Nier Automata Fan Fiction

Reprise

By Kraven Ergeist

Recursion 14 (Redux)


"This is Command. YoRHa squadron, come in."

Déjà vu was an entirely unremarkable concept to a YoRHa android. With so many memory backups taking place throughout their lifespan, an android could expect to be confronted with dozens if not hundreds of situations that regularly replicated an identical set of circumstances to one they had been confronted with before. This had been the case even before 2B and 9S had found themselves trapped in a time loop that always started the same way for each and every recurrence. These first few moments of the factory mission had become something of a ritual for 2B, robotically rattling off status updates, tuning out the droning sound of her operator's voice, and blocking out the cries of pain and despair as her teammates died one by one. In some recursions, she found it more difficult than others to do so, but the opening pattern of events was always the same. Only once they had all been destroyed, and she had been left entirely to her own devices did 2B's new reality ever seem to vary at all. And even the minutes and hours afterward had started to become somewhat rote for her.

But this time, something felt truly off.

"9S?" she chimed her partner as soon as she closed off communications with the bunker.

9S responded promptly, as expected.

"Yeah 2B?"

2B hesitated, wondering once again if she was just imagining things, and if her concerns didn't even warrant mention. As strenuous and demanding as navigating this time loop was proving to be, the two of them could ill afford to waste any further time on speculation and wild tangents.

Even so, the fact remained that they were both still very much in uncharted territory. And in such a situation as that, all points bore at least a perfunctory level of consideration, didn't they?

"Does something feel…different about this particular recursion?"

9S paused briefly as he mused in consideration.

"Hmm…now that you mention it…" she heard him muttering to himself after a brief pause. "Let me see here. Nothing looks off about our data readings and energy levels. I could try self-hacking to see if there's anything that my base level internal scans don't pick up, but we both know how dangerous that could be…"

2B steered her flight unit towards their pre-determined rendezvous point, completely by-passing the factory by a wide margin, and thus avoiding much of the machine's defensive perimeter. Such a maneuver would have likely cost them dearly in terms of lost ground that had been paid for by the lives of her flight team, but they had already established that it provided them with a passable route towards the next stage of their mission. Maybe her flight team was always meant to be destroyed. Or maybe as the time loop's primary test subjects, she and 9S had capabilities inherently in the simulation that other entities lacked. Whatever the reason, it felt like a betrayal of her team's memory to toss out the plan that they had given their lives to implement in favor of one that she and 9S had concocted in such an ad hoc fashion.

"Maybe I'm just imagining things…" 2B said uneasily, her mind elsewhere as she thought back to the trials that awaited them, not to mention the recent and dramatic shift in their relationship.

"Well, why don't we try calling A2 to compare notes?" 9S suggested, his mind still clearly focused on the problem. "Just to be sure?"

The mention of A2 seemed to spark something in 2B's mind.

"9S…" she said, her voice suddenly growing quieter. "You don't suppose something might have happened after…I mean…after we…well…"

9S made a confused noise on the other line, and 2B was suddenly grateful that they were both still a few minutes out from their rendezvous point.

"After we…what?" 9S asked innocently.

2B felt something tightening in her stomach as she tried not to choke on her words.

"You know…after you and I…um…" she said, clearing her throat, her cheeks growing warmer by the second. "After Pascal's village, I mean!"

The embarrassed sound of 9S' voice made her feel more at ease as her meaning seemed to dawn on him. At least he was just as shy about the subject as she was. Most of the time, anyway.

"O-Oh!" he stammered sheepishly. "That. Well…uh…maybe? I mean…you think? Why…why would that…change anything?"

The hesitation in his voice belied the uncertainty that undercut his usual skepticism, and 2B had the odd feeling that he too was feeling that lingering sense of déjà vu that she had experienced the moment she had registered that she was in a new recursion.

"Maybe…maybe we should contact A2…" she suggested, her voice losing all certainty.

All inflection of awkwardness and embarrassment was drained from 9S' voice as he tapped into their secure comm frequency, and now 2B was certain that her instincts had been correct. Something was very, very wrong.

A2's reply was immediate, though any concern in her voice seemed to be in response to the call itself rather than anything amiss about the time loop.

"Hey guys," her inquisitive face appeared on the holo-screen. "What's the deal? Why are we interrupting the recursion?"

2B and 9S shared a curious glance from their two flight units.

"A2…" 9S said hesitantly. "What's the last thing you remember from the last recursion?"

A2 appeared utterly baffled by the question.

"You mean those six goliaths that appeared out of nowhere?" she asked blankly.

9S nodded slowly, sharing another glance with 2B.

"Yeah…" he muttered suspiciously. "That's what I remember too. 2B?"

"Same here," 2B shook her head, brow furrowing in frustration.

She still couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about all this, and the lack of any evidence only made her that much more certain of it.

"So…what's up then?" A2 asked impatiently. "Are we going to spend another recursion strategizing about how to take them down? I mean, I guess we have the time for it, but wouldn't it be better to play things out normally so we could…I don't know, test out our strategies on the real thing?"

2B shook her head. Something was bothering her, and she wouldn't be satisfied until she had at least found out what it was.

"Think back," she insisted. "Was there anything different about that last recursion? Anything that stood out from the others?"

A2 and 9S both seemed to shift uncomfortably at that, and 2B suddenly felt heat rising in her cheeks.

"Besides that!" she growled emphatically, her impatience and embarrassment getting the better of her. "How do you even know about that, A2?"

9S' entire face became beet red as A2 cleared her throat.

"Wasn't too hard to guess," she said awkwardly, looking away. "You guys aren't exactly subtle."

9S made a face that looked to be pleading for some form of mercy.

"Can we please focus on the problem here?" he asked meekly.

2B clenched her eyes in frustration.

"Ok, let's back up for a second," 2B declared, a somewhat frantic tone emerging in her voice. "How many recursions has it been in total?"

"Uh…thirteen?" 9S offered. "Fourteen counting this one."

2B shook her head. "Are you sure? Doesn't it feel like it's been more than that?"

A2 made an annoyed sound.

"Ugh!" she growled. "Are we seriously basing this all on a gut feeling now? Of course it feels like it's been longer than it has been – that's what all boring repetitive shit feels like!"

2B focused her attention on A2 at her protests. It hadn't been that long ago that A2 had been quite vehemently arguing in favor of just the opposite stance and going with what felt right. Since when was she suddenly the rational one here?

"9S…" 2B pondered out loud "Is it possible that the machines may have altered our memories to make us forget entire recursions?"

9S offered a helpless shrug. "Anything's possible. Like I said before, we'd have no way of knowing if they did something like that. All we can do is try to extrapolate based on logic what they would have had reason to change and go backwards from there."

2B nodded, pursing her lips. "And that could entail almost anything, up to and including our previous selves having found a way out of this time loop and the machines erasing us before we could execute any such plan."

A2 rolled her eyes so hard, it was visible over the holo-screen.

"Which is why there's no point in making random guesses like this," she declared. "The best thing we can do is find out as much as we can while we still have control over our minds."

2B's attention returned to A2 once again.

"So how would you propose we go about doing so?" she asked, starkly. "Keep attempting the same tasks within the time loop in their prescribed order until we get to the end, like we've been doing?"

A2 gave the other android a helpless look. "It's the only method I can think of. You already figured out that events in this simulation are triggered by certain actions occurring at the right time. And like I said, anything we do that deviates too far has a pretty high chance of getting us killed. So the best way for us to find out anything about this world that we don't currently have access to is to progress through it the way we did before."

9S nodded thoughtfully. "I see…like the goliath blowing up in the middle of the city ruins. There's currently no way for us to investigate the underground bunker with the dead aliens until the goliath attack happens. If we try to find enough explosive munitions to cause a cave-in ahead of time, you're saying we'd probably end up dying in the explosion, regardless of what precautions we took?"

A2 nodded. "Or some rocks might randomly fall on us from out of nowhere. The machines control everything in this simulation. They could make literally anything happen!"

2B slowly shook her head. "The machines aren't infallible. They have to have some sort of blind spot. Isn't it worth finding out?"

A2 hesitated at that, seeming concerned.

"Well…yeah, I guess, but…" she stammered.

Now 2B was starting to worry. She was used to A2 being stubborn and obstinate for seemingly no reason. But now she was acting like she was truly afraid of something. What exactly was A2 hiding this time?

"Let's start smaller then," 2B pushed further. "What about the forest region? We could never reach that area until an entrance was created in the shopping center. But what if we tried opening the barrier ourselves?"

"With what?" 9S asked curiously. "As strong as our weapons are now, that barrier's still too solid for us to penetrate it on our own."

2B nodded, a plan slowly forming in her head.

"True," she agreed. "Fortunately, we happen to be acquainted with a certain resistance member who isn't opposed to opening gateways with heavy explosives."

9S' eyes widened in equal parts surprise and elation. "Jackass! Of course! We could get in contact with her and see if she could blow the gate open for us."

2B kept her eyes on A2's expression through the screen, watching as she grew more and more uneasy with the plan that was taking shape.

"Again with the explosives?" A2 asked dryly. "Am I the only one seeing a pattern here? Are we all competing to find a plan with the most possible ways of going spectacularly wrong?"

2B matched A2's dubious gaze.

"Are we more or less likely to fail simply by tempting the odds?" she asked sternly. "If the machines control everything in here, then realistically it doesn't matter how dangerous the plan is. If the machines want us to fail, we will fail – no matter how likely we might realistically succeed or not. If there's no escaping that fact, then we might as well establish some sort of baseline for understanding it."

A2 massaged the bridge of her nose in irritation.

"And how many attempts is this going to take exactly once the machines start retaliating?" she demanded. "Isn't this just a colossal waste of our time?"

"No more so than repeatedly attempting to go through the entire recursion over and over again," 2B countered, feeling more and more certain in her suspicions. "At least this is something that we can test relatively quickly, since we can start more or less as soon as the time loop begins."

9S looked rather pleased with 2B's plan. "And if this works, there's nothing to stop us from finding alternate paths through every area we encounter. We could progress through the time loop in completely new ways. We can finally take control of the direction this whole thing plays out!"

A2 started looking about as frustrated as 2B was.

"Seriously you guys," she grimaced. "Does the term 'kicking the hornet's nest' mean anything to either of you? We are just asking to get deleted here! You two might be invaluable to the machines as test subjects, but I'm pretty much expendable here!"

2B did not reply with anything resembling sympathy.

"Then how about instead, you can tell us exactly how you've been getting around all this time, A2?" she asked simply.

"What?" A2 blurted.

"What?" 9S also blurted.

2B shook her head. "You already have a way into the forest, don't you? It's where you're calling us from right now – I can see all the trees behind you through the screen. Whatever restrictions apply to 9S and myself, they don't seem to apply to you. You just seem to come and go around here as you please. So how about filling us in on exactly how you're doing it?"

A2's face tightened with indignation, but her hesitation told 2B everything she needed to know.

"I…what?" she laughed, attempting to brush off the accusation. "Come on, you're out of your mind! You guys are the ones with all the fancy YoRHa tech! If you wanted to, you could land those airships anywhere you please! Seriously, what makes you think I have some way of getting places that you couldn't easily reach on your own?"

2B tried not to let her nerves show through her expression, and was suddenly grateful for her YoRHa visor. It had been a long shot, but it was one of the inconsistencies about A2 that she had noticed over time. A2 was technically right about their flight units lending them all that they really needed to get around. But they also happened to be restricted by extenuating circumstances. When they followed the path the recursion naturally took them in, the flight units' landing area was predetermined by YoRHa and the two of them were unable to deviate from it. And if they were to go AWOL, the city ruins and surrounding area were usually so much more densely filled with enemy machines that it would have been too dangerous to land anywhere else. But regardless of any of those logistics, none of this negated the fact that, on foot, A2 still seemed to have means of traversal that the other two simply lacked.

9S threw 2B a nervous look, but 2B kept her gaze neutral and fixed on A2. She didn't need to hammer the point home in any case. All she had intended to do was throw A2 off balance a little. And in that regard, she seemed to have succeeded.

"Humor me then," she said defiantly. "Let's just try getting through the barrier to the forest region, like I suggested. You get in touch with Jackass and meet us at the shopping center. It shouldn't take us more than an hour or so to test my theory, and if I'm wrong, we can go back to doing things your way."

A2 and 9S both looked troubled by this, but A2 eventually nodded with a sigh.

"I still think this is a waste of time, but if it'll get you off my case, then I'll get Jackass on the horn and see if she has some explosives to spare."

A2 ended the call, and 9S continued to look worriedly at 2B.

"What was that all about?" he asked anxiously. "Do you still think A2's hiding something from us?"

"She always has been," 2B confirmed, throttling her airship in the direction of the shopping center. "But it feels different this time. I can't explain how I know for sure, but I'm certain that something has happened fairly recently that she's not telling us."

9S slowly nodded, still looking nervous as he followed after her in his airship.

"I'll trust your instincts on this," he said soberly. "Just…maybe don't burn any bridges with A2 while we're at it? We really don't want her as an enemy."

2B tried her best to put a smile into her words.

"I'll be counting on you and your diplomacy skills then, 9S," she said coyly.

"Roger that," 9S replied in a resigned voice, dutifully sending a probe into her pod to cut them off from the YoRHa network now that they were committed to going off-book.

"Alert," Pod 042 sounded in 2B's ear when 9S completed his task. "Malfunction in bunker uplink node. Switching to offline mode until uplink is reestablished."

The two androids ignored their pods error warnings as they made their way to the shopping center. The city ruins were slowly coming into view over the horizon as trees and crumbling infrastructure whipped past them, and 2B was stewing in agitation the whole time.

Was A2 right? Was 2B legitimately out of her mind with this plan? Was the constant duress of repeated recursion attempts affecting 2B's psyche to the point of making her paranoid and jumping at shadows? 9S had gone along with her plan out of trust and devotion, but he hadn't seemed all too convinced of her point either. And usually it was his job to overthink things like this. Maybe he was simply rubbing off on her. Still, she would have felt a lot better if 9S had been a bit more assertive in backing her up in their conversation with A2. She knew he was much more of a 'go with the flow' sort of android, and she had maybe gone on the offensive a bit more strongly than was warranted. And in all fairness, she had also not given 9S much warning or insight as to her line of thinking – mostly because she was still in the process of figuring it out herself. She knew that 9S was simply reacting with his honest feelings, and she could certainly appreciate him for doing so.

But still…

"So…what are we looking for exactly?" 9S asked after a short time had passed, his face popping up on another holo-screen. "Once we get through the gate to the forest, I mean? Are we just going to try to bang on any door that happens to be locked until something tries to kill us?"

2B suppressed a sigh. She supposed that was one way of looking at it. Part of her wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation that 9S' summation had shined a light on. Another part wanted to simply let go of her flight controls and let her aircraft drift down to the ground and power down wherever she landed and never get back up.

"We can probably think of this as an information gathering mission at this point," 2B finally replied in a steady voice. "There's no point in targeting any enemy machines, save for those that get in our way. Our primary purpose now is to investigate every area of the world that we can reach, question everyone we meet, and turn over every stone that looks out of place until we find something. Or until Adam butts his head in once again."

9S made a disgusted noise in response.

"Ugh…even if we don't run into any obstacles, that's probably going to take us just as long as it would by simply going through the time loop as usual. Are we sure this is the best plan at this point?"

2B tried to suppress the feeling of annoyance that rose inside her at his tone. 9S may have been a pragmatist, but he certainly had no sense of when it was beneficial to keep a positive outlook.

"You want to help?" 2B asked testily. "You've got all our combat data. Why don't you map out the most efficient route for us to take that covers the most ground? Plot a course that intersects with all populated areas in the region and avoid sites of any known enemy activity."

She could feel 9S' shudder of contrition from across the gap between them.

"Roger that…" he muttered in discontent.

2B ground her teeth. She knew 9S was just being sensible, but she couldn't help but find his refusal to think outside the box in this situation to be so annoying! He was a scout unit for crying out loud! He was supposed to be good at lateral thinking. So the fact that he wasn't offering up suggestions of his own at this point meant that he was either just as run down and exhausted as she was (a very real possibility), or that she really was losing her mind, and 9S wasn't doing anything to keep her in check out of fear of reprisal. Neither option made her feel any more at ease regarding their predicament, and she could only feign confidence around A2 for so long.

Because the truth was, she had no idea what A2 was really up to. She had just been pulling at threads at random, hoping that something would provoke A2 into tipping her hand. But 2B was abysmal at reading people as it was, and A2 was clearly running circles around her, and it was everything 2B could do to keep up. 2B needed 9S in top form to have any hope of unravelling whatever web they were caught in, and the more doubt he cast on her, the more doubt she felt in herself.

Then 9S said something that caught 2B completely off guard.

"Emil…" he said in a subdued tone of voice.

2B lost her grip on the throttle and her flight unit slowed to a crawl.

"What?" she demanded. "What did you say?"

9S abruptly applied his airbrakes and circled back around to rejoin her flight unit.

"I was just thinking this whole time…" 9S said in a distracted voice. "We know that a specific set of actions trigger each major event in this simulation. So looking back through our mission logs, what were the key events that triggered the opening of new areas on the map? Talking to Jackass opened the desert zone…then there was the mission assignment from Anemone that unlocked the theme park…then defeating the songstress opened up Pascal's village…then defeating the goliaths in the city unlocked the underground burial site…and then…"

Something clicked in 2B's head.

"It was meeting Emil that unlocked the forest area!" she concluded.

9S nodded. "So what if we could find Emil right off the bat? We could bypass all the other events that occurred up until that point, and as a bonus, it might not get us killed, since we're technically triggering the event correctly, just out of order."

2B nodded absently. Something about the memory of Emil was tugging at something in the back of her mind. She just couldn't figure out what it was.

"So…" 9S continued hesitantly after 2B failed to react to his thought process. "Maybe we should try to find Emil first instead of blasting the barrier with explosives. What do you think?"

2B shook her head in aggravation. There was a memory somewhere in her head concerning Emil that was demanding her attention, and for the life of her, she just couldn't recall it.

"I think…we're still missing something important…" 2B said, jaw clenched. "Something about Emil…"

9S paused for a moment to mull that over, nodding his head slowly.

"I think so too," he said finally. "That's the other reason I want to track down Emil, so we can ask him about it."

2B nodded, a bit more vigorously this time. It was good to finally have a more concrete goal.

"Okay then," she said firmly. "Our mission objective then is to find Emil."

"Got it," 9S concurred. "Should we hold off on blasting through the barrier to the forest area until we do?"

2B seized the control yokes before her once again and sent her flight unit careening off in the direction of the shopping center, determination guiding her movements as the terrain sped by in a blur underneath.

"No," she said in a firm tone of voice. "In fact, we should still try opening as many sealed entrances as possible. If Emil isn't supposed to show up until after the goliath attack…"

She trailed off, letting 9S reach the conclusion she had already drawn.

"Then we'll likely never find him until the event triggers," he said with a breath of realization. "He probably won't even exist in the simulation until it happens."

2B nodded in affirmation. "But if we can trigger an event that occurs after Emil's appearance…"

9S's face paled over the holo-screen.

"Then we'd probably break the time loop!" he said in a mild tone of alarm.

"Maybe," 2B allowed, somewhat intrigued at the thought. "And that alone might be a worthwhile objective. But it's also possible that Emil might spontaneously appear within the simulation as a matter of course."

Tension appeared all over 9S' face.

"Not to play devil's advocate here, but…maybe A2 was right about kicking the hornet's nest?" he suggested. "If we manage to break the time loop…"

2B smiled wryly.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "I'm tired of playing by the machines' rules. It's high time we started changing the game on them."

A tentative smile finally returned to 9S' face.

"Roger that."

As the shopping center came into view, 2B could see two androids waiting for them to descend just outside the entrance. One appeared to be A2, her arms crossed in a thinly veiled manner of irritation, and the other was draped in a brown cloak worn by most other members of the Resistance - Jackass, no doubt.

"That was fast," 9S commented as the two flight units settled to a low hovering position to deposit their passengers before taking off to fly away in the direction of the factory to crash land once again to cover their tracks. "I figured she'd take a bit more convincing."

2B didn't respond as she approached the other two androids, her cybernetic muscles slightly tensed in preparation for Jackass' reaction to encountering them ahead of schedule. In the original timeline, Jackass had been told by Anemone to expect two YoRHa androids to come her way, but since they had jumped the gun on this recursion, Jackass was more likely to treat them with suspicion, as most in the Resistance did.

Fortunately, it seemed like Jackass was more intrigued than she was wary.

"Well, I'll be damned, A2," Jackass let out a huff of breath. "They really did show up. And they're not trying to murder you or anything!"

9S threw 2B an odd look at that. A2 simply rolled her eyes.

"Told you so," she said dismissively, turning to face the shopping center. "Are the charges set?"

Jackass didn't answer, her attention focused on 2B and 9S.

"So what's your deal then, huh?" she asked the two of them, her voice sounding oddly fascinated. "Two YoRHa androids working with a wanted fugitive? Have you guys decided to join the dark side, or has A2 got some kind of dirt on you?"

2B felt wary about revealing too much intel to someone unaware of the time loop, but fortunately it seemed that 9S had been prepared for this kind of conversation.

"We're working with A2 in an unofficial capacity," he said, noncommittally. "We'd appreciate your discretion on the matter."

Jackass nodded, a knowing smile appearing on her lips. "Dark side then. Got it. So I take it you need something from the forest area then?"

9S' pursed his lips. "I'm afraid we can't discuss the details. But we're more than happy to compensate you for your trouble."

2B drew in a breath, briefly worrying that implying that they were engaged in illicit activities behind YoRHa's back might put them at risk of being discovered. After all, what was to stop Jackass from reporting them now? But as she thought it through, she realized that the same held true for if they had claimed to be operating above board. And in that scenario, Jackass seemed far more liable to check in with Anemone, who would then check in with YoRHa to verify their claims. At the very least, it should have been far more common a sight for Jackass to encounter the odd YoRHa android breaking regulations from time to time.

And it wasn't like they needed to save their funds for anything, 2B smiled inwardly. After all, it would just reappear in their inventory as soon as the recursion ended. So they could afford to part with some hush money if need be.

Jackass shrugged her shoulders, her grin only widening at the prospect of making a profit.

"Suits me then," she said, producing a remote detonator switch from beneath her cloak. "Fire in the hole."

A2 shot a glance at the other two, and they nodded as all three of them backed a few more paces away from the entrance to the shopping center. They were already well out of range, but as A2 mentioned, any diversion from the normal timeline ran the risk of ending their lives prematurely, however unlikely it was. Of course, they didn't know this for sure, but it certainly didn't hurt to take the extra precaution.

Jackass, for her part, just looked at them like they were all wimps as she squeezed the detonator in her hand.

BOOM!

A pressure wave came rushing out of the entrance to the shopping center, hitting them all with a cloud of dust and smoke, their clothes and hair whipping back as the gust of air blew past them. But apart from getting their clothes slightly dirty, the explosion didn't seem to have any adverse effects on any of them. Of course, there was also no guarantee that something far more deadly wasn't awaiting them once they crossed that threshold.

"Gagh," 9S coughed as he waved an arm in front of his face to disperse the dust cloud. "Did it work?"

Jackass gave him a bored expression as she shrugged. "See for yourself."

A few moments later, the dust finally settled, revealing a neat little hole through the grating that had sealed the forest area from them until moments earlier. In fact, it looked very much like it had after Emil had plowed through it in the original timeline. Perhaps the simulation only had two possible states for the passages on file?

"That's that then, I guess," 9S smiled congenially, wiring a sizable sum of G over to Jackass. "Thanks for your help."

Jackass continued to eye the pair of androids with interest, but not, 2B noticed, with suspicion.

"No sweat," she commented, cordially. "Watch yourselves out there, huh? The machines around that castle can be pretty feisty."

9S nodded and led the way through the door, 2B and A2 following close behind. Once they were out of earshot, the trio began to scan their surroundings for any signs of danger or anything out of the ordinary, but the forest region appeared to be as it always had been – lush, verdant, and full of platoons of armor-clad machines proclaiming their loyalty to the forest king.

"Well, where to now?" A2 asked dryly. "Want to just head straight to the castle of the forest king from here?"

2B pondered the idea for a moment, before nodding.

"If we're trying to trigger events that occur after they're normally supposed to, then that seems like our next stop," she agreed, before looking to her partner. "9S?"

9S was still looking around, before curiously glancing back at the hole in the grating through which they had just passed. Perhaps he too had noticed that the opening hadn't seemed to vary much from when it had after meeting Emil.

"If I recall, the next time we encountered Emil was after returning to the city ruins upon clearing the castle," he summarized with a nod. "It shouldn't be too difficult with our current combat abilities. Especially with A2 fighting at our side."

A2 remained oddly quiet at that comment, and the other two androids simply exchanged a glance and a shrug before wordlessly advancing towards the forest king's castle.

Along the way, they encountered several hordes of machines running through what appeared to be training exercises and marching patrols, all of whom swiftly attacked the trio on sight. Their combat abilities were so low, however, that a single blast from Pod 042's laser program was sufficient to eliminate most groups in a single shot. It almost felt unfair, storming through enemy territory surrounded by such weaklings, but 2B rationalized that they were merely defending themselves and that the machines were the ones who attacked first. Of course, the androids were the ones invading what the machines no doubt perceived as their sovereign territory, but still, the forest king's machines were very much not like the ones that lived in Pascal's village. None of them waved white flags or even attempted to parlay with the androids. Diplomatic solutions never seemed to be on the table to begin with. Not that 2B had expected anything different, but if one of Adam's objectives was to imply an alternative to the conflict between android and machine, the forest kingdom's guard were certainly not presenting much of an opportunity for it.

And as insistent as A2 had been regarding tackling these recursions in order before, she seemed rather tight-lipped about the whole ordeal now that they were committed to it. Perhaps she was simply waiting for events to play out so that she could say 'I told you so' when it didn't go as 2B hoped. Still, she seemed far more cooperative than usual. She seemed to have no further issue cutting down machines as 2B or 9S had, so if there was something bothering A2 about all this, she was hiding it well.

The team pushed their way across the ancient granite bridge over the river, ascending towards the rows of stone arches between the castle and the gate to Pascal's village. 2B wondered if Pascal would be willing or even able to open this gate for them in future recursions, given his knowledge of the time loop, but it seemed unlikely. She hadn't even truly expected Jackass to offer her assistance as she had, given how far it deviated from the original timeline. But if she hadn't, Pascal would have been 2B's next choice – though of course even his village would not have become available until after the songstress had been defeated. Perhaps they ought to try to recruit Pascal's aid by imploring him to open these passages at the start of each recursion? Would he even be amenable to that option?

2B briefly clenched her eyes shut. Her head was spinning around in circles, trying to recreate and replicate these events from her life over and over again in real-time. It was like every experience she had leading up until that point had been pieces to one giant puzzle that she hadn't quite assembled right, and so she was now attempting to reassemble it again and again. This type of analytical self-reflective exercise simply was not her forte, though she imagined that 9S was just as focused as she was in mulling these circumstances over and over in his head.

The final guards appeared before the fallen pillar leading up to the castle ramparts, and after a few sustained bursts of laser fire from their pods, the way to the castle was finally clear.

"So what do we do once we reach the top, anyway?" 9S asked suddenly as they marched up through the atrium. "This is where we first 'officially' meet you, A2. How are we supposed to recreate events like they did in the original with you already on our team, so to speak?"

A2 still seemed distracted by something, her shoulders lifting in another shrug.

"I guess I kill the king, just like before," she said in a bored tone.

"Just like that?" 9S asked. "That seems kind of…cold, don't you think?"

A2 just shrugged again. "It's not like any of this is real, right?"

9S pursed his lips at that, but didn't have any response as the little team of androids continued moving through the castle, swatting away the guards' futile attempts at resistance with laughable ease. Whatever enhancements the machines had received thanks to Adam's meddling, it did not seem to extend as far as the castle. Perhaps he had only reprogrammed the simulation up to a certain point, not expecting them to find a back-door to slip through to this area already. Though if that were true, why hadn't he contacted them or otherwise interrupted them by now? Maybe he was not so omnipotent as they had feared? Or perhaps he was simply biding his time, watching what they did in order to obtain further intel on them. Who could say?

"Why did you even kill the king, anyway?" 9S asked a little bit later, once they had reached the library, their path spiraling upward to loop back around to the floors above.

"What?" A2 asked in a perplexed tone as she followed behind them up the ladder.

"In the original timeline, I mean," 9S asked, sounding genuinely curious as they made their way back out towards the courtyard. "I mean…it clearly wasn't a threat. It was just a baby. So why even bother killing it?"

2B occupied herself with deflecting projectiles from the snake-like machine that weaved around the walkway towards them, but she kept her ear on the conversation all the same. She too had been somewhat curious about A2's motivations in that instance.

A2 slowly shook her head. "This entire forest is filled with machines that fanatically follow this king of theirs. Once you guys had cleared a path up to the throne room, I saw a chance to weaken the machines' resolve, and I took it. It didn't matter what the king looked like – I figured once it was dead, the rest of the machines in the area would be less inclined to fight back. It should have made them easy pickings. Of course it didn't work out that way in the end for whatever reason – guess the number of machines that actually see the king in person on a regular basis is pretty small. But it still seemed like the smart move at the time."

2B nodded as she took a running jump off the edge of the broken bridge leading to the throne room, clinging to her pod for extra hangtime as she drifted over to the other side. A2's logic made sense to the combat tactician inside her. But there was something else about the encounter that was bothering her.

"What about afterward?" 2B asked finally, after the other two had landed beside her and they began filing their way back inside.

9S took that as his cue to take over fending off the armor-clad machines as he got into position to fight off the swarms of guards rushing to defend their king. A2, meanwhile, just fixed 2B with a tired and annoyed look.

"What do you mean, afterward?" she asked.

2B ignored the battle ensuing between 9S and the remaining machines – he seemed to have things well in hand.

"You knew that you were wanted by YoRHa," 2B explained simply. "You knew that we would be ordered to bring you in or destroy you. So why did you stay and fight us? Why didn't you attempt flee right away?"

A2 hesitated, her silence punctuated by the clings and clangs of 9S' sword on metal and the desperate cries of machines defending their symbolic king to the last.

"I guess…" A2 finally answered, her eyes hidden behind her hair. "I guess part of me was just hoping that you two might actually see things my way, against all odds, and that you might even side with me against YoRHa."

2B narrowed her eyes beneath her mask. "Side with you against YoRHa?"

A2 snorted derisively. "It was a stupid and unrealistic expectation, and deep down, I knew exactly how it would turn out. But the alternative was to remain a fugitive forever while YoRHa continued to pursue its plans, unopposed. And I figured that if there was anyone who would listen to me, it would be someone who shared the same model as me. But in the end though, the two of you weren't ready to hear what I had to say."

9S sent one last laser blast through the remaining machines, before turning back to face A2, sheathing his sword.

"Did you even know the full extent of what was happening at that point?" he asked, evidently having been listening in on the conversation the whole time even while slaughtering waves of machines en-masse.

"Not really," A2 admitted ruefully. "I'm not even sure I understand it all now, actually. What I do know is that…everything that had happened to us all by that point in time had been predicted. The machine war, the bunker, the fake colony of humans on the moon, my mission, your mission, all of our missions…they were all planned out long ago. Even by turning my back on YoRHa, I was ultimately fulfilling the purpose they had in store for me."

9S fixed 2B with a worried look.

"Predicted by whom?" he asked. "YoRHa? The machines?"

A2 let out a pitying laugh. "You still think that those are two different things? Come on, 9S, you should know better by now."

9S' face tightened and glared down at the floor. 2B had already pieced together what A2 was insinuating, and even though they hadn't discussed it, she was pretty sure that 9S had as well. He had simply not wanted to admit it.

"The three of us?" A2 guffawed, extending her arms out to either of them. "We're just puppets. Pawns in some larger game. We always have been! This time loop is just more explicit about it. It's why I've never been opposed to the idea of blowing off whatever plans anyone else had for me. Cause if nothing matters to anyone other than the ones who've been pulling the strings all our lives, then the only justification we need to do anything is our own."

2B let out a sigh as she stared back at A2, feeling like she had just glimpsed another piece of the puzzle she presented.

"You weren't just hoping that we'd side with you when you stayed to fight us, were you?" she asked softly, her heart once again going out to her. "You were trying to see if we were strong enough to actually kill you."

A2's shoulders stiffened in response to that, but 2B could tell she had struck a nerve.

"A2…?" 9S' muttered in disbelief as his jaw hung slack.

A2 shook her head, turning to look away from the other two androids. But she didn't try to run away.

"Yeah, I'd considered it," she finally said in a halting voice. "Suicide by YoRHa. Lots of fugitives end up going out that way. It's the only future most of us see for ourselves, so you figure you might as well get it over with. Beats waking up scared every day. But in the end, I could never go through with it. My programming always won out, and I'd fight my hardest to escape and survive. No matter what I really wanted."

"A2…" 2B breathed in a crestfallen voice.

9S and 2B both took a slow, careful step towards her, but the other android simply turned her back and began walking up the stairs to the throne room.

"Let's just kill this stupid king already…" she grunted in annoyance, clearly done with the conversation at hand.

2B and 9S exchanged another glance, neither of them knowing just what to say after all that. They were learning more and more about who A2 truly was the more they spoke with her, and neither one of them was entirely sure about just what the complete picture might ever look like.

Then 9S seemed to realize something and hurried up the stairs after the attacker unit.

"Hold up, A2!" he called out to her. "Before you take out the king, give 2B and I a second to reconnect our pods to the network. Otherwise the next event might not even trigger, and we'll have wasted this whole trip up here."

A2 let out a groan, but she halted her advance on the tiny metal cradle.

"Hurry it up then," A2's annoyed voice responded without preamble.

2B slowly caught up with her partner, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"9S…" she said softly.

He reached up with his other hand and squeezed hers in return. They were both thinking the same thing, and neither of them needed to say anything more. A2 had been in more pain than either of them had realized. It didn't change the stakes in the slightest, nor did it make her any more trustworthy. But if either of them had any notion of possessing some measure of humanity above that of the machines, that same humanity within them both could not help but empathize with A2.

9S waited a moment longer, before sending a probe into their pods. Reluctantly he released his grip on 2B's hand, and she withdrew it just as unwillingly as their connection to the YoRHa network was re-established.

9S released a sigh of relief after a few moments had passed. "I was half-expecting Adam to contact us as soon as we reconnected. Whatever method he's using to keep track of us, it would seem to have nothing to do with the YoRHa network within the simulation. Scratch that lead off our list, I guess."

2B nodded, an impressed look on her face. She hadn't even considered that the YoRHa network might lend itself to Adam keeping tabs on them. Trust 9S to think of something like that and test it out without even breaking a stride.

"Okay, we're ready," 9S commed into their secure network with A2. "We're going to have to put on a show for the cameras, so let's try to play this out as close to the original as we can, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah…" A2 said with a huff before leaping up to the rafters, out of sight.

2B watched A2 disappear, and briefly wondered just where she had learned that particular trick. Then 9S gave 2B a nod, signaling her to go, and she stepped over to the metal cradle containing the forest king with 9S at her side.

A moment later, A2 dove down upon them with her sword aimed at the king.

SHHHNK!

2B and 9S leapt away well in advance of A2's strike, letting her skewer the tiny metal creature on the tip of her sword. The two of them watched in morbid fascination as she then casually flung the baby machine corpse off to the side as she turned to face them, her sword held at the ready.

"Still seems kind of cold to me…" 9S shuddered under his breath.

Moments later, Pod 042 dutifully chimed in.

"Alert," the pod said. "This unit is currently wanted by YoRHa. Annihilation recommended."

2B and 9S couldn't help but stare at their pods in mild stupefaction. Here they had been, wandering the whole world on and off with A2 at their side, but now their pods suddenly saw her as their enemy once more? Were their pods any less puppets than anyone else in this time loop?

As her radio chirped and a holo-screen appeared in front of her with the commander's face on it, 2B surmised that she had her answer.

"Bunker to 2B and 9S," the commander announced. "We've picked up a signal from the black box of a fugitive known as A2. What you see in front of you…is your enemy."

There it was. Proof that they had leapt ahead in the timeline. The commander made no mention of their desertion of the factory mission. In fact, a quick glance at her internal chronometer told her that their mission clock had jumped ahead by several days, lining up with the date her combat data recorded their attack on the forest kingdom almost to the minute. It seemed that as far as the rest of YoRHa and the rest of the world was concerned, the events leading up to this point in time had already transpired as they had in the original timeline.

As the YoRHa commander droned on, A2 smiled wryly at the other two, overhearing the dogmatic declaration from their radio transmitter. When 2B met her gaze, she could only grimace as she tried not to let the feeling of foolishness overcome her. Listening to her commander now, how could it not have been obvious that YoRHa was covering something up? How could she have so blindly followed YoRHa's orders for so long, given how suspicious those orders had been? Of course, when those orders were all she had ever known all her life, it was hard to see outside of that worldview. But it was still difficult not to look back on the android she used to be with scorn and disdain.

And like it or not, it was that naïve, ignorant and obedient little android that she was now pretending to be once again.

"Let's go, 9S," she said with a great sigh, drawing her sword.

"Roger that, ma'am," 9S responded just as grudgingly.

As if sensing the apprehension in their voices, the commander spoke again.

"She deserted us," she proclaimed, rattling off YoRHa propaganda with impeccable precision. "She's destroyed multiple pursuit androids. Now kill her before she kills you."

The two of them assumed combat stances just outside the range of A2's sword as the other android continued to fix them with a pitying smile.

"You heard her, guys," she sneered. "Better kill me quickly."

2B felt a chill go down her spine, a feeling completely unlike what she'd felt the first time she'd faced A2. After learning what A2 had been going through, 2B was honestly not sure if A2's behavior at that moment were truly a performance or not.

Fortunately, it seemed that she would not need to find out.

"We can stop here," 9S said, re-sheathing his sword. "We'll upload our combat data from the original timeline. No need to actually fight and risk resetting the time loop."

A2 hesitated for only a moment more before she too re-sheathed her sword.

"Would you have actually fought me if I'd attacked?" she asked, her eyes aimed at 2B.

2B felt her shoulders tense under the questioning, and she saw 9S fidgeting nervously in response.

"I'd have defended myself," 2B said, noncommittally. "But I would have tried not to retaliate with lethal force. Like 9S said, there's no point in risking our progress in this timeline."

A2 seemed unsatisfied with that answer.

"And if this had been for real?" she asked, pointedly. "If there was no time loop, and I had come at you for real…would you have fought back?"

2B chewed on her lip as she considered. History would seem to point to the obvious answer to A2's question. That foolish android from before would have fought back without hesitation. But it was clear from A2's question that she meant whether the present 2B, after everything she'd learned, would have done the same.

"I…I don't know," 2B said.

A2 seemed even less satisfied with this answer, and turned her back on the other two to face the window.

"Well whatever," she grunted in annoyance. "Guess I better make tracks then so you two can get on with the next stage of the timeline."

2B reached out her hand in protest. "A2, wait!"

The other android was already stepping through the window, and by the time 2B and 9S made it to the ledge outside, A2 was gone.

9S gritted his teeth in agitation.

"I still have no idea how she manages to get away so quickly," he groaned, before turning to his partner. "Should we go after her?"

2B shook her head slowly. "I think she just wants some time alone."

9S crossed his arms. "If you say so. All I know is, I'm going to be really pissed if this all just turns out to be an act she's putting on to try to get our sympathy."

"I don't think that's what this is," 2B frowned, gazing off at the horizon as the wind whipped at her hair. "She's still hiding something from us, and she clearly wants something from us too. But I think those feelings we saw were still real."

9S seemed troubled that the assertion. Perhaps because it meant that he couldn't simply disregard the compassion that he too was no doubt feeling for A2.

"What does she want from us then, exactly?" he asked.

"Don't know," 2B huffed. "But now that we're separated, let's take the opportunity to look around some more."

She leapt out of the window, grabbing hold of her pod as it slowly lowered her to the front courtyard of the castle, with 9S following close behind her as she began the trek back towards the forest.

"Alright then," 9S said as he followed after her. "Let me just splice up our combat data and check in with command."

He opened a channel back to the bunker, a holo-screen appeared in front of his face with his operator's face on screen.

"Operator," 9S said. "Patch me through to the commander."

"Roger that 9S," Operator 21O replied, before the commander's face once again appeared on the screen

"I'm sorry commander," 9S replied stoically. "We failed to defeat the fugitive."

"I see," the commander replied. "Well at least you're both safe. That's an incredibly powerful unit that you just faced. You should probably keep your distance in the future."

2B mused at the sudden shift in the commander's behavior. In the heat of the moment, her orders had been stringent and resolute, broaching no argument. But now that the danger had passed, she also seemed to display sympathy and compassion. Was it all an act she was putting on to maintain cohesion within YoRHa's ranks? Or was she too simply following a role that was spelled out for her whenever the situation demanded it, only to slip back into her normal behavior when it was no longer called for? 2B didn't know.

The original 9S would have probably pressed the commander for further information. But this time, 9S simply nodded.

"Roger that, ma'am."

The commander's face lingered on screen for just a moment. 2B might have been imagining things, but the commander seemed to have a curious look in her eyes, as if she had been expecting more questions. But she simply hung up the call moments later, and soon, the two of them were alone once again.

"Okay…" 9S let out an exasperated sigh. "So the commander thinks it's the future now."

2B rolled her eyes beneath her mask. "Have you checked your mission clock? It effectively is the future, as far as the simulation is concerned."

9S nodded slowly. "Yeah, I noticed. What concerns me is why we're getting away with this. I feel like Adam should have butted in by now."

2B tapped her chin as she thought back to their dealings with the insipid machine lifeform.

"I suppose technically he never said that we couldn't jump ahead in the timeline…" she mused.

"Yeah, but this still definitely feels like cheating," 9S said, crossing his arms. "Something tells me it's not just A2 who wants something from us. I think the machines are after something too – something that jumping ahead in the timeline doesn't necessarily prevent."

2B slowly shook her head. "Well, we have no way of knowing what that could be until it happens. Let's keep moving until we find it."

"Roger that, ma'am," 9S nodded, before mumbling to himself. "Let's see…after this point, I think we went back to Pascal's village. Let me call him up and see if he'll let us through the back door…"

2B passively watched as 9S once again opened a radio channel.

"Pascal, this is 9S," he said, a timid copper face appearing on the holo-screen. "We're heading to your location from the direction of the forest. Can you open the gate to let us through?"

Pascal seemed only too happy to comply.

"Oh certainly," he said in a pleased tone of voice. "This is unexpected. I felt a shift a little earlier. Was that because of you two?"

9S and 2B stared back at each other in puzzlement.

"A shift?" 9S asked blithely. "Wait, what do you mean, a shift? Can you feel things that happen in the time loop or something?"

Pascal's face shook back and forth.

"Oh no," he explained. "No, I meant a seismic shift, like the entire Earth was shaking. My scouts are telling me that a great big hole has opened up in the city ruins. It's just like the one before, only much sooner this time. I had assumed that this was caused by your actions, since there was no sign of a goliath attack. Did you guys do anything that might have caused this?"

9S whistled, sounding impressed.

"The hole in the ground opened up too?" he asked.

2B shook her head in incredulity. "So jumping ahead like this even changes the landscape?"

"So it would seem," Pascal said, wonder and delight in his voice. "Whatever you're doing, it seems to be working. I hope you find what you're looking for out there. Just please be careful, wherever this leads, and let me know if I can be of any help."

9S threw a smile towards 2B.

"Actually…" he said in a knowing tone. "Maybe there is something you could do for us. Whenever the time loop resets…could you open up the gates to the city ruins and the forest kingdom right away?"

Pascal seemed somewhat hesitant. "I…guess I could do that. We normally keep those gates sealed to keep out enemy machines, but if it's just for a little while…"

9S clenched his fist in excitement. "Thanks Pascal! That would be a great help!

2B felt a quiver of excitement run through her body as the call ended, and she could tell at a glance that 9S felt the same. Without even discussing it, they had both arrived at the same idea.

"Now we shouldn't even need to bother Jackass to jump ahead in the timeline," 2B smiled in approval.

"And now maybe we can finally find Emil!" 9S replied excitedly.

2B nodded, and the two of them ran off as fast as their legs would carry them through the gate Pascal's scouts had opened for them. After taking a moment to exchange a quick greeting with Pascal and ironing out some details regarding their arrangement with the village gates, the two of them headed back out towards the city ruins. As they passed through the gate on the other side, which had also mysteriously been opened despite their never having moved it, the two androids indeed came upon the site of the massive opening in the ground leading down to the alien tomb.

It was like stepping into a past memory. It had been at least a dozen recursions since 2B had seen the landscape torn asunder in such a fashion. And yet, something about the scene seemed to stir up a far more recent memory. She just couldn't put her finger on it.

"Let's see…" 9S muttered, opening up a holographic display screen to pull open a full map of the area. "Emil should be driving his little cart around here or here…"

He gestured to various points on his map, his face tightening in consternation.

"But I don't see him anywhere…" he said unhappily, lifting his head from his screen to scan their terrain.

2B likewise cast her gaze across the horizon, pricking up her ears for the telltale sound of music that came from Emil's mobile shop. She saw quite a few wild moose and some stray machines that were wandering about aimlessly. But all she could hear was the steady sound of the breeze all around her, and the trickle of the stream that ran towards the crevasse to cascade down into the endless chasm.

"Me neither," she admitted grumpily. "Should we wait, or try to progress things even further?"

9S closed his holo-screen as he pondered her question. "I think our next assignment came from Anemone. We could stop by the resistance camp and see if maybe Emil decides to show himself once we leave."

2B nodded, wasting no time as she moved towards one of the nearby moose and climbing atop its back to have it ferry her off to the resistance camp with 9S trailing close behind her on a mount of his own. After speaking briefly to Anemone and receiving their mission assignment to guard the missile silos at the sunken city, the two of them were once again patrolling the city ruins looking for Emil, once again stumped as to the curious entity's absence.

"Maybe he's still stuck in that machine head at the shopping center?" 9S suggested, clearly at as much of a loss as 2B was.

2B frowned. "We didn't encounter any machines there. We could check again, but…"

9S sighed, finishing the thought for her.

"But it's possible that now that we've advanced this far, we've missed our window for ever breaking him out," he groaned in annoyance.

The two of them wandered despondently back out to the shopping center anyway, just to be sure. But sure enough, there were no machines inside the mall area, and soon they were both sitting atop one of the rooftop ledges overlooking the sunken hole at the center of the forgotten city. Their legs were dangling over the edge, their faces both masks of discontent as they surveyed the endless ruins, desperate for any sign of their wayward ally.

"I don't get it," 9S complained in aggravation. "How does jumping the gun on the timeline of events cause some things to occur in the right order, but not others?"

2B offered him a helpless shrug. "We are effectively breaking the time loop. Who could say what might result from our actions?"

9S rested his head in his hands, an annoyed scowl on his face.

"Man…" he pouted, utterly deflated. "I feel like this whole recursion's been a bust."

2B smiled ruefully.

"I don't know about that," she pointed out optimistically. "We've technically made it farther then we ever have before."

9S snorted out a laugh in response.

"Yeah, by cheating," he countered. "But I guess you're right. Even when we fought those goliaths, we…"

9S paused and 2B could tell that something had crossed his mind.

"What is it?" she asked.

9S began scratching his head with both hands.

"Damn…" he groaned in frustration. "I'm trying to remember…2B, we never beat those six goliaths before, have we?"

2B thought back, and tried to recall their most recent fight with the goliaths in the ruins. It hadn't been much of a fight – they'd chased them off of a cliff before they could even get to their flight units.

Although…

Why did it feel like they'd beaten them before, at least once?

"I don't…think so…?" she allowed, though the uncertainty of her voice betrayed how little confidence she had in her answer.

9S grunted and groaned as he strained to come up with an answer that constantly eluded him. 2B wanted to help, but she was just as lost as he was. 9S had always been the more creative thinker of the two of them. If he couldn't come up with an explanation for what was going on…

"Think back…" 9S said conspiratorially. "What information has Emil given us?"

"Huh?" 2B gave him a puzzled look, confused by his question. "What do you mean? Back in the original timeline?"

9S shook his head.

"Just in general," he said, as if trying to rouse a specific response from her. "What information comes to mind when you think about Emil? What thoughts? What memories? What's the first thing that you can think of that reminds you of him?"

2B nodded, slowly beginning to understand. She had seen 9S do this kind of mental exercise before with his fellow scanner units. It was similar to word association, something that humans of old did when they tried to investigate the recesses of their own brains. Since androids were designed from humans, 9S had maintained, it made sense to try a similar exercise himself when thoughts eluded him. She supposed that if the machines had truly erased their memories, then this method stood as good a chance as any of shaking some memories loose. And 2B was game for any plan at this point.

"I think of…lunar tears, I guess…" she said, letting her mind wander back in time.

9S nodded hopefully. "Ok. What else?"

2B closed her eyes, trying to picture Emil in her head.

"His…childish voice…" she said, thinking out loud. "That loud, obnoxious music of his…how unreasonably cheerful he always was…"

9S smiled, his gaze drifting absently, no doubt closing his own eyes beneath his visor.

"He always sold us the most interesting things…" he commented. "And he would drive around so fast, we would always have to shoot that cart he was driving just to get him to slow down."

2B was piecing thoughts and memories together as she tried to picture the strange little entity.

"He had a living area deep underground," she said, recalling having to fight him off after he lost his temper at their theft of his masks. "And despite looking completely ridiculous, he was quite strong. It took us so long to take him down, I was utterly exhausted after our fight."

9S smiled whimsically at the memory.

"The last memory I have of him is out in the desert, when we had to fight all his clones," he recalled, his voice darkening. "That was one of the scariest fights I'd ever been in."

2B nodded at the memory. "And in the end, he sacrificed himself to save us."

9S pursed his lip, his nose scrunched up in annoyance. "Is that…really the last memory I have of him?"

2B frowned as she looked around the still barren city ruins. It seemed that recollecting what little history they had with Emil had not somehow conjured with the strange little entity into existence. It had been a silly and frivolous hope, but it was nice to reminisce regardless.

She glanced back at 9S, who was still tensed in concentration, his brow knotted with intensity, and she just couldn't help herself but be taken in by his brooding demeanor. She pulled off her mask and leaned over to place a gentle kiss on his lips, utterly breaking the spell over him in an instant.

"2-2B?!" he stammered in surprise, cheeks reddening as his whole body jerked in response. "Wh-what was that for?"

2B smiled wistfully at him. "You just look cute when you're focused. That's all."

His blush spread across more of his face as he glanced away, scratching his head. "Well, now I can't focus at all."

2B's smile only widened. "Well, normally I would apologize, but…something tells me you don't actually mind all that much."

He turned to look back at her, a smile on his face now as he too removed his mask.

"Oh yeah?" he commented dryly, before leaning in to kiss her back. "What gave me away?"

2B sighed contently into the kiss, her hand rising up to rest on his cheek as she felt the day's tension ease out of her body.

"Mmm…" she felt a longing noise escape her throat. "Mostly the fact that you're kissing me now."

9S' lips left hers for an agonizing moment as he cocked a mischievous smile at her.

"Well in that case, maybe I should stop?" he asked in a voice that told her that he clearly knew exactly the answer she would give him.

"Don't you dare…" she told him anyway, pulling him back in.

It all came spilling out at once as the kiss grew in intensity. The frustration of being trapped inside an unfathomably complex puzzle became a wayward afterthought within 9S' embrace. Without YoRHa looking over her shoulder, 2B was finally at liberty to truly experience what it felt like to surrender without guilt or remorse. She was a combat model through and through, and fighting with everything she had without ever entertaining the possibility of failure was the very foundation of her ethos. YoRHa had no use for a combat unit that could be overcome by feelings of loss, regret, or even love. And so such thoughts and feelings had been excised from her programming.

Or so she had thought. In reality, YoRHa had no such ability. Each and every one of them were based on a human being, with all the failings and weaknesses that came with it. The creativity, cunning and adaptability that came with being human provided far too great of an advantage to pass up. And so, unable to cut off the weak human heart that came with it, YoRHa had instead attempted to bury those feelings under layers and layers of programming and indoctrination, convincing androids like 2B that those feelings were forbidden, a sign of weakness.

She had almost died believing this lie. The moment she had given her life to save 9S, knowing full well that there would be no coming back, her mind had been opened to the truth. In that moment, 2B had finally accepted her humanity, had truly become human, in spirit if not in body. And having been brought back to life after the fact, despite having paid the ultimate price for such enlightenment, meant that for the first time in her life, 2B got to put that unexercised humanity into practice.

It was small wonder that her affections would fall on 9S, she thought absently as she kissed him. Her every notion of what it meant to even have emotions revolved around those that had risen within her as a direct result of their relationship. In a sense, she owed him her humanity. Despite having condemned and condescended him for ever showing his emotions, he had never ceased in demonstrating them to her every time they so much as spoke. 9S had not only shown her what it meant to be human, but had also proven to her that it wasn't wrong.

Given how heated things had gotten during their last romantic encounter, 2B felt sure that 9S would begin tearing off her clothes before ten minutes had gone by. But 9S was nothing if not consistent, and his docile submissiveness seemed to forbid him from overstepping his bounds, even when those bounds only existed in his own head. And as entertaining as it might have been for 9S to take the reins out of her hands and surprise her with a show of assertiveness, 2B had to admit that there was a certain appeal to being the one in control of the direction and flow of every touch, every kiss, every lick and nibble as his lips found their way to her collarbone. After having so little control over her life under YoRHa, and having even less so within the bounds of this time loop, it came as something of a welcome relief to finally be able to exert some control, however minor. She had only to tighten her grip on his hair or to seize him by the wrist for him to adjust his movements to better suit her fancy. He followed her guidance without question, responding to her every shiver and moan of encouragement with ever increasing fervor. The two of them had always shared a strong connection, and they had grown so familiar with one another that they had been all but finishing each other's sentences before the subject of romance had ever been broached. So it should have come as no surprise to her that he would almost immediately adapt to the subtle cues in her body language whenever things got intimate.

"2B…" 9S' let out a heated breath that tickled her ear, and she couldn't help but smile at the need she heard in his voice.

Without even realizing it, time had gotten away from her once again. 9S was aching visibly to progress things further, his arousal spelled out plainly on his face, and 2B found that even without any clothes coming off, she too was stirring in agitation. She was tempted to give into his wishes and grant him what they both so clearly craved, but then the delicious thought formed in her head of making him wait until she permitted it, and she found the idea far too tempting to ignore.

"Much as I'd like to continue…" 2B whispered in a voice that came out far more husky than she had intended, "I'll remind you that we do still have a mission to consider…"

Petulant grief washed over 9S' face as he looked at her in incredulity. She could tell at a glance that he didn't buy her excuse for an instant, and knew exactly what she was really doing.

"That's cruel, you know that?" he smirked back at her, a mischievous cock to his eyebrow. "Who knows when our next chance will be?"

"Perhaps…" 2B responded, her tone a feigned disinterest. "Maybe you'll get lucky. You'll just have to wait and see. Until then…"

9S' cheeks flared almost as bright as 2B's own as she reached down between his legs to squeeze the bulge in his shorts, a wicked smile on her face as she met his gaze.

"You better keep on your toes…" she whispered in a voice filled with evil intentions.

9S was left utterly stunned as she released her grip on him, rising to her feet as she stood over him, keeping her gaze locked on his until she had finished retying the sash over her eyes.

She would treasure the look of indignant betrayal on his face for the rest of her life.

"Oh, you are just too cruel, 2B…" he shuddered, the promise of an imminent and mischievous retribution in his smile.

The picture her imagination painted of just what 9S had in mind for her in recompense was like a jolt of electricity to her system. Her body felt invigorated like it never had before, her movements more deft, and there was a surety of purpose in her sword arm that had previously been waning over the past few recursions. With any luck, 9S would feel similarly motivated, and be able to operate with a clarity of intention that he seemed to be lacking of late.

Of all the maxims espoused by A2 that may have been wrong, she hadn't been lying about one thing. When one accepted the fact that nothing else mattered, it fell to oneself to find their own meaning and purpose. And that meaning and purpose could be literally anything. Even something as trivial and trite as the fluttering in her heart that arose when she thought about the one she loved. When compared to the grand scheme of their plight within this time loop, it seemed nigh irresponsible to waste their time on such thoughts. But when she was the one who got to decide what was and was not responsible, what was and was not worth spending her time thinking about, that brought with it a freedom and clarity that would have been otherwise impossible while her fate was still not her own.

The machines may have ownership over her entire being within this simulated world. She may have been completely at their mercy, and any attempt to stand against such dominance might have been the height of folly. But in this one way, this one aspect of her life, 2B was still mistress and queen of her own destiny. She got to be the one to decide how important 9S was to her, what she would do based on those feelings, and how their relationship progressed as a result. No matter what the machines did to her, it was 2B who got to decide what role this love would play in her life.

She dropped off the ledge of the building upon which they had been resting, landing gracefully on the rocky gravel that remained of the city ruins after the hole had been opened in the ground. Despite Emil being nowhere to be found, the fact that no goliaths had even been in the area at the time the hole had appeared seemed to have no bearing on the state of the terrain. Everything looked the same as it had in the original timeline. Even the wrecked husk of the fallen Engels unit still lay where it would have been before, just beyond the resistance camp.

2B felt 9S' presence behind her as she began making her way to the open pipeline leading through the hillside towards the sunken city, and a shudder ran through her body as she felt his eyes on her. Despite having been studied by those eyes throughout their entire journey together, now that 9S had gotten a taste, so to speak, the feeling that flooded her system of dangling herself before him like a prize was far more pronounced – and consequently, utterly intoxicating.

"Still on mission, 9S?" she asked idly as the two of them trudged into the dark and gloomy pipeline, doing her best not to allow the smug smile on her face to creep into her voice.

The sarcasm in 9S' voice could be heard echoing off the rusted steel walls of the piping all around them.

"Oh, you bet!" he replied in mock enthusiasm as they both skidded down the plume of running water that cascaded through the length of the pipe. "There is absolutely nothing else on my mind at this moment. Not a single thing."

2B skillfully vaulted over the various obstacles as the water carried them towards their destination before skidding to a halt as the opening to the sunken city came into view. Despite how nimbly she had maneuvered the ruined waterway, her clothes were still drenched, and still clung to her body all the more fetchingly now. And as she stepped back out into the sunlight, she couldn't resist the urge to throw just a teensy bit more sway into her hips as she walked in plain view for 9S to see.

"Good," she said in feigned innocence, feeling 9S stewing in agitation all the while as he watched her walk in front of him.

"Too cruel…" he muttered again under his breath.

2B had to keep herself from laughing. If he was going to be this fun to tease out in the field, she wondered if she'd ever be able to relent. She felt no remorse for her actions of course – she wouldn't be able to delay her own gratification much longer in any case. But if the machines were going to make them relive the same monotonous events over and over again like this with no apparent hope of escape, then she was resolved to have whatever fun she could have where she found it. And as much as 9S might complain, she could clearly see how much he was enjoying her teasing all the same. Livening things up a bit like this certainly went a long way towards making the process of reliving these recursions more bearable.

They made quick work of the enemy machines in their path, shooting and slicing their way through the clunky metal automatons almost as an afterthought. It seemed that none of Adam's enhancements were in effect throughout the entire recursion, and not for the first time, 2B wondered if this was an honest oversight or if the machines were intentionally changing their methods. They truly couldn't be certain what had become of the status quo until it once again changed on them, and so resolved, the two of them kept advancing until they had reached the missiles they had been assigned to protect.

A few more blasts with their pods' laser programs, and the upended building upon which the missiles were positioned was once again clear of machines. And within moments, the commander's face had once again appeared on their holo-screens.

"2B? 9S? Come in," she said sternly. "Emergency orders incoming. The carrier ship that was sent to resupply has come under attack. It's currently being engaged by a swarm of machines. I've asked all YoRHa troops in the city ruins for assistance, and I'll need you to provide backup as well. I'm sending flight units and coordinates now. Good luck. Out."

9S threw 2B a look of trepidation as the telltale sound of engine turbines from a pair of Ho229 flight units filled the air as the two aircraft drifted down to settle upon the precariously collapsed skyscraper half-submerged in the ocean.

"I think we should hold off on progressing things from here, 2B," he cautioned gravely. "This is kind of the point of no return for us."

2B narrowed her eyes, though of course her gaze remained hidden behind her mask.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

9S glanced around uncomfortably. "I mean that according to our combat data, after this point, things start happening pretty quickly one after another, without any real opportunity for us to catch our breath or make any significant changes. To start with, as soon as we engage with that goliath out at sea, I get captured by Adam. Who knows what will happen then? Even in a best case scenario, you and I will likely be separated and at least temporarily not in control of our conscious minds."

2B shook her head stubbornly. "You don't know that for sure. We could change the outcome of the fight. Now that we know what we're up against-"

"There's no reason to think that Adam won't just up the ante again," 9S interrupted. "But that's not even the point. Even if we get through the next encounter with Adam unscathed, then after that I get sent up to the bunker, and you get tasked with investigating that cult of machines at the factory. I'll eventually join up with you by hacking my way into some of the local machines – and that's setting aside for the moment that transferring consciousness data at all is still just a huge question mark for us in this simulation – but then as soon as that mission is resolved, we're immediately cast into another pitched battle with Eve and that rampaging storm of machines. And then as soon as that's over, the commander immediately launches the final attack against the machines, resulting in the fall of YoRHa."

2B tensed uneasily at 9S' tone. The fear she heard in his voice was starting to verge on the level of desperation she had heard from him during that fateful conversation on the beach so long ago. Whatever awaited them over the next horizon, it had 9S utterly petrified.

"Calm down, 9S," 2B assured him, taking a step closer to put a hand on his shoulder. "We don't know for sure if that's how it will be. There are any number of ways that we could still affect the next series of events."

9S tensed at her contact, and he slowly nodded his head. "I know that. But no matter what happens, it's going to require our full concentration. And if our goal right now is information gathering, then it's going to become exceedingly difficult to do any kind of investigating under these circumstances. We should really make sure we've accomplished everything we can with this recursion before stepping into those flight units, because for all intents and purposes, we may as well be yanking our OS chips the moment we do."

2B thought about that for a moment. Once again, 9S was just being rational. Statistically speaking, the odds of them making it through the next four or five missions back to back without failing once was probably pretty low. From that point of view, 9S had a valid point. But she was concerned that 9S' fear of the unknown might be affecting his judgement in this matter.

"You said yourself that this recursion might be a bust," she pointed out, with just a hint of wry humor in her voice. "If there's nothing else for us to accomplish here, why shouldn't we try our best to get as far as we can?"

9S nodded again, still appearing far more uneasy with the situation than the circumstances would appear to warrant.

"I'm not saying we don't do that, 2B," he said evenly. "I'm just saying we should consider our options and make sure we're not forgetting anything. What about Emil?"

2B lowered her eyes in defeat. "Emil's nowhere to be found. Delaying our progress any further isn't going to change that."

9S crossed his arms. "Well, as you just put it – we don't know for sure if that's how it will be. And it'll be a lot easier for us to check now than it will be to do so later. To say nothing of anything else we might want to look into now that we've made it this far."

2B hesitated at that. She supposed 9S did have a point. She wasn't sure why she was even arguing with him about this. It didn't really matter to her one way or the other, as long as they were making some form of progress. She had been acting under the assumption that any action they took that didn't somehow challenge the status quo of the simulation would be a waste of effort. But perhaps she was looking at things the wrong way.

"Ok, so should we backtrack and try to find Emil again?" 2B asked pointedly.

9S shook his head. "Maybe. But I'd be more interested in just investigating the whole map, now that it's all open to us, and looking for inconsistencies. And where is A2, anyway?

2B stiffened. She knew something had been bothering her, and she was so used to working side by side with 9S that she hadn't even noticed that it had been an unusually long time since they had seen their wayward companion. And perhaps it was simply due to their shared lineage, but without even realizing it, 2B had even begun arguing the same point that A2 had been making at the beginning of the timeline.

Something was definitely odd about this recursion.

"Maybe you're onto something…" 2B said, crossing her own arms in thought. "Ok, let's think about this. A2 parted ways with us back at the forest king's castle, and up until that point, she'd been relatively silent ever since we had found our shortcut through the timeline."

9S nodded, picking up on her line of thinking, pulling open their holographic flow chart of events from way back when.

"But up until that point, she was the loudest advocate for staying the course and progressing things normally," he said, scrolling through events like slides in a slideshow. "Maybe what she wants isn't something that happens in one of these primary events, but for us to avoid something that happens in one of these tangential side missions?"

2B felt a headache coming on as she saw 9S begin scrolling through row after row of data entries. It was their mission log of favors and requests and other non-mission related tasks made for the various androids and machines they had encountered on their journey.

"But if so, then which one?" she sighed despondently. "There must be over a hundred possibilities we could choose from."

9S let out a helpless sigh. "Well, we might as well start with the nearest one and see what happens. Let's see…what about that coliseum over there?"

Lightning flashed in 2B's mind. "Coliseum?"

9S pointed to the path that led around the corner of one of the sunken towers to where she knew an elevator was sequestered in the side of the building, through which an underground combat arena lay.

"Yeah, you know, those three coliseums," 9S summarized. "The one in the desert, the one in the forest, and the one right over there?"

2B remained motionless as she wracked her brain. Something was bugging her intensely about that coliseum, and it wasn't just the memory of how many attempts it had taken to earn the top prize.

"9S…" 2B breathed, lost in thought. "Let's check it out…"

9S' attention seemed to pique at that.

"Something on your mind, 2B?" he asked, half in trepidation, half in unrestrained childish curiosity.

"Just a feeling…" 2B muttered absently as she slowly stepped towards the entrance to the underground fight pit.

Before the two of them even made it to the elevator, their path was suddenly blocked when A2 dropped down from seemingly out of nowhere to land on the ground between them and the door.

"Hey guys," A2 said with scarcely believable nonchalance. "What'd I miss?"

9S staggered back in surprise, but 2B had been all but expecting her to suddenly make an appearance.

"I guess that confirms it then," 2B said, finally putting the pieces together. "I've been running up against blank spots in my memory for this whole recursion, and they've all been pointing me towards a particular destination that I haven't been able to figure out until now. So tell me, A2…what exactly is down there that you don't want us to find?"

A2 did her best to brush off 2B's suspicions, but 2B had already seen enough to convince her of what was going on.

"Oh, there?" A2 said casually. "Probably just a bunch of losers bashing the hell out of each other. Good fun if you're into that sort of thing, but I was under the impression that we had something more important to worry about, didn't we?"

9S was glancing back and forth between 2B and A2, slowly wising up to what was happening.

"A2…" he asked warily, growing more and more uneasy. "What's going on here? Why don't you want us going down there?"

A2 threw her hands up. "I don't care what you guys do in your spare time, honestly. But I feel like I've given you guys plenty of time to goof off, so now it's my time you're wasting at this point. So how about we forget about all these distractions and get back on track?"

2B crossed her arms, fixing A2 with a hard stare. "A2…I know that you're technically the oldest and wisest of the three of us by no small measure, but you really need to stop treating us like children and speak to us plainly."

A2 closed her eyes, visibly strained as she let out an aggravated groan.

"Just…look, I know you guys have no reason to trust me at this point, but please…" she said, finally opening her eyes to reveal a look of pure remorse. "If my word ever meant anything to either of you, I really need you to trust me on this. Don't go down there. It won't end well."

Now 2B and 9S were exchanging concerned looks. They had finally stumbled onto a real lead, it seemed. But A2 was making her intentions pretty clear that in no uncertain terms should they pursue this lead. They were at a stalemate. As 9S had aptly put it, they were at a point of no return. As soon as they kicked off their next YoRHa mission, there would essentially be no stopping until the end. If they were ever to pursue a lead like this, the time to do so was now. But A2 had never made such a request like this before. And regardless of whether they could trust her or not, she clearly had access to information to which neither 2B nor 9S were privy, which meant that there was considerable risk in ignoring her advice, to say nothing of getting on her bad side.

"Why not?" 9S demanded anxiously. "What do you think's going to happen if we go down there? You've got to have some reason for asking us not to look into this."

A2 opened her mouth, a pained expression on her face.

"I…" she said, visibly struggling, her jaw and facial muscles clenching and unclenching in a show of raw effort and strain. "I…can't…tell you…"

9S eyes widened as he turned to look at 2B.

"2B…" he whispered, more in disbelief then any need for secrecy. "I think she physically can't tell us what's going on. The machines must have placed some sort of limiter on her programming."

A2 glared down at the ground, cheeks flushed red in shame and indignation. It was as close to a confirmation as either of them were likely to get.

"Well, that at least tells us something about the gravity of the situation," 2B nodded slowly. "Whatever's going on with these fighting pits, it's serious enough that the machines are intervening, even after letting us get this far without so much as a word."

9S nodded in scarcely contained curiosity. "What about the other two coliseums? Same deal?"

A2 clenched her jaw. "All three of them are a no-go. You can waste your time on whatever other bullshit you want to do, but those fight pits are off limits."

9S nodded, a look of excitement shining through his masked face.

"Okay, we're getting somewhere here," he said, in full puzzle-solving mode. "So something will happen if we go into any of these fight pits, and the machines are preventing you from telling us what that is. So what will you do if we try to go down there, I wonder? Will you try to stop us?"

A2 shook her head. "I won't have to. I can just yank my OS chip and restart the recursion."

2B tensed at that, feeling a familiar twinge of excitement run down to the tips of her fingers. "Then I guess we'll just have to restrain you then, won't we?"

A2's scowl evoked utterly no nonsense as her sword materialized on her back.

"Do you really want to try that?" she asked in scarcely veiled menace. "You two were barely a match for me in the original timeline, and that was when I was holding back."

9S widened his posture into a defensive stance.

"Maybe we should see which of us is the stronger hacker then," he said, a competitive edge to his voice. "We both know how that went down in the original timeline."

A2 glared back at him. "Do you think that's going to end any differently than when you tried hacking 2B? The machines don't seem to be fans of us hacking each other in case you forgot."

9S flinched in response, but 2B stood her ground.

"The odds still aren't in your favor, A2," 2B warned, her own sword materializing behind her back as well.

A2 gritted her teeth in consternation, taking a step back from the two of them.

"Even if you guys are a match for me two-on-one, I don't really have to beat either of you to pull my OS chip," she glowered. "And even if you keep me from doing that, I can just activate my berserker mode and let my energy deplete to zero. You guys can't force my hand here. You seriously need to back off and let this go."

2B pursed her lips and 9S began to fidget nervously. They were backed into a corner, and they both knew it.

"Isn't there anything else you can tell us then?" 9S asked diplomatically. "Anything at all that can give us a better idea of what's going on? Any other leads that don't involve these fight pits? What about Em-"

"Don't!" A2 hissed abruptly, cutting him off before he could even complete the thought. "Don't even say his name around me! They'll just use me to get to him, and it'll all be over."

2B's eyes widened as she shared a knowing look with 9S. That more or less confirmed their suspicions. Whatever was going on with these three coliseums had something to do with Emil and their missing memories. And what was more, A2 seemed to have some idea as to what role Emil played in this whole situation. Now there was no way either of them could let this go.

A2 closed her eyes again, a look of frustration on her face.

"Look, I'm telling you, you guys are wasting your time with this whole line of thinking," she said in an aggravated tone. "There's nothing to uncover here, no secret plot to thwart, no scheme for you to unravel. There's just this little world we live in, and us in it. That's all. We should just…enjoy it. While we still can, you know? Come on, don't ruin what little we have left."

The look of sadness in A2's eyes spoke of years of untold hardship, and for a moment, 2B was tempted to give her advice some consideration. But she knew that she'd never be able to forgive herself if she backed down now.

"I'm sorry, A2," 2B said, shaking her head and taking a step towards the elevator door. "But we can't stop here."

A2 took another step back, her hand flying to the back of her own neck where her OS chip plugged into her mainframe. "I'm not messing around here, 2B. I'll end this recursion right now. You know I'll do it."

2B exchanged a knowing smile with 9S, who just sighed and pulled off his visor to smile back at her.

"I'm with you, 2B," he said in affirmation. "All the way to the end."

2B smiled back at him, letting out a breath of resignation as she slipped off her own visor, before fixing her gaze on A2.

"So I guess now the real game begins…" she said, giving her fellow android a look of obstinate defiance.

A2 shook her head in anger. "Don't do this, 2B. I've already seen how this ends. It's not worth it. It's just not."

2B took another step towards the elevator, eyes locked on A2.

"Then stop me," she countered, taking another step that put her in range of the elevator call button. "We'll see who blinks first."

A2 took another step back, keeping out of range of 2B's sword, her hand remaining poised over her OS chip. "Damn it, 2B, there won't be any winner if we do this! Neither one of us stand to gain anything from fighting each other! Your stubborn pig-headedness is going to be the end of all three of us! For god's sake, you've already got everything you could ever want in this simulation! Please…don't waste it!"

2B shook her head as she pressed the button to the elevator.

"I'm sorry, A2," she said somberly.

A2 closed her eyes in remorse, biting back what looked like tears.

"…I'm sorry too…" she choked, pulling out her OS-chip.

Then once more, the control screen of a YoRHa flight unit filled her field of view.

"This is Command. YoRHa squadron, come in."