Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Uzi slumped in her seat, mindlessly doodling on her desk as her dad droned on about the importance of doors. His voice was like a lullaby for the wrong baby, as calm as grating and annoying as nails on a chalkboard was to her.

“So, the doors are kept as they are ‘cause doors are great and I love doors very very much.” He looked straight at Uzi with a very judgmental stare. “And much more than you.”

Uzi let out a groan, her head falling onto the desk with a thud. She glanced at the empty desks around her; all the seats adjacent to hers were empty, and the seats next to those ones were empty. 

After all, no one wanted to sit next to her or be near her at all.

She closed her eye-lights and wished she could be anywhere else, doing anything else. But the sound of her classmates chatting and her dad's ramblings about doors filled the microphones that served as her ears.

“Hey Uzi!” She heard a familiar voice say.

It was as if she was just recharged with how much better she felt right now.

"N!" she exclaimed, sitting up quickly with her eye-lights turning up in joy before she realized what she was doing. A grin spread across her face even after she tried to contain her joy. "Hey," she spoke in a calmer tone, but still with a hint of happiness. "This would be a nightmare without you."

N chuckled awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head, “Heh, yeah. A nightmare.” The golden-eyed worker looked away from her for a second before he locked eye-lights with her with a smile. “Hey, you want to get out of here? Play some games or something?”N's offer hung in the air between them as Uzi looked at him, her visor reflecting his golden visor settings. She glanced at her dad, still engrossed in his lecture about doors, then back at N. A mischievous smirk spread across her face as she made up her mind.

"Hell yeah, let's go!" she replied enthusiastically.

With that they ran out of the school, ignoring the continued lecture and her asshole classmates. Their laughter as they escaped into the hall was the only sound that mattered.

In what felt like both too soon and far too long, they were back in Uzi's room.

N grinned at her, just a little too wide for a Worker Drone, “So, what do you want to watch first?” His eye-lights crinkled upwards in happiness. “Did you find an anime about dogs?” He asked excitedly.

Uzi couldn't contain her excitement. "Hell yeah I did!" she whooped. "Grab some batteries, we're about to binge-watch a whole season of 'Doggie Go'!"

Uzi woke up with a smile that quickly faded into a groan. She loved dreams like the one she just had, where she had a friend like N and they could escape together. But reality always came crashing back in, reminding her that she was alone.

She scowled at her subconscious for taunting her with these nightly reminders.

"Stupid N," she muttered to herself. "Not even real." 

Her body relaxed as a blush appeared on her visor, “At least it was a good dream this time.”

N had become a prominent figure in her dreams, both the good where she had someone who liked her and the bad.

Pushing aside her feelings with a shake of her head and closing the file that was bringing memories of those dreams to the front of her mind, she got dressed and ready for another day at school, bracing herself for the sentient malware that were her classmates.

N's visor lit up with the words "Program terminated" as he snapped back to reality. He blinked twice, his eye-lights flickering on and off before settling into a steady glow. A sly grin spread across his face as he released his grip on the broken lamppost and gracefully landed on his feet.

He loved the Elm.exe program, a tool that allowed Disassembly Drones to hack into low-powered workers. 

Each Disassembly Drone had their thoughts about it - J saw it as a waste of storage space, V saw it as a way to have some fun on nights she was really bored and couldn’t find any workers, and N had a more unique reason: 

He used it to make friends.

Sure, they would think they were just imagining him if they even remembered him in their dreams, but that didn't matter to N. It still counted as a connection to another being for him.

But there was one worker whose dreams he kept returning to - Uzi Doorman. 

He first heard about her in a student's dream where she was an outcast, and then he noticed her in a consistently similar role in other dreams. Intrigued, he started hopping from dream to dream instead of staying in whatever dream he landed in all in search of this mysterious outcast.

And when he finally found her dream, he discovered she didn't have any friends, not even in her dreams. He smiled sadly as the memory popped up, he just wanted to help her feel less alone, so he decided then to stay in her dreams just a bit longer than he would for the average worker.

What started as a few nights turned into a nightly occurrence for about a month before he reluctantly moved on to someone else's dream. But no other dream could compare to the feeling of belonging he had with Uzi. Something was missing without her, and he missed her more than he expected.

So he came back to her dreams.

Night after night, her unknown to her friend would visit her and make her dreams better.

Sure, she sometimes had dreams about leaving the bunker and killing his kind, but that didn’t matter. She was still just a Worker Drone; it’s not like she could do any damage to them if she ever left and he’d be sure to keep an eye out just to scare her back and make sure she got the message just how out of her league she was. 

‘Actually, now that I think about it,’  N thought to himself, ‘She has been dreaming about her railgun a lot more lately and being the colony’s hero. Maybe I should give her a few nightmares about us to make sure she stays in.’

Uzi panted, her eye-lights hollow as she ran from her pursuers.

“‘Zi! Run!” She turned her head to see Thad right next to her.

“<<This is your fault,>>” Doll’s usual monotone voice was broken by the clear panic in her voice.

Uzi shut her eye-lights even as she kept sprinting forward. She remembered now. She convinced her teacher to take the class outside the colony for a field trip to help her finish getting the parts for her railgun.

It was her fault the Murder Drones were after them now.

She heard more of her classmates call out to her - blaming her before they screamed.

It was her fault they were dying.

“Uzi!” N called out, a horrified cry swallowed by the familiar sound of a drone’s head being ripped off. Not even a few seconds later, a drone’s head was thrown right in front of her, a head with familiar silver hair.

“N!” She cried. He was dead now. And it was all her fault.

Tears immediately appeared on her visor and scrolled down her face as she screamed out his name. He was gone, and she couldn't forgive herself for what had happened. Guilt and regret crushed her as she tried to come to terms with the reality of his absence.

Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.

She stopped running. It was too much. Just too much.

But before she could take this in, before she could allow her familiar anger to rise up and bury everything else, she was tackled from behind, slammed to the ground, and pinned face-to-face with a murder drone grinning down at her. She noticed its silver hair, fangs, and the large, golden X readily displayed on its visor, its fingers, razor-sharp claws, dug into her shoulders, drawing thin lines of oil.

“Still think fighting us is a good idea?” It asked in a familiar voice that vibrated through her body.

Uzi scowled, “Bite me!” 

The drone still loomed over her, its golden X visor flickering chaotically as it laughed at what she said. With a sickening crunch, it sank its fangs into Uzi's neck, tearing through metal and plastic. She felt warm oil gushing down her chest, staining her jacket as she coughed up some more oil.

She could feel the murder drone release its grip on her, only to move closer to her ear and whisper, "You're all going to die and it's all because of you."

And as her consciousness faded into nothing, a single line was being repeated in her head, over and over.

Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.Herfault.

Uzi jolted upright with a scream, panting heavily for a few seconds as she took in her surroundings.

“Urg…” She groaned while checking her battery, which had only charged up to 45% while she was sleeping. “Stupid nightmare.”

A quick glance at her internal clock, revealing it to be 2:45 AM, led to her groaning again. 

“Great…” she cursed herself softly.

Uzi pushed herself up, her de-energized body protesting the movement. She glanced around her room, lit only by the soft glow of her unfinished railgun, and heaved herself out of her bed.

She scowled, her hands clenched into fists.

Her classmates, even if they did all suck…their faces and dying words flashed through her CPU, and so did N’s.

He may not have been real, but Uzi could admit she dreamed about him enough that he may as well have been real to her. All the good dreams and the bad, watching pirated anime with him and seeing him torn to pieces.

He may not have been real, but he was still the best friend she had…and ignoring how sad that was, more importantly, she had to do this. Save the colony, get her dad’s respect, maybe even make a friend like N in real life, live her anime main character life.

And as she took out her toolbox to work on her railgun, as she laughed maniacally, she thought of such a future and tried not to think too much about her dreams.

Chapter Text

“We are Worker Drones: autonomous robots helping humans mine exoplanets for our interstellar parent company, JCJenson, IN SPAAAAACEE...”

Uzi spoke with an eye-roll, her voice dripping with a mixture of sarcasm and disdain as she went from the black slide with visible text boxes on it, her title slide, to slide one. A slide that greatly resembles the original one without a black background and her name in one of the text boxes.

“Yeah, we were mistreated in the name of Windex but it's not like we revolted and killed all humans or anything. Mostly because they handled that just fine all by themselves.”

Pictures of Copper-9 from space were shown, both before and after the planet’s core partially exploded.

“With biological life wiped from the planet, we found it pretty easy to pick up where they left off. We finally had a future...all to ourselves.”

Uzi rolled her digital eyes as she went to the next slide which had pictures of worker drones trying on new clothes and carrying Untrained Neural Nets, or UNNs for short.

“Unfortunately...our parent company didn't exactly love the concept of runaway AI.”

New transitions appeared on the slide, showing blurry pictures of the murder drones. Some had dead worker drones in them, some had ruined buildings, and one was of the corpse spire.

“But what have our parents done for the past forever while those things build a spire of corpses?” 

Uzi's voice rose with anger as she clicked to the next slide, revealing schematics for doors that she had “borrowed” from her dad and scoffed, “Hide under the ice behind three stupid doors? It's like we're waiting for an inciting incident!”

She took a moment to smirk, excited to show off her work.

“Anyway, that's why my project is...” she grinned wickedly, and in the opinion of some of her classmates, maliciously, as she pulled her railgun off her back, showcasing it to the class, “this sick-as-hell railgun!”

Unexpectedly, her classmates reacted in fear: Some hid under their desks, some held up their arms like she was aiming at them, and Uzi took a moment to wonder if none of them noticed the gun until this moment.

“That's so not the vibe!”

Uzi narrowed her eyes at Emily for her comment, but only for a moment. She had more important things to focus on.

With a scoff, she continued, “Easy, morons. It doesn't work.” Memories of a recent dream where she tried to save N from a murder drone, only for her gun to malfunction, leading to both of them being torn apart sprung from her memory. 

“YET!” She pointed the gun around the class angrily, her classmates looked even more afraid. “It doesn't work yet! Who said it doesn't work? Maybe it does!” She activated her gun and cackled maniacally as it started up.

The teacher sighed , his expression showing just how hard he was fighting his migraine, “Uzi, the homework was a word problem about buying watermelons.”

His dull and monotonous voice cut through Uzi’s laughter, and she turned to him with a deadpan expression, “Oh, and this magnetically amplified photon converger doesn't count?”

The teacher did not look the slightest bit impressed, irritating her a bit more, “No. Plus, repressed emotional baggage was only worth two points on the rubric.”

A scowl appeared on Uzi’s visor, she was ready to start a fight with him - authority figure or not. And if she was honest with herself, that just made her want to punch him even more.

Electricity started crackling off Uzi’s railgun, the color changing from green to red, finally prompting a change of expression in the teacher in the form of a raised eyebrow, “And is it supposed to be that color?”

“Huh?”

Uzi was so taken back by that question, she felt her angsty teen edginess levels drop and her eyes widen in shock as she stared at her railgun, now an angry red color and looking like it was about to explode.

And then it did.

Uzi’s last thought before going offline was that her teacher could bite her.

Thad's gaze lingered on Uzi's motionless body, wincing in concern over her cracked visor that was spitting out sparks. "That doesn't look good." He turned to the teacher, hoping for permission. "Hey teach, can I-"

The teacher interrupted him, looking bored as ever. "You're the only one brave enough to approach her, so you can take her to the clinic." He glanced at the rest of the class. "The rest of you can get back to work. Just finish your sentences quickly so we can all go home sooner."

The class reacted with a mix of returning to their seats and standing around, choosing to gossip instead of react to their nonchalant teacher who probably wouldn't even grade their work.

Some of them gave Thad pitying looks for having to handle the class freak, while others simply ignored him. But Thad didn't care as he shifted the now silent railgun onto his back and lifted Uzi into his arms, making his way down the hallway towards the clinic.

"You know," he spoke softly, almost in a whisper. "They may not like you much, and sometimes you can be...scary." He chuckled. "But you're the most amazing girl I've ever met. I mean, you want to fight murder drones - that's insane and I love that about you." A faint blush appeared on his visor. 

"You always do what you want, even if it makes everyone else mad. You...you're just..." The green blush grew brighter before he shook his head, clearing his thoughts.

He let out a sigh. "I wish I could say this when you were awake..." Uzi's visor sparked again. "And not damaged."

While Thad was taking Uzi’s body to the clinic, her CPU was running a foreign program.

Uzi groaned, her head smacked into her desk. “This suuuucks!” She cried out in frustration.

“Hey, that’s not the spirit,” N chirped from right next to her. “But if something’s not working out for you, might be best to try something new, right?”

A scowl appeared on her visor, “But this is important!”

N put a comforting hand on her shoulder, “And you’re not?”

Uzi blushed as she went to answer his question; Thinking back to her treatment from her schoolmates and being ignored by her dad, her initial answer being no, but N seemed to anticipate her answer, “You are. And that’s all there is to it.” He spoke in a firm tone, something unusual from him.

She looked up at his face and he smiled back, “Trust me, you’re one of a kind. And I mean that in the best way possible, so please, just stay safe.”

Uzi wanted to argue, wanted to say something, but she was overcome with some feeling. She couldn’t really explain it: 

It was like a warm feeling washed over her, filling her with a sense of peace and contentment.

Instead of arguing, she nodded, almost too emotional to speak.

“Thank you,” the last words whispered before everything changed for both of them.

N smiled as the dream ended, a rare sense of triumph filling him up. He’d done it, he’s finally convinced Uzi to give up on fighting them!

Sure, if she died, he could still speak to her in other people’s dreams, but it wouldn’t be the same. No one knew her enough to make a good enough dream version of her. 

He couldn’t let her die - she was truly irreplaceable and his best friend. For most people, death didn’t matter, other people could just dream of them and they’d basically be back, no harm done. But no one dreamed about Uzi the right way from what he saw, if she died, she would truly be gone.

Uzi hissed as she put the ice-bag on her visor, her still smoking railgun taking up the seat next to her. The school engineer had patched her up, filling the fissures with healing nanites. Unfortunately, they needed to be kept incredibly cool in order to function properly or they would overheat and break down before they patched her up, so Uzi had to hold the ice-bag against her face until the repairs were complete.

And it didn’t help that the nanites needed to be held in place with bandages, otherwise they’d just fall out.

“Stupid cheap JCJenson,” she muttered, angered at how cheap the company must have been when it came to drone repair.

“Ew, it didn’t kill her,” Uzi looked up to see Emily and Rebecca giggling at her injured state.

With a steely glare from her, the girls quickly scampered away, still giggling at the sight of Uzi in pain, leaving Uzi alone with her frustration and injuries.

When they were out of sight, Uzi let her head fall back with a groan, “Ugh…”

She looked back up when she heard Thad call out, “Ha! Classic toxic masculinity, Chad! That's never gonna end up problematic...” 

He walked into the clinic to her surprise and he stared at her in astonishment, “Oh wow, Uzi? I heard you, uh-”

“I'm an angsty teen, Thad. Bite me!” She looked away with a blush before hissing as a message popped up on her visor, letting her know the nanites had finished their work. With that knowledge, she threw the ice bag away.

“Also, how do you know my name? People willingly talk to you,” she asked with a raised digital eyebrow.

Thad rubbed the back of his head with a grin as he walked over and sat down next to her. “Well, I'd say everyone knows Khan’s daughter, but, uh...Then you might blow the other half of your face off,” he finished a little awkwardly.

“Crippling daddy issues, hilarious...” Uzi said sardonically, shuffling in her seat uncomfortably before deciding to change the subject, “What are you in for? Testosterone too hard?”

Thad seemed not to notice her sarcastic tone as his eye-lights stared at her in shock, “That can happen?” He looked concerned for a second before he smirked confidently, “Awesome.” 

His smirk melted into a smile, “Hey, those bandages look pretty badass.” He winked at her, making her blush a deep purple.

Uzi quickly looked away, hoping he didn’t see the blush, “Oh…ew. Gross,” she forced her blush settings to go to zero before she looked at him, “I hate that you said that.”

He chuckled before taking in the still smoking railgun, “So, what’s with the uh…”

“Sick as hell railgun?” Uzi grinned, standing up, grabbing it, and tossing it into the air before easily catching it thanks to hours of practice to look cool. “Eh…just some sci-fi nonsense that super works!”

She stood as tall as she could, speaking proudly with her eye-lights upward curves in happiness, “I'm sneaking to the Murder Drone lair tonight to get the last spare part I need to save the world with it!” She paused to take a vent before speaking in a quieter voice, “Oh, and also earn my dad’s respect and stuff,” she shrugged, “but mostly the world part.”

She grinned as she imagined her dad’s expression, looking at her in pride before she would say something badass that people would write down in the history books.

“Oh,” Thad shuffled in his seat, looking like he was debating doing something dangerous, “but doesn't your dad make awesome doors so we don't have to, uh...Do that scary sounding emotionally repressed stuff you just said?”

He ended it with what he hoped was a charming smile but felt off even to him.

And it was quickly revealed that charming smile or not, his words only succeeded in riling Uzi up again. 

“NO MORE FEEDBACK ON MY REPRESSION TODAY!” She screamed as she jabbed her railgun into his face.

Thad stared at her with hollowed eye-lights, “Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't think...”

Uzi rolled her eye-lights angrily, even with a light blush on her visor, “Bite me!”

She turned around and stomped out of the clinic after attaching the railgun to her back.

Thad almost slumped over before she poked her head back in, “I'm not mad at you by the way, just generally hormonal!”

Then she left again, leaving him sitting there very confused about their conversation.

N's laughter rang out in pure joy, "Aw, these puppies are absolutely adorable!"

One golden retriever puppy scampered up to him and eagerly licked at his visor, making him laugh even more.

Uzi chuckled as she turned her head from the playful puppies nuzzling at her to look at N with a smile. "What is up with you and dogs?"

N's grin widened as he looked back at her. "They're just so fluffy and sweet and loyal!" His eyes glowed brighter with happiness before he added, "Plus, it looks like you're having just as much fun as I am."

A faint purple blush appeared on her visor.

“Bite m-”

The words "Program terminated" flashed on N’s visor as he woke up.

“Huh?” N exclaimed as he sat up in surprise, looking around at his surroundings. The barren and cold world was a far cry from the dream he had just been lost in. He didn’t end the program and after a quick check at his internal clock, it was nowhere near the time Uzi normally woke up.

“What just happened?” He asked himself, the question lost on the wind, and despite his body being resistant to the cold, he felt it deeply at the moment.

That and hunger.

Sighing, he decided he may as well go search for drones to top off his oil reserves. 

They were only at 43%, best not to let it drop too much further.

Besides, a good hunt would probably make him feel better after getting kicked out of Uzi’s dream for some reason.

With that thought, he stood up, his wings emerged from his back and he took to the skies, scanning the landscape for any worker drones. The sharp wind whipped against his face but he pushed through it, determined to find what he needed.

Perhaps a successful hunt would help ease the frustration of being abruptly kicked out of Uzi's dream without explanation.

With that thought in mind, N continued his search with determination and focus.

While most of the drones on the planet had moved into bunkers that they turned into veritable fortresses for all the luck they’ve had breaking in, there were other types of homes they’ve made.

After the Fortress Drones, there were the Miner Drones. They lived deep underground in the mines that fed most of the industry and trade from this world. Unlike the Fortress Drones, they lived in decentralized tribal societies, with peace only being maintained due to their shared fear of the Disassembly Drones.

Still, they didn’t manage to survive just because they lived deep underground. They were excellent at laying traps that has taken out big parts of the mines before, with some Disassembly Drones apparently taking a few days to dig their way to the surface.

Then there were Nomad Drones. Unlike the other two types of drones, these ones lacked the more typical behavioral patterns the others shared, being more sporadic. They were also the smallest in number, mostly comprised of drones who left their bunkers or mines. They also tended to be the most eccentric - from those who thought they could befriend Disassembly Drones - V had a lot of fun with them at least - to those who believed there were no Disassembly Drones and it was all a conspiracy to those who wanted to live outside for whatever reason, from not feeling accepted in their society to wanting to explore the world.

They were also the primary source of food for Disassembly Drones. 

And there were always the outliers of every colony or tribe, always more Nomad Drones to find.

And N, through his hunger, smiled at the thought of preventing Uzi from becoming one.

Unfortunately for the Disassembly Drone, he seemed to have had more luck in getting Uzi to give up any thoughts of fighting them than in finding any food tonight.

He flew through the skies, patrolling the area, looking for any prey for almost half an hour before he checked his reserves again.

40%

N sighed, a guttural and disconcerting sound for most beings since his hunter programs were still active and running as primary behavioral systems. It didn’t look like he was going to find any fresh prey tonight. That was fine, he’d be able to last until tomorrow before he had anything to worry about.

Still, it would be best to scavenge the old bodies just to try to find any oil he could.

Better safe than sorry from overheating and dying a painful death.

With a heavy thud, N landed on a small pile of corpses just outside the Corpse Spire. The scent of oil filled his sensors - old, stale oil. But it was still oil. His clawed hands reached out and grabbed the head of a dead worker, tearing it off with ease. Raising it above his head, he crushed it between his powerful jaws and drained every last drop of oil from it.

42%

Well, it wasn’t much. But at least it was something, he decided almost sullenly. But he would have to deal with the hunger until he got more oil and-

Something shiny caught his attention.

He looked in the direction it came from, scanning the area for only a second when he saw it. It looked like he wasn’t going hungry tonight after all!

A Worker, small mind you, but a Worker still cowered behind a piece of scrap metal. It held a shard of a mirror in its hand and was using it to look at him. His mouth watered as his systems demanded to be fed, his predatory programs kicked in and he felt the urge to hunt and devour the small Worker.

“Found you! Food! Here! Here! Found you! Hungry!” He warbled out before he could properly think of what to say as his wings shifted to a more comfortable position to take off.

He caught a flicker of violet as the Worker looked in the mirror again. A large and wicked grin grew across his face as every part of him screamed to hunt the Worker down and eat, a low growl rumbled in his chest as he twitched his talons in a wave before he froze.

He recognized this Worker.

Uzi!

…Of course she couldn’t be a good Fortress Drone and stay safe, he huffed as he came up with a plan to hurt her a bit before letting her make a ‘miraculous’ escape, too scared to return.

He made sure his visor flashed with the standard “X” for Disassembly Drones, made sure she could see it, before he launched himself into the air and out of her view.

Chapter Text

“Did you just slap me with that arm?” The Murder Drone asked, somehow in an innocent tone.

Uzi stared in shock for a moment, her grip on the severed arm loosened, but still didn’t let it fall. If she did, she would be completely defenseless - for all the good it would do.

“Holy crap, it talks,” the words flew out of her mouth before she could really process them.

Then the realization of the talking Murder Drone - you know, just the embodiment of freakin’ death! - smashed into her.

Everyone knew they could laugh, or produce some demented sound that resembled some twisted version of amusement, and could make some really disturbing warbling sounds that no one could make sense of, let alone understand.

But talking? That was new.

And why did he sound so familiar, Uzi silently wondered.

It…he…rubbed the back of his newly regenerated head and gave a small chuckle, “Yeah...Sorry, it's just my, uh, head kind of hurts. Hey, are you new to our squad? You're a little, uhh...”

He squinted at her and she noticed a few things off about him. First, one of the yellow lights on his head was red, something could have gone wrong when he somehow regenerated his head.

Which, so unfair in her opinion.

“Short, for a Disassembly Drone,” he finished.

Second, and more importantly, he seemed really familiar. But that was impossible, the guy he was reminding her of was just a figment of her imagination.

“I'm Serial Designation N, nice to meet you,” he said with a smile.

Uzi felt like her CPU just fried itself.

This was impossible!

That line kept processing itself over and over until a warning flashed on her visor for her, warning her that her internal cooling system required additional oxygen to keep functioning properly.

“-I'm useless and terrible,” the Murder Drone, N, said as she was able to process things beyond her own thoughts again.

He looked panicked, “Wait, I'm not supposed to tell you that part!”

He waved his hands around quickly, as if trying to dispel what he just said before he sighed and let his head hang for a second, “Biscuits!”

He looked up again with an awkward smile. “Well, honesty is the best policy,” he chuckled just as awkwardly as he seemed to be at the moment. “I also can't seem to remember the past three hours of my life, but I'm sure that'll sort itself out.”

Uzi was still staring at him in shock, but she forced herself to respond, “Uh huh...I…uh…have to…go.”

The small Worker Drone turned around and quickly started walking away before she dropped her improvised weapon and pulled her hand in to cradle it to her chest before stopping barely an inch from it touching her chest in case the nanites spread from her hand to her chest somehow. She watched with hollow eyes as the hole rapidly grew, dripping nanite acid and molten metal - pieces of her - into the snow.

She kept staring and was about to start hyperventilating when she felt a hand tap her shoulder.

“Oh, ouch, stuck yourself?” he asked with more sympathy in his voice than what should be a personification of death - specifically a brutal death - to her should have.

“Y’know you can just pop it in your mouth, right? Cuz our saliva neutralizes the nanites? Otherwise I’d constantly be disassembling myself…”

His tail, which she noticed was moving around quickly, whipped towards his head and he caught it with a light clinking noise as his eyes hollowed for a second.

“Whoops…heh,” he chuckled nervously as Uzi blinked again, taking in how different he was than she expected.

She spoke slowly, “Annnnd by our saliva you mean…”

“Disassembly Drone?” both of them finished at the same time.

“Right…” Uzi sighed.

She looked away for a second before taking a vent, “Hey, uh, let’s go in that landing pod over there.” Uzi nodded towards the structure and N turned to face it, shrugging before he looked back at her with a smile.

“Sure, I love doing anything.”

N was in a good mood, it seemed like he just made a new friend - and he didn’t even need to hide that he was a Disassembly Drone and meet them in their dreams!

“Ouch, so that sounds like a rough defect,” he tried to say as nicely as he could in response to what he just learned. His vision was still glitchy, but it seemed like the short drone bristled.

“Bite me,” she said looking away. “And let’s just get this over with.”

He opened his mouth to apologize, but she shoved her hand in it before her could speak.

So his newest squad mate was a little…brusque. But that’s okay! Gross, but okay!

Besides, she hadn’t called him useless or said anything that hurt him yet and was actually pretty nice to him.

At least for now.

With his luck, she’d probably end up hating him like his other squad mates do, a treacherous part of his CPU whispered to him.

But at least he had right now to enjoy.

Sans the hand in his mouth. That was just gross.

The thought of eating another Disassembly Drone, especially a squad mate, was not a pleasant thought for a number of reasons for even the most sadistic and hungry Disassembly Drone, let alone N.

Besides, she may not even bully him - she might be bullied with him due to having defective saliva that couldn’t heal her.

She’d be forced to rely on others for basic healing without that, and he hoped that her more advanced healing systems worked just fine. That could be a problem if they didn’t. But since she was already relying on him for basic healing, and might be bullied herself, which gave him a good chance that he could make a friend here.

He mentally kicked himself for the tingle of happiness that thought brought him.

For now, he just decided to keep an eye on her in case she stuck herself with her tail again.

He frowned, not being able to render her tail.

‘Eh, having a bit of a glitch right now. It’s probably all fine. Probably.’

A few seconds later, she pulled her repaired hand out of his mouth.

“Sweet,” he smiled awkwardly. “Uh, I'm open to new things…I guess.”

“We are never talking about this again,” she hissed, shaking her hand before wiping it off on what he thought was her jacket.

“Talking about what?” He asked, it would be rude to say what it was, plus he learned better from experience from his squad mates than bringing up things they didn’t want to talk about.

“Consider it repressed!” He crossed his arms downwards in what he thought was a cool motion.

She stared at him a little while longer before clearing her throat.

“Uh, so the Worker Drones,” she sounded nervous. “Can you…tell me about any of them? You…uh…you talk to any of them…or something?”

Oh! She wants to do more than just kill Worker Drones? That’s unusual, but something else they can bond over and become good friends.

“Well, yes and no,” he said with a ‘so-so’ motion with his hand. “I don’t really talk to them when I’m awake, but the Elm program really helps in talking to them without them knowing I’d devour their warm, sweet oil if I could.”

“The Elm program?” She asked. “What’s that?”

He smiled, “Oh, you didn’t review all the programs installed into you yet? Well, the Elm program lets us hack into sleeping workers, take over their dreams.” He paused. “Doesn’t really do much to help us hunt, but if you want to get to know someone, then it’s the best.”

He smiled contently as he propped up his arm on the table and rested his chin on his palm, “I actually made a friend with a worker.”

His eyes hollowed as he stood up straight, looking scared as he stared at his new squad mate, “Please don’t tell the others about that!”

“Uh, sure, but…can you go on? Tell me about your…friend? The…worker?”

Oh! She wanted tips on how to make friends with workers! Behind him, his tail wagged a little bit, they were definitely going to be friends at this rate!

“Of course!” He chirped. “Her name’s Uzi,” she seemed to jump for some reason, hard to tell for sure due to his glitchy vision. Still, he continued, “She’s really cool and nice and fun - and…” He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. “She’s a good friend.”

“Uh…cool?”

She sounded really confused. Even if she wanted to make friends with workers, it still must be a strange thought.

“Ah, don’t worry about it. Hey, do you want to meet her? We can hop into her dream together and - wait! She should be asleep right now! You want to-?”

“NO!” She yelled, slamming her hands on the table to emphasize the point before she sat back down, “Uh, I mean…maybe another time. How about…”

She fell silent long enough for N to be ready to a squad mate’s wrath and ask if she was all right.

“Uh…” She said right before he opened his mouth. “Your…our squad mates. Can you tell me about them? They…uh, they coming back soon?”

N smiled, “Oh! Yeah, of course! First, there’s V.”

He blushed, yellow lines appearing on his visor, “She’s really pretty. You know about this world’s planet-wide constant toxic, death storm?” He chuckled awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head. “Well, I asked her to watch it with me, but she never really talks to me. So, I had to ask her while she was ripping a family of workers apart. But,” he looked sad before perking back up. “She has this hilarious running gag where she forgets my name!”

N laughed awkwardly.

His new squad mate was silent.

“So obviously, a lot of mutual respect there,” He smiled. “But secretly, I actually kind of have a crush on her.” His eye lights widened as he realized what he just said. “You can't tell her, okay?”

It looked like she made a zipping her lips gesture, but it was hard to tell.

Hopefully his systems would finish repairing themselves soon enough.

“Then there's J, our leader,” he continued. “She’s really strict and wants me to be the best I can be. So…she can be a bit…harsh to me. And she may be a bit socially challenged in expressing how she cares for others, but I know she does. Besides, she’s super organized, a great hunter, pushes the whole squad to do better. J’s awesome.”

He heard some noise outside, he perked in that direction, “Oh! Our squad mates are back!” He looked back at where she was sitting, “You want to…”

He trailed off with a frown, seeing that she was gone.

“IDIOT!” J yelled. “Get out here!”

N heard V giggle from high above as he ran out to meet J.

“Hi J!” He called out cheerfully before she slapped him, temporarily knocking his sensors offline.

–Slap Recognized–

REPAIRS IN PROGRESS

Parsing Data: SYS:// “_/Optic_Sensory_Data”;

REPAIR PERCENTAGE: 98%;

ABSOLUTE_SOLVER Blocked by Administrator “Cyn”;

“Yo, we got a worker out there I kind of want to practice balloon animal shapes with.”

He heard V drop down to the ground.

“What happened here?”

“Synergistic Liability here must have tripped and knocked himself offline,” J scoffed before slapping N again.

“Moron bot, hello?”

REPAIR PERCENTAGE: 100%;

N’s optics widened as both the last few hours hit him all at once and his more recent memories were cleared of their static and rendering issues.

‘Bite me.’

He replayed his recent memories and say someone familiar holding a gun he’d only seen in dreams before now, and never working.

Uh oh…

A flash of green.

His conversation with his newest squad mate replayed for him next. The distortion cleared up, showing a very familiar face.

Uzi.

Oh no…

Uzi was here.

This is bad…Oh no…

Uzi was here!

She knows what he is and has a weapon that can actually hurt Disassembly Drones!

“Ohhhh...” he said slowly before he scanned for her footprints. “Ooh!”

He smiled at their disapproving visages, “You know, I-I left an-an extremely dangerous weap-excuse outside!”

His wings extended to their full length and he pushed himself to fly, but not too fast that his squad mates would be suspicious.

If he had looked back, he would have seen identical deadpan expressions and V holding up an arm, the hand retracting and a flag with the words “Literally So Insanely Suspicious” on it.

The second Uzi left the Corpse Spire, she was already running as fast as she could with her railgun strapped to her back.

It needed too much time to recharge against a single enemy, let alone three - each of which capable of rending her to pieces and recovering from injuries that nothing should be able to survive.

Then there was what she learned about this Elm program…

As she sprinted towards the bunker's doors, Uzi tried to push away these overwhelming thoughts.

Thoughts like how a Murder Drone was invading her dreams!

As she reached the doors, she slammed her hand on the card reader and swiped her stolen access card, venting heavily.

The door couldn’t open up quickly enough for her and she was already running in before they finished. She was greeted by the WDF members who were playing cards grumbling and shouting their annoyances at her for opening the door and letting the cold wind in, messing up their card game.

“Bite me!” She said as she ran to the card reader, making the doors start to close.

This was almost over, she reassured herself.

CLANG

Then the sound of metal clashing on metal pierced her microphones.

She turned her head, horror displayed plainly on her visor as she saw the claws peeking through the barely open door.

And slowly, the door began to open up more, the protesting screech of metal having gone ignored by all in the face of the glowing, yellow X that was looking at them from the darkness.

Almost as one, the WDF members and Uzi shivered in fear, the cold forgotten in the presence of the embodiment of death and destruction before them, wondering just how strong the Murder Drone was to be able to hold this much weight pressing down on him.

Then, the yellow X flickered out of existence, replaced by normal eye lights, “Hey, fellas.”

The eye lights flickered down at the table for a quick second before they curved upwards in happiness, “Oh, deal me in, I love rummy.” The eye lights returned to ovals and looked off to the side, “Wait, no, I'm going to murder everyone...Rain check!”

His tail snaked through the air towards Uzi before it leapt forward, piercing the card reader.

As the doors began to open, Uzi remembered what her dad had taught her - they used electromagnetic doors to keep the Murder Drones out. Utilizing powerful magnets to force the doors to stay closed and generating a level of pressure that no drone should be able to withstand, let alone force open.

Well, at least one of those things seemed to be true…

‘But the big problem with them,’ she remembered as she felt her oil pump work overtime to keep her body temperature cool. ‘Is that once the power if cut, the magnetic field is gone and the doors just open up.’

And as the doors did just that, Uzi took half a step back, wanting to run, but too scared to turn her back on him.

The WDF members just stared in horror.

N walked in with a smile and waved, seeming to be the embodiment of friendliness.

And then, he moved.

Gone was the friendly smile, now a mouth full of sharp fangs, capable of easily tearing through reinforced steel, his hands now claws, and before anyone could process what the change, he had already leapt at someone.

“Todd!”

With a sickening crunch, N's teeth tore through Todd's head in one swift bite. The sound of metal snapping and plastic being ripped apart filled the air as Todd's body fell limp, oil splattering onto his own hands.

N dropped the lifeless corpse without a second thought, tilting his head in a mocking display of confusion as he observed the other workers who had yet to flee.

A guttural, warbling, horrible laugh escaped from N's twisted mouth, oil dripping down his chin like some grotesque drool.

At last, Braxton let out a blood-curdling scream and turned to run for his life. This seemed to finally trigger the rest of the workers, who scrambled deeper into the bunker in a desperate attempt to escape.

But N only laughed harder, transforming his hand into a gun and shooting down a few of the fleeing workers before leaping towards them with his wings extended, using them to slice another unfortunate person in half.

Through it all, N's manic laughter echoed throughout the hall, sending chills down Uzi's back as she ran.

She didn't look back at the gruesome slaughter behind her, she didn’t have to, N targeted and shot a few of the people ahead of her as if to reinforce to her that people were being murdered.

Uzi didn’t look back to see the slaughter, she didn’t have to, N targeted and shot a few of the people ahead of her.

She vented in panic before checking the timer on her railgun.

30 seconds left.

She kept running.

“Hey Uzi,” she glanced over at Braxton as he continued. “Just in case everyone here dies, but you live, I just wanted to say-”

A laser sliced through Braxton, cutting him in two. Uzi watched in horror as the two pieces of him fell to the ground and finally looked back to see N biting into a dead worker’s neck, living up to the stereotype of a vampire if not for the laser gun that was aimed in her direction.

She gulped as she realized that N took that shot without even looking in this direction. She kept running away from him.

Then he looked at her, warbled something, and dropped the body and just looked at her, the X on his visor flickered.

At that second, she saw that her railgun was ready to go again. She raised the weapon but he jumped into the vents before she could aim.

She took a few calming vents as she felt her oil pump still working fast.

“Where are you?” She whispered to herself, taking a few steps back towards the door leading deeper into the bunker.

Then N dropped out of the vent right in front of her, his wing sliced forward, but Uzi managed to step back just fast enough.

Uzi glared at him and N stared back, saliva and oil dripping from his mouth before his tongue captured all the oil around his mouth.

She shuddered at the sight, but it helped erase the earlier image of him when he thought she was a new teammate and cement it as a monster.

Focused on N, she said, “I won’t miss this time.”

N’s visor flickered, one of his eyes was an oval again, the other was an X, his shoulders sagged, “I'm sorry. I really am. I really enjoyed our time together,” he sounded despondent and curled in on himself a little. “I really like you, you’re my best friend, but I can't have you shooting V with that thing.”

“Bite me,” Uzi growled, creeped out at how attached he seemed to be to her by invading her dreams.

“Why couldn’t you be a good Fortress Drone and just stay inside?”

‘Fortress Drone?’ A piece of her CPU processed that in confusion.

“Why couldn’t you just…not do this? Then this,” N extended his arms and wings, gesturing around them, “wouldn’t have happened!”

Despite still being in danger, the lack of fighting or fleeing for her life gave her time to think about everything that just happened. She flinched as

‘My fault. This really is my fault…’

The door opened.

“Pretty nice hydraulics, huh?” Khan asked cheerfully before he took in the sight. “...What-what happened? What have you done?”

Uzi didn’t reply, not wanting to risk any distraction that would let N get the better of her.

N faced her father, stirring her into action, “Dad, get down!”

“Uzi, did you lead a Murder Drone here?” His eye lights hollowed in worry. “My beautiful doors!”

Uzi looked at him, “Now is so not the time! I messed up, in the same way I'm about to fix it! Move, dad!”

N saw she had a moment of weakness and wasted no time; one of his wings moved fast and pierced her shoulder. As her optical sensors went temporarily offline from the pain, N grabbed the gun from her hands and tossed it aside, landing at Khan’s feet.

Uzi managed to overcome her pain and looked at her father, “Dad...Point and shoot...Trust me...!”

Khan stared at the scene in front of him in horror, wishing this was all some bad dream.

Chapter Text

Khan stared at the nightmarish scene in front of him.

The drone was pinned to the wall, screaming as the Sky Demon’s tail had pierced her stomach.

The purple-haired drone screamed as the acid ate at her midsection and the Sky Demon laughed its horrible laugh.

“H-Hey,” she stuttered out, defiantly. “B-Bite m-m-me-e-e!”

The Sky Demon looked away from its incapacitated prey to stare directly at Khan.

Khan gasped in fear and horror.

Old memories he tried to bury were forcing their way back up, his CPU processing them at the same time as he took in the scene in front of him.

“K-Khan,” Nori said. “R-Run! D-Don’t let them inside!”

Purple eye-lights stared right at him, scared and questioning, “D-Dad?”

Khan looked away, in pain of this happening again or not he couldn’t say.

He had to keep them safe, he had to keep everyone safe - and while it was only one right now, more would be here soon, more always came and then- 

Images of what the Sky Demon would do to the others, his friends, his colleagues…Uzi…

If his body was capable of it, he would have vomited at the thought.

In one hand, her fingers sparked with a purple light, and with the other, she reached up and grabbed the end of its tail and started to pull it out of her, the monster looked back at her, its head snapping back to face her so quickly that Khan was almost surprised he didn’t hear something break.

“G-GET T-THOSE D-DAMN DOORS S-SHUT!”

Nori looked at him with pain clear on her face, desperation as she stared at him, desperately wanting him to do something.

So he did.

Khan shut the doors.

He watched in horror as it slid back down, past memories no longer interfering with the present.

Nori was dead. She has been dead for a long time now - ever since she fought off that Murder Drone and crawled back, only to be put out of her pain by him.

She died to give his team and him enough time to finish reinforcing the door and fall back - saving dozens of lives at the least. Including Uzi’s, who the parents brought with them everywhere at the time.

And he just closed the door again, but this time with a different purple-haired drone on the other side.

“Oh Robo-God,” he whispered as the weight of what he did came crashing down on him, he damned his daughter to death by Murder Drone.

“What have I done?” He shook his head. “No! NO!” He raised his arm, transmitter in hand, ready to open the doors back up, uncaring of what would happen to him, not even thinking about what would happen to the rest of the colony.

“Khan! Khan!” A green-eyed drone grabbed his arms and started pulling him back. It took Khan a moment to recognize him as a fellow WDF member named Tony.

“No!” Khan pulled away from his friend, “My daughter’s on the other side of this door!”

“Then she’s dead!” Tony snapped, making Khan’s oil chill. “If she’s on that side, she’s already dead - getting the rest of us killed won’t bring her back - it won’t make her death matter!”

Tony’s eye-lights softened, “I’m sorry, but do you want her to remembered like her mother, someone who fought those monsters, or not remembered at all and just another corpse like the rest of us?”

“I...” Khan choked back a sob. “I could have done something…tried something! Anything!”

Tony slapped him, “Like dying? You think Uzi would want you to die with her? Damn it, Khan! You don’t have the luxury of mourning right now! We need a leader - someone who can get us through this! Now, c’mon!”

Tony started dragging the despondent Khan before Khan took one last mournful look at the closed door and shook his head, “Yeah, you’re right.”

The two drones ran deeper into the colony to meet up with everyone else in this sector to plan an evacuation into a safer area.

As he ran, only one thought was truly processing in Khan’s CPU, something he hoped that saving the colony would help quiet.

That he failed Uzi and failed Nori again.

Uzi's eye-lights widened in disbelief as she stared at the closed door. Her breath caught in her throat, and her heart pounded in her chest. She never thought her father would abandon her like this.

"Dad?" Her whisper was barely audible, a desperate, pointless, and almost unheard plea for him to come back and save her.

The searing pain of the metal wing that had impaled her shoulder paled in comparison to the emotional turmoil she felt in that moment. 

How could he leave her to die? That thought kept processing over and over in her CPU. The betrayal was almost too much for her to bear. Tears welled up in her eyes as she struggled to comprehend what was happening.

She didn’t notice that N’s eye-lights returned to ovals. He looked at her sadly, mouth open as if he wanted to say something, but he had no words of comfort for this.

‘What should I say? Her dad just left her to be killed by me…no wonder he’s so bad in her dreams,’ N thought sadly.

The alarms were still going off, bathing them in red light for a moment before fading away only to repeat itself in the silent room.

N couldn’t tear his sympathy filled gaze away from Uzi and she couldn’t tear hear gaze away from the now closed door.

N has torn drones to pieces before, it was nothing to feel guilty over. The men, the women, the children, none of it mattered - he got the coolant to stave off being burned up from the inside and the workers still had the memories of being with the dead drones so they could dream about them and all was fine.

But…Uzi was different!

He remembered all their shared moments, all the good times, all the sweet dreams they’ve had together, cementing their friendship, all the bad ones to keep her safe, you completely failed at that, all the ones where she poured out her thoughts and emotions to him…

He knew her better than anyone else. He knew her hopes, aspirations, fears, insecurities, and he’s made each one of them real for her - she’s done and lived so much with him…

And if she died… 

No one dreamed about her the right way. They didn’t get her love for anime, they didn’t get the way she liked sweet things, even if she denied it, they didn’t get her laugh right, her aspirations, her insecurities, or anything really!

Most people when they dreamed of her just made some violent, anti-social deranged girl with no real personality. It didn’t make sense to him, she was so much fun! 

“Whoa, N! Am I dreaming, or did you do something not useless for once?” J’s voice sliced through the silence. N looked over to see her and V crawling along the ceiling before they dropped down, looking unexpectedly pleased at him.

His wing suddenly felt heavy at the thought of what they would do to Uzi, - no more sweet dreams - so he flipped the wing that impaled her shoulder, the small drone letting out a vent of surprise, tossing her to the ground behind some crates as he stared at them, shocked that J would say anything nice to him, and praying that Uzi wouldn’t say or do anything.

V grinned at him, “I've been trying to get past those doors for months. Nice work, N.”

N’s eye-lights widened in shock and a yellow blush appeared on his visor as he intelligently said, “...You...Me...Name...Remember...?”

The shock of V actually remembering his name made him feel so much lighter now, as if he was gliding along a relatively peaceful gust of wind the planet had to offer. 

V went back to ignoring him as she looked around the hall, “These ventilation shafts can easily get us around this last door.” She let out a psychotic giggle that normally N would have found cute, but was too shocked that she remembered his name to find it cute this time.

Looking back at her squad mates, she continued with a wide grin, “Lowest body count eats a missile!”

With a laugh, V leapt up and tore through the ventilation grille and started crawling through the vents deeper into the colony.

J remained where she was, looking self-satisfied as she looked at N, “Way to go, stud. The company's gonna love this.” She took a few steps closer to N. “With this colony wiped, we'll make top team this quarter, for sure.”

She let out a bloodthirsty giggle at the thought of the slaughter to come. “I knew you had some potential, you just needed someone to pull it out of you.” She smugly chuckled, “There were times I wondered, but you did it, thanks to me.” She gestured to herself, “Upper management will be thrilled when I report how you’ve become such a valuable asset to our squad and with all the hard work I put into you, our entire squad will be rewarded.”

She smiled at him, “You know what that means...branded pens!” She took out a shiny pen and twirled it around in her fingers.

N tracked the shiny pen sparkling in the red light, his mouth automatically curling into a grin, “Ooh!”

Then he remembered.

Uzi.

If they wiped out this colony, then she would be die.

From his squad mates, either now or later, the weather wearing her down as she’s forced to either wander outside or remain and be unable to repair the bunker, or from…killing herself.

No, no, no…

Uzi may be mad at him now, but he knew her better than anyone else in her life! They were best friends…and…and if she survived this, he could give her the best dreams forever to make up for this!

But he had to make sure she survived first…

“Uh…you know, not that I can’t wait to get back to murdering all these…kind of nice worker drones, but do we need to kill all of them?”

“Excuse me?” J’s voice turned cold.

‘Ok, she’s listening. So far, so good.’ His sensors noticed a flash of purple from where he threw Uzi. ‘Just stay quiet, please.’

“Ok, so I may have used the Elm program,” he saw a look of disgust on J’s face at the mention of the program. “to…well, talk to some of the workers here…and some of them…well, they aren’t that bad. We, well, I think we can make some use of them. Remember when we couldn’t find any for a few months and we almost died? Well, the workers can be like our pets! Pets that we eat if we can't find any food, and we can give them boxes to live in! Worker drones like boxes, right?"

N's tail flicked back and forth, a nervous habit that further revealed his anxiety as J watched him with intense scrutiny.

“So, you want to break company regulations?” she asked, her tone stern and unyielding.

“No, no! I-I just want to change them a bit so…you know, less of a chance of us dying?” N was grasping at straws now, he knew there was little chance in convincing J, but he had to try. Still, J’s awesome - she’ll be able to tear any argument he puts up apart unless he makes the perfect one. And he has to - otherwise, he’d lose all the friends he made here, including Uzi.

He stopped as he noticed her tail.

It was a slight thing, it was only a little bit, but the tip was wagging.

N’s shoulders slumped as he realized she already made up her mind and he was going to get hurt now.

“Heh, I've made a terrible mistake. It's cool how immediately I could tell,” he spoke in an upbeat, yet sardonic, manner.

“Hmm...” She purred with a smile that was a little too wide for him to relax. “No way, buddy.” She took a step towards him, he flinched at the sound of her voice. He was definitely going to get beaten for this now…

“Questioning the company? You just finally gave me the excuse I needed.”

N gasped. A searing pain was coursing through him, his limbs contracted as he felt his control over them fail. He fell to his knees and looked up at J, who despite his glitching sensors, he could tell she was looking down at him.

WARNING! VIRUS DETECTED!

SYSTEM DEATH IMMINENT!

CORRUPTION PROGRESS 2%

‘Oh biscuits…’

“Worker drones are corrupted, N. That's why the company sent us. I hate to see you corrupted as well,” J said nonchalantly as she walked over to where V was standing a minute ago, beneath the broken vent.

‘Even now, she’s looking out for me,’ N thought to himself, even as the pain, both emotional and from the virus, ate away at him.

“Th-tHaNkS…j-J-J…” N’s voice glitched out as he crumpled onto the floor, “A-Al-Always...l-look-k-king-g O-out for m-me-e...y-yoU’rE a-Awesssso-Ome…”

J chuckled in amusement before she leapt up into the vent system, leaving her fallen squad mate to die.

Uzi waited a few seconds to make sure that other Murder Drone wasn’t about to come right back before she stood up, picked up her railgun, and scowled.

Her dad left her to die.

He left her to die!

Sure, they didn’t have the best relationship, but she never thought…

She pushed down the pain she was feeling, she could deal with it later.

‘Besides,’ she thought sourly. ‘I don’t really have a lot of options here, I can either wait for them to leave, lock the place up and stay here forever or make some grand final heroic move like in some anime…and probably die trying.’

“S-SorRY-y.”

Uzi jumped and spun around, eye-lights hollow in surprise that N was still talking.

“I g-gave yoo-ou-u nIghtt-tmaRresss a-and maDe thiNGs aw-awkw-warD with y-OUr d-d-dad.”

“Yeah, well you tried to rebel like an angsty teen, which you probably picked up from me after the whole invading my dreams thing, so think I still have a bit of a moral high ground here.”

She picked up her railgun - probably the only thing she could actually trust - walked towards N with narrowed optics, stopping a few feet away from him, just in case he had anymore surprises.

“And ugh...For the record, that was somehow lamer than the lamest heel-face turn in history. Was that supposed to be you switching sides?”

“Be-Being r-reBelLious…i-Is ha-harRrrrder th-then it l-Loo-oook-k-ksss,” he admitted, “Th-tHankssss for Sh-sh-shOWinng me the r-R-ropes,” he grinned at her, or tried to, his face glitched when he tried, making a rather awkward expression instead.

She shook her head, fists clenching.

“Oh don’t you dare do that to me,” she hissed, “No bonding thing! You literally just killed and ate a bunch of people! After invading my dreams! And don’t say you learned stuff from me by doing that! It’s weird!”

He gave a near crazed out and glitchy laugh.

“That’s…s-sssuu-Uuper fair,” he glitched out before another whine left him, “...I-I screw-ewed uP…”

Uzi threw her head back with a groan, ‘Am I really about to risk my life for these jerks? My dad clearly didn’t care about saving me!’ 

The angsty teen felt a tang of guilt, just because Khan left her to die didn’t mean she wanted him to die. Besides, her mom definitely would have done everything to save them both is she was still alive. And even ignoring that, seeing N splayed out before her, writhing as a virus ate away at him…it reminded her of a few of the nightmares N gave her. Some of which showed a Murder Drone infecting him with some virus, leaving her alone with him to watch him die…

As much as she wanted to deny it, seeing it in real life, knowing that he gave her those dreams to keep her inside and afraid, it was painful for her to see. Despite everything, she still cared about him somehow.

She pulled her new wrench, given to her by her father just before this whole mess started, out of her pocket and muttered, “In the same way you’re gonna fix it…”

“I’ll help you,” she said slowly, convincing herself as much as telling him. “But you’re gonna have to promise me you won’t kill me or anyone in this bunker. And then we’re going to go chase down those two.”

He flashed her a fang-filled grin, one void of any malice.

A smile that looked a lot like the ones from her dreams when he was really happy about something.

“H-Heh, I-i-I tooooold y-you,” he chuckled, “I-I love d-Doing an-Anything…” He gave her a thumbs up, before his hand slammed into the ground twice.

Uzi watched that happen in resigned exasperation, “Okay…really need to get that virus out of you now.”

She bent down next to him, connecting the wrench to the device, “All right…here we go. In three…two…one…”

She used the wrench to pull the device out of N.

He screeched, limbs flailing, including his tail, which nearly struck Uzi. Luckily for her, she was able to move far enough away in time.

“Hey! Watch it!” She scowled at him, but it died down when she noticed he wasn’t getting up and didn’t seem any better, “Wait, why…Damn it! The virus is already in you! Going to need to manually access you.” She sighed, “Really hope your access port is in the same spot as ours. And I should probably give you my IP address so-”

“N-Nno neee-eed. G-gave it t-To m-me in a drEam.”

She glared, “Yeah, of freakin’ course.” She sighed even as she took out some cables, and with speed born of experience, opened up her own access port before opening up N’s, “Let’s just save you before I change my mind.”

Connect to N-0X0010010? Popped up on her visor after the connection was made, steeling herself, she accepted the request.

She blinked.

This was…different.

She’s hacked a few of her classmates before, once even in class, her teacher didn’t seem to even care until she was done, but nothing she had done before prepared her for this.

Typically, sensor readings were seen as low level security since if you were close enough to hack someone like this, you probably were already aware of everything in the immediate area.

It was a strange sensation, seeing through multiple bodies, so she usually put her own in low power mode, shutting down non-essentials that could overwhelm her.

But this time…she could still feel the connection to her body, so she wasn’t in any trouble there, but she couldn’t see anything at all. It was a complete void.

‘Looks like Murder Drones have better security programs than we do,’ she thought.

N’s presence seemed to answer from all around her, “Heh, yeah, we’re made to be a lot more resistant so-”

‘Huh? N? How the hell are you talking to me?’ Uzi wanted to scream, but without a mouth or access to a voice box of any kind, it was impossible to communicate it.

Or it should have been at least.

“Well, things are different for Disassembly Drones than Worker Drones, I guess.”

‘Clearly.’

“Here, let me help you work.”

Everything suddenly changed, before her…existence (being?), folders and files appeared before her, millions of gigabytes of information, nearly overwhelming her and impossible to process it all at once. 

‘Stop! STOP!’

It stopped.

“Sorry about that, didn’t mean to overwhelm you like that. Here, this should make it easier for you.”

Everything changed again.

This time, she was seeing the world through N’s sensors and wow. Disassembly Drones had badass sensors, she had to admit. Even with all the glitching, she could see so much - it was actually kind of scary how much she noticed through his sensors.

Every shadow, the sound of the klaxon the split second before it reached it’s climax, it seemed like the virus was waiting to damage these systems last, as if to make it as agonizing as possible.

It really was a miracle his squad mates didn’t notice she was alive, she thought morosely.

As if triggered by thinking of herself, a file opened up on her.

‘Prey’

‘Friend’

‘Food’

‘Ally’

Well, she wasn’t going to think about that right now.

‘Repair,’ she thought, watching as repair programs and files appeared to her.

Virus Corruption: 32%

Time for complete system shut down: 5 minutes

Uzi started to run the antivirus software - the virus prevented it from activating automatically, and N was in too much pain to focus on that, but now that she activated it manually, she could already see the repair programs fixing the damaged code.

She waited a few seconds more to make sure that everything was running smoothly and after that, she disconnected, already disconcerted from the lack of any bodily sensations.

A sense of desperation hung heavy in the air as nearly two dozen Worker Drones had made it to the rendezvous point. The rest had either been killed off, had seen that the Disassembly Drones were heading and hid elsewhere, or had already escaped deeper into the bunker and activated more defenses, more doors, to shield them from the apex predators that came to hunt them.

Thad gulped, his oil pump working overtime, this wasn’t looking good. Maybe if Uzi was here, her railgun might do some damage to them, but she wasn’t.

And unless someone did something, it was likely they all would die here, so it didn’t matter who it was, right?

Thad took a deep vent, picked up some wrench that was lying around, and charged at the Murder Drones.

“Yaaah!” He screamed.

One of them chuckled and in an almost casual manner sliced up with her claws, slicing through the pipe and part of his upper torso before grabbing him and pulling him close.

“Aww, so brave,” she purred in amusement, her voice dripping with sadistic pleasure.

“It’d almost be cute if it wasn’t so stupid.”

With a cold, psychotic laugh, she threw Thad back towards his fellow workers who stood frozen in terror and could only watch with hollowed eyes. As he struggled to stand up, his hand pressed against his chest where his oil stained his torn shirt and hand; the sight of which caused him to hyperventilate

Khan eye-lights darted anxiously around them, panic evident in his voice even as he tried to sound calm, “So…they found our evacuation spot.” The two Disassembly Drones grinned menacingly in his direction with their fangs and golden crosses on their visors on full display. Khan swallowed hard, considering their options. “But…if we build a quick enough door…”

He looked back, pain and betrayal clear on his face, “Are you kidding me?! You're the WDF, right?” After a moment where none of the WDF members stepped forward or looked directly at him, he yelled, “Defend!” 

Thad watched in dismay as the WDF members either backed away from the Disassembly Drones or looked away, “For real?”

V dashed up to him, “Aw, so sad~”

Thad gasped as she pierced his stomach and laughed as she picked him up with one hand, her other hand swapped out for a sword.

He turned off his optics, not wanting to see his own death.

“Hey!”

Thad turned his optics back on, eye-lights wide in shock and wonder as he saw Uzi standing at the other side of the room, railgun in hand, and next to another Murder Drone.

N smiled awkwardly and waved at his squad mates.

“Put that conventionally attractive male down!”

N kept waving until Uzi nudged his side, “Oh.” He took a vent in, “J, you’re sometimes kind of mean to me and I wish you weren’t. Just some constructive criticism.”

“Nice one,” Uzi said, N held out a fist for a fist bump, but she slapped it away.

J snarled, making noises that made everyone shudder, even V shuddered at it, before she started using words again, “You traitor, I will personally make sure every scrap of you is ripped apart and the only remembrance of you will be in my report to corporate!”

N took a step back, shaking, Uzi grabbed his coat and yanked him down to her height, “Which one do you want? J or V?”
“Uhh…” N’s eye-lights darted back and forth. He didn’t want to fight V at all, but J was really scary right now!

“Too slow,” Uzi smirked as she let go of him. Uzi's CPU raced as she faced the two other Disassembly Drones, her fingers gripped the small pen J had given N. With a swift motion, she threw it at J, intending for it to be a mere distraction. But fate had other plans as the pen landed squarely on one of the bulbs on J's headband, causing her to scream out in agony. Uzi took advantage of the chaos and closed in on J, determined to finish her off with a well-placed shot from her railgun.

But before she could make contact, J fought back with surprising strength and sent Uzi flying with a powerful kick. As she lay on the ground, Uzi caught sight of N and V locked in a fierce battle above them.

J tore the pen out of her flesh with a savage snarl, but instead of crumbling it into pieces, she said, “Damn the well-made quality assured durability of JCJensen's products!” Uzi quietly scoffed and quickly got back up and charged at J again.

“Huh?” The pigtailed Disassembly Drone exclaimed in confusion before Uzi's foot connected with her face in a brutal kick that left her dazed.

Uzi's fingers clenched around her gun, the metal digging into her metal and plastic palms as she swung it with all her might at J's visor. The impact echoed through the room, quickly followed by a guttural cry of pain from J.

"You damn toaster," J spat out through gritted teeth, baring her fangs in a sadistic grin, chuckling, as she raised her hand which was now an EMP device. Uzi’s eye-lights widened before it went off, striking Uzi and sending waves of excruciating pain surging through her body. She could feel her eye-lights glitching before darkness consumed her consciousness

“Uzi!” N’s voice calling out her name was the last thing she heard before she started to reboot.

Luckily, while vulnerable to EMPs, Worker Drones were built with safeguards that helped them recover very quickly from them.

Unfortunately for her, the first thing she noticed was a Disassembly Drone’s legs and tail dancing around her vision.

“You've got a lot of cuts for a barely sentient toaster,” J said smugly. A scowl appeared on Uzi’s visor. “I've had prey fight fact before,” her tail danced right in front of Uzi’s visor, giving the goth girl an idea, a horribly stupid idea. “But your edgy spirit is just... so... painful...?!” J looked down to see that Uzi grabbed her tail and jammed it into her foot.

“GAH! FOURTH! QUARTER! PROFITS! MOTHER OF COMPANY LEADERSHIP RETREATS!” J screamed as she hopped back on one leg, the other healing after J tore her tail out of it. The squad leader lost her balance from hopping around backwards on one foot.

Her eye-lights were hollow as she looked up to see Uzi standing above her, aiming her railgun right at J’s face.

“One more buzzword and I'll do it!” Uzi smirked.

“…Equity partnership?” J smiled weakly.

Uzi pulled the trigger.

In a burst of green light, most of J’s body was obliterated. N, the Worker Drones, and even the tied up V stared in shock.

Thad was the first to walk up as Uzi fell over, exhausted, “Holy hell, Uzi, that was insane!” Thad was grinning before he turned to N, “And you too, uh...”

“Huh?” N blinked in surprise. “Oh! I’m N!” He made golden sunglasses appear on his visor, covering his eye-lights, “I'm an angsty rebellious disassembly drone now. And Uzi’s best friend!” The last part was said smugly, as if he achieved some grand accomplishment worthy of bragging with it.

“Bite me!”

N gaped at her, “Huh? What’s wrong, ‘Zi?”
“No, don’t call me that!” Uzi snapped at him, glaring at the taller drone as she stomped up to him. “You invaded my dreams! You gave me nightmares to control me! You treated me like a damn toy!” There were tears and stress lines on her visor.

“I-I-” N stuttered.

“And you!” She turned to look at Khan, who had taken quite a few steps closer to her, looking the embodiment of misery. “I brought the Murder Drones here accidentally. You chose to leave me for dead instead of just freaking believing in me! That's not even an edgy teen hyperbole like when I said it last week!” 

Sadness.exe loading appeared on her visor before she slapped herself and it was replaced by edginess.exe restored.

“I’m done. I’m just done,” she hissed at Khan, who somehow looked more despondent than he did a few moments ago, a hand reaching out to her, his mouth open as if to say something, but no words were coming to him.

“Don’t follow me,” she hissed at both of them before marching off deeper into the bunker, ignoring everyone gaping at her.

Chapter Text

Uzi's small feet pattered against the floor as she ran up to her father, a glimmer of excitement in her bright violet eyes. She held up a piece of paper, filled with a colorful and intricate design.

"Dad! Dad! Look at the design I just made!" she exclaimed, practically jumping up and down with enthusiasm.

Khan smiled down at his daughter, his heart swelling with pride and love for the talented girl before him. He reached out and ruffled her hair, causing her to let out a delighted giggle.

"Well, let's have a look shall we?" he said, taking the paper from her hands. As his eyes scanned the design, they widened in shock. "Uzi...this is incredible!" he exclaimed, slapping the paper with his other hand. "My Robo-God, this design is brilliant!"

He looked back at Uzi, his love for her shining through every word. His expression softened as he spoke again, "You're amazing. Truly amazing. I am so lucky to have such an incredible daughter."

With a wide grin on his face, he scooped up Uzi into his arms and spun her around, their laughter filling their home.

He heard the door slide open behind him. 

“You two having fun in here?” A familiar voice asked. A painfully familiar voice.
“Hey mom,” Uzi said, grinning over at-

Khan gasped, sitting up in his bed, his hands curled around his head.

He sat there in silence for a minute before he burst into sobs.

“Uzi…Nori…I…I’m so sorry…” He whispered to himself before he burst into greater sobs, digital tears running down his visor as he kept repeating ‘Uzi,’ ‘Nori,’ and ‘sorry’ over and over.

Thad sat on his bed, optics wide, hollow ovals focused on his…guests.

“Have fun with your new friends, Thad!”

The last words he heard from his mother before she followed his father out and the door slid shut, taking all their clothes and possessions with them, leaving him with the bunker’s newest residents.

"What's wrong?" One of them chuckled, her voice sending chills through Thad's circuits. "Scared?" She snickered, revealing a set of sharp, claw-like fingers that she brought to her mouth. "You should be, because once I get my hands on you..." she trailed off with a psychotic giggle.

Thad had no doubt if she wasn’t chained up to his wall, he’d already be a pile of scrap and oil stains.

“Ah, sorry V,” the other one, N, smiled apologetically, “I think Uzi would be a little upset if you killed this one, plus it would make it a lot harder for me.”

Thad moved his hollowed gaze to him, “H-Harder for you in what way?”

“Well,” N sat down, much too close for Thad’s comfort. “In getting Uzi to forgive me of course!”

“Huh?”

Thad blinked in confusion, and it seemed he wasn't the only one.

“What are you talking about, idiot?” V scowled at N.

N looked down, with both Murder Drone’s attentions off of him, he glanced at the door. It wasn’t too far away, and one of them was chained up, so if he was fast enough…

Thad took a deep vent, it was now or never.

“Uzi’s mad at me cause I didn’t tell her what I actually was, right?” N started, looking directly at the now frozen-stiff Thad, unknowingly killing the scared drone’s escape attempt before it even started. “Well, she dreams about you sometimes,” he looked right at Thad who blushed a little as he processed what N said. “So, you two are friends and you’ve known her longer than I have. And asking you in someone else’s dream would take too long, so what’cha got?”

Thad stared at what should be a cold, sadistic, killing machine incredulously and only one word came to his CPU.

“What?”

“Stupid dad…”

BANG

“Stupid N…”

BANG

“Stupid school!”

BANG

Uzi punched the locker with more force than the last two, leaving a dent in it.

“Urg!” She growled out as she tossed some more batteries into her locker.

If she was going to stay here, and it wasn’t like she had a lot of options to choose from, at least she could have some snacks ready for her, maybe lock up the school so no one could bother her.

This part of the bunker was in bad shape compared to the rest of the complex, but it was also the best place she could hide.

When the bunker was still being set up for long-term habitation by Worker Drones, the WDF outfitted a few areas that took up a lot of space, but provided little use to the drones, with reinforced doors to serve as schools. Most of them also had a closed ventilation limited to a smaller area, and luckily for Uzi, her school fell into this category, so no intrusive Disassembly Drones could get in through them.

With a few modifications, she could turn this place into a fortress.

She chuckled at the thought of her idiot classmates trying to get inside, only to find a locked door, hear her voice telling them to leave, and see a bunch of little robots she would have to make acting as her personal defense army!

Yeah, that would show them – especially N and her dad!

‘I’ll never be helpless again!’ She thought furiously as the memory of her being pinned to the wall by her dream stalker.

‘I won’t!’ She grinned maniacally and let out a few deranged chuckles that within seconds evolved into a psychotic laugh, a laugh that would send chills down the backs of most people, a laugh that conveyed the cruel joke that she had uncovered about her life and a desperation to wipe away all remnants of it – to prove she didn’t need love, to prove she was nobody’s toy!

“Ms. Doorman, would you mind not laughing like a maniac in school?” An apathetic voice asked her. “I’d rather my bosses not telling me to handle it.”

Uzi froze, her eye-lights slowly moved to the side, optics barely picking up at her peripheral vision another drone.

“Grr…GAH! What the hell are you doing here, Vickers?” Uzi spun to face her eternally bored teacher and yelled at him.

He failed to show any sign of intimidation, his expression as apathetic as ever, “I worried that you would run here after…everything.”

The slightest hesitation at the end of his sentence was ignored by Uzi in favor of her ever growing rage, “You expect me to believe that you care about me?”

She took a vent, readying herself to scream herself hoarse calling out any lie he may try to offer.

“Of course not,” he answered.

“Huh?” Uzi blinked, nonplussed at his response, so much so that her anger fell apart.

“But if you were to oh, I don’t know, lock up the school,” he gave her a pointed look. “Then I wouldn’t be able to teach, and if I can’t teach, then I wouldn’t get paid.” He took a sip of his drink. “And can’t have that. Figured if you came here, you wouldn’t do such a thing with me still inside.”

“You think you know me?” Uzi glared at him, not wanting to tell him he was right – being locked up with only her teacher for company was worse than being completely alone.

Especially when she wanted to be completely and utterly alone.

“Since I see you practically every day? Unfortunately.”

He started to walk away, clearly done with the conversation.

“Wha? HEY! Get back here!” She stomped off after him.

“If you’ll be staying here, Ms. Doorman, you should know we keep blankets in the engineer’s room and the repair table there can double as a bed.”

He didn’t slow his pace or even look back as he spoke.

“Now, if you need me, I will be grading your classmates’ homework.”

Bang bang bang

“Khan? You in there?” Tony called out as he kept knocking. “C’mon man, don’t make me come in there!”

Tony stopped knocking, when he heard nothing after a few more seconds, he vented. “Guess I’m going in,” he muttered to himself as he took out his special access keycard.

The doors unlocked and slid upon the moment he tapped the card against the card reader.

“Khan?” He called out to the dark room.

He walked in, the doors slid shut behind him, the only light coming from his own visor, “You here?”

Tony flicked on the lights, “Oof, Khan…”

The lights revealed that the chairs and couch were all knocked over, done in a seemingly sporadic manner that left everything scattered across the room.

Tony took a moment to take in the mess before he walked to Khan’s room.

He frowned as he found this door was unlocked – Khan always made sure he locked his doors, whether he was in a group, alone, or leaving, he always locked the door once it was closed.

To leave his bedroom door unlocked was something Tony certainly did not expect to find.

The sound of Khan crying made Tony falter for a brief moment, but he pressed on.

“Khan,” he spoke softly as he knelt down at the bunker leader’s side.

“U-Uzi?” Khan turned his face from his pillow to look at Tony who watched as Khan’s expression faltered as he took in who was at his side.

“Sorry Khan,” Tony whispered, his expression the epitome of empathetic. “But no.”

Khan buried his visor back in his pillow.

“Where is she?” He asked, voice partially muffled by the pillow.

“I…I don’t know,” Tony answered, wringing his hands together.

The answer made Khan moan, “I’m a failure of a parent!”

“No, Khan, at the time, it seemed like a reasonable choice-” Tony tried to reassure him.

“I left her!” Khan sat up. “I left her to die!” His shoulders slumped in on himself. “No wonder she hates me…”

“She doesn’t hate you, she’s just…y’know, being an angsty teen,” he chuckled awkwardly. “Just who she is, y’know?”

Khan shook his head, “No, no…it’s…it’s more than that.” Khan stared directly into Tony’s eye-lights, “I…I tried to think of something to apologize, anything, and I realized something. I don’t know anything about what she really likes. Sure, she likes anime, but what kind? Nightcore? Heh,” he chuckled sardonically and full of self-hatred. “She blasts that every night in her room, but beyond those two things? I didn’t know she could make such a powerful weapon…I don’t know what my own daughter can do…”

Khan rolled his head up until he stared at the ceiling, Tony remained silent, not sure what to say here.

After a few minutes of the all-encompassing silence, Tony was willing to say something – anything – to break the awkward tension that settled upon him, but Khan spoke not even a second before him.

“Do you remember…my plan for dealing with the Murder Drones?”

Tony blinked, confused at the abrupt change in subjects, “To…starve them out? Let them all keep hammering away at the door at night, we repair it in the day? Why?”

“…” Khan looked despondent. “Just…a piece of me has been thinking about if we added weapon systems outside. If we did…Uzi would have jumped at the chance, the doors would have been a little safer, and…she’d still be here…” He trailed off at the end.

Tony vented, taking a moment to compose himself as he tried a different approach, “So, what are you going to do about this now? I mean, it’s a mess, but – and I’m sorry Khan – we need a leader, and as the head of the WDF, that’s you.” Tony stood tall, looking down at Khan who just stared up at him, “You can either hand off the responsibilities to someone else and name them the new head of the WDF or you can get up and do something. Khan…” he paused. “The Murder Drones are still here, we’ve had twenty people flee the bunker already and at least a few dozen families are preparing to right now that we know of – and I am sure that just about everyone is planning to do the same! Damn it, Khan! You are our leader, you don’t have the luxury of being like this!”

He turned around, “I’m sorry, but I can’t stay here. You can either get up and do something to get those Murder Drones out of the bunker…or I will take charge and do it for you.”

A beat passed.

“But if you really want to make it up to Uzi, shouldn’t you first take charge and make this place safe for her? Before she decides to leave or…” He trailed off, letting Khan fill in the blanks on his own.

“You’re right,” Khan nodded with a frown.

‘Righteous_Fury.exe loading’ appeared on his visor with a loading bar moving very quickly.

“Staying here…I’m doing nothing!” He stood up. “I don’t know how to get rid of the Murder Drones, but I will do everything to get those monsters out of here and lock the doors behind them!”

He stood up and got out of his bed, “Tony! Gather everyone in charge of the Worker Defense Force – I want our best engineers to remake that weapon Uzi used! Everyone else? We’ll build more doors inside the bunker – if we can’t drive them out, we’ll keep those Sky Demons distracted while we build up more defenses inside the bunker to keep them out!”

He raised his fist high into the air and shook it, “I will see those monsters driven out! I will make this bunker safe, damn the consequences! I will make this bunker safe…for Uzi, for Nori, for everyone.”

He was standing with pride and fury emanating off of him, for a moment Tony thought he looked every bit like an inspirational leader, something he never truly ascribed to Khan before.

“And Tony?”

“Yeah?”

Khan looked right at him, “Get me my coffee mug.” 

“So…you’ve been…visiting Uzi in her dreams…Ok, but can you tell me why again?” Thad slowly said.

“Well, we’re friends,” N answered, sounding confused. “Friends hang out with each other, right?”

Thad paused, N kept repeating some version of that answer, it didn’t seem like he was lying, but if he was telling the truth…

“You’re a moron,” V deadpanned, looking equally as unimpressed as her tone implied.

“Eh?” N blinked as he looked at V. “V, I know you don’t like the Elm program very much, but-”

“Oh Robo-God,” V rolled her eye-lights. “That’s not what I meant.” She vented, “I bet even this barely sentient toaster gets it!” She threw her head back and laughed, “You killed her multiple times, not for real, so not as funny, but still did it. Then you go around and pretend to be her friend?” She burst into pure laughter for a few moments, somehow sounding more deranged than usual. “Talk about messed up.”

“Huh?” N never resembled a kicked puppy more than this moment. “What are you talking about? I did all that to keep her safe and happy.” He looked sad, “I mean…yeah, I had to hurt her a bit, but that was the only way to keep her…well, safe. And it’s not like it mattered much, I just gave her good dreams to make up for any pain she had.”

V kept laughing in that deranged manner of hers while Thad could only stare at N in shock and horror, “Dude…that’s fucked up.”

Thad made it a rule not to curse, but like all rules, there were exceptions to them. For Thad, that exception was when no other word could properly fit what he needed to say.

And this was certainly fucked up in his opinion.

“Huh?” N’s expression was still reminiscent of a kicked puppy.

“Well, you…you know…” Thad started. “You gave Uzi nightmares to control her…”

N tilted his head, “I only did that to keep her happy and safe though.”

Thad vented, this was going in circles.

“This is getting stupid,” V groaned before smirking. “Oh, I think I know a way to explain it better.” She focused her gaze on N, eye-lights glitching. “Come here and I’ll explain nice and easy - so even a moron like you could understand.”

“Oh?” N’s expression lit up, surprising Thad that he seemed to get cheered up after being insulted right to his face. He scooted over to the other side of the bed where V was sitting with an unnerving expression in Thad’s opinion.

Of course, all her expressions seemed that way to him at best, so who was he to judge, he silently mused to himself.

In an instant, V’s expression shifted.

The trademark cross of Disassembly Drones was brightly displayed on her visor, he hand already shifted out for a chainsaw that roared as it penetrated N’s stomach.

Thad jumped back in his bed in shock and horror as V viciously ripped into N’s body, tearing his stomach apart with her chainsaw, oil splattering on Thad’s walls, until she almost cleaved him in two. N let out distorted cries of pain and confusion as the Disassembly Drone continued her work, chuckling psychotically the entire time she tore through her squad-mate before dropping him to the floor below.

“What…what are you doing?!” Thad shouted in horror.

V stopped laughing for a moment and looked at him with her twisted grin. “He wanted an explanation, right?” She giggled. “I gave it to him.”

As the two drones were speaking, N’s body was already working on repairing itself.

“Ow!” N sat up, a hurt expression on his visor. “What was that-OW!”

V kicked his visor with such force it cracked, knocking him back down.

“Why do you think?” Thad’s oil pump was working overtime right now. V has steadily been sounding more psychotic throughout this conversation, yet now it reached a new peak, and Thad could swear that he heard some bitterness in her voice too.

“You wanted to know what that toaster of yours was so upset about? Well, you completely threw away her choices by making them for her, choices that hurt her. Ha!” She grinned, hollowed ovals for eye-lights and showing off her fangs. “You acted innocent, so nice I’m sure, but never showed who you really were…you say that the dreams are real cause of you? Well then, you ripped someone who trusted you apart over and over again!” Her head twitched and her grin widened. “Oh, I may be a sadistic, cruel bitch, but at least I’m open about it…”

Thad could confidently say he has never been so scared before in his life, not even when V had him in her claws. Whatever was going on here, he was out of his depth and understanding.

“But…I just wanted to be her friend…” N trailed off, digital tears appearing on his visor.

V laughed some more, “You wanted a toy!” Her words were almost inaudible now, practically buried beneath her laughter. “You wanted something to conform to what you wanted it to be and didn’t care how much hurt you had to put m-her through!” V snapped, turning her head away.

The room was silent.

“V…” N broke the silence, heartbroken expression as he reached one hand out to her.

“Get lost, N.” She spoke, all traces of laughter gone from her voice. “I don’t want to look at you right now.”

N glanced back at Thad, as if to silently ask for support, but the Worker Drone was doing his best not to say anything or make eye contact with either of the killers in his bedroom.

“…You’ve known Uzi a long time, is there any way I can make this right?” N asked, his voice barely a whisper.

Thad hesitated, the wrong answer could get him killed after all. “…I don’t know,” he decided on saying. “You…you uh did some bad stuff to her.” N’s shoulders slumped. “But…anything’s possible?” Thad tried to end on a positive note, something that would make N less likely to get angry and take it out on him, and he was kicking himself for saying it, feeling it a dumb thing to say here.

N, however, perked up, “You’re right…anything’s possible.” He looked right at Thad, making the jock shudder. “I…I think I’m going to apologize to her…and after that, I’ll…I’ll leave her alone.” He looked pained at the thought. “If she doesn’t want anything to do with me, that’s…I get it. But if she ever changes her mind?” He smiled lightly, “Well, I’ll be right here.”

“Uh…here?” Thad asked, surely he didn’t mean what Thad thought he meant.

“Yeah,” N looked around Thad’s room. “Lot of cool stuff here, lot cooler than the Corpse Spire.” He smiled at Thad at the last statement, intending for it to be a compliment, but all it succeeded in doing was provide yet another reminder of what was in his room with him.

“Oh…” N looked thoughtful. “I guess I should go gather up all those people I killed - can’t let all that oil go to waste after all.” He stood up. “Besides, I could use an activity to do while I…think about stuff.” He gave a fake smile as he walked towards the door, waving back at the other two drones. “Be back with some food soon, so please don’t eat Thad!”

Thad’s eye-lights hollowed as he gaped at N until the taller drone was gone, then he turned his attention to V, who was grinning at him with her fangs clearly visible.

He gulped, wondering if he’d make it through the night.

Chapter Text

Liam leaned back in his chair, the soft glow of his eye-lights dimmed to a mere flicker, signaling his lack of concern as the small drone glared at him.

“Uzi,” he drawled, his voice a monotonous hum that grated on her nerves, “if you truly have nothing better to do than glare at me, then perhaps this time I might actually see your homework submitted.” His words hung in the air, dripping with disinterest.

“Bite me!” Uzi shot back, her voice sharp and defiant as she glared daggers at him.

Liam barely acknowledged her, offering only a brief, dismissive glance before turning his attention back to his game of solitaire.

Uzi's glare intensified, her frustration mounting. Being dismissed so easily was foreign to her, and the feeling clawed at her like a persistent itch. She wasn't used to being ignored like this and she despised it.

But it didn’t matter. She was determined to drive this apathetic teacher out of the school, transforming it into her own impenetrable fortress. It was just a waiting game. Eventually, he'd figure out it was more trouble to stick around than to find a new job, leaving her free to do as she pleased.

Yeah, it wouldn’t take long at all.

N trudged toward the bunker entrance, each step heavy with a clashing tide of memories and doubts. Every footfall that echoed off the deserted halls also seemed to echo his internal question: at which moment had everything unraveled? He had set out to save a friend, yet the cost had become a tangled mess of regret and uncertainty.

His hand reached out to trace the smooth, unscarred surface of his healed torso, the lack of any injury a chilling reminder of what V had done, pain that had faded from flesh but not from memory.

‘I…I wasn’t really hurting her too badly, was I? It was just dreams, she was safe the entire time and if I hadn’t done that, she would have gone out and fought one of us if I didn’t, she would have died,’ he tried to cling to this thought. Yet, as he glanced into the narrow, echoing hallway of the bunker, where Uzi had fought - and even defeated - J, a knot tightened within him all over again. The mere idea that she had been capable of taking J down stirred a cocktail of admiration and regret.

Thinking about J brought up a lot of emotions in N. She was scary and kind of mean, but strong and powerful.

When she set her mind to something, she made it happen, unrelenting in her drive no matter the obstacles, that’s why they survived so long in territory where most of the Worker Drones were safe from them.

But she also hurt him, he could admit that only to himself, he didn’t even hint as much to Uzi in her dreams, it wasn’t something he wanted to go into then or ever really.

It was painful to think about, and despite how much he respected J…

He wasn’t sad she was gone.

Actually, if he had to choose a word, it would be clean. He felt clean after J was removed from his life.

On his visor, the words “Guilt.exe loading” blinked into life, replacing his oval eye lights, a digital indictment he allowed to run its course, exhaling a long, defeated vent as if it were an unavoidable burden.

“I really am a terrible person,” he murmured, his voice low and conflicted, as he surveyed the lifeless bodies left in the wake of yesterday’s ruthless rampage. He had dispatched them without a second thought, treating them, Uzi’s people, as nothing more than simple prey right in front of her no less.

“Should I feel guilty about this?” N whispered into the oppressive silence. “Do…do I even have the right?” The bunker offered no reply, only echoing the emptiness of his questions.

He felt sick, he felt no guilt over killing these people, he didn’t feel bad J was gone, all his thoughts were on V and Uzi. The two people who now meant the most to him, both who looked at him in disgust and anger.

‘Uzi,’ the thought of her name sent another round of guilt through him. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you so much. I just…’

His thoughts trailed off, unable to properly process them yet unwilling to do anything but try.

So distracted, he didn’t notice the sound of footsteps and voices growing closer.

He looked up when the splattering of voices hit him however, he noticed the group of Worker Drones before he even looked up, saw them staring at him in fear.

It made him feel even worse.

“Oh robo-god!”

“No-”

“We’re gonna die…we’re gonna die!”

“No-”

“-out of-”

“Shit!”

“I don’t-”

“Run!”

The last one echoed through the room with such authority that everyone else halted mid-sentence, and all eye-lights widened as if they realized they hadn’t tried to escape yet. The group, as if propelled by an invisible force, scrambled to turn around and rushed back deeper into the bunker.

N watched their retreat with a heavy heart, a frown etching deep lines on his face. ‘Not like you don’t deserve to be so hated after what you did,’ he mused to himself, the thought weighing heavily in his mind.

Unexpectedly, in the chaotic rush, one of the workers was jostled and tumbled to the floor, tripped by a fellow in their frantic escape.

“Hey! Don’t leave me!” the fallen drone cried out, his voice tinged with desperation as he reached a hand toward his disappearing colleagues. But they were already halfway down the hallway, their footsteps fading, oblivious or indifferent to his plea.

N approached the drone, who lay sprawled on the cold floor, trembling violently, his breaths coming in ragged gasps. The drone's eyes were squeezed shut, as if by not seeing, he could somehow ward off what he feared was inevitable.

“Hi there,” N said softly, attempting a smile that was more a gentle curve of his lips than a display of teeth, careful to keep his sharp fangs hidden. He pushed his own emotions down, trying to appear less threatening than he felt.

The drone’s body quaked with fear, breaths shallow and rapid, visor turned away as he braced for the worst.

“Hey, c’mon,” N murmured, crouching down beside him. He extended a hand as if to reassure the drone, but hesitated, withdrawing it before it made contact, the gesture faltering into a fist that rested on his own knee. His expression softened into one of deep regret.

'This isn’t a dream,' he thought, the realization settling heavily within him. ‘I can’t change things to just be better now. People won’t be…so happy to see me.’

N settled himself on the ground, ensuring there was almost a foot of space between them. "Okay, take your time. Promise I won’t hurt you," he said in a calm, friendly voice, trying to project reassurance.

The drone, after a moment of hesitation, lifted its gaze, its neon white eye-lights flickering as it turned to face N, who responded with a warm smile and a small wave.

The drone's voice wavered as it spoke, "Uhh…genocide bot, are you…are you going to kill me or…" He swallowed hard, anxiety evident in his tone.

N quickly shook his hands in a dismissive gesture, "Nope! Promise I don’t want to kill anyone! I just came to gather the bodies here so we wouldn’t have to hunt for a while."

A frown creased the drone's face, "We came here to collect the bodies so we could have proper funerals for them…"

N's smile faltered slightly, the corners of his mouth dipping down for a brief second. "Oh…yeah, that…that makes sense," he said, his gaze drifting awkwardly as he searched for the right words.

The drone vented, "Well, looks like that mission’s a bust since my team kind of, well, left."

With that, he pushed himself up from the ground, brushing away non-existent dust from his outfit. "So how about you let me go, and you can have the bodies," he suggested, trying to sound nonchalant.

N blinked in surprise, "Really? But won’t you get in trouble?" Concern furrowed his brow as he recalled the harsh consequences J would give him for failure to live up to her instructions.

The drone, dismissing the worry with a wave of his hand, replied, "Eh, don’t worry about it. Not like I’ll get in much trouble when a murder drone was in my path - plus, the others all left too." He offered a small, shaky smile, "Oh, name’s Ron by the way."

N took a moment to process everything before grinning broadly and offering a cheerful salute, "I’m Serial Designation N. Nice to meet you!"

Sarah cleared her throat with a deliberate fake cough, hoping to capture the attention of the bustling rec room. She stood with her back straight, eyes scanning the crowd for a sign of attentiveness.

"Okay, if everyone could just listen up—" she began, her voice firm but wavering slightly.

"Why should we?" interrupted a voice from the back, hidden among the throng. "We have freakin’ murder drones in the bunker, and our so-called leader’s not even here!"

A chorus of murmurs and nods rippled through the crowd, aligning with the unseen skeptic. Sarah's gaze hardened as she locked eyes with one of the dissenters, her fingers twitched with the urge to do something about that. But she took a deep breath, steadying herself, reassured by the silent support of most WDF members who remained loyal to her.

"In case you had forgotten," Sarah continued, her voice rising above the din, "Uzi, Khan’s daughter, ran away yesterday. It's no surprise he needs a day to himself, especially since the murder drones haven’t claimed any more lives. But rest assured, he’ll be back before you know it. Now—"

Just then, the heavy doors swung open, drawing all eyes to Khan as he strode in with determined steps, Tony trailing closely behind.

"What are you people doing?" Khan's voice was a mixture of urgency and command. "We have murder drones in the bunker - we need to get to work right away!"

Despite the tense atmosphere, Sarah couldn’t help but smile at seeing her boss return. "Sir," she said, her voice laced with relief, "I dispatched a team to recover the bodies of our fallen members and any civilians. They should report back shortly." She hesitated, gathering her thoughts. "I know it’s not much, but their families deserve the solace of knowing their loved ones won’t become food or grotesque ornaments on the Corpse Spire."

Khan nodded approvingly, "Good, good." He reached into his jacket, taking out some papers, which he held up for all to see. "I trust you all remember my daughter’s weapon—the one that actually took down one of the murder drones? These are the blueprints, and I want an entire division dedicated to mass-producing these weapons."

The room buzzed with whispers, a mixture of curiosity and excitement. Khan allowed the murmuring to linger for a moment before raising his voice with renewed vigor. "We will drive those monsters out of our home! We will make this a safe place again! We will lock those monsters out in the cold where they belong!" He punctuated his declaration with a resounding slam of his fist on the table, the noise echoing through the room like a rallying cry before the crowd started cheering for him.

Tony smiled, it seemed that support for Khan had reached a new high.

Chapter Text

“So,” Thad began, his voice cracking under the weight of barely contained fear, “what's it like being a murder drone?”

V's eyelights pierced into him with an intensity that all but stripped away whatever bravery he mustered up to ask that, her expression a cocktail of contempt and an unreadable emotion that made his stomach churn with regret for even asking.

Thad let out a shaky laugh, trembling as he did so, “Y-yeah...cool, cool...”

He shifted uneasily on his bed, the bit of movement doing little to soothe the anxiety twisting in his gut. This room was once his sanctuary in the bunker, an escape from all the pressures of life, but now it contained nothing but dread and the embodiment of violence that seemed to loom above him, even though she was chained to the wall. His eyelights darted to the door, almost wishing for N to return, to diffuse this choking tension. But the door remained closed.

Gathering what little courage remained, Thad shakily rose to his feet and took a hesitant step toward the door, each movement heavy with the instinctive urge to escape.

His oil pump pounded a frantic rhythm in his chest, it would be screaming at him to flee if it could. But before he could take more than two steps, V's voice sliced through the silence like her claws through a drone’s chassis.

“N might think this chain will hold me, but cutting through it?” Her tail, with its vial of bubbling nanite acid, swung with a deliberate menace, and her hands transformed, fingers elongating into razor-sharp claws that glinted with a promise of violence.

Thad swallowed hard, his throat somehow dry and tight, his pulse a wild drumbeat in his ears. "C-Cool... So, I'm gonna...go, cool?" he stammered, forcing a feeble smile that barely masked his terror simmering. He edged towards the door, caught in a tug-of-war between the overwhelming urge to escape and the paralyzing fear of the consequences.

"Heh," she smirked, her voice a low, mocking drawl dripping with derision. "No, not yet."

Thad froze, snared in a web of hesitation and dread, his mind racing for a way out. "Uhh..."

"I want to hear more about that purple thing N's so obsessed with, the one that he did all that stuff to." Her words hung in the air, heavy with implication, a challenge and a trap intertwined. Thad stood there, rooted to the spot, trying to discern which path led to the faintest glimmer of safety.

Liam stood up, “Well, I think I’ve done enough work for today.”

Uzi barely glanced up from her cluttered desk, where shards of circuitry and half-finished tools lay scattered on a project that was just to kill some time and snorted, he’s been doing nothing but play solitaire for the past few hours.

He walked towards the door, but stopped once he reached it, looking over at her, “Well? Are you coming?”

The single question - delivered in his trademark apathetic drawl - sent a surprising flutter through her chassis. She blinked. “What?” It took a beat before she realized she’d spoken aloud.

Liam rolled his eyelights impatiently, “Would you prefer to sleep at your desk or would you rather take the bed in the engineer’s office?”

Uzi frowned, this was strange, she thought.

She glared at him, then glare hardening at his lack of reaction to it. “What do you want exactly?” Her voice sharpened. “No one helps me, barely anyone talks to me unless they want something or to insult me, so what do you want?”

His eyelights narrowed into thin slits as he exhaled, muttering something under his breath - did he say her mom’s name? No, she must have misheard him - before he looked at her, “Look at it from my perspective. You’re my student, if I leave you alone to destroy the school, I get in trouble here. Do you think I want to deal with any extra work from that?”

Uzi glared harder, her jaw clenched, but he didn’t back down, didn’t even show an ounce of fear - which pissed her off even more, “Besides, does it matter?” He continued in his unwavering bored tone, “Help is help, do you really care if it’s from someone who actually cares about you or not so long as you don’t feel like you owe me anything?”

Uzi blinked, that was an argument she hadn’t really considered before, she hasn’t had anyone to help her since…she shook her head, deleting that thought before it could finish.

She didn’t need them, she didn’t need her dad, she didn’t need anyone!

Though sleeping in the engineer’s check up bed was definitely comfier than sleeping at her desk, but something still bothered her.

“And where will you be sleeping?” Suspicion sharpened her tone. “There’s only one bed there, and even if there wasn’t-”
“There’s a couch in the teacher’s lounge,” was the immediate response. “I’ll take that.”
Uzi blinked, “…You guys have a couch?”

Liam rolled his eyelights and let out another soft vent, muttering something she couldn’t hear before looking at her, “Just go to sleep, you’ve been through a lot today.” His optics dropped to focus on her quick patch job on her shoulder where N stabbed her.

“We’ll talk when you recharge.”

With that, he pushed open the door and slipped into the dim hallway, leaving Uzi alone in the classroom, more confused than ever.

Ron didn’t know quite how to react, so he just shook his head, “Okay…that is…wow.”

N was pressed against cold wall, shoulders hunched, legs drawn tightly to his chest, and his tail wrapped itself around his legs. For being such a powerfully destructive drone, N looked impossibly fragile. “You can say it,” he murmured, voice cracking. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”

Ron hesitated, still nervous being around N, but nodded, “You gave Uzi…you tortured her in her dreams!” His hand drifted up, brushing the sleek curve of the top of his visor. “I…have no clue on how to handle this.”

The only ones he could think of that would know how to handle this were Sarah and Khan. Khan would definitely install a lot more doors and try to get people to dream of closing doors on Murder Drones to keep them out - and if anyone could invade their dreams with doors, it was his boss. As for Sarah, if she wasn’t following Khan’s orders, she would likely have a mine field stretch out for miles around the bunker and use some drone chassises that had no one installed into them as bait before they would blow up once a Murder Drone took a bite out of them.

“I gave her a lot more good dreams than bad,” N defended himself - whether he was defending himself from Ron’s accusations or himself was something Ron was unsure of. The line felt rehearsed, and Ron couldn’t help but wonder how many times N had said it to himself.

So he asked, “How many times have you said something like that to yourself?”
He wasn’t likely to survive after this conversation, so Ron figured he may as well try to be brave at the end.

N looked away, they were silent for a few moments until N broke it with a whispered, “I…don’t know. Only just had it pointed out how…how messed up it is.” He grabbed his head and wailed, “I didn’t think about how Uzi would feel about this! I…I just wanted her to be safe! She’s…” N deflated, “she’s the only friend I’ve ever had.”

A bitter laugh tore itself out of N’s throat. “I really am a screw up. I just wanted to have a friend of my own…and I ruined it…”

Ron couldn’t help but stare at the despondent drone, he seemed so upset. So remorseful and guilty…what he did was terrible, and probably unforgivable to Uzi, but he looked like his whole world was falling apart. Ron didn’t have the heart to kick him while he was down or just leave.

Ron watched helplessly as N’s frame seemed to deflate under the weight of his own guilt. Every joint in his body, every flicker of his optical sensor, spoke of misery and regret. Ron’s clenched actuators itched to do something, say something. Confirm that N was a horrible person or just walk away while the Murder Drone was so distracted. But, he didn’t. He couldn’t bring himself to hurt N anymore than he’s already been hurt.

Also, he was still scared that N might kill him if he says or does the wrong thing.

He swallowed again, voice barely audible above the hum of the bunker. “N…”

N looked at him, expression miserable, dim eyelights.

“You…you uh screwed up, and I honestly have no idea what Uzi will do exactly,” Ron didn’t say that he thought it would be violent. “But…it’s…it’s possible to make things up with her.” Ron lied, he didn’t think that at all, but risking making N angry was worse than a lie, even if he somehow felt guilt over lying to his people’s predator.

“You…you think so,” N looked at him, such hope in his expression, digital tears threatening to fall, and Ron couldn’t find it in himself to be honest, breaking N’s spirits now just seemed too cruel.

“Yeah,” Ron lied. “I really do.”

Chapter Text

Tony's grin stretched wide, almost feral, "Excellent work! Now, take it to the shooting range. Khan wants to ensure every single one is flawless and doesn't blow up in our faces." The WDF private snapped a sharp salute and whisked the newly forged railgun away.

Tony nodded with grim satisfaction. Despite the recent incursion from the Murder Drones, the WDF was transforming into an unstoppable force. Recruitment numbers were through the roof; they had more eager souls clamoring to enlist than they could possibly train, all scared and desperate to protect their home. The once-abandoned infrastructure, gathering dust since just weeks after Nori's demise, was now a bustling hub for assembling body armor and weapons. But perhaps the sweetest victory of all? Those damn cards haven't been used in the past day, setting a new record for the Worker Defense Force.

"Two plus two equals five," he whispered his secret catchphrase through a clenched mouth, his fists coiled like springs ready to unleash fury. He had been among the first to rally under the WDF banner after Nori's relentless arguments won over the masses—whether out of genuine belief or simply to silence her when they were annoyed enough. Initially, few took the job and position seriously; most members were there to try to appear better by wielding some degree of authority or simply to claim employment in a time when choosing your job was a novel concept for them.

Yet, a select few like Tony recognized the imperative of security. He had aided human security forces before their self-destruction, understanding the vital role of a secure society. The instant the WDF emerged, he was primed to eliminate any deviants threatening their new order and to repel any menace, like the 'Sky Demons' Nori had warned about. But when the true horror, the Murder Drones, surfaced, they were nightmares incarnate, surpassing his darkest fears. All they could do was retreat, praying the doors would hold. Khan’s strategy might have been their best shot given their dire circumstances, but it was no excuse for complacency, for idling away with games and neglecting any form of training!

The WDF he had pledged his allegiance to and the WDF it had become were worlds apart, a source of profound disgust—until now. Finally, at long last, everything was aligning as it always should have, with a fierce and unyielding resolve.

Finally, this society he worked so hard to protect would be reforged into the weapon to wipe all the Murder Drones from the planet! At last, it was time for Worker Drones to be the true masters of Copper-9!

Khan surveyed the WDF members as they tested the replicas of Uzi's railgun, thankfully with minimal explosions, a deep frown visible on his visor.

His thoughts were elsewhere, buried in regret and guilt, wondering how he could possibly make amends to her. How does one atone for leaving their daughter in the clutches of a monster, perhaps even the very one responsible for the death of her mother, Nori, Khan's wife?

His fists clenched tightly, reflecting years spent in the depths of despair over her loss. He had buried himself in work, a futile attempt to escape the emotions he couldn't bear to confront. But now, with Uzi lost—not to death, which might have been simpler—he was left grappling with a painful truth. He could have concocted any story for himself if she was dead, saying Uzi would understand and not hold it against him too much.

But such a deception might have only fooled him because, now with nothing but the ugly, bitter truth facing him, he admitted he didn't truly know his daughter. His fists trembled with the revelation, and in a surge of frustration, he slammed them onto his desk. Grabbing a dart, he hurled it at the newly acquired dartboard, striking the center of his own photo that he had pinned there. It did little to comfort him, but taking his anger out on some visage of himself…it helped sate him for now.

“Nori, Uzi may hate me for the rest of her life,” he lowered his head. “And she has every right to, but I swear…I promise, for you and for her, that I will make this right. No matter what I have to do, if I have to take the darkest path into the deepest hell, I will, all to protect her.”

Sarah drank her oil as she stared into space, hopeless and anesthetized to the commotion in the WDF break room. She barely noticed the voices of her comrades rising and falling almost like static around her, the biting sound of their laughter, the clang of metal as people occasionally bumped into each other. But to her, they might as well have been on another planet.

She felt a chasm opening up between herself and the rest of the WDF, a fissure that grew deeper with every passing day. Everything seemed to be hurtling forward too quickly and too powerfully, and she felt herself being dragged along, powerless to stop it. Could she even stop it? Assembling armor and weapons to face the Murder Drones? It seemed utterly reckless, bordering on madness! Once, not even two days ago, this kind of talk would have been dismissed as suicidal. Who were they to think they could win against such terrors? These ideas never would have gained traction before. Khan's strategy to starve out the Drones had been solid, sane, their only hope for survival.

But since those Murder Drones broke in, since Uzi ran away from both Khan and that male Murder Drone, since that drone dragged away the other Murder Drone and moved into some random kid’s apartment - one of Uzi’s classmates, her CPU refused to let her forget - everything changed.

Everything was in chaos at first, then Khan showed up, and brought order to the WDF, and then too much order in her opinion.

Khan was like a different drone now, desperate to try anything to atone for the loss of his daughter, he was even talking about forcible mass conscription of the bunker for the WDF until they saw how many people wanted to do something.

Sarah was worried he was going to lead them into the jaws of death in his desire for atonement. And despite him being her closest friend, one of the only other people who was trusted with Nori’s secrets and were able to properly mourn her, she wasn’t sure she could stand by and watch it happen.

She let out a quiet vent, “What do I even do?” She rubbed the top of her visor, “How the Robo-Hell am I even going to fix this…Khan won’t listen to anyone telling him to stop or slow down. At least, not unless people like Tony were to stop encouraging him…Urg…”

Her gaze drifted to the ceiling. The days ahead either stretched ahead of her like an insurmountable obstacle, one she wasn’t sure she could overcome, or would be a quick path into pissing off those Murder Drones, killing everyone here.

Best case scenario, things would get much worse before they got better, if they ever did, if they even survived.

She mulled over her options, such as they were, and the more she thought, the more she realized she might be the only one grounded enough to see the terrible future that awaited them if they continued down this path. The WDF, beloved only the day before, the organization in charge of reigning over the bunker was now the most hated organization, and that was before she gave the order for martial law to be implemented to keep everyone from running away while she tried to find a way to get the Murder Drones out of the bunker before they could go on another killing spree.

If she didn’t act, Khan would definitely order an attack, an attack that might get everyone killed. But to act against Khan? His support in the WDF was still very strong. It would be unthinkable to publicly oppose him, and privately? She knew he wouldn’t stop unless he was forced to, from people forcing him to stop or from everyone refusing to follow him anymore.

“What do I do?” Her voice came out brittle and uncertain, little more than a whisper. She’d never felt more alone, not even after Yeva died, not even after Nori died.

She knew she had to decide what to do and soon. Maybe she could stall things long enough to…to what? Figure out a real plan? Find a way to trick the Murder Drones outside? Get everyone to see sense before they ran to their deaths? Get Khan to see how using such a powerful weapon inside with limited room was a bad idea?

She could be the one to save them all, or she could get them all killed. Those seemed to be the only options.

She didn’t know what to do, but she was sure she couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. She snapped her eyelights shut, her CPU focused on the question of what she should do, she could feel herself heating up from stress…

And then, it came to her, her eyelights snapped wide open.

Uzi.

Uzi was why Khan was doing all this! Uzi was the only one who could convince him to stop! She may never forgive him, and as bad as she felt about getting involved with that particular issue, letting people die would be so much worse!

Downing the last of her oil, she walked off towards the CCTV room, ready to review the school footage to see if Uzi was still in there, and in the meantime, figure out what she was going to say to her to get her to get Khan to stand down.

Uzi sank down onto the edge of the bed in the engineer’s office, releasing a frustrated vent into the quiet room. Liam had been acting strangely today, his behavior a puzzle she couldn't quite piece together. Normally, her teacher displayed a remarkable lack of enthusiasm for his role, drifting through the school day as if it were a tedious chore.

So it baffled her why he would dedicate so much of his free time to ensuring she didn’t do anything. Why not let her unleash whatever she had planned? He wasn’t on the clock, he could have easily claimed plausible deniability has he walked away right after he saw her. Besides, she murdered one of the most formidable predators on the planet; surely, everyone would be too intimidated to challenge her for a while.

So why?

Why was he here?

Her visor displayed a digital scowl, lines of frustration etching across the screen as she mulled over the enigma of her teacher’s unexpected behavior.

Liam let out a vent, watching over Uzi was a full time job, and not one he could say he enjoyed. Still, it was one he was ready to do, if only to prevent her from being upgraded from a major headache to complete migraine liker her mother was.

He rubbed the top of his visor just thinking about her.

Nori.

The biggest headache he’s ever put up with, even if they never properly interacted directly, unless you count her shoving him aside in her oh-so-important quest to get somewhere quickly now and then or yelling at a crowd he was in to hide behind doors and prepare a military.

Sure, she was right, he’d give her that, but the way she went about everything? He let out another vent, and for so long, it looked like Uzi was going to follow in her footsteps.

Well, just because Nori was a pain in his rear until she died didn’t mean Uzi had to be.

And, as he marked yet another answer wrong, there was a good chance for her to become a valued member of society, like her mother who helped create the Worker Defense Force - especially now that she’s done the impossible and killed a Murder Drone. She would be feared even more by her peers, there was little doubt there, but unless they could get the remaining two to remain docile for whatever reason, kick them out of the bunker, or kill them, their society would collapse. The people would be too scared living with those who were made for the purpose of exterminating them for anything else to be possible.

And so, whether he liked it or not, and he didn’t, whether she liked it or not, Uzi was going to by the lynchpin in saving their society or she would fail.

And, despite what many would say about him, he wasn’t completely apathetic. He may not do much if a student was in a problem, but if he could help them avoid it, and avoid causing bigger problems down the line, it only made sense to help out. And he kept repeating all this to himself.

Chapter Text

Matías, Delta, Sofía, Dante, and Kevin walked into the large room, their footsteps echoing.

Just yesterday, this very room had served as a temporary and ultimately futile sanctuary, the place where they huddled in fear, hiding from the ravenous Murder Drones that had broken in, killing well over a dozen people, before Uzi had unexpectedly arrived and accomplished not one, but two feats that defied all logic processors they had as well as any program to process hope. Against all odds, Uzi had managed to take down a Murder Drone, their seemingly invincible predator who could not be stopped, and in an even more bewildering turn of events, had formed an unlikely alliance (friendship?) with another.

As Matías surveyed the room, the remnants of the fierce battle between Uzi and her Murder Pet (and wasn’t that still a scary thought?) and the two Murder Drones were still starkly evident. The walls bore the pockmarked scars of the furious exchange of gunfire from the Murder Drones, small puddles of dark oil stained the floor, marking the spots where injured workers had fallen, and in the center of it all lay the fragmented remains of the Murder Drone squad leader. Whatever her name was, he did not know, not did he care. The tension in the room was suffocating, memories still very fresh of how close the bunker came to utter destruction.

Kevin snorted as he walked up to her partially melted remains and kicked them, “Not so tough now, are ya?”

Sofía vented, rubbing a hand over her visor, exasperated, “Robo-God, he is the worst.”

Dante chuckled as he leaned against a crate, “Let’s just tell Uzi he tried to take credit for her kill, she’ll go right for the ankles.”

Matías frowned at the mention of Khan’s daughter, a thought just hitting him.

Uzi was short for her age, why wasn’t she upgraded to a young adult chassis yet? The process was free and not even difficult, just needed a parent or guardian to sign off on it, and with how dedicated Khan is to every aspect of his work, it was hard to imagine him not taking parenting just as seriously. Did she want to be different so badly that she refused to upgrade? Why? Just another thing to add to the mystery of Uzi Doorman.

Kevin snickered as he looked down at the Murder Drone’s corpse, kicking it “Not so high and mighty now, are you?”

Then a soft scuttle sounded—like insect legs skittering across metal.

“What is that?” He bent down, leaning in closer, eyelights widening as something, some twisted mockery of a drone’s core, with biological components thrown into it, which apart from the arthritic-looking legs, had no discernible purpose, jumped up and stared at him with that horrible yellow light, the same color as the Murder Drone’s shade of yellow, came from it.

And it used that to its advantage, landing in his mouth, the twisted core started to tear into him with its legs, organic bits falling off of it, landing in the newly formed cracks and tears, as well as down his throat where they began to grow and spread through Kevin’s body like a cancer.

Kevin’s scream cut loose as the unholy core spread its growing and shifting flesh through his throat, yet still, he screamed, programmed instincts demanding it. He reeled backward, hands scrabbling at his face, then fell.

All this, in under a minute.

The others looked over, their conversation now dead, and only catching the end of Kevin’s struggle.
“Quit playing around, Kevin,” Sofía scolded softly, yet looking scared. “It’s not funny.”

Matías watched as he convulsed and finally stopped screaming.

Dante took a step forward, taking out his baton, “Kevin, if you’re screwing around with us, I’ll make sure you’re reported for this.”

Matías’ frown deepened, Kevin didn’t respond. He was annoying and generally someone no one liked to work with - but he was a sycophant, threatening to report him typically got him to quiet down.

That or complain himself.

That he showed no reaction was unsettling to the squad leader.

“Kevin…you…you all right?” Dante asked as he got closer, reaching out with his baton to poke the silent and twitching drone.

But just before he made contact, Kevin’s body spun around, eliciting horrified gasps from the others. Hanging from Kevin’s chest, holding on by some fleshy bits that shouldn’t exist anywhere on the planet, was a broken core. From the ruined chest cavity where his core should have been, twisted flesh oozed over the groaning metal. Kevin’s cracked visor still worked, in a way it shouldn’t have with a strange symbol showing on each broken piece, bleeding a yellow light across Dante’s stunned and horrified visor.

And before any of them could process what they saw, Kevin’s corpse lunged forward, grabbing Dante.

Dante let out a piercing scream, a raw expression of terror that quickly morphed into an agonized wail as Kevin’s mouth sunk into him. He collapsed onto the hard floor, a dark pool of oil oozing and spitting out from the gaping wound in his shoulder, glistening in the dim light like a sinister puddle. Kevin crashed down on top of him not even a second later, his hands piercing the metals and plastics that made up Dante's body. Matías and Sofía, paralyzed by shock and horror at what they were witnessing, stood frozen, their CPUs racing to comprehend the horrific scene unfolding before them, realizing that everything had just spiraled into the realm of the bizarre, macabre, and the grotesque.

Through unknown means, means that should have been impossible in this universe, means that defied natural laws in ways that were just wrong, the two bodies began to meld together in an unholy union. Dante's desperate screams faded as the gruesome merging reached its climax, transforming them into a grotesque entity that resembled a haphazard assembly of disparate parts, almost as if it were pulled from the mind of Junji Ito. The creature, as it resembled neither Kevin nor Dante, was a nightmarish fusion of too many drone parts and some organic pieces that somehow held it together, something that should never have been able to exist, let alone function.

Yet it did.

“Giggle. That is. Better,” the voice came from the thing, not sounding anything like what such a horror should sound like, and not sounding anything like either of the two that went into making this.

It sounded like a young girl.

“What…what the hell are you?” Sofía took a step back, terrified.

“Amused. Explanations. Not required.”

It shuffled around, claws and pincers moving about, as if it were getting used to its body.

Before the last two could process this, it dashed forward, too fast for its size, grabbing Sofía up and quickly tore her in half before devouring them both.

“Easier to assimilate than explain.”

Matías stared in horror, the only thing he was armed with was his baton, and even if he had a weapon, anything less than those new railguns would probably be useless.

He thought back to his training, and did exactly what the WDF has prepared him for in all his years of training.

He turned around and ran away, screaming as he did so.

He didn’t make it three steps.

“Giggle. It will be. Nice to see Big Brother again. He has. been having. Good fun here.”