Somehow, Jayde had snuck a Disassembly Drone into her room. Stranger yet, everyone was still in hiding. Well, it wasn't really that strange, it was reasonable enough.

"Do you things even know how to talk?" Jayde asked while stashing away her weapons. The Disassembler nodded, continuing to look around in awe. "Can you?"

This time they shook their head sadly. To Jayde this was baffling. First she finds out that those things can speak, but for some reason this one can't?

Jayde huffed and closed the compartment that her weapons were in. "What's your name? I can't just keep referring to you as 'The Murderer' or whatever." She paused for a moment. "If you even have one, that is."

They perked up at the first question, but their enthusiasm faded at Jayde's comment. [Serial Designation S].

"One letter names, huh. Whoever chose to name you like that obviously has bad taste," Jayde replied with an eye roll.

S didn't reply for a moment. [What]

"It's just, we normally have, well, more than one letter long names," Jayde told S with a shrug.

[What's yours?] S asked with a small smile, sitting down on Jayde's bed before looking around again.

Jayde was quite hesitant. S was a murderer. A villian. The bad guy... Right? "Jayde," she answered. She was unsure if she should approach the Disassembler or not. Well, S did make a promise... She probably wouldn't kill Jayde, otherwise she would have done it already. Jayde went to sit near the Disassembler, keeping some distance between them.

S touched Jayde's shoulder lightly, making the Worker flinch. It was an uncontrollable reflex, and an annoying one as well. An awkward silence filled the space as Jayde stared at a wall. She noticed S was looking at her curiously, so she looked over at the Disassembler.

[What happened?] S asked, tilting her head slightly and gently brushing her fingers over the fabric that covered Jayde's eye. She clasped both hands over it, jumping back a bit.

"Nothing," she hissed in response, looking away.

More silence.

S put a hand on Jayde's shoulder, pulling the Worker a bit closer. She winced slightly at the contact, but this time the Disassembler didn't pull back. Jayde moved away once again with hollow eyes, staring at S in fear.

[Friend] S referred to Jayde again.

"I have a name," she muttered just loud enough for the Disassembler to hear.

S thought for a moment before rephrasing it. [Jayde], she displayed on her visor. [You look sad]

Jayde shook her head. "I'm perfectly fine."

Talking to S sometimes felt like she wasn't talking to anyone. When she anticipated a verbal response, she was met with a few words on her visor.

Jayde looked down at the ground. "Maybe I-" She was cut off as S wrapped her arms around her, catching Jayde off guard. She tried to wriggle her way out of S's grasp, but she was being held too tightly. The Disassembler gently pat her on the head, as if trying to be comforting. As much as Jayde wanted to yell at herself and tell herself that it was a murderous beast, she couldn't help but find it surprisingly comforting. She began to wonder if something was wrong with her programing, though that was fairly unlikely.

Jayde had forgotten how nice a hug felt. It had been so long.

Her mother never hugged her, but that was normal. She had Jayde's little brother to take care of, which mattered more.

That's what she was told, anyways.

Oh, her mother would be infuriated to find S inside the colony. She would probably have Jayde's head on a stick! And that's not even an exaggeration!

Despite how badly she wanted to let the hug continue, she had to push away. "Okay, okay, that's enough."

[You sure?] S asked with a look of concern.

Jayde was quiet for a while as she questioned herself. She wanted a hug, but from a murderer? "No..." she whispered before being pulled into a hug once again. She began to wonder if S was feeling similar to how she did. Was she also starving for affection? Either way she somehow decided to hug S back, which was a strange move from her.

Those things killed him.

You need to kill it.

You have to.

It's your goal.

You need to kill-

Jayde shut her thoughts up, not wanting to deal with that right now. S hadn't been the killer, that one had been able to laugh and talk in it's taunting voice.

Meanwhile S?

She couldn't do so much as make a sound.

Jayde could feel herself slowly drifting off. Though she hadn't gotten stabbed or anything, she wasn't dying, she was just tired. And being relaxed while you're tired usually ends up in sleep. Her grip loosened and she fell asleep, which she thought was impossible with a killer around.

•••

S looked at Jayde with a bit of fear momentarily, but she soon realized that her visor displayed [Sleep Mode] on it. She gently layed the Worker down before taking a look around. Before she did anything else she quickly unscrewed the bottom screws of the vent, just in case she had to climb inside.

She noticed a few pieces of paper with hastily drawn diagrams and concepts. With a smile she grabbed one of the papers and a pen and began to sketch. She didn't know what she was drawing, but she was drawing something.

Before she knew it there was a drawing of a garden. She didn't even know what a garden looked like. But there it was, plants, flowers, trees, leaves and all. Something about it felt strangely familiar, but she didn't have time to question it. The door of Jayde's home opened, prompting her to rush into the vents for cover.

Just as the vent shut an angry Worker opened the door, looked at Jayde and slammed it again. S breathed a sigh of relief, but she determined that it would be safer to just stay in the vents for the night. She curled up, trying to make herself comfortable before drifting off.