Tom (To put this in context, I originally wrote this September 14, 1997. The day after a negative anniversary of the Second Impact.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Neon Genesis Evangelion 1.1 Second Time Around Neon Genesis Evangelion is copyright GAINAX/Project Eva. This assumes only the television continuity, and essentially ignores the movies. (I haven't seen them yet.) It may contain spoilers for the events surrounding the second impact. IMHO, they are rather mild. Want to archive this? Look at the very bottom of this message for my Standard Fanfic Copying Policy (tm). The implementation of GPS described in this is faulty, at best. This was created using XEmacs and ISpell on a Linux 2.0.30 based system. Send your comments to tom-cnc@tr.ml.org. "September 13, 2000, at 04:32:09.73 GMT, the computers at Kyoto logged the start of the final experiment of the Katsuragi Expedition. Slightly over twenty seconds later, the same computers logged the loss of the radio signals coming from the polar station. It is the events of these twenty seconds that may point directly at the cause of the second impact. Unfortunately, the information that we know from these twenty seconds is so garbled it may be impossible to know for sure." - Prof. K. Fuyutsuki "Report Concerning the Phenomenon known at the Time as the 'Second Impact'" "Synchronization rates have achieved normal." Ritsuko glanced at the monitor that confirmed what the technician had said. She looked out the glass that separated the control room from the cage where the three evangelion stood. "Begin cross-synchronization process." ------------------------------ Inside Unit One, Shinji felt the nature of the synchronization change. A smell, perhaps. Perhaps something more. He didn't know what he would be feeling during the cross-synchronization experiment, so he assumed that this was what was normal. He could see the other two evangelion through the screens in the entry plug. For a moment, he thought he could also see Unit One, but that would be impossible. ------------------------------ "Cross-synchronization increasing." On one of the windows of the control room, the three pilots' synchrographs were projected. The graphs moved ever closer to perfect harmony. Watching the sine waves was almost hypnotic, Ritsuko thought. "Anomaly!" The lines on the synchrograph changed from perfect sine waves to irregular waveforms. The waves still matched with each other, though. Before Ritsuko could give the order to end the test, there was another shout. "AT Field!" "Abort the test. Break synch..." ------------------------------ For a moment, the walls of the entry plug flared a brilliant white. Just as suddenly, the light faded away, being replaced by darkness.It took Shinji several seconds before his eyes became accustomed to the darkness enough that he was able to pick out the other two Evangelion. Like Unit One, the other two were sprawled on some sort of field of snow, extending as far as the eye could see. On the horizon, artificial lights illuminated the base of the clouds. With a thought, he opened a communications link to the other two evangelion. Within seconds, the other pilots had done the same. "What happened?" Shinji asked. "Where are we?" Within seconds he remembered that he could display a window with global positioning information, but it seemed that Asuka had beaten him to it. "It looks like we're in... Antarctica? And this can't be right. The time signals says that we're in the year 2000." Shinji checked the same display on his system. It read September 13, 2000 04:28 am GMT, and also indicated that it thought this was an illegal time. "Antarctica. September 13, 2000...", he wondered out loud. Rei finished his thought. "The Second Impact." "How long do we have?" It was Asuka's voice, slightly wavering. "Unit Two has four minutes of time left." "Unit Zero has three minutes." This was Rei's voice. Shinji checked the power indicator, then checked it again. "Unit One... According to this, I still have five minutes of power left." He checked it one more time, then spoke again. "But that isn't possible." he said, unnecessarily. There was silence for a moment, then Rei spoke. "I suggest we investigate those lights." ------------------------------ After the evangelion had moved closer, it became apparent what the lights were. They emanated from a pyramidal building on the surface of the ice. At maximum magnification, a sign on the fence made it clear what this was: The "Katsuragi Expedition Base Facility". "One minute left." Rei said. Asuka merely nodded at this. "We have to attack." Asuka said this, deploying her progressive knife. She sounded unsure of herself, however. "But Misato is probably in there." It was the first thing that came to Shinji's mind. Asuka's voice came over the communications system. "Shinji, if we attack, we can stop the Second Impact. Two billion people, Shinji. A long pause ensued. "If we attack... They'll be no second impact. No NERV. No Tokyo-3. No... Us?" "Stupid Shinji," Asuka said. Unit Two ran toward the base, only to bounce off an AT Field that blocked its path. The evangelion fell down, damaged by the impact. "Shinji.... It seems that only you can..." Rei's voice was cut off, and the communications window was replaced by a message reading "Unit 00 - Activation Ceased." Asuka turned to face the remaining pilot. Shinji could see that she was hurt, and that Unit Two was damaged. From time to time static clouded the transmission. "Shinji, you have to stop them from what they will do." "But if I do that, Nerv... Tokyo-3... Tokyo-2... Everything will change. I can't do that... Not to the entire world..." "Shinji... Is your view of the world worth two billion lives? We can't put ourselves over two billion people!" "But the world as it is... What gives me the right to change it?" Asuka turned away. "I don't know. But somehow, you have it." Her image turned black, save for the words "Unit 02 - Activation Ceased". Shinji was on his own. He stepped forward, not knowing what he would do. His evangelion easily passed through the AT Field that had stopped Asuka. Unit One staggered forward. He held the progressive knife, not knowing if he would use it. Shinji warred with himself, trying to decide what to do, weighing the options, weighting what he had been told, trying to decide what to do. He finally decided. The time was 4:32:02 am GMT. ------------------------------ The time was 04:32:29 am GMT. The progressive knife had landed on the snow when he had dropped it. Shinji didn't bother picking it up. He had no more use for it. He stared at the tattered remains of what was the main building of the Katsuragi expedition. He wondered if he'd made the right choice. He'd wonder for the rest of his life, he was sure. The arm of his Evangelion was glowing a brilliant white. Turning, he could see the forms of the other two, also glowing a brilliant white. He turned back to the ruins of the building. A man was there, carrying the body of a girl. Misato, Shinji thought. Her father placed her in an escape pod. She looked at the Evangelion's glowing form, then back at her father. His face was the last thing she saw before the door of the pod slammed shut. Again, the walls of the entry plug flared a brilliant white. ------------------------------ "Break Synchronization!" "AT Field collapsing!" "All Evangelion have reached a dormant state." Ritsuko sighed. The synchronization anomaly was over. 1.0 14 Sep 1997 1.1 23 Sep 1997 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Send comments to tom-cnc@tr,ml.org. (The fic ends here, stay tuned for the message to archivists.) Tom's STANDARD FANFIC COPYING POLICY (tm). Version 1.1 Want to repost or archive this? Just follow these rules: 1) Don't change the content, although formatting is ok. You can translate it into html, just don't go inserting your own paragraphs, or changing words (even spell-checking). If you want to translate this, you have far too much free time on your hands. Mail me. 2) Bill me as "Tom ", despite what email address you see this coming from. 3) Leave these disclaimer intact. This applies to all my fics that have been released (either posted to to a mailing list other than FFML, or to rec.arts.anime.creative). You don't need to send me mail to ask permission to archive this, but it might be a nice gesture to let me know you did it. 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