A few days passed after the girls left the island behind, days spent at the sea on the ship they stole. Well, not like the previous owners had a use for it anymore.

Thankfully enough, there hadn't been a storm, but there had been some rain, another phenomenon Robin had missed, and that the others had barely seen, Cattleya mostly since she was so young and hadn't got too much to experience.

Or rather she didn't have a chance before now.

They spent these days navigating towards the next island, in the direction the Eternal Pose of the place the Marines mentioned in their reports was pointing. Days spent in tranquility after the adventure they went through when they arrived.

Thanks to the help of Pod 007, they could communicate with their friends, mostly White did as she shared everything they had found with Rose and the others, as the rest of them listened.

Cattleya, with the help of Robin, was getting the hang of directing a ship, after finding out her fellow Scanner back on Earth already tried, with Anemone sitting close by, as Jackass kept watch instead, searching for land on the horizon.

"I was wondering…" Rose's voice came from Pod 007. "Since you made a deal with these hostages, to want to bring them to our island once you get there, wouldn't it be better to shorten times?"

"What do you mean?" White frowned.

"I mean to avoid your group having to take another extenuating flight back, even though I said otherwise before you left. I would rather focus on taking the people to the island and begin construction as we arrive, it would be less risky and more proficient, also because you already have a ship and we won't need to find one to do so."

Ship that Jackass had the time of her life re-decorating once she found some stray cans of paint in the storage.

Mostly she had fun in recoloring the main sail so it no longer sported the Marine logo, and of course she got rid of the flag too, going as far as throwing it away in the water like the meaningless piece of cloth it was.

She hadn't had the time to do much, but for now she colored the sail black, intending to add the Resistance logo later on, or so she claimed.

Better that one than the YoRHa one, because of its meaning.

"It would be helpful." White put a hand to her chin, pensive.

"But are you sure you can manage by yourselves?"

She didn't want to underestimate them, but Robin was the expert after all, though perhaps not when it was in terms of calculations.

"Clover has it covered, he claims that we can calibrate the launching system correctly once we know where the island is, and to do so it'd be as easy as to track the position of your reactors."

"One would be enough." his voice could be heard somewhere behind Rose. "Cattleya and I are the best Scanners around after all, we can do this easily."

Surely he had a lot of faith.

Because it wouldn't be as easy as he claimed it would be.

But as Scanners, and the only Scanners around, the best duo one person could ask, if they couldn't do it then no one would.

Still the corner of Cattleya's mouth curved upwards just a little at the praise as she listened.

"I would advise to use one of the black boxes, their signal is stronger, and possibly my own." she added to the conversation. "I can have better control over things using my own self rather than someone else's."

Also it would just be easier to keep track of her own status, she wouldn't need to hack and access someone else's body but her own.

Besides she could allow herself to stay behind on the island, should they get to it, to aid the others get to their new home. Wasn't that why she was here after all? Among the rest of her other duties.

But a support type always remained a support type.

Also it was early to set things now, first they had to get there, and claim the place as their own one.

It was a plan to take in consideration for the future though.

If they didn't have anything to hope for, then why were they even here?

"How's the building of the launching station going?" Robin asked, she knew that the construction was already far along before they left with the flight units, but it wasn't done yet.

And it hasn't passed too much either.

"We should be able to get it done at most in a month, Devola, Popola and Emil are doing a great job with their magic, making everything easier, they single handedly sped up the process a lot more."

Mostly when it came to settling things higher up, there was no need to use alternate methods. Robin herself had been helping, as long as the energy of her sword allowed her to summon hands.

It all felt very familiar, using that power.

"Pascal and the people of his village came to help too, willingly." it seemed that they accepted Robin's proposal to take them along to her planet, and because they did, Rose assumed they wanted to do their part too.

They seemed like the type to do that.

The flyers had been a lot of help too, for the same reason as magic was so useful.

"Well we are unsure how long we'll take to get to the island, we have an item that points us directly there though." the Eternal Pose, or whatever Robin had called it, Anemone didn't remember. "There may be more islands in between."

And they had no idea how far it would be from wherever they were.

She was mostly repeating the human's words as she explained the same things to them before when they left the island they landed on.

"We'll wait for as long as necessary, but we have faith that you'll get there." if they didn't then it would all be useless.

Rose would be lying if she wasn't looking forward to living in a new place, among many new people, humans even, those people that they were always told they'd someday meet.

It'd be harder to explain the presence of machines, but hopefully it could be worked out.

Hopefully the fact that Robin and the others saved them would help in convincing them they weren't something bad.

Collaboration was the key here.

Suddenly Jackass interrupted the conversation, claiming that she finally saw land, meaning an island was in sight.

"Well then, I guess we should let you girls prepare. Please do be careful." because anything could happen, especially now that the Marine may have their eyes on them, and Robin was at risk.

But hopefully the voice of her return didn't spread that quickly yet.

Leaving them time to breathe.

"Will do." White nodded, more solemnly than one would expect.

Perhaps the situation was affecting her too, as the Commander in charge she was probably worried for her soldiers, Jackass and Anemone.

"We'll contact you again when we can."

Not even an hour later the girls arrived at the new island, to raise less suspicions, they dressed again with the resistance clothing and mantles, putting on the same facade as they did at the previous island, and left the ship in a remote corner of it, instead of the main port.

From afar it seemed like another rural place much like the one of days before.

But at least there wasn't a marine villa looming over everything.

Overall the atmosphere was much more calm, though Jackass did say that she had spotted some ships sporting pirate flags as they tried to find a suitable place to dock at.

With the help of Pod 007, she told Robin what she had seen, visualizing the images from her eyes through the screen of the floating helper, however those flags were none of which Robin could recognize.

Albeit she did feel a bit disappointed in that.

Though not recognizing them may be because these crew could have been new and smaller ones.

She had been absent for years after all.

Hopefully they would be no trouble, they had enough of it with what they did almost a week ago.

But still…

"I'll look after the ship." White announced out of the blue, even though they had found a little remote shore, but if they found it, maybe someone else would too.

Her cautiousness wasn't misplaced.

"Are you sure, Commander?" Robin asked, because if there was someone suited for the job, that would be her.

Or even the two Resistance women.

But the human felt there was more behind the request.

"Someone should stay, just in case, isn't this one of the basis? Also, you all have things to do, I don't want to keep you here, and neither lose our means of transportation." that would be bad.

But she was right, Robin and Jackass were out for information and supplies respectively, while Anemone accompanied Cattleya in search of a weaponsmith to look at her lance, see if it was in good condition or not.

And possibly find out its name.

White was just here for the ride this time around.

But truly all she wanted was for them to trust her with something. In her heart, she knew they did trust her, otherwise she wouldn't be here at all, still she felt like she had to give a demonstration that their faith in her wasn't ill placed.

Not again.

"Fine then, we'll be on our way." not wanting to argue, Robin motioned for the others to leave, but not before giving a knowing look to White.

She had understood her intentions, and wanted to let her know that she did too.

Also with this she meant to tell that she did trust her with the task.

And she probably wasn't the only one either, there was someone here between them that knew White so much better.

But it seemed even Jackass waited until both Anemone and Cattleya were out of earshot before speaking, watching with a small smile as the older android took the redhead's hand in hers as they went.

"Those two are pretty cute aren't they?" though the question was meant to be a conversation starter, since she sighed a moment after. "I wish White would open up a bit too sometimes."

"She knows that she doesn't need to prove herself trustworthy anymore, right?" Robin cut back to what happened moments before.

"She still feels that she'll never be forgiven, so she has to prove that she won't hurt you anymore. I wish I could make her understand that she no longer has to, but she's one stubborn thing."

Jackass raked a hand through her long fringe. "It's hard to see her still blaming herself so hard for everything, even for things out of her control. She's a good person, I promise."

There was no need to say that.

"We know, as do the girls, that despite all that happened they are trying their best to move on, maybe they won't forgive what she did to them, to us, but we all know that all were results of painful decisions she didn't want to take."

They all know that she didn't mean to hurt them, and that in a way she tried to protect them.

The tears Robin saw were all but fake.

Even Amaryllis, Lycoris, Cattleya, but most importantly Freesia understood that there had been so much more behind what White had to do, and how much she regretted sacrificing them.

And what came after with Luna and Clover, and their story of death and rebirth, cursed to die and meet each other over and over.

With their operators dragged into the whole madness too.

And then Robin herself.

But despite everything White did to her, she was still the cause of finding the friends she'd been looking for so many years on her home planet, and didn't find among humans.

Overall, no one found in themselves the will to hate her anymore.

Dislike yes, maybe spite, but nothing more.

No longer the way it used to be.

And also, who the hell knew what the Council of Humanity even wanted in the end? What the hell was in their plans?

No one could even guess.

"Perhaps with time she will understand too."

It seemed that everyone had a lot to understand, and matters to settle with themselves, but together they could work this out.

In the meantime Anemone and Cattleya arrived at the heart of the island, where people lived and worked, the redhead sparing a glance at some kids playing with a ball in an ample space with a smile.

"Now, how do we find this weaponsmith?" Anemone asked, sighing. "I suppose we could just ask around." the Scanner replied.

Wasn't it what they did on the first island?

But they were people that always knew where everything was, since at least Cattleya would track down reactor signals, and know exactly who it belonged to, but the same couldn't be done with hearts, so the change was a little overwhelming. Almost as if they were out of place.

In a way, they were the aliens on this planet now, even if they didn't look any different from human beings.

Would they even fit?

The Resistance android headed over to the nearest shop she could see, a tiny hut selling what looked like bread and sweets, the smell was so tempting even though they had no need to eat, but her priority was to ask people, and a place as decently crowded as this one may have the answer they needed.

She approached a young looking boy, he must have been barely above his teen years.

"Excuse me."

"Yes miss?" the boy frowned, wondering what Anemone wanted.

"Sorry to bother, my friends and I are travelers, we were wondering if you or someone else here knew if there was a weaponsmith on this island, and where we can find this person." for some reason, the boy motioned to another person to come closer.

This person looked similar, only a little older.

"You're in luck, miss, the weaponsmith of this island is our dad." the younger one grinned, his words holding much pride for his parent.

"My brother and I were here to buy bread for lunch, what a coincidence." the older one nodded, he then turned his attention to Cattleya who was standing a little further away, circling her, making her just a bit uncomfortable.

But she had the weapon strapped with a makeshift belt, so it wasn't hovering on her back and wouldn't make people suspicious.

"That's a pretty thing." though from the tone Cattleya hoped the boy was talking about the lance and not her. For his sake, as Anemone crossed her arms watching him closely.

Her jealousy was rather adorable though she hoped it wouldn't turn into aggression.

"The blade is chipped though, I can already see it."

"We were here to get it repaired." Anemone stated rather coldly, hoping the boy would get away from her girlfriend.

"Dad will be able to fix it as if it was new." the younger one replied, motioning for them to follow him.

As they went, Anemone made sure to stick even more closely to Cattleya, even going as far as to wrap an arm around her waist, even if the Scanner was uncomfortable with public displays it was necessary, she didn't trust the older boy that much.

She was hers and no one else's.

They arrived not long after winding through the streets of this new island, as they passed by, Cattleya took notice of all she was seeing, from the way people interacted with one another, talking with each other with not a care in the world, to how the houses looked, they appeared primarily made of bricks instead of wood like the previous place, and also the streets were full of trees, their leaves painting the scenery in yellows, reds and oranges.

It was probably fall season, she had read something about it, but the climate on Earth was so stale that the trees there were always green.

Other than being oversized.

But before coming here, they had barely even seen rain, Anemone had told her something about it, but she couldn't say she ever felt the cold of the raindrops on her skin before the other day while they were sailing.

If she were to say anything, she'd describe this planet as… lively…

It was actually full of life.

Just like Robin said.

But now she actually knew what it truly meant, and she saw it with her own eyes, and couldn't wait that her friends did too.

There was so much more than just fighting and survival here.

They'd be happy here, she knew.

In the middle of her musings, and with Anemone's arm still around her, they arrived at the weaponsmith's shop, she could already see the various weapons exposed into barrels, mostly swords.

But she could see a fireplace and an anvil, signaling that these people probably also forged weapons, other than repairing them, the kid they met seemed to know his own, despite how much of a flirt he was trying to be.

Reason why she didn't protest when Anemone came to hold her close.

And she'd be lying if she said that she didn't enjoy the attention.

She wasn't one for showing off though, she preferred their moments to be private if they could help it, Anemone didn't need to prove anything in front of anyone else.

But she was protective, Cattleya knew.

When they entered, the two boys greeted an older man with a long beard, most likely their father, before he noticed them.

"Dad, the lady with red hair needs her lance repaired." the youngest one spoke, as another person came into the room descending the stairs behind the counter, a woman, and most likely the mother, as she helped the boys bring upstairs the stuff they bought.

Perhaps they could have given them a hand for their kindness.

"Oh, let me see then." and with it, Cattleya took off the weapon from her back, and gently placed it on the counter before the man.

She watched him inspect the blade with knowing eyes, before addressing her once again.

"This weapon, it wasn't yours before."

He didn't ask that, he made a statement.

A correct one.

Cattleya managed to mask her shock, but Anemone stared at him with wide eyes, and she couldn't help but ask.

"How did you know?"

"The blade is worn and chipped, this lance has been in hands that treated it like nothing more than a mere object." well he wasn't wrong, considering that Marine treated people as objects too. "I have seen many people and many weapons, experience comes with age, and I can tell it wasn't your girlfriend's from the way she handled it just now."

He even knew they were a couple too, though Anemone did try to make it obvious.

"Eh, they're girlfriends?" the older boy asked. "Hush kiddo, go help your mother." and a bit reluctantly he did.

"Well… matter of fact I sort of stole it…" Cattleya admitted, hoping it wouldn't be a problem, since stealing may not be a well seen action.

"Ease your worries, lady. What matters to me is that people treat their own weapons with respect, and not just as objects or glorified trophies, regardless if this person is a Marine, or a pirate or whatever, or how they got their hands on said weapon." he looked at her in the eyes. "I can already tell that this lance is in much better hands than before."

"You seem like a gentle person." and this time he looked at Anemone. "You're a lucky lady."

To the compliment Anemone smiled, wide and proud. "I know I am."

And she was not lying.

Cattleya was special in every way possible.

"Come back in a few hours, I will have the lance as good as new."

While waiting, Anemone and Cattleya decided to explore the town further, stopping to sit at a bench near a fountain picturing a whale. They stayed silent for a while, relaxing, observing, and the Resistance android noticed something…

"You seem very content." she hadn't missed how her girlfriend looked much more at ease since they landed on the planet, and how today specifically she kept smiling.

To someone looking at her, she may look neutral, but Anemone knew Cattleya well enough to notice every little detail, and right now, how the corners of her mouth seemed permanently curved upwards, even if subtly.

"I've just been thinking." always a cryptic response.

"About what?"

"This world, the people and everything, the more I look at it the more it feels… alive. Days pass, things happen, it's not just us trying to get through the day." even worse when their days were just trying to survive.

"Maybe finally we will truly understand what it means to live." Anemone answered, placing her hand over Cattleya's one, recalling how long ago she had asked about a meaning.

Poor thing didn't understand anything besides the fact they lived for a duty, well, they had just been deployed after all. Even she, Rose and the others had to understand there was more than a mere mission to determine their existence.

But none of them had ever found any other meaning about being alive other than living for the people around them.

Which wasn't bad, it was a reason worth living for, for their loved ones and to be loved, but perhaps humans could finally show them if there was even more to life than that.

"I wish the others were here to experience this too." this liveliness…

Anemone squeezed her hand lightly. "Which is why we must do our best to get to that island, and claim it as our own."

For them all.

"But for now let's live every moment to the max, our friends will be sad if we don't." and Anemone knew she was right, they didn't need more reasons to make them worry.

For that reason she raised Cattleya's hand, leaving a gentle kiss to the back of it, smiling at the prominent blush now painting her cheeks.

Their moment was quite rudely interrupted from people shouting.

"Pirates!"

"Thieves!"

They shouted.

Some pirates were stealing something?

Out of instinct Anemone reached for her pistol, being careful to keep it hidden under her cape, for safety, as she and Cattleya turned in the direction the shouting was coming from.

As was the sound of people running.

They were coming in this direction.

The adults scurried to get the kids and themselves away from the ruckus, as a group of people, ugly and ragged, ran, and ran in the direction of the fountain, aiming to get past it. In their hands bags with items inside, they seemed weapons, and they seemed familiar.

And surely, one of them was.

The blue color of it, and the way the gems shone with the light of the sun gave little doubts.

It was Cattleya's blue spear!

These people stole her weapon, and many more weapons from the shop they had left before.

"These assholes…" Anemone growled, low and menacing. "It's a personal matter now."

And it seemed said pirates noticed her pointing her gun at them, so they did the same, much to the horror of the civilians that covered the eyes and ears of the young ones, and take them away.

Little did they know that it wasn't her the one they would see fall.

"Step aside and put that gun down, girlie, that ain't a toy for you."

"We'll see about that." as she said so, she felt Cattleya move closer at her side, scowling at the pirates. "I believe you have something that doesn't belong to you."

The group of men erupted in a chorus of loud laughter, but she wasn't fazed in the slightest.

"Pirates take what they want, someone's memory needs refreshing here."

Anemone's grip on her gun tightened.

"How about I refresh yours?" she left no room to say anything anymore as she pulled the trigger like she'd done so many times.

The bullet hit the man, probably the captain, right in the middle of his forehead, as he dropped dead in a pool of his own blood, in the middle of his distraught crewmates. Even after so many years, her aim was as good as ever.

Her eyes glared down at them. "I was not kidding, give back those weapons." she barked.

In particular, she wanted Cattleya's blue lance back.

But it'd be worth it to get the rest of those white weapons to the people that made them, those kids had been so kind to guide them to the shop after all.

A hand helps the other, no?

That had been how it always had been in the Resistance, and also between them and YoRHa, well, any YoRHa that wasn't their Commander.

But they blamed her enough for her actions.

And speaking of actions, reckless like they hadn't been in years, sparked something within those pirates before her, as they raised their own guns and swords towards her.

Perhaps it hadn't been so well thought out.

Or at all.

She acted on instinct on Cattleya's behalf.

So she prepared for them to shoot.

As they did, she could hear the screams of the townsfolk cry for her, but little did they know that there was nothing to worry about.

Anemone braced herself for the impact of the bullets, she had learned from the assault at the villa that the people of this planet did not have bullets able to pierce an android's armor, one accidentally hit her arm and bounced right off it, and even though the impact would still be uncomfortable nothing would happen.

But what surprised her was that nothing hit her.

Before her and around her a yellow bubble brimming with hard light covered her from the incoming fire.

And turning around briefly, it has been none other than Cattleya's doing, as the light came directly from her hands, summoned as easily as she would do with a screen.

She was shielding them both.

But the way she furrowed her brows told Anemone that she wouldn't be able to keep this up for too long.

"Don't worry about me too much." she told her as she took out her rifle.

As if reading her intentions, taking advantage from the moment of shock those pirates had, Cattleya deactivated the shield just the moment later, so Anemone's bullets could hit their targets.

And they did, as she sprayed them dead one by one.

Thankfully the civilians went to hide, as if they knew.

Was this what it meant to be dealing with pirates? To always be afraid of something? And to hide hoping not to get killed from either them or whoever went against them?

Sad, if anyone asked them.

And these people weren't worth the effort.

But between them and Marines they could begin to understand why Robin wanted to protect the innocents, after all, hadn't she been both victim and handler of both sides? She knew this better than anyone.

Like White said, androids were meant to protect.

And both YoRHa and the Resistance could do that.

Those few pirates that managed to escape the fire tried to get away, attempting to carry as many things as they could with them.

Including the blue spear.

"Get back here!" Anemone shouted, as she threw herself on the chase alongside Cattleya, and with their speed it would have been easy to reach them.

But they didn't need to.

Noticing what was happening before Anemone did, Cattleya took her by the arm and dragged her backwards…

Just in time to see those humans collide with a red wall of magical energy.

And a moment later, more shots rang and those men dropped dead like all the others.

From the distance, two figures emerged.

Robin and Jackass.

They must have heard the commotion, and seeing Cattleya's blue spear they must have guessed that it was stolen in a mere second.

And Cattleya's quick thinking just saved Anemone from being squished against that wall too, and knowing magic, it could have potentially harmed her, though it didn't hurt the humans.

Whatever, the pirate thieves were dead.

Which brought the question, what happened to those people of the shop? Were they okay?

They could see the worry on Robin's face, but they assured her they were okay, no human stole from them, but they did bring their concerns to her and Jackass.

When the human proposed to go have a look, from the same way the pirates came they saw the two young boys that so kindly helped them out, one of them had a shallow cut on his head, and the other was holding his arm, but other than that they seemed okay.

Alive at least.

"Are you okay?" the younger one asked, despite the wound on his head he was a sweetheart.

"We saw the scene happen. Those people barged in the store as dad was working on your lance, miss, we tried to stop them but…"

"What matters is that you and your family are fine, no need to worry about us." Anemone replied as she and the girls recovered the stolen items.

"Mom and dad went to hide." from the way the young boy said it, it almost sounded like they, as younger people had tried to protect their parents too.

Or something important.

"Regardless, you are hurt, we'll bring the weapons back where they belong." Robin replied, once again proving she understood the situation immediately.

"And I will treat your wounds." Cattleya added, the two boys looked like they wanted to argue, but her stern look made them desist.

There was no room to argue.

If people didn't help each other out, then who would?

"Unfortunately we are quite used to thefts like these." the old man explained while the girls gave him back the weapons, and as Cattleya gently tended to the wounds his kids sustained with the help of their mother.

"Thank you for being so kind." he slightly bowed to them. "I will repair your lance for free."

"That's not necessary…" Anemone was cut off immediately. "I insist."

But someone else had a question in mind.

"Why do people come to steal here so often?" because to Robin it wounded like it was a common occurrence, going by what he said.

The man paused for a moment, seemingly lost in thought, he eyed the rest of his family, as if asking them something before they all nodded to one another.

"I'll show you."

The girls watched him walk to a wall and press something, probably a hidden switch, and behind it there was yet another wall, on it, two katanas were exposed. One had a golden orange sheath, while the other was black and gold.

They must have been important.

"These two swords have been passed down for centuries from my family." he gently took them both off the wall, and on the counter near Cattleya's spear.

"They belonged to an ancestor of mine, it was actually a woman, the stories tell of her kindness, and how she protected and guided her people and kept them safe from any danger, for as long as she lived."

Somehow this sounded familiar.

They watched him take out the golden one first. "This one's name is Guiding Light." at first glance it looked like a common sword, but it was its story that made it precious.

However the other…

As the man took it out of its sheath they could see it was even more special…

Because its blade was black.

One of those extremely rare black swords…

"This one's called Mother's Protection, and it's said it possesses the same will of its first owner."

Again this all resonated too familiar.

Perhaps because it was.

"If I were to be honest, I wish I had someone to give them to, but I have never found a candidate that would be good for them. Someone that would somehow incarnate the woman my ancestor was." from the tone, he would settle for no less.

However…

The face of a certain kind yet serious Operator came to their minds.

"We are all thinking about the same person, aren't we?" Robin asked, she knew just from the looks that they were all thinking about Olivia.

Her mother, her guide…

Her and Clover's…

Someone that cared about her family more than anything, just like her older sister Cattleya.

"Listen, could you keep these swords safe for a while longer? You see, we may have a person that may be fit for them, however we are traveling right now to find a new home, and she's one of our people that we had to leave behind for the moment." Robin threw the bait.

It wasn't like they wanted the swords, but Olivia was just too fitting for the description they were given.

Actually perfect.

"To say the truth we have a lot of people who use bladed weapons, and having an expert for repairs we could turn to would be great, not for free of course."

Also true.

"It would be way more than I could wish for…"

"Please think about it." Jackass nodded, she too saw the advantage of the situation.

"Will do, but for now…" he took Cattleya's blue spear in his hands. "Let's think about the reason you are here."

The repairs.

"We actually found the name of your lance, since you don't seem to know about it." he spoke as he got to work on it. "It's called Tears of Wisdom."

Also another very fitting name.

"The stones encased in its blade seem to be lapis lazuli, they have a lot of meanings, loyalty, strength, courage, wisdom, friendship, truth. You choose."

No need to, because Cattleya was all of these things.

Strong, loyal, courageous, smart and most importantly, a good friend.

Another perfect match.

Like it was meant to be.

Not many more words were spent as the hours went on, the lance repaired, and so it was time to leave this island behind too.

But surely one day they'd be back.