Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion.
"Goodbye mother " And that was it. 3rd impact was over.
Shinji awoke to a truly alien environment; the sky above him was stained crimson, he could smell the LCL around him, the deactivated produced Evangelions were strewn about the immediate area. Lilith's decaying body was visible in the distance. Shinji looked to his left and saw Rei standing on water. For a moment Shinji thought to call out to her but when he blinked she was gone.
Shinji looked to his right and saw Asuka. Shinji moved closer and stared at her. The pain of Asuka's final rejection burned within him and he drew on the pain as he reached for her throat and began to strangle her.
Suddenly he felt a warm hand on his cheek and he looked down at Asuka, he saw that she was different. The red sky seemed to tint her eyes brown, Shinji couldn't help but think of Yui.
As he thought of his mother tears came to his eyes, his hold on Asuka's neck slackened as the pain of Asuka's betrayal was washed away by a great sadness for at this moment Shinji was brought to a terrible realization.
"I'm all alone, Asuka's abandoned me; and so has mother." Shinji thought to himself.
Memories of Third Impact flooded his already battered mind. He thought of all those who died at the hands of the JSSDF and those who were hurt because he failed to pilot Evangelion 01. The guilt was crushing. Shinji's thoughts were interrupted by Asuka.
"How disgusting…" Asuka's gaze had shifted to the severed head of Lilith. Shinji followed her gaze to the head that was already decomposing into LCL. Quite suddenly Asuka pushed Shinji away and rose to her feet, the calmness that emanated from her just a moment before had vanished, and was replaced with a cold rage.
"Asuka what is it?" Shinji questioned. He was actually scared, all the times Asuka was angry with him before didn't match up to how she looked now.
Asuka's reply was slow but uttered with the deepest of loathing "You let me die."
"Asuka please..." Shinji said as he regained his footing but Shinji's reply was cut off by Asuka knocking him back to the ground.
Asuka was shaking with anger "You think I care about what you have to say! Just get away from me! Go on! Leave!"
"But-" Shinji's reply was cut off by a vicious slap.
"You didn't even try to help me!" She raged at him "You were right next to your EVA and you didn't even try to help me!" She started to sob.
"But I was cut off!" Shinji started to speak but was stopped once again by Asuka who continued to yell at him.
You were right there! You could have helped me and stopped all of this!" Asuka suddenly cringed and fell to her knees as pain shot through her wrapped arm. Shinji looked Asuka in the eyes and saw that she was crying. They both fell silent, Shinji walked closer to help Asuka up but Asuka drew away. "Get away from me. Now!"
Shinji didn't know what to do. He was sure Asuka was hurt and wanted to help but Asuka seemed so angry with him that Shinji was also sure she would lash out and possibly hurt herself. The guilt of third impact combined with the fact that he nearly let Asuka die and that his mere presence caused her pain was too much for Shinji. All Shinji could do was give Asuka her space.
"I'm sorry Asuka." Shinji turned his back on Asuka and walked away.
-Meanwhile at NERV-
"Damn!" Technician Shigeru Aoba swore in frustration as he frantically searched for anyone within the bombed out Nerv complex. There were clothes and LCL everywhere but no bodies seemed to be lying around.
As the silence began to irritate him he started to talk to himself. "Most of the lighting seems fine so we still have energy…" He considered this for a moment until his eyes fell upon a security camera. An idea hit him; once again he muttered to himself. "I could check every level for survivors with the camera system." And with that he hurried off to Central Dogma.
He ran through several hallways until he reached the entrance to Central Dogma, the door was partially shot up but he managed to get it halfway open and stumbled through. As he crossed the threshold he saw how truly terrible central dogma looked, bullet holes were everywhere, chairs and desks that were used as makeshift cover were toppled over. LCL was spattered everywhere. Aoba carefully made his way up to his old desk and spotted a working computer, he grabbed a shot up chair, sat down, and began to access the cameras.
After about an hour of watching the camera's Aoba was once again frustrated by the lack of company and the silence was beginning to wear on him. He was looking through the operational cameras once more when he very distinctly heard shuffling behind him. He turned quickly. "Oh! What the fuck."
A great deal of LCL was coagulating; Aoba began to reach for his sidearm when he realized that the LCL seemed to become solid and was forming up in the shape of a person. Bones, Veins, muscle and skin formed until at last Aoba realized who it was.
"Maya!" He rushed to her and helped her sit up.
She looked completely dazed "Shigeru..." She started "Where are my clothes?"
Aoba's face went very red as he took his hand off her shoulder and he spun around and looked in any other direction.
"Check where you died." He said sheepishly, she looked around at the last place she could remember and conveniently found her clothes next to a laptop. As she pulled on her clothes she glanced at the screen and suddenly remembered what happened before she died.
"I need you." She read off the laptop "Ritsuko..." Maya sighed as she remembered the details of her death.
"Yo Maya, are you okay?" Maya was snapped out of her daze by Aoba, who was still turned around. "Are you decent?"
"Yeah" She replied pulling on her uniform.
Aoba turned to her. "What do you think we should do? I don't think any of us are trained in post apocalypse recovery."
"I don't know. I never imagined we would come back like this."
Aoba looked surprised; he obviously thought Maya would have some idea of what to do.
But Maya continued "With only you and I there's not much we can do. Personally I think we should wait for more senior personnel to return. In the meantime, can I use that computer?"
The initial shock of having Maya back wore off and Aoba sat up and gestured to her to take his seat.
As he sat up he commented on her idea. "I bet the Commander would know exactly what to do."
Aoba's reply was largely ignored; as Maya was extremely busy at the computer terminal that Aoba set up for camera watching.
"Can we get the Magi online?" He asked.
"I just checked the Magi; but they're locked down at the moment. It seems that a top-level officer locked them down, so that means the Commander, Vice Commander, or Dr. Akagi." She responded; still busy with the computer.
"So we can't use the Magi?" Aoba guessed.
"Yeah, we'll need a verification code to unlock the Magi, so now I'm checking the access logs to see where the Commander's were when 3rd impact occurred. If we can get to one of them we should be able to unlock the Magi."
She opened a few access logs then continued "From what these logs show both the Commander and Doctor Akagi were present in Terminal Dogma when 3rd Impact started, I think I should check it out."
Aoba couldn't argue with her reasoning, he could see that getting the Magi online and having one of the superiors back was their best bet in figuring out what they should do. But he was worried about her going alone into Terminal Dogma, "Maybe I should come with you, some of the lower levels don't have any power, and it would be bad if you got stuck in an elevator somewhere."
"Negative, it makes the most sense for you to wait here for the Vice Commander, I'll stay in Terminal Dogma in case Commander Ikari or Doctor Akagi return first, and we'll stay in radio contact and check in every 10 minutes." And without another word Maya began to head off for Terminal Dogma.
Shigeru was stunned. He'd never seen Maya like that, but he was also reasonably sure that nothing he could say would stop her.
Maya's mind was racing as she headed down to Terminal dogma.
The computer records showed that Ritsuko was with the Commander in Terminal Dogma when Third Impact began. This obviously has to do with Gendou and Rei, since they were the only ones with her. And when Lilith emerged from terminal dogma it looked like Rei. Could that explain Rei's purpose in terminal dogma? But why was the Commander there? Was he trying to stop Rei? None of this can explain Ritsuko's presence.
She turned the facts over in her mind until she came to the conclusion that she had to be missing something; a piece of evidence that would explain everything.
Maya only hoped that more people would start waking up soon, preferably Ritsuko, and there was still the matter of finding the Eva pilots.
Maya's thoughts were interrupted by her radio. "Are you there yet? We have some people reclaiming human form up here." Aoba called to her.
"Has the Vice-Commander come back yet? Please brief those who have woken up and separate them into search parties and have them search Nerv for other survivors."
"Alright will do, Aoba out."
She finally reached the door to Terminal Dogma and swiped her access card at the reader. The doors opened up, however Maya couldn't see a thing, all the lights in Terminal Dogma were off and the air was slightly hotter than the normal levels in the NERV facility.
"I can't see a thing; the power from this level must have been diverted." She said to herself. Maya noticed a gleam in the darkness. She walked a few steps forward and knelt to pick it up.
Glasses… the kind that Commander Ikari wears, how did these get here? She thought.
Her radio blared to life "Maya!" She nearly fell over from shock.
"What is it now Aoba?" was Maya's exasperated reply.
"Maya!" a new voice came from her radio.
"Hyuga!" Suffice to say Maya was relieved to have someone else she knew back. "You've come back!"
"Yeah I just eh, I don't really know what happened but Aoba's brought me up to speed, listen Maya I have something to tell you and it's about Third Impact."
Hyuga was about to continue when he heard Aoba fussing with a computer behind him. "Aoba, what are you doing?"
"Well it looks like power was diverted from some non essential systems before 3rd impact." Aoba began.
"Yes, it needed to be done, the JSSDF cut our power and we needed all the power we could get." Hyuga explained.
Maya could hear their conversation. "Can you restore power from there? All the lighting is off down here, getting them back on would really help with my search."
Finally feeling as if he had a use Aoba was quick to obey. "Yeah I can restore those systems. It'll turn on the lights and restore air circulation in some areas."
"Okay fine, now as I was saying Third Impact-" Hyuga started but was cut off by a scream issuing from his radio. "Maya! What's wrong!?"
Her voice was shaking when she responded "It's the Commander! He's down here, but he's dead. And there's someone else… It's Doctor Akagi! She's breathing! I'm going to bring her back up."
-12 Hours Later. January Third, 2016. Nerv Medical Ward-
Ritsuko woke quietly and remembering that she had been shot began to check her body. She slowly got to her feet, put on her clothes that were resting on a chair. She was about to leave the room when the door slid open and Maya walked in.
"Maya? What's going on here?" Ritsuko asked.
For a moment Maya just looked at her. Then cried out. "Senpai!" She moved forward and clutched at Ritsuko's lab coat tightly and started to sob. Ritsuko was quite shocked by this, as was Hyuga who had just rounded the corner into the infirmary.
"Er… Doctor, well I've come to brief you, but it seems that you're busy at the moment so I can come back later" Hyuga said with a smile.
"No that's fine you can brief me now." Ritsuko's face was a bit pink and she backed up a few steps from Maya.
"Yes Commander" He replied curtly.
Ritsuko was confused. "Pardon me, I am not your Commander."
"Well, we should make our way to the briefing room and I'll explain everything"
-Nerv Briefing Room-
Hyuga took the job of briefing Ritsuko on the events after Third Impact while Maya and Commander Akagi listened.
"So people are being brought back to life?" Ritsuko asked.
"Yes Commander, some have begun to come back, but we have no idea why. We thought you'd have some ideas."
"So that's what happened to me?" She questioned.
"Yes Commander."
"Now tell me why I'm the Commander."
Hyuga continued "Well Ex Commander Ikari is dead and Ex-Vice Commander Fuyutsuki is being detained so you seemed like the next logical choice."
Ritsuko was surprised. "Gendo's dead?"
"When we found him he was decapitated." Hyuga said grimly.
Ritsuko felt a surge of hatred when she thought of Gendo. "And why is the Ex-Vice Commander being detained."
"Well that's brings us to the next part of the briefing, before 3rd impact Vice-commander Katsuragi-" Before he could continue Hyuga was cut off by the new Commander.
Ritsuko was sorry to cut him off but she had to say something. "What? Who could make Misato the Vice Commander?"
"Well…" Hyuga and Maya looked very uncomfortable and then Hyuga suddenly burst out "No more questions back to the briefing!"
He then continued. "As I was saying, before Third Impact Vice-Commander Misato asked me to hack Nerv's database, I eventually cracked said database and found a wealth of information. There was some very interesting stuff but the best included logs of Gendo speaking with the Human Instrumentality Committee. We also have some logs of Gendou speaking with then Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki. I managed to learn about Seele's proposed instrumentality, and Gendou's proposed instrumentality. Seele and Gendou betrayed mankind, Fuyutsuki knew all about Gendou's plan and did nothing, he can't be trusted."
Most of this Ritsuko already knew but she thought that Hyuga's information gathering techniques were superb. "I agree" was the new Commander's reply. She continued. "And if this briefing is over and if things are as I left them, the Magi will need to be unlocked and I need to start giving some orders. Also where is Misato; ah I mean the new Vice Commander?"
"We've set up search parties and she's leading one of them" Hyuga answered promptly.
"Very well. Then I'd like you to arrange meetings with Maj-, I mean, Vice Commander Katsuragi and the Ex-Vice commander."
"Yes Commander Akagi" And with that Ritsuko left the room closely tailed by Maya. Maya was still bothered about the fact that Ritsuko was with Gendo before Third Impact. So she took this opportunity to ask Ritsuko when they were out of earshot.
"Senpa- ah, I mean Commander Akagi the computer logs show that you were in Terminal Dogma at the same time as Gendo. Please tell me, what were you doing?"
Ritsuko paused before answering this question. "I was going to self destruct Nerv rather than let Gendo initiate Third Impact."
-Somewhere in the blood red waters-
He swam from bank to bank searching frantically. Occasionally he would peek his head above water and look around; finally after hours of searching he found what he was looking for. The outline of a person on a white beach, he hurried in that direction. When he reached her he came to Asuka's side and saw that she was asleep.
"WARK! WARK-WARK!" Penpen warked as loud as he could.
Asuka opened her eyes but she didn't get up or do anything else. All the penguin could think to do was wait.
-About 20 minutes later-
Penpen heard the sound of a motor, he looked and saw his owner at the aft of a small motorboat, Misato landed the boat, walked to Penpen, and picked him up.
"You're such a smart penguin." Misato said happily as she smothered the penguin with affection.
"Wark…" Was the penguins reply.
Both woman and penguin approached an apathetic Asuka who was sitting on the ground hugging her knees. Misato approached Asuka and tried to help her up.
"Asuka…" Misato was teary eyed when she embraced Asuka and helped her to her feet.
Misato noticed that Asuka only got up reluctantly. "Asuka, are you okay? What's wrong? Did you see Shinji?" the last question stirred something within Asuka.
She looked Misato in the eyes. "He's left us, the coward",
Misato could already see what had transpired here. "What did you do to him?"
"I told him the truth. He let me die." she said coldly.
"You did what!? How could you do that! You know how he is, he'll blame himself!" Misato raged at the girl.
Asuka looked at Misato, who was barely holding back her tears for Shinji. "Because this is all his fault." Asuka said dismissively.
Misato grabbed the collar of Asuka's plug suit and nearly lifted her from her feet "How could you be so heartless!? When we find Shinji you WILL apologize! Do you understand me?"
Asuka was unfazed. She stared at Misato feeling rebellious.
Chapter end.
If you have any questions feel free to ask them at
.me/Kaisers
