Days passed, they became weeks, weeks became months, months became years… almost three as of now, since that fateful day. Since she agreed to help these androids in their mission, which by now only sounded like an empty promise.

She agreed to be one of the kinds they call Executioners, after all, she's always been good at killing, whether it was intentional or not people died by her hand.

And did it again, again and again… Nothing ever changed.

So she killed, and killed, and killed some more.

She stared at her sword, no longer the common YoRHa Blade she was given those first times, when she was still in training.

It was black, like her soul, the blade, by now probably ancient, was broken in a few parts, yet still sharp and ready to hurt, like her heart, through it, ran bright red runes, red like the blood she spilled.

Over, and over, and over…

The runes had an eerie red glow to them, scary, sinister, but a glow Robin had found solace in. This sword would never betray her as long as she held it in her hands.

Her name is Scarlet Despair, a fitting name for it, and for its wielder.

Nothing but fear, terror, pain and despair she caused, whenever her name was just mentioned, not only her old one, but now her new one as well.

During these years she became rather famous, though she wasn't very proud of her fame.

She became known as the best Executioner of YoRHa, as the one that never failed a mission, ever.

Some people were fearful of her, knowing that if they did wrong, the Commander may send her after them, and that was normal, she thought.

What was not normal was the amount of respect she got from other units, older and younger alike, poor fools that just wanted to excel at their job just like she did. To be good soldiers, to never mess up anything.

If only they knew the truth…

Long ago, she had asked White why the rest of YoRHa was not allowed to know of her origins besides her, and her Operator. She had figured if humans had been so important, then wouldn't knowing that a former one was aiding them boost their morale?

"I am not allowed to share such information. I, like you, have orders to follow." It had been the reply she got from the Commander.

And Robin wondered who were these people that were above even her? But she didn't dare ask.

It had been White herself that had asked her a question instead.

"Why do you obey?" she questioned. "I told you that we are supposed to obey humans, so why did you decide to bow your head and accept orders from us androids? We are inferior to you."

And with that question Robin understood that maybe not even White knew exactly all about her, that like she said, she was just following orders, when she got told to take, restore and give her a new life.

YoRHa's Commander did not know a thing about the past of the former human she was leading. And that perhaps had been a good thing.

She was not exactly a role model of a human, actually, the entire opposite.

"I did not live on a planet that even knows what androids are." Had been her reply, she'd never been superior to anyone, but she had been inferior, the worst of the worst.

"I may just be used to it."

And with that response, she had just left White to ponder upon the meaning of her words, but she was not going to tell her straight up all the horrible things she had done, just for the sake of survival.

But sometimes just out of anger and spite for the world, and for those that had taken away everything from her. It hadn't been much, but still it had been all she had.

She'd just been a young eight years old child, and no one ever had pity on her.

For as weird as it was, and sounded, she was okay here on the Bunker, among other androids, she felt part of something, she felt needed, she had people she could relate to.

As twisted as this was, she felt more at ease as an android than human.

Humans hurt her, took her dreams away, took her dignity away, used her as a tool, or threatened to kill her if she only ever lowered her guard for just a second.

She did not enjoy the reason why these androids respected her, her successful missions were just successful murders, but these people looked up to her still.

And no one ever did…

No one ever asked her for help, or for advice, nothing at all.

Between everything, White had assigned her to assist in training new battle units, something she claimed would help her in being less bored, while she waited to be assigned more missions. And those soldiers she helped train actually seemed genuinely respectful towards her, and often looked for her when they needed to ask something.

It had been a rather weird relationship, but she did feel responsible for them, in her own way.

As for 2B, or rather 2E, she too ended up between the people she taught, after that one day when she forgot everything about who 26E had ever been. The student became the teacher, and vice versa.

The hardest part of this all? Seeing those people fail and get reset, then meet them all over again like it was the first time.

All those years of lying with a straight face and putting up fake smiles had been of use at least. She was better at that than fighting people.

But her heart ached every single time.

She had a lot to learn, and she will be eternally thankful for 21O being at her side, she who had seen 9S being reset more times than Robin dared to imagine.

She knew the Operator had been bitter at 2E, and sincerely Robin understood why, and she would never blame 21O for ever becoming hateful towards her either, Executioners were not meant to be loved, but she'd been smart, and also incredibly kind, to realize that not everything had to be blamed on who carried on with their duties.

"But it never stops hurting." the woman told her, and now she did understand why she'd seek out 6O, and why she claimed she was important to her.

Her fellow colleague that shared her pain was the one that could understand 21O the most, the two sought comfort in each other, just like humans would.

Her Operator had also been amazed at how she'd been able to handle the weight of it all, by carrying on with the assassinations, and also watching the students she helped raise and make stronger fail, and restart all over, wasting all that time, and most importantly, destroying whatever bond had been created, without ever losing her head.

21O mused that a human's mind must have been stronger than an androids, what she ignored was that she was just used to seeing people die because of her, that by now it became normality.

"I do it for them." she had said, to not let those poor souls suffer, just like 2B taught her that day.

It had been a mantra she repeated each and every time for years, and she would keep doing so for as long as she was needed, or for as long as she would be allowed to live.

Robin knew it hurt, it hurt her, and hurt other Executioners too to be told to just end the life of a loved one, but like she'd been told, she did it so they may not suffer at the hands of someone else.

She had seen torture, she had carried it on, and she had experienced it on her own skin too.

All this together made her desist in ever wanting to make these androids suffer, they didn't deserve it, they had done nothing to her to deserve such treatment.

It was cruelty, human cruelty, and she did not want to be associated with it no matter what her past had been.

And assassin she may be, but she would never purposefully put someone that never did anything wrong to herself specifically through such agony.

She will be the one carrying their pain on her shoulders. She deserves to suffer for who she was and the horrors she caused, this was her punishment.

And so, placing her faithful weapon on her back, she headed towards a room she knew all too well by now, the Commander's, for a new assignment. While she passed by she couldn't help but wonder who it would be this time.

If it was someone she knew, someone she didn't, someone she already executed, or not.

It was the only thing she could look forward to knowing, sort of. It did help in knowing the name in advance, so she may prepare herself mentally at how much her chest would ache as she carried on her duty.

"Right on time as always, 26E." White turned towards her as soon as she stepped into the room.

Robin merely acknowledged her with a nod, though she couldn't help but tense up a bit, the Commander seemed more serious than usual. But she knew better than to ask, so she kept silent for the moment.

"26E, in these past years you've been serving us loyally and flawlessly, despite all the difficulties that I assume came with this role of yours."

She couldn't help but frown at those words from behind her visor, though they didn't sound threatening enough to think she could be in trouble, but she couldn't know what went through someone else's head, so she was kept on edge still.

"You've carried on each and every mission you've been given without disappointing me once, and you have proven yourself a really powerful asset, other than being incredibly knowledgeable, so… I have decided to inform you of something." with a swipe of White's hand, a screen appeared in front of them.

There was a white haired woman, with rather long hair, but what struck the most was the state she appeared to be in. She looked like a YoRHa but appeared in evident disrepair, an android that needed urgent care, judging from the several parts of exposed plating and dirty looks.

Robin could swear her face looked familiar too…

"This one you see here, is the YoRHa android known as A2, the official designation is Attacker Number 2. She is a prototype unit."

Number 2 huh? A number she has been way too much related to. Probably that's where the familiarity came from.

"This unit is a deserter, and so far she has survived each and every attempt of termination for the past three years. She is highly dangerous and elusive, but recently she's been spotted more often around the city ruins."

Now Robin could see where she was getting to, not that it was any hard, her missions were all assassinations whenever she was being called alone and not assigned to any team.

So this one android was quite the survivor, and now White wanted to send the best weapon YoRHa had against her, in hopes of putting her down once and forever.

This also felt familiar, but all in the wrong ways.

Reminded her too much of a past self she would rather bury away with her old name. But White did not know that.

"Now, given your more than excellent results, I believe I can assign you this duty. Track her down and eliminate her."

Robin nodded, and put a hand to her chest to salute her before leaving, however it seemed that the Commander had more to say.

"Unit 26E, this information is classified and no one with the exception of myself knows about A2. Do not speak to anyone of her at all, or I will be forced to take measures. Do you understand?"

"Yes Commander." not that it would be hard, she already had to keep her own identity hidden, and she always did, one more person wouldn't matter nor change anything.

"Good. A flying suit will be waiting for you in the hangar as usual."

With yet another nod, Robin departed, leaving White alone once again. The blonde android turned back to the screen before her, which still displayed pictures of A2.

"26E, do not fail me…"

The flight went rather smoothly for a change, not too many machines put themselves before her, they were dispatched quickly though.

Robin directed herself in the city she had seen hundreds of times by now, perhaps even thousands, always greeted with the familiar scenario of broken buildings and overgrown trees and animals scurrying about. And of course, annoying machines, but at this moment they weren't her target of interest.

Asking her Pod to put up the pictures again for her, she began to make up a plan to attempt to find this woman.

According to the information given, she was rather elusive, what she didn't know was that Robin also knew quite the number of tricks herself.

If she had learned anything, it was that the safest place was in the middle of danger, because not many people would dare to find anyone risking their own lives to do so.

What was the saying? Keep your allies close and your enemies even closer, no?

The data given told her that this unit used a YoRHa Type 40 Sword, and a Blade too, quite the dangerous weapons, for both enemies and holders. There was a reason why not many at YoRHa used them at all, and would rather prefer a standard sword, or attempt to find their own unique weapon.

The Type 40 weapons had an electric core into them, highly unstable, that more often than not would harm the holder, and potentially kill it too.

Robin herself had the displeasure of coming in contact with such weapons, she considered herself lucky when that time the thing only fried and burned away the circuits of her right arm, and not her entire body.

But it did hurt like hell.

Shortly after those weapons were decommissioned, she wondered how this A2 person got her hands on one.

Probably scavenged from another unit, her instinct told her. When you're a fugitive you've got to work with whatever you can find, doesn't matter if it's bad or not.

It was how she kept alive, and she supposed it was how this other android did as well.

At least, the hint was given, as the wounds left on both android and machines were pretty unique to this type of weapon, the swords left heavy burns and it was what she would have to look for, she would only have to find and follow the trail.

Because there was no way an YoRHa android would be left alone from the machines, or any android really.

And so, Robin threw herself on the search, and with the aid of her Pod she managed to avoid most of the active machines residing in the city, though these small ones were no problem, she'd rather not get too tired before a fight.

Especially since it seemed she would have to face quite the opponent this time, an opponent that had never been defeated, against her that has never failed.

A battle between titans, in which only one of them would come out of it alive.

She tracked down the hints to the forest, like she said, to defend yourself you had to be in danger, and she knew very well that the forest held the most aggressive kind of machines in the area.

The forest extended for quite the miles, also the trees and foliage aided in hiding someone of the stature as herself rather easily.

Androids hardly were the biggest kind of beings here in terms of size.

However, just like she thought, as soon as she found the first clearing, her eyes laid upon the pile of machine bodies dead before her. She walked closer to examine them.

Just as she expected, she could see black burns left on the chassis, but not only that, apparently this android must have had some real hate of machines, judging by the way the things were cut apart.

Dismembered would have been a more correct word.

If it wasn't for her Pod she'd have a hard time making up what kind of machines these were, from how small their pieces were.

Someone here held quite the grudge, and she could use it to her advantage.

All she needed now was a pair of actually living machines, and to cause some noise. Luckily it didn't seem she had to look very far, because a group of machines made itself known to her while she was still examining the dead bodies.

Immediately they started charging at her, thinking she must have been the culprit behind it.

Perfect…

Robin had the machines running after her through the forest, thankfully it didn't look like she had to yell or say anything to cause noise, as they kept screaming about a so-called "Forest King" while they chased her.

She led the things where she knew she could find a hiding spot, and where she knew there would be enough space for a battle between androids.

Close to the massive waterfall that led to the castle there was a clean section with some broken arches on the other side of it. As soon as she reached the destination, machines in tow and yelling, she used her increased speed to jump as high as she could, and then again using the aerial systems to get on one of those arches, then once more to reach a tree branch higher up and hide herself in the foliage.

Only thing she had to do was to wait, the machines couldn't reach her here, and her hunch was correct, soon enough the android woman would come to investigate all the noise.

She wouldn't resist the temptation to kill some more of their common enemies.

And just like that, the trap was set.