Okay, here's the first of hopefully many fics about the Nanobots . . . the main power in the lab goes out, leaving all systems down except for a certain containment unit's force fields and laser tripwires. In the darkness, two lost souls reflect on the whys of their currently miserable existence . . .
A/N: Argh, I completely screwed up the Nanobots' colors in the last version . . . here's the corrected version.
Truth in the Darkness
by Shadow Wolf75
It was storming outside, that much the two Nanobots could tell from the sound of thunder. Granted, the power to the entire lab going out was a surprise, but Nanobot 1 didn't mind it so much. He liked the dark, it made it that much easier to pretend he wasn't there. Or at the very least, he could have a nice, uninterrupted sleep mode. But fate, not to mention his fellow prisoner, seemed to have other ideas.
Nanobot 2 glanced around the darkened capsule, maybe a little nervously. The darkness scared him a little, it reminded him of being shut down and that was never a pleasant experience. He looked to the shorter robot and asked, "Why did it get so dark all of a sudden?"
The yellow nanobot looked somewhat annoyed. All he wanted was a peaceful couple of hours of sleep mode, but oh no, his partner just wouldn't let him have it. Giving up on that for the moment, he sighed in resignation and answered the question. "A power outage is my best analysis. The humans' electrical grids are so easily damaged it isn't even funny!" For a second, Nanobot 1 thought his taller counterpart actually looked hopeful at his words, but then he wasn't sure.
"A power outage?" Nanobot 2 was excited. With the power to the lab gone and all the possibilities that entailed, a thought the red nanobot hadn't dared process in quite some time was running through his circuits. If he were capable of it, he probably would have smiled mischievously. "So, just maybe, does that mean the defenses outside are off, and we can get out of here and serve the Creator? It's been such a long time since we've tried . . ."
Nanobot 1 accessed his sensors, not wanting to get his own hopes up too high. In a fraction of a second, he had his answer. The various devices around their capsule to keep them from escaping were still online and running at full power. It disappointed him a little, as he would've liked to escape and serve their Great Creator as well, but it wasn't much of a surprise. With the hopeful and almost desperate expression in his partner's optic units, however, Nanobot 1 almost felt bad to have to give him the unpleasant news. "Negative. My sensors indicate that the laserweb alarm system is still functional out there. I also detect a high powered force field surrounding our capsule; if we came in contact with it, we'd be vaporized."
His hopes dashed, Nanobot 2 dropped to the floor on his metallic knees. He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. Complete destruction was infinitely worse than merely being shut down, and the very idea terrified him. But then he started wondering why the Creator would put the force field up, and a little bit of outrage mixed in with his fear. "V-vaporized? But why? Why would the Creator want such a thing to happen to us?"
Ever the slightly more rational one, Nanobot 1 sighed at his fellow robot's emotional outburst. Their Creator was human, so his intentions were never quite as clear cut as anything they could come up with. That force field out there did send a very clear message to him, though. "I'd imagine what the Creator wants is for us to stay in here."
The taller nanobot just didn't want to hear it. "But how can we serve him if we're stuck in here?" Before his counterpart could reply, Nanobot 2's own circuits came to the inevitable conclusion. The Creator didn't want them to serve him, he didn't even care enough to try and fix them so they could. That realization had hurt, almost like a physical pain even though the red nanobot knew he wasn't capable of it. And even as painful as that was, it still didn't answer the question of why. A few sobs escaped him and he whispered, "He really does hate us, doesn't he?" Pain and desperation tinged his voice as he demanded, "I just don't understand it, all we've ever done is try to serve him faithfully . . . Why does the Creator hate us so much?" He finally broke down then, crying openly and not caring who saw him.
Ordinarily, Nanobot 1 probably would have said something nasty or ignored the other robot. But he'd never seen his friend so upset before, so he walked over and put one arm around him. "Come on, Two, don't cry . . ." Now, the yellow nanobot hadn't planned on sharing his thoughts on their Creator, but it seemed like he didn't have a choice. He couldn't see his partner calming down much until he did. "I don't know if the Creator hates us or not. Sometimes it certainly seems like he does, but then he turns around and does things like upgrading us. If he really did hate us, he wouldn't do something like that, would he? I think it's just that he doesn't quite understand us, not as well as he should, anyway."
Disbelief cut through his sadness, and Nanobot 2 looked at the other robot with an expression of confusion. "The Creator doesn't understand us? But how can that be? The Creator knows everything about us!" Really, he couldn't process that without getting a couple of error messages in return. How the blazes could their Creator not understand his creations?
"Maybe he does know everything about us, but the Creator can't think like us. It's odd that he doesn't realize that, but it would explain why he gets so surprised when we react a certain way." Nanobot 1 paused in thought for a moment, then continued. "He doesn't understand us, so he's not sure of what to do with us, either. That's why he stuffed us in here, he doesn't know what we're good for yet."
Nanobot 2 seemed hopeful again. Maybe they weren't as unloved or unwanted as he thought? "Hmm, you think so? Then maybe the Creator doesn't hate us?"
Nanobot 1 thought about it for a few seconds, then shook his head. Telling the yellow nanobot that he wasn't sure wasn't enough? He sighed and spoke up again. "I'm not sure what kind of feelings the Creator has for us, his actions don't seem to point in either direction. But my logic circuits say that hate probably isn't one of those feelings." Removing his arm from around his partner, Nanobot 1 stretched out and yawned somewhat dramatically. "Now then, I think I'm going to catch up on my sleep mode . . . maybe you should do the same, it's not like there's anything else to do in here right now."
Taking that abrupt change of subject as the end of the conversation, like the yellow nanobot probably wanted, Nanobot 2 just sort of shrugged. "Yeah, I guess." He knew he wouldn't go into sleep mode so soon, though. Their little talk gave him a lot of things to think about . . .