AN: Sorry for this delay. I got a little bit overworked because of co-worker vacation. It was mostly my fault though. Either way... Here is next chapter. R&R. And of course I would be glad if somebody could help me with grammar. =)

Chapter 12 – I forgot…

2B stood on the roof of the dilapidated building while looking down at the unremarkable shack in the forgotten corner of the Resistance camp. She clenched her fist, while her mind replayed many unpleasant memories from her past. Her gaze followed the male android who was absorbed in chitchat with his pod about something, likely about the human they were ordered to protect.

Humans were extinct for millenniums. It was something only executioner type androids knew. It was the most confidential information; the knowledge about it put anybody on elimination list without exception. She even had to kill the person she cared about again and again, always seeing the shocked face, filled with disbelieve of betrayal. However, their creators were truly tenacious, some of the managed to survive despite a major failure in the past. The little girl was a proof of the humanity survival ability. Where survived one, could survive others. The gynoid wanted to be this true…

"Captain, it seems that something blocks long range transmissions," – 4B, who walked up to the roof, timidly informed her superior about their current problem. YoRHa androids tried to establish two-way communication with Commander but they could only receive burst type text data without any success to respond back.

"Is there any way to reinforce our signal with the Resistance communication array?"

"No, I already talked about it with the leader, Anemone. The Resistance had only simple communication arrays, rigid and small enough to be transported without vehicles," – The other android carefully explained their situation. She felt a little nervous because of her teammates deaths and extremely important mission placed on the survivors, including her.

"Proposal. YoRHa Unit Type B No.2 could contact the YoRHa Unit Type B No.8 , which should be in vicinity, and ask for assistance."

"4B, locate 8B and her squad. We should get some more Type B Units to secure our location…" – There were high chance that Machines instigated some kind of plan to cut off the YoRHa ground forces from their space assets. Without precise support from above it would be harder to fight enemies on even terms. Scanners were pretty much useless in direct combat, 9S was just a strange existence that can actually fight.

4B saluted and left without further idle talk.

The current situation was extremely unfavorable for android forces. There were no chance of reinforcement in the region. The Resistance established several undermanned forward bases in the ruined city and adjusted desert, while YoRHa built only reconnaissance camp here and there, without any system behind them. If Machines would launch major offensive, androids would likely be forced to the flooded part of the city, where the Resistance naval base had been constructed years prior.

"You are quite stiff here, standing all alone and looking nowhere in particular," – The quiet calm voice behind made 2B unclench her fist after all that time. She turned around to face the little girl, the first human she ever met. Pod 042 flew to the owner of that voice, but kept some distance, enough to be out of the child's range.

This human, according to gathered information – Alice, stood there, in front of the combat gynoid, while curiously examining her without any sound escaping her. By slight movement of the eyes, 2B recognized that the girl was interested in the weapons behind her, so she effortlessly materialized her Virtuous Contract and carefully shown it to the child.

Alice got even more interested, after witnessing dematerialization and materialization sequence. She completely lost interest in the pod, which continued hovering nearby in case of emergency, and came close to the cold and stoic android, who was actually quite excited inside.

"How did you do it?" – The puppeteer did not sense any type of magic during that performance, unlike her own dimensional pocket spell, which left her confused and extremely thirsty for knowledge. Something like this could be very useful for her own research and boost her combat efficiency with proper implementation.

"YoRHa Unit Type B No.2 utilized the functions of Near Field Combat System to digitalize the matter and remake if from information in her hand," – Pod 042 was quick with an explanation since that type of information was not classified, especially to humans.

On the other side, Alice did not understand anything at all. All, she could get from that sentence, was the fact that androids had an ability to turn something into specific type of knowledge and do it backwards if needed. It reminded her of one youkai, who taught humans in the Human village.

"It seems that you do not understand the explanation…" – 2B flatly said her thoughts after watching the girl for half a minute. It sounded like accusation of stupidity, which made Alice's face red from anger and embarrassment.

"Like I need to know how it clearly works!" – The puppeteer proudly exclaimed and got a simple grimoire out of her own dimensional pocket. The next very moment she stiffened.

"It is an interesting display of magic use. The human had an ability to freely manipulate magic energy and perform feats beyond the science understanding…" – The Pod started to analyze the shown fact about the child, updating the information about magic. YoRHa databases had only basic theory how the magic worked since majority of the data was lost through years of the conflict with Machines.

"Pod, something is wrong. The human does not respond," – 2B pointed out at the girl, who stood with a pale face and mumbled something to herself. Pod 042 stopped data gathering and processing and flew closer to Alice.

"I forgot about it… I forgot about it…" – The puppeteer repeated the same thing over and over, her blank lifeless eyes lost the golden shine and slowly started to change their color. Suddenly, the girl grabbed the flying pod and looked at 2B – "We should find it!"

""Find? Find what?"" – Both the pod and the gynoid were confused.

"My Grimoire!" – Alice shouted in panic, freeing her hands and putting her head into them. It was a disaster. She forgot about her most dangerous and annoying weapon, which she promised never to use again after the glimpse of truth behind its power touched her soul.

"Grimoire?" – 2B had only a vague comprehend what kind of item the girl had lost.

"The magic book," – Pod suggested the most obvious term for explanation based on all available information. After all, the girl was able to utilize magic – "Proposal. YoRHa Units should assist the human to retrieve the aforementioned book. There is a high possibility that it contain very valuable information and data about magic research. Such data should not be held by Machine life forms…"

Commander White impatiently stood in the Command Center. Despite all their efforts, the Bunker was not able to establish contact with deployed ground forces because of unknown type of interference. At the same time, a YoRHa satellite detected massive machine activity near the industrial zone. The further investigation revealed three unknown extremely large Goliath-class enemies supported by smaller ones and infantry-level machines. This small army was moving toward the Resistance camp.

An attempt to intercept machines with a laser satellite ended in failure. The same interference absorbed all energy before it could reach the target.

There were no other way except to send strike squads and destroy the marching army head on. The calculated casualties would cripple the Bunker for a while but… Everything could be sacrificed for the humanity.