Chapter 8
"Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality." - Lewis Carrol
Kaji glanced at his watch again, frowning at the time. It was fifteen minutes past ten, which was supposed to be the meeting time. Glancing around, there was no sight of the man he was supposed to meet. Resigning himself to his beverage, Ryoji took a sip of the brown cola Ryoma had got him hooked on.
"Never thought I would see you nursing a non-alcoholic drink, Ryoji." a gruff but warm voice said from behind him. Kaji turned around in his seat to meet the gaze of Kozo Fuyutsuki.
"Took you long enough, Kozo." Kaji said with a wry smile, as he gestured Fuyutsuki to his seat. Not a few seconds afterwards, a waitress walked up with plates loaded full of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, setting them down in front of the two men.
"Fantastic service." Fuyutsuki said with a raised eyebrow, as the man sipped his iced tea.
"Hey, there's no shenanigans here, I promise." Kaji replied. "I can't cook to save my life, so I know almost all the restaurants in Tokyo-3. This one happens to have some of the fastest service, and considering that you're a busy man, I thought it would fit."
"I'm going to assume," Fuyutsuki said, as he cut off a slice of one of his pancakes, "you didn't call me here simply to have breakfast with me."
"Aww, and why would that be?" Kaji retorted mockingly. "Are we not at that level of friendship yet?"
"Please." Fuyutsuki snorted, "we both know that everything you ever did, including rescuing me, which I am grateful for by the way, was for your own agenda. Now, let's get down to brass tacks before my bacon gets cold."
"Alright, then. Inspector Haruna is a SEELE plant." Kaji said, his sarcastic demeanor replaced by a serious expression. "He's ex-Special Forces, and is trying to advance their Plan B scenario."
"Interesting." Fuyutsuki replied, as he poured syrup on one of his pancakes. If the man was shocked at all by Kaji's statement, he didn't show it. "Not altogether unsuspected, though."
"Excuse me?" Ryoji replied, shocked at how well Fuyutsuki was taking this.
"We knew that SEELE needed a new operative after you 'died'." Kozo said. "The only surprising thing is that they'd be foolish to appoint him to the exact same position as their last spy."
"Well, they think they hold all the cards." Kaji said, as he took a bite of one of his slices of bacon.
"And what makes you think that they don't?" Fuyutsuki said.
"The reason I called you here." Kaji said, and he leaned over the table so Fuyutsuki could hear him. "I need to know I can trust you with this. If you can't keep this from the Commander for the sake of your own conscience, then keep it from him as a favor for me."
"Alright." Kozo said, as he took another bite of his breakfast. "I promise you, Kaji, whatever this is, Ikari won't hear a word of it."
Kaji looked the man in the eyes, and decided he could be trusted. Pulling the top button of his tropical shirt off, he extracted the Philosopher's Stone, still hanging on a lanyard, from around his neck.
"This," Kaji said, "is one card that SEELE got too careless with."
Kozo flinched slightly when he saw the stone, which Ryoji recognized as him being shocked. The professor was incredibly talented at keeping his emotions in check, although he showed them more often than Gendo, however the Stone had elicited exactly the response Kaji wanted it to.
"I would ask how you got a hold of it, but for my own safety I'd rather now know." Fuyutsuki said, stopping to take a short sip of his tea. "I will ask, however, if you have any idea what that thing does?"
"What do you know about it?" Kaji replied. "And don't lie."
"Not much." Fuyutsuki admitted. "Even SEELE isn't sure. All we know of it so far is that it could potentially work as a stand-in for Adam or Lilith in case the embryo was destroyed or Rei perished. It appears to be linked to the Black Moon somehow, but we haven't dedicated many resources to it. Gendo had me look into potentially acquiring from SEELE for the purposes of SEELE, but apparently they don't trust us with it."
"That's because it's not just a rock." Kaji said. "The Philosopher's Stone is an S2 Engine."
"Ryoji, what do you mean 'it's an S2 Engine?'" Fuyutsuki said, his face a mix of disappointment and confusion. "S2 Engines are organic organs that are found inside Angels, not magical rocks."
"I thought you might say that, Kozo." Kaji said, as he pulled out a knife from his pocket and slit his thumb. "Try not to stare."
Fuyutsuki didn't even hear the comment, as he did indeed stare at what was happening. The Philosopher's Stone started glowing the slightest bit in Kaji's hand, and suddenly his finger stopped bleeding blood, and instead a yellow-orange liquid seeped out slowly, covering the wound. After only a few seconds, the wound appeared to stitch itself back together, and the liquid absorbed itself back into his skin.
"That's… incredible." Fuyutsuki said, his veneer of indifference replaced with wonder. "How did you discover this?"
"That's a long story." Kaji replied, as he dropped the necklace back into his shirt. "One I'll gladly tell you once we've diverted the end of the world."
"So why did you call me all this way?" Kozo asked. "You've shown me the Stone and told me what it does, but I still don't see how this has anything to do with me."
"I need access to the MAGI." Kaji said flatly. "Not only do I have the Stone, but I've supposedly kidnapped the fourth most powerful person at NERV, as well as two of the Children."
"Children who are needed to pilot the Evangelions to protect us from the Angels." Fuyutsuki pointed out.
"The Angels that come from the sky and shoot lasers are all done," Kaji retorted. "but I think you knew that. Even you're not dumb enough to think Ikari would simply let two-thirds of his Pilot corps just up and disappear without a fight if there was still a clear and present danger from the Angels."
"The thought that he might just do that has crossed my mind, but you're right. Evidently, you two know something I don't."
"Yes, and sad to say it has to stay that way for now." Kaji said.
"I understand." Fuyutsuki said, as he polished off the last of his breakfast. "So you need access to the MAGI for what, exactly?"
"To disappear." Kaji said. "There's so much heat on our backs, I'm surprised we haven't been caught yet. Stopping SEELE isn't going to be easy, and right now I don't exactly have a lot of resources. A few minutes with the processing power of the MAGI and I can have flawless documents produced for me, Misato, and the kids. As soon as they're safe, I can start hunting, and try to figure out how to stop them."
"Stop them?" Fuyutsuki snorted. "Ryoji, I have no doubts that you're talented, even extremely so. But taking down SEELE isn't like faking your death. They're entrenched so deep their vaults have vaults. Trying to find one is like trying to find a needle in a cornfield, and trying to kill one is like trying to kill an Angel with a handgun."
"According to what I've seen, both of those are theoretically possible." Kaji pointed out, and Fuyutsuki replied with a chuckle.
"My point being, what makes you think you'll even have a chance at taking them down? You can't just waltz into a top-secret base and shoot a member of SEELE."
"I don't have much of a choice." Kaji replied. "If I don't finish them off, the world is going to end. If I give up and run away and hide, the world ends. If I die trying, the world ends. I have to stop them."
Kozo thought to himself for a moment, then let out a short sigh. "You saved my life, so I owe you a few favors. I can get you 5 minutes of unrestricted, unlogged MAGI access, but that's it. If you get caught, I won't be able to make up any excuses to get you out of trouble."
"That'll be all the time I need." Kaji said, as the waitress approached with a smile and set the bill on the table between the two men. Fuyutsuki looked down at it, then looked up at the grinning face of Ryoji Kaji. "Don't get cheap on me, Dodgson."
"You and your stupid Western movies." Fuyutsuki grumbled, as he picked up the bill.
Yazhua Zhan, as the Chinese Special Minister, had an incredible busy schedule. Which was why he loved to enjoy any free time he had in the best way he knew how; by sitting in his office, feet propped up on the desk, watching his favorite television shows with a bottle of gin. As he took the final sip from his glass, he grabbed the bottle to refill it, only to realize it was empty. He pressed the button to contact his secretary, who after a few seconds picked up the line.
"Can you get me another bottle of gin?" Yazhua asked. "I've gone dry up here."
"Of course." his secretary said. "I'll bring one right up."
"You sound… different than usual, Ms. Chen." Yazhua said. "Are you alright?"
"Of course, I've just got a little cold. Be there in a moment."
Satisfied with the response, Zhan settled down into his chair, diverting his gaze to a fantastic Mexican soap opera he'd begun binge-watching with his wife. As he did, however, he was totally oblivious to the small "hurk!" that emanated from the intercom as his secretary was knocked unconscious.
"Alright, breaching charges on my mark." said one of the black-fatigued soldiers outside the door to the Minister's office, as the rest of the squad got into position outside. "Hamada, you're up." One of the soldiers set his rifle on the ground, and dropped his backpack in front of the doorway. He pulled out a few thin strips of C4 connected by blast cord, and attached them to the door to the Minister's office, then shot the first man a thumbs up.
"Alright, Johnson, Hamada, you ready?" the first man said, as the two on the left side of the door gave a quick signal to show they were. "Richter?" the man turned to face the soldier behind him, who gave him a thumbs up. "Alright, blow it!"
A massive boom! echoed throughout the building as the office doors were blown to smithereens. Before the Minister could ever react, five soldiers in all-black were inside his office, shouting at him to get down. He did so, getting on his knees and placing his hands behind his head. Two of the soldiers stood behind him, rifles pointed at the back of his head, while the other three ran off to secure the building. As Yazhua sat there on his knees for a few minutes, he managed to get his emotions in check enough that he was no longer bawling in fear. As soon as he got himself under control, however, his gaze was drawn back to the door by the two soldiers behind him saluting.
"Ah, not the man I was hoping for, but then again when do things go my way?" Kushiel said, as he strode up the man sitting on his knees. He used the barrel of his assault rifle to tip the man's head up to meet his eyes. "Name, if you please."
"Yazhua Zhan." he said, unable to keep the quiver out of his voice. "Chinese Special Minister."
"Oooh, 'Special Minister', that's perfect." Kushiel said, as he slung his assault rifle over his back and pulled out a pistol instead, which he pressed under the chin of the Minister. "Here's the deal: you're going to tell me where the Prime Minister is holed up at, or I'm going to put a hole through your skull the size of Hakone."
Yazhua shivered, internally debating about what the best situation to do was. Eventually, his cowardice beat out his patriotism. "He's in the Party Capital in Shanghai. They've got an emergency bunker there."
"See, that wasn't so hard." Kushiel said, as he placed his Desert Eagle back into the holster. "I wish all the people I interrogated were this cooperative! Come on, stand up Mr. Zhan, I'm not going to shoot you."
Yazhua hesitantly rose to his feet, finally meeting the eyes of the man who had threatened him. "Who are you?"
"My name isn't important. What is important, however, is if you remembered to pack a parachute." Kushiel said, a sadistic grin crossing over his face.
"A… parachute… what do you mean?" Zhan said, utterly confused, as he looked at the man, thinking he had spoken incorrectly. Kushiel simply reared back, and twisted his body back to deliver a crushing kick to the Minister's chest. The incredible force sent the man flying backwards through the window, and Kushiel made his way over to the wreckage of what had once been a wall-height window to watch the ever-shrinking speck that was Yazhua Zhan, until after falling a few dozen floors, the man vanished from sight.
"I thought you said you weren't gonna hurt him, Ryo." Richter Tomak said, picking up Ryoma's assault rifle and handing it back to him.
"No, I said I wasn't going to shoot him. Two very different things" Kushiel replied with a wink, then he turned his back to Richter and walked out of the office. Richter followed after him, but as they passed by the secretary's desk, he caught a glimpse of something sticking out of one of the drawers. Opening it up, he pulled out a bottle of gin, and he smiled to himself.
"Hey, Ryoma!" Richter shouted, and the blond-haired man turned around to face him. "Why let a good drink go to waste?"
Kaji slid the door to the office shut behind him, his backpack on his shoulders. He held a massive bundle of papers in his hands; a bunch of forged documents, work visas, and birth certificates he had forged with the help of the MAGI's incredible processing power. In fact, it had only taken him two and a half minutes to forge any documents he thought they could ever need. As he made his way out towards the living room, currently still poring over the documents, he unknowingly bumped into Misato.
"Oh, hey, sorry about tha…" he said, trailing off as he stared up at Misato's bleach blond hair. "Would you hurt me if I compared you to Ritsuko?"
"Not a word, Kaji." she replied witheringly. "Not a word."
Misato stormed off to the bathroom again, and Kaji simply shrugged and picked up the papers off the ground. I never realize she really cared about her hair that much, Kaji thought, or maybe she just hates looking like Rits.
"Hey, Ryoji, what are all those?" Shinji said, as he walked into the living room just behind Kaji. He set all the papers down, then turned around to face the Third Child.
"They're… ah dammit, there's not much point in lying. They're forged documents. We're going to be getting out of Tokyo-3… for a bit." Kaji explained, trying in vain to make it sound more noble than it was.
"You mean you're running away?" Shinji said, clenching and unclenching his hand. "After all this, you're just going to run?"
"Well, first of all, it won't be just me, it'll be all three of us." Kaji replied. "And we're not running. The kind of work I need to do before we can move against SEELE is hard to do when everyone and their mothers are hunting us down. So we need to lay low for a bit."
"Oh." Shinji said, thinking to himself for a moment. "I still don't like it."
Kaji stood to his feet and placed a hand on the kid's shoulder. "I know you don't, Shinji. And if I'm being honest, neither do I. But I can't in good conscience keep endangering you guys. So we're gonna take some new identities."
"New identities?" Shinji asked, a slight look of concern on his face. "What do you mean?"
Kaji held up 4 passports, flipping them each open one by one. "Mr. and Mrs. Takamoto, their son, Akira, and the son's girlfriend, Miyu Nakatani."
Shinji took one of the passports, looking down at the face that stared back at him. It was clearly his, but everything about this document talked about another kid. Everything on it was completely fake, Shinji had to remind himself.
"It looks so real." Shinji said quietly.
"That's the point." Kaji retorted, only to get an angry glare from Shinji. "Now, there are some other… issues that come along with fake identities."
"Issues?" Shinji asked. "What do you mean?"
"Well, seeing as you're going to have to be pretending to be totally new people, you're going to have to go back to doing what you would normally do as a kid your age."
"Okay?" Shinji asked, clearly confused. "What's so bad about that?"
"Well, you're gonna have to go back to… back to… uh…" Kaji stuttered a little bit, only to see Asuka storm into the living room.
"What are you talking about, Kaji?" Asuka asked gloweringly. Kaji looked to Shinji, who did his best to explain it to her. She surprisingly seemed to be taking the idea fairly well, until Shinji got to the end and turned back to Kaji. "So, what is it we're going to have to do again?"
"Well, um…" Kaji said, clearly defeated at this point. "You've gotta go back to school."
"WHAT! NO WAY!" two synchronized voices shouted, as Ryoji shook his head in disappointment. This was going to be a long day.
"Fuyutsuki, you're slipping." Gendo said, as he moved one of his bishops into place. "A few years ago, I couldn't have checkmated you this quickly."
"Yes, Ikari, but you always won in the end." Fuyutsuki said, moving a pawn forward. "Rather emblematic of how things always seem to go with NERV, hmm?"
Gendo didn't reply, instead choosing to sit silently as he pondered his next move. Choosing to go on the offensive, he moved a knight into position behind one of Fuyutsuki's pawns. As he let the slightest of smirks cross his face, he sat back in his chair to watch Kozo's move, only to watch in astonishment as he deftly maneuvered a queen to checkmate his king.
"Slipping, eh?" Fuyutsuki said with a raised eyebrow.
"Well done, Professor." Gendo conceded, as he replaced the pieces into their spots on the board. "My vision isn't quite what it used to be."
As Fuyutsuki let out a short chuckle, a quiet noise echoed from the hallway outside Gendo's office. Gendo turned as well, and the two of them heard a few quiet ping noises echoing out from behind the door. Faint as they were, they were clearly metallic, like someone had dropped a small piece of metal on the floor. Both men looked at each other and drew their weapons hidden beneath their coats. As they did, the doors opened to reveal Inspector Haruna, wearing a leather jacket and jeans, carrying his assault rifle in his hands. As he pushed open the doors, Fuyutsuki saw the bodies of the six Section 2 agents that were positioned outside Gendo's office at all times laying on the floor, blood oozing from their heads. The two men pointed their weapons at the Inspector, who let out a short giggle.
"What a greeting, huh?" Ryoma said, as he flicked the magazine out of his rifle, causing a sharp noise to echo through the room as it hit the ground. "Almost makes it seem like you don't want to see me."
"Correct." Gendo replied stiffly, still keeping his weapon trained on Ryoma. "All three of us know that you work for SEELE."
"Actually, I don't." Ryoma retorted, as he inserted a new magazine into the weapon. "I work for myself."
"You sound like Ryoji." Fuyutsuki said calmly, maintaining his grip on the pistol. "Why shouldn't we shoot you where you stand?"
"First of all, because it would be rude." Ryoma replied, then let out a short chuckle. "Secondly, it wouldn't work. And thirdly, because we have the same goal."
"And what would that be, Inspector?" Gendo said.
"Elimination of SEELE." he replied, as he tossed his rifle to the side and dropped his pistol on the ground, then began to approach the two, stopping at Gendo's desk to set down a few small slips of paper, then he backed away and put his hands up. As Gendo and Fuyutsuki cautiously approached the desk, they saw that the slips of paper were photographs, showing three people they knew all too well.
"That's SEELE-08, SEELE-11, and SEELE-12." Ryoma said calmly. "All dead, at my hands."
"How is this possible?" Gendo asked, a very slight tone of confusion creeping into the elder Ikari's voice.
"I have certain… talents, Mr. Ikari." Ryoma replied. "Talents that we could put to use, together. After all, don't you want to see your wife again?"
Gendo immediately froze at this statement. Fuyutsuki saw the cogs turning in the man's head, trying to weigh what had been presented so far. Surely Keele wouldn't kill three of the members of SEELE to get an agent in, but it seemed too suspicious that he had even been able to kill them. But he knew about Yui, a detail that had been kept from almost everyone on the Committee, and even then they only knew she was in Unit-01, not that they were trying to bring her back. After only a few seconds, Gendo's eyes meet the steely-gray of Ryoma's.
"How?" Gendo asked, his voice portraying none of the emotion Fuyutsuki knew was warring inside of him.
"We're going to destroy SEELE. Then we're going to get your wife out of Unit-01." Ryoma replied calmly.
"And how should we believe you?" Fuyutsuki inquired. "So far you've shown us nothing that couldn't have been faked."
"I thought you might say that." Ryoma said. He raised his arms, crossing them over his chest, then let out a bellow that seemed to pierce through Gendo and Fuyutsuki's souls, and the wave of pressure knocked them over. As they tried to stand back up, red alarms started blaring around inside the office.
"Alert, Commander!" a voice Fuyutsuki recognized as Maya Ibuki cried. "We have an A.T. Field registered just above Terminal Dogma!"
Gendo sprinted to the microphone, almost spitting as he grabbed it and shouted. "Is it an Angel?!"
"Pattern analysis is still working!" Makato Hyuga shouted. "We're not… wait, analysis is confirmed! Pattern Blue, it's an Angel!"
"Get us eyes on it!" Fuyutsuki yelled, keeping one eye trained on the man standing in front of him. The Inspector was still standing in the same position as he had been a few moments ago, arms crossed over his chest, his eyes closed.
"Cameras are now coming back online! Directing priority optics to the Commander's office!" Shigeru Aoba yelled. After a few moments, the optic screen flickered, then turned on. Fuyutsuki let out a short gasp.
Unit-03 was descending the shaft to the LCL Production Plant, floating through the air. The thing seemed to appear totally undamaged, and a bright halo was glowing above its head as it slowly floated down the shaft. As they watched, the creature let out another earth-shattering bellow.
"Get Rei inside Unit-00 right now!" Gendo shouted into the microphone, but Fuyutsuki grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Are you sure? Why not send her to Unit-01?" Fuyutsuki asked.
"Because we can't risk her." Gendo replied, before tearing away to face the monitor. Although they had been talking about Rei, Kozo knew exactly who Gendo was really talking about.
"Rei is in position, and is moving to Unit-00! Estimated time to sortie, one minute!" Aoba yelled, as the Commander and Fuyutsuki sprinted towards the command center, leaving the smiling Inspector behind them. They ran for what was only a minute or two, but the two were out of breath when they finally arrived at the command deck in Central Dogma, just in time to see Rei plummeting down the shaft towards Unit-03.
"Unit-03 is descending too quickly! It'll reach Terminal Dogma in fifteen seconds!" Makoto shouted, as he began typing away rapidly. The entire bridge crew watched in horror as the halo disappeared a few seconds later, and the roaring Evangelion Unit-03 hit the ground in front of the LCL Production Plant with enough force to crush a building. "Unit-03 has made landfall outside the Plant!"
"What is Unit-00's time of arrival?" Fuyutsuki yelled, as the Commander simply sat down in his chair, trying to take it all in.
"About thirty seconds, sir!" Maya shouted back, as Unit-03 began tearing open the doors to the plant. Although the doors were massive, reinforced and locked with thousands of beams, it only took the berserking Angel a few moments to tear open the doors.
"The Angel has entered the LCL Production Plant!" Makoto yelled, as the rest of the bridge crew sat back in their chairs, watching the events unfold before them.
Unit-03 stomped over to Lilith, but instead of touching the creature and attempting to initiate an impact, it grabbed hold of something else.
"It's trying to take the Spear of Longinus…" Gendo whispered, so quiet even Fuyutsuki could barely hear. It didn't last long though, as he stood to his feet and yelled. "Rei, stop Unit-03 from acquiring the Spear!"
The only response that came was a hurried grunt as Unit-00 finally hit the ground, and sprinted into the Plant. Unit-03 let go of the spear for a moment, turning to face the rushing Unit-00. It let out a loud bellow, then raised its arms in front of itself in a defensive position. As Unit-00 deployed its Progressive Knife and swung a wide slash at the Angel, Unit-03 sidestepped it and delivered two quick jabs to the stomach, followed by a crushing uppercut that sent Unit-00 stumbling. As soon as Rei regained her balance, she held her knife out defensively as Unit-03, arms still up, circled her. She approached it quickly, making a feint and then a stab for the chest, but Unit-03 just as quickly grabbed Rei's arm, then with a quick flick, stripped Unit-00 of its Knife, then delivered a quick two-fingered jab to the Unit's neck. Rei stumbled back, sputtering for air, as the entire bridge watched in amazement.
"That's… we've never seen an Angel fight like that before." Makoto said, staring up at the screen. "Is it… boxing?"
"Why has the 13th Angel changed its fighting patterns?" Fuyutsuki shouted, feeling useless. The only thing he could do to help was stand up here and yell obvious questions.
"Sir, wait just a moment!" Maya replied, and she typed away for a minute. "These readings don't make any sense." she muttered to herself, but after another few lines of code, there was no doubt. "Sir, that is not the 13th Angel controlling Unit-03!"
"What?!" Gendo yelled, losing his temper for possibly the first time in public.
"Pattern analysis is a 97.7% match, but in terms of Angels that's night and day!" Aoba yelled up to Gendo and Fuyutsuki, who stared at each other for a moment before looking back down at the long-haired technician. "Cross referencing this data with any previously known Angelic patterns… no hits! Wait a minute… there's a compatible sample!"
"Where?" Gendo yelled. "What is it?"
"The matching pattern is coming from the Commander's office!" Makoto yelled, as everyone turned to face him in shock. "Analysis complete, it's a 100% match! Patching through visuals now!"
Everyone quickly looked up at the screen. On one side, Unit-03 was continuing to box with Unit-00, and Rei was clearly losing. On the other side, Inspector Haruna floated a few feet off the ground in the Commander's office, papers and objects twirling around him in a dervish as the air spun around him. His arms were crossing over his chest, and his eyes were glowing with the same orange fire as Unit-03.
"Haruna is… an Angel?" Fuyutsuki said out loud. "That can't be."
"Why would SEELE send us an Angel?" Gendo replied, being the only one that heard Kozo's remark.
A loud scream caused everyone to divert their attention back to the first monitor, as they watched Unit-03 grab Unit-00's arm and, with a sickening crack!, break it cleanly at the elbow. The creature then dropped to the ground, and grabbed Unit-00 by the wrists. It then swung the Unit backward, and with a massive kick, sent Unit-00 sprawling into the lake of LCL. Unit-03 turned back to the Spear, slowly pulling it out of Lilith. After a few seconds, the Spear came out, and Unit-03 stumbled a few steps back with it. Unit-00 had gotten up at this point, and the bridge crew could hear Rei's gasps as she tried to keep herself conscious as she charged at Unit-03. The Angel reared its head back and bellowed, then shifted the Spear to a one-handed grip, like a javelin, then pulled its arm back.
"Rei, WATCH OUT!" Gendo shouted, but to no avail, as the creature let the spear fly - directly over Rei's head, as it crashed into the mask of Lilith. Unit-00 didn't stop however, but Unit-03 simply gave it a look of annoyance and batted it aside with an open-handed slap to the face. Lilith's mask was splintering at this point, and Unit-03 let out another triumphant roar.
"Why would it attack Lilith?" Gendo mused, as he stared at the screen. However, the slightest bit of movement distracted him, as he turned his eyes to the second monitor to see the Inspector opening his mouth.
"Have you reconsidered my offer?" Ryoma shouted, then began laughing maniacally. Unit-03 followed suit, but Rei was trying to sneak up behind it while he was distracted. Unit-03 wasn't bothered, however, as it turned to face the encroaching Evangelion. It grabbed Rei by the arm, and spun her around until it was holding her in a chokehold. Both Ryoma and Unit-03 let out wild laughs, then the Inspector turned to face Gendo, seemingly seeing him even through the camera. "How about now?"
"Ikari, you absolutely cannot be thinking about giving up to this… this madman!" Fuyutsuki replied, trying to drown out the spluttering chokes of Rei.
"If we don't, it kills Rei and initiates Third Impact." Gendo replied calmly. "We have no choice." He pressed the microphone on his desk, then connected it to his own office. "What are your demands?"
Kushiel grinned, and then let Rei go from the chokehold. The entire bridge was filled with the sounds of the Pilot gasping for air, but soon it was filled with another noise. Unit-03 and Ryoma had begun laughing again, in terrifying harmony, as their cacophony of madness filled all of NERV.
"What have we done?" Fuyutsuki said, as he stared at both view screens in total horror.
And there it is! The end of Act One! It has been a mad and wild ride, writing over 30,000 words in just over a week, but I have loved every minute of it! I really want to extend my thanks to those of you who have supported and followed so far: Author0fntent, BluePoppet, Darkside69, and Glasrevin - your support by following the story has been a tremendous motivator to keep going! I hope everyone enjoys this chapter - one of the readers made the comment that there wasn't much "Evangelion" in the Evangelion fic, so we remedied that with a nice final send-off battle between Unit-03 and Unit-00. Meanwhile, there's still a whole lot of things to be answered in Act Two - What is Kushiel's plan? What will happen to Misato, Kaji, and the Children? Is SEELE doomed? I'm really excited for the future of this story, and writing it has been an absolute blast. My dearest thanks goes out to all of you who have taken the time to read "Caesium", and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it!