So much for last hope…2B and 9S don’t make it to solid ground before their flight units are intercepted by a squadron of their virus-infected counterparts. Before this dogfight, 2B reflects on how she’s developed feelings for 9S, and that killing the one she loves over and over again is a sin she bears. For this reason, she takes over control of his unit and gets him to safety, prepared to fight and die to protect him for once.
9S is totally unaware of the scars 2B carries, and the reason she tries to sacrifice herself. He just loves 2B right back, yearning for the day she’ll finally call him “Nines.” He hacks the autopilot and heads back to the dogfight, but her unit has already been trashed. He manages to catch her, but the infected soldiers press their attack. 9S falls out of the cockpit, 2B grabs hold of him, but her grip loosens, and he falls.
When 2B and 9S are reactivated, they are miles apart; the former in the ruined city and missing an arm, and the latter in the desert. 2B is soon attacked by MLs, and while she manages to destroy them, she is infected by the virus, and her Pod constantly reminds her of the percentage of infection. Meanwhile, 9S locates 2B, but is delayed by giant ML desert centipedes, one of which he hacks in order to fight the other.
As the percentage of infection starts to rise over 50, 60, and 70%, it becomes clear 9S isn’t going to get to 2B in time to cure her; by the time he does, she’ll be too far gone. Indeed, 2B encounters two infected soldiers first, and her systems are too damaged to fight them properly. She’s only saved by A2, who isn’t infected and makes quick work of them. But she’s also too late to save 2B.
Resigned to her fate and the limitations of her android body, 2B transfers her memories to her katana. Just as 9S arrives and starts to cross a great rope bridge to get to her, he witnesses A2 running her through with her katana (which also transfers the memories to her). 2B removes her mask, turns to 9S, smiles, and calls him Nines for the first and last time before the life drains out of her.
Immediately after she shuts down, A2 cuts her hair, giving her an even stronger resemblance to the dead 2B. She doesn’t say a word, but 9S believes he knows what he just saw. He prepares to rush and exact revenge on 2A, only for the bridge he’s on to collapse in the midst of a giant earth tremor that results in a colossal mysterious structure emerging from the ground.
Going forward, it seems the narrative will follow A2, who now carries a fair amount of who 2B was within her. Needless to say, NieR: Automata continues to throw harrowing haymaker after haymaker our way, demolishing all of the systems to which we’d become accustomed and leaving me thoroughly disoriented and yearning for some kind of break for our poor cybernetic friends.
