Entre Acte
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to the production or distribution of the material in this work of fiction.
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This is a tale.
A tale of Amaterasu, the God of Light and his Wife, Lachesis.
Who emerged from an era of wars that raged throughout the Four Systems.
This is also a tale of a Child of Destiny.
A Stranger from foreign lands. He who alters Destiny's course.
The Keeper of Nightmares and the Light of Souls, He comes with Fire and Thunder as His heralds.
What will dawn in this age of Knighthood and Chivalry?
What will come of Fate's Child?
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Eastern Solar System, Delta Belune, the Floating Temple above the AKD capital Gristeria
Aisha Codante, Prime Minister of the Amaterasu Kingdom Demesnes, Princess and Chancellor of the Kingdom of Grees, and Second Knight of the First Eastern Mirage Corps, was bored.
Dead bored.
Not to mention restless.
The Chancellery had yet to contact her for anything, and ditto for the AKD Ministry of State. She sighed; nothing happened in Internal Affairs. She shook her head, long emerald hair rustling.
'I must be really desperate, looking forward to paperwork...' she thought to herself.
It just wasn't fair sometimes. Amaterasu, cute albino idiot that he was, was giving his Laki-chan the grand tour of his MH workshop. 'God of Light' indeed. Then why the hell did he spend half his days cooped up in that cavern he called a workshop? Why, when he had a Princess, his for the taking...
'Oi, down girl...' Aisha thought to herself, letting her hair drop from its normal flame-like sweep. 'No jumping your Emperor, no matter how good it sounds!' Her fatima, Alecto, was a sweet girl, but she just didn't have the touch that she craved sometimes...
Oh, for a handy encyclopedia to pound the nasty, dirty thoughts out of her head. 'Face it Aisha, you need to find yourself a man, and soon.'
Getting up from her seat, she looked out the window. The Cloisters of Mere were an excellent place to relax and take in the beauty of the Floating Temple. Literally an island in the sky, the Floating Temple was like a paradise, with great cathedral-like palaces and spectacular views of the surface two miles below. Unfortunately for Aisha, it wasn't the sort of relaxation she sought.
Firmly not thinking about that, Aisha strode over to the massive bathroom just off of her suite. The size of a small bathhouse, the luxurious bath had enough room to swim around for a short ways, constantly at just the right temperature. The frustrated woman ignored it entirely, aiming instead for the large shower stall next to it.
Hurriedly stripping, Aisha turned on the shower, yelping as the icy water hit skin.
Just another day off for Aisha Codante, Mirage Knight.
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Tokyo-3, NERV-01 Geofront
Just another test. Another synchronization test in EVA Unit-01.
Just another day for Ikari Shinji, the Third Child.
"You're slipping, Shinji. Concentrate!"
Reapplying himself to the task at hand, Shinji sighed heavily. Was this all he was good for? Would this ever be over? "Hai, Dr. Akagi."
Concentrating on his link with the EVA, Shinji found his mind wandering. Synchronization; the melding of mind and body. In this particular case, 'projecting' his will onto a foreign body and manipulating it as if it were his own, feeling what it feels and seeing what it sees.
Not that Shinji understood much beyond the basics.
Hell, he had overheard Asuka mumbling over Dr. Akagi's explanations about it the other day. With all the bragging she did about her college degrees, he'd thought that the redheaded pilot would be able to understand at least a good fraction of the technicalities.
Apparently, that wasn't the case.
Leaning back in his seat, he once more tried to relax. God, he missed the presence of Unit-00. In particular, he missed the calm and collected presence of its pilot, one Ayanami Rei.
After Third Impact "failed", Dr Akagi had decided that Unit-00 was unsalvageable from its disastrous sortie against the 16th Angel. What was left of its skeleton and tissue had been disposed of only a week earlier. To everyone's amazement, EVA Units-08 and 13 had been deemed as salvageable, their condition barely within the Henflick Limit of regeneration.
Needless to say, Dr. Akagi had been near overjoyed with her new toys.
'Maybe some sort of air cover the next time we have to sortie?'
It was a big 'if'.
For one thing, Commander Fuyutsuki was uncertain as to whether or not there would be future Angel attacks. Then there was the fact (frequently brought up during the newly implemented strategic overview meetings) that Evangelion technology had gone public. Oh, NERV-01 was still part of the UN as a special tactical asset (whatever that meant), but what had been the Groom Lake, Novaya Zemlya, Shanghai, and Paris facilities had all gone independent.
Then there was the fact that the drastically different setup and equipment set of the Mass Production EVAs that Rei had to go through significant re-training. Not to mention that it would be months before either Units-08 or 13 would be repaired enough for even a basic activation test.
Or to put it in layman's terms, Rei's potential role as a guardian angel was still a ways off.
Finally, there was the issue of an opening for Pilots, thanks to Unit-13; due to physical disabilities, Touji only on as a backup at this point.
Shinji didn't even want to be in the same prefecture as Kensuke when he became aware of the opening.
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Northern Solar System, Juno, Trio de Colus capital Jarth.
Clotho was worried. Only three months had passed since the debacle of a Debut on the planet Addler in the Eastern system, and the girl had only just begun to relax before trouble had once again found her.
In a stunning act of aggression, the neighboring state of Hagooda had begun invading the northern Trio territories. No few heads of state, her own master Colus XXIII included, had been caught completely off-guard.
She sighed; her master was a warrior-king in both body and heart, and every soldier, every knight who didn't return tore at him. It showed in his desperation to design better, more powerful Mortar Headds, sometimes staying awake for days straight before his wife Elmelah finally threatened to sedate him.
Where did Hagooda come up with the wherewithal to declare war on the Trio de Colus?
Like an older brother, she the Fatima Fates Clotho, the 45th masterpiece of the ailing genius Dr. Chrome Ballanche, loved her master with all her heart. And yet she knew to the depths of her soul that his time amongst the living was nearing its end.
'O, tragic, noble master; you who weeps for his people. Were your Destiny different...' Clotho thought to herself sadly.
Later on, she would never be able to recall what had brought her to do it. It was childish, superstitious, and utterly ridiculous, but Clotho made a wish upon a star that night.
The instant her wish manifested in her mind, she felt...something. Something terrible and great, all at once.
It grew rapidly, quickly overwhelming her as she curled into a ball in a vain effort to stave off the pain. Her scream seemed to awaken the whole palace, her master rushing to her side.
All pain was suddenly gone, leaving the exhausted fatima trembling in her master's arms.
--
Colus XXIII was halfway to a panic by this point. He loved Clotho like a daughter, and to see her near delirious with pain made him want to rage at the gods for cursing the poor girl with such misfortune.
"Clotho! Clotho, please. Are you aright?" Hugging the fatima to him, his mind registered his wife's presence behind him; he was fully aware of Elmelah's resentment of his feelings for his first fatima partner, Ulicle, but she held no particular grudge against little Clotho. Indeed, she often treated the long-haired girl like her own child.
"Clotho please," pleaded Elmelah, stroking Clotho's hair. "What's wrong?"
Clotho's eyes suddenly shot open, her sight seeing into the Beyond.
"He comes. Defender, Protector, Destroyer, Godslayer, He comes." Clotho's voice was little more than a whisper, and yet it hit them both like typhoons.
"On Mother's wings will He ride. Keeper of Souls, Master of Nightmares. He who slew Heaven's Vanguard, the Gentle Heart."
"Clotho?" Gently shaking her, Colus was relieved to see her eyes finally refocus. "Clotho, what was that?"
The poor girl only trembled. Shivering, she pointed off into the distance where the Eastern Star burned bright in the night sky.
"He is here."
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Author's Notes
To my knowledge, this has never been done before. For those who haven't sussed it out, this is a crossover between Evangelion, and the Five Star Stories.
In Summary, the Five Star Stories (FSS) is a giant mishmash of high fantasy, science-fiction, and giant robots. Like Star Wars, FSS is a massive space epic, with an entire galaxy and its peoples as the background. In it, Headdliners, the elite class of knights in the galaxy, pilot their gundam-sized mortar headds with their fatima partners. The average Headdliner has reflexes at least five times as fast as a normal person and at least three times the strength. Basically, they are ubermensch, or superhuman. The fatimas themselves are like bio-androids, living beings, usually young women, designed to aid in operating the pseudo-organic mortar headds (MH). A MH is like a giant suit of armor from Medieval Europe in that it is as much a customized work of art as it is a weapon of war. Even a series of similar MHs, no two are exactly alike.
There are three factions from FSS that are taking part in this fanfiction so far. The first is the Amaterasu Kingdom Demesnes (AKD). One of the most powerful political entities in the galaxy, the AKD holds sway over the entire planet of Delta Belune, a rare feat for any single nation. The ultimate avatars of the AKD's authority are the Mirage Knights of the First Eastern Mirage Corps. Widely regarded as the most skilled and fearsome knights in the galaxy, they are nonetheless human, with human wants and desires. The AKD is ruled by its Emperor, Amaterasu Dis Grand Grees Eydas IV, a tall, slender albino with knee-length hair and a rather feminine appearance. A headdliner in his own right, Amaterasu's fatima partner, Lachesis, is also his wife and Queen. Many headdliners eventually marry or have a relationship with their fatima partner.
The second faction is the Trio de Colus, a coalition of three states and their various territories. Physically about the size of China, the Trio de Colus is nonetheless a major power on the planet Juno. It its ruled by three branches of the Colus line: Colus, Ballanka, and Meistner. The overall ruler of the Trio de Colus is the head of the Colus line, Colus XXIII. Like Amaterasu, Colus XXIII is a headdliner. However, Colus has a human wife as his queen, Elmelah.
The Third faction is the empire of Hagooda, ruled by Queen Armemeos. A smaller, less powerful nation the Colus, it nonetheless begins an all-out invasion of the more powerful state.
Quite honestly, there's a great deal to FSS that I left out because it would simply take up too much space to put in here; I want to tell my own story, not just rehash someone else's stuff. Suffice it to say that there are a number of online resources and the FSS manga to find out about it all.
Crazy ideas, really, but I'd appreciate a review anyways.
-NightRanger