NieR:Remnant

I - Tidings that Bind

                A light breeze whistled through the trees, the air calm and peaceful. That metallic hammer thundered from below as it had for days on end unrelenting, but it somehow added to the peace rather than detracting. It had come to amaze A2 how just about anything in this world could adapt to an alien environment if given the time, even the loud clank of an autonomous blacksmith's labor despite the endless list of differences between it and the forest it had thundered through for God knows how long. What amazed A2 even more was how much those anomalies could both add to and subtract from that alien world after prolonged settlement, like a village of machines that stood for unity and pacifism above all else rather than the violence and hatred they'd come to be known for. Or, in the case of subtraction, that incident at the factory she'd learned of when the machines cut each other down in the name of gods, and later, at the same factory, when young minds took their teachings too far and departed from life of their own accord out of fear, or when a YoRHa android, that which was to stand for the glory of mankind and fight for a peaceful Earth through any means necessary, fell so deep into the abyss that he lost himself and couldn't break free of the darkness stemming not only from the truth of the world before him, but also from that world ripping away everything he...

A2 glimpsed back at the cradle where she'd slaughtered the king before them. After the pods rebuilt her, she felt compelled to this spot for whatever reason. So here she's remained, sitting on the edge of the opening overlooking the front of the castle, quietly taking in the sights in addition to the sound of that hammer. She'd gone on a walk or two in the time since awakening, and had even peered into old world texts she'd reconstructed through various fragmented data vaults she'd came across in her travels, but it was all just distraction, nothing of note. Most of the machines in the area had either died or moved on, and those few that were left, A2 made herself avoid. She needed more time to think. These anomalies, these puzzling things she'd seen the past few months kept turning in her mind like cogs, and honestly, A2 found herself unsure of what to believe, unsure of that drive within her for the first time in forever. The machines were killers, murderers. They were evil, cursed creations of conquerors from the stars, and they all deserved to die, but they were changing with the world, the world they had changed for the worse. These thoughts twisted and turned eternally without any hint of consensus, but one thing, A2 had come to know for sure.

This world, even with all its ruin and strife, was more beautiful than she had ever let herself realize.

She set her eyes back towards the forest just in time to see a ball of fire falling from the sky. It wasn't big enough to be a flight unit or anything like that, and what remained of the Bunker had hit the atmosphere months ago. This was something new. It vanished behind the distant tree line with a series of sounds that almost resembled gunshots, with several flocks of birds taking flight away from the impact. Once they were gone from sight, the forest returned to its calm and peaceful state, albeit with a dissipating trail reaching down from the sky, and an occasional plume of smoke making itself known through the trees.

A2 blinked, shuffling a bit where she sat. She could've sworn the consistent rhythm between the blacksmith's hammering faltered for a moment. The impact was relatively small, but could even he have felt it, lost in his work surrounded by the walls of the castle? Almost on cue, as if the world was answering her question, A2 could hear the distant disturbance of machines, big and small, moving to the site. She wasn't sure if it was due to this sudden commotion of curiosity throughout the forest, but she also felt compelled towards that plume of smoke in the distance, insignificant as it may be. With a sigh, she slid off the ledge and began to slink through the woods.

"Pod-042, report."

"Maintenance on unit 2B has concluded. She's now resting."