Robin had never been so thankful to be such a high tech android like in this very moment, so very grateful that her body was so fast, because she needed to get away from that place and A2 as soon as quickly as her legs would allow her to.
So, you have resorted to running away again as you always do. You truly haven't changed.
Always running, but no matter where she went, her curse still lived as long as she insisted on living. And she was not going to let it hurt the very few people that still lived and mattered to her.
She should have died when Adam drove his weapon in her chest. A2 should have let her be free to bleed out and perish.
No… she should have died so much sooner, back home, on her planet.
Back on that damn ship.
She should have sunk with it, into the sea that hated her like it hated all devil fruit users.
She should have burned alive in the fire.
She should be long dead!
Damn White and whoever else that had the idea to turn her into a YoRHa android, and an Executioner no less. A fitting role for a demon at least.
Didn't they know who she was? Didn't they know what she'd done?
But no matter how much she cursed them, she was still here, alive, and still the same murderous person as ever. It didn't take her a mere second, nor a mere thought, before cutting down countless of infected androids as ruthlessly as ever, weaving her blade into their metal like they deserved it.
They had been the very first people that accepted and made her feel part of something, even for as twisted and full of untold secrets as it was.
But they had shown her friendship and kindness for the very first time in her whole life. Perhaps out of ignorance, given from the fact that no one knew of her past.
And this was how she repaid them?
Brutally cutting them down one by one without doing as much as shedding a single tear for them…
She killed and killed, her mind empty and numb, no thoughts, only the weaving of her blade and the sound of it cleaving through YoRHa armor like it was made of butter.
Acting completely as if it had been her second nature, an instinct, something as easy and thoughtless as batting an eye.
26E didn't care, Nico Robin hated it. Two being trapped in one single body but still cursed all the same.
How long until she'd do the same to A2 and realized it too late?
How long until she would end up like every other person that came in contact with her?
She had joined her cause to protect her from becoming another Devil's Child, forgetting that she herself was the most dangerous threat all along.
The people of her home died, pirates died, marines died, civilians died, androids died… everyone she ever met died, directly or indirectly didn't matter, she was a walking plague, and if she could help it, she was not going to infect the person that during these months had reminded that she still was somewhat human.
That she could feel once again, that made her smile, that had saved her when she'd deserved all the opposite.
But wherever she went, the curse followed, and A2 deserved better than her company. She'd been such a fool to intrude in her life the way she did, but maybe, just maybe, if she left then A2 would still have a chance to be happy.
She had Anemone, her friend, and she was sure that 2B wouldn't leave her alone either. Perhaps she may even warm up to Pascal, the machine seemed nice in his own way.
But her? Best if she left before it would be too late.
Because she knew it would happen, it always did and always will. She was certain.
She'd return to her one last time, giving her all she needed to keep going, and then as she performed repairs, she'd leave. Alone and unnoticed.
Yes, that would be great.
A2 may hate her for it, but it would always be better than seeing her die like everyone else.
Monsters didn't deserve love anyways.
They shouldn't even crave love.
Taking her blade in hand as she approached the machine group that was infesting the place where she'd been told the materials were, she felt nothing, barely even noticing the state of her weapon, still coated with blood and oil of the androids she'd killed. Even now that she knew machines weren't all that bad, and that they also desired peace like androids did.
But didn't know any better than fighting, and neither did she.
So they clashed, and easily as ever, she danced around them, dodging every single strike from their spears, ignoring their stuttering and angered cries as Scarlet Despair sunk into their metal, taking their lives one by one in a matter of mere minutes.
The only thing she did afterwards was to stare numbly at the massacre she did, as corpses of what once were the knight machines of the forest lay at her feet.
The feeling passed as quickly as it came, replaced from furious anger boiling in her chest. She recalled her weapon at her back, as she raised her trembling hands, still coated in once white and now red gloves.
Gritting her teeth so hard it hurt, and clenching her fists, she threw a punch to a nearby tree, leaving the dent of her hand in it.
She then sank to her knees, holding her head, threatening to tear her hair out…
… And screamed… loud and clear…
Anger, fury, sadness, hate, despair, self-loathing…
She felt all of them course through that sound at once.
And then… all went silent again. Just the sounds of birds flying away scared of what they heard, of the wind rustling trees and leaves, or the water running from the nearby fountain, and her Pod usefully collecting what they needed when its owner was busy despairing.
But she didn't make a sound nor did she move. For how long she didn't know.
She just knew it had been long enough for 007 to gather the materials and so kindly alert her of it. And that she still needed to return to who was waiting for her.
Though all she did was to sit down again the tree she just almost destroyed, looking up at the sky, feeling her black box beat hard in her chest as she sighed.
She almost failed to notice the presence of something else, or rather, someone, hadn't her Pod alerted her of it.
Even if he was standing and looking her down right in front of her.
9S.
Just the one android she did not want to meet, and especially not now and not in this state of mind.
He looked tired, as if he'd just been in a fight, a long one, his eyes spoke of sadness, and there was no reason to ask why. She knew all of it.
But just how much did he know instead?
Also, had he heard her?
Not like it mattered, she thought as she slowly picked herself up, while he still just looked.
She didn't feel like staying any longer, so she walked in his direction so she could head back, finally when their arms almost touched he felt like speaking up.
"It's your fault…" his words had her stop in her tracks.
She was at fault for many things, hard to know exactly what he was referring to.
"A2… you left her alive…" she didn't see him, but she knew he was speaking through gritted teeth and barely restrained anger.
"And she killed 2B…" was he not aware of the virus? Would he listen if she told him?
"I bet you don't even feel bad about it!" this time, she turned back around, still silent but her eyes glared down at him, but didn't look like he cared.
"She admired you, looked up to you, cared for you, but have you ever cared about her? About anyone? Do you even have feelings?"
At the last question she reached for him, taking him by his vest and lifting him up, furious mismatched eyes met equally furious blue ones.
"So now you're going around telling people what to do? What do you even know of how I felt?" she didn't care she was raising her voice, she was past the point of caring if she did that or said a wrong word or spilled some secret.
There was no one stopping her anymore after all.
But he did not deserve to know. Unlike what he assumed, she did care for 2B, his words hurt too much to give him anything in return.
She thought that maybe she could bring him to reason before, not anymore.
From his words alone it was clear he'd never listen to her about anything, about herself, A2 and even 2B and all they went through. This was what happened when someone's feelings got the best of them, making the person lose all sense of reason.
She knew that, she felt that.
A long time ago.
"You know nothing about me, 9S." she added with a snarl.
However she should have known that getting close to him would have been a bad idea.
Her own feelings had gotten the best of her too.
"I will soon."
She should have been more careful as his hand reached for her forehead, and before she knew it, she'd been swiped into her own mindscape with him…
More errant coughs forced their way through A2's throat, forcing her to spit even more sand. Taking a look at her hand, she noticed a little bit of blood too this time.
"That doesn't look good." she heard 2B comment, as if she didn't know that.
"I'll be fine once Robin returns." she spoke quietly to not let the machines hear her.
She'd found a place high enough on the tree where most of them couldn't reach her, so she could stay alone in peace. Also she'd rather not be near these machines more than she had to
It helped that at least she could speak to 2B without anyone asking questions, especially that one named Pascal.
"Do you truly believe she'll be back?"
"Of course, she wouldn't let me die." whatever she must have had in mind that troubled her, A2 never believed once that Robin could leave her in this state.
She took care of her when she was in much less danger of dying than now, why would she ever change idea now? She wouldn't be that cruel, wouldn't she?
What if she finally realized she was just a burden meant to be left behind?
"I don't think she believes so. You just said she saved you so many times, it has to be another reason."
"How do you know what I was thinking?" a frown. "I am literally in your head, A2. I can't hear your thoughts but I can feel them. I can feel your feelings, if it makes sense."
"Right, true, I forgot the voice in my head isn't just a simple voice but a person." she scanned the horizon, hoping to see the dark haired woman's silhouette show up somewhere.
So far, nothing of sorts happened, no traces of her yet.
"Do you think she may be in trouble?" she could feel 2B frown even if she couldn't see her.
If the battler could feel what she felt then probably it went both ways. Which worried her when it came to topics like 9S, and even Robin, but at least 2B didn't seem to have an apparent crush on the woman like did.
That she probably wouldn't have noticed at all if it hadn't been for Anemone's words.
And now the thought wouldn't leave her head.
Could she truly put Robin at the same level she once put Number 4? Even if different people?
"I am not sure, could be, as it could not." A2 shrugged. "Robin is strong, physically and mentally, but it troubles me to think that in the second aspect she may be beginning to falter."
"She's good at hiding feelings and lying, comes with the life she had to live she told me, but knowing her better I think I learned to recognize the small signs." she recalled full well the distant looks she has when something makes Robin uneasy or worried, her eyes tend to stare without looking at anything.
As if she gets lost into her own head, and maybe she does.
"I have heard that E types go crazy after a while, after being submitted to the death of who they care for so long, and I am sure you can confirm that 2B. I'm afraid it might be happening to her too." she shook her head in frustration. "But you saw it, she won't talk to me."
"You may have to force that out of her then, otherwise you'll end up hurting each other." 2B paused, and A2 had the feeling that she knew more about the topic than she let on. "I spent a lifetime hiding things from 9S, each time he got reset, over and over again. I thought that being distant would have helped not get him so close. Nothing ever worked, and all the lying hurt me more and more as time went on."
"Even if it hurts, you have to try and sort things out, keeping secrets doesn't solve anything, I'd know. My role didn't allow me to spill anything, as much as I wished to, but you two are free to talk and clarify things." a sigh. "It would hurt me if you two ended up falling apart too, and like Anemone said, you have all the rights to be happy and love each other."
That last sentence almost had A2 fall from the branch she sat on.
"Why does everyone assume we're meant to be a couple?" once again her cheeks felt hot at the thought.
"Because you two care for each other, that is very much obvious. It had been my thought when I saw 26 er… Robin protect you at the castle, and for wanting to desert there had to be something big, so I just assumed…"
"Well you assumed wrong." A2 growled, but she couldn't deny that she'd grown to care for Robin in ways she never expected to. Especially after almost losing her to Adam…
She could still vividly recall the moment he stabbed her, and he told her so many horrible things as she held her motionless and bleeding body in her arms. And how desperate she felt when she and Robin's Pod fixed her, hoping it wouldn't be for nothing…
"I still feel there is more to this, that you also aren't being honest with your feelings."
"You just had to feel that too huh?" curling up on herself she held her arms around her knees.
"I'm sorry. We can just stop talking." 2B offered, afraid she made A2 too uncomfortable, but it was hard being in her head sometimes, it was a mess of emotions, mostly negative.
Unless Robin was involved and at her side. But even now that didn't seem to ease A2's worries.
"What if this is all fake?"
"What do you mean?" what could be fake?
"I mean, she told you what she is, well was, and sometimes I wonder if my feelings for her are just our programming of android telling me to act this way. To respect and care for her because I have to, not because it is me wanting to."
Well if A2 put it that way, she did raise a good point. 2B never doubted her feelings for 9S, but A2's case was different, with the woman she had at her side not being an actual android like everyone was fooled into believing.
Former or not, Robin was human, which automatically made her different from anyone else on the planet.
Unique, she should say.
"I don't know if I can ease your worries, I had heard words of other YoRHa androids feeling some kind of attraction towards her. Even me, as if we knew she was special beyond what we were told." 2B admitted, and it had been true.
Ever since she'd been created, she couldn't deny that many things seemed to gravitate around the woman. And people, between herself and the rest of the E types, her Operator, 2B's own Operator, though 6O was a little like that with every pretty female android, and then even the Commander.
A2 as well.
Adam and Eve too noticed her difference, as machines.
And the woman barely made any efforts to show anything that was out of place, or nothing at all she should say.
Yet she seemed like a magnet.
A2 could do nothing more than agree with what 2B said, because she too had been uncharacteristically curious towards the woman when they met. And hearing this made her falter in believing her feelings were legit even more than before.
"I don't even know if she would ever love me back too. I'm… too problematic."
Useless, pitiful, rude, annoying, crude, vulgar, weak and stupid.
She could have gone on for hours listing more negative attributes about herself. It had been months, and she yet had to understand what Robin saw in her that she thought was worth saving.
And probably wouldn't even believe it if she was told.
"I can't say for sure. I know either of you too little to make an hypothesis. All I can see, like I said, is that you two care for one another, and besides, strings of code or not, no one ordered you to fall in love with her, just like I was not meant to love 9S. It happened. Our story wasn't a happy one, but you two can still do so."
"You're sounding exactly like Anemone. Didn't know you were into sappy stuff, 2B." still, A2 gave a little chuckle.
Everyone seemed so convinced they would end up together. A2 however didn't know yet, but 2B had a point, no one told her to feel anything for Robin, she carved her way into her heart even before she'd been told she was a human.
That had to count for something, right?
"I'll try and talk through her when she returns, I still want to find out what is troubling her first, and solve that issue first, before anything else." she sighed, she did not like this whole situation, and where her feelings got her.
More like she had never expected for things to ever grow so complicated between the two of them.
A2 was sure that the whole 26E persona Robin carried within her had something to do with it. And if not, she couldn't keep staying in the dark, because it was true that she cared, and even if caring meant that she'd have to push Robin into confessing, then she would.
Even if it'd hurt, 2B said it right, it would hurt more to see Robin hurting herself like she was doing.
The former human didn't like when A2 hated and put herself down, so why would she accept the same behavior from her? No, she would not.
And if she'd been the problem, then she would do all in her power to fix herself, to change for her.
She had already lost all she had years ago, her friends and love, along with her old self. Never believed she'd have anyone trusting and having faith in her ever again.
She was not going to lose the person that was now the most important one in this miserable life of hers.
Never again she was going to lose everything a second time.