"So...you okay with it?"

A2 looked at 4S, studying his face, as if trying to see behind his eyes to the place where their shared code was stored. Reaching out, she took the side of his face in her hand.

"Does it hurt?"

"No. Nines said compiling extra code can be a strain on your processor, but nothing serious. It just makes you tired and prone to overheating."

"And that's it?"

"He mentioned headaches and sensitivity to light. Also broke his fan when B9 was born. So...note to self. I should probably have the twins look me over anyway. Put it in writing."

She nodded, the hand on his cheek having moved to smooth over his hair.

"I wish I could see it. Them. Something."

4S smiled for her. "There's not much to see right now, but I could show you if you want."

She shied back at that, withdrawing her hand to clutch it in her lap.

"Or not."

"No it's just…" she fidgeted and looked out over the forest. Their perch on one of the turret windows afforded an impressive view of the tumbled stone walls and endless stretch of treetops. 4S sat silent while she scavenged for words and the order in which to speak them.

"It's not that I'm not good with rookies," she said at last. "I'm not good at losing them. Not since…" her voice broke, words collapsing abruptly into silence. It was several minutes before she found her voice.

"They were just kids. First time out, and they all died. All of them except me. I lost so many people. We all did. I'm not saying I had it worse. But it was hard, okay? It was hard losing them. My squad. The Bunker. 2B and 9S dying all the damn time… I helped build Pascal's kids a slide and then they… They..."

She inhaled raggedly, shook her head, eyes bright with held tears.

"Do you know how scared I was, how scared I still am to love you? To love this baby? Because if I lose either one of you…"

Leaning forward, 4S touched her arm, snapping her out of the spiral of horrible memories. For a moment she just stared at him. He held her gaze, ready to wait for as long as it took for her to come back to him. A bird out somewhere among the green twittered its little nonsense song, which made her smile. 4S dared to relax a little and took her hand. She squeezed it to let him know she was alright.

"I think… I think it's like I said to 9S. There's nothing but pain in the past. There's no need to dwell on it anymore. I forgave him. He forgave me. I think maybe it's time I forgave myself. I can't go on being afraid. I already know I don't want to be alone. Not anymore."

Leaning forward, 4S squeezed her hand. A2 smiled and squeezed back.

"So...parents?"

She nodded. "Parents."

4S grinned. "Cool."

They sat in companionable silence for a while, the forest murmuring a wordless conversation around them.

"Can I talk to you about something else?" 4S asked. A2 gave him a one-shouldered shrug, an indication that if he wanted to speak, she would listen.

"42S is feeling really lost. It's been four years since he was last active. We both know how much can happen in four years, at least if you're on the front lines."

She nodded quietly. 4S went on.

"We- my brothers and I- were trying to compare notes and realized there's still a lot of empty space we can't account for."

"Makes sense. 9S kept getting killed or formatted, you were here most of the time, and what happened to the two younger ones again?"

"11S spent several months underwater after the Grun attack, and 32S got trashed his first battle and then spent the next year running around the desert with the guy who rescued him."

"So neither of them know much either."

4S shook his head. "Not really. I've been consistently active the longest, but I was in the castle archives most of the time. I don't know much more about what went on than the rest of them."

Looking down, A2 studied her folded hands. For a long moment, she did not speak.

"...I was there," she said at last. "Not for all of it, but a lot of it. If I wasn't directly involved, I at least had an idea of what was happening with YoRHa and the Resistance and the 14th Machine War. I dunno if I'm the best person to tell 42S, but if you or your brothers want to know something, I can try and help you fill in the blanks. If you want."

"I'm sure they'd appreciate whatever you want to share."

Reaching, he took her hands and stretched to kiss her cheek. A2 huffed a small laugh and smiled.

"...did you mean what you said? About letting me see?"

"Yeah. We should probably get off the window ledge first."

"Okay." She hopped down and held out her arms for him.

4S slid down, dropping into the hug she had waiting for him.

"Alright," he said, gently tugging on her neck so that her forehead was touching his. "Close your eyes…"

She did, leaning her head against his. Framing her face in his hands, 4S closed his eyes, and took a mental step back. Opening a channel between them was easy enough, though it took conscious effort not to relax into simply sharing thoughts and emotions as they did when they made love. Instead, he pulled her over and into his mind, giving her a moment to find her footing and materialize next to him. Automatically, she grabbed his hand, as if frightened of getting lost in the maze of his thoughts.

'It's okay,' he assured her. 'I've got you.'

'This is weird,' she commented. 'Your brain is really...neat. Organized.'

4S pinched his lips together in a smile so he wouldn't laugh. 'Thank you. I tidied up especially for you.'

That made her laugh and she shoved him playfully. 4S shouldered her back, finally allowing himself to laugh as well.

'C'mon, she's this way.'

'She?'

'It feels like a 'she'? If that makes sense? Nines said the same about B9.'

A2 nodded, checking her longer stride so she wouldn't overtake him. 4S led her down the pathway of his thoughts with a destination clear in mind. Before she could see it, she could hear it. A small voice gurgling and babbling to itself, as if fascinated by its own nonsense. Dropping 4S' hand, she quickened her pace.

'Is that her?'

'Yeah.'

As 4S had said, there wasn't much to see. The combined fragments of their code as yet didn't take up that much space in his temporary memory storage, yet it seemed to recognize them. It gave an excited squeal and giggled happily. If it had had any shape to it, it might have reached for her.

'Hi baby,' A2 said shyly, stretching out a hand but then pulling it back, afraid to touch. 'I don't want to mess her up.'

'You won't,' 4S assured her, coming up to put an arm around her. 'You can't.'

'You sure?'

'Yeah.'

4S placed a hand between her shoulder blades, warm and comforting. Reassured, she stepped forward and reached. The fragments of code returned the gesture, tiny cubes of information converging to form a miniature hand.

'Da!'

'I've been telling her about you, about her daddy.'

A2 swallowed hard. 'She already knows me…'

'She should. Half her code is yours.'

A2 smiled, the baby's little digits poking at her palm curiously.

'Does she have a name?'

'I thought maybe you should pick. You're better at that sort of thing than I am.'

A2 had her doubts about that. The baby pressed its little fingers against her hand. She tried to hold it, but her own fingers overwhelmed it. The blocks of code scattered and reformed, coalescing to grab hold of her finger. Even the largest of the baby's digits was less than half the length of her pinky. So skeletal and fragile, it hardly seemed real.

Skeletal...

A memory flickered in the back of her mind. Another tiny, delicate hand pulling her from cold and isolation into the sunlight. A grinning death's head of a face, unblinking eyes still wet with tears.

Emil?

Wait, no. There had been another with the same face, a body more bone and machinery than flesh. The mental image was almost entirely imagination, only words tying it to something familiar: "Maybe my mind has been confusing her with my sister the whole time…"

When was this? Where had it come from? Were these memories even hers?

There were names, foreign as the script on the resource recovery units, yet familiar as her own body. Names she did not remember, but knew by heart. Names that had only survived, because she had. Perhaps they deserved a chance to be spoken and cherished again.

'I'd like to call her 'Halua'.'