A/N: Is anyone still here? Gosh, I haven't updated in a long time. I've been slowly whittling away at these two chapters - this one is fairly short, but the next one is Long AF to make up for it, and 100% complete. :D I'll probably post it in a few days. Thanks for sticking around!
ED-E can never recall what happens in the dead zones of its memory, blackened by the lack of input. All it knows is the moments before and after.
This happens to be a moment after. And it knows that it that suddenly it has power.
Life.
The first thing ED-E knows is that this activation is not one of its own will – but until the rest of its systems boots up, it can't figure out why it had been off in the first place. Given the circumstances, though, it's about as grateful as an eyebot can be.
The systems boot one by one, a laggy process that comes with old, post-war technology. Basic facilities boot first, and so the first input ED-E can detect is that it's upright and at a stable hovering height. In the next second, the auditory channels have reconnected.
"Aaaaaand… that should do it!" is the first thing ED-E hears. It's a cry of success that makes it feel good – it reminds ED-E of the night Whitley spent tinkering with and boosting the little eyebot's capabilities.
It takes at least thirty seconds for optics to come online, and after a feed of hardware information scrolls across its vision, ED-E can finally take in its surroundings.
Scanning parts of the room that it finds itself in doesn't help ED-E grasp where it is, though. Its natural instinct to check what its navigation has to say about its surroundings comes back empty-handed when it finds that the system is struggling to start up, more than normal. A diagnostics check shows that the lagging nav system is more than likely due to previous damage that was only partially repaired.
ED-E doesn't know where it is. The last thing in its memory banks is a feed of a long, lonely stretch of road and dirt, in what ED-E knows had been the Mojave Desert – it's navigation had been working back then. It'd been on a journey across the country, headed to Navarro, but it couldn't tell if it had gotten any closer to or further from its destination.
Instead of finding some sort of sign that might help, ED-E is met with five pairs of eyes, each varying in emotional state. Four humanoids, one canine. The canine is half-robotic, registering as a Mk III law enforcement model. Facial and body recognition tells ED-E that the humans are likely to be evenly split between male and female.
ED-E beeps curiously.
The human closest to it grins widely and wipes at her slick forehead, tucking away a lock of dark hair behind an ear.
"Wow," the other woman breathes, impressed. "Wouldn't have pegged you as a roboticist."
"I wouldn't go that far. I'm not an expert or anything," the first one replies with a shrug, though her gaze never strays from watching ED-E with rapt interest, "but I know a little thing or two about 'em."
"Well, I'm just as surprised as the next person, but it's a little… old, don't you think?" one of the men – the blond one – says. The look he gives ED-E bears nothing but distrust. "Maybe we should leave it. It probably doesn't even have all of its proper functions."
ED-E can't help the indignant chirp it lets out at that.
"I think it can hear you, pal," the brown-hooded woman giggles.
"Of course it can," the man replies with a huff. "It's a robot. It's made to take orders, regardless of who's giving them, and in order to do that, it needs at least some basic understanding of language."
"It also takes preset commands," the first woman comments thoughtfully. "All eyebots do."
The man finally manages to tear his gaze from ED-E and looks at her sharply. "You know a lot more about eyebots than the average person."
"A decent amount, yeah."
"How, if I may ask?"
"They were always floating around where I'm from. I did a lot of reading on them."
"Ah." He watches her thoughtfully, but says no more.
"For example," she continues, unaware of the behavior of her companion, "I know that there's a following protocol that you can use to make them do whatever you need them to do. However, I think it could also be as simple as," she jerks her thumb over her shoulder and addresses ED-E, "Hey, little buddy. Wanna come with us?"
With no sense of direction and its mission put on hold until it finds one, ED-E decides: why not? This person seems nice enough. It bobs in the air and gives a happy chirp of agreement.
The woman breaks out into a smile that makes ED-E feel like it's doing good things, just like how Whitley used to make it feel. "Cool. Let's head out, then."
"That's an awfully expressive hunk of metal," the blond man mumbles.
"I think it's cute!" the hooded woman laughs as they all file out of the building. ED-E follows along like it's supposed to, still uncertain and curious of where it's ended up after the long stretch of road.
Outside is a dusty, empty town with two large casinos and an even larger roller coaster. ED-E doesn't recognize any of it as anything it's ever seen before. Despite the lack of recognizable landmarks for the eyebot, the area surrounding the town was very clearly desert terrain, with hot sand and Western flora. ED-E thinks that maybe it hasn't strayed too far from where it had crashed, which is a huge relief.
In front of one of the casinos stands a large sign, tall and lazily rotating on its own. Bison Steve means nothing to ED-E until its navigation systems come back online. Another scan of its hardware shows that the navigation is still attempting to connect. If it hasn't connected by now, ED-E is certain that, without a fully proper repair, it won't ever come back online.
Maybe it'll stick around this person, the dark-haired woman, longer than it expected. She at least has some understanding of its systems, maybe she just doesn't know that the repair wasn't finished. It's worrisome – ED-E isn't sure how it can communicate that it needs further repairs. But it's determined to find a way, especially if it means completing Whitley's mission.
"I think it's creepy," the blond man continues once they're all outside. "I'm just saying, it would be a shame if it broke down again and we just so happened to not have the replacement parts."
"Oh, don't get your lab coat in a twist, Arcade," the first woman says with a laugh. "It's just an almost-harmless little robot."
The man glances over his shoulder at ED-E, eyes narrowed once more in blatant suspicion.
"Almost is the key word. And something tells me it's more than that."