Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion, Kingdom Hearts or any other Anime mentioned in this story. They belong to their rightful owners.
"You must be joking."
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
"Why would you suggest such terms?"
"Because it's the only thing I figured you might agree to."
"…I will admit what you're suggesting does sound… appealing."
"So we're in agreement?"
"…Give me some time to consider it. I have a trip to get to; I'll give you my answer upon my return."
"Thank you Gendo."
"I prefer you call me by my title."
"Ok fine,' Commander' Ikari, but you also have to call me by my…ah who am I kidding I'm not part of the military ranks and I couldn't care less if anyone called me by my title."
"Perhaps, even so I don't believe you have earned enough of my respect for me to call you 'Master Marcus'."
"Doesn't really matter to me." Marcus said, shrugging his shoulders at the remark.
It was funny to Marcus, when he walked up to Gendo and explained to him what his idea was that he came up with a day ago about Rei traveling with him and her fellow pilots. Already he could tell Gendo was pissed despite the fact Gendo looked calm about it, they decided to take their conversation in the Commanders office where they could talk without being herd behind Gendos' new much thicker door.
"Well then I must be off, Fuyutsuki will be in charge for the mean time." The Commander said getting up from his seat. Marcus took the hint and started walking out the door.
"Have a safe journey." Marcus commented before they went their separate ways in the hallway. Gendo just continued walking without even acknowledging the farewell. Marcus again didn't really care if he didn't respond or not, all that mattered right now was that his idea was going to work…he hoped.
"Ah man, did you see that? I can't believe I got the whole thing on film!" Kensuke said excitedly, he and Toji were looking over the footage again on Kensukes' TV where they hooked up his camera. They were currently watching the part where Marcus had just finished using that barrier-thing to knock the creatures away from him, Kensuke didn't know what that was but it looked pretty damn cool to him to care at the moment.
"Did you get the part where he jumped out the window?" Toji asked.
"Of Course, why?"
"Just rewind to there, there's something I want to see."
"Ok, ok fine." Kensuke grumbled as he did his task. It didn't take long to get to the desired part of the film. They sat there watching Marcus jump out of the window after he threw the two 'things' when Toji suddenly blurted out-
"THERE! Pause it right there!" Kensuke fumbled around with the remote a bit out of surprise but he managed to pause the video.
"Damn it you took too long and overshot it!"
"Yeah well thanks for the scare, and what the hell are you looking for here anyway?"
"Remember when I said I thought I saw something that day?"
"Yeah, it was right before the red Eva fought that Angel." Kensuke said rewinding the video to the same moment again.
"Yeah well I just wanted to see- THERE PAUSE IT!" Toji started to say when he saw the desired part coming up. This time Kensuke managed to stop it at the right spot; and boy did it pay off.
"There, you see that?"
"I see it Toji, but …what the hell am I looking at?"
"I don't know, but this proves I saw something that day." Toji said looking hard at the image of Marcus still in midair along with some other 'thing' seemingly fading in & out trying to make heads or tails of it. The image itself almost looked to Toji like the other thing came out of Marcus and vanished in a split second to who-knows-where.
"Maybe I can try to focus the image a bit later; in the mean time I've still got to develop those photos tonight otherwise we won't meet our dead-line tomorrow."
"Huh, oh yeah the photos I almost forgot about that. Man if the guys at school knew what we know they'd steer clear of that hot tempered red head." Toji said in a somewhat disgusted tone, just thinking about Asuka gave him an upset feeling in his stomach, but obviously the other guys at school wanted some kind of keepsake of her for one reason or another. So Toji & Kensuke decided to take a few pictures of her (as her unofficial & secret paparazzi) and make a small profit out of it. They would definitely make good cash from it provided Asuka never found out it was them selling photos of her when she wasn't looking.
"Yeah well not much we can do about it. Anyway when I've got time I'll see what I can do about the video image."
"Ok Kensuke, thanks for going thru the trouble. We'll get to the bottom of this in no time."
"No prob, but you know it would be easier if we went straight to the source 'himself'."
"Yeah but…we don't really know how he's gonna react to this; I mean for all we know this is some sorta invisible secret project soldier that we weren't suppose to see. That could get us into big trouble again and who knows if he wouldn't try to kill us just to keep it secret."
"I guess, but he doesn't seem to be the type to do anything like that and besides; if you're that worried about him, why don't we ask Shinji to help us understand him. They seem to be a bit 'buddy, buddy' with each other, after all, maybe he could tell us a thing or two about this. "
"I guess, but still whatever that thing is it's definitely not normal." Toji stated once again staring at the frozen image.
The next day Marcus began to wander around the Nerv base, it helped him think and sometimes just getting up and walking around, or training would really get the juices flowing. Today was not a day for training just yet, so he opted for walking around and getting to know his way around the base, despite the fact he's been in Tokyo-3 for weeks, he still has not had the chance to get familiar with the place just yet. Every other time he was usually lead around by a staff member that was nice enough or with Misato and/or Risuko. But not today, if anything it was perfect for mentally mapping the place out as well as thinking about what Gendo was planning. As long as Marcus knew him Gendo always seemed to be up to something especially after Yui's death, and what was with the Heartless appearing so suddenly on the ship the other day.
"It's strange how they just came out of no where like that, I know for a fact I didn't have my keyblade out long enough to attract such a huge amount of them and even if I did they would of gone after me first then the crew members that were too close to the action. Could someone be manipulating them from behind the scenes? And if that's the case then who could be controlling them and why?" Marcus pondered to himself. So many questions yet no answers for them, maybe he should start with Gendo first before moving on to the heartless, but he was a keyblade master there's no way he could just overlook their activities for anything. This was giving him a headache.
"Hey Marcus." His thoughts were interrupted when Misato called out to him.
"What's up Misato?" Marcus answered back.
"Nothing much, what about you?"
"Just thinking to myself, but I could use a break."
"Really, you need a break from thinking?" Misato retorted sarcastically.
"I just got a lot on my mind, anyway what brings you here to the uh…wait where the hell am I?" Marcus said scratching the back of his head as he finally noticing he was in one of the many hallways that look the same in the base so naturally it was hard to tell exactly where he wandered into while in deep thought.
"We're actually close by to Risuko's work station, why don't we go check up on her?"
"Ok, sure."
As they walked their way down the hallway they began to make 'small talk'.
"So I heard you talked to the Commander yesterday, did he agree to your idea?"
"He's thinking it over while he's away, but he did say it sounded '…appealing'." Marcus said impersonating Gendo's scowl look and hand gesture he's well known for. Misato couldn't help but giggle at the attempt.
"I think that's a good sign, but what if he doesn't go with it?"
"I'll have to convince him in the usual way we did before I left."
"And that is?"
"We argue for several days straight screaming at each other until one of us gives in."
"…You can't be serious."
"Unfortunately, I am."
"That's just too stupid for words." Misato thought to herself. "So you're confident in that plan?"
"…Um, no not really, he pretty much outlasts me a good portion of the time."
"How good?"
"…90 percent of the time." Marcus mumbled out with his head held low.
"…Well…that sounds like a good plan." Misato said with a sarcastic tone and an annoyed twitching eyebrow.
"…How about we change the subject now."
"…I think that would be best."
"Ok then…what's the deal with you and Kaji?"
Already the annoyed twitching eyebrow had returned to Misatos' face as well as its buddy the angry ticking vein. "Let's not talk about that-"
"Misato? What's-"
Without realizing it Marcus and Misato had in fact walked up to Risukos' work area and to their right side a glass shielding was in place right next to the door, and beyond the glass was Risuko being held in an embrace by Kaji. When Marcus noticed this he made sure to keep some distance from Misato…just in case. Misato had anger written all over her face not at the fact it looked like Kaji was trying to get with Risuko (it was his way of saying 'long time no see' to her), It was the fact that Kaji was still here at the base. Misato soon proceeded to march into the room with Marcus following three steps behind.
"It's been a while Kaji, you've gotten more discreet since last time." Risuko said to Kaji.
"He's never been discreet in his entire life. And what the hell are you still doing here I thought you finished transferring Unit-02!" Misato angrily added to it.
"Its part of my orders I got this morning, I'll be sticking around a little longer. Now we can hang out more, gorgeous, just like we use to." Kaji said addressing the last part to two ladies in the room.
"Don't flatter yourself." Misato growled out before the alarms started going off.
*Brrrr* Brrrr* *Brrrr*
"What the hell is that alarm for?" Marcus asked.
"It's an incoming Angel!" Misato called out before dashing out of the room followed by Risuko.
"Never a dull moment around here is there?" Kaji retorted to Marcus.
"Try working in my line of work." Marcus stated before following after the two women, leaving Kaji stumped before he smiled and followed as well.
It didn't take long to get the Eva's and the pilots ready for battle, but even if they were prepared as they always are, it was still like going in blindly. Every time they sent in the Eva's the Angels were always different, so it always turned into a learn-on-the-spot mission. As the command room was filled with several people doing their job, Marcus kind of felt out of place just standing around in when he's usually the one going into the fights. Despite this however, he could still provide some kind of support, couldn't he?
Soon the Angel was in sight approaching the shoreline from the sea, the Angels' body resembled an Arrowhead shaped humanoid with the corners as its two arms, and its assumed face looked like a small (by comparison) yin-yang dome. The Eva's were soon released from their drop ships and landed with a mighty thud, both Eva's were armed; Shinji's Eva was carrying a rifle while Asuka's Eva was carrying a javelin. From the Eva's comm-line the sound of Asuka's complaining could be heard.
"Two against one's not exactly a fair fight."
"We don't get a choice, survivability take priority." Misato answered back.
Asuka groaned out of disappointment, her first time battling the Angels in Tokyo-3 and she couldn't do this mission solo.
From Marcus' point of view it looked pretty simple especially with two Eva's' out there on the battle field; go in, kill the Angel, go home, end of story. It looked simple but then again it usually never was.
Asuka started the operation by charging in, leaving Shinji to try to cover her from the shore. Unit-02 started hopping from one submerged building rooftop to the next until she got within range. With all of her Eva's might she leapt up and swung her javelin down hard on the Angel effectively splitting the behemoth in half. Shinji was left somewhat surprised at the feat.
"Well I'll be damned." He mumbled out.
"Man Shinji can say that again, that was impressive…in a brutal sort 'a way. I guess I was getting worried over nothing." Marcus thought to himself.
But just as it seemed to be over the two split halves suddenly sprung to life, as the skin shed itself revealing twin Angels that leaped out to stand back to back between the two Eva's. The last thing Marcus heard before the fight was Misato's outburst.
"THA-THAT'S A LOAD OF BULL!"
Some hours after the battle, most of the members of the operation were all in the conference room going over the battle results with a slide projector. Everyone was quietly sitting during the debriefing…except a certain green haired guy who was trying to keep himself from laughing out loud, instead he silently giggled to himself. As the slide moved over to the Unit-01's picture taken after the fight Marcus lost it and fell to the floor laughing his ass off while Shinji started groaning at the sight of it. The picture of Unit-01 was of the Eva half buried into the sand out at sea close by to the shore, it legs were the only thing sticking out of the water. When the projector moved to the next slide Marcus finally was able to get control of his laughing fit, but just barley enough to pull himself up from the floor to a height sufficient enough to see the picture and fall back down as he went into another laughing fit. Asuka just groaned out of anger at the laughter, this time the picture was of Unit-02 in the same position as Shinji's Eva except it was planted into solid ground.
Overall the operation didn't go so well.
"Marcus can you please stop laughing!" Fuyutsuki tried to say as calmly as possible.
"HAHA Sorry Kozo but HEHEHE I've never seen anything so…so…"
"Pathetic?"
"RIDICULOUS, AND WITH GIANT MECHAS NO LESS AHHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Grrr, this is all your fault third child!" Asuka shouted at Shinji.
"Me? You're the one who didn't want to follow protocol and charged in head first you idiot!" Shinji snapped back.
"Idiot? You have no right to call me that when you look like a drowned rat!" Asuka said pointing to the image of Shinjis' Eva.
"You-you can't say anything like that to me when yours looks no better!" Shinji argued back pointing to her Evas' picture. Before the argument could escalate anymore the presentation continued, since they failed they had no choice but to turn over command to the military forces. The military responded to the Angel threat by dropping N2 charges on the enemy, the resulting blasts caused significant damage to the shore area, and caused the Angel('s) enough damage to stop their movement for the time being.
"Well at least we get a second chance, and you can't ask for anything better then that." Kaji commented. By now Marcus was finally finished laughing.
"Be-Hehe-best chance to regroup, and come up with something." Marcus said composing himself.
"All right you two!" Fuyutsuki said addressing the two young pilots. "What is your job?"
"Piloting the Eva's?" Asuka answered.
"WRONG! Your job it to kill the Angels! We can't afford to have these 'incidences' occur; otherwise we'll look like fools!" Kozo said before he left the room.
"Why are grown-ups so angry and 'stupid' around here?" Asuka asked directing that 'stupid' part at Marcus, who for his part pretended he didn't hear that comment and left the room.
"Hey, It's me again, you there?"
"Just a second, HEY I thought I told you to take that equipment to the laboratory three minutes ago. Get it there this instant or I'll use YOU for my next experiments meal!"
"Sounds like things are going smoothly over there."
"SHUT THE HELL UP! Now what do you want?"
"Well I'm just reporting in just like you told me to."
"Oh that's right, I did say that didn't I? Well now what juicy news do you have for me?"
"Well compared to the last one, this report has a lot of…flaws this time around."
"Flaws, what kind of-HEY YOU NEANDERTHAL, WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING WITH THOSE CHEMICALS they can become unstable and BLOW US TO FRIKKEN KINGDOM COME!"
"…So when did you move, I thought you liked your location?"
"I didn't move, I just got back from resupplying my lost stock thanks to a…little accident I had with my last concoction."
"Oh I see, so do you want the info now or after your 'hired help' breaks everything you just got?"
"Don't get me started; until some proper intellectual beings come around here I'm stuck with these idiototic excuses for Heartless. The only ones doing their job right so far are that Shadow and NeoShadow types which is more then I can say for that Invisible type their suppose to be deadly opponents in battle but can't frikken carry a case of chemicals properly, still I can't help but feel those two are the closes ones to being competent around here. Might have been because that little experiment I-"
*Boom*
"YOU DUMBASS I TOLD YOU TO BE MORE CARFUL oh wait he's gone for good so what do I care."
"Doesn't sound like you're a goner yourself, so the lab is still up?"
"It looks like the oaf just blew down a wall and took himself out in the process, no big loss."
"Whatever, so I'll just give you my report later then?"
"No, I want to hear what info you collected on the Evangelion's this time so let's have it."
"So what you're telling me is; you're going to teach me how to use a sword so I can kill some monster-things that aren't Angels?"
"…Well that's the general idea Asuka."
"…Do you realize how that even sounds? You can't expect me to believe that a dream I had a few days ago could actually have been some sort of… 'mental warning system' for those whatever those things are."
"Look I know it's a lot to take in but I'm telling you the truth."
"Yeah right, and the Angels are actually trying to be our friends!"
Marcus groaned out of frustration, it may take a while to convince her, but something about it felt…defensive in a way. Currently their conversation was taking place in Misatos apartment where Shinji was also taking residents, but when he got home earlier he didn't expect to have another roommate much less the fiery red head herself Asuka. Marcus had come by to explain everything he told Shinji and the others before. As it turned out Asuka was just being difficult about it.
"Asuka, I may not know too much about this keyblade business, but maybe you should give it a shot. I mean what have you got to lose?" Misato piped in wearing her usual at home attire; a tank top with short shorts. Shinji for his part was quietly sipping his tea.
"Well if it sounds so good to you, why don't you try it?" Asuka snapped back.
"Because Misato doesn't have that power inside her." Marcus answered.
"And how the hell would you know?"
"Because it was part of my job back when there was still an order for key bearers." Marcus answered before pausing in his explanation, reflecting on his past. "I was one of the few who could sense when there was a potential keyblade that was coming into existence. That's part of how I found you two, and before anyone asks I'm not telling the other reason…not just yet anyway."
"…Oh…well I still don't know about this?"
"Think of it this way Asuka, it'll give you a chance to show off your skills outside the Eva. Not to mention this could improve your fighting skills some." Misato said.
"…"
"Before you make your decision, I need to tell you both this." Marcus said addressing Shinji and Asuka.
"One way or another; your keyblades will manifest themselves, but under my wing at least you'll learn how to put up a fight against opponents that are far greater in size & numbers, not to mention the many new things you never thought you would ever be able to do. I won't lie to either of you two, the training will be tough and rigorous, but I guarantee the training will give you a better understanding of battles and self defense."
When Marcus finished neither of the two spoke a word and just took a moment to think it over.
"So what do you say, will you undertake my training and let me help you out as best as I can along the way or go at it yourselves and go as far as you can alone?"
"So they agreed to it?"
"That's right Risuko; it looked like they were reluctant at first though, but they went ahead and said yes."
"Well I can't really blame them Misato, you remember how reluctant Shinji was to get into Unit-01 the first day he got here?"
"…Yeah I do."
"So what does Marcus have in mind for them?"
"Don't know, after they gave him their answer he just smiled and said he'd be back by the time the day the Angel should be fully healed, but he did leave them with a bit of homework."
"Oh, and what is it?"
"Well he told them about an easier way to help get their keyblades to come out. It had something to do with mediation and their 'dream weapons'."
"*sigh* I'm going to guess that made more sense to those two then it does for me."
"They got the idea; last I saw Asuka was trying it out herself."
"Ok, but shouldn't Rei go thru this too?"
"Marcus said he'd stop by Rei's place to tell her about it, so I don't think we have to worry about that."
While Misato was talking to Risuko over the phone in the bath tub, the two pilots were at that moment in their meditative stances (a sitting position with their legs crossed), trying to do what Marcus told them to do. Shinji was sitting silently when Asuka suddenly slammed her hands down on the floor with a furious thud.
"…Damn it, I'm not getting anywhere with this!" Asuka growled.
"Maybe you're doing something wrong." Shinji said his response got him a dirty look from the German red head. "Well maybe not, but we just started not that long ago. Isn't it too soon to just give up?"
"Idiot, who says I'm giving up, I just want to know if I'm doing this right!"
"Well Marcus did say to focus on those weapons we picked in our dream so-"
"I'VE ALREADY BEEN- *sigh* never mind I'll just try again." So Asuka went back to her own meditation, when Misato walked into the room after her bath and dressed in her sleeping attire.
"Don't stay up too late you two, remember we need to get you two to sync with each other. We'll start the training in the morning."
"Ok Misato, but what about-"
"Don't worry about that Shinji, we'll try to squeeze in your 'sessions' into the schedule somewhere. In the mean time let's get to sleep."
Meanwhile onboard Marcus's gummy ship, Marcus started giving orders and world names.
"Sir Marcus, what are we going to do on these worlds?"
"Well on the first world: Traverse town we're gonna do some shopping for potions, Hi-potions, Mega-potions, and if possible Elixirs, as well as other stuff we may need like new gummi parts. On the second one we're going to see an old friend about some special outfits for the kids before we even start going to other worlds yet."
"I see, but isn't this world the area you told me an old master retired to?"
"That's right, after all The Mysterious Tower belongs to Master Yen Sid; last I heard there were three fairies taking refuge in his place that could provide the magical attire the kids will need."
"…Sir Marcus is that all the reason why we're visiting him?"
"No Nini, since the other day after the fight on the battleship I've had a bad feeling that something is going on behind the scenes. I need to talk to him about this; he might have some clue as to what's going on."
"But what if he doesn't?"
"Then it's all up to us."
"I see."
"And that's my report; overall that last fight was nothing but a total embarrassment."
"Yes, clearly the ones piloting the Evangelions aren't exactly fit to use such marvelous creations. But then again we have no means for the genuine articles."
"Oh how nice; you decided not to tell me to steal something for once. Not that it would have been easy mind you, not because of security of course but just because of the shear size of those things. There'd be no way for me to make a portal big enough or leave it open long enough to take all three Units."
"I know that, that's why for now you just keep observing them and if possible send me samples of their armor if you can."
"Listen Doc you may have hired me to do this job as well as pay me well, but do NOT consider me your errand boy."
"Yes, yes scary threat bla, bla, bla. Just do this for me, and next time you swing back to the lab I'll let you take it out on a couple of my earlier experimental Heartless creations as well as some 'test subjects' I was thinking were not worth my time, how does that sound?"
"…Doctor, I believe you've got yourself a deal." The Hooded man said with a wicked smile plastered on his face, he was looking forward to sharpening his blade on something or someone for once in a long time.
End of chapter
