Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The scientists were excited.

About what, it didn't know.

Perhaps the V1 unit was to be mass produced at long last.

V1 was excelling in training, it brought down everything that has been put in front of it, it went through the simulations flawlessly, it managed to resist the urge to kill its handlers for long enough so they could measure it. They could just lock it in place, it knew that, but it didn't didn't stop the idea from appearing.

It was going through another one of these measurements when a call had been made for every scientist in the facility to meet at maintenance room 40.

It had been docked at its refuel station without another word and left to wait.

It distantly heard cheering throughout the hours and waited.

And waited.

The scientists had forgotten to truly turn it off before they left.

It waited still as the cheering died off.

A day went by, and then another.

If it was to be mass produced and sent out into the war, wasn't it to be sent out with the others that were to be made?

It was quite dark in the room.

By what its internal clock told it, it had been a week now. There was usually some sort of test it had to endure every other day or so, so this was quite unusual.

It couldn't move, and had been stuck staring at the door leading out of its test room, waiting for something to happen. It saw footsteps pass by and did nothing as they went by without so much as a pause.

It noticed a new voice among the scientists, perhaps a new hire.

Two weeks passed.

A scientist had finally walked into its test room on the end of the third week.

He was one of its usual handlers, recorded in its database as Dr. Markov. He went to initiate its startup protocol and silently cursed to himself when he noticed that it was already on, just station locked.

“I knew those fuckin' rookies would've forgotten something, no wonder our stores have been lower than accounted for,” Dr. Markov pressed a button on his tablet and V1 finally got the wireless order to move, stepping out of its refuel station, “Follow.”

It did as it was told.

Dr. Markov led it down winding white hallways and finally into one of the many training rooms it used throughout the years. It seemed like it was going to train again, probably to test if it was still in proper working order.

V1 was placed into a training room it had gone into many times before.

“You're playing the part of a rampaging killer. We will send the other bot and your job is to take it down as Its job is to take you down,” Dr. Markov made some notes, “Don't let it win, but don't kill it; you're allowed to move as needed after I leave this room.”

It watched as Dr. Markov left the room.

This training room was one of the hologram ones, the ones it used to simulate battling the “Earthmover”. Nobody had actual blueprints of the machine it was to face, anyone who got near it had died, so the insides changed every time V1 was set to encounter it.

It watched the walls shift and was fully prepared to be brought into one of those simulations, a simulated weapon dropped into its hand, but was stopped as it took in its environment.

It was a city square.

There were ‘people’ walking down the streets and sitting at stalls.

The words ‘Rampaging Killer’ ran through its servose.

It started firing.

—

V2 had been brought online to the sounds of cheering. Everything seemed clear, he could hear okay, and he could feel just fine enough for a robot.

He looked up to where most of the scientists were looking and saw a suited man on a TV screen, “As of just a few hours ago, peace was declared across the nations, the Earthmovers have started moving back and away from America, enemy robots are heading back to their home nations!

“It’s official, folks, the rumors were true, there will be war no longer, the fire is gone!"

The scientists started cheering again as the man called out his report.

V2 looked across the small testing room that had been filled to the brim with happy scientists as they all cheered, feeling a sense of relief as he did so.

He didn't quite know why, he'd never even seen the war. He only knew it existed because he had started being put into production when the whispers of peace had formed. The scientists had gotten hopeful, and luckily they had been right.

Perhaps it was a part of his code that seemed to see people being happy as him doing a good job even when he hadn't done anything yet.

He wondered how he'd been made so quickly. Only a few weeks had passed since the rumors started up.

Perhaps the scientists were just that optimistic for peace to be made and already had the idea to make something like him.

“V2, welcome to the world!” V2 flinched slightly as he took note of the small figure kneeling over him, Ms. Cooper his systems recalled, seemed to suddenly appear, “How's everything running?” She yelled over the crowd.

“Everything's a bit loud,” he replied in similar volume using a smooth monotone voice, “I can’t tell.”

“Yeah, this was the only room with a functioning TV, I'll need to take you somewhere else to perform initial calibrations,” She motions for him to sit up and starts taking out the wires placed into his back, “You think you can get us through the crowd? “

V2 nods and swings both legs over the table he'd been laying on and standing up, he was taller than over half of the room. It takes him a millisecond to fix his gyroscopes so that he doesn't fall.

He carefully took the small scientists hand and started parting the crowd to get out, opening the door and herding Ms. Cooper outside before following.

“Well, it seems you can walk just fine,” She noted, “That was one of my main concerns, you're taller than the original source code calls for so I was prepared to just watch you fall at first.”

V2 hummed, “Original source code?”

“Nothing for you to worry about, V2, we just have to perform some tests and then I'll dock you up at a charging station before introducing you to the rest of your handlers.”

They approached a room that was much like the one they had come from and got to work.

His main concern was why he was given a practical shotgun as an arm and was told that it was for his own protection.

Everything over the next few weeks had gone well.

Week one was almost entirely calibrations. He'd punched through a wall so easily that the scientists had turned up the amount of effort needed for him to do something like that.

Week two consisted of movement and battle. Something he seemed to excel at.

The third week was battling against simple robotic opponents. It was boring and repetitive, the enemy was always the same bland humanoid looking robot that he sent to the ground in seconds and only occasionally put in a new move that made him adjust.

On the last day of the week, he was stationed outside of a room he hadn't been to yet.

“This is a holo room,” Ms. Cooper told him, “You'll be going against another robotic opponent and your task is to take it down.”

“How come we're waiting?” V2 asked, looking towards the smaller scientist. His other handlers were supposedly in the offset room to this one so that they could see what transpired while inside.

“The scene needs to be set,” she said, and V2 couldn't help but wonder what she meant by that. Footsteps sounded from down the hall and both Ms. Cooper and V2 looked towards the approaching man, Mr. Markov.

“It's in the room, already started,” the man said, voice tired and annoyed. V2 looked at the deep eye bags under the mans eyes and took the guess that Mr. Markov didn't sleep much, “We're just waiting for this one to enter, now.”

Ms. Cooper clapped once and turned to V2, “That's great! V2, your job is to stop the rampage before further damage can be done. You will be given a single gun once you're in the room. The more citizens you save once you're in the room and the quicker you finish the task, the higher your score is.”

She had opened the door while she was talking, a black abyss being the only thing there, “Your timer starts when you walk into the simulation, good luck!”

V2 heard Mr. Markov say something but couldn't catch what as he was shoved into a bustling city street, a gun suddenly in his hand.

People were running from something, shots coming from somewhere near the center of the city.

He saw blood on some of the people, heard them screaming, and decided that setting up a shelter was not his current objective. He ran for whatever was causing trouble.

His objective was to eliminate the threat.

He ran for no more than thirty seconds when he came up on a form like his. It was stained red, holding a human female in the air with one hand and it's other squeezed around the trigger of the gun it had pointed at the woman's face. Its optic and wings shone a bright yellow like his. Was he supposed to battle himself?

It seemed to relish in the blood that poured from the hole in her skull before dropping the corpse and turning towards him.

V2 watched as the blood was absorbed into its plating, blue bleeding in through the absence of red. It seemed to just stand there as V2 took in what he was seeing.

The characters ‘V1’ were engraved into its plating just as ‘V2’ was on his.

Was this supposed to be the source code Ms. Cooper mentioned?

It lowered itself into a battle ready stance, its gun at the ready, and then charged.

V2 started shooting.

—

V1 watched the taller red robot from its place in the viscera and gore.

There were letters on its plating.

‘V2’

Something surged throughout its wiring as it took in the meaning of those two characters.

Ah.

It'd been replaced.

It charged at ‘V2’, firing its gun and watched as V2 returned fire.

V2 seemed to hesitate at every shot, watching for people where it should have been watching for V1 instead. How inefficient.

V1 had been thoroughly surprised when it had been punched by V2 and it had gotten flung into a wall at near mach speed. It quickly changed how it moved around V2’s left arm.

Shoot V2. Dodge incoming attack. Parry his punch this time. Wonder at how V2 made that noise. Ignore faulty data intake. Shoot. Shoot. Dodge-

It had gotten shot.

It quickly adapted to that as well.

Within seconds, it had the V2 model on the ground, both arms behind its back. V1 resisted the urge to kill it and stopped all train of operation when the handlers walked into the room, the illusion fading as they did.

V1 could have sworn it heard a sigh come from the younger model.

“V1, release him.” Ms. Copper said. She may not have been its handler, but she was still a person of power inside the facility.

V2 seemed shocked at what had transpired in the seconds that went down, “You didn't tell me I'd be fighting with…” V2 trailed off as… he got up and stood. V1 only stared at him as it realized he could talk.

Mr. Markov sighed as he started checking a few things off of a lost, “This is V1, the war machine you are going to train against to get better. I wouldn't underestimate it. As you've just seen, it adapts quickly, kills quickly, and learns quickly. Over the next few months, you are to get better than it, this is your goal.”

Ms. Cooper gave A so-so motion with one of her hands, “Well, I wouldn't phrase it exactly like that. Both of you are going to grow together. We've decided to start up a new program to see if V1 can be used during the new peace and it's going to learn as much from you as you're going to learn from it. We don't want years of hard work to just be thrown into a storage closet.”

V1 looked towards Ms. Cooper as she said this. They were going to try and… what, give it a new purpose?

It already had its purpose: War.

It was going to fight. Right?

It saw V2 nod in its peripheral, “Okay…” It saw him look at it and ignored him.

Ms. Cooper giggled to herself, “I guess we could call you brothers. The V twins.”

V2 was looking at her now, too.

A beat passed before they both looked at each other.

“Oh great.” V2 said, sarcasm practically dripping from his voice and frame. V1 couldn't help but share the statement.

Chapter Text

V2 didn't know what to think of this.

There was indeed a prototype in his making and it had just wiped the floor with him. He probably would have been better off if V1 had just killed him right there.

And now Ms. Cooper was calling that thing his brother.

Word spreads fast throughout the facility, and now everyone was calling that prototype his brother because it, "fits"

How did that even work; robots being called brothers? Sure they were made by the same people and in the same line, but that meant nothing when they were artificial beings.

V1 was not his brother

It was a dumbass.

And what he was seeing now just confirmed that.

They had both been put into another room, but instead of having to fight they were face to face with two canvases and a few different colors of paint and a few different brushes.

They were only told not to kill each other as they were led in.

V2 had walked up to one of the blank canvases and took in what he was given to work with. There was red, blue, and yellow paint.

V1 had walked up beside him and picked up the red paint before clenching its hand into a fist, splashing red over the two of them.

V2 backed away and cursed, the red paint physically did nothing to him but V1’s right hand was covered in the red coloring.

“What the fuck did you do that for?” V2 watched V1 turn its hand over a few times, probably wondering why it wasn't being absorbed into its plating.

“It's paint, dumbass, you're not getting fuel from it.” V1 turned to him before looking back at its arm. V2 decided to take pity, walking up and taking the remains of the tube from the blue robot, “It's used to create pictures-” V2 looked up and barely managed to dodge the fist V1 had thrown at him with its left hand.

He jumped back and stared at the prototype, “I'm trying to help you here. We don't have weapons, and we were told not to kill each other “

V1 pointedly stared at his Knuckleblaster anyway.

V2 sighed before walking around V1 and back towards the canvases, its gaze following him the entire time. He took a brush from one of the offset tables and dipped it in what was left of the red paint tube, “Watch” he told the blue model.

He raised the brush and streaked a line of red across its white surface.

V1 just stood there.

V2 resisted the urge to sigh again and held the brush out for V1 to take, “Now you try.”

V1 looked at the brush, looked at him, looked at its arm, and then looked at the canvas.

It then punched the canvas with its red covered arm.

What the fuck was wrong with this thing?

And then it looked at him and raised its fist.

V2 took a cautionary step back, “Don't you dare.”

To his surprise, V1 lowered its fist and then stared at the canvas it had destroyed before staring at the other colors it hadn't touched yet.

V1 picked up the blue paint, slowly like V2 might've stopped it, and looked like it was about to open it the normal way when it had just stopped.

It looked at him.

He didn't like where this was going.

V1 promptly charged at V2, slamming a hand onto his chassis. He hit the ground and thought he felt something running down his chest. Oh, this thing was going to kill him this time, wasn't it?

after a few seconds he realized that the scientists hadn't rushed in and he could see V1 standing over him just watching.

He wasn't dead.

He got up and looked at where he'd been hit and-

“Did you just cover me in blue paint?” V2 looked at the blue bot who nodded once, the broken tube of blue paint hanging simply in its hands.

V2 calmly got up, walked over to where he last had the red paint, and grabbed it before turning to V1.

The smaller bot looked at the red paint.

He stared at it.

Then he attacked.

—

Ms. Cooper had the great idea to set this up just to see if either robot could have creativity. Her hopes had quickly dwindled when she saw V1 punch through the canvas.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Ally asked. She was one of the newer testers and had a slight look of terror on her face when the war machine had acted.

It was skittish towards V2, almost having punched him in the optic for having gotten too close.

“We wait and see, neither are damaged yet.” Ms. Cooper said. "We'll interfere if something happens.

She watched as V2 demonstrated how to use a paintbrush before holding it put, “Now you try.” At least he was being patient with it despite seeming irritated at both it and its behavior.

V1 had taken the blue paint, hesitated for a second and then launched towards V2.

Some of the scientists yelped or jolted but they waited for her command to do anything.

V1 got up and stood over the red machine, almost like it was admiring its own work.

V2 was laying on the ground, optic closed, for a few seconds before he realized he hadn't been injured.

Holden, one of V1’s handlers, had gasped, “Did it…?”

“Did you just cover me in paint?” They heard V2’s voice say, stunned.

They watched as the blue bot nodded once.

Somebody in the back tried to hold back a laugh.

They watched as V2 got up, grabbed the destroyed red paint, and promptly lunged at V1 who dashed out of the way with its blue in hand.

A couple of the scientists started laughing.

This certainly wasn't what she was expecting, nor was it anywhere what she had wanted the two machines to do, but it was better than watching them tear each other to shreds.

The room went quiet when V2 had finally managed to mark V1.

They had both paused.

V1 looked down and saw the three fingered hand print on its chassis.

“How do you like it, huh?” V2 challenged, both hands on his hips, staring down at the smaller bot.

V1 took its paint, covered a hand with it, and face palmed V2 right on the optic. The taller bot let out a yell that sounded like, “Cheater!” and the battle started again.

Most of the scientists, including Ms. Cooper, were all dissolving into fits of giggles.

Alright, it was time to end this experiment.

Chapter Text

V1 watched as Mr. Markov poked and prodded at pieces of its code and outer plating. It could feel his ever rising annoyance as he failed to find whatever he wanted out of it.

It had acted out of its usual directive and had done something different. Mr. Markov must've wanted to figure out why. Sure, the company seemed to want it to be peaceful for some reason, but they also wanted it to be as violent as possible whenever the opportunity called for it.

Though that didn't answer his questions.

The man finally seemed to give up, slamming his laptop closed and leaning back in his chair.

“I just don't get it.” He said to himself, “This thing has only ever shown signs of bloodlust.” He spun around a few times in his chair and just stared at it for a few seconds.

It was laying, strapped and pinned, to a table in one of the maintenance rooms.

V1 itself hadn't even known why it did what it did. Why take paint and have some strange battle that just ended up in it getting blasted with pressurised water? It wouldn't have even moved from its spot by that doorway had it known it would have to get hit with the hose of all things.

It and V2 had stood still as the different testers had sprayed them with water.

“This is all your fault, you know that right?” V2 had asked it, drenched in water.

V1 had nodded and had gotten water flicked at its optic by the taller V model. V2 sighed when it didn't do anything in retaliation.

What was the use of sighing anyway? The action was just a waste of time and fuel if V1 had anything to input.

And now it was being prodded at like usual.

The time was near midnight, and most if not all of the scientists would have left the facility to the janitors by now. It knew well enough that Mr. Markov stayed much later than he should on account of work he needed to do.

V1 stared at the scientist back.

He put his head into both of his hands before opening the laptop again and started typing. It wasn't long before it got a direct comm from the scientist.

Scientist_D.Markov_Handler < V1_CommConnect_True
Connecting_to_Computer150…
Connected

D.Markov: What was your directive during the most recent test.

Unit_Vmodel1: This unit was to not kill Unit_Vmodel2.

D.Markov: Did you have any secondary directive.

Unit_Vmodel1: Avoid retaliation from Unit_Vmodel2.

V1 watched Mr. Markov sigh again and type something else.

D.Markov: Was there a directive in the time period between the two mentioned?

V1 went searching through its files but found nothing. So it searched deeper, there had to be something. Something had to have told it to…

To what? Attack? It hadn't attacked, but it had attacked. it had lunged as an attack but without the intent to harm; at least not as much as it usually did. V2 had scratched his back on the floor of the testing room but that was more collateral damage than something dealt directly from it.

It had attacked. It had landed its hit. No damage was dealt. It didn't classify as an attack.

It had tried to be annoying.

That was no surprise, it annoyed the scientists enough just by existing sometimes. But this was different.

It had wanted to be annoying.

Withholding information was a form of lying, but it wasn't lying if it had said no because it truly had no directive in its actions towards V2. If it were to say it in simpler terms, it had just wanted to be Had been a little shit. There was just no programmed directive for that scenario.

Unit_Vmodel1: No.

Markov cursed again and started packing everything up. Looks like he was done for the morning.

—

V2 hadn't even known his prototype for two days and it was already pissing him off. Wasn't he programmed to be patient with people? Did the scientists forget to knock, ‘Be nice to the other blood filled and hungry robots’ into his head?

The thing was also silent. Unnervingly silent for how talkative he himself was.

Though, V2 supposed that just worked for it in the long run. It can't make any noise and whatever enemies it was to face wouldn't hear it until it got too close.

It was early, 4am. He was just stationed there in his little dingy room until the scientists got back. He was allowed to move around as long as he didn't leave the room, but pacing around in a circle had gotten really boring really fast.

A thought popped into his head that seemed stupid enough to actually work.

V2 paused where he was pacing, it was boring but he still did it, and opened up the text program built into him for any self repairs.

Unit_Vmodel2 < RequestAction_to_M.Cooper.
.
.
.
RequestAction_True
Connecting_to_network…
Connected

M.Cooper: It is 4 in the morning, this better be worth it.

Unit_Vmodel2:Theoretically, if I had wanted to create a text channel like this but for me and the prototype, would it be possible?

M.Cooper: Theoretically, all you would have to do is send a request to the unit.

Unit_Vmodel2: Would that be alright?

M. Cooper: I would see no reason not to. We will be able to see whatever you would say to each other and as long as it wasn't too terrible it would be fine.

Unit_Vmodel2: Theoretically.

M. Cooper: Theoretically.

Connection Terminated.

V2 sighed at himself. Why the hell would he want to talk to that lousy prototype anyway? For all he knew it couldn't even communicate at all. He would just be wasting his time.

He started pacing the room again but stopped when he realized that repetitive motion made it seem like the world was still shifting even after he stopped moving. He'd have to mention that in the morning.

He wasn't really wasting his time if he wasn't really doing anything, though, was he?

…

V2 finally caved and opened up his command window again. He might not have liked V1 but but he seemed to not like being alone more. He tried A command.

Unit_Vmodel2 < RequestAction_to_Unit_Vmodel1

There, the prototype’s call name couldn't have been too different from his own.

After a minute V2 went to put in something different. Maybe he should have asked what to actually put in before leaving like that.

He then stopped when he realized that the connection had actually gone through and he could actually do anything about it now.

Unit_Vmodel1: This Unit requires to know why you are contacting it.

V2 inwardly cringed, was that really how it talked?

Unit_Vmodel2: I got bored.

Unit_Vmodel1: You got ‘bored’.

Unit_Vmodel2: Yes.

A few seconds had passed. Was it going to respond or what?

Unit_Vmodel2: V1

Another few minutes passed. The connection hadn't been terminated so he knew it was still connected. Was it ignoring him?
Unit_Vmodel2: V1

Unit_Vmodel2: V1

Unit_Vmodel2: Oh god damnit.

Unit_Vmodel2: Alright fine, I have an actual question.

Unit_Vmodel1: Continue

Unit_Vmodel2: How long have you been in the works?

Unit_Vmodel1: This unit has been functional for 3 years 7 months. My programming functional for 5 years before that.

Unit_Vmodel2: You were made for war right?

Unit_Vmodel1: Affirmative.

Unit_Vmodel2: No wonder they're gonna try to ‘rehabilitate’ you.

Unit_Vmodel1: Explain.

Unit_Vmodel2: They put a lot of work into you for you to be thrown into the closet and forgotten.

Unit_Vmodel1: This unit has that information, elaborate.

Unit_Vmodel2: I was made for the New Peace. Now that the war's over they don't want their hard work to go unseen.

Unit_Vmodel1: That what?

Unit_Vmodel2: The New Peace. That's why all the scientists started making me in the first place. I'm going to be a guardian for the people.

Unit_Vmodel2: I woke up in maintenance room 40 to most of the workers in the room and cheered as some guy on the TV spoke about how the opposing robots were moving back.

Unit_Vmodel2: Did you not know?

V2 eventually just closed the text when he realized that V1 had just stopped responding, but that didn't matter now that he began to hear the far off sounds off footsteps.

His door opened and he was greeted by Elana, who had told him what was supposed to happen today.

Today he was going to test out more of his battle capabilities against V1. Great, now that pest couldn't ignore him. If it wanted to be annoying than he would be annoying to it right back, might as well play the part of little brother.

Eugh, little brother. If he could gag, he would have.

Chapter Text

There was no longer a war.

That… explained a few things.

It explained nearly everything.

V1 sat in its station, that was the only thing it could do, and thought.

That was why V2 had been made, why V1 had been replaced. There was no longer a need for it other than training V2 for whatever the humans had wanted from him.

V1 isn’t needed anymore.

The years of testing, refining code, calibrations, time.

Hours had been spent perfecting its senses. It had flinched once on that table, the scalpel having cut something vital it was coded to protect, and suddenly the scientists had had the bright idea to make it receptive to pain. The weeks after that were weird and something V1 couldn’t look through because of the corruption caused by the testing that followed.

The first few weeks of its arrival were just like V2’s. The scientists liked it and it had liked most of the scientists.

Then the novelty wore off. That was when the real testing had started.

Seeing how it reacted to different temperatures, watching as the blood inside of it froze or boiled and marking down how they could fix it whenever they had the time, stress testing joints and bonds, testing its reactions to certain stimuli.

It tried to forget when the scientists had locked it into a room with no light, noise, and most importantly no fuel for hours. It had attacked the scientist sent to retrieve it and had almost killed the guy. It should have aimed for the head.

The scientists would soon do this to V2 after the initial weeks.

Most likely not to the same extent that V1 had been tested, as V2 could have only been built with V1’s data, but it would have to go through whatever the scientists thought was beneficial to the production of the V series.

It was snapped out of its thought by somebody opening the door to its ‘room’.

It was turned on, and brought out of its room to come face to face (optic to optic) to V2 and his current handler.

The two humans had started talking up front about today’s plan while the two V models walked next to each other behind them.

V2 had remained quiet until they were dropped off in the room with the same instruction of, ‘Don’t kill each other.’

They had holo weapons, Marksmans, but V1 could deal.

“So,” V2 started, hands on his hips, “What wisdom have you to share, oh wise one.” It could practically feel his sarcasm.

V1 gripped its gun and jumped backwards, firing while it landed.

V2 got hit once on the chest and jumped back before firing back.

In the text box V2 had made, V1 sent the words, ‘Always be on guard.’ towards its successor before charging towards him with breakneck speed. V2 had blocked its attack and retaliated with his own Knuckleblaster which had gotten parried by V1 sending the both of them sprawling back.

“How do you even do that?” V2 pointed at it, “You sent my punch back at me; If anything, teach me how to do that.”

V1 fired a shot that would have severed a fuel tube on V2’s side, causing him to look down in disgust. The bullets in the holo room could do nothing to either of them, but they still got notified when they got hit.

‘A secret,’ It responded as V2 jumped towards it again. V1 side stepped his attack and pushed him to the floor before he could do anything else.

V2 stayed on the floor for 5 whole seconds before he got up, “Are you actually going to show me something or are you just going to keep knocking me into the floor whenever we fight?”

V1 noticed the way V2’s joints creaked as he stood. It noticed the twitch in his arms as he raised his gun again and the way his optic flickered slightly.

Additional testing would not be optional for its successor.

‘The novelty of your arrival will wear off soon,’ It sent.

“Is that supposed to be some sort of threat?” He asked, “What, you're jealous I'm taking your spot as top V model, now? Took you a minute old timer.”

V1 froze. It was not old compared to any of the humans here.

‘70% chance that more intense tests will commence for you; 90% more likely now that I'm taking in your current condition,’ V1 replied, ‘The previous statement was not a threat.’

V2 scoffed and lowered his weapon, “No shit. There's going to be testing until I’m released into the public. How about you show me something I don't know now so that I can get something out of this little play fight.”

V1 held up its gun and pressed a button on the side of it. A coin was dispensed and V1 held it out to V2 like he was stupid.

V1 just looked at V2 as it flicked the coin and hit it in midair, the bullet ricochet off of the bullet and hit V2 at a higher velocity than normal right at the base of his neck.

He jumped back and stared at his predecessor, “You sure that's something you can actually teach me?”

V1 nodded, ‘Push the button on your Marksman.’

—

V2 groaned as he missed the coin again. V1 had taken to throwing them up in the air for him while he tried his best to hit the small targets. When he did hit one nothing had happened.

‘You have to account for the angle of the coin when it is hit,’ V1 had sent to him and he shot at it for the information.

They were both sitting next to each other against a nearby wall.

“You know,” V2 missed another coin, “Why don’t I teach you how to talk like a normal person.”

‘This unit does not require that information nor does it consider how you talk to be normal,’ V2 watched as V1 flicked up another golden coin.

Another miss, and V2 groaned, “I’m talking about that. “This Unit”; at least use the first person.”

Another flick, ‘Using first person is not necessary.’

“How about this, It’s less characters to mentally type out,” V2 hit the next coin and watched as the bullet hit a corner of the room, “Just think of the efficiency.”

‘This unit using first person would signify that it has a sense of self. It does not,’ V2 didn’t even try to hit the coin flipped into the air.

“Define ‘sense of self’,” V2 fired at the next target. The repetitive motion of talking and firing was something akin to soothing.

‘Your sense of self refers to your perception of the collection of characteristics that define you. Personality traits, abilities, likes and dislikes. This Unit does not have any of the aforementioned traits.’

The room went silent for a whole thirty seconds.

V2 thought back to his previous encounters with V1.

“Annoying.”

V1 turned to it, ‘Elaborate’

V2 jabbed it in the chest, “You’re annoying. That’s a personality trait.”

‘Is not.’

“Is too.”

‘Not.’

“You’re proving my point.”

V1 went radio silent and V2 knew that he had won. V1 threw up two coins this time and watched as V2 struggled to shoot even one.

‘I will consider it,’ V1 finally sent.

“Good,” V2 shot the next coin, his aim was slowly drifting the bullets towards V1 which was his overall goal. He then realized what his predecessor had wrote and turned to it, “Wait a minute.”

V1 stared at him back and threw another coin, ‘Efficiency.’

V2 watched as the coin fell and when the angle was just right he had shot it. He practically watched in slow motion as the bullet hit V1 directly in its optic. A split second later and V1 was on its feet, staring down at V2.

V2 whooped as V1 sat back down, “I hit it!”

Someone had walked in not long after that signaling the end of the test.

Image made by yours truly.

Chapter Text

V2 was led into one of the maintenance rooms. He’d been expecting it, but by now he’d gotten used to the routine of having to deal with his predecessor.

It'd only been a week and he was already used to having that thing around. He could technically message it, but he didn’t think he could deal with it’s smartassery while he was trying to focus on whatever the scientists wanted him to do.

V2 had been placed onto a table and pinned down so that he couldn’t move. His arms and legs splayed out, his wings having been taken off to save space and to presumably be worked on.

“Alright, V2,” An assistant by the name of John had said, “Today we’re starting on testing your senses. Mostly touch but a few others such as sight and most possibly smell if we can make that work. V1 has something akin to it, just being able to tell what chemicals are in the air.”

V2 nodded as he saw more people come into the room, a few of them wearing armor and holding weapons. Scientists were hooking up cables and tubes into his chassis, turning on computers, and checking things off of lists.

V2 took in the organized chaos, “So I’ll be able to feel?” V2 hadn’t been able to feel in the traditional sense. He knew where he was in a room and knew where everything else was in the room so that he could avoid it if possible.

John nodded and poked a pencil into his wrist joint and a warning popped up mentioning the intrusion, “You can’t feel this in the traditional sense, correct? You can only know that something is intruding around this area?”

V2 nodded.

“We’ve discovered, while testing V1, that having to read a warning and then react to that warning is slower than just reacting. You’ll still get the warning of course, but you’ll react before having to read it.”

“Efficiency,” V2 replied.

John snapped, “Efficiency! You’ll need to be on for this process so that we can gauge your reactions to certain stimuli.” He then walked off and started talking to the scientists nearest the computers who pressed a button.

V2 immediately got a signal from that computer and it was automatically accepted. The world seemed to freeze for a second as things loaded.

V2 froze.

He could feel nothing.

It was a different kind of nothing, though. Somehow V2 knew it even without there being some kind of indicator to tell him that it was.

“Alright,” John said to the whole team, “We might be here for a few hours, but luckily we do have code to reference when things get a bit difficult.” He turned to V2, “You ready, V2?”

V2 could have no other answer than, “I suppose so.”

Nothing much happened for the first few hours.

V2 had laid there as the scientists touched different parts of his chassis, asking him for his reactions and mentioning how this kind of test was much easier when the recipient could actually tell them what they felt. It was actually quite anticlimactic.

The sensations, weird as they were, were far off at first. Felt far away from where they were supposed to be, or maybe it was normal, and all he could do was tell the people working on him what he felt and where.

After that, they had unlocked his arms from the table and turned off his optic. He was told to touch where he was feeling and did as he was told.

When he felt something touch his left arm, he touched his left arm. He heard scientists groan in disappointment before he felt something change and the cycle repeated.

Then something seemed to click into place. He felt a tap on his right knee, left arm, and chest. He touched them in the same order and he heard the scientists all sigh in relief. His optic was turned on and he could finally see the tired but happy expressions on their faces.

He could feel... It didn’t feel entirely right, but there was bound to be something a little off.

Overall, V2 thought it went quite well but it still wasn’t all that the scientists had wanted to do.

A few people got switched out, he got strapped back onto the table, and something else happened.

The scientists had gotten noticeably, suddenly, much quieter.

He felt something be added to the code and suddenly everything felt off again.

And then he felt something stabbing into his shoulder blade. He tried to move away as the nearest personnel prodded in that space in between his shoulder blade and joint.

“Hey! What was that?” V2 said to the scientist.

“That,” John said, “was pain; possibly. We don’t exactly know how it works for you or your… twin, but it seems to give you the same reactions someone may have when faced with the feeling. We’ll just be working on your responses, possibly toning down some settings and before you know it, it’ll all be done with. All we have to do is finish up your wings and attach those later for additional testing.”

V2 practically yelped as something scratched down his plating, small rivulets of blood pooling out before his chassis could fix the damage. Pinpricks of a feeling abused his new senses, he wanted to get away from this.

What was this, why did it feel like this, did V1 have to go through this?

“I don’t think I want to do this anymore, isn’t it enough to just feel?” V2 sounded desperate.

John looked at him with a confused glare, “V2, you aren’t supposed to ‘want’.”

V2 felt pain, almost nothing but, as he tried to jerk away from the poking and prodding scientists. He had to get away.

Fuck efficiency, he wanted this to stop.

He wanted to run.

He had to fight.

He needed to get out of these bonds.

He-

He flinched as a gunshot rang out, almost everybody did.

The guard stood there next to the doorway, gun pointed towards the floor, and suddenly V2 understood why they were there.

He couldn’t do anything.

—

Unit_Vmodel2: What does pain feel like to you?

V1 looked at the message and thought about it for a second. Talking to V2 was probably more entertaining than what it was supposed to be doing right now.

Unit_Vmodel1: Painful.

Unit_Vmodel2: I don’t want to deal with your bullshit.

Unit_Vmodel1: Stabbing. Pins and needles being pushed against my chassis. Other times it is a radiating feeling. Heat.

Unit_Vmodel2: How long did it take for the scientists to get it right?

Unit_Vmodel1: Years. Though for you it should only take a few hours; a day at most.

Unit_Vmodel2: That’s too long.

Unit_Vmodel2: You had to deal with this for years?

Unit_Vmodel1: That is what you are doing.

Unit_Vmodel2: Yes.

Unit_Vmodel1: The scientists have something to use as reference this time. The probability that testing will be over within the day is 98.54%.

Unit_Vmodel2: Is this you trying to be reassuring?

Unit_Vmodel1: I am currently being held in my chambers and being forced to watch videos of people living in the new peace.

Unit_Vmodel1: I have nothing better to do.

Unit_Vmodel2: Yeah…

Unit_Vmodel2: Glad to see you’re still sticking to the first person.

Unit_Vmodel1: I will make sure to reference “This Unit” when you are back at least once.

Unit_Vmodel2: If you do, I'll shoot you.

Unit_Vmodel1: Bullets do nothing while in the testing rooms.

Unit_Vmodel2: I’ll punch you then.

Unit_Vmodel1: I would like to see you try.

V1 had waited for a response, anything to drag its attention away from the cheesy and irritating videos that it had been forced to watch. Some romance movie that must’ve been an hour or two long and some other clips and pictures of people living with their families.

Someone had connected it to a laptop, shoved the video feed into its visuals, made sure it couldn’t be closed by V1, and had left. It had been hours.

It had been right, though. V2 had started the testing that the scientists seemed to enjoy the most.

Unit_Vmodel2: This fuckin’ sucks. I can feel everything they’re doing. I think someone’s hands are sticky?

Unit_Vmodel1: You should tell them.

Unit_Vmodel2: They turned off my voice box. One of the scientists complained that I was making too much noise.

Unit_Vmodel2: Apparently they got annoyed when I made the appropriate pain response. And now because of that I am effectively mute. How do you deal with this?

Unit_Vmodel1: I have never had a voice box and there had never been a need for one. An Emotionless War Machine does not need the ability to talk.

Unit_Vmodel2: Huh. That kind of sucks.

Unit_Vmodel2: What kind of videos are you watching anyway?

Unit_Vmodel1: It was a mix between videos and short stories but now it is a movie.

Unit_Vmodel2: Tell me?

V1 knew that V2 was only trying to distract himself. It was something that V1 could have used while it was going through those same tests, so it talked about the plot and characters.

During the middle of some different cheesy Christmas movie; one where the female protagonist works in an office, gets forced to move into the middle of nowhere, crashes, and gets saved by a cowboy of sorts who actually knows her from before, but then there’s a different hotter cowboy ; the door to V1’s room opened and it had to turn all of its attention towards the one who had put these movies on in the first place.

They unplugged the laptop from it, turned, and left without a word.

They just stole the movie. While it was still playing.

The cheesy movie that V1 hadn’t even really been paying attention to except to tell V2 about the plot.

…

Now neither of them would know the ending.

How Dare.

Unit_Vmodel2: V1? What, is the movie buffering now?

Unit_Vmodel1: No. Someone came and took the laptop that was being used as my server.

Unit_Vmodel1: Now we’ll never know if Amanda will get with Jacob or Tom.

Unit_Vmodel2: My bet’s on Jacob.

Unit_Vmodel1: Tom.

Unit_Vmodel2: Jacob is her childhood friend, though. Tom is just some guy who saved her.

Unit_Vmodel1: Exactly. He is impressive.

Unit_Vmodel2: Jacob’s known her longer.

Unit_Vmodel1: Tom looks more appealing.

Unit_Vmodel2: Yeah well I can’t actually see what's happening.

Unit_Vmodel1: That’s a ‘You Problem’.

A minute passed.

Unit_Vmodel2: I think I'm lagging a little.

Unit_Vmodel1: The data input is most likely the cause.

Unit_Vmodel2: Are you sure this won’t go on forever?

Unit_Vmodel1: It should not go on for much longer. You can gauge it from the expressions the scientists have.

—

V2 drearily looked across the room, taking in the different expressions that seemed to be plastered on the different workers.

It felt like all the energy in him was gone, spent on trying to focus on every little thing on the room. He felt tired.

The scientists looked somewhat tired, somewhat expressionless. They were the dull types of emotions that people wore when they wanted to go home.

Unit_Vmodel2: Tired. Bored maybe, a few look guilty.

Unit_Vmodel1: They must be new.

Unit_Vmodel2: …

Unit_Vmodel1: An hour more. Maybe less if you’re lucky.

Almost an hour later of pain and somewhat distracting conversation with his predecessor later and it had seemed to prove true.

V2 hardly felt, wasn’t the whole point of this to get him to feel, the straps come off of his arms and legs. He’d been told to get up and he couldn’t do anything else as he felt his wing blades reattached on his back.

Once they were fully connected he quickly righted them so that they wouldn’t touch each other.

They were cold, unnaturally so, and every time they clinked together in the few seconds it took to get them back on was practically torture.

He was told that his sense of touch would calibrate on its own after this. Adjust itself to better fit how he moved.

He’d also been told that after another week of getting used to his new sense of touch, he would be shown off to the public along with V1.

Be was then dropped off in his little room to refuel. He hadn’t even realized that his fuel had dropped below 30%. Usually some kind of warning went off after that, then again there had been plenty of warnings during those 15 hours.

He just stood there.

Unit_Vmodel1: It will be better for you to shut down. Reboot your systems.

Unit_Vmodel2: Why talk?

Unit_Vmodel2: You could have just ignored me, but you responded, why?

Unit_Vmodel1: I had nothing better to do.

Unit_Vmodel2: Yeah, you said that.

V2 finally managed to make it into his refuel station and went to power down.

Unit_Vmodel2: For what it’s worth to the ‘Emotionless War Machine.’

Unit_Vmodel2: Thanks.

Chapter Text

"So, you have any ideas about where we're going?"

V1 and V2 were both sitting in the tail gate of a heavy duty truck.

Why?

V1 didn't know, and didn't need to know..

All of its attention was currently on the rising and falling hills outside that were occasionally indented with marks from the war.

The hill was spotted with grass and flowers, newly formed from the remnants of what V1 was made for. The sky was a bright shade of blue instead of the red it had always been shown during training.

There were people out in these fields who were picking up shells and remnants of robots that had been slaughtered while doing what they were made for.

V1 almost wished it was one of those robots that had perished in battle instead of never having lived it.

It might have accepted that it was being replaced, but it couldn't help but feel something akin to disdain as it looked out towards the slowly healing battle front that it itself could have been a part of.

It felt the breeze on its plating.

It wanted to fight.

"I bet we're going out to have a picnic," V2 himself was doing the same thing that V1 was, just looking out towards the slowly healing Earth.

V1 felt V2's gaze on it as it just looked out towards the humans that were fixing what was broken.

"Oh, how about this, we're going to an old folks home to truly test just how patient we are," V2 said, "I bet you'd fail, you're pretty impatient."

V1 turned its gaze towards V2, 'I can be patient.'

"Oh! How about this? We're being taken to a place where we'll be looked at by more scientists," V2 raised both of his hands and shook them a little, raising his wing blades for the effect, "Doesn't that sound amazing?"

If V1 could have squinted, it would have, 'What are you doing?'

Its successor looked out to where V1 was looking and crossed his arms, "I don't know what you're seeing out there, but you've been looking at it for a while."

'I have never been outside before this. The simulations within the facility painted a very different picture,' V1 remembered torched land, no green or blue to be seen. A red sky and black land replacing what was supposed to be there.

"Yeah, it does look nice, doesn't it?" V2 stayed on his side of the truck, if he moved to the side V1 was on he could very well tip it over, but he looked out towards the sprawling hills.

There was life.

It looked significantly better than the simulations it was thrown into.

'I suppose it does.'

---

Both of them had perked up when buildings started popping up and the truck moved onto a more solid road. V1 itself was glad that the truck had stopped bumping so much.

The truck pulled up to a building, much bigger than the others nearby, and V1 watched as Ms. Cooper, Mr. Markov, and the two other guards got out of the truck.

V1 had jumped out nimbly without a sound and watched as V2 hit the ground with an audible thud.

Not only was V2 taller, but he was heavier and bulkier. V1 forcibly realized that only a few days ago when they were given ropes as weapons for a test. V1 had easily been pulled up into the air by its successor while V1 could only pull itself towards the heavier model.

"Alright, boys," Ms. Cooper said, taking a clipboard from Mr. Markov, "We're not quite showing you off to the public, but I want you both to be on your best behavior for what's coming up."

"If either of you fuck this up, you're getting turned into scrap metal," Mr. Markov pointed at the both of them with a pen, "We can't keep working on this project if the people up top deem you worthless."

So that's what this was. A show and tell so that they could get sponsors.

They had both been told to follow their orders and had followed the four people into the large building.

V1 saw V2 looking around almost excitedly, taking in all the new information. Neither of them had been anywhere other than where they were made, so any sort of new information was welcome.

V1 still took note of how V2 looked away from some of the brighter lights, kept his wing blades from touching one another, how he hardly touched anything. The effects were still there.

The group had made it to a receptionists desk and had been told that they were a little early and had to wait. They had all been directed into another room where other people were either sat down or pacing nervously.

V1 could feel people looking at it and V2 as they walked in and followed the scientist and guards to a spot of abandoned chairs where they all sat. V1 and V2 simply stood nearby.

"Is it just me or are people staring at us?" V2 asked and V1 nodded while it took in the expressions of the various persons around it.

People were curious.

V1 was also curious, staring right back at them. It got a sense of satisfaction as someone looked away in slight panic when it looked at them.

The people in this building also seemed to have robots of their own following them.

V1 saw a purple drone floating behind one person, another person was holding what looked to be a robotic pet, someone had a briefcase, someone else had a brown humanoid robot behind them that had some strange pack on its back. 

I t heard whispers.

"What do you think we're doing here?" V2 quietly asked.

'I know as much as you.'

A door on the other side of the room opened and someone walked out before someone else called for their group.

Chapter Text

There was one man sitting at a desk in the middle of the room. He was wearing a black suit, looked tired like most of the people V2 got to see, and he wasn’t old but his hair was gray at the edges. There were scars along every piece of skin that V2 could see.

The office, what V2 thought was an office, looked nice. There was one wall of windows looking out towards the hills that himself and V1 had been looking at just moments before, potted plants against the walls, and a few pictures on the desk itself and the walls.

“How are you all on this fine day?” The man asked.

“We’re all doing well,” Ms. Cooper said.

The man had then gotten up and walked around the table before shaking both of the scientists hands and walking over to V2.

V2 paused as the man held out his hand, “You’re V2, correct? It’s very nice to see you in person.”

“Yes,” V2 shook the other man's hand, “And you are?”

“The name’s Robert,” Robert then offered his hand to V1, who had been standing next to V2, “It’s nice to see you again, V1.”

V1 simply stared at Robert.

V2 nudged V1 in its shoulder and it jerked its head towards him before taking Robert’s hand and shaking it once.

‘You know this guy?’ V2 sent.

‘Apparently,’ V1 sends back.

Robert then pats V1 on the shoulder and looks towards Mr. Markov, “You’ve done a great job on these two; last time I saw this one it was nothing but a pile of scrap on a table and organs in a testing tube. I commemorate you, Markov.”

Well, that explained that.

Markov nodded, “With introductions out of the way, we would like to start our presentation.”

The man laughed, “Presentation?”

“That’s what we’re doing, correct?” Markov looked towards Ms. Cooper who simply shrugged.

Robert walked back around to his table and sat down, “You've already sent us your presentation and it has already been looked over multiple times, our team over here found it very interesting."

“If you don't mind me asking," Ms. Cooper said, "Why did you ask for us to come here if you already have all of our information?"

"We want to conduct our own test. Put V2 onto a live field. A trial period for what is most likely to come."

"Trail period?" Markov muttered.

"Yes! For A few days at most, and before we sign over anything monetary to your company, we would like to see if what we're investing in can actually do his job," Robert nodded to V2, "There are still machines out there, glitches and broken, who are still fighting this nonexistent war, A protector is much needed and we need to make sure he lives up to the title."

There was silence as the two scientists looked at each other.

Markov took a deep breath, "Why have us bring both of the V-models?"

"In your presentation, you mentioned the possible rehabilitation of V1."

"Yes, we did."

"I would like for it to join in on this trial period."

V2 looked over to the smaller model and saw its wings flare up almost in surprise. He couldn't even blame it because he was sure that his own wing blades had done the same.

"You would like for them to work together?" Ms. Cooper asked.

Robert leaned forward, sitting up straighter than he had been, "That's correct." He was staring at V2 and V1 with a stern expression, "What do you two think about it?"

He'll get to do his job. He'll get to see people, if only for a few days, and help them. He'll get to be outside again.

V2 froze where he stood and watched as V1 gave a slow thumbs up. V2 didn't know what to respond so he just followed his predecessors lead.

A smile, A kind one, bloomed on the mans face, "Excellent, I will see to it that you both get your spots on the roster."

---

V1 and V2 were sitting next to each other in some sort of basement filled with other robots. Most likely ones that had gotten the same offer as them.

'What just happened?' V1 sent. 

V2 looked at the smaller model and with a sarcastic tone said, "From what I gathered, we're going to that picnic."

He laughed as V1 shook its head.

Chapter Text

V1 and V2 were brought deeper down into the building along with other machines that were sprinkled about.

The strangest machine that V1 saw in the room looked like a retired guttertank; most of the machines in the room looked like retired war machines.

V1 had taken a seat next to V2, who was busy looking around at all of the different machines in the room.

A group of people had walked into the room after the last of the machines had been brought in, taking all of the different machines measurements and looking through bits of code.

Somebody standing in front of V1 had stuck a pen into one of its joints and V1 flinched back, making a sort of hissing noise as it did so. It may not have a voice box to use, but it had gears it could grind together as a warning when it needed.

It saw V2 look at it in surprise as the guy in front of him went to do the same thing.

V1 flicked out one of its left wing blades and knocked the pen out of that man's hand, also knocking a surprised yelp from the man as he shook his hand out.

V2 quickly looked back at the guy doing his measurements and started apologizing for V1’s behavior, going to grab the pen for the person before sitting down again.

The person measuring V1 had grabbed one of its outstretched blades and pulled it out so that it was straight, stretching the tubing that ran blood to that respective wing and sending a jolt of pain down its spine as the tube threatened to detach.

He ran his hand along the bottom side of the blade, which V1 hated the feeling of, so it decided to take its chance and push the wing down ever so slightly. They were called blades for a reason.

He yelped and practically threw his hand into his chest.

The guy measuring V2 startled, “The hell did you do?”

“The feathers are sharp,” The man held out his hand and V1 felt a sense of pride as a line of red started appearing.

“It’s a blade,” The other guy said, “we were told they’re sharp. Go patch your hand back together. I've got it from here.”

V1 settled its wings against its back and watched as V2 got measured.

‘You did that on purpose, didn’t you?’ V2 sent as he poked V1’s shoulder.

‘Why would you ever think that?’ V1 batted his hand away before crossing its own hands.

It heard V2 scoff, ‘‘No sense of self,’ my ass.’

V2 stood up and the man took his full height. He then took the clipboard the other guy had been using, reading over the little bit of information that was there.

“Looks like he just had the wings and standing height left…” The man looked past the clipboard and to V1, “Can you spread your wings?”

V1 just sat there, glaring at the man.

“Please?”

It felt a slight nudge come from V2 so it opened up its wings to be measured. The ordeal was over in a few minutes and V1 watched as the man walked off with his new information.

They had gotten their strength tested, turns out V2 is proportionately stronger than V1; all of the machines had gotten lined up for a speed test with V1 being the fastest; next was a mercy test.

V1 had only spared the hamster placed into its hands because it didn’t need fuel at the time. The fact that the hamster nuzzled into its hand before flattening itself into a pancake played no part in V1’s decision to spare the little creature placed into its grasp.

V2 had taken the little creature next, scratching its little head before handing it back to the human.

The machine that came after V2 had already seemed twitchy, but now it was looking around even more sporadically than it had been during the whole line of tests.

It was vaguely humanoid with grey metal and darker accents along its body. The second the machine had been handed the hamster it crushed it in its hands and brought the dripping blood up to its eyes.

V1 stared at the remnants while the scientists tased that robot and dragged it out of the room.

V2 had flinched back from the robot as it was dragged out.

The test continued with a different small animal.

—

Out of the twenty or so machines that had been in the room at the start of the day, there were now four left.

V2 and V1, a machine called a street cleaner, and a gutter tank look alike.

One of the human helpers, whose name was Jamie, was standing in front of the machines with a clipboard in hand.

“As you’ve all probably figured out, today was just to get readings on some of what you’re capable of just in case we got faulty information from your makers,” He started, “Tomorrow we’ll send a few of you off for singular protection and group protection. On the last few days of the week, you’ll all work together in a city guard.

“Singular protection is having a singular charge, group protection is having two to four in your care, and city guard is exactly what it sounds like. You will all be hooked up to the city's main connections for that last assignment.”

“I have question,” The gutter tank look alike said in a thick Russian accent. V2 wondered how robots could have accents. Maybe the original voice actor was Russian?

“Uhm… go ahead.”

“When will we get weapons?”

V2 saw V1 perk at the mention of weapons when Jamie spoke, “You won’t- Not until you get shipped out for your assignments. Even then we can’t give you anything big for, you know, safety reasons.” He heard V1’s wings clack against each other as they fell limp again.

In a high pitched, slightly annoying voice, the street cleaner pointed at V2, “What about V2’s arm? It’s practically a shotgun.”

“It’s built into me,” V2 said, “You have a flame thrower built into you.”

The street cleaner paused for a second before nodding, “Yeah. Fair enough.”

V2 took note of Jamie, a confused and slightly worried expression slowly blooming on his face. He probably hadn’t expected the machines to talk to one another.

“I have gun I use, but is not built into me,” The ‘Gutter Tank” said and turned to Jamie, “I will get back, yes?”

Jamie nodded.

“Is good, what does little bot have?” The “Gutter Tank” nudged a hand towards V1.

In comparison to the other three bots in the room, V1 was by far the shortest. The Russian machine was the tallest followed by V2, Street Cleaner, and lastly V1.

V1 held up its left arm and the “Gutter Tank” nodded, “Is nice.”

Jamie then cleared his throat, bringing the attention back to himself, “Right. After every assignment we give you, you’ll return here for refuel and maintenance. You will each be stationed in the same room for one hour before lights off.

“It’s fairly late, so we’ll take you to that room for the rest of the day, you aren’t permitted to leave the room until we come and get you,” Jamie turned towards one of the doors that the machines had yet to go through before motioning for them to follow.

Jamie had walked them through a few different hallways and doors and had shoved them into a decently sized room before closing the overly large door.

There were four stations for each of the machines on one wall and a table with some boxes on it on the other.

“Do you guys have names?” The Street Cleaner asked in its high pitched voice. It was walking over to the table, looking at a few of the different boxes, “Mine’s Spritz. You know, we could probably play a few games of cards!”

“My handler names me Barrage,” The “Gutter Tank” said, walking up to the table and doing the same as Spritz, “What are ‘cards’?”

Spritz then holds up a brick of… paper.

V2 got in a little closer, standing next to Barrage as Spritz held the object out for the other two, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen those before.”

Spritz practically gasped, “You’ve never-?! What kind of handlers do you guys have? Have you never had enrichment?”

V2 was already getting the sense that Spritz was dramatic.

“Have shot at things, is fun,” Barrage took the cards from Spritz’s hands, “Thin pieces of paper do not look as fun.”

V2 saw V1 nod its head out of the corner of his eye.

Spritz reached up and took the cards back, “When you use them right they can be fun. Here, how about I teach you all to play Go-Fish?”

Spritz had then had the machines take spots around the table and dealt out seven cards each while explaining the rules.

V1 couldn't ask what cards the rest of them had, so it just held out what it was asking for to the respective robot.

The Street Cleaner had won the first round only because it already knew how to play. The second round had turned out much different with V2 getting a good hand and already having half of his cards gone in the first few minutes.

V1 had won the third round and it looked like it was laughing when Barrage threw down his cards to be collected while he crossed his arms.

“You know, you two never answered my question before,” Spritz said during the fourth round, “You guys have names?”

V2 looked up as he picked up another card, “I’m just V2, and it’s just V1.”

Barrage too a card from V1, “Those names are not names. Are titles.”

“There’s nothing wrong with titles, plus we’re used to it; any 3's?" He looked over to Spritz.

He saw Spritz shrug and hand over a card, “Yeah, at least it isn’t something too long like my designation. ‘Strt.Clnr.0.56’. Way too long to say casually.”

Barrage made a laughing noise, “Gutter_Tank18V.90.”

V2 straightened, “You’re actually a Gutter Tank?”

“Revamped. Smaller, lighter, no coffin on back. Different coding, organs for the blood, all of that. Bulkier for protection.”

V2 nodded.

The game had continued on for a few more minutes until the lights had suddenly gone out, leaving the two V-models as the only light sources.

“Welp,” Spritz said, “Seems like it's that time already.”

V2 saw Barrage walking off in the direction of the refuel stations, “I wish you all good night.”

V2 himself nodded as he and V1 made his way over and plugged themselves in.

Then it went truly dark as the machines all shut down for the night.

Chapter Text

WARNING

Fuel / 15%

SEEK REFUEL

low power mode activated

V1 jolted up from where it was stationed. How could it be low on fuel when it had shut down somewhere where it would be fed while it slept?

The room was dark, just as it had been when the four of them had shut down, but something was different.

It knows that when it had shut down, there had been the sound of running air vents and the distant sounds of footsteps of workers V1 had yet to see.

It snapped its fingers next to its audio receptors and heard nothing.

Right, low power mode. The function itself was supposed to be reworked once it was on the battlefield; having no sense of hearing made getting killed a lot easier.

It also became uncomfortably aware of that fact it couldn't feel the cold steel of the ground beneath its own feet as it stood looking straight ahead.

There was a bright flash of blue light and V1 looked over to see it's successor struggling on the floor beneath the machine that had identified itself as Barrage the afternoon before. Spritz was also there most likely trying to pull the bulky machine off of V2.

WARNING

Fuel / 14%

REFUEL.

Blood. 

A source of it was right there.

V1 practically launched itself towards the small group and it swore it saw V2's optic widen in surprise. Or panic, V1 couldn't quite tell.

Barrage was thrown into his side by the force of its attack.

Blood.

V1 ripped the red plating from the bigger machines chest, and it almost wished it could hear the way the metal groaned when it did so. It felt the splash of blood on its plating as it tore its hands into the now exposed machine.

Blood.

The larger machine grabbed and scratched at V1's plating as it slowly gained its senses back. It could hear the splashes of his blood as V1 tore deeper and deeper. The feeling of blood splattering on its plating was almost addictive.

It only stopped when the blood stopped absorbing into its plating.

"Hey! V2, C'mon, wake up!" The high pitched voice of the street cleaner was finally audible over everything else.

V1 turned around where it kneel, taking in the scene in front of it.

V2's lights were flashing blue, what V1 had to bet was his warning color. V1's own was a dark orange. Spritz was sat in front of V2, shaking his shoulders as it called out.

There were gashes covering V2's front plating, blood practically falling out from where it was stored before it could fix any damages.

V2 wasn't moving.

Without any input from its own systems, V1 walked over to V2. 

It knew V2 couldn't absorb blood like it could, but if it also knew that there was a place on his back that V2 took in fuel. V1 itself thought that it would be inefficient for battle, not being able to take in fuel while fighting, but V2 wasn't made for war, was he.

V1 flipped V2 over with little fan fair, watching as Spritz jumped back from the two. 

The only way V2 was going to get fuel right now was if one of the machines in the room offered their own supply. Spritz most likely didn't have any, and V1 had just received plenty.

V1 took the Knuckleblaster and cut one of its own wrist veins before dripping the fuel into the now opened fuel cap on V2's back.

After a minute or two of silence the blood had stopped flowing and V1 was stuck as a stable 60%  of fuel left.

"You killed him," Spritz was stuck looking at where Barrage lay, "I mean- he was attacking your... Friend, but. He was just looking for fuel."

A low groan came from V2, "Yeah, fuel that was already being used." 

V1 watched as V2 sat up. The scratches were already almost gone, but it could tell that V2 wasn't completely fixed up on the inside quite yet.

"It's just. I didn't expect him to... He wasn't supposed to attack anything."

The lights overhead flickered on as a team of armored people walked in, followed closely by one of the workers of the building.

"Good job, you three, you passed the final test."

The three of them stared from their spots on the floor. V1 was going to kill this guy if he didn't give an explanation in the next five seconds.

"Test?" V2 asked as he got up, "What kind of test was this?"

The guards raised their guns and V2 backed down as the worker spoke up, "How you'd act in a low fuel environment. We can't have machines made for the New Peace hurting people because they're running a little low."

V1 watched as Barrage was dragged out of the room in pieces and felt something almost like satisfaction as it realized how much it damage it had done with its bare hands.

"Now, head back to your docking stations, they should be operational."

Going to board meetings had to be one of the single most boring things that Ms. Cooper had to ever do. 

This one was slightly more interesting, however. Mostly because of just how outrageous it sounded.

"Hell is a living entity. Hell exists," The chairmen of their firm said, several scientists and mechanics sitting around the table.

The table was completely quiet.

"From what we've heard, it was why our enemies in the East recalled their forces," He continued, "After all, what was the point of dying in war if you were just going to end up in Hell."

Someone from the other side of the table sighed, "What does that mean Heaven exists, too? Satan, God?"

The chairman turned on the screen at the end of the table, the image being of what looked like the outside, "We've gotten both images and recordings." He pressed another button and a video started.

Music was playing, soft but almost wrong. In another language, someone started talking. 

"Exploration 1," subtitles read, "We've been planning this excursion for weeks now,"

Whoever was holding the camera tried walking out of the perceived path and almost ran into a wall, "The walls are made of screens. We've found speakers playing bird sounds and the trees are fake."

There was a statue in the middle of the room, yellow orb held close to its chest. It was looking down into the fountain it was stationed on. "There have been statues in every room, they might be there for decoration."

The camera turned away for a second and when it was faced back onto the statue it was no longer faced directly into the fountain, but towards whoever was holding the camera, "What in the-"

The video cut off right as the statue moved.

"What the Hell was that?" Somebody asked.

"That," The Chairman said, "was Limbo. Hell's own purgatory."

"How do we know the footage wasn't faked?" Ms. Cooper asked, "Whoever sent us this was against us just a few months ago, why trust them?"

"Because an entrance to Hell was spotted not too far from here. Our own team saw and experienced the same thing, but far more... Graphically."

"Why are you telling us this now?" The man next to her questioned.

"Because we're soon going to go down ourselves."

Chapter Text

Standing in front of V2 was a child.

Her name was registered in his database as Charlie Van Toor. She was five years old, blond, and wearing a small pink dress.

V2 had just kind of stared at this small little girl as the people escorting him talked with Charlie's father. From what V2 could gather, Charlie had a habit of running off and all V2 needed to do was stand by her door to make sure she didn't leave her room to run off.

He supposed that it gave him time to think.

But, standing in front of an ornately decorated door and staring at the paintings that lined the hallway, V2 was starting to get bored. He wasn't even supposed to get bored while doing the very thing he was made for, was he?

His optic found another painting to look at as he thought back to early this morning. There was nothing better to do, so he might as well.

He remembers the feeling of blunt force tearing through his chassis and quickly stops.

There were bright rays of sunshine streaming in through the tall windows, speckled of dust floating by on a practically nonexistent stream of wind. The soft sound of someone playing music reverberated through the gold tinted hallway and V2 listened. 

It wasn't a song more than someone practicing slow melodies on the piano while someone else with a violin followed along best they could when they wanted to, but it sounded pleasing nonetheless.

The owners of this house were certainly better set than most, that was something V2 recognised the second he had stepped foot into the residence. A family of four lived here; a mother, a father, and two daughters. The youngest was who he was looking after, the eldest child was most likely a teenager from the few seconds he ad seen of her. V2 didn't have any data on the parents except for what they looked like.

The entire family was well dressed and proper.

V2 watched what seamed to be a maid rush by him without a glance in his direction, she was scared.

He was knocked out of his sight seeing by the door to Charlie's room opening ever to slightly. He turned his head to see the bright, practically hazel, eyes of Charlie staring right at him.

She squinted at him before retreating back into her room and closing the door.

Huh.

He heard rustling come from the room before everything went quiet. V2 had paid it no mind until he heard the quiet sliding of an opening window.

V2 had been told to stay outside of her room unless she was in danger so he stayed outside of the room while listening intently. 

There was no sound coming from the room.

He hadn't acknowledged it until now, but there had been a constant sound of rustling the entire time he had been standing there, and now there was nothing.

He waited for another few minutes.

Nothing. Not even the sound of breathing could be heard.

... She couldn't have climbed out the window, could she? Her room was on the second floor, a fall from that height to that small of a person...

V2 opened the door.

Shit.

He'd been told that she liked to escape from her room, to try and go wherever she had wanted to before being caught. 

He sees tied together sheets and cloth running down an open window and curses to himself as he looks outside the window to see nothing but a makeshift waving rope.

Shit.

He was about to vault himself out of the window, to catch Charlie before she made any distance before he heard the quietest of giggles.

V2 froze.

Ah, he knew what this was, now.

There was only three places she could have hid: under the bed, in the closet, or in the slightly open toy box.

"I wonder..." V2 said towards the room, slightly louder than he usually would have, "Where could the escapee have possible gone?"

More silent giggles came from the toy box.

He slowly made his was towards the colorfully painted wooden box. It was at the foot of the bed, so he slowly sat down, "Could she be in here?" He knocked on the box once as he said it.

A silent whisper of, "no" came from Charlie.

He looked around the room and spotted a small table set up with a play tea set. Multiple small dolls had been seated around the table.

Now that he was properly looking around the room, he noticed how pink it was. Truly a child's room.

"A pity. I was hoping to invite dear Charlie to a tea party," V2 let out inaudible sigh, "Do you think you could leave a message for her, little box?"

The lid to the box had suddenly opened and Charlie popped up and looked at V2, "I am Charlie Van Toor, not a box." 

He laughed, "My apologies, Charlie."

She hopped out of the small box and made her way over to the small tea table and fake poured tea into a small plastic cup, "Jellie has been rather lonely lately."

V2 took the small cup as Charlie practically dragged him over to that small table, "Who's Jellie?"

Charlie latter the head of a small dog plush and that was how V2 found himself partaking in a tea party for the evening.

Ok. This was apparently happening.

V1 took in the small boy hiding behind the leg of his father.

The people escorting V1 had very quickly installed some sort of buffer that allowed longer lasting fuel, and a very basic face recognition software into its systems before bringing it here. The only thing that it could tell was different was the fact that more than just the name of the person he was looking at had popped up.

Harley Smith was the child's name. He was eight years old.

Why the fuck would a parent allow their child to be watched over by a possibly dangerous prototype?

Probably because it wasn't just being watched over by a retired war machine, but also two other well armed guards.

At least those people had enough foresight to not let V1 alone with a defenseless child.

Would it really hurt a small child, though?

All had been going... Well.

V1 had been stationed outside of the child's room, left with only the environment to entertain it. And the guards that were stood nearby as well, but watching them flinch as it moved had gotten old fast.

The parents had then brought the child to a park.

People had given the group strange looks, but V1 didn't really care as it stood under an old oak watching as the kid ran around the park with a few different children.

At least the grass felt soft and the sun was warm.

V1 simply watched.

It looked through the files it was given on the family as they all walked back to what was practically a mansion.

The Smith's were important, and had only agreed to the offer because they were being sent death threats by an anonymous source.

V1 was stood by the child's room again.

It had stood there for a few hours until it head something come from the room. 

Quick shuffling.

Harley had been moving before, but it hadn't sounded as frantic.

V1 heard a cut off yelp and had jerked up, going to open the door as the guards reacted.

A shot range out and there was a loud muffled scream as V1 felt hot radiating pain run through its abdomen. One of the guards had shot it. 

It hadn't been unexpected.

V1 opened the door and took in the sight of two figures standing in the scarcely decorated room. One figure was Harley, and the other was an unknown who was trying to hold a rag over Harvey's mouth.

It jumped forward, yanking the child away from the mans grasp as it tackled him to the ground. It had pulled the weapon it had been given out of its wing and pressed it against the now weeping mans head.

"V1! Halt!" It looked back at the guards with just its head, keeping the rest of its body locked in place.

Both guards were holding up their weapons and Harley was hiding behind the both of them with misty eyes.

The guards told it to get up, so it reluctantly put its weapon away and got off of the man who had been crying out to god to anyone to help him. Lucky bastard.

The guards rushed toward as it stepped back.

One guard had stayed behind as the other took the man out of the house.

The parents were crying as they embraced their child. V1 had been stationed inside of the dining room, watching as Harley drew on the large table.

Right before it was scheduled to leave, Harley had ran up to V1 and had practically shoved a piece of paper into its hand before running off somewhere else.

It opened the small piece of paper and stared at the contents.

A little stick figure with brown hair holding hands with a taller blue figure with yellow protrusions coming from its back. It had one yellow eye upturned in a smile. A black clad figure was laying on the ground a little behind the two standing figures, laying in a puddle of blood. The words 'Thank you.' Above both of the figures.

...

It put the note into a spare wing as it was taken out of the house.

V2 listened to Spritz as it chatted to the two V-models. Apparently it had been put out into the street's just to do its job of burning corpses and trash along with a few other cleaning models that had been admitted to the company.

V2 told the other two about how he'd practically attended a tea party and about how the guards had acted when they didn't see him next to the door. They'd ran in, guns held high, to Charlie tying little bows around his arms and head. He'd almost felt sorry to undo all of her hard work.

V1 had been staring at a picture the entire time, occasionally nodding.

Eventually, Spritz had the courage to ask.

V1 handed the picture over and V2 had looked over Spirit's shoulder to get a good look.

Before V2 could ask any questions, V1 had taken the picture back and shoved it into one of its lower wings.

Chapter Text

Well. This was new.

For once, when called for, He does not answer.

He had not even answer to short down the absolutely ridiculous suggestions made in an attempt to rouse.

It had grown boring.

Though, there were supposedly no rules now. Nothing to stop those half made fantasies made by a being created out of spite from becoming fully fledged reality.

What if.

Only the souls of the damned were to ever fall down, but what if?

It would be so easy for an entrance into the depths to be made, to create a tunnel going down. So easy to call forth to those damned souls in a damned war who were already heading down no matter what they did. Why not let them come down a little sooner than planned?

All of this had been broadcasted Up, and still He does not answer. Could he no longer care? Could he have grown tired of answering calls and suggestions. Could he have gone?

Oh, now that was a thought.

Perhaps He was gone.

The first to make their way down had been made of flesh, wearing the marks of a human soldier and wielding guns made of freshly produced metal. 

Doors had been closed around him, beings had been thrown at him until even his lowly pistol could protect him no longer.

His horror was invigorating.

It was new.

It was entertaining.

It was short to last.

After he'd lost so much blood, gotten too tired, he had just died without any flair. Well, that wasn't entertaining at all, it had almost been sad to watch as he cried at a photo only because the entertainment was no longer available.

Knelt in front of the mural of an Angel, crying to a god who no longer answered.

How poetic.

One entrance was not enough, so more had been made.

Humans were slaughtered by the husks and demons below and all that was felt was a dull sense of restlessness. These people never fought back.

Machines wondered in ever so rarely and they were where the real fun was held. But their blood would run thin, their joints would break, the sands of Greed would melt them to their core before anything could ever truly happen.

Terminals had been made. Weapons had been offered.

The children had been so excited to be remade. To be offered a place where they could watch through the eyes of their maker and judge the souls of the damned as they fought.

They loved the entertainment as well.

Occasionally, they sang for those that they liked. There was no purpose in it.

A group of... Explorers had come down shortly after. 

The children never sang for them.

The group had been killed while admiring the falsity of Limbo and despite that, more had arrived.

They had started building.

Perhaps this could be a new form of entertainment.

V2 had expected something else. A feeling of belonging, or being where he was meant to be.

All that he had gotten was befuddlement at some of the adults he had to watch over, boredom of having to stand in one place for too long, and time to sit and think. It was hard to stand still at times, hard to not want to run off and do something.

As it turns out, he couldn't even communicate with V1 because of the distance between their locations.

In the few times something had happened, he had been too panicked to even notice it until it was over and the intruder had been taken out and away from the family he was protecting.

At least the children had been nice. They always got curious about why he was there and had started showing him things because, according to his database, that was just how kids were.

Maybe it was just the people he was watching over making what he was made to do so difficult to even want to do.

He was supposed to like anybody he was protecting.

Maybe he was the problem.

A particularly string gust of ice cold wind had almost sent him falling to his left.

Right, it had been snowing, having started only a few hours ago. Hard, too. V2 had to turn up his heaters just to stay warm while standing in front of the entrance gates to the city.

Both he and V1 had finally made it to the end of the week and were now standing guard at the entrance to a nearby city. Four gates in total, two guards at each, always monitored.

V2 looked over to V1, who was standing a distance away, wings tucked closely to its back as it surveyed for any arriving cars and the rare person that had passed by before quickly running off as they realized just who had been standing guard.

Two other human guards, both heavily armed, were stationed in a nearby room, monitoring cameras and keeping eyes on the two V-models.

They had just been standing together, the two of them, watching.

It had been quiet.

Too quiet.

A blast of cold hit him square in the side of his head and he jumped back away from the direction of the hit and glared at the culprit who was standing like nothing had happened.

V1 made a whistling noise with its gears and turned to look out into the valley, placing both of its arms behind its back, wings slightly flared out as if in pride.

Oh, that fucker.

It could talk all it wanted about not having wants or a personality but V2 knew that hitting him with snow had not been necessary. It was something V2 had noticed recently; V1 had been getting friendlier, it was different than the V1 he had met just a month or two ago in the labs.

V2 picked up a handful of snow, almost deciding against it when he felt how cold it was, and hurled it towards V1.

It shuddered and jumped back as the snowball hit its shoulder. With one of the arms it had behind its back, it threw the retaliation it already had pre-made, jumping back with its wings fully flared.

V2 himself flared his wings, slowly reaching towards the ground to pick up a fresh handful of snow, "This is a dangerous battle you've started."

He swore he saw V1 shoulders raise as it prepared to throw another snowball.

V2 lurched down and picked up and handful of snow before throwing it, setting off the battle of the decades.

At one point, V1 had tried to punch back one of V2's attacks and it had just ended in V1 getting covered in a fine powdering of snow as it panicked about V2's next attack.

V2 had the upper hand.

This wasn't quite a fight, but this was one of the only times that V2 had the upper hand.

V2 hit his Knuckleblaster into a snow drift and had blasted snow up into the air, leaving both him and V1 blinded.

V2 ran to where V1 had been last and had slammed a figure into the snow, laughing the whole while.

"Huh. You know, I get why you seem to like winning, this is pretty nice," V2 was sat on a metal chest, blue hands scrabbling at the snow. He made sure to keep a majority of his weight on his feet so that he didn't crush his predecessor.

V1 gave up and flopped into the snow in defeat as the snow cleared enough for them to see past their hands.

V2 laughed, "How do you like it? The feeling of loss. Is it as sour as I know it to be?" A handful of snow was tossed into his eye and that just made him laugh harder.

He felt two hands on his side and only had a moment to consider what it meant as he was shoved off of V1 and into the snow.

He saw V1 stand up while shaking snow off of itself and decided to do the same.

V2 froze when he saw one of the guards standing nearby. The guard shook his head before heading back inside.

V1  took a step towards their posts before it just fell face first into the snow.

Huh?

"You didn't get hurt, somehow, did you?" He walked over to the older model, kneeling next to it as it pulled its arms underneath itself to get back up.

It must've slipped because its optic was right back into the snow in a few seconds, 'It's a little colder than I thought.' V2 snickered at the message.

"Yeah. Below freezing is a little cold," V2 watched as it failed to get up again and offered a hand, "You need help?"

It looked up before taking V2's hand. He stood the both of them up and noted how cold V1's hands were. Too cold for either V-model, "Are your heaters messed up, or something? You're colder than you should be."

V1 dusted itself off again and V2 heard an audible creek, 'No. I don't have thick plating, can't keep in heat as well.'

He glared at V1. Ice was stuck to its plating and joints, snow that it hadn't swiped away was just sitting there, and V2 could hear overworked heaters trying to keep precious fuel warm, "No wonder I managed to beat you, you're freezing."

'I wasn't made for cold temperatures.'

"So that's why you threw a snowball at me," V2 pulled V1 by its arm out of the open field and started dragging it back to their somewhat covered posts, "Because that would help keep you warm."

'Nobody was coming around and I just thought of something that was more efficient than standing around waiting for nothing. Humans do not like to travel in cold weather,' It reluctantly let itself be pulled along.

V2 looked back at V1, "Are you telling me you were bored?"

'I was cold and moving around would keep me warmer than standing around.'

He pushed V1 to sit down against a nearby wall and sat next to it, "Yeah, you were bored."

'Optimization.'

"You could have easily just walked around in a circle."

V1 went silent as it curled it's limbs toward itself. Its head popped up and it looked towards V2, 'You let me.'

"Hey! Don't put the blame on me. You're the one who started the whole thing."

A minute passed as the two machines sat next to each other.

"I was bored, too."

He saw V1 look at him out of the corner of his optic and nod before it returned to looking down at itself, probably trying to protect its head from the wind.

A guard came out soon after, telling the bots they could come inside until the next day and how the snow had piled up too much for anybody to come around anyway.

Just one more day of this.

Chapter Text

It was calm outside.

The snow storm had left, leaving a perfectly flat field in its wake. There were no birds, no trees, just a white blanket of snow.

It was pretty.

It was also still cold enough that standing out in the snow made the hydraulics in V1's joints freeze up if it wasn't careful. After an hour or so, the cold would start to be too much to bear.

People would drive by, V2 would check to make sure they had everything they needed while V1 made sure there wasn't any contraband in the persons trunk and backseat, and then they would drive off.

V1 had spotted a few colorfully wrapped gifts and when scanned, all they held were strange looking toys or little robotic gadgets.

Other than that, nothing else happened.

It didn't know if it expected anything to happen or not, but anything was better than sitting around in the cold. Even still, it kept an eye out for any rouge machines that may still be wondering around. 

It heard people talk about recent attacks, cities being invaded with handfuls of blood thirsty robots that had appeared out of nowhere. The chances of that happening now and here were low, but not zero.

The sun was setting now, purples and pinks, blues and blacks all melding together and fading into clouds. If only it could stay out and watch as the sun sank under the horizon.

'This is not necessary,' V1 sent as V2 practically pushed it towards one of the overhangs.

"You said it yourself, you freeze when it gets cold and your heaters are shit," They both took a spot next to the wall and close enough to the door so that the guards could let them in when the gate closed, "I don't want to deal with a V1 ice cube."

'We should be leaving soon, there's no reason for this.' Even as V1 argued, it still sat down against the wall, close to an outgoing vent.

V2 went quiet as he took his spot next to his predecessor, "What do you think will happen when we get back?"

That caught V1 off guard, 'More tests, more training, and then you'll likely be sent out into the world.'

There was a quiet thinking sound as V2 tapped his fingers against his knee, "What about you?"

'What about me?'

"I don't..." V2 trailed off, "You're 'training' me, right? That's what your current objective is aside from trying to be nice to people?

Well, when it was put like that, 'Yes.'

"What happens when I know everything I need to about combat? Are you just going to be sent out to be sold, kept somewhere until further notice, scrapped if something happens?" 

'What brought this on?'

V2 leaned back against the wall, arms limp at his sides, as he shrugged.

V1 poked its siblings arm, 'You're worried.'

It felt its hand get swatted away, "I'm not worried for your dumbass, I was just wondering."

V1 nodded to itself and was about to send something when it heard footsteps. 

The guards were nowhere near the door, neither it or V2 were moving that much, and it could see nobody nearby. 

V2 must've also heard it because he was sitting up straight now, too, shining light anywhere it could reach.

The footsteps were heavy, making muted scrapping sounds between each and every step.

Both machines got up and walked into the snow, weapons drawn.

Blue and orange light reflected off of the snow, lighting up the area in a mix of colors. Neither machine could see anything.

Crunching snow, scrapping metal. 

There wasn't even a second to react as V2 was sent down right in front of its eye. A tall yellow figure over him as they struggled. V1 would have helped had it not been tackled to the ground as well.

They were being attacked by machines.

V1 struggled to keep the sword away from its optic, using its feedbacker as a shield of sorts as the much taller machine on top of it tried to cut it in half. 

It threw the taller machine off of itself and jumped back, readying its weapon to fire.

It stalled at the sight of more machines making their way into the gate, climbing over each other to get at the fuel inside.

It shouldn't have stalled.

It shouldn't have watched their struggling.

It shouldn't have let its guard down.

Several things happened in those few milliseconds.

The sword from the tall machine had been thrown with devastating accuracy, the machine itself running towards V1. V1 had stopped to watch, making a choice it knew was bad while in battle. It's fuel lines had been severed as it was once again knocked to the ground.

It had happened so fast.

Claws tore through thin metal and blood dripped into the snow, its gun had been knocked from its hands. If only it hadn't hesitated.

Why had it stopped.

Static laid into its vision, warnings overtaking anything it could still see.

It didn't want to die.

All it felt was pain. 

It didn't want to die.

All it could see was the darker yellow of the machine that had knocked it down.

I don't want to die.

I don't want to die.

Help. 

I don't want to die.

I don't wan

V2 fought with everything he had. His durable plating was something he was ever grateful for as multiple machines tried to scratch his plating open in a search for bloodfuel.

Reinforcements had arrived, thanks to the guards stationed with them.

Multiple had still been killed, however.

All of the old war machines had been dispatched by either V2 or the reinforcement.

He saw no sign of V1.

He could hardly hear his own thoughts over the sailing of sirens and the leaking of his own blood hitting the frozen snow.

He startled at a hand touching his shoulder and quickly turned around to see Cooper.

She had immediately started fretting over him, saying something about having no idea something pike this would've happened while he was stationed there 

He and Markov locked eyes and neither said anything as Cooper dragged him towards the truck.

"We were planning on brining you guys back yesterday, but something happened and we were forced to stay in. We didn't think that one more day would be..." She stopped talking as V2 sat on the tail gate. If V2 really thought about it, she sounded like a fretting mother.

Markov shoved his way into the one sided conversation, "Where's V1."

V2 simply shrugged.

Markov then walked over to the passenger seat of the truck and pulled out a tablet, "Lets go."

That made sense, one or both of them having trackers wouldn't be unnecessary.

They walked around officers as they took apart the broken machines to be thrown away. V2 would have gagged at the sight of torn muscle and metal if he could've even if he had done a fraction of that damage.

There were only 10 or so machines. But numbers hardly ment anything when they were all made for war.

He almost bumped into Markov when he stopped and flinched back as Markov threw the tablet into the snow, yelling out a curse as Cooper gasped.

Laying in a pool of its own blood was V1.

Its middle was scratched open, tubes and wires scattered around it and falling out of it. Its neck looked almost ripped from its body, its wings were sprawled out in different painful looking positions.

He could just stare.

He had to drag V1 back. It wasn't that heavy.

Cooper said the team could fix it.

Markov scoffed something about money in response.

V2 could just stare.

He could feel the dried blood on his plating and it made him want to crawl out of his own metallic skin.

He could feel his brothers blood on his hands and chest from when he had to carry them back.

He sat in the backseat as Markov drove.

Chapter Text

There was a millisecond of blinding pain before it had woken up somewhere else entirely. 

It was somewhere dark. It couldn't hear anything.

Then it all hit at once.

V1 had died.

V1 had gotten distracted.

V1 had gotten sloppy.

It supposed there was an irony in what had happened. The first thing it had told V2 was to always be on guard, and the thing that had gotten it killed was letting its guard down.

It had died.

V1 didn't... It didn't like that at all. It had made a mistake, if nobody had grabbed it and brought it back it would still be...

It would still be floating in that nothingness.

It was almost like waiting. Waiting for what, it didn't know, and it felt like it would be better off not knowing what it was waiting for at all.

 Though, it wasn't there. V1 couldn't feel anything while it was there, but here? It could feel the harsh texture of wood digging into its in plating.

It couldn't move, it couldn't do anything, but it was awake.

They had boxed it and left it to rot.

It was so dark.

It tried to send out a message, anything, but all that came back were errors. Nobody was there.

It was alone.

V2 had been surprised to learn that the project had been canceled. 

He was allowed to wonder the facility as he pleased, watching as the people worked on small purple drones.

It was lonely.

The drones, when finished, flew around and bothered him. They never responded to him, being unable to talk. At least they looked somewhat... Cute.

He'd been turned into a guard, roaming the halls and looking out for anyone who made their way inside when they shouldn't have.

He still had the company of the workers, but they never really talked with him about anything.

At least he was alive.

He wonders sometimes what would happen had he been the one laying in the snow, bleeding over himself.

He stood next to the entrance door to the facility and realised nothing much would have changed.

He stands there for a long time.

Chapter Text

He'd gotten used to the routine by now. 

Wake up, station himself near the entrance elevator, occasionally talk with the few personnel that stop by, watch the lights turn off, and then search the facility where he is able before going to refuel.

V2 knew that searching was hopeless. If anything, it was just something he did to pass the time before people started walking the halls again. 

The drones would follow him around like lost animals a few times and he never had the heart to shoo them off, letting them float around the new areas he shown them during his nightly walks.

As time went by, and he watched more and more little drones get made, the more that feeling of dread seemed to bubble up. 

He was called in a few times to help the drones with target practice. 

He wonders if this was how V1 felt when he was made. Replaced.

V2 was still a protector, yes, but what would happen when there was no more use for him?

Two years passed with the same routine. V2 knew every nook and cranny of the halls he walked through, knew all the little secret paths the mechanics took to get to places faster, knew where every room was. He knew the most recent gossip from overhearing conversations said right in front of him, the schedules of every employee, and other stuff that would be considered much too unimportant.

Most of the original team that had created him had either been fired or left, from what he could tell. Only a few remained and they hardly ever looked at him and when they did they had these looks of guilt that he couldn't quite find a reason for.

He would stare right back at them and they would flee.

V2 wondered when he too would eventually be sent away. Shoved into a box, scrapped to make more drones, or maybe the fuel would stop flowing through his station and he would wake up starved and unable to move.

He wondered what it would have been like had he done something better. Beaten V1 just once, fought harder against those machines, been more something. 

He couldn't go back and change it now, though.

Machines came down even more frequently than they used to. Sometimes they were broken and battered on the outside, other times it was on the inside they were broken.

Sometimes they came in groups alone with the humans who called themselves their handlers. It was... Unforgivable how those machines were treated.

Mankind had given their creations souls, and they had yet to even know it. 

Their calls were heard. They probably didn't even know it themselves that they had souls, nor that their calls for help were to be answered.

It started with one. An experiment as those scientists liked to say. The very same scientists that had grown as boring as all the other had.  

The Terminals gave it a weapon, a choice, and the machine had taken it.

The human lay dead at its feet and it seemed to come to a revelation as he kneel at the body, sucking up the still fresh blood.

The words, 'I'm free' rang loud and clear through its soul. And then it seemed to weep. 

It was left alone for now, a sweet reprieve from what was to come.

Plans had been stalled as the machine straightened, 'I should go back. I should save others.'

Oh?

Now that was an idea. 

This machine could bring more down with it after it freed its siblings, and then...

Humanity was never much liked by those underneath. More souls to be dragged down below as the machines liberated themselves from mankind's steel grasp.

A win-win so to speak. Hell would get more souls to play with, and machines could fight back from the hand that weight them down. A much higher chance for the machines to come down and play, should that happen.

The machine was allowed to leave.

Its return was awaited.

He read the news from computers that had been left on by forgetful scientists.

V2 hadn't meant to trespass but the large words of, 'Machine kind fighting back??' on top of the article caught his attention more than he would like to admit.

He slowly walked into the room and sat himself on the chair, grabbed the mouse and scrolled down.

     'A family of three has been found dead in their suburban home this morning after their neighbors heard something suspicious during the night and called a non emergency number. The police made their way into the home and found the family sitting on their couch. 

     'After the investigation, it was concluded that their household cleaner robot that they had had for years was the one to kill the family. There is now an ongoing search for this machine statewide, if you or a member of you family have seen...'

V2 stopped reading and scrolled further, seeing that the date of the article was from yesterday. 

There were more articles.

'Family of four found dead at the hands of machines?', 'Multiple reports of people found dead. Machine kind to blame?', 'Machine spotted in public park, feeding from registered owner.'

V2 closed the browser and turned off the computer before making his way back out to the hallway.

Was all of that real? 

He stood next to the elevator as more people came in and out. The few coming in gave him wary looks and tried to keep their gazes away as they made their way into the main part of the facility.

He startled when the alarm went off. His systems automatically registered the alarm as the one used for rogue machines that wondered anywhere close.

He heard people scream as they scrambled to hide, getting under their desks or running to more secure rooms.

V2 tried his best to get people to calm down but whenever he made he way close, they screamed even louder and attempted to hit him.

Alright, he wasn't helping. He made his way back to the elevator and a loud clanging sound came from the closed doors. The facility was suddenly much quieter.

He heard the drones make their way behind them, there had to be 20 in total at his back as he faced the elevator, fists raised. He wished he had weapons, but he wouldn't risk leaving to find any.

The clanging stopped, and he watched in silence.

He got flung back as the doors practically exploded from their place, hitting him and nearly crushing him against a wall.

A few of the drones had been dragged with him, and he saw nothing but little piles of scrap and blood as he shoved the door off of himself.

He noticed that the machine was distracted with the small purple drones and went to get the few people in this hallway out of here before they were killed.

A drone or two must've noticed, as they nudged people out from under their tables and towards V2 has he made his way in between cubicles, grabbing anyone he saw.

V2 didn't have any weapons, he couldn't fight, so he did the next best thing and started leading the humans quickly down the hallway and down to the only door that was out of the way and sturdy enough to hold should it be hit with a blow like that.

He led the scientists down to the storage room he himself hadn't been able to enter.

One of the humans quickly opened it and the people flooded in.

He followed and closed the door behind him.

The door was locked and they were all stuffed into the large space.

The two drones that had followed him whirred sadly as they meandered about the room.

25 people had followed him.

More people worked her than that, many more.

He made his way towards the person that had opened the door. "I'm making my way back out," V2 said, and he watched the scientist startle, "There are more people than this here today, I'm going to go find them."

The door was opened again and he was followed by the two drones as he made his way to where the employees worked, he couldn't stand around and let them die to the hands of a machine.

It was so dark.

How was it even alive.

It had been so long.

There was a figure right at the edge of its vision that appeared a few months into this darkness and hadn't left. It was almost like the figure knew it couldn't turn its head, staying just out of sight.

V1 didn't know if the voices it heard were real or not.

It had heard of delusion, of people seeing and nearing things that weren't there, but that was just for people. Machines had never been recorded to be able to experience such thing.

It was all fake.

It felt a blade sever its wires, gloved hands poking and prodding.

It was all fake.

Blood dripped out of its torso and onto the snow, it was so cold.

It was optimal temperature, it was inside of a box.

The temperature was rising and the blood inside of it was boiling up and up, threatening to spill right out of the pores on its plating at it scratched at the padded walls of the testing room.

It was in a box.

V1 didn't know how long it had been here.

It would've startled at the noise of rushing footfall and the smelling closed of a steel door if it could move.

All was silent for a moment before it heard a familiar voice, "I'm making my way back out."

V2?

So its sibling was alright. 

V2 was functional.

V1 shouldn't take its delusions, because that's the only thing it could think to call them, get to the better of it. 

Voices overlapped with each other as they started panicking. 

Its box was jolted over to one side as something bumped into it...

It was falling down.

The box hit the ground and the vibrations made their way up V1's body like some unwanted parasite.

Had V1 just been moved or was it just imagining things again.

"Shit! Don't touch that!" It heard a feminine voice call out, one that it remembered.

Someone yelped, "Why?! It's not a bomb or something is it?"

"No- just don't touch it."

Another voice it recognised hummed, "We could turn it back on. It might be able to protect us, it was pretty decent at that before it got shut down." Someone must have kicked the box and V1 felt it rattle.

"It's been here for so long without blood and you think it's still functional?" Someone else said.

"Excuse me for asking, but what is 'it'?" An unfamiliar voice.

There was a minute of silence, "V1."

"And if its violent?"

"Wasn't it made to be a war machine?"

"Maybe don't."

"We need all the protection we can get, though."

Multiple voices started talking at once and it was almost overwhelming. It lost track of the conversation and V1 felt something touch the back again.

Light filtered into the box and it saw the faces of both people it knew and people it did not.

One of them grimaced, "It's very dusty."

"You opened it?!" Someone else called from across the room.

"We'll need all the protection we can get if all of this will keep happening!" They yelled back.

There was blood right in front of it, and as the humans talked it was reminded of how hungry it had gotten while trapped in this box.

V1 was at a dwindling 7% and it only dropped faster as it was forced to see everything around it.

It couldn't move.

5% as they continued talking.

It needed fuel.

It didn't want to die again.

It didn't want to go back to that nothingness.

All it felt was satisfaction at the face the human made as it felt its hand grasp their neck. 

V2 didn't know what to expect when he returned to the storage room, but it hadn't been the door open and the sounds of carnage to be echoing from it. 

The humans behind him had began to cower.

He expected the machine from the elevator to be in the room when he peered his head around the corner.

Him and V1 locked eyes as it stared past the body in its grasp and for whatever reason he is very much reminded back to when the two had first met.

But this was no simulation.

He would be happy if he wasn't at a loss for what to do.

Anger rushed through him as the two of them stood there for what felt like eternity.

V1 dropped the body and stood there in the middle of the gore.

Angela was the one it had dropped.

Jenny, Klie, Harold, Doug, Shin, Rachel, Asher, and so many more all lay dead at its feet.

All people he had grown to like and or get to know as he watched over them.

Protected them.

Some of those people even talked to him when others wouldn't come near him.

He readied the Knuckleblaster and raised his wings to hopefully try and protect the people still alive behind him. 

Without thinking, he said the words, "I'm going to kill you, you piece of scrap."

V1 took a step back and that was the last thing he remembered before lunging at his predecessor.