Darling in the FranXX: The Reaper Squadron
Chapter 12: Competition
It had been about two days since the incident between the boys and girls of Squad 13. Dr. Franxx had returned their FranXX earlier in the morning. It was an extremely interesting sight.
Flashback
As Reaper 1's FranXX were loaded back into their docking bays, Reaper and his squad were doing their best not to outright laugh at Dr. Franxx's state. His hair was a mess, and his lab coat was covered in scuff marks. His face held a frazzled expression.
"Did you get the, ah, issues fixed Dr. FranXX?" Reaper said still trying not to snicker at him.
"Yes, although they were the most stubborn FranXX I have ever had to deal with." The Doctor replied sending a slight glare and the docked FranXX.
"Excellent." Reaper said, and he and his squad walked out. As soon as they were out of earshot they started laughing.
"That was priceless!" Cypress said, still laughing.
"That's what he gets for trying to mess with our FranXX!" Owl said.
Reaper just chuckled, he had a feeling that whatever their master had done, Dr. Franxx hadn't been able to undo.
Flashback end
Reaper was meditating at the lake. No Klaxosaurs had attacked today so he was taking the time given to meditate. He had been at it about two hours when his communicator went off. Opening his eyes and answering it, he found that it was Hachi.
"R-01, gather your squad and meet in the briefing in 10 minutes." Hachi said.
"Yes, commander." Reaper replied and Hachi ended the call.
Nine minutes later Reaper 1 had gathered in the briefing room and were waiting on Hachi.
"Why do you think that they wanted us here?" Raven asked Crow.
"They probably have a mission for us." Crow replied.'
"You are correct." Hachi said, walking through the door. Behind him came the light blond-haired boy from a few days ago, Nine Alpha.
"I believe that I mentioned to you a few days ago R-01, that we had a joint mission to do? Since your faulty FranXX have been returned to you, we can now start the mission." Alpha said. His eyes then landed on Owl.
"Why hello there." Alpha purred, walking up to Owl and putting a hand on her chin. Crow had to put his hand on Reaper's chest in order to prevent him from assaulting Alpha.
"What is a short, cute, thing like you doing with that barbarian?" Alpha asked.
Reaper and his squad's eyes widened. As much as they wanted to kill Alpha for insulting Reaper, he had made a very big mistake, he had called Owl short. Reaper could see the twitch starting in her eye and he and his squad took several big steps back. Hachi looked at them confused.
"What are you…" Hachi said before Raven interrupted him.
"Hachi, back up." Raven said and nodded to the now irate Owl.
Hachi's eyes widened. That was the same look Nana had when she was pissed, and it was not smart to be within striking distance when that happened. Hachi also wisely took several steps back.
"Thank you for the compliment but…" Owl said before summoning Queen and hitting him in the head with the butt of the scythe, knocking him to the ground. She then placed the tip at Alpha's neck, he could feel the utter cold that the blade was producing.
"…call me short again, and I will slit your throat. Are we clear?" she threatened.
He nodded, and she removed Queen from this throat.
"Feisty, I like it" Alpha said, shooting a grin at Reaper.
"Alpha." Hachi warned.
"Right, right. Be at these coordinates by 1200 hours the day after tomorrow. And try not to be late with those faulty FranXX of yours." Alpha said, handing Reaper a set of coordinates.
As Alpha was walking out the door he turned around and winked at Owl. "See you around beautiful." He then left.
The shadows within the room were dancing. Reaper's eyes were glowing a bright red and he was muttering several different ways of killing Alpha under his breath.
"Please tell me the rest of his squad have better attitudes." Crow asked.
"Unfortunately, not." Hachi replied.
Owl walked over to Reaper and gently squeezed his hand, breaking him out of his rage. Shaking his head, Reaper headed over to the console and inputted the coordinates given to him by the blond asshole. It showed them that the coordinates were about a hundred and sixty-one clicks away (about a 100 miles) but there was no visual.
"I wonder." Reaper said, and his hands began to fly across the keyboard.
"Reaper, what are you doing?" Cypress asked as she saw him access several Reaper Corps servers.
"Checking to see if the Shadow Gaze is still active. Due to the amount of time that has passed I kinda doubt it though." Reaper replied as he logged into yet another server.
A notification popped up asking if he wanted to link the Gaze to the Plantation, but he immediately told it no. Papa and the others did not need to have any of the information that Reaper Corps had. Reaper hit a few more keys and then said,
"I'll be damned, the network is still active."
The floor to ceiling projector came to life and showed a view of earth with several satellites that were coming online. Hachi's mouth had dropped in shock. Intel satellites, communication arrays, GPS satellites, the entire Reaper Network was coming back to life. The only thing that wasn't was the orbital defense network, but Reaper had expected that. Reaper Command had probably detonated every missile within the arsenal as a big "fuck you" to APE as Reaper HQ probably went out in a blaze of glory. Asset denial. APE did not need to get their hands on those missiles. The EMPs on some of the platforms are probably what caused the network to shut down.
Reaper and his squad's communicators beeped as they reconnect to the Reaper Network and a veritable flood of reports came across the monitor. Too fast for Hachi to follow. Reaper just shoved the reports aside to look at later. Calling up the GPS system he input the given coordinates and was rewarded with a nice view of the area. There was a massive structure in the area the same black and blue color that the Klaxosaurs were, as well as a sea of Klaxosaurs outside of it. A report popped up on the side of the screen estimating about 15,000 Klaxosaurs were in the area with more arriving.
Cypress whistled. "We are going to be in for one hell of a fight."
Reaper turned to his squad. "We'll deploy early tomorrow morning." He said. This was meet with groans from Snake and Raven.
"Quit whining you two. We have a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of time to do it. I'd like to get there before the 9's do and do some recon." Reaper said.
Reaper then turned back to the monitor and logged out of everything to ensure that no one could access the network except them and walked out. Once they left Hachi immediately tried to get back into the Reaper Network, APE would benefit from the amount of intel that those satellites contained. Unfortunately for him, he did not have Reaper's login, so he could not get back in.
…
Meanwhile
Klaxosaur Territory
Location: Unknown
H was sleeping in her room when she heard a beep sound from her communicator, waking her up. When she saw that she had been reconnected to the Reaper Network, she immediately ran to the nearest computer, uncaring of her half-dressed state. She and J had safeguarded the network since command fell and she would be damned if APE got access to it now. Once she reached a computer she immediately logged in to find out who was accessing the network. When she saw it was Reaper, she paused.
"Reaper, what are you doing, love?" she asked herself.
She watched as he accessed the GPS program and pulled up the location for a sub base that the Princess had established. "They must be having Reaper and the others assault the base." She thought. She then watched as Reaper closed everything he was accessing and logged out. She too then logged out and went to find the Princess.
H walked to the Princess's room and knocked on the door. After a few minutes, a blearily eyed Princess opened the door.
"What is it daughter? I'm trying to sleep." She asked.
"APE has sent Reaper and his squad to attack sub base 37." She said.
This caused the Princess's eyes to shoot open and give orders to her.
"Take about 15,000 Klaxosaurs with you and go as reinforcements. If you see him, do not engage. He is not ready yet daughter." She said, and H hung her head.
The Princess used one of her tentacles to lift H's head. "I know that you want to speak to him daughter, but he is not ready. He needs more time. I have no doubt that they will send them after other bases, and we need to use this opportunity to feed them information. To show them that humanity is in the wrong. Once he realizes that then you can go speak to him, alright?"
H nodded and walked down the hall to her room in order to get dress and ready to leave. The Princess stared at her retreating form "I know you wish to be reunited with him daughter, but the time is not right. If you spoke to him now he would kill you on sight and I can't let that happen. You and J are too important to me." The Princess thought before returning to her room. She would send a drone to observe what was going to happen.
…
Reaper and his squad returned to the manor to inform Squad 13 of their departure the next morning. However, they were nowhere to be found. Glancing at his communicator, Reaper saw it was only 8 o'clock at night, surely, they had not gone to bed yet? Reaper then turned to Owl his eyes pleading.
She sighed, "Fine. You can use it."
"Yes." He cheered.
Out of shadow storage, Reaper pulled out a large airhorn and a bullhorn. Reaper had an evil grin on his face and his squad covered their ears as Reaper pushed the button. The sound of the airhorn ripped through the manor causing the furniture to shake and several shouts were heard before a "REAPER!" was heard from the female half of the manor. Reaper and his squad were laughing their asses off as Ichigo came barreling down the stairs in her nightgown, determined to kill Reaper for waking her up. Reaper just kept laughing as he jumped and stuck himself to the ceiling, out of her reach.
"REAPER! WHAT THE HELL?!" She shouted at him.
"Its… only…8…o'clock. You…should…not…be…sleeping…yet!" Reaper said as he struggled to breath from laughing so hard.
"What did you want?" Ikuno said. She had just gotten to sleep damn it.
"We wanted to inform you that we will be leaving early tomorrow for a mission. We expect to be gone for two to three days." Owl said for Reaper as he was still trying to recover his breath.
"Wait, your leaving?" Hiro asked.
"Just for a few days." Raven responded.
As Raven was saying this, Reaper had recovered his breath. Looking down, Reaper noticed something different about Hiro. He had two little blue horns on top of his head, his eyes also glowed blue for brief periods of time. Reaper narrowed his eyes, that was not there yesterday. He would ask when they returned from their mission with the 9's. Reaper then chuckled as he noticed Ichigo was still glaring at him.
"Alright, you guys can go back to bed now." Reaper said from his spot on the ceiling.
They all mumbled a goodnight and Ichigo shot him one last glare. Reaper then noticed Zero Two looking at him from the banister. Reaper made shadow horns on his head and nodded toward Hiro before glaring at her. Getting the meaning, Zero Two's eyes widened before shaking her head vigorously. He nodded at her to go but sent her a look that clearly said, "we are not done with this conversation."
…
At 0400 hours the next morning Reaper and his squad were in the docking bay preparing to leave, Nana was worried about their safety.
"Are you sure you want to leave this early? It's still full dark. You could leave at dawn and make it by sundown, and not risk running into any Klaxosaurs in the dark." She said.
Reaper turned and smiled at her. "We will be fine Nana. This is not the first time we have done a night run. Also, this will put us there at midday and give us time to scope out the area before the 9's get there tomorrow."
"Very well. You guys be careful, I want you guys to come back in one piece." She said. Although she would never say it to them, she considered Reaper and his squad like her children, much like she considers the parasites her children. She often worries about their wellbeing in situations like this.
"We will Nana, don't worry." Reaper said before climbing into Black Rose.
Later that day, Reaper and his squad reached the coordinates that they were given. They were just on the other side of a rise but were unable to climb to the top due to their FranXX's height.
"This is one of those times I wish we had more mobility." Reaper said, lamenting the fact they were unable to get the FranXX to kneel. Until it did.
Each of Reaper 1's FranXX got down on their stomachs and belly crawled toward the rise of the hill.
"Umm Reaper?" Owl asked.
"Again Owl, this is not me." Reaper said.
As they reached the rise of the hill, they could see the number of Klaxosaurs doubled. Shoving the mystery of the FranXX moving on their own aside, Reaper and his squad began to observe the enemy.
"The number has increased. They know that we are coming." Crow said.
"What are their types?" Reaper asked.
"Larval type Conrad classes for the most part. There are a few Moho classes hanging around as well as the odd Gutenberg class." Snake responded.
"Lotus, thin the herd. Silent shots. Aim for the Gutenberg classes, the less we have to deal with them later, the better." Reaper said,
Lotus summoned Deadshot and screwed on a silencer before taking aim at the Gutenberg classes.
"This is a trap, I hate walking into traps." Reaper growled.
A message popped up in front of Reaper. "Then don't." It said.
Assuming it was from Owl, Reaper responded. "Owl, you know we have to clear this base, backing out it's not an option."
"Umm, Reaper, I didn't say anything." Owl said.
Reaper was confused. If Owl did not send that then who did? A feed showing Black Rose's face appeared in front of him and winked at him before disappearing. Before Reaper could make a comment, Lotus banished Deadshot and said,
"I've done all I can. If I kill anymore we will be noticed."
"Alright fall back. We wait for the 9's now."
…
The next morning when Reaper and his squad crested the hill again they found the 9's and their FranXX waiting for them. The 9 Model is an intimidating looking FRANXX with a sleek silhouette. It has large and bulky shoulder and leg plates. Their face is expressionless, as if they're wearing a mask. A blue glow illuminates from their eyes. Like many other FRANXX, they're armed with an orange lance.
"Your late. I told you not to be late." Alpha said condescendingly.
Black Rose rolled her eyes. "We have been here for over 24 hours Alpha, if anyone is late, it's you." She said.
Alpha sighed. "You left so early that you arrived here a day before, tut tut. Get out of your FranXX so I can introduce you to my squad." Alpha said.
Reaper and his squad exited their FranXX. Not bothering to use the installed elevators they jumped down from the faceplates, landing perfectly on the ground.
Alpha narrowed his eyes when he saw Reaper land with Owl.
"It figures that you would be piloting with the barbarian. What is your FranXX's name?" Alpha asked Owl.
"Black Rose." She replied coldly.
"Such a dark name for a flower such as yourself but I suppose it fits the barbarian." Alpha said.
He did not notice that Reaper 1's FranXX faceplates had reactivated and were glaring down at the 9's. Reaper's hand was subtly twitching.
"Anyway, I know who all of you are, but you do not know who we are. This is Nine beta," he said pointing to a boy with light blue hair. "Nine Gamma," a boy with deep pink hair. "Nine Delta," a girl with light green hair who politely waved to the group. "the triplets Zeta, Theta, Eta," three identical girls with masks covering their mouths. "and Nine Epsilon." A boy with purple hair who nodded to the group. Of the Nines, only Delta and Epsilon acknowledged the group.
Looking over the mass of Klaxosaurs Alpha got an idea.
"Hey R-01, I have an idea." Alpha had a grin on his face. "Let's have a little competition, your squad VS mine. Whoever kills the most Klaxosaurs wins. Surely those crappy FranXX can at least handle that?"
Reaper's hand twitched.
…
Meanwhile
10 miles away, there was an uninhabited section of desert. Nothing interesting was happening, until a mile of desert was suddenly obliterated. Small arcs of Shadow Energy continued to play about the area causing micro explosions whenever they contacted the sand.
…
Back with Reaper 1 and the 9's
"Deal." Reaper said glaring at Alpha.
"Try to keep up." Beta said, as they entered their FranXX.
Reaper and his squad got back in their FranXX as the 9's raced down the hill and into the fray. For a moment, Reaper was silent.
"I want them all dead." He said quietly. Whenever Reaper was speaking quietly, it meant he was pissed beyond belief. "Release mode is authorized. If it moves, it dies."
A kill counter appeared on the side of their view space, one was the 9's kills and one was their own kill counts. As Reaper and his squad descended onto the battlefield, what followed could only be described as a blood bath.
…
Klaxosaur Territory
Location: Unknown
The Princess was staring at the screen showing the battle slack jawed. She knew that Reaper and his squad were powerful but seeing the whirlwind of death that he and his squad had turned into made her realize just how powerful they were.
"This is one of those times I wish they were Klaxosaurs." The Princess said to herself.
"If that were the case, Princess, humanity would have lost long ago." J said, walking in. He then looked at the screen and grunted. "Reaper's angry. I wonder what they said to piss him off?"
…
APE HQ
Papa and the other members of APE were watching the battle between Reaper 1 and the Klaxosaurs in shock. Reaper 1 was completely obliterating the Klaxosaurs.
"They are going to become a serious threat." Papa mused, and the others agreed.
…
Back with Reaper 1 and the 9's
When the dust settled, Reaper and his squad were covered in blue blood while the Nines looked in shock at the mounds of dead Klaxosaurs that surrounded them. Alpha then turned to Reaper with a smile on his face.
"So, barbarian, what was your kill count?" Alpha asked confident he did better than them.
"About 8,000 for each of us." Reaper said smugly.
If the M9's had facial expressions, Owl rather imagined that their jaws would have dropped.
Reaper could feel the fury rolling off of Alpha's FranXX. Unbidden, Black Rose walked up in Alpha's face.
"Don't underestimate my squad or our FranXX again, else you might regret it." Black Rose said.
She used her voice, but Owl did not say a word. Reaper could feel extreme concern coming from Owl through the link, but he sent her a mental equivalent of a hug to calm her down, although he was concerned as well. First Strelitiza, and now this? What did their master do?
Reaper then exited his FranXX and jumped to the ground before turning toward the structure.
"R-01, where the hell are you going?" Alpha asked.
"Looking for information." Was all Reaper said as he entered the building.
…
Two hours later, Reaper exited the structure with more questions than answers. In the computer he had found, which in itself had baffled him because as far as he knew the Klaxosaurs were nothing more than mindless beasts and did not possess technology, he found several references to the Klaxo-sapians he had read about in the consoles in Plantation 13 but still had no solid facts about them other than that they predated humanity by millions of years. He also found references to something called saurification, which was apparently what Hiro was going through. Essentially, due to the high number of YBC he had been exposed to, the boy was becoming part Klaxosaur, similar to Zero Two, which explained where the horns had come from. Reaper knew he had to tread carefully now. It was only a matter of time before Dr. Franxx saw what was happening and tried to take Hiro away for testing. If that happened, however, Reaper and his squad would move heaven and earth to get that boy back. They were not subjects to be experimented on, they were children. Ideally, they would not even be fighting right now but that is the way the world works at the moment. Reaper had also come across some information on their FranXX, but the intel was incomplete. It looked like he was going to have to pay the Doctor's office a little visit to find out what was going on.
As Reaper exited the structure, he saw that his squad had gotten bored, and were having mock battles against each other. The 9's had apparently already left so Reaper was free to tell them what he had learned.
"I'm back!" Reaper shouted, getting his squad's attention.
"Welcome back Reaper, learn anything of interest?" Snake asked.
Reaper nodded. It had looked like the Nine's had left but Reaper wanted to make sure.
"Did the Nines already leave?"
"Yeah, they left after the first 20 minutes. They didn't want to stand around and wait on you, so they left, telling us that we needed to destroy the base when we left." Cypress said.
Cypress was glad that Reaper was inside getting information. During the 20 minutes that the Nines were still here, Alpha did nothing but attempt to flirt with Owl and talk down about Reaper. It was only after Owl had frozen his mouth shut and Crow threatened to electrocute him that they finally stopped and left. She knew that, had Reaper been there, Alpha would have been nothing more than a bloody smear on the ground.
Reaper then told them what he had learned. While they were surprised that Reaper noticed that Hiro was already undergoing the saurification process they were not surprised that it was happening, given who he was piloting with. They also expressed shock at the fact that the Klaxo-sapians predated humanity. With what they just learned it was possible that the Klaxosaurs they were fighting used to be sentient, although they were still in the dark as to what caused them to devolve in to the monsters they were today.
As Reaper and his squad headed back to their FranXX Raven remembered something.
"Wait, we still need to destroy the base." She said.
"Already taken care of." Reaper said.
The air suddenly hummed with power before the base was consumed by shadow and exploded causing Reaper and his squad's cloaks to whip wildly in front of them.
"I love shadow bombs." Was Reapers only comment as they left.
…
Reaper and his squad were exhausted when they returned to Plantation 13. Even though the Plantation was closer than before, when they left the sub-base at noon it was almost 1900 hours when they returned. Half a day of fighting on top of another half day of travel on top of four days without sleep meant that Reaper was about to collapse, but he still had a few things to do. As they exited their FranXX, Nana took one look at Reaper and told them to go to the birdcage and get some sleep, he could do the required paperwork tomorrow. Reaper groaned, the dreaded paperwork. Apparently, not even going forward in time got him out of filling out forms and reports for missions. When they arrived back at the birdcage they were greeted by Squad 13 and asked how their mission went.
While that was happening, Reaper was surprised when Zero Two pulled him into the nearby hallway and gave him a hug and began to check him for injuries. While Reaper knew that Zero Two considered him a friend, he didn't know that she had this level of care for him, he thought it reserved only for Hiro.
Once she had determined he was uninjured he said.
"Zero Two can you go get Hiro for me I need to speak to the both of you."
"Why do you need to speak to Darling?" She asked.
"Horns." Was his reply and she nodded and went to get Hiro.
She returned moments later with Hiro in tow. Reaper could see that his horns had grown but still were not visible if you didn't know what you were looking for.
"You wanted to speak to me Reaper?" Hiro asked.
Reaper lunged forward and pushed Hiro's hair up before he could stop him, allowing him to see the little blue horns growing out of his forehead. Reaper then dropped his hand and his hair hid the horns once more.
"Hiro, do you know that is happening to you?" Reaper asked.
"Yes, I am becoming like Zero Two, becoming part Klaxosaur." Hiro replied.
"Good. Then, do you know what will happen when Dr. Franxx finds out?"
"No."
"I will tell you. He will do the same to you that he did to Zero Two." Reaper said, causing Zero Two to cling to Hiro's arm.
Hiro's eyes glowed blue as rage filled them. He remembered what they put Zero Two through and would be damned if they did the same to him.
"My squad and I will not allow this to happen. We will keep the Doctor from finding out for as long as we can but eventually he will find out. Hold out your right hands." Reaper said.
When they did, Reaper touched their palms and their hands were shrouded in shadow. When he withdrew his fingers the Japanese kanji for protection 戍 was burned into their palms. It then disappeared.
"What was that?" Zero Two asked.
"An ancient symbol, by your standards, from the Japanese culture. It's called a kanji, that one in particular was the kanji for protection. Whenever Dr. Franxx comes after you press two fingers into your palm where the kanji appeared. It will activate a shadow shield which will prevent anyone from capturing you. When you use it immediately come find my squad and we will get you out, if we are not around, go to Strelitiza, she will protect you until you we return." Reaper said.
"How can Strelitiza help us? She needs us to pilot her, she can't move on her own." Hiro said.
Reaper didn't respond, instead he just smiled and told Hiro he could go. As Hiro walked away, Reaper said to Zero Two,
"Zero Two, I need you to be our eyes and ears. We can't be with you all the time, so it is up to you to protect him."
"I will Reaper, but what about the others? Wont they notice too?" she said.
"Squad 13 won't hurt him, they might be upset by the fact that he is changing but they wouldn't dare hurt him." Reaper responded.
"Alright, I will take care of Darling." she responded with determination in her eyes.
"Good." Reaper said.
His eyes suddenly closed as he collapsed. *Thump*
"Reaper? Reaper!" Zero Two said shaking him.
Owl then came skidding around the corner Queen drawn. When she saw Reaper passed out on the floor, she banished Queen and walked over putting her hand on his forehead.
"Yup, he's gone. Zero Two can you help me carry him to his room?" Owl asked as she supported his left side.
Zero Two nodded and supported his right as they carried him to his room. As they entered his room Zero Two's eyes widened in shock, the walls were painted a deep purple except for one wall. The wall was a mural of a Sakura tree in full bloom, the tree was easily a hundred feet in diameter. The mural caught the leaves floating through the air and the tree appeared to be on top of a hill. In the background there was a futuristic looking city with bright lights and people walking by.
"So, he finally got it finished." Owl said looking at the mural.
"It's beautiful." Zero Two whispered in awe.
As they placed Reaper on the bed Zero Two noticed something else, the bed looked like it had not been slept in.
"Does Reaper not sleep?" Zero Two asked Owl.
Owl sighed "No, sleep is a rare thing for Reaper since Havana died. The only time he sleeps is when I pester him enough to sleep or, like earlier, his body shuts down due to exhaustion, forcing him to sleep. Most times he gets his rest during his meditations which is part of the reason that he does it so much. He is constantly plagued by nightmares of Havana's death when he sleeps, so he usually doesn't. If someone stays with him, he usually sleeps a bit easier, so I will stay with him for the night, you can go Zero Two." Owl said and pulled a chair up to the side of the bed and held Reaper's hand as he began to twitch.
Zero Two nodded and left. Owl turned to Reaper and brushed a stray hair out of his face.
"Baka." She said with a small smile on her face.
…
It was midnight when Zero Two stopped by to check on Owl. She saw that she had fallen asleep in the chair next to Reaper. So, Zero Two picked her up can carried her back to her room and put her in bed. Owl's room was painted a forest green with an ice blue carpeted floor. Returning to Reaper's room, Zero Two took Owl's place and sat with Reaper for the rest of the night, keeping the nightmares Reaper often had a bay.
A/N: Done. I do believe that Reaper and Alpha don't get along, but Delta and Epsilon might be an exception. If you haven't read it yet, I'd recommend reading Darling in the FranXX: Homecoming by CulpableGlint, it is a very well written story and he does an excellent job of storytelling. Anyway, as always, comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, and flames will be used to roast marshmallows. Ciao!