It was cold. So very, very cold.

There were a lot of things she had thought the world outside was like. Full of pretty things like the book she still held close to her chest, or the strange fluffy things that were in her old room. Those were fun to play with, even if they broke so easily.

Of course, the world is rarely the way you expect it to be; a harsh reality of the system she was caged in. From the moment she had her book things only seemed to go downhill. The thing that brought her food and the pretty thing underneath her cloak was the first to go. And then her fluffy things were taken from her, or rather; she was taken from them. They came in the middle of the night, dragging her away from the beady eyes and the fluff spilling across the floor from where they had been ripped with her talons and teeth.

By the time she realized what was happening it was too late.

They stripped her of her few belongings, tossing the cloak and book into the corner and strapping her to a chilly metal table with rough straps dragging against her sensitive skin as she struggled vainly to put space between her back and the frozen surface that was enveloping her in a harsh embrace.

She didn't want to be here. She wanted back in her room; back among the strange figures that spilled their fluffy insides, the material feeling delightfully soft and smooth against her skin. It was dark and comfortable in her home. Her toes would sink into the floor and she would be warm and safe, if alone. Frankly the only thing she didn't like about it was how alone she was. The day's dragging on felt like years passing to her over reactive mind; but it would be a small price to pay if she didn't have to deal with the cold environment she was now strapped to.

She turned her head to the side to avoid the harsh glare of the ceiling lights throbbing above her. The aching behind her eyes subsided as her eyes instead looked at her hand; strapped tight to the table a small distance from her face. The fabric there was particularly tight, and she could barely feel herself past the brown strap that bound her limb to the table. It was hard to feel any of her limbs past the strangling straps really.

A strangely metallic voice spoke above her, but it was hard to muster up the energy to determine the source of the sound when she was like this. It was all she could do to keep her eyes open and stare at her hand as machinery around her hummed to life, and to try and not focus on how cold the table she was unable to escape from was. Her pupils dilated when a shinning green light shone on her hand.

It was beautiful. It was so thin and fragile, and yet even as it moved across the table onto her hand it kept its shape. It looked like the silk of those strands the eight legged creatures in her room would spin occasionally. So delicate and weak as she tore through them; but so so beautiful. It even had little threads splitting off; just like their silk did. Vainly, she tried to grab at the thin line that stood on her hand. But a simple twitch of her fingers to try and grasp at it was all it took for the silk like apparition to vanish. Her eyelids lowered and she could feel her bottom lip tremble. Was she allowed no joy in this strange cold world she was dragged into?

The answer she received only solidified her bitterness at the outside world.

As soon as the light disappeared from her hands, it seemed as if the machine gave her something else. It was sharp and fast and heavy. And it tore at her skin and into her bones, thudding through the table and landing with a clinking sound underneath. A strange blue substance streamed into the air on the point of impact; but the beauty of the blue fluid wavering in the air was nothing compared to the sudden fire racing through her arm.

She didn't feel her hand quickly regenerating, she didn't hear the gasps of amazement from over her head. All she felt was fire coursing through her veins, burning a path through her body as it raced through her nerves and burned itself into her memory. All she could hear was the howling screech filling the room and reverberating in her eardrums. Her throat felt hoarse and dry by the time a semblance of normalcy returned to her; the muscles inside aching as they rubbed against each other. As they moved to undo the straps binding her to the table she could only whimper as her eyelids began to lower, locking her to an inky black abyss.

And so it went. For days. For months. For years. Her life was no longer the lonely comfortable mess she had come to long for; but instead a constant and bitter reminder that the outside world held nothing but pain and punishment for those that dared to step out of line.

And then he had came. He was new. A stranger. A anomaly from outside of her sheltered little hole in the wall. She didn't know anything about him, but when the window shattered it let in the cold frigid air of the outside world. It was comforting, in a sense. To know that something would remain constant. No matter how strange or new or dangerous things got. It was always cold. So very, very cold.

He beckoned for her to join him as his black hair fluttered in the wind. And she did. It was sooner than normal. Typically they let her rest before performing other tests on her, before straining the limits of her durability and shattering her mind again and again and again. But it wasn't like she could refuse. Every time she tried the pain had been worse, and she couldn't tell if it was because of her inability to do anything against the pain; or if they were going above and beyond with her; as if to punish her. Better to go with them now and see what they would inflict on her before committing herself to more pain than necessary.

And so she shifted slowly through the glass and stood in front of him as he held his hand out to her. Gibberish streamed from his lips and she watched as watery droplets streamed from his eyes before freezing to his cheeks in the cold, chilly wind. Reaching forward with a red hand, she marveled at the contrast between her own skin and his creamy white, pausing to take in yet another difference between the two of them. And then the limb was being tugged gently towards him; the hand had reached forward and enveloped her own, squeezing gently into the red flesh of the lonely little girl.

It was warm. So very, very warm.

"Code 153, do you understand your mission."

He nodded.

"Good. Then this meeting his adjourned. We will contact you when you have finished. Do not fail us."

He nodded again, his features stony as they were throughout the entire meeting with his superiors. As the tablet flickered off however, he couldn't help but raise the corner of his upper lip in a sneer. They still needed him after all. Even as broken and shattered as he was; he was still needed.

The feeling brought him some solace as he looked around at his meager belongings. The room was spartan, as stony and as untelling as he was molded and trained to be for them. There was nothing in there besides a bed, and a desk, and a door. He never had time to properly settle in, but then again; he never did. He cracked his neck as the mechanical joints in his jaw whirred to life; grinding his prosthetic teeth against his real ones as he moved out of the room into a long blank hallway.

Even as muffled as his steps where by the carpet underneath his feet; the noise echoed around the empty hallway as he walked down door after door. The numbers only grew larger and larger. Turning a corner, he stepped into an elevator and pressed the button to the first floor, stepping back as the metal around him shuddered before screeching down the shaft towards his destination. His face became stony again as he stared forward at nothing.

He never liked being surrounded by metal. It was too similar to how he felt in his Franxx. As if he was already prepackaged into a coffin and was just marching himself towards his grave to throw himself into it.

He supposed that wasn't all that different from the truth.

The white powdery substance pillowed into the air as she fell forward. It was too much. A groan escaped from her lips as her eyelids shut out the world around her, trying to ignore the startled noises that the warm person was making. Walking for this long was never something she had been forced to do; and the watery ground stabbed underneath her feet with every step she took. Her limbs were frigid and shivering underneath her only piece of clothing. And everything was much too big in this world. The strange objects jutting from the ground towered over her and every noise set off alarms in her head, her instincts causing her to flick towards the noise with her lip raised and her sharp teeth glinting in the light. More than once she had found herself cringing away from a sharp crack or the thumps in the distance; only to realize she had stepped on a twig, or the white powdery substance had fallen in a thick clump.

No, it was far too much she decided, staring down at the cold powdery substance she had fallen into. After climbing down one of the objects with the boy it was all she could do to hide behind him as he led her further away from her hole in the wall. Further into the cold where every step made her slip and her feet felt like they were being stabbed. Further into the dense gathering of brown and green with the white powdery substance piled on them as they towered over her like her tormentors did, mocking her fragility.

A hand nudged at her side. It felt similar to the hands of the people that would drag her to that accursed room. Poking and prodding her until she was strapped to the table and they continued their tests. It wasn't like she could do anything about it. Things had always been this way. She was never strong enough to prove them wrong. Always at their mercy, always having to play along with the mechanical mans whims, always sacrificing herself to make them happy while she screamed into the heavens.

A shadow fell across her face and her pupils shrunk. Was it time for the tests already? Did he take her out here just to do them here instead of the other room? Her breath came out in raspy growls as she began to panic, shying away from the hand that was descending towards her eyes. Startled grunts wormed their way out of her throat as she lunged forward, finding the offending appendage inside of her mouth with her teeth digging into the flesh.

She ignored the way the owner of the appendage grunted in pain, not realizing the force with which she was pressing her jaws together. Her only focus was to hold it still; her eyes wide and pupils shrunken as she prepared for the inevitable strike that always came when she tried to resist.

Instead she felt something running through her hair. It was soft and delicate as it twisted the material as it passed through, pressing softly against her head. It was familiar. She leaned into the touch, her jaws loosening their grip as her wide eyes softened. As soon as she had let go both the hand in her mouth was pulled back and the one she was leaning too went quickly to hold it.

"You meanie! I was only trying to get you up!"

She bowed her head as he spoke, raising her own finger up and biting gently on it as his words washed over her. She didn't understand them; but she could understand intent. He was angry. The one warm thing she had and she had hurt it in a fit of panic. She dared too look up at him, trying to convey her regret through her wide eyes and she bit on her finger nervously. The taste of blood washed across her tongue, but she paid it no mind.

"Do you not understand what im saying?"

She tilted her head at him. Slowly lowering her finger to rest it in the freezing ground. He…. didn't seem upset. Which was all she could hope for.

"Im Code 016. Hiro." He pointed to himself as he spoke. "Hiro."

She groaned in turn, watching as he slowly forced himself up to his feet, holding out a hand for her to take. Hesitantly, she held out her own, leaning forward slowly and wrapping it around his and he pulled her up to her feet.

The hand she held was sill warm, despite the blistering cold that enveloped the duo.

He smiled and gently tugged her again, breaking her from her musings and he began walking further into the towering trees. "Whats your Name?"

She groaned, looking away to avoid the stare he gave her in response. Was that not what he wanted to hear?

"Well… whats your code number then?"

She groaned again. The words he was saying washed over her ears the same way her feet trudged through the cold beneath her feet. It didn't make sense.

"They didn't teach you how to talk did they…."

She didn't look up at him. Whatever he was saying wasn't registering to her.

"Do you even understand me?"

The same groan came out of her throat and bubbled into the air. That was apparently the only answer the boy needed. The trudged along in silence before he stopped. Turning around, she saw him staring down at her feet, causing her to lean down as well, staring at the bracelet around her left ankle that seemed to have caught his attention.

"002 huh? I thought Codes in the single digits were impossible?"

She grunted in response at the number. It was the only thing that he said that she recognized. The people that took her to that room sometimes called her that. Or at least she assumed the called her that as they pointed at her as they said it, among other things.

"002…. Oni? No…. What about Zero two?" He looked up at her before turning away, a small red tinge on his head. "Not very good huh? Sorry."

Her eyes widened as she heard the phrase, and something in her brain clicked. If.. If he, the warm one was Hiro then…. did that mean that she was Zero two? That was what he called her just now after all… She hesitated as she stood up and turned away. What if she was wrong? What if she wasn't Zero-two? What if he just said that because the people that poked and prodded and shocked her said that? She didn't want to be wrong. Not to him.

But if he looked so sad when she wasn't able to answer his questions earlier... Would it really be that wrong? Even if she wasn't Zero-two, the numbers were still on her leg, she was still Zero-two in that sense at least right?

She grunted as he began to move forward and opened her jaws, her lips struggling to produce the words the way he had so effortlessly done it. As the air rushed messily across her tongue and teeth, the best she could managed was a strained "Eo to?"

He turned towards her then. And the warmth of his hand felt chilly compared to the gentle smile that was stretched across his face. Did that mean that she was right?

"Eo to?"

The expression on his face grew. "So you do know what names are!"

Emboldened, she said it once more, leaning forward with her cloak fluttering in the breeze as she fought to keep her own lips from stretching across her face. "Eo To!"

"I should've thought of a better name."

"EO TO! EO TO! EO TO!" She practiced her name, watching as the smile across his face seemed to grow with every attempt. And with every time the air rushed through her lips she could feel her heartbeat subsiding and calming down. So thats what a name was. And that was her name. It felt… nice, she decided. Like all her worries were thawing away.

"Okay okay, I get it!" She was drawn out of her thoughts as the hand wrapped around hers again, tugging her with him as he began to walk. "Lets go Zero two. Lets go somewhere far away!"

She didn't understand his words. But something about the strength and warmth in his voice reached inside of her heart and plucked at the few strings the world hadn't quite managed to snap and twist yet. It swam across those strings like a harp, plucking a tune that called out to her to follow.

He kept his eyes closed as the room prepared itself for him. Warning lights flashed across the room before mechanical arms descended from the ceiling, cutting the loose fabric that clung to him and stripping him, before with a hiss of pressurized air, the door opened, the thick halves disappearing into the ceiling and floor; allowing him to walk forward and step into the center; onto two shoe like platforms that snapped against his feet.

The screeching and whirring of metal grinding against metal filled his ears as the lights in the room flickered, diverting power to the systems he was in. He hid his frown as the arms descended from the ceiling, slowly moving forward to encase him. The screeching continued until he heard the door thud shut behind him. And then the arms moved forward again.

Two of them reached out and gripped at his wrists. He let them pull his limp arms up, suspending them in the air as more moved forward with shaped metal sheets attached.

The whirring of the metal reached a deafening hum as it filled the room he was sealed in, reverberating in his eardrums and distracting him from the sensation of metal being fixed to his body; screws drilled into sockets on his mechanical shoulder or into the muscle tissue where he still had a normal arm, twisting and tearing through the veins and fibers until it secured itself in his bones.

As the arms holding the frame of metal withdrew, more approached, thumping forward against his chest and back as a mechanical spine attached itself securely to his own and the machines moved to weld the metal plates around his frame in a metal armor.

As quickly as it began, it stopped. The whirring subsided from a screeching cacophony of metal and gears to a gentle hum of a motor running somewhere below him. The arms withdrew and he was left alone in a metal shell.

He shook his shoulders, getting accustomed to the weight of the suit around him before turning and walking through the door that had admitted him. A display on his arm opened as he thudded down the empty hallways towards his destination. He pressed down on it before continuing forward.

"Sorry about the procedure 153. It doesn't change that it sucks but you know that its necessary right?"

"Necessary to keep me alive in the Franxx due to my "unique condition" yeah." He snorted, grinding his metal jaw against his teeth as he stepped forward. "Get to the point."

"Fine, as you wish." The voice paused for a few moments, before clearing its throat. "The payload is attached to the hip of your Franxx. This is to be a stealth operation as you know. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to engage in any conflict. You shouldn't need to use it, but its insurance just in case. Your Franxx is in bay 26."

"Got it." He pressed the tablet, disconnecting the call as he stepped into the room, walking forward to lean on the railing as the platform beneath him shifted. He was suspended far above the ground. Towering figures of black and white mechs were placed around him, undergoing various states of repair and construction. None of them were whole, all having jury rigged parts attached where limbs had been blown off by klaxosaur attacks or friendly fire. They couldn't get the parts to repair them properly where they were; and supplies had run out long ago. That didn't mean they were weak however.

His lip curled upwards as the platform stopped in front of bay 26. In front of his Franxx. It was possibly in the worst condition out of them all. The visor was shattered and crumbling before his very eyes, wires were sparking at the exposed right shoulder and it was missing the lower have of its left arm. Its skirt was dented and battered and hanging on by a few particularly sturdy strips of metal while the legs had their protective armor warped and melted into the gears beneath, or stripped off entirely. It was a miracle it worked at all; which is exactly why it was assigned to him.

Perhaps it was a cruel twist of fate that his Franxx was as broken and warped as he was currently, but when he was piloting it he felt more alive than any other. He and this warped and broken piece of junk masquerading as a Franxx had survived far longer than any of the others. Which is why they were being sent on this mission.

A spark spluttered near his feet, dragging his attention towards where a large arm and a crew of mechanics were welding a large package to the hip of his Franxx. It was a good thing the arm wasn't there anymore; or else it would've just gotten in the way.

Shaking his head, he stood up straight as the platform stopped in front of the cockpit, stepping forward into it as the workers continued outside. He had a few minutes to spare, minutes he spent checking over the interior of the cockpit. Making sure every single detail was in order, before settling on the female that was strapped down in front of his seat, her arms and legs encased in metal as they fused with the Franxx and kept her there.

There once was a time where he would have been disgusted by such a sight. Back when the world was still fresh and humanity hadn't dug itself into this hole. He was one of the few that didn't take the immortality serum, making him the prime candidate to pilot Franxx. But with time and loss of resources came sacrifices. And this sacrifice was a human battery, a clone that served to fufill the purpose of a stamen pistil connection to the franxx.

Sighing, he reached forward and ruffled the head of the female in front of him, running his fingers through her hair before settling behind her. "Maybe this time we'll get you out of this Franxx huh?" He mused to himself before grabbing the controls as the Franxx jumped to life around him, the display flickering.

The mechanics stood on a catwalk to his left, giving him the thumbs up. He nodded the Franxx's head before stepping forward, the large metal door revealing the familiar red wasteland. With the mech shaking and stuttering beneath him, he ground his jaws together and stepped onto the red earth.

In the deepest, darkest part of a forest lived a tribe, hidden from all. They had large wings on their backs and were beautiful, but they were what would be called beasts. Among them was their princess, who had huge, ashen wings. Their law said that once one turned sixteen, they would be allowed to fly outside the forest.

And on her sixteenth birthday, the princess took flight to the world beyond the forest. She crossed the steep mountains and the surging rivers and reached a world of humans. The moon shone brightly in the sky.

She landed in a castle garden, where she found a young man gazing up at the moon. The princess hid in the bushes and stared at the young man, and for the first time, love bloomed in her heart. But he was clearly of a different race. A beast and a human could never be together.

And so, the princess went to see a witch who lived in the same forest and said, "I want to live as a human. I want to be united with him." The witch replied like so: "I can help you if you offer me your wings. But keep this in mind. No matter how you disguise yourself, you are a beast, and you will consume the prince's life one day."

The princess ripped off her wings and was assaulted by pain far more intense than she had ever felt. She could never fly again.

Even so, she smiled happily, with tears of joy streaming down her face. "I'm human! I'm human! I'm the same as him now! "

The princess once again set out for the land of humans, this time on foot. In the desert, she spotted a group of people. "Oh no! Is there anyone who can save him?!" There lay a young man, his leg bitten by a snake. The princess rushed to his side and sucked the venom out from his wound. "Thank you, o brave lady. I am the prince of these lands." It was the same young man she had met in the castle. "I owe my life to you. Please marry me."

A wedding ceremony was held soon after. The priest asked the princess, clad in a wedding dress of pure white, "Do you vow to be true to him in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?"

"I do." The two exchanged rings, and when the priest said so, they sealed their vows with a kiss. And cheers rang out across the land. "Bless the brave girl who saved our prince's life!" The whole kingdom celebrated their marriage.

"Humans! Humans! They have neither the wings to fly nor the claws or fangs to hunt. Such weak and frail creatures, but they are so, so warm. Humans are wonderful!"

After the wedding, she lived happily as the princess of a human land. She supported the prince in his work, traveled the world, and saw oceans studded with glints of sapphire, sparkling grasslands, and auroras that swayed like raging flames.

The princess took the prince's hand and said to him with a smile on her face, "Grab on to me and never let go, Darling."

But the princess's happiness was short-lived.

She woke up one night to a pain that threatened to rend her asunder and found her body turning into one of a beast. "Why? I asked you to make me human!" On her back were jet-black wings, tearing through her flesh and skin to spread. "Using magic comes at a price. You've attained plenty of happiness as a human. Now, it is time for you to lose yourself and turn into an ugly monster," the witch of the forest whispered to her. "However, if you kill the person you love most, you will be freed of your curse and return to the beast you originally were."

The princess gazed at her beloved prince as her claws reached for his throat. She loved him more than anything and anyone, but the desire to rip his neck apart welled up inside her. As she desperately tried to clench her fist and stop herself, her claws dug into his skin, and blood started gushing out.

"If I kill the prince, I will be freed of this curse..." With tears streaming down her face, she kissed the prince on the cheek.

When the prince awoke, the princess was no longer beside him. Instead, the bed was covered in jet-black feathers.

In profound sadness, the prince searched all across the land for her. But nobody had seen the princess.

Hiro let out a small frown as he read the book the horned girl had given him. He had been at first surprised when she had pulled open her cloak and handed the book to him. But when she kept shoving it into his chest he had gave a gentle smile and sat down to read it with the girl, the red child snuggling against his arm as he began to read aloud.

A small whimper against his arm managed to make its way up into his ear, and he looked down to see the pink hair falling across Zero-two's face as she stirred.

"Sorry. I was just thinking about how sad this book is. It feels cruel for them to have given it to you…" He looked down at her and then back at the pages of the book, shaking his head as he handed it back to her. "Is it because they aren't human that they can't marry?"

"Awwi?"

"Its um. Its when two people who love each other promise to be together. No matter what might happen. But... it feels cruel that they couldn't have been together…." He looked away after that, ignoring the way her horns stood out against her pink hair as if they were mocking him.

She didn't respond, just giving him a wide toothy smile as she slid the thin book back underneath her cloak, holding her one possession close to her.

"Nevermind. Come on Zero two. Lets keep walking." He stepped up to his feet, shaking his head slightly before pulling her up with him. She had that wide smile on her face as she looked around the forest they were in. It was a nice change of pace from before…

A sharp cry came from his side and a sudden weight fell on his arm. Turning around, a sharp exhale rushed through his mouth as he saw a numerous scratches on her knee. Quickly, he searched around for something to staunch the flow of blood. But there was nothing, nothing short of the clothes that he was wearing, which would just soak right through.

Hesitantly, he reached down and gripped at either side of her leg, holding the appendage tightly as he gulped, his tongue suddenly feeling clammy. That book about how animals tend to their wounds must be right, right? After all- after all, Papa had given it to the parasites right? So it must be right!

That didn't stop the shaking of his breath as his head lowered down and his jaw slowly opened, his tongue hesitantly reaching out to lick at the wound.

A small whimper of pain came from above his head, but he went in again, his tongue running across the wound and washing away the blood until there was just smooth skin underneath. It tasted off. Not coppery. But that wasn't important right now. What was important was that She was no longer bleeding, which means it had worked.

"Awwi?" He opened his head and looked up to Zero two, his brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what she was saying.

"Awwi." She repeated, reaching inside her cloak and flipping to the page in her only pretty thing where the prince had proposed to the princess. "Awwi?"

Hiro inhaled shakily as she turned to him with hope in her eyes. "Y-yeah Zero-two. Once we get out of here and are somewhere far away, we can be together forever too." Standing up, he reached out with a hand, smiling as she took it and pulled herself up, leaning against him to take some pressure off of her knee. "And then, I'll be your dar-ling"

Her face welled up at that, before a sobbing sound not all that dissimilar to the children from the garden bubbled out across her sharp teeth. Her tears ran down her cheeks and she quickly buried her face in his arm, her other arm moving to embrace him.

Hesitantly he returned the embrace. "S-sorry. I shouldn't have said that huh…" He held the embrace as the horned girl continued to shake underneath him, cursing his tongue.

She tilted her head back at that, the tears rolling across her cheeks and carving trails into the red skin. And then she smiled. It was an ugly looking sight, crooked and jagged teeth from years of neglect mixed with the inadequate care and the sobbing face of a child. And yet it reached into his heart a way nothing else could. Her sniffles of happiness and the smile she offered to him alone through the neglect she had suffered reached past the skin and muscle and deep into his beating heart, plucking at the few strings the caretakers hadn't ripped out of him yet. It danced on those strings like an artist, and he couldn't help but paint a vivid image of the two of them somewhere far away, somewhere much happier than the shell of a life they had currently.

The world is rarely the way you want it to be; a harsh reality of the system they were caged in.

As soon as her tears had subsided he felt a rough hand clench his shoulder, throwing him into the frigid ground as two black clad adults stepped forward, grabbing at the girls arms and lifting her up into the air, dragging her slowly away from him as she fought vainly against them.

"Zero-Two!" He shakily crawled onto all fours, moving towards the red blob that was wavering in the distance. A boot crashed into his spine, pressing him into the cold floor as the snow dug into his skin.

She clawed and bit and fought with all her might. And for once, her efforts were rewarded. Her teeth found a gap in the glove on the adults hand, and she clenched her jaws together, pulling tendon's and muscle out. The offending hand slackened, and with all her weight suddenly transferred to the other one; its grip was easy to slip out of as well with a strike to his shins. She ignored the taste of their blood in her mouth, she ignored their cries of pain. All she did was rush towards the guard that was pinning Hiro into the floor.

Hiro was forced to watch as her efforts were rewarded with the butt of a gun to the side of her head. The responsible guard pressed a hand to the side of his head. "Subject is proving to be extremely hostile. One down, one injured. We found 016 as well."

Moments passed by as the guard stood above the red child, his boot pressing against her spine and shoving her and her thin cloak into the frozen soil, awaiting further instructions.

"Are you sure Dr. Franxx? I'm aware you have backups but-" He stopped, before nodding, raising his hands at the other guards. "Understood. Subject will be terminated."

The little breath left in Hiro's lungs rushed out of his stomach at that statement. It felt like a punch to the gut. Like a knife stabbed into his heart and twisted it. They were going to die here. They were going to die, and it was his fault for trying to take her away. For thinking that a child could do anything. Its what he got for forgetting that they were children.

A soft laugh emanated from above him echoing amongst the trees. "Giving up so easily are we?"

In a way, he was thankful the voice mocked him; he was helpless to do anything as guards approached the red demon; dots appearing on her hair. "I can't do anything to help her. Im just a child. A stupid child that forgot his place and got another person killed." He felt something liquid well up in the corner of his eyes before dragging down slowly across his face.

The laughter continued. It was bubbly, musical almost. "And thats it? You've had enough?" It echoed amongst the treeline and burrowed deep into his head until he swore it was all he could hear. "You've made one mistake, and that was giving this girl the happiest day of her life. One simple mistake and thats all it takes for you to give in?" The laugh grew louder and stronger until it was hysterically pounding away at his skull and he could almost swear it was the one sensation left in the world.

"I can't do anything! I failed! Its not that I want to give up its that I have NO CHOICE!" He swore he was screaming now, but if the world heard his torment then it gave no response. "I would save her if I could! She deserves better than this! But I CAN'T!"

The laughter only intensified as he poured his heart out, before fading away into nothingness. Moments passed before the voice returned, the laughing tone now holding something far more ominous, the sensation dripping across his back and sliding down his sides as it traveled around him. "Is that so? Well… I can save her. Would you like that?"

"Yes! Please!"

It dripped though its teeth, the words holding power itself inside of them as it spoke. He could swear he felt it smile as it stared down at his prone form. "And what would you be willing to give me in return?"

His heart stopped. He didn't have anything of value to give. He was just a child with the few belongings that Papa gifted him. But as the image of Zero two struggling against the guard shoving her into the ground rose in the inky blackness of his mind; he struggled to think of something to give to the voice. "A-anything. Ill give anything. Just please save her!"

"Ohoho? Anything you say? Even if you might never see her again? Even if you're ripped away from her?"

Hiro gritted his teeth. "Yes."

The laughter resumed again, pounding away in his ears as it grew in volume. "Very well then, Hiro." And as suddenly as the strange voice had came to him, it left, leaving him in the darkness. Slowly, he opened his eyes, not realizing they were closed until he felt the cold chill of the snow on his nose.

As his eyelids cracked the frozen layer of tears in his lashes he saw the guards aim their guns down at the horned girl, an ashen feather drifting slowly from the skies above coming to rest in front of his eyes.

The jets on his Franxx spluttered to a stop, the large machine tumbling down towards the smooth white floors before he caught himself, the metal screeching as he just barely managed to keep himself from collapsing.

He spat blood from his mouth as he slowly forced his way back to his knees. Unfortunately for him, the battery in the pistil seat didn't take the damage of a Franxx like normal pistils did. They served only to connect, the burden of piloting placed entirely on his shoulders.

And what a burden it was. It felt like all of his muscles were screaming in exhaustion as he pushed them and the Franxx beyond their limit. As the mech's inner workings screeched against each other he could feel the muscles in his leg begin to fray and tear from each other. But he couldn't give up now. He was too close.

He had managed to get here after escaping a horde of klaxosaurs. He had been tempted to slaughter them, but the instructions that he was given were clear. No conflict. And they weren't to be disobeyed. So instead he had to narrowly avoid the wrath of the Klaxosaurs as he wormed his way into the facility.

At least moving down the white halls was smooth sailing, if tedious. At least there was no one to fight here. Just him, his Franxx, and his thoughts. Thoughts about what sort of mission he would be doing after this. Or whether he would be able to upgrade his Franxx after proving himself. Or about how damn heavy the weight on his left was.

He had severely underestimated the weight of what had been welded to his Franxx. His balance was off, which made every staggering step leagues harder than it needed to be, or should have been, as he walked down the halls.

But he was here, and he would carry out his duty. He was a Franxx pilot damnit. One of the protectors, one of the strong. He had to carry out his orders. And carry them out he would.

His Franxx came to a stop in front of a large door. It was smooth and white, gleaming as if it was polished that morning. And it probably was all things considered. Reaching forward, he put some codes into the arm of the chair he was in, watching as they were transmitted, and the door slowly began to withdraw into the roof above him.

As the white door split apart and began to slide away, a vibrant glow peaked through the cracks, before pouring out in massive quantities as the dam was broken. It was a warm, golden light. It danced across the Franxx armor and his skin, warming him to his core.

His lips curled upwards as he stepped inside of the room, sending a code to shut the door behind him as he slowly made his way further into the golden light.

Space was cold she had decided.

Decisions weren't things she took lightly. Everything was calculated from the beginning, weighed against itself and other alternatives every step of the way as she worked. It took over a hundred years for her to reach that decision. Over a hundred years of being separated from the struggles on her home planet, over a hundred years of floating in the inky blackness as she worked with her companions to come up with a solution to all the problems that plagued humanity.

She took a deep breath in, grimacing as the processed air filled her lungs before pushing out a shaky stream of air through her nose as she came to yet another decision. Over a hundred years for her to realize that they were wrong.

It wasn't her fault she had been strung along this far, really. Papa was, if anything, charismatic. He knew how to play the game. So well in fact, that by the time it came for her to agree to the plans he and the others had set forward, she couldn't help but agree with him. It wasn't as if she could see any flaws, and subpar reasoning in his plans. So what if children were raised only to be sacrificed to the wolves. It was for the greater good of humanity. It was an ugly necessity.

She had agreed when she had been told they would be treated excellently in exchange for this service that they were forced to provide. It was the least they could do in return for the children she argued to the others. They had agreed of course. None of them were happy with this solution. But it was necessary.

Necessary, necessary, necessary. A funny word. A powerful word. With it one could excuse any atrocity or crime they had committed. After all, what was the death of a nation, what was the death of 7 billion humans, compared to the necessary survival of a species. Of humanity.

That was what Papa had said. Thats why they had agreed to all of this. It was necessary after all. No one wanted to send children out to die. But with everyone having taken the immortality serum, its not as if they had a choice. No, it was necessary to send them out to fight and protect humanity from the klaxosaur threat. It was necessary to sacrifice the many for the few that would guarantee humanities survival. It was necessary for them to use magma energy to pull humanity out of its rut to where it was now.

Really, all along, all that was necessary was that she agreed, and kept quiet like a good little girl while Papa took care of the rest.

She idly fingered her communicator, looking at rows among rows of videos. The first had caused her to feel a pit in her stomach, the second had caused that same pit to bubble violently. She could still feel the acid in her throat. There were a hundred and fifty three videos in all. She knew because each of those hundred and fifty three videos she had watched. She couldn't rip her eyes from the screen, couldn't stop herself from watching as the children they were raising to fight klaxosaurs were "taken care of". Each of those hundred and fifty three videos had a name. Not a code number, a name. Every single one was of a different child. From Derrick to Lily.

She had watched, horrified, as the procedures for the children progressively grew more cruel. It ended with the hundred and fifty third video. It was labeled with a code, unlike the rest. Code 002 it had winkled at her. That was the only one she couldn't handle. Because she realized very quickly that it wasn't a recording. It was a stream, the numbers in the corner ticking along in time with her own alarm. She watched helplessly in real time the first experiment on that stream.

"You'll know what to do with these. I thought you might want to see them. Seeing as you're one of the reasons this is happening. - W. Franxx"

She lowered the communicator and looked down at her scarred planet. The words stung at her then, and they stung at her now. Her blue eyes peered through the window as she looked down at the red planet, swaths of green gone. Instead, the only visible structure she could see was the Garden. That accursed facility where she had damned generations of children to fight to their deaths. It sprawled across the country side, a distance so vast that she could see it from space.

She really wished she couldn't.

The facility, once the crowning jewel of their parasite program, was now something she looked at with scorn. And she could swear that somedays, it reciprocated that feeling. Whenever she caught a good glimpse of it she could almost feel a murderous intent from the Garden, the lights in its center throbbing much like her head did. A rather violent sensation really. You'd think being immortal would rid you of these problems.

A shrill beeping noise rang in her ears, dragging her out of her thoughts. The window in front of her changed to the view of a man with broad shoulders. A collar worked its way up and surrounded his head, which was covered in a black mask. Gorilla.

"Marmoset. Come to the meeting chambers immediately. 57 has been compromised."

She nodded and quickly moved her hands over her own mask, setting the brown and black metal over her face as she disconnected from the call and moved towards the lift that would take her to the meeting place.

This had better be necessary.

She didn't know why she had chosen today to visit that rotting excuse for a human. It was a hunch; a feeling. But it had worked out well enough she decided, as she held the ball of black and red in her arms. A day later and her plans would have already been killed before she even had a chance to visit.

Speaking of which… her eyes narrowed as she looked around her, her spindly appendages dripping with the gore of the "humans" that had threatened such a fate. She was going to have to talk about this with that shell.

The ball in her arms whimpered and reached across her body, calling out softly at a slumped figure halfway buried in the snow. Ah, right. She had felt nine humans here, and only killed eight. Slowly, she lowered the ball to the ground, watching as it quickly lunged across the ground, grabbing at the figures limbs and pulling him out of the freezing earth.

She blinked. Was that a child? What was it doing here? She stood there in thought as the red horned girl dragged him over, looking down as she babbled something incoherently; tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

Fine, another vermin wouldn't be too much for her to bear with. It was obvious he was important to the horned one, and unlike those fakes that ran this place; she preferred her plans to be happy before she used them.

Gently, she reached down and picked the both of them up, holding them against her chest as she used her appendages to cross the garden quickly. She scaled up the black tower without pause, avoiding the gaze of any eyes as she slipped through a entrance only she knew about. An entrance that deposited her directly in front of a slouched man with a metal face and chin, and a metal arm that resonated weakly with her heart.

"001. I was wondering when you would visit." The man leaned away from the microscope he had been hunched over, turning his chair towards her. "I see you've noticed our two little runaways.

I would advise you to keep better track of her from now on. The guards out there were prepared to kill her.

"Oh I know. I went ahead and gave the order too."

The air in the room seemed to solidify, becoming thick with anger as the woman slowly put down the two children she had been carrying next to her and leaned over the desk, grabbing his tie and pulling him forward. Why

"Because I recognized your signal was approaching."

She snorted. Always playing games with fate are we Doctor.

"Indeed." He looked at her drily before leaning back, the tie ripping as it gave way beneath his concealed strength. "Why don't we stop with the games for now 001. Why are you here."

I wanted to see how our plan was developing. It doesn't seem to be going quite as well as I hoped.

"No.. It doesn't." The doctor looked down and eyed the two children, noting how the red horned one was curled tight against he boys chest. 016 was it? The trouble maker that had given everyone names? An interesting combination.

I know you're going to wipe their memories Werner. I would suggest disposing of the boy before things get out of hand. Again.

"Absolutely not."

She raised a brow. Why

"Call it a whim. But I'm interested to see how the bond between the two might grow in the future. He might be useless now that he has your blood inside of him, but that doesn't make him any less of an anomaly than he was before."

I am not interested. We arranged this girl to help my plans, not for strange children to go gallivanting off with her and almost get her killed.

The man in front of her sighed, pulling the shredded remnants of his tie as he turned towards a computer screen flickering with data. "He could be helpful to both of us you know."

She restrained a bark of laughter. And how would that be.

"He has something in him more than any of the other children has. An unbeatable drive, an indomitable spirit. Unquenchable thirst. If he has potential in the future, and im positive he does; it would be a shame to squander it here. Hes already put in his lot with this girl. Meaning hes already put in his lot with you."

She turned her eyes to the boy, absorbing every detail of his childish face. If what the doctor was saying was true then there was no real reason to terminate the boy. That in itself was satisfactory. She never did appreciate meaningless deaths. And it would make her red counterpart very happy.

Very well.

"Good. Now, youre going to need to leave. The geezers are calling me about something to do with Plantation 57."

57? But I haven't ordered any attacks on any plantations in the past week. I was planning for a counter offensive the week after next, when they had let down their guard.

"I know 001. You discussed this with me thoroughly. But regardless, 57 is compromised. Destroyed even. You should go, I can't let this get out and they will call at any time.

She nodded before using her appendages to suspend herself in the secret exit. She spared one last glance at the two, hidden behind the Doctors desk. Their memories would be wiped. There was no doubt about that. But if what the doctor had said was true, then it would only be a matter of time before the cards began to play in her favor.

She hoped that he was right. She could use some good news.

"Welcome to the world of the living 154."

His eyes shot open as the voice spoke into his ear. He flexes his muscles, chomping his jaws together to get used to the sensation.

"You did well. Despite the loss of the Franxx, you managed to complete your objective. As such, we aim for these new attachments to serve you better. Please step forward."

The fluid around him began to drain, sucked down to who knows where as the glass lowered as well. Once it was empty he took another step forward, and another; balancing himself on his new legs with only one arm. This body was in rather good condition compared to his previous one. It was only missing an arm; he must've done much better than he thought.

He watched the shadowy figures move amongst themselves as they machines attached a prosthetic to his right side. Only small grunts of discomfort escaped his tight lips as the metal was attached to his nerves. He moved towards the door way before a voice stopped him.

"One more thing."

He turned around, unable to make out the face through the condensation clinging to the glass.

"Welcome home 153"

He grinned, baring his teeth in response before resuming his walk, shutting the door behind him.

They still needed him.