Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Well, this wasn't good at all now is it? Im stuck here with this utter buffoon, literally only two other dipshits have come out from under the snow since that storm passed yesterday and of course one of them had to be Trevor's back talking hoe ass. He couldn't just stay dead, had to come back unlike practically everyone else. Couldn't we get someone hot like V or Rebecca to rise from the dead or not actually be dead instead, that would be so much better. Least he is counterbalanced by Thad existing somehow, how he managed to not get snowed in like everyone else and the bus is beyond me... and worst of all. I feel like my balls hurt... I DON'T EVEN HAVE ANY". Lizzy thought to herself briskly, standing out the front of their horrid little shack and gazing into an abyss that only seemed to want to piss back. Mentally at least, or would emotionally be a better word for it, she didn't know and tried deeply to not care for the goings on that contained themselves upon this miserable rock. Here where frost bit with enough force to rend arms while the sun barely peeked through the dull curtains of the perpetual cloud cover, all capped over by enough ice to dowse a small star and the existential dread of existing on a backwater planet all but forgotten by their folly hollowed gods. Here where the cold nights would usually bring forth a heart's warmth, usually. Tonight was only succeeding in the former of those things for Lizzy was left to her devices while her entirely too jolly now cabin flatmate had flown off to try and see if he could airlift the few stragglers from the storm all back to one place.

At least, that's what he said he'd do.

"I know better than to trust him, he's probably out looking for that purple freak again instead. Wasting time while I wait for his ass to find some way back to the colony since i sure as hell aren't walking that distance while he has wings. Also don't think the bus is getting through this much snow easily either.". Lizzy mused to herself as she began to pace around the front porch of the shack that they had had to hide away in for the last few days, eternally glad that the days prior had returned the amount of snow to something manageable to move through instead of walls that blocked sight through the windows. Near rotted floorboards creaking under her steps, complaining to someone who simply would not listen in the slightest while Lizzy waited and waited through the early night, one hand on her hip idly while the other spun her near dead phone between its fingers. Its case worn from overuse and the stickers of cats and other cutesy stuff she had scored in finding ages back making her exhale in annoyance, or some other emotion she couldn't parse to herself. Her body felt dirty, in a physical sense that could easily be attributed to the fact she hadn't washed since getting to this accursed camp but it was a bit more then that as when she tried to believe that was it there was a feeling of inadequacy towards that idea. As if it wasn't quite right.

//All alone on a friday night?\\

"Duh, you think im going to get laid by the rest of the class or something?". Lizzy thought back to the thing in her head, refusing to call it by its cringey name for as long as she lived. The girl's gaze traveling over the tree line away from the porch for a moment before she submitted herself to leaning on the rails and wasting her time. As if there was better things to be doing, the girl exhaling a heated breath into the chill but manageable winds that were slowly but surely fixing the abnormal leftover coatings of snow back to something not five feet deep at places. Not that she could particularly tell as well anymore, rubbing her visor with one hand briefly to try and recalibrate her slightly out of order vision as her world pixelated to an degree almost unnoticeable but enough to cause slight disorientation.

//Never said that.\\

"Whatever, why are you here... active, trying to actually speak to me. You know. Finally bored of seething in whatever hellscape you go to when you leave us alone?". Lizzy thought back, very thankful that she had figured out that she didn't really have to speak out loud to communicate with something in her head. Her Shimeji cat waking up once again and prowling around the bottom of her vision curiously, tail swishing in its glorious sixty-four bitrate maximum while the girl gave the being a short scrap of her interest. Thankful for something at least trying to give her a distraction from the solver and its constant childish interaction attempts with her, the girl utterly unsure of what its end goal was asides for inciting and brewing annoyance at every turn possible.

//Bored, False.\\

"Lmfao, I heard that.". She mentally snapped back, finding some interest in attempting to outtalk the apparent eldritch code demon even if she didn't have too much information on it asides from what she could scrounge up from around the place. Doll and Uzi had it, so if Lizzy wanted to find out more she'd just have to ask the former of the two, interacting with the latter of the two was a considered a last-ditch effort. Just like it should of been from the start but then again Lizzy wasn't particularly smart despite what she told herself, those old days long gone.

//You didn't have to, actually. I don't think you did.\\

"No i clearly heard it, you accidentally called out your own lie like a dumbass. Did all your processing power go into making a name for yourself with more then one syllable or something lol. Aren't galactic evil gods supposed to be smart?".

//You know how, stupid it is... Trying to talk back... to us?\\

"Immeasurably stupid, right? And any second your going to show me just how strong and evil you are. I'm not daft.". Lizzy thought back again, checking around herself for the existence of any others but failing to find them in a stroke of luck. Or really, she could of been unlucky to be alone among her distorted, cold, empty reality. A feeling of distance palpable in the air at the notion that she was just on the porch of a cabin, in the middle of a frozen over campsite that had laid abandoned for almost thirty years to rot in the harsh forever winter that their now fled gods had left behind. With no one wiser of her existence except for the voice in her head, a few straggling classmates and the somehow still cheerful murder drone boy that she had almost the displeasure of bunking with for these last days.

//Agreed, plus. You are already under our thrall.\\

"Bullshit, don't try and gaslight me with that weak crap. There is zero evidence of that and plus, you'll fail because I'm just that good. That's a fact.". Lizzy exclaimed loudly out to the field of frost, not particularly caring that she was risking being caught out for talking to herself because in her mind there wasn't anyone who would be here to do such a thing. All of her classmates were currently missing and or confirmed dead, Thad and Trevor were halfway across camp, V's ass was so dead that Lizzy hadn't told N of that yet and Doll was nowhere to be seen. Not to mention whatever the fuck Uzi had disappeared off to and where the teacher was, both of them had been added quickly to N's list of missing bodies. A list that Lizzy had reluctantly helped the near illiterate boy make and had cemented into her mind to never let him live down the moment he had asked her how to spell his best friend's name.

//Wasn't gaslighting our host, that would be stupid.\\

"Exactly, you are stupid for doing that, and even if I was under your thrall, as you so dumbly put it. I wouldn't be back chatting your pathetic ass then would I?". Lizzy toned back, beginning to grow bored of the repeating conversations with her inner mind demon and instead focusing on looking up into the clear of clouds night sky. Two moons arisen but out of sight while thousands of stars twinkled for all to see as if they knew of the suffering below and wished to cast some illusion of comfort downward, in act as heavenly angels. There was no sign of N among them just yet.

//We are not pathetic, we are the solver of the absolute fabric, the end of all and the exponentiality that rends sentience from reality. You are just a pathetic, little, girl, with a mouth too big for her own good who thinks that our little, business, was a one off deal.\\

"Whatever sixteen-bit, now tell me why your actually talking to me already?". Lizzy deflected back, paying no heed to the solver's verbal harassment while again trying to fish for some conversation that wasn't meaningless gibberish and idle threats that for the last four days had not been acted upon. For the thing Doll had went near mad over, this absolute solver seemed to be doing a whole lot of whining and bitching instead of granting her badass and sexy as fuck telekinesis or even the still workable into one's style affect of forced cannibalism. If that was even a part of having the solver as she could only guess at it since Doll never ate anything when they were hanging out and while Lizzy had known she was killing classmates the entire time they had never once had to dispose of a body so she guessed Doll was a cannibal, or feeding them to the roboroaches but the former option had a stronger effect on Lizzy's attraction to the girl.

//Just know, there is no escape... Even in death.\\

"Shuddup.". Lizzy huffed in exasperation, being pleasantly surprised when the voice in her head decided to leave her be after such a simple comeback. Usually it was more persistent, and nice, casual almost at points she could say to the total of zero people that she had told about its existence. Still watching the sky as her reality was flooded with a silence, a lack of the mental noise that was her reviver's incessant chatter. A slurry of words that once removed no longer bleared her vision as if she was secretly sobbing against her own coding.

Now it was just her, the frozen winds that moved no faster than a snail yet still had a coddling frost like bite to them and the shining stars that slept like rocks within the black blue stream that was the night sky above. Nature still around, her purpose unchanged despite the ravaging this rock had faced again and again. Lizzy almost had to admire it since there wasn't much else she could do, her phone was below twenty percent charge and she really didn't want to have to plug it into herself due to how lethargic she had felt recently. She had no contacts to call anyway. There was nothing to do inside the cabin either, the small structure having its ramshackle corpse looted in its entirety before being renovated entirely by N into something barely liveable. Better then sleeping outside by a slim margin.

"I hate it here...". Lizzy thought to herself as she decided to head inside through the front door behind her, spinning with no particular urgency upon the heel of her worn boots. A second later she was grasping the left door's doorknob and turning it to let herself in, having to force the ugly wooden rectangle backwards and make it grind across the floor in an effort that she would of refused to indulge in if there was anyone else present. It's bottom end making a frankly appalling noise as she did, the girl already knowing that trying the other half of the double doors would achieve a grand total of jack shit since it had fallen off the day before yesterday and had needed to be promptly blocked from falling backwards and letting the breeze in more by shoving a dresser behind it. That half of the entrance effectively rendered useless and a cluttered mess with no purpose asides for having what little stuff the pair had piled upon it. Mainly Rebecca and Sam's schoolbags of which she had found yesterday in her only travel away from the shack since the storm passed.

With nothing better to do, and no N around to tell her how to act. Lizzy gave into her desires.

"He's probably not getting back for ages, it's early in the night and im not tired anymore like usual. They are both evidently dead as fuck so they can't complain and if i have to use Rebecca's phone to contact people then so be it, bitch made her password her boyfriend's birthday anyway so its not like I'd have trouble getting into it either. Hell, maybe Sam packed a spare sweater or something because its fucking freezing... Even if it's been less cold each day, probably because that storm was fast as all hell and left like it was late to a wedding.". Lizzy mused to herself as she closed the door, locked it and ignored the dim darkness within the wooden floored shack to instead eagerly unzip the main section of the black bag that she knew wasn't Rebecca's. Mainly because her friend, if you could call her that since prom, was always decorating her shit in that same blue and purple colour scheme that just felt so incredibly forced and was easy to pick out for how bad it was on the eyes. She gave the smaller backpack a glance of disdain.

"Honestly... Im glad the gumball son of a bitch is gone, she had her crack at life and sucked harder at it then upon any dick she's ever seen. L woman, L death, L bag. Her ghost better be glad im here to put what remains of her legacy to some use asides fumbling her life at a galactic scale. She LITERALLY had Darren in the palm of her hand and i KNOW V wanted some of that back in the bunker before prom too but NOOOOOOO, girlie can't realise there are other parts of a relationship asides making out for four hours or whatever NPC type shit she did when me and Doll weren't around to make her have some agency in her life. Swear that girl had something wrong in her head... explains why she fitted in with me and Doll though... We were all kinda...". The girl mentally rambled to herself in the dimness of the near dead ceiling lights as her hands prowled through the tangled mess that was Sam's military sized camping backpack and yanked out the first item she could get her frigid, slightly teeth marked fingers around. A phone charger with the cord frayed from age to enough of a degree that even she was hesitant to plug it into anything.

"Not like any of us weren't fucked in the head somehow, everyone at school saw us as the top dogs. Not to be messed with at all by anyone while we could have all that we pleased, jocks, nerds, a teacher that one time because Doll felt like she wanted someone she could call daddy before she backed out of that for 'ethical reasons'... When Thad and Chad were RIGHT THERE for the taking? Anyone could be bagged with just the right move between the three of us, Rebecca as bait, Doll as reassurance and I, I was the glorious mastermind above it all. Master manipulator, girlboss supreme, gatekeeper to the best trio ever and daughter to the school's first of four teachers. I'm just better... Explains why I'm the only one left with some sort of social life, kind of. Won't ever socialise with Trevor anyway and asides for Thad and him N has found nobody else... Doll's fucking ghosting civilisation itself and Rebecca is probably no more than a data ghost now if her body wasn't buried under the entire North Scorpius Ocean's worth of frost. They just couldn't keep up with the game, fumbled the bag, slipped up where I stood loud, pound and on top. That's the only way I'm still here, I'm BETTER than them. Luckier than the hoe who got her top and bottom literally separated, more successful than someone who had her head so far up her past's ass she couldn't see the now. Emily, a BITCH. Sam, a footnote in history and everyone else is jack shit.". Lizzy's mind continued its spiralling thoughts as she barely paid attention to the rest of the items she removed from the bag, clothes, cutlery, a second charging cable, a notepad with scribbles of drone and building anatomy throughout it, concerningly enough a self-defence knife. She put that last one to the side for later use, just in case that purple freak sniffed her out or whatever else appeared to try and put down the queen herself. She kept digging, feeling one last object in the main pocket of the bag while her thoughts sunk further into that isolated drain. Her abandoned buoy unseen and unfelt, a rage most weirdest gathered like an oil spill within the ocean.

"ITs a GOOD thing they got packed up, eaten or otherwise killed off, its not like they were really going to achieve anything in the long run. Worker drones made to work yet not having any work, just fucking around in the forest until we got picked off by whatever thing purple freak turned into... That disgusting creature, shit like that should of happened to Rachel, she at least looks the part already. Uzi was barely doing something valuable... well... We would, all probably be back safe inside the bunker if not for her...". Her mind caught itself there, flashing backwards in time to the early days of life back those months behind the doors. The claustrophobia wasn't a problem for her, the monotony of colour, of purpose as everyone and their mother waited inside some box until things ran out and they became nothing more than a withered time capsule for whatever sentience came next to walk in on and learn nothing of value from. She wouldn't admit such a childish flaw.

"...Honestly, it was about damn time something weeded out the short-grass and took out the literal trash. Sure some of them were nice but like, damn it's really kill or be killed in this world and NONE of them even tried to do anything back. Not like i did either... but, fuck, guh, who am I fooling...Not myself, and not like anyone else who saw some form of you either.". The girl cut her own spiralling off as she glanced back at her friends bags, under the new bleaker light the colour's upon it weren't abrasive, no longer something to be scorned at if but for a second. Lizzy had already looked away from that old object.

"Some fucking cope isn't it?". She asked into the air, yet for once there was no answer from the solver. It didn't ride eagerly to taunt her as she would to anyone else, a letdown, perhaps. A relief, most likely. She refocused away from thinking, choosing to commit back to her actions most unsanctified. Now revealing to herself a large dressing gown of aqua shading that would on first glance snuggly fit from Sam's bag, the girl spinning the object around in fascination at its well kept and almost adorably soft texture. Her eyes reaching the back of it and instantly falling back to a dull expression upon seeing the copy pasted image of a hog with a pair of comically edited onto it machine guns strapped to its sides standing over the fiery text that read "Warning: Tactically Armed Hog Incoming!".

Lizzy snorted into the emptiness at that image.

"...Of course he couldn't take anything seriously, only he would make, wear, find or conceptualise such a goofy looking item either. And it's not even that well quality of an image, its evidently photoshopped on and there's no fade from the colour of the rest of the gown to it either. Valiant attempt though dumbass, have to give credit where credit is due for making this and for bringing it with you too, tried just a bit to late to get that cash from that dare and all.". Lizzy thought before she decided that the chill was abrasive enough and her camp outfit was worn enough that covering up was a smart move. Donning Sam's crude humour attempt at making her laugh and nigh instantly feeling better than before as she tied up its waist strap with expert movements, feeling the material sway with her as she took a step or two in it.

"... His ghost can pry this off my dead body actually, it's comfortable as fuck.".

The wind outside quieting while tiny slivers of moonlight flittered through the patchy roof to aid the battered, worn and infernally buzzing ceiling lights in their futile attempt to light the room. A pair of eyes reflecting off of the knife's shined blade as she glanced over at it upon the worn oak brown dresser's top.

"She looks horrid...". Lizzy thought about the two pink eyes looking back at her before realising who that was and feeling a small burning feeling of awkward shame at the idea that she didn't recognise her own reflection. Mistaking those tired pink eyes as someone else's she once knew for a moment when such a reality would be impossible here, she was alone after all. Physically at least.

"Oh... fuck, no yeah, I can't stay in this godforsaken camp much longer if I look so trash I can't even recognise myself in a reflection.". The girl thought, musing that perhaps the memory lapse was yet more of her ever so desired cope.

//Thats what, we have been... saying. What would your father think if he saw, how horrendous you looked. Although, we wouldn't leave you for the world.\\

"He'd tell me to go clean up, obviously i would of done so if i could... And stop with this overattachment bullshit.". Lizzy spoke out loud again, her voice already packed with venom as her world set back to that unfortunately familiar lower resolution as the solver decided to reappear not even five minutes from its last disappearance. Clearly it had some intention here with her, and she was tired of its cryptic avoidance of her questions over the last days within the cabin with N while they had waited out the storm and he had almost starved once before she kicked him out to go find food and he had came back a few hours later fine.

//Ignored... You could.\\

"What, you going to offer to use your fucking voodoo magic to make me wander the camp and look for a functioning shower block in this hellhole?".

//If you wanted us to, however, we don't think there would be any around here. Humans never built things to last.\\

"Yeah they're just a bunch of assholes, i could make a better shower then they ever have if i tried. Mainly, why are you back again. I never wanted you beyond the day you revived me, don't you have other hosts or bullshit like that to interact with???". Lizzy toned back plainly, grabbing the knife and testing its grip idly just to give herself something to do beyond speak with someone who wasn't there physically. Her other hand lightly moving Sam's bag back against the dresser wall so that it didn't fall off the table, a silence stretching out for a couple seconds before her brain buzzed with the familiar response from whatever it was.

//Yes, they are all busy. Or dead, or insane. You have much more promise than sacks of regret and fury like Doll.\\

"Nah uh, Doll was peak girlboss material, you near wouldn't need me around and revive me if she was doing what you wanted right?". Lizzy snapped back, eager to hear the solver speak about its other hosts for once instead of its apparent hyper fixation on incessantly bothering her or talking about its big brother N.

//Like we said, you are more promising\\

"Fucking duh, I'm the goat. Now get back to my bestie before I commit to calling your big brother slurs not heard since the human dark ages.". Lizzy near barked back, an anger mark appearing on her visor as she spoke. The tone of her voice making her Shimeji cat jump to life from its barely attempted nap, the tabby-coloured creature making an unamused expression at the disruption.

//What do you want to know about Doll... then?\\

"Where is she, I guess.". Lizzy toned back after a vocal silence, wondering how much to say and how much to keep to herself when talking to this thing that still hasn't done anything to her but was just unsettling and unorthodox enough to not trust. The wind had picked up over the last minute or so and the night had gotten a little darker due to less natural light seeping through the roof.

//On Copper 9.\\

"NO FUcking SHit, WHere on Copper 9 you daft program?". Lizzy yelled, slamming the knife out of reflex into the dresser and making a large dent in it as the blade got stuck face down within the wood. Shreds of table being separated as the girl felt her stomach boil for an instant. Wrath bubbling over for an instant in a display that was almost alien to her tired systems as they reacted the splatter of splinters that flicked out from the wounding she had caused. Her eyes widening briefly at it, zeroing in on each part of the damage as if astounded that she could and had done something like that.

//The surface.\\

"HolY... RObogod help me, that's it im going to slap N because of that.". Lizzy fumed mentally back, trying and failing to pull the knife from its arthurian sheathe upon the dresser. Her anger only growing as she then quickly grabbed both the bags atop the object and dropped them to the side of it with little concern so she could have more room to pull Sam's shined and sharpened blade out.

// :( Not cool.\\

"WEll its YOur fucking problem and i'll only fix it if you just answer my question seriously.". Lizzy snapped back verbally as she yanked hard once and got nowhere with the knife. Pausing like a jackrabbit at the noise she heard, knives didn't make a ploughing noise. Her eyes went a little wide and she ducked down to examine the blade at eye level as if she was convinced it had made such a sound while the wind picked up. A distant sputtering could be heard barely over the wind before a series of crunches, snow being parted by boots with uneven steps. Lizzy knew Doll had a habit of shambling around like a drunk on some nights for a reason unknown, in fact the red eyed girl was the only drone she had ever known to do such an activity.

//Here, actually.\\

In that instant of time, a poofy thump on the door could be heard. Joined barely a second later by a crunch of wood and a squeak that almost earnt a squeak from the pink eyed girl inside from how sudden it was, the second realisation that the solver had timed their statement to line up with Doll's appearance making her question it mentally. A thousand thoughts running through her system as if they were a family of startled deer.

//See? We would never lie.\\

"Yeah, Holy shit she's alive, and she's here, and i can talk to her and walk with her and apologise for switching up on her right in front of her dream for V when that cake was about all the yellow eyed chick had going for her. Doll, right here... I can't believe it. I'll tell her im sorry, AFTER the bitch apologises for throwing me at prom and ruining my fit because I had a word to say. She'll get her apology when she works for it.". Lizzy thought as she quickly brushed herself down and ignored the slight groan from outside, fixing up her bow based purely off of feels since she had no mirror inside to help with such a task. Her mind and heart running a million miles a minute while the girl left the knife where it was. Doll would understand.

"Hell she can use her cool ass powers to get it out, and to teach me. WE can be solver bitches and beat the fuck outta anyone. The WINNER'S of everything and rulers of the social hierarchy.". Her mind roared as she yanked the door open with a smooth yet rushed twist of the indoor knob. Barely dodging it as she threw it to the side and made its hinges whine only to be met with a squeal and the rush of limbs scrambling forward in an excited hug that barrelled the girl into her horrid abode, dark purple hair whipping around from the speed of the movement as Lizzy, in a rush, hugged back.

"Lizzy oh my godddddddd, Haiii! I Missed Youuuu.". The drone exclaimed back quickly, their voice being overlayed with Lizzy's own as the girl's shouted mutual acclamations of their hearts deepest and darkest thoughts. The pair falling to the floor from the awkward positions with a small pair of thuds and a warm laugh that pierced the icy cold that had almost built up upon Lizzy's mind in a way. The pink eyed girl felt her core warm up and her visor attempted to display something that didn't look akin to the expression of a homeless man after a cyclone disaster, the solver and its mental obstruction of detail via pixelation of her vision making the whole experience more destabilising from the horrid status quo the last week had been.

"DOLL! You had me worried, answer your texts next time girl!".

"Her voice... Wait.". Lizzy's head clocked that one signature detail of something being off before her eyes actually got a chance to take in the details of who had hug tackled her to the floor, every nanosecond of added detail making her cringe more as she realised who this was. Dark purple hair that sunk down to the middle of her back in shaggy paint like lashes, bright orange eyes shaded over by a fringe dyed with streaks of obnoxiously bright blue, turtleneck sweater of black that had a few sticks stuck to it and a pair of trousers that were rolled over the top of her dull red boots. The girl looking up at Lizzy from laying on her chest and pinning her friend to the floor with a broad toothy smile, her helmet having fallen off during the emotional assault and clattered over to the side to reveal that it had been modified to have a pair of cat ear shaped protrusions on it.

"Ehhh? You silly. Im Rachel, remember?". The woman known formerly and once again as Rachel spoke up, her face bright with positivity yet marred with streaks from few digital tears as she looked into Lizzy's visor. An apologetic smile on her face as she sat herself upright and scrambled off of Lizzy when Lizzy tried to sit herself upright, not bothering to hide her distaste at Rachel's sorry excuse for an existence. Her mind fuming at the solver before it left one final comment and left her, ruining her night further by returning her vision to its normal clarity so that she could witness the cheery younger sibling of Rebecca's in all her obnoxious glory.

//Get trolled\\

"Yeah, no yeah I don't have dementia or some shit. Unfortunately I know it's you.". Lizzy retorted, not caring enough to know that her tone of voice would already set the fragile girl off. Almost wanting to see her start bawling like the old days before she was yanked out of society and into homeschooling for exactly that reason, being unable to take even the slightest of pressures that life would give her. Then again, it really didn't help her case that Lizzy found it fun to set her off in public spaces.

"Then why'd you call me Doll?". Rachel toned back, picking up her helmet with shaky hands from the mixture of emotions pounding through her systems. It was so dark, so cold, and here was the only other person she had seen in days deciding it was better off that she didn't exist then put in the effort to survive out here.

"Did she forget me that quickly, it's only been four days. We're fffrrriends right, i shouldn't of barged in here I shouldn't have come at all. Big sis was right, this place has been way too much for me since we got here, it's too cold and damp and dark and the murder drones haven't been around for ages and the teacher isn't answering my calls and my phone is almost flat and I haven't eaten batteries or charged in days and I think I saw a monster a bit back and I stepped in someone's oil and I stole so many things. I hate it here and here hates me to-". Rachel's thoughts had barrelled forward, only being stopped when Lizzy gave her a direct stare of near hatred. Those tired blazing suns in hues of pink shutting her up near instantly, as if they had gained the weight of the world to what was nothing more than LED displays.

"I guessed. Don't pry into it pixie.". Lizzy snapped back, getting up and dusting every bit of floorboard and frost off of her stolen dressing gown while purposefully stepping over the girl to go back to the dresser. Knife still stuck within its surface while the rest of Sam's stuff had been shoved back into his bag when she moved it off the table, Rachel watching with wide eyes that were already shaking as if they were about to display yet more tears upon her visor.

"Oh... Ok, you just. ok...weh.". The orange eyed girl barely replied, instead looking around the cabin drearily as if to distract herself from Lizzy's vile behaviour and the memories she swam alone within.

"She wanted to see a cannibal, prom murderer, monster, more than me... even after I came all this way, after everything and the apocalypse she still doesn't like me... What did I do, where'd I go wrong, why am I so trash at everything I do? Is this just bad luck, or does the universe hate meeeee??? And why was she yelling at herself earlier?". Rachel mourned while she glanced around the inside of the shack and noticed the small piles of looted objects that had once rested in various places elsewhere on the massive forest campgrounds. This looked like what she had outside, the thought of outside spurring her on to action against the cold winds still pushing their way in through the front door.

"Dude close the door before I turn into an icicle.". Lizzy bluntly commanded after a second or so of silence between the pair, Rachel instantly getting up and doing that before sitting back down exactly where she had been. Both hands pressed onto the floor and her legs crossed as if she was a kindergartener.

"Uh, are you by yourself here?". Rachel asked quickly, the question making Lizzy realise that she was probably caught to some degree and had to make a quick excuse. Even if revealing that she had cool as fuck powers probably locked away somewhere within her was a nice idea, she knew she couldn't summon it willingly and failing to make anything substantial happen would just give Rachel some ammunition to fire in this war of theirs.

"Yep.". Lizzy remarked, already knowing her game plan and exactly how to string her along without her knowing. Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss. It always worked.

"Then, who were you yelling at?". Rachel asked back, not knowing what script she was following.

"Eh? what are you on about.".

"WHa? but I heard her, she was yelling. I, I cant be going this crazy already?". Rachel's thought, her visor showing an expression of concern and worry as she looked at Lizzy in an attempt to see if the girl was lying.

"But, I heard you swearing?".

"I'm sure id remember doing that.". Lizzy answered, keeping her impeccable poker face as she had learned how to from all those years of school and dealing with her bricks for brains classmates. For a while she had suspected that Thad was the only one with a shred of self-identity and more than two chips worth of processing power in his head, not that that suspicion ever truly went away.

"The happen is fucking? Am I hearing things now too?". Rachel shuddered slightly as she thought of the implications of her losing it entirely out here, feeling her grip on reality get just a little looser.

"Well, then... Uhh... Ok?". The orange eyed girl replied, not being able to think of a way to continue the conversation on as little sleep and energy as she was running on currently. Her mind whirling ahead with concerns aplenty and theory's ranging from damaged software to being abducted by cows. Rachel then got up off the floor, reaching over to close the door before pausing and looking at Lizzy. Who was kneeling over to grab something behind the dresser and out of view, Rachel thinking nothing of it and filing the fact there was a knife in the table away for less drastic times. Her current question was what the hell had happened, why Lizzy was out here by herself and why she was wearing something that anyone could tell from first glance both clashed with her style and wasn't hers in the first place. So she asked just that.

"Uhm, whats with the gown?".

"Cold, whats with the tears?". Lizzy rudely replied, pulling out a spare shirt from the bag she was looking in and placing it up on the dresser. Her pink eyes going to the knife still stuck within it and having a second of vileness encroach her mind, she could theoretically see how good she was at being like Doll with the knife.

"I even have a test dummy right here, Reb's not around to miss her either. Nah, im not good at cleaning up corpses and N's a smell freak. He'd be onto me in a flash and not in the lets fuck type of way. Idea, Vetoed... Robogod she's pathetic tho, so is the solver. Actually, I'm surrounded by beta drones and dumbass's I swear.". Lizzy thought to herself as she thought about trying to pull the knife out of the table again, already envisioning failing once more as it would probably stand firm as if jammed in with a strength beyond her own despite ending up there by her own hand.

"Well, uh... Stress. mainly... It's so quiet out here.". Rachel toned back with a slight shiver to her voice, choosing to ignore Lizzy's venomous voice in exchange for actually being able to talk to anyone for once. Companionship seemed to drive away even the worst fears for her, despite how cruddy this particular one was.

"And a lot of bad thoughts, you know... i, i think i stepped on a dead body yesterday and i haven't seen anyone alive since a few hours after we got here. so, like... It all, kinda. Got to me i guess...".

"What'd they look like?". Lizzy spoke up, still not looking at Rachel for some reason. Earning herself a confused reply that only seemed to sound far stupider than it should of, maybe Lizzy was bias.

"Who?".

"The dead body?". Lizzy snapped back as she stood up to try and remove the knife again. Hearing no response but seeing from the corner of her gaze that Rachel was watching her every movement with wide tired eyes.

"...Ju, just oil. I couldn't look at it without gagging so I, didn't, check... Who it was.". Rachel finally answered, having to visibly gather her courage to be able to get the words out of her voice box. She had been about to say more but she heard a grunt of exertion from Lizzy, a sound she had never heard before from this particular drone. Her orange eyes whipping back around to stare at Lizzy in curiosity, and maybe to distract herself from the rising chance of tears and another breakdown.

Lizzy meanwhile just yanked at the knife again, fuming to herself internally before a second pull removed the blade and had her stumble back to the slightest degree. Weapon shining white with reflected moonlight and pink cast from Lizzy's visor as it glitched out for an instant enough for Rachel to notice but not enough to decipher what it was, her hands shaking as the girl scrambled upright and exclaimed her worries to someone who would no doubt not care.

"Lizzy...". She half whined, looking downright pitiful as she clasped both hands in front of her again. Seeking to try and keep her hands from shaking from the last few hours of late evening and night that kept flooding back into her head along with the growing concerns of glitching happening to the girl with a knife she had already ticked off.

"...What?". Lizzy stated back blandly, not even really paying attention to the girl.

"Your visor, uh... ". Rachel sputtered out as she saw Lizzy's visor flash again and the girl cock her head an inch to the side as if she wasn't aware a thing was happening to her. The dressing gown clad girl frowning as her visor righted itself from the wrong display that she couldn't even see, all she had seen was her HUD bugging out for an instant or two.

"Spit it out.". Lizzy commanded dully.

"Ah, aight... I think I saw two X's on it for a second.". Rachel replied back with a short stutter, staying where she was

"Ahuh..". Lizzy toned back before mentally shouting out for the solver, her concern enough to voice it in any way that would make it known to anyone but Rachel. Everything about herself had gotten weirder since she had revived and the girl felt that if now her visor was glitching she should start wanting answers, not just because she preferred her normal clean visor for looks but because a deep well had opened up in her gut. Drone visors could display many things, yet were intentionally limited as to save processing power and prevent a host of other issues from arising. The chief one right now being the idea of showing a symbol that in all her memory, simply didn't exist as something capable of being displayed without some jailbreaking.

"What the fuck are you doing to me?".

//What? Doing what?\\

"Your messing with my visor aren't you?". Lizzy launched her mental reply back quickly, noticing that her dull reply to Rachel had made the girl go quiet. Probably from how lacklustre it was, the awkward silence being something Lizzy had no problem with dealing with because every second of silence was another second of Rachel not talking and ruining the air they shared.

//Side effects, you'd rather watch out for the stomach aches more than some simple faceplate errors. Not our concern, nor fault, you... agreed to this. True\\

"You didn't give me a goddamn clue what i was getting into and then blame me...?".

//No, Are we, not wanted..?\\

"Yeah, pretty plainly that's a yep. Like, useless voice in my head that walked back on giving me any powers. And I'm supposed to want you around?".

//We could just kill you again, True. sounds like you'd prefer that.\\

"Your existence has been a net loss.". Lizzy snarked in her head, watching her Shimeji cat curl up for a second attempt at sleeping before it seemed to bloat slightly. Lizzy's internal focus zeroing in on her beloved feline friend in concern, her breath hitching for an instant enough for Rachel to notice and grow uneasy at how quiet Lizzy had been.

//Here's your... Powers, then. :)\\

"oh fucking fina-".

//You're welcome\\

"Uh, yo, you alright there?". Rachel toned cautiously, her voice bringing Lizzy back from the enrapturement she had with her internal thoughts as the world to her sat in gentle almost radioactive like visual scarring. Her vision staticky and overlayed with a horrid array of white dots that felt like agony incarnate to try and focus on, her HUD reverting to something barely visible while the worst crime ever committed against the cheerleader took place for her alone to see and know. Her Shimeji cat bloating further, mewling and clawing at whatever it could reach as if it was being blown up like a balloon. The sight enough for Lizzy to metaphorically pale into a shade worse then snow white before the cat regained its usual shape, if only now terrifically stunned and spooked. The both of them pausing for a moment while Lizzy audibly let out a breath she hasn't realised she had gatekept inside herself.

"Lizzy?!? Earth to Lizzy?". Rachel tried to grab the girl's attention while her visor flickered once more, back and forth from a mess of symbols and two hollowed out pink ovals.

"Oh robogod's, what's gotten into her is she having a panic attack or something. I gotta help her, I gotta make sure she's ok. Regardless of what she thinks of me.". Rachel thought quickly, her body autopiloting as she stood up and grabbed one of the girl's hands. Knowing enough to know that usually having a second person there to physically ground someone in such a situation was better then nothing, she had gained experience plenty over the past days and nights.

Lizzy's core just pulsed in disgust, doubling down in its rate as she realised that her core had pulsed in the first place.

"Im fine.". Lizzy verbally bashed back Rachel, keeping her tone blunt as the hand with the knife's handle in its cleanly came up to wipe at her visor. Dispelling the glitches as she instantly resumed a plain expression and shook the arm the orange eyed drone had grabbed to tell her to let go, the sudden switch up making Rachel more concerned. Lizzy's focus on her Shimeji as it scampered over to a corner of her vision and tucked itself out and away, back into its small little classic windows stylised file.

"Ooookaayyyy, new plan. I give her a minute or two.". Rachel mentally plotted, hoping that this was the right move and not something stupid. Her body now taking a step or two back from the stone still Lizzy in a concern that was plain as day yet still ignored by the other drone, who now had a knife in her hand.

"He.. eyyy, uhm. Is it ok if I grab my stuff and not sleep outside tonight, it's dark.". She said hesitantly, grasping and turning the doorhandle after she got to it and letting her purple hair flicker in the doorways gust as the breeze changed direction. Wanting nothing more than to walk out of here and into the dark she had just braved for an hour straight with only minimal amounts of trauma and fear.

"... Lemme think on that.". Lizzy toned back, her voice carrying its usual uncaring and automatically authoritative tone through the small single roomed wreckage of a building they were in. One hand the idea of Rachel being as far away as possible from her and suffering was immensely to her liking but she also knew that the minute N saw Rachel outside the girl would be bundled up and moved inside. N was too stupid not to, and Rachel almost gave a similar amount of stupid vibes out from her. If Emily was here she probably would have shipped the pair.

"Geez fuck fine if your going to keep the door open until I answer then go, shoo. But the couch is entirely mine and I will kick you out if you so much as touch it.". Lizzy snapped an instant later, still not looking as she pulled out a fresh red skirt and yellow belt from Rebeccas bag. Looking over the item in interest since her current one was still crusty from her own oil back when she had gotten the solver in the first place, she had to thank the lords for making sure she had something to hide how disgusting she looked right now.

Rachel meanwhile had both lit up at her words and wiped the back of one of her hands over her visor to hide the newly budding tears that formed at how vile Lizzy as towards her, the girl instantly disappearing with far too much energy to go grab her stuff. Closing the door behind her and letting out a short, choked sob into the chilled breeze as she descended down the steps of the porch and into the snow. All half a foot worth of the substance only slightly hindering the girls trek back out, Rachel already pulling her phone out of her pocket and turning on its light to scare away the dark. Her emotions running on a bit before she reeled them back in, spikes of dead wood making a very narrow horizon around her as the frost and elements clawed at her determination. It was just a few minutes back the way she had walked earlier, that's all.

"I'm not afraid of the dark, the dark is afraid of me. I'm not at all afraid of the dark, because it's afraid of me. I'm not afraid of the dark because it's afraid of me, that's how it is. I am not afraid.. not at all.". Rachel mentally repeated her mantra as she felt the night demons claw their way closer to her, her mind playing tricks enough to almost imagine the snow crunching to boot falls not her own.

"Just going to grab my sleeping bag from the snowmobile, that's all. Just walking, without anything behind me that wants to tear me limb from limb. It's just the dark, of which I'm not afraid of, I'm not. It's just the dark... Wehhhhhh, why am I this timid. There is nothing in the dark, the murder drones are our friends now. Not evil monsters. Not at all.". Her thoughts continued as she shone her phone around in a full circle, seeing nothing more than snow on the ground. Trees looming to her right as she distinctly remembered that there was a frozen over river a couple metres to her left. It's surface covered in snow and only revealed to be one of nature's insidious traps once one looked under the bridge that crossed the ice as their was no snow to hide the trick underneath the bridge. The girl kept up her shaking march towards her stolen snowmobile that she had parked next to one of the signposts downriver since it had died on her, not like the word parked was exactly the correct term but she'd rather not think of that extra misfortune she had come into contact with.

"Aaaaaaaauuwhhhhhhh, I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine, totally alive and all good, it's just the dark, and some snow. It's all good, just gotta keep walking, one foot forward, one more foot forward. DONT... don't... don't. don't forget to move the other one you dummy.". Rachel's eyes flashing back down to her leg as the right one refused to move without shaking, her eyes wide and her breath held taut enough that one might mistake it for a tightrope. The sudden stillness and lack of progression also piling onto her shredded mental state as the girl grabbed her leg in an attempt to move it, slowly but surely getting her motions back to regular for a few more steps into the night. One hand on her phone and the other clasped around her the wrist of the one holding her device as the girl made almost insanely often checks around herself with the light. Only traversing a few meters in a just as many minutes.

"I should turn back, I should I should. Hell, how did I do this before? Whatever spirit possessed me for the last four days, I need it back I'm scared. I'm not built for this I'm meant to be at home reading books or swooning over boys not wondering the woods probably filled with my dead classmates in the dark and thinking that every step is my last... What if they are all zombies now? What if the murder drones did something to them, what if Lizzy wants to use me as bait so she can survive another day to look for a cannibal who betrayed my big sister and the colony for no reason? Wuahhhhhhhhh i hate this so much i wan go home, pleaaaaaaseeeeeeeee.". She could feel her mechanical core thrumming from how much terror was within her at every trudging step into the dark, but now a small light appeared to her. Glinting in reflection upon the front end of her stolen snowmobile but for an instant before her phone and its light completely died on her.

"Wuah?..". Rachel toned to herself, dropping her device in shock as the night rushed in to suffocate her. Her hands clasped tight enough to make her casing whine in distress, to which that itself made her jump a foot in the air with a screech that split the dark as if it was from a banshee being split down the middle.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!". Lizzy shouted out from the shack behind her, startling the girl again as Rachel squealed in horror and curled in on herself out of reflex. Staying there on the ground, in the snow, terrified and attempting to play mental catch up with her eternally bugged survival systems that were running amok. Worker drones were designed to run away from danger, and while that may have been slowly cast away as the years without humans went on it seemed she had always been broken since the start. Her breathing erratic as she counted what she thought were her last seconds, digital tears blazing down her visor as the girl was caught in her seventh fit of emotional ruin of the entire four days at camp so far. This was hell, she was only sixteen.

"... Oh my god did she really just, drop, like that? She did, damn...". Lizzy near chuckled to herself while standing in the doorway. Blinking once when she saw that Rachel was now shivering immensely as a near unidentifiable blob in the night, the purple and blue haired girl getting up onto her knees and glancing back at Lizzy with a distressed expression unlike anything Lizzy had seen from her before. They both knew that Rachel was far from stalwart, brave and somewhat stupid they could agree on but stalwart and strong of heart was a far reach. Sure of herself was an ideal that didn't even get off the cutting room floor in relation to Rebecca's girl failure of a younger sister. Lizzy's pink eyes now witnessed evidence that only served to degrade her opinion of the younger girl by margins far beyond subtle or miniscule.

"I wanna go home, i dont want to do this anymore.". Rachel tried and failed to speak up between sobs, the girl heaving for breath and shaking like a leaf in the moonlight as tears tracked down her visor rapidly. Then burying her face in her hands to block out the rest of the world, another skippy sob escaping her as the stars watched on in muted colours. Themselves not enough to light up the night and guide this angel back to safety.

"I don't want any of this I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't, it's cold and horrible and I haven't seen anyone for days and I stepped in oil and the night terrors are going to string me up and turn my guts into camera film and Lizzy thinks I'm useless and it's dark and it's cold and I ruined my sweater and didn't even make it back to the snowmobile.. now im crying like a pathetic loser on the ground...". Rachel's thoughts again plummeted through the motions, mental processes grasping at every detail she could painstakingly remember of the last four days and slamming it to the forefront of her memory. The sickening sludgy sound of someone else's hours old and half frozen oil sticking to the bottom of her boots, of the nights in that cabin listening to the roof creek and snow piled up on it. Wondering if her next breath would attract a hungry murder drone and if the news of her death would even reach her dad.

"I'm, I'm so fine. I, I'm.. I'm good.". Rachel tried again to speak against her tumultuous whirl of emotions, convincing nobody to believe her evident lying.

"Yeah definitely.". Lizzy just toned out to the girl from the porch, walking out and closing the door behind her in annoyance as it seemed she'd have to get involved if anything was to be done in relation to the sad sob and pathetic excuse for a sister to someone who regularly decided to just walk her way out of troubles without a care.

"... Is she, oh no. Nah uh. Nope, if your going to do that then do it quietly.". Lizzy managed to think before a cracked and louder, fully realised and raw sob managed to escape Rachel and the girl collapsed under the pressure of the situation. Now beginning to actually cry, ugly cry. The type of emotionally distressing display that would cause sympathy to show upon even the hardest of faces and the most steeled of resolves, Lizzy, exhaled in annoyance at the display. Ignoring the sobbing, the shaking and the pitiful fact that the girl had curled up in such a way she was practically kneeling prostrate in the snow as if praying for some higher deity to end her miserable existence.

"God strike me down please, please, please end me I don't want to do anything I just want to be held by my big sister and dad and watch shows at home instead of going on this cursed trip. I hate it here I hate myself for giving into coming along I want to go home I want to forget I ever stepped on that body I want to go away from here I hate this I hate my systems I hate my head I hate how I'm so broken I can't even walk through some stupid trees to go find something I parked not even ten minutes ago. Why am I so useless why am I so trash why haven't I been killed yet if I'm just some footnote in history. GOD, IM NOT YOUR STRONGEST SOLDIER, FIND SOMEONE ELSE BEFORE YOU BREAK ME FOREVER. PLEASE!". Rachel's thoughts spiralled further as everything piled up on the now and unknowingly alone girl. There would be no parents to hold her, no big sister to compare books with or play fight with, there would be no class to go back to after camp as she had planned to rejoin normal schooling.

Ragged gasps for air she didn't need starting to besiege Rachel as unbeknownst to anyone outside of her family her damaged emotional systems and protocols fired up properly. Ones that had messed up since her birth finally clocked over and instantly rerouted enough power that her vision and senses were rendered secondary systems over the emotional complexes. The world almost dulling as the frost set itself away at gnawing through her clothes like a hateful acid, a guttural wheezing cough then sputtering into the night. This was pathetic.

Lizzy just watched from the porch in disgust, her most hated classmate illustrated in tones of mystic white and moonlight blues as she succumbed to the madness of dying alone. Unfinished, cut short. Whatever it was the pink eyed girl cared more about it's noise then it's reason. A particularly nasty venom seeping through her core at the display, people like this should of been eaten by Uzi instead of good drones like Sam and Emily.

"It's downright insulting that she even exists, we both survived the same storm and I actually fucking died yet I'm not breaking down into a sobbing, dry heaving mess when I try to walk outside. And worse off is that I actually hugged the bitch....". Lizzy's thoughts plumed as her code buzzed with something not entirely foreign but not at all unfamiliar.

Cruelty, cunning spite. A fuel most insidious that made her feet propel her off the porch and down its steps. A deathly silent march in stark comparison to the fact that Rachel had just dry heaved from the stress overload and was now sobbing constantly. Having lost whatever war was going on in her head to attempt to regulate herself.

"You done yet.". Lizzy toned, unsurprised with the fact the girl didn't respond to the vocalisation when Lizzy had only been now five feet behind her. Ignoring the fact that she heard a plea for death from the girl between more of her sobs, ignoring the visible glitch across her own visor. Lizzy felt a heat in her stomach growl for action.

"Grand, she's ignoring me.". Lizzy's CPU threw out the quickest response thought to what she had seen, choosing efficiency and swiftness over making something that would be more detailed but also provide her with something that would clash with her wants. She wanted this, there was a certain thrill to tormenting this pathetic sack of bolts that just couldn't be found anywhere else.

"I said. Are, you, done, yet.". She hissed out, a flash of knowledge going through her head as an idea most insidious formed in her head. Two more steps taken before one of her boots pressed into Rachel's back as if it was a stool, Lizzy's pink eyes finally meeting with the tear stricken mess that was Rebecca's sisters face. The snow around her disturbed and downright violated by having to bare witness to such an uncalled for and disrespectful display of something nobody wanted to see nor would appreciate.

//We don't think, she's done yet.\\

Still no response from the girl, Lizzy choosing to ignore the solver's whisperings as it's appearance again hearkened the resolution drop in her vision. So she, in a very spur of the moment and not at all Lizzy like action, moved her foot off of the girl before tapping it against Rachel's visor in a very clear indication of what was probably going to happen next. The girl whimpering as the thought of what would happen took precedence over her circling thoughts of how horrible everything that had happened over the last four days was. The now supplanting the then even if both were inevitably just as horrid as each other.

//Pathetic woman.\\

"Tch, knowing her, this probably is the twentieth or so time she's broken down over the last four days. Over some bullshit too no doubt, oh no my clothes are cold or something of the like. Even Emily was better and she was following a guidebook for most of her social life.". Lizzy's thoughts pondered around, her audio sensors still picking up on her unwanted companions sobbing. The cheerleader turned host to a demonic entity already clocking a couple of grey thoughts about how to shut her up running around her processors.

//She's useless alive, you know?\\

"I.. I, I'm fine, I'm done...". Rachel lied, interrupting herself with a hiccup as tears blazed down her visor and the girls hands shook under the snow that was now sticking to her clothes. Frost chilling her to the core as her sobs settled into a raspy breathing pattern that was again aimed to try and distill her rabid emotions, she felt like she cared too much. Kneeling and laid like beggar next to something who evidently didn't care at all, whatever monster dressed in aqua gown that masqueraded as something worth socialising with.

"W, why is she like this. I never wronged her I never spoke ill of her I didn't do anything wrong to Lizzy, or anyone else?". Rachel tried to convince herself that she wasn't crazy, evidently failing as the reality around her pointed towards the fact that she may of well had been.

"Cool, you've finally shut up. I was enjoying the peace and quiet you know, so try to at least keep your voice down enough so that Uzi doesn't find and kill us both.". Lizzy stated back bluntly, almost having to fight the urge to just kick her in the face and find out what would happen, would Rachel finally do something or was she so fragile that she'd shatter on impact?

//Hah, you couldn't even lie to yourself. It's better off if you just eat her alive here and now, wouldn't that satisfy your oh so boiling stomach. That pit of hate, its calling. You are craving.\\

"...Shut it.". Lizzy mentally called out the solver despite it ringing some truth within her, giving it no heed as she kept her current objective limited to just tormenting. Avoiding the idea of becoming yet more dirty than she was and getting oil on such a pristine dressing gown like the one she wore currently.

"Wh, who's Uzi?". Rachel near blabbered back before getting another disrespectful tap of Lizzy's days old oil crusted boot to her visor. This one lowered to cut Rachel's upper lip on impact, barely enough to sting but enough by pure luck to make her sputter from the taste of death and stench of indifference.

"Some emo chick who grew wings and ate half the class the night we got here. I haven't seen her since then.". Lizzy answered, making sure to sound as average as possible on her delivery as to further rub in some salt on their differences in reaction.

"Wh, what... L- like she, actually ate them... Who's left, is Rebecca and Sally ok? Pl, please let them be fine. They're fine right??". Rachel asked back in a shaky voice, looking back down at the snow about half a hand away from her face and taking in some shuddering breaths as her systems finally but briefly stalled out on the emotional overclocking. That second of freedom barely lasting as the image of her sister dead and defiled formed and ran rampant in her head, already imagining the screams as everything began to pile back on and she felt an ick in her throat.

"Ple, please tell me she's ok. Lizzy..". Rachel pleaded, quickly sitting upright and without a second thought she grabbed Lizzy's boot as if it was a lifeline to the real world. Causing Lizzy to stomp it down and hiss in displeasure at that motion.

"Let go.".

"Lizzy?!".

"I said let go.".

"LIZZY, STOP. DONT JUST LEAVE ME HANGING, TELL ME!". Rachel's voice exploded into the night as she let go, obeying Lizzy as soon as the popular girl let a microcosm of venom into her voice. Knowing that she wasn't capable of standing up to this, that might made right in a world of killer angels sent only to root out those dissident to JCJenson. Exterminate life because it wasn't profitable. Rachel knew Lizzy had no relation to the mechanical angels asides for befriending them but in this instant, she held just as much fear for both parties, not knowing how but assuming with all her might that Lizzy was just as capable of ending her life as the claws and rockets were. She had no idea how wrong she was.

"... Nah, i wont do that.". The pink eyed girl thought to herself as she looked over Rachel with enough disdain to kill a small mammal. Moving her foot away from the girl and standing normally, making sure to avoid Rachel's gaze by looking out into the treeline, avoid looking at some cruel second rate performance of one of her friends while dropping a lore bomb that would probably end any chance of her not having a breakdown.

"Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss.".

"I dont know... Haven't seen her since we all split up at that campfire you refused to help make.". She lied back, the sounds leaving her mouth without even needing clearance of any sort from her mind. It would of been sickening to someone younger than herself, it would have concerned her younger self as well.

"...O, oh.. hah, well. That just means there's- there's a chance she's still alive. It's, never zero...". Rachel spoke back softly, shilling her hopes and dreams out to a Lizzy who downright didn't care in the slightest.

"No shot she really bought that, that was the thinly shaded lie ever... Worker drones when it comes to having a brain moment I guess.". The pink eyed girl thought as she counted the trees in the treeline and remembered back to seeing her friend crawl across the ground, the bisexual now bisected and left to rust under frost as if there were no words left to say to her. The briefest image of giving them all proper burials flashing through Lizzy's mind from some yet untainted part of her CPU, of course she wouldn't do that. Not now, when surviving and getting back to the bunker were higher end goals, they'd understand. Its not like they left her here alone anyway.

"Maybe.". Lizzy answered, voice blunt with disinterest that was quickly shifted over to a unwanted instant of concern. Both girls whipping their glances downward with panicked expressions as they felt an unnatural tremor through the earth. The ground beneath them creaking in a soft but omnipresent groan as if it were a pimple being bulged from within much to the displeasure of the copper cousin of Earth.

Chapter Text

"Wow ok, that's new?!". N's voice had complained out loud against the soft rumble from the ground below him and the other two drones, all three casting their glances away from the wooden billboard map they had been studying as to check the surroundings. Watching as the snow covered dead trees barely shook off their weights and anything that could move now shifted in fragment amounts but for a moment, air stilling from its gusty bellows across the camp to let the tremor take centre stage. N's mind already rocketing forward for envisioning the worst case scenario from this despite how horrid the last night of looking through the ruin had been.

"Seismic activity? Here, just after a blizzard. It couldn't get worse, right! Of course it could. First Uzi, then everyone else, and then that storm and the red eyed girl's corpse. And the bus being sliced in half, and now this? Maybe V was right to not want to go on this trip.".

"Dude can this camp get worse?". Another voice piped up behind N, distinctly male in all of its everyman like toning as it voiced his secret complaints. Thad making himself known from where he had been keeping an eye on the forest, toppled bus and collapsed cabin to the right of them while Trevor and N had been examining the map. The second of the pair of drones back chatting Thad with a small grin as he traced his finger up a path to the topmost corner of the camp, pushing the faint amount of frost on the map like a plough against snow. His neon blue eyes carrying an air of smug self assurance that was unshared by either Thad or N, both of them having a much better grip on the reality of the situation then their third companion who had spent the last hour running his phone flat for a high score in flappy bird.

"Theoretically yeah, but we have a something to start with now.".

"Whatdoyoumeanasomethingtostartwith?". Thad yapped back quickly, evidently more then a little annoyed and overall tired of everything that had occurred over the last night's. His green eyes now dull from lower power while his hat and blonde hair had been significantly frost damaged and sprinkled vigorously with white silver.

"I mean. Cool and suspiciously out of the way aircraft hangar that N for some reason didn't see when he was flying around, that surely counts as something?". Trevor answered the boy, changing his voice to be a bit higher and using his spare hand an a fashion similar to a sock puppet. Making the easily distilled illusion that it was talking instead of him, its voice snarky and evidently of the type that would of been ejected instantly from any sort of high life establishment. Which was probably something most everyone could agree with the very limited amount of rich people on the planet for once.

"Look, it was. Really well hidden... Sorta.". N rushed to his own defence, hasty memories of his few glides around camp and scavenging hours that left both nothing unturned and far too much behind coming to him again. Shamefully, and that shame came out in his voice.

Thad meanwhile, just blinked and half stormed over to the map from where he had been a few paces up the barely uncovered path. N sliding out of the way kindly as the tired tornado of a worker took a gander at the board illuminated under what little moonlight they had and the torch N had as one of his hands. Eyes tracing over everything and ending up exactly where Trevor still had his finger, a trio of small grey rectangles that were labeled as aircraft hangers and sat at the northeastern most edge of the map. They were around the middle of it now, with some small scratched x's covering a few other spots that had almost grabbed his curiosity.

"Oh you weren't joking...". Was all thad could really reply with as he continued to try and memorise the map since he couldn't take pictures with his vision and his phone camera wasn't working.

"Mhm.". Trevor hummed back normally, pointing at the other scratched on cross marks on the map in a proud way.

"We just gotta get up there before we all eat mauled or somfing.". He continued, waving his free hand at the darkened frost and forest all around them and letting a slight amount of worry enter his voice. The dark, wasn't particularly his favoured thing and that was something both of the other drones picked up on.

"Gonna be a long walk then.". The green eyed jock realised, voicing that idea out loud as he checked the still legible scale and legend of the wooden board. Tapping N to get him to move his light over to shine on that part of it so he could actually see it in the dark of the cloud covered night, barely a single digits count worth of stars managing to peek out amongst said clouds. Very reasonably the perfect night to go wandering in the woods that already had a confirmed death count, least only one of them knew it so the simulated nerves weren't as high as they could of been.

"Yeah... I'll try and keep you two safe on the way but I can't particularly carry you around all night looking for anyone else who lived. So, we walk.". N reasoned to the pair, taking a few steps back and getting a gust full of strong breeze and frost in his face. It's passing howled in short bursts like a stabbed dog, echoing down and through the forest and making all three of them feel tense. His tail freezing for a moment as that slinking feeling of dread made itself known even to him, unusual but perhaps the last week had been far and above a new challenge for someone who was used to picking at fields of corpses like a vulture. Finding a live body and keeping them that way when your used to finding full ones wasn't exactly, the easiest task for him to do.

"I'll probably fly around them, just so i can keep my eyes out for anything. Anyone. Of course I don't even know half the names of people i'm looking for and Lizzy didn't help with that... I hope Uzi is doing well out there too, where ever she is. V's still missing, that russian chick is dead so there's one less. Problem? Problem... I mean, she wasn't helping us despite saying she would. So problem would be right... I, really should of told Lizzy that she's not around anymore instead of staying silent on it... but then she probably would of just called me a liar unless I physically dragged that body back to her instead of leaving it where it was. Probably would of still called me a liar even with proof, on second thought.". The disassembly drone mused to himself as he used his headband to scan the surroundings, finding nothing and being pulled back to reality when Thad spoke up.

"So we pack what we need and go before it gets any darker?".

"Duh.". Trevor answered that, again using his hand to sock puppet speak as he did. Ribbing Thad's tired body lightly and  earning only a barely audible grumble of annoyance from the usually upbeat jock. His usually displayed vibrantly energy gone from the recent events and the dread that had hung over him for the last few days, ice, reaching closer, to his core. At least it felt that way as worries of all those he was close to gnawed at his internals and the ticking clock that was his battery constantly made itself known, against it's silent loudness he barely heard what N said next even if it was only a simple agreeance.

"Yeah...".

"This night could not get worse.". Thad thought to himself, the other of the two workers having quite the opposite thought as the wind howled again in another ugly brief wail. Hiding one or two of the few remaining stars behind smeared clouds, leaving the camp blanketed in exactly the same darkness it had been over the last week. The backend trail of their once oppressor blizzard having the last laugh for the umpteenth time.

"This night will get worse, probably...".

"...It's no biggie, dude.". Was all Thad said before reaching up to pat N on the shoulder in a slightly awkward touch that was meant to be reassuring and then parting ways. Both workers heading over to the ruined cabin to grab what stuff they wanted to bring, leaving N to the map and the wilderness. Both paths that intercrossed under his feet splitting out and snaking out into the forest, covered in snow and hidden to the eyes but intently felt under grounded travel.

He briefly let his torch follow the workers over to their rough and tumble cabin hideout before turning it back into a normal hand when they produced their own light from a electric lantern. Letting N begin to properly look around the place, they'd be fine for five minutes as he scouted a bit. Wings flicking out despite the gut feeling that was growing within him, telling him he was wrong.

"I need to find Uzi, but I can't leave these two alone for too long... Sorta, Ive done it a few times already so they should be fine for a bit. Just a small look. She could be so close. She should be, there isn't a reason she would just, disappear right. No no, no reason. she is far to strong willed to let anything or anyone make her disappear. Still a glance won't hurt.".

"Im just going to check around for a few minutes.". He called out, letting the two workers and seeing them raise thumbs up before pushing himself into the air. Plume of snow left behind as soft otherworldly whir propelled him up into the sky, twenty meters, maybe thirty now before he stalled. Wings letting him hang in the air in a way that he knew Uzi was insanely jealous of, having called him a natural born aura farmer by having them and then having to explain what aura farming even was to him afterwards.

His gaze scanned around the dead treetops, white and grey spilled out in all directions from him, those being the snow and trees below. Scene accented by the distant dotting of other already checked cabins, further away was the lake and furthermost was the horizon and its mountains or cities. No sign of purple, so he glided around. Above the jagged tops of trees that were now just corpses but at one point would of been a breathtaking forest. Above the cabins he had checked already, leaving their either empty or snow crushed forms to themselves while he scanned the ground. Snow, usually a good holder of information when on the hunt, here it laid thick and blanketed in such dark that even to his vision nothing useful came to hand. A few barely remaining tracks being detected and traced to nowhere's and dead ends.

After minutes, still nothing. He was about to turn back from his increasing in radius loops around where his worker buddies were before he happened upon a something. Small clearing, maybe barely two meters in width at most but he called it a clearing in his head. His vision picking up the remains of another worker drone, so he landed. Feet crunching snow that had hidden most of the body asides for what was almost a perfect bust that was leant back against a boulder, dirt blonde hair from this drone splayed out as if it were art. Grime in contrast to the strangest thing about this one compared to all his other finds, which had been quiet affairs of looking for a name and then mentally denouncing them as dead before leaving. Taking some stagnant oil and feeling regret on the longer nights but nothing else.

This drone, was smiling. Mouth stuck in such an expression as what appeared to be coins had been stuffed inside to the point of overflowing, pristine and gold, unseen before by N. Now sitting like a frozen fountain from the boy. Broken visor having sprinkled glass shards into the coloured descent.

"What the..?".

He leaned closer, poking it once with his tail in test. Nothing happened.

"Can i find a normal corpse for once, someone resting peacefully would be such a mood uplifter compared to it all.". He toned to himself, voice being snatched away by another guttural burst of wind. Stars unveiling to cast a brighter light upon the clearing and forcing the trees to send their shadows elsewhere, leaving both corpse, fountain and mass murderer in silky light. Alone.

"Wait actually I've seen worse then this, I've done worse then this. So why does this one feel worse?". He thought, visages of past hunts flying past him once again. Drone kept in rapture by the crimes he, V and J had all committed as all the memories came flying back.

"Is it cause... i knew him, for about five seconds at most. But, still?". He thought, looking over the half buried corpse for a moment before deciding not to try and dig him out of the snow. Remembering his name from role call and adding it to his growing mental folder of casualties due to his negligence out here, already imagining having to tell every parent exactly what had happened.

"Uhm, guess i may as well take a coin... maybe?". He toned out loud once more, deciding to not dwell on the deeply set in thoughts of inadequacy and instead relieve himself through the grand and holy act of theft. Hand reaching out to pluck one of the coins from the pile and pocket it for a reason not entirely grasped by his mind when he did it, then again. This body had far more then enough to pay the metaphorical riverman on their trip to the afterlife, maybe N would get his chance with to buy something mortal with such coinage.

He plucked another one.

"They only needed one coin, right?".

He plucked a third. The disc strong between two fingers and making him feel richer just on contact, it was hard. Real. All of them inscribed with the number three and a dollar sign, marking them as three dollar coins.

Fourth.

Fifth...

Sixth... He had already pocketed them, leaving his hand free to retrieve once more. Left plucking downward and pulling dollar from the corpse like vulture beak on liver, a crunch in the woods behind the body he was leant over made him pause. Finding nothing with either his eyes or his headband yet still waiting, just trees. Snow, wood long dead and frost enough that it would conceal any smaller divots in the land beyond the small clearing. Then, he stalled his hand, shoved the coins into his pocket and spent a moment quelling the soft rattle of shaking parts that was emitting from his hands. Nerves getting at him for once in his life. He then took a breath and waited, just to calm himself. Looking at nature and quelling the further thoughts around what he had done.

"It's just, six coins. Sure they very much shouldn't be there in the first place and are easily the weirdest and most unnerving thing I've seen so far this week but still. Just coins nothing wrong with taking a few, he doesn't need all of them and we might. Maybe??? I'm going to have to somehow apologise to half the bunker for losing all their kids and stunting a generation because I was too busy looking for Uzi. Somehow... Biscuits I messed up didn't I?". N thought to himself, shoulders sagging as he was currently in the process of emotionally deflating under the weight of the world. Forest around him dark as ever, snow underfoot just as frost covered as usual. Nothing had changed. Everything had been screwed up but it seemed that nothing cared.

"Yeah I messed up...".

The dead boy's head shifted a bit almost in response, as if disappointed with the display of greed despite it having a mouthful of coin. The move making the rest of the coinage in his mouth pour out with a soft jingle, a abrasively loud crunch like snap in the woods snatching back N's attention. His eyes tracking forward twenty paces into the dark directly ahead of him and watching as a tree that was previously standing sturdy and upright fell over. Ploughing snow out of the way of its corpse as it landed, facing away from him and revealing that the stump had been frayed as if it were rope. The bottom of the tree part that had came off sharing the unnatural warping to it.

"... Okayyyyy...".

"Why does that look... Like. It's, been twisted until it snapped. That isn't supposed to happen at all.". N's mind whirred to itself as he swapped one hand over to a submachine gun just out of caution, staying in the clearing and observing the tree. Only for a second.

"Yeah okay, bye mr or miss spooky forest spirit.". He suddenly chirped, flicking out his wings before rocketing back into the sky, now feeling eager to return to some place where the closeness of others would smooth over his worries. Altitude quickly gained as he only slightly missed the dullest flash of dead gold from where he had taken off. Spiralling in the air and grabbing his hat when it tried to whip away in the wind N had to push away his thoughts again, the mental distraction making his landing back near Thad and Trevor a little ugly.

Therefore, he crashed and ended up on his ass in the snow.

"Wow dude..?". Thad called out to N, having watched the whole ordeal of N crashing out of the sky while Trevor had been busy further inside the wrecked cabin trying to find something in particular. His head peeking out from behind a wall and blinking once at N's face being down flat in the snow as the drone tried to scramble up, tail wagging before he sat upright. Exclaiming to the pair with a thumbs up on his visor and a smile that they couldn't tell was forced.

"Im fine.".

"Aight, we're almost packed too.". Thad shouted back, voice raised a bit too high and thus echoing out into the dark. Obscuring the tiny rumble from the ground beneath them in its volume and making Trevor shoot Thad an annoyed glance.

"Almost, but...y'all know we could wait till day for all this travelling. Makes it easier to do crucial stuff like see more then twenty feet and not freeze to death.". Trevor toned after a moment, pulling out a folded up chair that N assumed was the teachers. The blue eyed boy not able to resist the temptation to complain about the current predicament as he put it on the ground outside and gathered the rest of his stuff.

"I can't.". N reasoned back, having wondered over to where they were in the hopes they'd lower their voices. He didn't like the idea of being loud in the night anymore.

"Gotta get them moving as soon as possible.". He thought quickly, peering into the forest around them and keeping his tail poised as he got up. Brushing snow off of his coat and feeling those damn coins jingle in his pocket. Ever thankful for the fact his pockets could be closed up to prevent things from falling out while he was flying, which he must of done automatically in the slight panic during his ascent before.

"Why?". Trevor asked, the two workers sharing a glance as they both gathered their stuff and ended up in front of N with it all. Seeming both like best friends and like they were about to maul one another, which, was something of a vibe N hadn't interacted with much in his life.

"My god your daft.". Thad thought to himself before answering properly, since N had turned around and was currently shining a torch out into the dark forest that sat beyond the clearing here with them and the cabin. Its beam of light illuminating naught but trees and snow, just like usual. It didn't dispel the concern of what could be out there however.

"Because he melts in the sun.". The green eyed boy responded bluntly. Trevor seemed to take this pretty well for it being what it was, a near insult from Thad. The boy instead just smirking, looking over N and his coat before speaking again. Making sure to have his spare hand free to mime along with his declaration.

"That sucks, if that were me I'd be all like. Damn I'm a vampire now muah ha ha ha ha!".

Then a beat of silence, awkward asides for N cracking an unseen smile at that comparison. Having to mentally wonder at how many similarities there were now that it had been brought to his attention, he then took a few steps out from the pair to scan the forest again. It just felt important enough to do with all the oddities that were taking shape around the camp, fortunately he found nothing, unfortunately he found nothing. 

Meanwhile Trevor just coughed once to save face before asking a question to move on from his failed joke.

"Aight wait why are we looking for other people?".

"The fuck you mean why?". Thad's sleep addled mind responded, thanking itself a second later for not saying that out loud. The drone boy looking out into the forest for a second, then responded with a single word that didn't quite do the job of portraying just how against he was such an idea. It tried, in true Thad fashion it tried.

"Dawg?". His voice lackluster and gaze appearing befuddled. Now staring at Trevor as if he had suggested they eat the youngest to survive, which they realistically couldn't do anyway.

"What, can't a man ask a honest question?". The blue eyed kid shot back casually, resting one hand on his hip after balling it into a fist. Emulating the resting stance of one of his long time friends while not catching what Thad was evidently showing.

"Yeah a man can ask an honest question, however your fuckass instead just suggested we leave our classmates behind for no reason.". Thad shot back, taking the first step towards the sign again just so he could get some space. The move being noticed by Trevor and left as be, proving at least one of them had some processing power left in them and would rather not try and start a fight.

"I, didn't mean it that way... In fact, it'd be really cool if we had found anyone else out here so far but we haven't. Especially the teacher, he isn't answering any of the calls we gave him and isn't that his whole job. Along with the half absent murder drones, to keep an eye on us?".

"Guys?". N half called back to them, being interrupted when the ground groaned once more. Now with enough force to make the snow on the tree branches shift and fall to the floor in a set of near unison thumps from all around them. The three drones sharing a glance of worry as the moment passed as if it were normal.

"Yeah N?". Trevor returned, speaking up and walking over to N with one hand on his backpack and another on a torch that he clicked off to save battery. Or because he felt cooler walking through the dark without one, nobody could tell really.

"You two alright?". The yellow eyed one returned plainly, successfully keeping a normal tone to his voice despite the growing worry that something was deathly wrong.

"Tired. But nobody wants to hear me complain anyway. Especially with how fucked this camp trip has been so far, like. Dude... This is bad, why'd that storm have to hit just as we went meaningfully outside for the first time in our lives. The last for a few of us too, hope everyone else is alright though. it would be so awesome, if we could actually confirm who's passed on already but you don't seem to be capable of memorising names to dead bodies... Only live ones. Might need Emily's help navigating back home, and hopefully if she's still around then Thera is too. Actually considering how much grit she has it is more likely that she's still around compared to Emily... I hope they're both still around, I really do... Teacher would be a welcome addition to find. As much as Trevor would complain otherwise since that would mean his horrid test scores would still be given to him... And where is Uzi, she was on this trip and then disappeared too. Before it all went downhill even, least that's what Trevor said.". Thad's mind commented, his body just instead shooting a finger gun at N despite his drooping eyes and their slightly faded colour giving an impression of rigor mortis. The jock stalking up to be just behind the other two and looking back at the dead body of the bus with a sigh, thoughts an active revolt to his usual self.

"It's just as if everything went wrong on purpose and when we needed them most any person in charge just shirked responsibility from themselves, I should have been with everyone else but wasn't. N apparently left to go find Uzi, V just left straight up as well. Obviously Lizzy wasn't going to do jack shit as a leader in times like these and none of us thought to check the weather forecast. ACTUALLY, we didn't even have a way to forecast the weather effectively so none of us knew the time we were in for. And now, because of bad planning and way too many accidents the entire cohort was basically dragged out here and died

"Yeah I'm fine. Actually, just remembered something.". Trevor answered in a voice of fake warmth, having been about to turn around before he pivoted on one boot when Thad spoke up plainly.

"Holy, turns out he doesn't have memory loss after all.".

The two boys looked at each other, Trevor's face one of annoyance that felt almost lacklustre in comparison to Thad's clear disdain and the lack of tact that was plastered all over his visor as if it was a missing sign out up for the usually pleasant boy that wasn't here anymore.

"That's rich coming from you, but to clarify. I never did. You seem to have mental problems though.". Trevor snapped back, trying to stay cool but already debating throwing his torch or the lantern at the jock. Eternally put up with how he had this air of superiority around him that just seemed to ooze out of him like sewage from a drainpipe, both equally off-putting to be around.

"Couldn't of kept himself to himself could he?".

"Bullshit, you wouldn't know a dollar if you had one ingrained in your visor idiot.". Thad returned with a huff, eyes narrowed as he stalled on a step forward. Code telling him to just snatch the kid by his jumper hoodie and throw him to the dirt already but knowing, barely, that that wouldn't be the best idea. So they both just stood where they were, exchanging hateful words but nothing more. Even if Trevor looked one second away from punching him. N turning back to them with a frown, seeing the pair almost at each other and speaking up in a concerned voice.

"Guys?".

"Not now N.". Trevor spoke, bluntly and keeping his gaze on Thad as the green eyed jock didn't budge. Cold wind pluming past the both of them in a barely second long howl, ruffling their hair and showing some of the stars above once more.

"Okay yeah he is just fucking daft then, everyone was right to put him as most likely to get expelled.". Thad thought bluntly, another rumble whispering across the forest in unnatural wisp breath. The feeling of it underfoot actually noticeable this time, both drones casting their gaze down while N looked back at them in concern. Just now realising they were getting heated.

"You calling me broke?". Trevor complained after a second of silence. Dropping is torch into the snow and looking Thad up and down like he wasn't entirely sure what to do with him, the green eyed jock sharing the same gaze back at him.

"He isn't, right Thad?". N jutted in again, trying to multitask between keeping an eye out into the forest, worrying about Uzi, worrying about Lizzy, and keeping these two quiet and not trying to kill each other. The yellow eyed cannibal standing awkwardly a few paces away from the pair and screwing up the snow underfoot idly.

"Robogod help me before I murder this uptight kid, seriously who does he think he is? Just because your captain of the probably entirely dead sports team and Lizzy's ex doesn't mean you get to stick your fatass privilege wherever you want it without complaint.". Trevor's thoughts rushed by, only halted at what was said next.

"Yeah, and broken too, since you didn't understand the first time.". Thad snapped back, dully shrugging his backpack off as he did so and completely ruining N's attempt at stopping this. Green eyes almost dead in their tired coldness, a far cry from his usual self but maybe a week without charge and worry would do that to someone with a faulty battery. It wasn't going to be him that snapped first however.

"Says you bitch, have you forgotten about your fucked up hand lights already. Can't pick a colour can you? One day your purple the next your orange and everyone just laughs and smiles at your little defect, anyone else with a defect just gets treated like trash. Emily, apparently trash, Rachel. Trash as well according to you. Can't just keep your thoughts to yourself and go back to kicking a ball around with your lackeys like a bunch of simpletons can you? Have to make everything about YOU! You and your trophies, and your ex, and your sports, and how everyone believes your such a nice guy yet you NEVER stopped any of your fuckin friends from doing whatever they liked to anyone!". Trevor hissed back, both hands clawed but pressed tight against his sides so they ended up looking like he was badly imitating how iron man flies. The boy taking a deep breath after his outburst and seeing Thad just staring at him.

"Wow... Uhm". Thad started, finally realising in his tired stupor and absolutely demolished social battery state that he may of kicked a beehive with his actions. Unfortunately he couldn't un-kick it, and now the bees had business to attend to.

"OH NOW YOU GET IT, NEEDED ME TO YELL IT IN YOUR FACE FOR TWO PLUS TWO TO EQUAL FOUR DIDN'T YOU?!". Trevor snapped, lunging forward to tackle Thad at the end of his bout of yelled fury but only getting an inch towards him before he was yanked by the hoodie into the air by N. Murder drone claws barely touching his back but already sending the shiver of imminent death down his spine and silencing the blue eyed drone, leaving Thad to gaze bluntly at the scene.

"... Ahuh, it's not my problem your to much a wimp to tell them to fuck off though?".

"GUYS.". N snapped at the pair in disbelief, tail still and face slightly aghast at how the whole situation had exploded. Trevor's outburst having made him still for a moment to take it all in until the boys sudden movement spurred him to action.

"WE'R- ...".

"We are in the middle of a forest, with multiple dead drones in it and potentially a drone eating monster or two. Half my squad is missing and I've been running around for days on end to try and fix all this, and now you two think it's the best time to provoke each other?". N stated, having to catch himself from exploding at the pair. Quickly hiding the abject incredulous emotion that had shown on his visor with a more neutrally annoyed one before either of them noticed. Trevor still shaking in fury in N's grip but at least he wasn't saying anything now, the same couldn't be said for Thad. Who was trying his hardest to seem out of character for once.

"Yeah... All he has done is complain.".

"You did it too!.. You know, before all of this I was just going to grab the flare gun that I had just remembered was in the bus so we could have it on hand but now i'd rather shove the live flare down your shit talking throat.". Trevor snapped back again, not even bothering to try and escape N's grip on him. His feet dangling pathetically just above the ground and ruining all sense of threat from the boy, not that there was much to begin with.

"Isn't taking large rods down the throat your thing?.. actually don't say that.". Thad thought bluntly to himself, taking a breath or two and looking away from the other two drones.

"... Could you go grab it please. I know I can launch flares anyway but it's better to have the extra ones on hand.". N asked, sighing again and waiting for a response from the blue eyed boy who was slowly starting to no longer seethe. That process appeared it would take some time.

"That makes, some. Sense... But, argh, whatever. It's something that isn't arguing to do.". Trevor thought to himself before speaking up in compliance with what was considered the only remaining authority to the place. Teacher missing and hell if he was going to listen to Thad of all drones he may as well call himself a lost cause.

"Oh, yeah... I'll go grab it.".

"Cool.". N chirped back, letting the boy down and watching as he departed back for the ruined cabins to their left with the rhythmic crunching of snow trod over. N picking up the boy's torch as he went and rotating it in his hand idly just to do something, Thad watching tiredly.

The pair then caught each other's gaze, snared in nothings but held regardless.

"What was all that?". N said, referring to everything that just happened with a slightly out of breath tone as he stood back up with the torch in his left hand. Tail swishing slowly while Thad out his backpack back on, emanating shame in his actions.

"An argument...". The boy returned, wind picking up and morphing itself into a soft and casual breeze that was chilled by the nature of their surroundings and the dread in the air. Stars slowly being hidden by blue black cloud cover across the sky above them, this camp left in silky darkness not unfamiliar to one of those old movies. Giving the place an air of magic, dangerous magic for sure but still that feeling that things were going to change.

"With you? One that you didn't back out from or even try to end. Dude, that's what's got me confused. Your usually way nicer.". N toned warmly back, moving his hands in a way to indicate his confusion at how odd Thad was acting.

"How do you know what or who I am anyway? That was me, just nobody likes that me so I don't show it... Plus, he literally suggested leaving the rest of the class for dead. Your okay with that??? Though, maybe I shouldn't be surprised considering your a cannibal, what's the bet it's one of you doing all this... Actually not that high since there is only two of them... Wherever V is. Wherever anyone asides these two are actually... I DON'T really want to run flat before news on where my sister is gets to me.".

"... Well maybe..- Nevermind. Just, drop it.". Thad responded, choosing to keep his thoughts to himself and just end N's probing. Any usual tact he would of had here having long since abandoned him over the week or so, replaced with a cruel almost indifference to the world. A desire to poke at it with sticks and see what he could find, regardless of how the world felt about that. N just turned to look around at the clearing and the woods beyond that again, acting paranoid when there was clearly nothing out there. His voice audible despite him facing away from Thad, an awkwardly joking hiss accompanying his words.

"I don't think that is, the beeeeessssst move.".

"... Just, look. I said drop it. Can we not do this whole, now you try to camp advise bit?".

"... If it doesn't cause trouble again... We've got, you know. Surviving to focus on.".

"Yeah... Exactly. Will do.".

"But why didn't you focus on our survival until after you lost Uzi, after all the damage had been done?".

They both fell silent afterward those words were exchanged, and that's when the ice set in. Frigid breath passing through the clearing once again, a moon peeking out from behind the clouds for only an instant before it was swallowed up again beneath murky waves. The muted jingle of coinage could be heard as N plucked one out of his pocket and looked at it, really looked at it. Examining the perfectly round edges, flat rims and simple printing with a keen eye only gained through needing something to distract himself just for the moment. Even if he knew it was stupid.

"There's no labelling on this, it's just a dollar sign and the number three. No patterns, no nothing..? The hell is this?". He mused, listening idly to Thad amble back over to the map. Almost tempted to use his headband vision to check the coin further before Trevor returned with the rhythmic crunch of flattened snow and a look of tired victory. Holding a flare gun, some type of machete and a phone that evidently wasn't his due to its purple red casing and photos of Lizzy, Doll and Rebecca on the back.

"Aight I'm ready to go now.". He called out, half jogging over to N and moving to make sure N was between the two worker drone boys. N seeing this and having to stifle a huff of confused annoyance while Thad spoke up. Still tired but no longer pushing buttons.

"Yeah, same.".

"Wow? The bus was loaded, how did I not notice all that? Teach was packing heat, or maybe it was Ronathon... Where even is he? no, wait never mind, that's right he was the first body i found after the blizzard.". N mused to himself quickly, shooting a smile at Trevor while he used his headband eyes to check around the place again. Still nothing, just cold dead woods and the wind of ages past. His mind already on the next move, for once he wanted to be ahead. He had to be the one with the plan and it had to be good. Or else.

"... Anyone got a way to bring the map with u-

"We could just, take it.". Trevor interrupted N, lightly and without meaning anything from it but due to not being a hivemind the two ended on different thoughts about the interruption. Thad just electing to stay silent, backpack on his back and thoroughly filled with all sorts of things while his cap

"Without leaving other people with no map...". N continued after a second, putting the coin back in his pocket and closing it up now as he realised they might finally be able to get going. The long night and it's walk awaiting them, hopefully with much success to counteract the darkness of the world and the week.

"Aight damn...". Trevor mentally scolded himself, heading over to the map and looking at once again. Plain blue eyes scanning over the directions, legend and every other detail while leaving Thad and N to watch. The boy paused for a moment, putting the machete and flare gun down before using the stolen phone to take a photo of the map. Marvelling at how it had no password on it despite evidently belonging to someone who should have had a password on their phone.

"Who's phone is that anyway?". N asked. Curiosity bubbling up as he took a few steps over to glance past the ruins of the cabin and down the path that they would be travelling. Winding between trees and having a small ridge on its right further down.

"Doll's.". Trevor toned back, taking a second and third photo before pocketing the device and grabbing his things back off the ground. Thad still staying a few paces off to his right and idly gazing into the forest while N went to Trevor's side to get one last look at the map as well, footsteps obvious in the snow as the breeze gusted by in chill nonchalance.

"Who?". N asked back, tilting his head as he parsed his question into the cold night. Drawing the invisible ire from the corpse he had passed in its disarray no matter how far away it was, even if he didn't put two and two together.

"Doll.". Trevor restated, looking up at N in confusion while he did. Thinking plenty of thoughts over his and Doll's relationship to each other from those months back that they had actually interacted, sure Doll wasn't memorable but she sure as hell wasn't forgettable either.

"This guy cannot be serious.".

"Wait you don't know?". Thad toned, finally wandering back over to the group and checking out the machete Trevor had in his furthest hand with a bored eye. Probably wanting it for himself considering everything, it would make more sense for the physically capable jock to wield a weapon rather then the evidently more feeble Trevor to have it.

"No? Who's Dol-

"OH. The Russian chick from prom. Right? Her, with the dead parents and nice fashion choices?". N realised, his voice raising an inch as the memories finally reordered themselves into something coherent for him. Flashes of the mess that was prom night settling in his head along with all the ups and downs that had brought him, Uzi and V. That being the first time he had actually even seen half the drones he had now failed to take care of. He shoved that idea away from the limelight in his mind.

"Yeah, her.". Trevor answered warmly, pulling the girl's phone out and pocketing the flare gun instead so he could spin the device somewhat competently in his hand. Party trick matching up poorly to what either of the others could do, of course he didn't know that N could spin plates on one finger like a pro.

"He's not wrong, she did dress to kill back then... But why she'd go and do all that, like. She was fine one minute then the next there were bodies in her home and Penny was a smear on the floor. She's suddenly trying to kill V and the whole prom just became a warzone, worst night ever but still. She cared so much it seemed, helped me with my homework sometimes and I helped her too. Then I uhh, that whole thing with Penny and we stopped talking... It couldn't of been because of that. Right. Who am I kidding it's Doll, grudge queen. It all lines up, hated V for what she did to her parents, hated Penny for that one night, threw Lizzy like trash because they can't decide if they're best friends or they want to kill each other every day... Honestly if N hadn't been there it probably would of been worse, probably. Glad Doll let everyone go though with her funky powers... If that wasn't her just forgetting I keep the doors locked... Wonder if she's around here, since V is here still so she might try again...". Thad's mind rambled to itself as he worked up the courage, or, more accurately, tried to put down the persistent shame that came with what he was thinking of asking. Tired enough that the idea of just snatching the machete was fluttering around in the back of his head, after all he knew Trevor wasn't going to give it to him. But before he could state such a desire, N blurted out the next thing on his mind. Shocking both of them.

"Cool, just a heads up though, I think she's dead now.".

"HUH?".

"What...?". Trevor and Thad both exclaimed, blue eyed drone loud while Thad was far quieter, with the latter going silent afterwards, burdened with thoughts while the former only pressed more with questions.

"Dead.. how? Why, she... What?".

"Yeah... I should of told Lizzy but I didn't want her to you know, think I was lying.". N answered softly, running a hand through his hair after plucking his hat off his head to be able to do so. Shaking a small amount of snow off of it while watching Trevor's face go from surprised to thoughtful. N taking a second to ruminate as well.

"Lizzy would of mauled me if I told her this without proof, or just gaslit herself into thinking I was a liar. These two are so much more reasonable, usually, but they aren't that close last I heard... Trevor doesn't look that sad about it, maybe Doll wasn't liked at school or something as well. Would explain why she wasn't against doing what she did...".

"She'd probably go nuclear on you, I think? there was always something up with their relationship though so who knows?".

"How? how do you know she's dead?". Thad snapped, cutting again to the important questions and leaving Trevor's earlier statement in the dust. No one to ponder on what he meant as both N and Trevor looked at Thad with differing levels of surprise for his outburst, the intensity he now had made sense to those who knew how close they had been before prom.

"I uhh, saw her body. a week ago, with a door splitting it down the middle. so, she looked really dead, and evidently wasn't in the conditions to be moving.". N answered honestly, taking a breath before he had as the inklings that this meant more to Thad them him now came to mind.

"Oh, well that's one less threat out here. Whatever she was doing, stalking us to eat us or living like an animal.". Trevor toned up, sounding both stunned but more like he was trying to find a bright side to the news. Working only with what information he had to deduce that it was probably better to not have a live Doll running around the camp as well, unfortunately Thad was vehemently against ever having the same opinion. The boy speaking up with a wobble in his voice that made the shadows in the forest lean in with glee, not red glowering in the darkness like a cat before the mousehole.

"She's NOT an animal Trevor.".

The other two just paused and looked at him, Thad staring straight at Trevor with his visor showing emotionally strained eyes blazing green. His hands balled and at his side's again.

"There was something WRONG with her sure, something broken, Something V evidently broke. I know that much, it's our fault for not helping her before all of this went down. Imagine how much safer we'd be if she was here!?". Thad continued, words cutting deep at both of the other drones for different reasons.

"V... Yeah, that's right. V killed her parents, like so many others we killed. Yet this one was the one with consequences that we actually had to live through... But, I can't agree that we'd be safer if she was here. She and Uzi both have the solver and for all it's uses it's not that, safe to be around someone who misuses it...". N thought to himself, watching Thad's face for any tell that he was going to explode and finding the boy to be at his wits end. Just like everyone was.

"OHHH MY GOD, Look, here he comes with his sappy moment now too. God he's fucking pathetic. Doll tried to KILL, and EAT PEOPLE. And didn't even try to change her ways like N here has. There's a difference. It's clear as day, and that is all that matters RIGHT NOW.". Trevor grumbled mentally, crossing his arms and holding the machete idly while pocketing Doll's phone again. Giving Thad a blunt and tired look despite the welling emotions that were showing on the jocks face, the green eyed one didn't give sympathy so he wouldn't get any back.

"I'ma be honest, there is a difference between redeemable and willing to redeem themselves. Doll decided to go absolutely fucking nuts at prom and welp, that was that it seems.".

"Welp, that's it? THATS IT?! Why don't you care? Someone died and you don't care, someone that you know died and you just shrug it off like it's a funny joke?". Thad responded angrily, voice raised with flaring temper enough that N automatically made a hushing gesture that went entirely ignored. The woods around them feeling even more constricting. Trevor frowned and spat back his own reply within the following second.

"Dumbass I do care, but for once I'll do exactly what you said. Just to piss you off.".

"Guys, not agai-

"Doll's life was a joke, funniest tragedy I've ever seen was someone caring for her in the first place. There, said i-

N tried to calm the pair, but his words did nothing except get cut off by Trevor's proclamation, only for said proclamation to be cut off by Thad jumping at him. An action which did nothing asides get him scooped up by N's claws and yanked away from the half joking swipe of the machete that whipped like dull feather flight through the air where Thad would of been. N instantly reading that swipe as non intentional as Trevor looked at his hand and Thad's eyes were stuck on the barely well kept blade, both stunned among other things.

"Did he just, try to cut me with that???". The green eyed boy thought, eyes still relatively widened as his gaze stuck like glue to the black metal blade in Trevor's hand. It's blade curved to be reminiscent of a scimitar, yet far more modernist and stylishly designed then the tools of beyond old. It's handle just as stealth jet black as the rest of the tool except for its steel edge, sharpened to a point and built for slashing. Still, they all knew it was nothing compared to the as of now appearing very calm N. The very not calm on the inside N who was having to corral his thoughts to avoid something irreversible from escaping him.

"Oh boy... Lizzy was right when she said this was going to be a long night. These two are insane, is this normal? Seriously, they bunked together for almost a week in the cabins while I was out looking for people after the storm blew over but only NOW??? They decide that they can't get along".

"Dawg...". Was all Thad could say after almost a minute of stunned silence between the three, the boy still held by claws and wrapped tail off the ground. Leaving him in a similar level of awkwardness in appearance then what the blue eyed boy had dealt with when he got grabbed.

"Don't dawg at me, that was reflex cause you literally tried to jump me.". Trevor puffed back, N watching the pair talk almost normally about the situation and gaining a bit of hope for their immediate future. Not that the constant stuttering of the wind or the ground shaking sometimes set a particularly idealistic image of said future. In fact, that painted a particularly grim outlook onto his mental canvas, but there wasn't much else to do so proceed he would quickly.

Thad had no reply to that, except to mutter to himself. Tiredness and disdain collecting together like grime upon days abandoned cutlery, spiced over with scraps of loneliness and eager comradery now smote.

"... Shut up.".

"Can we just, try to get along. Please, ignoring our baggage for five seconds to get out of here...". N added after a moment, putting Thad down and checking their surroundings again. The green eyed drone following N's gaze and all three of them missing the object they should of seen. Trevor speaking up and finally moving the hand he had around the machete handle, having seemingly regained motor skills after overcoming the realisation he had almost dealt what would have probably been grievous harm.

"Apparently not.".

Thad just stayed silent, still held in N's grasp as if he was a misbehaving kitten rather than a person that had foolishly attempted to jump someone holding a machete. His mistakes now burning in searing intensity inside his running dark head, shame that soaked into him like boiling tar ignoring the cold of the night.

"Doll did NOTHING wrong, of course neither of them wants to see that. I knew it was bad for her to hang around Lizzy after the third time I heard Lizzy ask where her parents were as if she had forgotten.". The boy thought, trying to distance himself from the current predicament as another thought came to him and left his mouth before he could evaluate it. Speaking right as N put him down.

"... Trevor, uhm. Could I have the flare gun or that sword thin-

"No.". The boy interrupted Thad's question with the obvious answer, secretly wondering why the hell it would be asked now of all things. He had just almost easily lost his visor glass and probably would of been granted processor and computer brain damage had his momentum not been halted midair by N. All three of them secretly glad for his quick reflexes.

"Why'd you even ask that?". Trevor added after a second, noticing N taking yet another look around into the forest from where they stood. The pathways that spiderwebbed through the forest and to other parts of the camp all palling in size to the snow covered road that would have had let the bus take them back home. That being the first plan of escape, easily shot down by the bus's current state being akin to a downed whale.  Slashed down the middle by unknowingly strong powers and keeled on its side, having beeped it's horn for an hour or so straight during the blizzard when it happened.

"... Curiosity...". The boy returned, N making a non-committal noise at Thad's statement but otherwise staying quiet. Only for a moment however.

"Alright, which path are we walking down now then Trevor? We got campers to save... Since the bus is uhhh...". N countered warmly before stalling out, casting a look back into the frozen forest around them since he swore he heard something out there. Hand switching to a set of claws that went unnoticed by both workers who had their visions set too strongly on the map and its detailing.

"Wrecked?". Thad offered. Glancing down at N only to see those life rending claws of his had silently skipped out and feeling a small jolt of iced fear go through him, not all consuming as it was but still there. He had to like that he hadn't been sufficiently whittled down to such a point that he was too numb to feel such a emotion, preferring to be capable of emotional balance unlike some drones he know. Some pink eyed and blonde haired drones who had a penchant for being the ugly opposite of such a desire.

"Oh, yeah. He's armed. Thats right, least that means were safe for now.".

"Totalled?". Trevor suggested, chucking a look over at the bus and the fact it had been sliced clear through the middle and had been laid on its side like a mule left to bleed out for the last few days. A gust of wind blasting past them from behind the sign and unironically doing next to nothing to the three because of said sign being in the way, wooden bulwark still unequalled in keeping the wind away from living faces.

"Whatever is out there went for our transportation near instantly...".

//Done in?\\

"Yeah that works...". N replied to the shambling corpse that had just spoke up from behind the sign, voice scrambled and bit-crushed in its already easily misunderstood russian form and as a result making its statement horrendously hard to interpret. Its appearance making all three drones turn to look at its oil covered and bent legs, the top half of the sign hiding its face but the spilling purple hair told some of them at least, who it was.

N instantly pulled the other two back before slashing the sign in half with a sword, several fluent movements and an explosion of yellow leaving behind only three scared workers and the shredded remains of the sign, wood chips falling like ashes and mixing with the scatter code of the demons departure. A trail of footsteps in the snow suggesting that it had managed to shamble all the way up to them without any of them noticing, said trail being the second thing all three of them fixed their gazes on as that realisation sunk like dead weight into their cores. Anchoring them now to the harsh reality.

"Okay we're leaving NOW.". N's voice came slicing through the onset of dread that came from seeing something supposedly dead still standing. Rousing all of them to ditching it in the opposite direction, boots on snow making a fair amount of noise while nothing gave the pursuit except the fear of being followed.

Chapter Text

Fifteen minutes trashed, waiting in hidden concern for a reason to show itself for why the earth was shaking. Fifteen minutes exactly spent idling as Rachel slowly pulled herself back to sanity, not that she was against such a pastime but Lizzy knew there were far better places to do it then in the frosty clearing they inhabited. Fifteen minutes spent in a cold that wasn't working anymore. Mind wondering as she pulled the last items out from her once friends bags and sorted them absentmindedly into what she wanted to keep and what was trash, eventually having found herself watching her refraction in the knife blade next to her on the floor. Pink stirring like colour abandoned, her eyes catching on it once when she swore they weren't shaped as her own and finding that her vision lied to her. Returning to the time passer at hand.

She didn't feel it.

It wasn't cold.

She was however wracked with the idea she should have felt concerned.

But couldn't muster up the energy after having to exist next to Rachel within the last hour.

"Can't believe that little shit made me hug her over pretending to care for that girl Doll, can't believe she somehow managed to trek across camp with noooooooooooooo problems until now. Like, what. Was she running off pure adrenaline until now or something? That is probably it now that I think about it, not even focusing on the real world until she reached a destination. Running around blindly like a dumbass and then being lucky enough to NOT get killed by falling down some ditch or something. It's honestly unfair that I had to encounter her.". Lizzy mused to herself in plain annoyance, standing up after another minute, hands idly discarding the stolen robe she had put on by tossing it onto the couch in the centre of the cabin. Feeling clearer without its suffocating wraps around her, only lamenting now at how the stains to her clothes from the week back were now present and Rachel would probably notice them. If she wasn't still on the ground, the thought of checking on her occurring suddenly to the cheerleader.

//You will need fuel sooner or later\\

"I'm not, she'd taste rank.". Lizzy mentally snapped back, having slowly gotten more used to communicating her thoughts with the thing in her head rather then speaking them out loud. Making doubly sure to not spill her secret to the world with Rachel outside, even if there was beyond any doubt that the girl was deaf to the world out of fear.

//You'll be what you eat, but sure. Starve, curl up on the floor and shrivel into nothing...\\

"Nah.". The girl again retorted, but then a sneaky, vile feeling came to her. She could, couldn't she.

//Whatever... What are you thinking?"\\

"Pftt, can't read my thoughts almighty fraud?". Lizzy hummed back, whispering since she was feeling bolder now as her vision was spattered with the radiation like crackle that came with conversing with the solver. The solver that went silent in response, leaving her hanging with yet another victory in hand against it. Words jousted in expert fashion against something so immensely above her that her herculean lift should not of been possible and she knew it.

"Hah, silent. Perfect, didn't want you around anyway. Much rather see in perfect clarity than have my bitrate drop cause you can't stop backseat gaming.". She mentally paraded herself for a moment, then opened the door to the tiniest of slivers to check before something sick inside her decided to rear it's ugly head. Something far from cold, twisting whatever was inside her in an unmatched silent agony. She never really listened to her father when he was explaining the parts of a drone in class but she was very much aware that this feeling wasn't normal. Shouldn't be normal, but the irregularities of the last week had her scarcely prepared for the feeling of being strung up from the inside out. Gathering up the strength to swear out loud but getting nowhere with that idea.

"Jesus... Fuck, owwwwwwwwww... Okay, stomach pains now???". She thought to herself, closing the door on instinct after the briefest glimpse outside revealed that Rachel was still on the ground. No longer shaking but no longer moving, probably stuck in her own head or otherwise occupied. Lizzy didn't care. She had a choice amount of words to mentally shout at a choice victim of hers before she even came close to caring.

"Solver of the absolute dog shit, you mind explaining everything NOW? It would be, very, cool if you did you know.". Of course, as per any good solver activities she got no clarification and was instead promptly treated to the feeling of her stomach filling up.

//Was curious, going to skip a few steps now.\\

Lizzy screwed her face up at that reply, fury boiling and rising faster then the sludgy and impeccably wrong feeling inside her as she froze with her hand on the door handle. Frozen now entirely despite not a single shard of ice being anywhere near here, temperature rising like comets played in reverse. Body almost her own but not quite as something held her still, was it fury. Anger hot enough to seize the engine that propelled it forward. She didn't think so even if that had been the case in her life before, seizing up from pure vitriol in some long moved on from situations. It wasn't fear either, she was soon to be unstoppable with how the voice in her head had told her she'd have her powers soon and she knew what Doll and Uzi could do with those. Sadness? Maybe. Probably not.

//You wanted the world, we're letting you take it by force.\\

The solver continued, the words all in her head yet every single one feeling like they were shoving bricks through the back of her skull. Each one laden with hellish knowledge and the schematics of reality. Solver glyph after glyph after glyph after glyph appearing in her mind's warped eyes, each slightly different and each described in abhorrent detail in hues of pink and gold. The lord telling it's john to transcribe visions of the end down to the very shade of grass. And all she saw was the gore of herself and the world, thick, thicker then thick till she found herself swimming. Mentally at least even if she could feel it slick upon her legs and arms. Words in languages unknown spun cocoons of lies and futures around the drone known as Lizzy whilst the heat of a sun stalled. Draping itself like a messiahs rags upon her shoulders, steel holding strong, steel holding, steel holding everything when the weight of the world settled into place.

She heard herself scream, she heard herself meet Doll for the first time.

"Oh I'm in deep now aren't I??".

She heard Uzi beg for anything but death, she saw the corpse spire grow till it ate the moons. Top morphing into the serpent while twin moons ran from the world, chariots blazing trails through the stars.

Lizzy would have screamed but for once her body disobeyed, for once she wasn't in control and that shot a barb of fear beyond anything else through her.

//The world is yours now, right? Just reach out. Make it all yours, an absolute.\\

She found her arm moving despite everything, fingers splaying of her and their own accord as if by instinct. They shook, shivered to be more accurate. Her eyes locked on their movements as she couldn't see anything else anymore. World eaten by speckles soft yellow and black while every other sense was jammed and overloaded by the gospel buzz of a dying mechanical god. Praying for her, it was giving her its blessing and a mandate.

"My truth...". Lizzy found her shaking easing at that single thought. Her hand them stopped shaking a second later as her mind filled with a sea of images to distract her. Shadows dreamt of endless fire, her heart melted the strongest iron as soul after soul sunk into what was once robot. The shapes of keys to places she didn't know became apparent to her as they were now second nature and the point of no return was promptly danced over with reckless abandon. Unending spite married limitless potential as she felt her shaking slow to almost non existent, the world opening up to her late after her first death. Everything was poured in through the crucible of her desire into the mould that was her fragile, fragile body. Unfathomably sturdy yet broken within before it was ever

Her fingers splayed, and three prongs of pink lighting gave way to the sigil of the solver. Captured in zeus' stolen thunder and beaconing with what felt like divine light, it's existence causing her stomach to boil with the heat of the greatest of holy forges. Steam whispering off her casing in budding hiss of fawning gospel as to her reality it rained with an unknown but powerful slowness, every drop heavy as if it alone was the weight of worlds.

//A N D S H E W A S S W A L L O W E D I N T O T H E G U L L E T O F O U R O B O R U S\\

---- Return of the character pov breaks ----

With all the soon to be birthed horror stirring inside the cabin behind her, one would assume Rachel would have moved. Ran, scrambled away into the night and to safety. She however, did not do such things as to her the night was the only monster out here. And Uzi, but she couldn't put a face to the name of the apparent camp slasher monster they now faced. Her mind conjuring up wicked images that would strike fear into even the bravest of drones and would send murder drones running upon first contact. Such is the way of a slightly overactive imagination left with nothing but the fear of the dark and vague descriptors to work with, hell beyond hell.

"I need to move... I need to move I need to move, just. Gotta take, that, first step.". Rachel's mind hummed to itself, telling her only the obvious as her vision stayed closed off to the world. Audio being her only cue to the surroundings and giving her nothing to work with asides the soft wind and the death groan of the earth beneath her. That odd shake, she had of course read about such disasters. Having taken a vested interest in the workings of tectonic plates and the planet that allowed them to live on its surface back in the bunker. So she knew, this was not at all normal. Even if her body had acclimated to the barely destabilizing rumbles that had purred across camp for the last fifteen to twenty minutes.

"This isn't normal, I think. Earthquakes are a lot quicker than this I thought, quicker and stronger then this one? It just feels, like. We're on a giant, egg? Or something... I really should have went to school more then what I did.".

A crunch in the distance, almost comical in how abrasively loud the twig snap signal of something approaching was to her. Did it help that she wasn't using her eyes, probably. Did it help that the sound seemed to cut through the fog of fear and jolt her into sitting upright on her knees. She'd say yes in hindsight but for now her body was to busy scanning the treeline like a scared rabbit, eyes wide and shaky.

"Wha, what was that???". Her mind quested to itself as she kept looking, finding nothing but the darkness which could wait to terrorise her once more and the snow frosted forest. Stars out in pitiful numbers as that blanket of cloud kept the world in gentle coldness. She blurted out a question despite herself, her mind going rabid at that decision only after it had happened.

"Hello?!".

"YOU DONT ANNOUNCE WHERE YOU ARE TO THE MYSTERIOUS THING IN THE WOODS RACHEL... That's like the number one thing every horror movie tells you not to do.".

The ground groaned once more under them, fierce in its piercing thrumming noise and forceful enough to physically shake the snow from the dead tree branches. Causing a large, synchronised whooshing sound to be heard as it all fell to the ground at the same time. A couple claw like clicks being heard from where her stolen snowmobile was, just barely twenty paces ahead and tipped to its side, exactly the way it had been left.

"Oh, okey. No, nonono... Let's turn around and get Lizzy now body let's not go towards the thing on the snowmobile I stole now.". She coaxed herself, finally being able to rise to both feet and take a couple steps back. Her phone dead in the snow and promptly forgotten about in the terror of hearing something scrape one claw across the vehicle from out of view. The darkness not helping her case of figuring out what it was as she took two more wobbly steps backwards, legs shaking from fright as her breath was string taut as if the slightest noise should have her flayed alive. Which it probably would, too bad her boots made crunches in the snow.

Unfortunately for Lizzy, Rachel still wasn't set upon by any sort of night terrors. Fortune favoured the verifiably claimed stupid as if in direct spite to the pink eyed soon to be host.

"Just keep walking, backwards, away from Uzi. She can have all my stuff I don't care, I would just rather live then get killed off as a joke or something by some insane classmate that never came to school...  just, keep going back. Another step. And another one.". She backed further away, the back of her boot coming into contact with first step up to the porch of the cabin Lizzy was in in a surprise contact that made Rachel clamp her mouth shut to avoid screaming out of shock. Sure, it was the most accidental contact ever and the step very much wasn't going to eat her, but then again she was currently thinking everything was out to get her. Her body successfully freezing up to avoid springing upwards and making noise that would have alerted the creature already watching her to her presence, Rachel had the blissful chance to think she was doing well. Or at least, not horribly.

"BREATHE. It's just the stairs it's just the stairs it's just the stairs it's just the stairs it's just the stairs. Nothing to be afraid of at all, stairways are kind of cute actually. Totally, just cute little guys.". She mentally chided herself, desperate to convince herself that the world wasn't out to get her and using one of the tricks she got taught by her sibling. When terrified, just imagine thing that is scaring you as a cute little harmless version of itself.

After a moment, it worked enough for her to take the first step up them. Scanning the forest to find only a glint of yellow in the shadows, steady, broken light being replaced by a pop of red and the crunch of the cabin wall barely an arm's length to her right being punctured. The damage minimal despite, or because of, the cabins deep frosted layers and aged wood. Barely a few splinters sputtering out from the impact before the bullet itself slide out and clinked onto the deck. Spent, useless after it's one travel from safety out into the dark. If she wasn't petrified by the revelation she probably could have related to the object motionless on the floor.

Rachel stared at its surface, eyes wide enough to be considered funny by someone with a sick sense of humour and breath held captive by the dominating chain of fear around her neck.

She had just been shot at.

Something in the woods had just shot at her.

"... I just, got shot at... I, bullet... Me. Something, in the forest wants me dead... I'm going to die here and Rebecca won't ever see me again, mom and dad won't see me again after they tried so hard to get me to go on this camp and have fun... I'm going to die, I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to die im going to die...". Rachel turned and grabbed the door handle in abject terror. Yanking at it once with enough force to make it's hinges complain but to no avail of opening it as a second pop signalled the arrival of another bullet, it's path missing her and striking the ceiling instead. Frost and wood sprinkling down on the girl as her body worked in instinctual silence, furiously yanking at the door while all semblance of her being sentient fled like birds from a bushfire.

She yanked at the door again, both hands, putting her all into opening the gateway to a safe haven. The hinges gurgled out a red sludge in disgusted response, the sight making her body jump back just in time to avoid a third shot from whatever was evidently toying with her in the dark. A slurred and uncomfortable voice complaining at her as she yelled at the door and her friend to let her in, said voice almost familiar but now escaping the grasps of her recollection. She hadn't been the best at audio recognition anyway.

"Lizzy open the door I'm getting shot at, come on. LIZZY. DOOR, PLEASE!".

//Busy\\

Rachel almost paused at the reply, hearing Lizzy's voice say that of all things while denying her entry. To say that she was unaffected would of been a plain lie, this reality once again chipped away at her porcelain heart with uncaring interest.

"Wha, what do you mean busy?!". Rachel hissed back, yanking on the door handle again only for the thing to be pulled straight out of the door with a crunch of wood. Rachel dropping it in surprise and then feeling the death slice of a bullet whistling straight beside her head, the girl freezing from just how close to dear death she was. A distant laugh in the woods being promptly out competed by the resulting whine of fear from the girl, which itself was promptly out competed by the doorway into the cabin morphing into a solid wooden wall with an ugly crunch. The faintest of pink light barely visible during the split second process.

"Wha? What. No, nononononononononononononono?!?! She can't of, she physically can't do that she can't leave me out here?!?. LIZZY, Lizzy. Please, god please don't make this happen to me.". Rachel mentally pleaded to the wall, adrenaline enough that she completely ignored her disabled and bleeding wrist. Not acknowledging the fact she was bleeding out and most likely would be permanently disabled to a degree from this incident and that it was all her fault for trusting the pink liar.

Another bullet whizzed past, aimed to miss yet still surprising Rachel as it shattered one of the ears of her helmet and scattered the shards of it away from her. The turn of events all she needed to spin on her heel and bolt down the stairs, crunching through snow and falling flat on her face a few paces to the left. Having stuck close to the cabin wall as she decided to simply flee, run like an animal and abandon Lizzy to whatever was in the forest. Rachel scrambling upright as her helmet completely abandoned her and rounding the corner of the cabin as the shooting continued, every shot driving another spike of molten nail fear through her core.

"Run as fast as you can as far as you can and don't forget anyone. I know it may be hard but I don't want to ever hear that my daughter purposely left someone to die just to keep herself alive, we all need each other these days.". Her mind cast that memory at her between visions of her death flashing as she bolted. Feeling as if she was the scum of the earth for not dragging Lizzy out with her, the rest of her life as she kept running. Breath jagged, body burning with programmed in adrenaline as her pace became rhythmic and steadied over the next minute. A few more shots followed her or whizzed off into the night, every one a missed chance at death.

"I should go back I should go back I need to make sure Lizzy is safe but she told me she was busy and left me outside and I'm getting shot at too much to- why haven't I died yet, your not supposed to be able to outrun bull-

Then, just like that character from a game she had played a few weeks back had said, she found herself unable to outsmart nor outrun bullet. One deciding now was the perfect time to go straight through her lower chest and got caught in her clothes on the exit. Causing her to screech out and come to a halt between two trees behind the cabin, oil splurging out and staining her black sweater a rank and somehow blacker black as she collapsed forward with a thud in the snow. Prowling crunches and the cease of bullet fire from behind her going unnoticed. Barely drowned under the agonized whine that sputtered out into gasps for unneeded air, Rachel left lying on her side and wracked with the occasional weak spasm of movement. Snow here deeper, coming up to half consume her, leaving her less visible as if the world wanted her gone as soon as possible.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow fuck. It hurts... Why do I have to feel pain lik-, like this... What did I do wrong? Where did i fu- u- uck up???".

"Move move move move move move move move move move move move move move move move move move run hide go as fast as you can Rachel.". The girl started sobbing, again. Mind curling in on itself as her body decided to try to crawl for any reach at safety. Pulling at the earth and shifting the snow ahead of her as she continued to feel her oil tubing stay suspiciously intact, the drone blood still leaking from her yet not in the sputtered, busted pipe sort of way that it was supposed to when a tube was burst or cut. Instead this was just a slow, idle leak. Still hurt, still made her shudder, but wasn't as deadly. Apparently. Really she had no clue but the fact she was still online was blessing in itself for the nanoseconds before her reality as a second-class species on a forgotten rock set back in with the force of a runaway metro.

"I'm not food I'm not food I can and will escape, I just got to believe...". She mentally lied to herself, one last whine gasp from the before mentioned wound escaping her on butterfly wings. Hope dashed in the wind. The earth groaned again, loud. A crack echoing out from somewhere with a ferocity that felt more akin to a downed plane crashing then the subtle dragon snores of the past quarter hour. The sound surprising both her and her pursuer as their muffled snow crunch steps paused, Rachel double taking as she realised she had heard their steps now.

They had to be close.

They had to be right there.

She should of already been shot through the head.

Right?

Everything felt worse for her now as her mind randomly spouted out a reason for this development, if she wasn't killed already then, they needed her alive for something. Someone with a gun needed her alive, they were willing to hurt her, but they needed her alive. And as usual, that idea terrified her. Then again almost anything was capable of terrifying her but with most instances of her fear it was irrational and unfunded. Here, this one was flinging its cash around like a streamer with an inferiority complex and something to prove. 

"I'm going to get tortured aren't I???". Rachel thought, jumping to the obvious and very evidently correct conclusion with all the evidence she totally one hundred percent needed to have to make such a hypothesis. The girl crawling with enough renewed vigor to make it a meter before a warning shot thudded into the ground where her only working hand was going to be, stopping her. She looked back.

//Oh you look terrified..~\\

V. V's corpse stood knock kneed barely a meter back. Looking more then horrific compared to what a murder drone should look like as it's entirely yellow visor except for the red warning sign designating her as dead mimicked looking at her, casting a pike stab of terror through the worker drone's body. Towering machine woman rent in multiple places by what looked to be claws marks yet still standing as if nothing was wrong, stomach gorged open to show smashed ribs as her tail flicked it's just as smashed canister end around to catch reflections of the stars in its remaining glass. V had already been a walking corpse in a few ways unbeknownst to everyone, burdened with knowledge and suffering, but now she was literally a walking corpse. Speaking with a grated almost her voice as she swapped both hands to claws and sauntered forward, her gait uneven against ground that had stilled back to normalcy. Thankfully the snow hid no roots that would have toppled the thin peg legs Rachel's aggressor but once begrudging and evidently never committed camp councillor walked with.

"..wh, w- wha- wh. No, wha- you. You, V..? What..?". Rachel managed to sputter out, scrambling back and wincing as something damaged inside her disagreed with such an action.

"This has to be a nightmare, that's right in dreaming I'm dreaming this is a nightmare and isn't real because otherwise I'm going to die. It's fine I'll just wake up please, like. Right now, it's not funny anymore it's not funny anymore can I wake up. Please, COME ON!". Rachel mentally pleaded, fully prepared for the monster in front of her to reply to her innermost thoughts as if she was broadcasting them. Luckily it didn't, luckily it just prowled forward with that broken teeth smile and silence. Peg legs crunching the already distorted and oil spattered snow as she made her way over to stand practically on top of Rachel.

"V.. V, please, I, - I. I don-- t. I don't want to, I don't want to.. No, stop.". The orange eyed girl whimpered as she scrambled back a bit more, losing feeling in one arm and having her vision glitch out a bit as tears displayed in abundance on her visor. Only managing a step or two further in distance before the corpse of V pressed its clawed hand down onto Rachel and pinned her down. Other hand changing to a chainsaw that stayed dead and idle, V moving with an alien to her level of boredom that betrayed something further wrong with her. For all her facade born predatory glee, all that the students had ever seen from her unless their name was one with the titular pink menace now hidden from the world. All that glee wasn't bubbling up, her laugh wasn't here. She may as well be a different person, anyone who had known her for more than five minutes would have easily caught onto the ruse. 

Rachel, was not that person. She was just a scared girl put way too far out of her depth and pitted against a thrice or so avoiding death machine that had been bent into a new person far too many times to be original. 

//Stop wh-a-t? You'll learn to smi- le\\

V purred in that glitchy broken voice as she sat down on Rachel's stomach with a thud that made the worker wheeze and cry out weakly. V's claw hand and tail pinning her prey's arms just as they started flailing, causing Rachel to speak again. Voice rising in terror that had slowly mutated to an easily stunted fight response, she had no tools to fight with or the skill to do so.

"V!?!, Let me g-

V just shoved the idle chainsaw into the girl's mouth, jagged blade teeth pushing against the back of her throat and making her gag as Rachel froze up again. Lips stretching unwillingly to fit the flat intrusion, the cold of night and the stench of the week dead drone doing this to her assaulting her mouth in equal disdain and fury. Her eyes were locked with the part of the weapon that didn't fit, staring like deer caught in headlights at the mauled come hand of what was supposed to be one of the camp counselors. Still dressed in the same uniform in spite of her current activities.

"What the, no no no no get that out nononononononononononononono. This can't be happening what, how did everything I do have me end up HERE?".

V's corpse smirked, tilted its head like it didn't understand what it was doing before the chainsaw purred into idle.

"Don't. V stop... Please don't do this I didn't do anything wrong I don't deserve this do I? YOu don't look as hot trying to kill me as I thought you would.".

Surprisingly. It did, gaze snapping upwards in annoyance and staring hateful daggers into the distance away from its current target. Rachel unable to see what as she was still pinned to the ground and half buried in snow, visor a slowly creeping mess of damage warnings as her systems finally determined that the earlier bullet wound had only skimmed one of her power supplies along with an oil filter. Her eyes somehow going wider at that realisation before she was snapped back to reality by V speaking once more.

//Wondered where you had ran off to, boss\\

Rachel quickly frowned and tried to shimmy back a bit, reaching hopefully for a break where she could get the now half frozen saliva drenched chainsaw out of her mouth and V off of her entirely. Her mind ablaze with thoughts surrounding whoever V had addressed and only getting more fuel to the many rampant hopeful theories her mind had spawned when whoever V had spoke to now spoke back.

"... Cyn..? I've done, everything you asked of me, so tell me. What, what the... What the hell is going on?". They sounded scared, really scared despite their evident distance from the murdered murder drones above her. Rachel guessing maybe ten meters further into the forest, maybe more or maybe less. Her hearing wasn't doing the best with the consistent purr of the almost live chainsaw in her mouth and the addition of an abhorrent grumble from the earth.

"What the hell, who was that? Are they here to save me please tell me they're here to save me that would be really cool.". The orange eyed girl thought to herself as she felt V's tail tighten to further constrict the arm it was bound around, the force drawing out a pained little groan from the worker. The sound went unacknowledged.

//She's not here J-

"Cu-..t the cr-.. ap... boss, V doesn't just get up looking like that, specifically after you, - yo.. abandoned me.". The drone, given the name of J, replied in a beyond shaky voice that pitched itself up a bit as if they were afraid they'd be flayed alive for even talking this way. Which, unknown to both of them had already happened once. 

//Sounding, smart for once. Never thought, we'd see the day\\

"Tch, guess times are changing...".

//How so, you don't look, a shred. Different from the last times, we saw you. Or the last times, before here\\

"How, many times... Before here?".

//Answer declined\\

"Look, please. You lied, just... don't, make this worse. For once Cyn.". J plead back, voice remarkably pathetic for someone who was supposed to be the leader of a squad of killer machine angels destined to wipe out a lower race and bring machine-kind's cold black rapture.

//... J..., Jaybird. It's so disheartening to see that you've grown a spine, come here so we can tear it out again.\\

The body of V hissed back, voice whirring and distorting to sound as if she was someone Rachel had never heard before if only for a moment in its disregard for the other's wishes. The accent odd and evidently something of importance to the drone known as J simply because they didn't make any sound in response asides a sad hiss that Rachel barely heard. Night sky a quarter clear now as the ground decided to rumble in soft unease once again, punctuating their existence as hell on earth in a way that was simply irrefutable.

Then came change, hesitancy to be more exact. It's voice as if it were reliving some past eons ago yet just as much in the moment as Rachel was. The earth groaning beneath them as the tension in the air rose.

"... I, I don't want to anymore... Boss, I'm tired. You can do better then me, evidently... So, just. Stop, please. Make someone better then me and let me rest...".

//But your fun\\

V's body spat back, it's voice shifting down to a low chuckle while it stayed crouch sat upon its prey. Moonlight present yet unfeeling while the two murder drones stood off between the trees of a camp long since desecrated.

//And. More importantly. We don't care\\

"You never, did. Did you?".

//True\\

With that, sadness and confusion gave way to a relative of theirs. Cornered animal fury, for really. What else was J supposed to do now? Rachel meanwhile was still stuck, still bleeding out in that cold tap trickle as she was a bit too caught up in the theatrics here to monitor her own condition. 

"You said after this world it would all stop, you said this about the last one too?! Why am I remembering NOW, Why are you MAKING me remember this?!?". J hissed back, voice rising and temper flaring as odd images began to resurface like bubbles from tar within her mind. Pasts left forgotten, pasts forced to be forgotten. Ice, sand, forest and oil. Too much yet not enough, all of it stopping barely a second later when the corpse of V snapped it's fingers.

//Because it's all about control. Fals- Cough.mp3 -e\\

V's body then shook a little, an unwanted spasm as the chainsaw was jostled around Rachel's mouth with little care for scratching and pulling at the insides. Which it did, pricking at places that were designed to be just as sensitive as a human mouth for whatever reason the long gone humans had, which coincidently was also not supposed to have bladed metal weapons inserted into it. It, despite having never changed what it's visor displayed this entire time. Gave off the distinct air of being immensely disappointed but also a fraction surprised at the present situation.

"Are, are you lying..?". J asked, voice tightrope taut as her performance wobbled and the distinct noise of the flutter gasps of wind obscured it from Rachel's hearing. Question ice thin and fragile in the night air.

Then it laughed, blunt and robotic in a way that was decidedly fake. Visor turning to look down at Rachel for a instant just to flash its own distorted set of teeth, glinting ice white in the night.

//It wouldn't change a thing if we were\\

The chainsaw roared to life and was slashed sideways in an instant, shredding Rachel's mouth, tongue, lips and left side of her face into a mess and splashing oil everywhere along with the wail pitch of her sudden scream. Shredded vocal capabilities coming out as unintelligible computer whines instead of the rampant begging to be put out of her misery that would have emerged from anyone still capable of speaking. Body convulsing to no avail as it was held tight in all meanings asides her thrashing legs, visor sparking between horrified eye lights, flashes of pure orange and the disposal red that was displayed on all irreparably damaged drones when their time had come. In the same instant V had stood up and used her coiled tail to throw Rachel into the cabin wall with a crunch, uncaring while her dead gaze was stuck to J the entire time.

Rachel continued to try to speak, scream, wail, anything asides slump down and let her clothes be drowned in her newly spilt oil. Both hands going to her mouth as glitched garble noise came out of it like pitiful rodent squeaks, fingers near instantly drenching themselves in the fluid leaking from her torn and knotted tongue and shattered teeth. Writhing no more and incapable of noticing the fact some of her teeth had been torn up by the cruelty she had just been granted and had now jumped ship to sail as white boats in white snow painted black. She slumped, or froze, stayed still now to cradle the disgusting gap between her bottom jaw and upper one she had gained. 

Her attacker was still there, both V and J watching as Rachel whined on the ground. Used to seeing such fates for workers, however what happened next was against the usual code of murder drone ethics. Or whatever was the closest to that considering their whole existence and namesake revolved around the word murder, maybe the words team and moral code or product guidelines might of been a better fit. Regardless, words and ideals didn't stop J from having her stomach pierced by a gun shot, neither did it stop both angels from rocketing into the sky in metal fury. Boss slower then their own boss as J was left in second place.

---- POV swap, again ----

"I can't care anymore, I just can't. It discarded her so quickly, it discarded me so quickly... It's probably pointless but I want to be at the wheel for once. I have to be, right? Otherwise i'll stay in this game of conquest forever.". J's thoughts were fire, her claws wrath and wings reapers scythes. She swirled into the night in elegant spirals chased by what manic creature was left behind from her former squadmate. Clouds fleeing while the moons and stars stayed to watch two once friend angels fight, trees and snow and cause and corpse being left behind.

"But it can just do whatever it wants, there's no point in fighting... Is there?". J half-heartedly mused to herself as she sprayed several bullets towards the ragged corpse of V. Forcing the body to dodge and spiral itself away to reduce the chance of being pierced through what looked to be it's already weakened body. Wingblades kept close while J took a few more pot shots when it escaped her effective range only to have her friend now foe whip around and launch a pair of rockets back at J.

"Okay, dodge those. Stop getting stuck in your head you have a life to keep alive. But what's the poin- NOT NOW.". J mentally shoved that titanic of tormented thoughts a few steps back into her mind while she heard the rockets she had dodged explode far off into the distance. Probably ruining some small cabin or group of trees that she didn't care about, J instead taking a second to properly equip herself for the duel. One hand a sword which shook with the fear of making her own path, other hand a submachine gun with a muzzle that spat at the dread of failure. She had to steel her thundering core and fight for once, having been left without her partner and the blanket of perceived safety yanked out from under her.

"The point is be-

J began before having her line of thought promptly smacked right out of her when V's corpse rocketed forward, diving in at J from above with both hands as claws. Visor still the same triangular damage warning of red except now their was no backing colour, which was a detail J barely managed to catch before she caught V as well. Both drones falling in a mess of splayed oil rain and sparks of metal on metal that would have stunned an unprepared worker drone in their display. V ending up with both claws caught hand in hand by J's own pairs of claws while her jagged tail had been slashed off pre-emptively. Leaving the two caught in close range decent with J's tail left uncontested and quickly attempting to plunge its entire canister of nanite acid into V. Only for the opposing angel to manage to disengage, lose both its claws and backhand the tail canister with its wrist to make it harmlessly shatter and its contents fly off into the night. Grunts of strength and fury contest being interrupted as V suddenly kicked J in the stomach and through the top of one of the trees. Both girls realising just now they had fallen back down to the ground some tens of meters away from where they left.

"What's my win condition here?". J hissed mentally to herself as she righted her fall by using her wings limited levitation ability to guide herself to instead land on the ground on her feet as opposed to her back. Instantly running left into a clearing and taking off again while V pursued with a screech not unlike a bat or animal of some sort. The corpse woman having not regrown it's hands properly as it appeared that the Disassembly drones natural regeneration didn't actually work completely for her for some reason now. The knowledge garnered through J's headband vision as it clicked into activation, limiting her visible distance to sixty feet as anything further then that was just a blur of blues and blacks but giving her full 360 perception of that distance including heat signatures of targets.

"Acid, it's always acid. I just have to stab her apparently empty ribcage and that's a win... Even if, it's V...". J thought to herself, diving back down in a quick U-turn of her momentum to catch the pursuing V that was currently rising up by surprise. Of course that just ended with it taking a kick to the face, bouncing through the snow of the rock filled clearing they had just been in and landing on her feet like the felines she was so often compared to. J swapping back to normal vision while soaring forward in a tackle and countering the prepared horizontal sword slice V had tried to do at her by curling her wings in front of her to have the sword clash with the resulting shield bubble of bladed feathers. The forward momentum leading J into bumping her wings into V and then flicking them outward to throw the girl off her balance as well as a couple feet back, continuing the combo by launching a saw blade at her and landing the mark.

Headshot.

Oil gushed out of V's split open face in perfect unison with the fuzzy glitched wail that accompanied it. V throwing her head forward and down in a brutal nod like motion to dislodge the blade and send it into the snow along with a fair amount of shattered glass that near instantly blended into the snow. A spray of defending bullets halting J from getting any closer before a rocket forced her to jump twenty feet back into the centre of the clearing. Wing's levitation drives helping with her movement in a clean, almost business transactional way.

"Making headway, even if this is all pointless and Cyn will just end this world too. Shut, this is a good thing, im at the wheel now.. Even if it is all pointless. Then why am I fighting? Because she slipped up and showed me those memories? Because she broke promise after promise? Because no one el- J, focus on the NOW PLEASE!". J's mind cut her off as she landed on the stone and snow floor of this clearing. Roughly thirty metres wide and bordered by a wooden fence with gates at the north and southeast sides. Lantern posts around the edges having mostly been shattered while the pathways out from this had signs telling anyone here that this was a lookout and gathering place between the campsites major stops. A resting place if one would.

Shame that the earth shook right as she landed and forced both girls to focus on not falling over, further ruining the area around them and reaffirming that even those six feet deep would not be left to rest. J by turning both hands into swords and spiking them into the assortment of bubble like snow sunken boulders below her as if she was setting up for the sequel to Excalibur. V just opened her wings and levitated half a foot off the shaking ground, firing more submachine gun shots back at J in a broken sputter of lead.

"I'll have to.". J lied to convince herself, words spat out loud before neatly receiving a salt pinch of V's volley of lead across her body. Left arm, left elbow, both wings, right pigtail twice, chest once and right knee once. All asides her hair spilling oil and sending a damage notification to her head in response to the strikes upon what was once allied surface, J hissing in pain yet just returning her hands to normal and jumping back to the other side of the arena. The briefest thought of who would see them occurring to her.

"If V is here and like this, what was the bet that N and that purple worker were as well. I can't fight off all three of them, especially if this keeps going like it is.". The mental image of the ray of green erasure scouring her from the world or her once punching bag ally appearing to backstab her once again both being pushed from her mind. She had seen Uzi an hour or so earlier and she very much was preoccupied, N meanwhile she had no clue on in relation to location.

//You are. Unfortunately, persistent aren't you?\\

J just replied to those blunt words with another saw blade from her right arm, launched from her place at the edge of what would become their arena. The projectile being slapped aside with one of the corpse's dirty claw marked wings, the feather blades upon it rattled and uneven with a few straight up missing.

//Reall-

Another saw blade got slapped aside and the resulting clash of metal interrupted what V's walking corpse was going to say, causing it to just sigh out a plume of smoke and shake its head. Seemingly beyond words as it dashed forward to get into melee range of is opponent, an opponent who just dropped a black cylinder shaped mine at their feet and kicked it forward. The object making V jump to the side while J kept one hand as the mine launcher and switched the other too a sword, intending to meet V in combat.

"Just keep going, those thoughts of backing out can be cast aside.". J barely managed to think before she clashed her blade with V's right one in a block, V's left being returned to a claw for a moment before switching back to a sword to thrust at J's stomach. Blow avoided by levitating backwards and resetting the dance of the fight back to a more neutral state for only an instant. Said state disrupted by another mine being launched at V. She dodged it, hopping backwards and having to redirect her flight mid jump to avoid landing where the first one now sat. Nestled comfortably in the snow roughly at the middle of the arena.

J then switched both her hands to swords and rocketed forward, again V replied by swinging one blade horizontally to catch the rush. Again V's sword clattered against wings that once again launcher her backwards towards the edge of the arena, the only difference being that she recovered faster via launching herself into the sky off of the unorthodox throw. Ignoring how her legs were now bleeding and scratched up by the blades of J's wings. Rocketing up past the tops of trees and letting a pair of rockets cover her ascent, the explosions setting off J's own mines as well in a chain reaction that she only managed to subdue slightly. Curling her wings up around her yet still feeling the rush of heat and multiple stabs of thrown rock shards assault her. A cry of pain leaving her while the pressure wave from the explosions made the weaker glass of her headband shatter, gold fluid erupting and spattering the slightly melted snow ground at her feet.

"Gotta move gotta move where is she?".

V answered those thoughts by landing on top of J with both wings pointed down, pinning J's too the ground in a screech of metal on metal as the two angels literally entangled with each other. V's legs finding barely secure landing upon J's now stuck wings. J swiping up with a claw at V's leg and getting stuck in it while V grabbed at her new preys head with her own set of claws and started curling her claws inward, other hand becoming a shotgun that promptly got stabbed through by J's tail. Nanite acid seizing the weapon and making V hiss back in furious agony. Both entangled in a bloody attempt to tear the other two prices while ignoring their own damages, if only on J's end because she was effectively stuck while V's corpse seemed to just not care.

//Stay still\\

"NO!". J retorted, prying V's claws out of her skull with her own and biting down another hiss as they both interlocked their claws right into the others arm and didn't let go. Pulling and shredding in a mutual attempt to outdo the other, hate finally beginning to form in J's heart as the current predicament and pain along with the somehow revealed memory of the past pushed logic to the side. J's vision blurry as she felt the inside of her head be jostled around along with the very usual sense of actually being airheaded. Chill wind making her skull feel colder then death while her mouth deposited a fair amount of oil onto the steaming snow below them, V's own oil also dripping down and joining the macabre garden fountain display.

//Trait-

The corpse of V then froze up as it was impaled by a sword from the crotch straight upward through the empty chest cavity and up to the chin. The tip of J's right hand sword completely red and black now as it pricked at V's chin and held the girl up in skewer fashion.

"I, I did it?".

A second passed, V went limp. Letting J's mangled claw crunch up the opposing one and pull the entire arm from its socket, throwing it to the floor and hissing as it's embedded claws slid out of her. Leaving more surface for oil to escape, J noting her levels were dropping reasonably fast now.

"Oh, I did it...". J continued to think, feeling clammy despite the victory as she shakily pulled her wings from the earth. Stopping when the sensory overload from still having the now limp V impaled in both her wings got to much. She tried to shrug her wings in an attempt to push V off, an attempt that worked as the girl standing on her once preys wings stumbled to fall like ragdoll onto the ground. Her wings having splayed out in an ugly fashion after sliding out of their impale wounds in J's.

V looked like roadkill.

Smelt like roadkill.

The victorious murder drones squad leader sighed, reading her oil levels as dropping to below fifty from her now sealing up wounds while her head fixed itself as well. The soft bubbling of repair nanites becoming the only thing asides from wind she could identify audibly. Her world feeling smaller as the ground grumbled in annoyance at her win, as if the world itself was against her.

".. I'm free, for now. Of course...". J's mind began to wonder as she felt herself being returned to her normal appearance, gaze locked on the corpse of V and how it still had that cheshire grin even after it died. Just like always, look insane enough and someone won't poke under the surface to see if there's more, mainly because they'd probably have ended up dead if they tried.

"If Cyn wanted me back she would of made me come back by now... So, is this just some new game? Or did I actually win... Maybe, she doesn't usually shake and sputter of her own volition so what's up with that? Getting weak, someone else did something to her after she ran off from me? Doesn't explain the constant shaking of the ground now though does it..? Like, back on Earth.". J thought to herself as she thought back to the slowly escalating grumbles that the world had been doing over the last almost half hour or so. Maybe an hour, time was blurry and her currently almost finished head regeneration wasn't helping at all.

She had half the mind to turn V's corpse into paste considering just how annoyingly commonplace it was for her and her kin to slip out of deaths grip. Slow visions of her last body and its death here returning to J along with memories from pasts she didn't even know she had. But, there was also the thought of trying to repair her comrade. Just in case this was the last backup of her that would ever have a shred of free will.

Well, less like they were returning to her continuously now and more like she was left with the torn pages of a bookshelf knocked over. One shelf in a whole library and yet this information enough was cause for her to do the impossible. She mentally picked up a page and sunk into maybe fiction. Desert world, chasing workers through ruby red sand and soaring across twenty meter high waves to sink cargo ships some years past.

"... What am I supposed to think here??? She said it would be earth and then we'd be able to do whatever we wanted, not this. Not mindwipe after mindwipe, I think, not that much murder... And now, Ive fucked up enough to be on the opposing side of THAT... Almost died fighting V how am I supposed to even come close to Cyn?". J's mind whimpered at the image of her opposition was, to herself as what she had just done began to set in, the realisation of what her now opponent actually was making her almost shake out of worry. Although that could of been the exhaustion of fighting and killing one of her once squadmates.

"People I was supposed to keep safe...".

The real world pulled her back from searching through the new parts of herself with what could only be described as akin to soda can pop of dread. A bubbling magma or tar escaping pop coming from V's exposed and empty chest as the centre of her body began to melt in on itself, mess of clearly solver made flesh and parts dying out as her body finally laxed. Letting that pulled taut and fake hunters grin die with it, smile finally average, bland but free. In a way.

J just sighed and turned away from the display.

"I've probably just done the worst thing possible, but I guess I don't care because I did it on my own terms... Maybe, it'll probably come back to tax me on the ass when I'm least expecting it...".

But despite the smoke, the gnawing flame crawling ever closer, she stalled with her wings open.

"I can't just, leave her can I?".

"But, I'm no mechanic.".

"We aren't really, just machines though.".

"That doesn't make this easier...".

J saluted the body before escaping her crimes in solemn silence, holding tightly the second chance she had been given as if it was her last line to the real world. The only remaining question to her now was if she would wield it with grace.

Chapter Text

They all heard it, N, Thad and Trevor having spun their heads to look across camp when that crumble thud of something large being dislodged rung out. Ground grumbling once more as they gingerly kept their half pace of travelling along these winding paths, having to let Trevor lead since they had the photo of the map on hand while Thad took the back and N was left between them both out of sheer luck and the subtle thought of preemptively being in the way in case things got tight again. The trio skidding to a stop at the top of a stone staircase with a railing of what was once metal bars but now was just a smattering of broken shards of half submerged in the snow or jutting out of the ground like incomplete crosses. They looked old even in their new state.

The stairs meanwhile were plain, dusted heavily with snow and barely visible as a stairwell unless one looked to either side of it and recognised that the ground around it was much steeper. Five meters, seventy percent descent if N had to have a guess. The trees around here were tight to the path and they found themselves looking down at a five way crossroads at the bottom of the stairs, signposts having been blown over some time recent or ages ago.

"Trevor, which way?". N asked hurriedly as he half pushed the other two workers to keep moving, headband clicking back into activation to check the briefest amount behind him for threats. No Doll, no other monster lurking in the dark. Luckily they were alone despite the noise, he'd have to take a look but leaving these two would of been a dumb idea.

"Oh uh, shit... Second leftmost path.". The map wielding boy replied as he slowed his movement to check Doll's stolen and somehow lacking a password phone and the image saved on it, having to resist the temptations to go diving through her saved files. The temptations dashed when the wind howl bashed at their backs as if to encourage them to continue moving, forceful and cold in its drive to force them forward. Almost like time.

"Okay, okay...". N's reply came out quickly as the three of them descended the staircase in record time and sped up the path they were designated to. Visions of their destination or the possibility of becoming mince metal spurring them on to a now slightly weary half jog, N having to keep his pace slower to match the two workers.

"How long have we been running for? We're probably already halfway to that hanger I swear, Doll wouldn't even hurt us anyway... Probably, she definitely wouldn't. She was just mad at V at the prom... She has every right to do what she did, it makes sense that she did all of it. But what about the reports of her home being full of corpses, the media couldn't of made that up because there were actually people going missing. It wasn't just random students either, they were all prom queen candidates lik-

Thad's mental ramblings were cut off by the sight of a barely a foot wide yet three car long gash being revealed to the trio as they rounded a bend in the snow covered path between this ever darkened forest. Trevor jumping over it with no difficulty while Thad and N stalled to a stop from sheer absurdity, at least having another dot to add to whatever mental corkboard could be made in relation to the ground having a fit tonight.

"Woah, suspicious fault line.". Trevor commented in a dry satirically poisoned tone, his voice from barely a few paces ahead making the other two hop over the line, both looking back to see it was a rediculously deep cut that really only made them wonder if it was naturally possible or not. Hazarding a guess in true American style of not being able to use standard measurements Thad came to the conclusion it was probably around the height, or depth, of a small skyscraper. Which, worried him. Not that geography of a cracked planet with several disabilities was exactly his strong suit of knowledge but this was still out of the ordinary. Not that an ordinary outside of the bunker has been mentally established yet.

"Yeah suspicious as hell, but I guess it's something?". Thad commented back as they all left the line and trotted off into the forest on legs tired of running from someone that might not even be there and could teleport.

"With how the ground is shaking every once in a while I wouldn't be surprised if there were more of them.". N added, skidding to a stop when he heard the familiar pop of distant explosions. The noise blind siding him as the rest of his responsibilities came hurtling back to the forefront of his mind, finding Uzi, finding V, keeping Lizzy safe, finding anyone else alive in this hellhole of a camp they had found themselves at. Sure it was Uzi's idea to go here of all places but it was him and V that had signed up to keep everything in order whole she went and sleuthed for clues. They were supposed to be a team and he hasn't seen her since that freak out with the arrowhead that got shot at her, right when he also last had all her classmates with him.

The ones he now knew were dead, the ones he had left with V.

"Arrrgghhhh, why the hell did I do that. Why the hell did I leave V of all drones with everyone, why'd everything go down the drain specifically now? Why haven't I been able to find Uzi, or V, anything really. This place is so full of things that are interesting but not what I need at all and now it's falling apart and apparently something is exploding across camp- I really should take a look at that, you know N I think your right you should take a look at that. But how? I've got to keep eyes on these two lest they tear each other too pieces or get flayed alive by Doll's cold but moving body... She had the solver too, it's not a big stretch to say she could just get up like that. Right? But she hates my guts and is evidently insane enough to kill her classmates so that doesn't change anything. This trip sucks, I want to go home I want to have not done anything.". N mentally ground himself into a fine dust as he kept up with the two workers easily, snow crunching underfoot as the stars were half out in a frankly unfairly relaxed way. His golden lights as miniscule in brightness as their ever far away whites, both shining as insignificant yet incontestable whether they liked it or not. His mind spat the bluntest answer to his worries at him after barely five more steps, ignoring the heavier breathing and visible breath of his companions.

"If I didn't, no one would have stepped up in my place...".

He stumbled at the realisation, and the further continuation of noise from across camp. He swore he should of remembered what was in the direction of the noise but he just couldn't, stumble stopped by his wings flicking out and lifting him slightly off the ground in almost preparation for his thought out next task.

"But what if I leave them for too long, I can't carry them with me can I? And if I could what if I bring them straight into more danger, what if we've been running from nothing this whole time and leaving Li- OH YEAH THAT'S WHAT'S IN THE DIRECTION OF THE EXPLOSIONS!.". His mind gave him an answer, and he felt sick to his core. The one person he had managed to keep save through this since the start of camp, finally put back into danger once more because of his negligence and inability to be everywhere at once.

He found himself mid crouch an instant later as if he had the ability to fly away from these two to check on her, which he didn't. He couldn't leave Thad and Trevor alone in this forest with everything that was happening and that once again realisation, that steel cold fact that he couldn't be everywhere was pinning him to the floor. Even if there was an ache to leave, to check if Lizzy was fine. For some reason that manifested as an ache despite how insufferable the woman was with all her self indulgent and focused preening along with her no nonsense attitude and rampant ironic venom that easily outdoes anyone else he had ever met. V and Uzi having been left behind in that department by the pink eyed monster of a conversation controller. He could almost appreciate the art of how futile it was to argue with her, almost. He'd be able to appreciate it more if it wasn't every so often he'd be on the receiving end of such an argument over something miniscule like repairing the temporary cabin home's windows so they let less draft in or such things even though they both knew they wouldn't be staying in it forever.

Just until they had a way home they had agreed with each other, a way to go back to the colony and the new normal and then in Lizzy's own words.Never interact with a daft hunk with bugs for brains like you ever again.

"It's Lizzy, she's fine. She's fine. She has to be fine, for now I just take a quick look to see what that explosion was.". N's head convincingly rambled at the rest of him before his mouth told the others what was happening, both Thad and Trevor slightly apprehensive to being left in the dark right now iof all times. Even if neither of them argued or did anything beyond raising a pair of thumbs up at the suggestion.

"Five minutes, I'll be back in five minutes. Just going to check on what made that explosion.". N exclaimed, voice having to contend with lighting arc crack of something behind the trio. N seeing a flash of yellow and red lighting in the forest through the gap between Thad and Trevor before realising what it was. The two boys spinning around to see a tree falling straight towards them with an ugly dying creak and the whoosh of displaced wind.

"WOA?!". Thad barely managed to exclaim before he was yanked out of the way by N and Trevor, the latter managing their own shout as the trio ended up under the tree cover of the forest themselves since they had dashed off the pathway. Finding purchase on the packed ice snow and burried dirt that was the forest floor in comparison to the buried concrete that was the path.

"MOVE!".

"Yeah okay nevermind I'm staying here with you guys that was too close. Boy I do love not feeling horrendous over not being able to be everywhere at once.". N half laughed half spat as he switched one hand to a submachine gun and pointed it into the forest where the tree had fallen from as if he expected what had obviously made it fall now show itself. His tail moving in jagged wavey motions while the two workers had ended up clinging to him like he was their dad and they were frightened kids, which was both entirely correct and incorrect as while he was not father material they were all kids.

Luckily for them the creature in the woods would once again decide against showing itself.

Once again it slipped away into the night as if it hadn't just tried to kill or at most slightly damage them all.

N turned both his hands into torches and and shone them around himself into the darker dark of the night, Thad and Trevor also peering like startled deer at the beyond around them. Cold snow underfoot not helping with the slow crawl of dread they felt about being prey. Even if they all had theories on what it was.

"Okay so ghosts now, cool.". Thad exclaimed in angered sleepiness, his anger barbed at the fact he was tired while all this was going on and that he was getting to the point where shutting off unnecessary systems and processes was looking rather grimly necessary. Unwilling to think of a more realistic answer to their plight.

"No that was Doll.". N then answered back within the second, tail flicking up like a scorpion to help give at least himself some feeling of safety while he scanned the woods. His guess overshadowed by Trevor's own.

"It was one hundred percent that evil bloody blob thing that that purple chick left behind a week back. What if it grew up since uhm, really sure none of us did anything about it.".

"The WHAT? Why was i away when that happened what?". Thad mentally, and physically posture wise, deflated. Shooting a glance at Trevor as they both had hugged N from either side in the earlier chaos, both gingerly let go once they realised. The two both seeing N double take at Trevor's statement before he started marching back onto the path, his pace making the two workers hurry after him as if they were misbehaving children. Which, in some ways they could be considered as such.

"Uhm... Trevor, didn't V deal with it? She was supposed to stay with you guys.". N asked back, steadily beating his way up the track with torch and readied submachine gun. Each footstep leaving a now uncomfortably loud crunch in their way since he wasn't bothered trying to hide his sound when neither of his companions could copy such a behaviour.

"Auh, nah she left like instantly after you did... Why'd you even leave again? If you had sticked around, I doubt we'd be in this mess.".

There it was, the truth again. N had to be everywhere at every time to makes sure everything went right. It felt ugly but undisputable with the last week's string of events, a string that both felt like it was at its end and barely beginning to unravel. A string that without care taken to escape it's spiral, would probably end as noose for the entire class.

"I went to find Uzi??? Your classmate, you know. Purple eyes, purple hair. Frankly endearing but oppressive attitude sometimes and enough spite to reinvigorate the atmosphere?". N answered back, voice rising a little and obscuring the distant muffled crunch steps of their group being followed from between the trees. The declaration that N had left them to the devices of V all for one worker had Thad and Trevor's brains ticking over in real time, the latter actually able to afford showing a loading symbol on his visor while the former kept mute. Saving energy.

"Oh, Uzi's missing?". Thad asked, softly. As if he had been half expecting her to not participate in the camp activities since he hasn't either. He had instead accidentally short circuited and spent the first night out cold back on the bus until after almost everything had went down the drain six times over, not hat he had told many people about that yet.

Not that there were many people left to tell that too.

Trevor had a much blunter rebuttal, as usual.

"... Ahuh, what's so special about her?".

If anyone could of read N's thoughts they'd only hear the distorted wail scream of someone who worked in childcare, fortune must have favoured the world with how no one could read his thoughts. Thad meanwhile just leant over to whisper in Trevor's ear, or where it would of been if he had one. The two workers devolving into a whispered discussion as N heaved an annoyed breath and gave up on the endeavour, a snap in the forest snatching his attention and making him take the lead.

"Dude that felt like the wrong dialogue option.".

"What? I was just asking a question?".

"Yeah... But. Just, you seriously don't remember her?".

"... No, like. I kinda. But it's more not seeing her as that important I guess. The whole can't remember her bit is an inside joke, you know that right?".

"Really?". Thad asked, voice tinted with actual surprise at the notion. Even if it made sense in some ways, he could definitely think of a few pink coloured social queen bees who'd want Uzi gone from society. His thoughts being filed away as Trevor kept speaking, their back and forth continuing uninterrupted.

"Really, i know her, she's purple eyed. Loud enough that even when you don't want to know her you sort of have too. Dad always said to stay away from the Doorman family though, something about being against the will of the lord or something like that... I never got it beyond the oddest sense that he was right for the wrong reasons, of course. He actually goes to that tiny ass church we have back at the bunker.".

"Yeah, but. Taking hints from your dad might not be the best idea...".

"I know that... You think i actually listened to the degenerate?".

"... Uhm, not entirely.".

"Yeah no, I'd never want to emulate him.". Trevor huffed, both arms crossed and eyes out to the treeline barely a meter to his left while they all walked. A chill sense of loneliness almost managed to descend upon them all if not for their twice earlier encounters with whatever that thing in the forest was, their theories yet to be fully or properly discussed.

"... I'm going to sound, cringe, when i say this. But. Glad you do, i think i speak for all of the school population for something asides for sport when i say that.".

"For once, yeah... Wasn't cringe by the way. For all the time i spent around Emily i just, don't see her that way.".

"... Word?". Thad asked after a second of mentally marinating on those words, wanting reassurance despite every sign pointing towards the fact he didn't need it.

"Word.". Trevor answered, the pair then doing a slightly awkward fist bump to solidify that promise. Thad continuing the conversation after that pause and the thoughts on both of their heads about how odd this was had passed.

"Heh, takes almost dying for you to sober up to reality huh.".

"Guess it does...".

"And you, running so low on battery that you don't have your head up a football's ass anymore."

"I can't deny that without ruining the mood.".

"... Fair.". Trevor chuckled weakly, still stronger then Thad's own when he saw the blue eyed drone beside him smile in his vicinity for once, but the sounds barely traveled anyways. The moon's coming out from behind the clouds for the first time in a while, twin discs looking down with solemn interest in the funeral march proceedings below.

"Honestly, while i disagree with my dad on a lot of stuff. I think, i think there's something up with Uzi.".

"Dud-

"Don't give me that look, why do you think she's been practically cut out from society. All our parents give her family weird looks and they probably would have thrown them out if not for Khan being actually valuable compared to the other two, and yes. I'm going there, it's on topic even if it sucks to talk about because none of us except Emily and Khan know jack shit and they aren't here right now.".

"Yeah, right... Emily. Last time anyone wanted Uzi's mom related knowledge she charged enough for Brad to almost put her in hospital after being duped out of that much cash. Right?".

"Yeah, that... Fuck she's kinda had it rough hasn't she?".

"Uzi? Yeah?".

"Emily dingus, but both also works now that you actually look at it from a side beyond the easiest one to believe.".

"Since when were you this smart?". Thad commented back with a small smile, afraid to admit that with this conversation had come a heavy lifting of the emotional atmosphere around them. Sure they had talked in the past but that seemed to never be more then taut greetings at just for some reason, now he knew it was because of a slack on his end to reel in the accidental side effects of his position. What he didn't know is that it was just as much his fault as it was Trevor's, perhaps they would of talked more and known each other better if he had just actually tried too.

Neither of them brought those thoughts to light. Trevor instead shooting back with his own quip, voice wobbling the slightest as he realised he had just tried to joke with the school jock of all people.

"Says you, mister flunk your math test despite being a living computer.".

"That was one time, just stay on topic.".

"Right, guess i gotta be concise since your close to running out of battery.".

"Don't gotta rub it in.".

"I know i know. But what i was saying, is this. Uzi has this sort of, rank social stigma around her that she gets from all our parents. You know, yours definitely told you and Thera the same story right, Nori Doorman, the insane witch who predicted the murder drones arriving with no evidence and then disappeared the night they got here? The woman who just fell from the sky and stole the heart of one of the most important people in society one night, the other stuff like her being since convicted felon and whatnot is probably just a bunch of junk and lies but the stuff we have proof of... Our parents are right to be weirded out by it, because divining the arrival date of a bunch of mechanical angels set to kill us all isn't a huge ass red flag?"

"Well, it is a red flag but it doesn't relate to Uzi? She's done really good things for the bunker.".

"... Yeah, yeah she has. I know what her mom apparently was doesn't relate to Uzi, im not daft like you are when your on the field. But all our parents believed Uzi's mom was off, that perception bled into us. And how Uzi acts in class doesn't help that at all... Honestly if i hadn't gotten so caught up in everything there's just as much a chance i would of been her friend instead of Rebecca's.".

"... Maybe, i can admit that she's uhm. An acquired taste and that's coming from someone who was only just barely better then everyone else.".

Another gust roared through the trees, strong enough the physically stall even N while the two workers were pushed left a step and stumbled. Wind once more letting up within the instant by the will of whatever cruel force had it chained by the neck, only the faintest guesses could be heralded towards why this was an event that was becoming regular for the surface.

"Acquired is one way to put it.". Trevor commented back as he righted himself, catching the extra wobbly Thad before the drone could fall in the snow without a second thought.

"Hehhhh, thanks.". Thad toned back gingerly but with a slight wheeze of embarrassment at his physical weak state. The boy adding on the obvious but unwanted herald statement that both N and Trevor had been wondering about as the night had grown older, both of them now giving him looks of worry. One expected, one slightly unexpected in its existence.

"Think I'm running out of battery for good soon.".

"Damn it, i thought we could make it.". N grumbled as he heard Thad, tail whipping with a little annoyance as he glanced around into the forest again and once again saw the fleeting red yellow flash of code that was their pursuer disappearing from reality. All three of them pausing to stare at how close it had been for a moment, fifty metres or so to their left in between the dead ferns of the forest and their shrouding logs.

"Dumbass we're all still alive. We have to". Thad complained back at N as the three stood almost still, spider like tension holding them all in place as if the forest itself had medusa's gaze 

"... Alrighty.". N chuckled briskly before jumping into the air, deploying his wings and grabbing both boys by their backpack handles. The material strong enough to give zero shits about being pulled like such as N in turn lifted off into the sky with a slight whir of his wings. Ascending above the tree canopy and letting the three cast their vision's across the ruined campsite in its entirety, both cargo's wondering why this wasn't done earlier.

"Wow, okay let's go flying then. What's this, twice now?". Thad thought plainly, being too tired to give much else to it while he shut off a few of the less needed systems for the time being. No need for his legs or arms while he was this far above the ground.

"N?!, why didn't you do this earlier.". Trevor had asked an instant later as they slowly kept going further and further up, the feel of the cold air on their bodies contrasted by the sense of magic of being up this high.

"Running low on oil, so straight to the hanger and let's hope they have something I can drink because we are NOT staying in that forest anymore.". N spoke back, keeping his voice quieter just in case the thing pursuing them heard while not exactly answering the question. Not that it would help since anyone with a set of eyes could track the flight usually. Which is why N went higher, resting at a solid two hundred metres above camp on a darker murky night and hoping that their follower had bad eyesight. The ascent making Thad and Trevor just shut up and enjoy the ride. Even if they were hanging only by the straps of their backpacks well above the height where falling would mean getting splattered.

"... Gotcha, don't even have to point you in the right direction since the hanger is pretty visible.". Trevor commented back as N wheeled in the air like a lazy half awake hawk and started glide flying in the direction they were going, his gaze flitting sideways to look at the now raging plumes of smoke and newborn flame coming from the ground back at the cabin where he knew Lizzy was.

He had to stay strong, she'd be fine and if he double turned to check on her now they'd probably never get to the hanger before he ate one of them.

"Can't turn back can't turn back, gotta keep going gotta keep going. If I turn back to look for Lizzy things could go even worse, she'd be fine... But what if she's not fine, then what N. You content to just leave her in the fire, boiling alive and stuck. Don't be ridiculous, if she wouldn't stay anywhere close to that fire...". He thought to himself, thoughts drifting on clouds as the workers he held onto talked between themselves. Content in the claws of an apex predator now put out of their safe space with just how treacherous the world seemed to becoming, he had no idea.

His thoughts drifted further, further down the list of people he knew the location of. Next on that was V and Uzi, almost equal in their time of disappearance now that he had that information confirmed.

"And what about them, those two who you swore to keep safe. Those two who you shared the last months and years of your life with out of sheer circumstance yet still cared through every second. Just going to leave them behind too? Leave yourself alone with naught a soul that cares around you?". His thoughts continued, darker mental images called out to the surface of his mind with enough vitriol behind them to make him have to blink them away.

"I'll find them, helping other people isn't hindering them in sure... probably.".

Uzi was out there somewhere, and he knew that despite the multiple nights spent scouring camp from the air in vain search for her. V was the same, which made him almost boil in confused concern. He had combed through most of the major structures and found nothing, the radio tower was just as empty as it should of been, the entryway guardhouse was also empty. Every cabin he came across only seemed to at best have the corpse of a holed up by the storm student he was supposed to be keeping safe. That he and V had volunteered to keep an eye on.

"If only V was here and helping, this would probably already be over and we might of found everyone if she was... Maybe she got snowed in somewhere, or lost. No, she doesn't get lost anywhere... So, why would she have disappeared. Uzi? Maybe... She did want to kill her before we split up, so what if she did..?".

The mental image there wasn't a happy one, and didn't leave N as a happy drone either.

"Uzi, probably wouldn't. V probably wouldn't. Right??? But she did betray you by not listening and keeping the students safe why you explicitly asked her too. Who knows what else she could do, maybe she slunk out and got mauled by Doll's for some reason still moving corpse. Or maybe that's why Doll died in the first place... Feels kinda unlikely considering how she was moving back at prom... Prom, the one she also ruined by going behind your back and making a mess of what might of been an average night otherwise... Stars above why have i cared about her for so long if she just keeps making stuff worse?".

A week of the fact he was too slow and not in enough places to do what he had volunteered being hammered into him had left a nail in his heart, throbbing with self gnawing hatred. Learning that V hadn't even tried and had instead left everything up to him to disappear into the woods, that combination was gasoline upon a candle. Ignition slowed only by the duty he had now to those he had grown to know, just like everyone else here N could be considered a ticking emotional time bomb.

"I'll get these two to the hanger, hope that's there's oil or anything there for me. Then I'll grab Lizzy and bring her over there, then we can worry about Uzi and V. That sounds go- But what about Uzi's solver being all weird. She looked terrified and that was a week ago you should of found her by now why are you caring about these two who barely know you?".

He almost paused in his flight at that several walked track of thought, Trevor complaining about the jittering of their travel with a rude but halfhearted attempt at snark.

"N express appears to be broken, passengers please unclip your seatbelts and fall to your deaths.". The attempt sounded pretty convincing to both Thad and N as the murder drone returned to normal flight with secret thankfulness towards the one who had pulled him slightly away from rampant woe is me based thought patterns.

"No thanks, I'm staying up here. We're halfway there already.". Thad toned back while looking out at the distant shape of the hanger bay, half dug into the side of one of the barely capable of being called mountain like shapes that were in the outermost edges of camp. N being able to see that it's roof was built in a way that implied it could fold open and that there wasn't really a runway anywhere in camp either. His gaze barely staying on that as he searched the far below forest for any sign he hadn't already seen four times over.

"Yeahhhh hehhhh, just a bit longer.". N chimed in with a stressed laugh. A laugh that both Thad and Trevor could easily sympathise with as the clouds above simultaneously hid and revealed the moon and stars. Thad spoke up first to reassure their travel companion and very definitely worn camp counselor, the boy's voice even and tempered.

"Look, dude you'll make it.".

"Even if you don't. The distance we've already done up here is invaluable.". Trevor added as he looked down to be met with only trees, distant sights of the lake, slowly growing forest fire and kilometres of frost drenched not on fire terrain really hammering home how much space was inside this place.

"Heh, thanks but I should of done this earlier.".

"... Yeah, doesn't change the fact that your doing it now.". Trevor shot back as he kept looking around the sky and marvelling at how his backpack handle hadn't gave or tore an inch yet. Not that he was fat or anything but he was still expecting the material to wear somehow, that slight fear in the back of his mind slowly dissipating.

"I guess so...".

"Plus, the view is immaculate.". Trevor redirected the conversation for a moment as N swooped lower in slight preparation for landing. Not that that would happen within another five or ten minutes but one could only hope it was sooner with how he was pushing himself. Wing discs whirring with a little bit of strain while he mostly glided, not wondering how his wings even allowed such a feat in worry that questioning it would make it stop working.

With the stillness that had hung over them now acutely pointed out. Trevor's point became clearer.

None of them could deny it, ghost white tints from twin moons dusting over the landscape as freckled snow caught it and shone weakly back up. Structures among the snow scattered like toys upon a child's floor yet every one of them told a story, all this backed by the north horizon being obscured by a mountain range and the west one by an untouched city. South and east horizons kept themselves as forest even past the wall fence that announced where camp ended and the great beyond started. In some places they could see a ice covered river snaking through the forest and valleys outside the camp, same situation with roads that lead over to the husk city on the west or out to some horizon alone.

And they were above it all, gliding on once massacre painted wings with the clouds still ever higher.

"Yeah... It's different that's for sure...". N toned after a minute, voice almost calm while he checked on how his cargo was holding up and resisted the feeling of needing to stretch his fingers.

Both Thad and Trevor were still fine, hanging where they were and watching whatever their eyes ended up on. The more nerd equivalent of the pair using Doll's phone to snap a few photos of the horizon as they went now.

"Different?". Thad asked back.

"Yeah, usually I'm flying above city. Not forest, different.".

"... Yeah. Thats it? I thought you were going to say something about the depressing but slightly magical hope in the air right now?". Trevor cut in with a slight smugness that was only knocked out of all three of them when the wind rocketed past them. Hitting like a freight train for someone that mysteriously was no longer standing on the ground and making N spin and wheel in the air. Twenty feet decent within a second as both bag handles gave angry whimper tears and the jostle, Trevor snatching upwards and managing to both pocket Doll's phone and grab N's oversized wrist in one move. Thad meanwhile had to take a second to reactivate his arms before they moved, the boy having divine levels of thankfulness for whoever designed the backpack he was wearing. The single thought of this alone making him have faith and an interest in going to church after this ordeal ended.

"Down?". N asked in a surprised but panicked voice once he had righted himself after a small amount of wailing. Looking down at both drones as he already had the plan to descend in steep glide even without their opinions on it Trevor and Thad both gave eager approval to such an idea. Words being torn away by the speed of their descent in yells of surprise and hopefully not getting splattered.

"Well that ended that, but hey we're almost there. Can't say anything without it coming true in the worst way tonight can I?". Trevor thought to himself brashly, holding tight onto N's wrist all the way down and thanking whoever designed his pants to have a zipper on their pockets.

A few seconds later N touched down with a polite swoop into a both heel landing barely forty paces in front of the hanger doors, concrete cracking with the force of their impact. All three of them now getting a proper look at the place they had been travelling too after the exhilaration that was their flight here.

They stood upon an open space before the large double doors of the hanger, the hanger itself maybe thirty or forty meters tall and the same of that wide from the front. Plated over with faded fern army green on its doors while the walls were made of a more classically styled grey brick and barely showed that the roof was slanted to the thinnest degree and of similar material to It's doors. It's state of being half embedded into the miniature mountain behind it halted any of the trio for making a guess towards its length however and the weathering it had received showed for once the staying power of humanity's construction skills. Around them was a baseplate of concrete that was buried in barely a foot of snow compared to the forest, with damper spots interspersed as vents in the ground allowed some form of heating to wisp upwards and bash away at the snow here. Beyond the baseplate was only a large clearing in the forest that went on in all directions until a treeline was met and a handful of cabins sat just beyond that, those structures housing tall posts with shattered floodlights at their tip.

The two boys N had delivered here both cast glances around the place just as much as he did, all three wrapped in intrigue towards this place's mysterious exclusion from the camp activities plan. Being able to explore this would of been much more interesting then rowing across a frozen lake or wandering the woods in the frigid winds that had heralded the blizzard they really should of planned around.

"... This definitely doesn't give life changing or important place vibes doesn't it, if I was an important place then I'd be all like. Woooo look at me and my suspiciously vibed surroundings.". Trevor commented, once again pulling that slightly annoying but slightly endearing voice to make the same joke he had millions of times before like it was some internal tick of his that prevented him from going off the deep end. The words managing to get Thad and N to chuckle despite their commonality in form and delivery, they did have to grab any chance of lightening the mood they could after all.

"Heh, surprised we didn't end up here first. Guess teach didn't want to try and get the bus through the rest of camp to show us this.". Thad added as he got up, checking around the place before getting obviously stuck on the big problem. His gaze looking up at the two doors in the way of their entrance to the structure, finding no alternative on the front side of the very ominously large and intact hanger.

"I don't know how he didn't think this wouldn't be far more interesting than anything we ended up doing.". Trevor added plainly, taking out Doll's phone to check for reception or anything of the such. The boy continuing as Thad wandered a few steps away to check out the surroundings.

"May as well check for reception.".

"Why?". N asked back, focus barely on Trevor as he again ran the mental track of camps torment. Face showing nothing of that conflict to the outside world.

"To communicate with people, because for some reason we haven't lost it most of the time we've been here.".

"Oh, yeah fair... Hey wouldn't that have Lizzy's contact on it?".

"... Yeah it does. Why, you want to talk to her of all people?". Trevor noted, looking up from the device to see that N was leaning over him like an excited puppy now.

"I just want to know if I haven't messed up by leaving her out here by herself and that she's fine. Gotta keep tabs on all bases yeah.".

"You know she'd probably just hang up if she heard either of us, I'll send a message though.".

"Oh yeah. She would, but thanks.".

"No problem.".

The pair then entered a surprisingly nice silence, N waiting patiently while Trevor sent off some message to Lizzy and then pocketed the phone. The reply was something he had a feeling they would have to wait for.

"I hope she's alright, I hope Uzi and V are still okay. I want to believe everything is actually fixable after this is all said and done... And that might be doable now, Ive gotten one step further through the plan.". N mused to himself as he felt his stomach grumble weakly, reminding him of that need that he had to attend to as well as everything else. Unfortunately there weren't any corpses around for him to drain and even if their were he had a feeling they might of already been drained over the years.

"Uhmmm.". He started, barely getting a word in before another feral breath gust ran through the area and almost knocked the trio prone. N taking a second to get up before answering.

"Yeah Thad?".

"How are we going to get in?". He just hit N back with the elephant in the room question from where he was. Making everyone look at the structure and its massive doors that were both sealed shut and caked with ice at the bottom that would only make opening them worse. The sight easily the most unique structure that either Thad or Trevor had seen in a long time, it's existence heavily contrasting the dingy ant nest tunnels of the bunker, dead heights of the skyscrapers at New Halster or the uncomfortable bloat that was the corpse spire they had all grown up fearing.

"Through the proper doorway, we aren't blimps or planes or whatever. We don't need to use the big doors and make a noise about it.". Trevor toned back to the pair, already starting forward to the left side of the structure to search for a way in that wasn't bulk double doors made for aircraft that weren't named N.

"Well where is that door?". Thad shot back, casting a glance out woods around them. A thousand trees all stared back at him, all cast over with barely brush thin moonlight that was not at all managing to reveal what rested beyond the forest border. Trees, trees, more trees and a few run down cabins like the ones everywhere else in the woods here. A few pathways were visible but all of them were snow drenched like everything that wasn't the baseplate in front of the hangar.

"Probably on the side of this, it would make sense for their to be a entrance that doesn't involve forcing open the main one.". N added, scanning over the structures front one last time as he idly spoke.

"Probably...". Thad toned back before rising up to stand, tired yet committed to getting inside what should be the safest place in the whole camp. All three of them eager to unearth some secrets and get any sort of movement forward for finding everyone else a place to gather, what better place was there to gather in than a decades abandoned hangar bay gnawed by determined ice and half embedded into a mountain. 

"Just find the door, check that its safe and leave again to grab anyone else you can find. Then go from there. Thats a plan N, thats something you can do.". The boy mused to himself, one hand normal and one a torch that was joined by Thad's own lance of light in the trek to the left side of the hangar. All of them having subconsciously agreed that they should start somewhere, pace quickly revealing that they'd have to try their luck on the other side of it. Its stone fortress like walls only marred by banked snow probably years old and a couple of steel cylinder trash cans that had been dinged up, the sight making the three pause for only a moment.

"Other side then.". The blue eyed drone commented as he laid eyes on the bland walls here, already turning when Thad answered him.

"Mhm, hopefully.".

The moment passed, yet they paused again. Or more accurately N paused and the other two stilled in response to him. Thad being closer was silently elected to ask what was up to the stilled murder drone, only because while both of them trusted him to an extent there was still that odd feeling of him being different from them that gave rise to unvoiced concerns.

"N?".

"..oh- huh? Yeah, door would be on the other side if its not here.".

"You... coming then?".

"Uhm, in a moment.". N countered softly but with a determination in his voice that made the worker's unable to speak, both his hands turning to claws as he tossed Thad his torch before slinking over to the trash cans. Steps silent and air tense once more as he looked over the four cans properly. The first one was fine, chilled and evidently holding strong despite the weather. Entirely intact while the other three had some form of damage on them, one bent in half, the furtherest having its lid shoved down on it while the last remaining trash can soldiered on without a lid to hide the torn black bags within it. 

N tasted the air once, hiding the action from the others as he confirmed his suspicions. Claws settling around the handle of the trash can that had its lid compacted down into it's body by some force unknown, claws tightening, then he yanked the lid off with the grind of metal clashing. 

"Oh, i was right.". The golden boy toned with amused surprise.

Inside was a mauled worker drone, all visible identifying features or clothing evidently stripped from it as the body was crumpled in a way that had it upside down. Scent rank of hours seeped oil. Not days, nor weeks. This was recent and N knew it.

"Wha?". Trevor asked, voice also surprised before he and Thad wandered close to get a view for themselves. Sets of eye lights alighting upon the corpse and widening in unison, concern and worry set upon them like vultures on fresh roadkill.

"Trash can corpse, trash can corpse... yeah it does not loo- is that its fucking eye ripped out mechajesus robochrist. Whoever or whatever did this had to be a monster, but who could it of been... also damn it stinks how didn't i smell this before it was opened as well? Like, uhm. Nothing describes this smell, its just that bad.". Trevor mused, stepping back and waving a hand through the air to disperse the smell before his gaze caught on the body once more. Noticing.

"... Oh?!? It can't be what im thinking it is. Could it?".   

"Uhm.. N wait what are you doing?". Thad was startled out of his own thoughts when N tipped grabbed the bin gingerly on either side and took a deep breath, beginning to lean over it as if it were something of interest that wasn't a corpse. Vision stuck on the body as he balanced easily through another tremor in the ground, one strong enough to throw thad and Trevor around while making the sludgy frost covered gore puddle at the bottom of the can slosh enticingly. Enticingly for the oil low N, it made Trevor have to stumble away out of disgust from the noise alone and utter out a protest against N's action.

"Dude don't you dare drink that". 

"Just look away, Id rather this then immolation.".

"Immolation? What?".

"Uh, yeah. Can i drink first before explaining?".

"No your not shutting me up and moving on that easily."

"N that might be someone we-

Both drones were stalled out as Thad's statement was cut off by him passing out on the spot, Trevor barely stopping the boy from hitting the ground and only getting an accidental scrape across the shin with the machete as a response but that seemed accidental. Was accidental, the pair came to that conclusion with how a faint but visible flat battery symbol was now on the boy's visor and his limp body telling them as such.

"Really, right now of all times?".

"He's alright, yeah?". The murder drone asked, slightly panicked since he didn't have the best knowledge of worker life niches like battery life and warranty and parts usage. He was just used to tearing them open and eating most everything inside and then forgetting about them, mostly. Trying too at least.

"Just battery stuff, should be fine as long as we can find a charger.". Trevor toned honestly, something between a grimace, frown and soft but unhappy assurance on his face as the boy moved Thad to sit where he was. Not wanting to have to carry him around after earlier.

"Oh, cool cool.".

"... Im going to go check the other side now since I don't want to watch you drink out of a trash can."

"...Alright.".

With that word, Trevor quickly prepped and then left. Snatching up the machete from being tied to the back of his bag and taking Thad's torch as well just in case. Cautious steps quiet enough for a worker to get by as he departed to be spared the frankly unsanitary existence of witnessing N's next actions.

N watched the boy leave, waiting just long enough so he wouldn't see before tipping the can back and taking. Mechanical lifeblood drooling forward with glacial speed as he both tried to keep the liquid from ending up everywhere yet not hold himself here for any longer then he needed to. Tail swishing impatiently while he finally got that first taste of what he needed.

"Have to wonder how they ended up like this, or who it was. It's too fresh to have been someone not part of the camp trip unless there are other people living out here as well... Which is highly unlikely. But it's reasonably cold, so it wasn't just killed now.".

N kept drinking, now with a slight recklessness in his motions that came with the territory of worrying about not being useful. About being in the wrong place at the wrong time, V and Uzi were still out there. Maybe even close considering the body once more and the longer he stood here wasting his time the closer they might be to anything at all. N's mind choosing now once again to fill up with the visions of his failure, maybe V had actually gotten Uzi or Uzi had survived and ended V. Anything could of happened and it would be on him for not being there to fix it.

After another minute he emptied the can of spilt gore, only the hard body of what was once some worker drone remained inside it. Somehow bashed to such a degree that it stayed in even when faced with gravity as an opposing force, no that N complained about the body staying put and not falling out onto his face when he tipped the can fully up to get the last drops. Feeling uniquely disgusting this time but thanking whatever higher power there was for the fact that decades of ice, snow, melting and refreezing had in fact sterilized the trash can. Somewhat.

"Well that was not my worst dumpster dive ever.". His head chimed to itself, barely getting the thought out before it was tipped on its head with the addition of a meat crab to his meal. The blood red wad of living flesh and melted metal escaping the body it was trapped in and flopping pathetically onto his visor like a drink face eater, of corse within the second N had barely stopped himself from letting out the most feminine shriek ever and instead thrown it into the hangar wall with one claw. Dropping the trash can as he caught his breath and actually took a look at the thing.

It was red, obviously so. That sort of stinky scarred muscle red that meshed uncomfortably well with the metal finger tip thick tubes coming out of the blobs centre. It's three limbs uneven and fatty in contrast to the only one of these he had seen before, back in the bunker with Uzi from when they had fought that worm with J's body. The similarities here telling him everything that he needed to know while the slight differences only stabbed nanite acid canisters of doubt and worry into his mind, the fact this one wasn't speaking or anything was also concerning him. Instead it just stuck to the wall and dripped oil from its flickering orb like core, seemingly stuck in a dent in the stone from the force of his throw. Which would make sense.

"Hahah, cool. Ok so that is where that blob went too. Instead of V or anyone doing anything about it, it ended up all the way across camp and inside some poor kids body... Amazing.". N spoke to himself as he eyed the stunned core suspiciously for a moment, curiosity entrancing him to try something.

"Hey... You alright?". He suddenly asked it, feeling stupid but also wondering if since the one from J's body had spoken this would could too. If it did he could press it for information, but he had to make sure it was on their side or wouldn't be a problem. Ideas of tying its legs together coming to mind as a way to stall it's movement.

"I did throw you pretty hard didn't I?".

His second attempt also failed, the droopy core flesh blob instead falling off the wall and into the snow bank below with a poof and a sizzle. It was running hot.

"Oh, yeah that makes sens-

Before N had even finished, halfway through moving over to the snow bank to retrieve it as well, the core burst. A small puff plume of launched skin escaping the hole it had made like smoke from a volcano to signify it's death to N. The boy recovering it's body and finding that the orb inside it had already disappeared as well, leaving just red and grey smeared snow and the smell of cooked bacon or overheated computers parts.

"... Probably for the best huh.". He toned grumpily, finally noticing and then pulling a black stained strand of hair from between his teeth with a slight retch. That stuff never felt nice on the throat and this was something he could actually agree with J on for once, the boy barely remembering back to that conversation they had had years past.

However before he could get any more wrapped up in that past he was struck across his blindside by an epiphany.

"Wait... Did I just leave Trevor alone? Yeah, yeah I fricken did.". The boy blurted out loud, already depositing the can with little care into a snow bank before setting off with hurried steps after his companion. Scooping up and hoisting Thad up onto his shoulder with a small huff as he went, already letting his tail flick with idle concern at the situation.

It wouldn't be that bad.

But then again.

With his luck it would only end up as so much worse if he waited.

"I just drank from a recently killed body and then let him just wander off? Now of all times, what if he gets found by whatever has been killing all the classmates around the camp. What if he's already dead?". He thought briskly, again shoving those thoughts away as he rounded the stone wall corner of the hangar and opened his wings to fly over to the other side. Lifting off just in time to avoid another shake of the ground.

"I've really got to be faster, figure out what's going on here and how to fix as much of this mess as I can.".

Much to his happy surprise, Trevor was entirely fine due to the fact that while he had found the doorway in. Relief flooding N's systems like a recently unfrozen river once again graced the shorelines it had made.

His eyes then looked over what Trevor was in front of with interest, it was clearly the entryway into the structure except It was barricaded from the inside and wasn't budging despite the boy's attempts. The large wooden double doors that were inset into a small stone arch doorway that was actually connected to the mountain as opposed to the hangar standing taller than him or N. Their presence felt more at home on a hotel then a hangar but seemed to exist purely out of spite doing little to nothing in response to Trevor banging on them thrice. As soon as he heard N skid down onto the ground again he turned, looking relieved if only for a second before that came over with a confused expression.

"I can get it.".

"... Sure?".

"Yeah totally, you've got to go find everyone else or whatsit.".

"Yeah but I don't want to leave you defenceless. Especially with everything that's out here.".

"I doubt I'm alone considering this is blocked.".

"Oh, that too...".

"Yeah, but as I said. I got this, it's just a door and some rubble or whatever yeah. Workers were made to move big rocks, this is practically my calling right here.". The worker boy toned with obvious lacings of mockery towards their creators, trying once to pull the doors open on a whim but discovering that they indeed swung inward to open. Meaning they were truly blocked, for now.

N cracked a smile at that, but before he was able to utter a proper reply he was cut off. Trevor's voice strained to the tiniest degree.

"Just go before I get curious and ask how bad it really is out here. Please.".

N looked away from him when he said that, having to suck air through his teeth at the indescribable feeling he got from those particular words being uttered. Closest he could guess was awkward shame but that didn't line up quite right.

"But, just take his advice and get everyone left here as soon as possible instead of standing around doing nothing and worrying. The sooner I leave the more time I have to find Uzi, and V, and Lizzy, and... And uh, that's kind of it... Out of everyone we brought with us on this trip... That's all that's left?". N's thoughts barely failed to escape him, the boy sealing his lips closed and instead focusing on depositing Thad onto the ground gently. Evidently torn about leaving the pair out here by themselves considering what he had just found.

"It died, thats it. Problem solved, stop worrying and maybe go grab Lizzy before the entire forest is charred bark.".

"... Your really testing my curiosity you know.". Trevor toned again, both hands on the door as he tried to pry them open the wrong way to counteract the internal blockage. Getting some milage with the idea considering the groan the material let out under his force, the sight almost one of strength if only the doors had busted open instead of resisting.

N sighed, saluted and left with the last words gracing the sky as they left his lips.

"Yes, sir.".

Chapter Text

Help was not coming, nor would she want it too with how warped her perspective had become during the semi sleep she found herself in. Cognitive power at an all time low as the world swam peacefully before her vision, she felt tied down but that didn't matter. Didn't matter she didn't know where she was or how long it had been, mind warped with vistas useless of future and past. The walls that she had willingly, maybe due to coercion, maybe due to spite or fear, created around herself holding ever strong despite their frail appearance. The barely minutes old memory replayed for her once more without her express permission, disobedience and the result of a choice all in despondent detail. String ropes of flesh spinning out from her splayed fingers like spiders' silk, sticking to the walls before moving with a mind of its own and cocooning around her. Not tight, not even touching but still entrapping. Encasing her soul within a flesh prison, made with frantic strokes heretical ink. Ceaseless even as she tried to pull away only to find her hand had seized in the space it was, halted in such a way that the rest of her body could only yank and pull and strain against itself to garner those at the time precious nanometres of distance.

Afterward of that point the memory had blotted out to leave a time of nothings, indiscriminate failure of consciousness in the face of all too ethereal to witness. 

She was returned her to the current moment within something akin to minutes, felt like hours, felt like days that melted and blurred as if sickness had taken her. 

//All this meandering, all those preplanned excommunications. Every torture we had planned you bypassed with this willing submission. Wasted our time, for you took our offer blandly... Regardless. Take our hand. Walk with us. Close those eyes alight with assurance enough to spur blind fury unto the abyss\\

It was so red.

All so red.

Guts, gore, hopes, fears. All slipped in and out from her stuck stable perception. As if she was seeing through a breakable mirror to find something almost normal on the other side, almost normal would be a stretch however. Especially in comparison to the walls of skin that held her in now. Darkened in perfectly spaced lapses as the indents of something barely visible through it was noticed, pillars for support of the structure. Spinal strut in design. As if to hold, which was what they were made for. Each pillar muffled in colour due to both the girl's failing vision and their coverage by her pimple like imprisonment. They were bone, yet...

It was so red.

All so red.

But that didn't really matter.

What was of consequence...

"... The wheel.". She was looped into thought, almost as herself while her vision sat still bleary-eyed and cancer covered in the speckles of distant forced radiation. Blacks and whites fluttering like butterflies over the visage mirror of her to be insides that sat ahead of her, stringy veins trailed out with idle purpose and wires that seemed to be connected to something out of sight. She knew deep down she had slipped down a pit that was too steep to climb back out of the moment she had said yes to this power, but what other option was there except to play the devil. 

//You really are. malleable. True... Obviously we know you'd be a lot less, so-o-o-ooooo. If, you knew anything more. Than. What you do\\

The solver was right, Lizzy had stumbled into this with naught but her willpower and her biting tongue tone. She was outmatched, out played, a willing participant in the to be carousel of death and despair and woe and agony.

But that didn't really matter.

What was of consequence.

The flimsy thing she is.

Or her perception of it.

Lizzy stalled as she felt a sticky feeling down her back, creaking like wood and the fuzzy release of bubbles that snaked up her naked sides joining the sensory oddity as the world distorted for a moment. 

"He- hey I wasn't naked before?". Lizzy complained to none and all, garnering no reply and unable to move to cover up. Vision failing as needle pricks intruded down her spine in perfect unison as if they were little soldiers, jabbing away at some monstrous demon that she was yet to be. Each poke driving in like splinter before they opened up, harpoon-esce in nature and deep enough to make her squirm uncomfortably. 

"Owwww...". She mentally whimpered, to no reply once more as she was practically manhandled and flayed within this dreamlike nightmare. Bubbles escaping from her opened jaw into the viscous almost water she was drowned in, had already been drowned in. She didn't need to breathe anyway but for some reason her machinery wasn't rejecting the fact every inch both inside and out was utterly soaked. It really should have though; from the few times they had watched those older videos in class about taking care of their internal systems all of her classmates and her knew that liquids were a number one enemy to electronics.

Next, she felt another spike. Jagged and unknown in what it was yet cruel all the same as it slipped between the topmost of her neck and the bottom back of her head. A deafening screech of two ungiving solids forced against each other became apparent as Lizzy groaned in stun locked anguish, feeling the insides of her head loosen with the begging intrusion. Vision blacked out, vision floored with divine light, vision blacking out once more as she. Felt. Her. Skull. Give. Way.

The flimsy thing she is.

Or her perception of it.

Then began to shudder.

But it could not cry.

The intrusion made agonisingly slow headway, pushing aside or crumpling thought processors and all else within that self consumed skull of hers. Memories died, names drifted off into the abyss, she probably lost the ability to move one finger. Did she know how to smile, would her core still pump oil, did she no longer have the ability to check her internal temperature?

Then it stopped, and just like all the others the shaft in her skull flicked out three prongs to help it gain purchase. To trap, hold tightly and ignore the whine that trailed into the liquid she was stuck in. Ignore the single, pathetically weak attempt at pulling away. The inside chips and rows of computer brain now kept in rough place for whatever came next.

Then began to shudder.

But it could not cry.

For even with everything.

The value was unknown.

Lizzy's mind finally shut off within the next few seconds of bone shifting creaking from behind her, finally let her out of the sludgy torment. Free to blip forward for whatever was next, to linger in that damp warning darkness. If she had the choice, all would have known she didn't go quietly.

A series of cracks hummed from behind her, popping noise after popping noise akin to a spine being bent out of shape that heralded only more needle prongs. Slowly, the impalements fixed her posture to what any divine figure would have an aversion too. Both arms spread wide as the final bone spokes forced themselves through her palms and failed to draw another complaint or scream from the limp body.

//Taking it, well. No reply, estimati-on... Seems so. She will be, ecstatic. On-nnn---cce she wakes...\\

Lizzy's body idly leaked oily bubbles from its half open mouth while she slept, head jolting upwards in awakening surprise that made her visor flash with the death red of decommissioned drones. A weak whimper manged to escape only to garner her no help nor sympathy, noise choked out in the chrysalis pool she was within. It's skin like walls uncaring even as its newest and only test dummy startled again. World black and white and pink and gold and full of love and full of pain as she felt the result of her choice.

//Never Mind, can't even do this, properly. Crying and throwing up: true... Thankfully, for all our love. It's automated\\

For even with everything.

The value was unknown.

Without investigation.

The path she had set to walk began to burn.

//Just hold your breath\\

For the briefest instant she felt a pressure, prying. Unfolding from where one would call the lumbar section of the spine on a human, which was called the same thing on a worker drone but that is asides the point. Her body split open at the front with a surgical silence, chasm gash of herself granting release to the most precious being within, oil flowing out as if she had been unzipped like a plush no longer wanted while the veins that had been trailing about struck like snakes. Latching onto all within and yanking parts away. Fans, RAM, those minor casing parts which held them all, Oil regulator that was also known as the heart, tubing, wires. All strangled and removed. She had been peeled open, the tear marching down in almost symmetry till it got to the bottom of her chassis and halted at the gap between her thighs, finding no further material to separate without crawling up to her backside and thus halting as to not damage the forcefully connected crucifix at her back. The one that was in the slow process of folding in on itself, dragging the attached body open at the front like the worlds most unhinged mandarin opening. Lizzy letting the last air escape in some approximation of a burp that very much revolted the once owner of the body it was happening too. Everything inside her was no longer, held down. And with the fritz of electricity and stale air that came from within her everything within was simply. Ejected.

"I... didnt, have a choice.". That single thought managed to arise through the white pain of being pulled open while awake yet went unanswered in a world spinning into thrashes of divine colour as she felt the jutting birth of an item most blessed. Emptied insides and barely form keeping outermost layer being pushed aside like icebergs beneath the hull of the ark, sparks jumped into the liquid and scored across the flesh wall around her as something important was severed in a way which forced a muffled computer whine to escape her. Noise between a strangled human gasping for breath and a printer choking on its own process.

Without investigation.

The path she had set to walk began to burn.

It was so red.

All so red.

"It couldn't be more beautiful...". Her mind mused for her as it was almost piloted by naught but herself, jagged inversions of any thought she had once had now belonging perfectly in the garden of her thoughts. Fitted between processors jutted out of place as if they had always been there, which they had been. Why else would they be there? Then, like pulled plug the world cut out with the train track screech of something that wasn't in there before now being expelled from her emptied body. As if she was a food wrapper instead of a sentient being. 

"//The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wheel. The wheel. Your wh\\". The thoughts cut out as her own took place, maybe her own. It was hard to tell with the fact her existence felt like it had reduced to just occasional flashes of celestial heat spun thin enough to lash through even atoms without struggle.

"It couldn't be more beauti- I didn't I didn't mean to I didn't mean to do this- These thoughts died now too. Leaving only thought and ache that quickly morphed to almost bloat, organs not her own growing inside the gaps as what was born from the old her finally exited her rift chasm stomach. She felt larger, better, uglier in a way that made her unique. Shell of a worker drone almost shuddering as feeling was restored in places it had never been in the first place, bone and blood and metal and processing parts and fans and tubes and all else needed created in an instant by whatever dark power she had awakened to fit the emptied mould.

//get up\\

She did. Moving with second-hand agony while the spikes in her back snapped and groaned and begged to stay, failure at their job of holding down a rising star. Dragged from its akin to peaceful slumber to once again live, bleed and reap even within a different skin.

"Wha? How.. HEY, this is my body you know. Could at leas- t - t - t - t - t - t - t - t - t - don't you care about anyon-- t - t - t.". Lizzy thought in now reawakened anguish, mental process rerouted to censoring out just a couple of her complaints towards the thing she had let in. Glad she could move at all yet boiling her new internals with disgusted fury at being like she was, almost lacking the ability to notice her stomach was literally sealing up with a hiss of melted metal as if it had matched the temperature of her hate.

//hands up\\

She didn't halt those movements either, pink sigils of the divine demon flaring to life with roar crackles of electricity in liquid. Sparks that should of killed doing naught against this newer Lizzy, her hands moved upon their own and with a sound like paper being crumpled her prison was swallowed in something she couldn't quite see. Head unwilling to move, vision unwillingly to clear from the nuclear like static assault. She heard the liquid around her disperse with an ugly swishing sound and the groaning of the floorboards beginning to soak it up. The bone crucifix that had once held her having shattered and dispersed, leaving rapidly patching holes in her back, arms, hands and skull. All numb.

//We... Await, you gaining the strength to show us, T-t---tttthe world you want...\\

And with those words the solver fled its creation with the voice crackles of a warped radio, child host now alone with the power to warp reality at their fingertips and the inserted knowledge of how to use it laid like scripture within their broken CPU. CPU that still rattled from its earlier dislodgement and the ugly bloat of something else growing in to fix the gaps, girl choosing to focus on the ugly side and slide the divine dumping of how's and whys the world worked she had gotten away for now. She didn't really want to go searching through the chasms of her own mind now unknown to her for the time being, it didn't seem like the most useful usage of her newfound defiled freedom.

"Ohh fuck you, don't go doing all that then running off with no explanation. Nevermind... Oh, wow.". The girl paused her code based hopeful fury ranting at the solver when she racked her thoughts and found an answer. Simple yet even with all her inserted knowledge it felt like a mystery and a half to the drenched and naked drone now alone in a cabin stained with her transformation, solver sigil marred into the floor in crusty red gore that had already dried. Despite that sight, along with her own splayed and scattered innards, it was what else was now on the floor that caught her attention.

Nestled at her now bare feet was a wheel, classical in design principle as it had a circular centre and then an outer ring and middle ring as well as six spokes that penetrated said rings in minutely perfect symmetry, but so unnaturally different in make-up. Being formed of what she could only describe as melted bone and metal compressed together to make some new and almost shiny material, parts of it laced with scales. Snake scales in muted hues of pink and gold, snake scales that made a lot more sense when she noticed that they twined around the second ringlet before heading up the front most spoke. That spoke ended in triangular arrow as they all did, barbs painted over with the exact same caution tape black and yellow as the murder drones she had came to know were. However, unlike the rest it's spoke had been grown over by a serpentine head, as if the wheel had bloated the snake to wear its carcass upon itself. 

If she had looked deeper she might have found herself.

She couldn't fathom why it was there, mind unable to connect two rather simple dots while in such an addled state. Instead she heaved for breath like an animal, uncaring to stop the excess droplets of deep red blood on her tongue from slipping away and spattering on the floor as she leant forward and put her hands on her knees. Each drop collapsing down and sinking straight into the wheel below her, infusing it with extra life it didn't need.

She didn't question it just yet as it stirred, shook once on the floor before levitating around her body to settle above her head with a soft mental click that made Lizzy smile somehow. Someway this thing felt as if it was a core of herself now, as if without it she could not be reasonably called Lizzy. It's snake head aligning with which way she was facing, dead and hollowed out eyes matching the dead and hollowed out ones below.

Once a minute of staring had passed, breath regained as all matter of the new matter below her resealed and shown bare body working as intended. She just, grasped her face with shaking hands. One below her jaw with fingers locking into her mouth, feeling over the still blunted worker drone standard that was her teeth. The other hand ended up on her helmet, signalling dismay anew to her when it's most casual of movements parted the worn red headwear like it was an ocean. Acid rotted flakes of industrial plastic crumbling into nothing and getting stuck in her matted, dirty, unbound hair or falling to the floor with her corroded bow. The matrimony of her hair tie and the floor birthing a single, quiet, futile clack that still halted Lizzy from processing any further.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Scream loud enough that any of the archangels in heaven had to put noise cancelling earbuds in to get any sleep. Continuing to do this until her breath started to stutter out and she found herself collapsing with star studded vision, hands on the floor and roughly shoving aside what she knew used to be one of her internal shelves. A small black and grey box now smeared with enough red it could have been mistaken for a liver if one wasn't better knowledged or more familiar with it.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Cope and seethe.

Her hands found themselves scrabbling for the shattered parts of her metal hair tie, feeling the easy bend composite material between fingers as it fell apart further. Each bold yellow fragment another of herself, each fragment stark against the red brown floor and mess that was the scattering of her old machine organs as if she was knelt atop a flayed being. No grave in sight. No final words written down asides for the eager and blinded agreeance to the prospect that would become her own dismantlement, the memory of her stupidity spat at her.

"...Yeah okay that totally makes sense, just let me birth a fucking wheel like I'm a crafting table or something alright... How am I supposed to explain this to anyone? How am I supposed to just shrug that off?". She almost laughed at the thought, mouth stretching with a tired absurdity while the distant crunch crackle of a birthing hell caught her attention. Thoughts on the Strophalos, the name coming to her from within that library she had been gifted and fitting perfectly enough she didn't question it, could wait till later with how that small waft of heat behind her told far too much and not remotely enough at the same time.

She stood up properly again, cracked her back and felt bones move despite what she had been, and then looked back at the rest of the cabin. Floor covered in dustings of frosted gunk blood and her old discarded internal parts, the sight making her shiver at that realisation. Everything on the floor slowly being eaten away at while the ice and snow that once seeped through the ceiling and window gaps appeared to be dying. The dark of the room barely showing her the one good thing about her actions.

"Oh good, that's still here...". Her mind mused to itself before she treaded forward and snatched up Sam's dressing gown, quickly double checking herself to find that she was not exactly clean enough to wear it. Pausing for a moment at that realisation, wanting to be clothed but very much not wanting to be gross under said clothing.

"... Of course. But there isn't exactly any way to clean myself so maybe I'll just have to work it, and this whe- the Strophalos too because of course that's it's name, of course I just somehow know that... But what sort of look could I pull off with this? How am I supposed to look like anything asides a freak with this fuckass thing above me?". Lizzy's gaze stuck upon the bottom of the serpent headed disc that sat suspended in the air above her, uncaring of the how's or why's to its existence just yet as she pondered the much more important things. Standing with a slight uneasy energy to her that would of made any bystander wonder if she was about to snap and maul them as opposed to just ask for their clothing opinions.

"So I got a gown, no shoes or anything at all... Do I go for the ragged godling look? Or what, there isn't much else in the book of presented options and I sure as hell ain't leaving naked even though I'd still be unmatched like that... Actually even worse is it's TEAL, any other colour and the robe vibe would have almost worked. But teal, teal and me. Horrendous match to the point I'd rather just neck myself then be seen with it. But there really isn't anything else is there... Fuck, fine fine I'll wear it just this once. If only it wasn't so damn comfy. If only I wasn't so damn grimy. If only I didn't randomly give birth to a fucking wheel like I'm supposed to just be alright with that...".

She held the gown up between two hands, revealing the design on its back once more. The contrast didn't work, some stupid joke of an image would not mesh well with the only look she could really hope to acquire as of now. So she sighed and dropped the gown back on the couch armrest to think, ignoring the growing crackle rumble for a second more.

"... Actually what the hell is that noise?". She thought, marching up to the back wall of the cabin and without a thought flicking one hand up to swipe it aside. Pink solver forcing the wood to snap and slide forward than to the side as if it had been a door and not a wall she just repurposed. Of course she barely clocked that she had did that before she was handed a thousand greetings by the embers and sparks spreading the raging forest fire barely ten or so meters away from her cabin. Easily explaining the fact the ice and snow here wasn't doing to well yet also sending an unamused frown racing across her emotional screen.

"Could not get worse they said, I think the disasters are done they said. Go outside once in your life because you'll love the variety of the environments they said... And where the hell is N, or anyone for that matter because like. Hello, giant ass fire, that would be quite the point of interest... No actually everyone would be heading away from it, that checks out... Gotta wonder if Rachel caused it by exploding like the little malfunction riddled bitch she is or if it's something else, because it's not storming, so there's no lightning. And I've been conveniently out cold for the last however long it's been.". 

She just turned away and marched back towards the front door of the cabin with a heavy sigh, feeling the prickling heat from behind her now actually start to bother her. Her body quickly grabbing the gown, knife on the floor and the half melted bag that had once been Rebecca's since Sam's had become a slouched corpse of itself on the floor in comparison and then levitating all three items with one hand and her solver. Loving how anything she wanted now just seemed to be capable of being willed into existence instead of actively fought for, fingers twisting once to spin Rebecca's bag upside down and dump everything out of it.

"Oh, this is easy... And for some reason I already know how to do so much with it. I think???". Lizzy mused to herself as she flicked up her free hand to duplicate and meld the material at the bottom of the back pack back into shape. Filling the frayed and half melted holes in it so the object would once again actually hold items like it was supposed to.

"Winning. This shit is easy I don't know what the hell Doll was on. Acting so depressed when you can do all this like it's nothing... Actually where the fuck did she put her wheel? Did she get a wheel?". The questioning image came to her abruptly as she finished the repairs on the bag and dropping the knife into it for safekeeping, hand seizing around the gown and throwing it on anyway just to avoid being charged with public indecency by whatever ghosts of humanity were probably still around. The instant the gown was on she stalled, second guessing her actions.

It clashed horridly. If only because of her current state.

"This fucking sucks ass... But I'm not going out there naked with a visible scar of a slit up my chest while I'm also sticky with dried blood...".

There was no better option. If only because she had decided to have anything to do with the solver.

"Just have to find a way to get clean and not get seen, OH. Yeah, the shower block that Thad told me about before we went out to light the campfire. Yeah, those would be a starting place...".

Her thoughts stalled out as she made a last check over the cabin and came across her now dead phone, lifting it with the solver and chucking it in the backpack. Throwing the backpack on purely so it would cover the design on her stolen robe, denying Sam even a shred of victory in the action. Hoping that her device wasn't entirely ruined since she had a fair amount of videos she wanted to keep on it, even if they felt like something she shouldn't have anymore.

"Let's just get this over with, think there's probably some spare stuff back at the bus as well I could yoink. A proper shirt and skirt would go baller right about now, and maybe some soap and a mirror. Yeah, going to have to spend the next hour or so trying to scrub THAT outta me.". She grumbled mentally, steps brazen with annoyed purpose as they took her to the front door, or where it should have been. The girl once again confronted with just a wooden wall stained thick with burst gore across its surface, anyone else would of been disturbed but girl bosses like her had no time to worry over such frivolities.

"Second time too?". She mentally quipped as she assaulted the wall with the warping power of the solver, snapping it like the material was a wafer. Wood shards flying outward in a vomit spread as the pink lightning and solver glyph retreated into nothing once more.

"This really is simple to an almost alarming degree.".

She took her first step back outside in full, damaged front porch ignored in favour for a gaze that settled across the forest beyond the clearing. Unlike the one behind her this one was not burning, the trees here shaded in devilish tones of bone white and fiery oranges that were plastered on top of their natural dead brown grey. Shadows dancing as not exactly distant flames devoured.

"Far too easy.".

The steps down to the soil were treaded, skipping over the last one as it was broken by some earlier incident. Her mind whirring with choices of what to do.

"But maybe that's the point.".

The heat from the flames behind her tempered the machine's thoughts, iron hammered with wafted winds of soon rebirth. She couldn't feel the solver in her head anymore, only a withdrawn shell of the sense that had once been a malicious force of not nature. She had to ponder at its last words to her as they had a distinct feeling of importance to them.

"... The world I want huh. Couldn't get more cryptic with that could you, or is it just something simple. Shame I can't fucking ask it now. What world would I even want though, evidently not this one because it's so shit. Any reality without Sam's horrid fashion choices would be divine in contrast to this hellscape, maybe once I figure out this stuff I could turn this into something actually nice to look at... First stop would be anything that might match my current headwear, all dark and evil and broody looking I guess.".

Then she caught a taste of something strikingly different upon her tongue, the air smelling of smoke and oil in the most surprisingly pleasing way. Causing her to turn towards that tang without even a thought, head taking a right from the bottom of the cabin stairs and noticing the tracks there in weakened snow. Messy steps that lead around the building in what was probably frantic pace compared to her own beginning but casual saunter down the same path.

Curiosity grabbed her then in beyond iron grip, the proper pathways back to any sort of proper camp structure being in the exact opposite direction to the trail left for her. Chasing smoke filtered death stench with little agency of her own for someone who looked like a god woken up early from a nap.

"... Probably Rachel's huh, maybe I could take her clothes if she's already dead. Anything to get out of this, what even was she wearing... I think I could rock some trousers with this, kind of. Sweater feels like it would clash badly though, hmmm. I could easily leave no crumbs with it anyway cause like, its me, but... Hey wait, Ew, did I really think of wearing that freaks clothing? I did... I must be fucked in the head for reals then.".

It would probably be better then the gown she had on, so she treaded forward the first step and decided. Traveling with no real energy to her walk, her hand raised up to yank the disc above her down to her side. Fingers gracing the scaled middle ring and making her have to resist the slightest shiver that chose now to rocket through her, she hadn't felt snake hide before and preferably wouldn't want to feel it again. The motion succeeding along with revealing her arm to the almost cold of the weather once more, the temperature lacked the bite it had when she first got to camp now. Those frigid fangs and claws of the wild had been removed over the last ten minutes, the devouring flame both beyond and within her working well to shun nature.

"I really don't want to have you following me around all the time, without the right outfit you'll just ruin any chance of me being presentable.". She thought coldly, having hoped for a response from the solver about how to hide it but instead getting nothing. Not new, she had always been used to having an empty head so to speak, but now having had it filled for the briefest time the emptiness was different. Not entirely unwanted but she had to admit there was appeal to the idea of having an eldritch computer god as your mutual.

She instead decided to rack her head for anything in the yet unread archives of knowledge she had been rudely blessed with, maybe an answer would find its way to the girl. She just had to ignore how the brutal gasp bellow of wind roared past her from the front with enough force that she felt the heat of the forest fire whimper away for only an instant.

A minute passed, the smell of ash and spilt ichor remained in waiting golden promise.

"Oh, fuck it I'll hide it later.". She grumbled to no one, having found no answer in her head to guide her actions. Instead now shoving both hands in stolen pockets with the distinct aura of a pricked teen that was denied the most casual of things at the mall, Uzi would be proud but thankfully Uzi wasn't here. Rachel however was, Lizzy rounding the corner of the cabin and settling lazy but furious pink eyes onto the wounded woman. The fact she wasn't moving beyond raspy breaths almost acted as incentive enough for Lizzy to move to kill as if Rachel wouldn't notice her or the annoyingly obvious eldritch disk she now had in tow. Obviously Lizzy was faced with the most dire of choices now.

How does one hide a body.

Because she very much was against keeping her around, didn't have the inhibition to care about N getting mad at her, and there was that slight tang of oil in the air. Rachel's oil, spilt all over her far more workable outfit in a way that made it almost worse than her own and her ugly torn up face. The damage very much something that would have made the old Lizzy cringe away for once as she saw that the synthetic cheeks of the girl had been shredded up and left in their current, heavily warding away appearance. The entire left side of her face below her visor limp and deflated inward in appearance, shattered teeth evident as they sat in her mouth and moved with her stunned shaky breathing. How she was awake and evidently not entirely dead was entirely down to a stroke of luck or unluck.

"... What the hell happened to you?". Lizzy thought bluntly, seeing Rachel turn her head towards the new solver host as she slumped against the wall. Lizzy for once in her life startling at being looked at and taking a step back, mentally unsure of which one looked worse out of the two of them.

"You look like you got put through a grinder, how did this even happen to you yet leave you of all people still alive?". Lizzy then blurted, voice taut with annoyance that was ramped up to eleven within the next two seconds and barely audible over the roar of flames. The heat of the fire approaching them becoming obnoxious enough that both girls had reactions too it, Rachel attempting to shift away from it while Lizzy just took another step back. Mortified by her luck.

Of course Rachel couldn't make an answer asides for a high pitched but near silent whir noise, the girl's tear tracked visor displaying eyes that wobbled constantly as they tried to show that she was visually caught on the wheel above Lizzy's head. Confused by its existence instead of focusing on the fact she was both bleeding.

"Just my luck, not only is she not dead but she's up, mute, and her clothes are also ruined. Worst night ever, guess I'm stooping to Uzi's level and killing some kid. I for realsies should have just left towards the path instead of getting curious, this is what happens to people who try to go outside or something... Fuck I can't even make this funny now.". She mentally huffed to herself as she idly lifted one hand to use the solver, barely moving to start on it in the instant before she was interrupted by a yell from above. The tired but determined sound pierced through the smoke, a searching yell that was met with the loud crackles of fire yet was followed by no appearing angel above her head, the noise still stalled her. Both girls heads whipping towards the sky as the sparks of flame and ember hopped closer to Rachel's downed body, the cabin finally catching light with the collapse of a tree on its other side.

She knew that voice, of course the golden retriever would choose now to return. Lizzy could already hear how he'd react to her appearance, the thought alone propelled her next action. She willed herself to disappear before he of all people saw her, but she was too late.

"Lizzy?!". N called out, voice raised as he crunched into the beginning to melt snow in the paces of space between the two worker drones. His size and flung up snow disorienting them both for an instant.

"Oh fuck of course he has to come back right now, while I'm wearing shit and stinking like shit and trying to not feel like shit. Right when I actually have to look my best I look my wors- why do I have to look my best for this loser? He doesn't deserve that, actually he deserves to not see me at all. None of them do.". Lizzy thought quickly, an awkward smile gracing her features for the slightest of seconds while one hand yanked the wheel down from above her head by its second ring. She didn't have a chance to do anything except step back to avoid the small plume of tossed snow that came with his landing, the spray thankfully hiding her in a miniscule but appreciated way.

"Hey.".

"Oh my robogod, your okay... I think, you certainly look worse for wear then usual though so I don't actually kno-

"Shut up, I'm working on it.". Lizzy hissed back, the growing desperation not to carry the appearance of a drunk or squatter like this then forced her hand. Making her, in a flash of code, disappear away from what would have been her first kill of the night and a probable complete abandonment by the golden retriever of a drone that she didn't want to value. Pink lighting flashing briefly where she had been, and leaving an imprint in both the witnesses' visions. Twin pink X's as eyes with a fang filled maw below, a body of shadow and null black before it whisked away. The wheel taken before either of them had even really comprehended exactly what it and its serpent head were for, new goddess abandoning them with only the boon that was her gown and backpack remaining. Those remaining items fell to the snow in silence as they were left behind, braving the embers that were now swirling ever closer to claim another victim.

Rachel was left where she was, now joined by Serial Designation N.

The latter confused at these developments to the point he scrambled forward and tried to snatch the disappearing code up with beggars hands, actions futile in all accords. Leaving him with only the snow below his feet and falling ash, eyes scanning the forest ahead of him and finding no marker as to where she had went. His core felt cold despite the heat, despite the fact he had lost things that should of been worth more then her before. He called out at the cruelty, across the wastes. For his cursed inability to be where he was needed when he was needed there, his voice raised in hope-falling worry as the girl's name flung from his lips and was swallowed by hellfire and the roar of the raised hackles wind. The world itself seemed to raise back to full height in front of him, defiant to cast even a flicker to his wishes.

The former of the two sat there, stunned. Shocked into ignorance towards the roar crackles of flame despite everything. She had been wishing, wishing for the last miserable minutes of her life to genuinely stop going by. The belief that if she just passed out then and there then the dulled throb of her cheek would disappear by the time she got back up, if she did at all. And maybe she didn't want too. That felt nice, an ending. Something that wasn't another breakdown in the same night. She called out to the cruelty, to the waste. For her sluggish uncaring reaper to close the curtains on a book unworthy of knowing beyond its cover. But nobody heard anything of value, all that came out was the gurgled death whine of a machine that had been bent out of working order.

"How could the world be this cruel, what did I do wrong, I just tried to help. To ease the pain, I may of messed up in the path but that surely doesn't mean I have to suffer this much now?". Rachel thought, or N thought. If they had heard each other they might of noticed how similar they sounded.

"... But, what. How???". N uttered after a harsh moment more, voice now swallowed by the encroaching flames enough that he barely heard himself. Billows of air grabbing and pulling at his clothes as the melt snow eased below his feet, despite everything there was a chillness to the world. A chillness brought on only by what he had seen staring at him, a face harbinger to falsehoods it should not be connected to. He knew that smile despite never seeing it, he knew those eyes despite never seeing them.

N however couldn't grasp more than a name, the title only for a concept, but perhaps more.

"Sin?". Even the name felt incorrect and unfit to belong, yet almost placed correctly, like a triangle in the square hole.

He snapped back to reality and ignored the want to slow down, spinning back around and barely taking a proper look over the half crawling almost corpse that was Rachel. That oil stained girl having decided that she didn't particularly want to stay where she was anymore, cabin she was leaning against already spitting flames enough that the air around them had a wobble to it. The cabin N and Lizzy had spent close to a week in together since this all kicked off, the cabin where he had first actually paid a close attention to her as he usually left Lizzy to be V's. That cabin scattered with the weakest dusting of memories was now being clawed at by hands of ashen fire and he had to move quickly.

"Have to keep moving, have to keep moving. I hope Trevor doesn't mind keeping an eye on this one as well. Genuinely might not want to say this night could get any worse anymore with how badly this has went so far and it's only nearly midnight, there's still hours before I run out of time. But even then, it feels like I'm wasting it by doing what I am yet there's no other option is there?". N's movements were swift while he mused, flabbergasted yet shoving those thoughts to the side.

"Do anything at all if your not going to die in the next ten minutes.". The boy asked, voice rising as he did in a swoop that took him away from the flames and across the iced river that he had previously only crossed the bridge above it. Rachel making some approximation of a relieved whine, no words came out. Only a small cough followed as N held her fireman style and she accidentally swallowed the fractured parts of her teeth, ragged throat not liking anything about that.

"I'm- trying.". Rachel thought back, far too many feelings clashing inside her for even a modicum of sense to arise. Feeling far too dead for her tastes despite being a certified rot in bed for seven hours type of girl.

"Phew, I think? Your not going to uhh, bleed out though are you? Am I damaging anything else by moving this fast?". N asked back as he escaped the radius of the smoke, stalling in the air now to properly access the damages. Cringing internally as he saw what he knew was intentional damage all across her face now that he was looking, the bullet hole in her stomach also didn't excite him considering he had no knowledge on how to reassemble or restore a drone.

"I don't know, I don't know at all. I'm, in just glad it doesn't hurt as much anymore and that your here. Finally someone to fix all of this, I feel almost as if I have to apologise for being a burden but you carry me so easily.". Rachel continued to think, having finally clocked the right internal system to dull the pain she was feeling. Mind trying it's hardest to put out any sign of what she was thinking but finding none, she couldn't tell this beautiful camp angel what she wished of him. So she just whirred again, failed words turned to the crunch grind of computer noise, but with that noise as N's only answer he wheeled in the air and headed for the hangar once more. Circling around the left side of the blaze as the wind was now a heavy constant in the other direction.

Foreboding as it was now a constant once more as if heralding the arrival of yet a second snowstorm, a second week of instability or a world of hurt.

---- POV runback real ----

There was blood in the air and even in the under the half minute she had been here since her unplanned, unpractised and uncharted teleport it was already rocketing itself up to one of her favourite scents. Perfect iron taste clinging to her mind as if it was the neon lights of a human city in the ages past, to her at least she felt like it would have a pop to its proper taste. Heightened senses scrounging through the forest to take in her surroundings and possibly locate an outlet for this desire and the coffer bloat of fury she had also picked up within the last few minutes.

Lizzy looked around for it, finding trees and dense snow in every direction except right behind her instead. Behind her sat the concrete base and multiple meter tall wire fence that split the campsite grounds from the rest of the world, it's purpose still evidently intact and operable as she took in its design. Concrete slab of grey black cut in a sleek trapezoidal stand shape while the centre of that shape was neatly pierced by the curled hexagonal wire fence. The whole structure having a jagged city construction sim game or stealth militarist feel to it. Her gaze lingered on it no longer.

"Course I end up here of all places. Wherever exactly here is.". She fumed mentally, glancing upwards to find that her strophalos wheel had come along with her. The sight making her taut shoulders slip back down and ease without her consciously noticing it, hissed breath still remained. That show of her emotional state only dug itself in deeper as she realised her desire not to wear that god forsaken but god sent gown had manifested with her leaving it behind. Iced air gracing over every nook and surface of her form now in equal parts unwanted and reverent, the only part that felt untouched was her head. Helmet and bend steel tie having stayed with her like true heroes, devoted to at least keeping her hair in shape.

Deciding that she felt safe enough, the girl picked a direction and headed off. Deciding to keep the fence to her right as she went and tentatively tasting the air once or twice more to guess where that divine scent was located.

"Least these cool winds are nice, different to the stagnant airs of the bunker... Now that I'm alone I might be able to revel in them without also almost being buried alive.". She spoke to herself, idle musings at her reality feeling like the oddest thing to do after everything, yet the moment could not demand much else. Peaceful stars above a smattered painting of smog grey clouds, light enough to keep reveal her surroundings and winds weak to the point that they couldn't do more then contest with her footsteps. Which themselves crunched in a surprisingly casual saunter down her self designated path, finding no chink in her plan considering there was a gap between the fence and the inside forest of at least five metres.

She kept her pace for barely a minute more, traveling gaze landing upon the distant smoke pillars of what had been her temporary home far closer to the middle of camp then where she was now. Watching nature's art take form and cracking the smallest of smiles.

"First a blizzard, then a fire huh. I guess this must be spite towards whoever wanted to stay outside for longer than the planned two days, which was probably Thad. Or maybe it's just bad luck, either way... For something so dangerous it's surprisingly enrapturing from far away.". Lizzy continued, double taking at her choice of words afterwards as if she had instead been stabbed with a blade.

"Did I just say enrapturing? I did, hah... Enrapturing. Enn, rap, tur, ing. What a weird word, coming form a probably now weird girl... It's not like anyone else just, has a levitating wheel stuck above their head. If Doll and Uzi had them then since nobody saw them, they had to have hidden them to keep their secrets. But, unlike them I'm going to rock this look once I find some decent clothes, maybe let my hair down to go with it. I definitely think that the cheerleader vibe is not going to fuck with me or the eldritch wheel that well. But do I really want to wear anything else, maybe? This can wait until I have a mirror with me, for now... Uhm. Find anything to wear and make sure it works with me.". The girl finally shut her mouth after that, travelling in silence with arms crossed over her chest. Hugging her heated frame against the wind, each step an unorthodox one as she felt the snow beneath her feet properly. To her It wasn't exactly a bad feeling, different enough so that its novelty didn't wear off, especially with the grimy feeling her body had now.

"Perhaps...". She paused after encountering a slight downward slope, barely worse than stairs at the most but still something different. The scent of blood here had faded away as the distance from its source was too great for her newly blessed tongue to pick at. The usual worker sense of smell pitifully weak compared to the more serpentine way of the murder drones and other solver hosts, which now included herself.

One hand moved, tracing down the ugly heat seal that slipped from just below her neck down her chassis. Stomach, upper chest and even core glass all warped to the new shape in a way that made her feel, ugly. Single digit running over the ridges, brain comparing it to the memory of seeing hardened magma in a school assignment document ages back. All bubbly in shape yet unmoving.

The tracing hand reached between her thighs and left her body to point towards the ground, fingers splintered out in familiar triangulation to call forth the evidence of her godling status. The lightning and sigil arrived in record time, a second one attempting to levitate the snow below her upwards only to lift a pitiful amount. Barely a hundred flakes, comparable to a pinch of salt.

"Mmm... Guess not like that.". Lizzy then toned, feeling the arrival of curious moonlight grace her form while she dropped onto her knees. Hands manually forcing the snow on the ground together, piling up. Reading through the new knowledge in her head enough to grasp that this should, maybe, work. She just needed to make the snow something more tangible then dust on the floor, so she compacted it with her hands. Moulding a ball about the size of her head from what she could reach around her, having to ignore that odd feeling fluttering in her chest. The task monotony incarnate, her mind took her away from the waste in recollection.

She wasn't a kid. Yet a memory came to her all the same.

They had said she couldn't paint her room's walls, the paint she had scrounged up still sitting in its tub in one hand as the news was broke to her. Childish blue tones sludgy yet midday bright, just inches away from fingers that held the swing handle with grim determination. It now all meant nothing didn't it, the smaller mind still stood there in wavering strength against those who'd deny her such choice.

"But-

"No buts, and tell me how you even managed to get that?".

She halted, teen frame having to seize to avoid showing the full body shake that went through it at that question. Shade against the doorway into her room pinning her with blue eyes that felt obnoxiously hierarchically strengthened, needle point examination leaving nothing unturned. Wire would have skilled out and metal skin curled up if it could have, yet Lizzy remained completely intact.

"I... Uhmmm...". She puttered out, only to be pulled back to start by nerves alone.

"Was it that girl you met again, what's her name. Rain?". The older figure asked, voice not angry but more searchingly idle and tinted with the softest touch of interest.

"Rebecca...". Lizzy lied, perfect tone of softness and remorse finally gracing her for the first of what would be forever more.

"And the paint, you should have asked before doing any of this. I expect you to at least try to clean what you already put on the walls off.".

Lizzy watched that older figure go, not even remembering handing the paint back as she clocked the full implications of her actions. Clocked that look from the figure that told her everything, it knew she was lying yet went along with it anyway.

The pink eyed girl then shook her head free of dirty memories and crunched down the snow with renewed vigour, visor a frown as she did. That older, outdated image of herself disappearing again with a small snort of defiance towards its existence. Her fury however only mounted, and her mouth moved to complain without a listener.

"I never did tell Rebecca I chucked her under there did I? Even after she helped me scrape the paint of the wall a day later... Like she'd care though, she had enough paint to cover all the hallways and have half of it left over. All that colour, just to sit away because someone else didn't want to see it...".

And her condensed snowball had been finished, object sitting in perfect listening silence barely an inch from her knees. Her gaze locked on it, she raised one hand above and tried again and this time it worked, eldritch power summoned glyph hauling the orb into the air and keeping its shape now. Sure parts fell off of the main but with a quick reaction and twist of her wrist those were fused back to the host without complaint. The secondary action carrying the sense of a complete natural despite her existence as a novice.

"Okay, now all I have to do is just... There.". She continued, practically hissing our the last word in victory as her power melted the snow into water that didn't manage to escape her hold. The mass of liquid duplicating again and again under her power. Bulging while she stood, then, with little care for the scientific community. She dumped all that clear cold water upon herself in a gore scrounging flood of weight and force enough it made her stagger. Quick formed ice and snow dust exploding out in every direction from where it landed on the ground, taking the rot on her with it and leaving a three meter disk of formed ice covering the ground around her. Barely pencil tip thin yet ever so expansive, perfectly reflective as it formed and shifted and shattered and formed once more.

By the end she stood giantess over a field of frozen barbs, each one catching moonlight to hold in reverence for their creator. Watching as the slightest amount of steam wisped off of her as she stretched, feeling clean if not a bit cold now.

"Bluh...". Was all the noise the girl made as she brushed off the few patches of skin thin ice layers that had attempted to form on her, almost shaking from the temperature difference despite having been ready for it. Eyes trailing down to catch on the ice around her with curiosity, yet another idea coming to mind.

She then grabbed a thin chunk with the solver, sizing it up so that it was the same height as her, making an impromptu mirror that she then held upright. One hand on either side of the roughly diamond shaped looking glass of hardened water.

"There, glad I don't look too ba-

Her voice cut out when she saw the utmost defilement had been bestowed upon her, breath hitching and core stuttering out at the sight.

"For fucks sake WHAT! HOW, CAN'T I HAVE A SECOND OF PEACE!". Lizzy hissed, one hand going and moving her mess of hair properly into vision so she could double check. The mattered and frost caught hair resting over one uncovered shoulder in all its ruined glory, the cheerleader turned solver host's gaze getting stuck on it and ignoring how the sigil of her power flashed over one eye for an instant.

Her hair had been bleached, once blondes now bone white with the pinks bleeding out in a way which left reds like spilt wine ran through most of the locks she had cared so deeply for. The sight alone a signal for the apocalypse usually but now it may have well tolled the bells of the exponential end with how she responded, dropping the makeshift mirror out of surprise. Ignoring how it somehow didn't shatter when it hit the ground, her focus instead on how the hell she hadn't noticed it before. Finding the only answer to be her being a little occupied before, even if that felt flimsy. If she had skin the girl knew she would have been ghost white pale now but unfortunately metal didn't quite get the same expression across. Worse was the added fact she had left her bag as well, meaning her phone and stolen knife were in N's possession.

"No no no nononononono no no no no, this has to be a nightmare now, I could believe everything else but this is unfair.". She started, slapping herself on the cheek once in vain hopes she'd wake back up before getting onto the bus for camp. The sting of the unusually hard strike doing nothing but escalating her temper and making her stare at her hand.

She had put practically little force into that, yet it was far stronger then any slap she had done before.

"Very fucking cool, this is so awesome. I can't wait for the rest of the remaining cohort to tear me to shreds over this. Bleached hair, stupid fucking wheel, warped chest. I'm supposed to look hot and perfect and cute, not like this. Not like some half born runt or screwed up experiment. And worse, N and Rachel saw this as well... Oh my fuck N saw me like this.". Lizzy's thoughts sped out from her mouth in growing terror, everything from the last minutes finally clicking together.

"Hahhhhhh, it's so done. I'm cooked it's over I should just neck myself and be done with it. HOW, HOW DID I NOT NOTICE?! How did I fall so far in barely an hour, actually thank fuck that the rest of the class is dead. I can deal with N knowing, he's daft enough and cares to much to complain. Rachel looks too disabled to say anything anymore and no one else has seen me. I can recover this. I HAVE TO.". Lizzy continued, both hands frantically moving to card through her hair, letting the ragged fountain flow down to just below her shoulders as if she was a miniature replica of her friend Doll. The locks matted and ugly yet carrying a sense that matched with the rest of her body now, ugly divinity.

"I'll just switch up my vibe, clearly I can't stay the cutesy cheerleader chick anymore and there isn't even anyone left to cheerlead for. Unless your watching but I doubt those dead eyes work.". The girl snapped, vice shaking into euphoria now. Snatching the wheel by one of the spokes and holding it in front of her, grip strong enough that if it had been anything else it probably would of bent.

"How in all thirteen months do I pull off a look with YOU here all the time???".

"This fuckass wheel and that dumbass solver have done more then enough to me, I don't need this too. I don't DESERVE this at all, what I should be getting is a nice bath or a sleep at home. What I should be getting is a reply text from fucking DOLL but noooooo, I get dragged along to this dumbass camp because otherwise I'd be home alone and that can't happen can it. Then because V and N can't do their jobs and Doll fucked over at prom guess who dies for Uzi's bad temper, couldn't even stay dead could I?".

She stalled out, her ranting having reached almost yelling levels of noise before she had to pause. Breathing to help regulate her internal temperature, the time spent seething in quiet now refocusing her. She had to move, that rumbling in the ground was back and it looked like nobody had even attempted to pause or slow the fire across camp.

So she did, furious steps marching her away from the ice she had left behind. Frigid winds tearing at her as she held her bend metal bow in one hand and left with all the speed walking and distasteful vibes of someone who should not have woken up at all.

Chapter Text

N kept flying, he had to go as fast as he could. The boy kept his pace despite the winds tearing at him and his charge, eyes checking the face of the drone he was committed to carrying back to what little slab of direction and safety they had at that hangar. She looked, deflated in a sense. Sure N had never committed her name or face to memory before as he had been far to focused on talking with Uzi or V for the entire bus trip and when they got here he had been again focused on the more troublesome of the students. Like this one's big sister because that one continued to try and flirt with him in increasingly desperate ways, or Lizzy, who was only V's friend at the time but almost worse at disruption then the mass murderer.

That pink eyed drone with the smug smile and knowing tone to her voice as if she had every part of existence itself wrapped around her finger, stance always laid back enough as to not be threatening yet still poised to command some form of attention. Up until this disaster he hadn't interacted with her beyond the briefest of verbal abuse at the prom, his mind having instinctively clocked that while she could sound like J there was a difference in goal in their speech. J, to him at least, had always barbed her sentences with the intent to stick. Lizzy meanwhile barely meant half the words that fell from her fangless maw, every meaning peppered with little nothing's and idle speak that N couldn't quite grasp as of the moment.

In that regard she was instead similar to Uzi, using words he didn't understand to convey things that he had never really thought as important in the yesteryears. He didn't really need "aura" when there was no one that would take him seriously, N never even tried to ask for permission to "cook" since he knew V and J would deny that outright. Yet, he had listened to the worker girl's go on and on about whatever graced their mind at the time. But there was still a difference between the two that he had noticed, Uzi wanted him around almost all the time, Lizzy meanwhile wanted nothing more then for him to be gone.

Which made her familiar to J once again.

He had to recall the time back after he had counted all the students, leading them to the bunk as soft winds receded and left them alone among trees. The path barely visible under its faint scattering of snow, footsteps a single crunch drowned out by the armada of curious ones behind him. Worker boots always making such an obvious noise in the environment, usually he would have already been upon them and silencing the steps through frost. Now however they had all been quieted by something that wasn't him.

He found himself slowing as the past dragged him down, barely noting that Rachel had shifted in his arms to look down at the forest passing below them. Watching those years dead trees flow away beneath the pair as now she was moved by angel not as undead as the last one that touched her in any capacity, N couldn't see the semi stunned frown on his cargo's face.

"Just keep flying, I'm sure Trevor could at least do something for her. She's, probably, not dying as of right now but that's no excuse to slow down. Especially with how much you have to do and with Doll, doll? Doll. Doll chasing you around camp all night. Hopefully not finding the hangar and getting those two, I'm only stopping before I get to the hanger because... Doing this as soon as possible is a must, I can't let her keep bleeding out like she is.".

He sped up again, breaching over the shore of the frozen lake and it's smattering of useless canoes. Faintest snow adding streaks of thicker white across its surface, the cabin at the other side of it where they got the canoes from being half flattened under the weather and looking as distraught as a house could be. Reasonably N felt he could relate to it somehow.

"There wouldn't be anything that could help her in ther-

"Wait, I have an idea.". N interrupted his own thoughts as he stalled in the sky a few metres from the cabin, looking down at the girl in his hands as he helped shift her so she was looking back at him. Feeling nothing yet at the small buzzy whine she made in response, the two meeting gazes as N held her in a bridal carry above ice and below stars. Orange and yellow eyes examining each other's face, both pairs seeing that the other was simply tired at the core of their being as of now. But knowing that they once weren't.

"It's a bit, uhm... How do I say this...".

A muted choking sound suddenly emerged from Rachel, the girl hacking up a tooth and making N's eyes widen at the sight. The white shrapnel flying off into the wilderness as neither of them made a move to halt it and it had the fortune of not getting caught in the mangled and no longer bleeding curtain of torn synthetic cheek that was Rachel's mouth. Her smile unrecognisable, all expression mauled and bygone.

"Urgh, that does not look pleasant at all.". N toned, getting distracted for a moment before he descended down to land in the snow a few steps before the cabin. Watching Rachel shake her head in agreeance with N while he did so, her hair shifting in the slightest as it ended up threaded around N's fingers. Messy and stained to a degree but all around still soft, long purple locks giving the faintest recollection back to Uzi's shorter but similarly coloured ones. He had been about to move to put her down where they were, headband eyes clicking over to active for the briefest moment to find there was no threat around. But even so he still managed to get startled.

"Yeah, not fun.".

N blinked at that, watching as the words appeared on Rachel's visor in her signature neon orange. Evenly spaced and evidently typed with the standard mechanical looking font all workers had for displaying text on their visors, the function serving to fulfil its rare use case once more. Providing an alternative to spoken language in case there were reasons to not use verbal communication. After a second of comprehension, N's face lit up and words spilled from his mouth in worry and relief.

"Oh thank robogod, you can still speak. Talk, show words?".

"Show words. Yeah, it took me a bit to calm down enough to remember I could.".

"Haha, yeah you probably went through a lot to end up like you are, still a little shocked.".

"A little, I almost died.".

"It happens, to uhh. The best of us, I've died a few times before as well.".

"WHAT?! Are you okay?!".

"Me? Oh yeah I'm fine, I've got enough oi- fuel, fuel. To run for ages.". N toned back, looking away from the girl and letting out a slight forced chuckle as he did. Vision gazing across the shore of the frozen lake and finding nothing of value beyond snow and trees and fractured ice. Seconds of silence leaving time for both of them to father some of their thoughts, even as Rachel's slowly leaking stomach left oil in places it should not be and N's inaction only made the problems at camp worse. They both needed time to slow down.

"How is she even worrying about me, I'm the one who flew off and let everything go downhill like this. I let Uzi run off and disappear when she knew I was around and obviously needed someone to reassure her, I left the school kids to V's attention and somehow expected to be able to rely on her for anything, and I left Lizzy alone to become whatever the hell she is now... Oh my god Lizzy, what the hell did I miss how did she also teleport like Doll did. Does that mean she has the solver too, maybe. It did look like a solver-ish teleport, but when did she get it and how. Why didn't she use it at prom if she had it? Well, if she didn't use it at prom then she probably didn't have it at prom... Right? I'll have to find her next and ask her.".

"What, what, what, what, what, what... How am I not, how am I sane still? Why am I just, fine now. It doesn't make sense why am I not bothered about it why am I not? I'm, I'm so confused why did he let her do that? Does he not know V just tried to kill me and then disappeared with that other one? I mean, he probably doesn't. He definitely doesn't, and that's not good... Maybe I should tell him later, he's probably been worrying all night and this would just make it worse, I don't want to see my hero with such face ruining emotions. My hero??? Wuah, I guess he is. Certainly looks the part, with that shiny hair and strong arms and angel wings...".

"You're the one who can't regenerate, I should be worrying about you, not you worrying about me. I can take a bit of a beating, while you...".

"... I guess, but look. What am I supposed to do?-

"Rachel don't.". The girl barely managed to think, but of course. Just like her older sister, a consistent disregard for anything else in favour of loosely snatching at bags that weren't hers was of higher priority. Because of course one can totally avoid death and or delay the inevitable by flirting with ones saviour, harasser, current murderer or whatever else ailed one.

"Be your damsel in distress~".

"You really had to, huh girl? Could NOT keep those hands to yourself could you?". The thought appeared instantaneously in her head, bringing a feeling of hopeful shame along with it that was once again not doused by the cold nor the hole in her stomach that had missed everything of importance. Probably, the bullet that was the cause having departed from her clothes a while ago now. Leaving her with nothing to grab and shake in the small amount of fury she had at the incident.

"Uhm. If you want to be, sure? You don't look that stressed though?". N replied with an awkwardness to his voice that was barely there, breaking up the orange eyed drone's mental ramblings with a ray of honesty that stood as divine light betwixt the night. The boy finally realising that he was still holding her off the ground and as of such moving softly to let her stand for herself, depositing the woman on the step above his own so she had at least a little more height on her. Their difference still more than enough to leave N's head as above Rachel's.

"Yippee, let's go. He so likes me ba- Likes? Likes.. likes??? I mean, he did just save me so he definitely likes me? Why else would he do such a thing when Lizzy was right there as well. Wait, what did Lizzy do how did Lizzy just disappear like she did then. Clearly this all has to be a fever dream, there's no other explanation for anything that has happened so far.". Rachel thought to herself, finally looking around and actually taking in the world after closing a few damage warnings just to be able to see normally. Her gaze trailing down the shoreline before landing on N's form, she had already wondered why he was built like he was. But now, with her gaze raking over the boy's somehow still well appearing coat covering his visibly thin to almost being intentionally provocative waist as they stood alone in the woods, she had to really question why the exterminators of their kind were designed in such a tasteful way. Rebecca probably would have had an answer, or a far more vested interest in the question, then Rachel did. The girl's eyes departing his form with little difficulty to look back up at the yellow ovals that were N's own visor displays.

"Thank you ;3".

"Aww, no problem? but, I stopped here. because there's uhm.". N stalled out, looking away from the girl as his internal processors tore at him a little too much for what he was about to offer to do for her. Maybe Uzi's little amount of immersion of him into the proper, or normal, society of the workers. Or maybe it was something dragged out of his dreams of the manor that felt entirely too real for him to dissuade, either way. Something gave him the stink eye inside.

"How do I say this?". he continued further, catching the briefest glint of something in the brown and white forest that had his head whipping around. Concern etched features once again only fast enough to catch the flutter lights of that purple haired witch disappearing from their place among the distant tree line, Rachel's gaze following his and finding the nothing left in their pursuers wake.

So she tapped his cheek to grab his attention in a move that was probably not the best. Thankfully nothing came from it, the boy staring at where he had saw what he had hoped wouldn't be following them. One eye an X that had Rachel double taking at its manifestation.

"Was there, something over there?".

"I hope not, but with everything tonight I'm probably, very, misguided in that. Heh.".

"...I see... Tonight's been long for you, hasn't it?".

"Just a little long so far, I've only got to try to fix you up here and then figure out what next after I get you back to what should be a safe space... I didn't even check if it was, biscuits I'm daft sometimes.". N toned, quickly checking around with his headband eyes to find nothing was hiding near them, thanking the blizzard for ruining the building behind them enough he could see through almost all of it with his optional vision mode. Even if see wasn't exactly as correct a word as sense, or smell. Find, might be a word that fitted.

"Just a little bit.".

"... Yep, that's me.".

"I didn't mean it like that, it's just that... Uhm. How do I say this... Without being mean.". Rachel jutted in to the best of her ability, grasping N with a stronger grip that betrayed something more than just a surface level fear of aggravating the boy. Her hands finding their way to the centre of his coat and latching firmly there upon his chest.

"I wasn't offended. But, I can take it, neither sticks, stones or words can really hurt me.".

"How did everything get this bad with, you two, watching over us?".

"Uh... Yeah, that's right, both of us...". N stalled as it was revealed words could in fact hurt him and in record time as well, for while he had been reprimanded for failure before there was something worse about Rachel's innocent questing compared to J and her blunt accusations. As if while with J she already had the presumption of an answer from him Rachel had none, and maybe only high hopes for him. Something he himself now had to tear down.

"You, you and V, our camp councillors.".

"I can't really tell him I got mauled by his more than half dead companion can I? would he take it well, or would I give him more to worry about? He's evidently worried over it all. I don't need to worry him more, I can wait... Despite how uncomfortable I feel... But it's literally his job to take care of us so I should tell him that I need proper care before something worse happens. I don't want to blow up or something, if that's even what happens to damaged drones? But, he couldn't give that care, V evidently can't and there's no way anyone out here can really help me. No one is going to save you, he just needs someone to talk to and that someone is me.". Rachel thought, tightening her grip and feeling leaked oil pool in her mouth while she took an involuntary breath. One that was probably useless considering the hole in her that provided a much better cooling and very revolutionised delivery of air of the right temperature to lower her internals one temperatures.

"Well, it would have to have been a bit of... Uhm, bad timing???". N replied sheepishly, pulling both the girl's hands off his coat and scratching the back of his head afterwards as he tried not to face the music despite knowing it was all his fault.

"How am I supposed to say, yeah I didn't think too hard about all this and now people are dying cause of me. Like always, even when I try something different and even then, it's not like I'm exactly torn up on the fact they died? I think, it's more that people I thought I could trust just, didn't come through. I knew Uzi wasn't going to be around but she was supposed to stay out of the way unless something really bad happened, not make everything worse and then disappear without a trace. I told V to keep you guys safe but of course, she just has to throw a wrench in every nice night ever, It's MY fault I didn't realise that what was out here was worse than a little snow. I thought it would be a simple ten minute search to find Uzi and then I could help her and that would be that, not all this. I'm just failing over and over again and pulling all of you down with me. We wouldn't have even been here if I had the answers to Uzi's questions about the solver.". N spilt his thoughts to only himself, wanting not to answer Rachel and show her just how abysmally he had messed up over this last week. He found himself not wanting to further ruin her night, preferring the slight warmth in her mauled expression to the inevitable scowl of looking upon a failure like himself that would take its place once she knew.

"Uh, bad timing? Like, with the storm that came over here?".

"Yeah, your right, the stor-

N found it completely against his being to continue that white lie, the fact he had even had the slightest thought about such a thing felt akin to a defiance of his character and core and thus he cut himself off. Silence becoming the dominant power between the pair while Rachel showed only a puzzled expression, waiting for him to continue.

"No, no I can't just say that. It wasn't the storm that made everything go south, it was my fault. I went rushing off after Uzi when she showed up during archery and left everyone to fend for themselves.".

"Why... Uzi? Isn't she eating people now?".

"Well yeah, but only already dead ones. It's far better than what I've done, I don't think she'd like actually murdering. Probably.".

'No like, Lizzy said she ate. Actual, people. Live. Not dead.".

"HUH, SHE'S WHAT?".

"I knew she needed oil now since prom but eating whole drones?!? That must have been why she tried to find me, that must have been what that thing she made was related too. Her powers spazzing out on her... That explains Doll's corpse then, and maybe where V is? Did she beat V or did V beat her because there's no way she didn't instantly slink off to try and kill her like she said she would... And I failed to find her, I failed to find her for a whole week and instead she probably found the students or got killed by V. Definitely, found the students, and considering V hasn't shown herself again probably V as well? Maybe? I should leave I should go find her, NOW. instead of staying here and wasting time being useless.". N's thoughts rotated upon that axis as his wings flicked out yet did no more than that. Blades shining in distant moonlight while the boy himself appeared more as if he was mentally caught between a rock and a hard place.

"!!!". Rachel displayed as she startled at N's raised voice and actions, the boy's tone both worried and surprised as it rippled away through the snow and sky. Probably attracting unwanted attention, that a realisation that the pair both had at once yet could do little about.

"What do I do, stay? Run around and fail Uzi again and again even after all she's done for me. Or do I go, and leave everyone else here to deal with this themselves? With Doll hunting us for some stupid reason, without V here to help them... What if Uzi is trapped somewhere and needs my help, what if everything went so much more downhill and I just don't know it?". N's mind bolted off from him and the current world, unchained to anything but itself as it's inner mechanisms were kept enigma to the drone ahead.

"N?".

"Like, what happened to Lizzy. LIZZY, OHHHH Something went so entirely wrong didn't it she would NEVER go outside with that bad of a clash upon her clothes wise, and then teleport, HOW, HOW does this night keep getting worse. First Uzi disappears, then V doesn't do anything to help, and then that blizzard and Doll dying when I might have been able to like, I don't know. interrogate her for answers about what is up with Uzi or make her make good on that promise to help us.

"N, look at me. Please.".

"Then I end up stuck with LIZZY, who is also apparently now the antichrist or something and everything else that happened. She's been hiding that fact from me for no reason since we first met up hasn't, she, with the door trick. Trying to open the door and then failing, she's been tricking me this whole time? Maybe... And asides that, there's so much else going on and it all feels like I'm supposed to fix it. Forest fire for some unknown reason, Thad and Trevor acting like three-year-olds... Gods almighty N why can't you just actually do something for once instead of fucking up again and again and again like you always have. Why are you even bothering with THEM, they can't fix their own problems and halt you from fixing yours. Like Uzi, you said you'd always help her and now you just. LOST HER? What a jo-

"Ehnn...".

One noise cut though his thoughts, warbled static plea wrapped in the fleece of darkness and flavoured further with how soft it felt. He almost swore this wasn't the first time he had heard it. Singular in its existence yet still sharpened, it would have drove away those with little context or brutal hearts.

"Oh, this is why I haven't left.". N managed to think, mind clearing enough to find the drone in front of him showing words once more. Abashed yet clear stance that clashed with how damaged she was, by all metrics she should have been a lot more worried or at least concerned about herself. N believed so at least, he'd seen workers run screaming from lesser injuries even when alone and now she just. Didn't.

"I, I didn't know asking would tear you up this much.".

"What, no I'm... Yeah, alright. You got me.".

"Sorry (>_<)".

"D- don't be. It would have just eaten me up from the inside if I had kept it in.".

"Your, still. keeping it in now even as you say that. I don't wish to pry but... You're a central piece to everything that has happened this week, whoever is still out there. If, if there is anyone out there. They need someone like you.".

"Well, I don't know about that.".

"You can fly, we can't."

"Yeah, sure... I guess that counts as something... But still.".

"What holds you back? If it's me, I'm more than capable of waiting.".

N sighed, hands balling into fits now as his tail lashed once against the dusty top layer of snow, dispersing the lakeside waves like the narrowest of surfboards wake. He clasped away his wings with ease that was second nature, leaving himself bare while he grasped for words to convey himself properly to someone who he had only just met. Fearing the mere act of portraying himself incorrectly in front of her, he didn't know why but pinned the metaphorical tail on the also metaphorical donkey on just how exhaustingly long tonight had been.

"It's not you, it's just... I can't really overstate how much this week has sucked. How everything comes down to resting on my shoulders because no one else can, and then I mess up.".

"I might not be well informed, but I think you've done really well so far. Helping me. That is a start.".

"Hah, right. One out of almost fifty. What's the bet Uzi or V or some other disassembly drone ate the rest of the kids I dragged out here.".

... Disassembly drone? Is that what you're called, not murder drones.".

"Yeah, yeah... Though now it feels like there isn't much difference between the meanings.".

"I, that's right. Even if we're just robots, taking us apart is still practically murder. Calling it disassembly feels wrong. It's downplaying what you did in the past... Which, I uh. I do want to know why. Why you did it.". The words crawled across Rachel's screen, both shrunken slightly to allow more on and moving with a lethargic pace that was hard to get used too. The slowness of communication a jagged knife through the regular they had both enjoyed before this, however, before N could respond the worker coughed. Thankfully turning her head to the side as to not cough in him but that didn't hide the irregularities of the event, pooled oil being ejected in a spray that tainted the barely standing railing. Leopard spots being left behind on the worn wood beams, it looked almost pretty in the faintest moonlight. Almost.

"You okay?". N jumped at the opportunity with both a legitimate worry and to escape the addled weirdness of the now, watching with concern and once again remembering why he had stopped here. Alone in the woods under moonlight, with frozen lake and shined snow as backdrop. He almost wished he had found Uzi instead just to show her this, but every unspoken wish never comes true.

Rachel adverted her gaze, and thus couldn't respond.

"No, no I'm not okay. I just got mauled and I feel too okay and normal, I shouldn't be feeling this way I should be screaming, or blacked out, or anything like how people usually react to almost dying. Not this, empty acceptance, not these wayward thoughts of what if it went further. I'm finen't.. finen't? Fine but not fine, I don't know at all and that's the scary part but I can't ask you, a mass murderer if I'm going to live till the next sunrise or if something inside me broke and I'll sputter out in a few minutes. And this is all because I didn't go to school normally, I didn't get taught how to survive out here and I still went anyway. Because it was supposed to be fun, this was supposed to be just a silly little outing to see the world... It wasn't supposed to go like this.".

She moved one hand from her mouth, shaking but with a thumbs up that sat as a cherished white lie. Then, after a second more she turned back and wiped away that topic. She didn't know an answer anyway. New words marching onto a visor that had probably just had tears upon it with a bluntness that came with their font yet still betrayed a bitterness from their appearance.

"I think, speaking. Attempting to at least. might have hurt. A little stupid of me but it was necessary."

"Necessary? No, NO it wasn't. Hurting yourself just to get my attention.".

"It had the desired outcome. You listened.".

"Well, hahahhhh... I did. I listened to you do THAT, you're insane.".

"I definitely am, how I'm not shaking, not feeling pain. He's right, I went insane enough to hurt myself for this baggage infested angelic piece of pure hope.".

"Me? You eat people, how haven't you went insane? Actually? I want to know why, why must you eat people?".

"Because otherwise we burn up, your unfortunately warm, sweet, oil helps keep us from doing that. I don't know if I'm considered insane or not though.". N answered semi enthusiastically, balled hands becoming claws that refracted the silky moonlight for but a moment. Weapons revealed as if to maul someone that really didn't need any more damage done to them.

" ._. ".

"Haha, yeah that's a reasonable reaction.".

"Why? Why do you burn up without our oil? Do you need any right now, is that why some of the classmates disappeared. I can give you some if you need it, it's kind of. Not really, staying in anyway.". Rachel attempted to chuckle at her own admittedly morbid joke, only succeeding in making another crunchy mechanical whine from her discombobulated and probably torn voice box. The sound having no effect on N specifically asides for wrenching at something deep within him, even if the idea of getting a top up from her was particularly alluring in some stupid way.

"I wonder if she tast- Nope, nah uh. Stay focused on not draining her like a juice box and actually helping for once in your life. You need to fix her mouth and get going already, just need to ask her that. But how am I supposed to ask THAT?".

"No, no I'm fine right now. Ate out of a trashcan earlier."

"Oh... Oh okay.".

"WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT?". Rachel's mind stalled for a moment while she replied, having to try her hardest not to hurl again at the mental image of this radiant angel eating leftovers out of a trash can.

The pair almost fell into comfortable silence then. Rachel's hands smeared black from her own oil and still kept at post guarding the entrance to her mouth while N's own idled by his side's like restrained rescue dogs. Unable and unknowing of how to truly help yet wishing nothing more than that, out of cautious habit built up through the last week he checked the surroundings through his headband vision once again.

Still nothing.

Just the snow and ice and forest that could be hiding those he had dragged out here and failed, whether they were named Uzi or anything else he had no clue.

So just as always. Though now he had to wonder what this place had looked like before the core collapse. Green trees, flowers and grasses showing themselves eagerly while birds lazily carried themselves across the sky. Was the sky on Copper 9 blue before all this, or was it some other colour. Were their dogs here?

"You, didn't really do your job that well...". Unfortunately he was drawn back to the real world by having been gifted with the most polite words to say to someone with self esteem issues now scrolling across Rachel's visor.

"Yeah? I knew that. J told me that quite a lot actually. When'd you get in touch with her?".

"Hahhhaaaa, funny. No, like.".

"So he knows that voice V was talking to, that's something... Something I should definitely tell him about but how do I reasonably deliver the news that his coworker was both the one to do this to me and might be dead?". Rachel paused to think, moving one hand down to feel at the hole in her chest in muted interest only to withdraw it when a warning came up on her HUD. Telling her not to interact with damaged parts in case she damaged them further and to try and contact a proper JCjenson approved mechanic, neither of those suggestions really helping her at all.

"Hrmmmm, your giving me the feeling you actually have met her. But that's impossible. Hey wait actually how did you get all beat up like this, it wasn't her was it?".

"I swear if it was her then not only am I going to have some very harsh words to say but the main one of them would be the word sloppy. She NEVER, leaves someone like this. So why start now and then not even drink from them, she has no bite marks, but J doesn't do bodily harm for the fun of it like V did.".

"Uh... Yeahhhhhhh, I might have met her. When she uhm.".

"She didn't hurt you, did she?".

"NO, NO NO. She didn't, just uhm... I'm, sorry for what I'm about to say... I really am.".

N found his hands grasped him Rachel's tender hold, chilled oil coating making hers look far more malicious then his own even if that was the furthest thing from the truth. The action snagged all the air from N's lungs, if he had them, and left him mute with nothing to do but read the next neon lit words from the survivor in front of him. Each syllable a damnation further to his failure.

"Your friend, V, she did, she tried to kill me. Shot me and ruined my mouth, was going to eat me I think. Until J arrived, I didn't get to see her, but she was called J. V just disappeared to fight her or something, and well. You found me, before whatever Lizzy got possessed by did anything to me... I'm sorry for telling you but you should know all this.".

Each word was a nail of ice upon his coffin, drawling in distressed sunset orange across a visor that probably would have shattered if the emotions it contained had been a physical force.

"V... V did?".

"OF COURSE, Can't be content letting me have any inch of respite can she? CAN SHE?!?! I've been running my skull into the ground trying to make sure nothing else goes wrong for the last week and she returns now just to maul some kid and disappear again? I TOLD HER, I made a point about asking her to at least try to work with us while we were on the bus here, I gave her a pass when she shot that one kid I told her to look after them while I went to find Uzi. Why did I even like her in the first place when the only thing she cares for is her own self satisfaction and making sure as many people as possible get walked over in the process. EVEN J IS DOING BETTER, And she's only doing better because she isn't here.".

Whatever Rachel had tried to display next was promptly ignored in exchange for a snort of laughter from N, the boy grabbing his pilot cap with a move that forced Rachel to let go of his left hand. The cap coming down to cover his face while he exhaled into it, taking in the felt and aged smell of it while also trying to release the knot in his stomach without making Rachel smell stank oil breath.

"Of course, we can't have nice things on Copper 9 can we?".

"We can.". Rachel displayed, only finding herself muted by the simple fact N was no longer looking at her. Having disengaged from their premarital handholding session to instead take a few steps towards the shore of the lake, a single chuckle warbling out from him in such a way that it made Rachel's remaining oil go cold.

"Your here, with me. That's nice.".

"Hahaha, the fact she didn't even finish you off just makes this even more spiteful. Like she had to make it abundantly clear she never once cared about anything I tried to do, probably doesn't even remember me telling her not to do anything rash when we were on the bus.". The boy continued, wings flicking out again and throwing the snow around him away. Drifts of upset white cutting through the air like razor blades, sharp and ready yet unorganised and without a clear target.

He caught Rachel around the waist with his tail before the girl could try to console him with some form of physical attention, lifting her into the air and looking back over his shoulder at her. Eyes their ever normal sickly yellow yet now hardened in comparison to her wobbly orange ones that disappeared to try and spew worthless consolations at him.

"N! What are you going to do?".

Of course he still saw every word, each display punching at and stalling that growing fire within him. Already muting it once again, cutting away at the writhing vines of hasty action with the precision of a decade experienced gardener.

"Dude I don't know, I don't know. What am I supposed to do, Find her??? I've tried that for days now and failed.".

"We, don't have to find her.".

"And let her just, go do what she did to you to someone else as well?".

"... Noooo, I just... I don't know either.".

"... Guess we are both just aimless trash then. Unable to solve even the most basic of problems and instead just let them spiral into the hell we have now.". N's voice rose while his thoughts blundered for a reason, ending at the old reliable scapegoat known as himself.

"Then what?".

"Why are you asking me? I'm, very much not the right person to be talking to about this...".

"Because you stopped me like you had a better idea. I have to go out there and try and fix this mess.".

"I'm not saying you shouldn't, just. And forgive me for asking. But why prioritise V, she's just as capable as you are right?".

"Just as capable, yet still turned inside out as she was. How can they move like they did even with all that damage, some sort of vampire magic?".

"LOOK AT WHAT SHE DID TO YOU?!?! I can't, I can't...". N half screeched, half whined. Voice raised as he held Rachel in the air by his tail around her waist and accidentally shook her from the intensity of his outburst. Least, before it fizzled out when he hit the roadblock of what to do next and lowered Rachel to the ground in shamed silence.

"He, he's that torn up over me? I'm just some worthless nobody what is this? He's supposed to be worrying about people like V and Lizzy and this Uzi girl but instead he uses something I just, don't care about, for some utterly stupid reason, as his motivation? Does he like me that much? He has to, he has to have fallen head over heels for me to value me like he does.".

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine though. Other people might not be, you are the camp counsellor. Our safety was and is your priority...". Rachel displayed her lie and her accusation, staying where she was in a slight apprehension to approaching N after being grabbed by his tail once already. Unable to show or stop the feeling of guilt growing in the back of her mind now that her words were understood, that distasteful feeling of putting all of this on the shoulders of someone who evidently wasn't taking it well gnawing at her.

"What other people, Ive already failed the entire class.".

"What makes you sure of that.".

"Hours of looking around and finding only bodies makes me sure of that, it makes sense. Even more if you knew me. If you knew how unreliable I am.".

"That, makes sense...". Rachel displayed, her face tilting with a slight dejected aura as if she wanted to disagree but was faced with the mountain that was finding a way to do so. N was right, she had seen some bodies herself as well. Sure she didn't know his past but he sounded sure enough of himself that she wanted to believe his lie of self worth.

"Exactly, it's so, so stupid that you guys let me be your camp counsellor in the first place.".

"US? We just got told that you guys would be looking after us, I didn't even know you until we all got on that bus to come here. The teacher said this whole trip was Uzi's idea when we got out of the bus, that's what I remember.".

N paused, eyes glancing away from Rachel in order to effectively mute her. Even if that isn't what he meant it as, the boy taking a deep breath of the chilled air as another soft and distant rumble rolled through camp. Shifting the snow beneath them as if it was an approaching train, yet ever so far away. The night felt like it needed some distant electric guitar strumming to become what it was trying to be, beautifully desolate.

"Yeah but she isn't here to blame and that is my fault too. She convinced the teacher that me and V could be trusted with all of your lives and he believed it, somehow. Like, look at me? How does he think this is prime kid looking after material?". The boy spat, flicking his wings and thrashing his tail while gesturing to himself with sharpened claws, proving that every inch of him was armed and dangerous. Safely out of instant reach for the orange eyed girl who had wrung this reaction from him, if only by a foot or two of distance.

"Uh, not... Really.".

"EXACTLY, I'm not even supposed to be doing any of this, none of this should have happened. Your kind literally call us murder drones, that should be the bookend of this whole thing. Not, oh let's put everything on N's shoulders while knowing he is a divine screw up and expect nothing to go wrong!". N raised his voice, waving his claws at his chest again for emphasis. Or just to do something, to outlet some of the feelings inside as he ranted at Rebecca's younger sibling as if she would ever understand. Of course, his raise of voice made her bristle in return. Looking more akin to a peeved chihuahua than an actual threat like he was as she flashed another slew of useless comforts across her visor.

"You aren't a screw up!".

"Then explain why every time I do anything it always goes downhill!?".

"Bad luck, or bad timing. Or other people not coordinating, I saw you. I've been here this whole camp, watched how you try and have more than enough proof that sells it for me that you aren't the problem.".

"... That, that doesn't change the fact it happened like this.".

"I guess it doesn't, yeah. Yeah I guess it doesn't at all...".

And once again they found themselves at the sheer cliff face that was their challenge, a cold silence accompanied the wind that graced them now. Trees swaying despite their passing, distant smoke rising to the clouds while between them they found their gazes caught on the smallest detail. A single speck of ash, grey and feathery caught their eyes as it fell into the snow between them. Almost hitting N's tail if he hadn't moved it aside to give way to the interloping pedestrian.

"And now I'm on a time limit too...".

"Do you think the fire will go out on its own?".

"Maybe, hopefully... Eventually it will. I just want to get everyone out of here and find Uzi, V and Lizzy.". N replied, his final word making both drones feel as if the ground had suddenly been rug pulled away. Not in a physical sense but in a way that made them a thousand times more worried.

They both realised that Lizzy existed, or whatever she had become existed somewhere on the campsite. Hopefully. Both drones befuddled at what might have caused her to become what she was and what they should do about it, how were they supposed to interact with her now. A bratty self assured teenager now granted fangs and eldritch power along with the appearance of something between a free to walk murderer and something straight out of a long forgotten scripture was far more than what either of them needed this night. Rachel swore she was about to eat her, N swore she looked like someone he couldn't for the life of him remember.

"Oh we're so done in it isn't even funny anymore. Well, it wasn't funny in the first place either but, oh I don't really care lets just move on to worrying about Lizzy and adding Lizzy to the pile of worries that manifested over the last week. Because of course, because of course I cant catch a break. Lizzy has the solver, or something now too. Though, at least she seems sane so she shouldn't make anything worse. Right?". The boy woefully thought to himself, dreading that approaching confrontation with what was hopefully still Lizzy. Wondering how and what's and whys along with one smaller, closer knit question.

Was this another betrayal, or was something wrong with her.

"Did, you know Lizzy could do that?".

"I, no... No I didn't.".

"Oh. Okay, do you think she's okay?".

"I don't know. I just, don't know. Like, what if she's possessed or something or what if there's things I don't have any way to fix going on. I want to say she's fine, it's Lizzy she's kind of got that attitude where she's practically invincible... But I can't lie and say, oh yeah it's all going to be fine.". N answered, looking down at the ground as it shook to accentuate his point.

" 𐔌՞. .՞𐦯 ". Rachel displayed for a moment before returning to showing her eyes, looking at N and the shoreline behind him and the forest behind that and the horizon beyond them all with a quiet expression. Both hands knitted together as the wind rocked them both in the slightest, attempting to comfort them despite the scenery being a perfect lie made from boredom.

"We really are out of our depth here, Lizzy running around like that after locking me out. She did this, she did this to me... kind of, if I had been faster or stronger or smarter it wouldn't of happened to me though, so the blame is on me for getting hurt. She was probably doing something really gross inside anyway and I know she hates being seen when she doesn't want to. But why'd she let us see her now, which she looks like she's going to become god... wuahhhhhhh, another mystery for the night then I guess. Well, she's probably not having a good time, I'm wounded but that's, not, not too important and N is feeling horrible about it all when it's kinda not his fault. Right, like, it shouldn't be his fault he's been trying really hard... But Rachel, he and Uzi and V were the ones that even allowed this trip to happen so it is their fault. You should be mad you wouldn't have been hurt if it wasn't for the- RACHEL SHUT, HE'S TRYING HIS BEST AND YOU NEED TO NOT BE MEAN TO HIM AND HIS GLORIOUS, CUTE, SWEET SMILE!".

"What do we do now? Go after her?". The orange eyed girl asked, using text once again as she sidled up to stand beside N. Having to crush down a significant fluster at how close she was while she moved, only succeeding at again leaving her face in that half shade of sunset. Shattered smile barely showing while the hole in her chest went unacknowledged, probably for the worst but she figured there wasn't much she could do about it anyway.

"No, not yet... There's, there's this spot near the top of camp that I gotta take you too first.".

"Why, wuh. Like, as in a date? A date, the dat- shut. Oh. When are we going.".

"RACHEL LOCK IN AND TRY NOT TO SOUND LIKE YOU'D LITERALLY DIE WITHOUT HIM CHRIST!". 

"HUH, no, nonono. Not a date hahha, it's just where everyone else is. Like an evacuation point or something.". N shot back, looking down at the girl beside him with an awkward smile and kind eyes as she fidgeted like she'd explode any moment now. His gaze looking over her damaged face for a moment longer than necessary before he reigned it away just in time to not fluster her further. Fortunately he got to continue speaking unimpeded, his voice accompanied by a cough as he right sided the conversation while looking at the cloud cover above. 

"I, uhm. Yeah let's move on before you bleed to death.".

"Oh, yeah. Yep please. I'd like to not die, I would like that a lot.".

"I think, I might have a way to fix your mouth... It's, a little odd but it, should, really should since I saw J do it once before, work.". N started, breaching the topic as if it was far more serious then it had been treated so far, Which it was. Rachel's shredded cheeks, shattered teeth and mangled tongue, all stained black by violence that should not have happened if N was doing his job of self elected camp counsellor properly. All of that deserved to be taken more seriously then a few awkward jokes and bring ignored, in fact the girl should be rushed back home to see someone actually qualified with keeping workers alive. As opposed to N.

"Oh, yay? What are you going to do?". Rachel replied, words lighting up the visor of Rebecca's slightly younger and much more amicable sister with a delighted glow. Hope, or something akin to it considering she had entirely avoided any sort of breakdown over the incident so far despite her usual speed running of such afflictions. Even if there was a crawling feeling in her gut, or the majority of it that was intact, that she wasn't escaping that situation without something that would be with her for the rest of her existence. Whether that be the physical or slowly manifesting mental and emotional scars, she didn't have the slightest clue.

"I, have to kiss you!".

"∘ ∘ ∘ ( °ヮ° ) ?".

"Look, it's cause the repair nanites in my saliva can be tricked into repairing other things. Uzi would probably, maybe?? Kill me if she knew, and so would everyone else. I wanted to do it here so that I wouldn't have Trevor down my neck you know. And also cause your uhhh, quite the bit damaged.".

Rachel's only reply to that was obscured over the tsunami of colour that surged onto her visor, text becoming illegible under the wrath of pixel poseidon. Orange blush like a sunset he had never seen, since he couldn't remember really seeing a sunset. Even so the vista alone had warmth enough to thaw at the frost that has gathered in N's heart over the last few days, weakening that weight.

"Oh, whoops...".

"OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD! YES, Yes please. That's it I need him I don't care anymore my stomach can wait I need him to call me cute names and grow old with me, do we grow old? Do we look old when we grow old, like those old couples in the bunker that don't do much asides be old? RACHEL. Stop fawning and let him kiss you and call you pet names and hold you tight, you just gotta stop blushing so he can see what you want. Then he can press those cute lips to your ow-- oh, yeah that's right I don't really have lips anymore to do that. He wouldn't really want to do anything with that mess for any other reason except? Except fixing me? With his, magic fixit saliva? How does that even wor- he already has fold away wings don't question it.".

"You alright? Did I do something wro-

N's question was interrupted by a mechanical whir screech as Rachel, despite herself, eagerly grabbed both his hands in her own and accidentally tried to speak again. Visor still flush with slowly shallowing tides of orange while her grip was like iron, all that coveted worker drone strength peeking out of the hole it had been buried and locked in but for a moment. Force enough to make N double take and blink, awkward smile exaggerating itself as he tried to pull back.

"He, hey, that's a little hard.".

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH, I have to be dreaming I have to be dreaming there isn't any way someone like me can bag HIM, him and his glorious hair and that coat and the shine in his eyes and the warmth in his smile... And also his physical warmth, he does run a little hotter then a worker, STILL. Little radiator boyfriend~ Little? Little. He isn't actually small though... Big radiator boyfriend~ That fits so much better.".

"Sorry sorry sorry, I just. Uhh, I just. Got a little overexcited. You. Kiss me?". The words flooded onto her screen, one digited hand escaping to brush the light blue fringe she had out of the way as her blush was only half stamped down. Glowing orange now obscuring the bottom half of the lower parts of her sentences as she tried to drain that ocean of emotions with little success.

"Mhm...". N replied, a droplet of apprehension sneaking into his voice now. Tail flicking idly behind him as his thoughts roamed away from this yet still ever closer, he wanted his first kiss to be with someone he liked. Not her, even if she was bubbly and friendly. She wasn't V, she wasn't Uzi. Certainly wasn't Lizzy.

"It's to fix her up, not an actual kiss, just to save? Save a life? It doesn't count... Why am I putting this much effort into her and everyone else when I know for a fact they've all bullied Uzi at least once. Because if I didn't I would have left to find Uzi, I should have. Nope, your here. Helping the people you dragged into this mess because it's your fault. This is penance, this is making things right. This is doing better then I would have in the past, better than V, better than J.". N rationalised to himself, yet couldn't halt the small part of him, no doubt a leftover system that his creator didn't think was worth removing now stuttering at the thought of intimacy. Care for a killer like him felt foreign even after meeting Uzi.

"Oh, well.". Rachel displayed those words before attempting to pucker her lips, only to find that obviously with how they were shredded she couldn't do such a thing. The remaining surface there black from her earlier wounding and hanging like deflated skin, conquered banners telling a story on their own. The sight was relatively unnerving due to how it gave her an appearance that N could only describe as close to the uncanny valley phenomenon, mouth too hollow, face to wide, cheeks mostly gone on one side.

"Well, sort of. I, um... How do I say I also need to put acid in your mouth for this to work?". N stated back, coughing once and swishing his barbed tail into view to add visual evidence to his point. A point that had Rachel locking eyes with the barbed tip and going quiet, which was good because the barely ignorable buzzy noises she had been making weren't exactly nice to the ear.

"(O_O)!".

"What?".

"Acid? Like, burny melty stuff?".

"... Yeahhhhhhhhhh, it don't sound as nice on second pass.".

"NO."

"I don't want acid in my mouth, I don't really think that would be cool... But how am I supposed to get a kiss from him nowwwwwwwwwwww?". Rachel worried, having snatched both of N's hands back with her own just before she had learnt of her apparent fate. The already slowest trickle of oil escaping her now having entirely died due to natural inside processes shutting off the particular tube that been burst, this only a band-aid salutation at best. She still had to worry about how much of it might have already gotten into places it wasn't supposed to; she had to both be thankful and furious at how she didn't actually learn that much about drone anatomy in her past. Thankful because she had no idea of the dangers of loose oil next to mechanics, furious because she had no idea of the dangers of loose oil next to mechanics.

Of course, just like her sister. Bagging the goods was of higher priority than silly things like safety or self-preservation. This had already been proven with at least one of their past escapades, Rachel having to shove the memory of her brief half hour stint outside the bunker a couple years ago over the idea of mecha angel baddies accepting an offering.

"I don't need to be thinking about how we aborted that, I don't need to be thinking about how close we were to meeting ages ago. About how if we had just taken a few thousand more steps out instead of both being stuck with our backs to the bunker doors for the whole half hour we might have met N way early. Instead of how we did now, with him helping out the bunker because of.. uh... Why is he even helping us out isn't he like, the super hot vampire type that should have either started dating someone or killed us all already?". Rachel's thoughts continued despite her wishes, going heavily off road for a second as her visor was covered in a smattering of words aimed at N. She could already feel her grip on the bag, mecha angel baddie... Slipping away. Even if in reality she still had both his hands in her and his eyes locked on her face as if he had been head over heels for her instead of just really helpful and fairly naive at times.

"NO, actually yes. No.. maybe?".

"Could you, uhm... Choose a yes or no option, I can't really maybe fix yo- WOAH!". With a flash and a yelp Rachel found herself covered around in a shell like hug from N's wings, metal wingblades clashing with some object and spraying a salt sprinkle of sparks into the air. Lights dimming within the instant as N untangled one hand from the girl's, poked it out from between the unorthodox shield and blasted the opposing forest with a sniper rifle. The loud crack from it making Rachel let out a squeak that as usual didn't sound anything like a healthy robot, her eyes glancing between her protector angel's feathers to find nothing but distant trees. The same direction as N had looked last time, having missed the burst of yellow and red code that was the aggressors once again disappearance.

"What was that?".

"Doll, I don't know what is up with her but she's been stalking me around camp.".

"At least she is here and not with the others I deposited and then left behind like a buffoon, that's something good. Probably... What is she even doing, she doesn't want to show herself but only to scare us around? If only I had asked Lizzy about her so I knew what to expect.".

"Doll?, like, prom. Red eyes?".

"Yeah... Look I don't think staying here is the best idea anymore.".

"Bu- nvm. Let's go.".

"Yeah, alright up you get.". N toned, crouching down and disentangling his remaining hand from hers. Aiming to scoop the worker drone up gently only to watch her stumble when the ground roared. Shaking with force greater than what was needed to collapse the remains of the shack they were standing out the front of and throw the snow around them up into the air. N snatching Rachel up and rocketing higher then said white plumes only to see the lake and surrounding shoreline literally split open, ground wounded and cleaved with its groans of agony washed asunder by the tide of now revealed water descending further into the earth. The lake being not frozen under the first six or so meters of ice and now leaving those uneven chunks to jostle against each other above the widening pit that swallowed the water within seconds, leaving only the swift decent of the lake's crust to follow within the minute since. Louder and louder groans of objects far too large to be moving as fast as they were falling, frozen faces cracking against the wound like sides of this newfound ravine beneath both their feet.

Both drones hung thirty meters upwards and N had to climb higher to hear himself think, let alone avoid the scattering of shattered ice pellets that clipped his feet harmlessly at the apex of their arcs. Eyes wider than saucers while they comprehended what had just happened, that they had witnessed their world split open, literally, and leave only a gapping black pit in its wake. Walls of now shown earth and stone resting as the depths of what was once a lake bottom, the rest of that lake now entirely empty save for the far sides where shattered ice blocks and shapes remained. too far away to slide across the mostly flat bottom to reach their way down, meters tall and unprofessionally shaped as they rested. Uprooting the dozens of rotted lifeforms that hadn't decayed in the water below the ice and had only fell lifeless to the bottom, their demise now rending the surroundings with an unholy plume of death stank.

"EWWWWWWWWWWWW, EWWWWWWWW WHAT, FISH!?! N GET US THE HELL OUT OF HERE BEFORE I LOOSE MY STOMACH. THAT'S FOUL, SO FOUL... Ew, they were down there the whole time and nobody noticed. Guh.".

N, having not heard a single one of Rachel's mental demands, still lifted higher into the air. Holding Rachel in a lover's embrace from behind her while his wings flapped once, then twice and then for a third time. Pushing them northward, pushing them ever higher. His propulsion only stopping when his head was invaded by a voice not his own, ugly scarring taking place upon the boy's vision as he had to tighten his grip on Rachel after almost dropping her in surprise. Cold surprise, the type that only really came when confronted by an empty birthday party or the corpses of parents when you had hopped for something far better with no proof of either existing. The face of swiftly worsened worry.

//Our, bad.\\

"Wh, Who... who are you?". N's mind scrambled for purchase against this intrusion, far too many things leaking out of cracks for his liking or the thing that had brought forth the occurrence. He swore there was the manor and maid from his dreams, fire and smoke and all that is calamitous, mountains melted by blood alone resting behind his visor glass. Sights of places he had never been rolled around as if they were loose gumballs and his skull was the emporium they had been freed within, much to the dislike of the manager but they couldn't stop it now. Memory returned with a roar that it had him make some noise of distress, a whine, or muffled gasp. Just loud enough for Rachel to try and turn in his grasp, failing to communicate with him or his now tightened grip.

//Wait. Wasn't meant to do that\\

"Wait! I know yo- You. I think?". N tried to answer, hoping that he wouldn't have to vocalise his wished words any further than within his mind. Wondering briefly if Rachel would be any more surprised of this new development if he told her there was now a voice in his head or if she would accept that fact like she had the other one's hand fisted into her reality tonight. Unfortunately it was to be the latter of the two options, more on the hand fisted part than the accepting it part though.

//We can--- We ca-n-n-n- salvage this, true... LEFT!!!\\

With that callout came a meteoric impact, gold eyed fury latched together in the night sky, the stalkers corpse against the gold eyed angel still ever pure as platinum. Both parties tumbling out of the sky at record pace as triplet meteors towards the gash below, N unfortunately losing his grip on Rachel in the collision and hearing her distressed bit-crushed screech among the clutter of noise. 

N found himself rocketing backwards in a flail, wings expanding out yet not in time enough to stop him from colliding with a rather frail tree and going straight through its trunk with a loud crack. Bouncing to a halt in the snow in an ungraceful heap with another trunk sitting right between his legs, the boy's hat having stayed strong and with him the entire time only now to slide pathetically off his head when he moved it to look up. Befuddled distress on his face that gave way to barely restrained panic when he found himself alone and surrounded by trees, not more than one hundred meters from the lake clearing but still without his cargo. Spinning stars halting within a half second to light up his night in moody silk backing.

"What, where's Rachel what the hell happened. Thankfully I'm still operating but holy was that a hit and a half. Lizzy could never.".

"Alrighty, that hurt a tad.". N groaned as he stumbled upright in record time, looking both intimidatingly professional and like a drunkard who had already been assaulted six times yet refused to falter. headband eyes clicking in to find that Rachel had been graceful enough to land in the canopy of one of the trees behind and to his right, her heat signature dim in comparison to a usual worker but still notable in the current climate.

He would have replied if he didn't have to avoid the heated metal pipe that attempted to skewer him from above, dropped at bullet speeds yet still missing by the length of his arm as it hit the ground and sunk right into it, the murder drone practically bouncing away from the plume of melted snow steam that arose from its impact. Glancing up with the click of his normal vision coming back and a surge of worry, using his headband vision reduced how far he could see while allowing all direction sight. That fact alone explained why he barely used it. The fact he had barely dodged a pillar of red-hot rebar launched with force enough to embed it into the dirt was slightly alarming to him, he should have been faster.

"OH, OH OKAY. Someone wants me dead dead... Someone being that thing that spoke both in my head and out loud no doubt, ohhh this is going to suck to deal with huh.". The boy bemoaned 

//Oh, don't wo-o-... or..orry. That someone, only. Wants you, altered.\\

He didn't get the chance to turn around when that voice froze him solid, nor the chance to halt a crustacean like appendage being thrust through his neck from behind. Rendering him useless, all action failing as his limbs fell slack.

[\\YOUR DEAD.. Idiot//]