"M!"
Aiden shot out of the nest as the other disassembly drone landed, kneeling beside M's now motionless form. They cringed at the steam suddenly pouring from his exposed metal.
"What's happening to him?" Uzi asked.
N let Thad off his shoulders and crouched down beside M, flinching as he touched his burning form, "He's overheating," he looked to Aiden, "when's the last time he's had any oil?"
Aiden didn't respond for a moment, squinting at N suspiciously.
They suddenly shook their head, "I'm just gonna assume you're nice too— I haven't seen him eat anything, but he kept trying to offer Chad and I body parts."
They went over to retrieve said limbs, "Cost Chad a bit of his sanity, but I assume M did it for a reason?" They turned to Thad, nodding their head at Chad's still-somehow-sleeping form, "Speaking of which, your boyfriend's over there."
Thad was about to protest, but decided against it as he went to check on his friend. Meanwhile, Uzi joined N and Aiden in the little circle around M.
"Disassembly drones have to eat oil so they don't overheat," she said, watching as N grabbed one of the limbs and tentatively maneuvered M's head so that the oil dripped into his mouth, "it's like a stupid failsafe JCJenson put in so they don't go vegan and stuff."
Aiden hummed curiously, "So that answers several questions."
"What happened to him?" N suddenly asked as the last of the oil dripped out. He moved onto another limb. "I've heard M acts a little... feral.. but I never expected him to be like this."
"I put an experimental program into him."
N suddenly crushed the limb in his hands, "What!?"
He apologized once he noticed what he'd done, quickly replacing the limb.
Aiden shrugged, placing a hand on M. They noted how much he'd cooled, but also how warm he still was. They were almost tempted to pull M onto themself like a blanket, but refrained from doing so in favor of letting N keep feeding him.
"He attacked us, so I knocked him out and did something I thought would protect us," they said, "I honestly didn't expect this outcome, but it's better than a lethal virus or something."
N and Uzi exchanged a mutually fearful look.
"Well, that explains the pink," N said with a strained smile.
Aiden narrowed their eyes at the two, "Huh… That look meant fear, right?"
"What look?"
Aiden glared at N, "You're bad at lying." The look melted away as they shrugged again. "Doesn't matter, though, 'cause the program was only on my—…"
They cut themself off, visor going completely blank. N and Uzi looked at each other for a moment. The former went to wave her hand in front of Aiden's face before they suddenly jumped, eyes returning with a much more fearful look.
"My harddrive!" they shouted, shooting to tilt M's head toward them with surprising gentleness, "I knew I forgot something! I always forget something— I was thinking about it earlier, too!"
They smiled as they finally unplugged something from M's head, only for the expression to instantly fall.
"..are you okay?" N asked nervously.
Aiden responded with a long sigh, head dropping.
She was back at the mansion.
She often found herself back here, lost within its halls. It was always the damn mansion.
But... it was different this time. Usually, she was alone, but today 01001101 and 01011000 were joining her. Well, more like she'd been forced to join them.
"He's practically breathing through his chest," 01001101 mumbled.
01011000 was being carried on 01001101's back, nearly hyperventilating. They found him near his old office, on the ground with holes in his clothes. A closer look revealed it wasn't just his clothes that had been punctured through.
She didn't bother responding. She simply stared at the small jewelry box 01011000 had been carrying with him.
"Where's the repair bay again?" 01001101 asked, looking around. 01011000 choked back a cough.
"I don't remember."
She didn't want to remember. This was a bad memory, wasn't it? They always were.
"Damn it," 01001101 hissed, "he's in so much pain, too."
The halls always looked the same here. Was she subjecting her friends to the same nightmare she was suffering?
She hated this place. She hated the dresses and the suits and the people that lived here. She hated this box and she hated what was inside it.
She hated that she couldn't remember.
She was glad he died. Too bad she wasn't the one to kill him. That pleasure belonged to a pathetic human disease she couldn't be bothered to learn the name of.
01001101 suddenly perked up.
"Luca!"
Fortunately for the young master, he was better than him.
L gasped as she came back to.
She was standing in the middle of a snow-covered street, old cars torn to shreds all around her, decorating fresh worker drone corpses like garnish.
It took her a moment to realize her surroundings, but when she did, she let out a long, melodramatic groan.
"I hate those stupid blackouts!" she cried, kicking a head over and over again, "Stupid, stupid blackouts!" With a final frustrated punt, it hit a nearby wall with a loud crash.
That was what M called them. L didn't know why or how M knew so many things, like how to fix X and what worker drone parts had the most oil, but for some reason he always knew. Not that she really cared. She was mostly just pissed she couldn't remember anything now.
Upset that the head had left her immediate range, she settled for repeatedly stabbing her foot through the closest disembodied torso. Oil splattered all over her leg, though it wasn't as if she wasn't already covered in the substance.
"I hate it! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it— ARGH!"
Another body part joined its friend in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the wall.
She panted a little, glaring at the remains. Suddenly, she perked up.
"I wonder what Fluffy's doing!"
Successfully distracted, L spread her wings and shot off towards the Corpse House. That was such a cool name for the spire-thingy, wasn't it?
She wondered what kind of things pets did. She knew the fluffy little worker drone was supposed to help X out, but what else would it do when it wasn't occupied with that? Would it tinker with the ship like a good little worker? Or maybe it'd try to sleep off the rest of the night. L's pretty sure they have a different sleep cycle than disassembly drones.
And what would L do with that smaller thing? "Little brother," was it? It was obvious Fluffy was attached to it, so what was she going to do with it? She had a feeling it wasn't going to be as cooperative as her new pet…
As she landed near the Corpse House, she noted she could hear some strange rustling noises from inside.
"Ooh, has a brave little worker dared to step inside our lair?" she cooed, already crouching and extending her claws, "Looks like it's your unlucky day, honey~"
She purred as she silently made her way toward her prey, easily pinpointing their exact location thanks to the amount of noise they so carelessly were making.
Just as she crawled over a heap of bodies, rising up to pounce, she froze.
Fluffy stared back up at her nervously, holding something close to a thermostat close to her chest.
"H-Hi..?" she waved up to L.
In an instant, L picked her up, refraining from smirking as she yelped.
"What are you doing out here, Fluffy?" she cooed, already bringing her pet back to the pod, "It's not safe to be outside, even in the Corpse House!"
The worker drone shrank back a little in her arms, "I-I needed to get some, um, unprocessed oil for Liam. H-He got hungry."
L stopped just before she reached the pod, "'Unprocessed'?"
"Oh, um…" The drone really seemed to like her thinking time. "Worker drones can't utilize.. straight oil. W-We've gotta process it ourselves to use it. T-Technically, the oil you, y'know… eat.. is a byproduct of us using the unprocessed oil.. and we store it because it helps with our cooling systems…"
Wow! This little rabbit seemed to know a lot of things! But maybe they just taught you that kind of stuff…
"That's useful to know!" L cheered, before leaning in close enough Fluffy could hear her while she whispered, "But next time you go out, you're gonna need permission from both of us, got it?"
She pulled back and smiled, "Or else I'll have to punish you! And I'm not too into damage without death.." she pouted.
Fluffy nodded shortly.
Good. She needs to know her place.
…L wondered where M was right now.