As the rest of Squad 13 tried to wrestle with a worm Klaxosaur, Heliconia held off several smaller ones by itself, determined to provide a distraction. As it dug its perforated harpoon into a Klaxosaur and killed it with a blast of shotgun shells, it coated itself with another fresh layer of blue blood. Yasuto said to Kyouko through Stealth Mode, "I'm considering asking for Strelitzia to get over here, but I know they'll just say no."

"Fucking ridiculous," Kyouko replied to him as Heliconia jumped up and impaled another Klaxosaur. "What's the damn hold-up?! They ran medical checkups on Hiro, and he came out fine! He isn't like the other stamens!" Then, through Heliconia's vision, she noticed something from afar and turned as she turned off Stealth Mode. "Huh? What's that?!"

It appeared as if a giant cloud of dust was racing towards them. Suddenly, they could hear the sound of engines as well, indicating it was some kind of vehicle. As Heliconia moved out of the way, Ichigo said through Delphinium as she held onto the worm Klaxosaur, "Is that...? No way!"

Suddenly, to the absolute shock of everybody, Strelitzia charged through and slashed across the worm that Squad 13 was stuck on. As the Klaxosaur fell to the ground, Squad 13 got up and brushed themselves off. As they did, a smaller worm that they had tried to deal with earlier charged at the newcomer, forcing Hiro to take evasive action and hold it back as it fired projectiles at Strelitzia. Hiro shouted to his comrades, "I got this one, guys! I'm part of the team, too!"

Ichigo looked on and nodded. "Right. Guys, Hiro's got this. Let's focus on the larger worm. Heliconia, once you're done with the smaller ones, help Strelitzia out!"

Kyouko radioed back, "On it!" She then turned to Strelitzia as it deflected numerous projectiles. "Zero Two, the core is not in the head of this one! I think it may be underground with the rest of its body!"

"Understood," Hiro replied as Strelitzia fired its harpoon into the head of the Klaxosaur and dragged it in. Upon doing so, it jumped up and stabbed the head with the same harpoon. "Zero Two, hold on tight!"

"Of course, Darling," she replied as Strelitzia was dragged underground by the Klaxosaur. As Heliconia watched, a thought crossed Yasuto's mind.

4 Years and 9 Months Earlier

"I remember the Garden well," Code 099 said to Code 085 as the two young pilots stared into a holding room for the pilots-in-training. "We were so little then." Their squad had visited the Garden once more to receive some advanced training.

"I mean" he replied. "It has only been 3 months since we graduated a year early." He then noticed that one of the younger male parasites had been passing around notes with letters on them. "Hey, what's that one doing over there?"

As the two looked on, the boy noticed them and ran up to the glass wall separating them. He was talking, but his voice was muffled. "Hey, what are your codenames?"

Code 085 had an idea immediately. "I got it." He then pulled out a notepad and a pen and wrote down their code numbers. "CODE 085, CODE 099." They both had arrows pointing to each other to differentiate.

"I'm Code 016," the young boy replied as a girl with short blue hair also walked up, wondering what was happening. "This is my friend, Code 015. I'm giving our friends names based on their codes! I'm Hiro, and she's Ichigo." He then turned to her and asked, "It was Ichigo, right?"

"Yeah," she replied as she nodded.

Code 099 said to her partner, "Names? That's odd..."

Code 085 then chuckled as he came up with an idea. He wrote down on the paper, "WHAT WOULD YOU NAME US?"

Hiro thought to himself as he came up with names. He said to Ichigo, "We may have to use other words for numbers. Remember those older words we were taught that also were numbers?"

"Oh yeah," Ichigo replied as she remembered. "You could use those!"

"Give me a second," Hiro replied to Codes 085 and 099. After about a minute of thinking and writing, he came back up to both of them with his results. "Code 085, I came up with Yasuto, and Code 099, I came up with Kyouko!"

Kyouko said to her partner, "They sound like nice names. I'm impressed."

Yasuto wrote on the paper, "THANK YOU, HIRO." He thought to himself, "They're all so innocent, yet they also show more maturity than some of the actual adults or even some pilots, especially Code 01-... No... Especially Hiro."

PRESENT DAY

Strelitzia suddenly emerged from the ground, pulling with it the head of the Klaxosaur as it then flung it upwards, ripping the rest of it out of the ground. As the long worm Klaxosaur flew up into the air, it became clear that what was originally thought to have been two worms had in fact been one long worm.

As Heliconia killed the last small Klaxosaur, it looked on. Kyouko said, "I should have recognized that! I had a feeling it was just one long Klaxosaur!"

"If it's that long," Futoshi said to the gang as Heliconia ran up to Genista, Delphinium, Chlorophytum, and Argentea. "It'll be hell trying to find that core!"

"Pin it down," Ichigo ordered as Delphinium jumped up into the air and began walking up the Klaxosaur to find a good spot to pin it. Then, when it found the spot, Ichigo called out, "RIGHT HERE!"

"On it," Goro quickly replied as Delphinium rammed both of its spears into the Klaxosaur, pinning it to the ground as Genista rammed into it from the side and Argentea dug into it with its claws. Finally, Chlorophytum jumped up as Ikuno let out a roar and then jammed both of its legs into the Franxx, mostly immobilizing it. To keep the end they were on immobile, Heliconia used its harpoon to prop the mouth open and also dig into the "lip," causing blood to gush out. It also used its free arm and legs to support the harpoon as it fired off the last round of shotgun shells, severely damaging but not killing their end of the Klaxosaur.

"Strelitzia," Kyouko radioed. "I got an idea! Come over to where we are on the other side and ram through the full length of the Klaxosaue. You're bound to hit the core eventually! I got the mouth on this end opened up for you!"

Hiro said to Zero Two within the cockpit, "Sounds like a plan, right?"

"Of course," she replied.

Strelitzia then flew from her end of the Klaxosaur to the other end. As it readied itself, Heliconia prepared to move out of the way just in time so that the mouth would not close on itself before Strelitzia came barreling through. Yasuto radioed, "On my cue, ram into it." He then began the countdown. "Three, two, one... NOW! EVERYONE, LOOK OUT!"

Just as Strelitzia approached them, Heliconia freed itself and followed Strelitzia in as the rest of the team dislodged themselves from the Klaxosaur. As the two barreled through the Klaxosaur, coating themselves in blue blood, Heliconia could see a bright yellow light from where it was behind Strelitzia. Kyouko called out, "There it is! The core! Keep going!"

"I see it," Zero Two yelled out as Strelitzita used its lance to impale the core. Within seconds afterwards, both emerged at the other end, the Klaxosaur eviscerated completely as it more or less exploded into a shower of its blood.

As the rest of the team watched in shock, Hiro took a moment to catch his breath in the cockpit of Strelitzia. Heliconia walked up to Strelitzia and extended its hand out for a handshake. Yasuto said to Hiro and Zero Two, "You guys rocked it. Welcome to Squad 13."

Zero Two, unsure of how to proceed at first, shrugged and then decided to accept. Strelitzia shook Heliconia's free hand as she said to him, "Perhaps these guys aren't so bad after all."

Kyouko used Stealth Mode to yell Yasuto, "I knew we were right about those two."

Yasuto replied in kind, "Yeah. They can't split Hiro and Zero Two up now."

Hiro then said to both of them as he caught his breath still, "That felt amazing... I've finally realized my dream!"

Back at the mansion, Kyouko, Yasuto, Hiro, and Zero Two talked alone at the dinner table, long after the others had left to do other activities. "I can't believe we pulled it off, but we did." Kyouko then raised her glass. "To success!"

The other three also raised their glasses. "To success!"

"Say," Zero Two then asked her. "Where did you get your hands on wine? Only parasites aged 15 or higher can have it, and since Squad 13 isn't yet there aside from me and you two, we can't officially get any."

"When you've piloted as long as us," Yasuto replied. "And you have the knowledge we do, you can have some serious strings pulled." He then sipped his glass. "I haven't had any since a week before we got booted from Squad 15." He then turned to Hiro. "So, how's your first hard drink?"

"It tastes a bit odd," he noted. "But I like it." He then turned to Zero Two. "Have you had this before, Zero Two?"

"Of course," she replied as she looked at his eyes. "Let me tell you, it can really ease your tensions." She then moved in closer to a now-blushing Hiro. "And it can make you more at ease, Darling."

Kyouko chuckled and said to Zero Two, "Now, hold on a minute. Let's not get carried away here, alright?" She then whispered to Yasuto, "Hey, when we're done, wanna go outside for some fun? Wine wasn't the only thing I brought." Her partner smiled and nodded in response.

Zero Two noticed them whispering and asked them, "Hey, are you two whispering secrets? What's up?"

"Nothing," Yasuto assured her. "It's fine."

Hiro, confused, asked them, "Secrets? What secrets?"

"Every pair has secrets that they don't tell other pairs," Kyouko explained to him. "I'm sure that in time, you'll have secrets that you'll tell no one else but Zero Two, and the same will apply the other way around. There's nothing wrong with it at all." She then finished her wine glass before she pulled her phone out. "Wanna hear some of the music we've found over the years?"

"Oh yeah," Zero Two noted as she remembered some stories about the pair. "It's been said that you two collect music from ancient runs and convert them to run on modern electronics, right?"

"Indeed," Yasuto replied. "We were thinking that a listen-through of the album Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy was in order. Now, Hiro, if you don't know what an album is, it's a collection of songs, usually about 35 to 50 minutes in length."

"Ah," Hiro replied. "Who was Thin Lizzy?" He did not know much about music or song, as did most parasites.

"They were a band of musicians formed over a hundred years ago," Kyouko told him. "They were from a pre-Klaxosaur nation called Ireland, and made many songs. This album was their most well-known, and for good reason." She then pressed play. "Just listen and you'll see why."