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She strained against the restraints that locked her down to the table. Her tail thrashed, the barbed tip stabbing into her leg - over and over and over. The acid wasn’t eating into her leg or the bonds and Uzi was right there, right there across from her on the table getting her fingers sawed into and there was nothing she could do.
The stench of oil and viscera clung to her, and her sensors fizzled in and out as waves of static hit her, the only thing that she could clearly make out being the crunching sound of Uzi’s finger cracking impossibly echoed, each reverberation more like laughter.
She purposefully turned her head away, squeezing her optics tight in an attempt to vainly shut out the sound. The sound halted, displeased with her inattention. The longer the silence drew on the more she knew she had to turn, had to make sure that Uzi was still there. She moved her head to see that the shadowy drone over Uzi had stopped cutting into her fingers.
The drone spun around, sound rushing back. In one outstretched hand were two intertwined cores, purple and yellow, their lights weakly pulsing, limbs reaching out toward her.
Cyn tilted her head and shadows rapidly crept across her optics till the only thing centered in her vision was Cyn’s rictus smile, then she clicked the cutters together with a mocking smile.
“Bad job, V.”
V’s optics flickered on silently, rapidly making scans around her as she struggled with the scream caught in her throat. She turned off the visible eye-lights and lay silently still as she took stock of her surroundings.
Purple LED glow. Tacky blue flames. Drawings and sketches littering the floor and walls. Softly humming TV paused mid-game.
Joints loosened just slightly, claws sheathing as she recognized Uzi’s room.
The steady onslaught of nightmares had only picked up over the weeks, stopping her from getting a full nights recharge.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” V froze again with Uzi’s voice, soft in the way it only was when it was the three of them. She had been careful, so careful to make no noise, show no sign that anything was wrong, even when piled under Uzi and N. They had only recently started asking her if she wanted to bunk with them and she refused to ruin this for them, or her.
She heard a large sniff, her top optics slightly moving to look at the rest of the bed. Uzi wasn’t looking at her at all; she was sitting on her knees with N draped over her frame, his hands gripping the back of her shirt. N’s vents were ragged and stuttered - punctuated by choking sobs. An ache burned deep in her core as she wrestled down the need to jump up and hug them both, even join N’s sobs.
“Yeah, it’s okay big guy. See, I’m safe, V’s safe, nothing’s wrong.” V could feel her own tension seeping out of her with each stuttering breath N took, mirroring the way the stiffness melted off of his shoulders.
Uzi was much better at these sort of things than she was.
“You wanna talk about what happened?” Uzi leaned back and brought N with her. Both of them ended up with their heads on V’s torso, the comforting beat of two more cores joining hers. “Was it one of the usual ones?”
One of the usual ones? The words echoed through V’s processor. N had regular nightmares as well? She kicked herself mentally, of course he did - N was always prone to flashbacks that sent him tumbling from his perch when they were in the spire.
“Yeah,” N’s voice was scratchy. “We were fighting Cyn again.” V felt her core sink, of course it was Cyn, she was the cause of most of her nightmares too. Watching over and over again as N had his core ripped out, or watching Uzi get controlled again and again.
Those were always somehow better than the manor dreams. She could at least find Uzi and N and make sure they were okay after some of the worse ones, but the manor dreams left her sluggish and volatile for the whole day afterwards.
Uzi grumbled out something unintelligible, N laughing softly.
“I know, me too buddy.” He took a deep vent in, “We had just crashed down, and then she was just… there.” V felt the full body shiver that went through N. “And then her arm just ripped through you, and she had your core, and I couldn’t move.” V’s mind froze, almost not hearing anything that N said as he continued.
“I couldn’t move and she just… I didn’t save you in time…” N’s voice broke again at the end, the words barely audible despite the close distance.
V forced herself to calm down. It was just a nightmare. It wasn’t even her own nightmare. She dreamed about Uzi’s core getting ripped out too, it didn’t mean it happened.
“But you did save me, you knocked her away.” The rest of Uzi’s assurances were inaudible, V’s sensors distorting them like she had been dunked under water.
Uzi’s core had been ripped out. Her panic flared to an inferno and she couldn’t fight against the need to check to make sure that Uzi was okay. V bolted upright, Uzi and N both flung against the wall.
Her optics, both primary and secondary ones, locked onto Uzi. Bladed wings bloomed from her back and made a loose shell, blocking them all in. Each of her scans went off in rapid succession from each of her optics; Uzi’s core signs were vital, thermals showed the network of oil lines and nerves all intact, electro-magnetic scans showed nothing wrong. N’s all registered normal as well, each of her optics straining her processing to scan both of them at once.
“V? V? Can you hear me? V, whats wrong? Is she okay? I don’t know, you both had oil before right?”
Both of their voices melted into one, not managing to crack through V’s focus.
“Your core?” A scratchy broken voice did finally break through. Oh. That was her voice. Shakily she reached out, her hand slowing as she got closer to touching Uzi’s chest.
“Shit.” Uzi reached out and grabbed onto V’s hand, bringing it to her chest and pressing into her palm. N would do something similar when he saw her staring at him for too long, when she wouldn’t stop looking at his core light like it would wink out any moment. The steady thump of Uzi’s core instantly drained all the alarm from her body, her wings dropping as she slumped forward. N caught her, leaning her head on his shoulder.
“She ripped out your core?” V asked again, her voice still shaky. N pulled both of them into his lap, V easily curling up to his side, one hand still firmly held against Uzi’s chest and her core. Uzi clutched onto her arm and melted into N’s side, the three of them pressed close together in a corner of the bed.
Covered on three sides and wedged into a corner her remaining panic spiraled into exhaustion, adrenal sensors plummeting in value.
“Yeah.” Uzi winced. “At the start of the fight. Right before you found us in that building, but N jumped in and knocked her away.” V watched as Uzi’s eyes drifted over to N’s core, recognizing that haunted look.
“I could have done something.” The words slipped out, voicing the thoughts that were bouncing around her processor. She felt N squeeze her shoulders and watched as Uzi’s face twisted into a frown.
“You couldn’t ha-”
“Yes I could.” V cut off N’s sympathetic words and pushed his hand off her shoulder, “I could have been faster, fought better.” Frustration bubbled over and she shook her head with a scoff. “Or I could have told either of you anything about what was going on, given you a warning, anything to protect you.”
“Yeah well who says we need to be protected.” Uzi looked like she was seconds away from physically vibrating as she rose to her knees, N’s hand still loosely around her waist; even with that she was still only barely eye level with V.
“That’s my job,” V rolled her eyes for emphasis. “N’s the heart, you’re the brains.” She gently flicked the fuzzy pom of Uzi’s beanie, “I’m the brawn, I protect you both, that’s how it goes.” She was violent. She knew that. But if she could just aim it away from them, toward anything else.
Uzi immediately reached up with her hands and adjusted her beanie, her scowl growing.
“That’s bullshit.”
“Uzi…” N cut in softly. V had to turn away from his gentle look, tightening her hold on her roiling emotions.
“What? It is bullshit.” Uzi’s eyes were easier to focus on, optics drawn harshly together in anger.
At her? For her?
“We protect each other that’s the whole point.” Uzi continued, “Plus if anything I’m the one that doesn’t need protecting. I’m a god now, nothing can hurt me.” She puffed up even more, staring at V like a challenge.
The afterimage of Uzi from her nightmare was still plastered on her vision, she could still feel the restraints keeping her from Uzi’s side. Uzi just needed to understand that she had to do this, she could protect both of them better this time. Not fail again. Not feel so powerless again.
“You weren’t a god when that psycho cut off your fingers.” V chased after the words, trying to pull them back even as they left her mouth. She watched as whatever retort Uzi had prepared slumped down with her body, cut at the strings.
N’s head turned so fast it left a yellow streaking afterimage across her visor, a choked noise escaping his throat.
“What?” He pulled Uzi tighter to him, clutching her against his side as his eyes remained focused on her hands. Uzi leaned into him and he took her hands, one of her arms now crossed over V’s hand, still holding her palm against the steadily beating core.
“It was that freaky drone with the baby.” N ran his fingers over Uzi’s as she talked, V’s core tightening. “She had something against my mom, and she cut off my finger to, I don’t know, prove a point?” N traced small circles over the lights on the back of her hand.
“I tried to use the solver to do something to help you outside, but the magnets were too strong. Then I blacked out and woke up on V’s back.” Uzi turned to face V, a weak grin on her face. “I figured that you got us out of there.” V’s stomach turned.
“It was Cyn.” V whispered, “She took your body and blasted the controls and the sentinels.” The yellow of N’s visor paled and Uzi let her head thump back against the wall.
“I-” V stumbled over her thoughts. What had her voicing anything done? N was even more shaken then before, and Uzi’s face was unreadable, the fire that V liked to poke at dimmed.
“Forget it,” V sighed. “I just saw it-” She slammed her mouth shut before she could say anything else, the cracking of Uzi’s shell and joints still fresh in her ears.
“It’s okay V,” N gently laid his hand on her arm, “What did you see.”
“I-” She tried to look everywhere but at N’s comforting expression. They could understand. But she didn’t even spring up to help N earlier, now she could just be adding more problems. Wanting too much again. Taking and taking and -
“Never mind,” She muttered under her breath, “It’s nothing.” N’s expression fell just slightly, sending V’s core crashing down with it.
“No.” Before V could turn Uzi was in her face, her whole vision taken up by purple. “It’s not nothing and you know that.” Uzi shifted the rest of her body up, crouching so that she was finally eye level with V.
“And you know what,” V dimly noticed that her hand had dropped from Uzi’s chest, no longer held in place as Uzi had both hands balled up at her sides. “Maybe that psycho did take a finger, but I grew it back. And even if Cyn did end up taking out the sentinels you took out even more at the elevator. And then you fought with us.” V opened her mouth to respond but Uzi kept barreling on.
“So what if I wasn’t a god then, I beat a god before and I’d do it again.” Uzi seemed to settle on something, her eyes narrowing in determination. “And I’ll do it with you hopefully, because we care about you moron. So it’s not nothing.” Her ramble ended and V’s processor struggled to take in the entire thing, core swelling with emotion.
Uzi darted forward, her forehead colliding with V’s chin, both of them reeling back in surprise. V barely caught the sight of Uzi’s pursed lips and bright blush before Uzi was suddenly bundled against the wall, her wings wrapped tightly around her body.
“Did you try-” V blinked as her words were instantly interrupted.
“No…” Uzi’s voice was muffled from behind her wings. V looked over at N with a raised brow. His body was shaking, a wide grin peeking out from behind the hand he was using to poorly muffle his choked laughter. A laugh tried to break free from her own chest as well. “You moved your head.” Uzi whined.
V had been holding perfectly still.
She collapsed against N as the laughter spilled out of her. Her laugh set off N, giggles escaping from behind his hand and growing into full laughter with hers.
Purple eye lights watched them both through one of the gaps in Uzi’s wings, the bottom edge lit up by a golden blush. As both of them came down from the laughter, N moved over and put his hands on the bony frame of Uzi’s wings.
“Hi Uzi,” N peeked his head over the top of her wings. She grumbled, tightening her wings around herself as the hands on them shooed him away.
“Come on beautiful,” N cooed, “Why don’t you come out of your bat bubble.” The look on N’s face was filled with such adoration that V almost missed the indignant squeak that Uzi let out.
“I told you we aren’t calling it a bat bubble.” Uzi’s voice was half strangled, the blush on her face only growing brighter, the light leaking out of the holes in her wings.
“I think it’s cute.” V smirked, locking eyes with Uzi. “Perfect for a cute tiny little bat.” The words were barely out of her mouth before Uzi lept at her, bowling over N in the process as the three of them ended up in a tangled up heap.
V was wedged in between the two, N’s pilot hat and hair covering half of her face and his head tucked into her shoulder. Her legs were tangled up with Uzi’s noodly worker ones, the rest of Uzi’s body sprawled over the both of them. Uzi half-heartedly knocked her on the head, muttering about her victory as they trailed off into a comfortable silence.
“I still have a lot of nightmares.” N’s voice rumbled pleasantly against her neck. “And even when I wake up I can’t get rid of all the bad stuff.”
“Sometimes even when I’m awake if I’m tired enough, or at the spire, or see a scar.” V remembered the first time that she had seen the scar on Uzi’s shoulder and how N had momentarily frozen. “It was worse before I told Uzi about it though.”
“I only found out cause I crawled through the vents to break into his room.” Uzi admitted. “I had uh, well, been fine, but not like good.” The last words were hissed out through her teeth. “Ugh I sounded like Lizzy.”
“She would hate that.” V snorted, the corner of her lip upturning.
“I was a mess!” N admitted proudly, getting a giggle from Uzi. “Uzi dragged me through the vents back to her room and we started spending the nights here instead, together. And that doesn’t make it go away but it helps.” V could make out the begrudging assent from Uzi.
“And you sleeping here helps even more.” N shifted slightly, rolling over so that he was laying next to V, able to turn his head and look directly at her. Uzi took advantage of his movement and fully sprawled over both of them. “Now we don’t have to get up super early for school and try to catch you in the hallways to make sure you’re okay.”
There were plenty of days that she had caught sight of Uzi and N peeking around the corner at her or already waiting for her to get to the school halls. She couldn’t blame them, there were times where she was restlessly pacing the halls of the colony waiting for to see them and make sure that nothing had happened to either of them.
“Sleeping here is nice.” V whispered, the bright grin that she got in return from N worth it. She breathed in, turning to look up at the ceiling. Just let them in, she could do that.
“I saw Uzi’s fingers get cut off again, but it was Cyn, and then she had both of your cores…” She trailed off, unwilling to voice the rest and break the fragile sense of calm that had settled over her.
The bed shifted as N scooted closer to her, slipping his hand into hers and laying his head back on her shoulder. Uzi rested her head on V’s chest and grabbed V’s free hand.
“I have ones about the battle with Cyn, except I can’t move and she hurts one of you or both of you.” N whispered into the space between them.
“Same.” Uzi joined in, “Or I get there too late and Cyn has already hurt both of you.” V winced, her mind recalling the words she had said earlier. She had several of those, ones where she knew in her core that she could said something to change something, to have saved them.
“Those ones are the worst.” N nodding his head felt like a physical reassurance of her words.
“The worst for me are when I am stuck in the elevator, watching you, or in that weird church, watching Uzi. Watching either of you try to give up your lives for me.” Uzi reached over her to immediately latch onto N’s free arm.
“The worst…” Uzi trailed off and V could feel her take a deep breath. “I’m back at camp and stuck in my body while it goes around hurting everyone. Then one or both of you show up and you try to talk to me, but I can’t do anything as I hurt you.”
Despite the horror in the nightmares mentioned the mood seemed to lighten the more they spoke.
“Mine are always the manor.” The last of the stress and anxiety melted off of her frame. “I’m trapped in those memories until I get up. Sometimes it’s just me, or its with one of you, or Cyn controlling one of you.”
“That sucks.” V hummed in agreement at Uzi’s blunt assessment.
“You know next time you can tell us,” N said. V swallowed a breath as N continued, “And we can try to tell you more too.” He squeezed her hand. “I can be bad about waking up Uzi some days.”
“You aren’t the only one.” Uzi muttered and V caught the sight of a small apologetic smile on her face.
V sank into the silence, unable to stop a smile of her own.
“If-” V shook her head, “Whenever I have another one I’ll try to let you know. It sounds, nice.” Her smile grew as N’s tail thumped against the bed. Uzi relaxed into her, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like ‘good’. V’s smile widened as she made sure to lock eyes with Uzi.
“I’ll even try to do it without head butting you.” Uzi flushed, sitting up and pointing an accusatory finger at her.
“That was not a head butt!” V cackled, propping herself up.
“What was it then?” V watched in satisfaction as Uzi flushed deeper and squirmed, her mouth opening and closing. It was satisfying to watch Uzi flustered, with how confident she was all the time, just knowing she could affect her was intoxicating. “You know if you wanted a kiss you could just ask.”
The high pitched choke from Uzi was the reaction that she was looking for.
“Can I then?” V’s processor slammed to a halt the moment the words left N’s mouth.
“W-What?” V looked over. N was sitting on his knees, his hands in his lap and a bright smile on his face. She could barely make out Uzi’s cackling laugh from off to the side as the tables were abruptly turned on her.
“Can I have a kiss?” N blushed slightly, his tail a bright blur behind him. “I would really like to, and if you want to that would be great.” V blinked, she hadn’t thought, not since she had given up on N’s memories ever return-
A gentle kick to her legs knocked her out of her thoughts. Uzi gave her a small thumbs up.
“I’d like that too.” The words spilled out of her mouth.
N scooted forward and V shifted, sitting up and putting one hand over his own. He leaned further down, the brim of his silly pilot hat covering her main optics as she shut her eyes. Their lips connected and V suddenly couldn’t think of anything - not the manor, not years since they were able to do this, nothing but the faint softness of N’s lips.
Eventually N pulled back, his eyes wide and a goofy grin across his face.
He tried to hide his blush in the collar of his jacket - V sure that she was blushing just as brightly. Before she could take a breath to recover Uzi was at her side, eyes focused intently on her lips.
“You want one too?” V’s words came out much more hoarse than she thought they would. Uzi looked away for a moment before turning back and taking a deep breath.
“Of course.” The bright purple blush took up almost all of her faceplate. “If that's cool with you.”
“ ‘s cool.” V managed to get out. She reached out and placed a hand against Uzi’s side. She felt a hand on her face and leaned into it, the warmth between them boiling.
The distance between them seemed to stretch on for miles, even as they grew stutteringly closer to each other.
Then there was suddenly none. V curled her hand into Uzi’s side, holding onto her shirt as their lips met. Uzi’s kiss felt as safe as the dim purple glow of her room, V melting further into it. She felt the tiniest bit of a canine before Uzi pulled back, both of their faces hovering inches from each others.
As Uzi dropped her hand away she trailed it along the outside of V’s forearm. V grabbed hold of it the moment she felt Uzi’s fingers lift off her plating, intertwining their fingers. Through the purple blush on Uzi’s face plate she could dimly see the reflection of her own face, the smile on it just as wide as Uzi’s own.
Suddenly N swept them both up, laughing and spinning around as much as he could with the limited space on the bed. He peppered Uzi’s face with kisses, all while Uzi squirmed in his grip and grumbled, contrasted with the bright smile on her face. N turned toward V, his visor full of hearts and gave her a long kiss on the cheek, V deciding to attribute the fresh round of sputtering to Uzi.
N fell backward, pulling all three of them down into a pile. They stacked awkwardly; N spread eagle across the bed, his frame taking up most of it, V on top of him, and Uzi on top of her, creating a strange little tower. He yawned, blinking his optics as the adrenaline of the situation seemed to catch up with him.
V checked her internal clock and groaned. It had only been a couple of hours of sleep before she had been rudely awoken by her own processor, too little to get any sort of meaningful charge.
“Video game or anime marathon?” Uzi asked, seemingly comfortable draped over her.
“We do have class tomorrow.” N reminded her through another yawn. “And I think Mr. Teacher is going to start doing an attendance score if you keep skipping.”
“I’m a god I shouldn’t have to go to school.” Uzi grumbled, “Plus I’ll just chug some battery acid it’ll be fine.”
“But your health.” N pouted and switched his eyes out for large watery eyes, adding sparkle effects to them, “And cuddle pile?”
“No, no, not the eyes.” Uzi groaned, V snorting and reaching up to pat her head. Uzi shot her a glare, looking back at N and sighing with a smile. “Fine fine, cuddle pile and then school.” She hissed out the last word.
N wrapped them both in a hug, whatever words he was going to respond with lost to a huge yawn. By the time his mouth had closed he was already passed out, hearts surrounding his normal sleeping message.
“How does he do that every time.” Uzi grumbled.
“He used to be able to sleep standing up.” V smiled fondly as Uzi wiggled in N’s hold, rolling off of her back and to her side, both of them still in N’s embrace. “Tessa tried to give everyone beds, but N would always give his to who ever was new, or stand over by Cyn or my bed - just to be close to us.” V shook her head.
“It sounds like him.” Uzi had a small smile on her face. “You never really talk about the mansion, or memories, even the happy ones.” Uzi looked slightly away, “But I’d love to hear about them sometime, if it helps?”
V hummed in thought. Even that small bit of information was more than she had voiced in years about her life before the gala, before her change. There was none of the normal oppressive anxiety weighing down on her, more like voicing it had cleared off some of the dust and grime from the memory.
“Yeah.” She wrapped an arm around Uzi’s shoulders, bringing her closer and resting her head on top of Uzi’s. The smaller drone curled into her, V’s core skipping a beat at how natural and easy it felt. “Plus I have some good ones about J.”
“Hell yes! Blackmail!” Uzi’s manic giggling made V roll her eyes fondly.
The emotional crash N had finally caught up to her, V yawning through another question that Uzi asked, the words muffled by the creaking of her jaw and the sudden wave of exhaustion that had rushed in to replace the cocktail of emotions she had ran through.
“Wha’s that bat?” She slurred out, blinking and trying to push back against her processor’s sleep requests. She could have sworn Uzi giggled and cleared her throat after.
“Nothing important beautiful.” The last word came out whispered.
V hummed, letting the wave of sleep fully wash over her. As her optics dimmed into their normal power saving scanning mode she let herself drift off, listening to Uzi argue with herself about hot death robots and cringe nicknames.