Special thanks to blueinkedlines and MrCJ for beta-reading this chapter.
"Hey," she said, apropos of nothing, "remember that time I totally kicked that blue tin can's ass?"
There were no lights on in the apartment. Only the kaleidoscope of colors from a muted television provided any illumination in the night. Against her guardian's face, the resulting contrast was sharp; highlighting each age line, crevice, and the odd pock mark. Misato looked twenty years older.
Asuka felt no younger.
The other woman's voice was low and flat. "Yeah. You really pissed off Ritsuko with your A.A.R."
Asuka snorted softly. With several months to distance herself from the events, it was easy in retrospect to see it had not been smart to phrase her coup de grâce of the berserker Unit-00 as 'doing George Romero proud.' "Whatever," she said dismissively, her voice rough. "Doctor Bitch just wishes she had been the one to ice Rei."
She waited, but Misato said nothing. Asuka took a sip of the beer curled in her hand. "The Commander was there too, you know."
That finally drew some semblance of a reaction from her guardian. Misato tilted her head a fraction of an inch and regarded her with a detached gaze. "Huh."
"Yeah. Me and him were the only people awake. Told me to keep his part secret for whatever reason—like I'm going to tell the bastard 'no' when I was already on thin ice."
"Smart."
"He had this abortion in a suitcase. It was crazy."
"That was ADAM, the First Angel. It blew up my dad."
"Figures," she grunted. "You don't like my hair, do you?"
"I liked you better with long hair. It made you look taller."
"Hmph. That's what heels are for."
"You keep telling yourself that, Shortbread."
"You know what? I will, Major Bitch."
They slipped back into comfortable silence, wide awake even in the middle of the night. Asuka found that she could not bring herself to finish what remained of her beer. The term 'dead soldier' kept churning in her mind.
"Asuka," Misato said, "were you scared when Unit-00 attacked you that time?"
"No."
"No?"
She grunted.
"What about when it's against nine at once?"
Asuka closed her eyes to savor her mild buzz. "Well, we'll find out tomorrow, won't we?"
# # # presenting # # #
TAKING SIGHTS
Chapter 15 – On Leashes of Memory
Written by: Lavanya Six
(please don't sue)
# # # another installment in a continuing series # # #
0353 Hours
"—pt--n Kat---a-i!"
"...mmmgph... f-five more minutes, Shin-chan."
"Captain Katsuragi, please wake up!"
Bleary-eyed and exhausted, Misato yawned. For once, she thought, it'd be nice to wake up and find it was the weekend and she could sleep in. "Stop shaking me, Shinji." When the hand at her shoulder didn't stop, Misato's eyes snapped open. "I said I'm up, Sh—"
The mop of brown hair she saw confused the hell out of her.
"M-maya? What are you doing in my apartm—"
Wait.
Since when did her bedroom look like the Command Center?
She sat up, but immediately regretted the decision. "Ugh." Her vision swam. She closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath, and then slowly looked out at the world again. "What happened?"
"We're not sure, ma'am, but whatever it was it seems to have happened to everyone else. We're getting reports in from all over base and topside. It... it appears that we've collectively lost almost four hours."
Misato stared to piece together her last thoughts from before blacking out. "You fainted."
Maya nodded.
"An Angel?"
"The MAGI registered an Angel in Terminal Dogma. It—"
"WHAT?!" Misato scrambled to her feet, tugging the hem of her miniskirt to a more modest position. She suppressed a fresh wave of nausea at the quick movement. "Hyuga, go to First Stage Alert and find the pilots! Maya, I want Rei to proc—"
"CAPTAIN KATSURAGI!" Maya shouted, surprising both of them. "Um, ma'am," she began again, "the Angel is dead. Telemetry from Unit-01 confirms it."
"Shinji?!"
A communications window flashed open on the Command Center's central holographic display. "Guess again, Misato."
"Asuka? What the hell are you doing in Unit-01?"
"Hmph. Good morning to you too."
Kozo Fuyutsuki opened his eyes.
"Oh, God," he muttered weakly, looking down at his ripped clothing and exposed chest. "Ikari finally lost all sensibility and had his way with me."
"Attention all personnel," Hyuga Makoto announced over NERV's public announcement system, "report to your duty stations and register with the officer in charge. This is not a drill. I repeat, attention all..."
Ryoji Kaji rubbed his forehead gingerly. "You're such a tease, Ritsu. If you wanted to sleep with me, you didn't need to spike my drink."
"..."
"Ritsu?"
"..."
"Ritsu!"
"...yes, I understand." As the lift rose through the primary deck of the Command Center, Fuyutsuki snapped his cell phone shut. Before him, the officers of NERV limped about, visibly fighting to stay awake. Several had messed had or were vomiting. A few sported magnificent bruises. Captain Katsuragi was awake and looked together enough, considering the baseline. She stood hunched over Lt. Ibuki's shoulder at a nearby workstation.
However, what drew his attention were the images on the main screen.
At first, Kozo couldn't process them. His eyes darted from one gruesome image to the next, slipping past outward details as his mind drowned in their horror. Slowly the haze of violence came into focus.
Multiple windows showcased the remains of Unit-00. The blue-and-white armored Evangelion had been decapitated without mercy at the neck. Whatever meat and gore remained of its neck covered its torso. A distant tracking shot showed the fallen giant splayed amidst a ruddy blossom in the LCL reservoir.
The other images were worse.
Heaven's Door was a shattered wreck, a heap of scrap metal; there was no hope that it would ever work again.
Unit-01, standing atop a pile of rubble, had been laid bare. The armor plating on its chest, shoulders, and arms was gone. So too was one of the Eva's hands, amputated at its wristt. The rest of the unarmored, exposed grey flesh was awash in more blood, complete with several gashes that Fuyutsuki knew indicated severe internal damage. The helmet of the Unit was only partially intact, its distinctive horn gone. The beast's jaw had come unhinged.
And Lilith...
He snapped to Captain Katsuragi, "Get that off the screen!"
The captain nodded to Lt. Ibuki, who executed the order without delay. Every display, save for the A/V link to Unit-01's plug, closed.
"Report."
"Sir, the Angel orchestrated some kind of psychic attack. The MAGI are still trying to determine the exact cause but their records show that everyone—almost everyone—here at NERV and in the Greater Tokyo-3 Metropolitan Area was rendered unconscious at 0023 hours. Shortly after the Angel's destruction at 0349 hours, the MAGI recorded the first signs of activity among personnel at 0351 hours."
"Unit Zero?"
Here the younger woman hesitated. "Asuka says it went berserk. We won't know anything for certain until we retrieve the data recorders. I've dispatched a S.A.R. team to retrieve the First and Second Child. With their internal batteries depleted, the Evas—"
"Fine." He glanced around the Command Center. "Damn, what a mess."
"One... two... and lift!"
The Third Child's vision swam as a group of medics lifted his stretcher up. His Section-2 detail, who normally orbited him at a distance, had been hovering over him when he had come-to on the floor of the locker room. Not that he thought it was the locker room at first. All he had been aware of was that his head hurt and he had blood all over his face. Despite his protests, they would not even permit him to walk five feet into the shower room to wash off the dried brown blood. They would not even let him sit up, instead holding him to the cold concrete floor while they waited for the medics.
Shinji hated the smell of blood.
"I'm fiiine," he slurred, exhausted.
A medic grabbed Shinji's head, forced an eyelid open, and shone a blinding light at him. "Left pupil dilating. It just looks worse than it is with the burst capillary."
"I said... I'm fine." He pulled at his restraints but he was too weak to break them.
"Mister Ikari, please stay still."
They wheeled Shinji around a corner. The movement made him feel nauseous. He shut his eyes.
"Ugh."
"Stay still," said a new, firm voice. "You're going to be all right."
Shinji decided he really was hurt. Why else would he imagine hearing his father's voice?
"...reports that the fires topside are under control," Lt. Makota continued, reading off his data pad. "The Chief of the JSSDF is demanding to speak with you. So is the UNCMF C-in-C and the Japanese Prime Minister. The Office of Public Affairs is calling every five minutes. They don't know what to say."
"Hell, I don't know what to say. Tell them I'll call them back. Tell everyone that."
"Yes, ma'am."
"What's the latest headcount?"
"Reports are still coming in, but the MAGI estimate the casualty figure will be somewhere in the high triple digits."
"Hell."
"Yes, ma'am."
"I need to talk with Asuka."
"I'm sorry, but my patient—"
"Your patient," Misato interrupted, "is the only eyewitness to the last four hours. I also outrank you so much that your boss's boss prays to me for easy childbirths and plentiful harvests."
The doctor did not - quite - sigh in disgust. "Fine. But if she so much as—"
Misato brushed past the doctor and opened the door to the exam room.
"Nice butt," she said by way of greeting.
"Christ!" The Second Child swiftly gathered up the folds of her hospital gown. "A little warning next time, thank you!"
"Nothing I haven't seen before." She closed the door, keeping one hand concealed behind her back. "How are you holding up?"
"How do you think? I've been up for nearly a day, and I just massacred Rei's junker and that damn rock fish."
"Ppretty damn good, huh?"
Asuka smiled sweetly.
"Well, you're going to have to push past the adrenaline burnout for now. I need to know everything about what happened, Asuka."
"Wonderful," she deadpanned. "Can I at least get some panties on before you debrief me?"
Misato held up her shower kit. "Ever better."
Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki looked over Rei Ayanami's hospital room. Various doctors and nurses busied themselves with every atypical blip on the First Child's E.E.G., preparing the girl for a battery of diagnostic tests. Normally Dr. Akagi or Lt. Ibuki would handle Rei's case, just in case questions arose about little things like the First Child not being composed of normal matter. However, thanks to a combination of the MAGI manipulating scanner data in real-time and an ingrained instinct in NERV's staff that suggested one avoid asking questions, Kozo wasn't worried. Still, it didn't hurt to keep an eye on things. He wasn't doing anything else at the moment except avoiding Chairman Keel's calls.
The faint sound of German tugged at his ear. He poked his head out the door and spotted the Second Child walking down the hall with Captain Katsuragi. The two females were carrying on an animated discussion, or at least the Second Child was trying to. Her efforts at caricature were hampered by her efforts to hold her gown shut. While his own German was fragmentary, and his limited English too strongly accented in his opinion to be spoken aloud, he did not pick up on any familiar words. That didn't mean anything. NERV, as a rule, refrained from hiring mouth-breathers. They could be speaking in a code of their own.
"They're discussing the merits of Mister Kaji's posterior."
"Ikari!"
Somehow, the commander had snuck up on him. While he looked as composed as ever, Kozo noted that his friend appeared a shade paler than usual. His uniform suit was also freshly ironed -- he had changed clothes.
"Let's take a walk, Professor."
"You shot Rei in the face?"
"I shot Unit-00 in the brain," Asuka corrected, voice muffled by the steam filling the cloistered hospital shower. "I had already ripped off its face."
Captain Katsuragi reached up to massage her temples.
"You should know all this already, Misato."
"Until we retrieve the black boxes from Units Zero and One, we don't. The cameras in Terminal Dogma don't activate without a direct order from command-level personnel or until Heaven's Door has been compromised."
"Oh. Well, I'd say it's been compromised to hell."
"Yes. I saw. Christ, Asuka, did you have to do that Lilith? That thing's a damn Third Impact waiting to explode."
"I needed a weapon." The sound of the running water ceased. "Towel."
Misato tossed her ward one, unable to restrain herself from inspecting the multitude of garish bruises on Asuka's body. "Maya says your synchronization set a new record."
"Yeah. I kinda figured."
"The MAGI report it maxed at 101.9 percent."
"Really? Shiest." Asuka strode out nude, hair wrapped in the towel, head held high. "What else?"
"So... after you engaged Unit-00?"
"Well, since I was alone, I had to check to see if Rei's Entry Plug was still intact. Then I decided to..."
0110 Hours
"No, Pilot Soryu. You may not kneecap Unit-00."
"It's a precautionary measure!"
"It's excessive. You already ripped Unit-00's face off and decapitated it with gunfire -- something which I'm sure Doctor Akagi and the rest of the Science Division will enjoy repairing over the next several weeks."
"And what if it decides to talk a walk when the Angel shows up?"
"Unit-00's internal reserves are fully depleted. It is highly unlikely it will reactivate."
"And how likely was its attack in the first place?"
"Significantly less unlikely. Moving on -- are you still capable of piloting Unit-01 against the Eighth Angel?
"Could have done without the warm-up round, but yeah."
"Pilot Soryu," he said, "you just destroyed an enemy Evangelion with your bare hands. Hand, really. Despite your overreaction, the First Child was still uninjured. How hard will it be to defeat one more enemy?"
The phantom ache in Asuka's neck begged to differ. "You've never been in a real fight, have you, sir?"
"I'm not as innocent as you'd likely believe, Pilot Soryu."
No shit. "Rei fought—"
"That was not the First Child you fought. Unit-00 merely went berserk."
"Funny. I hadn't realized berserk Evangelions could calmly stalk their enemy and use their AT-Field to bend light." When the Commander did not rebut her, she continued. "But you're right. That wasn't Rei."
The First Child never would have engaged in direct combat. She sucked at it. Rei would have sniped Asuka's umbilical cable from a distance, then kept her cloak up (how the hell did she do that, anyways?) until Unit-01's batteries had run dry. "Any clue who it was?"
"I have no idea. I'm sure Doctor Akagi will find the matter fascinating."
Asuka snorted.
"Rearm yourself and continue on as planned."
In the obscurity of her entry plug, Asuka Langley Soryu snapped a loose salute. "Yessir!"
0434 Hours
"Are you sure, Ikari?
"It was Her, old man. I'd recognize that voice anywhere."
"Well, at least Unit-00's Core is intact. Counting that with Ramamurthy's project not leaking during the blackout, we've had two minor miracles in one day." Kozo slid the key back into the false bottom of his dress shoe. "So why Unit-01? Why not Unit-02 if the Second Child was also awake?"
"I have no idea."
He grunted, slipping the worn shoe back on. "She can pilot Unit-01. That's new."
"Perhaps not. Last time, we never tested for cross-compatibility between Unit-01 and the Second Child."
"Yes. Because there's no sane reason in trying. At best we'd have gotten a null signal from the Core; at worst her brain would have burned to a husk like all the adult test subjects. You're lucky that didn't happen to the Second."
"There was no choice."
"That's a lie. There were options. Unit-01 was just convenient."
"Hrm. In any case, it's done."
Kozo, recognizing that final statement was as close to an acknowledgement of wrongdoing as he would receive, let the issue drop. "And after Unit-00?"
"We..."
0113 Hours
Once Gendo had triggered the mechanism to open Heaven's Door, he turned and watched Unit-01's approach. The metal Titan sloshed across the LCL reservoir, growing more and more impossibly large as it neared. Gendo struggled to stay on his feet as the Eva entered the doorway and paused.
"Unit-01," he radioed, pressing himself against the doorframe to avoid the LCL runoff raining down from the Eva's pallet rifle, "hold position."
"Understood."
He waited for Heaven's Door to fully retract. The reaction of the Second Child to what waited behind it was predictable.
"What the HELL is that?!"
"That would be the Second Angel, codenamed Lilith. She's the reason all the other Angels attack Tokyo-3."
"It's a she? How can you tell? Never mind. I don't want to know. Christ," she hissed. "What's next? LCL goo monsters? Malevolent sapient architecture? Misato joining AA?"
Gendo glanced at the armored suitcase in hand. "Nothing so banal, Pilot Soryu."
"Joy."
0445 Hours
"That was your plan? To wait for the Angel while we all were unconscious?"
"Essentially, yes."
"That's the w—"
"Major, the initial report on Unit-01—"
"Thank you, Hyuga."
"You were saying?"
"I was -- hey!"
"What?"
"Don't tuck that in so tight. You'll stretch the fabric."
"I can't help it if your overripe melons mean your blouses are too big on me."
"My melons? Who are you – Kaji?"
"Ahaha. Funny. Moving on, Misato."
"Right. So your plan was..."
0118 Hours
"That's your plan? Wave the abortion at the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man?"
"Essentially, yes."
"That's the worst plan I've ever heard."
"You're young. You'll hear plenty worse."
"Ugh."
"There's simply no alternative."
"Again -- ugh."
"If we try to wait out the Angel—"
"Yeah, yeah." She rolled her head around her shoulders but stopped when she realized that Unit-01 followed suit. "I just don't see why we gotta wait out the Angel. It has to come after this Lilith thing eventually."
"Not necessarily. Most plans are predicated on the planner winning, or at least surviving. Such preconditions are limiting, and, at times, they are a selfish luxury. However, if the planner is willing to sacrifice everything -- even himself -- then new avenues for success open."
"So, what? You think the Angels are working together? Sandalphon holds us down while the next one beats us up and takes our lunch money?"
"It is curious. The Angels show no systematic organization, yet each Angel so far seems to be ideally suited to NERV's available suite of counterattacks. If Ramiel been the 'Third' Angel, could NERV have responded in time?"
"Could we have?"
"Even during wartime, Ramiel slipped through our defensive screens. In all likelihood, the UN would have sent tens of thousands of soldiers to the slaughter before dropping an N2 on the city. Even if they hadn't nuked Tokyo-3, NERV would have had to rely on a totally inexperienced Third Child piloting Unit-01 trying to snipe the enemy without Unit-00 for cover."
"So that's a big no." She yawned. "So how long until rock boy shows up?
"We'll see, won't we?"
"So... what do you want to start off with while we wait: Twenty Questions or Eye-Spy?"
"Ugh."
0238 Hours
"I spy with my lit—"
"LCL."
"Damn."
"I spy with my—"
"More LCL."
"I thought you said you've never played this game before, Pilot Soryu."
0325 Hours
"I'm boorrrrred."
Down below, on the platform before Lilith, Commander Ikari was lying on his back. He tucked an arm behind his head and was using his armored suitcase as a foot stool. "Yes."
Asuka rubbed her eyes. Stewing in electrified LCL for too long always made her tear up. "Look, as much as I enjoy setting in this tomb and doing squat, the Angel isn't coming."
"Patience, Miss Soryu."
"It's not."
"Patience."
"I'm looking at the same MAGI readouts you are. The Angel isn't moving. Your plan is a piece of sh—"
And it was at that instant that Asuka learned that someone can, in fact, stare down a mecha with a 1:100 height advantage on them.
"—suuuuure to work when given ample time. Sir. Commander."
The man looked away. "Perhaps you're right. I hadn't wanted to use the contingency but it seems we have no other choice."
"If you feel that way, sir, I'll stand by your decision." She paused. "Though, if you don't mind, before you magically summon the Angel, I'm going to crack off this horn." Asuka reached for her the piece jutting out of Unit-01's head armor. "It's making my skull feel top-heavy and I need—"
"NO."
She froze.
"You will do no such thing."
"Um... why?"
"The horn," he radioed, cracking open the armored suitcase, "is from the myth of the Oni -- a Japanese devil. My wife was fond of the legend. She thought it was thematically suitable, considering our enemy, and added it to her design."
"Your wife? Shinji's Mom? She built the Eva?"
The line was silent for a long moment, and Asuka began to suspect that the Commander had lost interest in her again. However, just as she opened her mouth, he spoke again. "She designed Units Zero and One, similar to how your own mother directed the Unit Two Project." He paused again. "I knew your mother."
Asuka felt her chest constrict. "Y-you did?"
Commander Ikari placed the bakelite brick before Lilith, and then atop the brick he placed a hand grenade. "Only through my wife. She and your mother were... intellectual rivals."
Shinji's Mom knew my Mama? "Were they friends?"
Something crackled over the radio. For a moment, Asuka thought it was static, but then she realized it was Commander Ikari laughing. "No," he said. "Yui and Kyoko hated each other."
Asuka stared down at the little figure dangling his feet off the side of the platform.
"Tell me, Pilot Soryu." He pulled the pin on the grenade and rose to his feet, putting distance between himself and it. "Have you ever heard of Henry Kissinger?"
0455 Hours
Fuyutsuki stared at Gendo, horrified. "You used a hand grenade on ADAM?"
"To be precise, I used Thermite."
"Y-you... you didn't actually—"
Gendo smirked.
"Oh my God. You did. You bastard."
"It produced results."
0338 Hours
The first warning they had of Sandalphon's approach was the frenzied cry of the MAGI's seismographs, which preceded (albeit by mere seconds) a titanic rumbling beneath their feet. After a moment, the shaking leveled off to a distant rumble.
"It's near."
"No sh—"
From the LCL reservoir, there came a terrific explosion. Asuka wheeled Unit-01 about, and her eyes came upon a horrific sight.
Born to writhe in superheated liquid rock, the Angel Sandalphon lacked anything resembling grace in a surface environment. Its forelimbs—which in another sphere must have possessed a sinuous, animalistic refinement—were reduced to a far more mercurial quality, beating and snapping about with tortured, jerky motions. Sandalphon's body, which was broad and flat at its 'face' and tapered back towards its rear, writhed and undulated as its molten innards burst out of its the rock 'skin.' Soon, the Angel's form was warped beyond recognition. The red-hot gelatinous mass had expanded outwards three times the size of Sandalphon's volcanic form. Its eyestalks, fins, and outward markings were still dimly visible against the glow, but only enough to give the viewer an impression of body parts haphazardly discarded atop a pile of refuse.
Then, just as Asuka found her mind beginning to comprehend the screaming horror, Sandalphon's gory quicksilver form lost its luster. As the heat subsided to match its new environment, the blob of guts retracted into its shell. As fin and tendril resumed position, Asuka suddenly realized the Angel was adapting its very form to this new environment, much as Sachiel had against the N2 bomb dropped upon it. Cursing herself for her dimwittedness, Asuka drove Unit-01 forward into a hollering sprint.
Sandalphon had begun to recover its self-awareness as Unit-01 opened up on it with her pallet rifle. The damage of the rounds was minimal to non-existent; unlike Unit-00, Sandalphon possessed a sense of self-preservation. It had already raised its AT-Field.
"ARRRRGGGGHHH!"
Unit-01, its approach blunted by the resistance of the LCL wrapping its legs, leaped upon its foe. As the purple mecha hung in the air, Asuka tossed her pallet rifle away, convinced of its worthlessness. Sandalphon reared up on its hindquarters, baring its razor-sharp maw at the Evangelion's approach. All this taunt accomplished was to speed the contact between Sandalphon's flat topside and Unit-01's driving heel.
Sandalphon collapsed under the attack, its body stopping up the hole, where a rough whirlpool of LCL now flowed into the depths of the Earth. Retrieving her bloodied progressive knife from her shoulder pauldron, Asuka crouched down upon the shocked Angel and stabbed it into the eyestalk nearest her.
Sandalphon bucked up with a grinding roar.
Asuka, her grip on the Angel maintained only by her hold on the crippled eyestalk, slipped off her feet and swung freely as Sandalphon moved. The burden of Unit-01 atop the rock creature's back was enough to leave Sandalphon unable to lower itself. Asuka refused to let go for fear of losing her prog knife. The Angel began to flail its limbs wildly; the effect unbalanced it enough to tip it backwards.
Asuka, smothered under several thousand tons of Angel and partially submerged in foaming LCL, screamed and screamed. She attempted to force the beast off her, but the weight alone pinned her in place. The only leverage she possessed was her still-steady hold upon the prog knife lodged in her enemy's body. With a death grip on the weapon, the Second Child raked the back of the Eighth Angel. The vibrating, mono-molecular edge of the blade savaged the monster's stone exoskeleton, but it was not enough to make any great gains upon penetrating the hide.
The Eighth Angel twisted about on its back, writhing under the tender mercies of Asuka's Unit-01. Belatedly and with a great cumbersome lurch, Sandalphon tucked its stiff-limbed body together and rolled off of the purple mecha, righting itself. Before its enemy had a chance to regain its footing, Sandalphon pounced atop the prostrate Evangelion. The razors of its O-ringed maw latched onto Unit-01's chest armor and, in one crushing bite, tore the metal plating from the humanoid giant, bringing along with it a far amount of flesh and blood. Sandalphon moved for another piece—
Asuka head-butted the Angel.
"GET!" Bam! "OFF!" Bam! "MEEEE!!"
Left hand palm-flat against its belly, Asuka threw the disoriented Angel off her. As Sandalphon splashed into the LCL, the second prog knife from Unit-01 shoulder pauldron revealed itself. Now, armed with a knife in each hand, Asuka circled Unit-01 around the Angel...
0440 Hours
"...and then I rapidly advanced approximately two hundred meters and executed a modified Whiteaves-strike against the Angel's starboard fin-limb, sever—"
"Asuka," Misato interrupted, "I don't need a blow-by-blow."
"But I was just getting to the most awesome part!"
"Try and summarize the key facts, please. I'm already making at least nine generals and two prime ministers late by making them wait to yell at me."
"Fine. Well..."
0338 – 0345 Hours
Sandalphon: "You lose!"
Asuka: "Oh no! I lose!!"
0440 Hours
"There's no need for sarcasm, young lady."
"Fine, I'll cut to the end, okay? Just stop interrupting me."
0346 Hours
The pain she felt—the sensation of a thousand talons ripping open her chest—vanished at the same instant her Entry Plug went dark. Asuka sucked in a ragged breath, sobbing in relief. Then the Entry Plug shook violently. She triggered the restart sequence, but the Evangelion would not engage. Asuka banged on the controls, but it was no use. Her battery reserves were still there; she simply could not synchronize.
"MOVE!" She ordered Unit-01. "Move, move, move! Come on! You've got to move now, or there's no point to any of this!"
Sandalphon, no longer content with gnawing on incapacitated pray, brought up the broad, arcing brim of its upper-body and slammed it down onto Unit-01. The force was not inconsiderable. The Eva shuddered as stress fractures in its body armor spider-webbed outwards, compromising its overall integrity. Sandalphon raised its scarred upper-body and slammed it once more onto the Eva.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Again.
And again...
The force of the blows was enough to be felt into Evangelion Unit-01's Entry Plug. It rattled the pilot's bones. The Second Child, her fingers locked tight around the butterfly controls, railed against the heavens: "Come on, come on, come on! You have to MOVE, Asuka, or everyone will be killed! OH, GOD, I'm SO sick of it already! Just move, you filthy, stinking doll!!"
The Eva did not move.
Sandalphon could not see.
Blind in this cold nothingness outside the Earth, its senses worthless without liquid rock providing a means of conduction and reflection, Sandalphon fought a constant struggle to reach out with the light of its soul and conceive a hazy picture of the world around it.
So it listened.
The song of ADAM was its only guide, save the queer trilling of this Shadow of Lilith. To reach ADAM, Sandalphon knew in its heart of hearts that this abdominal insult would need to be silenced.
So it fought blind, sustained only by its own fervor. The battle was long and hard. The Shadow of Lilith rewrote Sandalphon's own song into a symphony of pain. In the end, though, the Angel sang the song of triumph.
Sandalphon listened to the fading sickening, dissonant key of the Shadow of Lilith—and the curious undertone woven into it—and saw that the day was won.
As the Shadow of Lilith's song faded, the voice of ADAM overwhelmed Sandalphon's senses, pushing out all other things until only ADAM remained.
Its own pain forgotten, Sandalphon turned away from its forgotten enemy and limped to join with ADAM in a chorus for a new age.
0444 Hours
Gendo poured himself a drink. "Are you familiar with Moravec and Marchal's work?"
"I know David Lewis is likely right at least," Fuyutsuki said, taking a sip from his own glass. "Why?"
Gendo drained his glass in a single go then poured himself another. "I used the failsafe."
"What?"
0346 Hours
Deep below the surface of the Earth, in Terminal Dogma, history drew to a close.
Sandalphon, battered and broken, dragged itself towards the platform Gendo stood on. For a moment, he indulged himself in contemplating the Angel's bloodless body, mentally reviewing old xenobiology articles he had read long ago during GEHIRN's "forward threat planning" phase. He, Yui, and many others had tried imaging what the Angels would be like in order to better prepare Evangelion weapons and battle plans. They had imagined giant humanoids, microscopic invaders, and a thousand other impossible beings, fit only for science fiction or hallucinogen users.
In all those sessions, a singing anomalocaris made of living rock never once came up.
"Yui," he said, his eyes locked on the approaching monstrosity. "Now would be a good time for a miracle."
The Angel trilled weakly, voice garbled in such a cold, low-pressure environment. Its ring-shaped mouth, open to reveal serrated prongs ringing the inside, quivered. The creature's remaining eyestalk rolled about—for what reason Gendo neither knew nor cared. As it neared the platform (and Lilith and ADAM), its great body brought wave after wave of LCL crashing onto the flat metal surface. Mixed in with the LCL were streaks of rich, dark red blood from a dead Evangelion.
Gendo Ikari looked away from the approaching Angel and quickly ducked behind Lilith's cross. There, secreted away from all but a knowledgeable handful, was a simple control panel connected to a high-yield N2 bomb hidden under the platform.
There was no big red button to push, no lever to throw. As soon as the correct code was entered—known only to NERV's Supreme Commander—the device would detonate.
This particular N2 bomb was only ever meant to be an act of desperation, a wildcard contingency for an unimaginable worst-case scenario. It was not enough to destroy an Angel, and the very idea of it being able to harm Lilith or ADAM was laughable. It would, however, bring down most of Terminal Dogma's roof onto them. Normally, Gendo supposed the bomb would have been triggered by some underling so that NERV would have time to activate its main Self-Destruct System. That system, the SDS, consisted of three illegal thermonuclear warheads focused on Lilith. The MAGI had calculated that the nukes would have over a sixty-three percent chance of destroying the Second Angel—and stopping a destructive Third Impact. The nukes would also, incidentally, totally annihilate the Geo-Front and NERV HQ and reduce Tokyo-3 to a radioactive sinkhole.
With Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki and the rest of the senior staff incapacitated, there was no one else to assist Gendo in authorizing the use of the SDS. Without a secondary confirmation of the order, the MAGI would not active NERV's ultimate fail-safe. So Gendo's use of the N2 bomb under Lilith's cross amounted to little more than spite... and the wild, impossible chance that, by slowing the Angel down for a few seconds, something—anything—would happen to stop Sandalphon from reaching its goal.
Hope, Commander Ikari decided as he entered the code's final digit, is overrated.
The N2 bomb activated.
0447 Hours
"I'm not... I don't know how to say this without it coming out wrong."
"Take your time."
"When I was in Shinji's Eva, I could always smell him. Y'know? I think it was, like, my brain trying to figure out how to deal with the impression—for lack of a better word—we leave on our Evas after we pilot them long enough. It was kinda confusing at first. It was almost like I wasn't just piloting Unit-01. It was like I was piloting Shinji, being him. I'm not explaining it exactly right, but it was seven shades of fucked up. I thought I was having flashbacks of Shinji's life."
"...And?"
"Christ. I'm not crazy, okay? I know I've been kind of screwed up lately but this... schiest!"
"Asuka, you can trust me."
"..."
"Asuka—"
"Look, I remember it, but I'm forgetting it, like a dream, but there was this train—I think—and I'm... maybe... Misato, I was talking to..."
TIME UNKNOWN
Kaworu, why?
Because it's my destiny to continue to live, even if the result is the destruction of humanity. But I can also die. Life and death are of equal value to me. Death is the one and only absolute freedom there is.
What? Kaworu, I don't understand what you're saying!
Your's is not the existence that should end. Your people need the future. Thank you, Shinji. I'm glad I met—
Asuka opened her eyes.
"Ugh." She placed her head in her hands. The world swam around her. "W-what happened?"
"You fucked up, girlfriend."
Asuka looked up.
The girl sat across from Asuka in the brilliant train car (train car? how did I get here?), and the afternoon sunlight streaming through the windows lit up her red hair. The warm sun gleamed off the girl in the red plug suit, nearly forming a halo over her head. The bright illumination also made clear the deep, finger-shaped bruises around the girl's neck.
Asuka Langley Soryu saw Asuka Langley Soryu.
"Hi." The Other Asuka smiled, but it did not reach her dull, glassy eyes. "I thought we could take a moment to talk through the miracle of brain damage."
Asuka gaped at the other girl.
"Oh, get a grip." A slender finger reached up to trace her damaged neckline. "Is it really that surprising that you talk to yourself?"
The Second Child found her voice. "W-who are you?"
"I'm Asuka Langley Soryu. Who are you?"
"I'm Asuk—"
"No," cut in the Other Asuka. "You're not."
"What?"
"I'm Asuka. The real Asuka. You're just... well, I'm honestly not sure who or what you are. I was supposed to be you. That's what we both figured would happen when we planned this gambit. Now I'm just the proverbial transcendental fly on the wall of the greater collective unconscious." The Other Asuka snorted. "Oh course, that's what I get for trusting an Ikari again—the original Ikari, especially."
"No! I'm Asuka! You don't even sound like me!"
"Don't be a dumbass. I sound like your voice does when you hear a recording, right?"
"Y-yes."
"Do you know why?"
Asuka, eager to prove herself against this doppelganger, answered, "The vibrations of the vocal cords reach the cochlea through the body, deepening the voice to the speaker. People sound different from the outside."
Other Asuka clapped. "Give the girl a prize!"
"Look, I was supposed to be doing... something. Before." Her mind drifted as she struggled to grasp onto her lost train of thought. Images filled her mind: a hand rising, darkness splitting, pain and hunger and outrage and—
"The Angel."
Asuka's eyes widened in shock. "Oh my God."
"No. You almost strangled him." She smiled savagely. "That was awesome, by the way. I was cheering you on the whole time."
"W-what?"
"Look." Other Asuka leaned forward in her seat, smiling sweetly. "Let's just deal with the issue at hand, hmm? Oh! But what issue? Why can't you move your ass and kill a loser Angel like Sandalphon? It's almost as embarrassing as losing to that pathetic spider."
"Spider?"
Other Asuka ignored her question. "Is it because no one's stroking your ego? Because Shinji insulted you? Because Kaji's already ignoring you in favor of Misato? Or... is it because you got all those sailors killed because you're just a kid playing soldier?"
Asuka felt her blood turn to ice.
"That's it, isn't it? You feel bad about killing people."
"N-no."
"Don't lie to me. I know you, whoever you are, better than you know yourself. You're me. Supposedly."
"No!" Asuka shouted, moving to her feet with the click of her heels. "You're wrong!"
"Am I? Think of how many people died on the Over the Rainbow. I know, in your shoes, I would have felt—"
"They didn't feel ANYTHING! Why should I feel guilty?!"
As Other Asuka studied her, a queer expression passed over the bruised girl's face. Asuka wilted under the unflinching and, she realized with a sickening twist in her gut, unblinking eyes of her doppelganger. The Other Asuka rose to her feet, walked over, and leaned down to meet Asuka's eyes. "No way... Misato's bullshit was spot on?"
Misato grabbed hold of her elbow. "Wait. We need to talk about what just happened."
"What's there to talk about? Aside from the fact you just humiliated me in front of Shinji?"
"You know what I'm talking about."
The teen's eyes snapped up and locked onto Misato's. Both females were unrelenting in their gaze. "There's nothing to talk about. It was nothing."
"You had a panic attack during a combat situation. You almost lost synchronization with Unit-02. Goddamnit, Asuka," Misato snapped, her normally level voice spiking with anger and concern, "you're lucky you weren't killed!"
Asuka jerked her elbow from Misato's grasp, then glared at the older woman for a moment. Finally, she looked away. "It won't happen again," she mumbled. "Please just let it go."
"I can't."
She rubbed her forehead.
"You know I can't."
"Don't apologize, okay?" She snapped. "It's bad enough when Shinji does it."
"Was it because of the Rainbow?"
"Don't."
"Or was it because of you mother?"
Asuka froze. "You… you know?"
"It's in your file."
"Jesus Christ." Her voice came out in a low hiss. The Second Child turned her back to Misato. She hugged herself, then dropped her arms to her sides when she realized how weak it made her look. She drew herself to her full height, holding her head high. "I didn't need to know that."
"That past is the past, Asuka. It's ancient history as far as I'm concerned."
The teen snorted. "Right. Because you're so great about dealing with your past. I'm sure you drink all that beer because you like the taste."
"Actually, I do," the older woman cut back, "but that's neither here nor there. You punched that boy the other day—"
"He had it coming!"
"—and Kaji says you never lost your temper like that in Germany. I don't remember you behaving that way when I was your guardian. So what is it?"
"There's nothing to talk about, Captain Katsuragi."
"Yes, Pilot Soryu, there is." Misato walked around to Asuka's side, wedging the teen into a narrow space between her and the wall. "Because, until you convince me otherwise, your piloting clearance is hereby revoked."
That caught the redhead's attention. "WHAT?!" She pivoted on her heels to stare at the older woman with wide eyes. "You can't do that!"
"Oh, I can. And I will." Misato leaned forward, bringing herself nose-to-nose with the teen. "We need to deal with this problem of yours, Asuka, because otherwise you're a liability to NERV and to your teammates in the field. So start talking because you have," she checked the time display on her satellite cell phone, "47 minutes to convince me that you're fit to go into combat against the Angel."
Asuka's fingertips began to tremble.
"Asuka, look at me."
"..."
"Look at me."
"Fuck. You. Misato."
"Cut the crap. Just tell me what happened in the volcano. What freaked you out, Asuka?"
"Nothing happened."
Misato waited.
"Nothing happened." Asuka flexed her right hand. "I can't explain it."
"You were fine until the Angel appeared, and you've faced worst combat situations. What was different this time?"
"Aside from fighting inside a volcano?"
"I thought," Misato said, speaking earnestly, "you were about to die. I thought I—I was going to lose you, Asuka."
The girl blinked rapidly. Damn allergies, she thought. "You want to know what happened?" She asked, voice low and throaty. "It looked like a fish."
Misato let that revelation sink in the open for a moment. "So this is about the Rainbow."
Asuka laughed, bitter and sharp. "Brilliant deduction! So! Can I go murder the Angel now?"
"Do you feel guilty about what happened to the Rainbow's crew?"
She flinched as if struck. "Jesus."
"Asuka, it wasn't your fault that they died."
She buried her face in her hands.
"It wasn't your fault that they died."
"J-j-just… shut up."
"Look, I'm sorry. I am. But we've only got 46 min—ah, 45 minutes now—until the drop, Asuka. There isn't time for subtlety. I need to know if you can do this or not."
Her voice was muffled. "I can still fight. I'm not crazy."
"I never said you were."
The teen wrenched her face from her hands and glared at Misato. "But you were thinking it!" The keen edge in her voice overpowered the distant roar of the Neo-Path's engines in the background. "Everyone always talks about it when they don't think I'm listening! I can feel them looking at me in the hallways! Even the goddamn grease monkeys call my Unit-02 the Bloody Eva! What? You didn't think I know? Well, I do!" She ground the heels of her palms into her eyes. "I had to learn about it from two gossipy bitches talking about me in a bathroom! Do you know what it's like hearing that?! Hearing people talking about me like that?! Like I'm a freak?"
Misato responded by stripping.
Asuka did not catch on until the older woman had shrugged off her red leather jacket, dropping the article to the bare metal floor of the teleconference room. When the redhead looked up reflexively, Misato was reaching for the neckline of her black dress.
"What the hell are you doing?!" She demanded, unable to force herself to look away as her superior officer unzipped her black dress and pulled it off. Then Asuka saw something that shocked her further. "W-what the HELL is THAT?!"
"A souvenir from the Second Impact." Misato, naked above the waist save for her lavender bra, traced a finger down the jagged scar. "Caught some shrapnel in Antarctica, right before the First Angel nuked the planet. Remember how I told you about being there with my father?"
"Y-yes."
"He died," said Misato. "They all died. Everyone I'd know for the last four months. And all I could do was bleed inside an escape pod for three days. And as bad as this looks," she glanced down for a moment, studying the off-color flesh of the scar, "it's nothing compared to what's up here." She tapped her forehead.
"..."
"You found yourself in a no-win scenario, just like me, and now you're wondering what you could have done differently, if there was some way you might have been able to save the people who died."
"N—"
"But mostly you hate being alive, don't you?" Asuka could not hold back a shiver as Misato studied her, as if she were some germ underneath a microscope. "You hate yourself for surviving and having to live with what happened. At least those sailors got off quick, huh? At least they didn't ever know about how everything went wrong. Must be pretty nice, not having to deal with the aftermath of a Really Bad Day."
Asuka said nothing.
"Sometimes all we can do is survive, Asuka. It sucks, but that's the way life is. The only alternative is to give up... to die... to be weak." Misato zipped up her black dress, concealing the scar once more. "I could never do that. I don't think you could either. Are you weak, Asuka?"
"..."
"Are you weak, Asuka?"
"N-no."
"Don't stutter."
"NO."
"Use your indoor voice, please."
Asuka snorted. "Screw you, Misato." The words were without any real anger.
"I'll let you pilot Unit-02 for now, but this isn't the end of our discussion. I can't have you freaking out if the next Angel is fishy-looking."
"I won't. Not again."
Misato placed her hands on Asuka's shoulders. "Don't make promises that you can't keep, Asuka. Even if you fail, if we fail, you have to get back up. Okay?"
The Second Child let herself be touched by Misato for several seconds, then brushed off the older woman's affection. She moved to the cabin's door and was unmolested. "I'll be in Unit-02."
"Asuka?"
"Yeah?"
"Here."
Asuka turned.
Misato held out the data pad with Terminal Dogma's schematics. "Don't forget this."
Asuka accepted it and left without saying a word.
"So that's all it took? A little heart-to-heart, and all's right with the world?" Other-Asuka laughed. "Uh-huh. Right. Because I know I responded so well to all those shrinks who wanted me to talk about walking in on my dead mama."
She flinched at the memory of those days. "I don't know what you're talking about!"
Other Asuka snorted. "Wow. This is getting pretty damn reflexive." She paused. "I wonder if we could fuck?"
"W-what the hell?"
"Never mind. Sorry. I'm starting to talk like her. I suppose that happens when you spend enough time with someone. You start to end up like those old people in restaurants, dressing so alike you can't tell the husband from the wife."
"You're not making sense."
"Oh, like you're one to judge. You can't even make Unit-01 move. Do you know how hard that is to do? The motherfucking bitch goes berserk at the drop of a hat." She paused. "Or at least it did. She's dreaming now. Though that's no excuse!"
"Whoa. Okay. Obviously whoever got fresh with your neck damaged your brain."
The expression on Other Asuka's face curdled. "My brain. Is fine. You little doll."
"I'm not a doll!"
"Liar!"
"Shut up!"
"Listen." The Not-Her thrust an accusatory finger in her face. "I don't know who or what the fuck you really are, 'Asuka,' but it is NOT going to end this way. Do you understand? DO YOU?!"
Eyeing the dark bruises around Other Asuka's neck, she sneered. "I should finish the job!"
Not-Her laughed. The sound came out as an awful sham, a pantomime of emotion. Asuka became at once aware of how the Other Asuka, the Not-Her, held herself. The ramrod straight posture, the unaligned focus of her eyes, the limp way her right arm hung at her side—the wrongness of it.
"How could you possibly understand? I've suffered more than God Himself. The fake God I trusted as a child. I would take a thousand crucifixions over real suffering!"
"You're insane!"
"I've clawed my way out of madness more times than you've breathed in your STOLEN life, you pathetic little doll!"
"I am not a doll!"
"You're sure as hell not me!" The Not-Her insisted. "And if you're not Mummy Deawest or Daddy, I don't know who you could be! There was just the three of us who came back. You're—" Not-Her shook her head. "No, no. I'm losing focus. Can't lose focus. Not now. It can't end this way. The human race can't lose. I can't lose. I WON'T! And if you claim to be anything like the real Asuka Langley Soryu you won't let some weaksauce Angel kill you! Will you?!"
Asuka screamed with all her heart, "NO!"
"THEN.
"WAKE.
"UP!"
0347 Hours
Gendo blinked.
He was not dead.
Genuinely panicked, NERV's Supreme Commander again dashed off the N2's activation code. Again, he found he was not dead. Again, he entered the code, taken excessive care to ensure each number entered correctly. And, again, he found he was not dead.
"No! No, no, no, no, no!" He smashed a gloved fist against the keypad. "NO!"
Briefcase in hand, Gendo hurried to the side of the cross. There, at the edge of the far platform, loomed Sandalphon. The stone Angel clawed forward with its vine-like hands, dragging itself along. Sandalphon was so close Gendo could smell it—sulfur and brimstone, ludicrous but true.
Then... there came a ROAR. A beastly cry no one on Earth had ever heard before, but one with which Gendo Ikari was some experience.
The purple blur moved too fast for Gendo's eyes to track, save for one instant: Unit-01, a jagged and broken progressive knife clenched over its head, eyes blazing white fire, lingering in the air for an impossibly long second before crashing down onto Sandalphon's back.
"YUI!" He cried out. "Thank you, Yui!"
0348 Hours
"AAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!!"
00:01:04 REMAINING
Asuka used her momentum to drive the remains of the progressive knife between one of Sandalphon's many fractured armor plates. Slamming down on her dagger's kilt with every bit of strength she had, its broken, jagged blade sank deep into the brittle inner rock-flesh of the Eighth Angel. What traces of energy remaining in the prog knife's damaged batteries burned out in mere seconds, but it was time enough to carve a decent trench into the Angel's hide.
00:00:55 REMAINING
Sandalphon bucked.
The motion sent a ripple through its clunky, intersecting armor. The offending prog knife was destroyed and Unit-01's right hand was crushed. Asuka, her synchronization over one hundred percent, screamed again, this time not in bloodlust. Her Eva's trapped hand, however, kept Unit-01 from being chucked off Sandalphon.
00:00:50 REMAINING
Sandalphon shifted its weight again. The action drove one of its sharper shards of armor into Unit-01's right wrist, amputating it on the spot. The purple Evangelion tumbled off, splashing down into the LCL. The Angel, exhausted and in horrific agony, slumped down. Internally, its S2 Organ ramped up energy production, fueling the creature's reconstruction.
00:00:47 REMAINING
Unit-01 would not be stopped.
The purple Evangelion scrambled to its feet, crouched, and then pounced. Asuka knew where she needed to attack. All she needed to do was follow the streak of Unit-01's blood on its hide.
She brought the Eva's remaining fist down—again and again—cracking open the softer outer layer the Angel had just generated, exposing the gory remains of Unit-01's right hand. Asuka could see the rocky interior of Sandalphon repair itself as she watched. The strange crystalline formations within grew at rapid speeds; it were as if she were watching time-elapsed footage.
She punched forward.
00:00:40 REMAINING
Sandalphon heaved once more, but Asuka kept herself balanced. The Angel's interior shattered beneath repeated blows, exposing the Angel's red Core, but, before she could attack again, the crystal fragments decomposed into durable slurry.
It was adapting.
Asuka found that her fingers were not long enough and her fists not good enough to work into the crack in Sandalphon's hide with enough necessary force. She required a weapon, something narrow with an edge.
Asuka turned Unit-01's head and looked at Lilith on Her Cross.
00:00:35 REMAINING
Unit-01 waded nimbly through the LCL, which grew shallow near the platform before Lilith. Asuka pounded onto that platform and reached for the nail that pinned the Second Angel's left arm to the cross.
The nail would not give. Distantly, Asuka wondered whether the nail crucifying the Second Angel was somehow part of the cross itself or if it had somehow become one with Lilith and the Cross.
Asuka spared a half second to consider an alternative weapon. Was there something she could—
Ah.
Unit-01 reached for the mask covering Lilith's face.
00:00:24 REMAINING
The Second Angel's soft, gooey flesh clung to the strange purple material. Asuka pulled the mask until it was strung taut—and then the white flesh seemingly decided to part with the mask, all at once. Asuka wheeled around to face her crippled opponent.
00:00:17 REMAINING
Asuka closed the space between herself and the broken, quivering Sandalphon. The Angel feebly raised a half-regenerated eyestalk towards her. She drove her free fist through it, shattering the rock-flesh in one go.
00:00:13 REMAINING
She brought up the mask of Lilith, aimed for the exposed canyon of rock-flesh that her prog knife had split open and drove the edge of the heavy faceplate into it. Luckily, the material of the mask—whatever strange substance constituted it—held. The slurry inside Sandalphon seemed to have no effect on it. Asuka worked herself into the Angel's body, widening the gap made by her fist and the broken prog knife, working in the indelible edge of Lilith's Mask.
Sandalphon, the Master of Heavenly Song, SCREAMED.
00:00:05 REMAINING
Through the crumbling rock-flesh, Asuka spotted the ruby gleam of Sandalphon's spider-webbed core. The Angel flopped weakly, trying to throw off its attacker.
Unit-01 held on, digging, fighting, killing.
00:00:00 REMAINING
Gendo stared at the readout on his PDA. "Power reserves depleted."
It's over. We've lost.
Across the chamber, however, Unit-01 showed no signs of slowing its relentless savagery.
"Yui? No!" He exclaimed. The MAGI's readings were irrefutable. "The pilot... the pilot is still in control!"
"You're not getting away! Not this time! NOT THIS TIME! NOT FROM ASUKA LANGLEY SORYU!"
The rich, crimson glow of the Angel's exposed S2 Core filled Asuka' HUD. Around it, Sandalpon's rock-flesh struggled to restore itself to cover the exposed vulnerability.
"I'LL KILL YOU DEAD FIRST!"
Asuka tossed aside Lilith's mask and then drove Unit-01's fist into the red orb.
0510 Hours
"...and then it died. The End."
Misato stared at her. "I'll kill you dead first?"
A faint pink tinge appeared in Asuka's cheeks. "It loses something in the translation from German."
"Uh-huh."
"Oh, fuck you. Now if we're done, I'm tired, and I think I've earned a little shuteye."
"All right." Misato nodded to the Section-2 escort hovering outside the break room. "I'll have you escorted to the pilot barracks. There's still some clean up going on. I will, however, need your After Action Report by midnight tonight."
"Ugh. Christ. I forgot about that."
"Sorry. Regulations and all that." Misato collected her handwritten notes and stood up as well. "Sleep tight, Asuka."
"I've ordered the doctors to fast-track your brain scans."
"I'd thank you, Gendo, but I'm sure you're only doing it because you need me to fix the Evas." She smiled, a touch bitterly, from her hospital bed. "After all, what's a concussion and migraine next to the needs of NERV?"
"Nothing at all."
Ritsuko snorted.
"The Second Child can pilot Unit-01."
"Yes," she said. "I thought you said that was impossible."
"I did. Or, rather, you did."
"The other me. From 'before.'" When he did not respond, she continued, "It looks like the Mark II will be more useful than we ever imagined. Not to mention that, in the meanwhile, we have another spare should Shinji prove unreliable."
"Yes." Gendo Ikari reached into his jacket pocket and removed a small item. He placed it at Ritsuko's bedside. "Here. You'll need these."
They were cigarettes. Her brand. "I quit."
"No, you're been attempting to quit, and it's been distracting you all this week. I need your mind in top shape, not fighting withdrawal. You can quit when the Angels are dead."
"Whatever."
He turned his head towards her. "Doctor, do you know the odds of an N2 mine turning out to be a dud?"
Ritsuko blinked at the non sequitur. "Um, one in 37,000?"
"Is that a question?"
"One in 37,000."
"So very unlikely."
She waited.
Gendo stared at her for several seconds then looked away, adjusting his glasses. "I want a report on my desk by 1700 hours detailing the damage to NERV's infrastructure from the psychic attack as well as timetable for repairs on Units 00 and 01. I'll have the Evas' black boxes forwarded to your lab in Terminal Dogma."
And, without another word, he left.
In a hospital room not too far away, a different conservation took place between a patient and their visitor.
"Asuka beat the Angel all by herself? In Unit-01?"
Misato Katsuragi nodded. "She did a heck of a job on Unit-00 too. Hopefully, Ritsuko will be able to explain why it went berserk again, but I'm not holding my breath."
"..."
"Rei's okay too."
"Oh."
Misato eyed the bruises around her ward's bare neck, which, despite his trying to tug his hospital gown up to cover them, glared under the harsh florescent lights of the hospital room. "Shinji," she began, her voice hushed, "did Asuka hurt you?"
"Yes," he replied after a moment, "but it's all right. I hurt her worse first."
"Report."
"Sir, the Second Child's account is roughly congruent with the timeline we've constructed from ancillary MAGI records. However, with the corruption of the data on the black boxes aboard Unit-00 and 01, it is not possible at this time to validate Asuka's account of this morning's events."
Sitting behind his desk, Commander Ikari nodded. "Do you believe she is keeping certain facts from us?"
"Not at the present time, sir. Asuka was forward with several issues that could potentially lead to the revoking of her pilot status. Given that, it is unlikely she would admit to her own mental instability while at the same time hiding other issues. If anything, this 'train dream' of hers would be the thing to hide."
"I see. And the Third?"
"Shinji has declined to press charges against Asuka. However, consider the implications of this incident on their working relationship and on Asuka's overall mental state—"
"Both of which are functional. That's good enough."
"I disagree, sir."
"Your disagreement is duly noted. However, today the Second Child proved her worth this morning. The First and the Second can pilot multiple Evangelions. The Third Child can only pilot one, specifically a Unit with two spare pilots." He adjusted his glasses. "However, the Third Child can still be of use to this organization. Until the day he no longer holds any value to me, you will do whatever is necessary to ensure he continues to pilot."
"Sir, he has nowhere else to go."
"Good. Keep it that way. You're dismissed, Captain."
"Sir."
(EPILOGUE 1)
In the lobby of a hotel far from Tokyo-3, there sat two boys.
"No, really! Snorkeling the ruins is overrated." Kensuke backspaced on his laptop. "I mean, you see one sunken hotel filled with the skeletons of tourists, you've seen them all."
"It's not about the skeletons!" Touji insisted. "It's about the girls in bikinis!"
"Dude. You spent the whole trip on the beach, surrounded by babes."
"...with a broken nose and two black eyes."
Kensuke reached over and rapped his friend's knees with a rolled-up Solider of Fortune magazine. "Oh, stop being such a big baby! We got to spend a week on a beautiful beach surrounded by scantily-clad women. Why're you so sullen?" Suddenly a terrifying thought occurred to the bespectacled teen. "Oh, dude. Dude! Please tell me you're not blue-balling over—"
Touji sunk further into his basket weave chair.
"Damn, man. You really are an idiot."
Further discussion was prevented when Hikari Horaki strolled into the hotel lobby. "There you are!" she exclaimed, padding over to their chairs. In the dry heat of Okinawa, the Class 2-A representative wore an orange-and-white striped sundress. Discarding her usual pig-tails, Hikari wore her long brown hair plainly. "Why weren't you at the class meeting?"
"There was a class meeting?" asked Touji.
"Didn't you get my phone message?"
"Class Rep," he said, "but cell's been dead for, like, three days."
Hikari fixed Kensuke with a cool glare. "And what about you, Aida? I know for a fact you don't go anywhere without at least three different chargers in your pocket."
"Um, my ringer's off?"
"So," said Touji, "what's the word, Class Rep?"
"The state of emergency in Tokyo-3 has ended. We're leaving tonight on the first flight out. You should pack."
Kensuke sighed. "I guess it's true. All good things do have to come to an end."
"Ain't that the truth," muttered Touji.
(EPILOGUE 2)
Commander Ikari strode into the Secondary Dummy Plug Production Plant to find Lt. Ibuki waiting for him. The troubled look on her face did little to reassure him about this emergency call. "Report."
"It's the clones, sir," she said, her voice tight. "The blanks."
Gendo glanced at the darkened tank of purified LCL that dominated the far wall of the chamber. "They've destabilized?" Internally, he cursed this latest derailment of his new Scenario and began to plot a way around such a development.
"N-no. Not exactly."
"Lieutenant, evasiveness is unbecoming a professional."
She stared at him for several seconds, stretching out the silence, then raised her PDA controller. "You need to see it yourself, commander."
The tank's lights switched on.
Gendo stared at the white-skinned, grey-haired clones of the Second Child. They floated serenely in the yellow LCL, smiling in a carefree manner that was alien to the real Asuka Langley Soryu.
"Do you see it?"
He did not. What 'it' was he was supposed to see? The young officer took his non-reaction as an answer in the negative.
"Look closer."
"Lt. Ibuki, if you sorely testing my p—"
Gendo Ikari saw.
He glanced at Lt. Ibuki, then back at the clone that had caught his attention. His eyes darted from clone to clone as they studied the tank's occupants. A rhetorical question spilled from his lips before he could stop himself: "They're all like this?"
"Every single one," replied Maya Ibuki, eyeing the Mk. II Dummy Plug cores with a mixture of curiosity, confusion, and fear. "Though there's no internal damage, every single clone has developed identical bruising around their necks. Bruising that is consistent with...
"Strangulation."
Gendo stared at one such clone. Its mindless smile was made more awful by the contrast of finger-shaped bruises wrapped around both sides of its neck. At once, NERV's Commander found himself possessed of a chilling feeling of déjà vu that he could not place. "How?"
"I don't know. This shouldn't be possible." Lt. Ibuki stared at the shadow of violence repeated on all the Mk II Dummies. "I just don't know."
# # # To Be Continued