Cynful Family

Cynful Family : The Gathering

J woke up with the drone equivalent of a hangover. To be fair, she drank her fair share last night. 

At least, she seemed to have enough wits to take off her clothes before heading to bed. Also, enough wits to actually land in a bed.

“Hangover is a bitch…” 

“Just like you last night…” Someone said from the other side of the bed. The voice was cranky and clearly from someone who drank a bit too much, as J clearly did. J was surprised and disheveled. She probably had a wonderful night, shame she didn’t remember any of it. Then, the corporate robot looked at who owned the bed. Who… Apparently spent the night with her, a good night.

It was Tessa, in her perfect gynoid body who imitated a human body in every aspect. You could criticize Cyn on many, many things. 

Her taste in body and shape wasn’t one J could criticize in good faith, as she almost salivated at the woman slowly cuddling her.

“Hi, dear <3” Tessa said, clearly appreciating the hotness of her bot.

J screamed in both excitedness and suffering at the idea of not remembering that night! Also, she wondered if such an opportunity would ever happen again?! Well, considering how her mistress was now on top of her…

—---------

Lizzy closed the door after helping the little Cyn carrying the two very totally wasted people. She then stared at the giggling mischievous gremlin.

“So… Why did you want to do that?” 

“Merciful and kind queen: J keeps losing and failing everything she does. She needs something to perk up. Slight acceptance with incomprehension: Apparently, J doesn’t like N but likes Tessa.” Cyn explained while tilting her head. She was still technically a teen mentally. Blame the Solver, but her mental ability was growing slower. She was still speaking and thinking better than when she was younger.

“Maybe she likes…” Lizzy tried to bring her opinion on the subject but Cyn sighed.

“Obvious: Girl? I know. Puzzled: I am actually wondering why despite loving to give orders and fearing mine, she loves Tessa’s.” 

“Isn’t it because you probably used her to kill the girl she loved while possessing her body and V’s too?” 

Cyn wanted to raise another counterpoint but… She stopped and thought about it. She made J skin the woman she loved and used her as a bait to obey her for years. Lizzy simply chewed gum while staring at Cyn, unimpressed.

“Unsure: … Am I a terrible person?” 

“A girl and a young adult. We are the worst.” 

For the first time in a long time, Cyn contemplated her actions.

“More sure: I still have no regrets with eating all humans.” 

“Fuck the meat bags.” Lizzy snarked. In History, they were taught how the Drone kind was slaved away after all.

“Joking: No, that one is J’s job.” 

Lizzy’s gears almost stopped on that one, while Cyn smiled, feeling a bit better. Lizzy was a good talk.

“Thankful: Do you want something?” Cyn wanted to give her a boon after all. What Lizzy said afterward surprised her.

With zero care or fear, Lizzy did a perfect kabedon on Cyn but there was no romance, only pure cold steel.

“Don’t break your promise to Doll. If you disappoint her, I will ruin your life. I don’t give a single flying fuck about Uzi, but Doll is mine.” 

Cyn never felt fear. Lizzy, on this instant managed to actually make her feel it. She instinctively nodded and then Lizzy posed near the shaking Cyn, taking a selfie.

She sent it to V afterwards.

—-----

When V woke up the next day, still cuddling with N and Uzi in Uzi’s room, she didn’t manage to understand what the hell she saw. Yes, they still had their clothes, so aside from some cuddling, nothing happened. 

Except apparently from Lizzy scaring shitless Cyn. 

Also, where did Cyn sleep?

—-----

Thad was wondering why the eldritch horror who stole his heart was a bit shaking when Lizzy left her to him. Then Doll appeared out of nowhere, grabbed Lizzy and disappeared. Yeeaaaah, they were totally not dating. 

Nonetheless, he had more pressing matters. Namely Cyn.

“So… Where do you sleep, pretty one?” No, he wasn’t going to bring her into his bed. He wanted to court her properly after all. 

Also, she giggled in a terribly cute way.

“Matter-of-factly: Oh. The Spire. Considering everyone is already sleeping… Lonely: I think I will actually sleep alone?” 

Thad thought about that for a second. He thought about Cyn walking in the cold city, snow hurting her and slowing her to sleep in a spire made of corpses, alone in a capsule.

Cyn got kabedon for the second time, by another angry person but this time it felt… Better?

“... Sheepish?” 

“You will sleep at my home. This is not negotiable.” Thad was the most serious anyone could have seen him, his gaze dominating Cyn.

Before the maid bot could protest, he lifted her like a feather on his shoulder. 

“... Awkwardly nice?” 

“You better be! You’ll see, my folks are nice!” 

Thad’s parents were at first surprised, before learning the short version of Cyn’s story. Namely no family and no home to really go back to this night. So, they approved of their son bringing the little one with her neck bending. She was adorable blushing like that.

It was definitely better than their son saying one of the Murder Drones they managed to take a picture from was “kinda cute”.

The cute maid who was speaking with a bit of stuttering couldn’t be as bad as them or even the Doorman’s daughter.

Aaaand Thad was carrying her in a bridal carry. 

Yep. They hadn’t seen him so bad for someone ever before. 

His dad did the usual silent communication between men. It was a secret technique passed since one generation in their family. 

Thad rolled his eyes at his dad’s suspicious stare. The man simply nodded, as he would calm his wife and tell her to not expect an accidental granddaughter. Yet. 

Cyn didn’t expect to see so much stuff about American football in Thad’s bedroom. She never had an interest in that kind of stuff before, to be honest.

To her, sports were… Nothing really. Then again, aside from scary movies, re-enacting them, petting dogs, petting Ns, petting Ns petting dogs and scarring for life the drones next to her, Cyn didn’t have many hobbies... Note to self, find hobbies. Ask Thad for help.

She still blushed even more when Thad put her in his bed… Before tucking her in. No move to join her.

Cyn didn’t know why but a part of her was a tad bit disappointed by that.

“You should rest. I am taking the couch for tonight. No way I am letting a guest sleep on something not comfortable.” 

Oh. He was once again being sweet and nice to her, like big brother N. Except she knew she wasn’t seeing him the same as N. It was also warm and fuzzy but in a very different way. She really liked being in his arms. Despite being already the most powerful person in the universe, it felt… Safe. 

Even the Solver didn’t make her feel safe and warm as when Thad’s arms were around her.

Something bothered her, however. Thad didn’t feel fear around her. Cyn was a proper monster! Yes, she didn’t want to be as evil as before… Especially after the discussion with Lizzy. BUT. SHE HAD A REPUTATION. What kind of horror was getting tuckered into a bed?!

“Naughty naughty Cyn. Waiting for the dead of the night to restore her fear factor.” The monster giggled to herself already. She wasn’t going to hurt anyone but she wasn’t a cute bean to be used as a plushie.

—-----

Cyn was very confused as to how she ended up as the little spoon with Thad being her big spoon. 

She did her usual of shockingly teleporting above him during his sleep, staring at him creepily. She even did the cross eyes appear even more menacing and glitched as she opened her mouth, emitting a very low blank noise to wake him up to a nightmarish vision. The good old paralysis demon trick.

Thad activated his eyes and saw Cyn above him. Thinking he was still in the dream he had just before, which involved a Cyn with many tentacles and a smile with way too many teeths… He grabbed her, pulling her in his arms. With tenderness, Thad proceeded to kiss Cyn in her neck. 

“Cute… Goddess of death…” 

Cyn screamed internally as her plan went through the windows and she felt her body temp rise up… And didn’t feel like moving. She felt good despite wanting to scream.

As a result, Cyn graciously decided to not move from her position… SHE WASN’T DEFEATED. DEFINITELY NOT BY A HUG AND KISSES. 

—----

Thad’s dad stared at a Cyn sleeping with his son. He won the bet with his wife about who would join the other. 

Cyn had to use the Solver to escape Thad’s embrace. The silent dad smiled despite the weirdness, remembering Nori and Yeva doing this kind of thing. Yep. Good ol times, when Khan Doorman had his name for a very different reason. 

Thad’s dad still remembered with delight the screams of their old human supervisor, who loved to destroy them for fun… No violence but his suffering and fear when the workers opened the bunker to get their orders, as usual. 

It still warmed his heart. 

Cyn was silent as the man gave her the drone equivalent of a breakfast. 

“So… what’s your name?”

“Surprised: Oh. My name is Cyn. Grateful: Thank you for last night.”

“My son wouldn't let a girl alone at the mercy of the Murder Drones outside. Sure they aren’t as violent as before but…” 

Cyn stayed silent. Given her orders… 

“I mean. Even our Thad almost got killed in a freak accident recently. Something about a centipede…” 

… Cyn was now feeling anguish. Fear. Guilt? Definitely guilt. Even if her face didn't show her internal struggle, because she didn't even know she could have these, Thad’s dad felt her uneasiness.

“Let's talk about something other than that during the morning. How did you meet my son?”

“Surprised but grateful: The Prom! I was the prom queen! Sheepish: Thad taught me about dancing.” 

This made the dad laugh and Cyn chuckled a bit. 

Nonetheless, she felt as if something was crawling on her back.

—-

Turns out the Solver and isolation might have prevented Cyn from developing a little something named empathy. However… now everything was changing. 

Just like how the Native Americans were exposed to a sickness unknown to them, Cyn was now facing emotions new to her. 

It impacted her way more than she would have expected. 

It had been nice but she felt a bit… She actually didn’t have the word exactly for that situation, so Cyn escaped Thad’s home early.

It was on her way outside, to recollect herself and think about what to do, when she met Uzi who was well. 

Her bed had been a bit cramped with both murderdrones in it but it had been hot enough for her to be a paradise. Hot literally speaking because both drones generated some delicious heat. 

She was currently on her way to get some coolants from her dad’s reserve, dedicated to doors. He had way too many things about doors, talking about being centered on only one thing!

As a result, she met a Cyn who was… Well… Uzi was surprised to see her so down. As far as she remembered, Cyn left the party with Thad. She should have had a good night, right? Why was she so depressed? 

Yes, she knew from V that Cyn was apparently some absurdly powerful drone of doom. If anything, Uzi actually digged the esthetic of a young innocent girl who was a tyke bomb. No, she hadn’t watched Elfen Lied too many times. 

“Hi, sister-in-law Uzi..” Yep. The girl was definitely kind of sad. Considering it was thanks to her our favorite angsty young woman got a wonderful gift, she did what she could.

“I need to warn you, I suck at speaking about feelings. So… I can instead propose that we watch a horror movie? I have a few at home.” Uzi was NOT the right person to talk about feelings. She had enough trouble of her own.

Cyn stared at her blankly before using her hand to nod and think…

“Questioning: Shouldn’t we do that with other people ? Like Thad and N?” Unless Uzi was also into her but Cyn had her doubts. She only had two hands after all.

“You do not expect me to actually climb on him if I get scared, right?” 

“Laugh: Ha ha ha. No. Playful: I expect you to have him on you to reassure him. Naughty: Or both of you on V.” Truly deflection was the best way to deal with emotions she wasn’t used to.  

Uzi stared at the little gremlin of chaos… and patted her head. Goddamnit, she was just adorable, despite being a horror from another planet. It was like when Doll and her were actual good cousins.

“So… Real question. What’s the thing going on with my eyes and Doll’s? She wasn’t really sneaky about it when you... Me and V…” Uzi thought about the kiss and decided she needed to have V come to the movie night too. Climbing on her sounded nice.

Cyn smiled as usual and giggled. She appreciated Uzi’s crush on N and V, two of her favorite drones. The girl also shared her hate for humans and Cyn could already see in her a lot of potential. Oh yes, she made the right choice by choosing her for N. So… She decided to humor her.

“Explanation: Your family was infected with my power. By humans. Threatened: They were studying my power to destroy me. They developed… Things.” Cyn’s smile disappeared, as she knew Copper-9 still had their research about her and how to possibly kill her. JCJenson was weirdly competent when they needed to. They somehow even improved dogs to an insane degree.

“Then… Let’s be honest Cyn. You are not going to kill us, right?” Uzi was pretty confident she could spot Cyn lying. Namely because she would most likely begin her sentence by “Masterful Lie” or shit like that.

“Dull: If I did that, I would destroy any opportunity for N to give me nephews and nieces.” Her original motivation to come here after all. 

Uzi nodded and continued.

“I actually appreciate you. You are… Well… Like the female friend I never had?” 

Cyn actually blinked and patted a blushing Uzi too. Damn. It was sad. Uzi was a good drone. She deserved better.

“I want to help you feel safe. So… How about we go on an adventure to find what’s left of JCJensen’s research on you and our family?” Uzi brought from nowhere her own railgun, with a demonic smile, “Fuck humans, am I right?” 

“Happy! Happy!” Cyn jumped and hugged Uzi again. Family was truly the best, right? She really needed to reconstruct Nori… And also Yeva. Actually, Yeva first. Apparently Khan had already recycled Uzi’s mom's body while no one had known about Doll’s parents since they died quite recently. “Planning: I am going to reconstruct Doll’s parents. Her mom came from the lab who did the experiment.” 

“And as for my mom?” Uzi was still curious about it after all… And very interesting. She didn’t have many memories of her but apparently she had a lot of her personality.

“Truthful: without the original body, it’s… Hard. I cannot conjure souls/people from nothingness. The labs however might have something we can use.” There was a method to her madness after all. 

This actually made sense to Uzi who seemed a bit down. So… It wasn’t a sure thing, right? Cyn was now feeling bad and as a result, used the Solver on Uzi. Let her access the powers earlier.

“Deflecting: How about I teach you how to use a bit of our power, cousin Uzi?” Cyn smiled sheepishly but it worked. She had just given access to almost unlimited power to a chunni. “Don’t worry about oil. Only sunlight. Extremely Puzzled: Never figured that one, to be fair.” 

“YEAY! TEACH ME OUT TO USE SICK POWER OF DARKNESS! I WANT TO BE A GODDESS!” Uzi then began to cackle madly drunk in power. Cyn found that adorable. They were really alike. 

—-----

At the abandoned warehouse, the two witches had all the space needed to exercise their power. Besides, without Cyn actually trying to take over through the Solver as the new host, it meant Uzi had basically no weaknesses about it. However, while Cyn could help her unlock some of the power early, like telekinesis, how much she would develop was… Unknown to her. She wondered if Uzi would get her own set of sickass semi-organic wings. 

“KYAA TELEKINESIS! IT’S SO OP!” Uzi was having fun with her own Solver, while Cyn giggled.

“Amused. This is only the basic Solver Ability,” Cyn pointed out by teleporting in front of Uzi, “Remembering. You mentioned it’s impossible to create matter. This is incorrect. We can. Not through proxy but we can.” 

[Indeed. Quite easy actually] Doll who also appeared from nowhere, actually jumpscaring both Uzi and Cyn.

Doll stared at Cyn, now calmer than yesterday. The sheer fact they were all alive meant Cyn was in a good mood. However, she was promised something. SHE WAS GOING TO GET IT.

[Now. MY PARENTS. WHY AREN’T THEY ALIVE YET?] 

“Sightly terrified: I was planning to wait until you and Lizzy woke up,” Cyn verified only the three of them were in the warehouse, “Wary: Lizzy is terrifying when angry. Actually threatened me to uphold my promise.” 

Doll stared blankly at Cyn who couldn’t really lie to anyone even if she wanted. [What?]

“Totally serious: She warned me that if I hurt your feelings, she would hunt me.” 

Cyn knew logically, Lizzy had no way to hurt her. It still worked.

Doll decided Lizzy would get an angry yell because she could have angered Cyn and killed them all. Then, she would get a huge reward which would involve the two of them, locked in a closet. 

[Well, we are awake and free. Also I will need some help to clean my apartment.]

Uzi raised an eyebrow on this subject. They weren’t humans. It couldn’t be that bad, right?

—--

“Impressed and horrified: Even I never got that messy. Despite wearing human skins,” Cyn pointed out how unclean and dirty Doll’s house was, “You have bad habits.” 

[Bite me. I would have better habits if you didn’t send murder drones here.] Doll grumbled and Cyn had the decency to look away. 

Uzi meanwhile was staying silent and looked at her cousin. She… Actually liked it. “Personally, I like the Robot-Nurgle vibes of the place. I know it didn't look like that one month ago, so... I would have hung out more with you if…”

[Lizzy likes to hang out here.]

“PURGE THIS PLACE WITH HOLY FIRE!” Uzi quickly revised her opinion on the subject. She refused to share any interest with the bitch.

Nonetheless, their antics made Cyn chuckle a bit before noticing the drone parts in the kitchen. Because of her, more drones died. Putting the need for oil in the Solver, to force the Solver Drones to be outcast seemed like a good idea at that time. 

Cyn began using the Solver, showing the difference in skill to Dolls, on how to use their control over the fabric of reality. While Dolls had access to a few commands, she had trouble multitasking, clearly. 

Meanwhile, Cyn could clean the house mostly by herself by humming. Symbols flying everywhere and all the roaches suddenly began working together to sweep the floor of all stains. 

“Humming : Hmmm hmmm hmm hmm hmmm~” 

This only stopped for a second because Uzi had a realization… And fell on the floor, laughing her ribs out. 

This puzzled Cyn and Dolls who were working to clean the place before resurrecting Mitchell and Yeva.

“Questioning: Uzi?” 

“I… Just… Noticed that Cyn is basically a disney princess. Magical powers, can sing, can make the animals clean for her… Fell for a good man who saw the best in her?” 

Dolls raised a finger to counter what Uzi said but actually pondered it. 

[... She has a point.]

“Happy: I AM A DISNEY PRINCESS!” Cyn embraced the vibes fully, rather than feeling the cringe. Then again, she was forged into autism and as a result, cringe would only splash on her like water on a duck.

Uzi and her cousin spoke silently using their visor, while letting Cyn clean with even more passion than before. Truly, her initial programmation as a maid drone was showing. 

*So… We are letting her clean?*

*[Well, she is efficient. The faster she finishes, the faster my parents are back]* 

—-------

Yeva’s last memory was of a Murder Drone managing to enter the bunker. Yeva didn't know how or why but she blamed Nori for giving her personality to Uzi and Khan for being a dumbass. When in doubt, blame Khan. It was almost impossible to miss with that tactic. Hell, she raised more Uzi than him after Nori's passing !

Yeva's memory was also her last action : throwing her daughter in a closet before being brutally murdered and her core being stabbed in her corpse.

As a result, Yeva was pretty sure she was dead. Like, dead dead. 

[Mom?] Wait, what.

Yeva’s vision came back just in time to see someone looking like Doll jumping in her arms. It was both troubling and heartwarming… Was she Doll? Did she die too and they were in robot Heaven? Considering how she was crying in Russian and how Uzi was standing in the back of the room, Yeva was wondering if the drones didn’t manage to actually achieve resurrection. 

Did someone finally challenge Khan to open the door to the afterlife? 

*Cyn erased the memories of the afterlife, to ease the ressurection. It was something she thought as some kind of forbidden knowledge... Probably because her own memory of it actually messed up with her, a lot.*

{Chhh. It’s okay sweetheart. I am here? How?} 

“Trying to not be intimidating: That would be thanks to me.” 

Doll was immediately thrown next to Uzi while Yeva tried to access her own Solver to throw at Cyn’s voice the table. 

Aside from having a cool pose, nothing happened. No light, no symbol. No power.

In front of her, however, was someone she saw only in her nightmare. The Maid of Death. The Corrupting Core. The Absolution of all Sin. Cyn.

Who was wearing a maid uniform, a bow and seemed actually… Remorseful? Also what about the NOT INTIMIDATING PART?

[Mom? She…]

{Is the devil incarnate and will probably kill us all!} Yeva said before looking at the girl making a gesture to tell them to run away while she would buy them some time.

“Appeasing: Not anymore. Decided to stop. Found something. Better.” 

[Yeah. Thad’s arms.] Doll snarked while Uzi stared at her. She wasn’t helping. 

Yeva stared at her niece and her daughter, wondering what the hell they smoked to be like that. 

{Wait. What?} 

“Deflecting: I decided to not hurt Copper-9’s drones anymore. This has nothing to do with that sweet hot robot who slept with me.” Cyn badly lied as Yeva had big blank eyes before facepalming.

{God fucking damnit. Nori was right about backshots being the ultimate solution against genocidal pulsion.} Yeva growled while now all the other girls would be asking themselves a lot of questions. Doll raised an animated eyebrow.

[I thought it was uncle Khan who got his “backdoor” open?] 

{... I said nothing.} Yeva was definitely not telling the girls about Khan's “KILL ALL HUMANS PAINFULLY” phase and how Nori ended it…

“Terrified: What the fuck is wrong with the drones on this colony?! Disturbed: … Should I begin to work on your husband now? Pleading: Don’t traumatize me more with words.” 

{You made me and my sister suffer hell and then send your pet drones to murder us all. They killed MY SISTER, MY HUSBAND AND ME.} 

“Aunty? Can we not antagonize the totally uber powerful robot? She is cool now. Also I am kind of dating two of the murder drones…” 

“Explaining: This was actually my real plan. I want to be an aunt.” Cyn pointed out to her family, now even fuller of members. A Cynful family! Yeva raised a finger to interrogate more before noticing Cyn using her power to raise her husband from the chair he died on… To see her plainly raising Mitchell from the dead. “Sincerely: Sorry.” 

Yeva was split between hugging her husband and her daughter and yeet a chair at Cyn. In the end, she did both. Uzi also joined in the group hug, as her family was slowly returning. 

Cyn… Teleported silently away. She hadn’t been hugged like that for a long time. She would hug N, sure. But when was she hugged with that kind of warmth? 

—---

Tessa was the first to find Cyn, at the corpse spire. Took them a day to find her but to be fair, if Thad hadn’t noticed her absence, people would have let her be gone.

The maid was drawing in the snow with her powers while the robot gynoide approached her and tried to make as little noise as possible. 

“Warning: I can sense you, Tessa.” 

Oh. It was useless. Well. She could approach her normally then. 

“Cyn? What are you doing here?” 

“Thinking. Questioning.” For once, it was both an indication of her mood but also an answer.

“Well… Maybe I can help?” Tessa tried to be peaceful, while sitting next to her. Cyn was, after all, someone they couldn’t afford to wrong…

“Remorseful: Am I… A monster?” Cyn asked, letting the car she was using to draw a car in the snow. 

This actually surprised Tessa. Sure, the prom had been fun but she hadn’t expected to have Cyn actually begin to ponder on her action. She wasn’t even sure Cyn could actually reflect on what the hell she did.

“Do you want the nice answer or the truth?” Tessa asked seriously as she was actually shivering but not from the cold or fear.

“Truth.” 

“Cyn. You used my favorite drone to kill and SKIN ME.” 

Cyn stayed silent, for once. “Sincerely: Sorry. Truthful: I wanted to be as pretty as you.” 

Tessa said nothing for once… but slowly patted Cyn’s head. Still fucked up to know you were used as clothing because you were beautiful but she felt weirdly proud. 

“You resurrected me. Put J and me together. This… May count for something.” A kind of peace offering, to calm Cyn for a bit. Tessa wasn’t sure she actually meant that.

“Remorse: No. But it’s a beginning. Pleading: Continue the head pat. It soothes… Internal suffering. Joking: I am not apologizing for your family.” Cyn tried to say with a smile, not knowing it should be forbidden to joke on a subject like that. 

Tessa actually smiled and pulled her in a hug. Good. At least Cyn was indeed making some progress to become a better person. 

“If anything, it’s the one thing that convinces me you aren’t fully evil. It’s straight up good karma.” Tessa giggled because… It was true. “Feel better?” 

“Sheepish nod.” 

“This doesn’t mean you are forgiven.” 

“Sheepish nod.” 

—-----

“Soooo… I can understand why N, V and I are here to help Cyn. We are equipped with weapons after all. Uzi has powers. But WHAT ABOUT THE OTHERS?” J said while watching everyone in the bus as it was rolling to the Cabin Fever Labs, as pointed out by Yeva who was staying out of this one.

First off, she was still traumatized by the place. Second, she was still traumatized by Cyn. Third, she wanted a moment with her family, in a quiet place. The Murder Drone with the most failures in her records however, was raising questions as they had guests with them.

Khan spoke first: “If my wife is brought back to life, I want to be there. Also, according to Cyn there might be a door to open. You can’t expect to find the key in the middle of the woods after all. Better to call a specialist and avoid triggering any failsafe against Cyn.” 

N checked with Uzi if it made sense and she nodded, clearly pissed by the idea of her father and his stupid door being useful. When he said he had some kind of supernatural instinct with the door, he was literal. 

Cyn actually check him and found *something*. She wasn’t sure of what it was. but it seemed indeed door shaped. She also agreed on the possibility JCJenson rigged the place if she used the Solver inside the facility.

“As for me, I wasn’t letting Cyn out of my sight after yesterday.” Thad was still a bit angry at her leaving without a word AND running away from the bunker without telling him and going missing for a day before Tessa found her. This explained why he was actually slightly angry at her but mostly worried. 

“As a kind of a human and with actual human DNA, I might be useful. We never know. Also, I need to make sure J is obedient and doesn't try to steal everything branded by the company. Otherwise I might have to punish her.” Tessa said while licking her lips. J vowed to steal everything that wasn’t nailed. 

If it was nailed, she would steal the nails first. 

“Fiiiiine. All of you make sense, to some degree. Skills or motivation. But. What about him?” V said, as J was currently too busy doing simulations about stimulations to continue speaking.

She pointed to the Teacher, currently unmotivated and drinking. As usual.

“Oh. I paid him. You never have too much insurance.” Khan said casually, everyone staring at Khan. He looked back at everyone, also puzzled. “What?” 

“Why the fucking Teacher, dad? He is useless!” 

“No, he is unstimulated. This isn’t the same.” Khan knew the difference after all and chuckled.

“I mean, the Murder Drone should remember why they left the bunker when they managed to sneak in that one time to kill Yeva and Mitchell.” Khan said before anyone looked at a very puzzled and trying to remember V.

“As a matter of fact, I don’t remember. Which is kind of weird.” V was one of the drones with the least tempered memories after all, aside from J. 

“Yeah, usually, this only happens when you guys die, right?” Uzi pointed out. 

Khan chuckled as a dad while the Teacher was as bored as always. 

“Yeah. This actually motivated him for the first time since..” Khan was going to say something before realizing he would reveal the great lie they were passing on their new generation. 

“Yeah. It was almost… Entertaining.” 

Why was V having a chilling feeling about the Teacher suddenly? 

Cyn, meanwhile, was wondering if she still hadn’t forgotten something to do…

—------

Cabins Fever

Z, leader of his own squad of Murder Drones, was looking at the ruined facilities. He hated them as they already destroyed 2 squads.

Sadly for him, A, who was appointed the ultimate leader of the various squads, decided for a mass assault considering the last news they received.

They learned, all of them, that the Boss was there. Only the team leaders knew about Cyn but all of them knew. It means they had to produce results and there weren’t any worker drones left. 

The Ruins were both their damnation and their salvation. They would find the facility’s secret… Or die trying.

“I fucking hate my job.” Z said before making sign to his team to enter the facility, missing the bus arriving in the distance.