Secrets unrivalled - Darling In The Franxx

Part 20 - Monster

Flashback -  before experimentation

—————————————————————————

Zero Two holds her drawing high, she's always been a good drawer. Hiro hides his paper within his clothes so Zero Two doesn't have to see his horrible artwork.

"That looks great Zero Two!" He says smiling at her high class drawing of him.
She smiles back and tugs at Hiro's paper.

"Let me see yours" she says

Hiro pulls the paper away, his face bright red from embarrassment.

"It's not that good." He replies

She snatches the paper from his hand, it's a drawing of Zero Two wearing a flower crown, but it's hard to tell since his drawing looks equivalent to that of a first graders.

"What do you mean? I love this!" She says as she pulls the paper towards her chest. This meant a lot to Zero Two.

Hiro laughs it off, still somewhat embarrassed but glad that Zero Two appreciates it as much as she did.

The door opens unexpectedly. It's 3 guards.

"Code 016, you're going to have to come with us" says one of the guards. There was hostility in his voice.

Hiro puts down his crayons and Zero Two sits up.

"I had my checkup just a few days ago, is there something wrong?" Hiro says.

The guards look at each other and walk into the room taking ahold of Hiro and dragging him across the room and into the hall. Zero Two starts to fight with the guards.

"It's just another checkup, we can't tell you more than that"
Zero Two stops fighting.

"You could've just told us that!" She yells.
"Be safe darling!"

Hiro stops resisting and walks with the guards towards a place he'd never seen before. It looked like a prison and many scientists were there making something he had no clue was.

"What are we doing here? This isn't where I normally get tested" he asks. The guards stay quiet.

They walk into a room where sits a small chair with heavy machinery around it. The guards force him into the chair where he is unable to move from.
A familiar face walks into the room. Dr Franxx.

"016, I have a question for you" says Franxx.

"If you had a chance to get stronger, would you take that chance?" Says Franxx

Hiro takes a moment to process the question.

"Get stronger? In what way?" He replies

Dr Franxx walks in circles around Hiro with his hands behind his back.

"What if I told you that you wouldn't have to rely on Zero Two anymore and both her and you could live a long happy life" He trips over his words.

"I could offer you immortality"

Hiro still doesn't quite understand the question.

"I'm saying that we can give you the opportunity to live a long happy life while protecting Zero Two and your friends"

Hiro's eyes widen. He likes the idea of being able to protect his friends.

"I'd say yes" says Hiro
"If I got the chance to stop my friends and Zero Two from fighting the Klaxosaurs, I'd give up my life for it" Hiro replies

Dr Franxx smirks.

"What do you say, why don't we conduct some tests to make you stronger? How would you like that?" Ask's Franxx.

Hiro nods approvingly.
"As long as it doesn't hurt anyone else, I'm in"

If only he knew what he was signing up for

Hiro gets up out of the chair but as he's about to leave, Franxx grabs his arm and says one last thing.

"Oh, and don't tell anyone about this, okay? This is highly classified information and if you were to tell, we'd be forced to eliminate the ones you've told, you wouldn't want us to do that would you 016?" Franxx tightens his grip around Hiro's wrist.

"Okay, I won't say a word"

He is escorted out by the same guards who brought him in.

Over the weeks, Hiro started to come by the facility everyday for self proclaimed "tests" and healthy experiments.
For the first few weeks of the production, Hiro was happy at the thought of becoming stronger but as time went on, he felt his body was changing in ways he couldn't keep up with.

First, it was the lack of taste in food.
Second, the enhanced smell.
And third, the urges to kill.

In the experiment facility room

One day, Hiro decided to ask what exactly they were doing to his body, but as always, no one answered his plea.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" Hiro shouts angrily.
He shrugs away one of the doctors and tries to escape the room.

"I don't want to do this anymore!" Hiro yells knowing that Dr Franxx is in the next room hiding behind a hidden glass.

Muffled voices surround the room.

Another one of the doctors come from behind him and inject him with a serum that made him forcefully fall asleep.
He awoke in the chair, this time, with his arms chained to it. He couldn't move, nor could he speak from the numbness in his body.

There are small wires all over him. Billions of vaults shock through his body causing him to shake aimlessly. He lets out screams of pain but no one can hear his cries except from the people in that room.
They did this to him everyday for next few weeks, to speed up his process.

"Let's begin stage 1" Dr Franxx says.

Hiro blacks out from the pain but would always wake up to the feeling of vaults running through his body.

I'll kill them.

Day by day it's the same, the torture and pain Hiro endured week after week made him lose touch with himself and he became so distant that everyone around him began to question what was wrong with him.

All he could feel was hatred.

Hiro would stare outside the window watching the mechs go by as each day was an endless cycle of pain and torture only to repeat it all over again.
He wanted help but he knew the consequences that came with his weakness. He had to endure this on his own.

And so he became something much more than inhuman. He became a monster in both body and soul, that not even Zero Two could save him anymore.
Soon enough, he knew that he would be far too dangerous to be around the others.