Achtung!

If you're just here for more warm and fuzzies like the first chapter, you might want to steer clear, and pretend that was just a one shot. This is aiming to be more or less a full-on sequel to DitF, and it's not going to be all easy going. You've been warned.

Two teenagers sat in a waiting room. The boy's shaggy black hair concealed his eyes as he gazed at the clock on his PDA. Only a few more minutes until the treatment.

The girl sitting anxiously next to him, spurred on by his small movement, finally turned to face him, asking merely "Why?"

"Why what?" was the monotone response.

"Why do you keep doing this to yourself, Hiro? They're breaking you. And for what? Why do you let them keep hurting you, just so you can pilot?"

"Because I need to… be here. On the carrier."

"What's so important to you about being here? Please. Watching you do this to yourself hurts. We'd miss you, but I'm sure they'll find more pilots. We're worried about you." I'm worried about you.

Hiro finally showed some vestige of emotion. His face clouded as he concentrated his thoughts. "I… I don't know either", he concluded, but then resolve flashed on his face. "It doesn't matter. I know it's something important. I will stay here, whatever it takes. Please, Cho, just leave it at that. Okay?"

Cho seemed ready to argue the point further, but a door opened and the familiar face of a doctor came through. "Hiro, they're ready for you," she stated, and Hiro quickly stood and marched toward the door. The doctor didn't hurry to follow. Seeing that, once again, Cho had come along as well, she sighed slightly and sat in the seat that Hiro had just vacated.

"You need to quit beating yourself up over Hiro, Cho."

"Doctor Sara, why is Hiro still in the duo piloting program? Really. Doing this is killing him." Cho's eyes were starting to tear up, the meager façade she'd kept up in front of Hiro crumbling. "What benefit is there in keeping him here?"

"We've been over this before, Cho," Sara replied wearily, "Hiro has the highest sync potential we've ever measured. We know the VIRM weren't fully defeated, and we need to be ready for them."

"Yeah, that's what the Bifrost was built for, I know. But where does Hiro factor into all that?"

"The Doppelsoldners are going to be critical to any fighting, and we don't have enough pilots for them. Hiro could be the best pilot, if we can keep him synced with anyone long enough. And studying him while we do could help us increase others scores, as well. Hiro could be a key factor in winning the war we're facing. I know it seems cruel, but needs must when the devil dances".

With that, she stood to leave, but Cho tried one last approach. "What happened to this being an 'all volunteer' force?" she asked plaintively, tears beginning to flow freely now.

Before going through the door, Sara turned back and shot a meaningful look to Cho.

"I think you already know the answer to that one, too" was all she said before the door closed behind her.

I once knew where my life was headed. I'd finally found what I was looking for. But now…

-System timing out-

-Einherjar shutting down-

-Pilot-system integration below activation level-

The pilot blinked against the light and disorientation as the testbed cracked open and their mind was booted back into their own body instead of the simulated robot body they had been trying to connect to.

That same pilot now stood outside, looking at a slip of paper.

"Due to low synchronization aptitude, the SDF does not require your service. Thank you."

"Does not require your service."

The paper crumpled and the former pilot's fist shook.

Zero Two slammed her empty fist into the wall, and hot, angry tears rolled off her face.

As soon as she arrived back at her family's apartment, she turned the TV on to a random station and turned up the volume until it was nearly painful. When she subsequently dove onto the couch and screamed into the pillow for all she was worth, the TV succeeded in covering the noise.

Eventually her voice grew hoarse, and her eyes painfully dry, and she fell into an exhausted sleep after wearing herself out, attempting to fall out of the real world. For what felt like the first time in ages, she dreamt.

A jumble of images assailed her. They felt like fragments of memories, yet were nothing like anything she'd ever experienced. Eventually the whirl slowed down, and she found herself watching a true memory, something she had seen before. One of her most cherished memories, but now her torment.

The boy seemed on the verge of crying, but also happy. They hadn't seen each other as often as they'd hoped, but they still managed to see one another regularly. But now that was about to end. He'd taken some kind of test, that said he could pilot a mecha on the jump carrier under construction in orbit. They were taking him away. Away from her!

But Hiro didn't seem as worried. He smiled, full of fragile confidence. "Don't cry, Zero Two! We'll see each other again, I know it. I'll be waiting for you, on the Bifrost!"

Zero Two woke back up, but her eyes stayed closed. It hurt. Ever since he'd gone, she'd known that she just had to follow him to the stars and they'd be reunited. But now that dream was dashed. She hadn't made it into the pilot program, and wasn't going to the carrier. An old nervous habit manifested itself as she started chewing on her nails again, a seething mixture of anxiety, frustration, and anger.

Eventually, the front door opened and her mother swooped in, smothering her in sympathy and a warm embrace. "Aw, baby, I heard what happened. I know getting into the program was really important to you…"

Her older sister, in her own way, showed sympathy by trying to avoid the subject. She slunk into the room behind their mother, and faux-casually dropped herself onto the couch (and onto Zero Two's feet). Picking up and toying with the remote, she asked, "Hey, 'Two, watcha watching? Didn't think you were into documentaries."

Zero Two's attention was drawn to the TV, as well. She'd chosen something random, avoiding anything she might have actually wanted to watch under normal circumstances. It appeared to be a pseudo-documentary, questioning the origins of a certain desert. "…so its location should make it a fertile land. Despite this, and for no reason scientists have yet been able to determine, almost nothing grows here. Even compared to other deserts, the Howling Desert is virtually lifeless."

Zero Two's sister and mother continued to try to distract and comfort her, but she was barely paying attention. Her eyes had locked onto one of the shots of the desert in the show. A matching image behind her eyes was re-igniting another old feeling.

Wanderlust.

Cho had finally calmed down. There were no more tears, though her eyes remained somewhat red. She managed to project a smile, though obviously fake, when Hiro finally came back out. Hiro had an even more blank expression on his face than he had before his 'treatment', though his face turned to puzzlement at seeing the obvious signs of Cho's emotional state.

"Where you crying, Cho? Is something wrong?"

Cho had to clamp down on her emotions even harder not to burst into tears again. "It's… It's nothing. Let's just go back to the provisional pilot barracks." She reached for his hand, hesitated, and grabbed his forearm and started to drag him away, conveniently concealing her face from his.

Zero Two only looked back over her shoulder once at her home of 16 years. She loved her family, but she still had to leave. She hadn't told them that she was going, let alone where, because they would have tried to stop her, and it would have been too easy to let them. That was also why she only allowed herself one look. Leaving was harder than she'd thought it would be.

The lie she'd left in a note on the kitchen table would probably buy her the rest of the day; she'd have to be out of town before anyone realized she wasn't coming back. They'd know she'd run left when they realized what she'd taken with her.

Zero Two adjusted the straps of her backpack, containing a few essentials and prized possessions. A simple metal pendant hung from a chain around her neck; her personal good luck charm from childhood. Pulling her hat down to hide her eyes, and reduce the temptation to look back again, she briefly touched her pendant and set off. Despite the setback she had encountered the day before, she felt more confident, more sure that she was on the path that would lead her to Hiro, than she had in years.

Author's Notes

Yeah, I know it's cliché to have important information come up on TV by 'coincidence'. I couldn't think of a better way to pave Zero Two's path quickly, and other things I wanted to do with the scenes made having the TV be on be at least somewhat natural.

I debated a bit on using Hiro and Zero Two's names as-is; the likelihood of their re-incarnations sharing their names is low, to say the least, and Zero Two doesn't exactly come across as a 'normal' name. That's why I didn't put their names in the 'prologue' bit; I hadn't made my mind up yet. I decided to stick with them because, by necessity, this story is going to be almost all original characters; if I gave them new names as well, it'd feel like I might as well be writing something totally unrelated. I've also got a plan to make Zero Two's name seem more normal within the 'new world' that's been built. Some of the elements of that are already present; I hope they aren't too subtle.