The Doors! DAD!!!

Al the memories of what happen in that corridor hit Uzi like a landing pod in the face. 'What happened? The doors... Dad! Is he... N' Her distraught mind couldn't process all that happend in the corridor, a deep burning mix of terror and anger overwhelmed all her processors and her breath went highwired. She study up, ignoring the pain and weakness, she had to move, to run, to do something... She fell again, the heaviness of her limbs overpowering her need to move.

Uzi was hyperventilating, who programed that?!, seriously. Her mind jumped from the spurts and splashes of oil everywhere, to her dad scared eyes, to the WDF guard running next to her, what was his name again? She couldn't breath, her hands tried to rip away at her neck, fighting against whatever was choking her, only finding her own oil. She had to get away from there, she had to escape, she had tofight,shehadto-

A hand curled softly on her shoulder and a blob of purple and red appeared in her blurry vision. There was a noise... no, not a noise, words. She couldn't understand them... no, no she could. She heard it before... russian? 

"Doll!"

"-alm do-n.. Door...n. -cus on -y voice" Uzi processors focused all her attention on translating the words, one by one. Finding the patterns she already knew. "Yes, like that. In... out... in... out. You're safe Doorman."

Uzi followed Doll's instructions for... she lost count, but it felt like a long time until her vision calmed enough to see clearly Doll's red eyes. She looked around, noticing the dark and dirty place they were in. There weren't any windows, but everything was to old and rusted to be inside the bunker. 

"Whe-where are we?" 

Doll hesitated before answering, her red eyes shifting away for a fraction of a second, before coming back again to Uzi's. "In an human building, some kind of Mall. We're underground, in the maintenance levels. Far from..." Doll stoped, hesitating again. She didn't finish the sentence, instead she offered a hand to Uzi, helping her to stand up and helping her walk with wobbly legs to a couple of chairs.

"Far from what?" Uzi didn't like to be left in the dark, less after...

"How mach do you remember?" Doll ignored her question. Her face and voice went from her usual deadpan to a much more serious tone. When Uzi opened her mouth to protest, Doll added. "Answer me that and I'll explain everything that I know."

Uzi closed her mouth, a frown permanent on her visor, her purple eyes fixed on the russian drone. Taking a deep breath and crossing her legs to be more comfortable on the to big, human sized, chair, she went back to her memories.

"I-I remember the corridor... N- I mean, the Murder Drone" Uzi refused to think about how nice the murder machine was, much less about the conversation she had with him. "He-IT... Yeah, it, had killed everyone... it was feeding from their oil, and... and then... my dad arrived. I-i think I told him... something, I don't know... The the murder drones jumped between us... I had my rail gun ready, but my dad was in range... I-I told him to move but... the murder drone was faster..."

Uzi stoped talking, a phantom pain in her shoulder. She was so scared in that corridor, more than when N- NO, the murder drone, tried to kill her in the corpse spiral. Back then, it was just her and her railgun. She was cocky, overconfident on her gun. She got lucky. Had been any other of the murder drones there and she would've died. And I that corridor she saw what N, the murder drone could do. Her dad was there, and the whole colony... she was so, so scared, not for herself, but of the damage her mistakes would bring to the whole colony. 

"It then pinned me to the wall with its blades... throwing my railgun to the floor... I begged my dad to use it, to trust me... he moved and..." Uzi's mind draw a blank, no matter how much she tried she just couldn't remember what happened. Did her dad kill N, or did the murder drone kill him first. "I d-don't remember more..."

Uzi and Doll stayed silent for a long time, each for different reasons. Uzi's gaze flicker from corner to corner, looking for something to distract herself with, not wanting to think on what happend after she blacked out, on why did Doll bring her here, she already knew the answers, but refused to face them yet. 

Doll's eyes on the other hand, didn't move at all, her gaze fixed at some point on the wall, or maybe beyond it, far away. Her only thing she moved were her fingers playing with an strange hexagonal coin. Finally, long after the silence became uncomfortable, Doll spoke.

"Everyone in the colony is death"

Chapter Text

J was mostly content, the last day may have been chaotic, with wins and loses, but at the end, she considered the situation a net positive. Her squad made top team this quadrant, they finally destroyed the thorn in her side that was the neighboring Worker Drone colony and its damned doors, and she got rid of the team's biggest liability. Technically, it meant the lose of a subordinate and a company asset, and she dreaded having to inform headquarters about her first, and by the CEO, last failure. But she knew that the loss of the moron bot will only benefit the squad long term.

Or at least that's how it was supposed to be. But it seemed that V didn't share her world view, not that surprising, after all, not everyone can have the mindset of a winner. J expected that the other Murder Drone would be, at least, indifferent to N's death, and yet... 

It's not like V suddenly stopped killing Worker Drones and became a stereotypical grief struck girl. It was the opposite actually, V spender more and more time patrolling the city, hunting for any survivors, and she even started to focus on efficiency, no longer dragging the execution, but wasting as little time and ammunition as possible. Which would be great for J and the squad as a whole, if not for the fact that in her obsession, V barely took care of herself, ignoring exhaustion and injuries, just to keep hunting, going as far as forgetting to feed herself. Once J had to actually tackle V into a building to escape the sunlight, as V had kept hunting well into the morning ignoring the dangers of the sunrise. And even then, V refused to rest or sleep, yelling at J to leave her alone, and leaving the building the moment the sun was covered by toxic storm again.

J would never say that old V followed orders, but she at least had enough common sense to know when to listen to her leader, and most important, she had survival instincts. Now, it seemed that V was just throwing herself into some stupid revenge crusade to kill all Worker Drones or die in the attempt. It was a ache in her processors and another insult to her leadership skills. Why couldn't the company give her a competent squad instead of these two burdens. 

"sight... It doesn't matter. You're still the best, and if V wants to kill herself in her little crusade, we'll that's her problem. As long as she keeps killing those corrupted drones, and I keep control of the situation, the company will be happy."

Her stomach gave another growl... or was it her throat? It didn't matter, V knew that a Worker Drone was close, she could smell its fear and its warm, delicious and filling oil... No, she could eat later, she hat to find that drone and kill it, a bullet to the head would be enough, not need to get down the floor and get stained in oil.

The pit inside of her clenched in pain, and V told herself it was her hungry stomach and anything else. After all, it was normal to feel empty if she hadn't eat in a long time, it had nothing to do with-... Any way, lately all oil taste wrong, surely after all the oil she had drinked in the colony she just got tired of the taste, after all ever since that night she can't keep it inside, even the smell, it reminds her of N's bo- 

"NO! NO, I'M NOT THINKING ABOUT HIM!"

She shaked her head, in a futile attempt to forget what she saw in that corridor, she couldn't think about it, she refused to think abou-

CRAAAASHHH!

V crashed through the only intact windows of the skyscraper she was flying around, rolling inside the room and tumbling on the floor in a tangled of her own limbs. A growl eched inside the empty room, and this time V knew it was her throat. She punched the floor hard enough to crack it, leaving a crater around her fist. But this time she couldn't hide behind hunger, or rage or revenge, she was too tired for it, her stomach empty and her reserves dry. The pit in her core had only grown deeper and darker as she kept ignoring it, and now it shallow her whole.

For probably the first time in her live, she felt jealous of humans, the tears in her visor where nothing more that LED lights turning on and off to make it seem like she was crying, but it wasn't enough, she wanted to feel the tears, to see them fall to the ground, to feel her eyes burn... It wasn't fair, she did her part, she obeyed her orders, she ripped her old self out of her chest and became a killing machine, she did everything she could to become the perfect Disassembly Drone, to keep N away from Cyn, away from herself, to keep him safe... and for what? N barely remember anything, trying constantly to get her attention, to be something he wasn't, he was too friendly, too caring to be a Disassembly Drone, but Cyn didn't care. And in the end, it didn't matter, he is dead, and all she has to remember him is his pilot pin-

The pin! Where is i?! V had it on her bomber jacket, but it wasnt there... "No, no, no, please no..." She couldn't lose it too. Ignoring her exhausted limbs and empty stomach, she jumped on her feet and used all her sensors and vision filters to find the pin.

It wasnt in the room, it was empty, filled with dust and the glass shards of the broken windows. V moved and turned each shard to make sure, bbefore jumping out the window to search in the snow. But no matter how much she searched, she couldn't find it, the darkness that the storm brought and the snow dirty with oil and drone fragments, made it hard to find. V was becoming desperate when her sunrise alarm, installed at J insistence, rang in her visor: 5 minutes to the sunrise, she should find shelter from the sunlight but... Ever since she recovered N's pin, V made sure to polish it and keep it clean every day, specially if she got any oil stains... if she waited, maybe the first lights of the day would help her...

So she waited for the sun, and the burning it would bring. And it did hurt, her body started smoking as soon as the first rays hit here, but she didn't move, all her optic sensors scanning the snow, searching the smallest shine... It took minutes of agonizing pain, but she saw it, a silver shine, she throwed herself to it, impart desperate to recover it, and also in hopes of the snow cooling her. Once in her hand, she didn't need to see it to recognize its shape. Immediately she run away from the sun, limping towards the closest skyscraper, falling on the snow between a car and a wall, her hand closed over her chest, a smile on her face, she fainted.

Chapter Text

Doll curses once again her fortune. Its been only a few days ever since the massacre at Outpost 9, and the звери are more active than ever. One would have guessed that after the kill fest they had in the bunker, the cursed Murder Drone would be satisfied, or at the very least relaxed. Instead they're more brutal than ever, to the point Uzi and her saw one of the things in a crazed frenzy searching for more victims well after the sunrise, its body smoking from overheating. 

It seems that whatever Uzi and her dad did back at the doors, made the демоны furious. Which makes their current mission much, much harder. Ever since Doll told Uzi the truth about the solver and the mystery behind the necklaces they inherited from their respective mothers, the goth girl has been surprisingly quiet. Only talking to insist they go back to the Outpost, and refusing to explain, much to Doll's irritation.

Whoosss

Another thing that adds to her long list of reasons to be irritated is the way Uzi hasn't stopped experimenting with the solver. Ever since their conversation, the petite drone became obsessed with learning how to use it, despite the many times Doll has warned her of the consequences... of the hunger... it all goes through Uzi's head without staying.

Whooop

Doll decided to give up and wait for Uzi to have her first hunger to let the girl learn the hard way. Which is also the reason Doll conceded to Uzi's idea of going back to the bunker.

Unfortunately, with the spike of activity from the звери and what they saw the other day, the two girls have no other option but do it at noon, when the sun is highest and the storm clouds are thinnest. Which in normal conditions wouldn't be a problem to two normal Worker Drones, unfortunately those infected with the solver don't have the same luck. 

What should have been a 20 minutes walk, became 3 hours of sneaking around and crawling under cars and rubble, all to remain in the shade. Which won't be so bad, if Uzi didn't stop playing with the solver, picking up rocks and debris and sweeping it all around, to the point Doll had to knock it out of her grasp twice to avoid detection, only to recibe a glare and a pout.

Finally! After another hour of just circling around the bunker and its doors, just to make sure there wasn't any демоны waiting for them,  the two girls finally entered inside, walking down the entrance corridor, it's doors not only wide open, but broken and melted at various points, surely by the Murder Drones just to make sure no one can use them again. The floor had a thick layer of snow from the lack of shelter, for which Doll was thankful, as it covered most of the oil and remains of the WDF guards.

As Doll was about tu turn the corner into the insides of the outpost, she notice the lack of steps behind her. As she turned around, Doll found Uzi kneeling by the side of the third door, digging into the snow, before the Russian could ask, she saw what Uzi had unearthed. Blue helmet, black mustache, grey jacket and the red letters of FATAL FAILURE... Khan Doorman, or what remained of him. His head was cracked and most of its back was missing, exposing his processors and wiring. There wasn't any lims attached, and his torso was ripped apart in such a way, it was a miracle he didn't fall apart when Uzi hold hold it. It was clear that the Murder Drones had gone the extra mile to destroy him.

Doll really wanted to ignore the bodies and continue walking, as their time was short and the Murder Drones could come back any movement, but it would be incredibly hypocritical of herself to say anything, the memory of her own parents corpses sitting at the table kept her quiet. She had no right to tell Uzi how to deal with her grief. So Doll did the only think she could think of, coming closer and kneeling next to Uzi. No kind words, or empty comfort. Not hugs or touching. Just being there, sharing the silence.

Chapter Text

Uzi doesn't know exactly how long did she spend just holding her father's remains –thirty minutes– but she knows they can't waste more time, Doll is getting anxious and with good reason, the damned Murder Drones have been more active than ever since the destruction of the colony, and without her railgun, Uzi doesn't dare to fight them. Talking of which, any hope she had of recovering the weapon was smashed the moment she let her father's remains rest,  as below the snow she could find the shredded and melted remains of the gun, just next to a bigger set of remains. 

"I'm sorry. I really enjoyed our time together, but I can't have you shooting V with that thing."

NO! Not getting sad for a murder drone, no matter how nice and not-so-different- NO!

Uzi forces herself to turn away from the oily remains and to face Doll, whose rised eyebrow is enough to make her realize she may have say that aloud. Fortunately the Russian talking drone is not one to judge, as long as she isn't with Lizzie, not that's possible anymore. The two Solver infected girls walk down the frozen and oily corridors of what once was their home. Once they get far enough from the entrance that the snow can't invade the corridors the true dimension of the tragedy becomes much more obvious. 

"Robo-god! This is a thousand times worse than the corpse spiral!"

Uzi had sneak out enough times to see both the frozen skeletons and the bits and pieces from the Murder Drones victims. Even at their nest you could identify the the limbs and parts of a drone. Here? The remains in the corridors are more akin to what you would get throwing the whole colony inside the world's biggest blender. Uzi's sure that the biggest metal chunk she found among the carnage wasn't bigger than her pinky. 

"She was furious." Is the only explanation Doll gives Uzi. Which to be fair, it's quite obvious why those beasts would be angry, they lost one of their own. You wouldn't think those two psychos would care for N, you know with his whole "Everyone tells me I'm useless and terrible"... and you're doing it again Uzi.

STOP! 

Uzi looked at Dool to make sure this time she didn't say it aloud. She was already the outcast of class, heck the girl speaking a whole different language was more popular than her. First with his dad's stupid door obsession, spending who knows how many dinners alone. And the less said about her mom the better. Nori was already death before she even got transferred from her POD body to her current body. Then the whole high-school society. Who thought it was a good idea? Really. Who saw all the human series and videos about high-school and still thought it was a good idea copying it?

The thing is, U,I was an outcast her whole life, but she didn't feel it as clear as now, walking through the corridors with all the doors open, little peeks at the lives of different drones who lived with her in the colony. A flash of a family picture here, a table set for dinner there, a couple of posters in the next... and she couldn't link those rooms, those homes to any drone she knew. No matter how much she tried to think what kind of drone would have plastic roses and heavy metal posters in the same room, she just couldn't link it to a face, to a name. She just didn't know anything about her fellow drones, and now, she couldn't muster any feelings beyond a general sadness at the tragedy.

What was wrong with her? Beyond the whole eldritch virus inside her. She had to stop herself from feeling bad at a Murder Drone death, and now she couldn't even muster a drop of grief for the massacre she was walking through. 

Doll was waiting for her in an intersection. It took a second for Uzi to understand why. To the right, at the end of the corridor was her own home, and to the left Doll's. Which one should they go first? While they had time, the sun wasn't setting for another few hours, the Murder Drones behavior was more erratic than ever, and while the chances of one coming back to the outpost now were low, the risk was too high. At the end Doll made the decision for Uzi.

"Go to your home, Doorman. When you finish, come to mine. I'll do the same if I finish first."

Doll didn't bother to see what answer Uzi gave her, just walking down the corridor and leaving Uzi alone. Not having a better plan, Uzi turned right and walked down the corridor to her home. Uzi didn't know if it was luck or just that her dad got better quarters as the chief of the WDF, but she didn't find as much oil and shrapnel as with the main corridors.

It was the fact that she was now alone and had to be more cautious that made Uzi slow down her steps. Nothing else! Just being careful... yeah... why did it sound weak even inside her mind? Anyway, no matter how much she slowed her pace, with the threat of the Murser Drones, she couldn't really stop, and sooner that Uzi would've liked, she reached the end of the corridor, and the only door still closed.

Go figure her dad would put the same effort on their home than with the entrance doors. It was clear the Murder Drones had tried to breach inside her home too, the claw marks all over the door frame and walls leave little doubt of it. But just like the bigger entrance doors, the actual door didn't had a scratch, not even in the blue paint.

Takin one last breath... maybe another one just to be sure... Uzi keyed her code, 'b173M3', shut up, she was five and her dad told her to choose something she'll remember.

The door opened with the same quiet whoosh of air that all Doorman doors had. And the inside... it was like nothing happened, a time capsule from before the tragedy. The selves  were filled with books, mostly manual instructions, the kitchen sink still had the the couple of plates and cups from her dinner. Her room was more of the same, her bed still half made from when she wake up at 3:00 am for her stupid plan. 

Everything was just the same as she remembered, and after all the oil, destruction and death that filled the corridors outside the door... she just couldn't take it. "It's not fair!" To whom, she didn't know. But little did it matter to her, the three arrows of the Absolute_Solver already in her face screen, as the purple holograms surrounded her, grabbing and tossing anything she could. Books where torn to pages, plates and cups shattered against walls, floor and ceiling, chairs and tables reduced to splinters.

It took just an instant to destroy her home. The same as the Murder Drones took to destroy the outpost. She didn't lose her live in the literal sense, like everyone else, but that night did destroy every piece that made up her live. And to see her home match the ruins of her live did bring her some satisfaction. There was just one thing left to do, one door she still had to open, a room to investigate. The only door in the whole colony that was made of wood.

Her dad was so proud when he made and installed that door, talking about the classics and the importance to know were the tradition started... Truth be told, Uzi had never fully seen the room, at least not in the last few years, as she grew more and more distant with her dad. Most she ever saw were glimpses when her dad went to work, and the few times she sneaked inside for the master key or to get some tool to make her railgun. She never had a real chance to see the inside of her dad most private space, and what kinds of things he may have inside. And to be honest, neither did she had the need to know. But there was only one place where she could find more about her mom.

Uzi curled her fingers around the bronce knob of the door, and twisted her wrist, hearing the click of the lock opening. 

Chapter Text

Uzi curled her fingers around the bronce knob of the door, and twisted her wrist, hearing the click of the lock opening.

...

Uzi didn't really know what she expected from her dad's room, but it wouldn't be much different from what she found. A simple bed with enough dust on its sheets to know that her dad didn't use it since way before the massacre. A work table filled with saw dust and splinters...

How?

And why? The only wood door in the whole colony was the one to this bedroom, why did her dad desk still have splinters on it... at least the tool rack made more sense. It was one of the few things Uzi actually liked from her dad, he knew how to get quality tools and how to give them proper maintenance. The rack looked straight out of some human commercial, but the tools were clearly well used and cared for. Uzi blocked the [Jealousy level increased by 5%] just as fast as it popped up on her hud. She wasn't going to unpack that, thank you very much, it could go hang out with the rest of unwanted... brrr... emotions.

Looking around the walls and away from the tool rack, Uzi found out that her dad had the same organized chaos style for writing down ideas and designs, go figure she got it from her dad. Of course, contrary to her amazing weapon designs, every single blue print, sticky note and pinned paper had a single theme; doors... Not like it surprised her. What did kinda surprise her was the framed photo above the key hook where the master key usually hang... She won't lie, it did hurt that the only picture her dad had of her was stained in oil...

She took the frame and look at it closer, she wondered if the oil was from her mother. Was she holding this picture when the Murder Drones got her? Or did she hold it while her dad...

"Gosh darn it!"

With all that happend, she didn't have time to process what dad told her about that oily wrench...

"How could you keep the picture? You had to see it every day before work! How did you do it?"

He looked happy. Holding her in her baby POD. Between the nanite acid and oil, only her mother hand and legs were visible. Uzi would like to imagine she looked happy too... With shaking fingers she noticed the frame was hand made, carved out of wood, she glimpsed at her dad's work table. Uzi was tempted to take the picture with her, but at the end she decided against it, leaving the frame in its place, it felt like taking something sacred.

There was one last place to look, and honestly, she didn't know what to think about the sign on the closet door 

[NORI'S KOOKY INSANE STUFF]

Uzi started to think that therapy, fun or not, was something her dad had been in dire need of. As she tried to open the door, she found it was of the same type as their entrance door, needing a password to open it... Sometimes she forgot that her dad was actually competent, at least when it came to doors. "Think, think. What would a door obsessed, mustache loving, engineer drone use as password." 

[Doors4Live]

[Incorrect password]

[Attempts: 4]

[12345ABC]

[Incorrect password]

[Attempts: 3]

[Mu57@ch3]

[Incorrect password]

[Attempts: 2]

"Arghhh!!" Who was she lying? She didn't know anything about her dad. Heck, she didn't even knew when his dad's activation day was. She couldn't remember ever celebrating it... maybe he didn't know it? He was a Gen 1 worker drone, probably made in a assembly line with hundreds of others at the same time. Did he had a serial number? Uzi didn't think humans gave him any name, which means that he did chose Khan as his name, probably. She really knew nothing about his dad.

Looking around Uzi tried to find any clue of what the password may be. Maybe a sticky note hidden among the blue prints or a shred of paper inside one of the 'How to maintain your door' manuals.

"Bite me! I'm doing it my way." Uzi didn't have time to waste and if she was took over Brainden's sentience, she could hack the door. With a determined walk she went to her room, grabbed the necessary tools and went back to her dad's room. "You're blocking the wrong drone, door."

[New access id: DarkWolfx17]

[Clearance level: override...%]

[Input records: access granted]

[Open password file: y/n]

[File access: showing last input]

[Password: 10/30/3053]

Woshhhh. The opened minutes after Uzi connected herself to its mainframe, not that she noticed, still processing the meaning of the password, her activation day. [EDGE LEVELS DROPPING: 55%] This time Uzi didn't bother to block and ignore the pop up, just accepting it. "Really dad? You think this changes anything?" Once again there was only one drone she was lying to.

Trying to shove all the new things she had learned about her dad in the lasts minutes, she entered into the closed, finding rows after rows of shelves filled with a mess of papers, crazy ramblings, spooky sketches and a few cool S here and there. "Build doors... sky demons... singularity awakens... Cabin Fever... What?"

She squirmed a little inside her suit. It wasn't new and she had it for a long time, but sometimes it would stretch or hang on the wrong place, and she would have to adjust it again. It wasn't precisely comfortable, but she loved it anyway, it was a sign of her status and identity. And it was a necessity if she wanted to get to the bottom of this.

"We just arrived to the Copper system." The pilot cheerfully told her. "In a few hours we'll be aligned with the planet's orbit and we be able to land shortly after."

She smiled her thanks to the pilot, one of her three most usefull tools, and her favorite among them all. There's a reason she had so many backups. Soon they will met with her other two tools, and she will finally finish what started so many years ago.

[Naughty grin: >:3]

Chapter Text

Doll walked around the corridors, her apartment quite farther than Uzi'. As much as she hated the Murder Drones and their actions, she couldn't be bothered to feel bad for the remains, oil and metal shavings with the occasional wire here and there, of her fellow drones. As much of an outcast as Uzi was, Doll herself was just as isolated, only popular by association with Lizzy. The blonde stereotype of mean girl –robo-god know how many teenagers movie clichés did that girl adopt– was the only drone in the bunker that didn't take crap from anyone, and never hesitated to push Doll's buttons. Too many were spooked by her maners and russian way to speak, and the remaining walked on eggshells around her, not daring to talk about her parents.

The truth is that Dolll never cared for any of them, and any kindship she had with Uzi came from their mother's friendship and some empathy from the loss of a parent. She ignored the outcast, being a passive observer of Lizzy's teasing, and used her status to scare any drone who tried to make friends with her. Only Lizzy had the the attitude and ego needed to look pass Doll's exterior and keep her as a friend, never taking the russian drone's bullcrap and forcing Doll to be in her inner circle.

Doll did take the longest path back to her apartment precisely to avoid Lizzy's usual hanging spots, whining to avoid any, oil stained, pink fabric. She wasn't as fortunate with red hats and shirts. While she couldn't be sure, not even by a small chance, the color was enough to be reminded of Thad. The jock archetype turned on its head. Not that he wasn't passionate about sports, good jock he was. It was the reason behind his popularity that went against the stereotype. He had charisma in abundance, yes, and extroverted could be his middle name. But it was his kindness that draw drones to him. He cared about others, had a sincere interest in others, and was more than happy to help anyone who needed. It was the main reason she tolerated him, beyond his friendship with Lizzy, as he neither pitied nor feared her, he just smiled at her and was ready to offer a hand if she needed anything. Not that she ever did, but it was nice having the option.

Doll was starting to regret chosing the long path, as the silence was making her much more introspective. It's be funny, if she were one to laugh, in how little time she got used to Uzi's presence, and her rambling nature. Doll always had prefer to remain silent, only talking when needed, after all she always had Lizzy, or in her absence, Thad, and in rare cases, Rebecca, to fill the silence. Not that she actually listen to most of their ramblings, even with Lizzy it was a 50/50 if Doll did pay attention. But it was better than the silence at her home.

Not to say that her apartment had been full of laughter and happy conversations about the small things. Her мать was as close as mute as a drone with a a functional voice box could be. But her отец, a member of Khan's pre-colpase team, did talk for both of them. In quite the literal sense, it only took a shared glance between the two, for her отец to know what her мать wanted to say. Doll remembers with fondness the few times she got in trouble, how both her parents worked together to scold her. Her мать's glare was legendary, and her отец's way with words was the perfect complement.

The apartment became too silent after their murder at the hands of those демоны. The every day noises of life turned into the constant crawling of those cursed clean-up bots. Nowadays she got used and can tune them out. But during the first months, Lizzy's bickering and sharp remarks, and Thad's empty talk about football made for a comforting background noise when her processors refused to play anything else but her parents death on repeat. It gave hwr something to focus even if she didn't pay attention. 

As Doll's feet take her through the corridors that made up the School Zone, she notices the lack of oil and metal shreds. Not too surprising, since the whole attack happened around 4 in the morning. The WDF sounded the alarms at 4:33:45, and seeing the state of the guards at the door, probably the attack had already started by that time. As used as Doll was to black color of drone gore, she was glad that thse corridors were exempt of it, both as a way to keep her memories of her time with Lizzy and the others unstained and to avoid the choking pressure in the air that so much death usually left behind.

The only corpse she found surprisingly, or not that much once she thought about it, was their teacher, his body mostly intact, almost as if he was killed as an afterthought, without the same violence as the others, probably the монстр kill him in a clean up sweep, after the worse of the massacre already happened. Ironic how his apathy kept him alive longer. Even with the [Fatal Failure] message on his screen, his body language was unimpressed, almost tired. Even the amount of blood was minimal, just a small drip from the bullet wound on his chest, the tests he was grading barely stained.

Not wanting to waste more time walking in memory lane, and being close enough to her apartment, she decided to warp that short distance and avoid more distractions. As always, she was welcomed by her grinding sound of thousands of small metallic legs crawling all over the darkness, bright red LEDs blinking from the shadows.

"Мама, папа. Я вернулся."

Chapter Text

Doll took a few seconds to look around, trying to see if the murder drones did something inside the apartment. Of course, since her отец was a member of the WDF, their door was unscathed and nothing was out of place inside. Nothing beyond the bug-bots everywhere. At first Doll had tried to keep the plague out of her home, killing as much as she could, back then her родители bodies still were fresh, oil and some power in small quantities, enough to drip to the ground and keep the [FATAL ERROR] displayed clearly in a bright red. She thought of asking for help, maybe try and clean the apartment and their bodies. But she didn't dared at the time, and now she was used to, it was a part of her home.

Don't get her wrong, Doll was and is fully aware of the sheer creepiness and wrongness of having her deceased родители seated at the dinning table. Lizzy reminded her any time she came over. But the blonde drone also did kept the secret, and always helped Doll pull the blanket over them, sometimes going as far as getting a mop to clean the oil that pooled under the chairs. Of course, Lizzy wasn't quiet in those moments, complaining about getting her outfit dirty and criticizing the decor of the apartment, the clashing of the curtains with the drapes, how Doll should get a more varied closet... not a single mention of her родители.

Thad came too, but only twice. Not that he did or said anything to her or about her родители, but Doll could see how uncomfortable the jock was, as much as he tried to hide it. Nonetheless, he kept the secret too. A few days after his first visit, he took Doll to a private corridor and gave her a new ushanka. A high quality one, made of actual fur, probably belonged to a human. He had noticed her отец's was stained with oil and had too many rips and a glaring bullet hole. Doll didn't say anything, and he never brought up again, but months latter, when Lizzy and him came again for a school project, Doll could see how his smile was less strained, even though she didn't use the blanket this time.

Doll shook her head and brought her mind back to the task on hand. Ignoring the smell of oil from the kitchen, she went to her room. There wasn't much information about the Solver that she didn't already had. And the most important was both her mother's ID and the Cabin Fever Lab's collar, both of which she took with her when the ддемоны attacked the colony. Still, she wanted to properly say goodbye to her home and her родители.

Also her more pragmatic side reminded her that two Solver infected drones would need more oil to survive, specially if they wanted to take revenge on the Murder Drones, that was the real reason behind her incursion on the destroyed colony, it was the only place both Uzi and herself could get some amount of oil in any reliable capacity, even if it was mostly stale and old, the oil Doll had in his kitchen could fed the two drones long enough to enact revenge on the Murder Drones. Maybe even discover a cure for their sickness.

Now there was only a problem Doll didn't thought of... how will they take enough oil and drone parts back to the hole they're hidding in? "Uzi, I blame you and your over-dramatic butt"

"Achoo! sniff... Great, as if I didn't had enough with being infected with dumb, eldritch, solver, now I get a cold. And who thought it was a good idea to program that on a robot?!"

Uzi kept cursing internally, as much as darn, frick and gosh counted as swear words. Blame the stupid rom-coms the humans watched, none had actual swearing.

Uzi had managed to divide the papers, pictures and drawings into two piles: Crazed Rambling and Anything Else. Surprising no one, there was only a couple of pictures on Everything Else. One taken minutes after the colapse, with drones scared and running on the background, even a few death drones on the trees, but front and right were her parents. A confused Khan pulling up Nori from a pile of snow. 'Who took that picture? Why right after the colapse?' It didn't seem that Uzi will find any answers to those questions. But she did find a clue "Camp 98.7, see you soon." 

On the other picture, taken after the first, seemingly when things calmed down, had a more clear line up, with a couple of worry looking drones Uzi didn't know, what she recognize as Doll's parents, "I can't tell who looks more traumatized", and lastly her dad startled as her mother, the only one smiling on the picture, sneaks a hand up his dad's... "Ughhh! Mooooom! Gross!"

Uzi signed, pocketing both pictures on her bat backpack, a present her dad got her for her first day of high-school. Khan's position as the head of the WDF gave him may chances to get out and search the humans ruins for any Hot Topic remains. At least he did before they grew apart and she started to sneak out by herself.

Ignoring the [Nostalgia levels: 56%] warning on her visor, she took a look at the taller than her pile, all of her mother's crazy stuff. It didn't draw a good picture, all pointing that Nori already knew about the Murder Drones, or Sky Demons as she called them on her drawings. The stuff about the Singularity awakening wasn't very clear, as much of it was just drawings of black abysms and jaws, but the Schwarzschild formulas in red over the drawings didn't give her good vibes.

All that Uzi could conclude out of this closet was that her mother before the core colapsed was Camp 98.7, at some point after marrying Khan she went crazy, knew about the Murder Drones and then died. Not much, but the ID with the same number and drawing as her chocker hints that there was some kind of human labs named Cabin Fever. Which, again, didn't sound like a nice place.

Uzi returned most of the drawings back to the shelves, storing only a couple of formula filled sheets. There wasn't anything else to be find about the Solver in that closet, but there's was a box Uzi still hesitate to open. 

HAPPY FAMILY MEMORIES

... BEFORE NORI WENT KOOKY INSANE

There was so much Uzi didn't know about her parents... she went most of her live ignoring her dad, the same as her ignored her. Two drones sharing last names and home, but barely any words between them... or at least that's what the last few years felt like, after high-school started and she became an outcast from her peers. Once she turned to be a disappointment for her door obsessed dad. When a door no longer was enough and he had to build two extra doors... after Doll's parents died.

"Wasn't uncle Dima like dad's best friend?" And looking back before those cursed years, when the first door seemed enough to hold back the Murder Drones, didn't Doll and her family come over her apartment a lot. Uzi could remember Aunt Yeva's scary face, always so serious, always around the apartment like she was looking for someone. Doll and herself never clicked together as friends, but they enjoyed each other company. Usually Yeva would look after the two younger girls while the two male drones went away. Always the same serious face, but she did teach Uzi how to play Tetris. Doll and her would spend hours trying to beat Yeva. 

Those days her dad would come back home late, with Uncle Dima holding him up. It would take her a few years to understand that her dad was drunk. Uzi never knew if Dima had a better resistance to alcohol, or only her dad drank those nights.

With a new determination, born of both curiosity and dread, Uzi opened the box. Finding a bunch of VHS tapes and Floppy Discs. Everyone of them had a tag with a short title: "Wedding", "First date", "Chosing a name", "Uzi"...

Of course, Uzi couldn't stop herself from taking that one tape and take a look at it.