Hello my dear reader and welcome back.
As the first chapter wasn't really much of a original take on things, but more of a general summary of the latest events, it didn't contain much of my own story. That will change with chapter two, as it is entirely written to set things in motion, which will lead to the mayor differences between the official story and my own.
Without further delay, have fun.
In the corridor outside, Squad 13 was on its way back to Mistilteinn.
Hiro and Zero Two were following a few steps behind the rest of the group. It was more out of habit, then anything else. Zero Two would never actually say it, but she also was a little bit scared to walk besides the people which she took on so brutally just a mere week ago. And which forgave her.
Never before she had had a so awkward relationship with other people.
Never before had she even cared about her relationship with other people.
It was scary. And that confused her a lot.
So she clinged onto her Darling and didn't leave his side for a second.
He would only smile at her and say: "It's all okay now."
How long had she waited to hear those words out of her Darling's mouth?
How often had she tried to make him remember?
How cruel it had been to start thinking that he really wasn't her Darling and that she was just fooling herself.
He is already long dead or even worse: still alive and searching for you, and you spend your time with this boy who isn't Darling at all.
That had been one of her thoughts from just two weeks ago.
She really had lost all hope back then.
But even crueler had it been to look into his face as he finally remembered.
The tears in his eyes, as his memories came back to him.
The stinging pain in her chest of having betrayed her Darling.
The even stronger pain to have betrayed him, but to have no chance to talk to him.
She had hurt herself physically so much, while being locked into her room. But no pain she inflicted on herself, had made the pain from within go disappear.
But now, all of that was like a bad dream.
She was finally with her Darling, the people she treated like trash had forgiven her and she was even assigned to their squad again. She would ride with her Darling again.
She sent a beaming smile to her left, were she clinged onto her Darlings arm for the entire time. Not even the thought of the enemy monster, which had just nearly crushed them all could make her feel bad right now. She felt like jumping and screaming and dancing and all of it together.
But then she looked into her Darlings eyes and her mood dropped a few steps down.
He seemed to be really deep in thought over something.
And the way his eyebrows were drawn together it wasn't something happy like in her case.
Zero Two calmed herself a bit.
Now there were the two of them.
She had to think of him just as much as of herself. Contrary to all her life before this moment.
And something was clearly bothering her Darling.
She tried to think of something that could go through his head.
Maybe he was worried because of their staying here, in reach of this monstrous arm. Or maybe he was worried for her, because he feared she may not get along with the others?
No, no, she shielded herself from that, those are my fears, not his.
So … what was it?
No other way but to ask, she thought as she ultimately gave up.
Zero Two just opened her mouth to whisper her question to him, as he said out loud:
"I'm going to go to the bathroom, guys. It's just here around the corner. You can go on without me, I'll find the way back on my own. It's just a little bit urgent after that long battle and all …"
The rest of the squad turned back to face them and Goro – after having examined the pose in which Zero Two clinged onto Hiro's arm and stared at him – answered shrugging and grinning: "Sure thing, just don't stay too long you two. We don't want another Zorome-Incident now, want we?"
And before Zorome could even begin to jell at Goro, Hiro said:
"Oh, could you please take Zero Two with you? I'll catch on to you, promised. Please be kind to her. And you to them, too", he said in her direction with a quick smile, while moving away from her.
"Ah", she started to say something without even knowing exactly what she was about to say, "Dar .. I … Wai … You …"
He was already at the entrance to a small sideway, as he turned back to her.
Her heart made a little jump as she thought he would come back to her.
"It's all ok now, remember, Zero Two? I'll be right back. No worries."
And then he waved her goodbye and marched down the hallway.
Lost and alone she stood there and watched how he went around the next corner and faded out of her field of view.
Goro stood dumbfounded for a second, as he would never had guessed that Hiro would really just leave her with them.
But then his inner gentleman came forth and he threw her a little smile and said:
"Well then, I guess you will have to make do with us for a little while. Don't worry. We won't bite you."
Before she could answer, Zorome added in his most annoying tone of voice, while counting on his fingers everything she did to them back last week:
"… or scratch you, or hit you, or throw you, or strangle you …"
Ichigo, who realized Zorome's little outburst thirst, turned towards him to shout him down, but Zero Two already proclaimed with a little tremble in her voice:
"I really have to go to the bathroom too", and stormed after Hiro.
Ichigo landed a hit with her hand on Zorome's back of his head, which made him come to his senses, but as she turned towards Zero Two, she was already gone.
"Well, thank you very much, oh great Zorome!", she finally shouted.
"Next time, please have so much decency as to throw yourself off the balcony, when you destroyed the fickle peace within this squad again!"
Zorome's face turned bright red as he responded: "It was just meant as a little tease …"
"Then stop teasing the girl who sent all of us to the medical tract just a week ago! And besides that, how can one have so little decency to joke about something like that in moments like these?! Do you not even have this little amount of common sense? Aaargh!"
After this final outcry of rage, Zorome ducked even further in wait for another – maybe not completely unreasoned – hit on his head, but Ichigo just turned towards their goal and started moving again.
The rest of the squad still tried to process what just happened and threw glances at Ichigo and Zorome.
Goro was the last one to get moving again.
Throughout Ichigos shouting he had several times nearly started sprinting after Zero Two, to talk to her, but on one hand he didn't want to get near her while she was emotional ever again and on the other he wasn't entirely sure which way she took, so he just stood there and looked a little bit lost into the small sideway, as if he could make her come back by that alone.
Ultimately he sighed and followed the rest of the squad.
He made a mental note to later apology to Hiro for not dealing any better with the whole situation. Plus, he noted to himself to go talk to Ichigo right after their return to Mistilteinn. This problem had to be dealt with immediately. Zorome had to openly apology to Zero Two and that would go very much against everything Zorome stood for. But Papa have mercy on his soul, when I or even worse, Hiro, have to make him do it.
Hiro was having problems of his own.
Of course there was no bathroom nearby. At least none he had ever heard of.
But he never planned to go to one anyway.
Little stings of guilt reminded him constantly of the fact that he had just lied to everyone who was his friend or even closer.
The thought of leaving Zero Two behind with the others without having talked to any of them about their special circumstances was maddening.
But he had had to make a decision.
And his decision had been to act.
Right after they had left the command room, a memory of the room he had been gotten brainwashed in had come to his mind again. For the first time in long ages.
He remembered Dr. FRANXX being there.
He remembered Zero Two being bound to a bed besides the one he himself was bound to.
And he remembered the numbing horror of getting his memories and his thoughts themselves ripped out of him.
This experience was certainly not meant for the patient to remember afterwards.
But now that he did, he wanted to know why.
And in the last minutes, back on the great hallway, he had come to a conclusion.
He would search for the answer whether the wiping of his mind was justified or not.
If he would find evidence that it was, he would begrudgingly accept it. He swore that to himself. If this wiping of his mind was for the greater good of humanity, so be it. He would never forgive them, but he would acknowledge it as justified.
But if he came to the conclusion that they did that on a whim or worse: to just experiment what would happen next to him, he …
He didn't know what he would do.
But this new dark voice deep within him kept whispering grudges and promises of revenge.
Hiro feared this new side of himself.
Meer days ago, he never before had felt anger greater than for himself when failing, or for things Zorome said, or anything like that. He had never felt a greater anger than either such born out of helplessness or such born out of immediate teasing.
This anger he felt now was old. It wasn't the kind of anger one could just swallow and forget or to have a little bit of trouble over and it would go away.
It gnawed at him from deep within.
And it wanted out.
Keeping it deep down wasn't a way to solve this problem.
It kept growing with each memory that came back to him from his childhood that had been stolen from him.
There was the anger about the fact that they took his promise to Mitsuru from him and made him lie straight to his friend's face, which destroyed their friendship for all the time since then.
He just remembered about that. It wasn't even five minutes ago that it came back to him all of a sudden. And it made so many things clear in one horrible second.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg.
They had kept Zero Two a prisoner.
They had treated her horribly.
They had outright tortured her.
He had seen it.
He had seen Dr. FRANXX do it.
Back then, in front of the giant glass window.
Whatever information he could gather on those tests - on this torture - he doubted with every inch of his body that it would make him feel any different about it.
He didn't want to feel any different about it.
He wanted to hate those who had done this to Zero Two.
His mind snatched back into the here and now, as he heard a pair of footsteps go by in another sideway.
He stayed still and hold his breath until they were out of hearing range.
Then, carefully, he started to move again.
He was going deeper into the net of corridors and hallways, which surrounded the central pillar on the ground floor. This region of Plantation 13 was the military headquarter. It was made up of the immediate buildings around the pillar and most of the floors of the pillar itself.
Somewhere in this area there was a military archive.
Hiro knew this, because he had been there a few months back, as he was searching for some combat data on battling more Conrad-Class Klaxosaurs at the same time.
As a parasite he was part of the military, and as such he had a clearance for most parts of the archive.
The point was, he wasn't allowed outside of Mistilteinn, without Nana or Hachi accompanying him, or at least giving him some sort of written order.
The last time he was here, he went to the archive via a much bigger hallway and towards the double-doored main entrance, while being in the company of Nana.
That was much easier to get in there, than sneaking around corners and having to hide every few seconds upon hearing footsteps.
It was just a matter of time until he would run into someone.
Slowly he moved towards the next crossing of hall- and sideways and took a quick look around.
He remembered this part of the command center.
The official entrance to the archive was just around the next corner.
The next corner of the giant hallway right in front of him that was.
Of the giant hallway on which at least a dozen soldiers walked or stood around.
Immediately he retreated back into the shadows of his sideway and thanked someone – some responsible person – for the fact that a few rollable containers full of garbage stood between his hideout and the open street ahead.
Then he heard some sniffling sound from where he came from.
He pressed himself deeper between two containers, while slowly gliding beneath one of them, without making any more sounds than absolutely necessary.
Then he came to an abrupt full stop.
With widening eyes he witnessed how Zero Two, her eyes a little mess from obviously crying, came around the last corner he took, looked in every direction possible, then letting out a sigh of giving up and gliding to the floor on one of the walls. She obviously didn't care if someone saw her or not.
What are you doing here, girl?!, his entire mind was screaming.
But instead of panicking, his survival instincts took over and he concentrated more on the obvious.
She had been crying. She was not with the Squad. And she was obviously looking for him.
Hiro could hear his heart break.
I left you all alone without saying anything, didn't I?, he asked, as if she could hear his thoughts, I may be new to this love, kissing and understanding each other better than friends stuff, but it's just painfully obvious I should have done anything but that … And now she sits right there and feels what-do-I-know horrible while I sit between this freaking garbage right next to her. What am I even supposed to do at this point? I need to get in there fast, before someone starts searching for me … But I can't take her with me now, can I? Maybe she wouldn't understand … Maybe she wouldn't want me to go in there and get my sorry behind in trouble for her sake. Maybe …
A sudden thought crossed his mind.
Maybe that's all bullshit. How did I meet her again, by cowering behind something and feeling sorry for myself?
Hiro looked with a pained glance to the girl he loved and who calls him her Darling, then turned around one hundred and eighty degrees – or at least as good as he could, given his circumstances of being stuck between two containers – and gave the one which stood towards the big hallway a massive toss, which let it roll onto the hallway and given by weight, slope and sheer luck managed to roll it down the street and away from his position.
From the instant it started to move, Hiro took off and sprinted out of his no longer viable hiding spot.
For a brief moment it felt to him as if he was moving in slow motion, as the noise of the container behind him, the totally confused look by Zero Two and his own hammering heartbeat came all together down on him.
But the moment quickly faded, as loud voices erupted from the hallway behind him.
He ran faster than ever before in his life and his face must have had a look to it, which even let Zero Two getting dead serious within a few heartbeats.
She came rushing to her feet as Hiro reached her, grabbed her right wrist, and stormed off with her. Through the corridor, around the next corner and into the safety of some unlocked cleaning room. All while confused shouts followed them from the great hallway as soldiers tried to grasp what just happened.
A few seconds of him panting and her observing him carefully later, some soldiers ran past the door to the now locked cleaning room.
Hiro held his breath until they were gone and finally let out a last long breath, before he ultimately looked over to Zero Two.
Her eyes were still swollen from crying, but the stern look in them made him neglect that fact altogether. She was really angry. He could nearly feel it physically. But somehow he could tell that she wasn't just angry at him.
Hiro let out a sigh of surrender, after none of them had said a word for nearly a minute.
"I'm really sorry", the words were flowing out of his mouth.
"I didn't want to lie to you, I didn't want to make you mad, I didn't want to leave you with the rest unprepared, I … I am a complete and utter idiot for just leaving you there and running off. And I …"
She sighed too and sat down in front of him, while signaling him to do the same.
As they both sat there, Zero Two finally answered:
"I really was mad at you for a second, you know? Just storming off like that. I made a complete fool out of myself just a minute after you were gone … I can never again face any of them. A joke. The guy was making a joke. A mean one, sure, but not undeserved, I guess. And I panicked and … just ran off. How can I face one of them ever again, after that? And then you were just gone. I couldn't find you or the bathroom at all. And then I realized I had gotten lost. It was all so frustrating. I may have ... cried at some point, yeah, but that's completely irrelevant right now Darling!"
She threw him a really worried glance.
"Those were soldiers. The men we ran away from. I could hear the heavy boots and the clanging of submachine guns against running bodies. I know that because I've ran away from people like them more than just one time. But … what have you done, Darling? This isn't like you at all."
Her look at him grew ever more worried.
Hiro shook his head.
There was no point in hiding any of it from her.
"I wasn't chased for something I did. I shouldn't even be here, you know that. There is no bathroom and I never wanted to go to the bathroom, just so we're clear on that. So they could just arrest me and then wait for Nana or Hachi to come and get me, even if I claimed to just have searched for a bathroom. But before that I have to get into the secured area in the military archive ... unseen, that is. And without any orders backing it."
Her right eyebrow rose a bit, but she was just listening.
She was good at listening.
"So, you may ask yourself why I have to get in there this urgent. It's nothing I was ordered to do, of course. It is … personal. I need to get clear on something. It has to do with our past at the garden."
Now he had caught her interest.
Zero Two's eyes grew wider and she let out an unwilling: "Oh?"
As they hadn't had the time to talk in private at all, she knew nothing about how much he remembered and if he may knew things she still couldn't remember herself.
She knew that he remembered a little girl with a picture book and he obviously changed his entire behavior towards her since then. He got caring at a whole new level and even had been really lovey dovey back in their free time at the command room. And now he ran off and did stupid things, which were against all rules. She didn't mind that at all. In fact, that was the adventurous boy she had learnt to love, way back then.
And a little smirk crossed her lips.
"My Darling is a real criminal, hmm?"
She let out a silent laugh, at how he turned a little bit red.
"I don't mind that. You saw me deal with the rules on my own often enough, right? And I remember a little boy, breaking a window in and rescuing a scared little girl out of her cell, although nearly every rule was against that."
She sent him a beaming smile upon the memory. And it got even brighter as she recognized that he was remembering it too.
He shed a single tear as she said that.
A single tear of joy and sadness upon their shared past.
It all felt so strange to him.
The entire situation.
They were sitting in an old cleaning room, while being searched for by soldiers and talked about a past they themselves didn't knew all about. But still, it felt unbelievingly good to talk to her about the things that happened back then.
"I knew you would remember that. My little rebellion against the mean adults."
He chuckled with a sniffle.
"I never told you, but the day before that one … I had seen what they did to you. Back then, I couldn't figure out what the hell they were doing. Just that they hurt you badly. If I remember correct they were doing tests on you, right? You don't have to answer. I can hardly talk about it myself. It's making me want to throw up."
He shook his head in silent disbelieve.
And looked into her still smiling face.
How could she be smiling, while all those memories must been flooding through her mind?
She must have read that question on his face, as she answered it promptly, while changing position besides him and laying her head on his shoulder.
"Darling, I love you for caring like that. No one else has ever cared about me like you did and do. I love you for what you are. For how you are. None of those things you just said could ever make me sad, for they just remind me of you saving me. I burned those memories into my mind, after I recollected them. So I may never again forget how you saved me of my torture. That were the first things I recalled, after the wiping of my memories. But it was only months after our meeting and I never got to see you again. They really extended the defenses of my prison after that. Since that day, I tried to remember as much as possible. I even ate the picture book, just so I could hold on to those memories it contained."
She let out a sigh, as she was getting all of that off her chest.
Never before in her life had she told any of that to anyone.
It was relieving on another level.
She smiled as he started to stroke threw her hair and started to whisper something she couldn't make out at first.
But even greater was her surprise as she realized that he was citing the picture book. And flawless that was.
"… And on her sixteenth birthday, the princess took flight to the world beyond the forest."
He looked at her and smiled sadly.
"Yes", she whispered back, "And then they sent me off to the front. That was when they told me I could become human by killing Klaxosaurs. I wanted it so badly. To be like you. So we could be together, when I finally would have found you. I guess that part of the book never became reality, huh?"
He kissed her on her hairline, between her small horns.
"Do you really think that's true? You look much like a human to me. And you speak like one. And even as I got no experience in the matter at all, I'd even say you kiss like one."
She took in the warmth of his words and just enjoyed being with him in this very moment. But as the minutes were passing by, she knew that their time was running out.
"Darling", she began to murmur.
"I know. We need to get moving if we want to make it back before they miss us."
She looked at him in disbelief.
"You just want to get back?"
"Well, what did you think where we would be going … oh no, we're not doing that!"
"Of course we will. You already broke the rules. I break the rules all the time. So let's get into that archive and see if we can get our hands on whatever it is you want to see! Even if it is for a completely idiotic thing, I'd still go with you! Now come on!"
And with that, she pulled him up with her and towards the door.
"Zero Two, if they just identify one of us …"
"Nope, it's not gonna change anything. If they get you, I'll turn myself in. We're not going to be ripped apart again."
"Of course, I'd do the same for you, but …"
"No but's. I'm going with you. And you're going to need me regardless. Or did you forget that you probably don't even have the clearance to get into the better secured parts of the building?"
Now she got him.
That was a part of his plan, he had been planning to improvise on.
Against the scanner's there was little he could do.
But with her at his side it was a piece of cake.
He really started to consider it.
"Ok, we'll do it. But please, stay low and don't try to take out anyone, got that?"
"Roger that, Darling. I will do as you say. Just give the word if you change your mind or need me for anything else."
She winked at him, saluted and made an exaggerated face full of confidence.
He grinningly rolled his eyes, as he felt relief deep inside of him, to not have to go alone into this.
Together they unlocked the door and stepped outside.
Everything was quiet. No footsteps or sirens were to be heard.
"Let's go", he said. Now with a stern look to his face like right before a battle.
She nodded and followed him like a shadow.
Corner after corner they took the long way around these hallways, to not get near the crossing, where the distraction took place.
A few times they had to hide, as a soldier or other personnel marched by.
To their incredible luck, there were enough hiding spots on their route.
Until they nearly reached the backside of the archive and ran into a patrol of two soldiers, who had stood in the shadow of an entrance to the building and came out as they saw them come their way.
Hiro's mind was calculating possible outcomes at high speed.
If they came any nearer they could see their faces and identify them later on. He could absolutely not let that happen.
Begrudgingly he turned on the spot to hide his face and said:
"Take them out, Zero Two. But have mercy on those poor guys, no fatalities please."
She nodded and dragged him into a crossing sideway.
The soldiers followed them quickly, while one grabbed onto his helmet to ask for reinforcements. But as soon as they reached the corner to the sideway they were lost. Zero Two waited for them at the nearest point out of view possible and smashed the first man's head against the following soldier's one and as they both went down, hit their heads to the ground again, just to be sure. Afterwards she checked them both for their vital signs, while Hiro stood beside her with a worried face.
This was turning pretty dark.
If one of them was dead …
"They're both alive", Zero Two finally proclaimed, "But one of them should really see a doctor. I think I fractured his skull a bit. What should we do with them?"
Hiro looked over to the shadowy entrance where the soldiers originally came from.
"We'll just drop them there and check by on our way out. If they're still here, we can make some noise to get attention to them and head back to Mistilteinn afterwards."
She nodded and dragged the soldiers into the shadow and in some seemingly comfortable positions. Hiro couldn't stop himself from making a surprised face, as Zero Two even took her time to apply a bandage to the fractured skull of one of them. "You sure are nice to the people who have done you so much wrong for years."
She shook her head with a cold face.
"I'm not doing that to be nice to him. For all I care he could go to hell. But he could die if I don't stop the bleeding somehow. And it would get us in really big trouble if we would start killing soldiers now. I don't want them to do something horrible to you, just because I accidently killed one of them. They wouldn't harm me any more than usual …", she looked at Hiro with a pained look, "But they could harm you even more instead. I don't want that to happen Darling. So I take care that he doesn't die."
Hiro nodded while heavily gulping.
"Understood. I won't stop you one way or the other. Those poor guys were just doing their duty when they tried to stop us. They surely don't deserve what we did to them. But there is no helping it now. It happened. So make sure he will live and then we're off."
She agreed, finished her work and they moved on to one of the next entrances of the archive.
Carefully Hiro tried to open the door, but it was magnet locked.
A console was standing right next to it.
A console with a slot for some kind of key card.
Zero Two tapped on his shoulder and he turned towards her.
She was handing him a key card that looked much like it would fit in the slot.
When did you …, he started to signal, but she already pointed back to the two unconscious soldiers.
He just gave her a thumbs up and let her take the glory of opening the door for them.
After the card had gone into the slot, the door unlocked with a *clang* kind of sound and let itself open like a normal door.
Inside the archive's main room stood a few desks and chairs, who were all empty at the moment. Though on one of the desks laid some documents, so maybe someone was in here.
Carefully they snuck into the great hall, closed the door behind them and moved in the shadow of a big metal stairway, which led to the upper and lower levels of the building.
In both directions there were enormous amounts of data storage devices.
But only the stairs who let down to the basement had had a body scanner placed right on the lowest pair of stairs.
Hiro signaled Zero Two that they would go down first and they moved their bodies against each other and pulled through with their old trick of mocking the usage of those things by going through at the exact same time.
The body scanner turned from dark red to a bright green for a moment, before setting back and releasing them into the lesser illuminated parts of the archive.
Everywhere were electronic data storages, but on a few metal shelves there lay some physically stored things in cartons, too.
Everything was numbered after some system, but they had no idea as how to use it to get what they want. So Hiro grabbed on to some gloves, which lay on one of the shelves for protection of the archived goods and used it to hide his fingerprints while being in here. Zero Two, who kept hers always in one of her uniform pockets, followed his example.
And then they started to search the sheer endless amount of screens for any kind of data that were connected to the garden.
There were lots of scary things down here.
From battle reports with high killcounts on behalf of the FRANXX-pilots, which were caused by direct orders from the Seven Sages or Papa himself, to the usage of orders like Protocol 32 or the self-destruction of entire Plantations.
The overall image, painted by those reports, gave view to a very bloody side of this war, which Hiro hadn't seen until now. Just now he had seen a report on how the Parasites of Plantation 26 had died. It was just one and a half hours old.
With a disgusted face he switched to the next report, while he did try his best to not let out on a few very unfriendly words he wanted to loudly scream at APE Command. He just couldn't believe they sacrificed a whole squad of good veteran pilots for nothing. It was … just not right. And it had been sure as all hell not been "for victory", as stated in the report.
For Zero Two all of this came at a much lesser surprise, if any at all.
She had seen countless times how APE had sent Parasites to their grave.
She had partaken in two earlier attempts to break the Gran Crevasse.
To say it had been bloody on the human side was the understatement of the century.
It was part of the reason why she had started to look at the other Parasites as cannon fodder. That and their treatment of her.
She shrugged those thoughts off and concentrated more on getting results.
Suddenly Hiro froze and turned towards her very slowly.
Zero Two couldn't see the reason why, but she could hear footsteps closing in on them from his other side.
"Hey, who are you and what are you doing down here?", the man asked from a few metres away.
Zero Two itched on her heels to storm off at him, but she had promised her Darling to wait for his orders.
A split second later, Hiro decided to go all the way, now that they were already in here.
"Take him out quickly. We need to get out of here."
"Yes, Darling."
The soldier stopped and tried to process what he just heard, as Zero Two already kicked a heavy console his way, which got him to grunt and cover himself and not to start running and yelling.
The crashing console and the falling soldier made enough noise on their own.
No need to let him scream for help, too.
Zero Two was leaning over him in a heartbeat.
Two heavy hits on his temple did send him into deep unconsciousness.
She stood up, after checking his vitals, and looked at Hiro, who had already begun to download as much data as he had found so far onto an external data storage, which were laying besides every terminal.
"How much?", she asked him, while she started to do the same at the next device.
"Not enough", he simply replied, "I don't know if we got what I came for."
She nodded and returned back to the screen in front of her.
This was so idiotic.
They had broken in a military complex, attacked three soldiers on duty and now they were stealing tons of military secrets just to get one information that may or may not be hidden between them.
It was by far the craziest thing she had done in quite a while.
She glanced at Hiro while she waited for the download to complete.
He looked steady and calm, but she knew him long enough to look behind his facade. He is nervous and more than a little bit scared, she thought.
Hell, even I'm nervous, how could he not be.
The minutes kept going by, as they downloaded all the amount that they could get on two storage cards.
The data was comprised to all information about Parasites and their activities, but it was still an insane amount of files.
Hiro kept an eye on the entrance the entire time, but no one came to check on the unconscious soldier. Maybe he really had been alone in the building.
His insides jumped up and down the entire time since their coming here.
He had never before done anything like that.
Well, besides the part where he broke into a prison cell and tried to escape with the prisoner that was, but that had been years ago and he hadn't knew the consequences.
Now he did.
And his mind was filled with fear over the thought of losing his memories again. Or what they might do to Zero Two if they found out about her helping him.
Suddenly the peeping sound of the console in front of him snapped him out of it and he quickly drew the card out of it.
Zero Two was ready on her console a minute afterwards, and they hurried to get to the body scanner.
Together they went through it without causing alarm and went silently upstairs, to take a careful look at the main room.
A single soldier was sitting at the table with the documents from earlier.
An empty chair besides him that had been left like someone had wanted to get back at it let them account for at least a second soldier in the building. If the second one wasn't the poor guy down in the basement.
Hiro looked at the little backdoor they had come through initially.
It were a good ten steps from their hiding spot at the stairway to the door.
And the soldier had a good spot to see them instantly if they started to move now.
But all of Hiro's thoughts regarding a distraction were for naught, as all of a sudden he could hear a voice from the basement.
"Son of a bitch …", the pained voice proclaimed.
Hiro looked at Zero Two, whose eyes were widening as she heard it too.
"We run. To the door, through the hallways and back to the cleaning room. From there we get back to the main hallway and run straight through, until we reach the elevator. Got that? If someone calls us out on the way, we state to be late to a meeting and keep running."
She nodded and they began to run instantly.
As they had crossed half the way, the soldier from back at the desk shouted:
"Hey, who are you? Where are you coming from?"
From up at the library in the first floor another voice answered:
"What's going on down there?"
As Hiro and Zero Two reached the backdoor and made their way out by using the stolen key card again, the first voice already screamed:
"Intruders! Hurry up and get down here! All personnel: hunt them down!"
Then the door shut and they couldn't hear him anymore.
They ran past the two still unconscious soldiers from earlier and Zero Two took the time to get something off of one of them.
With his earpiece in hands, she ran after Hiro, while trying to get it in her ear.
"We got at least two fugitives on the run in the military district. One of our men is down, but alive. Requesting an ambulance and further reinforcements to close off the area completely. At this time, we can only coordinate some blockades down at the bigger hallways. All troops in range are to blockade all ways in and out of the archive's quarter. I also want someone of APE-Command down here, ASAP!"
Zero Two shut the thing off for a moment and told Hiro about the news she received.
"We're not going to get out the way we came in. Maybe we should take the other route, back were we met."
Hiro thought about that for a second.
Then he nodded.
"Alright, lead on. Take out anyone who stands in our way or comes close enough to identify us later on."
That she did.
On their way to the spot where they had met earlier, Zero Two broke through two hastily erected barricades, containing of containers and two men each.
At the second one, one of the soldiers nearly looked her right in her face, but she managed to get the other one between them and beat him up with his comrade.
That made it seven in total.
Hiro had gotten his hands on two helmets and threw one over to Zero Two, so they had something to cover their faces.
The uniforms were still a dead giveaway, but it was better than nothing.
"Alright, we should be through the worst. Now let's …"
"Stop right there criminal scum!"
Annoyed, Hiro turned towards the nearing voice, to tell Zero Two to deal with him, but down the sideway came a dozen men.
"Those are too many. We can't cripple an entire squad on our own, while they have weapons. Let's get out of here!"
Zero Two agreed and together they ran off.
Nonetheless, Zero Two grabbed a submachine gun from one of the downed men at the ground and unlocked it while running.
"Don't worry, Darling. I won't shoot them. I'll just scare them off, if they come to close."
Hiro nodded.
If it comes to that we will be hunted as real terrorists, he thought horrified.
With that in mind, he ran as fast as humanly possible, even catching up to Zero Two's speed.
The jelling voices behind them and the trampling sounds of soldier's boots slowly began to fade.
After a few corners, he slowed down a bit.
I can't hear them anymore. Maybe we shook them off. But maybe they are hunting us into a trap. We can't stay on this hallway any longer.
"Zero Two! We have to get off this hallway. I have a bad feeling about it."
She turned to him and gave him a brief nod.
"We have to turn left anyway. They are chasing us into the wrong direction."
As he agreed, they ran towards the next sideway on the left side.
They just barely had made it in, as a loud cracking sound and a hissing noise appeared right behind them, followed by a part of the floor getting shattered.
"Sniper!"
Zero Two threw herself against her Darling and brought them both down to the floor.
As soon as possible she rose to her feet again, standing between Hiro and the direction the shot came from. Her hands moved the submachinegun into firing position on their own.
Where are you, where are you, where are you?, her mind kept racing, as she searched the surroundings.
While Hiro came back to his feet, she snuck to the corner they just took and looked back into the bigger hallway.
She heard their followers coming nearer again, but had no time to think about it, as a second shot was fired and she threw herself back into the sideway.
The explosion of the hit and thousands of little floor fragments followed her.
So he can't aim into this corridor. Alright.
"Darling, we have to move! Run! Run!"
Hiro nodded and started to run again.
Without turning back, he ran as fast as he could again.
Zero Two stayed back.
Without making a sound she cowered right behind the corner.
Her predicament proved correct, as she heard a single pair of boots run up to her from the hallway. The second the soldier came into her sight, he was thrown against the wall and smashed to the ground. She took his sniper rifle and bashed it against his forehead. After checking up on him, she immediately started to sprint after Hiro.
Two corners ahead, he was waiting for her.
"Don't do such things, please", was all he said.
She knew what he meant.
"I'm sorry. It was something spontaneous. I didn't mean to send you off alone. I just thought he may come out of hiding, after hearing my words and your footsteps. And he did."
She looked at him flustered as they started running besides each other again.
"We're even now, I guess", he shrugged it off, "But no crazy one-girl-army stuff anymore, ok? We have to be out of their patrol range by now. I guess that … what did you call him?"
"Sniper"
"Yes, that sniper seemed to be alone. I don't think they would have sent a single guy, after what you did to the rest. Anyway, how come you know so much about this military stuff? You can handle a submachinegun pretty well, as far as I can tell. And you recognized, whatever it was that gave him away as such, the sniper, as you call him."
She handed him the heavy sniper rifle.
Suddenly her face seemed to become kind of stoic, he thought.
"A sniper shoots from a far distance to kill an enemy with a single shot. They are used to kill enemy leaders, destroy unarmored vehicles and so forth. To use one in this cramped environment and against just two people on foot is a little bit of an overkill, if you ask me. I guess you are right and they are indeed desperate."
He looked at her with an asking face, as she just blatantly ignored the other part of his question and threw the weapon and his helmet away.
"You know you can tell me everything, don't you? And please don't give me 'it's a pain' this time."
She winced on the last part, as it marked one of her least pleasant memories and let go of her helmet too.
They finally arrived on the big hallway that led to the command room in one and to the elevator in the other direction.
Slowly they looked around, but couldn't make out any other people.
Not running anymore, but still quickly, they marched into the direction of the elevator.
Zero Two sighed.
"Darling … there are many things I never ever want to tell you. Because I love you. Certain things would just shock you, but others … If word came out, that I told you about it, they wouldn't brainwash you again, as you can still remember afterwards, if the memories are triggered correctly. They would outright shoot you."
His eyes grew a bit wider, but it certainly wasn't something that hadn't crossed his mind in the last hour. The fear of getting shot was constantly following him, even now.
"And you handling those guns is one of the latter?"
She nodded silently.
"The only thing I will tell you willingly is: if you brake too many rules, some people will get very mad at you. Powerful people, that is. And if they decide that you can't possibly atone for your actions, they decide how to deal with you. On one of those occasions I learned how to take down humans by the use of rifles and other stuff. One warning though: what we did today was just out of the will to get our hands on some information's we aren't supposed to look at. But that was the first step that in the end let to me getting used to weapons. Never forget that, ok Darling?"
Hiro gulped a bit.
"I understand where you're coming from. I'll try to avoid breaking the rules any time in the near future then."
She seemed pleased by that answer.
"Yes, that would be good. They still will find a way to track us down. Somehow they always get me for the things I do. We have to take a look at the data quickly and scan through it within a few days. Then we have to let it disappear, before they come for us. This way, we should just get smacked and not instantly thrown in a cell or something like that. Well, considering that on those sticks could lay some of the information's I just talked about, we may be also very dead after reading them. But that isn't very likely. I mean … we broke into the local military archive not that of high command, right?"
She said the last part half joking, but Hiro knew her to good, to not sense a bit of fear behind those words.
Again, for the thousandth time this past hour, he asked himself what in the world he had done.
A few silent minutes later they reached the elevator unhindered.
Zero Two suddenly made a pained face and said:
"So there was no bathroom at all, right? I really need to go see one right now …"
Hiro was shortly taken aback, but soon realized that they were monitored while being in here.
"Yeah … I could have sworn I went to a bathroom somewhere around here before, but I may have confused things, sorry."
She nodded, still with a pained look to her.
After hearing her next words he suddenly realized that they were not entirely feigned.
"So … you could distract me a bit by telling me how I am supposed to talk to your squad again."
She threw Hiro a worried glance.
He began to smile as soon as he heard that.
"So you really do care what they think of you that badly now?"
She got a little bit red and murmured:
"Well, we will be living together again and … I will have to eat with them and spend time with them in general and … it would be a pain if I had to avoid contact with them all the time, sooo …"
"And maybe you want to actually be friends with them?"
She gulped.
"Maybe. Just a little."
And turned away even further.
Suddenly she felt Hiro's right hand on her shoulder, squeezing her softly.
"That is the right way to go at it. You tell them that and I am sure none of them will turn you down. And as I know Ichigo pretty well … I think poor Zorome is already waiting for an hour to apologize to you for what he said", he smiled.
"You think she got mad at him for teasing me away?"
Her eyes grew wide, as she turned back to Hiro.
He nodded.
"Definitely. She forgave you. First in the mid of battle, as she got me to Strelizia, then afterwards on the field. I really think she is trying her best to make up with you. You really should talk to her in private later on, but first let me explain some things to her, ok? I bet she will see you in a different light, after hearing about brainwashing and torture and that stuff. And no, no, no! Don't give me that look. Please, Zero Two. Let me explain it to her. Not because I want her to pity you for anything. But because you two are going to be real squad mates and something like that shouldn't be kept to just the two of us. Of course I won't tell them everything. They don't need to now all of our shared memories. But they need to know the gist of it."
Zero Two really struggled to get behind that, but deep within her she already knew she would let her Darling do it. Not because she thought that it was a good idea, but because she had basically no social competence whatsoever and he thought that it was a good idea.
Sighing she nodded in agreement.
"Alright. You tell them whatever you think will be necessary. But I won't talk to them about it. I don't talk to anyone about those things, but you."
"You don't have to. No one will pressure you to talk about it, I promise you that. Well, maybe Zorome will, but that's because he has as much social competence as you do", Hiro laughed awkwardly.
Zero Two snorted.
"That's fine. I think I start to understand how he works."
He just smiled back at her and pointed towards the console on the wall.
"We are there. Let's get at it, shall we?"
She took in a deep breath and then the first step towards the door that opened up.
Hiro walked by her side, while still holding her arm a bit.
She didn't mind that. She really needed a little bit of encouragement to take the next step. All her inner mechanisms screamed at her to run away. And maybe for the very first time, she just ignored them altogether.
Mistilteinn was still as beautiful as ever.
Not even the now broken glass dome could do that any harm.
They walked over the bridge together and to the big entrance of the Boarding House.
He noticed that someone had been standing on the other side of the windows, by a vanishing shadow on the other side.
He became thoughtful upon that, as they entered the building.
In the entrance hall he took a look around, just to find Ikuno leaning on the wall beside the door to the sitting room.
She gave them a sign to follow her and then went into the room.
"Well then …", Hiro proclaimed shrugging and went after her, Zero Two by his arm.
As they entered the room, they were shortly taken aback by how the room had changed over their short time of leave.
There were flowers in vases and bottles everywhere.
On a bedsheet hanging on the opposite wall was written:
"Welcome to the squad back"
And all squad members were standing somewhere in the room, bowing upon their entering and saying in union: "Welcome back to the squad Hiro and Zero Two!"
Hiro finally let go of her arm, as he couldn't think of any reason why she should need his encouragement anymore and smiled a beaming smile at Ichigo, who undoubtedly were behind all this.
But her eyes were entirely fixated on Zero Two's as she waited for a response.
And Zero Two responded by shedding some tears, while still starring at the scenery in front of her.
Ichigo finally showed a smile herself, as seemingly a ton of weight dropped off of her chest. She gave a little nod with her head and Zorome took a step towards Zero Two before bowing again.
"I am very sorry for my horrible joke back at the hallway. Please forgive me. I didn't mean to drive you away. I am sorry."
And judging by how he said that with a little tremble in his voice, he really did mean what he just said. Hiro was in awe.
Zero Two sniffled the tears away and surprised everyone but Hiro by bowing herself towards Zorome and saying: "It is forgiven and forgotten. You don't need to apologize to me. I am the one who really needs to apologize to each and every one of you. Not only for the fact that I did beat some of you up to unconsciousness, but also because I did not treat you the right way after you did all you could to welcome me to your squad. I am sorry. And I am very grateful for this possibility to start our relationship anew. Please give me a second try to …"
At this point tears were streaming down her face, uncontrolled.
"… to become your friend."
And then she started crying full and truly. And she didn't try to hide any of it, as every tear was bearing her hopes of not getting rejected.
Ichigo stood there, eyes wide open, one hand clutched over her open mouth, while looking from Zero Two to Hiro and back.
Futoshi, who stood beside her, looked like he would start crying too at any second now.
Goro leaned back at the other side of the room, all his fears shattered and with a feeling of being right about her the entire time – or most of the time, rather.
Zorome was too dumbfounded to correctly process the situation, as he had expected some kind of storm coming over him instead of this.
Miku stood in shock, a single tear of heartfelt joy rolling down her cheek.
Ikuno was the calmest of all, but even she was moved by Zero Two's words, even as she tried to hide it. Her gentle smile gave it away for everyone to see.
Mitsuru – who had as the only person in the room already suffered twice because of her – was really taken aback for a second, after seeing the 'monster', which tormented him greatly back then, bowing, apologizing, crying and saying she wanted to be his friend. But as everyone else had forgiven her and she really seemed to mean it … He sighed and gave her a pained, but honest smile as well.
Kokoro just simply walked up to Zero Two and hugged her for a long time, to let her cry over her shoulder.
Hiro – who was the only one beside Zero Two who could see all the faces in the room – was relieved beyond end. This was the best possible outcome he could have asked for.
He gently stroke over Zero Two's back to signal her that he would leave her for a second and went over to Ichigo.
One after the other the squad now took turns in hugging with Zero Two, to make her feel better.
As Hiro stood beside her, he just whispered:
"Thanks, Ichigo. For everything."
She smiled back at him with a little bit sad face.
"I hope you are happy together. I really mean it. After all that …", she took a deep breath and made a gesture with her hand in the air, "… you really can't let anything get between the two of you. Or I will get really angry. Maybe punch you even, if I think you're not doing it right."
Hiro chuckled upon hearing that.
"Alright, I take you by your word. But please coordinate the punching with Zero Two. If I ever were to make her sad, she would send me flying", he laughed.
Ichigo couldn't hide her grin from him, so she didn't even try.
"Alright, alright. But cut the chatter for later, I have to go hug your girlfriend now", she grimaced at him jokingly.
He gave her an encouraging nudge she didn't really need and watched as she took over from Ikuno and hugged Zero Two long and truly.
Goro, who had had his fair share of hugging already, came strolling towards Hiro, so he directed his attention over to him.
"Hey Goro, how much of this was Ichigo's idea and how much yours?"
"Pffff …", he shrugged it off, "I had barely any initiative in it. It's all thanks to the girls, really. We boys just tagged along as usual."
Hiro looked over at Futoshi, who was really crying his eyes out now, steadily repeating: "This is all so wholesome …", then looked back at Goro, who was again shrugging, yet had a big grin on his face.
"I see", Hiro replied very unconvinced and they both started to laugh at each other shortly after.
Later that day Hiro lay in his bed, listening to the peaceful snoring of Goro, and thinking about everything that had happened today. It had been one hell of a ride and it had thrown all of his life upside down again.
It was nearly unthinkable, but on this very morning he had been alone and sad and saw of his comrades, who were going into the battle of their lives without him.
And now he not only partook in said battle, he reunited with Zero Two, they finally were truly together, they won the battle, then broke into the military archive and escaped with an unknown amount of data to uncover their past and finally reunited the entire squad to one big group of friends, including Zero Two. What a day.
But now - his face got a little bit more serious – he had work to do.
He grabbed the data stick out of its hiding spot behind his bed.
With the other hand he searched under his blanket for the other thing he was going to use. He found it and brought the two together.
Now let's see what we have gotten our hands on here …
Nearly at the exact same time the chief of staff of the archive had managed to get someone of the surviving elements of APE within Plantation 13 to take a look at the severity of the break in from earlier and to take command over the troops hunting the culprits down.
"… as you can see yourself, Sir. They then proceeded to the basement, where they managed to get through one of the highest security ratings we have in use and stole data in horrid amounts. We aren't entirely sure as of now, but it must have been a few dozen terabyte at least. The Lieutenant of the second battalion from east block was down here when it happened and got knocked out in the process of confronting them. As I told you, he couldn't make out a face before his vision faded. As with all the men we lost to the medics today. Afterwards … Sir? What is it? You look … different … all of a sudden."
"Give me a full report on everything until tomorrow morning. It is the first thing I want to have on my desk when I wake up, understood? Besides that, I want the reports of every man who was knocked out and is already awake again. Furthermore I need copies of everything they have stolen, all footage of every camera in the area and the data of every person this body scanner has scanned today. Make sure that I get it all on time and I promise you, I will get your pair of intruders faster than you think, Chief", Hachi replied with his typical monotone voice. But he didn't need any of that. He knew it. He was certain that he knew who it was they were hunting. The description of the fugitives had been enough to worry him and get him into this case. But after hearing what happened to the soldiers and the involvement of an S-Class Clearance for scanners it was all too painfully obvious to him. The only reason why he didn't simply stormed up there with a bunch of soldiers for a damn raid was that he could not at all understand what in the world had gotten into their heads to do that. And a part of himself was appalled by the fact that he even cared, instead of simply doing his duty. But he wanted to know, before he would go up there. He would see through all the material and then he would talk to Nana and the Doctor.
Whew, that was quite the ride.
I originally wanted to include most of the events of chapter three within this one, but after realizing that it is already more than twice as long as the first one, I scratched that.
So yeah ... I guess I just made Hiro and Zero Two criminals and thugs. For quite some time I have been asking myself: "Is this really in character for them?" But ultimately I convinced myself that it is. Zero Two is at that point in time not the cute girl with flowers decorating her horns, but still a cold (yet thawing) person, who will do anything to keep herself and her Darling save. And why would I condemn her for that? Hiro on the other hand was more difficult. He has his doubts and he isn't fully convinced that he is doing the right thing. I hope I let him show that enough. But on the other side his new feelings of revenge help him a big deal to get behind what he does, while it happens, so there we go.
All in all this chapter came out as quickly because it was already as good as completed as the first one was released. The third chapter will need a little bit longer until it is finished.
And then we will get to see how the Vice Chairman is doing after being hit by that very big hand earlier. Also we might get a glimpse on what kind of data the two have stolen from the archive.
See you then, your Birne3000!