Hello there, first off I want to thank you for being interested in my take on an alternative ending for Darling in the Franxx!
What you are about to commence to read is probably still riddled with grammatical mistakes and may sound odd to a native english speaker at times, but I promise I did my best to smooth it out as good as I could to make it enjoyable. Nonetheless I would highly appreaciate it if you would leave me not only your opinion on story and characters, but also if you would be so kindly as to hint at the gravest mistakes I may have made. Thank you in advance!
Now to the actual story:
Our journey begins after the end of episode 15 in the anime. The battle at the Gran Crevasse is fought and won, but the price of victory was paid in huge amounts of human blood. And while the Parasites on the field are still doing their bloody work and the Vice Chairman of APE is working on behalf of Papa behind enemy lines, Hiro and Zero Two have to solve problems of their very own. Problems regarding their erased memories.
Hours had passed, since the Gran Crevasse had finally given in and its defenses had been reduced to piles of rubble.
In the devastated wasteland, that was the battlefield on which the FRANXX-Pilots had risked their lives, was silence. Mountains of fallen Klaxosaurs were lying in a ring of dead bodies around the fortress's outer walls, which were still standing, even after the tremendous power that Strelizia and the Nines had unleashed on it.
Although at least some cracks were to be seen, where the combined power of the most elite FRANXXs did split them open from above.
Now, there were guard posts and patrols deployed at each and every one of those openings into the dark interior of Gran Crevasse. Some rumors between the surviving elements of the FRANXX-Formations were suggesting, that earlier an APE transport ship had been seen entering the inner ring. But no one really cared at this point.
Not a single Plantation had its units at full strength. Most of them didn't even have half of their previous fighting capacity. Between all the fallen monsters there were dozens of fallen FRANXX units too. Their pilots were either still lying dead all over the place, blasted to pieces, or dying in this very instant.
Not a single one of all the regular FRANXX-Pilots was cheering or showed any other sign of relief in face of this pyrrhic victory.
The irregulars of Plantation 13 on the other hand had been ordered back to the remnants of their devastated home and were believed to have - as the only deployed fighting force besides the Nines Special Forces - not lost a single pilot in the fight.
Some had put it down as pure luck. Others said it had to do with their superior FRANXX-Models. One way or the other, at the end of the day everyone on the field had heard of Plantation 13's squad of so called "heroes", who had fought their way to the entrance of the Gran Crevasse. And of Strelizia, who had single handedly destroyed an enemy Super-Lehmann-Class Klaxosaur, before uniting with the Nines and destroying the dome above the enemy fortress, resulting in retreat of all Klaxosaurs on the battlefield.
In the eyes of the common pilot this was nothing short of a miracle.
Now, after witnessing the execution of Protocol 32 by Code 090 and his fellow pilots of Plantation 26, there was a certain expectation within the other units, that the 13er's would also be send to their deaths or at least split up to units who had taken a higher toll then others. Some even suggested to send them into the fortress itself, to secure the inner parts of it.
Nearly three hours after the battle had ended and the last shot was fired, the APE-Members, which made up the political cores of all the Plantations still standing, gathered in Plantation 106, which came to be the one furthest away from the still menacing walls of the Gran Crevasse. They spoke long and in great detail of the great victory, that has been accomplished, and of all the resources that could now be obtained. Two hours further in time they had come to think of the losses in manpower and an hour after that, the order to rescue the few still living pilots in the destroyed FRANXXs, was given out.
After that was on the way, a long list of things to do was created, resulting in further explosions and many more deaths in the destroyed Plantations, before actual help was send their way.
And while the rumors spread like wildfire among the survivors, the first medics and transport crafts landed on the battlefield, to safe who they could, hours after the battle ended. No one besides the soldiers had so far been allowed to leave the Plantations that were still intact after the fight. This was a direct order, given by APE, the instant the battle had ended.
More than just a few good pilots died because of it.
Obviously not a single soul dared to even think about the madness, that lied in the implication that Papa's orders were somewhat flawed. It had to be for the greater good. It had to be for victory.
Still, more than one pilot had little sparks of doubt flash subconsciously through their minds, while carrying their dead comrades from the field of battle. Of course, those pilots were afraid of their own minds and tried their hardest to not let themselves be corrupted by doubt. Some even went straight for their commanding officer and told them what was on their conscious. Those were promptly sent to re-indoctrination and had afterwards lost most of their recollections of the battle.
While the Seven Sages were occupied consolidating their victory, the rest of APE was nearly unable to act on their own, due to the fact that without any orders from above, nobody knew what to do with the destroyed Plantations, the wounded and the amount of fallen FRANXXs. Not even touching the delicate subject of thousands of fallen Klaxosaurs, bleeding out in the wasteland.
Of the six Plantations that were the 4th United Company, there were only four left. The 5th lost another two of six and the 6th lost a single Plantation. Resulting in the loss of five Plantations total of seventeen deployed. On the military board, those weren't bad numbers, considering that APE promised it to be the last step towards peace negotiations. In reality though, those numbers meant hundreds of thousands of dead or missing people, the loss of culture and science unique to these Plantations and less members of APE alive. It were in fact horrible numbers.
Meanwhile, Squad 13 had returned to their briefing room and waited there for further instructions. Nana and Hatchi still hadn't returned from their inspection of the damaged areas and so the squad was on standby for a few hours already.
They sat in pairs or groups and talked about the things they saw and did in the greatest battle of their lives.
"... and then I realized that I had depleted all my energy reserves for the guns, so Futoshi said something like: let's keep fighting with that bridge as a weapon, and before I even knew it, I was swinging that damn bridge and kept on hammering it on Klaxosaurs left and right."
As Ikuno ended talking with a faint smile, the rest of the squad showed some small signs of easing up for the first time since the battle ended.
Goro and Ichigo let out a chuckle. Miku grinned and Zorome shook his head quietly laughing. Mitsuru and Kokoro raised their eyebrows in quiet disbelief, as they were the only ones who hadn't witnessed that scene when it occurred.
Futoshi sat up rapidly as he heard them and looked around while still being half asleep.
"I heard my name …?", he asked.
The rest looked at him in more than just disbelief.
"You really were asleep?!", Zorome shouted unbelievingly.
"Well, I figured I might as well take a nap while waiting and …"
The squad broke out into loud laughter.
Some metres away from the laughing group, Hiro and Zero Two sat eye to eye on one seat, hugging each other and kissing every now and then.
Both looked over to the others and smiled at their childish behavior, even after coming eye to eye with the horrors of war.
As they calmed down and continued their conversation, Hiro turned back to Zero Two only to find her already starring into his eyes, a single tear rolling down her left cheek.
They hadn't spoken more than a dozen words with each other since Strelizia had been recovered by the garage tech teams. But more hadn't been necessary. Hiro was too occupied realizing hints and flirts of hers, which had been a mystery to him up until now. But now that he remembered, it all came back to him piece after piece.
He couldn't even hope to comprehend how devastated she must've felt after certain points in their shared history and while he was not the one to forgive her for beating up the squad, Ichigo already did that right then and there on the battlefield on behalf of the entire team, after Hiro had given a brief summary of what was going on between them. He had had to promise her to explain it later in greater detail, but after seeing Zero Two's tear-stained face and her reaction to Ichigo reaching out to her, she was assured that Zero Two had definitely changed and she accepted her weeping apology.
Hiro himself still had to muster up all his inner strength to not just let out on all the emotions welling up inside his chest. Combined with all the returning memories it was nearly too much for him. He let some of those feelings out while leaning forwards and kissing the tear away from Zero Two's cheek.
She sniffled and pressed herself against him, leaning her chin on his left shoulder.
"I missed you so much Darling", were her first words in hours.
He thought about the fact that he hadn't missed her at all before she had entered his life a second time and he felt ashamed. He should have. It was unthinkable that he didn't. She had been searching for him year after year and he had just simply … forgotten about her. It was enough to bring tears to his eyes. And a darker feeling deep inside of him, that was processing all the atrocities they had to endure, was telling him who was to blame for that.
His eyes wandered off to a lonely figure, sitting on a chair in the darkest corner of the room. And Dr. Werner Frank looked right back at him.
The Doctor had been the only one present at the time they arrived here, so he had waved them off to the seats and retreated into the corner. In the entire time since then, he was observing them. And while he seemed to notice the behavior of the other Parasites, his focus lied heavily on the two lovers on the other side of the room.
Hiro sent him a glare of remembrance, but kept to himself, to not darken the mood of the squad. There would be another time to confront the Doctor.
For now, he was happy to hug Zero Two even more after hearing her still weeping voice besides his ear.
"It's ok", he whispered, "It's all going to be ok now."
And she believed him. He could feel it in every single inch of his body.
"I love you Darling", were the only words that came over her trembling lips.
"I know", he murmured back - still getting somewhat flustered about it, "I love you too."
Suddenly she straightened her body and looked him into his eyes again.
"You know", she began, while wiping off some tears, "I really thought I had lost you forever. After what happened last week, it just seemed so right to me that I would be punished like that after what I did. I can't really comprehend that we are here right now. And like that. It is too good to be true. Am I still inside Strelizia and losing my mind?"
That was no hollow question sprung out of happiness, he realized. She really, truly feared with all her heart that it may be the case.
Hiro gave her a sad smile, thinking of a beautiful but broken flower, leaned forwards until he was directly starring into her eyes and asked:
"Does this feel like madness?"
And then proceeded to kiss her on her lips.
Her eyes widened a bit as she answered it.
As they let go of each other she answered smiling:
"Not at all … Darling."
Then the doors to the command room opened up and Nana and Hatchi came marching down the ramp, eyeing up the Parasites while marching to their spot at the center of the room.
Hiro catched a glimpse of Nana looking at him with two raised eyebrows as he and Zero Two hastily let go of and sat next to each other.
He did send an apologizing shrug her way, though he didn't even know if that was what he really wanted to do. In reality he wanted to shout at her for being part of the problem, but that was just his darker self, welling up over some fresh recovered feelings. Or so he told himself.
As soon as the entire squad payed attention to them, Nana cleared her throat and said: "I'm glad to see you all alive and well. As for your new assignment …"
Meanwhile, within the inner ring of the Gran Crevasse, the Vice Chairman of APE marched down the long ramp of his transport ship. As soon as he reached the scorched earth he took a long look around.
The inner ring was the smallest of the defense fortresses that were the Gran Crevasse's outer perimeter, but it was still of gigantic scale. Now that the sun could reach its ground it would be easier to guess how big it really was, but that would require the sun to actually shine into the damn thing.
The Vice Chairman glared at the dark sky. It was early afternoon and dark like the void between the stars. The earlier battle had send so much dirt and smoke into the sky that it would be another day before some sunlight would erupt through the mantle of darkness above his head.
Suddenly a long and dark roaring snapped him out of his thoughts.
He looked at the gigantic pit before him, which was nearly as big in scale as the entire inner ring of the fortress. From somewhere down there came the scream of some … thing. The thought of some giant Klaxosaur, emerging from the depths and crushing him whole, was something not even the Vice Chairman could just shrug away.
He mustered a bit of courage to not take a step back in front of his escort, which consisted of a few dozen soldiers and the Nines.
Instead he proclaimed loudly: "Hear their screams of despair and rejoice men! For this day marks the beginning of an everlasting peace."
His soldiers showed some signs of easing up, but the Nines continued to secure the entire area until every stone was turned and it became clear that no Klaxosaur was close by.
The Vice Chairman didn't stop them. It was their entire purpose in life after all.
He turned to the captain of the soldiers around him.
"I want you to search the interior of all nearby buildings until you find something useful. And with useful I mean data and weapon storages, communication devices and all other things that could give us a hint of their strategies and tactics. This is the main objective of our coming here. Don't screw it up, captain."
The man saluted and replied: "Of course not, Vice Chairman." If he was confused as to why he should search buildings for hints on some sort of tactics used by Klaxosaurs, then he was good at hiding it. Although he added: "May I suggest to leave you at least a few men, to assist you in your own objective?"
He waved him away and said: "You may lent me two of your men, but don't expect them to return alive. My objective leads me down there."
The Captain gulped and ordered two of his men to stay with the Vice Chairman, while he took the rest and marched to the nearest fortress buildings.
Nine Alpha contacted the Vice Chairman shortly after.
"Here Alpha, we cleared the area and confirm it as secure. Your orders?"
The Vice Chairman marched to the edge of the seemingly endless pit before him and looked down. Another roaring scream greeted him out of the darkness.
"Find any means of entering this pit. Contact me immediately when you found something. I'll meet you there. After that you will secure a path down there and keep them from stomping, shooting or doing anything else to me, understood?"
"Yes Sir. May I say that this is very dangerous for you? Maybe you should stay up here and wait until we have secured enough of this pit …"
"Nine Alpha, your orders are very clear. If I wanted to stay here, I wouldn't be going to the lengths of giving you such orders."
In his mind he added: and it's not as if I have any choices in this matter …
"Understood Sir, my apology. We're heading out now. I'll inform you shortly of our way down there."
He didn't bother answering that and turned back to the transport ship.
On his way back to the ramp he thought to himself:
Maybe I overreact because of the situation. Maybe there is nothing to fear about down there. If we crush them down there like we did above the ground, we don't even need to find there little princess. Then it will be our military victory and forced assimilation of their entire species.
And then this entire farce would be over at last.
His soul emitted shines of dark joy into the near surroundings, but there was no one nearby who could sense it, so he didn't bother hiding it.
Then – he just reached the top of the ramp – he heard some sort of rumbling behind him. And without turning he knew that it came out of the pit.
"Alpha here, Vice Chairman, return to your transport ship and flee immediately! Something is coming up, and it is big. I don't know if we can stop it in time."
All of his fears returned stronger than before.
Still not turning around, he prolonged the reach of his steps and stormed into the cockpit.
"Bring us out of here!", he shouted at the pilots, who were already starting up the engines.
And then, unintentionally, he looked at it through the front windows, as it emerged from the depths.
A long arm, ending in a hand with five fingers, and big enough to nearly reach all walls of the pit at the same time, came forth from the darkness and kept climbing into the sky, until the Vice Chairman couldn't even see the fingers anymore.
His soul emitted a little scream of fear, as he knew that he wouldn't go back to the collective, after being hit by that. This was worse than everything he and his superiors had ever thought of. They knew the enemy still had something big on their hand, but this wasn't just big. It was old. He could sense it. Its combined soul core emitted an eon old hatred, that could only mean that they fought back then for several thousand years without getting destroyed. That would make them some sort of ... war veterans. They were probably older than even the Super-Lehman-Class that had guarded the entrance to the fortress. And they probably could sense him at least as good as he could sense them.
"I said bring us out of here! Quit starring and get us moving, on the double!", he screamed at the two pilots.
Finally they started moving.
Metre for metre they climbed into the air.
A few miles away, the Nines started to attack the damn thing, but as much as he could see, they didn't even scratch it with their initial attacks.
"This is bad …", the left pilot began to speak as he realized first how the gigantic arm started to fall over in their direction.
The Vice Chairman's soul screamed in silent terror.
Hiro stared at Hachi, unbelieving of what he just heard.
He raised his arm and asked: "Sir, what exactly do you mean when you say "on standby"? We're not allowed to partake in our routine Franxx-Training Sessions? We will just stay at Mistilteinn and … wait for orders? Possibly for months?"
"That is correct", proclaimed Hachi with his usual monotone voice, "You are ordered to …"
A sudden alarm siren cut through the rest of his sentence and let everyone jump to their feet.
"What …", started Nana to ask, but she was interrupted by an enormous earthquake, that shattered most of the already crippled plantation.
Dr. Franks – who nearly fell of his chair – came to his feet and walked with a stagger towards the monitors.
Everybody stared at the giant hand that had just crashed on top of the plantation and buried most of it beneath its palm.
It was a miracle that Mistilteinn and the central pillar had been left unscathed.
Silence erupted as the monstrous hand once again rose to the sky.
They all knew that the plantation wouldn't withstand a second hit.
And there was no time to evacuate anywhere.
But even as Nana knew all of this, she still proclaimed:
"Doctor, you have to get out of here right now!"
Dr. FRANXX on the other hand had no eyes for her. Nor did he even hear her say anything.
His entire mind was occupied with acknowledging the sheer mass of the rising arm on the monitor.
"It …", he began to murmur, "It is beautiful."
Nana threw him a doubting glare, but stayed silent as the arm stopped moving.
It had reached its highest stance once again and loomed over the entire battlefield.
Zero Two grabbed onto Hiro's hand as they both stared in horror onto the monitor.
Unknowingly, mere two metres away, Goro and Ichigo did the same.
Then the arm did start to move again.
Miku closed her eyes, her mind occupied with thoughts about the picture of the old Squad 13 in the closed off rooms, back at the Boarding House.
Zorome, his mind blank, reached out to her and pulled her against his shoulder, trying to comfort her a bit.
Ikuno looked at Ichigo and Goro, who were still holding hands, and a single tear of regret rolled down her cheek.
Mitsuru's face was a grimace, expressing something along the lines of 'I knew it would end like that'.
Kokoro's face on the other hand looked just extremely sad.
Futoshi still tried to understand the situation to its full extend and just stared at the screen with a half opened mouth.
Hachi and Nana just looked at each other with a look of 'good bye'.
And Dr. FRANXX still stared – his face looking like he was in love – at the giant arm.
Which just embarked back into the pit it came out of.
And vanished.
Silence was all that followed for a single minute.
Then, with a minutes worth of hold breath hissing out, Zero Two broke the mood.
And chuckled with a little hysterical undertone.
"Well, that was quite something", she proclaimed with a weak grin.
One after the other the rest of the squad broke out in relieved laughter.
Embarrassed laughter in a few cases.
Even Hachi and Nana took a deep breath after that scene and looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
"I think", Hachi started after everyone had calmed down a bit, "that your orders are invalid as of now. I will request new commands from Papa and …"
"That is incorrect Hachi."
Everyone looked at Dr. FRANXX in confusion.
"Their orders stay exactly the same. That is an order directly from me. And as you are part of my team, Hachi, you needn't ask anyone else in APE for other commands."
Hachi looked at him with his monotone face for a few seconds, then saluted and turned back to the Parasites: "Your orders stay as they were. You are still on standby within Mistilteinn. But I guess you'll have a few more things to do yourself then just a few minutes ago. That is all. Return to your quarters."
Confused and whispering to each other the Parasites left the command room.
Nana turned to Dr. FRANXX the instant the door closed and screamed:
"You can't let them stay here! If that thing comes back up, they're all as good as dead. You know the rest of the plantations won't stay here after witnessing that attack right now, so there is no safety for them. They can't even reach their FRANXXs if they try, besides being ordered not to!"
The Doctor looked at her for a second before answering.
"You are very emotional on that subject. You shouldn't be. They are just test subjects. Don't forget that. Besides … you will stay here too. You too, Hachi. And I.
And if I don't misjudge the geezers in the council, there will be a military occupation of the area, too. So you really have no need to worry, Nana."
She straightened her back and gave him a firm nod.
"Understood Sir. May I ask the reason why?"
He shrugged and turned away to the door.
"Because we still need to find something down there."
And with that he was gone.