Darling in the FranXX: The Reaper Squadron
Chapter 5: A Battle and A History Lesson
Owl awoke at 0630 hours on the dot. Due to their training, her body always woke up at this time. Looking down from the branch she was on, she saw Reaper on the ground oiling and sharpening his scythe, Harvester. Harvester was the two bladed, death dealer that Reaper used to kill Klaxosaurs. Its twin blades were as black as midnight, with the upper blade piercing through the handle a bit giving its backswing a bit of a bite. The handle itself was blood red and covered in numerous, needle like spikes, except for the grip, so that if an enemy were to try and grab Harvester, their hand would be impaled a thousand times over.
Owl jumped down and greeted Reaper. "Good morning."
"Morning." Reaper replied.
Owl looked at the dark circles under his eyes and sighed. "You didn't sleep last night, did you?"
"Nope."
She sat down across from him and summoned her scythe, Queen, to do some maintenance on it as well. Queen was a scythe with a single blade that was the color of fresh snow. Its handle was an ice blue with little snowflakes trailing down it. There was a smoke effect coming off it and, upon its summon, the temperature in the area seemed to drop 10 degrees. She polished her blade and retrieved her sharpening kit from her cloak before starting to sharpen it.
The next to awaken was Cypress. She dropped down and greeted the two before summoning her scythe and joining them. Her scythe, Guardian, was also a single bladed scythe, the blade was a light green. The handle was a forest green with poison ivy wrapped around it, aside from the grip. The next to wake and join them was Snake, and his scythe, Chronos. Chronos had a blade the color of rust with its handle being the color and texture of old bark. Then Raven woke up and joined them with Misery, and finally Crow joined them with his scythe, Tempest. Tempest had an electric yellow blade with a stormy gray handle. If one were to put a hand near the scythe, their hair would stand on end.
This was the scene that Kokoro came across when she was sent to retrieve them for Nana. She looked at them confused for a moment, wondering where the scythes came from before shaking her head and stating,
"Nana and Hachi would like to see you all in the briefing room, they have something they wish to discuss with you before the main briefing for the mock battle."
Reaper glanced at his communicator, it was only 0730 hours, two hours before the battle was supposed to start. Shrugging his shoulders Reaper said,
"Sure, and where is the briefing room at?"
Kokoro gave them the directions to the briefing room and then she left. Reaper 1 all banished their scythes and proceeded to the briefing room. When they arrived Hachi and Nana were already waiting.
"Excellent, you are here. We can now begin." Hachi said.
"It was brought to our attention that you had not been given a history update since you had arrived here. This is what we will be discussing. Tell me have any of you heard the name APE?" Nana asked.
The Reapers looked at each other, then nodded. Even before they were frozen, who hadn't heard of APE? They were the organization who solved the global energy crisis. Before APE, the world was suffering from an energy crisis that no one had an answer to. Oil wells were drilling the last of the oil supplies from the earth and all the coal mines had been tapped out. Alternative energy sources, like solar, wind or nuclear, for one reason or another, were not viable as a constant energy source. Several governments were on the brink of collapse, and more than once was Reaper 1 sent in to a country to quell rebellion and reestablish control. Then APE showed up with a solution, magma energy. An extremely efficient energy source with, seemingly, no drawbacks. The world jumped at the chance for a new energy source. Soon after magma energy was introduced things seemed to stabilize, APE went into the countries which were on the verge of collapse and stabilized them. This gave them extreme political sway, and soon they had a hand in all government functions worldwide, from economics to military to elections. They tried to get their hands in the Reaper Corps as well, but Reaper Command was having none of it.
Everything seemed perfect, then the Klaxosaurs showed up. They represented a massive threat that no one had an answer to. Normal bullets did not work on them and only the Reaper Corps. weapons could damage and kill them. Reaper squads were deployed worldwide to try and curb the threat but after the initial assault, the world had already lost a quarter of its population. Then APE came up with a solution to the problem. The answer was again, magma energy. Weapons infused with magma energy could damage and kill the Klaxosaurs.
The world superpowers, however, wanted a backup plan so to not lose more of the world's population. They came up the Ark Project. Their plan was to cryogenically freeze a portion of humanity so that, when humanity won like APE was promising, if humanity was all but destroyed, the Arks could be opened, and humanity would be revitalized. APE was the main opponent of the Ark Project, no doubt because they already had the plantation project in the works, and was nearly successful in shutting the project down. However due to extreme public backlash, they were forced to concede and let the project go forward. Only three Ark facilities were able to be completed however, due to another issue that came up, rapid desertification. The areas that had the magma energy drills established in began to experience rapid desertification. Funding had to be transferred to finding a solution to the issue and the Ark Project ground to a halt. Many blamed the issue on the magma energy extraction process, but APE was having none of it. When Reaper 1 was frozen, APE was starting to investigate into a solution to the problem.
"Good, that saves us some time." Nana said. "With the rapid desertification becoming a major issue and no clear solution being found, APE came up with the Plantation Project. The plantations were to be arks for humanity to live in, able to house millions of people inside of them. Over 100 plantations were built. While that was in the works humanity had stumbled across something big, the secret to immortality."
Reaper 1 immediately tensed up at this, but Nana did not seem to notice and continued.
"If a human was injected with a mixture infused with magma energy, they found that they stopped ageing. At first only the rich could afford the treatments but it was soon available to the general populace, but it came at a hefty price. Humanity lost its ability to reproduce. Eventually the Plantation Project was completed, and every human was loaded into a plantation. Then Dr. Franxx created the FranXX but its pilots needed to have reproductive organs. To operate a FranXX, it was discovered that it worked best with one male and one female pilot. Humanity had, at this point, long since stopped having children, so the Parasite Program was created. This program created the children that pilot the FranXX that defend us."
The female portion of Reaper 1 face's darkened. They understood the implications of that statement and soon the male half did too. Humanity had broken the Natural Laws. They were vat growing children to pilot the FranXX, they were playing god.
"That brings us to the present." Hachi said. "Today we travel around in the plantations defending humanity until this war is over. This is a war that you have been absent from until now. Due to your experience and age, Papa has given you a choice."
Hachi pulled out a bag with six syringes filled with an orange liquid inside and spread it out on a table in front of him.
"You may take the immorality injection and go to the inner city and live with the others that have chosen immortality, or you can reject the injection and continue to fight. This choice will only be offered once." Hachi said with a serious expression.
Reaper looked at his squad and they all gave him the same look. He turned back toward Hachi.
"I speak for all of us when I say we reject your injection. The Klaxosaur threat has yet to be eliminated so we cannot yet rest until it is." Reaper said.
"Are you sure?"
Reaper nodded.
"Very well." Hachi then put the bag back behind him.
"There is one more thing that we need to do." Hachi said. He then pointed to the panel behind him.
"We need you to link your communicators to Plantation 13's communication network so we can contact you directly instead of sending a runner to come find you."
Each Reaper walked over to the panel and held their communicator over it. The panel glowed for a moment before the Reaper comms gave out a beep, signifying that they were connected to the network. Hachi nodded.
"Good. Reconvene back here in an hour with Squad 13 and we will discuss who will battling with who. Dismissed." Hachi said before walking out, Nana following behind him.
As the Reapers walked back to the boarding house for breakfast, Snake said what was on everyone's mind.
"If he doesn't know already. He is going to be furious when he finds out."
"Agreed. He was already very reluctant to grant that gift to us. When he finds out all of humanity achieved immortality, without his consent, he is not going to be happy." Raven said.
"Enough, we will discuss this later." Reaper said as they approached the boarding house. As they walked in they heard the sound of movement from upstairs.
"They are just now getting up?!" Owl asked in shock.
"Easy, they weren't trained like us, so they are going to be a bit slow in getting up."
They waited in the foyer for Squad 13, unsure as to whether they could go ahead and enter the dining hall and begin to eat. As Squad 13 started coming down the stairs Reaper noted that they each came from separate halves of the manor. "They must keep the gender groups separated." Reaper thought. As the 13 descended the stairs, they saw Reaper 1 standing in the foyer.
"Why are you guys just standing there?" Miku asked.
"We were unsure as to whether you all did or said anything before starting to eat so we decided to wait until you had arrived before we entered." Reaper said.
"Oh! No not really, we just thank Papa for making our food before we started to eat." Ichigo said
"Ah." Reaper said before gesturing for 13 to enter the room before them. When Reaper 1 entered the room, they saw an enormous amount of food had been set out for the two groups. They also noticed that there were two additional tables within the room. All of Reaper 1 sat at one table while Squad 13 split up along gender lines and sat at two different tables with the exception of Hiro and Zero Two. Ikuno looked at Reaper 1 confused.
"Don't you guys eat in different groups?"
"Not at all. We've always eaten as a group like this." Raven said.
Ikuno shrugged her shoulders and turned back to her table. 13 thanked Papa for proving the food and began to eat. Reaper 1 got their own food and began to eat as well. Reaper watched with amusement as Zero Two absolutely drenched her food with honey. "She must have quite the sweet tooth." Reaper thought with a chuckle. Too bad Reaper hadn't kept any of his Japanese candy, Reaper was sure she would have enjoyed it.
They quickly finished eating and made their way to the briefing room where Hachi and Nana were waiting.
"As we stated yesterday," Hachi began. "Today, we are going to do a mock battle between Reaper 1 and Squad 13."
Ichigo raised her hand.
"Question?" Hachi asked.
"What FranXX will they be using?" Ichigo asked.
"Three standard issue FranXX have been added to the hanger, they will be piloting those." Hachi said.
"Standard issue? Aren't our FranXX standard?" Kokoro asked.
"No, your FranXX are a custom type that we are trialing."
"They are using standard issue FranXX? Then that means this will be easy!" Zorome said.
"Oh, is that so? Then perhaps you like to go against Reaper and myself." Owl challenged.
"Yes!"
"Zorome!" Miku shouted.
"Very well, Argentea will go against R-01 and R-06's FranXX. Ikuno since your partner is still in medical you will have to sit this battle out. Also, Code 016, as Strelitzia has not been cleared, you and Zero Two will not be able to participate." Nana said, and Ikuno and Hiro nodded, Zero Two huffed in annoyance.
Ichigo then asked Reaper,
"Who are the other pairs?"
"Crow is paired with Raven, and Cypress is paired with Snake." He replied.
Ichigo glanced toward Goro and he nodded toward Cypress and Snake.
"Goro and I will take R-04 and R-05" Ichigo said.
Hachi nodded. "That means Code 556 and Code 214 will go against R-02 and R-03."
"Take your FranXX to the arena, we will begin in half an hour with R-01 and R-06's match." Hachi said.
Reaper 1 got into their FranXX as Squad 13, except for Chlorophytum and Strelitzia, piloted there's out of the hanger.
"Are you ready Owl?" Reaper asked.
"Yup." She replied, and Reaper commenced the connection, instantly connecting to her and causing their paracapacity levels to jump up to 119. Reaper then felt like he was being frozen all over again and his and Owl's bodies were covered in shadow before the sensation went away. "What the…" Reaper thought before getting a message from the others in his squad.
"Did you guys feel that too?" Snake asked.
"If you mean the feeling of being frozen over and the shadows then yes." Crow said, and Raven nodded.
"Squad leader?" Snake asked.
"I felt it too. Don't worry about it right now. It's something we can investigate later. Focus." Reaper said as he walked over to where the training batons were before grabbing one, the others followed suit and exited the hanger.
"The reaction time is a bit chunky. The FranXX is not responding as fast as I'd like it to." Crow said, and Reaper jotted down the note into his communicator for later.
"Judging by the gage, these FranXX have small energy tanks." Snake said.
"The backup battery appears to run life support when the magma energy is not in use, might need to make a larger one of those as well." Reaper said as he was writing down Snake's comment on the energy tanks.
"If your quite finished, we have a battle to perform." Zorome said impatiently.
"Very well, Squad, take note of any other changes that might need to be made and bring them to me later." Reaper said before facing Argentea.
"Ready? BEGIN!" Hachi said.
Argentea started with an overhead strike which Reaper dodged. Zorome then tried a side strike which was again dodged, although barely.
"Doesn't have the agility I'm used to having. Gonna have to fix that." Reaper muttered, and Owl nodded in agreement.
Owl and Reaper then went on the offensive, landing a side strike of their own before getting a hit on Argentea's neck although it was not enough to drop her.
"What is it with you guys and the neck?!" Argentea shouted.
"It's the fastest way to knock a person out." Owl responded before striking Argentea in her unprotected chest causing her to fall backward. Owl and Reaper then straddled Argentea and began to rain hits on her which she blocked. They stalled their assault and when Argentea lowered her guard to see if it was all clear, Reaper was able to land a solid hit on Argentea's temple causing her faceplate to go blank, signifying that least one of them was unconscious.
"Argentea is down, the winner is R-01 and R-06." Nana said.
As Squad 13 rushed over to Argentea to check on Zorome and Miku, Reaper piloted their FranXX over to the rest of Reaper 1. As he checked on Owl to see how she was holding up, he saw that she was sweating.
"Owl are you alright?" Reaper asked, concern lacing his voice.
"Yea I'm fine, just took more out of me than I thought it would." she replied.
This bothered Reaper a great deal as he had felt no exertion from piloting the FranXX. A bad feeling was settling into his gut. When he looked over to Argentea and saw Miku and Zorome coming out of the cockpit, that feeling changed to harsh certainty. Zorome was carrying an unconscious Miku in his arms. Zorome was perfectly fine but Reaper could see several bruises forming on Miku's arms, in the same area that Argentea was using to defend herself from his and Owl's assault.
"That is going to have to be fixed immediately." Reaper said darkly.
As Delphinium and Cypress and Snake started their match, Reaper had a thought. "I wonder..." Reaper held out the FranXX's right hand and concentrated, Owl, seeing what he was doing, didn't question it. Sure enough, the shadow portal that brought their scythes into being appeared, however the result was not what they were expecting. Not only did the scythe appeared to have scaled to the size of the FranXX, it was also a combination of both Reaper and Owl's scythes. The scythe was a twin bladed scythe, one blade was Reaper's midnight black while the other was Owl's pure white. The handle was the same ice blue of Queen was but had numerous red, needle like spikes like Harvester did. They then felt the same feeling of being frozen before the whole FranXX was covered in shadow, before disappearing again. "What in the hell is causing that?" Reaper wondered. They then banished the combined scythe as to not make a scene. Reaper then noticed the others, Cypress and Snake's battle having concluded with them being the winner and Crow and Raven having finished their match a 30 seconds ago by shoving Genista outside of the ring, had also secretly summoned their scythes and found that they were combined as well.
Cypress and Snake's scythe had a green and brown blade with the handle looking like the trunk of a tree that had poison ivy wrapping around it. Crow and Raven's scythe had an electric blue blade with a blue-gray handle. Both of their FranXX were covered in shadow before it dissipated. They banished their combined scythes as well and looked at Reaper and Owl's mech with concern. "Later." Owl mouthed to them and they nodded. They then piloted their FranXX back into the hanger and then exited, Nana was waiting for them.
"Alright, given the overwhelming results of the battles you all will act as an auxiliary squad for Plantation 13. While you guys were battling, our construction crews got started on your living quarters, it should be finished by tomorrow." Nana said, and Reaper and the rest of his squad nodded.
"If you have nothing to ask of me then that will be all. Dismissed." she said before walking away. Reaper saw Squad 13 walking toward them.
"Jeeze, you guys don't hold back, do you?" Goro said.
"Seriously, what the hell?!" Zorome shouted.
"Calm down Zorome." Ichigo said. "We're fine, for the most part." she said rubbing her sore arm, apparently Snake and Cypress can pack quite the wallop.
"It was the fastest way we could take you down without causing serious injury." Crow said.
"Serious injury?! Miku is still unconscious!" Zorome said.
"Reaper hit her in the horseshoe nerve cluster that runs across your forehead to your temples." Snake explained. "She should wake up in an hour or two, she will have a headache and some bruising but nothing more."
Zorome grumbled but did not respond.
"Come on guys, let's go check on Mitsuru and see if he is awake yet to tell us what happened in there." Hiro said, and Squad 13 turned and started to go toward medical. Reaper narrowed his eyes at Hiro, he was showing no signs of the headaches from yesterday.
"That is some powerful memory suppression." Reaper muttered to himself. "I'm going to have to do something about that before it becomes a problem." Reaper 1 then followed Squad 13 to the medical facility, from what they had heard, Mitsuru might simply be lost, and Reaper should be able to provide some directions.
It was just after sunset when Reaper 1 returned to medical. When they had visited the boy earlier, Reaper's suspicions had been all but confirmed. The boy's body was there but he was not. As 13 gathered around his bed and started worrying about his recovery, Reaper 1 vowed to return later to try and guide the boy back.
After making sure that there was no nurse around Reaper wrapped his hand in shadow and placed it on Mitsuru's forehead before closing his eyes. He stood stock still for around two minutes before opening his eyes and stepping away. He then turned to his squad.
"As we thought, he had gotten lost. I gave him a few directions to get back to his body, he should wake by morning." Reaper said.
They then left medical and made their way to the hanger where their FranXX were stored.
"Alright, we are going to be pulling an all-nighter. You've got 12 hours to make any changes you want to your FranXX as well as give it a name. Go." Reaper said.
Each Reaper broke off into pairs and went to their assigned FranXX and started work. On the top of everyone's list, adjustment of the damage mechanism.
A/N: And done. So, what did you all think? Not as long as the previous chapter but I think I did well. I need suggestions for the names of the combined scythes, something that would work well with the descriptions I gave. Whoever's names I choose I will give a shout out to you in the next author's note. In this chapter I address something that I see as very wrong in the anime. If the FranXX takes damage, the damage is transferred to the pistil. If the Staman makes a mistake, whether it be failing to block a hit or not dodging in time, it should be the staman who takes the damage, not the pistil. If you disagree, send me a PM and we can discuss it. Ok I'll get off my soap box now. But anyways, as always, reviews and criticism are greatly appreciated, and flames will be used to roast marshmallows. Ciao!