Chapter Text
PHASE TWO: SOMETIMES GOODBYE IS A SECOND CHANCE...
…
She loved the rain.
Granted, she had to learn to love it. The weather was always the same here.
Just rain, rain, and more rain.
Tessa James Elliot had a knack of staying outside of her home. She would much rather spend her time working on her drones, rather than be anywhere near that dull, dreary mansion.
________________________
It was a cold winter day in the early 31st century.
Tessa wished she had lived at least a few centuries ago, because it no longer snowed anywhere on Earth.
Back then, the cold came with those pretty snowflakes. Now, it was just... cold. And that's really boring.
And yet, people back in the 21st century believed climate change wasn't real…
Foolish.
…
Tessa and the rest of her family lived in Australia, one of the very few countries that still remained mostly the way it was around a thousand years ago…
everything changed from the end of the 21st century going into the 22nd.
The United States of America had split up in the 2090s due to political differences and sheer lack of care from its leaders.
The Pacific Ocean bordering states, California, Oregon, and Washington seceded from the union to create a new country called “Pacifica”, and they were later joined by British Columbia and Alaska.
Shortly after them, the New England states, along with New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania seceded as well, forming “The Republic of New England.”
New Brunswick and Newfoundland followed swiftly, leaving Canada in the dust, just like British Columbia did.
The rest of the former United States and Canadian provinces had remained the same with the exception of Florida (which had started drowning under the Atlantic Ocean due to the ice melting around that time, and by the current day was but a mere memory), Quebec, and Texas who both became independent.
Everything else that remained simply called themselves “The United Republic of America.”
Yes, this whole mess caused “The Great North American War.”
What was once Mexico and Central America was run over and swallowed up by the URA.
Unlike North America however, Europe was completely uninhabitable due to later wars.
China and Russia combined forces and became one country (after swallowing up Mongolia) for a while for the sake of survival with the rest of Asia, but in the present day they are separated again.
Every single African nation collectively decided to cut themselves off from the rest of the planet around that time as well.
And that decision may or may not have been good for them.
Nobody knew how they reacted to what came just after 2101, as the world would never hear from Africa ever again.
________________________
Once the Great North American war concluded, World War 3 sprung right into action in the year 2101. In reality, WW3 happened much earlier, but everyone always thought that war would be the one where the atomic bombs are dropped, so they saved the namesake for that inevitable day.
For about four decades, humanity was forced to hide in underground safehouses and fallout shelters, until they could come out of their hidey-holes and rebuild.
And rebuild they did! It was a tiring effort, but it got done!
Blood, sweat, and tears were put into the rebuilding of the world, and peace lasted for a very long, long time!
Until it all came crashing down all over again, during World War 4 in the 2620s, only not nuclear that time so people didn't have to hide in bunkers for decades… billions perished, yet again.
War. War never changes.
After WW4, humanity no longer wanted to rebuild…
Wouldn't everything just get destroyed all over again in another stupid war??
…
And that's where JCJenson came in.
The worker drones:
Autonomous robots meant to do all the work that humans themselves refuse to do!
At first, it was great!
The original generation of worker drones were doing exactly as they were supposed to, and the humans could relax and do as they pleased without needing to work on anything themselves!
But as soon as the second generation of drones started coming around 20 or so years later, their children started to become… rebellious.
They could think for themselves. AI had never been this sentient before, and humanity started questioning what sentience truly was.
Why JCJenson gave the drones the capability to have children, and had so many similarities to humans was a big mystery.
But nobody would question that company without disappearing shortly afterwards, so everyone stopped asking questions about it really, really quickly.
It was around this same time, the 27th century, that humanity started forming fulltime colonies off-world.
And JCJenson had cornered that market as well, fully capitalizing on space travel.
They renamed themselves to JCJenson IN SPAAAAAACCCCCEEEEE!!
(For some dumb reason)
There was no taking down that company. They were too powerful.
…
Until someone went and murdered the former CEO about a year ago, that is.
________________________
We are now in the early 31st century, and Jonathan Carlisle Jenson XI had been murdered in cold blood.
Despite his extremely high profile, his killer had yet to be found.
There may have even been two suspects, but nobody knew with absolute certainty. That was just a rumor.
He was the previous CEO of JCJenson, the grandfather of Tessa James Elliot, and the father of Louisa Jenson-Elliot, who took over the company after his untimely demise.
Louisa was the first female CEO the company has ever had, as the sons of the former CEOs were always the ones who took charge.
JCJ XI had no sons though, unlike every previous generation over the centuries, so it had to be Louisa to take the position this time.
She gave the offer of the CEO role to James when they got married, but he denied it.
James Marshall Elliot wanted to run his own company, and not rely solely on the already existing fortunes of JCJ. He wanted his own success story!
While Louisa was frustrated by this, she respected him enough to have the guts to tell her no. He was the only one she allowed to deny her.
(It's a shame she wasn't like that for her daughter too).
James is the co-founder of the “31st Century Act of Media Preservation” bill, or “31CAMP” for short.
A childhood friend of his, Marcus Mallory, helped him out with getting it passed into law, and the two of them created a shop together in their town.
Their shop held so much music and art that has been lost and discarded throughout the last millennia!
Often, James would go through the huge dumpster piles that littered the planet, and would find gold!
Well… gold for him. One man's trash was another man's treasure, after all!
And it seemed like his daughter Tessa also picked up this habit!
She had saved many discarded worker drones from the trash heap next door to the mansion…
V was the first to be found, many years ago.
For a very long time, V was the only drone Tessa had found that could think for herself. Every other drone in the manor Tessa had saved from the pile were of the first generation, who could not think independently. How convenient for his wife, Louisa.
However, a couple of months ago, she found another drone, J.
Tessa was very fond of J, and James himself did everything he could to keep her and V both around, despite his wife's protests.
Even though he himself wasn't around often at all.
It's something that James was very frustrated about, but Tessa understood that he was happy doing his job, so she never forced him to stay home.
If she ever asked though, he would go and stay home in a heartbeat!
James loved his daughter more than anything in the galaxy.
If she ever needed him, he'd be there.
But James knows that Louisa feels the same way about their family, and could be there for Tessa when he couldn't be!
(She doesn’t, and wouldn't. He doesn't know this though…)
…
James Elliot used to be so incredibly poor, growing up working in some mines alongside his friend and a lot of drones. He never even met his parents.
Because of all that, unlike his wife, he massively respected the worker drones!
They practically raised him, so despite all of the anti-drone propaganda the world constantly spews out, James knows the truth. They ARE sentient, and are people just as much as himself and his family are!
If only Louisa thought the same way. Hell, she runs the company that made them, if anybody should know about this, it was her!
No, she just doesn't care. James can't even argue with his wife about this, it's the one and only thing she won't budge with him on.
Louisa only listened to him (most of the time).
She was basically a yandere. He regrets marrying her due to her obsessive nature, but the man didn't realize his predicament at the time… and if he didn't marry her, Tessa would never have existed.
Had James grown up rich like his wife did, he doesn't even want to know how snobby he would have turned out.
Sure, he's a multi-millionaire now, but the man had some basic empathy, a lot of rich people seemed to lack that.
Hell, people IN GENERAL seemed to lack that.
James sighed, as he looked out the window of his private spaceship, leaving the back water planet known as Copper-9.
He has been stationed here for a business trip, as well as placed on many other planets across the galaxy for nearly a decade now!
And he was finally heading home!
It’s been too long since he had been home, and seen both his wife and daughter Tessa in person!
Being a representative of BOTH JCJenson and his own company, there are so many responsibilities sitting on his shoulders.
The man has been all over the planet and even beyond. Endless paperwork, important business meetings all across the Milky Way galaxy, forced to play nice with greedy ass politicians and other CEOs, it gets so tiring. He hates this side of business life, but it was a necessary evil.
James has video called Tessa many times throughout the years, but that’s not the same as physically being there, and both of them know this.
He’s barely chatted with Louisa at all though, besides him letting her know he’s okay.
Not that her yandere ass hasn't spammed his messages every day he’s been gone anyways.
James hadn’t told either of them that he was coming home early, he wanted to surprise Tessa! Her birthday was tomorrow, and being there with her was a gift of its own!
He knows that Louisa is most likely out drunk with her “friends”, and likely will forget about Tessa’s birthday tomorrow.
But James doesn't forget.
…
A part of him wants to divorce Louisa's sorry ass, but doesn’t for Tessa’s sake.
James is under the assumption that Tessa is just fine.
We know that she isn’t of course, but the poor girl can’t bring herself to tell her father of Louisa’s abuse.
V and J both are under the assumption that James is a deadbeat father, and knows what’s happening to his daughter… that surely can’t bring up any issues when he gets home… right??
…
TESSA POV
…
She found a new one today.
Digging through the neighbor’s trash heap as she usually does, Tessa had found yet another discarded drone!
"N-0X0010010… I think I will just call you N, little buddy!” Tessa said to herself.
Considering the dirtied and ruined clothes that covered their damaged body, she assumes this one was male.
The girl dug quite far into the trash-hole, and struggled to make her way out.
It really didn't help that she was lugging a few hundred pounds of hopefully sentient metal over her shoulders, but she had to keep pushing through. She would save this poor lad!
‘Maybe this one will get along with V? J doesn’t seem to be very fond of her, and she really needs a friend that isn’t just me…’ Tessa thought to herself, walking back to the dreary Elliot mansion.
Oh, how she hated that place.
Her boots were squeaking as she walked over the puddles on the ground. She jumped around, kicking up the puddle water, just trying to have a little fun on her otherwise boring walk back.
When Tessa got home, she immediately took her boots off so as to not stain the nice carpets with mud (and so her drunken mother would have no reason to assault her later when she got home).
She immediately ran upstairs to her room, booted up her trusty PC, and got right to work!
Before she could do anything else for poor N, she needed to reboot him.
Tessa looked into his files, and found out he was from the 4th drone generation, just like J and V were!
“YES!!! HE’S SENTIENT!! FINALLY, ANOTHER ONE TO ADD TO THE GANG!!” Tessa screamed to herself, startling J, who just entered the room as her savior started screaming.
“Boss? What do you mean another? Did you really find another sentient one so soon after finding me??” J questioned incredulously.
“Yes I did, Jaybird! His name is N! Booting him up now…” the girl revealed as she continued to work her magic.
…
N POV
…
Darkness.
My old friend.
He’s been here for quite a while.
The last thing N knew, he jumped above his sister, trying to shield and protect her from a falling boulder in the mines they both worked at.
And then? Lights out.
Only just now, was there a tiny speck of light shining through his visor.
It got bigger, and bigger, until he finally reached the end of the tunnel, and his pure white optics opened up for the first time in… wait… how long has it been??
The drone looked around the room he suddenly found himself in.
Right in front of his face was an extremely happy looking girl with brown hair and bright emerald green eyes, and a drone beside her, with pigtails and a maid uniform.
‘Both of them look rather fancy… where even am I??’ he thinks to himself.
N opened his mouth to ask some burning questions of his, but he wouldn’t get the chance quite yet, as the human girl cupped his cheeks, lifted him up and squealed with joy.
‘Oh robo-god this girl must be quite strong if she can lift me with ease like that!! What on Earth??’ N continued thinking.
After the girl was done fawning over him, he finally got his chance.
“W-where am I?? Who are you?? How long have I been out??”
“My name is Tessa! I live in this mansion with my… not so very nice mother! Don’t tell her I said that please, she will hurt me and most certainly kill you again if you do!
In fact, be careful around any humans walking around this place besides me. People are already horrible to drones regularly, it would probably be even worse for a zombie drone!”
“A ZOMBIE DRONE??? I DIED???” N yelled.
“Sadly yes. But you lived! Well, with my help of course…” Tessa responded.
“What about my sister?? Do you know what happened to her??” N asked.
Tessa’s face dropped a bit.
N had a sister? Was she in the same area he was buried in? She would have to go check—
“TESSA! COME DOWNSTAIRS RIGHT THIS SECOND, YOUNG LADY!” a voice boomed from across the house.
The poor girl's face dropped even further, realizing her mother came home a bit earlier than she was expecting. And she sounded MAD…
“R-right away, mother!” Tessa responded.
“I’m sorry to cut our introductions short, but I will be back in a bit! J? Please show N around the upstairs for now. Avoid mother as if your life depends on it, because N’s currently does!”
“Of course, boss! Follow me, new hire.” The drone apparently named J spoke to N for the first time.
Tessa left the room and went downstairs. J and N walked in the other direction, showing him what would be his charging quarters alongside herself and V, the masters’ rooms, and even met up with V eventually, who was currently cleaning out the upstairs storage closet.
…
V POV
…
“J? Who’s the guy?” V timidly asked her coworker.
“Hello there! My name is N-0X0010010, but you can just call me N! It’s a pleasure to meet you!!” N responded before J could.
J scowled at the new guy suddenly acting like a literal puppy, but V on the other hand smiled back at him and his happy-go-lucky demeanor.
This place was needlessly depressing, so it was nice to see somebody SMILING for once, V thought to herself.
Tessa smiled a lot, but most of them were faked. Being her main caretaker for the entirety of the girl’s teenage years, which are very important years in a human’s life, she knew so much about her.
And her mother…
V could barely even call Louisa a mother.
As for James? She had only met him briefly before he had to leave for his duties on and off world. It’s been nearly 8 years. She has no real issues with him exactly, but she wonders if he knew about Tessa’s… situation, and dipped.
If V wasn't terrified for her own life because of Louisa, she would have adopted Tessa herself by now and taken her to safety, far far away.
But considering that Louisa was quite literally the CEO of the company who made drones to begin with, there is NOWHERE they could go to hide from her.
Tessa saw V as more of a sister-like figure rather than a motherly one however. V didn’t mind this, no matter how awful Louisa was, she was still her mom.
Drones being the adopted parents of a human is super uncommon, but it has happened before.
…
V suddenly realized that she was spacing out, and brought herself back into reality to introduce herself to the new guy. It would be rude to not tell him her own name.
“My name is V-X00100000, but you can just call me V! It’s nice to meet you too, N.” She responded to N, about a minute after staring off into the abyss, overthinking.
She does that a lot.
N didn’t seem to mind, though.
“V? What a nice name! Easy to remember, just like mine!” N said back, acting like the awkward minute of silence never happened.
“Yeeeahhhhhhhh… I’m gonna go check on Tessa and make sure she’s doing okay. She went back to her room sobbing while you two were doing… whatever it is that just happened. I’ll see you two liabilities later.” J rudely said to them both as she walked off.
V and N both blushed when they looked at each other in the optics.
‘I hope the new guy stays for a while… it’s nice to have more help from sentient drones and not just the first generation suck-ups.’ V thought to herself.
…
J POV
…
The pigtailed maid slowly opened the door and walked into her savior's room. The lights were fully out, with a crying girl lying down on her bed under the covers.
J hasn’t been working here for very long, only a few months. But it was more than enough time to figure out just how bad things truly were for poor Tessa.
“Boss? I know this is a stupid question to ask, but are you alright?”
Tessa briefly stopped sobbing, and looked at the maid right into her p[early white optics, and sighed.
“No, Jaybird. I’m not okay. I’m NEVER okay with… her…” Tessa sniffled, bringing her arm up to her eyes to clear her face of her tears.
After seeing Tessa’s left arm however, J was horrified. She was cut open, and BLEEDING all over her bed!
“Boss, you’re bleeding! We need to get you fixed up fast, I guess I’m heading back to the bathroom then.”
J grabbed Tessa by her uninjured arm, and rushed off back towards the bathroom with the human girl in tow. V and N were still chatting it up in the large closet, which just so happened to be right next to the bathroom.
“Tessa?? What happened this time??” V asked, also horrified to see the gash on her.
“It’s nothing V, I’ll be okay! Just a… rugburn is all!”
V didn’t believe this for a second and everyone knew it.
Even N, who literally just rebooted and came back to life not even two hours ago, looked very concerned for his savior.
J took the bandages out of the cupboard behind the mirror and started wrapping the girl’s arm with it.
“M-mother came home, and left again. She literally just came in to let some anger out on me. She said she was going on a very important business trip, and likely won't be back for a few days.
Not like I want her here for my birthday anyways, and not like she would even remember it either in the first place…” Tessa said to her drones, starting to sob all over again.
After she was fixed up by J, N walked up to give her a hug.
He barely knew her, but it was clear that she needed support. And N had more than enough love and care to give!
“Thank you. So, so much. I’m glad I saved you today, N. You’re such a sweetheart.” She melted at his sudden affection, still crying, but now some of those tears were of joy and not just pain.
J scowled again, but it didn’t last long because she and V both went in for a hug as well.
“I promise I will help you find your sister tomorrow... I really hope she was buried in close proximity to you, N.”
________________________
After that emotional trainwreck, the 4 of them walked downstairs to watch a movie. It was just after midnight by now, and the gang only got 20 minutes into watching Terminator 2 before the door creaked open once again.
J, V, and N’s eyes all hollowed out, and Tessa’s went wide in raw fear, assuming that either they were being robbed, or because Louisa came home again
(They all hoped it was the former, as even a thief was most likely kinder than the mistress).
But Tessa and V were both extremely surprised, while on the other hand, J and N were confused. The man who entered their home was well dressed, with a top hat and a nice blue suit. Brown hair and beard, with signature navy blue eyes.
James Elliot had finally come home after nearly 6 years.
…
“... surprise!!” He said to the group staring daggers at him.
“DAD!!” Tessa ran up to her father and hugged him so hard he heard his back crack!
“Ohhhh that hurt... I didn’t realize my back was that cramped due to stress. Nice to finally see you too, sweetheart.” James said to his daughter, in slight pain that quickly started to feel better.
V was shocked. The man himself was here. And she had a lot of questions to ask him, though they can come up in a moment.
Tessa needs a good moment. It was her birthday now, after all.
“I-I didn't know you were coming home!”
“I wanted it to be a birthday surprise! I know that I haven’t… been here for a very long time, but I could never miss my daughter’s 18th birthday!”
Father and daughter hugged for what seemed like an eternity. At least, up until his eyes laid upon her bandaged covered arm.
“What happened to your arm, Tessa? I spoke to you just a few days ago on video, and it wasn't bandaged then.” James asked.
"Wouldn't you know??” J spoke up, snapping out of her thoughts and realizing who this guy was.
“Ah, you must be J. I’ve heard a lot of good things about you! And… no?? How was I supposed to know? Do you?? Is she alright??” James questioned J.
“Umm… sir? If you are Ms. Tessa’s dad, I feel like I should inform you that her mother caused this injury... somehow?”
J glared at N in fear for his life and for his stupidity, after revealing what he just did, silently praying to whatever deity that was statistically the most real that James wasn’t anything like Louisa. Otherwise, he would be dead where he stood.
Thankfully, he wasn’t!
(Not in this universe, at least…)
“Louisa did this? Why? Where is she even?” James asked, a little panicked for his daughter’s safety now.
“Out.” The shy maid said with venom dripping from her voice, a rare occurrence from V.
“Just like you have been for the last 8 years, as Tessa suffered under your wife’s abuse. I might as well just say it now, as N here just let the cat out of the bag.” V revealed, the darkness in her voice still present.
James was absolutely shocked by what he was hearing.
But then another thought came to him suddenly.
He stared down at the male drone, who V just called N, who was also currently wearing a very familiar miner’s outfit.
‘It can’t be…’ James thought to himself.
“N? As in Serial Designation N-0X0010010??” The man with the top hat asked the drone.
“Umm… yeah! That’s me! But how do you know that? Were you the one who threw me out??” N asked him, a little scared now at the possibility.
“Oh my god… It’s actually you!
No, we didn’t know each other TOO well, as you and I were both in separate units back in those awful mines… my name is James Marshall Elliot! And it’s a pleasure to meet you again, N. Welcome to my home!”
N was floored. He remembered now.
“JAMES?? LIL’ JIMMY??? NO WAY, IS THAT ACTUALLY YOU???”
James awkwardly chuckled at that.
Even as a child, he hated being called that nickname, Lil’ Jimmy.
But he would give N the benefit of the doubt for now. He was just as shocked that he was here in the first place!
Man, this has been such a weird day…
“Oh dear robo-god… how long have I been dead for?? You’re all grown up… it had to have been at least 20 years…” N realized.
“I left the mines on my 16th birthday, and I’m 46 now. It’s actually been a little over 30 years since I last saw you.
How did you die and end up in the neighbor’s trash?? I know it had to have been from there, since Tessa clearly saved you, but how?? And what happened to Lil’ Cyn??”
James now had a lot of questions for N.
“Cyn…” N started to tear up a bit thinking about what could have happened to his sister, and that’s when Tessa decided to speak up.
“N mentioned that he had a sister with us earlier. I’m gonna go look for her in the pile after a much needed night of good sleep… in fact, I’m gonna go to bed right now. We can figure out the rest in the morning.” Tessa said as she slowly walked upstairs, clearly sleep deprived.
…
James looked upon his daughter with worry, then back down to N. There was so much the two of them needed to catch up on! J started to follow V upstairs until…
“J, it was very nice to finally meet you, but please stay down here with the two of us for a while longer. Just because I’m going to catch up with N, what he said about Louisa was deeply concerning, and needs to be discussed further. Please, sit. I have all night.”
J complied, and sat next to N. She glares at N with sheer hatred in her eyes.
Tessa didn’t want James knowing about Louisa’s abusive nature.
J knew telling him would have been the morally right thing to do, and she doesn’t fault N for that, but she also wanted to respect Tessa’s wishes… especially since she saved her life (and may or may not have a small crush on her).
Oh well, her hands were tied now.
And it was all this dumb drone N’s fault.
________________________
V followed Tessa upstairs, to tuck her in after such a hard day.
Sure, she was 18 now and didn’t need to be babied by the shy maid, but Tessa appreciated the act anyways. She started crying again, though she didn’t know if these were tears of pain, joy, or whatever else.
All she knew was that she was tired.
So damn tired.
Eventually the girl drifted off to sleep, as the tears continued to slowly flow down her freckled face.
V sighed, a few of her own tears forming for her. She didn’t know what to do.
They couldn’t just leave this place, Louisa would do everything in her power to hunt them down.
And she had a lot of power.
However, a new player has entered the scene.
James was home now. And now that the horrible secret was let out of the bag thanks to N’s obliviousness, he was almost certainly gonna stay for a while and figure out the full scope of what was happening here.
No matter how upset at him for being gone for all this time that V was, his presence WILL shake things up. Maybe she should stop seeing the bad in him, and look closer at the good things that could come from his newfound presence? It’s not like he was mean or anything…
She needs more allies. Not any more enemies. Both herself, and Tessa.
V slowly walked into the group charging room a bit tired herself, which had a third charging spot she had set up for N earlier.
A fourth one may or may not be needed tomorrow, but that was a tomorrow V issue.
Hopefully, Louisa stayed gone for a while. Tessa deserves a good birthday for once.
These were some of the final thoughts of the shy maid before she slowly went into sleep mode for the night.
V prayed that better days were ahead for them all.
I mean, how much worse could things really get?
…
Tessa James Elliot (Human)
James Marshall Elliot (Human)
Louisa Jenson-Elliot
