A2 ran, she ran as fast as her legs would carry her, weak, shaking, she didn't get very far. Not watching where she was going she stepped into the hole in the middle of the city and fell. Thankfully Pod 042 was there to catch her so she didn't get hurt.
But was she truly not hurt? Not on the outside, but inside she was breaking apart.
She laid still where 2B's Pod left her, totally not caring of the water puddle beneath her, nor of the drops steadily falling on her face from above.
It almost looked like she was crying, how ironic.
She felt like crying, felt like screaming to the world how the pain of losing the person you loved felt for yet another time, just like she did when she lost Number 4 and all the others. She had cried and cried, until there were no longer tears in her eyes, and screamed so hard her voice box stopped working for a while, and she didn't care one bit back then.
She felt exactly the same way now once and again, and yet she just miserably laid immobile, her chest was heaving so hard, she bit her lips so hard they bled but the sting was nothing at all, a small nuisance. Tears pricked the corner of her eyes…
Yet she didn't cry.
And it made her so mad that she couldn't do so for the woman that had been so important during these past months, that she had learned to know, to care, and to love…
She didn't even tell her.
Coward. Her mind screamed at her.
Once a coward, always a coward in anything and everything. She'd feared rejection, to be alone once more and now? Now she had nothing left at all and she was even more alone!
Who knew if Robin died knowing that there was someone out there that did love her?
But she could not allow herself to come to terms with what just happened, and mourn her passing like she did for her comrades, once she'd been somewhat safe that was.
"You have to keep going." 2B's voice chimed in, but she was encouraging and soft, not demanding.
"Shut up. I know." she growled back.
She knew she had to get up and head to the factory where Pascal was waiting, where the children were… Robin asked her to save them, as her last wish.
"You wouldn't disrespect the wish of a dying person, right?" she had said when A2 asked her to take over her duty to keep 2B with her, and she had declined.
Perhaps it had been for the best after all.
And as such, she should do the same with hers, it was the only thing that could have kept her going right now. So then why wouldn't her body move?
She knew why, she didn't want to face the pain that would come with explaining what happened at the village to Pascal, and she didn't want to watch their pain as they too lost friends. They weren't able to save any of them either…
She did not want to be hurt any longer, not from herself, not from others.
Why did the people she loved had to die for her all over again? A worthless prototype that had no use to anyone, not even when she'd been created.
"52."
"What?" what did 2B mean now?
"The amount of times I had to watch 9S die by my hands."
"So are we comparing how many times we lost our lovers now?" she growled again, what the hell was the other android alluding at? Was she trying to somehow put herself above her just because she lost her precious little boy that many times, compared to her that lost everything only two times?
The most painful times.
"No such thing. I just wanted to say that, while I'm not you, I know how it feels to lose the people you love the most, maybe not the same way as you, but I can understand." 2B was gentle in explaining, knowing full well what watching a lover die before you meant.
She knew just how much it hurt to think about it, what it could have been and what it hadn't been, and also how hard it was to pick herself up and continue as nothing happened every single time.
But if they truly were the same Number and personality, then if she had this strength, A2 had it too, she just needed help in finding the will to keep going, just like Robin would have wanted.
From what little she'd seen of the woman, she guessed that the last thing she would have wanted was for A2 to feel sorry for her.
Perhaps, for as morbid as it was, the idea of death and being put to rest might have been tempting, a solution to put an end to the agony of feeling alone, and loveless as she said she was.
Though she was not.
As an E type, she now understood what she had meant, that the people around her just died, and that she just wanted to save something for once, even if she didn't fully know her past.
She too had loved the former human, though not in the same way A2 did, but if Robin had been so determined to keep A2 alive and save her from anything, even her own self, then she should keep encouraging her.
There would be time to mourn, time to mourn for them both too.
She had failed 9S, she was not going to let down A2 though. She'd grown rather fond of the woman, she found, they were more alike beyond simple looks, and they both needed and wanted someone at their side, and when that failed, 2B wanted her to know that they still had each other.
Even if just as a mere consciousness.
Also, hadn't her master asked her to take care of A2? And she should respect the wishes of a dying person.
"Just know that whatever you want to say or feel, I am here, okay?" you are not entirely alone, 2B wouldn't allow it.
A2 didn't reply to that, but the physical reaction of sitting up from where she was lying said everything. She understood, and 2B didn't need affirmation.
Being in her body meant she felt what A2 felt, and after what felt like an eternity, the older android finally picked herself up, and began to ascend the ladder nearby, even if her chest felt like it was about to break in a million pieces, crushed a hundred times over from a Goliath arm.
It was faint, but there was also a mute determination to keep holding her head high and keep on moving though. It was something, it was there, and it was enough.
2B wasn't quite sure that what she felt were entirely A2's own feelings though, and watching the other woman trudge through the city she thought if in the end she wasn't just making it worse for her to bear.
An unfortunate consequence of their consciousnesses being in communication with one another all the time.
After all, Robin had been important to her too, and had taught her so much.
It had been because of her that she hadn't given up on the possibility that one day she could finally stop killing 9S, she taught her that dreams exist.
And also, she had gotten to see a side of her that wasn't just the cold Executioner everyone thought she was, even if through A2's eyes. She had got to know of her human origins, she got to know an actual human…
Thinking about it, she'd been rather lucky compared to almost the entirety of YoRHa. In a way she had half realized one of the things she desired already.
And now, together with her predecessor, she was here to keep fighting for the sake of her race.
Something told her A2 wouldn't be giving up easily either.
She couldn't, not after all that happened between them two.
2B refused to watch, out of privacy, but she could feel A2 reminiscing past events, both with Robin and with other people she didn't know of. Some of it still made it through her own consciousness anyways, she didn't want to intrude in A2's memories but…
"Hold still, I'll take care of everything." she flashed the visage of a woman, a YoRHa soldier wearing a hood over her head, that covered her brownish red hair held in a short cut, of which their points curled upwards, a screen before her, a Scanner type.
She was hunched over another android, YoRHa, that had been injured. She looked so much like 2B's own self, with a black dress and the very same bowl cut of snow white hair. She assumed it was A2 before this whole state of disrepair.
"Thank you, Number 21."
The voice confirmed 2B's suspicions that indeed it was her predecessor.
"You can always count on my perfect aim." another one, this one had black hair tied in a bun, visorless, and had a confident grin to herself, as she held a heavy looking rifle on her shoulder, the weapon almost appeared bigger than the android it belonged to.
A Gunner type, 2B knew they had existed but hadn't been created early enough to ever see one.
"Thank you, Number 16."
A third android entered 2B's consciousness, this one also had white hair, much longer, wavy, and held in a high ponytail, she had a visor only on one eye, and wore a bright smile on her face.
"Are you moping again, Number 2? Tilt that chin up, you're doing a great job, captain."
2B watched as this other android came to hug A2, leaving a gentle kiss to her cheek, much in dismay of the other woman whose cheeks became the darkest shade of red 2B had ever seen.
"Thank you, Number 4."
While 2B didn't know who these three were, certainly they had been important to A2 for her to recall them so fondly, especially in a moment like this.
After having lost Robin too.
It didn't take long for other memories to flood her head again, and this time regarding the woman in question.
She watched when they first met, and fought, how Robin let herself be sacrificed for the first time so they could meet again. And they did, they met once and then more times, in the place 2B had seen in the Commercial Facility.
How A2 had seen Robin's posters, and demanded to know her story, and how they shared one another's sitting side by side. How Robin protected her against 2B herself at the Forest Kingdom, the encounter with Adam and another close call with death that followed, and every other occasion they lived through, being separated and finding one another again every single time.
"You can't save anyone." 2B knew this voice, Adam.
Damn him and his bloody taunts.
The younger android could feel A2's anger as she recalled these words, so 2B did something that she hoped could help, pushing her own memories into A2's mind.
The memory of when she had killed that damn humanoid looking machine on 9S' behalf, but also on Robin's behalf without knowing it.
He had made fun of her telling her she'd never see the woman again though.
Oh he'd been so wrong, and she wished she could see his reaction to it. But putting him down forever felt even better.
The corner of A2's mouth rose a bit. "Thanks for killing that bastard."
Her voice had been low and scratchy, but 2B was glad to hear it, she didn't care much about the thanks, more about knowing the other woman was still hanging in there.
Unconsciously, both realized that they had arrived at the factory, finally. Funny how the last time she'd been here 2B had also been on Pascal's behalf.
And ended up in a rush of events that ended up with Eve's demise.
She hoped the place was much quieter now that she got rid of the machines infesting it. Also because she wasn't sure that A2 was in any decent mental state to fight, she was afraid that more problems could worsen the state of her already unsteady psyche.
The walk towards the door was slow and hesitant, but eventually A2 reached and opened it, revealing Pascal and the cowering children inside.
The machine's reaction upon seeing A2 alone was immediate.
"Where… where's your friend?" he hesitated in asking, as if he knew deep down.
A2 refused to meet his eyes, finding the floor of the room more interesting, but the way she clenched her fists spoke by itself.
"I'm sorry… A2."
She wanted to scream that it was his fault, but was it truly? After all, the infected machines attacked the villagers too. Besides they could have left them to die, but something told her that Robin would have gone to their aid regardless.
However his words of apology still sounded empty to her.
Inwardly she knew that no matter what Pascal ever did, she'd never stop hating machines in one way or another, what happened did nothing to make it better. In fact, all the hatred she slowly buried away in favor of Robin and the children returned in full force.
They hadn't wanted this, but at the moment she couldn't help but try to find something she could unleash her feelings onto.
Perhaps she was lucky that outside a horde was coming to try and get them then.
A target for her anger.
Summoning Virtuous Contract on one hand, and then her YoRHa Type 40 Sword in the other she turned towards the door again.
"I'll take care of them."
Been a while since she actually used two swords at once, reminiscing of the first times she found herself alone against the machines, before YoRHa started hunting her too. She wanted to make those machines pay, to cleave them to pieces with all the weapons she possessed.
They all had to die, all of them.
Immediately as she ran outside, she threw herself against the horde approaching, slashing, cutting, hacking away anything the two blades came in contact with, without a care in the world but the fact that she had to kill these machines.
They had to pay for what they did.
For her comrades that were shot down in the descent. For Captain Rose and her Resistance friends and family. For Number 16 that had to blow herself up for their sake. For driving Number 21 to madness with their damn virus.
For Number 4 that had to sacrifice herself to save her.
And for having taken Robin from her, forcing her to die alone and lonely before she too would have been driven insane.
To sacrifice herself in flames because she knew it would have soon been a matter of time before she would have attempted to take A2's life, and even spared her the pain of having to kill her.
Letting herself burn in a fire, just like it had happened when she'd been human.
But another fire was forming deep in A2's chest, she knew this feeling…
It had been a while since it triggered itself alone through her own feelings…
And if it had to happen, then let it happen, she thought as her whole body glowed red with searing heat and electric sparks.
Her Berserk Mode.
Her strongest and secret weapon.
This had to be the third time it activated itself as a reflex of her own anger and pain, she recalled as Virtuous Contract cleaved away yet another piece of the Goliath Tank that dared to put itself in her way.
She wouldn't even try to feel bad about it.
The first time it had happened, she hadn't even known she had such a system in her body, it had been in that damn server room, where those two cursed girl-like entities forced her to fight the Resistance members they had infected.
Then, when she woke up again, alone and desperate, after Number 4 took her own life, she had unleashed all her feelings against the machine horde that had attempted to finish the job.
And now? Now it wasn't that much different than said time, she'd lost yet again the person she loved right in front of her eyes because of these damned things.
They could all go to hell and she'd give them a hand in doing so by ending their life right there.
After all, wasn't what they did to androids? And even to their own selves?
They didn't look into anyone's face when it came to killing, so then why should she bother being different? Why not give them what they wanted, why not give them the only thing they were capable of doing?
Kill, destroy, murder them all like they did to all the people she had loved.
With a cross strike from both swords, the tank too fell apart and exploded. Taking a second to disable B Mode and letting her body recover from the stress it imposed, A2 looked at the destruction that laid before her.
Everything laid to pieces, cut up, stabbed, still smoking and sparkling with electricity.
She allowed herself a small grin.
Served them right.
And even though 2B hadn't spoken through the whole carnage, she just let A2 do what she wanted, this time she didn't feel like reprimanding the woman when she too felt a similar way about the situation.
Perhaps it was selfish, perhaps she didn't care either, A2 didn't.
What she cared about however, was to alert her of more machines coming, as they spotted them flying in from the sky.
And this time they were so much more than the first group.
Almost reminded A2 of the horde she, and the others came to face when they stepped on Earth all those years ago.
Suddenly, she was also well aware of just how tired her body felt from the previous fight, and the strenuous use of B Mode combined too, as her breath came in sharp gasps, and how shaky and unsteady it felt.
How in the hell was she supposed to fight all of those other machines?
After everything this was how it all ended? Crushed by an enormous number of tin cans?
Regardless, she prepared herself to take down with her as many as she still could, no way she'd lay down and take it.
"Don't worry A2, I'll take care of it."
Pascal's voice reached her ears, it was loud and booming. A column of water rose in front of the broken bridge, and between her and the approaching horde with an Engels unit, stood another Engels unit, or rather, Pascal was controlling it.
"Did the desire to save the children re-awaken his will to fight?" 2B asked, not quite believing it herself, as they both watched the once peaceful machine tear through his similars.
Surely from the way he was yelling about saving them it did seem that was the cause.
"As long as those things die, I don't care how."
And it also felt nice to know that Pascal wasn't being dead weight into this whole ordeal. He too had something he meant to save, perhaps at least he could.
At least one of them may have been left with something worth at the end of this all, and also, she would have helped in realizing his wish just like Robin had wanted, she'd want the children to live.
Also A2 would be lying if she didn't feel good at the sight of watching Pascal destroy anything and everything in his path. Those machines had to die, and as he engaged in the fight against the other Engels unit, she couldn't help but unconsciously cheer for his success.
And successful he was, as both she and 2B witnessed Engels blow up to pieces under Pascal's repeated hits until it died.
Enemies wiped, the smaller machine detached itself from the Goliath he took control of, and flew in A2's direction, eager to go back and see the children.
It would have been nice to tell them that everything would have been all right.
It would have been…
Neither A2 nor 2B thought they had ever seen a more macabre sight, but before them laid the corpses of the children, their cores impaled… with their own spears…
They had killed themselves…
Why? It had been the androids' first question, but as Pascal's desperate cries reached their ears, about him having taught fear to them, everything became clearer.
The pressure of the situation had just been too much, and to not suffer any longer they thought that the best solution was to end it all…
Even A2 that despised machines hadn't wanted this to happen… not this way…
In the end they were just mere children…
Barely above a whisper, she heard Pascal talk to her.
"I can't live with this pain..." he had turned his head to look back at her, crouched in front with his hands holding his head.
"Please kill me, A2."