Last [E]xecution

Searching for the Light

2B stared out the window of the building they hid in. Another high rise somewhere in the ruined city.

So this was her new life.

Probably just another day for A2. The deserter probably had to live an identical life on the run from YorHa. All the deserters 2B hunted probably had to live an identical life. Now 2B gets to taste that life.

Well, 2B certainly couldn't say God didn't have a sense of irony.

She glanced back into the building, glancing at a sleeping A2. Technically, 2B should be sleeping too since Pod could keep watch. But 2B couldn't sleep. Technically didn't need it. Androids only slept to perform maintenance and mimic humans.

2B was afraid of sleep anyways.

It happened again. Another nightmare. She's been having nightmares since the fall of the Bunker. Since the fall of YorHa. She would see 9S die over and over again. See herself kill 6O. But lately, they've gotten worse. She wasn't just watching her friends die. She wasn't just killing them.

She was enjoying it.

She trusted them. The only reason she did all those horrible things was because they told her there were tens of thousands of lives on the line. How could they do that to her?

2B squeezed her eyes shut as her mind flew down the web of lies. She manipulated and she was manipulated. Those who manipulated her were also manipulated by those above them and they were manipulated by those above them.

She'll sleep another time. She needed something to get her mind off this.

Then again, it wasn't like she had much else to do. Once they get up, they'll relocate to new building to make it harder for the machines to find. They wait there. Then the day after that, they relocate again. Then the day after that...

2B paced impatiently around the room. She glanced at A2 when she heard the attacker android mutter something.

It seemed 2B wasn't the only one having nightmares. 2B could see A2 breathing heavily, muttering something under her breath. It wasn't a dramatic display, but it didn't need to be.

"Number 4...Number 4..."

The way A2 whispered it. Full of pain.

Might as well wake A2 up now. Spare her from whatever hell she was going through. 2B silently walked over to A2, listening to the attacker continue mumbling. She muttered some other words too but 2B couldn't make out what they were. The only one 2B could make out was that name.

Number 4.

"Hey," 2B hissed. "It's time to get up. Hey! A2!"

The way A2 had been muttering to herself, 2B prepared for a violent response. Maybe A2 would try to swing at her, instinctively reacting to whatever tragedy was taking place in her mind. The fight and flight programs kicking in and treating the sudden stimuli to the sensors as a threat.

Instead...

A2 slowly opened her eyes, locking onto 2B.

"Number 4..." A2 tearily muttered as she reached out. "I..."

At that moment, it looked like A2 had properly awoken. She blinked a few times to get the tears out of her eyes and quickly put her hand down in some futile attempt to pretend she didn't just do that.

2B had to wonder if that was what she herself looked like. Waking up, seeing someone and thinking it was someone else. She had just done that with 4S, mistaking him for 9S. She even reached out to stroke 9S's face. Different, but similar enough that 2B mistook one for the other.