Chapter Text
Pest couldn’t believe this was happening. He muttered curses under his breath as he half dragged, half carried Null deeper into his den. The helperbot wasn’t living up to their name, with how little effort they seemed to be putting into walking. They had one hand clutched to their abdomen, over what Pest could only assume was one of the many wounds DrRETRO had told him to help out with.
He groaned internally, remembering how the doctor had unceremoniously shoved the robot towards him with a bit of a sorry look, barely having enough time for an explanation before she had to rush off to one of the many injured in the final battle against the Cult.
“You have some experience with mechanics, darling- please just take this one for me? I’m really sorry, but I have my hands full enough already.” She had said, wringing her hands while constantly glancing back towards the other elevator riders. Pest had tried to protest, but his arguments were a bit weak, and he did feel like he owed DrRETRO. Hence why he was currently dragging the robot into his home.
Pest continued grumbling about the whole situation, making sure it was just loud enough that Null could surely hear him. “Forcing me to bring you to my den” this, “good-for-nothing Axocult scum” that. They never responded to any of his barbs, but Pest had to allow himself the little vindictive things.
The robot wasn’t particularly heavy- not to Pest, that is- but Pest still had to basically clutch them to his side to keep them upright. They had one arm draped over his shoulder, their metal hand just in the corner of his vision. It twitched with every step they took- probably faulty wiring or a latent response to their other injuries. It set him on edge though. Pest was half-expecting for Null to drop their whole “wounded and broken” act and strike him while he was vulnerable and isolated. Tackling him to wrap metal servos around his throat until he stopped breathing, using their reality-editing abilities to hit him with one of the many rocks or bits of junk from off the floor, or to just pop his skull into a splatter of bug-guts and blood-
Pest quickly shook himself out of his gory thoughts. It wouldn’t help to theorize on how Null could possibly kill him.
. . . besides, there was a quality of deadness in the robot’s optics that made Pest doubt they were capable of anything right now.
He focused on the strange task that getting Null to walk was, to keep himself distracted; one foot in front of the other, one arm against the helperbot’s back, other hand out in front of them to catch them if they fell forwards. Null limped along, letting Pest lead in an uncharacteristic show of complacency.
Pest finally got the two of them down to the main part of his den, where the tunnel opened up into a more substantial cavern where he stored his things. His bed was tucked away in one alcove, a large desk pushed to the middle of the room, junk and trinkets tucked into natural shelves in the rock, the string lights PartyNoob had insisted on gifting him strung up around the cave- at least all of his valuables were hidden away into deeper holes higher up in the ceiling.
Pest suddenly felt unbearably awkward and exposed. He didn’t really get visitors; his home was a private place, a safe place, and now Null was invading it, tainting it, making every instinct Pest had scream at him to just kick them out, get rid of them, this isn't a place for them, they shouldn't be here-
Pest clenched his jaw against the defensive hiss that rose in his throat, before roughly shoving Null towards a dingy sofa pressed up against one of the walls, craving distance from the source of all of his disdain and anger. He heard the robot hit the cushions with a quiet creak of old springs, but they stayed consistently silent. Pest paused while collecting tools from the table in the middle of the room.
“Are you really not going to say anything? You’re usually so preachy, did the defeat of your poor leader really leave you at such a loss~?”
Pest made sure to add a satisfied trill at the end of his sentence. DrRETRO told him to make sure the helperbot was in working condition, but she never said he couldn’t be a little mean to it.
He didn’t get a response, but he turned back to see Null staring at him intensely, their legs drawn up to their chest with their arms wrapped around them, and their glowing optics cutting through the shade cast by their chicken-themed hood. He couldn’t read their expression. He would have preferred a hateful glare, or a devastated scowl; that would at least be normal.
Pest scoffed. “Giving me the silent treatment, huh? I guess I can’t blame you.” He walked back over to them, watching with a bit of satisfaction as they tensed up as the distance between them got smaller. Like watching a cornered animal shrink against the wall behind it. The realization that their reluctance would make this even harder quickly chased away any semblance of happiness, though. He glared, before gesturing with a socket wrench at them.
“You’re one lucky bastard, by the way. If it was up to me, you would still be in the ruins degrading into scrap.” Pest paused, realizing that might not be the best stance to take right now. He groaned, dragging one hand down his face before trying to be a bit nicer. “. . . Look, I’m trying to help you here. Can you not make this any harder than it had to be?”
Silence stretched between them for more than a minute, and as Pest was about to turn away and give up; to hell with the doctor’s request, he had tried to help and had been denied, it wasn’t his fault, the dumb bot did it to themselves-
“Why are you . . . assisting us?”
Pest turned his head back around sharply, surprised at the quiet way Null had spoken. Every other time they had talked, it was getting a preacher at your door trying to convince you to join up with their religion. It was hard to get them to shut up, and even harder to get their voice out of your head- like a thick layer of grime over all of your thoughts.
Null was no longer staring at Pest, their optics trained on nothing at all. Pest didn’t really know how to respond, so he just said the truth for once.
“The doctor thinks everyone from the Cult deserves a chance to have a change of heart. She isn’t really experienced in robotics, so she cashed in a favor from me.” He tried to frame it as casually as possible, even though it was something more like “she saved my life, so she could ask me to do anything and I would do it.”
Null’s gaze snapped back onto him, their head tilting almost imperceptibly to the side as they finally seemed to process his intentions. They spoke again, their voicebox glitching with a bit of static as they attempted a more normal volume.
“So helping me is your Current Task, then.” They said, their words clipped. Pest shrugged. “Sure, you could say that.” Null uncurled from their protective position slowly, keeping their eyes locked onto Pest as they did. “Do what you must.”
Pest smirked, before steeling himself and pulling up a chair and small side table to where the robot sat. The proximity was a bit unnerving, but Pest forced himself not to think about it. He slowed when he realized that he didn’t know how he was supposed to access Null’s wounds. He awkwardly gestured towards Null’s hoodie and undershirt, and thankfully the helperbot got his message. They hesitated for a second before pulling off their chicken-head hat, setting it to the side while they unzipped their jacket and pulled off the short-sleeved red shirt underneath it.
They looked a bit strange without the hat on; he could now see with more detail the lines that separated the different parts of their face, and how intricately detailed their optics were, and oval housings for small antennae on either side of their head. Their torso and upper arms were painted with the same yellow as their head, with the same lines as their face to indicate where the plating split. Pest couldn’t help but compare it to his own partial exoskeleton.
Their forearms were a more sturdy and unpainted metal, servos in the joints connecting their limbs. Some of the paint was chipped from dents, the biggest of which had torn at the metal sections of Null’s torso to reveal delicate internal wiring. Pest touched the wound without thinking as they sat back down, a disgusted scoff slipping out of him. Who would ever be so careless with such a marvel of engineering, to throw it around and damage it like this? He would never treat one of his projects like this-
Pest felt the robot seize up under his touch, going perfectly still even though his touch shouldn’t have hurt. He glanced back up at Null, who was staring at him with unnerving intensity again. Pest narrowed his eyes and scrunched up his nose, hoping that would convey his annoyance enough.
Focusing on the task at hand, he looked for some sort of seam or connector to unlatch to be able to access the damaged area. Not finding anything, he tapped against the damaged section of plating with one short claw. “Can you disconnect this? It would make it a lot easier to fix this hole. And all of the other dents you have.”
Null responded curtly. “Torso plating is magnetically locked to prevent outside tampering. We will turn off the magnets so you can fix us, but we expect the plating to be returned immediately after the repair.”
Pest smiled a bit at the idea of making off with half of Null’s exoskeleton, but conceded. “Yeah, yeah, I won’t. It’s quality metal though, so don’t tempt me.”
Null didn’t respond, but he heard a quiet click and was able to pry off a couple of the plates on the damaged side. Some of the pieces caught on each other because of small dents, but Pest was able to carefully bend them back into shape. He set the plates aside on the table with his tools, before examining the damage. It wasn’t incredibly severe, but it looked like some of the wiring was for controlling motor function in one of their legs, which would be pretty annoying in the long run.
He used his nails to gently separate the damaged wiring and what looked to be a few damaged pressure sensors. Pest guessed they were to simulate the feeling of touch. Unfortunately he didn’t think he could repair those, but he could certainly fix some wiring.
Pest curiously examined one of the sensors, holding it between two of his nails and pushing on it. Null jolted, their hand jerking up as if to hit him away, but they stopped just short of actually hitting him. He released the sensor immediately, meeting Null’s intense stare. Pest watched their gaze drop away from him, their hand clenching into a fist. The unexpected reaction settled into a ravenously questioning part of his brain. A pain response? Can they actually feel pain, or is it just negative feedback? Can they feel all of my touch? Can they feel touch on their internal systems, or just the outside plating? How detailed is the sensory input? What other secrets are you hiding in this metal shell, bird?
Pest realized that Null had said something, and he had missed it. A strange feeling had settled in the space between his heart and lungs. He shook his head slightly and looked up at the helperbot’s face.
Er- Didn’t catch that.” Pest swallowed his embarrassment at being caught off-guard.
“We were requesting you to be careful when handling delicate machinery.” Null repeated, their words devoid of emotion. Pest nodded idly. He could hear the whirring of fans in Null’s chassis. He stood up to fetch the tools he would need for the wiring, stuffing down the intense urge to claw Null’s chest open to examine the robot’s internal systems. He couldn’t stand the personality unfortunately attached to the body, but Pest would be a fool to deny that Null wasn’t a marvel of mechanics.
At least he could satisfy his curiosity through this arrangement. Pest grabbed a pair of small wire cutters and his wire strippers, and left his soldering iron on the table to heat up. He looked back at the various wrenches and screwdrivers he had set out, expecting Null to have a lot more screws and bolts than they actually did. Pest glanced back towards the helperbot, begrudgingly admiring their frame again. The magnets were a very intricate but nice detail, making Null’s design seem more streamlined and advanced. Pest began wondering about the other pieces of their body again, eyes wandering to the joints that connected their upper arm and shoulder to their unpainted forearms.
Pest realized he probably looked a bit weird, just staring at Null like a creep. Especially with half of their abdomen plating removed. He quickly sat back down, tilting his head so some of his expression was hidden by his hat. He set the two pairs of pliers in his lap and took one of the damaged wires in his fingers again. He avoided the pressure sensor.
“You can’t feel anything in these, right?” He said, twisting the wire between his fingers slightly. “Because I'm gonna need to cut part of them to get them reconnected, and solder them, and use the heat gun for the covers…” Pest trailed off, glancing up at Null and then looking back down at the wire between his fingers.
“Damaged wiring sends negative feedback to our systems, but not the same kind as the feedback pressure sensors send.” Null responded, though that wasn’t really the answer he was looking for.
Pest glared, before adopting a veil of indifference. “Just don’t take off my fingers, alright? Kinda need those.”
“We will strive to do no harm to you, mechanic.”
Pest scoffed as he took one half of a severed wire in his fingers, stripping off the mangled plastic covering the end of it. He was an inventor, not a mechanic. The only things he ever repaired were his own creations. Pest sorted the wires as he went, thankful that whoever or whatever built helperbots had the decency to color-code their wiring. He was in no mood to play connection roulette and possibly get electrocuted. It would also suck if he made more work for himself by frying the robot’s systems.
Pest trimmed the damaged ends and braided the wiring together, before getting up and waving Null over to his work table in the middle of the room. He should really get a wireless soldering iron, but hadn’t been able to find one to steal yet. He watched Null out of the corner of his eye while looking for a piece of solder that wasn’t completely bent or melted. They were surprisingly quiet for a metal robot, their movements fluid and practiced. They stood straight-backed next to the table, hands held behind their back. Pest found a mostly intact rod of solder, only minorly bent from being left under a heavy gear. He quickly cleared a space on the desk with one sweep of his arm, metal parts and half-finished projects clattering together as they knocked into each other.
Null watched everything he did carefully, only breaking their focus on him to glance back at their clothes and ridiculous chicken hat every so often. Pest pushed them to sit on the table with one hand, watching their eyes snap down to where his hand was resting on their chest.
“Sit still. I’m not scraping solder off of you if it drips.” Pest said, before realizing it was a bit of a redundant statement. The helperbot was already pretty good at staying perfectly still, like a weird metal statue.
Null sat rigidly on the table, arms pulled to their back. Pest took the soldering metal and iron in both of his hands, leaning in closely to the cavity in Null’s torso. They let the metal bead on the iron, before touching it to the coppery bundles of wiring. The liquid metal flowed into the spaces between the braided wire, leaving behind the scent of singed metal. It was usually a comforting smell, but any soothing familiarity was chased away by Null’s foreign presence.
This is such a simple repair. Pest thought, annoyance rising. Such a big deal over a few severed wires. Pest felt a bit put off that he had been relegated to do something so basic, especially for the enemy. He still didn’t even understand the purpose behind saving Null in the first place.
“So, what are you going to do now?” Pest found himself asking, without really knowing why. He turned off the soldering iron, setting it to the side and grabbing a roll of electrical tape. At this point, he didn’t care about proper repair practices. He just wanted the robot gone. Null usually responded to questions instantly, but their silence stretched for far too long.
Pest glanced up to Null’s face, searching for some show of expression he thought he would not find.
Maybe he was giving the robot too much credit, but he could almost see a ghost of fear flicker across Null’s face. A slight narrowing of the glowing rings of light that were their eyes, a momentary tensing of their frame.
They turned their head away from him, staring at the ground. Pest’s eyes wandered to the brand on their neck. It was something he’d seen before, just barely visible above the collar of their hat. He’d never paid much attention to it.
It was the Axolotl Sun symbol, a mark the cultists had stolen and bastardized from the Elevator. It looked like it had been very carefully etched into Null’s plating with a laser, the paint around it darkened and deep grooves carved in the metal. A permanent mark, meant to connect them to their beliefs forever. So everyone would know who they belonged to.
An ugly feeling of sympathy sat heavily in Pest’s chest, where he knew his own scars laid. He looked away from the helperbot, clearing his throat quietly. “I’m. .” Sorry. I’m sure you have your own horror stories. I know you’re lost, and alone. I know, because I was too.
Pest bit back his bleeding-heart response. This thing probably was treated amazingly within its little cult, revered and respected. The only suffering they experienced was the suffering they inflicted on others. Anger quickly burned away sympathy he had left, though the weight on his chest didn’t ease.
“Nevermind. I don’t really care what you do, as long as you leave me and my friends alone.” He said finally. He measured out small pieces of electrical tape, ripping them off the roll with his teeth before wrapping each of the wires. He threw the roll aside, before sitting back in his work chair. It rolled back a few feet with a quiet clicking as the wheels caught on the uneven floor of the cave. Pest crossed his legs, looking at the helperbot with an indifferent expression. Null stared back at him, unblinking and unfeeling.
Well, maybe not unfeeling. They had flinched under his touch, shown a decent amount of hesitance towards him, some attachment to their things, and one small instance of fear Pest was pretty sure he hadn’t completely conjured from thin air.
Robots can’t feel anything, his logic reminded. They’re far from a normal robot, his common sense countered. Pest couldn’t argue with either side, leaving him in a bit of a pickle. He looked away from the helperbot, letting himself sink momentarily into an assessment of the situation.
Pest went through their entire interaction, picking it apart like it could give him more answers. The doctor had stepped her way carefully over rubble, her golden-yellow fur stained with dust and blood. She had been completely carrying the helperbot like a doll, carefully supporting them in one arm before she had handed them off to him. Null had collapsed in his arms as a dead weight, forcing him to support their entire body. They had been unresponsive in Retro’s arms, but their grip tightened onto him when he started shouting in defiance of DrRetro’s entirely unreasonable request. Pest had no idea how he didn’t realize how tightly the robot was holding onto him, their cold face pressed against the thinner skin of his neck. Pest shivered involuntarily, pressing the palm of his hand to the side of his neck.
His memory drifted to a cold winter’s day with Partynoob, and how he had griped at them about not wearing any snow gear, and his smug “I told you so” when they inevitably moaned about being freezing before they forced themselves under his arm to huddle against his thick winter coat. He had complained about them being a little warmth-stealing parasite, determined to make him cold too, but he had slid one arm out of the jacket so he could wrap it around them, making sure they could be properly insulated. Partynoob had teased him endlessly about the low, chittering purr he had made when they were finally safe from the cold and wind.
He thought about putting Null in a jacket, to maybe force some warmth and life into the cold metal shell, but quickly dismissed it. Without any internal heating mechanisms, all it would do was insulate the cold and make them even colder. Why on earth would he even care about Null being cold in the first place? They were a robot, for god’s sake. Robots are usually cold.
Pest shook himself out of his thoughts as Null spoke.
“Are your repairs of this unit finished?”
Pest shrugged, then nodded. He returned to his vigilant watch of Null as they slid off his work table. One of their hands hovered over the missing portion of their plating, defending it from a non-existent threat. Null turned away from him, exposing the smooth slope of their back; it was made of carefully layered plating that slid into and under itself as they moved. Their upper back was a continuation of the shiny yellow of their front, cutting off into smooth silver plating that tapered slightly into their waist. Their spine was outlined as a raised, segmented strip of metal that traced all the way up to the base of their skull, where it joined the column of their neck. Each portion of their shell must have been meticulously machined to never catch or wear, so they could replicate the motions of a human. Pest slid the claws of one hand down the plastic armrest of his chair, imagining it was their plating.
Pest was once again smothered by equal amounts of annoyance and admiration. He pushed those feelings to the bottom of his chest, before it could bloom into burning, aching hunger. God, how absolutely insufferable.
The helperbot picked up their detached plating from the small table, clicking the pieces back in place. They pulled their thin undershirt over their head, zipped up their jacket and shoved their chicken hat back on. Null dithered with their clothes for a moment more, adjusting their hood and the cuffs of their jacket before they turned their head to look at Pest again. With the shadow over their face, their stare was much more intimidating. He wasn’t really phased by it anymore, though. They continued to stare at him for another moment, before glancing away from Pest. One of their hands flexed idly at their side.
“We do not know.” Null said. Pest blinked in confusion. “Your statement before. You questioned if we had a directive.” Null paused. One of their hands came up to their chest, hovering over it before dropping again. “We do not know what our Prime Directive is now.”
Pest shifted awkwardly. He seriously didn’t want to deal with Null’s existential crisis right now. The helperbot had properly overstayed their welcome at this point, and he wasn’t one for strained hospitality.
“Well, you can start by getting the hell out of my den, for one.” Pest said, promptly standing and walking towards the robot. They stepped back away from him, eyes darting between his hands and his face. He stopped a foot in front of them, glaring back with as much intimidation as he could muster through his fatigue. The helperbot eventually conceded their staring match, turning to move towards the exit tunnel. Pest lagged just behind them, making sure he had the tactical advantage of not having his back exposed. It didn’t seem to escape Null’s notice, with how they periodically glanced back at him every few seconds. They walked through the dimly lit passage in silence, Pest keeping his eye on Null. He didn’t trust them at all, especially not that they had no reason not to attack him.
The two finally came up to the door back into the subway system, which Pest had left slightly open accidentally. He kicked himself internally. He had been so good about always locking the door behind him, and he had just left this huge security issue here without even realizing. Pest grumbled as he stepped forward, holding the door open for the robot. Their gaze met his as they passed him, both of them staring at each other. Pest pulled the door shut behind him, fumbling with the key a bit as he tried to juggle keeping a constant watch on Null and locking the door behind him. Null just watched him.
Pest shoved his keys back in his pocket once he checked that the door was definitely and totally locked, before he addressed the robot.
“I’m walking you back to the elevator. I won’t have you skulking around outside my door, waiting to attack me as soon as I have to go out to get groceries. And if I ever see you lingering around in the station I’m pushing you onto the tracks and using your body for parts.” He hissed, jabbing one finger towards Null’s chest for emphasis.
“We doubt you would waste your efforts by immediately destroying us. You could have easily decommissioned us once we were vulnerable to attack.”
Pest went quiet. Damn that observant robot. He glanced away with a quiet ‘tch’ before shoving past Null to walk towards the subway’s loading platform.
“Well, I hope you’ll have the decency to return the favor. It would be really annoying to survive all this just to die once it's all over.”
“Once again, beetle. We will strive to do no harm to you.”
Pest scoffed, rolling his eyes.
The walk to the station was short. Pest’s burrow was hidden behind one of the fake emergency exit doors in the seemingly endless tunnel, which was accessible via the maintenance door on the platform. It had all of the bones of a real subway, even though the emergency exits led nowhere and the lights in the tunnel never turned on. The two cars that sometimes came through never held anyone, and Pest had never dared step foot on it. Who knows where that thing went.
The sharp artificial lighting of the station came into view, bleeding neon into the dark expanse of the tunnel. It reflected off the tracks at the bottom, a dull silver gleam Pest loved. He pushed open the door separating the tunnel’s walkway from the station, holding it open for Null to go through.
“Birdbrains first.” He said, with a grin and a mocking tilt of his head. Null stopped halfway through the door, glancing back at Pest.
“Our processing systems are much more advanced than that of an avian. Your quip has no basis and therefore no comedic effect.” They responded, nodding as if they had given him some sort of great knowledge. Pest rolled his eyes as Null turned away again. Jerk.
The elevator’s doors were open. They always seemed to be open when someone needed them to be. Pest leaned on the wall beside the elevator door, watching Null glance around the subway station. The cyan lights reflected off of their face, contrasting with the yellow of their plating. They finally looked back at Pest, staring at him like they always did.
Pest tilted his head towards the elevator. “I’ll push you in there if I have to.” He said, meaning it with every fibre of his being. He was so tired. It had been the longest day ever, and Pest wanted nothing more than to crawl home and bury himself in a nest of blankets and sleep for three days.
Null walked past him into the elevator. Pest waited for the doors to start closing before leaving. Maybe he could even scrounge up an apple danish from one of his stashes of pastries-
A hand grabbed the back of Pest’s hoodie, pulling him back sharply. He jumped in shock, whipping around as his hands went up to defend himself. Null had stuck their hand through the closing door to grab him. Their hands fumbled with him as he turned, before grabbing two handfuls of the front of his hoodie and pulling him towards the helperbot. One of his hands grabbed Null’s collar, his expression a mixture of shock and anger.
The helperbot stared at him intensely. Pest watched the doors of the elevator slide back open, waiting for the obstruction in-between them to move. Pest tried to struggle away from Null, but they had a vice grip on his clothes.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Null questioned him. Their voice crackled with static. “You asked us if we knew. We do not. Surely you must know, then? Please.” Null’s head dropped, casting their face into a deeper shadow. Pest sputtered.
“I- What!? Seriously!? I don’t- I don’t know why you’re so desperate for my answer to this. For god’s sake, I barely have my own life figured out-” Pest laughed darkly. What a huge joke. Out of all the people they could have asked, they were asking possibly the one worst equipped to answer.
Null jerked him closer, their face coming up to meet him again. They were horribly close to him. Pest’s breathing hitched as he strained against the proximity.
“Our entire existence devoted to someone who is no longer here to direct us. We have nothing. You had nothing once. Now you have so much. So much more than we have ever had. How did you do it?”
Silence stretched in the space between the two of them, before Pest finally managed to respond.
“I just.. I forced myself to keep living. I looked for the little things to fill the time. I found people who wanted to help me.” Pest grasped at straws, too much honestly in everything he was saying. “I don’t really know how I did it. I’m still figuring it out.”
Null’s grip on Pest loosened, before letting go of him. Their hands continued to hover over his chest, curling into fists before dropping down to their sides. Pest let go of their collar, quickly backing up away from them. His heart was racing, drumming an incessant beat in his ears.
Null didn’t say anything. Pest kept their stares unbroken, until the elevator doors slid shut. Pest was left staring at his own confused face in the silver metal, backlit by cyan light. There was a slight blush on his cheeks, which made him look pointedly away from the door as soon as he noticed.
That robot was making him delirious. He was going to extend his hibernation break from three days to seven. Pest dragged a hand down his face, growling.