Chapter Text
The night was desolate, any noises drowned out by the howling of the intense wind on the frozen wasteland that was Copper-9. The ringed moon in the sky reflected light from the star, lighting up the barren streets enough to show the bodies scattered across them, whether they be human or drone.
This silence, however, was broken as a drone came stumbling around a corner almost dropping the bundle in his arms. He skid across the snow as he banked left, narrowly ducking the swipe of the dissasembler that was hunting him. He tightened his grip on the bundle as he heard the monstrous drone approaching, giggling like this all a joke, like it was funny. He almost gasped in relief when the entrance to the bunker came into view through the snow storm, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to outrun the thing long enough to get there, let alone close the door.
Making a split second decision, the drone shifted the bundle in his arms so that his left was free, quickly pulling a flare gun off of his tool belt. He whipped around just as the disassembler lunged, firing the flare directly at its visor as he closed his eyes. It screeched in pain from the sudden overload on its visual receptors, allowing the worker drone to easily dodge the oncoming attack, watching as the disassembler tumbled across the ground, clawing at its own visor in agony.
The worker drone took this opportunity to run, diverting all the electricity he could to his legs without losing consciousness. Numerous warnings popped up in his visor as various parts of his body began to fail from the strain that was being put onto it. He ignored all of them, all that mattered was getting to the door.
He waved his free hand wildly as he shouted towards the drone guarding the entrance. “Murder drone! Shut the door!” The drone, who was previously distracted playing solitaire, jumped to attention, snapping their head towards the approaching drone.
“K-Khan?! Where’s Nor-” The drone started, before being interrupted by Khan.
“Gone! Shut the damn door! It’s coming!” The other drone finally understood the severity of the situation, starting the locking sequence for the outer door. Khan pushed himself harder. He would make it, he had too, for Nori’s sake, for Uz-
Khan’s thoughts were interrupted as he felt something slam into his shoulder, sending him tumbling to the ground as pain blossomed. The bundle tumbled out his arms with a cry, sliding across the ground away from him. Khan coughed up oil as he rolled onto his back, seeing the disassembler now standing, yellow X blazing on its visor as it gazed at him, no longer with the sadistic glee from before, but now with sheer hatred. His gaze flickered towards the arm outstretched towards him, which ended in the barrel of a gun, revealing exactly what he felt hit him; a bullet.
Luck seemed to be on Khan’s side today however, as the disassembler’s gun jammed, leaving it with a frustrated look as it glared at its arm. Khan took this momentary distraction to climb back to his feet, clutching his shoulder as he stumbled forward. He quickly scooped up the crying bundle as he ran, holding it close to his chest and whispering to it “Shhh- it’s okay Uzi, everythings going to be fine, we're almost home-” It was in that moment Khan realized he wouldn’t make it, he was too far away from the door, and it was already halfway closed. He wasn’t going to live.
The disassembler stopped trying to fix its gun and just swapped its hands out for the standard claws, dashing towards Khan as hopelessness overtook him. He looked at the bundle, his infant daughter, and came to a decision. “Be brave for daddy, okay?” Before his daughter even had time for a confused look to cross her visor, Khan had reared his right arm back and thrown her like she was a football. The pillbaby soared through the air, wailing as her father unit got further and further away, only to be knocked offline as she hit the concrete floor of the bunker.
Khan inwardly sighed in relief as the shot landed true, the pillbaby having made it through the doors before they closed. Khan, body still stumbling forward on autopilot, as the last of the bunker’s light was cut away as the imposing doors came to a close with a resounding clang. He turned back around towards the disassembler, which was now watching him in sick satisfaction as it realized its prey was out of tricks. Instead of rushing him, it slowly stalked forward, smirking menacingly as it laughed, as it saw his visor dim in acceptance of the cruel fate that awaited him.
Khan’s self preservation program, despite his acceptance, still functioned, causing him to back away. From the murder drone as it drew ever closer. Eventually, there was nowhere left to go as his back pressed against the door. Khan could still see Nori’s oil dripping from the thing’s mouth, it sickened him, but at the same time, he felt empty, drained. He hoped there was a robot afterlife out there, so at least he could see Nori again, but logically, his processors told him that was not the case.
Backed against the wall, alone, Khan turns off his eyelights, unwilling to look at his approaching demise. He thinks of his wife, his daughter, the friends he made, the doors he created. Nori, I’m coming, sweetheart.
He expects that to be his last conscious thought, expects the murder drone to rip through him, maybe bite down on his neck, tear his organs out, something, anything. But the pain never arrives. Khan violently flinches as the sound of tearing metal is heard, a body thumping to the ground. Khan cracks one eyelight open, only for any simulation of breath to leave him as he witnessed the scene before him. The disassembler had fallen onto the snow, unmoving, a fire axe buried in its neck, visor blazing yellow with the words FATAL ERROR . Khan didn’t have any time to process this, as he heard a familiar voice and snapped his head up towards his presumed savior.
“ Empathetic gaze, do not worry Khan, the disassembly class drone will not harm you anymore.” Khan looked in shock at the damaged drone that was standing over the body of the disassembler. The drone's figure slumped slightly as she clutched her right arm to her chest, oil stained around their mouth and eyes. His eyelights hollowed, there was only one drone he knew that spoke like that.
“N-Nori? Y-you’re alive? But I saw-” Khan was cut off as his wife suddenly hugged him in a tight grip, rendering him speechless.
“ Timid hug, I know you’re scared, Khan, but I do not want to disclose the nature of my survival currently” Khan, having long ago acclimated to Nori’s vocal issues, understood this as I’m not ready to talk about this and decided to keep quiet, it’s the least he could do after Nori saved his life.
After their embrace, Khan turned and knocked on the door to the bunker, calling out. “Hello? John? You can open the door, I’m alive and the murder drone is…” Khan paused looking at the corpse of the drone. “The murder drone is gone.” Khan waited, until with a hiss, the door creaked open slightly, allowing a sliver of light to trickle through, but was almost immediately blocked from Khan by the appearance of a drone.
“K-khan? Is that really you?” The drone, John stuttered out as he stared through the sliver. Khan sighed, exasperated.
“Yes John, it’s me, can you let us in?”
“Us?” John asks questioningly, eyelights narrowed in suspicion.
Khan quickly moves aside, allowing John to get a view of Nori. “Nori survived and helped get rid of the disassembler, just get us inside before another one comes!” By the end of his explanation, Khan is yelling, in a rush to get him and his wife to safety. Even more, he wants to get to his daughter, to see her safe and sound, to comfort her.
“Alright, Alright, jeez no need to be so rude about it” John raises his hands in surrender, and moves to the side to open the door enough that Khan and Nori could get through. Without as much as warning her, Khan scoops up Nori bridal style before carrying her through the hydraulic doors, sighing in relief as they shut again behind him.
His peace was broken as a cry rang out in the enclosed airlock. Khan saw his daughter lying on the ground wailing. Guilt surged through him as he noticed there was a large crack across her visor, no doubt from the rough landing after his throw. He took a step towards Uzi, prepared to whisper apology after apology and comfort his daughter, only for Nori to shuffle past him.
Nori quickly sits down and puts Uzi in her lap, hugging her daughter as the pill baby cries. “
Comforting head stroke, It’s okay my little progeny, mother will make everything better.”
Khan watched in awe as Nori dragged one of her fingers along the crack in their daughter’s visor, the crack healing from the touch.
Uzi, no longer in pain, quickly quieted down, entering sleep mode from exhaustion as her mother held her. “ Soft smile, you do not have to worry anymore, I’ll keep you safe” Nori smiled down at her sleeping daughter, Life entering her eyes in a way Khan hadn’t seen since before the disassemblers arrived.
“ I won’t let anyone hurt you”