On-Brand Loyalty

Month Eight - Training Wheels

Blackness, an endless void, an eternal dream. That was all she felt, all she knew.

To be completely honest, she didn't know how she got here, in fact, she couldn't even comprehend a basic idea of how. Her mind continued to linger on it, yet she couldn't form any thoughts or express any emotions on it. She could call it "death" yet she still experienced some form of awareness, the realization of her helplessness and numbness. She could sense the coding surrounding her consciousness, the one true sign of her lingering will, and yet it remained inaccessible. Her body still existed but only seemed to serve as a useless shell, a cold prison left to rust and decay.

It felt like spending forever in a dark purgatory. How she wished she could simply end it...

"C'mon, c'mon work!"

Outside the void, she could recognize something handling and interfering with her slack and useless metal body. She couldn't see, hear or move but she could still recognize that she was no longer in the same place as before. Within the darkness, she couldn't tell how long it'd been. Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Oh it doesn't matter...

"Just work with me here, hold on..."

Yet, for the first time in forever, she could feel... something. Her coding finally became active for once, filing directives and performing maintenance checks. Her memory files however were still corrupted, and she was still unable to move.

"There we go, yes, one more push. Please work! Please work! Pleeeeease work!"

Suddenly a shock of electricity zapped its way through her shell, finally invoking in her an energizing sense of feeling and cognizance that she hadn't experienced in so long as her power cells were charged to their max. She could feel her body twitch and spasm with electrification until she shot all the way upright, swaying from both the sudden movement and being unable to stand properly.

"YES!!" She could feel something grab her enthusiastically, keeping her steady. "Woah there, mate! I know being alive is exciting and all but ya' might wanna calm down there..."

Finally opening her visual optics and processing vision for the first time in ages, she recognized none other than a human being as the thing keeping her in place. A young girl to be precise, likely not even a preteen yet. Her form was darkened and hard to see, likely a result of having been unable to see in so long. Spying around the room, a metal box was left open with a multitude of tools inside placed next to a freshly used power generator on a table.

This human was her savior...

As she was able to stand normally, the girl took a step back to allow her room. "There we go, that all better?" The human giggled and turned to look behind herself. "See J? It wasn't a fluke the first time!" Behind the human was another Worker Drone, a female with pigtails and a maid uniform. The drone was crossing her arms, evidently sharing in the human's satisfaction if the smug smile on her face was any indication.

Her human savior turned back around. "Where are my manners? My name's Tessa. Nice to meet you..." The girl turned her head to spy the yellow band on the survivor's arm and the serial code on it. Tessa skimmed it to the end. "...Z? Yeah, nice to meet you Z!" Tessa knelt down and shook the drone's hand as if she had just been introduced to her. "Always glad to help a new drone get back up and running again!"

Tessa then gestured for her robot maid to approach. "This is J! She was the first drone I repaired, so guess now you could consider her your 'big sister' of sorts? Whadda ya say J?" J rolled her eyes at the designation, while Z configured her mouth into a smile for what may have been the first time in forever.

"...T-Tessa....Big sister...family?" She stuttered out, her voice box struggling to work properly.

Tessa smiled super wide and wrapped Z in a big hug, dragging J into it as well. "That's right! Welcome home girl!"