Darling in the Franxx: Cold Blood

Chapter Eight: Overdue Vacation

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You'd been walking for some time now. You didn't know where you were, but it was dark, your Klaxosaur was up to its ankles in Magma energy, and for the past fifteen minutes, you'd been surrounded by Franxx that would look more at home in a scrapyard. Each one of them stood perfectly upright next to each other, each with different injuries. Some of them had their heads crushed to the point of it being unrecognizable, while others had their body torn in two with inches of metal keeping their top and bottom connected. Some even lacked their head entirely. But every Franxx had two things in common.

The first was that no matter what, they all just stared at you. None of the Franxx moved, not even to correct themselves when standing still. All they did was turn their head to face you. Even thoughts that lacked eyes, a face, or a head entirely somehow knew where you were and could seamlessly track you. That, to some degree, did creep you out. Mainly when it was just the neck of the Franxx moving without it having a way to look at you. The second thing was the fact every single Franxx seemed oddly familiar. For instance, at some point, you'd walked past a Franxx whose chest had gotten blown straight through, and for some reason, you felt as if you'd seen it somewhere. There was another who seemed to have been impaled by its own lance that put a weird feeling in the bottom of your gut.

Though you wouldn't have to walk for much longer, as ahead of you saw him. A humanoid Klaxosaur was sitting atop a pile of dismembered and broken Franxx parts. The Klaxosaur's design was similar to yours, except for its face and horns. The horns of the thing were the standard two just over the forehead, with one snapped near the base. His face was similar to a skull, though it was missing its jaw. It was an intentional design to strike fear, and although you never liked to admit it, to some degree worked. "Hmm, took you long enough," he says as he admires the head of a Franxx that at some point had been violently torn from its body.

"What do you want Fallen," you question as a few Franxx behind you move to keep you from leaving. "Tell me unihorn," he says as he tosses the head behind himself and into the Magma. "Do you know where all these Franxx come from?" Getting up from the pile, the Fallen walk towards you look at the broken Franxx around you. "I don't-"

"Bullshit," he sneers, interrupting you before stepping over to one of the Franxx.

"Well, since your memory has apparently gone belly up in the last few months, let me jog it for you." Reaching his arm around a Franxx whose head was caved in, he begins. "I believe you met this fine young specimen at one of APE's small mining operations, next thing you know, a disarming here, a leg sweep there, and one foot to the head later. And, well, I don't think I have to tell you."

Moving over to another Franxx whose body had gotten torn in half, he starts once again. "This is another friend you met out in the wastes. They wanted to live a simple life. They cared for their friends, liked their job, and seemed happy. That was until you came to town and sent your tail through their abdomen with enough force to rip them in two. Oh, and last but not least," He says as he walks up to the pile and reaches his hand inside.

After a few seconds of digging, he pulls out what you believe is the spine of a Franxx. "Now, this was a very recent and quite brutal one. You see, after watching you murder and kill their friends. Your actions caused them to enter a proto-feral state in some fleeting attempt to avenge the lives of their friend. But in the end, they couldn't claw through your armor before you ripped out their damn spine."

"Why are you telling me this?" you say, trying to conceal your anger.

"Because I want you to say it," he says, dropping the spine into the liquid below. "No, we don't have enough information on it. I still need to learn more about-" "No, you don't. Because even an idiot can understand that for the last five months, you've been going around killing children who had no idea what was going on, in other words, Warrior. You've been murdering innocent people forced to do this job by someone else, except this time, you can't use that lame excuse of wanting to end their suffering. Because unlike the Klaxosaurs, the humans still have a life outside their suit." He says as he slowly circles around you. "And to think, if I know you'd be this good at killing humans, I might have never tried to stop you."