Closure

Oil on the Snow

Numb.

From the tip of his tail to the glass that constructed his digital face. Everything was numb. Flight was too much for him, too fast, too much like his thoughts. His wings now trailed behind him along with his tail. Walking was good, made his thoughts slow down. Slow down they had.

But now he was numb all over. In body and mind, he felt nothing. His thoughts and actions at first frantic and looking for purpose, now reduced to being useless. He didn't care where his body moved, so long as it moved away from where the hurt was.

Hurt was worse than feeling numb, and right now numb was his friend.

Because how else do you cope with constant betrayal?

First it was with J and her constant abuse of him. She'd never wanted him around, not in this life or the previous one. She made it clear how she felt about him and he took it in stride, allowing this abuse to continue until that fateful night when Uzi saved him from J's attempt to murder him.

V was... complicated. He still didn't remember everything from back then, but he was pretty sure they both liked each other. Then, Cyn happened and everything changed. In this new life, she'd denied their past together while he'd had it wiped and what little wasn't repressed by his favorite coping mechanism. Any attempt made to reconnect with her went nowhere, the other drone would deflect or outright deny him attention. Not to forget the secret-keeping she was terribly fixated on, this hurt not only him but Uzi as well, and speaking of...

Uzi, the one drone in this life he felt he could trust at least until what happened earlier. What was so important she wanted to hide from him? She knew how that hurt him and her when V did it. Was he overreacting? He didn't know. He kind of didn't care.

N just couldn't believe he'd fallen for another drone who'd hurt him. J was right, he was an idiot.

The snow crunched softly beneath his feet and the wind gave a gentle cry through the skyscrapers. He gave no further attention to his environment aside from the occasional sidestep to avoid debris. It was cold, and his body grew to reflect that as his panic died down.

And the world seemed to stay like that for a while.

The wind became especially loud at some point, he noticed that much, like some storm was coming. Was it time for another toxic death storm? He barely gave it any mind until the world decided to make it for him. Something barreled into him from behind knocking him forward onto his face. He didn't care, the ground was fine too. It was seconds later this force of nature pinned him down with its appendages. It attempted something between his shoulders, only to quickly give up and flip him over.

He came face-to-face with it as it used all four of its hands to hold him in place. Strangled sobs came out of its gaping maw as it came closer and bit into his shoulder. The beast seemed to enjoy the taste of his oil as it held that in its jaws for a second before quickly throwing itself off him and throwing his own body while it sailed through the air. He landed a distance away as it quickly sprang into motion again. N made no effort to get up as it picked him up again, this time with its hands. The pixelated mess on its screen attempted to tell him a story of what was in control and how it felt. Nothing it said gave him any motivation to stop the onslaught.

It threw him to a wall and quickly pinned him against it thanks to a quick boost from its wings. It cried as it held him there, its wings pinning his arms. N blinked expressionless. His mouth opened as he wrestled for any emotion to take over. At a loss, he finally spoke, "if that's what you really want to do with me, then... go ahead. What use am I?". The beast continued its caterwaul as he laid there unblinking. It attempted to do something, bite him he guessed, but evidently couldn't. "Hey", he directed it, "it helps to tear the head off first. Makes it easier to drink, Uzi".