Chapter 3

As Hachi carried Nana's limp body through the museum several people offered their help. He answered all of them with "It's fine, I've got her." and stoicly moved on. Some others gave him confused looks as he passed by, but nobody seriously bothered him as he moved towards the back of the old parasite facility. He flashed his ID in front of a barrier labeled "Employees Only", which flashed green and he passed through. He walked by several identical doors in the white hallway until he came upon the only one with a numpad next to it. He hoisted Nana over one shoulder and with his free hand punched 1-9-6-7-0-3 into the numpad. After hearing the lock click he pushed open the door and entered.

"Who is it?" The feminine robotic voice came from the left, and as Hachi looked over he saw Ikuno sat at her desk looking towards him. Her hair was white as ever, and half her face was still comprised of a robotic contraption almost identical to Dr. Franxx's.

From his right came another feminine voice that exclaimed "Oh my! Nana!" Naomi appeared in front of him, hair also now white and face riddled with wrinkles. She examined Nana's face, then jogged to the back of the room and typed something into a holographic keyboard on the wall. A compartment extended from the wall to reveal a bed, which Naomi pointed to and said, "Come, set her down here." Hachi obliged and set her down on what was essentially a large morgue storage table with a cushion and a pillow. He heard Ikuno stand up behind him and turned to see her jog over to the side of the bed. She examined Nana from head to toe, then with a confused face asked, "What happened?"

"I don't know," replied Hachi, "We were just taking our annual tour of the park when she collapsed."

"Annual- Is it that time of year already?" Said Naomi, "Man, living for six hundred years really makes the days fly by doesn't it?"

Ikuno shook her head, "Nevermind that." She pressed a button on the wall and a holographic interface appeared above Nana. "I guess I'll run a few tests..." She deftly navigated the interface and soon a robotic arm extended from the wall and started to poke and prod Nana with various strange looking instruments.

Naomi chimed in, "Well then, since that is going to take a while why don't we catch up while we wait?"

Ikuno's somber expression melted away and she said exitedly, "Oh, yes! Come, pull over that chair from over there." She pointed to a lone chair in the back corner of the room as she and Naomi went to grab their own chairs from their desks.

As Hachi went to pull over the chair he examined the lab. It had not changed much over the years. He remembered Ikuno relentlessly working to figure out how to reverse the accelerated aging process of the parasites in the lab with a lonely desk, chair, and table lamp. Now the lab had two large desks in the front of the room separated by the door, holographic screens on the wall that showed immense amounts of assorted data, and large LED ceiling lights that illuminated the whole room, showing the bare white walls. The back wall had also been modified for many functional reasons, one of which was the large bed compartment that Naomi and Ikuno slept in, where Nana now laid.

After they were all seated Ikuno asked, "What have you been doing lately?"

Hachi responded, "Nothing much, mostly just walking around the city, waiting."

Naomi remarked, "If you don't do much why don't you stop by more often? It gets lonely with just the two of us in here sometimes."

"Well I wouldn't want to disturb you while you were working of course." He chuckled, "Speaking of, what have you two been working on lately?" He tried to decipher the data displayed on the holographic monitors on the walls above their desks, but failed.

Naomi answered, "Well, after we figured out fusion reactors there hasn't been much to think about. We picked up Dr. Franxx's old data again, and have been trying to decipher what he didn't have the time to go through."

Ikuno added, "We found that there was a strong correlation with parasite scores and levels of specific hormones present in their bodies," she sighed, "not that any of that matters anymore... That old geezer never looked into it though. Makes me wonder how he got anything done."

Naomi scoffed, "I just think he was lucky he didn't get humanity killed... All he did was use enough parasites until he found one that worked and cloned them. All of the other squads are just a clone of one person. Same hair, same personality, same everything. The only thing that caused one parasite to be different from another was the mutation that the yellow blood cells caused."

Ikuno smiled and said to Naomi jokingly, "You're just angry because he made you Hiro's parnter even though he knew that Hiro could only pilot with Zero Two after he ingested her blood."

"That man didn't know anything!" Naomi sulked in her chair and growled, "He's the reason I ended up with a robo-arm, too!" She pulled up her sleeve to show her arm, which seemed normal until she pressed her finger to it. The skin faded away to show a black, metallic arm underneath. When she moved her finger away the metal shifted its colors and once again looked like normal skin.

Hachi chuckled and said, "You should be more thankful for that robo-arm, it's the reason you are immortal, you know."

"Yeah, at least you don't have a metal monstrosity on your face," Ikuno glared at Naomi and tapped the mechanical side of her head, causing a dull sound to ring around the room, "it's not as easy to display a face on this metal surface... It looks so ugly." They laughed and smiles came to their faces once more.

In the moment of silence that followed Hachi looked towards Nana lying on the bed beside them, and though back to what she had said earlier. With that conversation in mind he asked, "Why did you two choose to be immortal, to cheat death?"

The two looked at him and thought for a moment. Ikuno answered first, "Well, there is just so much to do and not enough time."

Naomi continued the thought, "And it seemed like all the others had done their part in looking towards the future."

Ikuno looked towards Naomi with a smile, "Our brains didn't really agree with the whole reproduction thing-"

Naomi took her hand, "-so it feels like we had to work harder to do our fair share in building a better future."

They then finished in unison, gazing into eachother's eyes, "One lifetime is just not sufficient enough."

The metal arm that was probing Nana then retracted back into the wall, and the holographic display showed an alert that said "Testing Complete". Naomi stood and started to look through the results, "This might take a minute..."

Ikuno continued the conversation, "The strangest thing is watching your own funeral on a surveillance camera. 'Humanity can't know about immortality without the use of magma energy,' they said. Pfft, whatever. This immortality requires cannibalizing parts of the franxx so it's not like we could make that many people immortal anyways..." she trailed off with an annoyed look.

Hachi chuckled, "Looks like Naomi isn't the only one with an irrational anger towards something..." he examined Naomi and Ikuno again, "I never understood your squad's antics, even with how much I've changed over the years I still don't get it," He pointed to Nana, "She's always better with that stuff than I am."

When Naomi finished scanning through the results she said, "Ok," Hachi and Ikuno looked at her and she continued, "nothing seems to be horribly wrong, it's just that her body seems to be sleeping while her brain activity is off the charts." She thought about it for a bit, then concluded, "Almost like she's dreaming..."

In that moment Nana's body returned to life and she sat up. She screamed, "Hiro! Zero Two!" jumped out of the bed, and sprinted out the door.

Hachi sprang out of his chair and pursued her, yelling, "Nana! Wait! Where are you going?"

Soon just Ikuno and Naomi remained in the lab. Ikuno calmly stood up and asked a shocked Naomi, "What day is it again?"

She snapped out of her confusion and answered, "I-It's the anniversary, right? May second?"

"Hmm..." Ikuno thought for a moment then started to walk out after Nana and Hachi.

Before she got out the door Naomi asked, "Should I wake them from cryosleep?"

Ikuno paused and answered, "No, I would hate to disturb those two for no reason." and proceeded down the hallway.

The Museum was closed as Nana ran down the hallway, with Hachi close behind. She exited the museum and headed straight towards The Great Sakura. Hachi soon caught up with her and grabbed her arm, then they both came to a stop. Nana looked back towards Hachi and with her free hand pointed towards two children that were playing under the tree. With a shaky voice she said, "I-it's them, Hachi, It's Hiro a-and Zero Two."

Hachi looked to where she was pointing, and saw a young boy and a young girl, perhaps six or seven years old, who respectively looked almost identical to Hiro and Zero Two. He frowned and said, "It may just be a coincidence, Nana."

"No!" She yelled back defiantly, "I heard him! He said his name was Hiro! Today's the day, too! The day Zero Two's body faded away!"

Hachi let out a deep sigh and said, "Even if it is them, they might not even have their memories."

"But I have to try!" Nana pulled her arm from his grasp and started towards the hill.

A voice came from behind Hachi, "He's right, Nana."

Nana stopped and turned to see Ikuno standing behind Hachi with a sweatshirt hood pulled over the mechanical side of her face.

Ikuno continued, "We don't know enough yet, just wait and we will figure this all out."

"B-b-but..." She stammered and turned to look at the children again, and this time saw them no longer playing, but walking away from eachother down separate sides of the hill. Tears ran down her face and she fell to her knees, "It's been so long..."

Ikuno knelt by her side and embraced her. "I know, it's been a long time." She shed a tear of her own as she watched the boy with black hair and the girl with light pink hair walk away.

They stayed like that for a while, until Ikuno recieved a message from Naomi. The voice recording played in her ear, "Come back to the lab, quick. I think it's VIRM." Ikuno stood quickly to her feet and whispered to herself, "This is bad..." She looked at Nana and Hachi, who looked back at her, and explained, "It seems I have some bad news," She started back towards the museum entrance and beckoned them to follow, "Let's go discuss this over some tea, things are already stressful enough as it is."

They all had frowns on their faces they headed back towards the lab. They walked along side by side with a bad feeling developing deep within their hearts, but good thoughts of Hiro and Zero Two on their minds.