Murder Drones SWAP

Prologue

Tessa had been chained again and was sitting on her bed, staring at the floor. J opened the door and strolled in. "Just finished work for today. How are you doing?" Tessa sighed and looked at the ground. "I'm a'ight, J. I'm just a little..." She trailed off. "How did the preparations for the Gala go?"

"Corporate seems pleased with our work. It was quite pleasant."

Tessa nodded. J had always enjoyed working around the manor, and had slowly worked up the ranks until eventually she was Louisa's personal maid.

"It was just a bunch of tedious stuff." She glanced over at the human. "How is your wrist doing?" She winced for a moment. "It's quite noticeable today." J frowned.

"I'll be right back."

After a minute or two, J returned with an ice pack. Tessa brightened a bit when she saw J. "Thanks..."

"How is Cyn doing? Did you finally let her out of the basement?"

"I released her right before I came to visit you. She seemed pretty weird today."

While Tessa was holding the pack to her wrist, she heard J mumbling some business jargon, a habit she did when she was annoyed. When Tessa turned to look at her, she saw her chewing through Tessa's chain. "J, I don't have to-" Finally, she snapped the entire chain.

"I know you've been stuck in that room the entire day. This is the least I could do."

"You do have a point." Tessa smirked.

Tessa and J peered out from the balcony. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Suddenly, Tessa's father called for attention. "The Elliots are known for many things. Class, tenacity, currently being alive-"

"Well-timed giggle."

Cyn was sitting on a globe. Suddenly, she lifted her arm, and the room was flooded with yellow light. Without warning, she had transformed a huge eldritch beast and snapped the globe she had once been sitting on in half.

"Tessa, You didn't have to see this."

Every worker drone, including J, lost control. This wasn't any normal event. This was a massacre. No matter how much Tessa tried to stop J and the other infected workers, they just continued to spill blood. She tried to pull them back- do anything to stop it- but V toppled her over. Just when Tessa thought it was over, parts of the mansion began to collapse. In a few split seconds, all the drones realized what they had done.

Flying debris hit her over and over and she didn't have the strength to get back up. Screaming, blood, drone parts... the constant shaking of the ground... this is how it ends. Laying on the floor, things becoming more blurry by the second.

Hang on...

Was she being dragged?

It didn't matter now.

The quiet pitter-patter of rain slowly aroused Tessa. She tried to stand, but her feet quickly gave way.

"You're awake!" N cried.

Tessa whirled around. Somehow, N, V, and J had saved her life.

"We couldn't just leave you there, Boss." J affirmed, somehow reading her mind. Tessa smiled at this.

"Thank you, everyone." Tessa simpered.

Out of the blue, she began coughing blood. J and N came to her aid, but V just stood there, looking far off into the distance.

' "I think I'm going to lay here for a while. Everybody looks like they deserve some shut-eye." Tessa said drowsily before she slipped into a deep slumber.

They all watched her rest with concern in their eyes, especially J. After a while, N settled to the left of Tessa and went into sleep mode. J and V watched for a few more minutes in silence before J finally spoke.

J started at a whisper but got louder as her rant went on. "I let her down. I disobeyed her. I didn't follow company regulations. I watched her cry and cower and scream and-"

V embraced J, softly whimpering.

"...I don't think anyone wants to do that ever again."