"Belief is the enemy."
- John Keel, The Mothman Prophecies

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Great Beast
Part II
Chapter 4: Bad News

-

How many angels had come? Shinji had lost track. He imagined he might be losing other things as well.

The strange men... They appeared to be Section Two, but something about their behavior was disconcerting. Shinji mentally connected this with the Men In Black, though real-life reports of the activities of MIBs had more or less faded away after the total subversion of the concept in the film of the same name. This bar, at least, seemed safe.

His finger idly traced graffiti engraved into the wooden tabletop. The city was so new, yet already could speak. That was the nature of a super-organism, of course. He eyed the bartender, who grinned widely to himself while mopping the bar, apparently amused by some private memory.

The juke-box in the corner, an antique, still seemed to function perfectly. The graffiti said "Fulfill the prophecy", an odd commentary probably relating to the strange theological terminology used by NERV. In Hebrew as in Japanese, the word used for Angel also meant 'messenger.

A very pretty waitress came up to the table in a kind of corset or bustier, a very german-looking outfit. The outfit matched the style of the bar, which was strangely empty aside from the three of them. Shinji supposed that the style didn't mesh with the rest of the city. The frosted windows and the cieling full of beer steins increased the sense of discontinuity.

The waitress spoke in a soft, silvery voice. "Can I get you something?" It reminded him of Ayanami. "It's on the house."

On the house... Had knowledge of his NERV status become so ubiquitous that arbitrary private establishments would supply him free alcohol? He was thirsty, but something felt a little off. "No, thank you."

The waitress smiled and nodded. "Take this mint. For home." She placed a wrapped mint on the table, turned, and disappeared into a back room.

Shinji slipped the mint into his pocket and moved towards the door, eager to get out of Dali-land or whatever looking-glass universe this part of town was in. He waved tentatively at the bartender as he left.

-

Misato sighed loudly and smashed the telephone onto the table, collapsing onto her arms. "God damn incompetents," she mumbled. "Couldn't find their mothers in a paper bag... Into thin air, my ass."

"Who is missing?" Shinji said, as he entered. Misato sat up.

"Shinji! Where have you been?" She rushed over to hug him.

He was too confused by the strange way everyone was acting to really enjoy this treatment. "I went to sit on the mountain this morning after breakfast, and then I stopped in a local bar to wash my face. Then I came home."

"Shinji," she said, half in disbelief. "You have been gone for two weeks."

-

"Doctor Akagi, the pattern green has disappeared."

"Thank you, Maya." The woman sipped her coffee more slowly now, in the futile quest to end her addiction to stimulants of all types. She knew this was a losing battle.

"Maya," she said.

"Yes?"

"Have you ever heard of the dysangelion?"

The younger woman paused, momentarily furrowing her brow slightly. "No."

"Nietzsche believed that the original teachings of Christ -- the Evangelion, or good news -- had been perverted by Saint Paul, and that because of this the original, life-affirming Christianity had become the self-effacing and masochistic death-cult that it most often appears to be today. The cross as the icon of a person who spoke of goodness and joy is only the most obvious subversion, that a person so full of life would be known by a symbol of his death."

Maya furrowed her brow again. "I see." She hunched down, trying to focus on the MAGI's status display again.

"Don't worry, you probably don't need to know that. I don't know why I mentioned it."

Maya made a noncomittal grunt, and the bridge again lapsed into silence.

-

Dinner at the appartment was suddenly a bit awkward. It was always a bit awkward when two people eat together who both firmly suspect the other of having become severely delusional.

"There is a new pilot coming here, with her evangelion." Misato stirred the cup ramen idly with her chopsticks, and Shinji pretended to be fascinated by the pile of dirty dishes in the sink. "From the united states. I thought she might stay here with us."

Shinji's eye caught on the patch on the shoulder of Misato's work jacket, hanging off the chair between them. "I wonder why the NERV insignias are always inverted."

Misato sighed slightly. "It has always seemed to be in that direction to me."

Shinji took a bite of his rice. "Military insignias are usually triangles or arrow pointing up. Like the rune Tyr. Symbolic of the arrow or the phallus. NERV's arrows all point down, other than the pyramid in the geofront." He took another bite and chewed silently.

Misato thought on this. "The pyramid actually goes down a lot further under the surface. The cap on top is all you see. Only eleven percent of the geofront is excavated, so the pyramid is like an iceberg." She stood up, and took her dishes to the sink.

A sudden buzz was momentarily discovered to be Shinji's neglected cellular telephone. "Hello?"

The soft silvery voice on the other end was difficult to hear over the natural line noise. Shinji turned the volume up. "-wake down there?"

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

"I would like to meet you for breakfast tomorrow, Ikari. Could you call me once you are awake down there?" It was quite definitely Ayanami.

"I would enjoy that. I will call. Tomorrow, then."

"Yes." The dialtone followed. Ayanami could probably keep a vow of silence secret for weeks.

"Who's the lucky girl, then?" Misato's teasing broke some of the tension.

Shinji blushed slightly, but only by habit. "Ayanami wants to have breakfast with me."

Misato nearly kept in a guffaw. "Ayanami?" She chuckled, but eventually calmed herself. "She must really like you, if she's willing to speak to you without being spoken to first." This line of thought was apparently sobering for Misato, who suddenly clammed up and set about nervously and improbably doing dishes. A few minutes later, she added: "I suppose I shouldn't be so insensitive. Do you need money, or are you bringing food?"

"I don't know. She just told me to call her."

-

Out of the darkness behind her eyelids, Rei heard a clear voice like running water. "Six sixteen," it said, "you are number eleven."