The trip wasn't too long, the two Pods led 2B, 9S and Anemone through the city where they left A2, all the while they explained in great detail how they found each android and what kind of repairs were performed.

Much to Anemone's curiosity, but at least now she knew that she couldn't find Number 2 anywhere at the Tower because Pod 042 had come back for her after he had taken 9S to safety just like Number 2 had asked him to.

As for 2B, 042 explained that he simply took the body of the android where he had buried it after A2 had killed her, and repaired the damage done.

Since there was no longer anything emitting a potential virus, the bodies that were infected were cleansed from it, including all of the YoRHa androids.

Recovering the data required longer, as their programming was bound to delete itself once their purpose was over, reverting that had been literal suicide, but the Pods had been willing to go through that hardiship instead of giving up on their assisted units.

Which brought back the whole thing about them developing feelings.

Anemone had explained that, during the years she'd been fighting machines with the Resistance, machines were nothing more than weapons made to kill, and that they only obeyed orders, she had no idea what changed or how during these past few years, but, Pascal had been the prime example that machines could evolve and become aware, just like androids did.

Perhaps they were imitating them even.

And if machines could learn about emotions, of all kinds, then who was to say that Pods couldn't too?

Who decided if a weapon couldn't feel?

In the end, androids were weapons themselves, and yet they had emotions. It only made sense.

Eventually they arrived at the place where the Pods claimed A2 was, and looking up, they could see a figure leaning over a window of the even taller building than the one 2B and 9S woke up on.

"I'll stay outside." 9S claimed as they arrived in the room where A2 was. "It's probably best if she doesn't see me yet."

Not that he particularly wanted to be in her presence either, but from 2B's earlier words, even if she didn't say it, he guessed that A2 could have a negative reaction upon being woken up, and her seeing him could potentially make things worse.

If it had been for him, he'd leave her where she was, but 2B cared for her, after all, she'd known the older android through these months while he was alone.

Which made him question why no one told him anything about the fact that 2B was still somewhat alive, not even 26E when he met her. Even though he'd been none too friendly towards her.

Accused her of what happened, hacked her, found her secrets, assumed things that probably weren't true. So he only assumed she had acted in retaliation according to his own actions, and it would have been justified.

But it was true that the woman had always been hard to read. He wondered if as a human she was the same way too, or if the tragic events he'd seen made her become that way.

She'd ask her if she was here.

He was positive she could be repaired, maybe with the help of the Resistance.

He was still a Scanner after all, not a maintenance expert, even if he knew his own on the matter, but his knowledge was limited for some things.

"You always have to be this dramatic, Number 2." he heard Anemone speak as she entered with 2B, while he leaned on the wall on the other side of the entrance.

The older prototype android was sitting on the window, leaning against its frame, one leg bent and the other outside, as if she was willing to just jump out, hadn't she been asleep.

She looked so serene like that, with the sun kissing her face and her long hair swaying in the wind.

Anemone almost felt bad for having to bring her back to the harsh reality. But in the end, it hadn't been her decision to rebuild her, and no matter what, she was here to support her.

She had already wasted so many years… how alone must Number 2 have felt…

Slowly and carefully, the Resistance Leader took her friend's sleeping form in her arms, and took her away from that window, placing her on the floor instead and holding an arm around her shoulders.

She wouldn't want her to wake up and her first move to be falling off the building, nor to get strange ideas and do such a thing by herself either.

She ignored whatever the Pods said about a restarting sequence, and 2B crouched down on the other side of A2, her green eyes fixed on her friend's face, waiting for her to awaken.

It took her blue eyes a bit to open, looking around in confusion, and then finally settled on Anemone.

"Anemone?" turning on the other side she spotted her younger twin. "2B?"

"I thought you were dead… I thought I died…" why am I here?

"The Pods rebuilt us." 2B replied, not sure how to approach the subject, but from the way A2's hands clenched, she knew she wasn't happy, so she'd have to measure her words.

"Why?" A2 sat up, glaring at the white Pod.

"Us Pods believed unit A2, along with unit 2B and 9S deserved another chance."

In a flash A2 was up on her feet, dragging 042 from its arm appendages down to eye level. "I didn't ask you to!" she snarled through clenched teeth.

"What about unit 26E?" it disgusted her to use Robin's YoRHa name, but these damn toasters didn't understand otherwise.

She had a Pod too, no? It could have fixed her, right? It must have…

"Pod 007 reports of unit 26E's memory and consciousness data were successfully retrieved, however, despite the combined efforts of Pod 007, 153, and myself, 042, we were unable to repair the consistent damage caused from the fire at Pascal's village."

"What does this mean? What does this mean!?" A2 shook her head, she couldn't be alone… not again…

She'd been so close to finding peace, and had been brutally brought back from it. Why the hell did 042 decide to do this? She didn't want any of it!

She didn't want to live here alone any longer…

Why didn't he just let her die in peace? Why wasn't the world letting her die in peace?

"It means she has no body to return to, even if her consciousness still exists." 2B watched her older twin shake her head.

"So what? Is she dead? Or is she alive?"

"Neither, A2." 2B got up from where she was sitting. "But we can try a repair…"

"With what? YoRHa is gone, the ones with the specifics and the knowledge to fix her exploded with the Bunker, and the twins are dead too, you know that, who else is there?"

A2 walked over to the window, looking outside, the sky was growing darker. It would rain soon.

"There's 9S…"

"Why would he ever help me!?" cutting her off she yelled out all her frustration, but she was right, why in the hell would the Scanner aid her, or them? He hated her and Robin too.

There was no way this could happen. And even so repairing an entire body could be too much even for him. He was no medical android, just a Scanner.

Not even Number 21 knew everything when it came to that field, even if she was in charge of maintenance for their little squad, and often enough she even helped out Gerbera and the Resistance.

But still, they didn't know everything, or not as much as androids built to perform repairs.

"That's not true, he…" again, 2B was cut off, but this time from Anemone, who held an arm in front of her, preventing her from reaching her older twin.

"Let me deal with this." she simply said in a low whisper, but loud enough for 2B to hear.

With a nod of understanding the younger YoRHa left the room, joining 9S outside the door where he was still waiting, with a rather perplexed look. No doubt he heard everything, he was too close not to.

But for the moment 2B forced herself not to ask, mostly because if A2 heard her talk, she'll know that he was here the whole time, and it could make things even worse.

For now they let Anemone do her thing, hoping that at least she would get through A2's thick head. If there was someone that knew her better than 2B, it was her.

"Number 2, look at me." the Resistance Leader walked over to the white haired woman, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Would you stop calling me like that? Number 2 is dead." blue eyes held a small glare.

"Now you're being unreasonable." Anemone shook her head, the stubbornness of this woman was on a whole other level, positive and hopeful when they met, that became utterly negative with time.

But she was determined to show that now everything was over yet.

"Number 2, do you know why that day when we met, Rose agreed to join forces with you YoRHa?"

A2 turned the other way, refusing to meet her eyes, and slowly shook her head.

"We had spent over 200 years locked in combat against the machines, with no changes on either side, we wanted to give up, and then you guys showed up. You were all alone and abandoned, and in the face of your comrades, I could see the will to surrender and die, but you… you still held hope despite everything."

"Like a goddamn fool…" A2's hands clenched the stone of the window, making dents in it just from brute force.

"No, Number 2, we were able to hope for a possible change, we were able to hope we could finally succeed in something big because you alone gave all of us hope." Anemone took A2 by the shoulders and forced her to turn towards her.

"I'm asking you, to find that hope again, not everything is over yet, especially not now that we're at peace." she shook her a bit. "Don't you understand? The purpose of our lifetime has been completed, there's a whole new life ahead of us, and humans can return from the moon too…"

At the mention of humans A2 shook herself from the hold Anemone had on her, turning on the other side again.

"There's no humans." there never were, and now with Robin gone too, there never will be.

"Not now but…"

With a sharp turn A2 looked at her friend straight in the eyes, green ones meeting blue furious ones.

"Humanity is dead, Anemone!" she grabbed the Resistance Leader's cape, dragging her closer.

"There were never any humans to fight for! You've been lied at, we've all been lied at! And us YoRHa had been created to continue this lie, this hope you say I gave you all, that had been my purpose, our purpose! That was what they had wanted!"

Shaky breaths left her as she lowered her head in shame.

"We've all been toyed with, and without knowing we did exactly what we were created for, it didn't matter if we lived or died, we were just mere dolls made to give you a purpose again and nothing more… myself… Number 4… Number 16… and even Number 21…"

Her eyes shone with tears as she dared to raise her head to face her friend whose head was held low, and it was hard to read her expression. "All of us were mere pawns…"

Slowly she let go of Anemone's cape, the woman didn't move nor said anything. "Don't you see? I brought them all to their deaths…"

"It was all my fault…" just because she had dared to hope, and giving hope had been what doomed them all…

9S was right, they had no right to be in this world any longer, perhaps they never did.

Again she walked over to the window on shaky legs, maybe she should rid them of her presence, another time, and this time for good.

There would be no one to cry anyways, not even Anemone, the one she no longer could call a friend. Because she must hate her now for what she said, she was sure.

It'd be easy, she just had to jump…

It was too high even for a YoRHa to survive.

She could barely place one leg over the window, before two strong arms wrapped themselves around her waist, and forcefully dragged her away from her demise.

"Don't." it had been the first word out of Anemone's mouth since the revelation. "Don't throw away your life like this, Number 2… please…"

"Why…" she grasped at her hands holding her. "Why don't you hate me? Even after all I've done…"

Which she hadn't realized until 9S spat the bitter truth in her face at the Tower, but back then, she had never thought she'd come back again, at all.

Anemone would have kept living in her blissful ignorance.

"Why should I hate you?" if possible, the arms tightened even further. "You said so yourself, we were all lied to, including yourself, you can't blame yourself for doing what you believed was right."

"But the humans…"

"Who the hell cares about them?" letting go, she placed a hand on Number 2's cheek. "Or don't you remember what Rose told you about us?"

She had only mentioned about the humans returning because that was what they had been told would have happened, should the machines ever be eradicated, and Earth safe again. But in reality, she long stopped caring for them, and if they were dead, then so be it.

A rightful punishment for leaving androids to fight alone and abandoning them like they were toys to play with.

"The Resistance was a family to us, we fought for each other, not for those humans that left us to die, or for whoever it was that created us anyways. All of you girls became our family too the moment Rose decided to take you under her wing."

A stray tear fell from A2's eyes, and Anemone caught it with her thumb. "We are still part of that family, you and I."

"That's why I will not allow you to give up like this, we'll find a solution for your friend, we have an entire lifetime to do so, we can do anything we desire."

With a small smile, Anemone decided to say the same words an old friend once told them in times of need.

"You can't give up before you have exhausted all possibilities."

A stroke of her thumb to Number 2's cheek, as her own one rose to place itself over Anemone's one.

"You remember these words too, don't you?"

"Number 21…" she'd said to them when their Resistance friends wanted to give up on Lily, when she'd been infected with the virus.

She had placed herself in front of all those pointed guns without fear, protecting the girl from a horrible fate. At least for the time being.

She believed that Lily could have been saved, and she did save her from that horrible thing plaguing her mind, bravely and selflessly.

"I believe that would be what she'd say if she was here right now."

There were millions of possibilities for things to go right or wrong, but the important thing was to obtain a concrete result. She'd probably say that too, or so A2 believed.

"Have faith, Number 2. Find in yourself that indomitable hope that guided you back then."

Because it wasn't over yet.

A2 moved to hug Anemone, sniffling and weeping on her shoulder, and the Resistance Leader let her do just that.

Turning her head a little towards the door, she could see 2B peeking through, she seemed relieved at least, and with a small nod she bid her goodbyes for the time being, 9S following. Number 2 didn't seem to notice their presence, or lack of it.

They could always think at a plan once Number 2 calmed down.

For now she'd stay with her until she was better, the rest could wait.

"You seem lost in thought." 2B commented, once they were far away enough to not be heard.

And true to her word, 9S hadn't said a thing since they woke up A2.

"Yeah… I was thinking…" he sighed.

"About what?"

"About A2." he looked ahead. "I don't like her but… seeing her like that was quite the sight. Never thought I'd see her so… vulnerable."

He did feel sad about her, since he had been the one that had shared those things at the Tower, he'd screamed them at her, full of rage and resentment, uncaring of the effect they could have had on her.

She was someone that needed to die, he didn't care about anything else.

Of course, none of them expected to survive, and be put in the situation to think about all these things again.

And he hadn't even said everything yet…

2B just nodded at his words, not feeling that she had anything to add.

"You know what? I want to help them."

No need to specify who he was referring to, but if not for A2 he was sure that 2B would love to have her old teacher around again too. And anything that made 2B happy made him happy too.

"You're so kind, Nines." she affectionately ruffled his hair.

"At the very least, I think we should bring 26E's body to the camp, and then I can start thinking about something."

He hadn't truly stopped to assess the exact damage that had been done that other time, too angry, but he knew it wasn't a little, if even all their Pods combined couldn't fix her.

Building a new body was out of the question, unless someone knew all the exact specifics of her model, and she was the highest tech one, but every information was strictly reserved for the Commander only, and now he understood why.

Though he couldn't quite understand why keeping her identity a secret, since androids were desperate to meet humans.

Made him question just what 26E's purpose for being here was.

Maybe if he could fix her then she'd give him some answers, if she had them.

With YoRHa gone there was no reason to keep more secrets, no?

Hand in hand, the duo headed towards Pascal's village, hoping that the machine had been taking good care of her.