9S tried to go to sleep that night but struggled to do so, noticing that when immmersed within his own body instead of mind, he compulsively associated the very feeling of being in a state of wakefulness with being conscious or alive. This clues him into the fact that he often forgets the once apparent fact of his own existence existing, and what remains is a series of compulsions that are only able to mimic that former self - that he didn't even realise until now, that he had lost.
Confused by this specific situation, and with reflection on the experience he had only moments before, he asks himself what question he should be asking right now. As a Scanner android, his strength is analysis, and for the first time after all his experience with striving for the truth of all sorts of situations, he now feels a need to question the truth about himself, and analyse all that subtlties that make him in any-given-moment possible.
'What would that even look like?', he would wonder on repeat throughout the night.
Unfortunately, despite this being his strength, he is fatigued, so his strength has weakend. After all the years of repettition his soul has had to endure, the behaviour to seek/scan in itself has become compulsively associated with the intent to doubt, even doubting itself is doubted, so he remains stuck in a standstill despite understanding he must strive to figure something, anything, out.
'If I am consciously aware in the belief that right now I am supposed to sleep, just as how the commander would have me and fellow androids expected the undeniablity of the assignment, then although I would have the persistence to try to sleep, the success would be purely accidental because I am trying to not try…
Then again, maybe the whole taking orders thing isn't the best approach, and is just the best one I am aware of…'
"Muuaaahhhh…", he sulks in his pillow quietly.
He already knows what questions he should ask based on an instinctive heirarchy of things he has learned about the psychology of others, it's just that he hasn't ever met anyone like himself before, so how could he learn without reference in order to find the missing link at the top of the objective heirarchy?
After many questions, the problem about him feeling stuck, the problem of him being different to how he just was only moments ago, the problem of not knowing how his current self compares to his ideal self and what that ideal self even is, and the problem of not noticing his existence... These are all solved with the overcoming of the compulsions he only just realised possess him, and now he must figure out the method of how to overcome this systemic issue.
'Where did this realisation even begin? Why did my sistuation change from one of me feeling at home with 2B, to now being in an existential dillemma? This ruins the mood... but I hope it won't be ruined ever again after this phase is over.'
Suddenly, while immersed in the darkness behind his eyelids, he sees something.
It starts out as a fuzzy shape, and then colour is added, and a full hallucination slips into his experience. Feeling like he's about to fall, he jolts out of bed, "!", he stops himself from making too much noise to not wake up 2B and A2.
'What... was that?'
He remembers vividly what he saw as he was having his first ever dream, and it was very thing that made him capable of both these experiences of dreaming and compulsion, the flower.
'Whatever the hech that thing is, it is NOT normal. At this rate, something might happen before the diagnosis of the flower can be completed. I need to go find either that child machine or the machine that sold it to me in the ally of the amusement park, and ask where they were found or made.'
Tired but wakeful, he dizzily remains stuck in his bed and is about to fall asleep anyways, but it is too urgant to be as lazy as this, and decides that the best course of action in order to act instead of be stuck, is to use compulsions to his advantage. 'I dub thee, good habits!', and so, he gets out of bed and begins his journey towards the amusement park.
The first thing he notices when he opens the door, is something that none of them noticed about the world for whatever reason, "Its... night.".
The 24/7 daytime sky, ended after the [E]nd of YorHa.
"What the heck is going on?"
Pod 153 notices 9S' standing in the doorframe as cold air breezes in. She slowly begins to float out of her charging station and makes her way to 9S' side. When he steps out into the open of the reminants of the resistance camp that they are living together in, Pod 153 closes the door quietly behind him.
"What is wrong 9S?", she asks.
"Pod, what's happening?"
"Are you okay? Your vitals and mental state seem to be stable, better than they have been since how you were after everyone's ressurrection, though your emotional state seems to be disturbed. Could there perhaps be some unknown side effects to the curing of your logic virus?"
"I don't think it was cured Pod 153, I think it may be apart of my black box itself now..."
"...Suggestion: please inform this Pod of your troubles, instead of being left alone with your thoughts."
"...Ahhhhhhh... I'm doing it again. That wasn't even the issue, I was just reacting to how the sky was dark, and the moment I was reminded that I have compulsions suddenly that's become my focus too now."
"Huh? The sky isn-", the Pod turns before freezing mid-sentence, "REEEEEEEE!!!!!!!".
Screeching, Pod 153 is undeniably shocked by all the same questions that were running through 9S' mind about this situation before, like how something as large as the SKY could have gone unnoticed by her.
"AH! Keep it down! What's wrong, do you need a troubleshooting for your speaker?"
"THE SKY IS DARK!"
"WHY ARE YOU YELLING?!"
"WHY WOULDN'T I BE?!"
"W-what? Pod, are you aware?"
"YES! I THINK SO!!"
"I-I had my suspicions that you and 2B's assigned Pod were going in that direction, but *pfft*, ahaha, I didn't expect it to escalate like this! AHAHAHA!!"
"W-wha! Stop. Stop laughing!"
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! OH MY STOMACH HURTS!! AHAHAHAHA!!"
Losing his breath from laughter, 9S is interrupted by the sound of something loud banging against the metal door behind them.
"Oh shit."
They quickly go over to the door, open it and whisper loudly, "We're sorry! We're sorry! We're sorry! We're sorry! We're sorry! We're sorry! We're sorry! We're sorry! We're sorry!".
Inside the room, A2 can be seen staring daggers their way as 2B whimpers from exhaustion unaware of her surroundings or even of A2's presence who's protective over her.
9S, guilt ridden beyond belief to have brought distress to 2B, especially while she's in her current state, reverts back to an anxious version of himself.
"I said I was sorry!", he tries to explain to A2, "2B, I'm so, so sorry to have woken you up, I promise it won't ever happen aga-".
"Then stop talking and leave already!", A2 hisses at him, "Say your sorries later so we can go back to sleep!"
"Y-Yes. I'm sorr-", the door is closed on his facee suddenly by Pod 042.
"Update: The distraction has been kicked out."
"Thank you Pod.", A2 says.
A2 then lies back down in bed while patting 2B like a protective mother, "It's okey sweetie... Go back to swleep.".
2B nods off as she drifts off into a dream of her own.