ChromaTober | FMS 2023 writing challenge | Hosted by @LoneRanger253

Day 16 | Below

AU: Robot!Sabre
Type: Angst
Characters: Sabre, Blue Steve (Ao), Lily (Ao's little sister)
Note: I had 0 ideas for this one and very little time, forgive me ;v;
- Continuation to Day 13 "Cold"
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Sabre POV

The ice cracked warningly under us as we slowly walked over it, I knowing all well it could crack any second under my weight.

"If the ice cracks.. I'll get you out again, alright? We just have to be careful.." Blue Steve, whose name really is Blue and let me call him Ao, assured that the situation is under control, even if he wasn't so sure about it himself. I nodded slightly, not wanting to cause any more imbalance and disturbance to the fragile ice.

Noting to database:
    • "Water freezes in [Frozen River] and beyond very quickly."
    ? "Other possible locations: Locations inhabited by [STEVE]-{BLUE}

Crack

"Blue, the ice is not going to hold." My voice elevated in loudness, all of my systems alarmed. He remained quiet, must knowing I'm right and trying to figure it out.

"Come slowly towards me." I did as told as I looked down at the ice for any more cracks to come my way, not turning around to see where he was - I just went in the direction I registered his voice from. "Yes, yes, just like that." He was anxious, but managed to maintain calm exterior. Has he dealt with this before?

"Brother!" A little child's voice rang through the air.

"Lily!" Blue panicked, the calmness in him gone in an instant.

"Brother!" Lily, his little sister, cried. "Stop, come back!" She was probably missing him when he left her to shelter. I had stopped moving and remained stood 4 metres away from Ao, unmoving to the best of my ability on my feet with soles turned to skates. I detected the little ones footsteps quickly start running towards us.

"Lily, no! Don't come-!" Ao tried to warn her to not come as the ice isn't strong enough to hold all of us. It was in vain the moment the thin cold layer under her broke and her leg fell in, her whole body following with a scream. I turned around immediately, unable to ignore what had just happened. My system wouldn't let me. "LILY" her brother was panicked to his core, but was unable to move when I blurred right past him with:

| OBJECTIVE: SAVE LILY |
Strengthening cold shield and water durability...

I had jumped with a force that broke the ice underneath me to the hole where Lily disappeared into, her blue teddy polar bear floating on the surface.

Most light immediately disappeared once below the cunning frozen water. Fortunately, my eyes had a helpful feature. I took off my blindfold and activated them as lamps, white light casting into the tense water. While it didn't improve the visibility much, it would be a great help when I could see even just a tiny glimpse of Lily's drowning body.

Normally, I'd use thermo-scans, but in this extreme minus temperature, it would be useless and not work. And the water is too "weird" - unknown and very different from normal water - for me to use echolocation in. My cold shield's and my water durability were lowering quickly too, giving me a hazardous time limit as I gave my best efforts at swimming which was proving to be harder than it looked like.

There's a reason why I hate water and cold.. But my task at hand is more important than that. As long as I get her back up to the surface, it'll be fine.

Glimpse

My program went haywire when my visual sensors saw her hand for a moment and made all the decisions to get to her. She was sinking unnaturally fast - but this is a different sort of phenomenon for water than what I've seen before - so I sank myself faster by letting some of the heavy water into my legs, instantly giving them damage. I caught up to her and took her into my arms, scanning her within a second and then trying to find a way back up. I stopped us from moving and then propelled ourselves up with my boosters in my legs and feet.

They malfunctioned soon enough because I wasn't built for these conditions and stopped, slowing us down quickly before we stopped and started sinking again. I frowned in worry. Lily is not going survive at this rate.

I used the water in my legs to force it out as quickly as possible for it to give us a boost back up, though it was little. Ao was already swimming down, much quicker than any other being I've seen. I hope he knows what to do, I thought as I pushed Lily up towards her brother right at the moment when the boost ended, giving her the maximum momentum and push upwards for max distance. He caught her and momentarily looked down at me before swimming back up.

Good, save Lily, your little icicle...

! Emotional perimeters changed to unknown - |[Sentimental Core]| system overlapping.
Vitals system error! Unable to process.
Systems malfunctioning: [Water] leaking in ; wires freezing.
External damage force at max output - unable to resist.
Shields disabled.

...Shutting down...