Fafner: Exodus Ep. 12: Children of the Battlefield

Reo is scanned and Kenji wonders why his vitals are normal even though his heart is missing. Ikumi watches over the sleeping Rina and Tamotsu says they only analyzed the Fafners so they failed to anticipate the burden on the pilots. Mimika asks Sakura if they can fix the growths on her back and Sakura says they will. Seri is put in an isolated room and Orihime visits her briefly to talk about the things they’ll do when Seri gets out. Seri produces assimilation crystals, Rina is comatose, Sui’s body mass has increased, Mimika has growths and Reo is missing part of his body. Fumihiko asks Orihime if it’s because of the Gordian crystal and Orihime explains that the island is protecting their lives but not their human appearance or minds. She says as long as they fight the changes won’t stop but compared to those who aren’t protected they’re brimming with hope. In India, the exodus makes slow progress as they set up a new camp. Miwa wants to travel with Emery, but Yumiko tells her this way they won’t lose both of them if something happens. Maya launches in her Fafner to join Ai and her scouting party. Maya sees a destroyed city and Ai tells her there are places like that all over the world. Despite that Ai says they’ll never give up hope. Kyosuke, Soushi, and Kazuki discuss the journey and what they should do. Soushi says they should stay at Narain’s location and Kyosuke agrees. Kazuki asks when he’ll launch in the Sein and Soushi asks if he wants to scout like Maya but reminds him they don’t have her stamina. Kyosuke is more worried about the Neo UN not getting the message they’re okay and bombing them in what they call ROE Alpha. One of the messenger teams get a message back from Dhaka, but when they attempt to reply the Azazel type Festum that ate Roadrunner appears and attacks. It tries to read the crew’s minds but one of them manages to activate their Fenrir and self destruct. Emery feels the Azazel type’s hatred and she tells Narain it ate Roadrunner and became stronger. Dhaka’s Commander Kamal Dexter tells Dustin about Narain’s group and that he intends to send as much backup as they can. Dustin returns to his squad and tells them about the message, but they just laugh. They have orders to retrieve the Mark Sein and Nicht and Dustin says ROE Alpha is absolute. During dinner Soushi asks Narain if he’s been on the Festum’s side but Narain says he just underwent experiments to give him Esperanto powers. It gave him Fafner piloting abilities but he couldn’t communicate with the Mir. Miwa is suddenly fearful and Emery tells her to not let the Festum’s hatred affect her. Emery informs the others that some one is being attacked.

Jonathan has a dream about the new Azazel type and is woken up by a communication from Walter. A group of vehicles got lost and encountered the enemy. Maya, Akira, and Hiroto head out but Soushi tells Kazuki to stay behind. The Festum kill one bus load of people and attack another but Akira blocks the worm sphere with his Fafner. His Fafner is fine but the civilians are all killed. Akira attacks the Festum in a rage but Billy stops him from wasting more weapons. Billy confirms there are no survivors and tells Hiroto that bringing anything back would be too risky. Hiroto realizes this is how the Neo UN has fought all this time and Billy is grateful they can fight because there are many more who can’t. Akira wonders if he left the island just to see that. Back on Tatsumiya, the Fafners take on a new group of Festum. Everyone is moving too slowly and Kenji realizes they’re scared of the new assimilation phenomena. After the Festum are destroyed Walker appears and quickly vanishes. Orihime says it’s laughing at the pilots and that it’s learned. Reo notices the hole in his chest has grown, Sui feels really heavy, more growths have appeared on Mimika’s back, Rina fights to stay awake, and Seri assimilates a plate of food. Sakura and Canon push for the deployment of the unmanned Fafners and Canon’s machine. Fumihiko warns them of the risks but Sakura says it’ll give them more clinical data. Yoko asks if Canon made the decision herself and Canon says she did. Sakura’s mother Kiyomi reminds her she can’t pilot a Fafner like she once did but Sakura says she has to give the other kids some courage. Fumihiko officially reinstates the two as pilots.