一

They can take your world.

They can take your heart.

Cut you loose from all you know.

But if it's your fate...

Then every step forward,

Will always be a step closer to Oblivion

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Disney, or anything associated with it. Anyways, enjoy~

'YoRHa'=thoughts

YoRHa= Narration

What Doesn't [K]ill You

"..."

"..."

"...Kairi."

Sora jolted awake and was greeted by the empty, lifeless face of a small machine staring down at him with its beady yellow eyes. Sora didn't think much of the little robot until he realized there was blood running down his legs and staining the metal exterior of the machine like paint blotches.

"The heartless just don't give up!" Summoning his keyblade, Sora impaled the machine and it toppled over on the ground, short-circuiting from the impact. 'Huh, that's not how heartless go out, was it actually a robot?'

Shielding his eyes from the bright sun, he looked around. "What...where am I?" There were dozens of decaying skyscrapers scattered throughout the land like a graveyard. Massive trees wrapped and entangled the skyscrapers and huge animals walked across the land, drawing near thin pools of water and resting under infrastructure long fallen apart.

"It looks like I'm in what used to be a city." Sora wanted to go back to sleep, thinking it to be no more than a bad dream, but that pain felt too sharp, the blood felt too wet on his skin, and he couldn't rest not knowing where he was.

"Ummmm...the last thing I remember was using the power of waking to save...oh no, Kairi! She's probably freaking out right now! I have to get out of this world!" Sora felt a stinging pain shoot through his legs when he stood up.

"Tch, nothing I can't handle!" He cast cure on his legs, then kept going. 'I have to get back home to Destiny Islands to see everyone again!'

Sora aimlessly stumbled across the barren city, hoping to find someone who could help him, or at least tell him where he was, but there didn't appear to be another sentient soul around him for miles, save for the occasional oversized moose or boar.

Eventually, his legs wore him down enough to take refuge inside of an empty building. "Let's see...giant city, killer robots and no one in sight. It's like I'm in one of those sci-fi movies, just missing the alien invasion." He chuckled to himself, thinking that making light of his situation would alleviate the crushing feeling of isolation. "Still...I mean, I can't be alone, can I?"

"一AAAAAAAH! STOP! PLEASE, DON'T DO THIS!"

'Is it bad that I'm happy to hear another voice, even if it is one screaming for help?' Sora instinctively drew his keyblade and followed the cry for help. When he reached the location of the voice, he expected to swoop in, keyblade in hand and bash as many robot heads as he needed to save the day. However, he couldn't be more wrong. Instead, Sora encountered two young women dressed in all black, gothic attire with blindfolds masking their eyes. The cry for help came from one of the women being stabbed to death by the other with a sharp, slender sword.

His first impulse was to jump out and save the woman being ruthlessly stabbed, but he hesitantly decided to stay hidden, at least for a moment. 'Hold on, what did Donald always tell me? Don't interfere with the affairs of other worlds.'

"一You don't have to do this! Please...don't kill me..."

"You brought this on yourself, deserter! Don't ever turn your back on humanity!"

'Well he's not here to stop me.' Sora came from behind and whacked his keyblade on the back of the murderess.

*CLANK

"Huh?" His keyblade was still vibrating from his attack. "That...wasn't supposed to happen."

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" The woman pointed her bloody sword in Sora's face.

"If you're not affiliated with the affairs of this android unit, don't interfere with the execution of Unit 7B. Otherwise, you can be next on the list..." She glanced over to the woman on the ground. "Actually, it looks like my job here is done. Now out of my way before I report you to command."

"What're you doing this for?!" Sora demanded.

"...That's none of your business." She pushed Sora to the side and returned her stained sword to the manipulator field on her back, then she was gone.

Sora wasted no time in attending to the woman lying on the ground, a thin pool of blood slowly poured out of her. "Don't worry, I can help you." He cast cure over the stab wounds.

"Thank you... but the...the only way you can help me is if you upload my black box data to the ...bunker. But you can't do that, can't you? You're not...YoRHa."

"What're you talking about?!" It finally dawned upon him that there were wires and cables protruding out of the stab wounds and electrical sparks erupting from various crevices of her body. "Wh-What's going on, are you a robot too?!"

"A robot...that's a new one. I'm an android, like you."

"An...Android?" He shook his head. "You've lost way too much blood, just tell me what I can do to help you!"

"I already told you...weren't you listening?"

"I'm not an android and I don't know what a black box is! Come on, there has to be something else I can do, so don't die on me!"

"...you sound human." She caressed his cheek and a smile spread across her face. "Maybe you are one." Her arm fell down and whatever life she had withered away into nothingness.

Sora stared at the lifeless corpse in disbelief. "Fine, but I won't let you die even if you want to give up!" He grabbed the sides of her body and dragged her across the grass, leaving a bloody trail on the ground. 'I don't even know where I'm going. How can I save her when I can barely save myself- no, I can't think about that right now. I'll keep going until I find someone who can help her!'

Just his luck, Sora ran into several more machines who weren't particularly happy to see him. A few of them were equipped with guns, others with buzzsaws or short swords. "Out of my way!" He summoned his keyblade, ready to throw himself at the machines, only for them to get chopped in half by a swift sword slash.

Sora gawked at the woman who came to his rescue. Unlike the others, she'd definitely seen better days, with badges of scratches and dirt smudges marking her body.

'Is she another android too?'

White, wiry hair fell down to her back and when A2 turned around to get a good look at who she saved, she made a face at him halfway between contempt and disregard as if Sora was a bug she narrowly missed stomping on. 'What a stupid-looking kid, but the stupid ones are usually the first to die off.'

"一Maybe don't leave a blood trail so the machines can't track you down easily," She remarked coldly before adding, "And what're you doing carrying a corpse around?"

"I have this annoying part of me that has to save everyone, even if I don't know them. I...I thought I could save her at least."

'He's stupid and naive, definitely won't last long out here.' "...I see. Hate to break it to you, but she's already dead."

"Oh..." He clenched his fists. "...thanks for saving me from those robots at least."

"You have nothing to thank me for, you just happened to get in the way of my killing spree. Now get lost before more show up."

"I'm way ahead of you on that one, I have no idea where I am."

"Yeah, I can tell."

"So then maybe you could tell me a little bit about this place! I don't really know why I'm here and ...and I don't know how to get back home."

"Look kid, the Resistance Camp isn't too far from here and they'll be able to help you find whatever rock you lived under far better than I ever could." She turned back around to continue her hunt for machines.

"Well, aren't you sooo nice! I guess being friendly doesn't run in your code, huh!" Sora shot back.

Dismissive of his petty insult A2 kept walking.

"Fine! What's the problem with you androids anyway? Why would you kill your own kind like that, I thought being androids meant you guys were一"

A2 stopped dead in her tracks, she stomped over to Sora, then snatched him by the shirt collar. "Shut your mouth or I'll chop your goddamn head right off! You're just a regular android, you don't know anything about YoRHa!"

"For the last time, I'm not an android!"

"What do you mean you're not an android? You're either an android or...you're a machine." The way she said machine with such pure disgust sent a shiver down Sora's spine, even though he knew he wasn't made of cables and wires, he felt sorry for any machine that had the misfortune to cross paths with her.

Growing frustrated, A2 shook Sora back and forth, secretly wishing he was a machine so she could smack that dopey look right off his face. "Start making sense before I cut you down! What are you, machine or android? Or do you want me to decide?!"

"I'm not an android or a machine, I'm a human!"

"...A human? Your ass should be on the moon, you're lying, aren't you?!"

"I'm not lying, I am a human! If I weren't, I could've saved that other android! Don't you get it?! I'm not from here, I'm not from this world!"

A2 lowered Sora to the ground, then pinched his cheek as curiosity got the best of her. 'His layer of synthetic skin is so thick and malleable, and I don't feel his endoskeleton anywhere. Could he be one of those newer models I keep hearing about? But these features are so useless for battle.'

"OW! Will you stop that already?" Sora swatted her hand away.

"You can't really be...but...an android would never call themselves human unless they lost their mind." A2's eyes fixated on Sora for the longest time until her logic processor finally put the pieces together. "...no, I can't believe it. A weakling like you...you're supposed to be one of the humans we're programmed to 'love' and 'protect'?!"

"Yeah...you got a problem with that?!"

She snorted. "What do you want me to do now, human? Bow down and kiss your ass, like I'll ever do that!"

"What the...what're you talking about?!"

"Good one. We're the ones modeled after you, so why don't you tell me?"

"I don't know what the deal is with your world, but I'm no one special, and I'm definitely not special for being human! Listen, I don't have anywhere else to go so...so let me help you fight those machines since they're causing you this much trouble!"

"Great, now you wanna help me?"

"You saved my life and I want to repay the favor! Who knows, maybe I'll even find a way back home following you around, so ... what do you say?"

Despite being created to be alike to humans in every way, A2 realized how much she didn't understand them and the vast rift that separated humans and androids from each other. She couldn't bear to look at him and his pleading eyes, so she left with little explanation for her actions. "...sorry, but I travel alone. I'm sure some other android would love to dissect you though."

"...but they're not like you." Sora let out a sigh and went the other direction, his legs still stung, but nothing hurt worse than the sinking feeling devouring his heart. "She said to head to the resistance camp, too bad I have no idea where that is! This world is gigantic and I'm getting really hungry walking around everywhere." He clenched his growling stomach, the thought of food only made him think back to his previous adventure. While there were no five-star restaurants nearby, there were giant animals roaming around which he would simply have to make do with.

'Looks like there's a boar near that bridge.' Sora took cover behind a shrub and spied on the boar who was in the middle of munching on overgrown grass. 'I don't remember boars being so friggin huge! I never caught anything bigger than a rabbit, but there's a first time for everything, right?'

He waited until the boar was completely unsuspecting of any potential predators, then jumped out of the bushes, keyblade in hand. "Let's do this, blizzard!" The shot landed perfectly and the boar was frozen to the ground. "Alright, I still got it!"

Just as he was about to run over and finish the job, a colossal machine stood in the way between him and a plate of fire-roasted pork. "Out of my way!" Sora swung his keyblade full force at the mountain of metal, however, he barely made a dent in the exterior shell. With the Goliath machine swinging its heavy arms right at him, he had no choice, but to fall back instead of tactlessly hacking away at it as per usual.

'What? I could've easily cut that thing down, don't tell me I lost all my power again.' Sora clenched the handle of the kingdom key. 'This is the only keyblade in my arsenal right now so I'll have to keep going until I find a weak point.'

Sora ran back to the Goliath machine, circling around and whacking his keyblade at various points of its body in an attempt to find such weakness, but it had the same consistency of solid iron no matter where he hit it. 'This one's tough, let's try some magic!' "Thunder!" A dark cloud swirled over the machine's head and a powerful bolt of lightning ripped through the machine down to its core.

The red light emitting from the Goliath machine's eyes flickered out and it powered down, falling into a kneeling position. 'I don't know if that actually did anything, but I have to take this chance!' Reeling his keyblade back, Sora charged at the machine, not expecting for it to instantaneously power back on, pluck him right off the ground and throw him up in the air.

Most of all, Sora definitely didn't expect for A2 to catch him in her arms just in time so he wouldn't get crushed by the machine's hand. "You...came back?" He mumbled.

"Shut up." After setting Sora down, A2 uploaded an impossibly large, flat edge sword with chains wrapped around the hilt from her NFCS database. She swung it around with ease, taunting the machine, before going in for the kill and slicing one of its arms off in a clean blow.

Without a moment's hesitation, the Goliath machine rocketed its other arm at A2, but Sora used a blizzard spell to freeze its arm to the ground where he subsequently severed the arm from its body.

"I didn't ask for your help, kid!" A2 barked.

"You don't have to!" Sora returned with a cheeky smile that pissed A2 off even more.

Lacking any arms for melee attacks, the Goliath machine reverted to a sedentary position and it shot a barrage of spherical projectiles their way. "Now what do we do? What are those things?!" Sora yelled.

"Get out of the damn way!" A2 yanked Sora's jacket hood and he narrowly missed finding out exactly what those projectiles were. "Wanna fight so much, then pay attention!"

"Yeah, yeah, I've had my fair share of fighting experience too!" Disregarding A2's warning, Sora got as close as he could to the machine, then threw his keyblade like a dagger directly at the mechanism that was shooting at them.

Luckily, the direct hit was enough to backfire the projectile system and A2 gave the machine one last slash through its body to put it out of its misery for good. An explosive death marked the end of its existence and the once Goliath machine was reduced to mere collectible parts suitable for a trash heap.

Sora turned to A2, a smile on his face. "Thanks for saving me again back there, you know we make a pretty good team!"

A2 looked away from him, silent.

"...I understand, you got other things to do, right? But it was nice meeting you!" He walked away while A2 stood still watching him slowly disappear into the City Ruins until she couldn't take it anymore.

"Wait, I'm not done with you yet!" A2 called out, she reluctantly followed after him.

"Yeah, what's up?" He asked.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...I...I'm A2, short for Attacker No. 2. I..." A2 couldn't believe what she was about to say since it went against everything she promised to give up from her old life, but there she was and to a human to add insult to injury. "I...I'll let you follow me and help me defeat every last machine on this planet. You'd die on your own, and ...and I can't let that happen so you're gonna follow me and do what I say! Is that clear?!"

Sora was grinning now. "Sounds good to me!" He offered her his hand. "My name's Sora!"

A2 stared at his hand, confused. "What, do you want something from me?"

"No-no, it's a thing friends do!"

"We're not friends," She shot down.

"Uh...had to give a shot at least."

"Whatever." She began walking away.

*grrrrrrrowl

"What is it now, another machine?"

*gurururu

"Shit, I think it's closing in on us. Keep a sharp eye out, kid!"

"..actually...that's me." He muttered

"What?" A2 turned her head around to see Sora clutching his stomach, his face turning bright red from embarrassment. "Are you sick or something?"

"No, I'm really hungry. I was actually hunting a giant boar before that machine showed up, too bad it's long gone from here..."

"You're...hungry? Oh right, humans have to do that stuff." She approached a pool of water, then stuck her sword in the water and pulled out a medium-sized mackerel fish just like that. "How's this, big enough for you?"

"Yeah, that's fine, thanks."

A2 dropped the slimy fish in Sora's hand. "Go on, eat."

"Uh...hold on."

A2 watched Sora collect some of the spare parts scattered from the Goliath machine that still had traces of oil on it and lit a small pile of machine guts on fire with his keyblade. After that, he stabbed the fish with a metal rod and held it over the fire where he sat down to wait for it to cook.

Too fed up for proper words, A2 went in for the three-prong attack of non-verbal communication; crossing her arms, impatiently tapping her heel on the ground and glaring at Sora. Telltale signs she would blow a fuse if he didn't offer an explanation for what she deemed to be an unnecessary waste of time.

"I can't eat it raw or I'll get sick." He elaborated.

"You humans are really freakin' annoying, you know that?" She finally said, leaning back on a rotted building.

"Hey! Some humans like raw fish, but I'm not one of them. I tried some sushi once and I was puking my guts out practically the whole day...ugh." He stuck his tongue in disgust, the memory still vivid in his mind.

"Didn't ask for your life story." 'He has a weak stomach, but I guess I can't say much since eating fish will kill an android.'

An uncomfortable silence dragged on between the two with the only sound being the sizzling noise from the fatty fish oil dripping on the open fire. Once it was scorched enough to Sora's liking, he chomped down on it like it was fine dining, then subsequently lamented on the fact he went from Sea Bass Poêlé to wild-caught mackerel in such a short period of time.

While Sora finished the last of his meal, A2 was deep in thought, or at least as deep as her memory processing component would allow her. 'Me with a human? I thought I'd never live long enough to see the day and now everything that we androids die for is right here in front of me.' She had this gut-wrenching hatred for Sora, but at the same time, couldn't help but enjoy seeing that stupid smile on his face. It angered her enough to make her want to rip her circuits out because she couldn't process through what she was feeling.

It didn't take long for Sora to pick up on A2's intent staring, which he thought she simply wanted to talk to him, "What's up A2? You...look like you wanna kill me again," He said.

"Who said I didn't?!"

Sora gulped down on his fish. "Wait- seriously?"

"...no." She admitted in defeat.

"Well if we did get in a fight, I'm pretty sure I could mop the floor with you!"

A2 shot daggers in his direction.

"Er, that was a joke!" Sora rubbed the back of his head. "You'd totally stomp on me in a real fight."

"You're talking too much."

"Oh, sorry."

"...Look, I know a thing or two about how you humans work, but I don't know the specifics. So you're just gonna have to tell me about these things as we go, alright?"

"E-Everything?" He croaked.

"That's what I said, didn't I? Now let's get moving."

He got on his feet. "Where are we going?"

"I was on my way to the factory until you got in the way so that's where we're headed."

"Right behind you, A2!"

NieR: [O]blivion

The Curse of Unconsciousness

A/N: Thanks for reading as always!