-9S POV-

"Default personal data installed. Initiating reboot sequence…" Pod 153 hovered over 9S's head. "Good morning, unit 9S."

The first thing I heard was the mechanical female voice of Pod 153. The Pod was greeting me face-to-face as I blinked. Confusion ensued right after that. I notice the soft bed I was in and the white ceiling behind Pod. Why am I in the bunker? "Pod, give me a report of what happened."

There was a pause to the Pod's response as if she was thinking of how to narrate the previous events. "Report: During a reconnaissance mission with unit 7B at the coast, enemy machines ambushed. Both 9S and 7B were unable to retaliate. Due to poor reception in the area, unit 9S failed to upload both units' personal data. 24 hours have passed after the unit's destruction. End report."

"…." So I basically died. It's kinda frustrating that I lost to machines but what happened, happened. Wait…7B? I was with a combat model? "Pod, why was I paired with a combat model?"

"Reason unknown."

"Huh…" I huffed my dissatisfaction to Pod's answer.

Weird. If Command wanted intel, we Scanner models should do. I cupped my chin to think of it harder. Unless it wasn't really a recon mission but that beats the reason for a Scanner model to be there. Oh well, I guess orders are orders.

As if affirming what I've thought, Pod 153 rang with a call. I hastily went for my visors to strap it over my eyes.

"21O to unit 9S."

"9S here."

"The Commander is requesting for you along with 7B."

Again, 7B. "…roger that."

"Alright, that is all. 21O out."

"Wait, operator." Should I ask why I'm with 7B? Or should I meet with the unit, herself?

Operator 21O was waiting for my continuation. "…If you're only stalling for time, I'm going to cut the call."

"Nononono, wait a second. I just want to ask why I'm paired with 7B." In haste, I asked without masking my question.

"…It's the Commander's orders." I can feel she wanted to add more detail to her statement then decided not to continue. "21O out."

'It's orders so deal with it', huh. She's clearly colder than usual but I don't hate that about her. Anyways, need to meet up with 7B. I don't have records of her so I'm slightly anxious.

The metal doors slid open as I exited my room. Pod followed suit, hovering a meter after me. If I remember right, 7B's room should be near the Hangar elevator. I ran along the hallway and got pass 6O's room, the Command room and the Transporter. I see one more room before the hangar. Is that it?

The metal floor clanged against the outsole of my boots. The noise stopped as I halted. "Oh, looks like I got it wrong," I spoke to myself. The room in front of me was labelled 2B. So I guess the other room after the Hangar is 7B's. "Okay, on to the next room."

"You must be 9S." Someone called from behind. It was a carefree, feminine voice.

I turned to see the owner of the voice. She wore an oddly different black YoRHa uniform. Her dress was a one piece with hanging skirt tendrils. Her white hair was arranged in a braided bun while having bangs in front. Her forearms where adorned with a black-white themed arm guard as her knees were protected by high-heel, knee-long boots. And with accordance to YoRHa regulations, she wore her black goggles. She was elegant if not simply beautiful. "…7B…-san?"

"Yep, 7B at your service. Also, I'd appreciate it if you dropped the honorifics. " She smiled, burning a rebellious yet obedient impression at me. 7B glanced at the metal door that I stood from. For a moment, I thought she glared at it. "…why are you in front of 2B's room?"

"Commander was requesting for us." It felt like I was making an excuse. "So I thought I'd come to pick you up in your room." I beamed a smile to make it more believable. "But I guess I got the wrong room." Not to mention you weren't in your room.

"Oh, 's that so? Then I guess we should get a move on." She walked towards where she came from. "Don't want to get nagged at by Operators, do we?" 7B playfully turned. She sure smiles a lot.

"Right," I nodded in agreement.

We strolled along the hallway towards the command room. It was steadily silent between us. "Hey, 7B. Do you have data on our past mission?" The officiousness within me started a conversation.

7B glanced behind to face me. "…past mission?"

"Well, yeah. Pod here told me we were on a mission together after we got ambushed by machines." I continued talking while tailing her. "Unfortunately, I didn't upload my personal data on time."

Her smile faded into a poker-face expression. "…I guess that goes for the two of us, then. I don't remember being on a mission with you."

My curiosity isn't being fed well today. Dejected with the thought, I huffed once more. "…Oh, I see."

"But why do you want the data?"

I raise a brow behind my visor as I heard her. "Oh, it's for curiosity's sake. We Scanner models are usually alone for recon so I was wondering why I got partnered with a battle unit."

7B studied my reply. "…your curiosity is pretty troublesome, huh."

My pulse rate rose for the moment to respond to 7B's comment. I sensed an imaginary dagger being pointed at my blind spot. "…y-yeah. I guess so." That didn't end well, did it? I could tell it didn't. We were silent as we approached the doors to the command room like we were on cold war. The metallic clangs of her heels and my boots sounded louder than before. Maybe I should stop wondering for the reasons of our pairing?

The Command room is as busy as ever. Operators can't seem to take their eyes off the screens facing them. As we got off the elevator, I could see the Commander talking to four Operators. "That's all, dismissed." The group swarming her dispersed like bees out of their hives. She noticed us coming her way as if our arrival was on schedule.

"Ah, 9S and 7B. I have a mission for you." She wasted no time to fill us in. "This will be confidential and involves a deserter of YoRHa."

The command room suddenly quieted down. "…Eh..?" Although my communication functions are working fine, I doubted what I heard. It's like being told that a human was found somewhere. "…a deserter…?"

"Yes. The deserter is 2B, YoRHa No. 2 Type B. Your mission is to find her and take her back."

That's the room name that I stopped by earlier. To think it was the room of a deserter. At the back of my head, I wondered why she deserted.

"I've heard that 9S models specialize in reconnaissance. If the deserter decides to struggle, 7B will back you up."

Now I know why I'm being paired with her. But it doesn't explain why I got paired with her before. Not like asking Command will draw an answer. They'll just consider it irrelevant.

"Mission accepted, Commander," says 7B.

The way she easily accepts the mission somehow scared me. We're going to catch a deserter you know? If we fail to do that and the deserter retaliates, things will end badly. I can't explain why, but giving an easy 'roger that' to this made my throat dry. "…i-isn't finding a YoRHa unit done by the R&D department?"

Both female androids stared at me like I said something unnecessary. Commander voiced the reason. "Although we've occasionally been picking up faint signals of her black box, we can't exactly pinpoint its location. It is speculated that she has a type of signal jammer on her hands."

So Command placed an order for ground reconnaissance. I really don't like this. It's as if we're going in blind. And the deserter is a Battle type to boot.

"2B is well-versed in combat. 7B and 9S, don't ever let your guard down when facing her." Commander warned us with momentum.

The feeling of dread and curiosity didn't mix well within me. I want to know why unit 2B deserted knowing full well that YoRHa will be her enemy other than the machine lifeforms. Yet, the feeling of danger and not wanting to be killed by a fellow YoRHa unit scares me on equal measure.

"…roger that," I finally agreed. It's not like we can choose our missions for ourselves.


Author: I don't think i'm good with this first-person writing but I tried nonetheless. I'll be shifting from first person to third person if the situation dictates. (Tell me if you want third person more. I'll gladly change it.) For 7B's details, I got it from a reddit fanart by col_commandz and I would like to credit him/her here. To those that got interested in this fanfic, thanks so much and I hope I won't be disappointing you anytime soon. Any unintended loopholes and/or OoC movements are welcome to be pointed out. :) (And yes, I know that 7B is that sleeping android in her room. There are some theories about her so I jumped into the bandwagon.)