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Chapter 4

Outstretched Hand

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Could be worse, could be better.

The situation, I mean.

Ichigo and I are still waiting down here. It has been at least an hour since I've turned on the beacon of Delphinium, and she's still sitting there, on the reclined faceplate, gripping her legs with her head lodged between them while giving me her small back. Her whimpers stopped a while ago... and in the meanwhile, I've lost the will to think lightheartedly. Hachi is still on the large, just like the supposed ground team he promised us he would send for our rescue. Why is it taking them so much time? At least my seat is very comfortable - unlike my stomped feelings, but I digress, it could have been way worse. I tried to blank my mind out for a moment, but this inner confusion keeps coming back to me like magnetized to the tracks of my train of thought in order to derail it.

Do I really suck that much?

Maybe she was just overwhelmed by her own emotions, maybe it was too soon, maybe it wasn't the right moment or the right words she needed - in any case, I feel like I've messed up somehow. Didn't she throw herself into my arms as I've offered them, anyways…? Well, I started by holding her by the shoulders, and then she fully corresponded as if accepting me… but then started to cry and broke off to run away… Does this mean that my hugs make people cry? Well, damn, this would be on another level of horrible…

Unreal, I just can't believe it!

What really came through her mind? If only would be that easy to read it like you read a book, I would be on the top of the world! I would know instantly what she needed and what to do to give her some respite, but alas, I have to trust my painful gut feeling. I know it's better to shove the blame elsewhere than to take the punch, but was she really thinking of Hiro and the fact he's currently missing in action? I shouldn't pin this on him personally, it would be extremely disingenuous and, more simply, immature. I'm also worried about him, damned if I know where he went! Always launching himself into trouble, that idiot…! Now even Ichigo is all worried and agitated! Ah- I said to not pin this on him, already failing at doing that? That might be because I fully know he's literally the first person that Ichigo wants to be with. And, to my sadness, I take second place. This situation is incredibly frustrating. Yeah, I'm lost in love for Ichigo, so I guess it's normal that this is quite painful, isn't it?

Actually, this situation goes way back...

It all started when we were in the Garden, the parasite nursery house, as little children soon to become FranXX pilots to fulfill our destiny as humanity's protectors. I was there, with Hiro and Ichigo as skin-bound friends, always together as the inseparable, magic trio!

Hiro, black short hair just over his confident eyes and a smile so bright that it left holes onto walls, was regarded by the Adults the most interesting child and the most promising soon-to-be parasite, and that was very true: he was intelligent and extremely charismatic, as much as perversely curious. So much curious that the caretakers would make double shifts to not leave him alone! Everyone respected and highly regarded him, especially the little Ichigo, who only had eyes for him…

Ichigo, the small and meek black-and-bluish-haired girl always hanging onto rabbit plushes of various sizes and softness, she had an entire collection of them that she never abandoned! Despite all you could think about how cute she was, a certain hot-blooded character showed from time to time, that's how I met her for the first time. She helped me in a quarrel and she was quite good at throwing her fists, that was love at first sight!

And, last but not least, me, Goro. The bespectacled blondie, taller than the average and I guess always over the books. Looking back, compared to Hiro, I tended to isolate myself a lot, but those two were the reason I didn't ditch people completely - can't say I was a perfect fit for the other children there. In fact, I hated their lot with a passion. One thing I owe to my friends is salvation from a bitter loner life, something I will forever be thankful for. They gave me so much, in retrospect, that I started giving myself, be it a word, a gesture or something more, to not let them down in any way, and to match the beautiful times with them during our stay there.

Time passed, then when we were fifteen years old, we left the Garden to take our place in society, Plantation 13's birdcage, where we would start our service in the FranXX Defense Force, and of course kick off our troubles. Hiro discovered he couldn't connect with other pistils and join the ranks of the parasites like me and Ichigo. At the forefront of such an absolutely harsh and shameful reality, the world literally collapsed under his feet. He suddenly fell from the stars he was painted onto as Ichigo was nominated squad leader, with me as her vice, instead of him. He became depressed and distant from us, literally and figuratively, by disappearing entire afternoons inside the green ticket around the boarding house inside the Birdcage. I just couldn't stand by and watch him in that state anymore, but any attempt from both in bringing him back ended in him further isolating himself.

Until one day. A certain girl had appeared with him and declared herself his FranXX partner from literally nowhere - extremely good-looking, big chest, teal eyes, pink long hair with extremely unsettling small red horns embedded high on her forehead, accompanied by a very odd outgoing personality and a thrilling catchphrase:

"Darling!"

Zero Two.

Of course, at that pink-haired girl's sudden appearance, Ichigo went completely nuts, and my headaches began. Because guess what? She was the one and only pistil that Hiro managed to drive with, so, of course he wanted to be paired with her. Thing is… there was a little but shoved into that decision. The horned girl was an ultra-veteran pistil, a special forces member and the so-called 'Partner Killer', the pistil that killed you after the third ride in her FranXX, Strelitzia. At the start I was skeptic about her nickname, I thought that was just one of the many empty legends that you could overhear in the Garden's playground, like that one where the Adults eat the disappearing children, or the other one where the caretakers are robots disguised as humans, and I treated it as such. How wrong I was!

One certain evening, after the second drive with the horned girl, in our shared room, I discovered him collapsed on the floor feverishly panting. Trying to making him breathe, I unzipped his collar, and… hadn't I done it! In front of my eyes comes the most horrifying thing I've ever seen: a blue, pulsating tumor was lodged on my best friend's chest, just above the heart! It was the effect of driving with Zero Two, I knew it. I became furious. After I reproached him about it, he stated that his own life was not worth living without driving a FranXX and he wanted to do it even if it meant to die. After that one, I was even more furious, almost fuming from the rage. But he pleaded me to stay silent about it, and… I begrudgingly did so.

It was that moment I realized he appeared more human than I envisioned him. Not the unphasable and collected person I've always known him to be, but a very fallible and vulnerable one. Someone that could throw away all his own life like that… his friends, his future, for something so reckless, and...! Who cares if you can't connect to a FranXX! If you're allowed to stay with us regardless, why wouldn't you take the chance? Aren't we that important to you? What's so important to choose over your own life?

Well… At the time I didn't understand.

I think I reacted this way because he wanted to go a different path than me and, after all the countless miles we've done together, one I couldn't follow. I was scared, but I couldn't bring myself to stop Hiro out of the respect I felt for him. He was, after all, following his intense desires as he's always done. He wanted to drive a FranXX more than living, after all. At the time I thought that he desperately wanted to get back his place here among us, to fulfill his role of pride in our society, but in retrospect, there was a little more to it. Something I experienced myself a bit later.

The same night, I was lying in my bed, sleepless. With Hiro reveling in pain in his bed, I couldn't catch sleep for the life of me, so I decided to sneak out of the bedroom to calm up a bit and wash myself up. After having quickly cleared the grump off my face, I wandered downstairs and sat on the porch in front of the flower garden to get some fresh air. After a while, I suddenly saw Ichigo and Zero Two walking towards the back of the greenhouse, one behind the other. The two started to talk, then to angrily yell at each other, and the discussion devolved into a furious Ichigo hitting Zero Two with a slap across the face. That's what you would call a 'whoa' moment!

After a while, Ichigo ran back onto the porch, wet as a cat, and started to cry, much like the aerial sprinklers of the Cage that activated while she was still out there. She told me she was convinced that Zero Two was really going to be the end of him. She was scared that she kill him outright in the next mission. I nodded in silence. I knew everything and more than she could imagine, but I couldn't express it using words. I knew exactly what she felt, but I couldn't let out my grievances because of that accursed promise. I felt boxed in, impotent. She feared to lose one of his dear friends and… much, much more than that, in retrospective.

Then, something stirred inside me.

At that moment, witnessing Ichigo crying her eyes out, I wanted to touch her. No… not entirely. I wanted to stay close to her. I wanted to hold her. Hold her tight, in my arms, where my heart warmly beats. What I couldn't do with my voice, I wanted to do with my body. To tell her that everything was alright, that everything would resolve itself, that it wasn't such a big deal. Even if it would end up untrue, that moment I wanted to make a place where we would be alone, just the two of us, far from that world of hurt, that future made of fear and confusion.

That time, I didn't do anything of the sort. And that's one of my biggest regrets, written on a long list growing by the day.

Anyways, weeks later, Hiro didn't die as the rumors suggested. During the Kissing Operation, his third ride on Strelitzia, he just fainted inside the cockpit... but sure it looked like he left us for good though, and the event shook Ichigo to the core with me the only lifeline to keep her anchored to reality. That's there I understood how much she cared for him, and that was as much as I cared for her. Then, checking on him the following day, his tumor was completely gone, like it was never there to begin with. Maybe that was really the work of a miracle…

Those were tumultuous times. We were younger, without aim, nor experience. Not to say that it was a year ago, so what I'm literally talking like I'm already 20? I'm 16, for the heck's sake! But going by memory sensation, it feels like I first sat upon this very cockpit forever ago. A lot has happened, so much that I feel radically changed from back then like I'm a whole new person from the ground up. There are some things I wish I would have the chance to go back and do otherwise, while for others I would repeat them exactly the same. For some fortunate reason though, that moment represented itself again like it was the first: the chance I was waiting for!

I wanted to tell her that there's a place made just for her, between my arms!

So I did, but, in the end, she fled from that place in tears. And all that's left now it's just the wish that I wouldn't have done that all along. Well, this seems already the bottom of the barrel already… Heh, the bottom of the chasm, how about it? Well, even if it would be that way, it's still a very advantageous position since you can't fall any further and there's only a way to go: upwards.

«Thud!»

Huh? Something dented the head of Delphinium…

"Ichigo, what's that?" I ask Ichigo pointing upwards. She turns around and faces me, but avoids my eyes and glances embarrassed to the side. Damn, this hurts.

"What are you talking about…?" She timidly asks, maybe she was still in daydreaming mode and didn't catch the bang on the cockp-

«Thud!»

«Thud!»

"That one - no, two."

"Oh?" Ichigo frowns and jumps up from the faceplate and looks above the helmet of our FranXX. Suddenly, she shields her face as some earthen specks fall on her face.

"This must be Hachi's ground team!" Finally, the time has come!

"What… There's no one up there, " she grumbles.

Huh? No one…? I get up and walk beside her, past the metal cockpit door, and look upwards the massive rock wall towering behind our mech. She's right, even past the thinly veiled dust clouds past the crumpled steel catwalks and structures hanging from the wall, I see no movement whatsoever. The lid of the wall, even if partially shrouded, is not warped by sudden silhouettes I'd expect to appear as the unmanned drones descend to retrieve us as procedure, and-

"GOROOOOO! ICHIGOOOOOO!"

WHOA!

That call smashes onto my eardrums and quakes the rubble all around us!

"WHA- DAMN! WHO'S YELLING…!" I shout back. The hell was that? Sure that Hachi didn't send us a hit team instead of a rescue one? Wait, isn't that the voice of…

"Zorome! We're here! Dial down the volume! You're gonna pop my eardrums!" Ichigo yells upwards, clasping her fists in anger.

"W-whoa, sorry, sorry! Your location signal didn't work!" Zorome's voice answers back without the killer decibels.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, another female voice loudly chastises the previous one, "Would you look at this child! Next time, fix that thing before horsing around! What if you injure them?"

Trying to pinpoint those voices is harder than it seems, the sound is echoing loudly above the sea of rocks all around us. But of one thing I'm sure, that petulant voice is very familiar!

"Hey, Zorome! Hi, Miku!" Ichigo and I yell upwards.

"Hi, guys! We're up here," she warns us, but for the hell of me, I can't see them! The rugged cliff edge is essentially as empty as I left it.

"Come oooon! What are you yapping aboooout? Two decibels more or less won't hurt!"

"Perhaps to you! Is it possible that you're always so immature!?"

"Heh, sorry, I'm deaf thanks to your constant yelling at my face, that sure can't be helped!"

"AAAAAH!?" taken by surprise, the female voice pouts away. "A-Ah… Hmpf!

And there they are, constantly fighting. What a duo…

Suddenly, in the middle of the wall above us, a head pops out of nowhere: a white-painted LCD faceplate acting as stylized face with pink painted glasses, a helmet with a light blue diadem sporting a pair of deep pink antlers - maybe twin-tails - rigidly shot in the air, and a warm smile beaming towards us. That's Argentea, Zorome and Miku's FranXX unit! Huh, I guess she's peeping from the edge of what once was a service tunnel of the Crevasse, but now just a well-hidden hole among the nooks and crannies of the devastated deep-excavated base.

"Wow, that's deep!" Argentea squints her eyes at us. "There you are!" Miku's voice becomes kind and the robot beams a sweet smile towards us.

"Hi, guys!" Ichigo greets them, "Hi, Miku, Zorome!" I salute her by waving my hand.

The robot weights us up, then her smile vanishes all of a sudden. "Is that one below you gone?" Miku asks pointing at the big violet robot partially buried underneath us.

"Yes! He stopped moving!" I yell from down here.

Argentea makes an OK sign at us, then Zorome asks her partner, "Miku, are we going to the bottom?"

"Yes, we do. Get into the cockpit, you two! Coming oooover!" Argentea withdraws from the opening. "Hey, wait… what do you want to d- NO! DON'T…!" Miku screams.

" Yahaaaaaaaaa!" Zorome screams and Argentea steps off the border and plunges into the void.

"AAAAAAAAAAHH!" Argentea's face is pure terror!

And mine too!

"Get in, get in!" At my call, I and Ichigo scuttle back into Delphinium's head to avoid being peppered by falling rocks. I peek outside a little, and whoa dude, that's the way to get down, Zorome?

Among the screams, Argentea gnaws the solid rock surface with her clawed glove and slides towards the bottom, among the ear-torturing screeches of her magma blades cutting onto the solid rock walls and Miku's shouts full of terror added to the mix. Despite Argentea's over-panicked face, that descent is controlled and so graceful, even while holding an unwieldy circular orange thing under the other arm - is that a fuel tank? Slowly but surely, after leaving three glaring red hot slashes for all the height of the descent, Argentea reaches the bottom and she carefully touches down onto the piles of rocks washed onto the solid rock wall. Such lightness! You'd think it's extremely improper for a hundred-meters-high metal mech, but no kidding, she's the most agile mech in our squad for a reason!

Argentea's eyes hover in a trance-like state, then explode into a manic rage!

"ZOROMEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Miku screams completely out of her mind, and a completely furious Argentea follows her pistil's emotions. "GOOD FOR YOU THAT I CAN'T CONTROL MY BODY, BECAUSE YOU WOULD BE SUPER, SUPER DEAD!"

"And how would have we, her highness, got down here otherwise? Do you see service ladders around here?" Zorome justifies himself with an extremely exquisite tone, like a proper connoisseur of the adrenaline feeling.

"AH- Who cares…! Who thinks like that! Only idiots like you do, that's right!" Argentea grips her head in proper desperation.

"Miku, Zorome! Stop-fighting-right-now!" Ichigo bossily walks out of the cockpit, "where's the ground support?"

"Huh?" Argentea beams Ichigo with a question mark face.

"The support! Where's the ground team?"

"I am the ground team." Miku promptly responds.

What?

Both I and my partner exchange between us a silent glance.

"Where's… the…" Ichigo stutters, "…where's the proper ground team?"

"Uhm, they're having issues!" Zorome vaguely explains. "We're here to fill in, Hachi asked us to refuel you and start some groundwork for the med-evac! It's quite the mess out there, you know!"

"Huuuh," Ichigo scratches her head. "What about Chloropythum and Genista?"

"They're fine, we got back all together with Hachi to the Nest! There were some communication issues with ground control so he went up and managed to get the rescue rolling!"

Ichigo scratches her head a little, then sighs, "OK I guess… Let's do this then."

"Wait a second…" Argentea closes to us, gets on all fours and lowers her face to our level and squeezes her eyes in a pout. What she's doin… WHOA! Her face is falling off! Ah, no… wait! Why is her faceplate opening? And-! While driving?! How do you even do that?

"Can you do that, too?" I ask my companion, that lightly shakes her head still dumbfounded. If Ichigo has even a more surprised look than me, then Miku knows quite the trick! The large faceplate of Argentea approaches the entrance of our cockpit acting as a platform and levels to our calves.

"Guys, get inside, we need to flip over Delphinium. The charging hatch is on the back!" Zorome announces. We wake up from our daze and, without hesitation, I climb the steel platform and throw a hand to Ichigo, that follows suit. With caution, we walk the steps and over the other entrance, and… whoa, they are still connected! How can they still drive with the cockpit open? That's totally weird!

"Don't stare like that, get inside!" Zorome invitingly waves us from his stamen seat.

"Inside… the cockpit!? Isn't that a problem?" I ask.

"Yeah, Hachi taught us this trick. He walked inside no problem!"

Oh, really? I thought it wasn't possible… Stamen and pistil sync rate and stuff- wait, Hachi got inside their cockpit? What happened at the time we were waiting? Well, that's for later. Let's get in.

"W-Wait! I'm not ready yet!" Miku's voice worriedly yells from inside the cockpit as I'm about to clear the door's high rim. I stop on my tracks, balancing I midair on my other foot.

"Could you guys make up your minds? Can we get in or what?" Ichigo blurts out annoyed beside me, clinging against my arm.

Zorome ponders a second, "…Ah! Quickly get inside, but slowly!"

We exchange a glance, then burst out in laughter.

"Aw, shut up, you…!" Miku embarrassedly

"Coming through!" I clear the jamb of the cockpit's entrance and I'm welcomed by Miku's squeals!

"W-WHOA! Don't move too much…! Ahhh!"

Among Miku's muffled yells, I and Ichigo sit down opposite of each other in the cramped space between the panoramic LCD cockpit display and Argentea's pistil support where Miku is resting on all fours, in a sleep-like state. That thing gets me every time. Her squeals are resounding from the speakers inside the cockpit, not her mouth. In fact, she's completely immobile, her body resting unresponsive on the pistil seat like she's sleeping on it, with her limbs solidly affixed to the interfaces below her. I guess it shouldn't be shocking news for me since I'm piloting my FranXX for more than a year, but I still can't help but feel a certain confusion at hearing her voice without her mouth moving.

At this point ignoring Miku's muffling, I and Ichigo sit down opposite of each other, wedged the little space between the cockpit and the omnipresent panoramic LCD screen wrapping around the interior like a sphere.

"We're ready, Miku," I announce.

"Oookkaay! Hngggg!" Miku squeals and the cockpit closes back up without Zorome's even flinching a finger from his console.

"Done! Let's dig Delphinium out!" she exclaims.

"Righto!" Zorome mirrors her.

Then, after taking off her gloves, Argentea starts to dig Delphinium's body barehanded, shoveling away with her fingers those immense pieces of concrete much like gravel. Little by little, blue glances appear among the rubble and my mech's body come visible: with blue and white as dominant colors, her body is a very feminine figure with a small red short tie for added style, large shoulder guards and large plates covering forearms, solid legs and a short skirt made of Magma energy propellers. There seems to be no damage! That's a true miracle, I expected at least some dents, but there's not even a scratch! Tough stuff, huh?

Delphinium's head is adorned with a white helmet, sporting a blue trim and a dark blue trident tiara on the front, from which protrudes a steel red shield acting like a fake red hair that falls on the right eye, for added protection. Like every FranXX, she has cheek antennas that protrude to the side much like pointed ears. Not even the head seems damaged, I wonder about the faceplate: because the door of the command station is open, I can't see it clearly even from here. When closed, an LCD screen panel on the face simulates the expression of the Pistil depending on its neural waves, like the real deal, mimicking the most natural way to communicate to other FranXX, facial expressions, and promote team awareness of combat situations. That'd be a shame if Delphinium had damage right on her pretty stylized face, and even a crime, as that's where Ichigo's smile resides.

"Uggggh! "After the grinding of metal crawling on asphalt, Argentea drags Delphinium out from the rubble as the rock scatters on the ground and spreads with deafening echoes. Uncovering the VIRM's soldier violet corpse, Argentea stops on her tracks and a pearl of sweat rolls down Zorome's temple, then through his anxious face. A bit reproached, Argentea wears again her clawed gloves, approaches the violet thing, raises its fist and «BAM!», impales right through the upper section of the VIRM soldier's torso with her white-hot fizzling claws.

"Don't you dare wake up again, you violet trashcan!" Zorome yells then turns to me smiling viciously. "Just to be sure, OK?"

I nod vigorously. To hell with that thing!

Argentea grabs Delphinium and topples her on the side with more loud creaks, then she presses on its back, and pops open a hatch in the armor where a screwed-in nozzle appears from below. Unnoticeable, if you didn't bother to read the FranXX models' technical manuals as I did. Then, our big pink mech takes the circular tank from the handle and busts open its skeleton frame to reveal the glowing fuel tank, unscrews its top and pulls out an extensible tube ending in a nozzle that is then placed onto the service opening. Then, suddenly, Argentea's hand stops in midair.

"What's the matter?" I ask turning again to Zorome. What I find, is a face redder than a tomato, almost glowing white-hot.

"N-Nothing…!" he fumbles. What the-

"Z-Zorome, d-do i-i-i-it! Th-There's no one in t-there…! I-i-it's-safe!"

What, even Miku is stuttering?

"A-a-a-alright!"

What the hell's going on…?!

Argentea's hand holding the nozzle trembles on the way towards the refueling port, hesitates, then inserts it with a «FOMP». Zorome instantly freezes, as expecting something to explode. Second pass and both he and Argentea look like being ready to be assaulted any second.

"Hello…?" I call him to try and wake him up, to no avail.

"Whewwww…" Eventually, the tension fizzles out.

"What was that?" Ichigo asks a little taken aback, robbing my words. "Did you expect Delphinium to jump at you?"

"Ehhh… N-Nevermind! Don't worry about it!" Miku says as Argentea presses the button on top of the shining canister: the tube lights up orange, and the bar indicator shining on the tank is quickly emptied in a handful of minutes. As soon as the last droplet of orange liquid disappears inside Delphinium, the apparatus is detached and her outlet is closed back as it was before.

"Ahhh, done!" Miku rejoices. As soon as the tank is shoved away, Delphinium is dragged into a seated position, then Argentea's face inches forward and opens again the cockpit. The faceplate drops just below Delphinium's still open one and Zorome .

"There you go, clear!" Zorome exclaims.

"Thanks, man, going in!" I announce, and Ichigo follows me outside. Whoa, we're much higher than before… and my mech's faceplate is still too low to jump on without getting a sprain. "Zorome, could you go a little lower?"

"Yeah, sure!" While looking past us, his face concentrates and Argentea lowers further as we grapple onto the handlebars inset into the rim of the platform, which slowly lowers to a more easier height to fall from. I help Ichigo down by accompanying her below with my arms, then let myself slide down on my own.

"Hop!" and «Bang!» go my boots on the steel. Ichigo doesn't waste any time and walks inside and hops onto her seat, made to be effectively ridden on the belly, while I walk towards mine, a well-fitted upright seat with lovingly soft, blue gel-padded cushions. Ah, I missed you, Delphinium!

After sitting down, time to see get a reading on my FranXX. A flick of a switch, and above me appears a series of holographic displays with countless bars and graphs slowly inching up. The situation is clear as day-

"Fuel at 80%. FranXX engine at an operational minimum. Support systems all green. Neural interface initializing."

"Nice, Goro. In the meantime, hit the faceplate switch."

"Yes, ma'am." My finger dashes onto the correct button on the armrest beside me and the platform comes right up as I called it without hitches or unnatural grinding sounds. We crashed from several kilometers of free-fall, but there's not any system damage! Damn, the FranXX are sturdy! That one or the VIRM soldier is soft as a teddy bear, which I don't think it's the case… I hope. Since Ichigo would be capable to bring that thing home for her collection… I sure hope.

"Connecting…" she announces, and inserts her pistil shoes into round crevices at the base of her seat, and with a «Clack!» the interfaces at the base of her soles connects with the ones of the FranXX.

"You're online," I say as a holo-notification hits my eyes. Ichigo leans forward on her seat, inserting her hands in another set of holes on the front and a deaf «Clack» signals that her wrists are clamped down by a pair of security retentions. Right now, Ichigo is spread onto her seat and… her butt… is floating… right in front of… my f-AH! Damn, knock it off Goro, what you're staring at…! Keep yourself afloat! Why is it like I'm becoming worse at keeping my eyes off her body by the day? Shouldn't this be normal by now?

Although… I never actually realized this was such a nice view! Agh-

"T-Tac-Screen ready. Turning it on." As I do, I hope the panoramic screen can help grab my attention away from her, I've got to work on my focus somehow… As the screen turns on, I can see Argentea's gigantic as smiling face staring right at us, waiting for us to work out the connection and activate Delphinium. Talking about that, I should activate Ichigo's suit, so we can connect to each other. That stuff is usually done remotely by the command station at the orders of Hachi, but there's a local emergency procedure for that.

"Ready for the suit?"

"Yep, go on."

As I flick another switch and her collar disassemble in half, one part sliding upwards and covering Ichigo's head like a hoodie, where its LCD screen lights up. All the while, her spinal exoskeleton tenses up to support her back and her two femur armor pieces detach and rotate towards me, transforming into two handlebar-like controls connected directly to her… eh-ehm, behind. After shutting down the all the holographic stuff still hovering around, it's connection time.

"All green! Ready when you are, Ichigo!"

"…Yeah, we can go." I grab her controls with both hands.

"Manual connection in 3... 2... 1..." I simultaneously press two buttons on both handles, and the connection handshake begins.

An endless-like moment.

Ah, such familiar disorientation. While my heartbeat raises dramatically, a whirlpool stirs my brains accompanied by a vaguely fluttering sensation on my temples, all the while I feel my consciousness parting with my body. Suddenly, my vision fills with countless little explosions of colorful static, then a liquid phasing through me as Ichigo's mind pours inside my own. After such frenzied dance of lights and sensations, my eye vision returns.

The first thing I see is Ichigo relaxing her head and shoulders like she entered a trance, and her neural hoodie lighting up with two holographic horns protruding from it. She's sprawled on her tummy and anchored to the cockpit, so she's OK. Her spine exoskeleton lights up orange and the display behind her collar shows both our connection quality bars, one for me and the other for her, hovering stable on the 90-110, as usual. A feeling of pressure creeps into my temples, giving me confirmation that we have entered a mental connection with each other… it's hard to describe, but it's like not being alone in my mind anymore. I can feel… something slowly filling my mind… yeah, I can feel her…

Connection successful.

…Uh? Wait! There's some connection noise! The flash of a shooting star in the pitch darkness of the night. Something that calls…

Hiro…!

"AGH-! What the-!" My hands feel like being twenty kilos each, as if someone were pressing down on them! All the weight of the connection is dumped on me and it's pulling me to the floor, like an avalanche crushing my back! Something's wrong! Our connection quality bar is severely fluctuating, I'm losing the link to Ichigo…! She can be harmed by this, I've gotta get a grip!

"Uhng!" You can do it, you can do it! "Uhg-uuuuuuuu-uhhhh!"

Wooow, jeez! I managed to stay upright! This is what I would call a superhuman effort! Fortunately, I can keep my balance literally and figuratively, by not slumping to the floor like a squished muffin and let the connection drop off. That was close!

"Goro...?" I can hear from my right Ichigo's preoccupied voice. "What's up...? Is there something wrong?" Turning to the side, the computerized image of Delphinium shows me her worried face.

"I… I'm…"

What do I tell her?

Oh no, we're connected! I must close my eyes and silence my feelings, she can definitely feel them!

Damn, this is not good! Don't look at her in the eyes!

I have to calm down right this moment. This is dangerous.

I know, I know, he's all over your mind now. I know perfectly, it's always been like that. But it's not a big deal. It's not… a big deal. I mustn't lose heart... I can do it. It's not impossible. Breathe calm and steady, Goro, calm and steady. You know there's also a place for you in her heart, you have to just to keep looking for it! Perseverance rewards! You just have to be patient, man!

A place for my feelings to blossom...

I will find it, definitely…!

A soothing sensation finally pervades me, and the weight onto my shoulders lifts.

Ironic…. That hope has always supported me, and yet here I am, almost failing to connect to her. Is this what would I do after all these years, just throw myself down like that? Come on, I can do better than this!

I open my eyes and see that my connection has stabilized, as the pressure on the controls has finally loosened, just in time.

"Nothing," I lie out of my teeth, purposely not looking at the screen on my right. "I think I've messed up the procedure, sorry about that…"

"Hm…" Ichigo's low tone still indicates a slight worry. "If there's something wrong just tell me…"

"OK." Something wrong? Nah, don't worry about it, Ichigo. Well… I just thought that the chasm I fell into had a bottom. Now… I'm not so sure anymore, but I won't bother you with those stupid insecurities of mine.

"Hellooo? Goro, is everything fine? Didn't you take a blow too much?" Zorome's video feed appears from the opposite side of Delphinium's, which is actually now Ichigo's mental image.

"Uh, no. Just a sudden Para-Capacity fluctuation."

"Mmmmh," Miku mumbles interested, "really?"

"I feel fine," Ichigo cuts in lapidary. "Looks like that purple thing is really soft."

"Ah, 'dunno, I was busy punching them, not sleeping on them," remarks a really ruffled Miku.

Uh oh, That… was a sideswipe.

"And yet it didn't calm you? That's why Zorome has a really hard time with you…"Ohhh, Ichigo shoots a surface to air missile at Miku! Is this the most dangerous cat-fight ever!?

"You...?" Argentea hangs in place with a dazed and bewildered expression, then recomposes her demeanor and raises her chin, "Hmpf!" That was super effective! On my left, Delphinium's expression carries a gigantic smug grin. Ichigo-Miku is 1 to 0.

Argentea looks on the edge for shooting another back, but then she squares my partner ironically. "Would you look at yourself... t-this time, you can get away with it!" She flickers her hand like a noblewoman.

Miku gracefully concedes!

"Scary…!" Zorome takes note. Yes, that's proper scary.

"Whatever, now let's make to the matter at hand. Don't we have a task from Hachi?" I ask, and mimic in my head the instinctual gesture of moving my hands down to the ground, without actually moving them. Delphinium follows the same gesture, plants her hands down to leverage herself upright. I follow mentally the movements until we're up on our mech's feet in a second. This neural control scheme is really fantastic! Ichigo on the other end has a higher degree of control than me since she's literally impersonating Delphinium, but we need both of us to follow each other's 'mental image' to sync the mech to our movements. That's the Para-capacity system for you, as natural as breathing!

"Yeah, the battlefield. We have to help and gather the remaining FranXX forces and look for survivors. Injured have the priority!"

"Of course! We're going to help you as soon as I recover and deliver the other fuel tank that I brought. There's a rallying point in the outer ring where we need to gather the wounded, Hachi said!"

"Is there? Do you have the coordinates?" I promptly ask.

"Yes, there you go!"

The map opens up floating just before me, and the target location appears right outside the inner circle of the complex.

"Good. We're going to be on our w- wait, where are our weapons?"

I scan around, and something blue catches my eyes protruding from a group of rocks; we approach and remove the stuff pinning it under the rocks and reveal a blue lance with an orange blade and a vertical handle. Grasping if firmly, just a single, decisive movement uproots the blade from its resting place. Fortunately, without damage… the sword-lance long almost the height of its user didn't seem to have bent on impact. I swing some more and the grip feels still lively both wielded underarm and used as a one-handed pile driver or swung around by its pole. Free to be in my hand, its blade extrudes an eerie orange glow, indicating that it's still active and functioning as I left it. But wait, thing is, there should be two of them. Where's the other? Ah, yeah, I used it, right?

I grab the VIRM soldier's foot from the avalanche and uproot its corpse with ease: the second lance is still firmly embedded into his lower chest. Prying it out using my foot, I tear it out from the lifeless corpse. Where did you go, you two? Now that we're together again, dear Envy Shops, we're definitely dangerous again!

"We are operational! Now, in order to get out of here…" Ichigo announces as she walks towards the center of the chasm. I know how it should be done, and I clearly feel through our connection that she wholeheartedly agrees to my plan. We're going out of here with style!

"To get out of here… the tunnels?" Miku's response bends into an interrogative, while her gaze crawls up the height of the slope.

"No, from the scenic route," I smile.

" Hehehe!" Ichigo chuckles after me.

"Ehhhh…?" Zorome moans. He doesn't get it... Oh come on, get some imagination going, dude!

Delphinium, for all the answer, kneels down at my will. I concentrate my mind and, while closing my eyes, I imagine a swirl of running water inside my chest, then a warming heat suddenly ignites inside it. My heart rate goes up and my blood pumps molten heat through my vessels, from my chest to all of my body. Some moments more, and a wild rapture takes hold of all my body muscles, and a thunder traverses me from the tips of my hair down to my feet. Everything that happens inside my body, happens inside our FranXX: this is us, me and Ichigo, summoning the unstoppable power of Delphinium!

«BLAM!»

I release the energy through my body and the rocket exhausts that make up the skirt of Delphinium ignite radially. Red and orange blazes explode violently from its nozzles, fracturing the ground below us and kicking up a thick cloud of dust. I shoot a look upwards and, among the thicket of steel beams and crumpled catwalks freely hanging over us I see a clear speck of bright blue. That's the target!

"Uuuugh!" Argentea hugs the perimeter of the chasm with her back to avoid the wave of dust.

"See ya soon!"

"Goro, full power, let's go!"

"Got it! LIFTOFF!"

I release everything I've got, and an explosion shocks the air! Delphinium accelerates ludicrously and both my bowels and my spine feel the pressure of takeoff, fighting gravity and gloriously winning! I keep my eyes locked to the grove of steel above us, then pull my arms inward to minimize air drag and acquire as much speed as possible and, in a second, the iron thicket is literally coming right towards my nose. No worries! I quickly fire Delphinium's skirt thrusters and dodge them like the nuisance they are, those huge steel beams, just a children's joke for us!

Like a fiery dancer inside an iron forest, we ascend the roots twirling and bobbing at the sound of our thrusters' precise corrections. The air is much cleaner than down below, but some dust still hovers around us, shining like golden specks by the bright rays of light descending from above like columns, grappled by the dark vines of an upside-down tree feeding directly from the sky. It's really hard just to not awe at the world inside that place, too bad we're just a glow of red passing by. Upon ascending, the window to the skies widens with spasmodic speed, closer and closer, bluer and bluer, then here comes the bang of us threading the last of the needles. We're out!

Ah-! The sun! Such heat! It sure heals the heart! Bathed in the warmth of its blinding glory, I feel like smiling radiantly to the sky and exchanging greetings with the giant yellow disk up there, welcoming us so gently!

Ah, no, wait, I'm still ascending! Shut the thrusters, quick, we don't have to go literally to space! I don't want to blast off from the atmosphere (yet), so I guess the fun's over. Shame! I switch off my rocket engines and, spreading Delphinium's body horizontal, I wait for gravity and the air drag to kill my velocity vector. At the apex, I switch on Delphinium's hover mode, so we hang suspended in midair like having a nap a few kilometers off the ground.

I feel alive! Best sensation ever! Suddenly, full to the neck of adrenaline, I feel the need to let it all out and laugh with ecstatic happiness, and Ichigo does the same.

"Hah! Hahahaha! Magnificent! Why they never let us fool around after the missions?"

"Hahaha! Because Adults are cheapskates…! Hehe! Yeah, flying is absolutely fantastic," says Ichigo with her breath altered by the cathartic experience. Some excitedly laughters after, she sighs and switches to her usual all-business mode: "Ok that was awesome, but let's leave playing for later. We're going to look at the situation from here!"

"Yes, ma'am."

At her cue, I rotate forward and activate Delphinium's feet thrusters to balance ourselves upright. I look through the interior piloting screen of my cockpit what's down below, and…

What's before me triggers a harsh return to reality.

"Oh..."

Below us lies what's left of the Gran Crevasse. Before, an 8-kilometer wide domed structure, riddled with concentric fortifications and terraces, now just a lonesome wound upon this very Earth. I can see the hole in we were trapped into, directly below us, reaching the limit of the planet's crust: an immensely large and deep abyss, like dug by a divine hand that gouged the ground in a single gesture of violence. All around it, there's rubble, giant columns of concrete, and a mix of rocks and brown earth were immersed in red lakes and fiery rivers of Magma fuel, which mumbled away with its characteristic orange light, coloring the chaos below and making it closer to a hellish landscape. Then, crowning the rest of the perimeter lies a dense labyrinth of unroofed blue and black rooms and corridors organized in a fractal design, trumping imagination by a long shot.

Immense, irrational, filled to the brim but helplessly desolate, a heartfelt monument to destruction.

All around the blue outline, the disheveled earthen soil was scattered with the blue, black and violet countless corpses of the Klaxxo and VIRM soldiers. A scene in absolute silence: the canvas of an impressionist still life, painted with erratic and confused brush-strokes.

I'm devastated. Not a single sign of life in sight, nor of movement lies before me.

But…! There must be someone alive down there!

"Turning on radio detection." After proceeding to press a combination of keys on the console near my seat, about forty red triangles appear in the augmented-reality interface before me, scattered all around the chasm and dotting the blue and purple below like poppies in a sea of morning glories.

"I can see something… Yeah, there they are. There's someone moving in a… plateau to the east, but many others aren't…"

"Let's get to them!" Ichigo orders.

"Acknowledged."

Alright. We dive in.

Switching off the hover engine, gravity takes us again and, at the same time, I re-lit the skirt thrusters into afterburner mode. I let the acceleration kick my bowels with a tickly sensation as we dramatically plunge towards our destination in a parabolic descent. This is the speed I like!

«BOOM!»

And there goes the sound barrier. Better go level to the ground now. Halfway there, we transition into grazing flight. Being closer to the earth makes me realize how much of a mess is the battlefield below us, even passing at full speed and hundreds of meters up; the landscape feels absolutely mental. I wouldn't dare land even under vital necessity! Where's the space to do that anyway…? Shapeless masses Klaxxosaurs intertwined together as ivy fill the ground in chaotic patterns, and squinting my eyes I can definitely make out the blue monsters' animal-like shapes when not torn asunder and lingering in wide pools of their own blue… blood, I guess? That sticky substance which the core explodes into when punctured. I wouldn't be feeling safe around those at all, even when dead.

There's something else, too. Those VIRM mech soldiers. And not one or two, the battlefield is completely littered with the violet things, filling to the brim every empty spot left by such blue hulks. Then, every once in a while, a mass production FranXX pops up in the middle of the chaos, with their unmistakable orange helmet cracked and black armor skirt, helplessly lying on the ground with limbs torn apart, abandoned like a bruised and broken marionette…

"Keep tight, we're going to be there in a moment!" I incite. The sight of that disabled unit staunchly reminded me we can't afford to be slow. Suddenly, using a mental cue, Ichigo drags my attention towards the front and warns me that she spotted an unnatural open space in the thick of the former battlefield. We're getting closer and closer to the place where the moving red chevrons on the interface were.

"Wait! Let's turn left and decelerate for a landing!"

"O-Oh! Sure!"

Yikes! But, even where? Oh, there it is! As an improvised runaway, that thing over there looks spot-on. I fire the thrusters retrograde and our flight stalls. I let my legs come forward and perform a running landing on the long body of a Klaxxo-serpent's carcass with its head sticking out high onto the surrounding confusion, and the momentum launches us up along its body. With quick and dexterous movements dictated by pure instinct, we get a foothold on its unstable head to get a good visual of the situation.

And… there it is.

Made by lines of improvised white gel beds hastily arranged onto the sand, between red rocky flashes, there lies a rushed medical camp in the very middle of the plateau: that's the spot Argentea told us of, the rendezvous point for the evacuation. Examining it with our magnified vision, it looks like it's already populated, although there are far more beds than occupants and even fewer the ones tending to them. At the border of the plateau, more gigantic orange fuel tanks and an open black cargo container wide as a room with handlebars on top, and someone's zipping between it and the hospital camp, lugging what I would say are suitcases with intravenous bags, some first aid kits, automatic defibrillators, more stacks of gel beds…

Ichigo and I silently stare helplessly at the picture before us. Eventually, I came to notice the other parasites and their forlorn expressions, filling the emergency camp with pure sadness and abandon. Still in their driving suits, bloodied, torn and bruised, gathered around their teammates' beds, they either silently stare into nothing or slowly but excruciatingly wither out in pain against some solitary rock in a painful-to-look display of mourning. Some others lie before their fallen companions with undecipherable eyes locked into the spotless white blanket their teammates lie under, wishing for that imperceptible movement, a faint hope for their long life companions that didn't make it, others desperately hold their injured pistil's or stamen's hand as if to anchor their lives to themselves, profusely crying in fear of them crossing the other side without a goodbye.

"Oh, Pap…" My voice immediately halts at my stomach shooting up bile up my mouth. "Nevermind…!"

That was supposed to be a plea to our creator, but…! Not in front of this! This is his doing! It's all his fault! This is the result of his turn-face! My words will never praise his virtues or declamate his holiness in my whole life if there's anything worthy of praise left after today. I had some hope that he would be keeping his word and give us freedom after what he did to us, but this trumped it all. There can't be a right amount of excuses for this!

"I didn't fight for this…! Why…?"

My words fall into the staunch silence of the cockpit, with Ichigo's feelings of sadness mixing into mine.

"This is not the work of drones. No recovery shuttles or land vehicles either… Other FranXX must have cleared it," Ichigo notices.

"I guess."

"Well, the other squads sure don't fool around, too. Look at the size of this place." Ichigo praises the peerless training of their brothers-in-arms.

"…Yeah. I wonder where are the adults when you need them the most."

«CLANG!»

What?

There's something moving the left of us! Don't tell me there are enemies still alive? With the flick of the wrist, we activate our double lances and ready our stance towards the direction of the sound.

«CRUNCH!»

A non-descript mass of blue is bulging from the sea of Klaxxos below us!

"Ready to strike!"

«POP!»

"WHAAAH!"

Huh?

A FranXX.

A standard model, to be exact. Resurfacing from that mass of metal like she was scuba-diving.

What…?

"Oi, is there something wrong?" she asks us with a very dreamy girl's voice. "Any alive Klaxxo around?"

What the-?

"N-No? I thought you were one," I say back to her.

"Ehh, not quite, although I'm so drenched in their goop I can be mistaken for one, hehe! I'm working on digging the units out of this mess!"

"Oh, I see…" I switch on the name tags on the screen, and I can see her denomination. "…Solidago."

"Yep! But, wow! That's a nice FranXX design!"

I feel Ichigo blushing a little. "T-thanks! I'm Code 015, and my stamen is Code 056. We are unit Delphinium, team leader of squad 13."

"Woow! Those are some low numbers, are you from SF?"

"…SF?"

"The special forces!"

"N-no, why do you ask?" Ichigo asks high-browed.

"Custom design, low codes… C'mon, the good stuff!"

"N-Nah, we have a Plantation."

"Oh, I see! Uhh… Oh, yeah! I'm Code 376, and this is my stamen, Code 371, squad leader of Plantation 133."

"Greetings." A low, droopy voice comes from my right. I turn, and here comes a holographic screen where the face of a boy with black and very curly hair appears before me. His thin, tired eyes cross with mine, and I don't fail to notice the two black bags so very dark against his white complexion, looking almost like he drew black chalk under his eyelids like in those warrior rituals of old. That would have looked really old-school if a wide, square jaw dug by a downturned mouth wouldn't suggest that his state was a hundred percent due to combat stress.

"…Nice to meet you, 371…"

"Me too."

His voice feels like low, raspy, very saddened. Such a portrait of unhealthiness… his eyes show it most of everything else. He returns the salute with a nod, and after silently examining me, he eventually takes word.

"Wait, I saw definitely some custom FranXX like yours a while ago."

"Huh! Really?"

"Yeah, we did!" his pistil interjects. "A black-caped one with a big gun and a cute, pink-striped one with horns!"

At the news, Ichigo beams her a hopeful look. "That's Genista and Argentea! I'm their team leader, was there a eagle-looking FranXX with them? Are they still around here?"

"Uh, told you, 371!" she refers to her stamen, then returns to us. "Yeah! But not the eagle-looking one, they dropped off the supplies and some more juice tanks earlier!"

Ah, there's no sign of Chlorophytum, though? Damn, I should have asked Argentea when I had the chance…! Now, I hope they would be following us shortly though. I can't wait to rejoin my teammates, so I turn on the comms interface and dial a radio call to them.

"Ah… Is the black one still here?"

"No, they said they would be returning to the Nest for more stuff…"

The call stalls immediately. 'No connection available,' says back to me the holoscreen.

"W-what? No connection…?"

"You just noticed? We're isolated. Satellites were shot down and only short-range works," the gloomy stamen chimes in.

We're out of range of each other? Damn, don't you tell me about it… What a pain.

"Ohhh… well, I hope they return soon." Somehow, the first thing I'd wish to be able to do is to welcome them back, but given the situation I guess it's for the best that greetings are going to be for later.

"Anyways, Commander Hachi tasked us to supervise the gathering of the injured until the evacuation starts," Ichigo explains, "we might want to keep ourselves in touch and get the groundwork done before the adults come in to rescue us."

"Oh, you too? Nice! We're together, then!"

"Can we get a headcount of each team still standing, so we can organize ourselves a little? And, by the way, where's your team? Are they able to help?" Ichigo asks out.

"Ah…" Solidago's bright smile dissipates instantly.

"…What's the matter?" she asked anyways, but Ichigo noticed her reaction. Me as well.

"Uhn… Eh… Ehhh," she stutters, and somehow I can perceive some tension on the body of Code 376's FranXX. Solidago's hands begin to shake, at first imperceptibly, then her spasms worsen vigorously by the second. She clasps them together, but the trembling overpowers her efforts to not show her reaction, and instead, her shoulders start to shudder. Finally, her smile returns, but trough the slit of her busted visor allows me to notice the absolute suffering lingering inside her eyes, busting out of her like water out of a broken dam.

"Ehehehe! They're f… f…they're… fine! Heh… Ehehe! Ehehehehe…!"

…What? What's wrong with her! The innocent smile of literal seconds ago shifts into a burst of manic laughter, that eventually bends into a soul-rending lament.

"Eheh…! Eh…! Ehhh… Ehhw… Ewwwww…‼"

Tears made of stylized X's roll down her faceplate past the visor and her painful grin, while her legs bend and give in to gravity, falling on her knees onto the steel carcasses below her. While holding her own sides with both arms, she tries to control her body, but the shuddering still won't quell. This is horrible!

"Ah-! What's happening, are you injured?" I call out, but she doesn't seem to listen to me! Looking at the holoscreen on my left, the boy who's her stamen is literally shaking with his teeth gritting and screeching like a chalkboard, in the process of fighting an immense force like pushing down on his muscles and spine.

"Damn, '76! Agh-!" A squish of blood splatters from his forehead, and a blood rivulet appears from his curly hair and rolls down his cheek. What? Why he's not releasing? Is he serious?

"He-HEY! Release the connection! She's going to crush you!"

"Nah... This is literally nothing…"

What-! Nothing? Are you kidding me, nothing? Connecting with a FranXX is like a game of balance played in two, except this is no game at all! If one can't provide the 'lift' necessary, all the weight of the connection is shoved onto the other, and your body can literally be crushed and squeezed like a sponge! Feedback can kill you outright, that weight is immense! Is he completely mad?

"Come on, 376… I'm here… Don't run away. What would they say if they saw you in this state? They wanted us to live on, to carry on their memory, remember? If we don't keep this on and keep their wishes dear to us, they're gonna live through our efforts…!" Code 371 pleads to her pistil. In a matter of seconds, his muscles relax and a sigh breaths out of his mouth. Solidago's trembling relents, and eventually, Code 376's cry is reduced to deaf hiccups and the sniffles of her running virtual nose. "There you go, girl, go slow and steady."

Oh… I see. They've been…

"I… I'm sorry…" Ichigo stutters. She's always been bad with those kinds of things.

"I'm sorry. We were careless." Somehow, I feel like apologizing to them. The boy on my right shows me his forlorn grin, somehow glad I'm showing at least some modicum of courtesy and sensibility. Yeah, we definitely need it here.

"Don't worry about it." His stare darts to the side, almost admitting a grave reality. He wipes the blood on his face, then points towards the plateau. "My squad is… resting under the white blankets of the camp."

I see…

"Sorry again for your loss."

"…" The boy nods. "It was meant to be… one day or the other. We knew that from the beginning."

Those eyes…

His expression tells more than his words do. Maybe it's the concealed pain of loss mixed with the disarming feeling of impotence painted all over his face, or maybe are his lips clasped shut trying to keep his emotions inside that strike me the most. But his resolute, bitter eyes left even a deeper groove in my soul. As if told by Death herself foreshadowed his destiny, inside those irises I can see clearly that he's very, very angry, but also dismayed at not finding anything to direct his rage. It's clear that all of that animosity is bottled up and compressed in his chest, but he forced himself to get rid of each droplet of hope that still haunted him and to accept the fate that would eventually befall him or his friends, long before this very moment.

We parasites are giving our own life for the cause of humanity, that's a thing supposed to be. Not that the battle I've encountered were not potentially deadly - quite the contrary - but I've never experienced having your own teammate killed on the line of duty just meters from you, lest your entire crew. We, our squad, never got rid of our hope, we hungrily wanted everything and now and we happily carried on in our duty without the shadow of a doubt or hesitation. At the light of that, I thought I couldn't fully comprehend what it feels like, deep down, but their display of pain filled me in a span of mere seconds. I wasn't there to witness them desperately fighting for their lives and wishing for the next dawn to break every single day, but his words resonated into me more than a hundred pictures would ever do.

His eyes drop to the floor as he continues.

"And now… well… it's… not good. We've been here for an hour, but there have been no transports in-sight yet… the only supplies we've got will last less and less, going down by the minute. Is anyone even still alive except us?"

"Regardless, we must do what's in order! Might be hard, but we've gotta rescue everyone!" Ichigo's acute voice resounds, sporting her bossy character.

"Yeah… but… by the time we will, if even possible, will there be any chance for us to get off here? The relief teams had never come so late at these times. Always the aerial drones to survey the operations, then the first responders reach the field, after which they call the survey ground teams with everything they've got. No matter the situation, people at the camp need way more than just some bandages… this is the sign that when Papa decided to leave us, the Adults ditched us with him. I think I don't need to say out loud how much we're in a pinch…"

Ichigo… that's not how you go about this…

"At this point, I don't think there's any hope for us to leave this place, so why even bother? This might have been our last battle as well, so this place will definitely be the graveyard of our dear comrades… if we want it, or not. Like this, I just cannot find any strength in me anymore to dig further. I just can't go on…" His droopy eyes show every inch of his weary soul. "Everyone abandoned us. We're going to die… alone…"

Die alone…?

Heh.

This is totally a possibility.

But.

But…

But…!

Why throwing everything away just like this? After all of those hardships, those battles… we sit down like that and do nothing? I just can't accept this-! There's so, so much I want to say right now! So, why am I staying silent? Is there any reason why I should? Then, why not say it out loud? I just need it! It's like words are literally begging to be let go from my chest‼ And who wouldn't, am I supposed to be different? Hell, no!

"Yeah…" My mouth opens and starts to talk on its own. "Seems like there's no future right now, huh?"

After a brief pause, I look him in the eyes. I'm doing this a hundred percent.

"I've asked myself many times what tomorrow would bring… but each time I couldn't give an answer. To be honest, I wasn't even sure if there was an answer. You know why? Because, since the day we were made, we were not allowed to talk about it, let even imagine it. The only one we were allowed to dream of was the future that Papa decided for us. You know, that one he was ranting about at the Mass before the briefing? Look around you, would you think this is what we deserved for our service? I don't think so. That was something he used make us drive our FranXX for his bidding, a lie.

"We were supposed to die in this battlefield like his favorite rag and tossed aside like such - and he sure as hell didn't make it out to hide it at the very end. Papa has forgone us. For good. He abandoned us, he just pulled a switch and fled away like he never wanted us. We might be alone now, but you know what? We survived! And finally, for the first time I'm not a pawn in anyone's hands! I'm someone that acts on his own! Right now, for the first time in my life, we just fought only for ourselves! And you know what…? Now that I can, I want to make that future I wasn't allowed into reality!

"I know, many of us couldn't escape that destiny, just as we all couldn't escape this horrible day we were thrown ourselves into. Evey each of us is in this same, shitty situation… our squad has an MIA member, too. He's my friend, someone that lived all his life next to mine, where he went, I went, and where I went, he went. I don't know in what dire straight this tragedy brought him right now, but somehow I want to believe he's still waiting for me… I want to have the hope he's waiting for my hand to reach him to hold onto! Because I well know that, like me, he wants a new future as I do! And I want him to be part of that!

"Maybe our end it's already written somewhere. Maybe the moment I will give my last breath is close… but maybe not! Our lives could end now, tomorrow, from ten years from now… but sure as heck, I'm alive right now! As I don't really know if there's someone still breathing below this mass graveyard, who's still hoping for my hand to reach them… but for sure I'm not gonna leave them to rot! Because… Because even if I don't personally know all of you, as I wasn't there when you've first walked into a FranXX and fought with your teammates to the bitter end, there's something we have in common. I know you're the same as me because we share an even bigger, grander desire! We're not alone! We're together, right here, and we need to look for each other!"

I can feel my mind has almost become one with Delphinium, frantically gesticulating as I speak!

"I won't back down anymore, not now! Not in front of our future! This is the hope that I was denied, and by extension, the future I'll tear out from the ashes of this battlefield! This is the hope I WANT to have! The hope that there's somewhere in this mess of an Earth that can still accept us and give us the world we wanted with all of ourselves, and…! Damn…!"

I'm so frickin' mad right now!

How many eons was it, since the flames of my own passion burned so high?! Was it when I was little? Yeah! It was such a long time since I let my emotions run wild! Good morning, my old and neglected friends! Pulling such a heavy slab off my chest, you made me remind that I'm still alive and kicking!

"G-Goro…!" Ichigo squeals, aghast. Maybe I'm bombing her connection too much, I'd rather calm down now… don't want her to freak out. Look up, look up… let the blood get down from your head…

"Hahh… sorry, Ichigo. But… I don't want to think this is the end. We have Hachi, our commander, and that's counting for something! He was our officer, and to be totally honest, I'd not bother asking for anyone's help if I'd know we were in his hands. He will do just fine, he never let us down once! He will scramble the rescuers for us, I'm sure of it! But in the meantime, let us save our companions, wherever they are and however the wind blows!"

I glance back to the eyes of the curly-haired stamen still on air on the screen in front of me. Now, the dead and soulless eyes of the boy in front of me lit of fire and brimstone! So, let me put a cherry on top of this.

"I perfectly know that despite it might seem all hope abandoned us, we're deep down still looking for the same ending for our story, the one where we'll live for our dreams and never regret anything! Right now, I feel it's closer than it's ever been before, and I say LET'S GO FOR IT!"

As soon as my words land, his face looks like he just broke off from a long and dreamless sleep. Still the same as before black-bagged eyes look at me, but a newfound hopeful light lingers in his irises. He nods, then eventually strikes a military salute at me.

"Yessir!"

Finally.

How much time had I had to wait to get this out of me? Probably a lot, as expected of me, but seeing such miracle happening out of some simple words drives my mind at peace. I'll never regret sharing those words to the ones that need them, as I'll never regret wishing for what I want deep down inside. I want to believe that such future exists! And such is the oath I'd take, one of the few I'd uphold with passion!

«RUMBLE!», «CRASH!»

Wait, what? What was that…? AH! Someone's waking up! All around us, black things are surfacing from the earth…! Wait, ohhh? S-Standard models? A group of them, maybe ten… or twenty? Whoa! They all woke up from nowhere, and they're looking straight at me! Uh, the radio is-

"Hey chief, that was some helluva discourse! I feel we can move mountains right there," a fired-up rowdy girl's voice, coming from one of them, resounds in my open comms. "Isn't that right, guys?"

"That was awesome!"

"YEAH!"

"Ye a king, goldie!"

The black mechs suddenly gather around to start cheering at me!

"Eh-Ehm… T-Thanks…?!" Oh no, I'm stuttering! W-were they listening all along? M-My mind is freezing! This is so embarrassing…!

"So, what about it! Let's rock and roll, guys!"

"Rally point, this very plateau! Carlina, Chicorius, let's dig them the hell up!"

"Received loud and clear, leader!"

"Let's make a mess of this place!"

"Let's DO IT!"

What the hell is this? Are they helping us? Just like that, out of nowhere!? I can't believe it! Were they all just moping around here, slumped and demoralized?

"Looks like you breathed some life to this place," the curly guy on the display smiles. "What's your code again?"

I smile back feeling my cheeks red as a pepper. "F-Forget my code. I have a name… Goro. And… sorry, I forgot yours."

"Oh? A full-fledged name? I see, I see. I've got just a simple code, 371."

"And I'm 376!" says his pistil. "Very happy to meet you again!"

The black mech called Solidago jumps at Delphinium and embraces us!

"WHOA!" Ichigo fights the clench at first, then exchanges the courtesy. "Y-Yeah… us too."

Solidago happily releases the grip, jumps away from us, then glances back with a beaming smile. "We'll be working hard now, so don't fret! See ya later!" She waves, then joins the crowd of mechs slowly toppling Klaxxosaurs left and right trying to uncover our comrades buried alive. About me, I feel like I turned into a salt statue.

"We'll be joining, right Goro? After all of that grand speech, you can't let down all those big words!" Ichigo radiantly says to me through Delphinium.

"Ehh…" She's right, gotta take responsibility of what comes out from my own mouth. "Yup… let's get us working! They're waiting for us." Not that I would back down from all of this, anyways.

And like that, the rescue operation now truly has begun, like our new life as free Parasites.

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Outstretched Hand - END

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