N had no illusions that it would be that easy. From the moment he decided to break ties, he knew Uzi would do everything in her power to keep them together. He also knew that if she got to him, she would succeed.
He narrowly avoided her that night, crawling up through one of the holes in the spire to cling to the outside just as she came barreling in. She tripped over something in the snow and crashed to the ground face first, and it took everything in him not to run to her aide. It took even more not to respond to her raw, broken, pleading screams. He ran for over a mile before he stopped hearing them.
N spent the day sheltered in an underground parking garage, wide awake and mind racing. When he emerged after sundown, he was still no closer to figuring out what to do. Against his better judgment, he chanced a trip back to the spire to try and retrieve his little cooking kit, moving on-foot to avoid detection. He arrived to find the place eerily, suspiciously empty. Following his hunch, he looked towards Uzi's old hideout, maxed out the zoom on his optics and, sure enough, there she was, binoculars practically glued to her visor.
It took three days for N to get desperate enough to try again, this time blowing up a car in the opposite direction to provide a distraction. It worked, but as N went for his kit he found out that Uzi had been a busy little bee and had made several additions to his heinous abode. He felt the tripwire snap on his foot and the shock of it nearly got him snared in a steel net brimming with magnets that came flying out of a hidden launcher.
Another three days later and N found himself back at the spire, this time to retrieve the recipe for his "homebrew", which he had written down but never memorized. Because like the fool he was, he hadn't considered what would happen when it all fell apart. He checked the hideout to find it empty; if Uzi was watching, she was doing it from somewhere else. He also noted that the tripwires, camera pods and proximity sensors had been removed as well.
But in their place was something so much worse.
The walkie-talkie crackled to life, making him flinch and turn to run.
"N..."
That was all it took to stop him cold.
"Why, N?"
His core produced a throbbing pulse that he felt in his limbs.
"Why won't you let me help?"
'Because you'll die trying,' N thought. He didn't trust himself to speak.
"You don't...owe me an explanation...You don't owe me anything at all."
'I owe you everything.'
"But...The power of brainstorming, remember?" she tried to chuckle, but it came out as a sob. "If you can't see a way out of the mess you're in, maybe it's time for a different perspective?"
'It has full access to my systems. It watches through my eyes, hears through my audials. If you do figure something out, there's no way it's just gonna let that happen.'
"You can't tell me you don't recognize the pattern, N," Uzi's voice gained just a bit more confidence. "When we're by ourselves, things don't work out. But when we're together? We do the impossible. We WIN."
'You offset my worthlessness and compensate for my stupidity to make it work.'
"...Please, N, just...just talk to me? I know you want space, I know I'm being cringey, but I just...I don't understand what's going on."
'And that will keep you safe.'
"Why won't you talk to me?" Uzi's words were almost unintelligible before she suddenly erupted. "What did I do?! Whatever it is, I'm sorry, okay?! Just tell me how to make it right! I can be better! I can change! I can-"
