Chapter Text
J was awoken with a start as she heard knocking– no– banging on the door to the landing pod. She rolled her eyes and returned to sleep mode, intending to ignore whatever guest was trying to be let in. That is, until she heard that annoying thing’s voice.
“J!!! Open up!! Right now!!!” Uzi shouted from outside as she continued to bang on the door. Groaning, J unfolded herself from her bat-like sleeping position and placed herself on the ground. She cracked open the landing pod entrance and stared down at Uzi.
“How did you even find me? I blocked you!” she asked, incredibly annoyed and a bit delirious. After Cyn was defeated and things returned to “normal”, J rejected assimilating into worker drone society and decided to live by herself, all alone, in the broken landing pod, miles from the compound, where she didn’t have to deal with her old friends making new ones. Or the embarrassment of staying by Cyn’s side until after the world was ending.
“Yeah, I figured after you didn’t respond to ANY of my pings,” Uzi said as she pushed her way through the crack in the pod’s door. “But I found your coordinates through N’s UI. Which I can see whenever I want by the way. Maybe you should block him too,” she said with a sly smile.
“You can just see his UI at any time? You know spyware is a breach of company policy, right?”
“The company doesn’t exist anymore, dumbass. And besides, it’s not even spyware, it’s some other weird hacker stuff. Which is actually why I came to see you here today.”
Uzi swung her bat-winged backpack to her side, unzipped it, and pulled out a USB stick wrapped in yellow duct tape marked with a “J”.
“After I absorbed Cyn, or like, whatever happened, I started noticing a bunch of backup files appearing in my storage. All of them were memory files marked with one of you three disassembly drones’ serial numbers, and luckily for you, I couldn’t open them. This thing,” Uzi said, gesturing to her tail that was giving both of them the silent treatment, “won’t tell me exactly what they are, but I moved them to this drive and hopefully you’ll be able to open them.”
Uzi extended her hand with the USB stick towards J.
“Hopefully? You mean I’m your first choice to stick mysterious files into my brain?” J snarked, not accepting the USB stick.
“I like N and V the way they are! Mostly! But YOU!” she pointed accusingly with her other hand, “Could stand to be a better person. Or die. And I’m hoping these files will do one of those things.”
Uzi grabbed one of J’s hands and shoved the USB stick into it. The audacity of a worker drone to touch a disassembly drone took J off guard and she stumbled forward a bit. Embarrassed, she straightened back up with the drive laying in her palm.
“If something goes wrong, or right, ublock and ping me. I need to know what it does to you before I can give these files back to N and V,” Uzi said as she walked out the landing pod door.
“Traitor!” Uzi’s tail quipped as she shut the entrance and left J alone once again.
J stood there for a moment, staring at the USB stick. Memory files? Like of actual memories? That she had at some point? She couldn’t think of any gaps in her impeccably tidy storage, but maybe that had been Cyn toying with her again. Or maybe Uzi was just fucking with her all together. She took a seat in the pilot’s chair and contemplated. Uzi hates her guts, and she hates hers, but Uzi’s already killed her once. What does she stand to gain by doing it a second time? And why would she use death by USB stick instead of her “sick as hell” railgun? J sighed and figured there wasn't much keeping her here anyways. She brought the stick to the port on the nape of her neck, hesitated for a moment, and inserted it with a ‘click!’.
Immediately upon inserting the stick, a pop-up appeared on her UI asking if she’d like to open the files. She selected yes and was met with another pop-up. These files are from an outside source. Would you still like to open them? She hit yes, hoping her (majorly damaged) anti-virus would detect any funny business. Sure enough, the main folder opened and there had yet to be any code-altering changes made to her system. She opened up the folder named “J’S MEMORIES” and saw several hundred files each labeled with her serial number and the date and time at which each memory was supposedly captured. The files ranged from just a few seconds to several hours long, and they went back several months before… the gala.
Seeing the dates that led up to the disaster reminded J of the life she lost and the friends she missed so dearly. A wave of almost nauseating grief took over her for a few moments before she remembered how it was her duty to stay strong and logical. Blinking away her digital tears, she opened up the oldest file.
—
The blue sky. Only a few clouds and the sun shining just right. The sun. Something J had long forgotten the feeling of. More of the scenery appeared around her as the file continued to load. A garden, a really nice garden. Her feet were off the ground, and then she realized she was dangling her legs over an iron railing lining the upper level of the garden. The lower level of the garden was filled with light green grass and a huge assortment of all colors of tulips. She could hear laughing. It was voices she had heard before, and upon finding the source she realized it was N and V, in the garden, picking flowers together. To her left was a happy and alive Tessa, observing the lovestruck drones alongside J.
Present J, who was reliving this memory, was confused. Uzi said these were recovered backup files, but she already had this one! Was this just a copy of a memory she already had? She decided to let the file play out, just in case she was missing something. And it couldn’t hurt to reminisce! Well, it did hurt, quite a lot, but she wanted to see it anyways.
Past J, who was living this memory, absentmindedly swung her legs off the railing and listened to Tessa chat away.
“Aw, I just love those two! They act like they don’t have crushes on eachother, but everyone here can tell! Oh I love robo-romance!” Tessa said, clutching her hands over her heart and practically squealing. She turned to J. “You wouldn’t happen to have a crush on anyone in the manor, would ya, Jaybird?” she negged J and poked her with her elbow.
“No,” replied J.
This was where Present J’s memory ended. But the second her past self said “no”, the entire memory glitched for a moment, and then… continued? Apparently there were memories J just didn’t have. She continued watching with slightly terrified curiosity.
“Not on any of the drones, at least…” she mumbled, thinking Tessa wouldn’t hear.
“What an odd thing to specify,” Tessa said, giving her a smiley side eye.
J froze upon realizing Tessa had heard her. She could feel her joints stiffen and her core rapidly increase its pace. Even present J was able to feel this sensation. She began to wonder…
J and Tessa had been close. She loved N and V, tolerated Cyn when she could, but J was always the one right by her side. They were the best of friends, and Tessa never got as close to any of the other drones in the manor. But what past J had apparently said here, did… were… were they a different kind of close? The memory continued to play.
“Oh! Sorry boss! That was indeed odd. I won't specify that again,” J blurted out and punctuated with very nervous laughter. She stared straight on, making sure her vision was solely focused on N and V.
Tessa gave an empathic smile. “Oh J, you don’t need to apologize. I was just a tad curious!”
J let a smile creep back onto her face as she continued to watch N and V frolicing. Maybe she was safe. No more questions.
“But if you don’t have a crush on any of the drones in the manor… who does that leave?” Tessa leaned in and pried, even though she was fairly certain she knew the answer.
J could spot Tessa’s knowing smile from her peripheral sensors. Still refusing to look at her, J checked her internal clock.
“Oh, would you look at the time! Break’s over in a minute! We’d better get back on schedule,” J said as she started to let herself down from the railing. Tessa placed her warm human palm over J’s cold robotic hand.
“That's alright! We can be a bit late, right?”
“Whatever you say, boss.”
“Now, since we know you don’t like any of the worker drones, and almost all the humans here are far too old and married, that leaves… one person, right?”
“Correct,” J gulped.
“Does she happen to…” Tessa drew out the last word, leaned back and playfully stuck her right leg out in front of her before snapping back up “...be sitting right next to you?”
“C-correct,” J felt like her fans would kick into high gear at any moment.
“Okay okay, now ask me! Ask me if I have a crush on someone!”
J slowly turned to face Tessa. “Do you… have… a crush on someone?” she said, grimacing.
“I just might! And she just might be sitting right next to me!” Tessa answered, the biggest grin spreading across her face. “Have you figured it out yet?”
J just stared at her, dumbfounded. This smart, silly, morbid, beautiful, human girl just admitted to having a crush… on her? Instead of another human? Or any of the other drones she could've chosen? J put on a nervous smile and just nodded.
“Terrific!! Oh! Look at the time!” Tessa explained when she glanced at her watch. “Break ended two minutes ago! HEY LOVEBIRDS! WE HAVE TO GET BACK BEFORE THEY THROW US OUT TO THE CROWS!” she shouted to N and V, who began trotting back to the upper level of the garden. “C’mon, mate, we can talk later, alright J?”
Tessa planted a lightning quick peck on the side of J’s face before hopping down and extending her arm out to help the shorter drone dismount safely. A shocked J placed her hand in Tessa’s and made her way down before entering the manor to start her next shift. Was she simulation blushing? This was so unprofessional! Was corporate able to see that? What if her parents found out? But as she followed Tessa back inside, she couldn’t help but feel… excited. Which was certainly rare now for this drone.
The memory ended and the file quit itself as past J made her way through the doors. Present J was viewing the memory like a dream, and as soon as it finished she shot out of her chair as if she was waking up from a nightmare. She ripped out the USB stick and clutched it right by her heart. She and Tessa had never– or at least she thought they had never entered that kind of territory. Her tampered memory was completely wiped of any possible romantic undertones or overtones. She felt the digital tears coming back. There was an entire part of her life, her being, that had been completely stripped and hidden from her. How could Cyn do that? Why would Cyn do that? She took several deep breaths to try to steady her core. There were so many files in there, were they all of her and Tessa? This many? She was in complete disbelief. How could she be missing so much? She sighed and placed the drive back in. J wasn’t sure she was ready to see more, but now that she’d started she wasn’t sure she’d be able to stop.