None of which equals the poison
Welling up in your eyes
That show me my poor soul reversed
My dreams throng to drink
At those green, distorting pools
I am left
To guess from rainclouds darkening her eyes
What thunderbolts were gathered in her heart
-from Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire
/
Golden monoliths expanded as far as the eye could see. An orange metropolis sprawled before his feet, the warm lights illuminating all visible in a shade of vivid apricot. Countless towers rose towards the atmosphere, the skylines of structures competing with one another in a battle of architectural dominance. A lone river snaked through the auric empire, the manufactured waves shimmering in the amber luminance that the inner dome of the plantation was overflowing with. No birds flew in the synthetic rays of gold, no fish slipped from the currents of the man placed water, and no people dallied in the concrete arteries of the glorious heart of Cerasus.
Zero Two's heels clinked against the railway lining the balcony as she worked her way across it in a death-defying balancing act. Her long hair was whipped to her side, a flock of cherry blossoms cavorting in the wind. The pale skin of her face was radiant in the orange hue cast upon it by countless honeycombs of light from the surrounding obelisks. The geometry of the buildings varied, as if a maestro of abstract art had been hired to orchestrate the layout of the city. Hiro held his tongue as he watched her step casually along the thin metal bars and death himself held his tongue as well, thousands of feet beneath her, his arms stretched wide in welcome, waiting for a slip of any sort.
He had awoken from another daze to the sight of Zero Two in his bed only hours prior to them escaping to this place, having dodged the infuriated Ichigo and the nosy noisemakers that made up his dormitory. While she had searched for a place of privacy, he realized that all that was on his mind anymore, were questions.
"Zero Two, please. Tell me what's going on" Hiro begged, his eyes seeking her own. She stopped moving across the handrail at this and placed her feet together, facing away from him towards the lifeless, fabricated void below. She switched her weight to one foot and pirouetted, her eyes catching Hiro's briefly as fearlessly twirled on the inchwide bar. After two or three spins she stopped her performance, facing Hiro, a bright smile on her face, her perfect white teeth twinkling in the fluorescence of the dome.
With her arms folded behind her back, she answered him truthfully, "We flew together, darling." His eyes widened considerably, his body relaxing visually as the tension and worry left him.
"But, how?" he questioned, albeit in a much more excited tone, his eyes gleaming with a childish thrill. "I was knocked unconscious again," he analyzed in a slightly disappointed voice, "what happened?"
"I'm not sure entirely" she said, her eyes moving away from Hiro's, the authenticity of the statement evident in her ashmed delivery. "It was, as I said earlier, different" the second half of her statement decreasing in volume to a murmur. "I've never felt anything as," she continued, Hiro leaning forwards in his seat, anticipation getting the best of him, "amazing." His mouth opened slightly in surprise, still failing to fully grasp the situation. "It was like, you made me stronger. Made me faster, just… better" her volume increased with every detail she listed. Her eyes snapped back to his and a gentle, genuine smile rose atop her features.
Hiro hesitated, reviewing her recollection of the events in his mind and proceeded to earnestly ask her a final question, the one that which with an answer provided would unshackle him, "So, I flew. Right?" At this, Zero Two stepped off the thin metal beams and tiptoed over to him, tucking her skirt behind her knees and squatting before him so that she was level with him.
"Yes, we flew darling, you and me" she broke the chain that he had tethered himself with in anguish. His face lit up, the blues of his eyes twinkling in the golden light thrown upon the veranda. He flew. Him. The waste of space. The laughingstock of the garden. The ugly duckling they let dirty their pool, had finally spread its wings. In a atypical display of behavior, Hiro pushed himself off of his chair and into Zero Two, wrapping her into a tight hug. He clinged onto her as if his life depended on it, her warmth serving to curve his smile further upwards. In the distance, skyscrapers released an aurora of steam, the particles of vapor shining like a precipitation of fire in the burning light far beyond.
The surprise was evident on Zero Two's face, but she snuggled into his caress, arching her back in an effort to be closer to him, trying instinctively to create as much contact as she could. No flirtatious thoughts possessed her mind, her heart's will was carried out faithfully by her body. The world was a hurricane and she was the eye of the storm, the winds around her howled that she was a monster, but in Hiro's arms, she was loved. There was no more questioning it. She knew she was too far gone now. She memorized the feeling of warmth that his skin thawed her with and branded it into the sides of her heart. He would become her everything.
Far in the heavens above, angels scoffed at the star-crossed lover's embrace.
/
"Strelitzia will not be taking part in this mission" Nana declared in a steady tone. Hiro, in his wheelchair, sat in the back corner of the strategy center next to Zero Two who was leaning against the red handrails that flanked the room, her red pistil piloting suit grabbing onto her curves firmly. Hiro's features flashed with shock at this order and he opened his mouth to debate, but a quick interjection from Nana cut him off, "Strelitzia will not always be here. It's important that the rest of you learn how to defend the plantation. We can't just depend on Zero Two to defend us forever." Her words were rational so Hiro decided against himself, holding his tongue.
Zero Two looked indifferent to the relayal of commands, her eyes boredly rolling to the rims of her eyes. She agreed with almost all of what Nana had said, forgoing the part about just Zero Two not defending them forever, as if she would ever ride with anyone other than Hiro again. She had felt what it was like to be atop the world and no other person could bring her to such heights, she stubbornly declared to herself. "You are to deploy immediately" Nana dismissed Squad 13 with a wave of her hand, signalling the beginning of the operation. As they exited the room, a pair of worried green eyes flicked briefly to Hiro from beneath short blue hair. She had something to prove today.
/
Ichigo was sitting in the cockpit of Delphinium, fiddling with a white hair clip in her hands. The clanking of footsteps on metal approaching caused her to instinctively fasten it back to her head and turn to the entrance. A tall boy of average build with unkempt blonde hair stepped through the aperture of the Franxx, and stopped for a second, gazing at her.
His silhouette, outlined by the white lights of the docking bay, spoke to her, "Ichigo, you're nervous. It's obvious." His worried tone embarrassed Ichigo and her cheeks were pinked for a brief moment.
"I'll be fine once we get out there" she dismissed his concerns in a forcefully confident voice, herself not even fully believing the words she uttered. A white gloved hand rustled through the spiky blonde bush atop his head as he stepped into the light of the cockpit.
"Piloting a Franxx is a two-man job Ichigo. Just let me know if we need to slow down, ok?" his usual attentive tone making Ichigo smile to herself. She had to be stronger than this she thought. If she ever wanted to-. She cut her train of thought off mentally, scolding herself for straying her focus from the mission again so soon after just reassuring Goro.
"I know" she turned her bright green eyes to meet his own golden orbs. Satisfied with that answer, Goro stepped around her and positioned himself in his seat directly behind her.
"Let's do this then" he ended the personal conversation, steeling himself for their first ever legitimate mission. The constraints locking the Franxx in place squealed as their hydraulics retracted, freeing the mech. An affirmative nod from Ichigo was all Goro needed to begin his connection with her. He almost instantly generated enough positive pulse to fill his side of the bar on the console before him, but he noted to himself that Ichigo took slightly longer than usual to complete the link. Sighing he grasped the triggers that flicked up from Ichigo's sides and moved the mech out of the docking bay with ease, the operation of the machine having been ingrained into his mind from extraneous hours of practice. The other distinctive mechs, all having started up as expected, filed out of the docking bay beside Delphinium, falling in line with Ichigo and Goro's lead.
The mission was to descend into a nearby mine and eliminate a Conrad-class klaxosaur. Only one had been detected on the scanner at the moment they had deployed, but many klaxosaurs of the same species were known to frequent the mine, the magma energy being extracted acting as a hotspot of sorts for their kind. The mission seemed simple enough, but Goro knew that his friend's lives were on the line and would thus take the mission extremely seriously. The boosters on the heels of his mech revealed themselves and ignited, speeding up the commute to the area of the operation drastically. The other members of Squad 13 followed suit, their formation paving a warpath across the wasteland. The sun was still high in the sky when they arrived at the mine and began their lengthy descent, but the darkness of the chasm immediately enveloped them. This was it.
/
Hiro and Zero Two had remained in the strategy room after the rest of Squad 13 had departed, and both of them were completely bored out of their minds. Though Hiro didn't exactly wish misfortune upon his squadmates, he also didn't exactly harbor fond thoughts for the majority of them, leaving their progress less than intriguing to him. Zero Two shared this sentiment and was busying herself by pestering Hiro, her antics ranging anywhere from pokes to sudden licks. Hiro could do little to run away from the terror of Zero Two's affectionate playfulness, and deep inside he didn't mind that. His body was less than in agreement with him regarding this however, and her continuous startles had made his heart thud against the ceiling many times, like a bouncy ball thrown too hard against the ground.
Zero Two's comfortable reverie was broken when Zorome's high pitched scream could be distinguished over the intercom. She turned with a knowing smile towards Nana, her eyes becoming tiger-like, her primal nature glossing her bluish-green spheres.
"Miku, oi, MIKU!" a panicked voice sounded through the speakers, the otherwise silent room filled with the sound of his fearful cries. Panicked and vague commands could be heard from Ichigo's communicator. Zero Two tiptoed over to the orange displays and holograms in the front of the room, her sharp incisors showing. Nana's fists clenched in anger and her eyes narrowed at the screen before her, showing a limp Argentea being carried away by Delphinium. Hiro curiously rolled up behind Zero Two, his eyes trying to get sight of the action.
"You already know you have to use us" Zero Two beckoned to herself and Hiro, her grin becoming more carnal by the second.
"Tch" Nana exhaled, knowing now was not the time to think irrationally. She couldn't afford to lose another squad and definitely not this soon again. "Very well, you have permission to deploy" she squeezed out between clutched lips, angry at her resignation to rely on Zero Two again. Zero Two let out an approving giggle and agilely moved behind Hiro, grabbing onto his handles and wheeling him away in a speedy withdrawal from the chamber. The wheels of Hiro's chair struggled to keep up with the speeds at which Zero Two propelled them through the labyrinth of hallways, the frame creaking perilously as screws were slowly loosened from their slots.
"This is the third time you know" her voice could be heard behind him, the air rushing by him muffling her words, making him struggle to hear. The third time? "You're not worried about dying?" she curved him around a corner with only one wheel, his body involuntarily jumping up from his seat. His rough landing seemed to make him realize what Zero Two was referring to, the morbid rumors he'd heard stepping forwards from the shadows of his mind. If the gossip was true, then he would die during this expedition with her. His eyes clouded with uncertainty for an instant. Zero Two pushed him over the top of a long ramp, the chair suddenly becoming airborne. She stepped up onto the mechanism, her feet placed onto the wheel's axles, and brought her head down in front of Hiro's, making upside down eye contact with him. She could see the uneasiness overcasting his typically warm features. Her trance was broken at this sight and upon meeting the ground once again she dug her heels into the hard metal floor of the corridor, bringing the wheeled transport to a jerky stop. Hiro continued to look forward, his back straight and mind working quickly.
Why was he hesitating? An image of Zero Two thrusted itself into his head and he recalled her cool demeanor while skipping above Death's fingertips. There was nothing to fear. He shook his head, dispersing the clouds of doubt that were encircling him. He had already made this decision and he had no intention of running away from its consequences.
"No" he reached over his shoulder with a searching hand, his fingers seeking her own. The single word was the only one that he needed to utter for Zero Two to entwine her fingers with his own, the return of her warm smile evident in the waves of heat crashing into his back.
"Mm" she purred affectionately, the temperature of the hall increasing notably. She charged with him through the remainder of the hallways in a exhilarated dash, her elation making her swear flowers bloomed wherever she stepped with her darling. Rainbows and sunshine arced overhead, the path she took fantastical and blessed in her eyes. Sprinting through a doorway, the space around them expanded dramatically as they entered the docking bay. Zero Two's hands left the handles of Hiro's chair as she ran to his side now. Leaning over with an unfeasible amount of strength and dexterity, she lifted him from his chair princess style and took a powerful leap forwards. Upon returning to the earth, she bent her legs only to explode off of them again like springs, careening far into the air with Hiro in her arms. Hiro clinged onto her for dear life as the ground continued to get further and further away from him, his thin frame recoiling against her own only making her happier.
The heels of her shoes clanked against the metal catwalks that allowed access to the mechs. She needed only four more strides to pass through the entry hatch of Strelitzia, not a droplet of sweat present on her ethereal features. She carefully set Hiro into his seat, running her hands along the planes of his body as she placed his legs into their appropriate slots, her tongue slipping from the corner of her catlike grin.
Zero Two began to slide into her own seat until Hiro rose his voice to her, "Zero Two." Worry once more emanated from his words. "If I pass out again" he stopped for a second to exhale a deep breath, "Please save them." "I might not like them, but still" his eyes met hers over her shoulder with perfect clarity, "they don't deserve to die like this. Not while I could've prevented it." Surprise doused her face for a few seconds before she laughed loudly, whipping her head back in amusement, her hair being thrown about in an avalanche of pink around her.
"You're actually a pretty soft guy," she wiped away a small tear that had escaped her eye in hilarity, "aren't you, darling?" Her reaction flustered him and his cheeks reddened visibly.
"Ahh!" he ran his hands across his face and through his hair, as if trying to wipe the blush from his cheeks physically, "Let's get going already!"
"Aye aye Captain!" Zero Two playfully obeyed, her hand snapping into a firm salute. She finished straddling her seat, and began to focus, bracing herself for the flash flood of strength that would soon engulf her. Her spine lit up in a row of orange lights and her helmet sheathed her head within its metal confines, the console on top of it lighting up with its usual display. As soon as the negative pulse meter had moved a fraction of an inch, Hiro was out like a light, this time falling forwards, his head thumping against the console on Zero Two's back before sliding down on top of her. Zero Two felt his arms fall limply around her in a sort of unconscious embrace, his warmth easily passing through his normal stamen uniform. She smiled within herself, it was here again, this feeling only her darling could give her. She shut her turquoise eyes and upon reopening them, two brilliant orbs of crimson had replaced them, the flame of her irises glowing in the dim cockpit. The console on her shoulders could be heard flaring up with error messages, the negative pulse meter flashing with the text 100% below it.
Her nerves were ablaze and every neuron in her brain was firing on all cylinders. The sliding door that was rising in front of her was taking too much time to open she decided. Strelitzia's humanoid form seemed to fold in on itself, as if its core was a black hole, and in a blink of a falcon's eyes, a stark red ball of metal erupted from the thin sheet of the garage. After sliding some hundred feet the mech's paws dug into the dry earth, kicking up a tidal wave of dirt into the air. Orange eyes glistened in the harsh desert sun. The tail of the feline mech was swinging side to side at a rapid pace, its magma-infused tip reflecting the uncontested rays of the sky. Digging its hind paws into the craggy rocks beneath it, the beast discharged like a steel projectile released from a gauss rifle. Accelerating to a blur, the machine flashed out of view, the ground left to explode in cracks seconds after the creature was already hundreds of meters past it. An ever growing tsunami of dust rose up above all other minute features of the barren wasteland.
"Strelitzia, the mining facility is directly north of the plantation, you'll need to descend to the eighth level once you arri-" Nana's voice hitched as she looked back to the monitor displaying the mech's current position. The Franxx had already arrived at the gaping mouth of the chasm in less than a couple minutes time from departing Cerasus. Zero Two stopped on the edge of the grand pit, the claws of Strelitzia's feet curling around the concrete, man made precipice encircling it. She didn't need a map or any kind of technology to detect the klaxosaurs. She felt them in her blood. She always did. Their eternal presence causing her veins to boil ceaselessly.
The lion-like mech leapt into the abyss with no hesitation.
/
Ichigo was panicking. She had tried for the last couple minutes to lie to herself and pretend she had the situation under control, but she knew now she didn't have the liberty to do such. The metal door she was bracing with Chlorophytum was warped and battered, the thinness of the sheet not designed to withstand such pressure. On the other side of the frame, countless small Klaxosaurs, their appearances not dissimilar to hermit crabs, were bludgeoning the door with their bodies. Each collision forced the door to contort more and more, its integrity rapidly decreasing with each ram. Her breathing was fast and irregular, she struggled to keep her mind on the task at hand, a downpour of thoughts raining around her. Goro felt the resistance on the controls, his partner's anxiety antagonizing his attempts at barring the entryway. Behind Delphinium the large frame of Genista was hunched over the smaller mech Argentea. They had been forced into this position because they underestimated the ability of the klaxosaurs. The lesson had been thoroughly learned, but they all doubted if they would ever survive to use that knowledge.
"Just hold out a little longer guys, Strelitzia will be here soon" Goro's unwavering voice ringed out in the cockpits of Squad 13's mechs, his attempt at reassurance falling on deaf ears. Miku had been unconscious for at least ten minutes now and the rest of his squad was mentally falling apart. He was helpless. Thick droplets of sweat dripped off of his pointed chin and his heart was thumping wildly against his chest.
The pressure was too much. The sheet of metal separating them from the horde of molten monsters was split into bits, multiple holes being punched through it by the swarm. Delphinium and Chlorophytum were blown away from the wall and quickly rose back to their feet, Goro and Mitsuru willing the Franxx to follow their commands.
"Run guys! Let's get out of here" he said as he grabbed Argentea by its limp, mechanical arm and dragged it after him as swiftly as he could down the passageway. Genista stood with haste and tried to discharge into the mob of beasts crashing into them, but its cannon's long and impractical barrel was promptly latched onto, the weight causing the muzzle to fall to the floor and detonate backwards on itself. Metal shrapnel exploded in the mine shaft, consuming the green and black mech in fire, blowing its arm off in a whirlwind of fragmentation. Kokoro's cries of pain could be heard along with Futoshi's arduous screams of effort as he tried to defend her.
The mech was overcome briskly, falling beneath the tidal wave of the blue horrors. Chlorophytum had attempted to suppress the horde with its twin pea shooters, but the vast quantity of beasts ultimately overran it in the same fashion as Genista. Delphinium tried as hard as it could to pull Argentea away from the tunnel, pure survival instinct fueling Goro's attempt to flee, but the klaxosaurs speedily caught up to the pair of Franxx. Argentea was pounced upon from all directions and Delphinium's legs were buckled by the weight of the creatures latching onto its back. The blue and white mech fell to its titanic knees and then flat onto its chest. Goro's ears were full of his squadmate's screams of pain. He had failed them. He outstretched his hand down the tunnel, reaching for something, anything. Ichigo screamed as the klaxosaurs began to bite into the thick metal alloy of the mech. The cockpit erupted in red warning messages, an alarm deafeningly loud around him. No. Please. Anyone.
An orange star shined in the hallway hundreds of feet ahead of him, the shadows caressing its lonely light. Ah. The light at the end of the tunnel. He'd read about this he thought, his body slowly settling into his seat, resignation wrapping its hands around his throat slowly. How pitiful. He blinked and over the ceaseless cacophony of the alarm he heard a buzzing sound. It was there for an instant and then it wasn't. A flash of red was in front of him, above him, and gone in a second. The teeming horde of klaxosaur's chirping was no longer audible. The creaking of the metal against his frame had ceased. All that was present in the cave was an explosion of blue liquid, the foreign substance gushing from all angles and spaces within the tunnel it seemed. His world was painted blue. And then it was black, blown out like a candle.
/
Giggles of sheer pleasure ricocheted off the walls of Strelitzia's cockpit. Zero Two was bouncing in her seat with delight. Hiro's unconscious form undulated with her own, his body limp against her back. She tore a brutal path through the endless horde of klaxosaurs in the deep mine's tunnels. The swarm was mere bubble wrap to her childlike enjoyment, her fangs popping them in droves of ecstacy. Strelitzia's claws were a blur, its spiked tail was a tempest, and its red frame was drenched in the blue essence of its enemies. She rounded a corner. They never stopped she thought to herself ecstatically. The klaxosaurs came to their emperor as willing sacrifices it seemed, she thought as she ripped through them. She pivoted on her paws to throw her tail in slicing arcs, the walls of the tunnel left with burning slashes against their surfaces. She exploded off her hind legs to clamp her jaws around the chew toys of molten energy, her teeth puncturing them like packets of honey, ravenous for the sweet liquid inside of them. Her claws eviscerated the beasts into fourths, fifths, and sixths of their former being, their innards splattering against the cold stone around them.
There weren't many left she knew, the boiling of her blood no longer bubbling. Angered at this thought she took particular exception to the remaining klaxosaurs. An incarnate image of gore, she lacerated and slit them shallowly, playing with her food. Blue blood spurted from countless carnal incisions across their carapaces. They were like barrels of beryl wine that had sprung an amplitude of leaks. She circled the few still living klaxosaurs and then brought her performance to an end. She streaked by them in a burst of flaming red, her tail flourishing, and her inner beast took a bow. The explosion of their cores echoing off the blue painted walls was her applause. The corner's of Zero Two's smile were almost to her horns and she licked her lips as if she had finished consuming a feast. The only sound left in her section of the tunnel was her own laughter, still reverberating off the cold walls of the Strelitzia.