Darling in the FranXX: The Lost Prodigy

Chapter 27: Clash with the Nines

Plantation 86 – Command Center

"Well, that's all I'm getting out of this Plantation," Umbra-01 narrates as he disconnects himself from the terminal. He then takes one more look around the command center, specifically the remains of APE's loyal staff lying scattered on the ground.

"Geez, what a mess," he continues, "Though I did offer them a chance to surrender. Isn't that right, council member Lemur?"

Lemur struggles to break free from Umbra-02 which is holding him by the collar about a meter off the ground. Meanwhile, two other units, one that looks like a samurai and the other like a medieval knight, guard the door.

"Alright, Meatbag," Umbra-01 states as he walks up to Lemur, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Your call." "You'll- argh, get nothing from me!" Lemur retorts, unable to break free from Umbra's grasp.

"Do you value your own life so little?" Umbra says in a calm tone, "I don't need you alive to get the information I'm after. In fact, one word from my Master and I will pull you apart, limb by useless limb."

In hindsight, I should have taken his mask off before threatening him to see his reaction. A miscalculation on my part.

Lemur remains silent, so Umbra speaks up again, "Either way, you're coming with me. Don't expect to live through this tho-"

A sudden earthquake interrupts Umbra mid-sentence. Unit-01 runs back to the terminal and checks the sensors, a single Klaxosaur is approaching at incredible speed.

It only takes a few seconds before a massive explosion could be heard, a look outside the window revealed that the Klaxosaur breached through the Plantation's outer walls and heads straight for the central tower. The Klaxosaur, resembling a cobra, slithers around the tower as its head comes to a halt and stares into the command center.

Umbra is completely unfazed by this and looks back to Lemur, "Allow me to correct my earlier statement: You won't live to see the next 5 minutes."

The mouth of the cobra opens to reveal none other than the Princess of the Klaxosaurs. She walks up to the window and smashes it with the appendages that extend from her back. She has an unsettlingly calm expression as she walks over with her black tendrils.

"H-Her voice is in my head!?" Lemur panics as he desperately tries to struggle free from Umbra but to no avail. The Princess takes Lemur from the Umbra unit and holds him in a chokehold with her tendrils.

Umbra sees that the Princess' horn begins to glow as Lemur screams in agony for nearly a minute before going limp. The Klaxosaur Princess' expression turns sour once her horn stops glowing and she tosses Lemur aside, smashing a screen, before turning to Umbra-01.

"Unfortunately, I can't hear voices in my head," Umbra blatantly states.

"I am convinced now of what the man you call 'Doctor Franxx' told me," she speaks, "Machine, our goals align. Thus, I am willing to work with you until the ones responsible for the crimes against this planet and my brethren are no more. I have to make preparations for what is to come; the Gran Crevasse is a lost cause."

With that, she turns around and walks back to the cobra that has been patiently waiting during this ordeal. Once she is seated within its mouth again, it closes and the Klaxosaur slithers out of the ruined Plantation.

Walking back to the window himself, Umbra gazes over the pile of discarded bodies down at the city, the result of Valhalla. Not long after, a couple of Moho-class Klaxosaurs enter the Plantation with the intention to drain its magma fuel.

Umbra looks back at the lifeless body of Lemur and sighs, "Could have at least told me what she got out of him. Oh well, guess I'll do it myself." Unit-02 grabs Lemur, throws him over his shoulder and marches with the rest of the units out of the command center.