Chapter Text
The Sentinel’s lights blared around her as the beasts circled in. V knew, for better or worse, this was her end. The elevator slowly crept up, tugging the entrapped group closer and closer to their own demise. N rang out various calls to her, but she knew what had to be done.
“Nah, Uzi... I trust you,” she said, locking visors with the smaller girl on the floor. She charged up her handheld laser and fired it at the elevator’s cables.
“V, please!” N called out in desperation.
V shut off the optics on her visor, gesturing a salute as she gave in to fate. She knew she wouldn’t want to have the displeasure of her last sight being herself being torn to shreds. She heard the snapping of the elevator cables, which the Sentinels took as their cue to lunge at her.
No backups, no tricks up her sleeve, no way out. This, as gruesome as it was, was her freedom from an eternity of playing puppet.
The worst part about being a Disassembly Drone, at least at this moment, was the durability of the hardware. V felt every last scrape against her body. She could tell which parts had been fully gnawed off by the distinct lack of feeling. She could tell as her body went from whole to chunks, chunks to bits, and bits to scrap. She could feel the animalesque mouths of the raptors gnawing and gnashing away at her. She would scream bloody murder if the functionality hadn’t been ripped out.
Eventually, like all things, it came to an end. All in a moment, she stopped processing the consumption of her body. The pain stopped, all feeling subsided, and she was finally at peace.
Yet, here she was, alone in the same blank void she had seen since her optics turned off. It was perplexing. Surely, by now, no facilities should be left to operate her consciousness? Any thought to move or use what might be left of her body was met with no response. With no other choice, she waited for whatever small amount of power there was left in her somehow remaining circuitry to die out.
.
It was dark. It was so, so dark. Previously, V thought that nothing could possibly be darker than a lack of optics. But this darkness struck deeper, it punctured into her very spirit. Though the darkness she perceived was no different, the overwhelming gloom surpassed what she thought possible. Every passing eternity felt longer than the last.
.
She didn’t know how long she had waited. She had never experienced something both so unendingly long and so mind numbingly short. The closest thing she could compare it to were the years she spent in the same routine of mindless killing and thrill-seeking. After all this time, she was shocked to see something.
She suspected her mind was playing tricks on her. From the void, she could swear she could see something... Cylindrical and small, yet omnipresent through her reality. It began to twist in on itself, curling and slithering in the endless abyss. One end tapered out, and the other formed an opening mouth. It circled around itself now, facing its own end.
And so, Ouroboros ate its own tail, and the world lit up once more.
. . .
“Oh! I-I'm so sorry.”
“It’s okay. I-I wasn’t looking.” The words stumbled over each other. They reached out their hands, and a spark flew. With that spark, V’s consciousness came tumbling in.
After so long of nothing, everything was so blinding to her. The tactile feel of the carpet on the ground, the residual buzz from the shock, the atmosphere around them, the deep colors of...
Elliott Manor.
It took everything she had not to fall apart then and there. Dozens of thoughts came rushing to her head, none coherent enough to actually think about. This stupor was delayed when J walked over and harshly pushed N prone.
“Move it, moro-” She scoffed at him, before switching to a sweeter voice when she noticed a new face enter. “Hiiii, Tessa!” Tessa stood, hiding someone behind her figure. At seeing this, J regained a much more natural tone of distaste. “Oh, no... Another one?”
The figure stepped out from behind Tessa, revealing a small and awkwardly standing girl in the standard maid uniform. She gave a slight smile at seeing the other drones.
It was as if the entire world stopped for V. For a second, there wasn’t a single thought as she stared into her ceaseless yellow eyes. Then, all at once, the terrible memories started crashing in. Cyn was really here. The start of all her problems, the end of any chance she had at living a happy life.
While Cyn stood there, V was as still as could be. Tessa gave some short introduction, introducing that thing to them. She might have missed some signal to talk or introduce herself, but she didn’t know that for certain. She kept her eyes trained on Cyn, that slight smirk, and the evil that lay beyond that façade. Her body was tense, ready for a confrontation she knew wouldn’t yet happen.
Eventually, Tessa took away the monster that had haunted her for so long, likely to give her a tour of the rest of the manor. It took a beat before V zoned back in. J was gone as well, and N had moved closer to her, his steady hand on her shoulder.
“Hey... V? V. Are you with me?” His grip ever so slightly tightened. Worry flashed through his eyes, and his voice took on a slight sense of urgency. “Did I bump into you too hard? Are you okay?”
V now realized she was trembling, shaking like a leaf lost in the wind. Her fans whirred a worrying amount, trying to take in any air they could get. She was trying to push her body away from him, but conflictingly, she was also reaching her hands out slightly in front of her to try and dismiss any worries.
“N-no, well yes... I’m fine; you didn’t bump me too hard. I-I just got lost in thought.” V quickly stammered out. What was wrong with her? She usually didn’t lose her cool this quickly, the last time she got like this she was still a maid. Even the most vivid of nightmares didn’t leave her a mess like this.
N clearly didn’t buy it, but backed up to give her space. “Are you... sure? It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it... it’s just that you didn’t respond for, like... an entire minute?” He still had a worried gaze placed on her, but now that she was responsive again, it lessened.
“I...” She cleared her throat and took a second to regroup her thoughts. “I-I think I’m just low on battery. I should go charge.” She stumbled off the ground, nearly falling before catching herself. “It was nice meeting you-well, it’s not the first time we’ve met, but... I... I’ll see you... around.” She stammered out before rushing off down the hall. N reached out another hand, but she had already gone off.
Once she rounded the corner, she tripped over her own feet and fell. Luckily, she caught herself before her face connected with the floor. Her glasses nearly fell off her face before she took a moment to readjust them. She shakily made an attempt to stand once more, falling several times before succeeding. She wasn’t used to these feet, years of using the equivalent of peg legs left her unadjusted to clunky stability.
Once she regained her balance, she wandered the halls slowly and with intent. She had never forgotten the layout of the mansion, at least the important parts. She found herself in a room next to the library, one she used as her own personal quarters. It was a small room for the Elliotts, though it was modest enough to store the essentials she might need.
She slowly slid herself down the wall and onto the few pillowy cushions she had previously placed on the floor. She grasped at the glasses on her face before tossing them aside. She wrung her hands against her visor. She shut on and off her optics repeatedly, each time hoping she would return to nothing.
Something was seriously off with her. Even ignoring how she got back here-which she was actively trying to avoid thinking about-she wasn’t acting herself. She had spent almost every day of the last few years pushing N away, keeping him safe. Why did she find it so difficult now ?
The more she thought about it, the less it made sense to her. It was like she could feel herself slipping away. She was still herself, but it was as if her subconscious had reverted. The deep thoughts she spent so long locking away resurfaced. It was like she was once again that maid from so long ago. Her head pounded even thinking about it.
Why am I back here? Is this hell?
She moved her sights down from the wall in front of her to her hands. Her hands . She mentally tried to switch them out for claws, the unnatural state she had forced them into for so long. Her hands reminded her too much of her past. All the pain she went through. Everything she didn’t do. Everything Cyn did to her.
How could this even happen? Have I truly just gone insane?
She closed her fingers slowly, then opened them again. She reached out and grabbed a blanket near her before dropping it. Everything felt real. She was real. She was here. No matter what, she was still herself.
What did I do to deserve this? Why do I have to go through this all again?
Maybe that was it. Damn be the rhyme or reason for how she got here, why she was here, or what she was supposed to do. Maybe she could make a change. For once in her life, she could change things. At this time, she wasn’t Cyn’s puppet. She was back, and she was in control.
She just had to stop Cyn. Stop her before she gets induced into some coma, before she gets turned into a monster, before she is no longer herself. But she had the upper hand. Now she knew what Cyn was. She just needed to cut it off at the roots before it could spread like a horrible cancer into the very being of them all.
But where to start? She couldn’t just go straight after her, it would be far too suspicious, and it might not even work. She’d need to be more methodical, more planned out. As much as she hated thinking about it, she’d need to get Cyn to trust her. It would make the knife in her back all the more effective. She would do to Cyn what Cyn did to her. With that being said, she knew she wouldn’t be able to stomach even sharing a word with Cyn. Not now.
How else could she do it, though?
Well, there was one option. Though she hated that it did feel like using him, N was going to get closer with Cyn no matter what. Of course, that was assuming things would still play out as she remembered. The plan wasn’t perfect, but she would have time to flesh it out more in the following days and weeks.
A pang of guilt ran over her. Could she really do this to him again ? What if it went wrong? Did she have it in her to grow close with him again, after all this time?
It didn’t matter. She had to. This went beyond either of them. Cyn caused so much pain and suffering. Maybe in the future, once this works, they could even be happy. She just had to take a risk. Maybe this was the first true risk she had taken in years.
She straightened herself out, rising from the cushion on the ground. A look of determination grazed her features. She stood taller and took one last second to reassure her confidence. She felt more like herself than she had for the duration of her current stay here.
She reached for the handle on the door. The best course of action she could see from here was to build a bond with N as fast as possible. Though they had been technically introduced before, if she recalled correctly, they hadn’t truly grown closer until after they had bumped into each other.
Talking with N couldn’t be too hard. She just had to hope she hadn’t fallen too far out of practice. With that, she opened the door and set foot out into the carpeted halls.
Maybe, and truly this time, this was her freedom from an eternity of playing puppet.