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devastator1775 · 5 months

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A different road towards Mass Destruction (EPISODE 7 AU REWRITE)

Summary: A rewrite of the finale of Episode 7, so it makes sense in my Nix Doorman AU. A little adjustment here, a big change there, add a little bit more dialogue and ...presto! Also on AO3!

Uzi stared at the screen that had shown all that had happened with her mom and the AbsoluteSolver. How it had taken her over, how Yeva – doll’s mother – had used some crucifix to exorcise the malevolent AI and how they inadvertently had had a hand – no pun intended – in the Core Collapse of Copper-9. The tape had ended for a little while now, but Uzi was still staring at the static, her eyes replaced by the Solver’s symbol.

CRACK!

The tv screen cracked and Uzi – painfully flung back to reality as her right eye flickered yellow once again – stumbled backwards, panting heavily. The candles that lit up the halls went out, showering the cathedral in darkness for a few moments, before lightning struck outside and illuminated the room and cast a shadow of someone standing in the doorway and slowly started to make its way towards Uzi.

The latter never noticed. What she had seen on the tape had scared her immensely. She felt panic well up inside her, pulling on her choker until it came off. She stared at the thing in her shaking hands with frantic breaths, fear in her expression. Her mother’s necklace slipped out of her hands, dropping to the floor with a high-pitched ping. Uzi stared silently at the ground, trying to make sense of what she had just seen, what it all meant and in what her next move should be …when she suddenly heard something behind her. She slowly turned around, her hollow eyes slowly widening in shock as she saw-

“Doll?” Uzi asked, staring at her rival – by lack of a better word.

The red-eyed Drone stared at her for a few moments, opening her mouth to say something …and promptly stumbled to the ground, coughing up oil and groaning in pain. Her shock at seeing the girl changed to a mixture of curiosity and worry. She slowly approached Doll and with every step that cold feeling inside her stomach grew. Doll looked damaged, extremely damaged even. Oil was leaking from numerous wounds and sparks flew from exposed circuitry. Something had attacked her and damaged her so much that her regeneration couldn’t kick in.

Despite her damage and obvious tremendous pain, Doll managed to push herself towards a pillar, so she could sit upright. Convincing herself that the Russian Drone wasn’t able to attack her, Uzi closed the distance between them and knelt down.

Doll managed to look up. Her visor was cracked and her screen was glitching between her eyes and [⚠ DANGER ⚠]. “<Uzi…>”

“Doll, what happened?” Uzi asked. “What …who did this to you?”

“<Uzi….>” Doll repeated, her voice weak and barely audible. She grabbed Uzi's hand.“<Fight …. fight back.>”

“Fight back what?” Uzi asked. “Doll, what attacked you?”

Doll’s visor started to flicker and her head started to droop. “<The hu- …the hu->” Her chin fell on her chest and her visor showed the message [⚠ Low Power ⚠].

She was offline, but …still alive, it seemed. Uzi couldn’t help to feel a tinge of sadness for Doll, despite everything she had done. After all, Doll seemed to wanting to help, even if she had done things completely wrong …and unforgivable. She didn’t deserve to be brutalized like that. Uzi stood up and backed away from the unconscious Drone, fear once again growing in her chest.

“Yikes.” A familiar voice announced behind her. Uzi turned around and saw Tessa leaning casually against the cathedral doorframe; her figure briefly illuminated by the flash of lightning. “Someone’s been busy.”

Uzi realized how this looked like. Doll damaged and she standing there unscathed. Tessa probably thought that she…

“Tessa, I- I didn’t-“ Uzi panted, backing away slowly from the human as the latter pulled her sword from her back. Sparks jumped from the floor as the sword carved into the stone tiles while Tessa slowly approached her. Uzi gestured frantically towards Doll’s body, as if to make a point. “Sh- she just –”

Tessa kept coming at Uzi with confident strides.

“Wait!” Uzi’s visor glitched as she felt the Solver’s influence trying to take her over again. She let out a shrill gasp as one of her wings popped out of her back, while some sort of claw shot out and grabbed a pillar, holding her in place. “Something else did this to Doll?”

Tessa swung the sword over her shoulder, looking over to the fallen Drone. “Oh, ‘someone else’, ey? And what could possibly be able to – to …” Her voice faltered and she seemed to stumble for a moment, her hand clutching her helmet, almost like she felt lightheaded for a second. She shook her head and continued her way towards Uzi. “Nah, not gonna fall for that. Nice try, little Drone.”

Uzi raised her hand, the Solver symbol appearing in her open palm. “Please, you – you have to believe-“ She froze when her visor showed her a message.

⚠--//ERROR: AbsoluteSolver_trn [like object non-interactive] --⚠

Uzi’s thoughts were running at lightspeed. She had seen this message when she tried to use her powers on Doll when she attacked Uzi in her home …which seemed so long ago, even though it all happened that same day. Their powers didn’t work on each other because they both had the Absolute Solver. But now Tessa…? No, it was different somehow, but Uzi couldn’t figure out what. She didn’t have the time to, anyway.

“Don’t worry. Makes my job easier.” Tessa said as she closed the distance between her and Uzi. With a swift kick, she knocked the scared Drone to the ground. The sword dragged across the ground as Tessa made her away around Uzi, the latter wincing in pain as the blade cut through her wing. She tried to use her powers to halt the blade, but Tessa stomped on her wrist and raised her sword. “Thought there’d be more of you silver freaks anyway.”

Tessa aimed the tip of the sword at Uzi’s chest and rested her arm on it. Uzi wrapped her hand around the blade, wincing in pain as it slowly started to pierce her chest despite her best effort to pull it away. Her eyes kept glitching between the colors purple and yellow. Tessa raised her fist above the handle, readying herself to give the final push and-

A blade suddenly rested against her neck, halting her final blow. She looked over her shoulder and saw N standing behind her. One of his eyes was showing an ‘X’ and in his free hand he held a crucifix – or more precise, an USB drive shaped like a crucifix.

“You knew about the patch, yes, or no?” N demanded, pushing his blade slightly harder against Tessa’s neck. “One. Chance.”

Tessa placed a finger against N’s blade and casually pushed it from her neck. “Cuuuute.”

Before N had time to react, Tessa had suddenly swung her sword against N’s blade and knocked him briefly out of balance. The Disassembly Drone quickly regained his composure, reacting just in to time to parry another swing of Tessa’s blade.

“Why are you doing this?” N yelled as he and Tessa exchanged blows, sparks flying all around them.

“I need to do this!” Tessa did a backstep and thrusted forward, aiming for N’s chest.

N deployed his wings, giving one fierce flap to dodge the attack and stagger Tessa. “WHY?”

Tessa seemed to falter for a moment. “I – I…”

N noticed how weird she suddenly sounded, and he briefly dropped his guard. Tessa seemed to overcome her brief confusion and immediately took advantage to use some acrobatic moves to bring herself closer to him. N shrieked in surprise as she landed right in front of his face, but managed raise his blade in time to block Tessa flurry of attacks.

“I told you, N!” Tessa shouted as she swung her sword again and again, forcing N on his knees. “You needed to choose! The Universe or one little Drone!” She raised her sword over her head.

N saw his opening. “I have chosen!” He lunged upwards, his arm outstretched and –

Tessa let out a gasp. She looked down at her chest …and N’s blade that stuck inside her. The sword slipped out of her hands, falling on the ground with a loud metallic clatter. “Oh…”

“I’ve chosen Uzi.” N announced through gritted teeth. He pulled his blade out of Tessa’s chest, whom fell on her knees, clutching her stomach. Her entire body was trembling as she slowly looked up at N.

“N …” She began weakly. “I remember…it wasn’t…” Her voice faltered as she fell over on the ground and stayed there. Motionless.

N looked at the thick red liquid that was staining his blade as it was dripping on the floor. As the realization of what he’d just had done hit him, he started breathing heavily, nearly falling over if didn’t use his blade to keep him upright. His audio receptors were ringing, the world was spinning and he barely noticed that Uzi had rolled over on her stomach and had started to drag herself towards him.

It wasn’t until her hand clutched the crucifix that he managed to fall back to reality. “H-hey, buddy. Yeah, that should help” N began weakly as Uzi took the patch out of his hand. He started to help Uzi stand up. “All I know is, I need you …to figure things out.” He smiled as Uzi put her hands in to his’. “Together.”

He pulled Uzi to her feet, their hands interlacing. He smiled softly at her …before suddenly the latter crushed it, making him wince.

Uzi started giggling weirdly.

A moment later, she used her powers to destroy the patch.

N’s eyes grew in shock as slowly the realization started to dawn on him.

Uzi kept giggling. “That’s really sweet.” She began, but her voice wasn’t Uzi’s anymore.

It sounded like …

Uzi’s head snapped up, her smile wide and her eyes yellow. “Big Brother.”

Cyn. The Solver.

N didn’t have the time to process before Uz- The Solver threw him against a pillar and pinned him against the stone with a claw through his shoulder.

“Too bad you served your purpose.” The Solver commented, hunched over and their head snapping towards the pinned N with their unsettling grin. They started to make their way to him as another clawed tentacle grew out of their back. “Don’t worry. Your backups will forgive me.”

They raised their claw, ready to dispose of N.

They swung.

Just before it could decapitate N, a pickaxe collided against it and knocked it away. A purple Solver symbol appeared around the pickaxe. A heart – wearing a mourning cap – jumped down onto N’s shoulder, quickly cutting down the clawed tentacles from the flabbergasted Solver.

“Nori?” The Solver asked, genuine surprise soon replaced with anger. “You’re dead.”

Nori angrily pointed the pickaxe at the Solver. “You’re frickin’ grounded.”

“ANGRY!”

A battle commenced. The Solver launched claws at the Nori, but she quickly deflected them, giving N time to fly up to escape. A Solver-power guided pickaxe got thrown and landed in the middle of the Solver’s face. N readied his gun and prepared to shoot, but …he hesitated. The Solver looked at him, their expression neutral. All he could see was Uzi and he couldn’t bring himself to harm her. A wide, disturbing smile grew on the Solver’s face. A moment later, it teleported towards him and Nori, clawed tentacles growing out of their back. It grabbed N and threw him against the wall.

N fell on the floor. He blinked and the Solver was suddenly in front of him, pinning Nori to the wall. He deployed his blade and held it against the Solver’s neck, ready to slice …only to find himself once again unable to do it. The Solver grinned at him as they grabbed the blade and started to push it against their neck. Oil started leaking from the cut. N panicked and tried to push the blade in the other direction, trying to keep the Solver from hurting Uzi.

Nori took advantage of the Solver’s distraction to use her powers to grab her pickaxe and cut off Uzi’s arms. Free from the solver’s grasp, she landed on N’s arm and …slapped the Solver once across their face. She grabbed her pickaxe again and gave the Solver a mighty slap, slinging it across the room where it landed on a small building.

Nori spun around and gave N a few slaps as well, giving him a look that spoke a thousand words. Get your head in the game, dummy!

Behind them, the sound of lightning sounded as the Solver regenerated their arms, electricity sparking around them. They raised their arm, making a giant [null] sphere appeared, which started to shoot [null] discs at them, which they barely managed to dodge. N and Nori flew up, dodging [null] attacks left and right as they made their way over to The Solver.

Barely managing to dodge another attack, N managed to close the distance between them and the Solver, grabbing one of its arms, which Nori promptly sliced off. With the connection severed, the [null] sphere disappeared. As the Solver raised their remaining hand to create another [null] sphere, Nori quickly jumped on its head to distract it. N flew up again, deploying his gun. He flew around the Solver, showering it with a hail of gunfire, which the latter deflected with one of their wings while it deployed [null] spheres into N’s flightpath.

After Nori managed to cut off the Solver remaining hand, they used its brief disorientation to slam directly into it, knocking it off the chapel. The Solver deployed their wings just as N and Nore landed on the opposite wall. Nori quickly threw her pickaxe toward the Solver.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion.

The axe flew towards the Solver with every intention to kill.

The Solver stared right at them.

It winked at N.

N saw Uzi in danger.

N reacted instinctively. He took off and managed to reach ‘Uzi’ before the pickaxe could hit her, pushing her out of the way of its path …and bringing himself into it instead. As their eyes met, N managed to bring a soft smile on his face.

Yellow eyes briefly flashed purple.

The pickaxe collided against N, cutting off both of his arms and threw him on the ground. N groaned as his blurry vision slowly started to clear up. A pickaxe suddenly landed right next to him, barely missing him. As he looked up, he noticed that the Solver had taken Nori and was …going to eat her?

N’s thoughts were racing, faster than he’d ever thought before. He needed to do something. He had seen Uzi’s eyes. She was still in there. She had managed to break free from the Solver’s control, if only for half a second. He needed to reach her again.

It was then that N had an idea. He had no idea if it would work, but … Despite being severed from his torso, N still had control of his arms. He quickly made them start to write out a message.

“Nori!” N shouted. “I should mention, Uzi and I, uh…”

The Solver stopped mid-attempted-meal to look down at the message that N had written out in his own oil.

HANG OUT? WE JUST KINDA ARE HANGING OUT A LOT IDK

He had also drawn a big heart and some type of dog.

The Solver lowered their hands in annoyed confusion. “What?”

“Uzi Doorman.” Nori began, her voice filled with the reprimand and authority only a mother could muster and that could bring any teenager to their frightened knees. “Those things killed your frickin’-“ She raised a tentacle. “MOTHER!”

The Slap of Motherly Love landed with such might, it made the Solver plummet to the ground in a matter of …a second. Nori landed back in its hands.

“OW! I’m not- “The Solver’s voice started as they scrambled up, their eyes started to flicker between yellow and purple. Suddenly, a familiar – but angry - voice sounded as yellow eyes turned into purple. “HEY LADY! YOU DON’T FRICKIN’ OWN ME!”

Uzi was back.

N started to laugh in victory, but was almost instantly switched to a scream in horror as he watched as Uzi unceremoniously punted the Heart into the flesh pit.

“UZI!” N shouted as he walked towards her.

The latter spun around; her furious expression locked on N. “WHAT?” she asked – practically growled. She angrily stomped her feet as she walked to N. “We did not discuss being gross and –“ She started shrieking in teenage annoyance.

“That was your mom!” N shouted.

Uzi stopped mid-scream.” What?”

N panicked. “Wait, no!”

They both started shrieking at each other …and fell into each other’s arms. Tears streamed down Uzi’s face as N rubbed the back of her head in comfort. Uzi tightened the embrace for a few moments, before they both let go.

N smiled softly at Uzi, brushing a lock of her hair out of her visor. “I’m glad to have you back, Uzi.”

“I’m still mad at you.” Uzi said, but the blush on her visor and the small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth said otherwise. She took a step back, her hands pressed against her temples. “Wait, you said that heart was my freaking mom?”

N chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. “Yeah, long story. She kinda saved me fro-“ N paused and looked at something behind Uzi. “Uh, didn’t I see Doll earlier?”

“Yeah, something attacked her.” Uzi explained. “She’s in a bad shape.”

“Well, she must’ve regained some strength, because …she’s gone.”

“What?” Uzi spun around and looked where she had left Doll. She was indeed gone. Only a puddle of oil to indicate a damaged Drone was laid there as proof was left. Uzi groaned. “Guess we’ll run into her again ….”

“Do you know what attacked her?”

“My guess it was-“ Uzi noticed something moving behind N. Her eyes hollowed in shock. “TESSA!”

N immediately spun around, his blade deployed and resting against the neck of Tessa once again, who stood before them, clutching her stomach and blood slowly dripping on the floor. Uzi quickly hid behind N, clutching his arms and peeking from behind his back, giving the human the stink eye.

Tessa took in shallow, raspy breaths as she looked up at N. “N, Uzi, you need t-“

“Yeah, we’re done listening to you, backstabber!” Uzi announced. “Why don’t you just lie down and-“

“Please!” Tessa desperately cried out. The fear in her voice made N take a step backwards and even Uzi felt something wasn’t right. “You-“ she coughed. “Please, listen to me. I don’t know how much longer I-“

“Tessa, what’s going on?” N asked, holding out his blade again. He was ready to listen, but he wasn’t going to drop his guard down this easily…this time. “Why is JCJenson doing this?”

Tessa groaned in pain, but managed to find her voice. “Not them. Don’t work for them, not really …my cover…”

“What do you mean?” Uzi asked, her curiosity spiking.

“I work for the …the New Earth Alliance government of the Unified Colonial Planets.” Tessa began.

“Who and what?”

“They formed ….out of the remnants of human governments ….” Tessa groaned. “Ugh …after Earth’s destruction. Preserve what’s the human race. Rebuild our society on various exoplanets. I’m an Agent. My mission …infiltrate JCJenson and see what their role was with the Solver and its destruction of earth…”

“So …you’re a spy?” N asked, a hint of his usual childlike admiration in his voice. Uzi slapped his shoulder, and gave him a look that told him he needed to focus.

Tessa nodded, suddenly clutching her stomach in pain. “I got in. Became a technician. Managed to …work my way up and get a spot on their secret operation regarding the Absolute Solver …found out they were trying duplicate and weaponize it …without much success, luckily.”

“Of course…” Uzi deadpanned. Why wasn’t she surprised that humans never seemed to learn from their mistakes.

“They discovered Cyn had gone off-planet after she – the Solver – destroyed Earth…they were tracking it …they found her… dispatched a team…” Tessa took a few deep breaths. Her pain seemed to get worse. “…was ordered by NEA to stay behind, but …I went against orders. I …wanted revenge.”

Uzi wanted to ask for what, but by what she remembered from N and V’s hidden memories, she could guess. Killing her parents – awful as they were. Taking her Drones – her friends away from her and warping them into monsters that helped decimate the human race. Yeah, Uzi could relate with wanted revenge.

“They – we – found Cyn – the Solver using her body - on Bauxite-12. Hiding among the Drones as it was repeating what it did on Earth.” Tessa continued. She fell on her knees, wrapping her arms tightly around her stomach. “We engaged. We fought. We …lost. Everyone died.” She slowly looked up. “Everyone….”

Uzi eyes hollowed when she realized what Tessa was saying and judging by the way that N’s blade fell from Tessa’s neck to his side told her he figured it out.

“She ….she killed you?” N asked. “Wait, how are you-“

“The Solver realized that it needed a human to gain access to Cabin Fever Labs and finish its work on Copper-9.” Tessa stated. “It remembered me. It choose me. It …it….”

Tessa slowly reached a hand to her helmet and pushed a button on the side. The darkened visor cleared up, finally showing the human behind the blackened screen. “It changed me…from the inside out.”

Uzi gasped in horror and even N backed away in shock. While there was blood staining the inside of her helmet – probably coughed up when N stabbed her – they could still see enough. Tessa eyes were glowing slightly, like something was being lit up behind them; they could see wires and circuit sticking slightly out of her skin.”

“What …what did it do to you?” Uzi asked.

“Made me forget. Altered my memories. Made me believe I was sent to Copper-9 for a reason. Whispers in my ears that told me what to say, what to do. ” Tessa groaned. She clutched her stomach and let out a pained cry. “Gave me a clone of J with altered memories as well to help my story. I didn’t know the truth. J doesn’t know the truth.”

“But …why?” Uzi asked, stepping away as N put away his blade and helped Tessa on her feet.

“It …needed a ride…” Tessa stated weakly. “Hide in plain sight …until it got close.”

“Wait, are you saying that you …brought Cyn with you?” Uzi asked. She looked around, almost expecting to see Cyn slither from out of the shadows. She looked over to the human. Tessa was breathing rapidly and trembling. “Tessa, where is it?”

Tessa slowly looked up. “In- ….”

“In where?” N asked.

Tessa let out a whimper. “Inside me.” She suddenly lurched backwards, letting out a long scream of pain. Before Uzi and N had time to react, something suddenly tore out of Tessa’s wound.

“JUMP SCARE!” A heart with a yellow eye, wearing a yellow band that read MARKED FOR DISPOSAL P/N: CYN-N~A like a sash, lunged towards N with enormous speed. “NECK TWIST!”

With one swift move, the heart had wrapped its tentacles around N’s head and snapped it. Uzi readied her solver powers, but she didn’t even time to react as she saw him drop to the floor, as the Solver-Heart jumped at her. A yellow solver symbol appeared on one of the claws that were cut off during the battle and flew in Uzi’s direction.

“STAB.” The Solver-Heart announced as it drove the claw in her shoulder, pinning her to the floor.

The Solver-Heart jumped on Uzi’s chest, tapping her visor. “Oh yes, get snuck upon!” It hopped off Uzi and scampered over to Tessa, who was passed out on the floor. “Thank you for being my flesh suit and, also, that was sarcasm.”

It spun around and ran towards the flesh pit. “Honestly, I am-“ It jumped down. “-Starving!”

Suddenly, a bright yellow light and tentacles erupted from the pit, thrashing around in an almost victorious, yet violent manner. Uzi had managed to free herself from the claw and had crawled over to N, shaking his hand in an effort to wake him up. A sound behind her made her look away from N and she noticed two tentacles slithering towards them. She gasped when it grabbed both her and N and started to drag them towards the bit. Uzi grunted and whimpered, trying to grab N as well as trying to find something to hold and keep them from falling down the flesh pit of certain doom.

As they got dragged over the edge, Uzi noticed a human ribcage and she slammed her hand into it, pinning her in place. She immediately looked down and managed to grab N before he was out of her reach. She grunted, trying to pull herself and N up, but the tentacles were determined to drag them down.

She noticed that N had turned back online. Her fearful eyes met his worried ones.

“H-hey.” Uzi managed to say, wincing as the tentacle pulled at her again. The rib broke a little, but didn’t snap all the way through. She looked at N, smiling softly at him. “Thanks for, like …”

Suddenly, a glint grabbed her attention. Something was falling down. She recognized it as the set of keys that Tessa had tossed at J before they went down the labs. She didn’t know how or why it was suddenly here, but …maybe it could be a chance.

She smiled lovingly at N. “…everything.”

“Uzi, don’t you dare!” N shrieked as Uzi took a better grip around his hand. Leave it that lovable goof to see right through her.

Uzi threw N into the air, broke off the rib and jumped off from the flesh wall. She used her Solver Power to grab the key, after which she threw both it and the rib that was stuck in her hand at N. The rib severed N’s leg – making sure he wouldn’t jump after her immediately – and the key landed right in N’s shoulder, making him wince.

Maybe she had put a bit too much force behind that one.

As she prepared her Solver power again, she noticed the unconscious body of Tessa not too far from her N.

She looked down at N – who was using his blade to keep himself from tipping over - for a few moments, before her visor showed the message DIE MAD. The flicked her wrist and both N and Tessa’s body got thrown out of the Cathedral.

She managed to gave N one final look …before the tentacles grabbed her and pulled her down the pit. As she fell down a long hole of flesh and yellow lightning, she managed to bite of one of the tentacles that held her. She crossed her arms, wrapped one leg over the other and closed her eyes, waiting for whatever was on the other side of this ride.

Silence.

She felt …like she was floating.

Tock

Something hard pinged against her visor.

Tock.

Another one.

She finally managed to open her eyes and, to her surprise, noticed that she was floating in the void of space. In front of her she saw a large orange light. The inner core of Copper-9.

She sighed.

Okay, I’m here …. now what?

#murder drones #episode 7 mass destruction #canon rewrite #uzi doorman #serial designation n #murder drones N #tessa james elliot #Cyn #absolute Solver #fanfiction

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dronebiscuitbat · 1 month

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This took... so long to rewrite, but this is an old one-shot that I wanted to see the light of day. Enjoy!

“Flash Frozen”

N was pacing a hole within the corpse spire, and had been the better part of the day, mumbling to himself, wringing his hands together and flicking his tail as if he was irritated.

It was driving V up the fucking wall.

“N! If you don't stop pacing I will cut your legs off!” She finally broke after he started whimpering like some stray puppy who'd lost it's master. And she'd had her limit of N being pathetic today.

“S-sorry V, it's just… this is the second day in a row that Uzi's not stopped by, I'm getting worried.” He explained, holding himself as he eagerly looked out of the corpse spire while she hung from the ceiling, looking down at him while crossing her arms.

“It's only been two days. She's probably busy, don't be so clingy.” V grumbled, trying to tuck herself into her wings further so she didn't have to hear his incessant pacing. She wanted to sleep! It was too early in the night! The sun hadn't even fully gone down yet!

“But she's always here at least every other day, and if she's not, she at least tells me beforehand… what if something happened?” He asked, throwing his hands out, clearly voicing his pent up thoughts, his tail swayed nervously.

“Maybe she finally decided to leave us alone. Got too scared and scampered back underground where she belongs.” V smirked, relishing in the thought of the stupid purple toaster cowering from them somewhere.

“Uzi's not scared of us. She has no reason to! I really think something happened.” He ignored her tone, taking it as a normal suggestion instead of the mocking one is actually was, she huffed.

“I don't care! Just stop talking and pacing, so I can get some sleep!” She turned away from him, curling up tight into her own wings to block him out and discourage him from talking to her anymore. He sighed, looking down at his hands in his worry.

It really wasn't like Uzi to not show and not give a reason for it. But he didn't want to be weird and show up in her room unannounced if she really was just busy…

He just… couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong, and that feeling only got stronger every passing minute.

He tapped his foot, unable to keep still as his thoughts ran away from him, what if she was hurt somehow? Or trapped somewhere? What if she needed him and he was just sitting here, on his thumbs?

He made up his mind, slinking up through the spire and using the long shadows cast by the broken cityscape to make his way to the bunker doors without getting burned by the sun, he was just going to check on her, if she was there, he'd just leave.

Neglecting to use the door and instead ripping open a newly installed vent and crawling inside, he used his target lock system to remember where her room was… he'd only been in it once, breifly, right after prom.

It took a bit, slowly making his way through the ventilation system bit by bit, but when he heard a familiar masculine voice speak, he knew he was in the right place.

“Calm down Khan… it's not unusual for Uzi to be gone for a couple days… she's probably at that murder drones place…” N heard Khan mutter under his breath, backing up slightly, so he could peer through the grate right above the elder worker drone, he noticed Khan was pacing, much like he had been doing.

“She's not.” N replied, leaping down from the vent and scaring Khan out of his shell as he lept back from the fallen grate and the tall, perturbed looking disassembly drone in front of him.

“U-Uh, y-you? What are you-?”

“Uzi's not at the spire, but… she's not here either, is she?” N cut him off, worry only growing as he realized that if she wasn't here, she likely wasn't in the bunker at all.

“When did you last see her?” He asked, stepping one step closer to Khan who took several steps back as he trembled in fear, stumbling over his words.

“Uh, w-when she came home from school yesterday. I f-figured she was with you!”

“Your daughter doesn't come home and you don't think to at least stop by and check?” N felt extremely upset by this, perhaps a bit more then he should, because he took another step forward, his voice raising slightly.

“She's done it before!” Khan defended, but by then he was speaking to a brick wall, N had already jumped back through the vent to make his way back outside, far far more quickly then he'd come in.

Oh Uzi… where are you?

…

Uzi shivered as she sat in a fetal position on the bottom level of some random parking garage, half buried within the snow and ice. Her limbs had already shut down to conserve heat and power, leaving her trapped against the wall as warnings invaded her visor. Her vision would be next, if her calculations were correct.

[Warning: Core Temperature Falling]

[Extreme Cold Detected: Seek Shelter]

A shaky breath that released a cloud of fog left her mouth, ice already building up on her extremities, another shiver wracked through her, there was very little she could do now… but wait.

…

By the time He erupted out of the vent, night had begun in proper, pale light filling the night, the temperature dropping even further then it had been during the day making it safe for him to investigate around the bunker and spire.

If anything had happened to Uzi, it would have been between the bunker doors and the spire, that was the only place where she was exposed enough to be hurt or caught off guard.

So he started on foot, dropping in front of the bunker and starting towards the spire, to see if he could spot tracks, or oil, or just find her passed out in a burned out car along the road.

At first there was nothing, the light dusting of snow doing it's job of erasing any tracks from time, there was no heat trail either, either she hadn't used her normal path for a least a day, or she was freezing cold when she did…

But… he did eventually find half buried boot tracks, about halfway between the bunker and the spire that went off towards his and V's home. They had to be Uzi's, she was the only drone brave enough to head towards the thing instead of away from it.

He followed them, worry and relief mixing into a jittery emotional cocktail now that he'd found some sign of her, his core had begun to beat out of his chest, what had happened? The tracks continued until he was able to see the spire in the distance, meaning she'd been within eyeshot of it when..they stopped suddenly.

It didn't make sense, it was like Uzi suddenly vanished into thin air. And if she'd been this close, He or V would have definitely seen her coming.

Unless… V did see her coming. And perhaps Uzi hadn't disappeared, but instead been lifted up out of the snow and carried somewhere.

Dread filled every microprocessor in his system as he thought back to all the threats V had made since they'd met the spunky purple worker drone. He'd always assumed those threats were mostly empty. Things said to rile Uzi up, or just to scare her.

V… wouldn't actually make good on those threats… would she?

Anger replaced dread, and he released his wings to fly off towards the spire as fast as his anti-grav could carry him, purple eyelights permeating within his mind.

V was awake, sitting in the landing pod with her arms crossed, a worker arm in her mouth as she chewed on it, it wasn't fresh, but it would do. She was facing away from the door, legs propped up on the console, relaxed, for the most part.

Until something opened the pod door, letting the sound of the wind break through the hum of the florescent light inside the pod, and she rolled her eyes, and spoke through the worker arm still in her mouth.

“Ugh, do you ever-”

“Did you kill Uzi?” N's voice was strained, his breath slightly ragged, but she didn't turn to face him. Still under the impression he was just worried.

“Oh, I wish! I would've bragged about it… if… I…”

She slowly turned around, fave to face with N standing in the doorway, a clawed hand gripping onto the frame hard enough to make deep groves, the other transformed into a sword, hanging down at his side, one of his eyes was an ‘X’ and the other glaring at her so intensely it almost made her core flutter. His mouth turned into a fierce, angry frown, baring his fangs.

“No.” She said abruptly, standing up at attention. She wasn't scared of him, bit she'd never seen him display anger or aggression in such an obvious way. “No, I didn't, what happened?”

He looked at her for a few moments, as if he was deciding of she was lying or not. (A few moments that were filled with a tension she wasn't sure what to do with) before his sword became a hand again and he released to doorframe of his claws as that too returned to normal.

“She's missing, she hasn't been in the bunker for two days. I found tracks that just… stop- I don't know what happened.” His voice broke, anger breaking down into a broken sob, that he tried to cover up with his mouth. V's eyelights went hollow, not sure how to react at all to an emotionally unstable N.

“Let's find her then.” She stepped forward, surprising even herself, N looked up at her confused and lost and such a far away look in hid eyes she felt a twinge of sympathy in her core. Which was probably why she offered at all.

“You don't even like her.”

“Yeah, but you do. And I am not dealing with you being all sad and shit. Let's go.” N shook his head, trying to stave off the emotional breakdown for a bit longer as he gave her a thankful smile, which she ignored apart from the smallest of golden blushes.

“Where do the tracks stop?”

…

Uzi had just lost vison in her visor, her eyelights blinking off as she was locked into the cold metal that was her slowly freezing body, her core dim with it's temperature much lower then it should ever be. This was her own fault, an accident, if not a stupid one.

She'd been heading to the spire as usual, she'd had a particularly rough day at school, with Lizzy and Rebecca teaming up to give her shit, she guessed she needed a new bestie after Doll went nuclear on the prom guests. But now it meant she had two horrible valley girl impressions hurling insults at her instead of just one, at least Doll was a silent antagonist.

So… her mind was a bit elsewhere. She'd been spitting fire at them to herself, walking her usual path up to the spire after a fresh blanket of snow had just fallen, when the ground gave out underneath her, and she was sucked into an icy hole, the snow covering the opening.

It was freezing! And the sides were too high and too slick to just climb out of, so she just started digging, using her hands to carve out a tunnel so she could get out. It had just… taken longer then she'd ever thought to dig herself out, and by the time she finally breached the surface, her core temperature had fallen under safe levels.

And so she crawled over to the closest structure and tried her best to warm up… until her limbs locked up, ice getting in-between her joints and she'd gotten trapped here, locked against the wall of a stupid parking garage.

Drones were built for extreme temperatures, but even they weren't immune to long exposure to it.

With the night growing ever colder, the chances that anyone would find her before her core hit critical and shut off was slim, her father wouldn't even notice anything was amiss until she didn't come home after a week, and nobody else would even care.

Except for N… he was probably worried about her, he would probably be the first to notice and come looking, she just had to hope she still gave off enough of a heat signature for him to find, otherwise by the time he found her, she'd be nothing but another frozen corpse.

She hoped he wouldn't be too broken up over it…

…

They had looked everywhere. Under cars, in buildings, up on roofs, even digging through snow, but they had found no sign of her, there was no heat signature anywhere nearby, N had resorted to flying around, shouting her name from the top of his lungs until his voice was horse. Still nothing.

They grouped up back where Uzi's tracks suddenly disappeared, snow had begun to fall again, quickly erasing the last trace of her they had, a lump had formed in N's throat, was she gone? had she gotten injured and bled out somewhere? cold and alone, without anyone there? without anyone noticing?

She was his freind, his best freind. The person he shared everything with and would trust with his life. To think that she had died without anyone giving it a second thought made his core feel like it was about to be ripped in half.

She'd made him… so happy, to feel more like himself then he ever had in his entire life. Thinking about those memories, those warm happy memories that were held so close to his core, was the only thing keeping him from breaking into a thousand tiny peices. They had to find her, they had to.

There was so much he wanted to say

…

Uzi began to feel her systems shutting down, one by one, her hearing cut out, leaving only the sound of her own thoughts to accompany her, then her sense of touch. Her conscious retreating inwards to the last warm places it could find. Memories of childhood, when her mother was still alive and when her father actually cared, small moments, big moments.

It was those memories, hanging out, fighting, small hugs and laughter, that felt the warmest against her quickly chilling core, his beaming smile and his golden eyes providing the same warmth in her processors that they did in reality. She held onto them, playing them over and over as a last ditch effort to hold out just a little bit longer.

Their dance at prom, short lived, but even so it had made her feel so special. Like she mattered to at least one person in her life. Even now, in the absence of it, N made her feel warm.

There was no way anyone would find her in time, when N did find her, and he would, she was sure of it, he wouldn't rest until he did. There would be nothing but a dead core and a robotic shell. He'd probably cry, he'd probably drive V crazy with how much he'd grieve. But he would move on, she hoped, for his own sake. He deserved that, to be happy.

If she could cry, she would be.

…

“We've looked everywhere! She's not here N!” V yelled, the wind had started to pick up, howling around them much like the tornado within him. She had to be somewhere! She didn't just dissappear!

“You can go home… I'm not going to stop looking.” He looked up at her, determined of nothing else, but V shook her head.

“I'm not leaving you alone in this storm.” V looked down at where the tracks used to be, now blown away by the wind and covered up by snow, she thought to herself, before charging up her cannon and shooting where the tracks disappeared. Sending snow and ice in all directions.

And revealing a hole, and a thin tunnel leading away from it.

N's eyes became hollow, core lurching as he looked at the tunnel, as it went off into the distance, he took off in a dead sprint, using the eyes on his head to keep track of the tunnel as he followed it deeper into the city.

As he got further, he noticed small black spots covering the inside of the tunnel, oil spilled from clawing at the ice, and his core felt like lead, he somehow ran faster, coming up to a destroyed parking garage, half buried in the snow.

“Uzi! Uzi?!” He shouted, looking around frantically, flickering to thermal to try and get a glimpse of her core heat.

His eyes trained on the back wall, a speck of yellow showing heat, but not very much. And that's when he laid eyes on her, back against the concrete wall, ice over her entire body save for her core, which was barely glowing.

“Uzi!” He launched himself foreward, taking her in her arms and cradling her head, he brought her visor up to look at him.

[Core Temperature: Critical, Shut Off Imminent]

Her hands were spotted with her own oil, and her hair covered in ice and snow, he brought her close to his core, the warmest place of his body, and rocketed towards the direction of the spire.

“V! I found her!”

…

Uzi continued to replay thoughts of N, hanging by a thread as those thoughts themselves became disjointed, and fuzzy, still she gripped onto them, their warmth the only thing keeping her thinking, keeping her alive.

At first, she thought the warmth was placebo, something that came before she shut off completely, or due to her desire to see N again, replaying their dance, their hangouts, his golden eyes and warming smile, but soon enough she realized she was actually getting warmer, her consciousness becoming more and more lucid as her processors warmed back up.

Her sense of touch came back on first, she was… not in her normal clothes, at least it didn't feel like it, it was too big for her, and heavy too, there was also something incredibly warm pressed up against her, radiating an intense sort of heat.

Her hearing was next, suddenly picking up the hum of florescent lightning and light breathing next to her, she could pick up a slight thumping noise, erratic, but deep and rhythmic.

Then, her eyelights flickered on, and she was able to slowly take in what was directly in front of her. Sleek white plating and a glowing golden core, that her entire being was pressed against.

“Uzi?” He seemed to notice her eyelights moving and sat her up, gold meeting purple as he let out a shaky, relieved sigh and wrapped her in a crushing hug before pulling back.

“Oh thank robo-god, I thought- you were so cold.” He was tearing up, but a smile was on his face as he looked her up and down, her head was still locked in place however, as was her mouth.

“Uzi?” He questioned, and all she could do was blink in response, her body still resetting after so long being locked in the same position. He felt her head.

“You're still really cold…” He brought her down near his core again, blasting her with a wave of heat that normally would probably feel unpleasant, but right now felt heavenly. Although that came with the harrowing observation that he was completely naked.

So the heavy clothing around her was probably his, her clothes were probably soaked from being covered in ice, so it's not like she could be mad… just flustered with no way to show it.

Her core temperature slowly rising, she just listened to him breathe and his core beat, feeling his arms wrapped around her protectively, it took a moment, but she realized he was gently rubbing her back as well, she could just barely feel through his heavy coat.

Something clicked inside her throat, and she opened her mouth.

“N?” Was the first word out of her mouth, sounding thick, full of static and distant, and in response N sat her up again, holding her close as he looked down at her.

“You're awake! I wasn't sure… you're eyelights were on but you weren't responding.” He still looked incredibly worried, eyelights knitted together, she could still feel the warmth wafting off him.

“Y-you found me…” She could barely belive that she was alive right now. With how cold she was she definitely should have been dead, N had actually saved her.

“Yeah, yeah I-I did.” He brought a hand up to her cheek, thumbing over the crease of her visor, the look on his face was… indecipherable.

“How are you feeling? I gave you my coat, if you couldn't tell.” He asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, and she grumbled and hissed as she tried to move her head, weakened ice breaking from the joints as she could finally look around.

They were on the floor of the pod, every single blanket, pillow, plush, or other soft object both below and around them, her arms and legs were still frozen tight, but N was doing a decent job of holding her upright.

“Still a little frozen… but I'm okay.” She replied, looking back at him and feeling some of that newfound internal heat explode into her face.

While his legs and lower half were covered in a blanket, he was indeed completely and utterly nude, including his hat. The pearly white casing exposed for all to see, broad shoulders leading to arms that were exclusively holding her.

“I'm so glad you're okay… I don't know what I would have done if… you weren't.” He wrapped her in a hug again, notching her into his shoulder, pressing them together as closely as he could, her blush grew. But she did cuddle into his shoulder slightly, basking in both his warmth and affection.

“Yeah, thanks to you…” Oh, that was sappy, but she did almost die so… she could give herself a pass just this once right?

When he pulled back they made maintained eye contact again, staring into the others visor as neither knew exactly what to say, both also not wanting to look away.

Uzi broke first, looking away and clearing her throat, making N blush and look at the floor instead.

“My uh… limbs are still frozen… I think there's ice in them.” She pointed out awkwardly, how was one supposed to act in front of their best friend/savior?

“Oh uh… here.” He took both of her hands, and gently pulled them up to rest on his core, inadvertently pulling her onto his lap, both blushed again, but it seemed N was quick to be overwhelmed with emotion, because his arms were around her once more.

“Uzi… I-I” He started, but gave up after whatever we wanted to say died in his throat, instead, all he did was purr as he held her, and Uzi didn't dare break the silence, resting her head on his shoulder as she closed her eyes.

Maybe she'd cry after she got warm, but right now, this felt nice, being so close to the thought that kept her fighting the cold. More heat radiated off him.

“Why are you so warm? You don't normally run this hot…” She asked, getting a little worried when she noticed the air slightly warping around him. He backed away a little bit.

“Oh, I'm fine. I'm overheating a little bit, but I'm not in any danger, I did it on purpose.” He admitted bluntly, smiling.

“W-what? Why?”

“To get you warm faster! V already went out to get me oil, so I'll be fine!” And then he was back to hugging her like he was magnetized to her, she felt the lock on her arms finally release and she sighed in relief.

“So long as you're okay.” He mumbled, nuzzling into her neck and causing yet another blush to bubble up into her visor, she pushed him back, her legs still frozen but… that could wait.

“N. I…” She looked up at him, watching as his eyes went soft and he leaned into her, looking at her as if she was the other thing in the universe. “I-”

“Alright, here's your dumb oil.” V burst into the pod with a worker head in her hand, before pausing at the doorway and looking at the scene before her, with both guilty drones pressed up against each other and visors inches from each other.

“Gross, at least warn me if you're going to bang in the pod.” She groaned, throwing the head in his direction and knocking him over with it.

“Thank you V!” Was all he said before V scoffed and shut the door again, leaving them alone, Uzi just stared. Blushing.

She was alive, and… may have new feelings to address.

#murder drones #uzi doorman #serial designation n #nuzi #biscuitbites #n and uzi #fanfic #oneshot #angst and fluff #feelings realization #for both of them

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