Nier Automata Fan Fiction

Reprise

By Kraven Ergeist

Recursion 4


"This is Command. YoRHa squadron come in."

2B considered herself a fairly levelheaded android, all things concerned. True, virtually all androids in this war could claim as much, and while some were better than others, it was the combat models like her who were programmed, out of necessity, to have nerves of steel. But even amongst her peers, 2B had made a name for herself for maintaining her cool under fire. She had stood in the line of heavy caliber turret fire without flinching, stared down foes literally the size of skyscrapers without batting an eye, and had personally been subjected to a viral infection so pervasive that it had literally brought down the entirety of YoRHa, all while somehow managing to remain calm and composed throughout the experience.

But after everything she had put up with since this whole mess began, when the YoRHa bunker around her had abruptly vanished before her eyes, cutting off 9S in mid-sentence, leaving her once again at the helm of an Ho229 YoRHa flight unit hurdling through the cloud bank, 2B felt like she deserved a god damned medal for not having a complete and utter meltdown right then and there.

"Wha-?!" her jaw hung open in sheer stupefaction, eyes wide as saucers beneath her visor, her pupils little more than vibrating pinpricks. "What…?"

Her voice came out as little more than a mindless stammer, her voice hollow and quavering, like a child who couldn't keep track of what they were seeing and hadn't the faintest clue what was going on. Which was precisely how she felt.

What the hell had just happened?

"2B?" Operator 6O prompted her over the comm channels. "2B, do you copy?"

She heard the Operator's voice, she knew it was important that she respond, but her mind just couldn't let go of what had just happened. Her brain simply would not be persuaded to focus on anything else until something about her situation started making some god damned sense!

"2B?" her captain, 1D, prompted her for a response.

2B's mouth couldn't form words. After three recursions, nothing about the current situation with her flight team was a priority anymore, and it seemed every part of her knew this except her brain. But this fourth recursion flew in the face of everything that had been working around thus far. The whole concept of this time loop was that it affected her and 9S after their deaths! That's what she and 9S had been planning around this whole time!

But neither of them had died in the last recursion! She was sure of it!

2B managed to wobble her wings slightly in acknowledgement of the concerned voices around her. Her captain got the intended message and responded to Command on 2B's behalf.

"This is 1D, looks like my X.O. has a bad comm," the captain reported. "Taking over dispatch duties. All units have penetrated the stratosphere…"

2B wasn't even paying attention to the mission as her mind raced. The pressing issue right at that moment was the time loop, not the factory mission. Because if the time loop could just be triggered arbitrarily, at any moment, then she couldn't take anything for granted anymore! She felt like half of her brain was still in her quarters, trying to unpack their situation. One moment, she had been discussing plans with 9S, and the next moment, she was back in the fray.

Her mind raced as she scrambled for answers. Had 9S been killed somehow within the span of a single breath without any indication it was happening until it was too late? It seemed unlikely, but she supposed it wasn't impossible. Could she have died in that split second of time when their comms had cut out? That seemed even less likely. There were any number of possible explanations for why the loop had triggered outside of their deaths. The trigger could be a combination of things, or it could be triggered by something more subtle than outright death. What if the recursions were on some sort of time limit? That last one had been the longest by far, at nine hours and forty-seven minutes according to her internal clock, but that seemed like an arbitrary cut-off point.

If the loop was trigged by the unspecified actions of an unknown third party, then their predicament may be beyond hope. The pragmatist in 2B knew that they had to proceed under the assumption that they could still affect the outcome of their fate somehow, but she knew that this was ultimately wishful thinking. For all she knew, the trigger could be something completely unrelated to their deaths that neither of them could discern. If it was, then it was entirely possible the first two recursions had actually gone on for quite a while after they had died, and it just felt like they were immediately sent back to the beginning upon their deaths. It's not like they would have been around to experience the rest of the timeline after they were dead. There would have been nothing else for them to feel after that until the next recursion started up whenever it was actually triggered.

But something told her that wasn't it. If the time loop exceeded their individual experience, then by definition, they couldn't be the only ones experiencing it.

"2B!? 2B!"

She suddenly became aware of 9S' voice absolutely screaming at her from over the comms. She must have been zoned out for longer than she had thought. As her senses came back to the present moment, she realized with some trepidation that she had somehow avoided being shot out of the sky, despite having paid absolutely zero mind to the field of battle around her. She glanced at the corner of her HUD and noticed that her auto-chips were enabled. When had those been switched on? Had her Pod sensed her predicament and overridden them? She quickly retook control of her aircraft and began maneuvering through the waves of machines on the horizon.

Three of her wingmen had already been shot down, and she hadn't even taken notice.

"I'm…I'm here, 9S…" she said in an unsteady voice.

"Oh, thank god!" she could practically hear him deflate on the other line. "When you didn't respond, I…I didn't know what to think!"

2B felt the fire return to her stomach as she furrowed her brow.

"I don't know what to think either!" she blared. "What the hell just happened? Were you killed?"

"No!" 9S blared. "Were you!?"

"Obviously not, since I'm asking you about it!" she shot back.

"Okay, okay!" 9S gasped. "Listen, we're both alive, and we're both back at the beginning of the time loop, so…let's just take a minute to collect our thoughts…"

2B was still reeling. It had taken a lot of her resolve to stay cool during their most recent recursion – staying silent amidst the scorn of her peers, the suspicion of her commander, to say nothing of having to watch her entire squad perish again and again…

"1D…down…" she muttered into her comm channel as she watched the flaming wreckage of her former wingman. "…Assuming…captain's duties…"

"2B?" Operator 6O replied. "Got your comms working again?"

2B squeezed her eyes shut and didn't reply as she switched her flight unit over to command colors. She wasn't sure how many more times she could go through the motions of this first mission while also keeping her mind on the time loop. The more recursions she experienced, the farther and farther away this whole world seemed from reality. She couldn't keep playing this role like a puppet and keep a straight face. Not with the stress of never even knowing when the time loop would reset looming over her head.

They had to figure out the bizarre logic that dictated this time loop, and fast. Because at that moment, they weren't even pawns on the chessboard anymore – they were ants, staring up at the giant chess pieces being moved seemingly of their own accord, with no clue as to what forces were causing those pieces to move the way they did, why they did so, or even when they were about to move at all!

"Captain…" she heard 4B stammer in fear as the long range laser weapon locked onto her. "…I think-"

BOOM!

CRASH!

2B couldn't say anything as she watched the youngest wingman on her team get shot down with a ruthless, pitiless efficiency by the overwhelmingly overpowered enemy weapon that just happened to take aim at her instead of 2B.

You couldn't have saved them, she recited in her head. There was nothing you could have done. They were always going to die. You're just watching the memory play out again. That's all.

Except this wasn't a memory. This was real. It felt real. It looked real. It sounded real. The cries of terror from her squadmates, the searing heat they felt when the laser weapon roasted them alive inside their flight units, the crushing weight of the broken carapace twisting apart with them still inside…simulated or not, that pain was real enough to matter.

2B cursed under her breath, before bitterly reporting their losses to Command. Once she had received her orders, she blasted off at full speed for the rendezvous point.

They couldn't get out of this place quickly enough as far as she was concerned.

When she saw 9S, she almost wept. But she contained herself and came to a halt hovering her flight just before his, seeing his face. Hearing his voice had been reassurance enough to keep her moving, but it was so much better to see him in person and know that he was still with her.

"9S…" she groaned, exhaustion creeping into her voice. "What is going on?"

9S shook his head in dismay. "I have no idea, 2B. I'm going to have to completely rethink my understanding of the time loop now. Let's just focus on putting some distance between us and the factory. I'll need to hack a few things before we move though. This will just be a second…"

2B waited as 9S sent a probe into her flight unit, tapping into Pod 042's neural array. With any luck, 9S will have managed to cobble together enough footage from their previous battles to put together a convincing recording of the two of them meeting a fiery end at the hands of the goliath. It likely wouldn't hold up to rigorous scrutiny, especially when scouts were deployed to the factory to investigate further, but it would at least give them a head start. And the only reason she could organize her thoughts well enough to even consider their escape plan was that this had been one of the ideas that had run across her mind during their probation in the last recursion.

"Alert: Malfunction in bunker uplink node," Pod 042 finally reported. "Switching to offline mode until uplink is reestablished."

"Alright, we're in the wind," 9S said, a tone of finality in his voice as he retracted his probe. "Our Pods are disconnected from YoRHa command. They're still bound by YoRHa protocols, but they won't be a hinderance to us. We better ditch these flight units as soon as we find a place to land though. They'll light up like flashbulbs on every YoRHa sensor."

2B pursed her lips as 9S spoke. While she had been in favor of running from YoRHa for some time now, it was still a strange and terrifying feeling to actually go through with it. And despite her feelings on the matter, a part of her felt awful for making 9S go through with it along with her. Although he had been nothing but cooperative during the recursion so far, she could still tell that he was even less at ease with this decision than she was.

9S didn't meet her gaze as she watched him, however. Instead he was looking off to the south of the factory, where their previous missions had taken them, across the ruined city, the amusement park, the forest, and beyond.

"2B," he said in a more somber before. "Where should we go?"

2B considered for a moment. She had no idea what the next step even was after this. Where should they go? Where could they go? Technically speaking, they could go just about anywhere, but now that they were fugitives, they would have to choose their destinations with care.

"Let's set down in the city ruins and make our way on foot to the Resistance," she said.

"The Resistance?" 9S asked. "They're YoRHa's allies. Anemone would report us as soon as she laid eyes on us."

2B shook her head. As much as she wanted to be away from YoRHa, she was not ready to throw their lot in with the wandering brigands and nomads that roamed the lands, nor would she ever feel entirely safe seeking refuge amongst Pascal or any of the other pacifist machines. The reality was, they needed allies. They needed a place they could lay low, get their bearings, and dig in for the long haul. And the Resistance had always provided for those with just those sorts of needs.

"Anemone harbors fugitives all the time," 2B pointed out. "She tries to be coy about it with the Commander, but it was pretty clear after repeat visits what was going on there. Besides, this whole area is still under machine control now. YoRHa will have far less of a presence around here than in our original timeline."

9S nodded. "Yeah, we'll probably have to deal with a lot more hostile machines as a result."

"Indeed," 2B agreed, configuring her craft into flight mode. "Which is why we need to take shelter with someone we can trust. And if we can't trust Anemone, there may not be anyone else we can trust either."

9S drew in a breath before nodding, following her lead with his own flight unit. "I guess you're right. Still, we shouldn't overstay our welcome. We'd be endangering her and her people the longer we stay with the Resistance."

"On that, we agree," 2B said. Assuming any of this is real, she didn't say. "As soon as we have what we need for an extended field mission, we'll be on our way."

There was another stipulation they would need to address before setting out on their own, but she didn't bother mentioning that either. She didn't have to. Both of them knew full well that they would need to completely rethink what they thought they knew about the time loop now. Until they had some kind of reassurance they wouldn't simply blip out of whatever they were doing at any given time and be thrust back to the beginning of the factory mission, then it was pointless to consider any sort of long term game plan going forward.

2B turned her focus to the terrain below as they passed from pure concrete rubble to green overgrowth, before spotting the area she was looking for.

"There," she said. "That's our landing zone."

9S followed her as she took her flight unit to the remains of a highway overpass that lead right to the Resistance. The asphalt was dotted with red-eyed machines jumping this way and that, but a few quick bursts with their turrets was enough to clear the area.

"Hurry," 2B urged as she bailed out of her unit. "That sound will have drawn attention. We need to move."

"Alright," 9S reported, landing on the crumbling asphalt before turning to the Ho229 flight units still hovering overhead. "I've programmed these units to crash land in the water right around where the goliath was last seen. With any luck, they won't be found until much later."

2B let out a breath as she watched the flight units sail away and disappear over the canopy of the asphalt jungle ruins. It was a shame that they could not keep the flight units for their own purposes. They would have been extremely useful if they didn't also broadcast their position to YoRHa. And she had always enjoyed flying, even if it was more dangerous in her line of work. While she knew that should their plan fail, or whatever cosmic hand-wave dictated otherwise, she'd be right back in that cockpit at the start of the next recursion. But if everything went according to plan, they wouldn't be in the air for a long time to come.

She wasn't sure which possible turn of events discouraged her more.

Before they made it to the Resistance camp, 9S found an old piece of burlap clinging to one of the ruined buildings and tore it down. It may have been an awning or banner in another life, and it was so threadbare and sun-bleached that it would provide absolutely zero protection from either sun or cold, but he got to work anyway, trimming out two rudimentary cloaks with a few swift sword strokes.

2B took one of the cloaks and wrapped it about herself. It was rough and bristly and not the least bit comfortable, but she wore it without complaint, well aware of the rationale behind it. Their pristine black uniforms made their origins unmistakable, and until the two of them could find a more suitable change of clothes, there was no point in broadcasting to anyone they happened to pass that they were YoRHa androids. Anemone might have their backs if they were fortunate, but there was no sense in relying on the goodwill of every single android with whom they came into contact. All it took was one opportunist to spot them and report it for YoRHa to be on their tail.

There wasn't anything readily at hand that they could use to tie the cloaks into place, but a quick rummage through their inventory turned up the pink and blue ribbons that had been gifted to them since they'd helped the little lost machine find her way back home to Pascal's village. 2B thought that they both looked a little silly wearing matching pastel ribbons around the otherwise desaturated grayscale of the cloaks, but they didn't stand out all that much, and she had to admit that they served their function well.

The very last thing they did was remove their YoRHa visors. Thanks to the camouflage goggles in their inventory, they could still keep their heads-up display without the obvious visors giving away their origins. But for the first time since the time loop began, 2B and 9S could make eye contact – though 9S didn't seem terribly inclined to meet her gaze, she noted. She wondered if 9S was just shy, or if there was some other emotion he didn't want her seeing in his eyes. Either way, by the time they were done, the two androids looked like a pair of wandering nomads; no different from any other member of the Resistance at a glance.

Suitably disguised, the two of them made their way to the Resistance camp.

"Luckily we still have all our money and items from before," 9S observed, idly as they entered the secluded little nook where the Resistance made their hideout. "We probably won't need much, but anything we do need, we should be able to afford pretty easily."

2B didn't respond. She knew he was just making conversation to avoiding talking about more difficult topics, but she was still on her guard here. The two of them may not look like YoRHa androids to the casual observer, but they were still strangers here, and the Resistance members wouldn't be quick to trust them in either case.

Ignoring the glassy stares of the rest of the androids around them, 2B made her way to the main tent where Anemone resided.

Her eyes widened in recognition as they approached.

"You're…2B and 9S, aren't you?" she asked.

2B froze. Anemone had mistaken her for someone else in their initial timeline, but this time she had called them by name. Had word of their desertion already made it as far as the Resistance? Or was Anemone of all people somehow aware of the time loop?!

2B's hesitation must have caused some discomfort in 9S, because he was the one who spoke next.

"You recognize us?" he asked.

Anemone slowly shook her head.

"No," she said. "Not exactly…but she told me you might come here."

2B felt her core temperature drop a few degrees. Anemone may not be aware of the time loop. But her words all but confirmed that somebody did.

"Who?" she demanded. "Who told you this?"

"She…asked me not to say…" Anemone said, looking away uncomfortably. "But she said that if you two ever showed up here to tell you that you could find her at the shopping center across the ravine."

2B bristled at that. She had a fairly good idea of who was waiting for them. And the look of pure revulsion on 9S' face told her that he did too.

"9S…" she said softly, eyes locked on her partner. "I think we need to investigate this right away. If there's someone out there with any knowledge about…what's going on…"

She stopped herself from saying "time loop," throwing a glance at Anemone.

"I think we both know who this is, 2B," he said in a stone cold voice. "There's only one person it could be. And there's no way we can trust her."

2B let out a breath.

"Trust or no, we still need answers," she reasoned. "She might be able to provide them."

9S grumbled in displeasure, looking away. "I guess…"

2B frowned but eventually turned back to face Anemone.

"Thanks for the information," she said politely.

Anemone nodded, watching the two of them as they turned to go.

They left the Resistance camp without saying another word. There were a pair of wild moose sitting just outside the entrance to the hideout, and after they were presented with the quality sachet in the two androids' inventory, the two beasts lowered their antlered heads and allowed the YoRHa androids to mount their backs before carrying them off to their destination.

They rode in silence past crumbling buildings and overgrown infrastructure. The silence was a blessing, as any words exchanged between them might come out far more contentious than either intended for the other to receive. For her part, 2B couldn't believe how stupid she'd been. Of course there could be someone other than just the two of them caught in this time loop! It was the most obvious explanation for what had happened! And if the time loop was triggered by any of their individual deaths, then this third individual could just as easily trigger it themselves without 2B or 9S' knowledge!

The two of them reached the rope bridge leading across the chasm that separated the city from the forest region. They jumped off of their mounts, letting the two moose wander back off into the wilderness, before making the rest of the way on foot, the updraft from the gorge whipping at their makeshift cloaks.

As they started across the rickety bridge, however, they spotted a familiar figure waiting for them at the far end.

"Alert!" Pod 042 spoke up for the first time in a long while. "Rogue YoRHa agent detected."

"2B!" 9S hissed in alarm, recognizing the face that greeted them. "Look! It's her!"

2B's eyes narrowed as a single looming figure in tattered black leathers waited for them at the far side of the bridge.

"A2…" she muttered, a mixture of emotions in her voice as she locked eyes with the other android.

She could vividly remember the day she had asked A2 to take her life. It had been the most desperate moment of her existence, and looking back on it, it probably had not been the smartest play for her to make. A2 had been an unknown, and 2B had banked on nothing more than sheer goodwill that A2 would help her. In the end, the gamble appeared to have paid off, at least as much as it really could given the circumstances, and 2B felt that she owed A2 a lot for that.

But there were still a lot of questions to be answered. What did A2 know about the time loop? What could she tell them about YoRHa now with the benefit of hindsight? What had happened to her since they had last seen each other? 9S had shared all that he knew, but there were several gaps in his story that she suspected only A2 could account for. But of all the things she wanted to ask the other android, one seemingly innocuous question somehow trickled to the surface of her mind: Why did A2 have short hair now?

A2 said nothing as the other two approached her, waiting until they got to the halfway point across the bridge, before withdrawing a long, wide, heavy Type-4O blade.

"Hey, look out!" 9S barked in surprise, halting in his tracks, throwing an arm out to prevent 2B from advancing further past him.

2B saw the next move coming just in time to realize she could do nothing about it. And she suspected that if he wasn't so blinded by anger that 9S would have seen it too. She should have known better than to run right across the bridge as soon as they had received word from A2 about the shopping center. 2B had initially thought A2 had chosen the location for its shared significance, but she abruptly realized that she had more likely chosen it for a tactical advantage.

A2 lifted the heavy great-sword into the air before bringing it down with a deft swing, severing one of the bridge cables with a single strike.

SCHWING!

SNAP!

The rope bridge suddenly rocked as a quarter of its support structure came abruptly loose, causing the left handrail running the length of the bridge to snap free. The two androids were forced to grab onto the right handrailing for balance as the bridge reverberated from the snapping cable, teetering dangerously over the vast precipice below them as the bridge listed towards the open side, bouncing to an alarming degree with the sudden shift in tension.

"Whoa!" 9S cried out in alarm. "She's cutting the bridge down!"

"Alert!" Pod 042 reported calmly. "Bridge integrity at sixty-two percent. Proposal: Relocate to solid ground immediately."

"That's going to happen one way or another at this rate!" 9S shouted, staring down the deep gorge beneath them, as bits of debris from the snapped cables tumbled down into its depths.

"A2, stop!" 2B cried out to their assailant. "We got your message! We're just here to talk!"

A2 pointed the blade towards the other two, a cold look of disdain on her face. 2B almost had to admire her cunning. She had laid her trap perfectly for the other two androids. She had lured them here after revealing only the barest minimum amount of information it would have taken to pique their interest. And now that they were already here, A2 only had to cut one more tether to destroy the bridge completely. The two of them were too far from either end of the bridge to make a sure escape before A2 could send them both tumbling into the ravine.

While the fall wouldn't be a fatal one with the aid of their Pods, it would certainly not be a safe or easy journey back up from the gorge with all of the machines that roamed at its basin. And without the bridge, the entire forest area would be cut off to them. The worst A2 could really do was inconvenience them, but given the situation with the time loop, that was as much of a threat as anyone could be anymore. Time was just about the only thing they had to be concerned with now, but it was still their most valuable commodity. The more time they wasted trying to make peace with A2, the less they spent working on getting out of the time loop itself.

"First, I want some answers," A2 called out to them from across the gorge, her stone-faced gaze never wavering. "I want to know what's been going on here. The last thing I remember is fighting 9S at the top of the machine tower. Then the next thing I know, I'm waking up back on the surface, and the entire machine tower is just gone, along with that hole in the ground, like nothing ever happened!"

2B and 9S exchanged a glance as they bobbed precariously on the unsteady bridge. A2 was definitely experiencing the time loop too, even if she wasn't sure what it was. It sounded like she was just as confused about it as they were.

"Then before I can figure anything out, that damn factory goes up in a ball of fire!" she continued. "And suddenly I get zapped right back to where I was at the start of all this! At that point, I figured I was just having some kind of mental malfunction or something, except everything still looked like it did before this whole war went to hell. And then before I can decide what to do, I see every machine in the area suddenly start swarming the factory like someone rang the dinner bell or something!"

She paced back and forth around the area where the bridge ended, her sword resting idly over her shoulder as she stared down the other two androids.

"So I follow the machines over to see what all the fuss was about, and lo and behold, there you two numbskulls are, taking on a few goliaths all by yourselves!" she growled menacingly. "The big machines stomp you guys flat, so of course you two self-destruct like the good little soldiers you are! I try to haul ass out of there, but before I know it, I'm waking up right back where I was before!"

2B and 9S exchanged a glance. A2 had been watching them during one of the previous recursions, it seemed. More to the point, she had been caught in the time loop along with them! Only she hadn't died after the first two recursions. And from what she was saying, it sounded like she got yanked back to the beginning of the time loop along with them anyway. 2B felt a wave of sympathy for the other android. As terrifyingly disorienting as it had been for 2B and 9S to experience a temporal reset without any warning, A2 had experienced two of them without anyone to even corroborate the experience!

The rogue android extended her blade once again, setting it meaningfully against the rope holding the remaining handrail in place, causing the two YoRHa android to flinch in alarm.

"Now I don't know what you two have gotten me mixed up with," she said in menacing tone. "But I don't want any part of it! Now you two are going to tell me exactly what's going on here before I have to deal with any more of this bullshit! Cause I have just about had enough already!"

2B and 9S just stared at her in trepidation. As harrowed and wearied as they'd been through all this, they had at least had the benefit of one another to speak to and ensure that they were not simply losing their minds. A2 had no such reassurance. And what was worse, she had been yanked back to the beginning of the time loop twice now without any real explanation as to how or why. It was small wonder why she appeared to be a little on-edge.

2B could tell by the set of 9S' jaw that he was in no mood to be trading intelligence with A2 in their current predicament. While 2B was ninety-nine percent sure that they would simply reset the time loop should they die here, there was no guarantee that they could find A2 again should they start up another recursion. And regardless of how either of them felt about A2, it was clear that they would need to cooperate with her in order to manage things in the time loop. Until they knew otherwise, they had to assume that she was as much its prisoner as they were. Because it seemed that if any one of them went down, the other two would follow without a choice in the matter.

She needed to stifle A2's feelings of frustration, and she needed to do so without provoking 9S into exacerbating the situation either. Diplomacy had never exactly been 2B's strong suit, but she knew she had to try something.

"How did you die in the last recursion?" she asked aloud.

A2's eyes widened. "What!?"

2B gave 9S a look that she hoped would encourage him to calm down and let her do the talking.

"9S and I believe that we're trapped in a time loop," she explained slowly, returning her gaze to A2. "Our deaths seem to cause time to reset back to the beginning of our first mission. Nobody else we've encountered seems to be aware of it. The first two times, the two of us were the ones who died. But the last time, it reset nine hours later while we were resting back in the bunker. And if you were also experiencing this time loop, I have to assume that it was you who died the third time."

A2's pupils dilated as she took all this in, her jaw hanging open in disbelief.

"A…time loop?" she stammered in stupefaction.

2B slowly nodded her head.

"You died," she said carefully. "Didn't you, A2?"

A2 took a step back, a look of incredulity on her face.

"I…I thought I was losing my mind…" she said, shaking her head. "Or just dreaming. Or something! I didn't know what was going on! I kept waiting and waiting for something to happen, for me to snap back to where I first woke up again…but it never happened. And that factory seemed to be at the center of all this, so I finally decided I should go and see what was going on over there. But then of course that freaking goliath woke up. I figured I could handle it in a fight, but…I couldn't think straight. I was off my game. Plus it had backup. And anyway…I wasn't even sure I wasn't imagining the whole situation. I'm still not!"

2B nodded slowly. "And it killed you."

A2 looked away, an expression of indignity on her face.

"Whatever! It killed you too!"

2B tried not to smile at her reaction. Here they were trying to solve a mystery that impacted their entire reality, and A2 was worried about appearing weak for having lost to an enemy machine. Then again, 2B supposed even she had been negatively impacted by the stigma inflicted by fleeing from combat during the last recursion. Despite how much they had all learned and changed, they were both still YoRHa combat androids underneath it all.

"Will you let us pass?" 2B asked, spreading her arms wide. "We just want to talk."

She turned and fixed 9S with a pointed look.

"Right?" she asked, meaningfully.

9S drew in a breath and released his hand from the grip of his sword with an effort of will.

"…Right," he finally allowed.

A2 said nothing for a while, before finally withdrawing her sword and returning it to its electromagnetic holster behind her back.

"Fine, come on over," she said, grumpily turning her back and walking towards the shopping center. "I've got a place we can lay low for a bit."

2B and 9S both let out a breath as they cautiously made their way across the unsteady lopsided bridge, keeping a firm grip on the remaining handrail until their feet were firmly planted on the other side of the ravine. A2 had always been a bit of a loose cannon, but with the added complication of the time loop, and her apparent role in it, 2B had not been at all certain that they might find an ally in the rogue android. Maybe it was the lack of YoRHa visors over their eyes, she thought idly, as the two of them staggered off the bridge and back onto solid ground.

A2's place turned out to be one of the rusted-out storefronts inside the shopping center. After marching up one of the broken down escalators, A2 lifted one of the steel gratings that slid up and down the store entrance – a centuries-old security system that now served as little more than a door. The hinges creaked and whined loud enough to send nearby birds scattering in fear. 2B thought that there was no way that any nearby machines couldn't have heard the noise, and wondered how the location hadn't been discovered already. But as soon as she ducked under the grating and into the storefront, she noticed her HUD fade to static before disappearing entirely.

Then she noticed the low-frequency signal jammer set up in the far corner of the store, jury-rigged to a medium power cell. It would prevent any machine from detecting any android data signatures in about a twenty-five meter radius, at the expense of any androids being equally blind once they entered the field. It would not shield them from sight or sound though, but the store ran deep enough into the building and was arrayed with enough debris that 2B doubted they would be spotted.

Whatever function the store had served when it had been in use, none of the debris inside gave any hint. The tiled floor was covered in moss and detritus, and vines covered most of the walls. A few storage chests had been added along the back wall, presumably stocked with supplies. A small cot lay next to another jury-rigged alarm system, and a workbench stretched out across the far end of the room, with evidence of recent use, a single light fixture on a stand providing ample illumination.

It was a fairly decent hiding place, 2B thought, all things considered.

"I've got more than a few hideouts like this set up all over the area," A2 commented sternly, sitting back across something that might have been a sales counter at one point. "So don't go thinking you can rat me out to YoRHa just cause you know where one of them is now."

2B placed a hand on her hip, fixing A2 with a peculiar look.

"Turning you in to YoRHa gains us nothing with this time loop in effect," she said simply. "Besides, do you honestly think either of us care about your conflict with YoRHa at this point?"

"Shorty over there might," A2 jutted her jaw towards 9S.

"Watch it, A2!" 9S growled in response, fists clenched. "The only reason you're still alive is because we're stuck with you for now!"

A2 looked utterly unimpressed with 9S' bravado.

"Hey kid - do me a favor and go choke on something while us grownups talk, okay?" she said dryly.

9S visibly seethed at that, but before he could rise to her bait, 2B threw a hand out before him. Apparently she was not done being the diplomat.

"Enough!" she shouted, keeping her gaze fixed on A2 and trusting that her word would be enough to keep 9S from attacking. "We can hash out our personal vendettas later! Right now, all three of us are stuck in a time loop, and unless we cooperate, none of us are getting out of it!"

A2 shrugged, rolling her eyes so hard, it was a wonder they didn't disconnect from their optic casing.

"Whatever," she droned, crossing her arms. "I'm still not sure I believe all this time loop crap anyway…"

2B threw a glance at 9S, watching as he shook with scarcely contained anger.

"9S, I need you to focus right now," she said in a calm soothing voice. "Okay?"

9S slowly took in a deep breath, before nodding and relaxing his stance.

"Okay…" he said in a ragged voice. "Okay…"

2B nodded and returned her gaze to the other android in the room.

"A2, we came here in good faith to trade intel on what we've found so far about the situation we're in," she said in a calm, deliberate tone. "If all you're going to do is try to antagonize us, then we're not going to waste any more of our time with you."

A2 let out a frustrated groan without making eye contact.

"I get it, I get it!" she blew out a breath that reverberated her lips. "You've made your point, damn it! The sooner we figure out what's going on, the sooner you two can get out of my hair!"

2B nodded. She supposed that would have to do for now. Attempting to strike a casual air, she leaned against a load bearing column that ran down the center of the store, while still keeping her body in relative tension in case she needed to spring into action for any reason.

"Alright," she said, sounding satisfied. "Let's start with what we think we know. 9S?"

9S attempted no such decorum and left his displeasure at the situation perfectly visible for all to see, his feet remaining in a ready stance.

"Right…" he said, before giving a quick summary of events. His tone of voice was terse and strained, and 2B suspected that he would have much rather just transferred his combat data like they normally did, but with the signal jammer in place, that wasn't an option, and 2B was fairly certain they would not be able to persuade A2 to turn the jammer off, even briefly. Come to that, she wasn't entirely sure that A2 wouldn't have rejected a data transfer out of hand, just to spite him.

"…And then before we could decide on our next course of action, suddenly the time loop seemed to reset on its own, without either of us doing anything," 9S said, finishing his summary. "Given your story, it seems reasonable to assume that you're as much a part of this time loop as we are. If we assume that, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to also assume that if any one of us dies, then the time loop will reset for the other two as well. If it's true that you died fighting the goliath in the last recursion, then it would seem to confirm that assumption."

A2 had not stopped scowling during 9S' entire summary, though to her credit, she had not interrupted him at all either. When it was clear that 9S was finished, however, she blew a strand of hair out of her face, a look of utter ridicule in her eyes.

"Well this is certainly a fine mess you've gotten us into," she muttered.

2B let out a breath. A2 seemed to have gone from disbelief to pointing fingers in no time flat. 9S was also bristling at her comment, and for a moment, 2B was worried that he might lash out at her again. But he seemed to keep his cool this time.

"We don't know what's caused this time loop," he said tersely. "If it's a simulation, it's well beyond anything that YoRHa or the machines have ever managed. And if it's a real world phenomenon, then our understanding of physics is functionally flawed."

"But only one of us here was around long enough to know what could have caused all this," A2 locked an accusatory gaze on 9S. "Have you told your partner here about what happened in that machine tower?"

2B couldn't help but notice her counterpart tense up at that comment.

"Of course I have!" 9S spat, a little too quickly. "And what's that got to do with the time loop?"

A2 rolled her eyes again.

"Come on," she snorted. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one, kid. If we're really in some kind of time loop, then there must be something that happened in our original timeline that caused it! And you were alive the longest of any of us. So what's the last thing you remember from the original timeline?"

"You mean before or after I finally cut you down?" 9S cocked his head wryly.

Now it was A2's turn to bristle.

"You mean after I let you win and then you fell on my sword like a mook?!" she blared, venom in her voice.

2B stiffened a little, getting ready to intervene if the two of them came to blows. 9S had told her that he and A2 had fought each other in the machine tower, and that neither of them had survived. But he had not been specific with the details.

9S just shook his head.

"Whatever," he said. "Everything's a blur after that point anyway."

A2 wrinkled her nose, disbelievingly. "Really? You don't remember anything? Anything at all?"

9S placed a hand on his head, closing his eyes in concentration, as if he were wracking his brain for clues.

"All I can remember is…" he muttered in agitation. "This…voice…talking about an ark."

2B furrowed her brow. This had not been part of 9S' combat data.

"An ark?" she asked.

9S shrugged, looking away, distractedly.

"I don't know what it was," he said nervously, seemingly unable to meet her gaze. "It sounded like it was some kind of…ship or vessel or something. Whatever it was, supposedly it…contained all of our memories…and the machines were planning to launch it into space to seek out a new world…"

9S trailed off as he pondered this, as if only just now considering the implications for the first time, leaving 2B to wonder just how complete his report from the machine tower had actually been.

"9S…" 2B breathed sympathetically.

9S finally lifted his head to face her, a mixture of emotions on his eyes. Shame, regret, remorse and guilt all swam together across his face. She could see it clearly now that his eyes were unhidden by a YoRHa visor. 2B could tell from his expression that he wasn't telling her everything. There were parts of his experience since her death that he had omitted when he shared his combat data with her. She knew he wouldn't hide things from her unless there was good reason to, but she made a mental note to ask him about it when A2 wasn't around.

As for A2, she either didn't notice the look shared between the two of them, or she didn't care.

"That sounds like a pretty solid lead to me," she said, crossing her arms as she thought out loud. "Think about what we faced in that tower – technology that went well beyond anything we've ever seen from either YoRHa or the machines before that point. According to those two freaky girls in red, the machine intelligence was evolving at an exponential rate since the fall of YoRHa. By the time we went up into the machine tower, we androids were already basically obsolete by comparison."

She fixed the other two figures in the room with a pitying smile that was more than a little unnerving.

"Is it much of a stretch to think that a time loop would be within their grasp, given what we saw in there?" she asked simply.

2B felt something subtly shift in the air around them as she stared back at A2, the full implication of her words hitting them like a slow motion freight train. It was a theory that they both had been avoiding this whole time, as it represented a worst-case scenario – that this time loop was not only hostile in nature, but that it had been implemented by an enemy that wanted nothing more than to wipe them all out, an enemy that had hounded them for their entire existence. And if their enemy was in possession of such overwhelming power as to be able to re-write the very fabric of reality…

"You're saying that this time loop is machine in origin?" 2B asked, her tone of voice ice cold.

A2 threw her head back and laughed quietly.

"That's the least of our worries," she chuckled disdainfully. "If what the shrimp here says about that ark containing our memories is true…then for all we know, the three of us might have already been dead for years now. We could all just be memories, reliving possible outcomes within the machine intelligence or something."

Now it was 9S' turn to lean his back against one of the columns, though in his case, it was entirely out of need.

"That…that can't be it…" he stammered in utter disbelief. "That's ridiculous! Why would the machines even do that?! What'd be the point?!"

2B watched his reaction, a pang of guilt coursing through her as she drew a blank on just how to soften the blow for him. She had been out of her depth from the get-go, but for 9S, the prospect that he would never be able to think his way out of this problem would have been an utter nightmare. The worst part was, she had no real way of refuting A2's words. Hell, this might have been the first solid theory they'd come up with about what the time loop truly was.

A2 just shrugged nonchalantly at his protests. "You got me. I never understood anything the machines did, honestly. But it's just a theory at any rate. There's only one way for us to find out for sure."

2B stepped over to 9S and put a hand on his shoulder as he trembled, still unable to come up with the words that might comfort him. So instead, she turned her fierce gaze on A2.

"And what's that?" she asked her.

A2 stared down at her feet as they dangled off the edge of the counter, a distant look on her face as if slowly coming to accept the full scope of what lay ahead of her.

"We let the timeline play all the way out," she said with a sigh. "Try to recreate events as close to the original as possible, until the machine tower is created. If we can figure out what happens after that point in the timeline, well…that should be all the proof you need."

9S gritted his teeth, his hand coming up to clasp around the hand 2B had placed on his shoulder.

"There's no way in hell I'm doing that!" he declared vehemently. "I'm not letting the machines destroy all of YoRHa again!"

A2 just shrugged again. "So what do you propose to do instead? Try to save YoRHa all by ourselves? In order to…what, keep fighting an endless, pointless war?"

Her voice took on a mocking tone.

"Sure, let's give that a try, see how it works out for us," she laughed. "It's not like any of us are going anywhere for a while. What's a few more trips down memory lane? A few more of these…what did you call them? Recursions? That's a stupid name…"

2B gave 9S' hand a squeeze, turning to look at A2.

"We can't fully recreate events as they occurred after the factory mission," she pointed out. "9S and I both died right after that mission in the original timeline, and dying only resets the timeline. And even if we circumvent that, and somehow manage to recreate events exactly as before in spite of that change, the timeline will just reset again as soon as I die after the fall of YoRHa."

"As soon as A2 kills you, you mean," 9S said, throwing a venomous gaze at the YoRHa fugitive.

"There's got to be at least some wiggle room in there," A2 said, completely unfazed by 9S' spite. "All we really need to do is get to the point where that machine tower appears. Once that happens, events will probably play out according to the machines' plan no matter what we do. There's got to be some version of the timeline where all three of us survive. We just have to find it."

"And if you're wrong?" 2B asked simply.

A2 wrinkled her nose. "I didn't say it was a perfect theory. You guys have been learning through trial and error this whole time, and from the looks of things, that's the way we'll have to keep doing it."

2B could feel 9S' hand trembling in hers. A2's revelation had really shaken him. She hadn't quite processed it herself, although the idea that she was already dead was a little bit easier for her to swallow. Perhaps there came a certain serenity in having died once already. Although the thought of this all being perpetrated by machines certainly did bother her.

Either way, their mission just got a lot harder. It wasn't enough for them to simply determine the nature of the time loop now. They had to endure the timeline, in its entirety. And if anything went wrong, even if none of them died, they may have to reset the timeline and endure it all again many times before they were finished.

She turned to look at A2 once more. She wasn't sure why A2 had helped her before, and she still wasn't sure if she could fully trust her now. But it was clear that she had far more experience than either of them and was obviously a survivor. While that gave her a rather bitter edge, 2B absolutely trusted A2's instincts. And while she put on an aloof air, 2B thought that underneath the harsh exterior, there was something kind underneath.

She had said "we" just now, after all.

"So…you'll help us?" 2B asked simply.

A2 squeezed her eyes shut. "Oh hell…it's not like there's anything else for me to do, is there?"

She hopped off the counter, cracking her neck as she gave the floating drone over 2B's head a wry smile.

"What do you say, Pod?" she called out to the little droid. "Feel like teaming up again?"

"Negative," Pod 042 replied simply. "This platform has been assigned to YoRHa unit 2B."

2B reached up and patted the top of her Pod's cranium.

"The Pods don't seem to remember anything either," she said remorsefully. "It really is just us three, it seems."

A2 let out a bitter sigh.

"Well, shit…" she whined impetuously.

2B turned to check on 9S. His mouth was set in a grim expression, but he seemed able to stand without using the wall for support.

"Are you still with us, 9S?" she asked him.

He nodded his head slowly.

"I'm with you, 2B…" he said carefully, before fixing A2 with a dirty look. "But I refuse to believe that we're just dead memories in some machine intelligence. I'll prove A2's theory wrong if it's the last thing I do! You can bet on that."

A2 snorted at that, but there wasn't any real malice behind it.

"Well then, I guess the next step is to reset the timeline again, huh?" she asked.

2B held up a hand. "Before we do, we need a plan for how to defeat the goliaths without self-destructing."

A2 crossed her arms, an agitated look on her face. "Oh, I suppose that means you'll want me to jump into that battle with you then?"

"If it's not too much trouble," 2B shot back, dryly.

A2 actually smiled at that.

"Are you actually being sarcastic?" she snorted. "I didn't think you had it in you."

2B sighed, ignoring the barb. "We need a strategy, A2. None of us have been able to take down all of the goliaths without self-destructing so far. We don't even know how many of them there are. There could be dozens for all we know."

A2 rolled her eyes again. "Don't look at me – you're the ones who have all that fancy YoRHa tech. Come on, you see what I'm working with here…"

She spread her arms wide, gesturing to the dingy little hidey-hole in which they were currently squatting. As if to punctuate her point, a piece of rubble crumbled from the wall, hitting the floor and disintegrating into dust.

"I mean, I'm good," A2 said wryly. "But don't expect miracles out of me."

2B noticed 9S was busying himself by poking around the inside of the storefront, seeing what he could find. It seemed his natural curiosity was getting the better of him – which was actually a good sign, from what 2B knew. It meant his mind was acclimating to their new situation, and he was beginning to process things in his usual method.

"Hey short stuff!" A2 called out to him when she noticed the direction of 2B's gaze. "Feel free to chime in at any point with any brilliant insights you might have!"

9S gave her a pointed look, before turning away from her and going over to the supply chest at the back of the room to begin rummaging around.

"Hey!" A2 said tersely, putting her hands on her hips in a confrontational manner. "Hands off my stuff!"

9S withdrew some volt salve from the supply chest and held it up to show her what he'd taken.

"I need to take this," he explained. "I'm working on a theory, and I need an extra item to test something."

2B watched him quizzically while A2 crossed her arms in consternation.

"Well, you can test your theory with someone else's stuff!" she barked tersely. "Buy something from the resistance camp or something, but don't go stealing my things."

9S fixed her with a knowing smile, and 2B got the distinct impression that he knew something that A2 didn't.

"And just what will happen to all this stuff exactly when the time loop resets?" he asked, bluntly.

A2 furrowed her brow in agitation. "I don't know. It'll still be there, I guess? What's that got to do with anything?"

9S pocketed the volt salve, adding it to his inventory.

"That's exactly what I'd like to find out," he said. "2B and I still have all our items and gear from the previous timeline. Weapons, pod programs, and a full stock of recovery items just like these. We didn't have any of this at the start of the original timeline. So where did it all come from?"

A2 rubbed at her forehead. "You're not making any sense. Why do you need one of my items if you've already got a full inventory?"

Now it was 9S' turn to roll his eyes.

"To see if anything we add to our inventory during one recursion carries over to the next," he said slowly, sounding like he was explaining things to a child. "When I was in the bunker in the last recursion, I took a reading of our mass spectrometry data. It was higher than it should have been. And when I compared the log to our data of this recursion we're in now, it was even higher. That means we're all accumulating energy with each successive timeline, as if we were experiencing it as a single unbroken stream of events. Whatever we collect in one timeline transfers to the next. It's not just our brains that experience it, it's our bodies too."

2B wasn't entirely sure she was following 9S' logic exactly. And A2 looked like she utterly bored with the conversation.

"You gonna send me an email when you finally get to the point?" she demanded.

"The point is, we might not be able to defeat the goliaths now," 9S said patiently. "But what if we could find an item or weapon during one of these timelines that we could take back to the beginning of the next timeline that could tip the scales in our favor?"

2B's eyes suddenly widened with pride. When the other YoRHa combat models in her squad had asked her why she didn't request a partner transfer, she hadn't bothered trying to explain it to them. He may not have had the strength to carry an off-handed weapon, but what 9S lacked in combat prowess, he more than made up for in lateral thinking. The two of them had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on more than one occasion thanks to 9S' ability to think outside the box, and for that alone, she wouldn't have chosen anyone else to work besides.

A2 still looked skeptical. "You really think that's going to work?"

9S shrugged. "Well, it's like you said – there's only one way for us to find out for sure."

A2 ground her teeth. "I really don't like being your guinea pig, shorty."

9S let out an exasperated sigh. "I just need any kind of item to test with. It could be anything – heck, a rock might even work."

At his word, A2 bent down and scooped up a small stone from the ground.

"I got a rock for you right here," she said, winding up her arm like she meant to pelt him with it.

"Just let him have the salve, A2," 2B cut in with a raised arm before the exchange could get violent. "They're not that expensive. We'll buy you another one ourselves next time we're at a shop."

A2 grumbled a bit more, looking away in frustration as she dropped her rock. "That's not the point…"

9S was still keeping his gaze fixed on A2. Without the YoRHa visor, 2B could see his expression plainly, and from what she could see, he was immensely enjoying the opportunity to take A2 down a peg.

"Here's some food for thought while you wait," he said, a bit of a sneer creeping in his voice. "Why is your hair still like that? As I recall, it went all the way down your back before we met. But now it's cut short."

A2's eyes widened slightly as she reached up to touch her hair. It was cut in a short bob that was almost indistinguishable from 2B's own hairstyle, though it lacked the sensible hairband 2B wore to keep her hair in place, she noticed with a hint of vanity. From A2's expression, 2B could gather that she hadn't even realized it was shorter than it was supposed to be, and A2 was doing everything in her power not to admit the oversight. Then again, 2B had to admit, it would be easy to grow accustomed to one's own body over time. A2 would probably have been far more likely to notice if her hair were suddenly long again then for it not to have changed since her last conscious experience in the original timeline.

9S had brought up an important data point, but it was a bit unfair of him to be flaunting it in A2's face like this. And he was taking far too much glee in the process besides.

"It would seem that not only have we kept everything that we've gained during the original time," 2B summarized, giving 9S a more productive tangent of logic to follow. "But we've lost everything that's been taken from us as well."

9S nodded, following her queue. "Everything except for our own lives, it seems."

A2 finally stopped fussing with her hair, and fixed the other two androids with her usual bitter expression.

"But why us?" she demanded, impetuously. "What's so special about the three of us that we're the only ones affected by this time loop?"

"Well," 9S postulated, "If what you suggested is true, then there could be countless other time loops out there, each with a different bunch of androids reliving events from their own point of view. But what I really want to know is, why are the three of us in it together? If this were really a simulation, or we really were just memories in a machine intelligence, wouldn't it make more sense for each of us to be in our own unique version? With everyone else but that individual as ignorant of events as all the rest of the world seems to be?"

A2 shrugged without any sort of malice. 9S' question had been a valid one, it seemed, and A2 didn't seem to like the answer she arrived at.

"Unless the three of us are the only androids they managed to acquire…" she muttered.

9S suppressed a shudder. "That's certainly possible too…"

2B let out a breath and crossed her arms. "There's no point in postulating without more data. Right now, I suggest we focus on the next task ahead of us – taking down the goliaths. Everything else can come afterwards."

"Right," 9S nodded. "The way I see it, we have two options – spend however much time we need in this recursion, seeing what else there is to learn and maybe acquire a heavy weapon of some kind to help us in the upcoming battle…"

A2 interlocked her fingers behind her head, casually walking around the room. "Or we jump right into the battle and stomp those goliaths into the ground. I don't know about you guys, but I could really go for some payback against those things right about now."

2B furrowed her brow at that. "It's not a good idea to plunge headlong into this battle without a plan at least."

A2 has a sneer on her face as she cocked her head back towards the other two.

"Tell you what," she said, a somewhat crazed look in her eye. "You two come up with the plan, and you can get me up to speed when I catch up with you at the factory."

2B's eyes widened when she saw A2 yanking one of the plug-in chips from the back of her own neck.

She wouldn't… 2B thought, already knowing the answer.

"Wait, don't -!" she cried, far too late.

The shopping center around her disappeared, along with A2's defiant smirk and 9S' look of utter incredulity, and was immediately replaced by the flight controls of an Ho229 flight unit. The absurd brazenness of A2's actions left 2B so taken aback that in that moment, the only thought that occurred to her in the stunned haze of her mind was that of course removing an OS-chip would be a lot simpler than self-destructing!

"This is Command. YoRHa squadron come in."


A/N: And then there were three.