Disclaimer: This is purely a fan work and I own nothing

You really don't need to be a Marvel fan to understand this story, so long as you have a basic understanding of Spider-Man's power set (Spider Sense, Proportional Strength and Durability of a spider, acrobatic ability, wall crawling.)

I think I'll always remember the day, as a child, I realized I was different from the other children in the Garden. One, because such an abnormality was not something one would ever forget, but secondly, because remembering the change is what made me aware that there were gaps in my memory in the first place.

Ichigo was still often upset at being so different from the other children. They didn't cry or laugh anymore. The only thing they ever really seemed to show was disdain for those who were different. As we were called inside for bed, she cried, harder than I'd seen her cry in a while.

"What's wrong, Ichigo?" I asked. I always felt a need to protect her, really. Not because she was incapable, but because we were so similar. So different from the others.

She wiped her eyes, in an attempt to seem tougher, pretending she hadn't just been bawling. "They...they threw my bunny up onto that ledge." Her voice betrayed her intentions with a noticeable quiver, and she pointed up to a small ledge along the outdoor play area wall. A small lip on the otherwise vertical, cold, steel wall jutted out, and a small plush bunny sat on top of it.

"I'll get it!" I assured her. "Just cover for me, I'll be inside in a minute."

Ichigo shook, slightly, but smiled to her feet. "Thank you, Hiro..."

I ran over to the wall, resting my palm against it and realized how stupid it was for me to speak without thinking. The lip was so high up. How was I supposed to get there without a tree to climb like last time?

...Last time?

The thought stuck out in my head. Had I climbed a tree to get to something? I was so sure of it, but I couldn't remember ever having done so. But the more I tried to think about it, the more my head stung. Have I forgotten something? If I did, it seemed...meaningful?

I was snapped from the thought as a small spider climbed the wall next to my hand. "This must be really easy for you. Wish I could..."

Playfully, I placed my other hand against the wall and pretended to climb against wall. To my shock and surprise, my hands clung to the flat, smooth surface effortlessly, and I nearly yelped in surprise. I tried with my feet, but the shoes weren't sticking. I quickly kicked them off and stuck my toes against the wall as well. To my surprise and, at the time, delight, it worked; I was clinging to the flat surface of the wall. Carefully, I climbed the vertical wall up to the lip, and sat myself on it, grabbing Ichigo's stuffed bunny.

I smiled down at the stuffed rabbit. How had I done that? It was nothing short of amazing, in my eyes, to be able to climb a wall. I couldn't do this yesterday or the day before.

So, what changed?

That was when I realized I was missing a big chunk of the last few months. There was a noticeable gap in the winter time. I remembered walking in the snow. I remembered not being alone after the tests. But...

That as far as I got. I furrowed my brows. Why wasn't I questioning this? I asked lots of questions, right? Didn't I?

I did...and the Adults didn't like it. Maybe that's why the Adults seemed happier with me now, I stopped. But WHY did I stop?

"YOU!" A voice made me jump, nearly knocking me from the ledge. "Code 016! What are you doing up there?"

So much for Ichigo covering me, I figured. I opened my mouth to say I climbed, but my head began to buzz, and I was overcome with a feeling of dread. For whatever reason, an intuitive voice in my head made me feel like it would be a bad idea, maybe even dangerous, if I told them the truth.

"I don't know!" I told them, cheerfully lying.

"Stay there, we'll get you down..." The Adult grunted, angrily.

Since that day, I decided that keeping my abilities secret was for the best. From a young age, I knew that I was already teetering the line by being so odd, naming my friends, and questioning everything.

But it became increasingly clear to me in the upcoming weeks that more was changing in me than just sticky hands and feet. Mitsuru, who became really angry with me in the last few months, kept throwing things at me. The buzzing in my head always started before the object ever left his hands. The same buzzing always started when an Adult would take a Child from the Garden, and they never returned. I figured out that it was something of an alarm, a sixth sense that warned me of imminent danger, although the danger wasn't always clear. Thrown objects were easy to dodge. Children leaving forever were...outside of my realm of influence.

Speaking of dodging, that was a weird one too. I don't know if it was the tests or a side effect of whatever changed in me, but once I figured out my Inner Alarm as I called it, I knew to jump to the side whenever Mitsuru was going throw something. But the first time I did it, I sprung about ten feet to the left, while doing a flip in the air, freaking out all the other children in the room.

"What was THAT, Hiro?!" Ichigo had asked in amazement.

"I uh...ate more fruit this morning," I lied, lamely.

It wasn't just the leg muscles either. My throwing arm seemed to pack more of a punch, too. Playing catch with Goro one time, I threw the ball a bit too hard and broke his glasses. He didn't speak to me for a few days.

Still, as the weeks went on, and the...deviations became more apparent, I struggled to keep them hidden. The hardest part was knowing when more of my friends would vanish forever.

And right behind that was trying to figure out where and when this started. I had always done special testing at the Garden. But then there was a blank spot in my mind, and the testing stopped. All I could remember was a mistletoe tree, and snow. I wasn't alone, but I had no idea who was with me, be they boy, girl, animal, human...just that someone was with me.

The only thing that made sense to me was that it was some test they had done had given me a nasty side effect. But it didn't explain the half-memories either.

Finally, it came a day where all the Children in the Garden were taken to the Garden for Yellow Blood Cell injections and further testing. The second I stepped inside, the buzzing in my head, the Warning Alarm, began. When they attempted injecting me with the blood cells, the syringe needle bent and snapped against my skin.

"What...?" Was all the Adult caretaker could utter. After composing himself a bit, he turned to the other Adult assisting him and commanded, "Get Dr. Franxx down here."

The name itself made my head buzz more, a migraine setting in. The minutes dragged on as I waited. Was I in trouble? I hadn't done anything on purpose, not this time.

After an eternity, a man with half a metal face finally appeared. Despite the warnings, he spoke in an amicable tone. More so than the other adults. "Hello 016. We have a new needle for you, but I want to ask: have you been feeling differently lately?"

"Y..." I began, but the buzzing became almost violent as a warning, and I switched. "You know, I don't think so."

"I see." The Doctor muttered, tone neutral. "Well then, we'll get you done with a few more tests, and send you after the others from your Garden. They already finished up."

He produced a different syringe. This one was...huge. I cringed as they injected me with yellow blood cells.

But I noticed my dosage looked smaller than everyone else's.

Not much longer later, they let me go, alone, to walk back to the Garden. The whole scene seemed familiar.

I looked up towards a window by a tree, and my head seemed to fill with static.

Despite the green landscape, I could feel snow on my skin, and I could hear a scream. A pained scream.

The powers. The memories. That window had to have something to do with it, right? It had to. This was the most I remembered, and it all started with the window. I had to get to it. I had to look in. She was waiting for me.

She? I shook the thought. There was something going on here, and I had to figure it out.

Looking around to make sure it was clear, I ran over to the wall, kicked off my shoes, and clung to the wall with ease. As I inched my way up to the window, my heart began to race, and for the life of me, I couldn't begin to understand why. What was up there? I felt like this was familiar, though I knew last time, I had climbed the tree. But what was last time? I'd done this before, but why couldn't I remember it?

As I reached into the window, I looked inside eagerly, only to find...

An empty room.

I don't know what I had been expecting, but this wasn't it. Seeing the empty room made me feel empty inside too. Why did I want to cry? I didn't even know what was supposed to be in there.

As I went to climb down, I spied something on the floor that gave me pause.

A shard of glass.

Static hit my head once more. I remember that. I DID that. I could see it now, glass shattering as I threw a light through the window. To get in?

No.

I was helping something...someone get out.

Why?

What happened after?

Whatever happened to me is why I'm different. And whatever happened to me is why my memory had gaps.

For the first time in a long time, I felt angry. Furious. Something important got taken from me by this place, and there was a feeling of helplessness as I couldn't even remember what or who it was, or why.

That was years ago. Now, as I sat outside of Plantation Thirteen under the trees, I stared up at the domed sky feeling more helpless than ever. Even now, despite my deviation, despite the strength and speed that came with my secret, I couldn't save anyone; it was a distraction, a way I passed the time. Despite the way my abilities grew, my compatibility scores for piloting a Franxx dropped.

I wasn't strong enough on my own to fight a Klaxosaur, even with all my abilities, and I couldn't pilot a Franxx. What good was I?

In my reading, I learned of a bird called a Jian. They only have one wing and lean on each other in male and female pairs to fly.

Pitiful. Like me, I guess.

But at times, I felt more like a black widow. While a lot of the books had redacted the details, they were a type of spider that devoured their partners after partnering. I wasn't sure what that meant thanks to whatever censorship Papa had in place, but I felt more akin to something like that.

I squeezed my eyes shut, remembering my failed compatibility with Naomi.

Why stay here? I couldn't be a Parasite. I couldn't pilot a Franxx. Maybe going back to the Garden, I could at least help someone with my strength.

I saw a bird smack into the dome window, distracting me from my moping. Or, brooding as I liked to call it. "Ten out of ten, good job buddy."

The quipping sort of just came with the bitterness, I think. Ever since I saw that empty room, I became very...discontent with my life situation, and the inability to pilot didn't help. Goro called it a defense mechanism. I liked to think it was just a budding, charming personality.

My thoughts were dashed as a ship passed by overhead. "Visitors, huh? That's new."

For a split second, I felt eyes on me, but it passed. It was nothing like my usual Alarm, but something told me things were about to change.

I decided to follow that bird after a while longer of moping about. See if it was okay. Ichigo would worry after I was gone for so long, especially since I skipped out on the briefing, but maybe I wouldn't feel like a total failure if I could help that bird. Not that I wanted to see my squad mates go on to plot Franxx without me. Nothing against them, but the constant reminder of, "Hey Hiro, you're a big fat failure," was nothing I needed to live with.

A splashing noise snapped me back to reality. I looked over to a small lake and saw movement, so I walked over there out of natural curiosity. I spied some clothes on the ground and didn't recognize them. They weren't our uniforms. They actually seemed a lot cooler. I always liked the color red. I absentmindedly picked up a piece of cloth.

I looked out and saw some sort of female figure go under the water.

"Lovely place to drown, but I should probably stop that," I muttered to myself.

Now, it's been a long time since anything took me by surprise. My Inner Alarm always alerted me to impending danger, but it was vague. Still, life here was pretty routine, so nothing really came as a shock anymore.

But as this girl with flowing pink hair and horns leapt out of the water, I was in utter shock, for a few reasons. First, she was naked. Second, she had a pair of bright, red horns. Third, she was naked. Fourth, she had a fish in her mouth, which, according to what I read, only bears did that. Fifth: NAKED.

Rooted to the spot, I watched in awe as the girl spit the fish out of her mouth. "Well, what are you staring for? Are you going for a swim?"

Oof. Great first impression. From behind her, I saw the bird I had been tracking down take to the sky, and give me a look that echoed, "Ten out of ten, good job, buddy."

"S-sorry, I thought you were drowning!" I stuttered, averting my eyes from her. Did I mention she was naked? "I jumped in to try and prevent said drowning. But you're not. And this is awkward."

To my relief, she laughed and began to walk out of the water, and I followed suit. My shoes were soaked, which was always a crappy feeling. The mysterious girl scanned the area, and then looked to me, making me blush. "You're a pervert, aren't you?"

I looked down at my hand and realized the cloth I had picked up earlier was her underwear.

I was really nailing this introduction, so I held out my hand and looked away. "I-I didn't realize! I'm sorry!"

Again, she burst out laughing, doubling over, and taking the undergarment from me. "You should see the look on your face!" She straightened herself out. "But hey, you really were trying to save me, huh? Thank you, that's sweet."

"Well, I operate on a, 'see something, do something,' basis, so it seemed right." I replied, rubbing the back of my neck.

"I also appreciate that you didn't seem afraid of my horns. I like that."

It was a bit out of the ordinary, but I'm sure I might get an odd look from her if she saw me hanging off the ceiling, so who am I to judge? Maybe she had a weird mutation like me?

"I don't see them as anything to be afraid of." I answered, with a small smile. This seemed to make her really happy, and she gave me one back.

As she got dressed, she eyed my uniform. "Are you a Parasite?"

I frowned. Ah yes. The reason I was out here brooding in the first place. I turned toward the water and picked up a rock to skip. "No. I'm nothing."

From the corner of my eye, I saw her tilt her head. "No partner?"

"Not that. I lost my ability to Pilot a long time ago. I forget how, but I've just never been able to connect with someone. I don't have a future here. I don't belong." I skipped the rock, careful to use a minimal amount of strength, and managed seven skips. Nice.

"So, you're all alone, huh?" She asked. But she didn't even give me a chance to answer. "Just like me, thanks to the horns."

I felt her walk behind me, and I turned as she continued. "I bet your ability is still lying dormant in there. If you don't have a future, make one. If you don't belong here, find a place you do. And if you don't have a partner..."

For the second time, she surprised me by tackling me to the ground. Even with my enhanced power and durability, she was surprisingly strong as my back hit the shallows, soaking my uniform. My heart raced and my chest tightened. As I looked in her green eyes, hovering right over mine, and I felt a little lightheaded. "Take one!"

Somehow, this girl didn't set off my Inner Alarm. Maybe because she was just being playful, but I didn't feel like I was in danger with her. I felt a weird, new excitement within me as she leaned down and licked the side of my face. "Your taste makes my heart race, there's a bite with a sense of danger...and adventure."

"Yup. That's me. Mr. Adventure." I replied, cringing. That was a terrible response.

She giggled though and stood up. "How would you like to be my darling?"

"Darling, huh?" I asked, sitting up. She reached out her hand to help me, and I began to reach for it. "That's like a partner, I'm guessing? That...sounds familiar."

The response wasn't one she was anticipating, and she tilted her head again, eyebrows furrowing. "Does it, now?"

My Inner Alarm went off, and I heard footsteps as a man shouted, "There you are! Why do you run off on your own?"

The girl's face fell as men in a similar uniform to hers approached, carrying guns. "Nevermind, I guess...too bad."

I watched, confused, as she left with them, but stood up and jogged over to the group. "Wait! What's your name?"

"Name...?" She looked to her feet. A forlorn expression was etched on her face, like she was reminiscing on something. "I don't have one. I'm Code 002. But you can just call me 02."

"Let's go," commanded one of the men with her, and they began to walk off.

I watched them go, half tempted to give chase. This was different. Did this girl really think she could operate a Franxx with me?

I shook the thought from my head. I needed to get back and prepare to leave with Naomi. The thought alone made the excitement in my chest die down.

Well, may as well have fun getting back.

I jumped onto the branch of a tree and began leaping from limb to limb towards the living quarters. Besides my friends, I'd miss going out to the forest to practice my abilities most of all.

Of course, as it turned out, I wasn't leaving any time soon...