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storiesfromplanetjane · 6 years

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Darling Destiny Chapter II - “Birds Fly”

“Listen, I’m the leader of Squad 13. Not Hiro. Not Dr. von Franques. Certainly not you. Me. So if you’re going to stay with us--and for some reason that seems like what Command wants--you’re going to answer to me.”

Zero Two scanned the girl--Ichigo, she thought she’d heard Hiro call her--from head to toe; shorter than her--most people were, really--plain looking, a sprinkle of just-barely-visible freckles on her cheeks, dark blue hair that she kept mostly short but with a drooping bit on the left side of her face, clipped into place with a silver, bird-shaped accessory, and eyes that matched her hair’s color. Eyes that had an unmistakable shock of anger in them right now. Still, she could bluster and jab an accusatory finger into Zero Two’s chest all she wanted….the girl just wasn’t that intimidating. Zero Two rolled a peppermint candy around in her mouth, she’d popped it in there before the girl’d started lecturing her, and it was already about halfway to gone.

“Boy. You’re a barrel of fun, aren’tcha?” She deadpanned, getting at an itch just inside her ear with her pinky finger as she did so.

This, maybe unsurprisingly, did not calm the shorter girl down. “Look! I don’t know how things operated in whatever unit you were in before, but this isn’t funny. I don’t know if taking the Strelizia for a joyride was your idea or his but you could’ve died!”

“Right. Unlike all the real missions we’re going to go on, where we’ll be perfectly safe. Right?”

The finger dropped back to the girl’s side. “Listen….” She started, but didn’t finish. Zero Two leaned over her, planting a hand on the wall behind her, boxing her in.

“Oh, I’m listening.” She taunted, flashing a grin.

“If you’re going to act like this is all a game. Then can you at least, like...try to win? Hiro’s one of my best friends. Everyone here feels that way. How do you think we would’ve felt if we’d lost him? Especially so soon after we lost--”

Ichigo was interrupted by a loud crunch. Loud enough to startle her.

“That is not my problem.” Zero Two ground what was left of the peppermint candy into a fine dust in her mouth, and swallowed. “You wanna get mad at me for something I did? Fine, go ahead. I’m used to it. I’ll stand here from sunrise to sunset and let you lay into me without batting an eye. But if you’re gonna try to push your residual guilt from some nonsense I had nothing to do with on me. I am out. I don’t deal with that. We’re soldiers. I don’t know what line the Caretakers have been feeding you about the importance of getting in touch with our feelings or whatever, but That. Ain’t. Me.”

Zero Two let a small huff of hot breath escape her lips. She was getting angry, which wasn’t good at the best of times, and--

“I’m sorry.”

Zero Two blinked. “...What?”

“You’re…” Ichigo took a deep breath. “You’re actually right. I’m…” and released it. “I let my anger get the better of me. Hiro’s like a brother to me, and since Naomi had to….retire, I’ve been kind of...on-edge, I guess.”

“Um..it’s. Fine..” Zero Two tried to make some kind of casual, brush-aside hand gesture. Instead, she just kind of idly wiggled her fingers. Ichigo, staring at her, chuckled.

“What are you...doing?”

“Eh?” Realizing that her hand had not quite gotten the message her brain was trying to send to it, Zero Two plunged it into her coat pocket. “I’m just, uh, not used to apologies.”

“Well that’s not good.” Ichigo sounded...genuinely concerned? Zero Two definitely wasn’t used to this, not from anyone but occasionally Dr. von Franques.

“Look. Look. That’s...that’s nice of you, but, it’s fine. It’s really, truly, absolutely fucking fine. I can’t...deal with this. This...whatever you’re doing. I get the message, no more joyrides. Just…stop.” Putting up her hand, and without giving Ichigo a chance to respond, Zero Two walked off.

Zero Two wandered the halls of Squad 13’s living area, still picking peppermint out of her teeth. She made a mental note to self; next time, ask the Doctor where on earth her bags got to. A toothbrush and some of that honey-flavored toothpaste would be damn near divine right now.

Ichigo’s sudden pivot from angry to apologetic was still worming its way through her mind. That was weird, right? It was weird that she did that. Who does that? Who lays into somebody and then immediately does an about-face as soon as they think they’ve hurt the other person’s feelings? On top of that they’d just met! How could she possibly care? Plus, Zero Two was no idiot, she knew her reputation preceded her, that girl had to have known who she was, right? Was she just scared? It wouldn’t’ve been the first time, but if she was then Ichigo was a damn good actor.

Zero Two kneaded her temples. She took her cap off momentarily, running her hands through her hair, brushing up against the two stubby red horns that sat just under her hat most of the time. Thinking about this this much wasn’t going to get her anywhere.

This Squad 13, they seemed like some pretty strange people. She’d found a boy who was impossibly easy to fluster and a girl who could flip from furious to forgiving in ten seconds flat. Most of the other squads she’d been on had been were, what was the word, professional? Businesslike. All procedure all the time. She’d certainly never made any friends in Squad 43, for example, or Squad 31, but it wasn’t this awkward.

Zero Two thought of herself as a pretty collected person, but over the past 24 hours she’d probably blushed, seethed, and been befuddled more often than she had in the entire past year of her life. There was something about these people, she wasn’t sure if she liked it or not.

And through all her wandering, she was still, as she walked to where she was pretty sure the girls’ dorm was, in their home. Hers too now, she supposed. Mistelteinn was what they called it. What a weird name.

Speaking of weird.

She craned her neck, fiddling with a sprig of hair with her pointer finger and thumb. Above the entry to the dorms proper was a golden plate, on which was carved a series of words;

What?

She’d been staring at it for a solid two or three minutes now, and every so often she’d blink or squint, expecting it to vanish as her eyes were closed. It didn’t seem real. She’d seen her fair share of slogans in her day--”Their Subjugation Is Our Liberation” was an APE favorite--but this was….new, to say the least. It really didn’t seem like the kind of thing they’d be keen on, and, well, it was just sort of cheesy, wasn’t it?

Putting it in the back of her mind for now, Zero Two stalked up and down the girls’ dorm hallway. They hadn’t actually told her who she’d be rooming with, and, really given that she didn’t know anyone’s code but Hiro’s yet, it wouldn’t have mattered.

Sure enough, one of the rooms was labeled thus: “015 - 002”, with the latter slapped up via some kind of laminated plastic placard. That was her alright, forever the temporary addition to the team. Why did she have the lingering feeling that she did know who 015 was, though? Sixteen was Hiro of course, but--

She opened the door, and the light from the hallway landed upon a small, bird-shaped hair clip sitting on a dresser drawer.

Of course.

Werner von Franques’ hands were folded, and he was hunched over a keyboard, staring down the data on the screen like it was his worst enemy--in some ways, it was. He did not like what he was seeing, not one bit. Finding his mug more by its heat than being able to see it in the near-pitch blackness, he knocked back another swig of coffee. His personal office was usually this dark, his left eye, the non-cybernetic one, was sensitive to bright lights nowadays. Being in your several-hundreds did odd things to your anatomy. Really, it was a miracle there was as much flesh and blood left of him that there was.

One of his other monitors flickered to life, unbeckoned. He did not need to turn his head to see who it was.

“Father Patriarch. You….grace me with your watchful presence.”

Father’s golden macaque mask stared blankly out of the monitor. “Is that so? You flatter me, Doctor” If The Father Patriarch was still capable of anger, he never betrayed it in his voice, which maintained the same flat, authoritative monotone regardless of the actual words it was making.

“Forgive me if I still don’t like the fact that you can activate any computer system from anywhere, at any time. I know it’s been a century or so, but I’m slow to adapt these days.”

“The aurometer data.” Father continued unperturbed. “One of our agents reported it was unusual.” Impatience, Werner thought. That emotion he could certainly still feel.

“That’s one way to put it.” Werner muttered.

“Explain.”

“I don’t suppose you’ll let me decline to do that?” Werner’s voice was too hoary and wheezy to really convey meaningful defiance anymore, but annoyance it could do, and he made every effort to squeeze as much of it into that question as he could.

“I will not.”

Werner sighed.

“The new piloting pair. 002 and 016. They have improbably high compatibility levels for only spending such a short time in a Franxx together.”

Werner cast his gaze over to the monitor that Father Patriarch stared out of, but the pontiff offered no response, at least not yet.

“Which is to say.” Werner continued. “That they were as in-sync after mere minutes in the same cockpit, and in spite of only being involved in a brief scuffle, as many of the other Flower pilots are only after months of repeated training in the midst of full-on assaults. Their ratings were in the low 80s. Most new teams struggle to break 50. It is possible that it’s simply a result of 002 overpowering the boy--it wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened. But, it would be the first time that her doing so has given us results like that”

“So it would appear that your earlier theory was correct.” The Patriarch replied.

Werner bristled, his grip on the coffee mug suddenly tightening.

“Yes. I suppose you could say that.” Werner spat. He opted to keep the “If you were trying to be a dick” qualifier to himself.

“We are pleased with these results thusfar, Doctor von Franques. But please do not forget whose idea the program-merging initiative was in the first place. This experiment’s results--success, failure, or whatever they may be, remain on your shoulders. See to it that the pilots in question remain unseparated. You may invoke our authority if the Plantation staff prove troublesome.”

Werner did not respond, instead simply glaring impotently at the Patriarch’s monitor.

“That will be all, Doctor von Franques.” The monitor blinked back off. Werner knew better than to assume that that meant the actual system was off, but the APE higher ups’ spying was subtle enough that even if he cared to check the computer tower to see, it wouldn’t necessarily matter.

He buried his head in his hands. Through it all, the thing that stung the most was the conviction--no, the certainty. That this was still worth it. One did not win a war against rapidly-proliferating, highly-adaptive ultraterrestrials who threatened the very existence of humanity itself by being nice. But somehow it never got any easier. These kids were still marching to their deaths. Really, when he thought about it, it was a very real possibility that they all were.

A sense of respecting other peoples’ privacy was not really something that Zero Two was gifted with. Tossing her hat on the bed she assumed was supposed to be hers--it simply looked a bit less ‘lived in’--she began riffling through the belongings on the desk.

Her first impression? This Ichigo girl was kind of an enormous sap. She had a lot of books; The Complete Manual of Cats Big & Small, Does Your Doggie Love You? -- How To Tell, People Person; An Idiot’s Guide To Long-lasting Friendships, a pile of romance novels she couldn’t be bothered to look at more closely, and….Birds In Mythology - A Guide To Avian Legend & Myth Around The World?

That last one threatened to be interesting. She flipped the book--a large pale blue hardcover that had what looked like a coffee or tea stain running up its spine--open to a random page.

“The Thunderbird; Thunderbirds form an important part of the mythology of many Native American peoples, though they are today primarily associated with the Algonquin and Ojibwe. According to some myths, the Thunderbird controlled the “upper world”, while a creature called the Mishipeshu--the “underwater panther”--lurked in the watery underworld.”

“Hmm. Cool~” She flipped again.

“The Phoenix; a creature from Greek My--” No, she’d heard of that one. On to the next.

“The Jian Bird; This Chinese creature was a bird--often depicted as resembling a dove--with only one eye and only one wing. Jian birds cannot live without each other, and must form pairs--a male and female--in order to fly. They are often used as symbols for true love, and marriage.”

Pfeh.

Zero Two shut the book. That wasn’t love, it was co-dependence. Something like a Jian bird, she wondered why she’d never heard of it before. It seemed like the kind of thing APE would love to use, but she didn’t have time to finish the thought.

“HEY!”

She didn’t actually need to turn her head to recognize Ichigo’s voice, but she did anyway. “Hey.” She waved.

“Why are you going through my stuff?!”

Zero Two looked at the pile of books on the desk. She somehow had failed to notice a pink paperback called Romance & You: Finding The Perfect Man earlier. She looked back to Ichigo again. “Is this a trick question?”

Ichigo buried her face in her hands. “Just...eugh. And why’s your hat on my bed?”

Zero Two scratched her chin contemplatively. The girl raised an interesting philosophical question, why was her hat “on” her bed? Really, did ownership have any meaning at all, or was it all just a nonce concept? Invented by the chiefs of some hierarchy, to keep us all in line?

Well, no, she was mostly thinking that this Ichigo girl was pretty cute when she was mad.

“Are you even listening?” Though by now Ichigo’s tone was more defeated than anything else.

“Why’s your bed the one that looks like no one’s slept in it for six months?”

“Because I actually make my bed!”

“Aww, but I wanted the nice neat bed, it looks so cozy.” Zero Two was grinning by now, Ichigo was not.

“No! Sleep in your own damn bed.”

“We could share?”

“Eugh.” And there went the face, back in the hands.

“Come on, come on, I’m only kidding.” Zero Two pfft’d. This relationship she could understand. Teasing she got, it was a lot easier to process than that whole nonsense from earlier.

“Yeah I. I got that.” Ichigo screwed her eyes back up at the taller girl, and Zero Two though that that must’ve been her first actual look at her without her hat, because the next thing she said was--

“You have….horns?”

Zero Two’s mood immediately fell. “I-- Yeah.” She cupped them defensively. “Do you have a problem with horns?”

“Well, no, it’s just, uh-”

“It’s weird. I know.”

“S--”

“Forget it, darling. It’s late, right? And we have some kind of brief tomorrow? We should probably get to bed.” Zero Two picked her cap up off of Ichigo’s bed, spinning it around on her finger.

“Yeah, you’re right….” Ichigo flicked the light off, and the two unsteady roommates settled into their respective beds.

We call The Ninth. The second does follow, but beyond this boundary?

Are you listening?

Where was she?

Zero Two opened her eyes, at least, she thought she did, but everything looked the same either way. Open or closed made no difference.

We call the Ninth.

What?

She was cold. That much was certain. Maybe she was naked? She didn’t really mind being naked, necessarily but, this….was not the kind of fun that that implied. No, actually, she was definitely wearing something. Running her hands over her arms confirmed that, but, it was a cold something. Cold, hard, wet. It felt like--

A piloting suit?

We call the Ninth.

Blue lines lit up the dark abyss. Curling, straightening, lining up, until they formed a semblance of a face, a face staring directly at her.

You have come.

What was this? She tried to talk but her mouth made no sound.

Phantom. Daughter of Lilith. You and yours are as sinners in the hands of an angry god.

Its voice hurt to listen to, it shook her to her bones when it talked, and its mouth spat out bright blue sparks of lightning when it opened.

There will come a queen, riding two steeds, each the size of your titans. She will preach a xenon seed gospel, and a love, pure in its truth but not its intention, will envelop all you know.

Stop, what do you want? What’s happening?

How am I saying any of this? Can you even hear me?

Under the rock, where once there was water, now exists only the fires of Gaia. Honey mixed with tar is your lot and your love. I hear you, child. You are living life again. But for now, you are dreaming.

No, I! - I know I keep saying what, but, please, what--

There will come a queen--

No! I heard you! I want to know what you mean!

Too many eyes. Too many ears. A predicament you are well familiar with, we call the Ninth. Too much, too many, we’ve said already. You will know when the time comes. When it comes, remember.

Remember what?

Zero Two’s eyes snapped open. Her jade green eyes traced a path up and down the length of her new room, passing over the door, the desk, the closet, Ichigo, sleeping peacefully. The dream was already starting to dissolve in her mind, becoming more indistinct by the second. She’d promised Dr. von Franques months ago that she’d tell him if she kept having weird nightmares. First the thing with the military people interrupting a wedding, and now this just within the past week. Though somehow this seemed more….real somehow, which made no sense, when she thought about it for more than a few seconds. Weddings and armies were real things. Some kind of giant blue….computer face thing was very much not.

Well, what Werner didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Would it hurt her? She let out a groan of annoyance. Introspection was for people with boring personalities and people who were assholes. She certainly wasn’t boring, so that settled that little matter.

Who was she kidding? Of course she was an asshole. Honestly the word was way too light. What did that one boy....god she couldn’t even remember his name now, call her?

Right, a monster.

Holding each other close didn’t seem like an option when you killed everyone you touched.

That cheery thought still dancing in her head, she tried to get back to sleep.

~~~~

I told myself I wouldn’t write more “author’s notes” things, but I guess I lied!

This chapter sees us being introduced to a lot of open-ended stuff, it’s kind of more a talky-thinky chapter than a shooty-punchy chapter. I hope that’s okay? I’m terrible at knowing what my audience wants, lol. There’s also a fair amount of references, most to the original series but some to other stuff. If you can spot them all, and then tell me about it, you win the prize of having given me a small amount of satisfaction and making me make this face in real life: -w- I swear most of these have deeper significance! A few are just thrown in for fun but I’m a big believer in symbolism and foreshadowing.

We get introduced to Ichigo here! Ichigo looks pretty much the same as her mainline counterpart. Little shorter, has a splash of freckles on her face because those are weirdly underrepresented in anime for some reason. She’s a bit high strung but she has her softer side, so far so normal right? We also meet The Father Patriarch (Papa, in the original) for the first time. Spooky fella, huh? The scene where he and von Franques converse cryptically is also the first scene in the fic we get that’s not from Zero Two’s perspective. This won’t be the last, but, she’s the main character here, and I expect her POV to remain the norm unless something changes. Oh and there’s a weird dream sequence. Again, I promise this is going somewhere :P I hope that the format screwery was pleasant and interesting instead of frustrating, but that’s the price of experimentation!

To clarify a couple things. Yes, Dr. von Franques is Dr. Franxx from the original series, and as mentioned likewise is the case with Papa and The Father Patriarch. These name changes are mostly for aesthetic reasons, I just think these things sound better. This isn’t the first time I’ve done this for this fic (see “Franxen” instead of “Franxxes” in the last chapter and the term “Flowers” for the kind of Franxen that Squad 13 specifically pilot), and it will probably not be the last. Actually I know it won’t be, the one that I expect to be possibly controversial(??) should be coming up next chapter. I say “should be” because I never fuckin’ stick to my outlines.

“Franques” by the way, rhymes with bonk, zonk, conk, etc. As a point of trivium for you: Dr. von Franques is Luxembourgish. He is probably the last living person in-fiction that can claim that actually, now that I think of it.

Something I will also occasionally be doing now is making some BGM selections for certain scenes. It’s pretty much impossible to actually integrate music into written fiction in any way that like, works, but I can still drop them here. If you’re familiar with the “mixtapes” from the Transformers More Than Meets The Eye IDW series you know what I’m up to here, it’s just that it’s fewer songs.

BGM Selection

“The Dream of Zero Two”: DJ Shadow - “Building Steam From A Grain of Salt”

#Darling in the Franxx #fan fiction #OOC #(Deliberately OOC hehehehe)

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storiesfromplanetjane · 6 years

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Chapter I - A Daicon Romance

This is a joke.

That was her first thought. That this was a joke. Someone upstairs, someone at APE had gotten fed up with the casualties, or had just had a bad day and decided to be a dick, and assigned her here as some kind of stupid joke. That was the only explanation.

Right?

She looked down at him again, a full head shorter than her, with an unkempt mop of black hair and sparkly blue eyes that made this boy, allegedly the same age as her, look like a little kid from the right (wrong?) angle. Begrudgingly, she admitted to herself that he was a little bit cute, but more in like, a puppy way, than in the way boys usually were. She permitted herself a slight grin, at which he shifted on his feet, visibly nervous.

Then, to her surprise, he stuck out his hand. “I-I’m Hiro.”

Hmm. Surprisingly deep voice for a kid that looked like this. Almost sexy! Not quite, though.

“Zero Two.” She did not shake his hand. Or stop grinning. He, for his part, swallowed the lump of condensed nervousness in his throat and continued on.

“I’m the second-in-command of Squad 13. I’m, uh, pleased to meet you.”

Oh god now he was trying to sound leaderly. “Right.” Was all she offered back.

“You’re, um, going to be with us starting today, so I thought it made sense to come out and give you a warm welcome. So you’d, ah, feel at home.”

By now the grin was gone, replaced with a thin, flat line of annoyance. “At home, huh?”

Well, she couldn’t blame the kid for trying. She could blame him for being fucking annoying, though, and with that thought, gently batted his hand away, making the war medals affixed to her coat clink against each other like chain links.

“I’ve never been much for that kinda thing, sorry darling.”

She blinked. She really hadn’t meant that to sound quite so condescending and sarcastic, but, hiding how she felt wasn’t really one of her strong suits.

“Oh, ah” The kid pretended to stifle a cough--pretty convincing too, but, that kind of thing didn’t get by her. He ran his hand through his hair awkwardly. “S-sorry about that.”

“Now, Zero Two.” She felt a hand on her shoulder, and jumped. Just enough to turn her medals into windchimes again, but she felt a dim flushing heat rise to her cheeks regardless. Dr. Franques stepped out from behind her, rubbing his stainless steel chin in thought, the old cyborg’s voice permanently affected with a slight metallic echo as he spoke. “There’s no reason to be rude to the boy. Code 15, was it?”

“16 sir.” He gave a small salute to the doctor. Zero Two spent enough time around Franques that it was easy for her to forget that he was The High Doctor of Mechanics of the entirety of APE--and, apparently, to occasionally forget that he was there at all, if just a moment ago was any indication. Seeing someone respect him enough to snap a salute at him was just weird.

“Code 16! I do apologize, Zero Two is not one for socializing.” He patted her on the back, just enough to not quite qualify as “gently”. “Come come now, decorated you may be, but you’re not above basic manners.”

“S-sorry.” She muttered. She was sure her face was as red as the highlights on her jacket at this point. Embarrassment was not something that came easily to Zero Two but, something about the way Franques scolded you without quite actually seeming upset, yeah, that kinda did it. She adjusted her cap, pulling the brim down a bit, making her own hair--black like Hiro’s, but long, and straight--rustle around a bit, maybe hoping that all the motion would draw Hiro’s eyes somewhere else so he wouldn’t look right at her face.

“So this is Plantation 13!” The Doctor looked around the docking bay. It was sparse, with not much to it but two other airdocks like the one their craft had flown down to, the odd APE personnel bustling some supplies to or from one of the other ships, and a whole lot of supply crates, containing everything from food to fresh clothes to books and cassette tapes. “Why.” Franques began, staring down a nearby crate like it was the most fascinating object on the planet. “I was imagining a bit more, to be quite honest!”

Zero Two turned to look at the Doctor.

Hiro also turned to look at the Doctor.

They blinked--in unison, in fact.

“Hmmm. You know, Father did always say I was a terrible comedian.”

“Eh...heheh.” Hiro had managed to coax an awkward half-laugh out of himself, hand back to ruffling through his hair--did he always do that when he was nervous?--Zero Two couldn’t muster even that much.

“Well well, enough of my so-called humor. 16 my boy, why don’t you lead us to the Franxen Bay? I imagine it’s…” Franques tapped his finger to his chin. “Right next door, perhaps?”

Hiro, seeming quite impressed, nodded enthusiastically. “It is!”

“And the new Flowers have arrived?”

“They have, sir!”

“Excellent! Lead the way! Zero Two--” “Yeah, I’m coming.”

Code 002, illustration by Ryden.

Boys and girls could be cute, but Zero Two was always taken aback at how drop-dead sexy 30 tons of nanosteel and advanced botanotech could look. Craning her neck enough that it was starting to ache, she examined the white-crimson titan. It barely looked it should be able to stand, really, but magma energy-infusion could do miraculous things. It was definitely top-heavy, with huge, round domes on its shoulders, and a head with a broad “panel” on the front that turned into “hair” the farther back along the helmet one went. Some kind of energy converter, if she’d read the schematics right a few days ago.

The real treat of course was its weapon. A hulking thing, bright orange from being infused with magma energy, in the shape of a massive, heavy lance. The Queen’s Pike, it was called.

“The Strelizia, huh?”

“Yeah.”

Shaking the crick out of her neck, Zero Two glanced around to make sure that Dr. Franques actually had wandered off somewhere this time. She rolled her eyes over to Hiro, that slight grin resurfacing. “We’re gonna get to pilot that, y’know?”

“Ah. Yeah, pretty crazy huh?” Speaking of grins, the kid was smiling like an idiot. On the subject of giant bio-robots being the sickest thing of all time at least, she seemed to see eye to eye--if only figuratively--with this “Hiro” kid.

“Wanna take it out for a test drive?”

“Huh?!” Okay, maybe not quite as cool as she’d momentarily thought he was.

“C’mon.” Her grin widened, and she walked her fingers up the boy’s side, planting them on the shoulder opposite to her, and pulling him a bit closer. “It’s ours anyway, right?”

“And I mean, it’s good to get some practice in, right? After all you’ve never done it before….right?” She moved her hand up his cheek, brushing it gently. He blushed.

“W...well.” God, boys were so easy.

“See, you get it.” She took a step forward. All they had to do was hop onto the loading lift, the small platform lead directly up to the Strelizia’s cockpit.

“I. I guess it can’t hurt.”

And just like that, a few steps forward, a moment on the elevator, and into the brains of the machine.

The inside was dimly lit, and quite cramped despite consisting mostly of a flat, black circle for the two pilots to stand on.

“Have you been inside a Franxx before?”

“No. Only the virtual testing cockpit.”

“Then you should know what to do. Come on-” She hurried him into the cockpit, closing the door, and the two of them stood on the platform inside the Strelizia, face to face, more or less.

“I..um. Only the cockpit for the...older models.”

“Ahhh. I see. The single pilots.” She wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe just the close quarters inside the mecha and the lack of light, maybe she was starting to warm up to him despite her better judgment. Maybe she was just feeling a little mischievous, but here, now, like this, he was kinda, just a bit cute.

More importantly, he was at her mercy.

She put a hand on his back and pulled him toward her. “It’s like waltzing. You know how to waltz, don’t you?”

“Uh-”

“Put your hand on my hip.”

“U...umm!!” Oh this was precious. Even in the dim light she could tell he was blushing again. It probably didn’t say anything good about her, did it? That this was when she felt closest to another….well, to a human being.

“You ready?”

Silently, Hiro nodded. Zero Two pulled him closer, and The Strelizia’s cockpit hummed to life.

“I! Uh!”

“Quiet, quiet. Shhhhhh.” They were close enough now that she could feel him start to calm down. He really was kind of a ball of nerves, wasn’t he?

“Alright. Hiro?”

“Yeah?”

“Close your eyes, and concentrate. On me.”

And he did.

She did the same.

And when they next opened their eyes, they saw out of the same pair. A different pair, 30 feet above the ground, and bigger than anything, as the blank facescreen on the Strelizia flickered to life, rendering a pair of great green eyes that made the inside of the docking bay look tiny.

The Strelizia’s shackles came off with ease, and the mech studied its hand. Closing and opening, wiggling its fingers.

“Cool feeling, right?” Zero Two let a giggle slip out.

“Yeah…” Hiro was awed. It was obvious, being in a Flower did that, it let you feel what your co-pilot was thinking.

“So, we just gonna stand here, darling? Or do you wanna get out and see the big blue sky?” Of course, that connection worked both ways. The second the question left her mouth, she regretted the tone. She hadn’t meant that to sound so….cheerful, but it did, and Hiro seized on it.

“I do!”

“Hey. C...careful. You’ll throw off our balance.”

The Strelizia took a step forward, then two. The docking bay doors opened.

“You ever skydive?”

“Um. No, I haven’t.”

“Well you’re about to!”

Wind rushed into the docking bay. By this point, APE staff were already scrambling and running about, trying to stop the Strelizia from leaving. The whipping wind blowing in from the opening doors did not help matters, and more than one technician lost their favorite coat or hat as it blew out the open doors. With a running start, the Strelizia jumped, flying into the wild blue.

The ground was mere moments away. She could feel Hiro starting to panic, and pulled him closer. They were squeezed up against each other now, as the Strelizia rocketed through the sky, ground-bound like a white and red bolt of lightning. She could feel him calming down, his breathing slowing and becoming more regular while outside, in sharp contrast, the ring of thrusters that made up the “skirt” of the mecha around its waist kicked to life, spitting out white-hot flames that blasted against the ground, the cracked earth tossing out huge clouds of dust and grit.

The Strelizia landed with an unsteady thump, down on one knee, then standing back up and shaking off the aftershock. She could feel him now. This was...strange, Hiro was very, very far from the first pilot she’d had. He was her 21st, actually, by her count. But somehow this was….different, their thoughts seemed to mix so easily. She couldn’t place it, it made her nervous, and not much made Zero Two nervous.

....Certainly not the small, four-legged black and blue creature now scurrying among the dried mud at the Strelizia’s feet.

A klaxosaur. A small one. By itself? That seemed wrong.

It was wrong.

The creature opened its mouth and let out a long braying howl, its jaw flapping open and the blue lines along its body going from sapphire to neon. More crawled out. They were hiding, either underground or among the nearby rocks. It didn’t take more than a few moments for there to be dozens of them.

Inside the Strelizia, Zero Two ran a hand through Hiro’s hair. He seemed-

“Are you scared?” She asked.

“A little.” He replied, maybe figuring that this close to each other, there was no reason to lie.

“I’ll fight them.”

“By yourself? How?”

With both of their eyes closed, Hiro couldn’t see Zero Two crack a sly smile. “Just watch, darling.”

Something moved. The cockpit felt like it was rearranging, getting smaller and more cramped. There was a sound like an electric pulse, a tsche-chu-chu-chu-tsche. Collapsing in on itself and rearranging like a Rubik’s Cube, the Strelizia shrunk from a titanic humanoid into the form of a lean mechanical lion. It growled. Zero Two growled. The mech’s tail extended, flicking to and fro like that of a cat about to pounce on its prey, but weighed with the heavy tip of the lance. She pounced, leaping into the air just long enough for the unlucky wolflike klaxosaur to watch the 30 tons of metal go from having its back against the sun to being directly on top of it.

She dug her claws into the now-helpless creature, raking it across its flank. Klaxosaur flesh was a strange substance, Zero Two’d always thought it kind of felt like rubber. Not that she had much time to ponder the thought. The rest of the klaxo-wolf pack was on her near-instantly, two came from her left side, one from the front, three from the right, two from behind. Now things were getting fun.

That last problem was solved in seconds by a quick swipe of the tail, the lance was heavy and the magma energy infusion rendered it red hot, the pair of klaxo-wolves behind her were bashed aside and burnt by the impact. Next, dropping to the ground and rolling under made the two from the left side smack dead into the three from the right, giving her enough time to come at the one gunning from her head from below. She stretched the jaws of the Strelizia wide, and took a bite out of the front klaxo-wolf. Her mouth filled with a taste like lighter fluid and burnt rubber as the creature keeled over, letting out a pathetic whimper of pain.

She didn’t have time to kill the other five. The dull bree-yew sound of magma energy cannons rang out from behind her. A trio of Franxen mechs, steely black, and, really, utterly plain, stood with their weapons raised. Slowly, methodically, they shot up enough of the klaxo-wolves for the creatures to start falling back. No viscerality, no thrill, just clean, sustained fire.

There was a small burst of static, and then, open comms.

“Strelizia, this is Units 4-6 of Squad 311, do you copy?”

Tch.

“We copy.” She replied, trying to quench the agitation rising in her throat.

“We’ve been sent to retrieve you and take you back to Plan--”

“Yeah, I’m sure you have.” The Strelizia shifted back into its humanoid mode, reconfiguring in an instant. “Take us back, but we’re off-com.” Zero Two couldn’t actually turn off the comms in the Strelizia--no Franxx used by the APE army could without authorization from its associated base, in fact--but she knew her reputation well enough to know that if she told a bunch of grunts to piss off, they probably would.

“We’re gonna get a talking-to, aren’t we?” Hiro spoke for the first time in what felt like hours.

“Probably. They won’t actually do anything, though.”

“How do you know that?”

She scoffed. “Trust me, if they won’t do anything to me, they won’t do anything to anybody.”

The bodies of the klaxo-wolves painted the grey-brown dirt a neon blue as the Strelizia and its three escorts activated their thrusters to return to the plantation. The smell of charred plastic filled the air.

Author’s Section

I don’t intend to make these a running thing for this story, but, including one here is worthwhile. If you like what you’re reading, take a look at the preface & dedications (aka “Chapter 0″) from the story index, from which you will eventually be able to find links to all the chapters as I post them.

All writing & editing by me. Big thanks to Ryden for the illustration, and for some words of encouragement.

#fanfic #Darling in the Franxx #AU #OOC #(Deliberately OOC hehehehe)

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