Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Uzi's alarm went on her visor, immediately causing a tired groan to exit her voice box. 'God, why did I even set that to begin with?'  She thinks to herself, as she enters her settings and turns it off to protect her sleep in the future. After blinking a few times to get her vision right, she looks around the darkened room. 

She sees the snowstorm causing a ruckus outside, covering the outside world in another thick layer of Copper 9 snow. 'Great, so much for getting back to sleep easily...'  She thought while listening to the howling winds. She rolls over onto her side, propping her arm up on her elbow and resting her chin on her hand. She sighs, watching the snow fall quietly.

She glances at the time on her clock, seeming a bit annoyed by seeing the time staring back at her. 3:02. She had classes in a few hours and now there was no way in hell she was getting any sleep before then. 'Whatever, I'll just skip. Dad may get on my ass, but I don't care...'  As she looks back out of the window, something catches her attention. A glowing yellow swoops past, disappearing into the distant view of the corpse spire. 

Her heart quickly races, despite being in the comfort of her bed, and she sits up a bit. The Disassembly Drones. They've been terrorizing the colony since... Well, since forever to be honest. Nori, Uzi's mother, had predicted the arrival of said beings through her "Crazed ramblings", as Uzi herself referred to them as. Now there they were, outside her window in full view, careless to how visible they were. She could see their spread wings from the faint view through her bedroom window. 

She sits up a bit more, watching as the lone murder drone picks away at whatever it had in it's hands. She quickly figured out it was a slaughtered Worker Drone when she could faintly see the Drone shovelling the remains into their mouth before drinking oil from the small bits they hadn't yet consumed. The sight made her nauseous, slightly scared but more or less nauseous. Not like she'd say that out loud, her attitude and semi-repressed self esteem issues would not let her do that. 

Now seemingly more unsettled, she finally pulled her eyes away fron the grotesque sight and settled back down under her warm covers. Suddenly, she felt thankful that she was sleeping inside, under warn sheets in her room, rather than roaming the lonely paths outside of the colony. She was thankful she wasn't a goner, unlike the dead Workers and stupidly curious Workers who were just yet to be killed and eaten by those things. 

These thoughts started to weigh on her a bit, making her sigh and turn over to avoid looking out her window anymore than she already had. She wasn't interested in the Murder Drone, or the corpse they'd just eaten, torn apart and are now using to build the spire. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying desperately to ignore it all. In her head, not even counting sheep will work, she was officially unsettled. 

She groaned, pulling her covers up over her head. 

Tomorrow's another day, Tomorrow's another day...

Uzi's bedroom door shifts open and outsteps the overly exhausted teenager, rubbing her eyes and looking around to see her surroundings. While Khan doesn't notice her presence, Nori quickly calls out to her, "Mornin' Uz! How'd you---" She quickly cuts herself off when she sees the massive eyebags under her optics. Her magenta optics hollow into rings and she lowers her voice, asking quietly, "Uzi... Did you even sleep last night?"

Uzi rubs her eyes again, moving her ruffled hair away from her eyes as she groggily answers, "Yeah, yeah, all good... Got like... Maybe a few hours of sleep..." Her answer did not satisfy Nori. Rather the opposite. Nori crosses her arms and leans against the doorway, her voice gentle but leaving no room for argument, "Uzi, go back to bed, please. You're not going anywhere today." 

Uzi groans, not in protest but rather just out of tiredness. She turns around and heads back into her room, closing the door behind her. Nori stares at Uzi's closed door for a second, her eyebrows furrow in concern. She turns to Khan, who's sitting at the table working on something while he takes sips of his coffee. "She's like... Not sleeping recently... Have you noticed?" She asks, her voice laced with nothing but maternal love and concern. 

Khan, however, did not feel the same way. He looked up at Nori, seemingly confused at first, before he asks, "Oh, Uzi?" He turns back to what he's doing and murmurs quietly, "Eh, can't really keep up with that kid half the time..." Nori's concerned look shifts to a face of frustration and confusion. 

Uzi sighs, slumping back against her mattress after listening to their conversation through the wall. Great to know that's how my own dad feels about me... She thinks to herself, rolling her neon purple optics in annoyance. She looks over at the side of her bed, seeing the railgun she hand-built herself perched up next to her bed. She reaches out, running her fingers along the side of it. 

'I feel so loved and cared about...' She remarks to herself in her head, sarcastic as ever. She then looks up at her ceiling, staring for a moment before she turns back to the window. Sitting up and looking out, she seemed more riddled with curiousity now more than ever, especially after last night's events. All she sees is the spire under the soft morning sun and the extra layer of snow on the grounds. 

No sign of the Murder Drone, sadly. She squints her eyes, focusing on the inside of the spire carefully. She then sees movement inside and her optics immediately widen. "That's it! That's the drone!" She murmurs out loud, sounding a bit more excited than she really was. She quickly settles, finding her own behaviour embarrassing. 'God, It's not THAT interesting...' She scoffs aloud, still staring at the area she saw the movement at.

Uzi then hears approaching footsteps outside her room and quickly shuts her curtains before her door opens, her mum walking in and quickly scolding her a bit. "Uzi. Bed now, please," Her expression softens as she turns to leave but locks gazes with Uzi over her shoulder, "You need it, Uzi.." She reaches over and flicks off Uzi's bedroom light before the door closes behind her.

Uzi just sits there, staring at the door after her mum leaves. She looks back at the closed curtains before she lays down, resting under the covers and trying her hardest to get more sleep. She rolls and tosses and turns before she finally manages to catch some Zs, her visor blinking with the words "SLEEP MODE". 

She's walking through the lands outside of the colony, desperate to retrieve the last part she needs to complete her months long project, her railgun. The railgun that was finally going to be ride of the monsters terrorizing the Workers and keeping them in hiding. All she needed was that one piece, and they were safe at last. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of wings flapping overhead and the sound of an incoming Murder Drone, who had most likely spotted her. She quickly looked up, just barely having enough time to dodge out of the way before she was stabbed through the arm by the Drone with It's tail. She screamed in pain as the acid burned through her arm.

She was helpless, only being able to kick and scream for help while her railgun was ripped away from her and discarded to one side. Tears formed in her optics as she looked back at the Drone, watching as it bares it's animalistic fangs. This was it, this was the end. 

In a flash, the Drone equipped It's claws and slashed her across the torso, causing her to scream as her oil splattered all over It's claws, uniform and the snowy ground below them. She's being held by her other arm, receiving a slash across the visor before being dropped to the floor by the much taller Drone. She cries out and clutches both injuries in desperation.

All she could think of in that moment was to try and crawl away, quickly pawing her way around before trying to drag herself away. The Drone cocked It's head before making a small noise and dropping to all fours. It let out a huff, sounding like a mocking 'pfft', as if finding amusement in her suffering. It eventually stopped circling her, staying oddly still.

It got into a position, claws out and seeming ready to pounce. It eventually did pounce on her, digging it's claws into her as it rested it's whole body weight on top of her, causing her to scream as a few limbs are damaged and her plating us torn by his claws.

She jolts awake, taking a moment to process it before sitting up. She groans and stands up, checking the time. 'God, how long have I been asleep for--' She sees that the time is now 1pm, meaning she was asleep for a good few hours. She leaves her room and looks around, seeing that she's home alone. 'Great, great, just fucking perfect. Because I NEEDED to be alone right at this moment.' She huffs out loud, crossing her arms.

She checks her phone and sees a few unread messages, the first catching her attention is a text from Thad. She smiles as she reads it. "Hey Zi, I hope you're doing okay today. I noticed you weren't present today for class, I just wanted to ask how you're doing? Just feel worried about you n' all. See you tomorrow if you wanna come in?" 

She makes a small noise and rocks on her feet as she types back, tucking her hair behind her ear as her face burns. She hits send and immediately pockets her phone, as if scared to see his response. She clears her throat and tries to get back on track, glancing out at the corpse spire outside.

'You know what, fuck this. 

If they don't wanna give me answers...

She heads back to her room, grabbing her railgun and slinging it over her shoulder into the holder for it on her back.

I'll get them myself.

No matter what it takes.'

Chapter Text

"God, why won't you just let me have this one thing!?" Uzi yelled, her voice echoing through the partially empty hallway of the colony as she storms back home, her dad trailing behind her with his arms crossed. "We have those doors up for a reason. You're not leaving and that's final." Uzi rolls her eyes and tries to block out his voice, focusing on something else. "I can handle myself out there." She grits her teeth in annoyance, the statement receiving an amused chuff from Khan.

"Of course, you can handle yourself out there," Khan remarks, following her into their home and ignoring Nori's confused look at first. "Isolated, and only equipped with a railgun that barely works. Safety is surely guaranteed there." Uzi grunts in annoyance and storms into her room, slamming her door and throwing her railgun off to once side. Not hard enough to break it, of course, it's her prized possession. 

She listens as her dad mutters to her mother from the other side of the door, "She's going to get herself killed one day, you just watch." Causing her to grit her teeth harder and growl under her breath. 'Fuck him, all he cares about is having authority over other drones.' She thinks, as she picks up her railgun and inspects it, checking everything works.

'Doesn't work? Of course it works! He doesn't know what he's talking about...' She tightens the bolts and everything securely into place, watching as it lights up her dark room when she flicks the switch and turns it on. 'I'll use it to blow his face off one day, he'll just see...'

She doesn't really feel like going out and seeing him right now, so she just sits down on the side of her bed and rests her face on her hand, pondering of what to do. She sees the area outside light up in another glow, signifying the Murder Drone was most likely back. 

She quickly shuffles over to the window to get a peak out at it, her mouth dropping open as she sees a working Landing pod instead of just a Murder Drone. 'Wow... That thing is... Beyond impressive!' Her face lights up in an excited smile and she bounces a bit on her bed, kicking her legs a bit. No doubt it was being piloted by one of those things, even more impressive!

She watches as it eventually lands, the spider-like legs attach themselves to the side of a building before the Murder Drone emerges shortly after and land outside the spire. She watches as it drops to all fours and crawls inside the spire, scurrying quickly after something. Maybe it found something?

She then opens her window to see if she can hear anything, almost immediately met with the sound of screams and cries for help. 'Oh... That's what it found...' She thinks to herself, as she awkwardly closes her window again. She watches from her window as a Worker tries to crawl away from it.

Their efforts were fruitless, as the Drone pounced onto them and begin clawing and biting at their plating, the gruesome nature sent a chill through Uzi's system. She can't tear her eyes away, however, as the Drone tears into and eats the remains of the Worker. The oil splatters in many directions as it does so.

Uzi shivers again, a disturbed sound escaping her voice box as she finds displeasure in what she's seeing. It reminds her of the nightmare she'd had last night, where she was torn apart by that thing. The biting, scratching and pouncing were so similar to what happened in her nightmare. Almost as if it knew. 

She squints her eyes as it begins to get a bit harder to see what's going on. However, when she does, she sees that it's the exact Drone she dreamt about. The realization hits her like a ton of bricks and makes her gasp quietly. The Drone then stops in It's place and catches her gaze, as if it heard her from so far away. 

The eye contact makes her shiver again, despite being within safety, she can't help but feel a bit threatened. It turned to face her, clutching a piece of the Worker body as it stared back at her, and cocked It's head as it stared at her. She could see the rows of sharp teeth and the sizeable fangs, causing her heart to race and not in a good way. 

She finally decided that she'd had enough and looked away, closing her blacked-out curtains over and taking a deep breath. She looked over at the desk, staring at her railgun as her mind races. She starts to wonder a bit. 'Maybe Dad is actually right...?' She thinks, looking down at the floor in defeat. 

'Maybe I will die out there...' She looks back up at the railgun before her expression hardens again, reaching out and picking it up again. 'Then I'll make sure that doesn't happen...' She scoffs quietly as she pulls open the drawer, glaring down at all of the parts she hadn't used yet. 'I'll make it better...'

She's been at her desk for an hour now, various railgun pieces scattered across her desk as she works to improve the gun itself. She stops suddenly, taking a moment to test and inspect it to determine if it needs improvement or testing. She flicks it on, watching as it lights up.

The room lit up in a green glow, implying that it was already around mostly completed. She opens her bedroom door and walks out, stepping out into a secluded part of the colony to test it out. She aimed it at the makeshift target she'd set up for herself, squinting her eyes to aim it properly.

With a swift click of the trigger, the railgun fired a flaming beam of neon-green at the target, completely obliterating it on the spot. Her eyes widened and she laughed softly, proudly glancing down at the railgun when she realizes suddenly... It's done, finally done! 

With a spring in her step, she quickly and excitedly made her way back home from down the hall and takes it back to her room. She laughs maniacally when she realizes she was right. The whole time. And that everyone that told her otherwise was so wrong. She was worthy, it did work. 

And she was capable of taking down those Murder Drones. Very capable.

She sets the completed railgun down in It's usual place and pulls open her curtains to scan for the Drones, spotting them surprisingly quickly. Her lips curled into a sadistic grin suddenly and she chuckled darkly to herself, watching them crawl and fly around, unaware of her plan to exterminate them. She felt so powerful. 

The same Drone catches her gaze again, cocking It's head in the same manner. She gave it a smirk in response before closing her curtains back over. "When I get my hands on those things," She picks up her wrench from the desk and crushes it in her hand as she mutters darkly to herself, "They'll be sorry they ever left Earth."

She then gets an idea, such a great and rebellious idea. Her dad was getting in the way of her plans so much, always finding her when she's attempting to sneak out. 'So why not try to sneak out when he's not there to stop me?' She thinks to herself, immediately chuckling to herself. 'Yes... Yes! Like, when It's night. I can go then.' 

She seems satisfied with her idea but quickly falls into a problem. 'I can't really attempt it tonight, cuz he's going to be patrolling the colony tonight..' She grunts, trying to recall her parents' schedules so she can successfully pull it off. It then clicks. 'Tomorrow night! It's a friday, so not as many Workers are patrolling! It's perfect!'

She chuckles darkly, tracing her finger carefully along the side of her completed railgun. 'Oh yes, I'll finally be rid of those evil, sadistic man-eaters.' She thinks to herself, feeling so proud of herself. There's a feeling of nervousness which is quickly pushed aside by her overwhelming excitement about pulling it off. 

She's sitting by herself in the back of class, tapping her finger against the desk as she glances up at the clock every few minutes. 'Just a few more minutes...' She rests her face in her hand again, pretending to pay attention to what the teacher is saying. She fishes her phone out of her pocket to check it.

She has a text from her mom reading; "Hey Uzi, your father will be home tonight, so no friends over tonight, sorry." She grins widely, feeling satisfaction after awaiting that text all morning. She answers the message with a cheerful and dismissive sounding text that reads; "It's okay, Mom! I don't mind that!"

She pockets her phone again and chuckles, 'This is going to go so smoothly, nobody will notice I was even gone...' She taps her fingers against the desk and glances up at the clock again. Just another fifteen minutes left. So close yet so far.

Her attention is caught by someone walking over and pulling a chair up to sit by her. "Hey Zi!" The familiar voice greets her with, causing her to look up at them with a friendly smile. "Hey Thad..." She answers nonchalantly, ignoring her racing core. He sits down beside her and rests his arm on the back of the chair as he turns to face her. 

"Up to anythin' tonight, or?" He asks with his usual outgoing yet calm tone, the tone that makes her visor light up in a soft purple flush. She fidgets a bit under the desk and tries to act cool, "Uh, yeah... Sorry if you wanted to hang out or anything..." She tucks her hair behind her audio receptor as she nervously talks.

He quickly cuts her off and answers, "Nah nah, It's all good, Zi." He chuckles a bit and pats her on the back, adding reassuringly, "Just wanted to know what you were up to, That's all, Zi..." The contact and tone causes Uzi to sweat furiously and tense up a bit. She's lost for words before she's saved by the bell.

Everyone quickly stands up and begins gathering their things, Thad and Uzi doing the same. Thad murmurs, "Damn, wanted to talk a bit more..." He throws his bag over his shoulder and carries it out of the class, waving to Uzi. "Catch ya later, Zi!" 

Uzi nods and waves back, heading in the opposite direction. Calling out after him, "Oh- uh, yeah! See you later, Thad!" She quickly takes off in the other direction after he turns around, repeatedly chanting to herself under her breath, Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod... While her visor sweats furiously.

She then takes a deep breath and calms herself while she walks back, clutching her bag tightly as she reminds herself that she has other things to think about. She lets out a little excited squeal under her breath, receiving weird looks from the people around her. 

'This is it! Just a few hours before I can pull it off!' She excitedly pulls her keys out of her pocket and unlocks the door, letting herself in and hurrying to her room. She takes her bag off and discards it at the foot of her bed, walking over to where her railgun is perched and runs her fingers along it delicately. 

She picks it up, flicking it on and chuckling again, watching as it lights up in that familiar neon-green glow. She holds it in both hands, ready to go and shoot more targets as practice. 'I'll just have to make sure nobody's using that room today... Maybe I could spend a few hours by myself before I actually pull this off...' 

She sets her railgun down and quickly walks out, looking around and walking down the hallway to check the room. There's a schedule outside the room, showing who is and isn't on shift in that room each day. She walks up to it and perches herself up on a box to check it.

She scans through quickly, trying to see if anyone will be on shift in that room. Her face lights up when she sees nobody is on shift that night. 'Yes! A few hours of uninterrupted target practice!' She excitedly climbs down and runs back to her home to retrieve the gun. 

This'll be so easy to pull off!

Chapter Text

Uzi clicks the trigger a final time, flicking it on and causing the railgun to roar to life in a bright neon-green glow in the dimly lit room. "Come on, just one last time." She says to herself under her breath, aiming the railgun at the final target she hadn't yet taken down. She takes a deep breath and locks in.

With a swift tug of the trigger, a blazing hot beam of neon-green lights up the room and obliterates the final target. She lowers the gun and guffaws in pride, pumping her fist into the air in celebration of her successful preparation. She stands up straight, taking a good look at everything she took down within the last hour and the mess she made in the process.

'Now for the hard part,' She thinks to herself, cocking the railgun at a comfortable angle as she turns to leave. She slowly creaks the large doors open and peaks out, glancing around for any patrolling workers before she steps out into the hallway. She flicks off the railgun, not wanting to draw attention to herself.

Her steps down the hallway are slow and measured as she sneaks her way past her front door and further down the hallway of the colony, seeking out the main exit. As he rounds the corner to the main door, she remembers something. 'Shit... I'm gonna need a key card if I'm gonna leave...'

She looks back at the front door of her house, wondering if she should risk getting caught stealing her parents' key card, or just search for a vent or something to crawl her way out of. After a moment, she chooses the latter and proceeds to the main door, not really in the mood to be caught and have her plan ruined.

After a few swift glances around, she spots a vent on the wall, close to the ceiling. 'Kinda high up but... It's only one in sight, so...' She sighs as she walks towards it, inspecting it and looking around for anything to hoist herself up onto. She finds a couple boxes and that's pretty much it. 

She sighs, grabbing all the boxes she can find and layering them out so she can place more stuff on top of them. She then steps away, looking around the main hallway for any more and only finds a few more. She grabs them and drags them back to where the vent shaft is, suddenly aware of her surroundings.

She stacks the boxes on top of each other as a sort of makeshift staircase to the vent, glancing around periodically in a paranoid mindset. She stands on her toes and reaches for the vent, grunting in annoyance as only her fingertips just barely graze the bottom of the entrance. 

She steps down from her little box-made perch and goes to look for more, eventually managing to drag a few more back and stack them on top. When she's finally sure that she has enough, she climbs back up, grabbing at random things to keep herself steady. 

She looks around a final time before fishing her dad's wrench out of her pocket and begins to unscrew the screws on the vent, trying to move as quickly as possible before she's caught by patrollers. She gets the first screw out and discards it, quickly working at the second. She gasps when she hears distant footsteps, quickly getting out the second and immediately working on the third.

When she finally has all the screws out, she grabs the vent shaft and pulls it out of place, pulling herself up into it and crawling out of sight. Her movements are measured and careful, wary of breaking it or falling through, although trying to move at a fast pace due to the space being so small. 

When she finally reaches the other end, the sudden change in temperature causes her metallic hands to shiver a bit and her vents to let out a foggy breath. She kicks at the vent shaft until it dents and moves enough for her to squeeze through. She pushes it to the side and crawls out, taking in the landscape around her.

The night sky made the sight all the more sinister, her core beating faster at the mere sight of it. Her optics widened a bit, a sinking feeling of dread washes over her senses. She takes a deep breath before proceeding, stepping over the thick layers of snow as she heads towards the spire. 

As the spire seeps into her view through the small snow storm, the sinking feeling in her senses got worse. She reaches for her railgun, pulling it out and cocking it as she approaches the entrance of the spire. She treads inside, taking notice of the many dismembered worker bodies. 

She looks around, in search of any nearby Drones, finding none. She huffs a bit and begins searching through the piles of rubble around her, pulling out parts and inspecting them before either discarding or pocketing them for later use. She wanders deeper into the corpse spire, keeping her audio receptors on high alert.

She picks up a Worker Drone arm and tosses it behind her, picking up a piece that looks like it'd fit perfectly on her railgun. Her optics hollow out and she grins widely, chuckling to herself as she inspects it properly. She runs her fingers along the base while she inspects it. 'This is perfect!' She thinks to herself as she finishes inspecting it. 

She pockets the piece and glances around her, seeing nothing but snow and rubble, turning back to the entrance and beginning to exit. 'Well, this was a little more boring than I'd hoped, but at least I'm alive, I guess...' She takes her hand out of her pocket and uses it to angle her gun at the ground, making her way out of the spire with it in her grip. 

Her eyes glance from corner to corner as she walks back to the colony, sensing something in her system that makes her stop in her tracks. She turns her audio receptors all the way up as she looks around, suddenly on high alert after her sensors detected something. Her grip tightens on the railgun, reaching a finger for the trigger. 

She hears noises around her and immediately darts to look in each direction, aiming the railgun at whatever it is that she's looking for. She then hears something from roughly thirty feet away, cocking her railgun to aim it at one of the run-down buildings left by the humans. It's silent for a moment, before she hears it again.

After a moment, she sees something. The building lights up in a soft yellow glow, the sight causing Uzi to take a moment before she realizes she's watching a Murder Drone powering up It's headlights. The yellow X on It's visor lights up and it immediately spreads It's wings, ready to take off and catch It's prey. Uzi gasps and takes a few steps back, flicking on her railgun and taking aim.

The Murder Drone takes flight, disappearing out of sight rather quickly before landing in front of Uzi within seconds, the impact causes Uzi to fly backwards and almost let go of her railgun. She keeps tight hold of it, letting out a small cry as she hits the ground but immediately aiming at the Drone. She clenches her jaw and reaches for the trigger.

The Drone lets out a deep growl, almost like an angry Dog's, before crawling towards her eerily quickly and attempting to swipe at her with It's claws. She quickly scrambles to her feet after the swipe missed by just an inch, aiming her railgun at the Drone's forehead and yelling out "Back up! Back the fuck up!" 

The Drone scampers backwards and hisses harshly at her, causing Uzi to grunt and flick her finger over the trigger a bit, "Bite me! Don't hiss at me, you piece of shit!" She yells at it, glaring at it darkly. The Drone growls in annoyance before it crawls towards her again, attempting to swipe at her, catching the side of her torso this time.

She cries out in pain and stumbles backwards, glaring at the Drone before she grips the railgun harshly and yells out, "You motherfucker!" Before she pulls the trigger, obliterating the Drone's body within seconds with a glowing beam of neon-green. She opens her eyes again, looking at the sight before her.

The headless body of the Drone topples forward onto the ground and lays flat, leaking oil out onto the snowy grounds around it. Her railgun is glowing red now, the new pop-up reading; "Recharging..." as it charges back up into the green glow.

She stands up straight, hissing in pain and immediately covering the side of her torso as it drips with fresh oil. She turns around and limps back to the colony, a sound behind her catching her attention when she gets a good few feet away. When she turns around, she sees the body repairing itself.

She gasps and clutches her side, moving quickly back to the colony before he regenerates and comes after her again. "Come on, come on..." She murmurs through her clenched teeth, her eyes lighting up when she sees the vent she crawled through. She drops to her knees, crawling back in and moving the shaft back into place. 

'I'll just let those Murder Drones take the blame for that...' She thinks to herself, referring to the denting, as she crawls back into the colony, thankfully finding the boxes she used to enter the vent still in the same place. She crawls back through, her hand still covering her side as she steps down. The hallway is still silent and dark, no patrollers in sight. Perfect.

Nori is pacing, worrying her head off about Uzi's absence from her room. Khan is sitting at the table, more annoyed than concerned, with his head in his hands. "God, I give that girl ONE rule, and she can't even follow that." Khan growls in annoyance, Nori quickly giving him a frustrated glare.

"Oh can you let it go?! Our daughter is missing!" She cries out, her voice shaky as she's pushed to the verge of tears. She wipes her eyes and continues pacing. "And you're just focused on the fact that she disobeyed you! She could be hurt! Or worse!" 

Khan looks up at Nori, his gaze softening, as she continues pacing in a stressful manner, murmuring things to herself under her breath. He rubs his eyes, sighing quietly and muttering, "Jesus, Mary and Joseph..." The silence that follows is heavy, momentarily broken by Nori's pacing and the ticking of the clock.

They'd already contacted everyone to see if anyone had seen her, even Thad, unfortunately being told no by all of them. She runs her fingers through her hair, taking deep breaths before she completely panics beyond the point of no return. Her core is thumping heavily and her visor is pouring with virtual sweat. 

The front door then clicks open and Uzi staggers inside, clutching at her side and throwing her railgun off to one side. Nori immediately rushes over to her, helping her stand up straight as she groans in pain. "Uzi, sweetheart, where-" Nori then looks down at her side and gasps, moving her hand out of the way to see the wound properly. 

She quickly runs over to grab a medkit, pulling bandages out of it and using them to help Uzi's injury. "There you go, Uzi... You're okay, love..." She reassures her quietly as she finishes patching up her oozing injury. Uzi hisses as it begins to sting a bit, trying to relax her muscles as her mum takes care of her.

She glances out of the window while her mum is caring for her injuries, watching as the Drone takes off into the night sky and back into the corpse spire, her expression hardening into a glare as she watches it. 'I swear I'll get that thing eventually... I'll get all of them...' 

When her injury is bandaged up, she stands up and heads over to grab her railgun, waltzing back to her room with it in hand. She closes her door behind her and places the railgun down in It's usual spot, kicking her shoes off as she thinks to herself, 'Well, today completely blows...'

She sits down on the side of her bed before settling down onto the mattress, looking up at the window before getting lost in her thoughts again. She sighs before she tries to settle into sleep mode. "One day..." She sleepily murmurs.

Chapter Text

After a few moments regenerating, his visor flickers to life with the words "POWERING UP... LOADING..." before his yellow optics flicker to life in a series of confused blinks. He scans thr surrounding area, taking note of the random CPU ache he now has. He squints, hissing slightly as his audio receptors ring and gives them a small rub to soothe the ache. 

He glances around more, unable to comprehend what's happening or what happened prior. He eventually manages to pull himself to his feet and looks around one final time, seeing the spire off in the distance. His optics hollow out and he quickly scrambles to unfold his wings and take off. 'I'm supposed to be watching the landing pod! Ugh, biscuits, J is gonna be so mad...'

He takes a moment, soaring past the broken down buildings before he lands on the side of the giant corpse wall and crawls inside. He crawls across the remains of many of their victims and lets go, landing perfectly on his feet in the snow from that long height. He looks around, seeing that he's in clear before making his way towards the landing pod.

He climbs on top of the space shuttle and sits there, dangling his legs off of the side of it. He looks around, silently taking in the sight of the falling snow around him and semi-heavy winds. He notices the night seems oddly peaceful, despite the strange occurance earlier.

His thoughts are then interrupted by the CPU ache returning, suddenly twice as bad as earlier. He grunts, clutching the side of his temple and becomes a bit frustrated, bothered by the unexplained ache within his circuits and not knowing where it came from. 

'I thought that would've fixed itself by now!' He thinks to himself, giving his temple a few hits, making a small pained noise as it just gets worse. He whines a bit, his tail lowering as the aching gets worse, the aching eventually causing static within his sensors. The static causes him to hiss again.

Eventually, the static begins to override his audio receptors again and he gives them a pained rub. He huffs as he thinks to himself, 'Fine, I'll just deal with it myself this time...' before he starts to flick through the issues from his CPU on his visor. 

One by one, he solves each individual problem that's causing him his discomfort, about to flick off before he notices a new pop-up on his visor. It reads; "LOADING... SEARCHING... ERASED DATA FOUND... REDOWNLOADING ERASED DATA... ERASED DATA SUCCESSFULLY REDOWNLOADED."

His eyebrows raise a but, wondering what it could be. He gets a bit curious and decides to open it, bringing him to another pop-up that reads; "LOADING... OPENING ERASED MEMORY FILE..." Before his visor turns black, making him realize his system has probably shut itself down.

That is, until he reopens his eyes and is standing in an unfamiliar hallway. He feels like he recognizes it, looking up at all the stained glass windows and down the eerily long, carpeted and darkened hallway. He shivers a bit, taking a step back. His eyes widen as he hears a voice. A young woman's voice that he recognizes. 

"Oi! Little butler!" The voice jokingly calls out with a happy giggle, "Didn't just put you in that cute little uniform just for you to stand around now, Did I?" He turns around, looking for the source of the bubbly, Australian voice. He looks down the hallway and sees a darkened, shadowy figure. 

His optics hollow into white rings as he gasps quietly, taking a step back. The shadowy woman approaches him, smiling down at him as she approaches. She reaches her glitched-out hand and pets his head reassuringly. "Aw, don't be scared of me, little Drone!" She coos affectionately. 

"After all, you know who I am," N, who didn't even realize how invested in her touch he was, opens his eyes and looks up at her with a concerned and confused look. She giggles, finding his confusion adorable, before she calls out, "Come on! It's just me, TeS-$#*@*&@---"

His system abruptly cuts off the flashback halfway through with the pop-ups reading; "MEMORY FILE PAUSED... LOADING... SYSTEM FAILED; REJECTING MEMORY FILE... REBOOTING... POWERING UP..."

N's optics flicker open again, his ring eyes staring straight up at the hole in the top of the spire as he processes what just happened. He sits up, rubbing his CPU again. The ache was gone, but now he was just ten times more confused. He sighs, clutching the side of the landing pod and wrapping his tail comfortingly around himself.

'Who is that girl? Do I know her? Is she important? SHOULD I know her?'

All these questions hit him like a truck, and he's scared about not having an answer to a single one. In fact, he's scared nobody will ever be able to answer his questions.

Uzi wakes up, groaning and rubbing her virtual neon-purple eyes. She sighs, reaching over to grab her phone from the bedside table. She moves her messy purple hair away from her face as she reads the time, 9:01AM, and any messages she got whilst she was asleep. She only sees a text from Thad, making her expression soften.

"Hey Zi, hope you're doing good today. Just sending you a message cuz you're not in class again today. Everything alright? Just get back to me when you can, because I'm concerned about you n' all. See you tomorrow, if ya make it? <3"

Uzi's core flutters and her visor lights up with a small flush, her virtual eyes re-reading it over and over until she finally types a response back to him, constantly deleting and re-typing things incase they sound stupid or whatever. 

"Hey Thad! I'm doing good today, just got some problems with my arm today. May or may not be in for the next few days, but eh, let's just see how long it takes for my dad to get sick of me and force me to go back in...

She then hesitates, her hands shaking as she types after, virtual sweat pouring from her visor as she adds after it;

I'll see you when I come back in. Can't wait to see you again, stupid. <3"

She immediately throws her phone to one side when she sends it, burying her visor in her shaking hands, in complete disbelief about her bravery of what she just did. Her core races and her head begins to spin as she awaits his answer, jolting when her phone vibrates.

She picks it up and almost dies as she reads his reply. "Aww, such a sweetie. Can't wait to see you either! ^//v//^" A squeal escapes her throat and she kicks her legs, flapping her hand excitedly as she holds the phone to her chest tightly. 

She then turns her phone off and takes a moment to cool down, feeling a bit embarrassed by her mini outburst. If anyone were to have seen that, she would've been RUINED. She fans her face, cooling off and calming the pouring sweat. 

She then stands up, stretching her arms and yawning. She then hisses as a sharp pain shoots through her sensors from that exact area, clutching at the bandaged wound quickly to soothe the pain and make it less severe. She takes a deep breath and lets it go, reaching over and opening her window to let some fresh air in. 

She pushes it open and glances out at the surrounding area, noticing that It's still a bit dark around that time. The time of days got progressively more confusing throughout the time of year, but honestly everyone had just learned to accept and live with it. Honestly, Uzi didn't mind. She found the dark-blue tinted morning sky quite pretty. 

Amongst the dark-blue sky and the soft draft blowing through Uzi's short hair, there was also something else; that familiar approaching yellow glow. Uzi's expression hardened as it got closer, her optics quickly soften as she quickly realizes that they are in fact other disassembly drones, and not the one she'd encountered yesterday. 

As they land on the top of the corpse spire and crawl in through the opening at the top, the dawning realization that there were more than just the one that attacked her causes Uzi to shiver slightly. 'Well... I guess it could've been way worse yesterday...' She mentally comments, pulling away from the window slowly as she keeps her eyes on it. 

She then quietly huffs and pulls her curtains back over, slumping back down on her bed and pulling up her phone. 'I know I'm gonna get yelled at, but honestly I couldn't care less right now...' She opens Thad's contact back up and hesitates for a moment, reading through their last messages silently. 

Every little sweet word, reassurance and even just small talk helps the edge ware off slowly. It even causes her to smile, something not a lot of drones get to see. Come to think of it, nobody except Thad really sees her smile, to be perfectly honest. What a shocker.

She's not good with feelings, and honestly everything that's going on just makes it harder. She huffs again, setting her phone down on her bedside table and stretching out her back a bit, eventually settling and staring up at the ceiling quietly. The silence in her room hangs heavy, almost deafening apart from her soft breathing. 

She reaches over and grabs a pillow from beside her, tucking it between her arms and legs as she rolls onto her side, snuggling into it a bit. Since she rarely has anyone to talk to, besides Thad and maybe her mum, this is her usual outlet to her feelings. Honestly, it was embarrassing, but it was something, so she can't complain. 

In the silence, she takes the moment to think about everything properly; her parents, her dad especially, and what happened just last night with the disassembly drone. She looks down at her arm, taking a moment to stare at the bandage before burying her face back into the pillow. 

It's not like she hasn't dealt with scars before, it's just that she's never dealt with scars from a Murder Drone before. She thinks about it more than she'd like to admit. She hates feeling weak, and the way the Drone had her feeling in that moment was so...

So humiliating...

Even though nobody saw, and she was about to die, she just felt so small and fragile in that exchange. That was the worst feeling in the world to her, causing her to sigh and swallow the slight lump in her throat. She hates that she can't even talk to her parents about it; she hates how she's not good with feelings, and she especially hates how her dad would just yell at her for leaving the colony. 

She hates how she won't even let herself cry either, every tear that brims in her eye is immediately wiped away or repressed, she won't ever give herself a break out of fear of presenting as "weak". It hurt a lot, but it would be hard to change herself since she's gotten so used to it now.

It's going to be hard getting better, she knows that for a fact, especially after everything she's tried to make herself better, it just hurts worse. She's starting to wonder if she can even help herself at that point, if there's even a way out of it. She always gets like this when alone, quickly shaking the thoughts away.

'Stupid emotional, hormonal teenager...' She thinks to herself, gripping the pillow harder. She hears her mum knock on her door, calling out to her through the door, "Uzi, darling, is everything okay?" There's a pause for a moment before she asks hesitantly, "Have you... Gone back to sleep, darling?"

"No, mum, I'm awake," She calls back, her voice deflated and devoid of energy. Through the door, her mum's expression softens when she hears the sound of Uzi's voice. "Okay dear, just come out when you're ready..." Nori simply answers before she turns and walks away. Uzi sits up and shifts her hair away from her eyes. 

'Tomorrow is another day...'

She thinks to herself.

'Another day...'

Chapter Text

N hummed, down on all fours and his feet padding against the floor as he crawls back towards the space shuttle. He crawls on top of it, laying flat on his stomach again as he tears into the fresh Worker Drone pray. His tail swishes behind him as he watches the snow fall around him. He sinks his fangs into his food and tears off a chunk.

He's still trying to remember who that girl was, since he clearly knows her but can't seem to remember. He makes a small whimpering sound as his tail thrashes impatiently behind him, causing a clanking sound as it collides with the side of the landing pod. He tries to remember her voice; Bubbly and loving, with an audible Australian accent. 

He tries to remember what she looks like, however proving his efforts to be fruitless as he can only see her as a black glitch in his memory files. His expression hardens as he gets lost in concentration, tapping his clawed hand against the surface of the landing pod. 

'Who was she...?' Is the question that plays on N's mind the most as he paces in a frustrated manner on top of the small space shuttle, putting his claws out before him and stretching out his back with a small whimper-like noise. He curls up on the hard surface, wrapping his nanite acid filled tail around himself comfortably as he stares up at the starry sky. 

The scent of oil all around him was heavy, but this time he was too indulged in his thoughts to react. Instead of his visor flickering to an X, ready to pounce and attack, he simply pouted a bit as a small feeling of dread settles in the bottom of his gut. Another soft whine escapes him as he struggles to put the pieces together; He doesn't know her name, how old she is, where she is currently and if she's someone important. 

Back at the colony, Uzi is rummaging through her locker at school. She gets a glance of herself in the mirror she placed in there, locking gazes with her own reflection for a moment before she closes the door of her locker. She shovels a hand into her pocket and digs out her phone, turning it on and unlocking it. 'I wonder if I should text-' She thinks to herself before she's abruptly cut off by a familiar voice. Speak of the devil.

"Hey Zi!" Thad's signature congenial tone calls out to her, immediately causing her to tense and send an awkward shiver throughout every muscle. She quickly clears her throat and turns around, waving to him as he approaches her and stand beside her. She nervously shifts her weight from foot to foot as the overly-social jock begins to make conversation, speaking to her in his usual gregarious manner. "You been alright yesterday? Didn't see ya out n' about or anythin'." 

Uzi nods, her eyes awkwardly darting around as she feigns a calm demeaner and addresses his concerns, "Oh, just..." she cuts herself off, hesitating as she thinks of a good enough excuse. "Just... Got caught up with family stuff, y'know how it is, somethin' is always goin' on..." She anxiously chuckles, kicking at the floor a bit with the heel of her leather boots. Thad simply nods, leaning back against the lockers a bit more.

"Fair enough," Thad retorts with a semi-nonchalant tone, his face contorted in a small, playful grin. Just as he opens his mouth to speak again, Uzi is unexpectedly cast aside by the new unexpected visitors. "Hey Thad," Lizzy calls out cheerily, as if she hadn't just interrupted a conversation and thrown Uzi away to one side carelessly. Doll is standing beside her, simply staying quiet and avoiding Uzi's now-sharp glares. Her voice is sickly sweet to Uzi's audio receptors as she asks semi-loudly, "We just wanted to know if you're still up for later?" 

Uzi's core skips a beat, or pulsation, whatever... And she quickly turns her attention back to Thad, staring at him with her hollowed out eyes. Thad's attention is now on Lizzy and Doll now, however, which adds to the sinking feeling in Uzi's gut. His tone seems casually happy as he clarifies in a friendly manner, "Yeah, 'Course I am! Just let me know when you're ready n' all." He gives them a playful wink, receiving a shared giggle from the two girls before Lizzy replies, "Definitely! We'll be seein' you later!" 

She then turns to leave and locks gazes with Uzi, her expression quickly sours and she scoffs, walking straight past her with her arms crossed. Uzi glares daggers at her as she walks off, quickly turning to look at Doll who is following her. She wants to say something, but keeps her mouth shut and turns back to Thad, her expression now slightly soddened. Thad's eyes soften as he locks gazes with her.

"Aw, c'mon Zi, Liz isn't that bad." He quietly retorts, sensing her discomfort in the expression and sudden silence. Uzi crosses her arms and mumbles under her breath, "Easy for you to say..." Thad's facial expression takes a slightly concerned yet defeated look to it. He reaches over and gently takes her hand in his, placing his other hand over it and murmuring softly, "You know I love you, Zi... Right?" 

Her visor lights up in a soft purple flush as she looks down at their interlocked hands, her optics hollow out and turn into caught-off-guard rings, before she looks up at him and pouts slightly. She turns away and murmurs, "I... Know..." She hesitates at first, her gaze softens with insecurity before she turns back to him and whispers, "N' I love you too..." 

Thad smiles softly at first, his own visor flushes slightly with green blush lines before he reaches out and pulls Uzi into a gentle hug. She stiffens in his arms, her core racing as her visor burns with the excessive blush marks. She, slowly but surely, wraps her own arms around Thad's taller build and holds him close as her optics slowly flicker shut. 

But, part of her didn't believe it. Even though he had a sincere tone, and was currently trying to support her and offer comfort, part of her didn't take it seriously. She felt as though maybe she was being lied to, maybe even cheated. She feels wrong for feeling this way, even guilty. Thad would never do that to her... He's amazing, charming, sweet and caring, but... Part of her feels insecure about their relationship, as if she knows she isn't good enough and is scared he'll see her how she sees herself. She's terrified, even, of that happening. Especially since Lizzy's now in the picture, she feels far worse than before. 

Realistically, she just wants these thoughts and feelings to end, but she knows deep down that they never really will end. They'll always be there, in the back of her mind at the worst moments. She'll always be reminded that, maybe...

Just maybe...

Thad would choose the person she hates the most over her one day...

And never look back on his decision...

Oh God...

Oh...

God...

Chapter Text

Sometimes her skin still stings, not even the numbing of an ice pack or the aftercare of a bandage can subside the painful sensations. It hurts. 

She hates how sometimes it gets messy, she especially hates when her mother starts asking a bunch of questions about her long sleeves and secrecy. It hurts.

She hates making Thad concerned with her behaviour, knowing deep down that she didn't keep her promise with him. She hates thinking about how she couldn't even follow the advice he gave her so she could stop. It hurts. It hurts more. 

The tears don't even help. She just wants to stop but doesn't know how.

It hurts.

The dried tears on her cheeks do little to make her feel anything as she slowly looks up at herself in the shattered mirror, simply just staring at herself, or whatever she can see of herself, in the fractured reflection. Her expression is blank, since she doesn't really know how to feel about what happened.

her internal voice wasn't really helping either, 'All this over Thad hanging around with Lizzy? You're such a child.'

It sneered at her, as if it wasn't her own voice, the bags seem to hang heavier under her tired eyes as she listens to each harsh criticism her own internal voice gives her. The voice began to sound less and less like herself and more like the people around her. It sounded like... 

Lizzy one moment... then her dad the next... 

Every voice that belongs to people who don't like her, who take displeasure in breathing the same air as her everyday. Almost all of them. 

It genuinely makes her start to wonder...

God... Where even is my mind?

The look in her eyes darkens as she fights hard to repress every disgusting and nasty comment she hears inside her mind, squeezing them shut and balling her hand into a fist by her side. She growls, her throat burning with the lump that previously formed in it while she was crying and blubbering like a big baby. 

She doesn't know what to do or say as she stares at herself, wondering what got even got her into this state. That's exactly it. Not even she knows. She doesn't have an answer for it. And it just makes her feel even more pathetic, fresh tears brimming at her eyes as she non-verbally degrades herself. 

The bathroom light flickers as she lowers to the floor, resting against the wall as her mind falls blank. She sighs, running her fingers through her hair and letting her eyes close slowly. For once, she's finally just letting herself cry. She's finally letting go. Finally giving herself a moment to breathe after all the torment. After all the hatred, the secrecy, and...

"Uzi, darling, is everything okay in there?" Her mother's voice calls out, while three soft knocks sound on the door. She immediately jolts out of her thoughts, scrambling to cover her wrists - despite the locked door hiding her shame - and calling back to her concerned parent; "Yeah, just fine, mum!"

Obviously, she wasn't just fine. If she was, her sleeve wouldn't be soaking through, and her skin wouldn't sting. But, unaware of what's really happening on the other side of the door, her mum's softened voice just simply calls back "Alright, darling..." before she walks away from the closed door. 

Naturally, she feels guilty lying to her mum like that instead of just being honest, but It's hard. It's really hard, in fact, to be honest about something like that. Especially since she's the only one, out of both parents, who'd really care if she opened up about it.

She wishes things were different. She wishes she didn't have to rely on just her mother and Thad for comfort with her issues. Especially since, after that encounter with Lizzy and her cousin Doll yesterday, she's not exactly sure if she trusts him the same way anymore. 

She feels awful for thinking that way, she loves him a lot and wouldn't ever want things to be different, but he's aware that she loses trust easily yet decided to hang around with her tormentors anyway. The more she thinks about it, the more she gets a sinking feeling in her gut. Her trust for him is on It's way out but she can't help it. 

She looks down at her phone on the bathroom counter, positioned right beside the sink. After a moment of hesitation, she reaches out for it and takes it in her weakened hand, pulling the screen into view and immediately seeing it; The dryness of her lock screen. No text from Thad, no pictures, nothing. 

The sight itself is enough for tears to brim in her eyes, pouring down her face as small, weakened sniffles escape her. She feels so stupid and baby-ish for crying like this, but it can't be helped; her trust for her beloved only fizzles away more, under the influence of incident after incident. It wasn't just recent either, it had been going on for a little bit, yet she hadn't the heart to tell him. 

That's where her mind has now changed.

After a moment of distressed sobs, she picks her phone back up and immediately opens his contact. Trying to not make it clear she's upset and angry, she tries to keep her message as sweet and unbothered as she can. 

"Hey Thad, I hope you had a good time last night...

She types at first, her face shifting to a look of discomfort as she pauses for a moment. She doesn't want to start anything, but now she's in too deep to back out. She lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding and proceeds.

... I just wanted to quickly talk to you about something, If that's alright n' everything? Don't have to, but It'd be nice...

She pauses again, rereading each word very carefully. 'God, I sound like such a pathetic push-over right now...' She visibly cringes at her own message as she reads it again and again. But alas, she doesn't feel like changing it, so It'll have to do. 

After another moment of silence while she thinks, she looks back at the screen and slowly begins to type again, her thumbs flying across the keyboard as she tries to think of a good message.

... Yeah, just get back to me when you can? Alright, I'll let you go now, have a nice day.

She hesitates again, wondering if she should say it. She sighs again and slowly types onto the end of it;

            ... Love you."

She feels a wave of unease wash over her when she finally sends it, immediately turning her phone off and standing up. She pulls up her sleeve to check if her arm's all good now, letting her shoulders slump with her relieved sigh when she sees the bleeding has stopped. 

She slowly walks over to the bathroom door, taking a moment before she opens the door and peaks out. No sign of her mum or dad. Perfect. She uses that opportunity to sneak back to her room, closing the door behind her and immediately standing infront of the door; holding the phone to her chest, her heart races as she awaits his answer.

Unfortunately, hours go by and she doesn't get a word from him. It doesn't even look like he's been online and seen the message at all. Once again, she's faced with the urge to burst into tears but holds it back, keeping her emotions in check so she isn't acting unreasonably. 

She just wants to know if he's okay...

And...

If he...

Maybe, still loves her, or anything...

That's all she wants...

...

That's all I want...

N impatiently scampers about, his tail thrashing behind him as he awaits the upcoming arrival of the other Disassemblers. He digs his claws into the snow below him, trying his absolute hardest to keep his emotions in check. He doesn't want to do anything he'll regret.

Overhead, he hears the incoming sound of flapping wings. Immediately looking up with relief and excitement, he feels a bit disappointed to only see one of them. But that'll do it, he only needs one to answer his questions, anyway.

When the short-haired drone lands on top of the landing pod, drinking the last remains of oil from a decapitated worker head before crushing it between her claws and discarding it, N slowly and patiently approaches her. His demeanor is strictly non-threatening as he gets closer, but still receiving a displeased glare from the other drone.

She gives him an unhappy growl as he gets closer, startling him and drawing a small whimper from his throat. He then quietly looks up at her and tries to ask her about his dreams, the descriptions immediately cause her eyes to hollow out, a small warning symbol flashes over one of her eyes for a split second. 

N senses that he said something wrong and lowers his tail, making a small whimpering sound as an apology. V crawls closer and growls low in her throat, a small warning growl that N knows all too well; He's asked a sensitive question that she really doesn't want to answer. He startles and quickly nods, indicating to her that he understands. 

Her disbelieving angry look turns into a look of disapproval, shaking her head at him before spreading her large wings. The metallic feathers flutter as she gives him another short growl before taking off, disappearing out of sight and leaving N alone in the spire once again. 

Although she refused to answer his question, he did get one answer from that whole interaction. "Should I know about something like this?"  It doesn't exactly take a genius to work out the answer to that question. Probably.

He lets out a small huff, unsatisfied with the interaction he just had with his fellow teammate. He looks up at the opening at the top of the spire, watching the wind blowing in the heavy Copper-9 winds. He spreads his wings and flaps his robo-angel wings, quickly clamping into the corpse wall with his claws.

He crawls over to the opening and crawls out, looking out at the sights before his yellow optics. Eventually, he just about sees the worker colony through the snow amd heavy winds. It stands like an eery shadow off in the distance as he stares at it, the lights from within casting lights on the spire and back into his eyes.

He simply sits and watches, unbothered by his silver hair blowing in the winds, or even the lights in his eyes. He continues to analyse the colony, trying to look for every possible entry that he could maybe worm his way into. Given that Workers were a lot smaller than Disassemblers, it would most likely be a tough job to find an easy entry to squeeze his big body into. 

The snow covers his shoulders and black hat as he squints his eyes, eventually finding a small vent. As he stares at it more, he realizes It's dented; somebody dented it and has now granted him easy access to the colony. He smirks, baring his fangs as he does so, and decides to try and get a closer look.

Spreading his wings and taking off with a single beat of his metallic angel-like wings, it doesn't take him that long until he lands roughly 30 feet away with a vicious thud. He stands on his hind legs and tries to get a proper look at the damage, slowly walking his way over to he vent.

It's hidden by a small build up of snow, so It was hard to see at first, but the damage is clear as day. The denting in it suggests it was kicked open, causing it to bend and be slightly crushed, making it hard to slot perfectly back into place.

'Oh dear...' He thinks to himself with an evil grin, his claws slowly scraping along the outlines of the damage. 'Sometimes these toasters don't think twice about what they're doing...'

Maybe his boss was right, maybe these things were in fact just barely-sentient toasters. He never thought he'd be agreeing with her until that moment, because holy shit had that Worker screwed up when they pried that vent open. 

Now, he just has to figure out if he can fit inside. Quickly looking inside and seeing how small it is, his eyebrows furrow with a look of thought. He stands back, taking a moment to properly study the length and width of the opening, mentally concluding that he could probably worm his way through. 

He looks down at his hand and switches it to a hacksaw, looking back at the vent shaft. He grabs the edge of it, attempting to now saw through the vent shaft, or what was left of it. Although the worker had severely damaged it, they'd somehow managed to slot it back in, in a way that makes it hard to get open from the outside. 

After an agonizingly long time of trying to get it open, he manages to finally pry the thing away from his original hinges, baring his fangs again in an evil grin when he finally gets it open. He throws it down carelessly into the snow and stares into the small opening, equipping his claws as he drops to all fours. 

His tail thrashes around excitedly as he finally sees the inside of the colony staring back at him, finally lowering his body as he attempts to crawl through. He chuckles darkly as he somehow gets his bigger body through the tiny crawlspace and immediately makes his way into the colony, as quietly as he can. 

His claws lightly scrape the surface of the vent as he makes his way through, his predatory instincts now flaring at an all-time high. His eyes flicker to the X symbol as he gets closer, his mouth filling with o much saliva that he has to swallow it down.

He can feel the pulsations of their robotic cores, he can smell the delicious aroma of their sweet, succulent oil. The thought makes him begin to pant, crawling more desperately into the colony until he finally reaches the other end of the crawlspace. He's overjoyed to find that there's no vent blocking his way, immediately crawling out and landing on the ground. 

He's inside the colony, finally. He's really inside the Worker Drone colony for the first time. His core beats faster as his fangs bare, his eyes hollowing out as they flick back and forth between his hunting mode and normal optics. His claws twitch as he looks around excitedly, immediately thinking of all the ways he can kill and feast on those Workers.

Of course, being that the colony is full of workers, it certainly wasn't long before his presence was detected and he was spotted. A blood-curdling scream sounds from behind him, a worker taking off in the opposite direction, making him chuckle in sadistic delight. He immediately bounds after the Worker, crawling across the floor, walls and even ceiling to get to them.

Once he gets close enough, he pounces from the ceiling and lands on top of the worker, sinking his fangs into the metallic skin of them. As he sucks oil straight from the fresh wound, another scream is heard from the hallway. 

It's not long before more workers become aware and the colony is faced with lockdown, doors immediately closing and auto-locking around him as the alarms sound within the long hallways. It doesn't bother him though, he's always up for games. 

The fearful screams and desperation to get away only fuels his hunger, making him enjoy the situation even more. He flaps his wings and finds a vent-shaft on the ceiling, breaking it open and crawling inside. 'I guess she really was right, these drones are really just toasters...'

He breaks open the vent-shaft on he other side, landing on the ground with a harsh thud in front of the Workers who previously thought they were safe. With a swift swing of his tail, he catches a worker and injects his nanite acid into them, sensing them flying back into a wall with a flick of his tail. 

He equips his gun and shoots a bullet straight through the CPU of another Worker who attempted to run away, causing their body to fall to the floor with a thud. Quickly turning back to the Worker who's arm is now burning through. As they clutch desperately at their wound, N lunges forward and, with a flick of his wrist, slices their head clean off with his blade. 

It goes flying and bounces off the wall, rolling away and leaving a trail of oil behind it. N picks off the body before him, sucking every bit of oil out of it and tearing it apart straight after. He drops to all fours again and scampers after the loose head, sucking the oil out of that too. He can't afford to waste any oil, especially not when he's almost starving.

After picking off the Worker with the gunshot wound, more Workers emerge from the safety of their homes to see what was going on. Unfortunate for them, very fortunate for the starving Disassembler. He manages to almost pick them off one by one, sucking their bodies dry of their oil. 

The whole colony has been alerted, instructed to stay in their homes and carry weapons just in case. This announcement through the speakers catches the attention of one specific drone, one who is torn between staying huddled in her house or putting her railgun to use once again. 

The one who will not give up a situation without a fight. 

The one who is ready for round 2.

Chapter Text

Upon hearing the lockdown sirens sound, Uzi's core immediately starts running at a couple-hundred miles per hour. There was no way a Murder Drone had sneaked It's way into the colony that easily. 

As fearful screams sounded from the corridor, along with the desperate scrambling to get away from the robotic beast, Uzi began becoming more and more anxious. Fearing for her own life, she scrambles to find a weapon just in case it breaks in. 

Her father is delirious, scrambling profusely for his phone to send Nori a text desperately to ensure her safety. Uzi panics as she hears more screams, along with gunshots and crashing. Uzi quickly searches for her own phone, swiping it up into her hand and opening the contacts of everyone she knows. 

She sends everybody a message to make sure they're safe; Thad, her mum, a few classmates she rarely talks to, and even her cousin Doll. As, despite all the torment she endures from Doll and her friends on an almost-daily basis, she still obviously wants to ensure that her family members are okay. 

One particularly loud gunshot causes her to jump, clutching her at her chest and covering her beating core protectively. It's getting closer. Surely it would find her and her dad soon. She takes heavy deep breaths as she looks over at her desk, staring at the railgun perched upon it. 

She swallows quietly as she quickly makes a decision, a fucking crazy and risky decision, but one that could easily pay off. It could benefit the colony so much, but could go wrong so easily in so many ways. She shakes her head and grunts, quickly grabbing the railgun and picking it up. 

She clutches it close to her, opening her bedroom door and quickly making her way out. She clicks everything into place and flicks it on quickly, hurrying her way over to the front door. She swings open the door and takes aim, cocking it in each way in search of the intruding Drone. 

A scream from one direction helps her detect the location of the drone, immediately taking off sprinting towards the source of the sound without a second thought. She doesn't stop to consider the risk of her behaviour, just that she needs it to be done.

The colony needs a saviour. And maybe, just maybe, she could finally prove herself to the members of the colony. She prove herself to Lizzy, Doll, the WDF team... Her dad... They could all finally see that she's not just some weird girl who wanders the colony --- She rounds the corner and cocks the railgun at the culprit. 

She could finally be somebody to those people. 

Her finger immediately flicks on the railgun, powering it up and getting ready to take the shot. She watches as the drone digs into the body of the worker, draining every drop of oil it can out of them as it tears them apart. The glow of the powering up railgun finally catches It's attention, making it slowly turn to face Uzi and stare at her over It's shoulder.

She can't lie, the sight did make shivers run down her back, but she quickly stands her ground and places her finger carefully over the trigger. The drone growls at her --- a deep, throaty, and almost animalistic growl --- before it swiftly turns around and bares It's fangs at her. Sharp enough to tear through flesh, sharp enough to rip her to bits if she wasn't careful enough. 

It's claws scrape menacingly against the floors of the hallway, It's tail flicking aggressively each way behind it, before it pounces and swipes at her. She dodges just in time, making it just barely miss her by a few centimeters. She makes a split second decision and whacks the drone with the railgun, stunning for a few seconds before she places her finger back over the trigger.

With the barrel of the gun aimed at the momentarily unsuspecting drone, she quickly clicks the trigger. Unfortunately, her actions weren't as smart as she thinks they were, the realization dawning on her as the drone swipes the railgun straight out of her hands just before it takes fire. It flies backwards, bouncing off the colony walls and landing around twenty feet away. 

A stunned gasp escapes Uzi as she watches it fly away from her grasp, quickly caught off guard by a scratch to her torso, causing her to cry out in pain. She quickly backs away, trying to scramble for the railgun as it prepares another attack. This time, it swipes at her with It's tail, but her quick thinking makes her move out of the way just in time. 

She grabs the railgun before she's injured again, but the drone now has her cornered. 'Shit, Uzi, c'mon...' She thinks to herself as she aims the barrel of the gun at her murderous intruder once more. 'One wrong move here and you're a goner.'

The drone simply watches her, slowly crawling closer and dragging It's claws across the floor, as if daring her to open fire at her own risk. She feels unease but quickly swallows down the lump in her throat and clicks the trigger once more, opening fire on the robotic beast. The blare of the railgun fills the colony as she vaporizes the drone once again. 

She was lucky enough to blow It's head off again, but enough damage was done for her to get a few minutes to flee before it regenerates the lost limbs. The overwhelming loud blaring of the colony's alarms rackets through he hallway as she scrambles away from the temporarily injured murder drone, trying desperately to find her dad, or at least a member of the WDF. 

She sprints her sorry ass down the long corridor, looking back over her shoulder to make sure she isn't being followed, before proceeding to the location. She eventually finds her dad, escorting remaining Workers into their homes and reciting lock down procedures to them. Taking the opportunity, she sprints towards him and calls out, "Dad!"

Khan looks up at her, a look of shock, surprise and a strange hint of disappointment crosses his features. Uzi's movements slow down as she gets closer to him, eventually slowing to a walk as she tries to catch her breath. She presses a button on the door lock and closes the large door behind her, buying her some more time to explain things to her dad.

"Hey dad, I know where the Murder Drone is located. It's just down the hallway behind me. I-It's injured right now, and is probably regenerating, but-" Her dad holds up his hand to halt her ramblings, a look of frustration and annoyance is etched on his face. Her face falls as she silences herself, watching her dad carefully as the silence hangs heavily between them.

Khan simply stares at her and crosses his arms, drumming his fingers impatiently against his other arm. Uzi eventually feels confused, wondering what his reaction is about. But when he speaks up, that question is quickly answered. "What on earth were you thinking, Uzi." His deeper growls in annoyance, causing Uzi to freeze. 

The silence between them hangs heavy, the empty corridors around them just seem to watch silently, despite having no eyes. The walls tower over her, making her feel smaller and smaller, before she quietly whispers, "...What?" The air seemed to have been knocked straight from her lungs as she says it. 

Khan's eyes narrow as his frustration grows, but he stands his ground and simply barks back "You heard me, Uzi." The aggression in his tone causes Uzi to jolt slightly, taking a small step back as she hesitates on what to say. The only thing she can hear is the rapid beating of her core ringing through her audio receptors. 

"How could you do something so..." His voice lowers as he speaks, eventually letting out a sigh and rubbing his temple before he spits harshly, "...So stupid, Uzi?" The word hits her like a slap to the cheek, even causing her to physically clutch at herself as the silence becomes deafening. Every remaining prying eye immediately darts away and hurries back to their homes as Uzi and Khan stand their grounds. 

After a moment, they hear the rapid scurrying of the Murder Drone behind them, causing Uzi to glance back in a panic before looking back at her dad. Khan's expression darkens and he steps back, fishing the control for the doors out of his pocket as he murmurs in disappointment, "I expected better from you, now you can think about what you've done."

Within seconds, the door slams shut between the two, locking Uzi in the hallway with the very hungry and no doubt enraged Murder machine. A cold sweat drips down Uzi's visor as she processes what just happened. 'Dad... I just... He...'

Her core pounds harder in her chest-plate, her hands weak and shaky as she scrambles to pull her railgun out, despite the lack of endurance she has to properly fight the murderer, having been left for dead just seconds prior. Given up as just a meal to it over a simple mistake. 

It scurries across the ceiling with Its claws before dropping to the floor with a harsh thud, looking up at her with its fangs bared maliciously. The yellow X on its visor glows ominously from across the hallway, sending a shiver through her wires, as she feels like nothing but prey after being left so defenseless. 

She feels so done, like she just wants to put down the gun and surrender to it. Instead of leaping at her, or growling, it simply watches her from the distance. Like it can pick up on how she's feeling, how she wants to just give up and let herself become drone food. This makes it step down a bit.

Uzi's optics hollow slightly in confusion and shock, watching as it closes his jaws and retracts the claws. It doesn't want to attack, at least not anymore. It's sparing her. It's actually sparing her, despite the fact that it was no-doubt almost starved from having no oil for so long. It was willing to let her live despite It's hunger. 

Uzi doesn't know how to react at first, the air escaping her vents quickly as she silently watches. Then, slowly but surely, it starts to pad over to her on all fours. She steps back, her back hitting the cold metal of the door as she does so, and calls out to it, "...Go away. Go away!" 

N, despite her shoos and callings for him to depart, steps closer and inspects her more closely. His tail swishes curiously behind him, his yellow optics flick from detail to detail as Uzi stands there, uncomfortable and still disheartened by the situation she was put in. She clenches her hands into fists. 

N pads closer, making a small noise. It catches Uzi off-guard when she hears it, the nature of the noise makes her core skip a beat; it was a small, empathetic whining sound, almost identical to a dog's. He makes a small pouting face, padding closer slowly until he's positioned right in front of her. 

Uzi inhales sharply, staring down at N quietly as she has no idea about how to feel. He clearly wasn't interested in killing her anymore, but she'd still a bit untrusting of him. He stares up at her, eventually stepping a bit closer and giving her hand a small nudge with his nose. She pulls her hand away, her optics hollowing out a bit more as she watches him closely. 

N whines again, his tail drooping a bit behind him as he sets himself down on his hind legs. Uzi is silent, still not knowing what to do, think or even how to feel. He reaches up, slowly and hesitantly, before giving her hand a little nudge with his own. Uzi doesn't fight this time, just simply watches, her core racing at a million miles per hour. 

N lets out a small, dragged out whine, leaning forward to bunt her gently with his head. Was it reassurance? Was it comfort? Was it help? She didn't know. All she really knew was that he felt sorry for her, which just made her feel a bit worse, in a way. He bunts her again, pulling her away from her thoughts once more as he tries his hardest to offer his help without using words.

Despite not remembering how to speak English --- or, at all, for that matter --- He still feels guilty for the situation she was put in by her father. He reaches his hand up, gently pulling her closer as he holds her gaze quietly. Uzi yanks it away quickly, not rude, but simply anxious and unfamiliar with the feelings in the moment. 

N huffs slightly, her resistance causes him to become a bit impatient, eventually causing him to let out a small noise as he tries to communicate with her. Uzi's expression shifts to a look of confusion as she slowly lowers her hand. "...Uh.. What...?" 

N huffs again, making the same noise but louder. His efforts are futile, however, as Uzi cocks her head slightly in confusion whilst trying to decipher the noise he'd just made. "...Uh." She murmurs, slowly and awkwardly shaking her head, reaching her hand up to scratch the back of her neck. 

N scratches at the floor, his tail now swishing behind him in frustration. Uzi sighs, sinking down to the floor while her back remains firmly pressed against the hard metal door. "Sorry, dude, don't really speak Murder Drone language..." 

N huffs again, but pads over slowly to sit beside Uzi, with his back against the door. He looks over at her, watching as she hugs her knees to her chest and goes silent, the look on her face suggesting heavily that she is distraught. He whimpers quietly, nudging her knee with his cheek. Uzi looks up at him, reaching up to playfully push his head away. "Go away, dude..."

N refuses however, and instead rests his face on her knees, wrapping his tail around her. Uzi chuckles, roughly ruffling his hair, which earns a grunt from him, and repeats herself again, "Go away, dude!" 

'Oh dear, now I've got a clingy drone...' She thinks to herself, laughing slightly as she tries to push away the insistent Drone, who's continuously teasing her by resting his head on different parts of her.

Oh well...

This should certainly be an interesting development between Murder Drones and Worker Drones...