Chapter Text
She wasn’t where she was supposed to be.
That was the only thing she was certain of.
Time felt fuzzy as she tried to wake up, heck, everything felt fuzzy. Why was everything so… fuzzy? She couldn’t remember. She definitely didn’t know why she couldn’t remember.
“Wake up.” Something told her. It-they, she decided it was a person, sounded familiar. Everything was still so fuzzy and confusing. This wasn’t the warm summery fields of the competition. It was cold here, but just as bright. So bright.
“Taco, please wake up.” the voice asked again. Something told her it was definitely someone she knew. They sounded panicked, but… they never sounded panicked before, she remembered that. She must be worrying them, that’s the reason.
It finally clicked what they had called her. Taco. She was Taco. At least, she was supposed to be Taco. She wasn’t sure why she didn’t feel… like her. Maybe it had something to do with the cold that was pressing into the right side of her head, or the irritating discomfort running down her spine, or that she felt… disconnected from her limbs.
Suddenly, her vision was fuzzily flooded with intense blue light as something gently moved her hair out of her face. When the blue disappeared from her vision, the fuzziness started to fade. She couldn’t recognize where she was, if she even knew where she was. She could see that something, no, someone, was moving around her. The faint sounds of machinery resonated in her brain. That combined with the bright light… was this a lab?
Her eyes finally managed to focus, but burned across her vision were streaks of blue and strange symbols that remained wherever she set her gaze. The first thing her eyes managed to fully focus on was… someone standing over her? No, wait, she knew who stood above her. At least she thought she knew him. He was an… old friend of hers, right?
Taco didn’t understand and it scared her, thankfully, she wouldn't be alone in detangling her memories.
“What’s the latest thing in your memories?” her old friend asked. His voice was effortlessly soothing, as always, it was something she had seemingly always found appealing.
“The… the grounds…?” Taco tried. Her voice didn’t sound right, one side of her face felt… stiff. Her friend muttered something under his breath about ‘fixing the echo’ and made a note on the screen beside him. He seemed …scared? Anxious? Nervous? Out of his depths, maybe?
“Do…” he took a deep breath, at least, it sounded like a deep breath. “Do you remember… what happened to you?” he asked, hesitantly. His voice was shaking. Like hers. It wasn’t supposed to do that.
“I….died….somehow….” she slowly said, a small headache was brewing as she tried to put everything she could remember together. No one ever remembered death in the fullest. But based on what she could remember, it gave the vague impression that she had died.
“Yes”, her friend confirmed, “You sustained enough stress and damage to your body that it… broke under the pressure. But, luckily, I guess, you cracked in just such a way that your mind was intact. You were in what I would call a coma-state. Purely. Physical. Death.”
His voice was steadier now, seemingly providing lengthy information was a great regulator for….whatever was going on with him right now.
Who was he? Taco knew she recognized him, at least by voice. Hadn’t he… been with her, or somewhat close to her, when she… basically died? He most certainly had to have been there, at least. She wanted to remember him, but she had to remember herself first. Something just as confusing as what had happened to her.
It seems whoever her friend was sensed her confusion.
“You are Taco,” he began, “I don’t know much about you, but you… sought to put an end to a gameshow known as “I.I”, or “Inanimate Insanity”. Your means of doing so involved an intense use of force and strategy, showing your determination. You also had-have an affinity for bow ties. Because of your unique anatomy, stress and pressure can cause you to crack and break. I brought you… here to….bring you back.”
It was all slowly flooding back while he spoke. Knife… Knife had snapped back at her while trying to get him to break. He’d known too much about her, making her weak. She couldn’t forget everything, not Pickle, not Microphone, not MePhone, not the final contestants, not MePad, she remembered almost everything.
“MePad?” Taco asked aloud.
A twinkle of light danced in his eyes. “You do remember me. Good.” MePad replied, “You're Correct, I’m MePad. I’m….your friend, I guess?”
Taco couldn’t help smiling. Of course it was MePad who had brought her back somehow. He was smiling now, unlike he had been earlier. Well, he really couldn’t smile, but if you knew what to look for in his eyes, it became a bit more obvious.
“Your limbs are coming online now.” MePad muttered half to himself as he redirected back to the screen. Taco blinked, confused and uneasy about the sound of that, but the feeling of numbness was slowly leaving her arms and legs, so she had to assume it was a good thing. But the uneasy feeling remained. What did he mean by coming online?
“I’ll explain how I repaired you once I’m sure I’-” MePad cut himself off, “You. Once I’m sure you are in a stable condition. For now, please try to relax. You are in safe hands.”
“I know.” Taco replied quickly and quietly. Why wouldn’t she trust him to keep her informed and protected? This was MePad they were talking about. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her. He was exceptionally good at that.
The uneasy feeling disappeared, Taco didn’t realize just how fully she trusted him, how nice it was to trust someone with everything she had in her. She didn’t see how shifty and unnerved he acted, how for the first time to her knowledge, he seemed almost scared. He was trying to ignore the bubbling well of unease inside himself so he could get things done.
He had things to get done. Taco just watched, curiously, as MePad worked between several display screens nearby at once. The only one she could see was connected to her and it was clearly letting him monitor her condition. She didn’t really care what else her friend was working on. She was too tired to worry anymore.
It didn’t take long for MePad to decide that Taco was stable. It might have taken hours but time was difficult for her to perceive. At least she was awake, and able to process everything going on around her, and able to move, though moving felt strange and more difficult than normal.
“You can sit up when you’re ready.” MePad said softly. Taco heard something click nearby as she moved to get off her back, slowly, but at least she was moving.
At least she was awake, MePad had to remind himself.
“I protected the pieces of you I could find.” MePad explained, “It's been a long time since that day….well, it's been a week, at least, probably longer.”
“Your sense of time is distorted too?” Taco asked, seemingly surprised.
“Possibly the whole facility is struggling with that right now. It might be impacting us.” MePad replied.
It was then that Taco got a good look at herself for the first time. She didn’t recognize the coat she was wearing. It was a smoky lilac color, with beige fluff around the collar, running down the sides of the zipper and around the cuffs. It felt new. One of her hands, the right one, was entirely metal, the other one had only two metal fingers, just as skilled and quick as they had once been. She cautiously rolled up her right sleeve, revealing that it wasn’t just her hand that was metal, but the whole arm. Its joints were made of strange devices she didn’t recognize. Her left leg was still intact, but the other was in a brace, her calf and up was entirely entirely metal, which mirrored her arm.
“I… did my best with what I had here.” MePad awkwardly explained, watching the mess of emotions wash over her face as she inspected herself. “It’s not true revival, but it’s better than you being dead. An-and it’s reinforced against physical impact.”
“Built in armor.” Taco muttered under her breath as she slowly moved her now metal hand around, almost mesmerized by it.
“You’re connected to the facility like me.” MePad continued, “You have access to the entire headquarters, along with the secret accesses. I tried to let you into the information banks too but it only supports one connection.”
“Facility?” Taco asked, bringing her gaze from her hands to his eyes, before trailing it around the room.
“Where… even are we?”
“…”
“…Meeple Headquarters.” MePad forced himself to admit.
Taco just stared at him.
“MEPAD WHAT THE F-”