No.

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.

.

No.

"9S."

Velvet gloved hands moved over the cheeks of the young man in front of her.

"9S…"

A smile stared lifeless towards the sky, chapped and bruised lips adorning the face of the dead scanner.

"9S… Ni-" Her voice caught in her throat. Her fingers flexed and uncurled as 2B shakenly drew her hands from his head and brought them to her mouth.

2B stared, feeling barren and empty. A cold, numbing buzz lit her fingers and a dark, sinking sensation grew in her stomach.

Not 10 minutes ago, she was resting. Trusting him to come back soon. The Bunker was gone. The Commander was gone. 6O was gone. 21O was gone. Everyone was gone. And yet…

The noises around her drew to a harsh quiet, her senses growing dim. The sounds of guttural yells and grunts of pain became increasingly distant. Lifting her gaze, she mimicked the fallen soldier whose head laid in her lap. She stared into the sky, only barely acknowledging the wind rushing past her tears as they ran down her cheeks.

And yet, just suddenly… I feel so alone…

Vulnerable.

Afraid.

Weary.

Lost.

Guilty.

Angry.

Torn.

Robbed.

Wronged.

Helpless.

Powerless.

Alone.

So alone…


"Y'know, 2B. This war… It's not so bad as long as I have you around."

She smiled. A warm, full and satisfied smile as she rolled over to face him, closing her eyes as he planted a kiss on her forehead. "Nines… Yeah. I…know what you mean."


It had been three years.

Three years. She had taken care of him for three years. They had taken care of each other. No matter how bad it got, they were always there for each other. When he woke up, with no memory of who he was, she would be there as his partner. When she was in pain, bloody, broken and battle-worn, too far away from help to request a new body, he would be there to carry her back home. When the days grew dark and gloomy… When the weeks blended into a bloody and pointless mess and their efforts seemed to be going nowhere… When depression hit its high, they would be there to hold each other together.

They had made it this far. Everything had gone to shit, and they had still made it. They were there. They had made it. They were so close… It was nothing short of a grim blessing, 2B had thought.

"You were on your way back…" She ground out the words through her tears, barely mustering the will to speak.

They had successfully made it through hell itself for three straight years. As long as they had each other… And now, she cradled his lifeless head in her lap, the dead weight of his body unmoving on the swaying bridge.

He was her comrade, her friend, her guilt, her curse, her passion, her drive, her confidant, her love. She failed to protect him year after year when she was with him and right when that curse had finally been lifted…when she could finally be free from her duty, life still found a way to take him from her. He was the man who knew too much and she was the woman who had to put him down. The only thing that helped right the continuous conclusions of what had been their twisted situation, salvage it for either of them, was the fact that it was her who was doing it. She did it for him. That's what he told her, that's what she told herself. If it wasn't her, it would be someone else. And this time, it was someone else…

A feeling like hot bile rose in her chest as her breathing quickened.

They didn't even have to do it anymore… They were free. The deception, the executions… 2E was dead. YoRHa was dead. "And…" Tears fell to his face again as she began to weep. "You're gone, 9S… Forever."

Righteous frustration suddenly gripped 2B as she held her head in her hands and screamed. Abandoning all pretense, she released a desperate cry as the dam broke all at once. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Tears poured down her face and wet her gloves.

"You didn't deserve this!" She didn't deserve it. The person she loved the most was him. The person who made her feel most whole was him. The person who made her happiest was him. The only person who could truly feel her pain was him. The person she was willing to risk it all for…wanted to make sure she never lost was him. He was her shoulder to lean on, the person she couldn't bear to see in pain, the one person she wanted to protect the most, and she failed. She fucking failed. She was robbed. Wronged. Their situation had been bastardized. None of this was supposed to go this way. And there were so many things she still had to say, so many things he still didn't remember. He's been hurt. Hurt beyond repair. He'd been killed. Killed one last and final time. Her 9S. For all eternity. She lost her Nines. She'd finally lost him...

.

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To her