…
Chapter 2
Beneath a Blue Sky
…
A bright flash of light and a gigantic shockwave, followed by absolute silence.
The explosion tore apart the alien megastructure at the top of Gran Crevasse, flinging its kilometer-wide pieces like shrapnel far into the desertic landscape. Shards made of gleaming violet patterns scattered in the atmosphere and fell back to the earth, tearing the ground asunder and shooting into the air countless grey columns of fine sand. As the winds raged on, they dragged those clouds on the surface of the surrounding desert, the imperfect theatre for the still raging three-way melee between the forces of Humanity, Klaxxo and VIRM.
At the base of the mountain, sparse groups of humanoid robots tall like skyscrapers painted black and orange were panickily forming defensive circles in a phalanx of lethal orange-glowing tipped spears trying to repel the blue mass of war machines surrounding their formations. The wild stampede consuming all around them was accompanied by acute animal-like screams, composing a chilling-to-the-bone scene belonging to the most horrifying of nightmares. Monstrous, lethal, black and neon blue steel hulks of unusual shapes and sizes were erratically and violently stomping their claws against suffocating waves of violet humanoid headless robots falling from the sky like rain, all among volleys of fire and brimstone bombarding aimlessly the landscape from the sky and melting everything they met in their path. A surely desperate but necessary battle, because it carried within the destiny of planet Earth as its utmost prize.
Free from its shackles, Star Entity looked upwards towards the grey sky as its immense figure rose from the destroyed underground complex. As soon as the winds swept away the dust cloud shrouding the atmosphere, all the combatants stopped their fighting in a daze. Their gazes were magnetized in utter awe towards the kilometer-wide peerless mass of metal, slowly rising from the ruins of the Gran Crevasse. In a matter of seconds, a white, red-striped mech with a humanlike armored upper body and a golden plumed, elongated helmet built on top of a religious mantis body with four massive legs was standing tall atop the mountain. Glancing upon the heavy clouds full of tempest with a powerful stance, the machine directed its long blue horn, protruding from its forehead, upwards.
Time froze solid in fear when the horn of Star Entity lit a swirling ball of rotating plasma above its tip. The ball suddenly contracted into a point and, in a lethal glare, released itself forward in a massive beam of pure heat and energy, instantly vaporizing the tumultuous clouds above. Everything was painted the colors of the beam, a glaring blue and red, while another shockwave rocked the earth under the terrifying pressure. Eventually, the glare slowly subsided as the beam shrunk to a thin chord, to then disappear from thin air as bright colors returned to the metallic black, blue and violet mechs carcasses, lit by a shining and gentle yellow sun embedded in the stark blue sky framed by a gigantic hole in the black clouds opened by the weapon.
In unison, all the VIRM humanoid violet mechs stopped moving and fell to the ground like marionettes that had their own strings cut by invisible scissors. Then, a fissure appeared in the arid earth and a giant violet starship shaped like an enormous spearhead took flight from below the Crevasse, trying to escape Star Entity's fury. The vessel's flight came to a halt when the kilometer-wide mech grabbed hold of its tail, anchoring it down with its mass to prevent it from leaving Earth. In all response, the ship's powerful propulsors suddenly kicked off with a shockwave from its four exhausts, slipping off from Star Entity's fingers and escaping towards the sky.
After a period of hesitation, in which Star Entity stared motionless at the fleeing violet ship reaching escape velocity, it activated its own propulsors to give chase. As she slowly but effortlessly levitated upwards, countless spots in the ground all around Gran Crevasse were torn open by hundreds and hundreds of small blue starships in vertical takeoff, matching speed with the giant war machine in the ascension towards the stars.
At the bottom of the scarred Gran Crevasse human base, beside the border of the giant hole made to contain Star Entity, lay a solitary blue and white FranXX unit half buried beneath the gravel and sprawled on top of a violet VIRM dead unit. After the scorching winds of Star Entity's propulsors placated, the frontal hatch of the mech slowly opened.
…
…
I'm still hesitating to wrap my fingers around the orange-glowing emergency lever of the front access of the cockpit, illuminated just by the dim service lights.
The intense vibrations rocking the interior of Delphinium have stopped for a while, so I wonder if the outside is safe as the following silence would suggest, but that sudden deafening rumble made me rethink that scenario… and the health of my eardrums too. Since the panoramic LCD's power is dead, just considering exposing myself to whatever was happening sends shivers down my spine: a FranXX's interior is one of the safest places you can be and opening the hatch can be a fatal mistake, so my hand hangs motionless above the lever while I concentrate on my ears to try to pick up any noise from outside.
"Come on, it stopped already. Open up, I want to see!"
I startle as a small hand insistently pushes me from behind… so I sigh.
"…Ok, then."
I guess it's time to throw caution to the wind and get a view of what's happening outside. I plant my knee down and grab with both hands the glowing orange T-lever. With a snap, I tug at it with all my force and my body weight shifts sideways as a help. The mechanism detaches with a «Clack!» and the lever comes off from the base it was lodged into. Following that, a high-pitched pressure discharge from the door's hydraulic mechanism fizzles into a bass tone. As the sound disperses, the LCD panels embedded into the FranXX panoramic screen releases forward, coming off in the shape of the opening ever so slightly, letting a rim of light into the cockpit's twilight.
"Well… Stuck?" I ask, puzzled, as I have never had the 'pleasure' of using the emergency lever.
"I don't know… push maybe?"
I follow the advice, planting my hands onto the LCD panels connected to the door and pushing it forward. To my full relief, the frame inclines ever so slowly, letting in rays of dusty light into the cockpit accompanied by an intense burnt and suffocating smell. I cringe in fatigue but keep levering the thick reclining door with my body weight, managing to open it up a little more. It's with displeasure that, looking through the small door opening, I realize that the entire front face of Delphinium is blocked by concrete rubble - no wonder the door's so heavy.
After quite a bit of pushing, I can see glimpses of a bright, dusty outside. As the door reclines past forty-five degrees, a bright light forcefully blinds my eyes as I keep tugging. In the end, I jump on it to force it horizontal and steel steps pop up from below the entrance as the door levels with crumbling sounds. It's thanks to our luck we landed almost level with the ground, because there would be massive problems in even letting some oxygen in… Well, right now the air feels heavy and coarse like breathing magma fuel anyways.
My overexposed eyes slowly adapt to the light. All around Delphinium, an extremely tall and wide circular rock chasm filled with rubble meets my view: gigantic tilted concrete columns in the distance were towering a sea of trashed metal sheets and rocks that composed the walls of the complex, mixed with deep brown earth and spurts of magma fuel coloring everything around them in a glowing orange hue. That landscape formed quite foggy but shiny hills in every direction, interspersed by disjointed and crumpled metal railings climbing towards the top of the chasm like leftover roots of an uprooted tree, casting erratic shadows down below into the sea of rubble. Looking around, I can see swirls of dust kicking up at the small landslides still being triggered in the distance and, more importantly, no sign of the enormous Star Entity.
It couldn't have disappeared from thin air. Did it explode? Why didn't the earth explode with it? Are we… dead? No, wait. This doesn't make any sense. But… where did Star Entity go?
Pulling me out of my daze, the sound of high heels on metal resound from my right side. I turn my head to see a small, blue-haired girl with a slanted bob cut and long bangs pinned to her left temple by a white metal hairpin shaped like a bird. She came walking to my side with a smile on her face. A small body with a slender frame adorned by a tiny chest clothed in a skin-tight body-printed white jumpsuit with blue inserts, a large white shoulder collar made of white polymer holding an LCD screen with full heels on her feet and a folded command interface just below her waist. Her hand passes on her small forehead to wipe the sweat produced by the very difficult situation we were literary and figuratively thrown into, brushing onto her long and thin eyebrows and eyelashes hanging over her deep emerald eyes, petite nose and thin mouth.
Ichigo.
"Looks like we did it!" She cheers while looking around the surrounding desolation.
"Seems like it, but… Where is Star Entity?"
"Ah! Well…" She briefly scans the place again at a loss. She looks up, and suddenly her index finger shoots upwards. "AH! Look! Up there!"
"Uh…? OH, WOW!" Aided by her clue, I raise my nose upwards and recoil in surprise after seeing past the crumpled hanging catwalks. First, I find a bright and clear blue sky instead of the oppressing black clouds I met at the start of the operation and second, a gigantic white and red FranXX-like mech slowly ascending in the air, accompanied by countless gleaming blue dots.
"They did it… They really did it!" I cheer throwing my fist in the air, happy that we won this difficult battle.
"Yes!" Ichigo jumps upwards, hands in the air. "Ah-ahaha! No, we all did it! We've saved Earth, Goro!"
I admire her blue hair dancing at his jump and shining like her smile. So blissful. It was all worth it just to see her like this again.
"Yeah!" I nod.
Ichigo lands on her feet and lets out a drawn-out sigh, but then bends down to the ground, aggravated by sudden, fast and unsteady breathing.
"Oi, what's wrong?" I worriedly ask her.
"Huff… huff… whew! Just a bit tired. We were going at it for hours… I'm going to sit down for a bit…" She brushes it off, then she slowly helps herself down on her knees on the horizontal door, to then spread on her side with a beat-up expression.
"Well, you got that right for me too, Ichigo." I say, realizing how sluggish my body feels. I sit down on my own to slowly tilt backwards on my back, spreading myself on the metal of the door with my arms behind my head as cushion. Slowly, the circle around my temples disappears and my muscles start regaining a bit of tone. Driving a FranXX is extremely taxing on the body, so it's normal that after so many hours of driving we would feel tired.
I just can't shake off the danger we're still in, though. When we abandoned our post to search for Strelitzia, we also left a raging battle where a violet horde of humanoid mechanical monsters fell onto the battling forces. Now our mech is literally on top of a VIRM unit that followed us and tried to maul us to death: we managed to protect Dr. FranXX and Zero Two accessing the Star Entity entry port by throwing ourselves in desperation into a chasm at the border of the gigantic mech, dragging that thing with us.
Freefalling towards the bottom of the chasm… I thought I would die with Ichigo this time around, but fortunately, the thing cushioned us. Shocked by the impact and crushed by the weight of Delphinium, we manage to pierce at least one of our twin piledrivers into the monster's body before our FranXX passed out… If we hadn't, we would also be dead. But our luck aided us, and Zero Two managed to enter Star Entity and somehow stop the countdown to self-destruction.
Looking back, that was… Whoa!
"Goro, do you think Hiro and Zero Two are still in Star Entity?" Ichigo asks looking upwards, her head cradled by her arms, pulling me out from my thoughts.
I look upwards to the sky to see the white vapor trail that the gleaming robot has left upon exiting the atmosphere. I almost can't distinguish it anymore, having become a white dot in the sky.
"I guess…Yes? Wasn't Strelitzia embedded in it to pilot it?"
"Yeah. But where are they going? Why are they not helping at the battlefield?"
That's a very legitimate question. Why acquire a megaweapon to then just leave like that? I guess it has something to do with the things that Hachi mentioned before the escort operation.
"Beats me. Are they going to engage the…? What did Hachi call them… S-Starships?"
"Hm. What are starships?" Ichigo asks away.
"Ships were for travelling in water, so maybe… those travel among the stars?" I say embarrassingly. I can't know everything, I'm just wildly guessing.
"Wow, that's romantic."
"Hm? Why?" That was hardly romantic, I think. Isn't space a lethal void anyways?
"Hiro always liked the stars. In the Garden, he would always read constellation pictures from the astrology books and he knew the constellation names by heart. I wonder how he feels now, being closer to the stars that he has ever been…"
Ah.
"Sure! He always had his nose between the pages of a book. One time, he even ticked a caretaker off having snuck a big one outside the library in the dining room! I was like 'Hiro, are you gonna eat that, too?', then an Adult charged into us like a bull!"
"Yeah! Ahahahaha! I remember that!" Ichigo thrills in a relieved laughter. "He got a long-winded scolding that time! It was like, one of the last copies of some animal picture book, wasn't it?"
"Yeah! He didn't like rules that much, did he?"
"Nope!"
Ichigo fidgets her hair with her hand clad in her jumpsuit's gloves, looking up in the sky.
"It's because of him that we've come this far."
"…"
Indeed. He has always been upfront and had a word for each one of us. He knew a lot of things and wanted to know even more, always driven by his curiosity. He could read people like books, too… I admire him for that quality of his. He knows what you feel and tells you what you need to hear, always caring and having a word for when you felt down. With time, he helped us to think for ourselves and to come to the conclusion that we needed to stand up for ourselves to build a life of our own, without Papa and his… horrible rules.
He's one of my dearest friends, after all.
"I hope he's fine and comes back quickly… We need him... In the field." Ichigo says contrivedly.
"Yeah…"
I turn my head to the side to find Ichigo's forlorn gaze directed upwards, following Star Entity's white trail plunging in the immense blue like a dash of white paint drawn from a brush.
You're still the same… Ichigo.
I wait in silence for some time, then break the silence passing to another topic. "What do you think about what the Princess and Papa said?"
Ichigo turns to my gaze and opens her wordless mouth, only to wander her lost eyes around. After a moment, she comes back to me. "…VIRM."
"Yeah, Papa… and those things." I say pointing my thumb to the violet thing behind us.
"Why would Papa turn back on us? I mean… don't get me wrong, I'd like him to get in a ditch and die, but… siding with aliens? Why? Why suddenly ask help from them?"
I seriously exclude the possibility that he would have done that.
"No… Didn't they just try to blow up the Earth and us humans with it? I mean, why ask… help from those things? Weren't we winning anyway? Could it be that, because we lost Star Entity, they suddenly switched sides? It doesn't make any sense. I think Papa was tricked by those… aliens."
Ichigo shakes her head at a loss.
"I just… don't understand anything anymore. Where did they come from? …Space?"
"I guess, since they have starships…"
"And… The Klaxxosaurs had starships too and fought them in the past. When did they…? Our books or at lessons never said anything about VIRM and the war between them…"
"Well, maybe humanity doesn't know. Then, they retreated inside the planet and… waited silently, as the princess said." I try to fit the pieces the best I can, but as I finish the sentence, I can't shake off the sensation that it sounds completely nuts.
"Princess…" Ichigo says pensively. "Do you think there's a king and a queen too?"
"Well, I don't know."
"According to Kokoro's book, there should be…"
"Ah! Did you read it?"
"No, she just told us what she got from it. The Nines already stole it."
"Oh, yeah… so it was already too late. I wonder what it told!" I ask Ichigo out of curiosity, and she blushes a little on the cheeks.
"N-nothing too important." She waves me off, a little on the ropes.
"Hm, I see." She's always been a bad liar! But pushing the same button insistently is a no-no for her, so let's ask something else.
"Thinking about Klaxxosaurs… we were stomping on their kingdom all along." I reflect a bit. "I guess they weren't that happy about it, about us stealing… The magma and the cores from underground."
"Yeah. and our Delphinium… is made from a Klaxxosaur." Ichigo says with a deadpan tone.
"Ah. That…" At that worrisome statement, my voice hangs in the air as my gaze falls to the ground. Apparently, we had the revelation that our FranXX is a Klaxxosaur repurposed for humans to pilot, and until then we knew nothing of that. That thought was extremely alienating: the place where Ichigo and I connected our minds together was revealed as something very different than what I thought. It felt almost like a part of myself betrayed me and became something foreign, hostile.
"To me, that changes nothing. It's OUR Delphinium, the same one that we've driven 'till now." Ichigo decisively declares to me. "It has always been something special to me. And you're my partner, Goro!" She lifts from her side and shouts pointing at me with a very serious attitude. "The BEST partner, Goro!"
Wow! You're very forward today! And, of course, completely right. It doesn't matter where our FranXX comes from. Even for me, it has always been the place where our minds, our lives and our destinies were embedded and intertwined into… So, I want to declare from my heart something that has been stuck in my chest from too much time.
"…You're right. It's the most special thing in my life…" But my feelings don't end there. They go deeper than this. "…And you are, too. I couldn't live without you."
Ichigo's hard expression melts at my declaration, taken completely by surprise. She blushes vigorously as her sure-of-herself attitude crumbles in pieces and starts fidgeting with her fingers. After a moment, she recomposes beaming a reddish smile to me.
"I… Thanks, Goro. That was… beautiful to hear."
"No problem. Anytime." I say smiling back.
"Hehehe!" She chuckles while bringing her gaze away in the distance, fixing it somewhere while focusing her mind elsewhere. With extreme satisfaction I do the same, stretching my arms behind the back of my head on the clean metal of the door. Admiring the dust swirls up above, I feel the air much cleaner thanks to the air currents rushing to fill the now open-air chasm. My chest goes up and down in relaxed long breaths while I follow the vapor trail of Star Entity's curving and tapering into a thin point, smaller and smaller in the high sky.
Why didn't I do this earlier? Am I a moron? Well, just a tiny bit. I kind of already told her, but this time it's a bit different. Around the time of the explosive Klaxxosaur I was… vague. I threw the word 'Love' around too freely, without knowing what it really meant. And by that, I mean what «deeply» meant. I've had some time to think about it, so it's time to apply yourself, boy!
The wind howls at the bottom of the newly formed wide canyon, bringing a warm pre-summer feel. Even with the echoed sound of the various rock landslides in the distance, I just imagine it's like that day at the beach, the warm sun hitting my face through my glasses while the sound of the ocean's waves washing on the sandy shore… That day, it was so blissful, free of any weight and responsibility, detached from the horror of this war, the fear of the enemy, the sorties, the klaxxosaurs, the adults, Papa… I wish I would be in that place again. With also 200% more swimsuit Ichigo.
Slowly but surely, after daydreaming for a while, my mind returns once again to my real surroundings and goes into stress, feeling like a hefty weight is placed on my temples. Way to ruin a perfect moment, Goro. Well… I guess we don't have to wait for Hiro to return to evaluate our situation, as every second we pass here without fuel is one where we're not able to defend ourselves. What happens if one of those VIRM soldiers comes over to search for his missing friend?
"I hope Argentea, Genista and Chlorophytum are fine." I say while getting up from a sitting position, feeling my muscles still a little slumped.
"They better be! Otherwise I will be furious!" Ichigo interjects, showing a frown.
"Oh. Being showered with worry by our magnanimous and thoughtful team leader sure is hard!" I jokingly jab at her, thinking I'd rather fight a thousand VIRMs than put up with her bad side.
"S-Shut up, Goro!" She pouts, jolting upwards and inflating her cheeks like an owl and staring me down with her eyes squeezed. "I really mean it!"
"I worry too, but I'm sure they are fine." I explain while stretching my legs and arms, preparing to get myself up on my feet. "Trust them. We're the lucky ones, since we were the ones about to go empty mid-fight. I don't need to say what would have happened then."
"…W-What if they did go empty before us?"
"Ichigo… don't think about it. For now…" I launch myself forward in a squat, then I pull myself up and turn towards the cockpit, clearing over the door's frame while explaining. "…I'm gonna call Hachi to give our situation report, ask what's happening around us and request evac. After that, I will ask for our squad's status."
"..." Ichigo nods at me while tracking me with her worried gaze.
Going happy-go-lucky is one of the worst approaches to hard decisions, after depressing yourself. For this reason, I must contact Hachi and tell him about our predicament, not without first shedding some light about the battle around us since he's the acting Commander of the mission. Doing so, we might stand a chance of returning all in one piece from this hell of a situation and dispel our worries about our squad. We left them when we were engaging the VIRM soldiers on our tail to rush forward and complete the mission as fast as possible and we haven't heard back from them since.
Entering the cockpit, I circumvent the central interface to proceed to my post, an open seat to the back of the room. I slide onto the seat's puffy cushion and look at the side of it, where I find a see-through small openable panel. Inside it, I hit one of many physical switches labelled by tiny engraved letters saying: «Backup Power».
Lights all around the cockpit flash on with a bass hum vibrating its frame. A tiny laser button keyboard appears on the transparent panel's top, that I close back shut. After tapping a laser button on it, a blue holographic screen appears hovering above the surface of the unlit panoramic screen straight in front of me, accompanied by a holographic keyboard with a full key layout wrapping around my left side like a hook in front of me. Keeping my hands suspended above the keyboard, I type out the call command to the mission's high command.
The black holoscreen morphs into a blue «Outgoing call…» with the elipsis flashing, in silence.
I hope the call pulls through even down here. Instead, the screen shuts off with a «Call failed».
"Damn."
I retype the command, and the screen once again shows an «Outgoing call…» message, this time accompanied by my dearest wishes. I can't waste the auxiliary power like this. This time, after some seconds, the screen fluctuates and a «Online from Gran Crevasse High Command» appears at the bottom of the screen.
"Yes!" I cheer.
"Are you through?" Ichigo asks from outside.
"Yup."
The screen continues to flicker, then a silhouette of an almost bald man stalks on the screen among the gray static noise of the video feed.
"A…w…ffff…fffffffff… can yo-you… rec…v…ffffff…"
"Hachi, I can't hear you. Signal's weak."
"I se-fffff…fff.. swichin..fff… to anoth…er ant…ffffffff…na."
The silhouette moves his hands and a «Redirecting call…» message appears floats on it. Then the screen flickers on resetting the call, and a much clearer but still jaggy image of Hachi filled with static appears.
A bluish brush cut over thin, long and serious eyebrows crowning thin, elongated and expressionless light-brown eyes. Between them a protruding, straight and flat as a board nose towering on his clear olive face and diamond chin and thin mouth, angled in a slight frown. In a gray-to-black skin-tight uniform with golden epaulettes highlighting his thin and fit physique, a red sewn-in short tie hangs below his high neckline. He's Hachi, our field commander.
"Greetings, Code 056."
"Hachi! I'm relieved to see you! Mission completed?"
Hachi's expression rests as he nods slightly forward.
"Yes. We can sign off the mission as successful. Earth is saved."
"Wheeew!" I sigh while abandoning my back against the stamen's seat and the weight on my temples disappears like my brain has fallen out from my head. "It's nice to hear that! While bringing Zero Two and Dr. FranXX at the entrance of Star Entity, we were almost taken down by one of those VIRM units…"
"I see. I wasn't sure myself of the mission's success until the last moment, too. Star Entity was about to explode that the structure around it collapsed."
"I-I guess that's because Zero Two and Dr. Franxx managed to enter the gate, rescue Hiro and pilot the thing."
"Yes, fortunately. By the way, your signal's not optimal, I can't triangulate you. Where is Code 015? Is she uninjured?" Hachi asks away.
"Yessir." Ichigo comes inside, as anticipated by the clapping of her interface heels onto the main deck of the cockpit, walking around the pistil's seat and stopping beside me facing proudly the holographic screen inside the picture of the camera. "Status is ten by ten. Although, our unit Delphinium is not operative and needs immediate support."
"I see. What's your situation?"
"Ehm…" My eyes dangle left and right and eventually meet Ichigo's. After exchanging an embarrassing furtive glance, my eyes shoot away to the side in shame.
"What's the problem?" Hachi presses on, slightly collapsing a brow.
"…Remember the VIRM unit I was referring earlier? We… threw ourselves down the chasm… dragging that thing with us." I shamefully explain.
"Ah-" Hachi freezes on the spot, uttering monotone moans with his mouth open. "Wh-"
"And… we managed to cushion ourselves with it, and then disable it. We're currently out of fuel, on top of said VIRM unit."
Hachi blinks several times, fixating in a daze his dull eyes on my face, as if he were expecting me to utter 'Just kidding!'.
"…On top of…?"
"Yes." Totally on top of it.
Hachi still stares us down flabbergasted, but eventually his eyes blink and his head slightly shakes in order to regain some composure.
"So, repeat to me where you are."
"At the bottom of the chasm where Star Entity was docked, and… I guess close to where the access port was."
"How far down does the chasm go?"
"Quite a long way… maybe kilometers. The walls of the chasm didn't fracture, since it looks like those are made from compressed rock. The surroundings are… mostly a mess of rubble, steel scaffoldings and collapsing ruins." I vaguely explain.
"That's… extremely inconvenient." Hachi slowly articulates, regaining his ability to think. "I guess those are what's left of the complex built around Star Entity. That justifies the disturbed connection. But that's beside the point: how am I supposed to get you out of there?"
Hachi lets his gaze wander for a while, and I follow his eyes bouncing left and right around the screen, maybe looking at others beside the one he's talking through.
"Why? Are there any problems with the rescue teams…?"
Hachi parts his sharp lips, but his voice hesitates to come out from his mouth.
"I… can't manage to contact the ground or aerial support operation center at Bird's Nest."
"Wh-what? What does that mean?"
"I-Is everything all right with Bird's Nest…?"
Even after a full year of being under his command, this is the first time I've seen Hachi as uncollected as this. He would always be calm, stoic and calculating like the embodiment of a commanding figure. Now, his vaguely lost expression lies hidden in plain view under a fake emotionless demeanour, and I feel I'm in turn mirroring his uneasiness.
"This operation is under my responsibility. I hailed ground control and no one's responding while there's no reason why they shouldn't." Hachi promptly recomposes himself while shaking his head at the - I guess to his eyes - absurd situation. "From the data gathered here, Bird's Nest was not attacked… The Gran Crevasse long range communication systems must have collapsed when Star Entity woke up… then, I see no other way. The only option left is to… solve this another way."
"What about the battle? And the rest of my team?" I promptly ask away.
"The battle is dying down. The enemy forces have stopped fighting, from what I can see. I've not yet contacted anyone besides you two. About your teammates, I can still track their movements, so they are probably operational. I'm going to contact them as soon as we end this call."
"Ha…!" Both me and Ichigo exclaim out of relief. "We're glad."
Hachi nods. "The units on the field also need immediate help, so I'm returning to Bird's Nest at once with the means I can manage. As soon as I'm in range, I'll give order to send the rescue teams and coordinate a medivac mission. For now, stay inside the cockpit and switch on your location signal. Since your position is not in range of any landing zone, I'll send out a ground team to your rescue. Just keep your energy consumption low and the signal will remain strong for them to receive."
"Yessir!" Both of us respond in unison.
"Any questions?"
I look into Ichigo's eyes for confirmation, "I guess not. Orders received, sir." she immediately responds.
Hachi's eyes go off focus for a moment, fixating a point outside the screen in a pensive expression. Ultimately, after a brief reflection, he unceremoniously ends the conversation with the same stoicism he greeted us with.
"I'll be off, then. Over."
Hachi's unstable image flickers as the screen switches off, leaving behind a 'Call ended' in light blue letters. It's with a long-drawn-out sigh that I pull my back against the cushions of the stamen's seat and relax my shoulders.
"We're set now. We just need to wait for resupply." I confidently state while summoning once again the keyboard and typing out the command to activate the radio beacon used to mark our FranXX's position. The screen confirms to me 'Locator signal: ACTIVE', so I hit a virtual button on my right, close to the access panel, and the caption changes into 'Safe mode', switching off the keyboard and dimming the cockpit lights so that only the dusty brightness from outside can outline my surroundings. It's with a light fit of uneasiness that this scenery overlaps in my mind's eye with the scenery of the battle we just witnessed.
The disorienting confusion of the air filled with sand and screams… so much screaming that my spine was almost fibrillating at the number of cold shivers that flowed into it. Glowing blue sprays of Klaxxo blood mixed with the orange color of magma fuel from our companions' FranXX, which were crushed left and right amidst the uncontrollable panic of the klaxxosaurs being mauled by the violet mass of the VIRM forces dropping from the sky. Among them, fearful and crying human voices from the comms were begging and calling Papa in vain, then abruptly went silent one by one. In the distance, columns of fire descending from past the black clouds instantly melted everything they landed on - one landed close by, cutting a worm-like klaxxo in half like it was butter, causing it to writhe uncontrollably and scream in unfathomable pain. It was just less than an hour ago when I, Ichigo and my team detached from the defence squads at the base of Gran Crevasse and abandoned that… massacre.
Perhaps unconsciously guided by fear and the desire to run away from that absolute horror, Ichigo ordered our squad to abandon our post and to return inside Gran Crevasse. Acknowledging we didn't have a chance without Star Entity, we went back to investigate what happened to that 'supreme weapon' we were told about, which was supposed to be driven by Zero Two and Hiro on Strelitzia but was then trapped in some sort of cocoon and rigged to explode. Fighting our way back to the command station, it was with shock that we learnt from Dr. FranXX and Hachi that Hiro was abducted by the 'Klaxxo Princess' and Zero Two narrowly survived being thrown out of the cockpit, even if gravely injured. Due to a completely hopeless plan from Dr. FranXX, we helped them reach the access port to the back of Star Entity, but midway we were forced to split into two groups, one to hold back the VIRM attackers and the other, me and Ichigo, to quickly bring the doctor and Zero two to the entrance. So, we did, at nearly the cost of our life.
And now, here we are.
Speaking of 'we', what's Ichigo doing? Glancing to my left, her silhouette is still standing where I left her. After talking with Hachi, she just stood there without a word, immobile like a statue with her head reclined forward. … Is she ok? I shift closer to her, trying to get a good look of her, but her eyes stay nonresponsive even at me bending over to try and decipher her look.
"Ichigo…?" As I call to her, she flinches awake and briefly gives me a frightened look to then divert her gaze away, making me stutter. Those eyes are no good. "Is… everything…?" Her lips clasp shut as she straightens her back trying to look strong, but her hands along her sides give away a slight tremor. Why am I even asking? Nothing's alright! You know you can't hide something like that from me, Ichigo.
"Ichigo, everything is going to be fine." I sport the most confident voice in me possible. "We're going to make it. The battle's over, nothing stands in our way anymore! We are free!" At my retort, she tries to look at me in the eye, but she can't keep her glance straight.
"B-but, what do we do now…? A-and then…? What about Papa, what if he comes back for revenge and…! W-what if the rescuers abandon us here…? I-I'm…" Her unstable voice trills with fear as her shoulders slouch ever so slightly, making her smaller than her tiny frame ever allows.
No, no! Don't be like that, Ichigo! We've not come this close to freedom in our entire lives! We can do this, I'm sure Hachi will return with help and everything will straighten out in the end! There's no avoiding it, just looking at her in this state distresses me to no end. I'm just barely resisting the urge to… touch her and… make her feel that I'm close… I don't want her to feel afraid, I want her to feel safe with me!
"Don't be afraid, Ichigo!" I can't help but shoot up from the seat and grab both of her petite shoulders to affirm my presence onto her. In a wild response, her eyes widen while her mouth comes loose completely taken by surprise by my bold behaviour as my hands hold onto her frame, feeling the shivers and the distress of her muscles. "I'm your partner, I'm here for you, I swear! Even if something goes wrong, I will be with you and we will take care of it! Together we can do everything, remember? This time too!"
Her eyes lock onto mine, still full of a mist of surprise, fear and confusion, but slowly her shoulders come loose and her eyes slowly mellow. As her breath slowly calms, she silently stands there letting my hands steady her body. But then, it's with my surprise that she suddenly launches her arms forward and throws herself onto me embracing my sides with strength. Completely thrown off by her, I slowly reciprocate by wrapping my arms around her bust, to pull her closer to my body and to lay my cheek onto her bluish hair as she lays hers onto my chest breastplate. Even past our suits made of carbon and the stiffness of her collar interface, I can feel the inebriating warmth of her body and the contact of her delicate skin onto mine. In response, my heart goes wild and my mind goes almost blank. Is this what Hiro and Zero Two felt?
Is this… how it feels like when you embrace someone… you love?
"Goro… thank you."
I cannot respond, as I'm absolutely, completely cathartic. The only motion I can afford is my left hand caressing her back. Nothing more. I just want to stay like this forever. Seconds, maybe minutes pass and our embrace doesn't seem to cease. We just stand there, our bodies against each other with our eyes closed while protecting against the cold air coming from the cockpit's entrance and hiding ourselves from the dim light coming from the unknown outside. I want so strongly, with every inch of myself, to be with her forever.
Then, a whimper.
"Ichigo?" I detach my cheek from her head and see a single tear descending onto her face. What's… happening? Another one, falling straight into the soft blue padding of her collar. And another… She detaches from me immediately as she realizes I'm staring at her and tries to cover her eyes in shame. "Why…?"
"I'm… I'm… sorry…" She scuttles backwards, almost like she wants to fade away. While covering her teary emerald eyes, she runs past me clapping her unstable heels onto the cockpit's frame to quickly runs past the cockpit's door. She just plumps down on the reclined door of Delphinium's face while holding her knees tight with both her arms and burying in head in between, still crying and giving me her back.
I try to reach for her, but my hand stops mid-air with my throat lumped. Just as I couldn't speak before, now I can't say anything either, but this time, my chest feels like… a big cave-in just collapsed inside it. Is this… my fault? Did I do something wrong? Did I hurt her? How…?
No, it's not like that.
I fall back onto the stamen's seat as waves of anxiety take me. I know perfectly well what this is, I don't need to lie to myself. This is not just about me and her, there's someone else that she cares about more than me, and I can't do anything about it. But… nonetheless, I won't stop. I'm sure that if I keep trying hard enough, I can become someone that she cares that much about, too. I know that there's a place for me. I'm sure of it.
Now, if only my chest would stop hurting, and my mind would stop thinking…
…
…
Mute tapping sounds echo in the unlit status room next to the base of the mass access elevator of Gran Crevasse spanning several kilometers from the surface. Alone, sitting on an egg-type roller chair and bent over onto the black surface of the long and slanted command console, a tall man with a buzz cut in a formal futuristic officer jumpsuit frantically taps onto the bleeding orange fonts and graphs that rapidly morph and flicker on the terminal.
After a last decisive tap on the keyboard, the megascreen mounted on the top of the console refreshes and a bright orange map of the Gran Crevasse human base comes onscreen, casting an unnatural hue onto the cracked tiled walls of the room. On top of it, the caption 'PERFORMING SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS…' intermittently flashes while countless small windows appear all around the circular map displaying a fast stream of bright red monospace error messages. One by one, the main sections of the map turn red at the center, orange at the borders with some green external parts at the outskirts of the complex. After nodding slightly, he inputs further commands and a reticule appears onto the green part of the complex, zooming in on the single details of the section.
"Do you still work…?" Hachi questions the screen.
After some more tapping, the bidimensional map transforms into a 3D projection of a cylindrical well connecting the outside with a single long tunnel cutting into Gran Crevasse. At the bottom of the vertical tube labelled 'Heavy duty access elevator' lies a solitary room with a 'You are here' placed into it. To the side of the picture appears a long list of green entries detailing the still functioning systems and a stable graph giving a positive reading of its power grid.
"Good, at least I can leave this place."
Hachi sighs briefly, then rolls the chair over another part of the console, where his fingers once again slide onto its black smooth surface to bring up a long list of orange contacts. With a flick of the index, the digital entries quickly flip through the screen until the finger stops at the entry labelled 'UNIT ∷ ARGENTEA'. It's after a decisive tap on it that the status description of the mech unit appears: cryptic codes, oscillating graphs and a ParaCapacity level visualizers flash onto the console's surface, accompanied by a black framed camera feed with a wildly fluctuating mess of gray pixels.
"Well, that's what I have to work with."
Slowly, after some flickering, the black window reveals a mute, static-filled real-time feed of the FranXX cockpit while being piloted. From the aerial camera's view comes into sight a scrawny kid with brown unkempt hair in a deep-blue jumpsuit yanking the controls attached to his pistil, a red headed girl with twintails, completely unaware of being watched. On the internal walls of the cockpit, the projection of the outside view shows the duo tending to a sitting white and violet FranXX, accompanied by another black one with a tall cap and a bulky appearance. Tapping onto the image, a menu appears to the side and Hachi presses the call button and instantly the camera switches to the side of the cockpit, at the surprise of the stamen who jumps on his seat.
"H-huh‼ Hachi!" The stamen shouts with an uncouth voice while recognizing his commander-in-chief's figure abruptly appearing on his side on a holoscreen.
"Greetings, Code 666. What's your status?"
"W-we've got an injured here!" He frantically points towards the white and violet mech. "Ik- ehm, Code 196 is not feeling well!"
"I can see that. Does Chloropythum need medical attention?"
"I-I don't think so, I mean…"
"Can they move?"
"Yessir! I think…"
"Then, priority task to all the remaining squad members capable of moving their mech: return immediately to the high mass elevator."
"Aaah? What…?" An incredulous, robotic voice of a girl suddenly exclaims out of nowhere from the comms. "What about Delphinium? What about Star Entity?"
"We made it, the battle's over." Hachi announces without hesitation, but his voice urges onwards with an upbeat version of his usual monotone. "I've got an urgent communication for Bird's Nest air controller. I must give the all clear for the support units to begin the MedEvac operation as it's my duty, but the long-range antennas of the base are not functioning properly. To solve this problem, the plan is to get to the surface and use the high-powered antenna integrated in your FranXX so I can relay the order. This is of the utmost importance. Adding a waypoint to your navigational computer."
"Y-yes…" The boy bats his eyes in surprise at Hachi's unusual, but mesmerizing machinegun-like verbosity and only the breaking of Hachi's relentless eye contact unlocks him from his daze. Having given the commands to send the coordinates to the unit, Hachi once again glances at the young pilot.
"…Here. About your teammates… I just contacted Delphinium and they are uninjured, but their unit requires a fuel resupply immediately. As soon as you come here, I'll explain the rest. Be quick, the units on the field can't wait for much longer either, there are many injured stamens and pistils that need immediate assistance. You're the acting squad leader until Delphinium is recovered."
The boy's eyes and mouth widen dramatically at the surprise title he's been given on the spot but, after realizing the gravity of his task, he boldly straightens himself in a formal and proper salute. "Ye-yessir! We'll be there as soon as possible!"
Hachi nods, "I'll be seeing you shortly, then. Over.", as the communication switches off. Hachi silently stares at the internal cockpit video feed of the boy returning with extreme glee to his controls distorting into a mess of pixels, until disappearing into a 'Signal lost'.
Hachi keeps staring at the static on the screen for a minute until his hands cup onto his mouth and his elbows shift onto the console, slumping his back forward with a brief sigh. He knows that in this emergency he's walking on a razor's edge and his decisions, if managed improperly, can have horrible consequences on the ones under him. It's in these moments that he would expect to feel something more, but instead there's only the usual vague mist of something amiss, an unexpressed animosity without name, a slight unconscious pressure. With all those things happening in a short span of time, another person would have collapsed under the anxiety, but not him. His mind was made… different. Very much so.
"There must be something more I can do."
His eyes lose focus as his mind conjures up various possibilities and scenarios: the battle, the injured, Star Entity…
"The doctor." Hachi suddenly jumps from his chair. "Is he fine…?" His hands launch once again onto the console, selecting the personnel tracker and searching his contact on a similar list to the one previously checked. He left the doctor to be transported by Delphinium's team, and Code 056 did mention delivering him at the access port of Star Entity, but that was all. After he reached the weapon, did he manage to survive the collapse of the base? The main console screen now flashes with a planimetry of the base with a 'Searching…' caption accompanied by a rotating progress icon. After a moment, the caption changes to 'Target not found'.
"Of course, there's no way there's enough signal to reach his tracker." Normally, a VIP like the doctor wouldn't be this close to the front lines. Actually, the entire Gran Crevasse complex was evacuated days prior to Star Entity's awakening and left managed by the automated systems until the aftermath. The only human staff left on the station was supposed to be him, acting as tactical commander-in-chief for the forces on the ground, but the Seven Sages ruled that the presence of the Doctor was a necessity to have the chance of successful activation closer to 100% as possible. Still, Hachi wishes for the Doctor to be safe until the arrival of the rescue teams, relieved by the fact that all around the complex there are kinetic-resistant emergency pods ready to use.
"Ok, ok. Now… rescue operations." You don't just call aerial rescuers and expect them to do all the work in the world. They consist of large transports of medical equipment and staff, engineers and drones to crack open the cockpits of the busted units and that's all. They can't delve into the carcasses of the enemies because they lack heavy lifting capability and, more importantly, they need a landing zone to get situated. An LZ too far away is useless because of the long travel time, and one close by is impracticable because of the danger of stragglers and the lack of space. But… in the right conditions, Hachi thinks that arranging a close LZ is still possible. And that would be the task of the ground forces, the FranXX.
"I need to contact the surviving units on the battleground- but first…" His mind is dead set on an option that is the only logical one in that situation, and his fingers once again slide over the contact list of the ground forces, but this time in order to close it. Aiding himself pushing on the lid of the desk, Hachi rolls his chair to the other side of the console where a control terminal used for controlling drones lights up. After some more tapping on the screen, a list of unmanned observation drones pops up, but its entries suddenly paint red, making Hachi frown slightly.
"Mhn- all downed. What about the meteorological ones?" A more populated list appears, and more red drones are listed except for three green solitary ones. "Gotcha. They are a bit far, but at least their antennas are online." He selects the first one and its navigational data appears on the giant screen, along with a wide view of its turret camera.
Suddenly, Hachi gets up from his chair and rolls it to the side pushing it against the backrest. With it out of the way, he walks to the center of the room facing the physical main screen. His eyes stare one at a time at its two integrated side cameras that silently exchange his gaze as if they had a life of their own. Hachi then straightens his back and raises both his arms level to the floor pointing his index fingers at them.
«Beep!»
After the brief sound prompt, his indexes light up in an orange glow. Then, in a controlled motion, Hachi opens his palms and shows them to the cameras spreading his fingers apart. Another sound plays for confirmation after which, on each of his hands, a holographic orange reticule shrouds his fingers accompanied by a holoscreen locked at the side of his wrists.
«Full Gesture Interface active», a profound electronic male voice announces as the lights of the room dim, with the monitors remaining the only light source available. Hachi's hands move with controlled precision as his fingers and thumb make the gesture of grabbing the screen's corners. As he drags his hands apart, the drone's video feed pops up from the physical monitor and enlarges doubling in size while floating in mid-air in front of him. After that, his arms level once again in front of him and his fingers form an L-shape, which touch each other lighting up blue. In a single motion, Hachi parts both arms and the holoscreen enlarges and distorts into a sphere, shrouding him in a 360° projection of what the drone was currently filming.
Hachi rests his hands along his sides. Now, instead of being in a dark tiled room, he's floating several kilometers in the air from the vast, earthen deserts overlooking Gran Crevasse. Apart from the slight jitter due to the altitude currents fighting with the drone's rotors, a crisp and clear bird's-eye view of the complex appears before his eyes. A completely dead landscape filled with droughted earth mixed with fine red sand and interspersed with blades of eroded rocks expands in every direction. At quite the distance from the drone, the terrain's jagged features culminate into a tall mountain capped by a kilometer-wide exploded dome. In concentric circles around the complex tower the melted or disabled Klaxxosaur's orbital defences consisting of, from what appeared when they were alive, giant plasma casters that returned fire to VIRM's invading fleet. Between those, lies immobile an unending blue and violet river made of dead Klaxxosaurs and VIRM units circling the entire complex.
"What…is that?" In a fit of surprise, Hachi squints his eyes towards a single earthen-brown empty spot among the sea of carcasses. Considering the utter chaos that ensued in the battlefield, it seemed extremely improbable that a perfect circle excavated itself between the corpses by sheer chance. That was surely an anomaly… quite the odd one.
Hachi points to that strange spot with his index and a reticule appears in front of the finger, from which he makes a frame gesture and parts his hands diagonally. The picture zooms extremely fast like following an arrow through the air and stops just above the landmark, showing it was a truly perfect circle made of… Klaxxosaurs and… wait a moment.
"What went on there…?", Hachi asks himself in disbelief. And that question was clearly warranted, because the carcasses outlining the circle weren't arranged like that by themselves but were literally mauled and gorged as if they were triturated in a blender. The open space measures at least half a kilometer in diameter and, on top of that, shows completely tidy and immaculate ground - the problem is that we're talking about mechs hundreds of meters tall weighing a thousand tons, so one look at those behemoths would tell you the earth couldn't simply remain intact. Instead, at the center of said space lies a single human FranXX unit, in particular a mass-produced one, solitarily half-kneeling against its long orange spear planted down in the ground and held high. Tragically immobile, the mech has the presence and the solemnity of a defeated warrior in a won battle, similar to the ones depicted in those monuments that humanity used to dedicate to the wars of the old world. Hachi is rendered utterly speechless at that sight. Flicking his wrist onto the FranXX, a nametag appears next to it.
'Unit: Solidago'
It has a star next to it, meaning it's a team leader unit. Hovering on his wrist, the holographic display updates and shows the data of said unit, still completely operational and with an hour of fuel left. Even just the presence of that information indicates that the low-power antennas all around the complex are still functional.
"Good." Hachi notices its battered armor and wonders about the status of the crew. Dragging his fingers aside, the display shifts to the FranXX's remote controls. Using these, Hachi switches to the internal camera and the scene shifts inside of the cockpit. Or at least it should be, because complete darkness suddenly engulfs him. The unit is fine and the crew's life metrics are nominal, so what's up with this? Why are they in…
"Sniff- augh- sniff…"
Hachi freezes on the spot. A muffled but painful sobbing noise of a girl plays from the audio feed among the tomb-like silence of the cockpit. Unable to get a clear vision of what happened, he fumbles with the controls on his wrist and increases the exposure of the camera. A white hue washes the image and reveals two silhouettes, one abandoned on the stamen's seat grabbing his head and the other lying in a fetal position between the pistil's seat and the panoramic screen. Hachi lets his mouth hang open, unsure of what to do. Of course, they're… shocked about the battle, aren't they…? Nevertheless, Hachi needs their help immediately, so he turns on the communicator on sound only and starts to talk.
"Unit Solidago. Commander on air, requesting status."
Hachi's lapidary request jerks the stamen from his torpor, who slowly reaches blindly for the control panel and, after some groping around, switches the main light on. Suddenly, Hachi's eyes squint uncomfortably as they are assaulted from the bright overexposure of the camera, making him reach once again to dial down the settings on his wrist. The stifled light reveals a relatively tall boy, maybe 17 or so, with curly black hair on a square jawed face and straight nose, not showing injuries of any sort over his dark blue body-printed overalls ranging from the neck to his interface boots. Only detail out of the ordinary were his bloodshot and teary brown eyes, grabbing Hachi's attention while wandering to the side to meet the 'Voice only' holoscreen at his right.
"This… is… Code… 371. Team… leader…" He fumbles his own words in a chocked voice while his thin eyebrows squint uncontrollably. Then, his wide lower lip tremble as he forces a gulp down and resumes his still unstable voice. "Ahn… Team leader of… Squad 103. Condition nominal… s-suffered… minimal… dam…" The boy grasps his mouth fighting a gag, then resumes with a small tear crossing his cheek. "…damage."
That's… not true. Hachi takes a moment to size him up properly, because no one in their right mind would say 'minimal damage' at that sorry spectacle- why even give a false report in that situation. Did they suffer from strain feedback, since they are… probably responsible for their surroundings? Actually, the thing is that they wouldn't know if… well, never mind, whatever happened, it's not important now.
"Received. Just a reminder, if the crew is injured, perform first aid immediately. Physical health is a strict requirement to drive a FranXX unit." Hachi regards him stoically. "When you're ready, I have a task for you. While scanning the area, I've found that the clearing around you is suitable for a landing zone for the MedEvac and Unit recovery. Since the support will be inbound shortly, I ask of your squad to help with the evacuation, give aid to the downed units and regroup all their crews at your position with adequate first aid support."
"Y-ye-yessir…", the stamen responds with less voice than before. The boy starts to look around almost in a panicked state, with his eyes wide open and his breath taking over like his lungs are trying to escape through his throat. The pistil girl, still rolled on her side giving the camera her back, starts sobbing silently and shuddering with her hands on her face covered by her wavy goldenrod hair. Hachi glances at both, then realizes something's amiss. Something critical he missed about the situation.
"…What's your squad's status…?"
The golden-haired girl's sobs transform into high-pitched howls, "Ihhhgh- hic - ihigghh… ihigghh…" as her voice starts to morph into a lament of pure pain. The boy's face, among his companion's chilling screams, crumbles and contorts with pure guilt as tears start streaming down his cheeks.
"T-they… are d-dead… All… of… 'em…"
Hachi freezes on the spot, as if washed by a cold shower, as the boy abandons once again on his seat and drops his gaze to the floor to try to wipe off his tears with little to no effect. His mind was taken by the words the boy said to him, so his eyes bounce back and forth between the two young parasites afflicted by their painful mourning. After his mind recovers from a mist of confusion, his mouth opens compelled by a vague urge to say something, anything in order to console them.
But his voice wouldn't come out.
To his surprise, he couldn't think of anything to say, bringing more and more confusion to his head. He just didn't catch up to the fact that, before being soldiers, they are young children, and they just survived the most difficult battle of their lives. He had been so focused on Star Entity and the sudden emergency of its capture, leading to an eventual destruction of Earth, that he left unattended the forces on the ground. He left them to their fate both as commander and as caretaker. It was the most he could do in that situation, and he knew that: if he had the chance to redo it, he would choose to do the same. In that moment he had to choose between the destruction of Earth and the FranXX squads on the field, so he chose the former. He felt to do what was… logical at that time.
Now, confronted with his own choice, he feels completely worthless. But his chest doesn't bulge or despair. It's not that he doesn't want to care about what happens in front of him, quite the contrary. Hachi is witnessing their pain and acknowledging it in his mind, but he ultimately doesn't understand what they're going through. Because… since he was born, his mind was made different.
Throughout his life, he wouldn't know what a smile or a tear meant.
Looking at those two young parasites on the brink of despair, he really wants to find those words that would make them feel better, give them hope for the future and give them the strength to pull through that giant hurdle. But, in the depths of his empty heart, he can't find words fitting the purpose, so he curses himself in silence. He may be the best field commander of humanity, but that doesn't amount to anything if he can't do the things that matter to him the most. As those thoughts cross his mind, he finally resigns himself to his uselessness.
"I'm sorry."
Those simple words mostly pointed out his failure as a caretaker, but in that situation, they had a bigger effect than he thought possible. The boy and the girl slowly stopped crying, leaving just a trail of grave breathing and a forlorn atmosphere misting the silence of the cockpit. After a while, the stamen sits back properly and wipes his face, this time revealing a gaze in acceptance of the situation.
"It's not your fault, commander." After saying so, he gets up from the seat and slowly moves over to his companion, grabs her shoulder and shakes it gently. "Come on, we've got a task…" he softly tells her, but the girl lies still on the floor, unresponsive, so the boy keeps shaking. "We've gotta do it…" he keeps whispering.
"I don't wanna…" the girl protests in her strained voice. "It's too much…"
"We owe 'em… to not be abandoned here…"
"Sniff- Ehhh…" the girl groans in protest, but then lifts her shoulder from the cold steel of the cockpit's floor and gets herself sitting with the help of her stamen sustaining her by her side. She reflexively lies the side of her head on his breast plate, giving away the desire of wanting to stay like that. "…Just a moment, ok…?"
The stamen looks around to see he's not being watched, then drags her closer. Hachi sees the scene unnoticed, as he's connected to an internal camera without giving away his presence. And, most importantly, without letting out a word. His mind is fighting very hard not to interrupt them consciously, as his professionality would have reprimanded that unlawful and unwarranted physical contact on the spot. But, in that situation, Hachi thinks that it's his own shortcoming that created that situation in the first place, so he'll… allow it. For now.
"I'll be unavailable for a time. I'll be contacting you shortly. Don't leave antenna range and… keep safe."
"Yessir." both parasites respond in unison. Hachi glances at his wrist and the command screen pops up again and switches off the audio communication. Seeing that both are still in each other's arms, he shifts the view outside the FranXX wanting to give them some privacy…
"Thinking more about it, Papa and his rule are most likely gone." Hachi makes a note in his head that he will have to get in touch with the rest of the officers and persuade them of the situation, most likely giving a copy of the telemetry data from the battle with the video feeds and a battle report attached. Scratching his chin, his mind is dead set on the mission he's been waiting to accomplish all this time. At that thought, the strange sensation on his chest subsides just a little bit, the right amount to signal that life onwards will not be the same. After clapping his hands twice, the wraparound immersive screen and the holographic hand interface disappear and the black room with the shining orange console returns to the eye.
"If not, I will make sure of that."
…
Beneath a blue sky - END
...