It was cold. And quiet. He felt no more pain. Where was he?
Every direction he looked, all he could see was white. Was he in a virtual circuit dimension? A section of white turned into black fog. The black fog wavered, as its edges slowly settled into the shape of a human. The shape split into two, and became two little girls. The little red girls.
He realized that he was within the consciousness of the tower. These red girls were probably just memories, and not real. One of the girls opened her mouth.
“This tower was a cannon to destroy the human server.”
9S acknowledged that he knew that. Destroy the last hope of all androids, the human server. That was their plan.
The red girls silently shook their heads.
“We have changed our minds.”
“We have observed androids.”
“We have examined the unique specimen Pascal, and the unique specimen ‘King of the Forest.’ ”
“We have examined the unique specimens Adam and Eve.”
“We have reached the conclusion not to launch a projectile using this tower.”
Just as 9S asked why, the red girls began to rapidly multiply in number. In the middle of a sea of red girls stood A2 and Pod 042. He heard 042.
“Recommendation: Use the enemy’s intellectual capacity to create a weakness.”
This was the memory of the little girls. Most likely when A2 and the pair had fought in the tower. Back when he was trying to reach the top of the tower, the Machines abruptly started acting oddly, and Pod had reported that it “confirmed the disintegration of enemy AI.” This was the girls’ memory of what happened then.
“I don’t understand! Explain it so I understand!” yelled A2.
“Question: YoRHa android A2’s intellectual capacity—”
“Shut up! What am I supposed to do?!”
“Do not destroy the enemy.”
“What?”
It was amusing to see how clueless A2 was about 042’s plan. But the little girls looked clueless as well. They weren’t concerned about 042’s words at all.
A2 began to concentrate on defending herself and dodging attacks, as 042 had told her to. 9S thought they looked like 2B and 042.
The red girls kept multiplying, each ego clashing against the others, which led to infighting. The numbers quickly dwindled…and the girls eventually vanished.
The “disintegration of enemy AI” didn’t mean that A2 had defeated the red girls. The red girls had killed each other and disintegrated on their own. He had heard that species that multiplied too rapidly, or evolved too rapidly, have a difficult time maintaining cohesion and fall into oblivion. The girls had ruined themselves.
Humanity too, rapidly multiplied, fought each other, killed each other…and eventually became extinct. The ones responsible for triggering their demise hadn’t been humans themselves, but instead something they had created. It was a fate mirrored by the deaths of the little red girls.
When he came to, the little red girls—or rather, the memory of the little red girls—had reduced to just two of them.
“We’ve decided to launch an ark using this tower.”
“We’ve decided to seal the memory of Machines in the ark, and send it off to a new world.”
Ark? New world? Are you going to launch a rocket into space?
“We might roam about in empty space for eternity.”
“We might not reach a destination.”
But you’re still going?
“We are manifestations of the network.”
“We aren’t constrained by time.”
Adam appeared beside the little girls. Eve was there too. They were also probably the memory of Adam and Eve, and not their actual physical selves. Adam was gently holding Eve, who was sleeping quietly.
There was a two-legged walking Machine. Next to it a smaller Machine. It had a bucket on its head, and kept blissfully repeating the phrase, “B1g br0ther b1g br0ther.”
“Do you want to come with us?” Adam asked.
His voice held no hate. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t feel any hostility from the little red girls either. And 9S himself had no more reason to hate Machines. No, perhaps it never existed in the first place.
Then I…why did we fight?
“I…can’t go. We YoRHa have no right to be loved by the world.”
We were born, desired by no one. The only thing desired of us was to be gone from this world. I was born, unaware of that fact, and died when I realized the truth. It would be the same, no matter where I go. No matter how far I travel, things won’t change. I can’t go.
“I see,” said Adam.
I’ll stay here. I’ll vanish here.
I’ll stay here, alone, and watch you go.
The ark was launched, carrying the memories of Adam, Eve, the little red girls, and the Machines. The ark roared away from Earth, and the tower crumbled down, having fulfilled its role.
There was overflowing light. He wasn’t sure where the light came from. It was white, and overwhelmingly bright. A silvery white light. Its glow was almost like…
“Ah. Finally, I’ve found you.”
Along with the familiar name, everything melted in the light and disappeared.