Chapter Text
The six drones stood there waiting for someone to speak. The tension in the air was physical. The collective temperature of all the disassemblers and Uzi caused the air to ripple with heat. Snow and ice around them melted and drained away creating a soft patter of water falling similar to rain. The ground slowly turned from permafrost to mud.
Thad was the first to brave the silence moving up to Lizzy and speaking loud enough to be heard. “Hey Lizzy, I realize I dropped some things back at the pod. Why don't we go get that.” Thad said awkwardly, realizing he was way out of place here with the others. “We’ll be right back, c’mon Liz” he grabbed Lizzy’s arm and started moving towards Sparky.
“No way!” she slapped his hand off her arm. Then she crossed her arms looking to V and spoke loud enough for the others to hear. “I'm not missing all this drama. I want to see how V chickens out this time” this got N and Uzi to look towards V who only glared at Lizzy.
Thad reading the tension walked in front of Lizzy “ whoops” Thad fake slipped in the mud. He smacked into Lizzy ensuring his hand hit her face. A small crack formed in her visor. “looks like your visor's cracked, we've got spares at the pod. C’mon” he ran away and hopped onto sparky before she could fight him.
“Oh you are so dead!” Lizzy chased the drone getting onto the creature and guiding it back towards the landing pod.
“What?” N ignored the conflict instead staring at V. He got closer to her and she wasn’t able to meet his gaze. V instead looked towards the ground as N approached, her visor blushing from the awkwardness. Finally as she got close took a deep breath and looked toward N then Uzi's image. There was so much there between those two. She can't get in their way. It wasn’t right.
As if the universe giving her an out J's shoulder sparked loudly. Two major circuits just fixed by her regeneration. Everyone looked towards the still offline drone N practically jumping at the pop. they saw her visor start to run through a boot up sequence. “ I’ll handle J. You two go talk” V spoke , pushing N away.
“V I…we..” N started to argue looking between her and Uzi who was still shrunk into herself. He sighed and looked at V “are you sure?”
“Yes go. If I have to watch you two get all feely I'll throw up." She kept pushing him towards Uzi, taking a moment to make a gagging motion. “ I'll take care of J” N finally took the hint and gave a simple nod. Just like always she’ll handle J.
Uzi looked at N for a moment before giving a simple nod and flew off. The mass of her real form taking flight sent the heated air around them swirling. V could sense the amount of material heading out into the air. It was terrifying.
“Talk later V?” N asked. She gave a soft nod, her optics softening at his concern. “Thanks” he hugged her tightly before flying after Uzi.
“You should have gone with them. I know you wanted to.” J spoke up, apparently awoken some time during the send off. She looked up at V, her visor finally repaired. She was still a wreck, her hair was matted from the fight. Her arm hadn't fully regenerated; instead it stalled about halfway before her systems couldn't manage anymore.
“What and leave you alone?” she looked down with a small amount of disgust in her voice. Then she paused. She got the strangest form of deja vu, not quite this but very similar.
“ Yes, I'm pathetic.” J admitted slamming her good hand into the muddy ground. “You don't have to remind me.”
V got closer holding a hand out for J. “C’mon J.” She saw something, a glitched image of another disassembly drone in the mud. Resetting her optics, it vanished. Maybe she really needed her glasses.
J continued, “ I was nearly killed.” she kicked at the ground with her pegs and pulled at her hair with her hand. “ by N of all things. N. If it was you, I'd at least feel competent.” J had looked up to stare her in the optics
“He's really grown a lot” she half chuckled. It really was a surprise what Uzi brought out of him ,brought out of them. “But you were trying to kill his girlfriend” she changed to point to help defend.
J continued as though V wasn't there. She started to yell at the world about everything “ I finally do something right for once and it backfires. Because it could only backfire. I don’t deserve any of this, just end it” V saw it again a disassembler covered in blood over J's body.
She snapped her self back.“J we aren't going to…”J pulled herself onto her knees before V with her good hand she held onto V’s thigh.
“I'm serious V. I can’t do this anymore. I need you to.” it got stranger V's HUD was glitching with flashes and images. It was raining. Then her mic started glitching. V heard another voice. her own voice, echoing over what J said.
“Please kill me V”
“Please kill me J”
The image of her begging at the feet of her fellow drones flashed into her eyes. The two of them swapped and merged together in her mind.
“ We've been here before, haven't we?” V looked down at her hands. The images of swords covered in oil overlaid her normal hands. Looking at J she could remember herself in a similar state.
“ you remember?” J’s head tilted in confusion. She was just as shocked as V.
“I asked you to kill me,” she looked down at J, her scarred exposed chassis and messy hair. Her face was lighting up and she could see her core pulse faster. “ And you did it, didn't you?”
J looked down at the ground mumbling out a response.“ It didn't matter she brought you back, she always brought us back. I'm sorry I failed.” her speaker cracked as she spoke on the verge of crying. She smashed her hand into the ground in frustration, the impact sending a shockwave through the ground.
“You didn't fail” V started to console and that was when it struck her. N, it was just like her when she pushed N a way. All this, in a messed up way, was her trying to shield them from Cyn. “ You've been trying to do everything on your own” J looked up from the ground her visor contorted. She was struggling to keep it together.
V wanted to be mad at J for all the abuse, but it was no different from what she did to N. It was just her trying her best and doing it in a wrong and stupid way.
V knelt down and hugged J “it's okay you're not alone anymore. I promise.” J relaxed, she couldn't bring her hand up to hug V back. She could only lean back and cry.
Sparky was carrying Thad and Lizzy into the city. Thad was grateful to get out of there, he wasn't built to handle the heat coming off of that many drones in one location. That and there was no way he had the skills to handle all that mess. He felt so much better riding sparky. The cold wind running over his chassis, the steady clicking of his claws over the ice. It would be so relaxing if not for one problem
“ God I swear if you ruined my visor I will annihilate you.” Lizzy yelled at him leaning against his back. She was using her phone to examine her visor more closely.
Thad sighed and spoke loud enough for his voice to carry over the wind. “ Liz they needed space” he explained
“Yeah yeah yeah, everyone's going to be super sappy and they need space. I get it.” She dismissed his concerns entirely.
“On that do you have..” he started to ask.
She snapped her fingers and sparky stopped. This time Thad was ready he gripped the sentinels neck tightly preventing himself from flying off. Somehow lizzy didn't even need to brace. “Say another word and you'll go missing. Understand jock strap?” Sparky’s six red cameras turned to gaze down at Thad. He could see drool forming at the edges of its mouth.
“Fine Lizzy, can we just get to the pod?” Thad argued. She snapped again and sparky started up again taking them at full speed through the city. It only took a few minutes to get back to the pod and the subway location they were at earlier.
“You better have the right visor loser.” She hopped off Sparky making the way back into the pod. She yelled back to him “ hurry, I want to get back before the cringe is over.” she waved her phone as an indication of her intent to document the affair
Thad sighed and rubbed his forehead as he walked into the pod “C’mon lizzy, they clearly needed space.” he started to pick up the contract and flashlight he dropped earlier. Luckily most of the papers were still inside the pod though he could clearly see several of the papers had been taken by the wind out into the city. There was no chance of him getting any of them back.
“Right, and now V absolutely will chicken out. "Lizzy continued while he was slowly getting together all of his dropped gear. He ignored her not caring for whatever nonsense that Lizzy was spouting. He was getting too tired to care.
Finally Thad picked up one of the spare visors from the wall. J had collected several for him after that first day. She said she’d kill him if he ever had a workplace accident but it was still regulation to have spare parts on standby. J had her soft moments hidden behind her corporate coping mechanism. “This one good enough?” He held up the visor for Lizzy’s approval.
“Yeah sure just get it over with” Lizzy hopped up on the desk so he could work on her.
He popped off Lizzy’s old visor and started to attach the new one “You really shouldn’t push her so hard” he chastised it was obvious V wasn't ready to talk to them. He knew why Lizzy did.“ Is this about Doll?”
“No ” Lizzy's hand reached up and clutched his wrist. Despite not having optics he could still feel the cutting glare. Lizzy really had mastered social cues to the point he could tell just from her body language how close she was to sicking Sparky on him. “Just cause they are all having their crying moment means you can play therapist at me. I don't have anything to say to you.” Lizzy's voice was cold and sharp.
Thad took the hint. He wasn't going to get anywhere with her today. Besides, he was pretty emotionally spent already and J is going to need him later today. “ Fine. just sit still and I‘ll finish up“ He’d have to approach that later.
Nori was helping Khan wrap up things at the colony. The murder drone had left hours ago as soon as the sun had set. She was stuck at the rally for hours while Khan discussed with the colony how to punish the rebels and move forward. The rally was good and all for mollifying their concerns but it took way too long. Now she can't go out there to find them, sunrise is only an hour out.
“OK I get that you didn't know the full story but all of you were still willing to harm fellow community members. I can't let that go unpunished.” Khan was speaking to the rebel drones who had all been freed and were now in one of the larger rooms of the colony. The classroom though its been emptied of all the furnishings.
“You're going to spend the day locked in the classroom while we figure out how to handle this okay. "The drones gave out half-hearted grumbles and moans about the affair. They had better know they are getting a better deal than they should. Khan turned to a few drones he assembled from the WDF. “The rest of you need to keep them under observation until tonight when we can determine a punishment. And don't you dare mistreat them.” Khan added with some anger the WDF saluted him as he walked off. She was waiting there watching him put those drones in place.
When he got closer she started walking next to him. The two were heading their way up to his office. Khan didn't seem to want to speak, so she waited until they had gotten far enough away from the classroom to speak without being heard . "That was so awesome, you just turned the whole colony against that bitch. Took the high road and everything, that's my man.” She punched him in the arm a little harder than was probably necessary. “And you were worried you couldn't cut it as a leader.”
“Nori” Khan stopped walking as he got to his office door. He looked her in the optics and said flatly. “I love you but I need a moment” he looked at her. She stepped back knowing damn well that khan was mad. It's been a long time since she’s seen him this mad. She stepped back as he entered his office and shut the large titanium door behind him.
She could hear muffled sounds and screams through the thick metal barrier. “Hreagh that Glitch!” she heard clearly followed by thunks and crashes of something being thrown “ attacking my daughter!” the crashing sounds continued ending with one loud solid thunk. Then the door slowly opened seemingly inviting Nori inside.
“ Khan” Nori entered the office. His metal desk had been bent and thrown into the wall; his papers were scattered across the floor. “That was the single hottest thing I've ever seen.” her speaker spoke before her processors could keep up. Her own core pulsed rapidly at the sight of her man getting animated. She approached, ready to hug him.
He stopped her at arms reach and she could feel his hands shaking. “Not now, too angry and I have work to do” he looked to the destroyed office. She saw his shoulders drop at the realization of the damage he had done “had work to do” he silently punched the door in stress, denting his fingers and scuffing the titanium door.
“Khan you hit a door” she’d seen khan hit doors before but it was always a part of maintenance. And often she’s seen him apologize to the door afterwards. This was just pure anger. She moved beside him, putting her hand around his shoulder. “Hey we'll fix it tomorrow okay let's just go home. Relax, we won”
“Did we?” he asked her his tired optics meeting her own. She gave him a confused glance in response. He moved over to the now destroyed desk and sat down on the bent metal. Nori, catching on, sat down beside him leaning into him. It was nice how his colder chassis sapped the heat away from her own. Sitting there Nori lifted up Khan's broken hand between hers. The fingers were crushed thoroughly, a testament to the cheap materials and strength that humans had designed them with. Cautiously she produced her solver and started to fix it for him. He didn’t fight her like he normally did. He absentmindedly started to rub her back with his good hand.
Finally he spoke up after she finished. He was inspecting his hand while he spoke. “Nori I don't think I'm fit to lead. I'm blind I'm angry and I'm a coward.” he sighed, his older fans kicked a bit from all the excitement tonight. “The worst part of all is, I think she's right.”
“Khan, you can't listen to that nutjob she tried to kill Uzi” she lightly smacked him on the back of his head trying to snap him out of his funk. he blinked a bit at the bump but seemed still down in his own processors.
“What if she did?” he said solemnly. Nori could feel her core stop at the question “what if she managed to kill Uzi.” he continued.
“I’d kill her,” she answered honestly. And to be truthful she'd probably have killed her anyway if it wasn't for Khan.
“Exactly, she lost her daughter. If it was Uzi I don't think we’d do anything different.” He started to rub the knuckles of his newly fixed hand. “I can't be too mad at her for it. ”
“You’re talking crazy there hon” Nori insulted him a bit. There's a difference between a solver drone losing control and a pre-meditated murder. At least she felt like there was.
“I've tried to be the bigger drone before to put the colony first. It destroyed me to do so.” He clutched his hand tightly, almost cracking the fingers. “If it came to us or them again I know my choice and it's the wrong one for a leader.” He's really trying. Too hard for a bunch of ingrate drones that would dare attack our daughter.
“The fact that you know that makes you a better leader than any drone here.” She turned to look him in the optics, holding her hand to his cheek. "let's go home, hon we’ve got to be ready for when the others get back. The colony can wait. ” she leaned forward and kissed him. The first time they've kissed since she got her new body. it was a short deep exchange between the two drones but long needed after years apart.
“Thanks” Khan leaned in and hugged her tightly. She could feel his core, it was slower now. Good he was relaxing.
“And if they can't I can always rewrite their coding with my solver” she let out an evil giggle levitating a chunk of the broken desk with malicious intent.
“Nori!" Khan pulled away, horrified by the implication.
“Kidding” she waved him off and he returned to hugging her. Then she whispered in his mics “Mostly.”
Uzi and N were flying together through the snowy night air. It was relieving, the wind cold and snow pulled the heat away from his body and allowed him to relax after the fight. Uzi or Uzi’s image was flying beside him with her fleshy wings, the real Uzi was right behind it sending massive currents through the snow. N wanted to use the time to think about what to say but the longer they flew the more he realized he really couldn’t think of anything right. Better just to get it over with.
“Land here” N screamed to the two. It was the building he had saved the scout drone the other week at. Uzi did as he asked. He could see the building shake from the new weight despite it looking like Uzi herself was normal.
“So uh cool spot” Uzi started trying to pass off a casual tone.
“ Uzi” N shut that down immediately. He frowned and pleaded. “please, take this seriously.”
“Fine, so yeah.” Uzi sighed heavily. The image of her form paced back and forth a bit before starting “ After the fight my body may have started changing” Each word got quieter and higher pitched like she was running out of air.
“I know," he responded solemnly.
“?” the mark appeared on her visor out of the image and her mouth opened.
“I know Uzi. I couldn't see it but I could feel it. That's why I couldn't touch you. It felt too much like Cyn " he started to clutch his elbow tightly and his tail started to whip back and forth nervously. "After what she did, I couldn't take it.” his fans started to spin up and his breathing got heavy.
“So you could see me this whole time?” Uzi’s optics narrowed and she pointed at N. “what happened to no more secrets?”
“What happened to Cyn?” he fired back a hint of acid in his voice. His optics narrowed in on the form behind the image she projected for him.
“Ouch, fair” she muttered and dropped her hands. She took a second before answering him, the entire time looking away. “I just didn’t want to worry you with her still being alive” her image looked to him and he could see there was fear in her optics.
“I Know,” he softened, dropping the acid from his tone. He continued getting closer to the image of Uzi. He put a hand on it and sighed before continuing. “and I didn't want to push you. Cause you probably thought I wouldn’t like you anymore.” There it was, the fear Uzi was dreading finally put into words. Neither of them dared to break the silence between them. They stood alone with the sounds of the wind whipping around them.
“Do you?” Uzi finally spoke up over the wind, her speaker cracking in fear and anxiety.
“I don't know” he slumped at the admission.
“You don't know?” Uzi screamed at him, pushed him away and held her hands out in front of her.
“I don’t know because you're lying to me. ” he yelled in response pointing at her. The shock of N yelling at her caused her to drop her pose, shrinking back into herself again. N continued not stopping at the sight. “how am I supposed to like you if you aren't being yourself. I want to be with you, the real you. But I can't promise that if I don't know who you are.” The screams were loud enough to cut through the wind and snow echoing out into the ruined city.
Uzi flinched, she struggled to speak “Ugh … huh…okay. just…” Uzi finally lamented. She walked towards the edge of the building stopping just at the end. She looked towards him afraid and pleaded “Just don't freak out okay?”. He nodded nervously.
Uzi or the image disappeared. He watched as the real Uzi slowly revealed herself from the edge of the building . From the head to her waist it was just normal Uzi with her fleshy wings extended. From the waist down she was a twenty meter collection of legs and cameras curled around the building. He knew what to expect but it she was larger and far different from the things he had seen before. Somehow it felt different from when he saw Cyn in her monstrous form. It was something familiar.
“Uzi, it's you” he breathed out. his fans slowing and core cooled its just Uzi. The tension dissipated and he was able to relax some.
“I know, I'm gross” she enclosed her upper torso in her wings making a large cocoon of flesh.
“No it's just you” he pried open her wings getting inside the cocoon of her wings. She was covering her visor with her hands, unable to look at him. “It's you, before I saw Cyn, now. It's just you.”
“So you don’t think I'm gross?” she looked up, lowering her hands . Her optics bent in sadness and wrinkles showed off her exhaustion.
N pushed in and kissed her on the lips. Uzi’s optics hollowed and her visor blushed profusely. Her body temp skyrocketed, the entire area started to practically steam from the heat. He pulled back from the kiss “what do you think?” he smiled.
“Ew cringe, don’t kiss me” she pushed him away from her and curled up in her wings even tighter. Shutting him out entirely.
“Oh, so you don’t like it?” he teased, poking her wings. She flinched a bit at his touch and he could hear her whimpering a bit in her cocoon.
“No!” Uzi sprung out from her cocoon, wings spread and body fully exposed across her visor was a large purple solver symbol. “I do the kissing” she lifted him up off his feet with her arms. Her jaw split into mandibles that surrounded his whole head and neck. A massive, hot tongue pushed into his mouth and down his throat. She held this embrace for a few seconds before pulling away in a cheeky grin “you get kissed.” she added confidently.
“Um wow” he stood dumbfounded. His core was back into overdrive but it was different. Partly fear, partly something else.
“Was it too much?” Uzi’s optics dropped as she realized she might have gone too far. She put him down quickly. He struggled for a bit to keep a balance, his body delirious.
“It was… a lot” his visor was covered in blushing pixels. He rubbed his head a bit before continuing “Um so I was thinking maybe we should have a safeword.”
“For… um” she looked away. Uzi struggled to even get the word through her processors. She knew about it in theory but it felt sacrilegious to her to say the word out loud. “Sex?”
“Well maybe eventually.” N blushed profusely, he pushed the idea out of his mind unwilling to approach something that important right now. “Um more I figured with you being an eldritch god and me being a bundle of repression. V suggested it might be best if we had a code. To let the other know when we were pushing boundaries or going too far. ”
“Yeah I'd like that,” Uzi’s speaker cracked a bit with sincerity. She rarely gets to be so open about everything and it was pushing her emotional limits.
N and her hugged tightly for a few minutes. Not thinking about the colony or their lives just thinking about the person before them. Enjoying being themselves with each other. N’s core relaxed pulsing at a normal rate. While Uzi’s body cooled with the open air, she started to feel the soreness of the fight starting to fade. After some time Uzi reached up to N’s head and started to run her fingers through his silver hair feeling how cool his body was compared to her own. N tilted his head into the hand like a dog or cat expecting pets. His tail wagged in response.
“You are such a dog” Uzi laughed at the murder machine in her embrace. She scratched his head coarsely and the tail wags increased in frequency.
“How about banana?” N spoke up. “for the safeword.” then he added for clarification.
“Too common,” Uzi responded. She had read too much fan fiction and it sort of tainted the view of the word.
“Oh you probably want something cool and edgy, darkxwolf17?” N sat up from Uzi’s embrace and started to poke at her wings coiled around him.
“Shut up” Uzi could feel her body heating up with embarrassment again.
“Right you need something cooler like bladeXedge4” he added vocal distortion to his speaker on the last word dropping it down an octave. And got really close to her visor.
“Stop mister golden retriever.” she started to jokingly push away at his head.
“Can handle an army of killer snake crabs but can't handle a little cringe?” this time he started to tickle at her rubber abdomen. “guess we know how to stop you next time you go out of control little bat”
“Stop Im dying egh” she laughed causing the massive worm form to flail and shudder. Shaking the whole building beneath them. N pulled back scared of collapsing the building. Uzi and him exchanged embarrassed glances.
N coughed speaking up after the scare. “How about elevator?”
“Elevator?” Uzi responded confused.
“Yeah it rolls off the tongue easy, and isn't a common word."
“Maybe” Uzi replied, rubbing her chin thinking.
“And it's not like you’re going to be using one anytime soon with your new body” N added playfully poking the fleshy mass of Uzi’s lower half.
“Are you making fun of me?” she snapped back
“A little, but I love your body” he said with his dopey smile and blushing a bit.
she swirled her long form Around him the layer of fleshy metal forming a wall. “Really so long and fleshy is your type, you freak?” her head, bearing the solver symbol, closed in on him splitting into a large maw.
“Maybe, but you’re definitely my type and this is all you.” He added leaning closer to her visor, taking her bluff that sent her back into her cocoon in an embarrassed fit.
She groaned from the cocoon “Is it too late to let J kill me?” The two giggled away into the early morning picking on each other and flirting awkwardly.
Thad approached V and J who were sitting side by side at the edge of a large fallen tree. J had carbonized the tree she was sitting on. Her hair was down covering her back; it looked like it was recently brushed. V’s doing probably. V got up and made her way towards Thad. “Can I talk to her?”
V answered, sprouting her wings.“Yeah swap in there stud.” V held out a hand for a high five but as Thad reached for it she flew off towards lizzy. He laughed a bit, typical V.
Thad closed in on J. when he stepped over the log. Immediately he covered his visor when he realized J was still unclothed. “Oh I'm so sorry” he tripped and fell into the muddy ground. Making sure to keep his bag out of the mud.“I didn’t see anything I swear.”
“There's nothing to see, we’re robots” J answered, entirely spent from well everything.
“Yeah” he said, getting to his feet, hand still over his visor. “but it still feels personal”
J's optics narrowed glaring at the worker drone.“Why are you here?” her voice dripped with acid.
“Well i thought you'd want this” he held his backpack out for her to grab with his one hand. J took the bag from the drone curious to see where this was going. She swapped her hand to claws ready to cut the bag open, but decided against instead just opening it normally. Inside the bag was one of the spare suits she picked up the other week no longer neatly pressed after being shoved into a backpack. She took the clothes out and noticed what else was hidden in the bag. The contract she made, a flashlight, some tools and supplies.
She put on the suit as best she could with one hand and used her tail to help. Without looking over she started to ask Thad “Why?”
Thad didn't turn to look still unsure if she was dressed. “Well I figured you’d feel awkward without some proper clothes.” he certainly did.
“No, why do you care about me?” She finished her suit and sat back down on the fallen tree.
Thad smiled, still having his optics closed. “Well I am aiming for employee of the month.” he gave his annoying finger guns completely in the wrong direction facing a tree instead of her.
“Just stop,” she tossed the bag at him. It struck him clean in the center of his torso and his reflexes were fast enough to catch it before it fell. “ We know that’s not anything real.” He took the hint that meant she was decent.
He cautiously looked up. “Dang, and I was hoping to use you as a reference on my resume.” he sat down beside her. He really felt like the ice had been broken a bit. “real talk, I care about you and want you to get better.”
She looked at him smirking and getting closer.“And it's not because you think I'm hot.”
Thad leaned back “Heh heh, you heard that?” his core was racing and blush filled his visor. She was well within his space and he couldn't stop his processors and core from accelerating.
“Yeah, my sensors are better than the others." She got even closer, Thad could feel the heat emanating from her body. The exhaust from her fans was hotter than his core temperature had ever reached.
He started to stammer a response. “Okay before you go there it's not a crush, I ”
“I know,” J interrupted him with a smile and a breathy laugh. She sat back up seemingly done teasing him "I heard that too.” she added a little sadly.
Thad thought about if she could hear him and Lizzy earlier in the night then she probably heard more than he could realize. That also explains why she always knew when he was taking a break. “Dang, that’s got to be a lot. Sorry.”
J groaned, leaning back on the stump till her head was centimeters off the ground. “You have no idea. I can hear the morons making out right now.” She picked up a stick out of the wet ground.
Thad looked at her surprised “Did you mean making up?”
“No” she threw a stick off into the sky giving off the crack of a sonic boom. Thad blushed again. “why are you all like this?” she looked up at him from her leaned back position.
“What?”
“You toasters. You get embarrassed by drone bodies, you're emotional. It's not just you, the others. I failed V, tried to kill N. Why dont any of you leave me behind? Its not normal, it's not dronelike it's all so” she paused for a moment looking back and forth. “human.” she added her voice dripping with disgust.
“I don't know, it's just how we are.” Thad shrugged, he really never thought of it like that. Though he never knew any different. “Is it not right?”
“No,” she sat back up to be visor level with Thad. “we're objects, things. We’re meant to be useful, to do a job. To be bought, sold, and thrown out. We aren’t supposed to have feelings. We aren't even supposed to have names.” She spoke with her hand waving it about.
“Okay but why?”
“It's our purpose.” J sounded confused. He got the feeling she didn't really know herself.
“The purposes humans gave us, right?” he asked J simply nodded. He took a second to look around the woods. Even out here away from the city there were still signs of the humans. The little remnants of a world before his time.“Well I don’t think they’re in a position to complain.”
J groaned “It's not that, it's” she kicked the ground with her pegs.
He made a guess “Do you like having a name?” she nodded her head in response. “So what's the problem?”
J looked to the muddy ground rubbing her fingers over her thumb “I’m wrong. We’re not supposed to be like this. I need” she sighed heavily, the heated air from her internals warped then light of her visor.“I need to be useful”
He tentatively put a hand on J's shoulder. “I think I get it” he tried to be honest. The older generation of drones tended not to talk too much about their time before. He was lucky his dads were more open about their past. From what they've told him it wasn't a great time for drones. They told what it was like back when the humans were around. How everything was different. How some drones were completely lost without them. They would just wander the surface for weeks doing what they did before. “ You don't have to be useful. All you have to be anymore is you.” He gave her a soft smile, his best attempt at consoling her.
J looked him dead in the visor and laughed “Hahaha” it wasn't a joyful laugh it was a stress induced laugh of someone at the end of a long night. “ Sorry, it's all just so pathetic. Even the toasters are making more sense. Tessa would have loved it”
“Tessa, you said that name before.”
“ She was my owner and maybe more.” J looked away clutching her core.“I really don't want talk about it.” he speaker cracked a bit.
“No pressure, but if you do I've always got time.” He patted her shoulder. He couldn't be happier she's made so much progress already. He waited a few minutes to let J relax before he spoke up again “You know, I was looking at the job postings in the colony. There was a listing for an office assistant.”
J looked at him like he was had grown a second head. “A secretary, bit of a downgrade wouldn’t you think.”
He smiled at her with a knowing grin “Nah from what I’ve heard organizing a colony of several hundred toasters would be a challenge even for you.” J’s optics narrowed at the insinuation. He knew that would get a rise out of her.
“I managed you, how bad could it be.” J slugged him in the shoulder Playfully. It hurt but he was happy to see her in a better place. It was nice.
Lizzy watched Thad go handle his crush or whatever that was. V flew over to her and Sparky. She passed Lizzy entirely instead landing next to the sentinel. She immediately starts hugging and petting the sentinel. V looked rough bags filled her visor.
She started with her normal half-interested tone. “I can’t believe you chickened out again." she saw how V reacted burying her head in the sentinel. oh yeah she totally chickened out. held her hand out and gave a sickened grimace ."Are you proud of yourself?”
“Not now Lizzy” V didn't even looking at her. She instead focusing on Sparky's face scratching excitingly at its neck.
Lizzy walked around the sentinel to be visor level with the Disassembler. She leaned against Sparky's back and continued. “Everyone's trauma dumping on each other. Girl you aren’t gonna get a better time to throw onto the pile.”
V looked her dead in the optics and said flatly “Lizzy can you shut up. ” She stormed off making her way towards the city.
Lizzy thought back to how Thad had reacted to her taunting. She realized she might of pushed it too far or something. Well better to get this over with or V will be moody all week and she doesnt have the patience for that with all this eldritch nonsense going on. She slowly approached V getting next to her as she started to speak. V glared at her and her wings sprouted. Great V was ready to take off. “OK so, I'm like sorry, I guess.” V was shocked. Lizzy continued before V could recover. “this conversation never happened and if you tell anyone I'll deny it. But like there's a reason I've been pushing you to talk to them.”
“I like never told Doll before she …died.” V's optics hollowed and her mouth dropped. Lizzy put a hand on V to ground herself before continuing. “I missed my chance, I really don't want you to miss yours. ”
“Cause when you miss it it hurts, a lot. And you've been hurt enough already. ” V stared blankly at her. V looked around then started poking at Lizzy’s face with her hand.
She smacked the hand away “What?”
“Just making sure I'm not dreaming” V stuck her hand out one more time to poke Lizzy’s visor. "Cause this is unbelievable”
“Yeah yeah” she pushed V away now that the mood has been ruined. “Get your laughs in now. Cause no one will believe you” And so she did. V laughed hard at Lizzy. Harder than Lizzy’s ever seen her laugh. She couldn't help join her.
Eventually V calmed down seemingly out of steam. Lizzy looked at her bestie “You feel better yet?”
“No but I will” V answered smiling and wiping her visor. i looked like she really need that.
“You better bitch” Lizzy snapped a selfie shot with V. V gave her iconic murderous smile.
“You know J can hear us right?” V smirked and laughed.
Lizzy's optics hollowed and she dropped her phone mid post. “What?”