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“Tessa?” It’s whispered out after a while since the lone human on the ship had slipped off into rest. Making sure she was in a dead sleep.
The drone carrying her was gentle with her fragile body, with her soft skin clung tight to bone. There wasn’t much flesh left on her frame, they had tried to keep the food supply well-stocked but that was a supply on earth. As yellow reflected against the window, it was clear why that would no longer be an option.
Twin black holes circled in what was once the core of the planet. Slowly but steadily the rock remains of earth were being dragged in. Of course they had a warning for it but both her and V only grabbed what they could carry and it has been made clear that it’s not enough.
Tessa is dying and all of them are powerless to stop it.
N and Cyn are both upset; each in their own ways.
Cyn may not have liked Tessa due to her being a human but now there was a possessive undertone J knows is prominent in one of their leaders. Regardless of whatever reasoning she had, Cyn was adamant about Tessa being alive.
Yet J has been so sure when the conversation had first been brought up that both her and N were wrong. That Tessa would pull through or that they would find any alternative. However this arrangement would not be without benefits, that was something I was quite aware of.
Humans were cruel, even to their own. How many times had they seen it when the other Elliot’s and their friends insulted those that didn’t agree with their views? How many times when hunting had they seen a human push another down just to be alive for a few seconds? The scars Tessa bore on her skin were not from any of them.
Tessa was never meant to stay as one of them, someone as bright as her was never suitable to be contained in a human skin.
Then there was the fact she brought Cyn and the rest of them to the manor. In that roundabout way, she was the reason they were now free. All of the drones that she had brought home, now transformed and strong, no longer chained to humanity’s greed and selfishness. No, J thought, she was meant to be one with them. Even if it meant losing something that Tessa still prized. With the thoughts of something not being right, that this wasn’t what Tessa would want being pushed down so far beneath as practiced, J stood.
Throughout the ceilings of the ship were woven bends of Cyns and Ns bodies alike. The forms sometimes coiled close together in a mimicry of snuggling. The yellow eyes that followed made it clear that she was to be expected.
Cyn in particular had a squint to them that looked especially gleeful. Ns just tended to look relieved; glad that she had finally chosen the correct path for one of the people he held close to his soul.
Perhaps in the past, N's affection was far more gentle in its love, but he had a possessive streak to rival Cyns. Neither of the ravenous drones would ever let any of them die; not permanently anyway. Oh, how the humans of planet earth had tried, bullets and artillery, planes and bombs. On one memorable occasion, even a nuke was used.
It was nothing compared to them.
There were still several of the others roughhousing in the more spacious rooms of the ship. They gave cheerful looks when they realized when J was going.
Tessa would be free of her mortal flesh soon enough. Though J hoped her two bosses had ways to make the process as pain free as possible. She knew, in her own experience that pain when becoming was unavoidable, but she was used to the hurts of being a drone.
Especially in that old manor.
Tessa however, was soft in all the ways they were jagged. To lose that softness was something that J was deeply fearful of and yet this was the only way to ensure that Tessa would never leave her life. She briefly wondered if they would let her keep what was left of the body as a way to keep a part of Tessa forever.
Especially if the procedure were to… fail.
“It wouldn’t hurt to ask… would it?” J murmurs as she stares down at the small body clutched within her arms.
She was so tiny to J, a fragile little human that lived among monsters. Now she would become something still small but no longer frail.
She walked to the door with the red coloring on it, the corridor seeming much smaller as she gazed upon what was right to call Cyn’s lab. She had taken everything she needed from the basement; to repair, to improve, and to resurrect. J adjusted her hold on her most precious person before bringing up her hand to knock. The door was always locked, no drone besides N or Cyn was allowed within its walls.
Yet it was unneeded as a quick swoosh of the door opened revealing N, and Cyn standing a bit behind him with her body cocked.
A beaming smile full of teeth was on her face while N had more of a soft look on his face. He held out his hands expectantly, and J resisted the urge to step back, to take her human and run. She looked down at Tessa's bony human face one more time, a soft kiss given to her forehead and a hug that was strong yet gentle. What remained of her flesh squished underneath J's arms but she could feel the hard skeleton that laid beneath.
Handing her off to N felt final, similar to seeing a coffin being lowered into the ground. ‘This is for the best.’ J thinks solemnly, her expression betraying nothing as she stares at the pale body. While Tessa looked small in her arms, the human looked miniscule in Ns.
Swallowing, J steels her nerve to ask, “Could I- Could I have the body once its d- once its complete?” Both of them look surprised, and share a glance with each other, code flying fast across their visors.
“You may, however, make sure there is some left for us ‘expectant expression’.” Cyn speaks up and N nods, “She’s ours too J.” It’s said quietly but with a passion underneath.
Both care for Tessa, and their love is like the black holes they create: mass bending and all consuming. With a sharp turn of his feet N goes into the room, leaning back for a moment J can see what Tessa is to become.
Cyn walks to the doorframe with a more relaxed expression, a motion made with her hand to make J come closer, “‘soft smile’ It will be alright J, when she wakes up Tessa will be perfect. Nothing will be able to take her away from us, ‘comforting pat’.” J smiled weakly as Cyn gave what amounted to comfort to the drone.
The door slides shut and J walks to the side of the door and sits down, she doesn’t mind if her joints grow stiff. J will be here when it is completed and hopefully, when her love wakes up.
On the other side Tessa has been placed on a medical bed, straps are wound across her limbs, torso and head. If the human did wake up during the process neither drone doubts she will struggle, there will be a step to this that will make the point moot but until then it is necessary. They need to keep the body intact for most of this, without adding any damage to it.
Cyn looked at N and there was a vulnerable expression on his face. Cyn knew this would be difficult for him and she could do this alone if need be.
“Big brother N, ‘concerned look’, you do not need to be here for this. ‘Knowing gaze’ may be hard for you to experience. I will not blame you for leaving.” It is gentle in a way Cyn is only ever with him. She knows that taking part in this will remind him of the past, and if he leaves there will be the added bonus of not having to be soft in this process.
It would be quicker to do this without all the precautions that have been set, yet there are drawbacks to doing it that way as well. The trauma of a fast and brutal transition would likely harm Tessa and while this procedure could be considered as such, it was needed to continue to have her by their side. A quick minute glance came from N to the blank faced body on a metal table, lain right next to tessa.
His resolve hardened, this was what Tessa needed to survive and N could do it.
A nervous smile spread across N’s face, his eyes hollow but hope filled, “It’s okay Cyn, it isn’t the same. They didn’t care about the pain caused, but I know we’re gonna be able to make this as painless as possible for her.” There were several bottles of medication on the table in between the two tables. Most likely not needed as both of them could force Tessa back under if need be, but it helped in not having the problem in the first place.
Needles were filled with the numbing agents and placed alongside every point that was needed. From limbs to torso to head, no part was left unchecked. It was the best option they had with no anesthesia. Another table was grabbed by one of Cyn's claws, on it, various medical instruments laid, including a hollow core frame.
That would be one of the final steps they took.
N picked up the scalpel and let out a deep breath.
Slowly but surely the flesh that protected the organs within Tessa's body was peeled away. Gently the ribs were broken apart and separated, only for cyn to start making them into the new strong metal ones that would be needed to protect her new core. The organs were the next part, fusing together what would be needed for her drone insides.
What functioned as a fuel tank, stomach, and temperature regulators were all added to the drone frame on the other side. Even ventilators and their fans were added with the lungs, now came the tricky part. Cyn took over Tessa's body minus her brain to fool it into thinking it was still alive. Biology like this wasn’t her strong suit so they had to make this fast.
With quick movements that made N look a bit blurred, the cranium was cracked open revealing Tessa's brain, the electrical signals and memories within were all scanned and placed within the folder that N had created for this very purpose.
He could not understand them beyond what they represented and as such could not see into them.
Then, using the meat of brain and heart, the core came alive with a bright ombre glow of yellow and green.
The same exact green that Tessa's eyes held in her human body. With that change the main eye was closed after initially opening. N crossed over to where Cyn held the core, gently and together they placed it inside the drone body. A tube that contained oil started up to pump into the drone. With it the rib cage, once broken, closed over the insides of Tessa's new body. White and black plastic forming to create the main torso.
Some spilled out onto the ground as well, inevitably, causing N to close his eyes and breathe deeply as memories flowed with the oil spilling. The fans and the faint hum of a core was audible as both drones stepped a bit closer. N swallowed, anxiety accumulating as he stared at the body.
“Shouldn’t she have woken up by now?” Cyn gave him an amused look at that and even verbalized it. N looked at her with a nervous pout.
“N, ‘shoulder touch’, to change is to become, and as we both know, becoming takes time. ‘Hand wave’ This is a massive one, from human to drone. She will be better off for it, always being unnatural to her own, yet she was so close to perfect.” then with a vicious smile showing off all her teeth and the symbol of the solver across her visor, “Now she is, as one of us. ‘Ecstatic smile’ like she is meant to be.” Cyn may not love her in the same way N does but Tessa is hers as the same.
N smiled back, just as wide but far less vicious. Cyn was right about that, out of all the humans N had seen, had talked to, and had killed; Tessa was the one he was sure of, humanity didn’t deserve. With that he grabbed the scalpel once again to crave away at the hair that had grown to her waist. Rinsing off the blood and gore, he made sure it had what was needed to root it to Tessa's hair.
The natural heat coming from his body was more than enough to dry it by the time he was attaching it. Stepping back N admired Cyns and his own handiwork, from human to drone, Tessa was no longer at any risk of disappearing.
She would never be on the battlefront against humanity and whatever else stood in their way, not if either of them had anything to say about it. However there was always the risk of her dying due to age, starvation, dehydration, cold, heat, and a million other ways. Humans were fragile and they were not.
In this body she had all the regeneration and longevity of a murder drone, no weapons nor wings though, as both knew Tessa might take this badly. Humans take pride in themselves being made from flesh and bone and while she had always preferred them to her own kind, that didn’t mean she would want to give up her own humanity to become one.
Walking back he and Cyn shared a glance. He wanted to ping V as well, see how she takes the success because despite the nervous jitters still plaguing his body, this was a success. The way her new body hummed in the same ways the others did.
Not to mention… N looked over to the body that used to be tessas, it could be a meal with family.
Cyn stared at the body for a moment before turning back and nodding at him. A quick ping, an opening of the door, and the two that were missing from their small family were ushered into the beautiful sight. A meal and their final member of the family, finally one of them. Both pairs of eyes widened at seeing the body, fear cascading through their thoughts briefly before the noises of the rumbling of a core registered.
“Shes-”
“Perfect, ‘annoyed expression’, I promised you she would live.” J stilled at the tone, but as usual when Cyn got irritated with them for their mistakes, N curled himself around his little sister. Tail going around them both, with the wing closest to her bringing Cyn close. A soft but too deep purr echoed from the being that took the form of a drone.
What did it matter if Cyn had lied about promises before?
She had kept one of the most important ones to N; in her mind that was more important than anything else. Her pets were happy as well and perhaps due to N, she had gotten a bit attached to them as well. Like how humans saw their loyal pets, inferior to them but so cute and dumb they are lovable.
“However there is her body and well, what better way to truly make her one of us?” A sharp fang filled grin came from both of the drones with the symbols of the solver taking over their visors. Similarly widened maws and Xs appearing on the other two visors made it obvious what N was proposing.
The four descended on the blood stained and tear ridden flesh. Every bit and piece devoured to take place as more fuel for them, yet their hunger would never truly be satisfied. The body was the last remaining part of Tessa’s physical humanity and with it gone she would be a drone in all but mind and even then…
How much did it really matter?
—-
Tessa was slow to wake, things felt different, and not in a way that could be called either good or bad.
For one the pain of having a dying body was gone but the senses she had in said body didn’t feel right. The sense of smell, hearing, touch, and even taste weren’t normal. Then she opened her eyes to something that almost caused her to scream. Her gaze, once just the regular gaze of a human, now had a HUD that she knew was like a drone's.
She could feel fans whirling within the body, something that if she was still in a human one, would have made her throw up.
Her hands came up to her face and the texture, the way they moved, how they felt, it was all too wrong for the once human. The arms, so similar to a disassembler drones, only the plastic at the ends didn’t flare out to allow space for switching weapons. Her legs were similar, though the feet were like that of a regular worker drone.
The same was true for her height, as Tessa tried to get to the ground only to fall as she misjudged how tall she actually was. She was shorter than her human self and was not used to walking after so long of being in a wheelchair. Either that or carried by J. The thud made the eyes overhanging from the sealing dip down in concern, which in turn made Tessa yelp once spotted.
She backed up into one of the pods Tessa knew were used for the drones whose bodies get destroyed. The thought of whether that was how she got her new body lingered for just a moment as her new eyes caught onto the bloody sheets and mattress across from the metal table she had been on.
The horrified realization of what exactly could have happened to her made the fans whirl harder as the air was sucked into her mouth. A pointless task as her new body no longer required it.
Yet even drones can have panic attacks and Tessa thought she deserved this one. Clawing at her visor, the smooth plastic and metal, even trying to tug at her own hair revealed that this was no illusion, no matter how desperately she wanted it to be.
The scratches made from the sheer force of her scratching were healed in moments, small streams of steam coming from it in the cold spaceship labs. The urge to eat, to devour, ran through her at once but it was far less than it should be for what she now looked like. The horror of what kind of hell Cyn and N, because who else could it be but them, had done to her overruled any common sense as she continued to try to damage this body.
Knocking her head against the glass and walls in hopes of shattering it. Punching as hard as she could to break away any of the white coating on her arms. Any wires exposed she tried to rip out with her teeth. Which is how she found out they had a pair of fangs tucked into the steel. It was never enough, she still healed, the steam coming from her turning the room warm. Tessa slumped down onto the floor in defeat as all the eyes gazed at her all the while.
She had lost everything she ever knew, the only real thing tying her to humanity in general was her own body but now even that was stripped from her. Carved out really, with the amount of her blood staining the area.
Tessa stares down at her hands, the triangles a gradient of the horrid yellow and the green that once matched her own eyes. The same color gradient was reflected in the glass chamber and Tessa made the purposeful decision not to look into the reflection.
The eyes are still watching her and some of them were crinkled in what Tessa was loath to admit looked concerned. That awful yellow that now resided in her own eyes and lights. The gradient of it going to her own made her stomach tank turn. Yet even if she did vomit, would anything come up? Drones, while capable of eating the same food as humans, tended to consume other electronic pieces.
She had seen N and V eating batteries while watching movies a few times.Though that particular memory caused emotional pain. Back at the manor, things may have hurt, the chains and the abuse suffered awful, but it was simple. She studied, repaired drones, and had fun where she could.
The rules of that life were easy to understand, but here on this spaceship, losing the last bit of humanity she had… the rules had changed so much she had no idea what they were anymore. Cries and sobs escaped but there was no familiar feeling of wetness crawling down her face, no true tension in her chest that came from the tension of heaving breaths, the air coming into false lungs not quite a taste rather just data, and error symbols of what will happen if she countries to hyperventilate as she is.
None of it anywhere close to a human way of experiencing things.
Tessa, so into her throws of panic, did not notice when bone graphs pinned her to the wall, some of Cyn's mantis like blades, the others of N’s claws that looked almost like wolf bones. The pressure of both forced her breath to become even due to how they only stopped the pressure when she took in a breath, steadily increasing it as her fans were forced to adjust to the tempo rapidly changing once more.
Slowly but steadily Tessa's breaths were being forced to return to normal. In the back of the once humans mind some part of her hysterically thought that at least they were allowing her to breath still. The knowledge of what she had gained from being a drone hung as heavy as the sword of Damocleus. No longer needing to breathe was only the tip of the iceberg, of that she was certain of.
Due to being forced to take those deep breaths, she was now aware enough to register the muffled sound of metal marching on metal. Heavy and as well as slithery.
N and Cyn, it had to be.
Though an additional lighter sound of footsteps came shortly before the door was opened. Quick and almost frantic. Tessa wondered if it made her insane to hope it was J. As she didn’t think either of the solver drones, as she had taken to calling them more recently, would be able to get her from the murder drone.
Though how much of a choice was it when both N and Cyn could just as easily make J do it. Tessa wasn’t sure if that made it worse or better.
Either way she was expecting the drones that came through the door, what she didn't was the gripping and possessive hold on her body be replaced by another type. Cyn and N were holding her in a grip that was unyielding and wanting. Soft purring coming from N while the jet engine of Cyn's vibrated around her own. Tessa didn’t hug back but neither drone seemed offended by it, rather when they both pulled away, a soft but accepting look had appeared on N's face.
“Hey Tess. How are you feeling?” It was a genuine question and Tessa felt the horror and fear fade away into a burning anger.
“I- Why?! Why would you even ask- I can’t–!! Why would you do this?!” Tessa meant for it to come out as a wrathful scream and yet it was just broken as her voicebox glitched with her emotions. It was J that responded, in a voice so soft and fragile that part of Tessa felt a bit guilty.
“You were dying Tessa and I- we- none of us could stop it. I couldn’t lose you and…” J swallows and looks away, a bright yellow blush appearing, “they couldn’t either.” Whether it was aimed at just the drones in the room or everyone aboard the ship, Tessa wasn’t certain. Yet in either scenario that meant that Cyn had cared enough about her to propose this, because she didn’t think this idea came from N alone.
Seeing her gaze Cyn smiled, “I am glad you are awake ‘beaming grin’. You are one of us now, no longer are you imperfect.” Tessa stilled at that, the way Cyn's voice had distorted near the end, something unmistakably other in the beings voice. Though the words hitting her made her want to cower, imperfect as human, now perfect as a drone? Tessa felt whatever her stomach now was rolling.
“She’s right Tessa, before you were so fragile, it never took much to bruise or break some part of you. As one of us, you’ll never die. Neither of us will let that happen.” The solver symbol briefly flickered on both of their visors and Tessa felt her voice vanish. Spoken aloud from the two maws that had devoured a planet came a sentence that Tessa would never forget.
“We will never discard you. There is nothing they can do to you, even in death, you will be held.”
And in that moment Tessa knew now more than ever, there was no escaping either of them.