Shinji stepped off the train, glancing back for the pale-skinned girl he had just seen that seemed to have disappeared. Then he looked around as he pulled out the envelope with the note from the audacious women showing off her cleavage to a fourteen year old kid. He just shook his head as he walked to a payphone.
He was about to dial when a light flared from behind him and the sound of someone making an oomph noise. So he looked over in surprise to see a young woman laying on the ground as if she had just fallen.
"Have to remember not to try following weird magical patterns on the floor again. That stung." She seemed like an older girl (though how much older was hard to tell) with blonde hair that was quite short, almost as short as she was. She seemed athletic, wearing tight jeans and a pink t-shirt that showed off her midriff.
"Are you all right?" Shinji was asking when a war descended upon them.
VTOLs were firing missiles at a gigantic form that was suddenly only two hundred feet away. The gigantic form swatted the VTOL that had to weigh over one hundred tons, sending it spinning.
"No, I'm not!" she screamed, grabbing his hand and running fast. "What the hell is that?"
"How should I know?" the young boy asked as they ran. "The battle's getting closer!"
That was when a red sports car screeched to a halt. The door slammed open as the woman from Shinji's note yelled out, "Sorry to have kept you waiting!"
The girl slid in while sitting Shinji on her lap, somehow making it look easy. "Get us out of here!"
Misato gave her a quick look, but really could not argue with the order. With a squeal of rubber, the sports car took off like a sprinter.
"Well, that was exciting. Do you always have giant monsters rampaging through the downtown districts or was that for our benefit?" the girl asked with a jocular smile on her face
The teen sitting on her laugh giggled slightly hysterically, but it broke the tension. "What is going on? What was that thing?"
"That was-" Misato stopped as she gave a quick side-long glance at the girl. "-confidential."
"It's a rampaging monstrosity almost fifty meters tall that's trying to kill everyone very publicly. How is that confidential?" The blond was giving her a puzzled look.
"It just is," the major snapped back.
"All the attack planes are suddenly pulling back. Doesn't usually mean they are going to do a long range bombardment?" she suddenly asked as she looked over her shoulder.
"Bombardment?" Shinji looked like he did not like the sound of that.
Misato suddenly pulled the car off to the side of the road and snatched her binoculars from the back seat to look back. "What are they doing?"
"Is that a bomber?" Sheila asked worriedly. Considering the actual firepower that had already been used on the thing, there were not a lot of 'bigger' options.
"Shit! An N2 Mine!" Misato was suddenly looking around for a place to park. With a squeal, she accelerated down behind a concrete culvert. "Cover your eyes and keep your head down!"
They all hunkered down just as the super-heavy explosive went off.
"That thing is remarkably radiation free," the girl said, waiving a very small Geiger counter around in the air. She had pulled it from her small purse.
Shinji looked over from where Misato was adding batteries in the back seat. "You have a Geiger counter?"
The NERV major also stopped to look up at that. "N2 stands for Non-Nuclear... Why exactly are you carrying that around?" She was starting to get suspicious of the young... girl?
"You'd be surprised at how much radiation there is around And I've always been curious. Who would have thought it would have been so useful?" She walked over to see what Misato had finagled. She then started rewiring over the officer's squawk of disapproval. "Much better. We should actually be able to make it someplace." She sighed heavily. "Someplace where I'll probably be warned not to mention anything and sign waivers, I bet."
Misato snickered at that. "Yes, you will. I never caught your name?"
"Sheila Henderson, non-resident genius." She smiled a quick, happy smile to show she found the title humorous.
"We are about to double back to where we started," Sheila said as she and Shinji trailed behind behind Misato deep within the bowls of NERV.
"What?" Misato asked, stopping suddenly and spinning around.
"This passage takes us back the way we came. We will cross our previous path in one hundred meters."
"Um, Miss Henderson?" Shinji asked tentatively. "How do you know that? You've never been here before."
"Perfect memory and spacial awareness." She shrugged diffidently. "Something to pass the time."
The major glared but Sheila seemed totally impervious to her irritation. "That doesn't help us get to the EVA bay," Misato snarked in frustration.
"No, it would not. The emergency phone we passed about twenty meters back should. I assume you can contact someone to verify our location and get directions to where we need to go."
Five minutes later, Misato finished the conversation. "Thanks, Aoba." She turned back to the two kids. "This way. The lift we need is about two hundred meters down this passageway."
Just as they were exiting the lift hundreds of feet down, they ran into an irate scientist. "I'm impressed. You didn't get lost."
Shinji tittered nervously, obviously finding it funny but dragging Ritsuko's attention to the young boy. "Um..."
"Shinji Ikari, the Third Child." She turned and walked off, everyone trailing behind her.
Sheila was following unobtrusively, taking in the huge bay filled with an orange, viscous liquid and the head and shoulders of a stylistic mecha, though she had doubts on it being a purely mechanical device.
That was when Shinji had a verbal confrontation with his father. They argued while Sheila stayed in the background casually, watching everything going on.
"So you refuse?" the senior Ikari asked. "Then bring in Rei."
"But she's still injured!" Misato argued.
"She's still alive. The rest is irrelevant," Gendo said.
Sheila's opinion of the man plummeted with that pronouncement as Shinji, Gendo, Ritsuko and Misato argued on about putting Shinji into Unit 01. In just a few short minutes, an injured girl was brought on a medical gurney by some medical workers.
"Load her into EVA 01."
"But she could die!" Shinji exclaimed as half a question.
Sheila narrowed her eyes in thought. She then looked at a computer panel and instantly bypassed the security in the computer system as her super-advanced mentality hit the computer system in a way it could not have ever believed.
The MAGI were focused on the Angel above and only barely noticed something while she rifled through all of their records faster than they could have imagined. Supposedly unbreakable encryption seemed to disappear, unlocked as more information became available.
Then, just as suddenly, it was gone like an echo fading into the distance. The MAGI could not take the time now to check it out and later it would only show a high level access.
The whole ground shook suddenly, as the Angel renewed its attack. A metal support beam broke from up above, only to be stopped by the deactivated EVA-01. Shouts on the impossibility rang from the technical crew even as Shinji tried his best to help Rei.
"I'll do it!" the young boy declared, ignoring Sheila taking the young albino from his hands. "Just... I'll do it."
Sheila's gaze suddenly snapped down to the grievously wounded pilot. The very unhuman pilot.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine," she said softly while helping the medical team put her back on her gurney. "She's pulled the stitching on her abdomen and shoulder. It's not bleeding much, but it should be tended to."
The emergency medical technician blinked, but nodded.
"You, with me." Misato grabbed Shelia's arm and pulled her along. "They'll be about five minutes getting him ready."
"Is there anything I can do to assist?" Sheila asked helpfully.
"Yes, go with security and stay in your cell," she replied frostily.
A day later, Sheila was escorted up to a very large office with an imposing desk and an engraving. She looked up for a second, taking in the whole picture. And noting the narrowed eyes of the middle-aged man wearing glasses that sat at the desk.
"Sheila Henderson," he said as the older man that escorted her here moved to stand at his side.
"Hello, sir," she replied politely.
"Why shouldn't I have you shot for breaking top secret clearances?"
"I did submit to the proper authorities when it became apparent that I stumbled into this mess. I had no intention of spying or stealing anything." She did a half-shrug on her shoulders.
Gendo leaned forward to study her closely. "You seem like a bright girl. American, yet actually speaks Japanese."
"I'm a bit of a prodigy, studying medicine and computers. So I've taken a few languages to broaden my education," she said blandly. "Interesting decor."
"You recognize it?" he asked neutrally.
"The tree of life from Zoroastrian, correct?" There were several inconsistencies, but she would have to research that later.
"Interesting. A very bright young lady." The commander of NERV was still studying her intently. "And how did you end up in Tokyo-3?"
"I've just been following where my feet led," she replied with a shrug. "It's amazing where it can lead you these days."
"I see." He obviously thought she was lying. "Well, I will have to have you sign some waivers stating you will not disclose anything you have seen. If you do, I'll find that worst prison in Japan to throw you into."
"Yes, sir." Or he would just make her disappear, Sheila thought to herself.
Chapter 2 – Fitting In
Ritsuko was going over computer records weeks later. The Third Child seemed to be adapting well to Misato's care, surprisingly enough. Now she had a chance to go over some of the maintenance of the MAGI. She frowned as she saw a message forwarded from the sysadmin's public email address with the simple title of 'Security Problems.'
It was a large, concise email with every single one of the public security weaknesses of the communication grid of Tokyo-3, the three back doors that they had left for the MAGI to control things... and three more that she did not recognize. It was addressed from a security consultation firm here in Tokyo-3.
The blonde picked up her phone. "Commander? I think we might have a security violation and a breach."
Up in his office, Gendo Ikari frowned. "Explain."
"Aegis Security Consultation just forwarded us a list of potential security weaknesses. This is probably so they can sell us a pitch on updating our security. They got all of our hacks that we left in for the hackers to waste their time on. But they also found our back doors."
"So?" he asked and he tried to remember everything he had heard of this firm. Had it not just made the news with tracking down a notorious hacking ring?
"They also found three more back doors that we were not aware of."
Gendo sat up straighter in his chair. "What?"
"That's right, these are back doors that should not be able to exist." Ritsuko was busy pulling a drag on her cigarette. "The MAGI and security in Tokyo-3 may be compromised to the highest level. And it was someone externally that found it."
"I will send Section 2 security to apprehend everyone at Aegis Security Consultation for questioning." Gendo hung up with slightly more force than needed.
Gendo Ikari was having a very bad day, though his expression did not show it in the slightest. "Sheila Henderson."
"Hello, Commander Ikari," she replied politely. Sheila was wearing a very smart three-piece suit jacket and skirt, looking her supposed age of twenty-four, rather than the thirteen year old she actually was.
"I was under the impression that I was going to be speaking to the head of Aegis Security Consultation."
"You are looking at her. I am also the one and only employee of said company." She looked through her fake glasses at him, studying him intently. "This has to do with the email I sent concerning public security weaknesses of Tokyo-3s public connection system?" Sheila had not realized that was connected to NERV. She would have to tread more carefully in the future.
"The only employee? So you found all those security issues on your own?" he asked.
"That is correct. Just trying to drum up a bit of business. I do hope I was able to inform you of the problems in a confidential and quiet manner so that they can be corrected in an efficient manner." She set herself in a military parade-rest in front of his desk.
"It was discrete enough." Gendo frowned as he juggled options. If she had found those problems, the old men would probably have her removed because of the threat she represented. If he did not move to consolidate his weakness, it would be perceived as a moment to press the attack. "I wish to hire your company to consult on our computer security within NERV."
"Certainly! Do you have a contract lawyer that you use to draft the appropriate paperwork?"
Gendo barely let the smile touch his lips. "Of course."
Fuyutsuki frowned as he went over the contract a day later. "I don't think I've ever heard him complain about such a simple contract before," he mused to Gendo in his office as he shuffled the papers in his hand. He was standing to the side of Gendo's desk as the commander was brooding over the latest issue.
"Yes, I have to say its a change of pace to see Fujiwara & Associates trying to find a flaw in a contract that was rewritten by their opponents." Her breadth of insight into contract writing had been a very big surprise.
Not that it was an unfair contract. Quite the opposite. It was uncannily thorough and fair to all sides.
"Can you see any reason not to use her?" Gendo asked as he concentrated on the papers.
"No. Her background is remarkably blank, but that really isn't that surprising considering the disaster that everything was after Second Impact." The older man shrugged.
"Fine. Get her in here and over to Dr. Akagi's department. If she's a plant, she'll reveal herself soon enough. If she's what she appears to be, the old men will have her killed."
His second in command could only nod in agreement.
"Good morning, Dr. Akagi!" Sheila said as she walked into her office first thing the day after the contract was signed.
Ritsuko gave her a half-bleary look and noted it was, indeed, morning of the day. If you called just after midnight, morning. "What are you doing here?" she asked, even as she realized she herself should have gone home hours ago.
"Just here to get started on the security investigation and network optimization. It's going to be a lot of work and no better time to get started than right off the bat," she replied simply.
Ritsuko just nodded as she took a swig from her very, very cold coffee. "Well, here's where we want to start. The most important computer system is, of course, the MAGI system that basically controls everything. We need to debug it of at least those three back doors your found and any other surprises."
"Did you want any coding clean up and efficiency corrections?" Sheila asked as she sat down at a computer with her folder that she took the appearance of reading her passwords from. Her fingers starting flying across the keyboard at a fast pace, starting to weave a digital tapestry.
Ritsuko just nodded tiredly as she checked her watch. It really was late and she should be going home for some sleep. It had been twenty hours since her last night of sleep.
When Ritsuko arrived back from her home later that afternoon, she saw that Sheila was still there typing away. "Don't tell me you've been there the entire time?" She noted the automatic coffee maker was working like it was supposed to.
"Okay, I won't," was her jocular response. Sheila looked up from her typing. "Good afternoon. Feeling better after recharging your batteries, so to speak?"
"Yes, thanks." The scientist poured herself some coffee after it finished. She took a drag on her cigarette and then turned to her computer. She looked up an hour later, realizing that Sheila was still typing away at a rapid pace.
"Yes?" Sheila asked curiously as she noted the older woman's interested gaze.
"How fast can you type?" the scientist asked.
"With the right keyboard, about three hundred words per minute."
Ritsuko gave her a soft whistle just as the door opened.
"Ritsuko! You're back!" Misato called out. "Oh, you again." The NERV officer glared at the younger girl
"Hello, Major Katsuragi! How are you?" Sheila said, letting her irritation slide off of her like water off a duck.
"I'm... fine." Misato was not going to let her ruin her night. "I was just going to invite my friend over to my house for supper."
"You aren't cooking, are you?" Ritsuko asked seriously.
The major looked wounded. "No, Shinji said he had something already planned."
"That should be interesting. Sure, I'll see you at six-thirty?"
Misato nodded and waved as she walked off. Sheila nodded to herself as she set that fact aside within her head that Shinji was now living with the officer.
Chapter 3 – Pounding Nails
The next day, about one o'clock in the afternoon, Sheila set a pile of collated reports on the corner of Ritsuko's desk when she walked back in from the printer room. "Here's the feasibility study and reports on the security issues with MAGI."
The blonde scientist looked up in surprise. "You're back? And you finished your report already? I expected that part alone to take the better part of a month."
"There are some very weird back doors and logic loops present. It'll probably take weeks of effort to actually debug all that and then I'll have to go back and audit it again to find any of the new back doors that will be installed while we have been fixing the first ones." Sheila shrugged, looking a little haggard. "I don't know how long it'll take you to go over the report, but I can start on the major rewrites tomorrow." She stretched. "I really need to get out and do some exercising. I'm all stiff."
Ritsuko lifted off the first stack of papers, wincing at the title of the thesis that looked totally appropriate for a government report. And was probably twice as boring. "I'll need at least three days to go over this. How many copies of this report did you print out?"
"Three. One for you, one for Commander Ikari and one for the archivist that I made sure he locked up. Well, I guess I'll see you in a few days. I do have a few things to tie up from my previous consultation. I guess the local police want to thank me at a dinner for helping catch some cyber crooks." She turned and headed out to the train.
She seemed to be lost in thought as the train clattered along to the minimum cost living district. Once she got her first check from NERV for the first part of her consultation, she'd be able to afford to live some place better. She winced at the sound of construction. This part of Tokyo-3 was being built or rebuilt so there were not a lot of people actually walking around.
The young man walking down the road towards her building was someone she did recognize though. Sheila shrugged to herself, waiting for Shinji to get to the door. Fate worked in mysterious ways. "Hello, Shinji. This is a surprise."
"Um, yeah." He chuckled nervously. "Why are you here?"
"I live here. Though live is a bit of a misnomer. This is the place I sleep with my sonic dampener, ear-plugs and put my stuff. I'm planning on getting out as soon as I can afford a better place. What are you doing here?" she asked as she led him in and then up the stairs.
"Oh, I'm here to drop off Rei's new identity card," he replied. He held up the card so she could see it.
"Interesting," she replied. Rei had that high of a security rating? "Do you mind if I tag along so I can say hello to my neighbor?"
"Um, that should be fine." Shinji did not sound like he was fine with it, but could not see a polite way to say no.
"Then you can come up for a cup of tea before going home." Sheila let him take the lead and up to a door crammed full of mail. "That's not a good thing. If someone was casing the joint to look for a place to rob, this would be a good sign."
"Case the- What does that mean?" Shinji asked.
"Oh, that's an American slang for studying a location in preparation to rob it." Sheila took a moment to pull out all the mail, resort it and rap smartly on the door.
"She's not responding," Shinji said worriedly about a minute later.
"It's possible she ignored it or is busy." Sheila knocked again, louder with an off-rhythm beat. "Though I'm getting worried. She is supposed to be here, correct?"
Shinji nodded as the older girl tried the door.
"It wasn't even locked. Stay behind me, Shinji." She stepped into the room, looking around. They were into the messy living area where a bed was set up. Discarded bandages were tossed into the corner. "This is extremely unsanitary." Her medical training was almost causing her hands to itch to toss the bandages into a medical bio-waste bag. She then heard a noise. "Oh. Shinji! Turn around."
"What?" the boy asked in surprise.
That was when Rei walked in with only a towel over her shoulders. Shinji's face went beet red and he turned around very abruptly. There were ugly mostly healed scars across her body and near her eye, still looking like they hurt quite a bit.
Outside, three men entered the building. They were all wearing black trench coats as they moved quickly.
"Sorry!" Shinji called out.
Sheila raised an eyebrow at the younger girl's lack of reaction or care of her nude state. "I don't think she was upset by you seeing her naked. It's possible she lacks the understanding of the social nuances of that personal interaction."
"Huh?" Shinji asked.
Rei frowned very slightly as she pulled on her underwear and then reached for her blouse.
"She doesn't understand that it was an incorrect reaction to the awkward position her nudity imposed upon you," Sheila explained patiently.
Rei's darted over to Sheila as the words were taken in. "What do you mean?" she asked softly.
"It is not proper for a young lady to expose herself to a young man. It is a very bad social mistake."
"But you are in my apartment," Rei said softly as she finished pulling on her skirt.
"We only entered when you failed to respond and because your door was unlocked. That actually worried us. I thought you might have been being attacked or had been kidnapped-" Sheila was saying when the door was kicked in. She smelled oil and cordite. "Everyone down," she shouted as she grabbed Shinji and tossed him towards Rei's bed. She was rolling backwards while kicking off her low-heeled shoes as bullets filled the space she had just been occupying.
The lights went out when the shoe connected to the light bulb, plunging the room into darkness.
"We missed the target!" shouted one of the trench-coated men with his pistol still out.
"Don't hit the children-" a second started to say when something blunt hit his arm.
"Man down-" the first man yelled out, firing randomly even as his feet were swept out from below him and his head smashed into the wall.
"Shit, this is impossible! She's just a computer tech-" the last one said before he was folded almost in half with a punch.
A cell phone flipped open where she dialed a number from memory. "This is Sheila Henderson. I've just been assaulted at the First Child's home by armed men. We need immediate security backup from Section 2." She kicked a pistol away from the weakly groaning man. Her extensible baton was still ready in her right hand. "I believe the children are fine."
"Ayanami, are you all right?" Shinji asked.
"I am unhurt," she replied as she pushed the boy off of her. She was trying to process what she had seen and heard. The young woman had turned from a totally inoffensive office lady talking about etiquette and then took out three armed men in split seconds.
Sheila slammed her baton carefully on the upper back of one of the assailants, knocking him out. "They were here for me," she muttered. "Who did I piss off to send three trained men to kill me? I've only been in this Japan a few weeks."
Shinji frowned, though he could barely see now that his eyes were adjusting to the darkness.
"It must have to do with your work on NERV's computer security," Rei replied to her question.
"I wish you weren't right," Sheila said softly.
After the three men were taken into Section 2 custody, Sheila offered to put Rei up for the night while the security men went over the scene and to have Shinji wait for Misato to come pick him up. After a quick couple of calls, that was confirmed.
"Well, welcome to my very humble abode," Sheila said after leading the two children up two flights of stairs and into an identically laid out apartment to Rei's.
Rei stopped as she took in the minimally laid out, but clean, furniture. Inexpensive wall scrolls and a hanging paper lantern turned the spartan room into something entirely different. Maybe it was the shock of the attack, but for a moment she felt dissatisfied. The only thing of great worth was a computer station that looked years old and quite used.
"Would you like some tea?" the young woman asked as she headed into the kitchenette.
"Yes, please," Shinji said as he sat down on an inexpensive mat. Rei kneeled on the mat next to him.
Sheila returned with three cups of piping hot tea and served them all as she took another mat. "I hope it meets your expectations."
"It's not bad," Shinji replied. "Is this fresh leaves?"
Rei hid her frown. The tea did taste better than what she was used to having, though not quite as good as when she had her occasional dinner with the commander. She listened to Shinji and Sheila discuss teas for a bit, then they switched over to dishes they could cook.
"What would you like for supper, Rei?" Sheila asked suddenly.
It caught her off guard, causing her to blink. "As long as it does not have meat, it will be sufficient."
"Then how are you supposed to praise the cook for doing a good job?" Sheila countered. "That could cause issues at functions and possible social interaction problems. You should always compliment a good cook. And, if the service and food is really bad, complain of its lack of quality."
Rei was still not sure she understood, but Shinji was nodding in agreement. That was when there was a knock at the door that could barely be heard over the construction.
"Coming!" Sheila called out as she headed to the door. "Hello, Misato! Shinji's inside. Come on in, please."
Misato stormed into the room. "Thank god, Shinji. I was afraid when I heard that you had been attacked." She swept him up in a hug.
"Misato!" he replied uncomfortably. "I wasn't really in danger. They even yelled out to each other to avoid hurting us kids."
"What?" she snapped out, sending a hard glare at Sheila.
"It appears they were there to kill me," Sheila said with a hard glare back in her green eyes. "I think I stirred up a hornets nest when I found those security breaches. So it sounds like some sort of power grab or political control issue within NERV."
Misato thought about that for a long second, having to internally agree. "Who?"
"No idea. They weren't sent to intimidate me, they were trying to kill me. And that makes me upset," she said with perfect equanimity.
Misato frowned. That did not sound afraid or intimidated. "And you'll just defend yourself again."
"Of course. My mother felt I should be able to protect myself very thoroughly," Sheila replied lightly.
"I... see. Well, Shinji, it's time to go home." Misato dragged Shinji away as he waved goodbye weakly.
Sheila quirked an eyebrow at Misato's departure and then headed back into the kitchen. Rei laid down for a bit, staring at the ceiling as she tried to process her unusually busy day. There were so many confusing things, but the hardest thing to take in was the lazily kicked shoe that took out her apartment's light-bulb.
"Dinner is ready!" Sheila called out from the kitchenette and dining room.
There was a very small table set up that they could kneel beneath with a little discomfort. Rei took in the steamed vegetables, seasoned rice, tea and strips of seasoned bamboo shoots.
"Dig in! I hope this is a vegetarian meal that you will like." Sheila filled her bowl and started spoon some Teriaki sauce on her food. "So how has you school been?"
Rei thought about that as she filled her own bowl. This would be like her occasional dinners with Commander Ikari, she decided. "My education is adequate."
Sheila gave a soft snort of laughter. "Unless I'm in some sort of weird cross-dimension, there is no way all of your teachers are that good. I bet you have at least two or three that are depressingly dull."
Being asked to elaborate was a novel thing to Rei. "Our history teacher can be rather monotonous."
"Oh, what is he going over?" Sheila asked in between bites.
"Second Impact." This was useless.
"He managed to make the outbreak of wars all across the world, the death of millions and the biggest international political change in a century... boring?" she asked derisively.
Rei... blinked. Complaining about a teacher would be unusual. She had to admit, the other teachers were not as dull. "Yes."
"So what classes or teachers do you like?"
This was straying very far from the sort of questions she was used to. But Rei she had a small epiphany, realizing if she disliked one teacher because they were boring, she could like the ones that were not as boring. "Our literature reading class can be interesting."
It was over an hour later than Rei realized that dinner was over and she had enjoyed their conversation.
Sheila stacked the dishes and set them in the sink. "So, no school tomorrow, right?"
Rei shook her head.
"So, do you like jogging or hiking?" Sheila noted her negatory response. "Anything of an exercising nature?"
The albino paused a second. Should she...? "I like to swim."
"Then we'll go swimming tomorrow." It was a simple statement of intent.
The younger girl just blinked. Somehow she did not think it would be that simple.
"How could that have happened?" a man demanded from behind the hiding form of a black obelisk.
"Our agents should have easily taken care of one girl. Not even a soldier or trained infiltrator, just a computer programmer!" shouted another voice from a different obelisk.
Keel Lorenz frowned. "Not just any computer programmer. I've gotten a computer report from NERV that shows she knows every single one our programmed back-doors. And even five we didn't know about."
"Someone else was trying to get their hooks into NERV?" came the general question that weighed on the minds of SEELE.
"It looks like the Americans and Japanese governments were trying to get some clandestine information, but were looking in the wrong places within NERVs computers. What do we know of this girl?" Lorenz asked harshly from behind his visor.
"She claims to be a 'displaced citizen of the United States of America.' She appears to be quite fluent in English and Japanese, but I can find no official records of her anywhere before she was released from NERV during the first attack."
"What is the chance she is some creature of Gendo's?" another voice asked.
"He claims that she was brought in accidentally and then detained. Perhaps we should try to get her medical records from NERV?"
"Like Ikari would ever let us have her real genetic structures if she was not normal. So we would either be getting normal reports or reports doctored to look normal," another said back.
"It should not be too hard to acquire a genetic sample from her apartment when she has left to work at NERV. Then we will have our own answers." Lorenz frowned. "I am more worried about the speed with which she took out our team. That screams a high level of ability."
"Should we try for the Kennedy Scenario?"
"Yes, snipe her down like the dog she is," the leader of SEELE said. "We can sort out her genetics to see if Ikari is messing with things he should not."
Rei splashed through the water, pushing herself harder at swimming than she had ever thought she would. It had all seemingly started with a simple comment about competition. Somehow that all ended up with her wearing a new bathing suit (because Sheila had to buy one for herself also) and they were racing across the pool. Her hand finally slapped the wall as she struggled to pull in more air.
"Very good!" Sheila called out from next to her. "You were really going all out there! Let's get out and relax for a bit." She pulled herself out of the water smoothly and gave Rei (who was much less steady) a hand up.
Rei took the tossed towel and started to dry herself off. It was quite early, but there were already some adults and a group of three boys and two girls from the school at the public pool. Why were the boys giving her an odd look?
"Noticing the boys noticing you?" Sheila asked with a grin.
"Yes." She could not understand their looks. It must have shown to the older girl.
"Well, you are quite pretty in an exotic way. Not foreign, like me, but just a bit different and exciting. And, if I do say so myself, that two-piece swimming suit really suits you." Sheila had actually put quite a bit of thought into it as she bought her own much smaller suit. It was still an active wear suit, designed to really let you do things like dive and actively swim. Rei's two-piece attached on the sides of her abdomen while still leaving a large amount of her stomach and back open.
Rei did not nod or say anything, but it was obvious she was thinking things through. "I am not sure I like it," she finally responded.
"Do you remember yesterday when Shinji saw you naked?" the other girl replied softly so that no one else could hear. At Rei's nod, she continued. "He felt something similarly because he saw you naked."
"Why?" she finally asked.
"Hmm. That ones hard. Let's just say that situation normally shows attraction and possible intent on deepening a relationship into romance. And if you are not ready for that, it can be embarrassing. Intimacy takes a while to build between two people, it just doesn't happen by itself. You find yourself doing things to let other people see more intimate parts of you." Sheila shrugged. "I'm going diving, okay?"
Rei nodded as she sat down, rubbing her calves slightly as Sheila went to the highest jumping board and dove off to splish-splash into the water with barely a ripple. She frowned at that as something tickled her memory. So she continued watching her another three times, each dive a complicated swirl of twists and rolls to pitch perfectly into the water with barely a ripple.
"You are very good at swimming," Rei said as Sheila walked back up.
"Thanks! I don't get to do it very much these days. I'm more of a track runner, myself. But I thought you would appreciate doing something you enjoyed and it's not like I hate swimming!" she said with a laugh.
"Is that part of a relationship?" Rei asked seriously. It appeared that her social training was quite lacking in some areas.
"Between friends, yes. Though it is always better to find things that everyone there as a friend likes to do," she replied. With a sigh, she continued, "We should get changed and on our way. I need to pick up some groceries so I can make lunch."
And so they were on their way back to Sheila's place. She tidied it up after changing into a midriff baring t-shirt and jeans to cooked a wonderful tofu stir fry that Rei decided she really liked. It was after they were cleaning up that Sheila's cell phone rang. "Hello hello!" she answered and then listened for a bit. "Rei, it sounds like the police are done checking your apartment out, so you can head home when you like." Sheila listened to the phone a bit. "All right. Thanks for letting me know, Major Katsuragi."
Rei stood up, bowed and then walked out and down to her apartment. It was still dark and the glass from the light bulb still littered the center of her main room. The smears of blood on the wall from the fight had turned dark and rusty looking. Suddenly, Rei realized she did not really like this ugly place. While it was hers and the privacy she wanted, it was also unpleasant.
"You'd think they would have cleaned it up a little or at least put a light bulb in?" Sheila said from right behind her.
"What?" the younger girl blurted out in surprise. She had not heard her come up.
"You forgot your new clothes and I boxed up some left-overs," she replied hold up both packages.
"Oh." Rei turned to look at the room again.
"Are you all right? You don't look like you want to go back in there."
"No, I don't. It's so different..." Rei tried to continue, but did not have the words.
"You just need to clean it up and add some homey touches." Sheila gave the albino a hard look for a second. "Would you like some help? We can still shop today for the things you need. It's only noon."
Rei could not think of one reason why not, so nodded. "Yes."
Three hours later, Rei was looking over her apartment in almost shock. It was clean, disinfected and now nicely lit. The light bulb had not only been replaced, but covered so that the light was softer, diffused. Some posters of underwater scenes and wall scrolls now were tastefully arranged. Her bed was remade with clean sheets and her fridge was now stocked.
"Now you have to invite me down so I can show you how to make some things, eh?" Sheila said as she put the newly purchased cleaning supplies under the kitchen sink.
"Yes," Rei replied.
"Now for my last 'home warming gift'!" Sheila gave her a sunny grin. She handed Rei a set of earplugs and light headphones along with some sort of wrist strap.
"What is it?" Rei asked curiously.
"Sonic dampeners and earplugs. The last bit is a wrist wrap for your cell phone. Leave it on vibrate and you can use it as an alarm clock, as long as it is recharged."
When Rei tried it later that night, the construction work faded into the background and become the soft lapping of waves.
It was the best night of sleep she had ever had there, she realized in the morning.
Chapter 4 - Pounding Nails – Part 2
Sheila was walking down the road to the train that would take her to NERV when her body suddenly dove her under a parked jeep even as three bullets passed through where her torso had been. It took half a moment for her to realize what happened. She flipped open her cell phone with a slightly shaking hand.
"What the hell? How did she do that?" one of the sniper said in shock. He had thought that two backup snipers working with him was superfluous, but now he was not too sure. "Beta, did you hit her?"
"Negatory, Alpha. I don't think Delta did either. I'm going to cover the front of that vehicle and the right. You cover the front and Delta the left side," the secondary sniper called out.
"Their MAGI are going to realize they are being jammed in less than five minutes," the first sniper informed.
"She'll probably try to come out when she realizes that she can't call for help," the final sniper said.
"I hope so," the first one said from the edge of his building top.
"Invalid connection? Ah, jamming," Sheila said to herself. She looked at the cellphone for a second, mentally blasting through the digital jamming.
"This is Aoba, NERV Command," the bored technician said as he picked up his handset.
"Aoba, I just got shot at by some snipers and I'm pinned down. I think there's some jamming, I'm transmitting the counter-jam algorithms so that you can pinpoint the snipers with the MAGI system." Sheila was quite amped on adrenaline right then.
"Say what? Holy shit! Misato, some-one's trying to shoot Sheila. Where are you located at?" Shigeru Aoba asked hurriedly. There was a crash as Misato's mug of coffee smashed to the ground.
She hurriedly dialed another number. "Section 2 security, I need a situation response team headed to-" She looked over at Aoba.
"10th Junction Station," he rattled out.
"-10th Junction Station ASAP!" She was busy typing on the screen as the MAGI computers put their full power into piercing the small disruption within their domain. "I've got three separate snipers on three buildings."
"I'm going to try and tap into their communication net," the only technician yelled back. "Success!"
"Think we should bug out? She's not budging at all," an assassin was saying.
"Two minutes and counting. If she doesn't come out in another ninety seconds, we'll bug out. Everyone will meet up in Denver, just like we planned."
"Idiot. Never mention the egress location, even on a secure band," the first voice said.
"Hey, is that a Section 2 car?"
"Shit, are you sure the jammer is working?"
"I've got a bad feeling. Bug out, now!"
Misato was firing off orders rapid fire as separate teams of Section 2 agents followed the MAGI's perfect directions to encircle the assassins.
Gendo Ikari was in a quandary just a week later. Anything that upset the balance of power for him against SEELE was normally to be taken as a good thing. A total unknown that he could not control... He frowned as he thought over the situation.
He had to learn the secret of this young woman. SEELE was becoming quite agitated, lashing out without a plan, though they had seemingly backed off after the last fiasco. He could not allow himself to fall into complacency nor lash out himself.
But this Sheila was an enigma wrapped in mystery.
Luckily, things seemed to be advancing at a reasonable pace for now. Shinji was learning to actually use Unit 01 while the computer issues were being revised. Ritsuko was quite pleased how the MAGI was actually working now. The alterations were increasing the super-computers to a new level of performance.
Even so, that did not change anything. He had his own plans against SEELE and Lorenz specifically. Nothing would be allowed to get in his way. So he would continue his dance, he decided, with little to no changes other than a small piece of mind that the MAGI were his own and controlled by Ritsuko.
He stood up. It was time to head out to Tokyo-2 and put some blandishments into the ears of the JSDF and the UN.
Chapter 5 – Angels Again
The command center of NERV was bustling. Read out and screens showed the snake-like Angel approaching Tokyo-3. Misato was issuing orders, while Ritsuko was going over data on a screen with Aoba and Ibuki.
"The target has been sighted. It has invaded the territorial waters," a male voice droned.
"All hands to battle stations!" Sub-commander Fuyutsuki ordered.
"Tokyo-3 transforming into battle mode!" the male voice continued to drone.
"Cache the central block!"
Sheila stood in the background, making notes for ideas to improve efficiency and protocols. As the normal weapons continued the assault, she just shook her head.
"They are just wasting tax money," the sub-commander said as he thought the same thing.
Aoba spoke up, interrupting him and Misato. "The committee is demanding that we mobilize Evangelion."
"Damn, they are annoying. I would have launched it anyways," Misato griped.
Sheila just shook her head again. There were a lot of things that could be done differently, she realized. "How are you doing Shinji?" she asked as she listened to the other technicians prepare EVA-01.
"Fine, I guess," he mumbled.
"So, what do you want to eat after this?" Sheila continued on.
"Huh?" he asked.
Misato was about to intercede when Fuyutsuki's hand on her shoulder stopped the officer.
"We should have something fancy for after the fight. Do you like crab or lobster?" she asked. "Or perhaps a big juicy steak, cooked western-style?"
Shinji looked uncertain at the choices. "Are you sure?"
"One hundred percent! Just take a deep breath and think about what you want. Keep your head in the game and I'm sure you'll be back in no time!" Sheila said through the link.
Misato frowned until Aoba caught her eye and Shinji's slightly improved Synchronization Rate. "All right, Shinji, we are getting ready to deploy you."
The Evangelion started to rocket upwards on the rail system.
"Freeze camera seven, pan left ten degrees," Sheila suddenly said. "Crap. I see some civilians entering the combat zone."
On screen seven, Toji and Kensuke were climbing the stairs to a shrine.
"Damn it!" Misato cried out. "Do we have anyone that can intercept them?"
"All JSDF forces have been pulled back," Aoba called back. "I can have a VTOL back in five minutes after they've refueled."
"Evangelion Unit-01 has deployed," Makato called out.
"Permission to attempt to remove them from the battlefield?" Sheila asked Misato.
"Whatever. Shinji, be prepared to deploy your AT field like you trained for," she replied absently. She and Ritsuko studiously ignored Sheila's departure. They had a battle to fight, after all.
Just a few minutes later, Kensuke and Toji were busy watching EVA-01 fighting the Angel when their hands were grabbed and were suddenly tugged away at a fast pace.
"What are you idiots doing? They used an N2 mine on the last one. You could be killed out here!" Sheila shouted as she pulled them towards the NERV access point.
"What?" Kensuke asked in sudden fear. "An N2 mine?"
"We just wanted to see what that idiot Ikari is doing," Toji argued as he was pulled along. He was actually an inch shorter than this girl, but her grip was like steel, like a much larger adult.
"Right now he's trying to make sure he doesn't get himself killed while fighting something that wants to wipe us all out. I just hope he doesn't get himself thrown into another coma." She wanted to just grab them both and run down the hill, but there were too many cameras.
"Coma?" Toji almost stuttered.
"Sheila reports she is evacuating the two kids. Guess they are some of Shinji's classmates," Aoba called out.
"Well, that's one less worry," Misato said.
Ritsuko and Fuyutsuki both could agree with that.
When the EVA slammed into the hill, the three were luckily over a hundred feet from his form.
"Shit, we could have been killed!" Toji cried out as he looked back.
Sheila let them go. "Damn damn damn!" She pulled a pistol out from under her jacket and fired at the Angel to little affect. "Shinji! Kick this thing's ass so I can treat you to that supper!"
The young man had actually seen them and had turned on his outside pickups. A fire of determination suddenly lit up within him.
"Synchronization slippage. He's dropped four points- No,make that his synchronization has increased ten points," Ritsuko called out. That had looked like another pattern had overlayed his for a second.
Shinji yelled as EVA-01 suddenly pushed off and charged the Angel. It deployed its progressive knife as it almost flew down the hill.
"Shinji, you need to retreat so you can hook up your umbilical!" Misato called out. "Shinji?"
"I don't think he can hear you," the blonde scientist called out. What was that?
Shamshiel, the 4th Angel, lashed out with its energy tendrils but the charging EVA managed to sidestep the left attack and the right lash merely burned a scar across the armor.
"Whoa! Since when did Shinji become capable of doing that?" Misato asked.
Ritsuko narrowed her eyes. That was a very good question.
The progressive knife slammed home with a shower of sparks into the Angel's core. The EVA's power continued to count down, but Samshiel seemed powerless to stop its sudden, imminent death. With over a minute left, the Angel collapsed and was unmoving.
"I did it! I really did it!" Shinji said in wonder just before Unit 01 powered down.
"Wow, that was amazing!" Kensuke shouted as he lifted back up his camera to continue filming.
Which Sheila promptly grabbed from him. "I'm going to have to confiscate this."
"But that's my dad's!" Kensuke complained.
"Well, he'll probably be upset that you were taking pictures that required it to be taken away. And having to bail you out of NERV's jail for breaking the curfew while nearly getting yourself killed." Sheila was totally unmoved by his sincere pleas for the camera. She looked over at Unit-01 as it ejected the plug.
Shinji walked over unsteadily. "I think- I think I want an American-style steak," he finally said with a laugh.
Gendo stared at the fallen form of Sanshiel, the 4th Angel and contemplated what they could learn from it. "Dr. Akagi." He looked to the side to see her walking up with a clipboard.
"Commander. With these samples, we can move forward on the S2 project." Ritsuko had her trademark white lab-coat on over a blouse and skirt instead of her diving suit.
Technicians were busy assembling a tent-structure over the Angel as they started to take sample. Behind the two, Shinji looked over the area. Up above, on what would have been the lower section of the Angel's core, a technician was looking at something unusual. Were those bullet holes?
"Misato, what happened to my father's hands?" Shinji asked as he noted the bandages.
"Oh, I heard that he injured them during Unit-00's last activation," she replied with an off-handed attitude. "We are just stopping here for a bit, remember?"
"And then we are going to the park, right?" he asked.
Misato nodded as she finished up with her errand. They were soon back in the repaired, red sports car and moving to a park near their home in Tokyo-3. Shinji was feeling a bit down since the battle and was really wondering why he was here.
Up ahead, they saw two people cooking on an outdoor grill. The blonde waved at them as they pulled up and parked.
"Hey, Shinji!" Sheila called out. "Just in time. Hello, Misato."
Rei was studying the grill closely, wondering what to make of the cooking meat that was sizzling merrily there. Her own 'tofu steak' was not quite ready to start grilling.
"Um, hello Sheila." Rei was here? Shinji sometimes wondered about the 'First Child.' "Hello, Rei."
"Pilot Ikari," Rei replied seriously.
"Lighten up, Rei! This isn't a funeral!" Sheila yelled out happily. "The food will be done soon, so you two go play with a Frisbee or something." She tossed her a very yellow disk of plastic.
The albino almost jumped at that and just stared at the offending toy in her hand.
"Come on, Rei. Toss it to me!" Shinji had to pick it off the ground and sent it spinning back to her, forcing her to move to catch it.
Rei gave it another uncertain look and sent it back to him sloppily. "I'm not very good at this."
"You just need some practice," Shinji assured her.
"So, Sheila, what's all this for?" Misato asked as she leaned up against a park table.
"I promised Shinji a treat. And it distracted him a bit from his worries in that last battle," she replied simply as she checked her steaks. "He's not really militarily trained, so he needs a bit of babying for now."
"Oh, and what makes you qualified to make that decision?" the NERV officer asked.
"Just some child psychology studies I did during my medical education. Shinji seems a bit unstable, actually. He probably needs to see a psychologist for his issues with his father." She then flipped over the steaks.
"Look out!" Shinji called out as Rei lost control of the Frisbee.
Misato winced as she saw the Frisbee headed towards the back of Sheila's head. Then it thwapped into the blonde's hand. "Hey, watch it! Don't mess with the cook!" Sheila yelled back in a good-natured tone, flipping the Frisbee back at high speeds on a bounce back off the grass.
"You are fast," Misato noted slowly.
"Seems like I almost have a sixth sense, actually. That saved my life against those snipers." She checked her steaks. "Almost done."
"Psychic?" The older woman arched an eyebrow at that.
"Eh, maybe. Not like I've gone out of my way to get it tested." She shrugged. "Time to eat, you two!"
Rei eyed her tofu-veggie steak carefully, like it would bite her. Shinji and Sheila were talking over cooking different foods as Misato ate her own steak while sipping on a beer she'd brought.
"So you guys want to play some volleyball after dinner?" Sheila asked.
"Ah, I'm not that good," Shinji muttered.
"So what? All that matters is if you try your utmost. Competition isn't always about winning, its about the challenge; pushing yourself beyond your last time."
"Yeah, Shinji! I'll show you how it goes! You can be on my team!" Misato crowed as she downed her third beer.
It was an incredibly hard fought game on both sides. Shinji, Rei and Misato really gave it their all.
It was only Rei that noticed that noticed that every time Sheila spiked the ball, she sent it to a different point and she was not sweating in the least.
"Mercy!" Misato called out as she collapsed to her knees in the soft sand.
Shinji and Rei were both breathing hard, but could still stand with their hands on their thighs.
"Okay then! You guys are all just out of shape though!" Sheila said with a laugh. She had the ball twirling on a fingertip. "Well, ready for ice cream?"
They all nodded as they moved to the table again. "Oh, Rei? I just wanted to let you know that I'll probably be moving in a week or so. I need a slightly better place that doesn't rattle my computer apart daily."
She nodded, suppressing her own desire to move. "I understand."
"Yeah, that place is much noisier than ours," Shinji noted as he took his bowl of ice cream from Sheila. "I'm surprised that you live alone there, Rei."
"I suppose she could ask to be relocated," Misato noted absently. "That really is a bad location with all the construction."
"I could rent you a spare room if you wanted?" the blonde offered with a pensive look.
"That may be agreeable."
Chapter 6 – Growing Up
It was a week later than Shinji saw Rei following him home. "Hello, Rei," he called out as he let her overtake him. "What's going on?"
"I'm heading home." She followed him into the same building but kept going up the stairs.
"Oh, you moved upstairs?" Shinji asked curiously.
"Yes. I informed NERV of my change of address and moved into the extra bedroom of Sheila's apartment."
"Good for you!" he said, giving her a quick smile. "This is a much nicer neighborhood." He stopped to consider things. "Would you like to come down for a while? We can hang out and do homework."
"That would be agreeable."
So it was only an hour later that the two teens were laying on the ground in front of the TV doing their homework.
"So Sheila is working tonight?" the boy asked.
"Yes, she is debugging the MAGI and enhancing the security of the entire NERV computer system. Dr. Akagi is finding her very useful," Rei replied carefully.
"I wonder what Misato thinks of that?" Shinji wondered.
"Who's got the MAGI overloaded?" Sheila complained as she arrived at work. How was she going to recompile the different AI kernels? She started typing away at a breakneck pace. "Hmm. Interesting. Why are they trying to brute-force solve that?" That sort of spacial mathematics translation was totally unsuited for a computer to solve.
It was an hour later that Ritsuko walked into her lab after her meeting with Gendo. "Sheila? What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to solve that Nth Space equation you have the MAGI plugging through. I can't recompile the different AI kernels while its that busy. And that brute force method just isn't going to work in any realistic time frame." Sheila was looking over the whiteboards that were covered in equations.
"Well, I figured it would be a good stress test of the MAGI. This will probably be farmed out for solution- What's this?" Ritsuko asked as she pointed at a new addition of the equation.
"Oh, that handles the space-time curvature within the matrix in pairs," she replied as she continued to write into the equation.
Ritsuko started to go over the whiteboards much closer, actually looking at what was there. The results were very surprising, to say the least. "So you've been working on this how long?" the scientist asked.
"Oh, about an hour," Sheila said glancing at the wall clock. "Almost done. Its a very neat challenge. Then I can tell the MAGI to quit wasting their time and get back to debugging."
"R-right. Look, I've got another meeting. I'll be back in a while." Ritsuko stepped out of the office and trotted down to Misato's much more messy one. "I need to use your phone, Misato."
"Sure, go ahead. I'm just plugging away at my paperwork." The officer was busy reading a report.
Ritsuko dialed a number while putting the headphone up to her ear. "Commander Ikari? We may not have to outsource that work on the S2 engine to the US Nevada team." She winced at his sharp question. "I guess I forgot to tell Sheila that I'd be running that as a stress test on the MAGI and she got frustrated that she couldn't recompile all her work while they were busy. So she's solving it herself."
Misato looked up at the strange conversation. "Hmm?"
Ritsuko was nodding. "Yes, I know we thought it would take an entire team of mathematicians to solve it, but she's already finished the hard part. So we may be able to start making our own S2 Organs here for the EVAs." She nodded. "Yes, sir. I'll head back to watch her finish up."
"She solved that S2 problem on her own?" Misato asked curiously. "I knew she was smart, but that's like really, really smart, right?"
"That could explain why she's such a programming whiz, actually. Programming is math and logic for the most part. But if she solves it, that puts us in a much better position to realize the technology without being beholden to NERV Nevada." Ritsuko shrugged at that.
"They can be a pain to work with, can't they?"
"I may have to see about keeping Sheila here on retainer if she can solve that sort of problem. That could be crucial in the future." The blonde scientist touched her 'beauty mark' absently as she thought over the situation. That could be dangerous. "Well, I'll see you later Misato."
When she walked into the computer sciences office, Sheila was still writing equations. It looked like she had actually gone back and fixed two or three parts. Ritsuko started to go over the equation, so she could be familiar with it. "So this actually folds space?" she asked.
"I believe so. It looks like it would it would reorganize the energy through a cascade from a heavy-gravity source such as a quasar or pulsar. Literally, these Angels are star powered. So, by our standards, an unlimited source of energy." And that could be processed into an AT field, which had interesting possibilities for herself. "You could simplify the equation for a simple electron charge, but that would probably not be recommended for installation into an EVA, I think."
"It would make our fusion reactors rather redundant. We'll probably be able to start growing the crystalline matrix under the MAGI's control within a week," Ritsuko mumbled to herself. The potential to remove the limitation on the umbilical was staggering to her.
Chapter 7 – Settling in to Home Life
Sheila opened the door, removing the keys with a jangle. "Hello, Rei. I take it you are cooking something?"
"Yes." She was trying to make a soup for Shinji like she had seen Sheila make. It was harder than it looked.
"Smells really good. Maybe just a touch more soy sauce," Sheila said critically as she looked it over. "That's a lot of soup. What's the occasion?"
"Pilot- Shinji is over while we study. He says we have a better sound system." She continued stirring, pouring just a little bit of soy sauce into the soup.
"Hello, Shinji," Sheila said as she moved into the living room. School books were scattered around. "Looks like you guys are working hard." Light classical music was playing in the background.
"Um, yes." He was frowning at his math homework.
Sheila booted up her newer computer and started to type away on some of her non-NERV projects.
All in all, it was a very normal day.
"My father?" Shinji asked the doctor from the lounger during his appointment.
Dr. Kato nodded. "Yes, we all wish for the approval from our parents. You only have your father and he seems to be lacking in giving that approval. Without it, you feel that you, the child, have done something wrong. This is not actually the case."
"Why not?" the boy asked as the psychiatrist wrote in a notepad behind him.
"It more seems like his own issues with giving praise to you. You are a decent student, in spite of being transferred recently. Is it your fault your father is too busy?"
Shinji stopped himself from blurting out that it had to be, when he went over the question in more depth. "Maybe?"
"Why? Do you take away too much of his time? He has a guardian to take care of you. If he has no extra time, that is in how he handles his own time. So if it isn't your fault... why do you let it consume your thoughts?"
"Because I want him to take the time," Shinji replied.
"Correct. Every child wants attention. Sometimes that is just not possible, but that does not make it your fault. You can only control yourself. And I'm afraid that's all for this week. Why don't you write a letter to your father and we'll go over it next week?"
It was after dark just a week later. Sheila was on the outskirts of Tokyo-3 on an unused mountain road. She had an overwhelming itch to really push herself. She started running and passed her kilometer marker thirty-three seconds later. She frowned to herself. Now to really push herself to a legendary degree.
She suddenly accelerated, passing the next kilometer marker just sixteen seconds later. She started to feel the burn and started to pump her arms most sympathetically.
In NERV's CiC, the night technician looked up as the MAGI system tagged a possible pattern. "Dr. Akagi and Captain Misato to CiC! Dr. Akagi and Captain Misato to CiC!" the man yelled out. "We have a possible angel sighting."
People started arriving quickly as the MAGI started bringing up more screens.
"What sort of pattern are they showing?" Ritsuko demanded as she leaned over his console.
"The MAGI have declared it a White Pattern. We keep losing the pattern, it's very faint," the technician declared.
"How long until the JSDF can over fly the area?" Misato called out.
"They will have a fly over in ten minutes. The White Pattern is following Old Mount Koenoke Road almost exactly." Makoto slid into his seat. He whistled and blinked. "That can't be right. It's moving at two hundred and thirty kilometers an hour?"
The MAGI had brought up a map of the mountain road, showing it make a perfect, tight turn and back up the switchback.
"Target has accelerated another 2 kph but is essentially holding steady. It will reach the unrepaired bridge across the gorge," Aoba called out.
"Why is the MAGI showing it so low to the ground?" Misato asked in a puzzled tone.
"That's because the target appears to be human-sized," Ritsuko called out from her workstation. This was totally fascinating to her.
"It just leaped the bridge and is coming back down the mountain. It's off the road," Makoto called out. "It's hopping down the side of the hill!" That was ridiculous.
"Pattern lost! It just went away!" Aoba called out.
"What? Get it back!" Misato shouted.
"It's totally gone!"
Ritsuko frowned. This whole situation was odd and did not make any sense.
Back just a kilometer from the train station, Sheila waved to a passing couple as she 'jogged' back to the station. She then bought herself tea from the vending machine and boarded the train.
It would not be until the next day when she arrived at work that she realized how close she had come to blowing her cover.
Chapter 8 – Symphony of Destruction
"I think the 5th Angel has appeared!" called out Sub-commander Fuyutsuki as he looked over a panel that started to flash red.
"Abort the reactivation sequence on Unit-00!" Commander Ikari called out. "How long until you can sortie out Unit-01?"
"Three hundred and eighty seconds!" came the reply from Ritsuko.
"Damn it!" Misato called out.
"I am not seeing any appendages or external structures on this angel. It appears to be a floating octagon," Sheila called out as she read a sensor panel.
Misato frowned even as Makoto called out, "What does that mean?"
"It may not be meant for melee combat, but have other abilities. Can we send an attack at it?" the blonde computer technician asked.
Gendo frowned at his second in command. "Do it."
"JSDF acknowledges orders to fire three cruise missiles at the Angel," came Aoba's response.
On the screen, three missiles tracked on the radar screen.
"High energy wave being emanated from the target! All three missiles were destroyed," Makoto called out.
"That thing could cut through the Geofront armor within thirty seconds," Sheila said suddenly. "Why isn't it blasting its way through?"
"Fire the eighth battery remotely," Misato ordered.
"No effect! It's raised a barrier! Wait. Another energy- Eighth battery destroyed!" came a male voice over the intercom.
"I would not recommend sending any EVA in line of sight to it with any current weapons," Sheila said lightly.
"What? We have to defeat it!" Misato yelled out.
"It is a perfect mobile bombardment weapon. You will be killing whoever you send out there. Probably in less than twenty seconds," she replied.
"Stand down EVA launch," Gendo suddenly ordered. He was staring at the screen. "She is correct with a perfect summation of our problem. That does not give us a response that will destroy the Angel."
"The hard I can do quickly. The impossible takes some time and planning," was Sheila's response. She was rapidly punching in numbers in a computer.
Ritsuko was going over her own numbers. "I'm not even sure if an ICBM N2 missile will make it either.
"Please have the JSDF fire three more cruise missiles but from three different directions," Sheila asked. "Please make sure they are synchronized to arrive within one second of each other."
Misato frowned, then nodded. "I see what you are trying to do. It has a powerful weapon." When Aoba and Makoto looked over at her in confusion, she continued. "But it's only one weapon. We can probably overcome it by forcing it to engage multiple targets across a wide area."
"Brilliant! We can distract it from multiple directions!" Ritsuko said eagerly.
Gendo did not nod, but Fuyutsuki noted his absolute stiffness was gone. This was now a solvable dilemma.
"It's lowering some sort of drill?" Aoba called out.
Sheila was still rapidly opening screens and displays. "Ah, it can't tell how much power it would take to get to its target. Just that its primary weapons would be too much. It can't lower its power appreciably. It's the ultimate binary solution. Which means that other solutions that are not direct and simple will probably work." It actually had enough power to blow through solid rock all the way to the depth below the main NERV facility.
"Kinetic weapons appear useless," Ritsuko noted. "But it did take three seconds to destroy those cruise missiles."
"A possible bombardment from multiple directions with N2 equipped missiles is feasible. The last missile was stopped by its strong AT field. Multiple attacks that can cross its threshold boundery of within five seconds to strike home. We now have a last ditch plan if needed." Sheila's eyes were still working at a rapid pace. "Are there any buildings that we can raise quickly enough so that an EVA could get within melee range?"
"No. We would have to raise them slowly." Misato was going over the idea. "None of the current melee weapons will penetrate far enough." She brought up a schematic of the different building pillboxes for deploying weapons."
"Can the EVAs be unlocked from the catapult for a trajectory shot onto the buildings?" she asked.
"Yes. Even if we have to manually disengage them," Ritsuko said with a smile. "We can also confuse it, I bet."
"I don't like this plan," Shinji said as he sat in his EVA-01.
"The MAGI give this plan a solid 9.2 % chance of working. We've even added some safety clauses to evacuate you if at all necessary," Misato was explaining. "We've put a lot of work into this plan." And it was way better than just hitting the Angel with N2 cruise missiles in pattern to get past its 'perfect' defense.
"I understand," Rei said calmly.
"You two are going to be needing very tight timing on your actions. We've got the EVAs set to a virtual reality set up of the situation up above. We will be doing this training for the next six hours. You will then rest three hours and we will then proceed with the attack."
"Hey, Shinji? Rei? What sort of dinner do you want after you defeat this Angel?" Sheila asked with a grin on her face.
"I do not know." Rei's passive expression hid her worry at the lack of any idea.
"Sheila? Could you just think of something you think we would like?" Shinji asked as he looked over to the display that had Rei's display on it.
"Sure!" Sheila gave them a victory sign and signed off the channel.
"All right. Prepare to deploy against the Angel!" Misato called out in practice.
The fight started with missiles screaming in while building-sized weapon lockers rose up slowly. The carefully choreographed shower of missiles were set to last as long as possible. When the first one hit, the Angel Ramiel just raised its AT field to shrug off the minor attack.
That was when the EVAs launched. Unit-01 was flung out of its rails and into an arc that landed right onto a pallet-building. Shinji had the EVA leap off that building and up to the next.
As he was moving ever closer to it, Unit-00 was also flung up and out of the depths of NERV. She urged her EVA to snatch two heavy packages of shaped explosives and then run towards the drilling protrusion.
The Angel was suddenly in a quandary as its AT field absorbed another heavy explosion that wasted itself against his impenetrable AT field. It lashed out with its beam between the next attack, but the two EVAs were moving at a rapid pace and it missed both of them, though it nearly clipped Unit-01's trailing umbilical cable.
Ramiel let the next cruise missile hit it, deploying its AT field to try and stop Unit-00 from planting its explosives. Rei's impassive expression hardened slightly as she countered with her own AT field. The 'THIS SIDE TOWARDS ENEMY' slapped against the drill, blasting it apart instantly.
That was when three more cruise missile slammed home to staggering effect, leaving a deep crater in the pristine crystalline surface. Shinji adjusted Unit-01's last jump, smashing into the surprised Angel's weak spot. Fists struck with overwhelming force, starting to carve a hole through the outer surface of the Angel.
Rei finished planting the last explosive, pointing it upwards to devastating effect. Unit-00 crouched down and then leaped up into the damaged, armored carapace. Using the EVA's hands as huge scoops, she continued to dig her own way towards the core.
Shinji beat her to it, having less distance to go and a head start thanks to the cruise missile attacks. He was just deploying his progressive knife when the outer surface of the angel shattered in a spray of crystals, revealing eight tendrils with claw-like pincers at the end.
And Shinji could see the core! With the Unit-01's free hand, he grabbed a tendril and slammed the knife home with a spray of sparks.
Missiles and cannon-fire from the Tokyo-3 defense force opened up their full power, adding to the confusion.
"Hold weapons!" Misato shouted. "You'll hit the pilots!" She was going to crucify the idiot that ordered the full barrage.
Finally, the exposed form of Ramiel fell to the ground in a spray of tendril-claws.
"We did it! We really did it, Rei!" Shinji exclaimed happily.
"Uh-hmm," she replied softly in the affirmative.
"Great job kids!" Sheila called out over the communication link. "Ritsuko, should we have the EVA's quickly retrieve the Angel's core by cutting it out with their knives?"
"Yes. That way we can start studying it more quickly," the scientist replied.
"To victory!" Sheila called out. She held up a glass of champagne to toast with Shinji, Rei, Misato and Ritsuko. They were all seated at the table in Sheila and Rei's apartment
"Victory!" came the reply of everyone but Rei, who was a bit of a loss during the whole process.
"Just one glass for now, okay kids?"
Shinji and Rei both nodded. Even if he did not like fighting Angels, it was almost tolerable with the victory 'celebration' afterwords. After the dinner of crab, lobster and vegetarian finger dishes, the children went to watch a movie on the entertainment center.
"So what are you doing with Shinji?" Ritsuko asked finally.
"Just some positive reinforcement. It seems to be helping him a little bit with his piloting. Hopefully his meeting with his psychiatrist is also helping him." Sheila had a second glass of champagne while Misato was on her fourth.
"What? How do you know about that?" the NERV officer asked.
Sheila gave Misato a surprised look. "I was the one that recommended that he go see a shrink so that he would be a more stable pilot."
Misato blinked. "What?"
"I could see after meeting him just a few times that he has some issues and needed help. Couldn't you? You live with him?" Sheila shot back.
"I just thought he was shy," Misato mumbled.
"He's introverted, passive, submissive and wants anyone to care about him to a painful degree due to his upbringing. He has some serious issues to work out concerning his father."
Ritsuko nodded. "I note you did not say with his father."
"No, Shinji is going to have to come to grips that his father, as a parental figure, has his own hang ups and problems. And that he can't let those hold himself back."
Rei moved away from the doorway and back to the living room. She sat back down on the couch. She looked over to the boy next her who was comfortably watching a movie about pirates in the South Sea.
"Pilot Ikari, do you want someone to care for you?" Rei asked softly.
Shinji just stared at her for a long second. "Uh? Well," he started to say, blushing heavily. "Everyone wants someone to like them."
"Everyone?" she asked.
"I-I think I care for you. At least a little bit," Shinji said quickly.
Rei stared at him in surprise. She had never thought that everyone also included herself. She sat there for a long time, just looking at him. Finally, she replied. "Thank you."
Chapter 9 – Lies and Damned Lies
Sheila walked into one of the large fabrication plants deep within NERV. "Hello, Dr. Akagi. How goes the progress on the S2 Engine?"
She was absently thinking over the excitement that Shinji had stopped with Unit-01 just the week before. Jet Alone had failed spectacularly at just the right moment. Sheila had her own suspicions about who had caused that failure.
Ritsuko looked up and then pointed towards three huge glass containers. "It seems to be progressing well. From the seed that the nanotechnology start with, we should have a full sized S2 Engine by the end of the week."
Sheila was rapidly going over the calculations in her mind. "So the idea of micro-sized S2 Engines is impossible?"
"Actually, they seem to be possible, but useless." Ritsuko thought back to Rei and her S2 organ that had developed spontaneously. "We have old experimental data that shows a full S2 organ that is implanted into anyone fails."
"Really?" Sheila said. That did not seem fully correct.
"The data is confidential, but the results were consistent. Implanting an S2 organ into small systems or volunteers caused catastrophic failure." Ritsuko shrugged. It seemed a problem with a conscious mind accessing the AT field that could be generated.
"Oh? Do you have the sensor feeds on that? I might be able to verify the reason mathematically for why that failed," Sheila asked.
"Hmm. That's not a bad idea. She walked over to a computer an accessed some deeply encrypted data in the MAGI and copied it to a drive. The information, by itself, was really not that critical.
Sheila took that to another terminal, going over the sensor readings. An hour later, she returned the drive after wiping her work from the terminal. "Well, I found the problem. And you probably can't remove the flaw in an adult. Even with a child, the chance of accidentally releasing a concussive wave are very high."
"Oh, what did you find?" Ritsuko asked. She had hoped that there was a better solution, but not everything had a real solution.
"The problem is that you have to access the S2 organ very specifically to not release the energies catastrophically. In twenty of twenty-five cases, you will just fail. Four of the remaining ones will cause an explosion or a space-time warp. Only by accessing it with this specific wave-pattern can you keep the pattern controllable." Sheila showed the different graphs. "The Angels do this automatically, so it appears they know what they are doing, of course."
"Actually, I can see us eventually hooking up a mental linkage system like we use for the EVAs to synchronize the mind and train it to properly access it," Ritsuko said with a gleam in her mind.
"While it's possible, it is still very dangerous. The proper activation is nearly identical to the collapse of local space into a 9th dimensional hole. You could lose most of Tokyo-3 if that happened."
"Well, I'm going to take this research for our own activation tests. We definitely don't want to lose anything important like our lives!" Ritsuko said with a small laugh.
"Concentrate, Rei," Ritsuko called out over the intercom to the pilot in Unit-00 just two weeks later.
In the command center, Misato and her crew were covering the situation while Sheila was monitoring them for another efficiency study. Already, she had improved the way things were handled and a new bridge officer was being hired to handle the distribution of the jobs.
"S2 organ is on standby," came the response from Aoba.
"Prepare to activate the S2 Organ," came Ritsuko's order.
Sheila felt more than saw the Commander and Sub-commander enter into the upper area to watch over the activation.
"Pattern match is one hundred percent. Initializing," came Makoto's reply.
Misato was watching the gravity distortion sensors as closely as she could. So far, they had not shown any distortions that would signal their messy end by sending them through an event horizon into a null space.
"And S2 organ is active. I am reading low grade power, not even enough to charge Unit-00's batteries," Aoba called out.
After ten minutes, nothing was happening still.
"This is useless," Ritsuko snapped as she slammed her palm down on the control panels frame.
"Have you tried to have Rei pull power from the S2 organ?" Sheila asked.
Ritsuko and Misato shared a quick glance of 'doh.' "Did you hear that Rei?"
"Affirmative." She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to pull power from the S2 organ.
"Energy spike!" Makoto called out.
Maya swallowed. "Unit-00 is now generating as much energy as the Tomohawk on full power."
"Wahoo!" Misato shouted out. "We did it! No more tactics based on a stupid umbilical!"
"Misato, this is weeks away from being deployed," Ritsuko said with aggravation. "All right, shut it down. We need to get ready for the next set of adjustments and then we can try a full power test next week."
"Well, I've got to be off," Misato called. "I've got to get Shinji out of school. We are heading out to the Pacific Fleet."
"I hope you can swim!" Sheila called out, much to the derisive laughter of the other command crew. "You are taking Shinji?"
"Yes, it was decided to introduce him officially to the Second Child before she got to Tokyo-3." Misato moved off.
"So, Rei? Ready to head home? I have to pick something up and I'll meet you down at the entrance," Sheila called out.
"Affirmative," she replied again.
"A simple 'yes' or 'sure' would have been nice, Rei!" Sheila said. "Try to show your pleasant side a bit more!" Sheila stood up and headed out. As soon as she was out of sight, she blurred forward and back down to the unsecured S2 organ manufacturing center. EVA Unit-00's S2 organ was so huge that they had to disassemble part of armored partition to get it out, which left a crack in the security.
There was exactly ten minutes when the work crew would not be there. She slipped through the gap in the ceiling over fifty feet up from the floor. Her landing was a muted thump as she took control of the computers and disconnected a seed that was just finished an hour ago. Now the records would show that it failed to pass quality inspections and was disposed of.
The small vial with the tiny speck of an S2 organ was pocketed even as she refocused herself on the computer records. Even the MAGI disassembling the records would find no trace of any change. She leaped back up to the small gap that was left even as she heard the work crew heading back from their lunch.
Four minutes later, she met Rei as she walked up. "No way was I going to forget my book," she lied to the albino.
"Where's Sheila and Rei?" Ritsuko called out just hours later.
"Right here?" Sheila asked as she walked in with Rei right behind her. "Rei had to change into her plug suit, just in case."
Rei was indeed in her plug-suit, looking around impassively.
"We just received a report that the Pacific Fleet has been attacked by an Angel," Makoto called out.
"The fleet? Hmm. Well, they do have Unit-02, so they aren't totally defenseless," Sheila said to herself.
"It doesn't have any underwater equipment and only the Over the Rainbow has a sufficient source of power the EVA for even a short time," Ritsuko countered.
"So we are sending out Rei in Unit-00 under S2 power? How long will it take her to get there?"
"About half an hour, but we need to get Unit-00 sealed for under water fighting and C-Type weapons."
As they were waiting, there came a lull in the battle as the Angel seemed content to merely dangle off the bait on the tether-line of Unit-02.
"This Angel doesn't seem very smart," Sheila noted as she listened to Misato's plan. "That's stupid. Makoto, give me a communication line to the Fleet and Misato."
"This is Misato," the NERV officer said distractedly.
"Exactly why are you sinking perfectly decent ships when you have torpedoes with smart-targeting capabilities?" Sheila asked seriously.
"We need perfect timing-"
"Misato! You are adding an additional complication factor of over two thousand percent! Are you trying to get Shinji and Asuka killed?" she yelled out as she wiped the perspiration off her head. "Just load up the torpedoes with N2 explosives and program them to only detonate on computer control or when they have verified they hit the S2 core inside its mouth."
Ritsuko looked surprised at Sheila's outburst. She could not remember a time when she had raised her voice like that.
"Over and out," Sheila snapped out. She listened to Misato argue with the captain of the carrier, but he liked that idea better than sinking some battleships.
"Are you all right, Sheila?" Aoba asked.
"Sorry, I think I've come down with an infection. I'll be all right for a while," she said. Her hand drifted to her stomach where she had already injected the S2 organ earlier. It was starting to grow as expected, but it was affecting her body adversely. And she had to devote a full one-forth of her mind to making sure it grew correctly and did not kill her.
"I have reached the shore," Rei called out. Unit-00 continued running, diving into the water at high speeds. To the EVA, it was like merely running through a heavy windstorm to its power.
It ended up that she was unnecessary for the actual combat, but was able to help clean up the after-action. When the fleet made it to the nearest harbor, she merely hefted up the victorious Unti-02 and carried it to the nearest elevator. Much to the irritation of the Second Child who watched on in the background.
"Well, Rei, it seems like your S2 engine worked perfectly and allows for nearly unlimited operational time," Ritsuko said as Unit-00 set itself into the lift to also be taken down into the Geofront.
"Yes, I think it worked out well," Rei said.
"Rei, can you make it back to the apartment on your own?" Sheila said. "I think I had better go lay down."
"You should see a doctor," Makoto said.
"If I don't get better tonight, I will," she said with a wan smile.
Sheila laid in her bed in agony as the S2 organ gew within her. While she was not fully human, she was not meant to have the apple-sized organ in her body either. Her full mentality was bent to control the growth of the organ.
"Miss Sheila, are you all right?" Rei asked the next morning as she opened the door.
"I'm feeling better. Not well. If I don't feel a lot better by evening, I'll go to a doctor for sure," she lied glibly. She would have to cut the organ out by herself and then hope she would recover.
By noon she was feeling better and could actually make it to the bathroom. She sat at the table afterwords for a second.
"Would you like me to make you some soup?" Rei asked.
"Please," she replied, trying to smile.
"Are you feeling better?" the young girl asked.
"I am. Hopefully I'll be my normal self in just a while."
They both ate the vegetarian soup in silence. Sheila then had some toast with jam on it.
"Thanks, Rei. I think I really needed that. I'm going to go back to bed," Sheila said. She stopped as she noted an odd expression on Rei. "Are you all right?"
"I... was just feeling concerned," she replied.
"Go out and play with Shinji. You need to get out of the house. You've been inside all day because of me." Sheila smiled at her to show she really was all right.
"Very well."
Chapter 10 – The New Girl
Sheila was walking upstairs to her apartment a week later when she heard yelling from the Katsuragi residence. She just opened the door to see a auburn-haired girl yelling at Shinji.
"Of course I need the larger room! Look at all my things!" she was shouting.
"B-but-"
"You must be Asuka Soryu-Langely," Sheila said from the doorway. She closed it behind her, taking note of all of the boxes that were everywhere. "So you are going to be Shinji's new room-mate?"
"Who are you?" she demanded, crossing her arms across her torso.
"Sheila Henderson. Not pleased to meet you," she replied with a smile. "So you moved all of Shinji's belongings out and your things into his room because it's five cubic feet larger?"
"Yes! I've still got even more boxes in storage! I don't know how I'm going to fit it all-"
"You're a little bitch, aren't you? What sort of civilized person moves into a house and kicks someone out of their room without even asking?" Sheila snapped out angrily and interrupting the girl. "Are you so full of yourself that you don't even have common decency and courtesy?"
That was when Misato came out of her room quickly. "Sheila! What a surprise!" she said glibly. She tried to put herself between Sheila and Asuka.
"Um, Asuka, she's right," Shinji said. His voice gained a little strength as he continued. "That was my room and you are just getting here. You should have at least asked."
"Why you little-" Asuka yelled lunging for the boy. No one other than Sheila was sure what happened, but Asuka found herself pinned against the wall with both arms were held behind her back by Sheila's one hand. "What?"
"If you want to act like a two year old, you get treated like one," Sheila warned; swatting her three times hard on her rump. She was then pulled over to the couch and pushed down.
"Ow. That hurts!" she complained as her nerves caught up and transmitted the pain to her. She then realized just how much that really was hurting. That had been barely below bruising pain.
By the time she recuperated all of her boxes had been removed from Shinji's room and half of his items were back in there. Her face was quite red and angry, but she wasn't saying anything.
"All right," Sheila said as she finished moving Shinji's stuff back into his room. "How about a peace offering, Asuka? I'll make you a welcome to Tokyo-3 dinner."
Asuka looked away at first, but then finally nodded. "Fine."
That was when the phone rang, which Misato went to pick up. She looked over suddenly. "It's an Angel."
"I'll go get Rei-" Sheila started to say when the doorbell rang. "Or she could have walked down already."
As Shinji answered the door, Rei was standing there with a cell phone to her ear. "There she is. There is an-"
"-Angel, we heard. Your car is going to be full, isn't it Misato?" Sheila asked in a very business-like voice.
"Yes. I could probably fit all the children, but not you too."
"I talked to Dr. Akagi and I got a small fund for transportation. Come on, Rei. It seems you get to see if you like to ride motorcycles earlier than I planned." Sheila headed out the door as Rei nodded.
"You got a motorcycle, Sheila? That sounds cool!" Shinji said happily.
"Blah-blah-blah. Let's get going!" Asuka called out. "And you still owe me a dinner!"
Sheila just shook her head as she showed Rei the motorcycle. It was actually fairly large and could comfortably sit two. Two helmets even fit under the seat. "Here you go, Rei. Just hold on to me and lean into the curves and we'll be fine."
The blue motorcycle rumbled off at a fast, though not law-breaking, pace. They had an Angel to defeat, after all.
Two of the three Pilots were squabbling like young children.
"That is enough!" Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki yelled out. "Thanks to your actions, we are the laughing stock of the United Nations!"
"It's all his fault-" Asuka started to yell again when Sheila finally decided to step in.
"That's enough. Shinji, what did you do wrong? I don't want to hear why you think Asuka caused problems. Just your own actions," Sheila snapped out, quelling her instantly.
"I- I- I failed to follow up and support Asuka when she attacked. And when it became obvious that we could not defeat them, I failed to withdraw quickly enough." Shinji looked downcast.
"Rei?" she asked, surprising the sub-commander.
"I also failed to follow up on the attack. Then I failed to use our superior numbers on one of the targets. I was waiting for orders and that took too long," the albino finally said.
The auburn-haired girl did not look happy as Sheila turned to her. "Yeah, yeah. I get it. I- I should have waited to attack as a group. And not gone against orders." Asuka looked like she had swallowed something that either tasted horribly bitter or sour. Perhaps both.
Misato nodded. "Those were the major points of the failure, that is correct. Luckily, the United Nations authorized an N2 strike."
"Which we have to rewrite the maps for again!" Fuyutsuki snapped out. "It's going to take over a week to fix all of the Units again!"
"Sub-commander? I think we should keep attacking the Angel to slow its regeneration. Even bombard it with synchronized N2 missle attacks if necessary," Sheila said slowly. "That way it is weaker when the EVAs are ready to attack it. I estimate that we could probably finish off the angel with a determined N2 missile attack, but it would severely deplete our N2 stocks. Then we would have to request nuclear attacks in the future, which is to be avoided at all costs."
Misato thought that over. "That's a very expensive option."
"Battles are sometimes very costly." Fuyutsuki frowned as he thought it over. "I do not like sounding like we are being dependent on the UN for military support."
"That is illogical. We already are. We should use them to their maximum ability. The safety the planet depends on it," Sheila said while glaring at him. "We are only alienating them by not keeping them in the loop. It costs us nothing to ask them for their opinion on keeping the pressure on the Angel so it is weaker to destroy."
Ritsuko nodded. "That's actually quite true. They are not our enemies, so treating them as close allies is a better way to keep us on their good side."
"I'll take it under advisement." He looked away for a long moment. "Dismissed. Major, you have some paperwork to deal with."
Chapter 11 – Counter Attack
"Major Katsuragi? I have some questions," Sheila asked as she opened Misato's office door.
"Oh? About what?" Misato asked grumpily as she looked over her piles of paperwork. At her desk's side, Ritsuko was handing over a data pad.
"I was wondering if we could requisition a positron rifle?" She seemed focused and considering.
"A positron rifle? Oh, powered by Rei's S2 core." Misato thought that over. "That could work. Especially if we do keep attacking it and then do a rush by the EVA if she misses."
"It isn't going to be possible to fit S2 engines to Unit-01 or Unit-02, is it?" she asked.
Ritsuko shook her head. "Not and even do the minimal activation tests that we were doing with Unit-00. We have to get them functional first."
"This Angel seems designed around being able to dodge around. While its disorienting if you aren't ready, I think some hand to hand combat training might be useful for all of the pilots. I think I can get them ready to fight against this Angel, but they aren't going to be able to go to school during the emergency."
"What have you got planned?" Misato asked. She fingered the disk that Kaji has sent with Ritsuko. She would evaluate both plans before deciding.
"Why do we have to get up at this ungodly hour?" Asuka complained to Shinji and Rei. They were all at the school track just as the sun was peeking over the mountains.
"This is just the fitness part of your new training," Sheila called out. "Get running!"
After their run, they ended up in a dojo to practice 'dummy fighting' against how the Angel would fight. They children thought they would have an easy time of it, as they were given knives and a spear to fight with. Sheila and Master Jukari quickly dissuaded them of this, as they had to hit little round circles sewn on their shirts.
After an hour, they took a small break while Sheila massaged their arms, legs, back and pectoral muscles.
"I didn't know I even had these muscles to hurt," Shinji complained.
Rei was stoic, but even she relaxed under Sheila's ministration.
"Our own personal masseuse!" Asuka said with a sigh.
"Don't get too used to it," Sheila warned with a smile. "Okay, stand up and stretch out. Then we'll start again."
Both Asuka and Shinji groaned. They had at least found something in common that they did not like.
"This is your first position. With your feet slightly spread, knees bent crouched over, you are much more stable and able to quickly move in combat. While it is not as fast as a full run, you can change direction much more quickly," Sheila started to explain. "Asuka, I want you to try and push me over."
It only took a few minutes before the red-head gave up. She had not been able to really budge the taller blonde. "I already knew this."
"Yes, but you didn't use it during your fight. Your Evangelions are human-bipedal war-machines. What you learn outside the entry plug in fighting can make a direct impact in combat effectiveness."
Shinji frowned at that, but Rei actually looked very interested.
"Let's do some drills with some practice weapons. I get to play the part of the Angel. I'll probably have to have Asuka help me with my side also, but we'll mix it up a bit."
All of the children nodded.
"Synchronization complete. Ego barrier penetrated to the third level," Aoba called out.
"S2 Engine active," Makoto intoned. "Output is nominal."
"All EVA Units are at one hundred percent operational capacity," Ritsuko called out to Misato.
"Deploy Unit 00 through Elevator 32. Deploy Units 01 and 02 through elevator 36. What is the status of the latest attack on the Angel?" Misato called out.
Aoba looked up at another screen. "JSDF and UN Forces report that the latest cruise missiles inflicted minimal damage. The Angel is- We are getting a response. It's standing up!"
Out in the valley Gaghiel stood up out of its crater as it detected two enemies barring its way. The purple and red EVAs stood silently almost two thousand meters away, polearms with progressive weapons deployed and ready.
"Come on, Rei," Sheila said from her station where she was monitoring things.
Aoba and Ritsuko were watching a counter closely. "Target acquired and capacitors at full. Commencing countdown!" the blonde scientist called out.
Makoto started counting down, "-ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two- ONE!"
The Angel detected it at the last moment and started to duck, but the full power positron cannon would not be fully defied as its core was scorched and it's left arm was blasted off.
"Charge!" Asuka shouted, sending her red unit into battle.
Shinji only answered with his actions, sending Unit-01 down after the red EVA. The Angel leaped backwards in a wheel, slashing out at the nearest polearm. But they were made to be sturdy and failed to destroy it as Unit-02 let the weapon be pushed into a twirl, then jabbed at the core.
The Angel's lone arm blocked that, but very nearly did not block Unit-01's skewering attempt. Asuka exclaimed a wordless battle cry, severing the Angel's remaining arm.
"It's weakened!" Shinji realized aloud. "It can't regenerate like it was before, when it split into two bodies!"
Another positron blast scorched through its torso, barely missing its combined core.
Rei finally spoke with, "It is two that is one, but we are the many that works as one purpose."
"You guys have had too many fortune cookies. Let's just kill this thing!" Asuka shouted gleefully. Her red EVA swung itself back into battle, slicing off the arms that were attempting to grow back.
Unit-01 followed her in, stabbing out with its polearm. When the Angel was off position to avoid the lethal jab, he had the purple EVA hook its leg behind the Angel's as it started moving back.
Asuka slammed her glaive down with full force at the prone Angel, finally chopping it into two halves again. "Shinji!" she shouted out. "Now!"
The core started to rotate around, when Unit-01 bisected both parts again at the waist. That seemed to confuse the angel as it tried to decided which part to animate as its other half.
A final positron beam struck home, skewering the core perfectly.
Fuyustuki smiled much like his protege was wont to do.
Chapter 12 - Ambushed
Sheila was finishing up another report detailing the efficiency of the bridge crew. Each of their duties would be split in such a way that no one person would be waiting for another person during any conceived of duties.
When her phone rang, she picked it up. "Hello."
After the instructions, she hung up. Sheila's eyes closed for a bit. The orders to travel to Tokyo-2, then to catch a flight to NERV Germany were quite suspect, in her eyes. She could have easily telecommuted to debug the other MAGI.
And being ordered to report there at a very specific time? That just jangled her nerves in warning.
"Dr. Akagi?" Sheila called out across the room.
"Yes, Sheila?" she asked absently.
"I've been ordered to 'report' to NERV Germany, even though I'm only a contract worker here in Tokyo-3." She let that settle in for a second. "I get the feeling that this probably not for my benefit or health."
"You can't ignore an order by headquarters. Commander Ikari may have quite a bit of pull due to events, but he is not the sole leader within NERV," Ritsuko noted.
"True, but I would like to take certain actions to protect myself too. And they will probably be unorthodox ones."
"Considering you like to think outside the box, this should be entertaining," her 'boss' said. "Tell me what you want."
So she did.
Twelve hours later, Sheila Henderson boarded the last commuter train to Tokyo-2 with only a bag as carry-on luggage. She randomly moved to the most empty car for the one hour trip. The train was just moving to the most remote point in its trip when a missile streaked from the empty mountainside to perfectly impact the car she was in with an anti-personnel explosive. All three people within the train car were instantly killed as the train suddenly screeched to a halt.
In the final car, a young woman with red hair and way too many ear and nose rings was pounding on the door as the train was slowly. The door suddenly gave out abruptly, letting her fall thirty feet into the steep mountainside.
No one watching thought anything of this, as they were still watching for signs that their target had survived. So no one cared particularly about anyone else.
The red-head dashed with inhuman grace from shadow to shadow, moving up the side of the mountain at a pace that would have frankly astonished any observer... had they bothered to watch. So she made it up just in time to watch a bald man carefully leave a long black hair on top of a disposable rocket-launcher and then get into a truck.
He would change his identity three times and use proper code-words to bypass police barricades without any hassles. Not even once would he spot that he was being tracked through three different flights. Finally, six days later he was in a hotel in Spain when he could finally check in.
"This is Bollerio. I just blew into town and I was wondering if there was any game worth playing here?" he said, using each coded part just perfectly. "Yeah, I've got a stake. It should cover any football games in the league."
Once he verified his payment, he sighed an leaned back. He still was not sure that using a rocket like that to kill one girl was 'fine' but they paid him well.
His shadow was already moving up to the next person in the chain, streaking across town to the bar where the payment had been transacted. Soon, he was being followed as he took a train then two flights and ended up in Berlin to head to an unassuming office complex.
Down deep inside the office, he met a man living on advanced life support while seeing the world through prosthetic eyes.
"Mr. Lorenz, it appears everything worked out well. Even with the interference of Ikari and taking over the 'crime scene' we know that we got her," Adolf Vandoverburg said as he bowed.
"Yes, it might have been a bit crude, but it worked. Now that the interloper has been finished off, we can get back to putting our plans back onto track. She has cost us too much time and effort. I am glad she is gone." He stared at nothing for a long time. "Make sure that no one ever discovers who or what happened."
"Of course," Adolf said with a private sneer. He walked back out of the office and through the perfect electronic security, monitored by the MAGI of NERV Germany.
Keel wheeled down to a special communication room and entered a code only he could put in. "Our plan to remove the obstacle known as Sheila Henderson has finished. No trace of Ikari's men have been seen at any point tracking our operatives."
The other representatives of SEELE, behind their blank obsidian facades voice their agreement at the job well done.
"Now we have to start taking steps to reel Ikari back in have to be done. How long will it take to infiltrate our new back-doors into the Tokyo-3 MAGI?" Keel asked.
"We are not showing any new openings at this time. We may have to use your puppet spy."
"I will send the information through to him, of course." The leader of SEELE just cut the link to his subordinates, leaving the communication room and going back up to his office.
"Commander Langley, what are you doing here?"
The head of Germany's NERV branch looked confused. "You summoned me back, concerning that order about that programmer that was killed. You said you had some important information. I assume you finally found out who was behind her and why we had to have her killed."
"I did not summon you," the old man said in a strangled whisper. "How-?"
"I did, to see how tightly you were involved in SEELE," a voice said from the corner. That was when the shimmering photocell suit deactivated.
"Stealth suit? But those aren't feasible yet!" the commander said in shock.
"I wanted to find out who was behind the attempts on my life. And why they were doing so. I did not expect to find a millennium old plan to wipe out humanity by harnessing the power of the Angels." Sheila removed the hood of her suit. "So I let you kill off my robotic duplicate I made. I'm very upset that you killed two innocent people to get to me, in spite of all my actions to protect as many people as possible."
"No human could have broken into my records! Are you an Angel?" Keel asked, his heart rate running dangerously high.
Commander Langley was already pulling out his gun, firing the moment he could at the young woman. He fully expected to see it shimmer off an orange AT field. So when she whirled into motion, catching the bullet and then spinning around to throw the bullet back faster than he had shot it, his surprise was total.
It was his last thought as the bullet smashed through his forehead.
"The MAGI will know-" Keel blustered. "You can not kill me. Nothing but the hand of God or his Angels can-"
"The MAGI know nothing. I've already lobotomized the three MAGI here in Germany. They are only doing normal, background controls on the city." Sheila then stepped up to him, ripping him out of his chair. "And we will have to see about if I can kill you or not. I take attacks upon my person very seriously."
"So you are an Angel," the cursed immortal said. His bid at ultimate power had failed.
"No, I am not an Angel. Not yet a Goddess in truth, I am merely a demigoddess." She laid him out on his desk. "For vengeance, I take thine life. Thou that murders and plots the downfall of humanity shall not live past this day."
That was when her healing hands touched his cheeks. Horrible wounds suddenly spread across his body as he tried to scream.
Chapter 13 - Subterfuge
"But I was supposed to meet with Commander Langley," Sheila complained as she was led into another office.
"I'm sorry, miss. But Commander Langley isn't here now," Sub-Commander Phinton said. "Now, why are you wanting to meet with him?"
"Well, my orders said to meet with him. It took a lot longer because of the people trying to kill me, but I finally made it to NERV Germany just like I was supposed to."
"I'm sorry, I didn't get your name?" the older, fat man said in a surprised tone. Someone had been trying to kill this ditzy girl?
"I thought you had gotten that from the guards. I'm Sheila Henderson, contract programmer for the Tokyo-3 branch of NERV." She smiled very sunnily.
"I had... heard you had been killed by a radical terrorist in Japan," Phinton said, suddenly wiping his prespiring brow.
"Oh, that was a body double. You can never be too safe, now can you?" Her smile was deceptively sunny still.
"Well, we were going to have you work on our MAGI, but they've mysteriously crashed last night." Could she have been behind it, he wondered?
"You are trying to stiff me on my fees, aren't you?" she asked in a much harder tone. "Someone is going to be paying for my trip across the world. And my lodgings. Along with a retainer fee at the very least!"
Phinton had a very bad feeling about things suddenly.
"Hi, Shinji!" Sheila said into the phone. "Is Rei there?"
"Sheila? I had heard that you had been attacked?" the boy stuttered in shock.
"It wasn't me. I do hope that they find those terrorists and get to the bottom of these attacks. I just wanted to let you know I'd be in Germany for another week. So put on Rei now, would you?"
"Miss Henderson," Rei said after she was given the phone.
"None of that, Rei. Just Sheila!" She waggled her finger, even though Rei could not see it. "I was just calling to let you know I'd be back in about a week. So you need to do some grocery shopping. I've got a basic list on the inside of the cupboard. Just add in anything you think you might need."
"Yes, Sheila." Rei's voice caught very slightly. "I am glad you are all right."
"Well, I've got a junior assistant from NERV that's going to be showing me around town. So really, it'll be all sorts of boring, I'm sure. So don't let that penguin of Misato's rampage or anything, okay?"
"Understood," the albino replied.
"Bye, Rei!" Sheila said with false cheer. After she hung up, she just shook her head.
"Are you ready, Miss Henderson?" Alicia Thornton asked.
"Sure. Sounds like something is going on across the street. Is it some sort of event?" Sheila was looking at the large crowds and the huge stage that was set up.
"Oh, that's a talent search. I think some big television guys are behind it. Looking for the next big singer. I was going to get in on it, see if I could get found. But, well, you know... Now I'm tied up for the rest of the day." Alicia shrugged to show she did not really care.
"Well, it looks like a fun concert. Why not?"
They both took the elevator down to the main foyer of the expensive hotel and then walked across the street the massive crowd.
"So, do you sing?" the young intern from NERV asked.
"I can do some performing arts," Sheila replied ambiguously.
"How about a dare?"
The Scion raised an eyebrow at that. "What's at stake?"
"If I win, you have to consider doing things that I like doing. If you win, I won't get in the way of anything you want to do. Anything."
"Interesting. I'm always up for a good challenge," Sheila replied finally.
Alicia just led her to the sign up. They were both good looking enough that they would be let into the preliminaries with no problem.
An hour later, Alicia did a rendition of a popular song. Sheila had admit, Alicia had a pretty good voice. After the well received song, it was Sheila's turn.
Alicia had a very happy smile as she stepped off her performance. That only lasted until Sheila appeared on stage.
Somehow, in just five minutes she had totally changed her appearance in very subtle ways. She had undone the NERV uniform shirt, tying it only closed around her bosom. It did not really show off anything other than a very tight, white cut-off T-shirt with the word 'desire' under it. She had changed her pants for some very tight black shorts and ankle-breaking heels. Even her hair looked slightly different, wavy instead of short curls.
A small moment of worry started to flicker within Alicia. Had she always been this pretty but had not been utilizing it? Sheila seemed to be talking to the band for just a moment, energizing them with whatever she was saying.
"Hello, everyone!" Sheila yelled out in greetings to the crowd. "How about we start with with some music from Rihanna? How bout some 'Don't stop the music?'" Somehow she was connecting to all of them, sending out a pure intent that she was here just to entertain them.
The crowd roared back, a deafening wave of response. The producers suddenly leaned forward as something magical-seeming appeared in front of them.
She sang, a pure, perfected form of acoustical impulse that slammed into the crowd's psyche like a maelstrom of pure joy; injected into their cerebellum by sincere cadence and beats. Her body stomped and waved to the music, drawing everyone's gaze to her performance on the stage.
They were captivated, drawn into her blue-green eyes that appeared on the large screen. When she finally stopped, the crowd erupted into cheering. When she started to head to the side of the stage a yell for more came out.
It was a sudden spark that turned to madness. One man tried to push forward and was shoved back. Suddenly it was a whirlwind of fighting that turned into an all out riot.
Sheila staggered as if something were vibrating through her. Lines of fate were being woven, something she did not understand or she would have avoided that stage like the plague.
"Are you all right," Alicia asked curiously.
"Yeah, I think I just overdid it there. Just a... little rush from the crowd," she replied. She quickly pulled her uniform pants back on and buttoned up her shirt, changing her whole seeming almost instantly.
"Well, I think you won. I wouldn't be surprised if they say you won the whole thing, but that'll be weeks away." Now she was not going to be able to try and seduce this younger woman.
"Well, I think its time to get something nice to eat."
Chapter 14 – Growing Pains
Shinji was not sure what to make of Asuka. Her reaction after he and Rei had rescued her from 8th Angel and the volcano that it had been in it. He had thought that she was upset with him for his comment on the unflattering attire of the D Equipment.
It's designed to keep you alive, Asuka. Not everything can be flattering and functional. Quit whining like a cry-baby.
Ever since then, she had snubbed him. The only time she gave him anything remotely resembling a good response is when he stood up for himself. Or for Rei, he reminded himself.
He shook his head at his newer room mate who was walking ahead on their way home from school. He stole a quick glance to the albino walking beside him.
"Sheila!" Rei suddenly called out.
Said girl was getting out of a taxi right in front of their apartment. "Why hello! You must have missed me," she teased Rei as she hugged her with one arm in a friendly gesture. "How are you doing Shinji?"
The young man nodded. He was not sure how it happened, but somehow Sheila was able to be a friend that you just wanted to have around.
"I'm fine, Sheila. We are just dropping off our things on the way to the Geofront."
"Well, I need to go in to work. Give me another five minutes and I'll take the train with you," she replied.
Asuka was sulking by herself on that train ride, pointedly away from everyone else.
"What's wrong, Asuka?" the Scion asked.
"She's been in a bad mood since the last Angel," Shinji supplied helpfully.
"Why? You guys managed to defeat a foe after it had lured you into trap and on its home turf. The fact that the person that was most exposed managed to live is an amazing thing!" Sheila said in surprise.
Asuka simply stared at her as if she was confused. "What do you mean?"
"Do you know what being 'point-man' in a squad is like? That's the person most likely to get killed if they aren't on their toes. It's usually only the most skilled person that is assigned that position."
"Really? I thought they were just making fun of me," the red-head replied softly.
"I think we have more important things during a mission than making fun of one of our pilots." Sheila just shook her head.
Rei was confused. She was not sure how, but somehow she had discovered that her erstwhile roommate was more than a hindrance to Gendo's plan. Or an overly smart computer technician.
She could feel something from her now.
It had not been there before and it was not a strong feeling. But it almost felt like when she visited the clones of herself down in the bowels of NERV.
But how could she have changed herself? It is not like you could turn yourself into an Angel. Rei sipped her soup at the breakfast table as Sheila read through the Tokyo Times at a breakneck pace.
"So, Rei? Are you going to be hanging out with Shinji again this afternoon?" Sheila asked before her chopsticks snagged some rice and popped it in her mouth.
"Yes." And why would an Angel care if she was going to be doing homework with Shinji again? Rei stopped and thought about that a second. She was doing more than just doing homework with him. He had invited her to go to the park and even some shopping. Things that she normally found to be repugnant, but with Shinji there they became tolerable. "We are going shopping today. He mentioned he needed a new shirt."
"You should probably try to get a few new skirts too," Sheila replied after swallowing. "Are you all right? You are usually a bit more animated when you talk about going out with Shinji. I would almost think that you had a fight with Shinji."
For some reason that jarred the albino. "No. Why would I fight with Shinji?"
"It is easier to hurt the ones you care for with thoughtless words." Sheila studied the younger looking girl for a moment then stood up to go to work.
Chapter 15 – Those Pesky Pests
Shinji, Rei and Asuka all looked up in surprise as their cell phones chimed.
"Teacher, we are being recalled to NERV," Rei informed as she stood up. She led the other two out to a waiting car that whisked them. The Section 2 agents seemed slightly tense.
They arrived at the EVAs just as Sheila walked into the bridge, giving Misato a small wave.
"That's one ugly Angel," the Captain was complaining. The spider-like Angel was on the screen, at the outskirts of the city.
"Is it dripping?" Sheila asked.
"Seems to be some sort of acid," Aoba called out.
Sheila raised an eyebrow at that to Ritsuko, who shook her head.
"I doubt that. Let's try a long range attack with a missile bombardment.
Missiles were fired from long range, but they literally melted when the Angel sprayed them with its 'acid'.
"Hmm. Looks like the Children get to try to avoid that," Sheila muttered, causing everyone to laugh.
"What's funny?" Shinji asked.
"This Angel attacks by spraying a corrosive liquid that can melt missiles mid-flight," Ritsuko informed them primly.
"What is the plan?" Asuka demanded.
"We'll deploy all of you in a pincer attack. Shinji and Asuka in front, with Rei for support," Misato decided. "Ready the launch of the EVAs!"
The three EVAs were quickly were launched to the surface and then spread out. As the 'bridge crew' watched, they quickly realized that this Angel was quite different from the other ones.
"Not exactly effective, is it?" Maya said.
"I'd almost classify it as a non-combat type pushed into combat," Sheila muttered as she continued to think.
"That's actually probably a really good guess. I wonder if that is true of the other Angels?" Ritsuko asked.
"We'll have to ask them or their creators some time. It could be a bit fascinating to find out.
Sheila left the bridge to head to her office when an orderly stopped her.
"Ma'am? Commander Ikari wants to speak to you immediately."
"Thanks," she replied.
Gendo Ikari was wary of this young woman. Far more so than he had been before this morning. His sources in SEELE had finally informed him that Keel Lorenz had been dealt with harshly. While the immortal was still alive, he was beyond brain dead. Someone had inflicted horrible wounds and then healed them up to permanently lobotamize him.
"Miss Henderson. I understand that you are essentially finished with our original contracts and that you are on retainer for further 'actions.' I would like to extend a more permanent position." Where I can keep an eye on you, he thought. His hands were steepled and in front of his mouth as he looked over her across his immaculate desk.
Sheila kept any emotions off her face. She had been recording SEELE's efforts to find out what had happened to Keel and knew that they had let his state slip to Gendo. "Of course, Commander."
"I'd like to make you Ritsuko's permanent assistant. That is all," Gendo said.
The young scion stopped halfway to the door. "Do you believe in magic? Or the afterlife?" she asked, gesturing to the massive Tree of Life that was embossed in the ceiling. "I was wondering why a scientific director had such an interesting item always above him."
Gendo's eyes never blinked. "No. If God existed, he is dead."
"I see."
Chapter 16 – Reconciling Lies
Sheila was walking home when she heard the soft crying coming from Misato's apartment. Asuka was sobbing her heart out and muttering about her 'vater' over and over.
The young scion had to sit on the steps that that point. She covered her hands, elbows on her knees as she tried to not lose herself in self loathing. There was no excuse for the truth.
She had murdered Asuka's father, after all. The fact that he was an evil bastard planning to help kill humanity (even unwittingly) at SEELE's command could not have been allowed.
"Sheila?" Rei asked. "Are you well?"
"I'm just coming to terms with actions I was forced to take. Sometimes you have to do unpleasant actions that have regrettable consequences." The young woman looked a bit forlorn.
"Am I supposed to help?" the young albino asked.
"Showing that you care helps, Rei. It shows I'm hopefully not as much of a monster as I thought I was." Sheila stood up from the stairs of the apartment complex. "Are you going to go down to Shinji's place later?"
"We are planning on studying," was the simple response. How was the young angel-human hybrid supposed to explain what she only dimly understood in wanting to be with the other young pilot as much as possible.
Sheila followed Rei down to the lower apartment instead of staying in their own apartment. Shinji answered the door, looking worried. "Hi, Rei!" he tried to say pleasantly.
"What's wrong, Shinji?" the albino asked in her almost perfect monotone.
"Asuka just found out her father was killed by an assassin. And she's really broken up about it." The younger, more humane Ikari looked totally lost.
They entered in the house to hang out. Sheila looked over to the slightly smaller room. "Will she come out for food?"
"Maybe," Shinji said.
Sheila nodded. "I'll be right back. I'm just going to run to the grocery store."
Asuka Langley smelled something mouthwatering as she clutched her pillow in bed. She just wanted to stay there, but that was reminding her that she was hungry. She pulled herself out of bed, caring not the least about her appearance as she gravitated towards the kitchen.
"Feeling better, Asuka?" Shinji called out from where he was doing homework with Rei in the front room.
She just sniffed in irritation, but that brought up the smell. If Shinji was not cooking, then who was? In the kitchen was a unwanted presence, cooking bratwurst and scallions that were smelling amazingly good. "What are you doing here?"
"Making something special to cheer you up," Sheila replied from the stew she was cooking on the stove. "I understand you got some bad news."
Asuka just nodded mutely as she sat down at the table. Somehow, in some strange way, sitting at a dinner table as food from home was being cooked was an incredible balm.
"Are they flying you home for his funeral?" Sheila asked carefully.
"No, he's already been buried." The red-head could not understand her sadness. Her father had been a jerk.
Sheila tapped the spoon to remove most of the liquid from it before setting it to the side. She then turned and looked at the young woman. "Would you want some help making a shrine to your family like many Japanese families do?"
"We'd all be happy to help, Asuka," Shinji said from the doorway. Rei nodded, though she looked uncertain.
Sheila's hand rested on Asuka's shoulder, trying to comfort her. "If you want to to cry, no one will think you are weak," Sheila said softly so that only the young red-head could hear.
She bit her lip, trying not to cry but it was just too much and she started bawling. She grabbed Sheila in a desperate hug. Ten minutes later, she found herself in the middle of a group of people that cared for her. Shinji that she belittled so much, the Wonder Doll with her so little emotion and the strange programmer that had taken in the albino.
"I'd like to make a shrine." It was a hard admission to make; that she needed the closure.
Chapter 17 – Angel on High
All of the pilots and their guardians had arrived. Ritsuko looked over from where a visual representation was showing what appeared to be an enemy up in orbit. "We have detected a new angel just as it passed the orbit of the Moon."
"From deep space?" Sheila asked as she sat down next to Maya, who gave her a quick smile. Her fingers started to fly, backtracking the orbital path back across the solar system. "Hmm. Jupiter or Saturn. Probably Saturn based on a sixteen year path."
"You mean it has been traveling here since Second Impact?" Maya asked with a whistle.
"Educated guess says... maybe." Sheila shrugged at her computer console.
Ritsuko actually grinned. "Better than the MAGI's estimate. I think they are in a love hate relationship with you, Sheila. They love that you make them better and hate that you look smarter than them at times."
"Can't be a genius if I can't answer the tough questions, boss."
Shinji and Asuka snickered at that.
"On the other hand, this is going to be a total bastard to deal with it holding the high ground," Sheila muttered.
"What does she mean, Misato?" Shinji asked.
"Imagine you are throwing baseballs between you and Asuka," Ritsuko said, interjecting before her friend could confuse the poor boy. "In the park, it is very easy to throw to each other. But now Asuka is on top of the school and Shinji is on the ground. She can easily throw baseballs at Shinji, but he can't thrown them that high. Space is the ultimate high ground."
Shinji paled and Asuka just smirked. "I knew that already, of course," the red-head said with a bit of her old fire. Rei seemed impassive, as usual.
"This is the first point where we could even attempt to shoot the positron rifle," Sheila replied as she highlighted an arc and a count down timer of ten hours on the computer screen.
"Five hundred miles? I though the positron could only fire out to about two hundred miles," Misato asked.
"Under normal operations, yes. Under overload situations with three S2 powered EVAs? You can play the numbers," Sheila replied. "Expensive on equipment, but much, much cheaper than replacing EVAs or important geographical locations."
All of the children thought back on that and then paled as they realized what she was saying.
The three EVAs were deploying the revamped positron rifle in just a few hours and were allowed out of their EVAs to then wait near a portable command center. Sheila showed up with takeout for them all.
"I hate waiting," Asuka complained, then bit off the end of her egg roll.
Rei just passively sipped her tea while Shinji just ate his shrimp rice with gusto.
"That's part of being a soldier. Ninety-nine percent sheer boredom followed by one percent absolute terror." Sheila just shrugged. "I wonder what would happen if anyone but you children tried to pilot the EVAs?"
"You are not cleared for that information," Rei replied simply, then sipped her tea.
Everyone else gave her a hard look at that.
"Well, you kids need to nap out for a few hours. We've got some tents set up. Girls in one, Shinji in the other," Sheila replied with a soft laugh.
Four hours later, they were all ensconced in their EVAs again.
"It has reached low orbit, but just outside effective range of the positron rifle without damaging the unit," Ritsuko called out from NERV's main command center. It had already made some sort of attack on the Pacific.
"Status change again. We are detecting that something has separated from the Angel," Makoto called out from his station.
"Approximately five percent of the Angel's mass has been dropped again. I estimate another targeting kinetic attack." Sheila was typing furiously. "Recommend Shinji attempt shooting to destroy the attack this time."
Misato nodded, then frowned. "But it looks like it will miss." Though not by as far.
"Ranging shots. It's actually trying to learn how to drop accurately from orbit. Let's deny it knowing if it would succeed or not." Sheila was very intently watching the screens. "Transmitting targeting information to Unit 01."
Asuka had to fume at that. Super-Shinji's higher synchronization score meant he was to be the primary sniper. Unit 02 and 00 were tied up to umbilicals to just help provide power for the energy hungry system if needed. "Don't miss, you idiot!"
"Nice to see you are feeling better," Sheila said with a grin, causing everyone but Rei to laugh. And even she was starting to understand that joke.
"Firing!" Inside the Unit 01, the targeting reticule whined a lock and then Shinji pulled the trigger.
The positron beam lashed out, glancing off the Angel drop and causing it to explode.
"Splash one kinetic attack," Maya announced.
Down on the ground the shock wave struck, rattling all of the EVAs slightly, but caused the portable command center to shake and boom in sympathy. Sheila opened a new screen and started typing at an insanely fast speed, shocking the local command officer.
"We have a problem," Sheila announced suddenly into her handset.
"Don't tell me that the positron rifle isn't going to work?" Misato asked in sudden worry.
"Not exactly the way you are worried about, Major. If we do not destroy the Angel before it hits atmosphere, we could be looking at an extinction level explosion in the atmosphere. I suggest that we immediately retract the buildings and hope that the armor can survive the burst and declare a state of emergency within 300 kilometers and evacuate everyone we can to shelters. We should be able to save ten percent of the population if we act quickly."
"What!" Shinji and Asuka almost screamed out even as Rei's eyes opened wide in shock.
"That piece we just shot down had the explosive power of one hundred thousand tons of TNT in a high burst. Can you imagine the power of that blast magnified by fifteen times and protected by an AT Field until it hits?" Sheila explained as she saw one of the backup operators head for the door.
Misato and Ritsuko were suddenly leaning over Maya's computer console, verifying the numbers.
"Damn it, we need to figure out a way to kill it," Misato grumbled very angrily.
"Um, Sheila? Why is Misato so angry?" Shinji asked in his Unit 01.
Sheila overheard something from Aoba's headset. "That's her story to tell you, Shinji. But we all have our reasons to be here-"
One moment the mobile command center was standing, the next it exploded as it was speared by a hyper-kinetic round from orbit, far too small to have been detected before it hit.
"Sheila!" Rei screamed as she realized what she had seen.
"I'm alive. Somehow, I dodged out the door," the young scion said outside the command center, where she laid on the ground over fifty feet away from the door. "Maybe I really should have myself tested for ESP." She started shaking and trembling as she realized how close to death she really had come. "Oh, damn. I'm a mess." She had shrapnel embedded in her shoulder and arm that was starting to ooze blood.
Unit 02 suddenly pivoted as if something had struck its shoulder like a sledgehammer explosion and left a divot in its armor.
"Ahghhh," Asuka cried out as she gripped her shoulder in sympathetic pain.
"All EVAs raise your AT fields! You are under some sort of attack!" Misato suddenly called out.
Unit 01 and Unit 02 both raised their AT fields and moved to block the path of the attacks, blocking three more attacks easily. Unit 00 had laid down on its side and ejected its plug, causing Rei a bit of vertigo as she exited the EVA to run over to Sheila's body.
"Sheila!" Rei called out a gain. "She's badly injured, but conscious."
"Can you staunch her bleeding?" Misato called out from NERV's CiC. "We need you back in your EVA as soon as possible."
"She's directing me to remove the visible shards and put on self-coagulating bandages to seal the wounds from the EVA's emergency medical kit," Rei replied as she followed Sheila's instruction.
After that was done and while the other two EVAs were blocking attacks that would have hit, Rei dragged Sheila into her entry plug before Sheila could try to find some reason for her to not do so.
"Rei, we are detecting cross-synchronization contamination," Ritsuko called out. "You can not, I repeat, can not take Sheila inside and activate EVA Unit 00."
"But we are active already," Rei replied as she realized what she had accidentally done.
"Sheila?" Ritsuko called out.
"Meditating for the pain," she replied shortly. And so that she did not get sucked into Unit 00 as its new soul. That was not how she wanted to ascend to divinity. But she could not let NERV know that she could control synchronizing with an EVA.
"Well, back to the battle. The positron rifle is not going to work, is it?" Misato asked the science team led by her friend Ritsuko.
"Unlikely. Which means we are likely dead and 3rd Impact will occur in less than a day," the head scientist of NERV declared.
"Can't the EVAs sheild the landing point? You know, intercept with their AT Fields?" Misato asked.
"The chances of them being able to do that are astronomical," she replied back.
"Sector 2-A1, 5-C4 and 8-D2 are most optimized for rapid response. Please add a window to Unit 00 so that I can see the orbital vectors," Sheila asked carefully.
The next half an hour was spent by Shinji blasting the larger fragments and even taking a few hits from micro-meteors.
"Status change. The main body is in motion," Aoba called out.
The three EVAs started to move. Only Shinji might be able to make it based on their position. And Sheila was not going to bet on might be's.
Maya blinked as a four-hundred percent spike appeared on Unit 00 as the huge prototype suddenly accelerated to double its old speed. Then double again. Sheila's mind guiding the faster than human speed as the Unit 00 made it ten seconds before Shinji's EVA, raising a powerful AT field.
Shinji just made it, adding his strength to the AT field just before Tzachquiel, the 10th Angel, impacted with enough force to level over five hundred kilometers.
"Guess its up to me to kill it then," Asuka crowed. "Make a hole, you two!"
Unit 02 had taken up the positron rifle, jammed it up against the 10th Angel and then fire its positron beam through its eye and the core behind it.
The explosion was deafening, but a last moment change in the AT Field (and accompanying spike in synchronization) the force was channeled mostly upwards.
The last thing that happened was that Sheila was rushed off to the hospital to be treated.
Chapter 18 – Aftermath
"Is there something wrong, Rei?" Sheila asked at their dinner table as the news droned on the TV to their side.
"I am worried. You almost died." Rei paused as she figured out how to best feel out the situation. "If not for your ability to avoid attacks, you most likely would have."
"My sixth sense for avoiding danger." Sheila touched the bandages covering her fully healed face. She had not figured out a way to mask that yet.
"We have our synchronization tests today." The young albino seemed calm as always.
"Yes. Dr. Akagi wanted to do it as a super-clean environment. Luckily I managed to convince her that is an exercise in futility. Honestly." Sheila rolled her eyes, then took a sip of her tea.
"Exercise in futility? Why so?" Rei had discovered that Sheila was the only one that could figure out how to convince the eclectic scientist when she was being wrong.
"She should know that normal cleaning is about the best we could offer with messy biological systems."
"I do not understand." Rei really was confused.
"Human bodies are fairly dirty be default. And that's not even counting their insides. I can understand wanting to test without the plug-suits. I don't think you kids would want to be cleaned that thorough inside and out. And we'd have to cut off all of your hair for a potential .05 percent increase at best." Sheila just shook her head.
Rei touched her hair that Sheila had been helping trim up. "That does seem excessive."
"And you would probably get Asuka to quit." The blonde sighed. "I have to visit my doctor, so I'll be late for the test."
Sheila really, really hoped that she had managed to confuse the doctor on her exam with all the 'problems' that had been occurring with their computers. She had hacked their records 'showing' the rate of her recovery. She could only hope that it was such a busy day that she never realized that the exam never happened.
She walked in just as the emergency hit.
"What's... this?" Misato asked as the display showed a corrosion expanding and blocking the laser.
"Analysis of pattern: blue. It's an Angel, no question about it," Ritsuko called out.
In a blink, Sheila had downloaded the telemetry of the room for the last three hours, catching herself up.
"Another pattern! Wait, it disappeared," Aoba called out.
That must be because of all the sensors on the Angel right there, Sheila noted to herself. No more godly-type powers. Only her intelligence. "Dr. Akagi?"
"We are evacuating this area. Eject the entry plugs. Get the children to safety," Misato ordered as they left the area of the faux-EVA and the super-clean rooms.
In ten minutes, they were in another control room as Sheila took over a console before Maya could. Her fingers were flying across, noting the advancement of the attack.
"Protein nano-culture?" she said as Ritsuko started barking out orders.
As the other technicians readied the first counter by injecting high density ozone, Sheila was already thinking ahead. Could this adapt to the attack? It did, just like she had figured it would.
"This will be like chess," she announced to the rest of the group. "And we will have to play several moves in advance."
"What are you saying?" Misato asked.
"Do you think you figure out how it will adapt?" Ritsuko asked as she started to try to block it.
"We have to." Sheila sat through the updates as the 11th Angel, Iroul, started to seriously hack the computer systems. "Raising all firewalls," she declared and joined with the three MAGI to start attacking the Angel while simultaneously starting several consecutive physical attacks.
"It is attempting to hack Melchior. Penetration is steady at five percent," Maya called out while Sheila and Ritsuko typed away madly.
"It's trying to adapt, but the MAGI and our programs are holding." Ritsuko was faintly shocked at the coordination between the MAGI and Sheila's fingers, interceding on sixteen levels at a time in the perfect foil and riposte.
"It looks like you guys can defeat this Angel in another two hours with no danger to any of the systems other than the lost test unit," Misato said dispassionately as she read the progress numbers. She had a lot of practice managing to decipher what she could use from those screens.
The entry plugs were floating at the edge of the artificial lake in the Geofront.
"Damn it! How could they do this and leave us stranded!" Asuka wailed incoherently in her plug.
Rei was very carefully considering things. She had finally started to understand some of the social nuances of taboos like public nudity. But this was not really public. And it was just Shinji, whom she had found that she did not want to hide herself from.
The test plug opened up and let her out. She was surprised to see Shinji out of his plug, trying to open the emergency supply hatch. That was when he discovered a major difference between this entry plug and the real ones.
This one was not stocked with a medical kit or thermal blanket. "Ah, man. And I can't go back into the LCL."
"Don't you have any modesty?" Asuka shouted at the boy, but did not look away from her open hatch on her entry plug.
Rei possessively stepped between them, but kept her back to Asuka. Shinji had reflexively covered himself, which prompted Rei to do so also.
"We should wash off," the young albino finally said.
"And that would allow us to have... a bit of privacy," Shinji noted.
"I like to swim. And we have nothing else to do." Rei walked into the water.
While Shinji carefully waded in, Asuka took the opportunity to dash from her plug into the water. "I want to wash off the LCL too," she shouted out. "You better not watch, dumpkoff!"
That was how the NERV soldiers found them later, still swimming or wading in the waters for the illusion of clothing that the water provided.
Chapter 19 – Adult Things
It was weeks later and the anniversary date that he hated. "Father."
NERV Commander Gendo Ikari nodded. "Third Child."
"I'm surprised you made it," Shinji said as they boarded the waiting helicopter.
"It's been three years since the last time I was here with you alone. You don't know anything about me," the older man said gruffly.
"You're right. I don't. But-" Shinji paused here a moment. "That is not my fault."
That seemed to catch Gendo by surprised. "Explain."
"It is not my fault you don't have time for me. To be my father," Shinji said decisively.
Gendo's eyes narrowed behind his orange tinted glasses. "How mature," he replied with only a hint of sarcasm.
Shinji ignored his father during the trip and even the short walk towards the marker that was all he had of his mother.
When they traveled back, Gendo was furiously thinking about his son. The son that was acting far stronger than he would have ever expected.
"Let's kiss," Asuka declared from her place on the couch.
"What?" Shinji said as he looked up from his homework. He had been missing studying with Rei, but she was in to NERV doing some tests.
"It doesn't mean anything except I'm bored," the red-head said just a little too quickly.
Shinji shot her a speculative look, but was a bit torn. "I don't know."
"Are you scared?" Asuka taunted.
He shook his head while considering his words. "It's just... Rei and I are starting to get pretty close."
"That doll?" the girl almost screeched.
"She's come a long ways. Sheila's been helping her understand things better. Rei was raised very... strangely I think," Shinji finally said.
"So you would rather kiss her than me?" Asuka asked in a dangerous tone.
"To be truthful, you are both very pretty-"
"You two only hang out, it's not like you are a boyfriend and girlfriend. And this is just kissing," she countered.
The darker-haired kid thought about it for a long moment. He rolled over and crawled over to her. "It's not just kissing."
There lips were very close all of a sudden, causing Asuka to lick her lips nervously. "You brushed your teeth?"
"I did if you did," he replied.
Before she could try to grab his nose there lips were suddenly touching as they tilted their heads slightly to avoid bumping noses.
He was not pulling back. In fact his hands were (gently) on her waist.
Finally, after a long moment, they broke apart.
"What did you mean, its not just kissing," Asuka finally asked.
"I-" Shinji stopped, trying to figure out the best way to say things. "I am attracted to you. And Rei."
"Don't mention her while saying that sort of thing to me," Asuka almost exploded in anger.
All of Shinji's built up self-confidence almost evaporated at that point as he desperately tried to not flee. "I'm trying to be on the level with you."
That stopped her anger for a moment. "So you are saying that you have not decided who you like best?"
"We're a little young to be dating seriously, aren't we?" he replied right back.
It was an almost rejection... without rejecting her, she decided. "Fine."
Shinji went back to his school work while Asuka tried to get rid of the feeling of his lips on her own mouth. Jerk. Why couldn't he have picked her first?
SEELE was in an uproar. Keel Lorenz was still effectively brain dead. And they still had no information on how it happened.
"The only thing that stands out is that Sheila Henderson arrived in Berlin-2 per her instructions from NERV headquarters." The obelisks were in a smaller circle now.
"She was not part of the scenario in any shape or form," the new Number II declared.
"Even Ikari has been trying to get more information. Information that is being quite lacking. Have we discovered anything about her?" the first obelisk asked.
"No. We can find no record of her existence before she appeared during the attack on the 3rd Angel when the Third Child was forced to activate Unit 01."
That pause lengthened out as every one of the old men tried to think of how she could have appeared and what her purpose was.
That was when Ikari appeared in their circle. "Commander Gendo Ikari, what have you discovered about Sheila Henderson?"
"She is a genius rating in any science or academic study and speaks over twenty languages. She seems to have, for lack of a better term, a danger sense when she is attacked that has saved her life twice." Gendo thought about letting them stew for a bit, but decided there were on edge and liable to start doing drastic actions if they were not careful. "Her DNA tests from the samples we procured from her short hospital stay states she is one hundred percent human."
"You are not protecting her, are you?" the Vth obelisk demanded.
"Quite the opposite. We are keeping her close to keep a closer eye on her. I have found that she has been adjusting the behavior of the Children."
That got all of SEELE's undivided attention. "In what manner?"
"It appears she has been subtly reinforcing their psyches and building up their self esteem. A futile effort. The scenario is specifically laid out that will crush the will of the Children," Gendo declared as if he were outlining a report on a minor issue of accounting.
"Discover who she works for. We can brook no more disruptions to the plan," the first obelisk declared.
Gendo just nodded as they all faded out. Everything was still under his control. While they were busy being distracted by Sheila, his plans for 3rd Impact proceeded.
Chapter 20 – Inside Out
"Dummy. Idiot. Jerk," Asuka ranted quietly in her entry plug while all the currently active Evangelions were being tested. So why did she keep going back to the feelings from when they kissed?
"Congratulations, Shinji, you've really improved. You too, Rei. Asuka, you did pretty good," Ritsuko commented.
Asuka activated her screen to communicate directly with the scientist. "So, I'm back to number one?"
"You and Shinji are just about neck and neck, actually. You two will have to really work on it a bit to stay ahead," Sheila said.
Misato looked over, seeing Shinji's numbers two percent higher than Asuka's. Sheila casually blanked out Asuka before Misato could say, "But Shinji has surpassed her."
"Statistically, anything within five percent is amazingly close. And let's ease Asuka into still not being the highest synchronization score slowly. She has a lot of her self-esteem tied up in being the best pilot," Sheila said casually.
"So when are you getting your psychology degree?" Maya asked with a laugh.
"Probably in June with my online courses from Tokyo-2's University of Japan medical program," Sheila replied as if she were talking about the weather, much to Maya's shock.
Ritsuko raised an eyebrow at that. "Aren't you worried about passing the exams?"
Sheila just raised an eyebrow. "They won't let me just hand in the paperwork and take all the test right now. It's very infuriating." The concept of failing a test seemed impossible to the young blonde.
Alerts suddenly appeared on all the screens, signaling an Angel had appeared.
"Why did we not get warning?" Misato yelled out.
"It just appeared in the air above Tokyo-3," Shigeru called out.
"It appears to be similar to the 5th Angel, code-named Ramiel, so I suggest a sounding attack by missile battery E-18 to draw its attack," Sheila called out.
"So cold, but better soldiers than the Children," Misato said aloud.
"Battery E-18 is automated, Misato," she retorted. "As operations commander, you should know that."
"Ah, right." The NERV captain laughed nervously.
Aoba shook his head. "Attack should hit within ten seconds."
They watched the missile fly through the shere as if it did not exist.
"E-18 just went offline," Maya called out.
"What is that?" Misato asked as the camera view shifted to the missile battery that was sinking into some form of shadow.
"Inverted hyperdimensional shadow. That's the Angel, not the thing in the air," Sheila called out.
"The MAGI are uncertain, while Casper is inclined to agree with Sheila's assessment." Ritsuko blinked at that. Casper was rating her mediation between Sheila and the MAGI equally. That should not be possible.
"If it is dimensionally transcendent, why isn't it just appearing within the the Geofront," Sheila asked curiously. "It can literally appear anywhere."
Misato shuddered at the thought of fighting something that could teleport. "How the hell do we attack a shadow?"
"We would have to distort space on the other side of its inverted space. We could try a Mode-899 S2 core explosion." Sheila's hands were still flying across the keyboard.
"One of the spare S2 cores?" Misato said, thinking back to the extra S2 Engines to be installed in any new Evangelions if they were to be transferred to NERV Japan.
"Exactly. We can use it instead of an N2 cruise missile," Ritsuko explained.
"You mean we don't even get to fight it?" Asuka complained.
Misato smirked. "Someone has to shoot the missile at it. The launcher is built for EVAs to use."
Ritsuko was looking at a screen. "Is that accurate?"
"It is. There is a fifty-eight percent chance that the Angel will be able to engulf the EVA that shoots the missile, causing the death of the pilot and loss of the EVA unit."
The silence in the control room and the EVA entry plugs was deafening.
The three pilots were discussing the matter, as Misato had decreed that this was to be by volunteer.
"I should do it," Asuka declared. "I'm the best pilot, after all."
"I am expendable. I should go," Rei replied mater of factually.
"You are not expendable. We should draw straws," Shinji replied firmly in the changing room.
Sheila walked in, cutting of Rei's protestation. "None of you are expendable. You are close friends. I have managed to figure out a way to possibly evade the counter-attack. How many of you have played hop-scotch?"
Rei looked totally confused, as if she did not recognize the game. Shinji looked like he might know of the game, but Asuka's triumphant grin showed that she had played it.
"Asuka?" Sheila asked.
"Of course. Wonder Doll and Super-Shinji obviously haven't played normal games, so its up to me to show them how its done," she declared.
Sheila showed them a contour map of a hill and the estimation of how the Angel would cover the hill, but not four protrusions. The notebook computer showed Unit 02 hopping from one protrusion to another until it exited the area after firing the missile.
"If this works, the chance of the pilot's death and loss of the EVA drop to five percent." Sheila looked at them all carefully.
"Why still five percent?" Shinji asked almost angrily.
"Oh, that's as low a percentage that we can get with all the variables known. A contact with the Angels without any preparation we have listed as a twenty-five percent chance of pilot fatality with a ten percent chance of losing the EVA."
Shinji gulped even as Asuka frowned. Rei looked unsurprised.
Unit 02 raised its red-armored arms that had a huge missile launcher in their grasp. The huge front cover popped off. "Targeting data received," Asuka confirmed
With a huge plume of smoke, the cruise-missile sized weapon streaked across Tokyo-3 to hit and sink into the 600 meter wide Angel slowly like it was tar.
The Angel flickered and then reappeared under Unit 02. Asuka had already crouched Unit 02 down and pushed off in a might leap to the next spot painted with a big white X down the hill. On the last protrusion, it shifted under Unit 02 as it pushed off.
"Sheiss." Unit 02 was going to miss the edge by over fifty feet. She started to sink down and sprawl forward when Unit 00's hand grabbed her own EVA's flailing hand.
Rei had a very serious look as she pulled Unit 02 slowly out. Its legs were just starting to pull out when a ripple of light flashed from the center of the 'shadow' then back out, chopping the legs off of Unit 02. Asuka shrieked in mind-numbing horror as she felt her legs cut off as the Angel and its 3D shadow in the sky warped and twisted inward.
Shinji and Rei both raised their Units AT Fields as high as they could, but when the implosion suddenly erupted the mountain was instantly vaporized and three swaths of Tokyo-3 were melted and twisted by immense gravitational forces.
"It hurts. It hurts," Asuka was crying out miserably.
"Send out a recovery team," Misato ordered back in NERV headquarters as they realized that they had won.
"The double-bladed edge of high synchronization," Sheila muttered. "Asuka broke her previous synchronization record, but because of that it feels like her own legs have been cut off."
Chapter 21 – Recovery
"I am not staying in the hospital!" the red-head demanded. "They can give me a wheelchair and I can roll myself out. My neurological functions can stabilize at home."
"Well, if you insist," Ritsuko asked as Shelia wheeled in a advanced wheelchair. "I knew I shouldn't have bet against you."
Shinji snickered even as a trace of a smile passed Rei and Asuka's lips.
Asuka wasted no time and only fumbled once getting into the wheelchair. "I can wheel myself."
"Not as fast as I can push you," Sheila replied archly. "Misato is waiting at the lift back up to the surface. So we can get you settled and back home."
Ten minutes later (and five minutes shorter than Asuka and the other children had ever run the distance) they were all back at Misato's blue sports car and Sheila's motorcycle.
"Wheee!" Asuka cried out as they came to a stop. "Okay, that was fun."
Rei and Shinji were huffing and puffing like locomotive.
"You- Enjoy running us into the ground, don't you?" Shinji gasped out.
"What ever gave you that idea?" Sheila asked innocently. "You two just need to exercise more rigorously."
"Come on kids! Time to go home," Misato called out.
Shinji finished pushing Asuka into the class on their first day back. "At least Rei was there to help push you," the boy muttered. Asuka ignored him as she started to roll herself around.
Rei just nodded as she went and sat down at her normal seat by the window.
Hikaru walked up to sit next to her friend. "What happened, Asuka?"
"Just some nerve shock when my EVA's legs got chopped off. Now they have to repair my poor Unit 02!" Asuka seemed more upset at her Evangelion's damage than her own injury. "I'll be fine in a week or so. I can already feel my thighs a bit when I poke them."
Kensuke and Toji were listening in carefully while pretending to not listen in. Asuka had been temporarily crippled by her Evangelion losing its legs?
Kensuke suddenly lost his overwhelming desire to pilot the mega-biomechs. In truth, he had not wanted to in quite a while in any serious manner.
Toji, on the other hand, was staring his future in the face. He frowned as he remembered the older man from NERV and his declaration that his sister would have the best medical attention that money could not buy.
Was it worth it?
Asuka sighed as she looked over her precious Unit 02 that was being fixed. They were not even sure they could regrow new legs. She might have to be moved to be the pilot of Unit 03 or Unit 04. Probably Unit 04, as Unit 03 was slated for the 4th Child; Toji Suzuhara. She almost stumbled as she walked along the gangplank as her crutches caught in a groove. But she was going to show them that she would overcome her nerve shock.
"Sheila?" Asuka asked curiously. "What are you doing here?
"Thinking. Evangelions are just living organisms. If only we could regrow their limbs like starfishes. Its matter of scale should not matter." The scion was thinking. "So are they going to try to have you mimic the effect of healing that Unit 01 and some of the Angel's have shown?"
"Not until my own legs start working properly. But the doctors say I'm recovering fairly quickly," the red-head explained.
"Unit 03 is being delivered, but is not being activated in the Geofront... unlike every other Evangelion." Sheila let the young pilot think on that for a while. "You would think they expect something unusual to happen with a production unit and the new child."
"You know something," Asuka decided. She was a genius herself.
"Do you know what the Dead Sea Scrolls are?" the blonde said as she studied the damaged Evangelion.
"Ancient Hebrew writings? Of course, they probably speak of angels," the German girl replied as she sat on a railing.
"And the judgment of man by God by his Angels in great tests," Sheila replied as she leaned over the railing. "So the only thing that can fight fate is the divine itself."
Asuka nearly fell down. "You are saying that this is prophecized?"
She was caught by the scion. "Careful. How are your legs?"
The young girl kicked her legs. "They feel... fine. Perfect even."
"Really?" she asked with artful falseness. "Maybe you should get checked out by Dr. Akagi then?"
The young girl took off at a spring with her crutches under her arm. In just an hour, after a rigorous physical and EKG, Asuka was back in her beloved Unit 02.
"A-10 link synchronization up to twenty-five percent," Maya called out.
"It's starting to hurt," Asuka admitted with a wince, but just tightened her grips on the almost useless joysticks.
"Concentrate on extending your AT Field to force the EVA to heal its legs," Ritsuko called out.
Thirty minutes later, there was no change. The EVA could not seem to repair themselves in a controlled manner. Only when berserk.
The MAGI and their sensors suddenly developed a blind spot while a false positive suddenly developed right in front of Unit 02. Sheila had decided that it was time.
"What is tha-?" Asuka exclaimed even as the most odd of feeling enveloped her EVA's legs as an immense power suddenly regrew both limbs by overwriting the AT Field. "What just happened? Something just affected my EVA!"
The orange LCL liquid was suddenly displaced by the two new limbs, causing all of the technicians monitoring the unit to cry out in shock and one to wash away into the waves of orange fluid.
"What the hell?" Ritsuko called out. "That's not possible."
"Unit 02 has fully reformed its legs," Maya called out.
"I want to know yesterday what the hell happened." Ritsuko did not know it, but it would be impossible to find out when one of her primary resources was actively hiding the source.
Sheila coldly put everything she knew into her plan. Asuka's EVA was going to be required in three days. That was when Unit 03 was supposed to go berserk and be infected with an Angel.
Chapter 22 - Betrayal
Three days later, Sheila found herself to be the lead scientist overseeing the activation of Unit 03 and the newest pilot, Toji Suzuhara.
"You are doing fine, Toji," Sheila called out.
"Contamination detected. New signal detected!" one of the backup technicians called out just before Unit 03 roared.
An explosion roared out, smashing the sub-base Matsushiro.
Back in the main NERV CiC, Gendo Ikari smiled thinly behind his hands. Hopefully that would deal with a few of his nuisance problems. "What is the status of Unit 03?" He could not believe NERV US Branch 1 and their gall to foist Unit 03 on them after losing control of their own S2 organ test. He could feel the fingers of SEELE in this.
"Branch 2 is offline, all telemetry from Unit 03 is lost," Maya called out.
Ritsuko's coffee was forgotten. How had Gendo known this was going to happen? "Status on Unit 00 through 02?"
"The Children have arrived and are being readied to send out," Aoba called out.
"Send out Unit 00 and Unit 02 out first, hold Unit 01 as reserve," Gendo called out.
"Is it as we suspected?" Fuyutsuki asked.
"Yes, Unit 03 has been infected with the 13th Angel," the commander of NERV declared quietly. "Just as the scrolls said it would."
"NERV, this is Sheila. We are effectively out of action and have a lot of wounded," Sheila called out as the screen reappeared from the sub-base.
"Sending out recovery and rescue teams," the sub-commander called out.
"Be aware, Unit 03 has been infected by an Angel we believe." Sheila had blood dripping down her brow. "I'm reinitializing our computers and telemetry."
Gendo frowned slightly. She had survived, as he had expected. Anyone that could survive SEELE's assassins and Angels was not to be trifled or disregarded. She seemed to have more lives than a cat. "Accept telemetry and verify status."
"Unit 03 is non-responsive. Pattern Blue. Confirmed, it is an Angel." Ritsuko was looking over the information streaming from the test site.
Asuka gasped. "Oh no."
"Unit 03? An Evangelion?" Shinji called out in shock as his Unit 01 started up.
Unit 00 with Rei in it was being lifted up to the launch rails. It suddenly streaked off to intercept the Angel. Unit 02 was launched a minute later.
Rei was approaching Unit 03 with a pallet rifle when it suddenly leaped forward and stretched out its arms. Her EVA's hands tried to break the Angel's grip on her neck, forgetting her weapon.
"Gurgk!" Rei could feel the pressure forming on her neck.
"Damn it, Rei! You've got feet. You have weapons! Fight back!" Sheila shouted out.
Gendo and Fuyutsuki both stared in surprise as Rei's lips curled into a snarl and Unit 00 suddenly lashed out with a sweeping kick, knocking loose one clawed grip from the blue and black EVA 03. Unit 00's progressive knife ejected right into its hand and swung down viciously, cutting off the remaining hand that was still attached to the throat of her unit.
Unit 03 leaped back, its hand starting to grow back as Rei charged. "Yaaaah!" she shouted in a most un-Rei voice.
"That's Wonder Doll?" Asuka called out. "Who's been drugging her with PCP?" Unit 02 raised its pallet gun and fired, knocking the Angel off course for a second before Unit 00 slammed back into it.
Great rents appeared in both units as claw met progressive knife.
"I thought she was the quiet one?" the German girl exclaimed. "Go Wünder Girl!"
The Angel was just too savage though. It finally managed to snap Unit 00's neck, causing Rei to shriek like a banshee in sympathetic pain.
"My turn!" Asuka shouted, unloading her full clip from her pallet gun. As the Angel leaped at her, Unit 02's red-armored foot kicked out, smashing an elbow. She tried to deploy her progressive knife, but the partially healed hand of the Angel knocked it away. "Shit!"
"Deploy Unit 01 immediately." The commander of NERV had very narrow eyes taking in the whole situation. Something about this fight was naggingly familiar. As Unit 01 was raised to the hill exit, he realized what it was. "Dr. Akagi, verify if there was a spike in Rei's synchronization just before she attacked."
"No, sir." Then she stopped. There was a familiar spike just before Rei started fighting seriously with the Angel. And Asuka had the same spike at just the same time. She pulled up a list. The first time this had happened was the 4th Angel, when Shinji had attacked with uncommon bravery. "Checking."
Something external had boosted them... somehow. What sort of Angel would assist them in destroying its brethren? And the blackbox of EVA 01 finally gave a clue.
"Shinji! Kick this thing's ass so I can treat you to that supper!"
The timing was too tight. It was Sheila. Sheila had somehow caused the children to fight better. The impossibly smart and lucky girl that had fallen in with Shinji. She was some sort of Angel.
Unit 01 started firing at long range, pushing the Angel-infected Evangelion away from the battered Unit 02.
"Damn, rescued by the Invincible Shinji again," Asuka complained. But only aloud. She had to admit it was nice to have him at her back.
Unit 01 stopped just long enough to grab a battleaxe. "How do I stop it without hurting the pilot? Who is the pilot?"
"Shinji, I don't know that anyone could stop him that perfectly," Sheila replied from the trashed test outpost. "But if you don't fight your best, he and the entire world are going to die. And I don't know about you, but I do not want to die today."
"Who is it?" Shinji demanded, getting more angry as they steered around the question.
"It is Toji Suzuhara," Asuka finally said. "He didn't want you to know for some reason." Unit 02 was slowly dragging itself to its feet.
"Destroy Unit 03. That is all that is required," Commander Gendo Ikari. "The pilots survival is irrelevant." The words were calculated, cutting.
"What? No! We have to save him!" Shinji exclaimed, even as he blocked an attack.
"Activate the Dummy Plug system. The pilot is useless," Gendo ordered.
Ritsuko just looked blankly at him. "We haven't tested-"
"Irrelevant. Activate it and destroy the Angel. That is our sole purpose."
The officers of NERV followed their orders, even as Shinji's cry of rage was deafening in their ears.
Asuka watched in shock as Unit 01 suddenly turned vicious and fought with abandon.
"Gendo, you bastard. Shinji could have won. You did this on purpose," Sheila muttered as she turned away from the carnage on the screen.
She had a few minutes of privacy from the Angel detecting sensors. And wounded to heal.
Chapter 23 – Mate
Sheila drifted in to the hospital room where Toji Suzuhara was laid up. He was in terrible shape and had barely been released from the last emergency surgery.
She stood in the doorway for a long time. If she took this action, NERV would know that something was up and would probably (rightly) assume she was involved, even if the MAGI and the sensors could not detect her.
The young Scion nodded to herself. If it helped her friends, then it would have to be worth it. She gave the young boy, struggling for his life, one last look and then sent a wave of pure, invisible energy that enveloped him. His arm and leg and all of his grievous wounds suddenly disappeared.
Sheila walked down the dark halls of the infirmary of NERV, just one more shadow as she stopped at Toji's younger sister that was sleeping after crying herself to sleep. Her wounds were older, but no harder to deal with.
She walked out the emergency exit, never triggering a single alarm.
Shinji was walking down the road to the train station in the sun when he saw the girl leaning up against the wall, one foot flat on the surface behind her as she raised her eyes.
"You are going to try to convince me to stay, too?" Shinji challenged the blonde.
Sheila shook her head. "While I would be quite happy if you did, that is your choice." She narrowed her blue-green eyes at him. "You two were winning at that point, you know that, right?"
"Obviously not well enough. Or my father wouldn't have had my Evangelion almost kill Toji." Shinji actually looked like he wanted to disassemble his father with his bare hands.
"No, you, Shinji, were winning. And for some reason, to your father, that was intolerable. Unit 03 was seriously depleted and you are the best pilot (don't tell Asuka that) and could have won without even going berserk."
"So me winning is intolerable to my father? I'm not competing against him," Shinji said with a snort.
"Or you will impedes his... designs. Your father is up to his neck in some very, very bad things, Shinji. And I only have a vague idea of what he wants. And that makes him dangerous. Because crushing your spirit seems to figure into his plan."
The young Japanese boy studied her for a long moment. "Why do you care? I'm just a kid now. Not even a pilot," he asked.
"They have exactly three Evangelions and three pilots. And no one can pilot Unit 01 as well as you can." Sheila gave him an appraising look. "And, you are a good person that does not want to see this world destroyed."
Shinji had almost turned away before that, looking at the train station. "The world? What are you talking about?"
"The men that tried to kill me earlier are part of a cabal that plans on killing every single person on this planet. And the Evangelions and you Children are part of their scenario." Sheila's eyes held no guile, nor the glimmer of a single falsehood.
"And the Angels?"
"I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I think they might be self-healing machines designed to prepare this planet and something went wrong. And humanity has figured out just enough to know what they are going to do."
"So you want me to... what?" Shinji looked confused.
"I would like you to not abandon your friends." Sheil pushed off from the wall to stand all the way up and then walked down the road.
That was when the evacuation alert sounded.
Chapter 24 – Fall From Grace
Sheila walked into NERV's CiC as the battle progressed.
"The Dummy Plug signal is being refused," Makoto called out.
Ritsuko blinked at that. "Is it some external interference?"
"Negative. It's like Unit 01 just does not want it any more," Maya called out.
"That does not make sense," the head scientist said.
"Unless you remember that Unit 01 is alive," Sheila said lightly as she sat down. "Eight levels of armor in one shot?"
"Yes, we are sending out Unit 02 with a positron rifle," Maya called out. "Unit 00 will be backup."
The oddly shaped black and white angel smashed into Central Dogma, even as Asuka fired her fully charged positron rifle. The Angel suddenly veered left, causing the shot to miss.
"Damn. It dodged. And this things cool-down is too slow," Asuka called out. She was already reaching for her progressive spear.
Sheila was typing rapidly. "Warning to the pilot, do not attempt to parry melee attacks. The Angel has bounded its upper limbs into a two dimensional folded space. The only way to block that is with a Class III AT Field."
"Asuka, dodge only! It can likely cut through anything," Misato suddenly shouted.
"What? This sucks!" the pilot shouted back. Unit 02 was forced to dodge to the side as the flat arms of the Angel missed both of the EVA's arms... but not its weapon. The progressive spear was cut in half. "Okay, okay. I get that parrying is really bad already!"
The Angel suddenly had to lurch to the side again as a second positron beam blasted out from Unit 00's rifle. Zeruel suddenly lurched forward in its impossible flight, its arms extending.
Rei's lower synch score betrayed her as her Evangelion's right arm and head were removed.
"Is the pilot alive?" Misato shouted out in the CiC. They could actually see the battle with their own eyes.
"Entry Plug is ejecting, life signs are stable if unconscious," Maya called out.
"Rei! Stupid Wűnder-Girl had to go and lose like that." Asuka had her Unit 02 up again and threw the remains of her progressive spear at the Angel's back, causing it to dodge again.
The Angel suddenly glowed with eerie brilliance and a massive energy beam struck out and slammed into Unit 02 like a cruise missile. Armor and flesh burned as Asuka screamed in pain.
The front half of Unit 02 was burned off as Asuka was shocked into unconsciousness.
Zeruel then turned towards the command center. Sheila was tense, but prepared.
She had seen Shinji arrive in his Unit 01. The horned, purple monstrosity seemed to come out of nowhere at full speed. It's tackle pushed them both onto one of the launch rails.
"Activating lift number 5!" Sheila called out, sending both Evangelion and Angel to the surface.
Both combatants hit the surface fighting like animals, ripping into each other. Shinji thought he was about to win when his fist lashed out and the arm was suddenly sliced off.
"Shinji!" Sheila called out. She had her hand raised up.
"Don't." Dr. Akagi had a heavy handgun out and pointed at Sheila. "I don't know what you are, but you aren't human. And you won't control us anymore."
"I have never done anything but help the children," the scion had her hand half-raised.
"And you didn't kill Commander Soryu?" the scientist asked.
Misato had her own gun out, ready to take action. But against whom?
"Only after he shot at me and admitting to trying to murder me because I opposed SEELE's plan." Sheila was acting quite a bit more calm than she actually felt. "Let me help Shinji. Let me save him." Her eyes were locked on the vicious fight up top.
That was when Unit 01 went berserk and reactivated. The purple monstrosity stood up like some sort of zombie as it started to regenerate.
"He doesn't need you to save him. He has Unit 01." Akagi was smirking quite evilly.
"You just let it berserk with an S2 engine within it, you idiots." Sheila turned to look at them in fury.
The fight was turning bloody, but Unit 01 ignored its damage, ripping and tearing at the Angel.
"And you think you can stop it if you need to?" Akagi sneered.
"Possibly."
Misato suddenly cut in. "Well, it looks like you get to prove that. Unit 01 has defeated the 14th Angel. And the emergency cut-offs aren't working again." The NERV officer flicked her safety. "You will accompany me while you try to subdue Unit 01. If you take any other actions, I will kill you."
They were met at one of the elevators by heavily armed Section Two agents. Up on the surface, Unit 01 was sniffing around as it tromped among the building.
Sheila stepped out in front of the shuffling Evangelion. Then she started singing a lullaby. The huge mechanoid snarled through its armored restraints. It huffed and then sniffed at her. She continued singing as the Evangelion started to crouch lower.
Unit 01 suddenly reached out and snatched Sheila from the ground, startling Misato into shooting. The young scion caught her breath, but then continued singing from over thirty feet in the air.
The Evangelion seemed to consider the small figure, so fragile seeming in its grip. Sheila was on her third lullaby when the Eva huffed a breath again, but much lower and more calmly. Suddenly, as if a switch had been thrown, it toppled over and deactivated.
"Hey, Misato? I know I'm under arrest," Sheila called from the unconscious grip of the unit. "But can I get that bullet removed first?"
Chapter 26 – Endgame
Sheila was sitting in a NERV cell again, many weeks later. "Hello, Shinji," she called out. She looked thinner and a bit ragged.
"Hello, Sheila." Shinji was staring at her cautiously.
"Where's Rei? Is Asuka still in a coma?" The young scion tried to ask cheerfully.
"Rei was badly injured. And she doesn't remember us very well. There's no change in Asuka." Shinji looked upset.
"Shinji... Rei is not a normal person." Sheila look saddened. They must have had to activate one of her clones.
"Not normal?" Shinji asked worriedly.
"She is artificial. She was a customized clone." The young blonde look wilted. "She probably died and they downloaded tailored memories into her."
"She's not human?" Shinji asked in shock.
"I'm not fully human either," Sheila noted lightly.
"But you said you aren't an Angel."
"I'm not. There are more things out there than just humans and angels." Sheila looked away to seemingly stare through the walls. "And more worlds than just this one."
"What are you?" the young man demanded from the other side of the heavy door.
"Someone that took a wrong exit past Oz in an effort to go someplace that needed help. And this world does need my help. I just hope I haven't messed up and doomed us all."
"I heard from Misato the only reason that you are still alive is because you have been so helpful. She thinks I'm silly coming down here and talking to you." Shinji looked grim.
"I appreciate it. It's very dull here."
"I have to go." He disappeared and headed back out. Idly, he noted that he had not mentioned an update on his new friend.
Almost an hour later, he walked upstairs to his empty home. Misato was working late and Asuka was still in a coma of some sort from the mental infection from the 16th Angel. He looked at the kitchen, but didn't want to dirty the dishes on his own.
And he did not want to head upstairs to Rei's place. He had a crawling feeling.
That was when the doorbell rang. He opened the door and smiled when he saw the familiar smile of Kowaru. "Hello!"
"Can I come in, Shinji?"
"Sure."
Shinji was pulling out his home work when the bell rang again. Raising an eyebrow, he opened the door. "Rei?"
"Hello, Pilot Ikari." That did not sound right, even to herself, Rei thought. "I- Is it time to study?" Her confusion was evident.
"Um, sure. Kowaru is already here."
"The 5th Child?" Suddenly, Rei was quite cautious. Ever since their first encounter, Rei had been uneasy in his presence.
But right now, she had the need to do homework. And for some reason... doing homework with Shinji seemed right.
"Did you want to eat over tonight?" Shinji asked with a smile.
She just nodded, not even realizing that the edge of her lips curled ever so lightly upwards.
Ritsuko looked up in her own cell just four doors down from Sheila's own cell. "You dared to come here after what I did?"
The NERV officer looked at her old friend. "I have one thing to ask you."
"This conversation is being recorded," the blonde scientist said in dead seriousness.
"I don't care." Her eyes almost glittered in anger. "What is that boy, the Fifth Child?"
"Probably..." Ritsuko considred a long moment. "The final messenger. The Last Angel."
"But only probably?" the major asked. She could not just have him killed on a suspicion.
"It's a deadly game we play," the faux-blonde said with a mirthless grin. "But if you don't act, it will be too late."
It was too late the very next day.
Kowaru's eyes opened casually. It was time and remarkably easy, thanks to SEELE. He just ambled into NERV headquarters and down to Unit 02. He was to join with Adam and initiate the end of the world. It was time for Third Impact, just like he was ordered.
Down in the cages, Kowaru was talking to Unit 02 like it was fully alive. "Well, let's go. Come, Adam's alter ego and the servant of the Lillim."
The giant bright-red Eva's four eyee flashed for just a second as it activated and stood.
Makoto suddenly gaped at the information appearing on his computer screens. "Eva Unit Two has activated!"
"What the hell!" Misato looked over from the command area. "Asuka...?"
"...is in hospital room 303," another bridge officer called out. "It's confirmed." He had her comatose and bedridden form on a screen.
"Then who is in it? Touji?"
Dr. Akagi's old assistant, Maya, announced, "There is no pilot. It's unmanned. Entry plug has not been inserted." The Syncrograph was empty.
"Unmanned? It isn't the Fourth or Fifth Child?" Misato asked in utter surprise.
"A.T. Field generation detected in Central Dogma."
Kowaru floated next to Unit 02 as it trod towards the barred doors that had stopped all the other Angels.
"Unit 2?" Misato asked, no more demanded.
"No, the pattern is Blue. Repeat, the pattern is Blue." Shigeru looked up to look her in the eye across the command consoles. "It's an ANGEL!"
Chapter 27 - Apotheois
Sheila opened her eyes. "It's time." She walked over the to solid metal door. She had to get out of here, she could not let the last Angel get to Terminal Dogma. Her fingers curled around the door's small, barred window as she psyched herself up.
She suddenly flared her full effort and ripped the door off its hinges.
Ritsuko trotted up to her doorway, looking down the hallway. "What are you?" she demanded.
"I am my mother's daughter." Sheila's hair started to glow as she headed down the corridor.
"Henderson is loose! Repeat, Henderson is loose! Warn Captain Katsuragi!" one of the heavily armed guards yelled out even as he aimed down the metal corridor and fired a short burst from his machine-gun.
Instead of the tell-tale orange hexes, Sheila blurred foward faster than the human eye could follow in a zig-zag. She slammed the palm hard into the chest of the guard, sending him flying to crunch into the wall over thirty feet away.
The other guard was pounding on the intercom frantically. "She's loose! She's loose!"
"I turned it off," Sheila said coldly. She had not enjoyed her treatment by these guards, but could not move before the last Angel appeared.
The guard spun around, only for the machine-gun to be ripped away and broke his trigger finger. "Ahhh!"
"Sleep," she commanded as she gestured in front of him.
His eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed.
"White Pattern detected! I repeat, White Pattern detected. The power level is at least a magnitude higher than before." Shigeru looked shocked as the MAGI started putting more alerts up.
"From the prison?" Misato asked in worry.
"No response from the guards. White Pattern is moving quickly, bypassing all locks," Maya called out.
"MAGI report that they are unable to lock her out of the systems," Makoto reported.
"Great. Now we have two of the to deal with. How long until Shinji sorties?" He was still the superior pilot compared to Touji, even if he had developed
"Unit 01 is loading its Entry Plug now," Maya called.
"White Pattern is... shit, that's fast... moving. She's heading down the trail of destruction that the Angel is leaving." Makoto just shook his head.
Sheila stopped as she saw Unit 02 and up ahead of it, the Angel Tabris.
"No. No. No! It can't be possible! How can Kowaru be an Angel?" Shinji shouted to himself. It was just like Sheila had told him so long ago, that they were trying to tear him down.
He entered the doors right before Terminal Dogma to see Unit 02 and Kowaru.
"Shinji! Keep Unit 02 off of me!" Sheila called while communicating through the electronics of his own EVA. She launched herself at Tabris, only to ricochet off an AT field.
Kowaru looked sad. "You are far too weak to affect me, alien thing."
Shinji was just glad he did not have to try to fight his new 'best' friend at this point.
Kowaru raised his hand and unleashed a cross-shaped explosion, missing Sheila on its outer edge. "That won't happen again," he warned, raising his hand. "You should just flee."
Unit 01 hit the red EVA with a powerful two-fisted strike that it seemed to ignored.
"You are right. I can't affect you right now."
Tabris just nodded. "It's nice to see you being reasonable."
A blinding light erupted from within Sheila torso, below her heart, as her S2 Organ activated for the first time, causing Kowaru's eyes to widen. He released a blast that slammed home...
...only to see it shatter off a small AT Field that started to grow larger and larger.
"I am the most powerful of the Angels barring Adam," the 17th Angel warned as he gathered power to destroy her.
Sheila's S2 Engine was still ramping up. "Do tell." Tiny sparkles of light were lifting off of her body as it continued to glow, brighter and brighter in the gloom of Terminal Dogma. The white figure, impaled on the cross seemed to flinch at the light that pierced the armored door like it did not exist.
"What are you doing?" the Angel cried out, shielding his eyes.
Up above him, Rei was doing the same thing. Shinji in Unit 01 looked on in shock as Unti 02 fell over, like a red puppet with its strings cut.
"I'm ascending," the glowing figure said just before the light become totally blinding. Then the light suddenly failed.
"No." Tabris looked upon the six foot tall figure below him and could feel her power.
"I am Sheila, daughter of Athena. Let us battle for the fate of this world!" Her bare hair seemed to be strands of glowing sunlight, even as her eyes were glowing blue-green sapphires. She seemed garbed in armor of purest silver, in a vaguely Grecian style.
"A demigoddess dare cross swords with me?" Tabris said with narrowed eyes.
"I am a goddess of battle now, Angel." Sheila blurred, far, far faster past him than before as her hand lashed out with a golden aura that slammed home into his AT Field... that actually bent for just a second.
"Not good enough-" the Angel declared from his floating vantage, just as Unit 01's hand tried to crush him within its armored grip.
"Kowaru! Was everything you said to me a lie? To break my spirit?" Shinji yelled out, striving to cancel out the Angel's overwhelming AT Field... to no avail. He tried to push harder on the joysticks within his Entry Plug, trying to will the hands together.
"Begone! Soon I will be joined with the Father, Adam! And this painful world will finally be done with and you can rest, Shinji! Let me remove this burden!" Kowaru cried out as he effortlessly pushed back Unit 01's hands with his AT Field.
"So that he can never learn the joys of growing up? Of other new, wondrous things? Or falling head over heels in love? Life may be pain, Tabris the 17th, but it is also love, caring and growth," Sheila called out even as streams of metal appeared from thin air as she floated up. A forty-five foot tall body of supernatural iron, bronze and copper appeared around her, its eyes blazing with baleful blue-green fire, a shadow of her new form writ huge. It carried a spear that gleamed in the darkness.
"Too slow!" Kowaru warned, unleashing another blast that flung Unit 01 backwards, even through its hastily raised field.
The words were barely out of his mouth when a massive strike from the glowing spear slammed home and nearly buckled his AT-Field.
"How is this possible?" Kowaru demanded as he felt a truly immense power rise up.
"Rail, rail against fight! Fight, fight against injustice! For lo, we are the warriors of Destiny!" It again glowed red in baleful intent, the spear striking with enough force to cleave atoms in twain.
Tabris buckled to his knees as Unit 01, with Shinji at the controls put his whole will behind forming a counter-AT field. "No. It was not supposed to be this way. I was promised that I would win. Fate was on my side!" the final Angel cried out.
His AT field finally collapsed just as Shinji had lashed out with Unit 01. The massive purple fist sent the too human form flying through the air in a spray of blood.
"I... did it. I killed him," Shinji said in shock.
Aoba breathed a sigh of relief that was echoed among all of the officers on the bridge. "Unit 02 has deactivated. The Angel was defeated."
"Order the 3rd Child to destroy Sheila Henderson." Gendo Ikari would not be denied. They were too close to fail now that the last Angels were destroyed.
Sheila released the magical armor to float to the ground. "It is time to make a stand, 3rd Child of Evangelion. Will you do as your hated father orders, destroying me and the world? Or will you take up the reigns of your fate and help me save the world from NERV, SEELE and those that wish to use intrumentatility to merge all of humanity into an unthinking sleep?"
"Destroy her! Designate Sheila Henderson as the 18th Angel!" Gendo roared to the bridge crew.
"Unit 01 is refusing our connection. The MAGI predict that Sheila has blocked us at all levels," Aoba shouted.
"How can she have such control of the systems?" Misato called out.
"She was our security specialist. She probably knows the systems better than anyone else," Hyuga called back.
Gendo considered matters. "Get Dr. Akagi out of her prison."
Chapter 28 – Revelations
"What are you talking about?" Shinji finally asked.
"NERV and Seele are manipulating events to cause a Third Impact that will trigger the mergence of all humanity into Evangelion Unit 01." Sheila looked over into the shadows that hid Rei. "You can come down now. Gendo and his cronies can not see us."
Rei thought about it for a long moment, but then stepped out and floated to the ground. "What do you seek? Will you take over the plan and merge humanity with yourself? Becoming a true over-goddess?" Her school uniform ruffled as she landed.
"I have no desire to destroy humanity that way."
That seemed to confuse the clone. "What do you mean?"
"What does it mean to be human? Humans have been asking themselves and each other that for hundreds of thousands of years. But they did that as individuals, with varying levels of intimacy. From argumentative strangers to close lovers. Across voids of misunderstanding, time and far off lands. But changing humanity into one group, sleeping hive-mind of protoplasm will destroy humanity utterly. For to be human is to be alone while being in a crowded room," Sheila explained. "Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are..."
Rei staggered back as hidden memories came alive. "What have you done?"
"I protected you, Rei the III. I knew that Gendo Ikari considered you and Eva Unit 00 totally expendable in the pursuit of his plans, once I had finally read the Dead Sea Scrolls. And would erase parts of your memories that were inconvenient to his pursuits. So I programmed the Dummy Plug System to fully copy over your mind, but hide the parts they tried to erase behind a hard hypnotic lock. Which you were breaking on your own, mind you." She turned to the huge door. "And let's see what's behind Door Number 1, Bob."
At her outstretched hand's gesture, the door started to rumble open. Sheila frowned as she felt a strange wobble in her control of the S2 organ.
"That is supposed to be impossible," Rei noted coolly.
That caused Sheila and Shinji to laugh.
"I am the Daughter of Athena, granddaughter to mighty Zeus himself. I do impossible things all the time. Do you see the Angel here, Shinji? It was the siren that summoned the Angels to their Doom."
"Which Angel is it?" Shinji asked.
"The First or the Second. Either are bad enough, for they are the most powerful. And bringing them together artificially and under human control is the goal of Seele and Gendo."
"She is the Second. Lillith, the Mother of Humanity," Rei finally said as she looked on the being that was her Angel mother.
"So this is my father's work," Shinji said in morose anger in his Eva. "He has betrayed humanity. How could anyone do that?"
"He may think what he is doing if for a good purpose due to information that only he knows. Or he may truly be out of his mind and insane. We can't say. But we need to act against him and SEELE, before they can attack."
She saw Shinji nod inside Unit 01 and Rei's hesitant nod.
"Rei, join Shinji inside Unit 01. Then head back up to NERV headquarters." It was time for last ditch plans.
But there would be no Armageddon today.
Chapter 29 – Death of a God
"We've got telemetry on Unit 01! How did Pilot Ayanami get in there?" Aoba asked in the command center.
"What is the status of the 18th Angel?" Gendo demanded.
"Still in Terminal Dogma," Maya called out. "No movement."
"No movement?" Ritsuko asked suddenly. "A person moves a little bit, even just shifting or walking around." Two men from Section Two had their pistols out and behind her.
"The MAGI are stating that there is no movement from the sensors that can reach down there."
Gendo sat at his command table as his plan started to come apart. He could feel it unraveling. "Open a channel to Unit 01."
"Father." Shinji's face was quite hard.
"The Angel was destroyed?" he asked.
"That one, yes."
"And the Angel known as Sheila Henderson?" the commander of NERV demanded.
"She was not an Angel. Like she stated all the time. She is a goddess." Shinji's pronouncement shocked them all.
"God is dead," Gendo declared. "There is no God, for he would never allow such pain to exist in our world. Never allowed Second Impact."
Misato frowned as she clutched her battered cross. "Who is she?"
"She is Sheila, Daughter of Athena. A goddess of War and Healing." This time Rei spoke.
"And where was she when Second Impact happened?" Misato shouted in anger.
"I... don't know," Shinji said in surprise across the video link.
"I'm from an alternate reality. One where all those Myths of ancient days are real. It was very strange meeting Uncle Hercules," Sheila said from the doorway of the command center.
Section 2 security guards opened fire immediately, bullets bouncing off her like she was made of metal.
"And I'm here to make sure that Third Impact will never happen. Will you surrender Adam, Gendo Ikari?" the glowing haired woman asked as she held out her hand palm first.
"Adam? The First Angel?" Ritsuko blurted out in shock.
"Oh, yes. Commander Ikari here and his real bosses only wanted the Angels out of the way to start their own Impact. Human Instrumentality, the consensus of reality by forcing humanity down to its primordial Lillium building blocks."
The Section 2 guards never wavered where their guns pointed, but Misato lowered hers and was now looking at Gendo quite closely.
"Why? Are you upset that humans are daring to tread upon the divine?" Gendo asked in a sneer.
"I'm Dodekatheon. We expect our heroes to forestall villains, be they divine or hellish. And I've only not been human for a few years, thank you." She just shook her head sadly, then raised her hand.
Without any fanfare, Gendo's left arm withered and fell off as Adam landed on the ground in a squelch.
The commander looked shocked as he put his remaining hand up to his maimed shoulder. "Kill her! Kill her!" he shouted in a panic.
Sheila's sword started to glow in reddish fury. In the blink of an eye, she brought it down upon the squiggling form of Adam, still trapped in the glove that Gendo had been wearing.
"The Lance of Longius could not kill Adam, what makes you think that your sword will?" Ritsuko asked with a smirk as she shielded her eyes from the glare of energy being released.
"The lance was not being wielded by a goddess." With that, Sheila bore down upon the First Angel with a power that could kill souls even as she mentally struggled to contain the roaring power beneath her heart as it glowed, brighter and brighter.
With an elemental wail that can only be heard in the gamma spectrum, Adam died and exploded in a fountain of pure energy that blasted through NERV Headquarters and all the remaining layers of armor above it. High up in the sky, the red-white beam reflected off the sky high above, looking for just a moment as if it were a cross miles tall.
"I liked that sword," the goddess complained as she dropped the half-melted remains to the ground. "How long until SEELE attacks us here?" she demanded directly of Gendo and Fuyutsuki.
Gendo just ignored her as he clutched at the remains of his withered arm, a mere stump of atrophied flesh on his shoulder.
"What makes you think that anyone is going to attack us other than Angels," Fuyutsuki said smoothly.
"Because I read Lorenz Keel's plans after I took care of him? Please, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, I am neither stupid nor a fool. SEELE is trying to initiate Third Impact out of some misguided thought that it will make them God." The glowing green eyes roll theatrically.
Fuyutsuki gulped and tried to stop his shaking hands.
"Of course, that's exactly what you and Gendo were going to do, just with you two in the driver's seat. Isn't it?"
"Um, wow," Shinji said across the link. "So what do we do to stop it?"
"Why, Pinky, what we do every night! We save the world!" Sheila said in her off-best impersonation of a super-genius cartoon mouse. "Seriously, we should plan for an attack on all fronts. I would suggest sealing the base and putting all scanners on continuous over-watch. Shinji, let's get Unit 01 back here and prepped for combat."
"It would be better if we had Unit 02 retrieved and ready also," Rei noted over Shinji's shoulder in the Entry Plug.
"And Asuka out of her coma. It's probably going to be a hectic week," Sheila noted to herself. Her form shifted like ripples in water, revealing her non-ascended form.
That was when another two clip of 9mm bullets bounced off her head. She just glared at two Section 2 goons standing between her and Gendo. They both suddenly toppled over, breaking apart as they landed in wet squishes.
"What did you do to them?" Ritsuko asked in a voice just barely below released terror.
"I anti-healed them. A lot. You know, bountiful health or horrid curses. And Misato, just so you know, Gendo and his lackey are guilty of crimes against humanity. With Ritsuko as an accessory. Maybe they should all be kept in those cells as the rest of SEELE's plan unveils." And with that, Sheila left the control room.
Chapter 30 – The Last Rest
"The subject is non-responsive to any stimulus. Even shots of pure adrenaline have had no affect,"the female doctor was explaining.
"Yes, she's in a full denial catatonia." Sheila put her hand on Asuka's forehead. "It's a little difficult to correct brain patterns like that. Luckily, I don't have to depend on purely physical means."
The pale, red-haired girl started to blink her eyes as things came into focus. "Another dream?" Asuka rasped out. "Why is my voice so off?"
"Because you've been in a very bad coma due to the attack of an angel upon your psyche. Hi, Asuka. Welcome to the new world," Sheila said happily.
"Aren't you in prison for being an Angel?" the young girl asked in confusion. She sat up creakily, feeling very much like she had been in a bed for weeks. "Or did they let you out for good behavior?"
"No, I broke out to stop the last Angel that was using your Evangelion in an attempt to start Third Impact. Now we just have to deal with the super-secret cabal that wants to start Third Impact to become God. And I'm going a little bit fast, but I think you have some visitors that really want to see you." She turned and gestured at the door just as Shinji opened it.
He was still wearing his plugsuit and the albino behind him was still dripping the yellowish liquid on the ground. "Asuka! I heard that Sheila was going to be helping you," he said happily.
"Oh. Wunder girl and her whitebread side-kick," Asuka complained aloud. So she was quite startled when Shinji grabbed her in a tight hug. She was even more shocked when Rei carefully hugged her, smearing everything in LCL.
"Bwahahaha!" Touji was holding his stomach tightly as he held his stomach and leaned against the door-frame. "You look like you were seeing Pod People!"
Asuka blinked as she took in his form. "Weren't you missing important body parts the last time I saw you?"
"Bonifide miracle-"
"-guilty!" the goddess chirped.
Touji frowned at that from Sheila. "-and me and my Sis have everything working. That was you? I've been hearing some really strange rumors about you."
"Wouldn't be surprised. I helped kill two Angels in hand to hand combat today."
Asuka and Touji just looked at her like she was crazy.
"I really did. And now we need to get you all back up and ready to fight off forces that will want to destroy the world for unimaginable power. Or so they think," Sheila explained carefully.
"But Unit 02 won't respond to me any more," Asuka finally admitted aloud. "I'm worthless."
Shinji just tightened his hug, which got her a small smile. Rei's inept patting on her back got a glare, though.
"Ah..." The Greek descended goddess looked away for a long moment. "That's because you have closed your soul to your Evangelion. There is a secret there. Something that may destroy you, Asuka."
"Now she's going to want to know no matter what," Touji noted in a snide tone.
"For once the head stooge is right. Spit it out, Sheila." The red-head looked more alive each moment of conflict she had with those around her.
"The Evangelions have to have a soul inside their cores to work. The closer the soul is to the pilot, the better. Unit 00 had Naoko Akagi within it. Unit 01-" And here Sheila looked Shinji directly eye to eye, "-has Yui Ikari. Unit 02 has-"
"-Mutter," Asuka whispered in horror.
"What you saw hang herself was only her soulless husk of her body, driven insane without her true self," Sheila tried to say in a soft, comforting tone.
"What about my EVA? Did it have my mother in it?" Touji shouted.
"No, only the original three had specific souls. To be quite truthful, SEELE knew it would be taken over by an Angel, so put no real effort to make sure it would work. If it had succeeded in activating without being taken over, a young girl would have had a sudden medical turn for the worst." Sheila's tone was simple and banal, and horribly, horribly chilling.
"They were going to my my little sister in there? Turn her into-"
"A gigantic machine of war that could only be piloted by you?" she interjected quickly. Sheila then shook her head. "I have to go recover Unit 02 from Terminal Dogma. Rei, if you can accompany me?"
Chapter 31 – The Last Battle
The two half-humans stared at the huge, crucified figure on the cross that dripped LCL in the barely lit darkness.
"You are part of her in a way no other is. And probably, still your future. There will always be the threat of some one killing your current body and then cloning you again," Sheila finally said. She had dropped the disguise, letting her glowing hair light up the area around her.
"I do not know what to say. The Human Instrumentality Project and Evangelion has been my purpose for so long. Should I not follow that is my purpose?" the shorter girl asked.
"No, that's what you were told. That is what they wanted. But no one truly knows their 'purpose.' Not even the gods do. Fate is considered so powerful, that even they worry and fight against. Do you want to destroy everyone? To lose who you are so that you can make everyone no one?"
"Everyone no one? What do you mean?" The albino was looking at goddess carefully.
"Who is Shinji?" Sheila abruptly asks.
That caused Rei to blink in confusion. "He is Shinji Ikari."
"That is his name. Is that all he is? I could change Touji's name to Shinji, but that does not make him Shinji."
"Shinji is caring and cooking Miso soup and-" Rei suddenly had an epiphany. "He is himself."
"Changing moment by moment, never quite sure what he is himself. What would Shinji be if everyone... was no one?"
"I must think upon that. It is troubling."
"We may need the power of an Angel yet to fight against the Mass Production models of Evangelion." Sheila then departed for the elevator back upstairs. She was on a tight schedule. She barely exited the elevator into the command bridge just as Maya looked up from a sensor screen.
"We have a possible contact from the north. It may be the mass production models being prepped for air-drop." Maya looked panicked.
"Alert the pilots to board their EVA," Misato called out.
"We are getting infiltration from the hard-lines from the other MAGI. I can't block them out!" Makoto called out in shock. Aoba hurried over and started to help.
"Misato, permission to start Operation Full Recollection?" the Scion asked as she sat down at a computer console.
"Do it." Misato watched the screen as it started flickering faster than the unaided human eye could follow.
Across the world, different data ports on the MAGI networks opened up as computer operators doing a 'simulation' attack on NERV-1 suddenly realized something very wrong happened as they lost all control.
Firewalls froze or crashed as new code was injected that meshed exactly with the security systems, flowing through like there was nothing to block them out.
"Sir, something is happening. It's like we just were counter-hacked during the simulation," an officer said, turning to the special advisory committee member. "I've never seen anything like it."
"Hey, we're getting a new feed from CNN Japan," another operator came up.
On the screen appeared different camera views of tanks and armored personal carriers with descriptions of illegal military actions to take control of NERV-1. The voice in the background was talking.
"This is just in... United Nations military units in Japan have been purloined into an illegal and unsanctioned attack on NERV-1. New information is arriving almost constantly about a coup being pushed forward by a special advisory committee only known as 'SEELE'."
The SEELE agent blinked at that, even as the computer operators all looked back and forth between the screens and him.
"Cancel the simulation. I think you had better stay right there, Mr. Special Adviser. I think MI5 will want to talk to you," the director of the London branch of NERV said, his gun already out.
"This is an outrage!" the SEELE agent bluffed.
"Then this horrible misunderstanding will be quickly dealt with. By the proper authorities within the United Nations and Great Britain."
Troops were moving forward through the trees and moving closer and closer to NERV Headquarters but kept getting conflicting orders.
"Why the hell are we getting new orders at this late of time?" a captain of the United States Army was yelling. "We're supposed to already be inside and eliminating those EVA pilots."
"Sir! Sir! I've got the Joint Chiefs on the line. He's saying abort the operation as it is unsanctioned by the UN." The communications officer looked scared.
"Did you verify that with the codes?" the captain yelled back.
"Yes, sir! He's on the line right now. He says that we've been infiltrated and those new orders from last night are part of a plot to take over the world."
The captain's headache was growing larger.
High above the mountain pass, gigantic winged carriers flew in loose formation as a United Nations bomber turned away from dropping a massive N2 bomb on the armor over NERV.
The pilot of the lead bomber frowned at that. "I repeat, the armor was not breached. For some reason they aborted the bombing run."
"Continue the attack with the Mass Production EVAs," a strained voice called out through the radio.
"You heard the man. Prepare to deploy EVAs on my mark," the pilot called out.
From the bottom of the black, flying wings white, slug-like shapes eased out and then started to fall. Their backs morphed into a pair of wings, making a mockery of angels everywhere. They slammed into the ground in front of NERVs main entrance.
"Are you ready, Shinji?" Asuka asked within her entry plug. The feeling she was getting from her Eva was one part familiarity and one part pure distress as she realized what she felt. But she had opened her heart. Her EVA functioned again.
"Ready." Shinji basked in the presence on his EVA.
Misato looked over the tactical map. "Launch the EVAs to deployment points 432 and 310. I want you to hit their edge hard."
Electricity sparked on the rails, rocketing the two EVAs upwards. The Mass Production units were starting to carve into one of the access points when Unit 01 and Unit 02 appeared at rocket speeds.
"Let's do it, mother," Shinji called out softly in his entry plug. His sync score was nearly one hundred, as the purple and green behemoth moved as fast as a bullet train.
Across the world, SEELE watched in frustration, then awe as they saw the fully functioning prototype EVA smash into the edge of their forces.
A window appeared in the left outer view of their windows. Misato's face looked pinched and worried, but still in control. "Remember, these are EVA's piloted by clones. Destroy their cores or entry plugs."
"Right," Asuka shouted. "We're a little busy right now! Calls us when you have something important to say." The red EVA Unit 02 body tackled one of its white adversaries right through one of the real buildings. She hoped it was empty. It should, as the evacuation alarms had sounded hours ago. Her progressive knife flipped into the red-armored grip and slammed down into the white EVA's core, shattering it. Asuka had gotten the first kill.
Back in NERV's central control, Sheila was overlooking screens of data that flickered too fast for human eyes to follow. "Misato, we have a problem. Those are duplicates of the Lance of Longinus. Which means they are utterly deadly to AT fields."
"Oh, crap." Misato was opening up the communication panel again. "Asuka, Shinji! Be aware that those lances they carry are duplicates of the Lance of Longinus. They can easily pierce through any AT barrier, just like the original Rei used to slay the telepathic angel Arael!"
"Schiess!" Asuka shouted, changing her block to ducking the swing of her closest foe's weird two-handed, two-ended blade. "You have got to be kidding me!"
"They are still outnumbered four to one. They need help immediately. Misato," Sheila said to the NERV's highest leader, "It was a pleasure knowing you. I'm afraid I'm going to have to intervene in one last battle." In a flicker that streaked off, she was headed to the surface.
Unit 01 had managed to trip one of the Mass Production models and then stabbed it with its own spear.
"Nice to see you are back to being Super-Shinji," Asuka snarked, then screamed as her EVA was stabbed in the back by one of the enemy units.
Deep below NERV, where the last Angel was impaled on a massive cross that had been made by man, Rei Ayanami stood looking at her future. Gendo Ikari had wanted her to join with Lillith and obediently end the world, making all become an unthinking one. But that would have destroyed the one thing in the world she had come to care for, a single individual that was the schemer's son.
"Shinji. I will not let them hurt you. You do not deserve any more pain," she finally declared as she felt the fight reach a new tempo. She floated off the ground and then reached out to touch the palid, white flesh of her unearthly mother. As a bronze and golden armored figure entered the battle above, Lillith absorbed her and sloughed off its cross and into the LCL sea below it, sending waves of orange-red splashing down the corridors of Terminal Dogma.
Asuka gritted her teeth. "Come on, mother. Your daughter needs you." The red EVA stood back up even as she saw Sheila's thirty foot collossus form throw a blood-red energized spear through a Mass Production EVA and shattering its core.
"There's not enough time," Sheila said in a low voice. She could feel her S2 organ fluttering on the edge of failure. In spite of that, or perhapse because of that fluttering, she pulled even more deeply as she fractured her existence ito many part. With a flicker that caused eyes to wonder if they were being tricked, eleven more pygmy goddesses appeared. One of them raised its right hand toward the struggling EVAs, instantly healing the purple-green and the red ones.
Pale, delicate looking hands settled a mono-eyed helmet upon her head, even as the rest of her pale body became covered in the EVA amor. "EVA Unit 00, rising to combat," Rei's voice called out.
"Unit 00 is gone! That isn't possible," Misato shouted. "Ritsuko, what is going on?"
"It's an Angel that has adopted the form of the EVA. It's the final Angel, Lillith. But why look like that?" the scientist asked from her console. She pushed her glasses up on her nose even as she scrubbed her hand through her bleach-blonde hair fitfully.
The three hundred foot tall form of EVA 00 appeared, heading to its normal linear rail system, picking up a pallet gun.
"That's Rei. How can Rei be an Angel?" Aoba shouted out.
"To hell with that, she wants to help. Launch Unit 00 into the theater of battle!" Misato called out, trusting her instincts in this matter.
The final five Mass Production units were being pushed back when one of Sheila's colossus exploded in brilliant light, exploding with the force of an N2 mine and leaving a crater.
Unit 01 and Unit 02 dragged themselves to their feet even as they saw all but one of the goddesses disappear.
"No, not now," the final Sheila muttered even as bronze and steel sublimated off her form. Even her godly apotheosis form was fading, leaving nothing but the demigoddess mortal shell behind... and a rapidly spinning out of control S2 organ. She looked up at the last two EVA in defense and shouted out, "Keep fighting! I've given you a chance!" with a desperate last lurch of her will, transmitted through her wildly dilated eyes, she ignited their warrior spirits.
Later it would be noted that it was lucky her S2 organ was only three inches across, so the explosion was only in the kiloton rating, cratering the armor of the Geofront and sending all seven EVA flying.
Asuka groaned even as she stood her mother's EVA back up. "Shinji? Come on, we need to finish the fight." She looked over to see that his EVA, unlike her own, had hit the side of an unforgiving mount, shattering its armor. "Just like a boy to leave the real work up to me," she complained in worry.
Three of the Mass Production, slug-like EVAs were still functional even as the last two regenerated their damage from their craters. One of them threw its double-bladed weapon at her. Midway toward her it morphed into its true form, a Spear of Longinus. Desperately, Asuka tried to deflect it while dodging, doing neither quite correctly.
But it was enough to allow the spear to only rip through her EVA's shoulder in agonizing pain.
"Schiess!" he hissed out angrily.
A massive armored door, covering one of the EVA egress points, suddenly exploded as an armored fist knocked it into the lower stratosphere. "Pilot Asuka, let us destroy these mockeries and end this fight," it said with Rei's voice across the communication system.
"About damn time you got here," the red-headed shouted, totally forgetting that Unit 00 no longer existed. "Super-Shinji is out of it so its up to us to actually save the day."
"Yes," Rei replied simply as Unit 00 appeared to empty its pallet-rifle into the nearest Mass production. Its AT Field was negated by the Mother's power, allowing the weapon to shred his torso and cracking its S2 organs.
Unit 02 grabbed another copy of the spear, charging forward into melee to slam three massive attacks that staggered a second Mass Production back and broke through its guard. With a shriek, she stabbed it through its core, ending its threat even as she ducked under the third one's swing that would have chopped her head off. With her sync score over one hundred, she barely wanted to contemplate what would happen to her.
The last three charged in unison driving Unit 02 back with a double-team of double-sword attacks, even as Lillith-Rei was forced to dodge, as she did not have a melee weapon. That cost her as she was forced to sacrifice an arm to keep her own S2 core from being destroyed.
A literally earth-shattering roar erupted from the purple behemoth as Shinji's fogged brain saw two of the most important people in his life fighting for their life... and seemingly losing. His will forging with his mother's, the EVA stood back up and then charged forward on all limbs to tackle the Mass Production EVA that was about to destroy the blue EVA-looking Angel.
Mighty fists pounded down pounded down as the unshackled jaw ripped and tore at the Angel as the purple mayhem smashed the slug-like EVA until fists started to rain down destruction upon its exposed S2 core.
Lillith-Rei had regenerated her arm and then slashed into the left Mass Production EVA that was double-teaming Asuka with one of the replicant spears.
Cross-hairs finally lined up while the red EVA struggled spear to spear with the last Mass Production, letting her fire Unit 02's shoulder spikes into its face. With a massive twirl, she bisected her angel as Lillith-Rei smashed the entry plug (and neck) of her foe.
Unit 01 roared in a primal fashion, turning his gaze upon the last two combatants on the field.
"You had better not be planning on attacking me," Asuka shouted, trying to open a com window.
With a massive huff it slowly strode forward, slowly calming down.
"Shinji," Rei said softly. "Where is Sheila? She can calm the beast down."
The red-head girl in her EVA sent it looking over towards the center of the blast-crater, where layers of melted armor showed. "Rei, Sheila blew up. It looked like she lost control of her S2 organ."
"No. That's not possible," Rei exclaimed as she ripped off the prototype helmet to show her red eyes. Her outer form sloughed off the fake armor she had crafted with her AT field even as her form started to shrink.
"Was ist das?" Asuka shrieked as she took in the EVA turn into an Angel that then turned into a very naked albino girl.
"Sheila! Sheila!" the blue-haired girl cried out.
"She's dead you crazy clone!" Asuka screamed out. "What are you doing?"
"How can she be dead?" Shinjia finally asked as recovered control of himself. The cracked and battered form of Unit 01 walked over to the crater.
That was when a blinding light appeared in the air, traversing a path that burned in the sky, looping and cornering in a geometric pattern. Finally it finish up at a center point right above the two EVAs and one angel-human hybrid. With a flash...
...it just disappeared.
Epilogue
Shinji sat uncomfortably in his new steel-gray military uniform in the old command center on the lower level. He had wondered why Misato had always hated it, know he had too much information. He looked over at Asuka and Rei wearing the skirted verison as they stood at attention in front a row of United Nations brass and diplomats looking down there
"Brigadier General Katsuragi, are you ready to resume command?" the American general demanded, his voice translated by a PDA clipped to his uniform.
"I stand ready to resume command," the promoted officer called out. She too was wearing the new uniform of the United Nation Evangelion Army.
"Then, with the powers invested in my by the authority of the United Nations Security Council and the Japanese Defense Force, you are hereby directed to take command. Ready yourself, general." He snapped off a salute and then turned to walk off.
"Man, what a drag to have them looking over our shoulders," Asuka whined quietly.
"I do have to admit some discomfort with their oversight," Rei replied quietly.
Shinji just gave them a shy smile. "But Misato is back in command."
"Yeah, I came off as a big hero that helped save the world instead of a stupid schmuck that was almost tricked into destroying it. My lawyers did a good job defending me, though," the older woman said as she relaxed. "Oh, I was going to let you know that Toji should be back after visiting his family in the northern prefectures."
"That's good. I wish we did not have to pilot the Evangelions any more," Shinji said.
"Better us than anyone else that could be drafted, Third Child," Asuka said derisively.
"There are no more Children, Sub-Lieutenant Soryu. And considering the only EVAs that are under UN control are here and will only respond to you two, it makes perfect sense. And hey, you get a good pay raise," Misato said then sigh. She leaned against one of the consoles. "I have to run. More meetings with the new staff."
"You don't need to push yourself so far, Misato. You're going to burn yourself out," Shinji said worriedly.
"I just- After Ritsuko-" the older woman said. At that point, she could not continue.
The witch hunt for the members of SEELE and NERV that had been behind the audacious attempt of Instrumentality had been long and intense, as the world finally realized how close it had come to being made extinct. Brutal, barely legal means had been used to extract names and contact points from Gendo Ikari, Kouzou Fuyutsuki and Ritsuko Akagi. They were then convicted in public for crimes against humanity and the last execution of the younger scientist had barely been last week.
It appeared that even her valuable skills in the biomechanical war-machines had not saved her.
"You should come home today," Rei said softly. "We need you, too."
"I'll see." With that, she headed off to her first meeting.
Shinji blew out a loud breath. "I still don't think its fair we have to go to school."
"I'm a college graduate!" Asuka looked totally steamed.
"We are going to a military academy." Rei did not think anything unusual about that fact. She was used to letting others decide her fate. And in this case, even with her new found sense of self, she could not disagree.
"Come on, guys. Let's go home."