Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everything quickly went to shit, if you’d ask 12B. 

Here’s her, a career Battler android, with numerous Machine kills to her name, about to lose her marbles, all because a shitty virus managed to infect her systems.

“Alert: Logic Virus contamination has risen to Level 2. 40% of systems are corrupted. Vision and auditory difficulties detected.” The monotone voice of Pod 626 reminded her. 

“Urgh. No shit, buddy. I’m feeling like I’m about to throw up right now.” 12B covered her mouth as she gagged. 

“Don’t go losing your marbles yet, will you? We hafta find the captain.” Her squadmate, and possibly her friend, 6B, reminded her, even though she’s clearly infected and struggling to move as well. 

“I’m tryin’ here, jackass. Not my fault, this shitty virus makes me feel like my stomach is turning upside down.” She retorted. 

6B huffed and clutched at her head, groaning in pain. “FFffucckk… if that is the effect on you, mine’s like being hit in the head repeatedly by a Type-40 Fist… Pod, have you located Captain 18D yet?” 6B asked her Pod companion. 

“Negative. Initiating Callback Ping now.” Pod 970 tonelessly responded. Its upper chassis raised up, and a visible expanding circle swept over the area. “Black Box signals detected up ahead. There’s a possibility the signals are infected. Proposal: Retreat.”

“No can do, bastard. Gotta find the captain.” 12B shot back. She has the appearance of a female Android, with strength belying her deceptive frame. She has a head full of fiery, dull maroon curls and yellow eyes covered by a black blindfold. She would’ve normally worn a strapless, high-slit dress with laced sides and a sleeveless, brown bodysuit, but as of right now, she’s wearing YoRHa’s Heavy Armor. Hovering around her back is a Type-40 Axe suspended by her FFCS. 

“What if we sneak around? It’s possible the infected don’t have any contact with their Pods right now?” Suggested 6B. She has brown hair in an angled bob with wide, blue eyes covered similarly by a black blindfold. A small decorative ruffled hat sat on her head, while she wore the same Heavy Armor as her teammate, 12B. A nodachi floats behind her, suspended by FFCS, close to scraping the ground due to its length. 

Both were trekking through the devastated area of City Ruins, the sky darkened as if sympathizing with their plight. 

The final battle against the Machines, following the deaths of the Units Adam and Eve, was supposed to be a clear-cut invasion to wipe out all Machine lifeforms. But of course, things took a shitty turn when an EMP blast rocketed the battlefield, and to their horror, infected many, if not all, YoRHa androids. 6B and 12B are the lucky ones to not get infected and taken over completely, and stayed conscious to find their captain, 18D. 

It’s to their cursed luck that she was assigned to a different team than them, but 6B and 12B won’t forget the kind Defender who pulled back 12B from manic aggressiveness and 6B from deep contemplation about life. Safe to say, they’re devoted to each other. They each made a promise that if they were to die, they would die on their terms, not due to some hunk of metal. 

So here they were, using Pod 970’s Ping ability to locate the black box signal of their captain, 18D. 18D is probably what held their ragtag squad together; she’s the glue if you ask them. Has the hallmarks of a good leader—selfless, calm, and determined. Add the fact that she has saved their hides numerous times by either pulling 12B from quicksand she is somehow blind to see, or pulling out 6B’s sword from where it got stuck in a tree for the nth time, 18D is reliable, and with a wicked, dry humor to boast. Who they’re looking for is an android like them who wears Heavy Armor, but has long white hair tied in a high ponytail, and red eyes beneath the standard black blindfold all YoRHa soldiers were required to wear. 

They ran through destroyed rubble, cracked concrete, occasionally passing through cleaved machines and androids alike. 6B turned her head, ignoring the bodies of her fallen sisters-in-arms with blades impaled on their stomachs, and focused on not succumbing on the migraine jackhammering on her head. 

“Alert: Logic Virus Contamination has risen to Level 3. 60% of systems are corrupted. Mobility systems compromised.” The monotone, clinical voice of Pod 970 broke the silence. 6B felt it, the numbness on her left arm, before shutting down completely. She felt like running on needles especially on her right leg, and she pushed past it, forcing the servos to keep moving instead of doing what the virus dictated it to do. 

And so they ran. They ran some more. They evaded platoons of infected YoRHa soldiers. They ducked for cover as infected Scanner Units on their Flight Units zoomed ahead, looking for victims. They executed stealth kills on machines they came across. 

At last, Pod 970’s voice rang through the empty clearing. “Unit 18D’s Black Box signal detected. Warning: Unit 18D is infected. Proposal: Eliminate 18D immediately.”

“No.” 6B and 12B spat out in unison. 

“Proposal—”

“Shut up you hulking box of AI! If we’re gonna die, we’re gonna do it together!” 12B raised a shaking, angry fist at Pod 970. 

“Come on, Twelve, let’s just meet with the captain.” 6B placated her, raising her only working hand to place on the redhead’s shoulder. 

“Yeah, let’s go… Six.” 

They headed to where they detected their Captain’s signal. 

Upon seeing a kneeling figure supported by her spear, white hair messy and dislodged from her ponytail, they rushed forward. The android snapped its head up and went on guard with her spear, but both Battler androids raised their hands. 

“Wait, 18D, it’s us!” 6B called. The android named 18D’s eyes widened behind her blindfold, and she relaxed, only to hunch over as she gripped her chest from pain. 

“Oh shit! Ya okay, Capt’n?” 12B awkwardly hovered, placing a hesitant gloved hand on 18D’s back. 

“Peachy, but thanks for asking…” 18D answered. She looked back up at them. “What are you two doing here? Why aren’t you with your assigned squads?” She asked them. 

6B shrugged. “Everyone immediately got infected except the two of us. We had to put them down or risk them destroying everything.” Her fist clenched in rage. “Those damn Machines… They made us kill our own comrades!” She spat. 

“And I think we’re near to killing ourselves as well.” 12B added, nonchalant about her death. “6B’s contamination levels has risen up to maybe 70% right now, and I’m not far behind. You know what that means, right Captain?” She asked. 

18D’s lips pursed in grim determination. “You’re thinking of what humans used to call group suicide, aren’t you?”

Both Battlers nodded. “Only that, we’d go out with a boom.” 12B joked. 

18D heaved a big sigh. “Alright. Let’s find the most concentrated part of infected YoRHa soldiers so we can do it.”

“I think that wouldn’t be necessary.” 6B quipped. 

Sure enough, slowly coming around from all directions were marching infected YoRHa soldiers, seemingly having spotted them. They all look malicious, black ants with glowing red eyes. Held in their puppeteered grips were their standard swords colored gold stained with the blood of their uninfected compatriots, or even their comrades. 

“Shit, how come the Pods didn’t detect them?!” 12B cursed. 

“Look at that.” 6B pointed. Among the army was a machine with a long grotesque neck pulsing with yellow waves. “That tin can over there is an EMP-type; it must’ve masked the Black Box signals from the infected soldiers.”

“Whatever it is, it’s perfect for what we want to do, yeah?” 12B muttered. She hovered her hand over her chest, where a black, patterned cube emerged, yellow energy glowing from its horizontal patterns. 6B and 18D did the same as well, three glowing cubes now hovering over their armored palms. 

18D smiled. “It was nice fighting with both of you.” She said. 

6B returned it. “I won’t forget all of you. If there’s heaven up there, let’s meet up however it takes, ‘kay?”

12B smirked. “Whaaat? Afraid you’ll get lost, Six?”

“Shut up, Twelve.”

“Waah! Eighteen, did ya hear that? Six finally swore!”

“And it’s only on our deathbed, so relish it.”

“Alright, you two.” 18D held out her Black Box, the infected army almost upon them. “Let’s make our next life count.”

“You got it.” The Battlers chorused.

And their Black Boxes clinked together.

In an instant, an enormous explosion equivalent to 25 kilotons of TNT rocketed the entirety of City Ruins, wiping out all the infected YoRHa units, machines and surroundings altogether. 

The three never got to wake up in the Bunker, for at that precise moment, the Bunker also imploded, destroying the transport terminals within it. 

And for a moment, all was still.

In an unfamiliar world, where long-thought extinct species still roamed the planet, in the year 1905, on the ruins of a country named Xerxes, a hooded man scribbled what looked like a circle on its many stone floors. 

The man was bandaged to hell and heaven, with his distinct features having white hair, bronze skin, and red eyes, with one bandaged due to the fact that he was freshly out of healing. His remaining eye blazed with rage and determination. 

This war is killing them, erasing their identities, destroying their history, debauching their religion because an Amestrian soldier has the gall to kill an Ishvalan child in cold blood four years ago. 

His eye filled with tears. Young Rashna wouldn’t ever see the sun again. She didn’t suffer, taking a bullet to the head that killed her instantly, yet her death has caused such suffering. 

No matter, for her older brother will be there to summon something that would turn the tides once and for all!

Finishing the transmutation circle and placing his hands on the outside of it, activating the array, he wished for all his heart for forgiveness of going against Ishvala’s teachings, as well as wished for something that could turn the tides of war to their side, even if it was to ensure Senhud would stay standing. 

“Please… Help us survive, no, win this war!” He cried out, before fully disappearing, the Toll taking his everything to grant what he wanted. 

A massive alchemical lightning echoed in the desolate ruins, thrumming with power, before abruptly disappearing. 

Laying across the array were three women. 

One with red hair, one with white hair, and one with brown hair.

Rubredo, Albedo, and Nigredo. The Three Stages of Magnum Opus. It’s only fitting that what the Ishvalan alchemist summoned were these three. 

Underneath black blindfolds, eyes, colored yellow, red, and blue, snapped open simultaneously. 

Here's how they all look like (Default Outfits)

18D, 6B and 12B

Chapter Text

Upon opening their eyes, the three closed them quickly after being assaulted by the sun.

“Fuck! My eyes! I felt like they burned just now!” 12B complained. 

“Same here… I wouldn’t be surprised that they’re melting…” 6B grumbled.

“How strange…” 18D mumbled. “Didn’t we… just die?”

Silence reigned before 12B sat up so quickly she almost gave herself whiplash. “HOW THE FUCK WERE WE ALIVE?!” She yelled. 

“Did a glitch in the system occur? I remember reading that from the Bunker’s limited supply of fiction…” 6B muttered, sitting up slowly. 

18D sat up as well and looked at their surroundings. “Aren’t we in some kind of ruins right now?” She stated. The two Battlers looked around as well. “Yeah, I remember 32S uploading pictures of Desert Ruins, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t look like this…” 6B told them. 

“Well, we won’t accomplish something by just sitting here like ducks.” 18D stated, standing up and dusting her attire of sand. “What do you say we go explore?” She asked them. 

“Wait guys, look! I think this was called something.” 12B held up a knapsack. “6B, what was this called again?” She asked. 

“It’s a bag, more specifically, a knapsack, I think it was used to carry around items that can’t be carried by hand. Maybe it belonged to a Resistance android that left it here?” 6B answered.

“A resistance Android… So we can’t be far from a camp, then?” 18D asked. 

“Pod 970, Use Callback Ping to locate the Resistance Camp.” 6B ordered. When silence reigned, she looked around. “Pod? That’s strange, I never thought I’d miss its monotone voice…”

“Same here, Pod 626 is missing as well.” 12B added. She then started shouting. “Oi! You metal box! Sorry for insulting ya, but we could use your help here! Stop sulking!” She called out.

6B sweatdropped. “I’m pretty sure that would just drive it away further…”

18D coughed. “Nevertheless, we can’t be blamed if we snoop through the things, right? We were in the middle of an unfamiliar area of the desert, after all.” She justified. “12B, dump everything on the ground so we can see its contents.”

“Roger that, Capt’n.” 12B did as she asked, holding the knapsack upside down, causing items to fall and disturb the sand. “Eugh, this is why I hate deserts, things get inside everything!” She complained.

6B and 18D rifled through the belongings of the Android. “Whoa, that’s a rare coloring if I ever saw one.” 6B stated, holding an identification card with the face of a man in his late twenties with bronze skin, white hair, and red eyes. His face is set in a scowl, as if he doesn’t like who is taking the picture. “The name of this android is Aarav. Nationality… Ishvalan? Birthplace, Ishval? Date of Birth… September 9, 1885?!” 6B’s pitch rose with each new information. 

“Wait wait wait, what did it just said?!” 12B hurried to look over 6B’s shoulder, who whistled. “Damn, he must be ancient.” 

“If there were rumors of an android that has lived for ten thousand years without somehow breaking down, it would’ve been on our database, try and think logically sometimes, 12B.” 18D reasoned, but her lips are pursed. “That is the only option here, unless…”

“Whaddya thinkin’ Capt’n?” 12B asked. 

“We time-traveled.” 18D said with finality. Twin heads snapped into her. “HUH?!” Two Battlers screamed. 

18D shrugged, as if its no big deal. “What? The many time-traveling fictions in the Bunker’s database is somewhat entertaining, you see.” She reasoned.

“B-But, that’s impossible!” 6B stammered. 12B bent down to pick up a rectangular object with white rectangular thin leaves on them. “I know that we are like, futuristic, but that is going too far!”

“And space-time travel which I remind ya, how the godforsaken dead Aliens arrived to our planet by, is impossible?” 12B quipped. She began flipping through the pages rapidly. Perks of being a Battler android—they’re equipped with a near-perfect photographic memory. They remain like recordings in the unit’s black box, and could review said memories like choosing a movie to watch in a subscription channel. Any information that they receive are digested quickly, and 12B whistled at what she found. 

“I don’t know about you guys, but I think this Android is practicing magic.”

6B’s jaw dropped. 18D raised an eyebrow. “Explain.” She said. 

12B showed them one of the pages on the item called a book. “This physical file here specifically entailed alchemy— the ancient metaphysical science/mystical art of manipulating and altering matter and, to a lesser extent, energy, by using natural energy. It is the scientific technique of understanding the structure of matter, decomposing it, and then reconstructing it. If performed skillfully, it is even possible to create gold out of lead. However, as it is a science, there are some natural principles in place. Only one thing can be created from something else of a certain mass. This is the Principle of Equivalent Exchange. Yadda yadda, its basically magic but mixed with science and rules in place, kind of like the Law of Conservation of Mass and Law of Natural Providence, yeah? Anyways, now that the background info is given, let’s move on to what happened specifically to Unit Aarav over there.” 12B info-dumped on them. This would’ve normally overloaded a common Unit’s processors, but 18D and 6B are top-class YoRHa androids. They parsed through the heap of info dumped on them and comprehended it within seconds. 

“Okay, go on.” 6B told her. And 12B did go on. 

“So… this book has one of said transmutation circles that could be used by a beginner, but it actually delved into a type of forbidden transmutation—summoning transmutation. Alongside human transmutation, it’s considered taboo for Alchemists to attempt to summon something out of this world.” 12B continued.

18D felt the realization click onto place. “So… you’re saying,” She looked at her two squadmates. “We didn’t just time-traveled, we were summoned; we dimension-traveled.” 

“Yup. And there’s a chance that Aarav isn’t an Android.” 

6B looked at her with both parts trepidation and hope. “Wait, you mean…!”

“Yes. Aarav isn’t a long-lived Android. He’s an Alchemist. A human.”

The three were left shocked in this revelation. Of course there’ll be humans, its basically ten thousand years before their extinction!

6B’s lips pulled into a wide smile, giddiness rolling off of her. “A human! A real human! We could finally fulfill our purpose of protecting one! Isn’t this great, Captain? We could finally accomplish our dream of seeing one!” She exclaimed in happiness, uncertainty about the current situation forgotten. 

18D smiled indulgently and sighed. “Yeah. It’s like being told fairytales exist, huh? Humans are still alive ten thousand years before we’re born… and we get the chance to meet them? Lucky us.” 

“Ohh man, 9S and 2B are gonna be so pissed we met humans before them!” 12B cackled. “Unconventional methods of how we arrived notwithstanding, I should probably mention to you that there’s a possibility Aarav is actually…” She grimaced. “Dead.”

6B’s good mood evaporated in an instant. “Explain.” She demanded. 

“You know how summoning transmutation is forbidden? This book actually goes in-depths of what happens.” 12B did. “They say the Alchemist who performed the taboo gets dragged in front of Truth, the God of this universe.”

It felt like the air was heavier somehow, like something became aware upon having its name spoken.

“There is no record of appearance, only that the Alchemist gets dragged inside a “Gate” and sees the “Truth”. After that, they pay a “Toll” which usually involves taking what they value the most—it varies from person to person.”

“This Aarav unit, no, human, must’ve been very desperate to attempt summoning transmutation to… turn the tides of war.”

6B smacked her face. “Oh great, we just got out of one, and now we’re like, plonked back to another one?!” She exclaimed, exasperated. “I know the two of you are like, battle-lovers, but a girl needs her peace and quiet!” She added.

12B bristled. “ Who are you calling a battle-obsessed-maniac-that-she-gets-high-in-combat, huh?! ” She explodes.

18D sighed and raised hands in a ‘calm down’ gesture. “This is not the time nor place to do that, guys.” She said matter-of-factly. 

The two Battlers harrumphed. 12B sighed and continued telling. “Anyhow, considering the fact he summoned three advanced androids that are part of an automated infantry, which has the connotations of war in it, I reckon that Aarav paid a Toll too big that simply caused him to vanish in thin air.”

“You mean the 'Toll' he paid was his whole existence?” 6B stammered. 12B nodded. 

18D crossed her arms. “Makes sense to me. This is the Universe’s way of balancing what Aarav imbalanced. For the three of us that are summoned, he paid his life to do so. We could only honor what he intended us to do here, and that is…”

“Fight the war on his behalf.” 6B finished. “But against who? I’m pretty sure there are no Machines around here.”

12B grimaced, like it was physically paining her to say this. “Against other humans.”

“EHHHH????”

18D nodded like it made sense, unruffled. “Our records state that humans literally are capable of waging war on each other one second and loving them the next. They’re the pinnacle of duality. Imperfect and perfect, evil and good, warmongering and peaceful, even they have two sexes which are men and women. Why are these humans going to be any different?” She explained. 

“But… I’m not really keen on killing people made in the image of our Creators…” 6B protested weakly. 

“We ain’t gonna kill ‘em.” 12B reasoned. “We’re sending them to the bosom of God, or Truth.” There’s the feeling of being watched again. “Or Ishvala, according to Aarav’s religious texts. Think about this, we’re sending them to meet their maker, ain’t that a dream come true for them like it was for us?” She explained.

“But still! We’re killing them no matter how pretty the words with it!” 6B protested. 

12B threw her hands up, “Well, I don’t know how to convince ya, Six! We’re fighting this war come hell or high water! It’s the least we could do for what Aarav intended us to do.”

“You’re overlooking a very important question here, guys.” 18D quipped. “Where is the war anyway? Who do we have to meet up with so we could join their side? What is our cover story? We can’t possibly explain that we’re the product of a successful summoning transmutation and that we’re Androids. Remember, humans are not so welcoming of others that aren’t their kind, or their color, even.” 18D explained. 

That got them shutting up and thinking. 18D sighed and bent down to rifle through the late Aarav’s things. “I’ll search for a map here. You help me to gather information from what Aarav carried.” She ordered. The two almost snapped into salute before remembering they may not be part of YoRHa anymore, and worked in silence.

They unearthed more possessions. A tincture meant for soothing healing wounds, a priceless map of what they now know to be Amestris, letters exchanged between individuals named Yahya and Mirha (So we head for Ishval then, or rather, the city of Senhud?), a half dozen of dried jerky (they ate it all, what, are you surprised? Androids can eat, they have a functioning mouth after all, yet their food is processed into energy by the miniature fusion reactor within them.), a faded photograph of a younger Aarav and his family, with tear stains on them, a half-consumed bottle of water, a box of chalk reduced to mere stubs and more books about alchemy.

“I guess that is all of Aarav’s belongings.” 12B stated. 

“What do we do now?” 6B said, she sat down and leaned against a crumbled wall when they weren’t looking. 

18D is holding the map. “We leave Aarav’s belongings here. We don’t want to gain unnecessary hostilities on the assumption that we killed him.” She told them. 

6B gasped, horrified. “They wouldn’t think of that, would they?” She murmured. 

“Of course they would. We don’t exactly look the friendliest person around, right?” 12B gestured at their attire and their weapons hovering behind them. Intimidating futuristic Heavy Armor, levitating weapons behind their back, held by FFCS rings, and frightening blindfolded visages. “Should we hide our weapons, then?”

“We don’t. It’s better if we hold them in our hands, so it’ll look more natural.” 18D suggested. “Alright, I’ve memorized this map. I marked our next destination on our shared map, Ishval. We’re currently on the ruins of a country that used to be called Xerxes.” 

“What were we waiting for. Let’s go!” 12B exclaimed enthusiastically, happy to stretch her legs after so much standing around. Upon gaining the map of Amestris after it was uploaded, she started a light jog towards the general direction of Ishval.

“Wait! Wait for us, you overeager idiot!” 6B called out after her, with her nodachi still floating behind her back. 

18D raced after them, pocketing the map in her inventory. “I guess this pace is okay. Let me lead.”

She went ahead of both of them, the three of them jogging through the dunes. Their legs are pumping with each movement, and slightly sinking due to their substantial weight.  Due to their heavily reinforced combat frames, a YoRHa android is about two and a half times the weight of a healthy human of equivalent size. 12B sometimes stumbled from a foot sinking abruptly, while 6B wobbled from the same thing. 18D had had enough and grabbed the two on the back of their collars, hauling them with easily with her strength. 

“Our estimated time when we get to Senhud is around 3 hours if we go at this speed. We could cut it in half if we go at our max speed, although we have to slow down when we’re about a kilometer from Senhud; we have to hold our weapons in our hands to hide our FFCS, and possibly raise them in surrender—remember, Ishval is in wartime now, and the humans are guaranteed to be alert and wary of outsiders that looked nothing of their age’s technology.” 18D relayed to them. “Am I understood?”

“Yes ma’am.” The two Battlers muttered/grumbled.

18D smiled and dropped them to their feet, they recovered quickly, and she formed into a sprinter’s pose and started to leave them in the dust. “Then keep up with me, Six, Twelve!” 

6B and 12B sped up alongside her, “Right!”