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devastator1775 · 8 months ago

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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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