Work Text:
Rebooting…
Serial Designation: N - 0X0010010
Optics: Online
Audio Receptors: Online
Gyroscope: Online
Power: 72%
Current time: 9:32 AM
Good morning!
Your daily tasks include-
His eyes blinked open, pushing away the daily tasks before they could be listed off by his operating system. He hadn’t done any ‘daily tasks’ in months, not that there was anyone that would be enforcing that, but it was a function he was simply unable to turn off.
He stood up, unplugging himself from the electric generator he had spent the night sleeping against. And based on his lack of a full charge, it seemed like the old thing had finally run out of juice during the night.
That… would be a concern.
Most places he visited had been without widespread power for a month by now, not by choice of course. With so many places wiped out completely, there were very few left to run the places that provided everywhere else with power.
Humans, albeit reluctantly, could survive without electricity.
The same could not be said for N.
He would either have to find something else to top off his charge, or find some more gasoline to power this generator. He didn’t like his odds for either of those.
There had been a few bunkers he had managed to find in the wastes, with a few survivors holed up inside them. Not that any of them had even entertained the idea of letting him inside.
After all, a bunch of rogue drones were the reason the world was ending.
He had no idea what exactly had triggered it, but he had seen messages left behind that said people believed the apocalypse had begun at Elliot Manor. Which made everything even more confusing because he had somehow managed to escape from there with no idea of what had occurred.
The night of that dreadful gala; the night the end of the world began, he had been tied to the crow post outside. It was not a punishment that was new to him, he had somehow been one of the only drones to survive being sent out there, having made it through it twice even! But… he had messed up when playing with the crows that night. They had started flying at his face, trying to peck through his visor.
Before they could actually cause any damage beyond some scratches, a massive yellow light had shined out the windows of the manor, scaring all of the birds off and leaving him– while still trapped– alive.
He had spent the rest of the night tied to the post, but nothing else had happened. No other animals from the swamp had come out to get the poor drone tied to the post, the crows that normally littered the area seemed to have all fled far away as well. He was alone.
Then the sun rose the next day and no one came to fetch him.
It had taken a lot of work but, eventually, he had managed to free himself from his bindings. And the first thing he had done, perhaps against his better judgement, was head back into the manor he had been exiled from.
And the weirdest thing was, it seemed completely empty. He couldn’t find anyone.
Every single room was cleared out, left almost as untouched as they had been the night before. He couldn’t even find any drones either, it was like everyone had evacuated. Part of him wondered if Tessa, V, J and Cyn were merely setting up some kind of surprise party for him… But as much as he wanted to hold out hope, there was an eerie sensation crawling up his chassis since he entered the building, and he didn’t like whatever that meant.
Eventually, in one of the last rooms he checked– The ballroom, where the gala last night had been held– he found something that was… Unpleasant, to say the least.
It looked as though a massacre had occurred, only to then be partially cleaned up afterwards. There was blood coating all over the room, along the floors, on overturned tables, even running along the walls.
But no bodies. Or even parts of bodies. Which begged the question of where the blood had come from. What happened to the source?
Part of him thought that perhaps someone was still in the process of cleaning this up, but… With how empty the entire manor had been, that felt unlikely.
The strangest thing though, the only hint he had to what had happened was a weird… error message? That seemed to have been etched along every inch of the room that wasn’t covered in blood.
The architecture of the room made it hard to make out what they said but, he figured that it was a warped message that read:
EXE//:ERROR
ABSOLUTESOLVER
_MATCOLLECTION
IF YOU CAN READ THIS
YOU ARE IN RANGE
Alongside an odd hexagon symbol with three arrows sprouting from it.
N had no idea what that meant, but seeing that symbol made his servos shake with dread. He had to get out; he had to leave.
He was hesitant to abandon the manor, though. The building was isolated, with the only thing nearby being the drone dumps the Elliots favored. Other than that, it was miles of forest and swamp in all directions.
Eventually, he found himself sitting in the library, the same place he had been reading to V last night. Though of course, like everyone else here, she also seemed to be missing. It was just him there, sitting beside the antique rug that covered a portion of the floor.
He blinked, a thought running through his OS.
He stood up and walked over to where V had been last night, and moved the rug to the side. The basement. Cyn had been sent to be locked down there when he had been sent to the crow post. Perhaps she was still down there?
Though, any thoughts of easily checking to see if his assumption was correct was cut short when he saw the keyhole placed on the trapdoor. J had had the key and she was also missing. It seemed like he wouldn’t be able to check it out.
But not wanting to give up that easily, he knocked on the trap door a few times, before calling out. “C-Cyn? You down there lil buddy?”
But all that answered him was silence.
A concerned look crossed his face. It truly seemed like the place was empty.
He would go on to spend another day and a half at the manor, using the recharging stations to keep himself online. If anything happened to his batteries, he would be helpless unless someone else came to check out the manor and bothered to assist him.
During this time, his programming had been incessantly urging him to continue his duties, to clean up, and especially clean up the ballroom.
N did his best to simply ignore it, fearful of someone finally coming to check out the place, and himself being blamed for the apparent massacre if he was found ‘tampering’ with the scene.
Eventually, after using some old tools he had found in the technician rooms, he had managed to force open the basement.
And every day since then he wished he hadn’t.
Inside he had finally found some indication of what might have happened– actual bodies left behind from whatever occurred.
But the bodies he found filled him with more dread than anything else. He had seen V… he saw J…
He saw…
Himself. Strapped to a chair.
He couldn’t make out anything else in the room before he bolted, every bit of his circuits screaming at him to leave.
He had to leave, find someone– find anyone. Someone, somewhere, had to know what had happened. So he found one of Tessa’s old backpacks, loaded it up with some batteries for snacks, alongside some actual recharging packs for himself to stay topped up.
And then, he ran.
It was well into the night when he finally slowed down, his fear dimming with distance. And he took his wandering more slowly upon realizing he would have to ration out his charge from now on.
It would take him a week of walking through the forests before he finally reached a city.
Or at least, the remnants of one. Whatever happened at the manor, seemed to have happened here as well, he rarely found anything other than the leftovers of what could only be described as a wholesale slaughter. Dried blood caked roads, bullet markings peppering sidewalks and buildings. But not a single body left behind.
At least, not one in perfect condition. With how many more people that must have been here, there were actually some limbs left behind. But they had bite marks on them.
Had they been eaten?
He continued his journey, fearing what conclusions he would come to if he continued to dwell on the topic.
Further and further he travelled, stopping to recharge when he needed, having a few nights where he found suitable spots to recharge his battery packs as well or replacing them altogether.
He had taken to nomadic scavenging at this point.
After nearly a month, he finally learned what had happened to the world.
After so long in isolation, he had finally seen another drone. They were hunched over in the road, and he couldn’t quite tell what they were doing.
He had been overjoyed! Finally someone to talk to! But that creeping dread shot up his chassis once again, and he hid himself behind an overturned car.
He was glad he had hidden. Because after another minute, he saw two large bladed wings sprout from the drones back, stretching out farther and farther, before with one mighty flap, they took flight and left the city behind. Luckily, in the direction opposite of him.
After waiting a few more minutes to ensure they didn’t come back, he snuck out and looked to see what the drone had been doing.
If he was a human, he probably would have hurled. On the ground was a small pile, made up of both human body parts and even worker drone parts. And like he had seen on previous limbs… They were being eaten.
Whatever that strange drone was… It was clear it was connected to whatever was happening to the world, and that seemingly no one was safe.
Humans and worker drones, both being hunted to the last by the same predators.
It had been a few more months since then. And by this point, he had accepted that the world was dying.
N knew it wouldn’t be long before he would fall too.
Even after all this time, he hadn’t managed to find any clues as to what happened to his friends. To Tessa, or V, or Cyn, or even J.
That generator he had been using was a stroke of pure luck, he had been running on fumes for a few days, 72% was the best he had had for the last two weeks.
But he still hoped to find his friends before the world drew its last breath.
Crunch
He froze. The sound of something hitting the ground outside sending him into a panicked state. But he had learned how to force himself to not reflexively yelp. He had seen other survivors get picked off from even the smallest hints of their hiding spots.
But then he heard a voice.
“Hey, N, that you in there? You find anything to eat today? Food’s been a bit scarce in this area and we agreed to share, so you better not be skipping out on me!”
Was- was that…?
He had to be hallucinating, he had been on his own for so long he was starting to hear voices.
And then he saw someone open up the door into his hideaway and walk inside.
It was her.
It wasn’t her.
V.
One of those murderous flying drones he had seen killing countless beings since the apocalypse began.
Yet, it was clearly V.
His body locked up, staring at her like a deer in headlights.
When she caught sight of him, she froze too. But her face showed more confusion compared to his fear.
“N? What happened to you? Did some humans manage to revert your OS or something?” She asked him, as if he was the one who was out of place in this scenario.
After a beat, he managed to get his mouth working, his hands trembling, “W-what do you mean…? What happened to you? I haven’t seen you since before the gala.”
At the mention of that dreadful event, the taller drone’s eyes turned to hollowed ovals as she stared at him.
But before she could respond, there was another thump. Causing N’s own hollowed eyes to become even thinner.
A voice called out. “Heya V! Saw you fly in here, got us a fresh catch to enjoy!”
Nononononononono
That was his voice now.
Why did he hear his own voice?
Another drone entered the building.
It felt like time moved glacially slow as he turned to look at the newcomer.
Same voice. Same hair. Much taller and a different outfit but…
That was him.
The two copies of N stared at each other, one in fear and the other in confusion. Before he found himself stumbling, crawling backwards as best he could, as if hoping that old generator he had found would be able to hide him from the two that had clearly seen him.
All the while his CPU ran a mile a second. Whatever happened to V seemed to have… somehow, been done to him as well. But he was right here! Wasn’t he? WHY WAS THERE TWO OF HIM?
Why?
Who?
Suddenly, both of the modified drones froze. Their visors going completely blank as they froze in place.
Then their visors booted back up and he realized they were glowing a sickly yellow with…
A hexagon… with three arrows pointing out of it.
The same symbol he had seen in the ballroom.
And now it was etched across the visors of the two drones in front of him.
V’s body stood frozen, but his own copy’s began to move again. His mouth opened, but a different voice came out.
“Well then. I had. Wondered. Where you had. Made off too. I had needed to. Use a backup. Instead of. Yourself.”
N felt like he was about to enter a forced shutdown from the panic surging his body. It took all his willpower to do anything other than shut down. But he managed to get out one word.
“Cyn…?”
“Oh well. Your backups. Have already. Forgiven me. So there is. No further use. For You. Big Brother”
The last thing N ever saw, was a serrated facsimile of his own teeth flying towards his face.