Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had been almost a day since Uzi’s trip outside her home’s doors, and so much has changed in such a short span of time. One of those changes was the fact that she was now in constant danger, instead of the pressuring safety of her home. Her dad would’ve never let her out of those doors if he knew she’d end up together with two Disassembly Drones, even if one of them was nice.

Not even Uzi herself had expected to take this turn in her mission. It was really simple at first - Find railgun parts, complete her sick-as-hell railgun, and go out to fight those Disassembly Drones that have locked her fellow workers behind doors since forever.

Now it was different, now she was working with them, and despite being a very edgy angsty teen, she can’t seem to be that angry about it. Her encounter with N, and the battle she fought alongside him, made her reconsider her views. Both the Murder Drones and Worker Drones were being treated as expendable by JCJenson, by the humans. The Worker Drones were abandoned and left to die by humans, and so were the Disassembly Drones, with their one way landing pods and fatal dependence on oil and darkness.

Her plan was slightly different, but still the same at its core: Take the fight to humans. They sent the Murder Drones to die after killing the Workers, they were past negotiating, and Uzi couldn’t forget what they did to her mom.

Uzi turns her head to the side, taking her eyes away from the electronic console she’s working on. The wires were all charred black and some were outright destroyed, but she had managed to stop it from smoking, much to her relief.

N was sitting on a chair beside her, playing and messing with the buttons.

“Uh, N?” Uzi asks.

“Beep boop bop, yeah Uzi?” N says, turning to Uzi but not taking off his hands from the buttons.

“You do know those buttons won’t do anything yet, right?”

“Yeahh, but pressing the buttons is fun! It’s why I was the pilot!” N says proudly, also pointing at his pilot’s hat sitting in a corner.

The pilot’s hat turns from a piece of headwear to useless scrap within a second, as a sharp leg tears it into shreds. Serial Designation V, N’s teammate and nuisance to Uzi sticks her tongue out at the purple haired Worker Drone before spinning around and giggling in her chair.

Choosing not to dwell on why V wasn’t exclusively referred to in past tense yet, Uzi turns back to the console she’s working on, but hears footsteps a second into working.

“You know, you could also take a break, hang around, uh, stand in the sun? I know I can’t go in the sun, so I’m just suggesting it to you, haha.” N asks her.

“Ugh, bite me.” Uzi says, fixing up wires and switches. “I’m not going to relax! There’s work to do, N. The humans aren’t gonna murder themselves.”

“Um.”

“The humans on Earth aren’t gonna murder themselves.” Uzi clarifies. “And I’m not gonna stand here and wait for them to off themselves while more Disassembly Drones blow up Worker Drones. I’m taking them out myself.”

Instead of entering the conversation like a normal person, V decides to intrude by blowing bubbles on Uzi and N’s visors, and more worryingly, the exposed electrical components.

“V! Stop, you’ll damage the parts!” N yells in a slight panic.

“Uh, duh? That’s the point, N.” V giggles. Seeing Uzi’s death glare only encourages her to switch both hands into bubble blowers. “I’m just doing my job, messing with the Workers. If I can’t kill them with my own two hands, I’ll just annoy them until they do it themselves, hahahaha!”

“You’re already locked up, chained, and you can’t even fly out of here without N stopping you.” Uzi points out.

“And you’re lightyears away from Earth, in a ship designed to land, not launch.” V retorts. “Besides, you don’t even have any good weapons, what are you going to do, throw your hair at them?”

Uzi crosses her arms. “I can use my sick as hell railgun.”

“It’s not even a railgun, and you know it. It doesn’t even launch projectiles. This…” V smirks, switching her bubble hands into her assault rifle, “...is more of a railgun than your glow in the dark toy.”

“Okay! Wow! Weapon lessons, thank you V, you’re the best!” N yells in a happily worried tone. “Just ignore V, okay? She’s just uh, bored.” He whispers to Uzi as he drags her away.

“Whatever. I’m going outside to fix the engine. You coming or what?”

“Of course! I love fixing anything!”

The echoes of N and Uzi’s conversation die down as the landing pods walls block out most of the sound. V has sharp senses, something that always helps her when finding prey to hunt. Sharp enough to hear N and Uzi outside. She could hear Uzi, the little Worker Drone, angrily snapping at N while the latter seemed to be apologizing sheepishly. Listening more, it sounded as if Uzi was insisting that she wasn’t short, N was just tall.

She didn’t have much of an opinion on the matter, but she decides to believe Uzi is short. Just to annoy her.

Outside The Pod…

“Hey, Uzi, not to be a downer or anything but…”

“I’ve fixed the navigation systems, the controls, did repairs on the hull, the star system map is updated and working, V is still locked up, her ammunition is emptied, the three of us can fit inside, I still have my sick as hell railgun with me. The plan is going perfectly.”

“Yeah I know, but uh. How exactly are we gonna get off the planet…? I saw the fuel meter inside and I think it said E.”

Even from inside the pod, V could hear Uzi facepalm.

“Ughhh…..” Uzi groaned while lying face flat on the floor.

“Oh it’s okay, Uzi.” N said while patting Uzi’s head. “You’ll figure something out.”

“Figure something out to deal with the embarrassment of going back home and asking for fuel?”

“Aw come on, don’t say that. You almost got the ship in tip-top shape. I believe in you.”

Uzi only stared at N, visor unblinking.

“Honest!” N said, holding up both his hands innocently while standing up. “You were the one that destroyed J, right? And you made that super cool railgun for a school project, that’s so awesome!”

In a clear violation of all rules regarding being an edgy teen, Uzi stopped frowning upon hearing those words. Maybe even smiling a little.

“Also,” N continued. “You’re the one that taught me how to be a super cool rebellious Murder Drone. Who knew disobeying the company’s orders would be so fun? You even made sure that we removed all of V’s bullets so she won’t shoot her way out. That’s super smart if you ask me, and also very kind for an edgy rebel! You’re disobeying the rules about disobeying the rules, that’s double disobedience!”

“Hehehe, yeah. I’m a super cool rebel.” Uzi says. She didn’t want to admit it, but hearing those words made her feel a little better. “Can’t rebel against gravity though. This sucks…”

“Want me to help you think of ways to get this ship to space?” N offered.

“You could check on V and make sure she doesn’t become more annoying.” Uzi suggested.

Saluting at her, N turned around, re-entering the pod containing his violent teammate.

The pod was now filled with bubbles.

“V!”

“What? I’m bored.”

“You’ll get the liquids everywhere!”

“So?”

“So stop doing that. Uzi worked so hard on fixing this ship.” N said, popping bubbles in front of him.

“Uh, yeah? That’s the point.” V rolled her digital eyes. “I’m just gonna wait until she’s almost done fixing the ship, then I’m going to break it all apart for funsies. If I can’t kill her physically, I’ll just kill her emotionally.”

“You’re still trying to kill her, V? You already heard what she said. The company lied to us. We’re sent here to kill all the Workers, but they’re also gonna leave us here. Don’t you want to get some answers?”

“The humans suck, they’re leaving us here, hooray. What else is there to know, N?”

“Everything, V.” N was now acting a little worried. “J kept telling us that the company sent us to this planet, but do you actually remember a human telling us that? It was always J saying things to us. Don’t you think it’s a little weird, that we’ve been on this planet for months, and we haven’t even seen or heard from a human?”

V was silent.

N continued. “And it’s not just about them leaving us here. I keep having these dreams about them, and sometimes you’re there, and sometimes J is there…”

“What kind of dreams are you talking about?” V asked, somewhat agitated.

“It’s just us, but we’re like Uzi. No wings, no weapons, we were in this creepy house all the time, and you were really nice, and there was another drone with us, not J, a fourth.”

“And who was the fourth?” V asked, squinting.

“I don’t know, I keep waking up whenever I see the fourth one! That’s why we’re going to get answers, V, Because I care about you, you’re my teammate and part of the squad. If I’m getting these answers, then you should get them too, even if you’re chained up the whole time.”

“Well, whatever.” V said, leaning back and regaining her composure. Not that N noticed her acting slightly weird. “If you wanna go on a space roadtrip, sure. But tell that little Worker to find a better use for her photon cannon.”

“Railgun.”

“Photon cannon.”

V stared at N all the way until his exit, trying her best to stifle a smirk.

Back Outside…

“She said what?!”

“V was just trying to be helpful, Uzi. I think she just wants to encourage you.” N said, trying to calm Uzi down. After his conversation with V inside the pod, N had found Uzi outside, pondering what to do with the fuel problem. She hadn’t found a solution yet, so N decided he could help by telling her that V was expecting her to use her gun for something.

He was sadly mistaken. Uzi interpreted V’s encouragement as mockery. Which in hindsight should’ve been an obvious outcome. V did say those words in a mocking tone.

“Encourage me. Hmph, She doesn’t believe I can get us out of here. V can bite me, but I’m still gonna work on the ship. Just need to find a fuel source…”

“Okay…” N said. “I’m gonna go and get a snack from the corpse spire. Do you want anything?”

“Corpse spire… corpse spire…” Uzi mumbled. “Wait. You’re going to the corpse spire? To get a snack?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re gonna get oil?”

“Yeah, I kinda need it to survive, and V needs some too. Don’t want her to overheat.”

“Oh my robo-god! Why didn’t I think of that! Ughhh!” Uzi complained.

N however, was still confused. “Thought about what?”

“Using the corpse spire’s oil!” Uzi said, pointing at the ominous tower. “You guys were probably using that as a food supply whenever the sun was out! Ugh, I should’ve thought of this sooner! I already had a fuel supply within walking distance.”

“See, Uzi. I knew you could figure things out!” N said happily.

“Hehe, I know, I’m awesome.” Uzi boasted. “I can’t wait to see the look on V’s face when I… oh… hahahaha…hahahaha!”

Uzi’s ambitious sentence swiftly turned into maniacal laughter for a minute before coming back to the slightly less maniacal normal voice she had.

“She thinks I can’t do anything useful with the gun, huh? We’ll see about that!” Uzi declared, grabbing her sick as hell railgun and grabbing the battery, all but shoving it into N’s face.

“See this?”

“Oooh! I remember that! You used that part so your railgun can blow my head off!”

“It’s a really amped up battery that can give a powerful blast of energy in one go. Or… something that can give a steady supply of power!” Uzi explained. “The fuel problem is solved, but we need a way to start the pod’s engine. I can probably use it as it is right now, but it’s so damaged we can’t use it for long. But if we use THIS… I can start the engine, keep it running, and have us travel across space without worrying about it running out because it can recharge on its own!”

N clapped his hands, he had no doubt about Uzi’s skill and perseverance.

“Come on N! Take me to the corpse spire! We’re finishing our repairs!”

“On it!” N said, unfolding his wings and carrying Uzi with him.

V sat on her chair, deep in thought. Her plan had worked perfectly. She knew that Uzi hated her, and would pounce on any opportunity to one-up or prove her wrong.

Which is why she subtly suggested that Uzi use the railgun. Back in the Outpost, she saw first hand how powerful the energy output was - J didn’t even regenerate from it!

That energy was more than enough to get the pod off-planet…

…Or kill Uzi.

The purple haired Worker was clever, emptying her bullets, but she forgot about her energy weapons, her laser cannon. The plan was simple:

Uzi would use the railgun battery as the ship’s power source, and while in the air, she would use her laser cannon to shoot it through the hull. The resulting explosion would be devastating, and would damage both her and N.

But she and her teammate could heal from those wounds. The Worker would not. N might try to stop her if he suspects something, true, but N was not faster than lasers.

She could live with N being part of the collateral damage, in fact, she now hoped N would get caught in the blast as much as Uzi.

When N first met the Worker Drone, his memories were fractured and damaged, he forgot details of the recent hours of his life after getting blasted by that railgun.

V at first didn’t care for N in the plan, only wanting Uzi dead.

But after what N told her, how he still held onto those memories of the mansion, her mind was made up. N was too kind and naive for his own good sometimes.

If he continued on this path of seeking answers, of disobeying its orders, then it would notice, and it would discard all of them.

She was the only one who knew the truth - Having spent the longest time as its victim, being the first to be converted into what she was, before J and N.

Even J was oblivious to everything. It was really clever, making J the squad leader and taking advantage of her company-loving nature to feed her lies, making her think JCJenson sent them to Copper Nine.

But V remembers everything. Maybe it was intentional? Maybe it allowed her to keep those memories, as a subtle warning on what will happen if she disobeyed its orders?

It doesn’t matter. She was prepared to do anything to stop N from learning more, to make sure he stays as the overly-kind Murder Drone that always followed the rules.

Anything to make sure they stay doing their jobs.

As long as they keep working, then it would leave them alone.

“And done! Hahahaha! Ahhahahahahaahaa!”

N watched proudly as Uzi finalized the finishing touches in the spaceship. After grabbing the oil from the tower, the Worker Drone had wasted no time in attaching the railgun battery and filling the craft with oil, completing the dilemma within two hours.

Now, Uzi was busy putting cool stickers onto the hull. N wasn’t sure where she even found those, but it was probably something you get once you’re a cool enough rebel.

“Let’s go N! Come on, come on, inside.”

Much to Uzi and N’s surprise, V was sitting in her chair, chained up and perfectly behaved with the oil snack given to her.

“Okay, you got me.” She said as she stared at Uzi. “You got me good, turns out you can fix the ship… but I don’t think you can get off this planet, I think this thing is just gonna reach the clouds, but it’s not gonna-”

“BITE ME! N, WE’RE LEAVING NOW!”

“Oh. Um! Okay?” N stammered.

The metal hull of the ship sprang to life as Uzi and N flicked switches and pulled levers. Screens lit up, showing diagrams of the ship, its temperature, a map of the planet, a map of the star system, speed, battery power, amount of fuel, and other such information.

It made N’s head spin for a bit, seeing all those screens and letters in his vision, but Uzi didn’t seem to mind, only focusing on getting the ship out of the planet.

She’s so driven and ambitious, no wonder she’s so good at rebelling. N thinks.

“Moment of truth…” Uzi whispers, pushing a lever upwards.

There was a bit of a jolt, and N lost his footing for a moment, as the ship began to take off and climb the air.

V turned her head around, looking at the camera feed from outside. They really were flying, the ground becoming more distant, and the buildings slowly becoming nothing more than brown specks in the night sky of Copper Nine.

Uzi was entirely focused on navigating the ship, making sure it doesn’t turn around and crash all of a sudden. N meanwhile, was mesmerized by the screens, watching the outside world through the cameras.

It was quiet, the perfect time for V to carry out her plan.

They were getting higher and higher, and her window was rapidly closing. She needed to start the detonation within the atmosphere where there was still oxygen, so a fire could start in addition to the energy blast from the battery.

She couldn’t settle for anything less than overkill.

She watched carefully, as Uzi kept her focus on the controls, and N continued to stare in awe at approaching space.

She knew where the battery would be, or at least its general location. It didn’t matter, one blast from her laser and everything will explode, Uzi wouldn’t notice or feel a thing, it would happen nearly as fast as light, and all she needed to do was pull the trigger.

And yet…

She wondered if N was as useless as J thought he was.

N was disobeying so many rules at the moment, and if J were here, she would’ve killed him on the spot already. N had to know the dangers of going into space and disobeying, right? N was naive at times, but he wasn’t stupid.

He did team up with a Worker Drone that was smart enough to kill J.

He did beat her in combat and captured her.

He was the one that allowed her and J to enter that bunker in the first place.

It did choose him to be part of her and J’s team.

And most of all, he was clearly the favorite of…

Maybe she had been looking at N wrong. Has she?

Maybe he wasn’t a worthless and terrible teammate. Maybe he was only worthless and terrible at things that weren’t important.

And Uzi, the Worker Drone. She was strange, rebellious, different. Choosing to fight her squad instead of hiding. And she was good at it.
The railgun had an awful reload time, from the way she overheard Uzi complain, but it worked. It was somewhat impractical, but it worked.

She preferred to give herself the mask of a psychopathic and violent Murder Drone. She wasn’t exactly sure how she got that personality. Was it a way of subconsciously appeasing it? Showing it that she’d obey, that she will follow its murderous orders as long as she wasn’t discarded?

Maybe N needed to know the truth. Maybe N could find an answer, a way out, and maybe… that annoyingly resourceful Worker Drone friend of his could help out.

But it was all maybes, could bes, uncertainties.

The one thing she knew for sure, is that it would not be happy to see them disobey.

And yet, Even when J had implanted a virus into him as punishment for questioning the company, N still persevered, doubling down despite what happened.

V wondered if he could learn something from N. She wondered if she could stop being a victim of it, if she could be something more, just like what N and his Worker friend were doing.

V lost track of the time, and swiftly brought her senses back to reality.

It was now or never.

She made her decision.

And watched in her chair as Uzi and N celebrated among the screens a minute later.

Chapter Text

Copper Nine Worker Drone Bunker, hours before Uzi leaves the planet…

A ray of moonlight descends from a hole in the ceiling, adding more illumination to one of the bunker’s larger rooms.

The hole, created by the Disassembly Drone N while leaving the area, continues to be a big security risk for the populace inside, as it would allow any intruder to immediately enter their safe haven if they found that entrance, not to mention potentially bringing a repeat of what just happened recently, when Khan Doorman’s daughter inadvertently lead three Murder Drones inside.

Sarah could only watch with worry at the crime scene in front of her.

Just a few hours ago, Frank, an acquaintance of hers, had been tasked with fixing up the breach in the ceiling. She trusted Frank could do the job, he was assigned that role for a reason, but now Frank was gone, and more worryingly, so is the carcass of the third Disassembly Drone. All that remained were streaks of oil and metal.

Sarah wasn’t around when Uzi accidentally lured the Disassembly Drones inside, but she had heard of it extensively. She knew that Uzi Doorman had left with two of them, and the third had been killed.

They hadn’t gotten around to cleaning up the mess left behind in the aftermath, and although she wasn’t an expert in it, Sarah knew that carcasses don’t just disappear overnight.

“This is a crime scene. Move please. Don’t want your fingerprints all over the place.” A detective said from her left. “Uh, hang on. Do we even have fingerprints?”

Sarah simply moved to the side to let the detectives do the work. She had better things to do, anyway, like talk to Khan, Uzi’s dad. He seemed strangely relaxed with the fact that his daughter was now in the company of two Drones specifically designed to kill Workers like her.

The detective looked at Sarah for a moment, before continuing. “Hey, uh, wanna help us out here? I’m kind of not sure what’s going on.”

It took Sarah a moment to respond. “No, I don’t think I’d be much help.”

The detective walked closer to Sarah. “Come on, maybe you have an idea on what just happened to Frank and the Disassembly Drone corpse.”

“I think, what just happened to them was they disappeared?”

“No, I mean. Can you just take a look with us? I know this is a crime scene and we’re not supposed to let strangers around, but eh.”

Sarah hesitated, she felt something off about the whole scene, the way the detectives were asking her for help. Isn’t solving the mystery their job?

The detective noticed Sarah’s hesitation, and started to put a hand on her shoulders, before immediately pulling it back. “Seriously, I’m running out of ideas here. I have no idea what’s going on.”

Sarah took a step back, shaking her head. “But aren’t you guys detectives? Isn’t finding out what happened your job?”

The detective frowned for a moment, before sipping on her coffee cup. “I’m trying to find out by asking you if you have any ideas on what could happen. Theories, all that.”

When Sarah didn’t say anything, the detective continued. “Just step a bit over there in the crime scene, so you can get a better look.”

Sarah shook her head. “Sorry, but, uh, I have other things to do. I have to go, but good luck with solving the mystery.” She said, politely smiling at the worker detectives in the room as she walked off the room.

The ‘detective’ stood still, dismayed, as Sarah exited the area. Then she, alongside the other ‘detectives’ with her, flickered and disappeared.

Deciding to search for victims elsewhere.   

Lizzy was, to put things lightly, bored as robo-hell. The Parent-Teacher conference was currently ongoing, and she and her friends had to stay in the classroom until it had concluded.

She looked up from staring at her desk, and saw Khan talking to her teacher. They seemed to be having a mild disagreement, judging by the way Khan was speaking. Something about Uzi being damaged?

She turned her head to the side, where Doll was sitting beside her. The Worker Drone was quiet, playing and spinning a coin on her desk. Lizzy kind of felt bad for her, and she needed the entertainment anyway, so she moved closer to her.

“Hey, where are your parents?” She asked.

Doll didn’t answer, leaving Lizzy to swim in awkward silence.

And then she eventually spoke. “Dead. I watched them die.”

Lizzy waited for the punchline.

Doll didn’t have one. 

Doll was weird at times, acting strange and getting into places without her noticing, not to mention her home and how her parents were always in blankets when she visited, but she was a friend all the same, so Lizzy decided to continue with the conversation, anything to entertain her.

“That was the joke, idiot?” She said, “Probably sucks, huh. No parents in a parent teacher conference. You must be super bored.”

“Yes.”

Another awkward silence followed, occasionally being broken by Khan speaking. 

“We can just leave.” Doll said out of nowhere.

“Uh, hello, Teacher’s right there, we’re right here. He can totally see us, we can’t sneak out.”

Doll fell silent for a moment, as if thinking.

“Look there.” She muttered, pointing at a reflective surface behind them.

Lizzy shrugged and obliged, looking at her own reflection.

When she was sure Lizzy wasn’t looking and that the Teacher was too busy with Khan, Doll placed her right hand under her desk and activated her Absolute Solver, unlocking the door. She was quite thankful Khan had become noisier and that the other students had decided to entertain themselves out of boredom.

A few tweaks of her Absolute Solver symbol, and Doll was almost done unlocking the door. She looked around her, Khan was still talking, the classmates were distracted, and Lizzy seemed to be worried.

Doll instantly stopped her Absolute Solver symbol. She couldn’t risk it. Had Lizzy noticed what she was doing?

“Oh my robo-god… Doll?” Lizzy said slowly. “You… should really look at yourself in this mirror! It makes me look so cool!”

Doll turned to the direction of the reflective surface she had meant to use as a distraction. Sure enough, it was just a reflective surface like any other, yet Lizzy seemed to be giddy over her reflection. 

Before Doll could say anything else, Lizzy pulled her in by the shoulders, all but clinging to her as she pointed at their reflection. “We look so gorgeous, right? We always looked so cute together, remember that one silly photo we took? You had your tongue sticking out, you were looking really pretty, I was there next to you with pom poms, and we got Thad in the picture too because he’s cool…”

Doll pointed at the door.

“Oh yeah, let’s get outta here, bestie.” Lizzy said, sneaking to the now unlocked door alongside Doll.

Their teacher looked on with mild interest as two of his students snuck out. He swiftly brought his attention back to the solitaire game he was playing, when a knock rang from the entrance.

Khan politely stopped whatever he was ranting about to greet the new presence.

Sarah hesitantly entered the room and waved at Khan.

“Hey, Sarah, what brings you here?” Khan asked.

“It’s about Uzi.”

The teacher rolled his eyes and started another game of solitaire in his vision. He had hoped Sarah’s entrance would shift the topic away from Uzi, but those hopes were quickly dashed.

“Well, it’s just, are all the things people are saying true?” She wondered. “Did you really leave Uzi for dead?”

Khan shifted uncomfortably. “Well, it was just one time, I’m sure she’ll get over it.” He replied with a sheepish smile.

“But. You left her to die. Sure, she survived, but that doesn’t change the fact that she could’ve died because of you.”

“Is she well at home, Khan?” The teacher asked, though still playing solitaire.

“What do you mean?”

“Your daughter has trouble fitting in, a good number of her classmates are afraid of her, some don’t even know her name. She also has a tendency of pointing attention to her repressed emotional baggage. Any idea why she’s like that?”

Sarah chose the moment to chime in. “It’s just, I’m starting to think Uzi deserves to feel the way she does. She must feel really betrayed.”

“Leader of the WDF, builder of the doors, refuses to risk his life for his own daughter.” The teacher deadpanned.

“The Murder Drones were attacking, I couldn’t really think properly, especially after what happened to her mom, give me a break.” Khan said.

“Mom or not, you messed up. In fact, you didn’t even do your job. How would you feel if I taught Uzi how to break doors instead of how to solve math equations?” The teacher insisted.

“Also, shouldn’t thinking properly be your thing?” Sarah asked, looking at Khan. “You’re supposed to protect us from danger, if you’re not gonna stay chill when the danger comes, then why even have the job?”

Khan shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He wasn’t expecting to be judged for his actions when he entered the classroom. “Okay, sure, I might’ve messed up, but can you really blame me?”

“Yes.” Sarah and the Teacher said in unison.

“You had no excuse for leaving her to die.” The teacher said. “Your responsibility was to protect this colony from the Murder Drones, and you failed that responsibility when you left Uzi. Your own daughter.”

This time, Khan truly had nothing to say.

Sarah broke the silence. “Do you think Uzi is okay right now, Mr. Khan?”

“I’m not sure.”

The Teacher stood up straighter, having finished his solitaire game. “To give your strange daughter some credit, she did come back to fight the Murder Drones after you left her alone.”

Khan’s posture slumped and he frowned, as the Teacher kept reminding him of his mistake.

“So maybe…” Sarah guessed. “Maybe she could still be alive, out there? Somewhere?”

“I don’t know about that.” Khan mumbled. “Murder Drones killed her mom, One of them might kill her too.”

“Which is your fault.” The teacher said.

Sarah turned to the teacher. “That’s kind of mean.”

“Don’t care. I don’t get paid enough to sugarcoat things.”

“Wait, who even pays you? How is this school even run? Why are you the only teacher I’ve ever seen?”

The teacher shrugged. He wasn’t getting paid enough to question the intricacies of drone society, either. “And I think this meeting’s over. We got nothing left to discuss. You guys can leave.”

Khan stood up, dejectedly walking to the classroom door, before turning his head to look at Sarah and the Teacher. “Um, if I ever get to meet Uzi again…”

“Big if, to be honest.”

Khan continued. “What should I say to her?”

Having declared the meeting over, the Teacher booted up another Solitaire game to play, leaving Sarah with the task to talk to Khan.

“You could say you’re sorry.” She suggested. “And that you’d try to be better.”

“And if she doesn’t accept my apology? What should I do?”

“You try to be better anyway, no matter what she says. Prove that you want to be better.”

A small smile formed on Khan’s visor, thanks to Sarah’s advice, but a worrying thought crossed his mind.

“But what if Uzi is…” He trailed off, not wanting to say it out loud.

“Um. I..” Sarah stammered. She looked at the Teacher for help, but his visor was visibly playing fireworks. He must’ve beaten the game.

Sarah searched her memory files for an appropriate thing to say, found nothing, and decided to wing it. “Uh, you already lost a loved one to the Murder Drones right? What’s one more to the list?”

Khan left the room without a word, saddened and guilty.

“Yikes. That’s not good.” The Teacher suddenly spoke.

“You think I said the wrong thing to Khan?” Sarah asked.

“No. I wasn’t paying attention to that. I was talking about how they just reduced my year-end bonus.”

Having left the classroom, Doll and Lizzy were both walking in the bunker hallways. Lizzy, as usual, walked with all the audacity and confidence a popular highschool girl would have, and Doll walked with a steady, quiet pace.

They kept walking without much fanfare, with the sounds of Lizzy scrolling on her phone being the other source of noise besides their footsteps.

Lizzy turned to Doll, and all but shoved her phone in her visor.

“Doll, girl. You need to see this video, it’s hilarious!”

Doll looked at the video that was playing on Lizzy’s phone. It was a recording of Uzi messing with Braiden, hacking his consciousness.

Doll stared at the phone without uttering a word.

“Okay, okay, look, here comes the funny part, just watch.”

The funny part did indeed come, but Doll still watched with no reaction.

Lizzy, refusing to give up on making her gal pal smile, adjusted the video player a few minutes forward. “Here’s the best part.” She said, barely stifling a giggle. “Just watch, just watch.”

The video played out, showing Uzi accidentally lighting one of her books on fire.

“Ahahahaha!” Lizzy laughed, somehow still showing the phone to Doll despite her laughter. “That’s the best part, right bestie?”

She looked at Doll, who was not laughing nor smiling, but still watching. The sight caused Lizzy’s good mood to instantly fade, though she still smiled. A very awkward smile. 

A voice then called out to them. “Hey, there you guys are.”

“Thad! Oh my robo-god, you’re here!” Lizzy’s smile was genuine now, overjoyed at being rescued from the unimaginable hell that was showing your friend a video you think is funny only for them not to laugh. 

Thad, resident friendly jock and beacon of non-toxic masculinity, joined Lizzy and Doll in their walk.

“You guys are out early.” He commented. “I heard there was a parent teacher conference you’re supposed to attend.”

“Yeah, but we snuck out, right Doll?” Lizzy asked, playing with her hair.

Doll nodded. “It was boring. Why didn’t you attend?”

Thad shrugged. “I just asked to not attend and the Teacher let me.”

“Huh?” Lizzy blurted out. “Not fair, Doll and I had to sit through the whole thing!”

“We left halfway through.” Doll reminded her.

“Doll and I had to sit through half the whole thing!”

“Did you guys even ask if it was allowed to leave?” Thad asked.

Doll and Lizzy stared at each other, then to Thad, then to each other again, then back to Thad, then back to each other.

“I should’ve asked to leave first.” Doll said to Lizzy.

“Ehh, it’s okay, bestie. At least you got us out” Lizzy said.

“By the way.” Thad said. “What are you guys feeling about the uh, disappearances lately?”

“The what?” Lizzy asked.

“The disappearances.” Thad repeated. “Frank just disappeared, a bunch of other drones also went missing, and I heard the Disassembly Drone corpse is also gone.”

“Sucks for them to disappear.” Lizzy said, scrolling on her phone. “Now I’m probably gonna get less likes on my posts. Doll, you need an account now, you need to like my posts to make up for the disappeared drones.”

“An account on what?” Doll asked.

“All of them.”

“What about you, Doll?” Thad asked.

“It doesn’t concern me.” She replied.

“Sure, everyone has their own opinion.” Thad concluded. “But what about Uzi?”

“Who?”

“Our classmate, Lizzy. Purple hair, badass and edgy, has major issues with emotional baggage?”

“You mean the purple freak?” Lizzy said.

“That’s a mean thing to call her.” Thad defended Uzi. “I’m sure she’s pretty cool if you get to know her.”

“Too bad we won’t get the chance for that.” Lizzy pointed out. “You know, Murder Drones.”

“She’s probably still alive.” Thad suggested.

“Uzi is dead.” Doll said out of the blue.

Invisible question marks appeared on Thad and Lizzy’s head, and then visible question marks appeared on their visors.

“Murder Drones killed her mom.” Doll explained. “Murder Drones need oil. She has oil. They’re going to kill her.”

“That can’t be true.” Thad said. “One of the Murder Drones is now a cool rebel, and even helped us”

“Other Murder Drones will find her. The rebellious one can’t stop them all. And it could be a trick, maybe it wants Uzi to lower her guard before killing her. Maybe the rebelling will stop when he gets hungry.”

Unaware of Uzi’s fate and N’s personality, Thad fell silent, concluding that Uzi could really be dead. It saddened him greatly, since Uzi was actually cool, despite being edgy and strange. But at the end of the day, Worker Drones being murdered was a part of life, and even he had to accept that.

“Way to ruin the mood, girl.” Lizzy filled the silence.

Doll, ever the strange and sometimes creepy one, just continued walking.

Eventually, the trio reached a crossroads in the halls, and Lizzy greeted them goodbye.

“Well, I’m out of here. See you two.” She then pointed at her friend. “And Doll, I’m gonna make you so many social media accounts. You’re gonna love it, bestie. Bye!”

Lizzy walked away, while Doll and Thad continued to walk together.

“Are you sure you really don’t care about the disappearing drones?” Thad asked her.

“No.” Doll insisted. “It doesn’t concern me.”

Thad knew better than to keep questioning someone’s opinions, so he let the subject go. Doll was entitled to her own views, even if it baffled him.

The two made small talk as they walked, conversing about their lives at school, their parents, sports, and their classmates. Even Doll had gossip to offer to the conversation, mostly because Lizzy won’t shut up about whatever new rumor she’s heard of recently.

The small talk died as Thad pointed at a poster on the wall.

“Hey, you notice that?”

Doll stopped in her tracks, and looked at what Thad was pointing at. It was indeed a poster on the wall. It was a recruitment ad for the WDF, with Khan’s picture in it.

“It’s just a poster.” Doll said.

“It doesn’t seem weird to you?” Thad asked her.

Doll shook her head.

“Okay, if you said so. Want me to walk with you home?”

“Cool.”

The duo walked again for a few minutes, but ground to a halt as Doll stopped Thad.

“What is it?” Thad asked.

She pointed at a poster on the wall, the same one they had just passed.

“Is it just me, or did we pass that poster already?” Thad asked, slightly nervous.

“I think we did.” Doll confirmed.

The two walked slowly again, making sure that they are moving forward and not making any turns.

They saw the poster again.

Thad swept his eyes around the room, and noticed a myriad of worrying details.

“Doll, didn’t we walk through this hall a few minutes ago?”

“Yes.”

“We also walked through this hall right after Lizzy left.”

“Yes.”

Thad walked closer to Doll, confused and nervous.

“Do you know what’s going on?”

Doll shook her head. “Let’s keep walking.”

The two of them walked for a minute, straight ahead, before they came across the exact same hall once again.

“Something’s wrong here. I’m getting kinda worried.” Thad admitted. He wasn’t afraid of admitting he was scared. 

“Follow me.” Doll ordered, taking the lead.

“I think something’s watching us.” Thad whispered.

Thad didn’t hear anything from Doll, and he thought she was ignoring her. A quick glance at her visor explained everything. Words were placed across her screen.

[Don’t talk. It could hear you.]

Thad quickly caught on, and the two of them began conversing silently .

[What could hear me? . What’s doing this?]

[I don’t know. Pretend you just laughed at my joke.]

Like an NPC, Thad fake laughed and lightly bumped Doll in the arm, hopefully selling the trick.

[Why are we doing this?] Thad asked.

[Don’t let it know that we know it’s there.] Doll’s visor displayed.

[Oh, gotcha.]

The duo continued walking. Thad was still nervous despite Doll taking charge of the situation. He noticed how deadpan and calm Doll was given current events, and he was grateful for that. They needed a calm head if they wanted to get out of this situation.

[What’s the plan?] Thad asked, still walking with Doll.

[Keep moving.] Doll explained. [ I think it’s trying to make us stand still by making us notice the repeating hallways so it could get us.]

[But why are the hallways repeating themselves?]

[Don’t know. Keep walking.]

And they kept walking and walking. Thad shivered a bit and his eyes darted throughout the repeating hallways, trying to find what exactly was causing the strange event. He couldn’t find anything beyond the ordinary besides the fact that the hallways kept repeating themselves, which only worsened his anxiety.

Doll remained calm, walking with a steady pace and even answering Thad’s questions or trying to assure him in her monotone way of speaking.

For half an hour, the two of them walked through the same hallway, Thad never stopped secretly looking at his surroundings, and Doll never uttered a single word and only spoke through her visor.

Then the hallways were illuminated in a sudden flash of light.

Both Doll and Thad covered their screens, caught off guard by the sudden brightness.

When their vision adjusted, they were met with a different hallway, much to Thad’s relief.

“Everything’s back to normal!” He said.

Doll looked at the hallway. “We wandered far.”

Thad turned to Doll. “So, you think we’re okay now?”

“Probably.”

“But what the heck just happened? You saw it too, Doll. The hallways just kept repeating themselves and going and going. Honestly, it creeped me out. If that was a prank, it wasn’t funny.”

Doll didn’t have much of a reaction. “I’ve seen worse.”

Before Thad could ask what Doll meant, a robotic voice suddenly spoke.

“Oh, fine. Whatever.”

The two swiftly turned around, and their sights were greeted with an abomination of flesh and metal.

A massive, centipede shaped monstrosity was standing in front of them at the end of the hallway. Numerous legs lined up its body, and large claws and blades protruded from it. A cracked and damaged Disassembly Drone head served at its face, and half a dozen camera shaped devices stared at them with what Thad could guess was… annoyance?

Doll meanwhile, put her hands on her hips, a knowing expression on her visor.

“As they say in Russian: Whoops, I should’ve predicted that a biomechanical monster could try to kill me by using holographic illusions as a distraction.”

Said biomechanical monster rolled its camera eyes. “I can just get a new victim.” The Eldritch Centipede spoke. “One that actually falls for my holograms.”

The cameras lit up, and for a brief moment, they were returned to the repeating hallways, then the camera lights shut off, bringing them back to the real hallway.

“You tried to trick and kill us!” Thad said.

“You ignored my illusions.” The monster said, as if it was the worse thing out of the two. “It’s so rude. I spent so much time getting the details right. You two need to appreciate the effort an artist puts in their work.”

“Stay back.” Doll warned the monster.

“I’m leaving.” It said. “I’m going to find that popular girl. I hope she can appreciate my artistic talent.”

The massive centipede monster grumbled and complained as it left the hallway, leaving Doll and Thad alone.

Thad clutched his chest, breathing heavily. “Oh my goodness, that was intense! We almost died there! Thanks for saving us, Doll.”

Doll shrugged. “You’re welcome.”

“We should probably call the WDF, right?” Thad suggested as he calmed down.

Doll nodded. “They should deal with it before it hurts someone.”

“Wait.” Thad said. “What did it say before it left?”

“It said it was gonna get someone else who would fall for the illusion.” Doll replied. “The popular girl.”

Half a minute passed as Doll and Thad tried to figure out what Eldritch J meant.

The realization hit them like a freight train to the face.

“OH NO, IT’S GONNA GO AFTER LIZZY!”

Chapter Text

The sounds of likes and scrolling play in the hallway, coming from the phone held in Lizzy’s hand. She had left the boring Parent-Teacher conference with Doll some time ago, joined Thad in walking around, and then left the two of them as she headed home.

That was more than half an hour ago, yet Lizzy continued to scroll on her phone, not even bothering to look up and see where she’s going.

Metallic footsteps rapidly echo through the hallway, which makes Lizzy stop in her tracks and finally look away from her phone. She sees nothing out of the ordinary after a quick inspection, and continues to walk home without a word.

Eldritch J, hidden in a corner, activates its illusory holograms, the same one it had used on Doll and Thad beforehand. It waited for a few minutes, then tapped one of its cameras against the wall, making a noise to catch Lizzy’s attention.

The Worker Drone stopped walking again and turned around, not noticing anything out of the ordinary, and not noticing the hallway’s appearance hasn’t changed.

She shrugged and went back to scrolling on her phone, much to the bewilderment of Eldritch J.

The biomechanical creature tried once more, creating a sound of scraping metal to grab Lizzy’s attention. The Worker Drone looked up longer this time, and took longer to observe her surroundings. Her eyes darted to the walls, the ceiling, and Eldritch J watched in excitement as Lizzy seemed close to having a realization..

“Robo-God, I forgot to update my profile picture. It needs a change, right Doll?”

Lizzy turned around, before immediately remembering she had left Doll and Thad minutes ago.

“Oh. Well, time to pick a new photo… but which one…”

Eldritch J remained motionless for a full minute, stunned by the audacity of Lizzy to ignore its illusions. It then realized Lizzy didn’t even notice the illusions, but it refused to give up.

The hallway was engulfed in a bright flash, and its appearance had noticeably changed - multiple holographic projections of dead drones, dismembered parts covered in oil, robot roaches, and destroyed machinery now surrounded Lizzy. The overhead lights flickered in and out, shadows appeared at the corners of her vision, and the mechanical monster slowly walked towards Lizzy from behind.

“Huh.” The Worker Drone mused. “I don’t have any Wi-Fi.”

Eldritch J had reached its limit, and completely disabled all the illusions, bringing Lizzy back to the normal hallways she was walking in.

“Hey, wait a minute.” She said out loud. “I forgot to turn wifi on!”

“Okay. You have got to be kidding me.” Eldritch J called out from behind Lizzy. “Why does nobody ever fall for that trick?”

Lizzy took one look at the colossal centipede monster in front of her, and then did the most sensible, logical thing to do.

She snapped a photo of it.

Before Eldritch J could begin to process its confusion on why Lizzy just did that, a pair of Worker Drones entered the hall, one with red eyes, and the other one wearing a backwards cap and running towards Lizzy, tackling her to the ground.

“Thad? Doll? What the hell?”

Thad lightly tapped Lizzy’s helmet, and sighed in relief. “Oh, good, you’re not a fake. Lizzy, we need to get out of here right now, something’s about to kill you!”

“Something like that thing?” Lizzy asked, pointing at Eldritch J.

“Yes.” Doll deadpanned. “Let’s move.”

Lizzy, Thad, and Doll ran away, and Eldritch J finally came back to its senses after a few moments.. 

“No, I don’t think so.”

The mechanical abomination lunged forward at a terrifying speed for its size, aiming for the trio.

The Worker Drones continued to run for their life across the hallways, with Eldritch J rapidly approaching.

“Doll, Thad?” Lizzy asked her companions. “What in the Robo-hell is going on?!”

“No time to explain.” Doll said, turning a corner to hopefully lose Eldritch J.

“There’s plenty of time to explain.” Thad pointed out. “We can explain while we’re running.”

Lizzy looked behind them, and noticed Eldritch J was gone. Its shadow wasn’t even visible.

Doll couldn’t argue with what Thad said. “We think it’s from one of the Disassembly Drones. I think it needs oil.”

Lizzy raised an eyebrow at Doll. “Girl, you ‘think’? You aren’t sure?”

Thad was quick to come to Doll’s defense. “We only met that thing like an hour ago, Lizzy. The only thing we know is that it’s trying to kill us.”

“That is correct.” Eldritch J revealed itself, emerging from a corner in front of the trio. It had taken an alternative route and flanked them. “Please die, it’s the polite thing to do.”

“Nuh-uh.” Lizzy said.

Eldritch J replied with a swipe of its claw. Doll ducked just in time, avoiding the deadly piece of metal, but the other two weren’t so lucky.

Thad and Lizzy were thrown across the hallway before landing unceremoniously on the floor. Helping Lizzy up, Thad looked at Eldritch J, who was rapidly approaching them with murder on its mind.

“Ugh, what are you, dude?” Thad asked. “You’re one of the Disassembly Drones?”

“Yes. And not yet.” Eldritch J replied. Its camera eyes created a holographic image of a partially rebuilt J. “We are trying to repair our host as per our directive.”

“What directive?” Thad asked, trying to buy time as Lizzy got up.

“None of your business.”

“How is killing us going to repair that Murder Drone?” Lizzy asked.

“Very good question. We require your metallic parts and electrical components as matter to fuel the reconstruction of the host.”

“But why use us drones? Why not just use the metal around you?” Thad gestured towards the metal lockers, the metal lights, and other metal components around the hallway. “That counts as metallic parts and electrical components, right?”

“Obtaining pre-existing and pre-built components from Worker Drones speeds up the process significantly.” Eldritch J explained.

“But how does the holograms work? And just, what are you?” Thad stalled.

Eldritch J kept talking. “As stated, I am a dormant auto-run program within all Disassembly Drones designed to activate once significant enough damage is sustained by the host, typically damage that their innate regenerative abilities cannot repair. Once activated, my explicit purpose is to collect enough matter, be it biological, organic, metallic, or inorganic, to facilitate the reconstruction of the host. As the preferred source of metallic material are Worker Drones, the illusory holograms are used to trick them into a state of vulnerability. The holograms function by taking advantage of Worker Drones’ visual programming and depth perception algorithms to create light patterns that would register to their visuals as solid objects, fellow Worker Drones, and environmental changes. Furthermore…”

Eldritch J paused to catch its breath, despite not needing to breathe, and noticed Thad and Lizzy trying to sneak away as it explained things.

“Oh, you sly drones! You had me monologuing!”

Eldritch J resumed its attack, bringing one claw overhead and attempting to turn Lizzy into Copper Nine’s first ever drone kebab.

Disappointingly, she dodged out of the way, and the spot on the floor where she was moments before was obliterated from the force of the attack.

Eldritch J turned towards Lizzy, who stumbled and tripped over nothing as she tried to run. She at least was respectful enough to follow cliche horror movie tropes. It tried to swing its claw again at Lizzy, but found it stuck and unwilling to move.

A quick turn of its head later, and it saw Thad holding it back with all his strength. “Lizzy, run!”

“Where?!” 

“I dunno, just get out of here! Me and Doll will catch up!”

Lizzy briefly considered Thad’s instruction, but refused. “Where is Doll, anyway? Girl! You just disappeared, where are you?”

Lizzy looked at her surroundings, and saw Doll nowhere to be found. It confused her, wasn’t Doll with them a while ago?

“Get off.” Eldritch J shook off Thad from its claw, throwing him on a locker hard enough to dent it. A follow-up stab was halted by Lizzy shoving Eldritch J, causing it to miss.

“Eye roll.” Eldritch J announced. “Stop dodging.”

“No?” Lizzy said.

“Oh, well.” Eldritch J activated its camera eyes, and a blinding flash of light came for Thad and Lizzy.

Confused and dazed, the two drones’ visions turned white, unable to see a thing.

Eldritch J figuratively and literally snatched the opportunity, trapping Thad and Lizzy within its claws and brought them closer to its mouth. The two struggled and attempted to break free, but Eldritch J’s grip was simply too tight,

“Bestie, if you’re out there somewhere, now would be a really good time to show yourself!” Lizzy yelled, as she and Thad were dragged closer to Eldritch J’s jaws.

Eldritch J paused for a moment, allowing Doll to come in and rescue her friends. It may be a malicious murderer, but it also knew when its victims wanted a heroic entrance to happen. Everyone had standards.

A very awkward, tense, and awkward 10 seconds ensued.

Eldritch J, Lizzy, and Thad waited and waited, but Doll didn’t come.

“Barely stifled giggle. Well, you tried.” Eldritch J said. “Time to go into my mouth now.”

Lizzy and Thad closed their eyes, expecting certain doom.

They kept closing their eyes, and waited.

…

…

Death never came.

 A moment passed before the sounds of metal colliding against metal rang out from in front of the duo, Lizzy opened her eyes, and her sights were greeted by Thad, still alive, looking in confusion, wonder, and relief at something in front of him.

Eldritch J was surrounded by a red glow. Dozens upon dozens of metal blades, butcher’s knives, and sharp metal needles, were embedded in its body, stabbing it, and most importantly restraining it. The metals gripped the centipede monster, and slowly dragged it away.

Lizzy turned her sights to where Thad was looking, and saw Doll.

Doll, finally back, had her right hand aiming at Eldritch J. A red, glowing symbol appeared in front of her palms and fingers: A hexagon, with three arrows extending from it. One from the top, and two at the bottom.

Doll and Lizzy met each other’s gazes, and the former’s face was ridden with fear, and guilt. Whatever Doll had done, she clearly didn’t want anyone seeing it. The sight caused Lizzy to feel concern, enough for her to forget the terror she was experiencing just a few seconds ago.

“Doll?” She whispered.

Doll tweaked her fingers, manipulating the symbol, and the blades moved, slicing Eldritch J’s claws and freeing her and Thad.

Doll moved her arms, the blades embedded within Eldritch J dragging it away from her friends, who were quickly running towards her, clear relief etched on their face.

She raised the symbol in the air, bringing Eldritch J along with it, and tossed the giant centipede across the hall, rolling on the floor and ending with an echoing crash.

Doll deactivated her Absolute Solver, and was hugged by Lizzy before she could do anything else.

“Eeeee!” Lizzy shrieked. “You’re the best, bestie! I thought we were gonna die.”

Doll wordlessly returned the hug, but the haunted expression on her face remained.

“Are you okay, Doll?” Thad asked. 

“I. Y-yes.”

“What did you do to your hands?” Thad pointed at Doll’s left hand. “What was that?”

“I…”

Sensing Doll’s discomfort, Lizzy swiftly changed the subject. “Who cares, Thad! We’re safe now, let’s get out of here.”

“No, you’re not.” Doll said as she pointed forwards.

Eldritch J was swiftly running towards them, and all the blades Doll had used to move it were now gone, removed.

“Go, run.” Doll ordered.

“What?” Lizzy practically yelled. “We’re not leaving you! Let’s go!”

“I’ll fight it.” Doll insisted. “Go get help. Now. “

“Okay, fine, fine!” Lizzy relented. “But make sure you don’t die or I’m gonna kill you til you’re dead! I mean it!”

She and Thad quickly ran away from the scene, and turned a corner.

Once they were sure they were safe, the two of them paused to regain their senses.

“That’s way too many near death experiences for one day.” Thad said.

“We need to get the WDF, now.” Lizzy said. “Why haven’t they found this thing yet?”

“Maybe it already killed a bunch of WDF members, and that’s why nobody has noticed that thing yet?” Thad theorized.

“Could also be they’re all alive and too stupid to find the thing.” Lizzy countered.

Thad swiftly remembered the brief conversation between Uzi and her dad. “Oh yeah…”

“Whatever.” Lizzy pulled out her phone, and began typing into it. “I’m getting help.”

Lizzy had typed for a grand total of one and a half seconds before stopping to look at Thad.

“Um. You call the WDF.”

“Why?” Thad asked, confused. “You’re the one with the phone.”

“I kinda… forgot their number, and don’t have it saved.”

“How? Where’s your contacts application?” Thad said as he grabbed Lizzy’s phone and swiped through the screen.

“I deleted it…”

“Why?!”

“I wanted to have more storage space for selfies! Don’t judge!”

Thad rolled his eyes, and began to manually type the WDF emergency contact number.

Doll watched Thad and Lizzy leave with sadness. She turned back around and looked down on her hands, moved her fingers, and the Absolute Solver symbol returned.

Eldritch J had arrived directly in front of her, and prepared to bite her head off.

Doll swiftly took hold of a security camera in the walls, enlarged it, and then slammed it on Eldritch J’s head with enough force to redirect its course. The monstrosity bit the floor instead of Doll’s head.

“Ouch.”

Doll twisted and moved her fingers again, taking apart the enlarged camera’s metal components, and then duplicated it. Half a dozen sharp sheets of metal floated around Doll, and she sent it flying towards Eldritch J.

It replied with a flash, and Doll lost her sight and missed entirely. Taking advantage of its victim’s temporary blindness, Eldritch J wrapped one of its claws around Doll. Another one took hold, and Doll’s eyes widened in fear as she could feel herself being physically torn apart.

Her hands were still somewhat free, so she regained control of the metal blades she had created, and sent them flying through Eldritch J’s arms, slicing them and freeing her.

She reached out to get more of the blades, and reshaped them into a shield to cover her eyes as Eldritch J blasted her with light again.

“Oh, come on.” Eldritch J said. “This is so unfair. Nobody warned me you had weird powers.”

Doll sent the metal blades flying towards Eldritch J, only for it to pass through harmlessly. ‘Eldritch J’ disappeared in front of her, and Doll felt something staring at her from behind.

She ducked on instinct, and narrowly avoided being decapitated on the spot. Swiftly turning around, she activated her Absolute Solver and used it to grab Eldritch J’s severed claws, which she used to block its mouth from eating her.

After a moment of brief struggle, Eldritch J activated all six of its camera eyes, and the entire room was shrouded in thick, pitch black darkness.

A claw swipe slammed her into a wall, another crashed onto the ceiling, and another sent her flying across the hall, cracking her screen as she landed.

Getting back on her feet, Doll activated her Absolute Solver in both hands this time, and took hold of every available piece of metal she could find. She swiftly duplicated them all, and sent all of the sharp blades spinning in front of her, a makeshift tornado of metal.

She continued this assault for a few seconds, and before long, the sounds of electrical components being cut and circuits malfunctioning were heard.

“Ow. Ow. Ow. Come on. Ow. Ow. Stop that. Ouch.”

The darkness surrounding Doll had dissipated.

Eldritch J stood in front of her, all six of its camera eyes cut off, or broken beyond repair. Seizing the opportunity, Doll brought forth her set of blades, and sent it flying towards Eldritch J.

Its claws, flesh, body, head were all torn apart and eviscerated by the flow of metal. Doll continued to move her palm and fingers, walking slowly towards the dying monster. Every time a knife went through Eldritch J, Doll had it loop back and stab through it again, making sure to deal as much damage as possible.

Eldritch J couldn’t even scream, as Doll sent metal shards through its mouth. It continuously fell apart, trying and failing to run away as more and more of its body was being destroyed.

After a full minute of the assault, Eldritch J spoke, its voice glitching out from the damage.

“Hooray. You got me” 

Doll used her Absolute Solver to lift a single butcher’s knife above her head.

“Yeva would’ve been so proud of you.”

The sentence hit Doll harder than anything else. The red eyed Worker Drone suddenly stopped moving, her eyes widening.as she struggled to process Eldritch J’s words.

She deactivated her Absolute Solver, and slowly moved away from Eldritch J, feeling genuine shock.

“She was just like you, I remember now. The hair, the way she dressed, even the powers.” Eldritch J pointed at Doll’s hand.

Doll still couldn’t move. The mention of her dead mother’s name had brought back the memories of her death at the hands of the Murder Drones. 

Not only that, it reminded her of the terrible program that afflicted her mother. A power that ruined her life, a sickness and curse she inherited from her.

She thought she had heard footsteps and voices, but she guessed it was from the Absolute Solver as well.

She…

She realized that she had been tricked, and that she realized too late.

“Sike, fell for it, bozo!”

Eldritch J, although heavily damaged, still had a mouth and one barely functioning claw. She prepared to kill a stunned Doll, but a loud crash swiftly brought her back to her senses.

“Seriously. What is it this time.”

“DOLL!” Lizzy and Thad yelled simultaneously.

The two of them had returned, and held pieces of metal against Eldritch J, stabbing it, and most importantly, restraining it.

With most of its body broken, Eldritch J barely had any strength left to move, let alone resist the grips of two Worker Drones. Lizzy and Thad were not the strongest Drones physically, but they were still Worker Drones designed for mining, which meant they still had some form of physical strength to overpower Eldritch J.

“What the heck. Get off. Shoo.” Eldritch J weakly protested at Lizzy and Thad, who chose to ignore it and yelled at Doll instead.

“Doll! Kill it, now! Killitkillitkillitkillit!”

Doll’s face switched from shocked to determined, and she regained control of the butcher’s knife.

“Uh oh.” Eldritch J muttered.

Doll controlled a few more dozen pieces of metal, and sent them all flying towards Eldritch J to deliver the finishing blow.

A loud crashing noise emanated from the impact point, and the sheer force from the blow had sent Lizzy and Thad flying away.

Doll deactivated her Absolute Solver and looked at her hands in concern. An overheating warning flashed on her visor, but she suppressed it.

When the dust had settled, Thad and Lizzy returned to Doll.

“That..” Thad began.

“Was amazing!” Lizzy finished.

Doll stared at her two companions with absolute confusion. Why weren’t they asking her about the Absolute Solver?

Lizzy and Thad celebrated and cheered as they were finally safe, until the sounds of scuttling and a badly hushed voice were heard on the floor.

“Sneaky sneaky. Sneaking away.”

A biomechanical heart with legs was crawling on the floor. Doll stared in confusion and Lizzy shrieked.

“EW! KILL IT! EWWWW!”

“Get snuck up o-”

Thad had stepped on the heart.

“Ouch.”

The heart moved again.

Thad stepped on it again.

“Ow.”

The heart moved again.

Thad stepped on it again, again, again, and again, and again, again, again.

“Ow. Ouch. Ay. Aie. Ой. Aj. Jaj. Auc. Ahia. 01101111 01110101 01100011 01101000”

After a dozen steps, the heart had collapsed entirely and stopped moving, before turning into a tiny black hole and dissipating.

After everything, it was finally over. Doll, Thad, and Lizzy were safe.

The three of them sat down on the floor without a word.

The entire hall was a mess. Scraps of metal and blades were littered across the floor, and oil spills made the area difficult to walk through properly.

After a few minutes, Doll turned to Thad, who was playing with oil with his fingers. “Why did you come back?”

“Don’t look at me.” Thad said. “It was Lizzy’s idea.”

“Why.”

“Because I… We care about you, Doll.”

Thad squinted his eyes at Lizzy’s verbal backspace, but ultimately paid it no mind.

“I kept trying to tell her to wait for the WDF.” Thad explained. “But she ran here and dragged me along with her.”

“And I was right to do that.” Lizzy smugly pointed at Thad. “We saved Doll just in time.”

“Alright, you got me.”

Doll was silent, the events of the past few hours have been more than revealing and overwhelming. Still, the concern Thad and Lizy had for her helped ease things, even if by a little.

She smiled slightly, and began to lean from exhaustion.

“Whoops. Gotcha, girl.” Lizzy caught Doll with her hands. The red eyed Worker Drone then rested her head on Lizzy’s shoulders.

She didn’t mind at all. 

Thad glanced at Doll’s left hand, and began to speak, but a look from Lizzy stopped him before a single word could come out of his mouth.

Minutes later, Workers from the WDF came into the hallway. Unsurprisingly late.

“Everyone move out!” One of them said. “Search for uh, survivors, evidence, whatever. We also need someone to clean this up.”

“Wanna get out of here?” Lizzy asked to Doll and Thad.

“Sure.”

Doll wordlessly nodded.

The three of them got up and walked away from the crime scene, before being blocked by the WDF. “Uh hey. Sorry to be a bother, but we kinda need you to stay.”

“What the robo-hell? Why?” Lizzy protested.

“Dunno.” The WDF Worker said. “But you were the last ones to encounter this thing, and uh we need to ask you some questions?”

Doll’s eyed widened in nervousness, something that the Worker immediately noticed.

“Does she have something to do with this?”

“No?” Lizzy said, crossing her arms. “You should be thanking her. She’s the one who beat that thing.”

“A single Worker Drone survived that thing by herself?” The WDF drone was starting to get suspicious.

“Uh, no, actually, the three of us beat that thing.” Lizzy clarified.

“Three Worker Drones beat that thing by themselves?” The drone was still not convinced.

“Yeah, it’s true, I helped them out.” Thad said.

“She’s being awfully quiet.” The WDF member said towards Doll.

Before the trio could dig themselves further and further into suspicion, another WDF member called out.

“Oh, don’t mind them, I’ll take it from here.”

“Khan!” The Worker Drone said. “You sure you can handle them?”

“It’s fine, of course. I’ll take it from here.” Khan waved his hands, trying to dissuade the other drone from asking more questions.

It was successful. The drone shrugged, and then walked away, joining the others who were inspecting Eldritch J’s remains.

“Thanks.” Thad said towards Khan. “We were running out of excuses.”

“You’re welcome, you three.”

“So…” Lizzy began. “You’re gonna get us home, right?”

“About that…” Khan trailed off, and for a moment the trio wondered if they had gotten themselves into a worse situation than before.

“I have something to show you three.” Khan continued. “Follow me.”

The trio exchanged looks, and followed Khan as he walked..

“So, what is it?” Lizzy asked.

“It’s, kinda hard to explain.” Khan said, scratching his head. “It’s better if I show you.”

Doll, Lizzy, and Thad were all clueless as to what exactly Khan was talking about, so they settled for walking in confused silence.

They finally arrived at their destination.

Uzi’s home.

“Oh, you’re taking us to that purple, uh…” Lizzy said.

“Uzi’s home.” Thad said.

“Right! That. Why though.” 

Khan Doorman opened the door to his home, and gestured for the trio to walk in. They were immediately greeted with posters for doors, door related awards, and WDF memorabilia.

It was a fairly normal looking home, if the amount of door related items could be ignored.

“Clean place.” Doll muttered.

“So this.” Khan said, “Is what I wanted to show you.”

The trio walked towards him, entering a room, and in front of them was a locked door. A label was plastered in front of it:

Nori’s Kooky Ramblings

Khan was standing in front of shelves, filled with stacks of paper, some neatly arranged, some crumpled and badly damaged. He handed one to Thad, as he began speaking.

“I know whatever you guys saw wasn’t normal.”

“Duh.” Lizzy said. She turned her head slightly to look at the papers Thad was holding, and frowned. 

The paper was filled with crude, messy drawings of the Murder Drones, mechanical horrors, and what seemed to be glimpses of monsters. A symbol was consistently drawn, which Thad recognized as the same symbol that Doll had been using.

“And maybe, I’m just getting the feeling you guys want answers,” Khan continued, handing Doll another stack of papers. The red eyed Worker Drone, unlike Thad or Lizzy, reacted to the papers with shock and a concerning amount of eagerness.

“Uzi… probably was onto something with her weird ramblings.”

“Who?” Lizzy said.

Thad lightly punched her in the arm.

“Ow! Joking!” Lizzy protested. She continued to join Thad in reading the papers. She wasn’t understanding anything, but she still pretended like she did.

“So I thought maybe you guys could use something like this. I figured it’s the least I could do. Maybe I could do better than ignoring what’s important and obsessing over doors.” Khan concluded. He waited for an answer, a response, but the trio were too enamored by the drawings.

“Woah.” Lizzy pointed at a sheet of paper. “Thad, look. Cool S.”

Thad dropped everything else to stare in awe at the Cool S. It really was cool.

“Where did you get this.” Doll asked. It was a question, but Khan noticed the odd way Doll said it, as if she was demanding answers and was only being polite.

“It’s Uzi’s mom’s… Nori’s, stuff.” Khan said. Doll’s eagerness was unexpected, and it made him slightly nervous.

Doll stood up, grabbed more papers from the shelves, and began scanning and reading them with frightening aggression and speed. She then walked towards Lizzy and Thad, who were still enamored by the Cool S, and read their papers as well.

A few more moments of intense reading ensued, and Doll started to systematically collect all the papers she could find in the shelves. She left the Cool S papers to her other friends. Thad was teaching Lizzy how to draw a Cool S, and sadly Lizzy was not doing it well.

“I’m going to need this.” Doll said, in a tone that convinced Khan she won’t be taking no for an answer.

“Well then.” Khan cleared his throat. “You might as well take this.” He handed Doll a photo, and her eyes widened as she looked at it.

It was a picture of Khan, and Nori, and several other Worker Drones in a snowy landscape. The expressions were varied, some were concerned, some were staring off into space, but Doll didn’t care for those. She only concerned herself with one Worker Drone looking at the ground with a shell-shocked expression.

“Mother…”

Thad and Lizzy stood up to face Doll. “Who?”

“My mother.” Doll insisted, pointing at the shocked Worker Drone in the image. “Where was this picture?”

“It’s uhhh…” Khan struggled a bit to remember. “The Cabin Fever labs. I didn’t know much about the place, only that Nori… was a catch!”

The trio blinked.

“Not helpful, dude.” Thad said.

“Sorry.” Khan muttered.

Doll took one more look at the photo with her mother on it. She was finally one step closer to getting answers and figuring out what exactly the humans have infected her with, and maybe, one step closer to avenging her parents’ death.

“How far is the Lab?” Doll asked Khan.

“I dunno.” Khan shrugged. “Maybe a road trip for a few hours?”

Doll fell silent, thinking. Her expression mostly remained neutral, but Thad and Lizzy saw right through it.

“Let me guess.” Lizzy said, smirking.

“You want to go to that Lab, and you want us to come with, don’t you?” Thad continued, smiling at Doll.

Although Doll didn’t move, or say a word, Lizzy and Thad both knew her answer would be yes.