[S]ayonara Memories (NieR: Automata)

Chapter IV: [D]ifferent Experiences

Vee stared at the field with a somber look on her face.

The hike back to the village wasn't really much of a hassle. So long as Vee followed 2B and 9S' instructions then they would avoid unnecessary fights and finish their mission as soon as possible.

Sightseeing wasn't something Vee pegged 2B to be, seeing as the stoic android herself didn't bother to enjoy the scenery as much as 9S and Vee did. It was then she realized that she had been indeed right all along seeing as the only real reason as to their presence here was because of a side mission handed to them from their Pods.

The very same Pods Pascal had hacked to have a chat with them, much to 9S' chagrin.

Vee couldn't really understand why 9S seemed to distrust Pascal, even going so far as to calling him heartless. Although technically it was true, the deeper meaning behind that word didn't go unnoticed to Vee. It made her 'upset' to know that the very android that helped her had felt disgusted at the prospect of befriending someone like Pascal.

Pascal and those in the village weren't like the other rogue machines they encountered, Vee could attest to that but she doubted that 9S and 2B would believe her. For all she knew, they could be doubting her too and that was something that made her even more upset as she watched the swaying of the tall weeds in the abandoned field.

But it's not like they didn't have a reason to hate on machines. Pascal had told her that much when she questioned what differentiated androids from machines. The machines were intruders, weapons created by 'aliens' that wanted to dominate this world. Androids, like her, were created by the world's inhabitants- the specie known as 'human'- to destroy the aliens on this planet while they fled to the moon to await the end of the war.

Seeing as androids were created in the image and likeness of man, it would be no surprise why they also carried with them the hatred for machines. The only reason why Vee couldn't see past this was because she had woken up with her entire memory box completely erased and devoid of such a feature.

Or was it?

After meeting Anemone, Vee could've sworn she had met her before. Was it what humans called 'Deja vu'? To normal androids, such a feat of recalling would be impossible, given that unlike humans, once memories were erased from androids or machines, those memories would be gone for good.

Vee, according to Pascal, was a different case. Her memory box had been erased, yes, but not fully as Pascal had stated. They were merely sent into an unknown storage, locked up with an intricate system that even she herself had kept trying to hack for a while now and failing miserably each time.

Pascal concluded that the storage was meant as some sort of safe to prevent sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands and to also avoid evidences from being permanently deleted during memory overloads. He mused that Vee's former 'self' must have used the storage area as a final attempt to save whatever memory she had left from corruption. From what though, Vee had yet to know.

"Are you alright, Vee? You seem to be spacing out." 9S' voice brings her out of her musings, her blue eyes refocusing to see 9S facing her, his visor hiding his eyes but she didn't need to see them to know what he was feeling. Unlike humans, androids didn't have the capacity to produce emotions from their eyes so staring into them was merely pointless. The voice register was what gave their emotions away, seeing that their vocal chords were meant to mimic humans.

So rather than reading their expressions, Vee resorted to using their voice pitches to determine the 'human-mimicked' reactions.

"Do you and 2B hate me, 9S?" She questioned him apprehensively, taking the male android by surprise at such a query. Did he hate Vee? 9S understood the term well but such an emotion was only directed at the machines that ravaged his creators' world, so where on earth did Vee come to such a conclusion?

"Where did you come up with a conclusion like that? We barely met and that's not enough to justify why I would hate you as you had assumed. If this is because of 2B then you might be mistaken. Although she can be a bit cold at times, she's not one to hate on you without a valid reason."

"And yet you would hate on Pascal even though you barely know him?"

'Ah, so that's where it was coming from.' 9S mused, realizing that her conclusion stemmed from his earlier interactions with Vee's guardian.

"He's a machine. It's understandable, even for you, why us androids are always cautious towards them."

"But not all machines are bad! Even if I'm an android, they still took me in. Doesn't that mean something?" Vee wasn't one to usually impose her belief on others but merely hating someone because you were told you should? It was a program encoded from the moment they were created but did they have to follow it blindly to the point of overlooking the goodness they had done just because others of their kind were not as kind and approachable as them?

From the videos Vee watched, she saw the capability of humans to accept others of different kind into their families. Although some weren't as keen as accepting others of the same kind because of ethnicity, skin color, and religion there were still others that accepted them and lived in peaceful communities with them. If such were possible in humans then wouldn't it only be right that androids, who were created to be like humans, be as accepting of others too?

Although machines were not human made they were still created in the manner much like how androids are created. If Pascal and his village were capable of the same 'compassion' and 'kindness' like that of humans, then isn't that an example that even machines and androids can get along?

Androids and Machines... Their process of evolution, surely it's not as different as it is from humans, right?

"I guess it does but... it can't be helped that it was programmed into us from the moment we were created. Surely you've felt it too, Vee. From the moment Pascal restarted you, surely your first programmed protocol was to eliminate machines."

Programmed? Protocol? Eliminate? Is that what happens to them when they first wake up? Did they experience it differently than she did? Even with her memories gone, her experience when Pascal had started her up was recalling a sort of memory she was certain belonged to her... Well, technically not hers but a memory of the human who created her.

It was like passing a torch from one being to the next. She knew her creator had been long dead but maybe, as a final goodbye to Vee, she had implanted a small part of her memory so that Vee had something to keep as her own.

A sense of familial tie to her creator.

"Vee?" Once again 9S couldn't help but call out again to the female android who had once again spaced out. His voice managed to bring her back but the scrunching of her brows told him that her answer would be clearly different from what he expected.

"My first memory upon waking up wasn't a program telling me that machines were enemies. My first memory was the feel of the sunlight on my skin, my eyes staring at the horizon. The vast sea before me is as blue as my eyes, the gulls crying over the harbor from where I sat. There's a picture book in my hand while next to me is a child of five years old grinning at me. I called him my 'son' and he was worth everything to me..."

Vee's experience baffled 9S. He didn't experience anything like that when he was booted up. Even 2B whom he had personally handled didn't have such a feature in her upon start-up. Was it a sort of encoding only present in older models? Vee did look to be an older model than the new ones he saw roaming the Bunker.

It would explain why she harbored no hatred towards the machines. Maybe that's why the feature had been removed from the newer androids like him and 2B upon their creation. Such a trait only made their missions difficult due to the effect it would have on their performances. Yet, as much as 9S hated to admit it, he was a bit jealous at the capacity of the older models to own memories of such.

It made them more 'human' regardless if their memories were theirs or not. Something 9S realized was lacking in their Bunker even though they were given 'emotions' when they were created.

What's the point in having emotions when in the end... You are meant to repress them?