Chapter Text
The evening was quiet.
The harsh winds that racked the day had calmed to a breeze that swept up dirt. What once had been lush grass had been replaced with rocky terrain as soon as the apocalypse had struck.
Earth was basically on the brink of death, most oceans burned up and forests decimated. What few life remained had to fight in order to survive and safe houses were dotted around the country, connected by run down roads.
Luckily, it wasn't the end of the world and there were no zombies. This was the period humans were using to recover and thankfully, they were not doing it alone.
Technology came far enough to develop a sentient AI and created workers for the humans, drones to do their bidding.
But even they could only do so much. Those that had been killed or discarded were thrown on a pile just outside of one of the mansions that stood alone, a lush garden shielding the inhabitants from the harsh reality of the outside world.
Still, these areas were accessible and full of broken worker drones, lying uselessly with triangles and exclamation points displayed in red on most of the black screens of their visors, replacing where white eyes would have been. They all wore the same outfits, smart black and white suits or frilly maid outfits.
Except for one that lay on the edge of the pile, its screen flashing with purple lights.
The wind started to pick up again and rain began to splatter down, giving some relief from the harsh sun during the day.
As the drizzle continued, another noise broke the air.
A young human girl walked down the road to the dump site, the sound of the heels of her shoes hitting the tar echoing around the empty space, as well as the creaking from the red Radio Flyer she pulled behind her.
Tessa James Elliot sighed as she stopped, her hands on her hips as she looked at the drones, trying to find one that was still working. She shook her head, ruffling the bows that held her long locks together.
She kneeled down and pulled the robots away, but had no luck.
"Can folks not completely shatter their heads before throwing them away?" She muttered with a slight Australian accent as she wiped the oil off of her hands on her poofy dress.
Using her wrists to push the hair out of her eyes, she stood and looked around before flashing purple lights caught her eye, standing out like a sore thumb amidst the dull colours.
She hurried over and crouched down, tilting her head curiously as she looked at the drone lying in front of her.
"Crikey. Aren't you strange," She mumbled. This one was female, but unlike any drone she'd ever seen. She had dark purple hair that stuck out from under a beanie. Usually they didn't have hair so she must have belonged to someone who gave her the wig.
She also wore heavy black boots and striped purple socks, with a black and white jacket with wool lining it and a low battery logo with bones making an X over it.
But what she definitely found weird was the purple display screen. Most drones had white and there were even the occasional yellow ones, but she'd never seen this before. What did give her hope was instead of the warning sign, this one displayed 'Required System Reboot' in big letters with 'Temporary Sleep Mode Activated' under it.
"Huh, so ye're still alive?" Tessa grinned, "Well no matter how weird ya look! You'll fit right in with my gang."
She stood, hauling the robot with her as carrying her over to the wagon. Thankfully, all worker drones were smaller than the teenager and light enough that she could pick them up without struggling too much.
"I should probably keep ya out of sight for a bit though," She muttered as she started walking back down the road, "Mother and Father will probably not like me bringing more drones back. No more garbage pets Tessa!" She mimicked in a high pitched voice, "We don't need any more of your sentient toasters clogging up the house."
She, of course, got no reply from the unconscious drone behind her, but she wasn't expecting one.
"Psh, like they don't kill every other one if they mess up. I swear if they touch any of my four, I'm officially running away from home. That includes you now as well buddy," She smiled and looked back at her newest addition, "I don't care what they say about my guys. They're the best friends I've ever had! Of course I haven't really spoken with many humans besides my parents. They usually lock me in my room when we have people over so I don't embarrass the family with my weirdness as they call it."
Tessa sighed and looked down at the ground as she walked through the gates onto the estate. The mansion loomed in front of her, the rain getting harder and the sky choked with smog, that made it green, was getting darker.
The young human pulled the wagon around the fountain and to the door, looking back to make sure her new friend hadn't gotten hurt along the way.
"Tessa. What is this?"
The annoyed female voice from the door made her spin around, but she giggled mischievously when she saw who it was.
A worker drone in a maid uniform stood there, one hand on her hip while the other was on the door handle. Her white eyes studied the girl exasperated and she blew a lock of silver hair out of her eyes that had fallen loose from her twin pigtales.
"Sorry J, but ya know me," Tessa said, walking inside to the small corridor while the drone closed the door, "I can't help myself."
"You know your parents won't be thrilled with this," J sighed, following her, "I thought they banned you from going to that dump since you brought... her home."
Tessa rolled her eyes but kept walking. They entered the large entrance room which they also used as the ballroom for events, making their way to the staircase at the opposite end.
"She has a name, J. Sure, Cyn is a little wonky and weird, but I managed to fix her up just right, didn't I? Besides, N promised to help her stay away from them and I can already tell this one is different!"
The robot looked at her sceptically and then down at the unconscious one she was pulling along, "She certainly is," J muttered and picked at the purple bots fluffy collar, "What is with this outfit? She looks emo."
"She looks like she has character," Tessa corrected, holding a definitive finger up, "But now that you mention it, it may be best to get her changed. We don't want her standing out too much around mother and father."
"Like the purple hair and weird vibe don't help her with that already," J snorted, letting go but flicking one of her locks as she did.
"I know, I know," The girl hissed, looking around to make sure no one was around. The wagon was discarded at the bottom as they walked up to another level. This one had a balcony inside that wrapped around the three walls, none on the fourth as it had a large window looking out. The walkways crossed over and spanned the gaps so you could look down into the ballroom and see bots walking around undernesth them.
Tessa led her drone down to the far right wall and pushed open a door, only pausing and waving to one of her parents' worker drones, trying not to look suspicious as J went into her room.
The large bedroom was rectangular, with kids' toys scattered around the floor and stuffed into chests. Candles covered the floor, mostly around a rocking horse and large shelves were pressed against the walls covered in writing. They were filled with different things in jars and skulls while others were filled with books. There was a large queen in the middle adorned with curtains and lights, as well as a plush cover and pillows.
J basically dumped the drone on a chair that had been pushed away from the desk, walking backward and then leaning against the bed. Tessa crouched down and looked at the purple bot, "Righty-o. Seems like she's the standard size, a bit smaller than you but not as small as Cyn. Maybe she wasn't a usual worker drone as in the main lr butler type but something else?"
She looked back at J, who just shrugged. The girl sighed and stood up, "Get one of the uniforms from the cupboard," She said, her hands on the hips, "We've got some work to do."
——————
'ERROR: Visual sensors offline'
'Environment Unknown'
'Startup Required'
'Data Restoration in Progress'
'Booting Up // Solver'
'System Reboot'
'Conclusion: WTF??'
Purple writing tinged with gold lit up the surrounding darkness, projected in front of her vision. It was soon replaced with a loading screen and voices started to filter in.
"Oh oh oh! She's waking up!" An excited voice squealed in a whisper, followed by them patting someone.
The drone groaned and slowly sat up, holding her head as she regained control of her limbs and the world came into view as her display screen came online. She looked up and then immediately jumped back.
A human girl was in front of her, leaning in close with an excited expression while another drone scowled at her in the background.
"Wha- who- huh?!" The purple bot cried and jumped up, standing on the chair as she looked around the room. She paused and looked down at herself. A maid uniform had now replaced her jacket and "WHAT THE HELL AM I WEARING?!"
"Sorry, sorry!" The human said, raising her hands and trying to calm her down, "I had to otherwise ya would have been in danger. You're stuff's all here but you can't put it on! Ya need to wear this for now!"
"I look like someone's servant! Oh robo-god! Never let Lizzy or anyone else see me in this!" The drone yelled and ran over to the pile of clothes neatly folded on the bed, ripping them up and searching through the pockets, ignoring J's groans. She didn't stop until slight relief came over her face and she pulled out a folded piece of paper, turning as she tucked it into one of the pockets of her new dress.
The drone then seemed to realize something and she grabbed at her head, feeling just hair as well as a stupid head garment, something gone, "Where's my beanie, human?!"
"Lets just take it slow for a tick," She said softly and gently pushed her back down to sit, "First of all, my name is Tessa and behind me is J. I found ya outside in the dump where someone had left ya. I brought ya home because that's what I do with drones that still work. Now, can ya tell me your name if ya have one?"
The drone glared at her for a second before, "Uzi," She spat with venom.
"Great, Uzi. It's nice to meet ya," She smiled and clapped her hands while J raised an eyebrow at her. Uzi paused to glare at her before slowly looking around.
Oh yeah, she knew where she was. She'd seen enough in V and N's memories to know.
The only question was: how the heck did she get in the past??
"So for now, you can stay at the manor as a worker drone. Luckily it's just me, my parents, and about an endless supply of other drones," Tessa continued, seeing the confused expression on her face but not understanding it fully, "I guess you don't have much experience from what I've seen?"
Uzi's head snapped around and looked at her with an expression of utmost disbelief, "You want me to work for you?" she asked slowly.
"Well, it would be suggested," The girl said, "Mother and father discard drones they see as useless so I try to find something for my four to do. Five now, including you."
The drone's expression fell into a cold glare, "I don't work for humans!" She seethed, "You're all lazy, unreliable flesh bags who seem to do better at wiping each other out than fixing things."
"Why you little!" J cried and stormed over, only to be held back by Tessa, "Don't you dare speak to her that way! She rescued you and that's your thanks!? Apologise and I won't lock you in the basement!"
"Bite me!" Uzi yelled back, standing to glare at her, annoyance showing as she had to look up. J wasn't as tall as she would become but she still could look down at the smaller drone.
"Both of ya quit it!" Tessa exclaimed and pushed her way in between them, "Uzi, J is very protective of me and I would suggest not antagonizing her! J, Uzi is new and probably needs time to readjust, so do not be hard on her!"
"Yeah, J," Uzi smirked and looked at the yellow drone, "Play nice."
She growled and made choking motions at the purple bot as soon as Tessa turned to look at her.
"Ok, here," The human said and grabbed something off the table, giving it to Uzi, "I can't give ya your old clothes back but ya can wear this."
It was her beanie. As soon as she realized what it was, the drone threw off the head dress and shoved the crochet cap on, adjusting it over her hair.
"Now what do you say?" J hissed, crossing her arms and glowering at her.
Uzi looked up and scowled but muttered a small, "Thanks... I guess." and got a small smirk in as the taller bot's eye twitched.
Not even two weeks since she'd last seen her and she'd already forgotten how annoying J could be. Heck! She didn't even know her that much! Just she could be a stick in the mud with psychopathic tendencies and a crazy devotion to humans and her superiors.
Not too unlike someone else she knew, minus the obsession with following orders.
"Uh, earlier you mentioned someone named Lizzy?" Tessa said, leaning down a bit so she was at her height, "Was she the previous human you were with?"
Uzi scoffed and rolled her eyes, "No, she's the most annoying drone I know, besides this one that is," She jerker her thumb at J, "She's lucky she's friends with Thad and another annoying bot, otherwise I would have kicked her off Copper-9 months ago."
J opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by the girl quickly bouncing in, "Oh! So you're from one of the exoplanets then?" She asked, "Which means you're most likely more acquainted with mining and heavy labour, right?"
Uzi looked at her for a second, contemplating what to tell her. She didn't exactly trust Tessa. The impression she already had of the human had been warped by the future version of her that had been taken over and used as a puppet by the Solver. She still got nightmares of the horrors from that day she and everyone else had almost died.
Finally, she nodded, agreeing to trust her now just from what she remembered N telling her the young human was like. This was Tessa, not the virus in front of her.
"Great!" She smiled and held the drone's hand despite her flinching away slightly, "So we just need to show you the ropes around here! Now, who can..."
Tessa grinned and slowly turned around. J's eyes widened as the girl looked at her, "No," She said immediately, "I'm staying with you, not teaching this annoyance what to do! Can't someone else do it!?"
"They're all busy at the moment. Please J? For me?" She pouted and held both of the drone's hands in hers, "It won't be for long."
The robotic girl frowned when she looked at Tessa, glancing at the still-smirking newby behind her and back at the human. She sighed and rolled her eyes, "Fine."
Tessa squealed and hugged her happily, "Thank you, thank you!" She laughed and turned, looking at Uzi, running forward with open arms.
"Wait! No hugs! No!" The purple drone yelled, stumbling back and trying to fend her off while J just cackled in the background.