The killer was dressed in black, with his favorite killing weapon holstered behind his back. He was on top of an electric post, wearing well-insulated gloves, planting a small plastic explosive charge on the transformer, careful not to come close to the live lines. He would remotely detonate it as soon as he positioned himself on the balcony a floor over Katsuragi's flat. Once the power was down, he would get in and kill the girl and their guardians, but leave the Third Children alive.
Personally, he was excited about looking forward to look at the woman's face for any final reaction, before shooting her in the head and then the heart, just like her lover.
NEON GENESIS EVANGELION
LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2
CHAPTER 21: GRAVEYARD SHIFT
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547
Written on 6/26/2010 3:10 a6/p6
Director Shuya Hamamoto was back into the interrogation room, after guzzling a large mug of coffee and two bars of Calorimate to add more stamina. He was bent on getting his results from one of the surviving International Resistance members, who was sitting on a chair, cuffed and looked determined not to sing. He looked American, white and in his thirties, and with a stubble on his chin, and his eyes looked as if he had seen his share of violence.
Hamamoto sighed, and began to ask this man for the umpteenth time.
"All right, you're trying my patience today, William Swinton," he said. "Who funded your venture to attack one of the Children today… No, damn, I mean yesterday afternoon?"
Swinton snorted, but inwardly he was laughing at Hamamoto for forgetting the time on the clock above their heads: it was past twelve midnight.
"According to Interpol and FBI records," Hamamoto read from a stapled printout, "You're an ex-US Marine, dishonorably discharged after five years of service as corporal due to an infraction, then joined the IR around 2010."
The old director cleared his throat.
"You were involved as a suspect in at least eighteen incidents against the United Nations alone, evaded arrest thrice, had a prison sentence for six years for manslaughter and treason, but reduced to two years thanks to some lawyers… and what a country you have, a lawyer for almost every American."
Hamamoto glared at Swinton. "But since you messed with us, this time I don't think you'll be out of here."
"I ain't gonna sing to the likes of you," Swinton retorted. "Name, rank, serial number. That's all you gonna get from me."
Hamamoto bit his lip, trying to control his temper after his men ate all seven hours of grilling these thugs. All they did was to say the same damned thing all over, so he suspected that while serving in active military duty, they were taught about interrogation tactics and what they were expected to endure if captured.
But after an hour of asking the same questions, the old director had enough.
In order to break this dreary holding pattern, and possibly to save his standing, it was now time for some drastic measures. He left the room, nodded to the two agents to keep an eye on Swinton, and walked to the desk, picked up the phone. He then dialed up the crew chief in charge of the Entry Plugs down below at the Eva cages.
"This is Sergeant Kasuga speaking," the other man at the end answered. "What can I do for you?"
"Director Hamamoto here," the old director said. "Listen, I have a little request that must be done immediately. Here's how it works…"
Kaworu Nagisa was back in his quarters, with the desk lamp on, as he couldn't get himself to sleep. The kiss still lingered in his mind, and his heart finally knew the right answer to the question that previously gnawed him after rescuing Rei.
Now he wondered what better he needed to do, and since the small room had a computer and a television set, Kaworu grabbed the remote control and turned on the TV first, to find a movie on air right now. There was an informative caption on the right-hand side; the movie was William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the modernized Baz Luhrmann version, pre-Second Impact.
Now he began to watch Romeo Montague go to a side passage and espy Juliet Capulet on the balcony, contemplating as she watched the stars. The Fifth Children was mesmerized, as the characters went on exchanging verses, of love, passion, hatred, with the war between the families in the background, taking place entirely in Verona Beach.
Eventually he came upon the denouement, in which because of miscommunication the star-crossed lovers die by their own hands, followed by the grieving of both families, regretting their actions and paying the price for their feud.
Satisfied once the credits began to roll, Kaworu now had an idea, so he shut off the TV and got up to turn on the computer. There was a webcam attached to the monitor, he opened a video-recording program, and the camera's LED power indicator blinked, ready to film. Kaworu took a deep breath to calm down.
"Before I would like to explain, first I want to admit…" he began, the love theme still playing in his mind.
Misato parked the Alpine right in front of Fuyutsuki's home, and the old man got out. As he felt for the keys to his door while holding his coat and briefcase, Fuyutsuki looked back at her and said, "Well, it's been a pleasure talking to you."
The woman nodded. "Me too," she said, smiling.
"There's one thing I like to say before you go."
"What's it, sir?"
Fuyutsuki sighed. "I beg your pardon, but I wonder if you still loved Kaji."
"How did you know?" Misato wondered.
"He admitted to me as he got me freed. Apart from seeking the truth, even at the cost of his life, he also said that for all of his mistakes in life, he loved you and so he wanted to entrust you the task of dealing with his unfinished business."
"That's one of my imperatives now, sir," Misato said. "It's the only way I could to honor his memory."
There was a moment of silence between them before Fuyutsuki broke the silence. "We'll have to be very careful from now on," he said, having opened the front door.
"I will, sir," Misato avowed. "I thank you for the honor of sharing yourself with me," she added, feeling grateful. "I'll see you later, then."
"You too," Fuyutsuki answered. "Be careful down the road, Katsuragi."
"No problem," she said, smiling while opening the Alpine's door. "Thank you and good morning, sir."
Fuyutsuki now watched Misato start the car and then she motored away from the curb. Once the taillights winked out of sight, he went inside and closed the door, and in the living room, he switched on the table lamp before laying his coat and briefcase on the rug.
He then sank down to his couch and lay there, wheezing profusely as the alcohol had exacted a toll on his 60-plus cardiopulmonary system. More importantly, however, he was at least happy within to be able to talk to someone other than Gendo, confiding to Misato all of his feelings and his intimate secrets; talking with Gendo was like walking on a minefield, as he picked his words carefully before that man's presence.
Fuyutsuki glanced at the bookshelf opposite him, mostly a collection of fiction he gathered over the years. Reminded of one of his fictional favorites to kill time at the boat city back then, reading the weighty Lord of the Rings; at the time the Children were falling apart, he sometimes compared himself to Gandalf trying to counsel Denethor, the secretly deranged Steward of Gondor; he also compared this uneasy alliance with the relationship he had with Gendo, as teacher and a student respectively.
In his mind, Gendo was regressing like Denethor, consumed completely by his obsession, all the while forgetting his responsibility as a leader of a great scientific-military complex in threat of being assaulted by a powerful enemy. In response as a second-in-command, Fuyutsuki made it a personal obligation to resolve every NERV problem before they could overwhelm them in the end. He realized that in the long run, he could not stomach the idea of watching his subordinates die; he must take matters seriously as a leader, right in front, among the troops.
As for the question of Kaworu Nagisa, he hoped that somewhere in that Angel's heart, there might be a thin chance, however a human trait of conscience, to reconsider his plan to invade Terminal Dogma. He prayed that resolving it would not require violence and destruction on Misato's—and Shinji's—part, as with the case of previous Angel attacks.
Somewhere near the Eva cages, in a room shut off from the world, a bunch of men were gathered around a coffin-like tank placed on the floor. Presiding over this gathering was Director Hamamoto, along with four agents and Kasuga, the Eva crew chief, who was nervously sworn to secrecy.
"Are you sure this'll gonna work, sir?" Kasuga asked, highly doubtful. His hand was over a valve connected between a hose snaking into the tank, an isolation chamber, and a bigger stainless steel tank full of pressurized LCL. The tank was normally used for medical purposes to oxygenate patients, but for now its secondary purpose as a terrible interrogation device would be put into use.
"Don't tell everyone about this," Hamamoto answered, "but yes, I'm sure. I want to crack open this sonofabitch. It's taking me too long, along with his asshole buddies, so I hope this time we could get what we want."
He could see Swinton, still blindfolded, banging on the Plexiglas window, with one agent beside the tank, ignoring the prisoner's desperate pleas as he had a microphone suctioned to the window, ready to record everything onto his laptop computer.
"All right," Hamamoto said to Kasuga, nodding. "Give him the drink."
Kasuga opened the valve and LCL was blasted into the tank, with Swinton being splashed inside, banging on the sides. He didn't expect that the old director would resort to this infamous tactic of "water-boarding".
"You old nut! Get me out of here!" he screamed, before spitting out the blood-smelling liquid.
"Tell me who bankrolled you," Hamamoto shot back. "Give me names!"
"I told you I ain't giving anything!" Swinton spat.
The old director shook his head. "Goddamn, I thought you have balls!" he exclaimed. "You call yourself Force Recon? C'mon!"
The tank was now halfway full, further causing Swinton to double his banging and yelling.
Hamamoto was relentless. "Names, places, dates! Tell me, you sonofabitch!" he raged.
"Screw you!" Swinton cursed, spitting. "You can't get anything from me!"
"Talk, jarhead, or you'll be having more bloody orange juice than you could drink in a lifetime!"
The LCL was now dangerously close to touching the window, threatening to drown the occupant, and suddenly Swinton finally cracked.
"All right! All right! You win! I'll tell! I'LL SPEAK!" Swinton screamed.
Hamamoto nodded to Kasuga to cut off the LCL flow, and he sighed. The audio recorder was still rolling, and the agent in control nodded in satisfaction. He was getting it all on file.
"Now who gave you the order, bankrolled this kamikaze attack of yours, and the exact reason for it?" Hamamoto demanded.
Swinton was breathing profusely, swallowing hard. "H… His name was Oda," he stuttered at first. "He called us up and told to capture this Langley girl. He also promised payment if we did, and as an extra, waste Major Katsuragi so that we could get a bonus."
Hamamoto frowned. "For what?"
"He wanted her dead once he bags her… Shoot the girl himself!"
The old Director's mind began to play the surname around like a Rolodex of personnel, trying to place it somewhere until he finally knew who Oda was. He looked at his subordinates and sighed resignedly.
"We have now known the enemy," Hamamoto said at last, "and he's within our ranks. I need this Oda be bagged ASAP, and I want him alive!"
Misato drove back to her flat, nearly inebriated, trying not to fall asleep on the wheel as she drove slowly at less than 40 kilometers per hour, despite the apparent treachery of the road ahead of her.
Once she parked the Alpine at her slot, Misato staggered out of the car and glanced at her wristwatch. It was 12:36 in the morning. Oh, good, she thought, the woman taking out her jacket and the bag with her laptop and the disc inside, I think I could still make it for a cup of coffee.
Misato glanced up at the floor where her home was. Behind the curtains, there was the flicker of the television set still turned on. Must be Kanzaki, watching TV, she guessed.
The killer, now positioned on the veranda and right on the floor above Misato's home, heard her park the car and slammed the door. As she walked towards the building, he unholstered his suppressed Beretta 92F and checked the weapon and its ammunition. He also felt for his supply of concussion grenades, attached to his belt.
Because of the evacuations following Unit-00's destruction, the whole block was now free of people, and Misato's flat was the only sign of human existence in a two-kilometer radius. This made it advantageous for the killer, who relied on stealth and speed, to rig the remote-detonation explosives to cut off the telephone and power lines supplying her flat.
The killer now wore his night-vision goggles, mounted on his head and flipping them into his eyes, and held the electronic remote detonator, preparing for his one-man assault.
Misato walked to her front door and took out the keys from her pocket, but because Kanzaki was on guard, she pressed the doorbell instead.
"Who's it?" Tsutomo asked, speaking through the doorbell's intercom as he peered into the peephole.
"It's me," Misato answered. "Look, I'm only with myself."
With one hand holding the Glock, Tsutomo opened the door and he was surprised to see Misato, almost flush with red as the woman took off her shoes.
"Where have you been?" he asked, holstering the weapon back into his harness, relieved to see her back.
"Had a little drink down south," Misato answered. "The Sub-Commander asked for it."
"I see," he said, taking hold of her belongings as Misato hobbled to an empty chair at the table. There the woman wiped her face and sighed.
"I'll make some coffee," Tsutomo said as he went to the cupboard and took a pair of coffee mugs, before opening two packets of instant coffee and dumped them in along with hot water from the airpot.
"Thanks," Misato said, shaking her head as she put her service pistol and cellular phone on the table.
Once they settled down with their hot java, Misato was the first to ask. "How's it going while I was gone?" she questioned before drinking.
Tsutomo shrugged, before he set his weapon back on safety and tabled it. "Nothing eventful," he reported, "except maybe I heard Asuka talking in her sleep. 'Mama', she said."
Misato chuckled. "I've got some good news, partner," she said.
Tsutomo cocked an eye at her. "What?"
The woman took out from her pocket the box containing her new rank pins, and opened it. "The man promoted me to lieutenant colonel," she said.
Tsutomo grinned, examining the pins under the light. "Well, damn," he drawled in awe. Congratulations, ma'am. Didn't know it. You should be celebrating right now."
"It'll be official tomorrow," Misato said as Tsutomo pushed the box back to her, before she pocketed the box.
"On the other hand, there's some bad news," Tsutomo said. "The guy who discovered that Second Impact meteorite fifteen years ago was found dead. In Mexico City, of all places."
The woman was wide-eyed, her giddiness cut out. "What? The Seymour Nunn?"
"Yeah, it's over the news."
Misato scowled, having a sudden feel of the hairs on the back of her neck was stirring. "Isn't a coincidence?" she said aloud.
"What did you say?" Tsutomo asked out of concern.
"I am the only Second Impact survivor, and that lying astronomer there laid claim to have discovered it before it hit Earth. I didn't believe his bullshit story for years, as I knew the truth, but now I'm suspecting that he was probably murdered before he could spill the beans."
"For what?" he asked before darkness unexpectedly came upon them. The electricity was out, and immediately they grabbed their pistols and ducked down, preparing for possible danger as they readied their weapons.
"Shit," Misato cursed the blackout. "I think it's not over yet," she muttered.
"Yeah," Tsutomo agreed, feeling for the little Surefire torch he had in his pocket, and pulled it out. "Okay, I'll try to get to the Children and keep an eye on them. You know what to do."
Suddenly the veranda glass panels were shattered, and they heard an object clattering on the floor. Instinctively Tsutomo yelled, "GRENADE!" and both went prone, covering their heads and ears with arms.
An explosion of white light, accompanied by a loud bang, nearly blinded and rendered them almost deaf.
A couple of minutes earlier, Shinji woke up to hear the front door being closed, and followed by the muffled sound of conversation going on, figuring that Misato had finally come home.
Satisfied, he wrapped his arm upon Asuka's sleeping figure, and sighed. But before he could close his eyes, he suddenly heard a very loud bang coming from the living room. This startled him greatly.
"W… What's going on?" he loudly demanded, bolting up from the bed.
The girl was also instantly awakened by the grenade. "Huh?" Asuka gasped.
In the dim light they saw the bedroom door being slid open with a loud thud, and Tsutomo was standing right there with his weapon in right hand. The man was also smarting from the concussion grenade's after-effects.
"Kids! Better get to the other room!" he ordered, pointing towards the spare bedroom's open doors. "NOW!"
The killer jumped off the veranda's edge, landed on his feet, and immediately peered in with his NVG. He then whipped out his pistol and sought out Misato, who was lying prone on the floor, just behind the table, and fired.
But his first shots only hit the chair and table legs, disintegrating into splinters, and Misato quickly rolled to her right, ducking behind Pen-Pen's refrigerated home. He cursed, and the woman retaliated with her service pistol, forcing him to take cover.
Now he noticed that there was another set of sliding doors on the veranda, leading to the Children's bedroom. He went there and yanked the doors open, and then aimed right at where the kids were laying at.
Instead he was greeted by Tsutomo's Glock and a tactical flashlight shining into his eyes, and the agent blasted away with a couple of shots. The glass doors were blown out as the killer went for cover, mumbling more curses. He pulled off another flash-bang grenade and tossed it right into the bedroom, before it detonated.
Again the killer went in, aimed the weapon through the tritium sights, trying to find his target. However, Tsutomo lunged at him from out of nowhere and his NVG was knocked off his head. Suddenly he was now blinded by the darkness, and the agent began to wrestle for his weapon. Struggling to keep his gun on-hand, he tried to fire, but the bullets perforated the ceiling above them, sprinkling them with paint and wood splinters.
Tsutomo kicked him in the groin, nearly incapacitating the killer and letting go of the gun. Not giving up, the killer pushed him off and whipped out a dagger from the back, then rushed at Tsutomo. But the agent sidestepped, grabbed the killer's right wrist, and delivered a punch and another to the ribs, before taking hold of the dagger and threw the killer to the wall, right into the bookshelf.
The killer was now sprawled on the floor, and Tsutomo was about to deliver a hard kick, when he grabbed the agent's leg and tackled him down. On all fours, the killer got a choke hold on Tsutomo's throat, and dug his fingers hard in a bid to strangle the agent.
However he heard a noise, looked up to see Misato swing a wooden chair at him, smashing it into his face and chest. By the sheer force of the impact, the killer was stunned, thrown off Tsutomo's chest, and landed on his back.
"DON'T MOVE!" Misato yelled at the nearly-unconscious killer, aiming her gun, as Tsutomo went on his feet, walked up to the killer, rolled over and pinned him down face-first with arms to the back and a knee jabbed to the spine.
Breathing shallow for a moment, Tsutomo now tried to question the killer, whose face was bleeding. "Who the hell are you?" he demanded. "Who and what sent you here?"
The killer merely groaned instead. Frustrated, Tsutomo added more pressure on the killer's arms.
"C'mon, answer me! Who are you?"
"You wanna know?" the killer replied, gritting his teeth. "I'm supposed to kill her!"
"WHO?" Tsutomo snapped.
"The girl!"
Still covering Tsutomo with her weapon, Misato now looked enraged. Just behind her, Shinji and Asuka were blinking, before it dawned upon the Second Children that she was the prime target, her initial revulsion and shock gave way to a quick upswell of anger.
"You…" Asuka mumbled, quickly turned cross and she was about to rush towards the killer when Shinji restrained her with his arms.
"No!" he blurted.
"I want to kill that bastard myself!" Asuka yelled, struggling against Shinji. "I THINK HE KILLED KAJI!"
"Let them keep him down!" Shinji countered. "He's still dangerous!"
But Asuka was boiling with fury, even as Shinji held her at bay.
"I need something to tie this sonofabitch," Tsutomo ordered, and Misato immediately went to her room. In there she bent down to open her toolbox, picked up a roll of duct tape and returned to the Children's room. She then handed the roll to Tsutomo, who was still keeping the pressure on the killer, and the agent went about binding the tape on the killer's wrists and feet. Once done, Tsutomo rolled the killer onto his back.
"All right," Tsutomo said. "What's your name?" he demanded.
"It's not of your concern, dipshit!" the killer shot back, and spat at Tsutomo's face. The agent winced for a second before wiping his face with a free hand.
"Who sent you here?"
"I'll not say!"
Grim-faced, Tsutomo nodded to Misato, as if asking her to take a turn in questioning the killer. She then pointed her weapon close enough to the killer's head.
"For whom you're working for? The government, the UN, the Committee? Who?" she asked loudly, but the killer said nothing. Incensed, Misato grabbed the killer by the collar and dragged him across the bedroom and out onto the veranda. There, with all of her strength, pulled up the killer onto a chair, pinned him with her weight and choked his neck right on the veranda's railing. As she did, Tsutomo pulled out his cellular phone and began calling up his boss.
"Are you the one who's with those trying to kill us? Who sent you? Did you kill Kaji?" Misato questioned.
The killer merely squirmed, not uttering a word.
"Goddamnit, ANSWER ME!" Misato raged, tears coming from her eyes.
The killer snorted. "For an agent, he was such a philosophical fool!" he muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear. Misato slapped him right across the face, and then jammed the pistol's barrel on the killer's temple.
"Now, I ask you for the last time," Misato said, fury laced in her voice. "Who sent you here to do your bloody work? WHO!"
Strangely, the killer relaxed himself. "You know, I'm a mere instrument, and there's a higher power that's all behind this. You'll never win this time and…"
The killer clenched his jaw harder and in a few seconds he began to convulse. Misato suddenly let go and backed away, as she knew by the smell of burnt almonds what poison the killer used to end his life. The two Children were shocked, and Tsutomo looked angry, feeling cheated.
Once the killer was finally silent and slumped on the chair, Misato hung her head and whispered, "The bastard just bit on some cyanide."
Misato slowly walked back into the bedroom, went down onto her knees and wept, angrily pounding her fist on the floor, almost quietly cursing before she was joined by Asuka, who likewise cried onto her shoulder as she hugged her guardian. As they watched both women sob, Tsutomo and Shinji felt defeated. Even if it was too late to be able to get some answers, they finally found Kaji's murderer.
After he finished recording his video message, Kaworu picked up a blank CD from a spindle and inserted it into the computer's DVD drive. He then burned the finished video clip to disc, and afterwards he picked up a marker and wrote down the kanji for the name of his recipient on the burned disc, before putting it into an envelope.
Once the task was over, Kaworu turned off the computer and the desk lamp, and lay down on his bed. There was a new day ahead of him, even if the three remaining days could also be his last.
He hope they would soon understand his purpose for being here.
Author's Notes: It's short, but otherwise important. Writing this took just about two nights, while battling a toothache in the wisdom tooth.
Hmmmm… anyway, I read some of the older fics I had in my collection, trying to see if they could size up. These days since Chapter 9, and after analyzing someone else's fics, here's my rule of thumb: try to maintain the balance between dialogue and description, but don't try to embellish too much description for every line of dialogue; it's like putting them into a straitjacket.