#robot blorbos go brrrr

[melodyofthevoid]

❛ no one is going to save you. no one can. ❜ with fin and pricilla :3

(Love these two. Delightfully bitter exes.)

They’d never wanted it to come to this. Not really. Fin had a habit of letting things slide, it was something of a problem really. But she held onto the good in bots. 

She held onto the good in Pricilla. 

Because they’d had something once. Pricilla was so brilliant. A bot of ambition, ideas, so many dreams that she laid out like an artist on canvas. Sprawling and grand. Trusting Fin and wanting them by her side. That Pricilla, all bright smiles and small laughs, that’s who Fin held onto. In spite of their imprisonment below ground. Cut off from the outside. In spite of Pricilla’s grasp on the city she built becoming a strangle hold. Becoming a prison for more than just FIn. 

Fin let it go, holding the truth at arm’s length. 

They’d never wanted to hurt Pricilla. 

But more bots were riding on finding a way out, and Fin knew this wasn’t their battle to fight. It was hers. She’d put it off long enough. 

Flexing her fingers in and out of a fist, they stood outside the entrance of the escape route Milo and Illiana had vanished through earlier. Waiting. 

“So, what exactly are you doing on this side of town?” 

Fin looked up, but not towards the new voice, staring off at the city. 

“Could say the same to you. Haven’t seen you since you barged into my bar. How’d that search go, by the way? You ever catch those fugitives?” 

It was all pretense, they knew it, Pricilla certainly knew it. But Fin had to buy them some time. If there was anything Pricilla loved to do, it was talk. Gloat. Feel smart and accomplished. It played into her ego more than she’d ever admit. Not that she’d ever admit any sort of fault without it looping back into her brilliance. 

“Not…quite. It seems that they had some help. Which brings me to why I’m here, Fin. Tell me where they are, and we can walk away from this. I’m not stupid, and neither are you.” 

Fin let out a laugh, “That one’s debatable Prissy. All things considered. Made some real bad decisions in my run. I’m not telling you anything.” 

Their ex’s eye twitched slightly and she frowned, making a slight click as she shook her head. 

“No need to be unreasonable, everything can fit in its place the way it should and we won’t have to do anything drastic.” 

The tell tale clank and clack of guards made Fin sigh, and sure enough a small platoon stood behind Pricilla, guns armed and ready. 

She’d faced worse odds. 

“No one is going to come and save you, Fin. No one can. Your little “crew” are going to fail, and that will be the end of all of this nonsense.”

“You know what? That’s fine.” 

“What.” 

Fin rolled their shoulders, looking Pricilla in the eye. It was almost fitting, the fact that she couldn’t see what was clearly in front of her anymore. Probably lost it in pursuit of some upgrade. Short sighted. Literally. 

“I don’t need them to save me. Don’t want those kids to. Frankly, this is a problem between you and me. Always has been. I’ve let you go on for too long so this is the end of all that. So, what’re you going to do Pris, because I know what I am going to do. I’m going to leave.”

The CEO, the iron fist of the city took a step back, seemingly half caught between being affronted, and afraid. 

She only had a few guards with her, the rest likely down in the tunnels, searching for Milo and Illiana, searching for the escapees. But they’d stop, that they would. 

“And how exactly are you going to do that?”

“I’m going to do what I’ve wanted to do for a long time now,” Fin set themself in a fighting stance, “Knock some fucking sense into that head of yours.” 

[melodyofthevoid]

“It hurts that you still can’t trust me after all this time”

(Once more credit to @shmunter for these lovely kiddos)

Illiana liked closure. She liked having things begin, and then end. A mission completed meant an objective happened, she got things done, and that was that. Questions had answers. Effects had causes. 

Taming that curiosity took some doing, and she regretted her pursuit of some things, without question. 

But she hated uncertainty. 

So she hated this. 

She hadn’t seen Milo at all in the last few months. Aside from when he’d attempted to hunt her down and drag her kicking and screaming back to Aegis. Though that wasn’t exactly him, it certainly soured the relief of him being “back”. Especially when that was… 

What good was having her best friend again if he was too scared of her to exist in the same room. 

She let out a sigh, shaking her head to clear out those thoughts. Looking at her communicator and pulling up her messages with Milo. 

<-Why is it that all of the drones look the same. Surely there’s got to be some kind of reason for that. Do you think they go on breaks?

->didn’t you interact with them? 

<-No. It was pretty isolated. I pretty much only had Pris and Dell as my social circle. 

->Yikes

Classic Milo. She could almost hear his voice draw out the “y”, his face do the stupid little grimace he did when joking around. There was that ache again, the knowledge that she missed him. That there wasn’t anything that she could do about it. 

The codes merged, the fabricated Milo and her friend were wrapped up into one person. Her friend and the hunter programmed by Pricilla’s goons were the same and when it came to her? 

Pricilla won. 

Milo could be talking to Vex, or Fin, or Olli like nothing happened and the second she was anywhere in eyesight he either shut down and fought her or vanished completely. It was almost impressive how quickly it took over, even at the mere mention of her name. After a few more attempts she’d stopped trying, resigning herself to her fate. Of losing the first real friend she’d had. 

Olli and Vex thankfully intervened and acted as go between before shoving a pair of communicators between them. 

Then an idea popped into her head. A genius little idea. Illiana almost cheered, but refrained. She didn't have that much of an ego, plus Milo would have to. Well. Agree to it.

Otherwise she'd just be talking to a wall. More than usual at least.

<-I want to try something, just a little test

-> not sure i like the sound of that but alright 

<- There’s a door in the compound that’s kinda thin. Do you think we could talk there? You’d never see me but I

Illiana stopped, staring at the message before backspacing. Face ablaze. Fans whirring as they tried to cool her circuits. 

Try again, sound a bit less… needy. She didn’t want to scare him off.

<- There’s a thinner door in the compound by the sitting room. Want to try and talk? Just through the door.

There wasn’t a response at first, just a series of dots that appeared and disappeared at random. Maybe it was a bad idea. Maybe it hadn’t been long enough, he hadn’t adjusted and it was too soon- 

->let’s give it a shot. see you in five.

She beamed, cackling a little as she responded.

<- You’ll hear me in five idiot. 

-> >:p

Even in spite of everything, she couldn't help but feel giddy. This had to work, it just had to.

Olli gave her a sidelong look as she sprinted down the hallway, and she made sure to flip them off as she did. Nothing was going to break her stride. This was progress! 

The room, and by extension, door in question was a side hall, connecting the two halves of the mishmashed building that Vex called a lab. They’d all had to hunker there after Pricilla tried (again) to raid Fin’s bar. It was too much of a risk. 

In any case the room was fairly barren, which was fine. Footsteps on the other side signaled that Milo had arrived, much to Illiana’s delight. 

That or someone else. Better to check. 

"Milo? You there?"

A moment's silence. Then another.

"Mhm. I'm here."

It was muffled and tinny, quieter than Milo was before. Slightly forced, even. 

"It's good to hear you," Illiana pressed on, "I'd almost forgotten what you sounded like!"

There was more silence before Milo spoke up again.

"S-same. It was a bit... distorted. I think."

“Not too distorted. Can’t have you forgetting my performances! You... do still remember those, right?” 

“Right- right those. I...” 

He trailed off voice small and hesitant. 

“Milo?” 

There wasn’t a response, and Illiana felt herself wilt. 

“It hurts you still don’t trust me. Or can’t, I guess. I- I know she did- I know she messed with your head but am I still scaring you? Even just my voice? Do you really think I’m- that I’d-“

Hurt him. Again. 

And saying that it hurts he didn’t trust her? What was she thinking?! It wasn’t his fault. None of this was. She’d at least make this easier for as long as she had him here. 

“No- no you don’t have to answer that, if you don’t want to. I’m sorry. You can... you can text. I always talked enough for the both of us...”

It was a lame attempt at humor and she knew it. Still, she got a ping on her comm. 

->thanks. 

Selfish, a voice that was both familiar, and entirely unwelcome whispered. This wouldn’t have happened if you’d not put him in danger. It never would’ve come to this. She wanted her friend back, and for what? To wrap him up in more upheaval, until the next blow came? 

->didn’t mean to shut down it’s hard to separate the noise 

“No, that’s... it’s awful. It’s so shitty what she did and... I really miss you. And it’s not fair to you because I got you hurt-“

->she used me to hurt you. that’s not remotely ur fault. she just sucks 

It caught her off guard, and she sputtered, letting out a startled laugh. Staring at her screen in disbelief. 

“Y-yeah. She’s a real piece of work.” 

->the worst. 

“A bitch.”

->mega-bitch

They laughed, and Illiana pretended that there wasn’t a door, for a moment. That she could open her optics, and see Milo. Give him a hug. Maybe in a while she could. This was certainly a step. She didn’t know how big, but a step. 

Milo’s laughter quieted, and he leaned (at least, she assumed he did) against the door.

->hey if we keep- if I keep hearing you, it'll get better. we’ll keep trying.

"I hope so."

Illiana leaned against the door, pressing a hand to the metal. There was a soft clank against the other side. At least for now, it was a bit of closure.