CHAPTER 2

I still have nightmares. Nightmares of glowing red eyes on a familiar face. Sometimes I wonder if it's a virus, spitefully planted from a being of hate, but no matter how many times I run my system diagnostics, they return green. Apparently there's nothing wrong with me.

Is there really nothing wrong with me?

2B wasted no time in departing, once she had received her orders. She prided herself on her efficiency. Efficiency benefited YoRHa. Efficiency saved lives.

9S quickly gathered his things into his small pack, and took his rightful place at her side.

The two Androids proceeded on foot towards the tower that had appeared only hours before. Up close, it was even more obviously out of place. The stark, white walls were unnaturally smooth and uniform.

The two of them descended down into the collapsed pit, as they had done countless times since its formation.

2B felt, irrationally, that every bad and worrying event lately had stemmed from this pit. As if it were a pit leading down to hell itself, and unearthing it had unsealed something powerful, fierce, and forbidden. Seeing the tower there, looking for all the world like it sprouted out of the ground itself, did little to assuage her superstition.

Her straight back and confident stride did nothing to betray her misgivings. She kept her gaze fixed firmly in front of her, chin up, and she strode purposely towards the apparent front of the tower. All the while she kept her senses alert for any potential danger or ambush. Strangely, none came. The pit was devoid of even the usual collection of mindless, mingling machines. The absence was striking.

"It's quiet," 2B half whispered. In the stillness, her voice easily carried.

"Alert: no machine lifeforms detected within a fixed radius of the tower," Pod 042 chimed helpfully.

"That's… strange," 9S said as he looked around. He seemed as hesitant to believe this as she was. In their career, it didn't pay to take things at face value.

Plus, her instincts were still screaming at her that something was very, very wrong.

Even so, they must continue forward. It's their mission, and the tower is no less a threat if they leave it be. Better to face it head on now, then have it bite them later.

Her feet took her to the tower's base, where she saw a shimmer in the air. Cautiously, she reached a hand forward. When her fingers reached the shimmer, she felt it was solid. "A forcefield…" she muttered. "9S, can you disable this somehow?"

She turned to her dependable Scanner. He's already leaning towards what appears to be the door, his face so close that his nose nearly touched the barrier. He had a faraway look, which 2B had come to recognize as his usual expression when he's hacking something or working out a difficult puzzle. Right now, he might be doing both.

Abruptly, he stumbled backwards. 2B didn't fully understand the process, but it seemed that 9S experiences some kind of recoil when he fails to hack into a protected system. It's worse against especially strong machines, and judging from how dizzy he looked, she'd say protections on this tower are strong.

She wished she could say she's surprised.

Instead, she waited for 9S to collect himself. "How was it?" she asked.

9S shook his head. "The barrier is… it's strong. There seems to be some kind of closed defense system. It's nearly impossible to hack into from the outside."

2B frowned. "There must be a way in."

As if in response to her statement, the tower's shield flickered off and on before falling altogether.

The two androids waited with bated breath for something to happen, but nothing else did. The tower's shield was gone, but nothing else in the area had moved or reacted. It was as eerily still as before.

"Well, that was convenient," said 9S with his usual good humor, although it seemed a bit forced.

"It's suspicious," 2B said what they were both thinking.

Her pod spoke up, "Report: the barrier over the tower has been disabled from the inside. Entry into the Tower should now be possible."

2B shared a glance with 9S. From the inside? What was that supposed to mean? Was there someone else inside the tower?

It didn't matter, she decided. This was their mission. They would just have to proceed with caution. She had 9S with her, and he was the best backup she could ask for. Whatever was in this tower, the two of them could take it.

With that resolve, she went to the door and firmly pressed it open.

The inside of the tower matched the outside with its white walls and floors. The sparse furnishings in the mostly empty rooms were also white. It reminded her of the Bunker, in how color seemed to be completely desaturated. Something about the materials and the lighting.

"This almost reminds me of the Bunker," 2B let her thoughts slip.

"Really?" 9S mused, "I was going to say it looks like… like hacking space."

2B hasn't been into hacking space, so she couldn't say for sure. She even needed assistance to reboot herself into a new body. It was… a bit embarrassing, for an android of her caliber.

But if 9S says so, then it must be true.

The door to the tower had opened into an empty circular room. When the door closed behind them, and no other exits presented themselves, she had worried that it was a trap after all. She's still worried it might be a trap, of course, but the room they'd entered into had turned out to be an elevator. After it rumbled for a minute or two (it was hard to determine how fast they were going, or how far - the ride was too smooth), the original doors opened up again into a new area.

The new area, where they now found themselves, was - vast.

They faced a long stairwell, framed on both sides with more archways. On either side of the path was a large drop - below, she could see nothing but fog, or perhaps a cloud-filled sky. I seemed almost as if the world had turned upside down, with the skyscape towering below them.

"We must've gone pretty far up," 9S murmered from beside her.

Oh. That made more sense, actually. She faintly recalled seeing a much wider area far, far above the tower entrance, impossibly high into the sky. If they were in that area now, it would explain how large the space was.

Which would mean the clouds beneath them… were actually clouds. That would be a dangerous drop, should they lose their footing. Thankfully, they had pods to protect against accidents like that.

She took a moment to be grateful that she couldn't get altitude sickness, like she'd heard humans suffered from. Large pressure differentials wouldn't harm their tougher android bodies. It was a miracle humans survived on earth for as long as they did.

She pulled herself from her musings to refocus on the room in front of her. For such a massive construction, it was surprisingly... incomplete. Spotty, at some locations, as if someone had tried to make a staircase but gotten bored halfway through. It seemed at odds with the otherwise masterfully constructed archways and towering stone walls that emulated historical human building practices.

A diffuse white light permeated the area, providing sufficient illumination to see by, but with no clear source.

It was no more strange than anything else here.

After climbing up the fractured staircase, they came to a set of faux-wooden doors, which opened easily under 2B's hands. They'd seen nothing here try to stop them, not since the exterior barrier. No enemies, no hacking gates, no nothing. It was very strange. Why leave a place like this undefended? Did it really have nothing to hide? Or were the creators so confident that they didn't bother to set traps?

And what of the barrier outside? It was a very strong one, from what 9S said, but it dropped without any apparent cause.

It seemed, although 2B was alarmed at the idea, almost as if they were being invited in.

Invited by whom, and for what purpose? She couldn't begin to guess. But if they kept proceeding at this pace, she probably wouldn't have to wonder for long.

Ending B: [B]arrier to Entry