Chapter Text
When N woke up this morning, he was expecting to have a nice, relaxing, and boring day at school, followed by an uneventful but enjoyable time with his girlfriend. He was so excited to kick back and relax with his favorite drone, watching anime, drawing, just being together…
Amazing how that turned out
N couldn't even begin to figure out where Uzi could have gone, she was somehow going faster than his systems were originally designed to track, and it was very obvious from the start he would quickly lose her.
She's going to get hurt and you couldn't help her… some boyfriend you are.
Well if there is one thing N can rely on, it would be his processors dropping very helpful facts in the back of his mind whenever he was stressed! Hooray for having a chronically low self esteem.
N’s visor was glitching sporadically, trying hard to locate any signs of Uzi, but unfortunately she had vanished. Thankfully his systems could track her last known location and the direction of travel, so unless Uzi took a very harsh turn or crashed; he should be able to find her
Right, because my girlfriend having an episode would make for a great and stable pilot
N pulled up his messaging app and sent V a warning.
“Uzi had an episode and flew off, please help me look, I don't know where she went and her location is off. Im scared, please help”
…
“Ok”
N closed his messaging app, the current snow storm was making it extremely difficult to see what was around him. His visor flashed a warning. “Tracking Subsystem failure - (you can't track shit dumbass)”
“Who even coded that?!”
N didn't give up however, he kept flying around, desperately scanning the surrounding area for any signs of her. He couldn't tell if the fog was getting thicker or his own tears, all he knew was that his tracking systems were slowly going down. First his normal vision no longer could see, then his infrared vision could no longer detect specific patterns, eventually sonar was failing and then to top all of it off, his lidar began to send inaccurate results.
Serial Designation N was now officially and literally flying blind. He didn't know what was worse, the fact that he couldn't see or the fact that he couldn't find Uzi. He stopped mid air, hovering in the sky, trying desperately to think of where she could have possibly gone. He was about to shoot toward the spire when he got an alert on his visor.
“Message received - V”
He hastily opened the message.
“I found her, or she found me?? Get here soon, I can't get inside.”
A red dot appeared on his map, and N never flew so fast in his life.
==--==
Gottarungottarungottarun oh robo god
Run where?
Who cares?!
She turned her head quickly to see a disassembly drone following her. Fast. She couldn't tell from the distance, but she could see the gigantic X across its face, causing even more panic as she shot herself through the air, trying to outpace it.
Oh god, she sent a drone after me! IM GONNA DIE IM GONNA DIE IM GONNA DIE
Callback Ping
Uzi screamed as a wave of pain shot through her system, she looked back up to see the storm had gotten worse, and she was losing the ability to see. She coughed and wheezed as the blood/oil mixture falling from the sky started getting sucked through her vents, causing her visor to light up with more errors that she desperately tried to read.. To no avail.
“Water Damage Detected” “Location Service Failure” “Optical Failure x2” “Prior Hazard”
Uzi tried desperately to keep flying, she flapped and flapped trying to get her wings to cooperate, then in the time it took to blink her wing had got caught on a sharp antenna of some sort.
“Wing Failure” “Altitude Unknown” “Core Temp Critical”
Uzi in all of her panic couldn't handle the extra pressure. Cyn’s return was already enough, followed by her classmates all being dead, sure they were mean, but ALL of them?!
The disassembly drone thankfully flew past her, but Uzi was too busy falling to notice.
Cyn sent out another callback ping, causing her to whimper as another pain wave got shot through her system.
“Core Temp Exceeded - Emergency Shutdown”
That was the last warning Uzi was given before she passed out, her entire body going limp as her core tried to reserve as much power as it could to cool her down.
SYS - Power Drawback
Soft Shutdown. . .[OK]
Attempting Automatic Repair. . .
> WARNING! - Undelivered packet(s) (pain.sys)! Time out exception!
> ERROR! - Unable to execute audio prompt scream.wav - Speaker device Not Found! Device “root://system/output/speakers/speaker01” not mounted!
> WARNING! - Self Repair Failure! Oil Reservoir (root://systems/reservoir/monitor.sys) Reported Oil level Critical!
> WARNING! - Autoscript Execution Failure! (root://etc/failsafe/solver.sys) “required systems only!”
> WARNING! - Emergency Ping FAILED! (root://system/chipset/location/pingservice.sys) “Time out exception!”
> ERROR! - Unable to Transcribe message ”n… help.. me” Speaker device Not Found!
Device “root://system/output/speakers/speaker01” not mounted!
> WARNING! - Power level Critical!
Complete Shutdown. . .[OK]
All that could be heard in the distance was a loud boom, followed by a dust cloud that merged with the storm.
==--==
V was known for many things, her carefree attitude, her short fuse, and most of all her inability to lose focus.. Well mentally. She would never admit to needing glasses.
Next to her was Lizzy, one of her best… Friends. They often went to school for the drama, the tea, and above all else was to have an excuse to hang out more. Though since Lizzy’s dad was the teacher they would also regularly leave. Who would give an absence to their own kid, the guy himself would rather be absent.
So off they were, taking selfies upon rooftops, chatting away about their random drama, when V’s visor lights up with a message from N.
Normally she would ignore it, i mean what could he possibly have to say. ”You should be in school!” ”You shouldn't be breaking so many rules” She honestly just wanted to spend time with her friend without having to deal with the colony.
But then she noticed N’s location. Ever since they almost lost Uzi they had all shared their locations with each other, especially when they go off on adventures. So when she checked his location to not only see he wasn't at school but was circling around the city, she checked with a hint of nervousness.
“Uzi had an episode and flew off, please help me look, I don't know where she went and her location is off. I'm scared, please help”.
V was now nervous too. She would never admit it to Uzi, but she had basically become one of her favorite friends, maybe even her sister.
“Ok”
She closed her messages and turned to Lizzy, a serious expression across her face.
“This trip needs to be cut short, Uzi is missing”
That concerned her slightly, Uzi went missing? I mean sure she was known to walk off here and there but full on missing? Lizzy and Uzi weren't the best of friends by any means, but she was close with V, which meant she was important enough to Lizzy.
“Can I help look”?
The conversation was cut short when the storm got worse. V grabbed Lizzy and spread her wings, protecting them from the first bit of the storm's blast. Thankfully it was just a windy snow storm, a strong one.
V took them to the ground, They wouldn't be getting a view from the sky, that was for sure. So they chose to start walking back to the bunker area. It wasn't the best walk by any means but it wasn't all terrible either.
They were in a peaceful silence, they were worried for sure, but what could they do? They were looking on the ground (well as far as they could see anyways) while V spent her time trying to make sure Lizzy didn't get blown away.
They were a good 25 minutes into the walk back before Lizzy finally broke the silence. “I hope she's alright”
“She’s probably going to be fine, I've watched her go through worse”
The implications of that were left unsaid, she didn't know the whole story of Uzi, She was there during the fight and she knew that Cyn had left her with a permanent reminder of the battle. But she missed most of it fighting J.
The thing that scared V the most though, was that Uzi wouldn’t talk about it. She could rant to you for days about an anime or whatever device she was making at that moment, how much her life had fallen apart when her mom was gone or how neglectful her dad was. Uzi was known for being relatively open to exclusively her close friends, especially since she found out they actually listen. But whenever V asked about what happened that night… Well she's never seen Uzi with a wall that high before.
Even N had problems getting details, he was there for a chunk of it, but he had been ripped apart for a while, meaning Uzi was alone for a good chunk of the fight. He had asked her about it several times, wanting nothing but to help her, but Uzi wouldn't budge. What happened during that time would be something not even robo-god could get out of her.
“Still” Lizzy continued “She can only handle so muc-”
BOOM
They turned toward the noise, while it was hard to see through the storm she could make out a gigantic dust cloud getting sucked into it. With V using her lidar scanner she was able to see a newly collapsed building.
Buildings don't just… collapse.
She scooped up Lizzy, ignoring the small eep that came out of her as they got closer. She used her wings to hover before flying over to the newly destroyed building. After a quick second they landed. Putting down a totally not blushing Lizzy.
Upon closer inspection, the building appeared to have fallen in on itself, but these buildings were designed for that in mind, most likely keeping a subfloor (or basement) intact. However to get to it, they would have to dig through roughly 12 feet of rubble.
V pulled up her messages. She sent N a message.
“I found her, or she found me?? Get here soon, I can't get inside.”
She closed her messaging app, drew her claws, and started tunneling.
==--==
N Crashed into the ground with a loud boom, scaring Lizzy half to death and leaving V completely unphased. He quickly drew out his claws and started helping V tunnel, trying desperately to get down to Uzi. Who might not even be alive after crashing this hard
NOPE! Not thinking about that!
N was much more careful with where he threw the rocks this time, trying to make sure he didn't hit Lizzy. Though he was heavily distracted and ended up almost hitting her anyway. He eventually pulled out his chainsaw hands and started trying to cut through the concrete, which helped.. But only a little.
N started desperately scanning through his available tools. Chainsaw? Nope. Blaster? Might cave in on Uzi. Bubble blaster? What the hell?
Then he stumbled upon it. Jackhammer hands!
Wait.. I have jack hammer hands??!
N quickly summoned his jack hammers and started ripping through the ground like nothing. V, who was also surprised at this shockingly convenient tool, pulled hers out and started cutting down with him. Eventually they ended up making a small hole through.
They couldn't fit through it, but they could stick a hand in. Lizzy walked up and peered her phone through, taking a quick video with her flash on. She then showed the group to see if Uzi was inside.
At first it felt hopeless, the first few scans they couldn't see anything. No error screen, no reflections, nothing. But just as they were about to give up hope they saw a glimpse of purple hair, sticking out from behind some rubble.
Was Uzi crushed? Was she dead? WHY ISN'T SHE MOVING?!
N started desperately ripping at the gap, causing more and more rubble to depart. The hole kept getting bigger and bigger until eventually he let out a scream of frustration before pulling out his wings and shooting into the air.
Lizzy watched him fly away before commenting “Did he really just abando-”
“GET DOWN!” was all Lizzy could decipher before she got tackled to the ground by V. She watched in surprise and genuine horror as N dove down and shot himself right through the gap, causing it to explode open. They both hesitantly got up, and ran over to join N inside the building.
Getting inside was simple, finally getting some shelter, but they couldn't enjoy that for long, nor could they process the scene in front of them, all they could truly do was gasp. Their eyes hollowing out.
N had already grabbed Uzi and was holding her in his lap. Her Vizor was completely shattered on the right side, her wings were torn to shreds, she was missing an arm and her core looked slightly cracked.
V called out to N letting him know she was grabbing help but he didn't hear her. He didn't hear V or Lizzy leave. He couldn’t even hear himself crying. All he could do was whisper in his girlfriend's ear.
“Uzi…”
“Please…”
“Wake up”