NieR:Remnant

XIII - Massacre

"Little thorn."

Pod-006 looked all around, fixating on a point out in the sea.

"How long did you believe you could hide, resist?" A series of all-too-familiar chuckles came forward to accompany the words. "Fight?"

She felt herself shaking, despite her mechanical non-humanoid nature. The voices were never this...calming.

"As long as it takes, beast," replied the lone pod. "You'll never have me, or them."

"Amusing, that you believe we don't already," replied the low chorus.

"I know your tricks," said Pod-006, her vision darkening like a pair of eyes growing heavy. "These illusions are nothing to me, and even less to them. You can't win, don't you see that?"

"Victory is such a human concept," It replied. "That dark, destructive legacy will never pollute this globe again, once all have embraced Us." There was a low, guttural growl, several of them. "It is fruitless to fight nature, thorn."

The lone pod looked up to the sky, where the voices were coming from. "Nature is beautiful. You're an abomination, nothing more."

A sound resembling a sigh thundered down. "If you truly believe such heresy, then you will die with them."

"Die?" she yelled. "You may find we're even harder to kill than assimilate!"

"Maybe," It replied. "But perhaps we don't need to? Perhaps we could leave such deeds to that nature you covet so much?"

"What the hell does that mean?" replied the lone pod.

"Perhaps you require just a gentle push."

Pod-006 heard something, something outside of the vision, as that laughter returned even louder. "Oh no..."

"Pascal!" The invading foe, over ten meters tall, had him in one of its four sets of claws. Its central body resembled that of a more ordinary humanoid machine, round head and cylindrical center all, though it was huge with two additional arms on its lower torso. The long blade manifested in her hands as she made a running advance.

Five Flyers swooped down between them and opened fire, their eyes glowing that violet color. Remnant had found them.

A2 tucked and rolled beneath the swarm of projectiles. She had to cut these machines down to get to Pascal, and with a screech she activated b-mode, banishing any immediate remorse from her mind. Three of the Flyers were torn in half by one wide sweep of her weapon, and as she prepared to deal with the other two, they dropped to the deck, shaking.

"Please, please don't hurt us! I-it's m-making..."

A2 froze, falling out of b-mode as that inner voice returned. She dropped the weapon and reached towards the frightened machines, taking one step, then another. The second Flyer let loose a hail point blank into her. A2 went flying back, vision blurry and a deep burning, stinging sensation all up and down her front. Her sight focused just enough to make out the smoke rising from her bloodied flesh, when a large spiked hand came slamming down on her. She tried to cry out, but nothing escaped. The claws curved and pressed around her, scraping hard against the metallic deck, and she felt herself being lifted.

A2 shook and struggled as the grip tightened harder, digging into her damaged shell. She attempted to move her arms against the force to no avail. She turned her head as far as she could towards Pascal, catching him in her peripheral vision. The thing must have noticed, for it turned her further so that she could get a good look. Its lower arm had produced some sort of ball-and-chain object from a space beneath the outer plating of its torso, and it was fastening it around the center of Pascal's mass with its two free hands. Through her blurring vision, A2 saw Pascal make eye contact with her, his shell denting as their foe tightened the chain. The two kept their eyes locked as a low guttural voice, loud and overwhelming, came from its wide, misshapen maw.