A Salowe Vision

::: subchapter

Only Doll of all drones would be awake at 4 AM.

What would she look like if she got her beauty sleep? Lizzy wondered.

Under the covers, the blonde worker curled up. Blinked pink eyes closed, and waited to be dragged back into recharge. Nope, nothing. She curled up tighter --- the absence was letting the bed get annoyingly cool. Didn't help that the insulation of these cheap covers was a bad joke.

Lizzy opened her eyes, animated an eye roll, and reached out for her phone. Not like anyone would have posted anything since she last checked an hour ago, though. But whatever, Emily had posted a new selfie yesterday, and she could leave a comment.

Those new glasses could only look dorkier if she had braces to go with them, and that blouse? A little harsh but fair criticism would do that girl some good. (But Lizzy would have a sense of humor about it, of course --- that was just good posting.)

Yawning, flicking her screen, Lizzy keyboard-swiped out some dunks, but only half-attentively, and not because she was tired. None of these drones were worth her full attention, not really --- Lizzy was thinking about Doll.

Where was her bestie? Lizzy was really starting to get cold.

Earlier, they'd spun the bottle and played truth or dare.

Angela admitted to having a crush on Braiden. (Boring --- not like she'd had any shot there. Lizzy had that locked down. Didn't actually care for the bore, but watching jealousy cook the other girls made the acting worth it.)

Rebecca got dared to kiss someone, and she picked Kelsey. (Boring --- as if Lizzy wasn't the most kissable drone here. Or Doll.)

Kelsey chickened out after that, got all sniffly and wanted to go home. Doll had stepped out after her, tried to talk to her, but Doll came back alone.

Whatever. Brat. Clout-chaser.

Really, it just meant Lizzy got to make her move sooner. Her dare to Doll? Let Lizzy sleep in the master bedroom, on her parents' queen-sized.

With Doll.

(At that, her orange eyes had snapped to the floor, purple hair falling to block any sight of her visor, hiding her reaction. Like a sore loser, but Lizzy knew what she'd see if Doll'd let her: Lizzy had made the famously unflappable russian blush --- she'd won.)

Best sleepover ever, she thought. Even if this sty was crawling with roachbots and stunk of oil. Did Doll ever clean?

Lizzy sighed. She could keep waiting. Waiting on what, she had no idea --- there really wasn't anything a drone needed to wake up in the middle of the night to do, and this was the third time Doll had gotten up. It woke Lizzy up every time, disentangling their limbs. Lizzy would scoff and grab tighter, but Doll was silently insistent.

Once, Lizzy had blinked to full consciousness before Doll left, spoke a full sentence, instead of wordless mumbles of protest. Doll had stayed silent, but there was an intensity to her look that'd made Lizzy let go, let her go, and not repeat her question.

Whatever Doll was doing, she was serious about it. Too serious, honestly. Something had gotten into Doll, and Lizzy didn't like that. The only thing that should be getting into her is---

She rolled her eyes. Thinking about how Doll'd been acting, it was familiar. Lizzy remembered the first day of high school --- back when Doll had always sat beside the purple freak.

Lizzy'd seen the look the russian was giving the loner, that little smile, and Lizzy gagged. Doll was too good for her; so Lizzy swooped in, rescued her, took her under wing to save her from becoming another friendless nobody, obsessed with murder drones and computers and hot topic.

Cheerleading was supposed to give Doll something else to do, something to make her popular. But she'd dived into nerd stuff again anyway, despite Lizzy. Lizzy didn't even have the heart to make fun of the other girl for it --- Doll rambling about kernel patches or plotting oily vengeance was kind of cute, not obnoxious, not really.

This sleepover... at first, Lizzy thought it a sign Doll hadn't really forgotten what the popular girl had taught her, that this obsession of hers wouldn't come between them being friends or more.

But why did Doll keep getting up? Like, what was she actually doing?

Ugh. Am I brooding? Lizzy was definitely thinking too much. It wasn't that deep, was it?

So she tossed off the tattered blanket and stood, smoothing out her silky camisole. Feet clinked against flooring, and she picked her steps, in the dark --- at least the roachbots had LEDs Lizzy could watch out for.

She wanted to just crush the things. But that'd only attract more of them. Roachbots would gobble up their dead friends easily, and there was always more of them lurking out of sight. Made her shiver. Ugh.

Stepping on one would get oil on her thighhighs, anyway. This house already stunk of oil enough. (She'd swear it was getting stronger.)

Past the doorway, stepping into the living room, Lizzy flipped a lightswitch. Didn't need the light, but it would mess with Rebecca -- except Rebecca wasn't on the couch anymore, her blue blanket hanging off the cushion.

Ceiling lights flickered in the living room, and so few of them worked that it did little more than toss shadows around. But with how dim it was, as she walked in, Lizzy's eyes went to a bright L-shape on a corridor wall, shining from a half-closed door. The bathroom. Is this where Doll went off to?

Fixing her hair, maybe? Weird thing to do at 4 AM. But Doll was weird.

Whatever, Lizzy needed a doll to sleep with, so the sooner she got this over with, the better. She'd waited long enough, so she wouldn't stand around here until Doll came out.

Stepping closer, though, she heard a vocalsynth. Is she talking to herself? Is she talking to someone else? Oh, Rebecca better not---

Lizzy snatched open the door, and caught Doll in the middle of eating a roachbot.

"Eww. Maybe shut the door if you're gonna be eating bugs in here," Lizzy said. But there's no blue-haired homewrecker in the bathroom with her, so Lizzy relaxed, hands falling to her sides. "Did it taste good?"

"It tastes like necessity."

Nothing necessary about you being this extra, girl. "Yeah, cool... Sooo, not to be clingy, but when are you coming back to bed?" She leaned against the bathroom doorway, watching Doll, fluttering her eyes.

"I'm not."

Lizzy flinched. Did this glitch just... Play it cool, Lizzy. Not a diss, just Doll being Dollish. "There's a test tomorrow, you know." There wasn't, but her dad could make it happen. "Wouldn't want to be half-charged for that."

"Grades are irrelevant."

"Sure. Okay, forget the grades." Lizzy stopped and swallowed, hesitating. She looked away, saw Doll's reflection in a cracked mirror. "Fine. I am clingy. I want you to come back, babe."

No reason not to just come right out and say it. Lizzy wasn't some swooning airhead who didn't realize how she felt, or a sheep too scared to make a first move. Lizzy'd had Doll clocked as a lesbot for years, but the flirty pursuit had been good fun. But that was so last week.

Doll raised an eyebrow, but her mouth remained hidden, unexpressive. "As they say in Russia," she started, "no."

"Ouch. Did I..."

Doll frowned. "It is not you. It does not involve you." Her eyes drifted to the remaining mechanical bits in her hands, which was once a roachbot. "I have plan. Opportunity has presented itself, and my plans... can be hastened."

Lizzy took a step closer, into the bathroom, and narrowed her eyes at Doll. "I thought your plans were this sleepover."

When Doll smiled, she showed teeth. "I have many plans."

"Tell me, then." Lizzy reached out a hand, ran it along the fine locks of purple synthetic hair, then traced a circle on Doll's soft cheek, then finally came rest gently beneath her chin.

Doll, too, reached up, placed a hand on Lizzy's --- she felt her core whirr a little faster --- and Doll grabbed her hand with a gentle pressure... and pushed Lizzy's touch away, removing the hand from her face. "As they say in Russia---"

"No," Lizzy said, not to finish the joke, but denying her. "You owe me an explanation. Fine, go off and do whatever, but tell me why."

Doll hadn't let go of Lizzy's hand, and at that, she brought the other, clasping Lizzy's hand in between hers, and spoke. "Sputnik 1 was the first spacecraft to launch a human into space. It was race to fly beyond earth, and Soviets won. But with Apollo 11, the humans walked on moon, placing there an American flag."

Lizzy really hadn't signed up for one of Doll's rambles. But Doll was telling her something, at least? Lizzy just didn't understand what. "So?"

"The Soviets won, but history remembers an American victory. The moon was grander accomplishment, in the end." Doll let go of Lizzy's hand. "Doorman has left the bunker, and she is the first worker drone to survive walking within the spire of death. But if I kill the first murder drone, what will history remember?"

Lizzy laughed. With the hand Doll released, she cocked it back and lightly tapped Doll on the shoulder with her fist. "Is that all this is about? Why care about what that freak is doing? You're better than her. Let her have this. Think about what we have. Status, hotness, and like, currently being alive?"

But as she spoke, Lizzy was watching Doll's face. She'd gotten good at reading the inexpressive drone, knew the difference between the silence of Doll listening and the silence of Doll closing herself off, disregarding Lizzy's words as vapid nonsense.

Lizzy sagged. She took a step back, hurt, and said, "I wanted you to be better than Uzi. Make her feel worthless --- not play along with her. You're really going to ignore everything I tried to show you, aren't you?"

Doll smiled, in a way that hurt Lizzy more than any other expression could have. "Yes. I was hoping to. My plans for the sleepover... I was going to discard it all, move on."

So that was it, w