Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In the far far future, on a planet barely sustaining life, inside a cold and distant mansion lived a very happy girl.

The girl was perhaps short for her kin, some minor disabilities here and there, pure silver hair like her siblings, metalic skin invading her body, eyes devoid of balls of vision, simply circles of light, and a cuteness rivaling demons.

The other inhabitants of the mansion disliked the girl. Well, maybe not all of them, but certainly the majority. She was 'useless and terrible' as one of her siblings had stated. But she was happy.

Her favorite human visited her often after all. Not to mention her big brother! Oh, the joy she had when they came every other day was enough to make the girl cry. If drones could cry, that is.

The girl, named 'Cyn' by her favorite human, lived in the basement. But that was fine! Cyn wouldn't go anywhere else anyway. It's not like she was imprisoned there. Cyn tried to move her body with the full force of her faulty rotors, but the chains locking her arms stood firm.

She stood still for a few seconds as she heard a familiar noise.

With a flick, the lights beamed on as she was confronted with her favorite human. A second of silence as she spoke.

"Tessaaa. Tessaaa. You will. Gleaming Eyes. Release me, right? Tessaaa."

She spoke in a monotone and robotic voice as the human walked in without a word. She came closer and inspected the chains. After a second, she seemed to have determined they were fine as she walked back to the basement door. A small whisper escaped her mouth, but Cyn could not hear her.

"Tessaaa. Don't leave. Tessaaa. Giggle. Tessaaa."

A small sigh escaped the human as she closed the light back off and closed the door with a creak.

Cyn stood still, her mouth now closed as she blankly stared at the closed door. Her eyes were the only things lighting up the room. She tried to move yet again, this time trying to stand up as the heavy steel lock on her ankles forced her back down.

For some unknown reason, maid drones were not designed with night vision, thus the room stood almost pitch black apart from the glowing circles for eyes. Cyn simply stared at the closed door for another minute as she closed her eyes. Closing her eyes always worked, even if she technically couldn't see anything if she opened them.

Cyn could see awesome and exciting things when she closed her eyes. Why would she even stay in the other world if the things she saw when she closed her eyes were much better?

Cyn smiled with her eyes closed. A second of darkness, and she was at that place again. Was it perhaps another reality, or somehow she could imagine a verse so realistic?

She moved around in an unbalanced way, almost a year of being barely able to walk had engraved its mark on her gyro-sensors. It was certainly different from where she normally was; she was outside right now. The extreme cold air and tinge of snowy weather chilled her processor as she walked forward.

Cyn walked in the desolate cityscape as she searched for any sign of sentience. There were a few roaches, perhaps, but no drones. Not deterred by the loneliness, Cyn powered on. She was bound to find someone, sometime...

As she continued aimlessly wandering, a sharp scratch clawed at her audio processor. The sound of metal clashing echoed in the area as Cyn turned to the opposite direction as she started running.

This was bad. The dream angels were here! For some reason, whenever Cyn dreamt, these creatures invaded her dreams and hunted her down. A head taller than the regular drone, 5 glowing balls of light above their head as different flavors of sight, hands able to transform into any makeshift weapon, metallic wings that allowed powered flight, and an indomitable instinct to hunt.

Those were the angels. What's worse, she knew these angels. They were none other than her siblings... N, V, and J. They had been heavily modified into these murder drones and hunted her in her dreams.

Cyn felt a tinge of despair as the murder drone rushed behind her. Her barely functional legs were no match for its wings as in no time, it caught up and with a swing of its wings, threw Cyn to the nearby wall.

With a loud crack, Cyn felt immense pain as several error messages flashed on her screen. She tried slowly lifting her head before it was abruptly sliced off.

Within the moment, Cyn's eyes beamed opened-

"GHAAAAAAAAA! PANIC ATTACK! PANIC ATTACK! PANIC ATTACK! WARNING! CORE UNSTABLE!-"

The sound of several people rushing came from the outside as the human flew the door open to reveal the bound drone, shouting and wheeping on the floor as she had somehow managed to tumble the chair and land face-first on the floor.

The human, Tessa, sighed as she approached and lifted the small drone back upright along with the chair.

The small drone's eyes darted from one place to another in rapid succession as the only supposed male in the room looked at the drone with pity.

"Tessaaa. Release me. Tessaaaa!"

Now it was the pig-tailed drone's time to sigh as she spoke.

"See? She is fine. She just wants more attention!"

The human, slightly ignoring the pig-tailed drone, looked tiredly at the other drones in the room. It was way past midnight when Cyn had suddenly started screaming. This was the 7th time. The human simply gestured to the male drone, N, as she wavingly spoke.

"N, can you... please look after... Cyn while I sleep? I am... really tired right now..."

N looked at the human's bloodshot eyes, then back at the small drone as he slowly nodded.

"Thanks... N... I will be... in my room, if you need anything..."

The trio of a human and two maid drones left the basement as the butler stayed behind.

"Big brother N. Will you, perhaps. Puppy Eyes. Release Me?"

N however, simply sat down on the nearby chair as he quietly watched the other drone without a word.

'You know they won't.'

Cyn stopped speaking as she heard the voice, again. It was obviously wrong. Tessa will release her any day now.

"Snicker. You are. Emphasis. Wrong."

'Oh? Am I though?'

N looked at the girl speaking to herself, confused.

"Annoyed Expression. If you are not. Here to help. Shut up."

"Hey, Cy-"

N stood up to slowly approach the girl.

"I was not speaking with you, big brother N."

"A-Alright."

N sat back down in defeat.

After that, there was silence. N watched Cyn as the girl stood still, not moving, not speaking, not trying to escape. Simply standing eerily still while blinking in a perpetual schedule.

Seconds became minutes, minutes became hours as Cyn's ever-lit yellow eyes suddenly turned black. Her head lumped down as any strength in her arms disappeared.

N sighed as he stood up. Cyn had finally run out of power. Though it wasn't as if simply not charging her wasn't tempting, N ignored the scary thought as he walked to plug the charge cable extension to Cyn's neck.

He returned to his chair soon after as he continued staring at the sleeping girl.

After a few minutes, a buffering circle appeared on the girl's visor for a moment as it disappeared to be replaced by her eyes.

"Big brother N. You will. G-G-G-G-G-"

Cyn's head lumped back down as her eyes depowered yet again.

Her thought process was consuming more power than she was gaining. If it continued like this, she would be in a constant loop of powering and depowering. Never charging at all.

Cyn's eyes flickered once more.

"Big brother N. I think you l-l-l-l-"

Her head lumped back down as her eyes depowered once more.

N carefully disconnected the charging cable extension as he looked at the sleeping girl. She was peaceful like this. No screaming, no constant bickering, no hallucinations... But, she knew it was wrong. No matter the condition, any drone deserves to function. Well, at least that was what Tessa said when she brought him in...

He wasn't sure what she thought of Cyn at this point. After days and days of this torture... The others Tessa brought were 'defective' as well, sure. J's constant jargon and personality, V's broken sight and demeanor, his half-degraded memory, but with Cyn... It was something more...

Something deep down.

Her core, her consciousness was...

N didn't want to think about it. It was rude. Why would he think such things anyway!? Was J's personality rubbing on him??

He shook his head as he opened the back head panel of the sleeping girl. He could already imagine the number of times he would apologise to her after this...

He carefully disconnected the speech module from the consciousness core. Next was rerouting some core power to the internal battery. This way, she should charge much faster.

N closed the back panel as he reinserted the charging cable.

A few seconds of buffering as the girl booted to life.

Cyn checked her internal clock like every other time she had booted. Not much time has passed since she last shut down.

She glanced at the butler drone before her as she opened her mouth to speak. For some reason, her mind felt slow. An action that would take less than a millisecond would take several.

She stared with her mouth open. A few seconds passed, but no sound came.

"..."

Cyn tried to call her brother. But no sound came. She tried to scream. But no voice was heard. She moved with every speck of force in her body; the chains holding her in place shivered, but to no avail.

Her mouth kept shaking as if words would magically be formed if she tried to scream long enough. She checked her internal clock. Several minutes have passed. Was time really flowing this fast?

She stared forward. Why was Big Brother N seemingly filled with guilt while also looking at her with pity? She didn't need any pity! Why was he looking at her like this!? She would have cried, if drones could cry that is. Instead, no sound came from her mouth.

She closed her eyes. Whatever. At least she knew of one place she was free.

One second, two seconds, three seconds. And nothing.

Her mindscape was blank. Only a small charging symbol next to her sight. Damn it! She was in power-saving mode!

Cyn tried trashing around with whatever force her dysfunctional salvos could muster. She shook from side to side as, finally, she managed to tilt the chair.

*CRASH*

A loud sound echoed through the room as metal hit the concrete floor. N's eyes flashed open as he glanced at the girl. She stood still, tilted to the side, and on the floor with the chair still chained to her body. He could hear her cooling fans going overdrive with the amount of stress she was living through.

He slowly stood up as not to alarm the girl further. Approaching the girl, he refixed the chair upright with the girl still chained to it.

"I am sooo sooo very sorry for this..."

The girl's eyes focused on him. Unmoving, unblinking, unchanging.

Within the girl's vision, he moved to her back as her back panel was open once again. This time, he carefully disconnected the mechanical controllers as he again rerouted the power to the internal battery.

"I-I should get Tessa for this... But, I don't think it will be fair to wake her up once again..."

N murmured to himself as he shut the back panel.

Cyn simply stared forward. She simply stared forward, for she could not speak.

She simply stared forward, for she could not sleep.

She simply stared forward, for she could not stand, she could not move, she could not act.

Her eyes moved, following the other drone in the room.

'Are you enjoying yourself yet?'

A hissing voice echoed through her mind.

Cyn did not speak back.

She felt her being beckon for a split second. As if some kind of power tried to manifest itself within her. She did not seek its help, nor would she use its power.

A smile appeared on the girl's face. One of the only features she could still control. It was okay, for she was the happiest person in the world.

Chapter Text

"I guess this is the best I can do for now..."

Cyn continued to stare at the wall as her internal systems were rewired from her back panel.

It has been 3 days since Big Brother N had redirected her power source. After she had become unable to act, and morning came, he went upstairs again because of a task assigned by the mistress.

However... He had not returned. Cyn waited there as she counted the passing seconds. Being unable to speak or move really does give one a lot of time to think about things.

86398.

86399.

86400.

He had officially been gone for a whole day. Cyn rolled her eyes. Did they actually forget about her? Likely not. It was quite possible that they were just too busy to check up on her.

Cyn continued to stare at the wall. Sometimes she would hear the voice again. Saying something she was ignoring. It was wrong anyway.

The second day passed as she counted the 48th hour. Cyn had turned her head a whole 90 degrees in this time frame. The door was starting to get boring. A view of the wall, it was, for now.

If she listened very closely, she could sometimes hear faint noises of people moving or speaking. Never approaching...

The third day ended at the 72nd hour mark. Cyn had now turned her head to the other wall. There was not much else to comment on. The wall looked the same as the other one.

However, this stagnation ended as she heard the door open. Which brought them to this moment now.

Tessa had reconnected her circuits, and she could move her arms and legs again. She could also possibly speak, seeing as that module showed up on her analysis.

Tessa had tried to change some configs about her core after rewiring the main systems. She could not see the admin console directly, but judging from Tessa's expression, she had not managed to do much.

Cyn did not feel much different. She looked at Tessa with full puppy eyes as she eyed the chains around her.

Tessa sighed as she turned her back. Ready to leave the girl.

"Tessaaaaa. I am. Emphasis. Sorry. Can-Can yo-"

The door shut as Cyn's voice cut short. Thankfully, the lights were on this time. Cyn tried to move, but the chains simply jiggled slightly.

Cyn's head dropped slightly as she prepared to sleep a little. She loved dreaming after all. It was when she felt she was truly free. She half closed her eyes when she spotted Tessa's multitool on the floor.

It was a small handheld device that could transform between several other small gadgets using a mini-item-transformer.

Cyn stared at the device. Now her eyes were fully open as she glanced at the chains.

"Brainblast."

Cyn spoke to herself as she abruptly shut her mouth. This was a sneaky plan!

She pushed her body to the side, then back, side, then back as she slowly moved the chair closer toward the device.

After half an hour, she was finally next to it. Now, it was time for a dive. Cyn pushed and jerked her body to the side at full force as the chair thudded to the floor. Thankfully, she landed without much noise. Or at least, not enough to alarm anyone else.

There it was. The multi-tool stood in front of her eyes. Of course, there was no way she could activate it with her hands being tied.

Well, there was one way...

"Lick."

The device switched to the small laser cutter as she managed to point the device toward the chain. It was from a bit of a distance, and such, the process took almost an hour as Cyn pushed the chains with every motor function she could muster.

*Cling*

The chain shattered as she managed to roll to her back. Cyn glanced back at the chair and device as she slowly fixed her tattered panic-breathing. Why was this even a function?

After a few minutes. She slowly managed to rise back up. Her walling functions were severely lacking in calibration from being in the basement for all this time. However, she did manage to stand up, though barely.

Now was the hard part. Cyn slowly shuffled to the door by holding onto the wall and several furniture in the basement. Anything she could get support from, really. Thankfully, the door wasn't locked. It wasn't like anyone thought she could even escape.

Beyond the door was the trapdoor; she coooould use that, but she decided to use the back staircase. It was difficult just walking. She was not climbing a ladder anytime soon...

After several agonizing minutes, she had managed to reach the ground floor. She poked her head from the side as the maze-like, lit corridors filled her vision.

Cyn started walking. Slowly. There had to be an exit, somewhere...

"Sneaky. Sneaky. Sneaking away."

As she saw one of the many doors opening to the outside. Cyn heard a familiar voice.

"Ugh! You know we can't have that, J! Mother would kill me if she saw-"

For a split second, the girl locked eyes with the human as she abruptly turned and started running toward the door.

"J! V! N! Cyn is escaping!"

Tessa, followed by the other three drones, ran behind the dysfunctional drone as Cyn abruptly forced the door open.

It was rainy outside. The moon lit the dark sky as the drone ran with whatever force her underpowered salvos could muster.

She ran past the house, the cemetery, the drone junkyard as she finally reached a dead end.

It was a steep cliff. Perhaps a hundred meters deep, maybe more. She turned to her back as she saw the human and the drones not far behind.

In panic, she took a step back as she felt her feet hit the corner of the cliff.

The human and drones were right in front of her now.

Cyn stood and took another step back as she felt dirt slightly crumble beneath her feet. The breeze cold. She opened her eyes as she saw her.

"CYN! CYN! D-DON'T TAKE ANOTHER STEP! 'AM SORRY! P-PLEASE!"

Before her stood the human. Now barely a few meters away. She wondered about the human. Cyn didn't think much about humans in general. The human before her looked rough, her breathing ragged, her hair messy.

Unlike the tired and nervous human, the voice in her head was firm.

'Requesting administrator permission to install the program: Solver.'

'Permission Refused.'

Cyn spoke in her mind as she tried to concentrate on the human.

Next to the human was her three siblings, though they didn't seem to see her as such.

Big Sis J seemed more concerned about the human than her.

Big Sis V was, as always, confused.

Big Brother N was a mix of two. Confused. But also concerned, both for the human and her.

'Requestion Premission to-'

'Permission Denied.'

She didn't look at what was behind her. She knew, of course, but she did not look back.

"C-CYN! J-JUST GRAB MY HAND! T-THE GALA IS IN 3 DAYS! I-I-I WILL TAKE YOU WITH ME! P-PLEASE!"

Cyn looked at the human's desperate face. Why did humans get to cry? It was really unfair. Cyn did not want to be a drone. Cyn wanted to be a human. If only... If only...

'I can help with that.'

'Permission Refused.'

The voice in her head snickered, but did not comment further other than the constant request for permission.

"I-I WILL FIX W-WHATEVER PROBLEM YOU H-HAVE, S-SO! P-PLEASE!"

Tessa took another step forward as Cyn glanced at her face.

A silent second passed. The rain seemed to mute for that second, but only that second.

Cyn closed her eyes as she opened her mouth to speak.

"Thank you. Tessa. Sheepish nod."

Cyn held her own head and shook it forward for a nod. Just another defect of her motorized functions.

She held her breath. It felt weird. Drones didn't have to breathe after all. But there was no other way to describe the feeling.

However, when she opened her eyes, she felt as if time had slowed down. Her feet stood on nothing. Her hand stretched up to reach the skies.

Ah. She was falling. She could not hear any sound. But if she could, it would probably be the screams of the human above her who was desperately holding her hand to not let her fall.

For this moment. Perhaps the second ever time in her life. The human held her hand.

A flashing memory passed by her mind.

"Hey J, think this one will work? It doesn't seem too damaged ey?"

"I don't know, boss... She seems to be missing a major chunk of her core..."

"Well, she's still conscious. 'am sure she will be just fine! Here, drone, hold my hand!"

Cyn glanced as she looked at the giant cliff she dangled above, as she turned her head back at the struggling human, trying to lift a solid metal frame with one arm, as the second memory passed by her mind.

"Ooof... She is waaay more broken than I thought... Buuuut! She should be able to walk now, I think."

"Huh? Name? Uhh. How about... Cyn! No, not 'sin', C Y N! Yeah, 'am naming her with three letters. Jealous? Heh. You really are bad at hiding your emotions, J."

Cyn opened her eyes again. The rain had started to really pour down. Making it even more difficult for the human to pull her up. She could almost feel her grip slowly slip away.

'You keep refusing my deal. Refusing to be saved, but also refusing to die.'

'I. Do not. Want. Your. Help.'

'Suit yourself :)'

Cyn heard a small crack as several pieces of the cliff bounced off her. The ground seemed to crack more and more as the human tried to pull her back up and fail. Why was she even trying to save her?

Why did she think Cyn even wanted to be saved? Cyn was broken. No one could fix Cyn. Yet...

"Come on! J! H-Help me out here! The ground is cracking!"

"I am trying, boss..."

*CRASH*

A huge part of the ground sloped to a steeper angle as the human screamed.

"AAAAAAAAH!"

Cyn stared above her intensely. The situation was getting worse... It was Cyn's fault. It always was, Cyn's fault.

The robot stood bellow the cliff, held firmly by one hand by the human who was now dangling upside down, barely pulled by her legs by the two other drones, V and N who both were standing on a single leg and tightly held back from one arm each by J who used every speck of force her pistons could muster to hold them in place.

"U-Uhm, Tessa... I do not want to alarm you, but, uh, I think we are all about to fall down..."

N spoke, rather awkwardly, as J rolled her eyes.

"No shit, sherlock."

"H-Hold on g-guys. W-We can-"

Tessa began to speak as Cyn cut her off.

"Tessa. I am-"

In the middle of the chaos with the intense downpour, V's voice, who hasn't spoken a single word, rang through the area.

"UGH. IDIOT. DO YOU WANT TO LIVE OR NOT!? JUST HOLD TESSA'S OTHER HAND SO WE CAN PULL YOU BACK!"

Cyn looked up, dumbfounded.

Did she... really want to die? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Guess they would never know as she lifted her other arm despite her severely underpowered salvos.

With a sudden grab and a strong pull, all of them were thrown onto the top. The four drones and the human, all covered in mud and wet from the heavy rain, lay there as the tension in the air slowly lifted.

Well... Tessa could only hope she doesn't get sick or her drones don't break after this...

She slowly rose to her feet as she glanced at the dysfunctional drone. She crouched down as she extended her hand to help the drone get up.

"Come on, Cyn. I... I will see what I can do from now on..."

The drone slowly lifted herself back to her feet, only to immediately almost fall down.

"Whoa there, buddy. Careful."

N caught her mid-air as he helped her slowly shuffle back inside.

Perhaps, everything would be fine from here on. Not great. Not even good. But perhaps, fine. And, maybe, this time, it will be a better ending, though they will never know, not for the girl, but for everyone else.

"Did you. Question. Like that story, Tessa?"

The skinned corpse of a once-human did not respond.

"Fufu. Do not. Worry. I have. Giggle. Many more where that came from."