Hiro began to open his eyes, though something felt… off, though at the same time, familiar to him. Fully opening his eyes, Hiro realized that he was inside a familiar place of his childhood, the parasite facility of the Garden. He now found himself in the middle of a dark hallway of the facility that was devoid of any life, both of adults and children. Glancing around his surroundings, Hiro saw at the end of a hallway a brightly-lit room, where he could faintly hear noises of children playing.
Slowly walking down the hallway, with his footsteps unleashing a loud echo each time he stepped, Hiro approached the window to the brightly-lit room to see what was inside. Looking inside the room, there was a group of several children playing together. However, Hiro's eyes would focus on one particular pair of children together. He recognized one instantly, it was his younger self from years ago, and next to his younger self was a familiar-looking young girl with short blue hair.
"A name?" the blue-hair girl asked young Hiro.
"Yeah, I gave myself one!" young Hiro responded back.
"I'm Hiro."
"Why am I Ichigo?" the young blue-haired girl asked.
"Because that's how your code is read. 015, for Ichigo." young Hiro responded.
"That's… my name?" the young blue-hair girl said.
"Ichigo…" Hiro uttered to himself, "It's been so long…"
"..."
"Where have you been after all of these years?"
"Probably one of the invader's disposables now…"
"Do you even remember about me?"
"You might have forgotten me, probably like the rest of the children…"
"Would you forgive me for not seeing you for so long?"
"Even I'm not sure about that…"
"..."
"Would you even recognize me as the Hiro you once knew…?"
In a sudden flash, Hiro then found himself no longer inside the hallway of the facility and now instead found himself transported outside in the Garden from the facility. Looking around where he was, Hiro could barely make out to see where he was. The environment was quite misty and foggy, Hiro could only see the path that he was standing on top of.
"Hiro!" a familiar voice of a young girl shouted behind him.
Looking behind, Hiro saw Ichigo again, though this time she was outside with him alone as the mist began to clear up. At first, Ichigo looked pleased to see Hiro again, with a smile on her face. Though, Ichigo's happy attitude would drastically change once Hiro showed his present Klaxosaur self. Her face changed to nervous and scared as she glared at Hiro's horns, fangs, claws, and elusive bright-blue electric eyes.
Ichigo then started to frantically cry after seeing Hiro's current self.
"YOU'RE A MONSTER! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A MONSTER NOW!" Ichigo shouted at Hiro repeatedly.
"W…why are you saying this Ichigo!" Hiro thought to himself, placing his hands over his ears.
"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BE A MONSTER!" Ichigo shouted at Hiro as she continued to cry.
"Just be quiet please…" Hiro tried to reassure himself, trying to ignore Ichigo.
"YOU BECAME A MONSTER FOR WHAT? JUST TO RUN AWAY FROM BEING HUMAN!" Ichigo continued to shout, pointing at him.
"SILENCE!" Hiro roared.
Out of his control, Hiro lurched toward Ichigo and pounced on top of her, slamming her to the ground as he landed on top of her.
Hiro felt his emotions totally control his body as if he had no real control of them any longer. Raising his hands, they then landed on Ichigo's neck as they began to strangle her, with his claws sinking deeper and deeper into Ichigo's neck. Hiro felt a feeling of coldness as he saw Ichigo's blood splatter over him and cover his hands as they tore deeper into Ichigo's throat. Hiro tried to stop himself but he found himself no longer in control of his body anymore, as if something had possessed his body and now controlled it. Ichigo's life drained from her bloodied face as slipped into a state of lifelessness. Hiro tried everything to stop killing Ichigo but to no avail.
In a final act of desperation to end the violent scene, Hiro roared at his loudest in agony.
"Darling, wake up!" a soothing voice said repeatedly.
Hiro opened his eyes suddenly and now found himself wide awake on his bed in his royal chamber alongside Zero Two, who was already awake and standing beside him. Breathing heavily and shaking, Hiro signed in relief, just relieved that he was no longer in his nightmare no longer and it was all just a dream.
"That's strange darling, I never expected you to oversleep," Zero Two commented with a smug face.
"No worries, I'm… I'm all good," Hiro said, putting on a calm face.
"Well, let's get ready then you sleepyhead!" Zero Two teased, "You know that Mama won't like to see you like this you know!"
"Hmh, yeah…" Hiro replied.
"Anyway, I'm going to get all readied up!" Zero Two replied, "You better come and join me darling!"
Hiro began to slowly rise out of bed while Zero Two quickly frolicked away out of the royal chamber to get herself ready. After he got up, Hiro would stare blankly at the wall, with the recent dream that Hiro had still on his mind. Rubbing his eyes and breathing deeply, Hiro tried to shrug off his dream.
Hiro was in a small room alone with his eyes closed as a ray of blue light scanned Hiro from top to bottom as part of his daily check-up. While being scanned, Hiro's thoughts continued to ponder about the dream he had earlier, despite trying his best to move on from his dream. For some reason, something about the dream that he had awakened something that he dreaded deep inside.
Hiro had put his fears behind himself for a while but his nightmare had awakened his fears once again, especially since Hiro started to fight for the Klaxosaurs. Hiro knew that he had a fear of how his old best friends would see him as. His fear of how one day, he might be the one to kill them in battle.
"Why does it seem I love them even if they're humans and they're my enemy now?" Hiro thought to himself.
"Status: Healthy, Aptitude level: High, Sensitivity: …higher than usual. Overall, the subject is deemed fit and healthy, you may be released." the voice of the AI announced.
Opening his eyes, Hiro took a deep breath in and tried to compose himself from his thoughts. Hiro promptly stepped out of the scanning room and back out into the hallway. Next to the entrance was Zero Two, who was leaning against a pillar patiently waiting for Hiro.
"About time darling you finished with that! These check-ups take forever!" Zero Two bemoaned, promptly walking next to Hiro's side, "Now all of that stuff is done, let's go to the garden!"
As Zero Two began to race down the hallway with energy, she turned back and saw that Hiro was going at a slower pace than usual. Ever since Hiro woke up, Zero Two noticed that he seemed to be more quiet and sluggish than usual, as if something was bothering him. Zero Two decided that she wanted to make sure everything was all right with Hiro.
"Hmm… darling, you seem to be acting strange today ever since waking up. Are you alright darling?" Zero Two asked Hiro.
At first, Hiro stuttered to find a response for Zero Two. Hiro had held these fears about facing his old friends to himself, though he did not want to seem weak in the face of Zero Two and even the Princess, who expected him to show no mercy to the humans and always kept it a secret to himself. Though at the same time, Hiro knew that he cannot hold back his fears. Zero Two had been close to him ever since they were little children and she had been his only true love since then.
"I cannot hide these fears forever from Zerotsu." Hiro thought to himself, "Zerotsu has always been close to me since we were young, I cannot hide my secrets from her…"
"Zerotsu, you are right, there is something that I need to tell you…" Hiro began to explain.
"Oh? What is it darling?" Zero Two replied.
"My warriors, I summon you for a mission. Please arrive immediately." the Princess's voice ordered telepathically in the heads of both Hiro and Zero Two.
"Oh, looks like Mama needs us for a mission!" Zero Two commented.
"Yeah, we better get going!" Hiro commented, quickly changing the topic.
"But… aren't you going to tell me something, darling?" Zero Two asked.
"Er… it's no big deal really, I'll… tell you later Zerotsu," Hiro said, "But we should really go see Hime, whatever she wants us for, it must be very important!"
"Ok… darling," Zero Two responded, albeit suspiciously.
Both Hiro and Zero Two then began to race down the hallway to meet with Hime.
"When will I tell Zero Two about the fears of my past, what is there to fear in doing that?"
After hurriedly getting their Klaxosaur pilot suits on, Hiro and Zero Two walked down one of the many massive hallways of the Hime's palace to the end of the hallway where there was a large room locked with two large doors. Approaching the door, Hiro and Zero Two placed their hands on a hand-shaped inscription on the door. After placing their hands, the two doors slid open, allowing Hiro and Zero Two to enter.
The room that Hiro and Zero Two entered looked similar to a command center. The command center had been used by the Klaxo Sapiens long ago and had many ancient Klaxo-Sapien technologies, albeit dormant from use for millions of years. In the center of the room was a round elevated table, where the Princess was currently standing waiting for Hiro and Zero Two. Walking to the Princess, Hiro and Zero Two bowed down in front of her to pay their respects.
"Hmm… you took longer than expected to arrive, my warriors…" the Princess commented.
"Oh, uh… well, it was darling that took forever Hime!" Zero Two blurted out.
"Erm… I was just making sure that my suit was free of blemishes that's all!" Hiro replied in self-defense.
"Don't worry about that you two, just making sure that you both are always attentive" the Princess continued, "Anyway, I shall give the details on what mission I have designated for you two…"
Tapping on the table's controls, the Princess brought up a luminescent-blue hologram appeared, which depicted an APE plantation.
"As you two already know and have seen, this is one of the human's nests," the Princess described, "Though recently, this human nest, in particular, has been vulnerable to an attack…"
"Why is that Hime? Aren't all human nests guarded by their human warriors?" Hiro asked, "We'll have to fight them first before we will ever attack the nest…"
"For this human nest, in particular, the human pilots have recently perished in battle," the Hime continued to explain, "From the information that I received from my probes, the former humans shall be replaced by new inexperienced human pilots…"
"Heh, so all we have to do is face-off some new human recruits," Zero Two scoffed, "Me and my darling will wipe them out, no big deal."
"Though these fighting these new recruits are not the focus of this mission," the Princess shot back at Zero Two, "You two are only going to ground down the nest's ability to move and neutralize its defenses during their graduation ceremony. If faced with resistance by the new recruits, be sure to wipe them out too."
The Princess highlighted the critical parts of the plantation on the hologram.
"Once you both have crippled the critical sections of the human's nest and the nest is ground down and neutralized, summon our brethren to do the rest and destroy the remainder of the human's nest," the Princess concluded.
The Princess then walked over to Hiro and Zero Two.
"I know this is one of your biggest challenges yet my warriors, but your skill and ability you have demonstrated in the past several missions have proven yourself as competent warriors to handle such a challenge…" the Princess explained.
"You can trust me and my darling to get anything done," Zero Two said gleamingly, "Together we are one when fighting, isn't that right darling!"
"Of course, Zerotsu," Hiro replied.
"That's the spirit, my warriors…" the Princess replied with a grin, "Now go out there and show your worth to me…"
Inside the hangar, Zero Two stood on the ground in front of her Klaxosaur, Aphrodite, with her hands on her hips, smiling as she admired her Klaxosaur. As he was looking at Aphrodite, Hiro appeared, with Zero Two's pupils gazing towards Hiro as she heard his footsteps. Turning around, Zero Two looked at Hiro with a smile on her face.
"Ready to punish some humans darling?" Zero Two said with glee.
Hiro nodded his head in approval of what Zero Two said.
"I always am Zerotsu." Hiro stated.
With a grin on her face, Zero Two went to Hiro and they both held each other's hands. Leaning their face in with one another, Hiro and Zero Two exchanged a kiss with each other.
"Though one thing, what were you going to say to me earlier darling?" Zero Two asked.
"Oh, well, that was nothing really," Hiro explained, "I was just feeling off around the time, but I'm all better now…"
"That's great! Let us go now darling!" Zero Two announced.
After putting their piloting helmets on, Hiro and Zero Two walked to a platform, which then began to move upwards to the head of Aphrodite.
"They're just past fears that don't matter anymore," Hiro thought to himself, "Besides, what are the odds that I'll have to fight my old friends again?"