RPM - acct 3/5 March 21, 2014: Transcript of the Last Transmissions of the Long-Smith Expedition Dr. Clark A. Smith: Can anyone hear me? Home Base (Sandy Peterson): We read you, Dr. Smith. Dr. Smith: We've reached the edge of the chasm reported by that spelunker. This thing is HUGE. Dr. Long is setting up the measuring equipment with Mr. Derleth's help. [pause] Now where has that Carter boy run off to again... Home Base (Sandy Peterson): Is he acting up again? Dr. Smith: He was so impatient on the way in here that he nearly fell to his death four times. Anyway, [pause] Strange, I just heard a noise somewhat like...Ugh! Home Base (Keith Herbert): Is something wrong? Dr. Smith: There's a veritable ocean of cave crickets sweeping across the floor as if the hordes of Hell were after them or something. Anyway, the caverns seem to be made of basalt, which makes little sense, given that Oklahoma isn't exactly noted for its volcanic activity. Going to take a sample... [banging noises] Now I... [There are faint screams in the distance] Home Base (Speaker unidentified): What the hell was THAT? Dr. Smith: Dr. Long, what's...oh, shit. Home Base (Keith Herbert): Dr. Smith? What's wrong? Are you having a cave in? Dr. Smith: [loudly] There's some sort of bridge across the chasm, and something is coming across it. Dr. Long is playing the arc light across...holy shit! How...How can that thing support its own weight? Carter, come back here, you idiot!!! [sounds of more running and screaming] Home Base (Sandy Peterson): What is it? What's going on? Dr. Smith: Spiders! Everywhere! And a...AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! [More screams, then silence except for a noise almost like raindrops splashing on stone] Home Base (Unidentified voice): Dynamite the cavern entrance. Home Base (Sandy Peterson): But that will seal them in with...whatever that was. Home Base (Unidentified Voice): Do it. I'm going to contact headquarters. -*- "So it has begun," the old man said to his younger one-time protege, who by the whims of fate was now his boss. "And the day shall come when the endless weaver shall complete his creation and cross the abyss which shielded the world from him and once more gaze upon the sun. And he shall sound the call, awakening his ancient enemy friends to come forth. The heights will sink and the deeps will rise; the veils will be parted and what is known will be occulted; the dead shall walk and the living shall die," the younger, though not young, man said, resting his chin on a gloved hand and adjusting his glasses with the other hand. "If the Hippies had understood the true meaning of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, they would have shot themselves." He laughed faintly and stood. "If you will pardon me, I must write a letter." "What should I do about the Long-Smith expedition?" "The usual coverup. And keep me informed on the transmitter. Assuming Carter did his job right." "Well, we are getting a mobile transmission, so it got attached to SOMETHING," the older man said. "Get me a speed and direction estimate then. And pray it doesn't just wander around underground for a few months, letting the batteries run out. Good day." He departed. -*- John Biles & Rod M. Present A Neon Genesis Evangelion Elseworlds Children of an Elder God Chapter 1: The Stars Are Right "How shall a man know his gods?" "By the signs of their divinity." "And what if thieves walk among the gods?" "Then, indeed, how shall a man know?" --"The Aztecs" (Dr. Who, First Season) -*- Shinji's memories of his arrival in Tokyo-3 were fixed in the first seconds of his arrival when a spider landed on his nose. It had been floating through the air, held aloft by a gentle breeze and by a tangle of webs that bore some resemblence to a parachute made by MC Escher. As he stepped off the train, the breeze blew it onto his face. Many people would have screamed or hurriedly slapped it off his face. Shinji simply blinked and stared at it. The train doors closed and it pulled out of the station. Shinji ignored it, focused on the spider. It sat on his cheek and stared at him. He stared back in a contest rigged against him, since his opponent had no eyelids. Slowly, Shinji put down his suitcase and raised his hand, brushing the spider onto his other hand, then putting it down on the ground. It scampered away, and he smiled a little smile for the first time in days. "Kind to animals?" a woman's voice asked. Shinji blinked and looked up. A woman was staring at him through mirrored sunglasses. She didn't look like someone who would work for his father; she looked more like an idol singer, dressed in casual, but sexy clothing, with a figure of the kind that Shinji was just now starting to notice. It wasn't her clothing or her body that drew his attention, but rather the strange necklace she wore. The chain was made of gold, while the pendant mixed silver and bronze, tracing out a sort of broken five pointed star with a tongue of flame in the middle made of copper. Shinji normally wasn't much for abstract art, or any kind of art for that matter, but it caught his attention and wouldn't let it go. Since it was hanging just above the top of her cleavage, the woman drew the wrong conclusions from his stare, but she just smiled. "Earth to Shinji. Come in, Shinji." He blinked and looked up. "That's a...what is that?" "My father found it in Polynesia during one of his expeditions. I like it." Shinji nodded. The pendant was oddly comforting. "You're Captain Kusanagi?" "Captain Katsugari. Captain Misato Katsugari." She put out a hand. "Nice to meet you." Shinji stared at it for a second, then shook her hand. Not what he had expected at all. Much better, really. "So why does Father want to see me?" "Come with me, and all will be explained." She looked around. "Where's your luggage?" "This is it," he said, holding up the one suitcase. Her response was cut short by her nearly jumping out of her skin. "Aaah! Spider!" She yanked it off her shoulder and stomped on it. "Damn bugs." "You didn't have to kill it." "I hate bugs." Two more spiders drifted by. Shinji said, "I guess you must hate this town, then." "Follow me." She started to head towards the parking lot. "They're not normally so bad." The car was nice, very nice, a sports car. It was blue, a color Shinji liked, and it was probably more expensive than the house he had lived out his life in. Well, maybe not quite that expensive, but he was sure it had cost more than anything he or the housekeeper who had raised him could have ever afforded. It only had one flaw; four spiders were having a race to see who could cover the windshield with webs faster. Misato cursed and ran over, unlocking the car, opening the door, and jumping in in one fluid motion. The windshield wipers and twin water jets put an end to the spider art competition, laying waste to their work. The artists themselves scampered for cover, and two of them quickly fried when they foolishly fled into the engine. You can't expect much from a creature whose brain is the size of a grain of sand, though. Misato kept the wipers running while Shinji got into the car. "I think you're overreacting a little, Captain Katsuragi," he said as he put his suitcase in the back and buckled his seatbelt. "You've never had a spider crawl up your nose, I see." She frowned and put the car in gear, peeling out of the parking lot. "Are the spiders that common here?" Shinji asked. Maybe Father is breeding them, he thought. "No, not really. It happened in college." She shivered and the car swerved all over the road, which was rather disturbing at ninety miles an hour. Shinji wasn't brave enough to offer a critique of her driving, but he certainly thought it. All he said was, "So why am I here?" "You really don't know?" She swerved again, this time to crush a can, and ticked off a little tiny tick mark in the part of her brain that kept track of how many cans she'd crushed today. They roared down the road into Tokyo-3, a city that looked like it was all downtown and nothing else. Buildings towered around them, and many of them were increasingly covered with webs as they moved deeper into the city. The car was crunching more and more spiders every minute, and now Misato had to keep the windshield wipers going in order to see. The rear window and the side ones were starting to vanish beneath grey-white webs. "Has Father been experimenting with spiders?" She frowned. "I have no idea why we're getting all these...shit." Shinji blinked, and then he realized why she was cursing. There was a spider the size of a small dog in the road. It went flying off the road when Misato plowed into it, but it left a dent in the bumper, and Misato cursed. Then the sirens started going off all over the city. "Great! First my car, then the first attack happens while I'm driving!" She started trying to dial her cellphone with one hand, but then it simply rang. She started driving one handed, swerving wildly as she talked. "Yes, I noticed the damn spiders! I'm putting the damage to my bumper on my expense account." Pause. "This is official business, dammit! Yes, I have the Third Child." Shinji blinked. I have siblings? I thought I was the only child. Why didn't anyone ever tell me? I wonder what their names are. "He's just fine, but I hope he's not allergic to bugs. How the hell did so many of these things get into the city so quickly?" Pause. "How did so many EGGS get into the city, then?" Pause. Swerve. Shinji saw a man setting himself on fire to get dozens of spiders off of him. "Ahh, so it's finally shown up. With all its little kids, no doubt. Send the bombers to slow it down." Pause. "Ahh, they're already on the way. How soon?" Pause. "Shit." "Are we going to be bombed?" Shinji asked. It seemed like the sort of day that he would get blown up and eaten by spiders. Most days he saw his father were like that. "Not directly, no," Misato said to Shinji, then turned back to the phone. "I know this is what we've been preparing for, but I wasn't expecting to get my new car destroyed today!" She squealed the car to a halt. "Get out!" "What?" She grabbed Shinji and jumped into the ditch along one side of the road. Then the N-2 bomb went off on the horizon. -*- They had to walk the rest of the way to HQ. The N-2 blast scared most of the spiders into hiding and killed the rest with the shockwave. However, as Shinji soon found out... "The N-2 bomb seems to have stunned it. We have a few hours before it gets back up and comes after us," Dr. Ritsuko Akagi said. She was blond and somewhat attractive, with short hair, glasses, and an odd habit of wearing a blue one-piece bathing suit and a lab coat as her work uniform. It wasn't much stranger than the whole place was to Shinji, who thought the place virtually screamed 'James Bond'. He wondered if his father was now a spy. The giant humanoid head, attached to a giant humanoid body, which he was standing next to was bizarre as well. It looked like a giant badly made plastic doll of odd colors with bits of mishapen armor. The words 'Unit01' were painted on the armor on the left side of the thing's neck. It creeped Shinji out. It was wrong. He didn't want to be anywhere near it, but everyone else seemed to see it as perfectly normal. "What is going on?" Shinji's father, a man named Gendo Ikari, looked down at him. He was tall and broad with a short dark beard, neatly trimmed hair and small glasses. "I have brought you here to pilot this. The world is under attack, and only we can stop the menace. If we do not act, the world will be destroyed." Shinji stared at his father, who hadn't changed a bit except for the beard, from his cold stare to his brief and inadequate explanations. 'Why is grass green?' 'Because it's not blue.' 'What's for dinner?' 'Food.' 'Why do Ihave to live away from you, father?' 'It's for your own good.'He didn't even get a hello. He wanted to say hello, but as he looked at Gendo, his resolve melted. Questions died unasked on his lips. He and his father stared at each other silently, hisfather grimly, while he wilted under the gaze, which seemed to tug away his will. "This is the creature." Ritusko pointed to a view screen in one wall of the chamber. It showed a creature that resembled a huge spider, hundreds of feet tall, lying on its side, its legs working the air feebly. It was surrounded by a charred cocoon of spider silk and the corpses of countless spiders. However, more were erupting up from the ground and forming from its blood, which was puddled around it. Further more, the charred marks on its exterior were fading, and ichor was no longer leaking from it. "The enemies we fight are known as Angels, and the one out there today is designated as Matriel. Our current estimate is that we have about a half hour before it fully recovers, and another half hour before it reaches the edge of Tokyo-3. How long it will take to reach us is not yet predictable." Shinji stared at the screen. The creature was even more repulsive to him than the strange simulacrum of a human they were all standing next to on a platform over the huge tube it was kept in. It wasn't possible. Anything that big should collapse under its own weight. Shinji was better educated than the average fourteen year old. His father had seen to that, if not much else. And he had worked hard, with some vague impulse of hope to please his father or at least to get noticed by him. Even anger would have been better than being ignored. "Shouldn't that thing collapse? I mean, there's no way those spindly legs can support its weight if it's that big." It wasn't just the size. Something about how the legs moved were wrong. They were too limber, too flexible, too nimble for such a creature. And its shape...real creatures rarely have angles; they have curves, nature doesn't produce straight lines, but this creature was oddly angular. "Our understanding of such matters is entirely the result of the cramped understandings derived from observing the lifeforms of a single backwater planet, and quite likely has no validity in the universe at large. Possibly it looks at us and wonders why we don't collapse in on ourselves under the weight of our atmosphere without an exo-skeleton. Whether or not it SHOULD collapse, it is not collapsing." She fell silent, apparently surprised with herself for going on for so long. Shinji frowned. "What do I have to do with this?" "One of our pilots is in Germany, and the other one was injured," Misato said. "But we believe you can pilot an EVA. You match the profile. You'll help us, won't you, Shinji?" He and EVA had a brief staring contest. EVA won. "I don't like it." Gendo frowned. "You don't have to like it." "How am I supposed to pilot this thing without any training?" "It's thought controlled," Misato said. "You just have to have the knack. Anyone could do it, but only those with the right genetics could do it well." He stared at the horrible spider thing on the viewscreen again. It was wrong, an abomination. It was impossible; there was no way it could hold itself up. Every bit of biology he knew screamed that there had been some kind of mistake here, but he couldn't deny his eyes. It revulsed him, even though the little spiders that had preceded its arrival had been sort of cute, or at least...they were right and it was not. "I'm not much of a figher." "It'll be just like using your own body," Misato said with a wheedling tone in her voice. "If your body was dozens of feet tall and superhumanly strong. Don't you want to be a hero?" Shinji thought about all the giant robot anime he had seen. It always looked easy, but he was quite sure it couldn't REALLY be that easy. It wasn't the danger stopping him so much as the fact that the EVA was nearly as creepy as the giant spider-thing. He turned and stared at his father, trying to read him, even though Shinji wasn't much good at reading people. Was this what his father had really summoned him for? Was he responsible for all this? His father's eyes riveted him in place, fixing him like a deer staring into headlights. While the rest of his face was blank, like a mask, Gendo's eyes were alive, stern and piercing, deep as an oceanic trench. Shinji could feel himself falling into his father's eyes, being dissected; his soul was laid bare. He wanted to flee that gaze, to run far away where no one could look at him and see how much this all scared him, how much the spider repulsed him, how much the EVA frightened him. I must look like a scared rabbit, Shinji thought. I wonder how he sees me. In his mind's eye, he could see himself through his father's eyes. It was a vivid vision, almost realler than life. It was a strangely calm feeling. He had been breathing heavily, but his body felt serene now as he put himself in his father's place, somehow absorbing Gendo's calm. To his surprise, he realized that his own body looked much calmer than he actually felt. Is my father hiding emotions as strong as my own?, Shinji wondered. He must be. If I don't do this, he doesn't have anyone who can take my place. He heard himself say, "I'll do it." He didn't feel himself saying it, but since he was busy fantasizing, as far as he could tell, this didn't surprise him, although he did SEE himself say it. He had been intending to say it, anyway, having changed his mind, so it didn't bother him much. With that, his vision ended and he was back to normal, seeing things from his own perspective, not from his father's. It had been surreal, but it had happened to him before, though not often. It was more common in his dreams. Especially the stranger ones that made him wake up screaming. Misato smiled. "Excellent. Let's get you suited up and ready." -*- The plugsuit wasn't bad. It looked fairly snazzy and it was remarkably comfortable for something so form- fitting. The LCL was another matter. He'd almost gone back on his decision just from looking at it. It was a black, gooey sludge that looked far too much like motor oil mixed with toxic waste. It smelled like rotten food mixed with vomit. Ignoring his protests and failing to explain very clearly why it wouldn't kill him on contact, they just keep filling up the plug unit with it. He had expected it to be ice cold, but it was comfortably warm, which was the only comfortable aspect of it. It tasted hideous, like battery acid mixed with vinegar and castor oil and sewage. Far worse was the absolute darkness into which it plunged you; it felt like all of the universe had been destroyed and only Shinji remained. Then the darkness began to swirl with patterns of light, which constantly hinted at shapes but would not quite reveal them. He felt like he was drowning in darkness, like it was oozing down his throat and into his veins. Every tiny bodily sensation felt like a harbringer of doom. Just as he felt certain he would go mad, he realized that the reason it was so dark was that his eyes were closed. At least, they felt like they were closed, although he didn't remember closing them. There had been a sort of almost tugging feeling, and suddenly, his eyes were closed. So he opened them. He was staring at the platform on which a while ago he had debated whether or not to do this. A small square hung in the air in the lower right corner of his vision; it was a video image of Misato. "Can you read me, Shinji?" "Um, I can HEAR you." Shinji said. "And I can see you. I don't...wait, am I seeing what the EVA sees?" Misato nodded. "You can call up various instrumentation by mental command, but we'll have to go over all that when we have more time. Try moving Unit01's arm." It was indeed as easy as they promised, although he couldn't move much, given the Unit was strapped to something. "I'm rea...wait, do I have any weapons?" While they were in a hurry, they did have enough time to explain that, at least. -*- "Synchronization rate is 85 % and rising," Maya said. She was one of Dr. Akagi's assistants, female with short black hair and a smiling face. While many of those to be found in NERV seemed to think that somberness was part of the Orders of the Day, she was not one of them. "The Third Child is even more of a natural at this than the Second Child was." Dr. Akagi nodded. "Bodily functions report?" Another technician said, "All body functions normal. Looks like this one won't die because his body forgot to keep functioning while he was piloting." "Good. We don't have anyone to take his place," Gendo said. "Well, we could try the..." Dr. Akagi began. "Even if they were fully functional, what would they pilot? One of our cardboard models? Unit00 is still damaged. We'll use it if we have to, but only if it's absolutely necessary. And if it comes down to that, we can use Rei," Gendo said, watching the various viewscreens intently. "Luckily, this will likely be the weakest of our opponents." -*- As Shinji moved through the streets of the city, he pondered two major questions. First of all, what sort of weirdo builds a hundred foot tall robot and only arms it with a knife? Secondly, what sort of idiot builds a giant robot that has to use an extension cord? Then again, it is only a giant spider, he thought. Scary looking, but spiders don't have a lot of offensive armnament as long as you don't run into their web, and I doubt the web's been made that can hold this thing. He rounded a corner, stomping hundreds, maybe thousands of spiders with every step. They ranged in size from normal tiny ones to ones the size of a small dog. There were webs everywhere, but he moved through them as if they didn't exist. The Angel-Spider itself was standing on a tank covered with webs, looking around. It spotted him and chittered, which was somewhat creepy, but not very communicative. I should have asked for a super economy size can of Raid, Shinji thought. "I've spotted him," he said. "Strike for the eyes, Shinji," Misato said. "Blind him." Shinji nodded and Unit01 ran forward at his mental command. Shortly afterwards, Unit01 stabbed down with the knife, missing only because the huge spider had taken off running the second Unit01 started its charge. Unit01 ran after his opponent, crushing dozens of cars as it ran, and even more spiders than before. This section of the city was coated with webs, a sea of greyish-white sticky stuff. Bits of web coated Unit01's legs and feet. He rounded three corners as the spider-beast skittered through the streets, occassionally smashing into a bank of glass windows with a stray leg and shattering them. Finally, it darted around yet another corner and Unit01 charged right after it, right into a huge web between two buildings. The web strands were huge, nearly a foot across each. Unit01 was neatly caught, just like a fly. "I've been caught!" "Generate an AT field!" Misato said. "A what?" "We believe the EVAs are capable of generating an AT field like that produced by the Angels." "So how do I do it? And what is it?" "Actually, we're not sure how to make it generate one." This was NOT what Shinji wanted to hear. -*- "Activate Unit00, and get Rei prepped to pilot it," Gendo said. "She's injured and so is her unit, but we can't afford a defeat. Not with it right here in Tokyo-3." "Perhaps we should use the..." Dr. Akagi began. "We've already seen what inexperience can do for us. I'd rather not repeat the experience." -*- Shinji felt claustraphobic. Unit01 was wrapped in webbing and its eyes were half covered, so he could barely see. Unable to act, he was becoming increasingly aware of being trapped in a metal tube full of a cold liquid that gave him the heebie-jeebies. Misato kept giving him soothing assurances that he didn't really believe. Many people would have cried or blamed themselves or even blamed others, but Shinji couldn't muster the will to do any of those. "Rei is coming in Unit00," Misato said. "Just hold out a few more minutes." Shinji laughed faintly. "I'll do my best." -*- Rei was glad to be in Unit00. It was an escape from her body, which was wracked with pain from the recent training disaster. While Unit00 was damaged like her, it felt no pain. LCL held no terrors for Rei; it was an escape from a body which usually succeeded only in getting in her way. The fluid that she knew had driven at least three potential pilots insane made her more sane, she was sure. It held something she needed. Or perhaps it was just the pleasure of piloting Unit00 which she liked. Few things gave her normal body any enjoyment, but piloting Unit00 was always enjoyable. She sprinted through Tokyo-3 at speeds of which her usual body would not have been capable. Buildings whizzed by, and a few cars crunched under her feet; it was like running through a forest and accidentally stepping on some beetles. She paused to assess the situation. Unit01 was webbed between two buildings. Her target, the spider, was wandering around aimlessly, spinning webs and smashing buildings. Millions of spiders danced around the area, imitating their...master? father? leader? Perhaps the pattern of the webs would mean something. She activated Unit00's radio. "Katsugari-san, I need an aerial view of the city." A tiny box appeared in the right corner of her sight, showing Captain Katsugari's face. "Yes. We've got planes over the area. I'll have it patched through to you." Webs which had seemed aimless from the ground took on a different visage from above. The webs formed a roughly v shaped pattern across the city, with some sort of oval sigil in the middle with a dot in its midst where Unit01 was trapped and where the giant leader of the spiders was meandering about, clearing an open space inside the oval. While the sigil remained meaningless to Rei, she felt it must be some sort of meaningful pattern. Perhaps a signal to more of these creatures, whatever they were. Half-remembered bits of biology studies surfaced in her mind, and she decided to experiment. Wrenching a power line support pole loose from the ground, she hurled it down onto the webbing, then stepped back. Sparks flew from the damaged lines and the webbing ignited. Soon, the city was ablaze with a short-lived fire; the webbing was highly flammable, but burnt away very quickly. Shinji was snapped out of his half-trance of doomed apathy by the sudden feeling that he was on fire. Instinct took over, and he stopped, dropped, and rolled. This was rather more destructive when piloting Unit01 than would normally be the case. Countless spiders burned to death, were crushed, or combined the two death methods. Unit00 drew its progressive knife and charged forward while the Spider-Angel was still ringed in flame. She hailed Unit01's pilot by radio while charging forward. "Unit 01, attack now." Her knife plunged down into one of its faceted eyes, gashing it open and spewing viridescent mauve ichor onto Unit00's hands and arms. Putting the Unit's weight into it, she plunged the knife deeper into the creature's head, trying to get to its brain. Shimmering auras of fluctuating color began to form upon Unit00's hands, arms, and knife, eating away at the Angel-Spider's flesh. In her peripheral vision, she could see Unit01 was hacking away at one of the huge spider-thing's legs, but her attention was focused on her blade. The deeper it sank into the creature, the harder it was to push it forward and the brighter it shone. Perhaps it stole its color from the huge spider-beast, which was turning grey where the shimmering light shone upon it, its flesh flaking and crumbling away. It struggled forward, trying to bite her, but she was standing to one side of the mandibles and with the knife pressing into its eye, it couldn't turn successfully to bite her, especially with Unit01 hacking off some of its legs. Nor could it turn to attack Unit01. Nor could it retreat, as its legs weren't well designed for trying to move straight backwards, and as fast as it could move, Unit00 simply pressed forwards. Far away in the subterranean monitoring chamber, a technician announced, "The Angel and Unit00 are generating strong AT fields, while Unit01 is generating a somewhat weaker one, as projected." "What about synchronization rates?" Dr. Akagi asked, looking up at one of the monitors which showed hundreds of seperate statuses, jumbled together confusingly. "Oddly, Unit01 is actually showing a higher synchronization rate, although Unit00 is climbing, but is producing a weaker AT field. It may be related to the fact that Unit00's pilot is experiencing a higher level of physical stress. Respiration and heartbeat are up, adrenalin levels have gone up, etc. Meanwhile, Unit01's pilot is only at the level of exertion of a brisk walk." Gendo's lips quirked into a very faint smile. Rei could no longer see her knife through the glow of colors, but she could feel she was pressing against...something. The exoskeleton, she guessed. "I'm encountering resistance." "It's generating an AT-field. Press harder," Misato said. "Shinji, stop playing with its legs and help Rei." "How?" "STAB IT IN THE HEAD WITH YOUR KNIFE!" Misato pulled herself together when several staff members stared at her. Unit01 stood up and stabbed its knife down into the creature's head, easily fending off its feeble and now maimed legs. Out of the corner of his eye, Shinji could see more spiders approaching, but all the ones nearby had burned up. "So how did you know the fire wouldn't burn up my EVA too, Rei?" he asked, hoping she knew more about this creature than he did. "I didn't." Rei gritted her teeth, or perhaps it was Unit00's teeth; there was no way to tell. The darkness inside the creature was struggling with her light and losing; more and more of its flesh was turning a colorless grey and flaking away; the eyes were completely gone, and the colors were swallowing up her sight. "..." She didn't know? Shinji thought. It took a lot to snap him out of apathy, but that did it. "You could have killed me!" "If I did nothing, the situation would not have improved," Rei replied. Misato cut in. "Are you generating an AT-field?" "I have no idea. My arms and knife are glowing. Am I doing that?" "Very good, Shinji," Misato said. "The Angel's AT-field is wavering, wavering...gone," the technician reported. The Angel popped like a balloon. A wave of grey rushed through its already dark body and it fell apart into huge flakes of dried flesh which began to crumble even as it tumbled to the ground. Energy played about Unit00 and Unit01 like Saint Elmo's fire. Both Rei and Shinji felt a jolt like they had just stuck a fork in an electrical socket. While they couldn't see the changes in their own units, they did see changes in each other's EVA. Shinji's changed color to silver and became perfectly smooth. The few bits of web that remained on it fell off. Meanwhile, Unit00 sprouted protuberances around its mouth that looked suspiciously like the creature's mouth mandibles. They knew its true name now, though they didn't know how they knew. Or what exactly it was. The command crew could see this as well. Gendo said to Dr. Akagi, "Has the Angel infiltrated the EVAs?" She shook her head. "No sign of Angel presences. As we projected, the EVAs have adapated to the battle they have just fought. It's too early to be sure of the exact results, but I can speculate if you like," Dr. Akagi said, smiling. "Save it for your report," Gendo said, and she frowned slightly. "Do you believe it is safe to bring them back to our base?" "As safe as the EVAs ever are, giving what happened during that test." Dr. Akagi shuddered slightly from the memory. "Good job," Misato told Shinji and Rei. "Come on back to the base." -*- "Ugh! Ack! *COUGH* Blech!" "Oh come on. It isn't that bad, is it?" Shinji, covered in the dark and noxious LCL fluid, crawled out of the plug and gave Misato a dark look. "It... is that bad?" Shinji opened his mouth to say something, then paused. A moment later he was spitting out black sludge from his mouth and into the coolant liquid below. Misato grimaced. "Ew. Okay, maybe we'd better get you to the infirmary." Gasping, looking a bit ill, Shinji croaked, "Need... water." After a brief stop at a nearby water fountain, they made their way, Shinji on wobbly legs, and Misato frowning about the nasty black sludge staining her dress. -*- Ritsuko smiled as the two entered her office. "Ah, good. I was going to ask you to come here anyway. So how's our pilot?" "Somewhat nauseated," replied Misato. "I think I'm getting better," said Shinji weakly. Ritsuko nodded. "I expected as much. Your first time in the LCL wasn't pleasant, I'm sure. Neither will the next time. But it won't be as bad, and it'll get better as time goes by. Your body gets used to it." Next time? Shinji didn't even want to think about it. "But, as standard procedure, we have to make sure you're all right. So if you'll step over here for a moment..." Ritsuko subjected Shinji to a battery of tests, put under the light of miscellaneous machinery that he didn't comprehend. Then various probes were stuck into multiple orifaces, not improving his mood at all. And it didn't help that Misato was in the room too, with an ever-so-slight smile. "Are you done yet?" asked Shinji meekly, feeling more probed than he thought humans should be. Ritsuko nodded. "I'm done. Just get some rest and the nausea should go away entirely on its own. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got another patient to attend to." -*- The two walked through the endless maze of corridors of the base, their footsteps echoing throught the empty spaces. With the nausea far less severe than it was earlier, Shinji had enough presence of mind to relfect on the day so far. He had... ... seen his father for the first time in years. ... inhaled toxic sludge. ... almost been killed while piloting a giant robot. ... and killed a giant monster. On the whole, the day was far less pleasant than that quick summary expressed. It wasn't a day he'd care to repeat. Except for the killing. There was an odd feeling that had run through him when the creature died. As it sagged to lifelessness, he'd felt a rush course through his body. Disturbingly pleasant. He wondered if the battles would always end that way. Misato derailed his train of thought easily. "Oh, I forgot to mention. You've been put in my care, Shinji." He blinked. "I won't be staying with Father?" He wasn't sure if he should be angry at his father or relieved. Her voice was a little uncomfortable. "He's often gone and very busy and can't take care of you properly. Also, I have two spare bedrooms. The other one will be occupied by the Second Child when she arrives from Germany." "The Second Child?" he asked. "Named in the order we recruited you. The First Child is Ayanami Rei. The Second Child is Asuka Langley. And the Third Child is you." As they passed a series of elevators, one of them opened. Misato winced and Shinji seemed puzzled as they saw Ritsuko wheeling a stretcher out of it. "Quick, turn around," mumbled Misato. "Misato? Is that you?" The commander smiled nervously. "Ritsuko! Hi! Just... showing Shinji around the place." "You're lost again." This was not a question, it was a statement of fact. Misato scratched the back of her head nervously. "Okay, maybe I am, a little." Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "Don't even try to make excuses. Just go down three intersections, take a left, go up the elevator to level 1, and you should be back in central." Shinji ignored the banter bouncing back and forth between the two. His attention was, much to his own surprise, rivited elsewhere. On the stretcher was a girl, probably his age. Half of her face, including one eye, was heavily wrapped in bandages. One of her arms was wrapped in bandages as well. With her eyes closed peacefully, her pale skin, seemingly smooth as marble, he thought she looked rather beautiful in a statue-esque way. He knew he was staring at her, but couldn't stop himself. There was something about her... And then she opened her eye. His eyes met hers. "Hey, Shinji." "Huh? What?" Misato smirked. "I know she's cute but we really should be going." Rei's eye shut once more, and Ritsuko wheeled her away. Shinji, seemingly in a daze, looked back and forth from the departing Rei to Misato. And then he realized what she was hinting at. "I-it's not like that!" he insisted, blushhing. "Sure it isn't," teased Misato. "Come on, this way." After a few minutes of silent walking, Shinji spoke again. "I guess she's been training a while. She fights very well." "Rei? She's been training here longer than I've been here," Misato said. "From a very early age." She looked both ways at an intersection, then turned right. "You like cup ramen, right?" "Hmm? Yeah, it's okay." "Good." She sounded relieved. "I really need to go shopping one of these days, but you won't starve." She stopped at a door and slid her ID card through the keyslot. The door opened into a room full of plastic sacks of garbage. "Uh oh, was I supposed to make a left turn or a right back there?" While Misato puzzled over directions, Shinji stared down the hall, where the squeaking of wheels marked Ritsuko and Rei's passing. Rei. He had looked into the girl's eye. It was red, a bright, vibrant red, but otherwise seemed guileless, straightforward, and void of any particular emotion. And he had felt fear. -*- Shinji hoped for his own sake that Misato's apartment wasn't normally overrun with thousands of spiders. Regardless of the normal status quo, however, it had far more than its quota of spiders today. He stared quietly about the room, shrouded in white. Misato's eyes widened. "Damnation." She began running through the room, stomping everything that moved. Shinji watched quietly, until she said, "C'mon and help!" Shinji was rather surprised to see a penguin burst out of the refrigerator as they struggled towards the cabinet. It tried to climb up Misato and failed since penguins are not noted for their climbing skills. Shinji boggled for a few seconds and the spiders tried to web his feet to the floor. "That's Pen-pen, my other roommate," Misato said. Shinji boggled a second time, and this time his feet DID get webbed to the floor, but he easily broke free. "A penguin?" "Antarctica melted so they all migrated." Shinji simply extended his previous boggle instead of starting a new one. They eventually clawed their way into one of the cabinets and armed themselves with RAID. Misato ran wild, using up an entire can in minutes. This drove all the spiders out of the apartment. It also fumigated the apartment so thoroughly that it drove Misato and Shinji out as well. Exhaustion finally crept up on him while he was sitting in front of the apartment, waiting for it to air out. It had been the strangest day of his life to date, and he half expected to wake up in the morning and find out it was all a dream. -*- "Well, that was easy," Gendo's second-in-command said. The old man was sitting in his usual comfortable chair, wondering why Gendo had kept the uncomfortable chair for himself and let visitors have the nice one. "We nearly lost Unit01 and we could have easily lost Unit00 if 'Matriel' had succeeded in biting into it," Gendo said. "The Developed Automatic Guardian Organic Navigator hasn't been properly tested yet, nor has Diogenes found the next Child yet. Not that we have an EVA for a fourth child to pilot yet, either. Things will be much better once we have all three Children here. If it had actually broken into our headquarters, it would have been disastrous. As it is, we'll be fumigating our base for weeks." He pulled off his glasses and began to polish them. "Then why didn't you send Ayanami Rei out first?" "I did not think she would be able to function so well. While she acts as if she feels no pain, I think she would likely behave that way if something bit off her arm. And she lost control of her EVA during that last test. We couldn't afford such a lapse in battle." "But how could you be sure the boy would do any better?" Gendo smiled. "The wise magician never reveals ALL his secrets." -end part 1- -*- The electric hum of florescent lights buzzed, the only sound in an otherwise sterile and silent bathroom. Ritsuko Akagi began her nightly ritual, taking a long look at herself in the mirror every night before she went to bed. She leaned forward and examined her right eye, then her left. She held one hand before her, turning it slowly, then examined the other. Satisfied, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I am Ritsuko Akagi. I am Ritsuko Akagi. I am Ritsuko Akagi." She took one more breath, then gave her reflection an intense stare. "I mustn't forget." And then she held up the syringe of opalescent viridian liquid... -*- John Biles & Rod M. Present A Neon Genesis Evangelion Elseworlds Children of an Elder God Part 2 This is Tokyo-3 -*- It was one of the more mundane dreams of Shinji's life. That, he found, was really odd, considering the day before it was far from ordinary. He was on a maglev train. The constant thrum of the train's movement was the only sound heard. Outside, to one side, the myriad towers of Tokyo-3 stood, tall and shining, a testament to the achievements of mankind. On the other side of the train was the ocean, vast, wide, and forever flowing, a symbol of the endless nature of, well, nature. He looked from one to the other, studies in contrast, and wondered what kind of a dream this was supposed to be. It was incredibly dull. Behind him, hidden by shadows and unseen by Shinji, a pair of red eyes watched... -*- Rei Ayanami slept soundly, silently, unmoving. No nightmares plagued her. No dreams lifted her spirits. Rei Ayanami never had dreams she could call her own. -*- Shinji awoke to something stranger than a dream. "Shinji! Breakfast is ready!" Misato's breakfast. The young Ikari stared blankly at... it. "Breakfast?" he asked. "Breakfast," she reaffirmed, much to his chagrin. "Breakfast," he repeated, as if trying to attach the concept to the object before him. It looked like Ramen but didn't quite smell right. It was certainly ramen, but with other... objects thrown in. The egg, he supposed, wasn't too off track. The large chunks of spam were an odd touch. Was that curry powder he smelled? And... and something else. Something sharp. The drink next to it wasn't much help either. It was some instant orange juice drink. He despised that orange goo. "Eat up!" she said cheerfully. Well, it all looked edible, certainly. It didn't look... disgusting... no. With a shrug, he took a bite. "Graack!" Hot! Very hot! Very spicy! Flaming spicy hot! Need drink _now_! *gulp* Orange goo... Hate orange goo! *SPIT* "You okay?" "Water! Need water!" He rushed out of the room quickly, towards the kitchen and the promise of cold water. Misato blinked. "Maybe the Tabasco was a bit much." -*- School was something he was ready for. It was, he figured, going to be the same as it was in the last school. He'd keep his head low, be quiet, and get through another school year with no disturbances. That was the plan, anyway. He entered the room, feeling somewhat hesitant. First days were always like that for him, though, so even the feeling of hesitation was oddly comforting. He arrived a little early, wanting to not stick out too badly by being late, and looked subtly around the room as he found his way to an empty chair in the back rows. The other students there paid him little attention, just a quick glance as he walked by and nothing more. For this he was relieved. And then there was Rei. She was seated by the windows, and was staring out at them with an unreadable expression. She still had her bandages, one covering half of her face, another wrapped around her arm, but seemed to be in no discomfort. And suddenly, the rest of world seemed out of phase, as Rei slowly turned towards him. He tried to look away, desperately, as if his life depended on it. His heart began pounding, hands trembling, as her one red eye slowly locked with his. Blood rushed through his eardrums in a roar and he felt himself chilled to his very soul. And then the bell rang, Rei looked away once more, and Shinji found himself with a massive feeling of disorientation. Shaking his head and blinking, he took a seat. "Stand! Bow! Sit!" The class followed along, as was custom, greeting the teacher. "Class, we have a new student today," said the elderly man. "Transfer student Shinji Ikari." "Um, hi." And with that fairly embarrassing moment taken care of, Shinji took to the task of fading into the background once more. At least, that was the idea. As the teacher droned on about how the Second Impact was caused by a meteor hitting the Antarctic, Shinji received a mysterious message on his laptop. ARE YOU THE NEW PILOT? No hints of who it was, or where they were broadcasting from. Odd. He decided to reply, carefully. pilot? A moment later, the mysterious person sent a message again. ARE YOU THE PILOT OF EVANGELION UNIT 1? Shinji sighed. No sense putting off the inevitable. They'd find out sooner or later anyway. yes. He was expecting one person to turn around and whisper at him. Maybe two. "You're the new pilot?" "Wow, how's it like to be in that thing?" "What's the inside of NERV like?" "Is it true your dad is NERV's commander?" "Are you dating anyone?" "How was it like to fight that thing yesterday?" The entire classroom, on the other hand... "H-hey! Waitaminute!" -*- Lunch was, in theory, supposed to be what the start of class wasn't. It was going to be Shinji fading nicely into the background and having a quiet time of it. "So you're really an Eva pilot?" That didn't happen either. Shinji blinked, looking up from his instant ramen lunch. There was a person trying to talk to him. He didn't understand people very well, and didn't have much practice communicating with them. It wasn't so much irritating as it was embarrasing and awkward. "Um, yes." "Hey, that's neat! Shinji Ikari, right?" Shinji nodded. "Nice to meet you. I'm Kensuke Aida," said his classmate enthusiastically. Shinji blinked. "Don't suppose they'd let you bring visitors into NERV, would they?" "Ah... I don't think so." "Saw the fight yesterday. Didn't do too bad. How long have they been training you?" "They haven't. This reply accomplished one thing: it actually made Kensuke stop talking for a moment. "They... didn't train you." "No." "Not at all?" "Not at all." "Wow," said Kensuke, sounding very impressed. "Hey, lemme ask you, how well do you know Ayanami?" "Ayanami?" "The other pilot. The girl. Y'know, the real creepy one." "I haven't talked to her. Much." "Oh. I can understand why, though. There's something about that girl that's just... unnatural." -*- She walked. Cicidas were immediately silenced and ceased all movement. Birds stopped in their singing and immediately took flight. Squirrels scattered away in droves. No mosquitos drew blood from her, nor did they seem to be anywhere near her. This was Rei Ayanami. Enigmatic. Silent. Sneezing. *achoo* She stopped, rubbed her nose, blinked, and gazed at the general direction of one Aida Kensuke. -*- "Didja feel that?" "Feel what?" asked Shinji. "Felt like a cold breeze or something." Kensuke rubbed his arms a bit, trying to warm up. Then he spotted something behind Shinji. "Shinji?" "Yeah?" "Um, I'd just like you to know the really pissed off guy coming towards us, Touji Suzuhara, is mad 'cause his kid sister got hurt in the fighting yesterday. And, ah, nothing personal, but I don't think I can stop him." "Wha-ACK!" Shinji found himself grabbed violently by the shirt, lifted up, and tossed, actually, flung across the ground roughly. He did manage to catch a glimpse of a tall boy with a really angry expression on his face. "Get up!" Before Shinji could do anything, he found himself picked up again, feet dangling helplessly above the ground. This time he was staring right into the boy's face. "You put my sister in the hospital, asshole!" "I... I didn't mean to!" "That ain't enough!" snarled Touji. There was a slight chill in the air, but Touji was too mad to pay attention to it. "Hey, c'mon Touji, give the guy a break." "Shut up!" Touji wound his fist back for another punch... "Stop." ... and felt something cold grip his arm. His face immediately drained of color and fury, replaced by a somewhat nervous expression. "Ohshit." Shinji, who had his eyes closed, opened them slowly. The scene wasn't exactly what he was expecting. There was Ayanami, still emotionless, but holding Touji's arm back easily. Kensuke was silent and perfectly still, while Touji seemed actually frightened. "Let him go," said Rei quietly Touji took a nervous gulp, then slowly released Shinji. Rei shifted her attention to him and said, simply, "Go." "Who? Me?" "Go," repeated Rei. "Um... okay." Shinji took a few awkward steps back, giving Touji an apologetic look. "I'm sorry about your sister, really," said Shinji. "I'll try to be more careful next time. Um, bye." Shinji left, and a moment later, so did Rei. This left the area with two rather puzzled teens. "Looks like she's taken a liking to him," said Kensuke. "That's weird. She doesn't like anybody." Touji wasn't listening. He was, instead, sorting through logic and finding something missing. "Hey, Kensuke. What the hell just happened?" "Rei grabbed your arm and-" "Yeah, yeah, but it doesn't make any -sense-," said Touji. "I mean, Rei doesn't look menacing, does she?" "Well, no, now that I think about it. Kinda cute, in a mysterious kinda way." "And she doesn't have superhuman strength, right?" "Not that I've seen, no." "She didn't yell at us or nothin'." "Nope." "Right." Touji sat down and thought it over. He'd been in many fights, and lots of arguments. He wasn't one to back down easily. But he just did. "So what the hell just happened?!" yelled Touji to nobody in particular. Kensuke shrugged "I dunno, man. There's just something about Rei." -*- As he made his way through the curving, twisting metal hallways of NERV, Shinji felt like a rat in a maze. And he really didn't want to find his way out of this maze. After all, when the reward was worse than death, it wasn't much of a reward. To waste time (i.e. to delay the inevitable), he read through some of the various official papers and pamphlets Misato had given him. For some people, this would have been making efficient use of time, but since Shinji knew that he would walk slower if he was reading, this both got him there later and gave him a valid excuse for being late. The first pamphlet looked like some kind of public relations pamphlet. 'NERV--Defending the Earth', the title said in big letters. 'Founded in 2001 AD, NERV is dedicated to advanced technological weapons research and deployment in order to deal with the threat to Earth discovered by the unfortunate scientists who perished in the Second Impact.' 'The precise events surrounding the Second Impact remain classified, however, the information gathered was sufficient to convince the Security Council to create NERV. The surviving Alien artifacts were remanded into the care of NERV, which has studied them to create much of its current armnaments.' Something squeaked under Shinji's feet. He blinked and looked down just in time to see a rat flee for its life. Sorry about that, Mr. Rat, he thought. He turned back to the pamphlet. 'It is unknown whether the aliens succeeded in communicating with their home planet, however, before their destruction (generally assumed to be the result of an alien failsafe device that acted to prevent their capture), they successfully concealed a number of powerful artificial combat lifeforms around the Earth, which NERV is continuing its search for. It is expected that these lifeforms will come to maturity in the mid 2010s, giving us several years in which we can try to destroy them before they reach full strength. Research also continues into space travel applications in the hope of preparing for the day when the aliens arrive from their homeworld.' That spider was an alien? It made a certain amount of sense, although Shinji was left wondering how the aliens had managed to conceal the life forms around the world but couldn't hide themself. I suppose their failsafe was the meteor, he thought. Somehow, he reached the testing room much faster than he had wanted to. This especially impressed him considering he hadn't even been looking where he was going, due to his reading. He stepped inside. "I'm here." Maya frowned. "Well, you beat Dr. Akagi here. I'll go look for her." -*- Ritsuko read over the lab report and frowned. Another failure. If only the Human Genome Project had not been disrupted by the Second Impact and its consequences. If only Crowley had finished his researches. If only the experiment in Germany had not ended so horribly. We should have known better, she thought. The first recorded experiment of that type had failed horribly as well. Still, it had held so much potential. Instead, we are stuck with mere children as pilots, two of them potentially uncontrollable and a third one...She shuddered. That experiment had gone too well. She reminded Ritsuko too much of her own mother and of her old rival. There was something...It was what they had wanted. But sometimes, the gods destroy people by giving them what they want. She prayed this would not be the case. "Whatcha reading, Dr. Akagi?" The voice was soft, female, and pleasant. It was Maya, her assistant. One of her assistants. Maya had been trained to monitor the life functions of the EVAs. She was not privy to the more highly secured aspects, such as the report Ritsuko was reading, which she quickly closed. "A failed experiment. Is it time for more synchronization tests already?" "I've been looking for you for ten minutes." Some would have chided, but with Maya, it was just a statement of fact. Likely, she had enjoyed the hunt. "Shinji doesn't seem to be too happy about getting into the LCL." "I wouldn't be either, and I helped to invent it," Ritsuko said, getting up. "Not quite so clean and shiny as the tech in mech animes, but then, real life never is." Maya smiled, grabbing Ritsuko's arm. "Come on. They're waiting for us." -*- Shinji tried to fight off the urge to choke to death. He could see Rei's face in a little box on the corner of his vision and Misato's face in another. The rest of his sight was dominated by what his EVA saw, which was the rather boring interior of the huge tube they kept it in. None of it was able to distract him from the fact that gooey black tar (well, a close substitute) was inside his lungs and stomach and throat and most importantly, his mouth. Rei was simply too serene; indeed, she had her eyes closed. Not that you could have seen one of them through the bandage. Indeed, he was somewhat glad he couldn't see either of them. "Don't tell me you like this stuff, Rei," he said. Silence. "It's just so...does it have to be THIS disgusting?" "It's not toothpaste, Shinji," Misato said. "Would you rather it taste good or work? Move your right arm." Shinji saw Unit01's arm move across his vision. He felt it too; it was just like moving his own arm. "Done." "Done." Rei said. She was in a seperate tube; he couldn't see her Unit moving. "How about your sense of spatial relationships?" Ritsuko asked. "What about it?" "Are you having any problems?" "None," Rei said crisply. "Uh... I seem to be able to judge sizes and stuff as far as I can tell," Shinji said. Should I be having problems? Her voice brightened slightly. "No sense that everything has shrunk?" "It's kinda like watching a movie; things may be too big, but I can still judge size from how things...uh...comparing sizes." "No change," Rei said. The test continued, with Shinji usually feeling like he wasn't getting something, until finally it was all over and he was liberated from the plug. As usual, it left an aftertaste which he didn't like. They left him alone with Rei to change out of his suit, which embarrassed him, since there was no dividing room. Especially since Rei had apparently not learned the concept of modesty. He simply turned his back to her and said, "Thanks for helping me out with Touji. He was mad 'cause his sister got hurt during our first battle." He paused, then said, "And thanks for helping me against the spider thing. I know you were hurt." Silence was his answer, except for the swish of clothing in motion. "I mean, I can understand why he was mad at me, but getting beaten up...well, no one likes to be beaten up. I'm not really any good at fighting, but I guess you kind of figured that out from what happened against the first Angel." Only the tiniest of grunts replied. For a moment, Shinji wondered if she had somehow fallen asleep. That didn't seem likely. He kept talking, trying to fill the silence, wondering why he couldn't shut up. "Except for being beaten up a few times, I haven't had a real fight in years, especially not against a giant spider. So, what exactly happened at the end? When it died. Our EVAS... they haven't said anything, but I think something happened to our EVAs. Yours grew fangs and mine...got all shiny and stuff." "Adaptation. Like humans, EVAS learn." Her voice was cool, but Shinji was happy to hear it; it meant he didn't have to keep talking. "Are you done?" "Umm... yeah, I guess." Shinji hastily buttoned his shirt. "So how did you stop Touji?" Her voice had just a hint of surprise. "Touji has not been stopped." Shinji blinked and turned around. Rei was back in her school uniform; without the bandages, you could have mistaken her for a normal girl. "You stopped him from beating me up." "Commander Ikari would not be pleased if both of us had been rendered dysfunctional at the same time. The Second Child has not yet arrived." She turned to go. Shinji followed her. "Do you live with your parents?" "They are gone," she said, heading out the door. "Dead?" "I was raised here at NERV." She turned back and looked at him. "Have you familiarized yourself with the layout of NERV?" Nervously, Shinji said, "Umm... not yet." "I will take you home," she said. "Follow me." -*- Shinji quietly ate what passed for dinner in the Katsuragi household, namely the same thing that passed for all three meals, instant ramen. I think Penpen eats better than I do, Shinji thought. "What happened to Rei's parents?" "Killed in the anarchy after the Second Impact," Misato said. "I think. She was here at NERV before I was." Shinji blinked. "Before you?" "I was catatonic for a year after the Second Impact, then went to school for several years. I was your age when it happened." She finished off her box of ramen. "Hmm. Needs more beer." "She sure knows her way around the place. And... does she know martial arts?" Misato paused in the middle of trying to decide if she wanted Sapporo, Guiness, or Mad Dog #3. "Martial arts?" "She used some weird move on Touji when he tried to clobber me. Grabbed his arm and he couldn't do anything." Shinji finished off his ramen and made a quick mental prayer to something (what he was praying to, he didn't know) that Misato would learn to cook. "She's been trained in unarmed combat, but nothing like special nerve pinches or the like. I wish we knew anything like that which actually worked." She looked over at Shinji contemplatively. "We need to start training you as well. Heaven only knows how many of these Angels are going to show up." "Are they really aliens?" "They're not from this Earth, whatever they are." Misato shrugged. "I'm sure Ritsuko could tell you more, but you probably wouldn't understand any of it." Shinji nodded. "Well, time for me to do my math homework." He sighed and got up. "I don't suppose you're good at math?" "Nope." She stretched. "I think I'll watch Baywatch Generation 2 now." Shinji resolved to do his homework in his room with his walkman volume turned up to ten. -*- Makoto drove round and round in a very large circle, circling Tokyo-3 in his battered old blue compact. I need a new car, he thought. But I'll never afford one on this salary. It wasn't that his salary was bad; it was that new cars were expensive in this day and age. The world wasn't quite on a full war economy, but there were tendencies in that direction; quite likely it would shift over to such once the Angel attacks heated up. If only we had a little more time, he thought. We hoped to finally be ready for mass production of EVAs in a few months, but now... Still, that wasn't why he was driving round and round the city on the loop road. He was thinking about Misato, who he liked very much, but who he didn't know how to approach. Part of the problem was that she was sort of his boss. In NERV, one often had multiple bosses with variable levels of authority and other people who technically had no authority over you, but in practice you grovelled to them. A chart of the command structure would have looked like a family tree for a family riddled with incest. The other part of his problem was that he simply didn't know too much about how to get a woman's attention. Well, besides the blunt approach, which he didn't quite have the guts to try. Not after watching Misato shoot down several other potential boyfriends in flames. After much malingering, he decided to finally go bite the bullet. He drove back to where he lived and walked over to where Misato resided. As he approached, he saw Rei heading that way. He didn't want Rei lurking about when he was trying to ask Misato out. Or at any other time, really. Something about her creeped him out, although she had her moments where she seemed quite normal. I'll just go home and come back in an hour, he told himself. Yes, that would be wise. I ought to shower before I ask her, anyway. Yes. Good idea. He walked merrily off to his apartment and within an hour, he was asleep. -*- PenPen suddenly bolted upright, splashing water around the bathtub. His feathers stood on end and the water fowl's eyes bulged wide in what could be called panic. With a shrill squawk, PenPen scrambled out of the room, past a puzzled Shinji, and slammed the door shut behind him as he hid in the refrigerator. -*- Rei stared at the door, wondering why she was there. She knew where she was; she had had to report there twice before. Plus, she walked past it on a regular basis. Still, she had no reason to go there. Her arm was suspended in mid-swing. She had been about to knock, but had nothing to say if anyone had answered. She felt something, something new. Like she was being watched. Looking around, she saw nothing. Just a rat staring at her. Wherever humans go, you go too, she thought. Rei had no idea what, exactly, one was supposed to do when a small creature was as close as this rat was. She had no experience with this sort of thing. No creature aside from man ever approached her, yet this rat stood before her, looking at her curiously. She found this very curious. Not knowing what to do, she tried to recall what other people did. She knealt and turned to the rat, trying to make soothing noises. The rat, however, chose this moment to panic and scamper off. It certainly didn't help that Rei's idea of soothing noises weren't quite that, sounding more like a bad attempt at mimicry. Before she could stand back up, Shinji opened the door. "Hello?" He looked around, then looked down. "Umm... what are you doing, Rei?" And why are you making weird noises, he asked himself. "Nothing." She blushed just a tiny bit. "I came ask you about... the math homework." She had in fact had trouble with the math, although normally she would not have sought help. Perhaps that is why I came over here, she thought, although she wasn't entirely convinced of that. "Yeah, it is pretty tough. Come on in," Shinji said. Soon enough, they lost themselves in the complexities of mathematics. -*- Frau Doctor Himmelfarb found the girl she was looking for up on the roof of her house. When the girl had not been in her room, Himmelfarb had known where to find her. She had a liking for high places for some reason. Frau Doctor Himmelfarb spent little of her time trying to understand the subtleties of human behavior. Standing in the yard, she shouted, "Come down here this minute!" The head of research for NERV in Germany had better things to do than climb up on the roof, even to fetch the girl who had been her ward for ten years. It was not that she didn't care about the girl; it was more than she had to do this several times a month and was tired of it. Asuka scampered down the ladder. "Sorry, Frau Himmelfarb. I was just trying to spot Scorpio. It's..." "I have good news, Asuka. They've found the Third Child. And defeated an Angel." Asuka's eyes widened. "Without me?" "We did not know where the first one would strike. You will be departing for Japan within a few days; the Commander has decided to consolidate our forces. I hope you've been practicing your Japanese." "" She laughed, and Frau Doctor Himmelfarb smiled as well. Asuka's laughter was infectious. She was an impulsive, passionate child and at times she made Himmelfarb remember her own youth and lose the carefully built up control that shielded her from her memories. "Good. You'll need that and possibly your English if you go to the American base, which you almost certainly will." She smiled more; Asuka was dancing around like a small child on Christmas morning. Perhaps she did see it like that, Himmelfarb thought. This is what she was raised for, what we've trained her for. Probably sees herself as a red knight on a shining metal steed. "Go pack. And try to not take everything in the house this time." Taking Asuka on a vacation was almost impossible; she seemed to believe she would wither and die if she left anything, a single item she owned, behind. Ever. Sometimes Himmelfarb wondered how she could bear to go to school and leave her possessions behind. Three of the Children, Himmelfarb thought. But who will be the fourth? -*- Touji sat by his sister, holding her hand. The doctors thought she would recover from her injuries in a few days enough to go home; the worst of it had been the spider venom; she had had an allergic reaction. She would still have a cast on one leg from the telephone pole that had been knocked on her by the EVA, and she'd have to come back and have the stiches on her stomach removed, but she would be fine. "I beat the guy up whose clumsy fighting got you hurt, sis. You're going to be fine. Just fine, they said." She moaned in reply, and he frowned. Weren't they giving her enough painkillers? Then she mumbled something. Was she trying to talk? "Did you say something?" "...coming back..." she muttered along with garbled, half- human noises. Her body had been placid. Now it began to jerk about and thrash. "The stars...the stars are moving. He's calling them. They call him. No! MAKE IT STOP!" Only his grip on her hand was keeping her on the bed. "Nurse! NURSE!" he shouted. It took an amount of sedatives that disturbed him to calm her down. The nurse frowned. "We may have to restrain her; if she thrashes around like that, it could have complications." She sighed. "Although she's not the only one having bad dreams." "Eh?" "We've had a couple of insomnia cases; people who can't sleep or report weird dreams. Probably just tension due to that spider thing attacking. I sure had nightmares the next night after it showed up. And I'm STILL trying to get all the damn spiders out of my apartment." She looked over the files. "You'd best get home unless you just want to watch her be comatose." "I'll stay a while, if that's okay." The nurse shrugged. "She'll be out a good four hours. Maybe six. Have fun." She departed. He finally left after he started hearing squeaking noises, but not seeing anything. Must be fatigue, he thought. -*- It wasn't every day that someone dropped a dead rat on Gendo Ikari's desk. His second in command sat down on the other side of the desk. "Another one." Gendo frowned. "More of those fools. Again." "The rats really don't have much choice in the matter." Clasping his hands together under his chin, Gendo said, "Very funny. You know what I mean." "Not really. I understand the basic principle, but there's still a wide range of possibilities." He stared at the rat. "Or do you recognize it?" Gendo picked up the rat with one hand, staring intently at its face, which was disturbingly human-like. "How freshly dead is it?" "About ten minutes or so." "Not too late to find out, then." -*- She consulted the chart a fourth time. It was best to be sure that everything was coming into place before striking. A lock of hair fell down between her eyes, but she brushed it aside. Her hair had always been unruly; it seemed to be getting out of place even worse lately. The chart gave her the results she had been hoping for. It was time; the return had begun. They would awake and she and her followers would be ready. Ready to worship and serve them as... a thought troubled her, a thought of a time when she had not sought to serve them but to prevent that return. She brushed it aside. She had no more time for childish weakness, the squeamishness that had held her back for so long. Yet, even the stars could not be left to do all the work. And the rivalries of the great ones...there would be wars. Takeo had told her that NERV posed a threat. She had not believed it until they had learned. One of the Great Ones was dead. She had not believed it possible, but what she had seen through her...the shock suddenly hit her. He was dead. Dead. Shot by a soldier. A soldier of NERV. They would pay, pay in full. There would be a reckoning. Takeo was right; they would drown, drown in blood, a sacrifice to open the way for the one to whom they had sworn the Unspeakable Oath. The Stars were Right. She and her allies would see to that. -*- - end part 2 - -*- -*- John Biles & Rod M. Present A Neon Genesis Evangelion Elseworlds Children of an Elder God Part 3 "Cherubim" -*- It was the same dream as before, Shinji within the maglev train as it made its way around the city. There was no other noise to be heard aside from the seemingly endless thrum of the train as it passed over the tracks. On the whole, it seemed like a rather pointless dream to Shinji. The train plunged for a moment into a tunnel, swallowing Shinji in darkness. Unseen, something scuttled along the floor, making rapid fire tap-tap-tap noises as it moved. Shinji turned nervously, trying to see what it was, but the train was still in darkness. "H-hello?" There was a whisper in the darkness, a grating, squealing, utterly alien voice that said a word that was unknown by Shinji, yet somewhat familiar. "Atlach-Nacha." Suddenly, the train emerged from the tunnel, flooding the cabin with light, revealing an endless entanglement of spiderwebs. On the floor, the ceiling, between poles, over doors, crossing the windows, silver-grey spider webs. And at the center of the train, its back turned to him, was a single spider-like shape, lurking within a thick nest of webs. Despite the fear he felt, Shinji slowly approached the creature, brushing aside cobweb veils with trembling hands. As he came closer, the creature turned to face him, its features still hidden by the webs. His hands shaking badly, Shinji parted the final veils and stared at the creature. And screamed. Hideously twisted, yet still recognizable, the monster within wore Shinji's own face. -*- The world passed by in a blur, but Shinji was numb to it, merely shambling through the streets of Tokyo-3 on the way to school. A serious lack of sleep had drained him of energy, leaving him in his current state. Maybe, thought Shinji, maybe I should just skip school today. He stopped, leaned over, and took several deep breaths. The world faded into black for a moment and he felt himself sinking into the ground. A pair of hands reached out and held him up. "Ikari." Shinji blinked, shook his head, then looked into two very red eyes. "Um, Ayanami," he said weakly. "Good morning." "You are not well." He wanted to believe there was just a hint of concern in that voice, but he was too tired to tell. "I didn't get much sleep last night." "I see." They stood there in silence again, Shinji taking deep breaths while Rei watched over him, ignoring and being ignored by the morning rush of walkers. "I wonder if I should just stay home today." Rei seemed puzzled. "Stay home?" "I don't know if I can make it through the school day." "You are not going to school yet." Shinji looked at Rei curiously. "I'm not?" "We are scheduled for more tests with Dr. Akagi today." Shinji's head slumped, along with the rest of himself. "Oh no." "We should return to school by third period." Great, grumbled Shinji to himself. More lab tests _and_ school. -*- The wretched taste of LCL fluid was something that just wouldn't leave his mouth for hours, an effect Dr. Akagi said would decrease as his exposure to LCL was increased. That didn't help his immediate discomfort. Alone, with his tongue hanging out from his mouth, stumbling around the hallways of NERV in desperate need of industrial strength mouthwash, Shinji settled for a can of cola from a vending machine. He quickly opend the can and drank, holding the liquid in his mouth for a while in hopes that it would dissolve the nasty taste of tar and roadkill that LCL seemed to emulate so well. Instead, the lingering taste of LCL somehow overpowered the soda, mixing with it into an entirely new and amazingly more noxious combination that forced Shinji to find the nearest water fountain and spit into it. And so, as he was gasping for air and wondering if trying to merely drink the soda quickly instead would be a better solution, he passed by the massive vault where the Eva units were kept. And he saw Rei, her back turned to him, talking to his father. His father. Talking. Smiling. Laughing. Shinji felt bitterness and envy rise within him. His father hadn't spoken any words to him since his arrival, none at all. And here he was talking to her and smiling at her and laughing with her and... He stalked away, the bitterness in his soul matching the foul taste in his mouth. -*- Being on the maglev train disturbed Shinji. It was all too much like those amazingly dull dreams he'd been having lately. Yet now seemed as good a time as any to ask... "Rei?" She turned to look at him, her expression as flat as always. It didn't faze Shinji like it used to, but it was still a bit unnerving. "I, um," Shinji scratched his head, not sure how to put the question. "What's my father like?" "Like?" she asked, sounding unsure. "I... I haven't talked to him," explained Shinji. "Not since I came here." He turned away, his expression darkening. "I don't know what he thinks of me. I don't even know if he cares." Rei's expression became subtly more puzzled. "I... I don't even know why I bothered to come here." "You are here to pilot the Eva, as am I." "Is that it?" Rei shrugged. "I saw you talking with father earlier. He was smiling and laughing. Why?" "I don't know." "You don't know?" Rei merely looked out the window, to the ocean. Feeling too tired and puzzled to follow this line of thought any further, Shinji slumped in his seat and caught up on another ten minutes of sleep. And in his sleep, he dreamt of uneventful trips on maglev trains. -*- She stared at the script, along with all the other so-called journalists, and sighed deeply. NERV wanted the press conference to run smoothly, which meant using scripts that were most likely crafted for maximum deception. Of course she went along with it. Everyone went along with it, and anything else the government insisted on ever since the 2nd impact. Catastrophes were an easy way to turn a free nation into a police state. 'Freedom of the Press' wasn't what it used to be, but that wasn't Megumi Kunzama's concern. She was in the business long enough to see that curiosity did kill the cat, and would be a fatal exercise for some time to come. So... just read over the script, say her lines, and go home knowing she'd done her job well. Megumi was dearly trying to ignore that nagging voice at the back of her mind that said otherwise. -*- "Me?! Why me?!" yelled Maya in shock, staring at Commander Ikari. Then she remembered the 'Commander' part of his title. "Er, Sir, Commander, Sir, I mean. Why me, I mean. Um, Sir?" Gendo frowned. "You're photogenic. Now follow your orders. Here's your script." Gendo strolled out of the room, followed by Fuyutsuki, his second in command, leaving a somewhat stunned Maya in the room alone. "I think that's the closest thing to a compliment I've ever heard from him." Maya shook her head, took a deep breath, then left the room as well. Whether she liked it or not, it was showtime. -*- Megumi sat numbly as she witnessed the press conference take place. It was a joke, a sham, a big lie. The rep from Nippon Sun will raise his hand, amongst the many raised, and he will be selected. Whether he raises his hand or not, he will be selected. She'll answer with beautifully made, carefully constructed lies. And then others will raise their hands, selling their souls to keep in line. And what would she do? She'd sell out too. What other choice was there? "Good afternoon," said the spokesperson, a surprisingly young girl, probably ten years younger than her. "I'm Maya Ibuki, spokesperson for NERV. We're a subdivision of the United Nations, specifically created for dealing with such threats as the creature that attacked Tokyo-3 several days ago." The girl droned on, a bit nervously. They probably picked her because she's got a pretty face, mused Megumi. She didn't bother listening carefully as the spokesperson talked. It was going to be packaged and sent to her newspaper anyway, so why bother? Why bother indeed.... Her editor told her of the times before the Second Impact, when the media had _true_ power, a watchdog over the government and society in general. She was always enthralled by his tales, and wished she'd been around back then to enjoy it, the last glory days of the press. "Next question?" Megumi realized it was her turn. She knew her question, her lines. It was time to join in The Big Lie. She could rebel. Toss out her lines. Demand to know what NERV was covering up. "Megumi Kunzama, Japan Today. How many casualties were there in the attack?" A small voice inside called her a coward. She tried to ignore it. -*- She tried to drown out the lingering doubts by doing what many legendary figures of history did: take a long walk. And walk she did, through Tokyo-3's many streets, in the shadows of its many towers, unable to shake the unease that had latched unto her soul. Curiosity killed the cat. Best not to forget that. She was ready to just call it a day, go home and brush her troubles away, even if it meant living in the ignorance NERV tried to wrap around her. Two schoolgirls passed her, absorbed with their own concerns. Perhaps it was luck, or fate, or just journalistic instincts, but their conversation caught Megumi's ear. "Can you be believe _he's_ the new pilot for that giant robot?" "I still can't believe it." "He's weird, don't you think?" "No, just quiet." "Not as weird as the other pilot." Pilot? Those schoolgirls know the pilot? She walked quickly after them, waving her hand. "Excuse me! Girls? Hi, I'm Megumi Kunzama, reporter for Japan Today. I'd like to ask you a few questions..." Unseen by any of them, a small camera by the stoplight adjusted its lens... -*- "Who is she?" "Megumi Kunzama," said Fuyutsuki. "Reporter for Japan Today. She was at the press conference earlier." "Hrm." Gendo gazed at the image of the woman on the screen, his expression neutral. "Put someone on her. I doubt she'll find anything too sensitive, but it's best to be cautious." -*- Makoto was drunk. He was off duty, though, so it didn't matter. He could get drunk off his ass and pass out. Or meander on about his love life to someone he had just met, which was what he was doing right now. His confessor was one of the most gorgeous women he had ever met in his entire life. She was a tall, lithe platinum blonde whose breasts had to be either the result of implants, plastic surgery, magic or the blessing of the gods. They were too big for a slender woman, and too perfect. He was too drunk to really notice or worry, though he did stare a lot. She simply watched him, amused, with twinkling blue eyes and a pleasant smile as she sipped the same kind of beer he was drinking by the goatload. Not that goats were bringing him beer; they were both ensconced at a table at 'The Tokyo-3 Brewery,' which was a bar run by the city's main brewery. Not a very clever name, but the decor of street signs from the original Tokyo had caused quite a few dedicated patrons to become totally lost as they tried to find their way home without leaving the bar after becoming almost, but not quite, too drunk to move. "So, I like, I like...don't know what to do. She's like beautiful, but she's my boss and I'd probably get in trouble and I think there's someone else she likes, but she's got a really nice ass and when she's off duty, she dresses fit to make a man go nuts," he babbled, then chugged another beer. A thought struck him. "What's your name again?" "Akane. Akane Toshiba," she said. "And what's the name of this woman you're so in love with?" "Misato. Misato Kusanagi. Kobachi. Katsuniki. Katsugari? Katsucon. Kitsuragi. Katsuragi? Umm...It's got a K in it. And she's got big..." Akane laughed. "I assume you'd be less blunt when you're drunk." He nodded. "I'd cower instead. She's a good boss though, and a good commander. Given what she's got to work with..." Akane leaned forward, revealing ever so slightly more of her flesh. It got Makoto's attention. "You don't like some of your coworkers? I know how hard that can be." "The fate of the world is resting in the hand of two kids. One's creepy and the other is kinda...well, pathetic. His own father ignored him for most of his life. I dunno why we're letting kids pilot these things. Well, I mean, I sorta know, but..." He took another swig. "Hey, bartender! More beer!" "So why are they using child pilots?" He looked around, looked under his chair, then inside his glass, checking for spies. "You gotta, like, have the right genetics and stuff. I mostly just monitor stuff; Dr. Akagi is the one who really knows how everything works. But I can tell you that all three pilots are about the same age." She blinked. "You said two." "Never met the other one. She's off in another country." He looked at the bartender. "Hey! BEER!" He got his beer, took a swig, then began to wobble. "Hmm. Time to go home, but I don't think I'll make it." She smiled. "Let me help you home." She had always thought of herself as strong, but by the time she helped him stagger to the door, she was rethinking that, or at least wondering how many pounds of beer he had drunk. -*- The woods around Tokyo-3 weren't supposed to be inhabited. Regardless, there was a house, a relic of days long ago. Built in a time of greater freedom and prosperity, it had been intended to be a summer home. Then the Second Impact had come, and its owner died. The government took the land, but had failed to destroy the house; it wasn't worth the effort, and vague plans, now forgotten, had been made to use it. It was being used now. Tiny runners came in and out; unseen by most people, Never mind that rats couldn't have turned the water and power back on. Nor was there much for rats to eat in an abandoned house, unless they wanted to eat wallpaper or suck on paint. If something had been watching from the sky, it would have seen an abnormal number of brooms upon the front porch of the house, the beat up Toyota Corolla that was likely the oldest functional car in Japan with no value to a collector, the plain black van, and the Shinohara Motors SUV-5, whose owner likely thought it was cool, but was rather wrong. Or perhaps this flying observer might have focused upon the deep tire ruts that indicated a fourth car had pulled out at very high speed at some time in the past. Indeed, a sufficiently knowledgeable and eagle eyed observer might have been able to tell the model of the missing car. In fact, something was watching from the sky; Second Impact had done nothing to destroy most of the spy satellites circling the Earth. However, spy satellites have three flaws. First, you can't hear anything through them. Secondly, they're only useful if someone human is both watching and cares. This one belonged to France, which could care less about small houses in the Japanese countryside. It was on its way elsewhere, due to the third flaw of spy satellites: they have to keep moving or fall out of the sky. As a result, no one who cared noticed the rat except for a woman with short spikey orange hair who was expecting it. She ran over, picked it up, and carried it inside, petting it gently. She didn't look like a threat to humanity, but most threats to humanity weren't obvious until it was too late. This one was no exception. The woman carried the rat inside, talking to it, and it talked back. The largest amount of devastation caused by a rat since the Black Plague, if only indirectly, would soon begin. -*- "(I want to rule the world)," one of the students read from the book in English, then everyone chorused, "(I want to rule the world.)" It was English class, and Shinji was in a trance, as were most of the students, as the power of sheer boredom smote them. He had never quite understood how anyone was supposed to learn anything from the teaching method they used in English class. Other than how to speak in unison, anyway. The next student translated the next line of the day's reading. "(The small mouse raised his fists and shook them.)" Everyone repeated after him. Shinji let his mind drift, thinking about the previous day's tests. Dr. Akagi had been looking for something, but wouldn't say what. He couldn't tell if she had been pleased or not pleased to not find it. Although maybe she had found what she wanted; she had the look of someone waiting for something to happen the whole time, though nothing did. He glanced across the class at Rei, who was intently focused on the day's lesson in English; indeed, she was probably the only person in the class fully paying attention. A casual observer might have simply concluded she was the class brain. Shinji knew enough to know the class brain was actually zoning out halfway across the room. Only one other student was alert, and that was Touji, who sat next to Shinji and looked like a mountain was about to fall on him. Shinji glanced over at his desk and soon understood why; the students were supposed to translate the next day's reading at home as homework so they would be ready to read when called upon. However, in practice, because the teacher always called upon people in the same order, most students only translated the sentences they would be called upon to read. However, two people were absent today, which meant that the normal order of reading was thrown off. This meant Touji hadn't translated the correct sentences and now as trying desperately to translate them without the teacher noticing; he wasn't going to make it in time. Shinji had translated the entire thing; not because he had wanted to, but because Misato had caught him doing the same thing Touji had done, and had chewed him out, even though he was quite certain she had done the same thing herself in school. Touji glanced over and saw Shinji's full translation, seemed to hesitate a moment in indecision, then finally looked at him pleadingly. Shinji's first instinct was to let Touji rot in his own juices, but the guy looked so pathetically doomed, that Shinji couldn't help but feel a little merciful. He did some quick calculation while someone was reading "(But where will we find any rubber pants at this hour?)" Scribbling at high speed, he passed what he hoped were the correct sentences to Touji on a note, which the teacher didn't notice, since he was busy chewing out another student for reading the wrong sentence; apparently that one had done the same thing as Touji, but failed to notice that the absences had thrown off the class order. At lunch time, Touji came up to Shinji. "I owe you, man. Umino-sensei was on the rampage today; I think you and me and Rei were about the only people who were ready. And Hikari." Shinji blinked. While he did do Touji a favor, he didn't expect the other boy to become so friendly. Especially since... "Um, about your sister..." "Huh?" Touji blinked. "Oh, hey, I gave ya a few good hits already. Figure we're even, yeah?" Odd logic, but Shinji accepted it with a nod. "Hey," asked Touji. "Did you get that math homework done?" "Yeah, though I still don't understand it." "Don't understand it? Then how'd you finish it?" "Rei helped me finish it. She was at my apartment a few days ago; it was kind of scary." "Helping you with your math was scary?" Touji agreed Rei was a bit creepy, but the only scary thing about math was the grades Touji usually got. "It was like..." Shinji tried to think of a metaphor and failed. "Rei said she needed help, but she ended up helping me more than I helped her. It was like she didn't know why she had come to me to get help." Shinji opened his bento and nearly fainted. Misato had insisted on making him lunch, which usually meant that he got a cup of ramen, but he found a sandwich, a bag of chips, and an apple. Not only was the fact that she had actually gone to the effort of making a sandwich instead of simply putting one of her infinite horde of cup ramen into the box surprising, but the fact that there was actually fresh fruit in it, when he would have sworn they had no food that didn't come out of a can or a box or a cup, was quite a shock. For that matter, they didn't have any fresh bread that he could remember. Maybe she mugged someone, he thought, then dismissed the thought. Touji glanced over at Rei, who was eating by herself. "Maybe she likes you." Shinji's eyes widened. "You gotta be kidding." "Women'll come up with crazy excuses to spend time with someone they like." Touji started eating his own bento, which was full of pickled vegetables and rice. "I... hey, who's that?" He pointed at a nicely dressed adult female who was busily talking to two of the other guys in the class across the yard. She was short with close-cut brown hair with a red streak over her left ear. Her complexion was disgustingly perfect in comparison to a class full of students now starting to 'enjoy the pleasures of acne,' and Shinji guessed she was around Misato's age. She wore a black skirted black suit with a red tie and held a digital assistant which she was using to take verbal notes. Shinji wasn't sure he knew the names of the two students she was talking to, but he thought they might be Taiki and Youta. The woman looked was even less familiar. He'd seen her on TV or maybe in a newspaper or maybe just on the street. "I don't know. She looks like a professor or maybe a businesswoman." "Why'd she be talking to Taiki, then?" Taiki pointed right over at Shinji and the woman turned to look at him. He smiled back nervously; she had a predatory look which made him uncomfortable. She walked over and said, "I'm Megumi Kunzama. I'm from Japan Today. Mind if I ask you a few questions?" "You're a reporter?" Touji asked. "Yes," she said. "Err...aah...sure," Shinji said. He had a nagging feeling that talking to her wasn't such a good idea. "So, I understand you're the third EVA pilot?" "Yeah," Shinji said. "The second one is off in another country, though." "So what sort of training have they given you?" Shinji glanced across the yard at Rei, who was still eating her lunch and giving no sign of being aware of what was going on. "I've been training intensively since I arrived. Combat training, synchro training, shooting practice, all kinds of stuff." "Did you really go into action on your first day here?" Shinji nodded. "I got here only a few hours before the first Angel attacked." "It was awful," Touji said. "Our apartment got overrun with spiders and we had to flee. That's why we were outside when..." He fell silent and stared at the ground. Shinji was pretty sure he knew what Touji meant. That was how his sister had gotten injured. I didn't mean to hurt anyone, Shinji thought. "It was a hard fight, but we beat him." "So they sent you into battle with no training?" Megumi asked. The question was casual, but Shinji could feel the sharp edge. "We had no choice," he said. "Rei was injured and I was the only one who could pilot it." "Why?" Megumi asked. She stared at him intently, and he wilted. "Umm...because..." Shinji had no idea. "Only some people can pilot an EVA." "And the fact that the commander is your father had nothing to do with it? No nepotism at work here?" "My father couldn't care if I lived or died," Shinji said, staring off at a tree instead of Megumi. His voice dropped. "I didn't want to do it, but they need me and..." It had been exciting. He had liked it. Liked it enough to scare him. "So what do you think of the other pilot, Rei Ayanami?" "She's creepy," Touji said. "She's a good EVA pilot," Shinji said. "I hope the other pilot's as good as her." "Any truth to the rumor that you two are dating?" Megumi asked, her voice lightening a bit. Shinji blushed. "I'm not dating anyone." "That's enough," Rei said, cutting abruptly into the conversation. She had come over while they were all distracted, making her way through the crowd which had gathered around them. Her red eyes locked onto Megumi's, seeming to freeze her in place. "You're not supposed to be here." Her voice remained flat, but with a hint of menace. "But I just wanted to ask a fe-" "Ask Ibuki-san," said Rei. She hooked an arm around Shinji's and simply dragged him away. Touji shrugged. "Some guys just can't admit how they feel, I guess." Megumi said nothing, simply watching them go. -*- Makoto should have been at work. He also should have had the hangover that ate New York. Neither of these were the case. When he finally struggled his way to wakefulness, he found himself in a nice apartment that clearly wasn't his. Unless he had gotten so drunk he had bought and put up pink flowered wallpaper, hung new white curtains, painted the carpet blue and thrown out all his furniture and clothing and had it replaced. Even the time he had gotten so drunk he thought the vacuum cleaner was out to get him, he hadn't done anything that bad. Usually, he didn't get very drunk very often, anyway. But the previous day he had gotten caught listening to Misato talking to Dr. Akagi about some old boyfriend of hers, some guy named Kaji, and it had just made him utterly depressed. So he had gone out and gotten hammered. Now, he was awake, and feeling better than usual, but he had no idea where he was. There had been a woman...some blonde who had patiently listened to his entire story. Maybe she had been kind enough to take him in. Then she walked in the door, wearing blue denim shorts and a Kyoto Mariners T-shirt. He'd always thought it strange that a landlocked city like Kyoto had a baseball team called the 'Mariners,' but since the Mariners' original home city, Seattle, was now underwater thanks to the Second Impact, they had moved to Japan. It was hard to understand why that had happened, unless one considered that they were already owned by Japanese investors. "" "Hi, Makoto. I was starting to think you'd sleep all day," she said. Her name was...Akane. Yeah. "Akane?" She walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Yes. How much of last night do you remember?" "Umm. Drinking. Talking to you. Trying to go home...that's about it." She slid a little closer to him. "You forgot the rest, then?" She sounded disappointed. "Uh, rest of what?" He hadn't been this close to a woman since college; he'd had some girlfriends then, but since taking a job at NERV, his love life had gone down the toilet, although getting a crush on his boss hadn't helped with that. She reached out and took his hand; he could feel the softness of her skin and the hardness of the single ring she wore, a plain band of silver. It felt warm, which was strange, given that metal didn't absorb heat from flesh well. Usually, rings felt cold. "I suppose..." She smiled a naughty smile. "I'll have to remind you. I'm sure you're much better sober." He felt remarkably sober, in fact. "You mean..." Soon, he was unable to finish his sentence. In fact, soon, he wasn't able to think about very much at all that wasn't very intensely physical. The fact that he was supposed to be at work completely slipped his mind. -*- Maya said, "So this reporter came by and asked you some questions?" Shinji nodded. He and Rei were in what passed for Maya's office, which was basically a cubicle. It was full of stacked folders and bits of computer code taped to the walls. Other than the Magi terminal, it was a chaotic mess. A dusty mess. It was clear most of her work was done elsewhere now. "She thought Father picked me because I was his son. And she wanted to know...I mean...Actually, I didn't know." "Know what?" "Why was I picked? Why any of us? Why are we all so young?" "Well, my understanding is that it has to do with you being born close to the Second Impact. You know about how there have been a lot of stillbirths and deformities since then in new children, right?" Shinji nodded. "I went to school with a boy with only four fingers on his left hand. No middle finger." He shuddered slightly. "Basically, there was a lot of radiation released in the form of radioactive particles into the upper atmosphere. It's been slowly raining down ever since. It's worst at the South Pole, but luckily no one actually lives there. That's why all the penguins had to be evacuated. Anyway, it causes mutations, and most mutations are malevolent; they either kill the children or cause deformities. But a handful of those affected develop benevolent mutations. For example, you've seen Hinako Kotobuyki, the idol singer, right?" Rei nodded. "Yes." Shinji was surprised at that. "Yeah. She's...a mutant? Isn't she too old?" "She should be your age, but she looks twenty. That's a bad mutation, because she's going to have a shorter lifespan, but she also got a perfect singing voice out of it. Well, probably. We can't prove it, but it does seem likely." Maya tapped a pencil on her coffee cup idly. "Anyway, so each of the Children has a special mutation that greatly enhances your ability to pilot an EVA. Anyone could try, but most people either can't synchronize at all, or they can't deal with the experience. You'd have to ask Dr. Akagi for the details, I'm really a computer specialist. Anyway, so any pilots we find would be your age at the oldest. There's probably a five year old somewhere who would make a great EVA pilot, but we need the oldest people we can find." "So I'm...not human?" Shinji asked nervously. "I said you had a mutation. But lots of people have mutations. You're as human as I am. You just have a special talent. This isn't some comic book where being a mutant makes you fire lasers out of your eyes and everyone will fear and hate you. Probably lots of famous people had some tiny mutation that gave them a little edge in what they did best. You're just special." She smiled at Shinji in the sort of way that no one ever smiled at him; it was a 'Mom smile'. She turned to Rei. "I thought you knew about this." "I never asked." "Well, I'll ask Ritsuko to give you two the full lecture. I'm sure there is one. Hmm. I suppose I'll call this reporter and ask her to not pester you. School is for learning, not for reporters." "Thank you," Shinji said. "The reporter seemed like an okay person, but..." A rat scampered across the floor. Maya threw a folder at it, but it leaped between Shinji's legs and ran. Shinji got hit by the folder and toppled over onto Rei. They ended up face to face. Rei looked calmly at Shinji as if this was as normal as breathing. Shinji blushed. He blushed more when someone spoke. "Can't wait for somewhere private, Shinji-kun?" asked Misato with a gleefully teasing voice. Shinji leaped off Rei, crashed into the entrance to another cubicle, and toppled into it, knocking down a pile of file folders on himself. "It was an accident!" Rei stood up and dusted herself off. "Another rat, Katsuragi-san." "Yeesh, I hope this doesn't mean a giant rat is going to attack next," she said. "Has anyone seen Makoto?" "He called in sick around nine," Maya said. "Akagi-san logged it, I'm sure." "Well, we're not doing anything urgent, but I wanted to ask him about yesterday's test results." She shrugged. "Well, if you two are done slaking your lust, it's time for some more tests." "Someone help me up," Shinji said feebly from under a sea of folders. -*- The Frederick the Great, a German battleship, had a human figurehead as it made its way across the Atlantic towards the Straits of Panama. What had once been a canal had now become ocean as the rising water level destroyed the nation of Panama. While several other nations had been almost entirely wiped away from the face of the earth, such as Bangladesh and the smaller, flatter Caribbean island nations, Panama's annihilation had opened the way for an even greater volume of ocean going traffic as the area, now under UN control, had become toll free. It was one of many areas brought under direct UN control in the crisis years immediately after the Second Impact, when only coordinated action had saved humanity. Asuka stood at the ship's prow, watching the waters part before them in gentle waves. Land could be seen, a fuzzy blur at the far horizon, brown and green against a cloudy sky and deep blue waters. She could hardly wait to make it to Japan. It wouldn't be Germany, her homeland, but she was ready for battle, and there was no one to fight in Germany. Well, no one to fight with her EVA. She was a little worried, though; what if the next one attacked in Germany? The base would be destroyed before she could get back. They'd given her a folder on the other two pilots, but it wasn't very informative. Although knowing they played musical instruments too was nice. All they needed was one more person, and they'd have a string quartet, for what that was worth against monsters... It didn't tell her anything she really needed to know. Could they fight? Would they like her? Did they get along or was she going to have to force them to work with each other? She was used to doing that; her alleged 'bosses' had squabbled all the time back in Germany. "Trying to make the boat go faster, Asuka?" "It's not working," she said, then turned around, smiling at Kaji, who she was quite certain was the man of her dreams. Sure, he was nearly twice her age, but that was no barrier to true love, she was sure. He saw her as a child now, but once he saw her in action, he wouldn't be able to resist her. Kaji was a scruffy man in a suit which was missing a tie and a jacket. He needed to have shaved about two days earlier, and his hair was a mess. But he did have a certain rugged handsomeness, and the heart of a fourteen year old girl was his for the taking if he wanted it. "I'm sure we'll get there before the next attack." "I just...are we sure there won't be any attacks in Germany?" "Not that you could stop by yourself. We have to concentrate our forces so you don't all get picked off one by one." "But an Angel could attack Berlin and destroy it before we got back. I mean, since these things are too big to carry in a plane and even a plane would take hours and hours and..." He stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it." "Do you think I'll be able to get good bratwurst in Japan?" "I wouldn't count on it." Asuka frowned. "Ach. Verdammt." And so the day went on. -*- Kensuke gazed across the athletics field, where the solitary form of Rei Ayanami moved amongst her classmates. He wasn't sure if they were doing it unconsciously or not, but they seemed to move out of her way much like water before a shark's fin. "Y'think she likes Shinji?" he asked. "Why?" asked Touji. "Jealous?" "Huh?" "I'd think you'd be into Rei, y'know? She _is_ a pilot, and you seem to be nuts about that sorta thing." "Oh. Well, I am, but I have my limits." They watched Rei run; she was fast, faster than the other girls, even the ones taller than her. And she made it look easy. He had the feeling she could make them eat her dust if she really tried. "So, she might like Shinji?" said Touji. "I dunno if she even likes herself," replied Kensuke. "Maybe if someone at NERV told her to like him, she would. I guess she is the perfect EVA pilot, though," Kensuke said, taking off his glasses and cleaning off the dust in the air from them with his shirt. "What's that got to do with her liking Shinji?" Touji asked. "Haven't you noticed? She hardly does anything, other than act creepy, unless the teacher tells her to. She's like...I'm sure she'd never disobey an order," Kensuke said. "Although if I was her boss, I'd be scared to give her orders." "So, like, do you think she'd..." Touji sounded thoughtful; this was rare. "Go to bed with you?" "I suppose she's probably a virgin." "We're only fourteen, man. I'd like to, but I mean... And who could do it? With her?" "Do what with who?" Shinji asked. He'd just hurled his javelin. To his surprise, while most of the others had hurled their javelin further, he had a lot more accuracy than the others. Too bad accuracy didn't count for much in the sport. Strength, on the other hand, was something he lacked. But he had known that before he picked it up. "So, are you sleeping with Rei?" Kensuke asked bluntly. Shinji got big eyes. "Who told you something crazy like that?" "Just checking. Little Miss Spooky seems to intervene every time you're in any kind of danger or threat." Shinji had a very brief flashback to being saved by Rei from the first Angel, then her saving him from Touji, then her intervening to drive off the reporter. "We're partners. She...I'd do the same for her." Okay, I'd probably run away and hide, actually, he thought. But I suppose I should. "She likes you, man," Touji said. "I can tell, you know. I can just look at people and I know who likes who. And if there's ANYONE in the universe she does more than tolerate, you're the one." "She likes my father," Shinji grumbled. Touji spun on one foot to face him. "What?! Her and your father are-" Shinji waved his hands back and forth in gestures of negativity. "No! I mean she likes him. Like a father. Not a..." He blushed. Please don't let this rumor get around. "She's watching us," Kensuke said. The other two looked, and they could see Rei coming around the bend, looking at them. While they couldn't be sure who she was looking at, Kensuke and Touji both were sure they knew. Then the coach grabbed Kensuke and told him to go again, and soon all three were distracted off the topic entirely. -*- Makoto finally came up for air some time in the afternoon. He was so exhausted, he could hardly believe it. Akane looked like she was ready for another round, but he was almost too tired to breathe. "Wow," he finally managed to say. She laughed. "It's been a while for me. So you work for NERV, right?" He nodded. "Monitor room stuff. I can't really talk about it. It's so classified, I sometimes wonder if I'm allowed to even THINK about it, off base." He sank back onto the pillow and mattress as she crawled on top of him, resting her head on his shoulder and upper chest. "But you've met the pilots?" she asked. "I'm going to have to be jealous, if you have." "Oh yeah. Rei's been at NERV longer than I have, longer than most of us. Commander Ikari practically raised her, I understand. And his son, Shinji, just arrived recently. He's a nice boy; I haven't seen much of him. He lives with Commander Misato." Akane sighed. "It must be awful having this new guy come in and make a move on the woman you love." Makoto laughed. "He's only fourteen. She treats him like her son. In fact, she acts more like his mother than his father acts like a father to him as far as I can tell. If they ever became lovers..." The laughter came louder. "If anyone gets to her first, it won't be Shinji." "So there's just two pilots? To fight all those Angels?" "There's another one, but she's not here yet. She won't be here for days. I think. So what do you do for a living?" "I'm a novelist," she said. "I write romance novels." She ran a finger up and down his chest. "Right now, I'm doing a little research." Giggling, she kissed his cheek. "I bet I could write a very good book about you. You'll get a happy ending, of course." He sighed. "I wish I could be sure of a happy ending." "You'll do fine," she said. "So what are the two EVA pilots like?" "Well, if you put them in your novel, you ought to name them Creepy and Mouse..." He launched into a long anecdote about the day he first met Rei which made her laugh, and then several more stories. She simply listened quietly, asking a question every once in a while when he slowed down. And thus they passed the afternoon. -*- "Shinji-kun!" Misato said. "I have a very important mission for you!" Shinji looked up from his homework. "Huh? Did we just get a report? Is another Angel attacking?" "No. I'm out of underwear, so it's time for you to do the laundry." She pointed at the overflowing laundry hamper, then at the 'job list,' which showed whose turn it was to do what chore. "But I've got all this homework." "I'll do it for you. I'd rather do that than laundry." Eventually, she hustled him out, and he headed down to the laundromat. He arrived just as the sun set. A half dozen people were there, but he didn't have to wait for a machine. He'd taken some paper with him; he didn't trust Misato to write poetry for him, but he thought she could handle his math homework. Once he got the laundry loaded, he went to work. As he tried to think of a way to use the word 'angst,' Rei walked in. She glanced over at him, and he smiled feebly and waved. She stared at him, then moved on, taking her laundry and swiftly loading it into available machines. Picking up her school bag, she came over and sat down by him, looking at his efforts. "Haiku?" "Yeah." "I lack skill at poetry." She looked at him calmly, and he stared back, not sure what to say. "You want help?" "Yes." "Um, sure, I can try. Show me what you've done." Rei's haiku was, 'Five syllable line. This line is seven syllables. Five green blades of grass.' Shinji stared at it, blinking. "Umm...well, you've got the format right. And it refers to nature, but..." Unseen by them, two separate pairs of eyes were watching them. One pair's owner simply clicked a button on her camera, which she had removed the flash from. The other chittered and scampered away. -*- Makoto was surprised to find he had drifted off to sleep again. He was more surprised to wake up back in his own apartment as if the entire tryst had never happened. In fact, he wasn't sure that it had. Normally, he would never have gone to bed with someone the first night he met them, although it was for the reason that no one ever decided to sleep with him the first night. Especially not when he already had a crush on someone else. He scrambled out of bed and got on the phone. Time to make sure I still have a job. One way or another, I definitely missed work today, he thought. -*- Under a starry sky, whistles blew and words were chanted by the old house in the woods near Tokyo-3. It was a call, a summons which was ancient when men still thought that banging rocks together to make flint blades was the greatest invention of all. The whistling had been a bit trickier then, though. The stars shone down serenely, slowly moving in their courses across the heavens, unshrouded by a single cloud. Aldebaraan hung low in the sky, and Fomalhaut could be seen far off. The forest was silent, a thing of beauty. Well, if the five humans making all the noise had shut up, it would have been silent. As it was, three of them were trying to chant in unison and failing, another one kept blowing a silver whistle as if his life depended on it, and the fifth one was trying to surreptitiously do her nails while holding a book for the first three. This wasn't working so well. Still, the summons was more a formality than a necessity, and those summoned heard the mangled call. Indeed, they had heard it before it began; they had to, for while they were fast, they had a far, far journey to arrive in time to aid those who served the same master as they. Slowly, wingbeats broke the not-silence as they came, descending from the sky into the clearing, the frost of space still shrouding their limbs, slowly shaking off the cold that will kill any human. But they had never been such a frail thing as a man. -*- "Oh, I did call in sick?" Makoto said into the phone. "You must be pretty sick if you don't remember calling in," was the reply from the night shift secretary. "But Dr. Akagi logged you as sick. It says you called in around 9 A.M." He shook his head in disbelief. What a crazy day, he thought. -*- Misato frowned. Maybe I should have done the laundry, she thought. Math had never been her strong point and neither was poetry, although she was pretty sure she already had a haiku she'd written in high school about beer that she could have scribbled down. If she had been aware that Shinji was doing the poetry himself, she would have been somewhat relieved, but still not capable of doing the math very well, either. She scratched out more frantic scribblings and started over on problem eight. Why are they giving him math homework, she thought. Math is for science people; it only gets in the...aha! she thought. I bet I can trick Ritsuko into giving me the answer to this. As she got up, heading for the phone, she noticed a humanoid shadow outside her balcony window. Given she didn't live on the ground floor, she concluded this was likely bad news, and sprinted for her bedroom. The sound of breaking glass convinced her that she had chosen wisely. A few seconds later, the phone began to ring. She ignored it, getting her handgun and taking cover behind her dresser. They started trashing her apartment, and with every breaking noise, a little cash register in her mind began to tote up the cost of fixing everything. Shattered glass. 5,000 yen a pane. Broken TV. 50,000 yen. She heard the refrigerator door open and the sound of beer being scattered across the room. Hundreds of yen there. There was a loud squawk of terror. Pen-pen! she thought. And through it all, the phone kept ringing. Footsteps in the hallway, getting closer. More squawking. More wasted beer. She tensed and readied her gun. They would be framed in the doorway. She could see the shadow first...it had wings? Then it stepped into the doorway. It was naked and bipedal, with a black chitinous hide run through with streaks of grey and blue. On a few places, ice clung to its wings and its limbs, and there was a faint sheen of moisture all over it. It had two arms, with ended in thick three pronged claws, and two legs which it stood upon shakily, its legs bent unnaturally. Its black leather wings were folded in somewhat, compacted to allow it passage down the narrow hallway. Misato stared at it in shock; what the hell WAS it? She couldn't move, transfixed by a primal fear like that which traps deer when they gave into headlights. The room's cheery lamp left yellow highlights on its black hide and glittered off its disturbingly human eyes, one on each side of its head, which somewhat resembled a buzzard without any feathers. Two antennae arched backwards from points just above its eyes, twitching about independently as it moved. It looked into the room and sniffed. She tried to shoot, but her fingers wouldn't move. Her brain felt stuffed with cotton. It shook its head and stepped back out, heading down the hallway, where it promptly began to ravage either Shinji's room or the bathroom. Probably Shinji's room, she was sure. Pen-pen squawked again, and her volition returned. She crept over to the doorway and peeked out into the hallway. The smashing sounds in the living room had stopped, but there was still some scuttling noises and periodic squawks from Pen-pen. There's at least two of these...things, she thought. If the next Angel is a giant version of one of these things...she shuddered. Well, if I don't panic THIS time, I should be able to take it down, she thought. But if there's two... At least Shinji isn't here. She had to get out and alert headquarters. And find Shinji. Even if it means the house is trashed...how am I going to pay for this? she asked herself. While she thought to herself, the creature walked right past her, ignoring her completely. She blinked in surprise. It had to have seen the gun, unless it had no peripheral vision at all. Given the way its eyes were set into the sides of its head, it probably had much better peripheral vision than straight forward. Maybe it couldn't recognize a gun. As it stepped into the living room, Pen-pen stopped squawking. She ran down the hallway, raising her gun to fire. Might as well take them down before they can get away if they're too dumb to recognize a gun, she thought. Then she saw there were four of them in the living room. She froze, and they all turned and stared intently at her. For an endless moment, they all stared at each other across the room. Then they turned and departed, finishing off her window. The living room was a disaster. Pen-pen was unconscious, maybe dead, but seemingly unwounded on the tipped over couch. Shinji's homework was gone. In fact, she now realized one of the creatures had stolen it. I bet his teacher will never believe this, she thought. The phone was STILL ringing. She ran over and picked it up. "Hello?" It was Ritsuko. "Are you alright? We picked up unexpected blips on the radar headed for your apartment, as well as Rei's, the hospital and a few other locations. And now...moving away from your apartment and hers." "We're under attack. Scramble everyone." She sighed. "You're not going to believe this." "I can believe quite a bit when there's evidence, Misato." "Well, to start with, they stole Shinji's homework. Secondly, they weren't human. Thirdly, they looked sort of like...big humanoid insects with beaks and...Anyway, we need to scramble ground forces. Get the EVAs ready, but we're probably going to need flying units and ground forces; these things can go places EVAs can't. And let's see..." Planning the counterstrike was quite soothing. Misato needed soothing. -*- Shinji had concluded he would never become a poetry teacher. "It has a nature reference because it does. That's just what you put in a haiku. It's like asking why you don't use broccoli in sushi instead of raw fish." Rei shook her head. "I would." "What?" "I'm a vegetarian." Shinji resisted the urge to strangle her. It wasn't a very strong urge, anyway. "But do you understand what I'm saying." "Yes. Some things are not to be questioned." She tapped her pencil against one leg in a five/seven/five beat. "Show me yours." "Right." He dug around and pulled it out. "Here it is." It said, 'I stare at the sky, empty just like my life is, and wait for the rain.' She stared at it. "What will you do when it rains?" He blinked. "When it...oh. I don't know. I'm not sure I even want rain. I've just...I don't know why I'm alive. Sometimes." "We live to pilot EVA. That is why we were made," Rei said. Before he could reply, his washer sounded off. It was time for him to go move his laundry to the dryer. Rei silently got up and helped him. As they were finishing off, something caught his eye through the huge glass windows on the front of the laundromat. Something winged and inhuman. Two of them. Watching him and Rei. Coming towards the glass. Instinctively, he grabbed Rei and pulled her back between two of the huge dryer banks. Seconds later, the glass shattered inward; apparently they didn't have much use for doors. The few people still in the area howled in fear or froze in terror. One of the two creatures grabbed one of them with a clawed hand, pulling it close, while the other sniffed the air, then began to lope over towards the row of dryers as the first one enjoyed its snack. The screams of the dying and the sickly sound of flesh being ripped and bones torn asunder snapped the remaining people into action, namely running away. Shinji was terrified, but Rei remained calm. "We must escape," she said. "Shhh!" he said, hoping to not draw its attention. The creature headed over to the dryer which now held Shinji's clothing and opened the door, sticking its head in. He blinked in surprise, then got an idea. Grabbing a hold of the top of the row of dryers, he gestured to Rei to grab the bottom. She did, but gave him a quizzical look. Then he shoved with all his might. Not much happened until Rei straightened most of the way up and shoved also from above instead of below. The whole row of dryers, a huge contraption of ten linked machines, stacked in two rows of five, toppled over onto the creature, which gave out a great howl. The first one looked up from its snack, while the other one twitched feebly under the weight of hundreds of pounds of metal. Tossing the now headless corpse aside, it cocked its head and stared at Shinji and Rei with one beady brown eye. Its gaze was hypnotic, or perhaps Shinji's earlier fears simply rushed back in upon him. He stood, and stared, and slowly, the universe began to fade to black, shrinking in on him and dissolving into darkness. He felt his legs turn to water, but he never felt himself hit the floor. -*- Megumi Kunzama shook her head. She could only take so many shots of the pilots working on homework. Still, that would be something none of the other reporters would have. And the pilot romance angle...that would bring in the readers. She was starting to think it was true. 'Help me with my homework' was a classic ploy of young teens in love. If even half the information NERV HAD been willing to give out on the pilots was true, there was no way that girl could really need help with her homework. So, she had departed the vicinity of the laundromat to go get dinner when she saw two...shapes...flying towards the laundromat. They were faster than her, so they got there before she did. In fact, she never did get there. The reason for this was a blur that came streaking down the street past her. She snapped a photo instinctively, which she had to develop later, in her hotel room. It showed her something she wouldn't have expected to see. The girl pilot, Rei, running full tilt down the street carrying the boy pilot, Shinji, her eyes almost glowing red, though it was probably just the flash, she was sure. Thinking back, Megumi was sure the girl was running...very, very fast. The black streak that shot past in the air a few seconds later...she took a photo, but when she developed it, there was nothing there. She never did quite figure out for sure what it was. But she was glad it had no interest in her. -*- Touji was visiting his sister when the alarms began to go off. "So I was talking to Kensuke and..." He looked around. "I hope that isn't a fire. I'll stay here until they throw me out of here." He tried to remember what he had been about to say. "Oh, right. So we were talking about whether this Shinji guy...you remember him, right?" He paused, even though he knew she couldn't really answer. It was simply habit. "Anyway, he really helped me out. I guess he's not such a bad guy after all. So, we wanted to know if..." Gunfire shocked him out of his monologue. He ran to the door and looked up and down the hallway, then nearly died as bullets whizzed past him. He got a quick glimpse of a black chitinous creature, or maybe two, at one of the hallway and four well armed NERV security guards at the other end. Pulling his head back in, he ran to his sister, picking her up, and hid under her bed until the shooting stopped. -*- "You look a lot better than you sounded this morning," Ritsuko said to Makoto as he settled into his chair. "I feel fine now. Must have been a really messed up hangover," he said. "What are we fighting?" "They stand to the Angels as a rat stands to us," Ritsuko said. "Dangerous to an unarmed human, and terrifying, but capable of being slain with normal armaments. We probably don't need to scramble the EVAs to deal with them, but..." "But I'd rather be ready, in case this is like the spiders," Misato said. "Also, we're hoping to find where they came from and launch a strike, once the spy satellite monitors give us a proper report." "And it will be good practice against live, but not very threatening to an EVA targets," Ritsuko said. "Also, an EVA might be able to take one alive." "Just don't stare them in the eye," Misato muttered to herself, feeling embarrassed. I should have done more when they were in my apartment. She fingered her medallion without being aware of what she was doing. It was simply a soothing activity. "I'm going to be cleaning up my apartment forever," she said. "And how I'm going to replace everything they broke...I don't know." "They broke into your apartment?" Makoto asked, horrified. "And they stole Shinji's homework." "No doubt the whole attack was just a diversion to steal Shinji's homework," Ritsuko said sarcastically. "Perhaps that's what the Angels are after as well." "They did!" Everyone looked at her dubiously, so she simply ignored them and turned to the screen so she could pout without them making too much fun of her. -*- Shinji woke up dressed in his plug suit, inside his plug, already inserted into Unit01. "Hey, what's going on?" A tiny viewscreen window opened. It was Misato. "We're under attack, Shinji. It's time to get even with the bastards who trashed my house." He remembered now. The creatures. He'd squashed one at the laundromat and then...darkness. "They attacked our apartment?" "And stole your homework." He could hear laughter faintly behind her, and she flushed. "They did!" He looked at her, clearly confused. Shinji knew Misato didn't like math, was lazy to begin with, and liked to joke around, so he had to wonder if this was her way of squirming out of it. Then again, stranger things have happened... "They really took my homework?" Misato flushed. "They did!" Louder laughter now. "Dammit. Anyway, you and Rei get to squash them all. There's three major bands, so we get to practice search and destroy. Then we'll likely send you to their base, which we think we've located." "We'll need a longer extension cord," Shinji mumbled to himself. "What's that?" "Nothing. Nevermind." "Ready, Rei?" Misato asked. A tiny viewscreen of Rei appeared. "Yes." "Let's go, then. Launch the EVAs." -*- Gendo looked at a topographic map and compared it to the viewscreen in his office. His second in command stood nearby, looking over his shoulder. "Satellite reports indicate here." A finger stabbed down. Gendo looked over at him contemplatively. "A bit more creative an assault than I expected, I have to admit. A reminder not to underestimate ants; a swarm of weaklings can win through numbers where a lone champion loses through strength." "So what are we going to do?" "Alert the armed forces. A good bombing never hurts." -*- Shinji ran amuck. The only hard part about killing the creatures with an EVA was hitting them; it was like swatting flies. If you hit, they died, but they were pretty small and agile in comparison to an EVA. Rei's EVA was splattered with purple-black goo from dead winged beasts, but the stuff just ran off his EVA onto the ground. One had tried to attack Unit00's left eye, but Rei had trapped it with the mandibles that her EVA now possessed, then ripped off its head. It still hung at mouth level, apparently forgotten. "Try to take one alive," Misato repeated for the eighth or so time. This was easier said than done. It reminded Shinji of the goldfish game often found at festivals, where you tried to flip a goldfish out of the tank and into a smaller bowl or bag or some such thing, using a fragile net. He always ended up breaking the net or killing the goldfish. His 'net' wouldn't break, but he was leaving a trail of 'goldfish' in his wake. He had trouble making subtle motions with his EVA. A strike, a crushing blow, smashing things...that was easy. He was fairly certain he couldn't use EVA to write a kanji yet, or grab something with less than heavy force yet. "They die easily," Rei said. "We need a net." "Ahh, perhaps you can use an AT-field to confine one," Ritsuko said. "Cup your hands around one and concentrate on generating the field. That should do it." "Right," Shinji said, as the last squad of whatever they were closed in down the long street that Unit00 and 01 stood on. "What are these things?" "For lack of a better name, we're designating them as 'Cherubim,'" Ritsuko said. "They are like Angels, but much lesser. Essentially, we can think of a sixth kingdom of life forms, distinct from the ones we are familiar with. Both they and the Angels belong to that kingdom of life, which is quite distinct from ours, but Angels are much greater, in the same way that a human and a termite are part of the same Kingdom, but one is more important than the other." It wasn't a perfect explanation, but it was good enough for Shinji. And the name was comforting, even if the things looked little like the image he had of Cherubs. To name a menace was to lessen it, to make it knowable. It helped. Catching one the way Ritsuko advised was still not easy. The Cherubim buzzed around like a swarm of bees, evading Unit01's flailing arms and Unit00's more careful movements. At one point, he accidentally slapped Unit00 upside the head, knocking it down and crushing a Cherub against the side of its head. Fortunately, Rei did not retaliate. Instead, she began to herd one of them towards Unit01 with a series of one handed blows deliberately aimed to force it to dodge towards Shinji. Unit01's hands then came together, forming a bowl, and as he focused, his hands glowed. "I think I've got it!" He felt excited. It had worked! "Good job, Shinji. Bring it back to base. You can finish the last few off, right, Rei?" "Yes." Shinji looked up, hearing multiple engine noises closing in somewhere above him. The jets zoomed past, heading to the northeast. "What was that?" "Nothing you need to worry about right now," Misato said. -*- "Target acquired," Captain Hikaru Hibino reported. "Fire." Missiles, followed by bombs, streaked from the sky into the small house in the woods. In seconds, it was reduced to a flaming pile of charred boards, shattered bricks, and ash. Captain Hibino enjoyed destroying things, although she rarely got to do so. The best part of it was blowing up all the cars, though, especially the Porsche, which reminded her too much of the car an ex-boyfriend of hers had driven. Seeing it burn made her grin. The death of the Corolla wasn't as much fun, and the trashed SUV wasn't too much of a thrill, but she kept turning over the image of the burning Porsche in her mind. And life was good. -*- "Are you okay, Touji?" the class president asked. She was a brunette, and somewhat cute, but often rather brusque. Not this time. Touji had a bandage on part of his head. "I got grazed by a bullet during the attack on the hospital," he said. "I stuck my head out into a fire fight." "So one of those monsters attacked you?" Kensuke asked. Everyone was out in the yard of the school eating lunch. "A couple of them broke into the hospital," Touji said. "Some attacked Rei and Shinji at the laundromat, too." The small crowd of students turned and stared at Shinji, who blinked. "Uh, yeah." Kensuke got an evil smile. "So you and your girlfriend make out at the laundromat?" "We were NOT making out!" Shinji shouted, drawing more stares. Megumi walked across the yard towards them, keeping an eye on Rei, who was eating by herself. What a shy girl, she thought. But how did you...There was something unusual about her, Megumi was sure. No normal person could run so fast. "Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say. You should be sitting with your woman, Ikari," one boy said. "Or does she scare you too?" "You shouldn't be scared of her!" Shinji protested. "She fights to protect all of you too!" He felt something, like a warmth at the back of his head. Rei was looking at him now, he knew. Megumi stepped forward. "Got a minute, Ikari-kun?" "I...uh...They told me to not talk to reporters," Shinji said nervously. He could feel Rei was coming. "So are you and Ayanami-san really dating?" The notepad was out; the woman was in full reporter mode. "No! We're not dating! I just helped her with her homework!" Rei had arrived very swiftly. "Go," she said to Megumi. "I can tell you about my adventure in the hospital!" Touji said as Megumi and Rei stared each other down. "I'll talk to you later," Megumi said, finally, turning and walking away swiftly. Rei turned to go, but Shinji took her arm. "Why don't you eat with us, Rei?" he asked quietly. She stared at him, looking for something on his face, something that he couldn't tell what it was. Then she softened, ever so slightly. "Okay." She went to go get her food. Kensuke whispered, "Shinji's got a girlfriend." Shinji blushed. -*- "Read yours now, Ayanami-san," the teacher said, straightening his glasses. It was language and literature class, and they were reading their haikus to everyone. She stood, as had the others before her, and read in a monotone. " I pilot an EVA. Under heaven's gaze, I fight. That is why I live." She stood and waited for judgement. He nodded. "Good use of the form, Ayanami-san. Usually, one writes about something one is observing, although that observation may bring one to greater understanding of one's own situation, but you did what I told you to." Rei smiled a tiny smile. "You may sit down, Ayanami-san." "Touji-san, you are next." Touji stood nervously, accidentally crumpling his piece of paper. He carefully flattened it out, then read it. "The class president Really needs some larger breasts. But still, she is cute." He stared at the paper. "Hey, I did NOT write this! KENSUKE!" Kensuke began to snicker, at least until the class president began to beat him to death. -*- Ritsuko watched the creature hurl itself at the glass again. She sighed. "It's going to kill itself at this rate." The Cherub didn't look very healthy, although it hadn't looked very natural when it was brought in, either. It was starting to fade, to turn the same sickly grey the first Angel had turned just before it died, the same color as the flakes that were all that remained of it. "Maybe it's too hot. I mean, it lives in deep space, right?" Maya asked, standing by her. "And maybe it can't take long term exposure to oxygen? Or maybe it's photosynthetic." Ritsuko blinked. "Hmm. You may be right. I wish we had more in order to test...it might die before we find the right thing." "Or perhaps it just can't stand captivity," Maya said. "Some creatures wither away in captivity and die. Or maybe it's moulting or..." "I do remember my biology classes," Ritsuko said, just a little sharply. Maya blushed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...Computers are my specialty. I wish I knew as many different kinds of things as you, though, Akagi-san." Ritsuko nodded, and smiled again. "I know you just wanted to help." She turned to go. "Well, staring at it won't help. I need to go check the chemical tests." Maya nodded. "And I need to go over the reports from the big fight." She took a final look at the creature. "I wonder what I would do if I was trapped in a cage like that." "When you are doomed, it's best to go down screaming into the dark, taking your enemies with you and fighting to the death," Ritsuko said. "I think it's trying to escape. I respect it for that." "I think it wants to die," Maya said. "Poor thing." "Then it is a coward that deserves the death it desires," Ritsuko said from the door. "I have never surrendered to anything, even when it was inevitable. And I won't. I won't give up. There's always a cure. Always." She walked out swiftly, slamming the door. Maya frowned. A cure? A cure to what? She's not sick, is she? Maya didn't want to think about that possibility. -*- Makoto saw a shadow lurking over him as he sat in his cramped, rarely used cubicle. You'd think a secret agency capable of building an entire city that sinks into the ground could build adequate office space in the process, he thought. "Hello?" Misato dropped a letter in his lap. It was a pink envelope with little red hearts all over it. "Somebody likes Makoto," she said in a sing-song voice. "So where have you been hiding her?" Makoto blushed. "I...I don't know what you're talking about." He fumbled with the letter. "C'mon, open it. I bet she scented the letter with perfume. Hmmm...She knew to send it here." Misato grabbed it back and held it to her forehead. "Could it be...Maya?" He snatched it back. "Maya has someone else on her mind, I'm sure." "If you don't open it, I will!" Misato said, lunging forward to grab it. They wrestled around in Makoto's chair, the letter changing hands a dozen times. Finally, the chair toppled over, crashing to the ground, and knocking the cubicle wall over on one side. "Hmm. I see you're busy," Ritsuko said. "When you two are done, I need to see Misato." She turned and walked away. Misato leaped off Makoto and ran after her. "I was just trying to find out who his girlfriend is!" As they passed out of sight into the nearby elevator, he heard Ritsuko say, "I suppose he had it written on the inside of his underwear or something?" The elevator door closed before Misato could reply. Makoto looked around. Everyone else was gone. He set his chair back up and nervously opened the letter. There was no return address. It held a simple note, scented of lilacs. "Had a wonderful time. I'll send you the first few chapters of 'Forbidden Love in NERV' when I finish them. I've got to go plan getting even with a few people who've caused me some trouble lately right now, but I'll come see you again when I can. Good luck with Misato. Hugs and Kisses, Akane Toshiba." He slumped down into his chair. It had been real, he thought. But how did she...why did she...his head spun for quite a while. -*- Megumi slumped down onto her hotel bed, tired. I wonder what my editor will think of all this, she thought. If he won't publish it, it'll come for naught anyway, but... She picked up the sheaf of pictures; she had developed them herself, to avoid them 'vanishing' at the photomat. One by one, she went through them, then paused. One of them was missing. The photo of Rei carrying Shinji at high speed. It had been replaced by a picture of Rei running track. No note, no threat, but someone...someone had to have done this. Right? I couldn't have dreamed that, she thought. Surely not. -*- "Elegant," Gendo said, as he sat at his desk. "But she will likely be trouble." Fuyutsuki shook his head. "Not guided properly. If we lead her, poke her, prod her, give her bits of harmless information, such as pictures of the pilot in school...she will get a reputation for knowing the inside scoop without really knowing anything. Indeed, we'll be able to leak things to her and get them spread around without anyone finger us. After all, surely what we want people to believe is all in our press releases, right?" He sat down. Gendo blinked, then smiled. "Alright, I'll allow this. It does have potential." He picked up the photo on his desk. "Those fools don't really understand what Rei is," he said. "And we do?" the older man said gently. "Just because our methods were less crude than the Massachusetts experiments doesn't mean we fully know what we've unleashed." "She will do what we want. When the time comes, she will be the key to the door we must unlock. That is how and why she was made. And if she proves unsuitable, replacements will be ready." "If we ever get them to stay mentally stable," Fuyutsuki replied. "DAGON has caused quite a few casualties, more than any of our other projects." He paused. "Almost more." "The Fount is not unguarded now," Gendo said. "No fools will stumble into it." He rose. "I must go and confer with my 'superiors' now." "Will the Second Child arrive before the next attack?" "Our scouts indicate he has not yet awakened, though he stirs. And when he does...it will be a long swim from where he slumbers. Although I would not wish to be living in Toronto this year," Gendo said, walking towards the door. "This would be much easier if we could simply order him transferred to a secure facility, but..." "Even we have our limits. Everything has limits," Fuyutsuki said. "And we must remember them or be broken by them." "Mankind exists to transcend its limits," Gendo said. "I will not be bound by limits." He closed the door behind him. Fuyutsuki shook his head. "It is the job of the young to hurl themselves at the limits which their elders know cannot be breached. But as to which of us is right...history will tell." He started for the door, then muttered to himself. "If history itself is not about to be at an end." -*- - end part 3 - -*- -*- John Biles & Rod M. Present A Neon Genesis Evangelion Elseworlds Children of an Elder God Part 4 "Asuka Strikes" -*- Wheels groaned and wood creaked as a dozen workers heaved and pushed to move a massive display from the museum and into a fairly large wooden crate. Their work echoed through the mostly empty museum, combining with the many dark shadows to give them all a case of high nerves. "You mean someone actually bought this thing?" one of them asked, thumbing at the hideous wax figure in the crate. "Paid a hundred million freakin' dollars for the ugly son of a bitch," said another. "Can ya believe it?" "They can sell it for a warm coke and a bag-o-chips for all I care, as long as they get rid of it," added another. "Damn thing's always given me the creeps." The work crew took a brief lunch break, then took hammers to the crate as they nailed it shut. With every hammer strike, the workers winced, as if fearing they'd wake the monstrosity up. At last, after several nerve-wracking minutes of hammering, the job was done. The men all walked away eagerly, glad to be away from that... thing. Even if it was only a wax figure, it was disturbing beyond words. As the doors of the massive museum creaked shut, they weren't sure, but they thought they heard a groan. -*- Gendo sat at his desk, carefully examining a map of the Pacific Basin on the monitor of his MAGI terminal. The map showed few physical features except land and water, although it did have a weather overlay, and several cities were marked. A dozen locations in the northern Pacific were circled despite the fact that none of the locations had a single inch of land as far as could be seen at this scale. Four blizzards in eastern Siberia, Alaska, and northern Canada were also circled. A swarm of dots very close together was making its way north along the coast of Mexico, and a blinking dot was flashing somewhere near the US-Canadian border in the vicinity of Montana. Fuyutsuki walked in. "I still think this is a mistake." Gendo didn't have to ask what; they'd gone round this mulberry bush several times in the last day. "It is done. There is simply no point in waiting for him to wake up when we can bring him here, instead of having to haul our EVAs all the way to Canada and then pray he decides to settle down near a handy power supply. And for once, Keele agreed with me completely. And they arranged for additional funding so we won't be having any shortages." Fuyutsuki sat down at the chair in front of Gendo's desk. "We're still cleaning up the mess from the first one. We're going to have to send them to Canada soon, anyway. I received an intelligence report from V-5. Three travelers who went missing in Alaska a week ago were found frozen in a snowbank in northern Quebec yesterday. Which means that..." Gendo shook his head. "Until we're sure that the mobile power supplies can function under Arctic conditions, we can't deal with him. The American base should finish the tests in a few days. Unlike our soon to be guest, he will likely give them a real fight. Also, I want a chance to see how well the Second Child performs before sending all three of them on that mission." "And how do you propose to do that? We haven't located any of the others, and if we wait too long to deal with the Wind-Walker, some of the others will likely rouse themselves as well." "I doubt this one will sleep through us killing him, after we finish studying him. And if he does, we can stage a wargame, I suppose. They will need to increase their fighting skills, regardless." Gendo shrugged. "Now come take a look at this and tell me if any of these locations have a significance I've missed." -*- "Hey Kaji, what'cha looking at?" Asuka popped up behind Kaji suddenly, wrapping her arms around his neck in a rather amorous (though Kaji would say 'octopus-like') way. She peered at the photograph and was shocked to see Kaji, a younger Kaji, grinning and with his arms around two other girls. "Who are _those_ two?" she asked. Kaji grinned. "Jealous?" Asuka pouted, a cute sort of puppy-dog-eyes sort of pout, and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Of course! I'm jealous of any woman that gets close to my Kaji!" Kaji laughed and ruffled her hair. "I forget who I talk to, my lady. These two ladies are old friends of mine. The drunk one's Misato. The sober one is Ritsuko." Misato... the name rang a bell somewhere in Asuka's memory, but her current snuggling with Kaji put all other thoughts on the back burner. "And while they both desperately longed for you, you kept yourself chaste and told those two women you were awaiting the day you met your true love?" asked Asuka. Kaji laughed. "Actually, I dated the drunk one." Had he been able to see it, Kaji would've seen Asuka's face slip into a worried and anxious frown. "Y-you did?" she asked. "Well, yeah, we did for a while. But, as with all things in youth, it ended. She and I had different career ideas, I guess, so we went our different ways." "Oh. I see." Asuka's hold of his neck loosened slightly and she sighed. "Do you... still... you know." "Love her?" Asuka cringed. Kaji shrugged. "It ended kinda badly, so I guess I oughta hate her." Asuka brightened immediately. "But," continued Kaji, "I'd like to think that we're still friends. Sort of. Kind of." "She didn't appreciate you like I appreciate you," said Asuka, trying to sound seductive. Coming from a 14-year-old, however, it didn't quite work its magic on Kaji. "You say the sweetest things, Asuka," Kaji said casually. Asuka blushed furiously and tightened her embrace just a little bit. "The other girl, Ritsuko, was our friend. Well, she was Misato's friend first, but we got along okay too. Real ambitious, but kind of shy too." Asuka eyed the image of Ritsuko suspiciously. "You don't have a thing for Ritsuko, do you?" Kaji sighed. "No, Asuka, I do not have a 'thing' for Ritsuko." "Good," she purred, making herself comfortable on Kaji's shoulder. "And in case you're wondering why I'm looking at this relic of my glory years... these two ladies will be joining us in a few days." "What?!" "We're picking up some hazardous cargo for NERV. They'll be flying in to make sure everything goes well." "You mean they're with NERV?!" "Oh, I didn't mention that?" asked Kaji, sounding suspiciously not like he was surprised. "Ritsuko is the head technician for NERV, and Misato will be your commanding officer." Asuka's eyes widened. "Wait. She's _that_ Misato? Captain Misato Katsuragi?" Kaji grinned a humorous little grin. "Yep. Small world, isn't it?" "Yeah, small world," replied Asuka, though not at all in an enthusiastic way. This, thought Asuka, was not good. -*- The aroma of fresh food grilling filled the kitchen of the Katsuragi apartment, a sure sign that Miss Katsuragi herself was not cooking. It was, in fact, Shinji's turn to cook, which meant no undescribably bad flavors were to haunt him on this day. He ate alone at the table, something that seemed to be a regular thing now. Misato always woke up late, and as a result always had a mad-dash scramble to work. Despite the regularity of those events, he still couldn't help but feel annoyed by it. With the last of breakfast done, he took a seat at the table, took a sip of water, unfolded the morning paper, then nearly spat his drink out. On the lower half of the front page was a picture of him and Ayanami together. The caption underneath the picture read: YOUNG HEROES IN LOVE? Ayanami Rei (left) and Ikari Shinji (right), the two pilots of the EVA robots, are rumored to be dating. More in section A10. "Ah-hah! I knew you liked her!" "Yaaah!" Shinji nearly fell over, shocked by Misato's sudden appearance. As he wobbled in his chair, she easily grabbed the paper from him and flipped over to page A10. "My my, Shinji-kun, I didn't know but I guess I should've expected," teased Misato. "W-we're not like that! R-really!" "Riiiight, Shinji-kun." Misato patted him rather condescendingly on the head, then went into her blazing fast breakfast routine. Grab beer. Guzzle beer. Shovel rice. Impale fish. Devour fish. Skewer seaweed. Shovel seaweed. Get another beer. Guzzle. "Aaaaah." Done. "Great breakfast as usual, Shinji-kun. Thanks." She hesitated at the door, then turned around. "Oh, forgot to mention. I'm gonna be out of town for a couple of days. Can you take care of yourself?" I always have before, thought Shinji bitterly. "Yeah, I'll be fine." "Ah, good. I'm gonna be escorting the Second Child over from the Pacific." "The Pacific?" asked Shinji, puzzled. "Yeah, she and Eva Unit 02 are being brought over via fleet. We oughta be back in about a week, maybe less. If you need to reach me, my number's on my desk. And if you need anything, just ask Maya. Okay?" "Um, yeah." "Be good now. Seeya!" Misato took Shinji by surprise and gave him a quick, motherly kiss on the forehead, and then she was gone. Shinji blinked at the now shut door, still not sure what to make of the situation. The kiss was unexpectedly nice of Misato... but... He was apparently home alone. Was this a bad thing? Well... no. But it didn't seem incredibly good either. He realized he was actually missing her already... sort of. Finally, he shrugged off the entire line of thought and headed for school. Shinji hoped no other great surprises would be there waiting for him. -*- "Shinji you SLY DOG!" roared Touji. "I knew there was _something_ going on," added Kensuke. "Huh? What are you talking about?" asked Shinji. "THIS!" yelled Kensuke triumphantly, pulling out the morning paper. Shinji immediately went pale. "I-it's not like that!" protested Shinji. This stirring appeal utterly failed to persuade his classmates otherwise, and they continued cheerfully egging him on. "So tell me, buddy," asked Touji. "Exactly how far didja... y'know... melt the ice queen, if ya know what I mean?" "Huh? Wha-" "First base?" asked Kensuke. "N-no!" "Second?" added Touji. "But we-" "Third?" asked Kensuke. "Wait a-" "HOME RUN?!" they both yelled cheerfully. "NO WAY!" "Stop it." All three boys froze in place, nearly turning as pale as the girl who spoke the words. As if the voice wasn't chilly enough, the stare she was giving them was absolutely Arctic. Had they looked up, they would have seen a passing fly suddenly explode into black dust in mid-air. "A-Ayanami!" stuttered Shinji. "Um, hi!" "W-we were just going," stuttered Kensuke. "Yeah, um, seeya in class!" added Touji quickly, then the pair beat a hasty retreat into the building. Meanwhile, Rei saw the newspaper drifting to the ground and picked it up. "That's me," she said simply, looking at the front page story. "Y-yes." "That's you," she added a moment later. "Um, yeah." As Rei flipped to A10, Shinji quickly regained his color and zoomed to a reddish blush. "Er... about that story..." She merely blinked and looked at him with a plain, emotionless gaze. "I mean... er..." Shinji managed to stumble. "I hope you aren't bothered by that... um... I mean... well..." She finished reading the article, folding the paper neatly back into place, and tossed it aside. "I'm not bothered." And with those few words, she walked to class, leaving an extremely confused Shinji Ikari in her wake. -*- Asuka awoke feeling... it was hard to say exactly what, but the closest equivalent would be the words "mild discomfort". Even those words, however, weren't quite accurate. Peering out from her porthole, Asuka saw that the ship was, at last, docked once more. That was good. She might be able to pick up a few nifty souvenirs. She strode merrily out of her cabin and out to the upper deck, where she ran into Kaji. "Heya, Kaji!" she chirped merrily, taking a hold of his arm. "G'morning, kid." "Where're we docked at?" "Nuevo Los Angeles. We're supposed to pick up some old relic for NERV, safeguard it and such." "Do you know what it is?" "Old statue, or something like that. It's supposed to have a clue about the nature of the Angels, or something like that." "Think we'll be docked long enough for me to get some souvenirs?" "Hm.... probably." "Yay!" She walked eagerly to the docks, pulling Kaji along as well. "Hey, wait a minute!" he said. "Why am I being dragged into this?" "Are you gonna let me wander out there all by myself?" asked Asuka with a pout. "I need you to protect me!" Kaji laughed. "Okay, okay, but we're gonna keep this short. Got it?" "Okaaaay!" The day was looking better already, but Asuka still couldn't shake that feeling of... something akin to mild discomfort. -*- Four hours later, Asuka returned to her cabin triumphantly with several shopping bags of souvenirs. She wanted to model the t-shirts for Kaji, but he insisted that he _really_ was needed somewhere else at the moment. Fooey. That little disappointment didn't damper Asuka's spirits too much. She still had the digital camera, and hoped to send some pictures back home to Frau Himmelfarb. She immediately began unloading her purchases: postcards, statuettes, odd trinkets, t-shirts.... With a concerned frown, she held up her baseball t-shirt. "Nuevo Los Angeles Angels" was printed in large letters along the back. Kaji had told him that, all things considered, the shirt might be in bad taste. Naaah. The shirt was too cute. If only as sleepwear, she'd use it. Definitely a keeper. A chill suddenly ran through her spine. That earlier feeling... that unidentifiable disturbing feeling... came back stronger than before. Cautiously, she stepped out to the upper decks and looked around. The sun had set minutes ago, leaving the city and the sea to be swallowed in darkness. All seemed quiet, except for several bright lights surrounding one of the other ships from the fleet docked next to hers. A massive crate was slowly being lifted unto the ship's cargo hold. She stared at the men, scurrying to put it in place, just a moment longer, then went back to her cabin. Hopefully, a few romance novels would shake this bad feeling. -*- After three and a half romance novels, two of which had details which would've made Kaji blush, Asuka still wasn't feeling quite right. She'd go to Kaji, but then she wondered what she'd say. There didn't seem to be words to properly summarize what was bothering her. Perhaps taking a walk would calm her nerves? That didn't seem too bad, no. A moonlit walk along a ship, that did seem romantic... she'd look positively beautiful, she was sure, if she happened to cross Kaji's path. Asuka grinned. Why yes, a moonlit walk was a great idea. -*- A moonlit walk was a bad idea. Not only was Kaji not there, but the seas were a little turbulent and the winds were chilly. She stood at the stern of the Frederick The Great, idly watching the waves ripple away into the endless dark waters. Something underwater caught her eye. A few meters away, she saw a faint glow, something spherical and green. As it moved by, she could see it was a pair of glowing, green, spherical things. They stopped for a moment, then turned towards Asuka. And then the lights flickered. No... it wasn't a flicker, thought Asuka. It was a blink. Those were eyes. Frozen in fear and fascination, she gazed right back at those eyes. And suddenly dozens of glowing eyes emerged from the deep, all staring at her. She wanted to scream, to scramble away, but found herself unexplicably frozen to the spot. She could, however, talk. "Gott in Himmel," she whispered. Almost as one, the eyes turned away from her and moved to the other ship, the one carrying the cargo that had been picked up in Nuevo Los Angeles. They circled it once, then sank to the endless depths. Asuka got very little sleep that night. -*- The next morning was an improvement for Asuka, at the start. The seas were calm, the skies were clear, and she'd managed to find Kaji lounging leisurely on the starboard bow and humming a song to himself. "Guten morgen!" she yelled, cheerfully glomping onto him from behind. "Ah, Asuka, good morning." "It is now," she purred, moving to his side, taking hold of his arm. "You look a little tired, kid. Something wrong?" Asuka opened her mouth, then hesitated. "You're gonna think I'm crazy." Kaji raised an eyebrow. "Try me." "Well... I was wandering around the deck last night, and I thought I saw something in the water?" "What sort of something?" "Um, well... eyes. These green, glowing eyes. Lots of them. I didn't see what they were attached to, but they were there, really!" "Calm down, Asuka. I believe you." Kaji put an arm around the girl, soothing her far more than he would ever know. "Now, when did you see this?" "Around midnight, I think," she said. "They swam around the fleet. I think they circled the boat that has the thing we picked up in Nuevo Los Angeles." "Hm. Figures." "What? What figures?" she asked. "Nothing for you to worry about," he replied. "Aww." She was willing to let it slide, though, since his arm was still around her. "So, what'cha doing out here?" "Oh, just waiting for our guests." "Our guests?" Suddenly, from the other side of the ship, the sound of a jet's engine roared, descending from above. Kaji frowned. "Well. Aren't I embarrassed." "Hm?" "I was looking the wrong way. C'mon, Asuka, let's go." The two walked to the landing pad, where a VTOL transport jet had just finished descending. Descending from the small side stairway was a blond woman, about Kaji's age, with short blond hair and a figure that Asuka envied slightly. Wait a minute. Asuka tugged at Kaji's arm. "Hey, is that... what's her name..." "Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, head technician and researcher for NERV." Kaji lifted the arm around Asuka and used it to wave at Ritsuko. "Hey! Over here!" Oh no, thought Asuka. If Akagi was here, that would mean _she_ was here. Ritsuko smiled, though Asuka wondered if that was a warm smile or a sly one. She reached back into the plane and dragged another person out by the arm. "And that would be Misato," hissed Asuka. "Hey! Rits-chan! Misato-chan!" Asuka's left eye twitched. Rits-CHAN? Misato-CHAN? Misato stomped down the ramp, seething with every step. Kaji merrily strolled up to greet them, with a not-so-merry Asuka in tow. "Rits-chan, Misato-chan! Good to see you again!" said Kaji cheerfully. Misato grumbled something they couldn't hear. Ritsuko frowned and quickly elbowed her colleague. "What are _you_ doing here?" she finally said to him. "Me? I'm the NERV Special Inspector." "Ah, just my luck," grumbled Misato. "It's been a while, Kaji-san," said Ritsuko pleasantly. Asuka definitely didn't like the smile on that woman. "Ah, Ritsuko, as beautiful as ever," said Kaji smoothly. He took her hand in his and kissed it. Both Misato's and Asuka's left eyes twitched, and their mouths curled up in slight snarls. Ritsuko laughed and pulled her hand away. "Enough of that, flatterer." Sue looked down at Asuka, light smile still in place. "My, Asuka, how you've grown." Asuka blinked, clearly thrown off track. "Have we met?" she asked. "No, but we've been receiving pictures of you as you've grown up. I know it sounds silly, but I feel like I know you already." Asuka's opinion of Ritsuko became a bit less negative. Almost positive, actually. Kaji noted Misato's scowl. He knew he shouldn't say it, but he had a reputation to uphold. "And I see you're as cheerful as ever, Misato." "Just tell me where my room is," grumbled Misato. She grabbed her bags and stalked off to the decks below. -*- For once, Shinji had exactly what he wanted. He was alone with no one to bother him or make demands, no one to add to the pile of pain he had accumulated over the years. No one to force him to do anything. Many people like ice cream. Many people like lots of ice cream. Nobody likes having it pumped into their mouth twenty four hours a day until they get so sick they want to die. Shinji could feel himself starting to go out of his mind. He couldn't understand why; he'd always enjoyed, and usually prefered solitude before. The first day had been wonderful; no distractions, he could actually play his music on the stereo without Misato getting bored of it, no beer belching, no one suddenly demanding to play frisbee when he was trying to practice the cello. By the evening of the third day, he was starting to wish for the sound of a beer can opening, loud music blaring on the stereo, something, anything...he was approaching the point of ultimate boredom. It scared him; he had been able to go weeks with minimal human interaction at one time. But now...well, he'd reached the point of playing chess with Pen-pen. He never would have thought of challenging a penguin to a chess game, except that while he had been practicing his cello, he had seen Pen-pen playing around with a chess set that he hadn't even realized Misato had. While Shinji had never been a chess buff, he did enjoy the game. So he was now on a three game losing streak as they started game four. He twitched quietly as his inevitable doom approached; Pen-Pen's white pieces were 'swarming across the border' and his carefully constructed defense was collapsing. When his queen died, it was simply too much for him. Shinji wasn't made for fighting to the death. "Alright, I resign." He got up, sighed, and decided to go for a walk. -*- A nice long walk through the park was relaxing; he was actually looking forward to school tomorrow, simply to have something to do. After a while, he started to get tired and sat down on a park bench. A few seconds later, a guy he vaguely recognized from Nerv...Makoto something or another...came jogging up the winding path. "Hi, Shinji!" "Hi," Shinji said back. Makoto came over and sat down. "Don't know what to do with Misato gone?" "Yeah." Shinji blinked. "How'd you guess?" "I suppose Misato should be glad you're not the type to have a wild party while she's gone like most kids your age would," Makoto said, leaning back against the bench and breathing heavily. "Then again, knowing her, she'd probably be happy to throw a wild party if you asked her." Shinji smiled. "Every night is a wild party if only for one person with Misato, I think." "Is she..." Makoto started to ask something then stopped. Usually this is a cue they want you to probe further. Shinji wasn't too good at taking cues, however. "Yeah, she likes to party. How she became the tactical commander of NERV...she doesn't even seem like the kind of person who would want the job, let alone be able to do it." "There's more to Misato than you can see at one glance, Shinji," Makoto said quietly. "You know what she's like when it's time to be serious." "I know...I just...Which one is the real Misato?" "Both, I guess. One is for play time, and one is for work. A lot of people are like that." He got up. "Speaking of playtime, I have a card game to go to." "Card game?" "Weekly card game with the bridge techs. Misato comes sometimes, but she usually gets skunked pretty hard. You wanna come? You look bored to me." "I'm not bored," Shinji lied. "But I'll come watch. I'm not very good at cards." Much later, Shinji went home about three thousand yen richer. -*- Maya frowned. Before her was a 3D image of Rei's body, cycling through images of her nervous, circulatory, and respiratory systems, as well as close-up representations of the sections of her brain. With Dr. Akagi gone, the duty of checking up on the children had fallen on her. And on this day, much to her surprise, Rei Ayanami had come to her with a complaint. "No, Rei, I just don't see anything wrong." Rei seemed puzzled by this answer. "Nothing?" "Not a thing," replied Maya. She really wished Dr. Akagi were here, since the doctor knew Rei more than anyone else with the possible exception of Commander Ikari. And Maya was not eager to intrude on Commander Ikari's time. Maya looked at the scans one more time, wondering if she was missing something. "Tell me again why you feel something is wrong?" Rei seemed at a loss for words, staring thoughtfully at the floor. Finally, she spoke. "I had... a moment." She frowned and looked away, to one of the walls. "I was at Commander Katsuragi's apartment. I did not know why." "Are you saying you had a memory lapse?" "I do not know." "Hrm. Tell me... what happened while you were at Commander Katsuragi's?" Rei gave her a questioning look. "What did you do, I mean," added Maya. "I helped Ikari-kun with his math homework." "Ikari-kun? You mean Shinji Ikari?" Rei nodded. "And then...?" "I helped Ikari-kun with his history homework." Maya blinked. "Uh huh. And then?" "I helped Ikari-kun with his chemistry." Maya suppressed a giggle. "And then?" "I had a snack with Ikari-kun." Maya laughed, a light, warm laugh. She didn't think it was possible. Not with Rei. But if it was true, well, that would be great. She always felt saddened at Rei's perpetual loneliness, despite the fact that Rei made Maya feel somewhat nervous. After years of working with her, however, Maya had become accustomed to the girl. And now, it seemed someone else might have to get used to Rei being close too. "Rei," said May, with that somewhat motherly smile on her lips. "There's nothing wrong with you." Rei looked at her doubtfully, but let her continue. "I think, Rei, that you've got a crush on young Mr. Ikari." Rei looked at Maya, more puzzled than before. "A crush?" she asked. Maya nodded happily. "You just might be in love." Rei frowned, slightly. "Is this... a good thing?" Maya laughed again, taking a hold of Rei's hand. "Rei, it's a wonderful thing." Rei looked doubtfully at Maya. "I don't like it." "I know these feelings are new to you, but don't worry, they're just natural." "Not to me." -*- *riiiiiing*riiiiing* Shinji blinked, his morning ritual of breakfast and newspaper broken by the unexpected phone call. Who, he wondered, would want to call here, especially this early in the morning? *riii- "Um, hello?" A familiar voice came through the phone line. "Heya, Shinji! Miss me?" "Ah! Misato-san!" "Everything okay over there?" Shinji nodded. "Good. Listen, can you do me a favor?" "Favor?" "Me and the Second Child will be arriving in Tokyo-2's JSD naval port. The details should be arriving in my fax machine now. Could you bring Rei and meet us there?" "I guess," he replied. "Why do you need us there?" "Just wanna give the Second Child a good welcome, y'know?" "Oh. Okay." "So you can make it?" "I'll be there." "Okay then, seey- oh, one more thing." "Hm?" "If you wanna bring any of your friends along, feel free. The more the merrier, ne?" -*- Shinji had no intention of inviting anyone else to go meet the Second Child. Who would he invite? He didn't have any close friends, anyway, so... "Daydreaming about Ayanami again?" asked Kensuke. "Hey!" "Just kidding! Just kidding!" Kensuke laughed, arms up in mock surrender. "Hey Shinji, what'cha doing after school today? They've got Gekiganger X down at the movie theatre today." "Can't go," said Shinji. "I've gotta go meet my guardian and the new pilot today." Kensuke's eyes immediately widened. "The what?" "New pilot." "Where? Who is he? CAN I GO WITH YOU!?" "Er... I guess you can come..." "YEAH!" Kensuke sprang up with glee, then yelled, "HEY! TOUJI! GET OVER HERE! WE'RE PICKING UP THE THIRD PI-" A cold hand immediately came down on his mouth, and Kensuke found himself eye to eye with Rei Ayanami. "Shh," was all she said. He'd never been more scared in his life. -*- "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" Kensuke said, zooming his video camera everywhere wildly. "ThankyouShinji theMAN!" "It's okay, really," replied Shinji nervously. Touji smirked. "Tolja he was a big military nut." Rei just stared at the boy. They stood at the pier, watching workers fasten anchors to the many warships that were docking. The one they were supposed to be looking for was the "Frederick The Great", a German battleship. "Does anyone see it?" asked Shinji. Touji shook his head. Rei kept on looking. Kensuke was still springing around from ship to ship like a child on Christmas morning in the middle of all the gifts. Their search was interrupted with a jolt, as an explosion rocked one of the cargo ships, sending flames and smoke into the air. Suddenly, the sirens came to life, shouting, "RED ALERT! RED ALERT!" Kensuke pumped his fist in that macho sort of way that only men could do. "Woohoo! Battle sequence!" -*- "I told you so," Fuyutsuki said. It would have been petulant if he hadn't been so much older than Gendo. Well, more petulant. "The primitive natives who worshiped him may have been crazy enough to live near him, but that didn't mean we needed to bring him to live with us. This will be difficult to cover up." "This will provide us a good chance to see the Second Child in action," Gendo said as they both strode towards the Bridge. "And luckily, both of the other Children are there as well. We'll simply kill him sooner than was planned." "That may not be wise," Fuyutsuki said. "The Revelations of Hali, the fifth volume of the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan, and the Eltdown Shards all contain versions of the Great Prophecy which assert that his survival is crucial to the Great Return. In fact, all but the Eltdown Shards go so far as to say that if he is destroyed, the ancient masters of the Earth may never return. Now, many of the other sources of the Prophecy, such as the Revelations of Glaaki or the R'lyeh text make no reference to such a requirement, but..." Gendo blinked. "You never mentioned this before." "I had forgotten them, but I was doing research in preparation for our guest's arrival when I discovered this. There are so many variants of the prophecy and some of them contradict each other. And of course, many use veiled language, and..." He was cut off. "I am well aware of the difficulties of interpreting prophecies. Very well. I'll order him to be captured." "Which will likely be easier said than done." "Make up your mind." They passed through a door and entered the bridge. -*- When the sirens began wailing, Asuka didn't panic. She didn't look around in terror, fearing for her life. She grinned like the devil. "SHOWTIME!" In the blink of an eye, she was in her red plugsuit and sprinting across the docks to the cargo ship that held her EVA-02. An angel was attacking! Perfect timing! Asuka Soryuu Langley was going to make her perfect debut! She breezed past crewmen and guards, jumping into her entry plug with glee. The plug sank in, sealing Asuka in darkness. A moment later, LCL fluid smothered her. She focused her concentration on her surroundings, and slowly began synchronizing with her Eva. "Erst Erfuellung, Anfang der Bewegung, Anfang des Nervenanschlusses, Also loese sie es von links kleidung, Synchro start!" Her world briefly became a dazzling rainbow of colors, then snapped into focus. She and Eva-02 were one. "EVA-02, come in immediately. This is Commander Ikari Gendo of NERV command." "This is Unit-02." "There is an angel in your vicinity of unknown power levels." "No problem. That thing will be dead faster than you can say Okinaw-" "You will not kill it." "-wa... WHAT?!" "You are to capture the target, designated 'Amaliel,' and bring it back to NERV headquarters." "Are you people mad?!" "You will follow orders." "Scheiss egal. Fine. Orders received." -*- Majestically, Eva-02 emerged from the tanker, rising and towering above everything. "OHYEAAAAAAAH!" roared Kensuke. "WOOHOO!" "Lemme guess," said Touji dryly. "The new pilot?" Shinji shrugged. "Er, I guess." "The pilot's got a cool color," observed Touji. "Red. Sporty. How'd you get stuck with purple?" "I, um, don't know." -*- "Eva-02, this is Commander Katsuragi." "This is Eva-02. What's up?" "I'll be tac-com for this mission, so listen carefully. Got it?" "Right." "Amaliel is to your north, last seen on the cargo ship Zephyr. Approach with caution." "Can you send me description of my target?" "Sorry, Eva-02, we have no information." "Great. Send me in blind, thank you." Eva-02 stalked across the piers cautiously, wondering if her enemy was lurking underneath the waters like a massive crocodile. Suddenly, Asuka felt a stinging sensation on her lower left toe, like an ant bite. Reflexively, she ground her foot into the ground, scraping something off in the process. "Ow!" The Eva leaned down, looking for whatever it was that had just stung its foot. "Come on out, you bastard..." Something emerged from the rubble. Something dark. With claws. And tentacles. -*- "...an almost globular torso, with six long sinuous limbs terminating in crab-like claws. From the upper end a subsidiary globe bulged forward bubble-like; its triangle of three staring, fishy eyes, its foot-long and evidently flexible proboscis, and a distended lateral system analogous to gills, suggested that it was a head." - From the journal of Stephen Jones -*- Asuka stared at it. "It's a.... a koosh ball." "What was that?" asked Misato. "THIS is what I've been hunting after?!" asked Asuka, sounding mortally offended. She was expecting, no, HOPING for an epic struggle, a test of her skills that would reaffirm her ability as the best Eva pilot in all of NERV. The creature growled at her, waving its claws and many tentacles menacingly. For Asuka, it only seemed to enhance the koosh-ball-esque nature of the creature. Unit-02 bent down, thwapping the beast with a backhand slap, sending it tumbling backwards head over heels. "Feh, this is lame." "Hey, don't get cocky," warned Misato. "How can I not get cocky against this... this... this slimy little koosh ball?" She thwapped it again, sending the monster crashing into a warehouse wall. "Asuka, stop playing around and capture it." "Capture it? You wouldn't happen to have a big net handy, would you?" "Um... no." "Then how am I supposed to capture it? I'm not HOLDING that slimy thing! I wonder if it squeaks when you squeeze it." Eva-02 reached out with a palm, then suddenly flattened Amaliel into the pavement. It did, actually, seem to squeak. "HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!" Like a balloon filling with air, Amaliel rose again, and this time seemed to be extremely agitated. It growled and snarled at the Eva, but due to the disparity in size, Asuka heard it all as pitiful squeaks and barks. "Oh, this is pathetic." She reached down to squish it again. And then a most surprising thing happened. It ripped the Eva's hand off. "AAAAAAAAAAGH!" "Asuka! Asuka! Are you okay?!" yelled Misato frantically. "ICH WILL DIESEN KLEINEN SCHEISSKOPF TOTEN!!!" Amaliel seemed smugly satisfied with itself, its tentacles piercing the severed hand in a feeding frenzy. Meanwhile, Asuka looked for something large and heavy. -*- "OHYEAAAH! BATTLE FOOTAGE!" yelled Kensuke. The giant red Eva, in a surprisingly swift movement, heaved an empty tugboat out of the water and repeatedly smashed Amaliel with it. "You call this a battle?" asked Touji. Unit-02 grabbed a fistfull of tentacles, then ripped them savagely off of Amaliel's body. A horrific shriek of pain ensued. "Looks more like a savage beating to me," observed Touji. "So, Shinji, how d'ya like the new pilot so far?" The children paused a moment to watch Asuka perform three elbow drops in a row, flattening Amaliel and burying him in a concrete crater. Shinji shrugged. "Well... um.. violent." Rei merely watched in silence. -*- Gendo frowned at the viewscreens. The Second Child's fighting skills were reassuring. Her failure to obey orders was not. "Second child, you are to capture the Angel, not slay it. We want to study it." The reply was the sight of yet another claw flying into the air and arcing down into the water, then sinking out of sight. "Are the First and Third Child ready to go out to intercept the Second Child and cease her rampage?" asked Gendo. Another claw landed on the roof of one of the buildings by the dock. "At this rate, she'll have it ready to be sold at a supermarket by the time they even get into their plug suits," Maya said. "We can study the corpse." "Five hundred yen says there won't be one in twenty minutes," Makoto observed. "Maybe only ten minutes." Gendo looked over at Fuyutsuki, who said, "I'm impressed she's still functional after her EVA's hand was ripped off." "She'll be lucky to still be functional when I finish with her," Gendo said. -*- Flashing lights and sirens filled the air as the NERV crews scrambled to to gather the chunks, bits, and pieces of Amaliel. Looming over them all was the hunched form of Eva-02, like a lion hunched over its kill. The children had gatherered near it, waiting for the second child to emerge from within. "Wonder why she's not out yet," said Kensuke. "Maybe she's talking with NERV headquarters?" guessed Touji. Shinji shrugged. A large panel in the back of the Eva hissed, then opened, and the entry plug came sliding out. The door to the entry plug popped open, and from within emerged a figure covered from head to toe in some sort of black sludge. "Hat jemand ein Handtuch?" The three boys stared at the apparition. Rei shook her head. As the black sludge peeled off of the figure's body, the boys couldn't help but notice that figure was very much female and very much healthy. The girl tried again, this time in Japanese. "Does anyone have a towel?" Kensuke searched his pockets. "Nope, sorry." "Nuh-uh," said Touji. Shinji fished around in his pockets. "Um... I've got a handkerchief." Through the black sludge, a pearly white smile became visible. "Heh, no, that's too small. Nevermind, the water looks clean enough for the job." She slid down from the side of the Eva, leaving a trail of black goo, walked gracefully a short distance to the water's edge by the pier, leaving black goo footprints, then dove into the bay waters. "What the hell was that black goo?" asked Touji. "LCL," said Shinji with a large measure of disgust. "It's some liquid they have to fill the Eva with before we can pilot it." "Eeeew." Kensuke winced. "You have my sympathies, Shinji." A moment later, a red hand emerged from the water, gripping the pier's edge. It was joined by another red hand, and then they served to pull up a shapely young redhead in a skintight suit of sorts. "Aah, nothing like a swim after battle," she sighed. The three boys stared at her in awe. She wasn't what they were expecting, though definitely far more attractive. After shaking her arms dry and wringing her hair, she realized they were still looking at her. "Oh. Forgot to introduce myself. Asuka Soryuu Langley, Eva pilot for NERV. Nice to meet you!" "Ah, nice to meet ya," fumbled Touji. "You're the new pilot?" asked Kensuke. "That's cool! Don'cha think, Shinji?" "Huh? Oh, um, yeah." "Shinji?" asked Asuka. "Shinji Ikari?" "Um, yeah, that's me," said Shinji. "Third Child, whatever that means. Piloting Eva-01." She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Not quite what I expected, but that's okay. I wasn't what you guys expected either, huh?" A cold breeze seemed to ripple through the four, even though no wind had actually blown. Kensuke and Touji shuddered. Asuka furrowed her brow. Shinji turned around and saw Rei. "Oh, Asuka," said Shinji. "This is Rei Ayanami, First Child." Asuka waved. "Hey, nice to meet you." Rei merely nodded. "Ah, good to see all three of you here," said a new voice. It sounded slightly sarcastic. "Misato-san!" greeted Shinji. As if one stunning girl wasn't enough for the lads, a second one appeared before them. "Heya, Shinji. Missed me?" Misato ruffled Shinji's hair in passing, then looked sternly at Asuka. "Asuka, weren't you listening? You were supposed to _capture_ Amaliel! CAPTURE!" "Okay, so I lost my temper!" "And ano-" It seemed to be a stream for introductions at this point, when another figure stepped in, this one a rogue of a man with a ponytail and a smug expression. "Now now, Misato-chan, this was her first time out. You can't blame her for being a bit battle-crazy." Misato's fury index rose a full meter as she turned to face Kaji. "YOU butt out of this." "C'mon," said Kaji soothingly. "Let's iron this all out back at headquarters, okay?" "Get your arm off, sleezebag." "Can I put the other one on, then?" "You just don't know when to stop, do you?" Asuka looked at the two, grinding her teeth as she saw Kaji flirting shamelessly with Misato. And then she had an idea. Asuka quickly stepped up to Shinji's side, taking his arm in hers, and strolled along with Kaji and Misato. "So, Shinji, I've heard that you've already fought some Angels. Tell me all about it?" Shinji Ikari was not a people person. He lacked severely in people skills. This went doubly so for girls that showed signs that they liked him. With Asuka's arm entwined with his and her warm tone of voice, his mind turned to mush. "Um, well, you see..." Asuka took a moment to check if Kaji was noticing. He wasn't. This only encouraged her to try harder. Left behind in the aftermath, Touji and Kensuke just stood there gaping. "For such a dweeb, that Ikari's got chicks all around him, huh?" asked Touji. Kensuke nodded, still videotaping. Suddenly, his camera died. They heard a growl. It wasn't just your ordinary growl, from a dog or a wolf. This was a deep growl, the sort of growl that suggested monstrous origins, dark and shadowy nights, and the promise of endless hours of pain. It was accompanied by a blast of cold running down their spines. The two turned around, slowly. Rei was staring at Asuka, intensely, her face twisted in anger. Her fists were clenched, shaking slightly. It was hard to tell in the sunlight, but they thought they saw her blood red eyes glow brightly for a moment. "Ohshit," whispered Touji. "She's mad." -*- Deep beneath the more commonly traveled areas of NERV HQ lay the restricted zones, the security areas where the most classified materials were kept. One such area was studded with large stone, metal, and ceramic containers, several of which were now full of slowly dissolving body parts from the now defunct Second Angel. Gendo and Fuyutsuki stood on an elevated walkway which ringed the room at an elevation of twenty feet, looking down on the open container which held the remains of the Angel's head. "The American base reports that the field test of the remote generator packs are a success. And the transport planes were a success as well. We'll need to do a field run, but we should be able to deploy them from planes and then they'll have a half hour instead of five minutes to operate with being plugged in. Until they get rid of the final bugs in the S2 engines, it will have to do." Fuyutsuki looked down at the head. "Hard to believe that even primitives worshiped this ludicrous thing." "Certainly I would never make such a mistake," Gendo said. "Which explains why his cult became extinct. What I want to know is why he woke up when he did. I don't believe in coincidences." "The stars were right. Perhaps it could be some side effect of the Three Children assembling themselves. Although I would think the Fourth would be needed as well for such a thing." Gendo continued staring down at it. "Maybe this wasn't the real one." "What?" "Surely the real one couldn't have been so pathetic." "Perhaps it's identification as a power of the first rank was a mistake by some ancient scribe, but you should remember the battle would have been QUITE different if it had been a matter of conventional technology versus our fallen friend." "I suppose you're right," Gendo said. "If the Second Child goes on another rampage when they face their next target, they will likely lose." "Perhaps. You have to admit she was impressive." "This isn't a Greek epic. They're not supposed to fight heroic single combats against the enemy. Their last few opponents will wield enough power that if they don't work as a team, they will die. And if they die too early, all our efforts will have been for naught. We must find the Fourth Child. We will need them all for the Great Rite. I have not worked this hard to let a petulant child wreck everything." "If the Revelations of Hali are right about our deceased friend, it will all be for naught, anyway. Would it not be ironic if this was how it all ended?" "I'm not interested in irony. I am interested in achieving the plan we have been working towards for years now. And what possible need could the Great Old Ones have for this pitiful creature, anyway?" He looked down at the mangled bits of flesh. "I need to relax. I will be in sector 13. Make sure I am not disturbed." "I will make sure." Fuyutsuki watched Gendo go, waiting until he departed to shudder. There were places Gendo would go that he would not, although he could understand the temptation Gendo faced. He had his own ways of coping with the stress, but it was Gendo who most frequently had to place his head in the lion's mouth. And if SEELE ever found out their true objectives, the lion's mouth would most likely bite down on Gendo first. The potential reward, however, was worth it if all went well. He was not so optimistic as Gendo that all would go well. He turned and departed. It was time to once again walk the tightrope over the abyss that sought to claim them all. -*- - end part 4 - -*- -*- John Biles & Rod M. Present A Neon Genesis Evangelion Elseworlds Children of an Elder God Part 5 "Wargames" -*- Misato roared through the streets of Tokyo-3 in her car as if all the Angels were chasing her. Asuka laughed with delight while Shinji clung to his seatbelt, shaking. "Faster, faster!" Asuka shouted, while Shinji prayed for engine failure. "I'm gonna have to slow down soon, or I'll drive right through our apartment building. I don't think the Andersons would like that." Misato took the corner at about fifty miles an hour without any trouble, thanks to the absence of any traffic. Shinji, on the other hand, was glad he hadn't eaten dinner yet. "Where am I going to be staying?" Asuka asked. "Since your guardian is staying in Germany for now, you'll be staying with me and Shinji. You're not old enough to live on your own yet." Asuka nodded. "I suppose Rei lives with you too?" Misato shook her head. "She'd be riding with us in that case. We do have a penguin, though." "So she lives with Dr. Akagi?" Asuka inquired. "No, she has her own place," Misato said, cutting another corner short and beginning to decelerate. Shinji flew forward, thankful his seatbelt held. "But she's not any older than I am!" "She's very mature for her age," Misato said. "Shinji's father is her guardian, and he okayed it." "She's your sister?" Asuka asked Shinji; the files she'd read hadn't said that. "No, no, he's just her...umm...ward? No, I mean she's his ward." Shinji said. "We're not related at ALL." Asuka's hair whipped about as they cut into the parking garage, making a 100 degree turn. After shoving it out of her eyes and mouth, she said, "So how big is our apartment? I've got a lot of stuff." Shinji looked at Asuka's one suitcase and wondered why she was worried. "It's pretty big, since Misato is a big-shot." "Good." -*- Asuka was staring at Pen-pen, not having gotten past the living room yet, when the doorbell rang. Misato said, "Shinji, go get the door. I'll show Asuka her room." He opened the door and saw a wall of deliverymen with boxes on handcarts going down the hall and around the corner. "Uh...hello?" "We've got some stuff for a Miss Asuka Langely." He looked at the delivery invoice. "Asuka Soryuu Zeppelin Langely." Shinji's jaw dropped. "All...that...stuff?" Asuka bounded over to the door, took the invoice, and signed it. "That's me! Bring it all in." Box after box flooded into the room, trapping Pen-pen against the wall and shoving Misato back into the corner by the TV. Shinji's neck began to hurt from following the movements of the deliverymen, while Asuka moved lithely through the horde, directing traffic. Misato finally shoved her way over to Asuka, "Did you bring the entire contents of Germany with you?" "Actually, I left about a third of my stuff back in Germany to ship later. And I finally threw out all my old clothing that doesn't fit any more." "I don't even own this much stuff, and I'm twice your age!" "Well, I have a trust fund from my parents, but NERV has always paid all my expenses and..." Asuka looked slightly embarrassed. "It didn't look like so much stuff back home." Misato shook her head. "We're going to have to send at least half of this to storage. Maybe more if you don't want to sleep on top of your boxes, Asuka." "But...but...I NEED all this stuff!" "And I need to be able to move without tripping on all your stuff." Misato opened one, which was full of letters and romance novels. "Oooh, Melody's Pirate Passion! You can keep this box." Deflated, Asuka stared at all the boxes. "How am I ever going to decide?" "Shinji, you start going through the boxes too; that'll be faster. Anything with clothing, beer, food, or good books goes over in that corner." Misato pointed. "Pointless things go over there." She pointed to the far corner. "Home electronics over there..." "HEY!" Asuka shouted, but Misato could no longer be stopped. -*- Shinji rode along in the maglev train, ignoring the countryside as it zoomed by, lost in his thoughts. He was dreaming and knew it for once; he had been exhausted after helping Asuka move her twelve tons of junk to a storage site, and both he and Misato had collapsed as soon as they got home. Asuka had still been up when he passed out in his room. There was a spider spinning a web in one corner of the train, and he ignored it. He could see the tiny winged insectoid it had trapped in its web, but he ignored that too, really. Certainly he didn't notice its disturbingly human-like (despite being made of black chitin) head or hear its feeble death cries. He didn't want to see it, not after last time, so he chose to not see it. As usual, that didn't make it go away. The death cries continued as the spider began to suck out the fluids from the pitiful thing. He took off his shoe and hurled it at the spider in a fit of rage. Just as it struck the spider, something struck him. Agony raced through his head, and the darkness consumed him. He awoke, tied up in the back of a horse-drawn, four wheeled wagon. This was new to him. He'd never had a dream like this before. A few dozen other people were tied up in the back of the wagon as well. Men and women, children, adults, and the elderly, gathered evenly from every continent, of every color of hairs, eyes, and skin, all alike were bound, and almost all of them slept. A man drove the wagon, his back to Shinji, wrapped in a simple brown wool poncho with a hood and long brown leather pants. His legs ran out of sight off the front of the wagon from the board he sat on. His voice was deep as he spoke. "Don't bother trying to escape. Even if you get out of your ropes, I'll chase you down." "Who are you?" Shinji sat up as best he could with his hands tied behind his back and his legs wrapped pretty well. Looking around the countryside, there was a river to his right and grassy fields to his left. The river was broad and slowly growing wider. They rattled over a bridge across a small tributary of the river as he looked about. The sky was a pleasant blue, but the blue tint of the grasses was a little strange. For a moment, he wondered if he was in Kentucky and dismissed the thought. I'm dreaming, he thought. Of course it's weird. Although normally he was alone in his dreams. "Just another slaver plying my trade as best I can," he said. "What with the revolt of the slaves in Kled, I've had to improvise. Then I hit on the trick of picking up all these fools who manage to dump themselves around here by wrecking their own little private dreams." He shrugged. "It's a lot of work, but my buyers seem to value those sort of people." Shinji blinked. How entirely strange. "If they're dreaming, why are they asleep?" "Most of them dreamed a near-death experience and haven't quite recovered yet." "All I did was squash a spider and then..." The man laughed faintly. "You are what you eat." "I don't eat spiders!" the thought revulsed Shinji, though he would have prefered eating a spider to pilot his EVA over drinking LCL. "Tell that to the ones you killed. And you'd best hope none of his relatives take it poorly." The man laughed. "But my spells should keep them away until we reach Dylath-Leen." "Reach what?" Shinji looked around again, but the landscape was still unfamiliar. "The place where you will be sold to the...botheration." The jovial voice darkened slightly. "A knight." Shinji looked down the road and saw a smudge of red in the distance over a smudge of brown and grey, rapidly approaching. As the figure came closer, it became clearer, a knight clad in red armor riding upon a huge destrier with steel barding. He sat back and relaxed; no need to do anything. The knight would handle this, and it was just a dream, anyway. "Halt!" the knight cried out. It was a woman. "I have declared the slave trade ended along this road! You will free your prisoners! NOW!" The driver laughed. "Little girl, what I do is perfectly legal here. Slaves have been brought to Dylath-Leen by this road for millenia. Millions have been carried down the Skar, despite the complaints of those lily-livered cat worshipping fools in Ulthar and Nir. Take your stupid horse and go back to Celephais where idiots like yourself dwell." "Never! I am the Red Knight, one of the four champions of King Kuranes of Celephais, the Knight of Courage, and I have sworn never to retreat from a fair battle. Not that I would call this fair, as one of me is easily a match for five of you. Now yield, or I will cast you naked into the river. I think the crocodiles get quite hungry this time of year." Her voice was familiar to Shinji, but something about it wasn't quite right. Although it might have been just the fact that she was shouting from a distance. The wagon stopped and the man laughed sarcastically. "Do you think I would travel alone if I could not defend myself? I have studied the Pnakotic Manuscripts and the Book of Eibon, little girl, and learned the secrets of the great masters. I have seen the monastery of the Priest Who is Not to be Named and stood in the shadow of the Plateau of Leng." He reached under the board he sat on and grabbed a bottle; Shinji could see a good dozen of them under the board, each containing swirling gasses or flashing lights. "Do you know what this is?" "A bottle," she said, moving her lance to a ready position. "Through my arts, I have trapped a nightmare within this bottle," he said. "Here, have one." He hurled it at her, and she instinctively drew her sword and swatted at the bottle. Shinji was impressed by her speed. Then the bottle shattered and the mist enveloped the knight, who began to scream. The smoke obscured her, but he could hear the sound of metal being struck and every so often, the mist parted slightly and he could see a black, slimy tendril that looked like a rotting vine leaking pus. The first glance nearly made him sick up, and he closed his eyes, trying to blot out the horrible agonzied howls of the knight, who was now cursing in some foreign language. Make it stop! he thought. I don't like this dream! I don't want to be here! I don't want to watch her die, whoever she is. He opened his eyes, and he saw the spider again, the one from the train, now spinning its web under the board around the jars. It's your fault, he thought. You got me into this. Shinji was not given to rage, but he was getting mad now. He wiggled around over the sleeping people, trying to get to the spider. Up above, the slaver was laughing. "Not so mighty now, eh, 'Knight of Courage'? You scream awfully well for such a loftily-titled wench. I see what courage amounts to in the end. Nothing but a rushing into suicide. It matters naught, for the Crawling Chaos will laugh at us all. He would laugh at me if I had lost, but the joke is on you." Shinji ignored him, focused on spider-slaying. Some part of him was sure that if he hit it, either the dream would end, or at least it would change. Not that hitting it would be easy, but it was easier than trying to do something about the knight. Finally, he got to where he could strike at it. Time seemed to slow, the mocking laughter of the slaver becoming deeper and dragged out, the clumsy hip and waist driven kick unable to outrace a snail. The spider scampered out of the way up its web onto the top of the bench, and his kick collided with five of the bottles. They shattered, apparently extremely delicate. In an instant, black, purple, and bilious green mists enveloped the wagon, the slaver, and Shinji. The wagon dropped away, and he plunged at ever increasing speed into an endless void. Seconds later, it proved to not be endless as he struck the bottomless sea of LCL that filled much, maybe most, perhaps virtually all of the void. It ate at him as it rushed down his throat and into his lungs and stomach, drinking him as he drank it. He could feel himself ebbing away, being replaced by little bits of LCL. Soon, there would only be a lump of congealed LCL that looked like Shinji instead of Shinji himself. Mockeries of his form, of Rei's form, of Asuka's form, of nearly everyone in NERV and people only dimly remembered from his youth. But each and every one of them was wrong, scaly or tentacled, with melted twisted limbs or gills or a second mouth in their stomach, naked and horrible. He screamed, and more LCL rushed in. With a supreme effort, he shouted at the universe for help. But the universe did not care, and the mockeries closed in, tearing out chunks of his flesh. LCL replaced the missing chunks, forming shiny almost-flesh, bilious and flabby. Something shook him hard, then harder, and a voice tried to whisper something to him. It was Misato. He shouted. "Misato! HELP ME!" "Wake up, Shinji! It's just a dream." And suddenly it was just a dream, and he was awake, his body slick with sweat. Misato knelt by him, still shaking him. "I...how did you know I was having a nightmare?" "You screamed for help so loudly I'm surprised our neighbors haven't come running by now." The door slid open, and a bleary eyed Asuka stuck her head in. "What the hell is going on?" "Shinji had a nightmare," Misato said. "And I heard you screaming too." "I was NOT screaming," Asuka said. "I've never talked in my sleep or screamed. Ever." She tried to come in and banged her head on the doorframe instead. "Ugh." "Nothing wrong with having a nightmare," Misato said. "I once dreamed I was in world with no beer." She shuddered. "It was horrible. I had to drink water. Flat water." Shinji wondered how water could go flat. As Misato began to ramble on, he slowly relaxed. Her blather was soothing, and sometimes funny. When he finally slipped back into dreams, they were quiet and pleasant, and utterly forgotten by the time he got out of bed in the morning. -*- "Yeah, we'll be in the same class," Shinji said. "There's only one class per grade because there's not very many people our age in Tokyo-3." He and Asuka were walking up the hallway to their classroom. She yawned. "You don't do that every night, do you?" "What?" He paused, his hand an inch from the handle. "Scream and wake us all up." "No. Generally my dreams are pretty boring." He opened the door and stepped inside, Asuka close behind him. "Good. I hate being woken up in the middle of the night." Touji and Kensuke waved, and most of the heads turned to see who it was. A second later, Asuka came into sight and everyone stared. "Hey, he's got a girl with him," someone said. "A cute girl," someone else said. "The new Eva Pilot," Touji said. Kensuke and Touji were over by them in an instant, followed a few seconds later by a tide of humanity. A rather small tide, but it was disconcerting nonetheless. Asuka smiled and waved and said hello to three dozen people, quickly learning their names. The only really hard part of it was trying to sort out who was shouting what. Shinji, on the other hand, got dragged aside by his friends. "Showing her around the first day?" Touji asked. "Or is it something more? I saw how she was hanging on you yesterday," Kensuke said, grinning. "It's nothing like that! We're just living together," Shinji said. A second later, he wished he had kept his mouth shut. "Shinji, you SLY DOG!" roared Touji. "You know, she seemed pretty fond of him from the start," noted Kensuke, pushing his glasses up. Asuka clenched a fist, strongly fighting the urge to clobber them both this instant. "Idiots! It's not like that! I was just trying to make Kaji jealous!" The boys seemed to ignore her claim entirely. "You're faster than my uncle," Kensuke said. "How'd you get her to move in with you?" He got out a pad to take notes. "She was ASSIGNED to live with me and Misato," Shinji said. "Who?" Kensuke asked. "Wait...that woman at the docks?" "Red jacket?" asked Touji. "Reeeeally short skirt?" asked Kensuke. "Long hair?" asked Touji. "Shapely legs?" asked Kensuke. "Killer body?" asked Touji. "Er, I guess," said Shinji, embarrassed by their behaviour. "Aah! I envy you!" cried Touji. "Yeah. You're a lucky guy, Shinji," Touji said. "So, these two always this idiotic?" Asuka whispered to Shinji. He shrugged in reply. "I thought you were living with your Dad. Isn't he in charge of NERV?" Kensuke asked. "Misato is my commander," Shinji said. "Father...he...I haven't lived with him since I was five." He stared at the ground, not wanting to think about it. "So what is she like?" Touji asked. "Does she walk around the house naked?" Kensuke said. "I gotta envy you." "Completely irresponsible," Shinji said. "We have nothing to drink in our house but beer and..." Touji shook his head. "I think you're the only guy on Earth who would ever complain about that." -*- As she worked out the math problem on the board, Asuka was surprised at its complexity. Not that it was more than a five second challenge for her; it was that the other students were expected to be able to solve it. She hadn't had a class with students her own age in years; she was a good four years (more in some subjects) ahead of them intellectually. They didn't look smart, and some of them, like Touji, lived up to that in some subjects, but they all seemed to have at least one area where they WERE a match for her, or at least close. Touji had a knack for geometry, for example, and had solved the problem that had stumped even her, which given his usual behavior (after knowing him for four hours, she was quite sure she fully understood him), she would never have predicted. Rei was also quite intelligent, though she did much better in the sciences and math than in the literature course they had in the morning, where she might as well have been dead. Asuka was already wondering what went on inside Rei's head; no one could really be so passive. Much to her embarrassment, Asuka suddenly realized she'd lost her train of thought from thinking about her classmates instead of the problem she was doing, and her hand had started to doodle part of the nightmare she had had the previous night. Quickly, she erased it, feeling irritated with herself that she had fallen prey, even in a dream, to her old fear of...whatever it was. The thing that had haunted her dreams for a time when she was a little child. It had a single lidless red eye, and a body of winged shadow, a formless shape, a crawling mass of black tendrils, a thousand forms united by one thing, a mocking voice and a contempt for her. Okay, two things. She dismissed the nightmares from her mind; Dr. Himmelfarb had taught her to master her dreams long ago. In her dreams, she was the knight before whom no threat could stand, and she'd show them no Angel would stand before her either. She had broken free of the nightmare last night and prepared to deal with its maker, only to be torn from the dream by Shinji screaming. Now she was a little groggy, which irritated her. With a shake, she cleared her head and went back to work. The problem soon lay prostrate before her on the board. The teacher nodded. "Very good, Asuka. You can go to your seat. Shinji, I want you to do the next one." She noticed Rei's gaze following Shinji as he went to the board; she seemed more alert, and a little tense as if she expected the chalk to suddenly become the next Angel, which seemed strange since it wasn't her problem to solve. As she sat down by a girl named Hikari, the class president, she kept an eye on Rei as well as watching the board. Shinji did a competent job, although he froze up for a few seconds partway through it, then finished yawning and did the last bit. Rei immediately relaxed, looking pleased in a way that was hard to explain. Was that a small hint of a smile Asuka saw? She wasn't sure at all. As Shinji returned to his seat, Rei's impassiveness returned. There's something weird about that girl, Asuka thought. -*- She ate lunch with Hikari, wishing the school had a cafeteria with decent food instead of having to eat rice and pickled vegetables out of a stupid looking box. "So what does your dad do?" she asked Hikari. "He's a labtech on some secret NERV project he can't tell us about. It has to do with genetics, I think. Just about everyone in our class has parents working for NERV. And if they don't, they're doing some kind of support service, like running a grocery store so the NERV people have food to eat. Company town, basically." Asuka nodded. "NERV-Germany is like that. All my friends there had parents working for NERV too." "Do you miss them?" "I miss Dr. Himmelfarb, and some of my instructors, but..." She blushed. "I didn't have too many close friends my own age." "Well, I hope things will be better here!" "Me too." -*- Physical education was another story from the other classes. Most of the other girls didn't have a chance against her; they were doing running today, and she left them all behind her. Well, she left almost all of them behind her. When she turned back from looking at the others who were eating her dust, Rei was jogging alongside her, barely even breathing hard. Asuka pushed up her speed, and Rei matched it. Asuka grinned. A real challenge. Such things were rare for her. "Wanna make a bet?" Rei blinked and turned her head to look at Asuka, but said nothing. "The loser has to...to..." Asuka racked her brain, trying to think of something appropriate. She had no idea what would embarrass Rei, or if anything would embarrass her. "We're done," Rei said, suddenly stopping, faster than Asuka believed possible. The horde of other female students was closing in, but the two of them had completed their circuit of the track a good half lap ahead of the others. The coach said, "Excellent. Interested in trying out for our track team?" Asuka came back once she managed to stop, started to say something, then had her attention caught by the spectacle of the boys trying to do pull ups. They were, to put it simply, failing to cover themselves with glory. More precisely, most of them were not doing very well. Touji had finished already, and so had two other boys, but Kensuke was struggling with his third pull up and Shinji was moving at a snail's pace. Most of the others were either flopped out on the ground or likewise putting more effort into getting one pull up done than many people might have to put into breaking a chair to pieces with their bare hands. Hikari came over to Asuka. "Wow, you're fast!" "And they're pathetic," she said, pointing at the guys. "I could do twenty of those in the time they're taking to do five. Not to mention the way Shinji is slacking off." "What?" Hikari asked. "He's GOT to be better than that. They wouldn't make anyone an EVA pilot if they can't even manage some pull ups." She started to walk over towards Shinji. "I think I'll challenge him to a little contest later; maybe he just needs someone to light a fire under his feet." "I dunno if that's a good idea; he..." "It'll be fine. They want us to be physically fit, and I'm sure he's just trying to fit in. He's got to learn that if you're good, you have to let people know it. And if they feel inferior, well, it's their problem, not yours." Hikari started making measuring gestures around Asuka's head. Asuka blinked. "What are you doing?" "Making sure your head can still fit through doors." -*- Standing naked in a big metal tube as multiple kinds of invisible radiation bombarded him and little machines detected everything about him was not Shinji's idea of a fun time. Especially when two women his own age were in tubes next to him, and two more women were watching him while operating the machine. He wasn't totally naked; he did have little white patches stuck to his body at various points, most of them not too embarassing (like his wrists), with wires running from them. Those didn't bother him too much. It was the other ones, the ones he couldn't figure out why they really needed to know, that bothered him. He could hear Asuka shifting uncomfortably, which was a little reassuring. Rei, on the other hand, could as well have been dead as alive. Finally, he said, "Are we done yet?" Ritsuko checked off a box on a clipboard. "Almost. I see you've gained two pounds, Shinji. You may be needing more exercise." Asuka cracked her knuckles. "I'll see about that." Ever so slightly, Rei's eyes narrowed. Shinji tried to figure out why he had said yes when Asuka had challenged him to some sort of...actually, he wasn't quite sure what she had challenged him to, since she had slipped into German when she said it, and he hadn't really wanted to know. He'd only said yes because everyone had been egging him on, not that they'd known what he was agreeing to either. "I guess it's probably because Misato doesn't have anything healthy to eat." Ritsuko nodded. "I'll tell her to buy you healthy food. How she keeps her figure, I can't understand. Although at least she doesn't eat pizza four times a day anymore. I'd get up in the morning and trip on a pizza box and nearly bust my head." She ticked off another box on the chart. "Rei, come with me once you've got some clothing on. Asuka, Commander Ikari wishes to speak with you once you get dressed. And Shinji, I believe Maya wanted to talk to you about something." She gave Maya a quizzical look, and Maya simply smiled. "Okay," Shinji said. "The synchro rates are up for all of you, which is good. Overall, I'm pretty pleased," Ritsuko said, smiling. "I shall have to send Dr. Himmelfarb a copy of your records for this test, Asuka. I believe she'll be pleased too." "So what am I up to?" "You've gone up three points, while Shinji and Rei are up six since their last test." "What exactly does the Synchro rating mean, anyway?" Shinji asked. "The higher it gets, the less delay there is between you trying to make your EVA do something and the EVA actually acting. Beyond 100% synchro, the EVA could actually react faster than you could normally get your body to react to your thoughts. You have to achieve at least a 50% synchronization to create an AT-field. The danger is that the more synchronized you become, the harder it is to distinguish between EVA and yourself. Currently, Asuka has a 62% ratio, Shinji has a 68% and Rei has a 86%." "I guess you've been training a long time," Asuka said. "It's taken me forever just to get to 62." "Umm...I just started a few weeks ago." Asuka boggled. "WHAT?" That just wasn't possible. "He's got quite a knack," Maya said. "He had to fight an Angel the first day of his training." Asuka felt her brain beginning to melt. "He beat an Angel with NO training?" "Umm...I've seen a few Godzilla movies," Shinji said. "And Rei was fighting it too. She really did most of the work." He fidgeted nervously. "We shared the kill," Rei said quietly. "He did his best." "Anyway, we need to get you all moving," Ritsuko said. "Commander Ikari dislikes waiting." "You've got to let us out first," Asuka pointed out. Maya laughed. -*- Gendo looked up at the knock at his door. "Come in, Langely." Asuka came in, wearing her school uniform. She walked over to the desk and saluted. "Reporting as ordered, Commander." He blinked, though he continued to frown, and briefly saluted back. "I've called you here to review your performance against Amaliel." She nodded. "Yes sir." "Are you familiar with the concept of obeying orders?" She frowned back at him. "Yes." "You chose to disobey the orders given you during your battle with Amaliel, despite being told multiple times to only capture him." His voice was harsh. "He bit my hand off!" "You still have two hands." Asuka stepped forward, then stopped herself. "How the hell was I supposed to CAPTURE him with only ONE hand? And you KNOW what I meant!" "A stump can generate an AT-field as well as a full hand. You could still have followed your orders. Even without that, you still could have simply battered him unconscious, rather than dismembering him. They're still finding small pieces of him scattered about the docks." "Easy for you to say when you're sitting behind a desk instead of RISKING YOUR LIFE!" "I think you rather conclusively demonstrated that Amaliel was no real threat to an EVA even when it is piloted by an idiot." This time Asuka couldn't stop forward. She lunged ahead and pounded both fists on the desk. "I AM NOT AN IDIOT!" "You have been training for eight years to pilot an EVA. Shinji made fewer mistakes on his first day, going into battle with the first Angel, than you did against what will probably be the weakest Angel any of you will face. Most importantly, Shinji didn't endanger the future of NERV through disobedience. We could have learned a lot by studying Amaliel, things which might make the difference between the survival and destruction of humanity. I do not need petulant children who go berserk when they scrape their finger." "HE BIT MY HAND OFF!" "After you wasted time playing around with him. Pointlessly abusing the weak is pathetic. I do not want someone piloting EVA who wastes time and cannot control themselves. This is your warning. Do not do this again if you wish to pilot EVA. You can be replaced." She narrowed her eyes. "I know how hard it is to find another pilot. It could be months or years before you find another pilot who can stay sane!" He frowned. "Who told you that?" "Dr. Himmelfarb." He reached up and pushed his glasses back up his nose. "And what other classified information did she tell you?" Asuka suddenly realized she'd likely gotten her foster mother in trouble, which made her even more angry. "How should I know? She didn't go around saying, 'oh by the way, I'm going to tell you things you shouldn't know'! I just asked her one day why there weren't more pilots and she told me." He stared at her, and she felt her anger wavering, his eyes black pools behind the shining glass, like an undertow sucking her in. She glared back at him, shoring up her willpower with anger, and the feeling that she was going to collapse faded. After a long, hostile silence, he pursed his lips. "If your willpower was backed by discipline, you would be very valuable. I see Dr. Himmelfarb must be getting soft in her old age." She slammed the desk with her hand again. "Dr. Himmelfarb is a decent woman, not a rat bastard like you who can't even be bothered to take care of his own child!" His voice had been calm before, despite brief bursts of anger, but now he let loose a torrent of words. "I am not running a day care center! I don't have time to coddle children! This is a WAR, and you are a soldier! You will learn to obey, or you will be court martialed and punished! If we fail, HUMANITY DIES!" Now he was pounding on his desk. Luckily, it was metal, and neither of them could do more than annoy it. Asuka wilted. "I...it..." He leaned forward. "There is NO room for error! This time you got away with your errors because Amaliel was truly the Angel of Weakness. But against one with real power, against the ones you will face in the days to come, such stupid, petulant, childish behavior will get you KILLED. And it will get Shinji and Rei killed as well. And if we fall, humanity falls. It will make the Second Impact look like a picnic!" Asuka stepped back. "I...I didn't..." "You will obey, or you WILL be sent to play with your toys like the child you are. Do not fail me again. Dismissed." He sat down hard. She stormed out, cursing to herself in German. He watched her go, then shook his head. "I should have taken more care to insure the quality of her upbringing, but I never expected Himmelfarb of all people to produce someone undisciplined." He frowned. "And what else does she know that she shouldn't?" -*- Shinji sat down by Maya, feeling much happier now that he had clothing on. "So what did you want to talk to me about?" "That story in the newspaper. Did you see it?" He blinked. "There's a lot of stories in the newspaper, you know." "The one about you and Rei. Did that bother you?" "Not as much as all the teasing I got from it. I dunno how whoever did it even got that picture." He relaxed a little more. He had been afraid he was going to be chewed out or told some bad news. "I'm glad you and Rei get along. She really needs a...friend...her own age." She does make me look like I'm extroverted, Shinji thought. "She's been a lot of help to me, and I'm really grateful. And even though she can be kinda creepy sometimes, she's a nice person." "Just nice?" There was a touch of insinuation. "Huh?" Maya seemed slightly disappointed. "You play the cello, right?" Shinji nodded. "It's very relaxing." "Rei plays the violin. You ought to invite her to play with you some time. She's very good." "All we need is another violin and a viola and we would have a..." "Hmm. I think Asuka also plays the violin. I'll see about finding you a viola player. Now THAT would look good in our next press release." Maya smiled. "Heroic Eva pilots stage Tokyo-3 concert." Shinji blushed. "I'm not that good." "You said that at the poker game, too." "I was the only one sober." "Next time we'll get you drunk too, then." "Ack." -*- Kaji walked into Commander Ikari's office just as he pushed his glasses up his nose. He needs to tape those things in place, Kaji thought. "You called for me, sir?" "I understand you've done some work for the German branch drafting wargames." He sounded irritated for no apparent reason. "Yes, sir. You want me to design one for the Children?" Commander Ikari pointed to the chair, and Kaji sat. "Exactly. We plan an operation in northern Canada." His voice was starting to relax. Kaji blinked. "That's gonna take a damn long extension cord." "We have battery packs we wish to test. They're just to tide us over until the S^2 engines are ready. They will have a half-hour operating time." By now, he was all business again. Kaji frowned. "That's still not very long." "We will have a mobile recharging center, but not as mobile as we would like. That's why we need to plan this wargame; they have to learn how to use their power wisely." "No berserker rages like at the docks." Commander Ikari nodded. "Exactly. Against the less intelligent Angels, such mistakes can be overcome, but they will likely become more cunning as this progresses. We must become more cunning, faster. How soon can you prepare the wargame?" "I'll talk to Ritsuko-chan and get right on it." Commander Ikari blinked, then nodded. "Good. Make it so." -*- Maya looked up as Ritsuko entered. "Why are you frowning?" "This data isn't correct. Something has gone wrong." She perched on the back of the chair by the bio-test lab monitoring equipment, rapping the results with a pencil. Maya came over and stared at the brainwave pattern charts. "What's wrong?" Six charts, each a week apart, were swiftly flipped past her. "Note the first four are identical except for the synchro waves becoming more regular. But these last two...since the battle with the Cherubim, there have been some irregularities here and here." She pointed to two spots. "Hypothalamic activity and...hmm." She flipped through two more charts from another pad. "And slightly enhanced hormone levels. Perhaps it's just a phase of puberty, but it could also be a sign she's going to start having seizures like subject #34 did. I will NOT be pleased if we lose her." Maya nodded. "I think she'll be fine, but I will keep an eye on it." -*- Shinji still wasn't quite sure how he had ended up agreeing to a swimming race with Asuka. She looked good in her blue one-piece, but he didn't think he was trying to show off for her. He'd never tried to show off in front of a good looking woman that he could remember, anyway. So it couldn't just be some macho thing...Shinji wouldn't know macho if it chewed off his leg. A lot of it probably had to do with the fact that agreeing to it had been the path of least resistance, since she had been in an incredibly bad mood after her talk with his father. And he did enjoy swimming. Asuka shook a finger at him, frowning. "Now, don't you DARE slack off on this like you were before! Or I'll kick your verdamnt ass!" He blinked. "Uh...okay." Slacking off on what? He turned to Ritsuko, who had joined them at the pool and even changed into her swimsuit. "Are you gonna race too?" "I'm just here to play lifeguard, while I wait for some test results to be collated for me," she said. "And my shift is almost over, so I may do a little swimming later." Asuka said, "Give us the go signal." She seemed just a tiny bit calmer. Ritsuko nodded. "Ready." The two got into diving positions. "Set...Go." They both dived over the edge into the water in fine form. While Shinji was not a graceful swimmer, he was fast, faster even than he expected. The water felt warmer than most pools; he wondered if it was heated. The race was a dead heat, with each of them alternately pulling ahead just a foot or two, then falling behind. He got a substantial five foot lead at one point, only to lose it when he crashed clumsily into the wall at the far side of the pool while Asuka lithely bounced off it, then pulled ahead for a while. She grinned as she bounced off the wall and swum past him, finally looking more like he was used to seeing her. By the time they finished the first lap, Shinji was getting into it. He was doing a lot better than he had been doing in physical education today. Maybe my legs have gotten stronger, but not my arms, he thought. It was certainly fun, whatever the reason. -*- Rei walked down the corridor, heading for the elevators so she could leave the Geo-Front and go home. She walked in silence, content to be alone. Then the screaming started, a woman's voice crying out incoherently in terror. It cut through Rei's head like a knife, and she fell to her knees, blocking her ears and closing her eyes. She could feel her heart speed up and her breathing got heavier. Part of her had known this would happen; it always happened sooner or later. But normally, it wasn't this bad. Something must have gone more wrong than usual this time. It took a good three minutes for it to pass. Finally, her body eased and the screaming died away. Rei stood back up, dusted herself off, checked her pulse, and resumed her trip. -*- Kensuke looked over at the geometry homework. "Man, how can you figure those proofs out so fast?" Touji shrugged. "It's a knack." They were over at his apartment, working on their math and literature homework. "I wish we could have gotten Shinji to do the lit stuff for us. What are those tests he's taking, anyway?" "Just a routine physical, I think," Kensuke said. "Show me how..." He trailed off as a stabbing pain ran through his head. "OW!" Touji was clutching his head as well. "Damnation! Where's the aspirin?" "You too? And this is your house! How should I know?" The pain began to fade. "I can't remember where Dad keeps it." Kensuke looked around. "What WAS that?" "Stress homework, I guess. I mean, stress from homework." "I guess." -*- Shinji pushed off the wall again, giving it his best effort. Still, Asuka pulled ahead of him again; she was clearly more used to doing this sort of race than him. He pushed himself harder, wondering why it was so important to win this; normally, he wouldn't have put out this much effort. Something...he felt the need to win, for once. Then he heard the scream. A woman was howling in agony, her voice an incoherent wail that ran up and down a full octave of agony, cutting through his concentration. He floundered and dipped completely below the surface of the water. The screaming only got worse, which made no sense. His body tried to curl up into a ball, but he fought it off, trying to struggle to the surface, but he couldn't think through the scream. His head felt like it had icepicks jabbing into it. He saw Asuka clutching her head as well, and then his vision faded to black as the pain caused by the scream forced him to flee into unconsciousness to escape. What remained of his will knew this was a bad idea, but it wasn't consulted. The darkness swallowed him up. -*- Gendo clutched his forehead, his eyes closed, as he sat at his desk. He stood and frowned. "Not good at all." He rubbed his temples, then got himself some aspirin from his desk. A few pills later, he reached for the phone to make a call which would not be enjoyed by its recipient. -*- Prince Shinji kneeled before the throne of his father, King Gendo of Tokyo-3, who sat on his great basalt and onyx throne, his gloved fingers pursed to form a triangle. "You have done well so far in your twelve labors, Shinji, but a single task remains before you complete these tasks and recieve the greatest reward of all." Misato, Ritsuko, Asuka, Kaji, Maya, Makoto, Touji, and Kensuke stood to one side, robed in white greek robes, moving in unison as they asked, "And what reward is that?" "The greatest reward that any mortal could recieve," King Gendo said. "You will become a god." Shinji's eyes flared. "A god?" "A god?" the chorus asked. "A god. But this task...it will be the hardest of all." He paused. "Are you ready?" "I'm ready," Shinji said. Normally, this would not have had much appeal for him, but it was a dream, and oft one acts strangely in dreams. "You must move all of Princess Asuka's possessions to her new room without help from any other human. By sunset." The sun was two thirds of the way down. Prince Shinji ran. Soon, he was covered with sweat. It seemed impossible to move all of Princess Asuka's possessions; she had a million boxes of clothing and cheesy novels. Just as he was about to give up, Pen-Pen came around the corner. "I can help you, but it will cost you." It was a dream, so this didn't bother Shinji. "I will pay any cost to become a god!" "When you become a god, you have to take me with you so I can become the god of penguins." "Sure." Pen-pen clapped his hands and a horde of penguins erupted from everywhere and began hauling boxes. Soon, all the boxes were moved, and Prince Shinji stood before the king. "I have done all you asked. Now I ask to become a god!" "Ritsuko, take him to the vat of becoming." Ritsuko stepped out of the chorus as they all said, "The vat of becoming? So that is the secret!" Ritsuko led him to a great spiral staircase, and he descended after her, deeper and deeper into the dark. Slowly the spiral staircase became more and more crude, electric lights becoming gaslights becoming torches, becoming phosphorescent moss. The chorus followed, singing something guttural and gloomy. At the bottom, crude runes adorned the archway hacked from the primal rock. Passing through, they came to a great underground lake which bubbled and seethed, a great ocean of LCL. It rippled and sometimes formed tendrils which reached skyward, then fell back in on themselves. Ritsuko said, "The great vat of becoming." "That's not a vat. It's a pool." "The great vat of becoming!" the chorus repeated excitedly. "Where a man becomes a god." He began to back away. "I don't like it." The chorus grabbed him. "Where a man becomes a god." "Let go of me!" His clothing was ripped from him, rough fingers bruising his flesh, and then naked, they lifted him like a sacrifice. They howled incoherently now as they ran towards the lake, while Ritsuko chanted and shouted in a deep voice not her own. "Come, Lords of the Outer Realms! Come and recieve this one into your number!" They hurled him into the lake as he screamed, and the lake rose up and pulled him under. It suffused him, leaking in through his pores and sphincters, eating away at him and replacing him with itself. He became LCL and it was him. And the black fluid became a void, and around him, all was filled with the idiot flautings of a dozen mindless tentacled frog-things, which capered and played a dance for the beings who capered about in a great circle, ringing something behind him. The part of him that was still his 'real' self knew something horrible was there, but the god Shinji turned to gaze upon its master, giving a great incoherent cry of soulless joy. At the last moment before he would have gazed upon it, the void cracked open, and there was light. And the light burned away the darkness, the void, the gods, and the dream. -*- Shinji stared up into Ritsuko's face. "What...what happened?" "You nearly drowned." Ritsuko glanced over at Asuka, who turned and stared off at the walls. "Asuka pulled you out in time, and I was able to save your life." She frowned. "Why didn't you get out of the water if you were so tired you were going to black out?" "Because...I...uh...I was surprised I passed out. Someone screamed. Or something. And then...whammo." Ritsuko frowned deeply. "Who screamed?" "Not Asuka. Some woman. I think. Or that might have been part of the dream." I must have dreamed about falling into the vat thing because I was starting to drown, Shinji thought. Asuka blinked. "I didn't hear anything. My head hurt like hell right about the same time you went under, though." "I heard a scream." "Come with me, Shinji, and I'll run some tests. We need to make sure there's nothing wrong with you. You too, Asuka, just in case." "More tests?" He sighed and stood up from where he had been lying on the ground. "I guess passing out again would be bad." "Passing out while piloting an EVA would be a disaster," Ritusko said, handing him a towel. "Let's get going." -*- Asuka would never join the great chefs of Europe, but she was better than Shinji and Misato combined, and Shinji was glad she had decided to cook dinner. In fact, he hoped she'd take the job permanently. He and Misato dug into the sauerkraut and sausage as if it was manna from heaven. "You like it?" she asked. "This is great," Misato said. "But where'd you find all this food? I mean, I didn't have anything to make this and..." "Kaji took me shopping. Dr. Akagi said we need good food so Shinji doesn't get fat." "Hey!" "It's what she said. She said you had nothing but garbage in your fridge and..." Misato frowned. "Garbage, eh? She's the one who lived on chow mein take out for a year." "You sure that wasn't you?" Shinji asked, thinking about the infinite supply of cup ramen in the fridge. "Hrmph." -*- 'The Invasion of Earth' was a fairly simple wargame. Its creators had simply copied the paranoia that had prevailed just after the Second Impact and turned the common fear that it was the first step of an alien invasion into a game. Given the current situation, it didn't seem as paranoid an idea to either of them as it had in 2002 when it came out. They'd flipped a coin; Shinji was the aliens. The game designers had gotten a little silly, naming the alien races after various thinly disguised German noble houses. (It was a German game). The only one Shinji recognized were the 'Zopplin' who looked like gondala-less blimps. Shinji was winning, although he was sure it was pure luck; he'd chosen his strategies mostly on aesthetic grounds. The dice just seemed to love him; he couldn't roll less than a ten on two dice if he tried. He rolled and actually got a seven, which was the worst he had done the whole game. His pile of four 'Hindenborgs' died horribly, and Asuka cheered. "FINALLY!" It looked like the Russians had once again turned back an invasion. Shinji had made three efforts to take Moscow, but had been turned back every time. However, in the interval, he had overrun Africa and the Middle East. Things weren't looking good for Asuka's forces, although Europe and Asia still held fast. He shrugged. "There's more Hindenborgs where those came from." He had turned northern Iran into a Hindenborg breeding center. They were tough on attack, but poor on defense, and Asuka had beat off the first two waves by taking advantage of that. However, she'd gotten so obsessed with it, she kept not noticing his attacks elsewhere until it was too late. "Not anymore." She played a 'Nuclear Strike' card and blew up the Hindenborg breeding center, flicking the counter off the board. "You know, I'm surprised they haven't tried nuking the Angels." "They did," Shinji said. "The day I arrived in Tokyo-3, they nuked the first one, but he got better. Akagi-san says it has something to do with them being made of material that obeys different physical laws or something." He shrugged. "What...so they can't be hurt by Earth stuff?" "I guess." He stared at the board, trying to decide what to do next. Asuka frowned. "Then how can an EVA hurt them? It's made out of Earth stuff. Right?" "Maybe they used Moon rocks?" He scratched his head. "Maybe Misato knows." Misato looked up from watching Sazae-san on the TV. "What?" "How can EVAs hurt an Angel if a nuke can't?" Asuka asked. "A nuke CAN hurt an Angel. The problem is that Angels are incredibly hard to kill. They partly exist in another dimension, or some such rot. You'd have to ask Ritsuko for the details. EVAs can kill them because they can generate an AT-field, which disrupts the one that holds the Angel together." "Like the way the one Rei and I killed kinda popped like a bubble once we used our AT-fields on it enough." Misato nodded, getting up to get a new beer. "Exactly. The difference is that the Angels innately have an AT-field, while an EVA makes one with technology." "So what is an AT-field?" Asuka asked. Misato opened the fridge. "Some kinda forcefield-like thing. You could ask Ritsuko, but I dunno if you'd understand the answer. I didn't. I know what it does, and that's enough for me." Asuka nodded. "It's still my turn, right?" "Right." In the end, the game Earth was assimilated by the Hindenborg. Resistance was futile, much to Asuka's displeasure. -*- Gendo looked at Ritsuko's report in his office as she sat nearby. "So the latest test subject got out of control." "We had gotten as far as an actual plug test. The subject merged with the LCL and began to transform into...well, we never found out for sure, since we aborted the test." She frowned. "Which I was not informed of." "You were busy," he said. "And testing these subjects is not your primary responsibility. It should have been routine at this point." "We've lost a lot of potential pilots to their first plug test. Just the first contact with LCL either killed them or destroyed their minds. It's hardly routine." She pursed her lips. "I'd like to be kept informed of the next test." "So you can do what? Watch in horror? What I really want you to work on is to determine why more than the usual number of people sensed...something when this happened. We can't allow a recurrence of this." "I know. All three of the Children felt it, but Asuka only felt it weakly. I have some theories, but nothing concrete yet." "Get to it." -*- "Did you do the homework for math?" Touji asked Shinji. Shinji, Touji, and Kensuke were eating lunch together. "No, I got caught up in this silly wargame with Asuka. 'The Invasion of Earth'. By the time I won, we didn't have time to do all our homework. Misato got mad at us." "She's got 'The Invasion of Earth'?" "Yeah." Kensuke nearly drooled. "You've got to let me come play it some time! I started learning German because I got sick of waiting for someone to translate it into Japanese!" "It's not mine; you have to ask Asuka," Shinji said, then shoveled rice into his mouth. He ran across the yard and fell to his knees before Asuka and Hikari, who were eating lunch together. "You have to let me come play Invasion of Earth with you! I'll do anything!" Hikari said, "Get a grip! You look like an idiot!" Touji nodded. "She's right, you know." Asuka laughed. "Sure. I'd be happy to." "Woo woo! I'm in heaven!" -*- Shinji answered the door. "Hi, Kensuke. Here to play with Asuka?" "Sounds kinky," Misato said from the living room. Kensuke, who was standing next to Touji, laughed. "Something like that." Shinji let them in, then yelled for Asuka. "Hey, Asuka, Kensuke's here for the game." Asuka came running out with the box. "I won't lose this time." "Shinji really beat you? I thought he made that up," Kensuke said, grinning. "Hey!" Shinji exclaimed. "I did win!" "The dice cheated in his favor, so I exiled them and got some more from another one of my wargames," Asuka said, putting the game down on the table. "You don't need this for homework, do you, Shinji?" "I'm going to practice my cello, so no, I don't need it." "You play music?" Touji asked. "Can you play 'Fly Me to the Moon'?" Shinji blinked. "Who composed that?" "Umm...Frank Sinatra?" "I don't know any non-classical music. I suppose I could try to fake it if you hum it, but..." This soon proved to be a mistake. -*- A little while later, Touji was watching TV with Misato, while Shinji continued practicing a cello piece he actually knew. After the fifth mangled version of Fly Me to the Moon, Misato had threatened to throw the cello to the moon. Kensuke, the defender of Earth, was hard at work trying to fight off Asuka's alien hordes. He wasn't doing too well. Asuka was only gloating a little. Then the doorbell rang. "Go get it, Touji," Misato said. "I have to make sure I don't miss when these two people kiss." It was Kaji and Ritsuko. Kaji blinked. "Is this Misato-chan's place?" "Yeah. Uh...come on in." Touji preceded them into the living room. "There's some...hey, you two were at the docks, right?" Ritsuko nodded. "And you're Shinji's friend Touji. I'm Dr. Akagi Ritsuko. Nice to meet you." "You can just call me Kaji," Kaji said. Asuka spun in her chair. "Kaji!" She ran over to him and glomped onto an arm. He looked faintly embarrassed. Ritsuko simply smiled, while Misato snorted. "Stray cat follow you home, Ritsuko?" Kaji looked over at the table. "Ahh, 'The Invasion of Earth'. A fun game. It's hard for the humans to win, though. Not very realistic." Misato snorted again. "Oh, you think it would be easy to throw off an assault by vast alien hordes? Going to criticize my..." He shook his head and went over, hovering over Kensuke. "Any aliens capable of travelling here in vast numbers would have technology that would make N2 bombs look like cherry bombs. And they'd probably have the resources of dozens of worlds. It would be like Monaco versus Russia in a war to the death. Still, it is a fun game. The trick is to build up your biotechnology so you can plague the aliens to death." "Thanks!" Kensuke said. "Hey, whose side are you on?" Asuka fumed. He put a hand over his heart. "I am but a humble knight who fights in the defense of humanity, as are we all here in Tokyo-3. I live for nothing less than to give my life for the three fair princesses gathered here." Ritsuko laughed heartily, while Asuka blushed and Misato rolled her eyes. "Mind if I grab one of your beers, Misato?" Ritsuko asked. "Go right ahead. Heck, get everyone a beer. Even Shinji." "Hey, I don't drink!" Shinji said. "And even if I did, I can't drink and play the cello at the same time." "Touji can help you." "Only if I get one for myself." "Naturally." Touji rubbed his hands together. "Okay, Shinji, time to get you hammered." The doorbell rang again. Touji got it again. It was Maya and Makoto, and hovering behind them, Rei. "Hello?" he asked, since he didn't know either of the first two, and didn't notice Rei immediately. "Hi!" Maya said. "We heard there was a party over here." He blinked. "What, did you get a psychic message?" "Kaji told us." "Right. Come on in." Rei trailed a few feet behind the other two. Makoto made a beeline over to Misato, while Maya went over to Ritsuko. "Hi, commander. Up for a poker game?" "Sure! I'll crush you both and get my money back I lost to...hey, Shinji, lose the cello. It's time for me to win back your big hoard of money." "Uhh..." "We're going to teach Rei to play poker," Maya said. "I think she'll be a natural." Rei didn't look so certain as she frowned slightly. "Perhaps." "Do you have any money to bet with?" Misato asked. Rei shook her head. "Shinji, loan her a stake." "Hey!" "Can I play?" Asuka asked, clinging to Kaji's arm again. "Hey! I haven't crushed you yet!" Kensuke said. "Why don't you devastate the poor pathetic Earthlings first, then you can join in," Kaji suggested. Asuka nodded, and went to the table. "Prepare to be annihilated." -*- An hour later, she and Kensuke were still going at it, while most of the others were descending into a drunken haze. Shinji and Rei had most of the chips between them for two reasons. One, they were the only completely sober players. Secondly, Rei had the ultimate poker face. Misato sobbed. "My pair of threes should have taken that!" Maya nodded. "You're evil, Kaji." After taking a swig of another beer, he stared at her. "Me? Rei's the one who won that round!" "You bluffed me." "I folded the second I saw my cards!" "Yeah, so I thought it meant I had to get lucky this time." Shinji sighed. "We really shouldn't play when you're all drunk." Ritsuko waggled a finger at him. "Pish posh. I'm not half as drunk as Misato." "I'm not half as think as you drunk I am!" Misato shouted, then fumbled with her cards. "Has anyone got a six higher than a spade?" "This isn't go fish," Ritsuko said. "And it definitely is not...I'd better not remind you of that." "Of what?" Kaji groaned. "Not the strip go fish game." "Woo! That was fun! Yeah, let's play that!" "Let's not," Shinji said. "Do it!" Touji shouted, his face red from a little too much beer. "Not with the kids watching," Kaji said. "Awww," Makoto said. "Let's put them to bed, then." "That's it! All Children must go to bed together, now!" Asuka and Kensuke watched as the drunken adults herded Shinji, Touji and Rei off to Shinji's bedroom, then started having a loud fight over whether or not to play strip go fish. Kensuke whispered, "I wonder if we'll ever go mad like they have." "Hey! We missed two!" Misato said. "Kaji, put them with the others." They were soon herded into Shinji's room. Touji had passed out just a few seconds earlier. Shinji said, "I'm glad this doesn't happen every night." "I sure hope not." Asuka sighed. "Maybe tomorrow we can finish the game, Kensuke." "I think I'd better go home." He forced Touji to mostly wake up. "Have a good night," he said, dragging off the half-conscious Touji, which wasn't easy. This left the three Children staring at each other. "So you play cello, Shinji?" Asuka asked. "I play violin. How about you?" she asked Rei. "Violin," Rei said. "We should play together some time," Asuka said. "That's what Maya was saying to me," Shinji said. "Do you need someone to walk you home, Rei?" "Maya wants me to stay until she leaves." Shinji blinked. "Oh, she lives by you?" "Yes. Two doors down." "Oh, right. Uh, so...what are we going to do?" He thought for a moment. "So what did Father ask you about?" It made her pretty mad, whatever it was. "Your dad's pretty pissed off at how my first fight came off," she said, thumping the wall with her fist. "He is?" Shinji asked. "But you won." "He wanted me to capture the damn thing! But we're here to kill those monsters! You can't hold one of those things captive." She clenched her fist in anger. "I don't care what he says, I did what I had to! I couldn't capture the damn thing with only one hand anyway!" Shinji backed away from her. "I'm sure you did...what you had to. Father holds everyone to a very high standard." "He went on and on about how..." She ground her teeth. "Damn it, I've been training since age five to pilot EVA! This is why I'm alive! He can't take that away from me!" "He threatened to fire you?" She punched a hole in the wall, which wasn't hard, given it was flimsy drywall. "If something like that happened again, yes. But he can't replace me!" "Well, he could get another pilot, I'd think." Shinji said. She shook her head, then got a wicked grin. "He yelled at me for knowing this, but I think we all have a right to know. We're the only three people who've survived the first time they tried to pilot an Eva, and they've tried dozens, maybe hundreds." Shinji's eyes widened. "They WHAT?" "Dr. Himmelfarb told me about it. Most people don't actually die, they just go mad, but..." "No one told ME anything about that!" "Some just fail," said Rei. Asuka blinked. "I thought everyone who tried either succeeded, died, or went mad." "Dr. Akagi and Commander Ikari did not die," replied Rei, calm and icy as ever. Maybe Rei did go mad slightly, Asuka speculated. Maybe she wasn't always like that. "They tried it?" Wait...Rei knows? "Long ago." Rei's red eyes unfocused slightly. "Years." "I could have died! They said it was safe!" He didn't tell his own son, but he told Rei? Asuka thought. Or maybe someone else told her...or she may have just seen it, since she lived here. Or maybe he just wanted an excuse to yell at me. Bastard. "It was an emergency," Rei said. "I..." He sighed and sank in on himself. "Well, I guess I did live, so...Did Misato ever try it?" "Don't know," Rei said. The door opened and Misato stuck her head in. "Shinji! C'mere, you gotta give me a loan. I'm wiped out." It soon became obvious that most of them were wiped out, in one sense or another. -*- When dawn cast the first rays of light into Misato's living room, it looked like the aftermath of some sort of gas attack, unconscious but still breathing bodies strewn everywhere. Rei was the first to arise and bathe, and by the time she came out to the living room, she saw Kaji was up. "Hello, Rei." "Hello." The microwave dinged and he extracted two boxes of ramen, passing one to her. "Breakfast for you. Then you'll have to help me wake everyone up." "It's Saturday." He grinned. "I know. We've got a wargame scheduled. This is a perfect test...the Angels won't necessarily wait for a day when we're all at our best to attack." She sat down with the ramen. "True." -*- About a half hour later, the three Children rode together in the elevator that always took them to where they would enter their plugs. Rei was watching the floors go by, while Shinji gathered his thoughts and Asuka fidgeted. "So how do these things usually go?" she asked. "We haven't done a wargame before," he said. "I just wish we were going out to do battle for real," Asuka said. "I feel like a knight suiting up for combat. The red knight for my red Eva. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa risen once more." Shinji blinked. Red knight...That must be why I dreamed about a red knight. "I suppose I'd be the purple knight, then." "It's the color of royalty. Since you're the King's son, after all." She laughed. "Prince Shinji, son of Bad King Gendo." Shinji shivered. He didn't want to be the King's son. Not after the dream he had had. "And Rei...blue...blue...A princess from the kingdom beneath the sea." Shinji wasn't sure why, but it seemed very appropriate. -*- Shortly afterwards, the children were ready for the wargame. Kaji stood on the bridge by Misato and Ritsuko and the rest of the staff. "Operation Sleigh Ride will now begin." Kaji paused for Misato to laugh. "The backpacks attached to your EVAs will enable you to operate for up to thirty minutes, possibly more if you conserve energy, without the power cord. Your next mission, once you're ready for it, will likely involve operation in the wilderness, away from any ready source of power." He gestured and Makoto punched up the operational map onto a large screen. "This is the forest near Tokyo-3. We've rigged a mobile radio transmitter. Your job is to track it and catch it before your power supply runs out. Once we complete this first test, we're then going to do a game of 'tag' once the power packs recharge. This should simulate hunting an opponent more effectively, since any real foe will be rather larger than the mobile transmitter. Misato, you're in charge. Turn loose the hounds." He grinned and stepped aside. "Alright, let's get this show on the road." -*- Five minutes into the forest, they hadn't seen hide nor hair of anything that might have been the transmitter, although the directional display in the lower left corner of the vision of each EVA indicated they were still moving towards it. "So what does this thing look like anyway?" Asuka asked, batting away branches which got in her way. "It's strapped to a motorbike," Misato said. Asuka frowned. "How're we supposed to spot a motorbike with our heads stuck in the treetops?" "It wouldn't be much of a test if it was easy, now would it?" Misato said. "Shinji, report." The trio had split up somewhat to triangulate; their positions could be seen at the bridge on the big area map. Shinji was several hundred yards west of Asuka, while Rei was several hundred yards east of her. "I'm still reading north by northeast." Then a few white flakes drifted down from the sky past him. He looked up and saw clouds where there had been blue sky minutes before. More flakes began to drift down. "What the..." "What is it?" "Snow," Asuka and Shinji said in unison. "What about you, Rei?" "The clouds are unnatural in appearance; the snow should not exist." "But you see it?" Misato asked. "The temperature outside my EVA is too warm for snow, but my sensors are showing it," Rei's voice was calm. "I believe something is sabotaging my visual sensors." Shinji said, "How can you tell what the temperature is?" "Sensor display 2," Rei said. The snow, or whatever it was, was getting more intense, though visibility was still good. Shinji now noticed it was vanishing as soon as it hit the ground. "This is seriously weird." "It's part of the test," Misato said, glancing over at Kaji. "You'll likely have to hunt your next target through a snowstorm." "The snow is simulated by Magi and fed into your visual perceptions the same way your sensor displays and other things not really being seen by your EVA is." Kaji said. "Originally, I planned to simulate the Angel as well, but it ate up too much of MAGI's processing capacity. If we can refine the code, we may do that eventually." "Is this crater being simulated too?" Asuka asked as she stepped between two trees to the edge of multiple overlapping holes in the ground, some of which were full of bits of charred wood, rock, and metal. There was a tire stuck up in a tree by her head, the word 'Goodyear' still visible. Misato blinked. "Crater?" "There's a bunch of craters, some rubble, bits of metal..." Unit02 bent over and picked up a bumper. "Most of the license plate on this is gone, but I can read the bumper sticker, 'Boldly Going Where No One Has Gone Before'. Someone bombed a Star Trek fan, it looks like." "It's not important for this," Misato said. "Keep going." She turned to Kaji. "What the...oh, ah." She turned back to the screen, leaving him to boggle for once. "Keep going." Shinji said, "It's getting hard to see through all this white stuff." "Snow is like that, you know," Misato said impatiently. "Rei, report." "Target is north by northwest, northwest by west, 10 degrees north of west...5 degrees." "Asuka, it should be coming right at you!" Misato said. "Shinji, move east." Asuka looked around. "I don't see anything." It was getting harder to see through the 'snow', but she kept staring. "It's moving around...trying to go between me and Rei, I think. Rei, come west!' She moved to intercept, as did Rei. Several trees got plowed under as they sped up. Shinji circled around as best he could. Continued reports of shifting directions came in, and finally, Rei and Asuka charged right at it, as they finally caught sight of the man on a motorcycle with the transmitter. He paused, caught like a deer in headlights. "Rei, watch and wait, Asuka, close in." Misato commanded. Asuka closed in and the man turned and drove right at Rei. Unit00 dropped to one knee to go for a grab while Unit02 chased him towards her. Then at the last moment, he suddenly turned and roared north, leaving Unit02 to crash into Unit00, unable to stop in time. They both went tumbling through the trees, knocking a gash in the undergrowth. Misato sighed. "Shinji, start moving north. Rei, move north by northeast. Asuka, go straight after him." -*- Two more near-misses ended with the three of them herding the NERV motorcycle man into a small clearing with the EVAs closing in. With 3:20 still on the timer, Unit00 successfully grabbed the cycle. "Mission complete." "We did it!" Asuka said. "Chasing that thing was like trying to catch a cockroach without killing it." "Don't pat yourself on the back too soon," Kaji said. "You have completed the mission. But can you get back to Tokyo-3 before your power gives out?" Shinji groaned and had his EVA do a quick calculation. "No. If we run, we'll burn power faster. If we walk, we won't make it." "The EVAs have a five minute internal supply," Asuka said. "With that, we can make it." "Very good," Kaji said. "Likely during the real operation, you'll have to power down to just life support after you make the kill on the next Angel until we can find you and bring a backup pack." "How are we going to get out to the middle of the wilderness on only thirty minutes power?" Shinji asked. "We'll fly you in and airdrop you. Risky, but it will be necessary," Misato said. "I'm still planning the operation. Anyway, return to base while you still can." -*- "Report, Commander Katsuragi," Gendo said. He, Misato, Kaji, Ritsuko, and Fuyuutsuki were seated around a small conference table. "The battery packs performed as expected, the Children worked well as a team under my guidance, although given the minimal danger of the exercise, I can't make any promises for a real combat situation." Misato passed a report across the table to Gendo. "Any trouble from the second Child?" Gendo asked. "She performed adequately, obeying all orders to the best of her ability." "Good. Dr. Akagi?" "Maya is continuing to refine the 'snow' code. We hope to eventually be able to simulate almost any environment in order to facilitate such exercises in the future. The battery power caused no physiological problems to the EVAs. While not an ideal replacement for the S^2 engines still in development, I believe the packs will function quite well. We have one down in sector 8 which we're exposing to extremes of cold to make sure it won't do anything surprising." "Inspector Kaji?" "Until the Angel simulation code is ready, this is likely as good a field exercise as we can manage. The fact that the battery packs take so long to recharge prevented carrying out the second exercise; I'd tend to recommend having several backups available during an extended operation. They could be parachuted in, thus enabling the Children to carry on a several hour long operation, and making it easier to get them back to civilization afterwards." Gendo nodded. "Fuyuutsuki?" "The inspector's recommendation is within our budgetary limits. And I've received visual confirmation of the next Angel near Hudson's Bay." "Commander Katsuragi, draw up a plan of operations immediately. The instant we get enough battery packs, I want to move out against our next target." "Yes, sir." -*- - end part 5 - -*- Asuka jumped in another puddle, splashing Shinji again. "Got you!" "HEY!" It was silly of him to be bothered; the rain was already pouring down in sheets and he was drenched, but it annoyed him anyway. Even worse than Asuka acting like this was a blessing from God was the way Rei was simply walking along as if it wasn't there, unconcerned by the storm. While Shinji kept shivering and feeling cold, she wasn't bothered at all. "Lighten up, Shinji. Rei likes the rain. Why don't you?" "It's cold and wet and miserable," he said. "And it never rains like this. Not around here. It's weird weather." "Well, unless it turns out the thunder is being made by Thor, I'm gonna enjoy it," Asuka said. "By who?" Shinji asked. "Norse god of thunder and lightning," Rei said without looking at him. Asuka spun about, somehow easily keeping up with Shinji and Rei. "C'mon, Shinji. You know you like the rain. You're just faking." "I do NOT!" Something's funny about this weather, Shinji thought. And it wasn't funny haha. It was funny uh oh. ~*~ John Biles & Rod M. Present A Neon Genesis Evangelion Elseworlds Children of an Elder God Part 6 The Great White North ~*~ Colonel Christopher Robin hunched over the modified radar screen, wondering again exactly what the thing was tracking. The NERV staff and their strange equipment made the US Army officer nervous, but he had been ordered to cooperate with them. The base was now 'NERV--ALASKA' for the duration. The pudgy blond tech next to him wore a lab coat over his sweater and slacks. His name was Philip Oscar Harris, and he spent more time guzzling candy and soda than doing work, as far as Christopher Robin could tell. He was eating honey graham crackers as he watched the screen. "Hmm. The thing's heading this way. We'd best alert Tokyo-3." "It is?" Christopher Robin stared at the screen. "How the hell can you tell?" There were odd squiggles on the screen by the blinking dot, but they didn't mean anything to him. "Japanese equipment; didn't have time to configure it to English. Those are Kanji. Hey, ROO!" Roger David Walker, another tech, frowned. "My name is not ROO. It's Roger." He headed for the phone anyway. "Better than being called Burrito," Phillip said. "Call me THAT again, and I'll tie you to the front gate," Roger said, then got on the line. ~*~ Misato ran onto the command bridge. "What's the latest from Alaska?" "The observation grid is down. We've lost the signal," one of the techs said. "Bloody hell," she growled. "Is POLARIS ready for launching?" "Yes," Ritsuko said. "Although we wanted to do a few more tests if we had time." "We need it," Misato said. "We can't fight the Angel if we can't find it. And someone open a line to the US and Canadian governments. We need a bomber strike. That should force the thing to heal while we get forces to Canada." Everyone scrambled to do her bidding. ~*~ "Okay, boys and girls," the teacher, a middle aged man who was starting to go bald and grey at the same time, said. "Can anyone tell me what sidreal motion is?" Asuka looked around and snorted when no one else answered. "It's the movement of the Earth's axis. Every 26,000 years, roughly, the earth's axis of rotation changes in a full cycle. True North is not a fixed direction, effectively." "Very good, Asuka," he said. "So compasses would point in a different direction halfway through that?" Kensuke asked. "No, magnetic north changes on a different cycle," the teacher said. "But TRUE north would change." "But how would you notice?" "Observe the pole star, Polaris. It seems to stay in place because the axis currently points towards it. But if you slept for say...13,000 years, it would no longer seem to stay fixed in the sky." Touji yawned. "I wish I'd slept for 13,000 years." The intercom cut in, interrupting the discussion. "IKARI, LANGELY, AYUKAWA, REPORT TO NERV IMMEDIATELY." There was silence for a moment, then Hikari said, "Ayukawa?" "Maybe there's a new pilot," Asuka said as she stood up. "CORRECTION. HIKARI, LANGELY, AYANAMI, REPORT TO NERV IMMEDIATELY." Hikari blinked. "Me?" Asuka shook her head. "Someone can't read." "DAMMIT, THIS IS ILLEGIBLE. STUPID SECRETA...OOPS, THIS IS STILL ON. ALL EVA PILOTS, REPORT TO NERV IMMEDIATELY." "Let's go kick some ass!" Asuka shouted, running out the door. Shinji and Rei followed with somewhat greater calm. ~*~ Baybrook Air Force Base had never been attacked. In fact, it had never even been in the slightest danger of being attacked, except perhaps if World War III had actually broken out. It had been built to deal with the contingency of the Russians sending planes over the North Pole to bomb the pine trees of the Northwest Territories into submission. That most certainly couldn't be allowed. It was usually understaffed, but its use for the strike against...whatever exactly had been attacked...meant it had more people than usual. The normal staff was pleased; they felt useful for once. This was generally the place where people got dumped who annoyed someone. The weather was bad for flying; a massive storm front had rumbled in and was dumping vast quantities of snow. They were used to it; this happened all the time here. This was a bad time for it; they needed to keep planes in the air. The flight sent WITH N2 mines to destroy...something...hadn't come back. Radio contact had gone dead. It might have just been the EMP from dropping the mines, but that hadn't happened in past tests of N2 bombs. Plus, there were entire trees flying around over the base; the winds were horrendous, and they had to keep snowplowing debris off the runways. It was the worst storm they'd ever seen. Then it got worse. They caught the small falling metal cylinder on the radar for a moment, but they couldn't recognize it. When the N2 mine went off inside the base, they all had about one second to say, 'Shit' before they died. It did get rid of all the annoying debris, though. ~*~ "You're going to have to ride in the entry plugs all the way to Canada," Misato said, pointing to a map of North America. "We won't have the facilities to load you properly there. Luckily, the special transport planes FINALLY arrived yesterday, and we can keep your batteries charged all the way there and drop you from the planes." If the weather doesn't cause them to crash, stranding or killing you all, she thought. Let's not think about that. Shinji was revulsed at the entire idea of spending hours in the entry plug. "How long are we gonna be stuck in there?" "Far too long, but it's the best we can do," Misato said. "Once you reach Canada, we'll know exactly where we need to drop you. Possibly, you may be going here," she pointed to a point in Alaska. "But our target may have moved." "So he's causing this weather?" Asuka asked. "We believe so," Misato said. "We've dubbed him Salgiel, the Angel of Snow. We've launched a satellite that should be able to track him, which will greatly simplify this. In fact, it should get a lock on him before you even get to Canada." "Can the planes fly in this weather safely?" Asuka asked. "Of course they can," Misato lied. "We would never send you up in them if we weren't sure it would be safe." If we weren't so desperate we'd try flinging you from a catapult if we had to... ~*~ "What are we supposed to DO for...how long is it gonna be?" Shinji asked. "Over twelve hours. I suggest you sleep," Ritsuko said. "But I'm not tired!" "Would you like me to sedate you?" Ritsuko asked. Shinji was about to say yes when he noticed Rei and Asuka were both watching him. "No. I'll figure out something." They both subtly relaxed, and Asuka nodded slightly. "We can talk on our radios and plan how to hand this Angel his head on a plate," Asuka said. For half a day? Hmm. "Wait...how are we going to eat?" "The LCL will sustain you. You won't need to eat. In fact, your stomach won't even get empty." Ritsuko said soothingly. "It's actually quite nutritious." Shinji narrowed his eyes; he was dubious. Even if it was nuitritious, it was incredibly foul, disgusting, and vile. He would rather have spent the entire time in a puddle of vomit. "What, you put vitamins in it? It's...It's disgusting!" "It's like the system of blood vessels which keep babies alive in the womb for nine months without eating," Ritsuko said. "EVAs have LCL for blood, you see. Anyway, we need to get you going." "We should buy some bullion and see if we can turn it into broth next time," Asuka said, as she prepared to enter her plug. Shinji stared at her as if she was insane. "That was a joke, you know!" He blinked, then laughed, glancing over at Rei, who seemed to have not even noticed and was busy entering her plug. Maybe she lost her sense of humor in an accident. ~*~ In theory, the Karpov Military Base did not exist. The Russian government denied its existence, and it was cunningly concealed so that it could not easily be spied by satellites or flying planes. The monitoring equipment looked like part of the landscape, a frozen Siberian wasteland. Its computers used underground lines, as did its phones. It was, and had always primarily been an intelligence site, keeping an eye open for planes or missiles coming over the North Pole, ready to send the signal for a retaliatory strike. It had not been designed to repel a ground assault; that was not its role. Indeed, it wasn't even really designed to notice a ground assault, especially not when a howling snowstorm descended upon it. They simply turned up the heat and waited for it to pass. When the N2 bomb went off at ground level next to the base, they got all the heat they could ever want, and theoretical non-existance turned into real non-existance. ~*~ An ordinary man would have been cowed by standing before the UN Security Council, especially when they all were shouting and pounding on the table with things and pointing fingers. Gendo was no ordinary man. He did not wait to be announced. "Gentlemen, everything is under control. We have launched POLARIS, and our forces are on their way to Canada. Salgiel WILL be stopped." Compared to the other chewing out he was expecting to receive soon, this was nothing. ~*~ "Is one of the Angels really going around nuking military bases?" one of the pressmen shouted. Maya grimaced as a sea of panicked reporters milled about below the podium she was standing at and tried to shove microphones in her face. This press conference was turning into a disaster; for once, the press couldn't be guided, in large part due to fear. I'm not trained for this, she thought. "Everyone calm down. NERV has everything under control." Obviously they hadn't read the script, or perhaps were too scared to really follow it, but she would soothe them and get things back in order. "Is it true that Commander Ikari is actually Elvis' love child?" someone shouted. Almost everything under control, she thought. ~*~ "Knock Knock," Asuka said. She seemed to know a nearly infinite number of these. Shinji would have killed her if he could reach her. And while he could have cut off the radio, even torture was better than boredom. "Who's there?" he asked, semi-mechanically. "Boo Boo." "Boo boo who?" "You don't need to cry," she said. He blinked, then she sighed. "Okay, no more knock knock jokes. How about..." She thought a moment. "First person to make Rei laugh gets off chores for a week." Shinji suddenly realized Rei hadn't laughed at any of them, although she had blinked confusedly twice and yawned through most of a third. "Okay. Hmm. Gimme a minute to think of a good joke...and how do we decide who goes first?" "You can go first. I need time to think of a good joke myself." ~*~ Magi reported. "POLARIS ACTIVATION SUCCESSFUL." Pause. "TARGET SPOTTED CROSSING HUDSON BAY. CURRENT COURSE NOW BEING PLOTTED ON WORLD MAP." A world map apeared on one viewscreen. It showed a curving line that headed down into Ontario, then right through Toronto and into the United States. Fuyutsuuki shook his head. "I was afraid of that. Someone radio Captain Katsuragi. And ask Magi if the planes will make it in time." Brief calculations followed. "AFFIRMATIVE. AT HIS CURRENT SPEED, SALGIEL CAN BE INTERCEPTED AT THE SOUTHERN END OF THE BAY." "Excellent. Alert Katsuragi of this as well." ~*~ "... and so the judge said, 'What stick?'" said Asuka. Rei blinked. Shinji blinked. "Stick? Get it?" said Asuka, lauging weakly. "Aheh... ah... guess not. Okay, Shinji, your turn again." "Er..." Shinji figited, scratched his head, and generally stalled for time. "C'mon, you've gotta know something less lame than 'when is a door not a door'," nagged Asuka. "Well, Misato and Touji told me a few," said Shinji reluctantly. Asuka shrugged. "Let's hear it." "You're sure?" asked Shinji. "Go!" "Um... okay. Ahem. Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder." He smiled nervously. Rei blinked. Asuka sighed. "Okay, clearly Misato humor. That was so bad I'm gonna have to insist that you try again." "Er... why are hangovers better than women?" "OKAAAY, we'll stop right there," said Asuka. "Remind me to kick Touji when we get back." ~*~ Operating out of a strip mall in Toronto was NOT the ideal environment to run the operation against Salgiel, but the location had been lying empty and had multiple phone lines in place from its incarnation as an internet service provider and computer store. It would have to do. Most of the fancy stuff would simply be piped in from MAGI in Tokyo-3 anyway. By the time Misato had arrived, everything was in place, including a large viewscreen with an interactive map. Salgiel was a flashing blue dot heading towards the bottom of Hudson's bay, while three close placed red dots moved to intercept him. They would make it in time; projections showed they would cross his line of march a good fifteen minutes before he reached the point where they would intersect it. Time enough to set an ambush, even. Assuming the stormfront advancing ahead of him didn't botch things up; trying to drop three EVAs in a snowstorm would be too much fun for the pilots, most likely. But there was nothing to be done. ~*~ "Did you hear about the accident at the army base?" asked Asuka. "A jeep ran over a box of popcorn and killed two kernels." Rei didn't even blink. Shinji groaned. "It wasn't THAT bad," insisted Asuka. "Okay, maybe it was. Your turn again, Shinji. And please, no jokes about women or beer." "Um... what do you get when you mix an elephant and a fish?" Rei blinked. "What?" she asked. "Swimming trunks." "Swimming trunks?" asked Rei, looking slightly puzzled. "Well, you see, an elephant has trunks, and-" Asuka cut in. "Shinji, if you have to explain, it isn't funny." "Please stop," said Rei quietly. "Sorry," apologized Shinji. "We're not teasing you or anything," Asuka told her. "We just... y'know... wanna see you laughing or something." "Laughing?" asked Rei. "Laughing, smiling, just happy, I guess," said Shinji. "I see." Rei thought about this for a brief moment. "Why did you apologize?" "You were offended, I mean, er, right?" asked Shinji awkwardly. "No." "Then why'd you tell us to stop?" asked Asuka. "We're about to dro-" //ENTERING DROP ZONE IN TEN SECONDS// "-p" Asuka pumped her fist. "Woohoo! Showtime! Seeya down below!" And with that, her screen disappeared. "Well, good luck," said Shinji. His screen flickered out as well, leaving Rei alone with her thoughts. "Smile..." ~*~ Parachuting the EVAs to the ground proved to not be the best of ideas, but there was no way to land the planes in the middle of a forest, and they had to stop Salgiel before it reached the most populated region of Canada. Asuka did the best job. Unit02 leveled a large swathe through the forest, but it was on its feet and ready to rumble within seconds. Shinji crashed into a bunch of trees, cutting a larger swathe and ending up having to dig himself out of a pile of new lumber. Rei had it worst; Unit00's parachute malfunctioned and it ended up in a ravine. The three quickly rendezvoused, having been scattered in the process, but EVAs move quickly, though more forest was levelled in the process. Shinji, in fact, was surprised by how quickly he was able to move through the howling wind and snow as if it wasn't even there. The others seemed to be having more trouble with it than he was, though again, he couldn't think of why. He had never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth, though. "So what's the plan?" he asked. "Fairly simple," Misato said. "Rei, you're the bait. Pretty much, make sure he sees you. Shinji, Asuka, you both have to move out of visual range of Rei so that he won't see you, Shinji to the left, Asuka to the right. Once Rei spots him, she'll alert you, and the two of you will flank him. Asuka, you charge at him more directly. Shinji, you will circle a bit to get behind him. Once you have him surrounded, Shinji and Rei will keep him from escaping, while Asuka focuses on attack." They all nodded, and began moving into position. ~*~ Unit00 stood stock still, quickly being covered by snow; still, no one who knew what an EVA was could mistake it for anything else. It was too big and too humanoid to pass for anything but itself. The wind grew stronger, and Unit00's sensors began to detect an approaching AT-field. The snow blew off Unit00 in an instant when it responded by forming one around itself. The first that could be seen of the Angel of Snow was its eyes, which glowed redly. Behind them was a shadow of a humanoid figure, fuzzy along the edges. It could easily have been another EVA, but Rei knew better, since she could see the position of the other pilots on a tiny map in one corner of her vision. There was silence except for the wind as they stared at one another. She should signal the others. But his vision compelled her, staring into her. Somehow, he could see through Unit00's eyes to her as she saw through its eyes to him. He was carrying something in each hand, a cylinder of some kind, gripped as if he planned to use it the way some thugs might grip a roll of quarters before a fight. They stared, and then he softened. The glow of his eyes dimmed slightly, and she no longer felt the full force of his gaze. Though his long-limbed figure could be seen but dimly through the howling snow, the whiteness that sought to consume the universe, it was clear that he had relaxed. He started to circle around Unit00 to the left. Volition returned to her. "Target acquired," she said, then prepared to move to block his advanced. Asuka was faster than expected; Unit02 emerged out of the wall of white faster than Rei had expected, progressive knife held high. The Angel didn't even look, simply pointing with a closed fist. The ground erupted in a pillar of white snow, a huge flurry that reversed the course of the blizzard and fell up, rising around Unit02. In two seconds, it was flung up and out of sight. A quick check revealed that Unit02 still existed; it was simply being carried upwards by an impossibly powerful updraft. The pillar of air was sucking in all the air around it, and Unit00 staggered towards it, unable to resist the winds despite Rei's best efforts. "Shinji, attack now!" Misato ordered. He did so, emerging out of the snow with the wind at his back. His progressive knife bit deep into the Angel's right shoulder, and the updraft suddenly ceased. Pivoting on one foot, Salgiel drove his fist into Unit01's chest, breaking the skin and spraying reddish black gunk onto the dark furred arm of the Angel. At least, it seemed dark, but there was so little light it was hard to tell. When the arm came out, Unit01 toppled backwards and fell into a sitting position, instinctively clutching its gut. Rei could hear Shinji screaming over the comlink. She cut off his channel reluctantly; hopefully, he would not say anything important. Narrowing her eyes and doing a quick calculation, she hurled her unit at him, bodyblocking him. He staggered back just as far as she had hoped. A second later, Unit02 fell on him, knocking him into the ground. Asuka gave a shout of triumph over the comlink and pulled out her progressive knife. Rei clicked the comline to Shinji back on. "Get up." He did so, looking angry rather than frightened now, then tried to draw the progressive knife which was still stuck in Salgiel's back. He prepared to charge the Angel. ~*~ The comline from Tokyo-3 to Toronto clicked on again. Maya said, "Bad news. Salgiel just stuck an N2 mine inside Unit01's chest." Misato stared at her. "WHAT?" "He's got another one too, if POLARIS is reading things correctly," Ritsuko said. "We're trying to get the remote detonation codes from the Canadians." "Crap." ~*~ Misato appeared again on the com channels. "Everyone, there's an N2 mine in Shinji's chest." "I have a WHAT?!" yelled Shinji. He clawed uselessly at his own chest. Unfortunately, Unit01's fingers were too big; he really needed some super economy size tweezers. "Shinji! Calm down!" ordered Misato. "Rei, keep the Angel busy. Asuka, cut it out of his chest, then you and Shinji will have to contain the blast if it goes off with your AT-fields. Hopefully, since it hasn't gone off already, it won't go off, but he might have some way to detonate it." Asuka, who had been thrown off Salgiel seconds before, tried to get Unit02 to stand up, then discovered to her horror that its right leg was broken. She cursed and knocked down a tree, turning it into an impromptu crutch, while Shinji continued to fail to extract the bomb. Unit00 grappled with the Angel, but she was sorely outmatched alone. He soon had 00 pressed to the ground, with him kneeling on its back, slamming its head into the ground repeatedly. Shinji couldn't watch it anymore, and charged right past Unit02, who had almost reached him, leaping onto Salgiel from behind and knocking him off of 00. They tumbled together through a stand of trees, disappearing from the sight of the others, although it was easy to follow the wake of destruction. Unit02 hobbled after him, while Unit00 sprinted after them once Rei managed to peel her unit out of the hole in the ground its head had made. Without the element of surprise, 01 wasn't doing much better than 00 had, although at least its head wasn't being pounded into the ground. Just as the Angel got Unit01 into a firm lock, much to everyone's surprise, it suddenly slipped upward out of the grip, popping up into the air like a greased watermelon. Its landing was undignifed, but it did get away. "Nice move, Shinji," Asuka said. "Uh...thanks. Can someone get this..." He gulped. "...bomb out of my chest now?" Unit00 moved to cover them while 02 knelt and cut it out, which wasn't easy with one of its legs broken. Covering them was easy, though; Salgiel turned and ran south into the all-encompassing grey-white fog of snow. "What the hell do I do with this thing now?" Misato passed on a just received message. "It's active. You've got ten seconds. Put it on the ground and all three of you activate your AT-fields!" "Can we really contain it?" Shinji asked, concentrating on bringing up the strange shimmering glow in front of his EVA's outstretched hands. The trio formed a triangle around the small metal cylinder, which looked as much like a keg of beer as it did a bomb. Three fields that looked like miniature aurora borealises shimmered in front of outstretched hands, then expanded, forming a triangle of everchanging, dancing light of all colors and none. "Turn off your eyes or you'll burn them out," Ritsuko said when Misato patched her in. A second before the bomb went off, they all plunged into darkness. They would not know if they succeeded until it was over. And then the bomb went off. ~*~ Safely esconsed in Toronto, Misato watched the visual feed from POLARIS and a weather satellite, showing a huge pillar of light erupting up through the clouds, burning them away in one spot for just a second before they closed in again. Radio contact with the Children revealed nothing; they might be alive or dead, though probably alive; the blast wouldn't have gone so high if they hadn't succeeded. "We've got good news and bad," Ritsuko said. "We can remote detonate the other bomb. But now, he's headed into the more populated zones of Ontario and he's speeding up. We've only got twenty or thirty minutes before he reaches Toronto. Maybe five before he hits a fair sized town." More good news and bad came in. Three small images appeared on the communications screen: Rei, Asuka, and Shinji. "We did it," Asuka said. "But now Shinji's got a nasty gash in his chest, and I've got a broken leg." Misato checked the timers and frowned. They were down to thirty seconds of power from the backpacks when they should have had another five minutes at least. The amount of power it took to contain the blast must have drained them faster. While the Units had some power left, they'd never catch Salgiel while Unit02's leg was broken. "Rig up a splint for the leg if you can. I'll get back to you in just a minute." It was time for some hard thinking. ~*~ "Well, that didn't go so well," Shinji said as he and Rei tried to figure out some way to tie some tree trunks in place to act as a sort of cast for the broken leg on 02. One EVA was down, their powerpacks were heavily drained, and an Angel was running loose with at least one N2 mine. "Hah! We'd have waxed his miserable ass if he hadn't cheated, then run away," Asuka said. "Next time, we gotta all hit him at once instead of acting like the bad guys in a kung fu movie," Asuka said sagely. "If you'd told me you were gonna jump him, I coulda helped you, Shinji." "You weren't jumping anywhere with a broken leg," Shinji said. "But I couldn't let him pound Rei into the ground like that." His voice had a hint of anger. "She could have died." "I was in no danger," Rei said, ripping huge amounts of ivy off of some trees and trying to use that as a cord for the impromptu splint. "Bullshit," Asuka said. "He was pounding your head into the ground!" "He could have exerted much more force, but chose not to," Rei said. "We attacked him first." "He's on his way to FUCKING BLOW UP TORONTO!" Asuka shouted. "You sound like you're on his side!" "I will kill him," Rei said, her voice dropping a few degrees. "I merely say what I saw." Shinji frowned. "So you think he didn't want to fight us? But he's on his way to destroy a human city." He had borrowed 00's progressive knife and was carving a tree into a proper crutch; his progressive knife was still stuck into the Angel. "He looks more human than an EVA does," Rei said, finishing the job of tying the splint, though it was anyone's guess if it would hold. Shinji's eyes widened. "You mean...he didn't recognize we had anything to do with humanity?" "Rei's right. EVAs don't look much like our usual machines," Asuka said. "And the AT-field...he must have thought we were some more of the alien biotechnological war machines like him. So he ignored us until we attacked." She stood up with her 'crutch'. "So how the hell are we gonna catch him to kill him?" ~*~ "SHITGODDAMMOTHERFUCKINGBLOODYHELLASSHOLESHITEATING COCKSUCKING...AAAAAAAAAA!!!!!" Misato screamed and pulled her hair, then turned the com channel back on. "I feel much better now. Detonate the bomb immediately." Fuyutsuuki nodded, and gave the order to Magi. Magi sent the controls up to POLARIS, which beamed them down to the location of The Angel, cycling through the possible codes in two seconds. Its baleful, unblinking gaze soon did its work. ~*~ On the map, there was a flash of light, and then the dot demarking the Angel began to cut northwest, moving away from Toronto. "Goddamit! He's not even immobile!" Misato cursed. "But he isn't going to destroy Toronto either," Fuyuutuski pointed out. "MAGI estimates he will reach the area where he was first spotted in about twelve to fifteen hours, which should give us time to pick up the EVAs as the snow retreats, fit them with new backpacks and move them to intercept him again." "Let's hope you're right," Misato said. "YOU get to tell the Canadian government why we blew up one of their cities." He sighed. "Better North Bay than Toronto." Misato turned away from him, her voice bitter. "Better no town at all." ~*~ The EVAs had been reequipped with fresh backpacks and they'd rigged up a crude cast for the leg of Asuka's EVA. Now, the EVA were in the holds of three planes on their way to northern Canada. The three of them, Misato, and Fuyuutsuki were having a conference call. "I think we shouldn't send in Asuka with a crippled EVA." "I am NOT crippled!" Asuka shouted. "They need me!" "She has to go," Fuyuutsuki said. "It will likely take all three of them to defeat him." Misato grumbled. Nothing was going right, and she had jet lag from hell that was making it hard to think. "Dammit. Right. All three of you, then. Try to not get your other leg broken too, Asuka." "Hey, I couldn't help it! I can't fight the wind!" "Too bad we can't fly," Shinji said. "Given how Rei landed last time, it would certainly help," Asuka said. Rei said nothing. ~*~ There's nothing like a good hearty run through the woods against hundred mile an hour winds through thick pine forest during a howling blizzard to get the blood pumping. While Asuka did her best to keep up, she was steadily falling behind, barely even able to see them. The Angel had dropped out of sight somehow, though the feed from POLARIS indicated he hadn't somehow teleported away. They soon learned the reason why; the ground dipped very sharply downward ahead of them into a deep valley with a frozen stream running through it. The snow was lighter here for no clear reason, so they could see further. What they saw were eight bombers scattered through the valley, mangled but mostly intact, half-buried in snow. The Angel was kneeling by one of them, peeling it open. "What the hell?" Shinji said. "He looks like he's decided to have a snack or something." Asuka reached the top of the ridge. "He just pulled open the BOMB BAY! He's getting more freaking N2 mines!" ~*~ Upon being informed of this, Fuyuutsuki tried to decide on the best course of action. His choices were stripped from him in an instant when Gendo said, "Remote detonate them all." No one had seen Gendo return, and several people started, whacking buttons and knobs that shouldn't have been whacked. No real damage was done that couldn't be fixed, however. "All of them? What about the EVAs?" "Give them twenty seconds to run, then go flat and cover themselves with their AT-fields." "They'll have to use up a lot of their power..." "If he detonates a few of those while they fight him, they will likely die. Do it." ~*~ "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck," was Asuka's steady mantra as they ran for their lives. Rei ran silently. Shinji looked back, saw Asuka losing ground, and stopped, then lifted Asuka when Asuka reached him. It wasn't easy, and it slowed him down, but he was still faster than the injured EVA. "What are you doing?!" yelled Asuka. "Running!" Shinji shouted back. "Hit the dirt NOW!" Misato shouted. They went down. AT-Fields went up. Then all of reality turned from white and gray into blazing red and yellow as a pillar of unearthly fire purged all mundane earthly life from the world around them. ~*~ MAGI analyzed more data and spat it out. Ritsuko frowned. "He isn't dead, but he seems to have been scattered by the blast. At the current rate of his energy starting to flow back together, we estimate...10 hours. The storm should die down as Salgiel has to pull himself together, so hopefully we can get power packs to the pilots in time." Misato nodded. "Pilots, power down to where you're only running life support and get some sleep. Keep one person on watch while the other's rest, so we can easily get ahold of you." "Right. Rei, you go first," Asuka said. "Shinji, you're second, and I'll take the third watch. Maybe my EVA will heal a little by then." "Sounds good to me," Shinji said. "I will wake you in three hours, Shinji," Rei said. ~*~ When Rei woke Shinji, it seemed like it had been only three seconds, but his EVA's internal clock spoke otherwise: 4: 30 PM MST, May 15, 2015 AD. His body clock couldn't decide if he should be awake, asleep, or dead. "I hope you sleep better than I did, Rei." "I will try." The image of her on the viewscreen clicked out, and he stared at it. Had she made a joke? Or was she serious? Or maybe she meant something else. He shook his head and stared around the devastated landscape. He could barely see anything at all, although the snow, which was black with dust, was falling more gently now. A gentle wind blew towards the vast crater to the north of them, sending tiny flurries of snow blowing along the ground. The forest was flat as a pancake around them, most of the trees reduced to a fine black ash. He looked up at the sky, and to his surprise, he could see a tiny hole in the clouds. A few stars twinkled through the hole, and he smiled. It was good to see the stars. One of them was very bright, and he realized in a few seconds that it was Polaris. Several more stars arced away from it, part of the Big Dipper. Or was it the Little Dipper? He stared at the star. It would still be there, shining down its light on the Earth whether he won or lost. In fact, it might have blown up already, but they wouldn't know for hundreds of years, maybe thousands. Perhaps someone orbited it and looked up at the sky and saw the Sun at his North Pole and wondered when his battle would end. Shinji felt his eyelids drooping, but he fought to keep them open. The light of Polaris helped; he feared he would fall asleep if he looked away. Maybe someone's looking at our star and wondering if anyone lives here, he thought. Then again, maybe that was where the Angels came from? Who could tell? Any star might be where the masters of the Angels dwelt, building more monsters to unleash in their desire to conquer the Earth. The stars didn't feel quite so friendly anymore, but he couldn't look away. He tried, but he couldn't quite turn his head. They had caught him, held him somehow, singing to one another with a song he couldn't quite hear, only feel the vibrations in his bones. Something was out there, singing, coming closer, singing the stars into place for the coming of the...the...It was calling the Angels forth. Whatever it was. And now the song had caught him, or perhaps the star. Perhaps it was the star that was singing, or maybe it had merely lured him into the trap. When his eyes slammed down, he thought for a moment that he had escaped, but he could still hear the song, the celestial song of impending doom. Then sleep took him. ~*~ He checked his clock when he woke up, aghast at falling asleep on watch. 9: 30 PM MST, May 15, 27915 AD. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and looked again. The time was the same. Looking around, he couldn't see 00 or 02 anywhere, and his radio only picked up static. The forest had grown back around him, though the trees were laden with snow, and the ground was coated with ice. It looked sickly, some of the trees twisted into disturbingly suggestive shapes, all of them with streaks of gray where no gray should be. Pinkish-green fungus grew on some of the trees, and one of them...kept moving when he wasn't looking at it. It was night, and the sky was only partly shrouded with clouds. The stars all seemed to be in the right places...no, some of them had moved while others had not, obeying no logic obvious to him. One of them, however, had not moved at all: Polaris, the pole star. Maybe I'm dreaming, he thought as he looked around. There was a reddish glow to the north, towards the crater. It was the glow of fire, he realized, and decided to go take a look. There might be people, and if it was a forest fire, he could easily outrun it. He checked his power supply: the infinity sign was showing. That hardly seemed possible, but it beat waiting here to die. He reached the lip of the crater soon enough. There was a strangely shaped ridge in the middle of the crater floor, roughly an oval with four smaller ridges running off from it at various angles, two ridges running northwest and north east from its northern end, one running east from the south end, and one running southwest. A frost laden shaft, carven with runes he could not read from this distance, rose from a point in the middle of the northern end of it, and just south of the shaft, there was an altar of crudely cut stone, accompanied by perhaps a dozen oddly shaped trees; they looked like banyan trees which had decided to take a winter vacation from Africa. There were people around the altar, and fires. Dozens of people, maybe hundreds, milled about, dressed in loose furs and dark cloaks. He zoomed in with his vision to take a closer look, and saw a woman who appeared to be the high priestess. She was a thuggish blonde with a protruding forehead and bulging eyes, hunched over slightly, wrapped in warm furs likely taken from some unfortunate moose, with huge furry clawed gloves that looked like hollowed out bear hands. Her skin had a bit of a greenish tint to it, and she stared unblinkingly at the victim on the altar. Soon, Shinji could see the victim. A red haired female teenager was bound on the altar in an a strange pose. She lay face down with her arms spread to form a Y shape, each running northward at a forty five degree angle from the direction her head pointed. Her left leg was arranged similarly, pointing southwest from her torso, but her right leg stuck straight east, which had to be painful, even if she was very limber. Her entire body was wrapped tightly in a red cloth with black runes and lines drawn upon it. A man stood near the high priestess holding a spear; he was dressed in black furs and wore a mask of cleverly carved wood that depicted some sort of snarling bestial face with eyes dyed red, possibly through the use of berries. Everyone but the priestess kept their distance from him as he capered about and howled pointlessly. The spear caught Shinji's eye; it seemed far too sophisticated for these barbarians, a smooth shaft of metal which seamlessly expanded into a very sharply edged head. Runes carved into it sometimes flickered briefly with a reddish light, and a single eye inscribed on the spearhead had a glowing pupil. A blue-haired female acolyte handed something to the high priestess. It was a long wooden cylinder carved to resemble the pillar that rose at an angle from the ridge, although it was not covered with dirt and grime and snow and ice, unlike the pillar. There was Latin script lettering on it, and Shinji suddenly realized what it was supposed to resemble. It was a wooden small scale duplicate of an entry plug. The world had seemed almost frozen in time, but now, everything began to move. There were several prisoners nearby, clad just like their captors, but being held in place by large, strong, ugly men with an odd sigil tatooed on their cheeks; it looked sort of like a 'bio-hazard' sign, but more organic, as if the lines were horns taken from some animal and turned into tattooes. It was the prisoners who caught his eye. Most of them were passive and sullen: a sandy-haired teenage boy who was squinting constantly, a taller, somewhat handsome black haired teen boy, a half-naked brown haired teenaged girl. A tall woman with long flowing black hair was howling and trying to break loose; she wore a strange sigil made from fishbones on a copper chain around her neck, somewhat like a star with an eye in the middle. He had seen it before, seen her before, seen...Misato. Some of the others bore some resemblance to people he knew, but she...the only difference was that the real Misato probably wouldn't have worn sewn together furs and her necklace wasn't made out of fishbones in real life. What the hell had happened? Was this something the Angel had somehow set up? Just a deranged dream? A vision of the future? It couldn't be...Even if he had somehow travelled through time, how the hell would Misato gotten 26,000 years into the future? It couldn't be. Just a dream; I must have fallen asleep on watch, he thought. It had to be a dream. The high priestess held the 'entry plug' high over the girl bound on the altar, then lead the masses in some kind of shout. Shinji watched, dumbfounded by the sheer bizarreness of the dream. As the woman moved around to hold the 'plug' over the girl on the altar, the acolyte parted the cloth, revealing the victim's buttocks. Horror gripped Shinji, as he realized what came next. While no one had ever given him 'the talk', he wasn't completely clueless. If he could have remembered he was commanding something capable of killing them all without even really noticing it, he would have done something, but all he could think about was the horror to come. Time slowed down again as the priestess raised the shaft high. The closer it came to the girl, the slower everything moved. It was a simple thing which snapped Shinji out of his funk. The mask-clad man's mask began to slide down his face, and he pushed it back into place with a gesture that was clearly instinctive. It was a gesture Shinji had seen before. He began to move, not quite knowing why, but knowing he had to do something, anything. Everyone turned and stared at him, and the high priestess froze in place, slowly turning to look as well. Unit01 lumbered down the steep slope, picking up speed, howling a great shout that echoed across the crater. The Misato-like woman suddenly broke loose from her captor, grabbed the spear of a second one and thrust it through his throat, then took his belt knife as he fell and drove it through the eye of the man who had been holding her. A riot broke out by the altar now, and the red haired victim began to stir. He ran, faster and faster, not thinking about questions like how he was going to actually stop when he got to the altar or what exactly he was going to do when he got there. Instinct drove him on; he had to stop what was happening. Then two things happened at once. The trees began to move, lashing out with their branches at prisoners who sought to escape, bark cracking open to form parodies of a human face. One of the prisoners was half-swallowed by a tree, which then bit him in half. The second was worse, at least for Shinji. The beast-masked man turned to face him and lifted the spear. He leaned back, and threw it, stepping forward as he did so. The spear flew; it shouldn't have been able to do anything to Unit01. Except that it grew as it flew, doubling in size every second, then it struck Unit01 through the heart with the force of a battleship main gun. Unit01 toppled and unbelievable agony ripped through Shinji, who clutched his chest, unable to stand the pain. His head throbbed as if bombs were going off inside it, and his chest felt a spreading fire. For at least a minute, he saw nothing, his eyes clenched shut, his body writhing mindlessly inside the LCL. When his eyes opened, Unit01 was pinned to the ground, its limbs splayed about helplessly. He could just barely raise its head, and see the altar was now stained with blood, mangled corpses surrounding it, piled on each other in a parody of copulation. 'Misato' was on the altar now, bound face up unlike the first victim, her body streaked with paint, or more likely, blood, her necklace a shattered pile of bone fragments by the base of the altar. Her body was covered in a grotesque parody of decency, with everything covered except for her face, breasts, and nether regions. The priestess was more hunched over now, and seemed to be limping; the blue-haired acolyte and the beast-masked man were holding her up. She seemed hesitant, or perhaps was simply shivering from the cold; it was snowing gently despite the cloudless, moonless sky. Only the stars and the fires lit this gathering. Shinji struggled feebly, trying to get his EVA to move its arms so he could pull out the spear, but they wouldn't move; he was powerless. Tears ran down his face, swiftly mixing with the LCL and dissolving away. "No...no..." "Wake up." Rei said. Shinji started, looking over and seeing her sitting next to him, wearing her plug suit and looking faintly irritated. "Rei...what are you doing here?" "Waking you up," was her reply. She turned and stared at the sacrifice in process. "It is not real." "I don't know how!" "Open your eyes." He looked over at the altar. The mob was chanting now, waving their arms and swaying as if they all shared one mind. The trees swayed as well, and a wind was starting to blow. Above them, shimmering lights were forming, great waves of polychromatic energy washing back and forth like the aurora borealis. "They've got Misato...she's going to die!" "Misato is in Toronto." Rei's voice became a little harsher. "Open your eyes." Unit01's left arm suddenly moved in a convulsive jerk, grasping the spear. Then paralysis settled in again, but Shinji could feel it building power to pull the spear out. "Just...a...little...longer." "If you stay, you will die. Or lose your mind. Open your eyes." The arm jerked and the spear pulled halfway out. Slowly, the arm began to pull it the rest of the way out. The lights were building, coalescing into a vast amorphous shape made of light and darkness over the crater, hundreds of feet across. "I've almost got it out..." he spat out. "I can still..." Rei's face darkened further, urgency creeping into her voice. "Even with an EVA, you will not succeed. You will die. Wake up." "Even if it's a dream...I can't let her die." Not like the others died. "How...if it was a dream, why would I dream this? I don't WANT this to be real!" "Sometimes people are made to dream the dream of others." She stared at him intensely. "This is a trap. Wake up." "A trap? By who?" The light was darkening and becoming flesh, and fur, and scales, forming tentacles and limbs and lips and eyes and teeth and legs, and mouths and breasts, a great cloud of flesh hovering over the crater, blocking out the light of the stars, lit only by the reddish glow of the fires below. Rei moved so that Shinji could not see it. "Do not look up," she hissed. Her own back was to the viewscreen now. "Her blessing would destroy you." She moved closer to him now, reaching out with a hand. "Wake up." "What...what is that?" "Beyond human power to touch or comprehend." Her hands brushed his eyes. "Wake up." He felt a jolt through his body, almost as bad as when the spear had struck him, but pleasant rather than agonizing. When it passed, the pain that racked him had gone. Everything else had gone as well. Asuka was on the viewscreen, screaming at him, and Misato, also now on the screen, didn't look too pleased. Rei was gone, although a few seconds later, a tiny window showing her head and shoulders appeared. "Shinji, WAKE UUUUUPPPP!!!" Asuka shouted. Shinji blinked. "It..." He made Unit01 look around. Everything was back to normal. The timer read 9: 30 PM MST, May 15, 2015 AD. He'd slept a good five hours. "I'm sorry," he mumbled. "The new backpacks will be dropped in a few minutes," Misato said. "Then it will be time for the hunt to start again." He looked over at Rei, who looked back at him. "Did you..." Asuka said, "It's about time. I'm starting to wrinkle." Misato laughed. "The least of your worries, I think." ~*~ The new packs came soon enough, and they quickly connected themselves in, then started to lope along towards the destination being fed them by Misato courtesy of POLARIS. It wasn't far, although detouring around the crater slowed them down a bit. Shinji didn't look in the crater; he was afraid of what he would see. They found Salgiel easily; the forest was fairly well levelled for quite a distance from the crater and he hadn't gone very far. The bad side of this was that it gave him a few seconds to prepare. As they closed in with 02 in the middle, 00 on the left and 01 on the right, he hefted one of the flattened trees and quickly broke off the base, making a crude giant spear. "Good idea," Misato said. "Grab some trees." 00 and 01 paused to do so, but it took just a little too long. Salgiel's free arm stabbed at 00, and suddenly it was airborne, hurled aloft by winds that could not be seen. Then he charged 01. Shinji blocked desperately with a tree, but his crumbled to ash on the first impact; the blast had done more to the trees than just level them. The ground was a mixture of jumbled limbs and ice, hard to stand on, and when the Angel's tree came around again to strike him, 01 toppled and collapsed. Doing her best to hobble along, 02 had a tree club in its left hand and a tree cane in the right. She charged, but the Angel simply crushed the base of the tree it held to a crude spearpoint, then hurled the tree. Shinji watched in horror, remembering his dream. The tree struck Unit02 where the spear had struck his unit in his dream, and Unit02 toppled backwards. As he started to stand, Salgiel moved with blinding speed to leap onto Unit02's chest, pushing the tree through its chest and into the ground. A tree shouldn't have been able to pierce EVA's chest, or hold it in place, but his sensors showed the tree was empowered with an AT-field. No wonder it held together, Shinji thought. A moment later, Misato shouted, "Charge it with your progressive knife, Shinji! While it's busy." He charged forward, wondering when Rei would land; she must have been thrown high into the air, he thought. Asuka had fallen much faster than this. As he charged, Salgiel put its foot on Unit02's head like a triumphant hunter, crushing its 'nose'. It took the tree cane she had been using and prepared to ram that down through 02's left eye. Several things happened at once. Asuka gave a great shout over the comlines. 02's mouth suddenly sprouted dozens of tendrils and more erupted from its cheeks, brow, and throat, burrowing into the Angel's foot and holding it fast. The tiny tubes began to throb and grew darker, sucking fluids from Salgiel's body. A shadow grew under 02's skin as the fluid began to spread through its flesh. And from above, 00 came into sight. It was not falling, but flying. Great blue bat-like wings had erupted from its back, Cherubim wings, and its mandibles convulsively snapped open and shut as it dove down at the Salgiel's head. Inside Unit02, Asuka watched, unable to do anything as the LCL seethed and boiled around her. For a moment, she thought she saw tendrils forming from her own flesh, then they dissolved away; she could feel her heart accelerating, could almost feel the blood flowing through her veins. Lights flickered through the LCL, and the viewscreen took on a faint red sheen. She began to curse with every obscenity she knew, but it was of no avail. 01 held its progressive knife high, a shimmering polychromatic AT-field forming around it, and charged to join the assault. ~*~ Misato stared over her visual link. Wings? Since when have the EVAs sprouted wings? Although it certainly was useful, but there was no way in hell something so big could fly. And what was 02 doing to the Angel's foot? "What the..." Over the link from Tokyo-3, Ritsuko said, "Adaptation. You did notice the mandibles after they fought the first Angel, didn't you?" "Well, yes, but..." She watched Shinji drive his knife into the Salgiel's back, causing it to arch its back just in time for Rei to settle down on top of it. 00's mandibles pierced its skull, an AT-field shimmering around them, and she stabbed her progressive knife into its throat. "Well, looks like we won this one." "I hope you're right." ~*~ Salgiel's body shimmered, beginning to shift colors across the darker end of the specrum, shaking and twitching as it howled. Winds were picking up and snow erupted in a torrent from the sky, battering at the three EVAs, but their grips did not falter. It tried to discorporate, to let go of its body, but it was trapped by their AT-fields, which had flowed together into a prison built of constantly changing light. It could not escape, and inch by inch, they were devouring it. Shinji could hear Asuka shouting, though he understood none of it, and as the LCL around him began to pulse, he started to understand why. He felt hungry, or maybe his EVA was hungry; it wanted to feed, to feed on the light. He felt the urge to rip out the Angel's heart, to dig his teeth into its flesh. His own hunger echoed his EVA's building frenzy, for he had not eaten in over a day, and the LCL could keep him alive, but not really satisfy his stomach. Salgiel's body lost its color and turned gray, then great, dry flakes began to fall off it. It dropped the tree cane, and the tree it had shoved through 02 crumbled to dust in a second as the AT-field that sustained it failed. The snowstorm around them built to a frenzy that would have levelled a city in seconds, but the snow melted to water, and water to steam, and steam broke apart into hydrogen and oxygen the instant it struck the surging fields of light that surrounded the four huge humanoid figures. His head suddenly collapsed, caving in on itself, and 00 greedily devoured it, sweeping gobbets of pinkish flesh fading to gray into its gullet past the mandibles which now tore into its shoulders. And with that, the other EVAs began to devour the great beast as well. Shinji said, "I can't stop it! What the...What do I do?" 01 drove its fist through the things's ribs and ripped out the creature's heart, which was still limmed with a dwindling nimbus that shone across the spectrum, then ate the heart in a single gulp, shoving its head in where the hand had gone to devour more flesh. The LCL around him surged with every bite, and to his horror, he found himself biting at the LCL, though he quickly stopped himself, the urge to feed continued. It took a lot to make Shinji curse. This was enough. "SSSSHHIIIITTTT!!!! I CAN'T STOP!!!" "Gott in HIMMEL!" Asuka shouted as her EVA began to devour the Angel of Snow's legs, its head tendrils sucking up every droplet of fluid they could find. "PAREN! PAREN! SCHEISSE!!!" The LCL boiled around her, now a deep red in color, as if she floated in a sea of blood. It tasted better, or perhaps she simply was liking the taste. She didn't like liking it. The storm ceased in an instant, the winds vanishing and the snow stopping as Salgiel's body went totally limp, being ripped apart by the three out of control EVAs. 02 got up onto its knees and tore into the beast's flesh, its own leg injury now apparently forgotten, while 00 chewed its way down the body, and 01 split the middle. Two Children continued to scream over the comlines. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?" Misato shouted at Ritsuko, who winced slightly. "No need for obscenity. This will require study." The blue of 00's flesh faded to a snow-white color as it continued its meal. 01 sprouted fangs and claws as it continued its disgusting feast of grey, crumbling flesh. 02 seemed unchanged if you didn't count the fact that its leg was clearly not broken anymore. Misato winced and turned away. "This requires Pepto-Bismol. Once the angel is dead, get those kids out of there!" ~*~ Shinji wiped his brow. Something had to be wrong with the airconditioning at the Geofront. He had been sweating ever since he came back to Japan, but the temperature normally never changed down inside NERV's base. "Can someone turn up the air conditioning?" Asuka, who was standing next to him in another one of the monitor tubes nodded. All three pilots were naked and being tested again. She could feel a tiny bead of sweat making its way down her forehead. "Does it usually get this hot in Japan in May?" "Hmm," Ritsuko said, checking a monitor. "Is the heat bothering you, Rei?" "I am sweating," she replied. Maya frowned. "That's strange. No one else is, and your body temperatures all read normal." "Well, something is WRONG!" Shinji shouted in a fit of pique, then blinked at himself. Why'd I shout? "Uh...sorry about that." "Yeah, like Shinji said," Asuka pitched in. "Whatever your machines say, we all feel hot." "It's 20 degrees centigrade. You should feel fine," Maya said. "We'd better do a blood test." As Maya walked away, Asuka looked around warily then said quietly to Shinji, "Hey, what do you think you were doing back there?" Shinji merely gave her a confused look. "What'd I do?" "You picked up my Eva and ran, that's what you did," said Asuka irritably. "I would've been just fine, you know." "But you were falling behind! I couldn't just-" "Yeah, well, you don't have to be the knight in shining armor all the time, y'know." "Sorry." "Me'n Rei might be girls, but we're tough enough to take care of ourselves." Her expression softened, just a little. "But... thanks anyway." Rei sat silently in the corner, looking down at the cold, tiled corner. If anyone else was in the room, they would've felt a drop in temperature. ~*~ Blood tests revealed nothing, and the feeling of discomfort at the heat gradually faded. Eventually, everyone went home and had dinner. Shinji picked at his dinner of teriyaki chicken, reluctant to eat...memories of his frenzying EVA tearing into the Angel kept coming back to him. Misato looked over, sauce all over her lips. "You don't like it?" "I keep thinking about..." He blushed. "The Angel." Asuka's eyes suddenly widened in the middle of drinking her coke through a straw. She spat the straw out of her mouth, then hurled it into the garbage can. "Don't remind me!" "It wasn't your fault, Shinji," Misato said. "There's a lot we don't fully understand about the EVAs, but they're the only way we can stop the Angels." She sounded uncertain as she continued, subconsciously taking a hold of her star-eye necklace. "And we saved Toronto." "But...what if I lose control of my EVA again?" "What if the Earth suddenly spins into the Sun?" Misato replied. "Even berserk, none of you attacked each other, so I don't think there's any danger any of you will hurt each other. Just do your best, Shinji. And if you don't eat your dinner, you'll starve." He nodded, and started eating, feeling a little better. Asuka returned to drinking her coke without the straw, looking a bit subdued. Misato, on the other hand, ate like her food was going to escape if she didn't devour it immediately. Some of it did escape, off her plate and into Asuka's hair when her chopsticks slipped. And then things got really messy. ~*~ Gendo and Fuyuutsuki sat in a small room with many TV monitors on the walls, each showing a different channel. Most of them were news, reporting outbreaks of cannibalism in towns which had been snowed in by the great storm, or showing time lapse photography of the storm, or revealing that the glaciers had advanced a good fifty miles during what the announcers were calling, 'The Blizzard of the Century'. A thousand eggheads shouted at each other over what had caused it, with explanations ranging from the wrath of God to El Nino to aliens to holes in the ozone layer. Gendo's gaze lingered briefly on a talk show where one of the guests was shouting and trying to beat the host to death with a rune-carved walking cane. "I have seen it! The Storm is only the beginning. After winter, summer, and after summer comes winter! The stars have turned and now humanity will be purged from Earth! The Lord of the Air sends forth his hand to smite the Earth! And it's all your fault! But now I understand! YOU ARE THE CRAWLING CHAOS! If I kill you, humanity will be saved!" Gendo laughed. "If he WAS the Crawling Chaos, bashing his head in would simply cause more trouble than it would be worth. And I suspect he wouldn't be running a talk show, anyway." "Well, we did suspect Springer briefly, but..." Fuyuutuski laughed. "Hmm. I wonder if the fellow has studied D'erlette's Elemental theory." "Possibly. If so, he's working from bad information. D'erlette misinterpreted the references to the Lords of the Elements in the texts he studied," Gendo said, idly scratching his ear and watching the maniac swat away the security guards. "It did seem rather strange to list someone imprisoned underwater as a water elemental," Fuyuutsuki said. "Or the Haunter in the Dark as an earth elemental when so many of its forms fly or swim." "Part of the problem is that he used the wrong elemental theory," Gendo said. "Four elements instead of five. It's quite clear from the Ponape Scriptures that it should be five." "But which five?" Gendo blinked. "Air, Water, Fire, Metal, and Plants or Wood, of course." "The Pnakotic Manuscripts use the four Western Elements and Spirit as their five." Gendo frowned. "Why didn't you mention this before?" "I did. We've had this argument before, you know. Still, the real question is whether we understood the references better than him as to WHAT the Lords of the Elements are. If he is right, then we're running down the road to perdition." "I think we've seen enough proof to know we're right. The only question is which set of elements and whether or not they will all survive as they must." Fuyuutsuki laughed and settled back in his chair. "Prophecies always come true. They will survive. The only question is whether it will be fulfilled in the way we hope, or the way we fear." "And whether we survive to see the day we have long awaited." That was his deepest fear; he was not part of the prophecy, there was no guarantee of his survival. Yet, if he died before the crucial moment, all his labors would have been for naught. "We must find the Fourth Child." "We will," Fuyuutsuki said, rising from his chair. "That much we know is fated." "We hope." "Hope is often all we have in this world." "And as often, a delusion." Fuyuutsuki paused in the doorway. "'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. There is nothing good under the sun.' If you think this is all vain striving, why are you still trying?" "The secret is to realize that the strivings of the great powers are, in the end, just as futile as the strivings of humanity. The universe will as cheerfully grind them under and reduce them to dust as it would watch humanity be destroyed. Even if humanity triumphs, we will one day be destroyed. But so will they. And the universe that would watch us die without caring won't shed a tear when they die. As we've already proved." "If they realize what we're up to and actually take us seriously..." "If someone is stung by a bee and dies, do you assume the bees are plotting in their hive against you? So it is with them. They will not really pay attention until it is too late. Especially since they often squabble among themselves, which may well be why humanity has survived this long at all. They will think that one of the others is using us as a tool, if they notice us at all." He smiled faintly. "Half-truths make the deadliest lies," Fuyuutsuki said. "Exactly." -*- - end part 6 - -*- -*- "Shinji..." He blinked, then looked around. Absolute black filled his vision, obsidian night all around him. "Shinji..." Again, the voice, whispering his name ever so lightly. "H-hello?" he called out. "Shinji..." Slowly, he felt the air around him shift. No, that wasn't right... it wasn't air... It was LCL. Shocked and surprised, he opened his mouth to scream, only to be choked by an onslaught of warm, rancid LCL pouring mercilessly into his throat. "Shinji," the voice whispered again. Within the darkness and warmth of the LCL, something cold encircled his body. Something unearthly, with inhuman limbs and spastic quivering. As the thing's embrace tightened around Shinji, he screamed one more time, and a burst of bubbles erupted from his mouth and silently floated through the void. And cold, soft lips pressed gently on his forehead. -*- "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" He bolted upright, covered in sweat, breathing deeply and rapidly. His hands, trembling, quickly checked over his face, searching for traces of LCL. Outside, he could hear Misato and Asuka emerging from their rooms. Misato knocked gently, while Asuka was letting a chain of angry German words flow from her mouth. "Shinji, you okay?" asked Misato, peeking inside. Shinji nodded weakly. "Just... just a bad dream," he said. "Sorry." "Y'wanna talk about it?" asked Misato. "No, that's okay. I'll get over it." "If you say so." He waited till he heard their doors close, then stood up and opened his window. A gentle, chilling breeze caressed his face, and a single strand of spider web drifted by. "What the..." And far away, in the shadows of the night, a pair of red eyes looked up with a sense of longing and desire, then disappeared into the darkness. -*- John Biles & Rod M. Present A Neon Genesis Evangelion Elseworlds Children of an Elder God Part 7 Briefen von Tokyo-3 "Letters from Tokyo-3" -*- Motomu Kamiya was about to have the worst month of his life. Motomu was not a bad man. He was a generally average person. Co-workers would say, if asked, that he was a fairly pleasant person, very friendly, and helpfull as well. He was just a clerk, but a NERV clerk, so the pay was somewhat decent. Unfortunately, he had a small itch that none of his co-workers knew about. He liked to gamble. And as luck did with many a gambler, it abandoned him at the entirely wrong moment. Facing a large debt from very insistent people, he became desperate for cash. Fortunately, or so he thought, someone had come forward to him, on that same day, making an offer he literaly could not afford to pass up. They had offered him a dazzling amount of money to do certain things for them. It was mostly taking pictures, copying files, that sort of thing. He got caught. Unfortunately, Motomu forgot the fines and penalties for crossing NERV in such a manner. Being fired was the tip of the iceberg. He was also fined a monetary amount large enough to boot him out of the green, far beyond the black, and fumbling down in the red. And then there was the jailtime. Being the man that he was, Motomu ran for it. Homeless, broke, and on the run, it was the start of a bad month. -*- May 19, 2015 Dear Doktor Himmelfarb, Guten Morgen! My new life in Tokyo-3 is going well, although it's all very strange to me, compared to NERV-Germany. You would not BELIEVE the price of meat! I'm starting to think there must only be twelve cows in this country, and they only butcher one a month to sell or something. Not enough fruit, either, although there are lots of good vegetables, and I can get all the stuff I need to make decent food, which is crucial since Fraulein Katsuragi doesn't believe in cooking, and Shinji has no money to buy anything worth eating. We do, at least, have plenty of beer, but unfortunately, it's all crap. Pardon my language, but I wouldn't make a dog drink the stuff Fraulein Katsuragi buys. I think today, I'll throw it all out and buy some decent beer...if I can find any. Everyone with any money drinks sake, but I've already had enough rice to last me until I get too old to chew. So, basically, I've had to add 'Staff Nutritionist' and 'Head Cook' to my duties, along with piloting EVA and going to school. Speaking of piloting EVA, we kicked Salgiel's ass up in Canada, but it was one hell of a fight. I broke my...I mean, my EVA's leg got broken, but at least I didn't get an N2 mine stuck in my chest like Shinji did. You'd think he was the kind of guy who would shit in his pants when something like that happened, but he held together long enough for me to save his ass. Then he had to return the favor later when we had to run, and I couldn't keep up because my leg was broken. I can say I've seen more N2 bombs go off than I EVER want to see again. Salgiel was throwing them around like they were going out of style, not that they did much. We finally caught him and... It's hard to talk about. No one ever told me an EVA could go berserk, although from the way Fraulein Katsuragi was carrying on, I don't think they knew, either. I...My EVA drank Salgiel's blood, and then ate his legs, and the LCL started boiling and I panicked and started shouting in German and my EVA didn't listen and...hmm, maybe that was the problem. I had the interface set to Japanese. I hope that was it. I can't figure out why my EVA would EAT the Angel, anyway. If they needed food, they would have starved to death by now...and how could they run off of batteries if they need to eat? Anyway, I'm gonna be pissed if this happens again; at least that bastard Commander Ikari didn't blame me for it this time, but I think he's looking for an excuse. Maybe he hates Germans or something. He certainly doesn't treat Rei or Shinji like he treats me. He acts like they're his...okay, Shinji IS his son. Still, it pisses me off! Verdammnt Scheisskopf! I'm sorry...I just...The man makes me want to smash something every time I deal with him. I had to put half my stuff in a storage facility; everyone in Japan seems to like living in closet-sized apartments. I did get my own room, at least, although I can't lock it. Not that there's any danger of Shinji trying to break in. But the paper thin walls don't do much good when Shinji has a nightmare and wakes up screaming as if an Angel had snuck into his bedroom. This makes twice now. If he does that again, I'll kill him. I guess I sound pretty whiny today. I just needed to get all this off my chest. It's not all bad. Fraulein Katsuragi is a pretty nice person, although she acts like some kind of drunken college student most of the time, and I get to see Kaji all the time! They're calling me for some tests, so I'll just say goodbye and continue this tomorrow. We have to figure out why our EVAs freaked out. Sincerely, Asuka Langely -*- The Turing Test had failed, but Gendo had expected that. He wasn't worried about the EVAs starting to talk. The real question was whether they would act under their own initiative again. There was no good way to be sure, unless they could be provoked into acting. The way in which they had been made had always raised the possibility of them achieving sentience. However, the precautions they had taken with them should prevent that. It was possible the feeding frenzy had simply been a reflex action, but that was bad enough...there was no way to be sure what strange reflexes the things might possess. He and Ritsuko stood in the observation bridge, staring at the large chamber in which the three EVAs sat. "There has to be some way to test it," he said. "Perhaps we could have one of the pilots fake an attack with their EVA on one that lacks a pilot and see if it defends itself," she suggested. "If it has developed a will of its own, it should do something." "We might lose it...I want to find a way that won't risk damaging them too much." "I don't know another way to MAKE them take action. And we don't have any Angels handy to let them eat." "Check on whether or not the pilots have changed their tastes in food." Ritsuko frowned at him. "You think..." "Sychronization is dangerous. That's why we've lost so many pilots. You have to become one with EVA, but that's not safe, as we both know. We need the EVAs to adapt, not the pilots. Not like that." "I'll run some more tests on them and ask about their diet, then," she said. "Rei's been showing some irregularities, although it is probably puberty, as Maya thinks." "What kind?" "I'll get the charts and show them to you." She departed, leaving him to stare at the three EVAs. If something went wrong with Rei before DAGON was complete...it would be a disaster. The most recent DAGON tests had been fairly successful, but so had several of the past ones, and they had ended either in disaster or a useless side alley. The Day of Return was coming. He could feel time slipping away, could feel the end approaching. With every day, there was less margin for error, less room for mistakes. Less room for any deviation. His pager went off. His superiors were calling him. Another random element he feared might bring all to ruin in the end, but an element he could not simply eliminate. Too many things in his life were becoming like that. -*- May 20, 2015 Dear Doktor Himmelfarb, Shinji had another nightmare. So did I, but unlike him, I didn't wake up screaming so that NO ONE would get a good night's sleep. I think I'm going to have to try and teach him how to control his dreams like you taught me, even though I don't have a feedback machine or anything. Otherwise, I may never sleep again. Although, really, I'm not tired. I just can't believe that the pilot of Unit01 is REALLY such a pansy. He whines, he screams in the middle of the night, he lets people push him around, but then when he's in his EVA, he suddenly comes to life and acts more like a normal human. He's got two friends. One of them is kinda geeky, named Kensuke, while the other is a complete monkey named Touji who thinks he's God's gift to women or something. When he's not busy making stupid jokes about us. I keep hoping an Angel will wander by and squash him. No one will give a straight answer on why I'm having to go to school when I have a university degree! It's so utterly boring, except for Phys. Ed. It is kinda nice to be around kids who can keep up with me, but the teachers are boring and the only stuff I don't already know is Japanese Literature, but that's taught by a complete moron. I've also decided the Tale of Genji is the most boring book in the entire universe. But he loves it. Still, I find stuff to keep me busy. -*- "Hey, look who's back!" yelled Touji. Shinji entered the room sheepishly, smiling and scratching his head. "H-hey." Kensuke's eyes welled up into tears, and he clenched a fist as he stared up into the ceiling. "Dammit, I envy you, Ikari!" "Huh?" "You get top military clearance! You get to live with two hot chicks! YOU'VE GOT IT ALL!!! I FEEL SO ENVIOUS!!!" Shinji cringed, Touji sighed, and Kensuke shook his fist and wept in envy. The rest of the class took stock of the situation and discussed it amongst themselves, much to Shinji's embarrassment. "Hey, c'mon, it's not a big deal!" said Shinji quickly, trying to calm his friend down. "Yeah, living with a babe like Misato, must be a reeeeal pain," said Touji. "Though that Asuka... I dunno, there's something about her that I don't like." As if right on cue... "GUTEN MORGEN!" boomed Asuka, striding proudly into the doorway. Her grin was sharp and full of confidence, and every move she made expressed a certain arrogance that only Asuka could pull off. "The world saviour is in the room. You may give thanks at your conviencence." As Asuka strode to her chair, the classroom cheered her on. A line of girls gave high-fives as she walked by, ending with an exhuberant high-five/low-five with Hikari that was topped off with a hip-bump. "Aaaagh," groaned Shinji. "Third Child! Howyadoin?" hailed Asuka loudly. "Did we or did we not kick ass out there?" "Do you have to be so loud?" whimpered Shinji. "Loud? Me? OF COURSE! I'M THE GREATEST!" boomed Asuka. "And you oughta be loud too, third child! You're one of the few, the proud, the Evangelion pilots!" Asuka turned to the class and yelled, "am I right or am I right?!" The class gave a loud cheer, and Shinji's embarrassment deepened even further. And then the First Child walked into the room and it became unexplainably quiet. Asuka tried to keep her upbeat mood up, facing Rei and smiling. "Heya, Ayanami!" She stared at Asuka for a moment, blinked, then went to her seat. Asuka felt remarkably stupid. The rest of the class period was spent in silence. -*- You asked me about the First Child in the letter you sent me, which I got this morning. Thanks for writing me! Anyway, she's...She's the weirdest person in the entire universe. You remember that kid...Otto von Kleinbeck? The one who sealed his nostrils shut trying to sniff glue? And kept trying to wear underwear as a hat? She makes him look normal. Okay, I'm exaggerating. She's just so passive it's creepy. But I'm going to try to make friends with her anyway; we need to work as a team, and if I wait for Shinji or Rei to take the initiative, I'll be married with children by the time it happens. -*- Asuka gazed across the school grounds, to where Rei Ayanami sat. She was under a tree, all alone, and looking as emotionless as ever. When Asuka found out she was to be working with other pilots, she figured they'd have to work as a team to be successful. This also meant, in her view, the pilots all getting along well together. A sense of camraderie was something vital to the success of the pilots. So far, it wasn't quite going as well as she'd hoped. Shinji was spineless, remarkably spineless. She believed that he'd probably jump at his own shadows. His introverted nature wasn't good either. However, he did have a chivalrous streak to him, and on occasion he would open up and let people know what was in his heart. Rei, on the other hand, was the very definition of an ice maiden. She did her duty, and did it well, but seemed to treat socializing as if it were an option, and one that she wasn't planning to exercise. Asuka admitted to herself that she hadn't exactly tried to get Rei to talk yet. That was something she was about to change. "Ayanami! Hi!" she said, walking up to the albino girl. Rei looked up. For a moment, a brief flicker of a frown appeared on her face. Then she looked down at her food again and resumed eating. Not a good start, thought Asuka. "So, er, mind if I join you for lunch today?" asked Asuka, trying not to sound unnerved. Rei silently nodded. Asuka, for a moment, was at a loss as to what that meant. Was that a 'yes you can join me' or a 'yes I mind, go away'? After a moment's deliberation, she decided to think positive and take it a sa 'yes you can join me'. She would never know if she was correct. Asuka ate her sandwich slowly, then looked at Rei. The albino girl was slowly picking her way through a cup of ramen. Though she really wanted to break the silence, Asuka found herself at a loss for words. This was unusual, especially for her. Rei finally noticed her stare, then looked right into her eyes. Asuka trembled for a moment, struck with several feelings at once: vertigo, claustraphobia, the chills, dizziness, a feeling that something was just _wrong_ in the universe. She shook it off quickly. Asuka was that kind of girl. "What?" asked Rei. If there was any malice in her voice, Asuka missed it. "Look, I'll be blunt," said Asuka. "We're Eva pilots, a team. We're gonna be out there fighting things that could destroy the world. If we're gonna survive, I think we're gonna need a sense of teamwork, camraderie, that sort of thing." Asuka paused to see if Rei was following this. She didn't seem to not be paying attention, though the constant emotionless stare was getting a bit unnerving. "Anyway," continued Asuka. "I just wanted to break the ice and get to be friends, okay?" "Friends?" asked Rei. "Yeah, friends, y'know?" Rei blinked. "I see." And with that said, Rei went back to eating her ramen. Asuka blinked once, twice, then sighed in defeat. Saying any more words, she knew, would just make her feel more stupid. -*- I've already made friends with Hikari, the class president. She's just the kind of person I like. We can hang out and talk and play video games and she just understands me. I think she and Anna would like each other. How is Anna doing? Did you give her my address? Anyway, Hikari's father works for NERV doing some kind of lab work so secret he can't even tell her what it is. But since he's a geneticist, I assume he's probably studying those samples from that stupid koosh-ball I killed. They've got all the pieces down in some lab. And there's a few samples from Salgiel, although our EVAs...ate most of him. I'm gonna see if she can come over and help me figure out how to arrange all the stuff Misato let me keep. I'm afraid I may have put the picture of Mom and Dad in one of the boxes I sent to the storage place. -*- Hikari worked on her ice cream cone as she sat near Asuka, who was busily sorting through her boxes of stuff. They were listening to one of Asuka's CDs of Zwei Herzen, a German pop band. While Hikari couldn't understand the lyrics, she liked the breezy tunes. Asuka pulled out a t-shirt with a picture of a Valkyrie on it. "This is from when I went to the Wagner Festival in Munich. I couldn't believe how long the Nibelunglied was. And everyone died." She shook her head, and tossed it over to Hikari, who took a quick look at it and tossed it on the bed. "So you're a big opera fan?" "Yeah. I like classical music," Asuka said. "I've got my tickets from a performance of Marriage of Figaro that I went to with Doktor Himmelfarb and Pieter for my thirteenth birthday." "Was Pieter your boyfriend?" Asuka blushed. "He was three times my age! He was my combat instructor and a really great guy." Hikari smiled faintly. "So you just thought about him but didn't do anything." "I DID NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON PIETER!!!!" Asuka shouted. "Uh huh. You don't have a crush on Kaji either." "It's not a CRUSH! I really love him!" "Uh huh." Hikari smiled faintly, remembering how she had gone through something like that with the gym teacher a few months earlier. It had taken seeing the gym teacher with her literature teacher to get her over that. "What makes you so sure of that?" "I've had crushes, and they never lasted this long." She'd been in love with Kaji for a good three months now. "Not like when I had a crush on Franz, just because he had a nice body, and he caught me when I fell off the roof...anyway. Kaji is handsome and a nice guy and charming and likes to do fun stuff with me." Hikari was not too impressed. "He's twice your age, though." "Age means nothing to true love! Every time I think about him, my heart beats faster, and it's hard to breathe and I feel all...wonderful. Just like in all the books. It has to be true love." Hikari couldn't argue with that...directly. "But how do you have any idea how he feels?" "He wouldn't spend so much time with me if he didn't like me. He's a busy man," Asuka said. "And I'm as well educated as him, as smart as him, and as good looking, so..." "And your head is as big as his too," Hikari said, laughing. "You'll never die of humility, Asuka." Asuka snorted and went back to the box, then pulled out a carefully folded black satin outfit and laughed. "What did I bring THIS for? Doesn't even fit." "What is it?" "I was Batgirl for Halloween when I was eight..." She unfolded the costume, which was now clearly too small for her. "Doktor Himmelfarb and Gertrude made it for me." "Gertrude?" "One of Doktor Himmelfarb's assistants; she was a geneticist. Her daughter Anna went to school with me; she was my closest friend in Germany. She has a brother named Oscar, he's a loser, but he had the most MASSIVE crush on me." She put the costume next to the box and kept digging, pulling out three novels and a history textbook. "This must have been one of the boxes I just starting throwing junk in." "So what did you do about it?" "What...Oscar?" "Yeah." "Ignored him and his annoying cat. Stupid thing always clawed up all my stuff, but he took the cat everywhere except school. He was just whacko. Really smart, though, but no common sense at all. Nothing like his mom or his sister. Doktor Himmelfarb always thought it was because his father died when he was little, but that never made any sense to me." Asuka pulled out a photo album. "Ahah! Here it is!" She paged through the photo album, and found a picture of herself, Doktor Himmelfarb, Pieter, Gertrude, Anna, and Oscar. Pieter was tall and muscular, dressed in fatigues. He had brown hair in a crew cut and deep green eyes. Gertrude was tall and thin with short blonde hair, dressed in a nice blue blouse and a knee-length light blue skirt. Anna looked much like her mother, except for having long blonde hair in the same style as Asuka's, soft grey eyes hidden behind glasses, and like Asuka in the picture, she was wearing a black shirt that said 'NERV SCIENCE AUXILLARIES', complete with the NERV logo in red, and blue shorts. Oscar was rather cute (for a thirteen year old), had short ash-blonde hair, a similar t-shirt to the girls and jeans, and had a black cat tucked under one arm. They were standing in front of a museum, but their bodies concealed the sign, other than the word 'Berlin'. "Here we are," Asuka said. "He took his cat to the museum?" "He tried," Asuka said, shaking her head. "Pieter ended up having to stay outside with him while the rest of us went in." "Do you miss your friends?" Hikari asked. "I know I would." "Yeah," Asuka said quietly. "Anna and I pretty much grew up together, and I miss Gertrude and Doktor Himmelfarb and Pieter too. I don't miss Oscar, though." Hikari laughed. "Show me some more pictures." This went on for quite some time. -*- Shinji was in the living room practicing his cello as Asuka and Hikari came out of Asuka's room. "Tell Katsuragi-san I'm eating dinner over at Hikari's tonight." "Have you done your chores yet?" "It's your turn." "It is NOT!" He pointed at the calendar, then realized Misato had been tampering with chore assignments again, and it had become an illegible mess. "Ummm..." Asuka grinned. "I'll armwrestle you for it." Shinji began to sweat. -*- My love life is NOT working out like it's supposed to. Fraulein Katsugari is after MY Kaji. Oh, she denies it, and acts like she hates him, but I'm not blind. I can tell. She ought to make up her mind! She dumped him back in college, so he's fair game now! Not that he helps by flirting with her. I'm starting to realize he flirts with just about everyone, though. Even Ice Queen Akagi. That's not fair. Doktor Akagi is very nice, she's just...I think she scares most men off by being so regal and smart. I just can't figure out how to get Kaji to pay more attention to me. He seems distracted, like he's thinking about something. And it's not Katsugari. I hope it isn't. I can't see what he would see in her...I'm far more mature than she is. Surely, he doesn't WANT someone who acts like that. -*- The command center was unusually quiet, with the exception of two figures sittin at its center. One of them was looking through paperwork, a horrendous backlog of it. The other was doing the age old tradition of trying to score. "How'bout a backrub?" asked Kaji smoothly. "How about I kick your ass?" said Misato sweetly. "Aw, Misato-chan, c'mon, don't be so mean. Just one drink, for old times sakes..." "Don't you have a job to do?" growled Misato. "Why yes, I'm on a special assignment," said Kaji seriously. "A very important job." "And they put YOU on it?" asked Misato. "Mm-mm," nodded Kaji. "My mission: to rescue a NERV commander from datelessness, as soon as possible, by any means neccessary." He smoothly went by her side as he talked, then put an arm around her. "Whadaya say? Let's break a few headboards." ****SLAP**** Misato stalked off, fists trembling in fury. Rubbing his freshly slapped face, Kaji sighed. "My, she's lost her sense of humor. She always used to laugh at that line in college." Unseen by Kaji or Misato, Makoto slipped away into the hallways, looking a bit ill, worried, and very much jealous. -*- Shinji chewed on the end of his pencil, trying to figure out what exactly the literature teacher expected him to do with the poem they had been given in class. What did he mean by 'analyze' the poem? Analyze what? Shinji stared at the twelve lines. It was a quatrain about flowers. That was about all he really had to say about it...which wouldn't stretch to a full page, very well. Violin music began to drift through the room, catching his attention. Asuka had gotten her violin out and was playing instead of doing homework. He listened to the tune, trying to figure out what it was, but couldn't quite place the style. "What is that?" "A polka," she said, laughing, then switched to some more sedate music. "Not the sort of thing I was supposed to be learning, but...C'mon and play something with me." "You already did your literature homework?" "I compared it to some work by Goethe that was much better." She paused, then grinned impishly. "Actually, I dragged out an old paper about the Goethe poem and added one paragraph of comparison." "A poem about Goths?" She shook her head. "Goethe. The author." "That doesn't sound like a Japanese name." She frowned slightly. "It isn't. He's a famous German author." "You had a paper in Japanese about a German author?" "No, I translated it as well." Shinji boggled lightly. "Whoa." Asuka shrugged. "So I'm all done." "You did the astronomy homework?" She blinked. "The what?" "You did go and get the assignments from when we were gone, right?" A single sweatdrop ran down Asuka's forehead. "They assigned us homework when we were gone?" He shook his head. "School does go on without us, you know." "Ummm...can I see this list?" He handed her three handwritten pages. "I put it all together so I wouldn't lose any of it." She got up and took it. If Asuka had been the fainting type, she would have passed out. As it was, she simply sat down hard. "I can't do all this in..." She looked again. "Whew. Only the Astronomy and the...oh great, more literature homework. Bleah." "You don't like literature?" "Not the kind of stuff you study in school. If they'd let me write about something decent, I'd like it. I did Math and Physics as my majors in college," she said, talking as she ran off to get her books and paper. "Well, I'm used to tight deadlines from that." She turned in the literature book and stared at the first assignment page as if it was an evil demon. "Urgle. Stupid poetry. Analyzing poetry is like dissecting butterflies." Shinji blinked. "True, but I don't think Mr. Ichiyama will accept that as an answer." "What are we supposed to do with these damn things, anyway?" "Beats me. Make paper airplanes, maybe." They stared at each, and Asuka laughed. "Have you done them yet?" "Soon as I finish the assignment he gave out today." "Right. Together, we will OVERCOME!" -*- After two hours, Misato still hadn't come home, and the poetry had defeated them. They were both standing by the window watching the lights of the city at night, instead, taking a break from reading about 'glistening dew' and 'the chirping cicadias'. "I think I'll write a haiku about a car wreck," Asuka said. "One more nature poem, and I'll..." "They're all like that," Shinji said, faintly irritated. "We don't write poems about mangled metal here." "Has your father always been such a pushy bastard?" Asuka asked idly. Shinji blinked; he couldn't see the connection. "Huh?" "The man just...he grinds my gears." "I don't know. I haven't really seen him since I was five or maybe six. After Mother died, he sent me away." Asuka stared at him. "He did WHAT?" "He sent me off to a foster home, which I guess must have been tricky since he wasn't actually dead. The Shimodas weren't bad people, but they didn't really care about me either. I was just sort of in the way, most of the time. But they liked my music; it was the only thing where they ever gave me any encouragement. And they had lots of pets, which was kinda nice. I like animals." He smiled a little. "They had eight cats, and half the nights, they'd get into some kind of brawl with half the other pets in the neighborhood. Shiro was my favorite; he was so smart, I almost thought he could talk, sometimes." She glanced over at Pen-pen, who was watching a gameshow on TV. "He may have been smart enough to really understand you. I mean...Pen-pen watches TV and can beat Misato at chess." They both laughed. "So what are your parents like?" Shinji asked. "Dead." Her voice was a little sharp. Shinji looked away. "I'm sorry." "Don't be such a wimp, Shinji. It's not your fault they died. They died here, in Tokyo-3, back when it was still under construction and NERV was just starting to operate out of here. Dad was an aeronautics engineer; they were hoping to build flying EVAs as well as ground ones. I don't think they anticipated Rei's EVA's little trick." She shook her head. "And mom was a geneticist working for NERV's research wing. They both were based in NERV-Germany, but Mom was called in to oversee a special experiment, and Dad came with her since he had some vacation time and she was six months pregnant with a boy." "You have a brother?" "No." She made a tiny choking noise. "While they were gone, they tested everyone at the base, and discovered I had the potential to pilot an EVA. I was so excited that I ran around the base, telling everyone." Her voice was very soft now. "The experiment went horribly wrong." She gripped the windowsill. "Are you familiar with how you can grow some kinds of tissues in a petri dish?" "Err, sort of." "They were trying to grow more Angel tissue for tests from the remains of the one that sunk Antarctica." Shinji's eyes widened. "They WHAT?" "Something went wrong...it released fumes which conducted electricity well. The whole lab went up in flames when a spark got to the wrong place, then ignited various chemicals. Poisonous fumes went everywhere. Dr. Akagi's mom died almost immediately, and almost everyone else passed out and would have died, but Mom and Dad had more resistance and weren't as close when the really bad fumes went off. So they were able to get most of the people out of the lab. But they breathed in so much of the poison that they couldn't be saved. Mom died within an hour. Dad lived long enough for them to fly me in to say goodbye to him." She was shaking faintly now. "At least you got to say goodbye," Shinji said faintly. He hadn't gotten to say goodbye to his mother. "He told me to be brave, that he was proud I would be an EVA pilot, and he wanted me to do my best to save humanity." Her fingertips pressed into the wooden windowsill, and her she stood tensely. "And then he died. He looked awful; his skin had turned a kind of blackish-green in some spots and his eyelids were puffy and..." She let out a deep breath. "But he wasn't afraid at all. So I promised him that I would do my best. I was sent back to Germany, and Dr. Himmelfarb, my mom's boss, took me in. She's the head of research for NERV-Germany, now. I got combat training from Lt. Pieter Haarbeck, and they gave me the best education they could. I got my diploma a week before they summoned me here. Pretty much, I've lived with Dr. Himmelfarb most of my life. She's been really good to me." "I don't even know how my mother died; it was some sort of accident here. It might have even been the same one where you parents died; I don't know. I can't remember anything before I was sent away by Father, except for a few brief snatches of my mother's face, and running through snow, and a book. It was bound in a sort of red scaley hide, and it had weird letters on the cover. I tried to look at the pictures, but I couldn't find any, and then Father found me and spanked me. It's the only time he ever spanked me, I think. But he looked sort of..." He strained to catch the memory. "Sort of like he was proud and mad at the same time." "I can't believe he just sent you away for ten years! That's just..." Asuka fumed. "Does he hate you for some reason?" "I think he just didn't have any time for me," Shinji said quietly. "It would be easier if he actually hated me; I could hate him back, but..." "Maybe the next Angel will eat him," Asuka said. "I don't want him to die," Shinji said, drumming his fingers on the sill. "Hey, look, it's Misato." She peered. "How can you tell?" "I can hear people honking at her." -*- May 25, 2015 Dear Doktor Himmelfarb, I'm starting to think NERV is run by complete idiots. We ought to be training instead of going to this stupid junior high. We have hardly any time to practice fighting together, and Shinji DESPERATELY needs training. He tries hard when he's piloting, and he's got a lot of talent, but he doesn't know anything about fighting. I should be fair. Rei and I have been training since we were about six years old, while Shinji just started, but still...they've only found THREE pilots in eight years? This doesn't bode well. I guess the mutation that lets us pilot EVA is REALLY rare. It doesn't help that Shinji has no drive. I think sometimes that he would just sit down and never move if he didn't get hungry, sometimes. He's nothing like his father. Which is a good thing in some ways. He's friendly and easy to deal with, and he does do his chores on time, unlike Oscar. And he plays music; he's pretty good, in fact. I'm trying to find some music we could play together. My effort to befriend Rei didn't go very well, although it didn't go BADLY, either. It just...really, it just didn't go. It was like...I could probably chew her out and she wouldn't react. But I'm going to keep trying. The three of us have to work together. The fight with Salgiel proved that. When we cooperate, we can't lose. At least, I hope we can't. That might have just been a fluke. We beat Salgiel because he made some mistakes, and our EVAs suddenly pulled out a lot of tricks he couldn't anticipate, like Rei suddenly sprouting wings. We have to win...we have to! Or humanity will be destroyed. But if our opponents ever have the sense to team up...I don't know what will happen. Assuming they can. Maybe the aliens didn't program them very well. -*- "C'mon, slowpoke! Let's go!" said Asuka. Her victim for the current and forseeable future, Shinji Ikari, hurriedly packed his bag, then followed Asuka out the door. "Why are you in such a hurry?" he asked her. "No particular reason," said Asuka. "I just hate being slow." "That's it?" "Yep." Shinji rolled his eyes, then slowed down. "And I thought it was something important," he grumbled. "Hey, what's with you?" asked Asuka. "P.E. class," said Shinji. "What? We just ran a few miles," said Asuka casually. "Yeah, a few miles," muttered Shinji. Why he took up Asuka's challange, he'd never know. He also vowed to never do so again. "I wasn't trained since birth to be a pilot," he whined. "Give me a break, okay?" Asuka merely rolled her eyes, slowing down and matching Shinji's pace. "Ah, well, I guess I'll have to keep on working on you then." "W-what?" "You're an Eva pilot! The best of the best... or in theory anyway. You can't afford to be in such sad shape. We're saving the world!" "Um... yeah. Just don't say weird things like that." "Like what?" "Never mind." The two of them plodded through the school's empty halls, their footsteps echoing all around. After a while, Shinji did all the plodding, while Asuka alternated from fast walking to a standstill in an attempt to keep the walk interesting. As the two passed an open room, the sound of a single violin drifting in the air, a mournful melody strong enough to bring Asuka to a stop. Next to her, the auditorium doors hung open, leading into darkness. As Shinji plodded by, she reached out and grabbed him, bringing Shinji to a halt as well. "I wonder who's playing?" she whispered. "Hm?" "Sounds like 'Death and the Maiden'," muttered Asuka. "Wha?" "C'mon, let's go see," said Asuka. "What? Why?" "Why? Because whoever's playing can play good. And I'm curious." The two fumbled clumsily in the dark, Asuka leading Shinji by the arm. She wondered just where the hell the light switch was. The dim aisle lights were enough for them to know where to walk, but not much else. On stage, a silhouetted figure continued playing the violin, passion and sadness exprssed with every note. Shinji had to admit, it was very good. "Um, hello?" said Asuka. The music abruptly died. A pair of red eyes flared brilliantly in the dark, staring down at them. Asuka froze in place, old memories filling her mind, childhood nightmares of a shape with red eyes, an ever changing beast that stalked her dreams until she learned to drive it away. Or perhaps it had merely grown bored and now had returned, somehow made real. Shinji bumped into her from behind, knocking her out of her trance. "Asuka?" Instinct took over; best to take no chances. "Shinji, get out of here. It's..." She dropped into a combat stance, then sensing he hadn't left, she said, "Get moving!" "Umm...it's just Rei," he said. "Hi, Rei." He waved. She stood and stepped forward, out of the shadows and into the light, looking straight at Shinji. "Hello." Asuka blushed faintly, embarrassed. "Oh. Of course. I just..." "What, you thought she was an Angel or something?" "Nothing." She sighed. "You're pretty good, Rei," said Shinji. "Thank you," Rei said, sitting back down. Asuka started towards the stage. "Want to try a String Trio with me and Shinji some time?" Rei stared at them for a moment, then said, "When?" Asuka glanced back at Shinji, who now came forward. "Umm...tomorrow night?" "Sounds good to me," Asuka said, clambering up onto the stage with a nimble leap. "When tomorrow?" "Uh...seven?" Shinji said, going around to the side access. Rei nodded, then turned back to her music and beginning to play. "Got any pieces you'd like us to try?" Asuka asked, coming over by Rei. "I think I have some stuff we could do," Shinji said, walking across the stage. "Movement of the Stars, by Erich Zann," suggested Rei quietly. "Who?" Shinji asked. "I've never heard of him, but sure," Asuka said, smiling a little. "Bring that." Rei continued to play, and for a while, they simply listened. Her mastery of the music was flawless, and Asuka felt a little envious, while Shinji was simply awed. While Rei's expressions and movements were efficient, minimal, and seemingly emotionless, the music seemed entirely the opposite. The piece had far more emotion to it than either of them had ever heard her express, and neither was sure if it was simply the piece or if she was letting something show that was normally locked away. Or perhaps somewhere inbetween. She finished the piece, stood, gathered her music, nodded briefly to each of them, then quietly walked away. Asuka and Shinji stood and watched her go. Asuka finally said, "I just don't get her." She glanced over at Shinji. "Despite what the papers may think, I don't get her either." "Despite what the papers may think?" Now Asuka was curious. "She... uh... This paper thought we were dating and..." Asuka's lips quirked in a smile. "Ahh." "It's not like that!" "Uh huh." Asuka jumped off the stage. "C'mon. We need to get going. "It's not!" Shinji followed her. "Slow down, will ya?" "Nope." -*- Playing music together isn't the same as combat piloting, but it does take teamwork. And they're both pretty good. Rei plays the same instrument I do, and Shinji plays the cello, so all we need is a viola player. Unfortunately, Hikari plays the flute. I don't suppose you know any pieces for flute, cello, and two violins? I got a letter from Anna! Is she really going to be tested to be a pilot? That would be really great if she got to come live with us. Well, live here in Tokyo-3. Fraulein Katsuragi's apartment is pretty much full. And it may get more that way soon. Our whole gang is going to the mall in a couple of days. You'd think a hand-designed city could come up with a cooler name that 'Tokyo-3 Shopping Center', but I guess they had other priorities. Misato told me it has a really great selection of stuff. Then she warned me not to get a whole new set of junk since they can barely fit all my old junk. It is NOT junk! -*- It was supposed to be a day of bonding, when Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and friends gathered together for a day of relaxation. For one day, they'd be like ordinary children. Instead, this would be the day that firmly established Touji and Asuka as mortal enemies. "Springtime Cherry Blossoms?!?!" yelled Touji. "I ain't watching no movie called Springtime Cherry Blossoms!!!" "And what's wrong with Springtime Cherry Blossoms?!" boomed Asuka. "It... it's so GIRLY!" argued Touji. "And besides, the new Tiger Wang movie is out! How can you not like a Tiger Wang movie?" "Yeah!" said Kensuke. "It's the premire of Tiger Fist and Snake Bite! We can't miss that! Right, Shinji?" "Um... well..." "Well Hikari and I have been waiting to see Springtime Cherry Blossoms all week, we've been planning to see Springtime Cherry Blossoms, and we're gonna SEE SPRINGTIME CHERRY BLOSSOMS, DAMMIT!" "LIKE HELL WE WILL, YOU SAUERKRAUT-EATING BITCH!" ***POW*** -*- "See? It was a good movie," said Asuka. "Right, Hikari?" She sat back on the park bench, in the afterglow of the nice, romantic movie. "Er, yeah," said Hikari, splitting her attention between listening to Asuka and applying ice to Touji's jaw. "Hold still, Touji." "I'r git yuu fr iss," mumbled Touji. "Hey, at least you were unconscious for the whole film," said Kensuke. "Shinji'n me had to actually watch it. Horrible stuff, right Shinji?" "Well, kinda..." "It was not!" protested Asuka. "It was deep, meaningful, romantic, and moving. Isn't that so, Shinji?" "Er, well, I guess..." "Shiji wnnt kno rmntic ffit bit'm nna ass," said Touji though the icebag. "I guess I wouldn't," mumbled Shinji. "Hey!" yelled Asuka. "Did you enjoy it or not! Stop flip-flopping!" "Er... um..." Shinji sweated nervously as both sides of the war of the sexes stared at him. "Um... how'd you like it, Rei?" Rei looked at Shinji curiously. "Like?" she asked. -*- Still nursing a sore jaw, Touji sat with the other two boys, impatiently tapping his foot. They were in a place of many conflicting desires: outside the women's dressing room of a clothing store. On one hand, the idea that the women within were stripping down to their bare essentials got them fired up. On the other hand, they had to sit there and wait until the women were done changing. They had to wait in THE WOMEN'S SECTION of the store, something that no man ever felt too comfortable lingering in for too long. Touji held his fist up and yelled in agony. "Aaagh! How long does it take'em to try on a buncha freakin' dresses?!" "Shattup, arschloch!" yelled Asuka from the dressing rooms. "What?! What'd she call me?!" "Touji," said Kensuke, "you two were just born to hate each other, y'know that?" "Don't you start," snarled Touji. Just when Touji's patience was about to snap again, the three girls stepped out in their selected clothes. "Ta-daah!" said Asuka, stepping out first. She twirled about in her pink sundress, then strutted proudly before the boys. "Looks good, hm?" Touji glared at her once, grumbled, then folded his arms and looked away. Kensuke nodded approvingly. "Not bad," he muttered. Shinji seemed entranced for a moment, looking at Asuka with stunned eyes. She really was beautiful, he thought to himself, when she wasn't terrorizing him. Asuka stared down at him with an amused grin. "Hey, get that lecherous look off of your face." Flustered, Shinj stammered denial quickly. "H-hey! I-I was not!" "Whateeeever," said Asuka. "Hey Hikari, come on out!" Hikari stepped out next, meekly, looking very sheepish in a strapless light brown dress. This time Touji was the one staring. Kensuke elbowed Shinji and leaned towardshim. "Ya know," he said to Shinji in a mock-whisper, "he's got this thing for the class prez." Hikari blushed deeply, turning away to hide the silly grin creeping on her face, while Touji suddenly put Kensuke in a vicious headlock. "Shaddup!" "Ow! Okay, okay!" "Rei, come on out!" called Asuka. Emerging from the curtains of the dressing rooms, Rei emerged reluctantly, looking far more unsure of herself than Hikari. That, by itself, was something nobody had ever seen before on Rei's face. The second unique thing about this situation was that the usual slight edge of uneasiness that was felt around Rei was far less than usual. It wasn't entirely gone, but it was barely felt at all. And the final first was done by Shinji, as he stared in admiration at her, dressed in a pale blue, full-length skirt and silky blouse. "You're beautiful," he told her. "I.... am?" asked Rei. Shinji nodded. Rei blushed. The whole scenerio thus far was much more than Touji or Kensuke was expecting. Rei, not creepy? Rei, actually, sorta, cute? And blushing? It was far more pleasant than the usual way they felt around the girl, but they both would agree later that it still felt wrong. It was as if some constant in the universe had been violated. And then she smiled. It was a small smile. A very small one. But it was a memorable one. -*- The next stop in their day was something heavily demanded by Touji. It was, as he put it, a matter of balance. The girls got to do girly things, now it was time for the boys to do manly things. So they hit the arcade. Touji, in particular, was looking forward to this, as the arcade was where he felt he could unwind, do what _he_ enjoyed, and wouldn't have to take any more crap from Asuka. He was dead wrong. -*- "WAHAHAHA! Wanna try again?" asked Asuka arrogantly. She stood next to Touji, both of them at the controls of the new hot fighting game World Warriors. This, thought Touji, was a chance to not only finally do something he'd enjoy, but he'd also get a chance to humiliate Asuka. Or so he thought. After all, girls don't play fighting games, right? "Touji, she just beat you with the weakest character in the game," said Kensuke. "Shaddup." "And she used only one move, repeatedly," added Kensuke. "I know. Shaddup." Asuka laughed haughtily. "Oh-hohoho! Don't feel bad! It's only natural that I excel in a fighting game. After all, I AM an Eva pilot." "Shaddup, shaddup, shaddup," grumbled Touji. "I'm goin' to get a drink." "Aww, too much for ya?" taunted Asuka. "Anybody else wanna take me on? Eh?" Kensuke stood up, his fist clenched. "I, Kensuke Aida will avenge my friend!" he declared. "Bring it on, geek!" Kensuke confidently put on the VR helm and slid his hands in the gauntlets. A minute later, he nearly threw the helm off as Asuka killed him with a backhanded slap. "Nnnnnext!" yelled Asuka. "Hey, Shinji! Get up here!" "M-me?" "Yeah, you! You're an Eva pilot, so _surely_ you'll put up a decent fight. C'mon! I'll even pay for you." Thirty seconds later... "You've got to be kidding me," mumbled Asuka. Shinji took off the VR helm sheepishly. "I never was good at these games." "I mean, c'mon," said Asuka. "You're an Eva pilot. You do this for a living. I just can't believe it." "Well-" "Let's go again," said Asuka. "C'mon. No way can you suck that bad." "But-" Ten seconds later. "Aaagh! You really do suck!" yelled Asuka. "I told you!" whined Shinji. "We're back," said Kensuke as he and Touji returned. "Miss anything?" "Asuka beat Shinji," said Hikari. The boys sighed. "You're a pilot, ain'cha?!" asked Touji. "Look, I said I never was good at these games!" cried Shinji. "This is indeed a dark day for man," said Kensuke. "Hey, Rei, give it a try?" asked Asuka. "You certainly can't be as pathetic as Shinji, anyway." The albino girl blinked. Ten seconds later... "No way..." Asuka muttered. Behind them, Touji and Kensuke danced merrily, while Hikari and Shinji looked on in surprise. Rei took off her helmet and gave Shinji a puzzled look. "HA!" yelled Touji, pointing at Asuka. "HA! HA!" "Oh, shut up!" snarled Asuka. "HA!" The red-head slammed the VR helm on agrily. "Okay, ONE more time, Rei!" Ten seconds later... "HA!" "SHUT UP!" -*- And with both Touji and Asuka feeling equally humiliated, they soon left the arcade and roamed the streets of MegaTokyo-3. "So what's next?" asked Hikari. "How about ice skating?" suggested Asuka. "Sounds good!" agreed Hikari. "Right, Touji?" He was about to protest, when Hikari sidled up to him and took his arm in hers. Of course his willpower died. "Ice skating! Haha! Yes! Sounds good!" Kensuke shrugged. "Oh well, why not? You ever skated before, Shinji?" "Not really, no," mumbled Shinji. "I'll probably be bad at it, anyway. Do you know how to skate, Ayanami?" Rei blinked. "Skate?" "It's real easy, Shinji," said Asuka. "I'll show... show..." Her face froze suddenly, locked in disbelief and dismay, as she stared at something behind Shinji. "Kaji?" "Kaji?" Shinji turned around with everyone else, then saw what Asuka was staring at. Across the street, kissing Misato passionately, was Kaji. And in that instant, if they listened closely enough, they could hear Asuka's heart breaking. Hikari quickly turned to Asuka, but she had already run away. "Oh Asuka," she sighed. "Guys, we've gotta find her." "What? Us?" asked Touji. *WHAP* "Hey!" -*- As fate would have it, Shinji was the one that found Asuka at last, sitting by a downtown water fountain and staring blankly into its depths. "Um, Asuka?" She ignored him, tossing a one yen coin into the water. "Um, everyone's worried about you, Asuka," said Shinji. "Are... are you okay?" Toss... *splash*. "I, uh, well, er..." Needless to say, Shinji was a total stranger to the use of comforting words. At best, he was on the revieving end of them, but never had to use them himself. Asuka turned to him, her face pale and blank. Her eyes weren't red, as he was expecting them to be, but they were on the verge of tears. "You know," she said, "I never really seriously thought he could love somebody else until now." "Well... um..." Shinji scratched the back of his head. She smiled weakly, then turned away. "Don't feel bad about it, I wouldn't expect you to understand anyway." He sat down next to her, cautiously putting a hand on her shoulder. "You'll... you'll find someone else." And with those well-chosen words, Asuka finally snapped, tears flowing from her eyes. "I don't WANT anyone else! I want KAJI!" "I... I'm sorry." He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. What happened next took him entirely by surprise. She suddenly turned around and cried on his shoulder, holding him tight as she sobbed. He didn't know how long she cried on his shoulder, and it didn't seem to matter. She was someone in need, and all he could do was be there for her. From the darkness of a nearby ally, a pair of red eyes glared at them, burning with fury. Nearby birds took to flight and all other small creatures quickly ran away as a small but intense wave of fear washed over the area. A moment later, the red eyes stalked away into the shadows. -*- It was the end of a bad month for Motomu Kamiya. He was still a fugitive, homeless, and broke, but he had a chance at salvation. Those unnamed people that had offered him money in the first place had given him one last chance. Free passage out of Tokyo, half a million in American, and a new identity. All he needed to do was obtain samples of blood, hair, and urine from all of the pilots, and copy whatever files he could get from the central computers. Of course he was suspicious. Why him? However, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. He didn't know who they were, had no ties to them, and was familiar with NERV operations. The central computer would be a tough one, but he still had his old clearance cards, and knew a few maintenance tunnels where he could cut into the lines with a laptop. Risky, but doable. As for the hair, urine, and blood samples... He wasn't sure. Pose as a plumber or something? After thinking it over, hitting Ayanami's apartment for the samples first seemed to be easiest. She lived alone, and her apartment wasn't exactly high security. He'd never met the girl personally, but from what he heard, she wouldn't be much trouble. Just a quiet, creepy little girl that often got injured piloting the Unit00 early in the program. So that is how it was that Motomu Kamiya found himself in Rei Ayanami's bathroom at sunset. What he was going to do there, he admitted he wasn't sure. Perhaps she forgot to flush? He turned on the lights. No such luck. "Damn." Well, at least there was hair in the sink. He closed the lid and sat on the toilet, a perfect imitation of Rodan's sculpture, "The Thinker". He was a clerk, not a waste disposal specialist. And then the feeling hit him. It began as a tingle at the back of his neck, and slowly boiled over into a shivering fear. Something was _wrong_. He tried to move, but he couldn't, paralyzed by an overwhelming wave of fear. The lights flickered, then died. He caught a whimper in his throat and his trembling grew to epileptic proportions. In the darkness, he herd the bathroom door swing open. A pair of red eyes shone like blazing red stars, glaring down at him. At this point, he made a terrible mistake. He reached for his gun. Before he could even touch it, his hand was torn off. And that was only the beginning. -*- The 4th district of MegaTokyo-3 was a place of heavy construction. If one were to take a walk down her streets, the sounds of jackhammers and other heavy equipment would be deafening, and nearly overwhelming. On this day, if one listened very carefully, in the rare breaks of silence between the nearly endless hammering and pounding of construction, one could hear the tortured, dying screams of Motomu Kamiya. -*- I guess I really am settling in now, and starting to like it here. Some of it, anyway. I don't think I'll ever like that slimeball Gendo. I refuse to use his last name here, in our private conversation. It's not like he'll ever see this. The man is simply a slimeball, and he doesn't deserve any respect. The way he's treated Shinji...no wonder Shinji's like that. I always wished I hadn't lost my parents, but now I'm not so sure I missed out. I'm sure father wasn't like Gendo, but...well, my father was a hero, and his father was a rat bastard. It's a pity he didn't die instead of Father and Mother back in 2007. He probably sat and watched them die. I'd have a brother if they hadn't died...well, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. I have to put up with him, whether I like it or not. I'll be polite, I'll take my orders, but I hope an Angel eats him. Why's he in charge anyway? All he ever does is look ominous and chew people out. And push his glasses up his nose. I've half a mind to ducttape them to his eyebrows. Anyway, I'm having fun, at least sometimes, and I'm glad to be here. Say hello to everyone, and tell Franz he was right about Japanese beer. I never should have doubted him. Sincerely, Asuka Langely -*- Gendo put the letter down and frowned. "What do you think, Fuyuutsuki?" They were in his office with the door closed. Fuyuutsuki laughed. "I think you DO need to do something about your glasses." Gendo stopped his hand, which was halfway to his nose, putting it down on the desk in what he hoped would be a casual manner. "Normally, I would not care if a fourteen year old wanted me dead, but since she has an EVA at her command, it's another story." "She won't do anything. It's just a way of letting off stress. She threatened to kill Shinji if he kept waking her up in the earlier letter, but do you really think she would kill him?" Fuyuutuski found the whole thing faintly amusing. Gendo would be having the censors forward people's love letters to him next, at this rate. "She's clearly adopted Himmelfarb as a surrogate mother, which is exactly what you wanted when you arranged for her to become Asuka's foster mother after her parents died." "They would still be alive if I had my way," he said, frowning. "If we had discovered Asuka's aptitude a few months earlier...we need our pilots as sane as possible so they don't break before we finish." "And Himmelfarb has given her that sanity. She's a fourteen year old child. What do you expect?" Gendo's hand twitched. He kept it down. He would NOT push his glasses up if it killed him. Milimeter by milimeter, they slid further down. "She has none of Himmelfarb's discipline. She's rude, disrespectful, violent, and..." "If she had no discipline, would she have a college diploma? Would she still be alive? Could you have piloted an EVA in a fight to the death at age fourteen?" Fuyuutsuki leaned forward. "She is still a child, with all the strengths and flaws of youth. She is still young enough to change, to be forged into the weapon we need. At least with her, we won't have to do as much work as we will with Shinji. You could not have picked a worse way to raise him in order to be an EVA pilot." Gendo frowned. "I did not have time for a child, and you know that." "Nor did I, but there were still better ways. You might as well have thrown him on a rubbish heap. And imagine how useful he would be to us if you HAD raised him." Silence. "It's never too late to start." Silence. "Or are you more afraid of your own son than you are of the powers of the universe?" There was an uncharacteristic edge to Fuyuutsuki's voice. "The true master can only master the outside world after he masters himself." "I am not afraid." "Liar." They stared at each other in silence, gazes locked. Gendo looked away, staring down at the letters. "Should we let Asuka teach him about the Dreamlands?" "Now who's running away?" Fuyuutsuki said sharply, settling back into his chair. "But I say yes. Otherwise, he will likely break before the crisis comes. If the account was accurate, the last time, the nightmares started months in advance. We already know he's having nightmares. Now, getting back to what I was saying before, you need to build a bond between you and Shinji. Unless you want him to be more loyal to Misato and the other pilots than you." Fuyuutsuki frowned slightly at having to put it that way, but sometimes you caught more flies with honey than vinegar. Gendo's eyes flared slightly. "The woman is..." "Have you ever actually looked at them?" Gendo blinked. "What?" "I'd think they were brother and sister if I didn't know better. If Shinji had to choose, he would choose her over you every time. Now, given you're her boss, that's not a problem, but if she ever revolts..." "I can manage her." "If she learns the truth? Or even some of it? If it comes down to a conflict between you and her, which side do you think Shinji will take?" "I think he would simply waffle, unable to act." Fuyuutsuki frowned. "Do you want him to waffle when it comes down to the final act? When we reach the point where our plans come to fruition? Him doing nothing could destroy us as surely as him acting wrongly." "I do not have time to play the doting father. I barely have time to do my duties, let alone...take him to play baseball or something." "Whatever. I will plan my funeral now, then." Gendo narrowed his eyes, then nearly lost his glasses entirely, finally giving in and pushing them up. "You really think this is that important?" "The pilots must not just do what they are told, they must trust us, at least a little, or our plan cannot possibly succeed. Unless you plan to try hopping into an EVA on the Day of Return?" "They could not handle the truth! I can see it eating away at Dr. Akagi as it did at her mother. I can see..." "I did not say to tell them everything. But if they distrust and hate us, if they grow suspicious...imagine what could happen if Katsuragi got ahold of the Prophecy?" "There are no copies in Japanese. And she couldn't read it in another language. That's one reason we chose her." Fuyuutsuki was beginning to wonder if someone had stolen part of Gendo's brain today. "Her father had one." "That's one reason he's dead." "There are hundreds of people who could potentially translate it into Japanese. But there are copies in GERMAN. And Asuka is fluent enough to translate it." "They would never..." Gendo shook his head. "If they learn the truth, they will become useless to us. Even Rei can't be allowed to know at more than the instinctive level." He paused and sighed. "You're right. The boy needs better training, and he needs...to trust us. Asuka is likely a lost cause in that regard, but if Rei and Shinji go along, she will." Fuyuutsuki rose. "And now I must 'go along'. Time for the finance committee meeting. Hmmm....whatever happened to Yui's cello?" "I donated it to an orchestra. A good idea, however. I do still have a lot of her sheet music, boxed up...somewhere." He began thinking. "I shall have to look for it." "Good bye," Fuyuutsuki said, leaving Gendo in his thoughts. -*- - end part 7 - -*- ~*~ The team of divers made little noise as they swam through the ruins of a once-great city. Millions had once lived here; now it was home only to fish. Crack diver Eiko Kappabungi led the team, who followed her directions despite not being sure what they were looking for or why they had come. The harpoon guns they carried indicated there was likely to be danger, although the only real danger was smacking into a rock in the dark as far as most of them could tell. "Johnson, Taka, you go that way." Eiko pointed to the left entrance of the huge sprawling building they were about to enter. Once it had reached to the sky, dozens of stories tall; now it couldn't even break the surface of the water far above. "Anderson, Hino, circle around to the back. Rippongi, you come with me around to the right." They all nodded and split up, one diver in each pair carrying a substantial lamp, most of them wondering why they had to split up to enter an abandoned building. They wouldn't say anything, though. Eiko had a sharp tongue. Eiko and Rippongi were still poking around the foyer when Taka came on the radio. "Kappabungi-san, we've found a huge well. And...uh...You're going to have to see this." Eiko and Rippongi quickly swam down the long hallway to the grand central chamber of the building. It would have been impressive, once upon a time, carved of marble, basalt, and onyx, the walls covered with reliefs and squiggly letters. The ceiling was about four stories above the floor, a great dome studded with gems which sparkled in the light of the flashlights the divers used. They could only see pieces of the room; it was too big for their lights to illuminate more than bits of it at a time. And in the center, there was a great well, a shaft sinking into the darkness. The water was warmer around the well; they could feel a gentle current running away from it. Reliefs in the floor showed people being hurled into the well by ceremonially dressed priests who wore tentacled headdresses and a contorted, inhuman mask. Bits of yellow paint still clung to the masks, and a band of purple stone ringed the well for six feet. Anderson looked up at the ceiling. "Everything's so...it's too clean. It's like this place sunk yesterday. There's broken stuff everywhere, but nothing is worn or covered with barnacles or...anything. But of course, this is the really weird thing." She shone her lamp upon a statue made of limestone or some other sort of greenish rock. It was kneeling at the edge of the pit, gazing down, a look of horror upon its amphibian face, for it looked like a strange cross between a fish, a frog, and a man, for its hands and feet were webbed, its head fishlike, with bulging eyes and a receding, hairless brow, its flesh carved cunningly in the likeness of scales. Yet its form was clearly human, bipedal and proportioned much like any man. "Strange, eh?" "Yes," Eiko said. "Perhaps one of their gods." Anderson nodded. "I thought that at first. The legends do claim some contact with fish-gods, but...look closer." The light flashed on the creature's wrist. Not only could they see the watch it was wearing, they could read 'Timex' on it. "I'd almost think this was all some sort of fraud, but...what sort of conman would build a giant underwater temple in the middle of the Pacific? And then make a mistake like that?" Taka was carrying a box whose purpose he didn't know, other than the fact that it beeped periodically. He was being paid enough that he didn't care that he didn't know. NERV seemed to be big on giving orders and not explaining them. He just hoped it wasn't a geiger counter, especially now that it was beeping louder and faster. "The box is having a fit," he said. "Take it closer to the pit," Eiko said. The box had a louder and longer fit. Taka frowned. "I don't like this." Hino nodded. "This place gives me the creeps, although the night sky ceiling is kinda neat." "The what?" Taka asked. "The gems are all laid out where various stars are," Hino said. "It's a star chart." She took Anderson's lamp. "There's Polaris. Algol. Aldebaran. Betelgeuse. Sirius. Fomalhaut." The light jerked about, illuminating various 'stars'. "There's the Big Dipper, Orion, Gemini...I'd guess this shows the sky in a few months; some of these stars won't be visible much at night until fall. Especially Fomalhaut. I'm gonna take some photos...now I'm curious. Gimme the camera, Johnson." Johnson didn't answer; in fact, he had moved out of the light range of everyone else. Then his head drifted into the light of Rippongi's flashlight, neatly severed at the neck. For a moment, they all stared, then Rippongi and Anderson both brought their lamps around to see what had happened. The last transmission from the expedition was the sound of screaming. ~*~ John Biles & Rod M. Present A Neon Genesis Evangelion Elseworlds Children of an Elder God Part 8 Under the Sea ~*~ "Ready for your checkup, Rei?" Maya asked pleasantly. Rei nodded, then stripped out of her clothes and laid down on the examination table. Slowly, methodically, mechanical arms holding a dazzling set of sensor arrays moved over her body. Screens running along the wall came to life, streaming with data on her body chemistry, brainwave activity, and dozens of other details about Ayanami's body that an untrained eye would find totally undecipherable. "How's things going in school?" asked Maya, punching a few buttons and flipping through charts as she did so. "Everything okay?" Rei nodded. "And are things going well with Shinji?" Something unexpected happened. The sensors all beeped, not loud alarms, just beeps, signifying a change in Rei's body chemistry. Her body temperature was slightly warmer, and there was an increase in her blood pressure and respiration. Rei frowned, looking unsure, and averted her eyes from Ibuki's. Maya looked at the screens, then scribbled a quick note in her notepad. "Rei, what's wrong?" "Langley," she replied quietly. "Asuka? What about her?" "She was with Ikari." "With Shinji?" Rei nodded. "What do you mean, 'with Ikari'?" asked Maya. "They weren't..." "Ibuki-san," said Rei evenly, "I want to kill her." -*- "Sit down, Langely," Gendo said, pointing to a chair. Asuka sat down, frowning. "Am I going to be chewed out again?" "I want you to teach Shinji about controlling his dreams." Asuka blinked. "You do?" "Since the two of you live together, you are the ideal teacher. And I understand he is having recurring nightmares." "Yeah. Sure I'll teach him. I'm just...Anything else?" "That's all. You have one month. Possibly less." Asuka frowned. "Is something going to happen in a month?" "He must learn quickly, and some of our intelligence indicates one of the Angels may be able to influence dreams. Rei has the training to defend herself, but Shinji..." "Would crumple. I'll do my best." "You have one month, then I'll call in someone who can do a better job if you can't handle it." "I CAN handle it," Asuka said. "We shall see. Dismissed." Asuka got up and left. Gendo watched her go, then smiled faintly. That would light a fire under her feet. ~*~ "You're going to what?" Shinji said, sitting on his futon. Asuka leaned against the doorway. "I'm going to teach you to control your dreams. You need to learn." "Is this some hypnosis thing?" "No, just some mental techniques. It's easy, and you'll sleep better and have more interesting dreams." "My dreams are already too interesting." She came over and sat down. "Okay, let's get started." "Hey, I..." She gave him a look. "Okay, okay, I'll try it." ~*~ He was on the train. Again. The maglev zoomed through the Japanese countryside. Shinji did his best to do what Asuka had told him. Focus on the image of a mountain until it appears in the dream. So he had chosen to think about Mount Fuji. He could see mountains out the window, but they weren't the right mountains. He concentrated harder, doing his best to remember what Fuji looked like. The train zoomed around a mountain, turning towards the sea, whipping about so fast he nearly fell out of his seat. As it was, it turned him around and he looked out the other window. There was Fuji, looking lost in the middle of the plain. The train turned again and pulled into a station at its base. Shinji blinked. The train never, ever stopped before. He got up, went to the door, and looked out. A road led up the mountain. He thought about it and realized Asuka hadn't told him what to do if the mountain actually showed up. Climb it, he guessed, so he got off the train, which pulled away. I wonder if there's a yogi who will tell me the secret of life at the top, he thought as he started to walk up the gently sloping cobblestone road. Probably he'll just ask me how many licks to get to the center of a tootsie-pop or something. The road seemed endless; while it was an easy slope spiraling up the mountain, it was also incredibly long. Several times he passed steeper staircases and ladders cut into the sides of the mountain, but he ignored them, not feeling like going the hard way. The easy way, however, was also proving to be the slow way. He had circled the mountain at least eight times, but he still hadn't reached the top. He looked back down the mountain at the train station. It would be easier to go back down, get on the train, and leave, then even to keep going up this road. But then Asuka would laugh at him...she probably would be climbing the sheer cliff face right now, just for fun, he thought. He didn't want her to laugh at him. I'll be here all night going this way, though, he thought. With a sigh, he turned to the nearby steep staircase and began to make his way up it. Soon, he was sweating; the steps were huge, the angle was steep, and the sun had become relentless. But he was making much better time. Once he reached a high ledge, he sat down to rest. "I didn't think a staircase could be so hard to climb." He sat for a while, looking out across the countryside. Rice fields, forest, hills, and a long beach bordering the Pacific Ocean stretched out north and south to the east of him. The train track wended its snakey way through the countryside, though there were no buildings, no towns, and no human habitation. Beautiful solitude, with only the animals, the wind, the sun, and the long shadows of the western mountains cast across the land as the sun sank. As it sank. It was going to be dark soon, Shinji realized. Climbing the mountain in the dark would be dangerous, even just going up a staircase. He then realized two things. The staircase down had vanished. The staircase up was fading away as the light faded. He hesitated, uncertain whether to run up the fading stairs or stay on the ledge. Shinji hesitated and was lost. Within seconds, both staircases were gone, and he was stranded. I'm stuck, he thought. They'll have to send a helicopter to...wait, I'm only dreaming. I can just wake up. He closed his eyes and concentrated on being back in his bed. A few seconds later, he was back in bed, staring up at the ceiling. I did it, he thought. I got to the mountain! He jumped up, ran out into the hallway, threw Asuka's door open and shouted, "I did it!" Asuka, sprawled out on her futon with a stuffed cat on her face, sat up groggily. "Whu?" "I got to the mountain!" She stared at him. "Good job, Mohammed. Now let me sleep." She flopped back onto her pillow. "We can talk about it in the morning." Shinji went back to bed and slept peacefully. ~*~ "You made it partway up the mountain?" Asuka asked during breakfast. "Yeah," Shinji said. "Is that good?" "That's great!" I didn't even have to tell him, she thought. Showing some initiative for once. "You have to climb the mountain to the top. Once you do that, you'll be ready for the next step." If I can remember the next step, she thought. I hope I'm doing this right. "When you get to the top, ask the old man if he knows any good auto body repairmen," Misato said. "I need to get rid of some dents." Shinji laughed. "I have to find out how to get you to do your chores first." "Hey! I do my share of the work!" "If you define 'share' as 'nothing'," Asuka said. "Can you go shopping today? I made a list of stuff we need." "No problem. I have to go pick up some stuff," Misato said. "I have a little surprise for you tomorrow afternoon." She winked. "Ooh...I have to remember to watch the Shark Attack Hour on the Discovery Channel tomorrow...Helga is going to be on it!" Asuka smiled excitedly. "I ought to tape it." "Who?" Shinji asked. "She's a marine biologist from NERV-Germany. They filmed this a few weeks before I left; I've been wanting to see it." "Why was NERV employing a marine biologist?" Shinji asked. "She was helping develop equipment for EVAs to operate underwater. In fact, I think she was trying to build one with gills or some such weird thing." Asuka shrugged. "She had a great aquarium." ~*~ Shinji brought the mail up to the apartment when he and Asuka got home from school. They quickly sorted it. Asuka had a letter from Anna and junk mail from a credit card company, which she quickly tossed out, laughing. Misato had a large pile of junk mail and bills. Shinji had a single purple envelope with no return address. His name was typed onto the envelope. "Weird." He tore it open and found a greeting card. It showed two children playing in the rain on the front. The printed message inside stated, 'Thinking of you on a rainy day.' Shinji blinked. It hadn't rained in a week. In addition to the printed message, someone had composed a message by cutting out letters from magazines and gluing them into the letter. They spelled out a haiku. 'Here is rain for you. You make me feel these things Do you feel them too? A Secret Admirer.' Shinji stared at the card. What the...here is rain? Why would I want rain? Feel WHAT things? Is this a love letter or a missive from a lunatic? "Is it biting you?" Asuka asked. "Eh?" She got up and came around. "You're staring at it like it's going to...ooh, a love card!" She grabbed it. "Haiku. Here is rain for you? Is this some culture thing foreigners can't get?" He tried and failed to grab it. "I don't know!" "Oooh, a secret admirer! That's so romantic!" Misato surprised them both by stepping out of the hallway and saying, "Shinji's got a secret admirer?" "Yeah!" Asuka handed Misato the letter, holding Shinji at arm's length. "You're a lucky guy, Shinji!" She read the poem. "Hmm. This reads like something Shinji would write. Did you send this to yourself?" "NO!!!!" He tried and failed again to get the card back. "I'll take it around and see if I can get a confession for you, okay, Shinji?" Asuka asked, grinning. He sighed. "Whatever." She waggled a finger. "Now, Shinji, it's no fun if you give up." "You've got a weird idea of fun." ~*~ "That's MY chair!" Asuka said, pointing at the recliner, which Touji had snagged for himself. It was the only nice chair in the entire apartment. "Ain't got your name on it," he sneered. "Touji! She had it first!" Hikari said from the chair next to it. The taping had turned into a 'Shark Attack' party, and Hikari, Touji, and Kensuke had joined Asuka and Shinji. Misato was in her room, fiddling with something she wouldn't let them see which she had picked up the previous day. Asuka looked over at Shinji. "Tell your friend the moron to get out of the chair!" "Umm...she was... er... there first," Shinji said, with enough authority to not make an impression on Touji. "It ain't gonna kill her to sit on a wooden one!" Touji said. "And my feet hurt, so I need to put 'em up." "The show's starting!" Kensuke said. "Sit down and be quiet so I can hear!" Asuka fumed and sat down. "Thug." The show soon started, and soon images of people getting mauled and chased by sharks took control of the TV. Shinji asked himself why he was watching this and failed to get an answer. Kensuke and Touji started cheering the sharks on. "Be quiet!" Asuka shouted. "Hey, I can't understand their English...they're talking too fast," Touji said. "Nothing to do but cheer on the sharks." "I'm getting a beer. Anyone else want one?" Kensuke asked. "You shouldn't drink up Katsuragi-san's beer!" Hikari said. "She doesn't mind," he replied, getting up. He then frozen in place. "Uh..." "You're blocking the TV," Shinji said. "She..." Kensuke gaped and pointed. Everyone turned around and saw Rei standing there, wearing a wetsuit and carrying some diving gear. Hikari said, "Going swimming?" Misato stepped out of the hallway, also wearing a wetsuit. Kensuke and Touji stared, as did Shinji, though not so blatantly. She laughed and struck a magazine-style pose, then laughed some more. "The Children and I are going diving. The rest of you want to come along?" "We're going diving?" Shinji said. Images of shark attacks danced in his head. "I've never been diving." "It's easy to learn," Misato said. "And since you're going down underwater for your next mission, you need to know how. Although doing it in an EVA won't be exactly the same, it's a good way to start learning." "Sure!" Touji said. "I'd take up skydiving if you were going to do it wearing that!" Hikari promptly thwapped him in the head. Asuka snorted. "Ready for service, Captain!" Kensuke said, saluting. "I bet a shark will bite you," Hikari said. "No way," Kensuke said. "I'm too cool for a shark." "C'mon, Asuka, Shinji. We'd best make sure these wetsuits fit...The rest of you too." Asuka and Shinji went with her, leaving the others to bicker about who would be eaten first. ~*~ The NERV van pulled up to the beach. It had been a fairly lengthy drive, farther than the kids had thought would be needed. They were just south of the ruins of Tokyo; someone had set up a tent pavilion here, and two more NERV vans were parked here. It soon became obvious why. Maya and Ritsuko were here, fiddling with some equipment set up on a table. Maya was wearing a yellow one piece bathing suit with an incongruous labcoat over it, although the fact that Ritsuko had done the same thing with a blue bathing suit and labcoat made it look a little less odd. Kaji was stretched out, shirtless, on a beach chair, next to Shigeru Aoba, who was playing a catchy pop tune on his guitar. A fishing pole and a tackle box lay in the sand next to Kaji. Makoto was wearing a wetsuit; he was sprawled out next to Shigeru, half- asleep with a newspaper over his face. Asuka blinked. "Is this the NERV bridge beach party or something?" Misato blinked as well. "Makoto." He didn't answer. "MAKOTO!" He started up, snagged his leg, fell over and ended up in the sand, face down. Finally, he got up. "When I mentioned we were going diving..." "I thought it would be a good idea to have a party, since we all have the day off," Shigeru said. "And Maya and Akagi-san needed to test some equipment anyway, so..." Asuka zoomed over to Kaji. "You'll be my diving buddy, won't you?" "Sorry, liebchen," he said. "I have a hard enough time swimming in a pool. But I have an extra reel in the car if you want to go fishing with me when you're done." "Sure!" Hikari looked faintly disgruntled. "So much for..." She turned to Touji. "Want to be my diving buddy?" He blinked. "Who, me?" "No, the evil kappa behind you. Yes, you." Touji scratched his head. "Uh, sure." "Hey, what about ME?" Asuka frowned at Hikari. "You can...," Shinji began. "And Rei and Asuka will be partners," Misato said. Maya twitched faintly. "I think you should partner Rei with Shinji and Asuka with Kensuke. Keep them in...ummm...balance." Ritsuko looked over at Maya, amused. "They're not a math equation." Makoto came over to Misato, cleaning the sand off his glasses. "I think Maya's suggestion is good. Shinji needs an experienced partner." "Hey, I've been diving four times!" Kensuke said. "Rei has been learning since she was seven," Makoto said. "She's better than you. And I'll go with Misato so she doesn't drown." "HEY!" "You nearly got yourself caught in that reef last time, you know," he said. "I've got as much experience as YOU do!" Misato said. "And I'm the highest in rank! So there!" He sighed. "Okay, so who do you want as your partner?" "You, of course. We've got to play instructor to all the others. This way none of us is tied down with just one person." Maya laughed, and he shook his head. "You're confusing, Katsuragi-san." "Just agree with what she says, then do what you would do anyway, Makoto," Kaji said. "That's what I always do." "I'll keep that in mind." "Kaji! BE QUIET!" Misato said. The tactical commander of NERV and a NERV inspector were soon demonstrating the fine art of kicking sand at each other. ~*~ Wait for me!, Shinji thought as he paddled along after Rei. She was zooming about like a fish, completely in her element. He wasn't even sure if she remembered he was alive as she circled about him, darting along the edge of the ruins to the north. The ruins of Tokyo-1 were a little creepy, a reminder of a great failure of humanity, and the loss of millions of lives when it sank in a single night. They were well lit, for the water was shallow, and the buildings far apart here at the fringes. Many of them poked up above the surface. Moving with the tank on his back felt strange, though it wasn't too much of a burden. He wished for a moment that he was a fish, able to swim about with need for tools and fake flippers. Rei would make a good fish, he thought. She darted past him, her red eyes glinting almost cheerily. I guess she really likes swimming, Shinji thought. The pitch black wetsuit accented the pale skin of her face and her blue hair. He found it a very pleasant sight. She circled around, and paused in front of him, then beckoned him to follow her. She began to swim lazily towards one of the buildings, and he followed. ~*~ Makoto wished desperately he could speak underwater. Being able to shout would have helped. The kids had scattered all over, and it was running him ragged trying to keep rounding them up. Misato looked harried as well. I feel like we're the parents on _Six is Sweet_, he thought. He got a mental image of himself and Misato married and living in a nice little house like the one he had grown up in, and he smiled. Sometimes I envy Shinji, getting to live with her, he thought. He watched her waggling a finger at Kensuke, who had been trying to get into one of the buildings, and he laughed. We should have picked a site further away if we'd known they'd all be coming. Still, the Children would have to go into a ruins, so they needed the practice. Kensuke probably had some crazy idea about trying to get Asuka to make out with him. Makoto couldn't blame him; he'd had a few fantasies about doing that with Misato himself on times they had gone diving. At least I've got a chance to show her I'm more responsible than her ex-boyfriend, he thought. Assuming they're still ex. He had seen them kissing, and he wasn't sure what was going on. Maybe I should ask Shinji, he thought. Off in the distance, he spotted Touji going farther out than they had been told to go, so he tapped Misato on the shoulder. She blinked, followed his pointing finger, and nodded. He went after Touji (and Hikari, who Touji was outpacing). ~*~ Asuka frowned slightly. Why do I feel so... uncomfortable? I like to swim. She had a vague feeling of lurking doom, as if the water...didn't like her or something. Which was ludicrous. Kensuke tapped her on the shoulder. She turned, wishing she could talk without drowning. He pointed and she looked. A large school of iridescent fish were swimming in and out of the broken doors and windows of a nearby former store. They were beautiful and apparently quite unafraid of humans. For a few seconds, she and Kensuke simply watched them. The ruins, in Asuka's mind, changed from a haunted place to feeling more like a sort of giant aquarium. She almost expected to see an abandoned diving suit nearby, or to look up and see a giant hand dropping flakes in the water. She grinned and gave Kensuke a thumbs up. ~*~ Kaji sat up and went to his car. "You should be out in the water, Rits-chan. I don't think I've ever seen you be at the beach for more than ten minutes without jumping in." "I have no intention of swimming," Ritsuko said, gazing at the sea with a bit of a longing look, like she was denying herself candy. "Maya and I are here to do work, unlike you. We're just suited up since we'll likely have to get wet." "Playing with that sonar thing again?" Shigeru asked, coming over to look at it. "Something's interfering with it," Maya said, "But yes. We've planted some drones that are going around, testing it. It's called Hypersonar." She glared at the monitor, which kept fuzzing out. "You used to love to swim," Kaji said. "I remember the time you went topless at that one beach." Everyone swiveled and stared at Ritsuko, who caved in on herself slightly. "So did Misato...everyone was like that!" "Sempai! That was daring!" Maya said, smiling. "Better not tell Makoto," Shigeru said. "He'd die because he missed that." Kaji began walking down to the shore with the toy he had gotten out of the car. "This won't interfere with your test, will it?" "I don't think so," Maya said. "In fact, you can use it to help us!" ~*~ It's creepy, looking at all these sunken buildings, Touji thought. He glanced over at Hikari, who was looking at a shop front window. Somehow it survived intact, and some decade and a half old dresses were still standing on mannequins in a store. He shook his head; leave it to a girl to find dresses in a sunken city, he thought. She'll want to try them on next. He looked down the street and saw a shape move through the next intersection. It had been gray with streaks. Somehow familiar... a really BIG fish. Then it circled back, and he recognized it. A shark. He poked Hikari in the shoulder. She turned around, looking irritated, so he grabbed her and started swimming. She would have yelled at him if they could speak. Then she noticed what was following them, and she started swimming as well. No way we can outswim this thing, he thought. We've got to split up or take cover or something, he thought. He pointed to a building, and they swam through the door, then slammed it. Touji was breathing hard. Gotta warn the others somehow, he thought. He waited for the thing to try to ram down the door, bracing himself against the metal. No shark. After a while, he looked out through a crack. No shark. He waved for Hikari to move back, then stuck his head out. No shark. They headed out into the street and looked around. It was gone. They stared at each other, then started heading back towards the beach. A few seconds later, Makoto swum into sight, and a game of underwater charades began. ~*~ Soon, a stream of would-be divers erupted from the water, fleeing up onto the shore. Touji shouted, "Shark! Shark!" Maya giggled. "Uh huh. And a wolf too, I'm sure." Kaji shook his head. "No wolves around here." Shigeru said, "Can't fool us!" He started playing the theme song from Jaws, laughing. More people came out of the water. Misato did a quick head count. "We missed Rei and Shinji!" "Damn it," Makoto said, turning around. "I'll find them." "You stay here, I'll go." "Better I risk my life than you. You're the tactical commander; I'm just your assistant," he said. They stared at each other. Finally, Misato said, "We'll both go. They're my responsibility." He nodded. "Well, if I can't persuade you to stay, then let's go." ~*~ Shinji stared at the kanji painted on the side of the building he and Rei were next to. Some of it had eroded, but he could still read some of it. 'The Yellow Sign rises in place of . The stars move. The time of has ended. After winter, summer, after summer, winter. All is ' The end of the 'message' was eroded beyond recognition, except for a strange scrawled sigil, an eye of flame in the heart of a five pointed star. Rei had pulled him over to it, but couldn't tell him why. He turned to her questioningly, and she stared at him. Her right hand rested on the sigil, her left drifted freely. Then it came around, and pulled his right hand over to touch it. For a moment, he felt a strange thrill, as if the wall had tried to jolt him. She guided his hand along the contours of the sign. The wall was pitted and eroded, but the sign remained vibrant, and seemed even brighter, somehow, where they had touched it. Just as they were about to trace over the eye, he saw the shark. It was a fair distance away, swimming languidly towards them. He jerked back and pointed. Rei turned and saw the shark and began to swim towards it. Maybe she DOES think she's some undersea princess, he thought. He wanted to run away, but he didn't want to leave Rei to face it alone. He compromised by not moving, placing his hand on the oddly comforting sigil. A few seconds later, Makoto came round the corner, then turned to wave off the way he came. He came over to Shinji, pointed at the shark, then gawked as Rei swam up to it and poked it in the eye. It tried to swim away, and she grabbed it. Misato came around the corner just in time to see Rei swimming towards them, dragging the shark by the tail. It thrashed about, so she stopped and broke its tail. A black fluid leaked out of a rip in it, and began to rise slowly, feathering out into rivulets of dark liquid. Shinji stared at the liquid. It wasn't LCL, it was... Misato stared at the shark, then at Makoto, and they both nodded, then sighed. ~*~ "KAJI, YOU DIE!" Misato stormed out of the water. "Where the hell did you get a mechanical shark, anyway?" "You'd be amazed how much weird stuff is stashed away if you can find the right storage room in NERV," Kaji said, dropping the remote control. "You didn't have to break it." "It could have been hostile," Rei said, dumping it on the beach. "I think it's funny," Asuka said, laughing. "I think we should throw Kaji out in the ocean without his swim trunks," Hikari said. Misato grinned. "Perfect." It was fortunate that Kaji could run quickly. ~*~ Ritsuko and Maya had taken over the beach chairs somewhat later, while most of the assembled company were swimming, except for Asuka who was cooking dinner with help from Shigeru. Pleasant, though unfamiliar smells were drifting towards them. Maya said, "I guess the next step is to build the EVA sized units." "And to field test those. And to build a larger version of the mechanical shark to use as a hunting subject." Ritsuko sniffed the air. "Been a while since I last had sauerkraut." "Is that what I'm smelling?" She looked over at the grill. "Where did Asuka find that thing, anyway?" "Aoba-san brought it. I think he planned to make some okonomiyaki with it, but Asuka had other ideas. Now, how she knew he would bring a grill...don't ask me." Ritsuko shrugged. "I won't complain." "Are you sure you don't want to swim?" "Yes," Ritsuko said. "I don't like brine." Her voice took on a bit of a sharp edge. "And I can swim all I want back at the Geofront anyway." She looked at Touji and Kensuke, who were having a race. "I'd just get in the children's way, anyway." Maya blinked, then frowned. "I knew I had forgotten something." Ritsuko cocked her head. "You have children you forgot about?" Maya laughed, as did Ritsuko. "No, Rei came in for her checkup and..." "She's not starting to degenerate like DAGON subject 32 is she?" Ritsuko frowned. "You should have told me before." Maya shook her head fervently. "No. It's not physical. Not directly. I mean...the machine pretty much told me about part of it, but...She has a crush on Shinji, and she's jealous of Asuka." Ritsuko stared intensely at Maya. "Are you sure?" "She said she wanted to kill Asuka. And the feeling comes on whenever Asuka touches Shinji." Maya frowned. "With most children her age, I would be sure she is exaggerating, but...Rei doesn't exaggerate." "And you didn't tell me this?" Ritsuko fought to keep her voice low. "What did you tell her?" "I forbade her to kill Asuka. And that Shinji would be very unhappy if she did that. So would everyone else. The creepiest part was that she didn't understand why she wanted to kill Asuka. She can't quite understand she has a crush on Shinji." "Are you sure that's it?" "Why else would she care? And just asking about him caused her to have a physical reaction. Of course, it could be that she just doesn't understand her own feelings about Asuka either." "Or it could wreck everything," Ritsuko said. "I wouldn't care if Rei simply hated Asuka, though I'd rather they all like each other. But if Rei has actually reached the point of saying that...This could be disastrous. She's losing her balance." "Well, I think she'd be better off if she wasn't so passive, but...better passive than homicidal." "I will talk to her. I have a few ideas for things that might help. It may simply be jealousy. I hope you're right. Do you have any idea how the boy feels about her?" Maya tapped her cheek thoughtfully. "I don't know for sure, but I think he does like her. Just look at how comfortable he is around her." She pointed out at the playing children. "I think they've all gotten more comfortable with her." "She needs human contact," Ritsuko said. "But it's also dangerous to her, I think. We all have monsters lurking inside us; I fear Rei's may devour her if we handle this poorly." Her voice wobbled slightly. "And if she goes out of control..." "What can I do, Sempai?" "You can start by never forgetting anything this important again." Maya blushed. ~*~ Makoto picked up his mail. Most of it was junk mail, but one letter came in a purple envelope and smelled faintly of lilacs. He blinked and sat down at the table to read it after hanging up his wetsuit in the bathtub to dry. 'Dear Makoto, I have finished the first draft of 'Forbidden Love in NERV', the story I'm writing about a romance between two fictional EVA pilots, inspired by the stories you told me. I will be in Tokyo-3 in a few weeks; I'd like to drop you off a copy to look at. I need help making the action scenes more realistic; I don't know much about how things operate. Or at least so they SEEM realistic. Most people don't know much about how you run things either. How are things going with you and Misato? I suggest you start a secret admirer type thing if you haven't made any progress. See if she finds that exciting. You can always cut it off without losing any face if she doesn't respond, and it just might get you where you want to be! Anyway, I hope to see you! Give me a call at 555-975-9066, or you can email me at Akane@Ozaka.Net. Well, I'm going parachuting. See you! Hugs and Kisses, Akane Toshiba' She writes fast, he thought. I suppose she'll want to write Asuka into it. And the shark. He laughed, putting down the letter. Going down to face the shark together was the closest thing to a romantic moment he'd managed to get with Misato-san, although the other times they'd gone diving had been nice too. Kaji didn't help himself with the shark stunt. Misato-san was REALLY mad. No one had been hurt, but... Hmm, he thought. Secret Admirer...I need to find out what kind of flowers she likes. Although I probably should send flowers and beer instead of chocolate... He laughed and started making plans. ~*~ Shinji came out to the kitchen to get a drink of water before bed while Asuka was showering. Misato had changed into a set of actual pajamas; he hadn't realized she had any. And she was wearing her amulet. With a start, he suddenly realized the amulet was identical to the glyph that had been painted on the building. "That...there was something like that where Rei beat up the shark." Misato blinked. "Something like what?" "Your amulet. There was some freaked out message about winter and summer and rising signs and something. And a thing like that." "Weird. Continuing your dream training tonight?" He nodded. "Climbing the mountain." "I had to go down a staircase," Misato said. "Ever down into the dark." He blinked. "You've done this?" "I used to have horrible nightmares after...Second Impact. I was there, you know." "WHAT?" He stared in surprise. "In Antarctica?" "I was the only survivor. I still can't remember most of it. But the dreams were awful. Ritsuko taught me how to stop them in college. I mostly dream about food and friends and driving now. What do you dream about, Shinji?" "Riding on a maglev train." "And?" He looked embarrassed. "That's the happy one. The other ones get disturbing, but...I think this mountain thing may actually work." Asuka stuck her head into the room. "Of course it will! Because I'M the one teaching you. Now, go take a bath so you can go to bed and dream your way up the mountain." "I didn't go fishing with Kaji and get fish stink on me like you did," Shinji said. "And I already took a bath. I'll be fine." "I do not smell like fish!" Asuka started chasing Shinji around the apartment while Misato simply laughed. ~*~ The ledge had an occupant when Shinji returned to it in his dreams. A spider had made a web in one of the corners, and sat in the middle, waiting for business. The pattern glistened in the sunlight, the pattern of Misato's good luck charm, of the glyph on the wall in the sunken city of Tokyo-1. She had told him it was supposed to bring good luck and ward off evil spirits. A good sign, I hope, he thought. He stared at the rock face; the staircase was still gone. This wasn't much help. I can't climb this, he thought. Now, if I had wings, I could fly, but... There had to be...ahah, he thought. This is a dream. I ought to be able to MAKE a staircase like I made the mountain. He closed his eyes and tried to think of a staircase, imagining the one in his apartment building. When he opened his eyes, there was a tiny model of his apartment building lying at his feet, along with a tiny toy model of Misato's car. Something buzzed in his ear, so he swatted at it. It dodged, buzzing around his head, a tiny winged annoyance, which he started chasing around the ledge. A few seconds later, a thick stand of webbing shot down where he had been standing. Shinji looked up. A spider the size of a horse was perched just below the next ledge on a huge web it had spun. It stared at him with multifaceted eyes. Its eyes grew, or perhaps the universe shrank. Dozens of reflections of himself hovered before his gaze, swallowing up the universe. They danced and sang and ran and burned and pillaged and killed and howled at the moon, growing more and more alien as he looked at them. They were around him, a sea of Shinjis. Shinjis in plug suits, Shinjis in school uniforms, Shinjis dancing half-naked and daubed with paint, Shinjis wearing masks of bone and wood and metal. They sought to tear him apart, to devour him, tugging him in a million different directions; there was nothing in all the universe but himself, and every Shinji was insane. He had failed. He was going to die. He couldn't fight this many of himself. No one could. The cold black pit that lurked inside him began to grow, chilling him, leaving him unable to move, to act, to do anything but suffer. A few months earlier, he would simply have died, unable to find the strength to fight back. Even now, it was, perhaps, only chance which saved him. One Shinji carried a spear and wore a mask of cleverly carved wood that depicted some sort of snarling bestial face with eyes dyed red. He knew the mask; one of the priests in his dream of the sacrifice in the forest during the mission against Salgiel had worn it. And the spear he carried... Shinji howled with anger as his mood suddenly snapped. I would never do something like that! NEVER! "You're not me! NONE OF YOU ARE ME!" He leaped at his other self, ripping off the mask and pummeling his face until he collapsed, then he launched into the other Shinjis. One by one, they popped like balloons, and as they fell, crumbled into threads; they had been made out of webbing. He stood on the web, confronting the spider, hanging over a great chasm in a subterranean cave. Shinji pulled out a knife he hadn't known he had, and charged. The web bounced under his feet, trying to catch him, but unable to hold him. The spider leaped at him, and the knife came down. It popped like a balloon, and with it, the cavern popped. He was back on the ledge, and now the huge spider kneeled at his feet. Shinji blinked. "What the..." The knife was gone back to wherever it went from. He patted the spider on the head, not sure what to do. "Uh...good boy." It jumped up like a dog, ran around him once, then began to climb up the long thick ropelike webstrand which ran down from the next ledge to this one. Shinji blinked again, then began to shimmy up the rope. It was easier than he expected, less tiring than the stairs had been, and soon he reached the next ledge, a broader one. He sat down for a rest. Next time, I'm gonna dream every ledge has some food on it, he thought. ~*~ The next day, Shinji had other things on his mind, like the three people bearing down on him at high speed. I hate soccer, Shinji thought, looking around desperately for someone to pass to. He spotted a reporter...Megumi something or another...at the edge of the field, taking pictures. Now what's she up to, he wondered. This took just long enough for a kid named Youta to steal the ball from him. "Hey!" Shinji ran over, but Youta passed to another kid, and soon the other team scored. "Whadya zone out for?" Touji asked Shinji while the game raged around them. "That reporter's here again," Shinji said, pointing. But now she was gone. "I ain't seeing nothing," Touji said. "Rei didn't do nothing to ya, did she?" "Huh?" "No magic whammies?" "What are you TALKING about?" "Dunno. I wouldn't be surprised if she did magic on the side. She's..." *Whack!* Luckily, touching the ball with your head is legal in soccer. This doesn't make it feel good, though. Touji fell down. "Take it, Shinji!" Shinji blinked. The ball was at his feet, and the five man line of the other team was boring down on him, while his three other teammates yelled at him to do something. He kicked wildly, the ball soaring over the wave of humanity, zooming down the field, and bouncing into the net while the goalie was still trying to accept that Shinji had actually managed a kick like that. The onrushing horde paused, turned, stared, then turned back and stared again. "How the hell did you do that?" one of them asked. "I... uh... used my foot." Shinji said. "I just got lucky." "I wish I had your luck," the guy said. I wish I didn't, he thought. Except when it's like this. He smiled a little smile for the rest of the game, although his luck didn't hold out. ~*~ Asuka charged down the field with the soccer ball, having broken through the pathetic defense of the opposing team. Hikari loped along beside her; they had left the rest of their own team behind as well. Only one thing stood in the way of her scoring. Rei was the other team's goalie, and she was good. Rei's team had scored five goals to Asuka's team's two, and the reason was that Rei had stopped a good dozen shots that might have scored. Asuka had a simple plan. Drive forward, set up for what would look like a shot by herself, but instead pass to Hikari and let Hikari take the shot at a different angle. Ideally, Rei would move to block Asuka's shot. Time seemed to slow down. Asuka moved in, and Rei responded by moving over. Then Asuka twisted her leg around and passed instead of punting. Hikari spun slightly and took the shot. And Rei was over, positioned perfectly to block Hikari faster than Asuka could blink. Her leg reared back to kick the ball, even as the ball left Hikari's foot. As time continued to slow, Asuka knew the ball was going to come right at her. It was still possible to take the kick with her head and bat it in, though it would hurt like hell and maybe not even work. It was a stupid gamble; she took it. The ball arced up towards her forehead, and as it struck her brow, she wondered why Rei hadn't simply caught it and gone for a longer kick. The pain was incredible, like being slammed with a hammer, but the ball arced off and zoomed into the net, rolling off Rei's shoulder as she tried to intercept it. Then Asuka fell to the ground and passed out. ~*~ She woke up in the school clinic with Rei and Hikari seated nearby watching her. Hikari said, "Are you okay?" "I'm fine." Her head didn't even hurt. "I can't even feel it." "You shouldn't have done that!" "I do what I have to do to win," Asuka said. "And I feel fine." "Rei, you shouldn't have kicked it at her head!" Hikari said. "She knew the risk." Rei's voice was calm, her face expressionless. "Rei, that..." Asuka shook her head. "She's right. I'd have done the same thing if she'd been charging me. It wasn't like she wanted to kill me or something." Rei started slightly. Hikari laughed. "True. So when are you going to wear that dress you bought, Rei?" Rei asked, "When should I?" "..." Asuka said, "Well, you can't wear it to school, but some time when you want to impress someone, you ought to wear it." "Like Shinji," Hikari said, smiling slightly. Asuka nodded. "Yeah, we could all tell Shinji liked seeing you in it. Hmm...I've been wanting to do a date with Kaji. We could set up a double date with him and me and you and Shinji. Sound good to you, Rei?" Here's where she just stares at me, Asuka thought. "When?" "Next weekend?" "Okay." Rei turned and left. Hikari watched her go. "She's weird." "I guess Shinji has weird tastes. Maybe he just likes her body. She is cute, although I'm better looking than her." "All hail goddess Asuka, Norse Goddess of Love," Hikari said. "Will you carry me to Valhalla on your winged horse now?" "Anyone you want to ask out, Hikari? We could make it a triple date." Hikari blushed. "Well, maybe." I don't know if taking Touji on a date with Asuka would be a very good idea, though, she thought. "I'll think about it." "Don't think too long! You gotta show a guy how you feel; if you wait for him to make up his mind, you may wait all your life." Asuka jumped off the bed. "Let's go, even if it is just back to class." ~*~ Later that day, Asuka said, "You're pretty good at the flute," as she listened to Hikari play. "But you need to take up the viola so we can have a string quartet." Hikari finished her piece, then laughed. "Why don't you take up the viola? I found a piece for flute, viola, violin, and cello that Mozart did." Asuka stuck her tongue out. "You want to stay for dinner? We're having some of the fish Kaji and I caught. Kaji will be here in a few minutes to help me cook it." "To stand around and watch you cook it, more likely," Hikari said. "Men are like that." "I'll make Shinji help if I have to." She shrugged. "Kaji has other talents." "Like chasing other women." Asuka frowned. "He..." She sighed. "Yeah." "I think you ought to find someone our age," Hikari said. "Just about every guy in our class wants to ask you out, you know." "Kaji's better than any of them." Hikari began digging through her flute music sheets. "He's gonna break your heart." "He is not!" "At least if you're gonna date someone twice your age, find someone responsible," Hikari said. "Like maybe Katsuragi-san's assistant or the guy with the guitar." "You don't even know their names! How can you tell they're responsible?" Asuka waved her arms about; she was getting aggravated. Pen-Pen came over and looked at the music Hikari was about to play, then shook his head. Hikari blinked. "How smart is this penguin?" "Smarter than Shinji sometimes," Asuka said. From his room, Shinji shouted, "I HEARD THAT!" ~*~ Misato plunked down the mail just before they were going to eat. "Hmm. Two anonymous purple envelopes. One for Shinji, one for me." Kaji laughed. "Someone's in love with you AND Shinji?" "How'd you know about..." Shinji asked. "Asuka asked me to help her figure out who sent you that card." Shinji ground his teeth and opened the card while Misato opened hers and oohed and ahhed over it. This one showed Dorothy asleep in the poppy fields. On the inside was printed, 'Dreaming of you'. The poem made of snipped letters read, 'You make me forget Why it is that I exist You make me feel good. A Secret Admirer' Asuka tried to grab it, but Shinji sat on it. "Asuka!" "Hey, I'm just trying to help you!" Kaji tapped his chin. "Let's see...it's a bisexual bad poet. That rules out Pen-Pen." Misato and Shinji thwacked him in unison. ~*~ Shinji knocked on Rei's door. After a long pause, he heard footsteps, and she opened it, staring at him. He said, "Hi. I...uh...wanted to ask about why you took me to see that thing on the wall. Do you know what it is?" "Katsuragi-san wears one. I thought she had put that there for us to find." Shinji nodded. "Did you understand it?" "The seasons." That part had been pointless, but comprehensible, he agreed. "I guess it was just a coincidence. Misato didn't know anything about it." "There are no coincidences." Her voice was level, making him wonder if she was saying there had to be some meaning to it. "So you think it means something?" "It meant something once." Silence. "Umm...have you done the math homework?" He glanced around, feeling silly standing in the doorway. "No." "Wanna...er...do it together?" She looked at his hands. "You don't have books." "Well...we'd need to go back to my place." "Wait." She closed the door, and he heard her footsteps recede. Then they drew closer again, the door opened, and she came out, carrying a briefcase, which she was in the process of closing. He caught a glimpse of something that looked like 'Vogue', but he assumed it couldn't possibly be. For a moment, he had a mental image of Rei hiding in the dark under the sheets of her bed, reading Vogue by flashlight and giggling to herself, then carefully hiding the magazine and faking emotionlessness when Akagi-san came in to check on her. He laughed loudly at the thought. Rei glanced over at him, but said nothing. As they walked, Shinji began to feel curious as to what exactly he had glimpsed. I suppose I could ask her, he thought. Somehow, he just couldn't quite do that, though. He tried to think of something to talk about. "How many more Angels do you think there will be?" "Ten." He blinked. "Just Ten?" "Yes." "Why?" "I don't know." They walked in silence for a while after that, then Shinji blurted out, "Do you really have an issue of Vogue in your bag?" "Maya said to study it." "..." ~*~ "So who do YOU think Shinji's secret admirer is?" Asuka asked Rei as the three of them rode up the elevator to get into their entry plugs. They were on their way to do some special training in their EVAs. "A secret," Rei replied. "Well, DUH!" Asuka shouted. "Can we discuss SOMETHING ELSE?" Shinji asked. "Okay, who do you think is Misato's secret admirer?" Asuka asked. "I don't know, but she sure is enjoying it," Shinji said. "There's a lesson for you, you know. You should LIKE having a secret admirer," Asuka said. "I didn't say I didn't like it! I just don't want you reading my mail!" "Do you... like it?" Rei asked. Shinji blushed. "I never had one before. I never thought that..." He blushed more. "It is kind of nice." "o/~ First comes love, then comes marriage o/~" Asuka began to sing. Shinji simply quietly wilted. ~*~ The underwater exercise went well, although Asuka managed to snag Unit02's cord on a sunken telephone pole in the ruins of Tokyo-1 at one point and unplugged herself. Unit01 stepped on a shark without noticing, which got a few laughs once they loaded the Unit into the transport, as it was still embedded in his foot. They returned home, and slunk contentedly into bed, exhausted. Shinji went to climb the mountain some more, while Asuka had other business on her dreaming mind... ~*~ The Red Knight threw a few more logs on her fire, then got back up to finish brushing her horse, which was tethered to a nearby tree. She was passing through a light forest which ran up and down the thinly occupied hills between Zakarion (her destination) and Thorabon (her starting point). Thorabon was a dying sea port along the coast of the Southern Sea, east of Dylath- Leen, where she had recently made herself not welcome by burning all the slave traders' ships in the harbor. Loathsome half-human things had leaped from the burning boats, confirming her suspicions about the black galleys which came to port in Dylath-Leen, accepting only humans in return for the wines and cloths and spices and gems they brought there in trade. They would think twice about returning to Dylath-Leen. On the other hand, she would also have to think twice, as the locals had not taken kindly to this. Indeed, there was some risk now of war between Celephais and Dylath-Leen. She needed to return home and warn King Kuranes. Thorabon had been no help in that regard; the city was vanishing, fading away bit by bit. Once it had been a place of wonders, of buildings made of shining crystal which would accept no paint but took on the colors willed into it by their owners. Great galleons of the same crystal, mined in the hills, had sailed forth to all the cities of the Southern and Cerranian seas. But one day, the city had begun to fade, and nothing could restore it. Buildings vanished, and with them their inhabitants. Thorabonian crystal everywhere began to vanish, stripping wealthy homes of windows and glasses, devastating its fleets, and even slaying its king when the balcony of his palace faded away beneath his feet. Only a few desperate people remained, trying to find some way to save their city or unable to afford to leave, a village huddling amongst the fading wreckage of greatness. So she had turned north, to cross the infertile lands that lay between Thorabon and Zakarion, a city of sages too wise for the waking world, it was said. Knowing the waking world as she did, she could believe it. It was a region of gently rolling plains, covered with short grass tinged with brown due to a lack of water. A few trees with thin trunks and deep, wide roots clung to the land, doing their best to shade it with their leaves. Asuka took off her helmet and shook out her hair, then began to comb it. She sat by the fire, having finished brushing her horse (with a seperate brush of course). She gazed up at the stars. I wonder how long Shinji's going to take to climb that mountain, she thought. I wouldn't mind having a travelling companion. Although maybe I can hook up with Anna again once I get back to Celephais if she's finished her quest. Her stomach rumbled. She got up and got her bow off her horse, stringing it. Time to shoot me a rabbit or even a squirrel, she thought. An hour's tramping about caught her a rabbit and finished the job of the sun going down. It was dark, and the stars came out, not the constellations of Earth, but familiar to her now, for she has passed much time in the strange world that Dr. Himmelfarb had taught her to enter, and which she now strove to teach to Shinji. The hardest part was getting in, whether it be to find the ninety nine steps of dream from the cavern of eternal flame, or to swim across a river full of piranha, or to climb a mountain. A true Dreamer had to be determined in order to find the place where dreams were reality. And yet, in time, it grew harder for even the most determined dreamer to enter. Asuka had no idea why. Doktor Himmelfarb had a very hard time, though Asuka still ran into her sometimes. Not since her arrival in Tokyo-3, though. That time had not yet come for Asuka. I ought to teach Hikari too, she thought. She'd like this, I think. I just have to make sure no one EVER teaches Touji. A shape blurred across her sight, drawing her out of her thoughts. There was something among the trees, its shape blurred by rapid movements. Something with red eyes and a faint blue halo above those eyes. The haunter of the dark, she thought. She had fought it once, long ago, when it had stalked her dreams. By defeating it, she had won her way into the Dreamlands. Doktor Himmelfarb had warned her it would not stay dead, that one day it would likely come again. She had beaten it before, but she feared it nonetheless, for it could take a thousand forms, some of them horrible beyond measure, but others quite innocuous until one realized one had placed one's head into the lion's mouth. She slung her bow over one shoulder, and drew her sword, an onyx blade forged for her by the smiths of Ilek-Vad after she had defeated a great sea beast that had threatened the city upon the great glass cliffs and the labyrinths of the Gnorri, the sea-dwelling allies of the people of Ilek-Vad. Fire flickered along the blade, lighting a circle around her with its comforting, warm glow. The shape blurred away from her into the darkness of the half-moon lit sky. It was flying with great bat-like wings. She remembered the wings, the eyes, the tail with a stinger that had injected a poison that had nearly killed her in their last confrontation. She had been unarmed then, a panicked child, saved only by her strength of will and the lessons she had been taught. She felt she was no child now. "Come and fight me! Don't skulk in the darkness, you bastard! I am Asuka Soryuu Langely, the Red Knight of Celephais! I've whooped you before and I'll do it again!" She felt a gust of cold air, but her sword flared brighter, the warmth dispelling the cold air, the light shoving back the darkness. "FIGHT ME!" The red eyes stared at her from above, then settled to the ground far away. They closed, and vanished. She ran about for a while, trying to roust the thing out, but it was gone. She spent the rest of the night fruitlessly on edge, but it never returned. ~*~ Kensuke, Touji, and Shinji lay in a field on the outskirts of the city goofing off when they were supposed to be studying, watching the clouds drift by instead. "I envy you, man," Kensuke said. "Why?" Shinji asked. "I think deep sea diving is cool. I bet you'll probably meet a mermaid or something," Kensuke said. "Or find some golden treasure. I wish I could pilot an EVA." "I wish you could do it for me. LCL is disgusting. And we'll probably end up stranded on the ocean floor," Shinji said. He idly tied a long stalk of grass into a circle, then began to weave a second stalk into the first. "I wish I got to live with a babe like you do," Touji said. "Yeah, but you'd be living with Asuka too," Kensuke said. "I wouldn't mind, but I think you two would kill each other." "Naah. I'd get Shinji to go out with her so she'd focus on him while I got Misato," Touji said. Shinji laughed. "I don't think Misato dates people our age." I wonder if he's Misato's secret admirer. He laughed. As long as he isn't mine... "Hey, a man can dream a noble dream!" Touji said, shaking his fist at the sky. "It'd beat living with my dad the prick anyway." He snarled. "Bastard won't even go see my sister. Says she's already dead." Shinji blinked. "What?" "Mom was like that for a while before she died, but I mean...she and Mom didn't get hurt the same way." He sighed. "Mom just breathed in the wrong chemicals. She died a lot faster than my sister. I mean...Miki's been in the hospital a lot longer than it took Mom to die." Shinji sat up and frowned, feeling guilty. "She's still in the hospital?" "Yeah. She hasn't come out of her coma fully, except to babble sometimes," he said, sighing. "But the doctors say she should recover." "I'm sorry," Shinji said. "It ain't your fault," Touji said. "Just beat the hell out of the next Angel for me, okay?" "I will." Shinji said. ~*~ Asuka pirouetted on the deck for Kaji as the sun was setting. She was wearing a white sundress with red tongues of flame dotting it, and a matching white hat. "How do I look?" "You missed a step," he said, laughing. "I meant the dress!" "It's very nice, though not too practical for deep sea diving," he said, leaning back on his deck chair. Several crewmen stared at both of them and grumbled, then moved on. She came over and sat down on the one next to him. "Do you think we're ready for this?" "Nope." He said. She frowned. "Then why are we going?" "You'll never really be ready. Not when we can't be sure what we're fighting or where they come from. The universe is a large scary place, and we're really tiny. We can't even be sure if the rest of the universe obeys the same laws as ours. Certainly the Angels you've fought so far...we can't explain how they do what they do." Now she felt a little worried. Usually he was much more confident. "Do you really think we're going to lose?" "I fear we will lose. I hope we will win. You're carrying the weight of the world, Asuka. If you die, there's no one to replace you. Not yet. And there's no way of knowing how many of these things there are, or if they'll get lucky and nail one of you." He turned to face her. "Gertrude would never forgive me if I let you die." "I'm not going to die," she said. "You...you'd miss me if I died, wouldn't you?" "Of course I would. I'd only have Misato left to tease for one thing; Rits-chan won't take my bait anymore." She'd hoped for him to say something more romantic than that. "I'd miss you a lot if you died." "Let's not give the universe any hints, okay?" he said. The sun finished setting, and the red sky faded to darkness. One by one, the stars came out, and Asuka settled down to watch them and listen to the sea. I wonder what Rahab will be like, she thought. That was the name of their next target, the Angel of the Sea. Probably going to be a great white whale, she thought. She drifted off into a nap, dreaming of Shinji's father as Captain Ahab. ~*~ Diving in an EVA had several advantages. No worries about the bends, for one thing. The pressure in the entry plug would never change and an EVA could handle the outside pressure with ease. No need to stick close to an aircord or anything. However, they did need power, which effectively was the same thing. There was a cable for each of them, and a fourth one which held several powerful explosive charges; EVAs weren't likely to fit through any doors they found, and they hadn't come to do archaeology. Another advantage was that EVAs could carry BIG lights. Each of them had the largest headlamps in the history of the world. It was like having a portable sun. They could see the ruins as they descended into it. It sat at the base of a mountain, spreading out along three roads away from the plaza that sat at the point of the mountain's base directly below a building that perched halfway up the mountain on a small plateau. A great gully ran through the city that must have once been a river. The buildings were of stone, with odd gaps between them in some places. The gaps were not ruined buildings, simply empty spaces with no coherent pattern. The buildings themselves were made of many kinds of stone, from basalt to granite to a handful of buildings faced with marble. Most were only two or three stories high at best, though near the plaza some rose as high as ten stories, interconnected by now broken walkways above the level of the road. Asuka said, "Hey, Rei, is this your underseas kingdom?" Shinji laughed. "Rei is from Atlantis, not Mu." "Mu?" "I don't see any cows," Shinji said, laughing. Asuka frowned. _Someone_ was showing a bit more spine than usual at _her_ expense. "Don't make fun of me! What is Mu?" "In the nineteenth century, a man named Colonel Churchward claimed to have deciphered a set of tablets which told the story of a continent named Mu in the Pacific Ocean, which had once held a great civilization, then sank into the ocean. He was generally laughed at because of two reasons. First, his method of translating them basically involved a lot of mysticism since it was a supposedly dead language, and secondly, he couldn't produce the tablets." "Sounds to me like he made it up." "Well, unless he built this city too, he must have known something." "There are other writings besides his which speak of Mu," Ritsuko said over the comlink. "While this city may or may not have ever been part of a kingdom named Mu, it does show there's some truth to the legend. Indeed, it's possible that Atlantis and Mu are simply both distorted versions of the same truth--this city, whatever it may be named." Rei pointed at the building on the mountainside. "Looks Mayan." It was a huge step pyramid, taller than the EVAs, though not by much, sitting on a small plateau, most of which it occupied. They couldn't make out much detail from this distance. "Maybe Mayans colonized this place before it sank," Asuka speculated. "Or vice versa," Shinji said. "I wonder how old it is." "Thousands of years," Misato said over the comlink. "The sensor feeds we're getting indicate you need to climb the mountain to that pyramid." "Right," Shinji said, and they started down one of the broad streets to the plaza at the mountain's base. "I can hardly believe this place is real," Asuka said. "It's at least as advanced as the Egyptians or the Aztecs or the Maya or Incas. Just look at the architecture. But if it's thousands of years old, it must predate them. When we're saying thousands, how many thousands do we mean, Katsuragi-san?" Misato consulted someone off screen. "Older than any known civilization." "Wow!" Asuka said. "This must have been the first human civilization then. What kind of people lived here?" "We have no clue," Misato said. "Probably they looked just like us, though. It's not THAT old." "The temple looks sort of like the Mayans. Maybe they came from here," Asuka speculated. Shinji looked about as they crossed the great plaza. "Reminds me too much of Tokyo-1. I wonder if people will wander through the ruins of Tokyo-3 one day and wonder what we were like." "Don't be gloomy," Asuka said. "This place is really neat!" Rei, who was lugging the explosives said, "How many charges to level the temple?" "Try just one," Misato said. "We can't just destroy it!" Asuka said. "Unless you want to get out and swim, we don't have much choice," Misato said. "They probably sacrificed humans if they were really like the Mayas or the Aztecs," Shinji said. "It looks just like that one in our history books." "Whatever. I guess we blow it up," Asuka said. ~*~ The building was tougher than it looked, but two charges levelled it. Clearing the rubble took a while, but since they had power from above, this wasn't a problem. They also had power packs with them for an emergency. Finally, they found the huge well which had once sat at the heart of the temple. Infrared sensors indicated the water welling up out of it was warmer than the surrounding ocean water by a good twenty degrees. "Go to Hypersonar," Misato said. "Why?" Asuka asked. "Just do it," Misato replied, frowning. She started to say something, then heard something the pilots could not, frowned more, and said, "Conserves the flashlight power, and we need to make sure it'll work in the confined space of the shaft. You're going to have to go one at a time. The Angel is down below. Do not turn on your lights under any circum- stances without a direct order." Misato wasn't happy giving these orders; they had come down from Commander Ikari, who she suspected had censored the report they had gotten from the divers before passing it on to her. Why fight in the dark? It made no sense. Not for the first time, she was certain Commander Ikari knew something he wasn't telling. More precisely, that he knew far more about the Angels than he was telling. How had the divers known where to look? And why was it so important for the Children to fight Rahab in the dark? Did he get stronger with light or something? "Are we gonna have enough cable for this?" Shinji asked. "As long as they didn't dig a half-mile shaft, yes," Misato said. "Our readings indicate it isn't much more than five to eight hundred feet down." "Why is it just sitting here?" Asuka asked. "We believe it isn't fully functional yet," Misato said. "It hasn't left since we found it." "I'll go first. Shinji, you go second. Rei, you go third." Asuka switched on her Hypersonar, as did the others. The ocean turned into a black void with shapes outlined in green with distance markers by them. "Can I turn on infrared too?" "Affirmative," Misato said. Asuka gritted her teeth and swallowed, then relaxed. "Let's go." ~*~ The shaft dove three hundred feet and let out into a huge cavern that would have been vast and impressive under most conditions, extending hundreds, maybe thousands of feet, lacking the stalactites and stalagmites that one normally finds in caves, the walls polished smooth. Two things reduced its impressiveness. The first thing was that hypersonar made everything look like a cheesy late seventies video game. The second thing was that the EVAS were so big the cavern shrunk in comparison. Asuka dropped down into the chamber first, progressive knife in hand. She wished they had been able to take better armnaments, but most weapons work poorly underwater. It would likely do the job anyway. Assuming she could find the enemy to hit him. Feh, she thought. The ceiling was low, which bothered her; it was going to be hard to move in here without whacking her EVA's head into the ceiling frequently. To make matters worse, she could make out a huge shape on her Hypersonar which occupied the far end of the cavern. Hypersonar couldn't handle it well; it was too complex, a tangle of tubes and arms and legs and spheres and bulbous malformed hunks of seemingly pointless flesh, all mounted around a large sphere which might have been an eye, but which was featureless to hypersonar. It had no infrared signature at all. "That's the Angel!" Misato said. "Our sensor feed from you is heading up the scale." "It looks like old, rotten spaghetti," Asuka said. "Just like Oscar used to make." Rahab, the Angel of the Sea, charged across the cavern, its hundreds of tentacles, tubes, and limbs flailing about, and Asuka charged it as Unit01 dropped down. "You call this 'not fully functional'? Shinji, draw your knife and move left. Rei, move right when you get down. I'll take the middle." "Good plan," Misato said, slightly irritated. "Produce an AT- Field as you strike. Force your way through the limbs to the center; you'll spend all day hacking at him otherwise." This was easier said than done. Up close, Rahab was one big smear on Hypersonar, and you couldn't see him on Infrared at all. While they could swat things aside on touch alone, soon, each of them was effectively snared in a sea of limbs which tried to crush them. His AT-Field was strong, but it was the sheer weight and strength of his extremities, combined with the problems of trying to navigate through them which was holding them back. It was hard to keep from being tangled completely and immobilized. Asuka was sure she had sliced a good two dozen tendrils, tentacles, tubes, arms, and even one thing that had resembled a leg. "We need to use our lamps! It's like fighting two dozen perverts in the dark! I can't even tell what direction I'm facing and..." Unit02 smacked into the ceiling. "Request denied," Ritsuko said. "We have reason to believe that using light against this Angel would be a bad idea." "It's trying to cut my cord, but I'm afraid to strike or I may hit it myself!" Shinji said. "I can't tell the difference in this mess!" "Absolutely not," Ritsuko said. After a few more minutes of fighting, Asuka couldn't take it any longer. Her left leg was immobilized and despite hacking up dozens of tentacles, she wasn't gaining any ground. Hypersonar just wasn't hacking it, she thought. I need light or I'm going to die. She clicked her light on. He was a nightmare, looking as though someone had sewn together thousands of random body parts of various sizes into a huge throbbing mass with a single eye in which danced a cold blue flame. She could now see the pain in her EVA's left leg was from a huge mouth which had bitten down on it. His flesh was multicolored, greens and browns and tans and reds and harsh purples, and many of his limbs flailed about apparently mindlessly. I'll go for the eye, she decided. Then her EVA wouldn't move, and her eyes widened. "MOVE!" she shouted, but it moved only in slow motion, ever slowing. Something was wrong. ~*~ Back at the bridge, Ritsuko cursed. "You idiot! Anything that can see Rahab will..." She sighed. "Maya?" "The Angel's AT-Field is invading the three EVAs. At this rate, they have about three minutes before it's too late." "You didn't say we'd get paralyzed just LOOKING at it!" Asuka shouted over the comlink. "You wouldn't be in trouble if you hadn't disobeyed orders!" Misato yelled. "And someone didn't TELL ME THAT!" "You have to generate your own AT-Fields," Ritsuko said. "And drive out the energies invading your EVAs. Otherwise, you'll be rendered immobile and it will likely eat you or worse." Shinji winced and began to concentrate, as did the others, and soon the bridge sensors showed a struggle of pure energy was in progress between Rahab and the three EVAs. The tentacles ceased to move, as the battle became one of will and power rather than physical might. Asuka found herself thinking about Kaji. I love you, she thought. I can't die...I have to come back to you! Not to mention I have to show that bastard Touji I'm not so weak I got killed by just LOOKING at the Angel. And Shinji. I have to finish his lessons, and he's counting on me! And Hikari...I'd miss you if I died. Thoughts of her loved ones (and a few hated ones) sustained her will to struggle. Shinji found it hard to focus at first; efforts of will didn't come easily to him; paralysis did. The void opened before him, and he saw the Earth from space. It was a tiny marble, just one of millions, doomed to die when the Sun swallowed it. Humanity was just a crawling fungus upon its surface that one day would die. That day had come; somehow he could see the horrors rising from the deeps, crawling from the cracks of the earth, descending from the sky, all come to reclaim the world that once was theirs. The stars were right, and they sang the fall of mankind. How could one man stand against that? If he had been alone, he would have likely failed. But he could see Asuka and Rei's faces on his monitors, and he didn't want to fail them. They were counting on him. Asuka wouldn't give up, and neither would Rei. Misato was counting on him too, and his friends...he could hardly believe he had friends. His life had changed more than he could imagine since he had come to Tokyo-3, changed for the better, despite the bad parts of it. He didn't want to die. He wanted to live. He was going to live. I refuse to die, he thought. The image of humanity's doom hung before him, and he denied it. We're not going to die! I'm not going to die! We beat all the other Angels and we WILL BEAT YOU!!!! Shinji snarled, and then his Eva's arm began to move, followed by its legs. Slowly, it began to press forward. Asuka's EVA was beginning to move as well, and so was Rei's. They shoved forward, hacking through the flabby, pustulent flesh, ignoring the gore that repeatedly showered the three EVAs. "Its AT-Field is wavering," Ritsuko said. "Asuka, use your feeding tendrils." "That's disgusting!" Asuka shouted. "Shinji, use your claws and bite it. You can chew through it faster than you can use your knife," Misato said. "Ditto for you, Rei." Rei seized one of the tendrils, and ice began to spread up it to the central tangle of body parts which formed what passed for Rahab's torso. Shinji reluctantly forced himself to make his EVA bite a pulsating arm, then began to rip his way forward at a much higher pace. It felt disturbingly good to just shred his way through the repulsive thing, and he could almost taste its vital fluids. He would have spat if his spittle wouldn't have ended up on him. His body quivered with nervous energy as his EVA sliced and bit and rended and chewed and fed upon Rahab. Unit02 sprouted the facial tendrils, and where they struck, the limb soon lost all its color and crumbled to gray flakes, then dust. At random intervals, large veins pulsed visibly under 02's skin, and Asuka felt a horrifying euphoria. What her EVA was doing repulsed her, but it also brought a faint pleasure she tried to reject. ~*~ Back at the Geofront, Maya frowned. "Asuka and Shinji's synchro rates have fallen slightly." Misato shuddered. "Can you blame them?" She couldn't see clearly; they weren't accepting visual signals from the Children, just Hypersonar, but it still looked awful. She fingered her necklace nervously. "Angel AT-Field has fallen to fifty percent," Shigeru said. "I'm surprised it hasn't actually severed their power cords yet," Makoto said. "Let's not give it any ideas," Misato replied. ~*~ Much of what was left of Rahab was covered with ice and dripping with its own gore. Unit00 slashed its 'torso' with mandibles, Unit01 was eating one of its...legs?, and 02 moved forward, sinking its feeding tendrils into the huge eye. A shriek erupted through the cavern, shaking the walls, and Asuka's monitors suddenly filled with a flurry of images, her ears filling with sounds, her nose with smells, all her senses overloading. For a moment, the Earth floated before her as seen from space. Then she saw a vast continent, and a volcano. Pink scabrous creatures, winged crustaceans flew down and built a city, mining the local area for rock, and silencing the volcano with a machine. They built a city to guard the cave where Asuka slept. One day, they were gone, and much later humans came and dwelt above her, worshipping her. She howled; these were not her memories, not her senses, not her, but she could not resist them, could not fight them off. Much of it was utterly alien to her and incomprehensible. Angled time. The smell of a dying world. Twelfth dimensional spheres. A music which permeated the universe. A universe dying as the atom which contained it was crushed in a cyclotron. An ever surging, constantly changing blasphemous mass surrounded by a court of idiot gods and mindless flautists playing a tuneless symphony. And over and over, snatches of the words of the priests in a language she refused to know, but which overwhelmed her, forced itself upon her. They spoke now, on the last day before her home sank beneath the waves, calling out the final prophecy of their time supposedly in her service. She had always ignored them, a buzzing annoyance, along with the stupid people dropped down the great well. They had talked of her wrath, her desires, her hopes and fears for their land, but they had meant nothing to her any more than one would care if the termites in ones walls worshipped one. She had simply waited for the Day of Return. And yet one day... ~*~ "The priests of Ythogtha have destroyed us all," Zar-ya said, as he looked out across the land and watched the rising waves of waters devour it, watched the great cracks in the land consume it, watched the people flee up the mountain towards the temple. He was an old man, pale skinned and white haired. "We have gambled and lost." "Great Ghatanathoa is watching over us!" Yarke-shu was dark skinned and young, with bright yellow hair, an humble acolyte of the temple. "He will save his faithful ones!" "He cares nothing for us," Zar-Ya said. "We have only pretended to speak in his name, used his power for our own personal gain. Have you not studied our histories? He did not save those who built this temple and this city from destruction. He will not save us." "That...that is blasphemy!" Yarke-shu was shocked. "We are his chosen! We have closed down all the other temples at his command! He...he has to save us!" "The Gods care nothing for men," Zar-Ya said. "Only the weak Great Ones who live now only in dreams have any caring for mortals, and they cannot touch this world; they are but a shadow. The Gods, the universe...it does not care if we live or die. We have gambled, and we have lost. Now we pay the price." "NO! It is not possible!" Yarke-shu paled as much as he could, which wasn't much. "We have served him well, given him blood and lives! Are you saying we slew those people for nothing?" "Perhaps it appeased his lust for blood...if he lusts. We know nothing of him save that to look upon him is to die. Only one thing comforts me as I gaze upon the wreck of all there is." He stared out across the railing and watched some people huddling in the wreckage of one of the banned temples, the temple of Cuthag, the fire god, trying to light fires in the hopes their lord would notice them. No chance of that. If he did notice them, it would likely spell their deaths. "One day, he too will die. I have seen it." "That is not possible! The Gods cannot die!" "All things die. On the day of Oracles, I have taken the sacred drug Leri, as you would have one day. I have travelled the curves and angles of time, dodging the hounds that guard its ways, and I saw the day...the day that the Slaying Gaze would be no more. Destiny cannot be escaped. When I saw that, I knew one day Mu would be destroyed. But I knew that the one who abandoned us to our fate would perish as well." "No!" Yarke-Shu screamed. "He will come! He will save us!" "Three of his fellows, beings like himself, will slay him, three Gods masquerading as men. They will come in the visage of man, the ultimate insult. They will smite him with the power of the Gods, and steal away his might. On the very eve of his freedom, on the verge of triumph, he will be destroyed just as we have been smitten on the day of our victory. I will die with his deaththroes in the eye of my mind, and I will die content to know his turn will come in time." "BLASPHEMY!" Yarke-Shu screamed. "You must be thrown to him! It must be you who brought down his wrath!" He drew his sacred knife and charged. ~*~ Asuka did not see the end of that tableau, for she remembered she had lost interest with the end of the prophecy. She screamed. "I AM NOT THIS MONSTER! GET OUT OF MY MIND!" Her brain swam with names. Ythogtha, Illisia, Toriak, Knn- Yrr, T'yui'oik-H'al'sha, Yuggoth, T'yog, Zanthu, Idh-yaa, Tlaloc, Ghatanathoa, Ghadamon. They might have been people or places or names, she could not remember. She did not want to remember. They were not her memories! They were not! She called forth her deepest resources. Berlin in the summer. The Wagner festival. Goethe's house. Anna. Dr. Himmelfarb. Her parents. NERV-Germany. They faded in and out of her sight, and then soldified, the alien images popping one by one. And then it was over. There was nothing left of Rahab but currents of pus and gore floating through the water and massive gray flakes of flesh quickly dissolving away into the water which took on a dismal tinge. A ripple ran through the cave outwards from Rahab's remains, and when they struck the explosive charges, they went off. The water boiled and that part of the cavern collapsed, cutting off their com lines. More importantly, their power line went out. While they each had a backpack, they were now down to thirty five minues power, while trapped in an underwater cave with no explosives. ~*~ At the Geofront, the remote transmissions went blank. A comline from the boats kicked in. "Something severed the cables, we think," Kaji said. "They won, DAMMIT!" Misato shouted. "They beat him! Who's the...WHO MADE THOSE EXPLOSIVES?" "Some armnaments company," Makoto said. "I can look it up." "Find them. Kill them," Misato said grimly. "MAGI estimates there's only a one percent chance they were actually slain. Probably their cables were simply cut," Shigeru announced. "If their backpacks were not damaged, they have enough power to try to dig their way out." "Maybe," Misato said, crumpling up sheet after sheet of paper into tiny balls. "If they're dead," she rubbed her eyes to avoid crying. "They can't be dead. They have to live. They HAVE TO!" "DAGON is not yet ready," Ritsuko said. "We cannot afford to lose them." "And we could if it was?" Misato said fiercely, glaring at her. "This is a war. They're soldiers. Soldiers die. Right now, they're the only soldiers we have, but if we didn't need them...I like them. But I'd watch them die a thousand times to keep humanity from being destroyed. And one of these days, likely one of them WILL die. Are you going to let that break you, Misato?" Ritsuko's voice was intense. "This is a war. A commander who collapses when someone dies isn't much use to those who lived." "I'll do what I have to," Misato growled. "And so will I. I intend to fight to the last and stab the Angels in the eye with my mechanical pencil as they eat me if I must," Ritsuko said. "Let us hope it doesn't come to that." ~*~ "SHIT!" Asuka said as she peeled her EVA off the wall; they'd all been flung into them when the explosives went off. Shinji looked around. "There's some tunnels going further off from here...this whole cavern complex is HUGE. Maybe we can find a way out." "We have to try. Lead on, Shinji," Asuka said. Shinji quickly played eenie-meenie-minnie-mo with the various tunnels, then picked the largest one. Fifteen minutes later, it seemed like they had been wandering forever. Then Rei pointed down one of the many cavern forks. "Lights." They saw tiny lights off in the distance. "It can't be people," Shinji said. "Maybe the crabs came back," Asuka muttered, remembering the vision. It disturbed her...that thing couldn't have been here when the city was built, could it? Why the hell would the aliens put it down at the bottom of the sea, anyway? Well, I suppose it would keep people from finding the thing before it was ready... "Crabs?" Rei asked. "Nothing. Let's follow them." For five minutes, they followed the lights, and then the nature of the caverns changed. There were signs of workmanship, as if the caves had been widened, and blast marks. The last two minutes took them through a great carven hallway, completely artificial, finally issuing out through a great arch to one side of the mountain. The lights had vanished by that point, and looking around, there was nothing which could obviously give light. "What the...what made those lights?" Shinji asked. "Let's not question luck," Asuka said. "Let's go find the temple; the cables should still be there. We can...umm...climb them if nothing else." ~*~ "Something's pulling on the lines," Lt. Hamnes, a young blond from Germany, said to Kaji. "Should we reel it in? It seems...to be tugging in morse code. S. O. S." "Do it," he said. "We've got to get them to the surface before their power goes out." "Is everything to do with NERV this weird?" Lt. Hamnes asked. "Often it's much stranger," he said. "But we've won this time." "How many of these damn Angels are there? And when are their makers gonna come back for them?" Hamnes asked as he punched in commands to the computer operated cables. "When the stars are right," Kaji muttered. "Don't give me that astrology shit," Hamnes said. "My damn grandmother hated my last girlfriend because she had the wrong sign." Kaji simply laughed. ~*~ Asuka nearly crushed Kaji to death once she got out of her entry plug. "That was...awful!" He hugged her loosely. "Yeah, I know. But you all made it back okay. So how was your underseas kingdom, Rei?" "Wet." She stared at them in confusion as they all began to laugh hysterically. ~*~ As the boats headed back to Tokyo-3, that evening, Shinji found Asuka staring out across the water. "What are you looking at, Asuka?" "Shinji...when it died...did you see anything?" "I got a big gusher of green-gray pus in my face and a wave of nausea. That was about it. And a sort of...I did see a lot of scary stuff about how pointless humanity was when we were trying to break its AT-field, though." He sighed. "Do you think...do we matter?" "Of course we do," Asuka said. "We're made in the image of God." A memory of her vision struck her, and she shuddered slightly. Gods in the visage of men... "He tried to pull that 'You don't matter because the Universe is real big and you're real small' bullshit with me too. Who gives a flying...We're here, and that's what matters. A big universe just gives us a bigger playground. We'll walk among the stars one day," she said. "If we don't die first," Shinji said, standing by the railing and watching the gentle waves. "We nearly died." "But we didn't. So how did you overcome what Rahab was trying to make us believe?" "I...I didn't want to let you and Rei down. To let my..." He hesitated, part of him fearing that saying the words would make them cease to exist. "My friends needed me. You all...you matter to me." He blushed, though only slightly. Mercifully, Asuka either didn't notice it or didn't comment on it. "You matter to me too, Shinji." She thought a moment. "Have you ever heard of...a god named Ghatanathoa? Or Ythogtha? Or..." She couldn't quite remember the other one. "Nope," he said. "Although it sounds vaguely familiar. Why do you ask?" "I had a..." I must have just tripped out, she thought. It made no sense...and yet...the temple was clearly built to sacrifice to the thing that lived under it. But it couldn't be that old if aliens made it. Something was fishy. "It was nothing...don't worry about it." ~*~ Shinji found it hard to breathe as Misato hugged him. "Urgle..." She let go. "I'm glad you all made it back!" she said. "We thought we'd lost you." They walked from the docks towards her car together, her and Asuka and Shinji. "I need to talk to you later, Katsuragi-san," Asuka said. "That's fine," she said. "But right now...how does a nice juicy steak dinner sound? I feel like celebrating." "Sounds great!" Asuka said. "Can we bring Kaji?" "This is just going to be a 'family' outing," Misato said, winking. "Can I have a raise in my allowance, then, 'Mom'?" Shinji asked, laughing. "NERV already pays you a hundred thousand yen a week," Misato said. "And I NEED my salary." "They do?" Shinji asked. "Yes. It goes right to your bank account." "I have a bank account?" "Did you read all the stuff I gave you?" "Umm...I read the 'Welcome to NERV' brochure and the one on Penguin Care..." A moment later, after a little thought, he said, "So I have money?" They reached the car. "Get in the car. I'll tell you about it on our way home." "I... I have money?" ~*~ Kaji pulled up in front of Rei's building. "There you go." "Do you live alone?" Rei asked him as she picked up her clothing bag. He blinked. "Yes." "Always?" "No, I lived with my folks growing up, and I've had roommates a few times. I lived on Misato's couch for a semester. Well, when I wasn't...anyway. Tired of living alone?" I always wondered why they made the poor kid live by herself, he thought. Rei started to get out of the car. "I do need sleep." He blinked. "I meant...you want a roommate or something?" Maybe Misato would have room for her, he thought. Kids need someone who can at least fake being a parent. Then again, maybe Maya would be a better choice in that regard. She turned back to face him. "Something. Thank you, Kaji- san." "You're welcome." He watched her walk into the building. She shouldn't be alone, he thought. Maybe she could move in with Maya or something. Or Misato, although Misato's apartment was already holding three. The girl shouldn't be living alone at that age; it could lead to trouble, he thought. Especially if certain rumors were true. ~*~ "It's a pity we can't just skip the next one," Fuyuutsuki said. "It's a pity we can't FIND the next one," Gendo said. "They could turn him loose almost anywhere." "Anywhere that people won't notice a few monoliths." "Space them widely enough...they could already be in place for all we know," he said. "And POLARIS won't feel anything until they use them." He stroked his chin idly. "And there's the Rei situation." "It was bound to happen eventually. But compared to DAGON, she's still a success," Fuyuutsuki said. "I suspect DAGON will never work in time. It took years to properly train Rei to maintain her balance. And even that may not be enough. The DAGON subjects have days at best. Only the ones whose functions are too minimal to be of use to us survive." "And now she risks losing it. We will have three weak links instead of two. Until DAGON succeeds..." "IF DAGON succeeds." Gendo frowned at Fuyuutsuki. "When DAGON succeeds, we can reassess, but until then...she must be made to lean towards her human side, if she cannot be kept balanced. Because if she leans the other way..." "We could easily end up with one pilot or none instead of three," Fuyuutsuki said. "How do you propose to do this?" "I must think on this," Gendo said. "It is far easier to destroy innocence than to create it." -*- - end part 8 - -*- for previous parts, or an illustrated version: http://www.uh.edu/~rpm/eva/ -*- It was the usual piano bar that she and Ritsuko met at, but tonight Misato was alone. Ritsuko was busy that night, though Misato did have the option of being with Kaji. Ha! Instead, Misato decided to lounge about by her lonesome this night, unwinding from a bit of a hectic day at NERV. Giant monsters, she assumed, would be the most stressful part of her job, but the paperwork she had to endure proved otherwise. "Heya, Jimmy." "Heya, Misato. What'll it be tonight?" "Martini on the rocks. Shaken, not stirred." "Comin' right up." A moment later, Misato had her martini in hand, staring blankly outside the bar's window at the Tokyo-3 skyline. She was as close to approaching a totally blank state of mind as humanly possible. Had she been a follower of Zen beliefs, it would have been an accomplishment. Instead, it was just a total moment of blankness, soon interrupted by the lounge singer's music drifting into her ears. o/~ We've got stars directing our fate o/~ o/~ And we're praying it's not too late o/~ o/~ Cos we know we're falling from grace o/~ o/~ Millennium o/~ Misato blinked. Something was nagging her, something about that song... o/~ And when we come we always come too late o/~ o/~ I often think that we were born to hate o/~ o/~ Get up and see the sarcasm in my eyes o/~ Misato's brow wrinkled as she turned to see who was on the piano. A rather ordinary lounge piano man sat, oddly general in his physical appearance but with a hint of perhaps middle eastern lineage in his features, casually playing his song. o/~ And when we come we always come too late o/~ o/~ I often think that we were born to hate o/~ o/~ Get up and see the sarcasm in my eyes o/~ o/~ We've got stars directing our fate o/~ o/~ And we're praying it's not too late o/~ o/~ Cos we know we're falling from grace o/~ o/~ Millennium o/~ As the piano player ended his song, he paused a moment and looked at her. Misato suddenly felt lightheaded, a little dizzy, as she stared into his eyes, and she could swear that she saw the stars in them. With a playful grin, he winked at Misato, then left. For a moment, Misato stared at the empty piano chair, mental gears grinding. She had that _feeling_, like something in the universe was trying to tell her of grander things, or something like that. Nah. "Hey Jimmy, gimmie 'nother." "Righto, Misato." As Misato watched the bartender mix her drink, she asked, "Hey, who was the guy at the piano?" "New guy we hired as a temp while Akio's on vacation. Neil O'Tip, he calls himself." "Neil O'Tip? The guy doesn't look Irish." The bartender shrugged again. "Hey, as long as he can play, I'll pay." As the bartender resumed mixing her drink, Misato found herself humming the tune, then singing it quietly. o/~ We've got stars directing our fate o/~ o/~ And we're praying it's not too late o/~ o/~ Cos we know we're falling from grace o/~ o/~ Millennium o/~ She had to admit, it was an awfully catchy tune. -*- John Biles & Rod M. Present A Neon Genesis Evangelion Elseworlds Children of an Elder God Part 9 The King in Yellow -*- Namura-sensei whistled merrily as he walked through the library, thumbing through the many volumes. The annual school play was coming up, and it was up to him to decide upon the play. What to do, what to do... Romeo and Juliet had been done far too many times, even though it was a classic. Shakespeare in general was becoming a bit overexposed, he thought. The children would enjoy something new, definitely. Ah, what was this? A dusty book caught his attention, its bright yellow cover like a beacon in the darkened shelves. It seemed to call for his attention. He pulled it from the shelves, then flipped to the opening page. THE KING IN YELLOW Hrm. Catchy title, yes. He slowly flipped through the pages, spellbound by its words. Fascinating. Yes, perfect. This would do. He snapped the book shut and walked away merrily, his purpose for the day fulfilled. Watching from a few aisles down, another figure saw the teacher depart with the book. She smiled wickedly, then disappeared. -*- Gendo frowned at the report. Those fools in the UN hadn't been able to stop a group of terrorists from making off with an N2 bomb. To make matters worse, several of the bomb's guards had been found reduced to puddles of ooze that only DNA tests could identify. That could mean only one thing. He wished. At least seven different groups were capable of doing that to someone, and likely more if some damn fool had put the Pnakotic Manuscripts on-line again. There were, however, other factors which inclined him to believe that the same fools behind the Cherubim attack were behind this attack. First of all, they were on his short list of 'people who can reduce guards to orange slime' list. Secondly, it fit with the recent attempt to steal Stonehenge. Why the fools didn't just buy some concrete and make some molds...he didn't know. Then again, crazed cultists aren't noted for being very smart. And finally, it was time. The prophecies indicated their master would strike soon. Gendo just wished the prophecies indicated WHERE. -*- "I hate research papers." Shinji ignored Touji's whining. It was easy to do, since he'd been repeating the same thing endlessly during their whole stay in the library. "I hate research papers," Touji said again, grabbing a book off of the shelves and tossing it onto the already large pile Shinji was carrying. "Hey!" "I hate hate hate hate hate research papers," said Touji again, just to make the point clear. The pair reached a table where Kensuke sat, Touji slumping into his seat, Shinji spilling the load of books clumsily as he sat down. "I hate hate hate hey... what'cha lookin' at?" asked Touji. He peered over at the five books spread out in front of Kensuke, along with the scattered notecards, one of which Kensuke was currently scribbling on. One of the books caught Touji's eye; it was in English instead of Japanese and looked like a pamphlet rebound into a hardcover book. There was a picture of a battered looking church next to a picture of the same church reduced to rubble. "I decided to do my research paper on government coverups. Only, then I couldn't find anything on it." Touji began to laugh loudly, and Shinji giggled. "Gee, I wonder why," Touji said. "So the teacher suggested I go back further in time to older coverups which nobody was trying to coverup anymore, or at least where something had leaked. So I was looking for some books on how we got dragged into that war with China by the Kwantung Army, and I found this." He pointed to the book in English. "A couple of months ago, some high up NERV guy donated a ton of books to all our libraries, and this was one of them. It's about the Raid on Innsmouth in the 1920s." "The what?" Shinji asked. "The official story was that it was a raid on bootleggers, but this guy who wrote this was one of the soldiers on the raid and he published this book about what really happened. They found an underwater city of fish-men and blew it up!" "Uh huh," Touji said. "I suppose the Creature from the Black Lagoon was ruling it." Shinji listened. It was probably just a silly story, but after seeing Mu, he had to admit there might be some truth to it. "Does he have any pictures of the city?" "Uhh...no." Kensuke said. "But he's got pictures to prove the US government leveled Innsmouth." "That doesn't exactly prove anything about fishmen, you know," Touji said. "I think the teacher's gonna laugh at you." "Get a load of THIS," he said, flipping through the book. "A load of what? Touji been telling lies again?" Asuka said idly from over his shoulder. The three guys all half-jumped out of their flesh. "Go away!" Touji said. "We haven't got time to kick your ass." Kensuke finished flipping to a blurry photo of a wall painting. It was hard to see, but it showed a variety of winged creatures with bat-liked wings. Some of them were humanoid with no face. Others had long snakey bodies and wings that seemed inadequate to carry them. And some... "Hey, those look like Cherubim!" Asuka said. "That was on one of the walls of this 'Starry Wisdom' chapel that secretly ran Innsmouth," Kensuke said. "They were in cahoots with the fishmen." Asuka snorted. "The Creature from the Black Lagoon was leading the fishmen, eh?" Shinji blinked. "That's just what Touji said." Touji and Asuka stared blankly at each other, then turned to Kensuke. "You're nuts." "Nuts, eh? Take a look at THIS!" He pulled out another book, which said, 'Legends of the Inuits'. "There's all these stories about the Wendigo, who lives in the north and runs around eating human hearts and stuff. He controls the ice and snow and..." Touji rolled his eyes. "And he's in league with the fishmen?" "Sounds an awful lot like the Angel of Winter, eh?" Kensuke said. "Yeah, but he'd have to have been around for thousands of years to make all these legends," Touji said. "Why'd he wait so long to attack Toronto?" "I don't know, but haven't you ever wondered why it took fifteen years for the Alien War Machines to go on their rampage? And why they don't all wake up at once? And why they don't cooperate? Something funny's going on here." Asuka nodded silently. Something strange was going on. Who had dug that tunnel out of Rahab's lair they had escaped through? What made those lights? And those memories she had experienced...if Rahab was really that old, it made no sense for him to be an alien war machine. But if he wasn't...then what WAS he? What were the Angels? She listened to him ramble on, and began trying to sort the wheat from the chaff in her mind. -*- "Hello, Rei." The nearly albino girl blinked and hesitated as she stepped into the examination office. Normally, Maya had overseen the exams. Seeing Dr. Akagi there instead seemed to have surprised the girl. Ritsuko wondered if Rei would ask where Maya was. Instead, after the moment of hesitation, Rei merely nodded and took a seat at the examination table, stripping her clothes away. "Maya's told me you've been feeling strange lately," said Ritsuko as the myriad of scanners went to work on Rei. "Are you still having that problem?" Rei nodded, seeming more subdued as usual as she did. "You do understand you're not to harm Langley." Rei nodded once more. "Rei... tell me... do you feel a need to be with Shinji?" She hesitated in responding, averting her eyes from Ritsuko's. "I... yes." "If he was here right now, what would you do? What would you say to him?" Rei's face betrayed subtle signs of frustration, and she replied with a barely audible whisper, "I do not know." The doctor sighed. All these years, and all the training they'd given her, they always thought of her as a pilot, and never as a person. As a result, nobody had ever prepared her for things like this. Then again... why now? Why Shinji? Rei had been attending school for a while, after all, though why NERV bothered to do that was a mystery to her. Perhaps it was NERV's feeble attempt to give her a normal upbringing? Lots of questions, actually. And she didn't have any of the answers. This whole things reeked of a need for parental guidence, and she was no mother figure. Mother figure... Mother... Ritsuko frowned as the phrase echoed in her head, bringing up unwanted memories from a long time ago. Her own mother certainly- No. She refused to dwell on that. Ritsuko sighed. "As Maya said, you are not to kill anyone. Check in with Maya every other day, make arrangements with her on what time. And..." And what? Ritsuko felt there should be something more, but she was absolutely clueless what that would be. "... and that's it." With a silent nod, Rei rose from the table and gathered her clothing, then left. -*- Tired from the day, Shinji had went to bed intending to skip the usual 'dream training' that he'd been undergoing lately. What dreams may come, let them be. The dream that came seemed awfully familiar. As Shinji's eyes opened in the dreaming, a single pink cherry blossom floated down before him. A breeze blew, and suddenly the air was filled with the sight of endless cherry blossoms swirling in a perfect blue sky. He finally regained enough presence of mind to look around, and found himself in a forest full of cherry trees. The air around him was fresh and cool, and the breeze had calmed to a gentle sigh. "Ikari." He turned to the sound of the whisper of a voice, and saw a slight glow of red from under the tree's shadows. A moment later, Rei stepped from under the tree's shade, dressed in a simple blue sundress. However, there was something different about her this time. There was a look on her face he'd never seen before, as if she was uncertain and anxious, a worried sort of nervous frown that spread to her eyes. "A-Ayanami. Um, hi." He couldn't help but notice she was actually blushing and fidgeting as she stood before him. She did seem at a loss for words. Shinji looked around once more, scratching his head. "Um... this place is beautiful." "You like it?" asked Rei quietly. "Yeah, I guess. Looks... familiar." "It was in the movie." "Movie?" Rei nodded, giving no more clues. It was enough, though, for Shinji to figure out. "Oh, um, Springtime Cherry Blossoms?" Rei nodded again. "I... wish to understand people," said Rei. "To understand you." "Oh." Shinji blinked. "So... what do we do now?" Rei shrugged. Seemed it was up to Shinji to take the initiative, something entirely alien to him. "Let's... let's... go for a walk then," suggested Shinji. Once more, Rei nodded. This time, and much to his surprise, she linked her arm with his and leaned her head on his shoulders as they walked. "R-Rei?" She looked up at him with curious eyes. Her face was close, uncomfortably close, and those lips... "W-what are you... I mean..." "The people walked like this," explained Rei, "in the movie." "Oh." They walked through the forest, emerging into a pleasant looking plaza filled with nondescript couples walking arm in arm. In the distance, the sounds of a festival could be heard. The sounds of children laughing and birdcall from above were heard, though faintly, from somewhere unseen. "Rei?" Again, silently, she looked to him instead of speaking. "Why do you want to know me?" "Because," she said again, her voice still a soft whisper. "I wish to be with you." Having a girl express such intense desire for him was something entirely alien to Shinji. His first reaction was to run away, but it only held sway for a moment. He couldn't run anyway, with Rei latched unto his arm like that. Then again, was it so bad having Rei feel that way? Thinking it over, Shinji realized it might not be such a bad thing, no. Wait, this was just a dream. It didn't matter anyway. Soon, they crossed a very ornate bridge, with a gently flowing river running below. Shinji's stride was suddenly halted when Rei stopped walking... and still held on to his arm. "Rei?" The girl looked uncertain again, taking a look at her surroundings. "In the movie," she said slowly, as if thinking about every word, "I did not understand." Shinji blinked. "Didn't understand?" Rei nodded. "This," she said, and Shinji realized she was slowly moving her lips to his for a kiss. "Rei..." "WAAAAAAAAAAAKE UUUUUUUUUUUP DUMMMMKOOOOOOOOOOOOPF!!!" "Yaaaagh!" -*- With an undignified thud, Shinji fell out of bed, flailing desperately in his sheets. "Wha- what the?!" Asuka's commanding, booming voice jolted him further into alertness. "C'mon, we're gonna be late!" "Okay, okay! Get outta my room so I can change already!" Still half-asleep, Shinji half-shoved a smirking Asuka out of the room and started his preparations for the new day. He had a nagging feeling that he'd missed something, but in the mind-numbing haze he was in, it stayed just beyond his reach. -*- Later that day... Asuka hung up the phone and danced around in a circle. "Woo woo! He said yes! He said yes!" She and Hikari high- fived. "So who are you gonna ask out?" Originally, Asuka had planned this as a double-date between herself and Kaji and Shinji and Rei. However, Dr. Akagi had told her that Rei was going to be fairly busy in her free time doing some experiments with her and various tests for a while, so she'd convinced Hikari to come along. Now who Hikari would actually ask out...Asuka had no clue. She wanted Hikari along, though; she wasn't quite ready for a date alone with Kaji, although she wouldn't have admitted that. "Well..." Hikari said slowly, as she needed no psychic powers to see what was likely to happen next. "I was thinking I'd ask Touji," she said quickly. "TOUJI?" Asuka's hair would have stood on end if it could. "He's so...he's a macho pig idiot!" "He is not! He's a nice guy when you're not picking on him!" "A nice guy? He's a sexist idiot! I don't think he knows any words but oink!" Hikari fumed. "He goes and visits his sister in the hospital every day. He doesn't like to show it sometimes, but he really is a caring guy." "He's rude as hell! He may care about his sister, but not anyone else!" Hikari's eyes narrowed. "I haven't exactly seen you feeding the hungry." "You know what I mean! He's just a thug! I can't see how Shinji can stand to be around him." "He is not a thug! When did he ever beat someone up?" "Besides Shinji?" "They made up and now they're friends! Why can't YOU do that?" Asuka started to retort, then sighed. She didn't want to fight with Hikari about this. He was bad for her, but she just wouldn't ever see it. I can't believe she likes this guy, Asuka thought. "Okay, okay, I'll try to get along with him, but..." He's a butthead, she thought. I'm not too fond of your date either, Hikari thought. How can you like that guy? He's just a playboy. This is gonna be one big mess. But it gives me an excuse to ask Touji out, so... "Right. I'll talk to Touji as soon as I can." -*- This time, Asuka picked the wrong battle to fight, or so Touji thought. With grim determination, he strode through the school's halls, basketball in hand, shoes laced up tight. The German kraut-eating bitch clashed with him again today, and it ended with her challenging him to a one-on-one game of basketball. HA! Touji Suzuhara, star of the basketball team, beaten in a one-on-one game? Never happened before, wasn't gonna happen now. HAHA! Oh yeah, this time she picked the wrong battlefield. "Touji?" He was gonna crush her to the ground, lay down some thunderous dunks, he- "Suzuhara!" Touji's line of thought came to a crashing halt as he suddenly found himself facing Hikari. "Um, wha, er, hey," he managed to say. "Aheh, did I do something wrong again?" "Er, no," said Hikari. "I just... I..." "Um, Hikari, you okay?" asked Touji. "Er, I just... doyouwanttogoonadatewithme?" Touji blinked. "Date?" Hikari blushed deeply, fidgeting in place, and nodded. "Um, you'n me?" Hikari nodded again, a shy smile on her face. "I... er... yeah... sure," he said, still dazed at the idea. Hikari's face lit up like a fireworks display. "You will?!" "Um, yeah?" "Great!" cheered Hikari. "I'll... er... call you later, okay?" "Yeah?" With an extra spring in her step, Hikari skipped away. The grin on her face was hard to ignore. Meanwhile, Touji was still a bit dazed, uncertain about exactly what had just happened. He apparently had a date. With Hikari. That was cool. Er. Yeah, that was cool. He idly dribbled the basketball as he walked down the hallway, wondering exactly what it was he was going to do... Ah, well, if it was important, he'd remember it. -*- Meanwhile, out on the basketball court... "TOUJIIIII! GET YOUR LAME JOCK ASS OUT HERE SO I CAN STOMP ON IT!!! AAAAAAAGH!" -*- The command center of NERV was dimly lit, bathed in a glow of red that filled the air with tension. Massive holographic projections displayed multiple images: a satellite view of a small wooden building in the woods, a mini-cam attached to a soldier's helmet, radar, sensors, and other displays. Misato watched over it all, herself watched over by Gendo. "So, this is where the N2 was taken?" asked Fuyutsuki. "If our sources are correct," replied Gendo. "Have they made confirmation?" he asked, his voice echoing down to the command floor below. "They're working on it," said Misato. A few tense seconds passed. Then a voice filled with static interference broke the silence. //"S-r, -t's conf--med. N2 p---r sign--ures ins--e. Very fain-, --ob-bly und--r--ound."// "Good job," said Katsugari. "Any signs of life?" //"A --w, so-- are real st--ge, com--nd-r."// On a separate holographic display on the right, a static-tainted stream of data in the form of charts, graphs, and something resembling a DNA chain appeared. "It could be Cherubim," said Ritsuko, "or something we haven't seen yet." "Your men ready to move?" asked Misato. //"Ye- com---der."// "Take prisoners if you can, but the priority is recovering the N2-" "Wait," echoed Gendo's voice from above. "Do we have the codes?" "Codes?" asked Misato. "I believe we do," replied Fuyutsuki. Gendo nodded. "Captain, have the team clear out. Send the detonation codes in five minutes. There will be no prisoners." Misato looked up at her boss, stunned. "S-sir?" "There are to be no survivors," said Gendo calmly. "Yes... yes sir. Bravo team, clear out fast. We're setting it off in five. You got that?" //"Roger, command. On our way-"// The message was cut off by a a scream. //"What the... GET DOWN!"// The satellite image showed the seven dark shapes of the commando force, scrambling furiously around and shooting wildly. From a helmet-cam of one of the soldiers, they saw one of the men held in the air by unseen hands, flailing desperately. Spouts of blood suddenly burst from his body, and some thing made of a mass of tentacles became faintly visible. "Bravo team, what's happening?!" yelled Misato. //"---re under at---k! I can't s-- --em!"// //"G--E OVER, -AN! GA-- --ER! -HIT!"// The display of graphs and bars indicating 'angel' lifeforms began to rise wildly. Meanwhile, the vital signs of the soldiers suddenly flatlined, one by one. "These are new life signs," said Ritsuko as she looked over the displays. "Unknown, sir." "Send the detonation code now," ordered Gendo. "But sir," said Misato. "What about the-" "Send the detonation code NOW." "Yes sir." Misato looked sadly at Makoto and nodded. He typed in the command. The helmet-cam view died instantly in a burst of white, and the satellite view became filled with the sight of a fireball bursting from the ground. "Not as underground as I hoped," said Gendo. "Is the threat neutralized?" For a moment, Misato stared slowly across the displays, from the flatlined vital signs of the soldiers, to the fiery remains of the house in the woods, and finally to the set of readings that detected 'angel' type life forms. "No survivors, sir. None." "Good," said Gendo, rising from his chair. "The mission is a success. Those fools who worship Baraquiel won't unleash him that way. Fuyutsuki and I will be on our way to Antarctica. I'll trust you to keep things in order." "Yes sir." And with that, Gendo and Fuyutsuki left the room. Misato sighed. "If it's a success, why do I feel so shitty?" "It's not your fault," said Makoto. "We're in a war, there's going to be casualties." "Yeah, I know," said Misato, not sounding any happier. "I know." "At least," said Maya, "it didn't end like the last mission." Aoba shuddered. "Orange goo." Misato winced visibly, and Makoto thwapped Shigeru's arm, giving him a "shut up!" sort of glare. "I'm outta here, guys," said Misato wearily. "Page me if anything comes up. Hey Ritsuko, c'mon, let's get drunk." -*- Kaji said, "I'm sorry, but Commander Ikari wants me to go over all these supply reports. Someone is pilfering supplies or else wasting them." Asuka heard Kaji sigh over the phone. "So I have to cancel on the outing tonight. Sorry!" "But...but...we've been planning this for so long!" Asuka tried to control herself; Pen Pen and Shinji were watching. "I'm sorry, liebchen. I HAVE to read and correlate these damn things in the next two days." "We already bought tickets." "Unless you can train Pen Pen to read and correlate reports in the next half hour...If we wait, we can maybe get Shinji and Rei to go next time too." She laughed, then sighed. "Okay, I guess," she said. "I'll be okay. I'll find something to do tonight. Maybe whoop Shinji at one of my wargames or something. I'll be okay, really." Then she heard a woman's voice faintly over the line. "Kaji, who are you talking to? We need to get going!" Asuka felt the bottom of her heart plunge towards her feet. "Gotta go, liebchen. Talk to you later!" He hung up. He...he's with another woman, Asuka thought. She struggled to keep her face calm; Shinji was watching her. Still, her body trembled and it was an extreme struggle to keep whatever shards of dignity she had left. He...wouldn't even tell me, she thought. I never thought he'd start hiding things from me. She quietly hung up and drifted away from the phone. There were no tears until she was safely hidden in her room. -*- Kaji sighed. Kid's gonna get the wrong idea. Not that she doesn't need to move on to someone her own age, but...I wonder if Misato taught her the 'I'm okay, don't mind me, but really you need to baste in your own guilt' thing. "Done talking to your little friend?" Dr. Phelps asked sweetly, with only the tiniest bit of acid in her voice as she put the pile of documents down on his desk. "Or would you like to keep me stuck here a while longer while you call all your preadolescent girlfriends?" "Asuka is hardly preadolescent." "Speaking from experience?" Kaji frowned. Hell really is other people, he thought. -*- Shinji, being an adept at the art, could tell Asuka was moping. This surprised him. Asuka wasn't the sort of person who moped in his experience. He didn't like to see her moping, although he couldn't have explained clearly why. It stirred him from his homework when he couldn't take it anymore. Cheering others up was something that was entirely alien to Shinji, but he guessed that some upbeat music would perk her up. Unfortunately, he didn't HAVE any cheery CDs. His sheet music collection, on the other hand, did have some uplifting selections. While the cello is not the world's most chipper instrument, it's not the saddest either. He found a polka and started to play it. Hearing the music, Pen Pen began to prance about the room, which Shinji couldn't help but laugh at, if only a little. Asuka looked up from playing 'I Crush Your Head' on her Sega Octopus game machine. "..." "Am I doing this right?" Shinji asked. "I haven't played this piece in a while." Asuka stared at Pen Pen. "He's trying to..." "I know I don't have an accordion, which is what I really need, but..." Shinji said sheepishly. "Or sausages. And it's not October yet, but..." "Are you trying to cheer me up?" She asked. "Or have you gone mad?" "Er, yes?" he answered. "Well, if we're going to polka..." She got up and sprinted to her room, then returned with a CD. "Let's do this right." She put it in the CD player, and a properly done polka started up. She came over to Shinji. "Lose the cello." He blinked. "What?" "I'm gonna teach you to polka." Beginning to sweat, he said, "Urr...I'm not much of a dancer." "You can learn." She stared at him intently. "You WILL learn." "..." "Okay," said Asuka, "step over here." "Okaaay..." "Now put your right arm around me," commanded Asuka. "Um, like this?" he asked, moving his arm around her side uneasily. Asuka noticed his discomfort and smirked. "We're dancing, not dating, so take it easy. Besides, I only have eyes for Kaji," she said in mock tease with a grin. "Now put your right arm out." He held his right arm out to the side, and a moment later Asuka extended her own arm and entwined his fingers with hers. Asuka frowned. Shinji was a sweaty-palms type. Ick. Oh well, she'd just have to put up with it. "Now, you'll be taking the lead and-" "I'm taking the lead? Shouldn't you? I mean, I don't know how to pol-" Asuka frowned at him. "Of course you are, dummkopf! You're the man, I'm the woman. The man always leads, it's tradition." Odd, thought Shinji. Asuka hardly seemed traditional about anything. She spent the first polka teaching him the basic steps. By the end, he could not only do the basic forward movements, he also was spinning both of them around in a move that involved a quarter turn with each step, so that by the end of the normal four step pattern, they had turned a full circle. It was fun, but also came within an inch of smashing the TV to rubble. As they launched into the second polka, he could feel Asuka relaxing, the grip of her hands becoming more gentle, and she began to smile. He could feel himself smiling as well. Despite being afraid of breaking something, he was enjoying himself. And then they stumbled over the table. Limbs flailed uselessly in the air as the pair fell down, collapsing to the floor in an undignified heap. "Ow... Scheisse, you clumsy idiot, get off of me." "Itai... sorry, Asuka, are you..." Shinji froze as he realized that he was remarkably close to her face. For a moment, the two stared at each other silently, both blushing. And then Asuka turned away and started laughing. Shinji sat up, laughing a little himself, though he wasn't quite sure why. "You know," said Asuka, "I've always seen this sort of the thing in the movies, y'know? It's so cliche!" She giggled. "Heh, I guess it is." "Good thing we're not in love, eh?" she said with a wink. Shinji, for a brief moment, looked a little jolted. Asuka missed it entirely. After moving the table a little further away, they tried a second polka. When the second polka ended and the CD began to play a foxtrot, she bowed and stepped away from him. "Thanks, Shinji." "You're welcome," he said. "Umm...feel better?" "A little. I just can't believe..." She growled. "Kaji, you idiot!!!!" He is twice our age, Shinji thought. "Maybe she was just helping him with work." "Yeah. That must be it," Asuka said, sounding distracted. "Helping him do the reports. Of course." She sighed. "Have you ever been dumped, Shinji?" "I've never had a girlfriend." She nodded. "Well, once I root out your secret admirer, you will have one." "It could be someone playing a joke on me," he said faintly. "Happened to me once last year, with a valentine's day card." "That's AWFUL! If it's someone just toying with you, I'll...I'll make them regret it." Her voice was grim for a moment. "Toying with people is just WRONG. If Kaji's been just toying with me..." she growled. "I'm sure he wouldn't toy with you," Shinji lied, trying to be reassuring. "Wanna play poker?" Asuka grinned. "Ready to go bankrupt? Rei isn't here to save you this time." Isn't here to destroy both of us, Shinji corrected her in his mind. "I'll get the cards." -*- TO: AgentX42@Users.Mizunonet.Net FROM: Moldy567@Coldmail.com SUBJECT: Coincidence? I think not. Take a look at the two files I attached. I think you'll find some suspicious parallels. __________________________________________________ Want free email at the price of your privacy, your soul, and your first born child? Oh wait, that wouldn't be very free... http://cold.mail.com Kensuke opened the first file, laughing faintly. Probably another set of doctored pictures; the last set had 'proven' that all of the EVA battles were actually created using computer graphics and the EVA toys being sold by Bandai. Kensuke had gone and gotten one of the Shinji figures to give to Shinji as a gag gift for his birthday, although he wasn't sure when Shinji's birthday was. It wasn't very accurate, unless Shinji was hiding three inches and fifty pounds of muscle. The body looked to have been stolen from another figure line, with a plug suit slapped on it. The head was recognizable, though, even with a frozen plastic smile. The figurines of Asuka and Rei looked like both of them were in their twenties with figures to match. And the rest of the staff had apparently been completely made up by Bandai, unless his eyesight was getting worse than usual. For example, Commander Ikari certainly didn't ride around in a flying wheelchair in reality, nor was he bald. Maybe it was just intended to conceal classified information. Everyone and their dog knew who the Pilots were, but the rest of the staff was invisible to the public. The first file was a text file. It was in German, which he could read, but only slowly. He had to run it through a text translation page to fill in the blanks he couldn't, but then the results weren't entirely clear: ********** As I watched, the two dozen men and women stripped down to nakedness, and daubed themselves with paint. As they did so, the others erected nine monoliths, one for each of the planets, in a great V which encompassed the field. With ochre and woad, they painted runes upon each, to sign out the planets of the heavens above, and runes for the stars upon which they would call. Each of the pillars was a pentagonal cylinder, tipped with a pentagram, in which was inscribed the Sign of their Master. Then the leader, a great priest who wore a black hood and nothing else, held aloft the sacred knife over the altar, which stood for the Earth. Upon the altar sat a bowl half-filled with water, and he chanted over it, calling it Hali, the great lake where dwelt He Who Is Not To Be Named. As the worshippers writhed and chanted and had their pleasures of one another around him, his fivefold Elementals each blew a whistle, and Angels descended from the heavens, their black wings covered with the frost of space. They were the Angels of the Nine Worlds, and they took up their posts, each upon his sacred station. Then the Elementals bent and took up a sacrifice, a man who screamed and flailed and cried out for succor. It pierced my heart, and if I had not feared retribution, I would have aided him. Strange how one who has renounced the weaknesses of the human race can sometimes be overcome by them. I had watched men ground beneath great wheels and laughed to see them cry, yet now, I felt pity for him. The Angels joined the cry, and lifted their eyes to the heaven to gaze upon their home world, Aldebaran, which hung just above the horizon across the plain. And then the priest sliced one of the Chosen One's wrists, and let his blood drain into the lake of Hali, that the Master and Prisoner of Carcosa might drink the stuff of life and cross the frozen void that protects us from him. I cannot speak of his coming, for words fail me, but be assured, He Cannot Be Named, but He CAN be seen, if one takes the precaution of preparing the preparation often associated with the great scholar Ibn Ghazi... --Excerpted from Page 305 of _Unausprelichten Kulten_, by Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt, 1839 Quarto Edition. ********** Kensuke blinked. Funky. Probably he made this up and put a monolith picture in the next file, so I'll panic. He opened the next file. The video clip was grainy and badly digitized, but he could see what was happening. Men in NERV uniforms were busily slaughtering a group of scantily clad and rather hapless people who had things painted on their bodies, or possibly tattooed. Two things caught his attention. First, one of the victims pointed a short basalt rod at one of the NERV agents, who collapsed into a puddle of goo in about five seconds. Secondly, as the man collapsed, you could see him standing next to a monolith. It was a five sided cylinder, painted in orange-brown and blue with strange runes. Most were unfamiliar to Kensuke, but he could see one clearly; the astrological symbol for Jupiter was marked on each side, just below the top. The footage ended just as a blurry claw dropped down into the image, landing on the pillar. Kensuke frowned. There was no way Keiichi could have faked this. Not unless he'd gotten his own film studio recently. And the NERV uniforms looked authentic. So was the hardware they had been toting; even with this lousy film, he could identify all the models. Maybe it's time for me to finally go looking for a full text of 'Nameless Cults', he thought. I just wish someone had done a Japanese edition of it. I'm sure someone's put it on- line, but where...if I can validate this passage as true... He shuddered and went to work. -*- Sae Tamagotchi shook her pretty little orange haired head. "Why of course, Namura-Sensei! I'd be happy to get you some coffee!" She bounced off the stage as if fetching and carrying made her happier than anything else in the universe. "Five will get you ten they're having an affair," Touji muttered to Kensuke and Shinji. Shinji looked up from his script, still trying to figure out why he had accepted the lead. For that matter, he wasn't sure WHY he had been cast as the lead. He was no great actor, yet he had been cast in the lead role by Namura-Sensei. "Then why isn't she in a lead role? She's only playing my mother. Touji has more lines. I have more lines, and I didn't even WANT to be in this play!" "You're playing King Alar, of course YOU have more lines," Kensuke said. "At least you get to be sane. I have to be the insane bad guy. I wanted to be Thale! He gets to kick some butt." Touji preened a little. "That's why they chose me. No one would believe you kicking ass, Kensuke." "So why do you think they're having an affair?" Kensuke asked. "The damn letch kept making eyes at my sister before her accident. And..." He shut up suddenly. "And she made eyes back?" Kensuke asked, grinning. "She did not! My sister wouldn't..." Touji spluttered and fumed. Sae bounced back with a cup of coffee, then sat down next to Namura-sensei in the front row of the Tokyo-3 Junior High Auditorium. Namura took a deep draught of coffee, then said, "Okay, people, let's get going. Everyone who appears in Act One needs to go backstage. Hikari, go stand in the middle of the stage, just behind where the curtain drops." Shinji and his friends headed backstage, soon joined by a dozen or so other people who had either willingly joined the cast or been roped into it like Shinji. Asuka waved to Shinji, then stuck out her tongue at Touji, who growled. Kensuke laughed. "She's just getting in character. Uoht and Thale hate each other, and I remember Uoht sticks out her tongue at Thale at some point. During the duel at the feast, I think." He began to flip through his book. "Her character's name is even dumber than her real one. Uuuuaaaught," Touji exaggerated. Rei stepped out of the darkness to stand by Shinji. Shinji started. She had worn her school uniform to the last two rehearsals (unlike everyone else, who had worn casual clothing), but this time she had changed into a pale green blouse and a long pleated dark green skirt. Only her shoes remained the same from earlier in the day. Kensuke said, "Whoa!" Touji blinked. Shinji said, "Uh, you look nice, Rei." "So what's the occasion?" Kensuke asked. "Play rehearsal," she replied. While they were busy being nonplused, Hikari began to declaim the opening monologue from the middle of the stage. "Yhtill has fallen. Only I have survived to tell the awful tale of how Yhtill by the Lake of Hali, the Kingdom of Joy, was brought to ruin by a stranger in a Pallid Mask. My name is Yhbb, squire to Lady Uoht, who was the champion of King Alar of Yhtill. I come before you now that I might warn you, the people of Celeano, so that your fate might not be the same as ours. Heed my warning and you will live. Fail to listen, and it may be that you will share our fate." Namura-sensei interjected at this point. "Okay, now Hikari, move to the edge of the stage." She began to do so. "Now, at this point, the curtain rises upon the opening scene. King Genji has just died, and most of the main characters are attending his funeral. Tenko, bring out the 'coffin'." Tenko, who was short with close cropped brown hair, hauled a long refrigerator box (minus the refrigerator) to the middle of the stage. "Where?" "Put it facing the audience. Shinji, Sae, stand next to each other at the backstage end of the box. Rei, stand on the left side of the coffin, next to Sae. Asuka, stand on the right hand side, next to Shinji. Hikari, AFTER you deliver your introductory line at the start of the scene, duck behind the curtain and run over so you'll be next to Asuka on Asuka's right. Touji, you stand next to where Hikari will be. Kozue, you stand by Rei, and Souichi, you stand next to Kozue. Everyone, kind of spread out into a V. Really, you wouldn't do this in real life, but the audience needs to be able to see everyone's faces." Everyone scampered into position. Shinji suddenly noticed that Rei, Kozue, and Souichi were all wearing green. It made an interesting visual effect. Everyone on Asuka's side was wearing red. I wonder if I missed some note telling me what to wear, he thought. He glanced over at Sae, who was wearing a red blouse and a green skirt, and increasingly suspected this. They spent a little while during which Namura directed various other characters into position, although the other characters would not actually speak any lines in this scene. Then they all stood, clutching their play booklets and trying to remember their lines. "It began in the year of the Snowflake, the eightieth year of the eightieth cycle since our history began. During the Saturnalia, King Genji of Yhtill died while sating his lust upon one of his many concubines, of whom it was whispered that several of them were made to wear masks cast in the image of his first wife. It was a rumor fiercely denied by his son, Alar and by Genji's new wife, Naotalba, a priestess of Yhoundeh, the Elk-goddess, who was a princess from distant Borea. Whatever the exact cause, he was dead now, and he had to be buried. And this is where my tale begins, at that funeral." She sprinted into position, kicking the box out of alignment when she skidded slightly. Souichi shoved it back into place with his foot as Sae began to speak her lines and the rehearsal continued. -*- Asuka felt confused; she couldn't remember how she had gotten into her EVA, but she had to be in it, unless someone had flooded her bedroom with LCL and lined the walls, ceiling, and floor with view screens. On the other hand, what she saw through them was fields covered with purple vines and short thorny bushes. A river of pinkish sludge ran through the middle of the field, and downstream, she could see a city of burnt orange glass and basalt in an architectural style she had never heard of before. The sky was dark and full of stars in patterns she didn't know, along with three moons. I must be dreaming, she thought. She looked down at her EVA, and saw only a mass of tendrils mixed with legs and arms and gaping maws, eyes, and noses, and ears, random organs, all covered with a scabby, oozing, pustulent hide, flowing into and out of one another. Only the fact that she would end up breathing and wallowing in her own vomit kept her from throwing up. What's happened to my EVA? Where am I? A name formed in her mind. Xoth. A fear of looking at herself formed in her mind, but she forced herself to look down at her own body. Her plug suit shifted constantly with lumps and knots forming under it, suggestive of a change in the body it contained, as if only it held that body in a human form. She could not see her face. She did not want to see her face. She grabbed a strand of her hair. It was red, normal. Then it wove together into a rope and became a tentacle with a knob on the end. The knob opened, revealing it was an eye. She saw herself and screamed, the shout rising ever higher until the world shattered. There was something on her face, something furry and heavy and a little warm when she awoke, still screaming. She hurled it off her face before she realized it was one of her stuffed animals. Shinji opened the door just in time to get hit by the tanuki plushie. "Asuka, are you...oof!" He fell down, having been caught off guard by the stuffed toy striking his face. "You need to be more careful." "Most people don't scream in the middle of the night, then throw stuffed animals at people," Shinji replied. "Did you have a nightmare?" She shook her head trying to forget it. "I don't HAVE nightmares." "Uh huh. I was about to reach the top of that mountain when you woke me up. You planning on doing this every night?" He smiled a little, and she stuck out her tongue at him, then they both laughed. Misato stuck her head in the door. "You two having sex or something?" They both blushed. "No!" "Damn. Just a bad dream?" "No. No. Yes." Asuka said, sighing. "I dreamed I turned into some kind of monster, and so did my EVA." "Well, I had a nightmare about turning into my grandmother once, so it's nothing to worry about," Misato said. Asuka tried to follow the logic and failed. "Your grandmother wasn't a monster." "You never met my grandmother," Misato said flatly. "If she showed up as the next Angel, it would not surprise me at all." Shinji laughed. "Joined by someone I knew at my old school, I suppose." "And Oscar," Asuka said. "With his cat." Misato looked thoughtful for a moment. "You two are doing a school play, right?" "Uh huh." Asuka said. "Good. You can get me a free ticket." She stood up and yawned. "I'm going to bed. See you in the morning." She wandered out. Asuka watched her go. Shinji got up to follow, but Asuka caught his hand. "I...You wanna practice some of our scenes? Namura-Sensei was saying we were too stiff last time." Probably because we haven't learned our lines yet, he thought. It's hard to act with my nose in the script. "Shouldn't we be sleeping?" "I'm not tired," she said, yawning. He gave in. "Let me go get my script." "You need to learn your lines soon, you know!" "We don't go to not using the scripts for a while," he said. "And I'm not good at memorizing lines. I'll be right back." She dug out her script and tried to find a good scene without too many other characters in it. Ahh...the one where Uoht tries to follow the King in Yellow, but stumbles on just the King instead, she thought. Perfect. Shinji returned. "Uh...what are we gonna do about no one else being here?" "Let's do the garden scene." "Which garden scene?" She blinked. "Oh yeah, you run into just about everyone there at some point. The one with you and Uoht." "Right." He stood up a little wobbily and pretended to be looking at a bush. "Hmm. The roses are wilting." Asuka stood up, book in hand, and moved over by the door, pretending to creep along. "Now, I shall catch him with his...your highness?" Shinji straightened up. "Uoht? What are you doing here at this hour?" "Uh...nothing," she said, trying to look sheepish. " You didn't happen to see... him...did you?" Shinji checked his script. "I haven't seen Lord Thale since yesterday." "No, not him..." Asuka checked her script as well. "The stranger. I think he's making trouble." "You thought the ambassador from Celeano was making trouble too, but he was just having an affair with one of the maids," Shinji said, doing his best to sound bemused. Asuka came over to him. "Don't you trust me...my liege?" She reached out a hand towards him, then pulled it back. "I trust you to be a valiant warrior. And a good friend. But Cassilda is the one who is good at ferreting out secrets, not you, and she has yet to tell me to distrust this man. And you know how few people she trusts." Asuka frowned. "So you trust her word over mine?" "Uh...er..." Shinji wilted, not entirely acting. Asuka was scary when she wasn't happy. "If this was a matter of battle, I would take your word over hers. You each have...different strengths." "Perhaps she's in league with him," Asuka muttered, turning away to stare off at the corner of the room. On the stage, she would have been staring at a statue of the old King. Well, once it was made, she would be. Right now, it meant she was staring at a poster of a German band, Drei Madchen. Shinji did his best to frown angrily, but it wasn't very impressive. "Uoht! You know Cassilda would never betray our nation like that! I know you two don't get along, but I can't afford to have my left and right hands arguing with each other!" Asuka snapped back around, feeling a bit proud of finally remembering this little bit of character business. "You really...think of me like that?" She tried to give it the proper breathiness. He stepped closer to her. "I need both of you...I never expected to be King so soon, and you've both always been such a help to me. Ever since we were little. I've just...never understood why you don't get along with Cassilda." Asuka sighed. "I try, but...you're the only one who can get close to her. Everyone else, she clams up around, except for the old High Priestess, but she's dead now. And the way she looks at me...like she's boring through my head into my mind." She turned, half-looking at Shinji, half gazing upwards at ' the sky'. "Half the time when she does speak to me, it's to tell me I'm wrong about something. I just..." She checked her script again. "Just ask her what she thinks about the stranger in the pallid mask. Please?" He nervously reached over and took her hand, wondering why he was so scared to do this. They were just acting, and it was just a hand, not a poisonous snake. For a moment, the memory of the dream he had of walking with Rei flitted through his mind, and then it was gone, leaving a little more embarrassment behind. A mental image of walking with Asuka like that popped into his head for a few seconds, and he fumbled to remember his lines, or at least where he had put the script. Realizing he was holding it made him really embarrassed. Finally, he said, "As you wish, Lady Uoht. I will ask her in the morning." He looked up at the ceiling. "Aren't the stars beautiful?" Asuka looked at the script, glanced over at Shinji, then stepped next to him, putting an arm around his waist. He jumped slightly like he always did in rehearsal and she smiled faintly. "The stars are beautiful," she said. "You can see the Muses tonight," then pointed up at a point that would be over the audience. "A good omen." She leaned over on him, hoping he wouldn't collapse like he had the last time. To her surprise, he simply leaned towards her. For a while they stood and stared at the ceiling, feeling the warmth of each other's bodies and listening to each other breathe while Asuka continued to point. The silence grew, and Asuka wondered if Shinji had forgotten his lines. Shinji stood and waited for Asuka to continue. He was less nervous than he had expected to be; this scene always made him jumpy. Instead, it just felt kind of nice, especially since it was a bit chilly and she was warm. After a while, he started to think she must have forgotten her next line, so he snuck a peak at the script, then sighed. "This is where Cassilda shows up." Asuka slapped her forehead. "Dammit, I forgot...umm..." "We could get Misato to come do her lines," Shinji suggested. "Do you really think that's a good idea?" "No." "I'll do them," Asuka said. She said, as flatly and emotionlessly as possible, "Sire, look." She pointed off in another direction. Shinji looked. "What's that?" "The ceiling," Asuka said flatly, then began to giggle. Shinji blinked, then laughed as well. "She would do that." "And she wouldn't know why we laughed either," Asuka said, shaking with laughter. Misato stuck her head in the door. "You two making out this time?" Shinji suddenly became acutely aware of how close he was to Asuka. He jumped away from her. "No!" "Double damn. I need to learn to be more sneaky, then. Either make out or go to bed. That's an order." -*- "Uoht! Scoundrel!" boomed Touji, holding a broom before him as if it were a blade. His poise was straight, tall and majestic upon the stage, his voice carrying across the auditorium. "The..." Shinji blinked. "The..." Hikari frowned, looking very much worried. "The... aw shit... the..." Asuka hefted her own fake sword menacingly. "The... okay, I'm lost." *WHAP* "Dummkopf!" yelled Asuka. "HEY! Cut it out, ya beer-swilling bitch!" Touji raised his own 'sword' in challange. "Asuka! Touji! Stop!" cried Hikari. "Just born to hate each other, I tell ya," said Kensuke jokingly. "In a past life, these two were either mortal enemies or married." Rei observed it all silently, as if committing the moment to memory. "L-let's go to the next scene?" suggested Shinji. This wasn't a formal rehearsal, so they could skip around as much as they liked. On the other hand, it also meant they didn't have half the cast, and HAD to skip some scenes. Asuka had wanted to work on a scene with him and her and Rei in it, and things had snowballed. Now, he was starting to worry that the snowball had become an avalanche. Asuka and Touji glared at each other a moment long, their weapons wavering between them dangerously. A moment later, both slowly turned away, grumbling and with eyes narrowed. "Next scene," said Kensuke as he thumbed through his copy of the play. "Let's see... where were we? Act 3 scene 4?" "Ja, act 3," said Asuka. "Big finale." Kensuke frowned. "Damn. Lots of me in this one." "Fancy that," said Asuka. "You are playing the title character you know! C'mon, schnell, let's go." She sprawled herself out on the floor, clutching an imaginary wound. Rei knelt beside her, her face clutched in her hands, trying to fake weeping. She had the 'fake' part down. "Okay, okay, I'm going." Kensuke adjusted his glasses, put his script away, took a deep breath, then began. "And now, good king," said Kensuke, his voice deeper than usual with a hint of menace. "Your lady Uoht lies broken by my sword, and your lady Cassilda driven mad by my words. Good advice I did give, my lord. Were my words wasted upon thy ears, king of fools?" At this point, Shinji was supposed to step in and say his lines, but he found it hard to move; Kensuke had never quite managed to get the tone right before. Which shouldn't have pinned him in place, but for just a moment, he felt like Kensuke was gone, and the Stranger in the Pallid Mask truly stood before him. Glancing at the others, he could tell they were surprised as well. He steeled himself; it was just a play and Kensuke was just acting. Asuka wasn't really dying, and Cassilda wasn't on the... Rei wasn't on the verge of madness. What Shinji had to do next was to portray anger; this wasn't his specialty. He summoned up all his memories of people yelling at him and tried to imitate it. "You have come into my kingdom!" he said loudly, pointing a finger at Kensuke. He took a step closer, remembering the time one of his foster parents had yelled at him for stealing a bike, when really he had just found it. He still had moments of bitterness about that, and now it welled up. "You have turned my people against each other!" "They already hated each other," Kensuke sneered. "I merely helped them do what they already wanted to do. Humanity is divided against itself, and that is why it always falls. Every society is but a fragile veneer over the beasts inside every man. It is the nature of beasts to fight and struggle and hurt one another." Shinji took another step forward, and bellowed as best he could, remembering the gang that had beaten him up and stolen his lunch money every day for a month when he was in the fifth grade, and how the school hadn't done anything about it because it happened off the school grounds. "I AM NOT A BEAST! I am the king and I take care of my people!" "By hiding behind two women and sending them to do battle for you. Now they have fallen, and you do nothing, for you fear me." Kensuke sneered. "It matters not. The armies are on the march, and Yhtill will be destroyed. Thale is dead and his followers rise in revolt as we speak." He pointed out across the auditorium. "And the storm that is coming will scourge this land. My work is done." The lights flickered, and Hikari jumped. Touji muttered to her, "That twit Uoht never would have gotten me if it wasn't written into the script." There was a feeling of static in the air as Kensuke smirked at the glowering Shinji. Shinji took another step foward, his face red, his eyes dark. "You will not get away with this!" He could see the lights flickering on Kensuke's glasses, hiding Kensuke's eyes. For a moment, he remembered his father looking like that when he sent him away, so long ago. Damn you, father, he thought, and the fires within him rose up another step. "You're the coward, hiding behind a mask! Show your true face!" His hand came around; it was supposed to be a slap that would strike off the mask that Kensuke would be wearing once they started dress rehearsals. He had been drilled a good dozen times by Namura- Sensei on how to make it look real AND not hit Kensuke. Unfortunately, Shinji wasn't thinking in those terms anymore. The slap struck Kensuke squarely on the cheek and sent him sprawling. "Damn you!" "That's not in the script," Hikari said. Touji stared in shock, as did Asuka. Rei looked up and blinked. Shinji stared at his own hand, snapped out of it. "Oh man, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hit you like that! I just...got carried away." Kensuke rubbed his cheek. "Probably would have worked better if I'd really been wearing the mask." "Shinji, you idiot! You could have hurt him!" Asuka bellowed. "Now if that had been Touji, it would have been another matter, but..." "HEY!" Touji and Hikari said in unison. "I think she meant you could take it better than me," Kensuke lied, trying to calm the waters. He felt a bit queasy. Now I know what acting is really like, he thought. It had been so easy to fall into the part all of a sudden; probably the same thing had happened to Shinji. "Can we work on that scene just after the banquet now? I'm not quite in the mood to continue this." Neither was anyone else, so they changed scenes, and continued their rehearsing. -*- The ship cruised through the Antarctic waters, unseasonably warm, as they had been ever since the Second Impact. Fuuyutsuki looked out across the waters. "I never thought I'd be able to use a battleship as a taxi one day." "I did," Gendo replied. "Liar." Gendo smiled a tiny smile. He did have a sense of humor, although it was rarely seen. "I can hardly believe our good fortune in finding this," he said. "The ocean floor is so big, we could have looked for years." "It must be fate," Fuuyutsuki said. "Or a trap. Perhaps we're being lured into something." "Our enemies lack the resources to build something like this as a trap at such short notice." "Do they?" Fuuyutsuki asked. They stared silently at each other for a while, then turned and watched the ocean go by, waves lapping gently, as they had for millions of years. -*- "Hey, you wanna go to the arcade with me and Shinji?" Touji asked Kensuke over the phone. Kensuke was sitting at his desk, surrounded by books and papers, his computer in the middle of running a web search. "I have to work on that research paper," Kensuke said. "Maybe tomorrow." "We got play practice tomorrow. Why waste our night off?" Touji asked hopefully. Kensuke stared at the passage he'd printed out a few minutes earlier. [In latter days, men shall wield the powers of the gods, but lack their wisdom. They shall walk the halls of the dead, where the Great Cauldron of Life waits for the one who shall master it. Yet, they shall lack the ancient lore, and find only destruction instead of life, raising a great funeral pyre. That light shall call to he who sings the stars into place, who will set to his work. And the day shall come when the endless weaver shall complete his creation and cross the abyss which shielded the world from him and once more gaze upon the sun. And he shall sound the call, awakening his ancient enemy friends to come forth. The heights will sink and the deeps will rise; the veils will be parted and what is known will be occulted; the dead shall walk and the living shall die. Blood calls to blood. Power calls to power. Fivefold they rise from the great chasm, stalking across the land in the visage of men. Dreams made flesh, or flesh made Dream they are, come to renew the ancient cycle. As before, so it happens now. In the end, they too shall yield to despair as did those who came before. In the end, they shall become what they fight. And the Voice of Endless Chaos will laugh with them at the shattered ashes of their faded dreams.] Kensuke shivered; he couldn't get the words out of his brain. The more he read of these books, the less he wanted to know what they said, yet he couldn't stop. He had to get to the truth. No time for games. "I'm sorry, but I REALLY have to work on this. Go have fun with Shinji while you can." He hung up and turned to his computer, flipping through his sheaves of printouts, making more notes as he read. -*- Namura-Sensei held up the blade. It was fairly crude, but it only had to look like a sword from a distance. "I can hardly believe the school shop has so many resources," he said to Sae, who was helping him. She was hard at work on the hilts over at another machine. "You'd think they were planning to turn this school into a weapons plant or something. Or a car factory." Sae laughed, pushing her hair away from her goggles. Normally, she had a spiky hairstyle, but after a few hours of working with the metal, it was drooping all over the place. "This is fun!" "It's a pity we don't have time to make armor before the dress rehearsal," Namura said. "Did you and your friend get those banners made?" Sae nodded. "Yep! They should be putting them up right now." "So when do your parents expect you to be home?" There was a pause, and then Sae said, "They're gone all this week." Namura put down the sword blade and smiled. "Perfect." -*- Megumi Kunzama strolled through the streets of Tokyo-3, hoping to catch some inspiration. After a nice start in Tokyo-3, things were slowing down to a painful degree for the ambitious reporter. The last few angel strikes had been overseas, and the press conferences discussing them were, typical of most of NERV press conferences, tightly controlled. There weren't any more bizarre occurrances here lately, like the Cherubim attack. That one yielded a good story, with lots of quotes all around. But since then, she'd been reduced to occasionally prying into the personal lives of the pilots, which she did feel just a little guilty about. After all, they were just kids. But on the other hand, they were the only thing standing between humanity and extinction, so they were public figures and fair game. However, even that particular story seemed dried up. She hadn't seen any noticable change in behaviour among them, and the addition of Langley to the team didn't seem to change things. A nice love triangle would've been nice, but from all the talk she'd managed to get from the other students, Asuka was far from interested in anybody. She needed a story. Something. Blech. As she passed by thet high school, she noticed a set of students hanging up a large banner. //Tokyo-3 Central High presents: THE KING IN YELLOW// // A tragedy in three acts // In the background of the banner was an intricate circular design, a sigil of some sort. Just looking at it disturbed her in a way she couldn't put in words. It felt so _wrong_, yet she couldn't take her eyes off of it. She walked up to the students and asked, "Excuse me, what's this?" "Oh, the school play," one of the boys replied. "Oughta be interesting," said another. "Those pilots are the stars of the show." Megumi raised an eyebrow. "Hey, yeah?" "Yep. That Asuka's such a babe!" "Is it open to the public?" she asked. One of the boys shrugged. "Should be." "Ah, good. Very good." It wasn't a groundbreaking piece, but it would make for a cute little story. As Megumi walked away, she took one last look at the banner and its ominous sigil. Yes, something about it was definitely _wrong_. -*- Two moons hung in the sky, and all the stars were wrong as Kensuke looked up at the heavens. All around him were buildings of black stone, leaning at angles where they should have fallen, doubling back on themselves. Lights flickered on and off in the windows, and a layer of frost covered everything. Chill winds blew through his pajamas, and the streets, paved with a black, porous stone, crumbled wherever he stepped. Every so often, a faint rising cry broke the silence, or the faint flapping of far away wings. Off to his right, a great dark lake spread, its surface dimpled with ripples caused by the wind. Only one of the two moons, the brighter one, reflected in its surface, and even that moon faded to grey when seen in the water. Kensuke stumbled towards the water, trying to figure out what was going on, driven by instinct rather than conscious thought. He looked down, but instead of himself, he saw a man in pale saffron robes, wearing a Greek tragedy mask the same color as the robes. The waters stirred, and five figures in the semblance of man, though badly distorted, rose from them. As their shoulders crested the waves, black wings erupted from them and began to beat the air, further stirring the waters. He stared at them, unable to move as they rose into the air. They encircled him, stretching out their arms to form a circle of malformed flesh, then began to circle him, moaning in an unearthly tongue, a river of syllables without vowels in which he began to drown. The ground dropped away below him, and he rose to join them, suspended on invisible threads. He began to dance as they crooned unknowable words to him. Joy and terror ran through him, the desire to join them, to become a warrior giant filled him. They would stride across the Earth in glory, doing battle for eternity at his command, for he was their leader. And beyond Earth were the stars, a million worlds to conquer. He saw them all, the worlds that would be his to conquer, plunder, burn, and rule or destroy as it pleased him. He gazed upon Cykranosh, where dwelt the headless Bhlemphroims of whom men had dreamed when they hoped to find such beings in the inaptly named 'New World'. He looked upon three-mooned Borea, where the priests of the Children of the Wind even now cried out to their strangely-silent master, for the ice that sheltered them was melting, and they knew not why. The woods and rivers of Tykran were opened to him, and the insect-men of that world stopped in their tracks and gazed into the sky, driven by instincts they could not understand. The dogmen of Yuilo, the lone world of Polaris which harbored life a human could recognize, paused in their endless wars and sniffed the air as he passed unseen. World after world passed before his gaze, each an exercise in warfare to conquer, an exercise that could be his if he accepted his destiny. All he need do was to open his mouth and speak the words they chanted, join the music, the endless dance, the music of the spheres, a song of war and glory and power. He hesitated, not knowing why he held back. His every instinct screamed for him to take the oath, to join the song, to shout out the cries of war. Aching with the need to unleash destruction, to take vengeance upon all those who had ever hurt him, to finally wield the weapons that filled his dreams, he nevertheless paused as a tiny voice within his mind told him to turn back, to reject the offer, for it came at the price of his humanity. Humanity is doomed, the song replied. You have read the prophecies of the Final Fall, and seen them being fulfilled. The only weapons that can save humanity will destroy everything that makes that pathetic race human. Give up your name to the Nameless One, and he shall set you free, for only power brings freedom, and he has power to spare. Be his champion, his voice, his hand. Give up your humanity, and you will get what you truly desire. Do you want to be someone's butt-boy for the rest of your life? the voice deep inside him replied. He will devour you, and nothing will be left of you but a shell, a tool for his will. Better to die! You cannot save yourself, the cosmos replied. You are but a cog in a machine that tells a story whose ending cannot be changed. Accept your destiny and you will at least enjoy it, reject it and you will know only misery before you are destroyed anyway. There is no escape. Even the universe can make mistakes. A great din erupted through the cosmos, an endless buzzing that drowned out the music of the spheres, the song of war, the dance of the great Sultan at its center. Its call truly could not be denied, and the world around Kensuke ripped apart. He blinked, and he lay in his bed, the sun shining in the window, his pet cat frantically bolting from under the bed for the shut door, which it slammed into, knocking itself down. The sheets were slippery with sweat as he pulled them off, as were his pajamas. What a nightmare, he told himself. Reading those books is just giving me the creeps. Still, they held much truth, and he had seen too many things they said come true to discount the rest. I have to hurry, he thought. Time was running out. Such a reprieve as he had received does not come twice. -*- As he watched Touji and Asuka run through the choreography of their swordfight one more time in one of the last scenes of the final dress rehearsal, Shinji was both impressed by their skill, and scared they would screw up and hurt each other. The swords were dull, but they could still injure someone badly. They were both getting into it, more than was probably healthy. This was the scene before the feast, where the play climaxed. Everyone was in their costumes, the sets were in place, and it was all quite impressive. Shinji had never seen such an elaborate school play before. Namura-sensei had gone all out. He was offstage in this scene himself, although he had a big part in the next one...everyone still alive by the feast played a big role in it. Kozue, who played one of Cassilda (Rei)'s subordinate priestesses, came up to him and tugged his arm. She had short brown hair and glasses that couldn't conceal bright blue eyes. "This lighting is driving me crazy." She looked up at the lights, which kept wavering around and going on and off at odd times. "Like it's some kind of secret message." "I think it's just the lighting people being incompetent." Namura-sensei had blown up on them a good dozen times during the first Dress Rehearsal. "It's just...creepy. This whole play is creepy. Can't you feel it?" He rubbed his goosepimpling arms. "Yeah. Those ad banners give me the creeps too. I don't like the Yellow Sign or whatever it's called," he said. It felt wrong to him, even though it was just a sort of multiple spiral squiggle with a dot in the middle. "Treacherous Fiend! You have betrayed my king, the man I LOVE!" Asuka shouted from the stage as she thrust her sword 'through' Touji. Really, it went past his backstage side, but at the angle they were at, it looked real. Kozue elbowed Shinji. "So which one do you REALLY like better, eh? Is Rei really your girlfriend like I heard?" Shinji blushed. "I...I don't have a girlfriend." "Uoht, thou art a sausage eating BITCH!" Touji shouted as he toppled backwards, then "OWWW!" as he banged his head as he did every time they did this scene. Kozue blinked. "Sausage eating bitch? That's not in the script." "CUT!!!!!!!!" Namura-Sensei shouted. -*- Ritsuko frowned. Something was wrong. Well, not so much wrong as unexpected. For the last week or two, the captive Cherubim had been in a coma, or a reasonable facsimile. Now it was awake, and moving about, though sluggishly. Its flesh had stopped turning grey and was beginning to regain its color. And as it paced, it hummed, a deep throbbing beat, mixed with occasional cries that sounded joyful. "Perhaps it was just sick," Maya speculated. "But it got better." "It wanted to die before," Ritsuko said. "I could tell. But now it's waiting for something. Something it likes." "Is it that intelligent?" Maya asked. "Even a cat can anticipate dinner joyfully," Ritsuko said, hoping this wasn't the case. Seemingly oblivious to anything else, the cherubim looked up, as if searching for something, and warbled an incomprehensable song. -*- Rei stirred from her bed, an annoyed look on her face. She paced the room, slowly, then stepped out to her balcony. She looked up to the stars, searching for something unknown. Far away, the star Alderberaan shone in the night sky, mesmerizing her with its sparkling light. And as she stared, she hummed to herself a disjointed melody. -*- Asuka leaned back on the couch, frowning. "Y'wanna do it again?" "Well.... I...." Shinji scratched the back of his head. "Aren't you tired yet?" "Somewhat," admitted Asuka. "But... I'm still not satisfied wi-" At this moment, Misato stepped into the room, beer in hand, slice of pizza in the other. She paused, then looked at the pair on the couch and scowled. "You two at it again?" she asked, exasperated. "You've been at it every night this week, y'know." "Hey, I just don't want to mess up in front of everyone!" whined Asuka. "And I can't seem to rest anyway. Something's just... bugging me. How about you, Shinji?" He nodded. "Yeah, sorta." "It's just pre-opening-night jitters, you two," chided Misato. "Just relax. You two have been practicing so much, *I* know some of the lines." "Really?" asked Shinji. Misato raised an eyebrow. She chugged her beer, wiped her mouth, took a deep breath, then straightened her posture. She had a somber and contemplative expression on her face, something Shinji and Asuka had rarely ever seen from their commanding officer. "The Lady Uoht, or the Lady Cassilda? Bitter indecision plagues my heart. Two women of more opposite natures, I know not: Uoht with her fiery passion, Cassilda with her serene and gentle nature. Cursed by fortune, I am." Asuka and Shinji watched her, surprised at the incredible display of acting. Misato broke the spell by suddenly smiling and leaning towards Shinji. "So, who do you prefer," she asked whimsically. "Fiery Uoht over here, or Cool Cassilda?" Shinji's eyes widened in shock, a bright blush quickly settling in on his face. "I- it's not- er-" Misato laughed and tousled his hair playfully. "Ah, Shinji, you're too fun to tease." She put her serious face on once more and faced them both. "Now get some rest, you two. It's already late. Don't worry about it so much, and you'll feel better about it. Okay?" "Er, okay," conceeded Shinji. Asuka scowled. "Feh, Misato just wants to watch the late adult programming or something." "Hey!" They left Misato alone with the television and went to their rooms, but Asuka hesitated at her door. "Hey, Shinji?" "Yes?" "Just curious," Asuka asked, trying to sound casual. "If you were King Alar..." "Hm?" Asuka shook her head. "No, nevermind. G'nite, Shinji." -*- The next night... Misato sat with Makoto and Kaji in the middle of the auditorium, a male on each side of her. Ritsuko had been supposed to come, but she had bailed out at the last minute due to some work she couldn't leave. Maya and Shigeru had been supposed to join them as well, but the auditorium had filled up, and Maya and Shigeru were trapped in the far back/top of the auditorium. Misato wondered if Shigeru had planned it that way; she'd noticed he had a bit of a crush on Maya, who seemed oblivious to that fact. The play was quite good so far, although somewhat weird. The basic plot was easy to follow. The old king was dead, and the new king needed to take a wife in order to produce children so that he would have an heir if something happened to him. Everyone in the court was trying to maneuver to choose a wife for him, but the King himself had his eyes on two different women. Typical male, Misato thought. Shinji was King Alar, the indecisive king of Yhtill. Asuka was one of his potential wives and also the Royal Champion, Uoht. Rei played the other love interest, Cassilda, the High Priestess of Lenilda the Moon Goddess, the Lady of the Lake. They were all putting in good performances, although the director had apparently done his casting by finding people whose personalities already fit the characters. Not that Misato thought that was necessarily a bad thing. Several things were complicating the romantic mishaps. Besides the long philosophical speeches which Misato mostly tuned out, there were several subplots. There were dangerous rumblings from the neighboring kingdoms of Xoth and Hyades, and everyone was arguing over which kingdom to ally with in the inevitable war, or whether to stay neutral. Uoth argued they should ally with Hyades, their long term ally while her rival Thale (played by Touji) called for an alliance with the stronger empire of Xoth in order to share in its likely victory. Cassilda argued for complete neutrality, the promotion of scholarship and religion, and the repair of the roads and castles neglected by Alar's father. Further complicating matters was the plot between Thale and one of Cassilda's subordinates to dispose of Uoth, the Queen Mother's efforts to get Alar to marry someone from her home kingdom, the forbidden love of Uoth's squire for Thale, and the presence of a mysterious stranger who delighted in causing trouble, The Stranger in the Pallid Mask. Kensuke was playing that role, and putting on a great performance, Misato thought. Unlike the others, his part wasn't much like his normal personality, for the Stranger was a devious plotter and manipulator. As they headed towards the end of the first act, every feud and quarrel in the kingdom was about to ignite, and no one knew he was to blame. Misato shivered with anticipation, wondering what would happen. She'd never heard of this play, but she hoped it wasn't going to end with everyone dead; plays like that were a waste of time. Makoto and Kaji were enraptured too, as were the audience. A few of them seemed to be a bit too enraptured; some people over in one corner seemed to be having an argument on the verge of blows, and another couple was starting to strip and make out. She turned her head away from that, only to see someone staring in horror at the stage, their mouth frozen in a mask of fear. She looked at the stage, and all she saw was the Stranger whispering something to the Queen in a private audience. She glanced back, and the man had crumpled, burying his face in his lap and weeping. Indeed, a fair number of people were starting to weep, or cry, or shout. It was getting harder to hear the dialogue on the stage over the din, and now Misato was getting goosepimples. I hope this doesn't always happen at these plays, she thought. _*_ Backstage, Shinji leaned against the wall, breathing deeply. The play was intense, too intense. When Uoht and Thale...when Asuka and Touji had been waving their swords at each other, he had thought they were going to actually stab one another to death on the spot for a moment. Touji was off around the other end of the stage right now, getting ready to interrupt a meeting between Asuka/Uoht and her followers which Hikari's character had told him about. This would lead up to a fight to the death later; for a moment he wondered if they would really stop in time. He ran over his next lines; they came far more easily to him now than they had before. Being Alar felt natural, so natural he almost felt swallowed up by Alar when he was on stage. The fact that he could see himself acting just like Alar in Alar's position made it very easy to play the part, although he wasn't vacillating between two women in real life. I wonder if my secret admirer is watching this, he thought. I hope she's not jealous. He laughed at the thought. Having a secret admirer was embarrassing, but exciting too. He'd gotten three more cards, all weird haiku he couldn't understand, but heartfelt through the confusion. I just wish I could figure out who it was, though, he thought. Misato had gotten two more secret admirer cards as well, and a bouquet of flowers. Asuka had been trying to find out who was sending them, but no one would fess up. Maybe it's her, Shinji thought, then discarded the idea. If Asuka thought that way about me, she'd just walk up, throw me over her shoulder, and drag me off. Like Uoht tries to do to Alar in the first scene of act two. Or is it the third, he asked himself, suddenly panicking. He peeked out at the stage again; almost his cue to go on. Rei needs to get here, he thought. She goes on with me. A hand touched his shoulder briefly; Rei was there, clad in long, loose green robes with a hood, a 'silver' necklace hanging down loosely from her neck, with a silver crescent moon pendant. A similar crescent moon was daubed upon her brow with makeup, and her skin was much darker than usual thanks to base makeup intended to keep the stagelights from completely washing her out. Shinji was wearing similar makeup himself, which embarrassed him faintly. She stared at him, though it was a gentle stare, and he gazed back at her. Then she nodded and stepped onto the stage. He followed her, feeling Alars slide into place, letting the memorized words and actions tell him what to do. And the play went on. -*- Shigeru was feeling pretty confident; he'd managed to put his arm around Maya's shoulders a good fifteen minutes ago, and she hadn't protested a bit. Given the number of couples around them doing a lot more than that, he was starting to feel bold enough to try something more himself. If he'd been thinking more clearly, he might have realized that while Maya wasn't telling him to stop, she hadn't given any real sign of noticing what he had done either, since she was enraptured with the events on stage. On stage, Yhbb was talking to one of the other squires, trying to work up the courage to profess her love of Thale to him. The squires were trying to discourage her by telling her that because she served Lady Uoht, he would never love her, for she served his enemy, but she refused to listen, or so she said. The words did seem to be slowly wearing away at her. Maya was muttering, "Don't be a coward," when Shigeru began to lean over to try and kiss her. He took this for encouragement, and swept her into a very solid kiss. Her eyes widened, but he didn't notice, lost in the fulfillment of a dream. Only one thing saved Misato from a similar fate. She didn't notice two incoming heads because she was too busy telling Yhbb to just TELL Thale how she felt, as were several other people in the audience. Kaji and Makoto both lunged at the same time, and their heads slammed into each other. They both fell back, dazed, as Misato stared at both of them. "What the HELL are you two doing?" she asked. Did they just try to kiss me?, she wondered. Or each other? THAT would have been just the way to end her day. Looking around at the developing orgy, she began to wonder if someone had put drugs in the air conditioning. A fight had broken out on the other side of the aisle, three rows back. Six people were naked in a pile near one of the doors. She glanced back and saw Maya and Shigeru making out. Well, I'll be, Misato thought. Never would have guessed she liked him. Then Maya suddenly stood and tossed Shigeru halfway across the theatre. He flew down eight rows, and landed on a couple making out, one of whom hefted him and threw him again. She screamed, "RAPE!!!!!" Someone pulled Shigeru down, and Misato could see he was being pounded on. Kaji tried to kiss her again, and she grabbed his shoulders. "Snap out of it! Something is going on here!" "I want your body, that's what!" "You can't have it! She belongs to me!" Makoto proclaimed. It can't get any worse, Misato thought. Across the theatre, a blonde woman suddenly stood up and shouted, "NERV is concealing evidence about the true origins of the Angels! Two of the EVA pilots are dating, and I've got pictures of them dating! You people can't handle the Truth, but I can! And I'm going to tell it ALL!" She began to laugh maniacally. Kaji and Makoto both lunged at her again. Me and my big mouth, Misato thought. -*- The secondary crew of the NERV command center figured it was going to be a quiet night, one of many for them. Whether it was from good fortune or coincidence, nothing had ever happened on their shift. Nothing lasts forever. The ladies were into their third round of poker when the massive monitor screens suddenly came to life in shades of violent red and orange. "What the... uh oh." The trio scrambled to their stations, typing furiously to confirm the power signature that had suddenly flared out in the city and identify which of the possible menaces it could be. "Damn, there goes our streak," one of them muttered. "Confirmed! It's an Angel!" "Get Captain Katsuragi and Dr. Akagi!" -*- She'd known some college parties that were almost as wild as this. Almost. "Misato-chaaan!" "Shit!" She ducked from Kaji's lunging grab, then drove a knee to his stomach, and finally knocked him out with an elbow to the back of his head. And then her phone rang. Misato's eyes widened in disbelief, grimacing at the great timing of it all. She dodged a piece of flying chair, whipping the phone out as she rolled on the ground, and put it to her ear as she jumped over an overly-amorous couple. //"Captain Katsuragi!// "I'm kinda BUSY!" she yelled, spinning and dodging another set of wildly flying bodies. //"We've got an Angel power signature in the city! It's at the Tokyo-3 High School!"// "Yeah, I noticed, I'm right in the middle of it!" Though not for long, if she had her way. Misato had managed to scramble, dodge, and crawl her way through the chaos, and was nearly at the doors. //"You okay, commander? What's happening over there?"// "Everyone's going nuts here! We were all watching the school play, but everyone's gone nuts!" //"We'll send forces to you-"// "Don't! Whatever's gotten into the audience might've gotten to them! Any ideas on WHOA!" //"Captain!"// "I'm fine, just had to dodge some soda." //"What?"// "Nevermind, just find-" Ritsuko's voice cut in. //"Misato, are the pilots okay?"// "Shit! The pilots!" She whirled around and frantically tried to see the stage. Two brawling men blocked her view, though that was fixed after she quickly pistolwhipped them into unconsciousness. "The pilots... are still performing the play?" //"Is anyone from the audience approaching the pilots?"// Misato looked down at the chaos before her, surprised to see a pattern there. "Actually... hold on." She dodged as another trio of people charged at her, kicked one away, knocked another one out with an impressive spin-kick, and took the third down with an elbow to his jaw. "They're being left alone." //"The play isn't called 'The King in Yellow', is it?"// "Yeah, it is." //"Damn. Listen, this is important: stop the play."// "Waitasec." Misato dodged and scrambled yet again, finally making it to the auditorium doors, which she quickly went through. "Okay, now what was that?" //"The King in Yellow isn't just a play, it's a...I suppose the word 'spell' comes closest to expressing it. It's going to unleash the Angel Baraquiel.."// "Really?" //"Yes."// "Shit." //"You must stop it before they finish, or else the King in Yellow will be posessed by Baraquiel."// "Gotcha." Misato quickly ran around, intending to get to the stage from the rear entrances. A question popped up in her head, and she speed-dialed the NERV command center. "Hey," she asked. "Why am I not being affected?" //"That's a good question,"// replied Ritsuko. //"We'll look in on that."// -*- As she snuck into the rear entrance of the auditorium, Misato felt a chill run through her. Something was wrong, very wrong. She snuck by the actors and actresses not on stage, dressed in their play costumes, and was disturbed by their utterly blank looks. And then she noticed Kensuke. His face obscured by a grotesque, pallid yellow mask. Merely standing there, he radiated an aura of menace. One of the students suddenly came to life, entering the stage, while Shinji, leaving the stage, took on the blank look that the backstage cast now had. Great timing, thought Misato. She went to him quickly, shaking his shoulder. "Shinji!" she hissed. "Snap out of it!" He wobbled as she shook him, but did little else. She hoped this wouldn't hurt too much... *WHAP* "SHINJI!" "Ow! Huh? Wha?" The boy blinked several times, his gaze finally coming into focus. "Misato-san? What's going on?" "We're in trouble. C'mon, help me get Asuka woken out of this trance. And then we have to get Rei." "She's on stage, Misato. She and Thale are about to have their duel." "Shit. Where's Rei?" Shinji looked around, but couldn't spot her. "Dunno. She has got to be around here somewhere, though." He looked at the frozen students scattered around the area. "What is going on?" "The next Angel is here, Shinji," Misato said quietly. "W-what?! How'd it get into the city without us knowing?" "We invited it in," Misato said, finishing her search, then slapping herself. "I'll just...oh dammit, she won't be carrying her phone!" Shinji thought for a second. "Have at ye, traitor!" Thale shouted from the stage, and metal began to ring against metal. "This is where I go back on and break it up. Then Cassilda enters..." Shinji's arm wavered about, then locked on a point on the far side of the stage. "There." "Right. Go snap Rei out of this. I'll deal with Asuka." Misato drew her pistol, then reversed her grip to use it as a club. "You're gonna shoot her?" Shinji boggled. "Not like this, you idiot! Go get Rei!" She turned and sprinted onto the stage, while Shinji circled around to where he expected Rei to come on stage. She was there, cloaked and veiled in the garb of the priestesses of Lenilda, her face hidden, though he thought for a moment he could see her eyes glowing through the veil. A silver crescent moon hung on a necklace between her breasts. She ignored him completely. He put a hand on her shoulder. "Rei, snap out of it." The fact that she ignored him was less surprising for her than it would have been with most people. He tried again. "Rei, wake up! Something's gone wrong! An Angel is controlling everyone!" No reaction at all. She kept her eyes on the stage, a toy waiting for its owner to pick it up and play with it. Utter silence. Several efforts to shake her didn't do anything either. Out on the stage, Thale and Uoht were going at it full force. The fighting far exceeded the simple motions that had been practiced, for it was Thale and Uoht who fought, not Touji and Asuka, and the two combatants had trained with the sword for many years for all that they had not existed a few hours earlier. They were, however, completely focused, and Misato could tell that they couldn't even see her. This made it simple for her to smack Thale in the back of the head with her pistol. He yelped and collapsed, leaving Uoht in a state of confusion; this wasn't in the script. She turned and stared at Misato who shouted, "ASUKA, STOP PLAYING AROUND!" "Mother?" Uoht said confusedly. "I'm NOT your mother! You're Asuka Langely! Now snap out of it!" "Asuka...I heard her name in a story once. A mighty warrior she was, but I am not she," Asuka said, her voice both confused and courtly. Rei stirred slightly, and Shinji tried shaking her again. However, instead of responding to him, she started to head onto the stage. Desperation drove him to an idea. "Cassilda, it is I, your liege Alars." She suddenly turned to him, her face sliding from utter blankness to simple calm. "Alars." A sudden warmth washed over it, and her voice lost its usual calm, sliding into a range that would denote happiness for most people. "You came to see me." Now what, Shinji thought. He tried desperately to think of something that would evoke Rei-ness. His flesh began to goosepimple, and he could feel some- thing coming. Something he didn't want to encounter. Misato was getting desperate; she couldn't slap Asuka, not while Asuka was carrying two feet of sharp steel. "I heard she was a total coward." Uoht's face darkened. "She is not." Bingo, Misato thought. Badmouth her enough to make her switch back. "I heard this guy Touji was a much better EVA pilot than her. She ran off with the delusion she was some knight from a magical kingdom, so they gave him her EVA." "They...THEY WOULDN'T DARE!" Uoht shouted, and her face changed in an instant. "You've got to be...what the hell..." Asuka looked around confusedly, then said, "DOWN!" Misato hit the deck just in time to avoid getting stabbed by Thale in the back. For a moment, she heard mocking laughter from somewhere backstage. Thale shouted, "Interfering wench! Thou shalt be punished for thy transgression against me!" Cassilda turned and looked at the stage. "I always knew Thale would come to a bad end." Shinji took her shoulders and turned her to face him. "Rei, everyone's under some kind of mind control! There's an Angel attack going on!" "Lenilda foretold this. We must aid Uoht. You will need her." She started to turn again. Dammit, face reality, he thought. There had to be some way to get her to snap back to normal. Something that would...the movie. She'd been trying to understand that movie, he thought. "Do you remember the movie? When they stood among the cherry blossoms?" "I remember," she said faintly. "How you walked with me among the trees, and we...we..." Her face became more troubled than he had ever seen it before. "I wanted to..." She blushed faintly, and Shinji knew it had to be the effects of the mind control. Gulping, she turned to him. "Your highness, I..." "You remember, right?" asked Shinji urgently. "You remember going to the movies with me, and Asuka, and Touji, and Kensuke, and Hikari?" Rei frowned, looking ill at ease. "Those names... they are familiar." She shook her head. "Talk not of these people, my liege! I-" "You have to remember!" said Shinji desperately. "We went to the mall after that, and you wore a nice blue dress and I told you that you're beautiful! Rei, snap out of it!" "I... the dress..." "And then we went to the arcade and you beat up Asuka, remember?" Rei seemed to smile at that, slightly. "Beat... Asuka..." "Rei? Do you remember? Rei?" Her eyes clouded over in confusion, her brown knotted in concentration. It seemed to be working. Shinji glanced at the stage. Misato was fleeing Thale, while Asuka tried desperately to save her. Unfortunately, Asuka wasn't up to Uoht's level of prowess, and now several other characters had come on and become tangled up in it. The play was taking off down a new tangent, trying to adapt itself to Misato's presence; several other characters now thought she was Uoht's mother, a notorious drunkard. Misato wasn't amused. Maybe a kiss would snap her out of it, Shinji thought. No, I can't just kiss her. She...She was puckering up and had her eyes closed. I might get sucked back in if I kiss her, he thought. But...what else can I do? He leaned forward, to Rei's beautiful and awaiting face, and lost his nerve at the last second. He kissed her. Just on the cheek. "I'm sorry, Rei," he whispered to her. Rei stepped back from him, eyes wide open. "Shinji?" she asked. He nodded, apologetically, and that seemed to elicit from her a little, melancholy smile. It vanished a second later as she cocked her head, and seemed to sniff the air. The smile became a snarl, and Shinji jumped back, feeling a pang of primal terror. She spun on one foot, staring off across the darkened backstage area, where Shinji could see a figure lurking in the darkness. Its face was lighter than the rest of it, though still shadowed. "Get Langely. Now." Before he could reply, she was gone, streaking across the backstage, from dead stop to lightning bolt instantly. The shadowy figure simply awaited her onslaught. Leaving a trail of icy footprints behind, she charged right into him. But there was nothing there, and she passed through him as if he had never been. Meanwhile, Shinji turned and shouted, "I got Rei! C'mon! We can get out the back if we hurry!" Asuka and Misato turned and ran for him, arriving just as Rei returned, her eyes cold, and her jaw clenched, though her expression was blank. The blankness seemed merely a mask, rather than the truth, the habit of calm instead of its presence. "Let's get the hell out of here," Misato said. "I dunno how the hell we're gonna beat this thing, but..." "Where is it?" Asuka asked. The characters on stage were trying to figure out where Asuka and Misato had gone; they seemed to not comprehend that the backstage area existed. "It..." Misato gulped. "It's name is Baraquiel and it's in Kensuke." "It...how?" Shinji asked. "It possessed him? How do we stop it without hurting him?" "I don't know if we can," Misato said. "The exit is this way," Asuka said, pointing to the doors. "Yeah, that's how I got in," Misato said, slapping her forehead. They took off running, but the backstage doors wouldn't open. The strange sigil from the advertising banners glowed faintly, somehow stenciled onto the doors, and nothing would budge them, though all four of them threw their weight into it. They could hear the play continuing, as characters came and went, and a new plot took shape. Asuka glanced out, and some people from the audience had come onto the stage and were taking on roles. The crowd itself was in full riot, a wild orgy of violence and sex, though they didn't have any drugs to work with. This had better not go on my permanent record, she thought. -*- Across Tokyo-3, it began. Slow and subtle at first, with the speaking of harsh words, petty fights at bars, couples making love on rooftops, lonely men and women in black fleeing the cruelty of a harsh world, moments of maternal anger at home. And it grew, a roar, a cacophony of shouting that crushed out the normal sounds of the city, a pulsing throbbing beat of rage and lust and fear and despair. Not everyone was affected; some of its denizens had a quiet night in front of the TV set, watching Nick Hatchett: Robot Hunter, or ESPN3, or a rented movie. But those were the lucky ones, who had not gazed upon the Yellow Sign and fallen under its sway. For those who had, the night was full of terror and ecstasy, for their lord and master was coming, with none to bar his way. The Carnivale of the King had begun. -*- Ritsuko cursed the universe, and desperately continued her electronic search for the data she needed. MAGI was doing its best, but Ikari had apparently raised the security level on certain files she needed. Damn his suspicious nature, she thought. To make matters worse, the Cherubim was trying to sing. What it was singing, she didn't know, but she could hear it through the wall, a low bass throbbing with a complex beat. Still, if it hadn't perked up lately, she would have been at the play, probably rioting with the rest. That was why she hadn't gone to the play; the last few days, the Cherubim, which had been in a coma, turning grey and flaking away by inches, had recovered and begun to heal for no apparent reason at all. Now, it seemed quite perky, as such things went, though it was hard to tell. It had begun to sing at the very moment when the play had started, though she hadn't realized it at the time. Like a reverse mining canary, she thought. A very ugly one. She should have gone up to the bridge, but the workstation here was adequate, and she wanted to keep an eye on the thing. Deep down at the instinctive level, she knew it was going to do something, and she needed to be ready to stop it. Also, she was hacking into files she wasn't cleared for (which wasn't too many of them), and she didn't want witnesses. There had to be something in here, some contingency plan which Ikari had prepared for this. The man prepared for everything. Contacting him had failed; he wasn't responding, even to a Code 1 emergency. The one time I want to see the man, he isn't around, she thought. "File Found," Balthazar announced. Excellent, she thought, and began reading. -*- The door to the stage shop opened, unlike the doors out of the auditorium. "Bar the doors," Misato said. "We need to discourage any pursuit." Asuka and Rei quickly shoved a long table in front of the doors, while Shinji got some stuff to pile on it. "This is a dead end, you know," he said. "I know," Misato snapped. "That's why we're barring the door. Now we can maybe figure out some way to deal with this before we sally out." "What the hell is going on?" Asuka asked. "It was like..." "The play was performing us," Shinji said. "How come you weren't affected, Misato?" Asuka asked her. Rei stared at the door intently, standing in a ready pose, not speaking, back to her usual calm, at least outwardly. Misato fingered her necklace nervously, and felt her tension soothe. "Unless it was my lucky pendant..." Shinji turned and looked at it. "Maybe it was." "What?" Misato blinked. "That thing...there was one like it painted on that house underwater." Everyone stared at him blankly, except Rei, who was still watching the door. He stepped over and touched it. It felt warm to him, almost hot, like the one underwater, but stronger. "Maybe we can turn him with it, like a cross for a vampire." Asuka laughed. "Oh yeah, like a necklace is gonna scare an Angel. Unless it's some mouse/elephant thing, I doubt that would work. This isn't a vampire, and this isn't a horror movie." "My whole life is a horror movie," Shinji muttered. Misato looked at her necklace and frowned. "I'll call Ritsuko and see what she thinks." She flipped open her cellular and dialed the number. "Misato, are you wearing your necklace?" Ritsuko asked before Misato could even say hello. Misato blinked. "Yes." "That explains everything. Are you familiar with the concept of grounding?" "As in electricity?" "Yes." "You're saying my necklace is some kind of lightning rod for Angel energies?" "Properly empowered, the 'Elder Sign' as it is known, acts as a grounding, draining off the energies wielded by the Angels and their servants into other dimensions. How this works is unknown. The more dependent the being is on these energies, the worse the effects. A Cherubim would probably only be annoyed by it, though it couldn't get through one, while a being largely in an energy form could easily do serious damage to itself from contact. On the other hand, such a being could probably turn the Elder Sign to slag at the same time. It's not omnipotent, although the bigger the sign, the more energy it can handle." "So, it can save me from the general effect, but if he turned his attention on me, it likely wouldn't save me." Misato said. "Exactly. But if you made a larger one, you might be able to use it to trap the Angel in the body it's possessed. His consciousness is in whoever is playing the King in Yellow, but not his full power; the energy levels are still building. But you've got to do it before the play ends, or he'll be unstoppable by anything short of an EVA. And you'd never make it to the EVAs alive." Misato looked around the shop. There was some metal working equipment in one corner, which had been dragged in when they'd been making the prop swords a few days ago, and not moved back to the regular shop yet. In fact, there was another door, one TO the other shop, which she hadn't noticed before, and felt like an idiot for not seeing. "How big of one are we gonna need?" "The bigger the better, but if it's too big, it'll be hard to keep on him. The longer it takes, the bigger you'll need, though. And even then, it may only stop him long enough for us to take more drastic measures." "Will it stop him causing this riot?" "Yes." "We'll try it then." She turned to Shinji, Asuka, and Rei. "Any of you ever had any shop classes?" "No." Shinji said. "This is going to be too much fun, then," Misato replied. -*- "I should be the one who does it!" Asuka said. "Rei can be the one who distracts him." "We don't have time to argue. Rei is very stealthy," Misato said. "And faster than you. We'll keep him busy, while she sneaks up behind him." "What if he can't be snuck up on?" Shinji asked. "Then we're all so fucked it doesn't matter," Misato said. "I have no clue how good this guy is at anything physical." "I can do this." Rei said. She hefted the foot and a half across, incredibly crude star with an eye of flame in the middle. Monkeys with typewriters could have done a better job, and it didn't look like it could hold anything, let alone an Angel. A chain closed into a loop with a padlock ran through the top of the star to use to 'bell the cat'. Assuming this would work, which none of them were too certain of. It felt like stopping an Angel with a sling shot. This is what the A-Team would have done. Although they would likely have put the Elder Sign on their van and run him over. They unblocked the door, and headed out into the darkness. From the stage, they could hear the ringing of metal and the faint smell of smoke. Looking out, the stage was a sea of chaos, with people fighting in a surging melee. Many of them were armed, and a fair number were bleeding. The unconscious were starting to pile up, and some of those likely dead. And cries of 'Xoth', 'Yhtill', and 'Celeano' filled the air. It was a miniature battle between two maddened armies. The set was beginning to burn. And through the darkness of the backstage, mocking laughter echoed. Shinji cocked his head; he could hear music, though he couldn't tell where it was coming from. He could see Asuka looked slightly distracted as well. Glancing over at Rei, he could see she had vanished into the shadows. From those same shadows, a figure emerged, the King in Yellow, slight of frame and clad in the horrid yellow mask of paper, one side smiling, the other frowning, both frozen in mania. "Come, come, you must join the others," he said. "The battle is joined, and your kingdom depends on it." Shinji wavered. His people were fighting and dying. It was his duty as king to...no! I'm Shinji, not some king. THIS is how we stop this. "You won't snare me this easily." "I see your squire is beleaguered," he said to Asuka, pointing out into the riot. "I don't have a...HIKARI!" she suddenly realized. Hikari was caught in the middle of the fighting, bleeding from both arms and one leg, fighting desperately against two grown men, who were pushing her back, and leering at her in a far too suggestive way. She started to turn, and felt her mind beginning to fog. For a moment, she hesitated, for both her true and false selves could not bear to leave Hikari to her doom, yet without a weapon, what could she do? Her martial arts skills weren't so good, or perhaps her ego not large enough for this. "DAMN YOU! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" "And what of you, Sissila?" he said to Misato. "Your lover lies wounded. Indeed, both your earnest suitors have fallen, searching the field for you." She could see Kaji had a nasty gut wound and was down, while Makoto was limping at the fringes of the fray. "If you do nothing, Xoth will carry the day and likely slay all those of gentle Yhtill. Including both of them." She leveled her pistol at him. "Stop this or I'll blow your brains out." "And kill the one whose flesh I wear? I think not." The gun came up, and Shinji stared in shock as Misato leveled it. "Try me," she said. "It may not kill you, but if your host body is dead, your little game comes to an end. And I bet that won't be any more fun for you than an abortion is for the baby." "You can't shoot Kensuke!" "Kensuke's gone, Shinji. And I can't let this bastard destroy humanity." "Now, now," he said jovially. "I'm not the one you should be shooting. Do you really think this play could have been staged without someone in NERV noticing? It's not like the slightest effort was made to hide it going on. And yet, the ever paranoid Commander Ikari saw no evil, heard no evil, and spoke no warning." She frowned. "You're claiming he knew this would happen?" "How could he not? Ask yourself...how did your friend Ritsuko know what was going on here? How did she know the PLAY did it?" Misato stiffened. He was right. How had Ritsuko known? She'd already known about the play being staged...why'd she only tell them now what it did? Unless she'd found the information in NERV's files once the crisis started, but that meant someone in NERV knew about the play and what it could do. And hadn't TOLD anyone. And how had this play gotten into the school library, which had been meticulously approved by NERV? Unless it was treason. Someone in NERV was a traitor. Asuka gasped. "He's right." Shinji frowned. It was a trap. Everything the King in Yellow said was intended to turn people against each other. "Maybe she looked it up. You won't trick us that easily!" "Do you really have that much faith in your father, boy?" the King asked. What's taking Rei so long, Shinji wondered. "He's not very nice, but...he wouldn't betray humanity to the Angels!" The King laughed. "He's been working for them all along. NERV is just a pawn, a toy in the war we fight among ourselves for amusement. Did you really think you could battle the gods with your pathetic little war machines without help from the gods themselves? The people of Xoth thought that, but they were betrayed in the end by those from whom they thought salvation would come. And now the story repeats itself. Your father would do anything for power, and he cares for nothing else, Shinji Ikari. You are nothing but a pawn to him. Everyone is." Shinji felt himself wavering, and tried to dredge up something he could use as evidence against that. The only image that rose to Gendo's defense was a faint memory of Gendo smiling at Shinji's mother and Shinji as he sat in her lap, one of his earliest memories, and perhaps his only good one of his father. "He loved my mother!" "And he let her die. He sacrificed her in his quest for more power. She didn't die in an accident; she died in an experiment." Shinji found this horribly plausible, but didn't want to believe it. I couldn't be the son of anyone that evil, he thought. Misato watched the darkness. Where the HELL is Rei? she asked herself. There was a creak above, and a sandbag plunged down, right at the King in Yellow's head. He lithely dodged to one side and looked up. "Ahh, the missing one of the unholy trinity must be perch..." He never finished. Even as he looked up, there was a blur and the sound of feet pounding against boards, and then Rei came out of the darkness. She didn't put the Elder Sign around his neck; she slammed him full force in the back of the skull with it. It didn't affect him as much as it should have; most people would have had a broken skull, but he simply staggered, though his scream of pain was certainly predictable. "BITCH!" he shouted. "Commander Ikari would not betray humanity," Rei said. "Not like you betrayed your race." She struck again, knocking him to the floor. "You turned the Byakhee into devils." Her voice sounded different, as if she was becoming Cassilda again. "Rei, stop playing around! Put it on him!" Misato shouted. "I am not Rei. And this is no game," she said. The third blow broke his nose by driving his head into the ground. "You laughed when the City of Joy burned. You gave yourself to the Crawling Chaos for revenge and power. You forsook your name, so that you could not be bound. But this story binds you. It gives you power to control others, but you become part of the story. And every story has many different endings." "Cassilda?" Shinji asked faintly, staring in shock. "You're dead! You're dead and gone! I am a god and you are a mortal! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" "You have taken on flesh, you fool, and now I have you," Cassilda snarled. "Only in this way can you walk another world freely, and go where you will, but you wear mortal flesh, and mortal flesh is weak." She struck him again, breaking his legs. "And even a god may die! Have you not seen what happened to your brethren? Ungoliant will spin no more webs. Kanser sleeps eternally. Medusa is no more. The Wind Walker's storms have dissipated. Did you think you would escape your fate? That you and your brothers could ravage the universe as you will? In the end, the wheel of fortune turns, and now it throws you into Gehenna to burn like the trash you are." "I will leave this flesh and..." His voice turned from anger to panic. "I cannot get out!" "Not while the play continues, any more than a baby can decide to crawl back in the womb once it is half out." Her voice had a mocking, cruel edge to it, mixed with anger. "And since you have turned the play loose to find its own end in your desperation, the end will not come soon enough to save you." "You can't kill him! He's in Kensuke's body! We've got to save Kensuke!" Shinji shouted. "There is no more Kensuke, only the King in Yellow," Cassilda said. "Kensuke is dead. And so are you," the King wheezed out. "You are Rei Ayanami, not Cassilda. She died long ago." He made a gesture at her. "Go back where you came from, for you are only an expression of my will!" "By changing the plot, you freed me to do what came naturally, instead of repeating what came before. You were not the only one to serve a god, Hastur." "Don't say that!" The King in Yellow winced. "I am He Who Cannot Be Named!" "You're a worthless fool." Ribs cracked this time. "If you kill this body, it might not kill him," Misato said. "But if you bind him with the sign..." Cassilda turned and looked at Misato, then smiled. "Yes, to leave you to rot away in the flesh you have taken, trapped by those for whom you had only contempt." Shinji shuddered at the savageness of her smile. What had playing out the destruction of her home done to her? If this was, somehow, really a woman named Cassilda. Had she been human? Some alien? What was going on? Was the King in Yellow a true story? She wrapped the chain around his neck, then smiled darkly as she pressed the sign to his flesh, ripping off his mask. For just a moment, Shinji expected her to announce he was old Mr. Crowley who ran the carnival. But only Kensuke's face was revealed, and she said, "Uoht was right. We should have killed you the second you arrived." "The Crawling Chaos will devour you all!" The King shouted. "The Outer Gods cannot be mocked! I have gazed upon the Throne of Azathoth! I have..." "You have failed. And the Herald of the Outer Gods has no patience for those who fail him." The sound of battle faded from the stage, as people began to come out of their trance. Cries of pain took the place of shouts of anger. Sirens began to sound outside the school. "Perhaps he will come down from the limitless void to mock you, but that's all you can hope for. Goodbye, and good riddance." She turned to Shinji, Asuka, and Misato. "And thus ends the tale of the King in Yellow, good people of Tokyo-3. The last words are spoke, and this play is ended. If perhaps we have offended, let this be our amends." Her voice rang out clearly across the auditorium, sad and wise. "No!" The king shouted feebly, his voice fading. "I can sense the power within you! You have the potential to be one of us! To walk among the gods! Cast out this shade and set me free and I will show you the way." For a moment, Rei's voice rang out clearly in place of Casilda's. "I will not betray Ikari-kun." And then Cassilda's voice, which was Rei's voice, but older and more emotional. "The curtain is closed. Farewell, and may your world not meet the fate of mine." "You're from another world?" Asuka asked. "They attacked you too? And he betrayed you to them?" "This story is done." Cassilda sagged, and so did the King in Yellow, who quietly collapsed. When she stood straight once more, she was Rei, calm and impassive. She stepped over the King and walked over to them. "It is over." "This is only the beginning," Misato muttered. -*- Medics and police covered the auditorium, checking on the wounded of body and soul. Misato looked at the devastation with sadness. They were at war, and every war has its casualties. They'd tied Kensuke up immediately after the thing that was the King in Yellow had passed out, and now it was conscious again, though still dazed. It foamed at the mouth, cursing, muttering, and occasionally screaming, and did not respond when Touji and Shinji were at its side calling for Kensuke. Poor Kensuke. The kid didn't deserve that. "Misato?" asked Shinji. "What... what'll they do with Kensuke? They can bring him back, right?" "They can help him, right?" asked Touji. His voice was shaking. "I... I don't know, guys. I really don't." As Shinji and Touji talked to Misato, Asuka made her way inside the NERV transport and sat next to the screaming thing that was once Kensuke. "I think you were on to something," she told him. "I'll find it, Kensuke. Just you wait." -*- "Couldn't sleep?" asked Asuka. She sat down next to Shinji on the balcony floor, and dangled her legs between the rails, swinging them slowly in the air. "No, I... I never thought this could happen." "I know," she whispered. "I mean... they were always big monsters, like Godzilla. Not... not like this. Kensuke... Touji... Hikari... everyone almost died..." Asuka nodded. There wasn't much more to say, really. They both began to cry, and consoled each other in an embrace borne of fear and despair. -*- The scene in the medical ward of NERV would've been funny if it hadn't followed such a dire moment. The entire NERV bridge crew was there, laid down on the hospital beds, injured in one way or another. "I... really did that?" asked Shigeru. Maya, in her own bed, nodded. "Oh... boy. Maya, I'm _really_ sorry," said Shigeru. "I mean..." "I know what you mean," sighed Maya. "We weren't ourselves, it's not your fault." "I know... but... sorry." He tried desperately to sink into his bed, far more embarrassed than he'd ever been. "Aheh..." he laughed nervously, "I guess, er, this kills any chance I have of a date, huh?" To his surprise, Maya actually smiled. "Sorry," she said quietly. "I... I love someone else." This surprised Shigeru. He'd never noticed she had her eye on someone before. "Hey, yeah? Someone I know?" She nodded. "Yeah, but I'm not telling." Shigeru sighed. "Well, I guess it could be worse. I could be like Makoto over here." "Shut up!" yelled Makoto. Kaji groaned. "Hey, some of us have headaches. Keep it down." -*- Shinji was dreaming. By now, with all his dream training, he knew the difference between reality and dreams, and when he was in one or the other. He was sitting under the shade of a cherry blossom tree, high atop a hill overlooking a valley in the forest. Two pale arms wrapped themselves around him from behind, and he felt a delicate face rest itself on his shoulder. "Rei?" he asked. "I'm here," she whispered in his ear. They sat there in silence, watching the cherry blossoms dance in the wind. Was it minutes? Hours? He couldn't tell. Rei broke the silence only once. "I will protect you," she whispered to him. "Always." -*- "Pathetic humans! This little toy won't hold me for long!" Kensuke shouted, pounding against the door to his cell. "You cannot bind me in flesh again! I am He Who Cannot Be Named, and what cannot be named cannot be bound! I will starve this meatsack! It will die, and then I will be free! And my slaves will bring you down even if that somehow does not come to pass! I WILL DESTROY YOU!" The large clumsy Elder Sign had been replaced by four well made ones chained in place around him. Gendo watched through a monitor camera, shaking his head. "To see Hastur, one of the 'lords of creation', brought to this." He pushed a button, and a gas began to flood the cell, which was no ordinary prison cell. Its inhabitant would sink into slumber soon, and then the room would slowly chill, putting him 'on ice' in a very literal sense. He'd already been injected with the special chemicals which would enable him to survive this. "Makes you laugh." Fuyuutsuki smirked. Gendo laughed loudly. "He's right, though. We can't hold him forever like that. If nothing else, the body will die eventually. Of course, by that time, we'll have finished our plan, and the likes of him will bother us no more." "Or we will die horribly and our souls will slowly roast over an open fire. Assuming they can't find a worse fate for us." "They can find much worse than that. But I would never have dared this if I did not think I would win. For all their power, they are not gods, only very powerful mortals. They cannot see everything, do everything, or know everything. They are merely incredibly powerful. And there is one thing that power does to people. It makes them underestimate anyone weaker. They forget that a horde of army ants can pull down a wolf and devour it, though the wolf is far more powerful than they, that a horde of piranha can kill a cow which is hundreds of pounds heavier and has powers they could not comprehend, like breathing outside water. A single spider bite can kill a human, who is as far above the spider as the one bound in that flesh is above us." "And what of SEELE? If they learn, they will not be pleased." "We can deal with them when they are no longer of use." Gendo smiled. "Just as those they believe they serve would have dealt with them. Assuming they had even noticed." He turned away from the monitor. "Come, we have preparations to make for the next trip." They departed, leaving the King in Yellow to howl futilely against the fate the stars had written for him until sleep took him. As they gave fortune, so they took it away. -*- Jimmy yawned as he cleaned some of the glasses that had piled up during the evening. It had been a boring night; everyone had been gone for some reason. Even the piano player had taken most of the evening off to do something or another. A few listless people drank quietly or watched a rerun of a soccer game on ESPN5. Looking perky, Neil finally returned, humming one of his usual tunes. "Good evening, Jimmy." "Hiya, Neil. It's been a boring night. How was the...the play. That's where you went, right?" Why on earth a grown man went to a high school play, Jimmy had no idea. He wasn't even sure what the play had been. Jimmy didn't get out much. "It was interesting. They did a twist on the usual ending. Puts me in the mood to do a little improvising myself later." "They changed the ending? Why not just write their own play then?" Neil smiled as he sat down at the piano. "Everyone thinks they're writing their own ending, but usually they're just playing the role given them by someone else. And those who break the script are usually punished by those who stick to it." He stretched his fingers, then said to the audience, "This one is for a friend of mine who's fallen on hard times. The wheel of fortune has turned unexpectedly, and he has fallen from grace." He smiled, flashing perfect white teeth, then began to sing as he played. o/~ We've got stars directing our fate o/~ o/~ And we're praying it's not too late o/~ o/~ Cos we know we're falling from grace o/~ o/~ Millennium o/~ And the piano player smiled, for in the city of the blind, the one eyed man is king. -*- - end part 9 - -*-