Fipp: Okay, but what if…

End of All Meaning

Chapter XII-B: farewell this [B]roken world

The fight continued, as much as 2E wished it had not, that she would be able to end it soon. They went at one another with everything they had, neither failing to deliver their fullest, and it was clear that A2 would be able to overtake her with time, time she simply did not have to spend.

2E screamed as A2 cut at her, sending her tumbling to the ground in a pained cry, while A2 stood to the side, one hand tightly gripping her sword tightly as she slowly approached her, keeping herself cautious as she did so. Right now, 2E was in splitting agony, every system in her body screaming, feeling as though it would break apart at the seams the longer this fight went on. Her body was in no condition to go on further, it hadn't been from the start of this fight, and while she had managed to land a good number of hard blows on A2, it was clear the scale still did not tip in her favor. Her muscles felt as though they were mere moments from snapping, that one more good swing from her sword would cause her limbs to break from the tension she had applied to them.

Her stump was bleeding again, sparking too, and her bloodied hair was clinging to the side of her head.

She never defeated A2 in their fights, 2E often wondered why that was, she was the higher-end model, she was built on A2's data, designed to kill YoRHa androids, but despite that, A2 was the one who always managed to kill her in the end. Why?

Maybe A2's desire to live was stronger than her desire to kill her.

Not that she had a desire to kill her.

She was a terrible Type-E. Couldn't kill A2, and she hated herself for killing 9S. Now she was going to die here, and she would have accomplished nothing for it.

No no no no. It had to mean something. It just HAD to. She needed to do this for Nines. This was the only way he could hopefully find peace. With a roar, 2E charged at A2, swinging her sword wildly, but the older androids merely blocked or evaded each and every one of her strikes. Nothing she did worked.

An idea struck her. It wasn't a smart plan, it would likely lead to her death, but if she could buy herself a second, then maybe she could turn this fight in her favor.

Her next swing was wide, and she made certain that A2's eyes her focused on the position of her sword, positioning herself close enough to A2 so that she would be forced to block her. Instead of striking down on A2, 2E released her blade on the downswing, the sword falling from her hand as it fly through the air. She got what she wanted; A2's eyes widened in confusion, trailing after the sword as it flew through the air, and as her attention was briefly distracted, 2E lunged herself forward, her severed arm extended forward and managed to strike A2 in the face, and as A2 stumbled back a step, almost tripping over herself, and 2E took this moment tackle A2, shoulder first. When they both collapsed to the ground, A2's sword fell from her hand as it slid across the ground, and with this state of vulnerability, 2E jumped down on her, straddling her waist, and the first thing that came to her mind was to reel her fist back and slammed it down right onto A2's face.

Pain radiated up 2E's entire arm, feeling as though something in her limb split in half, and she she hear a pop in her elbow as she pulled it back. Her body was taking too much, and every movement caused her pain, and another punch like that could cripple her further than she already was. Had circumstances been different, 2E would have been sicked with herself with how easily it was to default to choking her, two wrap her hand around A2's throat with a vice-like grip. Below her, A2's eyes widened in a panic, her arms reaching up to grapple with 2E's hand and arm, clutching at her limb and her fingers, trying to pry her off of her, but her fingers were already locked in, digging into A2's throat, completely resistant to her attempts to free herself. The seconds passed, A2's began to weaken as she tried to push 2E off of her, her desperate clawing reduced to a weak grip on her arm, feebly trying to get a get at her fingers, but to no avail.

2E took a frightening delight in the look on A2's, the pained grimace she wore, pained gasps weakly escaping her throat as her eyelids fluttered several times, over stormy blue eyes that could only begin to dull as the light of life began to part from them. She wondered if this was what A2 saw when she killed her in the past, it was certainly what she saw with 9S. It was almost done, mere seconds left, and she could be done with everything.

She didn't notice the heat build around A2, nor did she notice the light glitching in her vision. There was no time to react as A2's body exploded in a bright, and painful, red light, an electro-magnetic pulse rocking her system as she was thrown back, everything her body too scrambled to even register the impact from the ground as she hit it at full force. Her thoughts and movements were slurred as she tried to stand back up, barely able to exert control over her limbs, trying to force them to do what she wanted them to do. She was given no time to do regain control, before A2 delivered a swift kick to her abdomen that sent her sliding across the floor, before reigning in enough control of her body to scramble to her feet. 2E summoned her sword into her hand as A2, with the hazy red aura of her B Mode surrounding her, came at her, fists clenched with a much higher running speed that 2E had been caught off by. She attempted to swing at her, to cut down her quickly-approaching target, but A2 dodged the blow, and swiftly delivered a punch into her stomach, and everything went gray and white for 2E.

Another strike was soon to follow, then another, and another, and soon she found herself rained down by A2's continuing flurry of blows, she tried to defend herself, but nothing she did held up against A2's relentless power. Each one forced her back, sending warning alarms to blare inside her skull and dance across her vision, until A2 delivered one last strike that sent her crashing to the ground, and it was at that moment that 2E did not know if she would be able to get back up.

Above her, the red light vanished from A2's body, B Mode having deactivated, leaving her slumped over and obviously out of breath, and from the way she was holding herself, 2E could tell that one, well-place sword strike would be enough to end her, to put her down, but she could barely push herself to her own feet, how could she even kill her. Everything was getting dark and hazy, static filled her head as she almost fell over.

No, no, no… She could not let this be it, after so much happened. There had to be more than this.

"N-Ni-" she rasped.

She had never done anything right in her life, every single moment had been filled with failure and missed opportunities. Over the course of three years, she had let down 9S in every way possible, and now, at this last moment, she was about to let him down again, because she couldn't get bring him any sense of justice.

It would have been easy to just shut down…

A2 closely limped towards her, sword in hand with the tip of the blade dragging against the floor, until she was just in reach of her. There's no real strength in her, not anymore, she doubted she could defend herself from whatever A2 wanted to do to her. Would it have been better to let A2 kill her?

Maybe.

But no. She needed this. This one thing. To prove that there was some kind of meaning left in her life.

She refused to die, not yet.

2E screamed, a deep, primal cry that tore itself from her throat as she lunged herself at A2 with a sudden burst of new-found strength and vigor, and thrust Virtuous Contract forward with the power that had rejuvenated her arms. From the look on A2's face, she clearly did not expect this attack, and lacked her own strength to properly defend herself, barely able to raise her sword to try and block 2E's blow, but could manage to marginally block the white blade, but the result was still the same. 2E fell on A2, knocking her back, and her sword entered her torso, tearing into her frame, with a splatter of erupting blood, and all A2 could do was deliver a pained gasp as they hit the floor, and 2E could see the same, wide-eyed look of disbelief that she had seen on 9S so many times.

That was all she had given, however, before the gasps turned into a sad, pathetic whimper, and A2's eyes dulled and her eyelids dropped, and 2E knew enough of what she was seeing to know that A2's death had been quick. With the blood pooling out from beneath her, and onto the colorless floor, there had to be no alternative than death. There was no time for reflection, however, as immediately 2E began to scream and collapse to A2's side, where she began to writhe in pain as she clutched at her side, to where the agony was coming from, and her shaking hands grabbed at a sword impaling her side.

Looking down, she saw it was 9S' sword; she must have fallen on it when she attacked A2, and a part of her couldn't be bitter about this. There was still pain, it was almost unbearable, and 2E couldn't help but cry out, her voice echoing through the silence of The Tower, and there was nothing to answer her back. Using whatever strength she had left, 2E pushed herself up, her arm threatening to collapse underneath her, before managing to support herself on her knees, but she felt that any further than that would be simply beyond her.

She gripped the sword by the handle and began to pull on her, the blade further cutting at her insides, which only served to cause more harm to her, more pain, but still she pulled, slowly removing the blade out from her, even placing her vulnerable hand on the sharp edge, slicing up her palm and fingers in the process. Eventually, the sword was removed, with an tormented scream from 2E as Cruel Oath fell to the ground, leaving the gaping wound in 2E's side to openly bleed. It wasn't a fatal wound, she could tell, but it left untreated it wouldn't be long before she bled out.

"Suggestion: Tend to wounds gained in the battle with A2, and return to the Resistance Camp so that more substantial repairs can be made. In your current state you will likely suffer blood loss within fifteen minutes."

She only paid half-attention to what Pod 042 had to say, before she looked back to A2's body.

"A2, is she dead?" she asked hoarsely.

"Affirmative: Unit A2's black box is currently offline. Death confirmed."

She did it, she killed A2, she managed to get her justice for 9S.

So why does she not feel happy about this? Why, when killing the one person she wanted to actually kill, does she even feel worst? All she did was add another corpse to her collection.

There's only thing thing she can do, the only thing left to left. So she reached back down and picked up 9S' sword, feeling unbearably heavy now, and heaved it upward until the flat of the blade was resting on her shoulder, the chipped edge directed towards her neck.

A sob escaped her.

"Suggestion: Return to Resistance Camp at once."

Never before had she ever felt this afraid, this alone. Everything she ever knew was either a lie, or was gone. She was so far into enemy territory, into this strange place, that she couldn't see anything that was even remotely familiar to anything she had ever seen. She was suffering so much, and she just wanted it to stop. She was so tired…

"2B," Pod 042 said. "Please don't…"

If she felt she had the strength to spare, or the arm, she would have giving Pod 042 one last affectionate pat on the chassis.

Rather easily, she slid 9S's sword, the only weapon she would permit to do this, across her neck and opened her throat. As she chocked on her own blood, 2E collapsed to the ground, and made no attempt to prevent or stop the blood flow, until darkness took her.

000

In order to prevent information leaks that could lead to the compromise of YoRHa, a special division of androids were constructed, designated Type-E, for Executioners. If an android fell into into machine hands, or if they were overridden by a logic virus, a Type-E would be there to kill the android in question, so that their backup data would be uploaded into a new body. While this is not pleasant work, but it is necessary for the greater good of YoRHa, and for the sake of humanity as a whole.

The data used to create the Type-E was gathered from an earlier, prototype model, known as No. 2, who had since deserted YoRHa and has been labeled a traitor. Regardless, she was an impressive android that had demonstrated resilience, determination, and resourcefulness. This personality data was determined to be perfect for such a task, and large aspects of this made it into the No. 2 personality template.

As YoRHa Unit No. 2 Type-E, large portions of my base personality were taken from the renegade android known as No. 2, later known as A2.

I was originally manufactured on January 7th, 11942, and roughly three weeks later, January 30th 11942, YoRHa Unit No. 9 Type-S was rolled out of manufacturing.

I was created in preparation for him.

Where am I? I can't see anything, it's so bright, and warm.

There is light everywhere around me, and I don't know what this place is.

There was a special sub-group of Type-Es who are not meant to be known by their designation, at least by the public. They were meant to go undercover as other android types, the reason being is that were are meant to observe and report on certain androids of interest who are supposed risks to YoRHa.

According to simulations of his AI, 9S, who was created to be the most high-end Scanner to be produced, had a high likelihood of accessing top secret information inside The Bunker's servers.

It my was duty to execute him if he should do this. He acted as predicted, so I did my duty.

"My name is 9S. I'm here to provide support."

He said that the next time we met, after all his personal data had been wiped, and he had been reset. Like last time, he remained bright and cheerful, but I did not care, as long as he effectively performed his duties, I saw no reason interfere with how he acted.

Still, he was happy to be around me.

Even when he later knew the truth about me.

Everything hurts, I don't think I can move. I don't really want to.

The warmth started to fade and cold began to creep into my body, gripping at my black box with icy tendrils that wrapped around my black box.

Is this death? I always wondered what it was like. What 9S saw when our time together ran out.

A shape formed in front of me, and what I saw was something I did not expect.

It was the two red girls.

She explained The Tower was a cannon to destroy the human server on the moon. If the server was destroyed, then androids would lose hope, lose the war. This was their plan from the start.

Then their plan changed. They had observed the battles between machines and androids. They saw my battles with Adam, and with Eve, and what happened in the days following, and how we lived, how we existed. They altered their plans.

They no longer wished to destroy the human server, but instead they wished to fire an ark into the reaches of space. A collection of all of the machines memories that had been, and send them into space in hopes of reaching a new world.

Personally, I don't think they'll reach such a place.

But they can wait, they said. They had no concept of time.

Adam and Eve are inside the ark.

Eve stood before me, and he gave me such a sad smile. Adam is behind him, looking at him with a curious stare.

I can't meet his gaze, not too well. I think my mind is shutting down. Too much damage has been done to it.

"Would you like to come with us?" Eve asked, almost child-like.

"Why ask me this?" I questioned back.

"You just seem really sad."

I didn't know how to answer, so I decided to be honest with him. "I am. I lost someone important to me."

"I'm sorry. My brother is the most important person I know, I don't know what I would do if I lost him."

I know what would happen, because I saw it. How you raged and screamed and cried. You were powerful when we last met, but nothing you did suggested you had any kind of plan, or coordinated attack. You were just lashing out at everything around you because you were in so much pain.

Right before I killed you, I understood that.

I'm sorry I killed Adam. I'm sorry I took away the most important person in your life.

If only things had been different.

Everything was starting to get hazy and dark for me. The longer I thought, the more difficult it began for me focus on what I wanted to say, to think.

It's difficult, but I think about what I had been offered.

"I'll stay," I say at last.

I'm too tired to go anywhere.

I don't want to go anywhere.

If this world suffered for me being in it, then I can't see any other world improved by me.

This is fine. I deserve this. I want this.

I can't… think anymore…

Too hard…

I was wrong about what I said before…

It wasn't all meaningless…

The time I spent with you…

…was like memories of light.

Thank you…

and goodbye…

Oh Nines…

000

a lonely girl

thought of a loved one

in a world of ended dreams

000

Please be well,

Mrfipp