SIVA [Uzi X N]

A/N: We've made it to 9K views, let's goooo, thank you so much!!! Maybe we'll reach 10K before the series is over, one can dream. Anyways, enjoy!

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[Uzi's POV]

|A.I Erasure//Imminent! [18:48:21]|

Grunting in discomfort, I shook away the reminder looming within me, feeling the wind glide through my wings as we followed Soriks, held in the air by V, towards this derelict outpost. Far as I knew, none of the other colonies kept in-touch, at least, none close to Outpost-3.

Despite Cyn's defeat, snapping the world back into place wasn't as easy as one would think, the land in places remained distorted and raised, creating new plateaus, valleys, and the like all across Copper-9, some outposts might've gotten caught up in the chaos as a result.

"Take us down, we're here!" I heard Soriks call over the wind, V beginning her descent into a forest valley, where the land that remained irregular created high walls to surround the valley basin.

Coming in for a soft landing, the road was buried under snow and shrubs, old, rusted signs of life trickled along the road toward the concrete and steel bunker ahead. Its lights were dead, the remains of a perimeter fence and towers left to decay in the cold, the human remains frozen in time.

The blast doors were down, frozen open by large pillars of ice and snow, the interior equally as barren. J took the vanguard, looking around. "It's clear, nothing's been here for a long time."

"Yeah, that's what it was like for Cabin Fever Labs, look how that turned out," V rolled her eyes, drawing a carbine in her left, and a torch in her right, the others equipping torches too, I simply raised my tail to have its maw shine a lilac light for me.

The interior was dark and cold, the air heavy with the metallic tang of rust and the faint smell of mould. Shadows loom in every corner, walls covered in flaking paint and dried smears of oil, matched only by long claw marks. Frozen puddles reflect our lights, and every footstep echoed ominously.

Inside, the corridor was slanted on its right, clearly from the distortion, making walking a little awkward. The remains of workers scattered and buried under snow, dozens of them, no sign of any Disassembly units though, good.

"Hey," Feeling a nudge on my side, I glanced to N briefly. "Think you can sorta..." He twisted his hand, gesturing to the lopsided corridor.

"Uh... I'll try?" I haven't messed with something this big since mending all of Cyn's problems. Taking a deep breath, I raised my right hand as Solver's rotation appeared, marked by SIVA in its center as nanites pooled from within my palm, giving a slight twist, I felt the grates and walls around us groan and buckle from the strain.

It was gradual, but the path began to straighten a little, only, it felt much harder to do this, normally, I'd flick my wrist and have it perfectly centered, but now? My arm felt heavier, numb to the tips of my fingers, even the nanites swarming around me were dimmer. Gritting my teeth, I managed to adjust the corridor to only be a few degrees off horizontal, dropping my control and almost panting from exhaustion. 

Feeling N's hands on my shoulders, and all eyes on me, I brushed the sweat from my screen. "I'm... alright, feels harder doing that now; another brilliant addition to my present condition." No doubt this malware was making it harder to control both programs within me. "Feels like I'm regressing in progress."

"Don't strain yourself, but, we appreciate the aid," Soriks chittered, looking down the hall on our right. "Hm, stairwell ahead, this way- J, you mentioned you knew a lot of this place, care to elaborate?" He eyed from behind his cowl whilst N helped me walk whilst I caught my breath.