Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

B-12 was lost. What was he doing?

Where is the cat?

Where is everyone?

Where was. . . where was he?

It was all dark. He called out. No one answered. It seemed like a black pit, but with no up or sides or even floor. No, it’s not black. It’s colorless, but not clear. In fact, there was nothing. Nothing there.

B-12 could feel his memory corrupting. It was small and slow, but it was there. He remembered sacrificing himself to open the city again. He remembered saying goodbye to the cat, his best friend. Wait . . . the cat. . . how did they meet again? B-12 gasped. He scurried in a random direction, looking for a way out, calling for anyone. He did NOT let himself think that it was hopeless or that there was no one. He only thought about getting out.

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Clemintine watched the Sentinels fall with growing amusement. They weren't made to handle temperatures above 80° F, and it was definitely above 80°. One tried to fire a laser at her but missed spectacularly. It was the 2nd best thing she had ever seen, 2nd only to that cat, who she had fondly nicknamed “Tiger,” trapping those Sentinels in those jail cells.

She looked up at the massive control room window, always there, always making her feel watched. For once, it was a sight of comfort. She knew good, well, not people, but a good living being and a good robot were up there. Clemintine hoped they were okay.

She headed home, and contacted Zbaltazar in the Antvillage. There was a secret hidden encrypted phone line that connected the two places. It was really old, and it looked like it hadn’t been used since the Humans. They used it to keep in touch.

“Hey Zbaltazar. Notice anything different on your part of the woods? It is a little brighter, don’t you think?” Clemintine smiled and bounced on the balls of her feet.

Zbaltazar sounded excited, but also tired, “Yeah, yeah. I got it. I was expecting you to call me.”

“Oh, come on. Don’t you want to explore it?” Clemintine asked, a little bit hurt. “You could always climb into that ambulatory robot body anytime you want. What changed?”

“I have to stay here and look after my people” Zbaltazar protested. “And we can’t get ahold of Momo or Doc, because the phone line doesn’t go that far. I did get a transmitter message from Momo, though. It was a couple of days ago, before the cat crossed into Antvillage through the sewers. I wonder if Doc could get the transmitter working again, so we could all contact each other.”

“Well then, "Clemintine sighed, “I wanted to get up to the control room, to see if Tiger and B-12 are okay”

“Tiger and B-12?”

“The cat and the robot. I gave the cat a nickname. B-12 was what was on the drone’s exterior.”

“Oh, okay, keep in touch with those Walkies we discovered in that safety room in the sewers. See you soon, Clemintine.” Zbaltazar said

“See ya outside, Zbaltazar,” Clemintine hung up the phone and grabbed the Walkie Talkie so she could keep in touch with him. She headed to the old subway station. That cat was incredible, getting it to work again. She boarded the train, hoping for the best.

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Doc and Momo were having lunch. Well, not really lunch, because they can’t eat, but they were sitting at a table in the afternoon talking about their lives and catching up. Suddenly, there was this blinding light, and Doc shielded his eyes

“What is that?” He asked Momo.

Momo came out onto the balcony and looked up. There it was. In all of its glory. He could not believe that it actually existed. The sky.

It was blue. This rich but light blue, and it was dotted with these little white fluffy things, and there was this really bright light in it too, which he read about once. The humans called it a “sun.” Honestly, Doc could have come up with a better name for it, but Momo was not complaining. It was beautiful.

“Hey, Doc, you might want to come out here,” Momo could not contain his glee. “That cat is fantastic!”

“It’s so bright though- WOAH," Doc gasped. Momo watched as he took it all in as well. He was speechless for a full minute; Momo had a stopwatch and was counting.

Momo did not waste time. After their initial reaction, Momo snapped right back into business. “We need to get the Transceiver working. I contacted Zbaltazar last time I used it, and I think he is in touch with Clemintine. We need to get out of the slums, as well, and also need to get that elevator working to get to Midtown. It is hard to get to Antvillage from Midtown, but we will figure something out. Like the plan, or no?”

Doc was stunned, “Since when were you the planner? That’s Clemintine’s turf.”

Momo shrugged, “Since the cat inspired me to get back into this Outsider stuff.” Doc shot him a strange look. Momo retaliated with, “What is that look for?”

“Nothing. Just never thought I’d see you with your mojo back. I forgot how determined you can be.” Doc said matter-of-factly.

“Wow, thanks” Momo rolled his eyes. Doc chuckled. “Anyway, we need to get to the bar. They have the best cell and radio tower in the slums. I speak from experience.”

“Alright.” Doc said, getting his things ready. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

B-12 cried out for someone, ANYONE, to hear him. Suddenly, he saw something. A major difference from the colorless void he was stuck in, that’s for sure. He moved toward it, smiling in relief.

It was a computer.

He felt a spark of joy, and booted it up, trying to hack into the city again to find his friend.

Wait. What did they do together again?

No! Come on!

He hacked like his life depended on it, which it kind of did, actually.

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Clemintine boarded the old subway, which was working again. She knew that there were two more stops to the Control Room, so she used that time to think.

Her goal? Getting outside and seeing the Tiger again. Check if they were okay. Also try to help get Momo and Doc out of the slums at any cost from afar. She had stolen some books from the banned book section of the library about how the city machinery worked, but she was still. . . what’s the word? She thought for a moment.

Not nervous. Nervous would be like something bad would happen to her. Not scared either.

Apprehensive? Yeah. That sounds right. Apprehensive.

Exactly 23.5 minutes later, the subway clattered to a stop rather noisily at the Control Room Station. She got off. It was the last stop after all. The subway was dirty, and there was dried gum on the floor, so she was glad to get off.

The first thing she noticed was that the orange Companion Bots were still working to keep the place clean after all this time. Huh. Weird. She approached one.

“Hello there! Where can I find the Control Room? I’m trying to help a friend,” Clemintine asked it.

They looked back, and spoke in a weird, gender-neutral, stereotypical robot voice that made Clemintine cringe. “Hi there, fellow Companion Bot! Sadly, the control room is off limits for robots. If your human was here, they could access it, but you can’t. I apologize. However, the outside is now open, and you are welcome to explore it!”

As tempting as that offer was, she said, “No, I am going in there. You can’t stop me, sorry!” She held out her middle finger as she made her way to the control room. However, when she crossed the threshold, an earsplitting alarm went off. It sounded oddly like a school bell.

BRING, BRING, BRING, BRING, BRING!!!

Suddenly, Clemintine heard loud footsteps behind her. She spun around, and saw 2 really big Robots heading her way. They were huge, twice her size, and if that didn’t make her scared, they also had EMPs in their belts.

Fuck. More security. First, it was the sentinels, and now it was THESE morons. Just great.

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Doc and Momo arrived at the bar. On the way, Doc had been inspecting the Transceiver’s readings on a computer, because it was currently on an old Nico Corp. cell tower. When they sat down, he sighed.

“There is nothing wrong with the Transceiver” he told Momo after he sat down.

“. . . what?” Momo just looked at him.

“It's this computer,” Doc explained. “It's not equipped to handle the readings that the transceiver sends out. It's like the transceiver is speaking a different language than the computer and it's really hard for them to bond and communicate. It can, somewhat, and that's why you talked to Zbaltazar, but it's very spotty and it probably won't work. What we need to do is be able to teach this computer at the bar to speak the transceivers language, and that's easy. I can do that.”

Momo blinked. He sorta understood. He wasn’t the geek of the group, so, he just nodded. There was really nothing else to do when Doc started talking about that stuff.

“I actually made this handy thing-a-midgige a while back!” Doc pulled out a thing that looked like a mini antenna. “Never thought I would actually use it!”

Momo looked at Doc. “And you just carry it around. . .?”

Doc looked at Momo with an exasperated expression. “What? I'm proud of it. It's cool,” Dock protested. Momo snickered. He hooked the tiny antenna onto the computer. The computer sputtered to life.