EVANGELION - CAESIUM

ACT 2 - Chapter 2

"I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line." - Jeanette Winterson

"Alright, come in." Shinji said, as he gestured for Kaworu to come inside the door. The grey-haired child obeyed, and Shinji led him to the kitchen table, where Kensuke and Asuka were already seated. Kensuke greeted Kaworu with a cheery wave, which he returned, but Asuka simply regarded him with a raised eyebrow.

"So, your brother is now the Commander of NERV" Kensuke said, as the two other boys took their seats at the table. "Still kinda hard to believe. Shinji's dad didn't seem like the type to give up his seat."

"True, but why is he Commander?" Shinji asked, then he turned to Kaworu. "You said his background was all military, right?"

"Yes." Kaworu replied. "My brother has spent most of his adult life in the military. I do not know how or why he has become the Commander of NERV."

"So, are NERV the bad guys now?" Kensuke mused to himself. "To be fair, it is a super-secret organization…" His thoughts were interrupted by Asuka slapping him on the back of the head.

"Hey, Stooge, stop dreaming about spy movies and focus on the problem at hand." she said.

"Alright, fine." Kensuke replied. "So, Kaworu, do you know anything of what's going on at NERV?"

"Nothing much." Kaworu admitted. "I only discovered that my brother was Commander while I've been on the run. NERV has been sending agents after me. I thought it was due to my status as the 5th Child, but I overheard some of them talking a month ago before I shook them. Apparently my brother is searching for me, and wants me for some reason."

"Well, there has to be a reason for it all, right?" Shinji said. "NERV must be up to something. We'll have to ask Kaji and Misato about it."

"Ask us about what?" a stern voice echoed out from behind them. The four of them turned to see a very angry Misato standing at the entrance to the kitchen. "And why is there a boy I've never met before in my kitchen."

"Oh, um, well, this is…. this is Kaworu!" Shinji stuttered, and the boy in question stood up from the table and bowed before Misato, offering his hand to shake hers afterward.

"Kaworu Nagisa, Fifth Child. Pleased to meet you." he said, shaking Misato's hand.

"Fifth Child… wait a minute, you work for NERV?!" Misato shouted, as she came to a sudden realization.

"Well, worked, past tense." Asuka said. "He never actually went to the Tokyo-3 branch. Apparently they're hunting him down because he ran away from his brother."

"Ah, allow me to explain this to her, Miss Soryu." Kaworu said, as he guided Misato over to the table, where she took a seat, while Kaworu stayed standing. "I was chosen as the Fifth Children eight months ago. I stayed at the Third Branch in Germany for most of that time, but was kept secret from the Second. I only came over to Tokyo-3 about two months ago. When I did, there was a… spat between me and my brother. I ran away from him, and he has been searching for me ever since. I swear, I bear no allegiance to NERV or to my brother."

"So, who is this brother of yours?" Misato asked, elbows resting on the table as she sipped a plastic bottle of water.

"His name is Ryoma Haruna." Kaworu said, causing Misato to spew the water she was drinking all over the table.

"Misato, EWW!" Asuka yelled, jumping away from the table, as Misato shot her a quick apologetic look, before turning back to Kaworu with an irate look on her face.

"You're Ryoma's brother?" She screeched, causing Shinji and Kaworu to shy away from the sheer hostility in her voice. Misato pointed a finger at the grey-haired boy and turned to the rest of the kids. "This boy's brother is an Angel!"

"WHAT?!" Asuka, Shinji, and Kaworu yelled at the same time, before the room descended into total madness as everyone started yelling at each. Kaworu, however, simply stood there and hung his head. He was hoping that he would be able to explain everything properly, but this argument was showing him that was a naive hope.

"Alright, that's enough!" Misato yelled, and everyone stopped for a moment. She turned and pointed at Kaworu again, her eyes brimming with anger. "You have exactly a minute to explain why we should trust you. Not only does your brother not only works for SEELE, but he's an Angel!"

"My brother is not an Angel." Kaworu insisted, but as Misato tried to shout at him he simply put up a hand, gesturing for more time. "My brother is Ryoma Haruna. The person who resides as the Commander of NERV is not my brother. He is no brother of mine, not after what he has done."

All of the sudden, the five people in the kitchen heard stomping coming through the house, until Kaji whipped around the corner, handgun drawn.

"What's going on?" he asked, then he stopped to realize that there was someone in his kitchen he had never seen before. "And who is he?"

"I am Kaworu Nagisa." Kaworu said, yet again raising his hand to silence Misato. "I am Ryoma Haruna's brother and the Fifth Child, however we had just finished discussing the fact that I bear NERV nor my brother any loyalty. I swear to you, I mean none of you any harm."

Kaji eyed the boy suspiciously for a few moments, before he put his handgun away and sat down. Misato looked at him wide-eyed, and when he turned to look at her, she immediately launched into a tirade.

"What are you doing?!" Misato shouted. "He's the brother of the man who tried to kill you! The guy's brother is an Angel! How can you trust him!?"

"Because, what he said makes perfect sense with what I just discovered." Kaji replied, holding up a manilla folder. Misato stopped mid-sentence, then crossed her arms in a huff. Kaji took that as a signal to let him take the stage, and so he set the folder down in the middle of the table and opened it.

"Shinji and Asuka are already aware of this first part, however you two," he said sternly, pointing at Kaworu and Kensuke, "are not. I want to emphasize the fact that, should any of this information get out, I will kill you. I am not joking." The two boys nodded their agreement, and Kaji continued. "We were forced to flee Tokyo-3 after stealing an object called the Philosopher's Stone. It's an extremely valuable artifact that SEELE was going to use to start the Third Impact."

"Why would they try to start a Third Impact?" Kensuke asked, but Shinji put a hand on his shoulder and gave him the we'll discuss this later look. Kaji nodded approvingly, and continued.

"After we fled Tokyo-3, there was an Angel attack at NERV HQ. The Angel turned out to be Ryoma Haruna, who had just recently been appointed to my old position as Special Inspector. He took control of Unit-03, and fought against Unit-00. The rest of the details are locked up so tight even I can't figure out what happened, so unfortunately I don't know how that ended. What I do know, however, is that Ryoma somehow ascended to the position of Commander after the incident, while Fuyutsuki was sent into retirement and Gendo was demoted to sharing a position with Ritsuko. Ever since, he has been spending a significant chunk of NERV's resources upgrading Unit-01 and Unit-02, as well as searching for 'his brother', a kid named Kaworu Nagisa." Kaji finished his monologue, then took a short drink from Misato's bottle of water.

"Why didn't you tell me that last half before now?" Misato asked, shooting Kaji an angry look.

"Because I didn't know until a few days ago, and I needed to make sure it was all true." Kaji replied. "Kaworu's story corroborates the information nicely. I do, however, have one question I need you to answer, Nagisa."

"Of course, Mr. Kaji." Kaworu replied. "What do you need to know?"

"Why did you run from your brother in the first place?"

Gendo stood behind a plexiglass plane, which was all that separated him from Ryoma and his subject. The two of them had been starved for leads on SEELE's whereabouts, but they had just received a notice from one of their informants that one of the last SEELE agents in Japan was leaving from Tokyo-2 by boat. They had arrived just in time to place him under arrest, and had brought him back to the Geofront. Gendo, along with Dr. Akagi, simply observed as Haruna tortured and beat the informant, keeping him fully conscious while causing him massive agony.

"Don't you think there's something… wrong with this?" Ritsuko asked, her knuckles white as she clutched the clipboard in her hands. "It seems far too gruesome, even if he is a SEELE agent."

"SEELE is a threat to the Scenario." Gendo replied simply. "I have no sympathy for that man."

"Even still, he's a fellow human being." Ritsuko said, watching as Ryoma fired his handgun into the man's kneecap. The agent let out a scream, then began hurriedly talking in hushed tones to Ryoma. The Commander listened intently, then simply slapped him open-handedly, knocking him unconscious. The man wiped the blood off his hands with a towel, and then entered into the room with Gendo and Ritsuko.

"He was headed to Vladigrad. SEELE-03 is holed up there. I've got a location as well." Ryoma said, slipping back on a pair of leather gloves he wore, and shouldering his jacket back on. "I'm flying out tonight, and I'll return tomorrow night. Gendo, you are acting Commander until my return."

"Of course." Gendo replied. "Good luck with your mission, Commander."

"Miss Akagi? I'd like to have Unit-01's restraints at 50% by the time I get back." Ryoma ordered, as he made his way out of the room. "I will see you in 24 hours."

Ritsuko simply stared at the man as he left the room, whistling a jolly tune, and turned to face Gendo. "If he wants those done, I'll need your help. I'd be lucky to get them to 45% by then."

"Ah, yes, of course." Gendo said, seemingly somewhat distracted. "I'll be at the cages in one hour."

"One hour?" Ritsuko replied with a huff. "Where have you got to be?"

"I'm going to return to my quarters." Gendo answered. "I have paperwork that needs to be done." He left in a hurry, leaving behind a bewildered Ritsuko, and he made his way to his room. Upon getting there, he booted up his computer and logged into his secret network. He pressed a few keys, and saw a new message was waiting for him. Upon opening it, a slight smirk crossed his face.

Subject: It's him

I found him. Shinji Ikari is attending Noyamano High School in Tokyo-2, along with the Second Child, and a former classmate of theirs from Class 2-A, named Kensuke Aida. I was unable to discover any more information before I was recalled, but here are pictures as proof.

Gendo surveyed the pictures attached to the message. A handful were blurry photos of massive crowds, focusing on someone who could have been Shinji. However, it was the last picture that truly cemented the email's message. It was a picture of two people laying under a tree on a checkered blanket, the boy's hand on top of the girl's. Although her hair was blonde, the girl was undoubtedly the Second Child, and even though he had grown out his hair and dyed it a darker color, the other child was clearly his son. He began typing a return message.

Subject: move

Find their location and move to obtain. The Second Child's capture is not necessary, but is highly appreciated. The Third Child's capture is mandatory. Anyone else is expendable.

He let a small smirk cross his face. For too long his son had defied him at every turn, refusing to bend himself to the Scenario. Now, however, he had something that he had never had before. Leverage.

If one good thing had come out of this whole mess for Ryoji Kaji, it was kicking his drinking habits. A few weeks ago he had still been dealing with the tail end of withdrawal, but by now he didn't have an issue with it anymore. He had replaced alcohol with pop, thanks to Ryoma, and he hadn't even wanted a beer for days.

If I had been drinking like I used to most nights, Kaji thought, I might not be able to do this. Currently, "this" was being perched in a sniper's nest about one hundred meters away from the house they had been staying in. After dinner, Kaji got a tip from Jiro that a group of Kimura gang members were mobilizing, and he had pulled a few favors to figure out that a splinter gang of the Kimuras was being paid off to hunt them down. Although they didn't know by who, it wasn't hard to suspect that either SEELE or NERV was after them. So Misato had taken the kids and bunkered down inside the house, and he had trudged up here with his rifle to keep an eye out for the night, and then they would flee to the forest in the morning. The nest had a great vantage point for most of the property, but he did have a blindside behind him, as the sniper's nest covered his back. For that, however, he had the Philosopher's Stone.

Ever since he had the conversation with Ryoma's consciousness inside the Stone, Kaji hadn't let it leave his side. He'd also been learning a few tricks on how to use it, thanks to the spirit inside. Although a normal human would require incredible levels of training to manipulate their A.T. Field to any significant degree, with the Stone on his side Kaji found it almost trivial to do. As he closed his eyes, he unfurled his A.T. Field like sonar, letting it extend and ping back to him. It was very similar to how bats use echolocation, but much more precise. After spending a few seconds observing his surroundings, Kaji was satisfied for the moment. He opened his eyes just in time for a squawk to emit from his earpiece.

"Do you have any movement?" Misato asked. "The kids are getting grumpy."

"Nothing so far." Kaji replied, setting his rifle on the bench next to him. "I just pinged the area and didn't see anything within about three hundred meters of here, so we're looking alright."

"Okay, then me and the kids are going to go back to business as normal." Misato said. "Stay safe up there, Kaji."

She shut the antennae on the walkie-talkie, and turned to talk to the kids. They had already left the room, however, hurriedly dashing to get out of the tiny safe room. Misato rolled her eyes, and grabbed the duffel bag she had packed full of supplies in case they had to flee. She turned around and walked out the door, and ran head first into Kaworu.

"I apologize, Miss Katsuragi." Kaworu said, as he stood to his feet and offered his hand to Misato to help her up. "I merely wanted to come talk to you about something."

"Ouch…" Misato grumbled, rubbing her forehead. "Watch where you're going. What is it you want to talk about?"

Kaworu looked back and forth, making sure the other three kids weren't nearby, then he grabbed Misato by her wrist and pulled her back into the safe room. "During my time at the Third Branch, I showed a certain… aptitude to be able to manipulate my own personal A.T. Field, without the use of an Evangelion. The scientists there helped train me, and due to that I've developed something of a sixth sense for detecting other people A.T. Fields." Kaworu paused for a moment, as he thought over what he said to make sure it was believable, then he continued. "Just a minute ago, I noticed that there was another strong A.T. Field nearby."

Misato looked around to make sure nobody was watching them, then proceeded in hushed tones. "You remember us discussing the Philosopher's Stone?" Kaworu nodded. "It allows people to magnify their A.T. Fields, letting humans control them kinda like the Angels do. That A.T. Field you detected was probably Kaji. He's been using his A.T. Field like a sonar."

Kaworu nodded again, not explaining that he knew exactly how to use an A.T. Field in that way, not to mention that he was exceptionally good at it. "That makes sense, Miss Katsuragi. I apologize for the disruption."

"It's no big deal Kaworu." Misato replied. "Being able to detect A.T. Fields is a unique talent though. You'll tell me if you sense anything dangerous?"

"Of course, ma'am."

Misato smiled as Kaworu left the safe room, then buzzed Kaji on her walkie-talkie. She heard nothing for a moment, before a somewhat sleepy Kaji replied. "What is it?"

"Kaworu was able to sense you doing your 'sonar' thing." Misato said quietly. "Apparently he was trained to detect A.T. Fields."

"So not only is he Ryoma's 'brother', which I know for a fact he is not," Kaji muttered. "But he's also capable of detecting A.T. Fields. Kinda suspicious, don't you think?"

"Definitely." Misato replied. "We'll keep an eye on him."

"Good, make sure to tell him… wait, I've got movement in the driveway." Kaji said, looping his earpiece around his ear. Two black sedans rattled their way down the driveway, and their occupants began getting out.

"Looks like Kimura gang members, just like we suspected." Kaji said, raising his rifle to his shoulder. As he did, one of the men reached into the car to grab an object Kaji couldn't quite see. He peeked out from behind his scope, just in time to see the man pull out a long metal cylinder, with a green object at the head. He froze for a minute, and had just enough time to yell "RPG!" before the trigger was pulled, and the rocket raced towards the house.