Alt-Thad sighed, "People were having trouble telling us apart." He explained.
"And they didn't think to look at your feet?" Joe gestured to Alt-Thad's feet. "I got you those running boots, man. Your other from another mother is wearing running shoes."
A small burst of laughter rippled around the group, and it was like I could physically feel the tension subside.
"So, Joe, how did your scouting mission go?" Alt-Me asked Joe. "Are the MDs ours or theirs?"
Joe smiled at Alt-Me. "As well as could be expected, I've got a temporary ceasefire organised with J. The MDs stop trying to attack us as ineffectual as their current attempts are, and J gets to freely collect evidence to prove she's not disobeying corporate by being unable to attack us. As for whether they're theirs," Joe gestured to me and Thad. "Or ours, right now, I don't know enough about the differences between our worlds to get enough information from the encounter, and we've not interacted with ours yet to cause memorable events."
I raised a hand hesitantly. "I blew N's head off with my railgun before arriving here." Pretty sure, that's memorable.
"You did what!?" My Dad and Alt-Dad echoed again.
"You actually sneaked out to the Murder Drone lair!?" Thad yelped. Oh yeah, I told him my plan.
"N? You mean the one holding the puppy?" Alt-Darren asked me. "Wouldn't that make him ours then? This N still has a head."
I huffed discontentedly. "He has some kind of nanite repair system; his head grew back as I watched." I still had mixed feelings about that; my awesome railgun worked as expected, but N recovered from the damage in no time at all. What's the point of creating a weapon of destruction if the victim gets back on their feet in less than 30 seconds!? I moaned to myself. It could depend on where I shoot though. There has to be a limit to how much the repair system can handle. I briefly considered using N for target practice but found myself hesitant. He was a Murder Drone, but after interacting with N even for so short a time and seeing the multiverse's various possibilities, shooting N again with the gun felt a bit like kicking a puppy. My optics blinked as I registered Alt-Darren's earlier statement. What? A puppy? "N has a puppy?" I asked, confused. Did N have a plushie of some sorts?
"Yep, a cute organic fluffy golden retriever puppy." Alt-Rebecca explained in more detail. Huh.
"Where in Copper 9 did N find a puppy?" Alt-Me asked Joe.
"Not a clue." Joe admitted. "All I know about the dogs were that they were apparantly made immortal and live on their own planet." Really!?
"There's a planet of immortal puppies out there?" Alt-Penny asked.
Alt-Dad cleared his voice box. "Cough. I think it might be best to focus on our own planet's survival first before we look for any others."
"Right, Dad." Alt-Me smiled at her Dad before turning back to Joe. "And the other situation you checked on...?"
Joe froze for a second. "Yeah... that..."
"Alternative worlds suck!" Alt-Rebecca stated. She quickly looked towards Thad and I, waving her hands. "I mean the overall situation, not you guys!"
"That's why they're called AUs." Joe explained. "The differences, small or large, between them and the baseline. With AUs a small change can result in larger changes further along the timeline or in contrast a large change early on doesn't prevent things from playing out the exact same way. If we start picking apart the differences, we might be here all day."
"Wait... I have a question." Alt-Kelsey hesitantly raised a hand. "Ummm... Uzi, Thad." Alt-Kelsey shuffled her feet. "I'm Kelsey." She introduced herself to both me and Thad nervously before rushing out. "I know you probably know that already, but... I'm sorry to bother you but... I have to know... is... is Andrew still alive in your world?"
I stared back at Kelsey nervously, not knowing what to say to her. There wasn't an Andrew in our class, but that didn't mean there wasn't one in the Outpost somewhere. I just didn't know the answer
Thad coughed awkwardly, drawing our attention. "We held a funeral." He stated softly. Oh...
Alt-Kelsey's optics started to shimmer with digital moisture.
"Kelsey... I'm so sorr-" Joe started to say, but Alt-Kelsey stopped him, extending her arm out, her palm facing towards him.
"Joe, it's... it's not your fault." Alt-Kelsey said, her optics starting to fill with digital tears. "None of this is your fault. I know you didn't choose this, you've never lied to me about this, never pretended to be who you're not. If you could have done something, I know you would have. I was just..." Kelsey's voice warbled as tears dripped down her visor, "Just hoping that If he was alive... if I could have say goodbye... just once... You're letting my friend have a proper fune-" Kelsey hiccuped, "Funeral, you're letting me say goodbye and... and..." Kelsey stopped talking and cried.
Everyone, bar the Khans, Thad and I, rushed to hug Alt-Kelsey. Emily even stopped praying and joined the hug pile. Had she really been praying all this time?
"A-a-aandreeew," Alt-Kelsey wailed softly, held in their arms as I watched uncomfortably, "Ann-aadreeeew!"
The melancholic scene was shattered by a scream.
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" And I wrenched my head round to see Alt-Lizzy screaming at Lizzy. "Do you even hear yourself! How can you even joke about that! They're dead! You insenitiv-"
"That was the joke, idiot." Lizzy drawled, interrupting Alt-Lizzy, flicking her ponytail and sighing. "All those gorgeous looks and neither of you can understand a good joke." Lizzy proving as usual that she's a living example of Popular is Evil. The Alpha Bitch whose natural enemy was the loser heroine, Uzi's mental train circled the track as she considered the implications, and she mentally snarled. Hey! I'm not a loser! Dark heroine, yes, loser, no! I'm not a loser! I'm not... The last thought was a desperate plea that part of her didn't truly believe.
"Kelsey, I'm sorry to leave you like this but I have to help Lizzy with her evil twin." Joe said, disengaging himself from the hug. I barely held back the snort at that accurate description of Lizzy. "Can you guys hold down the fort with Kelsey please?"
Alt-Me started to pull away as well. "Sorry Kelsey but me too."
"I- I'l-l be o-k-k. He-hel-lp Li-iz-zy!" Kelsey hiccuped out through her tears.
"How dare you hurt my bestie!" Alt-Lizzy yelled again, hugging Alt-Doll. "And stop flirting with me! Not only are you terrible at it, and I can't believe that I met someone who makes more of a mess of it than fucking Rachel! I'm you! You self-obsessed narcissist moron!"
Alt-Rebecca shared a quick glance with Alt-Darren and he nodded at her. "We're coming too," Alt-Rebecca said, her and Alt-Darren also pulling away from the hug. "I'm not leaving my best friend to deal with that alone."
Alt-Penny, Alt-Trevor, Alt-Emily and Alt-Thad remained hugging Alt-Kelsey.
Alt-Thad nodded at Joe, "Go. We have Kelsey, we'll catch up when she's feeling better."
"There's no way I'm worse at anything than Rachel!" Lizzy angrily yelled back for once, before brushing back her ponytail and continuing smugly. "Rachel's evil. I'm way more popular. And I'm me, not you. So anyway, there's , like, a party happening next week and I could easily wrangle you an invite."
"Thanks guys." Joe nodded back and moved towards the yelling. Alt-Me, Alt-Rebecca, Alt-Darren, the Khans, Thad, and I following in his path. "Once more into the breech," Joe sighed.
"Are you seriously still tryin-" Alt-Lizzy stopped, breathed deeply, then continued, "Can't you take a hint!? Why are you like this!? Haven't you been paying any attention to what everyone's been talking about!? Uzi yelled out what was happening to the entire room!"
Lizzy snorted. "Why would I listen to a loser?"
I flinched at her words, my footsteps halting, leaving a short distance between us. Thad and Alt-Dad slowed their pace and stopped as well, glancing back at me briefly. Alt-Dad looked back towards Lizzy, a glare on his face, before he latched a hand over Dad's arm and dragged him over so they both stood next to me. Alt-Lizzy stood staring at Lizzy with wide optics as Joe moved across the remaining gap, Alt-Me, Alt-Rebecca and Alt-Darren still in step with him, to all stand beside Alt-Lizzy and Alt-Doll.
"Hey Liz, how's it going?" Joe murmured to Alt-Lizzy, "Is Dolly ok?" I stared at him. Liz. Dolly. He has nicknames for them.
"Hey cuz," Alt-Me rested a hand on Alt-Doll's shoulder, smiling towards her. "I'm back." Alt-Doll silently her head to stare at Alt-Me.
"Need a hand hiding a body, Liz?" Alt-Rebecca asked. My head jerked to her. What!?
"Joe! Uzi! Becca! Darrren!" Alt-Lizzy turned to them with a strained smile. "Glad to have see you all. I'm coping as well as can be expected. Doll was improving until this," Alt-Lizzy gestured offhandedly in Lizzy's direction, "Stuck-up bitch opened her mouth." Alt-Lizzy focused her optics on Joe. "Please tell me that Rachel and I have switched roles in their world. Please!"
"Who's the hottie?" Lizzy asked, staring at Joe. Seriously! I stared at Lizzy in disbelief, then at Joe. Still conventionally attractive Joe. Does he have selective rizz or something?
"Oh robo-god..." Joe exasperates, facepalming.
Alt-Me's face twisted slightly.
Alt-Lizzy started to mutter. "Oh robo-god, this is what you meant about stereotypical blonde popular girl being cliché way back when. You were right. Oh robo-god you were right!" Alt-Lizzy looked at Joe. "Joe, I think I need to apologise to you at some point."
Lizzy appeared to ignore their reactions and continued to look Joe over before turning to Alt-Lizzy again.
"So, is this your boyfriend? At least you have some good taste."
Alt-Lizzy's face turned pink, and she started to splutter. Alt-Me's face twists again. Alt-Rebecca started laughing.
"We're not dating," Joe said, "And it's hard to trust your judgment. You'd flirt badly with V just for her looks."
Alt-Rebecca's laughter cut out and she stared at Lizzy in shock.
"What!" Alt-Lizzy screeched, her arms tightening slightly around Alt-Doll. Alt-Doll shifts in her arms to intensely glare at Lizzy. "You're flirting with the Murder Bitch!"
"So you're, like, single then?" Lizzy asked Joe. Does she only pay attention to what she wants to hear? I wondered.
"Yes, I'm single. No, you have no chance." Joe said bluntly to Lizzy, "I have standards. You have less heart than a Heartless. I'd compare you to Harmony from Sunnydale, but even a soulless blonde like her has more soul than you. But since I doubt you're cool enough to recognise 2000s references, I'll have to lower the bar closer to your level. You have less heart than the number of goths on your contacts list. Zero. I'd say you're as attractive to me as a toaster is, but that's an insult to toasters. And if that's still too complicated for the likes of you. To put it in terms so blunt even your insipido culo da stronza can understand; you're a heartless cunt, and I prefer women with souls as romantic interests. And yes, I believe drones do have souls, it's just that you specifically lack one."
Lizzy frowned at Joe.
That was definitely a burn! I thought gleefully.
"Ooh, burn!" Alt-Darren murmured.
"I have a chance!" I heard Alt-Lizzy whisper, and my head twisted to stare at her, a small pink blush on her face accompanied by a smile. Seriously! Has Joe seduced her to the Good Side instead of cookies?
"And roasted!" Alt-Rebecca smirked, leaning against Alt-Darren. "Need some ice for that burn, Lizzy?"
"Rebecca?" Lizzy stared at Alt-Rebecca, then looked her up and down. "Why are you out of your uniform!? What are you wearing?"
Alt-Rebecca sighed. "You've seriously like not been paying any attention at all, have you?"
"Never mind that. We'll discuss your clothing disaster afterwards." Lizzy pointed at Joe. "Tell him what a catch I am!"
"You're calling my clothes a disaster?" Alt-Rebecca gestured towards Lizzy. "Bitch, your fit is so cliché it's tacky. 1980 called, it wants its blonde cheerleader stereotype back. And are you, like, trying to get me to act as a wingman? Seriously!? While standing in front of the individual you're trying to catch?" Alt-Rebecca questioned.
Lizzy looked down at herself with a frown, before her head snapped back to Alt-Rebecca. "Stop trying to make yourself look good in front of him! Even if he's single, I saw him first, Rebecca!" Lizzy snarled at Alt-Rebecca.
"I'm not trying to date Joe." Alt-Rebecca looked towards Joe. "No offence." She said to Joe before turning back to Lizzy. "Seriously, try to comprehend I'm not your Rebecca. My best friend is Liz there," She gestured to Alt-Lizzy. "I have a great boyfriend, Dare." She wrapped an arm around Alt-Darren. "Try to use whatever limited processing capability you have to understand that I'm not your Rebecca." She turned to Joe. "You know I'm totes not looking forward to knowing what my alternative is like. So far, meeting our alternatives has been a bad time. Why are Uzi and Thad seemingly the only decent ones so far? Hell, even the fracking Murder Drones have been more tolerable than most of our counterparts. Don't know enough about the alternative Mr Doorman, but the way our Mr Doorman keeps glaring at himself doesn't paint the prettiest picture."
"Seriously," Lizzy sniffed, gesturing to Alt-Darren before tapping away at her phone, "Him, Rebecca!? Ugh, you have poor taste."
"I think everyone here, Joe included, has decent taste, unlike you." Alt-Rebecca snorted. "You do realise that you're the uncool one here."
"What!?" Lizzy's head twisted to Alt-Rebecca as she stopped tapping at her phone.
Alt-Rebecca pointed at the phone in Lizzy's hand. "You've been physically typing into that to get to work. So outdated and lame! All of us cool kids have an app to control our phones with a thought. You're the one trailing behind Garfield." Alt-Rebecca said, gesturing at Lizzy's cat ear bow. Who was Garfield?
Laughter burst out all around. Looking around in confusion, I saw Joe doubled over with laughter, Alt-Me and Alt-Lizzy laughing as well. Alt-Darren was chuckling quietly, and even Alt-Doll had a small smile on her face.
Lizzy was frowning. Does she understand what they're laughing about and it's pissing her off, or is it an inside joke that only they get, she doesn't, and that's pissing her off more?
"What's so funny?" Came a familiar voice and I turned to see Alt-Thad joining us, accompanied by Alt-Emily, Alt-Trevor, and Alt-Penny supporting Alt-Kelsey.
"Becca compared their Lizzy to Garfield," Alt-Darren explained as the others were still laughing. "It was definitely deserved."
"I would have compared her to Penelope Spectra but, like, she'd have taken that as a compliment if she'd understood the reference," Alt-Rebecca stated. Another reference I don't know! I complained internally.
"Being monstrously narcissistic, callous and feeding on misery is a compliment!?" Alt-Emily asked with surprise.
Joe chuckled, his laughter decreasing. "Oh, you have no idea!"
"Stop laughing!" Lizzy demanded angrily. "Who even is this Garfield or Penelope Spectra!?"
"Garfield's an orange cat." Alt-Kelsey offered.
Lizzy stared at Alt-Kelsey, "Aren't you, like, supposed to be dead by now?"
"WHAT!?" I yelled, while around me similar things were yelled by what seemed like pretty much everyone else. What in the hell!? Why would Kelsey, my world's Kelsey, be dead!?
"Oh robo god, she really has no common sense filter," Alt-Rebecca muttered, before she abruptly froze. "Wait... she knows!? How does she know!?" She turned to Joe. "Joe, was she the Billy to Doll's Christine?" Wait... Doll? How is Doll involved in this?
"Ok, everyone, let's stay calm an-" Joe attempted to calm down the crowd, only to be interrupted.
"Why are there two of you. Thad?" Lizzy interrupted Joe, and I stared at Lizzy with bewildered shock, only to see that she was shifting her gaze between the two Thads. Doesn't she understand what she just revealed!? Was she just ignoring the fallout of her previous words? "Did you always have a twin brother?"
"What do you mean dead!?" Alt-Thad demanded of Lizzy. "Why would Kelsey be dead!?"
"Dead by now!? Lizzy!" Thad snapped angrily, marching up to her, Lizzy actually flinching away slightly from the unusual display of temper from Thad.
I shuffled uncomfortably, feeling increasingly agitated. Seeing Lizzy on the back foot for once had been a dream come true, and then with one statement, Lizzy had made everything worse. And now, I stared at Thad, angry and agitated Thad. Thad had always been the cool and collected guy; I couldn't recall ever seeing Thad ever angry before.
Thad glared at Lizzy, Lizzy averting her visor from his glare. "What do you mean by that!?"
"It's got nothing to do with you, Thad." Lizzy tried to brush aside Thad's query, but even I could see that she was shifting nervously. "Why do you care?"
"My counterpart pointed out some things to me. Things I probably shouldn't have ignored. Things I should have stopped. So start talking or I'll use whatever influence I have to make sure no one invites you to a party ever again!"
I could see Lizzy's optics hollow. "It was all Doll's scheme." Lizzy blurted out. "The Prom Court needed to disappear for her plan to work. Kelsey was the last on her list."
"The Prom Court has been going missing because you two were murdering them?!?" Thad screamed at Lizzy. Oh robo god, that couldn't be true, could it!?
"What...!?" A quiet, horrified whisper came from Alt-Doll. "I've killed people!? I was going to kill Kelsey!?" Alt-Doll's breathing started to get heavier and heavier. Alt-Doll stared past me at Alt-Kelsey with hollowed optics, her words stutttering out between her breaths. "I- w-as goi-ng to kil-l you!"
"You killed them!? Our classmates!? And for what!? What even was this plan!? Thad yelled at Lizzy. Fuck, it's real isn't it!? Thad truly believes that they murdered them! They've been killing our classmates!
I felt stuck between two emotional extremes. On one side of me, Thad was yelling at Lizzy, something I never dreamed happening, and it would have felt glorious if it wasn't for the subject involved, on the other side Alt-Doll was collapsing under the weight of what my... I gulped dryly, my world's Doll had been doing in secret. Alt-Lizzy was desperately trying to get her attention, panicking beside her.
Joe quickly moved over to Alt-Doll and wrapped her in a hug. "You haven't done anything, Dolly, and never will do anything. We're all friends. We all care about you. You care about us. I know you'd never hurt Kelsey. I know you'd never hurt any of us. Because I trust you. Because we all trust you. The circumstances that lead to that scenario happening in their world are ones I dealt with years back."
And that's confirmation from the Isekai Protagonist!. I felt sick, lightheaded as thoughts ran through my head. Lizzy and Doll had been killing the Prom Court. Most of them had been Lizzy's followers; part of her clique, and she'd murdered them, hadn't interfered or prevented their deaths. My optics hollowed as I realised something. If even Lizzy's own followers hadn't been safe from their murder spree, if even they were acceptable sacrifices for whatever their goal was... When would it have been my turn!?
"That's a different Doll that did that, and not you. You're not your alternate self. You're you, and you are my friend that I care about deeply, and we both know you wouldn't do that to any of us. I know it's scary, and I'm scared by everything going on too, I just hide it because I have software I coded that lets me cheat at life. It's okay. Our Kelsey is okay. Even their Kelsey is okay. You're okay, Dolly."
"Doll wanted me to befriend and lure the Murder Drone, that broke into the Outpost, to the Prom so that she could kill her." Lizzy explained to Thad. I stared at her in horror. That was their plan!?
Thad stared at Lizzy in disbelief. "So your grand plan was to murder our classmates in order to bring a Murder Drone inside the same room as the rest of our surviving classmates, and then what!? Let the Murder Drone slaughter us all!? Trust that Doll could kill her without everyone else becoming collateral damage!? What kind of processor do you have in your head that makes you think any of that makes any sense!? Thad was right! Oh robo god, he was right. All of those deaths and for what!? If they could lure the Murder Drone, they could lure it to an empty room for an ambush. Not a ballroom hall filled with students.
"Dolly!" Alt-Lizzy pleaded with Alt-Doll, hugging her tightly. "Listen to Joe, listen to me! You're my bestie, you've always trusted me with all your secrets, so trust in the me that believes in you, trust me when I say that I trust you. That it wasn't you, you would never do that, you're not responsible for what a twisted mirror did! Please... Dolly, listen to me."
"It's not my fault!" Lizzy whined at Thad. "Doll looked hot when she asked me to help."
Thad looked at Lizzy with hollowed optics. "That's why you killed them!? You thought..." He straightened his back. "I've had enough. I'm telling everyone when we get back. Every single detail of this. And any party invites are permanently rescinded."
Lizzy started to complain. "You can't-"
"Shut the hell up, bitch!" Alt-Me interrupted her, stomping over to Lizzy. Alt-Me grabbed Lizzy's arm and started to drag her away. Lizzy tried to resist and hold her ground, but her feet scraped across the floor. "No one hurts my cuz! I might not be able to punch you, but I can definitely move a toxic mess like you away from my family."
A blur of blue and black shot past my sight, and I jumped slightly before recognising the blur as Alt-Kelsey running past me. Alt-Kelsey, her optics hollow and tear-streaked, reached her destination and wrapped her arms around Alt-Doll and Joe.
"I'm okay," Alt-Kelsey murmured to Alt-Doll, "Doll, I'm alright, I'm right here by your side. It wasn't you that did any of that, that would do any of that. And even if you might have, that's in the future. You can still change that, Doll. I know that you will change that, because we're friends, and we both know you wouldn't do that. And on top of that all, Joe said he already stopped whatever would have led to it happening in the first place. He's been looking out for all of us since day one, apparently. You can't blame yourself for the actions an alternate version of you took in a timeline we're not in at a point in the future, okay? I'll never, ever blame you for this, I will always be your friend because this is not your fault. And Joe," Alt-Kelsey shifted her head slightly towards Joe. "Thank you for being our friend, that's all that matters. You've done nothing to feel guilty for, nothing that would make us hate you, that would make me hate you. Thank you for helping, thank you for being there, thank you for listening. Thank you. Thank you for protecting Doll, for protecting me, for protecting everyone." Alt-Kelsey's arms tightened around Alt-Doll and Joe. "We're friends, Doll, Joe. I trust you both, and I know you'd never hurt any of us."
"Let go of me, loser!" Lizzy yelled at Alt-Me, struggling to free her arm. "How dare a freak like you touch me! Your place is at the bottom of the chain!"
"And I said shut the hell up!" Alt-Me snapped back at Lizzy. "I find it hard to believe that no-one has ever said that to you before. I'd say that I think you could use a mint, but a mint ain't covering the stench of bullshit that wafts out into the room every time you open your mouth. So again, shut the hell up, and let the air stay clean."
Lizzy hesitated, her optics widened as if she couldn't believe what she just heard. I was stunned by Alt-Me's actions. I'd always dreamed about retaliating against Lizzy, but every time I tried, I failed, and now... now Alt-Me was making it look easy.
"What is your damage!?" Lizzy spluttered at Alt-Me. "What makes you think that a useless loser like you can talk to me like that!"
"After what we all just heard, I doubt anyone would accept you as an authority on character. So do us all a favour and stay the fuck out of my face, stay the fuck away from my cuz or I'll-"
"Or what, freak? You gonna hit me? Beg your daddy to listen for once?" Lizzy sneered. "Pray to mommy for guidance?"
"That little..." Alt-Dad harshly spoke, and he started to march towards Lizzy and Alt-Me.
A growl erupted from beside me. Out of the sides of my optics, I could see the growl was emanating from my Dad. I felt hollow. He didn't react to Lizzy insulting me, insulting Alt-Me, but insulting Mom gets a reaction.
"Right now I can't hit you, not won't. And Mom might have been stupid enough to act as a discount Raven Branwen, but I'm going to drag her back home and-"
"Wait, Aunt Nori is still alive!?" Alt-Doll asked. What!? Alive!?
"Nori's alive!" echoed the Khans. Alt-Me's Mom was alive!? Was my Mom alive!?
"Mom is still alive?" I said in a small voice. Wait. Mom pulled a Raven Branwen?
"You forgot to tell them that?!?" Joe called over to Alt-Me.
"There was a lot to cover in a small timeframe!" Alt-Me called back. "Mom surviving her apparent death and going on a scavenger hunt hasn't come up yet! Her leaving to try and find a literal M-"
"Your mom abandoned you!" Lizzy laughed. "Faked her death to escape a worthless burden like you!"
Was it true!? Had Mom left? If Mom hadn't died, if she'd left instead then... My breathing grew heavy. The one thing I had always known, the one thing I had always had confidence in, and the one thing that every fibre of my being believed in, my mother's love, had been proven wrong… I wasn't good enough for her to stay. Leaving me behind mourning for a mother I had barely any memories of. Mourning affection I could barely remember feeling. And knowing now that... that affection was a lie. I had thought that my Mom loved me, had died loving me, , would have been proud of me, but if Mom had survived, had walked away from her family, who left us, abandoned us, abandoned me... how much of that love had been a fantasy?
"You're so hypocritical that you can't even see yourself." Alt-Me started to shove a resisting Lizzy into a chair. "If we were worthless, we wouldn't be worth any of your time, but you take the time out of your oh-so-busy social schedule to harass us. "
"Uzi catch!" Joe yelled, throwing some things towards Alt-Me. "Knock her out and tie her up! Make sure to gag her as well. Use as much of the roll as you want."
"What the he-" Lizzy's voice cut out with a quiet fwshh then a thump.
My dreams were shattered. The world was clearer than ever. I was just as worthless as ever. I wasn't enough. Knowing that I was going back to a home that was only slightly better than school because at least I wasn't actively hated there. I was just a disappointment, as all the magazines and shows and radios featuring my Dad constantly reminded me. The voices were right. Lizzy was right. She had always been right! I was nothing but a loser in everyone's eyes. I failed everyone; all I'd done in my own world was get everyone killed. I failed to protect anyone, I failed to save anyone; I failed! Tears start to fill my visor. Dad doesn't care, Mom doesn't care, nobody cares. What do I have to offer anyway!? I was useless, worthless, nothing but why if I was nothing... why did it hurt so much!? Why... Why am I still here?
()Flashback
I bit back a sob, as my frame flashed with pain again. Chad had chosen an even longer flight of stairs to start the day off today. Everybody around had just laughed at my fall, and no one came to help. The rest of the day had continued to be a nightmare. And at home afterwards, Dad hadn't noticed as usual, not the cracks in my visor nor the dents in my chassis, even when I tried to talk to him about it. I brokenly-laughed through my tears, he hadn't noticed me leave the hab either. He never noticed anything!
I stared up. It would be so simple. My finger hovered over the button. Would anyone notice if tonight I disappeared? My last memories of being happy were with Mom. Would it be so bad to join her? My finger continued to hover as my mind spiralled, tears falling from my visor.
Hours later, before the shift change, I walked away from under Door 3, Dad's door remote still held in hand, button unpressed.
When I returned to the hab, Dad hadn't even noticed I'd been gone.
()Flashback ends
It started with a small tremor, then my entire body started shaking. I collapsed to my knees, unable to support myself, tears streaming down my visor, my panting breaths echoing in my audials. Why wasn't I worthy of love!?!
"Uzi!" Dad reached out to me, his voice oddly muffled.
My core thudded in my chest, my audials rang with a high-pitched squealing and the world started to waver and blur before my optics. It was too much!
"W--t! -t's--t --a-" "Yo-- mo--- an -d-" Alt-Me and Joe both started to speak, their broken voices overlapping.
I screamed.
Everything was too much! Too much! Too much! I wrapped my arms around my head, trying to block out everything. Noise erupted around, hitting me like a sledgehammer, blaring in my audials, and turning my buzzing thoughts fuzzy as I spiralled.
Spinning spinning spinning dizzy dizzy dizzy— Grief
No one understands, no one listens, no one cares! It wasn't fair, it'd never been fair, nothing was fair!
Dizzy dizzy spinning screaming screaming shaking— Despair
I wasn't safe, I'd never been safe. We lived on a death world, death outside our walls, death inside our walls, death surrounding us, stalking us, hiding from us! Death, Death, Death! Would it be peaceful when it claimed me!? Would it stop hurting!?
Crying crying sparking freezing— Burning Cold
All my extremities felt ice cold, like they'd been plunged into liquid nitrogen, but at my core, in my chest, it feels like I'm burning alive, like my pulsing core is trying to melt my insides. I felt exposed, open, vulnerable. Rubbed raw. So disoriented. How was my body still intact? So much pain.
Overwhelming. Overwhelming. Overwhelmi—
I screamed and tore at my hair. I needed to destroy something, anything to vent this hollow agony roaring inside my chest or I'd-
Something grabbed my arms, and I tried to jerk them free. Something encirled around me, pinning my arms at my side, wrapping around me, holding me, trapping me. No, let me go, let me go, let me go! I struggled against it. I tried to punch but I couldn't. I tried to kick but I couldn't. I tried to bite and I couldn't. I screamed to be let go, but it didn't. No way to fight! No way to escape! I tensed waiting for more pain to follow but nothing happened. I was just held. No pain. I was held. No torture. I was held. My breathing slowed, my processor's throbbing decreased. I was held. For all it's firmness, it was gentle. It was quiet. It was... soothing. Safe. My body relaxed. The screeching in my ears diminished and I could hear words being whispered.
"Hey. Hey, listen, Uzi. It's gonna be ok. Hey, c'mon. You're safe. Focus. Look at me. Hey. Look at me!"
Reality reasserted itself before my optics, and I beheld Joe holding me, hugging me.
"You back with us?" Joe soothed.
"Bite me!" I snapped reflexively, before shuddering as fresh tears filled my vision. My thoughts still flickering, buzzing with sharp energy, I nervously asked, "Why...?" What was I even asking? Why are you here? Why are you hugging me? Why are you interfering? Why do you appear... to care?
Joe sighed. "This world is hard and scary. It can be difficult to know what's right and wrong, because this cruel world is broken, and we're broken, too. It can feel dark and all so hollow at times, and it seems like nothing can fix the world, no kindness, no mercy, no compassion. There are awful, sad things in this world, but there are lots of things worth protecting, too. And you're one of them." Joe looked me in the optics. "You matter, Uzi. You're not a burden. Not worthless." Joe turned his gaze away. "As someone who nearly... nearly made a suicide attempt in the past on two separate occasions in my first life, I know that feeling of just wanting the emotional pain to stop. To be willing to end it all because feeling nothing at all ever again would be better than going on like you are. I pushed myself back from that brink twice though. I kept going. And in my second life, I threw an entire timeline out of whack and am thereby risking everyone's deaths because there's no way canon will happen like it was supposed to at this point, but I don't care about that because I cared about you. Because I cared about everyone. I took one look at the future, and threw away a path to winning because everyone deserved to be happy. Deserved to live. If my only surefire way to victory was to let over half my friends die, then that future wasn't worth fighting for. And it doesn't matter that you're a different Uzi. You deserve better regardless. So I'll say it again: You matter. You're worth something. I didn't know you until a few minutes ago, but if you disappeared now, I would notice, and I'd miss you. Even if no one else did, I'd still care. Because you're a person, Uzi. You deserve love. Let me, let my friends give you a reason to stay."
Emotionally drained I sagged in his arms barely conscious, I just breathe.
() JD Joe PoV
Kneeling on the floor beside her, I hugged canon-- technically, close to canon but not quite canon, since her N apparently stung her in the foot instead of the hand --Uzi as she sagged in my arms. With all the shit that had been going on, I'd kinda lost focus on just how shit canon was compared to my own timeline. I should have bootlooped canon Lizzy way sooner. Should have known she'd set alt-Uzi off. I'd gotten so used to my Lizzy actually being a nice person who was a friend to all of us... and had a crush on me and Doll... that I'd forgotten just how much of a bitch she'd turned out without anyone to bother to care about her... Everyone in Outpost 3 save for Thad was like that, come to think of it. For want of a nail, indeed. But I'd focused so much on everything else going on that I'd forgotten that this Uzi would have the same trust, self-worth and abandonment issues as mine own, but exacerbated by the lack of a support base, a father who only got worse, continued rampant bullying, and years of extra emotional, mental, and physical abuse. It... it said a lot about Uzi's-- every Uzi's --character that she only ever hated herself rather than others. That she never built that railgun with the intent to use it on her classmates.
When she'd collapsed to the floor, I'd flashed back to the Pilot, to Uzi's dead-eyed expression after Khan had shut the Door on her, abandoning her to N's mercy, leaving his own daughter to die. Her gaze blank, her body limp, she just let go of the wing still impaling her, and just gave up. If I could take one small mercy from all of this, alt-Uzi had been kidnapped to this react fic before that could have happened... if she'd have even been able to reach Outpost 3 in the first place with a damaged foot. Fuck me in a non-sexy way, that is a terrifying thing to contemplate, I thought. The multiverse is real. There's an infinite number of timelines where this Uzi wasn't saved by a ROB. Where she died tonight. And an infinite number of dead timelines beyond this. I took a moment in overclock to force myself to stop contemplating that before I Isekai-spiraled into wondering how many versions of my timeline existed where we all died horribly.
Then alt-Uzi'd started screaming, shouting. A lot of what she'd been screaming had been incoherent but my enhanced hearing and the occasional clear lamentations had been enough to horrify me. The bullying, the feelings of abandonment, I knew about. The attempts at suicide though, maledetto inferno, that had been a nightmarish addition to the story. That wasn't canon... but canon was so fucking barebones compared to reality that I really shouldn't have been caught this off guard by it. Chad had pushed Uzi down the stairs more than once. Lizzy had glued her locker shut before. There were people who'd tried pouring antifreeze on her. None of us had been there to stop it in canon. No friends to share the burden with. No cousin to hug as she cried. No father to care. She'd dealt with all of that alone for over a decade. Kids back in my first life had been driven to suicide over that.
I just let canon Uzi cling to me, and took a tired look at my surroundings, all the shocked and horrified faces around us. And I could understand why. That outburst from alt-Uzi alone was an emotional bomb... and then I'd just dropped the fact that the outwardly unflappable guy who got everyone together and always seemed on top of things and was actually an Isekai Protagonist was a depressed neurotic mess desperately working to stop Armageddon, and that back when he was a meatbag, and that he'd been so hurt by living that he'd gone so far as to pick out a day to run a knife across both wrists on two separate occasions. That second time... I'd come within a week of that date. I'd held the knife six days before the date I'd chosen and had thought of just doing it early. I hadn't... and then my parents had gotten me to see a therapist before the actual date I'd picked had rolled up, and I'd broken down crying as I threw away the plans to do it for the second time.
But I knew how canon Uzi was feeling right now all too well. And now everyone else knew why. I hadn't wanted them to know that. I didn't want pity. I just didn't want to think about that part of my life ever again. "I care about you, Uzi," I repeated, quietly enough so that only she'd (and my Uzi, with her enhanced hearing.... and maybe N, who'd walked up at some point and was holding his puppy in his hands) hear. "We all do."
Speaking of, Uzi had started towards her alt-self but had screeched to a halt as she registered what Uzi was screaming about, her own optics hollowing. And now her Khan was hugging her, a haggard look on his face. He'd understood what Uzi had been yelling as well. Canon Khan... was just standing there, optics pixel thin rings. Was he flashing back to Nori right now? Finally realizing just how badly he failed his own kid? I thought back to when I'd socked my own timeline's Khan in the face after the Interview. How I literally made him flip from the impact. I didn't bother to overclock to suppress the miniscule upwards twitch of my lips. It was definitely wrong to think so, but that'd been fucking funny. I didn't regret doing that, though. I regretted things getting to the point where that was what I had to do to get the message across, but I was never gonna regret socking him in the face hard enough to crack his visor and send him ass-over-teakettle from the impact just to straighten him out. That he cared about our Uzi made it worth it without a shadow of a doubt. Huh... I thought. I never actually told anyone that he literally flipped from the impact of my fist on his face. If we're watching our timeline, they're actually gonna find that out for the first time later. That's gonna be fucking hilarious, for sure.
I sighed as I looked further afield. I met N's gaze, and flashed [Bring Puppy Here] on my visor. I overclocked to assess the room as he walked over. Rebecca and Darren were holding each other, as were Emily and Trevor. Gods, I hoped the latter two admitted things and started dating sooner rather than later. Kelsey, Doll, and Liz were still all hugging each other, not having moved from that while all this had went down. Thad was standing there with a frown on his face, and his canon counterpart was looking down at the ground with a bitter mix of guilt and shame on his own expression.
N froze a few steps away as we heard a voice in the distance. "Mmmmph, mmm-ahh! Who tied me up?!? Let me out, you unpopular nerds!"
I grimaced. "Penny?" I asked the last of my friends, who'd been standing there with her hand clasped over her mouth and her eyes ringed out. She looked at me, eyemotes filling in a bit as I held a steady, but tired gaze.
"Yeah, Joe?" she said in a small voice, as if afraid of hurting me, and I had to hide my hurt at the pity I didn't want.
"Can you go take the duct-tape I gave to our Uzi and use all of it on the other Lizzy's mouth, please?" I asked in a tone equally polite to her and acidic to the person currently pissing me off.
Penny blinked twice, turned to glance at alt-Lizzy, who was still throwing insults, and then shot that bitch a glare as she started walking over to Uzi to take the tape. "With pleasure," she said.
"Sorry, Joe," Uzi told me as she passed the duct-tape to Penny while staying in her dad's arms. "I thought I used enough duct tape around her mouth."
I rolled my eyemotes at Uzi with a small grin on my face as alt-Lizzy's whining got worse before suddenly getting muffled amidst the repeated sounds of tape being unrolled and then torn so it could be wrapped around her mouth. "I am so glad I got Penny into our friend group," I remarked.
"Thanks, Joe!" Penny called over the muffled screaming from the bitchy version of one of my best friends.
N shook his head, wincing as all the gathered workers besides myself and both Uzis flinched at his presence, but he kneeled down next to us and gave a small smile. "I... I think it's just setting in now that what I've been doing is really wrong, but I'm tossing it all into the repression folder for now." I snrked at that. "I... I'm sorry, Uzi," he told the alt-version of my friend. "And... I wanna be your friend too." A beat, and then, "And so does Puppy Mc Puppy-Face!" And he held out his hands to let the little golden retriever puppy start licking alt-Uzi's face.
The girl snapped out of her fugue state to sputter at the puppy slobber now smudging her visor, protesting, and then starting to quietly giggle.
Myself? I had to overclock to suppress the urge to laugh so hard I fell over at the name N picked. Fucking hell, that name was just so N that even with all the time in the world thanks to overclock, I couldn't come up with an analogy for how much it fit the dude.
And then I paused as something occurred to me. "Hey Random Omnipotent Being?" I asked aloud. "You do have something in place to stop J's and N's memories from getting reset if they see too much, right? And... also maybe some wipes for canon Uzi's face? The puppy is adorable, but reacting with a smudged visor is gonna be a pain for her."
"I have wipes, Joe," Rebecca offered.
"Memory resets?" N paused as something in his optics flickered, then started quoting something with confusion. "AUTOMATED SYS ADMIN: CYN has been removed with prejudice. You're welcome."
"Who in the Shareholders is Cyn?" My enhanced audials heard J ask quietly across the room.
"WHAT!?" The scream that escaped V was audible to the entire room as one of Cyn's favourite victims freaked out.
I overclocked, Aaaaaand, there's another trauma button pressed. Hello Universe, my name is Joe, and some days I really wish I was an alcoholic. Right, before we have anymore traumatic breakdowns, let's get my traumatic lifestory out into the open before any more trauma buttons are pressed. I paused, reflecting on my words. I hate that that sentence makes any sense. I turned off the overclock.
"Right before anything else traumatic starts to happen. Hello everyone, I'm Joe, Isekai Protagonist by trade, and this is my story. In my first life, I was a human on Earth in the distant past, and when I woke up in this life as a drone without any memories of this life, the memories of my previous life remained. I don't know how, why, or even exactly when I came here, but in my first life, I watched an Indie Animated Web Series called Murder Drones created by a guy named Liam Vickers and produced by a studio named Glitch Productions. That show followed the adventure of one Uzi Doorman," I gestured to my friend, still held in her father's arms, "In the year 3071 in a place called Outpost 3, on a planet called Copper 9, when she snuck out at 3am to slip into the Corpse Spire of the local Murder Drones to scavenge the last part she needed for a Magnetically Amplified Photon Converger in order to kill one of the aforementioned MDs..."
Notes:
And that's the end of the Prologue. Hope everyone enjoyed this. If anyone notices any errors, feel free to point them out and I'll edit the post.
Many thanks to Joecola for their assistance with this. Joecola's advice helped me keep the characters faithful (mostly) to how they're portrayed in ADIPGtSMD. They suggested replacing one PoV with a different character's PoV at one point and it worked out brillantly. So while most of the words in this were written by me, Joecola's guidance helped shape this story. They encouraged me to keep writing it and I'm happy with the finished product. So again, many thanks to Joecola.
The main inspiration for how this is written is a unfinished fic called 'Truth Revealed', a Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood react fic. Instead of just watching the anime and reacting, the reactors interact with each other, some having never met before and develop new social relationships. Unfortunately with Murder Drones, a lot of things shared between people is inescapable trauma. They haven't started to watch the show yet and there have been multiple traumatic events.
If I'm honest, the thing I most enjoy about the react fic is the backstory I created for the ROB Rip (short for Riposte). They originated from a Murder Drones universe, but are such a tenuous link that they're barely mentioned in the show. Can you work out the bare details of their origin story? If anyone gets close, I'll provide the full backstory.
Now for the bad news, it's going to be a while until the next chapter of this is released. I want to get at least 2 more episodes of the anime written (already part way through Episode 2) and finish off some omakes that I put to the wayside while I focused on finishing this off. Good news for this is that I've already got notes for the opening scenes of Chapter 1 and a plan. Hopefully. Maybe...