// / <3 / //

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You were deactivated. As a disassembly drone, you were designed with a singular purpose: to eliminate worker drones. Yet, you fell short of that mission. Instead, you were abandoned in the biting cold of the snow for months, destined to become mere scrap.

Until recently. The planet’s core essentially powered on and off. And that somehow rebooted you.

Your memory drive remained intact, though you lacked any awareness of what happened during your state of unconsciousness. You began to question how much time has passed as you sat up from what could have easily been your grave. Your optics struggled to focus, locking onto an abandoned phone as a target while your own hands remained undetectable. The world around you was silent; the howling winds had vanished. Yet, against all odds, you steeled yourself to take flight. It felt like the only pathway to your home—and to fixing yourself. You extended your wings, only to realize one blade was missing.

You push beyond your own expectations, gaining distance until you collide with the side of another squad’s spire. Given your battered state, it’s safe to say you’re on the brink of destruction. Just as you had revive, you find yourself slipping back into deadlock. The last sound you register is the malfunction of your internal fan.

[ YOU’RE DEAD, IDIOT ]

Luckily for you, there appears to be no such thing as death. Uzi, a worker drone famous for her ability to befriend disassembly drones and amazing engineering ability, found your corpse. It wasn’t like the others, no, the only dead disassembly drones she’s seen were in the labs. She concluded your carcas must’ve been a fresh kill.

She drug you back, threw you over her study desk and got to work. Uzi needed to borrow a few tools from N, but she managed to fix you up. You wake up once more, faced with the girl that saved your life.

“You up?”

She says it casually, like the fact that you lived isn’t a miracle.