Malfunction

"Mistah Reed...what is this?" Rabbit questioned quietly-for Rabbit, at least-sitting in front of the large computer monitor, his brothers seated around him. It was past the time the 'bots usually went into stasis and every one of them was more than a bit tired from the long concert they had put on not a few hours ago.

"I'm sorry, Rabbit, but this can't wait until tomorrow. Something...happened during the concert, and...I think you should see it," He refused to say anymore as he pulled up a video from a collapsed tab on the desktop. It was plain enough to see that it was from the concert, with the 'bots all up on stage. The name of the video set a strange sense of foreboding into Rabbit's very core. Malfunction.

"Mistah Reed..?" He asked again, less quiet this time. He wasn't sure he wanted to see this video. He was shushed by the human mechanic as he pressed play, pressing a button to make the video full screen.

The start-up sequence..., Rabbit realised, photoreceptors taking in every detail of the flickering lights up on stage. Something was wrong with it, though. He and his brothers weren't starting up.

"I apologise, ladies and gentlemen," Steve's voice rang out to the crowd, "We checked this, like, fifteen 's what the sound check is for. I swear, I'm not doing this-"

"Recovering from catastrophic system failure. Initiating file 001-1897" A robotic voice interrupted.

Rabbit knew that code.

And suddenly he was there.

The world was turned upside down as he charged into battle against behemoth automaton elephants, his arm transforming into a buzzsaw that was more than capable of tearing through the hardest of surfaces.

"So many elephants, there are too many, there are too many!" Rabbit could hear Hatchworth yelling nearby, the fear in his voice almost making him turn away from his target's large yet spindly leg.

"Target tar-tar-target confirmed!" He yelled, adding more speed to his already inhuman sprint, steam escaping his cheek vents in a torrent.

"Steadfast, everyone!" The Spine ordered from somewhere behind Rabbit, voice breaking through the sound of Delilah's crashing steps into battle.

Suddenly, one of the elephants reared, a trumpet fit to pierce the heavens initiating from the behemoth, a small object being released from its too-long trunk. Rabbit saw it before the others.

"Bomb!" He warned, stopping in his tracks, leaning down into a crouch and putting all his strength together into a jump of great heights. The bomb drew nearer and nearer as he sped up towards it, drawing his arm across his chest and slicing in a long arc across the bomb.

The explosion sent him back to earth faster than he had anticipated, the force of the contact sending him sliding across the hot African savanah. He couldn't see anything, but he could hear his brothers screaming. There was nothing he could do. He couldn't get up.

"Hatchy!" He screamed, his boiler overworking itself as his blindness continued, "Hatchy!"

Gunshots filled the air with a deafening clammor along with assorted battle cries and elephant trumpets.

"Rabbit! Rabbit, you must get up!"

"Rabbit!"

"No!" Rabbit screamed, jumping out of the swivel chair and nearly knocking over Michael, arms held out in front of himself in a defensive position, mismatched optics wide.

"Rabbit," The Spine warned sternly, standing as well and holding out a hand to his brother, "Rabbit, it's okay. You're home. You're with your family," He said in his calmest voice, praying to whatever God there was that he wasn't betraying himself by showing his own fear. That was something he would have to analyze for himself when he was all alone, though. Right now, his brother needed him.

"Yes, Rabbit, are going to be fine. QWERTY has confirmed that what you experienced was merely a flashback; it was not real," Hatchworth explained, not nearly as shaken as his brothers. He had been alone for such a long time, he was used to experiencing such memories in his "dreams". The souds of death and destruction had become good friends of his.

Rabbit looked at his two brothers as if seeing them for the first time in years, which, to him, it had been. His artificial inteligence began to sort itself out again, adjusting to the new situation he was currently in and switching out of battle mode. He relaxed his position by the smallest measure.

"The Spine..?" He asked tentatively, his voice small and tinny, "Hatchworth?"

He couldn't stop his next movements. He gathered his little brothers into his arms, squeezing them close to his body, steam escaping his cheek vents in large amounts.

All three of them stayed like that for an undetermined time. Minutes? Hours? Days? Rabbit couldn't be sure. He just took comfort in the knowledge that his brothers were there with him.

"I l-l-l-love you guys," He muttered after a long period of deafening silence.

"We love you, too," The Spine answered for himself and Hatchworth, readjusting his grip to hold them all together even more tightly.

That was how they stayed.

That was how they would stay forever.

Together.