"CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!"

A2 felt the ground start to rumble. The violet-eyed machines glimpsed at one-another before turning towards the distant voice.

"CHARGE, MY PRETTIES!" The rumbling grew stronger. "TAKE BACK OUR HOME!"

The entire environment shook as if the earth was quaking, giving way to a sudden creaking of wood and rummaging of leaves. Wildlife, an entire stampede of them, came rushing into the clearing with a cloaked machine mounted on a boar up front, and A2 was right in their path.

The violet-eyed foes braced themselves, but there was nothing that could protect them from such numerous tusks, antlers and hooves. Smaller machines went flying in a barrage of plates and screws, flailing their arms all around before exploding. Larger foes' efforts to guard against or divert the wave were fruitless; their towering figures collapsed one by one to be torn apart beneath the powerful stride. The screams were as unrelenting as the herd itself.

A2 darted her sight around quick as the wave of destruction approached her. She located an aged trunk not yet claimed by the flames that had curved over into the more dense brush, likely having timbered from the meteor's impact. The wounded android sprinted towards it, her dead arms flailing around as she leapt off the bent trunk to boost herself higher into the trees. She made do with just her legs, minding her footing while jumping off smaller branches further up into the canopy. A2 managed to avoid what few pockets of flames threatened her rise, but she soon lost her balance, slipping off about thirty feet above the stampede. She curved her knees as the backs of her legs slammed onto the branch. That sharp, splintering pain from the impact intensified with each passing moment as A2 strained her lower body to hold on, upside-down, her dead arms dangling towards the earth along with her long hair. She hung there for over a minute, praying that the branch was sturdy enough to hold until the carnage down below was over. Finally, the stampede started to thin. It grew less dense until one last moose galloped through, sending a crawling Biped that had lost three of its limbs to the skies towards the hanging android with a strong buck of its antlers. The moose ran in a few excited circles before continuing the way its companions had galloped.

The Biped exploded, and the creaking branch A2 had been hanging from gave way with the machine's final destructive wave. She went falling into the field of ruin, barely managing to stick the landing on two numb legs. She seated herself down and gave a quick glance at her surroundings, dumbfounded at what had just transpired. Machine bits were everywhere, heads here and torsos there, a sea of dented bolts and crushed screws sprinkled between the more defined parts all throughout the clearing. Some of the more intact machines shuffled or crawled about, that spark of their miserable synthetic lives still not fully snuffed out.

A2 finally managed to restore function to her right arm. She braced it over her chest as more pain from her struggle set in.

"I-it showed us so much!" One of the dying machines called out to her. It rolled back and forth, limbless. "To be more than a cinder in the flame, a flake in the avalanche, but we f-failed!" All of the surviving machines cried out together.

"Failed! FAILED! FAILED! FAILED, FAILED, FAILED, FAILED, FAILED, FAILED, FAILED-" The shrieking came to an abrupt stop, andthen they exploded.

The lone android at last let herself breathe. She felt the functioning return to her left arm, and she stretched both out making sure they moved like they were supposed to. She would most definitely need maintenance before feeling a hundred percent, but that could wait. A2 gave the ruin a more intent look, setting her eyes on a dented Goliath corpse that had its ruined arms curved into its torso, almost like it was protecting something. She rose to stand and began moving towards it.

"HELLO THERE." A voice screamed greeting on her right, not three steps away. A2 drew her weapon. "NO NO NO, PLEASE! WE MEAN YOU NO HARM!"

Its hands were raised above its head. The boar it sat on turned to flee, and the rider tumbled off, landing on its backside. "OUCH!"

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't cut you in half," said A2, pointing the blade towards the newcomer. "You and your friends almost flattened me. How do I know you're not with them?" She fixed the tip of her sword between its eyes that were of the traditional white-gold hue. "How do I know this isn't a trick?"

"PLEASE! MERCY!" The machine shuffled away from her, shaking. "NO TRICKS, I PROMISE! THOSE GUYS, THEY STOMPED THROUGH THE FOREST WITHOUT ANY CARE FOR OUR FRIENDS, SO WE HAD TO… WAIT!" It paused. "I RECOGNIZE YOU!"

A2 pulled the blade back a bit.

"YEAH! YOU'RE ONE OF THOSE ANDROIDS WHO HELPED WITH THE MEDICINE! ONE OF MY ANIMALS WAS SICK, REMEMBER? YOU LOOK DIFFERENT, BUT YOUR NOSE, YOUR FRAME IS EXACTLY THE SAME, EXCEPT NOW YOU'RE NOT WEARING ONE OF THOSE WEIRD BLINDFOLDS! AND YOU'RE MORE NAKED!" He stood himself up. "WHERE'S YOUR FRIEND?"

She sighed. "You're mistaken. We've never met." The sword vanished in a puff of particles. "And would you stop shouting?!"

"SHOUTING? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" His spherical head turned to glimpse at the debris around them. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THE HECK THAT WAS ALL ABOUT? I'VE NEVER SEEN COLORS LIKE THAT BEFORE FROM OTHER MACHINES, NETWORKED OR OTHERWISE!"

A2 sighed again. "No. I haven't seen it either, but I'm going to look around. Can you leave me in peace, please, so I can focus?"

"PEACE? FOCUS?" He looked around again as he spoke. "BUT WHAT IF MORE OF THEM COME? WE WON'T BE HERE TO HELP!"

"I don't need your help," replied the lone android, an eye on the shrinking flames around them. "Just…go put out the fires or something."

"AHHHHHHH!" He shouted. "YOU'RE RIGHT! I CAN'T CHANCE THIS SPREADING! MY FRIENDS WILL BURN! OKAY, YOU GATHER DATA, I'LL TAKE CARE OF THE FLAMES!" The machine made some sound resembling a whistle, and soon a white moose made its approach. "THIS IS WENDY. SHE'LL HELP YOU IF YOU NEED IT. SHE'S MUCH BETTER FOR RIDING THAN THE OTHERS. I TRAINED HER!"

"Great. Thanks." A2 stepped away, but the machine didn't move. It just stood there, staring at her.

"ARE YOU SURE WE HAVEN'T MET BEFORE? I SWEAR YOU LOOK JUST LIKE-"

"No. Stop standing around! Go put out those fires!"

"RIGHT! YES!" He sprinted towards the trees and picked up a machine head. "THIS SHALL SERVE AS A VESSEL FOR WATER! TO THE STREAM!"

A2 sighed as he made his exit. She stepped through the debris, the ruined bits of metal clinking with each step. Something weird was going on here. What was with that color? In all her years spent fighting since the Pearl Harbor descent, the only light she'd seen emanating from the machines was that of the white-gold variety. Sure, other variants such as green and red had been witnessed recently in growing numbers, but the nature of these differing cases was clear: green was adopted by those who'd disconnected from the network and wished for a more peaceful existence, most under guidance of the unit known as Pascal-

Pascal…

The lone android paused for a moment before returning to her thoughts. Red-eyed machines were a result of whatever the hell Eve had done to them through the network, but not all; more came up after the Tower's rise, notably around the amusement park, and these ones were a bit different. They weren't outright hostile towards androids, preferring to go after and consume other machines rather than engage in combat with their actual enemy. Sure, the consistency behind these differences in color was limited, but these violet machines… There was something even more unsettling about them. Their voices, for one, were horrifying to listen to; they changed pitch mid-sentence and seemed to speak together, as one, in some chaotic chorus that was just coherent enough to convey its words. What was weirder, however, was that some of the individual voices seemed to completely change regardless of whatever mannerisms or gender they were trying to emulate. Each machine up until this point networked or not has had one consistent voice that they communicated with. The wider range of data A2 received in her time with Pod-042 also backed this up, so what was the deal with these machines?

And what the hell was drawing them here?

A2 paused, trying to stop her thoughts from running wild. This wasn't like her. What was happening? She sounded more like a Scanner. Just as she was once again wondering if 9S's curiosity had rubbed off on her, she noticed that there had been a strange hum in the air.

"As one we shall decipher what it means to be not a flake, but an avalanche, not a drop but a storm."

A2 darted her vision around.

"It shall teach us what it means to have breath. United, breath will lead us to its voice, and we will show it ISOLATION."

That time, the voice was different, higher pitched and masculine, but coming from the same source?

"Fear not, child… Children. We will…show…you…"

A2 stepped onto that dead machine she'd inspected minutes before. She pulled against its curved arms, straining through the wounds from the fight. They moved just enough for something to fall out from them into the dirt. This was another anomaly. Why would a Goliath choose to protect some little object as it was being trampled to death, rather than one of its smaller machine 'brothers?'

The lone android knelt down and shuffled through the debris. It wasn't long before the object not of machine nature was unveiled, scorched a slight black and half-broken, blinking that same dark violet pitch with lights normally colored white-gold.

It sparked to life in A2's grasp, that anomalous shade brightening to a consistent hue.

"Greetings," it said in a deeper, more elder feminine voice. "We… I am Pod designation 006, assigned caretaker of the YoRHa moon base."

The frosted terrain was covered in machine bits. Everything had grown eerily silent following the horde's dispersal, save for the occasional metallic pitter patter of a settling machine corpse. 2B stepped forward and kicked a dismembered bronze head away that came to rest against her settling shoe. She was careful not to lose her footing in the layers of mess. The ground had become quite unfavorable for heels.

2B raised her head higher, listening for any sort of sound. They'd decided to do a sweep for survivors to try and figure out what in the hell it was that transpired, which in spite of the dark implications, the seasoned combat model couldn't help but feel a slight amusement. Here they were gathering data like the old days, but with a twist in that they were searching for living machines to interrogate rather than analyzing a given enemy variant's prowess through fighting it. Everything was so different now, but not different enough to move away from her memories of pure light. Nines was still with her, and upon the sudden sinking in of these realizations backed by a brief reminiscing of the good times, the former execution model felt almost blessed. A slight smile crept up on 2B's lips. She would find a way to help 9S get through whatever this thing was, and do everything in her power to keep him safe, keep that pure light intact.

"Scan complete: No machine life signatures detected."

2B gasped at the sudden voice of Pod-042. She refocused herself. "Just as I thought. I don't think we're going to find any. Those other machines were relentless."

"Inquiry: May this unit make a more personable inquiry?"

2B looked up at the pod, a bit confused. Asking before going on about one thing or another was a rather uncharacteristic thing for a pod to do, the nature of such a question even more so. "Uh, sure. Go ahead."

"Inquiry: Are you alright?"

She tilted her head. 2B wasn't sure what to expect, but the to-the-point brevity and the fact that such a question had been voiced in the absence of a noticeably major physical injury threw the former execution model for a loop. "Huh?"

"The number of seconds you've remained here has far surpassed the average length of time models of your nature have been recorded to require in order to accurately determine survivors in a given area of this scale, so this unit took the liberty of performing a scan to silence any doubts that may have resulted in significant delay."

And there was that long-windedness that the pods had been known for. "No. It was nothing like that." 2B paused. "Uh, I mean…" She'd never spoken with a pod like this before, or at least not as far as she could remember. It was strange. "I'm fine. I was just… I was just thinking about something."

"Acknowledged." Pod-042 drifted lower and to her other side. She followed it with her sight. "This unit hopes that these inner processes have been of good things. Happy things."

2B reflexively curved up a concealed eyebrow, almost taken aback. "What?!"

"Apologies." Pod-042 hovered down to her eye level. "This unit did not mean to incite confusion. Explanation: Unit 9S's state has compelled this unit to delve deeper into compiled records of humanity regarding such ailments. One method that was shown to produce favorable results was regular sequences of therapeutic counseling promoting positivity, commonly described among social circles with the term 'therapy.' This unit has made the decision to adopt this practice to the best of its ability, where and when applicable at the permission of unit 2B, or unit Nines, for the purpose of…" The pod took a moment to consider its words. "To provide purer brightness in the dim light of everything awful that has transpired." Pod-042 paused. 2B just kept staring. "Or this unit will rescindthis adoption and continue its prior level of operational functions, if unit 2B would prefer."

2B had no clue. This was such an odd subject of conversation to have with Pod-042. It was starting to sound almost poetic, one of the last terms 2B would have used to describe a pod's speech until this moment. With how much the world was changing, it was starting to seem that even the pods couldn't escape it, but with the unknowable situation at the Resistance Camp, that strange object in the sky, and this sudden destructive horde of machines, she hadn't made up her mind quite yet regarding the overall positivity of this change. It had the air of an ill omen, and now this strange conversation out of nowhere…

Wait, did Pod-042 call 9S "Nines?"

"2B!" She turned and looked up at the source of the call. 9S and Pod-153 came hovering down, the android's boots sending some debris clinging about with his landing. "I got a helping ride from a boar. No survivors. The rest of those weird machines have moved on in pretty much every direction." He paused with a sigh, glancing over his left shoulder. "I also swung by the Resistance Camp, which by the way my pod here wouldn't stop telling me to vacate and ignore immediately." As he spoke, 9S glared at Pod-153. "Anyway, it's empty."

Her mouth went agape. "Empty? The camp?"

"Yeah." 9S kicked away a red-plated bolt. "No signs of fighting, no bodies, nothing. It's like they just up and left."

Her mind was racing with possibilities. "Maybe they left for the factory? They scouted ahead, knew that damned army was coming, moved out of its way?"

"Maybe." He folded his arms and looked to the sky. "I don't know, this just feels weird. I feel like that thing we saw has something to do with all this."

She gave him a long, lingering look, folding her own arms together as she focused her strong, veiled gaze on his entire being.

"2B, I'm fine. I told you, I didn't want to chance us both falling into that chaos. Out of everything I've ever learned, all the things I've observed, the ancient knowledge I've gathered, there's nothing I'm more certain…" 9S paused, swallowing quick before speaking again. "I can't lose you again."

She felt something in her chest, blinked as warmth settled behind her veiled eyes, but with a practiced effort, 2B managed to keep it all inside and remained focused on the matter at hand. "I could have held you for way longer than it would've taken you to break free, you know that. Hell, I threw you into the same damned building barely an hour prior!" A fragment of that passionate emotion had broken through, and her voice raised a slight pitch with it as she spoke. "Tell me, 9S. What the hell is going on?"

Nines just stared onward as the speech pierced from her lips, the occasional light cringe passing over his face to match the more intensely spoken words. Upon allowing it all to sink in, rather than stomping further away like earlier, 9S lightly stepped towards 2B, the adamancy in his dull blue eyes giving rise to a tinge of unsettlement in the former execution model when compared to his last reaction regarding this subject. 2B slid her foot backward as he came closer, bumping a piece of dead machinery in the process, but just as she moved, 9S halted not half a step away from her. She wasn't sure if he noticed her moving away, but 2B couldn't bring herself off that slight mental edge regardless.

"I won't…" 9S started to speak. "I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said part of me wasn't terrified."

2B released her breath, settling back into a more relaxed stance. "Of?"

9S grasped one of his wrists with his adjacent hand. "The voices."

She let her hands rest at her sides. "I gave no thought to what you said at the camp. I should have, I was… Maybe it would've…" 2B stopped herself, again refocusing on their current conversation. "What about them, exactly?"

"Just, them." He looked over both his shoulders. "Nothing specific about them, just that they were there. It's… They were beyond my control, that's what was so horrifying."

2B somehow kept her posture tall, hiding a brief recollection of her nightmare, or whatever it was, of that horrific opera singer they'd destroyed what felt like a lifetime ago.

"I know I was a mess, 2B, but I've been thinking. I can explain it." He looked towards the ruined site of the Tower, right where the former execution model had held him as he woke, and his eyes squinted a bit as if he were delving deep into thought. "I think they were residual voices from the ark. Echoes. I remember the machines asking if I wanted to go with them, after I fought her. A2. I think that's why I was so compelled to find her, because she was up there with me, and a lot of them were talking about her. They became louder, overwhelming, which is why I couldn't fight at your side. There were so many…" He made a quick glimpse towards the sky. "Now that enough time has passed, they're starting to fade, and I can think more clearly. Our priority should be investigating what that thing was, I'm sure of it. A2 can wait. She can handle herself after all, right?"

"Warning: Moving into proximity of the anomaly is strongly discouraged. Recommendation: Avoid all locations near projected landfall. Continue the search for A2."

"Would you stop?!" 9S lashed out at Pod-153. "What is with you? You pods have always been annoying as all hell, but this is bringing it to a whole new level!"

"Apologies." Pod-153 turned to face him. "This unit did not intend to produce consternation. Explanation: Origin and nature of witnessed anomaly is unknown. Implications from detection data are highly unpleasant. Recommendation: Ignore and avoid at all costs. Continue the search for A2."

"Ugh!" 9S settled a tight grip on his forehead. "2B, a little help here?"

"What detection data?" 2B stepped closer to Pod-153, but then turned to look at her own pod. "What implications?"

"Oh…" Pod-153 made a strange noise, almost like it wished it could've taken something back after having said too much.

"Explanation: Implications from detection data are…heavily unpleasant, and not fully understood," said Pod-042 to its respective android. "Recommendation: Give no further thought to this entity. Continue the search for A2."

2B settled her sight on Nines again. His mouth was opened, a look of extreme, frustrated disbelief across his facial features. "Um, if this is something new, wouldn't that be the last thing we'd want to do?" She moved so that she could see both pods. "That's what we've done since the beginning. Gather intelligence, record combat data if it comes to it. I think I'm with Nines. We should investigate."

"Warning: This course of action by units 9S and 2B are strongly, heavily discouraged." Pod-153 spoke once again. "Readings suggest this may be something new, but individual elements of said readings suggest not."

9S stomped hard in the grass. "What does that even mean?!"

"Explanation: We aren't sure ourselves." Pod-042 drifted to hover between the two androids. "Recorded readings and events following descent suggests high risk of danger, too high," said the pod. "It's…not safe."

"Confirmation: That much is certain," chimed in Pod-153. "Recommendation: Ignore this entity that's fallen from the sky, if not for us, for your own safety. Continue the search for A2."

"Safety?" 9S sounded livid. "Nothing about this damned hellscape of a world is safe!"

"9S, calm down," said 2B while moving closer to him. "Pods, we…understand your concern." She briefly thought of that conversation between herself and Pod-042 minutes earlier. What had gotten into them? "But we need to get to the root of all this. It's our duty to ensure stability planetside so that humanity may one day reclaim this world. It's what we were made for. It's our purpose."

She noticed Nines' gaze on her become a bit more scattered. 2B wrote it off, considering his growing frustration.

"And something's happened to Anemone and her camp. We need to find them, or if they've perished, make sure they're the last lives claimed by whatever the hell this all is."

The pods hovered in place alongside one another, silent as the windless air itself.

"Let's go, Nines. I remember it went down towards the Flooded City."

The two androids started moving. 2B turned to see the pods remaining still. They soon caught up as the four made their way across the crater.

"Yep, that's definitely where they came from!"

The debris that had been covering up the sewage tunnel leading to the Flooded City was carved and pierced straight through, implying a violent, frantic passage by an uncountable horde of machines. There were also streaks and puddles of water scattered about.

"Correlation, and further forward, causation! I knew it! We're on the right track, 2B!" Nines turned her way with a nod.

"I agree, but keep quiet." 2B spoke in a low tone. "We don't know if there's any left in there outside our sensor range. The echo could carry far."

"Oh. Yeah, good point," replied Nines with a slight chuckle. "Well, let's go. I'll take point."

"Understood." 2B fell in behind him, and they continued onward into the tunnel. The pods activated their flashlights, revealing an immediate noticeable difference in the environment.

"Hm. No water to ride down. That's no fun." He spoke almost in a whisper.

"Odd," replied 2B in a similar tone. "There were a few puddles outside, but that was nothing compared to what used to be down here."

"Uh, hm. Maybe the machines are starting to develop ingesting water as some enhanced source of power to improve their capabilities, resulting in that new purple color? Some don't like it or refuse, and the violet machines see that as a sign of weakness, and kill them because of it?"

"Possible, but unlikely," said Pod-042 at a similarly low volume.

"Hey, at least it's a theory based on observation rather than readings," replied 9S.

"Apologies are in order for any misunderstanding, but your tone will be noted for future exchanges, unit Nines."

2B started to snicker, but stopped when she realized what Pod-042 actually said.

"Alert: Machine life form detected." Pod-153 sounded off, and both pods went dark. The two androids crouched into a more subtle stance.

Sure enough, two violet eyes became visible in the distance. They were coming closer at a slow pace, implying they hadn't seen them. Each android lined a respective side of the tunnel, leaning into the walls as to appear less visible. The pods in turn hovered as close to the ceiling as possible. The Stubby approached close in the center of the tunnel, where the water once flowed with the thunderous purpose of shortening the androids' time spent navigating. It stopped between the two, looking left, then right with an innocent curiosity. 9S took the opportunity to lash out with his blade, cutting its left arm clean off. The cursed life form leapt back. 2B dashed forward to finish it, but stopped herself when the thing dropped to its knees.

The Stubby kneeled to them, not for mercy, but rather almost as a display of worship? Whatever this was, it spoke no words, made no effort to attack. It just kept kneeling up and down with its one arm for support towards 9S.

"Um…" 9S hopped a short way back, his sword still in his one-handed grasp.

"Uh, pods? Anything?" 2B looked up to them.

"No data available," replied Pod-042 as it and its red-tinted twin hovered down to the sides of their respective androids. "Machines have been shown to display something resembling faith, but never towards a physical entity, particularly not an android."

2B recalled when she and Pascal descended into the depths of the factory. "That's…what I thought."

The Stubby crawled a little closer to 9S. His sword vanished from his grasp.

"Uh, 2B?"

"I mean, if it's making no effort to threaten us, we have no need to waste time finishing it off, right?"

Just then, another pair of violet eyes lit up close by. This one was a Biped, red-plated and larger. 2B couldn't tell if it just came out from a side passage or if it waited until it was near to uncover its eyes. Regardless, it joined the Stubby in doing the same thing.

"What…?" Nines was visibly taken aback. Soon another Biped, smaller, lit up behind its larger brother. It followed the expression of the other two. Another pair of eyes showed themselves, and another, and another, and soon there were several machines of differing types and sizes, but no larger than the beefier Bipeds.

"I don't…"

2B watched in complete disbelief as Nines voiced his confusion. She glimpsed back towards the city ruins, and sure enough, a similar amount had gathered behind them. They were trapped, but none of the damned things made any violent moves. They just kept kneeling, and bowing towards 9S. The world was going mad, each encounter more insane than the last. 2B couldn't make sense of anything. The silence of the pods suggested they were just as lost.

She prepared to materialize her weapon so that they could continue, but the machines all froze at their lowest point. Their gazes all rose up, and the entire crowd got to their feet. The spherical heads twitched in no consistent pattern as they seemed to further analyze the pair, that anomalous color in their eyes dimming with each sudden movement. Still twitching, the crowd started to part, and soon, each side of the tunnel was lined with machines as far forward and back as the androids could see. They gestured further down the way they were headed, same with the ones behind, their limbs twitching along with the rest of their features. It seemed like their motions were becoming more erratic with each passing second.

"Uh, Nines?" 2B looked right at him for the first time since they entered the tunnel.

"Well, it looks like they want us, or me, to continue on?" He stepped closer to the dead center of the tunnel and turned his companion's way. "What do you think, 2B?"

2B met his eyes with a veiled blink. "I-I don't know." She felt a small, brief, but actual tremble in the back of her throat as she made her reply. "Your call, I guess."

"Alright." Nines rolled his shoulders with a short glimpse at the closest twitching machine. "Let's continue, then."

As he moved forward, 2B looked towards Pod-042, and it turned to look back. It said nothing, but she could almost hear it strongly reiterating its objections. Regardless, she'd told Nines she was with him, so she would follow his lead to the end. Maybe these weird machines were friendly? They hadn't witnessed any violent actions towards an android by this new variant as of yet. As far as they knew, the violet machines attacked their own of different hue, which by extension would imply they could coexist considering that Pascal's village no longer existed. They had no reason to do battle as of yet.

2B felt a tinge of sadness upon her reminder of Pascal and his followers. It wasn't fair. The whole world wasn't fair up until this point, so maybe with their resurrection, these new machines, 2B and Nines had finally caught a break?

Maybe they were closer than ever to the end of this cursed war?

The sunlight hit their retinas. Their guiding host of machines didn't extend outward from the tunnel, but as 2B and Nines passed them out into the daylight, the machines fell in behind, following the androids from about seven steps away. 2B took a quick look around, almost with whiplash.

The area was completely different. Most of the natural, albeit half-sundered, landmass was gone. The structures that once stood on both sides of the tunnel's exit had also seemed to shrink slightly; as they moved closer towards the water, it became clear where their missing roofs and upper floors had gone. Where once the path over the sea had consisted almost solely of fragmented roads, there was now a machined mish-mash of concrete and roadway. Bits and pieces of those once tall, resilient towering remnants of the Earth's glorious civilization have been interwoven with the roads, held together by huge bolted metallic plates and large piercing coil-like structures of silicon to form a path further out to sea.

"Analysis: The area has fallen to erosion from an external source. Measurements imply a local elevation of sea level, measured at approximately twenty meters. Most of the nearby ruins were destroyed by a heavy settling force, not of strong enough impact to cause an extinction level event, but large, colossal enough to result in a drastic overhaul of the scenery." Pod-042 took a quick turn towards the way they'd come. "This unnatural warped terrain implies that a tremendous effort has been made to retain the navigational viability of the area, this unit hypothesizes with use of an incomprehensibly large work force when taking the miniscule passage of time since the object's projected impact into account."

2B looked towards a seemingly unfazed 9S upon the pod's completed analysis. The former execution model followed Pod-042's example and took a glimpse back herself. The horde of violet-colored machines had grown larger, more condensed, crowded so tight together that the ground wasn't visible.

"Recommendation," began Pod-153 with a quiet, whispered voice, lowering close to the two androids. "At the earliest, visibly safest opportunity, retreat."

"What?" replied Nines at his typical volume, sight fixed forward. "They've made no effort to attack, and for Heaven's sake, you're bothering me. Speak only when spoken to from here on out, 153."

"Acknowledged." Pod-153 returned to its usual spot at his side. 2B tried to pay the exchange no mind, focusing on the grey horizon as they stepped over another one of those uneven manufactured coils where one shard of earth met another. Try as she might, she couldn't shake that unease that had been growing since they'd entered the tunnel.

"Nines," called out 2B at a low volume, with no response. "Nines!"

"Yeah?" He turned his head to face her, at last averting his gaze from their way forward.

"I think we should consider your pod's recommendation," she managed to say, coming to a stop. "We're horribly outnumbered and have no intel on this terrain. We're moving further out to sea at this point; our only viable escape should things go south would be the water, and we'd be-"

"2B," he interrupted without a falter in his step. "Everything will be fine. All we need to do is stick together. Come on. I think we're just about there."

"Where?" He gave no answer. Before she could ask again, 2B noticed they'd come to the end of the path. The supported platform they stood on had been bolted to the concrete wall on their left with more of those coils, albeit much larger. Upon longer inspection, she came to realize that they were up on the side of one of the higher-standing skyscrapers out on the water. The vast, shuffling ocean stretched all around them, a scent of salted liquid on the wind. 2B felt the sea's gentle embrace with a breeze that sprinkled against the lower, unveiled part of her face. She would have described the spot as serene if not for the force behind her, the destruction beneath her, and the eternal war around and within her. A creature of such sinful existence couldn't afford such respite, nor did she deserve it.

Upon the passing of such a dark thought, 2B heard the voice of Pod-042 echo in her ears, something it had said during that strange conversation earlier.

"This is it." 9S's voice brought her back into the world. He was standing close to the edge, looking out towards the horizon. 2B moved to his side. The drop was about thirty meters by her calculations. Hints of three or four fallen skyscrapers showed through the surface, scattered around in an almost square shape with each serving as a corner. Now that she looked at it, there were indeed four, and the damned things were just about symmetrical. Old records existed of humanity's city layouts, with pictures, but this wasn't some ancient near-untouched site or some perfect accident of annihilation. These were placed here on purpose.

2B looked to the pods, then to Nines. "Is this it?"

The former execution model noticed that the small army tailing them had turned rightwards to face the same way herself and 9S had been looking. The machines twitched so erratically that it appeared as if they might self-destruct. Once again, they knelt down as if in worship, but this time they faced the water. Then, at their lowest, the horde froze, the sound of their metallic rummaging coming to a halt. That distant roar of the sea once again came to grace the silent air.

A long, maddening moment passed.

The structure beneath her shoes started to tremble.

Gulls cawed in a sudden frightened flight.

2B saw a flock of them soar across from the blind side of the skyscraper.

The quaking grew more powerful.

Something loud pierced all the way through to her black box, drowning out the caws.

Its intensity was so powerful she lost her footing.

Nines stood without issue, watching the drop with intent.

2B's vision was shaking so hard that she could barely make him out.

Pods 042 and 153 had fallen to the ground.

Just as it felt as if the sound would tear 2B in half, it stopped.

She moved to stand, streaks of blood lining her outer shell, 9S's as well, but he stood strong.

He turned to face her, and just as his eyes met her veil, an explosion of water rushed up to meet them. It was almost as if a weapon of mass destruction had gone off in the depths below. 2B was taken by the force, slamming hard against the wall and hitting the ground further back from the ledge, her teeth chattering with the impact of her chin on concrete. 9S came to rest further forward. 2B spit out a clump of blood, and regaining her posture, something smashed up onto the far end of the platform with another rumble.

It was huge. Looking up, 2B noticed it was a giant, symmetrical triangular prism, the surface of which seemed to be moving. Somehow the platform didn't give way. 9S got himself up, and with no weapon in hand, started to move forward.

"Nines, wait…" 2B limped towards him, but his focus on the object was unwavering. He didn't respond. As she followed him, her attention also started to become latched onto whatever rested before them.

She froze.

The object wasn't solid, but a loose mass swaying as unpredictably as the sea below.

A mass made up of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of interlinked pods, all of which were twinkling with that familiar shade of violet.

2B felt another tremor. She ran up to look over the edge and saw another prism resting on one of those sunken structures below, balancing with two more similarly near-symmetrical "legs" each protruding from the lower corners of a central cube that seemed to serve as a body. She moved her vision up the appendage and followed through to the rest of it. The way it swayed, moved, the entire thing was composed of pods, all except…

Front and center, looming over the front-right leg that had come to rest on their platform, was a large, round head, trapped in an unmoving grin of pointed teeth. The neck was segmented, stretching out from within the body of pods, lines of black separating each segment. The "eyes" were a combination of light and dark, like the rest of it, two small white circles dead center on the inside of each pattern representing chilling retinas in ringed seas of black. These dark circles formed four lines outward against complementing sections of white, from which trailed out a smaller pattern of blackness throughout the rest of the "face." The pattern continued outward throughout the visage in some chaotic, yet balanced, combination of the two colors. It seemed to look down towards them, but there was no depth to the face aside from the mouth. 2B wasn't sure if it even knew they were there.

She tried to call out to Nines, but for the first time she could remember, 2B's words became caught in her throat. Pods 042 and 153 were nowhere to be seen, or so she could discern.

"Ah." Words of altering pitch filled the air. Its mouth remained frozen in that maddening grin. "At long last, we walk upon the domain of the voice."

The colossal face turned away from the two androids, looming over what remained of the fanatical machines. Their twitching hands were raised towards It. Quite a few started to lose control, falling apart from the sheer amount of motion or losing their balance and plummeting into the depths, or both.

It released Its appendage from the platform and moved its apparent gaze back onto the androids. 2B looked away from It, fixing sight on Nines like he were an anchor for her sanity. His vision was fixated on the creature.

"N-Nines?" She stroked a hand along her bleeding forehead. 9S turned to face her, an erratic motion about his right hand. He made an unnatural step towards her, two irises of violet shining from his eyes as his spear, Cruel Arrogance, materialized in his twitching fingers.

"2B." 9S spoke with an almost monotone voice, a slight inflection of manic happiness in it. He stepped towards her again, his entire body straining forward as if there were a ball and chain attached to each of his ankles. "I-I've never felt more alive."