Chapter 20 [/?/?/ /?/?/]
[Author's Note: Probably the most distressing thing I have ever written. You've been warned.]
Neither V or N had ever felt the fear of falling. Until now.
With their control collars locked, they were completely helpless, as they went into free fall, with Uzi stuck with them for the long ride down.
N and Uzi naturally screamed, fearing their imminent demise. V was also afraid, but that was mixed with anger and determination. She had less than a minute to do something, but fortunately, she had started formulating a plan.
Pulling N towards herself, she started shouting at him.
"N! Listen to me!"
"W-What?!" N screamed back.
"You see that crane coming up fast!" V pointed down at a raised platform hanging from a crane, about a hundred meters above their expected impact point.
"What…!? N-No V! We won't be able to make that! We're falling too fast!" N argued.
"One of us can make it!" V stressed, begging him to understand.
"…" N's eyes lit up in understanding…and finality. "What do you need, V?"
"Grab my tail, use it as an anchor, and spin me. I'll throw her." V assured N. She then pulled Uzi off her back, and held the little Worker Drone close. "It's been fun Uzi…but this looks like the end of the line!"
"W-What!? What are you talking about!?" Uzi screamed back.
"I'm ready!" N shouted from behind V. "I had a lot of fun Uzi! Thanks for everything!"
"Wait…N-No guys! What are you doing! Stop it!" Uzi held on tightly to V, unwilling to let go.
"Now!" V demanded. N took that as a signal, and used his larger size to act as an anchor, spinning rapidly in the air, and dragged V with him. V winced as her tail was pulled on painfully, but it was for a worthy cause. Uzi was screaming something at V, terribly disoriented as everything around them spun too fast to see…except for each other. It wasn't the falling or the terrible disorientation that scared Uzi through…it was how serenely calm V looked, giving her a sweet and confident smile.
Just as they were passing the platform dangling from the crane, N released most of V's tail, causing her to shoot out slightly towards the platform, but nowhere near enough to reach it. That was fine though, because that was never her intention.
Just as N flung her, V threw Uzi up and sideways, towards the platform. They'd managed to get the timing just right, so that Uzi lost most of her downward velocity, and skid painfully across the platform, slamming her back into a cargo container.
"Gah!" Uzi shouted in pain, but was relatively undamaged, and safely on the platform. "G-Guys!" She jumped up, and ran to the edge of the platform, looking down.
With Uzi safe, N had pulled V close, and wrapped his arms around her. V reciprocated the motion, and buried her head in his chest. Uzi watched in horror as they approached the ground, unable to stop.
Uzi screamed when they hit the ground. Every one of their mechanical joints snapped on impact, scattering their limbs from their bodies. There was a time in her life once, where their deaths would have brought her the greatest satisfaction. Now it only brought her agony and dread. Filled her processor with more pain than she'd ever experienced. Left a hateful scream caught in her throat. A part of her anguished having to see them like that…would have liked to have broken in their arms with them…
Another part of Uzi's mind was faster, more practical. Remembering the healing abilities of those stupid robot vampires, so all she had to do was make sure that they remained whole, and they should be able to heal themselves.
Looking around herself Uzi found a control to the crane on the large platform, and lunged at it, hitting the button that would lower the platform. She fidgeted nervously at how long it was taking to get close to their level, damning the crane and it's manufacturer.
With the ground still ten feet below her, Uzi jumped off, rolling into her landing to try and mitigate the damage. It still hurt like hell, but she was fine. She didn't have it in her to complain either, given the state of N and V.
"N…V…" Uzi cried, almost shocked into indecisiveness by the poor state of their shattered corpses. Fortunately, their limbs, torso and pelvic shells were still intact, even if scattered. It was enough to drive her into action.
Like a macabre jigsaw puzzle, Uzi desperately reattached N and V's limbs, and nearly cried out with joy when she could see the connections reforming. She couldn't stop through, and desperately finished with the quick and desperate repair.
The last thing she did was reattach their heads to their bodies, and held them close to her.
"P-Please wake up…wake up…wake up…" Uzi quietly cried to herself, holding onto the still forms of N and V.
After several minutes, a restart menu appeared on their visors, indicating that they were very much alive. Uzi cried with joy, bouncing with timid excitement.
"G-Guys! You're okay! You're-"
N and V surged with life, and pounced on Uzi, baring their fangs. They held her down as they salivated over her.
"W-Wait! Guys it's me!" Uzi cried out as she curled up, suddenly frightened at the prospect of being eaten.
N slammed his fist into the ground near Uzi's head, and lowered his own head tiredly. "Hey…Uzi…sorry…uh…"
V had been going through the motions of trying to bite into Uzi, but increasingly slowly, Until she half collapsed on Uzi, then rolled over onto her back.
"Got…hungry…felt…prey…" V groaned.
"Oh…oh…" Uzi sat up. "You…don't you guys ever do anything so stupid ever again!" She grabbed them roughly. "That really scared me! You guys could have been killed!"
"Yeah…but…we lucked out." N shrugged. "Mostly."
"…" V traced the center of her chest with her hand, over her personality core.
"…So, you guys almost kinda almost ate me there, uh…?" Uzi sheepishly pointed out.
"Yeah, sorry. Just lost a lot of oil shattering against the ground. We're…at emergency reserves." V explained. "It was…impulsive…to lunge at the closest source of oil."
"Okay…" Uzi accepted. "Just uh…please don't eat me, heh. Uh…where are we?"
"Well…we fell about…2.3 kilometers." N counted.
"…Shit." V hissed. "That puts us in the middle of Junker Coyote territory."
"Shit, really?" Uzi questioned. "I thought this was still Carla's place?"
"Carla had to pull troops back up to the upper levels. Raven warned me to stay up there this morning." V announced. "We need to get the fuck out of here."
"Yeah, but our wings are still locked down, and we don't have any hand terminals left to unlock them." N pointed out. "Plus…V and I are critically low on oil, so we're weaker than normal."
"T-Then take some of mine!" Uzi offered. "You guys need the strength anyway! Just uh…don't leave me down here."
"Are you sure Uzi?" N hesitated. "I don't want to hurt you."
"I-I'm thinking long term here." Uzi explained. "I'll sacrifice some of my oil to get you guys back up to strength, then we run like hell back home."
"…Back…home…" V uttered, the words sounding strange out of her mouth.
"Yeah that's…what I said." Uzi looked down, somewhat concerned about the taller android girl. "You good?"
"Peachy." V sighed.
"Well…I haven't heard any other good ideas, so…I'm sorry Uzi, but I promise I'll take only as much oil as I need to get some of my strength back." N announced.
"It's fine. I trust you N." Uzi nodded, offering one of her arms for N to bite into.
V finally decided to get up, and noticed a puddle of black, leading to…
"N! Stop!" V screamed.
"Ah! What?!" N retracted from biting into Uzi.
"Uzi! You're bleeding!" V pointed out.
"I'm…? A-Ah!" Uzi looked behind herself, noticing for the first time the long trail of oil she'd been spilling. She'd been in such a panic regarding N and V, that she hadn't even noticed that she'd been damaged landing on the crane platform, and was slowly bleeding to death.
"H-Hang on! I'll patch you up!" V lifted Uzi, and pressed her tongue into the wound in her back, using the healing nanites in her saliva to stitch the wound closed.
"Eww…" Uzi squirmed at feeling V lick part of her, but didn't resist. When V was finished, she pulled Uzi down into her lap, pressing the back of her hand to Uzi's face.
"V-V?" Uzi shuddered, slightly embarrassed.
"Ah shit." V cursed. "You're burning up Uzi. You've lost a lot of oil. If…If N or I try to take any more from you, it could kill you."
"So…what do we do now?" N wondered.
"Well…we're deep in enemy territory, and we're all critically low on oil. We have no access to communications, or your wings or weapons." Uzi summarized. "The only thing we can do is…try and avoid contact, and find our way back to Raven's hangar."
"Is that…the only thing we can do?" V asked.
"It's the only way we'll survive." Uzi assured them. "Let's get moving guys. It's a long way back on foot."
RaD Headquarters
"A Disassembly Drone didn't kill those Workers." 621 pointed out.
"Thank you." J sneered sarcastically. "I could have told you that."
"A dozen suspected murders, all over the Sanctuary, and done with either low quality blades, perfect bifurcation, or unusual physical strength." Tessa summarized out loud.
"And at time intervals that would be impossible for a Disassembly Drone to navigate between." Carla noticed as well. "The Sanctuary is too large and mazelike for one of them to get from one murder to the next in time. That's not even counting that no one witnessed any other Disassembly Drones in there."
"The M.O. is all wrong too." J added. "Let's say I did kill those Workers. I would have stacked their corpses somewhere obvious, to frighten the little toasters. Whoever killed them went to extreme effort to hide the bodies."
"…Whoever killed them was angry. Powerless before." 621 analyzed the information. "Disassembly Drones kill with blind, primal savagery when on a hunting spree. This killer…they're drunk on a power trip, tearing Workers apart ruthlessly, but methodically. They're trying to hide their activity, by killing lone Workers whom they're able to ambush, by obscuring the cameras, and by hiding the corpses. They're killing them for a purpose…but what that is…I don't know…"
"I wonder…" Ayre suggested privately with 621. "If it was not J, as evidence would seem to clear her of any wrongdoing, could it have been a Worker Drone? There's no one else in the Sanctuary. so…?"
"…" 621 grunted, unable to deny that theory.
Grid 086 – Subsector Industrial Zone – Altitude: 3.18 Kilometers
It took them a very long time, but they'd managed to climb up another level, and were currently making their way through the industrial stalactite hanging from Outer Shell that would take them back into Carla's controlled sectors of Grid 086.
This was actually somewhere they'd been twice already. First when they'd previously infiltrated Grid 086 with 621, then more recently when they'd helped Carla by destroying the hacking drones set up in this area. Several long and winding halls and various factory spaces, some long abandoned and rotting, and others actively churning out material.
On some level, this was good news. They weren't lost…mostly. The problem was that the Junker Coyotes were slowly muscling in, bringing in scouts and gangs before they started to deploy any heavy equipment.
This was compounded by the fact that none of them were feeling well. Their oil reserves were all just over the bare minimum for functionality. As such, even though they were supposed to be sneaking through the Grid Sector, they each stumbled drunkenly along, having to rely on each other just to keep standing.
Uzi cringed, feeling tired and drained, her oil loss finally catching up to her. It turned out she'd lost quite a bit of oil while trying to rescue N and V. As for the two Disassembly Drones, they weren't fairing much better, staggering along cautiously through enemy territory.
"Okay…I think we're like halfway there." V whispered, keeping her head low.
"You think?!" Uzi sneered. "I thought you guys fought through here before!?"
"Yeah! One time!" V complained. "And all these damn rooms look so similar too, so I can't quite remember if it's another two or three sections down. N, do you remember?"
"I uh…" N rolled his head tiredly. "I think I'm losing some of my vision. Things are starting to look funny."
"J-Just keep walking N!" Uzi assured him. "Just feel for us and keep walking!"
For the moment, V's sensor suite was still working, so she used it to keep an eye on things. With N half blind and Uzi naturally lacking peripheral vision, it had come down to her to keep her eyes open, leading and protecting the squad.
Barely peeking her head around the corner, V snapped it back, thankful that her extra set of eyes lining her scalp allowed her to see without exposing her head. If Uzi had been peeking, she'd have had to expose half of her head to see around that corner.
There was a patrol coming towards them, so V quickly ushered Uzi and N back behind a large silo, slowly scooting around it to keep out of sight.
V cringed as she failed to completely silence her footfalls. In this instance, Uzi was the best equipped, as she was wearing boots. N was technically barefoot, and V didn't have feet, just two tapered pegs that hit the ground just a bit harder than she intended.
Fortunately, the patrol hadn't heard them, and wandered down through the subsector. Leading the rest of her squad forward as cautiously as possible, V tried to be stealthy.
It worked for a little bit.
As it was, Jenson model androids were not equipped for stealth. Their bright white shells and black facial visor blended in poorly with the rusted and rotting interior of the subsector. As well, Uzi's bright neon purple hair stood out even more than their bodies, and N and V's glowing yellow eyes, all seven of them, was not something that was easily ignored.
Despite their best efforts, it was the Junker Coyotes that found them first.
The first sign that something was wrong was the sound of metal dragging on concrete behind them, a combination of rough friction and high-pitched resonating. Caught out on a train line, the three scared Drones turned around.
There was a large, bald man, dragging a piece of rebar and a stripped-down jackhammer, and next to him was a skinny man, smiling smugly.
"Xiya na pelésh to, paxoníseki." The bald man snarled, pointing the jackhammer at them.
"…V, what did he say?" Uzi asked, holding onto the taller girl.
"He um…" V tried to translate it, putting the words together in her head. "He said 'we shouldn't be here.' Then he called us short." Feigning confidence, V stood in front of N and Uzi, and signed desperately while speaking quickly. "S-Stay calm okay? Unte kowlting gonya gut, to pochuye ke?"
The bald man laughed loudly and mockingly, resting the jackhammer on his shoulder.
"C-Come on guys, we're not looking for trouble! We just want to get home!" Uzi begged, still holding onto V.
"Milowda bi xom, to na." The bald man lost all pretense of humor, and spat venomously. "Trouble found you, pashangwala. We're just getting started."
They didn't see the two men sneaking up behind them until they already had a hold on N's arms.
"N!" V and Uzi shouted as N struggled in their grasp. The four men ignored V and Uzi for a moment as they dragged him towards the nearest wall. The two men holding his arms held them above his head, as he was struggling to break out of their hold. The fourth man was holding up his hand terminal, taking a video. The bald man loaded the sharpened piece of rebar into the jackhammer, and pointed it at N's chest.
"N-No! No!" N begged, trying to kick at his captors, only for the bald man to fire the jackhammer.
It was a terribly loud sound, a bang followed by a heavy twack, as the rebar sunk itself deep into the concrete wall, with N stuck in the middle. N stopped resisting, and dropped his arms as his head went slack.
"By Sol's decree!" The bald man mocked.
"N…!" Uzi cried, feeling V's arms wrap around her tightly. V herself made a hate and pain filled hiss, and did everything she could to keep from breaking down on the spot. Left with no options, V did the only thing she could do. She ran, with Uzi in her arms.
"V wait!" Uzi shouted. "We can't leave N!"
"You think I want to!?" V sneered back painfully. "I want to kill everyone of those motherfuckers! But I have to protect-!" She cut herself off.
"…" Uzi grimaced sickly, suddenly feeling like a burden. She knew V didn't mean it like that, and that's why she stopped talking, but there was still a part of herself that felt guilty, that felt that N and V were only so vulnerable because they were trying to protect her fragile little being. Even though she knew that wasn't really the case, that they were screwed no matter what they did, with Uzi there or not, she still managed to convince herself of it.
And she hated feeling like a burden, so she lashed out.
"F-Fuck you V!" Uzi slammed her fists against V's chest. "Y-You just left N back there to die! Fuck you!"
"…" V wasn't going to argue with Uzi on that. She hated leaving N like that…that rebar had pierced him in the chest uncomfortably close to his personality core, so there was a good chance…
Not allowing herself to accept that terrible possibility, V kept her eyes up as they reached the metal smelting room, the large furnace still filled with white hot liquid metal.
"…Fuck!" V cursed realizing she'd taken a wrong turn about half a kilometer back. Their current altitude was 3.18 kilometers, but the platform they were trying to get to was eighty-seven meters above, a raised platform that directly overlooked their current position. If she hadn't taken that wrong turn, it would have been relatively easy getting back to Carla's territory…assuming they could have gotten past the MT patrol up there on the platform. But that wrong turn put the Coyotes between them and salvation.
V dropped Uzi after hiding in the corner of a platform that overlooked the train line from directly beneath the furnace, trying to think of a way out. Her desperate little sprint had further drained her meager resources, meaning she was even more tired than she was before.
"V…?" Despite her half-feigned animosity, Uzi was even more concerned when V had come to a full stop, looking around herself.
"I-I fucked up." V hissed. "I've got us killed."
"N-No way!" Uzi argued. "W-We're still standing, aren't we? S-So we fight until help comes and saves us!"
"…" V knew no help was coming. V knew they were going to die…or…more likely, that Uzi was going to die. There was a line of code that seemed to be warning her that Uzi would die badly, but not how or why, just that it would be…wrong, for her to go out like that.
She felt sick considering it. Even without her weapons, she still had just enough strength for one more kill. But…it seemed better to send Uzi off with at least some dignity, than whatever that line of code that knew too much could imagine.
"Uzi…" V whispered, pulling Uzi into a hug, gently running fingers through the short Drone's hair.
"V?" Uzi stiffened worriedly at V's soft touch. Doubly so when V knelt next to Uzi, and wrapped her hands around her throat. "V-V…?!"
"…" V's hands were shaking, as she averted her gaze to the floor. How many thousands…tens of thousands had she gleefully killed for no reason at all? Now with an actual reason, a decent mercy killing, why was she so hesitant and anguished? That wasn't fair at all. Damn this world. V sobbed openly.
"…V." Uzi placed her hands over V's, steadying them against her throat. She understood her intentions, and her hesitation. "I…I'm glad I got to know you."
"Oh Uzi…you wonderful, stupid, amazing little toaster." V hissed through a smile. She looked up, still trying to avert her gaze. "I'm sorry Uzi…I'm-" Directly overhead, V noticed a structure. A ventilation duct with a vertical shoot, that immediately transitioned to a horizontal turn. "-U-Uzi! Uzi!"
"Huh? W-What!?" Uzi shouted as V pulled her hands away from her throat, and grabbed her by the back, lifting her off her feet. By the way V cocked her arms, Uzi could tell she was rearing back to throw her. "V! What are you doing!?"
"Saving your life!" V smiled widely, suddenly filled with hope. Her rangefinder measured the ventilation shaft at 145 meters overhead. A long shot, but if she put all her remaining strength into the throw…
"No V! D-Damn you! Don't you dare!" Uzi begged. "I! I don't want to be alone again!"
"You'll be alright, Uzi." V assured her. "Your damn worth it."
"No V! V! V-!"
V threw Uzi, directly up towards the ventilation shaft. Looking down, Uzi saw how proud, certain and hopeful V was, smiling with accomplishment.
Uzi's head hit the top of the ventilation shaft, and caused her to bounce into the horizontal section, hidden and out of range of the Coyotes. Course…V had been a bit rough with her throw, and Uzi's head bouncing against hard metal surfaces sent her into emergency standby, a form of unconsciousness best compared to a concussion in a human.
Uzi's eyes turned off, replaced with an error message that signaled her inactivity. But she was alive.
RaD Headquarters
"I'm going to have to get over there to figure this shit out myself." 621 declared.
"I thought as much." Carla nodded. They'd cut the line to Tessa and J, as there wasn't much more they could learn by staring at pictures and reading reports. "I'll get another mission or whatever written up to pay you off for your services. This is sure a real mystery, ain't it?"
"Hmm." 621 hummed dismissively. She turned to walk away-
She got a call from a number she didn't recognize. Automatically, she opened the incoming connection.
"…Raven…help…"
"Stray Two?!" 621's demeanor shifted suddenly. She turned around and marched back into Carla's office, transferring the connection into Carla's comm system. "Talk to me Stray Two! Are you and your squad okay?!"
"…We…fell…" N choked out over the line.
"Come on Sheperd, just take your time. What's happened, what do you need?" Carla could tell by 621's change in behavior that something had gone wrong. She was rather fond of Stray Squad too, so she was worried, but much calmer about it.
"Please…save…Uzi…V…"
"Stray Two!? Stray Two!?" 621 shouted into the connection. N wasn't answering any more. "Dammit!" 621 tried to use her connection to their control collars on her hand terminal to get their location, but was getting an "out of range" message back. "Fuck!"
"Hey! Easy now tourist." Carla assured her. "They can't have gotten far. Don't forget that this whole area is within my network. Just give me a sec to establish a trace on this call and…" A few seconds later, a location in the middle of the neighboring subsector of Grid 086 lit up. "Well, good news is we know where Sheperd is. Bad news is the Coyotes have occupied that level right now."
621 was already moving, matching out the office.
"And where do you think you're going tourist?" Carla called after the mad Hound.
"…What?" 621 hissed back at Carla.
"You're not going to make it there in time on foot. And getting back to your own AC to boot it up would take too long too." Carla pointed out. "Fortunately for you, there is already an active AC on standby, ready to launch. Hey Chatty, why don't you take the tourist for a walk?"
"Affirmative." "Chatty" Stick nodded. "Be advised that Coyote MTs have been spotted in the area. It will take me at least fifteen minutes to fully arm."
"…" Carla hummed for a second, before delivering her answer. "Take that new gun we just finished for a test drive. It's fully loaded, and handheld. Don't bother with the aiming calibration, just spray-and-pray at anything you don't like."
"Yes chief." Chatty nodded, then held out one of his hands. "Come along, tourist."
"…" 621 jumped into Chatty's hand, and held on tightly. The AI Armored Core turned around and grabbed a large machinegun, and launched for the subsector.
Grid 086 – Subsector Industrial Zone – Altitude: 3.18 Kilometers
In hindsight, the WR-0555 Attache machinegun was overkill for use against mere MTs. Unlike most other machineguns that needed to reload a clip, the Attache fired massive 80mm rounds from a 940 capacity drum. The rate of fire demanded that the gun have a supply of spare barrels, as they would be overheated and warped after only 40 rounds each.
Even without aiming calibration, "Chatty" Stick was still able to use the tracers from the gun to lead his targets, and tear the feeble form of scout MTs apart. All the while, 621 held onto his other hand, looking for any sign of her Strays.
She was thankful for the strange paradox that Chatty, a tank AC, was one of the fastest ACs on Rubicon, even more so since he was only carrying one weapon at the moment.
After crossing nearly a kilometer into the subsector, she spotted N, slumped over on the ground, a long piece of rebar going through his chest. Chatty stopped nearby, allowing 621 to jump off and approach N quickly.
"Come on, wake up kid." 621 pulled N into her arms, and took a container of oil off her hip, pouring some down his mouth. "Wake up N."
N coughed and sputtered, greedily drinking down more of the oil until 621 cut him off.
"Talk to me kid." 621 demanded urgently. "Where are...V and Uzi?"
"They…ran…" N pointed down the hall, further into the subsector. "We were ambushed…and…so weak…after the fall…"
"Alright, take it easy kid." 621 inspected the damage to his chest. "You lucked out. A few millimeters higher and that would have gone through your personality core." She grabbed the rebar and pulled it out of his chest with her right arm.
"Ah!" N screamed a bit as the rebar was pulled out of his chest. The hole in him healed, and with his slightly increased oil supply, he felt a bit better. "R-Raven…I'm sorry…I couldn't protect V or Uzi, I failed them…all I could do was steal a hand terminal from one of my attackers…but I failed them…"
"Don't think about it, N. You called me, there's still time to go find them." 621 assured him. She then opened a line to Carla. "Carla, I've got Stray Two. Can you get a lock on the next target?"
"Coming right up!" Carla confirmed. "Looks like it's just under a kilometer ahead. Chatty, take our guests over there."
"Yes chief." Chatty held out his hand. "Let's go."
621 helped pull N along into Chatty's hand, and were quickly whisked away to the next location they had.
. . .
Jumping off Chatty's hand near the metal smelting furnace, 621 inspected the scene. There were no Drones here, just…
Just a stain of oil and broken pieces of white metal. And…more concerningly…
"…No. No." 621 could feel Ayre hiss fearfully in her mind. She knew. 621 knew.
"No no no!" N didn't know, but he panicked with what he found anyway. "That's V's jacket! T-That's part of her shell! But…but where is she? Raven…Raven what happened to V?!"
"…" 621 growled hatefully, hands shaking as she clenched them into fists. She couldn't afford to get angry at that moment though. There were still two missing Drones that needed to be accounted for. "…Carla…you said one of them was here…"
"Hang on, I'll recalibrate the sensors. Chatty, give me a ping." Carla ordered. Between her sensors in the subsector and Chatty's onboard sensors, she got a clearer location. "You are 145 meters below the next target."
621 looked up, and saw the boots of a Worker Drone sticking out of a ventilation shaft, directly overhead. "Chatty, get me up there, now."
"Yes tourist." Chatty held out his hand, picking 621 up. He then used his thrusters to fly up to the ventilation shaft, and pushed 621 up through the narrow vent.
621 found Uzi in a state of unconsciousness, an error message that did not indicate unit death across her screen. "Come on kid, wake up." 621 demanded softly. "Wake up Uzi."
"…Mmm, argh…" Uzi groaned as 621 provided enough stimulation to her sensors to reactive her. "My…fucking head…"
"Are you alright Uzi?" 621 pulled Uzi into her lap, holding her head gently.
"R-Raven…?" Uzi perked up in surprise. "Raven! I-I'm sorry! It's all my fault!"
"Enough of that Uzi, are you okay?"
"I…" Uzi realized that 621 called her by name. She'd never done that before. "W-Wait! What about V and N!? We have to save them!"
"N's fine, but…" 621 hesitated. "When was the last time you saw V?"
"She…she saved me…" Uzi recalled. "She saved me twice…and I yelled at her…Raven we have to find V!"
"We will. We will." 621 assured her. She turned on her hand terminal. "Chatty, I'm coming down."
"I'll catch you, tourist." Chatty confirmed.
"Just hang on Uzi, just hold onto me." 621 demanded, jumping out of the ventilation shaft, still holding Uzi close to herself. Chatty caught them both, and brought them down to the ground near N.
"N! You're alive!" Uzi shouted, she tried reaching out for him, but 621 wasn't letting her go. Either way, N ran up and hugged her from behind. "I…I'm sorry we left you…"
"It's fine. There was nothing you could have done." N assured her.
"…Is…is that V's jacket?" Uzi pointed to the clothing in N's hand, noticing that it was shredded beyond repair. "Wha-What happened to V? What happened to V?"
"…" 621's silence did not assure them. N and Uzi stared up at her worriedly, desperately.
"What…What happened to V?"
"…Carla…where is she?" 621 demanded coldly.
"Checking now…wait, that can't be right?" Carla sounded confused.
"What?!" 621 shouted.
"This is showing…your remaining Drone is at your hangar." Carla reported. "She made it back."
"Oh…oh good! So V is okay!" N cheered.
"…" 621 was not cheering. She was not smiling. She was still staring past the two Drones, eyes burning with hate.
"Raven…V is okay…isn't she?" Uzi looked up worriedly.
"…Chatty, get us back there." 621 ordered.
"Copy that. Taking you back, tourist." Chatty confirmed. He held his hand out as 621 dragged N up with her, and kept Uzi in her other arm, holding her against her chest.
She quietly dreaded what came next.
Grid 086 - Independent Mercenary Hangars
After flying up from the subsector and back into Carla's controlled territory, Chatty dropped off 621, Uzi, and N by their hangar.
"Good luck, tourist." Chatty nodded down to her. "I…wish I could have done more."
"…" 621 was mildly surprised. He knew. He understood. And…it seemed he had the capacity to feel regret. Maybe Carla hadn't failed to give him emotions.
"We'll speak soon, tourist." Carla uttered somberly. "I…don't envy what you have to do. Call me if you need anything."
"…" 621 knew what to expect. She dreaded it all the same.
"Come on! Let's go see V!" Uzi jumped from 621's arms, with N close behind.
"…" 621 steadied herself as best she could before following them. She knew nothing could prepare her. She knew it would be more than she could deal with.
Uzi and N entered the hangar, and quickly found V. Her white and black shell stood out against the drab grey of the hangar.
"V, you're okay!" N cheered. "You're-"
It was true that V was physically fine. She'd managed to find a way back to the hangar after throwing Uzi into the ventilation shaft. As well, there was no apparent damage to her body, as any non-fatal damage inflicted would have long healed by now.
None of this explained why V was screaming so loudly.
Missing her one article of clothing, V was tightly hugging herself, half curled into a ball, and screaming in a way that neither Uzi nor N could ever imagine a Drone screaming. Far beyond the fear of pain or death, her screams echoing painfully off the cold hard walls of the hangar; V screamed in terror far beyond the limited imagination of either of her friends.
Burdened with knowledge she'd only ever read the dictionary definitions for, and never fully comprehended. Having suffered humiliation and indignity and shame and disgust beyond what any sentient creature should ever suffer. What she had been forced to endure in a moment of vulnerability, that was exploited with utter barbaric cruelty. What she had never been designed for.
Though undamaged, there was still a stain of her ordeal, black oil sticking to her inner thighs, that she closed and tried desperately to hide.
"V-V…?" Uzi questioned softly, but was unable to get through to her.
V kept screaming, heavy and ugly uncontrolled sobbing in between, unable to comprehend the horror she'd experienced. Unable to express the full magnitude of her despair.
V cried. Not just the pseudo-electric tears that formed on Drone visors when they were distressed. Her screaming had caused her oil reserves to boil up through her body, and seep out of the seam separating the upper and lower portions of her face. In a sense, V was crying out tears of her own black blood.
If she kept going like this, V would scream herself to death.
"…" Uzi and N were terrified, never having seen a Drone this utterly and incomprehensibly distraught. Having absolutely no idea what horror could cause one of them…even someone as strong willed and confident as V…to be left in such an abysmal and terrorized state.
621 knew. She knew exactly what.
It was an impossible task before her. To assure that little soul that this wasn't the end, that this horrific pain and incalculable despair was not all there was left for her. In truth…621 felt she was not up to the task. It had been far too long since she'd been human, since she'd had any reason to be more than just a tool, not even worth a name.
She was already reaching for the buttons on her collar, tracing them longingly, before she stopped herself. As much as she didn't want to deal with this…as much as she didn't want to share in V's pain, this was wrong. She needed to be more, even if she hated it.
Maybe Ayre was right, but not just about the Drones. They were all sad, broken little things.
Pulling her hand away from her collar, she settled her fingers on her throat, rubbing it softly. Hating that she knew exactly what to do. Hating that she would have to do something she hadn't done in nearly a century and a half that she'd been on ice.
Hating that it was the only right thing to do.
Taking off her coat, 621 began to cautiously and slowly approach V. Satisfied with the feeling in her throat, she grunted softly.
Then, 621 lifted her head, and began to sing.
"Oh mi gang from sound to sound, as I steered, as I steered~"
"Oh mi gang for sound for sound, tili go~"
It was such a gentle, unexpected sound, that V stopped screaming, and stared fascinated and confused at her Hound.
"Oh mi gang for sound for sound, and many the ships I find~"
"And all of them I burned, tili go~"
It was, of all things, a Belter sea shanty, sung slowly and beautifully, but with melancholy and hurt as well.
621 approached V, and wrapped the little Drone in her coat. Then, as she began the next chorus, she lifted V with both arms, and pressed her head against her chest.
"Mi was sick and nigh to death, tili go, tili go~"
"Mi was sick and nigh to death, tili go~"
With V in her arms, 621 began to walk slowly, back to the large bed she'd made for her Strays.
"Mi was sick and nigh to death, and vowed with mi every breath~"
"For go with wisdom's ways, as we sail~"
Uzi and N were also drawn in by the song, watching painfully as 621 comforted V. Feeling correctly that this song came from the deepest parts of 621's heart, for how strongly she sung it.
"Oh your parents will teach you well, for you sail, for you sail~"
"To shun the Gates of Hell, when you sail~"
"As most wickedly I did, Corpo laws we forbid~"
"Against them we rebel, when we sail~"
621 sat on the bed, still cradling V close to her chest. V stared up at her with wide eyes, shivering in the woman's grasp, but doing everything she could to focus on her master.
621 began the last chorus more softly than the previous, closing her eyes as she held V tightly, but gently.
"To the execution dock I have come, tili go~"
"To the execution block, for to sail~"
"I was sick and nigh to death, but I vow with my every breath~"
"For go with wisdom's ways, when I sail~"
The song ended, but V was still in pain. She was still afraid and terrorized beyond her imagination. But…she felt safe in 621's arms…and that was enough. Reaching up, she wrapped her arms around 621's neck, and buried her face in her chest, whimpering quietly.
621 wasn't doing well. Singing that song…took a lot out of her. She was an emotional wreck, but she couldn't let the Strays see that…couldn't let V see that. As such, she made a small, personal mistake, and let slip something she would have preferred to keep to herself.
Gently cradling V's head to her chest, 621 whispered to her.
"Mi setara." 621 cooed to V, rubbing her head. "Mi setara mali."
V really liked the way that sounded, and held 621 a little tighter.
Uzi and N understood that they didn't understand everything. They didn't know what happened to V, or why she was in pain. But they understood that what 621 did…mattered. That it was a private part of her she shared not just for V, but for them as well, letting them know in her own way that…while this world was scary, it would be okay.
Wordlessly approaching, Uzi and N climbed up onto the bed with them. Uzi wrapped her arms around 621's waist from behind, and pressed her face into her back. N did much the same, resting his head against the back of 621's shoulder.
Besides the pain and anguish she'd just shared in, and the comfort she'd poured out, there was another emotion working it's way through 621.
Rage.
It boiled black hot in her soul so terribly that she wanted to vomit and scream. She wanted to sink her teeth into something she hated and tear it asunder ravenously. She wanted to rip and tear until she was surrounded by so much ruined meat and shattered steel.
She wanted to drown in blood.
The thing with far too many eyes in it's teeth was staring down at her and the little souls she had clustered around herself. She hated it more than anything, but she couldn't look away.
Honor or Justice? It asked amused, a hundred red eyes lining it's sickening smile. Either way…we always choose worse.
Author's Note: This was hard to write. Exactly what you think happened...happened. I didn't enjoy doing that, especially not to my favorite character. But...if something this bad could happen to my favorite character, that means that none of the main cast are safe from experiencing terrible things. Also...because of this, we will see and learn more about 621 than she would have ever willingly shared. That song meant a lot to 621, so that fact that she shared it with V...it's something extremely personal to 621, and something she would have preferred to forget about.
Next chapter may take some time, as I expect chapter 26 to be longer than usual. But it's also a completely original chapter like chapter 14, so once I get going, it will be hard to stop, and not having a source to refer to also makes it easier, especially when writing at work.
Two citations this chapter. The scene where N gets attacked was from an early episode of The Expanse, and the song is partly from later seasons of The Expanse, but not entirely. To actually find the lyrics of the song in it's entirety, I had to go to a Tumblr post by someone named "we are Rogue" who also pointed out that the song itself is a Belter version of various verses of the sea shanty "Captain Kidd".
Edit: I just want to express that while there will be more bad things that happen in the future, this is probably going to be the absolute worst thing, especially for how bad it was and who it happened to. I don't plan for anything like this to happen again.
That's all for now.
To magenta skelter: I think that would be too on the nose, and against 621's intentions. She's been trying to cut off her connections to her past. There may be something though in the next few chapters that can be definitively linked to the previous story, but I can't say what.
To Lord-of-fate: There was a single line in 621's explanation back in chapter 10 that sort of explained how The Foundation were able to gain such an advantage so early in the Three-Rebellions War. Without looking back, it was something like "turned their non-sentient machines on them" or something like. I'll have to describe that better in a future flashback, but probably not till the later part of act 3. Also I sort of retconned J (from ACVD) out of existence at the end of OTK and replaced them with a similar character of my own design. As far as Laconia, I don't want to spoil what it was about them that made them so dangerous yet, only that I use both Murder Drones and The Expanse lore to make them a unique threat.
To ChimaTigon: Damn, people really love making them a poly ship, don't they? I have my own plans thank you very much. Technically speaking, Cyn's always been there, and will come up again in the future in new and unexpected ways.
To 42StoneGrindstheWickedtoDust: Unfortunately, having access to Laconian tech means Cyn/The AS is far more threatening than anyone realizes. Also, did I ever mention how I love your name?