9S kicked his heels against the side of the building and replayed the footage of the previous day for at least the 10th time. What he saw and what made sense had yet to overlap, but that didn't stop him from getting absorbed in every tiny detail. Griffon's pellets of electricity and Shadow's seamless shift between shapes and states of matter riled his curiosity so much he could barely stand it. V's markings, however, were what most enthralled him.

They were at their thickest when 9S first met him, then a little lighter the second time, and a little lighter again when he called Shadow for the kill. It was hard to tell from behind, but he still had a few dark markings left even with both Shadow and Griffon at his side. If the connection was as linear as it appeared, there had to be at least one more of his 'support units' in there.

The feeling as he imagined thousands of permutations of this third unit had little similarity to his usual curious excitement-it was far hungrier.

The tick of V's cane interrupted his thoughts. He cancelled the playback, and discreetly closed his display.

"Morning," he greeted.

V squinted puffy, dark-ringed eyes at him. He didn't look at all like the poised, borderline snobbish figure 9S had met the day before. Sleep had emphasized his bent posture, and he leaned heavily on his cane to compensate as he stumbled toward the table and sank into the empty chair.

"Hey?" 9S swung his legs back over the edge of the rooftop. "Are you...ok?"

V scowled and dragged the remains of the water toward him. He drained the entire thing, swept his hair back, and heaved a vast sigh as his head dropped to the table.

9S tugged Pod down close and murmured. "Is he sick?"

"I'm fine," V rumbled. "I'll thank you to not to jump to foolish conclusions."

"I can't help it! I don't have a lot of data on humans, I only met you yesterday, and you're acting like an entirely different person."

"I'm just groggy, 9S."

"Groggy..." herepeated skeptically. "And that's a normal thing for you?"

"Rest and I are infrequent bedfellows." There was a bitter edge to his voice; one that didn't seem targeted at 9S. "Though it has rarely been this elusive."

"ANALYSIS:" said Pod 153. "CERTAIN HUMAN PROCESSES WERE LINKED TO DAY-NIGHT CYCLES CURRENTLY ABSENT IN THIS SECTOR DUE TO TIDAL LOCK. PROPOSAL: NEXT REST PERIOD SHOULD TAKE PLACE IN LOW-LIGHT SETTINGS."

9S' brows scrunched. He contemplated whether humans would have been able to come back successfully if they had actually been on the moon. Peace would not have changed the altered ecosystem. There were so many odds and ends to human well-being beyond physical self-defense—more than food and water and shelter, too.

Humans were way more fragile than he thought.

"I guess it won't help to go back to sleep, huh? How about we go fishing?"

V slowly lifted his head looked over at him with profound weariness. "You can fish?"

"I mean, the Pods can."

"I am compelled...to ask how that skill is useful to you."

"PODS ARE EQUIPPED FOR RETRIEVAL OF ANY USEFUL SUBMERGED RESOURCES, INCLUDING MARINE LIFEFORMS."

"Guess that answers that. Since it is for me that you're bothering, I'll accompany you." He hoisted himself back onto his feet with a slightly less expansive sigh and pointed east. "There?"

9S didn't even have to look to know that he was suggesting the stream near the resistance camp. "That spot's bad. Just follow me, I know a good place."

"I don't mind following, but I do mind not knowing where I'm going."

"Does it really make a difference to tell you where we're going if you don't know where anywhere is?"

"Knowing nothing means I have everything to learn."

9S hummed approvingly. That was a very scanner-like sentiment. That weird way of talking V had was kicking in, so the grogginess was hopefully out of his system until the next morning.

Maybe he could turn this into an opportunity to see what else V was capable of.

"I can't help but be grateful it's been thousands of years," said V. "I have yet to go a day without entering a pipe."

9S glanced down at the runoff. "I guess they aren't usually the cleanest. Don't worry though; this one only goes in for a few meters."

He led the way to the elevator tucked neatly off to the right. V didn't say anything while they waited. From the corner of 9S eye, he could just make out an expression that was neither surprised nor interested when it finally arrived. His mind was elsewhere.

Elevators must have been just as boring to wait for and boring to ride in in V's time.

"Why this particular location?" V asked.

"No machine fish in the water," he explained. "The only other place that doesn't have any is the oasis out desert. I get your water from there, but Pod said anything I caught would probably be bad by the time I made it all the way back to the city."

"Why would the machines make fish?"

Another predictable question. The accepted theory sat on the tip of 9S' tongue and he knew the exact tone of casual wonder he wanted to use, but the words never came. His mind was elsewhere: Focused on not clenching his fists, and on keeping his expression neutral.

The aliens wanted to damage human food sources? What a joke. From the first invasion, there weren't any humans to starve.

"Who knows," he answered flatly as the door opened. "There's no meaning to what machines do."

Together they stepped into the clammy darkness of the caves. The doors droned shut behind them, and the both pods clicked on their lights.

"I haven't been here since the tower fell," 9S warned quietly. "There were strong machines here before. I don't know what they'll be like now."

V smirked. "I'll stay close."

That was either a patronizing jab or genuine anticipation. 9S disliked both possibilities.

Distant echoes murmured from beyond the pale podlights, like the voices of the clammy currents that wrapped around them and beckoned them in. Only their footsteps and the shuffling whispers of their clothing answered.

Fires appeared in the dark, as well as a familiar yellow spark. Two electromagnetic shields, a few stubbies, some drill-equipped spheres, and a stacker unit with several guns attached.

"I'll hack the shield units first," 9S whispered. "You deal with the small units and the drills and I'll take the tall one in the back as fast as I can. Watch the guns; machines don't fire traditional ammo, but it's a pain to dodge their shots if they clog up the field."

Griffon materialized just ahead of the pod. "Thanks for the tip, boy-bot. We got this."

9S dashed ahead and drew their attention. The shield unit hacking patterns were tricky but not difficult. He had practiced them hundreds of times, and it took only seconds to down both. He didn't expect V to have even begun with his targets, which made the burst of lightning as he exited hacking space that much more dazzling.

The stubbies fell over and even the drill units dropped to the ground, not destroyed but disabled by the strong shock.

Strange violet light bounced off the damp walls. No sooner did 9S search for the source than it was suddenly on the other side of the tunnel. One by one, the downed machines began to detonate. 9S focused ahead rather than play catch up. Over the final enemy, he caught V wink into existence and pierce the core of his target. The glow was emanating from his cane.

He didn't bother to ask the pod if that was normal. It had to be something similar to the overclock chip favored by combat models. How V was doing that without the assistance of any systems of overclock would have to wait.

The path to the stacked unit was clear, and it was focused on V. 9S darted in close before the barrels could reorient on him and threw his sword. Cruel Oath spun on-target, and the easily deconstructed unit fell to pieces and exploded.

Off to the side, V curiously trailed after a stray orb. It popped like a bubble at the touch of his cane.

He ran his hand over his cane and the glow vanished. "How much further?"

"Just up ahead where the light is. There's a straight drop down to the lake from there."

And, if 9S recalled correctly, an enemy type that would be a lot more of a challenge would be in their way. In the open, they were a pain. In this tight space, they would be lucky to come away unscathed. It was risky, but V was the one who insisted on not staying where it was safest.

He had to know more. He needed to know more.

The ground rumbled beneath their feet, and 9S' eyes lit with excitement behind his blindfold. A drill erupted from the tunnel wall above them. 9S dodged one way and Griffon carried V another. The rotating saws that made up the serpentine body sprayed loose earth, pelting them and obscuring their vision.

Another burst of electricity lit the cave. Griffon's attack did not have the same incapacitating effect it doled out on the smaller units. Shadow dived beneath it and burst into a mass of spikes. Some of the saws came free of the electromagnetic field that held them in place, but others sparked against her pins and needles until they shattered. At V's beckon, she limped back to his side.

For a moment, they were bathed in the golden glow of its core. The few saws that had been dislodged leapt back in line at the tail end, and it was as though no damage had been done at all.

"I see..." V purred. He stepped backward and Pod 042s flashlight clicked off.

9S whipped around, terrified at the notion of not knowing where V was in the dark, but he couldn't spare his attention. The enemy unit was taking up a majority of the already tight tunnel and winding in hard-to-predict coils as it sought 9S out. It took his complete concentration to dodge effectively, and without V to act as a distraction, there were no openings to hack in.

"Pod, switch to laser-based projectiles and open fire!"

A rapid hum-click over his shoulder preceded a winding beam of plasma that licked along the linked saws until it found the core and lit the tight corridor in white. The electromagnetic field wouldn't hold long against laser fire, he just had to keep pod in the right position relative to the core.

Words seeped from the darkness behind him in measured, predatory timbres. "And their sun does never shine, and their fields are bleak and bare, and their ways are filled with thorns. It is eternal winter there…"

"What are you-!"

Shadow leapt forward, guided to her prey by the light of the pod fire. Her head transformed into a thick black spike which pierced through the core and into the ceiling.

9S had never seen a linked unit be immobilized that way. The saws stuttered, spat, and sparked. The drill spun faster, the high-pitched whine of taxed hinges cutting through the cold silence of the cave. Dust rained on them as it dragged Shadow onward inch by inch.

What 9S saw next, he first interpreted as V using one of the pod's programs. However, the six spectral blades that circled the link-type machine core were not YoRHa design. They were canes—copies of V's cane, to be exact.

Shadow retracted her head spike. The canes pierced six times what she had pierced once. The core exploded. The links all followed suit in rapid succession, scattering their path in scorched metal and burning splashes of oil.

The light from Pod 042 clicked back on. V walked ahead to the waiting mouth of the cave and leaned over the edge. He hiked his cane up over his shoulder with a satisfied smile and waved his hand in an 'after you' gesture to 9S.

"It seems our way is clear."