Devola and Popola were busy working at their shop, it was boring, routine work, but it had to be done as long as they wanted to make a living.
They already finished fixing the Resistance androids who needed tune-ups, so they weren't expecting to return to the infirmary anytime soon. But that reality shattered when A2 came running into the camp with Sora's limp body clutched tightly in her arms.
"You...You can save him right?!" A2 asked, tears rolling down her face.
"...We can try." Devola took Sora away from her, rushing him over to the infirmary where she and Popola assessed his injuries. Even with all the mangled up, disfigured android bodies they've repaired over the years, it was nothing compared to watching someone slowly die with each longer breath they took.
Devola was barely able to keep it together as she carefully removed the bloody clothes clinging onto his body. "He's...lost a lot of blood and...and he'll only lose more once we remove this object from his chest. So how are we gonna close this wound up?!"
"..."
"Popola, answer me!"
"I...I don't know..."
Popola felt a hand on her shoulder, she turned to see 21B. "I'll tell you how. I'm very knowledgeable about human medical procedures and for him, we'll need to act quickly."
Guest (May 5): You really can work in a 7/13 reference anywhere
Guest (May 4): She said "Let's dance, boys!"
Aggins: "Separate ways" by Journey would actually fit thematically, meanwhile I'm like yes "Gives you hell" by The All-American Rejects perfectly describes their relationship
Tantei ringo: Dance of the Evanescent makes me imagine A2 and Sora doing the tango. A2 tries to dip Sora but she drops him and he ends up getting head trauma
Guest (Apr 28): Sora's only worsened her alcoholism :(
Guest (Apr 25): Well damn, it almost makes me want to play ffxiv just to see that
Guest (Apr 23): And where would Emil be getting these Phoenix downs from
Goldfaber: At least A2 presumably has self cleaning? Lol I promise me updating on 4/20 had no correlation to the content. "Supporting Me" is so trippy, I love it. "The Darkness Of My Mind" has such on their nose lyrics, how'd you know I love metal/rock music?
Anon: FF7R is great, even better than the original at some points. But yeah, this story's ending won't be happy, rest assured. To be fair for Sora, Number 2 could mean 2B or A2. I think these next couple of chapters can be summed up as N2 repeatedly messing around with Sora.
Keybladelight: Nah, he has no items with him other than that phone, otherwise a kupo coin would've definitely come in handy. A2's all tsun and no dere tho XD
Guest (Apr 20): I wouldn't mind doing a bonus chapter of sorts with extra content if that's something people want. If I were to write A2 dancing with Sora, I would absolutely have to dial it up to 11
[M]issing You...
Kairi, Riku and Naminé were sitting on the beach together, watching Pascal and the machine children play along the shore.
"I still feel bad that we couldn't find a way for Pascal and the children to go back to Earth. As much of a hellhole that place is, it is their home after all," Kairi said.
"We really need to get you to therapy Kairi," Naminé said. "But in the meantime, I know what'll get your mind off of things!" She showed them her sketch of the machines on the beachside captured in perfect detail. "Okay, so tell me what do you two think of this one? You can be honest, it is kind of a rough sketch."
Kairi gave her one of those 'you-can't-be serious' looks. "Rough sketch? Come on, that's like a work of art Naminé."
"Yeah, you're a natural at this art stuff," Riku said.
"Aw, you guys are seriously making me blush! Alright, I'm gonna show this to Pascal and the kids, I hope they like it!"
As she walked away, Kairi stared at the thick bandages that wrapped around her leg. "How does she do it? To walk forward like that despite what the machines did to her?"
"Probably because she already knows how it feels like to be the bad guy."
"Heh, well, now I know how that feels too. Can... I tell you something, Riku?"
"Sure, anything."
"I ...I never stopped thinking about what Adam said to us. I killed so many machines that had friends and family like Pascal...and I think about it all the time. Am I a bad person, Riku?"
"No, no of course not. You're not bad, even if you did go a little overboard, you were just doing what needed to be done so you could protect everyone. The only one who's bad here is Adam for forcing everyone to fight the machines in the first place."
There was something so comforting about his voice and the intensity of his eyes when he looked at her that it put her heart at ease, even if only for a moment.
"Hey, think of it this way. At least now with most of the machines here on our side, it'll make things easier for Sora."
"I wouldn't know, he hasn't returned any of my calls in days."
"Nah, knowing him, I bet he's just wrapped up with whatever the androids dragged him into."
"I know- I know, but you'd think my own boyfriend would return a call once in a while."
Riku shrugged. "Maybe he finally got tempted by one of those android girls."
"That's not funny you jerk! This is serious, I'm worried about Sora, what if something bad happened to him?! I'm giving him another call..."
*ring
*ring
"Please ...stop this. You can do whatever you want to me, but I won't fight them..."
"What's wrong? I thought you said nothing that's worth having comes without a fight, right? So fight and prove you want to keep living."
Sora woke up to the sound of his gummiphone ringing. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the blue sky and for a second, he imagined he was finally at home. After all, no matter how many worlds he went to, they always shared the same sky, but after adjusting his head on the infirmary cot, he realized he was at the Resistance Camp.
'Wonder how I got here? I'll figure that out later, I better see who's calling me first.' He reached for his gummiphone and saw Kairi's name across the screen. His first instinct was to answer, but he stopped himself from touching the screen. "No, I can't...I'm sorry. I really wanna talk to you, but not when I'm like this." He said in a quiet voice.
After Sora put his gummiphone away, his eyes drew downward to see A2 sleeping at his bedside with several empty bottles of liquor surrounding her. 'She looks so peaceful when she's asleep, I hate to wake her but I have to know what's going on.'
"A2? Hey A2!"
"...Mm?" Letting out a soft groan, she lifted her head. "Oh...hey."
It took a second for A2 to register that Sora was awake and once she did, she couldn't stop smiling at him. "Sora! Damn it...don't you ever scare me like that again! Er- uh, took you long enough..." She quickly cleaned herself up, brushing the messy hair out of her face and pushing away the liquor bottles to hide the fact how much of a mess she became.
"I'm sorry...I should've been on top of things." When Sora tried to get up, he felt a sharp, stabbing pain across his chest. "Ahh! That really hurts..."
"Hey, take it easy, you've been out for a few days."
"A few DAYS?! So much time has passed...I need to heal myself up and get out of here!"
"And go where?"
Sora's hands tightened into a fist. "I need to find whoever did this to me... those machines who looked like my friends. I know they're still out there and they're gonna do something terrible if I don't stop them!"
A2 slammed her hand on the infirmary cot. "Sit your ass down! You almost fucking died Sora! You were bleeding out so much..." Her voice was breaking. "... I really thought I was gonna lose you this time."
"...A2?"
"Don't say anything... just listen to me. Stop putting yourself in danger and stop...stop trying to save us. Saving this world isn't worth dying for so whatever the machines are planning, don't get involved. Promise me that, Sora."
Her eyes finally met with Sora's but he looked more annoyed than anything. "I'm not just some human who always has to be protected, you know that, so let me do this!"
And now A2 was pissed. "Okay... I guess giving a shit about my friend is too 'android' for you."
"No, I'm sorry, that came out wrong... I know you don't wanna lose me, but I can't lose you either! I'm never going to turn my back on you guys so not getting involved isn't an option. I have to stop them before they hurt any more people than they already have!"
A2 glared at Sora for the longest time, trying to figure out his thought process, before shaking her head in defeat. "...God, you're such a stubborn dumbass. Fine, when you're up on your feet, we can go see what that Tower's all about...just promise you won't die on me."
Sora held his hand out to her, grinning. "Only if you promise me you won't die either!"
She shook his hand. "Kind of hard not to when you're around."
*grrrrrrrowl
"Uh, sorry about that," Sora mumbled.
"That sound...you're hungry, right? Why don't I fix you something up?"
"Seriously? Last time you said cooking was boring ..."
"Then starve for all I care!"
"H-Hold on! I just didn't expect you to do something that nice for me...thank you."
"Give me a break, all I've been doing is nice things for you!"
"...Yeah to make up for all the times you've been a jerk..." He said under his breath.
"I heard that you little shitstain! This is exactly why I don't do anything nice for you!"
"That was a joke...mostly."
"一Sora!"
The twins came running into the infirmary with baskets full of medical supplies in their hands.
"Oh my god, you're finally up," Devola said.
"Thank goodness, I'm so happy you're awake!" Popola smiled at A2. "And thanks for looking after him, we got everything we needed."
"No problem. I'm gonna go hunting in the Forest, later."
She returned her attention back to Sora. "Sorry we were away, we had to restock on more supplies. Now let's replace your bandages. Dev, can you get that medicine started?"
"Coming right up."
"Uh, you don't have to do that."
"Of course I do, Sora. Just relax." With delicate hands, Popola slowly removed the bloody bandages across Sora's chest, revealing a long line of stitches where he suffered from the wound. It was a scary sight for him to see since he never really had to worry about sustaining serious injuries with his magic to always back him up.
Popola was in the middle of cleaning up the dried blood when she noticed his heart was pounding on his chest. "You okay?"
"Not really...I mean, it's not like I haven't been impaled before, but ...was I really about to die from something like this?"
"Jeez, you say that like getting impaled is your hobby. While we have worked on you before, it was nothing so severe that it required us to close the wound, it was new territory for us."
"Yeah, we were learning how to stitch your body together as we were doing it!" Devola said, walking over with a mortar and pestle in her hands.
"Ugh, maybe leave that part out. Anyways, if we didn't, well, the amount of blood you would've lost..."
Devola smirked at him. "We'd probably be preserving your organs right about now."
"Devola! You're the worst! Ever heard of too soon?!"
"Lighten up, sis, I'm just messing with him." Adding in a liquid ingredient into the mortar, Devola poured the solution into a vial then handed it to her sister. "We were afraid of you getting an infection so that medicine should help you out." She elaborated.
"I can't thank you enough... you guys saved me," Sora said.
"It's the least we can do, besides, it was mostly 21B. She was a lifesaver, she told us every medical procedure we needed to do," Popola said.
"Who's 21B?"
"All we know is that she used to be 9S's operator. Hopefully, they're all coming back soon to see you're okay, 2B and 9S were so worried," Popola said.
"...Wait, so where are they now?"
"At whatever a 'Resource Recovery Unit' is last I heard so they can get inside that big white tower. Something about stopping the machines, you know the deal by now."
All of a sudden, a loud, fiery explosion erupted within the camp, as if to sound the arrival of the invading machines. Anemone immediately readied for battle and rallied the rest of the androids to fight back.
Devola pulled her sword out. "Damn it! Popola, get Sora somewhere safe!"
"No, this is my fight! You guys are the ones that need to get out of here!" Sora jumped out of the infirmary cot with his keyblade in hand.
After casting Regen on himself, Sora ran into the fray of machines with Oathkeeper. However, it seemed like with every couple of machines he defeated, several more would parachute down from the sky in its place.
He shot a thunder spell at a cluster of incoming machines just for more to arrive. "Gah- what's up with all these machines?"
"S...O...R...A."
"S...O...R...A."
"S...A...V...E...U...S."
The machines chanted, but their hollow words were just that, words, and it wouldn't stop him from ending them.
"Save you?! You're the ones who are attacking us!" Sora guarded an incoming attack then powered up into Double Form, which spelled the end for the machine raid because even their overwhelming numbers couldn't keep up with how fast his keyblade ripped them apart. While the machines were now nothing more than scrap metal cluttering the campgrounds, his feelings remained unchanged.
"That's it...they're not gonna stop hurting everyone until they have me." Sora squeezed the keyblade handle. "So I'll give them what they want!"
He made his escape out of the camp and into the City Ruins. 'Everyone keeps bringing up that tower, it has to be the machine's headquarters or something. I'm sorry A2, but I'm not letting any more of my friends get hurt because of me. I have to take it down by myself!'
Fortunately, the Tower wasn't hard to miss, he didn't have to run around the city for long until he came across the ivory white structure. Although, it wouldn't be easy to get through with the hordes of machines swarming around the Tower's base.
"Here we go." Switching out Oathkeeper for Weight of the World, he dove in headfirst, ready to bash in machine heads, but rather than fight back, they all kneeled down in response to his presence. "Huh...What's going on?"
The machines started chanting his name.
"SO-RA!"
"SO-RA!
"SO-RA!"
?-?-?: Hello, and thank you for choosing Tower System Services! We welcome you with open arms!
?-?-?: Please enter inside the Tower and enjoy the special prize waiting just for you. We look forward to you serving us!
The ocean of machines divided in half, creating a clear path leading to the Tower.
"OUR MESSIAH WALKS BEFORE US AND GRACES US WITH HIS PRESENCE!"
"YOU WILL SAVE US!"
"YOU WILL BRING US TO THE PROMISED LAND OF OUR GODS!"
Walking forward, Sora kept his guard up around the machines, thinking it'd only be a matter of time before they started attacking him again. "Now this is getting super weird...I bet this is all just a bunch of mumbo jumbo to try and mess with my head." He was halfway towards the Tower, when the machine's eyes went from its docile yellow color to bloodshot red.
However, the machines actually went away from him, because their targets were the two androids chasing after Sora; Devola and Popola.
"Oh no, Devola, Popola! I'm coming!"
Much to his surprise, Popola threw herself at the machines and was cutting them down left and right like a battle android. Devola wasn't too far behind her either. Ultimately, the machines were no match for Devola and Popola because as they saw it, if they lost, it would mean failing humanity twice, a burden they couldn't bear.
With the machines out of the way, Popola stomped over to Sora, somehow looking more pissed at him than she did the machines.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" She yelled.
"What're you talking about?! I have to take this Tower down!"
"You don't have to do anything! This is OUR burden to bear and you're not going to die for something you didn't start!"
"I could say the same thing! The machines want me, not you guys! Let me finish them off myself, they're no match for me!"
"You don't know that! Maybe they want you or maybe they want something out of you! Please...if you're going to walk right into the machine's stronghold then at least let us accompany you.
"What the- speak for yourself! I vote we all go back to the camp instead of walking into the obvious trap," Devola said.
"No, I'm not running away!" Sora said.
"...Alright then. I guess putting our lives in danger is a lot less boring than running the shop." She crossed her arms. "So how are we gonna get the Tower open anyway, looks like it's hacking locked."
Sora smiled at her, waving his keyblade around. "Watch this!" He ran to the entrance and despite the hundreds of years of technological development that went into the Tower, it unlocked just like any old door by his keyblade.
"Wow, so it's a sword with the properties of a key," Popola said with a laugh.
"Yeah, that's a good way to put it..." But as Sora was about to step inside, he felt an eerie sensation that made him pause. "Something's up. It has to be the heartless!" He turned around and his suspicions were correct because multiple shadows were possessing the empty machine husks left after the battle.
Gripping his keyblade, Sora pursued the heartless-machine abomination, however, when he swung his keyblade at it, the heartless split into two. One of them continued fighting with Sora to keep him engaged while the other slithered away, hunting down Devola and Popola like a predator to prey. He tried to go after the second heartless, but it was fast-moving so he shot a Thundaga spell at it, hoping it would be enough to destroy it.
It wasn't.
"A̸̟̔Ḁ̸̿Ā̶̟Ă̴̢A̸͖̾A̵̱̔A̶̗͝A̴̹̒Ḁ̶͆A̴̼͒A̵͈͋H̷̩̉A̶͔͌H̷̘̐Ả̴͉H̴͔́a̸̛̠ḧ̷̭́H̸̳͐H̶̨̋H̸̜͌Ä̵͚H̵͙̃Â̷̝H̵̞̎A̶̩̒H̷̳͛A̷̼̚Ḧ̷̰́Ḁ̸̛H̷̰͒a̵̝͝Ạ̷̾H̴̘̉Ä̸̺́H̷̖͐A̸̩͝Á̵̪H̷̠͝Ả̴̞"
The heartless revealed the multiple EMP machines running along its back like a set of spines that absorbed most of his attack.
At that point, Popola charged at the heartless herself and all Devola could see was her sister's death play out over and over again in her head. So without giving as much as a second thought to her actions, she dove in front of Popola and got impaled through the chest by a mass of black tendrils.
"DEVOLA!" Popola clung onto her sister who was bleeding out.
"You...okay, sis?"
"Devola...no...no- I can't do this without you! You can't leave me!" She sobbed. "That's what we promised, that we wouldn't survive alone! That's why we're twins, that's why you're my sister!"
"I know...I was being selfish. I'm sorry." Devola reached her hand out to wipe away Popola's tears. "...I'm sorry."
All Popola focused on was her sister, because she was her world. She didn't care that the heartless was slowly closing in on her, snaking its cold tendrils around her body. She didn't care whether she lived or died anymore. She didn't care. She didn't care. She didn't care. She didn't—
"Popola!" Sora slashed through the black tendrils and the heartless recoiled back in pain. He transformed Weight of the World into Ex-Machina, launching both of the machine arms at it while it was still down.
When his machine arms returned to him, the heartless was ready to attack again. The EMP machines in its body began charging up until the heartless fired a ball of electricity at him that he ended up blocking. While not the best strategy to use the metal machine arms as a shield against an electrical attack, it was a calculated move to unlock his final keyblade transformation for Weight of the World; Virtuous Oath.
His keyblade adopted the appearance of 2B and 9S's own signature samurai swords from where it got its namesake. With a new transformation also came a speed boost and in a matter of seconds, the heartless's 'head' was lying on the ground.
Now that both of the heartless were gone, Sora cast Curaga on Devola, but she still remained unresponsive.
"I'm so sorry Popola...this is all my fault. Is she gonna be okay at least?"
"She has to...I...I can't live without her. Listen to me Sora, whatever you do from here on out, please be safe. There's too many people who love you not to come back home to them, okay?" She picked up Devola, holding her close in her arms. "So...don't keep us waiting."
While Popola was leaving, Sora was staring down the Tower.
"Let's do this."
The stark white, geometrical design of the Tower bore a striking resemblance to the Copied City, all the way down to the empty, foreboding atmosphere that reminded Sora of just how lonely he would be traversing by himself. 'It won't be the same without A2 screaming at me about something, but I have to do this for her and all of the androids. I'm who the machines want.'
Untethering himself from the fear holding him back, he ran out of the lobby and into the winding staircase that led into a tall, white church tower.
"Whoa, this place is a lot bigger than I imagined!" There was a vast abyss of nothingness that stretched out for seemingly forever. 'Wonder how far someone would have to fall just to reach the bottom?' A question he nearly found out the answer to when a large body heartless slammed him from behind and he flew off the staircase.
Luckily, Sora was quick to run up the side of the wall and hit the large body with a Fira spell. Several more heartless crawled out from the darkness in retaliation, their black bodies that popped out against the white ground made it easy for Sora to target and they went down as fast as they came into existence.
"Gotta try harder than that to catch me off guard!"
?-?-?: We are sorry to hear your disapproval of the Tower System Services! Hopefully, the room just ahead will contain a setting far more to your liking!
'I really hate the voice, but if it's just gonna be more heartless than I shouldn't have anything to worry about.' He continued forward, defeating more heartless along the way, then made it to the doors of the church tower. What was inside, however, wasn't at all what he expected to find. In fact, it was far worse.
D̷͖̈ E̷̘͊ S̸̻̄ T̷̞̉ I̷̙̔ N̷̢̍ Y̸̨͑ ̴̡̈Ĭ̵͜ S̷̤̑ L̵͇͒ Ǎ̵͖ N̸̥͌ D̸̯̈́ S̷̘̆
Inside the church tower was a data recreation of Destiny Islands, the one place he could only dream about seeing again and now he was walking along the sandy shores as if he never left. "...This is so wrong. None of this is real...how do they even know about this place?"
"But this is what you want, isn't it?"
Turning around, he saw not just Riku and Kairi, but the rest of the Guardians of Light, just standing there and smiling at him.
"You're home," 'Kairi' said, offering her hand to him.
"You...you know about the others too?"
"Pretty good recreations, right? Believe me, it took quite the extraction of data to orchestrate all of this, but it was well worth it." 'Kairi' walked closer to him and he felt his world spinning around on itself. "Are those humans what you've been trying to hide from us? If so, what a wonderfully kept secret."
"Nice try, but I'm not letting you get under my skin! I'm finding a way out of here!"
'Kairi' pulled out a machine sword and the rest of the Guardians of Light followed suit, each of them wielding weapons ranging from machine axes to spears.
"Not so fast. You're not getting out of this." 'Kairi' rushed in on Sora first so he had no choice but to lock swords with her. While they were engaged in combat, she gave him the most sinister-looking smile that genuinely sent chills down his spine. 'Don't freak out Sora. It's just a machine. It's just a machine. It's just a machine.'
Sora pushed her off, then tried to run away, but 'Roxas' and 'Xion' were hot on his trail with that same look on their faces. He ended up being cornered by 'Lea' who swung his axe down on him. While he managed to roll out of the way before having his head cleaved off, he had to cast a split second Reflect on himself to protect against a flurry of sword attacks from 'Roxas'.
Once he broke away from the three of them, he ran towards the ocean water, avoiding flying spears from 'Ventus' and 'Terra on his way. "If I'm so important then why do you keep trying to kill me?!"
"You won't die, but sooner or later, you'll fight back and I'd pick up the pace if I were you if you don't want to lose an arm," 'Riku' said.
Sora felt a hand grasp tightly at the back of his head. It was 'Aqua', who somehow got behind him undetected. Acting solely on fighting reflexes, he grabbed Aqua's arm and twisted it towards her back. He didn't intend to break her arm, but it snapped off like a tree branch anyways, revealing all the wires and machinery her actual body was composed of.
Despite the reality of 'Aqua's' severed arm being a machine one, it all felt so real to him, and at that point, he completely lost it.
"Ah...AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
His own screaming was the last thing he remembered because everything else that happened after that was a blur. All that remained were destroyed machine bodies scattered across an empty church tower. Destroyed machine bodies that looked like his friends.
Sora fell down to his knees, wrapping his arms around his head.
.
.
.
—
A2 was crouched down behind an overgrowth of bushes where she patiently waited for that sweet moment when the moose would be calmly drinking out of the pool of water. Wholly unaware it would become a plate of barbecued meat soon if she had her way.
Pod 713: 'Moose' target locked. Proposal: Proceed in a stealthy manner as not to alert the animal.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it."
Pod 713: Only one affirmation is necessary.
She muttered something under her breath, then proceeded to aim her sniper at the moose's head. The moose must've smelled her blood lust from her position because the moment she pulled the trigger, the moose lifted its head so fast, the bullet only ended up scraping its chin. Worst of all, the moose was now staring directly at her just to rub it in.
"Shit!" Disregarding all notions of stealth, she began shooting multiple rounds at the moose, none of which hit its target. "Now I'm getting pissed off!"
Pod 713: Proposal: Return this pod to its initial form in order to allow for more precise marksmanship.
"What, are you saying I'm a bad shot?"
Pod 713: Affirmative.
"Or you're just a shitty gun." A2 went out into the forest clearing to relocate the moose, but it appeared to be long gone. "Damn, so much for that." She made the mistake of letting her guard down only for the same moose to ram its antlers into her, then it finally ran off before she got a chance to shoot back at it.
For the longest time, A2 wouldn't get up from the ground out of shame that she got bested by a moose of all things.
Pod 713: Warning: 'Moose' lifeform detected. Evacuate the premise.
"That's it!" She stood up, then snatched her pod. "Your goddamn code's gonna be rearranged when I'm through with you!"
Pod 713: Please refrain from physical acts of violence against this pod.
She threw it back in the air. "...You're lucky you got decent combat abilities or I would've canned you by now."
"—A2! Heeeey!" She searched the area to locate the voice, but Emil basically teleported right in front of her with how fast he moved.
"Huh- don't sneak up on me like that!"
"Haha, sorry! I didn't mention it before because you were threatening me with my life, but cool outfit by the way. It reminds me of when times were simpler..."
"Let's cut to the chase, what do you want from me this time?"
"Actually, I just saw Sora running around the City Ruins earlier and figured something was wrong since he was by himself."
"That stupid, idiot kid..."
She made her way out of the Forest and into the City Ruins, knowing exactly where he was headed towards. "...I got trampled over by a goddamn moose for him and he leaves anyway?! I guess everything he said in the camp was just bullshit!"
A2 slid to a stop when she spotted the Tower in the distance. "There it is." She descended to the base where she ran into 2B and 9S.
"You guys are here too, huh."
"Anemone sent us a distress call," 2B said. "I know we may not all exactly be on the best terms, but we need to work together in order to save Sora, so let's put aside our differences for his sake."
"Says the android who almost killed me."
"Likewise, but we can either do this fighting or working together. Your call."
"Tch, fine, let's not waste any more time than we already have."
The androids went inside the Tower, entering into an enclosed lobby area that functioned as an elevator. While they waited to reach the next level, 2B filled in A2 on more of the details surrounding Anemone's distress call.
"Machines attacked the camp as well and apparently they were shouting Sora's name," 2B said.
"Sounds like bait to get him to the Tower," A2 said, she leaned back on the wall. "So how did everyone hold up, were there any casualties?"
"Unfortunately there were. Devola's in critical condition, along with a few other Resistance androids."
"Devola..." She shook her head. "I shouldn't have left them alone at the camp."
"I think there's some hope left, 21B went over to help out and she's good at what she does. Glad to have her around again," 9S said.
The lobby door opened up to the new level where they were met with a winding staircase that extended in an endless void. At the end waited an ominous church tower.
"Whoa, look at this place, it's a technological feat," 9S said.
"Yeah, it's also made by machines," A2 said. "What's the purpose of this structure anyway?"
Pod 713: Unknown. Proposal: gather additional data.
"Could you get any more useless?"
"From what I know, this Tower is a cannon and it's aimed somewhere in space," 2B said.
"What do you mean by 'somewhere'?"
"That the location's 'to be determined'."
"Hey guys...I think we're being followed, I just saw something move," 9S said.
A2 and 2B turned around to check, but they saw nothing behind them.
"You're probably just anxious," 2B said.
"I guess you're right...so, what're we gonna do about the heartless with Sora being gone and everything?"
"If we can't escape in time, we'll die a slow, painful death."
"You sure are a joy to be around," A2 said.
"Ah- w-well I'm sure we'll run into Sora before that happens," 9S said, trying to lighten the mood.
They continued their ascent upstairs, eventually passing through the church tower. Even though it was empty, 9S swore he saw the shadows move.
"Okay, that time I definitely saw something!"
A2 and 2B did another surveillance within the church, once again finding nothing of interest so they continued their trek up the fragmented stairs.
"You need to calm the hell down and stop wasting time, Scanner," A2 said.
"I'm sorry...these heartless are just really freaking me out!"
"Why don't you think about something else other than impending death," 2B said.
"You make it sound easy, but...okay. So, uh, A2, why did you leave the camp? Could've avoided a lot of trouble if you didn't."
"I wouldn't have left if I thought he would go behind my back like that."
"I'm sure it was just Sora wanting to protect us."
"I know, that's the problem. What if ... I wanted to do the same for him?"
"Of course you do, you're an android and Sora acting unpredictably is to be expected, he's a human," 2B said.
"I don't care if he's a human. He's supposed to be my friend first, he shouldn't have to always put everything on himself!"
"He probably felt like he had to with the heartless being around," 9S said.
"If you don't shut up about the heartless already! Look, we're almost at the end of this shit..."
When the stairs ran out, they found themselves walking into an arched hallway where a doorway awaited for them. Inside the next room was, unexpectedly, a library. It was as bleach white and barren as the rest of the Tower, but it at least offered a change of scenery from staring out into vacant space.
"Whoa...this place is so cool!" 9S exclaimed, running out to one of the bookcases.
"What is this place?" A2 asked.
Pod 713: Hypothesis: It is a representation of a library.
A2 and 2B exchanged the same confused glances.
"What's that?"
Pod 713: A library is a data-storage facility constructed by past human civilization.
"That sounds inconvenient, but I'm guessing they want us to see whatever data's stored inside," A2 said.
"We'll divy up the work. I'll take the ground level and you can see if there's anything on the top floor."
"You know, I bet that Scanner's already got tons of data, where is he anyway?"
"...Good question. He's likely somewhere on the top floor. I'm sure you'll run into him up there."
"Lucky me." A2 went up the stairs, soon finding a site for data extraction on the bottom shelf of a bookcase. "Great, looks like I'll have to hack into this...and no sign of that Scanner either. Pod, help me out."
Pod 713: Affirmative. Hacking-interface access rights granted to YoRHa unit A2.
"Let's get this over with."
HACKING COMPLETE
Archive obtained:
00-77 KNOWN LOCATIONS OF HUMAN OCCUPANCY [INCOMPLETE] [FURTHER INPUT REQUIRED]
[SMALL ISLAND + TOWN- - - - - - - - - -COORDINATES CONFIRMED] [MX-89321989]
[CASTLE + TOWN- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -COORDINATES CONFIRMED] [FF-X 702178]
[TOWN WITH SETTING SUN- - - - - - - - COORDINATES CONFIRMED] [NO I-X 3123214]
[FOREST WITH TOWER- - - - - - - - - - - COORDINATES UNCONFIRMED] [ADDITIONAL DATA REQUIRED]
[LARGE CASTLE IN SNOW- - - - - - - - - -COORDINATES UNCONFIRMED] [ADDITIONAL DATA REQUIRED]
[FURTHER DATA INACCESSIBLE]
"...This doesn't make any sense. What the hell is a 'town'?"
Pod 713: A 'town' is a developed area of human settlement.
"This must be an old archive then, but why would they access something like this now? I should check up on 2B to see if she has anything." But when she went down to the lower level, 2B was gone.
"What- don't tell me she ran off too!"
Suddenly, one of the chandeliers from the ceiling collapsed right in front of A2, shattering upon impact. As she blocked the resulting debris with her forearms she heard a voice screaming at her.
"—A2! GET OUT OF HERE!"
"That was the Scanner!" A2 whipped her head around until spotting a giant heartless crawling across the ceiling with both 2B and 9S merged within its body. The heartless grinned at her with its mouth full of razor-sharp teeth then lunged at her.
"Shit!" Running back to the top floor so she could at least get some higher ground wasn't an option either because the heartless stretched out its claws around her, preventing escape from its clutches. She watched as it pried its mouth open, showcasing the endless dark pit that awaited her.
"If this is how it ends, I won't go out without a fight!"
NieR: [O]blivion
The Death of The Curse
A/N: Hope everyone's doing okay during this shitstorm!
Anyways, I'm going to be doing a thing for the last chapter. If you want, you can give me a comment/quote/phrase/dialogue/whatever type of writing that has important meaning to you and I'll incorporate it in the last chapter. Won't be accepting any memes though, no clownery here