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devastator1775 · 1 month ago

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Anne's Journey: Two eternal Souls And The Lost Daughter - Chapter 3: The truth behind the veil of deception

Summary: Anne finds out some truths hidden behind her origin and some new things about herself

Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Anne groaned in frustration, letting herself sink into her chair, raising her head to the ceiling as she buried it in her hands. For the better part of an hour, she had being going through the documents she had collected through the smallest detail. She had read, re-read and re-re-read everything several times and it all came the same conclusion: there was nothing more in there that her parents hadn’t already told her. The police report – although an edited version for public availability – was quite clear on the situation.

A couple of days after Hazel and Naomi had found Anne, a couple of Drones – one male, one female - had lost their lives in a car accident. Their bodies were wrecked beyond recognition in the crash, their ID chips fried and the data in their cores was 98% corrupted due to excessive , with only the Origin Signatures that were connected to her Parental Source Coding being readable. Which was all they needed at the time to confirm their parenthood to the foundling Drone several Districts away.

With no way to verify identities nor anyone reporting Missing Persons in the days that followed, they were declared as John and Jane Doe and their remains properly processed, in Drone tradition. Their Cores were extracted from their bodies, molten down together into an urn and enshrined in the local columbarium. The bodies themselves were brought to a Recycle Centre, where the remains would be scrapped and used to make new parts for Drones. Circle of Drone Life.

“I guess …there really is nothing else.” Anne sighed dejectedly, letting her hands fall to her side and stared up at the ceiling. She didn’t know how to feel about all this. She was sure she would find something, even now. There was this …feeling that she just couldn’t shake away. There were too many coincidences, too many conveniences, it all just seemed too easy. But …maybe it was just that. Coincidences, plain and simple. No greater scheme, no grand reveal, no signs of it being anything else than it seemed to be. Nothing to answer her questions.

“Maybe it’s for the best.” She told herself, the words itself stinging as she spoke them aloud. “I should just stop. It’s not like I’m making any sort of progress, if there even was any to have. I’m only making myself crazy with this and it’s no fair to my moms.”

She let out a heavy sigh. Yeah, she should just drop it. Shelf it. Put it away and never think about it again. Yeah, yeah, that’s what she was going to do. What was she even thinking, trying to pursue this? What good was it to her? What would knowing the details surrounding her birth parents possibly change in her life? Nothing! And why should something change? She had a great life, the best life. She had loving parents, who were absolutely the greatest people in the world, considering they took in a foundling as their own. She had a best friend with whom she would hang out constantly, getting into trouble, having all sorts of fun. She was great at school, top of her class and she knew what she’d want to do after high school. She was happy, healthy and had a bright future to look forward to.

The only thing missing was a girlfriend, but hey, can’t have everything all the time, right? Some thing need a bit of time and work.

Anne smiled at herself, feeling somewhat better after this soul-searching conclusion. She sat up and looked at her computer screen where the file was still displayed. She had no need for it anymore. She grabbed her mouse and was about to make the command to delete the file …when she noticed something. Something strange was going on with the document.

“What the …?”

Anne leaned in close to the screen, so close that her visor was practically touching it. After a few seconds, she saw it. It was like …that the document flickered. So fast that it almost didn’t register. She had been so focused while reading that she hadn’t noticed it. And now that she was so close, she noticed something else. It was almost like some of the words on the file were …out of place? Like they had a slightly different font than the rest of the document. Similar enough that no-one would notice, unless you were practically crawling into your computer screen.

Anne leaned back in her chair, puzzled about this. The computers used in the City Municipal Centre were much older than her laptop and they used different software for their file readers. Older Software that wouldn’t pick up on discrepancies in data files, but her own laptop was released less than a year ago and used brand new software – which was known to mess with older coding formats. Like how it was now messing with the file displayed on her screen.

Something dawned on Anne: what if her answers weren’t on the document, but hidden in the coding that made up the file? It was a long shot, but …there was no harm in trying. Obviously, she couldn’t just, poof, read the codes. You needed special equipment for that.

Luckily, she had special equipment for that.

Anne jumped off her chair and ran to her closet. A couple of years ago, she and her parents watched a movie that involved a hacker breaking into the mainframe of an evil corporation, initially to steal from them but it ended up saving the world. The movie had made such a big impression on Anne that it awakened an interest in computer systems, coding and hacking, and ended up learning up about it. Turned out, she had a real knack for it, almost like it had been something that was always inside her. She taught herself coding, both how to make and break them, and constructed her own splicing kits. In a span of a few months, she made a small name for herself in the hacker community as Wh1teW3nd1g0 – which is, like, the coolest hacker name one could think off.

And while her parents knew she was into coding and had a perchance for tinkering, they never did find out about her abilities as a hacker. They’d surely forbid her from ever doing it again. But Anne never really had any intentions to do something bad with it, besides some minor mischief – or that one time she edited the school lunch menu. This would probably the first time she’d use it to do something that could actually be considered …less than legal. She had no idea if what she was doing was going to bite her in the rear plates, but her curiosity was too great.

She grabbed a stepping stool on her way to her closet, and stood on it the reach the top shelf. With a bit of effort she managed to grab a box that was stashed away under some old clothes.

“Hey, buddy, you still in here?” Anne asked softly as she opened the lid. The box contained various USB drives, a few physical hacking tools, decoders and other stuff, but right now, she was looking for – ah, there he was. She smiled as she saw two antennas sticking out and soon, a little robotic insect skittered out the box and onto her hand. “There you are, Critter.” She greeted, as she gently tapped the top of the cyber-critter’s head.

There were two types of species of Periplaneta Roboticana, more commonly known as a Robo-Roach– on Copper-9, both of them developed and engineered by the Creators in the distant past. You had the more common robo-roach, who were scavengers – and actual pests – who would break apart metal components and use it to create nests and offspring. Those really liked to chew on electrical wiring and cause all sorts of mayhem. It was believed that the Creators had made them to dispose of obsolete machinery, but their tendency to reproduce (the roaches, not the Creators) had brought a boom to the insect population. They were everywhere.

But then, you had these guys. A more sophisticated – almost evolved – version of the robo-roach, created as a mobile keycard of some sorts. This variant had the ability to connect to hardware to access computer systems, connect remotely to devices and even communicate. They could be trained, even be kept as pets, since they didn’t feel the need to – literally - bite the hand that fed them. They charged themselves on common electrical power, like how a Drone could charge itself. They’d sneak into the electrical grid of houses and just feed small amounts. But they were so rare, and usually very skittish, so they weren’t a common sight.

It was pure coincidence that Anne had discovered the keybug – affectionally called by the totally unique name of Mr. Critter, often abbreviated to Crit – some months ago, while she was doing some casual coding in her spare time. The thing had crawled inside through her window and just …walked up to her desk to make itself comfortable. The critter seemed …oddly interested in her, watching her while she worked, but Anne’s feelings weren’t exactly mutual at first. She had first tried to squash the bug, but when it connected with her computer to ask to spare its life, she got intrigued.

It was then that she remembered an article she had read on one of the hacker forums she sometimes visited. Hackers would use these critters as a mobile connection device, to gain entry to places where they couldn’t reach, or even act like an amplifier. Anne figured it couldn’t hurt to try and train it, so she decided to give it a shot. Turns out that the keybug was quite the natural as well. It responded very well to her instructions, so Anne decided to keep it - him.

Since her parents did allow Anne to have pets, she had to hide him away while she wasn’t using him for hacking. He had made his little home in the box that contained all of Anne’s hacker tools.

“I need you for something, bud.” Anne whispered as she walked back to her desk. The little critter seemed to cock its head, almost if asking ‘for what?’. She sat down and turned Crit to the screen. “I need to hack this file and I need your help to sort through the data, okay. Can you scan for abnormalities?”

Crit jumped of her hand and skittered over to the laptop’s side panels, checking which data port he was going to use. When he found one he liked, he spun around while a little connector extended out the back. He plugged himself in and retracted his legs into himself, making him look like an ordinary – albeit funny shaped – USB.

A series of messages appeared on screen.

[CONNECTION ESTABLISHED]

[AWAITING INPUT]

“Okay, this shouldn’t take long …” Anne muttered to herself, as she plugged in another data stick that had the program she had made for hacking. It was a simple one. She would use this to download movies, so getting into data file wouldn’t be a problem. Once she had made her connection, she got to work. Hacking into a file like this would be a piece of-

[ERROR! NOT AUTHORIZED!]

Anne blinked in surprise. This was …unexpected. Normally, she would have extracted the relevant codes by now. She tried another command.

[ERROR. NOT AUTHORIZED]

“What in the name of the Creators is …” Anne mumbled to herself. This thing was effectively working against her. She needed to work another approach. She grabbed her box with nifty tools and ruffled around until she found the data drive she needed. This one was a bit stronger, but it was the reason her old laptop had, uh …semi-exploded, so she wasn’t really keen on using it. Right now, she figured it was worth the risk. She switched this with the other and tried again.

She grinned when a new window with codes appeared. “Okay, progress despite some bumps in the road.” She announced, typing in the necessary commands needed. It didn’t take long for Anne to get inside the file and access the log.

“Crit, can you scan for …anything?” She asked the keybug.

[COMMAND AKWNOWLEDGED]

[COMMECING SCAN]

[SCANNING 2%]

[SCANNING 8%]

Anne leaned back, figuring that she let Crit do his work. Scanning the entire document could take a wh-

[SCANNING 100%]

[COMPILING RESULTS]

[ALLERT: SEVERAL DISCREPANCIES DISCOVERED]

A results windows appeared on the screen. Anne bolted upright and started to read them. This whole thing was getting weirder and weirder with every second. If she had to believe these results, it seemed like the document had been tampered with, which could explain the words that used a different font. Somone had made a lot edits to this document, it seems.

A new window popped on her screen.

[QUERY: REVERT TO ORIGINAL VERSION? Y/N?]

“Original version? You can do that?” Anne asked aloud.

[AFFIRMATIVE]

“Wait, hang on …lemme thing.” Anne buried her face in her hands, doubt creeping inside her. She suddenly had a sense of foreboding. This was getting too weird. What was she getting into? Was it really worth it?

'Her name is Anne. Please love her like we would have loved her.'

The memory of the note popped up in her mind. She had been so curious about the truth. She had gone through all this to find something, and now …was she really about to back out when she was moments away from finding some answers?

…

No. No, she couldn’t stop now. Whatever it was on here, she needed to see it. At the very least, she could have closure.

“Yes. Do it.” Anne instructed, her voice barely audible.

[EXECUTING]

When Anne read the revised report, it nearly made her visor pop out her head. The entire report was different. While it was still about two Drones that had perished in a car accident, but …the dates were completely different. According to this, this incident happened two decades before she was even born. Not only that, the signatures that were found in the victims’ cores didn’t match up with the ones that made up her Parental Source Code. Whoever these two were, it was impossible that they were her birth parents. Somone had edited an old report and made it so that it would be one that would have been connected to her case.

Anne slunk back into her chair, her head spinning by this revelation. The report was fake, so that meant …she didn’t even know what it could mean. Did her birth parents fake their death? Did someone else do that? Why go through all this trouble so no-one could find out who the parents of a foundling are? On to do this, and not have it found out by the authorities? This was starting to sound like the plot of a spy movie, or something.

And what would her next move be? She couldn’t request a new scan of her core, that would probably only lead to the same results. She couldn’t reveal that the report was fake, because she would be get in trouble for hacking official documents – publicly available or not.

She had to figure out a way to follow up on this, to get more answers to this mystery. But what? She sighed and turned to her laptop, where everything still was displayed. She figured that she had gotten everything she could out of this. She needed a new angle to work on, but she had no idea what.

“Well, this won’t give me any more answers.” Anne muttered as she closed down her programs and the document, and disconnected all her drives from the laptop. She smiled as she held out her hand and let Crit, who had disconnected himself as well, jump on. “Thank you for your help, Crit.”

The little bug made a chirping sound and nuzzled its tiny head against her thumb, making Anne giggle.

“Okay, back in your box. You deserve a nice nap.” She said as she let the keybug crawl back into her stash, with the rest of her tools. She walked back to her closet, stood on the step stool and placed the box back on the top shelf, standing on her tiptoes to make sure it was way in the back. Ugh, she really needed to make a hiding place under her bed one of these days. Something classic, like with fake floorboards.

As she pulled back her arms, something caught on her sleeve and got pulled along. Before Anne realized, something heavy fell of the shelf – boom, crack – right on her visor.

“Ouch, sonova…” Anne groaned as she stumbled of the stepping stool, her hands pressed against her right eye. What the heck hit her? Was that Grandpa Mike’s lucky wrench? How did it end up in her closet? Wait, priorities! She ran up her mirror and …yup, there it was. A cracked visor, for real this time. “Ugh, not again …my moms are going to – agh!”

She winced when she suddenly felt her visor heat up. She pressed her hand against her eye and yelped in surprise when she felt something burn her hand. And then …it stopped, as suddenly as it started. Even the pain was gone.

Very much confused, Anne turned back to the mirror. As she caught her reflection in …her core almost stopped. The crack in her visor …was gone. Completely. Like it was never there.

“Okay …this time I know there was something.” Anne muttered to herself. She leaned in close, trying to see something weird, but …nothing. A completely undamaged visor. Nothing that showed that something had happened. This was …new. Drones just didn’t heal like that. Not without medical nano-paste and even then it would take much, much longer than just a few seconds.

Anne knew she wasn’t going crazy. There had been a wound. And now, that wound had been healed.. She remembered the last time when she thought that she had injured herself. She had felt that same burning sensation too. She must have really cracked her visor then, but it had healed …on its own.

She needed to be certain.

Only one way to know for certain.

She needed to test this.

Anne opened her lowest drawer and started to rummage through it. Eventually, in the back of the drawer – hidden beneath an adult graphic novel that Ash had gifted her a while ago – was another present that the redheaded Drone had given her a while ago: a switchblade. Her parents would freak if they knew she had this, so it was stashed away in her ‘secret shame drawer’.

She rolled up her sleeves and opened up the blade. Anne licked her lips nervously. Was she really going to do this? What if it wouldn’t happen again? But she couldn’t just walk up to her parents and claim she thinks she has ‘magic healing powers’ now, either.

“Okay, Anne Elliot Brinkman, you can do this.” She told herself, steeling herself for what she was going to do. Just …one little cut, to prove your theory. Nothing too big. Just enough to see the results. “Ooh boy …okay. One …two …two-and-half …THREE!”

There was the sound of metal piercing metal and Anne let out a surprised squeak. She held up her hand and gasped. She had been so nervous that she had put a bit too much force in her swing. Instead of making a cut …the blade was embedded into her hand, with the tip of the blade sticking out her back of her hand.

Anne inhaled deeply and held her breath, keeping herself from screaming. She quickly pulled out the blade, whimpering as she did it. She threw the blade aside and held her injured hand. There was a neat little hole, right in the middle of it. It was then that she realized …what a stupid idea this actually had been.

“What’s your glitch, Anne!?” She asked herself, feeling incredibly dumb for this dangerous action. “Of course, you don’t have magic healing powers. No, right now, there’s a hole in your hand and you’re going to have to explain to your parents why-“

A burning sensation started to build up in her hand, halting her self-deprecating reprimand. She gasped when she saw the edges of the wound …light up. Glowing red, like they were burning hot. Scratch that, exactly like it was burning hot. She could feel the heat rising up from it. The wound started to close up, slowly but surely. It was like someone was playing a video in reverse. A few moments later, the burning faded away and her hand cooled down.

Anne held out her hand in front of her, a dumbfounded expression on her face. The entire hand was completely healed. No sign that she had been wounded. Even the oil from the wound had evaporated. She turned her hand to the other side and even there, it was healed.

Anne stumbled backwards, her head even more spinning. Her knees his the edge of her bed, making her fall backwards. As she laid down, staring at the ceiling, she tried to make sense of everything. It was all …so much: the fake report with the possibilities surrounding her parents and now, this healing ability? What else was going to happen? Was she going to sprout wing or something weird like that? Was it connected to her birth parents? Had it something to do with why they had left her?

Once again, Anne was left with more questions than the answers she’d gotten. But even with all the weirdness, she knew deep inside her core that she was getting close.

…

Wait …her core?

Anne bolted upright. She had an idea. There was something that she could do that would yield more answers. It was going to be risky, but …she couldn’t walk away from this. She had to look up a few things first to make sure, but …yeah, this could work.

“I’m going to need an accomplice, though.” Anne said to herself with a grin.

She suddenly heard her mother call her from downstairs. “Anne, can you come down for dinner, sweetheart?”

“Coming, momma!” Anne answered, walking out her room. She never noticed the notification on her laptop.

[ERROR! CALLBACK PING FAILED!]

#murder drones #fanfiction #MD Fanfiction #vuzi #immortal vuzi AU #uzi doorman #serial designation V #Murder Drones V #Vuzi #vuzi fankid

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devastator1775 · 3 months ago

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"Her name is Anne. Please love her like we would have loved her."

Summary: When you are immortal, there are rules you need to follow. Hide in plain sight. Be unassuming. When the time comes, vanish and start anew. V and Uzi have lived their many lives with these rules. An unspoken rule between them: never have children. It's better that way. Then, on the eve of the start of a new life together, something goes wrong …and now they have to decide how to deal with this accidental baby.

Immortality.

Eternal youth.

Not even for Drones, this was a thing. Drones aged: in programming, in mentality, their personality matrix – basically what housed what one could call a Drone’s ‘soul’ – matured and thus did the Drone in question. Their bodies would age as well, to the point where regular repairs wouldn’t suffice anymore. The outer shell would lose their shine and become weathered, joints and servos would lose their flexibility, programs would malfunction over time and hardware would wear out. A Drone would grow old, fade away …and die. They weren’t designed to last forever. Even sentient machines have their natural lifespan.

Unless you were Worker Drone Uzi Doorman and former Disassembly Drone Serial Designation V – just going by V these days. Their victory after the final encounter with the Absolute Solver had left both of them changed. It wasn’t enough that the Solver had killed N, taking him away from Uzi and V. No, it had a final card to play. A last curse, a vengeful courtesy of a dying eldritch abomination unwilling to let its enemies have the last laugh. Replacing old ‘gifts’ with new ones.

Uzi and V were immortal. Their bodies ever young, never aging, never malfunctioning, always healing, unable to let them die. Cursed to see their loved ones wither away while they remained.

More things changed over time for the two. They grew closer, as there were no others who knew what they were going through. In the face of eternity they found solace with each other. A close bond formed between them; a friendship which eventually turned to love.

As time went on, people around them were changing at how they looked at them. There were whispers in the streets, curious glances when they thought it wasn’t noticed. Uzi and V knew that something bad would happen if they didn’t do something. And thus, during a stormy night, the two immortal lovers packed up everything …and left. They vanished out of Drone society. They found a place for themselves, far away from prying eyes and potentially harmful intentions. Hide away until history became legend. Until the events of the past just became a scary story to tell young Dronelings.

And for a hundred years, it was enough.

Until the moment that it wasn’t.

When their shared loneliness became too much, they took a new step out of the shadows. They slowly returned into the light and into this new world the Drones had built for themselves. Even from their little hideaway, they had seen the expansion of the Drone population and the subsequent rise of town and cities around the Planet. In this New Age of Dronekind, they could hide in plain sight. Disappear into the masses and become just another face in the crowd.

But they knew they had to be careful. Their unique condition made them an oddity in this new world. If they were found out, who knew how people would react? With fear? Animosity? Someone with less than amicable intentions would be inclined to destroy them, or worse: capture them and try to copy their …affliction.

All that Uzi and V wanted was to live their lives, in peace and with each other. So they renewed their vows to look after each other. They would take every precaution they could think off. They created dozens, if not hundreds, of different backstories. Countless variations of where they were from, how they met and so on.

Uzi already had some self-taught knowledge about hacking, coding and other computer skills, but in the years leading up to the moment that they would start their lives anew, she learned everything possible in order to become a true master. She studied for years to collect every other tool and skill they would need to adapt.

V had to adapt in other, more permanent ways. Since every trace of Disassembly Drones had vanished over time, her appearance stuck out like a sore thumb drive and people would take notice if a Drone looked exactly like something that in the new world was considered an urban legend. So, despite Uzi urging that they would find another way; V did what she deemed necessary …and made several modifications to herself. She amputated her tail, removed more than a few weapons – keeping a few ‘just in case - and altered her body so she would appear more like a regular – though, still taller than Uzi – Drone. Uzi insisted on V keeping her wings, though. Uzi even designed a pair of prosthetic boots for her, so they would appear more those of a common Drone. V still needed to walk with a cane, since her legs never fully recovered from the Sentinel attack all those years ago.

And thus, once they felt like they were properly prepare, Uzi implemented the final touch: new identities for the both of them. And with new names, new skills and an entire world for them to travel, they ventured out.

They settled their first new home in a quaint little place in the mountains named Sparc Village, where they took residence in a house in a quiet neighbourhood. To their neighbours, they introduced themselves as ‘Iza and Violet Hatchway’. Keeping their background simple: Iza and Violet met in high school, where they didn’t see eye to eye at first but eventually found common ground with each other after ‘‘Violet’ had an accident, which had severely and permanently damaged her legs.

After school, they didn’t see each other for a long while, but met again some years ago and decided to pick up where they left off and started going out together. From there, ‘‘Violet’ and ‘Iza’s’ started relationship bloomed and they recently got married – with Violet teasing that ‘Iza’ was bawling like a Droneling when she asked, albeit ‘Iza’ insisting that it was the other way around.

‘Iza’ started working for the local administration as a software engineer – which gave Uzi the opening to lay the seeds for a new program that would help them in the future – albeit working remotely from home, because she was also ‘‘Violet’s’ primary caretaker. ‘Violet’, on the other hand, was an artist- a little hobby V had picked up in their first century living away’ – and made her living selling her paintings and sculptures from their home. In the years that followed, they were known as a friendly, sociable couple that also tended to keep to themselves just as much.

For almost 4 decades, ‘Iza’ and ‘Violet’ truly had a great life, filled with friends and happiness. But then came the day that the ‘old couple of the neighbourhood’ wanted something new and decided to move away to a new town, saying that a change of scenery might be good for ‘Violet’s’ deteriorating health . A few weeks after the move, friends in Sparc Village would receive the heartbreaking message that Violet had passed away and Iza – sick with grief – followed soon. The small group of friend the couple had made over the years held a private and intimate funeral for them, bringing up happy memories and funny anecdotes.

In the meantime, in a city far away from the mountain village, some helpful neighbours helped a young couple move into their new apartment. As their identity chips indicated, their names were Nicky ‘Nix’ Vanderpoort, an aspiring writer who mainly wrote horror sci-fi with an eldritch touch, and her girlfriend Vicky Razborka, a former athlete who had to throw in the towel after an injury permanently damaged her legs and had decided to pass on her knowledge become a trainer instead. They were childhood sweethearts and had left their quiet town to make a life in the big city.

And this is how Uzi and V kept moving through the years. They lived their life through their chosen identities to the fullest and then …moved on, starting fresh in another place, with new identities and new lives. ‘New Chapters’, as they would come to call it.

More than often, they were already together when starting a new chapter. Sometimes, they mixed things up. One chapter, they were merely roommates and dated other people. But V and Uzi didn’t use this scenario often, finding that things were too complicated between them and it was impossible to have a full relationship with a partner if they couldn’t tell them the whole truth.

Another chapter, they were neighbours who couldn’t stand the sight of each other and fought almost every day, but tried to keep things as amicable as possible because they shared friends. Until during a friend’s wedding ‘Karen’ and ‘Vanessa’ got way too drunk and confessed that they had a crush on each other but were both too shy to admit it. A couple of month after that wedding, they moved in together.

There were Chapters that they spend living separate lives, living in different places but keeping contact with each other and meeting up from time to …passionately reconnect.

No matter which identity they were currently going through; every year, Uzi and V made the journey to the town that formerly housed the old Colony-3, to visit the graves of their old friends, Uzi’s parents …and N’s grave-site. It brought a form of solace for them, making sure they lived their lives to the fullest in their memory. And this is how it went for many decades, moving from one Chapter to the next.

Just the two of them.

Forever.

***

Every Drone City housed a Cradle Facility, where Drones couples went to combine their codes into a Untrained Neural Network – UNN for short - and create an infant Droneling that would over time form its own personality with minor influences of the parents’ ones. For practical reasons, these facilities were connected to the planet wide network that contained the residential data of every Drone on the planet. The systems these facilities houses – due to Uzi in another chapter having worked with the team that globally upgraded them – had a backdoor that allowed the immortal Drone to create new identities for them.

The only downside was they needed to be physically there for the process, because Uzi believed that a hardwire connection would be the safest option for them. And this was why Uzi and V, on the twilight of their current lives, were there, in the middle of the night while everyone else was asleep, to make the final preparations to start anew. It was also a lengthy process, which meant that one certain Drone was losing her patience while her partner was working.

“Uzi, I don’t want to rush you-“

“Which you are doing right now.”

“But-“

“Don’t you dare...”

“Is this going to take long?”

Uzi looked up from her laptop and scowled at her eternal partner. “V, I am making extremely difficult alterations to the hardcoded information on our internal identity chips, while running the program that will covertly transfer our funds and assets to our new accounts, unless you want to start our savings account from scratch?” When her girlfriend didn’t answer, she turned back to the laptop. “Didn’t think so. I am also installing a virus that will silently erase any info about our current lives over time, so that we won’t have overlapping data wherever we make our new lives.”

Uzi really didn’t like he grin that was forming on V’s face. “So …about 5 minutes?”

“Keep this up and I’ll make us sisters in our next Chapter.”

V gasped theatrically, dramatically holding her hand to her chest. “Not even suspiciously intimate stepsisters?”

“And I’ll make you the straightest, most boring sister ever.” Uzi grinned as she kept on typing. “A real study bug, doesn’t like to party, likes boys but is way too shy to talk to them, really into polka and-“

“Okay, okay, I’ll zip it.” V grinned. “Man, even after centuries you are still so easy to rile up, Purple thing.”

“And you’re still a psycho, psycho.” Uzi countered, glancing over at V to give her a teasing wink. She let out a deep sigh as V let her arms drape over her shoulders, giggling as V planted a kiss on her cheek. “V, I have done this hundreds of times. Why are you so nervous today?”

“Dunno…” V answered, nuzzling against Uzi’s cheek as she watched her beloved’s fingers fly over the keyboard, the sound of the keys clicking filling the control room of the deserted Facility. “It’s …like a feeling in my core. I’m expecting something to happen.”

Uzi just shrugged. “Well, there’s no need to think that. I have it covered. Security footage shows a loop of an empty building, the system in completely under my control and in a couple of minutes, we’ll be starting our new identities.” She could understand why V was a tad anxious, since she was feeling it too despite not showing it. It was always like this on the eve of their new lives. Neither of them really enjoyed doing this. It meant ending and starting another Chapter of their lives and leaving people they’ve formed a bond with behind. It never got any easier, only smoother.

Uzi’s words seemed to put V somewhat at ease. “Yeah, you got this.” She took a deep breath. “Sorry, Uzi. I’m not doubting you, it’s just… ”

“It’s okay, I know.” Uzi replied, putting in the final command before handing over a cable to V, as she plugged another one into the data port on the back on her neck. “Program is ready, plug in.”

V grabbed the cable and plugged int, unwillingly making a soft moan as it made the connection with the surprisingly sensitive data port, making her blush. She tried to ignore Uzi’s teasing – incredibly cute, though, smirk. “Not a word.”

Uzi just snickered as she initiated the program. Lines of codes started to run down their visor, with a progress bar slowly filling up. All seemed to go smoothly, until the computer that Uzi’s laptop was hooked on started to flicker.

“Uh, Uzi …is that normal?” V asked.

Uzi quickly looked at her screen. “I think that-“

Suddenly, the screens of the laptop, the Facility computer and the Drones’ visors lit up and the two immortals let out a pained yell as they both seized up. Sparks flew up from their bodies as their internal circuitry started to melt but simultaneously healed at the same time. Pain flew through their entire body, leaving them almost immobilized.

“U-U-Uziiii, doooo somethiiing.” V choked out.

With immense difficulty, Uzi reached out to her laptop and managed to slam her hand on it. With a loud pang, both drones got thrown on the floor, their wounds immediately healing as smoke still rose up from their visors.

With a frustrated groan, V managed to scramble up, rubbing her bad leg as she threw an angry scowl at Uzi. “WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT, MRS. ‘HUNDREDS OF TIME’?”

“Are you blaming me?!” Uzi yelled back as she popped up from the crates that she got blown into.

“You must’ve done something!” V bit back as she stomped her way towards Uzi.

Uzi jumped up and ran up the V, shoving her face inches away from V’s visor. “Well, maybe if someone didn’t rush me!”

“Screw-up!”

“Bite me!”

Panting heavily, they kept their angry staring session up for a few moments …and then threw themselves into each other’s arms, pulling each other closely against one another, relieved that their respective beloved seemed unharmed. Their lips met and immediately they latched onto each other, running their hands through the other’s hair and kissing with such a passion one would think they had been apart for years.

“Oh, my robo-God, are you okay?” V asked as she eventually parted her lips from Uzi’s.

“I …I think?” Uzi’s breathing shuddered, tightening her grip around her partner. “That …hurt.”

“I was so scared that-“ V pulled Uzi against her chest. “I’m so sorry for yelling at you, Uzi.“

“I know, V. Me too, me too.” Uzi released her grip and wiped away a digital tear. “I didn’t mean to accuse you either. I just-”

“I know. I know, no apologies needed.” V placed a hand on Uzi’s cheek and rubbed her thumb over her visor, before planting another prolonged kiss on Uzi’s lips. “I did try to rush you, after all…” She took a deep breath and – reluctantly for both sides – released Uzi from her grip. She groaned as she buried her face in her hands. Everything was still tingling from …whatever they just experienced. “So …what in the Solver’s soiled britches just happened?”

“I’ll find out.” Uzi ran to her laptop, which was slightly smoked but still functioning – for the time being – and checked her logs. After a few minutes of checking every line of her logs and running every analytical program she had in her arsenal, Uzi let out a surprised gasp. “So …good news, bad news.”

“Don’t tell me that we’ve triggered an alarm or something?” V groaned.

“No, we’re still in the clear.” Uzi began, but her expression betrayed something had gone amiss. “Good news: my program did its work. Our new identities are compiled and installed into our ID chips. Same goes for my virus, which is going to start its work in a couple of days. Our saving accounts have been transferred successfully as well.”

“So, what messed up?” V asked, she ran her hands through her hair to place it back in shape. Their little …malfunction – and their fiery make-out session – had really messed up her hairdo. “Seems to me that everything – mostly everything – went as planned.”

“N-not exactly ….It seems some employee here got sloppy and didn’t follow the proper protocol at the end of their work shift.” Uzi started to explain, looking very nervous all of the sudden. “They didn’t shut down the system as it should and left a …certain program running in the background while I was hacking. The two programs collided midway and caused a feedback loop, which …well, you felt what happened.”

“What kind of program?” V asked. She cocked her head when she saw the blush forming on Uzi’s visor. It suddenly dawned on her. They were in a Cradle Facility. What kind of program did Cradle Facilities primarily use? “Ooh, no. No, don’t tell me…?”

“Maybe nothing happened.” Uzi tried to reassure with a small voice, albeit sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince V. “I mean, the people working here wouldn’t be dumb enough to leave a blank connected and-“

Suddenly, crying could be heard from the Facility’s main floor. V and Uzi stared at each other for a few moments, after which they both ran out of the control room and towards the crying. They ran through Cradle Stations, which were used to upload new codes compiled with the data of two parents into blank Untrained Neural Networks.

“Uzi…”

“Maybe it’s just a demo that got activated?” Uzi tried sheepishly. They ran, following the sound of the crying.

“It’s this way.” V called out, grabbing Uzi’s hand to pull her into the right direction.

“Maybe it’s not so bad?” Uzi tried again as they reached the source of the noise. They both froze in place. “Oh no …”

“Uzi…”

“This is bad.”

“Is that…?”

“This is so bad.”

Out of the various Cradle Stations that were in the facility, only one seemed to have turned online. In that one, someone had left a blank Untrained Neural Network; but now … Plugged into the Cradle, crying softly, was a small baby Drone. It opened its eyes when it noticed Uzi and V staring, revealing eyes who’s colors looked like swirling pools of purple and yellow.

“Uzi, please don’t say that-“

“We made a baby.” Uzi squeaked out, her eyes hollow and beaming pure panic. “V. We. Made. A. Baby!

“I see that!” V grabbed Uzi’s shoulder and shook her gently to snap her back into focus. “What are we gonna do with it?”

“Why ask me?” Uzi blurted.

“Uzi, if we leave it, someone is going to find it and –“

“And they will check her coding to find out who her parents are, I know!”

“’Her’?” V questioned. “How do you-“

“I just know and you do too, don’t tell me otherwise!”

Staring down at this accidental creation of new life, Uzi had only one thought: ‘this was bad’. While they could rewrite their ID Chips over and over again without problems; the coding that made up the Personality Matrix was a whole other thing. Not even Uzi had found a way to alter them. Those codes were permanent and unchanging, as it made up who a Drone was. And they could easily filter through those codes to find the parental donors and run those through the system to find them. And then they would find multiple identical matches, spanning throughout decades, even centuries. And then people would start asking questions, investigating things and there would be a strong possibility that the truth about two immortal Drones walking Copper-9’s surface would come out and then …who knew how people would react. Or how they would react towards this innocent infant. Its mere existence possibly put its life at risk.

Uzi’s eyes narrowed as she came to the conclusion that there was only one possible solution. “We’ll have to take her with us.”

“What?” V asked, taken aback. ��No way, Doorman! We’ve talked about this!”

“Do you have any better idea?” Uzi asked as she unplugged the pill baby from her Cradle, the latter making happy chirps as it was being picked up. She ignored V’s sputtering when she handed the Droneling over to her. “You wait outside while I’ll cover our tracks. I need to make sure nothing in their systems can be traced back to us!”

Before V could object, the pintsized she-Drone had already run and left the former with a happily buzzing baby in her arms. She looked down at the infant with a scowl, who returned the gaze with a happy expression. “Don’t look at me like that, I’m not happy with this. I don’t like you.”

The infant just chirped cheerily in response, and something tugged at the corner of V’s lips, almost a soft smile. V shook her head and scowled again, getting a happy tune back again.

***

It had been some hours after Uzi, V and their accidental third member had left the Cradle Facility and made their way to a forest far away from any City. They’ve had been discussing on what to do with the baby, who had fallen asleep in the meantime.

“We can’t keep it.” V was pacing around, getting more and more annoyed by the situation. She had been very adamant about her opinion on the matter, while Uzi…

“I know, you keep repeating that, and keep your voice down, you’ll wake her up.” Uzi was sitting on the ground with the baby in her arms, wrapped in V’s scarf and rocking her gently back and forth to keep her asleep. “And what do you suggest we do? We’ve been at this for hours and we’ve been through all our possible options.”

V buried her face in her hands, more to muffle her groan than anything else. Uzi was right, they’ve had exhausted all possibilities. They couldn’t just leave it behind in the woods, that would be too cruel. If they left just left it with someone, they would likely run into the very same problems as if they would have left it in the Facility. And they couldn’t-

“Is there really no possibility we can keep her?” Uzi asked, jolting V out of her thought process. “I mean …it’s our-“

“No!” V snapped, making a startled Uzi recoil. V took a deep breath and smiled apologetically at her girlfriend. She knelt down in front of Uzi and held her face, rubbing her cheek with her thumb. “Uzi, we’ve had this discussion before, remember?”

Uzi sighed deeply. “I know.”

“We decided that we can’t have kids, no matter what.” V took a deep breath. “For one: we don’t know if it would have our …affliction. If she has, she’ll have to make the same sacrifices we have to make over and over again. Even after numerous decades, that is already hard on us; so, who knows what would it do to them? Leaving friends behind and starting over again? Living with the knowledge that they would live on, while the others around them fade away.”

Uzi nodded, digital tears forming in her eyes. She knew how their child would feel, because both Uzi and V had gone through those emotions throughout the years. That longing for an end that never would come. “It would destroy them….”

“And we have each other, but they …” V hesitated to finish her sentence.

“She would be forever alone.” Uzi sighed, tears rolling down her visor. “And if she doesn’t have our immortality …we’ll see her grow up, but one day she’ll grow old and …”

“And I’m not letting you experience that heartbreak.” V insisted. “Because that paint would be worse than what we felt with everyone else we have lost over our immortal life.”

Uzi looked down at the sleeping Droneling in her arms and took a deep breath, eventually looking up at V. “What are we doing to do?”

V started pacing around again, letting every possible route they could take run around in her mind. They couldn’t keep it. They couldn’t leave it with someone. It never was supposed to have happened in the first place. She was feeling more and more frustrated by the minute. This should never have happened. This …infant never should have been –

The former Disassembly Drone froze in her tracks when the thought made her realize what they – she – had to do. She slowly turned around to face Uzi, her gaze to the ground made her expression dark and foreboding. “Uzi, we …we have to get rid of it.”

Her eyes hollowed in shock as Uzi immediately realized what V was suggesting. She pulled the infant Drone tightly against her chest. “No, V, no-no-no, we can’t …you can’t just ….there must be another way!”

“If there was, we would have thought of it, Uzi.” V insisted. She walked over to Uzi and placed her hands on her shoulders. “And ‘we’ don’t have to do anything. I’ll do it.”

Uzi shrugged V off her, pulling the baby away from her. “But …your vow? It’s been centuries since you’ve …You …you aren’t that person anymore.”

V produced a fang-filled grin. “Hey, didn’t you say I’m still a psycho?”

“Yeah, as a joke!” Uzi objected, shaking her head frantically. “V, you can’t kill her!”

V took a deep breath. “Uzi! It’s the only way. This child never should have been born. Our curse, whether or not it will have it, will be nothing but pain for it. Think about it: all it will know is that either it will keep losing loved ones, or that one day we’ll lose them.” She placed a hand on Uzi’s shoulder. “And if it has our immortality, we’ll have to assume the worst case scenario: that there will be a greater chance that someone will find out. We’ll be hunted down for our abilities. We can’t let it live that life. Killing it …is the kindest thing we can do.”

Uzi closer her eyes, tear running down her visor.

“Right now, it’s asleep.” V pointed out softly. “I’ll make sure it won’t feel a thing. It’ll sleep through and just …never wake up. Fast, painless and merciful. It’s the only way.”

Uzi didn’t reply for several moments, breathing heavily while tears kept running. Eventually …she nodded. She whimpered as V gently placed her hands on the infant, unwittingly pulling it closer to herself. V eventually managed to gently pull the baby out of Uzi’s hands.

“Don’t follow me.” V instructed as she turned around and made her way towards the denser parts of the woods. She stopped for a moment to look over her shoulder. Her expression was sorrowful, her eyes screaming pain despite the words she had spoken earlier. “I’m sorry.”

With that, V deployed her wings and flew up in the air; leaving Uzi to sob alone.

***

V didn’t need to fly very far to find a nice open clearing. The stars were out at full force tonight, the sky littered with sparkles and light. The snowy terrain was filled with flowers, as nature had found its way back on Copper-9 in the centuries following the core collapse. It was a beautiful sight.

“At least your final resting place will be pretty, little one.” V stated softly as she gently placed the infant on the ground, making sure it was wrapped up comfortably in her scarf. She gazed down at the little one for a few moments, mentally preparing herself for the thing she hadn’t done in such a long time.

With a heavy sigh, she stood up and deployed her EMP Rifle. V had long ago made the vow that she’d never take a life again and got rid of most of her weapons, but she still kept a few in case they needed to defend themselves. She had kept her claws and swords, but her rifle she had modified that it would fire EMP bolts. An adult Drone would just be knocked down until its system rebooted, leaving them with a few missing hours of memories. But an Untrained Neural Network’s body was weak and very vulnerable. One shot of her EMP rifle would be enough. Fast. Painless. Merciful.

She took a deep breath and aimed her rifle at the sleeping baby.

‘I need to do this. It’s the only way.’

Her rifle hummed as it charged.

‘Just one quick fleeting moment and …done.’

The infant made a soft noise in its sleep. V felt her arm starting to tremble as her expression softened. She shook her head with a scoff and tried to look as resolute as she could.

“Stop acting like you’ve never done this before, V.” She whispered to herself. ‘It’s not the first baby you’ve …disassembled. Just …pull the trigger.”

V’s arm was really trembling and she used her other hand to keep it steady. Her scope was aimed directly at the sleeping baby.

‘It’s easy…’

Uzi’s baby.

‘Take the shot.’

Her baby.

‘Stop crying, V.’

Their daughter!

With a yell, V fell to her knees as tears started to roll down her visor. She couldn’t do it. How could she do it? This was their daughter. Their baby. She and Uzi had longed for a child for years, but they had convinced themselves they couldn’t, because of the very reasons V had given Uzi. And now …they had a baby. And she just attempted to kill her? Was she still the same monster that the Absolute Solver had turned her into back then?

Soft crying jolted V back to reality with a startled gasp. The baby Drone was crying loudly, sounding like it was in deep distress. She must’ve woken the baby with her scream. She frantically scrambled over to her daughter and scooped her up, pulling her tightly against her chest. “Shh-shh-shh, it’s okay. Don’t cry.” She planted a kiss on the top of her head, rocking back and forth as her tears never seemed to stop. “Momma is here. See? Momma is here.”

V lost track of time while she sat there, crying while she was comforting her infant daughter. But when she suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around her and the baby, she wasn’t even surprised that Uzi had ignored her instructions and still had followed her.

Uzi nuzzled V’s cheek. “Oh, sweetheart.”

“I couldn’t do it, Uzi.” V eventually confessed as she caressed the Droneling’s head. “I couldn’t …I couldn’t do it.”

“I’m happy you couldn’t.”

“I wanted to kill your child, our child.” V sobbed softly as she nuzzled the baby against her cheek. “I’m a monster.”

“No, you’re not. You are absolutely not a monster, V.” Uzi denied softly, planting a kiss on V’s cheek. “You haven’t been that person in a long, long time. You just wanted to protect us. You wanted to protect her.” She paused for a moment. “But this is not the way to do so, V.”

V shook her head in agreement, sniffling. She smiled softly as she saw that the infant had fallen asleep again. She took a deep breath and looked over at her eternal partner. “Uzi …we still can’t keep her.”

“I know.”

“Everything I said …it’s still true.” V stated, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than Uzi. “It wouldn’t be fair to her. We need to do something for her, but …I don’t know what.”

“I agree that we have to do something.” She smiled as V handed over their daughter to her, positioning her in her arms so she could sleep comfortably. They sat in silence for Robo-God knows how long, just staring down at their child as it blissfully slept. Eventually, Uzi spoke up, her tone cautious. “I …I think I have an idea.”

“You do?” V asked, a hint of hope in her voice.

“Yes …but it’s going to take time.” Uzi smiled, but it was sorrowful one. “-and my computer.”

***

Everyone who knew Hazel and Naomi knew how much of an odd couple those two were. When they met in Sprocketon High School, something instantaneously clicked between them. However, it was a fiery rivalry instead of friendship. While neither of the two treated the other with much animosity, there nevertheless was a tension around them. They always felt like they had to compete to outdo the other.

They went to the same sport teams. They tied as top of their classes. They often went after the same boys. They had the same taste in clothing, music and other forms of entertainment. One could argue that would have made them great friends.

Still, they couldn’t stand each other.

After High School, Noami and Hazel both enrolled in Cogniton University for Medical learning – somehow never ending up as roommates – got their medical degree and both ended up– at different times – in Rivetdale Medical Hospital, ending up living in the same street.

There, to no-one’s surprise, they both developed a crush on the same doctor and competed for his attention. However, after a series of incidents where they both realized how much of an arrogant, misogynistic and egotistical blowhard that guy was, they decided to burry the hatchet and go out for drinks.

From that moment on, their rivalry turned to friendship and it didn’t take them both to realize how much alike they actually were …and how much they actually liked the other. When Naomi got thrown out of her house, it was Hazel that took her in, making their friendship even greater. And as their bond grew closer, it only took one kiss during a party for their latent feelings to emerge and swiftly rise to full bloom.

The very next year, they were married and they talked about extending their family. But tragedy struck as it turned out that an undiagnosed fault in Hazel’s coding made it impossible for her to have children of her own. No matter how much they tried, it would never succeed.

Unwilling to let their wish for children just die out, they turned to other options and applied for adoption. The progress was slow and it never seemed to go anywhere, but neither of them gave up hope. Even now, almost two years after they first applied, as they were watching tv as a massive storm raged outside their house, they talked about their possible future Dronelings. Until lightning struck and thunder roared, making Hazel yelp and drop her bowl of popped button cells.

Hazel scowled at her laughing wife as she started to pick up the tasty snacks. “Don’t laugh, I was focused on the movie.”

“I’m sorry, Haze. It’s just …that sounded so cute.” Naomi confessed with a giggle and a saucy wink, making her wife blush. She got up and knelt down. “Here, let me help you.”

Outside, the world lit up with a flash and soon thunder rolled over their house.

“Wow, it’s really going hard out there.” Hazel muttered. Storms always made her nervous. She gasped as lightning flashed again.

“Aww, I’ll protect you.” Naomi cooed as she pulled Hazel and her bowl of Pop-cells back to her feet.

Hazel placed the bowl on the coffee table and closed the distance between her and her wife, their visors almost touching as she gave her a seductive look. “You know what would make me feel better, Dr. Naomi?”

Naomi hummed as she wrapped her arms around her Hazel’s hips, pulling her tightly against her own hips. “Tell me, Dr. Hazel.”

“If we’d go to bed early ….”

“Good start.”

“We’d get very comfortable…”

Noami planted a few tender kisses on Hazel’s cheek. “Go on…”

“Then I’ll-“

They both screamed when the lights and the tv suddenly powered down, shrouding them both in darkness. They instantaneously started laughing hysterically.

“Well, call about a mood breaker!” Hazel laughed. “Gosh, your scream….”

“You screamed too!” Naomi objected with a giggle. She planted a kiss on her wife’s head and looked around. “Looks like we’ve blown a circuit. I’ll better check the fuse box.”

“Don’t bother. It’s not just us.” Hazel interjected. She pointed out to the side window, where they could partially see their neighbors’ house. The lights at Mrs. Mcdonavan’s were out as well and judging by the absolute darkness out every window, the streetlights weren’t functioning as well.

“Looks like a power outage.” Naomi concluded. “Well, I’m sure that-“

A loud knock on the door startled them both.

Naomi sighed and walked to their front door. “Who’d be brave – or stupid – enough to wander through a storm like this?”

“Maybe one of the neighbors checking in one us.” Hazel guessed. “Just tell ‘em we’re fine and send them-“

“HAZEL, COME QUICK!”

Hazel nearly stumbled over her own feet as she ran over the hallway. “Naomi! Are you-?” She gasped when she saw her stupefied wife down on her knees, holding an infant drone in her arms. “Is that-? How? What?”

“Someone left this baby at our doorstep, Hazel.” Naomi stated in a dazed tone. She pointed at a basket that probably held the infant. “In that…”

Hazel ran out the door and tried to spot whoever had left this child at their home. No-one as far she could see, which was strange. The streets were deserted. There was no way anyone could have left the area without a trace that quickly. They hadn’t even heard a car or anything. “I don’t see anyone.”

“Come back inside!” Naomi called out, as she quickly took the child into the house. She plopped down on the couch, wrapping a blanket around the pill baby. “Poor thing must be freezing.”

Hazel grabbed the basket and closed the door behind her, looking inside the thing to spot any clues about their mystery Untrained Neural Network foundling. There was an old red scarf, an old beanie, a choker where the engraving had been worn out so much she couldn’t make anything out of it, a pair of black rimmed and yellow tinted glasses, and … a note.

“Got some things and a note here.” Hazel announced as she walked in, smiling softly as she noticed how her wife was making silly noises at the baby, which were evidently greatly appreciated, judging by the happy chirps they were making. She sat down next to Naomi and smiled at the little one. “Hi there, little stowaway. How did you get here?”

The baby chirped cheerily, looking around to scan its new environment.

“Such beautiful eyes you’ve got, darling.” Naomi cooed. “Aren’t they, Hazel?”

Hazel had to agree. Two-toned eyes like that weren’t too common, not without any sort of modifications anyway. Hazel unfolded the note and cleared her throat. “’Her name is Anne. Please love her like we have loved her.’ …nothing else.”

“’Anne’, huh?” Naomi mumbled as she tickled Anne’s visor. “Pretty name for a pretty girl, yes it is.”

Hazel giggled and held out her arms, smiling as her wife handed over the infant girl. Her smile grew wider as Anne’s eyes started to droop and suddenly closed, with little ‘ZZZ’s appearing on her visor. She turned to Naomi with a heavy sigh. “What just happened?”

“I think …we’ve been chosen to be …this girl’s parents.” Naomi stated quietly, not wanting to wake up the baby.

“Are you for real?” Hazel asked. “I mean, it’s a cute baby, but …I thought we were going to adopt?”

“Honey, we’ve been waiting two years, and we only recently got on the list to get on the list.” Naomi let out a heavy breath. “Hazel, from the moment we’ve first became a couple, we’ve talked about having children and becoming parents. We’ve endured so much hardship. We’ve been waiting so long; hold on to hope for so long. Our baby room has been ready for 16 months without any use. This little one is a gift.”

“I don’t know …” Hazel groaned. “It’s all so …unorthodox. I mean, we’re going to have to report this. Have her checked out by tech-medics. We’re going to have to deal with a lot of administration and red tape. There’s no guarantee they’re going to let us keep Anne.”

“So, you wanna keep her?”

“Of course, I wanna keep her!” Hazel whisper-shouted as she planted a kiss on her wife’s cheek. “Are you kidding me? She’s perfect!”

“In that case, we’re going to fight for her.” Naomi stated. “We’re not going to rest until we can call ourselves little Anne’s parents. But for now ….” She smiled softly as she looked down at the sleeping Anne. “I believe we have a perfectly good baby room for little Anne to sleep in.” She stood up and gestured Hazel to follow her. “And we better get to bed too. I have this feeling that we are going to have some pretty exciting weeks ahead of us.”

Hazel started to follow her wife up the stairs, but stopped when she set her foot on the first step. She looked over her shoulders to the note on their coffee table. She smiled. “Whoever you are, I promise we’ll love her like you would have loved her, and …thank you for trusting us with her. We’ll take good care of your little girl, our little girl.”

“Hazel?”

“Coming.” She rushed up the stairs, not wanting to miss putting their little Anne to bed.

***

Outside the house, two figures gazed down at Hazel and Naomi’s house. A few minutes earlier, V had deployed her EMP generator, knocking out the entire grid in the street and, with the cover of darkness shrouding her and Uzi, left their sleeping daughter at the door, knocked on the door …and flew out of sight. They had been hiding in the clouds, only landing down at the roof opposite of the young couple’s house after they were certain that these two Drones were going to take their baby daughter inside.

“So, …no-one is going to find out?” V asked with a trembling voice, holding on to a distraught Uzi, who was at the verge of crying.

“I-“ Uzi took a deep breath. “I’ve installed a program that’ll redirect any scanner to a dummy personality matrix with fake coding. If they’re going to try to trace back her parents, they’ll end up at a young couple who will have died a few days from now. As far as anyone will know …we aren’t around anymore.”

“I love the name we’ve chosen….” V stated, her voice small and broken. “Anne …N would’ve loved that.”

“That’s why I chose that.” Uzi whimpered, tightening her grip on V’s hand. “She’ll be alright here, right?”

“We’ve observed this couple from afar for days. They’re a kind, loving couple of Drones. Really involved with their community. They’re great with children. “They …they’re perfect. They’ll love Anne like she’s their own. This …this was for the best.”

“And what if she has our …affliction?” V asked.

“I guess …we must have faith in her that she’ll figure out things on her own.” Uzi answered. “Maybe …maybe, by some small miracle, she’ll find her way back to us.”

“Yeah …maybe.” V choked out.

A sob escaped Uzi’s throat as she threw herself in V’s arms, who couldn’t stop herself from crying as well. They stood there for who knows how long, just sobbing softly in each other’s arms. Eventually, V broke away from the embrace, wiping away a digital tear.

“Uzi …”

“No…”

“We have to leave now.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Me neither, but …”

“I know.” Uzi sighed, wiping away a digital tear. “Just …a few more minutes?”

V smiled softly and pulled Uzi against her. “Okay …a few more minutes.”

***

EPILOGUE: 16 years later

“Okay, where the flipping heck did my moms hide my snack stash this time?” 16-year old Anne asked herself as she rummaged around her parents’ closet in search of the box of Battery Bites that her parents had confiscated earlier that day. Something about ‘not wanting to ruin her appetite’. Nothing in this cabinet either. With a sigh, Anne stood up, smiling as she saw her own reflection in the mirror. She had to beg her parents so much to dye her hair, but it had been so worth it. Jet black with crimson red ends. So glitching rad. It went so well with her bright red jacket.

“Maybe they’ve hidden in on top of the closet again.” She told herself as she grabbed a chair. Even then, she had to tiptoe to reach the top of the closet. Curse her short stature that made her insanely cute also.

As she reached out her arms as far as she could, she suddenly felt her fingers brush against something. A basket or something? Her curiosity awakened, she stretched out herself as much as possible until she managed to get a good grip on it. She nearly tumbled off the chair as she pulled it towards her.

As she hopped of the chair, she confirmed it was indeed a basket. She walked over the cabinet with the mirror and put down the basket. There was something about this basket that drew her to it. Like …and old memory.

Curious, she pulled the first item out: a red scarf. An old scarf, by the look of it. She ran the fabric between her fingers. Why did it feel so …familiar. She held the scarf to her face and rubbed it against her cheeks. It felt so …comfortable. It brought out feelings of safety …and sadness?

She threw the scarf on her parents bed behind her and took out another item. An old grey beanie. She placed the beanie on her head, smiling at how good it looked on her. It felt …right to wear it.

The next item made her grin. It was an old black choker. “Wow, never knew my parents were into this fashion choice. Retro.” She chuckled as she put on the choker. Like with the beanie, it just felt right. It was weird, she never really had the urge to accessorize before, but these things were just calling out to her.

A pair of yellow tinted glasses were the last item she pulled out the basket, and she just put them on to try them out when she saw something at the bottom of the basket. A note? Perhaps an old love letter from her parents? She grabbed the note and opened it.

Her name is Anne. Please love her like we have loved her.

Anne felt her core freeze as she read the message. What was this? This was not her parents’ handwriting. She read the message again. As she felt all strength leave her legs, she stumbled backward until the back of her knees hit her parents’ bed and she plopped down.

“Anne? Anne, where are you?” Her mom Hazel called out. She appeared in the master bedroom doorway, her expression a mixture of stern and amused. “Are you trying to find your snacks, because …” She froze when she saw what her daughter was wearing and the note she holding in her hand. “Anne, where did you…?”

Anne’s voice was soft as she held out the note. “Mom …what is this?”

“Oh no.” Hazel eyes started to tear up. “Noami! Naomi, come here, quick!”

The sound of footsteps rushing up the stairs and soon her momma Naomi appeared next to her wife. She gasped when she saw her daughter.

“She found it?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“She always was one to snoop around.”

“What have told her?”

“Nothing, I just got here.”

“I am not ready for this.”

“Neither am I.”

“Can someone please tell me what this is about?” Anne asked loudly, her tone a bit sharper than she intended it to be. Tears were welling up in her eyes. “Sorry, it’s just ….all these things, this letter. What are these things and why did you hide them from me? What does it all mean? Who wrote this letter?”

Hazel and Naomi gave each other a look. The latter sighed and nodded at the former. Hazel cautiously approached her daughter and sat next to her. Naomi placed herself on the other side of their daughter.

“Anne, honey, I believe it’s time that we’ve told you something.” Hazel began.

“Something that, maybe, we’ve should have told you a long time ago.”

Anne’s grip around the letter tightened as she readied herself for her mothers’ story.

To be continued?

#murder drones #vuzi #uzi doorman #MD V #immortal Vuzi AU #fanfiction

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