Destined Meeting

A complete and utter dead end, that was to be their future.

This world… this dead and rusted place completely stopped in time not able to move forward from its once defining existence…

Or perhaps it was simply them not allowing that memory to die fully.

Honestly, at this point, she couldn't really tell anymore and she was far too tired to hope for a change, it had been too long since she felt like believing in something as big as that...

They had fought too much and only came out more jaded and guilty.

So she let the sword in her hand drop, falling to her knees her strength leaving under the weight of a millennia of living for something that was never coming back.

She caressed her sister's face as she lay near her unable to move from her spot her leg damaged.

She chuckled sadly at her defiant glare still ready to battle as damaged as she was, she was always the strongest of the two never ready to give up, perhaps if she were in her place things would be different…

But she couldn't not anymore she was tired of fighting for others who wanted them gone and she couldn't see any light at the end, so why bother.

A step was taken, shaking the ground beneath its feet, sparks lit up the darkened room as emotionless yellow eyes peered beyond the darkness.

Another suicidal mission, another chance to get rid of them. This time for good it seems.

Another one was taken this time crushing one of its brethren bodies, its massive form filled her vision entirely.

Strange readings they said, what a load of bullshit. It was nothing more than an ambush.

Its shadow encompassed her as she stared soullessly into it, even as her sister desperately called out to her, to run away, to crawl, do anything but stay here…

I can't, it would be worse than death to walk around this world all alone.

The arm of the machine rose as the blade revved up to life spinning around in a hypnotic way.

Popola closed her eyes accepting her death, at least their regret will finally end.

Fate however had other ideas.

A ringing sound filled the room, like a blade pushing through metal, as something scraped by her with great speed ruffling her hair around as she yelped, hugging her sister tightly on instinct.

A loud thump could be felt as something fell unto the floor and then…

nothing.

No sound, no pain, no release.

She slowly opened her eyes, almost fearfully as she had no understanding of what she was about to see, but then they widened in surprise…

There he was standing tall above the corpse of the machine that once meant death to the two of them. A tattered whitish cloak, dirtied slightly by age, hid most of his features away as it moved around slightly through the wind.

"Are you two alright?"

His strong voice reverberated around the cold metallic walls of the room, it made something inside her flutter with weird emotions.

"I-I…" she stuttered out her mouth open but it was hard to find the words, someone had actually come to save them it was far more than she ever thought possible.

The man sighed as he looked around, his head following the hollow corpses of the machines they had defeated. There were dozens of them, it had been a downright battalion too much for just them to fight through.

Her eyes snapped away from her supposed savior as she felt movement beside her.

"Who the hell are you?" Devola snappily asked, her wounds making her more irritable, as distrust filled her.

They knew better than to think there was still someone out there that could show kindness to them.

"No one important…" he answered calmly now turning towards them his face still obscured behind his hood "What are you two doing here? It's dangerous."

Devola snorted derisively at his words a deep frown caressing her face, as she looked down at her crumpled leg instead of him "As if we have a choice."

"Someone forced you?" he questioned his voice taking on a dangerous edge.

Popola sighed as she patted her sister's head trying to comfort her though never taking her eyes away from the man in front of her.

"I wouldn't say forced." she muttered sadly a rather large telltale of her feelings, she wouldn't really care any other day but she lacked the strength to put on her strong facade.

Right now she just felt tired of everything.

"Why do you care?" her sister sneered through gritted teeth "nobody else does."

"I simply saw two people in need of help that's all." he appealed trying to calm down the rising tension "You aren't in a great state please allow me... I have a place nearby you will be safe there to… fix yourselves." there was an awkward tinge to his voice as he said the last line, almost as if he wasn't quite sure of his words.

"I'm very thankful for your help and honestly as it stands I can't really refuse it… but" Popola said carefully as she peered into his shadowed eyes "can we really trust you?"

Silence settled into the room other than the occasional grunt of pain coming from Devola as she tried to move around without help. Popola gulped nervously even if she couldn't see it, she could still feel it, it was like he was peering down trying to understand her very being.

It made her uncomfortable in ways she couldn't quite describe.

"You two must have been through a lot to be like this." he finally spoke with an air of finality.

He grabbed the edge of his hood bringing it down finally showcasing its hidden contents…

The twins gasped audibly.

Red blood hair peeked out, framing a handsome face strong jawline and clean from any sort of stubble or the like. He looked rather young barely in his twenties if they were to guess not that it really mattered considering how young they themselves looked…

All in all, he was rather attractive a point that wasn't exactly that high on their priority list.

No that hadn't been the reason for their surprise.

It was his eyes, the amber almost golden color of those orbs made them rather unique but again it wasn't quite it either.

It was everything behind them…

It was like something had clicked inside of them, they had never felt like this before. It was all-encompassing and yet weirdly difficult to pinpoint.

It had left them breathless, without the ability to think clearly.

And then he smiled and it looked as if this muted world lit up around them.

"My name is Emiya Shirou, it's nice to meet you two."

His words were kind, his voice even more so.

They had been utterly defeated, nary a thought passed through their head.

That's why when he made to grab Devola they weren't able to do anything but stare, as he picked her up with a grunt of effort in his arms, muscles bulging underneath his clothes.

It took but a second for a blush to appear on her face as she squawked in surprise finally understanding what had happened, she immediately started to wiggle around throwing off the now named man's balance around, as he tried to steady himself.

"Oi I'm not trying to hurt you." he grunted out as he took a step backward nearly falling on his ass "It's just for a bit, I promise."

"O-oi Devola maybe you should listen to him…"

She huffed while crossing her arms, the blush of embarrassment still quite visible.

Shirou took a deep breath of relief as she finally settled in "Okay just follow me it isn't that far."

Popola nodded in a rather subdued manner not quite being able to look him eye to eye.

The great metallic doors opened up as the trio made their way outside the machine territory allowing the cold ocean air to pass through their skins gently, she could faintly hear the sound of waves hitting the rocks, if it were any other situation she might have appreciated it further, as it created a rather calming view, as things stood though she had bigger things to worry about.

They walked in silence for a bit as they finally left the factory behind going up the broken bridge connecting to the city.

"You two shouldn't have gone there, it might not look like it but it's operational." he said suddenly catching the duo off guard.

"That's why we were here it wasn't before…" Devola added emotionlessly, her head was tilted away from him as she looked at the gray mass of buildings beyond the horizon.

"Is that so…"

Popola's eyes bore holes into his back "You're not from around here are you?"

Shirou sighed as he pushed Devola up slightly making her yelp "Can't say I've been here for long no…"

Popola opened her mouth about to question him again but thought better of it, he didn't owe them answers after all.

"We'll drop down here." he pointed towards a rundown truck below the broken edge of the bridge.

Popola nodded as she jumped first to help him carefully move her sister down as she now rested instead in her arms.

He himself had jumped off entirely, his feet crushing a few flowers as he hit the floor rather quietly.

"It's just around the corner, don't worry I keep this place pretty clean from... them." Shirou explained as he motioned for them to follow him.

Popola looked at him curiously for a second. They were in walking distance of the resistance camp, it wouldn't really take much to just walk away as long as he didn't try to stop them which based on how he interacted with them and his rather genuine expressions of help, didn't really seem plausible.

She rather doubted that they would be received with open arms and that Devola would get the help she needed from them...

Well, there was that and also the fact that something inside her didn't really want to go, she desperately wanted to learn more about him.

Looking down at Devola she could feel the same range of unexplained emotions, even as she tried to keep a strong face.

He opened the door for them, it was red and slightly misshapen it didn't even close completely matching the room itself in its usefulness if it could be called that. It was rather small and pretty barren, all around them was rubble as the building had collapsed unto itself.

It did make for a pretty hidden base all things considered nobody would think someone would live around this place.

Despite all this, he felt safe here even with the unknown company who more and more gave a calming presence in her mind.

She sat Devola on a nearby chair before looking at what she was working with, grabbing her bag to see what she could mess around with to fix things.

As per usual they didn't have enough supplies, they could never afford anything else.

It would do, for now, the damage in her leg looked worse than it actually was so hopefully she could fix her quickly enough and be done with this whole mess.

She was also acutely aware that he was looking at them from across the room.

"Is she going to be alright?" he said as he leaned into the wall sideways his arms crossed.

"Fine enough to walk in a few hours." Devola answered already having made the same assessment as her sister.

"I see." he grunted out in a slightly awkward manner but she could hear his relief "I have a few questions if you don't mind."

"About what?" her sister questioned roughly.

He took a second to answer as if trying to find the correct words.

"Why do only machines exist?"

Devola's looked at him questioning his sanity "They don't… can't you see us? Have you been fighting inside that factory your whole life or something, did you reset yourself at some point?"

"No that's not…" he tried to explain rapidly before stopping himself with a deep breath "I meant if there are any other humans around?"

This stopped the duo in their tracks an anxious silence fell as they tried to understand what he just said.

Popola slowly turned around to look at him inquisitively, her core blossoming at his words "Humanity hasn't been in this world for a very long time…"

Shirou's eyes widened in a frantic manner as he started gripping his left hand "What do you mean by that exactly?"

"She means they all died, whatever is left is on a base on the moon." Devola explained quietly while staring at the floor guilt rolling over her in waves.

He sighed in relief, his body sagging against the wall "So somebody did survive…" he muttered quietly as he scratched his hand.

Popola stood up, her eyes glaring at him in disbelief "What are you, exactly?" her words came out raspily as her throat seemed to close around her, such was her anxiety.

He looked back at her, just staring for a good minute at the duo of androids, as if questioning in his head what he should answer, instead he merely walked up to her "I'm guessing you don't have a pulse."

He grabbed her hand gently and put it on his chest, she gave no resistance to his touch.

Thump…

Thump…

She laughed quietly as tears ran down her cheek "Are you really? Please don't lie about this…"

"Popola?" Devola called out to her looking at the duo and her distressed sister, she wasn't able to understand or rather believe what was in front of her "What is going on?"

"What does humanity mean to you exactly?" he muttered to himself as he looked down at the woman who was now sobbing openly.

He opened his mouth again but couldn't finish as two arms encircled him fully nearly toppling him over…

"I'm so sorry."

Her voice was muffled by him but the words still struck true.

"We didn't mean for everything to go wrong."

He didn't understand and questions just kept popping up about what exactly had happened in this world but hearing how miserable she sounded… well he was never able to ignore someone in pain in front of him.

He put his arms around her running circles in her back with his hand trying to comfort her as best he could though that seemed to only make it worse as she cried even harder.

His head snapped up as he heard a shuffle coming up from the chair…

It was the other twin as she tried to stand up, the pain no longer showing on her face as she stared at him in disbelief.

She took a step and immediately fell over as her bad leg gave away.

His eyes widened as instinct took over, he leaped towards her taking Popola with him as she refused to leave his sad her arms hugging him tighter.

The result…

Two women sobbed uncontrollably on his chest as he looked up at his ceiling not quite knowing what to do.

"I'm sorry." "It's all our fault."

The worst part was hearing the amount of pain in their voices and being unable to do anything to stop it, he didn't understand any of it.

But if his forgiveness was what they wanted, well…

His hands went up to their heads and he patted down their red mane.

They gasped at his touch.

"It's okay, I forgive you."

Their sobbing stopped, but their arms held him tighter.

He sighed knowing he would be here for some time.

And here we go again to the start of everything...

I wanted to rewrite these two chapters for a very long time as I don't really see them as well made and I finally got the time to do so. As you can see it's pretty much the same plot-wise but i changed quite a bit in writing and focused more on a few things that should have been prioritized. Regardless though hope you prefer this one.

Please tell me if you like it better.

Thanks Ivan Tridelan for all the help.