Chapter 4: Back to Earth

"Whaaaaaaaat?!" exclaimed Zero Two.

"Yeah," said Hatake, "I told you I-" he stopped as he could see a Zero Two burning in hate.

"I will talk about that later." he said with a fearful expression, "Anyways, then are our Franxxs ready with the compartment attached?" Hatake asked.

"Yeah…" Oniria said with sadness on her face, "Come on, follow me"

They went back to the cable car and then finally into the Franxx containment unit but instead of taking them inside she took them to the ship launching pad instead.

"Where are the Franxxs?" asked Hatake.

"There!" she said as she pointed forward.

"Oniria," Hatake said.

"Yes?" she asked.

"I asked just for my Franxx connected to a compartment to carry Strelizia right?" Hatake asked.

"Yup!" she replied absent-mindedly.

"Then what is this?!" asked Hatake shocked as he looked towards a tremendously big battle mother-ship in front.

"Well you are already so careless so I can't take any more risks to keep you alive so, the Franxxs are store inside the mother-ship."

"But you need it for the war…" Whispered Hatake.

"You need it more!" she exclaimed, "Now go, I can't keep myself from stopping you any longer… And come back aliv-"

"Don't worry!" interrupted Hiro as he stood in front of her, "I take the responsibility to keep him alive," he said with a smile.

"Yeah!" Hatake said as he patted her head, "Don't worry I will be back soon!"

They got inside the huge mother-ship, with the ship that big, almost the size of three football grounds.

"Alright Oniria, goodbye then!" said Hiro over the intercom as the engines fired up.

"Oniria…" Hatake said over the intercom, "I don't know whether I should ask for this or not, but please just for this time promise me… Promise me that you will be strong, you know I don't like it when others shed tears right?"

"I promise…" she said whispering over the intercom.

"Sayonara!" he said as the engines charged fully pushing the ship out of the planet as the ship went into hyper speed.

** 'Sayonara' in Japanese translates to 'Goodbye' in English**

"Alright," said Hatake getting up from the driver seat, "Now here we are traveling 4000 light-years, doing nothing for the next 6 hours which means about a month in the real world."

"WOW!" exclaimed Zero Two, "the time here is that slow?"

"Hatake…" said Hiro, "How did that happen? How did you get ended up marrying the Klaxosaur princess?"

"A scroll," Hatake replied laughing absent-minded, "That's how you get married on Prismertine."

"Seriously?" said Hiro giving a lewd expression.

"I know what you are thinking…" said Hatake, "But I like the way people got married on Earth before immortality"

"Marriage, huh?" said Zero Two, "We tried to get two people married, but the consequences were just horrible…"

"Yeah but they are happy now, right?" said Hatake.

"They are…" said Zero Two smiling.

"Anyways, I mean how hard can it be? All we have to do is wait and do nothing for the next six hours." Said Hatake smiling.

Fifteen minutes later…

"Hatake!" exclaimed Hiro as he looked at Hatake all dried up as if about to die, "What happened to you?"

"What?" replied Hatake, "Oh, no its nothing, it's just that I have never been out of work doing nothing… Even on Prismertine, I spent days creating those fifty Franxxs, even though as the king It was forbidden for me to take part in small wars as long as it wasn't critical still, I fought out of boredom."

"Even I'm getting bored…" said Zero Two as she got up her seat.

"Hm… Let me check, I should have something interesting in my old chest." Said Hatake as he opened an old chest from the back storage. It was a transparent chest through which everything could be seen inside, he lifted the chest looking around through its transparent body.

"Ah, there it is!" he said as he opened the chest and pulled out a slim box made of glass.

"Hiro," he said as he kept the box on the table, "Since we are preparing for war, let's play the best strategy game ever created that has been played since its discovery in India!"

"Chess…" Hatake whispered, "Come on Zero Two you too!"

Hatake spent the next 4 hours teaching them about the basics, strategy, tactics and everything else you can expect from a game of chess.

"Checkmate!" said Hiro as he placed his queen blocking Zero Two's king from moving in any direction.

"Damn it!" she said.

"Ha-ha," said Hatake, "Well just remember Zero Two, chess is not only about winning but also about wining with most of your pieces remaining."

Hiro's eyes went towards the chest of Hatake had left open, he walked towards it, among all the various things in it, his hands ended up picking up an old bird picture book. He turned the pages in a hurry and finally found the page he was looking for.

"The Jian", he whispered.

"Also known as", said Hatake from behind him, "The bird that shares wings, only possesses one wing. Unless a male and female pair and lean on each other and act as one, they are incapable of flight."

"Thanks…" Hiro said, "I wanted to remember these lines but I forgot I don't know why…"

That was a gift from my mother on my sixth birthday, the closest thing I have of her till now…

The light near the hyper-speed controller started blinking with a buzzing sound.

"Alright get back on your seats", Hatake said putting back everything back in his chest, as he sat on his seat, he pulled a lever, driving the mother-ship out of hyperspeed.

"Finally…" Hiro whispered with his eyes opened as he looked out the front view glass, there she was, the mother of the origin of humanity itself.

"EARTH…." Hatake whispered with a smile, "Well I don't know about you all but I have been away from earth for a long time even more than you… So, I just want to reach there as soon as possible at the highest speed. So, buckle up!" he shouted as the mother-ship accelerated at its peak speed.

"But Hatake, where will we land?!" exclaimed Hiro as the ship entered the gravitational pull of the earth.

"Hiro," said Hatake, "do you remember how many Kalxosaurs there were when you left earth?"

"I don't know, but there has to be about 10,000 of them still left on earth. Now do something before we crash!" shouted Hiro.

"Alright, then that should do it!" Hatake said as he slightly twisted his badge making his eyes emit that blue color, he raised his hand pointing his palm towards the surface of Earth.

"What is that?" said a girl with dark blue hair on the surface of Earth looking at the sky.

"Alright you all ready?" said Hatake as the Klaxosaurs came up to the surface and linked together to create a huge landing platform for the mother-ship to land.

"But at this speed how do you expect us to land?" asked Hiro.

"I trust the Klaxo technology," Hatake said with a grin.

The mother-ship got struck by a blue-colored tractor beam making it slow down, the color of that beam could be seen through miles away. The mother-ship slowly landed as the mother-ship got locked to its position by the engagement locks of that stand. A big staircase was automatically made in front of the entrance of the ship making way for them to get down easily.

"I'm back!" Hiro said as he placed his right foot over the land.

"Finally, this land, this air and this feeling of being at home…" Hatake said falling on knees crying.

"Home…" Zero Two whispered as a vehicle came rushing towards them, as the vehicle took a turn in front of them, a person wearing glasses leaped over them with a sword, Hatake stopped him by blocking him with a metal piece he was wearing over his arm, the person fell on the ground.

"Go- GORO?!" Hiro exclaimed.

"Hiro…" Goro said shocked getting up as he burst into tears.

"How many years has it been?" asked Hiro hugging him.

"13… it's been 13 years since we have seen you" Goro replied crying, "Where were you two anyways? We thought both of you were dead."

"We were, practically…" said Hiro confused about the reality.

"Well," said Hatake putting in some code in the panel beside the entrance, "We have a lot of reunions to attend, don't we?"

"Who is that?" Goro asked Hiro looking at Hatake.

"Hatake…" He replied, "Well, it's a long story I will explain it later…"

The containment cell of the mother-ship opened revealing their Franxxs, "Hurry up!" said Hatake getting on Meteorix, "I will let Goro come with me…"

"A Franxx…" Goro said mesmerized at the look the Franxxs "It's been so many days since I have seen one…"

"You all coming or not?" asked Hatake over the mic.

"Yeah right, come on Goro!" said Hiro as they ran towards the Franxxs.

Goro got on Meteorix through the back-dispatch door of Meteorix.

"Where are we going?" asked Hiro over the intercom.

"There!" Goro replied pointing towards Mistilteinn, half crashed into the surface, it looked like a flower pot that fell on the ground.

"Let's go then!" said Hatake as both the Franxxs flew at full speed.

"Who are you? Are you a Klaxosaur?" Goro asked looking at Hatake's eyes glowing with a blue light.

"What? Oh right, I forgot." Hatake replied as he turned his badge in the opposite direction changing his eyes back to normal.

"No," said Goro, "really who are you? You resemble someone that I used to know."

"Well," said Hatake, "you must be thinking of dad…" he said as a clear feeling of sadness fell upon his face.

"Don't tell me…" Goro whispered.

"What the matter Zero Two?" said Hiro looking at the serious expression Zero Two had on her face.

"Will they accept Hatake?" she asked, "I mean he is the son of the person because of which we are in this conditio-"

"I don't care" said Hatake interrupting over the intercom, "You see, I was also partly responsible for whatever happened to these people" he said as memories of him making the yellow cells flashed in front of him, "but if they give me a chance, I will try my best to fix that. After all, I'm a scientist…"

"I see…" said Zero Two as the Franxxs entered Mistilteinn. They landed in front of a very familiar place, a place that was known to them but yet unknown due to the years passed. The head of Strelizia opened.

"Finally…" Hiro said as he smelled the fresh air looking towards the sky.

"We made it, Dahlin" said Zero Two looking at Hiro smiling as the sunshine fell upon them.

"This air," said Hatake as he held his fist high in the air from the opened head of his Franxx, "this sunshine, the atmosphere. No, it isn't a dream. I'm back" he said crying, "I'm finally back, a place that I never thought I would ever see again."

"Let's get down, shall we?" asked Hiro over the intercom.

"Yeah…" replied Hatake.

All of them got down from their Franxxs Hiro helped Zero Two get down through the emergency detachment gate located near Strelizia's leg.

"What is it?!" shouted a voice from the jungle that lied in front of them.

"Goro?" a girl with deep blue hair and a white-colored hairpin on the left side of her face standing in front of Goro asked as he stood in the view of what was behind him.

"Ichigo..." said Goro with tears of joy, "do you believe in coming back from death?" he asked.

"What kind of question is that?" asked Ichigo confused.

"Well you will believe now…" he said as he moved to the side revealing Hiro standing with Zero Two leaning on his left shoulder. They were looking at her with a smile.

"Hi…Hiro, Zero Two!" she shouted as she burst into tears, she came running towards them and hugged them.

"So, are we going to stay here the whole day?" asked Hatake cleaning his ear with his little finger.

"Who- Who are you?" asked Ichigo.

"He is the one who saved us… He is Hatake…" Zero Two said looking at Hatake.

"I see… Come on then let's go meet everyone!" she said with a smile wiping her tears.

"Hatake…" said Goro as they walked through the jungle, "What you told me that time in the Franxx, is that true? Are you the son of Dr. Franxx?"

"Yeah, that's true…" Hatake replied with disappointment.

They went through a gloomy path and finally came out into the open ground, the buildings there were huge, made out of concrete in a shape of semi-circles, with windows through whose arrangements it could be understood how each floor was separated into different rooms.

"How did you make those buildings?" asked Zero Two.

"Well" answered Ichigo, "we use our Franxxs, that was the last time we used them." She said looking towards their Franxxs on both the side of the entrance gate of Mistilteinn, years of non-usage and due to no cleaning, moss had grown over that metallic body that once shined into the battlefield. They were called Franxxs but they did not look anything more than statues carved out of stone with small red-colored patches over them.

"Has anyone of you explored the nearby places outside Mistilteinn?" Hatake asked looking at the Franxxs.

"Well," Ichigo replied, "Only Goro has been out and explored…"

"That's right, but why do you ask?" asked Goro looking at Hatake suspiciously.

"Nanimonai…" Hatake replied, "I just thought there could be a chance of us surviving…"

** "Nanimonai' in Japanese translates to 'Nothing' in English**

"Alright then, shall we step in?" asked Ichigo.

All of them stepped inside together into a known environment that everyone except for Hatake gave a feeling of home. They went into the tallest building (about 6 floors) in there.

"This is our headquarters." said Goro, "We control essential life support like water and food supply from here. Let's have a reunion then!" he said as he pushed a button turning on the mic on the table and the big speakers surrounding the outer body of the tall building.

"This is an emergency request," Goro said on the mic, "requesting all members of squad 13 to gather in the meeting hall of the headquarters as soon as possible."

'6:37 P.M.' the clock inside the meeting room showed.

"What is it that you called for us at a time like this?" asked Zorome.

"Why do you always act like that?" said Miku looking at Zorome.

"Give it a chill…" said Mitsuru as he entered with Kokoro.

"There has to be a good reason for you to call me in the middle of my research," said Ikuno pressing the middle of her glasses with her index finger.

"Damn will you let me sleep?!" shouted Futoshi as he entered yawning.

"This time," Goro said, "it's something you just cannot deny, something that you held very dear to your heart once…" he said as he tears rolled down his eyes.

"What are you talking about?" asked Ikuno confused.

"It's about us!" said a long-forgotten voice behind them.

"No way!" said Futoshi as they saw them, Hiro and Zero Two standing beside the door.

"I promised we will come back right?" asked Hiro.

"Shut it, Baka!" shouted Mitsuru as he hugged Hiro tight.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" asked Ikuno hugging Zero Two.

"Alright! Reunions can wait" said Goro, "get back to your seats!"

Everyone settled down on their seats in that room on the long table.

"We all thought the war had ended…" said Goro, "But unfortunately… How do I say this? We still have a lot to fight with."

"What do you mean?" asked Kokoro confused.

"I don't know much about it myself…" Goro replied, "Maybe he can explain it to you much better." He said as he pointed towards a person that had just appeared beside Hiro and Zero Two leaning towards the door frame, the person pressing the center of his spectacles with his index finger.

"Who is that?!" asked Futoshi.

"I'm Hatake… Hatake Frank" said Hatake whispering.

"What?!" said Ichigo, "Frank… As in Dr. Frank?"

"Yes," said Goro, "He is the son of Dr. Frank, he is the one who saved Hiro and Zero Two…."

"Can we even trust him?" asked Ichigo

"I don't know but at least hear what he has got to say…" said Goro "We are in a situation for which none of us can be blamed, Dr. Frank after all, just wanted to protect humanity…"

"I agree, let's give him a chance…" said Kokoro, "If what Goro is saying is true… Then we don't know anything about our enemy, we are in a state of war but we have nothing to fight with, I don't want to live that life ever again… That sadness" she said as she burst into tears.

"Stop it…" said Hatake, "I don't like people shedding tears… Anyways, let me explain from the beginning…"

Hatake spent the next three hours explaining how he ended up being the King of Prismertine and about the enemy they were about to battle, VIRM.

"Alright," said Goro getting up from his seat yawning, "Let's go sleep for today, I'm sorry but there is only one room available for you three to stay upstairs. I will do something to arrange beddings for three people"

Everyone went to sleep as the light was shut leaving them sleeping on their individual beddings in darkness. Hatake woke up to check his watch, 11:00 P.M. the hands of the clock showed with the date showing 7th November. He got up grabbed his glasses and walked outside in the lonely darkness. He crossed the main entrance of Mistilteinn.

"If you wanted to come along you should have just told me…" Hatake said looking at Hiro behind him hiding behind a pillar.

"I didn't mean to stalk you it's just that I'm worried…" Hiro replied, "Where are you going at such a time anyway?"

"To a place," said Hatake, "which I don't know why I still expect to exist even after that war and so many years being passed…"

"Mind if I come along?" asked Hiro with a smile.

"Of course not, follow me. I needed a friend for this anyways." Replied Hatake.

They sat inside Meteorix and flew about 200 miles from there, from the sky above Hiro could see a piece of land like a plateau on a higher height than the land surrounding it almost one-fourth the size of Plantation 13, exceptionally it was also covered with a dome made of glass to prevent any foreign matter from entering. The land had green grass with cherry blossom trees blooming in a line on the border of the pathway from the entrance to the white-colored villa-like building which was the center of attraction. The land surrounding the plateau had no evidence of life upon it.

"Finally, home!" said Hatake as Meteorix landed on the lifeless soil.

"I wonder if the system is still up…" Hatake said as he placed his palm over the glass near the big iron-rimmed gate of the entrance. The gate opened automatically turning on all the lights, in a matter of seconds, what was looking like a dark jungle, lit up into an insanely beautiful place.

"What is this place?" asked Hiro amazed at the lights as he entered into the place and the gates automatically closed.

"Home…" Hatake replied, "The place dad built so that he, mom and I could stay peacefully together. But that day never came" he said sobbing.

"I see…" said Hiro looking at Hatake.

"Damn we don't have time!" Hatake shouted looking at his watch, '11:42' it said, "Come on!" he said as he and Hiro ran towards the entrance of the villa.

Hatake again placed his palm over the scanner near the main door.

"Why doesn't the door open?" asked Hiro.

"Well you see" sadi Hatake, "there is everything inside, the food is there, the clothes are there and dad did not want to clean it the day we entered here. So, we pulled out all the air that was inside to keep the microorganisms from coming in and sealed it completely. Hence it takes a bit of time to fill the air back in if we go inside without doing that we will be choked to death."

The door finally opened after waiting for about 5 minutes. The inside of Hatake's house was as beautiful as the outside, with white marble all over the walls and that light shining from above. Hiro stood there amazed at the view.

"Come on!" said Hatake as they walked inside the kitchen. Hatake opened a vacuum-sealed cabinet with food inside, because of there being no air, the food never rots. He pulled out a baked muffin, placed a thin candle over it and lit it and kept it on the table.

"I wonder what time is it?" Hatake waited for his analog clock to hit midnight.

As soon as the clock hit 12, he whispered something in front of the candle and blew it. He took out the candle from the muffin broke the muffin into two pieces and gave one to Hiro.

"Here this one is for you," Hatake said with a smile as he gave the piece of muffin to Hiro.

"Yeah but," said Hiro, "Why are you doing this?" he asked.

"It's my birthday…" whispered Hatake as he got up and desperately looked for something in the cabinet, "Jeez! How many years has it been" said Hatake with a happy mood as he pulled out two cans made of aluminum with 'Coke' written over it.

"Here try this!" Hatake said as he opened and passed one of the cans to Hiro.

"Sugoi!" Hiro said as he took a sip, "The taste is just amazing!"

** 'Sugoi' in Japanese translates to 'Amazing' in English**

"It's one of the things that I loved having when I was on Earth, Coke," Hatake said taking a sip, "You know Hiro," he said drinking, "Birthdays are very special, it is the date when you were born regardless of the year. The person having a birthday should not cry until it's tears of happiness or upset others or become upset by others no matter what. It's beautiful, you get gifts, a cake is there for you to cut and share, you wish for something that you want to come true as you blow the candles above it…"

"Should we get back?" asked Hiro.

"If you want, I can drop you back to Mistilteinn," said Hatake, "but I will come back to this place to spend the night here, that's all I had wished for all these years, to come back home."

"Nah, I don't mind," Hiro said, "let's stay here tonight!"

"Alright, there are four rooms upstairs," said Hatake, "take anyone…"

They went to their desired rooms as they both said goodnight to each other.

The next day Hiro entered Hatake's room, "Hatake, wake up!" said Hiro.

"Oh man," said Hatake, "looks like I overslept…" he said as he rose holding his head. He checked the watch, '1:03' it said, "It's afternoon aleady?" he said as he looked outside.

"Yeah, we got to get back fast, others might be worried about us!" Hiro said tensed.

"Alright!" said Hatake as he got up, "Come on!"

They were about to go out of the house, Hatake froze at a sight he saw with hatred.

"You don't exist, do you?" Hatake asked looking at the large wood carved Jesus cross from behind which light was coming in.

A sound of glass bottles falling was heard from the lab room, Hatake and Hiro went towards the room to check it, it was a bird that had entered from the open window, it left as soon as it saw them.

"What is this?!" asked Hatake with his eye wide open,

"I take my words back…" he said as he fell upon his knees sobbing in happiness, "You exist, you do hear me…"

In front of him was a capsule made of glass lying on the floor, with blue colored strands of hair.

ORGANISM LOCAL NAME: Klaxosaur Princess

SPECIMEN QUALITY: DNA

SPECIMEN TYPE: HAIR

"I'm coming for you, my Princess!" shouted Hatake with a smile.