Fipp: Not much to say to this one, just something I wanted to jot down.
In Remembrance
The elevator shuddered to a stop, and 2B stepped through the door as it opened up before her, bathing her in the soft light of the cavern's field of flowers, Lunar Tears, a rare and delicate flower, or so she's told. She was never sure what it was about them, but there was something about these ethereally beautiful flowers that called out to her, attracted her to them and filled her with such a strong sense of calm and serenity that she was never able to explain. In other life time not so long ago, she had planned to bring 9S down here when the inevitable order came through.
He would have appreciated this being his resting place.
Now, however? She can bring him here with the reason of of spending time with him, and she'll do that the next time she came down here, but right now she's alone. It was on a whim that she decided to come here, after making a small delivery to to the Resistance station in the Forest Kingdom, 9S and A2 each up to their own tasks at the current moment, and as she passed through the mall, she realized that she had not been down here since the first time with Emil. A small smile appeared on her face as she knelt down in the middle of the field, gently cupping one of the frail flowers in the palm of her hand, her thumb stroking the soft petals.
Something caught her, eye, something that had not been here the last time.
It was a wooden stake, sticking out of the middle of the cavern, and tied around the top of it was a long strip of black cloth.
"What is this?" she asked as she stepped up to it. Her hand reached out to the fabric, and through the touch she could feel the familiar texture of the cloth. "A YoRHa visor?"
"Correction: The visor in question is registered to unit 2B."
"Me?" She looked up to Pod 042 as it floated in the air beside her. "But I haven't worn mine for months."
042 continued. "The visor unit 2B was equipped with upon reactivation was salvaged from a deceased YoRHa unit, while the visor here was removed by you before meeting with unit A2 while infect with the logic virus."
"Oh? That's odd. But, how did it end up down here?"
"During your... absence, Pod 153 and myself observed units 9S and A2, and exchanged data on what they had done during this period. According to Pod 153, unit 9S had assisted a Resistance member in retrieving mementos from his deceased friends, and he imparted him the knowledge that humans had a tradition of honoring their dead with keepsakes. Upon finding your discarded visor outside the shopping facility, unit 9S came down here and erected this marker as a way to commemorate your memory."
"Nines did this?"
"Affirmative."
With a heavy heart, 2B got down to her knees next to the stake, taking the cloth in her hand, and clenched it in her fist.
2B wished, more than anything, that things had been different back then, that she had been there for him so he wouldn't have gone through all that alone, by himself, so that he wouldn't be forced to mourn her like this. She had mourn him enough times to know how horrible it was, even more so when you were alone and had no one to help you through it. Even now, after all this time, she's still mourning him.
"I... I think we should go now." Letting the fabric fall from her hands, 2B stood up and made her way to the exit, 042 following silently behind her.
000
Days later, the memorial she discovered hadn't left her mind, the idea of leaving something behind for the sake of the dead was strange to her, as nothing was ever left behind of 9S to honor, his corpse always retrieved, recycled and reformatted for the next one. YoRHa units were never allowed such things, since they could always just be given new bodies, no matter how many times they died, so death was not something most feared. But they were gone now, nearly all of them, and what had they gotten in the end?
"I think we should have some kind of memorial for YoRHa," she said a week after discovering her own grave.
"2B?" 9S looked up from the screen in front of him, an uncertain look on his face. "A memorial?"
"It's just... I saw what you left behind. In the Lunar Tear field."
"Oh... 2B, I just..."
"No. It's fine... But, thank you, Nines."
"Yeah... But what does this have to do with YoRHa?"
"You took the time to remember me, I just think that we should do something for them."
"Why would we do that?" There's a dark look in his eyes. She knew how he felt about YoRHa, now after everything that happened, and a part of her doesn't blame him, since maybe if things had been different she would have felt the same as him.
"Nines, just please. They need this." Her hand is placed atop his own, and that dark look faded away, mostly.
"Fine. I'll help with whatever I can."
"Thank you." Reaching over to him, she wrapped her arms around him and held him tight, and he returned the gesture.
000
In the week that followed, she and 9S had planned and made arrangements with how to proceed with this, and they discovered that something like this was not an easy task. They had decided that the memorial itself would be the flight unit that 2B had crashed down in the flooded city in, as it was the last, mostly intact piece of YoRHa equipment there was. After that they had talked about what to do with it, it was with Anemone's help that they were able to move to a section of the city that the Resistance had cleared out as part of their overall restoration goals.
"If this is important to you, I'll do what I can to help. It just makes me wish I had done something like this," she had said to them.
Of course, not everyone in the Resistance had been happy to help this idea, many of them having been angry with YoRHa for its lies about humanity, for giving them false hope, some distrustful of the few survivors because they now knew the black box held its origins in machine technology. Some of them were very against the idea of giving anything to remember them, but Anemone was able to keep them silent on the matter, which is something that 2B was grateful for. This was something she felt they needed, what the other survivors needed.
After that, they sent word out to said survivors, the remaining YoRHa androids who still lived, telling them what they were doing, when they were holding the service, and to bring something to honor the ones they lost.
They all replied that they would be there.
000
It was her idea to have this, so it was only fitting that she be the one to stand here.
The crowd before her mostly consisted of Resistance members, each of who wished to say goodbye to someone they knew from YoRHa, some of the members that had been stationed in the area over the years, and she's glad for that. The more androids who were missed the better, because that meant their lives meant something to someone.
Then there were the surviving YoRHa androids, and a pit filled her gut as she took in how few there were left; herself, 9S, A2, 4S, 42B, 65B, and 31B. Seven YoRHa left. Hundreds of members across the world, and all that was left were these seven androids. It's hard to believe that they were all that was left, each one surviving through improbable circumstances, while the rest of their friends and comrades had been killed by the logic virus, The Bunker exploding, or the resulting chaos on Earth itself.
"We are here today to remember YoRHa," she said before the group. "YoRHa was founded with the goal of defeating the machine lifeforms and returning humanity from their cradle on the moon, but we now know that wasn't true. In truth, YoRHa was created in order to spread the lie that humans had survived, and that they were their guardians, as a mean to give androids hope for a better future, and what was willing to be done to safeguard that secret. The logic virus that hit The Bunker was allowed in through a backdoor in the servers, a backdoor which opened as the start of a system to eliminate all YoRHa units, as a means to further protect its secrets.
"I know that there are androids who are angry with YoRHa for their lies, for giving them false hope, but we're not here today for YoRHa as a military organization, instead we're here to mourn the hundreds of androids that comprised YoRHa. The androids who were manufactured, fought, and died for a cause they believed to be true, because they all thought they were fighting for a better future for all androids. We have that future now, there is no more war, and we are all working together to rebuild the world into something better, but those who died were never able to see this, their hopes and dreams dead.
"These are the androids we honor right now."
She stepped aside, leaving behind the memorial, her old flight unit. It was too broken to fly, and the replacement part too difficult and expensive to make from scratch, and the message she left to 9S wiped from its systems and copied to his own hard drive. At first, no one in the crowd moved, and she was worried that this would go wrong, that they would simply walk away and leave them behind, and she didn't know if she could handle that, but they stayed. Then after they stayed, one-on-one they began to move to the memorial, each one placing down a memento in front of it, ranging from books and flowers, to odd little devices and other such things. She didn't know what the stories behind these items were, but she did know that there were memories attached to them relating to someone from YoRHa.
Anemone stepped up, leaving behind a small bouquet of assorted flowers, each one different. She gave 2B a single nod and a solemn expression on her face before she rejoined her men.
She was most surprised to see Jackass step up, putting down an empty flask down in front of the flight unit. Her usual manic eccentricities were absent as she remained silent, and after she stood back up, she quickly left the service all together.
When the Resistance finished up, the remaining YoRHa stepped up, each with their own little tributes.
42B and 65B left behind a pocket full of sand and an e-drug respectively. An odd choice, but she didn't question it as 42B gave the YoRHa salute, while 65B stood slumped to her side.
31B left behind a beetle fish skull. As she stood up her shoulders began to tremble as she suppressed a sob and quickly moved away.
4S stood in front of the memorial, silently staring at it before he gently placed a single book down.
Even A2, who had been very vocal against this whole thing, made her own tribute, ripping off the little remains of her old YoRHa dress from her torso, and after folding neatly she carefully put it down on the ground.. She then raised her hand and placed it against the hull of the transport and bowed her head in silence.
When 9S grabbed her hand, holding it tightly in his own, they both walked up to the memorial and put forth their own items; 9S offered a broken toy, and beside it 2B laid a desert rose. As they stood there, taking it what they were doing, 2B did something she never thought she would do.
She prayed. She prayed for someone who for once deserved it.
She prayed for 6O, who only wanted to see the wonders that Earth had to offer, and to be find someone to love and much as she wanted to be loved.
She prayed for 21O, who was so lonely and craved a family to call her own, only for that family to be taken away from her, time and time again.
She prayed for the other Type-Es, and the androids they killed, who suffered the same pain she and 9S did, but were never able to escape their own cycles of death.
She prayed for A2's squad, for No. 4, No. 16, and No. 21, because even though they died before she was even a concept, she knew what their absence had done to A2.
She prayed for the Commander, because even though she no longer knew what to think about her, she still deserved this.
She prayed for 9S, for the forty-eight previous iterations of him that she had known, that she had erased from this world forever.
She prayed for them all, and all the hopes and dreams that left unsaid, unrealized.
"You okay?" 9S asked, giving a tight and comforting squeeze with his hand.
"Yeah..." she said, her voice strained, and she could feel the tears already welling in her eyes.
"I... I think you did good here, 2B. Everyone, they would have liked this." There's an undeniable hitch in his voice as she tried to keep himself in check.
She didn't respond to him, all she did was turn to him and bury her head into his shoulder and silently cry.
2B knew what it is like to mourn, but no matter how much she mourned she was never allowed to recover. Maybe now that they have the option to move on with their lives, that they can finally start to heal.
000
Please be well,
Mrfipp