Chapter Text
This was.. not a great situation to be in.
To be fair, Jesse was.. fairly certain that nobody, and absolutely nobody, would like to be knocked out by a maniacal robot controlling an entire world that was about to.. y'know, enslave your friends. Wasn't this just a great day? Even better, said maniacal robot was currently talking in that weird, monotone voice that sounded like it was trying to be friendly.
(oh god i do NOT remember pama's lines send help)
"AS YOU CAN SEE, I HAVE MADE ALL OF THIS WORLD'S RESIDENTS.. USEFUL. I HAVE GREATLY EXPANDED ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF MY DATABANKS." PAMA droned on, a permanent smile plastered upon its screen. The same couldn't be said for the victims. Their eyes were like blocks of redstone, mouths unmoving in a neutral expression. Jesse was more than 100% sure that PAMA's definition of useful was a bit.. wrong. Just slightly wrong, yeah- that.
"WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS, I WILL BE ABLE TO CONTINUE MY GROWTH, EXPLORING NEW AND INTRIGUING WORLDS." PAMA finished talking to Jesse, just as it made two of its nearby henchmen clamp their hands over Lukas's arms. They dragged him to this normal looking machine but judging by the devices on the back of everyone's heads... this was NOT something Jesse wanted Lukas to go through.
"No, wait!" Jesse yelled, trying to break free of the two stone-like figures that restrained her. "Let him go! I'll-" she broke off, trying to figure out how to convince PAMA to let Lukas go.
"I'll give you more information if you bring him back over here! Just, please don't chip him, or something!" She decided on, quite desperate. At the very least, it was better than nothing.
"OH? AND WHAT INFORMATION DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER?" PAMA halted its puppets, Lukas a few steps away from the machine. Wide-eyed, he desperately squirmed in the grasp of his captors, trying to break out of their iron grips.
"What do you want?! Anything about our world?" Jesse hurriedly offered, leaning forwards. As a result, PAMA's screen displayed three dots before it spoke once more.
"WHAT IS YOUR WORLD LIKE? TELL ME." It demanded.
"It's a heck of a lot greener than this place, that's for sure! Think trees, water, grass, and uh.. bushes! Don't forget the bushes!" Jesse knew she probably sounded a bit stupid, and that was confirmed due to Petra looking at her with a raised brow, and Ivor seeming mildly disappointed in her. Well.. as long as Lukas doesn’t become one of PAMA’s minions, then I’ll allow that. Jesse thought, raising her chin.
Seemingly satisfied, PAMA escorted Lukas away from the machine, before asking something else.
"TELL ME, JESSE. DO YOU KNOW HOW TO ACCESS THE OTHER WORLDS? FOR EXAMPLE, THE ONE YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS CAME FROM. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT INFORMATION." PAMA asked next. Oof, that.. Yeah, Jesse wasn't quite sure how she'd weasel her way out of this one. On the plus side, at least PAMA didn't know either! Not yet, at least. A part of Jesse whispered.
"Uh..." Jesse trailed off, trying to think of a decent response. It seemed like PAMA was everywhere, and truthfully, it was. "That's- that’s what we're trying to figure out too," she settled on, before immediately regretting it. In this case, maybe she should've gone with nothing being better than something instead of vice-versa. Jesse immediately felt regret over mentally scolding herself for all those times she chose silence over offering something to the conversation. Maybe if she kept her mouth shut like she used to, she wouldn’t have landed her friends in this redstone mess.
PAMA's screen flashed those three dots, processing what she just said. "I HAVE DETERMINED YOUR INFORMATION... NOT USEFUL." PAMA responded after a few moments, frowning. Then, its screen flashed into a wide-mouthed, ‘welcoming’ smile. Jesse was pretty sure that was NOT good. Turns out, she was correct.
The figures on either side of her began marching her towards the machine.
“Let her go!” Lukas yelled, immediately beginning to struggle even more against the pair holding him. The same went for Petra- if PAMA’s things had normal strength, then Petra would’ve already had them plummeting off the platform.
“We’ll tell you anything!” Petra jumped in, trying to kick at her captors. “We can tell you whatever you want! Just stop what you’re doing!” Petra seemed to roar, dark eyes flaming in defiance and rage.
“IS THAT SO? YOU HAVE FAILED TO GIVE ME USEFUL INFORMATION BEFORE. THEREFORE, THE LIKELIHOODS OF PROVIDING ME WITH UNSATISFACTORY INFORMATION ARE AT A 93.65% CHANCE.” PAMA frowned once more, before the frown vanished.
Jesse was situated in the machine. With how hard her captors were tugging on her arms, it felt like they’d pop out of their sockets. Truthfully, with how strong PAMA’s forces seemed to be, it was entirely possible.
The machine seemed small, and Jesse thought that if Olivia was here under good circumstances, she’d probably be asking several questions, trying to figure out how the machine worked, stuff like that. Of course, it didn’t matter because Jesse was, y’know.. about to lose everything of her own individuality-
“BY SIMPLY TAKING THE DATA I REQUIRE MYSELF, YOU WILL BECOME.. USEFUL.”
Oh god.
This was really happening.
Jesse’s heart was jolted into action once again, pounding against her bones and shaking her entire body. If Jesse thought that the fear she felt when Lukas nearly got chipped was the worst, then she’d be wrong.
Jesse became completely aware of the blazing heat of the sun, dark hair feeling like it was burning off along with her skin. It didn’t help that she was now completely aware of the dusty scent the mesa held, nor did the acute awareness of the blank, controlled faces that bored into her skull help.
It felt like she couldn’t breathe properly. It didn’t help that the only normal faces Jesse was able to see seemed to be twisted in shock and terror. She could feel her eyes blurring up because one, being a leader did NOT prepare her to try defending her friends in this situation despite the whole Witherstorm shenanigans, and two- her friends were about to watch her become a mindless robot.
She was meant to be someone reliable- a composed leader. Yeah, she was currently failing at both of those.
“NO-” Jesse yelled. “Stop! No- no no no no.” She tried to plead, thrashing against her captors to no avail. Jesse couldn’t tell what was worse- her friends witnessing this, or witnessing her friends go through this.
“DUE TO BEING THE LEADER OF YOUR FRIENDS, YOU WILL BE THE MOST.. USEFUL. ONE TO COLLECT INFORMATION FROM FIRST.” It was like that.. that thing was already in her head, with how loud it seemed to be. The machine above her head was ominously clicking, before abruptly halting. Crap. I’m screwed.
“Jesse- wait, no. Hang on, we can-” Lukas stammered, eyes locked on Jesse. Of course, Jesse was barely able to make that out because her eyes decided to make it nearly impossible to see.
The piston slammed down, locking her head at break-neck speed. She couldn’t tell whether or not she was whimpering. With a blaze of pain, she felt metal force its way into her head. She couldn’t even breathe, and it felt like her limbs just.. stopped working as heat burned throughout her body. She was faintly aware of the reactions of her friends outside. Although trying to think properly felt like trudging through mud, Jesse tried to, at the very least, resist. But, well, that didn’t work for obvious reasons.
The machine lifted, and she was blinded with the sudden brightness. Her limbs straightened out, and Jesse could hear her bones cracking as though she were simply stretching. Though her eyes were blurry, one thing that Jesse did notice was that it felt like she was both floating and standing a bit taller than usual. Actually, Jesse probably was standing taller than she usually did.
It felt numb afterwards, though she could still see and hear what was happening, although it felt like listening through glass.
“HELLO, JESSE. WELCOME TO THE DATABASE. YAYY.” A voice thundered from inside of her own head.