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 this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Chapter Nine: Unwise Moves
"Going somewhere, Amazon?"
Wonder Girl didn't answer at first, and instead just glared at the Dark Centurion, her eyes narrowing. The Amazon's mind whirled as she tried to process the implications of his abrupt appearance.
One thing Commander Ikari had always said was, "Show me a coincidence, and I'll open it up and show you two people scheming inside."
Even if she hadn't been raised by such a paranoid individual, she would have known it was impossible for her foe to have arrived here so quickly…unless he'd known that this situation was going to come about. Of course, the most likely reason for him to have such knowledge was obvious.
"You have something to do with that, don't you?" she demanded, pointing at the plummeting form of the Tenth Angel.
"Perhaps," was his only reply.
Wonder Girl felt just a trace of grudging respect for the Dark Centurion; it was foolishness to give one's enemy knowledge merely for the sake of gloating.
Yet regardless of how tight-lipped he was, the Amazon felt certain that he was responsible for the Angel. She didn't know the details, but she reasoned that they could wait for a later time.
Preferably when Tokyo-3 is not on the verge of annihilation, she decided.
"You will leave here so I can deal with the Angel," she said, her tone frosty. "Now."
"Or what?" asked the Dark Centurion, and though his helm obscured his face, she could easily hear the smirk in his voice.
Wonder Girl discovered she was actually glad that the Dark Centurion had replied in this manner, probably because she was still angry from discovering that one of the gods had betrayed her (again).
"Or this," she replied.
She surged toward him, the wind whistling in her ears as she shot through the air. The distance between the two foes disappeared in a heartbeat, and the Dark Centurion was too surprised by her abrupt attack to react in time. She was able to see his dark eyes for a just a moment – to see the mixture of fear and surprise within them – before she crashed into him, causing his heavy armor to ring like a bell.
Queen Hippolyta probably would have had her head for such a graceless maneuver.
"Ahhh!" the Dark Centurion shrieked as he was thrown off his steed and sent plummeting toward the ocean hundreds of feet below.
His undead Pegasus neighed loudly and immediately dove after him, but the demigod's heavy armor ensured that he fell like a hammer. Within seconds, the Dark Centurion had become a mere speck in the distance.
Not that Wonder Girl bothered to wait and watch her foe fall. The moment she had knocked him from his winged steed, she took off like a shot toward the undead Angel.
Perhaps Hippolyta would not have condemned that attack, after all, she thought as she flew through the sky at top speed. If nothing else, it was effective.
Within moments, her frantic flight had brought her close to the plummeting Angel, and she felt a chill run down her spine as she drew near. The air seemed to grow colder the closer she got to the Angel.
She frowned. That should have been impossible. Simple friction should have caused an object which was that large and moving that fast to grow hot, not cold. However, her pale skin broke out into goose bumps as got closer, regardless of what the science said.
The Angel's temperature is unimportant, she decided as she somehow put on another burst of speed, positioning herself beneath the Angel.
The body of the falling behemoth had the appearance of an enormous eye, and the core at the center looked for all the world like a pupil. She flew toward the ruby sphere and found that the hole she had made in it was still very much in evidence.
Putting aside the question of what this did or didn't mean for the moment, she placed her hands upon the crimson material. Even though it looked like stone, it felt cold and clammy, like the flesh of a dead thing. She ignored the unpleasant sensation and began to push.
Come…on! She thought, gritting her teeth with the effort.
Ever since Athena and Queen Hippolyta had made her the Wonder Girl, she had never truly confronted the limit of her superhuman strength. While she had been faced with many problems that pure brute force would not solve, she had yet to face a situation where her might simply wasn't up to the task.
Now her limits were finally being tested.
Her muscles strained, and for once, she actually feared that she was in danger of overexerting herself and pulling something. She could hear blood rushing in her ears, and she would have been completely unsurprised to know that her face was red with the effort she was expending.
Yet it was all for naught.
No! She thought defiantly as the Angel continued to fall, her thoughts taking on a frantic tone.
Suddenly, in this dark moment, she remembered.
Shinji was down in Tokyo-3. Shinji would surely die if she couldn't stop this giant beast.
I will not allow Shinji to die.
The Champion of the Amazons found new strength from somewhere and renewed her efforts. For a few distressing seconds, she seemed to be having as little effect as she had had before.
Then the Angel seemed to slow. At first, she feared that it was only her imagination, playing tricks on her desperate mind. A moment later, she was sure of it; the Angel's descent was definitely slowing. The two "arms" on either end of its central mass flopped downwards, where before the force of the Angel's acceleration had pressed them back.
"Yes," she whispered triumphantly.
She had almost halted the Angel's fall completely when the temperature of its core dropped sharply, causing Wonder Girl to release a small cry of surprise and pain. It suddenly felt like she was touching not a dead body, but a chunk of solid ice. The cold was so intense that it burned, and she could see her fingers turning blue before her very eyes.
Caught off guard, she briefly stopped pushing so hard against the Angel, and gravity readily moved to regain its hold over the enormous destroyer. It began to fall again, and Wonder Girl once more grit her teeth and pushed upwards.
However, it was more difficult this time, now that her body was all but screaming at her to break contact with it.
It is fighting me, she realized. It somehow reduced its temperature to try and get me to move away from it. Even though it is dead, it is fighting me.
That realization led to one inescapable conclusion.
Almost on cue, a blast of enchanted flame slammed into Wonder Girl's side, knocking her away from the Angel's core. The massive creature immediately continued its descent, while the Amazon herself went careening through the air, a cry of pain escaping her. It felt like the infernal flames were scorching her whole body, except her frozen hands, of course.
"Thought you could get rid of me that easily?" the Dark Centurion demanded. He had regained his flying steed and had his sword in hand. White hot flames blazed around the length of the blade.
He sounds angry, thought Rei. This was perhaps the first time she'd made him mad enough to show it.
Somehow, that brought her a feeling of satisfaction. "I was sincerely hoping that knocking you off your mount would work," she answered him honestly.
The Dark Centurion let out a growl and fired another blast of flame at her from his sword. Wonder Girl nimbly dodged the attack, but she knew that she now had a very real problem.
I must get rid of him if I am to stop the Angel, she thought.
Unfortunately, throwing him off of that Pegasus had only temporarily gotten him out of her hair. It seemed that her most viable option now was to slay the Pegasus, but she was reluctant to do so; the Dark Centurion's ability to teleport was seemingly limited to whenever he was in the shadows, and there were precious few of those out above the open ocean.
Much as she had come to loath the armored man, she found herself hesitant to kill him.
Am I even capable of killing the Pegasus? She wondered. It is already dead.
Her musings were interrupted as the Dark Centurion fired another blast of flame at her, which she again dodged. Her crimson gaze flicked toward the still falling Angel.
It is the Dark Centurion or all of Tokyo-3, she thought somberly.
Shinji was in Tokyo-3. Wonder Girl's resolve hardened.
She rushed toward her airborne enemy, but this time he was ready for her. A wall of flame appeared between them just before she could reach him; Wonder Girl managed to stop in time to avoid being flash-roasted, but her abrupt halt gave the Dark Centurion plenty of time to back away from her.
He did not try to take the offensive, however, and the Amazon's eyes narrowed, realizing exactly what he was doing. The Dark Centurion didn't need to defeat her to get what he wanted: he just needed to keep her from stopping the Angel.
But I need to defeat him before I can deal with the Angel, Wonder Girl thought grimly.
She was desperately trying to figure out some way she could quickly best a foe who was determined to play a game of keep away with her when she saw something, just barely spotting it out of the corner of her eye.
A streak of white and red against the clear blue sky.
What is it? She wondered, as she tried to focus on it with no satisfaction; the thing was just too far away and moving too quickly for even her eyes to properly take in. Another of the Dark Centurion's little surprises?
She glanced at her foe, but he seemed just as surprised as she was by the thing's appearance. For a few seconds, the two combatants just stared in complete confusion at the blur of white and red, even as they both warily kept half an eye on the other.
Then the Dark Centurion realized that whatever the thing was, it was headed directly for the "eye" of the Angel.
"No!" the demigod exclaimed, grabbing the reins of his undead Pegasus and sending it heading straight toward the mysterious newcomer.
Wonder Girl reacted instantly, grabbing hold of the golden lasso at her belt, twirling it through the air once before casting it out. The loop at the end found one of the Pegasus's spindly legs and closed around it. With a grunt, she pulled as hard as she could on the golden rope.
The flying zombie horse, along with its rider, went careening wildly through the air, heading directly away from the Angel and the white and red blur.
The Pegasus's partially decayed vocal cords let out a loud, rattling neigh of terror. The Dark Centurion released a much louder, more piercing scream that the Amazon couldn't help but find satisfying.
Then the leg of the Dark Centurion's undead stead broke off with a wet squelching sound, leaving the Amazon holding a lasso that was now attached only to a dangling piece of rotting horse meat.
Just about any other fourteen-year-old girl in Wonder Girl's place would have at least said "ew" at this. The Amazon kept her commentary to herself, but she did wrinkle her nose slightly in disgust.
Eventually, the Dark Centurion's Pegasus managed to stabilize its flight, and it came to a stop, hovering in place. It didn't seem the least bit perturbed by the absence of one of its legs.
Its demigod rider, on the other hand, was furious. Even though he was wearing a Corinthian helmet, and even though they were more than a hundred meters apart, she could clearly see the anger burning in his dark eyes.
The fight between the two would surely have continued at this point, but a very loud, wordless battle cry from the streak of red and white caught their attention.
Wonder Girl's eyes widened when she heard it. Is that thing…a person?
Whatever it was, it was heading toward the core of the Angel like a speeding bullet. As the Amazon and the demigod watched, it crashed directly into the Angel's "pupil," the already-cracked ruby sphere shattering into countless pieces upon impact.
Nor did the mysterious person stop there. Moments later, it burst out of the back of the Angel's body, flying as fast as it had before.
The effect upon the Angel was immediate. Where before its descent had had purpose, now it flapped about listlessly in the air.
At the same time, the blur of white and red came to an abrupt stop, allowing Wonder Girl to finally see that it was indeed a person. Specifically, it was a masked blond girl of about her age, wearing a form fitting white leotard and a long red cape, which was flapping around dramatically in the breeze.
…why didn't I think of that? Wonder Girl thought, grudgingly impressed by the inelegant but very effective maneuver the other girl had used to destroy the core. The Angel probably wouldn't have tried to freeze her to death if the Amazon had done that first.
Then she gave her head a quick shake to clear it; Tokyo-3 was still in great danger, and the newcomer's actions had done little to change that. Whether the Angel was undead or dead dead, its mass would still cause immense devastation if it was allowed crash into the earth.
"I have to stop it," she whispered to herself, taking off toward the plummeting corpse of the Tenth Angel.
Only to have her path blocked—once again—by a jet of white hot flames from above.
"Did you forget about me already?" the Dark Centurion taunted.
"If only I could," Wonder Girl growled, instantly grabbing hold of her lasso and sending the loop of golden rope flying. The Amazon had aimed for the blade of that damnable sword of his, hoping to wrench it from his hands. However, he moved, and the lasso instead fell over him and the neck of his undead steed.
Good enough, Wonder Girl decided, knowing that she had no time for finesse.
She gave the golden rope a hard jerk, dragging the Dark Centurion and his steed toward her. The demigod let out an angry yelp as he was rudely pulled toward his foe, and even the undead Pegasus released an equine cry. The Dark Centurion swung his sword at her, but he was already too close to her. The long blade was an awkward weapon at point blank range, and she easily brought up her arms, blocking the strike with one of her bracers. With her free hand, she fired a punch directly at his head, leaving a sizable dent in his helmet.
Displaying surprising resilience, the demigod struck back almost immediately, lashing out with his free hand. The Dark Centurion wasn't as strong as she was, but it still hurt when his armored fist slammed into her stomach.
He tried to pull away from her, but she grabbed hold of his armor and refused to release him. "Let go of me!" he growled.
"No," was her flat reply.
I must try and remove him from this fight, she thought, even as they grappled. If I cannot, then perhaps it will be enough to keep him occupied so the other girl can—
The Dark Centurion made a fierce attempt to pull away from her, but the Amazon held fast. However, his effort did cause them to twist about in the air, and the change in position gave the two combatants a good view of both the Angel and the new superwoman.
What they saw so surprised them that they both immediately stopped struggling against one another. The new superwoman had completely halted the dead Angel's descent toward the ground; she was holding onto the relatively thin section of it between the central body and one of the masses on the side, and the thing was dangling limply from her grip like the world's largest and most bizarre rag doll.
Wow, Wonder Girl thought. Having firsthand knowledge of just how heavy that Angel truly was, the blond superwoman's feat of strength was enough to impress even her.
Unfortunately, having stopped the Angel's fall toward the city, the new superwoman then proceeded to do exactly the wrong thing with it.
With a loud grunt, the blonde tossed the Angel toward the ocean.
"No!" Wonder Girl cried, and suddenly she was the one trying to get away from her opponent.
The Dark Centurion laughed, and his armored fist shot out and grabbed a handful of her short hair, keeping her from pulling away. The champion of the Amazons winced as he pulled on her blue locks, but the pain didn't stop her from acting. She grabbed hold of his forearm with both hands, then flipped him over her head, throwing him off the Pegasus and sending him plunging toward the sea for a second time.
Unfortunately, Wonder Girl won her freedom just a bit too late; only seconds after she had gotten the Dark Centurion off of her, the corpse of the Tenth Angel crashed into the sea.
"This can't be happening," she whispered.
But it was. The Angel's speed had been drastically reduced by the actions of the new superwoman, but it still weighed tens of thousands of tons. The place where it hit the water immediately gave birth to an enormous wave, and a monstrously high wall of water began to rush toward Tokyo-3.
Not even the Champion of the Amazons could hope to stop that.
What do I do? There's no way to save everyone! She thought frantically. Shinji. I will save Shinji. The Commander is out of town, so there is only one Ikari I must worry about. But where is Shinji right now?
It was a simple enough question; barring any Angel attacks, Shinji tended to keep a very regular schedule, so it shouldn't have been difficult to figure out where he'd be. However, panic the likes of which she'd never experienced before had gripped the Amazon's heart, and she couldn't seem to remember where he would be at the current time.
What time is it? Where would Shinji be? Why can't I remember? So many thoughts were occurring all at once, holding her tight.
The new superwoman seemed to have realized by this point that simply flinging the massive Angel into the ocean had been a bad idea. She flew down toward the oncoming wave and began to do…something. Wonder Girl couldn't quite see; there was too much distance between them.
And in the places she passed, the wave began to stop.
"It's freezing," Wonder Girl whispered, amazed.
Whatever the new superwoman was doing, it was causing thousands upon thousands of gallons of saltwater—moving saltwater—to instantly freeze solid. Within a few moments, she had managed to form a complete lap around the tsunami that the fall of the Angel had unleashed, leaving an artificially made glacier floating in an area where the average temperature was above 80 degrees.
"Incredible," she muttered, impressed despite herself.
Then she snapped out of her shocked state with a jerk and immediately began to scan the area around her for any hint of black against the green sea. However, she found no trace of the Dark Centurion. He had apparently realized that Tokyo-3 would not fall that day and had taken his chance to escape while he could.
Eventually satisfied that the demigod was gone, the Amazon turned her gaze to the blue sky, looking for that new superwoman who had appeared so abruptly. She, too, had vanished from view.
A small scowl appeared on her face, though she didn't quite know why.
There was no denying that the mysterious new girl had been helpful during the battle. Indeed, Wonder Girl was too honest with herself not to admit that Tokyo-3 might have been destroyed without the masked girl's contributions.
Yet despite this, the Amazon had not come away with a good first impression of the undeniably powerful newcomer.
Throwing the Angel into the water like that was simply reckless, she decided. Queen Hippolyta would have had my head if I had made a habit of doing things without thinking them out like that.
Of course, such judgments weren't helpful to much of anything, and perhaps even worse, they completely ignored the obvious question. The Amazon had not allowed herself to contemplate it during the frantic few minutes of the battle, but now that the city was safe once again, she turned her mind to it.
Just who was that girl?
Meanwhile, high above the mortal realm, Mount Olympus was currently home to one very angry goddess. Athena had watched the entire battle play out, using a wide but shallow bowl of water to scry it, and her thoughts were far removed from the question of who the mysterious caped superwoman was.
How dare he! She thought, violently smacking the surface of the water and causing the image within it to vanish with a splash.
"How dare he?" she repeated aloud.
The goddess began to pace around her temple, her barely contained anger clearly visible in every short, quick movement.
"This is intolerable," she decided, ranting to no one in particular. "Unacceptable."
She had known for some time that Hades was actually working against the Wonder Girl, despite having initially pledged his support to her mission. She had likewise known that he had sent one of his demigod offspring to actively interfere with that mission.
She had known and accepted these things. When families were immortal and as powerful as the Olympian gods, epic family feuds were just a reality of one's life. Truly, Athena had felt little emotion when she'd first realized that her uncle, for all intents and purposes, had chosen to backstab her.
But this…this is a new low, she thought.
For Hades to use the Wonder Girl to slay the unborn Tenth Angel, all so he could turn it into an undead version of itself that was even more dangerous than the living one would have been…for him to intervene so directly by utilizing his own powers, rather than just using his son to fight the Champion of the Amazons by proxy…
"It cannot stand," she spoke. "Hades must answer for this."
Reaching a decision, she quickly turned, the hem of her long robes flying as she did, and began to stalk toward the entrance of her temple. She had preparations to make.
Takai Banryu had not been surprised when the Commander had summoned him shortly after the Tenth Angel's (second) death. Indeed, he was more surprised that the man hadn't 'thoroughly' questioned him before this point.
Of course, just because he'd expected it, didn't mean that he was happy about it.
Still, this isn't the worst thing I'm going to have to deal with today, the demigod told himself as he stared across Gendo Ikari's desk, where the man sat, hands folded in front of his face.
"What happened?" the Commander of NERV asked him.
Takai almost laughed; that was a loaded question if he'd ever heard one, despite how simple the inquiry was on its face.
"An Angel appeared, and Wonder Girl showed up to stop it," Takai answered, keeping his tone as neutral as possible. "As per our agreement, I went to stop Wonder Girl. However, a new player appeared and stopped the Angel while I dealt with the Amazon."
Gendo Ikari's eyes narrowed, and even Takai had to resist the urge to squirm beneath the man's orange-tinted gaze. The demigod had known, of course, that Ikari would figure that he knew more than he was telling, but again, expecting it didn't help much.
"Yes, that new young woman," the Commander eventually spoke, "the one in the cape. Her abilities seem to rival those of our original nuisance. Who is she?" he added, his tone almost conversational.
"I don't know," Takai answered truthfully, making certain to meet Ikari's eyes as he spoke. "Even my father isn't omniscient, and I'm certainly not. I have no idea who she is or where she came from."
"Hmm," Gendo released a vaguely dissatisfied sounding grunt.
Silence fell for several long moments after that, with the Commander merely staring out into space as his mind went over the myriad of possibilities. There had been far too many unexpected elements affecting the Scenario as of late, so the abrupt arrival of the new superwoman was especially unwelcome. Nor was it the only problem he had to deal with…
Takai was about to ask if he could leave when Gendo spoke again without warning.
"Tell me, was it mere coincidence that the Angel appeared to already be dead on NERV's scanners while it made its suicide attack?"
Takai blinked; the question, following Gendo's long silence, was so out of the blue that he felt practically blindsided by it. However, the son of Hades was quick to regain his composure.
"I had nothing to do with it, if that's what you're asking," he lied. "Neither did my father. The Angels so far have come in all shapes and sizes, and have used a variety of different tactics. I don't think it's exactly extraordinary that this one came in with it's AT field switched off in an attempt to be stealthy."
He knows, but he can prove nothing, Takai thought, suppressing the smug grin that wanted to form on his face.
Gendo paused for another long moment before speaking again. "I don't trust you, Takai Banryu," he said bluntly. "Unfortunately, you remain my only counter to Wonder Girl, and with a new superwoman in the city, you have grown even more important to me."
"Will that be all, then?" Takai asked, doing his best to sound bored. "May I go?"
"In a moment," Gendo said, holding up a hand to stop the boy from leaving. He fixed Takai with his most piercing gaze. "I realize that, with your father being who he is, you assume that I wouldn't dare to touch you. While it's true that I would be…reluctant to take such a risk, I will not allow you to tear down my Scenario. I suspect, very strongly, that if I give your father what he wants, he would be willing to overlook just about anything I do to you. Do not forget that."
Takai couldn't help but swallow at that, mostly because he knew Ikari was probably right.
Still, he mused, this could have gone worse. Takai bowed his head slightly and vanished from the huge office in a swirl of shadows. A moment later, he rematerialized within his apartment.
Only to find the God of the Underworld waiting there for him.
Now, this is the worst thing I'm going to be facing today, he thought as he dropped down to one knee, bowing deeply.
"Father," he greeted the deity softly.
"What happened today?" Hades asked without preamble. "Why isn't Tokyo-3 a smoking crater by now?"
Takai swallowed. He knew there was no logical way his father could blame him for their latest failure to ensure the Angel's victory; he'd had no way of expecting that second superwoman to show up.
Unfortunately, logic hadn't meant a whole lot to his father recently.
"Another girl with incredible powers appeared and dispatched the Angel while I was dealing with the Champion of the Amazons, Father," Takai explained. "I don't know who she was. She didn't seem to be another demigod."
The explosion that Takai feared didn't come, mercifully. Instead, Hades clenched and unclenched his fists several times, silently fuming.
"Kill the Second Child," the god commanded.
The words hit Takai like a smack to the face. "What?" he demanded, quickly getting back to his feet.
Hades rounded on his son, and the demigod couldn't help but flinch and pull back. "I grow tired of seeing so little progress in this endeavor," he hissed, menace dripping from every word. "The death of an Evangelion pilot will at least be a tangible accomplishment."
"But…but, Father, Ikari already distrusts me," Takai protested. "If the EVA pilot I've grown closest to abruptly dies, he'll know it was me."
A small vial of some clear liquid appeared in Hades' hand. "Not if you kill her with this," he said.
"What is that?" Takai asked, looking at it warily.
"Poison. A very special poison," Hades said, holding the tiny bottle up to the light and appraising it, almost admiring it. "It requires several hours to take effect, and an autopsy of the Second Child will reveal the presence of several exotic neurotoxins in her system. NERV will have no choice but to conclude that mental contamination from Evangelion killed her, not you."
"Some forensics tech in NERV might, but Ikari may well still decide I had a hand in it," Takai warned, feeling nauseous.
"If Ikari is that paranoid, we're going to lose his cooperation eventually, anyway," Hades said dismissively. "We can continue on without his help, if need be. Do it."
Takai swallowed, drawing up every ounce of his courage.
"No," he said. "I won't."
"What?" Hades hissed with angry disbelief. "How dare you!"
The God of the Underworld seemed to grow larger then, but it wasn't a physical transformation. No, instead, the presence of the deity grew, until it was like he filled the whole apartment without taking up another centimeter of space than he had a moment ago.
It was extremely intimidating, but Takai was familiar with the Olympian Gods. He knew that this was a much used trick of theirs when dealing with mortals, and somehow he found the ability to not cower in fear.
He did decide that a…tactical retreat was in order, though.
"I won't do it," he repeated, "unless, you swear to make sure she goes straight to Elysium."
Hades scowled. "You know that I don't actually judge where a mortal should go upon arriving in my realm," he said.
If he hadn't been so scared, Takai would've rolled his eyes. "Maybe not, but you're the Lord of the Underworld. You have influence," he argued. "You promised Elysium for Ikari and his wife if he helped in this, didn't you? Asuka has been fighting titanic monsters to protect the world. She deserves Elysium more than either of them."
Hades glared down at his son for a long moment. Again, Takai found himself fighting not to squirm. It was a lot harder than it had been with Ikari.
Finally, the god smirked. "Very well," he said. "Kill your girlfriend, and she will go to Elysium. I swear it upon the River Styx."
Takai couldn't help but grimace, wishing his father hadn't said it so baldly. Nevertheless, he dutifully reached out and accepted the tiny container of poison.
Hades nodded slightly to his son, then, without another word, the God of the Underworld vanished from the room, leaving the demigod all alone with his thoughts.
"POWER GIRL DEBUTS WITH A HUGE SPLASH!"
This was the headline that blared from the cover of the Tokyo Tattler, a local tabloid magazine which had apparently taken it upon itself to name the new superwoman. The cover of the publication showed a photo of the girl in the red cape as she flew by the great, frozen tsunami.
How did they get this picture? Rei wondered as she gazed at it.
The First Child usually did not read the Tattler, though she was aware of it, thanks to its great popularity within the city, and especially among the students of Tokyo-3 Municipal Junior High.
However, the cover story had grabbed her interest. So when she'd seen another student disposing of his copy after school was dismissed for the day, she had liberated the publication from the waste bin.
Unfortunately, the article that accompanied the striking image proved to be very short on actual facts…and very long on praise for the city's newest extraordinary resident.
Over a page of detail and speculation on how she froze that wave, and not a sentence describing how she created it in the first place by throwing the Angel's body into the ocean. Why? She wondered, with a small frown.
There was another thing that was pestering her, as well. Though she'd never paid much attention to it before, the First Child knew that, in the past, news and gossip concerning her alter ego had dominated the magazine. Yet since the arrival of Power Girl, there was barely a mention of the Amazon within its pages.
Why does this irritate me so? She thought, even as she resisted the urge to crumble the tabloid into a ball and toss it into the next prefecture.
"I didn't know you read the Tattler, Rei."
She looked up to see that Shinji had approached her while she was engrossed in the magazine, and appeared to be looking over her shoulder at its pages.
"Normally, I do not," she said, speaking just a bit more quickly than she usually did, "but…"
She trailed off, not quite sure how to complete that sentence. The First Child found that she was…embarrassed to have been caught perusing the tabloid, though she could not have explained why this was so.
Fortunately, Shinji chose to provide the excuse for her. "You were curious about Power Girl? I can't say I blame you, with the way the whole city's talking about her lately. It's crazy how we have all these super-powered people in Tokyo-3 lately, isn't it?"
"…yes," Rei answered.
Shinji tilted his head slightly to the side. He was used to the First Child being a woman of few words, of course, but she normally wasn't quite this terse anymore. At least, not with him.
He mentally shrugged it off. "Anyway, since class is over, do you want to swim with me?"
"That would be enjoyable," Rei answered, managing to pull her thoughts off the mysterious new superwoman long enough to give him a small smile.
Shinji grinned back and offered her a hand to help her up. Even though it was unnecessary, Rei gladly accepted the offer, and soon the pair was off. However, as they walked toward headquarters, the First Child continued to mull the latest developments. It didn't take long for Shinji to notice that she was being very quiet, even by her standards.
He had no idea why Rei was being so silent, and it made him nervous. Even Shinji, who arguably knew the First Child even better than his father by this point, often had trouble reading her. So far as he was could tell, Rei's silence might mean that she was angry about something, deep in thought, depressed…or just that she didn't have anything to say at the moment.
Shinji told himself not to let his possibly (probably) groundless worry that Rei was upset with him for some reason affect him.
To his credit, they were on one of the NERV base's gigantic escalators before he finally cracked, and the need to break the silence overwhelmed him.
"Sooo, what do you think of Power Girl?" he blurted out, his mind seizing upon the current hot topic of conversation within the city.
Rei turned to look at him, and her red gaze locked with his. Somehow, Shinji felt certain that if the First Child hadn't been pissed off about something before, she definitely was now.
However, her voice didn't contain so much as a hint of anger as she answered him. "She seems to keep to the more affluent parts of the city."
"More affluent parts?" Shinji frowned in mild confusion.
"Yes," Rei answered, with a small nod. "Power Girl seems to operate in the newer, more well-off parts of the city, even though there is much less violent crime there. Wonder Girl, on the other hand, more frequently acts in the poorer areas, where she is needed more."
Shinji blinked in surprise, both at Rei's words and the fact that she'd strung so many of them together at once. "I…hadn't noticed that," he confessed.
"I wonder why Power Girl stays in the richer areas," Rei said, sounding more like she was speaking to herself than to Shinji.
He chuckled. "Maybe she likes being in the news and wants to make sure that there are people with cell phone cameras around when she saves the day," he said, half-joking.
Rei's eyes widened at this; the First Child felt like a light bulb had just gone off above her head. She never would have come up with that explanation on her own, but it fit perfectly, she realized.
Certainly, I know that there are people who would apply their skills to where they're needed the least, if it meant getting attention, she thought. She still didn't fully understand why some people would do this, but her exposure to a certain redheaded German Evangelion pilot had made her accept that they would.
Mulling over these new thoughts, the First Child lapsed back into silence. This time, however, Shinji allowed himself to relax, content in the knowledge that Rei didn't seem to be upset about anything.
Geeze, this escalator is really long, he mused idly, squinting as he tried to see the bottom of said moving staircase.
"Shinji?" Rei spoke up.
He turned to her. "Yes?"
"Which one do you think is more attractive?"
"Huh?" was Shinji's very articulate response.
"The superwomen. Power Girl and Wonder Girl," Rei clarified. "Which one do you think is more attractive?"
Shinji swallowed, and suddenly found himself vividly recalling exactly what it had felt like when he'd seen the Third Angel bearing down on Unit One's prone form during his first, disastrous sortie. He wouldn't claim to know a whole lot about the female mind and women in general, but even he could recognize that Rei's question was…potentially dangerous, to put it mildly. Confronted with it, Shinji decided to go with what he felt was the safest answer.
"Oh…I don't know."
Rei tilted her head slightly and gave him a skeptical look. "You do not know?"
"Well, I mean, uh,…" Shinji stammered nervously, "Well, all the guys at school are always going on about how gorgeous Wonder Girl is, and ever since Power Girl showed up, they've been talking about how attractive she is all the time…"
"Yes?" Rei prompted him.
"But I just don't see it," Shinji finished with a shrug.
The Third Child had wanted to add "I think you're prettier than either of them" but, most unfortunately, his nerve failed him, and he never spoke that particular bit.
"I see," Rei replied softly, her gaze moving toward her feet as they lapsed back into silence.
Shinji's words shouldn't hurt, she told herself. He had spoken them entirely without malice, and the Commander had always said that only those who were superficial and foolish worried about appearances. Yet…
It did hurt. A lot.
He thinks I'm ugly…
"You look beautiful today, Asuka," Takai commented.
The redhead smirked and placed her hands on her hips. "What do you mean by that?" she asked. "Did I not look beautiful the last time you saw me?"
This response was able to throw even her normally smooth boyfriend for a bit of a loop, and she took his brief hesitation as an opportunity to glance back at the school. Her fellow EVA pilots had disappeared shortly after the teacher had dismissed them all for the day, but the majority of the student body was still milling around the school.
Asuka was pleased to note that several people were looking at her and Takai, and she could even hear a few of the other girls wondering amongst themselves who "the hot guy" the Second Child was speaking to was.
"Of course you were beautiful the last time I saw you," Takai said, finally regaining his composure. "You're beautiful every time I see you."
"Then why did you feel the need to tell me today, huh?" Asuka challenged, enjoying this little game.
"Maybe I thought you'd like to hear me say it," Takai responded, crossing his arms.
"So you're all about telling me what I want to hear, is that it?" Asuka said.
Takai sighed in mock exasperation. "You know, if you're going to do this every time I compliment you, then I'm eventually going to have to stop doing it."
The smirk on the EVA pilot's face finally transformed into a more genuine smile, and she stood on her tiptoes so she could give Takai a quick peck on the lips. "Well, we can't have that," she said softly. "So, what brings you here, anyway?"
"You," Takai answered with a grin. "I thought we could go for a walk."
"Sounds good," Asuka replied.
Takai offered her his arm, which she took, and the pair was soon heading off down the street. However, the moment he was finished applying the charm, the demigod's mind immediately turned to the task his father had assigned him.
He didn't want to kill Asuka.
He understood perfectly his father's reasons for wanting the girl dead; with NERV's most highly trained pilot removed from the equation, the odds that they'd be able to stave off Third Impact diminished considerably. Still, that didn't mean he had to like it.
He had never met a woman like her before. Asuka was just so damn full of fire, so full of life…
Yet now the son of Hades was getting ready to kill her. True, he had ensured that she would go straight to Elysium when she died, but that wasn't making him feel much better about it. More importantly, he didn't think that Asuka would feel much better about it because of that.
But what choice do I have? He wondered, feeling frustration boiling up within him. If I disobey Father…
Most children could move out of their parents' home (and their parents' influence), once they became adults. Takai, on the other hand, lived with the complete certainty that—no matter what he did—he would someday be forced to return to his father's realm, and stay there for the rest of eternity.
It didn't help that his father could be one creatively sadistic bastard when he wanted to be.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Asuka asked, interrupting his thoughts. "You're so quiet."
"Hmm? Oh, nothing's wrong. I'm fine," he told her, but he knew she wouldn't just accept that, and his eyes darted around, searching for some way he could change the topic before she could inquire further. His gaze eventually settled upon a vending machine. "Hey, would you like a drink? I've got some money."
"Sure," Asuka said gamely.
He inserted his money into the machine, and a minute later, the two of them were drinking cans of coffee as they walked down the street. They walked and made small talk for a few minutes, with Takai now making a point of acting far more cheerful than he actually felt.
The demigod was just starting to entertain the hope that Asuka wouldn't give him the chance to slip her the poison when the redhead realized that nature was calling.
"Would you hold my drink for a minute? I need a moment," the EVA pilot said, gesturing toward a nearby public restroom.
"Of course," Takai said, accepting the can and forcing a smile in spite of the feelings of nausea in his belly.
Asuka disappeared, and the demigod reached into his pocket, removing the tiny vial of poison. This was it, he thought, the moment of truth. Either he killed Asuka, or he defied his father for his girlfriend, thus dooming himself to an eternity of torture and pain once he died.
What choice do I have? He wondered with a sigh.
He poured the poison into Asuka's can of coffee, hoping that it would only take her a few centuries to get over this.
The redhead returned from the restroom a moment later, and he gave her back her beverage.
"Thanks," Asuka said, and took a long drink from it.
Takai tried, very hard, not to hate himself as he watched her consume poison, but he didn't succeed.
The sound of splashing echoed through the NERV pool area, as Shinji continued to swim laps back and forth. His graceful and practiced strokes were a sharp contrast from the nervous, jerky motions he'd exhibited when Rei had first started teaching him to swim.
The First Child herself was not in the pool; she had swum with him at first, as she usually did, but she soon found that she was not enjoying the activity as she normally did. An individual with a bit more knowledge of both emotions and idioms than Rei possessed would've said she just didn't have the heart for it that day.
So the blue-haired girl had gotten out of the water, toweled herself off, and sat down on one of the chairs by the side of the pool. There, she patiently waited for Shinji to finish swimming.
I do not believe he has noticed that I left the pool, she mused as she watched him knifing through the clear water.
Shinji was not the type of person to just ignore her while he did his own activities.
As if to prove her correct, the Third Child paused long enough to look around, soon discovering that Rei had left the water. He quickly paddled to the edge of the pool and got out, water dripping off of him as he emerged.
Unconsciously, Rei swallowed and sat up a bit straighter in her plastic chair, suddenly feeling as though her eyes were glued to her companion.
Since he had finally mastered the art of swimming, Shinji had used it almost compulsively, as though he was afraid he'd completely forget how if he spent a full day out of the water. He'd actually spent more times doing laps than listening to his SDAT lately, and the results were starting to become visible. Though he was still rather skinny, long, lean muscles had begun to form on his frame.
How did I not notice this before? Rei wondered as her crimson eyes darted over him, noting the changes in his physique. She felt her face heat.
Somehow, Shinji failed to notice the faint pink hue that had appeared in her usually pale cheeks. He leaned in close to her, a concerned expression on his face, and suddenly Rei felt the warmth in her face spread to the rest of her body, until she worried that she might be developing a fever.
"Rei?" Shinji asked. "Are you all right? Why did you get out of the pool so soon?"
The First Child felt a small flare of irritation at that; it had been his earlier comment about not finding Wonder Girl attractive that had ultimately caused her to leave the water, and her mood again soured at the indirect reminder.
"I got out because I did not wish to swim any longer," she answered, her tone rather cool.
Shinji blinked and pulled away from her a bit, confused. "Oh, um, okay," he said. "Then I guess I'll stop, too."
Rei just gave him a small nod. Shinji gave her a look, clearly still mystified by her behavior, but then he seemed to shrug it off and headed for the locker rooms. The First Child remained where she was, silently watching him leave.
Never before had she felt more tempted to heave a long, dramatic sigh.
That was…attraction I felt for him …a very physical attraction, she realized. Only a few months ago (had it really only been a few months?), she would not have been able to place exactly what she felt, but she was different now. Not only was she able to recognize what she felt, but she decided that it was a…pleasant feeling.
Unfortunately, this presented her with a serious problem.
I am attracted to Shinji, but he is not attracted to me, she thought, hanging her head.
Rei had not considered this possibility. Not because she was vain, but because her tutor in all things romantic had always spoken as if Shinji being attracted to her was a given.
Speaking of her tutor, the First Child decided she could really use some words of advice from the goddess at the moment.
"What am I to do, Aphrodite?" she asked.
Silence. Rei raised her head and looked around, surprised to see that she was alone in the pool room. She had become so used to the goddess of love appearing whenever she was in need of romantic guidance that Aphrodite's absence now shocked her.
She is a goddess. She must have other duties, Rei reasoned, ruthlessly suppressing the wave of petulance that attempted to wash over her with limited success.
No one seemed to want her that day.
"Are you insane?"
Even within the confines of the enormous Temple of Athena up on Mount Olympus, the scream managed to echo. The goddess of wisdom paused in her battle preparations and sighed softly; Aphrodite always did have one hell of a set of lungs on her.
The goddess of love stalked into the temple, unable to see her fellow deity because Athena happened to be squatting behind her chariot. "Where are you? I know you're here!"
Knowing that keeping to her present position would only be a useless display of cowardice, Athena reluctantly rose to a standing position. "Were you searching for me, sister?"
Aphrodite's eyes narrowed dangerously as she took in Athena's form. The other goddess was in full battle armor. "Yes," she said, practically growling. "I've been hearing the absolute strangest rumors about you lately…"
"Those are no rumors," Athena said, turning her attention back to her chariot. "They're quite true."
A vein in Aphrodite's forehead began to pulse visibly. "Again, I ask, are you insane?" she snapped, her hands clenching, forming unpracticed fists. "What you're planning to do can only end in disaster for you! It goes against the rules."
Athena snorted. "Hades already broke the rules. Now it's time to see how he likes it when someone else does it."
Aphrodite tilted her head to the side. "What? What are you talking about?"
Athena turned her gaze back to the other goddess, looking her straight in the eye. "You know what Hades did."
Aphrodite frowned. "You're referring to the whole incident with the zombie Angel, correct?"
"Yes," Athena hissed, as though the mere memory of it angered her. "Hades has to pay for that. I will tolerate no more of such interference. I'm putting a stop to it."
"But Hades didn't break the rules!" Aphrodite protested.
"He used his powers to deceive the Wonder Girl into slaying the Tenth Angel," Athena growled, now working on her chariot with quick, angry motions. "Then he reanimated that Angel and sent it against our champion."
Aphrodite could barely believe what she was hearing; there was a very important distinction that Athena should have made but simply wasn't.
"Yes, but Hades acted through his own champion," she pointed out. "He bent the rules—further than anyone has bent them in centuries—but he didn't break them. You, on the other hand, are getting ready to shatter them."
"I don't care," Athena said. "Hades has to pay for what he's done."
Aphrodite hissed a curse in ancient Greek. "For the goddess of wisdom, you're being extremely stupid here! You know you can't just break the rules with nothing happening!"
"What I know is that it's been so long since any of have tried, that we've all collectively forgotten what actually does happen when we break the rules," Athena said somberly, grabbing a sword and sheath off the wall and putting it on. "Perhaps it's nothing."
That answer brought Aphrodite up short. It was true, yes; none of the Olympians knew what really happened when they violated the ancient laws to which even they were bound. However, the goddess of love somehow felt quite sure that something did happen, and that, whatever it was, it was terrible.
More importantly, she felt quite sure that Athena secretly shared her certainty. Her professed belief that nothing might happen was just so much rationalization.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked, in a voice that much quieter, yet no less serious, than what she'd been using since entering the temple.
"I already told you," Athena said. "I will not tolerate Hades' interference."
"Yes, you said that," Aphrodite replied, waving a hand in a dismissive gesture. "But I want to know why you're so intolerant of his meddling."
"Hmm?" Athena frowned in confusion.
"You're had mortal champions before," Aphrodite explained, "and other gods messed with them. It's simply what we do. But you never flew off the handle and started gearing up for war like this in the past. You never let yourself get emotional enough to do something stupid. So what's different now?"
"All of existence, including us, is on the line," Athena said.
Aphrodite grinned humorlessly. "You might be able to fool others with that very reasonable explanation, Owl Girl, but not me," she said, the mocking tone in her voice making it seem as though reason was a thing to be laughed at. "So, let me rephrase the question: what's different about her?"
Athena held the other goddess's eyes for several long, excruciating seconds, with the two of them just glaring silently at one another. Then her expression softened. Wordlessly, Athena climbed into her chariot, a long spear clutched in one hand.
"If I don't return, take care of Wonder…take care of Rei," Athena said softly.
Aphrodite felt worry clawing at her. Given their often opposite natures, she and Athena didn't always get along very well. However, their alliance in support of the Wonder Girl had caused the relationship between the two to warm considerably, and, of course, they were family.
Couldn't forget that, no matter how easy it might be to at times.
"Don't do this," Aphrodite pleaded. "Please, sister, don't. It won't end well."
"Perhaps not," Athena said, then paused. "Probably not, but I have to try."
Aphrodite sighed. "I was afraid you'd say something like that…"
The next morning found Takai Banryu waking up in his apartment, following a restless and miserable night. Not fully awake at first, he looked around his home, feeling rather disoriented.
Was it all just a dream? was the first coherent thought his mind was able to form.
The demigod found that idea—that his father had never ordered him to murder his girlfriend, and that he had thus not poisoned Asuka—very appealing. With the haze that was only slowly leaving his tired brain, it even seemed possible.
Then he spotted the now empty bottle of poison sitting atop his small dresser, and he groaned loudly. Not a dream, then.
"So that's it, then," he muttered. "She must be dead by now. I killed her."
Takai sighed and leaned back against his bed's headboard. He wondered if Asuka had reached Elysium by now, or if she was still crossing the River Styx. He hoped she'd appreciate the hero's welcome she'd receive upon entering the Underworld.
I should…call her, just to confirm, he decided eventually, and a few worried voicemails from me in her inbox won't hurt when Ikari starts trying to figure out why a healthy teenage girl abruptly died.
He retrieved his cell phone and dialed Asuka's number, holding the phone up to his ear and silently going over what he'd say once he heard the beep.
"Hello?"
He was shocked when she picked up.
"Uh, hi," he stammered awkwardly, his mind reeling at the impossibility his girlfriend's voice represented. "How are you?"
Takai rolled his eyes the moment the words left his mouth. Real smooth…
"Me? I'm fine, but what about you? You sound…off," Asuka observed. "And why are you calling this early, anyway?"
"Oh, I was just hoping to see you later," he said, somehow managing to regain some of his composure. "And I'm fine, thanks."
"That's sweet of you," Asuka replied, but he could hear suspicion in her voice. Clearly, she didn't fully believe him. "You can catch me after school again, if you'd like."
"It's a date," he replied. "See you then."
"See you," Asuka replied.
Takai pushed the "end" button on his phone, staring at it dumbly for several seconds. That conversation shouldn't have been possible.
I saw her drink that damn poison, he thought, racking his brain for some solution to this unexpected puzzle.
He supposed it was possible that the whole thing had truly been some test of loyalty from his father, and that the bottle of "poison" had been about as deadly as water. Possible, but not likely.
That doesn't seem like Father's style, he mused. Besides, if the whole thing was just a test, why didn't he show up to tell me I passed after I put that stuff in Asuka's drink?
Takai also considered the possibility that Hades had accidentally given him a vial of a non-lethal substance, but he quickly rejected that idea out of hand. The god of the Underworld would not screw up something like that.
So how is Asuka still alive? He wondered. She didn't even sound under the weather!
Clearly, he would have to investigate this mystery further.
The elevator inside Rei's apartment building was as slow and rickety as ever, she noted as she rode up to her floor. In the past, this had never bothered her much, but now she found herself feeling irritation.
I should have taken the stairs, she mused. That would be much faster than this.
Of course, the elevator wasn't the true source of her annoyance; Rei had been having a rather bad few days, after all. However, she didn't quite realize that she was finding the dilapidated state of apartment building so intolerable that day because of recent events that had nothing to do with her home.
The elevator finally came to a stop, and the doors slid open. Rei quickly entered her apartment, setting her school bag down on the floor. She turned…and spotted Aphrodite, sitting on her bed.
The sight brought her up short. Not because she was startled at seeing the goddess there; Aphrodite had, after all, made a habit of unexpectedly popping by, and Rei had even wanted to speak with her lately. No, that wasn't it at all.
She looks…disheveled, Rei thought with surprise.
Several strands of hair had escaped the elaborate braid Aphrodite had styled her long locks in that day, and her makeup was badly smeared in places. The unusually plain white tunic she had on was somewhat askew, and there was a wild, frantic look in eyes.
Rei, who had never seen the goddess of love looking anything less than immaculate, couldn't help but find the sight of the goddess now to be incredibly wrong.
"What is the matter?" she asked Aphrodite.
"Athena actually did something stupid," the love goddess answered. "She's in trouble—big trouble—and Rei, I'm sorry, but only a mortal has any chance of getting her out of it."
Author's Notes: Well, Shinji's certainly done it this time, hasn't he? And, unlike usual, he has no idea what he did. Also, what precisely did Athena do? Tune in next time to find out! Though, being honest, I'm sure it's not too hard to guess.
Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.
Now for some fun!
Omake
Distraction Tactics
"I suspect, very strongly, that if I give your father what he wants, he would be willing to overlook just about anything I do to you," Gendo said. "Do not forget that."
Takai couldn't help but swallow at that, mostly because he knew Ikari was probably right.
Still, he mused, this could have gone worse. Takai bowed his head slightly and vanished from the huge office in a swirl of shadows. A moment later, he rematerialized within his apartment.
Only to find the God of the Underworld waiting there for him.
Now, this is the worst thing I'm going to be facing today, he thought as he dropped down to one knee, bowing deeply.
"Father," he greeted the deity softly.
"What happened today?" Hades asked without preamble. "Why…" he hesitated as Takai stood. "…why in the name of Olympus are you wearing women's shoes?"
The demigod looked down at impractical high heeled shoes he was wearing. "They make my legs look good." He answered simply.
Hades' eye twitched. "What?"
"Well, I just felt so comfortable when I was disguised as Nemesis," he began awkwardly.
Hades scowled. "Listen to me, boy. No son of mine is going to go around in women's clothes," he commanded sternly. "Now take those shoes off."
"Yes, sir," Takai said quietly, slipping off the shoes.
"Good," Hades grumbled. "Now I don't ever want to catch you wearing a lady's things again."
"Yes, sir." Takai said.
The god of the Underworld nodded, then departed, melting into the shadows without another world.
A broad grin broke out on the demigod's face the moment the god left. His father had completely forgotten to berate him for not ending the world.
"I can't believe that worked," he said, rubbing his now bare feet. "Man, how do women stand wearing those things?"