Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Chapter Five
The armored door of the solitary confinement cell squeaked as Misato pulled it open, flooding the usually pitch dark room behind it with light from the hallway. Shinji groaned as it hit his eyes.
"Who is it?" he asked.
"It's me," Misato replied. "Long time no see, huh?"
"It sure felt like it," Shinji said. "I couldn't really keep track of time in here, though. How long have I been here?"
"Almost two days," Misato answered. "I only now got permission to let you out of here. Come on, Shinji-kun, let's go home."
He nodded and stumbled out of the cell. Misato took his hand and led him through the halls like a small child while his eyes adjusted to the light again. It made Shinji feel very silly, but he couldn't deny that part of him also enjoyed the contact, especially after being totally alone for so long.
"Misato…I'm sorry I disobeyed orders," Shinji said, hanging his head as he recalled what the Vice Commander had said to him before throwing him into that cell for insubordination.
She looked at him sharply. "Shinji-kun," she began, then checked herself.
She knew better than to think one could have a private conversation inside NERV headquarters; Section Two seemed to have surveillance devices everywhere. She was even fairly sure that there were hidden microphones in the ladies lavatories.
"We'll talk about it later," she said.
"Uh, okay," Shinji replied, clearly unsure why she'd abruptly stopped herself but unwilling to press.
For once Misato was glad the Third Child was so perpetually accommodating of everyone.
Shinji's vision finally returned and he gently took his hand back from Misato after only a brief hesitation. The two walked silently toward the parking deck where Misato's still rather banged up Alpine Renault waited. Even when they were inside and heading for the car elevator that would take them outside of the Geofront and to the city above, neither of them said a word.
I hope that Misato's not too angry with me for disobeying the Vice Commander's orders, he thought sadly.
Finally, when they made it back to the surface and the light of the sun shone down upon them, Misato spoke. "Shinji-kun," she said, "there's no reason for you to be sorry. I have no idea what Fuyutski was thinking when he ordered you to attack that girl. There's something rotten in NERV, and it's not your reluctance to turn on someone that might have saved your life."
Shinji smiled slightly in relief as he realized that Misato wasn't angry at him, but that smile faded as he thought over what she'd said. "What is it?" he asked. "What's wrong in NERV?"
"I don't know, but I intend to find out," Misato said determinedly.
Back at NERV headquarters, inside one of the underground laboratories, Ritsuko Akagi shivered slightly.
As the backer of the NERV, the organization which built and controlled the Evangelions, the Human Instrumentality Committee was one of the most powerful branches of the modern UN. Everyone who cared to look at the publically available facts knew that.
What very few people knew was that the Committee derived arguably even greater power from the fact that it was the public face and inner circle of the secret cabal SEELE.
It was in both capacities that they were meeting with Commander Gendo Ikari at the moment. As always, the members of the Committee were bathed in different colors, save for the chairman, Keel Lorenz. He, like Gendo, was illuminated by stark white light.
"I take it you've had time to review the situation for yourself, Ikari?" Keel began without preamble.
Gendo suppressed the scowl that threatened to appear on his face. He had arrived back in Tokyo-3 from his meeting with the UN in Geneva roughly two hours ago by VTOL. He had been met by a worried looking Fuyutski, who had a report on the anomaly in hand and a worried expression on his wrinkled face. A representative of the Committee had contacted him minutes later, demanding he participate in a holographic conference with them.
In other words, he was jetlagged and had had precious little time to absorb and digest the new information, as the Committee had no doubt intended.
But he was still Gendo Ikari. "Yes, I have had sufficient time to take things in," he said calmly.
"Then you know that NERV has been humiliated by its failure to destroy the Angels," the member bathed in red light said.
"Angel," Gendo corrected.
"Excuse me?" Red asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Angel," Gendo repeated. "There was only one present in the most recent engagement. The girl who destroyed it was not an Angel herself."
Blue frowned. "But Vice Commander Fuyutski said—"
"My subordinate was in error," Gendo said flatly. "The only Angel present during the Second Battle of Tokyo-3 was the one we expected."
Gendo had understood Fuyutski's decision to label the girl an Angel; it had, after all, more or less justified his order to classify the girl a hostile target for Unit One, for all the good that had done to sway the EVA's inflexible pilot. Gendo had even been vaguely impressed with the way his former professor had gone so far as to pick out an angelic name for the girl—Ruachel, Spirit of God—and nearly managed to designate her as the Fifth Angel, despite incredible stubbornness from all three MAGI supercomputers.
In the end, however, he'd decided to reverse the course Fuyutski had set. Gendo had to project an image of strength and control, which meant he had to give the appearance that the girl was nothing more than an annoying aberration, not a game changer. Classifying her as an Angel they'd never seen coming definitely made her look like the latter.
"Then who or what was this Spirit girl?" Green demanded. "Something of yours?"
"No, I don't know what she is or where she came from," Gendo answered in an unusual display of candor.
"Yet you've known of the existence of an unforeseen factor since before the Angels returned," Keel said, just a trace of smugness marring his stern accusation.
Gendo came dangerously close to releasing a sigh. He knew SEELE had moles inside NERV, though he had thus far managed to keep them out of the organization's upper echelons. They had undoubtedly known something was up, despite the deletion of the records of the anomaly he'd ordered.
Now that the anomaly had made its presence known much too blatantly to be covered up any longer, Keel was rubbing Gendo's previous secrecy in his face.
No matter. Keel could prove nothing without admitting to having spies within NERV, which would open a can of worms neither of them wanted opened. All Gendo had to do was stonewall.
Feint and counter feint. It was the way Gendo and SEELE interacted. Only prior to all hell breaking loose would the verbal attacks have real teeth.
"I've known nothing of the girl prior to her dramatic appearance during the last engagement," Gendo said.
"Ikari, you do realize that lying to this body is a crime punishable by death, don't you?" Keel warned.
"Of course," Gendo replied.
"In any case," Yellow spoke up before Keel and Gendo could start going in circles, "we did not fund Project-E so the Evangelions could run interference for another defender of humanity."
"That's right," Red agreed. "Perhaps we should cease providing NERV with its absurd budget and allow this girl to deal with the Angels."
An empty threat. How tiresome, Gendo mused.
"To do that would be to place the fate of humanity in the hands of an unknown element that answers to no one," Gendo pointed out. "We cannot abdicate the task of defending the Earth from the Angels to a vigilante, even if she is a powerful vigilante."
A powerful vigilante who cavorts around in an outfit that would make Sailor Moon blush, Gendo mentally added, feeling a new spike of contempt for the girl who dared to meddle with the scenario.
"We cannot be seen funneling trillions into an ineffectual organization," Keel countered. "So you had better neutralize this Spirit as soon as possible and restore NERV's public image, Ikari."
And with that, the holograms of the Committee winked out, leaving Gendo alone.
"Shinji!" Hikari exclaimed upon seeing the Third Child walk into class.
Her impulsive outburst was louder than she would have liked, but fortunately the rumors had died down when no real developments occurred between her and the EVA pilot. The other students in the room waiting for class to begin barely bothered looking up.
"Ohayo, Hikari," Shinji replied with a small smile, looking slightly surprised that anyone could be so happy to see him.
"When you didn't show up after the last battle I started to get worried that something might have happened to you," Hikari said. "Aida told me about that strange girl that got involved in the fight…"
Shinji frowned. "How did he know about her?"
Hikari told him about Toji and Kensuke's misadventures outside the shelter, then she wished she hadn't as she watched Shinji grow nearly as pale as Ayanami.
"I almost…killed them?" he asked in a strangled sounding voice.
"Well, EVA almost fell on them, but they're completely fine! Not a scratch on them!" Hikari assured him quickly. "Really, it's their fault for going outside the shelter. Suzuhara should've known better, at least."
Shinji was a nice guy, despite how downcast he usually was, but he was most certainly not a warrior, Hikari had learned. He was far too gentle and valued life far too highly to ever be happy in the role that had been thrust upon him.
That was one of the reasons she'd decided to try and really be his friend, even as she continued to use him as a source of information. The boy just needed one so badly, and it didn't look like anyone else was going to be filling that role. Besides, the idea of just using him had never sat well with her.
"They're really okay?" Shinji asked.
Hikari nodded. "Yes," she said firmly, then she smirked slightly. "And if they try and blame you for that close call, I'll have them cleaning the whole school from roof to basement."
That brought a small grin to Shinji's face, as well as returning some of the color to his cheeks.
"So where have you been, anyway?" Hikari asked, steering the conversation back to where she'd originally wanted it. "You weren't hurt, were you?"
"No, I've been in a holding cell in NERV," Shinji said, scowling. "After the Angel was dead, the Vice Commander ordered me to try and capture the girl that helped me. I was locked up as punishment for not doing it."
Hikari gasped. "But why would they want to attack her? I thought she helped you!"
"She did. I don't know why they wanted me to attack her. Nobody at NERV tells me anything," he said.
Hikari blinked. That wasn't the first time he'd told her that, but it was the first time he'd said it with such obvious bitterness that she'd believed him without doubt.
"Do you have any idea why you were given such a crazy order?" she asked quietly.
He shook his head. "None."
A rather awkward silence fell. Knowing that Shinji wouldn't break it, Hikari spoke up. "Well, here's the homework you've missed. I went to your apartment, but your guardian told me she'd probably lose it and insisted I keep it," she said, handing him a small stack of printouts. "It's good to have the pride of class 2-A back."
"Pride of class 2-A?" Shinji asked, confused.
"Of course," Hikari said. "We have the honor of having the famous Evangelion pilot in our class."
Shinji just stared dumbly at her, clearly never having thought of himself in that manner.
"You'd better take your seat," Hikari said. "Sensei should be here soon."
Shinji nodded silently and did as she'd suggested. Hikari shook her head slightly as he walked off. Hopefully a few kind words would boost the poor guy's self-confidence a little.
"What a day," Ritsuko groaned to herself as she walked into her office.
"The brass being overly demanding again, Rits?"
Ritsuko nearly jumped out of her skin at the unexpected response, whirling around to find Misato standing right by the door, deliberately positioned there so she would be missed when the scientist walked in.
"Misato!" Ritsuko exclaimed, placing a hand over her chest and easily feeling her pounding heartbeat. "You scared the hell out me!"
Misato didn't laugh, which Ritsuko knew was a bad sign. Instead, the Operations Director crossed her arms and said, "Well, maybe if you hadn't been so impossible to track down for the last two days, I wouldn't have had to ambush you in your office."
Well, you see, I've been avoiding you, because I knew I would be the one stuck dealing with the fallout from Commander Fuyutski's decision, Ritsuko thought.
"Well, you've successfully ambushed me," she said. "Now what do you want? I'm very busy right now."
"I want to know what the hell is going on," Misato said. "Somebody comes out of the sky and kills the Angel for us, and the Vice Commander orders Shinji to attack her. Why? So long as this Spirit is helping us save the world, I don't see why we shouldn't let her continue."
Because, NERV isn't about saving the world, despite what that brochure you gave Shinji might've said, Ritsuko thought. It's about fulfilling an extremely delicate scenario to invoke a controlled Third Impact, and Spirit's flinging sand into the gears.
"The commanders don't share everything with me," she said. "If I had to guess the reason, I'd say it's because Ikari's a control freak."
"Eh?"
"A control freak, Misato," Ritsuko said. "You know, someone who feels the need to control everyone around him? You don't get to the kind of post he has without being one. Fuyutski knows it, and he did what Ikari would've done. Spirit's probably driving Ikari crazy in a way few other things could, and she's making NERV look bad."
Much like last time, Ritsuko judged that Misato sensed something was wrong with that explanation but couldn't see a way to prove it. Also like last time, Ritsuko deemed that good enough, though how much longer it would be, she didn't know.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a meeting with the control freak in chief," Ritsuko said, picking up a folder and striding out of her office.
"No rest for the wicked, I guess," Misato muttered in a sotto voice.
Ritsuko ignored her, striding out of her office and to Gendo's. The commanders of NERV were in their usual places: Gendo at his desk with his face against his intertwined hands, Fuyutski at his side. The only thing the least bit unusual about the scene was that part of one of the walls had been opened up, revealing a large screen that was normally hidden. The tape Section Two had confiscated from the Aida boy was playing on it with the sound muted.
"Come in, Doctor," Gendo said.
"My report on the latest incident with the girl," Ritsuko said, placing the folder on Gendo's desk. "I'm afraid that we haven't learned much outside of what was readily observable."
Gendo said nothing. Ritsuko swallowed.
"How did the meeting with the Committee go?" she asked, trying to keep her cool under Gendo's stare.
"The old men threatened to cease funding us," Gendo answered curtly.
"They would never entirely defund us, but we have enough difficulty with our finances as it is without them making budget cuts," Fuyutski said. "We can't allow for another humiliation like this."
"I want this Spirit identified and neutralized," Gendo said.
"I'm afraid I don't know how we could identify her, sir," Ritsuko said. She paused, then against her better judgment added, "Spirit…you know, if I didn't know better, I'd almost think it was Rei."
Gendo's glare told her he was anything but amused. Rei, the product of the Nephilim Creation Project, was Gendo's masterwork, the magnum opus of his scientific career.
Yet next to Spirit, Rei looked like a poor creation indeed. Rei had none of Spirit's incredible powers, save for the ability to generate an AT field, which was very physically taxing for her. Nor had Rei ever exhibited the perfect red/blue pattern that Spirit had, the sign of a complete synthesis of human and Angel. When Rei was deploying an AT field, her pattern was blue, and when she wasn't, it was red like any other human's. Oh, Rei was capable of fulfilling her ultimate purpose, a feat Spirit almost certainly couldn't duplicate, but Gendo no doubt saw the girl's powers as an insult to his professional pride.
Ritsuko dared to revel in having rubbed Rei's inadequacies in Gendo's face for only a few brief moments before she hurried on.
"As for neutralizing her, I'm not sure if we can," she said. "She's already shown herself to have powers rivaling those of an Angel. The only feasible weapon against her we have at the moment is Unit One, and Pilot Ikari has already refused to fight her once."
"You're not looking at the full range of possibilities, Doctor," Gendo said.
Ritsuko arched an eyebrow. "You already have a plan?"
Gendo just stared silently at her in response, and Ritsuko had to resist the urge to smack herself for her stupidity. Of course he had a plan. Gendo always had a plan.
"What is your plan, sir?" she asked instead.
Gendo told her, and Ritsuko frowned. "Sir, you know the limitations of that technology," she said. "I suppose it would be more feasible to use it against this Spirit than one of the Angels, but we would still need to make her come to us somehow."
"I don't think that will be a problem," Gendo said, looking at the screen as it showed Spirit blowing the Suzuhara boy a kiss.
Hikari walked home alone from school that day rather than going with Nozomi, thanks to the fact that she had cleanup duty and had to stay longer than usual. She didn't mind much, though, as the silence allowed her to think.
The representative of class 2-A's thoughts were usually pretty focused, either on school or home, but today they were all over the place. Why did NERV seem to view her as an enemy after she'd helped them? Why was Shinji the only one who could pilot Unit One? Where had her own abilities come from? How had NERV found the only fourteen-year-old boy on the planet who could be depressed after being given a giant robot and made to live with a strikingly beautiful older woman?
She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she barely noticed Nozomi when she walked into her home.
"Hey, nee-chan," Nozomi greeted.
Hikari looked up at Nozomi…and felt as though her stomach had dropped into her feet.
Nozomi was wearing a red mask.
She found it! Hikari's mind shrieked. How the hell did she find my costume? How much does she know? Has she told anyone yet?
The cape was the only thing that stopped her from asking Nozomi any of these questions. The youngest Horaki girl was also wearing a bright red cape, which was not a part of Spirit's costume. That gave Hikari pause, and she soon realized that Nozomi's mask wasn't hers either. The shape of it was about the same, but it was made out of a cheaper material and perhaps a bit lighter in color.
"What are you wearing?" Hikari asked, doing her best to hide how shaken she was.
"Something I picked up on my way home from school for just a few yen," Nozomi answered defensively before grinning and adding, "I'm being Spirit!"
"Wh-Who?" Hikari stammered.
Kodama walked into the kitchen just then, wearing her white lab coat. "She's this girl with wings that killed the last Angel with barely any help from the EVA," she explained. "I asked Dad about her the other night, and he said that NERV's trying to keep her existence a secret. But I guess a lot of the grunts at NERV blabbed, because the whole city's buzzing about her. I'm shocked you haven't heard of Spirit yet, Hikari-chan."
Of course, Hikari had heard about her alter ego from others, but she'd assumed that was because she could count an EVA pilot and two guys who had had their lives saved by Spirit among her classmates. The idea that people outside of class 2-A would be talking and gossiping about her, that she would have people cosplaying as her...well, it had simply never entered her mind.
On the one hand, it gave her the distinct feeling that things were spinning out of control, even though she supposed she should have expected something like this to happen. On the other hand, part of her couldn't help but find being the talk of the town extremely cool.
"Nee-chan?" Nozomi asked, snapping her fingers close to Hikari's face. "You there?"
"Yes, yes," Hikari said distractedly.
Realizing she needed to regain her equilibrium before her sisters got suspicious, Hikari picked up a wooden spoon from a jar on the kitchen counter and waved it about as though it were a scepter, instantly donning the mantle of the Horaki family's quasi-matron.
"Now out of the kitchen, you two," she commanded. "I need to start dinner. You can talk about this strange winged girl elsewhere."
Nozomi scowled, but Kodama just nodded and smiled. "All right, Hikari-chan, we'll get out of your hair," she said, then took Nozomi's hand. "Come on, Spirit-chan, you can help me with my lab work."
The youngest Horaki groaned as she was pulled away. As usual, Kodama either didn't notice or chose not to.
"Commence the Unit Zero reactivation experiment," Commander Ikari ordered the assembled technicians in the testing chamber control room, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
Obediently, the techs began to run through their checklists, gradually awakening the EVA and connecting its mind to the First Child's. Everyone who was present was a professional, but the rising tension in the room was still palpable.
Would the ghost in the machine awaken again? If it did, would they manage to stop it before someone was killed or seriously injured? None of them had an answer to these questions, and it made them all anxious in the extreme.
In a room off to the side, Shinji stood next to Misato, watching intently. He couldn't help but marvel at Ayanami's bravery, recalling how she'd unflinchingly reentered the EVA which had nearly killed her.
And I'm the supposed pride of class 2-A, he thought.
He wished he could get along better with Rei, like he did with Hikari. It had been so nice of her to say that his presence was an honor for the class, even if he didn't believe it for a moment.
But things with Rei had not been going nearly so well, and after the incident earlier that day at her apartment, Shinji doubted their relationship (or lack thereof) would ever improve much. The way she'd slapped him for what he'd said about his father probably wasn't a good sign, either.
"Approaching the critical point!" Maya announced. "Two point five…two point zero…one point five…one point zero…zero point five…point three…point two…point one…absolute borderline has been cleared!"
Everyone took a deep breath, knowing that if Unit Zero was going to go berserk again, this was when it would do it. The assembled group then released said breath in a collective sigh of relief when the orange giant remained still.
"The reactivation of Unit Zero has been successful," Maya announced, a note of triumph in her voice.
"Roger," Rei replied over the radio, sounding as unperturbed as always. "Beginning interlock tests."
As the techs got to the much more mundane and much less nerve-wracking task of monitoring Rei's test, one of the phones in the control room rang. Fuyutski answered it and listened for a few seconds before hanging up without a word.
"Ikari," he said, "a huge object has just been detecting in the Pacific Ocean, approaching Tokyo-3. It could be the Fifth Angel."
"Go to battle condition one," Gendo ordered. "Prepare the city's intercept system for engagement."
"You're not going to use Rei, are you, Ikari?" Fuyutski asked, though it was more a statement than a question.
"She's not ready yet," Gendo replied curtly.
"We can have Unit One ready in 180 seconds," Ritsuko said.
"Then make it so," Gendo ordered. "NERV needs another victory against the Angels."
Spirit flew as quickly as she could from the shelter toward the rough center of the city, allowing her sixth sense for the Angels to lead her to the latest one. It had taken her longer than she would have liked to make her excuses to her sisters and escape the shelter, and she hoped that Shinji hadn't been fighting it for very long without her help.
Fortunately, the Angel proved very easy to spot. The enormous diamond hovered over the city, unmoving, its mirrored surface reflecting the blue sky above and giving it a surprisingly peaceful look. She had no idea how the Angel could possibly attack anything, lacking limbs of any kind, then she spotted the giant drill coming from the bottom point of the thing and it made a little more sense.
"Where's Shinji?" Spirit wondered aloud. "Is it possible NERV hasn't sent out Unit One yet?"
Little did she know that the EVA had already been deployed and then swiftly recalled before she'd arrived on the scene.
She flew forward, but stopped when she sensed her AT field coming into contact with the Angel's. This one's field was a lot more powerful than the previous Angel's, she could tell at once, and it would take more time to neutralize. She figured that this Angel's game plan was just to have an impenetrable defense while it worked on drilling into the Geofront. Seeing no threat from the Angel, Spirit just hovered in midair as she waited for the magic to happen.
It was very nearly the last mistake she'd ever make.
The Angel fired its beam weapon at her, the lance of deadly light streaking toward her with incredible speed. Once again taking advantage of her speed and small size, Spirit dodged, easily avoiding the beam.
Unfortunately, the Angel didn't need a direct hit to harm her.
Spirit screamed in agony as the sheer heat radiated by the Angel's beam began to roast her alive. The skin on her left arm and leg blackened as it was charred, along with the left side of her costume. Several of the feathers on her left wing burst into flames, and Spirit went into a spiraling dive.
Half unconscious from the pain, she was barely able to even register the fact that she was literally crashing and burning. With a Herculean effort, she beat her wings, slowing and redirecting her fall.
Spirit fell atop the roof of one of the skyscraper sized weapons blocks, bouncing painfully off the concrete a few times as she did, the flames that were consuming one of her wings mercifully going out in the process. Unable to get up, she looked down at her severely burnt side.
I am going to have to get a new costume, this one's ruined, was the first coherent thought that popped into her mind.
Then the other, more grim realities began to sink in. She was very badly hurt, possibly even badly enough that she'd lose the use of two of her limbs. She probably wouldn't be able to put up any kind of fight if NERV agents were to show up to collect her here. That was assuming, of course, that the Angel didn't finish her off first, despite the fact that she was no longer projecting an AT field. Even if she did escape with her life, her secret would be out to her family, and probably the world.
She was so busy pondering these things that it took her a good several seconds to realize that the pain was ebbing away. Spirit looked back down at her side, and her eyes widened. The blackened skin was cracking and falling away, and underneath it was pink new skin. It looked perfectly healthy and unscarred, and in seconds even stopped looking like she'd submitted it to a very hot bath, becoming the same color as the rest of her skin.
Spirit looked over her shoulder at her injured wing and saw that the feathers which had been burnt off had grown back. With the exception of her still irreparably damaged costume, there was no visible evidence of the attack she'd weathered.
Well, that's new. I wonder if I could always do that? She thought.
She drew herself back up to her feet, only the ghost of the intense pain she'd suffered remaining, the echoes of it already fading fast.
Spirit strongly considered beating a hasty retreat, but opted against it. The Angel had only managed to get her because she had just remained in one place like an idiot. So long as she avoided the points of the octahedron, where the beams were emitted from, she should be fine.
Unit One couldn't dodge nearly as easily as she could, she knew.
She took off again, this time making sure to keep moving once she'd spread her AT field, taking care that she always faced one of the sides of the Angel, not one of the edges or points. When its AT field was finally neutralized, Spirit wasted no time in firing one of her energy blasts at it, the white light piercing the Angel's side. There was a satisfying crunching sound as the Angel's crystalline body broke under the force of the blast.
She smirked, then took a closer look at her handiwork.
Spirit's jaw dropped at how little damage she'd managed to do. She'd blown a crater into the Angel's side, but it looked barely large enough to fit a car into. She'd been hoping her attack would go through one end of the Angel and come out the other.
She readied another blast, deciding she'd just have to keep firing away at it until she got to the core. But before she could let it loose, the small wound she'd made in the Angel's side healed entirely, filling up in mere seconds.
Clearly the Angel's regenerative powers exceeded even her own newly discovered ones. It could heal itself faster than she could hope to hurt it, at least with her energy attack. Spirit allowed the light in her palm to fade.
She narrowed her eyes, deciding to take a more direct route. She flew right up to the Angel and slammed a fist into it.
Spirit cried out in pain, clutching her hand. She could reduce solid rocks to powder without trying, but with all her strength she couldn't so much as dent the surface of the Angel.
There was nothing she could do to really hurt it she realized, a sick feeling forming in her stomach.
"I'm sorry, Shinji," she whispered as she flew off. "It looks like this one is all yours."
Several hours later…
"Well, it appears as though Operation Yashima was a success," Fuyutski commented as he read the after action report. "NERV has its victory, albeit at the cost of extensive damage to Unit Zero's armor."
"It is of no consequence," Gendo said. "The prototype was due for a refit in any case, and it was well worth the price. We have proven we can deal with the Angels that Spirit is incapable of defeating."
"So, do you still plan on going through with this plan to capture the girl?" Fuyutski asked.
"Of course."
"But Ikari, consider the expense," Fuyutski protested. "Dismantling all that equipment, transporting it, and then reassembling it will cost a fortune, to say nothing of what this could do to NERV's image if something goes wrong."
"It will be well worth it to remove this annoyance and keep her from interfering further with the scenario," Gendo replied in a tone that booked no further argument. "We will begin the preparations as soon as possible."
Author's notes: First off, I hope nobody minded too much how Gendo-heavy this chapter was. There was a lot of aftermath to deal with in the wake of Spirit's first extremely public appearance, and the Bastard King was the one who had to do most of it. The fact that I couldn't use him last chapter didn't help.
For anyone who doesn't get Akagi's comments about how she might think Spirit was Rei, she says that because Rei can mean spirit in Japanese.
Now, a number of you have commented on how Hikari can't be allowed to steal all the glory from NERV and the EVA's, and let me assure you I never planned on having her kill every single Angel. (I hope none of you feared she'd go diving into molten lava and beat Asuka to Sandalphon) Some of them will just be too much for her, so Shinji's still going to get to kill a few of them.
00idiot, thanks for the info. I had already planned on having Gendo say that Hikari's not an Angel to give the appearance that he's got everything more or less under control, though.
Kaworu-kun, Hikari's been asking Shinji about EVA and the Angels, and as we all know, he's not the best at keeping these kind of secrets.
Orionpax, the problem is that Hikari's not good with boys, so she's not going to drag a couple of them along in an attempt to help her. Plus, Shinji's friendship with Toji and Kensuke was kind of an unlikely one to begin with. I considered having them be the ones assigned to take Shinji's printouts to him, meeting Misato, and deciding to be Shinji's friends as a result. However, I didn't want them to be his friends just to get the opportunity to ogle his guardian. They'll still be friends, but it won't be till much later in the story.
Kenzie, almost everyone in Tokyo-3 drank the contaminated water, but the odds of being affected by it were miniscule and only Hikari beat them. Ritsuko's comment in the prologue about incredibly unlikely things never happening at NERV was actually meant to be a joke, as the incredibly unlikely seemed to happen almost routinely during the series (e.g. activation of the 'O9' system, the three EVA's successfully catching the Tenth Angel, etc.).
Konous, Shinji will manage to kill enough Angels to justify his existence. Recall that he wasn't able to really spell out why he piloted until after the Tenth Angel, so I wasn't very fussed about the possible impact not killing the Fourth would have on him. Also, I feel I should note that Hikari does like Toji, it's just that she only has the nerve to act upon that when she's wearing Spirit's mask.
Until next time, thanks again to my readers and reviewers.