Darling in the FranXX: The Reaper Squadron
Chapter 7: Memories
A/N: *Looks at Reviews section* Awful quiet in here this week. If there was something about the last chapter you all didn't like, please by all means tell me, or if you don't like the story in general, tell me why. I take all criticism good or bad, general hate however I will ignore. But anyway, enjoy!
Later that night
T-minus 72 Hours until Contact
The kissing operation was about to begin. Squad 13 and Reaper 1 were looking down from Mistilteinn, as the connection procedure was taking place.
"So, what is kissing?" Zorome asked.
"It is when two plantations transfer magma energy. It is done through that large pipe down there." Ikuno said, pointing to the pipe connecting the two plantations.
"Magma energy is essential for us as well as the adults to keep living, without it, we can't power the FranXX, and thus we can't defend ourselves" Mitsuru said.
"With such a large transfer of magma energy, it's going to draw a large number of Klaxosaurs." Goro said.
"How many?" Zorome asked nervously.
"Hundreds, easily." Reaper said.
"Don't worry, we have Strelizia, we will be fine." Hiro reassured them.
…
The next morning
T-minus 60 Hours until Contact
The next morning there was a grand ceremony held treating both squad 13 and Squad 26 like VIPs. Zero Two did not attend and neither did the Reaper 1. Zero Two, because she was not invited, and Reaper 1 was because they did not care for such things, they could celebrate after the kissing was completed.
Later that day, Reaper noticed that Hiro was having trouble with headaches again while he was showing Zero Two around the boarding house. Reaper had the suspicion that, while he was showing her about the manor, it was triggering a memory recall from earlier in his life that the suppression was attempting to cover up. He knew that by doing such things, while painful at the time, would lead to less issues later on.
Squad 13, however, saw differently. They saw the headaches as Zero Two's doing and sought to keep her away from him whenever possible. After the house tour, in which Crow had learned Zero Two was now staying in the boarding house, Squad 13 did everything in their power to keep the two apart. From constantly having Hiro occupied with doing something with them or just keeping Zero Two away. The headaches however did not go away, so they eventually turned to Nana to help. She then gave Hiro some medication from Papa to help but it only seemed to make it worse.
Snake had the feeling that the "medication" that Hiro was given was not headache medication. So, when Hiro was otherwise occupied he snagged a few pills from the bottle to test them himself. What he found however concerned him, so he went to Reaper about it.
…
"Reaper, we have a problem." Snake said to him, interrupting his meditations.
"What is it Snake?
"It appears that the 'medication' given to Hiro doesn't do what it says it does."
"What?" Reaper said snapping his eyes open and looking at Snake sharply.
"When I analyzed the medication given, I found several chemicals that help with memory suppression. The medication given is used to keep the suppressed memories, suppressed, instead of helping with the headaches caused by them."
Reaper's distrust for Papa grew. "That is unacceptable."
"Go get Owl and dig into our first aid supplies, get him some real headache pills. Destroy the ones that they gave him. He needs to get whatever memories that were repressed back. They have something to do with Zero Two, and as her partner he has the right to know what was hidden from him."
"Their bodies are different from ours, don't we run the risk of making the situation worse?" Snake asked.
"Before earlier today, I would have said yes. However, after looking through the doctor's notes on Squad 13, it seems they are more similar to us than the other parasites. They should work just fine."
"Very well sir." Snake said.
…
"Hiro, may I borrow you for a while?" Reaper asked.
Hiro looked at him confused. "Uh, sure." He said, getting off the wall he was leaning on.
"Come." Reaper said and started walking to the forest, Hiro following.
After a bit of silence, Hiro asked,
"What is it that you wanted Reaper?"
"I wished to ask about the headaches you have been having lately. From what Crow tells me, whenever you have one of these headaches, you keep muttering something about seeing a little girl with red horns. What is it that you are seeing?"
Hiro cursed. He said nothing for a while as they walked. He eventually said,
"I keep seeing a little girl with red skin and red horns, and someone else but everything else is blurry. I don't understand why I'm seeing these things. I have a feeling that she is important, but I don't know why."
They eventually reached the lake that Reaper often meditated at.
"I would like you to try something, Hiro." Reaper said.
"What?"
"It's called meditation. It's an ancient method of focusing one's mind."
"What does this have to do with what I am seeing?"
"You will see. Meditation is best done in a quiet place like this one, some place with minimal distractions. Sit like I am. This is called the lotus position."
Hiro tried his best, but couldn't seem to mimic the position Reaper was in.
"Don't strain yourself. It is probably best if you sat in the quarter lotus position, since you don't have my flexibility. Sit with both feet below your knees, hands on your thighs with your palms facing down. Next keep your spine as straight as possible and close your eyes.
Hiro did as he said and closed his eyes.
"Now, take a deep breath, and empty your mind."
"Empty my mind?" Hiro asked, looking at Reaper incredibly.
"Another way to think about it is this, stop thinking. Let your thoughts wander where they will."
Hiro closed his eyes and tried to do as he was told but Reaper could see that he was still having issues, so he started talking, to give Hiro something to focus on.
"You have lived in a structured society for all your life, constantly having one thing to focus on. This is reflected in your way of thinking, as you focus on one thing at a time before jumping to the next thing. This is good for keeping self-control, but it inhibits the mind from thinking creatively, and this could have deadly consequences in the midst of battle. When you allow your mind to wander, it is easier to see the big picture, or see details you could not before."
Reaper could see Hiro sinking into a meditative state and smiled.
"With the images that you are seeing, you are doing the same thing, focusing on one detail instead of everything all together. Think of the images that you have been seeing like a painting. If you focus too much on one particular detail, everything else becomes blurry and the meaning of it is lost. If you look at it as a whole however…"
Reaper heard Hiro suck in a breath and he knew that his words had hit home.
"…the meaning becomes clearer."
"The Garden." Hiro breathed.
"The Garden?" Reaper thought but filed that question away for later.
Hiro opened his eyes and let out a huge breath. He was shocked to see that he was covered in sweat and felt tired.
"Why do I feel so tired?" Hiro asked.
"Your still new to meditation, as such you can only hold such a state for so long before getting tired. Take an hour or two for a break and come back and try again. If you try to reach such a state too soon, you will only do more harm to yourself than good."
"How long can you hold that state?" Hiro asked, curious.
"The longest I've held that state is seven hours. I usually don't hold it for such great lengths of time though, usually four to five hours at the most. Also, do note that while you are in such state you will tune out your surroundings. As you meditate more and more, you will be able to let your thoughts wander but still keep notice of your surroundings, but as you are new, most of your energy goes into maintaining the state and your mind ignores all other sensory input."
"Thank you, Reaper, for showing me this." Hiro said.
"Anytime." Reaper replied.
…
Owl stretched as she walked down the hallway toward the main part of the manor, later that day. She had just awoken from her nap and was going to find Raven to talk strategy for the upcoming operation, when she noticed Reaper's door was ajar and the light was on. This was not unusual as Reaper often spent time in his room before dinner working on some project or another. However, as she walked past, she saw reaper fingering his diamond ring with a forlorn expression on his face.
"You are thinking about her, again aren't you?" Owl asked, causing Reaper to jerk his head up at her.
He motioned her to come in the room and close the door.
"How can I not." He said, "The operations are too similar not to."
"Things are different this time Reaper." She replied softly.
"Are they?" He said sadly, "The combined might of three teams, a large horde of Klaxosaurs, Two defenseless cities, and one vital pinch point. They seem all too similar to me. Fate has a cruel sense of humor."
"It won't end the same way Reaper, I promise." She said.
"You can't guarantee me that Owl, you know you can't. You can't promise me that we won't fail again." He said. He could still hear the triumphant roars of the Klaxosaurs as they raced past the downed teams to the defenseless cities. He could still hear the screams.
Owl rubbed her arm nervously. As she did so, he could see the glint of the gold bands on her ring finger.
"We were unprepared Reaper, the horde showed up too quickly and intel had no information on that thing. If they knew what it could do, we would have been given full authorization from the get go, not until it was too late."
"Yeah, maybe." Reaper said. They heard chimes echo throughout the manor.
"That's the dinner bell. Wipe that frown off your face and let's go eat." Owl said.
Reaper proceeded to do just that, and they went to dinner.
…
The next day
T-minus 48 Hours until Contact
As Squad 13 were preparing their FranXX for battle, Reaper 1's FranXX being suspiciously absent as Reaper and his squad said they still needed some 'tweaking' and the technicians were running about in a panic as no one saw them leave with the FranXX, they ran into Squad 26, Plantation 26's defending parasites.
"Your FranXX all have rather unique designs." Said a boy with short brown hair and brown eyes, who soon identified himself as Code 090.
"All our FranXX have similar bodies and equipment all around. That makes it easier to fight as a team. I've been told that you were a hastily-assembled test team. Is this your first taste of kissing?"
"Yeah." Goro said.
"I see. We are vastly more experienced. If there is anything you don't understand, just ask."
"I've got a question." Zorome said. "Have children from your squad have become adults?"
"'Become adults'?" 090 asked confusedly.
Another member of Squad 26 nudged 090 and whispered,
"He probably doesn't know."
"Oh, that's what you mean. Not from our squad, no." 090 replied.
Reaper, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, leaned against a wall nearby as Zorome and Futoshi started arguing. His eyes narrowed at 090. "What are you hiding?" He thought.
"How peculiar." 090 said to Goro. "I mean, your nicknames. Code 016 was the one who started coming up with them, I think."
"You've heard of Hiro?" Goro asked.
"Yeah, he's famous among us children. You guys are really unusual. Your FranXX designs are all over the place, and you refer to yourselves as nicknames instead of codes. What is the point of being unique?"
Reaper shook his head. "You children have so much to learn about life." He thought before disappearing into a shadow portal to get back to work.
…
Later
T-minus 33 Hours until Contact
All three squads, minus Hiro and Zero Two, were in the briefing room receiving orders from Hachi. Squad 13 was paying no attention to Reaper 1 but Squad 26 kept throwing glances back at them, trying to figure out who they are.
"We've detected the Klaxosaurs an hour ago, at a distance of about 4,800 clicks (3,000 miles). They number anywhere from 5 to 10 thousand." Hachi said.
"te-ten thou-thousand?!" Futoshi and Zorome said.
"That number is expected to go even higher. Their expected time of arrival is about 33 hours from now. No matter how much we rush the operation, we can't complete the kissing before they get here. So, we are going to place a line of defense here," A line was drawn on the screen. "with Squad 26 at the vanguard. Squad 13 will be behind them, and Reaper 1 will stand in the rear as backup."
"Who is Reaper 1?" 090 asked.
"That would be us." Reaper said from the back of the room.
"I'm sorry but are you new? I've never heard that designation before... or seen that uniform." 090 said.
"You could say that." Owl said coldly. She liked their uniforms thank you.
"You need not worry about them 090. Believe it or not they can most likely match the 9's" Hachi said.
"The 9's?" Reaper thought.
"Pardon me if I have my doubts." 090 said.
"Hold on to those doubts boy." Crow said.
"And watch as we blow them out of the sky." Raven concluded.
"Why aren't we the vanguard?" Zorome asked.
"This will be a chaotic dogfight. Our squad can link up better if we go at it by ourselves." 090 said.
"Did he just call us dead weight?" Miku muttered.
Hachi cleared his throat to get everyone's attention and continued with the briefing.
"Defending the pipeline connecting the two plantations takes top priority. So, I have decided to deploy a FranXX capable of solo combat there."
"Do we have such a FranXX?" 090 asked.
Hachi nodded. "Strelitiza will be deployed there."
Squad 13 looked unsurprised, having seen what Strelitiza can do, but Squad 26 looked at Hachi in horror.
"Strelitiza!? What are you..." 090 started to say before he was interrupted by the door opening. Nana walked in with the missing Hiro and Zero Two.
"Sorry we're late." Nana said.
Reaper heard 090 gasp and whisper "Code 002!"
"Did we receive Papa's permission?" Hachi said
"Yes, we are a go. Hiro will pilot Strelitiza as Zero Two's partner. This is the best course of action right now." Nana said as they walked up to Hachi.
"Wait a minute!" 090 said. "We can't fight alongside Strelitiza."
"The plan is final." Hachi said.
"But...That girl does not care about her allies! We can't trust her to have our backs! You know exactly what I mean, Code 002." 090 said.
Zero Two tilted her head. "What are you talking about?"
"The joint operation two years ago! Your reckless fighting style got us isolated on the battlefield, and I lost my partner because of you!"
"If you lost your partner, it was your fault, not Zero Two's." Reaper said, glaring at 090. "If you failed to defend yourself and your partner died as a result, the blame falls on you for failing to get out of the situation which caused your partner to die, not Zero Two, who was nowhere near you."
090 glared at Reaper before advancing toward him. Owl immediately stepped in front of him.
"Lay a hand on him, and I will throw you across the damn room. He is right, and you know it, you just refuse to accept it." Owl said coldly.
Hiro rushed over to the two. "Easy you two, as Strelitiza's stamen, I will keep Zero Two from going out of control."
090 sent a glare at both of them before returning to his seat. Hachi again cleared his throat and said a few more things before concluding the briefing.
…
"What the hell, man? Treating us like dead weight." Zorome said.
"It's the truth. We are a makeshift team." Mitsuru said.
"That is irrelevant. Makeshift team or not, you have a decent amount of experience. You are not a completely fresh team and you do know what you are doing. Acting the way they are is going to get them killed." Reaper said.
"It still pisses me off though." Zorome said.
"I agree with them." Goro said.
"What." Reaper said turning his gaze to Goro.
"Strelitiza should not be a part of this mission-"
"I got this." Hiro said. "Let's show them what we are made of. You guys don't want to take their insults lying down, right? Let's prove them wrong."
As the others were agreeing with Hiro, Cypress walked next to Goro.
"Goro, I'm sure you have your reasons for not wanting Strelitiza to participate in this battle, but we need all the help we can get. We have been in battles like this and let me tell you, every unit you have on the field increases your chance of survival. 090 was not wrong about the upcoming battle, battles like these quickly get chaotic and it is easy to get isolated and forget the main goal in trying to stay alive. If that doesn't help, think of it this way, would you rather his third ride be in a controlled environment, with extra people to provide support should something go wrong. Or be on a standard sortie, where help is kilometers away."
…
Later that night, Reaper was lying wide awake in his bed. He couldn't sleep because every time he closed his eyes, memories of their failed mission kept flashing through his mind, images of the destruction that they had failed to prevent, images of her broken body when they finally got to her.
"Screw it." He said getting out of bed. He needed to go for a walk to clear his head. As he was walking past the greenhouse he heard voices coming from the other side. Wanting to know what they were saying he snuck around and ducked behind a tree to listen.
"...past with Squad 26." He heard Ichigo saying. "But I want you to say in line during the mission. I am the leader, and you will follow my orders."
"Ichigo, I understand that you are protective of Hiro, but this is not the way to go about this." Reaper thought.
"Ordering me around, again? You really are bossy." Zero Two said.
"Wait!" Ichigo said grabbing Zero Two's arm. Getting jerked forward before Zero Two stopped.
"Please don't push Hiro too hard."
Zero Two jerked her hand out of Ichigo's grip.
"Darling was the one who said he wanted to ride with me."
"Yes, I know. But try not to put a heavy burden on him, at least."
"Do you want me to give him to you?" Ichigo's head jerked up at that. "But you tried to ride with him already and it didn't work."
"Leave me out of this!"
"Then stay out of it."
Ichigo paused. "Are you trying to suck Hiro dry?"
"My Darling belongs to me."
Ichigo looked at her in shock. "He could die, you know!"
"Sure, he could. But that would just mean he did not amount to much."
Ichigo glared at Zero Two before walking forward and slapping her, causing her headband to fall off.
"Oh shit." Reaper thought and prepared to intervene if things got violent.
"You are heartless. You really aren't human!"
Zero Two's eyes were glowing red "Human? Human, huh. Let me ask you something then." She said glaring at Ichigo. "What is 'Human' to you people?"
Ichigo began backing up in fear.
"Her headband must act as a limiter for her rage." Reaper thought. He summoned his scythe in case he had to fight Zero Two off of Ichigo. He felt a drop of water on his head. Then another and another. He soon realized that it was raining. Zero Two looked up as it started to rain. Rage in her eyes gone.
"Leave me alone." She said before walking off.
Ichigo stood in shock before turning back to the manor. Reaper followed Ichigo and saw her and Goro on the porch. Goro threw a towel at her, and they exchanged words that Reaper could not hear. Reaper saw that Ichigo had started crying. Goro had gone forward to comfort her but suddenly jerked back staring at his hands. Ichigo soon recovered and they both went inside.
"Emotions are difficult to understand for those who are just experiencing them. This is going to be a major learning curve for all of them." Reaper thought as he turned away. He then set about to find Zero Two, he really needed to talk to her.
…
Reaper found Zero Two standing near the largest lake. It was still raining so he stopped covering his movements, so he would not scare the poor girl.
"You caused quite the scene earlier." Reaper said as he approached.
"You saw?" Zero Two asked.
"I did."
Zero Two said nothing for a while. "You want me to go apologize don't you."
"No, she needed to back off some. I'm simply here to give you some food for thought. Hiro is your Darling, right?"
She looked at him suspiciously "Yes."
He looked at her seriously. "Then don't fuck up."
She looked at him confused. "What?"
"Don't fuck up. You only get one Darling, one person to call your own. Don't treat his life like it's something that can be thrown away. Once he is gone, he's not coming back. So, don't push him tomorrow." He said.
"Don't make the same mistake we did." He said softly and turned his head away.
Zero Two looked at him concerned. "Reaper are you alright?"
Reaper wiped away the tears he was hiding from her and continued.
"Hiro is the most important thing in this world for you, don't lose him to your arrogance. Have a good night Zero Two." He turned and walked away from her. Zero Two was still looking at him concerned.
As Reaper entered their section of the manor he saw Owl was waiting for him. She strolled forward and wrapped him in a hug. He gladly did the same.
"Feeling better Reaper?" Owl asked.
"No, but I will live."
A/N: And done. So, Reaper helped Hiro get a clearer picture of his memories, and we saw some of Reaper's own. Send me a PM if you have figured who she is and what happened to Reaper and his squad. As always, criticism and reviews are always greatly appreciated, and flames will be used to roast marshmallows. Ciao!