---
Two years ago...
---

Myra anxiously waited, anticipating the arrival of both her husband and her daughter. The walls of the safe room felt as though they were closing in around her as the alarm continued to go off. Time kept passing and she started thinking the worst, keeping Eden close as the young Drone sobbed into her side, clinging on like his life depended on it.

Things weren't looking too good as time kept passing. She looked at the door hopefully as it opened, her hopes crushed as the only Drone she saw was neither Jayde nor her father.

An hour crept by, followed by another, and another. The alarm finally stopped after three long hours of waiting, the sound still resonating in her head. No sign of either of them...

She wouldn't be able to bear it if worst came to worst.

But of course, it did.

She was brought to the emergency room, where Jayde was unconscious and bleeding out from a large hole in the right side of her visor.

"Where is he?" Myra questioned the Drone who'd brought her here.

The look on their face told her everything she needed to know.

He was gone.

---

Days past by and Myra could hardly get out of bed. She neglected her responsibilities and, even worse, her own children. Jayde was left to take care of Eden as she spent day after day locked up in her room. She hardly ate even when Jayde brought her something to snack on.

She could tell that her daughter, who now wore a piece of fabric to cover the gaping hole in her visor, was beginning to resent her.

---

Over the years, even as Myra began to get better, she still neglected her children far too much. They reminded her of him. She tried her hardest to avoid them, to avoid the memories.

Eventually she too began to become resentful towards Jayde, angered by her daughter's nerve. The way she looked at her. Myra was in no way perfect, but they should be thankful that she raised them and didn't send them off to the orphanage! They should be glad that her and their father even decided to combine their code into those damn pill baby things!

But, even though all of this, she'd still give her own life just to save them.

---
Current time
---

The colony's alarms were going off once again. Recently it seemed like such a common occurrence, and Myra had begun to simply ignore it. But this time it was worse. They were being urged to evacuate to the safe rooms, and Myra immediately knew something was wrong.

Eden clung onto her arm with hollowed eyes, quivering slightly. He'd come to associate this sort of event with that time where his father never made it to the safe rooms... As much as it hurt Myra as well, she had far bigger problems. She couldn't just stand by this time and save herself. She'd already been a bad enough mother to both of her kids, placing far too much responsibility on Jayde.

"Jayde?! We need to get out NOW!" Myra hollered, though she got no response. Fearing the worst, she started to make her way to Jayde's room, keeping Eden close. She couldn't loose her daughter too... She wasn't about to loose someone else to a Disassembly Drone.

Once she arrived, she was surprised to find Jayde's door wide open. Well why on Cobalt-12 would Jayde leave her door open..? Did she already leave for the safe rooms?

Unfortunately, her prediction was incorrect. Barely conscious, Jayde was sitting on her bed and gently swaying from side to side, oil leaking from the back of her head. Clearly something bad happened to her...

Myra rushed and grabbed her daughter by the arm, though she didn't seem to respond for a while, her reaction time seeming quite delayed. With no other choice she managed to carry Jayde over her shoulder, before going off as fast as she could to the safe rooms. Jayde was completely silent at this point, which wasn't a good sign. Not at all. "Come on... Don't do this to me Jay..."

Eden looked at Jayde fearfully before back at Myra, continuing to run as tears poured down his visor. "I-is she going to be fi-"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Myra screamed, cutting off Eden. He looked away quickly and Myra felt a sudden pang of guilt. Why did she always let her feelings get the best of her...

Soon enough they'd made it to the safe rooms, and Myra ran inside with Eden right behind her, immediately laying Jayde down on the floor to try patching up the wound on her head.

•••

[WARNING]

[RAPID OIL LOSS DETECTED]

[-CHECK OIL LEVELS]

[OIL LEVELS: 25% (SEVERELY LOW, DUMBASS)]

[LOL YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE, LOSER]

[OIL LEVELS: 22% (DIDN'T YOU JUST CHECK?)]

[OIL LEVELS: 14% (YOU'RE DEAD BRO)]

[OIL LEVELS STABLE]

[-CHECK INJURY STATUS]

[SEVERE HEAD WOUND: IDK DUDE, SEEMS PATCHED]

[RIGHT OPTICAL SENSOR: STILL SEVERELY DAMAGED LMAO]

[!OIL LEVELS RISING!]

[-CHECK OIL LEVELS]

[OIL LEVELS: 20%]

[OIL LEVELS: 55%]

[OIL LEVELS: 78%]

[OIL LEVELS: 100%]

[CHECKING DIAGNOSTICS]

[.]

[..]

[...]

[....]

[REBOOTING...]

[.]

[..]

[...]

[....]

[GL BUDDY]

---

Jayde groaned as she opened her eyes, blinking a few times as she tried to figure out where she was. Why were they in the safe rooms..? Where was S?!

She met her mother's gaze, surprised by the relief she saw in her eyes. She wasn't sure she was used to seeing that... She was even more shocked as her mother pulled her into a hug, which she wasn't sure she was used to either.

But oh, the back of her head hurt like hell... Well, at least whatever wound had been there seemed patched.

"W-what's going on..?" Jayde asked, pulling herself out of the hug and looking around the room. She'd been uncomfortable enough to begin with, but having a bunch of Drones staring at her did not help.

Myra sighed and stood up. "Well, we very quickly found out that the Disassembler sightings weren't false..."

Jayde's eyes hollowed out as she remembered what had happened. Were they going to kill S?! No no no, she had to stop her! This was all her fault! She attempted to get up, doing it too quickly and being left with a throbbing pain in her head. She groaned and stabilized herself. What kind of state was she in to go after a literal Disassembler? Let alone one on a rampage? She didn't even have her weapons!

She heard a cry of fear from one of the Drones in the room as something thudded against the door of the safe room, her core dropping as she saw the yellow >< on the other side. S just stared at them, scanning the crowd through the window before she spotted Jayde. The two stared at eachother for a moment, the Disassembler looking surprisingly guilty, before S was suddenly dragged down by a group of winged Drones, with Este being one of them. She couldn't bear to watch, closing her eyes as he pointed a gun directly at S' head and opened fire.

Afterwards he and the others took hold of S' limp body and started carrying her away to the doors, where she'd be tossed outside of the colony.

The tension eased in the room immediately and Jayde could hear sighs of relief, but all she could do was stare at the door, at the oil dripping down the window. She'd wanted to kill S not long ago, but now she felt her core break at the thought of her dying.

"What a relief! Ain't no damn Disassemblers getting ahold of us!" Myra exclaimed, putting her arms around Eden and Jayde's shoulders, though the latter didn't respond. "Jayde..?"

"Wha- Huh? O-oh... I was just thinking..." Jayde quickly responded, managing a smile that felt extremely forced.

•••

S wasn't exactly sure how long she'd been out for when she woke up in the snow, panicking as she felt the cold that could only mean one thing. She sat up and looked in the direction of the colony, furrowing her brows. Of course she just had to go and screw everything up!

Tears welled up in her eyes as she stood up and started walking away from the colony. She couldn't stay here. She just couldn't let anyone else get hurt... Especially not Jayde. She missed the Worker already, the way she smiled and looked at S, her inventiveness and creativity... But that was gone. Her chances of a good life were gone. Heck, Jayde probably hated her by now...

She could still taste the oil in her mouth. That sickly sweet oil that made her gag at the thought of consuming it. Something really was wrong with her if she hated that taste, wasn't it. She was supposed to like it! Love it even! Just like everyone else did!

And where was she supposed to go? Where could she possibly make an excuse to have been if her squad mates found her?

She hoped K wouldn't be mad at her, and she knew that F would just use this as an excuse to put her through more and more pain. What kind of sick enjoyment did he get out of making her suffer?

But, if she wanted to survive, she had to go back... She brought out her wings and shot off into the sky in the direction of her squad's pod. She just hoped that F wasn't around... That thought nearly made her turn back. She stalled in the air, just staying where she was to think.

She desperately didn't want to see F again, but it was nearly unavoidable given the current situation. If she did go back, he'd be there, and if she didn't everything would be so much worse in the future when she was found.

Before she could come to a conclusion she could feel herself plummeting to the ground, blinded and knocked out of the air by something, or someone. Unable to right herself she landed hard on the ground with a thud, knocking herself clean out.