CHAPTER 7
"Who is Gendo Rokubungi?"
This was the question on everyone's lips, or at least the question on the lips of the people who had to deal with him. And the answer of "a UN special investigator" usually only prompted remarks about how they were being more metaphorical with their query.
Still, the year was 1999 and Gendo Rokubungi seemed to be everywhere. He would show up unannounced with all the proper authorisation. Sometimes there was no record of him entering the country. And then he… did things. What things were, people weren't sure. He'd hand over documents to specific people, or have a quiet word with the manager of a given project, or sometimes just sit in the corner of the room and observe the meeting.
He didn't actually do very much - but he did it very constructively, in a way that left people feeling that things were certainly happening.
And then there was the gut impression that he left in people. When he got bad news or things didn't live up to the UN agreed timetable, he'd just glare. And somehow his glare felt like a threat.
Right now he was in South Africa, meeting with the leaders of a mercenary company. These mercenaries were not lightweights. They'd been involved in international incidents all across South America, Africa and the Middle East. That was how they'd appeared on SEELE's radar, as potential assets - or potential threats.
Gendo laid the briefcase on the table. "Consider this a down payment," he said in a flat tone, eyes hidden behind mirrored sunglasses. "$100,000 American, as you requested."
Captain Tenedos of Solutions Expedited opened the briefcase, checking the notes. They were all legitimate tender. SEELE's pockets were deep and its influence wide-reaching. "See, the thing here is," said the mercenary, "you paid up as agreed, on time."
"That was the agreement."
"Well, I think we'd like to reopen negotiations. Your willingness to pay indicates that this job is worth more than you said it was."
Gendo stood there, hands by his side. In the heat, his sweat left a waxy sheen on his features. "Are you breaking the deal?" he asked flatly.
"We're… renegotiating."
"That is not a good idea," Gendo said. "There are other prospective employees." He clicked his fingers. "And our hand is stronger than yours."
"I don't think it is," the captain said with a grin. "I think my hand's a lot stronger than yours is."
"I doubt it."
The captain gestured. "I don't," he said, as his soldiers rose from where they had been concealed. "Now, run on back to the UN, errand boy, and tell them that we're willing to negotiate - and if they don't want the press to know that they've been hiring mercenaries to destabilise nations, they shouldn't send someone in an official capacity. Fortunately, we're open to being hired to… ha ha, preserve such a secret."
Gendo smiled thinly. "You are making a mistake, Mr Tenedos."
"Captain!" the man snapped.
"Mr Tenedos. This was a test of your loyalty. You failed."
Autumnal leaves painted the trees in red and orange. The air smelt of damp soil, cut grass, and just a hint of cow. The Japanese countryside was beautiful at this time of year, Kozo Fuyutsuki thought, with a hint of melancholy.
Behind him, Yui Ikari - now with her doctorate, completed in near record time - ambled along. She was wrapped up warm, and prepared for the hike the two of them were on. "Oh, sensei," she said fondly. "It's nice to see you again, you know. I haven't seen as much of you since I left university."
He smiled back. "It's good to see you too. Are you enjoying things? What are you up to at the UN Artificial Evolution Laboratory?"
"Oh, it's all very interesting. I'm enjoying it a great deal," Yui said. She hopped onto a low flat rock, balancing before she jumped down again. "It's totally classified, I'm afraid. I can't tell you a thing."
His lips twitched. "You shouldn't let yourself be captured by the military-industrial complex, Yui," he said, chiding her. "Your talents should be used to help mankind, not to enrich wealthy old men."
"Oh, trust me," she said. "It will help mankind."
"I wish I could believe that to be so," he said morosely, kicking up a pile of fallen orange leaves.
"You should!" Yui pouted. "Why don't you come work there, sensei? With your talents - and your reputation - I'm sure we could make use of you!"
"I'm too old and too cynical for something like that," Kozo said. "I'd ask too many awkward questions."
"You're not old, esteemed elder," she said, an impish smile on her lips.
He couldn't help but chuckle. It was good to be spending time with her. He had hoped… but no, enough of that.
"And Gendo's away on a business trip, so I was feeling lonely and thought it was a good chance to catch up with you," she added.
His melancholy returned. Yes. The other barrier in the way of their relationship, the thing he'd found out a year ago. He hadn't known she was involved with… that man.
There were rumours about Gendo Rokubungi. Rumours that he had only involved himself with Yui to get close to her undeniable talents and her skills - and her contacts, because he knew his favourite student was a well-connected woman from a very influential family in the Diet. Yui thought herself so clever, but she was young - and while she might have been a genius capable of completing her doctorate at such a young age, Kozo knew for a fact that this didn't mean you were wise in the ways of the world.
He very much feared that the sinister Mr Rokubungi was taking advantage of sweet, young, cocky and slightly too arrogant Yui.
"I still find it hard to think of what you see in him," he said tentatively.
Yui chuckled. "Oh, sensei, he's actually a very gentle man," Yui said blithely. "He just doesn't show that side of himself to other people, and so they remain ignorant of that."
Kozo tried not to harumph. "Well, perhaps that ignorance makes us happy."
"I don't understand why you're like this. When I introduced you to him, did he disturb you?" she said.
"Well, I must admit, he's an interesting man. But I don't like him," Kozo said stubbornly.
He could not help but feel that his Yui was drifting away from him - and there was nothing he could do about it.
"I hope he's enjoying himself," Yui said, a dreamy look in her eyes which hinted of the thoughts she was having about a man that wasn't him.
"Oh god! Oh god oh god oh god! Everyone's dead! Everyone's dead! Someone stop hi-"
The radio cut off.
Gendo cracked his knuckles, and smiled to himself. It was the honest grin of a man who was doing what he loved.
As far as SEELE was concerned, he had contacts in the mercenary business with access to heavy ordinance. That was how he could so reliably eliminate enemies of the organisation. And if he happened to charge them for hire of his mercenary contacts… well, that money went straight to him. Yui had helped him set up the arrangements for this here on Earth, but the idea had all been his.
After all, it wasn't like the saiyans hadn't sometimes nudged prices up for Lord Frieza. And by 'nudged', he wasn't talking small amounts there. He sincerely hoped that this hadn't been the reason he had gone after their homeworld. It would be such a… petty reason. Not beyond Lord Frieza, of course, but moderately petty even by his standards.
Throwing his hand out, he blew up the fuel depot, and watched in appreciation as a big mushroom cloud of smoke rose.
It was the little moments that really made it all worthwhile. It was cathartic to really get to cut loose occasionally, after all the time spent sitting in meetings being SEELE's running hound. Gritting his teeth, he lifted up a jeep and tossed it at a tent which had miraculously survived the exploding fuel depot.
Yes, he thought, as men screamed all around him, he was starting to get hungry. He'd need to see if he'd already blown up their mess hall when he was done cleaning up. Leaping into the air, he came down in a meteoric impact on someone crawling through the rubble. Gendo hoped he hadn't blown it up. It'd be such a pain to have to fly to the nearest town to get something to eat.
Glancing up at the sky, he noted that he could see the moon. It was a little too full for his liking, and he could feel its malevolent, painful influence. Sunlight helped mitigate it, but he wanted to make sure he got back to Tokyo fast enough that he didn't have any problems. He should skip the search for food, clear up here, and get out of here.
The Ikari-Rokubungi apartment was a little patch of warmth and light in the chill of October. The blackout curtains were drawn.
"You smell of smoke," Yui remarked as Gendo let himself in. "Also, blood. And guns."
"I know, I know."
"Luckily I suspected that would be the case, so ran you a bath. And there will be food after that."
Gendo smiled at his girlfriend. "You think of everything."
"I certainly hope so." She fended him off with her hands. "Now go. No kisses until you smell less like death. Are you hurt?"
He worked his shoulders, affecting a pitiful expression. "A bit bruised. Someone dropped a grenade when I punched their head off."
"My heart bleeds for you," Yui said fondly. She shooed him off.
After a bath Gendo didn't feel any more human. He did, however, feel more saiyan, and so swaggered through, tail preserving his modesty.
"No towel?" Yui asked, eyebrows fluting up.
He shrugged. "I dried myself off already."
Gendo sat down to eat. For all Yui's other virtues - or at least interesting and enjoyable vices - she was a painfully mediocre cook and tended to live off instant ramen and shop-bought meals whenever possible. She blamed the fact that she had never had to prepare food when growing up, but Gendo personally ascribed it to the fact that she largely considered food to be a way of obtaining energy and nutrients needed to do things she was more interested in. Still, that did mean that she was good at preparing bland food quickly, which was entirely satisfactory for him. He dug into his noodles, while Yui leant on one of the counters, reading a scientific journal.
However, once he had finished, that was revealed to be something of a pretence.
"The committee is impressed with you," Yui said. "They've already got back news of your success in South Africa. I've been told that you are to be inducted into a deeper level of clearance about SEELE. We're going to be going public in the next few years; the UN Artificial Evolution Laboratory is going to be reorganised into GEHIRN."
"Mmm," he said.
"And so… it's time to show you something of what I've been working on." Yui pursed her lips. "But here's where we run into the problem. SEELE is going to insist you're inducted into the secret and trying to avoid the place will get questions asked I don't think we want to answer. And the moon problem is a… problem."
Gendo moved defensively to protect his tail. "You can't cut it off!"
"I realise you consider it to be somewhat central to your self-definition, but it'd just be a little snip and…"
"Just a little snip!" Gendo snapped back. "That's easy for you to say! You don't have one!"
"Yes, you're right," said the woman, "but…"
"You don't know what you're asking! A saiyan with no tail is barely a saiyan!"
"I've been thinking about this," Yui said, lips thin. "I know neither of us want this - I certainly don't! I like a man with a big furry strokable tail! But I think with your natural healing factor, I should be able to amputate and freeze your tail-"
Gendo growled, his lips curling back.
"And," Yui continued, raising a finger, "and this is the important bit - and re-attach it later."
He tensed his jaw.
"Trust me, I'm a scientist," Yui said, trying to reassure him. "I already borrowed the preservation equipment from work and pinned the blame on someone else."
"But..." he said, trailing off.
"Just think about what it'd let you do," Yui said, voice honeyed. "No more blackout curtains. No more having to dash back to avoid nearly half the month. Not having to adjust all your clothing to hide your tail. And it's not like it's useful for you on this world. It just hurts you and makes you feel sick."
Gendo swallowed. "Do you promise you can reattach it?" he asked weakly.
"I promise," Yui said sincerely. "When this is all over, I want you to have a big furry tail. I love it. But I think I know why the moon is, as you put it, 'poisoned' - and things are only going to be worse where we're going. Make sure you bring your scouter."
"Where are we going?"
"What do you know about Hakone?"
Hakone was a small town built beside a lake, up in the mountains.
"It's not very impressive," Gendo said critically, getting out of Yui's car. Rubbing his hands together he blew on them, trying to warm up in the chill air. His backside ached, though not as much as he might have thought. Everything felt wrong, even if Yui had made a clean job of it. Though it was nice to be able to look up at the moon without feeling uncomfortable.
"No, it's not," Yui said. "That's the point."
The two of them cleared the security checkpoint in the anonymous grey building that was officially a government records storage facility. The decor was bland and beige, but there was a notable lack of paperwork. Instead, they seemed to be storing construction equipment in the basement, beside big cargo lifts.
"Ah, hello Yui," said the security guard at the lift. "I'll need to see ID from both of you, though."
Yui nodded, flashing her card. "How are things, Mr Suzuhara?" she asked.
"Oh, boring as usual. Ah, you're a UN Inspector?" he asked Gendo.
"Yes."
"See quite a few of you around here. Go on down, both of you."
They stepped into the lift, and then it dropped - and not slowly. They descended down ten, twenty, thirty and more metres, falling all the time.
And then they emerged into a vacant, dark space.
"What is this place?" Gendo asked uncomfortably. He could feel the pressure above him, and more pertinently, he could feel the void around him. This was a vast unlit hollow space, and the occasional spotlights which danced over the ink-black walls only served to emphasise the unlit immensity.
"It's only officially known as the Second Facility," Yui said softly. "It was discovered in the 70s."
"Discovered?" he asked.
"Yes. Discovered. It wasn't made by humans. Because 'the Second Facility' isn't what the Dead Sea Scrolls call it." She gazed into the distance, at the dark walls. "They call it the Black Moon."
"This isn't a moon," Gendo pointed out. "It's underground."
"Now it is. Once it wasn't." She stared into his eyes. "This is the thing that hit the planet. This is what formed the moon."
There was a city of sorts down here, down in the lightlessness of the Black Moon. Looming construction equipment sat on top of concrete slabs, and half-built shafts. Vast mining drills poked out from where they'd been carving tunnels through this place. They were even shipping earth down here, coating the area in the distance in soil.
But their descent didn't stop there. There were more security checkpoints, manned by soldiers from FAUST, and more lifts, heading ever downwards. They only stopped in a well-lit area - and only there because the next security checkpoint insisted that Yui and Gendo change into hazmat suits.
Then they were descending down, down, down. Gendo had long ago lost track of how deep they had to be.
"We know about this place from the Dead Sea Scrolls," Yui said. There was a faint red glow around this lift. Vague organic shapes twisted in the distance. "This is the genesis of all of us. Of all life on Earth." The corner of her mouth tilted up. "Apart from you, that is."
The lift stopped.
"Welcome to Terminal Dogma," Yui said.
They headed through a pair of blast doors, onto a gantry that overlooked… something.
"What is that?" Gendo breathed.
"Here she is," Yui said, staring down at the enormous pale shape. "The progenitor of my species. The Second Angel. We call her 'Lilith'."
Gendo took in the sight below him. The Lilith being was monstrous in its immensity; larger than even a Great Ape. White flesh bulged in squirming mounds. It was hammered to a cross of strange red metal with nails, each one larger than a car. Lilith was shaped something like a human - two arms, two legs, and a colossal head that wore a seven eyed mask.
He now knew where SEELE's insignia came from.
And there was a dreadful inconstancy to the surface of the creature, as if there was something trying to escape from it. But all that came out was a strange red-orange ooze that might have been sweat and might have been blood, which pooled at its feet.
The saiyan warrior swallowed, feeling very, very small indeed.
"Gendo," Yui asked. "What does the scouter say about its power level?"
"…I don't know," he said, breaths coming fast and shallow.
"You don't know?"
"It's crashed." He shifted uncomfortably within his biohazard suit, trying to adjust the sit of his eyepiece. "And it's got hot. I can smell burning plastic in here."
Yui was silent for a long moment. "Is that a thing they do? What numbers do they work up to?"
"I don't know!" Gendo gasped, trying not to hyperventilate and failing. "I didn't read the manual and I am far too scared to remember if anyone ever told me! But that thing could… could crush me like a bug. Without even noticing."
Yui squeezed his hand silently, trying her best to be reassuring. It was not very effective.
He swallowed, throat feeling taut. "Yui," he said. "Why don't we just… just get off this planet? We could go find another world and take over a country or something. I'm sure there has to be somewhere where we wouldn't have to be sharing the same planet with a thing like this."
She turned to him. "Because Lilith is power, my love," she said. "Power, ripe for the taking. Power that we will snatch from a trapped god. Humans were never meant to be fragmented, weak beings. You said it yourself. You thought one of my ancestors had divided their power down too much. Well, there are myths and legends of past times when men were mightier than today. Stories of gods." Her hands balled into fists. "SEELE will see those times again."
"So this is what you're working on?"
"Not quite. Not quite. But close. Imagine a synthetic organism, a copy of this thing, chained by machinery and cybernetics. Something a human could control." Yui reached down over the gantry, as if she could snatch up the pale shape. "Something I will control. Something I will need to control."
"Need?" Gendo echoed.
Yui glanced back at him. The pale shape of Lilith reflected off the transparent mask of her biohazard suit. "She's not the only creature like this on this world," she said. "There is another. The First Angel. Adam. And his children will come, before the end."
