Work Text:
"Hold on, hold on, I think she's actually waking up!"
Those were the first words J's audio processors registered; with them being the first of her systems to actually come back online. The rest of her was soon to follow, sensory data racing through her as her optics came online. She was lying prone on the floor. That wouldn't do.
J raced up, entering a rigid sitting system as she launched into the standard JCJenson-licensed boot-up speech every newly activated drone was supposed to deliver.
"Hello, I am Serial Designation J-10X111001, though you can call me J, or, you may assign me a licensed nickname within—" J started before she was cut off.
"What are you talking about?" a voice rang to the side of her, the same from earlier, and J's gaze immediately focused on its source. Another drone, with eyes that were yellow and purple (certainly not regulation. Had she been jailbroken?) dressed in a beaten-up hoodie and a beanie (Why had her owner dressed her like that?)
J's eyes darted around, there were two other drones, standing to the side. Both of them were at least a foot too tall for a normal worker drone, and that wasn't even counting the fact that they both had… tails?
Oh dear Corporate. Something hadn't happened to void her warranty, had it?
Panic rising, J turned down to survey her own body, her eyes hollowing as she did so. Instead of legs, she had… pegs? And—and a tail of her own? What shitty unlicensed aftermarket mods had she been saddled with?
"Oh, Corporate," J said aloud, scrabbling backwards through the snow, "Oh, dear Corporate, no!"
She tried to stand up, only to find her weird, nonstandard legs moving in ways she absolutely didn't know how to deal with, sending her careening to side as she fell onto her hands and knees, panting.
"Oh, biscuits, that's not good," the male drone among the group of three said, his tail (why did he need to have a tail?) nervously swaying from side to side.
"What—" J cut herself off, trying to steady her voice, "What is happening? Where am I?"
"You don't know?" the taller female drone asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.
"Guys, I think she genuinely doesn't," the shorter, hoodie-laden drone said, "You think the J we know would do… this?"
"Eh… hard maybe," the taller girl shrugged.
"Somebody explain what's happening right now or I'll—" J pointed her finger at the trio, only for it to abruptly shift into a submachine gun, "Wh-what in the fourth quarter profits is this?!"
J shoved her own hand away from her, trembling.
Desperately, she started searching her own memory files for something, anything, that would help her make sense of this situation. To her dismay, almost everything was corrupted, but as she tried cross-referencing the faces of the three drones with anything stored in her memory files, she managed to turn up some usable data.
No names, just 3 labels. The two taller drones, were, apparently, tagged by her system as 'Squadmates', while the shorter just had a half-corrupted, vague, 'High Priority' marker. Not a lot to go off there.
J pointed towards the two taller drones.
"We… work together?" J ventured, getting two nods before she turned to the shorter, "And you… are important to me, somehow."
The shorter drone sputtered, her eyes going wide before she spoke, "I, uh, that's one way of putting it."
Great. Supremely unhelpful. 'One way of putting it'. She sounded almost embarrassed…
Wait.
J's mind began racing. What possible relationship could get this random drone marked as 'High Priority' while not cluing her in as a work partner? And what possible relationship would prompt that reaction to that way of describing it?
"Oh…" J said simply.
It was all beginning to make sense now. Romantic entanglements amongst drones were off-limits, according to the JCJenson corporate handbook, but, clearly, they were far past what you were allowed to do to drones, if she was part of a 'squad' of drones so heavily modified they'd been given tails. But… this drone had been the first to worry about her booting up. She was… a high priority.
"I'm so sorry," J said, turning to face the shorter drone again.
"Wait, what," the shorter drone blinked, uncomprehending.
"I don't remember anything right now," J stood up, moving towards Uzi on wobbling legs, "But… I still know you mean something to me. So… please, help me."
The taller girl exchanged a look with the shorter that made J's heart sink.
"I'm not telling her," she threw her hands up.
"Ugh, come on, V!" the shorter through her hands up. V. Okay. That was the taller one's name.
"No, no, this is a you problem, Uzi," V said, taking a step back.
"Uzi…" J tried the name out on her lips, she wasn't sure why, but in spite of how unfamiliar it was, it fit on her lips.
"J… uh… we're… not dating?" Uzi cringed, "We actually… kinda hate each other?"
"What? But how? That doesn't—" J stammered.
"I actually… straight up killed you one time? I mean, you came back, but…" Uzi scratched the back of her head, sucking in a breath.
"I…" J trailed off, her core hammering in her chest. How could she be so stupid? What in the world made her think that the best idea was to immediately try and restart a relationship with the first person she got an inkling that she might be dating? Digital tears beaded at her eyes as, unbidden, wings sprouted from her back.
If she had learned that she had wings at any other point in time before this, she would've panicked, but right now, J just wanted to leave, and those wings were definitely helpful. Going off of instinct, she flapped her wings, soaring off into the air and picking a random direction to flee in.
Eventually, J forced herself to drop down, careening into a random building and just barely avoiding a crash landing. She scrambled into the nearest corner and tried to calm herself. She had no idea where she was, she had no idea what had been done to her body, and she had just horribly embarrassed herself in front of two coworkers who, if they were hanging around the drone that had, somehow, murdered her, probably didn't actually like her.
J drew her wings around herself, trying to shut out the world and slow her breathing, but it was no help.
Eventually, after what could've been minutes or hours, J heard the sound of someone else touching down a few feet away from her.
"Guys, I found her!" Uzi called out, making J flinch as she tried to scamper to the side, away from her, to get out, to escape, some survival instinct driving her forward.
"Wait, wait!" Uzi shouted, "I wanna talk."
"… Why? You said you hate me," J said suspiciously, crouching and eyeing the nearest exit in the dilapidated building. Now that she was in 'Fight or Flight' mode, she'd found that a whole new suite of features had been bequeathed to her, targeting reticles, heat sensors, ideal flight paths, all of them showing her the best way to get out or, if she wanted to, try and kill Uzi.
"Okay, yes," Uzi said, "But also, like… I dunno, I also think you deserve a shot at… not running around in the snow flats trying to repair a broken ship to go… who knows where. Besides, according to N and V, you actually used to be decent before you got turned into a murderbot."
"So… we're… alright?" J asked.
"Yeah, we're good," Uzi said, offering J a hand, "Now come on. I promise to get you sorted out."
J, in spite of herself, reached forward, clasping her hand around Uzi's, her core fluttering treacherously. Maybe her and Uzi hadn't been lovers before, but… J was desperate for someone to rely on. She'd take what she could get.