Neon Genesis Evangelion

Majestic : False Prophets

Copyright notice: Characters featured in the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise are copy right Hideko Anno and Gainax. This is a non commercial fan fiction.

Chapter 2: Sabotage Provocateur

In the years following the Second Impact, the UN somehow managed to keep nations from tearing themselves apart. Part of that miracle involved the creation of the Gehirn research agency to develop new and supposedly exciting technologies to benefit mankind. Most countries that could signed on to the project, figuring that at least they can keep their respective populations productively occupied. As some government think tanks might of said, a busy people are not a rioting people.

Most of the world didn't know the exact purpose of the quiet agency. It was originally envisioned to be staffed fully by UN personnel, and by extension, loyal to Seele. That plan when out the window when they had trouble finding qualified people to run things. In the end, they had to resort to contracting to American companies, who enjoyed a boom of scientific knowledge and was spared the worse of the Impact. Added to the considerable influence the American government still had, most of the companies sent to Gehirn were from the US. Of these companies, the largest and most trusted with the truth of Gehirn's Evangelion research was a company called Technology Group and Research Union, also called TechGRU.

Geherin Test Lab at Hakone Japan, August 12 2004

The 'elphantman cage' , as the TechGRU technicians took to calling it, was buzzing with activity today. The massive Test Type Evangelion, dubbed Unit 01, was being prepared to it's first activation. TechGRU had complained about skipping over the Unit 00 Prototype that they worked on but gave in to Director Gendo Ikari's, and likely Doctor Yui Ikari, order to focus on getting Unit 01 up and running. TechGRU was justifiably annoyed as they didn't have as much to do with Unit 01's development and construction, so they were moving through the process very slowly to make sure they didn't make a mistake.

It would end up taking nearly two weeks to figure out what had gone wrong that day...

Dr. Yui Ikari was already in the entry plug and was bringing the Unit 01's computer core online. She had build and rebuild this core hundreds of times it felt and still couldn't shake the habit of looking at the debugging code stream across the portable monitor next to her. She deliberately kept the contractor scientists out of development of the core because she suspected that they would figure out the sub routine that she was going to run in a few minutes. She looked out the view screen of the plug to see the observation deck where the Gehirn staff was watching. Her husband was watching the Unit 01, guiding their toddler son to the window to see the giant robot. She again felt her heart sink at the sight, but steeled her self again with the though that this was necessary and will give her son, and everyone, a chance at real happiness.

The routine began to start up at last. As she expected, the Gehirn and TechGRU staff were scrambling to stop the contact experiment. It was going to be futile, she knew. Everything was planned out to make sure this was going to happen. Before she felt the first of herself being pulled into the Evangelion's core, she whispered to herself, "Goodbye Shinji, Goodbye Ge-"

She heard it at the last second, the sound of several hard drives and beeping. As her vision started to slip into blackness, she saw it as she turned her head and saw someone had snuck in a small computer behind the plug's drive system. It had started up when the plug was turned on. It was also connected to the plug's drives. This meant that was ever was in it was also feeding into the core. Just as she passed out she could make out a dull red embalm on the box. She recognized the logo from before...

"That bast-"

Two weeks later

Dr Ericson, the senior TechGRU scientist, placed the rust colored device on Gendo's desk. It was barely larger than a couple decks of cards in size. It seemed that this color made it hard to notice at first, as it wasn't much darker than the experimental LCL. The size and color helped to hide it for a week until they were dismantling the entry plug to figure out what happened. It took another week to pound out a theory of what it would possibly be for.

"The drives are made of some kind of biodegradable material. They were in bad shape when we found it. It probably would fall apart in another 72 hours," Ericson shoved his hands in his pockets. TechGRU and Gehirn had been infighting since the incident and the only thing keeping the facility from tearing itself apart was Gendo. Things were particularly tense between Naoko and the core engineers.

With his hands steepled to hide his mouth, he simply looked at the offending device as he spoke, "Do we know what this thing was doing?"

"Injecting data into the core. It was trying to overwrite the start up routines. Looks like it banged against a sub routine and it went to hell about there. Director...the subroutine isn't part of the core OS. At least not compared to Unit 00."

Naoko glared and was about to defend the design, but she saw the slight movement in Gendo's shoulders. He wasn't interested in bickering, "What does this subroutine have to do with anything?"

"Well if I'm correct, it would of caused a synchronization between doctor Ikari and Unit 01 at a high rate. The computer models we ran suggest the overload of sensory information would of literally fried her brain...it even suggested a possible breakdown of her body. Rapid decomposition, Gendo. This test would of killed her."

Gendo didn't move an inch, he simply stared at the rust colored box. This act of sabotage just might of saved his wife's life. But it also set a chain of events. He already sent word to the second research branch in Germany to halt their activation and inspect everything. Naoko Akagi, was already working on an alternate system for the core. TechGRU was already trying to certify the core system they were building in Unit 00 and a second prototype they were developing at their headquarters in America.

The damage to the Ikari family was already done. Gendo had his son, Shinji, sent out of Hakone the day after the activation disaster under the concern that someone was targeting Gehirn staff. Nothing more was said of Yui, and soon after that, people even believed she had died at the experiment. Gendo continued to move on and lead the project at Gehirn, not showing any sign that anything was different.

Gehirn Test Lab, Evangelion holding cage 2

"Look, Gendo, my bosses are going ahead with the proposal. The system we designed has already gone to IPEA for evaluation and it's time to start thinking about who is going to support these machines when they deploy."

Ericson was delivering the news that TechGRU wanted to bring tactical analysts to Gehirn when the Evangelion were brought into service. The security and intelligence branch of Gehirn was understandably upset, but TechGRU was trying to put out that fire themselves. Ericson had to make his case before they got to the command box in the cages. Gendo's interest was more on today's test activation of the prototype Unit 00 and wouldn't be bothered with anything else when that started.

When they got to the box, it was a scene of chaos. One technician was on the phone to get Gehirn technicians to come down. Another was yelling to make sure no one ejected any LCL from the Evangelion or it's entry plug.

"What's going on?"

One of the technicians looked up, "It's Dr Akagi ...she force activated Unit 00 from inside the plug. You...you have to see this." He pulled up the video of the entry plug for Gendo and Ericson. They saw Naoko climbing into the plug, wearing an environmental suit similar to what anyone was wearing in the cage area. But as soon as she climbed in, she closed the plug and appeared to be going through the start up. In her hand was a palm top computer she plugged into the piloting yoke. After a few keystrokes, the plug filled with LCL and the unit activated. They watched as she disintegrated into the LCL.

"What the...the entry plug is ejecting itself! Cut the power, cut the-"

It was too late. Unit 00, on it's own, had ejected the plug and dumped the LCL that was in the entry plug.

It took about a month to clear out Dr Akagi's office and finally discover what her Ayanami project was about.

Time unknown, Gehirn Test lab, infirmary

Since the experiment, Yui slipped in and out of consciousness. When she was awake, there was a loud whistling and everything seemed to move in slow motion. It was hard to make out faces and voices. She thinks she saw Gendo at one point. But tonight the sensation was more surreal as the voice seemed to echo around her. It wasn't booming, but the rumbling felt like it could seep into her bones.

"I had warned you, and still you did not want to wait. Now do you see the truth? Do you see what they want and who they will cast aside to get it? I have another option for you, all you need to do is accept it. Accept this truth and all will be set free."

Yui slowly pulled her self up to try and see the source of the voice. The room was nearly pitch black, but it stave off the waves of nausea and vertigo like sensation. She started to recognize the voice from that trip to the United States. When she was approached by him. He knew what she was working on and wanted her to join his side, another way he called it.

She looked around the room, fighting back the bile that was rising in her throat. It was too dark to see anything at all. She started to tremble slowly, but not out of fear or illness. She could feel it in the back of her mind. She could feel an empty feeling, as if she was hollowed out somehow.

"You ignored my warnings, Yui. And now the price of your arrogance. Welcome to my world, child. Try not to fall into a suicidal despair."

Notes:

This the last of the currently planned 'pre-series' chapters. Both chapters are setup for the changes I wanted to inflict. I still have more 'influencing' events but they will be woven into the more current time line.

The title was inspired from the phrase 'agent provocateur,' which is used to indicate a person who would incite one side to act against another, but he worked for the other side. Check out Wikipedia for a better description and examples.

I'm still working out how the formatting of works. But the best viewing is in a 8" inch width (that's how my copy of open office is set up).

Also, send your emails if you got them to DreamsNightmaresAT (at sign) . The formatting of the website seems to have stripped the actual at sign.