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Things have only gone downhill for V after the fight with Cyn. She expected N to be ecstatic seeing her alive, considering she sacrificed herself for their benefit, but all she was met with after the fight was N and Uzi walking away together. At first she was frozen. Confused. Maybe he's just in shock? After all, that was pretty traumatic… hell, even for her. That was something she'd been building up to for the past 8 years, and now, she's free. Cyn is dead.
At least that's what she thought before she heard her faint voice from Uzi's room.
“Light nod. Well done.”
It was quiet, yet unmistakable. That was her. Uzi’s eyes had become a strange color after she fought Cyn, and V didn't really know the details why, but she ignored it at first, hoping that maybe it was just a side effect of her solver. But now it was clear it was more than just a side effect.
Without hesitation, V drew her SMG in one hand, claw in the other. One shot to the head, core out. That's her plan.
As she opened Uzi’s door, instead of the imposing form of Cyn, she was meant with the emo teen, same as ever.
“V, what the hell! Get out of my room!”
Uzi said, standing up to shove her back. V, though, was done entertaining this. She grabbed her by the neck, slamming her against the wall, a poster’s thumbtacks coming loose, causing it to fall to the floor.
“Cyn. Where is she.”
V’s voice was cold. No nonsense. She was getting rid of that terror once and for all, the possessed creature that's left her insane since the Manor.
Instead of fear, though, Uzi simply rolled her eyes.
“Ugh, God, she's in my tail.”
Uzi swung her tail around, clearly annoyed by V’s anger and paranoia. The tail stared at V with interest, a yellow glint in its eyes.
“Hello, V.”
Cyn’s voice came from it, and V felt rage boil up inside of her. Without thinking, she grabbed Uzi's Tail, slamming it against her desk as she deployed her sword in her left hand. This thing was going. Now.
Uzi managed to act first though. She grabbed a pocket knife off her desk, quickly stabbing V in the left arm, temporarily disabling her until she regenerated. To make matters worse, N walked in at the moment V stumbled back, getting a not-so nice scene of his Girlfriend being attacked.
“V! Don't touch her!”
He said, grabbing Uzi, shoving her behind him. V switched her right hand to her sword, not giving up yet.
“It’s Cyn! She's in Uzi's tail!”
She said, her voice filled with panicked determination, similar to that of the tone she spoke in while fighting Cyn in the first place.
“She's dormant!” N insisted, keeping Uzi behind him. “Uzi still has full control over her body!” N’s eyes were filled with a very rare sight: Anger.
V still doesn't want to back off though. She took a step forward towards the two of them.
“I don't care if Cyn is a voice on a TV remote, I want her DEAD, N!” V’s eyes displayed a manic look, waving her hands around wildly. “I don't want to hear that little SHIT’S VOICE EVER AGAIN! MOVE!”
She'd never yelled at N like this. Been so aggressive. So angry. But at this point it didn't matter. She attempted to reach for Uzi's tail, but N stopped her, a tight grip on her hand.
“Don't hurt her. It's still Uzi.”
He said, his voice less angry, more begging now. He knows V will be bound to listen to him, and Uzi cowering behind him, tears streaming down her visor… it certainly doesn't help.
V looks down for a moment, remembering the years she spent scared. Trying to protect N by keeping him in the dark. Maybe if he wouldn't remember, it couldn't hurt him, she told herself…
“Fuck you, N.”
She stormed past the two of them, trying to ignore the angry tears at the corner of her eyes.
V storms out of the bunker, trying to hold back the tears threatening to fall down her face. She's gotta get out of here, before she kills someone. She practically smashes the door panels, them luckily having been programmed to let her out. She almost runs out into the snow, the cold calming her down, allowing her to let out a long, deep breath. Why doesn't he like her. Why can't they just be friends. She doesn't even care about dating him anymore, she just wants to be respected. Treated like she matters. When did she stop mattering? When she was forced to kill thousands of people on Earth? Why is that her fault? Why does he have to hate her?
V’s mind spiralled out of control, feeling the need for some sort of release. Luckily, in the distance, she spots a figure. The familiar shape of a worker drone, small, weak. There it is.
She takes to the sky, taking a deep breath to steel herself. She's V. She's strong. She can't be swayed by some guy who's forgotten about her. She circles the drone from the sky, trying to get a good look at what their wearing, maybe she can get an idea if they'll really be a threat. To her enjoyment, the drone seems entirely unarmed, wearing nothing but a winter coat, and what appears to be a gas mask, or some sort of equally protective face mask. Hell yeah. This is going to be fun.
She crashes down into the snow, causing a small shockwave, and snow to fly everywhere, covering the drone, temporarily blinding them. The drone screams, blindly running away. This is the fun part. When she gets to tease them. Watch them suffer.
“Where are you going, little guy?”
She deploys her wings, taking to the skies once more, landing in front of them this time. With a sickening crunch, she drives a claw into their chest, seeing it come out their back. She lets out a manic laugh as she hears a gasp from the drone.
“Shhh, shh. It's best to just accept this is what's going to happen.”
She rips her claw out of their chest, feeling oil splatter against her coat. She shoves the figure back, wanting to see them run in terror, and expectantly they do, bright red oil covering the snowy ground.
Wait, bright red?
She stares at the blood covering the ground. That's not right. Is her visor glitching?
She scans the liquid as the drone continues to flee.
“Hemto/Blood. Species, Human.”
She looks down at her claws, noticing the red liquid dripping from them as well.
Her mind flashes back to the very few memories she had of the genocide of Earth. This is a sight she's all too familiar with in those memories. Not oil dripping from her claws, but blood. Human blood.
Her breathing begins to speed up. How… what…
She remains frozen for a moment, before giving chase after the figure.
It doesn't take long for her to find the drone… well, as she recently learned, the human, stumbling through the snow, a thick trail of blood covering the ground. She doesn't know much about human biology, but she's learned from experience that vital bodily fluids being outside the body when they're not supposed to normally isn't a very good thing.
She runs up to them, seeing the blood staining their coat.
“Hey, don't move…”
She mutters, her voice almost unsure. She's getting flashbacks to all the innocent people she slaughtered, and it's making a bit of her old self come back.
Understandably terrified, the figure continues to try to run, but it's pretty obvious they won't make it far, and are definitely not in a state to fight back. V just decides to go for it. She murdered thousands of humans on Earth. She's not adding one on Copper-9.
She quickly grabs their left arm, holding them in place.
“You're bleeding a lot, so just… stay still.” Her voice continues to remain uncertain, but at this point, she'd rather her usual crazy demeanor be ruined than let another human die by her claws, not after 8 years of trying to forget. She grabs their other arm, trying to get a good look at their wound without accidentally injuring them more. The human tries to wriggle free, but V holds them still.
“Stop trying to run! You're going to die!”
She says, her voice uncharacteristically panicked. The more blood she sees, the more memories of Earth spill back to her, and the more terrified she feels. At this point, her Manor personality is almost completely returned, her voice having regained the fear it once had. She puts a hand over their chest, her metal hand immediately wet with blood.
“I'm helping you, alright? Please don't try to run…” She begs, reaching around to put another hand on the figure’s back, covering the other side of the wound. She knows about as much first aid as a 4 year old, but putting pressure on stuff seems to be a universal temporary cure. She looks up into the figure’s eyes, or more accurately their gas mask, and more concerningly, noticing it splattered with blood.
“I-I got it…”
She grabs the bottom of the gas mask, pulling it up so they can actually see. Almost instantly, her own face is splattered with blood as the human coughs on her. She wipes off her face, trying to ignore how much the blood makes her want to puke. She didn't even know she could puke…
She can feel herself panicking already. She's not used to being on a time crunch. Especially one as serious as this, and one she caused.
“Shit, just hold still…”
She pauses temporarily as she looks at the figure's face. Though blood splattered, they look unmistakably young. Uzi young. No, younger. It's hard to tell with humans but she can tell he's definitely under 18.
“Oh fuck… oh fuck… oh fuck…”
Her breathing speeds up as she continues to panic. A memory flashes through her mind… a middle school. Blood splattering the walls.
She's so entranced in terror she doesn't notice the human attempting to reach for the gas mask, which has been discarded in the snow. She also hears a noise from him, struggled. Choked.
He can't breathe.
She reaches down to grab the gas mask, momentarily taking her hand of his chest. She slips it back on him, hearing his breathing, though still choked and gurgled, actually slightly come through. She quickly placed her hand back on his chest, this time with more force.
“I’m sorry, I'm so fucking sorry…”
She says in a panic, her mind completely overwhelmed with both memories of the past, and visions of this kid laying dead in the snow.
She won't let that happen.
She looks up, trying to spot anything remotely helpful. Faintly through the snow she sees a sign in the distance, it's damaged, missing letters, though she can make out “Prosperity Regional Hospital.”
She keeps her hands on his wound, trying to walk him over to the hospital.
“Don't die, don't die, please don't die…”
She hasn't felt this emotional, this open, since she watched N get torn to pieces back at that manor. Pinned against the wall as she tried to save him, to run to him…
As she tries to lead him towards the hospital, she notices him stumbling, tripping on his feet. She feels another surge of panic, deciding they really don't have time for this. She moves a hand off his chest, picking him up and sprinting for the hospital. She knows it's a risky move, but he definitely won't be able to make it there himself.
She makes it to the snowed-in doors of the hospital, setting him down behind a rock. She switches her left hand to her rocket launcher, firing a rocket at the door. She doesn't wait for the smoke to clear, picking him up once more, running into the dark building.
She turns on her night vision, looking up at one of the signs of the hospital, trying to find where the ER wing is. However, the words are a jumble.
“FUCKING READ!”
She slaps herself across the face, taking another look. She makes out the words “Surgery” and an arrow. She runs towards it, feeling blood dripping down her legs.
She kicks in the door of the first operating room she sees, placing him on the operating table, putting pressure on his wound again.
“Are you alive? C'mon, talk!”
She begs, her voice an unstable mix of her typical psycho self, and the shy girl left back on Earth. She hears a faint mumble from the human. Good enough.
She looks around the room frantically, trying to find a medical device of some kind. To her relief, she spots a case labeled “Instant Coagulation-” She doesn't take time to read the rest, grabbing it with her tail, swinging it into her hands. She opens it, finding a small, tattoo-gun shaped object. She looks at the instructions for a moment, before shaking her head, the print too small for her to read.
She presses the device against his wound, pressing the trigger, hoping it does something. It emits a quiet hum, and she watches as his bleeding slows. It hasn't completely stopped, but it's manageable.
She looks around the room once more, trying to find something to seal the wound. She finds a hose like object on the wall, a sign above it in print large enough for her to read.
“Tissue reconstruction tool. Use only for emergencies when-”
This seems like enough of an emergency to her, and she snatches the hose, looking at his wound a bit closer this time, it being easier to see now that it's not spraying blood onto her face when she tries to get a closer look. From what she can tell, or rather, guess, his right lung seems to have been the main injury. She presses the hose against it, watching in relieved surprise as the destroyed tissue is moved back into place. She flips him over, doing it for the other side of his lung as well, trying to ignore the implications of his wound being so large that she can see his internal organs.
Once that's fixed, she moves onto the skin itself, paying close attention, trying to make sure she doesn't miss a spot. As she moves on to finish up his front side, the tool stops working, making a quiet alarm sound. She tosses it to the floor, ripping the door off a cabinet and rummaging through it. She finds something which looks a bit like a stapler. She looks back at him, quickly deciding if the wound is the right size. Quarter wide… should be fine.
She runs back over to the operating table, almost tripping on the cabinet door. She kicks it in anger, it slamming into a wall, going at least half a foot deep.
She runs back to the operating table, looking at the stapler, then his wound.
“I really hope this helps…”
She pinches the skin together, stapling it shut with a few soft clicks. Each one makes her feel more and more uncomfortable. Human beings aren't a book report, you can't just staple them together, right…?
Though, she notices it does appear to seal up the wound well enough. She looks at it, seeing, finally, his bleeding has reduced to something around a paper cut.
She takes a step back, walking over to that same cabinet, grabbing a large band-aid. She sticks it on him, letting out a shaky sigh of relief.
Now that everything’s stable, she has time to fully comprehend what just happened. And as she does… tears start falling.
“Oh god…”
She covers her mouth, feeling horrified at what just happened, and extremely overwhelmed. She runs over to the sink in the operating room, attempting to clean the blood off herself, mostly out of disgust. Partly at the fact she almost just murdered a human for the first time in 8 years, and partly because of how much genuine emotion she showed. She doesn't like showing emotion, especially panic. It makes her feel weak. And she feels extremely weak.
“What the fuck is wrong with me…”
She mutters angrily, finding the blood having dried into her coat, making the faux fur of her collar feel damp and sticky. She finds a piece of broken glass to look in, noticing the blood has stained into her hair. Normally oil just comes out easily… ugh.
She washes her hair under the water, hoping desperately that this isn't a new permanent addition. Looks may not be her main priority, but a red streak on her hair, in an area where such a color is rare, would certainly turn heads, and not in a good way.
She manages to get out the blood, and she lets out a groan, leaning against the sink. This is why she isn't this vulnerable. Just like with N, it leads only to further issues.
“Why can't I just shut up and mind my own fucking business…”
She puts her head in her hands, trying to regain her usual stoicism, but her mind is filled with the images of things she did on Earth. Things she never wanted to do, things that turned her into this. Into a monster.
She lets out a loud, angry growl. What the hell is she thinking?! Why is she being so vulnerable? She's supposed to be stoic. She's not supposed to think about her past, she's meant to be a badass robot who doesn't care about empathy or feelings. She's been that for 7 years, and that's not changing now!
She quickly straightens herself, walking towards the door of the operating room. That little shit will be fine on his own. That teenager will be fine on his own. That teenager will be fine with the debilitating chest wound… Goddamnit!
She stomps back over to the operating table, staring down at the unconscious human. Just walk away. Just walk the fuck away. Just leave goddamnit!
She takes a step back, pulling on her hair. She's not normally this conflicted. She hates being this conflicted. She hates being this emotional. She's a robot, why didn't someone program the ability to turn off certain emotions?! Empathy, off. Love, off. Just that would solve EVERY PROBLEM SHE'S HAD IN THE PAST 7 YEARS!
She sits down in a chair, pulling her legs up and burying her face in her knees. She just needs a minute, that's all. Just a few minutes…
How do you introduce yourself to someone you just attacked?
“Oh hi, I'm V, I'm the reason there's a hole in your chest. Do you remember anything of what happened? Yes? Fuck.”
“Hey there little guy, please ignore the blood staining my coat, I'm a mass murderer but I haven't murdered anyone of your species in a while. Does that make you feel any better about the fact I'm the only one in the room with you?”
She's not good at any interactions with anything sentient, and she has the comfortability of a grizzly bear, so this will go great, right?
She walks out of the room, walking towards what she assumes to be a waiting room. These normally have magazines and stuff, right? Is there a magazine on how to be a normal person?
She looks through the array of magazines, finding things related to science, beauty, economics, nothing on interactions with humans. Her internal database is equally useless. Sure, she knows where the femoral artery is, and how to sever it most effectively with a single bullet, but that doesn't really solve her lack of charisma. “Yeah I know how to make you die within 15 seconds, does that make you feel safe?”
She gives up on her botched research endeavor, trying to remember some stuff that she was told back at the mansion. Look presentable, don't talk back, how do I access Google- wait that's not right.
Okay. Don't talk back. Be… presentable? That doesn't mean very much to her, considering being told that normally consisted of her looking down at her dress in confusion. What else did they say… they called her a lot of mean names is all she remembers.
Alright maybe the manor humans had it coming.
Maybe she could just… be nice? She isn't very good at that, and she normally isn't very nice because it makes her feel weak and scared, but what would it hurt now? Besides, if she gets too embarrassed, she can just run out of the room and forget he ever existed. God, being nice is hard.
She eventually decides to just be “kind”, against her own better judgement. She'd rather just be a bitch, like she always is, but honestly she doesn't want to freak this kid out… for whatever reason.
She eventually hears him starting to move, and panics all over again. Sure, she has decided to be ‘Nice’ but she never decided what nice meant, or what she was going to do when he got up. He's injured, so obviously he can't really go anywhere, at least not on his own, but she doesn't know how much he remembers, if he'll freak out at the sight of a murder robot standing above him… there's a lot of things to consider, and she really wishes she would have considered them 10 minutes ago.
‘Don’t freak out don't freak out don't freak out…’
She repeats in her head, really hoping he doen't spring up and hurt himself. How do you not make someone panic when you're a machine literally made to kill?
His eyes blink open, and she looks down at him, clearly confused on exactly what to do here. She's not a fucking babysitter! She's got the empathy of a rock and is about as good as taking care of kids as one…
“Hey, don't panic…”
She quietly, more of a beg than anything. Why can't N have gotten to this kid first? Why did she have to storm outside, pissed off and looking for something to kill?
The young human, understandably terrified, tries to get to his feet. V panics, quickly putting a hand on his chest to hold him down.
“Wait, I'm not going to-”
She stops as she hears him let out a gasp of pain, realizing she accidentally aggravated the wound she created once more. She pulls her hand back in a panic. Fuck, why can't she just do something right?
The human takes the chance to run, slipping off the hospital bed and trying to flee. V springs to her feet, almost falling over in panic.
“You're really not in a position to…”
Just as she's about to finish her sentence, the human trips on a chair leg, falling to the ground. “Walk…” She says, looking down at him with concern. She gets on her knees, noticing him whimpering in pain. Clearly that fall did even more damage to his already hurt chest, and at this point, she doesn't know what's not going to aggravate his wound besides him just remaining perfectly still.
“You alright?” She says, her voice filled with genuine concern, a rare luxury for anyone near V.
“Don’t kill me… please…” The small human begs, clearly having remembered his one encounter with her, likely with emphasis on the whole claw in the chest thing.
V grimaces at his words, feeling oddly guilty for terrifying this poor kid.
“Not going to kill you, trying to help you…”
She whispers, mostly to herself, as if trying to remind herself what she's supposed to do in this situation.
“Here…”
She picks him up, carrying him back over to the hospital bed. She lays him down, taking a step back, like a designer looking at an unstable building, her face full of genuine concern.
“Just lay down, okay..? I'm… really trying to be nice here, this isn't normal for me…”
She admits nervously. She hasn't been this vulnerable since the fight with Cyn… all she can really hope is that vulnerability actually gets her somewhere, unlike with N.
She tries to calm her internal conflict, looking nervously around the room for anything that could make this situation slightly less frightening, and coming up empty handed.
“I'm uhhh… really sorry about the stabbing you in the chest thing…”
She says, looking back down at him, praying this conversation isn't making her look even more unstable. Noticing his silence, likely out of complete terror, she speaks again.
“I'm not kidnapping you by the way… it's just, well, you kinda have a major chest wound, so I'm just keeping you here to make sure you don't die…”
God, can she be any more awkward? This is why she isn't vulnerable in normal conversations, it turns her into an awkward idiot…
“When you're better, you can leave… or I could take you home…”
She quickly realizes that might sound a bit too much like ‘follow you home and kill you’
“I mean, escort you home. To your parents. To make sure you make it.”
Noticing the teenager continuing to stare at her with fear, she just outright asks
“Come on man, am I even good at being nice?”
The teenager shakes his head. V facepalms, running a hand down her face. She's really trying. She's actively, actually trying to be nice, and it still isn't working.
“I'll just step out…”
She says, quickly and awkwardly walking out of the room.
Well, that went about as well as expected. She completely failed at being nice, and just stood around like an idiot, making no meaningful progress in making this kid not think he's going to be murdered. Ughhhhhh….
After a few minutes of convincing herself, she walks back inside. What's the saying? Honesty is the best policy? Something like that.
She walks over to him, feeling a sense of relief seeing him still on the hospital bed. At least he didn't try to run away.
“Hey, just… I didn't mean to do that.”
She says, gesturing to the likely agonizing chest wound. “I thought you were a worker drone, and I was already in a bad mood…” Wow, real good job making yourself seem like a stable person. ‘Hi, I kill people when I'm bored, please don't be scared of me’
“If I knew you were a human, I wouldn't have tried to kill you.” She says, hoping that at the very least helps her case, though honestly, she doesn't expect it to. So far, she hasn't really done a good job at convincing him she isn't a crazed murderer…
“Listen, I really wish I could just leave you alone, but you're not in very good shape, Alright? Seriously, I want this to be over as much as you do…” Her voice is slightly shaky as she continues trying to defend her own inability to be a normal person. She's really hoping he says something sometime soon, because she's really just talking to not just be staring awkwardly. However, he remains silent, making her even more uncomfortable.
“I have a short range radio transmitter… maybe I could send something to your parents, let them know you're okay…?” She's really just pulling out whatever she thinks could make her look less like a psychopath here…
Finally, he talks, though it only really makes things more awkward, “I don't have parents…” He mutters quietly. V’s face drops, and she scratches the back of her neck in discomfort. That… complicates things.
“Don't you have someone to take care of you though…? Like a friend?” She says, really hoping he says yes. She knows that in his current, injured state, if he's just some orphaned kid trying to survive in the snow, well, either the cold will get him, or the hunger from not being able to find food. To her displeasure, he shakes his head.
“You've just been alone..?”
He nods once more.
“Alright…”
She says, not really sure what else to say. What else does she say? Clearly he's not in the state to live alone, and she has absolutely no clue who would be fit to take care of him. Sure, N would be nice, but from some of Uzi’s “opinions” on humanity she's heard… he'd probably be safer outside. And sure, J would probably drop to her knees and worship him like a god, but for all V knows, she's face down in a ditch with “Low oil” errors flashing on her HUD.
Fuuuuuuuuuck….
V stands in the operating room bathroom, looking into the mirror, a tired look in her eyes. She really, really doesn't want to look after a child. But for whatever fucking reason, she doesn't feel like she'd be able to live with herself if she just left him here, knowing he'd likely suffer a slow, painful death to either hypothermia or starvation. Then again, she doesn't know how to get food! She doesn't even understand the basic needs of a human being past Eating food and keeping your internals internal. Plus, what's the likelihood he wants to be within a mile of her after this? She ruthlessly stabbed him in the chest, that's not something you just shrug off and chat like best friends.
She quickly shakes her head. Standing around yelling at herself won't do any good. Besides, humans are low maintenance, right? Well, healthy humans are… this sucks.
She lets out a breath, walking back into the operating room.
“Listen, kid.”
She starts, her voice sounding a bit more commanding now.
“You're not in the shape to do anything alone right now. And I know you probably hate being around me. But you'll hate starvation a lot more, so you're going to come with me, alright?”
Her voice softens slightly near the end, still very unsure of how to approach this. But hey, she's trying at least.
He looks up at her, the look of fear that's been on his face for the past 2 hours only increasing.
“Y-you're gonna kill me, aren't you..?”
She winces at his words. Okay, ‘you're going to come with me’ doesn't sound all too friendly…
“No, just… I'm not going to kill you, okay? I literally just saved your life, I don't want to kill you. I'm offering that you stay with me for a while, till you feel better. Does that make sense?”
He nods, but he clearly doesn't like the idea.
“I-i think I'd be good on my own…”
V gets angry at first, though she closes her eyes, taking a deep breath. She isn't used to anger management, so it felt even more effective.
“Dude, you've got a gash in your stomach the size of my hand just waiting to reopen if you try to do anything remotely athletic. If you stay on your own, that WILL reopen at some point, and you'll bleed out in the snow. Or, you could stay on your own, try to let it heal, and starve to death. Do either of those seem like good options to you?”
The teen stares at her for a moment, before shaking his head. She can tell he doesn’t enjoy being around her, and she can’t really blame him. She did almost kill him. If she didn’t notice the blood, or if she decided to make it a quick kill, he’d be a corpse in the snow right now. And as much as she’d love to just drop him off at a hospital, most of his species is either dead or hiding on planetary colonies.
“You’re sure you don’t know any other humans wandering around I could give you to?”
Yet again, he shakes his head.
“Great… You're gonna have to stick with me, until you're healed enough to function on your own…”
She mutters, feeling a sense of dread, realizing she's going to need to take care of this kid for at least a month or two… your actions having consequences sucks, man.
“Just, get some sleep, then… I'll go try to find you some food.”
She can tell by the nervous look in his eyes he isn’t remotely close to comfortable being in the same room as her, and for that, she can’t blame him. But unfortunately for the both of them, he kinda needs someone to take care of him right now.
She walks out of the operating room, securing the door by shoving a chair under the door handle. V doesn't really know if this place has some sort of sentient security system, but the last thing she'd want to find is him swiss cheesed by some weaponized roomba.
She walks out into the night, looking around, trying to remember how human food works from her Manor days. She remembers there was a big emphasis on keeping food from ‘spoiling’ by keeping it in secure, cold rooms, and she also remembers some foods that could be left out in the open for a fairly long time without issue. Though, considering it's been 7 years since Copper-9’s core exploded, practically everything could be deadly levels of expired at this point. She remembers that humans had some pretty high quality preservatives, since the demilitarization of Earth opened up a more scientific focus. Though ‘Peace and Prosperity’ really didn't pay off when Cyn started killing indiscriminately…
She walks up to something she assumes was a supermarket, trying the “Push in emergency” button on the doors. And expectedly, they don't budge. Goddamnit…
She walks up to a window, giving it a strong kick. The glass shatters, allowing her entry into the dark supermarket.
Almost immediately she can tell that the core collapse did some major damage to this place. Anything not metal is basically disintegrated, and anything that was meat is completely frozen solid.
“Eugh, gross…”
She mutters, stepping over what she thinks is the remnants of a box of donuts, or some similar pastry. She proceeds further into the store, looking up at the signs marking the aisles. However, with the text so small and so high up, she has trouble reading it.
“Why do they have to make everything so hard to read…”
She eventually gives up on the aisle signs, deciding to just keep looking until she finds something useful.
The aisles are dark and covered in trash, but eventually, she finds what she thinks is some sort of camping or survival aisle. She can see the remnants of cheap tents, along with the few stronger ones that have managed to survive the cold nights. ‘Can survive the destruction of a planet’, make that your slogan.
She walks further into the aisle, eventually noticing what seems to be a shelf full of packaged foods, ones that have surprisingly remained untouched. She picks one up, turning up her visor
illumination to try to get a look at the small print.
“COLDHILL SURVIVAL PACKAGE. ULTRA PRESERVED FOOD.”
Jeez, were all human food products this full of themselves? She cracks open the package, noticing multiple smaller packages inside. At the very least, it seems well sealed, and even though she can’t really read what any of the smaller text says, it looks in good enough shape to be edible. She grabs a few packages, deciding this is enough for now. She’ll keep this place in mind though, for later use.
She climbs out of the broken window, the weird “Survival packages” in her arms. Seriously, who’s the target audience here? Like sure, they were right about the whole “End of the world” thing, but humanity had been at peace for like, 200 years, she seriously doubts people were still freaking out about apocalypses. Or, sane people, at least.
Once she makes it back to the operating room, she moves the chair aside. When she does, she notices the human seems fully awake, staring at her with fear.
“I got you some weird food, should be in good enough shape…”
She sets the small stash of food on a counter near the hospital bed, noticing him flinching when she gets close. She sighs softly, realizing that's probably going to be a normal occurrence.
“Just… grab one of those if you get hungry.”
She says, sitting in a chair away from the hospital bed to give him space while she contemplates how strange this situation is.
He looks at her for a moment, before reluctantly grabbing one of the bags. She can tell he doesn't trust it, but he's very clearly hungry. He slowly leans up, scooting back against the wall and opening the bag. It seems he doesn't really trust her to let him eat the food in peace, which she honestly understands, she doesn't like eating around friends, let alone strangers. He opens the small bag, looking at it with clear distrust.
“It's edible… I'm pretty sure.” She mutters. She isn't even fully sure this will be fit for human consumption, who knows how long these bags actually last, considering the consumer protection laws on Copper-9 weren't exactly high par.
He reaches into the bag, slowly pulling out its contents, in various smaller bags, carefully setting them beside him, away from her. He seems to be trying to protect his new-found food source. She decides not to comment on it, knowing she does similar things with her food.
While he nervously eats his strange food item, V tries to think of a secondary option that doesn't involve her having to deal with him. The only one she can really think of is dropping him off with N and Uzi… Maybe the two of them would get along? Sure, Uzi has shown almost genocidal ideas for dealing with humanity, but hell, maybe she'd get along with a human her age. After all, it's been a good couple of months since Uzi has mentioned killing any humans, she could have gotten over it by now, especially after her fight with Cyn.
“So uhm…” she mutters out, noticing him jump slightly, and move his ‘food’ behind him. “I came up with another option. You don't have to stay with me.”
As expected, he quickly nods, seemingly wanting any option that doesn't involve being around her. Fair enough.
“So, I've got some friends, back at my uh… Bunker thing, that I think would like you a lot more than me.” She says, still extremely unsure of how to talk to him. Normally she just says what she wants, no filter, having to think before she speaks again is not a fun feeling. “That sound good to you..?”
He nods, slowly moving the preserved food back out in front of him, seemingly more comfortable now. Likely because he's been given an option of not being with her.
“Good, good… so yeah, I'll just, some time soon drop you off there… they're nice, I promise.”
She says, awkwardly clearing her throat and shifting in her chair. This is why she hates interacting with people… It makes her vulnerable and weak.
“You finish that, and we'll get going, alright?”
She offers, having seen that he seems very defensive of his food. She doesn't want to get close and have him freak out. She knows she doesn't like people getting close to her food either.
Once he finishes his, well, debatably edible food, she hands him his gas mask and helps him to his feet, making sure he doesn't irritate his wound too much, which simultaneously trying not to touch him as much as possible, mostly because she can feel his breathing spike any time she puts more than one hand on him.
“You think you can walk on your own?”
He nods, obviously eager to not be near her as much as possible.
“Okay…”
She says, slowly letting him go, watching him limp forward. He's not in the best shape, but he's walking… granted not very well.
20 minutes of painfully slow limping later, they manage to make it to the main bunker door. V walks up to the newly added intercom, placed by Khan purely so N can get in on his own, pressing down the button to talk.
“It's me. Let me in.”
The intercom crackles in response after a few seconds, a security guard answering.
“Is N or Uzi with you?”
V sighs in annoyance. She's had this problem before, where they let N in just fine, but not her. No favoritism here…
“No, it's just me, open the damn door you idiot before I rip it open myself.” She demands, having dealt with this favoritism bullshit many a time.
“Do you have an ID card?” The voice responds. What ID card?! Since when do they have fucking ID cards? Never, that's when.
“No, and I guarantee no one else does. Stop making shit up as excuses and let me in, I live here.” She demands, trying her hardest not to completely snap in front of this kid. The last thing she wants is for him to try to run away out of fear.
The voice over the intercom is silent for a few seconds, before opening the door without another word.
“Assholes…” V mutters under her breath, checking behind her to make sure the kid is still there. He is, though he's clearly not liking having to stand with a massive stomach wound. Knowing he probably won't accept help, V just gestures for him to follow, guiding him slowly through the Entryway Airlocks, now equipped with viewing windows so V can feel even more self conscious.
Once she eventually makes it into the main hallway, she starts leading him down towards Uzi's unit, giving the various wandering worker drones threatening looks, making it very clear they should keep their mouths shut about the new human inhabitant.
As she rounds the corner into the habitation sector, she almost bumps into Lizzy. She at first seems indifferent towards V, as usual, though her expression quickly turns to a look of shock and disgust at the new human.
“Ugh, what is that?”
She says, taking a step back, like she's expecting the human boy with half her strength to try attacking her. V glares at Lizzy, gesturing for the human to stay back as she moves towards Lizzy. She grabs her arm, squeezing it tightly.
“That is a living, breathing human being. Possibly one of the last of his species. I don't care how ‘grossed out’ he makes you. He. Is. Staying. And he'll probably be staying with Uzi. Got that?”
V says, trying to intimidate Lizzy into not being a complete bitch like she always is. Lizzy, however, seems basically unaffected.
“Alright, jeez. God, you're so boring now.”
Lizzy yanks herself from V’s grip, dusting off her phone and continuing to walk down the hallway, though does make the effort of very dramatically moving away from the clearly uncomfortable young boy.
V sighs in disappointment. Of course, Lizzy couldn't for once not be a complete pain in the ass. It wasn't exactly unexpected, but it was definitely disappointing.
She puts a hand on the human’s back, gently moving him forward.
“C’mon, you'll be out of the woods soon…”
She mutters, feeling increasingly embarrassed the more she escorts this human around. She knows damn well every drone in the bunker is looking at her like she's a freak…
When they make it to Uzi’s unit, V knocks on the door, waiting for a response. After 5 seconds of no one coming to the door, she kneels down to the door panel.
“Screw this…”
She turns her hand into a screwdriver, unscrewing the panel and manually unlocking it, before putting the panel back on.
“Good as new.”
She reaches out, opening the door for him. Looking inside, she notices it's completely dark. N and Uzi must be out doing something.
“They should be back soon… You just tell ‘em V sent you, alright? They'll get the idea.”
She says, pointing him towards their couch. Quite honestly she just wants to be out of this humiliation ritual and back somewhere quiet, secluded, and comfortable.
He sits down on the couch, clearly uncomfortable, from both the unfamiliar situation and his attacker having strangely switched sides.
V, taking that as her sign to leave, closes the door, letting out a long sigh. That's enough of this for today… and she's definitely not going to do her signature move of hunting worker drones.