Till All are One

Summary: Their war, our world. Some have come to protect us. The rest have come to destroy us. What neither side knew is that we knew they were coming. The battle begins again, and we are ready to fight back.

Chapter 3: Sins of Our Fathers

NERV Command, Tokyo 3

"Report," Commander Ikari ordered from behind his folded hands, unfazed by his cold, empty office.

The only other person in the room, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, Head of Project E, nodded. "After Pilot Ikari went unconscious, Unit 01 activated. It drained the LCL from the cockpit, using it to heal its elbow before butchering the target. After the target self destructed, Unit 01 proceeded to one of the entrance shafts, but not before stopping to look at a car on the side of the road.
We're not sure what happened, but somehow the Eva… changed." She moved forward and placed a photo on his desk. "This was the Eva before the battle." She placed another photo over it, "This is the Eva now."

Gendo's eyebrows rose in surprise at what he saw, "Interesting."

Tranquility High School, Tranquility 2

"Will Samuel James Whitwicky please report to the office."

Sam sighed and stood. So far as he knew, he hadn't done anything wrong. Maybe Trent told a lie to get him in trouble again. It wouldn't be the first time.

"I want to see your report tomorrow, Sam," the teacher called as he headed for the door.

"No problem," he replied. The report was on his grandfather's grandfather, Captain Archibald Whitwicky, a man who somehow managed to outlive both his son and grandson while locked up in an asylum. Thankfully, he died during Second Impact. He had suffered enough.

He entered the office to see a man in a suit sitting down, a briefcase in his lap. The man turned to the principal, "I need to talk to him privately." The principal glared, but left anyway. "My name is Simmons, Sam. I'm with Sector 7, Advanced Research and Security. Have a seat. This could take a while."

Sam sat down, never once taking his eyes off Simmons. "What do you want?"

Simmons opened up his case and began setting up a laptop. "While you deserve to know this, Sam, you must understand that everything I say after this is Top Secret. You can't tell anyone. Your ancestor, Archibald Whitwicky made an important discovery the day he went insane. After exploring the Arctic Circle for years, he wanted to take one last adventure before he died. He chose to go to Antarctica, to try to reach the South Pole. In his insanity, he constantly mentioned a…"

"Giant Ice Man, I know," Sam interrupted. "What does this have to do with me?"

"Everything, don't interrupt," Simmons said. "This is where things get classified. Captain Whitwicky did find a Giant Ice Man. The discovery was classified Top Secret, and studies began. Every precaution was taken, in case this Giant Ice Man woke up, and wasn't friendly. Things went wrong in 2000 though. The official story is that a meteor struck Antarctica, melting it. In reality, Antarctica was accidentally destroyed by the military in as a last resort to stop the big guy when he did wake up. The Giant Ice Man had practically destroyed the entire facility before the detonation occurred. The explosion was never meant to be that strong. We underestimated the impact the Spear would have."

"Spear?" Sam asked.

"It was given several names. Excalibur¸ Lance of Longinus, Spear of Doom; it was reverse engineered from the Giant Ice Man's weapons, and was turned against him when he began destroying things. The energy output was several times greater than calculated."

"How do you know that the Giant Ice Man wasn't just afraid of us?" Sam asked.

"I knew you were going to ask that," Simmons said. "A satellite managed to recover some audio files during the breakout." He hit a key on his laptop.

"We're losing him."

"Infidels! I will crush you!"

"Cover fire!... Look out!"

"Let me go! Get him off me!"

"You will die, when I tire of your screams."

Simmons stopped the recordings. "Obviously, being friendly was the last thing on his mind. He intended to destroy us all. The last thing the satellite managed to pick up was a signal the Ice Man sent right as he was destroyed. He was summoning others here, to destroy us. One was already repelled in Tokyo 3."

"I heard about that," Sam said. "The army failed, and it was stopped by another robot."

"The other robot was one of ours," Simmons explained. "Sector 7 is the American facility for the organization called NERV, created by SEELE and the UN to stop these NBE's: Non-Biological Extraterrestrials. We knew from combating the Ice Man, or NBE-1, that we needed a weapon equal to them to stop them. Project E took all the information to reverse engineer a Humanoid Battle Robot code named Evangelion to combat the NBE's. Unfortunately, in spite of everything we've done, only certain people can pilot them. We don't know why yet, but any attempt to the contrary has turned out… disastrous."

"I'm one of them, aren't I?" Sam asked.

Simmons nodded, "You don't have to say yes, but we need to ask you for your help. You will be paid, given room and board along with your family. You will have to move to Sector 7, and you won't have schooling out there, so we've arranged a series of computer tests and assignments that we'll oversee to ensure you get your mandatory education. On top of that you'll be trained for combat situations."

"If I say 'no'?" Sam asked, wanting to know.

"We leave you alone," Simmons answered. "But you still have to keep everything you've heard quiet for the rest of your life."

"I'll do it, on a few more conditions," Sam said. "My dad promised he'd buy me a car if I got an A on my report today, but now I won't be able to get it. Convince him to buy me a car, that's my first condition. Secondly, I have a classmate named Mikaela Banes. She's also lives nearby my house, and she's a real kick ass mechanic. Two days ago, her mom died, and her dad can't take her in. In one week, she's going to loose her house, most of her things, and her enrollment here at school."

"You want us to hire her?" Simmons asked.

"As a mechanic, yes," Sam answered. "She practically took apart my dad's car and put it back together once. She was able to fix his car without buying anything, just using the tools she had. Unfortunately, she's loosing everything because no one will hire her due to her juvenile record, one she only has because she turned her dad, who stole cars, in."

"We know about that," Simmons said.

"I'll help if you get me my car, offer her to come with, and delete her juvenile record permanently," Sam said.

"Deleting her record is borderline illegal," Simmons said.

Sam smiled, "No Sacrifice, No Victory."

"You're a real extortionist, you know that, kid?" Simmons returned the smile. "You have a deal." They shook hands. "Welcome to NERV and Sector 7, Sixth Child."

"Sixth?" Sam asked.

"Your code designation as an Evangelion Pilot," Simmons explained. "Let's go meet your dad, and then I'll talk to your friend."

NERV Command, Tokyo 3

"What was the car it looked at?" Gendo asked, looking up at Unit 01.

"A GTR Skyline," Ritsuko answered. "We even found this in the cockpit." She handed him a car key attached to a key chain that had what seemed to be a red button on it. Gendo pressed the button, which turned blue for a moment, and then blinked red as a buzzing sound came from the device. "Sir, you don't think…"

"It may be so," Gendo said. "This could be problematic. When will the Third Child wake up?"

"Hopefully tomorrow," Ristuko said.

"Have him test it when he does," Gendo ordered. "Make sure the Eva is in the middle of an empty room when he does, just in case."

Bolivia Motors, Tranquility 2

Sam felt deflated, "Dad, what is this? You said half a car, not half a piece of crap."

"When I was your age, I was happy with a motor and four wheels," Mr. Whitwicky answered.

"Have you ever seen 40 Year Old Virgin?" Sam asked.

"Yes."

"That's what that is," Sam said, pointing to a car, then turning, "And here's 50 year old virgin. Over there is 100."

"No Sacrifice, No Victory," his dad reminded him.

"Yea, the old Whitwicky motto," Sam muttered. "Got it."

"Gentlemen!" boomed a voice. A black man wearing Bermuda shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, a straw hat, and too many rings on his fingers came up to shake their hands. "Bobby B. Bolivia. What can I do for you, friends?"

"My son here," Mr. Whitwicky said, "Is looking to buy his first car."

"You came to see me?" Bobby asked.

"Had to," Sam said quietly.

"That probably makes us family," Bobby said, shaking Sam's hand. "Uncle Bobby B., baby. Uncle Bobby B." He led them toward a collection of cars. "Let me tell you something, son. The driver don't pick the car, the car pick the driver. It's a mystical bond between man and machine. I may be many things, but 'liar' ain't one of them, especially not in front of my Mammy." He pointed to an old woman in a lawn chair in front of the house next to the lot. "See there, that's my Mammy. Hey, Mammy!"

Bobby's Mammy simply gave him the finger.

"Aww! Don't be like that! If I had a rock I'd bust your head, bitch." He started to laugh, "Probably thought I was insulting her, she's deaf, see."

Sam turned his attention to a car that caught his eye. It was an old, yellow Camero with black racing stripes. "This one has racing stripes." He opened the door to climb in.

"Yea, it has… What? What the hell is this? I've never seen this before!"

Tuning out Bobby's shouting, Sam concentrated on the car. The leather seats felt old, but good. The steering wheel had a strange symbol in the center, but he liked it.

"How much?" he heard his dad ask.

"Considering the semi-classic nature of the vehicle, and the custom paint job…" Bobby began.

"The paint's faded," Sam interrupted.

"But its custom," Bobby reaffirmed.

"Its custom faded?" Sam asked, trying to convince for a better deal before Bobby made his offer.

"Five grand," Bobby said.

"No good," Mr. Whitwicky said. "Not paying a dollar over four."

"Deal," Sam said, climbing out and grabbing his wallet.

"Sam…" his dad began.

"Advance pay," Sam whispered. His dad nodded, reaching for his own wallet.

The Camero, who was in reality Bumblebee, mentally sighed in relief. He thought it would be harder.

Then again, Optimus really wouldn't mind…

He turned up his radio to a high frequency, laughing on the inside as the windows of every other car shattered.

"Four thousand!" Bobby shouted in panic.

That's better, Bumblebee thought. Now I just have to send my report when I get the chance.