Darling in the FranXX: The Reaper Squadron

Chapter 16: The Garden

It's been three weeks since Reaper woke. It had taken all that time for Reaper to heal from being run through. Owl had torn into him for leaving medical while being injured and forced him to go back until the nurses released him. There were no Klaxosaur attacks in those three weeks, which Reaper found suspicious. The others took it as a welcome break, but Reaper's soldier senses were screaming that something was wrong. Something was about to happen.

Currently, Reaper and his squad as well as Squad 13 were standing at the edge of the Birdcage staring out at the snow. For Squad 13, this was nothing new, they saw snow all the time at the Garden. For Reaper 1, however, it was a rather novel thing. They did not see snow much, due to working in warmer areas and the rapid desertification caused snow to become nonexistent in all areas except those close to the poles. Hence, Reaper and his squad looking about with interest.

"Hey, where is it? I don't see it at all." Miku said.

"Are you sure you saw it?" Ikuno asked.

Ikuno had, somehow, ended up snuggled next to Snake. Reaper was still trying to figure out how that happened, one moment she was next to Futoshi and the next she was snuggled next to Snake. Oddly, Snake was not complaining about the invasion of personal space. Reaper had the suspicion that those two were an item but was still trying to figure out when it happened. Maybe when he was still unconscious? Reaper swore that he and Cypress had a thing going on, though.

"I definitely did." Goro was saying.

"Reaper, is this you and your squad's first time seeing snow?" Hiro asked.

"No." Cypress said still looking around, it was snowing quite the blizzard outside the dome. "We weren't deployed to many snowy regions while we were on duty, and when the desertification began, snow vanished from all areas not close to the poles. So, it's still rather interesting for us."

"Hey Ichigo, a few weeks ago, when we were attacking that collective Klaxosaur, why were you guys ignoring me and Owl?" Reaper asked.

Ichigo hung her head at the reminder and everyone else looked ashamed.

"It was my idea. When the boys told us what you did, it scared us Reaper. The fact that you nearly killed Mitsuru really scared us. It didn't help the fact that Owl defended what you did. At the time, it didn't make sense as to why you acted the way you did. So, I thought that, if we ignored the two of you, you would take back what you did. Obviously, that didn't work."

"To be fair, my squad did warn you. When it comes to Havana and ignoring my orders, I can become quite angry, as you saw. If we hadn't lost our temper however, all that would have happened was, that we would isolate ourselves and have nothing to do with you in return." Reaper said.

"What are you guys looking for anyway?" Raven asked.

"I see it! Over there!" Futoshi shouted.

Off in the distance, Reaper could see a walled city. It had 30-foot walls with defenses scattered around it. It was the only city that Reaper and his squad had seen that was still in operation.

"Goro was right. That's..." Ichigo trailed off.

"Yeah. The Garden." Hiro finished.

"The Garden? Isn't that where..." Reaper thought before his eyes narrowed. Reaper's squad was confused by Reaper's sudden anger until he said,

"Vats."

They immediately understood and looked at the Garden with hate.

...

The Garden was easily the size of the plantation. It had two building inside of it as well as an artificial forest and lake.

"That over there is the Garden, its where hundreds of children are. Its where we were raised. And that tower we are approaching is the research hub, we call it the Lab." Hiro said as they walked.