Chapter Text
The wind, with a quiet howl, swept across the frozen lands of Copper-9, causing large snowflakes to deliberately levitate in the direction it commanded. Even though it was already noon, the sun was nowhere to be seen behind the clouds and the blizzard. Somewhere in the distance, the trees lazily swayed under the force of the storm. Snow was blown off the rooftops of apartment buildings like a thick layer of dust, forming a sort of white cloud that swiftly drifted down to the ground.
The spire, reconstructed from the remains of Worker Drones, swayed from side to side just like those very trees, albeit only slightly, yet still in a threatening manner. Remarkably, however, it showed no intention of collapsing. Beneath that very spire, like inside a cave, rested the spaceship that had brought none other than the architects of this structure to the planet.
The warmth inside the landing pod contrasted sharply with the blizzard raging beyond its walls. Such irony. Who would have thought that the den of the most terrifying, sadistically cruel, bloodthirsty, and merciless creatures—the Murder Drones—would resemble a cozy little room more than anything else? There were nests made of blankets and quilts, drawings, a ten-year-old calendar with puppies on it, and plain string lights casting a warm honey-gold glow for illumination.
Uzi sat in J's nest while the squad leader lay beside her. The rebellious girl stared blankly at her phone screen, as though looking straight through the device.
The chat list was open on the screen. There were surprisingly many messages. Like, way more than she had expected. Almost every day, Thad, worried about her disappearance, and her concerned Dad had messaged her. Even Lizzy(!) had asked once whether she was still alive (first of all, why did she even care?! And second, how the hell did she even get her number?!?). And there was Doll, who had messaged her on the very first day she ran away from home.
— "Узи, ты серьёзно за Дронов-Убийц? (Uzi, are you seriously with the Murder Drones?)" —
— "Ты же знаешь, им нельзя доверять. Они убьют тебя! (You know you can't trust them. They'll kill you!)" —
Uzi couldn't help but ask, "Why do you even care about me?"
She never replied. Not to this day.
She felt movement beside her. J rolled onto her other side to face her and curled around her beloved like a cat. Propping herself up on her elbows, she lifted her head slightly so she could look up at Uzi's face from below, blinking sleepily. Several strands had escaped the bun she'd tied before going to sleep so they wouldn't bother either of them (she had started doing that after Uzi complained that her hair kept getting in her mouth while she slept).
"Why aren't you asleep yet? Is something bothering you?" the dismantler asked, gently brushing aside the stray strand of purple hair that Uzi had simply been ignoring.
"It's nothing special, just..." The rebellious girl hesitated, unwilling to admit the truth to one of her girlfriends. She knew she was supposed to trust them, absurd as that sounded when it came to Murder Drones. But she didn't want to feel vulnerable. It was stupid! Besides, it wasn't even a real problem—just her stupid doubts caused by stupid feelings. There was no point burdening J with something so ridiculous. "I'm just thinking about the colony."
"Uzi..." J's voice was quiet, yet it carried unmistakable traces of the commander she couldn't completely hide, even at a moment like this. She sat up, adjusting her shirt after it had slipped off one shoulder, and took Uzi's hand. "If this is about the people who bullied you, just say the word. I'll deal with them..."
"J, no. That's not it at all. Seriously." Uzi hurried to stop the dismantler. "Believe me, if those idiots were posting stories about how happy they are that I disappeared, I wouldn't even be surprised."
"Then I don't understand why you're against killing them..." the taller girl hissed through clenched teeth, more to herself than to Uzi.
In J's humble opinion, Uzi was far too kind toward those pathetic nobodies who didn't even deserve to breathe the same air as her. Especially considering they didn't even respect her.
"Those cowards definitely piss me off. But I don't want them dead. Besides, things weren't that bad. At least I had Thad, and I don't want your genocide of my colony to end up killing him too. If anyone doesn't deserve that, it's definitely him," Uzi explained. A faint smile appeared on her face when she spoke about her best friend.
J's face instinctively darkened at the mention of that green-eyed drone. That guy was always hanging around her beloved, making her smile at him, flirting with her, touching her!
He was close to her. Closer than any of the dismantlers.
Closer than J.
"So that's the reason? You're thinking about him? You miss him?" With each new question, she moved her face closer until only a couple of centimeters separated them. The interrogation came out harsher than she'd actually intended, but she couldn't help herself. Her possessiveness buzzed inside her like an annoying mosquito.
Uzi instinctively leaned back from J's approaching face.
"What, are you jealous?" the purple-haired drone scoffed mockingly.
"Yes," J answered instantly, taking the purple-haired girl by surprise. "I'm jealous of you. Because I want you to acknowledge only me, to look only at me. And it tears me apart just thinking about you looking at someone else the way you usually look at me." Without realizing it, J leaned even closer to the shorter girl, violating what little remained of their personal space.
Uzi instinctively tried to move away, even though there was nowhere left to retreat, wanting to hide from J's stern gaze as she broke into a nervous sweat under the dismantler's overwhelming intensity.
After a few seconds that seemed to drag on forever, the emo girl finally pulled herself together and carelessly pushed J's face away with one hand.
"Don't overthink it, J. There was never anything between me and Thad." Uzi waved the matter off and got up from the nest. "I'm going to get some fresh air."
"But it's cold outside!" the dismantler protested at once, unconsciously grabbing Uzi's forearm a little too roughly. The purple-haired girl nearly lost her balance as J seized her and pulled her back. Uzi shot her an irritated glare but silently twisted her arm free from J's grip.
"I'll wear N's coat. Don't worry about it." She grabbed the old, shabby, threadbare coat from the mentioned drone's nest and demonstratively held it above her head as if proving her point before draping it over her shoulders.
J's hands clenched into fists, crumpling the bedsheets.
Something was obviously bothering Uzi. But Uzi didn't trust her. J could feel it. And it hurt.
Why would she trust you? You're just a bitch taking advantage of her feelings for you.
Shut up! She's not like that!
J shook her head from side to side as though trying to throw that disgusting voice out of her mind.
As soon as Uzi cracked open the hatch, she felt the cold from outside. She climbed out, jumped down onto the ground.
After wandering around the ship for a bit—since there was nowhere to really go in this stupid blizzard—the Worker Drone sat down on a piece of scrap metal. Pulling her legs close to her chest and resting her head on her knees, she listened to the howl of the blizzard, which echoed especially clearly from the exit hole of the corpse Spire, letting her thoughts swirl through her mind like snowflakes carried by the wind.
If someone had told Uzi just a month ago that she'd be living under the same roof as Murder Drones, who would also happen to be in love with her, she would've called them high.
And yet, here she was.
It still felt like some kind of bizarre dream. Everything was just too absurd.
And yet... She had no real desire to wake up.
Uzi glanced at the wall of the Spire. She had gotten used surprisingly quickly to the wall made of dead bodies, to the limbs jutting out in every direction. Oil was still leaking from some of them. The displays of those whose screens remained intact glowed with the words "FATAL ERROR" in bright red, shining even more vividly in the darkness. That red color involuntarily reminded her of one particular drone.
Doll...
Without realizing it, her hand rose to touch her right eye. Uzi had the feeling that Doll definitely knew something about this Solver. All that bizarre supernatural crap that had started back at prom...
A slight shiver ran down the rebel's spine as she remembered what had happened in her bedroom.
Uzi kept trying to convince herself that it had all just been an incredibly vivid stress-induced dream, but everything that had happened recently had completely blurred the line between fantasy and reality for her. She no longer knew what to believe, whom to suspect, or whom to blame.
God, it was so damn frustrating...
"Uzi? What are you doing out here?" Her thoughts were interrupted by a woman's voice.
Uzi jumped in surprise and quickly turned toward the source.
"Oh... it's you, Tessa..." The drone relaxed once she realized it was just a human and confirmed that she wasn't armed. "Couldn't sleep. So I figured I'd get some fresh air." She waved it off casually before returning to staring into the blizzard.
Tessa shifted awkwardly. She glanced back toward the landing pods. In one of them—the one she'd arrived in—Cyn and N were asleep. N had decided to spend the night with his little sister. In the second pod, if she remembered correctly, J was sleeping since tonight had been her turn to share the nest with Uzi. And V... Honestly, Tessa had no idea where she was or what she was doing, but she was willing to bet she was somewhere on the other side of the Spire, draining the last remnants of oil from the corpses.
Once she was sure they'd be alone for a while, Tessa let out a quiet sigh, as though gathering her courage.
She walked over to the shorter drone and sat down beside her, leaving a respectful amount of space between them.
"You know... the others noticed that something's been bothering you. And it really upsets them that you don't trust them enough to talk about it..." Tessa began, naively hoping to coax Uzi into opening up.
"I'm fine. Nothing's bothering me. And besides, it's none of your business!" Uzi snapped as usual, throwing her nothing more than a brief irritated glance.
"...I understand why you don't trust me. And I'm not going to force you. I just want to remind you that they love you, and you can tell them absolutely anything. I'm sure they'll understand and support you." Tessa continued gently. She genuinely regretted that their first meeting—and their first impressions of one another—had gone so badly. And it had all been because of her... But her Disassembly Drones didn't deserve to feel useless when they were trying so hard.
"I know. It's not that I don't trust them. It's just... it's stupid!" Uzi turned away awkwardly.
"It's not stupid if it's bothering you," Tessa reassured her immediately.
"It's not... it's just..." Uzi hesitated. "You know, I just up and left home. Left the bunker. Didn't tell anyone. And I figured... screw it. Like, nobody would even notice I was gone anyway. But now..." She looked down. "People are worried about me. Like... actually worried. Dad's asking if I'm still alive..."
"Do you miss home?" Tessa asked, tilting her head curiously.
"Miss it? Why would I?" the emo drone replied with a sarcastic smirk. But when she noticed the sympathetic look in the human girl's eyes through the tinted visor, the smile slipped from her face, and she turned back toward the opening in the Spire and the raging snowstorm. "I was always alone. There's nothing there for me to miss."
"You literally just said there are people worrying about you," the human pointed out.
"That's different! I mean... I meant..." Uzi groaned in frustration. "Ugh, never mind."
But Tessa didn't seem offended. On the contrary, she gave a sad little smile while looking down at how the toes of her boots had already dug a small hole into the snow.
"Complicated relationship with your parents?" Tessa asked, though it sounded more rhetorical than anything.
"Obviously," Uzi answered simply.
"No friends?" the woman in the spacesuit continued.
"Almost none... I've got exactly one friend. At least, he says we're friends, and I believe him." The rebel shrugged.
"You feel like an outcast in a society that thinks you're weird because of your interests?" Tessa continued, this time almost jokingly.
"...Why are you hitting every single target so perfectly?" Uzi asked instead, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at the human.
"I'm afraid we're not as different as it might've seemed at first..." Tessa answered quietly, and even through the helmet there was something in her voice that sounded unmistakably like... sadness.
Uzi shot her a surprised look as the meaning of those words finally sank in.
Could it really be... Had Tessa gone through the same things she had? Had she been an outcast too? In her own family?
"I... honestly never even considered that you might know what that's like..." Uzi admitted after a brief silence. She looked away, as though embarrassed by her own surprise. But the tension between them was so thick that she tried to break it with sarcasm. "I guess that makes us sisters in misery?"
Tessa couldn't hold back a chuckle.
"Yeah... I think you're right." She pulled her knees up to her chest and stared out into the snowy haze. "Funny. When I was younger, I used to think I was the only one. That everyone else was perfectly fine... and that I was the only problem..."
They sat in silence for a while.
"So... you had problems with your dad too?" Uzi finally asked.
Tessa nodded.
"Yeah. Father preferred spending his time on the company. As for raising me, he mostly just backed up Mum, since she was the one who actually took care of me." She shrugged and fell silent again for a moment. When she spoke again, however, her head dropped even lower, nearly resting on her knees if not for the helmet. "I was afraid of Mum. Not in the sense that I was afraid of disappointing her or failing to meet her expectations... I was afraid of her. She often took her anger out on me..." Tessa looked meaningfully at her wrist, her gaze lingering there as though she'd drifted into old memories.
"Oh... I see..." Uzi scratched the back of her head awkwardly. Moments like this made her genuinely curse her terrible social skills. She had absolutely no idea what someone was supposed to say in a situation like this. She just felt awkward and was convinced that if she tried to comfort Tessa, she'd only make things worse. What would she want to hear in a moment like this? Hell if she knew... "I'm sorry you had to go through that..."
"It's okay. Besides, your family life hasn't exactly been sunshine and rainbows either, has it?" Tessa's lips curled into a knowing smile. A few snowflakes settled against the glass of her helmet.
Uzi gave an almost imperceptible nod, hugging her knees a little tighter.
"After Mom died, Dad just... stopped acknowledging that I existed. For the first year, he literally didn't notice me. Like I wasn't even there. He's trying to make up for it now, but... it's hard for me to believe I actually matter to him anymore..." She angrily tightened her grip on the sleeve of N's coat.
"You're still angry with him?" the human girl asked carefully, though the answer was obvious.
Uzi's voice grew harder.
"Yeah. And I doubt I'll ever forgive him for all those years when I felt completely unwanted." She raised her wrist to eye level and looked at the single scar there. There were far more scars on her forearms—small, thin, shallow, barely noticeable. "He didn't even realize he'd screwed up on his own. The only reason it finally hit him that he had a daughter besides his precious doors was because I almost died!"
"Oh..." Tessa breathed quietly.
Silence settled between them for several long seconds. Uzi rested her chin on her knees.
"You know... I've never been away from home for this long before. And no one had ever looked for me before either... It's... weird, I guess...?" She looked away awkwardly. "I don't hate my dad. I always wanted his acknowledgment. His respect. I wanted to matter more than a damn door!" She buried her face in her knees, hugging herself tighter, making her voice come out muffled. "But now... I want to believe that he misses me and that he's genuinely worried about me, but..." Her voice gradually faded, growing slightly hoarse, as if she'd worn herself out from shouting. "We've been strangers to each other for far too long."
They fell silent once again.
It seemed as though the blizzard howled even louder.
"I understand you perfectly..." The human girl gave her a faint smile. It was understanding, comforting—the kind of smile that made it difficult not to believe in her sincerity. "You know... my parents never told me they loved me. And because of that... I never told them I loved them either." Tessa absentmindedly rubbed her left wrist. "And I regret that very much."
"Why?" Uzi asked cautiously.
Tessa took a moment to gather her thoughts.
"Maybe... if I'd told them I loved them at least once, it would've been easier for me to accept that they're gone." She finally answered with a small shrug. "Not because it would've changed anything. More because... I would've had a sense of closure. Like I'd done everything I could. Maybe they would've said it back. And then I'd cling to that moment as proof that they were trying. That they genuinely wanted what was best for me—they just didn't know how to show it any other way. It would've been easier to explain away their harshness... their coldness... all the things that hurt me. Easier to convince myself that it was love too. A cruel kind of love... but love nonetheless..." She leaned back, supporting herself with her hands behind her in an almost lazy posture. "Or maybe they would've pushed me away like they always did. In that case, it would've been easier to hate them. Maybe I'd even feel some kind of satisfaction now that they're gone. Either way... I would've had an answer. Some certainty. But instead... I'm stuck somewhere in the middle, caught between guilt and resentment, with nothing in my head except endless 'what ifs.'" Tessa gently nudged Uzi's shoulder with her own—a friendly gesture that still respected her personal space. "So... I think you should go see your father. If not to make up with him, then at least to get some closure. Just remember this: you'll never be alone. You have at least three Disassembly Drones who are ready to move mountains for your sake."
Uzi involuntarily giggled. She had no doubts about that whatsoever. And because of it, a pleasant warmth spread through her chest.
Tessa was right. It was better to finally figure everything out and talk than to continue pointlessly searching for hidden motives.
"I need to go home anyway. There's someone I have to talk to..." The girl thoughtfully touched her right eye. "While I'm there... I'll drop by and see my dad."
The blizzard continued to rage. But this time, it didn't irritate Uzi nearly as much as before. Because now, she at least had a rough idea of which direction she needed to move in next.