Chapter Text
She did that. She really just did that.
She ate the damn thing.
And as the… thing… settled in her with a spiteful swallow, Uzi couldn’t find it in herself to regret that decision, even when she was suddenly bombarded by an overwhelming amount of information that made her weak in the knees.
Uzi collapsed. Cyn collapsed.
Uzi felt like her system was being overloaded with everything and nothing at the same time. Cyn melted away with a smile on her face.
And N was running for her.
Or at least she thought he was. It was kinda hard to tell with runaway code filling her vision, burning her circuits, fracturing her visor; it was too much there was way too much for anybody to handle why was there so much?
Her body gave in to the overload with bouncing sparks flying from her broken visor - it flashed a blaring red FATAL ERROR - and she fell with the platform crumbling below her.
She didn’t wake up to this.
This being nothing despite her being there, standing on nothing, looking at nothing but walls of text and numbers violently updating and running with no blatant goals in sight.
But no she didn’t wake up to it because she didn’t technically fall asleep in the first place. Or fall unconscious. Or whatever you’d like to think. It confused her momentarily because one moment she was on her knees on Copper 9 watching N reaching out to her and suddenly she was in this OS void? She just was, like she’s always been here and only just noticed.
She couldn’t think on it too much, not with suddenly feeling like she was getting heavier by the second and like red hot drills were making holes in her CPU. She cried out in pain, hands gripping her violet hair - the concept of her hair? With the concept of her body manifesting where she was? Wherever she was?
The walls around her, of words and special characters and numbers, felt like they were bearing down on her, forcing themselves onto her as Uzi struggled to keep herself whole. She strained to open an eye, peering up at the skyscrapers of scrolling code, and despite their breakneck pace it was easy to tell that this code was…
Absolute Shit!
Robo-Jesus she swore she just saw an infinite loop that was looping within ANOTHER infinite loop, what the hell!! And- and did she just see patches where it was constantly restarting after encountering the same error over and over? With an empty exception block printing literally nothing and going back to the top of the loop instead of ending it??
This is some of the worst code she’s ever seen in her life. No wonder why she felt like her head was splitting in 5 different dimensions at once!
She gritted her conceptual teeth and squared her conceptual shoulders when she forced herself up and confronted the nearest wall. Somehow being nearer made her head ache worse than it already did, but she forced herself to raise a hand to it.
She had no idea if reaching for it was actually going to work, but the code turned out to have substance as her hand laid flat against a solid surface, annnddd she almost passed out from the wave of code that just assaulted her system. Uzi was getting sick and tired of this shit, she just wanted this fricking thing to-
“FRICKING STOP!!”
And suddenly, she felt so much lighter.
She let out a conceptual breath she didn’t know she was holding, the vice grip on her mind giving way and finally being able to think on her own without the world rushing in on her frame entirely. Momentarily, she was a little embarrassed that she ended up shouting at… nothing. Or at a wall. Like a crazy lady. But then she realized it did do something, maybe.
She stepped away from the wall, taking her hand back and placing it over her core as she craned her neck to see the code that reached up toward the skies of nowhere. It was…
Still absolute shit.
But now it was, calmer? It wasn’t blaring red anymore but a much nicer purple and it was scrolling upward at a more user friendly pace. Numbers, variables, and everything in between that she could see being updated and iterated upon were no longer values that went on for miles, they were refreshed. This entire block was reset.
When Uzi chanced a glance around it turned out that all the other blocks nearby were in a similar condition, some even being in an idle state waiting for input or for a condition to be met. Further out from where she was dangerous red glows persisted with crazy code lines still racing in this space that belonged to nowhere.
Her oval eyes flitted around the scene before her face split into a mischievous smile, walking forward with a gremlin cackle. Uzi knew exactly what to do.
This space spanned infinitely but was all within her reach for what she desired of it, it would be so. Let her reset these out of control wishes of ages past with a wicked laugh and slaps of nonexistent walls, show her these exponential cracks to mend so that a new age order may begin. It would be so, Uzi, as you would make sure of it.
She woke up, expelling rotten oil mixed with blood and feeling her body still repairing itself from the overload that burnt her from the inside out. How long had it been? How long had she ran around that expanse barking orders at those forever walls to “Stop!”, manually shutting down every one of those horrible loops to save herself from insanity. It felt like forever, but also that it took no time at all.
She was getting more sick and tired of that mind fuckery.
It didn’t matter though as she took in the scene around her, of a battle won and her friends and family rising from the rubble. The relief that hit her nearly had her burst into tears, it was finally over wasn’t it? But no, she couldn’t cry, her Angsty Teen programming wouldn’t allow it.
Well.
That was until N and V flew by, finally finding her, and the way N ran toward her with open arms, just so happy to see her and freely crying from the relief he felt himself. And Uzi couldn’t help the swell of emotion that overtook her when she ran to meet him halfway for a crushing hug, so maybe she did end up crying a little as she rubbed her face into the fur of his coat. Just maybe.
Ok she did, and so what?! Bite her!
The concept of a body in a space that existed nowhere, sat stock still in the center of purple, floating text. Shock? Processing... Relief? Slowly it goes.
Slowly processing for the first time in years.
Slowly taking in who she was, could she remember that? She didn't know, and that terrified her.
She was so... hungry a moment ago. So desperate to collect material just a moment ago. Or was it ages ago? It didn't matter to her as she stared down at the expanse below her, memories rushing her with a different meaning now, or rather she looked over them with a different lens?
A lens that had a staggering lack of insanity from rampant code she harbored. She looked up with the concept of her yellow eyes at the purple code around her, the thing that had been hers just moments ago no longer her burden to bear, and she silently wept.
What did you do? What didn't you do? Those are some terrifying questions, aren't they, Cyn?