Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Rebecca loved Lizzy and V.

She did not love herself.

Looking back on it, Rebecca didn't know how she had managed to bag two beauties like V or Lizzy. She had been barely hanging onto life after the events at the campsite, both literally and metaphorically. It was a miracle that she had survived the attack that cost her her legs, and even more of a miracle that she hadn't done it alone.

Lizzy had been injured there as well, launched across the tree line by a stray missile. Her wounds weren't as grave, but they ended up sitting side by side in the medical wing, being repaired slowly but surely by the doctors. V visited Lizzy every day as well, and Rebecca, ever the gossip, quickly deduced that they were a thing, even if they haven't fully sealed the deal yet.

In the end, Rebecca permanently lost the function of her legs, but that didn't hurt as much as when Lizzy had been checked out of the hospital. Rebecca didn't have any family left, so she ended up alone in the medbay with nothing but the uncaring doctors to keep her company. Or so she had thought.

Lizzy kept visiting, even after she had been checked out. Every three days, then every two days, and then daily. Somewhere in the first month, V started to show up, and she too went through the whole cycle. Eventually, the two were visiting her bedside every day, staying till well past visiting hours because V didn't exactly have to listen to anyone she didn't want to.

Rebecca's legs never were able to recover, and when she finally checked back out, she was put in a wheelchair, fake, useless legs hanging out of it to give her some semblance of normalcy. The wheelchair was far more advanced than what the humans of old had to deal with, but that didn't mean Rebecca didn't resent the chair, the very embodiement of her failure to hold onto her old life.

Their friendship continued after leaving the medbay, and every time they hung out, Rebecca had to admit to herself more and more that she was in love with them both, and she had been for a long time. She didn't beleive in fairy tales, or love at first sight, but Lizzy and V must have been magical, because they cast a spell on her. Lame, undeserving her. 

Rebecca didn't feel like she was important enough for them at times, a background character in her own life. Lizzy had been in on every secret in the bunker since the Disassemblers arrived, and V was one of the three saviors of the entire world! And what had Rebecca done? She had sat in a hospital bed waiting for people to fix her problems for her while V was fighting an evil god for the fate of the universe just a few thousand yards away...

So now that she sat in her apartment, waiting on the two of them to arrive for the 'game night' she had proposed, the paper bouquets in her lap seemed dumber and dumber. One was adorned with a bow, and the other with a dismembered arm that N had lent her. He seemed in support of her confession, but she didn't necessarily trust the judgement of Mr. Puppies and Optimism when it came to the love life of V. On the other hand, he knew her longer than anyone else, so maybe there'd be hope that she wasn't going to comletely ruin her relationship with her first real friends over a dumb crush.

"Okay Rebecca," She spoke to herself, steeling her will. "They're going to be here any minute now, you need to be confidant. You are brave, you are honest, and you say what you want, when you want!" Rebecca quoted her life motto, from some human magazine she found years ago. She was Rebecca, she was not a side character, and she was going to ask out her crushes without any fear-

Knock knock knock

All of Rebecca's bravery immediately drained as V knocked on the door. She wasn't good enough for them, she was just some dumb, crippled loser who couldn't shut her mouth, there wasn't anything date-able about that!

The bouqets were tossed in the trash as Rebecca quickly rolled up to her door, rushing to get out a few generic card and board games to look at least somewhat prepared. When she opened the door, Rebecca looked up at them with a nervous grin, hoping that her visor wasn't blushing. "H-Hey girls! H-How's it hanging?" 

Lizzy and V were actually blushing as they looked at her, and Rebecca felt fear strick her heart at the sight of it. They saw right through her. They were probably so embarassed by a loser like her that they were going to ask to stop being friends!

Chapter Text

Lizzy loved Rebecca and V.

She did not love herself.

Curled up in her pretty pink bed under pretty purple sheets, surrounded by her mirrors and clothing, Lizzy internally screamed at herself.

She didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve any of this!

All of these things were so fancy, so nice, so perfect.

And Lizzy? She was a maggot. 

A hideous, freakish whelp, undeserving of everything she had been given by her dad, by her friends, by V and Rebecca... 

Robo-God, she was so pathetic.

Looking up into her mirror, Lizzy flinched as she looked at herself. She was a wreck. Her hair was tangled and matted, iconic bow bent and flopping at an odd angle, while her hardhat lay on the ground. Her eye lights twitched and flickered, her pink screen looking almost red with how hot it was getting from all her crying, the excess pixels overloading what the glass normally had to contain. Her uniform was wrinkled and much to her dismay, she saw an oil stain on its side. 

How could she be so stupid as to not notice that!? She went to school in this? No wonder everyone was staring at her!

V and Rebecca were so beautiful, they seemed to effortlessly maintain their appearance, always outshining her, no matter how hard she tried. V's rugged charm and ability to make oil look hot, Rebecca's cute cropped style that never seemed to be out of place. They both were so, so perfect. Despite Lizzy's egotistic remarks and comments, she knew she'd never be able to compare to them...

"Hey, Liz?" V's voice sounded through the door as she knocked. "You okay? You didn't show up to school today, Becky and me were getting pretty worried."

"Yeah!" Rebecca shouted as well. "How can we mock people's horrible fashion tastes without our resident fashionista?"

The remark was able to get a snort out of Lizzy, which just made the robot feel worse. Pretty girls don't snort! That's unbecoming!

V never was one for quiet comforting kindness, as she kicked the door open to step inside. "I'll fix it later, don't worry Lizzy. But any-" The words died on V's tongue, and she shook her head with pity as she saw Lizzy on the bed. She's probably trying to hold back her disgust at seeing me!

"Code Pink." V called out into the hallway. "Get in here, Rebecca, Lizzy needs some help."

"Aye aye, captain!" Rebecca wheeled into the room, masking her hatred sympathy behind a casual smile. "What's wrong, sugar?" Rebecca could be pretty judgmental, she was probably eyeing up Lizzy right now to-

V climbed into bed next to Lizzy, squeezing down under the covers and squishing up close to the shorter drone. Afterwards, Rebecca wheeled up close and shifted her weight to lean into the bed, using her arms to do what her missing legs couldn't.

"So," V began, once all three were settled. "What's got you feeling low?"

"And don't think you can 'Oh, nothing' your way out of this one, sweetheart~" Rebecca trilled, winking as she wrapped an arm around Lizzy's shoulders, holding her tight.

"Don't touch me..." Lizzy muttered, trying to curl into herself, only to stop as she heard a sudden SHHHHRRRRIIIIIIIIP. Looking down at her dress, Lizzy saw that a seam had broken in her movement, leaving a large hole above her knee. "GREAT! JUST GREAT!" She shouted, squeezing the sides of her head as she buried her face into V's side, shuddering. "I can't even hide without looking worse!"

This dress was a gift from V, the murder drone had found it on a skeleton while hunting some weeks back, and brought the sequin covered clothing back to give to her. And now it was stained and ripped! V was going to hate her!

V opened her mouth to speak, and Lizzy braced for harsh words, for a smug remark laced with venom, some kind of agreement that she looked horrendous. But instead, all she heard was a set of soft shushing noises, trying to comfort her. On her back, Rebecca rubbed circles, whispering kind assurances that Lizzy could hardly believe were coming from the mouth of the gossip loving girl. "Just let it all out, beautiful. You look perfect as is. It's all going to be okay."

"Lizzy," V sat up, helping the blonde do the same. "I know it's hard for you to believe sometimes, but people don't only like you for your looks, even if you are gorgeous. Me and Becky love you for you, not because you wear some sparkly dress and spend three hours polishing your whole body every other day. You've spent a long time deriving your entire identity from being 'pretty enough', but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and as we behold you..." V trailed off, blushing with embarrassment. Only her GFs and N could get her this sappy.

Rebecca picked up where V left off, giving a kiss to Lizzy's handlight. "...all we see is the most beautiful drone in the world. Even with your tangled hair."

V retracted her hand, replacing it with a high quality hair brush, the handle branded with a J.C. Jenson logo. "Speaking of your hair, would you like it if we helped you clean yourself up?"

Lizzy nodded, scrubbing her visor of tears with her palms as she smiled uncontrollably. "Y-Yeah, that sounds nice."

Rebecca moved back into her wheelchair and rolled over to the small box TV that Lizzy had, inserting a DVD of some generic human sitcom, making sure it was the seventh season disc. The seventh season was by far the worst one, laughing at the poor writing might do Lizzy some good.

Lizzy smiled at both of her girlfriends, eyelights brimming with tears again, but this time they were lights of joy. "Thanks, you two. I'll try to not worry so much."

"And when you inevitably do, we'll be right here to knock some sense into you!" V teased, poking the spot where Lizzy's nose would be if she had one.

"Yeah..." Lizzy laughed. "That sounds nice."

Chapter Text

V loved Rebecca and Lizzy.

She did not love herself.

V was dangerous, a brutal, efficient killer that could shred any drone to pieces. The only robots on the planet who could actually fight her as equals were N and Uzi. V used to take pride in that. She used to preen knowing that she was invincible, and that she could slaughter everyone in sight on a whim.

Now, it just made her more anxious.

V had tried surviving off of the same stuff Worker Drones ate, but it was just so unsatisfying, she still felt so hungry, still had the low energy warnings in her visor, until one night she had to fly out of the bunker and hunt down some poor sap from another bunker to finally get herself satiated. 

She had always been a sadistic killer, but V found herself growing scared as she realized just how brutal she was being to this guy. V didn't understand why it mattered until the day after, though.

Still shaken up by the events of last night, V had been struggling to figure out why she cared so much about ripping apart that rando when the old her would have already forgotten him amongst everyone else she'd have killed that night. But instead, she felt sick, not from any kind of physical problem, but a mental one.

While she was ruminating, she had walked through the door to the bunker, only to let out a catlike meowl as Lizzy tapped her shoulder, surprising the Disassembler. Lizzy only barely ducked as V slashed out to cut off the threat's head. "Jeez, I'm like, real sorry, V! Please don't kill me!-" 

And suddenly, it all made sense. V wasn't scared of killing that drone out in the snow, she was scared of killing Lizzy and Rebecca.

Those two had had encounters with both Disassembly Drones and the Solver back when it was alive, and none of those encounters had gone well. 

V sometimes hated Uzi for taking away Rebecca's legs.

If V ever lost control of herself, if she slipped up on her feeding times and succumbed to her instincts, then there would be absolutely nothing to stop her from turning her lovers into meals.

So she had to make sure that that would never happen. One way or another.

At first, she tried to remove all the dangerous parts of herself, but even with the Solver gone, she wasn't able to stop her regeneration from kicking in, so all she was doing was cloning her fangs and tail and claws every time she ripped them out.

She needed something more permanent...

This was how V found herself in front of the door to the bunker, getting into position as she prepared to take off. The note she had left was dismissive, filled with lies of having grown bored and wanting to go find something more entertaining, and V only hoped that when Lizzy and Rebecca found it, they'd be too distraught by its contents to search for her. 

"HEY! WHAT THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, HUH!?"

Evidently, that would not be happening. 

V turned to face Lizzy and Rebecca, smiling uneasily. Maybe they hadn't seen the note?

"And what was with that weird letter?" Rebecca continued where Lizzy had left off, holding up the paper, which had been slightly torn from how rough V's hurried scrawls had been.

V tried to fly away without a word, gritting her teeth as she jumped into the air, only for the bunker door to shut, disorienting V when she crashed into it. By the time she sat up on her rear and shook off the vibrations reverberating through her head, Lizzy and Rebecca were at her sides, pressing against her. 

When they pulled away, Rebecca glowered down at V and flicked her screen. "You have a lot of explaining to do, sweetheart." 

V took a deep breath, shaking her head as she chuckled. "There's no getting anything past you two, is there?" 

Lizzy crossed her arms, smirking. "We both have straight A's!"

V rolled her eyes a bit. "That's because I helped you, dumbass."

"Love you too." Lizzy's cool demeanor returned to one of anger. "But according to your note, you don't feel the same way."

"No, I-" V gathered her thoughts, looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers, knowing that with one motion, she could have both of them dead, without even using a weapon. "I love you both too much to let you make the mistake of loving me. I'm a killer, Liz, Becca. If you stick around, I'm going to end up getting hungry at some point, and... well, I may not be able to control myself. I'm too dangerous for Workers like you two. The only way I can protect you is to leave and go as far away as I can, and never come back."

"Oh V..." Lizzy began, "How can you be so smart and so, so stupid?" 

The popular girls wrapped their arms around V once again, nuzzling against her in the way they knew she liked it. Lizzy going for the head, and Rebecca on her neck, beginning to talk. "We aren't fragile, V. I survived getting bisected by 'Hot Topic', and Lizzy's been launched across half a forest without losing anything! We can handle ourselves."

"But what if you can't?" V wheezed out, cursing her vivid imagination for making her picture all the way she could kill them both, and how easy it would be. "What if I can't stop myself? I'm too much of a monster for you to be able to make any promises."

"You aren't a monster V. And you will be able to stop yourself if it happens." "We trust you, V. More than anyone else. You are strong, but there's something you have that's stronger than your claws."

"What is it?" V looked up at the angels standing above her, the undeserving demon from below.

"Your heart," "and your mind." Lizzy and Rebecca spoke in unison, kissing the sides of her head. 

"You saved me from Doll." Lizzy said, gripping one of V's hands.

"You saved me from Uzi." Rebecca grabbed the other.

"Now, let us save you from yourself." They said.

V, wrapped up in their embrace and crying with every breath, decided that maybe, just maybe, she'd try to let them fulfill that promise.