"There really is no need for this." was Robin's statement after she realized that 21O probably wanted to know if A2 was fine for her, like a protective mother would do.

But given how sad her eyes looked when she watched her and 9S reunite with their now former Operator, she wanted to spare her dealing with how overly worried 21O could get when she felt that she and 9S were in some kind of trouble.

Which in this case she really wasn't.

She could understand 21O's point of view too, just wanted to make sure she was in good company probably, or understand if A2 was anything like 2B, which worried her more because 21O wasn't fond of 2B, though she warmed up a little bit after watching and support her being being exactly what 9S' partner was.

But also she didn't think this would be time for the two to talk, as A2 didn't look too well to do so, she'd known those eyes too well by now.

The eyes of someone that mourned something they couldn't have.

They were hers too sometimes… actually, more times than she'd admit out loud.

She cared for them both, and didn't want either of them to hurt the other, intentionally or not. Because 21O didn't know that she'd been made from the memories of one of the friends that A2 still mourned to this day.

She didn't know many things, yet.

And Robin was afraid that this unwanted ignorance was going to hurt someone.

However…

"Fine, but let us speak somewhere other than here." A2 agreed to it?

Robin truly hoped she wasn't hurting herself for her happiness again. Because that wouldn't make her happy in the slightest.

She watched Anemone give her friend a questioning yet worried look. She too had known that Number 21 woman after all.

"Sorry Anemone, but I can't say certain things in your presence yet."

Right, she still didn't know of her humanity, and neither did the twins probably, or anyone in the Resistance, since she was sure that the revelation would spark more than the reaction that A2, 2B and 9S had combined into one.

They'd been pretty easily accepting now that she thought about it, perhaps it could have been their programming, or something else entirely.

"One day you'll tell me what secrets you YoRHa are still hiding, because I know you are."

However it hadn't been A2 to reply, since the secret wasn't hers.

"I will, I promise I'll tell everything, when I feel the time is right." Robin brought a hand to her chest to show she meant it.

"I just wonder…" Anemone sighed, watching Number 2 and the new woman leave the camp. "How much this revelation will affect us, if you're working so hard to keep it hidden."

With the corner of her eye she could spot the twins listening closely, with curious eyes. No doubt they wanted to know too.

"That's what I'm worried about too…"

Worried it would break whatever kind of bonds, and everything else that came with them, that had been created during these years.

She didn't want to see everything fall apart before her eyes another time…

Especially because she didn't want to be the cause of it all, so for now she'd delay for as long as she could allow herself to.

For the first time, 21O got to experience how walking on grass and splashing water felt as she and A2 left the camp, the cryptic woman walking in front of her, black cape and white braid swinging in the breeze.

"So what do you want?" she heard the other ask rather bluntly.

One aspect she did not see in her superior model. 2B hardly asked or questioned a thing, and if she did, she had more tact than this.

Perhaps some aspects of this one's personality were removed when 2B was made.

She gave a sigh. "I'll be honest and ask right away." since A2 didn't seem to like when too many words were being used, she'd go straight to the point too.

"What does she mean to you?"

There was no need to say who she was referring to, it was obvious that her priority was to know whether or not the former human was safe.

There was a moment of silence, the white haired woman preferred to stare at her reflection in the water, idly playing with her braid, before answering with the utmost steady voice she ever heard.

"Everything. She means everything to me."

21O however frowned at these words, not sure if A2 was saying them to please her, or if she truly meant them, after all she'd yet to know the woman properly, and she didn't seem too willing to share too much.

"Please elaborate."

A2 didn't turn, but 21O saw her roll her eyes through her reflection.

"What else is there that you want to know?" she heard annoyance in her voice.

"I want to know if you truly love 26E."

"Robin, her name's Robin." A2 turned with a snarl. "Her own mother gave her that name, I won't strip her of it like White did."

That was unexpected, she did not think that 26E… Robin, would share her actual name with someone, but A2 seemed pretty angry at hearing her Executioner name. And also, 21O knew she was right about what she'd just said.

"Right, force of the habit, I'm sorry." she spent three years calling her by that name, as did everyone else. "We weren't allowed to refer to her as anything else but that."

"I know, she told me." for the first time A2's expression softened, just a little. "She told me everything."

"Everything?" did that mean…

"Yes, I'm the only person that fully knows her story, who she is, what she was, or at least I was until a while ago. First came 2B, and then 9S, but no one else knows yet, and we'd like it to stay this way, until Robin decides otherwise. Her story, her decision."

Hence why she didn't want to talk about this at the camp, 21O guessed. But here they could speak of Robin's true human identity freely, because they both knew of it.

"I understand."

"For the longest time, all I could do was to survive out of hate and spite, until some kind of machine or Executioner would come to claim my head. I lived on to carry the memory of those dear to me, but every day just felt as empty as the previous." 21O remained still as A2 slowly paced around in the water.

"That was until I saw her, she was different, respectful, unlike any other of her types, she was smart and capable." A2 gave a small chuckle. "It was the only battle I ever lost."

21O's green eyes widened at the reveal, she'd always been told that it had been the other way around. Robin lied, she had lied about it, and even more, she had lied in the face of the Commander, and had her believe it…

They had all just assumed that A2 would be just the seemingly invincible android she'd always been. Never given much thought about the loss, even if Robin also had the fame of being invincible.

But in a battle for life, only one could survive.

"She looked at me, and understood, she understood everything just as our eyes met each other. I hadn't said a word, and yet, she knew my pain, the pain that came with surviving despite having lost everything dear to you, that life has no meaning anymore but you need to keep living for those people."

The blonde listened quietly, she hadn't truly known a thing about Robin's past on her planet, she hadn't made a mention of it, she couldn't, but now 21O wished she'd asked.

Perhaps now she could understand that the woman's seemingly cold exterior and personality, had been for the fact of having been a fugitive too. Right now A2 was giving off the same vibes of cold loner too, so similar to Robin's.

"She chose to spare me, we met again, shared our stories, bonded over them, but the decision to betray YoRHa had been hers alone." though A2 couldn't help but think that she was partially at fault for it still.

"We stuck together ever since, she treated me with gentleness and kindness beyond what I thought I ever deserved… saved my life more than that one time…" she held her arm, not wanting to relive the memory of Adam impaling her, nor Robin sacrificing herself falling in the ravine, when they'd been surrounded from those infected androids…

And certainly not…

"I thought that despite the odds that so much wanted to separate us, she'd always come back to me… what a fool I was…" she shook her head, gazing in the direction of Pascal's village. The memory was so fresh, that she could almost picture the smoke of the fire from here like that day.

"Then the virus took her too…"

Without warning A2 began walking away from the spring near the camp and towards the center of the city, where there was a giant hole full of rubble of something 21O didn't know what it had been.

"She'd spared me, again… killed herself to spare me the pain of having to do so."

And the state of her body when they had found her… A2 had seen many dead bodies, from her hands and not, over the years, but Robin's had to be one of the most damaged ones she'd ever seen.

"Hadn't 2B been with me, pushing me forward, I may as well have died alongside her. She hadn't even known I loved her." she turned back once more "You must have noticed, she's skittish when it comes to receiving affection, so I waited until she would accept it, and I waited too long…"

A2 then turned her eyes towards the Tower, pointing at its remains.

"That was a giant machine tower, built to destroy the server on the moon, 9S and I took it down, but not without difficulties. He and I weren't friends back then." she wasn't even sure what they were now, but as long as he didn't hold her at sword's edge, anything was fine for her.

He did rebuild Robin in the end after all, that was another of the reasons why the Operator was standing here right now.

"What do you mean?" 21O thought she'd saved him from when she'd been berserk.

"He saw me when I killed 2B. I had no choice, she was infected, she asked me to." even now she could hear him scream at her in rage. "She had wanted him to keep living for once, but he didn't have a reason anymore, so I made myself a target to unleash his anger on."

As long as he had a reason to keep living… even if not a good one.

"Why would you do such a thing? Why not just tell him the truth?"

"A person consumed from anger doesn't listen to reason." she'd know, she knew it too well. "I was the same way. I refused to blame him for his reaction, when for years I had done nothing else but kill machines and YoRHas out of spite, as if their lives would have brought back my friends."

Somehow, for as twisted as this logic was, it made sense.

"We met one last time at the top of that Tower, I did try not to fight him, but he was mad, and also infected, I had no choice." 21O feared what she'd say next, not knowing how it went.

"But I didn't kill him."

"What? How?" if he was infected, then how could he not die?

Unless…

"I transferred the virus in my body, and used it to destroy the server." she looked up, even when the Tower was standing it wasn't possible to see how tall it was from down here.

"The tower fell, and myself with it." hard to imagine just from how high she fell down, and at which point the rubble just crushed her to death, if she had made it all the way down or not.

Which brought the question in that kind of state her own body was when the Pods rebuilt her. Probably terrible, but somehow not as bad as Robin's, if they could fix her but not the human.

"So then, how are you still alive? Was it those twins from before?" the two healers? It didn't look that unlikely. However A2 shook her head.

"They had died too, to aid 9S to get in the Tower, well, one of them did, and the other, heartbroken, deactivated herself. It was 9S that fixed her, actually."

She gave a small chuckle. "You wouldn't think that some flying toasters would actually be able to feel affection, to the point of wanting to bring us back.

"The Pods? They did it?"

A2 nodded. "It was just me, 2B and 9S at first. We found Robin, and with the help of Devola and Popola newly fixed we took her back too, and now you."

"So you're just trying to find survivors then?"

The white haired woman shrugged. "I guess so, if that's what Robin wants I'll follow, as always. As long as she's happy nothing else matters."

But 21O didn't miss the pain in her eyes, and something else…

Longing…

"You'd do so even if it means hurting yourself?" she didn't mean to say it louder than she meant to. "I don't want to be a cause of pain between you two."

Now she understood that A2 wasn't the bad person she had been depicted in the documents about her. She was just lonely, and Robin understood that loneliness, didn't matter why, didn't matter how, but she did, and from her words, she knew A2 felt the same way.

The bond they had shared went beyond what she could have had as a mere Operator, but there was no jealousy, or anger, knowing that during this time there was someone that could take care of Robin, even if it wasn't her.

However A2 shook her head again.

"It's not that." a sigh. "It's just me, and well… Anemone too."

The Resistance Leader? Why?

"I don't understand…"

A2 raked a hand through her hair, another soft sigh escaping her. "You remind us of someone…"

"She was kind, gentle, protective of all of us, and had a lot of willpower." she chuckled, low and dark. "How cruel it had to be that such a personality was the one of a non combatant Scanner model?"

"My squadron had been sacrificed to make better models."

Better and advanced models, such as 21O herself, she realized.

How cruel… how horrible…

They did to those people what they later kept doing to 9S…

So did it mean that among them there was…

"She was a number 21 personality, like you. You act the exact same way." however she could look in her eyes without seeing her old friend, unlike when she first saw her face on 2B.

"At least you're easy on the eyes." at the woman's confused frown, A2 pointed at her face. "2B and I, we look the same.

A fond smile made its way on the rogue's lips.

"She had red hair, and blue eyes that she loved to hide under that hood of hers." A2 didn't know if Number 21 did it because it covered her, or because she used it as some kind of shield that made her feel less vulnerable somehow.

And vulnerable she was, with no fighting abilities. How scary it must have been for her on the battlefield, and how much trust she put in them too…

"My apologies." as the blonde bowed her head again, it was A2's turn to be confused.

"You have nothing to apologize for."

"It is not my intention to cause you any distress." but with a hand under her chin, A2 forced the woman to raise her head. "Stop apologizing, I know."

"We both know that we didn't have a say in how that data had been used, it just did, and this is the result. I'll get over it, eventually." because she was not going to forbid her to spend time around the camp or around Robin, or anyone else for that matter.

They didn't bring her back so she'd be kept in chains.

"Number 21 was a friend and guide, sounds familiar, no?" it did, for as odd as it was.

Fate had a weird way to link people together after all.

"But for Anemone, she was special… just as special as Robin is to me." even if they had known each other just for a bit, it had been enough for the shy Scanner and the stoic android to fall for one another.

At least enough for Anemone wanting to join her in death.

Even if she didn't do it, even if she didn't say it, A2 knew Anemone wished she had done that still today.

"I'll be careful around her, you have my word."

Turning around, A2 resumed walking to the camp. "Like I said, we'll get used to it, if she could recognize 2B as someone different than me, then she'll do the same with you too."

It would just take some time, and again, it was better that this woman didn't look physically like Number 21, at least not the face. Perhaps it would make things easier.

Once at the edge of the camp, they could see Robin waiting leaning on a wall of the entrance. No doubt worried for them, that woman was more perceptive than she let on.

"Did you two clarify things out?" her tone didn't betray worry, even for as neutral she tried to sound like.

"I believe we did." A2 replied with a small smile, taking Robin's hand into hers, while 21O just gave her a nod.

"Now, I seem to recall we have a room to fill, don't we?"

She'd been so caught up with this ordeal, that Robin forgot about the artifacts, and the fact they were supposed to take them to their new place.

"I think so, and I think it would be time that I finally kept a promise I made long ago."