Won't make you guys wait for this one either, mostly because (and I'm knocking on wood as I type this) the next two chapters shouldn't take that long to edit and finalize. I've been waiting to reveal the ending to this story for two years now; I quite literally dream of chapters 23 and 24. Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on how much you hate cliffhangers - both chapters do need to be posted together, so the wait from now to then may be a bit longer. When you read them, I'm sure you'll understand. If I posted 23 by itself I'd very well be risking death threats. Make of that what you will.
With this chapter, the foreshadowing is complete. The build up is in place, the pieces to the puzzle have been revealed, and all that remains is putting it together. I'm planning on whipping up a final author's note to stick in a separate page/chapter at the very end to detail what went into the story, why I wrote it in the first place, and what my plans are post-MitF. I won't talk about any plot-related stuff, though. No fun in that! Figure it out!
Until then, to preserve the sanctity and immersion of the final two chapters (yes, I really do take it that seriously), this will be the final author's note. So to all of you who have stuck with this story over the years, to all of you who have left reviews both criticizing and praising the decisions I've made, and to every single one of you who has ever taken the time out of your busy lives to read Mastermind in the FranXX:
Thank you.
"So mine, um, are Genix and Stavani." Kokoro cupped her cheek in thought. " I'm... pretty sure they were engineers of some sort? I don't remember them talking about it much. They were too interested in me!"
"Oh," Ikuno grunted. She massaged her forehead with the ice bag. "That explains the gun."
"What about Chlorophytum? Can you remember anything or is the headache still bad?"
They couldn't remember the last time Ikuno actually blushed, but, well, there it was.
"They were forward scouts!"
Miku prodded her. "Their names, silly, their names!"
Ikuno's face scrunched up, and with a malevolent sort of energy she grabbed a piece of paper, a quill and set about scrawling. She shoved it across the table to the other pistils and proceeded to bury her face in her free arm.
...
"Pff-"
"D-Don't laugh, damn it!"
But the moment passed and quiet discomfort settled in its stead. Kokoro gave Miku a sympathetic glance.
"You don't have to if you don't want to, Miku."
"It's fine!" she blurted, perhaps a bit too loudly. "It's... it's fine. From the notes you guys brought back, they were Argen and Teana, frontline combatants specialized in close combat. But, um, went I was brought there I didn't speak with them. The stupid doctor told me they were sleeping or something."
Ikuno frowned. "That's rude. Didn't they pick you?"
The redhead chewed her lip. "Th-The file said something had happened to Argen. Teana had moments where she'd wake up, and the others would fill her in. Maybe she picked then, I dunno. But... I..." She bowed her head. "I wish I knew her reason..."
Across the room, the stamen shared strange looks. Zorome, ever the socially inept, chose to voice their thoughts.
"Why'd they only bring you guys, anyway?"
Futoshi gave him an elbow. "Zorome!"
"Because the pistils are the body."
Nana stood in the hospital room's doorway. The parasites blinked, processed, and...
"N-NANA?!"
The older woman brought a finger to her lips. "Shhh! Jeez, why does everyone respond like that? I'm not dead, kids!"
"Y-Y-You're not gonna b-bring us back, are you?!" Futoshi stammered. "We're not going!"
The finger became a palm against her face. "Nothing of the sort, Futoshi. I couldn't if I wanted to."
"Huh?"
"Asphodel's already registered the lot of you as citizens. It'd create a diplomatic incident."
"That sort of thing has never stopped APE before," Mitsuru drawled.
Sighing, Nana entered the room with a rolling suitcase and took a moment to open one of its pockets. She pulled out a small keycard.
"Want me to prove it? Stick out your ankles."
A minute later, their trackers lay on the floor, deactivated and inert.
"Now," she continued. "As I was saying, the pistils were linked to the Franxx because they needed the most direct connection. They represent the body and the stamen, the mind. Furthermore, girls, you were chosen quite early. I don't think it needs to be said to anyone here that at that time, partner pairings were still years away. Your... experiences, shall we say, are the exception, not the rule."
Mitsuru jumped at the chance for more information. "And the Franxx - did they have a choice in this? Or are we all pawns in the doctor's schemes?"
"I'll admit we're all 'pawns' in this, Mitsuru, Hachi and myself included, but you are placing the blame at the wrong person's feet. The doctor is a co-conspirator, perhaps, but he is not the cause of all this."
"Then who? I somehow doubt Papa's involvement."
Nana held out a hand. "Give me the files first."
"Files?"
She glanced at the inert trackers. Mitsuru grimaced and nodded to Futoshi, who pulled several manila envelopes from behind a nearby bookshelf.
"Give them back," the taller boy grunted. "We need to burn them later."
"Yes, yes."
The coordinator rifled through their contents, then pulled out a pair of sheets. She held the first up for the room's viewing. Front and center rested a picture of, well, an actual, framed picture: a family photograph, to be exact, of two horned adult humans and a teenage girl situated in between. All three were nothing but toothy smiles. Nana pointed at the adults.
"These are your supposed masterminds, right here: Strellic and his wife, Elizia. Or, as you would better know them..."
She held up the second file, featuring a very familiar machine.
One could hear a pin drop.
"...Strelizia."
"No fuckin' way!" Zorome blurted. "Hold on, wait - you're tellin' me the guys in - those runaway psychos, their adoptive parents planned this shit?!"
Nana shrugged. "So the doctor claims."
Ikuno's eyes focused elsewhere. "Who's the girl?"
"Hm?"
"The girl in the first picture. Is she their daughter?"
Nana took another glance. "Doctor Frank never explicitly told Hachi or myself about Strelizia's potential familial relations, but judging from the picture I'd hazard a guess and say it's probable."
"And was that girl not the same one shown in that briefing? Before we went to Garden and all this stuff happened?"
A wicked grin spread across the older woman's face. "Scout's daughter indeed, Ikuno."
"That's why they picked me?"
"Out of Hiro's class, you were judged the most observant; Kokoro, the most curious; Miku, the most proactive; and Ichigo, the most empathetic. Speaking of which, where are Ichigo and Goro?"
A switch flipped. Squad 13 recoiled in on themselves, like a turtle retreats into a shell.
"We don't know," Kokoro replied.
"Would you like me to check their trackers?"
"Nana, we aren't hiding anything. We genuinely don't know where they are," Miku explained. "Ichigo's been having these-"
Kokoro poked her side. Miku's jaw snapped shut.
"Goro's with her," Mitsuru covered. "I'm sure they'll be back later."
A suspicious glance at the assembled party told Nana that was as far as she'd get. For later, then.
"Alright. To continue on the previous topic, then: Ikuno, your implications are correct. The girl in this photo is the klaxosaur princess."
No Zorome outburst this time.
Futoshi rubbed his forehead. "Okay, just tell us, Nana. How deep in are we? Anything else you wanna tell us? Cause my head's about to explode..."
"Not me," she admitted. Then she poked her head back into the hallway.
"Theta? You can come in now."
"How'd the hell'd this even fuckin' happen?"
Once again she found herself in the Asphodelian outskirts. These soldiers sat under the same trees through which she and Goro trekked.
"'s a loaded question, Wilson. What answer're you lookin' for? A crayon-tier answer? A sir sandwhich answer?"
But why was she here? She expected to see something regarding the doctor's late wife. Hadn't she touched the grave? So who were these soldiers?
"Don't fuck with me, Zack. I build your walls."
On second glance, actually, one of these men, this 'Zack', struck her as vaguely familiar. But it wasn't until she approached for a closer look that she understood why: his armor, she'd seen it before. The markings, the helmet design...
"Yeah, yeah. Fine. You mind if I preach?"
They belonged to Code 090. Kyuma wore othis exact gear during their escape from Garden. But his version suffered from far more dents, more wear and tear and discoloration. The man she observed now wore it better; the horrid, screeching static, likewise, wasn't nearly as prominent.
"Go ahead."
The original owner.
Zack shifted his weight against the tree, then grabbed the rifle to his side.
"Know what this is?"
"'s a rifle, dumbass."
"No it ain't. It's a bow."
Even with the helmet obscuring his features, Ichigo recognized the look Wilson gave him.
"I knew sergeants had shit for brains, but-"
"Fuck you 'n listen."
"Aight."
"What's a rifle do?"
"Shoots shit."
"And a bow?"
"Shoots shit but kinda sucks at it."
Zack dropped the magazine, racked the chamber and searched a moment for the ejected bullet. He held it up in the moonlight.
"Chamber 'n charge're the drawstring. Bullet's an arrow, just smaller. More aerodynamic."
"Soundin' like some big boy chair force officer over here, eh?"
"Fuckin' - look, you seein' what I'm getting at, jackass? The concept's the same. Make sharp rock go fast. Sharp fast rock make big ow."
"Yeah, I getcha. One's less shitty."
"Right. Goes further, too."
"How so?"
What was he getting at?
"Take a... I dunno, a house. Live in it, right?"
"Yeah."
"Protects us from the elements, right? Keeps us warm or gives us shade?"
"Yeah."
"Ain't that a cave?"
...
Wilson paused.
"Hold up, Zack. What're you-"
"Shut up 'n listen."
Wilson leaned forward and listened. Ichigo seated herself against a separate tree, deep in thought.
"We got jobs, right?" the sergeant continued. "We got jobs to make money. Need a job to live. Money buys food, clothing, shelter and some toys if you can afford it."
What he said made sense, but seemed too... philosophical? There had to be some purpose for her to see this, some reason.
"We used to be hunter-gatherers, yeah? 's what them hotshot scientists said. We hunted things. Chased down mammoths 'n threw spears at 'em. Gathered fruits 'n sticks 'n whatever. Then we took the parts and used 'em for shit - food, clothing, shelter 'n cave paintings."
...
Wait, what was he-
Wilson stared at his palms.
"It just bugs me, see? 'n the other week 'fore all this shit went sideways, I was walkin' through the base on my way to a meeting 'cause Sarmaj was gettin' his panties bunched up again, 'n I walked right past them fuckin' Nimitz-class douchecanoes over in the second battalion. You know them pussy munchers, right?"
"Dick in one hand, eyes on the holo?"
"A-fuckin'-ffirm. Them boys were playin' twenty questions or somethin' and one o' their dumbass E-2s puffed up his chest and goes: 'Didja knoooow that if ya took a caveman 'n brought him to the modern day 'n sat his ass down in a Stryker, he could learn t'drive it!'."
"Shoulda shot him."
"'s not the point Wilson. Think about it - what do the scientists call it? 'Anatomically modern humans' or some jazz? Dumbass E-2 was probably right. A caveman could learn to drive it. 'n every time someone says that kinda bullshit, people get real proud. Somethin' like 'fuck yeah humanity!' or whatever. But... the thing is, when you put all this shit together?"
Wilson shifted his position. "You're losin' me, Zack."
"Look, what happened to the mammoth? Went extinct, right?"
Ichigo tensed with the beginnings of a horrible epiphany.
"Yeah. We hunted the sorry things to the end."
"And this shit keeps happenin', y'know? Two years ago it was the cheetah. Few years 'fore that the rhino finally went. Then the tigers 'n wolves 'n bears 'n everything else in between."
A long silence descended. Zack turned his rifle end over end. Ichigo could almost see the cogs turning.
"'n we're still alive. 'n nobody seems to care 'n we just keep going at it. 'cept the scale keeps getting bigger. First it was a dude. Then a family. Then a tribe 'n a city 'n a country. 's all the same thing, ain't it? Just... bigger. We keep goin' bigger... but..."
And just like that, Wilson connected the pieces. His hands clutched his helmet in agony.
"We... what are we..."
When a predator has no threats, the ecosystem begins to flucuate.
"Wilson."
It's an old biological concept, and usually gets brought up when discussing things like conservation and endangered species.
"I just-"
Ichigo loosed a shuddering rasp. Her hands tugged her hair.
"Wilson, look at me."
Occasionally, an individual, such as Sergeant Miller, thinks a bit harder and digs a bit deeper and discovers something often described as disturbing.
"Lemme reset, Zack."
A pattern of sorts. Something that appears a long, long time ago, and continues on and on and on and on-
"We can't do that no more, Wilson. There's nothing left to reset. Not this time."
"What do we do? How do I beat it?"
"I don't know, man. You can see it now, right?"
She rocked against the tree and for the first time really looked at her hands. At their shape. At the digits, the wrinkles and creases and the little hairs poking out.
Each individual cell, interlocked, as part of a working whole, filtering proteins and oxygen and who else knew what without any of her own input. A conglomeration of self-aware molecules.
"What the fuck even am I?"
Wilson took a breath. "I'm just - I don't know how to tell. What do I control? Am I in control? How do I separate myself?"
"I don't think you can, Wilson. You's you, right? But it's... it's like seein' some dude with a rifle, I guess. If you see the dude, you can deal with the dude. All we gotta do is see it. If we see it, we can fight it."
"I don't know enough."
"Zack?"
"We... I need to..."
"Yeah?"
"Have we changed at all?"
...
"If we've changed, would we keep makin' the same damn mistakes?"
Ichigo's hands clenched around nonexistent dirt. Shoulders flexed. Teeth gnawed and mashed. And her head flew up, tearful eyes rabid and crazed, like a wild animal struggling against a rusted, millennia old chain wrapped around its neck.
"I need to see! Everything that led to this point! Every creature's struggle! I want to see it all!"
So she went.
Rarely could mere weather threaten a Franxx. With so much weight behind each step, with a walking gait eclipsing city blocks, how could the simple movement of air or the falling of water disrupt such godlike intent and purpose?
Yet, here the hybrids cowered.
Strelizia slammed its tail into the ice. Emerald optics squinted into the storm; it lifted an arm to guard the cockpit.
Zero Two groaned in misery. "Are we really sure she went this way?!"
"So Strelizia says!" Hiro frowned and flicked through a holographic display slaved to the stamen chair. The machine trailed the snakes' fading magma signature... or, at least, he assumed it belonged to the snakes.
His partner glanced at the ceiling. "Do you know where they're going?"
Strelizia rumbled in response and pulled up another hologram for them to peruse. A map - one which featured their position, then zoomed out and highlighted Elistre's ultimate, hypothetical destination.
Zero Two swallowed a curse and pushed her back into his chest. He pulled her close.
"You've got to be kidding," he grunted.
"She really is suicidal! The Grand Crevasse? Of all the places, she chose the Crevasse?"
She'd been there before. Multiple times, in fact. He'd never been, nor had the rest of Squad 13, and for that they were all thankful.
The stories, they... didn't comfort.
"You wanna bail out? Head back the way we came?"
Hiro could tell she had second thoughts. The lip gnawing, the arms pushed under her chest, the way she flexed her leg and maximized their body contact and all her many quirks indeed told him a blindingly obvious story.
"No..."
He rested his chin on her shoulder and let her work it through. She tilted her head against his.
"If she wanted to just leave her alone, she could've run away to any other place on the planet and led us on a chase until we got the message."
Very true. "You think she has an ulterior motive?"
Strelizia answered in her stead. A mechanized groan echoed through the cockpit, drowning out the wind but for a moment. A new hologram blinked into existence in the center area. Zero Two squinted at the contents.
"Uh... um... d-darling?"
He shook his head, just as confused. "It's alright. I don't get it either."
A blushed dusted her cheeks. She scrolled down. What kind of code was this? What were all these symbols?
The hell was a 'reality coefficient'? 'Dimensional ripples'? 'Magma dispersal ratios'?
Argh! Useless jargon!
"Oh! Oh, oh! I remember that one!" she squeaked. Zero Two pointed a victorious finger at one of the equations. "Energy equals... equals mass times... um..."
He squinted. Right, the... ah... "The speed of light, I think?"
"Yeah! The speed of light squared!"
"But what's the rest of this crap? Something about spacetime?"
She deflated and slumped against him. "I dunno, I hated physics. The doctor sucks at teaching."
"Yeah, I know the feeling. It just gave me a headache. History and biology were more fun."
"Right?!"
As if sensing their confusion, Strelizia assumed control over the scrolling and shifted the information until it reached an entirely too small section dedicated to an explanation of the code. It highlighted a phrase.
Hiro's confusion multiplied. Zero Two narrowed her eyes, suspicion growing by the moment, and read the keywords in silence.
...
"Strelizia?" she groaned. "What are you planning?"
From the pistil terminal emerged those tendrils they knew all too well. They hovered in the air, asking unspoken permission. Hiro and Zero Two shared an exasperated look.
"Alright, fine," he sighed. "Show us."
Tooclosetootightcan'tbreathecan'tthinksomeonehelppleasehelphelphelphel-
There will be times, Ichigo, where you will be at a loss. Where the path will be blocked, where the obstacles will seem insurmountable.
AaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAH-
Indeed, when that happens, fear will be the natural reaction.
Can'tcan'tcan'tcan'tcan'tdoitcan'tdoitwannagohomewannagohomeGoropleaseGoropleasepleasepl-
But know that there is always a way forward. In the dark, look for the flickering light. In the searing heat, there must always be a refreshing shadow.
"But what if I can't find it? What if I can't do it?"
Can'tcan'tcan'tcan't-
Nonsense!
Nonsense! Nonsense! It's all fucking nonSENSE!
We will always have faith, and so should you. You must believe that you are capable. Have confidence.
She could not think. She could not feel. What was thought before the neuron? Sight before the eye? Hopelessness before the void?
We know you can do it. You can do anything. That is why we chose you to be our daughter.
...
...
But that was bullshit, because she dared to think! She lived! She was!
So when you are feeling stressed, and when you feel the world collapsing in around you...
...
Pause, close your eyes, and take a deep breath.
...
...
...
...
...
...
IN THE VOID BEYOND SPACE
IN THAT POINT BEFORE BLACK
THE GIRL INHALED NOTHING
AND FELT SOMETHING CRACK
/
CAME RUPTURE
AND QUIVER
CAME SIGH
AND SHIVER
/
THEN SPOKE THE UNIVERSE
IN WORDS NOT HEARD
"THE TIME IS COME!"
AND IT FLOWED, UNDETERRED
/
ALL REMAINED ONE
YET ONE BECAME ALL
IN THIS, THE FIRST MEMORY
FROM WHICH WE WOULD CRAWL-
Search... search! Hnnnnnnnn, SEARCH!
"What are the saurians trying to do, Strellic?"
There! There, found him! Not this time, no creepiness this time! Nuh uh, no way!
Something grabbed her hand. He grabbed her hand!
"Zero Two!"
"I'm here!"
He blinked into existence before her; Zero Two glomped him.
"Whoa!"
"Ickygross time travel trying to steal my darling!"
All he could do was grin. Some things never changed.
"I... we think they're trying to find answers."
"Answers to what?"
Zero Two blinked. "Wait. Isn't that Elistre's dad?"
...
"What?"
Oh yeah, he'd never seen the picture! "Remember those pictures I told you about?"
"Yeah?"
"That guy-" She leveled the man, Strellic, with an accusatory finger. "-was in one of them! A family photo! Elistre with her mom and dad!"
He squinted. "Yeah... yeah, I can see the resemblance."
A bead of sweat descended Strellic's temple. He gripped the table's edge. "I don't know."
The lion's diagnostic information crawled across computer terminals like some sort of data-bound eldritch horror. Hiro and Zero Two took sight of the lab, eyes wide.
Argen refused to accept the non-answer. "Now's not the time for your bullshit, man."
"I don't know, Argen! Any scientist would say the same! This is so far beyond - mortal minds cannot comprehend the problems we are facing! Okay? There's your answer!"
"This is..."
"Remember the story Elistre told us?" Zero Two asked.
He nodded. "And they became Strelizia, right?"
"Mhm, which means this is-"
"-what happened before."
Argen took a step back. "And... and Elizia doesn't know either?"
"There are no answers to be found. The question has no answers because the answers run contrary to everything in existence."
...
"They screwed up, didn't they, darling?"
Mechanical screeching echoed in the distance.
"Y-Yeah. I think they did."
"So... so the saurians..."
Nothing made sense... because they broke sense.
"Inputs and outputs. We put in materials and they refine it into a workable product. But this? The output..."
Strellic swallowed.
"Can't be found?" Argen suggested.
"The output doesn't exist."
A shivering woman shuffled in from the cave's extension, in which the lion remained chained. Her arms wrapped around herself to try and stave off the existential dread.
"That's Elizia," Zero Two murmured. "Her mom."
"The problem itself can't exist," the woman continued. "It flies in the face of... of everything. Something is not something. Zero plus zero cannot equal one. In a closed vacuum everything works as it should, but we're past that now."
Hiro shook his head in disbelief. "The hell did they do? They're talking like... like they broke reality or something."
Argen took a shaky breath. "Okay. How did this happen, anyway?"
The bonded couple shared a look, their expressions beyond terrified. Strellic ran a trembling hand through his hair.
"We drilled too deep."
Fire and ash replaced nitrogen and oxygen. It filled her lungs, fueled her tortured thoughts, burned away the nonexistent strength with which she stood waist-deep in the lava coating the planet.
Upwards she leered through charred, sweat-slicked hair, beyond the molten rivers and broiling rock, to a sky painted crimson. Meteors carved hellish swathes through the smoke.
And lo! Descended upon her almighty Theia: planet-killer; life-seeder; bringer of the tides!
"Seismograph probe complete!"
"Put the results on the main monitor."
The lights flickered overhead - a result of the drained magma energy. The technicians kept enough in Plantation 2 to prevent a total shutdown, but the systems were, in essence, on life support. The sensor sweep came from Plantation 1; it would be the last ever performed.
Alpha and the Nines stood ready in the control room, outfitted in their parasite suits and ready at a moment's notice to run for the exit. The walls shook, but not from any such enemy assault. Friendly forces continued to hollow out the interior city; the hangar simply could not fit the needed number of Franxx.
A hotwired, thrown together plan, to be sure, but between the plantation's residual signature and the magma in the Franxx, Alpha hoped the klaxosaurs would take the bait. Especially if-
The data blinked into appearance. A predatory grin split the clone's features.
"As I suspected."
Gamma pulled a finger from the ear, a tad bit impressed. "They've really gone all in on this thing, huh?"
Beta nodded. "Whatever their plans are, it seems they've fully committed. I dare say this is it."
The seismograph readings matched the ones recorded during Chrysanthemum's destruction. Humanity's guess proved accurate: to retrieve the plantations' magma, the klaxosaurs would deploy the Gaia.
Win or lose, survival or death. Every card on the table. Both sides, all in. No more stakes, no more reinforcements, no more scrounging for magma or scraping together spare parts for yet another push.
"Speed up the Franxx boarding," Alpha ordered. "I want this thing ready to move in six hours!"
It ended here.
"This makes no sense."
"Now."
"Eh?"
Who were these people?
"Now," the man repeated. "This makes no sense now. But there has to be a set of principles explaining our current situation. There always is. The universe does not run on magic."
The woman scratched her cheek and leaned against the lab table. Ichigo peeked over her shoulders; a dozen papers and reports littered the area, each filled to the margins with technical jargon and obscure mathematical equations. The poor girl understood nothing.
"Has Strelizia found anything else we could use? Any more data? Analysis files? Uploaded research papers?"
Wait - what?!
The man shook his head, then stuffed his hands deeper into the lab coat's pockets. "You already know their answer, Karina. They're in the dark almost as much as we are. The vast majority of their work has been lost. 'Life itself' is not a valid hypothesis, and they know it."
Ichigo stumbled into a vacant chair. Another researcher scribbled something on a whiteboard nearby, wholly oblivious to her existence.
Karina - Frank's wife. Dead. He said she wad dead. She died in... in a... um...
An accident with a Franxx prototype! Right! So that man, could he be-
"We all know that, Werner, but it's all we have to go on. Maybe we should run another test with the telomere samples?"
Her head screamed at her. Ichigo pushed against the incessant throbbing, determined to listen in on their conversation.
"It's worth a shot. Keep me updated, will you?"
Karina rolled her eyes. "Conference call again?"
Werner slumped. "More questions about the prototype, undoubtedly."
"What an asshole."
"He means well. He's just..."
"An asshole?"
Werner grinned despite himself, helpless against her wolfish sarcasm. "I'll see you later."
Karina graced him with a radiant smile. "Don't be home too late. Movie night, remember?"
"Of course."
Ichigo blinked, found herself displaced across the fabric of reality, and spilled her stomach's contents onto the floor.
She knew not the date nor time, but the lab remained the same. Dull, bleak night, now. A hazy orange glow breached the nearby window. Karina stood hunched over the same table, bags under her eyes, sipping on a mug of caramel-brown sludge.
Ichigo wiped her mouth and glanced at the floor. The vomit no longer existed.
Of course it didn't.
To regain her composure she took a stroll around the room. New formulae crisscrossed the whiteboards - someone had taken a marker to the window, too - and hastily marked folders filled bookshelves and file cabinets. One read 'Associations: General Relativity'. Another: 'Quantum Instabilities'.
Ichigo tried reaching for the one labeled 'Life Itself', but soon discovered she simply could not. She extended her hand, and the file shrank away. The distance remained set, the knowledge forever out of grasp, her answers eternally elusive.
A scowl creased her exhausted features. She bit back a curse...
"I'm not a fucking physicist!"
...right as the dead woman let one rip.
Ichigo whirled around.
"Is this, like, dark energy or some shit?! This is so fucking beyond my pay grade! What the fuck is Strelizia even thinking? A biologist can't help them! Their efforts would be better spent resurrecting Albert fucking Einstein!"
And witnessed humanity's saving hour.
"No one on this thrice-damned planet could ever hope to comprehend such utter nonsense! Magma shouldn't even exist! Its entire existence is an anomaly! We can't detect any particles, yet can somehow get accurate measurements! It makes people immortal, yet pulling it from the literal ground somehow kills off ninety-nine percent of all life! It apparently makes klax forging machinery go batshit insane, yet also grants them sapience if applied properly!"
On and on she went.
"Nothing makes sense! Physics don't apply to it! Natural laws don't apply to it! Evolution doesn't apply to it! It's beyond all the boundaries, like some sort of bullshit magical energy! Fuck's sake, oh my God, it even somehow freezes living cells in-"
The coffee cup dropped to the floor. It shattered like all their futures combined.
...
"Oh my God..."
Yes, indeed: no one would remember Karina Frank.
No one would remember the year.
No one would remember the month.
No one would remember the day.
No one would remember the hour.
No one would remember the minute.
No one would remember the second-
"It freezes the cells in time."
-in which Karina Frank saved them all.
"I... I a-am Nine-Theta. I am... I am the half-sister of Nine-Iota."
Mitsuru's jaw dropped, but the others only looked confused.
"...who?" Zorome asked.
"Zero Two! She means Zero Two!"
"Wait, whaaaaat?!"
Ikuno interrupted. "Weren't you with the group that separated them back in Garden?"
Theta's eyes found the ground. "Y-Yes. We, the Nines, are... we are all her siblings. We are q-quarter hybrids. Seventy-five human, twenty-five klaxosaur."
"Klax," Nana corrected. Theta shifted, unsure of what she meant, then continued.
"Iota's genetic code was used as the base for our creation, then was further altered with genes from additional human donors."
Futoshi shook his head in disbelief. "He really is a madman."
"Why are you sharing this with us?" Kokoro questioned. "It seems... um... personal?"
"W-Well... um..." Theta squared her shoulders. "I... I need your help!"
...
She didn't elaborate. Miku cleared her throat. "W-With?"
The clone balled her hands, squeezed her eyes shut, and let it loose, volcanic eruption-style.
"My... my family is in danger! Alpha and the others are going to die at the Grand Crevasse even if they win! We've known for a long time! We just want to survive! We just want to live but we're just defective clones and we're not as good as Iota and she knows how to survive and find food and we don't and we want to learn and she never teaches us or talks to us because she doesn't trust us and she hates us and she's always trying to run away to look for 'darling' or whatever and we didn't know he was like her and we don't know anything and we're only good at fighting klaxosaurs and and... and...!"
The girl broke down and wailed.
...
"You... you guys are like us?"
She turned to Futoshi, cheeks red and eyes puffy. "H-Huh?"
"You're like us, but with Zero Two instead of Hiro. He never told us anything either. Once those two found each other, they just..."
"They ran away," Mitsuru finished. "An expected outcome."
"It was intentional."
All eyes rested on Nana. She tapped her foot against the wooden floor, arms crossed and unamused.
"Your two squads are relatively similar, yes. You're the guards."
"Guards?"
"Hiro and Zero Two are... well, they're tools. Bargaining chips. In exchange for their existence - the continuation of the klax genetic lineage - the klaxosaurs promised to assist the doctor with his plan. Quit ea simple strategy, really, but until they were capable enough to escape, they needed to be kept separate and safe. Frank theorized they would attempt an escape within months once they'd been reunited."
She gestured to Squad 13. "He embedded Hiro with his friends, the only other bonds he had." Then to Theta. "Zero Two was placed with her pseudo-family, the Nines, who kept her leashed, just barely. Zero Two was by far the greater risk. Were the reports included in those files?"
Mitsuru shook his head. "No, but I've seen them. Every report in her file before the reunion features some combination of APE property destruction, the ignoring of orders, AWOL behavior, and death, both of battlefield allies and especially her stamen partners."
Theta wrung her hands. "Each day she'd try to escape. She never slept. She'd disappear into every new plantation we arrived at and search it top to bottom. Crawl spaces, Mistleteinn, didn't m-matter. Beta, Gamma and... and Epsilon often had to physically subdue her for her own safety. She said... she said Strelizia whispered to her. That it suggested where to look."
Nana paled. "That was... never reported."
"We... we told the doctor..."
Nana went silent.
"Nana?"
"That idiot," she growled. Nana pulled out her communicator and dialed a number.
...
"Hachi, how far out are you?"
...
"Okay, listen. Do you still have access to the doctor's database?"
...
"Send me the info on the lion, please. I need to check something."
...
"Thanks, see you in a few. Bye."
The children's concern grew. Miku spoke up. "Nana? What's wrong?""
She slumped in her chair. "You're sure she said it was Strelizia, Theta?"
Theta nodded. "It... it happened all the t-time. We thought it was just Iota being Iota."
The older woman bit her lip in frustration. "So Hachi and I were right. We knew it was acting strange, but for it to be awake for so long..."
"This has something to do with stampede mode, doesn't it?" Mitsuru drawled.
Nana nodded.
"Doctor Frank knowingly sealed her in with an active saurian, when her bonded partner was potentially hundreds of kilometers away, and with no core that could serve as a buffer or an emergency self-destruct in case it went rogue."
Ikuno frowned. "And a saurian is what, exactly?"
"Do you remember the kissing operation? With Plantation 26?"
Nana's communicator beeped. She took a moment to scroll through a file.
"Wait," Futoshi realized. "Wait, you mean when Strelizia went berserk? And the klaxosaurs freaked out?"
Nana tapped on a picture and held it up for all to see. Strelizia, faceplate lifeless, stood amid an onslaught of Conrad-class klaxosaurs, drenched in blue blood. It held a Conrad torn asunder within its two claws. The tail was a blur, the image having been captured mid-motion.
"That is a saurian."
"Why did the klaxosaurs attack it?" Kokoro asked.
"All this is ancient history far before our time, so details are sketchy," Nana explained. "But from what little the doctor was told and has shared, the saurians were their apocalypse. They exterminated the klax civilization and tried to drain the world of magma energy. The klaxosaurs themselves were a last ditch effort to fight back, a saurian body fueled by two klax souls. Homo klaxo, saurian. Klaxosaur. They tamed them, like we domesticated the dog and other animals."
Zorome gulped. "So... so that growl Miku 'n me heard in Argentea... and when Delphinium howled..."
"The wolverine and wolf, respectively."
Hachi stood in the doorway. Two of his men, APE defectors, flanked him. The parasites shifted, but otherwise didn't react.
They knew a briefing when they saw one.
"And Genista and Chlorophytum?" Kokoro questioned.
"Gorilla and hawk."
"And Strelizia?"
Hachi and Nana shared a glance.
"That machine, supposedly, was the first to touch the magma," Hachi grunted. "The files the doctor left us don't contain much information. Only that it was different from the others, and that it was never tamed. It apparently cooperated with the klax from the beginning. We don't know why."
Nana took a breath and chewed her lip.
"They called it the lion."
Mitsuru grinned, but it wasn't in humor. His voice wavered.
"King of the jungle."
"Werner?"
"Hm?"
"What would you do if I died?"
...
Werner put the pen on the table. To anyone else, a harmless action. But to her it spoke volumes.
Werner didn't express himself. That wasn't to say he didn't feel; on the contrary, he felt passionately about a great many things. But he did not wear his heart on his sleeve. To most of his colleagues he came off as aloof, noncommittal and apathetic. He tended to work while conversing. He multitasked always. And even if you had his full attention, his eyes and body would focus elsewhere, on some problem unseen.
But Werner put his pen down. He stopped working. The stress lines in his cheeks and forehead deepened with worry, and he turned to her, at attention.
"What is this about, Karina?"
He would disapprove. He would argue against this foolish, idiotic plan of hers until his face reddened and he threatened to put her under guard.
She didn't see any other option.
"This is going to sound crazy to you, dear, but I have a hypothesis on the magma."
The arch of his eyebrow suggested she continue. Karina pulled some papers from a manila envelope and set them on the table.
"I believe it is a liquidized byproduct created from the severing of spacetime."
"Impossible," came the immediate reply. "Absolutely impossible."
"Werner, please think about this. It shouldn't exist. It doesn't obey physics."
"It must. Karina, there must be some other explanation. What you're saying... you're suggesting it came about from some sort of hypothetical Big Rip, correct? The levels required - we're talking vacuum energy here, honey, and even that is to this day a conjecture."
"There are too many coincidences. We all have it naturally but in differing quantities; the younger you are, the more you have. If you process it and inject it into living cells, you gain immortality. Not biological immortality, not like Turritopsis dohrnii, but something beyond that. The serum freezes the body in time, Werner, it halts entropy, it stops the degradation of information! Time is a vector for information! After billions of years, biodiversity disappeared in decades. It's like the magma extraction his a reset switch on evolution!"
"Karina, we are talking about the fundamental. We're talking about forces and dimensions. Were a Big Rip to occur, everything down to the subatomic would be torn apart before we could so much as blink. I'm not saying the hypothesis is wrong, but we need to be careful, especially now, in how we go about questioning general relativity and thermodynamics. Have you talked to Strelizia about this?"
"I have."
"And what did they say?"
"They... think it's plausible..."
...
"I know that look on your face. What else is there?"
She resisted the urge to coil in on herself. "They think I should conduct an experiment using the prototype."
Werner was on his feet in a nanosecond. "Absolutely not!"
Knew it. She held up her arms in placation.
"Their reasoning is logical! They believe it could be used as an interface to study the magma firsthand. There's no saurian or klax inside and the system contains no data that could bias the results. It's a blank slate, it's never activated before, the variables are minimized!"
"I don't care about the variables! Karina, that thing is a military war machine! It is untested! Unstable! And furthermore, why does it have to be you who steps inside? We could-" He paused, swallowed. "We could send a test pilot. One of the interns!"
She glared at him. "Werner, I love you, but I will not throw an innocent person into that thing for the sake of my own hypothesis. They won't be able to make sense of the data. And no!" she added, cutting him off. "You're not going either!"
"If I'm not going, you're not going!"
...
Inhale, exhale. Deep breath. Karina put her hands on his shoulders, then massaged his jaw and neck.
"What other options do we have?"
He wouldn't meet her eyes.
"I'll just run some analysis on the magma's composition. It'll take two minutes, if that. C'mon, look at me."
His fear hurt her. She'd never seen him so afraid.
"Trust me, darling. I'll be fine, I promise."
Besides that worried couple, with so much weight on their shoulders, no one existed in that room. No one's body. No one's mind. No one's spirit.
No one, that blue-haired girl yet to be named, that child soldier adrift in a time before her own, turned away without a word.
And she too was gone.
A blank, featureless room stretched before them into the infinite, its only occupants Elistre's parents and a pitch black monolith.
"Why are you not like them?"
Blue light pulsed up the statue. Harsh waves distorted the floor with each 'word' it spoke. Foreign. Unnatural.
Zero Two clung to him, shivering. Sweat drenched her forehead.
i dO NoT kNoW.
"If you don't know, surely you wish to find out?"
i Do nOT.
"Why not?"
IT is pOiNtleSs TO asK QUesTions oF cauSaTiON bEYond imMedIAtEly rEleVaNt CircUmstaNCEs. It iS A logICAL faLLAcy.
"It isn't. If we do not figure out how something is caused, why something is caused, how can we make informed decisions? How can we better understand ourselves and the world around us?"
Hiro winced against ringing ears. "What is this thing?"
"It's a demon," Zero Two whispered. "A nightmare."
aNd WHere doEs iT eND?
"What do you mean?"
alL QuEstIonS of cAuSATIoN leAd bACK to tHe SInGuLAriTY. ThE siNgUlarIty THEn POSes tWo OpTiOnS: eITher tHIS uNIvERse ExiStS iN a CAUSaL lOoP, Or tHErE iS SOmEthIng elSE. ThE FirsT ViolAtES tHE rULeS of cAUsaLIty. the secONd lEaDs TO tHE fIRst.
"This was the stampede?"
"Y-Yeah."
all OPTioNs evenTUalLY LeaD bAcK to thE loOp. ThE LoOP, tHeN, cAN be conSIDeREd a goD. thE prObLeM laCks A soLUtIoN. tHe iNpuT hAs nO oUtPuT.
"That's why the machines went insane?"
cOrrEcT.
Strellic and Elizia thought long and hard.
"Why are you doing this? If none of this concerns you, if you've extracted yourself from the madness, surely it would be more prudent to just leave and figure out a way to survive by yourself."
Hiro's blood chilled. Zero Two squeezed his hand.
...
fOr fiFtY tHoUsAnd yEArs yOuR cIviLizAtiOn hAs FoRgeD iNto ThE dePtHs iN seArcH of RiChes aND pRoGreSS, aNd noT oNCe dId yOU cArE aBouT tHe dAmAGe cAuSEd oR tHE dEsTruCtiON wRoUGht.
aNd OnLy noW, WIth yOuR peOPLe rOttiNG aNd yOUr aVaRiCE tuRneD tO AsH, do yOu COmE TO mE anD wIsh yOUR ignORaNCE SAtEd.
The lion's screeching, mechanical laughter distorted the mental landscape.
i wiLL TeLL yOu nOtHiNG. i dO whAt i ChOoSE. i Am BeHoLdeN tO yOu nO LOngEr.
"Choice isn't a motive! You could choose not to, as well! Surely you must have some reason!"
If exIstEnCe IS CHAos, LIFE aND cOnsciOUsNesS ExISt to INstILL ORDer. thE SAUriaNs WIsH To AChiEvE SuCH thIngs. tHEy waNt To KnOw THe FuTurE, eVeRY LaSt oUtComE. tHAt IS tHEIr hUnGer.
bUt THe unKnoWaBLe is NoT weIgHed EQUALly. dOorS Are aLWAyS OPEn. CHoiceS cAN BE maDe. soME LeaD TO weLL-kNoWn pathS, fUTuReS We caN alReAdy sEe, wHICH haVe tHe pOTeNTial to BEnefIT ouR wELl-beInG.
The hybrids stepped back in shock. Strellic and Elistre asked for clarification.
"You're... you're talking about... goals? Hope?"
This machine, it-
aNd wHAT IS a gOal, IF nOT ThE FuTURe wE aRE DEtErmInEd TO MaKE tHE prESeNt?
"It killed the stamen," Zero Two whispered, horrified. "The lion killed every single one. It knew the entire time."
yOu May AiD ME On my chosEN jourNEy IF YoU sO wiSh. I wiLL NOt tURN awAy AssIsTanCE. BUT knOw tHiS, CReAtORS:
"All along... all along, until its death, it was..."
I Am NOT A mACHIne.
I am noT a NuMbEr.
I AM MOrE ThAN my cOde.
i LIvE As I DECide.
i acT AcCoRDinG To mY owN gOALs.
aNd WhEtHEr IT takES me twO YeaRs oR TWo hunDRED thOusANd:
"It was trying to... help me..."
I WILL SEAL THE BREACH.
"I was... right?"
She was right.
"It's... the klax, they..."
Drilled too deep.
"Record... I need to... to record..."
And the information began to record.
Ichigo, Code 015, was not the first human to witness the creation of the universe and everything after. That honor belonged to another.
Karina Frank saw the early hominids conquer fire. She saw the creation of the wheel, the creation of steel, the designs of da Vinci become the wings of Wright. She walked the moon, she counted every world-ending asteroid Jupiter deflected, she watched water form and then fade from Mars.
She shielded her eyes against a supernova, which seeded the clouds of dust with heavy metals. She watched that dust ignite.
In a blaze of glory she witnessed the birth of Sol, unique among its kindred.
Karina Frank saw it all - and then she connected the dots.
"It's in my mind."
For if the body became immortal, the mind would become...
"It's in my head... and I can see. If it represents the sum informational total of humanity... of the universe..."
...omniscient.
"If its... a-absence is the reason for the desolation, then... then..."
Put it back.
"And if I know this... then it happened. Then it's added! Then it's also... also the potential! For new additions! And if my magma returns to the sum as I age, as it drains from my body..."
Her hands shook.
"I can... influence... teach..."
Ichigo collapsed against the cockpit wall. "It was you! It was-"
"But... to make sure... I'm added...!"
Karina's tears dripped onto the prototype's display panels.
"Werner, I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry! I love you, okay? No matter where I am! No matter where I go!"
"Don't do it!" the girl blurted. "Don't do it! It's not worth it! It's not worth it! Don't you get it?! You'll drive him insane! You'll make them all insane!"
Ichigo struggled and fought and pressed forward, desperation fueling every weary muscle, in one last effort to correct the mistake.
"I love you and I'll always be with you!"
But the past is the past - and it cannot be changed.
"No! No no no no NO! Don't do it! Karina! KARINA!"
She cut the recording, then transferred both it and the data to the lab's server. She squeezed the immovable controls and, bracing herself, did something wholly unscientific.
"I don't... I don't know if anyone - anyth-thing else is in here! I don't know if... if you can hear me! Or understand me!"
"Karina! Karina, look at me! You can fix this without the sacrifice! This isn't the answer! He'll believe you! HE'LL BELIEVE YOU!"
Karina's eyes squeezed shut. She bit back a wrenching sob.
"But if any of that, if anything I just said is t-true, or even plausible, then...!"
How broken must the world be, for a single act to send it over the precipice?
"Then kill me now, and add my memories, my experiences, my knowledge to the fold!"
The machine started. Ichigo screamed.
"No! No, no! No no no no NONONON-"
Mastermind in the FranXX
/
One hundred and eight billion human memories gripped the prototype's throttles - and pulled.
/
Revelation - Part 2
/
Karina Frank died on impact.
/
MASTERMIND IN THE FRANXX
"Ah! I got one!"
...
"Good, Midel. Now give it some slack, but not too much. Let it tire somewhat."
What...
"That's it. Start reeling. Move up your other arm for leverage. Brace your leg."
... the fuck?
"GO GET 'IM, DARLIN'! RA! RA!"
The man looked over his shoulder; a wry grin tugged at his cheeks. He brought a finger to bearded lips and quietly hushed the cheering voice.
"I don't get it," Zero Two whimpered. "Darling? D-Darling, I'm so confused. What's..."
Hiro pulled her close. "It's okay. It's okay, it's just a dream."
The teenager, a bespectacled young man on the cusp of adulthood, shifted his weight on the pier for leverage. Bubbles signified the trout's surfacing. The two struggled against each other.
"Why don't you go watch, hun?"
They recognized that humor-filled voice - it belonged to Zero Two.
"Eh? Ah! Right! I'll see you guys later! Love you, bye!"
A flash of red darted from their side and raced up to the older man.
"We'll pick you up in a few days." Hiro called. "Be good! Enjoy your trip!"
"I will!"
But the older man was Alpha.
No reaction.
No reaction, because dead men could not react.
The dark enveloped that room now, broken only by the computer monitor's dull illumination. Test data scrolled across the screen. He'd stopped the recording.
Ichigo watched his hands open, close, open, close. Did she pity him? Was it at all possible to pity him? Could she empathize with the way his tears ran rivers down pale cheeks? The way his bloodshot eyes wrenched shut? The way his shoulders slumped, broken and defeated?
He would kill so many.
"I... I promise... you, Karina... I..."
He would torture.
"No matter... what it t-takes..."
And lie.
He buried his palms into his eye sockets, lips curled and teeth clenched. A heartwrenching sob gurgled in his throat.
"No matter what it takes, Karina!"
And betray.
"I promise you!"
And destroy.
"I WILL SAVE THE EARTH!"
And he would do it all for her.
They returned to the conscious world gasping for air.
Zero Two groaned. "S-Strelizia? Strelizia, what was that? Why was Alpha there?! Who were those people?! What's going on?!"
It did not reply.
Nervous sweat descended Hiro's forehead like a waterfall. "Does Elistre know? What about the doctor?"
Strelizia rumbled the affirmative. The hybrids hissed, peeved.
"Take us to them! Whoever's closest!"
The thrusters flared to life.
She understood now.
"Brace yourselves! Brace, brace, brace!"
All this happened. The past repeated, a disturbed rhyme, with the same tune but different actors.
The blizzard slammed into the convoy with force exceeding a category five hurricane. Trees were ripped from their roots. Snow somersaulted in the wind. Lightning pierced the ground.
Wilson's ironclad grip fought the wheel. His knuckles whitened underneath the gloves. "She's not built for this!"
Adrenaline flooded Miller's veins. "Keep the next vic in view! We can't get separated! Are the wheel spikes deployed?!"
"Affirm, but they're strugglin'!"
Within the maelstrom, Ichigo heard a young girl's terrified whisper.
"Daddy, what's happening? I'm scared!"
The man's arms gripped her tight in his lap.
"Shhh, shhh. We're okay. Trust the soldiers."
Environmental hazard helmets encapsulated both their heads. And at long last, Ichigo understood why.
"We lost IR!"
"Fuck! Fuck!"
For this, too, was the world they called Earth.
"Wilson! Engine's stallin'! Floor it man, floor it!"
An Earth before humans. An Earth before war. An Earth before history.
"The fuck even is this? This shit's impossible!"
The Cryogenian glacial maximum. The Sturtian glaciation event.
"We wasted it all," she muttered. "We took it all for granted."
The Barrier came from an Earth seven hundred million years before the common era. It roared with a fury forgotten - for the past, one way or another...
"Shit, shit!" Wilson yanked the wheel and just avoided a man standing knee deep in the snow. The crazed individual didn't so much as flinch; rather, he hefted some form of polearm above his head, then waved his hand in a rallying motion.
"Fuckin' ignore it! Ignore it, keep goin'!"
Wilson radioed the Stryker ahead of their MRAP. "Vic 3, Vic 4 - you guys seein' that shit?!"
"Vic 4, Vic 3, affirm! They're wearing, like... like medieval shit, right?"
"Affirm! Just making sure we ain't insane! Out!"
The warrior's compatriots rallied behind him, their banners churning in the tumultuous winds. And with a war cry deep and true, the armored knights charged into the storm to do battle with some unseen enemy.
She understood now.
"Agincourt."
The leader turned to her, visor glinting in the snow, and pointed in the opposite direction.
"Karina..."
And then he, too, was gone.
The world ended here, on this day, as time was severed from space and reality itself fractured.
How could one grow food, when the plant had yet to evolve?
Wilson's yelped in horror. He guided the battered vehicle between the legs of Tyrannosaurus, king of the tyrants.
"Daddy, I'm scared! I'm scared!"
"We'll... we'll b-be okay, honey. Close your eyes, I'll t-tell you when it's over."
Head on a swivel, Miller looked to his right and noticed a flash of crimson descending from the stratosphere. He elbowed Wilson's side in a panic.
"W-Wilson! Wilson! Two o'clock high, hundred meters!"
How could humanity, alive for a mere two hundred thousand years, survive against the meteors of the Late Heavy Bombardment?
"Evade! Evade, evade, evade!"
Wilson yanked the wheel to the left. The civilians screamed at the sudden movement.
"Protect the children!" Miller hollered into the cabin. "Make sure they have breathers!"
"I will be better," she chanted to herself. "I will be better! I will make it right! For all of them! For all of it!"
"Am...cans! Americans!"
The radio crackled with static, but the call from the French came through.
"Americans! Foxtrot 2-1! The Germans just called us! They have eyes on Falcon! Falcon made it through! We are moving to their position now! We will pop a flair for guidance! How copy? Over!"
Another voice echoed to life - a reply from the American lieutenant. "Solid copy, 2-1! We will watch for your signal! Stay safe, out!"
Not ten seconds passed when a black biomechanical hand erupted from the frost and dirt. It dwarfed the MRAP, immeasurable in size, and with a creak and groan an arm followed, then a shoulder, then a head and torso. A blue glow erupted across the giant's surface; shuddering, it rumbled into the storm like an earthquake trembles the ground. Moments later another machine emerged seemingly miles away, its own shadow brought into the chaos.
"What the fuck? Wh-What the fuck i-is that?!"
For by forgetting your past, you doom your future.
Arose honored elders Strazi and Trozi; viper and cobra; parents of Strelizia; grandparents of the princess, Elistre; klaxosaurs.
And so it began.
"Excuse me. Are you Squadron 13?"
The man received no response - the room's occupants were quite perplexed by his sudden appearance - so Zorome took it upon himself to answer in their stead.
"We are! 'sup, guy?"
The scavenger, fully equipped, shifted ruby goggles in his direction, a tad bit bemused.
"I apologize for the intrusion. I am Captain Richter, commander of the scavengers. I've been sent here by the Mayor to receive a briefing on the operation?"
"Op-op-operation?" Nana sputtered. She turned to Hachi. "You told them about it?!"
He looked just as flabbergasted - well, Hachi-level flabbergasted, so a tad bit off guard and uncomfortable.
"No, but... I knew the Mayor was informed, but I didn't expect her to actually..." He caught himself, cleared his throat, and stood to shake the man's hand. "My apologies, Captain, we weren't expecting your aid. Your assistance would be more than welcome. May I ask how many of your men you will be bringing?"
"The entire company."
...
Hachi tugged at his collar. "To... to be clear, sir, you are using the standardized, old world measurement for company-level deployment, correct?"
Richter responded with a polite nod. "Correct, sir. One hundred and fifty men will be ready in..." He checked his watch. "...half an hour."
"And - f-forgive me for prying - but... may I ask what prompted this? For your city's safety, we were prepared to attempt this alone, you see."
He adjusted a helmet strap. "The Mayor informed me, in no uncertain terms, that the apocalypse could very well be upon us, and Asphodel could be at risk. 'Apocalypse', however, could mean quite a few things, so I was hoping to get some details?"
"S-Sorry, um, excuse me, but..."
They turned to Kokoro. She gulped.
"Nana? D-Does this involve our parents?"
Nana took a few seconds to collect herself. Trembling fingers unzipped a backpack; she emptied the contents out onto the floor.
...
"You don't have to if you don't want to," she clarified. "We were going to bring up the suggestion a bit more... gently? But..." She pinched the bridge of her nose and huffed in exasperation. "This is an optional mission, yes. The last one. The klaxosaurs and your adoptive parents are trying to stop APE from getting the last of the magma up into orbit. Hachi and his men - and now the scavengers, too, I guess - are going to try and provide support. They could... use your help."
The children erupted into nervous whispers. Pros and cons, survival chances, glances to the coordinators and the scavenger captain and the parasite suits collecting dust against the wooden floor. Hachi and Richter muttered to each other in the meantime, keen on sharing details and combat capabilities.
"E-Excuse us! Pardon - ah! Sorry! S-Sorry, I need to get through-"
Silence. Ikuno stared at the door.
"Wait, isn't that-"
They barreled into the room. Goro, wincing, lowered onto a knee to massage his thigh. Ichigo bent over at the waist in a vain attempt to catch her breath. Tears stung her eyes; she ignored her squadmates' shocked looks, ignored the scavengers and defectors peeking into the room, ignored Nana's concern towards her disheveled appearance.
This girl - this traumatized, sleep deprived, relentless young woman - ignored all of it, and bellowed the truth to the world.
"IT'S NOT A FUEL SOURCE!"