Chapter 22: A cosmic clash
"Seraphime," he said with a serious look on his face, "please don't pilot Meteorix with me in this battle."
Both stood in the room as an awkward silence followed.
"Why?" she asked after a while in a mixed tone of anger, sadness, and frustration, "Why are you always like this? Why won't you ever listen?"
"Please" Said Hatake, "I know that after all of what happened before, I have no reason to ask for this, but please, just let me do this one time."
"Fine," she said with a frustrated sigh, "it's not like you are going to listen to me anyways..."
"Thank you." He said as Seraphime soon left the room.
"Man, I was so scared I thought she will just eat me up," he thought as he took a sigh of relief and crashed onto his bed, "there are reasons why I want to pilot Meteorix alone but if I tell her why, she will never allow me, even if it's to protect her..." He then dossed away in a deep sleep.
A few days later…
It was finally here, the day they were all training hard and dreaded for, another battle thrown into their lives like something common yet for a group of certain pilots it still gave them that same old fear and tight feeling in their chest. The Franxxs were being loaded one by one into franxx carriers, cruisers specifically designed to transport, deploy and retrieve Franxx, with the pilots inside them. Why were they all inside them? Well...
Flashback, a few minutes before departure...
"Are you sure you don't want to stay inside the cruiser?" asked one of the Cruiser staff member, "You will be more comfortable in there while we travel to the battlefield than in the Franxx cabins."
"Thanks, but we will be fine here." replied Ochigo, "Trust me when I say that we are kind of accustomed to this."
"Alright, suit yourselves." replied the staff member, "Just be aware that the journey in that case will be kind of... hot."
His warning was for a good reason that would come in later...
"Hey Hachi," said Nana as the whole squad sat inside their respective Franxxs, "how many years has it been?" she asked out of nowhere.
"What do you mean?" asked Hachi.
"For how many years have we stayed together alone?" she asked again.
"I don't know," replied Hachi, "around 10 maybe, why do you ask?"
"Nah it's nothing," said Nana, "I just happened to remember the reason why we chose to live alone."
"Those kids…" said Hachi with a sigh, "I never thought that would just shout that out of nowhere…"
"It's not like I didn't agree though…" she whispered.
"What do you-" he said as the lights in the Franxxs went out.
"All systems except for navigation, life support and communications have been cut off to save power."
"You guys doing fine I guess?" asked Orion over the comms.
"Yeah," replied Zorome sarcastically, "thanks for showing us our dark future in advance!"
"Scared of the dark, aren't you?" Asked Orion with a laugh, "Well, it is protocol procedure to ensure that all systems are operating within standard parameters. Also, electricity in this beauty itself takes most of the fuel reserves. So, you guys will have to hold on for around two hours like this."
"What did you say?!" asked Zorome shocked as he tried to get up from the seat but slipped over Miku.
"W-Where are you touching me! Pervert!" shouted Miku, the sound of a hard slap on the face followed.
"Oh yeah that makes me remember," Orion added, "not funny business in the dark guys! We are still monitoring you through audio and CCTV!"
"Hey," said Hatake over the intercom with a sigh as he sat inside Meteorix in an awkward silence, "you still angry?"
"Not like it matters…" replied Seraphime, she sat in her room in the mothership, hugging her own legs as she looked in the opposite directing with a pout.
"Hey," said Hatake, "Don't worry, you are still in charge of all mothership attacks, you can always fight with me from here, right?"
"Yeah, that true and the most logical," she replied keeping her forehead on her knees, "it's better for the king and queen to fight separately just in case one falls in trouble, the other can still survive to lead the kingdom. But… It's unfair!" she shouted in frustration, "Why can't I just… be with you?"
"Well," said Hatake with a wry, "hate me all you want for not letting you fight with me. It's a war… There is no way we can take any risks."
That is the problem…" she whispered, "It's impossible for me to hate you even if I try…"
"You say something?" asked Hatake confused.
"N-Nothing…" she replied, "I'll check on the defense systems once more since we got time then, good luck on the battlefield."
"Thanks!" said Hatake happy that she wasn't that angry on him as the call ended.
"Nervous?" asked Zero Two as she saw Hiro lost in thinking.
"Nah," he replied, "it's just that we don't have many good memories in space, do we?"
"Why not make some now then?" she asked with a smile without any fear.
"Of course! Well may be not now but maybe after..." replied Hiro smiling back.
"Hey, are you still angry?" Zero Two asked out of nowhere after staying in silence for a while.
"Angry?" asked Hiro confused, "Why would I be angry on you?"
"You know," she replied with a sad tone, "for that day when I almost choked you to death, or for using you as fodder and causing you all the trouble and all sorts of problems back in the days."
"That's nothing compared to what you showed me," replied Hiro looking at his hand as he kept it in air facing his palm towards the celling, "without you maybe I would have still remained a useless stamen. Without you… I would have probably never regain what was 'love'. I could never even think of actually getting angry upon you…" he said as both smiled at each other.
"God damn it this heat…" Ikuno said with a sigh, "I want to get back into the lab already!"
"Yeah," replied Titus looking at the celling of the Franxx, "but I guess it's better to fight and then get into the lab rather than thinking of a lab which might just get wiped out of existence if we don't fight."
"You do have a point there," said Ikuno, "but why in the first place do we even have to stay in the Franxxs two hours in advance that too without any air conditioning. Is the place even presurized here?"
"Woah woah, calm down miss scientist." Said Titus looking at her freaking out, "First, the Franxxs take some time to get loaded into the carriers considering there is only one entry and exit for them inside the storage area. They have been busy since last week actually! Also, just a few moments ago, our leader rejected the idea of travelling in the cruiser and choose instead that we all stayed here, so blame it on her. Also, the cabins are ALWAYS presurized, have forgotten ours can also fly? Jeesh, you act like you have Claustrophobia or something!"
"Well, you know what?" she asked as she took off her spacesuit and started stripping, "To hell with it! And don't you dare peep you freak!"
"W-Why are you stripping all of a sudden?!" said Titus shocked even though it was too late for him to realize it, Ikuno was already in her standard inner body-suit that all pilots had to wear under the pilot suits. It is an acid-resistant, thermal and water-proof suit that helped pilots withstand high and cold temperatures, acidic substances, and many other hazards. The only downside is that it was quite easy to perspire on it, which is something Ikuno ignored right now and gave Titus a good look of her body features.
"Why? Because it's too freaking hot!" she shouted irritated. Titus just sighed and also soon realized that he had discovered a new fetish.
"All cargo I place, secondary maintenance test done. Thermal status Normal, Oxygen levels: Above requirement zone, fluid check done. All entrances closed and staircases detached. Waiting for orders, sir." Said the Flight commander on the intercom on a private com to Orion.
Orion was nervous… He knew that this one word, this one command he would give might endanger the life of every person in the ship. More importantly, it will put in danger the only hope of humanity. The answer back button was below his thumb, all he had to do was to call, but he knew it wasn't that simple. He thought there frozen, as if he just didn't want to take that decision.
"Hey," said Elise with a calm and soothing voice over the intercom, "don't worry. It's going to be alright." Those words, with that kind voice of her. That's what he probably needed at that moment.
He took a deep breathe, then nodded as he pressed on to the reply button of the intercom, "Alright, let's do this. Let the fortress fly!" he said, the later actions were perfectly sequenced. Seraphime who was there as the flight commander nodded towards two people standing beside each other. The two walked straight towards two key holes that lied in front of them, both of them took out one key each and pushed it into the keyhole together, '1…2…3!' shouted one of them as they twisted the key together with the same timing.
"Beautiful…" Hatake said amazed at the view he saw at the screens as the huge piece of metal they rested on soon turned into a fortress flying high with a mesmerizing beauty of its own, it was glorious.
"Please…" whispered Echhino as she joined her hands sitting on her knees at the terrace garden of the headquarters facing the sky, "Please… Come back soon."
"Aunt Echhino," said Ai as she walked towards her, "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Just praying for everyone there, dear." Echhino replied with a smile.
"Can I pray too?" Ai asked with a smile.
"Sure!" replied Echhino with a smile as Ai too got on her knees beside her as both prayed.
"Don't worry," said Ai after they finished, "I know my mom and dad, they will make sure everyone will come back safe." Echhino just nodded to her words.
"Laser alignment commenced successfully, 0.0021% inaccuracy." said the intercom after a while. The mothership was exactly on top of the cosmos, "Initiating lasers for wall breach, pilots are to be ready for direct space contact." It said as lasers soon began cutting the layer of the cosmos.
"Alright!" said Orion on all com, "This is it, no more questions. This is what we have prepared for, get out there and show them what it takes to become a Federation soldier!"
"Yes sir!" everyone said with great enthusiasm as Orion dropped into the hole followed by other Frannxs one by one, a few of them when inside the cosmos according to their assigned positions. The Jian squad however, knew that they of course won't be assigned anything simple. They looked stood on the surface of the cosmos looking at the darkness that lied beyond them, it was like a barrier point for them, behind which lied their home which they swore to protect and on the other side lied the unknown darkness which no one would have thought would bring them into this situation.
"Electrical interference detected, 500 meters ahead." Said the intercom as everyone looked into the direction. Portals opened through which came around a hundred of them, VIRM their only enemy that was to be defeated, an objective so simple yet so hard to reach. The sky had enough of them as to make the darkness of space feel puny, everyone knew that this silent atmosphere was about to be filled with the sounds of war any time soon.
"Is that?" said Seraphime as she stood on the control room looking at their enemy, there were 4 usual style motherships coming at a cross formation, the thing that made shocked her the most was the other mothership that came from behind the four ships. It was a huge one, almost the size of their own mothership, the front of it contained what looked like an antenna with a dish behind it.
"A positron beam rifle…" thought Hatake looking in front, the beam soon started seemed to have started to accumulate some sort of energy on the tip of it, the pace of it soon became rapidly fast as the tip of the antenna glowed bright yellow.
"Transfer all shield power to the posterior of the ship, now!" shouted Seraphime.
"But mam," said one of the pilots, "that will leave us with no shield from behind."
"Just do it!" shouted Seraphime worried as the pilots soon recalibrated the shields in front of them with full power, they had just made it in time when the antenna of the Positron rifle fired up throwing a very powerful wave directly at them. The shield was there absorbing it all, Seraphime looked in front of her with a fearless look. She knew that this was their only effort to prevent any damage, if this fails then everything does with it.
"We barely dodged that one…" said one of the crew members shocked.
"Yeah," replied Seraphime with a serious look, "how much time until the shields come online again?"
"About thirty minutes." Replied one of the members, "We won't have any form of true defence until then."
"It's fine," said Hatake over the comms overhearing them, "the rifle will take time to cooldown and charge up too-"
"Surprise, surprise!" said a voice in Hatake's head. He looked behind him in shock, it was Agiliton coming towards him in full speed, Meteorix barely managed to dodge it by rolling to its left side.
"Did I," said Hatake standing back up, "ever tell you the meaning, of insanity?" he asked taking out his sword.
"You and your stupid humane language!" said the commander inside Agiliton, as they both dashed at each other and landed their blows in a clash.
"First you reject our utopia and now you take what is rightfully ours," said main commander in the ship, "now there is no place of forgiveness for you. You all shall be slaughtered here and for once!" He said as thousand of units that came in with the VIRM ships advanced towards the cosmos in full speed.
"Who you do think even cares?!" asked Hiro as Strelizia went up flying, piercing and destroying a few of the units.
"Darling!" shouted Zero Two as to warn Hiro of the VIRM Franxxs that were coming towards them, it was too late. One of the Franxxs released a beam that captured Strelizia, it seemed to have disabled the movement of the Franxx.
"W-What's happening? I can't move!" asked Hiro pulling the controls hard which seem to not respond at all.
"If you think we won't attack the trump card of the whole game," said the other VIRM Frannx, they seemed to have hacked into the intercoms, "then you are dead wrong!" the person shouted as the Franxx came at full speed with a blade down the arm to pierce directly through Strelizia. However, a high beam came flying in and crashed on to the Franxx that was holding Strelizia with the beam, it was Genista who shot them with her rifle. Strelizia was merely able to dodge the blade from letting it hit its vital point but the impact was kind of tremendous, Strelizia crashed hard onto the surface of the Cosmos. Both the pilot fell of their seats.
"D-Darling!" shouted Zero Two as she got up hold her left hand in pain, Hiro was lying hard on the floor trying hard to get back up, "Are you okay?" she asked him helping him get up, she soon noticed that the one of the limiters on Hiro's horn had started to show an electric spark.
"Strelizia, are you okay? Please respond!" said Orion over the intercom.
"Yeah, we are fine," replied Zero two, "but Darling's-"
"I-I'm fine!" said Hiro interrupting her, he Knew that they couldn't back up just for a bit of injury, "We can fight again."
"Fine then, reinitialize her." Said Ichigo, "Genista, Chlorophytum secure the parameter!"
"Roger that!" replied both of them.
"But how are they even able to communicate with us?" asked Titus, "Isn't sound not supposed to travel in space?" he asked.
"The VIRM Franxxs are using some kind of mechanism to hack into our intercom," said Elise, "the communication is however one sided, that is out chats aren't audible to them because of the heavy encryption on it. For the voice of commander that you all heard in your own head, it's basically telepathy, the voice is directly sent into your brain through waves." Those words kind of seemed have enraged Naomi fighting passively against a few of the units to keep them out of the crucial range.
"HOW DARE THEY!" she screamed in anger as slashed the targets with her dual blades in front of her and dashed in through the enemy line cutting a number of them.
"What's gotten her fired up all of a sudden?!" asked Hatake shocked, he had ordered her to not even try to strike until they had a clear chance.
"I should have told you this at first but," said Kofuku, "Naomi is a very reserved person you see, she doesn't like it when someone interrupts her privacy and so for her, something entering her brain is something she just can't stand." Hatake just sighed at it.
"Naomi!" he shouted over the Intercom, "Comeback to your position RIGHT NOW!"
"I'm sorry Hatake but," she said as she pressed a button turning her blades into hot red, "I just can't do anything about this!" she shouted, the Main Mothership lied in front of her.
"If you don't come back now," said Hatake, "then your lone time after training will be CANCELLED!" he shouted. It asked like a speed breaker as she stopped at that very instant.
"Fire it, now!" shouted Seraphime.
"Yes mam!" replied the staff of the Mothership as all the turrets in equipped faced towards the same direction of the enemies that lied infront of them and fired at once, wiping a few of the enemies on the way, Phoenix used the opening to get out of the enemy territory.
"When we land," said Hatake, "we are gonna talk about this" Naomi just sighed back.
"Keep your mind into the fight!" shouted Agiliton, Hatake had just realized that he had lost sight of Agiliton when suddenly the Franxx came at him in a flash and punched him on the face, making it crash hard on the surface of the Cosmos, "It's useless to even try." He stepping on his chest.
"You know," said Hatake with a grin, "Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing again and again expecting different results." Huitzilopochtli came from the side with a dash, but again the other VIRM Franxxs came in to support at the same time, Strelizia, Meteorix, Delphinium, Huitzilopochtli and Guan Yin got ready to face them all.
"Well, this is a bit awkward," said Orion with a grin, "let's get started already!" he shouted as all of them clashed onto the surface of the cosmos that formed the battlefield, Agiliton first ran towards them with his fists showing up electrical sparks, the two VIRM Franxxs backed him up, Hatake fired an arrow from his bow but another VIRM Franxx blocked it with with it's shield continue by which Guan Yin fired up smoke capsules from her crossbow that landed right in between the VIRM Franxxs and them, one of the VIRM Franxxs shot back a few beams of high energy from its blasters but there was no response from the other side, the VIRM Franxx including Agiliton slowly moved towards the smoke.
"Where did they go?" he thought, "No way, above us!" he shouted realising it a bit late, Meteorix was up in the air and now as coming down at them with his booster at full power, the VIRM Franxx moved up in front of the others to protect the Franxxs with it's shield which turned out to be useless. Two arrows came and landed up on the VIRM Franxxs out of nowhere from the smoke and soon emitted an electrical charge disabling the Franxxs, "What is this?" asked the commander in Agiliton.
"Your end!" shouted Hatake as the sword landed directly over them while Huitzilopochtli jumped upon them as he shouted 'Overdrive Active!' producing a large shockwave.
"T-They vanished?!" asked Orion shocked as it felt like there were attacking nothing but the surface of the cosmos.
"How," said Agiliton walking towards them with, "How could you even think of us to be so stupid enough to not be able to dodge that attack? It's disrespectful!" he shouted as he dashed directly towards Huitzilopochtli and knocked the Frannx right onto the ground even before they realised.
"Not bad, but I have received harder ones..." Said Orion after regaining his composure and rushed at the commander. This made everybody else in the spot engage too. And what a brawl it became, with Delphinium and Strelizia tanking and returning hits, Argentea maneuvering, flanking and ambushing unsuspecting foes with Chlorophytum and Genista giving covering fire from behind and from time to time, moving forward through openings to unleash a barrage of rapid-high powered lasers or highly explosive diceon shells before falling back behind their teammates, with Freiturnier staying in the middle, giving support to both the front and the back, many times surprising incoming foes with their combat prowess thinking of her as an easy prey only to be proved wrong. All around them, the battle raged on, with losses on both sides. Many times our heroes had the misfortune of witnessing many brave souls perish into the black void of space; fortunately, they also had and took the opportunity of saving many of them whenever they could, spiriting them into the relative safety of the space station. Slowly, but surely, the battle was finally going into the Federation's favour. Until eventually, Orion received an update that made him smile a lot...
"Commander!", said the Assault Valkyrie team "Kaslana" captain, "We have successfully linked with the Space Elevator and overrode all defenses at the Cosmos with Federation protocols! Preparing for reboot!"
"Excellent! Once reactivated, command Compass Station for a fire support mission!" Replied Orion.
"Understood sir! Starting reboot... now!" replied Orion. After saying that, everyone soon saw the lights that powered the shield generators going off...
"Agaion! Activate auxiliary power sources! The Cosmos is now vulnerable!" Ordered Orion.
"Understood sir!" Soon after, the Agaion deployed an spherical module that once it connected with the dome of the space station, it disintegrated into thousands of little drones that spread out and covered the Cosmos in a golden aura. Orion then said, "Alright, Jian squad, this is the hard part. Protect at all costs the Cosmos! The enemy will kamikaze itself against the shield... LOOK OUT!"
Just as he said that part, a beam came out of nowhere and hit the middle of the group sending them all flying...
"Darling!" shouted Zero Two as Strelizia crashed hard onto the cosmos unable to move, Hiro looked in front of them. The culprit of the attack, an enemy Franxx walked towards them, he then looked at Zero Two, she was struggling to even get up. He made a desperate decision...
"I'm sorry," he said from behind as Zero Two looked at him confused," I'm sorry... Zero Two." He said as he pressed on the pistil eject button.
"Wait! Darling-" she cried but it was too late, the pistil seat turned into a capsule and was ejected out...
"Heh, the other one ran away?" asked the Franxx that stood in front of Strelizia, "No worries, all of you will be annihilated in the end anyways!" He then rushed against the downed Strelizia, with Hiro still being connected to her...
"AGGGGH!" screamed Hiro, a sudden pain had stroked upon him, "It hurts!" he shrieked while the capacitors on his head started to form cracks, his vision blurred out.
"Dar...Ling..." said Zero Two looking in despair at Strelizia, knowing full well the enemy would kill her darling and she couldn't do anything. She was put out of her thoughts when she felt a sudden jerk on her capsule... "What the...?" She looked around and saw that her capsule had been caught in Delphinium's hand...
"Huh.. Deja vu..." Said Ichigo.
"Zero Two! Are you alright in there?" Asked Goro.
"GET ME BACK WITH DARLING!" She screamed.
"Yep, totally Deja vu..." Thought Goro before saying, "Alright! But first you will need to equip yourself with the emergency Mark V exo-suit! It's below your seat and capable of resisting the space vacuum..." They were interrupted when one of the Franxx took a shot at Delphinium whom had to make evasive maneuvers.
"Dammit! We won't be able to reach Strelizia alone!" Said Ichigo, "Jians! Status report!"
"Argentea still alive!" said Zorome.
"Chlorophytum and Genista are disconnected! They're trying to reboot right now!" Answered Futoshi.
"Dammit! We won't be able to make it in time!" Thought Ichigo, watching in horror as the enemy prepared for the killing blow!
"Too bad you won't witness the utopia we will create from the ashes of your people!" said the VIRM Franxx as it was about to stab the head when suddenly a tail wrapped around the sword and pulled it hard and stabbed it back onto the head of it's user with such a force it sent it flying towards the atmosphere where it disintegrated.
"Is that..." whispered Ichigo shocked looking at the culprit, it was Strelizia in a new blue form.
"Stampede mode?!" asked Hachi shocked. Strelizia had turned into the untamed lion once again but this time it had an eering feeling on it that screamed MURDER; it ran through the enemies destroying everything that was in front of it.
"No no no no NO!" Orion shouted, "It's going for our units too!"
Meanwhile, inside of Hiro's mind...
"Where am I?" asked Hiro looking around himself, he stood at a vast plain land with water just a bit above his toes, there was nothing except for the infinitely ranging horizon.
"Darling..." said a voice behind him, it was zero two standing in front of him wearing a white dress. Looking at him with a confused expression.
"Z-Zero Two!" he said with a smile, walked ahead and hugged her, "Where are we? What happened to everything? Anyways, this isn't the time, let's find a way to get out of here!" He said as he let her go and took her hand and tried to pull her with him but she didn't move.
"You don't get it, do you?" she asked in an angered tone. Even before he could utter a word, she pulled him towards her and lifted him by his neck.
"It... Hurts! Z-Zero Two!" he said struggling to speak.
"You really don't get it, do you?!" she asked giving away a very creepy laugh as her horns grew bigger with her skin turning red and a fierce look in her eyes, "It was always like I said, Daling. You were never anything but fodder to me!"
Meanwhile, back at the battlefield, Strelizia's rampage was causing chaos to everyone. Fortunately, the Federation units were wise enough to give her a wise space to avoid colliding with her; that still didn't avoid many friendly fire incidents...
"What the heck happened?!" asked Hatake over the intercom shocked at the destruction Strelizia was causing, enemy or ally, she just didn't seem to care.
"Diagnosis indicate an energy backflow back into one of the pilots, sir." replied one of the personnel looking at the reports.
"The Limiters... Broke?" he whispered shocked while his eyes moved onto the battlefield footage. Then, suddenly, Strelizia turned around and darted straight for the station!
"It's going for the Cosmos! Everyone! Intercept and keep her away!" Orion ordered.
"Roger that! I'll handle this! Jians! With me! We have to find a way to stop Hiro!" replied Hatake while he fired Meteorix's boosters and moved towards Strelizia in full speed and rammed against her causing her to fall on her side.
"Hang on! We have seen something similar to this before with Zero Two! We just need to reunite her with him!" Screamed Ichigo, worried that they may kill Hiro in the process.
"In that case...!" Hatake said before he went towards Delphinium and opened his cockpit. "Get on!" Hatake screamed as Zero Two got out through the frontal panel, opened thanks to Ichigo, and hopped inside. Strelizia was back on its legs as it came in charging, it jumped onto Meteorix. It barely dodged the attack as it placed Zero Two gently on its shoulder, "Bring him back!" he screamed, Zero Two dashed towards the cockpit's hatch, and opened it. She had just reached inside when the Franxx grabbed onto the hand of Meteorix, pierced its tail through it and bite it off.
"How dare you?!" Hatake shouted pissed off as Meteorix tried to punch Strelizia trying take her off but she dodged the punch and bite harder upon arm making it unable to move, "Damn it!" Then he saw Strelizia slash her tail in an incredible maneuver and then Hatake felt like his neck had suddenly gone dead, "Damn it, it decapitated Meteorix..."
"Ha... Ta... Ke..." said Seraphime shocked as she looked at the dogfight from a distance, Strelizia's tail had made a clear slash on Meteorix's neck beheading the Franxx as the head crashed a bit far away on the surface of the station. At this point, the Agaion was gathering power to unleash a high EMP voltage attack to disable the rampaging Strelizia, being held down by the Jians...
"Turret power is set, but this will leave the shield generator offline," said one of the crew members, "We need to take the risk..." she said as errors showed on the consoles making all the screens red, "W-What's happening?"
"I don't know the consoles won't respond-" said another crew member but then soon realised that something was off, there was a strange feeling. A feeling of extreme bloodlust, everyone turned towards the sickening feeling, it was Seraphime. Her horns glowing and her eyes defining 'anger' as she walked forward and looked at the VIRM Mothership that was charging its positron rifle once more, minutes away from firing.
"Prepare a tractor beam to pick up Meteorix's head," she said in a very unsettling tone, "I'll see the combat here."
"B-But Ma'am," said the crew captain, "there are a lot of consoles here to work on, if the whole crew shifts to the support then-"
"Just, do it!" she shouted on top of her voice; it was clear that it was an order, and she was definitely not willing to hear an argument.
"Fire the tractor beam, secure our king." said the chief engineer after a while as Seraphime walked a bit more forward and lifted her hands. The mothership was of course an incredible craft by the ideas of mankind, but in the end, it was all Klaxosaur technology, something that was still almost unknown to humans, something that was not explainable in terms of science for them. Something, that never disobeys the orders of the queen. Seraphime lifted her hand as the turrets of the motherships turned towards the VIRM mothership, the process wasn't clear enough but in the end, it seemed like as if the turrets merged together as the crew looked at it shocked and a bit scared of what power the Klaxosapiens held. The turrets had finally finished to merge, it was a huge network of wires that ended up and a single but thick pole of metal that faced directly at the VIRM mothership.
"A-A positron rifle?" asked one of the members shocked, the shields went down and the power supply got cut off from the ship as the rifle of both the motherships charged up. They both fired up at the same time and clashed in the middle of the void of space.
"No one shall dare come in my way," said Seraphime looking at what lied in front of her, "No one… shall come between me and my husband!" she shouted as both the rifles didn't let up the other beam, "I'm done with being saved by him!" she thought as she even merged the support turrets.
"You are dead now!" shouted Elise as she threw an EMP shot from Guan Yin's crossbow directly onto the exposed core of the positron rifle of the VIRM mothership, the small dart she fired turned into a tremendous blast due to the rifle currently being under use, making it overheat and explode the core. The rifle failed as the Klaxo mothership's beam made its way through and the VIRM mothership went down with a tremendous blast.
"And a mothership for my kill list!" said Elise.
"Dammit Elise! I was going to claim it for me!" Said Orion before receiving a communication.
"Commander, the Cosmos has finished rebooting and has a "fire for effect" confirmation from Compass Station!" said the captain of the Valkyries.
"Understood! EVERYBODY, CLEAR THE BLAST AREA!" Orion ordered.
All Federation units remaining did so and not a few minutes after, the same balls of highly explosive diceon energy came out from the atmosphere and impacted straight in the middle of the enemy fleet! Soon enough, it was the last straw and the surviving APE units started to retreat...
"Enemy forces are retreating! Shall we persecute them Origin 1?" Asked Miranda.
"Denied Mobius 1! We still have a rampaging rogue unit on the loose! Get back and keep the Cosmos and the Agaion safe!" Ordered Orion, "Come on Zero Two, what are you waiting for?"
Inside Strelizia's cockpit...
"Darling?" asked Zero Two as she slowly woke up, she had hit her head onto the metal door while she was trying to get in and fainted as a result. In front of her was her darling with his horns spread throughout the cockpit, in a scene reminiscent when it happened to her in the Grand Crevasse, his face exhibited a a face in pain and distress.
"Did I look like that back then? No time to waste!" She wanted to move forward to him but the more she walked towards him the more the horns would block her way, yet she still pushed on, "Nothing will stand in between us! Not even our insecurities and worries Darling! So hang in there! We will continue through fly higher and further!"
"You aren't Zero Two… are you?" asked Hiro, the Zero Two in his illusions was still grabbing onto his neck.
"Why would u care anymore?" she asked.
"Because…" he said, "you aren't at all like her, you are cold." He said feeling the coldness of her hands onto his neck. They looked at each other as the girl grabbing onto his neck turned into stone and withered away, the ground turned parallel to him, it felt like an unusual dream as he fell into the horizon and finally fell in the water that was in the end, "This warmth, he said looking in front of him. There was a girl, she was too bright to understand who it was but in that single instant, as soon as their fingers touched each other… He knew it, "Yes, there is no doubt, this is the Zero Two I know…" he said as he opened his eyes, her lips lied upon his, she had hugged him hard as he looked at her in the eyes.
"Welcome back," she said with a cute smile, "Darling…" she had fainted and Hiro soon noticed the blood that was gushing out of her stomach from his horn that had pierced it. "Zero... Two..." Was all he could think of before darkness swept over him...
On the outside, when this happened, everyone saw Strelizia simply stop moving.
"I think Zero Two did it! What now?!" Asked Miku.
"Get those two fools out of the cockpit and put them into a medical capsule, ASAP!" Ordered Orion before adding, "Also, has anyone seen or checked on the king?"
Meanwhile...
"Well, I guess this is how it feels like to be beheaded" said Hatake as he lied onto his seat inside the head of Meteorix, he didn't even have the energy to move a finger and so looked at the celling and thought, "Glad that Orion showed me about the emergency inhibitors, otherwise I would be dead right now. I guess it really doesn't make any difference, no matter what I do, in the end I can never cross my father's creations. I don't know anymore if that's anything to be proud of or not…" he thought as the door of the head finally opened, Seraphime entered. She looked at him with a serious face.
"I… I destroyed them all." She said looking at him, " I destroyed a lot of motherships that were in our way, and I'll kill more so…" she said as she fell on her knees crying, "So… So, please… Let me fight along with you. I just can't see you suffer while I'm in there only doing so little…" she said as Hatake patted her head.
"I'm sorry," he said with a smile, "you did a good job there." He was about it lift up his hand from her head but Seraphime stopped him.
"A little more!" she said, Hatake just sighed, "C-Come on…" she said as her vision turned blurry, "I… at least deserve this much of… Love…" she was about to drop but Hatake caught her head in the last moment.
"She really did use up a lot of her energy…" he thought looking at her with a kind smile, "Well, I guess I'll just have to start working on new limiters for Hiro as soon as we land, that too with more capacity and power resistance this time. Man what a pain…" He then received a message through the radio, "Hatake, are you there?! Answer!"
"I'm good! Just cuddling with my wife!" Answered Hatake.
"Good, then that means that you can help with the paperwork for the debrief alongside commanding the units." Replied Orion, "Also, we're gonna have to talk about the rogue situation seriously."
"What do you mean by that?" Asked Hatake. He did NOT expect the answer Orion gave him...
Some days later...
"Z-Zero two!" shouted Hiro as he woke up in the hospital, they were back on Earth already, Zero Two lied beside him having, she was sitting on her hospital bed beside his having some snacks while reading a book.
"Feeling well now, Darling?" she asked with a grin.
"You are fine, I see." She said with a satisfied smile as he looked at the bandage on her stomach, "does it hurt?" he asked in a concerned tone.
"It's fine," she said as she lied back down and looked at him, "we are even now, I guess? For all the times I used you in the past?", Hiro just answered with a nod while smiling.
Then they heard a knock coming from the door and saw their squad-mates going in.
"Oh, you're finally awake, you were trying to cross the border, right?" Said Zorome.
"What?" Asked Hiro confused.
"Ignore him, he is just making a silly videogame reference." Answered Miku after giving a zap to Zorome's head. "How are you two feeling?"
"Apart from gaining a new scar, I feel better now that I have my Darling back..." Answered Zero Two while hugging Hiro.
"How long were we out?" Asked Hiro.
"Zero Two awoke yesterday, as for you, you have been out cold for 6 days." Replied Goro.
"What happened there Hiro? It seemed you went through the same madness Zero Two suffered or maybe even worse..." Asked Ichigo.
Before he could even answer, the door was opened again and in came Orion, Elise and Hatake.
"Hey Hiro, how are you feeling?" Asked Hatake.
"I feel better. What happened while we were asleep? Did everything worked out?" Asked Hiro.
"The mission was a success. We managed to gain control of the Cosmos alongside big chunks of intelligence. We lost many brave souls out there but their sacrifice was not in vain in the end." Orion replied before gaining a somber look and adding, "Aside from that, I have bad news..."
"What happened?" Asked Zero Two, who then realize that all of her friends were now nervous and worried. Then a whole squad of 5 women with special armor and guns entered and stood behind Elise.
"Because of the rampage caused by Hiro causing lots of friendly fire incidents alongside a few deaths, I place him under arrest." Answered Orion...
Alright so, reasons for not updating since almost 5 months:
1. There was a huge rise in cases in India and elections too in my side of the country so, I don't know everything just became depressing and my will to write eventually died for a while.
2. A date for my exams got fixed, then got postponed and then finally got cancelled, I had left writing to focus on my studies.
3. Anxiety.
But nonetheless, I'm back. I know it's taking a lot of time day by day, at a point I might just be considered dead but for sure I will complete this fanfic no matter what.