"I didn't mean it," 2B said out of nowhere. It was late, and although the ever-present sun still shone through the permanent layer of cloud, the Resistance camp had been quiet for hours. Only the sentries on guard duty were awake, quietly pacing back and forth. 9S lay on the bed already dozing, the whir of his overtaxed fan making him a little dizzy.
"Mean what?"
"What I said the other day. About it not being too late. That was… It was cruel and thoughtless and I shouldn't have said it. It sounded funny in my head, but it wasn't funny at all. It was mean, and I'm sorry."
"Uh, okay," he said, resettling so he could sit up a little and look at her. That had been ages ago. "You've been thinking about it that long?"
She nodded and perched on the edge of the bed. She swallowed hard, blinking rapidly, and 9S came to the surreal realization that she was struggling not to cry.
"Oh Nines I'm sorry!" She hid her face in both hands as she broke down.
"Hey, no," 9S soothed, sitting up and pulling her close. "It's okay, really."
"It's not! Your face when I said that… you looked so hurt. And then I thought...how could I ask you to kill this thing that's made up of both of us? To kill a part of yourself, of me."
She was sobbing in earnest into his shoulder. 9S held her tight, one hand smoothing her back.
"I love you Nines," she said, her tears having run down a little. "I want to keep you safe. Both of you." She laughed a little, the sound fragile and a little wild. "They're not even here and I already love them so much. I'll have two of you to protect, two of you to worry about, and I'm so scared something will happen and I won't be able to protect you."
That 'you' was plural now. 9S squeezed her tight, kissed her cheek.
"It's okay, Bea. Thank you for telling me all that. I think I get it now."
"Sorry," she wiped at her face with one hand. "I think I needed a moment."
"You're allowed," he assured her. "Sometimes you gotta freak out a little before you can take the next step."
She nodded, accepting the sense in this.
"What is the next step?"
"Well, she's getting pretty big. We should probably start thinking about a body; a place for her to sleep, clothes, that kind of thing."
"Yes, that's a good plan." A pause. "I guess...should we explain why we're collecting parts and obtaining additional resources? Should...should we tell anyone?"
"Uhhh…." 9S stalled, brought up short. For some reason he hadn't thought about that.
"It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to inform maintenance," he began, thinking out loud. "In case I need extra power or bandwidth for the upload. Might be interesting to have them scan and document everything before that happens."
"Like hell are we telling Jackass," 2B grumbled. She was still bitter about the mackerel.
"Like hell," 9S agreed. He didn't want Jackass anywhere near a child, especially not his child. Also, he didn't care to endure the inventory of off-color jokes and remarks she surely had on file.
"Maybe Anemone? A2? Definitely Pascal."
She nodded, smiling. "Definitely Pascal. Maybe he can help us with parts and things."
"Yeah, good idea."
With a sigh, 2B laid down next to him, cuddling close to rest her head on his shoulder.
"Are we good?"
He kissed her head and rubbed her arm, hugging her close. "We're good."
—
It wasn't easy to keep tabs on something that was always growing, always changing. The code in 9S' system kept replicating steadily, taking up more and more space. The headaches were near-constant, but usually bearable. Usually. It wouldn't take much more to finish it, which meant they needed to start working on a body and soon.
"Boy or girl?" 9S asked 2B as they wandered the abandoned city, looking for android parts not rusted solid or tainted by Logic virus.
"What do you want?" she asked, tossing the question back to him.
"The program feels female to me, if that makes sense? Probably because it carries so much of your code."
"Most YoRHa units were built with female-shaped bodies, and programmed with traditionally feminine personalities. This was because female units tended to work together better in large groups while male units spent too much time squabbling for dominance."
"That's what the log books say," 9S agreed, "except it's not strictly true. There's not really any advantage or disadvantage to a model being engineered as male or female. I just...depends on the personality, I guess, and what you want to do. It's just a body, right? I mean, if she really wanted to, she could change it later if she didn't like it."
"She?" 2B echoed, smiling. 9S blushed.
"I did say I can't help thinking of her as a girl. Most androids are women."
"Okay. So a girl to start."
9S smiled. "A girl. Guess we should start thinking about names too."
2B's smile faltered. "Oh. Yeah. I guess."
"What's wrong?"
"I'm not creative the way you are. I don't know what would make a good name for a child. For our daughter."
"I'm not really either, but I did have one idea."
She stopped poking around in the tall grass and turned to look at him, head tilted to one side. "Oh?"
9S rubbed at the back of his neck, feeling his face heat. "It's stupid."
"No, I want to hear it."
"It's...not super creative. Honestly, it's kinda dumb. Really cheesy."
"Nines."
"Right, right," he said, reeling his nervousness back in. "I thought...what if we put our names together? '2S' doesn't work but...I kind of like 'B9'. It sounds like a word as opposed to just a call number."
"B9," 2B echoed. "Benign. Something that isn't dangerous."
9S nodded. "The first android not built specifically for war."
She smiled. "I like it."
He grinned. "Me too."