"Operator, contact the Commander immediately."
"On it, 2B!"
Pod 042: Pending...Pending...
"This is the Commander to 2B and 9S. Was your mission a success?"
2B and 9S exchanged worried glances with each other.
"We found a human," 2B said.
"I don't follow. Does this have anything to do with your mission?
"2B's telling the truth! We actually encountered a human with another YoRHa android, I'll upload the combat data and analysis the pod ran," 9S said.
Pod 042: Uploading...uploading...Data sent.
The Commander attempted to rationalize the world-shattering information presented to her, but came up with no other viable explanation other than the fact that there truly was a human on Earth. "...this is unbelievable. I..." She fell short on words, leading 9S to fill in the blanks.
"So what should we do with the human? We kind of lost track of him, but I don't think he'll be too hard to find," 9S said
"...Unit 2B and 9S, both of you listen to me and listen well. Right now, your top priority will be to locate that human and ensure no harm comes to him. Unfortunately, we don't have any vehicles safe for human transportation, so he'll have to remain on Earth for the time being, but he has to be kept alive at all costs."
She continued. "I'll let every YoRHa unit on the surface know of the human's existence as well as have a profile on him so they don't mistake him for an android. This is an unprecedented discovery, a human on Earth centuries after they were driven away, I'll relay this information to the Council of Humanity at once. Glory to Mankind."
"Glory to Mankind."
Anon: I might make a passing reference to Accord, but other than that I'm not super familiar with her character so I won't be making her a major player in the story. Although I'm very excited for Sora to meet Devola and Popola!
[G]lory to Mankind
"Guess this one's not dead after all," Eve said.
"How peculiar, what was that you said about humans, android?" Adam asked.
'It might not be a good idea to let them know I'm human, I'll try my best to keep it from them.' "Why do you care so much about humans, isn't being an android good enough on its own?"
"Android?" He scoffed. "My brother and I are evolved machines, and humans are an enigma to us. We know very little of them, but I'd like to change that."
"And that's worth killing androids to you?!"
"You sound surprised, the machines are a natural enemy to androids."
"Then that makes us enemies too!"
"I see, how disappointing, there's no use in continuing this conversation any further. Eve, you're free to dispose of them."
"Finally, I was waiting for you to say that!" Eve approached Sora and A2.
"Don't come any closer!" Sora yelled. "I won't let you hurt, A2!"
"Fine. I can still kill you from a distance." Serpent-like tendrils of energy slithered around Eve's arm and he whipped the energy around halfway across the oasis where Sora was standing.
Despite his condition, Sora managed to jump out of the way and he charged at Eve keyblade in hand. He attempted to go in for a side slash, but Eve used his forearm to block the attack, sounding a familiar cry of metal when Sora's blade and his metal body made contact.
'That sound again, just like an android.'
Eve made a devilish smirk at Sora before high kicking him in the jaw and sending him flying over the edge of the oasis. The water turned a dark red color from Sora's blood seeping out of his mouth, but a blow like that wouldn't keep him down, not even close, which Eve found his resilience to be amusing.
"Usually that's enough to send an android's head flying off," Eve said. "That just means I get to kick you around more!" He submerged his arm in the ground and energy pillars burst from the sand one by one towards Sora.
Dodging the pillars of energy as he made his way to Eve, Sora swung his keyblade at him once more. However, Eve merely caught the keyblade in his hand, then crushed it like a shard of glass, "You done yet?"
"Yeah, I am now!" Sora's outfit instantaneously changed to his Second Form and he used his final technique, Ars Arcanum, to unleash a flurry of attacks on Eve.
With the blindingly fast speed Sora moved, Eve couldn't keep up and the keyblade tore through his synthetic flesh, causing his own blood drip into the water. "Wh...What is this red stuff? WHAT DID YOU DO TO MEEEEE?!"
Adam remained at his position near the edge of the oasis, confident his brother would be the one to emerge victoriously. His attention, instead, was fixated on A2 who sunk into an almost catatonic state, idly standing by with a dazed, half-empty expression on her face- a sharp contrast from her explosive outburst prior. 'That android's death is imminent now that he pushed Eve over to the edge. I'm more concerned about the female android, why hasn't she made a move yet when her friend is in danger?'
Experiencing the same, biting pain Eve inflicted upon so many others was enough to awaken the violent rage convulsing inside him and revert him back to his primal machine nature. He snatched Sora by the throat, wanting to squeeze out every last drop of life from him, and that alone was enough to get A2 to move.
Even if A2's mind was still catching up, her body moved, carrying out her inner desires. She rushed over to Eve with lightning-fast speed, her sword inches away from his neck. Reacting quickly, Eve ducked his head out of the way in a split second, then ripped off A2's arm holding the sword with his free hand. An act that didn't deter A2 as she simply clamped down on the sword mid-air with her mouth and impaled Eve's shoulder, narrowly missing the neck she was aiming for.
Eve dropped to his knees in agony, releasing Sora from his grasp. "Brother...it hurts...it hurts so much." He wailed.
"Eve!" Adam ran over to his side. "Eve...you're not strong enough just yet."
"Come on, kid!" A2 grabbed Sora, choosing to leave behind her own fallen arm for the sake of getting the hell out of there.
In order to prevent a blood trail broadcasting their location, she tore off the fabric from her torso and wrapped it around the bloody tangle of wire left behind from her arm. Then they kept moving, not stopping for the world until they reached the City Ruins where they found a building to hide inside.
"...A2..."
"What?"
"A2...I'm sorry ..." Sora's voice trembled and his eyes burned, when he saw A2, hurt and broken, he saw the outcome of what his own failures and weaknesses meant for the people around him. All the powers he had and he couldn't save one person, meanwhile, A2 sacrificed her own arm to make up for the strength he sorely lacked, it was almost too much, "I-I'm sorry I couldn't protect you...now your arm's gone because of me."
"It's not your fault so don't beat yourself up...this is the price I pay for getting myself drunk."
"..."
A2's face twisted into anger. "Don't look at me like that...it fucking kills me every time you look at me like that."
"I'm just worried about you A2, I want you to be okay. I don't want you to hurt yourself because of me anymore."
"You're the one who always wants to play the goddamn hero despite how weak you are."
"Look, I know I keep messing everything up and you always have to come to my rescue, but...with each new encounter, I've regained my powers back little by little." He stared into the palm of his hand before curling his fingers into a tight fist. "When I'm strong again, you won't ever have to worry about me. I can promise you that much."
"We'll see about that. In the meantime, we have to worry about the shitstorm that's about to come."
"What do you mean?"
"You realize we'll have the entirety of YoRHa on us now because of 2B and 9S? Tch, I really should've killed them when I had the chance, I guess I'll get another shot eventually, but I'll have to get a new arm first. I can't fight like this."
"You can just 'get' a new arm?"
"It's not that big of a deal. All I need is the arm of another android, but you'd probably guilt trip the hell out of me before I get the chance to."
"Uh, yeah, and that's pretty creepy."
"See, you're already doing it. Just get some rest, I'll think of something soon enough."
"Didn't know androids needed to rest," Sora offhandedly remarked.
"And I didn't know you could still keep talking. Shut up or I'll knock you out." Though that was nothing more than an empty threat as A2 almost immediately dozed off, possibly due to the traces of alcohol still lingering in her system.
Meanwhile, Sora couldn't even close his eyes without replaying A2 losing her arm over and over again in his head. So he decided it would be best to clear his mind a little and pass the time doing meaningless activities until she'd wake up again.
Sora walked out into the broad daylight. 'Is it just me or is the sun always out? I thought it would be nighttime by now, whatever.' He wandered around the City Ruins, aimlessly swinging his keyblade in the air. 'All I've been using is the Kingdom Key, I know I still have my other keychains hidden away somewhere. Well, it doesn't hurt to try!'
"Alright, let's go Ultima Keyblade!" He threw his keyblade up in the air, but instead of it undergoing a cool transformation it fell back on his head.
"...aaaaand nothing. It used to be so easy now it's like..." He trailed off, scrambling behind a nearby building. 'I know I heard something just now. Is it a machine?'
After a few moments of breathless silence, Sora heard the mechanical cacophony of a machine echoing off the cement walls. Poking his head out to see what he was dealing with, Sora saw a small, defenseless machine stumbling down the road. "...there's something weird about that machine. Maybe I should leave it alone."
His curiosity got the better of him and Sora found himself inching towards the machine. Upon closer inspection, he saw black wisps of smoke oozing out from the machine's body and with it, an unmistakable presence Sora knew all too well.
"No, don't tell me they're here too!" He wasted no time in destroying the machine and a tiny heart floated out of its corpse.
"...the heartless." Sora hurried back to the empty building where A2 was still fast asleep. He plopped down across from her, clutching the handle of his keyblade. 'Someone's already lost their heart to the darkness. Could it have been that machine? It doesn't matter, I have to find where they're coming from so they don't terrorize this world.
'If the heartless are attacking the machines, then maybe finding those two human looking ones might be my best bet. As long as they're machines, then A2's gonna want to track them down anyway. I'll tell her about it as soon as she wakes up. When she wakes up that is.'
More than a few hours passed before A2 stirred awake and Sora somehow managed to feign sleep just in case any unwanted guests arrived.
"Didn't expect you to be up already," A2 said.
"Uh, well, I've been thinking. After you get a new arm, we should track those human machines down!"
"What, so you got a grudge on them too?"
"I mean, dangerous machines like them really shouldn't be out on the loose, you know?"
"Yeah, yeah, but we have nothing to go off of. Not like we can ask the machines for help either."
"Er...right, being on the run sure does have its drawbacks, huh?"
"You're just now starting to realize this?" A2 stood up, then stretched her back out, a pretty useless exercise since she lacked any muscles, but so were most things she did. "Hope you got enough rest because we're not stopping."
"Oh- where are we going?"
"To get my new arm."
Once they were well into the City Ruins, it took Sora longer than he cared to admit until he caught onto the fact there was no real direction guiding A2 other than towards the next group of machines. A2 being down to one arm didn't stop her from fighting with the same ferocity and devil-may-care attitude as before despite Sora's constant protest.
It got to the point where Sora had to intervene and pull her away so she couldn't lose her other arm, "You need to stop this," He urged.
"There's another machine right there! Get your hands off me!"
"Fighting machines won't get your arm back!"
"So what?"
"So...you can't do this anymore! Look A2, I don't know what your deal is, but you said it yourself, you can't fight with one arm, why do you keep doing this to yourself?! If talking about it will make you feel better, then I'm all ears!"
A2 snatched her arm away. "That's not happening, but I'll get this over with if that means you'll shut up." She stopped at a row of buildings lined up side by side with a disjointing gap in-between, inviting them to discover what lay behind the concrete walls. Venturing forward into the enclosed space, it soon opened itself into a sizeable resistance camp.
All android eyes were on A2 and Sora when they came in. Especially Anemone, who kept direct eye contact with A2 as she approached her.
"Number Two! You're still alive," Anemone said.
"...yeah, sorry I haven't been in touch, Anemone."
"All that matters is you survived, just barely though, look at you. How did you lose your arm?"
"A machine ripped it off, I was hoping you had a replacement."
"Of course. Head over to the infirmary and we'll fix you right up."
"Thanks." When she eased herself onto one of the infirmary cots, the maintenance android standing by went straight to work on rebuilding A2's arm while Anemone supplied the necessary parts.
"This won't take long," Anemone said to Sora, who was pacing outside the infirmary.
"That's good, you know, A2 didn't want to come here at first, but I'm not sure why. You guys are really helping her."
"I don't blame her, she has a good reason...Sorry, how rude of me, I haven't even introduced myself yet to you. My name is Anemone, I'm the leader of the Resistance."
"I'm Sora, it's nice to meet you!"
"The pleasure's mine, but I don't think I've seen you anywhere before. A2 isn't the type to have companions around."
He rubbed the back of his head. "That's a long story, let's just say I'm not from here."
"So you must be from far away, the night kingdom, maybe? We have business partners there."
"Sure, something like that, I guess, so what's up with you and A2?"
"That's a long story too, but...we fought together in the 14th Machine War. Back then she was hopeful and full of life, she was the leader of a YoRHa squadron herself, then something happened during their mission and...we all assumed she died with the rest of her team. It looks like she was the sole survivor after all these years."
"Oh..."
"I don't know what makes you so special to A2, but please take care of her. I'll be returning to my work, if you need anything, you know where to find me."
'That's why you've always been so distant. You want to be alone so you don't ever have to go through the pain of losing a friend again.'
Time stubbornly dragged on while Sora waited for A2 and the 20 minutes it took might as well of been 20 hours before she stepped out. Sora ran up to hug A2 and she pushed him off, "What's wrong with you?" She asked.
"I'm so happy you're okay now! And your new arm looks awesome!"
"Ugh, wipe that stupid grin off your face, it's annoying."
"Not happening."
"Whatever. Let's go see about Adam and Eve, I'm sure Anemone might know something about them." A2 walked back to Anemone, who was in the middle of marking locations on her map. "Hey, you got a minute?"
"For you, anything."
"What do you know about two machines named 'Adam and Eve'? They look like androids and we encountered them in the Desert Zone."
"Machines that look like androids? I haven't got any reports on them, they're the ones who attacked you I'm assuming?"
"Yeah, but if you don't have anything, then we should get going."
"Wait, before you go, I do have something that might interest you."
"Which is?"
"I've received reports on machines with incredibly strange behavior in the Flooded City. And supposedly they're 'unkillable'."
"They're unkillable? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Each time my team destroyed a machine, it would come back to life almost as if they were possessed by another being. It's hard to put it into words, but if there are truly indestructible machines you should know how troublesome this information is. I was in the middle of putting together another team, but if you two could investigate the machines, I would be very grateful."
"Sure."
"Thank you so much, if I get any information on Adam and Eve, I'll make sure to let you know right away. I've sent the coordinates of the location to your database so you shouldn't have much trouble getting there, thanks again."
"No problem. Also, could you not tell anyone about our location."
"That's right, I guess you are a fugitive. You know, there's this other android who looks exactly like you, 2B was her name."
"That's who I'm worried about." A2 turned around to leave while Sora waved goodbye.
Not too far off from the Resistance Camp's location was an open sewer pipe that would take them to their destination. Sora looked at it in disgust. "Eww, we have to go through there? I've always hated having to go through the sewers, they're so dark and damp."
"Quiet."
Luckily for Sora, they weren't in the sewer for long as they came across a waterway that carried them down to the end of the pipeline and they were already walking out the other side.
"Wow! Look at this place, A2! There's so much water," Sora said.
"That is why it's called the Flooded City."
Faithful to its name, most of the city was submerged in the vast ocean and surrounded by cascading waterfall falls that shrouded the area in a thin veil of fog. What did manage to stay above water wasn't much aside from a few buildings and infrastructure.
"We should go swimming together sometime A2," Sora said.
"I'll pass."
"Seriously? You're no fun."
"I weigh 306 pounds so I'll sink down to the bottom if I fall in the water."
"3-306 pounds?! Yep, you're basically a goner."
"You really don't know when to一" A2 abruptly drew her sword, then ran ahead.
"A2, hey wait up!" Sora called out in vain since she was already engaged with a group of machines. 'She never slows down, I like that about her, though.' By the time he joined up with A2, however, the machines were no longer a threat.
"Unkillable machines? What a joke, Anemone's team was just weak," A2 said, she kicked a dismembered machine head into the water. "You ready to go? Let's report back, there's nothing else here."
Just when they were about to walk away, the machine head A2 kicked into the water rolled back to the surface and the scraps of metal put itself together like a puzzle. Ominous darkness filled its core, giving the machine a second chance at life.
"...that's a new one." A2 raised her sword to strike it once more, but Sora thought ahead and slammed his blade down the middle of the machine, releasing a tiny heart from the metal cage.
"I'm the only one who can defeat these possessed machines," He said.
"How the hell does that make any sense?"
"Uh..." 'How can I explain this so A2 understands?' "The world where I come from there's these monsters called heartless that only a sword like mine can truly destroy. A normal sword might destroy their physical forms, but they'll just come back after a while since it cannot reunite the body and soul the heartless left behind."
"Aah, so it's like that, huh. I understand everything now."
"You...don't get it at all, do you?"
"No, but it sounds like you're telling me not to fight the machines, which isn't happening."
They were surrounded on all sides by more possessed machines, Sora went ahead and used a circle raid attack to destroy the weaker machines in one go, while A2, despite the futility of her actions, chopped up the rest of the machines until they were indistinguishable from concrete debris.
"There, that should do it," But the moment those damning words escaped A2's lips, the machine parts began reassembling themselves, "Goddamnit."
"一A2, watch out!" Sora threw his keyblade at the machine creeping up behind her, the blade lodging itself deep into its head. He snapped his fingers and his keyblade lit on fire, swallowing the machine in wild flames.
A2 stepped backward from the burning machine, as much as it killed her to admit defeat, she had no choice but to pull back from the front lines. 'What is wrong with this kid? Why can he do all these things suddenly, or did I just not realize it before?'
When they keyblade returned to Sora's hand, she watched him engage the rest of the machines, a feeling of resentment swelling inside her. 'An android is supposed to protect humans, not the other way around. Don't fucking tell me I can't do that much, the one thing that gives my life purpose. No, it has to be that weapon he uses, without it, he can't do anything.'
It got to the point where A2 couldn't force herself to sit out in the sidelines any longer and wanted to at least contribute something regardless of how useless it would be. To her, a purposeless action meant more than doing nothing at all, that was what defined her existence and she chose to confront a giant machine as a test of her own resolve.
"Do your worst machine, no matter how many times you build yourself up, I'll cut you right down again and again!" She declared.
A2 dodged the machine when it threw a punch, then used her Type-4O blade to make a clean slice straight through its midsection. The darkness teeming inside the machine seized its top half before it could fall on the ground, then fastened the two halves back together just like that and the machine continued fighting as if nothing happened.
'I think I get it now. These machines are already dead, it's that black stuff inside that's controlling them.' A2 split its body open again, then continuously stabbed the black mass dwelling within until it withered away in a cloud of smoke. 'Hopefully, that one's not coming back anytime soon.'
"Tell me you know what's going on with these machines," A2 said, rejoining Sora.
"The heartless are possessing them, but I'm trying to figure out where they're coming from. There's a source of darkness the heartless use to go from world to world, that's how they came here."
"And why is this happening now?"
"Because I'm here. As long as I have the keyblade, the heartless are never too far away."
"Oh is that all it is?" A2 snatched the keyblade from his hand, then chucked it into the water. "There, problem solved."
The keyblade reformed in Sora's hand seconds later. "You're not thinking these things through, are you?"
"...shut the hell up."
"Well, I think we should look around this place a little more to find out if the heartless are coming from here."
Sora and A2 jumped off from one sunken building to the next, but they were forced to stop in their tracks when a YoRHa android armed to the teeth with multiple weapons landed in front of them.
"Not this again." A2 pulled out her sword, pointing it at the newcomer. "You better start running."
"Wait, I'm not looking to fight you, we're on your side," The android said.
"What're you talking about?"
Several more YoRHa androids in similar fashion dropped down beside Sora and A2.
"My name is 8B and we're deserters of YoRHa."
NieR: [O]blivon
The Curse of Ignorance
