Chapter Text
The Spine had been feeling weird lately but all his checkups came back with the same result. Everything was fine. The Spine sat in his favorite chair reading his favorite book trying to ignore the odd feeling in his chest. “You’re honestly wasting time.” Matter Master Davey’s words had come harshly and the immediate apology hadn’t softened them. The Spine shifted in the chair. He should get a second opinion but what if Davey was right? Camille, Chelsea, and Lacey had been extremely busy helping Peter Walter the Sixth with a new experiment and Astrud…Astrud was so new. The Spine was also vaguely terrified of them. Matter Master Davey knew what he was doing…
Matter Master Davey knew what he was doing. The Spine trusted him. He also knew that playing up to The Spine’s desire to not bother people unnecessarily would work like a charm while he did his experiments. Spine wasn’t afraid to power down around him and the Walters didn’t have cameras in The Spine’s room. Spine had jumped at the idea of more privacy during check ups. Davey wrote out his notes on his burner phone. “Subject is feeling affects near its core. Green matter dose hasn’t reached the core yet.”
“And I was telling Rabbit that if they could make something that was like a microwave mixed with a toaster that would be so cool because then the toaster could make the same cool sound as the microwave and then I could see what it would be like to toast ice cream instead but- The Spine are you listening?” Zer0 Walter had been babbling incessantly for the last 20 minutes. “So much for trying to enjoy my book.” The Spine thought to himself. The feeling in his chest got a bit worse when his siblings were up to their shenanigans but this time it was actually starting to grow truly painful. “Zer0 please can you-” The Spine began but his brother was too wrapped up in chatting. “Zer0…” The Spine groaned but again was ignored.
The Spine’s neck twitched and a deep anger roiled up in his core. He’d begun getting angry like this around his siblings more and it terrified him. He got up to rush off like he had been doing but Zer0 grabbed his arm. “Spine you’re not listening!” he whined. “Zer0 let go.” The Spine tried to keep his voice measured. “Spine…” Zer0 objected. “I said let go!” The Spine roared. An arch of electricity jolted down his arm and Zer0 was suddenly thrown into a shelf of books. The Spine backed up staring at his now ripped sleeve and sparking Tesla coil wondering when that weapon had been reactivated. “Sp-Spine…you h-hurt me…” Zer0 murmured in shock. The Spine felt the world spin briefly as his thoughts reeled. Surely he’d be locked up. He didn’t want to be locked up. Hatchworth was locked up for fifty years. What if it took longer to fix whatever was wrong with him? What if they could never…The Spine heard several footsteps rapidly approaching and did the only thing he could think of. He ran.
Rabbit saw her brother’s photoreceptors wild as if he’d just seen horrors beyond his comprehension. “Sp-Spine what-” Rabbit began to ask but he seemed to see nothing as he all but plowed into her. She fell to the side but he didn’t even break his desperate stride. “Zer0!” Peter Walter the Fifth’s cry summoned Rabbit to her feet. She’d not heard his voice tinged with such panic in easily two decades. Rabbit stared in stunned silence at the sight before her. Her other brother was sparking and jolting while repeating “Sp-Spine…you h-hurt me…” over and over. His photoreceptors were glazed over. “Rabbit. Rabbit, you have to shut him down for me.” Peter Five instructed nervously. In a numb blur Rabbit did so, taking some electric shocks herself but nothing too damaging.
The Spine wandered down the long winding road leading from Walter Manor looking for somewhere to power off. Where nobody would find him and where he could never hurt anyone else again. His mind was such a blur though that he couldn’t focus. He didn’t know where he was going. Just away. He suddenly found himself in front of a pile of ashes and green matter that had once been Becile Manor. Something about it felt…right. His systems seemed to stop churning as fiercely as they’d been. He hit the ashes completely powered down.