No more crying. Okay?

2B stretched her arms out, gazing around the Resistance Camp. She stretched a bit more, wondering how she and 9S got there. She took a closer look and noticed an area that she had barely been to before, in the corner to the left of Anemone. It was an area littered with benches in front of a few boxes and a large item nearly as big as 9S that 2B somehow knew was called a "jukebox."

"Shall we rest a bit?" asked 9S from behind her, eyeing some of the benches.

"...All right," 2B allowed, wondering again just why she was so tired. It felt like something big had just happened. She'd been struck by the thought that she could suddenly do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. At the same time, it felt weirdly like this would be the last time she could enjoy herself. This discrepancy was strange but 2B was a little too tired to question it right now. She decided to take advantage of this new sense of freedom and do as 9S had suggested.

"Are you here to listen to music?" a red-haired YoRHa soldier standing by the jukebox asked 2B and 9S as they approached. When neither answered, she continued unprompted: "Long ago, the humans used to gather in places where music played...Just like us."

2B did admit that it sounded like a nice idea. 9S had bought some otherwise useless sound data from the supply trader, and it appeared as though it could be played in this jukebox. They only had three out of five so far, but maybe they'd get the last ones eventually. She took a closer look at the jukebox and noticed that there was a chip already inserted into it. Adding the three she was holding, it appeared that she actually only need one more after all. Wondering what was even on any of these, she started playing all of the tracks in order, skipping around to different versions to see which ones she liked. 9S and the red-haired YoRHa member seemed to be leaving the decision up to her, which suited her just fine.

There was a track that oddly reminded her of the calm and quiet of the bunker; a beautiful yet haunting song that put to mind a bright, intact city as opposed to the ruins; one that made her think of the color green for some reason; a strange sounding one that made her think of places that she would never see; several that put her in the mind of a heated battle where she was suddenly quite sad that she couldn't lug this jukebox around with her so she could fight to the music...The effect that music had on an android was astounding to her. She couldn't imagine how a human must feel...

Most of the versions with vocals were done in a language that she could not understand. The only one she could was a song about a girl having to fight against the entire world seemingly on her own while trying to maintain a semblance of hope, but that hit a little close to home for 2B's comfort. Though the fact that it seemed to be available in multiple languages was interesting; maybe it could be used as some sort of foundation for translating this garbled mass of syllables that were in almost every other track that had vocals available? She should ask 9S about that at some point; right now, they were trying to relax.

Some of the tracks, in addition to having a choice between having vocals and not having vocals, had a very strange, almost machine-like sound to them. They sounded interesting, but she didn't like listening to them for very long. Some made her feel the opposite of how she wanted to feel; she wanted to rest, not be filled with dread. They still sounded great, to be sure, but she definitely didn't want to be listening to anything like that right now.

Then she found a track called Vague Hope (Cold Rain). She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt the rain against her artificial skin...She started to play the song and immediately felt her eyes fill with tears. She found herself backing up into the bench behind her, sinking down onto it and staring at the jukebox in wonder.

How could one piece of music make one so peaceful and melancholic at the same time? She didn't even really care what the words were translating to anymore; she wanted nothing more in that moment than to take her Nines into her arms and sit there forever, listening to this song until both of them ran out of power.

But there was a YoRHa unit right there. She would report that sort of behavior to the Commander. 2B would be separated from 9S and a different type E model would take her place. She would be unable to keep her promise. No, she couldn't have that. Sniffing slightly, she attempted to distract herself by checking her inventory.

To her surprise, it was much fuller than she remembered. All of these materials...When had she found the time to get all of these? And hadn't she had a steady supply of machine cores before? She must have sold them. She didn't remember doing that, though...maybe there was something wrong with her circuitry. It was difficult to be worried about that right now, though, not with this music playing, anyway.

There were a few other items that she didn't remember placing in her inventory, like a long white wig that she had no interest in wearing. Long hair would only hamper her vision. The heavy YoRHa armor, on the other hand...She wasn't exactly sure why the armor had suddenly become available, as they were usually reserved for large-scale assaults, but she wasn't about to complain. The YoRHa member they'd been speaking to was still staring at the jukebox and she frankly didn't mind if 9S was watching, so she changed behind a stack of containers so at least the rest of the Resistance couldn't see. She didn't put the helmet on, though; she enjoyed breathing in Earth air as much as she could whenever she was down here. Now she understood why 6O was so desperate to visit one day.

There was also a pair of glasses that she didn't remember being there previously. She tried them on out of curiosity and instantly felt more intelligent for some reason. She liked the way they felt and 9S certainly seemed to like the way they looked so she decided to keep them on for a while.

She then checked out her weapon inventory. She'd found a total of thirty-nine weapons so far, and each one had been upgraded as far as Masamune would allow. Some of them had been in boxes only 9S could open. A few she'd found buried in the desert and hidden away in various locations, almost like they were waiting to be found. There were even some where she wasn't entirely sure how she'd gotten them, but she was happy to have them nonetheless.

She wondered if there were any more to be found. She wouldn't mind a nice round forty; she refused to count her bare fists as one. She'd grown very fond of the ones called Virtuous Dignity and Fang of the Twins in particular, but anything that would help in their endless war against the machine lifeforms would always be welcome, even if it was just to break up the monotony. Though considering she'd already searched every inch of the areas they'd frequented, she didn't really know where to start looking besides go foraging in the desert again or hope that she might find something other than a stupid pipe while fishing.

Standing up and stepping away from the jukebox and hearing the music unfortunately fade away the further she got, she first talked to the weapons trader right there in the camp, but he didn't have anything new to sell. Nor did the supply trader, and she didn't know where Devola and Popola were. She decided to head to the access point and visit every shop she knew of.

A few hours later and 2B's hands were still empty. No one had any new weapons, not even at the Bunker, and she didn't need any more materials (aside from Elaborate Gadgets for Pod C which no one was selling either). She'd even asked the Scientist Machine outside of Pascal's village, but they only ever sold space rocks and a weird alien mask thing that she still wasn't sure why 9S bought; what a wasteful purchase that had been, not that they were exactly hurting for Gs anymore. 2B was annoyed; would she really have to start searching in the dirt and sand again for anything new to fight with? Were there no other places to buy weapons from? She'd already gone to every other fixed location she knew of...

With a jolt, 2B finally remembered Emil's shop. His inventory always seemed to be changing from one visit to the next, almost as if it was dependent on where she was able to stop him. She wasn't sure how he did it but she was usually impressed by what she found. He'd sold a couple of weapons to her one of the first times she'd managed to slow him down; maybe he would have more to offer if she found him in the right place?

One quick lap around the city ruins later and 2B once again found herself running out of patience. Emil was nowhere to be seen. As a matter of fact, 2B couldn't remember the last time she'd seen Emil zipping around the city ruins. It couldn't have been because she and 9S had beaten him up that one time; after a brief period of moping, he'd managed to pull himself together and she and Nines had seen him rushing around the city as usual.

Or maybe he was in another slump. If she was honest with herself, 2B sort of felt sorry for the pain she'd caused him. Not that she would ever voice this. Emotions were prohibited, after all. But not even the open and compassionate 9S had apologized to Emil. It wasn't like he was a machine, and 9S had often felt sympathy for certain machines anyway, so 2B didn't really understand 9S's mindset there. Maybe it was because 9S felt like he had a right to dig into Emil's personal business.

As long as 9S didn't get too curious about any YoRHa business. She wasn't ready to have to carry out her real mission again just yet...

They finally found Emil in front of the abandoned commercial facility near where they'd first met him when he'd just been a head. He wasn't frantically moving around this time, instead sitting patiently, almost as if he'd been waiting for them.

"I can't believe the size of the commercial facility," said 9S out of nowhere, almost as if he was refusing to acknowledge Emil's existence or something. Maybe he was just feeling guilty and wanted to avoid talking to Emil altogether. 2B would wait for him to finish, but then they were going to talk to Emil whether 9S wanted to or not. "The people of the old world must've led pretty good lives," Nines went on. "I bet it was fun to shop back when you had so many choices."

"We don't need such things," 2B said shortly. Lack of choice was what had led them to seeking out Emil in the first place...

"Don't be so sure about that!" said Nines cheerfully. "Once we eradicate the machine lifeforms, us soldiers won't have anything left to do. We'll enter a new age of peace. And when that happens, we should go shopping together! I could buy you...I dunno. A T-shirt, maybe? Something that looks good on you."

"A T-shirt?" said 2B wryly.

"What? Not interested?" asked 9S, and 2B couldn't tell if he was embarrassed or not.

"Hmm..." She decided to humor him. "When that day comes, I'm all for it."

"That's a promise, right?"

"Yep."

There was no delaying it any longer. 2B was going to talk to Emil whether 9S wanted her to or not. It wasn't like he had to apologize for the way they'd treated him earlier...

"Oh! Heya!" Emil greeted 2B and 9S as they approached. 2B nodded at him and checked over what he was selling that day. There weren't any weapons there...In fact, 2B was fairly sure that these were the more common materials found by defeating most machines, minus the Titanium Alloy, anyway. Or maybe that was just because she'd found so many of nearly everything by now. The least amount of items she had that Emil was selling were Dented Sockets, and she still had twelve of those. In any case, if there was anything 2B didn't need, it was literally all of this.

"Wow, you've sure gotten strong!" Emil commented as 2B stepped back. "I doubt you'll be needing my help anymore."

"What do you mean?" asked 2B, confused; it wasn't like this was the first time she hadn't bought something from him when they'd met.

"Um, nothing," said Emil, a little too quickly. "Don't worry about it. Take care, now!" He then quickly sped off in the direction of the city ruins once more, though for some reason 2B doubted he was going to continue his usual routes.

"Emil sure is acting odd," she muttered to herself. "Pod—"

"Pursuit marker placed on map," Pod 042 replied instantly. "Target is heading toward the desert."

"Nice work," said 2B, giving it a pat.

"Report: Pleasant," it responded to her touch.

2B concealed a smile and turned back in the direction that Emil had gone. The desert, huh...Wait a minute...

2B remembered running in to a group of massive round things that, looking back, had greatly resembled Emil's head, only some of them had been dozens of times larger. It was while she was finding those relics of the past for that one android, back when 9S hadn't been with her. Which was an odd thing to think because of course 9S had always been with her...Her memory was definitely getting faulty. She would have to schedule a maintenance check at some point, perhaps after they'd helped with whatever was going on with Emil.

Speaking of Emil, she wondered if a smaller one's presence would somehow trigger the larger ones. Emil had mentioned that he had at one point been a weapon that had cloned himself repeatedly in order to fight against the aliens. Maybe he was going to activate those larger ones again to help fight what the aliens had left behind?

Regardless, she headed for the nearest access point and teleported to the one in the middle of the desert, backing up her data before heading off to the location 042 had pinpointed. She wasn't sure why she was suddenly so nervous, but better safe than sorry.

And exactly what was this one particular boar always doing in the desert, anyway? 2B was grateful for the lift nonetheless, but this behavior was particularly strange to her. Maybe she could ask 9S to dig into it the next time he got too curious about humanity; it would be a brief distraction, at least. Nevertheless, she was grateful for the ride, though she abandoned it when the first orb became visible above the dunes. She ran and slid awkwardly the rest of the way through the sand, taking another, closer look at the dozens of massive, round objects around her.

"Are these...Emil?" she whispered out loud. Obviously, she knew they were, but seeing these giant structures in comparison to the one she'd just spoken to was still extremely weird. It was like she had to put it into words for things to make sense to her. Some of the heads were as large as some of the buildings in the city ruins, while others were only about as large as the boar she'd just left behind. None of them were as tiny as...

...as the one she and 9S were familiar with...

...who was right over there...

Emil's three-wheeled contraption had been knocked on its side near one of the smaller of his clones, though compared to him it was still enormous.

"Emil!" she cried, rushing to his side, 9S beside her.

"Watch...out..." Emil managed to say in a weak voice. "They're still...alive..."

Before 2B could ask if she meant the ones he was leaning against, there was a sudden earthquake, and a sandstorm erupted around them.

"Wha..." 2B wasn't able to complete her thought. A giant creature had burst from under the sand; it took her a second to realize that the creature was made up of a bunch of connected Emil heads that appeared to have sprouted bug-like legs not unlike some machines that 2B had found data for in her records. Unfortunately, these Emils didn't appear to be as friendly as the one she knew, as they immediately began expelling much smaller Emil heads that quickly brought to mind the time they'd fought their Emil outside his home after 9S had become too curious for his own good.

"Dammit..." 2B muttered, preparing to dodge the oncoming swarm.

"Alert," said Pod 042. "Magical weapons from the old world detected. Magical elements have a high probability of penetrating all defense systems. Proposal: Evade."

"Sound advice, 2B said dryly, still sending out Pod B's laser as she ran around wildly in the sand, avoiding the Emils' attack.

"I...We're..."

The Emils all spoke as one as they separated and fell to the ground, their bug-like legs retracting as they rolled around in the sand, seemingly aiming for 2B and 9S. While it was easier for them to attack the heads this way, the heads didn't make evading any easier as in addition to launching out more swarms of mini-heads, they also shot giant red lasers out of their eyes.

"Eternity...It hurts...It really hurts..."

2B wasted no time in slashing each and every Emil she came across, trying to take them out as quickly as she could. She would have to apologize to the one they knew later; it was self-defense at this point, and he had tried to warn them, after all...

"Why just us...Why do we have to..."

2B tried to focus on one at a time but each head kept rolling out of her reach. She ended up aiming and slashing at several Emils at once. This was not an efficient way to battle...

"We..." said the Emils in unison. "We must...kill them all!"

Were they talking about the machines? If that was the case, maybe 9S could reason with them, talk them into joining with the androids—

"We don't need it!" shrieked the Emils. "WE DON'T NEED THIS WORLD!"

...Or...

"Alert," said 042. "Elemental output of magical weapons has increased."

"No..." said 2B in frustration; this was already difficult to deal with. She'd just depleted the health of one single head but had to manually stop locking onto it and lock onto a different head instead, or else she would've ended up continuing to hack at the same one she'd just defeated, which seemed counterproductive. She looked around wildly while continuing to dodge at full speed; only these new Emil heads that had erupted from the ground looked to still be alive. The giant ones that Emil was still lying next to were still stuck in the sand, which was probably a good thing. 2B didn't really want to think about how powerful those would be. The clones seemed to be more powerful the larger they were; while Emil had put up a hell of a fight down in his cave, there had only been one of him in an enclosed space.

This...this was something else entirely.

She suddenly got a call through her Pod. Emil's familiar voice came through; it was the shop one, thank god...

"Those are...what happened to my clones..." Emil explained brokenly. "Years of multiplying...Years of fighting in wars...Their sense of self just...deteriorated.

"I need to settle things with them," he went on, sounding suddenly determined. "On my own."

"Enough!" 2B cut him off. She wasn't going to put up with that. She, and 9S, she knew, had no problem fighting Emil's battles for him. After everything he'd done for them...After everything they'd done to him...damn 9S and his endless curiosity...He'd just had to steal a mask and open a box...

She depleted the health of another head, and another, and another, slowly but surely "killing" them all, even as they continued to move somehow. All of the Emils they were fighting started singing together, sort of. She couldn't precisely tell what they were meant to be singing, as it seemed to be the same note over and over again, but they wouldn't stop chanting "la" over and over again.

All of the ones whose health she'd depleted suddenly formed protective shields around themselves; she wasn't able to cut through them anymore to try and make sure they were dead. All she could do was focus on the ones that did still have health.

"I..." Well at least they'd finally stopped singing... "We tried our best! In the rain, in the wind, in the storm. Even when our companions died, we kept fighting."

Okay what the flying fuck were Small Exploders doing here, this wasn't fucking fair...

"But the eternal war...Our eternal pain..." They all laughed brokenly. "The eternal pain! It screamed at us! It told us there was nothing of value to protect in this world...The world had no meaning!" They all laughed again. "It SCREAMED at us!"

Their laughter audibly turned to great, heaving sobs.

"Aaaah!" yelled, 2B, finally getting the last one through her own tears. There was nothing to do now but watch them all roll around, sort of harmlessly, unable to cut them up anymore due to the barriers around them.

"You...All of you...This pain! This sadness! THIS DESPERATION! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT!"

But 2B did know about it. The endless fighting with no end in sight...Knowing what she knew about how pointless it all was...Feeling all alone in this world...

The only difference between her and all of them was that she did have something she wanted to protect, at least while she was still allowed. She looked over at her Nines as Emil called her again.

"But even so!" he yelled through her Pod. "All of this is wrong! No matter how hard or how painful...They never gave up. They kept fighting, because they believed they could overcome someday! Isn't that right, Kainé!?"

2B didn't know why, but she let out a sob of her own, her tear-stained face sticky with sand.

"Even if it's pointless, you still have to do it!" Emil shouted. "Because this is the world my friend tried to save!"

All of the heads gasped, and suddenly all but one of them exploded, the last one starting to spin rapidly. A timer suddenly showed up on 2B's HUD, counting down from ten. 2B didn't know what would happen at the end of that countdown, but she knew that she had to stop it.

But it was too far away — in her haste, 2B had equipped the wrong Pod — Pod C wasn't nearly as strong as Pod B, she never could find enough Elaborate Gadgets — she tried powering up the stronger laser — there were only a few seconds left — she had to make it in time—

The Emils caused their fusion reactors to go out of control, turning the planet into a dead chunk of rock, tumbling through the vast vacuum of an uncaring universe.