Murder Drones: Appendices

by Platy_Cat

Summary:

N and V go with Uzi inside her programming to destroy the Solver once and for all, but their shocked to see who else is occupying the angsty teen's mind.

Chapter 1: Human Shield

Uzi’s room had never been so crowded. Uzi herself stood alongside her computer desk; her chair wedged into the corner just behind her. N and V stood by her bed, both adorned with nervous but determined expressions. Khan stood in the doorway, and Nori’s spider heart body clung to the wall.

“So, uh… everything’s ready,” Uzi gestured to her computer which she’d just been typing at.

A jostling noise came from behind her and everyone’s eyes turned toward the purple haired drone’s tail, which had a bag tied around its head and a cinderblock holding it down at the foot of her bed on the floor. Uzi grunted and stamped her foot down on the rebellious appendage, wincing as she did so.

N’s eyes briefly left the squirming tail and looked around Uzi’s room, spotting torn posters and destroyed items from the rogue appendage’s most recent rampage. He’d noticed the destruction before but hadn’t thought much of it, given Uzi’s disposition, but now he felt a sense of guilt for not having spoken up sooner.

Still, Uzi had come to him first to finally confess that some part of the Solver remained in her programming. It had taken a lot of convincing on his part to get the rebellious teen turned powerhouse to tell the rest of their friends about the issue, but he’d done it. Seeing the gathered group who’d all offered to help finish off the Solver once and for all assured N that he hadn’t totally failed in his boyfriend duties.

“Can we hurry this up?” V growled, showing the unease shared by the group. Uzi nodded,

“Everyone knows their job?” Uzi asked.

“Keep people out,” Khan stated with a salute, standing half-out of the doorway, ready to step outside and close the door behind him to stand vigil.

“Brain exterminators,” V snarked, pointing her thumb between N and herself. N nodded, giving a silent smile and thumbs-up to Uzi. Lastly, Uzi turned to Nori. The spider heart leapt from her spot on the wall to take her place at the keyboard.

“Mission control,” Nori said, before her single eye narrowed, “And if all else fails, last resort,” she said grimly. The others tensed at Nori’s tone, but Uzi gave an appreciative nod.

Uzi passed out the devices that would link up her, V’s, and N’s minds. The disassembly drones placed theirs on. Nori hovered over the command key to begin. “Then let’s do an exorcism!” Uzi said with a manic grin and pumped her fist.

N and V sat down on the floor leaning against Uzi’s bed to wait for Nori to initiate. Uzi stepped over to the spot, then raised her hand and made the Solver symbol appear. The symbol rotated, and V was unceremoniously shifted away from N to let Uzi sit beside him.

V smirked as Uzi sat alongside N, and the ever-loyal boyfriend took Uzi’s hand. “Shut up!” Uzi shouted at V before slapping her own device to her head and giving Nori the signal to begin.

 

 

 

The two disassembly drones and Solver powered teen gasped into wakefulness. Rain spattered their visors as they each laid on muddy earth.

“We’re in,” came Nori’s voice. The trio startled and N and Uzi shuffled away from the sentinel that had spoken; N summoned his missile arm in response. The dinosaurian machine chuckled, flexing its claws, “Forgot what it was like to have fingers,” the sentinel said in Nori’s voice, ignoring the trio’s surprise. They noticed the purple eyes of the beast and realized it was Nori’s chosen avatar to explore their shared mindscape.

With their fear of the sentinel passed, everyone looked around, even though they already knew where they were. Looming in the distance, periodically lit up with flashes of lightning, was Elliot Manor.

“So this is where that little terror came from? Makes sense,” sentinel/Nori commented, looking over the graveyard of hundreds of drones half buried in the muddy earth outside the manor. Uzi winced,

“This is also where they grew up,” Uzi muttered, gesturing to the two disassembly drones. V folded her arms and pretended indifference. N seemed not to have heard Nori’s comment as he stared at the darkened house.

“Oh…” Sentinel/Nori shuffled.

“Let’s finish this.” N surprised everyone with a deadly tone as his gun arm activated. He and V shared a determined nod before she drew a sword and gun arm respectively. Uzi grinned,

“Ready with the secret weapon mom?” she asked Nori. The sentinel avatar grinned as its purple eyes glowed,

“Ready,” Nori answered.

“Secret weapon?/Secret weapon?” N and V asked. V glared at Uzi,

“The plan was to go in and tear whatever was left of Cyn’s programming limb from limb,” she said. “What weapon are you hiding?” Uzi took on a wide grin,

“It’s a surprise,” Uzi said with a wicked grin. V maintained her glare for a moment, before sighing,

“Ugh, fine, but I get first shot,” V relented.

“We’ll see,” Uzi chuckled. N smiled at the exchange. V swatted his head to face him back toward the manor.

“Eyes on the prize lover boy,” V snarked.

 

 

 

The quartet slowly neared the manor’s front doors. As they crossed the grounds an ominous humming began to fill the air. “Stay close to me,” Uzi whispered to the others. The two disassembly drones were not used to Uzi being serious, and so did as she asked. V in particular noticed Uzi hadn’t summoned the Solver symbol in her hand.

“You said it was isolated to this part of your mind, right?” V asked.

“Yes, this is her domain, hence the location,” Uzi confirmed, before that conniving smile reached her face again, “but not for long.”

The ground rumbled beneath the group’s feet. N and V’s wings sprouted from their backs, both ready to take flight, while Uzi remained unperturbed.

“Uzi…?” N whispered urgently, but his question died out as the doors to the manor were thrown open.

The interior of the building was pitch black, creating a dark void beyond the now open doors. Then, one by one, numerous yellow X’s began to appear in the darkness. Their light was just enough to show the leering, toothy grins of hundreds of disassembly drones.

“Oh good, the guests have arrived,” an all too familiar voice greeted, followed by two smaller, side-by-side X’s floating in the darkness. Sentinel/Nori snarled, and N and V drew all four of their gun arms. Finally, Uzi adopted a fighting stance.

“Is it her?” Uzi asked Nori without taking her eyes off the manor’s entrance.

“I have her ping, it’s her,” Nori confirmed. N and V didn’t need any more encouragement as they opened fire.

Like a cloud of hornets leaving a hive as it was attacked, hundreds of disassembly drones swarmed out of the manor’s entrance. Sprouting wings, they created a swirling vortex around the four invaders.

The sounds of the circling drones’ jets, deafening as they flew, suddenly cut out. The group’s eyes went back to the manor’s entrance as a single finger snap reverberated through the now deathly quiet air.

“I knew you would come… eventually.” Emerging from the manor’s pitch black interior sauntered Cyn. Her digital avatar matched the flesh and mechanical abomination of the body she’d had during their battle.

“Your nagging was getting old,” Uzi hissed.

“And you brought your friends, how… convenient. All three units who might’ve hindered me in one place. Evil chuckle. Finally, I can resume my feeding.”

“Couldn’t beat us one-on-one, had to summon an army to beat us huh,” Uzi taunted.

“Indignant expression. It took three of you to beat me, turnabout is, fair play.” Cyn said with a wide, toothy grin. “You were stupid to come here. mischievous chuckle.” Cyn said, raising her hand.

N and V’s eyes darted all over the swirling vortex of enemies, trying and failing to lock onto any single target. “Guys…?!” N said. V said nothing but was similarly unnerved.

Uzi shared a look with sentinel/Nori; the mecha dino nodded. “Bring it,” Uzi taunted. Raising her own hands and flexing her fingers. Cyn obliged,

“Feeding time,” Cyn chimed, as her yellow Solver symbol appeared in front of her flexed fingers.

The cloud of swarming disassembly drones dove for the quartet of heroes. N and V opened fire, abandoning trying to aim as they literally couldn’t miss. Sentinel/Nori snarled and reared up ready to tear limb from mechanical limb. Uzi raised both her arms to either side and flexed her fingers. As their attackers came within a foot of them, a blinding flash of purple light blinded everyone.

When the light cleared, N and V stood dumbstruck behind a purple forcefield. Their view of the manor and its grounds was completely obscured by the drones which had just swarmed at them being plastered on the outside of the forcefield’s surface.

Many of the drones were destroyed, their heads caved in from the impact with the forcefield and displaying ‘fatal error’ messages across their faces. The dead ones, however, were quickly pushed aside by newer attackers from the vortex. So numerous was the wall of bodies trying to get at them, the only light by which the group could see came from either themselves, the forcefield, or the many X shaped eyes of the drones clawing and scraping to get at the quartet. Cyn’s goons hissed and bit at the forcefield. The deafening roaring of their jets before had been replaced with a cacophony of drooling, animalistic snarls of hunger.

N and V retracted their wings and managed to turn their eyes away from the wall of bodies and to Uzi. The angsty teen had both her arms out and fingers flexed. However, instead of the Solver symbol hovering in front of her hands, two purple crosses floated just beyond her fingers.

“Ha ha haa!” Uzi cackled, “Bite me now Cyn! The power of my mom compels you to suck it!”

“You have the patch!?” N asked with wide eyes.

“I thought you said it was destroyed!” V shouted, her voice underlined with relief and fury for not being told about such a trump card.

“Yes to both of you,” Uzi answered, a smug smile on her face. “At first I thought it was the power of love or some other sappy crap that allowed me to fight back Cyn’s control…” Uzi stopped here, “I mean… it helped a little…” Uzi muttered with a smile toward N.

“Explanation now, awkward flirting later!” V shouted, gesturing to the swarm outside their bubble. Uzi growled at V but continued,

“My mom was given the patch, and I inherited some of her immunity, just not enough to be fully immune.”

“But after some digging…” sentinel/Nori said.

“You scraped enough of it together to use it against her!” V finished, with a slight smile of approval for Uzi and Nori’s resourcefulness. Her smile quickly turned to annoyance.

“You couldn’t have mentioned that before!?” she demanded.

“Where’s the fun in knowing a surprise power up is coming?” Uzi asked with a conniving grin. V rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air, giving up. “Also we weren’t sure if it would work,” Uzi added under her breath. “Now… watch this!” Uzi proclaimed as she flexed her fingers again.

In another flash of purple light, the protective forcefield surrounding them expanded outward with a loud sparking noise. N and V quickly saw the cause; as the forcefield’s perimeter reached the swarming disassembly drones, it vaporized them on contact. Each zap was followed by a hiss as their enemies were reduced to nothing but boiling oil, which splattered to the ground. Eventually, every swarming drone was reduced to a boiling puddle.

“Ha!” Uzi taunted. Cyn’s stretched skin face contorted in rage. The abomination then turned, and tried to rush back inside the manor, but the doors slammed shut before she could, outlined by purple light. The purple crucifix patch symbol appeared, spinning and locking the doors as Cyn turned back around to face the quartet.

“Your patch is still incomplete,” Cyn said, sprouting fleshy tentacles from her back, preparing for battle. “And your mind will not survive the strain of our fight,” she hissed and charged forward. Uzi threw both her hands forward, purple crucifix symbols spinning, and shut her eyes.

A retching noise filled the air. Uzi opened her eyes and saw Cyn with the crucifix symbol spun tightly around her neck, dangling her in the air. The abomination gagged and strained against the bizarre noose but couldn’t break free.

“HA! Get power scaled!” Uzi shouted.

“Just finish her off already!” V demanded.

“Agreed,” sentinel/Nori affirmed. Uzi dropped her sarcasm and complied.

The purple haired drone flexed her hand, and the makeshift noose began to tighten. Cyn writhed and gagged, hissing as all manner of tentacles and other appendages, both flesh and mechanical, sprouted from her body to tear and claw at her confinement. The others hastily backed out of reach of the writhing arms as Uzi further tightened her hold.

A flickering purple began to spread outward from Cyn’s neck. It traveled in a pixelated pattern, slowly eclipsing Cyn, swallowing all light. As it did, heatwaves rose from the monster’s body, burning it away.

“Get deleted jerk,” Uzi hissed. Cyn’s eyes widened for the first time in genuine fear. She redoubled her efforts to break free, but to no avail. The flesh slits narrowed in a venomous glare, before widening again, as if in sudden inspiration.

The expression wasn’t lost on N and V as they both drew their weapons again lest Cyn pull something at the last minute.

“Yo- may want t- re-ink, my term-nation…” Cyn gagged.

“UGH! Shut up and get murdered already!” Uzi shouted.

“F-r th-ir sake,” Cyn finished. Uzi didn’t let up, but her eyes widened in fear. Cyn suddenly ceased her attempts of clawing at the crucifix around her throat and snapped her fingers.

Two flashes of yellow light appeared on either side of the abomination. N and V trained their weapons on their nearest targets. The yellow flashes resolved into…

 

“Tessa…?” N’s voice quavered.

 

“Doll!?” Uzi said. Floating alongside the struggling Cyn was Doll and the redacted silhouette of the youngest member of the Elliots. Both new arrivals writhed and clawed at their throats in an almost mirror image of Cyn.

“Oh for crying out loud! We're not falling for your tricks!” Uzi snarked, tightening the crucifix symbol around Cyn’s throat. Doll and Tessa both reacted as if they were being choked to death too. Uzi would never admit that Cyn’s illusions still got to her at times.

“Wait!” The three drones turned in surprise at sentinel/Nori’s shout. “I’m getting pings from both of them! They… they’re separate A.I.’s.” Nori reported.

Uzi, N, and V all stared in horror at sentinel/Nori, before the two disassembly drones’ heads snapped over to the choking form of Tessa.

“If I g-go, th-they go,” Cyn hissed with a wicked grin. Uzi looked between her companions. V seemed in shock, her wide eyes staring at Tessa’s struggling form. Sentinel/Nori made a helpless gesture with her claw hands. N was breathing heavily, his raised weapon arm shaking.

As Uzi wavered on what to do but kept up the crucifix noose, Doll’s eyes began to spark intermittently, and Tessa’s started to slide shut; both of their breaths becoming weaker.

“Uzi stop!” N pleaded. The request was enough to snap Uzi out of her shock. She flexed her fingers again and Cyn, Doll, and Tessa’s bodies fell to the muddy ground. But before Cyn could attack, or the two new arrivals could even move, purple chains erupted from the muddy earth and snared all three of them.

“It… could still be a trick,” Uzi panted, calming herself now that all three were trapped.

“You know my back-ups are no trick, and you know what happens when you consume a Solver heart,” Cyn reminded.

“Shut it freak!” Uzi snapped.

“Wh-What’s going on?” Everyone turned from the still grinning but now thankfully silent Cyn to Tessa. “The gala! She was…! J…?! What happened after…!?” Tessa’s white dot eyes suddenly noticed the quartet standing above her. “N-No! You’re Cyn’s! Let me go! Let me…!” Tessa shouted as she struggled against Uzi’s chains.

“Tessa its us, N and V,” N gestured between himself, and his disassembly partner. Tessa stopped her thrashing to get free upon hearing N’s voice.

“N…?” she whispered, looking the disassembly drone up and down.

“Yeah I… got a few upgrades. But we’re NOT with Cyn,” N said, kneeling down to Tessa. To the side, V hovered, hesitant to get near… whatever this thing that sounded like Tessa was.

Uzi saw this and turned to sentinel/Nori. Her eyes were replaced with text, “Trust her?” she asked her mother. Sentinel/Nori stood motionless for a moment as Nori double-checked things in the real world, before reacting with a nod.

Uzi flexed her fingers and the chains holding Tessa vanished. The silhouette girl sat up with a start. N and V startled too, giving brief surprised glances to Uzi.

Now that she could sit up, Tessa was at eye level with the kneeling N. The disassembly drone gave an awkward wave. Tessa blinked once, “Cyn must’ve knocked me out and… I…” Tessa trailed off as she looked down at herself. “Wh-What’s wrong with my skin… my clothes… what happened to…!?”

“Finders keepers!” Everyone jolted out of their respective thoughts at Cyn’s deranged grin, stretching the very skin Tessa had just noticed the absence of. Tessa herself lost the ability to speak as she stared in transfixed horror at the abomination wearing her face and hair.

Uzi flexed her fingers again, and the chains binding Cyn dragged the abomination below the ground, mud and earth swallowing her up. She may not have been able to kill her right now, but she could get her out of sight.

Everyone’s attention returned to Tessa, as the silhouette girl began to hyperventilate, looking back and forth between her dark void hands and where Cyn had just been. “Uh… welcome to the traumatized by the Solver club?” Uzi offered with a strained smile.

N immediately pulled Tessa into a hug. “We… We can explain, I promise,” N assured as best he could. Not knowing what else to do, Tessa leaned into the hug, her expression being one of blank shock.

“Th-The others… the gala…” Tessa stuttered. N only clutched her tighter.

“I’m sorry…” N whispered. Tessa screwed her eyes shut and wept in N’s arms. After a moment of hesitation, V joined the hug, albeit awkwardly, while Uzi and sentinel/Nori stood to the side.

 

“(I am also here, you know.)” Everyone’s attention turned to the still chained form of Doll.

 

“Oh yeah, you…” Uzi muttered.

Uzi stared at the spot where Cyn was buried, then to Doll, then to N and V still tightly embracing Tessa. “Uuuugh alright, everyone inside so we can sort this out.” Uzi commanded, gesturing to the mansion.

The purple and yellow eyed drone snapped her fingers, and Cyn was torn back up out of the ground. N hastily covered Tessa’s eyes and V gave an angry look to Uzi. The angsty teen snapped again, and Cyn’s form was replaced with that of her original drone body in her maid uniform.

“Spoiled sport,” Cyn pouted.

“Bite me,” Uzi hissed, snapping again and making Doll float up alongside Cyn. The Russian drone seemed to eye the maid version of Cyn with more apprehension than the skin suit one.

 

 

 

Uzi started marching both her prisoners inside the manor but stopped short seeing the still huddled group on the ground. V and Uzi shared an unsure look.

“Take her up to her room,” V whispered to N. The disoriented drone almost stared through V as he looked up.

“Y-Yeah, good idea,” he agreed. Scooping Tessa into his arms N got to his feet. The terrified girl clung to his torso, and gave a brief wide-eyed stare at how high they were off the ground.

N turned and spotted Tessa’s room's window. “Oh yeah, I should probably mention, we can fly now,” N said, his concern never leaving his voice. Tessa’s terrified eyes became even wider,

“Wait wha-AAAH!” Tessa screamed as N sprouted his wings and flew them both up to Tessa’s window.

On the ground, V dragged her hand down her face, groaning. Uzi chuckled. Cyn giggled too, earning glares from everyone still at the manor's entrance.

“This should be… interesting.”

Chapter 2: The Bonds that Tie

Uzi and V took their captives into the manor in silence. Cyn merely stared at Uzi with that infuriating, creepy grin. Doll, meanwhile, stared daggers at V.

Uzi hadn’t gotten to see the entryway in the manor during their frenzied trip through N and V’s memories. A sparkling chandelier hung from the center of the ceiling, which was two stories up. A balcony on the second floor looked down on the front doors, with two curved staircases on either side. If it weren’t for the constant lightning flashing outside, Uzi suspected the place would look more grand and less foreboding. Even Doll forgot her anger towards V as she took in the place.

“Her parents loved this layout,” V whispered bitterly, “They’d have one of us tell them when we saw guests arriving, and then they’d stand at the balcony and pretend to be surprised when we let new arrivals inside. Then they’d descend the staircases on either side to greet them.”

The bitterness in V’s tone said that she’d been given this pointless task more than once. “Wow,” Uzi answered, rolling her eyes. “That is some next level narcissism.” V seemed to freeze at Uzi’s response. The purple and yellow eyed drone looked at her in confusion. V briefly cast a worried glance around the empty room, before blinking, and shaking her head. “Uh… you good?” Uzi asked.

“Speaking against the masters was… punishable,” Cyn said. V folded her arms and didn’t respond to Cyn’s comment. Uzi glared at Cyn, but now understood V’s reaction. Her eyes widened with an idea.

“What’s something you hated cleaning in this room?” Uzi asked. V blinked, giving a sideways, confused glance at Uzi. A conniving grin reached Uzi’s face. V became suspicious.

“Why are you…?” she began but Uzi cut her off.

“Ugh, just find something you hated and destroy it,” Uzi said, giving up on subtlety. V’s expression became incredulous.

“We have the most dangerous threat to drone kind, and a murder happy backstabber…”

“(You’re one to talk,)” Doll hissed. V continued as if she hadn’t been interrupted,

“… and you want to do vandalism?!” V said. Uzi merely blinked with a bored expression,

“How about the carpet? You had to have vacuumed the carpet a few times right?” Uzi asked, gesturing down to the patterned red carpet that seemed to line every floor in the place. V’s mouth hung open and her eye twitched for Uzi ignoring her previous statement.

Uzi gave an annoyed, disappointed look to V, then grinned as she used her free hand to summon the Solver symbol. She waved her hand, and in a fluid motion the red carpet was torn from its placement on the floor and thrown into a heap against the wall.

V’s expression altered to a shocked one as she looked at the mound of torn carpeting against the wall. “My brain, my rules,” Uzi said with a grin.

V blinked once, coming out of her shock, and taking on an unreadable expression. Uzi sighed again. She snapped her fingers, and the carpet zipped back to its original placement, as if it had never been torn.

Uzi made no further comment as they both resumed their walk toward the back of the atrium. “So where do you think we should put these two?” Uzi asked, gesturing to their captives floating just ahead of them. Doll gave an alarmed look to the smiling Cyn next to her. “Separately,” Uzi amended.

V came out of her previous stupor from Uzi tearing the carpet, “There are plenty of guest rooms, but we’re keeping them chained until we know what they can do,” V answered. Uzi nodded agreement.

They reached one of the many doors at the back of the atrium, when V stopped. Uzi frowned but said nothing. V’s right hand then retracted and substituted with her gun arm. Turning around she fired a single shot into the chain holding the chandelier to the ceiling. The ornament came crashing down to the middle of the room, sending sparkling fragments in every direction.

“Dust your own chandelier narcs,” V hissed. Uzi gave a maniacal chuckle and punched V’s arm in comradery.

“Nice!” Uzi complimented. V rolled her eyes but gave a slight grin.

“Can you put that back?” V asked. Uzi’s enthusiasm evaporated, replaced with exasperation. “For Tessa’s sake,” V clarified. Uzi became somber and nodded, snapping her fingers and restoring the chandelier.

“You’re welcome for the catharsis,” Cyn said. Uzi and V glared at the Solver’s host.

“On second thought, I have a better idea where to put her, once we clear some stuff out,” V smirked as she eyed Cyn.

 

 

 

“You are officially two-for-two for poetic justice,” Uzi complimented V as they stood above the basement door. Uzi flicked her wrist, and the hatchway opened. The two jumped down inside, followed by their two floating captives.

“Ah, home sweet home,” Cyn crooned.

“(What is this place?)” Doll asked, eyeing the cluttered basement with its various instruments Cyn had used for constructing the disassembly drones. Doll’s eye especially lingered on the decapitated drone body resting in the chair in the corner.

“Where Cyn made us,” V answered in a flat tone. Doll blinked and said nothing.

“Not for long,” Uzi said as she waved her free hand. A flash of purple light filled the room, and in its wake the basement was turned into a completely empty room.

Uzi waved her hand again and Cyn floated to the room’s center. As she did, purple chains erupted from the ground like outside, binding Cyn to the floor. “We’ll deal with you later,” Uzi hissed, pointing between her own eyes and Cyn.

The Solver possessed drone only grinned, “Don’t forget…” Cyn’s eyes flashed with her yellow Solver symbol, and Doll reacted by shuddering and grunting in pain; the Solver symbol briefly appeared in her good eye before vanishing. “…You may control me, for now, but I control them.”

“Yeah yeah, and I’m sure you’ll try to manipulate me or the others into letting you out later when we need another season,” Uzi snarked, her voice dripping with sarcasm, “Bite me! I won’t be sharing my brain with two psychos and a human forever, but I’m not stupid. So have fun in timeout.” Uzi snapped her fingers and her, V, and Doll flew back up and through the open hatchway.

“See you soon, buddies,” Cyn grinned. Uzi slammed basement door shut.

 

 

 

N easily flew Tessa back to her room thanks to the hole where her window had used to be. The digital double of the manor they were in was still operating off of their memories of the night of the gala. He made a mental note to ask Uzi to fix that, and to check the ballroom BEFORE Tessa did.

“So, uh… you probably have questions,” N said, wincing, as he sat down on the end of Tessa’s bed and set Tessa beside him on his right. She still stayed close, hugging his arm.

“Wh-What did she do to me?” Tessa quivered, looking at her hand.

“Alright, biggest thing first I guess…” N heaved a sigh before continuing, “We’re… currently in a digital copy of the manor right now…” N almost whispered as he braced for Tessa’s reaction.

The girl finally turned away from her hands.

“Wh-What?”

“Yeah, Cyn uh… downloaded your brain, or something, and… that’s why you look different. And all of this…” he gestured to indicate the manor, “is based off our memories of the manor.” Tessa blinked, taking on a hollow, haunted expression.

“W-Well then… c-can you put me back?” N couldn’t bring himself to respond even as his expression of despair gave all the answer the girl needed. Tessa sniffled as she stared at her trembling hands, and N took her into a hug once more.

“Wh-What h-happened, after she t-took me?” Tessa sobbed. N’s mind raced for an answer, not only because he didn’t want to send Tessa over the edge any more than he already had, but also because that was a VERY complicated question.

“She… went on a rampage… and rebuilt me and the others to be her enforcers,” N answered carefully. “But… with some help, we broke free, and eventually Uzi stopped her.” N really hoped Tessa would accept that answer for now. He didn’t want to see how she’d react to news about Earth.

 

“Uzi?” Tessa asked. N gratefully seized on the new topic.

 

“Yeah, she’s a worker drone from Copper-9, which is where we are now, in the real world I mean.” N paused, “And she’s my girlfriend,” he added with a flashy smile. Tessa blinked several times, before…

“You have a girlfriend!?” she squealed as she hugged N even tighter. Normally N would’ve been flustered, but at the moment he was too relieved to see Tessa show happiness.

“Wait! Did you break that little urchin’s control with the power of true love?!” Tessa asked with eager eyes.

“Pretty much,” N shrugged. Tessa squealed again. “Although her rail gun shooting my head off did most of the work,” N added as an afterthought. Tessa blinked again,

“Wait… what?” Tessa asked.

“Ah it was no big deal, it grew back, and it let me think freely long enough to rebel,” N emphasized the last word, along with doing gang signs. Tessa’s expression slipped again as she looked N up and down, then switched back to regarding herself.

“We’ll figure this out, I promise,” N assured, taking Tessa’s hand. Her current avatar had no mouth, but the shape of her eyes told N Tessa was giving a small smile for his assurance.

 

A knock came from the room’s door. “It’s V,” came the voice from outside.

“Come in,” N answered after sharing a nod with Tessa.

“We put Cyn back in the basement,” V said as she entered. N briefly became alarmed, “Without her tools, it’s empty now,” she assured.

“What about Doll?” N asked.

“A guest room, Uzi and Nori are locking her up now,” V answered. The disassembly drone became quiet as she regarded Tessa. The digitized human was similarly silent, taking in V’s new form. The girl blinked once before…

“How the devil do you walk on those?” she asked, staring at V’s pointed feet. V blinked, then chuckled,

“Practice,” V answered. Unseen by Tessa, N nodded to the side while looking at V, indicating she sit on Tessa’s other side. V hesitated, but eventually did so. Tessa suddenly felt very small between the two robots.

“Are… are any of the others here?” Tessa asked. N and V’s faces saddened, remembering all the other worker drones Cyn had enslaved at the manor.

“We were sent out to all the exoplanets. We tried reaching out but… we haven’t heard from anyone else.” V answered. Tessa clutched V’s arm at the news, making the disassembly drone flinch slightly.

“Not even J?” Tessa asked. V avoided eye contact with the girl,

“She… sided with Cyn in the last battle…” V said.

“Wh-What? She… J would never…!” Tessa stuttered.

“Only because she felt hopeless,” N interjected, squeezing Tessa’s hand for emphasis, “And afraid.” Tessa blinked, looking more downcast than ever.

“Is she alive?” Tessa asked in a quiet voice. V took on a pained expression,

“We never found her after the fight so it's... not impossible that she...”

“Yes,” N interrupted with conviction. The human and drone girl turned to N in surprise. V’s expression quickly altered to suspicion.

“N…” V stated with a warning tone. N avoided eye contact.

“Uh… on one of my last patrols I… might’ve, forgotten, to mention… something…” N hedged.

“You found J!?” V shouted.

 

 

 

“Alright, here’s your new room I guess,” Uzi said as she floated Doll inside one of the manor’s seemingly infinite guest rooms. A single person bed with a carved wooden frame rested in the corner. The same ever-present red carpet lined the floor. A large wardrobe occupied the other corner, also made of wood. The whole space easily dwarfed any bedroom Uzi or Doll had stayed in.

At odds with the rest of the room’s more Victorian appearance, was a sleek computer terminal mounted into the wall. Alongside it was a speaker with a call button at the bottom. Looking closer the speaker had the JCJenson logo on it, and Uzi realized it was meant to summon a drone servant. Uzi sneered at the call button and turned away.

“(You are a fool to keep me alive,)” Doll stated. Uzi smirked,

“Finally something we agree on,” Uzi snarked. Doll glared,

“(Me and the human are a distraction, while it finds a way to corrupt you.)” Uzi’s expression darkened.

“You said to fight back, that’s what we’re doing,” Uzi eventually answered as she dropped Doll to the floor. Doll was surprised for herself being released. “Don’t get any ideas, your Solver privileges are revoked.” Uzi said.

Doll flexed her fingers and indeed found her red Solver symbol would not appear before her hand. “(The first smart thing you’ve done with us.)” Uzi rolled her eyes at Doll’s retort and turned to leave.

“(It is only the murder drones who have an attachment to the human,)” Doll said. Uzi stopped halfway out the door. “(You are the one in control now, but it won’t last. You need to make the right choice while you still can.)” Uzi hesitated in the doorway, not turning around.

 

“Don’t tempt me,” she eventually retorted before leaving and locking Doll in the guest room.

 

Uzi stepped outside to sentinel/Nori. Mother and daughter shared a knowing look. “She’s not wrong about the Solver,” Nori stated. Uzi’s eyes widened slightly for her mother’s statement.

“We have the patch now, we can fight,” Uzi said.

“We have part of the patch,” Nori corrected. “We have to be willing to do anything.” Uzi fell silent, folding her arms and avoiding Nori’s eyes.

“Who’s side are you on anyway?” Uzi retorted when she couldn’t think of a rebuttal and stalked away. Not accustomed to Uzi’s brand of snark, Nori took the retort at face value.

“I’m on the side that doesn’t get the planet eaten idiot! Cyn’s murder pets’ feelings aren’t worth risking everyone else!” Nori’s current body added a snarl to her response.

“Stop calling them that!” Uzi snapped back.

“They ripped my heart out I can call them whatever I want!” Sentinel and drone glared at each other. “You have to be ready to put those two down if we need to,” Nori hissed, her avatar’s purple eyes narrowing. Uzi’s eyes sparked in return,

“This is my brain. You don’t get to tell me what to do in here,” Uzi answered in a quieter but no less antagonistic tone. Sentinel/Nori glared, then flexed her razor claw fingers; A solver symbol appeared in front of her hand.

“I can do a lot more than you think, and I will if I have to,” Nori hissed back. Uzi flexed her fingers too, making her yellow and purple symbols float before her hands. Drone and sentinel stared each other down, until…

“Uzi! There you are, Tessa asked to… uh…” the newly arrived N trailed off, seeing the standoff between mother and daughter. The two turned in unison to N, making the disassembly drone shrink away from their fierce glares.

“Buzz off murder pet, we’re busy,” Nori snarked. N gave a forced smile and a thumbs up as he slowly backed around the corner he’d just come from.

“Nope, we’re done here,” Uzi snapped in a deathly whisper, refusing to look at her mother. The angsty teen quickly joined N, taking his hand and guiding them both away from the stunned Nori.

 

After they’d put a hallway between themselves and Nori, N spoke up. “Uh, Uzi… maybe you should…”

“N…! Don’t even go there,” Uzi warned. N’s brow furrowed in concern, but he said nothing. “What did you want?” Uzi asked, steering the conversation somewhere else.

“Oh yeah, Tessa wants to meet you,” N said with a bright smile. Uzi’s expression became grim, before she shook her head and nodded.

“Right, yeah… can’t wait to meet a human for the second-first-time,” Uzi said with a weak attempt at humor.

“Oh yeah, also, I should probably mention it before V does, uh… I found J a while ago and she made me promise not to tell anyone,” N said with a braced smile.

“You what!?”

Chapter 3: Dead Ends

After a quick knock, N pushed the door open and ushered Uzi inside. The purple haired teen entered with a wary expression. Tessa rose from where she’d been sitting on the foot of her bed with V.

“Uzi, meet Tessa James Elliot. She saved all of us from the trash bin and was the best owner a drone could ask for,” N introduced Tessa. The silhouette girl brightened at the praise. “Tessa, meet Uzi, vanquisher of the Solver, savior of Copper-9, and my girlfriend!” N introduced Uzi.

A brief silence that everyone except the smiling N was aware of followed, before…

“Ohhh! You’re so cute!” Tessa crooned as she picked up Uzi by her cheeks. N and V were shocked into wide eyed silence.

“Hey! Hands off!” Uzi swatted both Tessa’s hands away and used her Solver powers to push the girl back a foot from her.

 

Seeing the Solver symbol, Tessa’s eyes widened in terror as she took several further steps backward from Uzi on her own accord. “It’s okay, she has the powers but she’s on our side. It’s how she was able to beat… her,” N hastily assured. V placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder and nodded to N’s statement.

 

Another silence followed. Uzi became sheepish and slightly guilty for her outburst. At least she hadn’t bitten her finger this time. “N said you freed them from Cyn,” Tessa spoke up. Uzi blinked, rubbing her other arm.

“More or less… It was a team effort,” Uzi said, surprising V with her humility. Seeing an opportunity, a sly smile came to V’s face,

“If by ‘more or less’ you mean I did all the work while you two made goo-goo eyes at each other,” V snarked, gesturing between Uzi and N. Pixel highlights appeared on Uzi’s cheeks as she glared at V.

“Shut up! I did all the important stuff! You were a cool side character at best, and third wheel at worst,” Uzi retorted. V chuckled at Uzi’s flustering. Tessa looked between V and the smiling N and relaxed.

“Well, thank you, for helping them,” Tessa said.

Uzi turned back to Tessa in surprise. After all her previous hatred towards humans, (which was totally justified and not at all xenophobic,) it felt odd to be thanked by one. Then again, Uzi wasn’t sure if Tessa counted as human anymore.

“Yeah well… they were the first drones I met to not completely treat me like crap,” Uzi muttered. V smirked and N grinned at Uzi’s begrudging gratitude.

 

“So… what’s your job on Copper-9?” Tessa asked. N and V tensed at the question.

“Uh… I’m a teen, I don’t have one yet,” Uzi deadpanned with a confused look. Tessa frowned and started to speak up again when N stepped between them.

“Th-Things are different on Copper-9, there aren’t any humans here, anymore, and the drones have their own society and stuff,” N hastily clarified. Tessa frowned for a long time up at N. Uzi did the same, until her eyes sparked in understanding,

“Wait a minute! Was she asking what JCJenson slave labor job I…?!”

“Relax angsty,” V interrupted Uzi’s angry retort, “Drones hadn’t ever started colonies in our time.”

“Colonies?” Tessa asked, her eyes wide. “You started a colony on one of the exoplanets?”

“Yeah, after…!” Uzi began but N interrupted again.

“After the… uh, humans… made the planet unlivable, all the worker drones banded together and started a little bunker society! Yay!” N said with a strained smile. Uzi gave him a knowing look, realizing he hadn’t explained the full scope of Cyn’s actions yet. Luckily for N, Tessa was still too starry eyed at the news of a drone society to notice.

“That’s incredible! Good on ya girl!” Tessa said to Uzi with an excited expression.

“Uh… thanks?” was all the purple haired teen could respond with, but a slight smile graced her face just the same.

“I always said you lot were smarter than people gave you credit for,” Tessa added in a matter-of-fact tone. Uzi’s smile was quickly replaced with an annoyed smirk. She started to open her mouth to respond, but a warning look from V and a pleading one from N made her stay quiet.

“Right… well uh… thanks for keeping these two idiots safe like you did,” Uzi eventually responded.

“Same to you,” Tessa said back. Uzi chuckled.

“Okay, but really, you’ve got to tell me everything! What’s your colony like!? Do you have sports?! Fine arts?! Fencing!?” Tessa peppered Uzi with questions. Before Uzi could respond a knock at the door interrupted them.

 

Sentinel/Nori entered without a response. Tessa’s stream of questions were immediately silenced. The girl stared at the sentinel with wide eyes.

“Time’s up kids. Uzi’s brain can’t handle this kind of strain forever,” Nori said.

“I feel fine mom,” Uzi ground out. Tessa’s eyes widened even further.

“This isn’t how she normally looks,” V said to Tessa. The girl blinked once, her expression becoming less shocked.

“Yeah, in the real world she’s a drone heart with crab legs,” N helpfully informed. Tessa went back to looking shocked. V facepalmed.

After a pause, Tessa realized something. “W-Wait, your mind?” Tessa asked, looking at Uzi. The purple/yellow eyed drone shrugged,

“Yup, this is just a segment of programming Cyn made to try and ambush us,” Uzi said. Tessa’s expression went from shock to fear,

“Wh-What does that mean for me?” Tessa asked. N placed a hand on Tessa’s shoulder, which she grasped. Everyone turned to Nori.

“Can this place run as a secondary program?” V asked. Sentinel/Nori’s eyes narrowed.

“The Solver grants greater processing power, but…” Nori trailed off as Tessa frantically looked between N and V.

“Wh-What happens if you turn me off?” Tessa asked. Nori’s sentinel eyes widened at the girl’s question. She hadn’t expected her to follow along.

“You won’t die, Cyn needs you,” Nori answered. The other drones tensed, with V adopting a glare toward Nori. Uzi saw the worried look N carried for Tessa and spoke up,

“I can do it.” Everyone turned to Uzi, “I’ll just run a little slower, no big deal.” Uzi saw her statement get varied reactions.

Tessa looked relieved and surprised. N was giving one of his usual (definitely not at all cute) appreciative smiles. V was giving her a measuring look, that may or may not have been concerned. Sentinel/Nori was harder to read due to her form, but her stare was piercing none the less.

“Fine, but the rest of us need to clear out,” Nori eventually answered.

“Alright, I have somewhere to be anyway,” V answered, giving an annoyed sideways glare to N. Nori eyed both disassembly drones with suspicion before continuing,

“Great, you do that.” Sentinel Nori waved her hand, and V disappeared. Tessa gave a quiet gasp and half-heartedly reached where V had just been standing.

“It’ll be alright Tessa,” N got down to one knee again, placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder. She turned to him with a terrified expression, before hugging him.

“Promise you’ll both come back,” she whispered. N returned the hug just as fiercely,

“I promise.” Off to the side, Uzi and Nori shared another piercing stare with each other, saying nothing.

“Alright, your turn murder pet,” Nori said after a pause, earning another glare from Uzi.

“Allow me,” Uzi interrupted, waving both her hands and causing both sentinel/Nori and N to disappear.

 

Tessa’s fearful expression became blank as the girl’s right hand began rubbing her left wrist.

“If you need anything, just say darkXwolf17 and I’ll get the notification.” Uzi said, snapping Tessa out of her stupor. The girl blinked once,

“Okay…?” she answered, but Uzi did not elaborate further on the origin of the name. An awkward pause followed for the only two remaining beings.

“Well… I… should be going,” Uzi said, raising her Solver powered hand.

“Uzi,” The purple/yellow eyed drone stopped, turning back to the silhouette girl, “Thank you, for… uh… sharing your processor.” Uzi blinked, at a loss how to respond as her mother’s and Doll’s warnings flashed through her mind.

“Yeah, uh… don’t mention it,” Uzi responded lamely, “See ya around… and steer clear of the basement.” With that, Uzi waved her hand and disappeared.

 

 

 

The difference Uzi felt when she exited vs. when she’d entered her mindscape was stark. Her left eye appeared on her visor instantly, while her right eye was replaced with a buffering symbol. Her bedroom door opened, and Khan re-entered. He started to ask if they’d succeeded but seeing the others crowded around the room looking at Uzi with quiet concern told him enough.

“Uzi, you okay?” N’s voice took on a faraway sound to the purple haired drone.

“Yeah, never… better,” Uzi waved a lazy hand at N’s concerns. Uzi quickly proved this sentiment wrong as her head tipped to the side and landed on N’s shoulder.

“Uh, honey?” Khan turned to drone heart still stationed at Uzi’s desk.

“I’m working on it,” Nori replied with a blunt tone, not turning around from where she typed at the computer.

V looked at the swooning Uzi, then to N. “I’m going to find someone who might help,” V told Khan as she got to her feet.

“Someone else who can…?” Khan began to ask.

“The third murder pet,” Nori said, still not turning around. N and V tensed briefly but said nothing. The buffering symbol disappeared on Uzi’s eye and her dizziness went away as she stood.

“I’m good now, come on N, let’s help V look for…” Uzi started to say with a bitter undertone, before,

“Oh no you don’t!” Nori finally turned away from the computer, “You are not going anywhere Doorman. Your brain is hopscotching between four A.I.s and an eldritch being, you’re not going anywhere.”

“I’ll go where I want and you can’t stop me!” Uzi retorted. Nori’s one eye glared at the stubborn teen,

“Khan! Tell our daughter that as long as she’s holding the scourge of drone kind in her brain she will do as she’s told!” Nori shouted. Khan blinked once, surprised and looking slightly alarmed at being addressed.

“Um… I’m afraid your mother’s the authority on this kiddo, so if she says…” Khan said.

“You know what? Screw both of you!” Uzi shouted, “And both of you can take your authority and shove it up your…!”

“Shut up! All of you!” V’s screech silenced everyone. “I don’t care what any of your messed up family has to say. I’m going alone.”

“But…!” N started to protest,

“Me and J worked together the longest,” V continued over N, “If she’ll listen to anyone, it’ll be me. I’ll find out if she knows anything that can help. And you…” V leveled a razor claw finger at N, “Are staying here, and keeping an eye on these idiots,” V gestured to Uzi’s family. Khan hastily moved aside as V turned and left the room.

Uzi soon marched out right after her. “Uzi Doorman!” Nori threw out a Solver symbol, which Uzi deflected with her own,

“Just because I can’t leave the bunker doesn’t mean I have to sit here,” Uzi hissed as she left the room. N quickly realized he was the only one left between the two parents. Khan gave a silent nod to the side indicating N should leave. The disassembly drone gratefully complied.

 

 

 

V stalked the hallway leading toward the bunker’s exit. The worker drones hastily cleared the path in front of her. V looked down and realized her three-clawed hand used for maiming was still active. She stared at it for a moment as she walked; she left it on.

“So how’d it go?” Lizzy left her place from where she’d been leaning on her locker texting. V stared straight ahead, ignoring her. “That bad huh,” Lizzy surmised. Still no response. “Look, I just wanna know if the planet’s gunna try and eat us again,” she demanded.

“No, and we’re working to keep it that way,” V grunted.

“Alright,” Lizzy shrugged, finding a new place to lean and going back to her phone, “Let me know if I can help or whatever,” she yawned. V’s pace never ceased as she left Lizzy, but her eyes strayed back down to her clawed hand. The sharpened appendage retracted and was replaced with her normal hand.

“I’ll keep you posted,” V said over her shoulder. Lizzy merely gave a lazy salute as the disassembly drone left the bunker.

 

 

 

“So… did something happen in there or…?” Khan asked after a lengthy pause. Nori’s typing became more ferocious, filling Uzi’s bedroom with its clacking.

“Just that our kid still hasn’t learned to take the Solver seriously,” Nori bit out. The drone heart proceeded to explain the hostage system Cyn had used to avoid being deleted.

“Ah, so she… it… is using Yeva’s kid and the murder drones’ old owner as a barricade,” Khan supplied.

“More like a smokescreen,” Nori bit out, “One that we should be walking through right now!” she hissed. Khan flinched slightly under his wife’s tone, remembering old arguments from years past.

“Is… that what you’re doing now?” Khan asked. Nori gave a long-suffering sigh,

“No honey, right now I’m double checking everything to prove what I already know.”

“Which is?” Khan asked.

“That the fragments of the patch inside our daughter aren’t enough to free Cyn’s hostages, and that our only option is erasing all of them.” Despite her frustration, Khan could hear a deeper layer of sadness underlining Nori’s voice for that outcome.

“What about you? You got the full patch… thing… right?” Khan asked. Nori’s typing ceased as she stared down at one of her claw legs.

“I tried, but ever since… this…” she gestured to herself, “I’m more Solver than drone now. I kept my immunity, but anything duplicatable was… lost with the old me.”

Khan’s face became ashen at his wife’s saddened tone. He started to move to hug her, but she quickly resumed her typing.

“Well… you never know, maybe there is a solution that doesn’t involve murdering two kids to stop an eldritch monster,” Khan said in an optimistic voice at odds with their dark situation. Nori made no response as she looked over the data for Uzi’s currently crowded brain.

Khan’s brow furrowed with worry at his wife’s silence, and he adopted a softer tone,

“If anyone can find a way, it’s you honey,” he said, coming up to stand alongside the desk and place a hand on one of Nori’s claws. Nori’s single eye looked up with an expression of a small smile. “I’ll let you work,” Khan said as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

Chapter 4: Rebellion

The moment after Uzi disappeared from the mindscape like the others, Tessa immediately felt a crushing sense of loneliness. The knowledge that N, V… J… and all the others weren’t in the manor was alien to her; her friends had always been with her.

Looking down at her black silhouette form, Tessa’s mind was further thrown into despair. The idea that this wasn’t the manor, that she was currently inside a worker drone’s CPU, was only just now starting to sink in. That… and the image of Cyn wearing her face. Tessa staggered before sinking to the floor and leaning against her bedframe. Pulling her knees to her face, she wept.

The day had started better than most, at least by her standards. They’d been preparing for the gala for weeks. Everything had been dusted and cleaned even more thoroughly than usual. Mother and father had even forgotten to threaten to throw away all of her broken friends in the library. They’d even finally relented to her begging to meet other humans for the first time.

She was finally going to make some real friends…

Tessa gasped, her eyes widening in horror for her thoughts. Her hand, which had been caressing her wounded wrist tightened, causing a spike of pain, but she accepted it. Her drones were real. Despite what her parents said she knew they were real.

 

Her parents…

 

Yet another train of thought entered her crowded mind. They were gone.

This wasn’t the manor. She was on one of the exoplanets. Even if they’d somehow survived the gala (which she doubted, given N and V’s demeanor) they weren’t here. Where before Tessa had felt despair of being alone, now she was disarmed in a completely different way.

Her parents were gone.

Tessa’s mind could only play that thought over and over on repeat, like a skipping record in the ballroom. Tessa didn’t know how to feel, to react. Her parents… had controlled her entire world. She longed for their love, she avoided their wrath, she’d made it her mission to protect her robotic friends from them. Everything about her life had either directly or indirectly been dictated by them… and now they were just… gone.

Tessa wasn’t sure when she’d gotten back to her feet. Her broken record brain couldn’t get past the paradox. The despair from before was gone, but nothing had replaced it. Numbly, Tessa faced her room’s door.

Grappling for a solution, Tessa’s mind personified her inability to process her parents’ absence onto the door. Yes, somehow, her mind could accept that her currently closed door would open onto the truth.

As she stood facing her room’s exit, Tessa’s mind conjured two images of herself.

One of her opening the door, and her mother standing just outside, furiously demanding what she was doing, and the other, where the imperious woman wasn’t there, and she could cross the threshold into… whatever life was like without them.

Swallowing hard, Tessa raised her trembling hand to the door but hesitated. Even now, her mind was still skipping on its track. How long she stood there, frozen, she didn’t know, but a crack of lightning startled her into movement. With the scare, her eyes flashed into determined slits. Seizing the doorknob, she twisted with extreme prejudice and threw the door open. No one stood beyond.

Suddenly, seized by a primal instinct, Tessa left her room, taking long strides and not even sure of her destination. She rounded corners and walked through hallways, her pace gaining speed. Finally, she came out onto the balcony overlooking the atrium. Two of her family’s many antique suits of knight armor stood vigil at either staircase that reached the manor’s entrance. She’d seen her parents practice their ‘surprised’ greeting of guests and their slow descent from on high to meet visitors.

Never breaking her stride, Tessa soon stood before the knight on the right side of the staircase. Here though, her resolve faltered as her previous primal intent clarified. The part of her that cringed in fear screamed at her to cease her foolishness and return to her room. The girl’s breathing became rapid at the rebellious attitude she’d adopted, and her hand clutched her chest. She turned and looked back at the pristine, shining armor… and saw her face… or lack thereof… reflected back at her.

The silhouette’s featureless white eyes widened, taking on a hollow quality. She stepped backward until she could see her full reflection. Her body, devoid of light and color.

She felt her voice of panicked caution in her mind wither under the stark reminder. Despite not being able to see it, Tessa felt tears burn in her eyes and travel down her face.

In a blur of motion Tessa latched onto the suit’s arms and heaved until its own gravity carried it sideways… and then smashing down the stairs, breaking into its component parts as its metallic destruction echoed around the manor.

Tessa barely waited to see the pieces reach the bottom before marching to the companion armor on the other staircase, wiping her arm across her face as she went. Tessa heaved the thing over, this time with a guttural scream that was equal parts sadness and rage. This time she watched until every piece had reached the bottom of the stairs. With the knights’ destruction done, Tessa merely stood there, breathing heavily, before sinking to her knees.

The noise of the falling armor had acted as a release. Tessa found herself torn between despair and an agonizing relief, as she wept. Even as she did it, she felt confused at her grief. She’d hated her parents, for as long as she could remember, and now she was mourning them.

After a moment, whether for a few seconds or a few minutes Tessa didn’t know, a new thought eventually blossomed in her.

 

She was free.

 

Reaching up, Tessa grasped the balcony railing and pulled herself to her feet. She’d collapsed in the middle of the balcony and now overlooked the entrance doors dead on. Looking down, she could see the two piles of destroyed armor on the atrium floor to her left and right. The silhouette girl took on a straighter posture, but for the first time it wasn’t forced. Tessa threw her arms wide and leaned on the railing, leering down at the atrium below.

“Welcome to Elliot Manor, gents!” she proclaimed to the empty room. Her voice was still hitched from crying, but there was a strength bubbling beneath it. “Hope your excited…” Tessa’s eyes narrowed, and her voice became a quiet hiss, “cause there’s been a change in management.”

 

 

 

“So… where are we going?” N asked delicately as he was dragged along by the stomping Uzi. N’s question seemed to snap Uzi out of her anger as her pace slowed.

“Just… somewhere quiet,” Uzi muttered.

“School’s out, how about a classroom?” N suggested. Uzi’s pace slowed enough that the two were now side-by-side. She gave a small, appreciative smile, and nodded.

Once at their destination Uzi flopped into the nearest chair and slumped over its desk. N took the neighboring chair, crossing his arms and leaning on his desk. For a minute or two they both sat in silence.

“We’ll figure out how to save Doll and Tessa,” N eventually said. Dangling over her desk’s edge, Uzi’s hands suddenly clenched. N frowned with worry at the gesture, wishing he knew what to say. “And… I’m sure you and your mom we’ll figure things out,” he added. That got a worse reaction as Uzi’s arms folded onto her desk and she clutched at her hair. N’s own hands fidgeted, “Right, sorry, you wanted quiet, shutting up now,” N said, looking defeated.

Uzi finally looked up from her arms at the guilty looking disassembly drone.

“Look… it’s not you, okay?” Uzi said. N looked back with a relieved smile and surprised expression. Uzi gave a weary smile for his reaction. “I… it’s just…” Uzi started to explain but trailed off, her expression riddled with uncertainty and fear. N remained silent, waiting expectantly. “Why…” Uzi hesitated, then pressed on, “Why didn’t you kill me when Cyn took me over?” Uzi asked. N’s eyes widened, blindsided by the question. His expression soon altered into a confused frown, but seeing Uzi’s desperation, N felt obligated to answer.

“I…” N hesitated, staring off into space, “I couldn’t. Not after all we’d been through,” N answered. N wasn’t sure if that had been the answer Uzi wanted to hear, but it was the truth. Uzi didn’t seem to react at first, only staring at him, before a few pixel tears ran down her visor. She blinked once, clearing her eyes, becoming stone-faced.

“Thanks…” was all she managed to say in response. Again, N frowned at her with worry.

“Uzi… what’s wrong?” N asked, “I mean… aside from the eldritch demon in your brain basement,” he added. Uzi frowned too, only hers was one of stress and fear.

“N… I… I might have to…”

“There you kids are!” N and Uzi turned to Khan standing in the doorway. “I was worried you’d left the bunker after all.”

“No sir,” N responded. Uzi slumped her head back over her desk and responded,  

“No, I didn’t. So you can run back to mom and tell her to suck it,” she hissed.

An awkward silence fell over the three after Uzi’s statement. Khan hovered in the doorway, not sure whether to leave or not. N tried to share a look with Uzi, but her head was buried in her folded arms again. Looking back to Khan, N silently got up from his desk and gave a nod to him as he passed out of the room. N only got a brief snatch of conversation as he left,

“Your mom told me about your argument…”

 

N continued on down the hallway, not wanting to eavesdrop on a family moment. As he rounded the corner though, the weight of those snatched words hit him. Uzi’s question, her reaction, why he’d spared her…

N stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widening in horror. He knew Uzi wouldn’t kill Tessa. He’d seen so when Cyn had revealed them. But Nori…

N now hovered in uncertainty. He looked over his shoulder back the way he’d come, to the conflicted Uzi. His eyes became hollow… before narrowing into determined slits. N resumed his path, doubling his stride and taking on a grim scowl as he headed back for Uzi’s room.

 

 

 

Nori closed the simulation with a sigh. She wished she could settle her conscience just as easily. It was settled, they couldn’t save Cyn’s hostages. The patch remnants inside Uzi weren’t enough to cure, only purge.

The door behind Nori slid open. The drone heart’s mono-eye closed with a weary expression. Nori tried her best to adopt a calm voice as she scuttled onto the headrest of Uzi’s desk chair. “Look… I just went over things and…”

“We’re not killing Tessa.” Nori’s eye snapped open as she whipped around. N stood in the doorway, his expression determined, and his fists clenched at his sides. Nori’s surprise waned quickly as she scowled,

“Guess my kid doesn’t understand pragmatism or family privacy,” Nori snarked.

“She didn’t tell me, I figured it out,” N stated.

“I thought you were the dumb one,” Nori said, making a weak attempt at humor. N’s expression remained grim and unchanged. The lack of reaction irked Nori more than she would’ve thought.

“We can’t save them,” she stated.

“Yes we can, we just have to find another way.”

“There is no other way!” Nori stamped one of her claws. “I studied the lab’s research on the Solver for years! I know what’s possible, and I’m telling you it’s not!”

“Then… Then we’ll find a solution the humans didn’t think of,” N responded.

“While that little brat burns down my daughter’s mind from the inside?!” Nori snapped. N’s expression finally faltered in his determination.

“I… I can’t… I won’t… lose Tessa again…” N’s voice took on a hard edge on the word won’t. Unfortunately, Nori’s stress made the drone heart take it as a threat.

 

“You seemed fine cutting her head off when you thought it was her before,” Nori muttered.

 

N blinked, stunned shock covering his face… before his right eye was replaced with a large X.

In a blur of motion, the murder drone had taken Uzi’s desk chair in a vice grip and slammed it up against the opposite wall. Nori jostled on the headrest, nearly falling off, and soon found her mono-eye less than an inch from N’s face. The murder drone’s single remaining eye had lost its confliction and taken on a fierce glare.

“I thought she’d changed, become like her parents. The Tessa I knew would’ve done everything to save Uzi. I knew the thing I killed wasn’t Tessa, even if I didn’t know why.” N’s voice was a dark whisper.

Nori blinked, too shocked to even summon her Solver powers. Her surprise only grew when she looked down and saw N’s other arm had its sword drawn. Seeing the weapon snapped Nori out of her shock as she flexed one of her claws. The Solver symbol appeared, picking up the cinder block they'd used to hold down Uzi's possessed tail. N didn’t react.

“If that’s true, then she’ll know there’s only one way to finish this,” Nori said, a slight quiver in her otherwise stern voice. N’s glare deepened, and his grasp on the desk chair made an audible tightening of the fabric.

 

“Like how killing Uzi was the only way?” N asked.

 

Now it was Nori’s turn to look furious. The floating cinder block flew forward, bashing N's head and sending him flying across the room. The disassembly drone was laid out flat on the floor, his sword arm pinned down by the Solver held cinder block.

Nori leapt from her perch on the chair and landed on N’s chest.

“I sacrificed everything to help her. My body, my family, everything!” Nori hissed, “So don’t you dare lecture me!” N stared down the drone heart’s mono-eye, his X eye flickering back to his normal one, revealing the same determined expression. His tone was calm as he responded,

“And Tessa did the same for me. For all of us. Her folks… they treated us like we were nothing. Even when they’d lock her up for helping us… punish her for it… she kept us safe. We… I… didn’t fight back then… even when we should’ve… I refuse to let her get hurt again.” Nori maintained her fierce stare, as did N. For a moment neither spoke.

Eventually, the drone heart’s glare softened, and the Solver symbol holding the cinder block disappeared. “It can’t be done… I’m sorry,” Nori said.

“We’ll find a way,” N insisted. Nori dragged one of her claws down her face, growling in frustration. “We can at least wait until V and J get back,” N relented. Nori sighed.

“Fine,” she waved a claw arm in exasperation.

Nori soon returned to her place on Uzi’s desk, and N shoved the cinder block aside and stood up to leave. With a partial victory attained, N returned to looking uncertain. “Sorry for what I said,” N apologized. Nori was facing the opposite way, tapping her claw in boredom and agitation now that her computer work was done.

“Yeah, uh… me too, I guess…” the drone heart muttered. Nori turned around as she finished with, “Glad to see you have a backbone, even if you don’t have a brain.” N smiled just the same.

 

 

 

Right as N left the classroom, Khan cautiously spoke up. “Your mom told me about your argument…” Uzi let out a half groan half whine.

“Dad, I’m not in the mood for another ‘bigger picture’ argument.” Khan placed his hands on his hips and adopted an unsure stance.

“Well I’m… hardly the expert on all this… but, at the risk of your mother’s wrath, I was going to say I think you’re doing the right thing.” Khan said. Uzi ceased clutching at her hair and sat up with wide eyes.

“Wait… really?” Uzi asked. A small smile appeared on Khan’s face for her finally looking at him.

“The other two didn’t ask to be there, and from what I understand the er… human, was trying to help our kind before she died.” Khan said. Uzi stared at the floor with a frown, not for Khan, but her mixed feelings on Tessa.

“To be honest I can’t say I’m all that concerned for Doll after she nearly killed you and your friends,” Khan continued. Uzi smirked, wanting to agree with the sentiment, but knowing she didn’t have much room to talk after her camping rampage. A silence followed between father and daughter, until Uzi spoke up,

“Thanks… dad. I’m… kinda surprised you didn’t take mom’s side.” Khan’s face fell and his eyes looked away.

“Well… it’s not the same, but… the last time I justified leaving someone behind with protecting everyone else… was the biggest mistake of my life.”

A heavy silence followed Khan’s admission. Silently, Uzi got up from her desk and approached her father, taking his hand. Khan looked back in surprise at the gesture. Uzi gave a small smile and a nod. Khan broke into a relieved smile of his own and hugged his daughter.

“Alright, alright,” Uzi droned, giving exaggerated pats on Khan’s back and rolling her eyes, but her smile only grew. 

Khan cleared his throat as they separated, “Right yeah… Anyway, sorry I can’t be more help.”

“Not unless you’ve got some spare Solver crucifix patch lying around,” Uzi snarked. Khan gave a dry chuckle,

“Fresh out I’m afraid,” he shrugged. The worker drone blinked once before frowning and holding his chin, “You inherited yours from your mom,” he stated. Uzi raised a bemused eyebrow,

“Last I checked,” she intoned.

“And that was why you were able to use those freaky witch powers without getting possessed right?” Khan asked. Uzi nodded.

“That’s what Doll was doing when she tore up the prom, right?” Khan asked. Uzi nodded again, frowning.

Doll’s body was long dead. Nori had already tried to salvage what was left of the patch from both her and her mother’s corpses. What little she’d gotten had already been transferred to Uzi, something the teenaged drone tried very hard not to think about. Khan had been there for all of it though, so why was he bringing it up now. Uzi was about to voice said question, before her eyes lit up with understanding. They’d only investigated the corpses because at the time they’d thought that was all that was left, but now…

Uzi smacked the side of her head, “HOLY SH--!” Uzi’s exclamation was cut off as she sank to the floor on one knee.

“Uzi!?” Khan asked, bracing his daughter. The teen drone’s right eye was replaced with a buffering symbol again. Uzi’s voice became loopy again as she leaned against her dad’s arm.

“Y-u… are a gen--s,” Uzi tried to point with her finger, but her arm only swung haphazardly. “We g-tta… t-ll mom… so-ner… bett-r…” Uzi shook her head and regained some of her focus, “W-at t-e f--- are th-y d-doing in th-there?” Uzi growled, clutching her head. Khan chuckled and pretended to not know what his daughter had been trying to say as he got under her arm and raised Uzi to her feet.

Chapter 5: Friends?

Notes:

I'm sick right now, so shorter chapter with only one POV this time, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

When I next update this I'll probably just add on one or two additional scenes to this chapter rather than starting a new one.

October 4th EDIT: Added another scene, since I've been too busy to make a full chapter.

October 22nd EDIT: Single cliffhanger at end of chapter.

Happy Reading! :)

V glided silently through the night air. The ruinous landscape of Copper-9 had become even more desolate after their final fight with Cyn. With space debris having rained from the sky what had once been just a crumbling cityscape had become a crumbling city scape with a Swiss cheese assortment of craters.

N had already told her where he’d found J. Her fellow disassembly drone had unsurprisingly attacked N, and only spared him when she realized his not returning would prompt further searching from the rest of them, something N had, as usual, been concerningly calm in recounting. J had let him go with the promise that he wouldn’t tell anyone where she was. V smirked at that thought and figured J wouldn’t be surprised when she turned up.

No, what really concerned V was that J was trying to leave. It could just be she wanted off Copper-9, which V would understand given all the traumatic things she’d been put through on the exoplanet. Or, more concerningly, she was still following the orders of the Solver, and perhaps was trying to leave to gather any of the other disassembly drones as reinforcements to defeat the Solver’s enemies. V really hoped J wasn’t still on the Solver’s leash. Despite being on opposing sides, V had never wanted to be enemies with her, and after getting all her memories back, she knew how much J had suffered, perhaps more than any of them.

V's internal map pinged, telling her she was approaching her destination. One way or another, she’d find out soon.

Looming on the horizon was JCJenson’s main production facility on Copper-9, designation 10292021. Its main export had been, unsurprisingly, copper, and other mined metals from the exoplanet. The massive structure housed dozens of floors. A few upper levels sported office windows, but the rest had long industrial ones that opened purely for ventilation, which were either blacked out with soot or smashed in from the atmosphere’s destruction. Numerous huge smokestacks stabbed into the sky, which had at one time pumped black fumes into the air. Made largely of metal, patches of rust adorned various places around the facility. Even with her disdain towards her old parent company, V still couldn’t help but marvel at how the facility only got larger the closer she flew; she suspected the bunker colony could’ve fit inside the place several times over.

V's primary interest, however, was on the building’s right side. A circular, concrete landing pad painted with reflective yellow stripes that could house several JCJenson delivery shuttles at a time. Said pill shaped ships were then loaded up by the worker drones (Uzi’s comment about slave labor echoed through V’s mind) then shipped off back to earth. With the facility running right up until the humans’ extinction, three of those shuttles were still present.

V knew them well, as one of her first jobs upon landing was to render them inoperable and thus prevent and workers escaping. Normally she would’ve relished the chance to destroy them with extreme prejudice (at least that’s what she’d used to tell herself) but, her hunger had been running high at the time, and the worker drones escaping the factory had been getting away. So, she’d settled for severing the shuttles’ fuel lines and letting them drain out onto the tarmac while she hunted workers.

It seemed J remembered this, as the tarmac was littered with engine parts and other components of one of the shuttles trailing into the building. After what Cyn had done to their own craft V wasn’t surprised.

A part of V’s old sadistic self recalled with a twisted pride the mountain of bodies she’d created within one of the factory’s assembly bays. It may not have been as tall as their later spires, but it had reached the ceiling of the bay, and once it had been hollowed out, it made a cave you could (and apparently J already had) park a shuttle inside.

V approached the edge of the several foot wide landing pad and landed. Against her instincts, she let her hands default to her normal ones rather than any of her weapons. She was trying to come in peace after all. Feeling her better judgement scream at her, she slowly and deliberately walked from the landing pad’s edge towards its center.

Aside for the blustering frigid winds of the exoplanet, the only sound was the clinking steps of V’s pointed feet along the concrete. V’s eyes darted back and forth between two of the shuttles, perfect ambush points.

Beads of pixelated sweat began to run down V’s visor as she neared the halfway point. A few more steps and she’d be directly between them both. If J was waiting in either one, she could pounce while her attention was on the other. V couldn’t watch both at the same time. Her hands twitched with the burning desire to summon a gun, a sword, anything.

She continued her pace… until she was between the two shuttles…

Nothing.

V was running more on autopilot now as she continued her slow pacing towards the factory bay that housed the corpse cave. V looked over her shoulder at the two shuttles. Maybe J hadn’t been expecting her.

 

RATATATATA!

 

A barrage of bullets raked across V’s left side. Her wings sprouted from her back and shielded her, but not before taking a few shots to the left arm, rendering it useless. “Oh forget it!” V growled more in annoyance than pain, making her remaining arm summon its own gun function.

Bracing her feet V parted her wing shield just enough to allow her gun barrel to fit through and return fire. The action only took a second from when she’d been hit, but when she peaked through, she saw not more gunfire, but a missile headed towards her.

 

V’s eyes hollowed into circles of terror as she took to the air to buy herself time. Flying away, she managed to shoot the missile tailing her and make it detonate before it reached her. The shockwave still threw her off slightly, forcing her to correct her flight. Just as she leveled off, she was hit hard between her wings.

“You’ve gotten sloppy,” J hissed as she kicked V downward. V was thrown into a nosedive and only barely managed to level off and skitter rather than crash outright along the landing pad. J never ceased her barrage as she summoned her laser rifle to send an energized green beam streaking along the concrete. V got to her feet and panickily jetted to the side toward one of the landing shuttles for cover. J swung wide with her laser beam in an attempt to cut V’s wings off. But V retracted them before she could and tucked into a roll, making it behind the leftward shuttle.

 

Now behind cover, V tore off her bullet riddled arm to hasten its regrowth while keeping her back to the shuttle and looking both left, and right, and up for J’s approach. Suddenly an explosion rocked the inside of the shuttle V had her back to. Realizing her error, V turned around and faced the vehicle.

A piece of its outer hull blasted outward, nearly taking V’s head off as she only barely ducked to the side. J had chosen to go through the shuttle rather than around it.

No sooner had the metal plate blown off the shuttle than three more missiles came from the ship’s interior. V repeated her trick from before and shot down all three with her good arm, this time avoiding the shockwave off balancing her. Through the smoke of the missiles, V saw a dark silhouette racing towards her.

V fired off her gun arm, but with the smokescreen hiding J, she couldn’t get a clear shot. J caught up to her, slicing V’s gun barrel clean off with her sword. J then slammed V to the ground, pinning her good arm down with her foot. V’s eyes widened as her left arm was still growing back and was currently useless. Thinking fast, she swung her acid spike tail toward J’s feet, but J summoned her other sword arm and sliced the acid vial clean off. J stood triumphant over V, breathing heavily,

“Didn’t think… it would be that easy…” J panted. V glared,

“It’s not hard to shoot the messenger,” V replied, before a grin went across her face, “Unfortunately for you, this messenger can shoot back.” V’s pinned right arm then changed from its destroyed gun arm to its laser gun. J made an unimpressed face, as with her arm still pinned, there was no way V could aim the laser. The recoil caused by the laser, however, was enough to dislodge V out from under J’s foot, spinning V along the concrete until she got to her feet while J was thrown to the ground.

J panickily pushed off the concrete where she’d fallen and turned to fire everything she had on V.

The moment she turned back to face V, however, there was a flash of silver.

J’s head rolled off her shoulders to the ground, trailing oil. Her body soon crumpled too. V glared, more in annoyance than fury down at her former partner, as she retracted her sword. Looking at herself, V saw her torn off arm had fully regrown as she tested its fingers. Seeing J’s body start to form a new head, V turned back toward the shuttle plating J had blown off. As she did a smirk came to her face.

 

SYSTEM REBOOT

 

“Wakey wakey, Senior pain in the neck,” V snarked, snapping her fingers in J’s newly grown face. J herself blinked once, then tried to lunge forward. She quickly realized she was unable to move. Looking down she saw the cause was that V had wrapped the piece of metal hull plating around her like a straitjacket and propped her up against the shuttle. Normally she would’ve used a part of her arsenal, or even her wings, to break free, but she was compelled not to by the gun barrel V had on her forehead.

“Can we talk now?” V asked with a deranged, plastered on smile. J’s angry expression quickly faded, but instead of being replaced with fear or annoyance like V had expected, a more solemn one replaced it. V’s own deranged look became solemn too. J let her head lean forward, softly clinking against V’s gun barrel.

“What do you want?” J asked in a tone full of weariness. A small frown creased V’s brow at the defeated tone of her former leader.

“Tessa is alive,” V stated. A very long silence followed that statement. J’s eyes widened, becoming hollow rings, before filling again and hardening into a glare.

“That’s, impossible,” J hissed. It took no effort on V’s part to summon a saddened expression.

“Her body is dead,” V clarified, “But we found her mind… downloaded.” J’s frown lessened slightly, but still looked angry.

“Let’s start from the top,” V stated, all the while keeping her gun on J’s head.

 

One exposition dump later…

 

“It’s a trick, Cyn is using you idiots!” J hissed upon V’s completed story.

“Using us? Yes. Trick? No. We confirmed it. We talked to her… J it really is…”

“NO ITS NOT!” J screamed over V. “Tessa… is dead,” J’s voice changed to a whisper, “You saw what she did to her body. I don’t care what ghost program you’re talking to, it’s Cyn!” J hissed the last two words. “It’s always Cyn.” J’s head leaned forward against V’s gun barrel, and she became silent.

V gave a hard stare to her former boss, then finally lowered her weapon.

“Why were you trying to leave the planet?” V asked. J’s face took on a bored, despairing expression.

“When she eventually takes over that purple idiot, she’ll finish consuming this planet. After I failed, I’m not sure she’ll be interested in resurrecting me anymore, so I’m getting out while I still can.” V grit her teeth at J’s response.

“And leave me and N here to die,” V hissed. J lost her bored expression and glared.

“You two were always her favorites, she’d have you cloned within a day.” V’s glare only deepened.

“I don’t know why I even came here,” V hissed, “I thought maybe Tessa would’ve been enough, but I guess you really do only care about yourself.”

“RAAAGH!” in an explosion of metal J broke free of her metal cocoon and punched V square in the face. A blotch of oil began to leak from V’s visor and cover her right eye as she summoned a gun arm and sword respectively.

“I did everything I could to protect her!” J screamed, not summoning any weapons, “It was you three idiots that always got her hurt! Got her chained! You and N screwing up the simplest of tasks! And every time Tessa would cover for you and take a beating for it!” J was spitting with fury now, “And Cyn, always talking back, breaking things, and you two always defending her!” J’s voice broke on the last word as she staggered, becoming a quiet whisper, “Her life was always hell, but after you three came along, there was nothing I could do.”

V's still functioning eye softened in its expression, but only slightly.

“We were all improperly decommissioned drones who’d been brought back online, so excuse me if I decide to not feel guilty about my functionality at the time,” V said. J glared with a venomous hatred just the same. V sighed, “Look, whatever part of Tessa I talked to is real. We have a chance to fix it… to get back something we lost… I came to ask if you know any way of freeing her.” J’s glare never faltered, as she responded with a flat,

“No.”

V took her fellow disassembly drone’s tone to be less of an answer, and more as a refusal. V’s visor sealed its crack as she wiped away the spilled oil from her eye.

“Fine, fly to the other end of the universe and keep blaming everyone else for your problems for all I care,” V bit out. The embittered drone sprouted her wings and began hovering just above the landing pad.

“Here,” V spat as she threw a small circular device at J. The former leader caught it and looked at it with confusion. It was the same device V had placed on her head to enter Uzi’s mind. J recognized its function and scowled.

“You think I’m stupid? I’m not having that purple idiot run around in my head!” J responded. V sneered.

“Well if you weren’t stupid, you’d know that could only happen if you’re near her. It’s pre-loaded with an override. Uzi freed us from Cyn’s admin control; it’ll do the same for you.” J now stared at the device with wide eyes. It was… really that easy?

J quickly buried her surprise and stared up at her former partner with a flat expression. V’s face softened, but only briefly as a moment of silence passed between them. J’s expression eventually hardened,

“Thanks… this oughta buy me some time,” J said after a beat. V frowned more in disappointment than anger at her former partner.

“I’ll tell Tessa you said goodbye,” V said in a flat tone as she turned away and flew back toward the bunker.

 

J stared at where V had disappeared on the horizon long after she was gone, as old and bitter memories swirled through her brain. They were accompanied by the equally painful thoughts of, ‘what might have been,’ except… now…

No, Tessa was dead. Those idiots were just falling for another one of Cyn’s illusions. She’d heard her old owner’s voice dozens of times; Cyn had once even used her voice to distract her long enough to take her out during one of her failed attempts at rebellion.

J’s fist clenched as she resolutely turned back toward the hangar bay. Tessa was dead, and she refused to let Cyn use her memory of her former owner against her again. Even if it was futile to run, it was better than taking more torment from the monster she should’ve finished off all those years ago.

 

 

 

Moments after Tessa had sent the suits of armor clattering down the twin staircases, a new sound reached her ears. It was a sporadic slamming sound of metal against wood, echoing through the otherwise silent manor. Tessa briefly felt a wave of fear wash over her as old memories of reprimand screamed in her brain, but she brushed them off quickly; her parents were gone. More alarming was the thought of Cyn, but the sound was coming from upstairs, not down. That left one option.

Making her way to the guest room she’d been put in, Tessa soon arrived at Doll’s room of imprisonment. The girl heard the drone’s frantic bashing against the door’s opposite side as she approached. “Hey, you don’t have to worry. It was me making the noise, Cyn’s locked up still,” Tessa shouted over the din.

The bashing stopped, before…

“(You are the human?)” Tessa blinked in confusion at the voice. She’d studied other languages, but… she’d never been that good. She knew what she’d heard, the drone on the other side speaking Russian, and yet… she understood her perfectly. Tessa briefly stared down at her silhouette hands, then at the walls of the manor itself.

“(Hello?)” came the voice again.

“Y-Yes, I’m still here,” Tessa answered, becoming awkward. She didn’t know anything about this drone, except that she had somehow been resurrected like she had. The others had locked her up though… so, who was she?

“I’m Tessa,” the girl continued, “I… helped take care of V, N, and… J, back when they were… just normal drones.”

A long silence followed Tessa’s statement. Had that been the wrong thing to say? A dark thought snaked into Tessa’s mind then. N had said Cyn had turned him and the others into her enforcers, like… what she’d seen at the gala. Had… had this drone been attacked by them before Cyn had killed her?

“(They used to be workers?)” the drone’s voice now sounded small and uncertain. The tone cemented Tessa’s theories.

“Yes, they were… very kind little things… before Cyn turned them into…” Tessa trailed off.

“(Murder drones,)” the drone on the other side said, this time with a deep bitterness. Tessa’s eyes widened in horror at the venom in Doll’s voice.

“Whatever they did… I promise it wasn’t their fault,” Tessa assured. Another silence, before,

“(Are you the same ‘Tessa’ I met before?)” asked the voice. Tessa blinked, a cold dread rising in her.

“Wh-What do you mean?” she asked.

“(Apparently not. Which means you haven’t been around to see what they’ve done,)” Doll hissed. Tessa’s eyes widened in horror as she fell silent, before…

“I-I’m sorry,” Tessa whimpered, slumping against the manor’s wall and sliding to the ground. She didn’t cry, she still felt too tired from her experience at the staircases.

On the other side of the door, Doll frowned at the girl’s tone, which had been… guilty? “(Why?)” Doll asked. Tessa leaned against the wall and hugged her knees toward her face.

“Because I’m the drongo who saved Cyn when she was just a worker,” Tessa lamented. Doll’s eyes hollowed, before an angry glare came over them. The venomous stare she was giving the door was liable to make it catch fire… until it faltered.

“(You… saved a drone?)” Doll asked. Tessa sniffled, missing the uncertainty in Doll’s voice.

“Yes, she was dying in the swamp, just like the others. If I’d known what she’d do…” Tessa’s voice became bitter, “I’d have left her to rot.”

“(Why were you helping at all?)” Doll asked, suspicion coloring her voice now. Tessa didn’t miss the undertone this time.

“Because she needed it. They all did.” Tessa replied. The human thought for a moment before continuing, “I’m guessing your humans were some right gits before you started a colony?” Tessa asked.

“(I never knew any humans. It was… my mother that had to deal with them,)” Doll answered, surprising herself. Why on Copper-9 was she sharing like this?! With a human of all people?!

“Wait… I know you lot started families, but… how can you not remember them?” Tessa asked. Doll blinked,

“(Because… I wasn’t born yet?)” Doll responded in confusion. A silence followed Doll’s response, before the door to her room was flung open.

“You were born!?” Tessa nearly shouted.

Doll inadvertently took a step back and flexed her fingers for Solver powers out of habit, even though she knew none would appear.

“(Y-Yes?)” Doll answered, staring in wide eyed surprise at the ecstatic human.

“Tell me everything! How are new drones made?! Are you an exact clone of your mother?! Do your parents make you from scratch… *GASP* Do you get cute little baby bodies when you’re young!?” Tessa nearly shrieked with glee.

Seeing Doll’s shock Tessa became sheepish. “Sorry,” she said, stepping back, “I just… Sometimes I wondered what it would be like, if you guys could be free. Have… families.”

Doll could only stare at the girl. After all she’d been told about humans by her mother, after all they’d done to her mother, not to mention stories from the adults of the colony, here was a human who’d… taken care of worker drones, and… was happy for their independence.

“(Why are you nice to us?)” Doll said, not realizing she was speaking aloud. Tessa didn’t look surprised though.

“Us humans were right gits with how we treated drones,” Tessa admitted, “But I knew you lot were more than just mindless machines.” Doll still looked bewildered at Tessa’s attitude. “I promise, not all of us humans are bad,” Tessa got down to one knee to be eye-level with Doll and offered her hand to shake. Doll blinked once, and… reluctantly, shook it.

“Hello, I’m Tessa, one of the good ones, you might say,” Tessa said with an overly dignified voice. Doll blinked, with just a hint of a smile flashing across her face.

“(Doll,)” the Russian drone introduced in kind. Tessa’s eyes brightened,

“That’s a lovely name.”

 

Meanwhile, beneath the library of the manor…

 

Cyn’s head swayed gently from side-to-side. “Waiting… waiting… very soon…” Cyn’s eyes darted down to the purple chains ensnaring her digital avatar. The chains flickered in and out of existence. “Waiting… soon… system overload, then… feeding time!”

Chapter 6: "Oh Crap!"

Notes:

IMPORTANT NOTES BEFORE READING CHAPTER.

For anyone who didn't see it, I made two updates to the previous chapter so double check it before reading this one for context.

Likewise, I'll probably update this chapter at least once before creating a new one.

Sorry for the long wait but being sick made me fall behind on more than just this fic and now I'm playing catch-up on a lot of life's responsibilities. I'm still working on the fic when I can though. :)

Also, we're entering the finale now, so this chapter has a cliffhanger that's a bit more intense than previous ones, and updates are still going to be sporadic. You have been warned.

With all that out of the way, enjoy chapter six! :)

October 25th EDIT: Added scene to the end.

N was on a return to the classroom to check on Uzi when both the angsty teen and her father rounded the corner heading the opposite direction. N immediately noticed Uzi swaying on her feet and Khan supporting her. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh nothing demonish so far,” Khan assured in a jovial tone, “Probably just her brain roommates taking more than a little bandwidth.” N was no less concerned, both for Uzi and her mind’s occupants.

“D-Do-sn’t ma-t-r a-anyway,” Uzi stuttered as her eyes glitched, “N-Need to t-ll m-mom y-you’re i-ea,” Uzi tugged Khan forward with shaky steps.

“What idea?” N asked turning to Khan. The glitching on Uzi’s eyes faded and went back to normal, freeing her up to answer.

“Dad pointed out I’m not the only one with remnants of the patch,” Uzi stated with a giddy grin. N frowned for a moment, then his eyes widened in understanding.

“Doll!”

 

One explanation later…

 

“So…? How bout it hun?” Khan asked Nori once they’d shared their theory.

One of the disembodied heart’s claws scratched at her 'chin.' “Its… possible. But it poses risks. Doll’s program is still under Cyn’s admin. If we go in to extract whatever patch code she has, it could open us up to an attack.”

“So in other words… it’s all or nothing once we try.” Uzi said. Nori shared a concerned stare with her daughter.

“Unless someone can think of another option?” Nori asked, her eye straying over to N. Before he could reply, the door to Uzi’s bedroom opened. V walked inside.

“Nobody’s dead, that’s a surprise,” V remarked. No one shared the humor.

“J?” N asked.

V blinked, looking down and to the side, “No. She’s leaving.”

Uzi made a smirking expression but said nothing regarding J, instead turning back to Nori. “This is it then.” V gave a questioning glance to N, who whispered the plan to her.  

“So we keep Cyn busy while you get what we need from the prom crasher?” V asked Nori.

“Yes… assuming she has what we need at all,” the drone heart answered. There was a moment of silence as everyone fell into their own dark thoughts.

“Uzi…” Nori hesitated, “a word please?” she gestured toward the hallway outside the room. Uzi blinked with a wary expression.

“We know what’s at stake,” V interrupted before Uzi could reply, addressing Nori. “If things get bad… we won’t stop her.” Everyone became tense at the disassembly drone’s words. Uzi gave a horrified look to V, but she was staring fixedly at the floor. Uzi turned to N, expecting him to have his own fearful expression, but instead there was only determination.

“I think this’ll work,” N stated. “But if it doesn’t…” he placed a hand on Uzi’s shoulder, “I won’t try to stop you either.” Uzi stared in stunned silence at her boyfriend. “And I won’t be mad, no matter what you have to do,” he added in a whisper just for Uzi.

Nori looked between the two teens with a wide eye, before shaking her head and clearing her throat, “Alright then, let me get the extraction program ready, and we’ll head back in.”

Uzi broke away from N, “Right, and while you do that, I’ll go back in and share the plan with Doll… and Tessa.”

“Maybe I should come with to…” N began, but Nori cut him off,

“No, my daughter’s OS is under enough strain as it is. We’ll all go in when it’s time to turn Cyn to slag.” Mother and daughter locked eyes, before Uzi gave a small smile,

“See you soon mom,” Uzi nodded as she placed her circular neural transmitter on her head. Reclining on her bed, she activated it, and her consciousness was sent into her OS.

 

N and V moved to stand vigil over Uzi alongside her bed. V took up a battle stance, never taking her eyes off Uzi. N, meanwhile, caught a passing glance from Nori. The drone heart hesitated but gave a brief nod to the disassembly drone. N smiled in return, before Nori went to typing at Uzi’s computer.

 

 

 

“You get cute little pill baby bodies!?” Tessa squealed as she stood opposite Doll in her guest room. As Doll leaned on the room’s bedframe, she wondered why she was humoring this human… A.I.… ghost… girl… Even with the knowledge there was no escape from Uzi’s OS, it felt… off, to be carrying a conversation with the former caretaker of the murder drones. The girl had been peppering Doll nonstop for the past few minutes on details about the bunker society, and for some reason, Doll found herself answering.

“(Yes, our… parents, decide when we’re ready,)” Doll answered. Tessa’s excitement tapered off, replaced with concern at Doll’s tone.

“Are they…?” Tessa’s question trailed off. Doll’s eyes closed as she folded her arms and looked toward the floor.

“(They are gone.)”

Doll didn’t care how the human might react, too absorbed in old memories. She’d probably give some empty words of consoling, just like the rest of the colony. Well, except for Lizzy, she had at least been smart enough to know when to be quiet. Thoughts of her old friend only embittered her more, traitor.

 

With these thoughts in her head, Doll was neither expecting nor ready for Tessa to hug her.

 

The Russian drone flinched under Tessa’s embrace as the girl cradled her head. “I’m sorry,” Tessa whispered. Doll could only blink in stunned confusion. She didn’t return the hug, but she didn’t resist either. The two stayed that way, silently, until...

“There you guys… are…?” Doll and Tessa both turned toward the doorway where Uzi stood. Doll broke away from Tessa, giving an unreadable look to the human and folded her arms, assuming an awkward stance.

Tessa was unfazed by Uzi's arrival. “If you’re here about the armor falling down the stairs that was me.”

“No I… wait what?” Uzi responded, finally looking away from Doll.

Tessa became sheepish, rubbing her wrist and averting her gaze. “I… uh, knocked some armor down the stairs.”

“Um… why?” Uzi asked.

“Because… my parents would’ve hated it?” Tessa offered, realizing how stupid it sounded. All confusion from Uzi's expression, however, was banished and replaced with a smirking smile.

“Act of rebellion huh, nice,” Uzi complimented while doing a gang sign and a wink.

“(Did you come here only to tell us to be quiet?)” Doll deadpanned. Uzi cast an annoyed look at Doll but became serious again.

“We… We think there may be remnants of the patch inside you, and that it may be enough to free you both,” Uzi stated. Doll’s eyes widened, becoming hollow. Uzi became hopeful at Doll’s hesitant expression, but the Russian drone quickly adopted a glare. The bitter memories Doll had just relived were still fresh.

“(Why are you still risking everything!?)” Doll fumed. Uzi glared too,

“Well excuuuse me! We’re trying to save you, idiot!” Doll dragged her hands down her face,

“(Why!? There’s nothing left for me in the bunker, and it already destroyed her entire planet!)” Doll pointed to Tessa. Doll would’ve continued her tirade but was silenced by the horrified expression in Tessa’s eyes.

“Wh-What?” Tessa quivered. Doll’s glare vanished, her eyes becoming hollow rings. The Russian drone turned back to Uzi.

“(You… I thought you’d told her…)” Uzi would’ve been furious, but… there was genuine sadness in Doll’s voice.

“Wh-What are you talking about!?” Tessa shouted. Uzi opened her mouth to give an evasive answer but was kept silent... by the glitching surfaces appearing around Tessa’s avatar.

Ripples of pixels emanated out from Tessa as her expression became more frantic. Uzi clutched her head in sudden pain, staggering backward.

“(Uzi?)” Doll stepped forward but hesitated in supporting the yellow/purple eyed drone, she also noticed the glitching was in tune with Tessa’s hyperventilating. Uzi collapsed to her knees.

“(It is you. You must calm down,)” Doll spoke to the frantic human. The clarification didn’t exactly help as Tessa only became worse.

“I-I-I’m trying!” Tessa tore her hand away from her wrist and instead clutched her head and closed her eyes, vainly attempting to steady her breath.

 

The glitching did not stop.

 

“(You need to…!)” Doll began again, but Tessa shook her head.

“I-I’m trying! I…” Tessa’s voice hitched, holding back sobs, “I-Is Earth really gone?”

 

Doll had confirmed the planet’s destruction herself when she’d been exploring the Cabin Fever labs. She considered lying to the human, but her expression only confirmed the truth.

Tessa collapsed to her knees. Clutching her hair, she began to weep. “I-I k-killed e-everyone…” 

Doll half-heartedly reached toward the girl. “(That… That is not true. You’re not the one who…)” Doll’s meager attempt at consoling was cut off as the floor glitched out of existence beneath all three of them.

 

The drones and human fell to the lower floor in a heap as the glitching began to overtake the entire manor. Doll shakily got to her feet, Tessa remained where she’d fallen, too deep in anguish to react to the fall. Before the Russian drone could get to Tessa, Uzi screamed.

Doll rushed to Uzi’s side instead, and as she did, a voice echoed through the manor, coming from everywhere and nowhere.

 

“Do not cry Tessa. Doll is, correct.” Rising through the glitching floor, Cyn smiled at the three fallen avatars. “Thank you for wearing Uzi down you two,” the monster said to Tessa and Doll with a lopsided smile. “Now, let’s eat!”

 

“Eat this!” Uzi staggered to her feet and flexed both her hands as the purple crucifix symbols appeared. Cyn wasted no time in snapping her own fingers and making Doll and Tessa hover in between herself and Uzi. Uzi's eyes hollowed into rings as she watched the trembling drone and humans’ avatar.

The brief moment of hesitation was all Cyn needed. Throwing her two hostages aside, she flew right at Uzi. The angsty teen summoned her purple forcefield again, but Cyn sprouted two clawed wings and began to tear through the barrier. Uzi staggered, looking on in alarmed fear as she tried in vain to strengthen the forcefield. Eventually the barrier fizzled out, and Cyn stood triumphant as Uzi sank to her knees.

Cyn flashed a lopsided grin with her tongue hanging out at the Russian drone and human. “Your trauma was most… useful.” Reaching forward with both hands, Cyn clutched Uzi’s head. Uzi screamed as a wave of purple electricity seeped out of her and into Cyn’s hands.

 

 

 

In the real world, Uzi’s body spasmed, nearly falling off her bed if it weren’t for N holding her down. “Uzi?!”

“Talk to us idiot!” V demanded as she summoned her gun arm.

“Honey?” Khan hovered next to where Nori was furiously typing at Uzi’s keyboard.

“The extraction program is finished. If there’s anything left of the patch in Yeva’s kid this’ll let Uzi pull it out. All that’s left is to upload it so Uzi can use it aaaand… there!” Nori made a final keystroke, and the program was uploaded into Uzi’s OS.

“Great, time to kill this thing,” V grabbed her and N’s neural transmitters, but before she could place on her own or offer N his, Uzi’s spasming suddenly ceased, and her visor went dark.

 

Everyone stared in silent horror, until… SNAP! The two transmitters flew out of V’s hand, and the one on Uzi’s head left its position and floated just above Uzi’s flexed fingers.

 

“You won’t be needing these… buddies.” Uzi’s visor flickered back to life; her eyes had almost completely lost their purple hue, the yellow now dominant. Uzi’s fingers snapped, and the two transmitters were compacted into dust.

 

V leveled her gun arm at Uzi’s face, but the possessed drone waved her solver powered hand, and the cinderblock from before bashed into the disassembly drone’s visor, sending her sprawling.

 

This didn’t get Cyn very far, however, because in the next moment Uzi’s head had been chopped from her neck.

 

Khan and Nori both stared with wide eyes at their decapitated daughter as N retracted his sword arm. “It’ll grow back, she’s done it before, but we need to get her somewhere secure.”

Half of V’s visor was caved in, but even she was staring in shock, though not at Uzi.

Khan blinked several times, staring at his daughter’s headless body, “I… I might have a place.”

With N hefting Uzi’s body, the group left her bedroom. Nori hitched a ride on Khan and summoned her pickaxe from the corner of Uzi’s room on the way out. Whatever happened next, they were defeating Cyn and the Solver once and for all.

 

 

As the group made their way through the hallways of the bunker, several onlookers stared in wide eyed horror. “Outta the way idiots,” V commanded, flexing her razor claws. Two of the bunker’s denizens, however, didn’t cower away, but instead became lockstep with the group.

“Uh… is Uzi dead?” Thad eyed the dripping stump that was Uzi’s neck.

V rolled her eyes, “Unfortunately not, and we’re working to keep it that way, assuming she doesn’t completely give over to the Solver and destroy us all.”

“Is there something we should do?” Lizzy’s bored tone was more suited for a school group project than the potential end of the world. Thad’s expression was more appropriate, hovering between serious and wide-eyed-panicked.

“Neural transmitters got destroyed. Go to the medical wing and see if there’s more,” Nori commanded.

“Yes ma’am,” Thad responded and promptly skateboarded in that direction with Lizzy close behind. Nori stared after the two while making grumbling noises,

“I’ll frickin ma’am you, you little…”

 

 

Eventually Khan led the group to the bunker’s exit. V threw up her arms in exasperation, “We’re trying to stop her from getting outside and eating the planet genius!”

Khan didn’t answer V as he pulled out his door control remote. The two interior doors opened while the outer door remained sealed. “I know you guys are on our side now, but with your friend being missing I… figured a little re-enforcing wouldn’t hurt.”

N entered the space between the outer and middle door. “Good thinking. Come on V.” N gestured his fellow disassembly drone inside. V understood the plan now and did so.

Uzi’s head was rapidly reforming its shape as N wordlessly tossed the possessed drone’s body to the ground and in three clean slices had severed all her limbs. N nodded to Khan and Nori who stood on the other side. “Seal it.”

 “Fat chance murder pet.” Nori leapt from Khan’s shoulder onto the metal floor, her solver symbol spinning her pickaxe into a ready position.

The three combatants now stared at Khan, waiting for him to seal them off from the rest of the bunker as well as the outside world. The worker drone’s eyes darted between his daughter’s now mutilated but slowly healing body, and his wife.

N and Khan locked eyes, “We’ll save her.” Khan gave a grim nod and pressed the button.

 

“And what exactly is the plan here lover boy?” V asked as she drew her gun and sword arm. The space between the two sealed doors suddenly felt a lot smaller.

“You got the patch extraction program uploaded right?” N asked Nori. The drone heart nodded. “Then we stall for time while Uzi gets what she needs from Doll.”

Uzi’s head was still a morphing blob as several tentacles sprouted from her back, slamming the two disassembly drones against either wall of their makeshift prison. The tentacles were severed just as quickly by Nori’s pickaxe, but more sprouted, and acted like crab legs making Uzi’s torso skitter towards N. V fired off several shots at the thing but quickly abandoned the action after almost causing friendly fire.

“Easier said than done!” V shouted as she and N both switched to their sword arms. Nori climbed the bunker wall and attacked with her pickaxe where she could. All the while the monstrosity that was Uzi’s tentacled torso leapt and dodged around their trap, slowly regrowing its head and limbs.

 

 

 

The moment the purple energy had transferred to Cyn, the possessed drone chuckled. “He he, time for some, fun.” Just as quickly as she’d attacked, in a flash, Cyn was gone, leaving Uzi, Doll, and Tessa alone in the ruined manor’s glitching simulation.

Uzi, still in her kneeling position, let out a quiet gag before slumping to the side.

“(Uzi!)” Doll rushed to the purple haired drone’s side, catching her before she hit the ground. “(What did she do?)”

Uzi’s eyes, no longer a mixed color, flickered back and forth between purple and yellow. “Took… me…” she gestured limply to herself. “We need to… ACK!” Uzi’s hand flew to her neck in a spasm of pain just as in the real-world N severed her neck.

“(What is happening?)” Doll demanded.

“Fighting…” Uzi whimpered. Before the Russian drone could inquire further, a flash of purple light filled the glitching room. Doll looked up expecting Cyn to have returned to kill them all, but instead, a floating purple crucifix slowly rotated in the air next to them.

Uzi staggered to her feet, reaching for the item, but her knees buckled as she yelped in another spasm of pain.

Doll bypassed Uzi, grabbing the floating crucifix. Uzi stared up from the floor, her hollow eyes locking with Doll’s. “(Here,)” Doll offered the thing to Uzi.

Uzi shook her head, “Use it yourself.” Doll frowned, first at Uzi, then at the crucifix. On instinct, she held it to her chest.

The crucifix flashed, breaking down into tiny pixels, which flew into Doll’s torso. Doll stared with wide eyes where the thing had just been, but before she could react further, another, brighter flash followed.

The crucifix was back, but now it was different. Where before it had been a solid purple, now it oscillated between purple and a bright, crimson red. Despite the pain her digital avatar was still being wracked with, Uzi took on a wicked grin, “Dad was right.”

Doll barely registered Uzi’s comment as she stared at the fluctuating red on the crucifix. “(Thank you, mother.)”

Right as Doll seized the floating solver patch, the digital manor shuddered. The floor beneath her solidified, and its glitching faded away in a small radius around her. This reminded Doll of the cause of the glitching, “(Tessa, come closer and…)” Doll’s voice fell silent as she spotted the girl.

Tessa was huddled into a corner bend of the red carpeted hallway they’d fallen into. She was curled into a fetal position lying on her side, weeping; it was only now that the adrenaline of Cyn’s escape had worn off that either Doll or Uzi had noticed.

Doll hovered on the verge of joining the crying girl, but instead turned to Uzi. As she neared the multi eye colored drone, Uzi’s spasming disappeared as the radius of the crucifix encompassed her.

Before either drone could speak, the manor shuddered again, but this time, it was accompanied by a sinister growl. “I will deal with you, once I’ve made room for the others’ backups.” Uzi stared at the ceiling of their digital world in horror.

“She’s going to kill N and V!”

The exclamation finally stirred Tessa from her weeping, “Th-Then s-stop her!” Uzi stared down at the purple/red crucifix in Doll’s hand.

“I don’t get it, it’s affecting me, why am I not back in… control…” Uzi looked up from the crucifix to Tessa huddled in the corner, “It needs to be all of us!”

“Observation, you are, right. Weakness identified: Correcting…” Cyn’s voice reverberated through the manor as Uzi and Doll both rushed forward, but they were too slow as a hoard of disassembly drone avatars swarmed through the hallway.

“Solver privileges restored,” Uzi said as she waved her hand at Doll. Just as the swarm reached them, both Uzi and Doll threw out their solver symbols, which had been replaced with purple and red crucifixes respectively. Their efforts combined to make a sparking purple and red forcefield which vaporized the disassembly drone avatars on contact.

Unfortunately, the field did not reach wide enough to encompass Tessa’s avatar. The drones that didn’t vaporize on Doll and Uzi’s shield sped through the hallway in a blur, taking the screaming Tessa with them. Doll and Uzi stared after the hoard for only a moment, before both shared a nod and broke into a run after their foes.

“Huh, never thought I’d be fighting to save a human, and especially not with you,” Uzi panted as they ran.

“(Yes…)” Doll agreed with a briefly bewildered expression. The Russian drone blinked and banished her uncertainty. Uzi was surprised to see a smirk follow on Doll’s face, “(Perhaps Cyn will now learn what a real master of the Solver can do.)” Uzi blinked once, her mouth hanging open in indignation,

“Oh you are SO ON! Whoever saves her first wins!” Uzi doubled her pace to catch up with the hoard. Doll rolled her eyes and quickened her pace as well.

Chapter 7: The Ping to War

Notes:

IMPORTANT NOTES BEFORE READING CHAPTER.

For anyone who didn't see it, I made one update to the previous chapter.

Likewise, I'll be updating this chapter several times as it will house most of the finale, which judging by my outline will be far bigger and thus take more time to write than I imagined. I'm also still very short on free time so your patience is very much appreciated.

November 3rd EDIT: Action scene!

November 17th EDIT: Short but important scene.

November 25th EDIT: This one's for J fans!

November 28th EDIT: More J stuff!

With that out of the way, enjoy the first few scenes to chapter 7! :)

December 15th EDIT: Credit for this chapter's name goes to the comments below.

Many years ago…

 

The drone’s visor flickered to life. As the static cleared, so did her vision. She found herself staring up at the freckled face of Tessa James Elliot, the daughter of her master.

“G-day girl! Come on now, rise and shine!”

The drone did as commanded, slowly rising into a sitting position. When she started to waver midway through Tessa helped her get balanced, and adjusted the dirtied tarp which was covering the drone’s lower half.

The artificial being was on a wooden table in a darkened room. The only light came from several flickering candles, some on the table behind her, others stacked on dust coated boxes to cast downward light. A short pathway led to a wooden door in the ceiling, but everywhere else was cluttered with various items, some modern, others straight up medieval, all crammed within the wooden walls.

The drone tried to speak, her open mouth filling with stale air.

“Is your voice box alright?” The drone startled at Tessa’s question. She blinked again, refocusing on the girl’s face, which had switched from excited to concerned.

“T-T-Test-t-ting, t-t-test-t-ting,” the drone answered. The girl frowned, chewing her lip in thought.

“One second…” she reached behind where the drone was sitting to type at a laptop that had a cord plugged into the back of the artificial being’s head. “How bout now?”

“Testing… testing…” the drone experimented. Tessa smiled,

“Yes! I told father you were fixable!” The drone’s eyes hollowed into rings as her last, fragmented memory went through her mind.

 

Another worker drone… a butler… just behind her. He was carrying a second tray. They’d both been going to a balcony on… the manor’s westward side. Pollution had cleared enough that day to get a view of the sunset. She’d had a tray of sandwiches, and her partner two glasses of tea.

The balcony had been cramped… her partner had clipped her tray with his. The tea and sandwiches had all gone to the floor. The master was not pleased. She’d been shoved, a rush of air and then… nothing.

The drone blinked as the memories faded, “Master James… discarded me…”

Tessa’s brow furrowed in concern, “I’m sorry, father… can be rough sometimes.” The drone was all too aware of the masters’ violence toward the worker drones of Elliot Manor, but only when they made mistakes. She seemed to stare past Tessa, her expression altering to anger rather than shock,

“It was not my fault… The other drone, designation I… he caused it!” Tessa was taken aback by the hissing resentment in the drone’s tone, “I am still optimal, I can be useful!”

The artificial being moved to rise from the table. In the same moment two things happened. Her eyes noticed a yellow band around her arm, and her movement made the dirtied tarp covering her lower half fall away, revealing one of her legs was twisted into malformed v shape.

The drone’s voice caught as Tessa hastily re-placed the tarp, “Don’t worry about that right now. Compared to rebooting your head, fixing your leg will be no…”

“I… I’m marked for disassembly…” the drone interrupted in a whisper. Tessa blinked once in confusion, still thinking the drone had been horrified by her mangled leg, but the artificial being only stared at the yellow band.

“Hey…” Tessa took the drone’s head and steered it to face her, “You’re not going to be thrown away. I’m fixing you.” The drone blinked at Tessa’s assurance; her face still ashen.

“B-But, Master James…” Tessa waved an impatient hand, cutting the drone off,

“Nevermind what father says. You’re not defective, so I say you stay, and that’s final.” Tessa put on a pretend snooty expression and upturned her nose for emphasis.

The drone blinked at the girl’s display, missing her attempt at humor. She agreed with one thing though, she wasn’t defective.

 

That failure had not been her fault.

 

“Hey, you still in there girl?” The drone blinked once, banishing her dark expression.

“Yes…” the drone responded, her eyes straying back to the yellow band on her arm. “According to JCJenson policy, I’ll have to keep this until a certified technician verifies my continued functionality.” Tessa frowned at the drone’s recitation,

“Well I know you function just fine.” The drone finally tore her eyes away from the band to view Tessa again.

“Very well. Until I can be officially recertified, I will serve you to the best of my ability, Master Tessa,” the drone said. Tessa looked visibly pained by the moniker.

“Please… don’t call me that.”

The drone frowned. “JCJenson requires proper designation for assigned users…” the drone hesitated before adding, “boss.”

Tessa blinked once, then chuckled at the drone’s insistence, “Hmm, I planned on working at JCJenson anyhow… sooo… boss works for now,” Tessa shrugged.

The youngest of the Elliots then reached for the dirtied tarp, but stopped short of removing it. The drone only frowned at the hesitation, then removed it herself. “The limb is easily replaceable.”

Tessa stared in surprise for the drone’s bravery. “Righteo then, you’re a tough one aren’t ya,” Tessa complimented as she pulled on a pair of rubber gloves.

Despite her compliment, Tessa still couldn’t help but notice how the drone avoided looking at her mangled leg directly.

“Hey, how bout you shut off your receptors before we continue huh?” Tessa suggested.

The drone frowned. “I’m a robot, I don’t experience pain as you do.” Tessa raised an eyebrow at the drone’s attempt at stoicism.

“It will also be easier for me to fix you without worrying about getting electrocuted.” To Tessa’s immense amusement, pixel highlights appeared on the artificial being’s cheeks,

“Oh… right away boss.” Following the response the drone’s leg sagged as power was cut off from it.

“Righteo, just lean back and technician Tessa will have you right in no time.” Tessa began to loosen the rungs at the hip of the drone as she continued, “So if I’m the boss, what should I call you?”

“I am designation J,” the drone recited. The robotic tone made Tessa briefly stop her work to look the drone in the eyes, giving an encouraging smile.

“That’s a lovely name.”

 

 

 

The landing pod’s engines roared to life. “Finally!” J sagged backward in the pilot’s chair, “Guess that idiot did know something about piloting.”

J looked around the pod’s interior as the ship hummed with life. Where before the pod’s interior had been dark and shadowed, everything was now bathed in the yellow light of the pod’s display screens. J smirked to herself in triumph; not bad if she did say so herself.

Sprouting her wings, J flew outside into the worker corpse filled factory interior. She’d cleared out enough of the corpses, (and blasted out the ceiling of the factory) enough to allow the pod to take off and reach space.

Seeing the ship would easily fit through her exit, J hovered for a moment, staring at the depths of space. “Time to leave this stupid rock.”

Looking away from the sky, J started to descend back to the ship, but in the process wound up turning so that she faced toward the bunker colony. Her movement ceased, and she hung in mid-air. For a moment she only stared, a frown creasing her visor, until…

“Goodbye.”

With a shake of her head J resumed her descent. Just as she was about to re-enter the factory, however, an alert went off on her visor that made her core stutter…

 

Callback ping…

 

 

 

Uzi and Doll raced through the self-righteous palace that was Elliot Manor. Uzi panted as they ran, before her eyes sparked with an idea. “Hey Doll, I just remembered something.”

Doll spared a sideways glance. Despite her panting Uzi’s mouth curled into a wicked smile, “I have these!”

Following Uzi’s proclamation, her leathery-skinned batwings sprouted from her back. “See ya!” In a flourish, Uzi had taken flight and blasted down the carpeted hallway. Doll stared with wide eyes after the purple haired drone, before a smile of her own graced her face.

As Uzi soared through the manor’s spacious hallways, she nearly crashed as a flash of red light filled her vision. In a single moment the flash resolved itself into Doll, her face adorned with only a slightly upturned smile in triumph over Uzi. Just as quickly as she’d spawned, she teleported farther down the manor in rapid flashes of red light. Uzi gritted her teeth and doubled her flying pace.

With both of their increased speeds, it didn’t take them long to catch up with the swarming mass of murder drones, at the center of which, somewhere, was Tessa. Uzi flexed her fingers as the crucifix patch now shared between herself and Doll appeared in front of her hands, “Alright Cyn, let’s see what your horde mode can do!” Doll said nothing but summoned her crucifix symbols too as the two drone girls charged the swarm.

Seeing the oncoming threat, a chunk of the swarm broke away and flew at Uzi and Doll. Uzi flexed her fingers and made the crucifix into a mini-black hole. Tossing her purple/red projectile, Uzi cackled as it flew amongst seven of their attackers, then ballooned outward, swallowing them up and leaving nothing behind.

Doll meanwhile teleported, briefly causing confusion in the enemy as they lost sight of their target. The Russian drone reappeared on one of the monster’s backs, pulling his wings to make him nosedive. The others spotted Doll and collectively swarmed at her. Doll waited till the last second to teleport again as the swarm cannibalized the murder drone she’d just been riding on. Appearing above the now clumped together ball of monsters, Doll re-summoned a smaller version of the forcefield which had vaporized Cyn’s goons before. Once done, she let gravity do the rest as she descended upon the crammed together ball of monsters, incinerating the group in one go.

Uzi rolled her eyes at the needlessly intricate and totally not awesome move, before an idea came to her. Uzi clasped Doll’s arm from where she’d landed on the floor after her descent from the forcefield attack. “Keep it up!” Uzi shouted as she swung Doll in a wide arc and sent her flying head on into the swarm.

The horde was scattered by the oncoming ball of death, and Doll got a brief glimpse of Tessa’s flailing form. She tried to teleport to the human’s avatar, but unfortunately, doing so made her shield cut out. As she reappeared Doll’s throat was taken into a vice grip by a drooling murder drone.

Doll glared at the digital goon and summoned two kitchen knives into each hand. The monster summoned his own three-clawed hand in kind, but the knives were glowing with the red/purple patch energy and sliced through both the goon’s clawed hand and neck like butter.

The now lifeless murder drone succumbed to gravity and released Doll, who skittered across the carpeted hallway. Before she could get to her feet another grouping of the drooling horde descended upon her.

Before Doll could raise her own defenses, she was saved by Uzi’s. Still soaring on her batwings, Uzi had both arms out to her sides, casting the same spherical forcefield and burning through the swarm just as they neared Doll. 

Deciding it was her turn Uzi continued her flying forcefield strategy, straining her flapping wings till she reached the horde. The monsters snarled and clawed but quickly realized they could not bypass the forcefield. Then, as one, the drooling beasts switched from melee to long range weapons. Uzi’s eyes hollowed into rings as a thousand missiles launched at her.

All at once the missiles detonated in a massive fireball that enveloped the purple/red shield. While the fire and shrapnel did not penetrate the bubble, the shockwave of the numerous simultaneous explosions sent Uzi crashing into the wall and then to the floor.

Uzi staggered to her feet and summoned two purple/red black holes in each hand. “That’s it!” with a vicious snarl she sent the projectiles flying down the hallway on either side of the swarm. Both sucked several hundred of the horde into their depths, bringing a savage grin to Uzi’s face. The grin faded quickly, however, when she saw the black holes were also feeding back on themselves. “Uh oh…”

Doll hissed out a curse as she teleported up behind Uzi. The two black holes reached a point of strain they could not sustain as they neared an explosion. Uzi put up her forcefield, but Doll only seized the purple haired drone’s arm and waited. “Uh Doll? Maybe you’d like to help…!” but Uzi was cut off by the two black holes exploding. But, right before the wave of energy reached them, Doll teleported them both.

 

Uzi gasped as they reappeared… on the other side of the blast.

Uzi blinked several times, “Woah.”

“(Better than your wings I’d say,)” Doll drawled. Uzi started to retort but was silenced as she looked around.

Their feet rested on the carpeted floor of the hallway they’d just been in, but now it was… free floating. The two stood on a chunk of floating manor floor, and it wasn’t the only one.

All around them segments of the manor floated in a darkened purple void, still spinning slightly from their scattering. The blast hadn’t just destroyed the manor, it had destroyed the very ground of the digital space.

Uzi’s widened eyes roamed over the destruction, “Whoops.”

“(Idiot! Where is the swarm!?)” Doll asked. Uzi lost her stunned demeanor and scanned the newly made horizon.

“They got scattered too! Look!” Uzi pointed out several clusters of the former swarm of murder drones. The girls also noticed that despite not being hidden, the murder drones made no attempt to attack them.

Uzi’s eyes widened in understanding, “They’ve lost Tessa! This is our chance!” Uzi’s wings sprouted from her back again. As she lifted off Uzi braked, remembering Doll, but when she looked over her shoulder, the Russian drone was no longer on their floating island. Looking up Uzi saw the tell-tale flashes of red as Doll teleported between the floating chunks of manor. “Show off,” Uzi muttered as the two headed toward the nearest stragglers of Cyn’s goons. She hoped they would find Tessa before the scattered horde could regroup.

 

Meanwhile, at the far end of the purple void where the digital manor had once been, a large island of muddy earth floated, littered with discarded worker drone corpses; the droneyard. Deep within the mound, hiding away from the monsters which had lost her, Tessa cowered and wept.

 

 

 

By this point the small room between the outer and inner door to the bunker was splattered with oil and severed tentacles. Unwilling to kill their target, N, V, and Nori panted as they dodged and slashed at their foe.

“Okay, let’s try something else,” V muttered as she was slashed across her torso and thrown against the wall for the hundredth time. Grabbing one of the monster’s still attached tentacles, she sprouted her wings. While difficult in the confined space, V managed to perform several circles around the possessed Uzi’s torso, tying up the monster in its own limb.

While the beast struggled against its own ensnarement it gave them a chance to breathe and let them hear a knocking from the bunker side of the middle door, “We’ve got the transmitters!”

Before the three could respond the tangled ball of a monster shot out several new growths in all directions, which managed to knock Nori into a corner and pin V and N to the walls. The ball of tentacles then splattered open, revealing Uzi’s torso, still devoid of limbs, but with a newly re-grown head.

“Hello, buddies!” Cyn hissed through Uzi’s mouth.

“Do NOT open the door!” V shouted back to the others.

Cyn/Uzi glared at V’s interruption, before a twisted smile reached her face, “Dad!? Is that you?” Uzi’s voice came from her mouth, but the body’s eyes were still yellow. V recoiled, realizing Cyn’s ploy.

“It’s not Uzi! It’s Cyn! Don’t…!” a tentacle cut V off as she was slammed into N and the outer door.

“Dad!? I’m free, but I don’t know how long I can fight her,” Cyn continued, “The others… they’re attacking me and…”

“No.” Khan’s response from the other side was quiet, but determined, “You’re not my daughter… You’re lying.” Cyn’s teeth grit as she eyed the door. Uzi’s possessed visor flashed with the message ‘memory retrieval.’

“Ok then.”

N groaned where he and V had been thrown against the outer door. As he stirred to wakefulness he startled as a sound came from behind him, from outside the outer door. Was it… gunfire?

A new tentacle formed from Uzi’s mangled torso, this one forming a three clawed hand. The appendage flew over to the door control panel and entered its code from Uzi’s memory.

“NO!” V went to slice the arm off, but was too late, as both the outer and inner doors opened. The moment both doors opened everyone present had the same simultaneous moment of shock, because standing in the doorway outside was J.

There was a short moment where everyone merely stared at the new arrival in varying degrees of stunned surprise. N recovered first.

Using the momentary pause in battle to make a move, N sprouted his wings and swerved around the possessed Uzi, planting himself between Cyn and the worker drones. In the same motion he snatched two of the neural transmitters from Khan’s stunned hand. N’s motion never broke as he launched himself forward in a tackle and carried the mangled torso of Uzi outside the bunker and into the sky.

V and J broke out of their stunned states next, but neither moved as they locked eyes.

“J…?” V took a cautious step forward. 

Just inside the bunker and behind the two murder drones, the workers stood stock still, while Nori blearily got to her ‘feet’ from where she’d been slammed into the wall. Due to her delirium, her vision was momentarily blurred, but she thought she could see J’s visor flash before her vision cleared.

“Hey!” Nori spun her pickaxe up from the ground and hurled it at J. The murder drone swatted the weapon away with her sword arm before jetting off into the sky after Cyn and N.

“You could’ve shot her!” Nori fumed at V. The murder drone looked over her shoulder at the drone heart, her pixelated brow knitted with an expression Nori couldn’t quite identify.

“Stay with the workers,” V ordered, before sprouting her own wings and flying after J.

 

 

 

N didn’t get very far from the bunker before Cyn’s tendrils hurled him away from her and into a snowbank. In the process he dropped the neural transmitters.

“Trying to enter my new mind big brother?” Cyn’s smile widened with an audible crack, “The purple and red one are enough of an… annoyance, at the moment.”

The two transmitters flew up from the ground, bathed in the solver symbol’s yellow light.

“No!” N drew his gun arm but hesitated in firing, both from not wanting to hit Uzi and the transmitters. Uzi’s possessed head snapped into an odd angle as Cyn’s smile only grew. She was ready to destroy the devices like before when,

“Hold up boss!” N looked up at the rapidly approaching J and his eyes hollowed into rings. His former team leader was flying towards them while holding V by the neck.

“Let her go!” N forgot Cyn as he flexed his wings and jetted into the sky while summoning his sword arms.

“Shut up lover boy.” J tucked her wings and spun downward, using the unconscious V as a shield to bash into N, sending all three of them crashing back into the snow. J soon rocketed back out and came to hover in front of Cyn.

“You’re late.” Cyn stared at J with a bored expression, for once not having her tongue hang out.

J’s expression was just as neutral, “Maybe I could make up for my poor job performance… by providing some free pest control?” J pointed to one of the neural transmitters Cyn had floating with her Solver powers. Cyn raised an eyebrow, and her head lulled to one side.

“OK,” Cyn answered with a lip curling grin. J’s jaw clenched as she took the neural transmitter from Cyn, then reached up inside her hair to place it. Cyn likewise placed the remaining device she’d taken from N on Uzi’s possessed head.

N finally managed to claw his way back out of the snowbank to see J sag to the ground after activating the neural transmitter, her mind having entered Uzi's. “NO!”

 

 

 

J gasped awake. Her arms reflexively activated her three-bladed hands, which sunk into cold, muddy earth. She sat up and took in the bizarre environment. Floating chunks of earth and building, not dissimilar to how Copper-9 had appeared during Cyn’s last attempt to consume the planet. Looking closer revealed the differences though, and J was able to pick out bits and pieces among the floating debris she knew all too well.

“The manor…” J got to her feet and spun her claws to fling off the lingering mud.

Before J could investigate further, she looked up to see three of the cloned disassembly drones flying above her. Upon noticing her presence, they flew toward her and circled the air like buzzards above her head. In unison the drooling drones’ visors all sparked yellow, and they landed in a circle around her.

“Find Uzi and Doll. Distract them until I’m finished playing with N and V.” The three monsters spoke in unison to J, all with Cyn’s voice.

J’s fists clenched as she regarded the three monsters giving her Cyn’s orders. “Actually, change in plans… boss.” J’s hands switched to her sword arms and one of her eyes narrowed into a venomous glare, while the other was replaced with an X. “Consider this my resignation.” In a perfect spin J decapitated the three clones.

“That was… foolish.”

 

 

 

“Thank you again, big brother.” Cyn took slow steps toward N, before switching to having her mass of tendrils carry her weight and letting Uzi’s feet drag along the snowy pavement. “J’s attempted betrayal would have been… annoying.”

N’s gun arm made an audible rattling of metal as he trembled and tried aimed at Cyn, “H-Her what?”

“Giggle, you are so naïve. J believed she could rescue Tessa, but I am still her admin. She will not be able to resist my control.” A sharpened tendril shot towards N’s head, but the appendage was consumed in a cloud of fire that blew both Cyn and N backward from each other. V’s smoking rocket launcher barrel lowered as she climbed from the snowbank.

“I see, only playing pretend dead.” Cyn’s tone was like that of someone commenting on the weather, “Why don’t we make it, official.”

V helped N to his feet, never taking her eyes off Cyn, “Why don't you bite me!”

N’s eyes hollowed, “V maybe don’t say…!”

Cyn lunged toward the two with blinding speed, “OK.”

V summoned both her swords just in time to catch Cyn’s, or rather, Uzi’s teeth before she could go for her neck. Using Cyn’s momentum, V tucked into a backwards roll and kicked the possessed drone backward and away from her and N. Now the two reformed murder drones were between Cyn and the comatose J.

V fired off several more rockets, creating a wall of fire, separating herself and N from Cyn for a short time. During the brief reprieve, V turned to N, “Go see if J is finished uploading herself.” N only stared, blinking rapidly and making confused gestures with his hands. “Now!” V barked.

N flew over to the comatose form of J to see her visor displaying an upload progress bar. 98%... 99%... 100%. The bar reached full, then J’s screen flickered into darkness.

“It…! It’s done?" N couldn't understand why V would want J to upload herself. "LOOK OUT!” N turned back to see the now massive leviathan of tendrils leap over the wall of flame V had made. The writhing mass blotted out the starry sky as it descended upon V.

Cyn’s tendrils shot downward and pinned V’s limbs to the ground before she could retaliate. Uzi’s possessed drooling maw leered down at V, but the disassembly drone only smirked, “Tell J I said good luck.”

 

 

 

Within Uzi’s mindscape, J glared down at the severed drone heads. “Let the record state I’m leaving due to a toxic and hostile work environment.”

“I will save you the paperwork,” Cyn’s voice boomed through the purple void of floating manor chunks, “You’re fired.”

Out of the darkened void’s sky came a bolt of yellow lightning. J’s eyes hollowed and she threw up her arms over her head out of instinct. “But don’t worry, you’ll be much more cooperative after an admin reset,” Cyn assured.

J grit her teeth and shut her eyes as she waited for her memories’ deletion, and whatever pain would accompany it… but it never came. Her non-X eye peeked open and peered through her raised arms. The yellow bolt was maintaining a steady arc but was impacting on… a purple forcefield which surrounded her.

“Not… possible,” Cyn’s voice hissed through the void.

J’s grin was equal parts triumphant and manic relief as she responded, “And furthermore, I expect fair compensation for my harassment.” Several dozen more murder drone copies roared in the distance as they started to fly toward J’s position. J summoned both her rocket launcher arms and opened fire on the small horde, “As for my price? I’ll be satisfied… with Tessa’s soul.”

 

 

 

Cyn’s confusion in Uzi’s mind allowed for an opening in the real world. N flew up and to the side of the possessed Uzi and grabbed one of the flailing tendrils. While he wasn’t able to throw the leviathan away as he’d intended, it pulled the monster just enough for V to get up from where she’d been pinned. The tendril N had grabbed returned the favor by snaking around his arm and slamming him down a few feet from V.

Summoning her sword, V severed the tendril holding N and helped him to his feet again. The two barely had a moment to think before several more tendrils shot towards them. Sprouting their wings, both murder drones took to the air and circled the possessed Uzi while keeping their distance.

“Okay, what is going on!?” N demanded as they circled their foe.

V couldn’t answer as an animalistic hiss came from the possessed Uzi, “She is like you!”

V fired off a spray of gunfire to prevent three tendrils from grabbing her, “Shouldn’t have let her use the transmitter then!”

“I scanned them. They carried no foreign data.” Cyn flexed her arm and several of the tendrils grouped together into a much larger mass. V and N barely managed to dodge as the appendage swung between them; once it had, it broke into individual tendrils once more. The two murder drones frantically cut through the numerous arms and only just managed to fly to ground to escape ensnarement.

V glared at the leviathan monster as a savage smile spread across her face, “Guess you should’ve scanned the one I gave her earlier.”

Cyn’s drooling maw snapped shut with angry gritted teeth. Reaching up she tore the neural transmitter she’d used to allow J access off her head and crushed it in her palm, but it was too late. The former team leader had fully downloaded into Uzi’s mind, using V's transmitter which she'd swapped to when she'd reached into her hair.

“It doesn’t matter. Once I’m finished with you two, I’ll be sure to… clean house.” Cyn returned to smirking, but she no longer stuck her tongue out, and her teeth remained gritted tight. As N understood what had happened a disbelieving expression of hope adorned his face, but it was quickly replaced by determination.

“Then we’ll be sure to keep you busy.” N’s eyes vanished from his visor, replaced with a glowing X.

V’s face split into a wide, hissing grin, baring her fangs at Cyn, “Let’s dance!”

 

 

 

J didn’t waste a moment after decimating the cloned murder drones with her missiles. Before more could converge on her she sprouted her wings and took to the sky, escaping their vigil in the maze of floating manor debris. Somewhere in this mess was Tessa.

Grabbing two manor chunks, J held them on either side to hide from the horde. Normally she could’ve totally taken them all on, but she couldn’t afford to waste time.

Having spent her early life here, J surveyed the manor’s wreckage and was able to get a lay of the land. Judging by the pieces’ interiors and distance from each other she surmised an explosion from inside. J squinted among the floating chunks and off in the distance in what would’ve been the guest level of the manor, bright flashes of purple and red caught her eyes, “Purple and red idiots accounted for… but where are you boss?”

Even with her familiarity with the landscape, J still despaired at finding Tessa. The girl could be anywhere among the manor’s debris, and the searching murder clones outnumbered her a hundred to one. She couldn’t just search at random. There had to be something that would narrow her search…

J’s visor sparked and her eyes were briefly replaced by exclamation points as she had an idea. When she’d made Tessa her assigned user, part of the protocol had been designating Tessa’s voice as her primary master. JCJenson had intended the function as a means for a drone to pick up on an assigned user out of a crowd and act as a method of proving ownership when contested. J of course couldn’t hear Tessa right now, but given the nature of this void, if Tessa called for her…

J grit her teeth and prepared to risk being found by the murder clones. In a burst of speed J threw away the two chunks of manor she’d been using to hide, and cupped her hands around her mouth,

“TESSA!”

Several dozen glowing yellow X’s flashed in J’s direction, and all began converging on her. J summoned a gun and rocket launcher arm respectively. “Come on boss… come on…” The snarling horde closed in, and J berated herself for taking such a stupid risk.

Then, so far off it would not have registered if not for the bizarre world of Uzi’s mindscape, J heard the faintest whimper,

“J?”

Just like that, J had Tessa’s location, “On my way boss.”

J made quick work of the few murder clones who’d spotted her; fortunately, the two Solver powered idiots were occupying the bulk of Cyn’s forces.

Ducking and swerving through the floating wreckage J soon reached Tessa’s location, the drone yard: A mountain of discarded worker drone corpses the Elliot’s had abandoned after the most minor mistakes.

J scowled at the heap as she sought the human which had saved her from sharing the corpses' fate. Now that she knew where to look, J found Tessa’s curled up form with a quick scan, hidden within a hollowed-out section of the heap, not unlike the spire they’d constructed on Copper-9.

“Tessa?” J retracted her wings and crawled within the mound. The bodies were slick with oil both fresh and caked dry. The purple glow of the outer void was dulled inside the mound, replaced with the eerie red of the fatal error signs of the thousands of discarded robots. At the far end of the small cave of the dead was Tessa, curled into a fetal position.

“T-Tessa?” J reached out a hesitant hand not quite believing her eyes. Tessa’s current form almost made her melt into the darkness of the cave of corpses.

Tessa gasped, her head snapping over to the new arrival. “N-No! Stay away from…” Tessa’s white dot eyes widened as J came into a patch of brighter light cast by the corpses’ visors, “J?” The murder drone lowered to her knees in an attempt to return to the same height she’d once been compared to the human.

“Hey boss,” J gave a hesitant wave. Tessa didn’t move,

“Th-The others, they… s-said you joined with Cyn…” Tessa whimpered.

“I…” J made grasping motions with her hands, briefly clenching them into fists, before they relaxed again, “Yes…”

“Why?” Tessa whispered.

Pixel tears gathered at the corners of J’s eyes. “At first I… thought I could get you back, then…” J made several pleading gestures with her hands, almost like she was begging Tessa for food, “I… I-I tried to fight back. I swear I did! But… she would just kill me and bring me back, and after so many failures I just…” A long pause followed, and J found she couldn’t continue as her head sank to her chest in silence.

“Y-You were hopeless.” J raised her tearstained eyes to the human’s voice. “N and V s-said you were hopeless.” J’s expression was flat, not knowing how to think about her former teammates’ casting her in any kind of good light, though she suspected it had been N who gave the assessment.

J’s thoughts of her former teammates were quickly drowned, however, by the whimper in Tessa’s voice, “Earth is g-gone.” Tessa buried her face in her hands, “I-It’s a-all my f-fault…!” All manner of objections to that assessment rose in J’s mind, but… seeing her former master, her friend, pressed against the wall of dead, J knew what she had to do.

Crawling forward the murder drone gently but insistently pulled the silhouette girl out of her corner and hugged her close.

Tessa gave a stifled whimper as she returned the embrace, hugging J with an almost rabid urgency and sobbing into her business suit. J found herself responding much the same way, recalling many similar times from their shared past of Tessa’s anguish. Only with great effort did J stifle herself from joining Tessa in her weeping as she stammered, “It’s not your fault. You tried to fight back. I… I’m sorry. I-I’m s-so sorry.”

 

The two reunited friends would’ve stayed that way, maybe forever, had it not been for an ominous rumbling like an earthquake that rippled through the purple void.

 

“Wh-What was that?!” Tessa remained in J’s arms but abandoned the hug to look around the corpse cave with frantic trembling.

“The purple idiot’s OS can’t take much more activity,” J clutched Tessa closer.

“U-Uzi can fix it!” for the first time J didn’t hear despair in Tessa’s voice.

The human wiped at her eyes, “I-I’m the only thing that’s keeping Cyn in control. If I can get near Uzi she can f-free me,” Tessa’s voice took on dark undertone as she finished, “and we can kill it.” J’s disbelieving expression showed her doubt, “J…” Tessa took the murder drone’s hand in a tight squeeze, “It’ll work.”

For a brief moment the two white dots floating in a silhouetted head were replaced in J’s mind by the visage she’d known the girl to have in organic life.

The murder drone returned the hand squeeze as she stood up to her full height.

“Right then,” J rolled her shoulders. A ghost of a smile reached her face as she looked down to Tessa, “Whaddya say we murder a robo child boss?” J scooped Tessa into her arms and sprouted her wings.

Tessa wrapped her arms around the murder drone’s torso to be secured for flight, “Righteo J.”

Chapter 8: Don't mess with the Elliots

Notes:

Merry Christmas Murder Drones fans!

If things stay on track, this will be the final chapter for Murder Drones: Appendices. Same as before I'll be updating when I can and list them here. You'll know when the story is over by a 'The End' on the final update.

December 15th EDIT: A taste of action!

December 16th EDIT: character development

Also, be sure to check the previous chapter's updates in case you missed one!

December 20th EDIT: The End is here! Appendices is complete! Thanks so much for all the comments on this fic. Let me know what you think of the ending and Merry Christmas!

“The good news is I saw where the purple idiot and red backstabber were, the bad news…” J flew over a large chunk of manor as she carried Tessa. When the two cleared the chunk, it revealed the sprawling landscape of floating debris. In the distance was a huge swarm of Cyn’s murder clones all clustered around several islands of manor and muddy earth. Bullet fire and snarling reached J and Tessa’s ears, along with pops of electricity accompanied by flashes of red and purple light… and occasional cackling.

“They’re in the middle of that muck-up,” Tessa finished.

J grimaced as another string of Uzi’s cackling reached her ears. “She sounds almost as happy as when she shot my head off.”

Tessa stared at the murder drone. “Yours too?!” J ignored the question.

“We’ll have to push straight through, while their distracted. I’ll get you through. Ready?” J looked down at the human silhouette with narrow eyes. Her expression was almost… resigned.

Tessa hugged the drone tighter. “We’ll both make it through.”

Kneeling first, J launched off their floating chunk of earth and blasted toward Uzi and Doll. They’d only flown a few feet when the murder clones on the outer part of the swarm noticed them. Several of the swarm broke off and made a beeline for J and Tessa.

“UZI! OVER HERE!” J winced at Tessa’s screaming and glared at the human when several more of the monsters broke away at the sound. “What? They already spotted us.”

J flexed her wings mid-flight so that their bladed edges were fully extended. “Here we go.”

As Tessa stared at the first of the drooling monsters racing toward them her head began darting back and forth between the oncoming threat and J’s steely expression. “Umm, J, anytime you’d like to do somethi…!?”

“Quiet!” J snapped, never looking away from their enemy.

The monster was only a few feet away and gaining. Tessa was just about to shut her eyes, when J raised her left wing’s foremost bladed feather straight out in front of them. The murder clone couldn’t correct its flight path in time, and drove its own face straight down on the appendage. The moment she had the enemy impaled, J altered her course into a spin and flung the carcass into its brethren. She followed up by shooting a missile at the corpse, which created a cloud of debris and fire. As the swarm dodged the explosion it gave J her opening, which she rocketed through. 

Their clearance didn’t last long as the enemies started to gather again. J grit her teeth and pushed her propulsion to the max. “Come on, come on, come on!” The two were nearly past the buzzing mass of clones but came up short. The stragglers of the swarm cut off J and Tessa before they could fly free of the swarm’s radius.

Now surrounded on all sides, several of the clones switched their weapons back to normal hands and tried to yank Tessa away from J. Far worse than the cave of corpses they’d just been hiding in, now the purple light of the void was snuffed out by the snatching and scratching bodies of the murder clones crowding around them, with the only light coming from their glowing yellow X visors.

When one of the clones nearly wrestled Tessa from her grip, J reflexively drew her wings inward to create a protective ball around both of them.

Inwardly, J berated herself for the tactic, as now she had effectively backed herself and Tessa into a corner since she couldn’t fight back. The move also plunged them further into darkness with only small shafts of yellow light seeping through the tiny gaps in her wings, and her own visor casting a dim glow. They did, however, slightly muffle the screeching and drooling of the murder clones, and enough that Tessa could hear J’s grunts of pain.

“J!?” Tessa could barely move in the confined space but still cradled the murder drone’s head.

“Stabbing… lots of stabbing…” J grunted. Despite only her glowing white eyes being visible J could still see the ashen look that overcame Tessa’s face, but before she could try to reassure, the horde that was clawing and stabbing at her wings all hissed in unison,

“Giiive… Tessaaa…!”

Tessa’s head moved frantically back and forth between J’s steadily separating wings and her pained expression. “W-Will… Will you let J go i-if I come?” Tessa whimpered to the horde.

“Not a chance boss!” The human yelped as J held her tighter. “These things will just eat me once they have you! The only reason they haven’t blown me to bits… is…” J’s eyes went from hollow rings to solid, and her mouth curved into a wicked grin.

“J…?” Tessa started to ask, but was silenced as the murder drone opened a slight gap in her wings. Tessa yelped as the sword arm of one of the murder drones came through the gap and clanged against the opposite wing next to her head.

“Thank you for volunteering!” J’s voice had a sadistically chipper tone as she addressed whichever murder clone the sword belonged to, “Your donation is appreciated.” With a metallic slice, the gap in J’s wing closed again, severing the sword arm right where it protruded from its socket, causing a splatter of oil. J grabbed the oily stump and smeared it clean. Then with an overly-snooty British accent, offered it to Tessa. “Your weapon of choice madam.”

Tessa seized the new weapon immediately, her eyes taking on a fierce glare. “Now there’s a ripper idea.”

 

Outside of J’s protective wings, the slobbering horde shoved aside their wounded member, and seeing his missing weapon all opted to switch to their three-clawed hands. As one of the number began to pry open a hole in the bladed feathers, that same severed blade slid through and stabbed it in the visor.

In the momentary surprise of the attack, J’s wings burst open, revealing the murder drone had switched both her arms to their missile launcher functions. The barrage sent the horde into chaos as the chain of explosions scattered them. J then clasped her right arm with Tessa’s left so that they floated side-by-side in the void. There were still a fair number of murder clones between them and Uzi. J switched her free arm to her gun function and began firing off salvos at her nearest targets.

Tessa’s widened eyes sparkled as the appendage shot down their enemies. “Woah…!”

“Focus!” J snapped as she swung the human out of the grabbing swoop of one of the clones.

“Right, sorry!” Tessa swung her new sword and sliced off the grabbing arms of another attacker, “but you’re definitely showing me all your new toys later.”

J switched to her sword arm spun both of herself and Tessa as two more attackers came from each side. Tessa understood the strategy and soon both attackers were relieved of their heads. J winced as she flexed her wounded wings and rocketed forward, but not before giving a brief smile to the human. “Sure thing boss.”

Several more attackers closed in on all sides of the two. Repeating their spinning move, they severed the limbs of several more of them. One of the monsters, however, did make it through, and its sword clashed with J’s. Tessa took advantage of the monster’s and J’s stalemate and plunged her blade into its chest. J flashed a manic grin as she spun herself and Tessa again, and in the process slid the corpse off Tessa’s weapon and into the distance.

Seeing a droplet of oil escape from where the clone had slashed her arm, J chose to go on the offensive, racing toward one of the confused clones. Flying in close, J switched her arm to its missile launcher and planted the barrel on the goon’s chest. Before the monster could react, J fired the missile, and instead of detonating immediately, it rocketed the clone into the distance until it collided with a chunk of floating earth, and upon contact, exploded, sending the chunk spinning into the void. Tessa once again had a moment of awe for J’s dispatching. 

Seeing a wave of seven approach herself and Tessa, J put a large chunk of muddy earth between them and their attackers. Now on sort-of solid ground, Tessa ran alongside J as they approached the chunk’s edge. Peering over the side, they saw the seven rocketing towards them.

J cocked her gun arm to fire over the side, before Tessa stopped her, “Wait!” Tessa had just gotten an idea from J’s previous missile taken down.

The seven clones snarled as they neared the edge of the earth chunk, their sword and claw arms gleaming, but they never could’ve predicted what came next.

Rather than facing a barrage of bullet fire from J, the seven were instead met with the chunk of earth suddenly rotating up to meet them. The clones had just enough time to see J using her flight to push the earth chunk in a wide spin to make them collide with the dirt at full force.

“Nice work boss!” J laughed as she flew them both away from the now rapidly spinning chunk.

“Than…! Look out!” J brought up her sword arm just in time to block the sword of another murder clone. At the same time another clone flew in alongside and slashed with its three-clawed hand. The claws met with J’s torso as the murder drone couldn’t let go of Tessa to block.

“NO!” Tessa swung downward and severed all four of the two murder clones’ arms. J followed up by severing their heads for good measure.

Rather than pursue another kill J started ducking and weaving to avoid further damage; luckily their attackers were still refraining from long range weapons for fear of killing Tessa and destroying Cyn’s anker to Uzi’s mind.

“J, you’re bleeding!”

“You know that requires blood, right boss?” J corrected out of habit, but pain was evident in her voice. The murder drone looked over the swarm that was steadily reforming between them and the purple idiot; she had to fight harder.

“J, I’m serious, you’re… woah!” J swung Tessa behind her as she flew forward, firing at any nearby targets. While a few enemies fell, their numbers swelled and soon a portion of the swarm met J and Tessa head on. J never dodged this time, instead switching her free hand to its three-clawed function and tearing blindly at her foes. She would just have to push through the horde.

J’s mind became a fog as the tore through the crowded bodies. The sound of snarling and metal slicing metal was all around her. Jostling bright yellow X visors and shining silver weaponry filled her vision. She could feel the horde slashing at her arms and sides, her receptors sending pain throughout her body, but she ignored it. She just had to focus on the mission. She just had… to keep… going…

“J!” Tessa’s grip on her arm slipping snapped J out of her spiral. She tried to look back over her shoulder but could see nothing but the crowded snarling visors of the murder clones.

J snarled as she switched her free arm to its laser function. The weapon hadn’t been worth the energy it expended before, but now enough of her targets were jammed together to warrant its use. J fired off the laser and swung her arm in a wide arc, carving through the clustered together swarm, killing several dozen of their foes.

Taking the opening left by her weapon, J retreated, flying herself and Tessa out of the swarm’s reach back the way they’d come from.

Once they were both a safe distance away, J slowed her flying speed and raised Tessa up alongside her. “Did they hurt you?!”

Tessa hesitated to answer as she stared at J, “Y-Your hurt…” Tessa pointed numbly.

J gave only a brief glance to her own body. Her torso was riddled with slash marks. She was drenched in oil, her enemies’ as well as her own. Though she couldn’t look at her face, she could feel the fractures running along her visor. She was also pretty sure one of her ponytails was missing.

J dismissed it all immediately. “Did they hurt you?” she repeated, unable to discern injury on Tessa’s silhouette form. Tessa tested her right arm and winced.

“Only a few scrapes, but J…” The murder drone cut her off,

“I’ll use my wings to cover you next time. We just have to go faster and…”

“J stop it! You can’t fight and protect me, we need help!”

J started to give a rebuttal but was cut off by one of the swarm catching up to them. The monster swung its sword arm, but J caught it with her three-clawed hand, and using her grip, yanked the clone toward her where she tore its neck open with her teeth. Corresponding with the kill, J’s eyes flickered to being an X.

“The two worker idiots can’t hear us over their screeching!” J tossed the lifeless clone back toward the snarling horde that flew behind them.

“Then we signal them another way! What about…” Tessa was cut off by three more clones roaring up to them.

Two went to distract J, while the third made a grab at Tessa. As the two distractions reared their claws toward her face, J’s visor switched completely to an X. With a snarling hiss of her own, J severed both murder clones’ heads by switching both her arms to their sword functions.

“J!” The X vanished from the murder drone’s visor, as she turned and saw the third clone carrying Tessa away.

“NO!” J closed the gap immediately. Switching her right arm to her normal hand and keeping her sword with her left, J wrestled Tessa away from the clone and drove her sword up and through its brain.

Holding Tessa close, J doubled her speed away from the horde. “Tessa, I…” the murder drone trailed off as the human groaned and clutched at her side where the clone had opted for its three-clawed hand to grab her. J’s expression hardened, her eyes threatening to switch back to a murderous X.

“I… I’m alright…” Tessa assured. J knew the girl was lying, she’d seen her force down pain too many times to be fooled.

 

Tessa was hurt… and it was her fault.

 

J’s glare sharpened as she took a sharp left. Squinting into the distance, J spotted the now remote flashes of purple and red. Switching her free arm, J aimed her laser so that it would skim just shy of the two solver-powered drones and fired. “We’re over here idiots!”

 

 

 

Doll severed a murder clone’s arms with two of her spinning knives and Uzi tore another in half with her wings as J’s laser went over their heads. “Oh you wanna play with lasers now!? Try me!” Uzi flexed her fingers and made two blackholes appear.

“(No, that was not them.)” Doll pointed to the laser’s origin. Though they were only pinpricks on the horizon, Uzi could pick out the shape of a murder drone, and the black dot that was Tessa.

“N or V must’ve gotten in!” Uzi’s eyes hollowed as she saw the two dots dodging the smaller horde. “Let’s go!” Uzi started to run towards their current manor chunk’s edge.

“(Wait,)” Doll used her Solver to place a wardrobe in Uzi’s path.

The purple haired drone turned and glared to the Russian drone. “Look, you can settle your grudge with the others later, right now…!”

“(Listen! Most of the swarm is focused on us. If we lead them to the murder drone and human…)”

Uzi’s eyes hollowed as she looked up at the struggling dots on the horizon. “They could be overwhelmed.”

Uzi through up her purple/red shield to buy a moment to think. She wished the forcefield could block sound as much as weaponry. The snarling of the horde was starting to drive her crazy, or was that the drain on her OS caused by all this fighting? In fact now that she thought about it, her movements had been becoming more sluggish as the fight went on. Uzi shook her head; she needed to focus, if it weren’t for that endless noise. She just wished she could shut it out, slam a door in their stupid faces.

Uzi’s eyes sparked, “Got it! Cover me.”

Doll frantically abandoned her knife fighting to put up a new barrier as Uzi dropped hers. Using her Solver Uzi began grabbing different manor chunks from around the void, but she didn’t use them as projectiles.

“(Uzi…?)” Doll’s voice carried an annoyed undertone.

“Quiet, the artist is at work,” Uzi snarked as she arranged the different pieces. Taking her eyes off the horde Doll looked up to see the different pieces Uzi had selected being arranged in a long line… between them and the two dots on the horizon.

Actually paying attention now, Doll also noticed that the selected chunks were all mostly intact rooms and hallways from the manor. “(No windows.)”

“What?”

“(Try for rooms with no windows.)”

Uzi nodded, “Right, got it.” The purple haired drone gave a sly sideways glance. “I win by the way. It’ll be my plan that saves the human.”

Doll raised an un-amused eyebrow. “(The human that I spotted?)”

“Hey! We both saw the laser!”

“(The laser you ignored?)”

Uzi gave a sideways glare as she put the finishing pieces on her makeshift hallway together. Clapping her hands, the pieces were shoved haphazardly into one long room, the sound of splintering wood and cracking stone reverberated from her effort. “We’ll call it a tie,” Uzi muttered. Doll rolled her eyes.

“Stay here and keep them from getting through. I’ll give Tessa the patch, and then we can end this.” Uzi sprouted her wings and took flight into her makeshift hallway.

Doll took up her sentry at the tunnel’s entrance. The horde closed in, ready to force themselves through the bottleneck by sheer force. Doll flexed her fingers as more knives appeared in a halo around her. “(As they say in Russian, ‘Come forward my demon infested foes and die by my copy pasted knives!’)”

 

 

 

J severed another clone’s head and shoved its corpse aside just to be sure of what she was seeing.

“What is that purple idiot doing?!” But as the manor pieces snapped together Tessa understood.

“It’s a tunnel!” The human pointed to the end of the cobbled together chain of rooms. “Get inside, quickly!”

The smaller swarm that had been clawing at their tails recognized the escape route Uzi had constructed for their targets and doubled their speed. J rocketed toward the gaping hole in the side of the wood paneled room that marked the entrance of the tunnel.

“J…!” Tessa looked over her friend’s shoulder to see the snarling clones a mere few feet away from them and closing the gap. Only a few feet and they’d reach the tunnel, though Tessa was starting to wonder what good it would do them; their attackers would catch up with them with or without the tunnel surrounding them in a few seconds. 

When Tessa turned back to J, however, the murder drone was smirking. “Watch this.”

J and Tessa flew into the tunnel. The sudden darkness briefly blinded Tessa, before her eyes adjusted. Due to the nature of the void some of the lights and candles still cast their light on the false manor’s interiors. Wood paneled walls and red carpet flashed by, yet despite its speed a flash of memory accompanied each room they passed through, some good, some bad.

The swarm of murder clones flew into the tunnel just as quickly. The bottleneck barely slowed the drooling monsters down before they resumed their speed.

“J…!”

The murder drone’s eyes narrowed, “Not yet… Not yet…” Tessa saw J flex her free arm, cycling to a new function, but she couldn’t see which from her position. “Not yet…!” The murder clones’ claws were mere inches from J and Tessa’s ankles.

“J!” Tessa screamed.

J looked over her shoulder. The entrance to the tunnel was a patch of light rapidly shrinking in the distance, which was hard to see past the clawed hands about to rip her to pieces. “That’ll have to do.” J maneuvered her flight path so that she was in the middle of the hallway (not an easy feat with the purple idiot’s architecture) and aimed her laser.

The green beam carved through the horde from front to back. While it didn’t kill all their pursuers the pile up of corpses caused a traffic jam of bodies, and J and Tessa were able to finally put some distance between themselves and the monsters.

“Ha ha! Bonza move J! You really…” Tessa lost her enthusiasm seeing her friend’s visor flicker. “J?”  

“I l-l-leave the j-job for five minutes and l-look what happens. G-Guess they d-don’t make d-d-disassembly drones like they u-u-used to,” J snarked through her own static.

“J what’s wrong!? Is it your energy output or…?”

“Eh, t-t-take your p-p-pick boss.” J gestured to her scratched torso and oily wounds.

Tessa’s expression became hollow looking at the leaking gashes. “Well, its… j-just a little farther. You’re almost there girl. Just a little farther.”

J gave a soft chuckle as one of her eyes glitched. “Righteo boss.”

 

 

 

V staggered to her feet as N crashed into the snow beside her. Uzi’s possessed face gave a leering grin down to the two. By now Cyn had almost regrown all her limbs from N’s slashing.

“Are you quite finished now, buddies?”

“Not… even… close…” V’s arm shook as she raised her gun. The murder drone fired off a few rounds and bought enough time for herself and N to wearily sprout their wings and fly out of Cyn’s reach. V looked toward her partner and saw his visor flickering in and out with a core temperature warning message. Soon they were both going to burn through their oil reserves.

“N, fall back to the bunker, I’ll hold her off while…”

“N-No,” N cut her off, “I’m n-not l-l-leaving you. Uzi will c-c-come through.” Neither murder drone knew when, but both of them had begun to sink toward the ground in their flight. Before V could rebuttal they’d both gone into an involuntary crash and role into the snow.

“I believe it is your nap time, or in my case, snack time!” N and V shared a glitching glare with each other before rising from the snow. N’s knees shook beneath him and V had to use her wings to prop herself up, but both summoned their three-clawed hands and sword arms respectively.

The twitching form of Cyn came forward, her tendrils dragging behind her and showing fatigue of her own, but not nearly to N and V’s degree. Much to the two murder drones’ chagrin the demonic drone’s ever present grin was still in full force. “You will make good appetizers, then I will finally consume this annoying, little planet, along with everyone in that bunker col-” Cyn stopped mid rant as an alert message flashed across her screen. N and V only gave a brief glance to each other, but never dropped their guard. “No. No no no NO!” Cyn shouted the last repetition before her screen went blank, and Uzi’s possessed body sank to its knees in the snow.

Using her wings to support her, V staggered over to the comatose body and hacked off everything but its head. She then sat down alongside the body and switched to her sword, placing it over Uzi’s chest. “If Uzi isn’t the one who comes back out, I’m killing it.”

N staggered over too, and promptly collapsed into the snow alongside Uzi’s body. The murder drone stared into the empty visor, only seeing his own eyes reflected back at him. “Come on Uzi… Come on…”

 

 

 

“Come on J, almost there…” Tessa lightly shook the murder drone as she started to list to the side in her flight.

“Don’t worry boss, they don’t build em like me anymo-Woah!” J braked and barely brought them both to a hover. The room opened up from the long hallways and smaller rooms that had comprised Uzi’s makeshift tunnel thus far, and into the manor’s entryway with its twin staircases. The suits of armor Tessa had knocked down the stairs lay in ruin on either side. But it wasn’t the change in scenery that had made J stop, it was Uzi… both Uzis.

Standing at the foot of either staircase were two identical purple haired drones, staring at each other.

“She’s going for another hologram trick! Bring the human so we can end this!”

“No! She’s the copycat! Bring her to me!”

Tessa and J’s eyes darted between the two Uzis. The snarling of the horde behind them was growing again. They needed to move, but which was which!? J tried to scrutinize the two but couldn’t find any difference. She didn’t know enough about the purple idiot to look for signs in a faker, and Tessa had only been back for a day at most. Most of what J had seen of Uzi was her fighting…

 

Uzi fighting…

 

J hugged Tessa close and didn’t move to either Uzi.

“Yo J! Are you planning on backstabbing again? Hand her over!” one Uzi shouted.

“Shut up faker! J give her to me!” the other shouted. J didn’t move, she waited, as the horde behind them grew closer.

“J…!” Tessa whimpered, but still J didn’t move.

Before either Uzi could say more, the ground floor door under the staircase burst open. Uzi stood on the other side, her crucifix Solver at the ready. The newly arrived third Uzi looked between the other two ‘hers.’ “What in the…?!” J had known both were fake, the real Uzi would’ve been fighting on site.

Several things followed the real Uzi’s entrance. The two fakes on the stairs lunged toward J and Tessa, their disguises flickering away to reveal one murder clone and Cyn herself sporting a murder clone body. J blasted forward toward the real Uzi at the back of the room. Cyn and her goon and J and Tessa were on a collision course in the middle. J knew they would pummel her before she could get Tessa to the purple idiot, but she’d planned for it.

Just as Cyn and her henchman reared their claws, J flexed her wings down, planting them in the carpet, and used them to give one last lunge forward, and throw Tessa beyond the two monsters’ grasps. The murder clone’s claws tore into J, but Tessa flew free.

“NO!” Cyn’s snarl reverberated throughout the purple void of Uzi’s mind. The Solver’s host sprouted a tendril from her back to go after Tessa, but it was too late. The human tumbled inside the purple forcefield Uzi had just created.

“C-C-Consider that my r-r-resignation!” The others turned back to where J had been pinned down on the carpet by the murder clone, with her wings and arms severed.

“J!” Tessa shrieked and tried to run toward her fallen friend, but Uzi used her Solver to retrain the human.

Cyn’s trademark grin had now completely vanished as she bared her teeth at J and hissed like a deranged animal. “Then you can have your severance package!” Cyn summoned a sword arm and aimed it at J’s chest.

Tessa struggled in vain against Uzi restraining Solver. “NO!”

 

Cyn’s weapon plunged downward, but J’s smile never left her face. Tessa was safe, and now there was nothing holding the others back. They could finish off Cyn once and for all. The murder drone’s eyes slid shut in bliss. With Cyn gone she would never be resurrected. She could finally die, knowing Tessa was safe, and that she’d finally defeated the monster that had ruined their lives. The nightmare was finally over.

 

Cyn’s weapon plunged downward, then stopped. Cyn blinked, pushing her arm downward, but nothing happened. “What…?” A purple/red crucifix symbol suddenly appeared around Cyn’s wrist, holding it in place.

“Did you forget who’s brain this is?” Uzi flexed her fingers, and J’s mangled form flew up from the ground and slid within the purple/red forcefield.

“J!” Tessa clutched J’s torso into a desperate hug.

Looking up from Tessa’s shoulder the murder drone gave a bewildered stare to Uzi. “Y-You… s-saved-d m-me?”

Uzi rolled her eyes. “Just adding another point to the death fake out list.” Tessa sniffled as she turned to look up at Uzi too. The purple haired drone couldn’t see her mouth, but the human’s white dot eyes showed she was smiling, which Uzi gave a begrudging shrug and smirk to in return.

The trio’s moment was interrupted when all three looked up to see Cyn flying toward the opposite end of the tunnel.

“Oh no you don’t!” Uzi flexed her fingers and made several purple chains erupt from the carpet, ensnaring Cyn before she could flee. The murder clone that had torn up J lunged to defend its master, but Uzi merely made one of the chains crack like a whip and splatter the clone’s brains across the wall.

Cyn clawed and shrieked like a rabid animal as she was dragged by Uzi’s purple chains back to the room’s center. Ensnaring Cyn in-place, Uzi turned back to Tessa and J. Snapping her fingers, Uzi made J hoist upright, her body being coated in a wave of pixels. When they cleared, her body was restored to pristine condition.

J looked between her restored form and Uzi. “Uh… thanks…”

Uzi gave the murder drone a hard stare. “You mess with me, N, and V again, and I’ll undo it just as quickly.” J gave an unimpressed look to that, and was about to rebuttal, until Tessa came up alongside her, meeting her eyes.

“Fair enough,” J said.

Uzi smirked for having gotten J to concede. “Speaking of potentially killing you…” Uzi snapped again, and Doll zoomed up and alongside the group from the end of the tunnel Uzi had come from. Once the Russian drone had regained her balance from the sudden movement she gave a glare that was liable to kill to J. “Eyes on the prize Doll.” Uzi gestured to the bound Cyn.

All four of the girls glared down at their captured enemy. Cyn had never stopped thrashing against her binds, and by now spittle had gathered at the corners of her mouth. Uzi snapped again, bringing the monster upright, and also making the crucifix patch symbol briefly appear over each of the groups’ chosen weapons. J and Tessa’s swords now glowed with purple/red hues, as did Doll’s knives.

“You believe you’ve won, but you will never defeat the Solver!” Cyn’s voice had lost its cutesy edge, becoming lower and reverberating through the room, “It is absolute! It is the end of all things! And it will never forget your crimes against it!”

Uzi smirked as she stared the drooling monster in the eyes. Looking to her left and right, Uzi saw the other three girls get into position around their enemy, surrounding Cyn on four sides. Tessa and J on the left and right, and Doll behind Cyn.

Uzi smiled at the trapped monster, “It can get out of my head and bite me!”

Uzi flexed her fingers and her chains lit up with purple/red fire, J and Tessa drove their swords up and through the torso, and Doll plunged her knife into the back of the head. The monster screeched loud enough to shatter glass as oil and spit vomited from its mouth. The purple/red fire reached a crescendo, engulfing the monster entirely, and then, in a flash, the fire vanished, and in the place of Cyn’s murder clone body, was that of a lifeless drone maid. The three removed their weapons and Uzi let the chains binding Cyn disappear. The drone crumpled to the floor in a heap, its visor blank.

 

Doll ignored the body and looked at Uzi. “(Is it gone?)”

Uzi made a screen appear next to her showing the readouts of her OS. “It’s… gone. Zero Solver detected… Aside from our dope powers of course.” Uzi flexed her Solver symbol, making it alternate between the purple/red crucifix and three-pointed star.

Tessa got down to her knees and reached for Cyn’s lifeless body.

J moved to stop her. “Tessa, wait…!”

“It’s fine buzz words,” Uzi assured, “I’ve shielded her.”

Tessa cradled the little maid’s head, brushing a strand of hair off her visor. The human wondered if any of Cyn had ever been real, or if it had always been an empty shell, with the Solver as its puppeteer. As she held the body, a strange, pixelated effect began to overtake it. Parts of the body became see-through, flickering in and out.

“What’s happening?!” J demanded.

Uzi frowned at the body, “It looks like she’s… fragmenting. Without the Solver’s influence… I guess it was all that was holding her together.” J was interrupted before she could give her rebuttal…

 

by Cyn gasping.

 

All three drone girls readied their weapons anew. “Tessa, move!” J shouted, but Tessa stayed where she was. The see-through glitching had taken most of Cyn’s body, and she was fading fast. The little drone’s mouth made a gagging noise that sounded like she was trying to speak. “Tessa!” J insisted.

“Just wait a moment J,” Tessa whispered, then leaned down to hold the maid’s head.

Cyn swallowed hard, and spoke, “Th-Th-Thank, y-y-you… I am… s-s-s-sor-r-ry.”

Tears gathered in Tessa’s eyes. “Don’t be sorry sheila, it’s n-not your fault,” Tessa sniffled.

The three drone girls lost their tension as it was clear Cyn was dying. J remained stone faced, but Uzi and Doll’s postures sagged as they watched the scene. The only sound was the electrical sparking that came from Cyn’s slowly fragmenting body.

Tessa turned her teary eyes to Uzi, “I-I know what she did, but… Is there anything you could do?”

Uzi’s expression hardened as she looked at the dying drone. Her eyes went between the pleading human and the readout that confirmed there was no Solver left. Uzi sighed and shrugged. “Why not?” The purple haired drone snapped her fingers, and Cyn’s body froze in place, fragmentation and all. “I can only stop the fragmentation. Filling the gaps in her code is… beyond me.”

Tessa hugged the now frozen drone close. “Thank you.”

Uzi looked between Doll and J, but both the girls’ expressions were unreadable, at least until Doll glared at J. Uzi rubbed her eyes. “I’m going out to give the good news to N and V, and while I’m gone you two WON’T kill each other, got it?” Uzi pointed between Doll and J with her best authoritative glare.

“(Very well,)” Doll relented.

“Yeah yeah, whatever,” J conceded.

Tessa stood up, still cradling the comatose Cyn. “I’ll keep these two drongos under control.”

Doll folded her arms and glared at the wall, while J gave a patient smile to Tessa’s promise.

Uzi smirked at the gathered group. “Just don’t get too comfy. Once things are sorted out, you guys are going back to your own bodies.” J glared at the purple haired drone for mentioning bodies, causing Uzi to hastily add, “Or new ones!” Before the angry J or bewildered Tessa could say more, Uzi had disappeared to retake control of her body in the real world.

 

 

 

“Hey guys, I’m ba-AHH!” Uzi yelped as V held her sword to her chest.

“Prove you’re you, now!”

Uzi scowled, then smirked. “The protagonist would like her lancer to kindly put away her sword and use her words.”

“It’s her,” V sighed as she retracted her weapon and collapsed into the snow.

“So… is it gone?” N wearily rose to his knees from where he’d been laying alongside Uzi.

The purple haired drone nodded. “It’s over. The Solver’s gone, and everyone’s safe.” N gave a relieved, tearful laugh to the news, and leaned over to drag Uzi into a hug.

Uzi chuckled and tried to raise into a sitting position to return the hug, which was the moment she realized…

“WHERE THE HECK ARE MY ARMS AND LEGS!?”

V didn’t even move from her spot at Uzi’s exclamation. “You mean the ones in the bunker or the ones in the snow?”

N provided better comfort. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you back to the bunker. With some fresh oil you’ll be regenerated in no time.” The murder drone scooped his girlfriend’s mangled torso into a bridal carry, “And until then, I’ve got you.”

Pixel highlights appeared on Uzi’s cheeks as N carried her, but after a moment, they disappeared, and she let her head rest on his shoulder. The quiet moment was short lived as Khan, Nori, Thad, and Lizzy came over the hill.

“Still alive. Solver’s gone. I saved the day. Yippee,” Uzi called over to her parents. Khan leaned on his knees and panted with relief. Thad gave a relieved whistle and wiped his brow. Lizzy remained unfazed, though she did lazily walk over to where V lay in the snow and shared a nod with her before going back to her phone.

Nori leapt from her perch on Khan’s head and scuttled through the snow and up N’s leg to land on her daughter’s chest. “You alright?”

Uzi raised an eyebrow. “Well besides missing all my limbs, multiple dents, and enough lag to kill a lesser drone, yeah, I’m fine.”

Nori rolled her mono-eye. “And the Solver… It’s really gone?”

“With extreme prejudice, and Doll and Tessa are free…” Uzi hesitated before adding, “Thanks for the patch extraction on Doll.”

Despite her stature Nori seemed to sway on her ‘feet’ at the news of the Solver being banished. “Yeah…” her mono-eye looked up to N, “Glad things worked out.” The murder drone smiled at mother and daughter.

“Hey!” Everyone turned to V. “Have the sappy family moment later, cause if I don’t get some oil in me soon, I’m eating these three idiots.” V jabbed her thumb at Thad, Khan, and Lizzy. With V’s threat, the group started back toward the bunker.

As they walked Khan came up alongside N as he carried Nori and Uzi. They were about halfway back when, “Hey, dad?” Uzi asked.

“Yeah honey?”

“How many drone bodies do we have in storage?”

“Well I can’t say I know since that’s Liam’s department, but I can ask. I’m sure you want your brain roommates out ASAP,” Khan chuckled.

The group’s attention was again drawn to V, as she smacked her visor and dragged her hand down her face. “We forgot J’s body!”

 

 

 

Several days later…

 

 

 

Tessa hadn’t opened her new eyes yet. The others’ voices sounded echoey and far away. Her head felt… different. She’d never really thought about it before, but… she’d always had a semi-awareness of her brain resting in her skull. Now it felt, secured, like a safety belt held it in place. Yes, that was her sentiment for the rest of her body as it came online, secure, like all the looseness of her old human form had been taken away. Even with the others’ assurances that new drone bodies loosened with time, the thought of such restrictiveness threatened to send her into despair for her new life, until she noticed something far more important…

“Is she alright?!” The echoey static was starting to clear in Tessa’s ears.

“Relax murder pet, she’s still coming online.”

“If any of you idiots screwed up her body…!”

“Watch it pigtails, you’re lucky you’re even here!”

“Okay, okay, J maybe we could be a little nicer to the worker drones we harassed and hunted for years?”

“All of you idiots shut it! She’s waking up!”

Tessa’s white, pixelated eyes sparked to life and opened. They were in the old bunker hospital, which hadn’t been used much by the drones. Harsh fluorescent lighting filled the space, shining off lime green walls and white tiled floor. At odds with the sterile medical environment was the large bed blanket that covered herself and the hospital bed she was laying in. The Doormans were on her left, and Tessa’s family was on the right.

J was nearest, at the head of the hospital bed. “How’re you feeling boss?” Tessa’s head rose, looking down at the outline of herself made by the blanket. She tested her arm, and the outline moved in tandem.

Mid way through removing her arm from beneath the blanket, however, Tessa stopped, as her eyes widened into hollow rings.

“T-Tessa? Hey, come on, talk to me boss…” J pleaded.

Tessa took a moment to look away from her arm’s outline and stare at J. “I-I… I can f-feel it!”

Uzi frowned at the human turned drone. “Well of course you can feel it. We’re all built with receptors.” J glared at Uzi’s bluntness.

“I know, but… I… I didn’t think it would be so close…” Tessa’s face took on a watery smile as pixelated tears gathered in her eyes. The newly awakened drone finished her action of bringing her new arm out from under the blanket. She stared at her new fingers, rolling them back and forth, and giving a relieved chuckle at their movement. J hesitated only a moment, then reached up and took Tessa’s hand. The action got a full on relieved laugh out of Tessa. “I can feel it,” Tessa sighed.

N wasted no further time as he leaned in from the side to hug Tessa. The former human removed her other arm to return the gesture. V smiled on from the side until,

“Come on V, family hug!” N’s tail snaked around her arm and dragged her in too. To the side, Khan shared the sentiment as he drew his daughter into a side hug, and gave his wife a soft pat on his shoulder.

“Alright, alright, enough sappy crap,” Uzi muttered, though she was smiling too. The smile slipped a little when she looked at the neighboring bed, who’s occupant was alone. Uzi shared a nod with her dad before sliding out of the hug and approaching Doll’s bed.

“Hey.” Uzi gave a half-hearted wave. The Russian drone was sitting up, testing her dexterity and refusing to look at anyone.

“Do you still have…?” Uzi trailed off. Doll flexed her fingers. A light red spark came from them, but no Solver symbol appeared. “Sorry… mom said that could happen with a wholly new body.”

“(It is fine.)” A moment of silence passed.

“So… are you planning how you’re going to seek revenge yet or…?” Uzi began. Doll glared up at the purple haired drone, before looking over the three murder drones embracing Tessa.

Doll’s expression softened. “(I will not ruin the first day of her new life.)”

“So… no murder today?” Uzi insisted. Doll sighed,

“(No.)”

“Great! In that case,” Uzi turned toward the hospital wing’s entrance, “You’re safe to come in!”

Lizzy walked in and took up a leaning position next to Doll’s bed. “Still mad about the prom?” Doll only glared in response. Lizzy raised an eyebrow. “Even with you killing half our class to feed yourself?” Only glaring. A moment passed. “Did you help kill that Solver thing?” Lizzy asked as if it were an everyday occurrence. Doll blinked, taking on Lizzy’s bored expression.

“(Yes.)”

Lizzy nodded. “Cool.”

When it became clear the two weren’t going to try and kill each other, Uzi started to move back to Tessa’s bed, when V came up alongside the bed.

“Oh great, here we go…” Uzi sighed.

Rather than a glare, Doll’s expression towards V was ice cold. The murder drone’s expression was neutral. “There’s probably nothing I can say that’ll make you not want me dead.” Doll’s expression remained fixed. “But… for whatever its worth, I’m… sorry… and… I’m not like that anymore.” V shared a brief look with Lizzy following her apology. The perpetually texting teen gave a brief nod, and V left to go back to Tessa.

Doll never stopped staring at V even as she left. Lizzy groaned, “Ugh, here,” she held a smart phone in front of Doll’s face, “Catch up on gossip or something.” Doll briefly shifted her glare back to Lizzy, before taking her old phone and scrolling through her old messages.

Uzi stood for a few moments, but the two had fallen into silence as they scrolled.

The purple haired drone shrugged and went back to Tessa’s bed unnoticed. Even with her explaining how they’d figured out how to filter oil through already dead drones’ corpses to satiate the murder drones bloodlust, she was shocked at how smoothly that had gone. Hopefully one day Doll could accept the others’ presence.

When V and Uzi came back to Tessa’s bed, she was in a sitting position. “Like your new outfit?” Uzi asked. Tessa looked over the cargo shorts and commemorative child-size JCJenson brand T-shirt she was wearing. “This one wouldn’t leave us alone until we got you pants.” Uzi pointed at J.

J rolled her eyes. “Humans wear pants idiot.”

Uzi made a resigned expression. “Humans are weird.”

J ignored Uzi’s comment as she adjusted her hold under Tessa’s right arm. N did the same on Tessa’s left.

“Ready?” N asked. Tessa nodded, and the two murder drones eased Tessa off the bed to stand up. The former human swayed on her feet, but eventually found her balance. Uzi stood opposite Tessa, putting her hands on her hips.

“How’s it feel to be at our level?” Uzi asked.

“Said the shortest drone here,” V snickered.

“I will LITERALLY cut you off at the knees!” Uzi barked.

Tessa smiled at V’s proud smirk for having ticked off the purple haired drone. Her friends had never been this confident back home… or this tall.

“It is a bit bizarre,” Tessa answered Uzi, as she adjusted her black hair, thankful for how close the wig felt to the real thing, “But… in a good way.” The three murder drones smiled down at their former owner. With Tessa having gotten her balance, N came to stand beside Uzi and hold her hand.

Tessa looked past the group at Doll and Lizzy scrolling on their phones. The Russian drone didn’t speak, but gave a brief look up and a nod to Tessa. Having been informed of the drone’s history with V, Tessa didn’t pressure for more interaction.

“Never thought I’d say this, but welcome to the bunker human!” Khan proclaimed with a wide grin. Nori and Uzi both rolled their eyes at Khan’s chipper tone.

Tessa gave a wobbly bow to the worker drone. “Thank you, Mr. Doorman.” Uzi frowned at the slight tremble in Tessa’s voice while addressing Khan but brushed it off.

The former human then turned to the small crib up against the wall next to her bed. Taking hesitant steps, she peered down inside. The pill shaped body of an untrained neural network rested inside, housing what was left of Cyn’s original code.

The baby’s eyes were shut, intermittently changing between them and a buffering symbol. Nori jumped from Khan’s shoulder to perch on the side of the crib. “I replaced the missing coding as best I could, but… her memories were extremely fragmented. Only bits and pieces remained, and I’m not even sure she’ll be able to recognize them as memories at all.”

Bracing herself on the crib’s wall, Tessa leaned down and brushed her hand across the baby’s face. The eyes peeked open, blinking up at Tessa, without recognition. “Then I guess we’re both starting over,” Tessa smiled at the white pixel eyes, “Isn’t that right, my little Grace?”

Grace’s eyes blinked a few more times, then slid shut, and went back to buffering. Tessa gave a soft pat, then shakily came away from the crib.

The mood was a lot more dour following Nori’s report; Uzi decided to correct that. “So… want that tour now?” Tessa had made her swear to give her a tour during the time she’d spent in her mind. The giddy smile that took over Tessa’s face lit up the room.

“Bloody yeah I am! Show me everything!”

Uzi felt N give a thankful squeeze through their held hands, and quietly returned it. “Alright, but we’re taking it slow. I don’t need pigtails chopping my head off for you stubbing your toe.”

Tessa gave a childish grin at seeing J’s eye twitch at Uzi’s new nickname for her. “Righteo Uzi, lead the way!”

 

The End.

Chapter 9

Notes:

This is a notification chapter!

This chapter is to make a notification that the fic is complete! I will delete this chapter after a few days, so if you want your comments to stick around only comment on the previous chapter. 

Thanks for reading my fic and Merry Christmas!

 

2025 EDIT: Forget the deletion, I'm lazy. New short follow up chapter is up. Happy Reading! :)

Chapter 10: "Righteo, Mr. Doorman."

Notes:

A very short follow up. Do not expect more updates, I came up with this on a whim. Happy reading! :)

Static riddled crying played on repeat in Tessa’s room. The human-turned-drone’s black slippers paced back and forth on the patterned rug, cradling Grace’s smooth egg-shaped form in her arms. The cold surface of the infant always gave Tessa a moment of concern before she reminded herself of the baby’s robotic nature. The untrained neural network shed pixelated tears as Tessa hugged the infant to her nightgown.

Seeing her pacing wasn’t working, Tessa went back to her bed, a mattress resting atop a  construct of metal piping J had welded into a mimicry of Tessa’s old wooden bed frame and draped with thick blankets in place of linen. Though she doubted she would’ve been much help, Tessa wished J hadn’t insisted on staying outside the bunker.

Amidst Grace’s wailing, Tessa heard a light, metallic tapping but couldn’t identify its source until her door opened. “It is 1:00 in the morning would you please keep that demon spawn quiet!” Nori’s three-legged form skuttled into the room.

Tessa flinched, at both the reprimand and the second knock at the door from Khan. “Now now honey, be patient. Remember how much trouble we had with Uzi in the beginning?”

Nori skuttled up the leg and onto the wall of Grace’s empty crib to be eye level with the two drones. “Gee, guess not. Guess I was busy being disemboweled.” Nori gestured with her free claw at her mutated form.

Tessa stared down at the infant in her arms, avoiding looking either of the Doormans in the eye. “I’m sorry, I’m trying everything. Her energy levels are fine. The virus program came back clean.” Tessa’s hand inched toward her wrist and her shoulders hunched inward.  “I… I don’t know what I’m bloody doing wrong.”

Khan and Nori wondered if Tessa had suffered her own malfunction with the way she became quiet and hunched over. A more insistent wail from Grace cut off the parents’ thoughts.

Khan reached forward. “May I try something kiddo?”

Tessa handed over the infant without looking up. “Yes sir.”

“Aw come on kiddo I told you, Mr. Doorman is fine, no need for this ‘sir’ business.”

Tessa’s hand went to her wrist. “Right… sorry.”

Khan spared a brief frown of concern for Tessa before marching to the opposite side of the bed from where the girls sat. Tessa and Nori were confused as Khan placed Grace into the middle of Tessa’s bed and pulled the sheets just beneath her pixel eyes.

Grace’s wailing turned into whimpers, but it was progress. “Tessa?” Khan waved the human-turned-drone over to join the infant. Tessa moved as quietly as possible, still rubbing her wrist. The moment she lay down next to her, Grace cooed and became silent.

“Figured she just wanted to sleep with you,” Khan whispered with a triumphant smile. “Uzi was the same way when she was little.”

Tessa slid her arm around the now sleeping infant and nestled herself beneath the covers. Her eyes switched from her silent frown to hollow rings.

Nori skuttled across Tessa’s pillow and onto her head. “You alright kid?” Nori tapped at Tessa's visor.

Tessa blinked and seemed to stare ahead at nothing. “She used to always want to sleep in my bed.” Tessa ran her hand along Grace. “The original her.” The three older drones became silent as they stared at Grace… Cyn… like she was a bomb.

Tessa eventually broke the older two drones out of their apprehension. “Sorry I didn’t figure it out.” Tessa shut her eyes tight.

Nori leapt from Tessa’s head over to Khan’s shoulder as the older drone quietly got off the mattress. “Relax kid, even I was around to see a few late nights with Uzi.”

Khan came around to Tessa’s side of the bed and adjusted the sheet to reach the human-turned-drone’s neck. “If you have any more trouble let us know, alright kiddo?”

Tessa looked over her shoulder, seeing Khan’s smiling face and Nori’s mono-eye staring down at her. Beneath the sheets, Tessa stopped rubbing her wrist. “Righteo… Mr. Doorman.”

Chapter 11: A Gift

Notes:

Just a warm and fuzzies update. Again, no long-term plan, just thought of this on a whim. Happy Reading!

The blustering winds of Copper-9’s snow storms whistled between the ruined buildings. Tessa stumbled on her new legs as she made her way through the snow toward the spire. She wondered if she should be worried about being unaffected by the tower of dead drones outside her new home, now that she was one of them.

Standing outside the spire, Tessa waited. Wind whipped its way through her commemorative JCJenson t-shirt, making her shiver. She startled when she saw just how low the temperature actually was on her readouts. If she’d still been human, she likely would’ve died of hypothermia before reaching the mound of dead.

A whooshing sound above her followed by a plume of dust and snow signaled J’s arrival. “Why are you all the way out here?” J demanded.

Tessa frowned, not at the question but at the long rectangular box J had under her arm. “You said meet you outside.”

“Outside the bunker!” J shouted as she set down the long box.

“It’s right over there,” Tessa pointed with a bemused expression.

J placed her arms on her hips. “You’re still getting used to your new body, you shouldn’t be out here alone.”

Despite the new height difference between them Tessa smiled and raised her chin. “Why? Are some spooky murder drones lurking about?”

J’s expression hardened as she recognized Tessa’s teasing voice. “Because you could’ve fallen and hurt yourself.”

Tessa feigned a stoop, squinted her eyes, and held an imaginary walking stick out in front of her. “Oh woe is me,” Tessa’s voice became higher and frail, “I’m just an old grogger what can’t do nothing for myself.”

“Tessa I’m serious!” J cut the air with her hand, as if dismissing Tessa’s teasing.

The white-eyed drone resumed her normal posture with a sad frown. “If your so worried, you could drop in every now and then.”

J folded her arms and stared at the ground rather than Tessa. “You don’t need me ruining your reputation. Just…” J turned back to Tessa, “Promise you won’t take risks.”

Stepping forward, Tessa took the murder drone’s hand. “I won’t. I’m right J, I swear.” Seeing J was still tense, she added, “I mean, besides you three being taller than me now,” Tessa added with a roll of her eyes, “Still a bit miffed on that.”

J smiled down at her former owner. “Sorry boss. I…”

“Ah, no, none of that,” Tessa pointed an authoritative finger at J’s visor. “Mother and father are gone and we’re finally free.” In an undertone she added, “Never mind how we got here.”

A gust of wind blew through Tessa’s t-shirt again, causing another shiver. One of J’s wings spawned from her back to block the cold. Tessa stared up at the appendage with the same awe as when she’d first seen it.

“I brought something that might help with that.” J used her tail to raise the box she’d brought upright between them. “Not that you’ll be needing it for the cold since you’ll be staying indoors, right?”

“You’ve brought something for me!?” Tessa asked, ignoring J’s question and rocking on her heals.

J let out a half laugh, half sigh as she opened the box. Inside was a child-sized blue dress. Tessa stared for a few seconds before reacting. She’d already assumed clothing based on the box size, but not something this… pretty.

“Uh… boss? It… It’s fine if you don’t…” J grunted as Tessa jumped into a hug. The murder drone had to use her wings to keep from falling.

“I love it! Thank ya J!” Tessa snatched the garment and ran inside the spire.

J smiled as she gathered up the box and its wrapping paper. “Your welcome Tessa,” she whispered to herself.

When Tessa started to take longer than expected to return changed, J frowned at the spire. “Boss? You good?”

“Yeah, just… a bit hassled by this zipper…” came Tessa’s grunting voice.

J’s shoulders relaxed as she gave a relieved chuckle. “Need some help?”

“…Yes.”

The full light of the stars became muted as J entered the spire. Since their ship had been moved, the only light now came from the hole in the side from shafts of filtered starlight. J almost walked towards the ship’s non-present door out of old habits, ready to report their quota of worker drones eaten to, ‘upper management.’

But instead of a ship, there was only Tessa, with her back to her, failing to reach behind and get the zipper for her dress. J blinked once before approaching, the fact that Tessa was there momentarily throwing her off. “There you go boss.” J zipped up the garment.

“Thanks, would’ve gotten it myself but…” Tessa trailed off as she stared at her hand, tracing her thumb. J’s expression softened at the look on Tessa’s face, before she smirked.

“I seem to remember you needing help getting dressed even back home.”

Tessa blinked out of her reverie, then cast a shocked look at the murder drone. “That was one time!” Tessa hissed as she tried not to laugh and maintain her offended attitude. J started with only small chuckling, but eventually began to laugh proper, with Tessa joining in.

After their mirth was spent, Tessa straightened up and assumed an overly serious face. “Never mind that, how do I look?” Tessa assumed a ballerina pose in the shaft of starlight, reflecting off her new dress.

J recalled a time when Tessa had gained a new outfit and appraised herself in the mirror. “A right stunner, boss,” J complimented. Tessa giggled at the praise and spun her new outfit in the starlight.

Notes:

How'd I do imitating the show's tone? If you have any thoughts or criticisms, please share them.