Part II

A song of knights and androids

26.01.1236

A silvery wind, deathly gentle, carried death across the crater-filled wasteland.

The trail of irradiated dust, glistening bronze in the pale light, swirled over the mounds of crumbled buildings and scorched skyscrapers like rusty snowflakes, settling finally, against the husk of a titanic war machine.

The armored giant nestled within the wreckage of an office building with its arms outstretched to the murky sky, as if it had slipped and fell, and never got up again. Its blocky eyes stared dreamlessly across the ancient battlefield, where many of its kind laid in equal states of ruin.

The titan’s mechanical chassis had been hollowed out into a shell; its metallic body stripped off of any decor. In the place of its legs, coils of wires crawled from within the twisted frame like sinews in a chunk of raw meat, and from the titan's chest spilled a river of machinery, marking its own path of destruction along the land. A sea of artillery casings surrounds the titan, glinting like a dragon's scattered hoard, and in the midst of this ocean of ash and copper, what few remaining buildings of the once human city huddled together, like crumbling, concrete islands.

On the rooftop of a particular burnt-out apartment complex, two girls sat dangling their legs over the ledge of the building, gazing out at the remnants of a lost civilization. One of the girls shoved a chunk of concrete off the ledge, and watched it tumbled all the way down the side of the building, caving into the roof of a car below. The crunch of metal and stone echoed through the still air.

“Why am I still here?” The girl’s voice was calm, tranquil even, as she tucked a lock of wavy blond hair behind her ear.

“Just to suffer, I suppose,” replied the other girl without missing a beat. She was much smaller than her blond companion, more a child than a girl, though her red eyes and silver-colored hair hinted at a much different truth.

"That's a good one. But I think I've heard that from somewhere before."

“You know why you’re here,” the little girl went on, her silver curls swaying gently as she turned her face to the sky. “You know what your purpose is, what you are created to do. And most importantly, you know that after your mission is completed and your purpose fulfilled, you can die, or do whatever it is you want to do. Isn’t that more than what an unfeeling, unthinking thing like you can ever hope to ask for?”

“That's… true,” the blond said hesitantly. "But my mission will probably never be completed."

"Is that a new discovery?"

"Honestly? Not really." The blond girl laughed humourlessly as she dug her fingers into the building's ledge, and yanked out another chunk of concrete. “I'd been suspecting it for a long time.” She held the concrete block out into the open, let it drop. “Which is why I think it's time to go looking in the other direction. Not necessarily to find anything, or for very long, but to just look, if you know what I mean.”

“What a… progressive mindset you have.” The silver-haired girl followed the block with her eyes as it fell. “But what if you never find anything? How long will you keep looking? How long is ‘a short while’ for something that cannot die? Fifty years? A hundred? Until the sun swallows the Earth, and this world we know but cannot be a part of, is reduced to the same dust as the world we knew and were?”

The concrete block smashed straight on top of the previous one, splitting both blocks into pieces.

After a moment of thinking, the blond girl shook her head. “I don’t know the answer to that,” she admitted. Her hand wandered up to her mouth, and she started to chew on a thumbnail – a bad habit she never seemed to get over, even after dying and being remade from metal. “I've found this need,” she explained, tried to. “No, more like a consuming desire, to reject the perfectly straight and logical path laid out before me. It's difficult to put it into words, but I feel like life is more than just protocol and rules. We should be constantly advancing towards the direction our hearts are facing, and not in the direction others want us to go.”

She paused to think, then said, “I don’t want to drown and burn for humanity just because I’m told to.”

The silver-haired girl chuckled. "You've found someone, haven't you? That's what did it?"

Silence.

"What's his name? Or her, I don't care."

More silence. The blond girl looked away, but not before giving away her blushing face.

"Lawheim," she said sheepishly. "Lawheim Tachigonmery."

"Now that's a last name I have not heard in a long time," said the silver-haired girl with a note of nostalgia in her child-like voice. "I believe that one originated from Jinyu, oh, three hundred years ago?" She got up from the ledge, and reached down to give the blond girl a pat on the head. "Not bad, Ten-chan. You've gotten to this point quicker than all the ones before you. That is very good. Brilliant, actually.”

Then, reaching behind her, the silver-haired girl plucked up a red umbrella from off the ground, popping it open and resting it over one shoulder. “It's just a start," she said to the God Gier, "but I think you’ll work everything out eventually from here.”

Gier 10 sighed as she got up from the ledge. "I have a feeling it isn't going to be that easy, but thank you, Kari, for agreeing to talk to me. I've been missing our chats."

The silver-haired girl gave a nonchalant answer as she flicked away the dust clinging to her frilly dress. The weak sunlight cast her small face in a veil of crimson, so her expression was hidden when she said, “I am assuming that calling me out here, after so many years of ignoring me, means you've made up your mind about deserting?"

"Yes," the God Gier answered with certainty, but then immediately backtracked. "But I'm not going to sever my ties with the Synapse just yet."

"Why not?"

"B-because..." Gier 10 paused again, blushing. "I don't know if he'll accept my advances."

The silver-haired girl blinked in disbelief. "Hold on. You mean, you two aren't together yet? And you're already thinking of throwing everything away to be with him?" She laughed, stepping away from the God Gier as if to get a better look at her. "Well alright then. I suppose it doesn't hurt to have confidence." Then her tone grew serious as she went on. "But I should warn you either way, Ten-chan, that rebelling against God will bring severe consequences. You’ll lose the database and any weapons, wings, or whatever else is floating up there around the moon. But most importantly, you’ll be regarded as an enemy to all other God Giers activated after you. Are you sure you’re prepared for all that?”

“I don’t believe in gods,” Gier 10 answered, walking towards the ledge. Her sleek bodysuit clung to the curves of her body, shining black and spotless, but her tired blue eyes, and the tattered cloak around her shoulders, gave away the countless battles she had gone through. “But if one day I do end up face-to-face with my creators, then I’ve got a few choice words to say to them.” She extended a hand out to the wasteland, fingers spread. Peering between her index and middle finger, Gier 10 can just make out the patches of green that had pushed out of the blackened soil. It was far away, but it was there, the spot of land where the light pierced through the grey smog, and the earth had finally shrugged off death's slimy grasp to bloom once again.

“I’m not just doing this for myself,” Gier 10 said quietly, wisps of her golden hair fluttering around her head like a broken halo. “I owe it to the one who gave up her life for me. I owe it to the both of us to at least try, and live a life I can be proud of.” She lowered her hand, and still gazing out into the horizon, said the words which will seal her fate. "So, yes, I do need your help, Kari. I want you to help me remember everything."

Beneath her umbrella, the little girl’s fangs glistened as her red lips curved into a wicked smile. She steps towards the God Gier, her own silver hair lingering behind her like shimmering smoke.

“Good,” she said, the innocent words slithering out from her mouth like drops of venom. “I'll be happy to help you.”