[P]arallel Worlds [PGR] [NieR: Automata]

Chapter 5

"When was the last time I've seen a forest as vibrant and peaceful as this that weren't records?" Echo had found herself looking around the forest as they had walked around the area. "The air here doesn't feel as suffocating as well..."

"Really? I thought I was the only one." Ayla looked at Echo with surprise. "This place feels almost harmless."

"I'll say. This place is quite nice. However, this world isn't peaceful just because there's no Punishing Virus. There's still the ongoing war of machines and androids." Trojan had to remind herself about their task and the knowledge that they had learned. "Of course, now there's the looming threat of the Punishing Virus possibly existing here. Let's hope that if we do find it, we snuff out every trace of it."

"Or we can hope that it doesn't even exist here at all." Sica tried to lighten the situation up.

"That too commandant. That too." Trojan smiled as she nodded at her commandant's words. "Let's hope for the best that it's just something wrong happening with the machines and not the influence of the virus."

"The ruins around this place feel like a historic landmark. I wonder if we were to go further into these ruins we can find anything worth salvaging!" Ayla looked at the ruins nearby with bright eyes. "Perhaps we can find artifacts of this world's history and information and so forth! Maybe some art too!"

"Sounding like a true member of the WGAA." Liv smiled at Ayla's joyful mood. "We haven't encountered any enemies like last time."

"It's a good thing for us. We should minimize our encounters with enemies." Lee had said as he looked at the androids who were leading them as they knew the area more than them. "Fighting may take up some of our time, even if our group is quite big, it's better to not have to waste our time fighting."

"I agree. However, we should also take note of any enemy that may be behaving strangely." Lucia followed up. "So far there hasn't been any Punishing Virus concentration that has been detected."

"By the way, how is it that your team got back together?" Gray's voice was heard from his helmet as he talked to Iris Warbler as a whole. "Your team had been disbanded indefinitely after the events that took place in Constellia. What brought up the sudden change for the team to get back together? When I was discussing with the council what we had found on our first trip here, they had taken time to discuss what the next move would be. They had said Strike Hawk would come to retrieve the laptop. However, Iris Warbler was mentioned as if the team was never disbanded." It was something he had taken notice of but didn't question. And yet when Iris Warbler had met up with him and the others, they acted as if they had still been a team despite what had happened in the past. He knows that despite the fact they weren't a team anymore, to an extent the four had often still met up and didn't have bad blood with one another.

"I'm curious about this as well." Lucia said as she recalled the time when Gray finished his meeting with the council and he had told them about the things the council had said. "I didn't bother asking the commandant back then, but hearing that Iris Warbler would be joining was a surprise nonetheless since it was known that you four had disbanded. But there must be a reason why Iris Warbler was put back together, correct?" A team suddenly didn't get put back together without reasoning. There must be a meaning behind such an action.

"Your curiosity for such a matter is reasonable. Especially since all of this was mainly our (my) fault." Echo gripped her bow as she focused her attention on the nearby sound coming from the bush. Her guard slowly loosened as an animal came into view. She looked in amusement as if it was a moose. The carefree animal looked at them for a moment before retreating away. "The chairman of the WGAA had us four meet with him."