Beeping filled the air around her, and Aradia tilted her head slowly towards it. Everything hurt earlier, but now it didn't. Something niggled her about the gradual pain loss in her head. "Shock," a voice whispered, but she couldn't care. The lack of pain was beautiful and she would do everything to ignore that voice. Listening to it could bring it back.

"A-ra-di-a!" a robotic voice exclaimed. "What-hap-pended-to-you?" The voice was staccato, halting on each word. It made Aradia's ears hurt so much. Well, ear. Only one seem to work anymore.

"Lights..." she whispered hazily, like sopor slime got into her mouth while she was sleeping. "Pretty lights...All red and blue...So...Pretty..."

"Shock. The mistress has gone into shock. Vriska has mutilated her. We must get help and bring her home," another robotic voice ordered. This one didn't pause on every word, but it was obvious still that she wasn't flesh and blood.

Something shifted Aradia, gently lifting her up. Was it the lights? She wanted to see the lights again. The lights were beautiful, they were, and she wanted to touch every single one of them. But something was wrong about the lights. They hurt to touch. That didn't matter, did it? They couldn't hurt her now.

She didn't feel any pain. She didn't feel anything. She tried to move her arm up to touch the lights, but it didn't. When she looked over to see if it was moving, all there was left was a bloody blue stump, with muscles and bones sticking out of it.

But that didn't bother Aradia. She had seen lots of that when she gave Kanaya those robot legs. Cerulean blood was everywhere, and none of it could bother her. Of course. Aradia was still working on Kanaya's legs. The blood was just bluer. And her arm was behind her back. She giggled like a grub. Such a silly trick she had played on herself, tricking herself into thinking that her arm was gone!

She laughed again and tried to move it from behind her. But it wouldn't come out. Oh, it must've fallen asleep. Come to think of it, the rest of Aradia wanted to sleep too. She closed her eyes and waited for sleep to befall her.

She was being put down, Aradia realized. A sharp knocking filled the air, and a door swing open. A familiar yet strange voice answered, "Yes?"

"Vris-ka-has-hurt-the-mis-tress!" The squeaky voiced robot exclaimed. "We-need-help-to-re-pair-mis-tress!"

There was silence for a second, or was it forever? Aradia had forgot how to tell the difference long ago, when the pretty lights had burned and enthralled her at the same time. Finally, the voice said again, "Let me inject this in her." For this first time in either eternity or just a minute, Aradia felt pain. It was a tiny prick in her arm, but it was still pain.

And that brought everything back, the images on fast-forward: Tavros's death, Kanaya's legs, Sollux's blinding, confronting Vriska, Vriska shooting at her using her psiionics...And the pain. Pain on her horn. Her leg. Her torso. Her ribs. Her eye. Her shoulder. Everywhere. Oddly enough, her arm didn't throb with pain. That was because Vriska shot it off.

Aradia couldn't breathe. She realized she had trouble breathing the entire way here. A lung. A lung must've been damaged. But still, she found a way to summon up everything inside of her that she had felt from the pain and memories and released it into one huge scream.

And then everything went black.

The next time Aradia woke up, everything was sharp in her mind, yet still fuddled from sleep. She looked around and relaxed when she realized she was home, lying on a bunch of blankets and tucked under one. Yawning, she brought her hands up to rub at her eyes and get rid of the last traces of sleep, so she could fully remember everything.

From the moment her left hand touched her left eye, she knew something was wrong.

Blinking, she slowly lowered her arm. Then, wanting to look so bad yet not daring to look at all, she slowly inched her head tilting towards her arm, until she finally dared to look down at it.

Metal. Her arm was pure metal, from the base of her shoulder touching her collarbone to her fingers. No wonder it felt so cold.

Aradia screamed at the top of her lungs, jumping out of the bed and furiously scooting away on her floor. What did her Aradiabots do to her?!

The door swung open, and one of the aforementioned robots glided in.

"Good-mor-ning-mis-tress! Did-you-sleep-well? Re-min-der-to-fix-my-voice-box-soon-so-I-will-stop-tal-king-like-this!"

Aradia grabbed the bot by the shoulders and shook her hard. "WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?!" she screamed, ready to cry and faint.

"Vris-ka-hurt-mis-tress-so-we-fixed-mis-tress! We-put-in-lots-of-met-al!"

"I'M A CYBORG?!"

Cyborgs were practically unheard of on Alternia. Only highbloods could afford the metal needed, and they rarely gave them to injured lowbloods who needed an arm or a leg, mostly both. Aradia was one of the few who did, but she'd never seen them after that. They were usually shamed for this, and in the rare event that a highblood became a cyborg, they were instantly a laughingstock of the upperclass. Not that Aradia went to any of their parties, but there were a few that were kinda nice.

But cyborgs were also mocked by lowbloods as well. All trolls were expected to be strong, and having a robotic part basically said that you weren't strong enough. And to be strong was everything on Alternia. To be weak was lower that any mutant ever hatched in the caverns.

"Yes! Is-mis-tress-hap-py-to-be-clos-er-to-her-com-pa-ni-ons?" The bot smiled hopefully. Oh, the sweet bot, with the faulty wiring that made her like a child at times. Aradia nearly wanted to snap that wiring.

"WHERE ELSE ARE THE PARTS?!" Aradia screeched, shaking her again just as another Aradiabot came into the room.

"Oh, Aradia is awake! Did you have a nice sleep? You must've, you slept for two nights!"

"Two. Nights?" Aradia had to sit down, and she could feel her eye twitching already from the stress.

The new Aradiabot was holding a mirror. "Would you like to see your new parts?" Before Aradia could answer, she shoved the mirror in her face.

It wasn't just Aradia's arm. One of Aradia's eyes had also been replaced, and so had a horn. She touched the cool metal gingerly, feeling tears well up in her eye. She looked down at herself then and saw metal replacing her torso, the top part covered up by her new cutoff top. She lifted the edge of it just to where the metal began, and fingered where it met flesh. She also dragged up her skirt a little to see her new metal leg, which started mid-thigh. There was also various bandages around her body, where other injuries were sustained.

But she didn't pay attention to any of those. She looked up at her Aradiabots and whispered in a quavering voice, "Where else?"

"We had to replace a lung and two ribs. Otherwise the other 53% of you is flesh," the older one told her.

"Eq-ui-us-helped-us-fix-mis-tress!" the other one squeaked. "He-is-nice!"

Aradia wanted to yell at them about letting that creep open her up and fiddle anywhere inside her, but she didn't care. "Call all the Aradiabots back here," she finally said.

"Even the ones for your friends?" the older Aradiabot inquired.

"Yes. I want all the Aradiabots here as soon as possible. Now, leave me and make the call."

She nodded and glided out the door, but the younger one stayed hovering there.

"Is-mis-tress-hap-py-to-be-fixed?" she asked innocently, her hands behind her back.

Aradia opened her mouth, but realized she didn't have an answer to that. Her friends probably thought that she was dead, or had crawled off somewhere and would never return. So far, she knew that Equius knew of her condition, but who else? Nepeta was his moirail, after all, and she frequently visited his hive. She could've told anyone! Would they storm her hive now? Demand her to come out and reveal the scum that she was now?

No. She couldn't talk to any of them now, lest they discover. She would have to be aloof now, and never start conversations again. She would lose her friends, but at least she would stay alive, no matter how much it hurt. Her mind was a whirlwind, and all she wanted to do was collapse and forget any of this had ever happened.

"I don't know," Aradia finally answered. "Now, leave me alone." She turned her back on the Aradiabot, half-expecting her to pester her further. Instead, there was a moment's pause, then the door slammed closed and the whooshing sound on the hovering engine dissipated.

Once she was sure that she was finally alone, Aradia collapsed sobbing into the mess of blankets that she had slept in for the past two nights. Only her real eye shed tears, since her robotic one lacked tear ducts. She cried well into the night and into the day, finally falling asleep just as the first moon started to peek over the horizon.

She would sleep that night again, and the following day. When she woke up again, she would be different. Gone was the Aradia that used to be carefree and willing to go anywhere. Now she was the Aradia that would never speak to her friends for as long as she possibly could.

She hated her decision, but it was the only way that she could stay safe.

Hello! Recently I have been inspired by aradia-paradia on tumblr to write again! Also I wrote some Doctor Who fanfiction, since I've recently gotten caught up on the show just this week. Eleven is my favorite. I cried.
Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed this!

Deranged Shadow Fangirl