NieR:Remnant

IX - Surrender

"Surrender your flesh unto me..."

The beast beckoned them closer, reaching out or expanding or-sensory data incomprehensible-cannot-determine-

"And as one...as one...all will be."

A piercing, impossible ringing sound exploded outward...

Refreshing light, gulls cooing in the distance and the clink clank of working machines all around.

"Pod-006?"

Her sight was focused on the brightest area of the clouds, where the sun was.

"Pod-006, sound off."

"Hm?" She tilted herself to the left, where Pod-153 resided. "What? Is something the matter?"

153 just floated there, staring. If she had a human-like face, Pod-006 imagined her eyes would be squinting deep into her soul, a single eyebrow raised in a curious, maybe mildly judging manner.

"Not necessarily, no," replied Pod-153. "Other than one of the two souls I've sworn with another to watch over for the foreseeable eternity having been abducted by an incomprehensible life form that adopted your protocol-breaching chassis as Its method of transportation, and that aforementioned other also falling into Its clutches in place of myself, having shot me free of Its grasp for reasons that my spinning whirling thought processes are not equipped to understand as they wind in concern for both of them as well as my own assigned companion's mental state following the ordeal." Pod-153's glow pitched with powerful spikes throughout the spiel, a passionate display that 006 hadn't expected to encounter from another pod Earth-side. "But really, everything's fine. I was just asking you for a simple report, something us pods have been encouraged to partake in with one another when our android companions are indisposed as I'm sure, 006, you know." She floated around to the right, slow and meticulous with almost a whip of sass in her sway. "So I'll say again: Pod-006, report."

She wasn't sure how to respond. It was a bit embarrassing to admit, but Pod-153 had caught her off guard with all this. The only other pods she'd communicated with were those that had been shattered from herself. Hearing such...emotion...from another pod that had no relation to her in such a way was enlightening; refreshing; intriguing, even, way more so than the android-machine crew working together around it to pilot a gargantuan husk that had caused major losses for both sides in life. What a strange, beautiful world Pod-006 had crashed into!

"Pod-006-"

"The pirates are singing, the gulls are howling and the sea is mesmerizing, almost as mesmerizing as this conversation between us, 153. The years I endured on that damned lunar satellite have all been made worth it by this single moment. Thank you!"

Pod-153 was silent, floating, giving her that stare again for several more fleeting moments as 006 gleefully bounced. This sudden bliss, it had come almost from nowhere. What a beautiful sensation!

"Okay, good report," replied 153 with slight hint of a drone in her voice. "Are you equipped to face Remnant, then?"

"Pardon?"

"Are you, equipped," she spoke slowly and clearly, "to confront, and defeat, that damnable creature, or are we doomed to..."

"COME."

It floated forth without hesitation along with the rest. Leaving behind the requested project it had been constructing felt odd, wrong, but almost relieving despite its nature.