Work Text:
Cyber-6 falls asleep to the harsh tune of fire and force and her head hitting the ground.
She wakes to a forest canopy.
There’s a ringing in her ears and the world is still fuzzy. As she stares up, half lidded and unblinking, the foliage shifts an inch. Another.
Slowly, the ringing fades. She can hear the dirt scraping beneath her. More importantly, she can feel it.
“Stop.” She groans. “Stop, stop.”
Mercifully, whoever it is stops. A pressure she hadn’t noticed tugging on her shoulders falls away.
Data-7’s face fills her view.
“Data.” She breaths.
Her brother chuffs, nuzzling her face.
She finds the strength somewhere to lift a hand up and run it over his head.
“Hey buddy, I’m alright.”
He growls back at her, flopping stubbornly against her side.
“I hear you.” She squeezes his paw once. “I hear you.”
She looks back overhead. Some of the stars wink at her through the treetops. They’re far enough away that she isn’t worried about the fire, but they need to get out of this forest sooner rather than later.
Cyber-6 swallows.
Or- Do they?
No more Substance, no more Von Richter. No point in little old Cyber-6. What does it matter if she dies here or if she dies a couple weeks from now, starving and in pain?
Data-7 rumbles softly beside her.
She takes a shaky breath in and out.
Data needs her. Julian needs her and maybe even Lori and especially-
Lucas. If nothing else, she needs to apologize to Lucas.
Arms shaking, Cyber-6 pushes herself off the ground. She stumbles and nearly falls again- probably would’ve face planted if not for Data-7.
She braces herself against him and makes it back to her feet.
“Ok.” She breathes. “One step at a time.”
-
It’s dawn when they make it too the beach. The sun is just cresting the horizon, hesitant to shine on a ruined Meridiana.
It’s true, there’s a fire raging up on the clifftop. Helicopters wheel about, trying to subdue it. The path the island bomb took is clear against the city, a stark line of destruction nearly splitting it in half.
But Meridiana is there. People are alive and the city is still standing and every window sparkles in the newly gifted day, winking like a million diamonds.
Cyber-6 tilts her head back and laughs, relief burning through her veins, lighting her up like the rising sun. She laughs until she cries, and cries until every drop of water is wrung out of her. It’s a good kind of empty, like an open hand.
She scrubs the last of the tears from her face and smiles down at Data-7.
“I don’t know about you, but I could use a nap.”
Data-7 meows back, butting his face against her thigh.
“C’mon,” she pats his head, “let’s find somewhere to settle down.”
-
It’s night again when she wakes up. The moonlight barely reaches them in the back of the cave they’re squirreled away in.
Data-7 chirps beneath her.
“I’m up. Thanks for taking watch, buddy.”
Everything aches as she pushes herself to her feet. Good to know that even Cybers can’t just walk off an explosion. Still, she can walk to the water under her own power.
Her stomach rumbles, reminding her that it’s been at least 24 hours since she last ate.
Nothing for it.
She turns to Data-7. “Feel like rustling up some breakfast?”
He huffs at her, flicking his tail as he stalks towards the forest.
“Is that a yes or a no?” She calls, stiffly ambling after him.
-
It takes another day of walking to get back to civilization.
Cyber-6 ends up ditching her cape and hat as soon as they exit the tree line. No sense drawing even more attention to herself.
She gives herself a relatively leisurely pace, reasoning that she just got blown up, she’s still starving despite their crimes against the local wildlife, and- well- it’s not like anyone’s dying.
In fact, she did a very good job not dying. A+ for her.
They hit city limits just after sunset.
Data-7 jumps to the top of a building, mewling down at her, coaxing her up.
“I don’t think I’m making that right now, Data.” She pushes open the door. “Let’s find a staircase.”
The smaller jumps between buildings she can do. Not for the first time, she’s grateful that Meridiana is built the way it is. Still, by the time they reach her apartment, she’s dead on her feet.
She all but collapses into her bed. It dips as Data-7 climbs up next to her. He ends up pushing her against the wall, but she doesn’t fight him. For one thing, she physically can’t, and for another, she isn’t about to deny either of them the comfort.
“Night, Data.” She grunts.
She’s out before he responds.
-
A rumbling intrudes on her dreaming, pulling her into consciousness.
That’s… not the sound her alarm clock makes.
She blinks her way back to fuzzy awareness, only to find a wall of black covering her vision.
The two alien facts fight in her mind before she places the wall as Data-7 and the sound as his bone shaking growl.
“What is it, Data?” She hisses.
“Cyber-6!”
She throws herself into a sitting position.
There, on the other side of Data-7, hands out in supplication, hair a familiar mess, is Lucas.
Cyber-6 can feel something giddy as a laugh bubbling up inside her, leaving her breathless and speechless. She smiles at him, helplessly, hopelessly.
“Lucas.”
He practically melts in relief, lunging toward the bed. Data-7 growls louder until Cyber-6 swats him.
“Data-7! You know him!”
Data-7 whines at her for a moment before cutting Lucas a glare and, finally, dropping his head onto his paws, sulking.
“Sorry about him. He was worried.” She smooths her hand down Data-7’s back.
“That makes two of us.” Lucas runs a hand through his hair, mirroring her seat on the other side of Data-7. “I mean, you kiss me, you take off, you give Lori your glasses. What even happened?”
“I wanted to say goodbye.”
Lucas reels back. “You- you-” He takes a shaky breath. “Goodbye?”
“Just in case.”
He stares at her for a moment. She opens her mouth- and he bursts into tears.
Cyber-6 watches in shock as he sobs, openly for a moment before dropping his face into his hands.
“Lucas.” She breaths.
She reaches out and tugs at his hands.
He collapses into her shoulder, heedless of Data-7. She wraps him up in her arms, tucking her face into his neck.
“I’m sorry.” She breaths. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
His tears dry up eventually. He pulls back just enough to see the whole of her face.
“I’m really glad you’re alive.”
She thought she cried all her tears on that beach, but she can feel them welling up again now.
There’s so much to do. She needs another nap and she needs a proper meal.
They’ll need to talk; she’s sure he has questions.
She needs to check on Julian and Lori. But for now, for now she leans in, pressing a kiss against his cheek.
“Me too.” She breaths.