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Uzi couldn’t find N.
Usually the drone was hovering over her almost constantly. He’d doodle on some papers and show her his art progress. She found it endearing, but of course she never said anything. She just looked at him questionably before going back to listening to nightcore.
It was weird adjusting back to life in the bunker. Uzi wouldn’t admit it, but she did feel a twinge of fear every time she couldn’t find N. Hell, even being separated for a short amount of time caused her to slightly panic. Eventually she’d find him and try to hide away before he caught wind of what she was panicking about. V found all of this annoying, but Uzi knew that under that rough exterior she cared about N (and maybe Uzi) a lot more than she put on.
The worker drones seemed uncomfortable with a couple of murder drones roaming the bunker, especially since they’ve probably killed their friends or relatives, but as long as they didn’t mass murder them, then everyone grew accustomed to them rather quickly. Some would even offer up a bit of oil for them to drink until Uzi knew how to hack those urges out of them.
She walked down the corridors of the bunker, the sound of her boots hitting the metal floor echoing through the long hallway. She had seen N an hour ago, so where could he be? She already checked her room, and even V said she had no idea where N was before rolling her eyes and walking away with Lizzy in tow.
Okay, no need to panic. N was probably off somewhere, drawing or trying to interact with other drones. It’s not like anything bad could happen.
Her thoughts were cut off by a terrified scream, which had to have originated from a worker drone nearby.
Okay, maybe something bad could happen.
Her walk became a fast-paced jog, only slowing down once she got closer to the source of the scream. She turned a corner to find a worker drone backed into a wall by no other than her lovable idiot of a boyfriend.
He didn’t look loveable, though. N was hunched down with his claws out and his silver, sharp teeth showing, practically glistening in the light of the bunker. The two eyes on his visor were replaced with that dreaded X symbol that covered the whole thing. His tail was lashing around behind him, ready to stab anything with the nanite acid inside of it. Yep, that definitely wasn’t her lovable idiot.
The drone was covering what seemed to be a wound on their torso with their right arm. They were breathing in and out quickly, their eyes hollow and full of fear. Oil was leaking onto the floor below, staining it a sickening black.
She had to do something, or else N would kill the worker drone. Depending on how the other worker drones reacted, they could easily mistrust the disassembly drones and throw them back out.
“N!” Uzi called out. Every part of her screamed for her to just get out of there. But she stood there, frozen by confusion. Why was N doing this? He hadn’t gone after any of the other worker drones for a while at this point, so why the sudden change?
N’s head quickly snapped to Uzi, his widened smile faltering for a quick second. Despite the overwhelming fear, she nodded her head to the other worker drone, gesturing for them to get out of there before N lost his focus on her. The worker drone quickly scrambled out of the space, not saying anything.
“N, what’s going on?” Uzi demanded, her voice quivering as N slowly inched towards her. His tail stopped lashing, only twitching along with his claws. He tilted her head at her before snarling. A sound that shook Uzi to her core. It was animalistic and definitely uncharacteristic for someone like N.
“N.” Uzi repeated. “Just tell me what’s going on, and we’ll figure it out together.” Uzi could’ve berated herself for how sappy she sounded right now, but somehow the words brought her a small comfort in the dire situation she was in. The words reminded her of N.
N’s smile faded into something more of a vicious frown that displayed all of his teeth. He pounced on her, knocking her to the ground and disorienting her. Uzi summoned her absolute solver, picking up N by one of his legs and tossing him to the side. Doing that earned her an irritated growl from the other drone. Uzi turned on her heel, ready to run. She didn’t want to hurt N, but if she stayed here, he would definitely hurt her.
Was it Cyn? No, it couldn’t have been. Uzi coded everything out of N and V that belonged to Cyn, became their new admin, and even killed her awhile back. So what was wrong with N?
She didn’t have a moment more to think about it as the disassembly drone clawed her back open, Uzi shouting in pain as she was once again knocked down onto the floor. N grabbed her hands with his claws, pinning them to her sides. He opened his mouth, ready to take a chunk out of her head, when he suddenly stopped and lightly turned his head to his left and right, almost as if he heard something.
But then Uzi heard it too, and then something barreled into N, striking him into the wall. He hissed at the new attacker, baring his fangs once more as his tail began to lash out again.
“V.” Uzi groaned, and she couldn’t tell if she was relieved or annoyed by the other disassembly drone’s appearance.
“You can thank me later.” V bit back at her before focusing on N. Her hands shifted into chainsaws as she took a slash at N. It hit his visor, damaging it, and it took everything within Uzi to stop V from hurting him.
The two disassembly drones pummeled into each other, claws swinging everywhere. N was about to gnaw onto V’s neck before Uzi summoned her solver once again, tossing him to the side. It hurt to do so. It hurt her to hurt him. It reminded her of when Cyn disguised herself as N just to scare Uzi into thinking she had killed him.
Finally, V’s chainsaws turned into guns, and she shot N point-blank in the head. The drone stumbled around before falling to his knees and onto the ground.
“He’ll regenerate.” V huffed before her guns morphed into her normal hands.
Uzi inhaled before crawling over to N’s body. “I just—“ She stumbled over her words. “He hasn’t done that in...” She trailed off before grumbling.
“I don’t blame him for going after that drone. Lack of oil must be getting to him.” V joked morbidly.
“Bite me!” Uzi said. “We need to figure out what we’ll do when he wakes up.”
“I have an idea.” V suggested, smirking.
»X«
Uzi was opposed to V’s idea of keeping him in Uzi’s rooms, completely chained up while they investigated why he was acting feral. But they really didn’t have any other choice. They definitely couldn’t risk him going on a murder spree, and they definitely couldn’t risk their own lives. So chaining him up it was.
“How long until he wakes up?” Uzi asked, putting her headphones on a nearby dresser.
“Shouldn’t take too long.” V replied bluntly as she picked at her teeth.
As if on cue, N’s visor flashed with a warning. The words read “Virus Detected” before his visor flashed again. Uzi got her solver ready, just in case while V stared at N, the brows on her visor furrowed.
But they weren’t met with the usual X that Uzi got accustomed to moments ago, but they weren’t the oval-shaped pupils that N displayed when docile. Instead, his eyes were replaced with two long slits. He blinked, looking around the room before his eyes fell on Uzi. Uzi flinched, but N didn’t do anything. He didn’t say anything either, which was unsettling. The room was quiet.
“N?” Uzi softly spoke. She hoped that he would reply with some sort of sappy remark, or just any word really would make her feel a lot better.
And then N chirped.
This caught Uzi off guard, who was stunned in confusion while V swung her head around to look at him weirdly.
“He’s never made that noise before.” V observed.
“I saw something on his visor; I think it said virus detected? It’s gotta be some sort of virus.” Uzi said before taking a step closer to N. She rose her hands towards the chains and began to unchain the disassembly drone.
“What are you doing?” V hissed at her. Apparently N didn’t like that too much, and he hissed right back at V, making Uzi falter.
“Trying something.” Uzi grunted before finally unbinding N from the chains.
N stared at her before making a soft trill. He narrowed his eyes at V, tail flicking beside him, and his body tensed up. V took the message and reluctantly stepped back. N seemed to appreciate that, as he relaxed in response.
“Okay…” Uzi whispered, eyeing V to convey suspicion. “Now we just have to figure out what this whole virus thing is.” She stepped away from N and sat near her computer.
N slowly blinked at her before following the worker drone. He warbled, the sound low and almost inaudible. He slowly crawled closer to her, cocking his head to the side. Once behind her, he rose to full height and rested his head on her head.
“N, what are you doing?” Uzi groaned, flustered, and yet embarrassed at the same time. She caught a glimpse of V’s expression, who seemed just as perplexed as she was. N just happily chirped.
“I’m going to go meet up with Lizzie. Let me know when this whole... thing gets sorted out.” V then exited Uzi’s room, who silently cursed her under her breath.
Uzi then grabbed a couple of cords. “I’m going to hook you up to these, okay?” She told the disassembly drone, who peered at her curiously. Uzi then began to look for N’s ports. She hooked the first cord in, taking a quick glance at N. When he didn’t say anything, she plugged the next one in.
“It’s weird.” Uzi began. “Not having you speak about something wholesome or some dog facts.” She sighed. “I kind of miss it.” She admitted solemnly before shaking her head. “That’s stupid. This is all so stupid.”
Again, N didn’t say anything. He watched her every move, almost fascinated. Uzi plugged in the last cord before typing something on her computer.
“This might hurt; it might not. I don’t really know. I think it’s weird how you guys were sent here to murder everyone, and yet Cyn didn’t even think about putting up an advanced firewall for viruses like these.” Uzi ranted.
“That should do it, now—“ Uzi turned around, only to find N unmoving and still unresponsive. She freaked out for a moment before noticing that his visor was displaying something. “Anti-virus protection in process,” it said.
Uzi hummed to herself before sitting next to N. She nuzzled her face into his neck. It’s not like he’s awake to remember it, Uzi thought.
She went into sleep mode after that, hoping that she’d seen N’s docile, smiling face the next day.
»X«
N wasn’t able to remember the last few hours. Which was concerning in itself, because he feels like he did something but can’t remember exactly what he did. All he remembers is going down a corridor to try and find Uzi before he glitched out. After that was when he couldn’t remember anything.
He looked around, gathering in his surroundings. He was in Uzi’s room, sitting on the floor, with his back lying on Uzi’s bed. He felt himself heat up when he noticed that Uzi was lying beside him, her head buried in his neck. Not wanting to disturb her since she was in sleep mode, he tried to focus on something else.
Oh, he was hooked up to something. That should be very concerning. Which, he was concerned, but like usual, it just went away. Weird how he could witness a traumatic event and get away from it almost unscathed, so that was pretty cool. He hesitated on pulling the cords out, not wanting to make too much movement. He gingerly pulled one cord out and waited. Nothing happened, so he pulled another one out.
That ended up being a mistake.
“N?” Uzi mumbled, still under the effects of sleep mode. “What’re you doin’?”
“Uh,” N thought of an excuse. “Nothing?” Nice save, he told himself.
“S’ nice.” Uzi uttered under her breath. But then her eyes widened, and she scrambled away from the disassembly drone. “You’re speaking!”
N stared at her awkwardly. “Uh, yep! I’m speaking.”
“Do you remember anything?” Uzi asked.
“Nope,” N simply replied.
“Do you want me to like, tell you?”
“Uh, sure!”
“You ended up getting some sort of virus that made you go all feral.” Uzi gestured her hands around wildly, but her expression stayed mild. “You almost killed a worker drone, then tried to kill me.” That got a reaction out of N, who keened in surprise. “And then V saved me, knocked you out, chained you up in my room, and then you started making weird animal sounds before V left and I finally got an anti-virus protection on you.” She explained.
“I tried to kill you?” N whisper-screamed.
“It’s not like you’re the first—well, technically you were the first. Anyway, I’m fine now, and you’re fine now, so everything’s good.” She waved dismissively.
“Uzi...” N trailed off.
“N, I’m fine.” Uzi grumbled back.
“I’m sorry I tried to kill you.” N apologized.
“Ugh, don’t start with that apology stuff again.” Uzi said, but she couldn’t mask the blush that crept up on her face as well as the smile. “I’m just... happy you’re back.” She murmured that last part, hoping N wouldn’t hear it.
N did up hearing it because he smiled back at her.
“Well, we can go tell V you’re back to normal.” Uzi suggested.
“Okay, sounds good to me!” N says before steadily getting up and walking with Uzi, their hands intertwined as they walked down the corridors of the bunker together.