He poured his heart into this. This rigged test they had put him into.
Lights flashed around them, the sounds of alarms reverberating off the metal confines of the compact cockpit they were seated in.
He was better than this.
The lights flicker off and on as the power supply wavers, threatening to extinguish like a candle in the wind.
He didn't need to do this for himself. There wasn't even a point in him being here. Do it for her.
The electronics of the cockpit shut down one by one and all that could be heard anymore was the panting of the duo.
Sweat flowed freely across his face, dripping onto the tight material of his suit.
She was crying. Tears mingled with an abundance of sweat. Her body was heaving with each breath in an attempt to recover itself.
Why was he so pathetic? Why did they keep him around?
A voice over an intercom stated that they had both failed. No. Only he had failed her.
Hiro's hair was thrown about by powerful gusts of wind. His uniform's thin fabric did little to protect him from the chilling gale blowing about the boundless valley. Far in front of him stood his former partner, Naomi. She was upright, looking directly at him across a long steel walkway that connected the plant she was standing on to the metal catwalk Hiro was positioned on. The endless expanse of wasteland was visible in all directions. Hiro had lived his whole life feeling powerless, but seeing Naomi forced to leave due to his own inadequacy left him with a feeling of absolute ineptness. He had failed her completely.
Hiro had no idea why the mysterious overlords of the plantation allowed him to stay. Children had disappeared all the time, children far more capable than he was. Even if he had the skill to power a Franxx, his condition made it much more difficult for him to live on the plantation, the verticality of the structure seemingly made to mock him. He considered himself a literal waste of space. His comrades would be waging a war of life and death and all he could do was sit at home, wallowing in dissatisfaction. It was torture. Watching them leave every day through his window. They had allowed him to try to connect with Naomi, in a final test to see if either were adequate. He asked countless times to let Naomi take the test with another stamen, but he was denied harshly, told it was important that he was the one to undergo the exam. Scum.
"Hiro" Naomi finally broke the silence, "it was cruel of fate to make you my partner." Her words were acid, burning him to the bone. He agreed. Tears began to stream down her face, her dark brown eyes leaking rivers of anguish. Hiro gritted his teeth in anger at himself, his gums going numb from the force exhibited. "I'm done for" she removed a hand from the suitcase she was holding to try to wipe the tears from her eyes, to no success, forceful air blowing her brown hair about, causing it to undulate in the currents of wind. "You can still make it though Hiro, if anyone can make it it's you" she said confidently, her tone not matching her frail appearance. "All you need to do" her mouth curving into a pure smile, "is stop running away." Naomi believed every single word she spoke, and Hiro knew that. This only made him even more infuriated. He was the reason she couldn't stay in the "eden" they had been provided. She was more than proficient enough to stay here. Though he didn't care much for the home they had been given, he knew it meant everything to the usually jovial Naomi, who was now sobbing in front of him. "This is the last time we'll ever see each other, Hiro" she added, the tears slowing, her body no longer quaking in misery. Hiro questioned his hearing. The last time?
"Naomi?" he tried, "Naomi, what do you mean?" Hiro tried to move forwards, but the guard who was pushing his seat held him at bay, making it impossible to advance. He wanted to leap to her and embrace her, tell her lies, promises of inevitable good fortune, but his body trapped him in place. Her eyes became both warm and solemn at the same time that the alarms for undocking sounded along the metal peninsula he was on. Realization darted through Hiro's body in an instant. "No, Naomi no!" he cried out, trying with what little strength he had to roll his chair forwards, the wheels refusing to move. She heaved her heavy brown suitcase to him, it landing just in front of his chair and sliding to his feet, its inefficiently large size obstructing his path.
"I really like the name you gave me Hiro" she spoke genuinely, slowly backing into the doorway of the plant. The guard behind Hiro halfheartedly attempted to remove the large object from the catwalk in order to roll Hiro on. "But honestly, I regret ever meeting you" she admitted, her feelings stabbed into him and twisted themselves, eviscerating his heart in agony. He could no longer move even if he was capable of it, regardless of obstacles present, her venom melted him to the steel below him, rooting him. The plant squealed as it began to retract its docking platform, hydraulics releasing columns of steam that rose up around the catwalk, blanking out the surroundings in white. The doors of the plant began to close, sealing Naomi inside, her chocolate eyes still locked onto Hiro's own. The guard who was pushing Hiro pulled his chair back and caused Hiro to fall back into his seat from his position where he was leaning forwards. Naomi's suitcase slipped off the platform, the catwalk no longer underneath it, and fell to the dead earth thousands of feet beneath them.
"Naomi!" Hiro cried out one more time, all his pain infused into the single word. It was not heard however, as the doors had closed completely and the only people still present were Hiro and the guard who had pulled him back from the edge. Hiro did not cry. No tears were present in the corners of his troubled blue eyes. Hiro had lived his whole life disappointing people. He was conditioned for failure at this point. No tears would escape the corners of his eyes. He resented his inability to succeed. The plant Naomi had boarded had at this point pulled away and was moving in line with many others away from the plantation and into the unfathomably distant horizon. The sun was perched on the skyline, its golden throne sinking into the distant sands. The transport plants were the only thing present in the barren flats. Well, the plants and two giant blue spires rising from the earth rapidly.
Hiro sat up in his seat again, casting his gaze to the left, fully turning his attention to inspecting the curious looking objects surging from the earth. The blue spikes were on a direct collision course with the convoy of plants migrating away from Plantation Thirteen Hiro discerned with a start. The growths got closer and closer in proximity to the gigantic yellow transport balls, earth being tumultuously tossed aside by the sheer force of the blue spears shattering the ground. The unstoppable blades were now taller than any of the plants and were still continuing to grow. With robust power, the towers of blue collided with the plant Naomi was in, flipping it onto its side and continuing to push into its exterior, slicing into it like a warm knife to butter. The metal of the distant plant's walls audibly squealed and exploded into a ball of ungodly fire. Hiro's eyes widened in horror.
"NAOMI!" he howled one final time into the vast void beneath him, his heart threatening to burst forth from his chest and leap off the edge into the abyss. There was no way anyone could survive that he surmised coldly. The spires continued through all the plants one by one in brutal fashion and were now coming directly for Plantation Thirteen. Hiro heard movement behind him and turned to see the guard run away from him, abandoning him on the catwalk.
"Klaxosaur! Ready the cannons!" the guard's shaky voice called out to any who could hear. Hiro turned back to the destruction and realized the spears of blue were actually horns. A fearsome black creature, which resembled the pictures of whales in books Hiro had read, rose from the sands of the badlands and was proceeding towards him at an alarming rate, moving on two massive black stilts that appeared to be legs. With the sun at its back, the bipedal monster's form casted a gargantuan shadow upon the earth. Its skin was accented with a spectrum of blue elements that appeared to glimmer with unbridled energy. Bolts of azure lightning rolled across the black surface of the creature, the sapphire fissures not able to contain the power coiled inside the beast.
From behind Hiro, huge metal flaps dropped from the sides of the plantation to reveal hundreds of enormous cannons. In unison, they erupted in a deafening barrage unto the klaxosaur. The whining of the shells could be heard spiralling through the sky above. Countless explosions flared up across the klaxosaur's surface, but they seemed to all have little to no effect. The behemoth dropped its jaw low to the ground and shifted its weight to its forward foot, throwing its tail around in a high sweep, targeting the emplacements on the walls. As if wiping a windshield, the weapons were dusted off the plantation like droplets of rain. The tail continued to swing by the cannons and collide with the front of the platform Hiro was helplessly seated upon. The force immediately blew away the supports and caused the metal to flip backwards upon itself, throwing Hiro out of his chair and into the air. Discombobulated, Hiro opened his eyes only to see the ground getting closer and closer until he landed on hard metal, sliding a couple dozen feet in a crumpled heap. Cannons from elsewhere on the plantation continued to discharge in the background as Hiro struggled to regain his awareness, the cacophony of the shelling ringing in his ears. He used his arms to support his upper body as he rolled onto his side to get the klaxosaur back into his field of vision. The monstrosity was now running past him with its side to the plantation, tail swinging from side to side, casually destroying fortunes worth of structures. Hiro realized that the klaxosaur was making its way around the plantation to the area of the startup ritual. The size of the fiend was so grand, that it quickly sprinting by him caused an eruption of dust and sand to climb up the preposterously tall sides of the plantation and shower him in debris. Hiro looked about, trying to find his wheelchair, needing to get moving as quickly as he could. He briefly searched and eventually saw it behind him, folded awkwardly beneath some loose metal panels.
"Tch" he vented to himself. Having no other option and not wishing to evaluate any other possible ones, Hiro used his arms to drag himself to the handrails on the side of the walkway, grabbing onto vertical supports to pull himself along the ground. His back was covered in a thick layer of dirt and dust caked his sweaty skin, his body not used to the physical exertion the usually reclusive boy was committing. The path he forged across the precipice of the walkway left a clean stroke on the otherwise dirt covered platform. Muscle was not a factor in the slow, gruelling progression Hiro was making, only bloody determination allowed him to continue. A cut he didn't know he had leaked blood across his forehead, painting his dusty complexion with a streak of vivid red.
Panting wildly, he finally collapsed, his arms wrapped around a metal bar, halfway done pulling himself to it. He had only managed to advance ten odd meters in what seemed like an insurmountable amount of effort and time. He cried out in dissatisfaction with his own effort. He shut his eyelids harshly, an image of Naomi appearing to him. "No more running away" he cursed himself under his breath. He let out a cry of fury and pulled himself once more. His howl was drowned out when a flash of white and red metal blew by him, an orange star visible through the thick smog surrounding the plantation. Air blasted past in an explosive wave of wind, the whirlwind violently dusting his clothing clean of the excess debris covering him. Another klaxosaur? He struggled to see with his hair being whipped about in front of his eyes. The somewhat feline looking beast accelerated past him the blink of an eye, its image blinking in and out of his periphery in seconds.
Seconds later, a thunderous roar could be heard some hundred meters ahead of him, the sound easily travelling across the flat panels of his home. Metal could be heard scraping against metal and the barely distinguishable cries of humans echoed through the polluted sky. An otherworldly arc of blue lightning flashed by Hiro, just above the walkway. After a brief moment the beam dissipated and an explosion shot forth from its contact with the alloys of the plantation. Powerful gusts of wind rolled Hiro away from the edge of the walkway, throwing him back against the plantation as if he was a sheet of crumpled paper. Smacking into the firm wall, Hiro cried out in pain once again, the impact winding him. He landed in a seated position in which his back was supported by the exterior of the plant. Using his left arm, he managed to summon enough energy to wipe the coating of dirt from his eyes, coughing as he inhaled hazy air. The air cleared out quickly, oddly enough, and Hiro slowly cracked his eyelids only to see the same white and red cat-like creature being propelled towards his part of the walkway. Utterly incapacitated, Hiro covered his head with his arms, his body shrinking into the wall, trying weakly to shield himself from the impending catastrophe.
The machine-like beast collided violently with the walkway, blowing out the multiple foundations holding the platform and causing it to fold in the middle, making Hiro slide down a couple feet on the now slanted floor. Concrete blocks blew free from simple rebar constraints and rained down around Hiro's launched form. Rolling down the slope, he came to harsh stop after some unwanted barrel rolls, loose stones forcing him to abruptly stop by clubbing into his ribs. Almost blacking out from the physical trauma he'd endured, a heavy object fell onto him and its weight nearly squashed him. Not being able to see through the endless cloud of dirt in the air Hiro couldn't discern what had landed upon him.
He did however, feel cold droplets of liquid drip onto his face, the contact starkly obvious on his dry, dusty skin. The air slowly began to clear anew and Hiro twisted and turned his torso until he rolled the object off of him and to his right side. After coughing heavily from effort, Hiro was met with the scene of a dead man laying beside him. Or so he assumed at least. The heavily injured soldier he had seen at the lake was now laying in front of him, blood flowing steadily from his mouth and out of his breathing mask, dribbling into a sanguine puddle beneath his head. He was wearing a stamen piloting suit around his large frame, though it was battered and bent dramatically, being barely identifiable as battle attire.
"He's done for" a voice he could never forget called out above him. Hiro raised his head to see Zero Two in a red pistil piloting suit, blood covering the entire right side of her face. Her pink hair was wettened a darker shade of red and patted down onto her head because of the blood congealing in her once luscious locks. She stood ruggedly in the entryway of the machine that had crashed a few yards adjacent to him, leaning against the frame for support.
"Zero Two?" he called instantly, the girl's name having been on his mind all day. "Are you ok?" he worriedly demanded, the amount of blood on her panicking him. Ignoring his question Zero Two turned her vision past the guard rails of the walkway, looking past them to the mighty klaxosaur, studying it. She turned her head back to Hiro and her gaze cast its spell upon Hiro anew, regardless of the blood dripping from her sharp chin. The circumstances were now lost on him, his aberrated breathing pattern hitched and stopped, her stare winding him for the millionth time that day.
"How kind of fate" her lips turned into a grin, sharp incisors appearing for a second, "to bring you to me." A howl some ways off, distracted her and caused her smile to fade immediately, sternness reclaiming her face. "I need to go now" she started to withdraw back into the entrance of the machine that Hiro had realized was a Franxx mecha. "Try to stay alive" she added, swaying unsteadily on her feet and blowing him a kiss, "I'll need something to eat when I get back."
"Wait, you can't pilot that thing alone, look at the state you're in!" Hiro interrupted, her blood still flowing persistently across her face, dyeing one of her eyes red. When she refused to listen, still creeping back into the aperture of the mech, Hiro leaned forwards and unbuckled his left shoe, removing it from his foot. He wouldn't let another person die while he was there. Without considering what he was doing at all, he threw the shoe in Zero Two's direction. His attempt at showing his seriousness ended up bouncing off the metal beside the doorway but the act still caused Zero Two to hesitate and turn back to him, her focus broken briefly but features still remaining unimpressed. "You'll die if you try something that risky!" he shouted, authority he didn't know he had surging through his tone.
She looked at him blandly, "And?" Her answer confused Hiro. She turned away again, her long hair hiding her face from his view, "Death is one thing I'm not afraid of." Her confidence, that was quickly becoming trademark to her, shook Hiro's own, his control of the argument faltering. The white metal of the Franxx cast long shadows over Hiro's position laying on the platform, covered in blood and dirt. His mind was a tempest, decisions being thrown about like loose debris such that he wasn't able to grasp them. Though the klaxosaur in the background was roaring, the only sound he heard was the rhythmic thumping of his heart in his ears. He'd never felt so much emotion in one day, or even a month. This girl was the cause of it. And because of that. He couldn't let her die. He could try to be a hero for her.
"No more running away" he whispered, trying feebly to inspire himself, images of chocolate eyes appearing in his mind. No more farewells today he vowed.
Not hearing his self-encouragement, Zero Two began to slide back into the cockpit, "Well, goodb-"
"Let me fly with you!" Hiro declared loudly, cutting her off; his eyes flaring with fervor, the intense azure seas within them thrown into monsoons of newfound alacrity. "Take me with you into the sky!" he demanded fearlessly, echoing her own words back to her. She turned back to him, examining him in a new light. His crippled and beaten form was difficult to look at, but she could see the rampant tenacity in his face.
"Ho" she smiled again, her infectious expression grabbing his mind between its tender hands and squeezing it in interest, examining it, "Is that right?" She tilted her head, hair falling to cover the side of her face not soaked in blood, making her an image of harsh red. "If a bird leaves the nest without being able to fly, it will fall to the earth and die a pitiful death. Can you accept that?" she asked the morbid question nonchalantly, her hands gesturing to imitate a bird plummeting to its demise. She lowered her hand further and further till it collided with her other palm, "Bang!" she said flatly, her smile curving further upwards. He casted a weary glance to the dying man laying beside him, the puddle of blood almost having reached Hiro's own feet.
"Yes" he gritted his teeth, fortifying his courage, and began to drag himself towards the mech. Her presence acted as a kindling that ignited his body like a wildfire. He pulled himself inch by inch towards her. "You said it yourself that I could fly" he grunted, pushing through pain to get closer to her. "I'd rather die trying to fly than wither away in here!" he asserted loudly, more to himself than to her. Carnivorous interest lit up Zero Two's eyes as she plunged down from the doorway, pink hair streaming wildly behind her head, bands of the orange sunset flowing through the individual locks of blood coated pink. She touched down just before him and wrapped her arms around him, picking him up by his armpits in a display of inhuman strength.
"Good enough for me", she accepted, her voice saturated with endearment. She leapt backwards an impossible distance to the opened hatch of the mech. She kept her eyes trained unto his during this motion, gazing into the deep pools of his irises. "Your eyes are like the ocean too" she remarked joyfully, doing a twirl with him upon entering, a movement akin to a ballroom dancer's. Falling onto her seat, she pulled him down after her, face lit up in delight. "I might fall in love with you", she easily confessed, her devoted words sounding nothing but authentic. She nestled against his head with her own, her short red horns pressing into his forehead clumsily. "Congratulations, you're now my darling!" she declared to him, tugging him into a heavy kiss, her lips passionately meeting his. Hiro's eyes opened completely and his heart leapt ahead a dozen beats. Electricity shot through his blood like the taste of her was a defibrillator. The indescribable softness of her lips against his own was not comparable to any sensation he knew. His skin was set ablaze, their unity blanketing him in warmth. He let himself fall deeper into her embrace, his arms falling limply to his sides and body softly shutting down in euphoria. He felt higher than the clouds. All he could see behind his eyelids was an endless expanse of turquoise and pink affection. He was soaring. And then nothing.
(AN- I'm having lots of fun with this and it's crazy to see the view counter go up every hour. Shoutout to the dude who was my first comment ever, brought up a really good point that I honestly didn't put much thought into. Well I did some digging and am pretty happy with the way I'm gonna do things, so look forwards to future chapters. Or something. ty)