Chapter 4: Work Is Love Made Visible

1100 Hours, APE Coordinated Time

Mistilteinn, Cereuses.

Nana sipped on her tea as she late lunch in near silence with her fellow 13th caretaker, Hachi. The two retired parasites rarely spoke of anything other than work topics since they had been decommissioned several years ago. Not that Hachi had been a terribly expressive man before the 'treatment' he underwent when he was 18 and then been promoted to defense commander for the 13th plantation. As far as Nana could tell, his emotions had been almost completely repressed, well, at least those that didn't make him an excellent strategist.

"No new orders from the Doctor lately, I guess they have him pretty busy consulting on a new project" she said, commenting on the weeklong communications blackout with their project leader.

Hachi nodded, "Standard operating procedure is to continue with our last standing orders until he contacts us" he replied dryly.

"Don't you think we ought to update him on the 'p' issue before it starts to get out of hand?" she asked, appealing to his sense of responsibility.

Hachi was a man of the rules, and he respected Dr. Franxx immensely. When they last spoke over the telecom, the doctor had specifically told them not to interfere too much with the everyday lives of the 13th. If their current actions didn't represent a direct threat to the well functioning defense of the plantation, he saw no compelling reason to deviate from that order.

"No" he replied, "You know how the Doctor hates it when we follow APE procedures too closely".

Nana scoffed, "This from the man who won't even go to the beach with his former partner, because it's 'against regs'".

Hachi merely continued to eat his lunch in peace, not giving much mind to his increasingly frustrated coworker. He'd have thought that since she was an adult now, and had undergone the same post-puberty counseling that they all had, that she would be much more calm and rational, but it was almost as if she was regressing.

"One of these days their feelings for each other are going to be a problem, especially with Zero-Two and Hiro providing such a bad example of proper conduct." Said Nana, mirroring the overbearing paranoia of generations gone by.

"We need to get them to do something besides sitting around the boarding house all day" she mused, "but there just isn't enough Klaxosaur activity to justify a sortie".

Satalite telemetry had shown scant evidence that Klaxasaurs even existed in the area the 13th plantation was currently patroling. It had been two or more weeks without even so much as a tremor. And thier past experiance of letting the parasites sit idle was that they would eventually find trouble. Memories of past fiascos, such as the battle of the sexes made her shiver at the thought of what those increasingly hormonal teenagers would do if they were just left to one another.

Hachi's perpetual thousand yard stare made it so you never quite understood where, or even if, his mind was working. But his relentless seriousness indicated that he never just spaced out, he was always working on a plan.

"Hm, I may be able to assist in this area, but it may require some permission from headquarters" Hachi replied with an idea in mind.

"What kind of kill-time activity could possibly require permission from headquarters?" asked Nana incredulously.

"Oh, you'll see" he replied flatly, with just the hint of smirk on his face.


1200 Hours, APE Coordinated Time

The Command Center, Cereuses.

"We're going to the inner city!?" gushed Zorome, with an ear to ear smile on his face, "That's where the adults live, yatta!".

"Yes, we'll be going around the city doing a little work" confirmed Hachi, "so put your working uniforms on so people won't recognize you so easily" he ordered.

Zorome was slightly crestfallen at that, "aww, but I wanted to show off to the adults in our spiffy dress uniforms".

Miku looked at him with a playful grin on her face, "and I thought dress up was just for little girls….guess I was wrong" she said, coyly suppressing a laugh with a hand over her mouth.

"You're just jealous cause' it looks better on me than it does on you" he replied with a snide tenor to his voice.

"Hmpf, as if you little dweeb, everyone thinks I'm super cute in my parasite outfit! Isnt that right?" she asked as she performed a little twirl and curtsey to the rest of the group, inviting them to weigh in.

Every time with them, I wonder if they know or not? Thought Zero-Two, smiling as she watched the latest spat between the pilots of Argentea devolve into the most pointless, but might she add adorable, fight. She had to laugh, if it weren't for the grim circumstances that brought them together for their work, the 13th would make for a pretty funny comedy troupe. But as always, the violent nature of their job, and the oppressive society they lived in precluded such flights of fancy.

"I guess they're finally letting us into the city" whispered Zero-Two to Hiro.

"Ever been?" he asked casually, still unsure of many of the life experiences that Zero-Two had been through, but the rest of them had not.

"Once or twice, it's bustling with people doing every sort of thing, but it's always felt lifeless to me" she replied cryptically.

"Lifeless?" he asked echoing her words.

"Just…let's never grow up, ok?" she replied with a forlorn look on her face.

Hiro grimaced with concern for Zero-Two, she was normally as ebullient as ever when they got out of the boarding house and actually did stuff.

"…sure Zero-Two".

"Oh darling, you know just what to say" she replied with a newfound smile on her face as she embraced Hiro in a deep and long lasting hug. For his part, Hiro was happy to go along with her public display of affection, but was still deeply confused.


Goro looked to Ichigo for any indication that she knew what was going on. It wasn't common practice for them to be let into any of the inner regions of the massive plantation that they called home; in fact they had never been let into the inner city at all. Why now? You'd think it would be quite the occasion for us to be invited, but we're going in our field work uniforms of all things.

"I can tell you're confused" Ichigo chimed in on her partner, "but I don't have any better idea than you Goro, this wasn't on my radar at all".

"Strange, you'd think at least our squad leader would know a few days in advance".

Ichigo crossed her arms and sighed, "After this past year, I'm not surprised anymore by anything that happens".

He could tell she was exhausted. Not in the sense of being physically tired, but emotionally and intellectually drained from her position as head parasite. Ever since they had arrived at Cereuses almost a year ago, she had been under a massive amount of pressure to perform. Ichigo, Hiro, and himself had all been given low parasite numbers at graduation and had come directly from the advanced courses; but Mitsuru, Kokoro, Miku, and especially Zorome hadn't had much contact with each other before they we're all assigned to the 13th. Then once they all got acquainted there was the trouble with Hiro and Naomi. It had been a challenging first few months as a leader for her; he wasn't surprised that the pressure got to her occasionally.

Goro moved closer to her and patted her on the head with his lager than average hands. She normally just squirmed a bit and then swatted him off of her hair, but this time she let him linger for a while. Her hair is so soft; I wish I could stay like this forever.

"You never learn do you?" she asked once she had become conscious of her partners intrusion of her personal space, swatting him away as expected.

"I try not to" he replied sarcastically, earning himself a quick jab to the ribs from Ichigo's elbow.

Goro winced slightly, and instinctively covered his mid section from further attack. "I forgot how much of a punch your little body can pack" he said groaning, regretting his intrusion of her bubble.

Ichigo ignored Goro's pantomime injury routine and looked off into the distance wistfully, "I've never really thought about becoming an adult, it seems so distant from where were standing" she mused openly.

"Yeah….but as long as I'm standing next to you, I don't care how distant it seems" he replied.

Ichigo's face turned a little pink at Goro's words. He was such a loser at times, but he made her feel safe. She didn't bother to reply to him, content that their silence spoke volumes; they both had a lot to prepare for anyway.


1300 Hours, APE Coordinated Time.

The Inner City, Cereuses.

Everything was bright, brighter than they had ever seen. So much so that it seemed to rival the sun in brilliance. Almost every surface glittered with the shimmer of precious metals and impeccable cleanliness. Buildings towered over the young parasites at heights they scarcely imagined possible. For the past year they had lived their whole lives in what resembled an 18th century English country home; now they were suddenly introduced to the futuristic world which surrounded their cloistered abode.

Ikuno was nothing short of impressed, a feat in its own right. She was always humbled by mankind's endless ability to not only survive, but thrive. Hundreds of years ago, it would have simply been unthinkable the kinds of structures and materials that constituted the sprawling metropolis that unfolded before her. Furthermore it would have been pure fantasy to imagine it being mobile. Although, the more audacious the achievement, the more terrifying the threat to it. God only knows what people from the 21st century would have thought of Klaxosaurs. Humanity probably would have perished. She thought pessimistically, if not without a good founding in fact.

As they entered the city, she noticed the patrol of guards discretely shadowing their group's movements, both in front of and behind them. We're strangers in a strange land; it's hard to guess who is being protected in this situation, us from them, or the other way around? Parasites were a rarefied group in this world. All of adult society as far as she knew lived in seclusion from any type of children due to the loss of reproductive functionality in humans. It wouldn't be a surprise if most adults found their violent business somewhat off putting. As they descended a long elevator, with a wide open observation deck, they eventually made it to the ground floor of the city.

The chatter was lively and much more varied than she was used too. Groups of tall, dark clad figures with shrouds that obscured their eyes milled around a large open court that was called 'the forum'. It was from here, that any number of shops and places of business were situated for easy access to the large number of patrons.

The 13th quickly became an object of interest in this otherwise monoculture cityscape. As they made their way to their destination, individuals as well as whole groups would stop whatever they were doing and stare. Sometimes they would chatter discretely to themselves, others would merely observe in silence. These uniforms aren't fooling anyone, you could tell a parasite from an adult a mile away, no matter what they wore.

Ikuno slowly made her way to the front of the group and engaged with Nana. "So what exactly are we doing here besides being a carnival side show?" she asked.

"Public works" was all Nana had to give as an answer with a tricksters smile on her face.

This isn't good, that woman's happiness is always a red flag. "I don't think we're suited to much else other than piloting the Franxx" she stated bluntly, trying to probe further.

"You're well suited to serving the adults in all sorts of capacities" she replied with a ring in her voice. Definitely bad.


Sometime later…

"GARBAGE!" Zorome screamed at a shrill, pain inducing pitch. "We came to the city to pick up fucking GARBAGE?!" he reiterated incredulously.

"Yes" was all Hachi had to matter-of-factually say as he crossed his arms and closed ranks with his accomplice in crime Nana.

Zorome threw up his arms in frustration, "This is bullshit! I thought we were going to do cool adult things" he continued, fury unabated.

Although they didn't say it, the rest of the group commiserated with Zorome, this had been a damn dirty trick by their caretakers. Only fiends would tease parasites with a trip into the plantations interior, and then pull the rug out from under them with the imposition of manual labor.

Miku joined her partner like a comrade in arms in a front against the caretakers. "There is no way a girl as cute as me is going to pick up filth off the street" she declared in a bratty tone of voice with a pout on her lips.

"Yeah!" continued her partner, "No one as cute as Miku should have to put up with this low-life crap!" he lambasted.

Everyone's eyes bulged slightly at that comment. But neither Zorome nor Miku seemed to notice anything amiss with how he made his point. Each so infuriated and engrossed in their own defense to care that Zorome had complimented her looks.

Zorome, there really are no rules in love and war are there? Hiro Thought as he admired Zorome's brash defense of the parasites coming work assignment and his Freudian confession that he liked his partner more than he let on.

Ever since he and Zero-Two had come to terms with their feelings for one another and been open about it, he began to consider the members of the 13th in a new light. Love was a perfectly normal human emotion, but one that had been kept from them. It was all so new, and he hadn't quite figured it all out for himself either, after all, everyday seemed to bring a revelation in his relationship with Zero-Two. But he was beginning to believe that love wasn't just preferable, it was inevitable.

It was as clear as the blue sky that Goro was in love with Ichigo. It would be hard for him to miss any kind of feeling or sense of desire from his closest friend. But as expected as it seemed in hindsight, he wasn't sure until just recently that Zorome loved Miku, and that all sorts of feelings were running around the squad like an invisible wildfire.

"It's beautiful but kind of sad you know" interjected Zero- Two, putting an end to his inner monologue.

"What?" replied Hiro, unsure which part of the scene in front of them delighted her so much.

"That they don't know", she said softly.

"Yeah….but I hope they find out, I hope they find each other one day"

"Everyone needs their wings"

Hiro could only nod his head in accent, unsure if any words could convey the proper meaning; content to lets Zero-Two's imperative stand on its own.

"LET'S GET GOING NOW!" Hachi loudly and unceremoniously commanded over the quite words they were exchanging; cutting short any further discussion on the topic.


The hours seemed to drag on as they made their way through the bustling city, sweeping and stabbing trash to be collected in bins on their backs. No one seemed to enjoy the activity very much, but they were committed to doing it as well as they did their jobs on any normal sortie; at least that's what Ichigo made sure of.

"You missed a spot" Ikuno said flatly for the 10th time to Zorome that afternoon, pointing at an array of paper debris a few feet back.

"Ugh, why did I have to get paired with you of all people" replied Zorome with exasperation. "I bet Zero-Two would let me goof off if I were with her, like she lets Hiro do all the time" he continued.

"I'm sure she would, but she isn't exactly the poster child for parasite of the year either" Ikuno said as she continued to focus on her sweeping duties, making sure she didn't leave a spot untouched.

"I'm sure Miku would love to see you goof off with Zero-Two as well" she continued, subtly threatening to rat him out to his partner.

Zorome tensed up with freight, but then his facial features fell, "I doubt she'd even care" he spoke softly, "she never cares what I do" he finished.

Ikuno could feel the subtle pain in what he said. "That's not what it looks like to me, you two are always at each other's throats" she said with a fair amount of honesty in her words.

"Tch" he scoffed as he stabbed another errant soda can with more force than usual. "That's exactly what I mean; she never cares unless it's something that annoys her; she's so selfish".

"Have you ever considered how much of an interest you take it her life?" asked Ikuno; sure of herself that she already knew the answer.

Zorome was slightly taken aback by the question, and even more by his answer. He didn't really take that much interest, but that was fine, because she didn't want him to right?

"We….we don't have that much in common" he replied weakly to her question.

"What do you mean 'nothing in common'" she said with some harshness in her voice, "You are Franxx partners, you have everything in common" she finished.

"Huh? No not that kind of thing…." He trailed off.

Ikuno stopped and turned to him and looked him straight in the eyes. "No, exactly that kind of thing" she said firmly, "You know Miku better than any of us ever could, and you're an idiot if you think otherwise".

Ikuno cast he eyes downward with a mix of sadness and shame, "And you should be so lucky, some of us can't know another person's heart like that" she said and then walked away stridently from Zorome, intent on finishing their task in relative silence.

For his part, Zorome was totally lost. What the heck did I say? I just wanted to goof around, and now I'm alone. He thought as he continued to do his job, keeping his distance from Ikuno. Although, he thought, maybe I should go find Miku.


Miku and Zero-Two made their way through a deserted alley with relative ease. The city for all their gripes was already remarkably clean for having so many people in it; tidying up seemed like more of a time killer than an actual public need. Zero-Two of course had become used to the pointless busy work of military life; even her exalted status among parasites had not kept her from the occasional make-work activity.

"I can't wait to be done with this and get back to my darling" She said in a rather jubilant mood as she swept the street haphazardly.

"You and your stupid darling, ugh" replied Miku with a sour expression on her face.

"I didn't know you disliked Hiro so much" she replied with some confusion on her face, unsure why Miku would insult Hiro out of the blue.

Miku only scoffed, "I don't dislike Hiro, what gave you that impression?" she asked incredulously.

Zero-Two brought her finger up to her lips as if she was thinking deeply. "So you dislike me?"

Miku just turned away and kept sweeping, "I don't dislike you either Zero-Two, why are you being so weird about this?"

Zero-Two moved closer to Miku, still not understanding why she would call either of them stupid, which was as far as she knew an insult for humans. I still have so much to learn about being human. She thought to herself as she moved close into Miku's personal space, this is how you indicate intimacy between people right?

Miku studiously evaded her gaze, trying and failing to properly do her work and concentrate on avoiding zero-Two. Why the hell is she so close? I swear if she licks me like she did to Ikuno I'm going to beat her with this broom.

Her grip tightened and her anger slowly rose as she felt the presence of Zero-Two close in behind as she was about to turn around and smack Zero-Two upside the head, she felt a firm yet gentle hand on her shoulder.

"I know" was all Zero-Two said softly as she gently rubbed Miku's shoulder.

Miku's heart briefly skipped several beats in a row, throwing her bodily homeostasis through a loop. Oh God, what does she know? How could she even think it was like that? Her heart beat ever faster and he breathing increased with shallow breaths, what is wrong with me, why am I evening feeling like this.

Zero-Two finally took her hand off Miku, and she suddenly felt like she could breathe again, as if a giant stone was taken off her chest. She leaned on her broom stick for stability as she began to recover.

"Being a human seems so complicated to me, you know?" Zero-Two said, somewhat confused by her companions sever reaction to even being touched, I never thought Miku was that frail. She thought to herself as she tried to explain herself to the recovering pistil.

"I know that it must be hard for you guys to deal with my being new to the squad, humans are pack animals after all, and I am not one of you" she said rather despondently.

However, her smile returned quickly with her energy, "But I want to be with you guys, and be like you so desperately. I get a warm feeling in my heart every time we are together".

"So cheer up! We are all in this together!" she ordered playfully to Miku.

Oh that's all it was. She thought as she slowly recovered from her heart palpitations. You're already one of us Zero-Two, just a particularly troublesome one of us. A bit dense too, just like another parasite I know.

Suddenly a loud crash could be heard at the end of the alley they were cleaning up. They both turned their heads quickly to observe whatever had caused such a deafening sound, and saw Hiro and Goro running towards them at full speed, litter sticks in hand.

"RUN! RUN RUN!" was all they were screaming as they eyed the pair of pistils down the alley.

Miku and Zero-Two just looked at them oddly for a second, seeing nothing other than two terrified stamen running at full speed towards them.

Just then a blue figure, slightly larger than an average human rounded the corner. It had mechanical looking features and two long sharp blades for appendages. It moved inhumanly quickly, seemingly aided by spring like gear on the end of its overly long legs.

By this point the terrified stamen had reached their pistil companions and grabbed them and began shoving them along away from the fast approaching unknown being.

As the pistils met the stride of their much faster partners, they couldn't help but wonder what the hell was going on.

"What is that thing?!" asked Miku, now just as scared at the stamen running alongside her.

"Could be a Klaxosaur, could be some other nightmare, we don't know yet" explained Goro between deep heaving breaths.

"But that thing is almost like our size, aren't Klaxosaurs supposed to be as big as Franxx?"

"That's what we thought, but we just have no idea at this point, except that it's trying to kill us" explained Hiro.

The small monstrosities we're definitely gaining ground on the parasites by this point, their mechanical bodies far outperforming the mere biological abilities of the young humans. It's now or never thought Goro as he gauged the distance between them and the Klax-like being by sound alone, not daring to turn around and break his stride just yet.

He gripped his makeshift weapon tightly. This thing isn't going to do much against those monsters, but maybe I can buy some time. He turned to Hiro and gave him a knowing look. Hiro wouldn't be pleased by his heroics, but his closest friend at least understood what was required of him. Hiro nodded affirmatively to Goro's plan, seemingly telepathically understanding the stakes.

The alley eventually gave way to a much more crowded street, with adults milling around, chatting with one another, visiting shops, and eating food in open air cafés. Goro had to make sure the Klaxosaurs never made it that far.

Right. He assured himself, as he turned to face the two man-sized Klax now no more than 10 feet away. He braced the small metal rod in front of him as he prepared for their scythe-like appendages to wail on him.

The attacks came quicker and with more force than he ever imagined. Each of the pair slashed at him, trying to expose a weak spot in his defense. He made due with what he had, which wasn't much, other than his vague memories of hand to hand combat training at the garden. As the lunges and thrusts of the Klax kept coming unabated, he was slowly being maneuvered into a corner. Shit, if this goes on for much longer I'm toast.

As he glanced toward the end of the alley, he didn't see any other humans with him any longer. Thank god, as long as they escaped I can die here with some dignity and peace. In his moment of distraction, the grip on his weapon was weakened, and a strong slash from the enemy Klax knocked it out of his hands, and gave him a nasty cut up his arm. The deep gash left his right arm completely useless and expelling blood at an alarming rate.

This is it…..Hiro…Ichigo, I'm sorry for being an absolute fool, but at least this fool did it his way. Goro closed his eyes and prepared for the blow of mercy which would end his thus far short life with one fell swing of the executioner's blade. But as he waited and waited, the searing pain of being cut in half never came. Am I already dead and I just didn't notice? I can't hear a damn thing, but my eyes just won't move to see what happened.

"GORO! Move before I kill you too!" shouted Futoshi over the loud speaker of his Franxx Chlorophytum.

After that, all Goro could hear was a deafening sound exploding from a whisper inside his head. He wasn't sure if something had actually blown up near him or whether it was all a figment of his fight-or-flight response to almost dying.

He doubled over in pain, unable to sustain his own weight anymore with the throbbing pain of his arm as well as the one in his head. His limp body fell alongside the dark alley wall; the decapitated corpses of his erstwhile Klax opponents' mere inches from him.

In the cockpit of Chlorophytum, Futoshi urgently opened a transmission line with Nana, "Goro's down and badly hurt, and we need reinforcements now!" he reported.

Futoshi moved his Franxx gingerly, sure to avoid crushing his defenseless partners that had taken refuge behind him, as well as trying to avoid as much collateral damage to the plantation as possible.

"This is no place to be doing this!" he lamented to his partner.

"Tell me about it" replied Ikuno evenly.

"Yoooo!" spoke a voice from below him. "Where are the others" asked Miku of the hulking mech.

"We're not sure, currently Zorome, Kokoro, Ichigo, and Mitsuru are unaccounted for" replied Ikuno to her fellow pistil.

Miku's face blanched. Of course it was her partner that just had to go and get lost at a time like this, but also one of her closest friends.

However there was little time to be concerned with things beyond her control. Currently, they needed to calm down the nearby crowd, before this Klaxosaur attack turned into a mass panic scenario.

As she was processing her thoughts, a loud, city wide siren began to sound. As it reverberated though the walls of the plantation all the adults began to move, heading to god knows where, but it was probably safer than their present location.

"They'll be here soon" said Zero-Two. "In a few moments, APE security forces are going to flood this area, let's try not to get caught in the crossfire" she finished.

"Agreed" said Hiro, "But we need to get Goro to safety". Hiro went over to the body of his roommate and confirmed that Goro was still alive, just knocked out and severely injured. With some effort, Hiro collected Goro onto his person piggyback style.

"The last time I saw Zorome, we were a few blocks from here and he was going to head this way, so he's probably not far off, we should prioritize rescuing him first." Ikuno said, formulating a plan that would help them the most.

They all nodded affirmatively, and began heading back down the alley towards Ikuno's last known sighting of Zorome.


Zorome swiftly dodged the slashes of his would-be opponent, making the Klaxosaur look like a fool for even picking a fight with him. His reaction speed and deft use of improvised weapons was proving too much for one small Klaxosaur to deal with.

Hmm, really glad I tried spying on Zero-Two taking a bath in a river that one time, and found her practicing martial arts instead. These moves are too easy!

Zorome's confidence had slowly been building since he had been blindsided by this monster on his way to find the others. At first he was scared shitless that he was alone face-to-face with this previously unknown breed of Klax, but he soon found it more than manageable.

"You fucked up big time!" He yelled at his enemy even though it couldn't possibly understand him.

This whole time he had been on the defensive, but he knew he needed to end this sooner rather than later or the wrong kind of company might show up. Alright how do I end this bastard's life? He questioned to himself, not sure he could punch a Mech, even a small one, to death.

As he dodged the next attack and kept thinking, he put some distance between himself and his assailant; a move which would quickly prove to be fortuitous. Once Zorome had retreated away from the Klax a good distance, a fast moving projectile from god knows where struck the Klax in the torso, ripping his body in half.

That was…uh…unexpected. Was all could think as he looked around, confused, looking for the source of the decapitating round.

"Target eliminated" reported Mitsuru over Genista's comms channel as he lowered the targeting assist goggles from over his eyes; the sharpshooter Franxx making easy work of the tiny Klax even from a considerable distance.

As Zorome zeroed in on the muzzle smoke from the Rook Sparrow he understood that his teammate had stolen his glory from afar.

Zorome curled his first and stomped on the ground, "It's not like I needed your help god damn it!" he raged at his teammate, "That was my kill you Baaka!" he finished crossing his arms and putting on a sour expression.

Mitsuru wiped the sweat away from his brow. "How annoying" was all he had to say to his partner Kokoro who was glad to find their teammate unharmed by the diminutive monsters assaulting the city.

"That makes ten" said Hachi connecting over the communications link, "Good work securing all the parasites".

"You found everyone?" chimed in Futoshi over the link.

"Yes, Code: 666 was the last to be accounted for, and Code:015 is already coordinating our response from the command center here".

"Pfhew" Futoshi said exasperatedly, leaning back in his Franxx, now able to relax slightly, that his friend had been found safe.

"Will anyone tell me what the fuck is going on!?" yelled Zorome from down below the massive green Franxx which had approached his position.

At the same time, the figures of Chlorophytum and the rest of their group rounded a corner just down the street to see an angry Zorome bitching out the pilot of Genista, although seemingly provoking litle reaction.

Time seemed to slow down as Miku spied the dusty-blonde idiot that she spent most of her time with, bitching and trying to pick a fight as if not one thing was amiss in the world. Didnt he know what kind of danger he was in? That they were all in?

Miku walked quickly, but soon broke out into a full scale sprint as their group moved closer to see Genista and Zorome standing over another Klax corpse. As she left the group behind and ran towards her partner at full speed, unable to contain her emotions, she began to cry. That stupid, stupid boy! What does he think he was doing going off on his own like that?

As he turned around, Zorome casually spotted his partner. Happy to see her safe and sound and coming towards him he put up his hand, open palmed, to greet her and tell her about his exciting fight. But the high-five he was teeing up was never to be, as he watched in slow motion as her own hand rose up and passed by his own on a direct course for his face. Oh fuck.

The stinging sound of flesh upon flesh rang out to the surrounding group; the loud clap inducing cringing facial expressions on all present except for Mitsuru, her slap knocking his whole body around and almost to the ground.

After that entire fight and coming out uninjured, Zorome was pissed that his face now felt as if it had been cut open, and by that stupid girl no less. He gritted his teeth, and balled his firsts, ready to show that bitch what a good hit would feel like. But before he even had a chance to raise a hand against his partner, she embraced him in a full body hug, shoving her face deeply into his uniform and sobbing on his chest.

Her words were unintelligible as she heaved air in and out of her body, uncontrollably sobbing and blabbering about the danger he had put himself in, and how irresponsible he was. Zorome was unsure of how to handle the pistil's feelings, not even sure at this moment where to put his hands, eventually settling on her shoulders, as he tucked her in to his grasp.

Oh brother, I am in store for one hell of a bitching out when we get back home, was all he could think as he tried to calm his partner down, but to no avail.

However his thoughts of home would prove to be immature. As he held his partner in his arms, another Klax of the small agile variety broke out from a dark passageway off of the main road. Too far from his teammates to rely on them to kill it, and unable to use his hands to defend himself, he was a sitting duck for its surprise attack.

As the monster leaped, it revealed a concealed weapon; a long, blue, and exceptionally deadly looking spear. Cocking its arm back to swing, it didn't even bother to conceal the type of attack it was going to use, as its prey was completely unable to defend themselves. As the spear launched from the Klax's hand, Zorome's eyes widened as its trajectory made it clear it was aimed, not at himself, but at Miku.

Oh no…..Was all he could think. This can't be happening, not her…..why not me you fucking bastard! Time seemed to slow down as he turned their bodies as fast as he could to dodge the attack, but it was moving far too fast for that. However, he did have enough time to save at least one of them…..her. As he positioned himself in front of the spears trajectory he grabbed Miku tightly by the waist and shoved her away with all his might, forcing her to the ground as the spear cut through the flesh of his shoulder like a warm knife through butter.

Blood splattered all over Miku's face as she became conscious of her new position on the ground in front of her partner. "Hey! What was that for you jerk…." Realization spreading over her features as she finished.

Her eyes shot wide open and her throat tightened in fear, unable to breathe. She brought a finger up to her face to inspect the thick viscous liquid which had exploded on to her. Brining it in front of her eyes and seeing the voluminous amount left on her body, she let out a blood curdling scream, the type only rarely heard by severely injured animals.

"ZOROME!" She yelled out in agony, as her partners limp body fell into her waiting arms, the spear falling out of his gaping wound as he collapsed on the ground.


(A/N) So this one was a bit longer, which I hope you liked. I tried all week to edit this to make it flow better, but in the end I decided to get it out on schedule instead of messing with it more. Next week will either be considerably shorter or slightly delayed unless I get a lot of writing juices flowing. I'm moving through a lot of different types of writing, many of which are a first for me, so bare with me if they seem a little oddly written. Keep the reviews up!