New Program

ooooooooof

"M!"

Aiden shot out of the nest as the other disassembly drone landed, kneeling beside M's now motionless form. They cringed at the steam suddenly pouring from his exposed metal.

"What's happening to him?" Uzi asked.

N let Thad off his shoulders and crouched down beside M, flinching as he touched his burning form, "He's overheating," he looked to Aiden, "when's the last time he's had any oil?"

Aiden didn't respond for a moment, squinting at N suspiciously.

They suddenly shook their head, "I'm just gonna assume you're nice too— I haven't seen him eat anything, but he kept trying to offer Chad and I body parts."

They went over to retrieve said limbs, "Cost Chad a bit of his sanity, but I assume M did it for a reason?" They turned to Thad, nodding their head at Chad's still-somehow-sleeping form, "Speaking of which, your boyfriend's over there."

Thad was about to protest, but decided against it as he went to check on his friend. Meanwhile, Uzi joined N and Aiden in the little circle around M.

"Disassembly drones have to eat oil so they don't overheat," she said, watching as N grabbed one of the limbs and tentatively maneuvered M's head so that the oil dripped into his mouth, "it's like a stupid failsafe JCJenson put in so they don't go vegan and stuff."

Aiden hummed curiously, "So that answers several questions."

"What happened to him?" N suddenly asked as the last of the oil dripped out. He moved onto another limb. "I've heard M acts a little... feral.. but I never expected him to be like this."

"I put an experimental program into him."

N suddenly crushed the limb in his hands, "What!?"

He apologized once he noticed what he'd done, quickly replacing the limb.

Aiden shrugged, placing a hand on M. They noted how much he'd cooled, but also how warm he still was. They were almost tempted to pull M onto themself like a blanket, but refrained from doing so in favor of letting N keep feeding him.

"He attacked us, so I knocked him out and did something I thought would protect us," they said, "I honestly didn't expect this outcome, but it's better than a lethal virus or something."

N and Uzi exchanged a mutually fearful look.

"Well, that explains the pink," N said with a strained smile.

Aiden narrowed their eyes at the two, "Huh... That look meant fear, right?"

"What look?"

Aiden glared at N, "You're bad at lying." The look melted away as they shrugged again. "Doesn't matter, though, 'cause the program was only on my—..."

They cut themself off, visor going completely blank. N and Uzi looked at each other for a moment. The former went to wave her hand in front of Aiden's face before they suddenly jumped, eyes returning with a much more fearful look.

"My harddrive!" they shouted, shooting to tilt M's head toward them with surprising gentleness, "I knew I forgot something! I always forget something— I was thinking about it earlier, too!"

They smiled as they finally unplugged something from M's head, only for the expression to instantly fall.

"..are you okay?" N asked nervously.

Aiden responded with a long sigh, head dropping.

.

She was back at the mansion.