Chapter Text
9S’ eyes would slowly flutter open.
As soon as he had, his gaze would have locked onto a familiar long, white gothic glove which became black at the palm. 2B. He would lift his head up, and see 2B’s short, white hair and black headband— all in relatively good condition, too.
W-what… Why am I here? Wasn’t I in the tower, and…
Pushing himself up with his right arm, 9S would take heavy breaths— in, out, in, out. Briskly, his left hand would later reach for his abdomen instinctively, as his fingers glided all around looking for any signs of injury, and realized he hadn’t even a hole in his black coat. ”Just what had happened?” was the thought that would rush into his brain. 9S would look again at the sleeping 2B, and—
“Hey, 2B,” 9S would softly call out in a whisper-esque manner, “Are you there? Can you hear me?”
Soon thereafter, 2B’s head would tilt upwards, as she would push herself up. In mere seconds, 9S would rush to her, arms around her shoulders as 2B would attempt to process the situation, as—
“Nines?” She called out, her voice somewhat shaken, in direct contrast to her usual demeanor. “I— you…”
“Ever since I saw you on that bridge, 2B,” 9S would suddenly outburst, breathing raggedly, “I thought I wouldn’t see you again! I don’t know how this happened, but—“
2B would grab 9S by the throat, pressing her thumbs deep into his trachea, disabling him from breathing. 9S would instinctively grasp for his throat, but as 2B continued, 9S would eventually continue squirming less. 9S would take sporadic, small breaths which would fail to facilitate enough oxygen. 2B’s red eyes glared deep into 9S’ own, as her visor fell from her face and revealed… Revealed a face tormented with pain. As he became too tired to move his arms, he—
____________
A2 would jolt up out of sleep, much to the surprise of Pod 042a, who was watching over her. She swiftly would push herself up off the concrete floor, and grabbed the hilt of her Virtuous Contract and promptly left the decrepit building.
“Proposal: You should state the occurrences in your sleep” Pod 042a posed unexpectedly, which caused A2 to skip a heartbeat. “It appeared unit A2 had an unsettling dream, as you turned around a considerable amount last night, not to mention your abrupt—“
“Why are you still following me?” A2 interjects, abruptly so. “It’s been, like three days—“
“Two days.” Pod 042a would interpose, as a disgruntled A2 would scoff.
“Isn’t 2B around? Why don’t you hassle her instead of me?”
“Negative: I had been tasked by 2B to provide assisting fire support for unit A2.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” A2 would retort, her blue eyes furrowed while looking at Pod 042a.
“I am seriously concerned with unit A2’s mental capacity.”
A2 would grunt, staring at the disappointed Pod, and returned her gaze forward as she began to walk in the general direction of Anemone's Resistance Camp. With all that fallen debris from the remnants of the “Tower”, navigating through the city had become a hassle; even for an android like A2, which she would constantly complain about. Having to circumnavigate entire blocks would never be an easy task. Even more unfortunately, most machines had entered some sort of passive state, not even deciding to attack— or come close— to androids. A2 subsequently became distraught.
“It has been thirty seconds,” Pod 042a abruptly said, “Unit A2 should state the occurrences in her sleep.”
“Do not do this again,” A2 exclaimed, accentuating her words in her iconic “passive”-aggressive tone, “Or I will make sure you shut up.”
“For clarity and other beneficial purposes, it is recommended that Unit A2 communicate her feeli—“
“Why do you even care? What does it matter?” A2 interrupts Pod, now stopping, turning her body to face 042a, and stared intently at it.
“Lack of sleep leads to hindrance of fine motor skills, cognition, and could be sourced to stress, anxiety, or—“
“It doesn’t matter,” A2 interrupts again.
“Seeing as this conversation will only prove as a waste of time, I will refrain from mentioning unit A2’s obviously disrupted and disturbed sleep.” Pod 042a disappointedly states, it’s chagrin evident even without a possible tone of voice.
“Finally, you’ve learned to shut up!” A2 exclaims, stoutly, swiftly turning her head 90 degrees counter-clockwise, and continuing jumping over debris.
In the distance, the shallow pond would become visible— the rudimentary barricades failing to serve actual purpose still scattered near the entrance to the camp. However, the resistance camp would have been lucky enough to not experience being showered with debris, making their camp a FOB for the removal of all the debris now that the threat of machines was eliminated. When A2 and Pod 042a would arrive at the resistance camp, they would see much fewer Androids than there had been before— when A2 took the identity of 2B. Where Anemone would usually stand, the pair would recognize two other people. Clad in black, distinguishable short white hair, and an overly gothic funeral-esque outfit… Hah, the two stick out like a sore thumb… Well, two sore thumbs, but that isn’t the turn of phrase.. is it? As A2’s thoughts were trailing off, 2B would notice the publicly indecent YoRHa model standing by the entrance.
“Well, hello A2,” 2B would make a hand-greeting gesture as she calmly walked over to A2, as 9S followed suit, “9S and I were lending a hand with some logistical issues at the resistance camp.”
“They... said that,” 9S swallows, trying to add on, avoiding direct eye contact with A2, staring at the unpaved dirt floor instead. He knew how to formulate his words normally, but with everything that had happened, talking to A2 would prove difficult. He steels himself and spits out what had been bothering him, “Well, Pascal’s village got destroyed. Some scouts said that the village got attacked, but they don’t know how—“
“Machine cannibals,” A2 would add on, interrupting 9S, “I was there. Villagers turned on eachother, but some of them got away. But they..” A2 would breathe in, “They killed themselves in that Abandoned Factory. The only one who survived the onslaught was Pascal, and his memories are all gone now.”
9S would look up at A2, with his facial expression soured (even with a “blindfold” on, he was very animated and expressive) and shock panging. 2B tried to keep her demeanor up, but even then was having issues dealing with the new information at hand. Both 9S and 2B knew that, hell; even A2 knew how hard Pascal was working to keep his functioning society. From negotiating with Androids who had a war waging on with the machines for millennia, getting ambushed by cultists, or being cautious of a militaristic Forest Kingdom— on their village’s doorstep.
“Anyways, do you two need any sort of help?” A2 would ask, looking at the two somewhat distraught YoRHa Androids.
“Well, we’ve been asked to help retrieve some ‘simple gadgets’ to repair a couple broken devices. They didn’t specify, but they did mark the general area we could scrounge on our map.” 9S responded.
“Lead the way.”
Where the annotation was marked wasn’t far out, but was in the center of the City Ruins; specifically, the crater where the entrance to the tower was. With all the rubble, most of the machines there were crushed to death. Of course, the Androids were free to scavenge through the area, which made it subject to becoming a temporary Android camp.
“Oh, hey.. there… Wait, you guys never told me you had another twin!” Jackass exclaimed, eyes darting at 2B, then A2, then back to 2B, then 9S.
“They are YoRHa androids; 2B and A2 have the same chassis.” Pod 042b would interject, which only earned Jackass’ face of disapproval.
“Well, what brings you three here ?”
“We’ve been asked to retrieve some gadgets to repair some broken fuel filters and a jukebox.” 9S averred, his eyes glancing at the white canopy tents littering the already debris-filled crater. In the distance, he spotted some Androids moving wreckage from the crater, heaving them into sleds pulled by pacified moose.
“Alright, there should be a whole bunch of gadgets. Just take them all, most gadgets fulfill the same role anyways.” Jackass responded to a disregarding 9S, and pointed at the largest tent in the middle of the crater.
Where the largest tent was, the area was cleared out of the rubble mostly (save for a couple where Devola and Popola were “ceremoniously” buried). Underneath the shade were two androids resting from the sweltering heat after doing backbreaking work, lounging on foldable metal chairs probably stolen from the resistance camp.
“9S?” 2B would call out, looking at the YoRHa model who was standing in place, who looked as if in deep contemplation with his finger on his chin.
“Right, I’m coming.”
____________
”So, you folk come here to look for supplies, eh?” A masculine androids calls out, under the shade of a canopy. They looked grizzled, and exhausted.
”We’re just here upon Anemone’s request. We should be able to find everything we need on our own, so you don’t have to bother providing assistance.” 9S replies.
”Alright, then.”
The three YoRHa androids spend the next fourty-five minutes, looking for the requested parts in an incredibly large (and unorganized) chest. Once they had finally gotten what they had came looking for, 9S collapsed on the floor. Not from mere exhaustion alone, no! Things are never simple enough.
“9S! Are you alright?” 2B shouts, darting to a collapsed 9S. His hands both on his right knee, but not out of pain. Instead, he knocked on his knee once and heard a dissatisfying thump.
”Ah, crap. Looks like my fuel filter broke, I can’t move my right leg.”
”Indeed,” Pod 153 adds, “It appears an increased amount of dirt had entered unit 9S’ filter, causing it to break. Perhaps you should consider replacing it.. immediately.”
”We only have the parts to make a fuel filter here,” The masculine android still sitting on the plastic foldable chair adds, “It’d be better if one of you carried that ol’ boy to Anemone’s camp. Maybe then, someone’ll repair him with the parts you gathered. None of us here have skill in that sorta thing.”
”9S— get on my back!” 2B proudly exclaims, with a somewhat stubborn look.
”I.. alright,” 9S says, pushing himself up using his non-faulty left leg and arms. His face does become a bit flustered, noticeable to A2, “what happened to not exhibiting emotions?”
”Did you say something, 9S?”
”N-no, nothing… Nevermind.”
Just as 2B heaved 9S’ arms over her shoulders, A2 spotted someone in a white dress. No, two maybe. Of course, she didn’t publicly acknowledge or exclaim anything— A2 herself wasn’t like 9S and didn’t announce every detail: but wasn’t as inquisitive as 2B when it came to constantly running around for no reason.