Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I think I really miss my bed

Oh when, oh when will the nightmare end?

I had it good, I had it good

And yet I left and can't retrace my steps..

My steps..”

August 7th 3092

21 years after the events of episode 8..

Snow the snow drifted through the sky before landing and covering the the ground in a think white blanket

The low grumbling of the old bus rattled through the air along with muffled conversations of families and friends 

The bus soon pasted a rusting sign that read 

‘½ # mile to O -tpost 3’

The text was faded and dirty but was most likely meant to say

‘½ a mile to Outpost 3’

Having your parents split and having to move miles away isn't the best start to your holidays.

You couldn't travel far outside your colony's borders, due to the disassembly drones. But that has changed over the past couple of years. The details are blurry though but they pose less of a threat now (Of course they still can tear you to shreds but they don't do it every chance they get now).

The thought of being in the same building as the people who murdered half your kind does put some off.. However they seem much more chill now, with a worker even getting married to one. So most people don't mind them as much.

Decaying buildings lined every corner, the memories of how this used to be a busy city had faded and only the shell of what once was left.

The bus eventually came to a stop and people were seen getting off the bus, not all since some were going to Outpost 1 or 2. I grabbed my bag and followed my father off the bus and headed to the main entrance.

It has been 13 years since I've last seen them.. Since anyone had last seen them to be in fact. 

I wonder where they went..

Oh how I miss them..

Why doesn't anybody else seem to care?

They are still alive

I know it!

Okay well.. I don't actually know but just, you know what I meant!

And now it's not only them who are gone but my best friend too..

…

Why does the world hate me so much?

Home doesn't even feel like home anymore..

It's not like they care for me anyway.

They just look after me because they have to..

But I don't want to leave, who knows what is out there?

But oh, how I am longing for something to happen, something to break me out of this cycle of torment…

Chapter Text

RING RING RING

My boots clack against the metal flooring as I rushed to school. I'd woken up so late I'd didn't even realise the time.

The door to the registration class opened up, the teacher glazed over to the door. A quite tall girl with messy, lavender grey hair had rushed in.

“Not the best start to this year being late hm? Miss Doorman..” The teacher called with a flat voice

“Sorry miss..” The girl replied before sitting in an empty seat in the back.

The day went fine, I knew everyone in my class. Doesn't mean we're friends but I know them.

Lunch soon rolled around, the school only offers batteries so I usually get given whatever spare oil we have at home to drink.

If I have to be honest, lunch is more of just a free time since we- Well workers don't have to eat. This time is used though for clubs and shit like that or just time for kids to gossip what happened in their class with their friends who are in a different class.

I sat down at one of the only available tables and sat my bag on the chair next to me, pulling out a pair of headphones, my phone and a canister of oil. My two remaining friends had gone to some club this lunch so I was alone.

I had already put my headphones on when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up, a girl with short, sandy blonde hair, and emerald eyes stood above me or well actually she was just a tad taller than me when I was sitting. She was holding a small packet of batteries.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” She asked

“Oh uh, no, I don't mind” I gave a small smile

She just nodded before sitting across from me.

She must have been new since she didn't look like anyone I knew.

“Hey, If you don't mind me asking.. Are you new? I've just never seen you before. Did you just move here?”

She sighed but still continued picking at her batteries.

“Yes,” She spoke,

“I moved this summer..” Her voice sounded dead with no emotion.

“Oh that's nice.. What's your name..?”

The girl looked up

“Mia..”

The girl seemed not in the best mental state, she looked tired as well.

“I'm Wren, do you want to maybe hangout after school? I can show you where everything is and we could go outside if you want?”

“Sure I guess… But we've literally just met..?” She said.

“Yeah but my family are usually gone for a couple hours before they come home and it gets lonely. Plus you seem like you need someone to be friends with! It must be scary moving to a new place..”

The girl smiled a small bit before replying,

“Meet up outside the school then?”

“Sure! See ya there!”

We both continued doing what we were doing before until the bell rang once more.

And then soon the end of the school day came.

…

I still

can't believe she's also gone as well.. But I shouldn't let that get me down.

Chapter Text

The tapping of the foot against the hard metal flooring was almost inaudible due to the loud chatter of teenages who were exiting school for the day. The wait was getting unbearable.

“School ended five minutes ago…” Mia sighed. She was sceptical of when someone who she just met asked to hang out, she thought it was just a trick or something but still she agreed.

She was just about to leave but chose to wait just a tad longer. Just hoping that she wasn't just left and that it was a joke.

The wall behind her was filled with many notices, some dating back over twenty years. Kids who had been missing for so long that they'd been forgotten, the day that the disassembly drones were allowed in to stay. The date on the paper was unclear but seemed to read 3071. 

She'd heard a lot about many things that happened in that year. Some emo kid who managed to befriend the murderers of the worker drone kind and how they defeated the thing that started all of this chaos, some sort of auto run program.. 

“I'm so sorry I'm late!” Came a voice from behind her.

Turning around from all the notices and posters Mia saw the lavender haired drone from earlier. She was wearing a basic black jacket with bat winged shaped fabric connecting the side of the jacket to the under arm on top of the clothing she was wearing earlier. Her tail was wagging behind her like an excited puppy which made Mia take a small step back as to not get hit.

Wren almost slipped when she stopped from her fast pace and looked disoriented for a second before sorting herself out.

“I went to drop of my bag at mine but I forgot the code for it so I had to text my aunt asking for the code and she's always busy so it took awhile for her to respond and—*yap yap yap..*”

Mia had zoned out after the first few ‘and’s. She only heard that she forgot the code and someone was busy.

“ — So yeah that's why I was late, sorry again!” She spoke after finishing whatever she was rambling on about. By this time, the hallways of the bunker were empty and desolate due to everyone having already gone home.

“No.. It's fine..” Mia replied.

Wren smiled before tightly grabbing Mia's wrist which made her speak a confused “Huh?” heading to the bunker door. Wren probably meant no intentional harm but her grip was tight and clawed fingers aren't the best thing to have digging into your arm.

The wind howled through the abandoned buildings iced with snow that had been building up for years and years. The area was shrouded in a slight blue tint. The eternal winter frost. It was later in the day so it wasn't the brightest outside but when is it ever?

It wasn't exactly the warmest of places, workers however are made to withstand quite high and low temperatures, but if you are out for too long then your internal mechanisms start to shut down before you become just an empty shell.

Something was tossed over to Mia, it was a pink and white double breasted coat with fur lined at the bottom the sleeves and a short shoulder cape with fur as well. It was not that clean but could honestly be worse.

“Huh? What-” Mia said with slight confusion. “I don't know how low of a temperature workers can withstand so I found you a jacket! Sorry that it's dirty, I've just taken it off an old skeleton” Wren replied before Mia could even finish her sentence.

The stars twinkled in the dark sky, glowing and iridescent.

“The stars are nice..” Said Mia who was just staring up at the sky Wren was too busy snooping around through the snow to hear.

A loud, explosion type sound was heard shaking the ground. It came from somewhere behind the spire.

“What was that..?”

Chapter Text

An awkward silence followed after the crashing sound, the pair looked at each other with confusion? Concern? Something. Wren twirled her hair in her fingers before looking back at the quite confused worker, Who had no idea what just happened.

“You..Uh want to go check it out..?” She mumbled as she fidgeted with her fingers, which is something she does quite often.

Mia stared blankly at her for a second before grinning.

“Kay! Last one there is a rusting hunk of junk!” She exclaimed as she flipped around, dashing over to the sound of the noise.

It took a second for Wren to process what happened before she started running after the girl who was too far away to catch up with now as she kept almost tripping up on the clumps of snow and whatever junk that was left buried in the snow.

“Hey! Not fair, slow down” She called after her though her pleas were ignored.

After what felt like an eternity they both got to the destination. As Wren got there she sighed as she sat down on the snow, catching her artificial breath.

She looked over to what had made the noise, a quite new looking spaceship had landed down. Despite the noise that sounded like a crash, it had landed normally and had no major scratches or dents. It looked to be a similar model of ship to the ones Wren had seen before. The legs of the ship grasped onto the snow firmly.

Mia was quick to the door of the ship, knocking and banging on the door without any precautions of second thoughts. The door opened however it was empty, not empty-empty but just no other life forms. Just the inside of a ship.

Wren steadily followed on, scanning her surroundings. Inside of the ship were two chairs, a control panel equipped with a communication relay and multiple screens. Tucked neatly under the panel was a sealed box with a blunt label of ‘Food and junk’.

“Hmm, nothing here.. Maybe it’s a ghost ship, just came here on its own.. Maybe it was orbiting the planet for a while and just crashed down?” Mia half-jokingly suggested, poking at the buttons on the panel.

“Seems improbable, especially in the condition it's in. I’d say someone was in here but left before we arrived.” Wren replied, sitting down on one of the cushioned chairs before lightly spinning it.

"Yeah, yeah I know, I knowww. It was a joke you nerd," Mia said as she rolled her eyes.

Wren looked away and pouted,

"Bite me.." She mumbled under her breath.

The wind outside howled, there was a disturbance in the wind. Followed by a sound of something not small but not large landing in the snow as what sounded similar to high heels walking in the snow got louder and louder as something got closer to the pod..

Chapter Text

Around August 9th 3084~ish

Paperwork, after paperwork. So many reports due and so little time.

A silver-haired drone sat at a desk, her hand tightly gripping the pen as she wrote. Piles of neatly stacked paper laid on her quite plain desk with there only being a pot of the same pens labled with the signature JCJenson branding and a black fixed-line telephone.

The drone exhaled (or well idk the.. Robot equivalent of exhaling..?) as she placed her pen in the pot with a ‘ploink!’ sound. She stretched her metallic joints, she had pushed her chair away from the desk. Pushing her hair from her visor and tired yellow eyes, she adjusted her ponytail before fixing her black tie that lay on her dark, earthy yellow polo top.

She had pushed her chair in and had reached for the door; however the ringing of the phone interrupted her. It was uncommon for people to be calling this late especially at the end of her shift but nonetheless it still sometimes happens. Putting on her best customer service voice she answered,

“Hello. You have called JCJenson Tech, this is Camille speaking! How may I assist you?”

…

“Yeah yeah.. I was about to go home before you interrupted me.. I’ll be back in 5,” She had dropped the service voice and speaked in a much more casual voice to the other person on the line as she put the phone down.

The streets were lined with neon lights like they were trying to blind out everything that has happened over the many years. The ‘new future’ as they called it, promising to repent their wrongs but would they really? These thoughts crossed her mind as her tail swished and swashed behind her, her feet hardly making a noise as she walked along the pavement

She finally arrived at a small apartment where one the only human (that was alive) that she trusted stayed (and also where she stayed :3) . Her human companion usually would work with her however she had come down with a sickness and had to stay home. Camille was then to work way over what she is required to so she could make sure that her human at least would have less of a load to do of work when she arrived back.

She gently unlocked the door as she opened it. On the sofa, tucked in with a tartan blanket was a completely knocked out drone that was unfamiliar to her. On an armchair to the left was a shadowy figure who greeted Camille with a warm smile (or seemed to have, can’t really tell when you aren't able to see the face.. Or really anything). The human pushed herself out of her chair before pulling Camille into an embrace.

“Y’know you didn't really need to do all that work? I don’t want you to have a burnout with all of the paperwork and whatnot” The human said caringly but with a hint of sincereness.

Camille pushed her away as she spoke,

“I’m fine, boss.. You don’t need to worry, I’m strong I promise. We’re not kids anymore..”

There was a pause of silence before Camille continued.

“Now.. Care to explain.. Er this?” Camille pointed at the sleeping drone on the sofa. The mysterious drone's short amethyst hair splayed across the sofa cushions.

The human took a deep breath before answering,

“Alright so in short… Someone mistaken her for someone else, couldn't be bothered to put her back wherever she came from and just kinda dropped her off here..” She sighed as she rubbed the back of her neck. “She doesn't seem like a normal drone though but can’t really test that theory til’ she wakes up.”

Camille nods as she kneels down to study the features of the drone..

“I heard there might have been another drone along with the lassie, might as well try to find them. Don’t want one to be like a.. Cherry without its other half..? Or something” The human mumbled..