CHAPTER 19

"You knew, didn't you?" 9S shouted accusingly.

He'd waited until they were alone, far enough outside the camp to not be in hearing range, because he had that much discretion at least. But meanwhile, the betrayal in his stomach had churned. His doubts kept circling his mind, growing ever louder and more urgent the harder he tried to damp them down.

2B didn't seem surprised, which was incriminating all on its own. She didn't need to ask what he meant. "No. I wasn't told anything more than you," she denied firmly. "But… I suspected. It wouldn't be the first time."

"And you tried to hide it from me?" yelled 9S, his outrage further fueled by her confession.

"It would be easier if you didn't know," said 2B simply. In contrast to his growing distress, she seemed to grow even more calm. "Easier to do what needed to be done."

"And it doesn't worry you at all that our mission contains falsified charges? How are we even supposed to operate if provided false intelligence?" he protested indignantly. He wasn't sure if that was what really bothered him, but it was easier to point to then the unsettling, moral wrongness of the whole situation.

2B crossed her arms defensively in front of her chest. "The orders came from the Commander herself. We have no right to question them."

She was right, dammit, but that just made it worse. According to their command structure, they didn't have any right to question their orders. And that stung. But even so… "This is wrong, 2B. This is wrong, and you know it."

2B's whole body flinched as if she'd received a physical blow.

Quietly, she spoke, "I don't want to do this. But what other option do I have? Tell me, 9S, what else could I have done?" Her voice choked up, defiant and pleading all at once. To 9S's shock, he could see twin streams of tears leaking out under her blindfold.

"What else could I have done?" she repeated weakly.

And 9S had a sinking realization that they weren't talking about the current mission anymore.

"I… I don't know, 2B. I really don't know."

They sat there in silence for some time, each with their own thoughts. 9S watched 2B with concern, but didn't make a move to comfort her directly. Instead, he looked guiltily away. Seeing her cry felt wrong somehow. And wouldn't it be worse if he comforted her, when he was the reason she was upset? When he was, even now, still angry with her?

Aside from the tear tracks, there was little in 2B's expression that revealed her mood, and even those tears dried quickly. She quietly composed herself and, had he not seen her earlier breakdown, he'd never have suspected she was anything less than calm.

He didn't know exactly how long they sat like that, before the silence was interrupted by the ring of an incoming phone call.

9S nearly jumped in surprise at the sudden noise. A quick check of his notifications confirmed that the call wasn't for him, so he looked at 2B expectantly. She wore an expression that he couldn't quite read - half-nervous, half-perplexed. It's not one he was used to seeing on her.

"Is it your penpal?" he pried, fairly sure he'd kept his feelings out of his tone.

2B looked confused at him for a second, before her expression cleared in recognition. "No. Someone else." She paused, before clarifying, "It's Jackass. I contacted her about a job earlier, I'm just surprised to hear back this soon."

"Oh." 9S hadn't realized they had another job. Had 2B taken it on during his 'sleep study'?

"It's… sensitive, so I need to take this privately."

"Oh."

He watched her dash and jump over the rubble and out of sight, a thousand questions in his mind that he couldn't voice. 2B had been acting strangely just now - she had been for a while, now that he thought about it. Something wasn't adding up.

Besides, what sort of mission was sensitive enough that he couldn't know about it, but a Resistance member could?

2B waited until she was certain she was out of earshot to accept the phone call. Immediately, Jackass's face appeared in a projection before her.

"About time you picked up," said Jackass with a laugh. "I was beginning to think I'd done all that investigation for nothing."

2B's ears perked up at that. "You've found something?"

"Oh yeah, you're going to owe me big for this one," bragged Jackass. "Don't forget, you promised to help me with my research, and I have plenty more experiments lined up."

2B hissed impatiently, "I remember. Do you know anything?"

Jackass smirked. "Yeah, not that you gave me much to go on. 'Any suspicious activity involving harvesting and restoration of YoRHa corpses' is not really specific, ya know?' I mean, look, you guys die all over the place, and there's plenty of androids out there who would pay an arm and leg for - heh, a YoRHa arm or leg. So there's a lot of scavengers who make bank by picking up and selling any parts they can find. A few of 'em are in the Resistance, actually, you might've seen 'em in the market."

"Anyways," she continued, "I asked around for who's been buying. Primary income comes from - and this might surprise you - YoRHa itself. Yeah, turns out building new bodies all the time isn't cheap? So they recycle materials where possible, I guess. They pay the best, too, so the scavengers will generally give them priority."

2B frowned. "That's not new information."

"Hold your horses, I'm getting to it! Sheesh. Here's the deal, most non-YoRHa buyers fit a certain profile: androids with low-budget bodies that got injured or just broke down, who need spare parts to get up and running again. And you may not know this, being as you have your fancy Bunker to make your fancy repairs with off-the-shelf new parts, but down here we tend to use any spare part that fits - or that we can jury-rig into fitting. Any leg is better than no leg, right?"

"But this one guy, he comes in asking for something real specific: processing chips compatible with a YoRHa type-S unit. Which is strangely specific, don't you think? Type-S units - well, I don't have to tell you, that's top-of-the-line tech right there. Way better than you'd need for a repair."

2B stopped breathing. Her veins turned to ice. Everything around her felt distant and faded, as her attention focused entirely on Jackass's message.

"Of course, the merchant didn't have anything like that, and even if they did they would sell it back to YoRHa. YoRHa, uh, discourages distribution of their proprietary plug-ins. You know how it is. But they took note of it, said they'd keep an eye out and recorded his contact info. Which I now have. So yeah, that sound like the kind of 'suspicious activity' you were looking for?"

"Where." 2B could barely choke out the word.

"Oh-ho, it is, I knew it. You're lucky I'm brilliant, I managed to track this guy using his comm number. But you owe me extra, kay? And I will be collecting."

"Where can I find him," 2B demanded again. Her pulse was loud in her own ears.

Jackass must've seen something in her expression, because her voice shook slightly as she asked, "Uh, you're not going to kill him, are you? Wait, nevermind, I don't want to know. I'm sending you the location now." And she promptly disconnected.

2B felt a sense of calm wash over her as she received the location data. She had the presence of mind to open a quick email to 9S, instructing him to keep an eye out for the deserters and attempt to locate them, but to not engage them until she returned. That should keep him occupied, and stop him from worrying too much.

Email sent, she pulled up the coordinates on her map - somewhere in the desert, not far. She could be there in under an hour if she ran. She gripped the hilt of her sword, feeling assured by the familiar rigidity.

She knew what she needed to do, now. She was going to fix everything.

Ending S: [S]ensitive intel

# A/N: Oh god. I'm a bit terrified of 2B right now. I'm not entirely sure how we're going to get through the next chapter while maintaining the "Everyone lives" tag.

This chapter was intimidating, because I had a lot I wanted to establish. We're getting close to a scene I've been eagerly anticipating, and I wasn't sure how to get there, but I think I've got it sorted out now. Jackass was actually a last-minute decision, but she was really fun to write? I'm not sure if I got her character correct, but I sure enjoyed depicting my version of her. :)