Chapter One
The man ran down the dimly lit alleyway, holding the soft, pale hand of the young girl that was with him. He heard helicopters in the distance, and knew that SEELE was after them. His long black trenchcoat flapped behind him as he ran, and he thought back to how this had all started.
Ryo Kaita had been a member of SEELE himself, for years. He graduated from high school in the year 2000, and had started attending college, well, that had been his plan, but there had been the small matter of Second Impact. After the chaos, during the rebuilding of the world, a mysterious organization, claming to operate outside the government, had made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Now, however, he had washed his hands of it all, given the events of the last few months. Sonumi Daidouji, the president of the Daidouji Toy Company, which was secretly a branch of SEELE, had disappeared, and Ryo had volunteered to act as her daughter's guardian until Sonumi was found. He and the ten-year-old girl, Tomoyo, had quickly formed a close friendship, and he had sworn to himself that he would protect her, no matter the cost.
However, during a routine espionage activity, while posing as a police lieutenant on a murder investigation, he discovered Sonomi Daidouji's car ditched in a river. Her body was found in the vehicle, shot to death, with bullets bearing SEELE's insignia. He remembered holding the bullet casing between the thumb and index finger of his right hand. The metal had been cold, as cold as the feeling of horror that formed in his stomach. His hand had shaken, as he stared at it, until he dropped the bullet and began crying, crying for the atrocities his employers had been committing, unbeknownst to him, and crying for letting Tomoyo lose her mother.
He would never forget having to tell Tomoyo the news. He would never forget holding her as she cried on his shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably. He would never forget looking into her dark blue, tear-filled eyes as she begged him to say it wasn't true. And he would never forget what they had done, would never forgive SEELE.
There was a shout from around the corner of the alley, back on the main street. He gritted his teeth, and held Tomoyo's hand tighter.
"Freeze, Kaita!" shouted one of the SEELE agents, from the end of the alley, behind Ryo. He kept running, but reached inside his coat, fumbling with the release on his shoulder holster. The agents opened fire. Dropping to one knee, and shielding Tomoyo with his body, Ryo winced as he felt the bullets smash into his back. Even through his bulletproof Kevlar trenchcoat, getting shot still stung like hell. There would definitely be bruises in the morning. Ryo whirled, drawing his custom pistol, a Blackhawk 45, and fired four quick shots, dropping the SEELE agents. He looked over at Tomoyo, who crouched next to him.
"Are you alright?" he asked Tomoyo, concerned. She nodded, her dark violet hair bouncing slightly.
"I'll be alright, as long as you're here, so I'm not alone." Ryo smiled slightly to himself. She was such a sweet little girl. If only his life had been different… he might have been able to have a daughter like her. He stood up, shaking away his distant dreams, and helped Tomoyo to her feet, and then the two continued down the alley.
A horrendously loud crashing noise off in the distance made the hairs on the back of Ryo's neck stand on edge. A sound like that could herald only one thing: SEELE had sent one of the Mass Produced Evangelion units after him. What the hell was Chairman Keel thinking? Was he willing to level an entire city just to get one rogue agent?
Wiping the cold sweat off his brow, Ryo headed into the ground floor of a nearby skyscraper, Tomoyo following closely behind. It was nearing the end of the business day, and between that and the SEELE attack, the massive building was pretty much deserted. They called an elevator and headed up to the roof.
Looking out, Ryo saw that, yes, they had sent an Eva. Unit 10, specifically. It was stalking up and down the streets, concealed at times by buildings taller than it. Its pinkish-red lips were twisted in the perpetual macabre smile/sneer of the Artificial Evangelion series. Its polished white armor gleamed in the afternoon sun, and it carried its Lance of Longinus Replica over one shoulder. This would normally have been a very large problem for Ryo, but today, he had backup, whether or not the backup knew it yet. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a videophone. A few seconds of searching picked up on a nearby frequency that was encoded with the telltale German encryption algorithm and after one dial, a woman's face appeared on the display.
She had bright red-orange hair, and a beautiful face, a beauty that was only slightly marred by the patch she wore over her left eye, but her other eye was a bright shade of blue. There were two red neural links in her hair, and she was wearing a skintight red outfit.
"This the private communications channel of the German-Souryu Expeditionary Force! Who the hell are you and how did you tap into this line?" she snarled, in an obviously German accent.
"Ah, Commander Souryu, good afternoon."
"Oh, Ryo? Hallo! It's been ages! What's going on?"
"Actually, I could use a bit of help, since you're in the area."
"What? Where are you? How do you know where I am?"
"I saw your fleet off the coast of California when I was flying in. It looks like you're already in your Eva. That's convenient."
"Convenient? Meaning what?"
"Well, you knew that I went rogue from SEELE, right?"
"Yeah, best decision you ever made. So what?"
"Well, it seems that they're a bit eager to find me."
"Dummkopf! Get to the point! What's that got to do with me?"
"I need a distraction to get out of town."
"Why? You've obviously been able to evade them for this long."
"Well, besides the scads of SEELE agents, Unit 10 is stalking around the city looking for me."
"Gott in Himmel! Unit 10?!"
"Yup. And if it notices your fleet anchored here in San Francisco, SEELE will know exactly where you and your Eva are. So, how about a bit of help, if you could?"
"Alright, alright, I'll intercept."
"Thanks. I owe you one. I'm going to vacate the premises while you fight, so take care of yourself."
"You're just going to leave me here with it?"
"Hey, it shouldn't be a problem for you, right? I mean, you took out the entire series by yourself once." Asuka rubbed the patch over her eye.
"Don't remind me."
Unit 02 arrived like a crimson hurricane, rushing into the city with preternatural speed. She had five minutes. Plenty of time. Progressive Knife drawn and ready, Asuka leapt towards the white titan that was Unit 10. She slashed with her knife directly towards its head. The beast parried quickly, and the unit's lance crashed into her blade, sending a shower of sparks down to the streets below. It was then that she noticed the numerous scars on the armor of the artificial Eva, scars she herself had inflicted. Memories of the battle at the Geofront, five years ago, crept into her thoughts.
True, Dr. Akagi had activated NERV headquarters' self-destruct protocol and saved the entire human race from Third Impact, but nearly all the NERV personnel had died along with Adam and Lillith in the fiery conflagration. And she had lost her goddamned eye fighting the Eva series, only to be saved seconds later by that idiot Ikari! He must have finally gotten his act together enough to get in Unit 01 before the base went up. Supposedly he had taken over NERV, she had heard, in which case, she was sure the organization was doomed. Agents of the German government had arrived quickly during the chaos that surrounded the 'salvage' of what had been the Geofront, and spirited both her and her Eva back to the homeland. In the years since then, she had risen rapidly through the ranks of the German military…
Fighting off the distraction of memories, she snapped back to reality. Unit 10 had deflected her initial attack, and the Progressive Knife had snapped as if it were nothing more than a simple box-cutter. She had to pay more attention! Asuka yanked on the controls of her Eva, leaping backwards just in time to dodge the enemy's riposte. Damn, she though. It was about to throw its Lance, in which case she could kiss both her A.T. Field and her ass goodbye. Fortunately, she had learned from her past mistakes. Unit 10 reared back, and hurled the replica lance towards Asuka, which morphed to its true form as it flew towards her.
"NOW!" screamed Asuka into her comm. link. From where they had been hiding behind a skyscraper, two German VTOL Jets from her fleet rose up and streaked towards the lance. The jets crashed into it, blossoming into flames. A suicide mission, but the pilots had been ready to die for their commander. They did not die in vain, however, as their terminal momentum made the Lance of Longinus veer off course and land harmlessly at Asuka's feet.
Smiling evilly, she reached down and scooped it up. Unit 10 saw this, and both it and her seemed to know what she was planning. Quickly, it engaged its wings and began running desperately away from Unit 02. It leapt into the air, trying to escape…
And was skewered directly through its S2 engine by the Lance. Asuka casually strolled over to it, reached down, and ripped out the dummy plug. She crushed the red cylinder in her hand, and then activated her communicator again.
"This is Commander Souryu. I want a recovery team out here, now. I just speared us a new toy to play with."
Just under a minute and a half. She still had it. Asuka smiled to herself, just a bit.
From the outskirts of the city, Ryo and Tomoyo watched the aftermath of the battle. During the initial bedlam during and directly after the skirmish, he had "borrowed" a Jeep from a local dealership. Now, the afternoon was creeping into evening, the sun already beginning to set. It had taken the Germans about two hours to load Unit 10 onto their carrier, and now they were leaving rapidly, due to the fact that the United States military had just showed up en masse.
"Interesting," commented Ryo to himself. "It would appear that Ms. Souryu just added an Eva to her collection. This certainly changes the balance of power for Germany." He turned to Tomoyo, and knelt down to look her in the eyes. "Are you alright, Tomoyo?" he asked. She hugged him, and smiled.
"Thank you," she replied, simply.
"What for?" he asked, confused. Tomoyo blushed, just a bit.
"For caring about me so much. For protecting me. For being here for me. I don't know. For everything, I guess." He stood, and patted her on the shoulder.
"No, thank you, Tomoyo, for giving me something to protect, something to fight for." He looked out, over the city to the port, and saw the German ships rapidly departing, even as the US forces began to bombard them. "And thank you, Asuka, for saving my ass," he muttered to himself. He held Tomoyo's hand, and they walked towards the car together, under the light of the setting sun.