As it Begins...

Empty

That was the only thing she could feel as she gazed towards the stars, it was an undoubtedly beautiful scenario but still left her as emotionless as ever. The woman sighed as her thoughts turned darker once again, she had often found herself here taken to this sight having found little meaning doing anything else as she waited for her next orders, so she watched her back leaning towards the wall the large windows consuming her vision. She was a soldier one given orders that she followed to the letter regardless of how much her existence broke apart, how much she wished she had been simply a part of the abyss rather than a burnt-out speck of a star.

Her thoughts were momentarily stopped as she heard footsteps, it was a woman wearing dark clothing her posture stiff as she gave a salute to her more combat-oriented sister, no words were exchanged between the two as she gave her the newest mission parameters. The operator stood there quietly waiting for her fellow android.

Her eyes gazed emotionlessly at the screen, being able to break apart the hidden meaning behind her objective, defeating machines even ones of this supposed danger was always her secondary one. Her emotions flared for a split second as she read a single digit and letter. The woman furrowed her brow though that was hidden behind the cloth around her eyes as she once again turned to the window.

The cycle was beginning anew.

The abyss was calling back to her trying to take away the last bits of light she had.

She would survive though… she was always the only one who did.

(Earth)

"So what is it that you want to discuss."

The woman in question simply rose an eyebrow "Oh? Are you not going to tell me your name, seems rather rude after I told you mine."

Shirou sighed as he could already tell what type of personality the android in front of him had, a rebel that put on a strong front to the world, meaning he would have to be the calmer of the duo "Fair enough, my name is Shirou."

"Shirou?" A2 questioned the sound of the word seemingly weird to the woman "That's a rather weird name now isn't it."

Shirou shrugged trying to give out the least amount of information as possible, not really trusting the android in front of him. She was clearly battle-hardened but at the same time not affiliated with anyone, still, the women on his side vouched for her so he would hear what she had to say.

She rolled her eyes at his nonanswer and started walking out of the cave, she was clearly not trying to run away by how slowly she moved but still didn't say what her objective was.

She stopped at the entrance still not looking back "Are you coming or what?" She said her irritation clear.

"Coming?" Devola asked her face tilted in confusion "What the hell are you talking about?"

The woman finally looked back and stared at Shirou not bothering to give a modicum of attention to Devola "I'm sure you heard those things talking about it right, a machine king?"

Shirou nodded slowly trying to figure out what she wanted.

She smirked at him, it had been the first emotion he'd seen from her other than anger, though that didn't mean it was exactly positive, he could feel her bloodthirst as she talked "Well, why don't we give it a visit, we can talk on the way there."

He thought about it for a second looking at the sisters before making a decision they in turn just sighed and shrugged knowing full well what the man already wanted to do. He looked back at A2 "If you say so, I still don't trust you so don't try anything."

A2 remained quiet as she simply started walking away seemingly not caring if he followed or not, which with a shake of his head he decided to do so, closing the distance in a second. They walked in silence for a bit the woman at his side not really bothering to strike up a conversation despite her earlier words, in fact, she seemed bothered by very little if the pointed looks from Devola and Popola were that easily ignored.

Now that he had a bit of time he decided to give their temporary member a look and noticed how… unkempt she was, places where skin should be was now showing what looked like a black interior resembling plastic, her clothes if you can even call them that were barely holding up in place and her hair and face were full of grime and dirt it looked like it had been ages since she had cleaned up or even bothered, still what surprised him the most were her eyes, they showed nothing but resolve a deep fire rested there regardless of what happened to her it had been something big.

Before he could continue with his own investigation towards his newest acquaintance he felt something hit him from the side the attack making him cough slightly as he searched for the perpetrator finding only his usually quite comforting companion Popola. He looked questioningly at her but she merely crossed her arms and stomped further into the road trying to obscure his vision from A2 which considering the height difference between the two it wasn't something she was able to do successfully. Looking at his other companion she simply gave him a sheepish smile as she stepped further in the direction of her sister.

"They're really possessive huh." Shirou said while scratching the back of his head the moment turning more serious after noticing that the women in front of him stopped. Before he could ask A2 what that was about she shushed him and pointed towards the ravine, hearing the metallic voices of machine lifeforms.

He had noticed them before but didn't see much reason to fight as their target had been a priority but seems that A2 had other ideas. Down the ravine, a group of machines were given orders in the name of their king or so they said he was doubtful that they even understood what that meant much less how to implement a monarchy-like regime. From the corner of his eye, he noticed movement as A2 crouched down in preparation for jumping.

He put his hand on her shoulder before she could, her response to the contact was to immediately start glaring at him the twins behind them doing the same towards the white-haired woman.

"Why did you stop me?"

He sighed at her confrontational tone "No need to go down there alone."

She shook off the hand "Then simply follow after me." she said now jumping down her uninterrupted her body contorting in the air with unnatural grace as she got into place for her attack.

Before the machines knew what was happening she had already thrown her sword like a javelin who met its target square on the chest though not yet killing her victim, the rest in close proximity weren't able to respond in time as she dropped down and quickly grabbed back her weapon and cleaved through two of the larger ones cleanly the body of the other machine still impaled.

Her style of fighting was… unique to say the least, she had seemed rather stoic when talking but while dismantling machines all there was was rage, that woman was all things brutal and power, though it was rather effective that he couldn't deny, one thing was for certain there was a clear difference between her and every android he'd seen until now in terms of combat capabilities. Gathering back his thoughts he summoned back his trusty blades much to the protest of the sisters.

"Shirou wai…" before Popola could stop him he had already disappeared.

She twisted in the air as her blade arched around her until it hit the ground splitting another machine in half her sword imbuing upon the earth before she kicked it killing whatever machines were in front of her as her weapon spun at great speeds due to her strength. Seeing her weaponless the machines tried to mount a counter-attack the woman not even bothering to turn around.

Before they could make contact a red blur appeared in front of them and tore the machines to pieces. A2 simply held up her hand her sword reappearing in it slashing at the air for good measure. The two stood there back to back at the incoming enemies neither looking worried.

(Factory)

Missions had a way to overcomplicate, well mostly her missions regardless there hasn't been a mission that she had failed and that wasn't something that was going to start now even if her team had been killed in the first few minutes of this mess.

Another machine dropped dead onto the floor exploding not long after, as she made her way towards the inside of the factory. She had been careful to not attract more enemies the place was now crawling with these things and considering she was now alone… well not fully alone she guessed.

"Ma'am?" A youngish male voice came through her pod.

"Yes?"

It took him a few seconds to respond back, his voice showing trepidation at what he is about to say "I know we're not supposed to talk about it… but do you think this has anything to do with red?"

She sighed loudly enough for 9S to hear, who by now seemed rather nervous to continue his line of thinking. It wasn't as if she was mad but that whole ordeal was supposed to be a secret mission for Yorha even if at this point everyone knew what they were after.

"There's no need to continue with this line of thinking, understood."

"Sorry, ma'am." He sounded rather sheepish when he said it though unapologetic, he's always been like that just like she remembere…

She shook her head off of those thoughts she had a mission to uphold.

"… and 9S." Still, she wanted to make one thing clear.

"Yeah, ma'am?"

"Don't call me ma'am."

(Forest)

"Jeez, you two are fighting maniacs." He could hear Popola complaining from his side as she tried to clean her sword from machine bits "Who the hell jumps that far up towards machines."

He gave her a smile which seemed to appease her as she puffed up her face trying to look angrier than she was, looking to his right he saw A2 who was sitting on the body of a large machine, seemingly going back to her earlier personality her anger only being used for fighting.

"So? Got that out of your system?" Devola asked her she was the only one who didn't fight, Popola jumping down after Shirou, her reasoning being that he alone could beat the battalion with A2 at his side it was going to be a massacre regardless of her input.

"You know for someone who wanted to talk you haven't really done much of it." Shirou said as he got up deciding that enough time had passed for their so-called talk.

She hmmed at that, before pushing herself up and making her way back in the direction of the castle giving him a signal to follow her. "I wanted to see what you were made off." she said as he finally reached to her "I saw your fight at the apartment complex but it wasn't much of one yeah? Wanted to see if you could fight at close range as well."

"What if I just decided to do the same thing as I did then?"

"I would attack you myself." she said mockingly, causing a reaction in the group as the sisters grabbed their weapons "Don't worry, I wouldn't hurt your precious prince I would even say sorry afterward."

Devola started growling at her getting tired of her fellow androids demeanor before Shirou placed a hand in her shoulder "It's fine Devola, calm down." the woman in question simply continued walking not even giving her almost attacker a modicum of thought "I'm still trying to figure out what this warning was supposed to be."

"I'll give you a hint." he could hear her voice growing lower as she said her next words "It's about Yorha."

"Yeah, I figured that, considering you're one of their own but not affiliated with them anymore."

"What do you know about Yorha?" she seemed to have difficulty saying that word while suppressing her emotions, her left-hand clenching.

Now that he thought about it all he knew was hearsay and what he gathered for himself, despite how much they worked with the resistance members the military force seemed quite secretive even to them "Not as much as I would like, though from my understanding they work directly for the moon base and their mission is the same as any oth…" his eyes widened as A2 surprised him once again…

She just… started laughing, it was the first time he had seen any emotion from her apart from anger and frustration, he stood there quietly not really knowing how to respond. He looked to the two at his side who seemed far more troubled at A2's reaction than him.

She stopped after a bit the sound seemingly becoming sadder to hear rather than crazed "Sorry about that lost a bit of control." she actually looked apologetic seems it wasn't theatrics "… Working for the remnants of humanity huh. Is that what you believe?"

"It's what I've been told." he looked questioningly at her not really enjoying where she was going "Is that not every androids objective."

"Sure… when you talk about the individual but Yorha as a whole?" she gave out a chuckle, it sounded hollow "Yorha has only one objective and that is to win this war."

"I don't follow." Shirou didn't understand even if it were true those two things weren't at odds winning the war would win back the world for humanity.

"I'm sure you don't, not yet anyway." saying that she decided that the conversation was over and started walking in the direction of the castle again, leaving behind a bewildered audience.

"You can't just say that and then stop you know."

She stopped walking and looked at him "Don't worry by the time this is over you'll know everything and then you'll wish you didn't."

He was starting to get frustrated how tip towey she was being with this "I thought you would want me against Yorha isn't this the best opportunity to do so."

"You should thank me I'm trying to be delicate about this, you know."

She glared at Devola who laughed as she said that "You delicate huh?"

"There's a reason why I haven't said this to anyone yet." A2 said looking at her weapon "I hate how much control Yorha has, but even then I can't exactly stomp on someone's reasons for fighting. I want to make it clear that if this got out then we might as well have lost the war."

"What makes you think that?"

"Because they would lose the one thing they can't give up… the will to fight."

(Factory)

"Anything on your end ma'am?"

"No…" 2B said as she quietly passed through another corridor leaving behind the numerous corpses of machines. "… didn't I tell you to stop calling me that."

"...aaaah." she could make out his embarrassment from his voice "… very well… 2B, you think you could manage to go towards the entrance of the factory there are several readings coming from there, it's something big from what I can tell."

"I'll find my way there."

Things turned quiet once again as she made her way through the maze-like structure trying to make sense of an easy exit. There were machines aplenty to fight though not ones that had put much of one, if it weren't for the fact that her entire team had been obliterated she would almost question the level of importance of this mission.

"Hey, 2B."

"Yes, 9S?"

"I know we're not really supposed to talk about this but you spend more time on the base, right? What's the most prevalent theory about Red."

She sighed loudly he had been trying to poke around that for a while now, questioning little things he had seemingly gotten tired as he just outright asked. "I'm not privy to that type of information 9S."

"Aaah… I see too bad."

"Why are you so curious about this, anyway?"

She heard a chuckle from the pod "C'mon 2B I'm an S type, my whole thing is being curious. I did hear some theories while being around here from the resistance."

"Oh?" Despite her earlier words decided to hear what he had to say about this she wasn't really that curious about this being but any information was precious to Yorha and 9S had always been the friendly sort so they might have said something to him.

"Don't act so serious about it the theories themselves are something I already pushed away as impossible otherwise I would've already told command everything I knew. They think he's some long-lost android from before the war."

"That sounds rather reasonable." That was after all the leading theory from Yorha.

"Maybe but I think there's something else going on… if he was some sort of weapon from before why would he waste his time saving other androids it doesn't really make sense, but that's as far as I got maybe he's faulty I don't know. Something just doesn't feel right."

"I see, shouldn't you then be focusing on this mission instead."

"Yes ma'am!" he said cheekily.

(Castle ground)

The castle was rather impressive and in much better shape than he thought considering the city ruins, it wasn't as imposing as he imagined it would be back in its heyday but still considering it was considered old even in his own age it was rather impressive it still stood, he wondered if that had anything to do with the machines. The ones that lived here clearly had it as something important so general maintenance wasn't outside the realm of possibility, still though for what its objective once was keeping enemies out it had been rather easy to get in, just a few machines that were quickly dispatched by A2 the woman now not even bothering to wait by her companions to help her like earlier seems their conversation put her in a worse mood than he thought.

She had remained quiet for the duration of their trek through the woods and even while fighting despite the odd roar of anger she let out, he would've said something but he was never good at not angering women so he thought better of it.

They stepped into what he guessed was once the library it cut out quite the picture if it weren't completely vacant and left to rot, as of now there was nowhere else to go but up that didn't exactly leave him at ease as every ladder looked ready to fall apart.

Before he could think of a better way up he was stopped by A2.

"My whole team got killed… We were sent on a mission, I won't give you the details they're unimportant, what matters here is that they lied about the objective."

He remained silent as he heard her breathing kick up a notch "It wasn't an exactly complicated mission, hit the machines where it hurt or so we thought but we didn't know the true objective." taking a deep breath she turned around "You see we were mere prototype androids and they needed combat data from our fighting it was preferable to them if we died afterward."

This was unsurprising the more he heard about Yorha the more he thought of them as a typical military agency, in a war it wasn't exactly uncommon for the higher-ups to sacrifice soldiers he himself had been sent to suicide missions, though he understood the anger at losing those close.

"There's a lot more to it than this but this is all you're getting from me." A2 said looking tired of this whole ordeal "Since I told you something about me It's only fair I asked you something in return right?"

"Fair enough."

"I won't bother asking what you are I doubt you would answer it, but I need to know something..." their eyes met once again "… why do you fight against the machines? why do you help the other androids? what is your goal in all of this?"

The question surprised him, he didn't really understand why she wanted to know, the confusion must have shown on his face as her eyes narrowed pressing him to answer, he decided to tell her the truth "For my dream."

"Your dream?" the answer seemed to dumbfound her.

He nodded "I want to save as many as I can, to create a world where no one has to cry. I want to live as a hero of justice."

Popola looked at him in pity murmuring quietly to herself "Shirou…"

A2 looked utterly perplexed at the notion "Hero?" she simply shook her head though reading between the lines, regardless of what he said it was simply the same as any other android create a safe world for humanity… still though she couldn't help but feel like there was something different there. "Let's move on I'm getting tired of this place."

"You still have something right?" his questioning made her stop in her place "Something you're not telling us."

"Like I told you my reasons for fighting are for myself, but that's not true of any of you." A2 clenched a hand looking deep in thought.

"Where the hell are you going with this A2, I'm getting sick and tired of you talking in riddles as if you know more than everyone." Devola said anger clear in her voice as she walked right into A2.

A2 on the other hand simply took a step back and looked towards Shirou "You know I've been thinking a lot about what your place in this war is, you might just have the ability to change things but first you need to know exactly how precarious our situation is I only hope you'll still have the will to fight afterward."

A2 took a deep breath closing her eyes before reopening as she exhaled "There are no humans left."

Everything stopped at those words…

"What do you mean?" Popola asked her voice filled with horror

"The dream of earth with humanity in it has been dead long before the aliens even stepped foot in here the moon base is naught but a lie made up to keep androids fighting in this war."

His eyes widened as the world around him got smaller…

"See what I meant by trying to be delicate with this…" she would have continued were it not for the barrage of questions and denials the sister brought up, he couldn't hear any of it anymore the sounds turning static to his ears as he left to a world of his own making.

The voices of those unsaved screamed louder for him at every second…

Heya again, new chapter this one took a while huh, I think at this point I'll be doing one chapter a month for my stories seems like i have more time to fix mistakes and whatnot. Lots of stuff have also been happening in irl so i have less time to write, my arm is pretty much fixed though so that's kewl. Anyway hope you guys enjoyed this one it was a total bitch to write. I really hope i made A2 believable.

Have a nice day.

Thanks to Ivan Tridelan for helping me out.