"What'cha reading, Ruth?"

She got flustered. "Mind your business, Akio!" she said, nearly smashing him with the book. "I found this in the library before we left for the mission."

"Ah, so Ruth's into picture books for little children, I see?"

"I liked the pictures," she said, embarrassed

A girl with long dark brown twintails chimed in, "Oh, 'The Beast and the Prince'. Read the crap out of that when I was a kid. That book was way too dark for four-year-old me. But I liked it. At least it doesn't throw in aliens three quarters of the way in like some of the old cartoons the Historical Society has dug up."

"Now I see why Satomi turned out the way she did."

"You know, you really need to shut the hell up, Akio," Satomi replied.

"Fine. I'll go read something for grown-ass men," he said before sitting down away from them and reading his manga.

Satomi sat down next to Ruth. "What's on your mind?" Satomi asked.

"Nothing, I just have a bad feeling about this upcoming mission."

"Don't fret. Squad 00 is the "best of the best". We three rank among the top ten HATM pilots (even though Akio doesn't always act like it). What's the worst that can happen?"

"Every time you say that, it makes me worry the worst will happen."

"Fair point."

They were approaching the mountain. Ruth, Satomi, and Akio stood up as the captain appeared to address them. "You three will be working alongside Weapons Development for this mission. We are searching for a strange signal that our scanners found in there. Klaxosaur activity that hasn't been seen for 20 years in this mountain, since the princess that lived there perished when VIRM made First Contact, has been detected. It may prove useful for Weapons Development, and they're sending us to help make sure this goes smoothly, or clean up if it doesn't."

"Captain Mitsuru?" Akio asked. "Is it true that Weapons Development has a klaxo sapien among their ranks?"

Mitsuru sighed, "Weapons Development is very tight-lipped about their staff, but it's very unlikely. The last two klaxo sapiens were the princess and her clone, Zero Two. The princess, as I said, died, and Zero Two likely died along with with Hiro when they took out the VIRM planet. If there is, please don't provoke it. Both of the ones I were aware of had a hair-trigger temper."

"But I'm sure he will…" Satomi muttered.

When they arrived on the base of the mountain. They were greeted by a group from Weapons Development. While Squad 00 was in their HATM uniforms, the Weapons Development group were well-dressed in coats and hats. Several of them struck him as interesting. In particular, a young boy likely around her age with piercing blue eyes and silver hair standing next to his custom HATM. Unlike the hair of some of the veterans who were rapidly aged by the Franxx, his was more supernatural.

The three got into their HATM's and booted them up. Unlike their predecessors, the Franxx, the Hydrogen-Powered All-Terrain Mech was designed to rival its output with a single pilot more efficiently. They ended up being more bulky-looking but still managed to incorporate a humanoid figure, albeit more ambiguous in its appearance.

Mitsuru chimed in their group com. "You three will be joined by a pilot from Weapons Development. Good luck. We're all counting on you."

They began the trip down the lift. "So…" said Akio. "You got a name, WD guy?"

Silence

"Okay…" Akio replied.

"I'm just a friend," the boy from Weapons Development said.

"Wow, really helpful," said Akio

"Akio! He's obviously shy." Satomi replied.

"Well, excuse me," Akio retorted.

They reached the surface of the mountain.

"I expected this to be a lot more volcanic," said Akio.

"It's filled to the brim with hardened magma energy. It used to be filled to the brim with klaxosaurs until the princess's death" said the boy.

"Neat," Akio crassly replied.

They reached an intersection in the cave. "Well, Ruth, where should we go?" asked Satomi

She checked her scanner. "The frequency we were given seems to come from either. Let's split up. Akio, go with Satomi."

"Dammit," Satomi muttered off the mic.

"I'll go with our friend from Weapons Development."

They split, with Ruth and the boy going in one direction and Akio and Satomi begrudgingly going in the other.

They went a ways into the cave searching for the signal they were told to look for.

"You see anything, commander?" the boy asked, shining his light on nearly every surface in that part of the cave.

"No. I'm beginning to wonder if Weapons Development was right about this."

"WD was adamant we look for it. They think it might be more technology we can use."

"Well, I'm not seeing anything," said Ruth "And we're getting close to a dead end. We may need to meet back up with Satomi and Akio and help them out."

Shortly after she said that they felt a great quake.

"What the…" the boy exclaimed.

Suddenly, from the ceiling, several mechanical beings glowing purple similar to the HATM appeared.

"It can't be," the boy said as he brandished a lance and attacked the beings. He took out multiple of them and Ruth provided cover fire with her rifle.

They began surrounding them to the point they struggled to take them on.

"What the heck are these!?" asked a panicked Ruth.

"They may be VIRM: The alien collective that attacked Earth twenty years ago. But that's impossible! They were destroyed!"

"Could this be what Weapons Development was sensing?"

"No. It was specifically klaxosaur-related."

They kept fighting off the horde of creatures. Despite the boy being able to take out multiple enemies with his lance at once, they kept coming. Meanwhile, Ruth struggled to take them out too, especially as both her ammo and hydrogen cell were running dry.

"I'm running empty. Have a contingency plan?" asked Ruth

"Yes. But you ain't gonna like it. Let's just say set shields to full and buckle your seatbelt," he replied.

"Give it all you got."

He slammed the ground with his lance, shattering both it and the ground below, sending both the supposed VIRM and both of them falling down.

"Ruth? Weird guy? Ruth!?" Akio kept calling on the radio.

"I doubt our friend will respond to 'weird guy'" Satomi replied.

"Well, our search for them is not going well," said Akio. "Hopefully they aren't…"

Recounting the path Ruth and the boy took, they finally found the hole he made.

"Oh no," said Akio.

"What is it? What's going on?" Mitsuru chimed in.

"I think we may need to terminate the mission," Akio replied.

Ruth finally woke up. She clenched against her aching head. Hopefully, she didn't get a concussion. She tried to boot up her HATM to no effect. If it wasn't destroyed, the fuel cell had been depleted from using the shield.

She tried the emergency release for the door. It was jammed. "Great. What a place to die in. A dinosaur cave with no dinosaurs."

Shortly after she heard a muffled gunshot and covered her ears. The boy had opened the exit door. His coat was torn, revealing his blue HATM suit underneath. He had taken off his hat, revealing a pair of distinct teal horns coming out of his silver hair, matching the accents surrounding his eyes she just noticed. He had some blood from his forehead but otherwise looked okay.

"Akio was right all along…" Ruth thought, staring at him.

"It's all right, I won't hurt you," he hastily said. "I'm thinking about hurting that Akio guy, but that's another time"

"It's not that I'm scared. It's just that no one has seen your kind for many years."

"Well, you're looking at one right now, darling," he said sarcastically.

He reached his hand out and helped her out of the cockpit.

"It doesn't look like the VIRM were as lucky," the boy said "Thank god Naomi really worked the crap out of those shields."

"You know my mother?"

"She used to be the head of Weapons Development before major restructuring. Good friend of mine. Is she your mother?"

"Adopted. She was hankering for a child of her own and this little orphan came into her life."

"Sorry to bring that up."

"No, don't mention it," Ruth replied. They went a ways away from the wreckage and she added. "So…do you actually have a name?"

"If I do, I was never given it. I was always referred to as Subject 1."

"Yuji, then."

"That'll work," Yuji replied.

Ruth pulled out a PDA from her back pocket to try and look for an exit. "Dang it. No signal."

"Let's start looking the hard way" Yuji said. He then heard noises from his left. "Shit. There's probably still VIRM looking for us. Let's go!"

They ran as fast as they could down the other way. They were beginning to run out of breath. "We're royally screwed," he said. "I doubt we will be able to take them on."

"I'm used to that feeling…" she replied.

They noticed a bright glow from the end of the corridor. At the end housed none other than a Franxx! And not just any unit, but the unit thought to be long gone – Strelizia!

"Impossible!" Ruth said.

"It must have been recreated or something. It was thought to be destroyed 18 years ago," Yuji added. "That may be our ticket out of here."

"But how?"

"Our suits are cross-compatible. Your back pockets can be converted into the necessary equipment for a pistil. Naomi thought of everything. She's even thrown the idea, before she left, of a two-person model like a Franxx, but less complicated or…compromising."

They climbed up the rocks that conveniently led to the cockpit.

"The big thing is we need to be able to sync up. Since we've only known each other for a couple hours, it's gonna be a crapshoot," said Yuji

"Oh, great. I'm gonna have to to 'assume the position' aren't I?" Ruth inquired

"Blame Dr. Frank, he designed it."

She pressed a button on the suit and prepared herself. As Yuji said, the pockets turned into the proper controls. She looked surprised as he grasped her hand, "We'll make it out alive. I promise," Yuji said, releasing her hand. "First connection always is the most awkward. Hold tight."

He pressed a button on the controls and the displays on her suit activated. She saw convoluted images of Yuji flash before her and nearly yelped.

"You alright, Ruth?"

"I wanna go back in time and murder that German pervert myself!"

"Paracapacity is actually good! We got it working!" said Yuji "Oh crap!" he exclaimed as the displays showed more monsters closing in.

"I see it!" said Ruth. "More VIRM!"

Yuji fumbled a bit with controls.

"If anything happens. I wanna say thanks," Ruth said

"No problem. Let's tear some aliens, darling!"

"Please don't call me that…"

"Whatever…", Yuji said before charging headfirst into the horde.

The squad had exited out an entrance on the map. Mitsuru had his face buried in his hands in frustration.

Meanwhile Akio was paying his "respects", "Ruth didn't deserve it. We paid little thought to our commander in the past and now she rests with God or whoever. That guy from WD – we didn't know him. But he was cool, I guess, may he rest in peace."

Satomi tried talking to Mitsuru. "So what happens now?"

"Weapons Development is discussing it. I don't know if they will pull out over just losing Subject 1. There's also a chance they may be alive, but it's low."

They heard cries coming out of the cave. A massive four-legged VIRM creature crashed out the wall.

"Oh no." said Mitsuru. "It can't be. Get to your HATMs and let's get the hell out of here!"

"There's no time. We're done for!" Akio exclaimed

Then, all of a sudden. Strelizia erupted from the ground right below the monster and pierced it with its lance.

"Impossible," said Mitsuru. "After 20 years, the legend has come back to life."

Strelizia launched the beast up into the sky with it. Eventually Strelizia got above the monster as it began its descent. Yuji exclaimed "You're finished!" as he fired an explosive charge straight through, making it burst into purple raindrops.

Strelizia made a dramatic landing on the ground and Ruth and Yuji emerged from the cockpit, accompanied by cheering applause from the squad and Weapons Development.

A new story had begun.