4S scanned through a bunch of old books of the past as he checked out an old library inside the Forest Kingdom. He looked at different titles, noticed the age of each literary piece as he noticed that several books here, dates all the way back to the late 80's some even older. And overall, all this knowledge is carefully arranged inside a single room of a castle inside the forest. He looked away from the books and down the railings as he sighed at his own thoughts.

Thank god for their abilities to store data.

He looked at the shelves once more.

This is highly inefficient.

"Whoa… WHOA!" A voice from downstairs echoed as sounds of clattered books followed afterwards.

4S looked down the railings once more, only finding a pile of books on the floor. "You okay down there?"

9S' head suddenly popped out from the pile. "Yeah, I'm good!" He said before getting his body free from the pile. "Man, this place sure is great…" He smiled as he looked at even more books and skimmed through some of them.

4S floated down on his Pod towards the floor 9S was in. As he landed he immediately eyed the book pile that 9S was sitting on whilst reading one at his hand.

"That's… a lot of books." He noted.

"Yup…" Was the only response he received.

4S raised a brow as 9S kept reading. "We didn't come here to read you know…"

9S sighed as he closed the book and gazed into 4S' eyes sternly. "HOW CAN YOU CALL YOURSELF A SCANNER AND NOT BE CURIOUS OF THE KNOWLEDGE RESIDING IN THESE BOOKS?!" he shouted as he pointed to his book pile.

4S shrugged. "This library IS pretty cool but, we got some actual Scanner missions to do." He reasoned back.

9S abruptly stood, dropping his book. "You're beginning to sound like 2B…" He grumbled.

4S chuckled as he and 9S began to walk out of the room. "Tell you what, maybe after this mission, you and I could come back here and loot this place out." He proposed.

9S' eyes seemed to sparkle at the idea. "Really?"

4S shrugged. "Why not? There's plenty of unused buildings next to the Camp. We could clean one of them up and use it as a book storage. Plus, it might just help counter the boredom whenever there's no missions to do."

9S nodded happily. "Yeah, Yeah!"

"Plus, maybe you could use it to spend some quality time with the twins."

9S stopped walking. "What?"

4S looked back and grinned at 9S' immense confusion, and wait was that… embarrassment in his eyes? He tried to keep hold of his laugh, as 9S began to fume and assaulted him with questions.

"What do you mean?"

"C'mon, everyone in camp knows that you hang around D and P almost for 24/7 since we came back."

"…"

"So… should we be expecting little baby androids running amuck soon?"

"Don't begin to joke about that!" 9S' mouth began to spat with words. "You know we can't make babies, we're androids!" He ended, his cheeks burning red.

4S waved him off as he laughed. "I know, I know. I'm just messing with you."

9S huffed as they continued walking, taking out a few machines on the way.

"Alert: Units 9S and 4S has successfully extracted sufficient enemy data. Proposal: Return to the Resistance Camp and notify the life form known as 'Anemone'."

4S looked at his Pod. "Really? That was enough? We just killed a few."

"Indeed. But Unit 9S already has sufficient combat data from during the events dubbed as 'The Tower', therefore already adding to the amount of data needed to be collected."

"Huh."

4S looked at 9S. "Guess we'll be able to go loot that place faster than we thought."

"Yeah!"

"But we still have to report back first."

"Aw…"

4S grabbed his chin for a minute. "Pod, contact Anemone."

"Affirmative, opening communication link." Pod 024 said before projecting Anemone's face in a holographic screen.

"Huh? Oh, it's you two. So, how's the mission going?" She said, not looking at the screen.

"Pretty great. We're pretty much done." 4S nonchalantly said as he shrugged.

"Oh? And are you gonna return immediately?"

"Uh… about that…"

"4S!" He turned to look at 9S who smiled.

"Let me talk to her." He suggested.

4S shrugged as he stepped back, allowing 9S into Anemone's view.

"Hello 9S, you guys doing well over there?"

"We finished it already actually. But before we come back, can we bring a bunch of books over?"

"Books?"

"9S is all hearty-eyed at a library we found inside the castle. He wants to loot all the books back to camp."

"Hmm… I see…" Anemone gave it a thought. "So? How many books are we talking about here."

"Analysis: The Castle Library holds an estimated amount of over three thousand books."

Anemone's eyes bulged. "Th-three thousand…"

9S' eyes shined as he pleaded. "So, can we bring them over?"

"I- I'm afraid not."

"Why?!"

4S began to speak. "Cause it's an absurd amount Nines." He began to think for a while. "Let's start out with a few number of books first, when you're done with them we could return them then take some more. How does that sound?"

Anemone nodded inside the screen. "That sounds more reasonable than bringing all three thousand books back."

9S pouted. "Fine…"

4S smiled. He faced Anemone. "So, how's the two combat droids doing?"

"Oh, A2 and 2B? they just came back from their expedition."

"Yeah well, taking care of a few machines and gathering supplies, is probably easier for combat units then getting data for us scanners."

"Huh? Are you saying our job is easy?!" A2 sprang up and took Anemone's place in the screen.

"I'm saying is that, it's probably more fun than hiding and studying the habits of machines from afar." 4S said blandly.

"Hmph… It's probably easy."

"Oh? Mind switching jobs then?" 4S challenged.

"You're on!" A2 roared back.

A sigh sounded on A2's side as she was abruptly pushed by 2B. "You're being too noisy A2."

"Sup' 2B." 4S greeted.

"Hello. Currently A2 and I are engaged in an important conversation with Anemone, so please make this call quick." 2B said before moving away from view of the screen. Showing Anemone chuckling.

"Looks like things are pretty lively there." 4S commented.

"Yeah, you know it. Anyways, I'll be awaiting you're return. Both of you."

"Alright, see you later Nems." 4S cheered.

"… Nems?"

"Yep! Bye!"

"Wait! No! why Nems?!- "The screen disappeared.

"Now then…" 4S turned to see 9S gone.

"Welp, time to go babysit for a while…"

He began his trek back to the castle.

"I still can't believe you brought a hundred of them still…" 4S complained as they were nearing back to camp.

"I can't help it; my scanner senses were telling me to take them you know?" 9S asked him as he carried a large bag filled to the brim of books, such books were more on the fictional side and a few being about ancient Human history. The large amount of literature that 9S brought was the sole reason that they didn't use the access point to transport back to the Resistance Camp.

"No, I don't know. Also, what's a scanner sense? Is that something like, only 9S models have?"

"I don't know. But it comes up to you with a… tingly feeling."

"…Tingly?"

"Yeah."

"Huh."

"Yep."

"You're weird."

9S gasped. "Am not!"

4S laughed as they finally arrived back to the camp. 4S went to the main tent as 9S headed to the room given to them to drop his 'New prized possessions'.

There, he saw A2 and 2B talking with Anemone over the planning table. "Yo." He greeted off.

2B saw him first as she smiled and nodded as he waved.

Anemone turned to him and sighed. "About time…"

4S smiled sheepishly. "We would've gotten here earlier if 9S didn't decide to bring in a large haul.

Anemone faced him. "How many?"

"About a few hundred or so."

Anemone's eyebrow twitched. "Alright."

2B spoke up. "Why, what did 9S bring?"

4S turned to look at her. "Books."

"Books?"

4S nodded. "Books."

"Why?"

"He says that his 'Scanner senses was tingling.'" 4S shrugged. "I still don't know what he meant by that."

Anemone shook her head. "Anyways, 4S."

"Yeah?"

"Where's the data?"

"Oh yeah." 4S turned to his Pod. "Pod, begin data transfer."

"Affirmative. Commencing data transfer."

As Pod transferred data to Anemone 4S walked up to the table.

"So, what's this?" He said as he pointed down to the old looking map laid out on the table.

"An old map" A2 said.

"No shit Sherlock. I'm asking you what THIS is." He points at the markers scattered on the map.

"… Who's Sherlock?"

4S gasped audibly as he covered his mouth with his hand. "How the hell don't you know who Sherlock is?! Don't you read woman?!" He sighed. "Maybe this is why you always jump in without thinking… talk about an impetuous mindset…"

"What did you call me?" A2 began.

"Impetuous. Meaning: Always acting without thinking. Synonyms: for me at least, is Idiot." 4S explained back.

"Alright, that's it!" A2 roared. "Come here!" She pounced on him but 2B grabbed her.

"Will you two stop!" Anemone to them both. She sighed. "For the past few weeks, your little squabbles have been pretty hard to stop lately."

"She started it…" 4S mumbled.

"DID NOT!"

"DID TO!"

Anemone sighed in frustration as 2B tried to hold both back from killing each other.

"I'm leading a bunch of kids…" She whispered to herself.

"So, these markers represent all the specified locations where a large amount of machines are gathering?" 4S looks towards Anemone as he waited for a reply.

Anemone nodded. "Some of our informants that's stationed near these locations reported it to me when they noticed something… strange."

"Strange?"

"Yes, strange."

"How so?"

"Apparently, the machines are trying to find a new leader."

"…"

All three were silent.

"What." Was 4S' dumbfounded response.

Anemone stared at the three. "Was that really hard to process?"

The three nodded.

Anemone sighed. "Remember Pascal?"

2B and A2 slowly looked down with their faces showing and mixed expression of pain, sorrow and pity.

"Wait, who's Pascal?" 4S asked.

Anemone smiled at the young lad. "An old friend."

He tilted his head in confusion. "Okay?" 4S responded.

2B then spoke up. "Are they hostile?"

Anemone shrugged. "Can't say for sure, that's why I'll be having 4S and 9S to do a scouting mission."

4S nodded. "Okay, I'm in. so what's the plan?"

"One of the closest locations here is the factory. I want you and 9S to infiltrate it without being detected and gain as much data as possible about these machine gatherings."

"Without being seen?"

"Yes."

"… You do realize that the 'S' in our name's stand for Scanner and not Stealth, right?"

A2 smirked. "What? Don't think you can do it?"

4S looked back to A2. "Okay, first of all I can do anything. Second, challenge accepted."

"I'll also have 2B and A2 accompany you two. Because the worst-case scenario here is losing our only two scanners would weaken our information gathering prowess by a large margin."

"Gee… thanks for caring."

"Also, the fact that this camp cares greatly for our two lovely scanners." Anemone added.

"Ha-ha, okay alright. So, when's the mission?" 4S asked.

"We'll send you off the first thing tomorrow so you better prepare now, or relax while you can." Anemone said before turning and exiting the tent.

"Alright." 4S clapped his hands, he turned to the two. "So, how are we going to do this?"

"We should go by pairs." 2B proposed.

"Sounds good." 4S agreed. "So, who's pairing with who?"

"2B with 9S and Me with… you." A2 said.

"Hell no. denied. I'd rather go alone." 4S declined.

"What? Why!?"

"Because you hate my guts!"

"You hate mine too!"

2B sighed. "I'll go with 4S." she stated.

Both heads turn to her. "What?" both, in perfect sync asked.

"I said I'll go with 4S." 2B said once more.

"Woah." A2 pressed on. "Don't you want to go with 9S? you two WERE inseparable."

2B nodded. "I think he needs… time."

A2 looked to 2B who was looking down with a gloomy expression. She pats her shoulder as 2B looked up to look at her, she smiled.

"I got it. I'll take care of 9S for you."

2B slowly smiled and nodded. "Please do."

4S looked at them both as he processed what was going on. He nodded to nobody as he left the tent. But his absence didn't go unnoticed as 2B slowly followed.

"Wait." She said.

4S stopped and looked back. "Yeah?"

2B slowly shifted as she asked. "Can we talk?"

4S thought about it for a second before he nodded. "Sure."

2B nodded as she leaded him away from the camp. Once a good distance away, she sat on a patch of grass, she held onto her knees, hugging it as she sat and looked at the view, overseeing a small waterfall.

4S sat a good distance away from her as he waited for 2B to say something. A few minutes passed and nothing was said. 4S sighed and decided to start the conversation himself.

"So, why'd you bring me here?" He started.

2B looked down on her knees. "…"

"You know, I think you should talk this out with Nines, not me…"

"…"

"Nothing's gonna happen unless you make it so."

"I know that…" She mumbled. "It's just that… I don't know how to approach him…"

"Yeah, with him spending his time in the infirmary almost every time, it's pretty much a miracle to talk to him unless it's on a mission." He chuckled.

2B hugs her knees a bit tighter.

"You just need to be straight-up with him. He's a good kid you know."

2B laughed silently. "Don't let him hear you say that…"

"Say, what?"

"That you think he's a kid."

"Well, he looks like one…"

"Yeah, and you look exactly like him."

"…"

The two exchanged glances and ended up both chuckling.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"… I love him you know." 2B stated. She quickly turned red and looked away. "But, not in a way you and A2 expect."

"So, like family?" 4S guessed.

2B nodded slowly. "He's like this… this…" 2B began to think of a comparison.

"He's like that one younger brother that you want to neglect but can't." 4S said plainly.

"Yeah, he's exactly like that." 2B agreed, nodding.

4S chuckled. "Yeah, I can relate."

"You know, you're like, more mature than 9S in some parts." 2B stated.

"Well, for human's maturity came along with age. So, I guess there's not really much of a difference between them and us huh?"

"Well, we were built in their image after all."

"Yep." 4S groaned as he stood up. He looked back to the scenery as the sun began to set. "We should probably go back."

2B nodded as she also stood up.

When 4S began to leave, 2B called him once again.

"4S."

And once again, he turned back to her.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." She said with a smile.

4S smiled back and nodded. "No biggie. Kinda jealous that Nines gets all the pretty ladies but I understand that people like the cute-type." He shrugged.

2B laughed as she went ahead and followed him back to the camp, as the sun finally set down on the horizon.

The following morning the four met up at the exit path of the Resistance Camp.

4S yawned as he noticed he was the last one to arrive. "Sorry I'm late…"

9S and 2B smiled at him. "It's alright." They said in unison, in which shocked both androids.

A2 rolled her eyes. "Well are you good to go or not?" She asked 4S.

4S mock saluted A2. "All prepped and ready to depart ma'am."

A2 clicked her tongue at him as he smiled at her. "Well, let's go then. The faster we finish this the better."

"Aye, aye." 4S then turned to 2B and 9S. "You guys heard the wailing banshee. Let's go guys."

The two nodded as the four androids, and three pods departed towards their mission.

Hello there, this might be the like, the last chapter I'll be posting in a while, since there's lot of IRL stuff going on in my life right now. My new school year starts the day I'm posting this and its currently 3:58 AM as I'm typing this. Lol. Anyways. By the looks of this chapter people would assume that I shot down the potential of 9S and 2B getting together, and started to push her to 4S but it's not really like that. I'd like to think of their conversation as a means of 2B discovering her true feelings towards 9S and maybe, just maybe she doesn't actually see him as family (in this story anyways since I know the whole point of the game was the relationship between 2B and Nines yadda yadda yadda.) It's my story and I'm trying to find a way to make this work out.

Anyways, this is V-Trigger. I'll be seeing you mates later. Oh, and be sure to leave a review. Those always help me out.