Chapter 4: The Explanation
The NERV group was waiting in a large hall in front of an equally large, and highly decorated, doorway with Kaji and Toji for what had seemed to be an hour. Asuka, naturally, got tired of waiting.
"What are we waiting for? Why can't we go in already?" Asuka hadn't really been in a good mood in years and today was a particularly bad day.
Kaji sighed, putting up with one Asuka (and D and Toji, who rarely showed tempers, but whose apparent lack of emotion, and D's stubbornness, caused the occasional frustration) was bad enough, now he was going to have to put up with two (and occasionally D and Toji). "We have to wait for D and the others to return, first. Trust me when you learn what you're about to, your going to wish you hadn't, so enjoy your blissful ignorance." Asuka didn't say anything, though her scowl showed what she thought of being ignorant.
Everyone else looked down at the floor, walls or ceiling. Well not really "looked," each was too busy trying to make heads or tails of what had been happening to notice anything. First they were attacked by SEELE, then they got sucked into a freaky tunnel of color, then they landed on concrete (or in water) outside some unknown place, then they meet three guys who either look like dead or crippled friends, then they were attacked by "ghouls," then they flew all the way to "Albion" (formerly England) in an old fashion, propeller plane, then they were driven all the way up to what seemed to be a castle on a lush, green hill, and now they were waiting for something they didn't want outside an obviously important room. It was all a little much to take in.
Just then, the door on the other end of the hall opened and in walked D with the three hooded figures. "You took five minutes longer than you should have," Toji commented.
D simply shrugged and said "We grabbed a bite, be thankful it only took us five minutes."
"Speaking of which, take this and wipe your mouth," said one of the figures, holding out a handkerchief. The NERV group gasped: the girl's voice was just like Rei's! Her hand looked like Rei's too.
D mentally screamed at her. They had been hoping to explain the way things were before the introductions were made. It was also a very annoying way for her to wreck the plan. "Yes, Mom," he said, taking the handkerchief anyway and wiping the tiny bit of red something that no one else had noticed from his mouth.
It was then Asuka got over her shock, and tarted yelling at the four for making them wait. Normally Misato would have disapproved of Asuka's behavior, but she was in a bad mood, so she joined in too. The same went for Dr. Akagi. Shinji, Maya, and Kohzoh just stood back looking embarrassed, and Gendo and Rei just stood back.
That was the plan was ruined, though not by the hooded Rei. The cloaked Asuka confronted all three of them. "Hey! Nobody insults my brother in front of me!" While her devotion to her sibling was to be appreciated, her outburst caused her hood to fall back, revealing her face.
Then the cloaked Rei pulled hers and the cloaked Shinji's hoods back, revealing their faces as well. "Wha-? What did you do that for?" the unveiled Shinji yelled.
"Seth has already ruined everything, so I see no point in carrying on this charade," she answered.
The NERV group simply stood in stunned silence. Then their Rei asked "Why do you look like us?" That relieved everyone of their silence.
"Yeah that's right! How come you've got my face?" Asuka yelled at her look alike.
"And why do you look like Kaji?" Misato asked, well, Kaji.
"Well, you see . . . " Kaji began, scratching the back of his head. Luckily that was when they heard Misato's voice from the other side of the doors.
"You can come in now."
Everyone turned to look at the doors. "All right," NERV Asuka said. "Time to get to the bottom of this." She then marched to the doors and flung them open.
Everyone from NERV gasped at what they saw: Misato (in a large red gown) sitting behind a desk, Dr. Akagi standing to the left of her, a transparent Maya standing next to her, a man with blue eyes and long, blond hair holding a long, black cane to the right of Misato, a man with long, brown hair and blue eyes (wearing a gold pendant and no shirt) next to him, a woman with black hair and blue eyes beside him, a teenage girl with red hair and blue eyes beside her, a young boy with blond hair and red eyes next to her, a teenage girl with short, black hair and brown eyes next to her, a teenage boy with orange hair and brown eyes (half staring at the group, half out the window), a tall teen with curly, brown hair and brown eyes, a girl with long orange hair (with hair clips in it) and black eyes, and, finally, a teenage boy with black hair and blue eyes. Then Kohzoh dryly remarked "So, where are the guys who look like me and Ikari?"
The Misato behind the desk smiled darkly. "Yours," she said, pointing to Kohzoh, "is currently in a box six feet under." Kohzoh responded with a grim smile of his own. "Your's," she said switching to Gendo, "is currently very much alive and is a leading member in the government." Gendo simply blinked.
"I guess he did something annoying today," D remarked, looking over at the group of people on the right.
Shinji and company turned and looked. There, across from Misato (gown wearing one), was a dart board with a picture of Gendo attached to it. Several darts were in the picture.
Misato ( behind the desk) gave an embarrassed smile. "Yeah, I like to do that when the idiot gets on my nerves."
"Okay, enough small talk!" the non-cloaked Asuka yelled. "Why the Hell are we here, what's going on, and why do you guys look like us?"
"And our friends too," the NERV Misato added.
"Well," the Dr. Akagi said, looking a little flustered. "Have you ever read Einstein's theory about dimensions?"
"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeees," The Ritsuko in the lab coat said. "Wait! You mean when we got sucked into that hole, we got sent to another dimension?" That gave the whole NERV group uncomfortable. Even Gendo and Rei were a bit unnerved (hee, hee), not that they showed it much, of course.
"Yes, but that's not just it," the Dr. Akagi in black said, becoming more nervous by the minute. Shinji and the other NERV members noticed the others were becoming nervous as well. Even the Rei in the cloak and D were looking a little uncomfortable. Toji was the only one who looked completely calm.
"Ahhh," kohzoh said. "Just what else is there to it?"
"Let me put it this way," the transparent Maya said. "How long do you think it took you to get here?"
Every one of the NERV members felt queasy. "Twenty seconds?" the un cloaked Asuka said, without much hope.
"Try over 553 decades, hot head!" D's parasite said with a snicker.
"What the-" the NERV Maya said.
"His hand just spoke," the uncloaked Rei said, with just a little bit of disbelief in her voice.
D glared at the symbiote (Technically the creature could be defined as either a parasite or a symbiote: it all depends on whether or not the creature takes control of its host, or does something else nasty.). "I thought I told you to keep yourself concealed if you can help it."
The parasite grinned. "Well, since your relations just revealed themselves, I though I'd join in the fun. He, he, he, heee-Oomph." he cried as D once again slammed his hand into the wall. "Be quiet," he said (or should I say, growled).
"He is right ,though," the cloaked Shinji said. "You guys are now in the year 2550."
Everyone from NERV dropped their jaws in perfect unity. "25... 50?" Misato asked in disbelief.
Her look like behind the desk nodded sadly. "Yes and I'm afraid there's more to it than just that. Ritsuko, would you please explain," she said turning to the Dr. Akagi to her right.
The doctor nodded to her friend. Then, she pulled out what looked like a keyboard from her jacket. She pressed a few of the keys and the lights in the room dimmed and a holographic Earth began to spin around in the center of the room. The NERV group gasped in awe at the technology. The Dr. Akagi with the keyboard began to explain. "Okay, listen up. One of the greatest differences between our world's are the creatures that inhabit it. The only sentient creatures in your world are humans."
"That's not true," NERV Shinji said. "The angels seem to be just as intelligent as we are."
"That's because the Angels are just humans who gave up their human form, Shinji," Misato said. She hung her head. "Sorry, I meant to tell you, but I never got the chance."
"It's okay, "Shinji said, putting his hand over Asuka's mouth to stop her from screaming at Misato. What they really needed right now was information.
"Right, well, as I was saying," The Ritsuko in black said. "The only sentient creatures in your world are humans. In this world, there are also fairies. Yes, fairies do exist here," she said when the NERV group gasped, " and so does magic, alchemy, and psychic powers. There are eight races of fairy and a few sub-races." Dr. Akagi hit a button and the holographic earth changed into a green humanoid.
"The first are elves. There are two kinds: dark elves and Atlantean elves. The dark elves live underground. Atlantean elves live in the underwater city of Atlantis. Yes, that exists too. Well, used to exist, actually. It was destroyed almost three thousand years ago, most of it is under one of the ports. They both look basically the same: short (the tallest elf ever was four and half feet tall), green humanoids with pointed ears and hooked noses. Atlantean elves, though, also have webbed hands and feet, and possess gills in addition to their lungs." She then hit a few keys and the image changed to that of a small, bearded man.
"This is a dwarf. They are extremely sun-sensitive, a burn time of less than three minutes. That's not really a problem, though, as dwarves like to dig, a lot. Well, dig isn't exactly the right way to put it. You see, they eat dirt . . . and bugs and vegetables. A dwarf's hair is actually a sonar system. It also curls at signs of danger and around captured insects." More keys were pushed and the dwarf turned into a short human with pointed ears.
"As you can see, pixies are the most humanoid ones. They have, however, large brains and intellects. This is actually a bit of a disadvantage, sense pixies have thin skulls. The only noticeable differences between pixies and elves are the noses (regular shaped), height (they're smaller than elves), complection (pixies have human-colored skin), and tempers (pixies are far more patient than elves are known to be)." She changed the image to what looked like a winged elf.
"This is a sprite, otherwise known as 'God's green-skinned gift to the opposite sex.' They seem to think that having wings makes them irresistible. They are the only race of fairy with wings, only dark sprites can fly, however. Water sprites, like Atlantean elves, are swimmers. It's easy to tell between the two; dark sprites have translucent, insect-like wings, and water sprites have bat-like wings. Oh, by the way, sprite wings aren't like bird wings. They are actually major organs, containing seven major arteries each." The figure changed to a small, bulky humanoid.
"This is a gnome. They are very small, smaller than pixies. They are also more muscular than most fairies, though very slow. They are also almost as stubborn as elves are. That's really all there is to say. These next three are less humanoid than the others are," Dr. Akagi said as she pressed some keys. The image became a small, green figure.
"This is a goblin," she said.
"Otherwise known as "Nature's big, practical joke on us all," the hooded Asuka said.
"Huh. What does that mean," NERV Misato asked.
The cloaked redhead answered her. "It's simple: take the world's stupidest beings, and give them the ability to hurl fireballs."
"THEY CAN WHAT?" her counterpart yelled.
"Just what she said I'm afraid," the Dr. Akagi in black said. "Goblins are pyrokinetic, they can start fires with their thoughts, naturally also they're flame-proof. As to the part of their intelligence, it has been scientifically proven that goblins are barely any more intelligent than rats.
They are covered in green scales that they shed annually. They also have forked tongues that they use to moisten their lidless eyes." Every member of NERV was thinking one word: Snakes. The doctor switched to a horned creature that looked like a horse with a man growing out of its neck.
"This is a centaur. Centaurs rival pixies as the most intelligent race of fairy and are some of the strongest. They have no magical abilities, however, with the exception of a small few. Yes, I know they don't really look like fairies, but the last group look even less fairylike." She switched the hologram to that of a large creature, with horns, claws, and a tail.
"This is a demon, not the kind that come from Hell, but still pretty bad. They start out as imps, red-eyed, grey elves. They get the size, claws, horns, and tail when they hit puberty. Only the ones with magic stay imps. "This number is only a little larger than the number of magical centaurs."
"Wait," NERV Shinji exclaimed. "What about those 'ghouls." The other NERV members agreed with him.
"Well . . . " the doctor started. Then an alarm went off on the Misato in red's desk.
"We've got a new assignment. Huh, hey this is in Hungary, just a few miles South of where Tanis lives." She began to smile. "Well then, I guess we'll just have to send you guys along. Tanis is the best person to give you that story."