"And now, what will you do?"
A2's question came after a while, they had been sitting in silence for a bit, letting their minds acknowledge the influx of information both received and told.
Visor now discarded, Robin looked at the other android with those enchanting different eyes of hers. "I don't actually know, I don't have missions for the time being, I've just been running errands for the Resistance."
"I may just rest here for a while. I don't feel like going back to the Bunker for now."
More like she did not want to see White again for as long as she possibly could. Though she'd have to contact 21O soon, or she'd get worried. She knew she would, especially after the display of pure mental weakness she saw a while ago.
Her Operator became even more protective towards her, if it was possible.
"I wanted to rest some, when I came here, before I found the posters." A2 blurted out.
She didn't even know why she was embarrassed by the confession, after what they just talked about it was kind of ridiculous to even feel shy anymore.
Still, what she had done felt like an intrusion of privacy, she felt that she forced Robin to talk about all those painful things because she wanted to know the truth, while she had never asked anything in return yet.
If she ever would.
Maybe she should apologize, she thought as she watched as the other android, no, former human she corrected herself, took off her heels and gloves, and made herself comfortable on the ragged couch, a bunch of papers in her hands.
Without thinking and taking off her own heels, she sat on the armrest, still holding her knees like she was doing before. Something about this whole ordeal just made her want to stay near this woman, she didn't know if it was for somehow soothing her, or just her own longing for contact from someone else.
She watched Robin examine those papers for a bit in silence, when words just fell from her lips on their own before she could stop herself.
"I was part of the first YoRHa squadron."
Robin did not make a noise, but she did drop the paper in her hand, and turned towards her, listening, just like she did with her.
"There were sixteen of us, we called each other with just numbers before. After months of training we were finally ready for our mission, known as the Pearl Harbor Descent."
Robin couldn't say she looked around enough to know what mission consisted of, she just knew that no one survived from it. But obviously that was not true if A2 was here telling her.
"So we descended, guided by Number 1, our captain, she'd been the best unit, we felt safe with her guiding us… we couldn't have been more foolish. As soon as we got closer, machines shot at us, Number 1 had been the first to go."
She remembered thinking how impossible it had been, yet, her flight unit had been blown to bits right in front of her own.
"With her gone, the role of captain went to the next in line, which had been me. I was scared and confused, I hadn't been ready for such a role, but I could not refuse. I did what I could in trying to get the most of us alive in the middle of all that panic… only four of us remained."
Still up to this day she wondered if she could have saved more of them. Not that it would have mattered in the end.
"There was Number 21, a Scanner, Number 16, a Gunner, and… Number 4… an Attacker like myself." she explained, and Robin did not miss the way her voice wavered when the third one was spoken.
Has she been someone important for A2? Or should she call her Number 2 now?
"Immediately we asked to return to the Bunker, we had been instructed to retire should half of the squadron not make it down to Earth, but, White refused."
Robin had the feeling that this would be just the beginning of the mess White had done, since A2 resented her so much.
"So we tried to move on to our objective, to destroy a machine server at Mount Ka'ala, however we were approached by hundreds, thousands of machines. We did our best to fight our way through, we were about to get overwhelmed, when someone spotted us, it had been the Resistance."
Did A2 know Anemone then? Though given how many androids there were on Earth, the chances of them knowing each other were rather slim.
"They didn't trust us, at first, but I was able to convince their current leader, Rose, we weren't enemies, and to collaborate. So, they took us to their camp, but on the way we found out what truly happened, thanks to Number 21. We found out they had deserted the army for disagreements with their superiors, as they were abusing one of the girls, so they took her and ran."
Knowing what abuse was, Robin couldn't help but feel pity towards that person, whoever she may have been.
"We did not have any qualms with them though, so I was still willing to collaborate. When all of a sudden, Lily started screaming and attacking us, eyes red and glowing, she had caught a logic virus."
Sounded about correct as to what androids that were hit would do, so the virus was a weapon used from machines way before now.
"Lily had developed a machine ability from it, which made things harder. It took the combined effort of four of us to keep her down, enough for Number 21 to reach in her mind and stop the infection. Somehow we had saved her, for the time being."
The last phrase meant something bad was coming.
"Eventually we reached the machine server, but the machines were prepared, and ambushed us. Desperate, I tried to ask the Commander to help us another time, and again I was met with a refusal."
She could hear the resentment in A2's voice whenever White was involved. Not like now she did anything more than sit in her base and give orders anyways, it was the same before and now. Or she would punish people to her liking.
"Number 16 stayed behind with Dahlia, Lily and the others, to buy us time. We ran in and reached the elevator that would bring us to the server room, but it required hacking, so once again someone else had to stay behind, this time being Number 21, Anemone joined her for protection, but… that had been a lie…"
Robin wondered why, but she waited for A2 to continue. Her voice had begun wavering once again, but something told her the most painful part had yet to come.
"Number 21 had been infected, and that had been because I asked her to save Lily, she hadn't removed the virus, she transferred it into herself, probably hoping her superior systems would have been able to defeat it. But you know what it does, it adapts and overcomes an android's defenses. But that hadn't been all of it. In the distance, we could hear the sounds of multiple explosions going off, Number 16 and the others overloaded their reactors to take down as many machines as possible, going down with them."
A suicide move for the sake of their mission, and their captain. Similar to the loyalty crew members had to have towards a pirate captain, not that she ever had any, she only faked to do so until it was no longer convenient, she had only ever seen it from others.
"The elevator eventually reached its destination, and we found the server room, but waiting for us were more machines and… two weird entities."
A2 struggled to find words to describe those girls she saw. "I don't exactly know what they were, they looked like two girls with black hair and dressed in red. Some weird kind of machine, and indestructible too, nothing could touch them."
Perhaps something similar to what Adam and Eve were.
"Everyone that was left in the room, the machines killed them or infected them with the virus, forcing us to put them down. Those machines started talking to us, to me, they had seen in the Bunker's server, our mission and it's true objective."
A2 raked a hand through her hair, shaking her head. Why had she started talking about all this at all? She didn't want to relive that time again.
But she couldn't shy away now, Robin told her of everything she'd been through, and she had lived even longer than her, she knew pain, she had shown her that she too was still affected from her past.
She wouldn't judge, would she?
"Take all the time you need, A2." it had been the first thing she heard the woman say since she started, though she too had stayed entirely silent through her tale.
"It's okay if you don't want to continue. Don't feel like you have to." Robin knew well how it felt, she knew it was all but easy, so for her sake she'll wait, without asking.
If possible, A2 made herself even smaller in her corner, covering her eyes with her hands. She sniffled a little, but she did not cry.
"They… they said we were sacrifices all along… no one was coming to help us, it had been only a test to see how we acted, and the data would have been used for better models. We were doomed to fail from the very beginning…"
Their lives had been rendered useless for the sake of being made an example, just like what happened to the people of Ohara. Robin could guess where part of the data ended up, the Number 2 and Number 21 ones in particular.
How the irony of her Operator, and of her teacher turned student, having been made from the data of two other androids that had been sacrificed without any care, became two of the people she ended up caring most.
Did White seriously think they were all just meaningless strings of code? What did it make her then?
That was beyond cruel, to the levels of what happened to Ohara, only that now the person in charge of this all was the one that was using her to eliminate what was left of said legacy.
"There had been a bomb implanted in all of us, that could have been set off remotely once we stopped giving signals of life. Upon hearing all of that… instead of doing something I sat there crying about it… and they got Number 4 because of me…"
A2 could still feel her weight in her arms and the tears falling from her eyes as she was dying before her.
"You know what she did? She apologized to me for not having been good enough… I was the one that hadn't been good enough…"
She shook her head. "I hadn't been prepared, I was weak, hesitant, and I led them all to their death, and I dragged the Resistance with us… I should… I should have done something else… I should have refused… I should have known it had been a trap all along…"
"But you didn't know any better."
"I should have at least finished my duty and joined them… Number 4… she… she killed herself because I had been too much of a coward to do so…"
It wasn't until Robin reached out to her eyes that A2 noticed that the wet sensation on her cheeks had been all but a memory.
How long had it been since she allowed herself to cry?
Too much time spent on killing and protecting herself from YoRHa didn't leave her time to do so.
"The machine server was destroyed in the explosion, but I survived… alone and abandoned, I spent my time killing machines for what they did, until one day, I saw her. She had my face, my everything, and she'd been sent to kill me, to finish what White had started."
"2E." Robin murmured.
She knew her and she knew how dedicated she was to her duty, especially regarding keeping 9S in check. Her, like everyone else, didn't know any better than to follow orders.
But she couldn't help but wonder if this almost extreme dedication to the cause had been encoded in her, to make sure there wouldn't be another A2. Robin wouldn't put it past White after all she did to her, to other YoRHas she knew, and what she just heard.
White was just as rotten as a human would. She'd fit well in high ranks of the World Government or the Navy.
"It was then I just snapped, I didn't care about anything anymore, I hated the machines, I hated YoRHa, and I even hated humans for putting us through this torment when they wouldn't even dare to show themselves. Staying all nice and cozy on the Moon."
A2 rubbed her eyes, her expression changing from sorrow to rage in a matter of seconds.
"I didn't care any longer, but to keep living for the sake of my comrades, and to prove White that we wouldn't be forgotten like she wanted." she turned towards Robin. "And then, you came into my life."
"This weird Executioner that instead of killing me, spares me when all others would have been eager to show White how good they did, and that they finally solved a years' long problem. And then, you sacrifice yourself, come back with all your memories intact, and then today I find out just how different you are, and that humans are not only on the Moon and from this planet."
A2 sighed loudly. "It's… a lot to take in."
She watched Robin nod at her. "I know, and I still don't expect you to come to terms with it right now, or to make up your own opinion right away. I spent a lot of time with people hating me, I wouldn't blame you if you did."
"What? No!" A2 shook her head. "If it's because of what I said about humans, it doesn't mean I hate you. I'm just… confused…"
"I'm not the most lovable person, nor the best example of a good human. Not at all to be honest."
Once again A2 shook her head, even harder than before, her hair shaking wildly around her.
"Listen, humans made us, and made us fight for them without bothering to even show their faces, this is true, but it's not your fault, it's the ones of the Moon, it's their problem." A2 took her hands in her own, the first time she reached out to her.
"You come from another planet, it might not have been the best but you had your own life to live, and you're the first person that has shown me kindness."
Blue eyes stared in mismatched blue and brown ones.
"This ain't your war to fight, Robin!"
Robin's eyes widened, unsure how to respond. She hadn't expected this reaction from A2, anything but this. She wasn't meant to be loved, she'd been selfish, and she told A2 just that, and yet…
Had she forgiven her?
You know she isn't wrong, Robin.
No, no she wasn't. A2 was right, but…
"There isn't anything I can do about it now."
After all, even if she left, what could she do? Where could she go? She wasn't worried about being a fugitive, but there was still so little she knew about this world… and the people that looked up to her, could she hurt them like that?
"White has no right to keep you here."
A2 didn't quite know why she was getting so heated about this, but what had happened was wrong on so many levels, possibly even worse than what she just told Robin, about her and her companions.
But they had been born androids, not born, made to serve the human race, all of them, and the fact that White took one of them, turned her into something else for her own gain, stripped her of her identity and her name and sent her to kill to cover her lies.
Robin did not belong in this world, screw her name of Executioner even, she was not android, no YoRHa, she was human, and as such A2 would call her.
She at least deserved to be taken back where she came from. Her home was that oceanic planet, not one ravaged by war where everything died, perpetually stuck under the light of the sun on one side, and in pure darkness on the other, that she had known nothing about, and was dragged in for the greed of a Commander that didn't care for any of them.
Because she refused to believe that White had any respect for Robin either, her former humanity was just a weapon, she was certain.
"You're right." the other woman responded after a while.
"But there's people up there I do not wish to hurt by leaving. My qualms are with White alone, and they don't need to suffer because of it, not more than they already do."
A2 did not doubt that she and Robin were the only ones being hurt from White's manipulative actions. She doubted there was anyone safe from her at all.
"I have been thinking a lot about just running away like I have always done, even before you told me all this, but this time there's more than just me at stake. I need time to make a decision."
More like she needed convincing, and if she had to admit, hearing A2's story had done nothing more than to tip her more towards the idea of just leaving White alone to rot. She was sure that if she left then maybe someone else would follow her example, start a mutiny, she was a loyal one, and that action would leave quite the impact on YoRHa.
But as much as she despised White, even more now than before, she was still hesitant. Staying did offer a lot of commodities she could not allow herself to have on her own, other than having people she could trust.
It seemed that A2 didn't want to press the issue, and just left her place on the couch, to just lie in her cot, so for the time being Robin returned to the papers she was given to distract herself.
Moments of silence, only broken from the noise of shuffling paper followed.
"I'll be heading out to the forest castle tomorrow. I have a lead on the king of those tin cans." A2 whispered, half asleep. She wasn't facing Robin, nothing could be seen from behind that curtain of white hair she had.
Not sure why she was telling her that but…
"I'll be keeping out of your way." Robin replied to her. "I can't be near you outside of here anyways, cutting the link to the Bunker worked once, it won't fool White again."
Perhaps that was why she thought she was up to no good. Oh, she'll show her how not a good person she was…
"Maybe you should check out the place once it's safe."
Could do, but she'd have to rely on 21O's help again, if she wanted to do research, and the forest castle had been one of the areas she'd been wanting to check out the most, but she hadn't been allowed to, because it was not safe enough.
Quite the weak excuse now that she thought about it, considering who and what she was.
White had a real obsession with keeping people from finding data of any kind that wasn't of use for YoRHa's military operations. She too had been denied research on anything that was not in small confined spaces like apartments, or given by the Resistance, like in this occasion, but they didn't seem much more than old children's homework and drawings. They were cute though.
The scolding she got when she had sneaked into the temple in the desert… it hadn't been as bad as the one a while ago, but still, White only let it slide because of the weapons she brought back with her.
Shaking her head she made her way to her own cot, in the corner across from A2's one, noticing the woman must have moved as the blankets fell off her.
With a small smile she took care to cover the other android back again, before settling down to rest as well.
"Be safe out there, A2."