BEFORE THE DAWN; CHAPTER 6:
System Insecurity
Running System Diagnosis...
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Model No. 0001
Series XI GUARD...
... Scanning Systems...
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SERIAL DESIGNATION J
Status: ONLINE
Core Temp: Normal
Battery Percentage: 98%. Should last until 9:30 PM.
...
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All Systems Functional.
Would you like to send these results to your assigned JCJ Technician?
Y/N
☽✧ ✦ ✧☾
They stayed close, much to J's dismay.
It became the norm to see Zara trailing after Tessa, listening to the girl's rambles and awkwardly standing with her hands in her dress pockets whenever J and the other drones of Tessa's inner circle were near.
Zara wasn't afraid of them, and they knew this. It was a gesture of respect, at least, that's what J assumed it was.
Good. She knew her place.
Despite all of her system checks (Which she'd been running more frequently due to the system stress warnings that flared up on her visor from time to time), she could never figure out what was wrong with herself. These itches only appeared once Zara came into the picture, and seeing her beside Tessa made her...upset. And she couldn't for the life of her understand why. She found herself physically wedged between them without thinking, scooting herself to Tessa's side slowly whenever she and Zara would sit on her bed and read or go over old books that Zara had deemed interesting enough to rescue from their dusty grave in the basement. Zara never seemed to mind, and though it got her disapproving glares from V, she kept doing it, willingly, this time.
Maybe it was because she didn't understand romantic love. She'd never had anyone to love like that- and why would she want to? It wasn't a need for herself, not like V and N, or Cyn and that little pipsqueak butler drone that had started courting her but was too scared to even ask to hold her hand- (Was Cyn even aware that he liked her? Sure, Cyn was smart, but she had a hard time picking up tones and indicators.) Her only purpose was to serve Tessa. To protect her, to keep her company, to ensure that nothing ever happened to her. Why in any of the gods' names would she ever need a partner on top of it?
That was her duty, and she was proud of it. Her job was to keep Tessa safe, to make sure nothing ever harmed her, physically or emotionally, when she could help it. Tessa's parents were the only people she couldn't protect her from, she wouldn't dare even consider biting back at Master Elliot or telling off the Mistress. Everyone else, however, stayed at arm's length.
It only made her more upset to find out that V and N had been placing playful bets.
"She's in love." N smiled to himself, watching from the window as Tessa gently guided Zara through the garden outside, holding onto the smaller human's hand and showing her the gorgeous rosebushes and ivory walls of the manor.
The windows were leaking on the west side of the manor again, and somehow, J had gotten roped into supervising N, V, and Cyn as they worked to repair the interior window seals above the main staircase.
"She doesn't love Zara, they're just friends." J crossed her arms.
"She is." N glanced over to V, who had been excitedly nodding. "You can see it in her eyes, she's head-over-heels for Zara."
J glared at the ground. "...Well she can't…they can't- she's supposed to marry someone else. Her parents would never allow it."
N and V shot a confused glance toward J.
"...You want her to marry Salvadore? J, she's only fifteen! If she can convince her parents to stop trying to set her up with him, she can be with Zara! It'd be a lot better and-"
J cut V off with a snarl. "It won't. Happen. Either way, we won't be around to see it."
N took a step back, cautiously grabbing Cyn by the shoulder and taking her a few paces back with him as he felt the tension rise. V had dropped the tools she'd been holding for N and was now facing J, fixing her posture to be a bit more confrontational.
"What do you mean?" V cocked her head to the side. "She'll take us with her, either way, and-"
"Don’t any of you get it?!” J clenched her hands into fists.
She'd heard it so many times, even more so in the form of tearful laments from Tessa after overhearing her parents talking late one evening. Her drones, her beloved companions, would no longer be hers the day she turned eighteen and was married off. And she knew what that meant. Tessa knew it too, but she didn't dare tell any of the others.
“Either way, we’re getting replaced! If Tessa marries Salvadore, we get replaced, if Zara stays around, we get replaced. Zara’s trying to take our place and-”
She didn’t realize she had been angrily stamping her foot against the carpet until she noticed Cyn’s fearful stare.
“J, stop it.” V hissed. “Nobody is getting replaced.”
“You don’t know that.”
V daringly inched closer to her.
“You’ve been abandoned before.” J continued, standing her ground as V curled her synthetic lips back to snarl, “You should know better than me.”
V got right in J’s face, causing N and Cyn to take yet another cautionary step back.
“J, you’re acting ridiculous. You, out of all of us, know that Tessa would never abandon us.” V grabbed J by the shirt collar, and despite the height difference, she stood her ground just as well as J. She put a single digit around the necklace that sat tucked into J’s dress and pulled.
“You’ve always been the favorite. If anyone is getting replaced, it sure as hell won’t be you”
“Okay- let's- let's calm down!” N quietly spoke up, taking a step forward, trying to stop the altercation from escalating further. "Nobody is getting replaced or abandoned anytime soon, we still have time to figure this out!"
Neither of the girls paid any attention to him.
“Maybe you should be replaced” J tensed up at V’s words. "It'd put you in place with the rest of us."
"Shut. Up." J reached out, her hand resting forcefully against V's face, which only made her seemingly more determined to piss J off.
"Take it back." J's words were laced with venom, trembling with rage.
"Make me." V stuck her tongue out.
N opened his mouth to speak again, getting cut off by J's sudden movement, flinging herself at V and pinning the (Much smaller) drone down, attempting to claw at her visor. Despite the size difference, V put up a fair fight.
Her glasses were shattered by the time she managed to shove J off of her, and she'd managed to steady herself against the railing of the staircase they'd been working next to.
"You'll be the first to get replaced!" V held a hand to her face, feeling a few places where J's jagged fingertips had met her delicate metal skin.
J bitterly snickered and wiped a few flecks of oil from her chin. "You wish."
"We're just 'useless little butler drones.' " V continued, squinting to be able to make out J's position. "You're special. They'll take you first."
That was all J needed to snap. Within moments, V was back on the ground, but now N and Cyn were trying to intervene. There was more oil on the floor and on the girls' uniforms, clumps of hair were being pulled out- it was hard to tell from whom, and both drones on the floor were screaming profanities and threats at the other.
"J, knock it off, V, stop patronizing J!" N had a grip on V's shoulders, trying to drag her out from underneath J, who had been put in an attempted headlock by Cyn.
"Egotiist Starchild over there started it!" V winced as N pulled her closer toward himself, trying to determine if she was bleeding- and where.
J had started to snarl out another insult but stopped as she heard voices on the flight of stairs below them, craning her neck to see Zara, oddly leading the way up the stairs, following behind Tessa.
In a moment of rage and impulsive decisions, she broke free of Cyn's grasp and threw herself against V's body, knocking her out of N's arms and sending her tumbling down the stairs towards Zara.
She didn't see the impact, but the sound of a metal and organic body hitting the floor told her that her aim had been accurate, and Zara was now curled up on the marble floor, clutching her arm, next to V, who had been stuck in a daze.
"The- Hell?!"
J peeked her head over the railing, watching as Tessa turned on her heels and ran toward the two figures on the ground.
She ran to Zara first.
"Are you okay?!" Was the first sentence out of Tessa's mouth, followed by a barrage of "Is anything broken?!" and "Do we need to call Doctor Nettle?!"
Zara answered Tessa's questions with her own questions, propping herself up and worriedly turning to V, retrieving her own glasses from the floor where they had been knocked off of her nose.
"Is she okay?! I didn't break anything, did I?! Oh god, I'm so sorry, oh god, oh god-"
"She's-"
V groaned in pain and forced herself upwards, wincing as Zara worriedly grabbed her arm, scooting closer towards the drone, and worriedly looking at Tessa.
"...She's fine- right? You good, V?" After making sure that Zara was alright, Tessa joined her at V's opposite side, gently checking the drone over.
"..I'm..." V trailed off, glancing up towards the top of the staircase, catching a glimpse of J, a triumphant grin on her face.
"......" V got her own idea, looking between Tessa and Zara for a moment, letting her right arm go limp. "...Everything hurts." She whined.
Tessa frowned, looking up at the stairs as well, not noticing J as she ducked down and backed away from the edge of the railing.
"Looks like it. You might have broken something internally. We'll get you up to my room and get you fixed up!"
"Here, I'll-" Zara placed a hand on V's shoulder as Tessa did the same, with Tessa's hand resting over top of Zara's. Time seemed to freeze for a moment. V could see it, and she loved the fact that she had been right. Zara's freckled face had turned at least three shades of red, and even Tessa's face reddened at the touch of their hands.
There was a jumble of words from both girls.
"I can-" "Lemme just-" "Carry her-" "Here-"
"...Can you carry her?" Tessa nervously rubbed the back of her neck. "I- I mean I don't...doubt..that you can, I just-"
Zara shook her head, gently picking up V, cradling her by the joints of her knees and underneath her arms. "I can get it!"
V could sense J's glare. She'd taken the lead, but V had managed to even the score. She glanced up as Zara carefully started up the stairs- again- happily laying her head against the human, watching as J silently scowled.
She stuck her tongue out again, immediately returning to her innocent, injured demeanor when they reached the top. N and Cyn silently followed after the three, clearly not wanting to stay around J at the moment.
Oh, how V loved being right.
Checkmate, bitch.
☽✧ ✦ ✧☾
"..I'm home!"
Only the silence called back.
Zara cautiously closed the door behind her and trudged along the hardwood floor, kicking her boots off next to the entryway and looking around the dimly lit trailer that she and her father shared.
It was all they could manage. Well, all her father could manage, at least. Struggling to keep a job doesn't exactly look the best on a housing contract.
"Dad?" She called out again. More silence.
She found him on the couch again. No doubt drunk.
"..And..no dinner...That's alright, I ate at the Elliot's." It wasn't a lie. And it was better that he was asleep, she decided. Zara knew that if he caught her smuggling in food scraps from the Elliot family, he'd forbid her from ever going near Tessa and her family again- and that was a fate worse than death.
It wasn't stealing, at least. Tessa's mother had willingly allowed Zara to take home a bit of the leftovers, and while Zara knew she wanted to question her on it, she was thankful that she hadn't. God only knows what her father would do if he found out she'd told someone about their living situation. 'It's not anyone else's problem', he said, and ' We're doing just fine without the help of those snobs.'.
Her bed wasn't anywhere near as warm or cozy as the bed she normally slept on when she stayed with Tessa, but it had to do for now. She couldn't stay in paradise forever, as much as she wanted to.
The memory of that touch never left her, even as she drifted off to sleep. She knew it was an accident, she knew that they were both probably blushing because of how fucking awkward the situation had been, but it was cute, and Tessa was cute, and she wanted to keep holding her hand and scoot ever so slowly closer until they were snuggled up beside each other and look into those gorgeous green eyes and slowly lean in until their lips touched and- dammit, she loved her! She loved her, she loved her, she LOVED her!!
But Tessa didn't reciprocate it- she couldn't have, right? Surely Tessa wasn't into girls, surely she didn't see Zara that way, it had to have been a stupid dream, a wishful desire, it couldn't be.
Zara buried her face in her pillow and screamed.
Dammit.
.
.
.
...She'd gone and fallen for an Elliot.
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