[Author's Note: this is for the person playing Redgineer on the Atia RP. Dunno who you are, hope you like it.].
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The Engineer tossed and turned on his bunk. He was exhausted- he'd respawned five times today- but he couldn't stop his brain's restless whirring. He wasn't even worried about anything, just spinning his wheels, and he couldn't settle down.

He blamed this stupid war, RED, that cackling Administrator, and most of all, himself. He'd leapt at this job for the unlimited research and development funding and a chance to do all the hands-on work he could handle. And he wasn't going to say that he hadn't had some fun. But between being shot at and stabbed on the one hand, and building the same three gadgets over and over, on the other, he was stagnating. He roamed the desert outside of 2Fort, turning over rocks with a stick, trying to recapture the sense of curiosity about everything he'd felt as a boy.

As he headed back in toward the base, he saw someone standing next to the door. He couldn't quite make out who it was, in the late-afternoon glare. Too blocky to be Sniper, too tall to be Soldier, not hefty enough to be Heavy...

"Howdy, Boss," the figure threw him a lazy salute as he approached. Now the Engineer could see, it wasn't a man at all. It was a robot, red and black with gleaming chrome. "Spy check, no offence," it said politely, extending a hand. The Engineer shook it, noticing the fine metalwork, its fingers hinged like a medieval gauntlet. "Much obliged," the robot said when the Engineer didn't change shape.

"May I ask, what in tarnation are you?"

"Level nine sentry, sir, same as when you left." Overlapping metal scales beside the robot's mouth allowed it to make facial expressions- it smiled as it spoke.

"Where did you come from?" the Engineer breathed.

"You built me, boss." The robot's expression changed to a reasonable replication of concern. "And I hope I don't speak out of turn, but I think you might'a been out in the sun too long." The robot's voice didn't have the northern flatness of the Engineer's American teammates; its Texas twang was a match for the Engineer's own.

"I guess so," the Engineer nodded. "D'you mind if I have a look at you?"

"'Course not, boss, but I think you oughtta have something to drink, first." A panel in the robot's chest slid aside, and it passed him a paper cup of sweet iced tea with a perfect lemon slice floating on top. "I'm part dispenser, on my momma's side," it joked.

"Thank you, pardner," the Engineer said bemusedly. "... Any chance I can look under the hood now?"

"Of course, you built me." The Sentry smiled again.

Looking carefully at the robot, the Engineer realised with some embarrassment that it was an idealised version of himself. Taller than he was, Art Deco musculature sculpted into its metal exoskeleton, its face clearly modelled on his own. It didn't seem right to keep referring to the Sentry as 'it,' not when it... he had such a friendly expression on his face.

The Sentry was an amazing feat of engineering, though. He had guns built into his forearms, rockets in his shoulders. He was proud of his gyroscopic balance, and amused the Engineer by standing on one tiptoe like a ballerina. He was strong enough to withstand minigun fire, graceful enough to intercept a Scout. The Engineer could see how all the mechanisms worked together; it was obvious. Of course he'd built this amazing robot; he couldn't wait to start tinkering with the design.

In the midst of these happy thoughts, the Engineer felt a familiar cold prickle on the back of his neck... "Spy around here," he muttered to the Sentry.

"Where?" The Sentry whirred as it looked around, but there was nothing to see. The Engineer could just feel the cloaked backstabber sneaking around. He hefted his wrench from his toolbelt; that same gut instinct told him the Spy was coming to sap and destroy his wonderful Sentry. He lashed out with his wrench.

Whether by instinct or sheer luck, the blow connected. There was the sizzling sound of a cloak shorting out, and- "Dear Lord, no!"

Instead of legs, the Spy surged forward on a mass of writhing sapper leads. He laughed, sparks flying from his pointed, metallic teeth. His long, whiplike arms ended in heads made of knives, and he was reaching for the Sentry.

"Not on my watch!" The Engineer threw himself at the Spy, his wrench making deceptively slow, unstoppable arcs through the air. Even as he bashed at the Spy, its sapper-tentacles wove around him. They probed and yanked at him, trying to find a gap in his housing, grappling for exposed wiring. The Engineer realised that he was a robot, just like the Sentry, and that the Spy could do more than just kill him. As the Sapper Spy ripped his wrench from his hand, the Engineer wondered if being turned to scrap metal was anything like Respawn... probably not.

The monster's tendrils jammed into his mouth, into every opening, trying to access his data, to steal the very Intel that made up his inmost self. The Spy was inside him, taking everything he was.

The Engineer struggled against the Sapper Spy, feeling himself grow weaker the longer he was wrapped in the monster's tendrils. He had to fight back, though- if he died, his Sentry was a goner. He grabbed at the Spy's metal-mesh suit, and heard a loud clang.

There was another, and another, and suddenly the Spy's hold on him was loosening, sliding away. Surfacing from the welter of tentacles, the Engineer saw the Sentry. He was standing triumphant, having bludgeoned the sapper creature to death with the Engineer's own wrench.

"You saved me! Thank you," the Engineer gasped as the tentacles unfurled from around his throat.

"Nothin' you haven't done for me since I was a little level one," the Sentry toed the ground bashfully.

"Help me out, here?" The Engineer was still tangled in the dead Sapper Spy's tentacles.

The Sentry grasped the Engineer's forearm, pulled him into a solid metal embrace. Their armoured bodies fit together perfectly, an impenetrable steel shell protecting them from the world. The Engineer felt safe, secure in a way he hadn't since before his first battle.

The Sentry was gazing into the Engineer's eyes. The robot opened his mouth slightly, as if unsure what to say, and the Engineer kissed him. Much more of the Engineer's yough had been spent studying than smooching, but he considered himself adequately skilled at it. However, he had never had a kiss like this.

His tongue and the Sentry's tongue had matching connectors, smooth metal tabs that slid together when they touched. As soon as the connection was made, the Engineer knew all that the Sentry knew, felt everything the Sentry could feel- and he knew that the Sentry felt the same. They held each other tighter, the power sources in their chests humming in unison as they shared the information that the Sapper Spy had tried to take by force.

"You know everything about me," the Engineer thought, or said, or transmitted.

"Trust," the Sentry replied. "Love."

"No-one else knows the name of the street I lived on in Bee Cave, or my Momma's name, or my favourite equation," the Engineer told his Sentry.

"It's part of my core code." The Sentry pulled him closer.

The Engineer was overcome by a wash of bliss, dazzling white light, a sense of peace. Even as he was waking up, he realised that he was waking up, that it had all been a dream. There was no Level 9 Sentry, he was stationed in the frozen wasteland of Viaduct rather than the relative comfort of 2Fort, and he was alone. Pleasant dream, though, when all was said and done. He shifted, and felt a stickiness between his legs. Mighty pleasant, evidently. And that data transmission connector had been a nifty doo-dad. He was idly envious, wishing that he'd invented it.

Sitting bolt upright, the Engineer realised that he HAD invented it. It was great, completely modular, utterly foolproof, small enough to install in almost any system. Pausing only to clean himself off with a bandanna, the Engineer rushed to his drafting table to diagram the wonderful device that he had designed in his sleep.