1300 Hours APE Coordinated Time

The Boarding House, Cerasus.

Kokoro grew pale and squeamish looking at the medical device being handed to her. I've never liked needles, she thought as she contemplated the object in the outstretched hand of her friend, and captain, Ichigo.

"Kokoro, you're her closest friend, and she is your roommate, you are the one who should administer it to her" said Ichgio with some insistence.

Kokoro weakly and timidly moved to grab the proffered syringe but her nervousness overcame her and she retracted her hand quickly, "Hmph I just cant!" she cried, withdrawing in shame.

"Ugh, you guys are unbelievable, who else can I trust with this? Not the ghouls over there" barked Ichigo pointing an accusatory finger at the gathered parasites and the end of the hallway.

Goro and Ikuno each had their faces buried in their hands, only able to muster the courage to glare at each other for foiling the other's plans. Mitsuru leaned nonchalantly against the bannister, either unconcerned for Miku, or unconcerned about the part he played in her current predicament. Finally Hiro looked on at the Pistils arguing over the syringe with the appropriate amount of concern in his eyes.

Tch, if only Hiro wasn't a boy, this wouldn't be a choice at all. "Fine, I see if all of you are going to chicken out of solving the problem you created, I'll take responsibility!"

If Ichigo was being completely honest with herself, she didn't like needles or blood either. She turned the knob on the door to Miku and Kokoro's room gently, careful not to inadvertently wake the sleeping Franxx pilot, even if that seemed unlikely considering she'd taken enough tranquilizer to euthanize a horse. Inside, she found exactly what she suspected. Miku had barely made it to her bed, completely collapsed, still fully clothed, her body half slumped off her bed.

"Someone come in here and help me, she might just be 110lbs of Chiwawa, but I can't lift her" whisper-yelled Ichigo to the crowd which had moved closer to the room.

Mitsuru knew it would need to be one of the boys and volunteered his services to try and avoid the fuss that was likely to ensue. He didn't even bother to get Ichigo's consent, walking right by her, sensing the cringe building up in her without even having to read her face. "Just don't. You know I won't enjoy this in the slightest" he said as he lifted the cumbersome girl into his arms and then flopped her down on her bed in a somewhat proper position.

"Delicate as always I see, sad for Kokoro that your treatment of pistils hasn't improved one bit since we broke up" snidely commented Ikuno.

"She's not my partner or my problem, I'm just doing what is required for the mission" retorted Mitsuru evenly.

"Both of you shut up, this isn't the time for your partner squabble, we still need to administer the preparation".

Ichigo looked at her slumbering comrade, glad to see the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest, indicating that she was still breathing. It was a close one, thankfully ad hoc medicine doesn't quite have the same pharmacological potency as the real thing.

"Where exactly does this need to be injected, Ikuno?" She asked the chief field nurse of the squad.

"Tie off her arm, and use any major vein. It should take effect in her bloodstream quite quickly. She'll feel groggy but won't be any worse for wear" thankfully.

Ichigo kneeled down next to the bed and placed the syringe on a nearby bedside table and began to roll up the sleeves of her shirt towards her shoulder. What is that? She began to think as a reddish brown pigmentation began to discolor her normally alabaster skin as she moved further and further up Miku's arm.

"Kokoro, come over here and help me take off her shirt!" she commanded.

"Eeep, I don't think that is necessary Ichi-"

"Get the boys out and just do it!" she ordered tersely, cutting off her friend and fellow pilot. This was too important.

Ikuno quickly picked up on the severe tone of her commander, and began to usher out the confused but compliant Stamen. "Let's go, we need to give them as much room as possible".

Kokoro began fidgeting with her fingers and looking for an exit which was not presenting itself.

"We're all girls here Kokoro, I think Miku might be in a lot of danger, I need you to focus with me right now" explained Ichigo in as reassuring a tone as she herself could muster at the moment.

Kokoro seemed to react to that assurance with a resolve she didn't know she had, and quickly moved to help position the unconscious pistil in such a way as to remove the complicated blouse of their uniform from her body.

When they finally slipped the garment from over the girls body, they were wide-eyed and horrified by what they saw.

"How could she have possibly hid this and dealt with the pain for these last few days?" asked Ichigo, incredulous of what they had just discovered on their dear friend's body.

"May..Maybe she didn't know herself? It has been a pretty unrelenting time since we came back from the inner city".

"Didn't know? Get real Kokoro, look at her! It must have been agony" said Ichigo, anger and sadness beginning to well up in her and express itself in a way almost never seen. The hint of tears building up in the backs of her eyes.

A large black scar the size of a baseball emanated out from her shoulder in twisting strands that wrapped all around her arm and down the top right side of her body, progressively turning lighter and lighter shades of brown until it disappeared. It looked for all the world to see, as if she had been the victim of a catastrophic accident, but from many years prior, with time having healed all the damage except for the physical memory of the attack.

"Why would she hide such a thing from the medical staff?" Pondered Ichigo out loud, unable to make heads or tales of what she was seeing.

"She usually changes after everyone in the locker room because she is shy, but I don't remember even catching a glimpse of this when we came back" added Kokoro, equally perplexed.

"We have to tell the others, we have to get her help!" Exclaimed Kokoro, eager to heal her lifelong friend.

"No, we shouldnt-"

"Why not!" asked Kokoro in a raised voice, taking this chance to cut off Ichigo, instead of the other way around.

Ichigo stood up and grabbed Kokoro by her shoulder, "What good will that do? Zorome just woke up and anything we say will surely make it back to him! We can't have him thinking about Miku's condition while he's trying to recover himself".

Kokoro, who had been staring down her captain with intensity in her eyes just moments before, suddenly couldn't bear her gaze and looked away, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks.

Ichigo embraced her friend, and tried to comfort her, using the limited amount of emotional understanding she had. "All we can do is give her the treatment, and act like it was nothing out of the ordinary….it's what she would want".

Kokoro's eyes began to dry up and she sniffled and wiped the tears away from her eyes. She gave a wordless nod of understanding to her fellow pistil, and they began what they had originally come in for. When it was all said and done, they dressed her again and tucked her into her blankets, hoping a good rest would give them enough time to formulate a new plan.

1330 APE Coordinated Time

Medical Unit, The Boarding House, Cerasus.

Zorome sat up in his bed, conscious for the first time in almost a week. He felt a weird renewing energy flow through his body and especially at the tips of his fingers. He began to slowly move them, contemplating each digit one by one, as if he had to prove to himself he hadn't suffered from any lasting nerve damage from the attack. He slowly poked and prodded various parts of his arm until he made his way to his shoulder and began to wince in pain. Seems to all work, but recovery is still recovery, i'll probably be out of action for weeks.

He layed back against the head of his hospital bed, and breathed a deep sigh of exhaustion.What am I going to miss being stuck in this room until they let me go back?

"You look unusually thoughtful" came a sweet sounding voice from out of the blue.

"Huh?" was all Zorome could reply to the disembodied voice,

Just then, Zero-Two dressed in her typical red parasite uniform emerged from behind the curtains flanking Zorome's bed on either side.

He was quite taken aback by the sudden entrance of Hiro's lover, especially since, for all he could tell, they were alone.

"Hey! Aren't I supposed to have only doctors and nurses in here? What ever happened to privacy" he snapped.

Zero-Two smiled, "I didn't think you'd be so displeased to see me Zoro".

"Not so much displeased as confused, I'd expect Futoshi or Goro, but never you"

She smirked as she stood at the other end of his bed, "Goro is recovering from his own wounds in his room, and Futoshi is out cold after mistakenly eating some sleeping pills".

Zoromes shoulders slumped forward and his head dropped, and there was silence between them. Then after just a moment, he began to lightly chuckle. Softly at first, but slowly he built up to full on uproarious laughter, He'd never heard something so silly, and so very much Futoshi-like in his life, and it made him so happy to be alive he couldn't contain himself.

It went on and on, and when he stopped and began to wipe away his tears, he couldn't tell if they were from sadness or joy. "I don't know if that kid is going to kill me from laughter, or himself from a food coma one day" he said between deep breaths, as he tried to catch himself from bursting out laughing again.

"You're in surprisingly good spirits for someone who was touch and go on the operating table just a few days ago" remarked 002 as she took a seat on the edge of his bed.

Zorome furrowed his brow and grimaced at the unusually familiar pink haired pilot, Since when are we buddies? I know she's not as prudish as the other pistils, but hardly comfortable with anyone but Hiro.

"Can I help you?" asked Zorome in puzzlement.

Zero-two scoffed, "More about how I'm going to help you silly" she said with a devilish grin.

"Help me, how could you possibly help me?" replied Zorome incredulously.

Zero-Two sighed and turned away, "Talk about a lack of imagination. I am everything you are not, and have everything you don't, and you can't think of a single thing I could do for you? How ungrateful".

This bitch, was all he could think at the time. "Ha, I don't care what inhuman blood flows through you, and I don't care about what weird relationship you have with that loser Hiro. I will become the greatest Franxx pilot of all time, and bask in the glory from Papa, and I'll do it all without pointers from you" he replied triumphantly to Zero-Two.

"Hmph, you don't stand a chance of eclipsing me in ability or attention from Papa. that old oaf loves me, and those weird monkeys he calls friends do to"

"Yeah well, just let me and Arge-" he was cut off.

"SHUT UP Zorome!" lashed out Zero-Two, unwilling to banter back and forth.

"You're just a kid and you know nothing!" she continued with her voice raised, "Just let me help you Jeez" she finished, calming down slightly.

"With what?!" asked Zorome again, "Getting high blood pressure, you want me to bleed out after I just woke up?"

Zero-Two softened uncharacteristically, I guess he has a point, I should stop beating around the bush. "You want to be the best right? Zorome the great and everything? You won't be able to do it without becoming more like my darling and I".

"Hmpf, like you and Hiro? Hard pass. Unlike you, I don't have a fawning partner willing to do anything I say anyway".

Zero-two began to grin, "You don't do you? I'd say it's your lack of charm, but let's face it..." she moved close to Zorome and spoke softer, "Its Miku's lack of inhibition...she's a real prude with you boys, just remember all the tape around the house?" She giggled at the memory.

Zorome folded his arms and turned away from her, "I don't see how pointing out the obvious is helping me very much, ha" He said as he laughed humorlessly.

Zero-two stretched out her hand to his chin and softly turned his gaze back to hers "What if I could make her like you? What if I could make her love you?"

Zorome swatted away her hand, and looked on her with terror as he recoiled his body further up his bed to get away from her. "L-Love me….L-Love her? I don't know what you're talking about, and even if I did, how in the HELL is this supposed to make me stronger?"

Zero-two stood up, "The sickness that almost killed Hiro piloting with me, it's from a reaction between our bodies becoming one, it was near-fatal for him because….well because of who I am, but it allows us to synchronize perfectly for combat. Something you can't do with Miku unless…"

"Unless what?" Zorome interjected, impatient with where this story was going.

"...Unless she falls in love with you" finished Zero-two.

There was a moment of deep silence between the two, so quiet you could hear the distant sounds of birds, and the hum of the 'invisible helpers' going about their mysterious business. Zorome was intrigued, disheartened, and a bit angry all at the same time. Knowing he was so close to what he wanted and yet so far, and to know what would ultimately hold him back was his very own partner...that girl.

"And how could YOU help me with HER? Last time I checked your powers were considerable, but did not include enchantress or witch, that can just make her fall in ..." He couldn't bear to say the words himself. "...just make it happen", he finished weakly.

Zero-two smiled, Time for the big reveal. "I may not, but this sure can!" she said exuberantly holding up a tiny vile with a light-purple liquid in it.