Grace had been wandering the halls of CREED for hours now. There didn't seem to be anyone else around.
"They must all be busy in the command center itself." she thought to herself.
"Probably preparing for another Angel attackā¦"
She knew that Toji had taken large portions of the staff to prepare the positron cannon in case an angel came before Eva unit D could be repaired. They weren't gonna send the other units in if the squad was undermanned. Not after what they had seen during the last attack. She kicked hard against a vending machine in the hallway and a small candy bar managed to fall out. She didn't have to do that, she easily had enough on her card to buy several four course meals. She just got in moods like this sometimes.
"You know, damaging CREED property is punishable by jail time."
Grace turned around quickly and saw Kensuke behind her, balanced on a pair of crutches and with bandages around his lower jaw. He was worse off than she had thought. He gave her a big grin that told her he had just been playing with her.
"What's a cripple like you doing in a potential danger area like this?"
Grace kicked the machine again, getting another bar and dropping it into the front pocket of Kensuke's shirt.
"Just felt useless in the hospital, and at least now I have time off to look at all the awesome military tech they keep around here."
Grace shook her head, she would never understand Kensuke and his obsession with this sort of stuff. To her the tech not pertaining to the Evas was just obsolete.
"How's everything going around here anyways?"
It was a bit of a rhetorical question. The quiet could only mean that everyone was hard at work. If you knew the jokers they had around here, quite meant that things were seriously bad. They hadn't been ready for the Angels. There had even been thought of proposing a ban on Evas to the UN in the next few years. They were just too dangerous...
"Oh you know, nothing but peace and quiet."
Kensuke started hobbling off in the direction of the vehicle bay, but he stopped after only a few feet and turned around
"Tell Toji I said hi, okay? He hasn't wanted to see me too much recently."
Grace only nodded at him as he turned the corner. It must be hard on Kensuke, Toji had been his best friend, and now he was old enough to be his dad. She leaned against the wall and ate the candy she had 'stolen'. Nothing to do now but wait for the call. She had a feeling that something was gonna happen today.
Asuka sat back down in her seat at the security council table. Only the Canadian Prime Minister had actually been able to make it physically on such short notice. The other members were represented by holographic images.
"Thank you Miss Soryu. We will take your organization's statements into account when we create our plan of action. You may leave for now. We will call you if you are needed again." Finished the British Prime Minister.
Asuka didn't hate the British Prime Minister, she just wished he'd take CREED a little more seriously. She had a sneaking suspicion that he thought they were just trying to emulate SEELE. Nonetheless, she bowed and left the room. She had a car waiting for her outside, but she decided to stay around for awhile in case those idiots needed some more clarification. She sat in the main lobby of the CREED building in Ottawa. It was a nice little thing. Not as large as the main headquarters, but then again it didn't have any Eva to store. It was mostly used for political purposes, being the face of CREED in the public eye.
"Hey!"
Asuka knew the cry was for her before she even looked up. The voice was older now, but no less identifiable. She drew herself up to prepare for what was to come next. The now former Commander grabbed her around the middle and held tightly. She'd missed her hugs.
"Asuka, why didn't you tell me you were gonna be in town? I would have put aside time if you'd said!"
Misato had left CREED just a short time ago. She'd decided after all those years that she couldn't command an Eva to go into battle against a human with a clear consciousness. So she had joined the UN branch, dealing with those who came back from instrumentality. She was in charge of making sure that the area wasn't attacked by any sort of religious she was missed, everyone agreed that Shinji had made up for her absence.
"I'm sorry Misato, I would have if I'd anticipated being kicked out of my own meeting while they bicker about some irrelevant political crap."
Misato laughed a little at that. Asuka had changed a bit, but she knew her temper was still there. She guessed Misato had changed more. Her hair was mostly gray now, and her once coveted sex appeal had been mostly lost to wrinkles. The thought made her sigh, Misato was fifty four now, and Asuka couldn't say that the years had been good to her.
"Well, why don't we go and get some coffee if you're not busy?"
Metatron walked through the streets of Moscow. He had a very different drive than other Angels: while they wanted to destroy mindlessly or were drawn to Adam, he just wanted to observe. He had fashioned himself a human body with which to do this. It was believable so long as nobody saw his eyes. He had far too many of those.
"Hey, watch out asshole!"
He filed those words away, as well as the context of their usage and the emotions which brought them out. He supposed he hadn't been paying attention and had bumped into the guy, but he didn't really care. He had a purpose. Today he was going to observe something important.
Keel Lorenz sat in a chair with a phone in front of him. He had just gotten off the phone with the remaining members of SEELE. There were things which needed to be done, and he only had so many loyal followers left.
"If you'd only come to me sooner maybe I wouldn't have sold out so many of them yet."
He spoke to the Angel. Though Cherubim was not physically present, he was sure that it had heard him. The motives of his illusive ally had still not been made clear. The Angel wanted Keel to bring SEELE back from the dead so that they could begin orchestrating things from behind the scenes again. Those were the only 'orders' the Angel had passed down, and Keel hated having to follow them. Not because he disagreed with them, but because he was not a man who had ever had to follow another's commands. He had come from old money and it had made power easy to come by. But that was gone now, he had to bide his time and try to ensure the Angel came through with it's end of the bargain and provided unit 01. He would have to ask Cherubim how it had come by the Eva... He was under the impression it was floating somewhere in space.
There was someone else in the building. Now that Keel had his implants back, or at least something very similar, he was picking up on small sounds and disturbances much easier than most humans could. There was a thin man standing in a corner of the room. He must have been incredibly skilled to have evaded Keel for this long. The man wore a light brown hoodie covering the top half of his face and a pair of dark grey cargo pants. There was something odd about him, but Keel couldn't place it.
"Who are you?" The old man stood up from his chair.
"Be not afraid Keel Lorenz. I am not your enemy."
Taken aback for a moment that this man knew his name, Keel was quick to remind himself that he was known by most of the world as a genocidal maniac.
"If you aren't my enemy then what are you doing here?"
"I have come to impart knowledge unto you. The next Angel will appear soon, and I would hate for you to miss the spectacle."
"Sir, we've got a definite appearance north east of our position."
"It's been confirmed blood type blue!"
"All scans conclusive, it's an Angel."
"Sir, the target is now moving quickly over land towards CREED!"
The Commander (he was never Shinji at work) sat down and looked over the numerous monitors positioned around the room
"Time until arrival?"
"Ten minutes Sir."
Enough time to launch the Evas, but he'd rather not if it could be avoided.
"Is the positron cannon ready?"
"Three minutes until the weapon is primed Sir."
Good. No need to send the Evas. Kensuke was still in no shape to pilot in a mobile operation, and there was no way he was going to send the Evas as anything other than a last resort.
"I want Units A and B ready and waiting. But do not launch without my direct orders. You have the floor Chief."
Toji stepped in and started barking preparation orders to the staff. They had just enough time to prepare themselves for this attack. They wouldn't let any civilians get hurt, the casualties had been far too high last time. It was just dumb luck that most people had been at some sort of festival on the other side of the city from where the Angel attacked.
"Cannon ready, firing!"
Toji pressed the big red button he'd installed into his desk. It was little more than a secondary enter key to press after inputting the command. But it seemed to give him some sort of satisfaction.
The Angel was on screen now. It was a large quadrupedal thing almost like a dog without a head. It also had a pair of arms coming up from either side of it resulting in a total of eight limbs. The closest thing to a face the Commander could make out were eyes on the palm of each hand.
"Impact!"
