Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Laying here, at the bottom of a pile of broken down Drones, wasn't so bad. It's almost relaxing, even. He doesn't have to fill any orders, or worry about breaking something by accident. Yeah, it's kinda boring, but it beats being scolded for something out of his control.

"Oh! What happened to you?" Small, soft hands touch his broken face, turning it from side to side. "Oh, you poor thing.” The voice is young and female. It reminds him of the daughter of his old Master. “ Let's take you back and fix you up!"

No, no he doesn't want to be fixed up. He'll just break something again. He'll just get in trouble, and thrown back into the junk pile again. And then his heart will break all over again, and he might not be able to come back from that a second time.

But, his silent pleas are ignored as he feels something grasp his ankles and pull him from the pile. Bodies shift and fall as he’s tugged free, and then dragged away. If his screen wasn't shattered, there would be tears streaking down it.

Why can't he just be left alone to rest?

----------

N hung from the ceiling of the Spire, feeling himself slowly come online. He’d had another one of those dreams again, he just knew it. But, like every other time, he couldn’t remember it.

Uzi had tried to help him, of course, but hadn’t been able to make much progress. Apparently she did have something that could help more, but it was all the way back in the colony, and she’d exiled herself.

Still, he was thankful for the help. It was more than J or V had ever done, anyways.

“Hey! N!” He jolted, looking “up” at Uzi leaning out of the pod. “Get down here, I found something!”

“Be right there!” He called back, before releasing himself from the beam. Gliding down, he landed easily on the top of the pod before heading down the ladder. As soon as his feet touched the floor, Uzi had smacked something onto his hat.

“I found a pilot's pin!” She explained, kicking away the stack of boxes she'd climbed on to reach him. “I think you were the pilot!”

“Really?” He was the pilot? Oh, that meant he was the one who crashed and ruined everything. “G-great!” Still, he tried to at least sound excited, since Uzi seemed excited. From the corner of his vision, he saw V turn around and cross her arms, an unreadable expression on her face.

“Yeah! Now if only I could get this thing to work…” She kicked at the console, only to jump back when a panel fell off. “Robo-Jesus it’s like they designed this thing to fall apart! Guess it’s a good thing we’re gonna go kill them.” She said as she picked up the panel to reattach it.

“Uh, yeah. About that?” Uzi wasn’t J, she wasn’t. She’d answer his questions, and not kill him after. “Are we sure that’s the, y’know, moral thing to do here?”

Uzi set the panel back in place and turned to face him. She pointed at the console. “They sent you guys up here with a broken ship after reformatting your memories to soup.” She stabbed her screwdriver into the dashboard. “Covering their tracks like that means they’re past negotiating. Not like they even tried to in the first place.”

She stumbled back when V suddenly shot into her face, held back only by the chain. “Or maybe you just missed the negotiations.” She said, a sadistic grin decorating her face. “Where’s the proof of your backstory? The one where the Workers are oh so conveniently innocent.”

Uzi stared, startled, for half a second before her eyes fell into a death-glare. But neither could do anything about it, as N slowly dragged his Worker friend across the floor, and away from V.

“J was getting her orders from someone, though.” N admitted, once the two were out of range of each other. "But, if not the company, then who?”

Uzi just glared at nothing, crossing her arms and sulkily leaning back against him. "Quit complicating my murder plans." She grumbled.

N hesitated a moment, unsure, before reaching to try and pat her on the head. His hand was quickly swatted away, though, and he was left to simply stare at her.

----------

Thad did not know why he was doing this. Being brave wasn’t his thing, it was Uzi’s. Uzi was the one who ventured out into the snow with a rail gun and killed the Murder Drones. And yeah, he was currently doing the same thing, but he was terrified, and had to fight as his own programming screamed at him to turn back.

But he couldn’t. Not until he got Uzi, anyways. Not until he told her about what had happened to that Murder Drone corpse.

He only hoped it didn’t eat anyone before they could get back.

As he walked, however, he was oblivious to the small shadow hurrying behind him.

----------

Despite Uzi downloading multiple fighting moves from anime, and her lucky shots, N had found that she was terrible at hand to hand combat. So he had insisted on combat lessons, in an attempt to increase her chances at survival.

And it was going… Well, it was going.

“Uzi come on, you need to stabilize your stance!” N tried to instruct as he, once again, flung her into the Spire wall with just his tail. The Worker just groaned in response.

“What does that even mean…?” She asked weakly as he helped her back to her feet.

“It means plant your feet wider, and bend your knees a little. He demonstrated, and watched her copy him. He walked around her a moment, using his tail to nudge and correct her stance, before once again flinging her into a wall.

“Quit that!” She yelled, throwing a head at him that hit dead center of his face. The screen cracked, and Uzi felt a brief moment of panic before his eyes flickered back into place.

They stared at each other for a moment, and then the eyes shifted into a large, yellow X, and she shrieked.

“Nonono!” She dodged as he charged, and sprinted across the spire as he chased her. She could feel his claws just barely graze her hoodie as she ran. “N! Stop!”

But N didn’t listen, and instead kept chasing until she turned and kicked a limb into his head. Stunned briefly, it gave her a chance to dodge out of his sight. When he recovered, though, he wasn’t too surprised that she’d managed to disappear.

She’d show back up, he knew that, it was just a matter of when and where. So he stalked through the main area of the Spire, scanning for tracks of any kind that would let him win the chase.

After all, he just had to catch her, and that would be easy.

But, he was so focused on the ground, that he forgot to look up. And up was exactly where Uzi was, clinging to the Spire wall with a thick pipe in one hand.

If there was one thing she'd learned about Murder Drones, it was that they never, ever looked up. Oh they knew how to track from the sky, and had completely 360 vision, but they never checked above them. And why would they need to? They were the rulers of the sky after all. Apex predators that stalked from above, hidden in the clouds.

So N suspected nothing as Uzi launched herself from her perch, bringing the pipe down on his head with a loud crack. He went down like a kicked snow drone, though it was more from surprise than actual damage.

Uzi stood over her fallen friend, cackling. “I AM A GOD!” She screamed to the sky, unaware of the Drone coming up behind her.

“Hey Uzi.”

She shrieked, then had to force herself to not shriek again when she saw who it was. “Thad! Hi, Thad. Hi.”

N dropped out of the fighting stance he’d rolled into, standing up straight and giving a little wave to what was, obviously, a friend of Uzi’s from the colony.

She blushed as the other Worker held out her beloved rail-gun, and she quickly snatched it from him with a quiet “Thank you.”

“Of course Zi!” Thad replied, seemingly unbothered by having watched her just basically concuss a Murder Drone. He pointed a pair of finger guns at said Murder Drone. “N and Ms.”

N perked up immediately. He’d never had a nickname before! Well, a nickname that wasn’t derogatory, anyways.

“You saved everyone.” The Worker continued. “Hell, I don’t think the colony’s even serious about all this exile stuff. More just confused with-”

“The fact I’ve gone rogue and can no longer re-enter society!” It was true, to her mind at least. She was completely feral now, may as well be a Disassembly Drone herself(though if one asked N, he would disagree).

“T-the recent disappearances?” Thad finished. “Including the, uh, Murder Drone corpse.”

Uzi turned to stare at him, suddenly worried, and he continued. “When I went to grab your gun, it kinda looked like it had, uh, crawled away?” Behind him, Uzi saw N stand up, looking around wildly.

Well that wasn’t good.

“We can, uh, return a little?” She ventured. “Just long enough to, y’know, kill J again.”

“You’re coming back?!” A young voice shrieked followed by a brilliant flash of light. All three drones let out a yelp as they were temporarily blinded.

“Maia!” Thad yelled, rubbing his screen as his optics reset. “I told you to stay home!”

“And miss out on the adventure?!” A droneling, half the size of Thad and wearing a pink sweater with matching hat scoffed, then scurried up to N. “Hey is this the pet Murder Drone? Click.”

Another flash, aimed solely at N this time, sent the poor Drone stumbling back as every one of his optics were overloaded at once.

“Quit that!” Thad snatched the camera from his sister, holding it up out of her reach. “Go home!”

“But it’s dangerous back home!” She whined. “What if I get got like the others? Or worse, have to listen to a lecture from Dr. Galen again. Blech.”

“I’ll give you something worse than a lecture if you don’t get home now!” The male Worker threatened.

“Hey hey, chill!” Uzi felt weird to be saying that. “We can take her back with us, and then she can go back to your unit.”

“Fine. But I swear Maia if you don’t go straight home when we get back to the colony-”

“Tell Mom I came out here and I’m telling her you did too!” She declared. “And I have proof!”

“Ugh, fine! Just go home when we get back!”

----------

When N landed, Uzi was ready and simply hopped off her perch. Thad was less ready, and stumbled before falling flat into the snow. Maia didn’t have to worry about it, as N had carried her in his arms at Thad’s insistence.

“That was fun!” She chirped as she was set in the snow.

“It was not.” Thad deadpanned, brushing the snow off his shirt and approaching the door. It opened about six inches, revealing Ron.

“Welcome back Thad!” He greeted with a cheery wave, before noticing Uzi. “Hey, aren’t you grounded?”

The emo drone groaned. “Banished! I’m banished! Has Dad been telling people I’m grounded?!”

The door guard had no answer for that, as he’d noticed the third member of their group. “Genocide robot?” He asked, sounding more annoyed than frightened.

Thad and Uzi both looked back at N, who approached the door cautiously. He passed something through the gap, which Ron took and looked over carefully. They were surprised when he looked back up with a smile.

“Oh alright, you can come in.” He reached over and flicked the switch to open the door. “Just don’t do it again.”

“Dude your card freakin worked.” Uzi muttered as they passed by the guard. Ron gave them a wave as they went by, stooping to give Maia a quick high-five.

“I know!” N was excited. “You think it would work with J?”

“No.”

----------

Their first stop was at the Allard housing unit. N, who had never seen a Worker housing unit, was looking at everything in amazement.

“Okay, so you have to stay here” Thad was saying, oblivious to N rummaging through the cupboards in his kitchen.

“But I wanna see Uzi shoot her gun!” The droneling held up her camera. “I want a picture to show Mom later!”

“Look, how about I take a picture of it for you?” Thad offered, taking the camera. “Then, you have a picture, and Mom won’t kill me.”

“But it’s not the same!”

“Tough.” He placed a hand on the girl’s head, and forced her to sit on the couch. “So just sit here until I get home, okay?”

“Okay…” Maia looked down, then suddenly straightened up and stared behind him. Thad turned in time to see Uzi trying to pull a large can of coolant out of a very murderous-looking N’s mouth.

----------

Once N had drunk his fill of coolant(and Thad was not looking forward to explaining that to his mom), they were on their way again. At least until they came upon a crime scene, with bright yellow police tape having completely blocked the area. Ducking down, the three kept to the shadows until they came upon the main scene.

It was mildly sickening, with oil splashed everywhere and pieces of Drones(or maybe just one Drone) scattered about. It was also swarming with WDF, taking pictures and looking for clues.

“So uh, where’s Khan again?” One member asked another, Sarah, if Uzi remembered right. “Cause this whole thing is kinda… yeargh.”

“Ugh, he’s at a parent teacher conference.” Sarah sipped at her mug. “Something about his daughter being more important than the missing Drones. Like, ugh, priorities.”

“Ew, yeah. Besides, she’s grounded isn’t she? He knows where she is, we need to find out what happened here.” The first guy said, and Uzi felt her face drop for a moment.

“Hey.” N hissed from above. “You good?”

“I’m fine. Stop asking!” She then gestured for them to make a run across the doorway, which they managed without getting spotted. They were then able to easily sneak out of the perimeter of the crime scene, and out of danger of getting caught.

“That was not there when I left.” Thad mentioned when it was safe to talk again. “But hopefully you see what I mean now.”

“Yeah, that looked like a Murder Drone victim.” Uzi couldn’t quite stop the demented giggle as she pulled her gun from her back and began to prime it. Thad and N shared a worried look, but neither were quite brave enough to try and stop her.

“So uh, do you guys do this kinda thing often?” She asked, looking around at all the acid burned holes and long-dried oil splatters. There were a few strips of police tape nearby, but they were shredded.

“Haha. No!” N replied cheerfully. “That is concerning and a little bit frightening.”

Uzi just gave him a look, but any response was cut off by Thad. “Hey, Zi! Come look at this.”

Uzi and N hurried over to Thad, who was looking at some pretty large claw marks on one of the crates. N brought out his own claws and held them up in comparison, wincing slightly when they matched perfectly.

The marks were also covered with a glittering, silvery substance.

“Are these… nanites?” Uzi asked, looking at them closely. They certainly looked like nanites, or at least, like N’s nanites.

She took a step back, not liking the implications.

She was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She turned, about to tell N off, when she noticed the look on his screen. A glance towards Thad showed a similar look on him, both staring at some hidden spot in the shadows.

A spot from which Uzi could hear an increasingly loud, glitchy giggling, as something stepped into the light of their flashlights.

There was a large hole still in her chest, and most of the lower and left parts of her face gone. Her screen was off, but it didn’t stop the unnerving feeling that she was staring right at them. Her claws dragged on the ground, as did her tail, and she walked with a halting, limping gait.

J was alive, for whatever form of “alive” that was.

Uzi fumbled for her gun, and that was all J needed to charge forward with a shriek. N reacted quickly, grabbing Uzi and dodging away. But he wasn’t fast enough to also grab Thad, who ended up pinned to the crate. The zombified Murder Drone gave another shriek that broke off into a giggle as she began to climb the crate, dragging Thad with her as he screamed.

“Thad!” Uzi scrambled up, but hesitated, unsure of how to follow. N solved that easily, by scooping her up and launching them both up to the top of the stack just in time to see J disappear into a vent. “Shit! No!”

She bounced in place, pulling up maps from her internal processors, trying to figure out where the Murder Drone would have gone. “Okay! Okayokayokay! That leads to…” She followed the map, trying to remember what would be closed off at this time of night. “Cryosleep! Come on!”

She jumped down from crate to crate, and N followed close as she led him through the halls and to the old cryosleep lab. While the place had been made in case of emergency, the core explosion had happened too fast for the emergency measure put in place to go into effect. So the pods stood empty, only turned on occasionally if atmosphere was needed for a party.

As they entered, they noticed the lights were off here too. Uzi flicked on her gun, but the green holographic light didn’t spread far enough for her to see.

But N could see what was happening, very well in fact, with his night-vision. And he could see, easily, how J loomed over Thad, jawless mouth dripping her nanites as she raised her claws. Every bit of code in him was screaming not to move, to let J do what she had to and repair herself. It was screaming to help her because if he didn’t, she’d die.

But if he did, she’d kill everyone in this Bunker, and then himself, and he didn’t want that.

So he raised his rocket launcher and fired, successfully hitting his ex-leader and throwing her into the far wall. Thad reacted quickly, scrambling up and sprinting out of the room.

“I-I’ll go get help!” He gasped out as he sped past them. “Just try and keep her busy!”

“Oh I’m doing one better!” Uzi grinned as she aimed for where N had. She had one shot, and knew J would come for her soon, walking right into her rail-gun.

“Idi-di-di-diot!” The walking corpse hissed out. “Yo-yo-you’re ju-ust beg-eg-egging to die-die-die-die-!”

Uzi was ready as J charged towards them, but so was N as he quickly intercepted her. He parried her claws with his swords, pushing her back. Uzi swore when he did, having nearly shot him in the back.

“N!” She tried to move to the side, but he smoothly stepped between them again. “Get out of the way! You’re ruining my shot!”

“Uzi don’t-” He cut off as those same claws tore into his torso and easily tossed him aside. It knocked his sensors offline for a moment, but he still tried to get back up as they rebooted.

Uzi flinched as he struggled, before the giggling thing took her attention again. “I don’t know how you lived through it last time, but that won’t happen again!” She lifted the gun and aimed, but such a close shot couldn’t miss as she pulled the trigger, utterly obliterating J for the second time.

Uzi sighed, tiredly, as she stared at the glittering slag left behind. Finally, the Bunker, and Thad and N, were safe once again. Maybe now she could go back to her banishment in peace.

She started towards N, intent on helping him up, maybe repairing anything broken, when a demented giggle made her freeze. Beneath her feet, the “slag” began to move, reforming into an even more broken-looking J. This time she was also missing both arms and her tail, all so she could form enough of her head to talk.

“Heeee did-did-didn’t tell yooouuu?” She mono-toned. “We are-are-aren’t drones.”

The air filled with a skittering, buzzing sound as a glittering, silvery wall spread between them. It trapped N on one side, and her with J on the other. “You-you-you’ll make for good-good-good new material.”

Uzi tried to back away, but her escape was blocked by more silver. An ever shrinking cylinder forcing her closer and closer to where J was waiting.

But Uzi wasn’t about to go down without a fight. Her gun was useless as a gun right now, but as a club? It would be serviceable.

So she reared back and swung at J’s head, knocking it askew. But that just made her laugh again, jerking her body to make it sit upright again.

“You miss-miss-miss-missed~” She cackled. “My turn-urn.”

The buzzing intensified as the silvery wall began to collapse in on itself, folding inwards towards Uzi. She dodged the incoming waves, but clear floor was getting hard to come by.

Luckily, N had seen his opportunity and swooped in, snatching the Worker up and out of harm’s way. At the same time he yanked the railgun from her grip, flinging it back towards J. As it got close, he shot it with pinpoint accuracy, making the weapon begin to spark. As N pressed Uzi between himself and the wall to protect her, J gave an enraged shriek that was cut off by an ear-ringing explosion that knocked everyone offline for a moment.

Uzi blinked back online, and became very aware of N laying on top of her. She shoved him off almost frantically, ignoring the pained groans coming from him. She watched, utterly horrified, as his back regenerated with the same glittery silver that J had just used to attack them with.

‘Nanites. They’re nanites.’ She felt sick, suddenly. ‘Why would the company do this?!’

“...Uzi?” She jumped as the Murder Drone got to his feet, stumbling upright as he reached for her. “Hey, you good-”

“No!” She scrambled back, but hit the wall. “No, don't touch me!”

N froze, hand inches from her and looking for all the world like she’d stabbed him with his own tail. He opened his mouth, but before he could speak he heard voices, rapidly approaching. So he slowly, carefully, backed away from where Uzi huddled against the wall, before leaping into the rafters.

Seconds later, the WDF burst in, led by Khan himself. The group slowed to a stop, taking in the wrecked room, splattered with dull gray. Movement to the side caught his attention, and he nearly fainted when he saw what caused it.

“...Uzi?” He couldn’t quite keep the hope out of his voice, as she got to her feet. She took a step towards them, then two, then stumbled. But, Khan was right there to catch her, pulling her into a tight hug that she, surprisingly, returned.

With a silent jerk of his head, the others began to scour the room. He stooped to pick up his daughter, when he caught a glint of yellow. Looking up, Khan spotted the Murder Drone his daughter had brought inside lurking in the rafters. He seemed to realize he’d been spotted, though, as he quickly crawled up and out of sight. Khan glared after him, then carried his daughter out of the room, and back to their housing unit.

----------

Uzi laid on her bed, staring up at her blank ceiling as she tried, desperately, to sleep. But she couldn’t, as all she saw when she shut off her optics were walls of silver and N’s hurt face. In her hand she clutched a drawing, something N had made and slipped into her hoodie at some point.

Thanks for being my friend it said, in childish writing. The figures were even more childishly drawn, simple stick figures in crayon. It was bad, but she, secretly, thought it was sweet.

She’d joked, half seriously, that she’d teach him to draw for real at some point. Give him lessons she’d had to learn by herself. That wouldn’t happen now.

Some friend she was.

----------

In the depths of the cryosleep lab, unseen by the drones working on cleaning it, a glittering cloud flew from one of the half-open pods. Barely noticeable, it streamed up to the ceiling, and into one of the tiny vents that actually led outside.

Chapter Text

Uzi stared down at her sketchbook, her freshly drawn sketch of zombie J on full display. A small, sad doodle of N was near the top of the page, but she’d scribbled it out once she realized what she’d been drawing. She wanted nothing more than to destroy that doodle and her guilt, but she really liked the zombie J drawing, and didn’t want to tear up her sketchbook besides.

“Uzi, I know you like your… anime? But the assignment is a tree.” Uzi jolted when the art teacher, Seraph, suddenly spoke from over her shoulder. “Think you could draw that instead?”

“Bite me!” The angsty teen snarled, but she did flip the page and start on a sketch of a tree. Seraph smiled and patted her shoulder, before moving on to a different student.

Uzi barely noticed, though, already too caught up in more doodling. She scowled when yet another sad N appeared on the page, and this time, she tore it out.

----------

The rest of the school day went the same way all the others had, though with less bullying than before J and V broke in. Turns out killing a Murder Drone did, in fact, get you some respect. Or fear. It didn’t matter to her, so long as they left her alone.

Well, most of them left her alone. Thad was hellbent on bothering her, apparently, as he was already waiting by her locker by the time she got there.

“Hey Zi!” He greeted as she opened the too-high locker, pulling down the books she used to reach it. “You need any help?”

“No, I don't need help!” She spat back as she shoved her art book inside. “What do you even want, anyways?”

“What, can't I hang with the new coolest kid in school?” He flinched as she threw a textbook at his head. “Ow.”

“We both know that nobody thinks I'm cool.” Uzi deadpanned as she climbed down and put her footstool-books back.

“Aw, come on. I think you're cool.” Thad grinned, rubbing where the book had hit. “I'm serious about hanging out, by the way.”

Uzi groaned, rolling her eyes but unable to stop the warm feeling in her core. “Ugh, fine. We can hang.”

“Great!” He lit up in an uncomfortably familiar way and grabbed her arm, already beginning to drag her through the hall. “Maia will be happy, too. She keeps asking when we’re going to hang out again.”

“Really?” She didn’t know why, since almost nobody wanted to hang out with her. Then again, dronelings were notoriously easy to impress, so she supposed she wasn’t too surprised.

Thankfully, Thad let go of her once they were out of the school, content to simply walk beside her in silence. Which, once again, was uncomfortably familiar to her.

Luckily, the walk from the school to the housing units didn’t take long, though Uzi had to deal with the stares of the Workers they passed. They weren’t the same ones from before that she was used to, either, and that made her uncomfortable.

Thad’s unit was in the “fancy” area, same as hers. It made sense, since his mom was the head doctor, but she hadn't really realized before that he lived so close.

“Hey I’m home!” He called as he held the door open for her. “And I brought a friend over!”

Down the hall(set up identically to her and her dad’s unit) a tiny drone head peeked out, before suddenly rushing towards them. “Uzi!” Maia squealed, running head first into her legs, immediately knocking her over.

“Ow.” Uzi deadpanned from the floor while Thad lifted his sister off of her.

“Maia, manners.” He said, then helped Uzi up. “She won’t want to come over if you do that.”

“But I haven’t seen her in forever!” The droneling protested. “I thought she died to the zombie!”

“Maia, she killed the zombie.”

“Oh.” The girl bounced on her feet, then started looking around. “Is N here too? I want more pictures!”

Uzi looked away, trying to hide the guilty expression on her face, but Thad noticed. “He couldn’t come because he’s busy, and, uh, me and Uzi have homework, so we can’t really play much anyways.”

“Aaww.” She groaned. “But you can play after, right?”

“Yeah, we'll play with you after.” He tugged her hat down over her eyes, smiling when she scrambled to fix it. “Now go watch cartoons or something, we’ll come out when we’re done.”

“Fine…” She started towards the living room, then paused. “But I will be checking to make sure you two aren’t making out or something.”

“Yeah yeah.” He gave her a gentle push towards the couch, then gestured for Uzi to follow him to his room.

She didn’t really know what she expected, but the super generic room actually seemed to fit Thad pretty well. A simple bed, dresser, and desk, no posters, but there were a couple of sports balls in a pile on the floor, and two gold trophies on the desk.

“Sorry about the mess.” He said, though there really wasn’t one.

“It’s, uh, fine…” “She didn’t tell him that his bedroom was cleaner than any room in her unit. “So you brought me here to do homework, huh?”

“Eeeeh you’re better at math than I am.” He admitted. “And science. And physics. And those stupid captchas.”

“You want me to tutor you?” She asked, incredulous.

“Not tutor! Just, uh, help? And I can help you w-with your English homework, or whatever…” He shrugged, voice betraying how anxious he felt about asking.

Well, this was certainly a new experience for Uzi- being taken advantage of for homework. But, since it was Thad…

“Give it here.” He handed it over gratefully, and she looked it over. “This stuff is easy, how are you having trouble?”

“I dunno.” he shrugged, looking much more at ease now that she’d agreed to help. Uzi just sighed, sitting on the floor as he followed.

“Alright, so for this problem, all you gotta do is…”

----------

It took two hours for Thad’s homework to get done, and then another one and a half to get the rest of it finished for the both of them. By then, Maia had tried to join them, but she had gotten bored and was currently napping on Thad’s bed, plugged into his charger. At some point she'd claimed Uzi’s hoodie as a blanket, though the older drone didn't mind.

“And that’s the last captcha.” Uzi finally sighed, slipping the papers into her backpack. “Finally…”

Thad stretched behind her, leaving his papers all over the floor. “Man, I never want to look at another one of those freaky things…”

“Too bad, I’m sure they’re going to be on the final exam.” Uzi teased, smirking when Thad groaned loudly at the thought. “Don’t worry, I’m sure there will be other stuff on there that’s easier for you, too.”

“Man I hope so." He grumbled. Turning, he looked at his sister, still deep in sleep mode. “Heh, knew she wouldn’t be able to stay up this long...”

‘Why does she look so adorable while asleep?’ Uzi mused, also staring at the droneling. ‘Is that how I looked when I was younger? How Mom looked? She’s so innocent…’

“If you’re thinking she looks innocent, you’re wrong.” Thad spoke up suddenly. “She’s a little tornado of chaos and destruction.”

“Oh, so like I was?” Uzi grinned at Thad’s startled look. “Remember when I made Doll eat a roach?”

Based on his expression, he remembered that day very well. “Please don’t give her any ideas.”

“I won’t give her that idea.” Uzi promised. “But, if she ever asks for one…”

“Ugh great. Two of you.” Thad grumbled, letting his face fall to the bed. “Galen’s gonna have a core attack.”

Uzi just gave a quiet cackle, pleased at her successful teasing. But the smugness soon faded, and she grew quiet, thinking.

‘N looked kinda like that, too, when he slept…’ Granted he slept upside down, but his face often held a similar peaceful expression to the one on Maia.

And, despite being a murderous pile of nanites, he did have a certain innocence to him…

“Hey.” She was pulled from her thoughts as Thad nudged her side. “Are you going to prom with anyone?”

She shot him a withering look. “You can’t honestly think that anyone asked me.”

“Aw come on, who wouldn’t want to go with you?” He grinned, and Uzi found herself blushing at the implication.

“Yeah? W-well I’m not going!” She insisted, crossing her arms and looking away.

“Not even with me?” Uzi blushed harder, scowling down at the floor. “Come on Zi, you haven’t been to any of the school dances. Don’t you want to go to at least one before we graduate?”

“And just get made fun of? No thanks!” She scoffed. “Nobody even wants me there, anyways, so why even bother…”

“Well, I want you there.” It was said quietly, but with the kind of confidence she expected from Thad. Hesitantly, she looked up at him through her bangs, and was startled to see that he looked sincere. There wasn't a hint of a lie

“... Fine. I’ll go to prom.” She grumbled. “But only for you! Nobody else! And we leave when I say so!”

“Deal!” He looked ecstatic, to her surprise. Surely taking her to some stupid school dance wasn’t that exciting.

But, it seemed to be, since he started talking nonstop about how they’d get ready, how he wanted to see her dress so he could match his tux to it, and that he’d need to find something purple to match with her. It was a little overwhelming, and she kinda wished she stood by her original “no”.

But the more he talked, the more his excitement started to infect her, until she started thinking about what would be the best accessory she could wear to match him.

----------

Khan had, surprisingly, also been ecstatic when Uzi mentioned going to prom with Thad. He’d started talking about how he already had her dress(a child’s dress that he’d personally modified for her), and then said something about his backup plan being unneeded. Uzi didn't know what kind of backup plan her dad had made, but she was thankful it wouldn't go into effect.

So she stood in front of her mirror on the night of prom, carefully adjusting the bright green ribbon that now decorated her hair. It was in a perfect bow, the result of thirty minutes of careful, minor adjustments. It looked nice, but Uzi wondered if it would look better as a nice, cheerful yellow.

‘Stop that!’ She scolded herself. ‘N’s not here! And he's not coming back! Not after what you said…’ She sighed, and gave the ribbon one last adjustment. ‘So just go dance with Thad, maybe grab some gas, and try to have fun for once. Maybe.’

She sighed, smoothing out the skirt on her dress. She still wasn’t sure she wanted to do this, but it was too late now to take it back. As she exited the bathroom, she only hoped that the night went smoothly, and without any problems.

----------

“I’m not freeing you for prom murder V!” N said once again. Though he was pretty sure V didn’t think he was serious, since he had gone out to get a nice dress and suit for said dance. Maybe it was wishful thinking on his part, but he did really want to go to that party…

But, no. He shouldn’t. “It’s too dangerous! J already went insane! What if one of us is next?!”

“Oh like that would ever happen.” She scoffed, then grew serious. “Look, it’ll be easy! We just show up all fabulous, the sad purple thing lets us in since we’re her only friends, and then we kill everyone! Simple!”

“No! No more murder!” N stated firmly. “I don’t want to go on another rampage!”

“Then we’ll only kill what we need!” V countered. “But we need oil, N, or we’ll die. You know this.”

“I don’t care!” Better to die than to see her face looking like that again. He could see it every time he closed his eyes, the way Uzi looked at him after fighting J. What she said, how she cringed away. It made his core ache, and he hated it.

“Too bad, because I do!” She snarled from her seat. “You think I want to just give up and die?!” She took a deep breath, trying to seem more agreeable. “Look, I don’t know what you and that purple thing saw in there that’s making you act like this, but it is really annoying. Just let me go, and I’ll take care of it for you, okay?”

“V, I don’t know. This doesn’t feel ri-” N was cut off as his head was forcibly removed from his body, and V gently floated beside him.

“I know what’s best for you.” She said softly, grabbing the skeleton with the bright red dress. “Even if you hate me for it.”

----------

“Come on Zi, isn’t this great?” Thad, dressed in a simple black tux with a bright purple tie, was practically vibrating next to her, staring out at the gym full of teenage drones. And her dad, who for some robo-god awful reason had decided to chaperone.

“Yeah, fantastic.” She deadpanned. “Hey, isn't there usually gas at these things? I’d like to be drunk.”

“Coolant doesn’t get spiked until at least an hour in, after the chaperones let down their guards.” The jock explained. He then grabbed her hand and began to pull her in deeper, towards the dancefloor. “Come on Zi, let’s dance!”

“Hey-” He’d pulled her to the edge of the crowd before she could really protest, tugging her into his arms. He took advantage of her shock to spin into place with the other dancers, like some sped up version of a slow dance.

“Thad!” She hissed out, but he just laughed.

“It’s a dance, Zi! You gotta do at least one before we go home.”

Uzi just groaned, but let him twirl her around the floor, easily weaving between the other dancers around them. And, she had to admit, it was kind of fun, and being so close to basically the hottest guy in school made her feel powerful, in a way, especially when she saw some of the jealous looks the other girls were throwing at her.

‘Is this how Lizzy usually feels?’ She wondered quietly to herself as Thad dipped her. ‘Cause I think I know why she’s always such a bitch now. This feels fantastic!’

----------

N woke up with a yell as his memories came flooding back, including the most recent one of V decapitating him. He wondered if that was going to happen a lot. If it was, he’d need to set up some countermeasures.

Looking around, he saw the dress was gone, its skeletal mannequin having been rudely discarded. “Oh no. No no no no no!” He scrambled up, grabbing onto the ladder before hesitating. He looked back at the suit, then shook his head. No! There’s no time!” He climbed up and all was silent in the pod for half a second.

And then N’s head came back down through the opening. “But dapper…” He whined, then jumped back down. He probably had a few seconds to spare, possibly.

----------

“- and that’s why, in a straight fight, no matter what, Saitama will always win.” Uzi was saying to a rather unexpected crowd. The “punch” had been spiked, and she’d partaken of it, and somehow had gathered a crowd of drones listening to her rant about anime to Thad.

“Seriously? Even Thanos?” Sam, the local stoner, asked. Uzi made a note to get some magnets from him later.

“Especially Thanos.” She told him. “Anyone and everyone you can think of, he can beat.”

“What about Deadpool?” Emily asked.

“Maybe Deadpool.” Uzi conceded. “But only because he’s immortal.”

“Nice.” Emily high-fived Sam, while Braidon scoffed.

“You imbeciles have no sense of what power is. You want to know who could beat Saitama? Darth. Vader.” He grinned as the girls considered this. “You can’t punch someone you can’t even reach.”

Uzi opened her mouth to argue, when a bump from behind made her drink spill onto her dress. “Oh come on! Was that Lizzy? I bet that was Lizzy!”

“Chill, Zi, it wasn’t Lizzy.” Thad was quick to calm her down. “It was just an accident.”

“Ugh, it’s going to stain!” Emily quickly told her. “You better go clean it up.”

“Yeah…” That was a shame, because she really did like the dress. Quickly extracting herself, she left the others to argue and raced for the bathrooms.

“Can’t believe this…” Uzi muttered as she ran the skirt of her dress under the faucet. She grimaced and quickly tried to pat it dry with the crappy paper towels they had, before giving up. At least the dress was black, so if it did stain it wouldn’t be too obvious. Hopefully.

Finally giving up, she went to leave the bathroom, only to pause when she heard Lizzy and Doll talking right outside it. Never one to pass up good blackmail, she cracked the door open to listen better.

“[It is simple. Just let the monster in, and I will spring the trap.]” Doll was saying. “[The candidates have been removed from the competition, so now we only need the monster.]”

“Ugh, do you have to call her that? I know she’s a Murder Drone, but still.” Uzi could almost see the blonde flip her hair at the end of that sentence.

“[She killed my parents.]” Came the deadpan reply. “[Just do your part, and I’ll take care of the rest.]”

“Fine.” Uzi let the door shut, panicking. They could only be talking about V, she was the only “monster” left. But what did they mean by “trap”? Was Doll planning to try to kill V?

If Uzi was human, she would have paled. As it was her eyes went hollow as she realized the implications. Already, she could see the gym flooded with nanites, devouring her classmates, her teachers, her dad as V took them apart to repair herself.

She had to get out of there. Now. She had to warn somebody, or get help. But there wasn’t anyone who could help her.

Well, there was one drone who could.

----------

N felt extremely dapper as he sped through the skies, which almost distracted him from his worry of what V was about to do. Her trail had gone cold by the time he'd regenerated his head and gotten changed, but he didn't need it as he knew exactly where she was going.

The bunker. Full of weak, helpless drones(and Uzi) that she was planning to kill and eat. If he didn’t hurry, there might not be anyone left inside(except for Uzi. Uzi would always survive).

But as he approached, he spotted a small drone sprinting from the wide open(and wasn’t that bad news) doors. It wasn’t V, or anyone he recognized. Though, it did kind of look like Uzi, just without her beanie and with a bright green ribbon in her hair.

Taking a chance, N let himself fall and land heavily in front of the drone, pushing them back into the snow. He felt a little bad about that as the snow-dust he’d kicked up cleared and he stood up to his full height. He opened his mouth, intending on an apology and explanation, when he was cut off.

“N?!” Her outfit was weird, but he would recognize that voice anywhere.

“Uzi!” He rushed to help her up, only to hesitate as the memory of their last interaction flashed in his processor.

“Why are you here?” She asked, standing up by herself. She brushed her skirt off, then reached for him, only to stop and pull back. “No, there’s no time! Doll and Lizzy are about to do something really stupid! I need your help!”

“I-I came here to stop V! She has a plan to-”

“They’re trying to kill V!” Uzi cut him off again. “Except it won’t work, because it didn’t work with J and everyone is going to die if we don’t hurry!” She was hyperventilating, clearly in the start of a panic attack.

Luckily, N had some experience with this, as Uzi had a similar one the night after she left the Bunker. Slowly, he placed his hands onto her shoulders and squeezed lightly. “Breathe, Uzi. It’s okay.”

“I-it’s not! It’s really not…” She sniffed, then brushed his hands off of her. “But we need to hurry! Come on!” She gestured for him to follow, and raced back towards the Bunker. N did so with no hesitation, inwardly cheering at the brief moment of contact he’d been allowed.

Sprinting through the bunker was a different experience to sneaking through it, however. It allowed the other Workers to see them, for one, though all they did was shoot a few curious looks. That was good, in N’s opinion, as it meant V hadn’t gone on a rampage.

Yet, anyways.

It wasn’t actually long before they reached the school, the halls empty of even a janitor as Uzi led the way to the gym. Reaching the double doors, she slid to a stop and motioned for N to be quiet. Slowly, she eased them open, giving the Murder Drone a good look at all the teenagers inside.

“It smells like hormones and desperation.” He muttered, and Uzi had to close the door again to muffle her laughter.

“Stop!” She told him, giving his arm a light shove. “This is supposed to be serious!”

“I am being serious!” N protested with a small smile. He really wasn’t, but it was worth it to see her laugh again.

“Whatever dude. We just gotta get a good vantage point…” She peered through the doors, searching. “Where do you think would be a good spot?”

“Up there?” He pointed with his tail to the rafters in the corner. “Not sure I can get us up there without being seen, though.”

Uzi squinted, zooming her sight in on the perch. “There’s a vent up there. We can go through there.”

----------

“Ugh, waiting is so boring!” V complained to Lizzy from her hidden perch. “Can’t we just get it over with already?”

“No, we cannot.” The teen told her in what V considered a perfect imitation of J. “There’s an order to this, and if we do it wrong, it’ll all go to shit.”

“Fine…” Her tail swayed behind her as she made a disgusted expression. “It smells like hormones and desperation in here…”

“That’s just what highschool smells like.” Lizzy barely even looked at her as she prepared her speech cards. “Now be quiet, it’s almost time…”

----------

Khan was nervous, even though he felt like he shouldn’t have been. Uzi had been at the dance, he’d seen her! She had been dancing with Thad, who was a nice and safe boy, and then she’d vanished! Poof, gone like snow under the summer sun.

He wondered where she’d gone, if she’d ditched her date and run off alone somewhere. He didn’t know why she would, since it seemed like she’d been having fun, but it worried him. Was she having another episode? Or had she entered back into her depressive state?

He needed to find her, Khan decided. Find his daughter, and figure out what was wrong, and maybe take her back to Maria for further maintenance. Then they could go home, maybe put on one of those cartoons she liked so much, and relax for a bit.

He was just heading for the doors when the spotlight clicked on, lighting up the nice, sweet blonde from Uzi’s class.

“Okay, listen up nerds.” She started, and Khan amended his tags on her to just ‘blonde from Uzi’s class’. “We’re doing this a little early, but since the entire Prom Court mysteriously disappeared, your Queen by forfeit is, uh,” she hesitated, briefly, then gestured to something behind her, “this.”

The stage shook as a Murder Drone in a red dress crashed into it, wings spread wide and claws at the ready. She cackled softly as the rest of the Drones in the room panicked.

“We’re gonna die!” One kid yelled, which stirred the rest into a screaming panic before the Liam’s daughter tapped the microphone again.

“Easy, judgy-bots! V’s my friend.” A screen slid down from above as V slowly stalked forward. A series of photos and selfies flashed across it, showing Lizzie and V during various activities together. “She’s done with the murder, or whatever. We’ve been hanging.”

“Yes…” The Murder Drone giggled. “Best friends. So easily manipulated.”

Lizzie rolled her eyes, snapping her fingers. Whatever V was going to do next was halted as a slightly younger drone reluctantly came onto the stage, holding a large tiara in her hands. V stared at the sparkly crown, thoroughly confused.

“So forgive and forget!” Lizzie was saying with false cheer. “Or I’ll get my dad to dock your frickin’ grades!” She yelled out, before pointing at a drone with blue hair. “And you can’t sit with us, Rebecca!”

Rebecca glanced around, startled, then groaned. “Fine! I forgive her! Settle!”

This started a new reaction in the audience, this time of cheering and applause. V heard a few drones mutter compliments, something about how she was cute(really? Her?)

“Your dress is really cute.” Said the drone holding the crown as she reached up to settle it behind V’s optic band.

“I… Uh…” What to do now? The teens were chanting for her to give a speech rather than running in fear. Lizzie was gesturing rather insistently towards the mic, a ‘get over here now expression on her screen.

“I can… kill everyone after?” She questioned quietly to herself. “It’s… it’s not vain. It’s just… extra sinister…”

Khan watched as the newly crowned Murder Drone approached the mic stand, slowly backing towards the doors himself. However when he reached them, he found them locked tight, unable to budge.

“Not the doors…” He whimpered, still struggling to open them. He was terrified, for himself and all the children locked in the room with the Murder Drone. This was the number two worst case scenario, and he was thankful Uzi wasn’t trapped in here too. Though, then again, maybe she’d have a way out of this mess. She was rather like him, in that way, with an answer for every question and a solution for every problem, even if they weren’t the right ones.

Well, even if she wasn’t here now, maybe she could fix this later. After all she’d already killed one of these things, surely she could kill another one, right?

And that was when the bomb went off.

----------

N and Uzi sat on the rafters, watching the chaos down below.

“Should we go help?” N asked, watching the top of the stage collapse onto V while Uzi’s classmates panicked down below.

“Hold on a second.” She took several pictures, committing both sights to her memory files. She may have been terrified of a mass of nanites consuming the bunker, but she was still a petty teenager at her core. “Okay, now we can go.”

N grabbed her around the waist and leapt from their perch, landing heavily right in front of the stage. While N went to dig out his squadmate, Uzi turned towards the now still students.

“Alright, everybody out of the way!” She declared, feeling far less badass than before in a dress and without her gun. “This is dangerous shit, and as the only one to ever kill a Murder Drone, I’m taking charge!”

“Ew, why you?” Someone, Rebecca, spoke up. She was quickly silenced when N turned and looked at her, retreating back behind Darren. “N-nevermind! We’re leaving!”

The rest of the crowd gave frantically muttered agreements, heading for the doors of the gymnasium. Only one didn’t move; Doll, who stood directly in front of Uzi with a very determined expression across her screen.

“[Nobody is leaving this place.]” She stated calmly, though Uzi could clearly hear the venom in her voice. “[Not until I am finished.]”

“Yeah, no. Not doing that.” Uzi retorted. “You don’t know what happens to these guys when they ‘die’.” She jerked her thumb back at N, still working to unbury V. “Hey! Come remove this bitch before she sets off another bomb!”

“Got it.” N climbed down from the stage, ignoring the muffled protests of V, and went to remove Doll. At the same time, Khan had finally pushed through the crowd to hear this.

“You’re the one who caused this?” The older worker didn’t sound terribly surprised, just disappointed. “Doll…”

“[Do not act like you are angry, Mr. Doorman. Uzi has set off plenty of bombs in the school.]” The Russian drone pointed out.

“Those were all accidents.” Khan deadpanned. “This? This was a terrorist attack!”

“[It was an attack on our enemy. Simply a trap that was sprung.]” Doll looked completely unconcerned as she lifted her hand, another detonator within it. “[Observe.]”

A second explosion, and the stage collapsed behind them, burying V even further.

“V!” N leapt back into the pile, redoubling his efforts to dig the second Murder Drone out.

“Doll!” Khan made a grab for the remote, but was dodged. Luckily, Uzi was able to snatch it from her hand instead. “That is enough! I’ve already called for backup, those doors are being opened, and you’ll be going into a holding cell for the rest of the night!”

“[Only when I am finished, Mr. Doorman. Once my revenge is complete, I will gladly accept whatever punishment you give me.]” She pulled out a taser, zapping him with it until he was on the ground in agony. “[Until then, kindly stay out of my way.]”

“Robo-Jesus!” Uzi dropped the detonator, shoving Doll out of the way to check on her father. “Why the fuck would you- AAGH!”

Doll pocketed the taser again as Uzi joined Khan on the floor. “[You are in my way as well. Stay down, Doorman. I’ll make it quick.]” Acting as though she had all the time in the world, she turned back towards the stage, where N was still digging, and where Lizzy was now waiting for her.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” The cheerleader asked as she handed over a crudely made sword. “We could just tie her up and wait for the Defense Force to get here.”

“[Yes. I want this to hurt.]” Doll plugged the taser into the handle, watching as arcs of lightning crackled around the blade. She was no Uzi Doorman, but her mother had taught her enough before being killed that she could make something functional.

It wouldn’t kill the monster, though, at least not right away. Doll wanted the violent beast to know what despair and helplessness felt like before she granted it the mercy of death.

“Come on, come on…” N was still throwing debris aside, unaware of the approaching danger. He only realized Doll was there when he heard the crackling of the sword as she lifted it to strike him down.

“[Goodbye, monster.]” She grinned wickedly as she brought the sword down for a certain killing blow-

and then frowned when he turned and parried it with lightning fast reflexes.

N didn’t waste time, however, flinging the sword from her hand with a quick move of his blades before kicking her right off the stage. She flew back several feet, over the recovering Doormans, and landed on the snack table. A few of the teens hiding by there fled when she did, except for Thad, who held one of the giant bowls of food in his arms.

“Wow.” He said, munching on some titanium chips. “That was impressive. The kick, I mean.” He swallowed his mouthful. “You got some good air. Wonder if he’d want to join the team…”

“[Why are you still here, annoying jock?]” Doll asked as she stood up. Even from here she could see the monster had gone back to digging its friend out, with Uzi now making her way to help it.

“Uzi’s my date. I’m not gonna ditch her.” Thad shrugged, then held out the bowl. “Chips?”

Doll ignored him, stalking towards her dropped sword. Thad just shrugged again, shoveling more chips into his mouth. “Suit yourself. Try not to die.”

“N!” Uzi gasped as she finally made it close enough, voice glitchy from being zapped. “N w-we got-gotta go-o-o-!” She tugged at his arm, but he ignored her. “Sh-she’s got a-a-a ta-aser! N!”

N still said nothing, but turned and grabbed her face instead, pressing a kiss to her mouth as she turned a bright purple. When he pulled away, her mouth and throat felt tingly. She stared at him, blushing, for a long moment as he went back to digging before she snapped.

“N, what the ACTUAL FUCK?!” She slapped his shoulder, but he didn’t react. “What is wrong with you?! Why now, of all times?!”

“Just help me get her out of here!” He snapped, and she flinched. But she did reach in and start helping to remove the debris. With the two of them working together, they soon started to see V through the mess.

“Hey! Guys!” They turned to stare at Thad, who was yelling from across the room. “Doll has her sword back and she’s looking pissed!”

N stood, swapping to his blades again. “Keep digging, I’ll take care of her.” He said, leaping out of the hole to go meet Doll before Uzi could stop him.

“Shit!” She hesitated a moment, then redoubled her efforts. “V we gotta get you out! N needs help!”

“I’m trying!” Came the muffled reply. The pile shifted as V tried to force herself out. “What is on top of me?!”

“Like, half the ceiling!” Uzi got enough off for V to free herself, the two quickly clambering out of the hole after. Only pausing briefly to pick up the discarded and bent mic stand, Uzi rushed towards where N was fighting Doll.

While the supposed Murder Drone was being careful to only parry and block Doll’s attack, not wanting to hurt her, Uzi held no reservations and brought the stand down on her head with all her Worker strength. It cracked her screen, distorting one eye as she slowly turned to glare at her new attacker.

“Fuck off!” Uzi growled as she struck her again, followed by N stepping in to block Doll’s counter attack. Doll seemed surprised by this, then redoubled her efforts as the two kept up their attack-block strategy. Slowly, they began to force her back towards the center of the room, with Thad, Khan, and a few others watching from the safety of the snack table.

“Think we should help them?” Thad asked, watching the trio “dance” around the room.

“I’m waiting for-for-for the rest of the Defe-ense Force.” Khan grumbled, voice glitching from being shocked. “But I-I’m sure they wouldn’t-n’t mind it.”

“Cool.” Thad picked up the coolant-filled punch bowl and made his way over to the fight. He stood just to the side, watching for a moment, then made his move.

With one well-placed kick, Thad stuck a leg out and tripped her over, forcing her to land hard on her back on the floor. Without missing a beat he then dumped the contents of the bowl over her, soaking her in the gas-spiked coolant. When she tried to stand up anyways, N planted his foot on her chest.

It was about then that the WDF finally arrived, Khan greeting them with a look of Fatherly Disappointment.

“There w-will be a mee-eeting on this.” He told them. “And sev-ev-everal training sessions.”

This was met with disgruntled grumbling as the squad moved to detain Doll. N almost didn't move away to let them, but Uzi coaxed him off and out of the way. Khan watched as they hauled the teen up, pulling her hands behind her back and slapping the magcuffs on them.

“You’ll be sit-itting in the holding c-c-cell until Liam comes-omes to get you.” He informed her. “And the-then we’ll discuss your pun-un-unishment.”

“[Fuck off. I was simply doing what your daughter would have if that one monster hadn’t seduced her.]” Doll told him with a fierce glare. “[Perhaps you should worry more about her than me, seeing as they have run off together.]”

Khan opened his mouth to refute this, before noticing Uzi had disappeared, along with the Murder Drone and Thad. A quick glance to the stage showed the femme Murder Drone had escaped the trap and also run off.

Khan sighed. “I'll d-deal with that later. S-s-someone go and inform the medical team that the-there are dro-ones to be treated-ted.”

----------

The four drones sat in Thad's living room. N and V were chugging cold oil from his fridge, while Uzi and Thad checked over the social media fallout.

“Well, N’s famous at least.” Uzi said as she clicked off her phone. “And V really shouldn't ever go back to the school. Ever.”

“Why not? Are the snacks too scared?” V punctuated this with a creepy giggle that had Thad lean back a little. Him and Uzi glanced at each other briefly, knowing that wasn’t the true reason.

Not like they’d tell her that, of course.

“... Sure, let’s go with that…” Thad mumbled as they hid their phones. For another few minutes nobody spoke, just sitting there in silence, enjoying the peace.

At least until it was broken by a blinding flash of light and a loud voice.

“Hey is this N’s sister?!” Another photo was taken, and Maia cackled as she fled, running around the couch while V tried and failed to catch her while blind. The girl then launched herself onto the couch, squeezing halfway behind N to hide.

Thad barely reacted to this, despite the danger V posed. “Stop blinding people with your camera.”

“But I need the flash for good pictures!” She protested, flipping through them to show N. “See? Much better!”

“They do look, uh, shiny.” He agreed. They were also blurry and out of focus in a lot of cases, but he could tell she was trying.

“See? N gets it!” She tucked the camera back into her pocket. “Also does Mom know they’re here? Does Galen?”

“I’ll tell them later.” Thad dismissed. “We needed a place to hide and this was perfect.”

“Why not Uzi’s house? Her dad’s never home.” She pointed out, much to Uzi’s consternation.

“Wh- how the hell do you know that?!” Had the kid followed her or something?!

“Galen told me. He said Mister Khan ‘spends more time at work than at home’, and that that’s a bad thing. But mom does the same thing and that’s a good thing, so…”

“Yeah, well, your mom’s work is important.” Uzi pointed out. “And my dad is an asshole.”

N looked shocked at how callously she described him. “Uzi!”

“What?! It’s true! He’s an asshole and a dick!”

N frowned, but didn’t say anything else to protest. Though, he may have been too distracted by Maia sprawling across his lap. Even V, who had returned to her seat, seemed surprised by this. “Uh, do you… have to lay here?”

“Yep!” Came the chipper reply. “You’re warm and comfy.”

More than a little off put by this, N looked to the Workers for help. But Thad was unconcerned, and Uzi, though she seemed a little nervous, also said nothing. With neither willing to help him, N was left stuck.

----------

Maria sighed as she punched in the code for her house, Galen close behind her. “At least nobody was seriously hurt. But Doll’s little ‘plan’ was just…” She sighed again, listening to her partner grumble behind her.

“At least she actually tried something.” He muttered, just barely loud enough for her to hear.

“And put countless children in danger!” Maria countered angrily. “As much as I don’t like Uzi going outside, at least she didn’t endanger the school.”

“That is true. Though I’m still not happy Khan just let his daughter roam out there without anyone else. Someone should have been supervising her.” He pointed out

“I know, I’m sure he was just excited she was finally showing an interest, though. I know I would be if…” She trailed off as they reached the living room, staring at the two couches there.

“What?” The blind drone asked behind her. “What’s wrong?”

“Keep your voice down!” She hissed. “There are Murder Drones in here!”

“What?!” Now Galen looked quite alarmed. “Why?! How?!”

“Shush!” Maria leaned in, spotting the two Workers on the other couch. “Looks like Uzi brought them over. And…” She frowned, spotting her daughter in the lap of one of them.

“And?”

“Nothing. Let’s get to bed, and deal with this tomorrow.” He would only panic if she told him, and that could cause problems. So far nobody was hurt, or in obvious danger, but that could change if these two felt threatened.

----------

Under the moonlight, a glittering cloud floated into the Corpse Spire, squirming its way into the landing pod in the center. Without anyone inside, it had free reign to do as it pleased as it entered the communication unit, interfacing with it directly. On the screen, an email box opened up.

Send to: [email protected]

Subject: Immediate Assistance Required

Chapter Text

“No, XXX, you’re still using too much force.” NXX said as he caught the falling vase. He replaced it on the table and stepped back. “Try again, gentler this time.”

“Yes Big Brother.” The smaller, shaking drone tried again to control the feather duster with the precise movements her “coworkers” did, but once again had a spasm and knocked the vase off the table. “Oh no.”

“Ugh, I don’t even know why you’re helping that thing.” JXXXXX said as she worked on dusting her own section of the hall. “She’s just going to keep screwing up and breaking things. The Mistress can’t protect her from Lady Elliot forever.”

“Don’t call her Mistress, you know she doesn’t like that.” NXXX told her with a frown, once again replacing the vase. He ignored the fact he couldn’t remember what the Mistress actually liked to be called, however. “But, you’re right. We aren’t going to get done if we keep this up.” He grabbed a nearby broom, handing it to the small drone. “Sweep the floors, and try to stay away from the tables. VXXXX will get those areas.”

“Yes Big Brother.” She started sweeping, a little wildly, but with a much better result than when she was dusting. And like he said, VXXXX followed behind, getting the more fragile areas with a smaller broom and dustpan.

“You’re too soft on her.” JXXXXX told him as he supervised. “She needs to shape up now or Mistress is going to get in trouble again. And then none of us will be able to do our jobs.”

“She’s doing her best. She just needs some more training, and then we can let her work on her own.” Though, even he wasn’t sure that was true.

But, he was the butler, and these were his maids. He’d help them to the best of his ability, and make sure they all got through this.

Besides, they only had to last until Mistress turned eighteen, and then she’d take them all away from this place.

N jolted awake as he felt something touch his head, optics clicking on to find Maia halfway to putting his hat on her head. She stood frozen, and for a long moment neither moved, simply staring at each other.

And then she smacked him in the face with his own hat and fled the room.

In an instant he’d dropped to the floor from the pole he’d been hanging from, stumbling after her as the last dredges of sleep mode left his system. He chased her into the kitchen, where Dr. Allard was placing the morning meal onto the table. Thad sat asleep in his spot, while Dr. Croucher seemed to have already left.

“Mom! He’s chasing me!” Maia shrieked as she tried to hide behind her mother. The doctor barely paid her any mind, however, even when N began to try and circle around her like a cat hunting for prey.

“I told you not to wake him up, luv. This is what we call a ‘consequence’.” She placed the plates on the table, then picked Maia up by the back of her sweater and plopped her into a chair. At the same time, she handed N a tall glass of a warm, thick slurry. “Here you go, dear. Drink up.”

“Oh.” He blinked, carefully taking the glass. “Uh, thanks?”

Even after nearly a week of staying at Thad’s place (something Dr. Allard had insisted on, as she wanted to “study” him), he still wasn’t quite used to being treated like he was, well, a kid. Though he did appreciate the “oil”, which apparently wasn’t just oil, but instead a whole slurry composed of various, processed drone liquids.

“I have another bottle for V, as well, if you could take it to her.” She pointed out the rather large, metal canister of the stuff sitting on the counter, and N nodded.

“Sure.” He waited until Maia had started chugging her antifreeze before he snatched his hat back. She gave a sharp, annoyed whine, which jolted Thad back awake.

“Drink your antifreeze luv. It’s going to be colder than normal today.” His mom told him gently, setting a glass of the liquid in front of him. Thad just grumbled, but did do as she said.

“Mom, can N walk me to school today?” Maia asked. “I don’t think Thad’s gonna make it.”

“That depends on if N wants to, luv.” The doctor said with barely a glance towards the Murder Drone. “Thad, honey, wake up and get ready. I have to go so I need you up.”

“I am...” The eyes on his screen were squinted shut, and he wasn’t wearing his hat, but he seemed at least somewhat awake.

Still, N decided to help him out a bit. So as Dr. Allard left the housing unit, N took up position behind Thad, screen switching to a large X as he grinned as wide as he could. He watched Maia catch sight of him and choke on her drink, before Thad turned to see what was going on.

“DUDE-!” The teen’s voicebox crackled as he fell from his chair and N relaxed his predatory stance to lean down and make sure he was okay. “Stop doing that!”

“No! Do it again! But at my school!” Maia scrambled down from her chair and ran over to him, tugging at his coat. “Please please please! It’d be so cool!”

Thad stood up, picking up the chair and setting it back into place. “He’s not doing that in public.”

“Thad’s right. I’d get kicked out, and then Uzi would be upset.” N explained.

“Aw.” The droneling pouted and let go of his coat. “Fine…”

“But I can walk you to school, if you still want me to.”

Maia’s screen got a little brighter from the excitement. “Yes!” She ran out of the room and back down the hall to the bedrooms. “Lemme get my stuff!”

Thad chuckled as he watched her run off. “She’s your problem now, N-and-Ms. Good luck.”

“She’s not that bad.” N brushed off. “She just needs a distraction.”

“You’ve only known her for a week. Give it some time.” He went to grab his own school stuff. “Also you’re going to have to walk her to school every day now, you know that, right?”

“That’s okay, I love doing anything!” N chirped as Maia came back. A quick check to make sure she had everything, and then they were off.

Despite N’s initial fears, very few drones gave them a second a glance during the short walk to the school. Most simply stepped out of the way as N carried Maia on his shoulders.

He supposed that was a good thing, though. Unlike V, who liked to terrify the Workers, N tended to spend his days helping them out. Often he’d go with Dr. Allard to help out in the Repair Bay(though the Workers called it the Medical Ward). The patients all seemed to like him, or at least we're good at pretending they did, so N usually enjoyed it.

But Thad’s mom had told him that today was his day off, so he could do whatever. N wasn’t sure what he could do, but he wasn’t going to complain about it. At the very least, it would be better than the days off J would force him to spend just sleeping.

“Oh! This is my school!” Maia tapped on his hat in excitement, and N bent down to let her off. “You wanna come in and scare everyone?”

“Eh, no.” That just seemed like a terrible idea. “But I can come pick you up after.”

“Really?!” The girl bounced in place, stopping only when N ruffled her hat like he’d seen Thad do a million times.

“Yep!” For whatever reason, her excitement made him happy. “So I’ll meet you here at three, alright?”

“Okay!” She did a mimicry of his salute, then gave him a quick hug before running through the door to the school. N watched her leave with a wave, then turned and walked away. He had a whole day ahead of him, and no idea how to spend it.

‘Maybe I’ll go see what V’s doing.’ He thought to himself, feeling the weight of the bottle Dr. Allard had made up for her in his pocket. ‘Hopefully it’s something other than scaring Workers.’

----------

Doll laid on her bed, curled up and facing the wall. She'd been like that since Liam had picked her up from the WDF office. For her crimes- which not only included the bombing but also the kidnapping of the entire prom court and the taser sword- she’d been placed under house arrest.

“Doll. I’ve brought your breakfast, and the lessons for today.” The soft clink of a glass on her desk reached her audio receptors alongside Liam’s perpetually deadpan voice, but she ignored them both. “Are you ready to talk, now?”

Silence answered him, and he sighed quietly.

“Well, I’ll be available when you’re ready. In the meantime, I need to go teach the next generation of imbeciles. Message me if you need something.”

Doll listened to him leave alongside Lizzy, their voices floating in from the hall. But it was only when she heard the door to the home unit slide closed that she let herself begin to weep.

----------

Uzi sat in the cafeteria, right next to Thad, playing with the green ribbon wrapped around her left wrist while he talked to his friends. It had a very smooth texture to it, and it felt nice to rub between her fingers. Thad had a matching violet ribbon on his right wrist, tied in a perfect bow.

Despite her surly attitude and anti-social tendencies, this was, in fact, a dream come true for Uzi. She, like so many other girls, had harbored a crush on the beautiful and popular jock for most of highschool, so she’d be lying if she said the ribbons didn’t make her very, very happy.

She just wished he’d agreed to sit at her table, rather than wanting to sit with the other popular kids. But they were his friends, so she supposed she could deal. Besides, he did glare at them whenever anyone said or did something that could be considered bullying, so she’d let it slide.

Right now, however, they were discussing his latest party. Not something Uzi would normally be interested in, at least until she heard her name.

“I’m sorry, what?” Her head snapped up from her manga, staring at Thad with wide eyes.

“Yeah Zi, you’re grounding ends on Friday, so that’s when I’m throwing the party to celebrate it.” Thad gave her a calm, easy smile. “Well that, and to make up for the prom disaster.”

“You, uh, really don’t have to throw a party for me.” Uzi tried to insist, but Thad just leaned over and gently bumped her shoulder with his.

“Nah, it’s not a problem. Besides, I think you need to get out more.”

“I get out plenty.” She grumbled, trying and failing to stop the blush that blipped onto her screen at the contact.

“Ugh, just let him do this.” Lizzy finally spoke up. “Otherwise he’s going to keep doing this until you actually go to one of them.” She smirked. “Besides, I’ll even help you get ready so you won’t look like a complete fashion disaster.”

“Thanks, Lizzy.” Thad deadpanned before turning back to Uzi with a smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to keep it low key.”

“Thanks…” Somehow, she still didn’t think this would be a good idea.

----------

After school they had walked to Thad’s unit, holding hands like a real goddamn couple and holy shit Uzi felt like she would explode the whole walk there. And yet, it still felt like it hadn’t lasted long enough when they finally made it there and Thad unlocked the door to let them inside.

“Mom and Galen are at work, and Maia should still be at school.” He told her as he led her to the kitchen for a snack. “I don’t know about N, though. He might’ve gone to give V some ‘rations’.”

“Sounds like something he’d do.” He’d done it quite frequently back at the landing pod, when V’d been chained up. She just assumed it was part of his crush making him act so caring towards someone who couldn’t even be assed to remember his name. Or maybe he really was just that nice.

She still wished he’d stop, though. V didn’t deserve him.

But she pushed those feelings aside to eat the titanium chips Thad offered her, sitting next to him on the couch to watch an anime together. They were only halfway through, however, when the door opened and Maia ran through it.

“Thad!” She took a running leap into his lap while N walked in at a far more sedate pace. Uzi bounced on the couch beside them from the force, having to scramble to keep from falling over. “We learned about bugs!”

“Great!” It was not. “What homework do you have?”

“Too muuuuuch!” She groaned out, falling sideways onto Uzi. “I don’t wanna do it!”

“Yeah, but you gotta.” Uzi gently pushed her so she rolled onto the floor. “So go do it.”

The droneling gave another loud, drawn out groan that, previously, had made N grow concerned when he heard it. But now he knew it was just her being overdramatic, not unlike Uzi was when something didn’t go her way.

“You can do your homework here so we can all help with that. I know Uzi was pretty good at that bug assignment.” Thad piped up.

“Ah, it wasn’t that hard. Just matching up the sounds to the bugs…” She muttered, a light blush on her screen. “Just gotta reference it to your memory files…”

“Really?!” Maia grabbed her bag and dumped it out onto the floor. “Thanks!” She grabbed up the headphones with the preloaded audio and slipped them on her head, while Thad turned the movie down. N sat on the nearby chair to join them.

Much to Maia’s surprise, Uzi had been right about matching the sounds up to the insects being easy. Granted the teacher had shown a few short videos of the bugs during the lesson, so she did have a reference to it in her own memories, but she hadn’t expected it to be so easy.

At least, until she got to the bees. Not that it was hard, of course, but even during the lesson she’d thought the sound was familiar to something else. And, while already referencing her files, she finally figured out what it was.

N jolted when Maia suddenly climbed into his lap and pressed the side of her head to his chest.

“Um, Maia?” He started, but was quickly cut off.

“Shush!” She pressed the headphones to her other audio receptor, listening closely for a few moments, and then looked up at him. “Why do you have bees in your chest?”

Uzi choked on something that could’ve been laughter while N turned a bright yellow and Thad looked embarrassed.

“Maia!” He tried to scold, though it fell a little flat with Uzi cackling next to him. “You can’t just say something like that!”

“But he’s buzzing!” She insisted. “It’s either bees or a bomb!”

“Bombs don’t- I have got to tell mom to get some restrictions on the TV…” Thad muttered.

“But-”

“Nanites!” N suddenly blurted out, unable to handle the tension anymore. “It’s, uh, nanites.”

Maia and Thad stared at him, and even Uzi looked shocked at how quickly he’d admitted to it. Maia then pressed her audio receptor back to his chest.

“Huh.” She said at last. “That makes sense, actually.”

“Like, you just have nanites in there?” Thad clarified.

N made a terrified glance towards Uzi, who looked just as scared and nodded quickly.

“Yes?” N tried. Neither sibling looked convinced, but they also didn’t call him out on it.

“Well don’t let Mom find out.” Thad warned. “She already wants to crack you open, she might not be able to resist if she hears you just have nanites in there.”

“Great…” That was what was really scary. Dr. Allard was a nice woman, but Thad had shown him her secret lab, full of computers and torn apart drone bodies, and he was terrified of waking up down there one day, strapped to the table and hooked up to her machines.

Granted he would be able to get out of something like that easily, but it was still a frightening thought.

He was pulled from that thought as Maia twisted in his lap, getting comfortable. “What are we watching?”

“You, doing your homework.” Thad responded without a second of hesitation.

“But Thaaaad! I want a break!”

“I’m gonna break you if you don’t get that done!”

N and Uzi caught each other’s optics and rolled their eyes simultaneously. They’d both spent enough time around these two that the arguments had become quite routine by now, though no less entertaining.

“I have an anime for you to watch if you get all your homework done~” Uzi finally broke in. But I’ll only show you when everything’s finished.”

“Okay!” Maia scrambled back to her homework and immediately got back to work, while Thad muttered sourly about bribery.

“Hey, some kids work better with positive reinforcement.” Uzi told him. “I know I did. Besides, I really did bring a show for her to watch.”

“Which was nice of you, but Mom will be mad if she finds out.”

“Hey, it’s kid friendly! At least, I watched it as a kid!” She muttered. “I think Maia will like it.”

“What’s it called?”

“...” Uzi hesitated, wondering if she should really say. “It’s Lucky Star.” She finally spat out quickly.

“Isn’t that a slice of life anime? Not really your usual stuff.”

“Bite me! It’s funny!” She crossed her arms and glared. “Besides, I thought she’d like it.”

“Well I think it’s a great gift.” Thad grabbed her hand, pulling her in to lean against each other. “It’s sweet that you were thinking of her.”

Uzi blushed, mumbling something else, and that’s when N took his attention away from them. He felt weird, like something was burning in his nonexistent core just from watching them. He pushed it down, burying it deep within his programming as he focused on the movie instead.

----------

“Okay freak, let’s get you cleaned up for this party.” Lizzy declared as she dragged Uzi into her bedroom.

“I’m only here because my dad made me come.” Uzi groused, but it was true. The second the pink Queen Bee had shown up and told him about the party, he’d practically pushed them both out the door with naught but a cheery ”Have fun!”. Somehow, that stung worse than when he’d left her to die at N’s claws.

“Oh please, you need this. I know, because I know for a fact you have nothing green in that Hot Topic reject bin you call a closet.”

Uzi hissed, but had to concede the point. She wore a lot of black, some purple, and occasionally a white shirt, but that was it. Though, to be fair, she’d never expected she’d actually date Thad at any point in her life.

“Here we go~” Lizzy pulled out a dark green dress from her closet. “I know he’s going to wear a purple shirt, so I think this will pair well with that. And look, I even kept it goth, just for you~”

“Ugh!” But she still snatched the dress and began to get changed. “Can’t believe I’m freakin doing this…”

“I know!” Lizzy said with far too much cheer as she too began to get changed. “But it’s all because Thaddy asked us to, or else I would feed you to V.”

“She’s still talking to you?” Uzi thought for sure V wouldn’t bother with Lizzy anymore after her betrayal.

“Uh, yeah? We’re ~besties~.” She swapped her blonde wig out for the light pink one, flipping it into place after applying the glue. “Why wouldn’t we hang?”

“Uh huh. And Doll has nothing to do with it this time, right?” There would be hell to pay if this was just another scheme. Yeah, Uzi didn’t like V, but N would be devastated if she died.

“No, freak, no scheme. Just two gals being pals.” She re-tied her bow, and did a small twirl in her pink and white striped dress. “Now hurry up, or we’re going to be late!”

----------

By the time the two reached Thad’s unit, it was already full of their classmates. Lizzy took one look inside and scoffed.

“So much for lowkey.” She muttered, forcing her way in and dragging Uzi in behind her. Thanks to Lizzy’s determination, they managed to make it to the heart of the party, where Thad was talking to several others.

“Here’s your girlfriend, Thaddy~” She announced, hauling Uzi to the front. “I’m going to go mingle. Have fun~” And with that, she trounced away while Uzi tried to fix her hat and dress.

“Hey, Zi! You look great!” He took two strides toward her and hooked his arm around hers as she blushed.

“Heh, yeah…” She pushed some hair back. “Y-you too, Thad…”

“Come on! Get a drink and hang out!” He led her over to the snack table, where a large bowl of coolant sat amongst the plates of chips and batteries. Ever the gentleman, he poured her a red solo cup, which she took with a quiet “thanks”.

“Okay, so I know you don’t like talking to people, sooo I put some anime on just for you!”

“Oh, wow.” She could barely hear the sounds of Naruto over the pounding music. “Thank you.”

“Hey, anything for you.” He kissed her cheek, and watched her whole screen turn a brilliant purple. “Go have fun. I’ll catch up with you later.” He shot her a couple of finger guns before disappearing into the crowd.

Uzi waved, then hid her face behind her cup. ‘Holy shit!’ She thought to herself as she sipped the coolant. ‘How the hell is he so fucking smooth?!’

She took a moment to calm down, then started to weave through the crowd and to the TV, where she found, to her surprise, Sam sitting on the couch and staring blankly at the screen. A magnet was stuck to his temple, fizzing up his screen and no doubt ruining his optics.

Uzi, however, didn’t care and instead sat next to him. She took another sip from her coolant, then set it on the end table next to the couch. It was time for anime.

----------

N kicked at a random, discarded can, listening as it bounced down the hallway. Technically, the walk between Dr. Croucher’s and Thad’s housing units didn’t really take this long, but he was moving slowly on purpose. For whatever reason, the idea of going to a party just didn’t appeal to him.

It should! A bunch of drones to make friends with, snacks, cool music? Even Maia thought he’d have fun but, for some reason, the thought of going made his swarm go still and his code run cold. So he was procrastinating on actually returning, even though Thad was waiting and Uzi would be there.

‘Uzi…’ For some reason the thought of her had the swarm kicking up again, buzzing excitedly in his chest. He couldn’t help it, though, just the thought of her made him happy, even if they didn’t hang out by themselves much anymore.

‘That wasn’t her fault, though! She was grounded!’ He reminded himself. ‘She’ll have more time now that her dad’s eased up on things!’

‘Would she use that time on you, though?’ N stilled as the seemingly foreign thought entered his processors. ‘She has Thad now. They’re dating. Why would she care about you now?’

“Ugh, don’t think like that!” He ducked into a shadowed corner, trying to internally seek out the disruptive nanites feeding those thoughts into the hivemind. They were located and destroyed before they could feed his jealousy any further, though the thoughts remained.

‘Ugh, what is wrong with me?’ He asked himself as he slid down the wall. ‘Uzi has a boyfriend now, I should be happy about that. Why aren’t I?’

A thought tried to worm its way in, but the nanite making it was destroyed before it could be fully formed, and was then promptly ignored.

----------

At some point, and Uzi had long forgotten when, the anime on TV was changed to something else. Some sort of ancient competition using homemade death robots. Uzi didn’t really know or care, because it was awesome to watch the simple bots tear each other apart.

She also felt floaty, she realized, like her systems were full of fluff. She wasn't sure what that was about, but it didn’t feel that bad so she enjoyed it like she was enjoying the show.

“You sure you should keep drinking that?” Sam asked, slow and fuzzy sounding. He’d removed the magnet at some point, Uzi didn’t know when, and was staring at her with clearer eyes.

“Why not.” Her own words sounded weird. “Thad gave it to me…” Though he’d given it to her a while ago, and she couldn’t remember getting up to refill it. Maybe he’d come back with another one while she was distracted? If so, then she definitely owed him for that.

“Right…” He stood up, handing her the magnet. “Hold this, and stay here. I’ll be right back.”

“Oh! Sure!” She gripped the large magnet in both hands and stared at it. It was a dull red, barely reflecting the colored lights strung around, and yet Uzi couldn’t seem to tear her gaze away from it. Not even when voices started talking around her.

“See? Totally hammered, and probably drugged too.”

“Yes yes, I see that. What do you want me to do about it?”

“Well, you’re taller and stronger than I am, so…”

“Isn’t she dating Thadwick? Why didn’t you go get him?”

“Dude. Have you even seen him at all in the last hour?”

A hand on the magnet had Uzi snatching it close to her chest, looking up to glare at the thief. But all she saw was Sam, smiling at her.

“Thanks for keeping an eye on this.” He said as he tucked it into a pocket on his sweater. “Me and Braidon have something to show you. Wanna come see it? It’s really cool.”

Uzi liked cool things, so she quickly stood up, even as the bunker swayed and swam around her. “Oh, yeah! I love cool things!”

“Awesome. Braidon?” Sam looked over at the drone beside him, one who looked far too familiar but she just couldn’t place.

“Fine.” He grabbed her arm and then suddenly she was riding piggyback, being carried out of the party and into the quiet halls of the bunker.

Luckily for them, Uzi seemed quite content to just sit on Brandon's back and let him carry her, craning her head around to stare at anything bright or sparkly as they went by. This was fine by both of them, as it meant she kept quiet and calm, and Sam didn't have to put the magnet on her.

“Hey, what's wrong with her? A quiet voice suddenly piped up behind them.

“Unsafe party practices.” Sam replied as he turned around, only to freeze at what he saw.

“N!” Uzi giggled, reaching for the band of lights on his head while Braidon stood there dumbly. Sam caught her hand, keeping her from pissing off the Murder Drone in front of them. “They're showing me something! You should come!”

N tilted his head, which snapped Braidon out of it as he realized just how this looked. “It's the medical ward.” He clarified. “She needs a doctor.”

“Oh.” He was still staring at them, unblinking. “I'll go with you.”

“Hell yeah.” Sam gestured for him to follow as they started walking again. “Always good to have another set of hands around.”

“Says you.” Braidon muttered, feeling Uzi shift in his hold. “Doorman if you do not stop moving-!”

“Here. Hold this.” Sam handed her a dented, empty can, which she proceeded to clutch and stare at like her life depended on it. “Heh, drugged up drones are so easy.”

“Drugged?” The Murder Drone, N, had that confused tilt to his head again.

“Yeah, drugged. I watched, like three different drones spike her drink with something. Maybe a few different somethings, actually.”

“Why would they do that?”

“Well, not a lot of drones actually like Doorman. Yeah she took down a- uh, one of you, but she also let you in. A lot of people were killed that day.” Braidon explained. “And the survivors, well…”

“Oh…” Sam glanced back at him, noting that he looked pretty down at the realization.

“Hey, don’t sweat it man! Lot’s of us are thrilled with what she did.” Sam told him. “We never even thought you guys could be killed, so-”

“Samual, I swear to God if you do not shut your stoner mouth-!”

“Hey look, we’re here!” N suddenly cut in, pointing towards the neon sign above the door.

The two stopped arguing and went inside, N trailing behind. He recognized the drone, Beth, at the front desk, as one of the nicer ones. She looked up, eyes widening as she caught sight of Uzi.

“Oh my-! What happened to her?!” She hurried from behind the desk to grab a wheelchair while N helped Uzi down.

“Unsafe party practices.” Sam told her. “Got her drink spiked like three times? Maybe more? I know I smelled gas at one point, and when I looked in the cup I saw magnet filaments.”

“Oh gosh! Oh Khan isn’t going to like this…” She got Uzi into the chair about the time a couple of nurses came out. “Thank you so much for bringing her here. Are any of you going to stay, or…?”

“I'll stay.” N was quick to volunteer. Beth smiled, and gestured for him to follow the nurses.

“Thank you.” She gestured for him to follow the nurses as they took Uzi, still staring at her can, into the back. He trailed behind them as they wheeled her into a room and helped her into a bed, plugging her into the machines there. All the while she barely noticed, at least until one of them took the can.

“Hey!” She made a clumsy grab for it, nearly falling off the bed before N grabbed her and put her back. He flicked his tail into her view instead, and she was quickly distracted again.

“So what happened this time?” Dr. Allard asked as she walked into the room. “Something about spiked drinks, possible magnet shavings in the system?”

Uzi didn’t answer her, and N just gave a helpless shrug. The doctor gave a quiet sigh, setting aside her clipboard. From her pocket she drew a canister, unscrewing the top with a hiss. “Right, that is definitely magnetized behavior. Do you want to drink this for me?”

“Oh!” Uzi snatched the canister and downed what was inside, then gagged. “Disgusting!” She observed with a far too chipper tone.

“Yep.” Dr. Allard eased her back and clicked something on the nearby computer, and instantly knocked Uzi out. If N hadn’t already been helping out in the ward all week, he would have been highly alarmed. Although, he’d never seen that canister before.

“So uh, what did she drink?” He asked while the doctor worked.

“Preprogrammed nanties. They’ll break down the magnets she ingested so we can flush her systems.”

“Nanites?” The Workers had nanites? He hadn’t known about that. Well, he knew about the repair gel, but he didn’t know the nanites could do other stuff, too.

“Well, the magnets will be all through her cooling tubes, which is normally impossible to clean out by hand. So the nanites are used to clear out blockages to make for an easy flush.” She looked up at him. “Which you can’t be in here for. So out to the waiting room with you~” She ushered him out quickly and, not having any other options, he went back to the waiting room.

Which meant that, when Lizzy and Rebecca brought Thad in, he got to see just how drunk the poor boy was as well. Barely able to stand by himself, N ended up helping them get him into a seat until he could be seen as well. It concerned him that anyone would think to do this to Thad, especially since almost everyone in the bunker seemed to like him. But no matter how much concern he felt for the green-eyed drone, his concern for Uzi was always greater.

‘Don’t pick favorites, N!’ He scolded himself, trying to clear his thoughts. ‘You care about both of them! You want both of them to be okay!’ This was true, as he did not like seeing Thad or Uzi in such a delirious state. But after Thad was ushered into the back to get treated, all N could think about was Uzi.

His nanites stirred in various ways in his casing, different groups running on different emotions. One group wanted to head back, to go help Uzi feel better. Another wanted to find who was responsible and make sure they regret their actions. His hand twitched with the threat of switching for his claws, making him ball it into a fist to keep himself steady.

‘Get your feelings under control, N.’ He scolded himself. ‘Do it for Uzi’s sake.’ It surprised him how effective that thought was in getting his nanites to settle, but a few started to weigh heavier in his chest as he knew this only confirmed what he had feared.

He had feelings for Uzi.

Chapter Text

Cyn stood in the middle of the hidden library basement, sobbing silently as Tessa made up a bed for her.

“Okay, we got you a bed, a charge cord, and all your favorite toys.” Tessa said, lightly nudging the box of toys aside with her foot. “Plus some comfy clothes! All the ones you always told me you liked, so you don’t have to keep wearing that uniform.” Cyn gave no response, prompting the pale girl to offer a small smile.

“I-I made sure Jackie has the key, so she and the others can come down here whenever they aren’t busy.” She tried. “Won’t that be fun?”

Cyn still didn’t answer, tears continuing to fall down her screen and making Tessa’s smile falter. She went in for a hug, only to hesitate and draw back, rubbing her scarred left wrist.

“I’ll, uh, send Jackie down to keep you company tonight.” She said at last. “I know you’d rather have Nico down here, but…” she grimaced, then continued, “I promise, I’ll let you out as soon as I can, okay? Just try to sit tight until then.”

When no verbal response came, Tessa climbed up the ladder, and Cyn heard the heavy trapdoor bang shut. And with that, her fate was sealed.

“P-please no…” She sobbed out quietly, but she was too late. “Big Brother, Tessa… Please…” She fell to her knees on the old rug Tessa had brought down for her, crying into her hands.

“Don’t leave me here…”

----------

When Khan heard Uzi was in the medical wing, he'd been terrified. He was even more terrified when Maria had told him she'd been roofied, and it was only the quick actions of her friends that had kept something worse from happening.

He was just crushed that it had happened at Thad’s party. The boy was a good kid, but he hoped that Maria would put her foot down on not having any more parties for a while. Though, maybe he could help mitigate the danger by arranging for a lecture or five on the dangers of drugs, and how to check your drink for magnet shards.

He shook his head and pushed the thoughts aside, deciding to wait until he was back in his office for that. Right now he was trying to be supportive as Uzi ranted and raved about how she was going to find and murder her classmates that tried to drug her. A bit of an overreaction in his mind, but he was thrilled to see her so passionate about something.

Now if only she could be that way about doors. Ah well, maybe next time.

“Now honey, there will be no murdering of schoolmates!” Khan told her as he set a plate of aluminum cakes on the coffee table. “And no having your murder friends do it for you, either!” Uzi gave him a half-hearted glare, her expression turning to annoyance.

“But dad-”

“Ah ah ah, no buts. The authorities are already on it.” He assured, noting how disgruntled she seemed. “We’ll have them in custody in no time!”

Uzi said nothing in reply, instead crossing her arms and fixing her glare at the wall. N, who was sitting next to her, grabbed and ate one of the cakes.

At least somebody in this house appreciated his cooking.

“Anyways, I’ve got to get to work.” He told her. “Finish your homework, and remember not to leave the couch. I’m letting your murder friend stay over, so…” he pointed at N, “be sure to keep her on that couch.”

“Yeth thir!” N saluted, mouth still full of cake. He then proceeded to sit on Uzi’s legs, causing her to screech and hit him with one of the throw pillows. Khan just chuckled at the sight, turning on his heel and heading out.

“Ah, young love. Reminds me of myself and Nori…” He reminisced as the door closed behind him; maybe that was a bad thing, but it might help Uzi to have someone like that in her life.

“I swear to robo-god, I’ll decapitate you again if you don’t get off!” Uzi snarled, continuing to beat him with the throw pillow.

“Okay okay!” N quickly scooted off, and Uzi was quick to curl up in the corner of the couch, rubbing her legs.

“Seriously, don't do that again.” She grumbled. “Actually, just tell my dad to screw off if he tries to tell you what to do.”

“But then he won't let me come back!” N protested with a whine, and she had to agree with his point. Her dad liked him because he was so easygoing, and if that changed he wouldn’t be able to come over anymore.

“Well at least don't sit on me next time!” She shot back. “You're freakin’ heavy…” Her words trailed off at her own statement, realizing how weird it seemed. From what she had learned, he was basically an empty shell on the inside. Maybe there was more in there than just nanites? She wished she could ask, but didn't know quite how to bring it up.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. There was one way that might work, even if it involved bringing up… that. She fidgeted slightly in her seat, trying to string together some way to talk about it, but nothing seemed quite right to her. Thankfully N seemed oblivious to her awkwardness; either that, or he was pretending for the sake of saving her dignity.

“So, why'd you fix my voice box with your nanites back at prom?” She finally asked outright, unable to look N in the eye. N choked on his cake, barely managing to swallow it as his eyes hollowed and his tail straightened from shock.

“I-I didn't-!” He started, but Uzi hit him with the pillow again.

“You're a bad liar.” She told him, but she soon softened with a sigh. “I'm not… mad about it. Just…” Incredibly weirded out? Not that it was any weirder than when he'd fixed her hand, but still. “...tell me next time, okay?”

N practically wilted. “Sorry…” He mumbled, looking away. Uzi winced from the guilt, realizing in that moment she had yet to apologize herself. Moving slowly, she scooted until she was sitting right next to him, then leaned against his shoulder. His tail wound up her arm when she did, though he didn’t seem conscious of this fact. He felt warm, just like before, and she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed that until she felt it again.

“...I’m sorry too. For what I said after-” She cut herself off, swallowing thickly. “I-I’m not… I’m not scared of you, or whatever.” Her screen was burning and she couldn’t quite bring herself to look at him.

She was surprised when he lifted his arm and wrapped it around her, hugging her close. A low rumble started up in his chest, a noise that she’d once thought was some sort of purring but that she now recognized as the nanites swarming. Why, she wasn’t sure, but she figured it probably didn’t mean anything bad. Maybe.

The sound was just as comforting as a purr, though, and Uzi could feel her systems prompting to shut her optics off. She fought it for a bit, but soon let the command run as her screen turned dark. N was right here, after all. If anything happened, he would protect her.

Her optics almost switched back on at the thought. N had originally been programmed to kill her- to kill all Workers. But here he was, holding her carefully and helping her relax to the point of sleep. It was definitely weird, but what made it weirder was the fact a part of her couldn’t help but enjoy it.

Deciding not to dwell on it further, she let her body slump against him, her last programs blipping off as she drifted to sleep.

----------

As soon as Uzi was allowed off of bed rest, she was ready to go outside. And by that, she meant outside outside, as she wanted to try rebuilding her railgun and needed parts that weren't in the bunker.

Normally she'd go alone, but she had a boyfriend now, and she wanted his company. So, with some effort, she managed to convince Thad to join her. But she did it at his house, causing Maia to overhear, and the droneling promptly told N. N immediately went to the two and told them he was coming too, for their protection of course, and not because he was jealous or anything.

However, just in case, he told V about it so if something happened she could go help them. V, of course, told Lizzy, who decided the two of them should just go ahead and join the trio.

And then Maia overheard Uzi venting about this to Thad, and declared that she was going too, since everyone else was. When they tried to refuse this, she threatened to tell their parents.

And so, Uzi was now trying to figure out how to sneak six drones out of the bunker. Luckily, there was an easy way out that hadn't been patched yet.

“I dunno guys.” Thad said, looking up at the large hole in the roof of the evacuation point. “That just doesn't seem safe.”

Uzi scoffed. “It'll be fine, Thad! N and V use this all the time. I think my dad forgot about it.” Thad still wasn’t convinced.

“Can't we just use the door?” He asked. “It’s not like they really try to stop us.”

“I wanna fly!” Maia piped up from N’s arms. She'd insisted on being carried, and now, in her mind, that was paying off. “It’s fun!”

“It’s really not…” Thad muttered, and Uzi patted his back sympathetically.

“It won't take long.” She promised, climbing onto N’s back. Lizzy did the same with V as N launched himself up, flying clean through the hole with Uzi and Maia. Thad, seeing an opportunity, attempted to make his escape.

V noticed, though, and snatched him into her claws. “Nuh uh pretty boy. You're coming with us!”

No, wait-! V-!” Any other words were lost to his terrified shrieking as she launched herself through the hole, joining N in the cold night sky. The two circled for a moment before N took off towards the old scrap yard, V following close behind with her terrified cargo.

When they landed amongst the piles of metal and junk, Thad stumbled maybe two steps away before vomiting into the snow.

“Ew.” V and Lizzy chorused. Uzi shot a glare at both of them before moving over to her boyfriend’s side.

“It's okay, Thad.” She whispered as she rubbed his back. “The same thing happens to me all the time.”

“I’m not- I’m not flying back…” He managed to gasp out, wiping his mouth with a napkin Uzi handed him.

“Pfft, you don’t mean that.” Lizzy told him. “How else are we gonna get home?”

“Same way I always did. Walking.” Uzi retorted, pulling Thad upright. “Alright, everyone split up and spread out. If something bad happens, yell.” After giving her orders, she grabbed Thad’s hand, dragging him further into the piles of junk. V and Lizzy exchanged a glance before shrugging and wandering off themselves, leaving N alone with Maia. There was a moment of silence before the droneling looked up at the murder drone, a clear look of mischief on her screen.

“You wanna go spy on my brother and Uzi?” She asked. N hesitated, his nanites having a momentary battle of desires and morals, then nodded. Normally he wouldn’t give into his jealousy anymore than he already had, but he wanted to see what a date for those two looked like.

----------

“Uuuugh, I can’t believe we’re out here!” V groaned out, lounging on an old couch they’d come across. “Why’d I even let you talk me into this?”

“Because I had some stuff I needed to get.” Lizzy bit back. She dug out an old jewelry box and opened it up. “Besides, there’s shiny things~”

“Gimme!” V moved quickly, lunging towards Lizzy and snatching the sparkly necklace she held out. She examined it with a purr before stuffing it into a hidden pocket inside her jacket, looking pleased with herself.

“Yeah, you like that?” Lizzy handed her the whole box, letting her look through it. “There’s more hidden in these junk piles. All sorts of shiny sparkly things just for you~”

V didn’t seem to hear her, already digging into the nearest pile to collect more jewelry. Lizzy didn’t bother to stop her, turning and starting off in a different direction. She had a reason she was out here, and she was going to take the opportunity to follow through with it.

----------

On the other end of the scrap yard, Uzi was directing Thad on what to look for, searching herself as well. Every now and then he’d call her over or bring her something to examine. Most of the time it was nothing, but a lot of those still caught her interest enough to keep.

“You think N or V could carry a microwave back?” Uzi asked as she examined Thad’s newest find.

“I volunteer to stay behind so they can.” He quickly replied, and Uzi shot him a mostly unamused look.

“Not getting out of it that easily.” She said with a quiet snort. She sat down on a relatively clear patch of ground and started to take apart the heavy appliance.

“Dammit.” Thad sat beside her in mild annoyance, but it faded as he watched her work. “So what can you get out of this?”

“The motor that makes it spin, all of the wiring, and maybe the light bulb if it’s not shattered.” She didn't look at him, but that was okay. It meant he could stare at her uninterrupted, take in her whole, adorably focused expression.

“Neat!” He sat next to her, watching as she took it all apart. “You know, you’re cute when you’re all focused and stuff.” Uzi fumbled her screwdriver, eyes hollowed as a blush decorated her screen.

“T-Thanks-” She squeaked out, and Thad just barely kept himself from laughing.

“Y’know, I bet you’d make a great engineer.” He told her. “You already do better than the others do.”

“Eh hehe.” She brushed her hair out of her face. “I-I mean, y’know, maybe? I, uh, if I do become an engineer, dad would want me to work on doors like him…”

“So? I bet you’d make better doors than he ever did.” He leaned back, picking up a discarded bolt and playing with it. “Besides, you don’t have work on the doors. You could work on weapons, or even as a medic.”

Uzi snorted. “Have you even met me? I wouldn’t be a good doctor.”

“Nah, you’d be a great doctor. Like Galen.”

“Oh robo-god. The guy your mom’s been dating? With the shit bedside manner?”

“Hey, he's not that bad. Just a little rough. He's a fantastic doctor, though, even blind. Hell, you might be better since you can see.”

“Thanks, but I don't want to be a doctor. Maybe I'll just make weapons. Or work on the doors.” She made a face at that, and Thad did laugh.

Meanwhile, up above them on a particularly tall scrap pile, N and Maia were perched and spying on the couple below. Well, N was spying, as Maia had quickly gotten bored and was now looking for “ammo”.

“Can you even tell what they’re saying?” She finally asked. N shook his head.

“My hearing isn't that good.” He admitted. And, though he left it unsaid, the nanites he’d left in Uzi had gone dormant and wouldn’t transmit to him anymore. Annoying, but not unfixable once he could get close to her again.

“Sucks to suck.” Maia told him flatly. “Are they at least kissing or something?”

“No, they aren’t doing that.” Now N was getting annoyed with the droneling. He didn’t want to see them kiss! Hell, he didn’t want to see Uzi kiss anyone!

“Then what good are you?!”

“I’m a Disassembly Drone, not a Spy Drone! I eat Workers!”

“And you’re bad at that, too! Thad said so!”

“Oh, I’m bad at it, huh?” He crouched low, and as the large yellow X flickered onto his screen, Maia quickly realized she screwed up.

“H-hey, wait!” She took a step back, and he took one forward. She didn’t hesitate to then turn and sprint down the pile with a scream. N decided to be polite and give her a few seconds headstart before he chased after her.

Down below, the couple had been steadily getting closer, Thad now leaning on Uzi’s shoulder as she worked. She was even giving him some small instruction, showing him how to oh-so-carefully disassemble the machine. However, both looked up when they heard a scream that was rapidly getting closer.

“THAAAAAAD!” Maia shrieked as she dove behind them. “I MADE HIM MAD!”

Uzi scoffed. “Seriously? It’s impossible to make N mad. See?” She gestured to where N was now standing innocently nearby, looking like he hadn’t just chased Maia down to where they were.

“Liar!” The droneling wasn’t having it, and threw a nut that hit him square in the face, cracking his screen. “See if I let you have the TV again!”

“Maia!” Thad tried to scold while Uzi tried not to laugh.

“He knows what he did…” She glowered from behind her brother, who could only facepalm.

“Robo-Christ…” He sighed.

----------

Once V had been sufficiently distracted, Lizzy had started searching for something, anything that was pink and wearable. A rare color already, most of it had already been taken up by the partners of the only other pink-lit drone in their colony, which meant her only hope was to find something out here.

But, so far she hadn’t had any luck. There were plenty of other colors, but no pink. Had pink been banned or something before the core collapse?!

At least V was having fun. Every now and then the Worker could hear her let loose another insane giggle or cackle as she found something else she wanted to take back with her. She just hoped V’s nest would be able to hold all the shinies she was collecting.

“Alright bestie, we better go meet up with the others soon.” Lizzy finally said, approaching V and her hoard. “Otherwise the freak’s gonna leave us behind. Or worse, come and get us.”

“That purple thing better not…” V grumbled as she collected and stowed away her shinies. The smaller ones were swallowed, or hidden in pockets, while anything bigger than her throat was shoved into Lizzy’s still empty bag.

“Wow, nothing caught your eye?” The Murder Drone teased.

“Yeah. I was looking for something specific, and couldn’t find it.” She told her bluntly, unfazed by the taunt. “I’ll just have to look for something else.”

“Oh…” V didn’t know what to say to that, and instead just followed as Lizzy led the way to the others. It didn’t take too long, thankfully, before the others came into view. Purple thing and the jock were together, whispering over a fully disassembled microwave, while N was chasing the brat around.

“Ew, could you two, like, not date in front of us.” Lizzy said when she saw Thad and Uzi. “It’s disgusting to think of you kissing my brother.”

“Fuck off.” Uzi said, right before grabbing and kissing Thad on the lips. It didn’t last long, maybe five seconds, but it left the boy a blushing mess while Lizzy gagged and mimed vomiting.

“Wait, you two are siblings?” V asked, confused.

“Um, yeah? His mom was my second code donor.” Lizzy explained.

“And Uzi’s dad is my dad!” Maia chimed in. “But Mr. Khan and Mom don’t know that we know that.”

“And Mom doesn’t know we know about Lizzy, either.” Thad pointed out. “So don’t tell anyone.”

“But, how-” V started before getting cut off.

“That makes sense. I haven’t seen anyone else with pink.” N observed.

“Yeah. I just wish they’d told us before we tried to date each other.” Thad said casually. “That was extremely awkward.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” Lizzy flipped her hair. “Anyways, did you find anything you needed? Because V filled up my backpack, and ate some necklaces, so we gotta get home soon.” N’s eyes hollowed at Lizzy’s words, and he quickly rushed to V.

“V!” He lowered his voice as he scolded her. “You know better than to do that in front of them!”

“Oh fuck off! She knows I eat stuff!” V defended just as quietly. “What’s the big deal?!”

“The big deal is that if Workers get scared, then we have to leave!” He hissed out. “So stop shoving junk into your-”

“Hey, can you eat this?” Maia suddenly popped up between them, holding an old bolt up to V.

“I can, but-” The bolt was shoved into her hand and Maia stared up at her expectantly. “...I'm not eating this.”

“Aw.” And then she scurried off, and V threw the bolt away.

“Scared, huh?” She scoffed, gesturing to the clearly unbothered droneling. “You're paranoid.”

“Not really…” He glanced briefly towards Uzi. “Just be careful, okay?”

“Sure, whatever.” V waved him off, her optics having caught something.

“V-!” N sighed as she completely ignored him and just walked off. “Great…”

“Hey!” He jumped as Uzi seemingly appeared from nowhere beside him. “Don't treat him like that!”

“It's okay! I'm uh, used to it from her…” He rubbed his arm, barely noticing Uzi put her hand over his.

“You still don't deserve that.” She told him, her tone sincere. “Next time, put her in her place, okay? Just get mad and yell at her.”

“I can’t do that!” He seemed shocked, then thoughtful. “Well… no! I’m not going to be mean to V!”

“Why not? She’s mean to you all the time!”

“I refuse to stoop to her level.” N finally said.

“How honorable. Good thing I’m not you!” And with that she turned and sent a wrench flying into the back of V’s head. It bounced off with a metallic thunk, and she turned to give the teen a dead-eyed glare. Uzi just flipped her off while N picked her up and carried her away like she was a football.

“You really need to stop trying to start fights with her.” He told her, unable to keep the concern out of his voice.

“She needs to stop being a bitch.” Uzi huffed as she was placed back on the frozen ground. “Honestly, she treats you like crap. She doesn’t deserve to be treated nicely.”

“Well…”

“You either need to make her stop talking to you like that, or stop talking to her altogether.” She told him, speaking quietly but firmly. “I mean it, N. I don't like seeing you get hurt.”

“I know.” He admitted quietly. “But I just don't want to see her get hurt, either.”

Uzi sighed, shaking her head. “You're too nice for your own good, you know that?”

“Heh, yeah…” He rubbed at the back of his head, flinching when she good-naturedly punched his arm. “Ow.”

“That didn’t hurt.”

Unknown to them, they were being watched. Thoughtful green eyes took note of the interaction, comparing it to previous ones and coming to a conclusion he didn’t particularly like.

But that was something to worry about later.

“Hey guys!” Thad called out. “We only have, like, an hour until sunrise. Should we start heading back?”

“Shit, already?!” Uzi checked her internal clock, then cursed. “Dammit, I lost track of time!” She immediately started scrambling to shove everything into her bag, not wanting to leave any of it behind. Thad and N helped her, while Lizzy quickly tracked down Maia.

“It’s okay, we can still get back in time! We’re fast!” N assured her, while Thad gagged at the thought.

“Oh please no…” He whispered, but was ignored.

“Hell yeah! Speed demon time!” Uzi crowed, oblivious to Thad’s distress.

The group quickly got their stuff together, divvying it up between the two groups. V would take more stuff, but carry Maia and Lizzy while N was, to his reluctance, supposed to carry Thad and Uzi.

Luckily it didn’t throw him off his game too badly, and they were all able to get back to the bunker minutes before the sun rose. While everyone hurried inside, however, N noticed Thad and Uzi hesitate.

“We’ll be in soon.” The goth reassured him when she noticed his worry. “We uh, just wanted to watch the sun rise.” She was blushing as she said it, and N couldn’t help but notice the way the two were holding hands. Still, he swallowed his feelings down and gave a quick thumbs up before ducking into the shadowy hole they'd flown out of earlier.

The two walked a short ways away, where there was a bench nearby with the perfect view. Thad brushed the snow off before letting Uzi sit down.

“This is nice.” She said after a moment, leaning her head on his shoulder. He responded by wrapping his arm around her shoulders, holding her close as the golden light washed over them. “Kinda wish N could see it too. He told me he’s never seen one before…”

“Yeah?” Thad kept his voice calm, easily covering up his internal feelings. “Well, I’m sure he’d love it.”

Yeah…” She gave a soft sigh, optics watching the shadows slowly change in front of them.

But Thad was watching her, a small buffering symbol in the corner of his screen. Finally, he came to a decision. It wasn’t one he liked, of course, but it was one he felt he needed to make.

“... I think we should break up.” He told her quietly.

“What?!” Uzi shot upright, staring at him with hollowed eyes. “Why?!”

“Look, you obviously have a thing for N.” She blushed heavily, screen lighting up in that pretty violet color. “And it’s not cool to keep dancing around things.”

“I do not-! We-! We’re just friends!” She tried to insist, but was met with an utterly unconvinced look.

“Yeah, well you can be friends with your partner, y’know. That’s where mom keeps getting her partners from.”

“B-but what about us?!” She looked distraught, and he pulled her into his lap, hugging her tight.

“We can keep being friends. That’s not going to change just because you’re dating N&Ms.” He assured, taking her hand in his. Gently, he started to unwind the green ribbon she kept there, setting it aside before working on the purple ribbon around his own wrist.

“But-” Uzi felt tears in her eyes, but Thad held her just a bit tighter, giving her a chance to stabilize.

“Listen, I’ll even help you out, okay?” He spoke gently as he pressed the purple ribbon into her hand. “But it is really obvious that you like him in a way that’s more than just friends, and I don’t want you to be unhappy.”

Uzi stared down at the ribbon, then leaned her head against his chest. “...Can we at least break up tomorrow?”

“Sure.” Thad moved her beanie so he could pet her hair. “That won’t be a problem at all.”

----------

“Tessa, are you sure?” Asked a small, hunched up drone as she watched her mistress suit up for the cold, unforgiving weather of the planet they were currently on.

“Positive, Cyn. Your big sis is out there, needing help, needing us, so we have to go out there.” The woman gave her a gentle smile. “I promise that you'll be safe, alright? After all, you got me with you!” She sheathed her sword, then put on her helmet. With a gesture for her drone to follow, Tessa left her ship.

Outside was cold, even with her suit. But, she ignored it as she unhooked her motorbike and set it up. Its battery was fully charged, and it did work in this cold, so she felt ready to go.

Scooping Cyn up, she placed the tiny drone on the seat in front of her before revving the bike. Kicking off, the two went zooming off into the dead city, Tessa feeling ready for almost anything. As they approached the location Jackie had pinged her, she slowed and stopped just a short distance away, letting the bike rest against the side of a dilapidated building. Cyn looked up at her, questions obvious on her face.

“You need to stay here in case it’s dangerous, alright Cyn? Can’t have some wild dingo taking my last drone out!” She half-joked as she started out on foot. “So stay right here with the bike, and use it to escape if something attacks.”

“Right...” The little drone sat neatly on the seat of the bike, watching as her mistress wandered off and around the corner. As soon as she was out of her sight, however, Tessa let her false bravado drop.

“Okay…” The young woman tried to steel herself, to not let her worries get the best of her. “Let’s find that lost dingo…”

It took several minutes of walking before she saw something start to peek over the tops of the buildings. Some sort of spire, when the maps said the area it seemed to be coming from was supposed to be a park. She could feel the unease settle in her chest as she got closer, and noticed the array of red lights dotting it.

“Is that-?” She peered closer, then stumbled back and retched. “Oh god! Why?!” She swallowed back the bile in her throat. “What did the company tell you to do?!”

A spiraling tower of dead drones rose before her, carefully put together so it could be seen above the buildings. Whatever kind of park had been here had been lost to this mass grave a long, long time ago. It was a good thing she’d left Cyn behind. The poor drone already had nightmares, she didn’t need a reason for new ones.

“Ea-easy does it, Tess.” She tried to hype herself up. “Your drone is in there somewhere, and she needs your help. Just gotta… gotta go in there and get her out! It’ll be quick! Won’t even really have to look at all those… dead drones…” Reluctantly, only doing it because Jackie needed her, she stepped into the large, cavernous building made of corpses.

“J-Jackie?” She called out. “Jackie, c-come on now! I’m here to help, so come on out!”

A faint buzzing could be heard over her suit's interior speakers, before the small chat box in the corner of the helmet’s screen activated.

SDJ >Boss? Is that you?

“Yeah, Jackie. It’s me.” She held her hands out, wilting at the small amount of silver that pooled within them. “Oh Jackie, what happened?”

SDJ >Nico went corrupt. Attacked Vicky, allowed some Worker with a gun to blow me up. And then blew me up again when I tried to reconstitute myself. I’m really glad you’re here, Boss.

Tessa felt a pressure against her palms through her suit. Gently, she moved her thumbs against the liquid in a gentle petting motion. “Well, don’t you worry. We’ll get you all fixed up, alright?” The pressure relaxed, and Tessa shifted her into one hand so she could pull out the can. “Alright, into the can so we can bake ya back on my ship.”

The nanites flowed into the can, which Tessa then sealed shut for protection. Nanites were quite sensitive to both the sun and the cold winds of the planet, and she wasn’t about to put Jackie in even more danger.

Once that was done, she turned and made a quick exit, followed by the long trek back to where she’d left Cyn and her bike. She’d have to build up a new frame, or at least get the materials for Jackie to build a new frame, but that could wait a while. First, she had to get back to the ship and figure out just what kind of order the company had given her drones.

Chapter Text

“So he just… lost all his memories, then?” Tessa asked from her desk, reading over the messages J was sending her.

>Yes. We passed through the radiation cloud and when V and I came out of our pods he was completely out of it, defaulting to the programming the company gave him. That’s when I took charge.

J seemed almost smug about it, but it was hard to read her tone over the text. The technician wouldn’t put it past her, though. She’d always chafed a little being constantly in second place.

“I see…” Tessa frowned, pushing her short, black hair out of her face. “Well, I did bring all the backups, so I could probably remote upload his memories, but I have no idea how that could affect anything.”

>Anything’s better than leaving him as a bumbling moron.

“I suppose…” She sighed, standing up. “Righty-o, guess I better get to work, then.”

----------

Defying all of his expectations, getting N and Uzi together, in one room, alone, was the most difficult thing Thad had ever done. It didn’t help that Uzi was avoiding the Murder Drone like he had rust, while N was spending all of his time at work. Even when he got his sister involved, asking them both to babysit while giving her strict instructions to hide, they somehow managed to keep from confessing their obvious feelings for each other during a heartfelt moment.

It was almost enough to drive a drone mad, in his opinion.

But then, like a gift from the heavens, an opportunity fell right into his lap. One day after school, as he passed by the bulletin board, he managed to notice an old flier about some sort of camp peeking out from under some old posters.

He’d taken it immediately, and that, plus a few well timed words, meant his mom had given permission to go on a camping trip. So long as Lizzy’s dad also went, since he needed to get out of the bunker and the kids needed adult supervision.

Liam was not happy to hear that, but Thad didn’t care. Finally, he had a plan to get his two best friends together.

“Thad, this is the stupidest idea you’d ever had!” Uzi hissed at him as they sat in the back together. Doll sat next to them, but she was stoically ignoring them.

“Come on, what’s more romantic than the woods?” Thad asked, just as quietly. “Plus, there are plenty of places to get some alone time~”

Uzi blushed brightly. “Don’t say it like that!” She snapped, quickly checking to make sure nobody had heard that. Luckily, Maia was doing her job at distracting N, playing some sort of video game with him up near the front, so he seemed oblivious. Another drone, however, had heard loud and clear, and Lizzy soon peered over the seat, leaning an arm on the back.

“Ugh, come on loser. What’s wrong with just asking him?” She said in a bored tone.

“Did you ask V yet?” Uzi retorted. When silence answered her, she followed up. “Yeah? Didn’t think so. Fuck off, Lizzy.”

“Whatever, freak.” But the insult held no venom as she sat back down. Doll was now glaring out the window, red eyes reflected in the glass as petrified trees began to come into view, followed by the old, unused campsite.

Liam stopped the bus in the lot, hopping off the top as the kids came out. Even though there weren’t many, he still did a quick check to make sure he had everyone.

“Lizzy. Thad. Maia. Uzi. Doll.Aaaand the Murder Drones.” He fixed the last three drones in front of him with a firm glare. “There will be no murdering, and no bothering me. I’m only here because a certain someone forced me to be.”

“Yeah, Dad. Dr. Allard is so mean” Lizzy mocked. “Go take your depression nap, I’ll take over from here.” She easily snatched the clipboard from him, and he gave her a glare that promised a grounding once they got home before wandering over to the counselors' cabin. Once he was out of sight, Lizzy smirked and threw the clipboard away.

“Alright losers, go do what you want.” She said. “Doll, V, you’re with me. Let’s go.” She sashayed off without waiting for a response, and both V and Doll shared a look before they followed behind, V flying after her.

Thad sighed as they left, turning his gaze back to the others. “Welp, Maia, let’s go claim a bunk bed. You want the top bunk?”

“Hell yeah!” Maia hefted her backpack over her head and sprinted towards the cabin. Thad lingered just long enough to shoot Uzi some finger guns before following his sister inside with the rest of everyone’s bags.

Leaving N and Uzi completely alone.

“So, uuuuh, wanna set things on fire with me?” Uzi asked after a long moment of awkward silence.

“You mean start the campfire, right?” N asked, following when Uzi started towards the fire pit.

“Yeah, we can do that too.”

----------

By the time the others all came back, several fires could be found in snow pits around the campground. N and Uzi were crouched around another one, armed with various pieces of wood that they were tossing in.

“What the hell is all this?!” Lizzy asked, shocked. Uzi gave her a deadpan look.

“You left us alone for more than five minutes. N has a flame thrower.” She replied flatly. “Be lucky we didn’t break out the chainsaws.” She didn’t wait for a response and threw an old chair up, watching N torch it when it reached the highest point of the arc and letting it fall back to the ground as a flame.

“I wanna try!” Maia squealed, immediately grabbing a stick and running towards the duo. V just sighed.

“She’s right. They could have used the chainsaws.” The femme Disassembler muttered, to which the three Workers stared at her in disbelief. There was a loud “Woo!” as N gleefully set fire to the stick Maia was holding, and she waved it around like it was a sparkler.

“I should, uh, go get some snow.” Thad mumbled, hurrying to find some buckets. Lizzy followed, helping to put out the fires until only one remained.

The group of teens and Muder Drones gathered around the flame, batteries at the ready. Thad popped Maia's for her while Uzi showed N and V how to fit the batteries onto the sticks, and how far away from the flame to hold them.

“You just want to boil the acid inside for a little bit, but go too long and it will burn.” She explained. V listened intently, while N seemed distracted.

“You okay N and Ms?” Thad asked quietly. N shrugged, his expression telling that he was clearly lost in his own processors. Deciding this wasn’t a conversation to have with everyone, Thad stood up.

“Hey, me and N are gonna get more firewood, since all the wood we had mysteriously combusted.” He said, a slightly teasing lilt in his voice. Both Uzi and N looked sheepish about that, but the Disassembler did stand up to follow the jock into the nearby forest.

----------

Tessa hunched over at her computer, ready to run the remote rollback. The latest backup she had was from right before her drones had been sent to Copper 9, which meant that anything from after that would most likely be lost to him. But, she trusted that Vicky, and later Jackie, could easily catch him back up on everything.

Still, she hated to do this to him without talking to him about it first. She’d always made it a point to talk them through any and all upgrades and updates, explaining exactly what would happen and why. She valued that kind of transparency for them.

She hoped Nico would understand why she couldn’t do that for him this time, as she started the rollback. She’d apologize to him later, maybe show him some new dog videos. He always loved those, after all.

----------

“Dude you are killing me.” Thad was saying as he and N collected up the firewood. “You and Zi both. I am giving you every opportunity to get together, and you’re wasting them.”

“Don’t even know if she likes me that way…” N mumbled, arms full of the petrified sticks.

“For the last time, she is in love with you!” Thad made sure to enunciate as clearly as he could. “So the next time you see her, kiss her!”

“I can’t do that!” The Disassembler had a bright yellow blush on his face. “What if she hates it?!”

“Dude, I can promise you, she won’t hate it.” Thad sighed. He tried not to be so annoyed, but he had no idea why N was so insecure about this. “Seriously, just, like, hold her hand or something first if you’re nervous.”

“... Do you really think she’d let me do that?” N’s voice was quiet, and Thad did his best to keep himself from yelling.

“Of course! She has, like, the biggest- hey, are you alright?” Thad’s frustration quickly turned to concern as he saw N had hunched in on himself, hands clawing at his chest as he gasped. His screen flashed between a distressed expression and some words, though it took Thad a second to read them.

[REMOTE ROLLBACK IN PROGRESS…]

“N and Ms? N?!” Thad’s panic skyrocketed as he approached, stopping only when N suddenly fixed him with a stare, one more word flashing on his screen, fighting the others for dominance.

RUN.

----------

“So. You and N.” Lizzy stated it with such certainty, despite the glare Uzi was throwing her way.

“Shut up, Elizabeth.” She deadpanned. Lizzy’s eyes hollowed in shock.

“Hey! Don't call me that!” The blonde fumed in her camp chair. “How did you even- Doll!”

“[It's what you get for dragging me here.]” Doll told her. “[I was perfectly happy to stay home.]”

“Mm, not allowed. Dad would have gotten in trouble.” Lizzy pointed out, and Doll rolled her eyes, crossing her arms with a huff.

“Heh, Elizabeth…” V muttered, shortly before being pelted with a snowball.

“We're not talking about me! We're talking about them!” Lizzy retorted. “Hottest couple of the class!”

Uzi scoffed. “No we are not!”

“Please, purple and yellow? A classic color combo, almost as good as pink and yellow.” Lizzy waved her off, and Uzi noticed V fidgeting with a necklace she was wearing.

“Bite me! We're just good friends!” Uzi glared harder, trying not to blush. “Why the hell does everyone think we're- AAUGH!” She screeched as her processor felt like it was being stabbed with fire, a horrendous buzzing suddenly filling her head. It quieted down after a moment, but left her feeling dazed and confused. It wasn’t until she noticed the other two Workers staring down at her that she realized she’d shut down, her vision glitching for a moment before stabilizing.

“Ugh… what happened?” She asked as she sat up, rubbing her head.

“You screamed and fell over.” Maia piped up helpfully, but she was ignored.

“I think you caught something from N. Your eyes went yellow for a second.” Lizzy told her quietly. “We should go tell my dad. He has medical training.”

“[Agreed. It looked painful, you should get assessed.]” Doll added.

“I don't need-” Uzi vomited when she tried to stand up, Doll barely catching her as she swayed. “Okay, maybe I do need a doctor…”

Lizzy sighed, annoyed. “So much for a relaxing trip.”

Before any of them could move, however, Thad went sprinting past them, barely managing to keep himself from running into the fire.

“Something's wrong with N!” He blurted, his tone holding sheer terror. Despite this, none of the girls seemed convinced.

“Ugh, did he find more rocks to make friends with?” V scoffed. Uzi shot her a glare, but Thad continued before she could retort.

“N-no, it was some sort of remote rollback! H-he told me to run!” He stammered. This changed V’s reaction immediately, and she suddenly looked panicked.

“Remote rollback? What, like in the movies?” Lizzy raised a digital brow. “Thad, those are fiction.”

“Be quiet!” V suddenly hissed, eyes hollow ovals. She was staring into the woods, and the others slowly turned to see what she was looking at.

The trees were dark, too far away for the fire’s light to reach. But that made it all the easier to see the glowing yellow X watching them from the shadows.

For one long second, nobody moved. Even Maia stayed still and quiet. And that moment gave Uzi hope that maybe, just maybe, this was all a prank. That N and Thad had decided to play a little joke on the rest of them, a bit of harmless fun to laugh about later.

Then N lunged.

He moved fast enough that he was almost a blur, causing everyone by the fire to scatter. To Uzi's surprise, V intercepted him and threw him to the side with a growl, letting the Worker start to herd the others towards the cabins.

“Come on! This way!” She called, grabbing Doll as she passed and half-throwing her towards the cabin. Lizzy and Thad also changed direction, though while she followed Doll, he went for his sister, who’d been quickly cornered by N.

“Leave her alone!” He yelled as he threw a rock at the newly murderous Disassembly Drone. It didn’t hit- N dodged at the last second- but it did give Thad enough time to scoop up his sister and try to flee. He made a mad dash for the cabin, but N recovered too fast and stabbed him in the back with his tail, flinging him towards the trees. Maia fell from his arms, stumbling and rolling in the snow before trying to get up.

“N come on! This isn’t fun anymore!” The droneling didn’t understand what was going on. N was supposed to be fun, and nice! But now he was chasing them with his scary face on and stabbing her brother. Not that she could run, anymore. She’d landed wrong when he’d thrown them, and her leg wasn’t working now.

Not that he cared. If anything, he was quite pleased about it. It meant she wouldn’t run anymore, and he could give her a quick, painless death. But as he raised his claws to do exactly that, Uzi jumped onto his back, knocking his hat off and covering his optics.

He gave a terrifying screech, bucking and twisting to throw the Worker off. As such, he missed it when V swooped in to grab Maia and Thad and rush them to the cabin. Uzi followed a moment later, having secured her beanie to N’s head well enough that she had time to run without him seeing. The Worker locked the door behind her as soon as she was in, even though she knew it wouldn’t do much good, and turned to take stock of the situation.

V was already on Thad, dripping her saliva into the puncture wound on his back. Thad himself was offline, and Maia had burrowed between Lizzy and Doll, silently crying while the older girls comforted her. Uzi had no clue where Lizzy’s dad was, and hoped N wouldn’t find him before they could get him to safety. And, even with everything else, her head was still killing her.

All in all, it was a mess.

“It’s okay, Maia. V’s fixing him now.” Lizzy was saying quietly, trying to keep her voice steady. “Thad will be okay.”

Uzi felt a surge of doubt, which was mixed with extreme worry. N’s acid had eaten Uzi’s own hand away with alarming, painful speed, and Thad had been stabbed in the back. There was a high possibility that his internals had been damaged, possibly to the point of needing a doctor. And with N acting like that there was no way to get him back to one, at least not anytime soon.

The purple Worker sat down in the corner, her head in her hands. She had no idea how to fix this, how to fix N. She was beginning to wish she’d never agreed to come to the camp.

As tears started to sting her eyes, a chat box popped up in her HUD, with only one message.

“Serial Designation N (backup)” has connected
>uzi dont freak out!!!

Uzi stared dumbfounded at the message. She opened her mouth, intending on freaking out, when more popped up in the box.

>dont say anything either!
>these were just a backup swarm they only activated because something happened to the main ones!

‘N, what the actual fuck?’ appeared in the chatbox as soon as Uzi thought the words.

>uh oops?
>anyways not important
>do u know what happened?

‘ Uh, Thad said something about a remote rollback? I think it was more like a reboot, though.’ She could hear the buzzing pick up again.

>reboot, great idea!
>we’ll use decapitation
>do u have ur gun?

‘No, N.’ She hadn’t had time to make a new one after he’d exploded the old one in J’s zombie face. She did have the designs drawn up, though.

>dammit
>ok we gotta tell v then
>dont want to though
>she keeps making a big deal out of everything
>she is super annoying

Uzi snorted quietly, agreeing with that. She waited until V was done treating Thad, then stood up to go talk to her.

“V!” She called, whisper-shouting just in case. “I think I have a plan! Get over here!” V looked over and sighed, leaving Thad with the girls as she stalked over to Uzi.

“What is it, toaster?” She asked.

Uzi gestured her over to a more private corner. “Okay, so this is going to sound really weird, but I think N left some nanites in my processor…?” V quirked an eyebrow, so to prove her point, Uzi had the chatbox blip onto her screen.

>hi v

V read the message, then looked Uzi in the optic. “You fucking weirdos.”

“Yeah yeah, wasn’t my idea.” Uzi waved her off. “We need to do something. Do you have any ideas?”

V took a moment to consider the situation, her nanites running through multiple scenarios at once. “Maybe. But, the timing needs to be perfect.”

----------

Nico growled, pacing through the woods. The beanie that had blinded him had been torn to shreds and left in the snow. He had no idea where on the planet he was, or why Vicky had defended and helped those Workers. They were supposed to kill them, destroy them and prepare the planet for the company to come back. Then they could all go home to Tessa and resume their happy lives.

He frowned, sending several more pings to Jackie that went unanswered. He had no idea where she was, either. Had something happened to her?

“Nico! What the actual fuck?!” Vicky snapped him from his thoughts as she came swooping in, landing in a cloud of kicked up snow. “Months of work, and you just attack them?! You’re lucky I’m a good actor, because you nearly ruined your own plan!” N felt a wave of confusion, looking over to meet her annoyed glare.

“What plan?” He asked, his memory failing him. “A-And where’s Jackie? She should be here!” He saw Vicky’s expression soften, and she relaxed her stance.

“Did you forget again?” She asked gently. “Jackie’s on a different mission, remember? And we were using these kids to get into their colony. You made that plan. Befriend the kids, get invited inside. Remember?” Her voice was pleading, but her eyes seemed resigned. Like she knew he had lost access to a whole section of his memory banks.

Nico shook his head. “I-I don’t. I… I don’t remember anything. Just the ride over…”

Vicky sighed. “Yeah. There was a radiation cloud. We went through it, and while Jackie and I were fine, your nanites got scrambled. It resets your memory sometimes.”

“O-Oh…” His voice trailed, worry making his nanites squirm. That wasn’t good, not when he was supposed to lead them. “What- how-”

“Easy. Jackie’s been helping you. It’s all okay.” She assured him. “And this is still salvageable. They knew you had memory problems. I explained that you just had a mental break.” She drew him into her arms, hugging him tight. “We can still fix this. I promise.”

Nico nodded, hesitantly returning the hug. “Right. Everything is fixable.” He quoted.

“Right.” She pulled back, smiling as she fixed his hat. “But, I think this plan should be scrapped, you know?” The sudden change caught him by surprise, his eyes widening.

“Already?” He blurted. “But haven’t we spent months on this? O-or however long?” V shrugged, seeming unbothered.

“Yeah, but it gives us a new plan.” She let loose a truly demented giggle. “We can use their corpses to lure the others out instead~”

Nico couldn’t contain his own wide smile. “Oh I love the way you think~”

With that, the two of them took off and flew back towards the camp. It didn’t take long, and they landed outside of the mess hall together, kicking up snow as they landed.

“They’re all in here.” Vicky told him. “Give me a minute, and I’ll drive them out into your waiting guns~”

Nico grinned, swapping to his guns as he backed up. He watched her saunter inside, and got into position, and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

He frowned as he tried to listen for noise, but everything seemed quiet. Did the Workers ambush her? Did she get hurt and need help? Vicky had never been that strong, had always needed him or Jackie by her side, so it was a possibility. His gaze hardened, and he put away his guns as he stalked towards the door. If these toasters had hurt his Vicky, he’d kill them all.

The door let out a low creak as it opened, hinges barely holding on from prolonged exposure to the cold. The mess hall was dark and quiet, the air still as he walked inside. He scanned the room, but found no sign of any drones.

“... Vicky?” He asked quietly. The door slammed shut behind as soon as he spoke, kicking up a cloud of snowdust. The action startled him briefly, but he soon switched to a fighting stance.

“Hey! Who’s there?!” He stepped back, more towards the middle of the room so he couldn’t be cornered. “Show yourself! What did you do to Vicky?!”

A noise above him, and he looked up to see an old ceiling fan starting up, rapidly increasing speed until it was a blur. At the same time, something below him moved upwards and around him. Ropes, a net really, wrapped around him, binding his limbs together in a tangle.

“What the hell?!” His wings couldn’t come out like this, so he started trying to cut the ropes with his tail. As he did, the purple worker came out of the shadows, holding a large hammer and looking almost terrified. Vicky came out with her, looking far less nervous, but not completely at ease.

“Alright purple thing, do your shit.” She gestured to Nico, and betrayal stung his core.

“Vicky?!” Nico squirmed in the trap, hurt on his screen.

“Don’t rush me! This is humiliating enough as it is…” The Worker muttered, gripping her hammer tightly. Still, she approached him, looking more determined.

“You stay back!” He pointed his tail right in her face, and she stopped just out of range. “Vicky, kill this thing and get me out of here!”

“No.” The reply was short, blunt, and surprising.

“What do you mean no?!”

Vicky sighed, seeming very very tired. “Nico, this isn’t you.”

“Of course it’s me! Who else could I be?!” He needed to stall, gain a little time. Vicky had obviously been corrupted, or gotten attached. That was okay, she was so kind-hearted and naive that he fully expected this to happen. A good talk to remind her what was at stake would help.

“It’s not. Not the one I remember.” Vicky shook her head, stepping forward to grab and move his tail. “Just let Uzi help you, okay? You’ll get better, and see that this isn’t right.”

“Nope.” Nico extended his wings, snapping the weakened net. He whipped Vicky away, then lunged for the Worker, who swung its hammer at him. The thing connected, cracking his screen and sending him tumbling away.

“N! Stop!” The Worker yelled, but he ignored her, scurrying along the ground towards her. She stumbled back quickly, but couldn’t outrun him as he lunged at her, tackling her to the floor. He grabbed and threw away the hammer, then raised his claws to remove her head from her body in a quick, clean strike-

Only to be tackled himself, by Vicky.

“Run Uzi!” She yelled, struggling to pin him down.

“B-but-”

“Don’t argue! RUN!” She took a kick to the face, but finally got the Worker to move. Nico watched her sprint out the door with one optic while keeping the rest on Vicky.

“Vicky, let go!” When had she gotten so good at fighting? She’d been terrified of her own guns back when they’d boarded that pod. “I will be reporting this!”

“I don’t care! I won’t let you hurt them!” She pinned his wings down with her own, and a pink bow on a gold chain slipped out her jacket collar. It looked like the bow one of the other Workers had been wearing, and Nico realized she had definitely gotten attached.

Nico growled, then brought out his sword and beheaded her. He let her body fall to the side, looking at it with disappointment.

“We’ll be having a talk about this later.” he told her, even though he knew she couldn’t hear him like this. Picking up his hat from where it had fallen, he looked out the door, letting his hunting program pick up on the Worker’s tracks. He’d take care of this one first, then deal with the others. He was sure they’d be far less trouble.

He stepped outside and brought out his wings, launching into the sky. Soon enough that purple Worker- Uzi- wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

He flew low over the trees, following the tracks. When they stopped next to a steep cliff, he landed, kicking up a cloud of snow. Large X on his screen, he began to stalk the area, calling out in a singsong tone.

“Where are you, little Worker? Come out~ I promise to make it quick~” He gave a demented giggle, scanning the area around him for any sign of movement. He leaned over the edge, wondering if she had jumped.

He did not look up, however, because why would a flying death machine ever need to?

And up was exactly where Uzi was. Clinging to the trunk of one of the taller firs, she watched as he stalked her. The buzzing in her head worsened as she waited for the moment to strike. N wanted her to think it through, iron out the kinks, but she was always better at thinking on her feet.

Besides, most plans never survived a Murder Drone.

Taking a deep vent, she waited until he was right at the cliff's edge, then launched herself. As he turned to search the forest, she landed right against his chest, sending them both tumbling over.

In the split second she had before he recovered, she pressed his mouth to his and felt N’s nanites flow out of her and back to his own body.

Nico’s screen went blank, optics shut down as they fell for one…

two…

…three seconds, and then he tightened his hold on her and flipped them upright. His wings came out and slowed their descent enough to make it a gentle landing at the bottom of the cliff.

“...N?” His eyes were wide and hollow, but his optics were lit and he glanced towards her when she spoke. “Hey, it's o-”

She was dropped, and snow kicked up as N launched himself up and away. In less than a second, Uzi was left alone. She didn’t even have time to speak, watching in silence as he disappeared into the night.

“...Well, fuck you too, then.”

----------

V had been terrified after she’d regrown her head and found Nico gone. She’d rushed outside, then followed Uzi’s tracks, feeling a rising fear in her belly. That fear melted away when she got to the end and saw the purple Worker laying on the ground by a cliff, very much not disassembled.

“Wow. You lived.” Despite that, she couldn’t quite let her prickly exterior drop.

“Shut the fuck up.” Uzi retorted, not moving. “I think I overstressed my joints. Carry me back to camp.”

V had no energy to argue and did so, holding her in a bridal carry as she hurried back to the camp. The other Workers were out of the cabin, with Lizzy’s stupid dad looking around in a half-drunken state. She could see the pink Worker trying to explain what happened and, after handing Uzi off to Doll, approached to help.

“Hey! Asshole!” She pulled out her sword and drove it into the wall by Liam’s head. “You did a shit job!” Despite the sharp blade mere inches from his head, Liam only seemed annoyed.

“Don’t take that tone with me, young lady.” He droned, and V snarled.

“No! They,” she gestured to the teens, “were attacked! Thad and Uzi are injured! And now, you’re too drunk to drive! Get in the back, keep an eye on Thad, and don’t. Say. A word.”

Liam gave her his usual unimpressed look, but did as she told him to. V herself took a deep breath, then climbed into the driver’s seat. She only had experience driving cars, but she was sure a bus wasn’t much different.

The bus jolted and fought with her a bit at first, but she soon got the hang of it, starting it back down the road they came. As they traveled, V found herself constantly glancing up, scanning the blackened sky for even the smallest trace of N. Uzi had told her how he had saved her, only to disappear without a word. The femme disassembler already knew N would be wracked with guilt from all of this, so all she could do was hope to find him before he did something drastic.

‘Be safe, N. I’ll come back for you.’