Work Text:
“Giggle. Hello. Big Brother. N”
N shook himself awake. When his optical sensors booted to 100%, he found himself face to face with his little sister, Cyn. Her wild silver hair in its iconic braids, her head permanently tilted unless she forced it back into place.
His breathing turned stale and labored.
Oh no, he thought.
He looked down at his outfit and found himself in a suit and tie. He felt much shorter too. He scrambled to his feet and ran to the nearest mirror. His fear grew as he ran through the ballroom of the manor he was raised in. When he stood in front of the mirror, through the smeared maroon bloodstains on the glass, he saw himself, from another life.
His eyes were white, his tail was gone. His hair looked the same, spiky yet curly and silver, but his hat was replaced with a standard Worker Drone helmet. He reached up to touch his face and saw that his arms no longer had their Disassembly Drone hands from which he could use any weapon he needed.
“Is-s-s so-omething. Wrong? B-b-b-b-b-b-big brother?” Cyn questioned with a glitching voice. N turned to face her. He tried not to think about how she’d been last time he saw her. What she’d done to him, V, and. . . wait. . . who else?
“Wh-wh-where? H-how?” He stuttered. He tried remembering, there was a word, no, a name he could call out to help. The person had given him their name to help with flashbacks like these.
But N couldn't remember. He was too overstimulated by the perfect recreation of his past.
“N, are you slacking off again?” Said an angry voice. Standing in the entrance to the room was J, her pigtails tied with black ribbons, but her business suit/dress had been traded for a maid gown. V stood behind her, looking much more timid and way different than how she truly was, wearing the same outfit as J. The only difference between the two was V’s hair, which was a silver bob cut. Plus the fact that V had glasses.
“N-no, you, I-I-I, uh. . .” N felt useless. All these weeks feeling confident in his codeword and he couldn’t remember it when it mattered.
He lost his train of thought when a young girl, no more than 16 walked in. Her hair was just like Cyn’s, but it was a dark chocolate brown color. She wore an elegant yet simple black dress that fell just above her ankles. She gently caressed her wrist, which was bruised and scarred in the shape of a shackle.
“Tessa?” said N, his voice no more than a whisper.
She gave him a warm smile, “Aw, N. Did you have another nightmare?” She cooed.
N stayed quiet, unsure how to explain that seeing her again, so innocent, kind, and whole, was a nightmare in itself
But suddenly, in sync with the lighting strike outside, Tessa turned into how he had last seen her. A corpse costume, her eyes hollow except for two glowing x’s, and peeking out from cuts in her skin were metal Worker Drone parts. The classy manor turned into the church/lab where they experimented on Solver Drones.
The voice that came from Tessa’s mouth wasn’t her lively Australian accent, but the monotonous robotic voice of N’s little sister, Cyn.
“You hurt. D-d-Don’t you? Brother?”
N tried to scamper to his feet but slipped in the warm drone oil that was doused everywhere. Tesscyn lunged at him. He realized he was back in his current Murder Drone body so he countered her attack by summoning and crossing his sword arms. He parried just in time to catch her medieval style sword.
“Y-y–y-y-you feel responsible. For them.” She pointed her tentacle in the direction the oil was coming from. N tried to focus on countering Tesscyn’s strike since they were still forcing their one large blade against his two smaller ones, but he stole a quick glance at the oil spill and saw the source. He went limp at the sight.
Tesscyn took the opportunity of N’s distraction to slash his stomach. He was thrown across the room by the blow and fell about 20 feet in front of the pile of drone bodies from which the oil bled. Their screens all read Fatal Error in bright red lettering. Some were strangers, but some of them were people he knew, J, Thad, Lizzy, Khan, Nori, V. . . That wasn’t what scared him the most though. What scared him the most. . . was who sat front and center of the pile.
“UZI!” N cried. Completely ignoring the gash across his torso which was bleeding profusely, he ran over to Uzi, his best friend, girlfriend, and only drone who ever completed him.
Her screen was the only one not red, in fact, it was flickering between purple and yellow. She was alive! But for how long?
She coughed up oil and turned to look at him. “n-n-N?” She doubled over and threw up.
N caught her before she fell, “Uzi, It’s me! You’re gonna be OK.”
"Please be OK," he thought.
Uzi shakily grabbed him by the arm, “You could’ve. . . ” She coughed up more oil.
“What, tell me, what?” He responded.
She fell backward, tracing her hand down his arm until their hands were touching, She intertwined their fingers together. “Saved. . . me. Because you- *cough* loved. . . ” After that, her screen went dark.
N felt his heart drop. He gently shook her. “Uzi? Uzi? UZI?” N shook with fear and rage. He started to get up, but remembered the slice across his stomach had been bleeding him dry the entire time. He felt lightheaded, his world spun around him. When he finally steadied himself, he was staring at Tesscyn, her grin goofy.
“I tol-old you s-so.” And then, everything went dark.
✧✧✧
“WAKE UP!” N felt a sharp slap against the left side of his face.
“What the heck!?!” He cried. When his visibility finally adjusted to the environment, the first thing he noticed was the dinosaur like Sentinel hovering over him.
"Hey Sparky! Did you slap me?" said N, as he scratched the Sentinel on the neck.
“Dammit dude, you scared me. I thought I was gonna have to call the purple one in. She's already a bitch without waking her up at inconvenient times." N looked behind the dog- I mean robot dinosaur at the drone who actually slapped him. "Hello to you too V, glad to know your opinion on my girlfriend is nothing but caring." He felt bad about giving V that tone, but N was not in the mood to hear crap about Uzi, not after that nightmare. . .
"Please, you know how she is." V scoffed. "Hungry?"
N reluctantly nodded, while the image of his friends drowning in their own oil was still fresh in his memory, he didn't want to risk starting a hunt during school. V walked over to the counter and grabbed a Worker Drone arm out of the pot they had stolen from Doll's place. Once the whole "Eldritch Cannibalistic Horror Destroying Our Planet" situation had been somewhat sorted out, the Workers started warming up to N and V, even granting them with their own apartment within the bunker they had hid in for so long. N and V had been living there for about a year now, it's wild how much can change in that time.
One minute you're hated by an entire colony, the next you're in love with the daughter of their leader. Uzi, Robo-Jesus was she great. Man how N couldn't wait to see her when he walked with her to school at 8. N looked over at the clock. It read 7:57.
"BISCUITS I SLEPT IN!" N hollered as he rushed out the door, barely waiting for it to open fully before he sprinted out into the hall.
V walked back into the living room holding two mugs of oil. "Wait, N! You're not even gonna-"
*SLAM*
"-Change out of your pajamas?" V finished. "Dumbass." She muttered. N may have been one of the strongest Drones in the galaxy but V was pretty sure Cyn didn't screw his head on right when she turned N, J, and V herself into the killing machines they were today. "Yeah killing machines feared by all and one of them is parading out into the colony wearing pink frickin' dog pajamas." She sighed. She finished of her oil mug and started on her way to school. Whether V liked it or not, N was the only one around who understood the hell they'd been through from the same perspective as her. Sure, Uzi had been a creep and scoured through their memory banks, but she wasn't there, she didn't live it.
"That hellspawn she shares a corpse with might,"
V shook off the thought almost as soon as it came to her. V still remembered how the Solver corrupted her world and tore her apart. Forced her and N to choose between reality and retaliation, neither of which really went well until Uzi "killed" Cyn. Sure, she met Lizzy and was finally given a place to feel kinda safe, but the memories of her past followed her wherever she went. She may not be able to avoid Uzi, or keep N away from her, but the least they could do was stay away from Cyn. . . even if she was a part of Uzi now.
Look the point was, the Solver was dangerous even before they tried poking it, why wake the bear when we already see the claws?
Point is, no matter what eldritch bullshit they saw, V was not ready to let it take away any shot at peace she had for her and the drones she. . .Tolerated. If you could even call it that.
-----END OF PROLOGUE------