"Come, Nico Robin. Today you will have the pleasure to do something very special." a rather hulking man put a hand on her shoulder, she was young, barely 15 from the looks.
"Today you will serve our captain… with your body."
She tried, she had really tried to get away from them, too many men around her, too many hands on her tiny body, they were everywhere, on her…
Don't touch me! She screamed.
Please stop touching me… she pleaded.
But everything fell to deaf ears…
Robin woke up in a sweat, looking around frantically, black box thumping loudly in her chest, her own trembling hands were around her torso, as if trying to cover something that was already covered, she had her full dress on though.
Slowly, she let go, as she looked around coming out of the daze of her nightmare, no a memory, she realized she was in her little hideout in the commercial facility. She'd been sleeping in her own little cot, to which a second one was recently added next to it.
A2 had indeed decided to make this place her own home base too, just like she had suggested. Though they had yet to see each other again.
The white haired android had been having a bad dream too, when she had slept over the first time here. One more similarity to add to the pile.
Robin rubbed a hand to her eyes, she had taken off the visor before sleeping.
She yet again had those terrible dreams, and it was no other's fault than the Commander's and her damn loyalty test.
It hadn't exactly been the same thing but…
It felt the same to us, didn't it? So humiliating.
Yes, but White didn't seem to know about her past, though she had still stripped her of her dignity, no, she had lost her dignity a long time ago.
Why are you still defending her? Have you turned that much blind? Stop with these pathetic excuses Robin!
She growled, she did want to hate White, for what she put her through this time around, and not only her, but still… her and YoRHa had given her more than what she had dreamed for.
Such as those all good words about respecting you? The soldiers might be, but she is not. And she is proving it to you time and time again, yet you won't see it!
"Shut up!" she yelled, the sound echoing in the small space.
She'll make a decision, just not now, it was too early still.
She'd been having these conflicting thoughts ever since she met A2, same thoughts she had when this all started, when she woke up in that lab, and that slowly, went away. Or was it White's doing that had forced her to do and think what she wanted?
Thing was, she had never questioned her loyalty, until she went face to face with the rogue.
A2 was different, wild and wary of anything and anyone, not the regular fugitive that still held loyalty to the mission and their Commander in some way.
Reminded her of her own self, she did not trust anyone before, and again, A2 had sparked these feelings back when during these years they had been shoved away.
She knew there was something that tied her and the white haired rogue beyond simple similarities, though she had yet to find out what it was.
Robin just hoped the other woman never had to deal with people wanting to take advantage of her body. She wouldn't wish that on anyone, ever.
It had been slightly over a week since White called her over and tested her loyalty to her. For these days she had been punished to stay confined in the Bunker. She would be eternally grateful for the people that stayed close to her during that time, if they didn't, she didn't know if she could have handled it well enough.
It had started with the same nightmares, her mind recalled back those bad memories of all those times, once again to prove she was worthy, had to sell herself in exchange of maybe a little bit of food and shelter, for however long a crew would decide to have her around.
Until they eventually tried to get rid of her or she'd get rid of them first.
21O had been the first to notice something was off, she always did, when she woke up the second time after having those dreams and finding her already in her room.
Usually she'd sit in the chair at the desk, but this time she sat close to her on her own bed.
She had asked, no, demanded to know what had been troubling her, and she would not have taken a lie for it.
Robin had tried to convince her that she'd just been stressed, but her mind, too weak in that moment, and too tired to keep more secrets, had her spill everything about what White did to her.
Or rather, what she had her do.
"She did what!?" 21O had almost yelled, so uncharacteristic of her to act like that. "She touched you… that way?"
"Actually she… she didn't touch me, at all. But…" her hands clenched the fabric of her skirt.
"She pretended you would."
21O got up in a flash. "She will hear from me now."
But Robin had taken her arm before she could leave. "Don't." she shook her head.
"Don't get yourself in trouble for me 21O."
"But…"
"Please don't. I need you." she pleaded, and she did need her guide.
She did not want her Operator to end up to the same fate other YoRHa met, she did not want to have her reset. They had grown a strong bond, and she was not going to let that go to waste for this.
To restart from nothing…
With a sigh of defeat, the blonde android sat back down next to her. "I just can't believe she'd ask this from you. Where is all that respect for humans she loves to talk about?"
"She has no care for 9S, and now neither for you? YoRHa's most precious and only human?" she asked again.
"Former human." Robin corrected her.
"Still a human. You know well we are bound to respect our creators, including her. This is plainly outrageous." she could see clenched teeth from under the veil 21O wore.
"21O, no one else must know about this. You know that right?"
"I unfortunately do. As much as I would like to scream this out loud." 21O nodded, brows furrowed, and completely enraged.
It was unusual, but kind of nice to know that she at least cared enough for her to show this entirely different, and completely emotional side of her.
"Is there anything else I can do to help?" her Operator asked after a long silent pause.
Robin had felt shy for asking but… her pride had been already shattered to pieces.
"Do you know what hugs are?"
"I have reason to believe I do, Operator 6O often shares this human custom with me when things get hard. It's rather soothing." she answered. "It had been my first thought but I was afraid you'd be uncomfortable with the idea."
Without saying more words, Robin allowed herself a moment of weakness, placing her head on 21O's shoulder, who immediately understood the gesture, and wrapped an arm around her, holding her tightly against her.
She had not received a hug since she'd been eight. The last person to ever wrap her arms around her had been her mother, before she had her escape with Saul.
Android bodies were cold, yet it felt the warmest thing she ever felt.
21O just let her be. It was rare, almost unique for 26E to have these moments of pure weakness, but she knew all androids, and humans too had them. If she could soothe her pain even a little, she'd do anything she'd ask.
She was her and 9S' Operator, and her duty was to look after them. She was their guide, their figure of reference whenever they needed something.
21O always loved human families, 9S was this young and kind of naive child, and 26E was this human turned android not for her own will, lost in a world unknown to her that wanted too much and too quickly.
Perhaps this thought was wrong, 26E was even older than her, though she ignored how much but surely more than the 3 years 21O had been active, and also didn't know about her family, but… she'd protect her and 9S to the end of Earth.
Like a mother would…
Unconsciously, while she was reliving this moment she had with 21O, Robin had moved to take her old bag out, and from it, her wanted poster, but also her mother's.
Her hand lightly stroked the brittle paper where a woman looking exactly like her but with white hair looked back with a stern look.
She didn't know why, but the way 21O was so preoccupied with her and 9S, reminded her of all those times she had wished Olvia would come back home and would spend time with her, share a hug, and play with her.
Perhaps it was wrong to think of it, insulting even, but 21O did feel like the mother she had wished for.
But she wouldn't dare say it out loud.
In those days she'd been confined in her room, other than her Operator, she had seen 2E at times as well, with her asking to come and spar with her and the other Executioners, to ask her to teach them more.
She had 2E's Operator, 6O, take her aside and ask her about flowers, and the day after she'd found a small note with a rather childish drawing of them, and next to it a book.
"I know you like books like me, I managed to sneak one on the Bunker for you. Hope it helps. 9S."
And in a corner there was a smaller text. "Hope it'll make you feel better. 21O."
That sly fox of her Operator got the others involved so she'd get some distractions while she was absent. The one closest to her of course.
21O told her that she didn't explain to them why, only that she was feeling down, and that she wanted to cheer her up. Robin had given her the biggest and most honest smile she had ever made.
"Thank you…" she had only managed a small whisper, but she meant it, she meant it with all her heart of human and android both.
She had also been the reason she got sent back to Earth too, 21O managed to sneak in another mission so she'd get away from the Bunker, and the Commander for a while again.
To say she had wished to lay down on the orbital base for a while just moments before she had returned…
21O really knew how to help her assisted units, she only wished 9S would listen more like she did. But, she had always been an obedient one, didn't she?
Tying her visor back over her eyes, it was time to do what she came here for, and so she left in the direction of the Resistance's camp.
A2 didn't quite know what got her back here time and time again, to the Executioner's little hideout, well, still a bigger hideout than whatever she had been able to find on her own, but something about it made it warm and cozy.
Maybe it was just the fact the place had been made to look as such, almost like what little she knew about a human house, with furniture and all the rest. It was not the same thing, mostly things the other woman had savaged from who knew where, but it was the closest thing she could imagine.
Also it was safe, she couldn't deny it.
A big place with a hidden entrance and a signal jammer, so those damn floating toasters YoRHas had with them couldn't pick up her black box? She'd been sold immediately.
Also the black haired android kept the place well stocked on medical items too, though she too had added whatever she had managed to snatch, but she supposed it was easier for the other to simply buy them when needed.
A2 felt bad for using things that weren't hers more times than not, sort of.
The Executioner had offered after all, her fault if she ended up hogging the place.
She knew she sounded selfish, just as much as it felt weird, and wrong, to still call the other android just "Executioner", she had given her a name after all.
An actual name too.
She refused to use her YoRHa name, so much she despised the letter E in it.
A2 wondered if someone gave it to her or if it was just flavor she'd given herself. She had picked up some of the books the woman left lying around, she still wouldn't dare touch anything that looked too brittle and could shatter immediately, the other had asked her not to break anything after all, and found out the android had named herself after a bird.
Robin was a tiny bird with an orange, almost red, splotch on its chest, and A2 wondered if it held some kind of symbolic value to the woman's role.
Since she made chests bleed.
She hadn't had a chance to ask yet though, if Robin had meant it, or if she just liked the idea of the bird's name and how it sounded, or if it was another person's idea.
If Rose could name people after flowers…
She had proposed to give them names too, if they had survived, but she knew all too well that had just been wishful thinking. Though part of her still wondered what kind of names Rose would have picked for them four.
Did she deserve to be called more than a simple letter and a number though?
A2 sighed, she had to stop asking herself questions that would forever remain unanswered, but she could ask the other woman, when and if they ever met again.
Certainly she had been busy running errands for YoRHa, since she hadn't seen new relics or books since the first time she was invited to Robin's personal shelter.
She still had to get used to calling the other android with a name…
A rather quirky and interesting android if she had to admit. A2 had a hard time figuring her out yet though, during this time she struggled to remember if she met anyone else with the same number, it meant the same personality type.
But no, she didn't recall anyone.
The closest thing that came to her mind, it had been hoping she had been made in the image of her old companions. She did look like Number 21 a bit, and she was serious and curious like her, and had a similar hairstyle, while the color of said hair could have been more of Number 16's.
Maybe the two were merged together at some point, and they had come back to her…
So where was Number 4 then?
A2 shook away those thoughts quickly, that had been too much hope that White would have been kind enough to not throw away their data to make new androids, but give how she had discarded them all in the first place, she highly doubted she held any kind of regards to make new models based on them.
Regardless, here she was again, as she stepped in the secret entrance at the back of the commercial facility, reeling in the now familiar ambient.
But no signs of Robin yet again…
Though she did notice her cot being undone and the blankets all sprawled around, a sign that she may have been here, perhaps recently.
Maybe there was a chance she'd be back soon then.
A2 would never admit it, but she was rather eager to meet Robin again. Besides the simple curiosity of her name, she found out that her company hadn't been too bad the other time.
Could have been because she had been the first person that ever faced and talked to A2 in a different way, that wasn't just holding her at sword's edge.
She had yet to see any of YoRHa's androids try and succeed to defy White as well, besides her own self of course, and Robin did just that, and came back to her victorious.
That woman was something else.
And it seemed she had left some things lying around this time too, she noticed as she sat on the run down couch. Maybe she could allow herself a peek…
There were two pieces of paper on the table before her, old from the look of it, but then again everything the woman found seemed to be. They were brown but some things could still be seen from them.
Each had a picture and a name and…
A2 took the two papers in hand, to make sure she saw correctly, but yes, there they were. The pictures of two women stared back at her, actually no, one looked much younger than a woman, perhaps a child then?
They looked oddly similar and even familiar, at least, one of them was.
Were they a mother and her child? They had the same exact face, one just had white hair while the other black, even their eyes matched!
But, what stood out to her were the two names beneath the pictures.
Nico Olvia and… Nico Robin?
Robin?
The name that android went with?
A2 stared at the picture of the child more, those hair… same color and same hairstyle too, she was sure of it.
And the other woman with white hair? Her face looked so much like the android she knew…
She only needed to see her eyes, and she would demand it, she'd tear that ugly visor off if she had to.
They both had some number under the names too, though the poster of the adult woman was so old and worn out you couldn't make up the exact amount. The child one however, read 79 bloody millions, of a type of money A2 didn't recognize.
She'd never been good at math, but she'd be damned if she didn't know that was such a large amount of money.
It was hard to make out as to why the child was wanted, but she could make out words such as "survivor" and "sinking six navy warships".
Why did this give the feeling it somehow matched the story Robin told her when they talked?
Just what the hell did this mean?