The next weeks passed, A2 put herself in charge of gathering materials after she had used the ones Robin had gathered to repair her and then her own leg, but Robin still needed downtime for the wounds to heal, and for her systems to recover from the shock of almost dying, so she took over her duties.
She was not as expert as her companion was in finding things, or stealing them for that matter, but she could find enough to keep them both going. Robin even began leaving her Pod with her so it could help her carry stuff, and surprisingly the thing obeyed her too, for whatever reason.
Weirdly enough, there were more dead androids and machines scattered around the city and surrounding areas than there ever were before. When she brought the problem to Robin, she assumed that something big must be happening soon, for seeing so much death then either of the two factions, or even both, must have been planning something big.
But she said they shouldn't concern themselves with it until things calmed down, for safety of course. A2 wouldn't have cared, but being with Robin made her do something she really hadn't before, to consider personal safety.
Clearly they had different ways to approach the whole being fugitive thing, but she trusted the other woman's experience. She never had time to slow down, never allowed herself to, too many machines to get rid of, too many androids to defend herself from.
But this was… kind of nice. And Robin had more than enough curiosities and stories to share to pass the time, and she'd always be interested, not everyday you get to hear about human things from someone who has actually been one and knows what she's saying, instead of relying on mere data of millennia ago.
As she returned from a trip, she found Robin outside the facility standing on its roof, scanning the horizon. Odd of her doing that, something must be keeping her on edge, A2 assumed.
Immediately the white haired android joined her, also to let her know she was back.
"What's wrong?"
The black haired woman kept looking ahead. "All this death you've seen, that we've seen around here too, I don't like it…" she was still unsettled by the amount of things A2 claimed to have seen dead, and the past few days some even came close to their hideout.
If she had to be honest, A2 felt the same about it, but with neither of them being in contact with YoRHa anymore there was no way to know what they were planning.
It was nothing new to them that machines killed androids, and that androids killed machines, they were both proficient in doing just that too, but all of a sudden the number of corpses went up way more than normal.
"I wish I knew what White is planning right now…"
Though neither really felt like seeing the woman's face ever again, it surely did help when Robin was still within YoRHa, to know plans and information on their movements, though the risk of her staying would have been too big, and too much of a frustration for her too.
Today was such a grim day too, with clouds covering the sun. And to the sky she watched Robin turn her head all of a sudden, squinting as if she was trying to spot something.
"Is there something you see?" A2 asked, as the other woman pulled her old visor from her neck and wore it over her eyes to see better.
"There." she pointed straight to a point, and A2 could faintly see some traces of lights. "YoRHa flight units." she stated.
"And it looks like they're many." she then turned to her Pod. "What are the readings of machine lifeforms?"
"Calculating…" she did not like the long pause the thing made. "Approximately about four thousands."
"They're double the amount of the machines we encountered when we landed on Earth!" A2 remembered clearly the mass that had threatened to crush them four little androids hadn't the Resistance stepped in.
"And considering the amount of YoRHa units being deployed…" Robin frowned, taking off the visor. "I've managed to count a few squadrons so far, but I assume more will be coming, perhaps all the units YoRHa has. This is an all out attack from both sides."
She clutched the visor in her hand before hastily tying it back on her neck. "White intends to finish things today, it'll be a massacre."
"But if YoRHa wins…"
"Then we'll be free." A2 finished the sentence for her. Type 40 sword in hand, she looked at Robin with determination and hope, something she hadn't felt in a long time, since the Resistance agreed to join forces.
They had hoped to strike a powerful blow to the machines, just like here and now YoRHa would be trying to get rid of them for good. She survived this long for this to happen, and fugitive or not, she could lend her strength, not for YoRHa's sake, but for everything she and her fallen comrades fought and died for.
It would be a battle that had a meaning, a battle to honor their sacrifice, and if she were to fall, then so be it, at least she'd die for something worth dying for.
Robin looked back at her with a knowing smile on her face, her own sword in hand. "If you wish to help then allow me to do so as well."
"Are you sure?"
Robin nodded. "I have my own reasons to fight this battle, it is for our freedom, for the conflict to finally be over so I may be able to see the people that have been so kind to me again, and perhaps, to not have to hide any more secrets from them."
True, Robin had her own people she still cared for within YoRHa, hoping they'd still remember her. Seeing them again would have her happy, one more reason to fight for A2.
"So what's the plan?"
"I doubt they'll let us freely walk with their squadrons, but we can hold off machines that come from here. I'd suggest staying close to this area, the other side of the bridge at most, if things go south, we have a place to retreat." A2 just nodded.
"Well, you're the smart one here."
Always underestimating herself wasn't she? Even though she survived alone for years, and just saved her life not too long ago with the knowledge she gathered during this time, and she knew first hand how much power it held.
It could save lives as much as it could destroy them just as easily.
Heavy thumps approached, a small crowd of machines began assembling nearby, some of them coming close to the facility itself, seemingly unaware of the presence of the two androids.
"Here they are." it was all A2 said before jumping down from the roof, landing right on top of a biped and impaling its head straight through.
It took a second for the other machines to realize what she'd done, and that time has been enough for her to make a move on another, cutting a stubby clean in half. Just when the machines started charging back, it was Robin's turn to make a move, as another biped ran at A2 from behind her, she ordered her Pod to fire a laser, hitting the arm that was about to hit the other woman, throwing the thing off balance, enough for A2 to have time to turn around to slash at the machine and take it down.
Following her example, Robin also jumped down from the roof, more calmly than the white haired woman did.
"You're quite impatient, aren't you?" she asked, watching A2 kick another stubby around in her direction, that Robin sent flying in the wall with a kick herself right after.
"I've been waiting for this moment for years, Robin. The moment to give some value to this whole survival, and to give finally a meaning to my comrades' deaths." the former human listened as she dodged a wave of bullets sent at her.
"They believed in this cause, they believed we'd win this war, even if they knew we were all created to die for it. I had been a total fool to be the only one to think we'd have another purpose other than to perish for the sake of humans."
Robin managed to run through the wave of spheres, sparks of electricity making her joints jolt uncomfortably from the closeness, and cut off the arm of the machine shooting at her.
"That I dared to hope that once our mission was done, for as hard as it was, we could have lived in peace, us and the humans returning from the moon."
A clean slash from the back and A2 killed the machine herself before Robin could finish it. She could see what A2's reasons were. If she would have had the strength then she would have tried taking down the World Government herself, to give value to the people that died on Ohara for their greed.
She had attempted to stay alive so long to try and expose their evils, among all the other reasons she had to keep living.
A bit like how A2 sounded about both the machines and also YoRHa as well.
Sometimes it was not just about revenge.
"Even if Number 21 had told us all along that we would have died anyways, but then the Resistance agreed to ally with us, and it gave us hope, and so it did to them."
Finishing up the last enemy of the small group in this area, A2 approached Robin.
"Rose told me something, after so many years of fighting, they had lost interest in fighting for the humans that pretty much abandoned them. She explained to me that the Resistance was like a family, all they did was for the sake of their friends. As much as I loved my comrades, I never truly understood what it meant to fight for the people dear to you, until they were taken from me."
In the distance, on the other side of the bridge, another group of enemies was forming.
"I already said, I don't care about the humans from the moon, they created and abandoned us to suffer on this planet, they can burn in hell for all I care. But, I now feel that I have another reason, besides giving value to my friends' sacrifices, to fight this battle for."
And as she spoke, her blue eyes stared directly into Robin's ones.
"Me?" the black haired woman pointed at herself.
"I told you before, this is not your war to fight, yet, here you are, and I am sure that other than helping me, you being here has also helped YoRHa get to these results, you fought on our side and didn't have to, you carried our weight on your shoulders when you had your own to carry, but you never said no. By succeeding here today you'll be free of this burden, no more fighting, no more killing, and I want to do my part to make sure that happens, you're the closest thing to a friend I've had in years, please let me fight for you."
A2 spoke with such conviction and determination that Robin had no idea how to reply to her words. To her, it sounded like she was speaking of another person entirely.
After all, what kind of help could a person that was only able to end people's lives give?
When it came to machine lives then maybe it had been helpful, but regarding other androids? She highly doubted it did anything but make them suffer.
Did saving A2 give her too much of a good impression somehow? Had she failed to show herself for the murderer she truly was? Or even, was A2's programming acting up because now she knew she was a human, and that she couldn't hate her?
But she had just said that she didn't care about the humans on the moon, so then… why was she so determined? She should have been the one in charge to protect and help her, not the opposite!
Though recalling what had happened when Adam almost killed her, she had never seen A2 be so small and afraid before. Had it struck her so hard that she felt that she needed to step up and take matters in her own hands?
Had it been then that things had started turning the other way around?
Robin hadn't asked for protection, she'd always been alone, ever since she was a kid. Not even her family cared about her, and the only people that did were gone, even now at her time spent at YoRHa, she could count a single person that could qualify as somewhat of a guardian, 21O. But overall, she never had anyone covering her back, or aiding her in fighting her battles.
She didn't expect A2 to want to do so for her, and to fight for something that Robin didn't even know she wanted, until the other woman had said so.
She hated killing with all her might, she hated that it had become a disgusting talent of hers, but never before she thought that in any way and any world, she'd be allowed to stop doing all this.
Never did she think she could stop hurting people…
Worried for the unexpected silence, A2 looked at Robin with concern, had she said something wrong? Was that too much for her?
Maybe she should stop being so blunt, but again, she knew no other way, even before she always ran on instinct, but at least she knew how to be considerate, something she lost overtime.
But why should she have held back against machines and androids sent to kill her?
It had been so long that she didn't quite know how to properly interact with someone that wasn't holding you at a sword's edge. If she talked at all, she definitely still was more silent than Robin has ever been with her so far.
So again, her silence was alarming at the very least.
"I…"
"Don't apologize." it had been the first thing Robin said in a while. "I just… I never had anyone to fight battles for me, A2."
Not quite correct, but only Saul counted in over twenty years of living, and that has been so long ago. Ever since then she had to fend off on her own, she didn't know how it felt to have someone wanting to help.
"But I want to, you're here fighting our battles, so it is only right for me to fight for yours too."
For how short it had been, she did have her comrades to fight at her side, and the Resistance that aided them. Unlike Robin, A2 was not a stranger in fighting with and for someone as much as she wasn't in fighting alone.
"I never said you shouldn't, but I don't want to control your decisions."
"You're not." A2 shook her head. "I always do what I want, and what I want right now is for this war to be over for all of us, including you." she pointed at Robin.
"Whether we like it or not, us androids are made to serve a purpose, and this is the one I want to have."
She then took Robin's wrist dragging her towards the bridge. "Now let's go, we have more machines to kill."
"Yes ma'am." she replied, somewhat mockingly, but the black haired woman couldn't help the small smile forming on her face.
But she wouldn't let A2 do all the work, she could still pull her own weight, and for hopefully the last time, put her best and also scariest talent to use for something good.
Maybe, if things went well and the mission was successful, she could even see 21O again, and all the others too. No doubt her Operator must have been mad, but Robin couldn't deny how she missed her presence and her voice talking and guiding her through Pod 007's screen during missions.
The thought spurring her on as this time she charged in the fray even before A2, throwing herself at the nearest machine, slashing it at the back while it still didn't turn towards her.
The white haired android soon joined her, cutting down a biped next to them with a grin.
"Who is eager now here?"
Robin shrugged, before ducking to avoid a punch. "I just thought at the prospect of peace that awaits us."
With a leg she threw off balance the machine, and turning the hold she had on her sword she impaled it. As she dashed off to avoid the subsequent explosion, she gave order to her Pod to shoot at another group that was approaching.
"You know… I almost forgot how it is to fight with someone else." A2 commented as she activated the electric core of her Type 40 Sword, awaiting the incoming horde.
However, neither of the two had time to do or say anything, as an explosion set off from the middle of the city, sweeping them both off their feet. Thankfully they weren't close enough to get hurt directly from it.
"The hell was that?" A2 snarled as she picked herself back up.
"It almost looked like someone detonating their black box." instinctively Robin touched hers.
"Is that possible?" Robin nodded. "New units have a self destruction system, including myself."
Getting back up and standing, the black haired android scanned the ground ahead of hers, trying to understand why someone would do such a thing, wondering what kind of dire situation they must have been in.
For some reason she felt that something just went very, very wrong.
And she could damn her intuition for being right about it, as creepy sounds of laughter could be heard, and in the distance, a mass of androids could be seen, and more than walking, it seemed they were stumbling like a zombie horde.
Actually that would have been the best way to describe them, those unmistakable red eyes left no doubts…
"They're possessed…" A2 whispered it before she could say so.
She had already seen something like this, when those two Red Girls made her and Number 4 fight against the people of the Resistance.
Her heart had died right there as soon as her blade touched the first one.
And the more she looked at the incoming group, the more she was being reminded of that time, that this was just the same situation, even though she held no ties with YoRHa anymore.
But they were still all androids anyway, and that was enough for pity.
With shaking legs she took a step back, while Robin remained unmoving in place, but the way her fists clenched at her side she could tell she felt the same way towards these androids.
Perhaps even worse, who knew if there were any friends of hers in the middle of them all even?
The sound of yet another explosion, this time very far caught their attention. And in the sky, a big round object on fire falling towards the Flooded City.
But that wasn't a meteor, that was…
"The Bunker…" Robin watched the thing fall with wide eyes, praying that something was playing tricks with her cognitive systems.
The Bunker was falling down on Earth, taking everyone that was inside with it, and it could only mean one thing…
A2's legs gave out as she too stared at the sky. "We've lost…"