Author's Note: I hope you guys like this chapter. I've tried to take a lot of your feedback into account, and I'm having a lot of fun. Hope this is an improvement!
A State of Mercy
Chapter 7: Eyes of the Beholder
INTERCEPT CITY
Misato sat on a park bench with Hyuga, watching a group of children playing in a sandbox. Her black Simonet was slung over the back of the bench and her black tank top was the only thing on her upper body. Hyuga pretended not to notice as he reported to her what he'd found. "You asked me to look into where Simon had disappeared to that day. Turns out he was meeting with someone at a coffee shop."
Hyuga handed her a photograph. "What the fuck!?" Misato screamed, attracting the attention of the children and their parents around her.
THE LOWEST LEVELS OF SS
Simon stood in the center of a circular room; Maya on his right and his New York contact on his left. In front of the trio was what looked like a pitch black entry plug.
"Pop the seal," Simon said to Maya. She nodded and tapped in a code on the data pad in her palm. The black plug hissed out steam and cracked open.
Lights on the interior of the plug flickered to life and illuminated the subject contained within. Simon stepped forward but stopped when he felt Maya's hand grab his arm.
He looked at her. "I'll be fine," he said and patted the Colt on his thigh. Maya let go reluctantly and let Simon walk over to the plug. Simon peered over the edge at the subject, whose eyes were open but seemed unseeing.
"Welcome back to the land of the living," he began. The subject looked at him and mouthed the word 'why?' Simon looked back at Maya. "Prepare the insertion for later today. No one is permitted in this room with out my say so. That includes the colonel and I don't care if its her facility," he then turned to the man who'd brought the subject to him. "And now, we give you what you want."
OUTSIDE UNIT 01'S CAGE
"Shinji, look at me," Misato ordered. Shinji finally met her eyes and with great effort listened to her.
"You have to go in there. Simon's been inside your Eva. Are you really going to stand for that?" she asked.
"I don't really think it matters," he replied. Misato ignored him and pulled him behind her into the cage.
"Hitting the S-Mark in five, four, three, two, one. Bring up the primo-injectors," she heard Maya saying to her staff as she entered. Misato stopped dead in her tracks at what she saw going on. Standing next to Simon and Maya on the umbilical bridge was Gendo Ikari. Maya was too concentrated to notice that they'd entered the room, but both Simon and NERV's former commander turned to look at the two.
Before she could do anything to stop it, Shinji was out of her grasp and aiming her sidearm at his own father. Without hesitation, Simon whipped out his Colt and put a bullet in Shinji's leg, just above the knee. Shinji fell to the ground screaming and clutching his leg, the standard issue 9mm cast aside. Gendo glared at Simon through his spectacles.
"What?" Simon said, then looked around and saw that it was a common reaction from the people around him. "He could have shot you," then when Gendo's expression didn't change, "He's a faggot anyway."
Meanwhile Misato was on her knees holding Shinji in her lap. "Simon you bastard!" she shouted.
Simon shrugged and turned back to Ibuki. "How's the process coming?" he asked.
"Uh, just about done. For this next part, Unit 01 might buck a little. But we've got it restrained properly," she explained.
Simon turned around. "Hear that Gen-" he stopped when Gendo wasn't there, but instead was crouched next to Misato and Shinji.
"Katsuragi, call the medics please," he ordered.
Misato knew that he wasn't part of NERV anymore, knew that she was now in charge, but somehow found her cell phone automatically in her hand, the number dialed. "Yes, we're in cage 01, send a medical team. Bullet wound, Third Child," she hung up the phone and saw the older Ikari bandaging his son's leg with a torn piece of his pant leg. Both Misato and Shinji's mouths dropped open at the sight.
Unit 01's right arm spasmed in the restraint as Maya began the home stretch of the operation. Steel creaked and moaned as the behemoth surged against its restraints. Then as quickly as it had begun, the jerking was over. The core bubbled for a moment and then dropped something in the modified cryo-tube beneath it.
The core dimmed significantly and both Simon and Shinji, due to their connection with it, sensed that the life within Unit 01 was gone.
"Good?" Simon asked Maya.
"Good," she confirmed with a nod of the head then turned to a member of her staff, "Bring up the tube!"
A mechanical arm brought the tube up onto the umbilical bridge. Simon whipped condensation off the glass and confirmed they'd done their job right. He looked over at Gendo and shouted, "Ikari and younger Ikari! Get over here!"
Gendo and Misato helped Shinji up and assisted him in limping over to the tube. Simon released the lid clamp and opened it. Gendo peered in the tube. A hand reached up and touched his face, and he broke down crying by the side of the tube. Simon helped the woman inside up with a hand to hers and wrapped a towel around her nude, wet form.
"Simon," she said. Simon wasn't surprised that she knew his name, beings he'd been inside Unit 01 doing a test just yesterday.
"Doctor," he said with a nod of the head. Next she looked down at Gendo.
"You can get up now," she said. Returning to his usual cold form, Gendo stood up and regarded her sternly, which made her laugh a bit.
"What?" he asked.
"I've never seen you with a beard!" she replied, still laughing. Gendo's face went red. "Whom do I have to thank for this salvage operation?" she asked, looking around.
Gendo gestured to Simon and Maya, and Simon gestured mainly to Maya. "You can thank Dr. Ibuki here," Simon said.
"Thank you," she said to Maya.
Meanwhile, between the pain of being shot and the confusion of the scene unfolding before him, Shinji was getting a hell of a headache.
The woman sought to clear some of it up, "Shinji," she said, "I'm your mother, Yui Ikari."
Two seconds later, Simon had to jump in the oily liquid below the umbilical bridge to retrieve Shinji who'd fainted and fallen down there.
THE HOUSE, LATER ON
"What you did is-"
"Irresponsible, wrong, against regulations, evil, disgusting, blah, blah, blah," Simon finished for Misato.
"I outta-" she started again.
"Fire me?" Simon scoffed and casually tossed a folder on the table marked TOP SECRET across the front.
"What's this?" Misato asked and opened it up.
"It basically says that now with Yui back in the picture command of NERV in general is being returned to what it was meant to be from the beginning. With only a few minor changes."
Misato ran across some of the changes in her read of the folder. The main points read like this:
Executive command will be returned to Ikari, Gendo.
Science department to be co-run by Ikari, Yui and Ibuki, Maya.
Second in command will be given to Katsuragi, Misato.
Pilot command will be given to Kirby, Simon
Brand new scenario to be initiated under supervision by Ikari, Gendo.
"God damn it," Misato muttered to herself, "And I suppose the only reason I'm being put in second command is so the two Ikaris' can't take over the world?"
"Very astute my purple haired friend," Simon observed, a smile on his face she wished badly to shoot off. "You'll probably be given a brown outfit in the morning like the late Professor used to wear," he said.
Misato looked down at her now-familiar black uniform. "Damn, I liked this color," she said rather dryly.
Simon shrugged in reply and walked into the living room to watch whatever Sean and Asuka had on.
THE NEXT MORNING, SS/NERV
"How'd the catching up go last night?" Simon asked both Yui and Gendo in the elevator. In what Simon guessed would probably be a common pattern from now on, Yui answered while Gendo said nothing and continued looking intimidating.
"It went well, as you can see," she indicated Gendo's now shaved face and older glasses.
Simon waved his fist forward and made a whip crack noise. Yui laughed and Gendo, though Simon thought it wasn't possible, looked even meaner. The elevator stopped to let another person on and when the doors opened it was Misato standing there, wearing a stiff, new brown jacket.
"Okay, let's get one thing out of the way before we can work together: fuck all three of you for doing this to me. Now let's get to work." Misato entered the elevator.
"Katsuragi right?" Yui asked.
"Yes," Misato replied tersely.
"I knew your father," she said.
Misato didn't reply right away. "Uh…really?" she finally managed.
Yui noticed the nervous tone and stepped carefully with her next statement. "He was a good friend."
Misato was glad when the elevator stopped at the command deck and she and the commander could get off. The doors closed and allowed Yui and Simon to continue down to the cages and science levels, respectively. When commander and sub-commander stepped onto the command deck, no one noticed them until the commander's deep voice boomed down from what seemed like heaven.
"Bring up the statistics on Units 00 and 02 in comparison with Unit 01 on screen two," he ordered. Aoba and Hyuga spun around and only looked surprised to see Commander Ikari back in his usual position, up on the command nest with his fingers laced in front of his mouth, for a moment before getting to work on his order.
It was like he'd never left, and strangely it didn't seem bad.
THE CAGE'S READY ROOM
Simon stood in front of the assembled pilots. "I'm in command of the team and my second in command is-"
"ME!" Asuka screamed.
"Hell no. It's Sean," Simon finished.
"DAMNIT!" Asuka screamed even louder.
THE MAIN STORAGE AREA
"You moved all this junk over here?" Yui asked Maya in astonishment as she looked at the mostly spinal remains of the Evangelions that didn't work from back when NERV was still GEHIRN.
"Yea we did. Did the commander tell you about-"
"The Greymarch plan? Yes. I suppose we're starting with that?"
"Pretty much."
"Fun."