Chapter 11: The real Rei's last words.
We welcome you warmly back to another chapter of the long-awaited sequel to Evangelion 3: Shinji's coup. Better known as Rei Ayanami the ultimate Waifu: Underground puppet master of the Evangelion world's leading industries. It is here that I thank you greatly for supporting my work, along with all the kind reviews some of you have been kind enough to leave me.
More reviews always help me, and you are all wonderful people.
As an author's note though, one thing that has always turned me off from certain characters from certain shows I am supposed to find sympathetic, is the double standard.
For instance: Ash is able to treat plenty of the people he meets along his journey and even his own pokemon well, even going so far as to give jerks as nasty as Paul a chance for redemption.
So then why does he think it's okay to give Team Rocket deadly thundershocks that nearly kill them each time he sees them?
He's clearly been shocked by his own pikachu before, so he should know better than anyone else how badly it hurts. Worse, he does it in some episodes where Team Rocket are actually trying to catch pokemon from the wild fairly.
It is hard to feel much pride for Ash even when he saves the world several times in a row, when next episode he will go back to torturing a group of starving, desperate beggars all for his own sadistic amusement.
He doesn't hurt any of the other villinaous teams as badly as he is willing to hurt team Rocket.
It would be one thing if he reported them to officer Jenny and put them in jail. But for him to unleash such fatal thunderbolts when he knows first hand how deadly they are, is just plain cruel. Especially when in the movies they have saved him and his friends several times .
A similar argument can be made for Asuka, Misato and Gendo. They know how they'd like to be treated and yet choose to treat Shinji the exact opposite way.
Misato is perfectly willing to comfort Asuka but does not give a care about Shinji. Watch the phone call from Evangelion 2.0 for evidence of all that said: on with the show.
...
"Somebody. Help me" Sailor Saturn in her purple collared, purple miniskirt Sailor Fuku pleadingly murmured with but one ounce of her breath remaining.
"If any of you other Rei's care at all that I have kept our dear Shinji in my heart my whole life long. Please. Give me a sign. Give me anything to let me know it was not all for vain." Somehow despite how quietly the dying Sailor Saturn "Mewtwo" spoke, the soulless Rei clone who still bore the short blue bob characteristic of Shinji's image of "his real Rei" still heard her.
Most likely Gendo had modified each of her senses to be extremely sensitive to make her as deadly in combat as possible.
"What other Rei's?" the cloned Rei "Mew" could not help but coldly ask, still keeping a firm grip on the dark haired Sailor Guardian's now incredibly sore neck.
"I'm the only Rei Ayanami. My creator said so."
A trail of blood spilled from Mewtwo's lips as she triumphantly shook her head.
"So good old Gendo lied to you about even that. Mew. You truly are unlucky that our creator is truly as pathetic as that. Yet one more reason I cannot hate you despite how eager you are to skin me and my Shinji alive with your bare hands."
"It's a true shame I didn't think to bring the master ball that was being worked on by my creator when I came out to confront this pretender. That amazing device can catch any living being without fail and it would make harvesting her powers so much easier."
The cloned Rei "Mew" thought silently to herself, only to quickly recoil in deathly shock when Sailor Saturn regained all her willpower to shake her away and have her gripped in a chinlock of far greater tightness.
She had not reckoned on Sailor Saturn's psychic powers allowing the reading of any mind in proximity of her, words or not.
It was these psychic powers that prompted Sailor Saturn to give herself the nickname of Mewtwo in the first place, for Mewtwo was a psychic pokemon along with Mew who was the inspiration behind it's design in the first place.
The next words that came out of Mewtwo's still bloody lips in a hoarse croak were some of the most ridiculous said by anyone ever.
And plenty of mind-blowing phenomenons had already been witnessed followig the first impact that spawned alien abominations onto the already war-torn Earth that had seen two world wars that wiped out an uncountable number of races.
"Where is that masterball!?" Mewtwo demanded Mew. "Tell me where it is right now. Shinji needs that masterball so that he can catch me and become the undisputed pokemon master as he richly deserves after all the sacrifices he's been through in our name."
The complete bewilderment this very odd choice of words wrought upon the mind-boggled Mew bought just long enough for the other active Rei clones to intervene.
A slideshow of lightning speed was presented before the false Rei. Memories of each and every other Rei during the brief time they each had with their beloved Shinji before death, nature or their malevolent master interfered.
There were voices too. Of Shinji. Misato and Asuka's fists as they connected with Shinji's cranium to crush it apart as a hammer might demolish a vase.
Of Gendo when he screamed at the top his lungs to scathingly throw what little self esteem his son still had to the winds.
Of the buzzing Evangelion as it burrowed itself into Shinji's brain to completely rob him of any semblence of himself so that he no longer knew if he himself was but a fake.
"Make it stop" Pleaded Mew as she closed her eyes and cried the first true tears in her entire lifetime. Crying being the one human skill she was never unfortunately taught till now. "The voices are terrible. Pain. So much pain. I can't stand it. Make it stop. I beg of you Mewtwo. Make it stop. I give myself to you totally and utterly so long as you make it stop and leave me to my sorrow."
"Tell me where the masterball is. Then I will tell the other Rei's to stop."
Mewtwo sorrowfully ordered as she gently caressed Mew's watery cheeks after releasing her from the chinlock as delicately as possible.
"You see Mew. It's fine. You're not a bad person. You just made some bad decisions. Not all of them your fault, but rather the sins of our father."
Sailor Saturn gave "Rei" a few seconds to pull herself together as she allowed her view to rest on the beautiful sunset in the horizon.
A shining new era was indeed tiptoeing nearer. For Shinji, herself, the false Rei and all other Rei's in between the two of them.
Gendo could rob Rei of her memories but not her morality. That was a great comfort.
...
A few hours later and it was business as usual in the cramped, hot and heavy makeshift rebel base of WILLE. Shinji, taking his duty as a leader of his people for the first time very seriously, spent the entire day poring over various maps and diagrams and carefully arranging the crudely forged pieces on the table of tactics before him.
He made adjustment after adjustment based on all that his WILLE subordinates told him about the changing plans of their former employers and sworn enemies of NERV. His fingers ached to the bone and tears trickled from his fatigued eyes as sweat coated his whole body. But he forced himself to keep going nonetheless.
"Shin...Er. Commander Shinji. If it's not too much trouble. Could you please spare a moment to tell me a little about your tactics you used back when you were an EVA pilot" Nurse Sakura bashfully inquired, allowing him a welcome distraction from his tiresome work of moving the plastic tank, soldier and warship models on his desk endlessly.
The models were taken from a half-complete set of warhammer 40K pieces that some kid in their group had managed to grab from his house as he survived the explosion that rocked Tokyo 3 through hiding in a conveniently placed bomb shelter in his family's creaking bungalow.
The imperial guard models garbed in frail armor and pathetically tiny firearms (For in Shinji's own wise words, his group of WILLE were but normal men facing down hordes of bio-engineered alien monstrosities and cybernetically augment superhumans armed with cutting edge arms of mass devastation) represented his own squad, while heavily armored ultramarine models of beautiful gold served as the placeholder for NERV.
(He now knew his father was a deciever who would not spend a single penny on the common people of Tokyo 3 if it meant improving his own image or luxuries, who had withheld vital information from everyone).
A few gigantic dinosaur like creatures standing thrice the height of most every other model known only as the "tyranid hive tyrants" were used to showcase the position of the Angels relative to everything else. The hostile Angels at least. Not including his Rei. His majestic, beautiful Rei whose last words as she was consumed by his overcharging Evangelion would forever stay with him in the bottom of his heart.
She, or rather her unconscious form still trapped in EVA unit 1 was instead depicted with all the radiant beauty of an Eldar farseer complete with halo, wings and a gorgeous flowing gown.
She had the honest work ethic and selflessness of any imperial guardsman.
None of the hubris and desire to spread untruths as the Ultramarines.
All the discipline and restraint a Tyranid would lack.
But though not fully human, she certainly was possessed of enough humanity to matter in a court of law when determining her entitled rights.
These however were nowhere near the main reasons Shinji-Kun chose the most enigmatic and expensive model he had available to represent his darling Rei-Chan.
It was rather because of a great talent he had learned about Rei during the time he decided to dedicate wholly listening to her because he genuinely loved her as more than just a tool.
Shinji and Shinji alone out of his undying affections had learned never to ask Rei a question of any kind at least if an easy and carefree life was what you desired.
For she would always give back three answers, each true and terrifying to behold.
For this reason, Shinji had taken grave pains to seek her out as often as possible so as to be disillusioned from as many falsehoods as he could bring himself to emancipate himself from.
Of course Asuka and Misato would get in his way at every turn they could.
But the brutal uppercuts he'd receive from a hungry German whose dinner had not been cooked in a timely fashion was more than worth the bubbles Rei and Rei alone could help him burst.
…
"Shinji. Do not concern yourself for my wellbeing nor demise. I am but another Angel for you to destroy. At least 1.2 % of my entire form is composed entirely of Angel genetic material. Your father only created me to trick you into doing his evil bidding. While it is true that some of your mother Yui's genes were used in my creation, not a sliver of her thoughts and memories resides in me. I am sorry. I am not your mother. I wished I could have been but I am not. Genes may influence our livelihoods but they do not define us in their entirety."
Shinji, soul apart from his body as the Evangelion's energies continued to flood into him against his will could say nothing. He could not even drop his jaw for he had no jaw in his current state of pure spirit. He could neither cry nor laugh. He could only continue to regard the purpose of his life and dreams with a mysterious emotion that words alone could never accurately describe. He felt as if he was going insane and yet being snapped into perfect lucidity at the same time. As if pure joy was being infused into him alongside the most tragic grief.
It was a paradox to end all paradoxes.
"I am not even the first Rei to have ever met you. Shinji. If there is but one word of advice, I can bestow upon you now as I walk fearlessly into the abyss of void, just know that there has been more than one and most likely still is, more than one Rei Ayanami. I do not know how many of me commander Ikari has seen fit to create, but take solace in the fact nonetheless that through this, I have conquered death itself. We will meet again Shinji. This is not a possibility but an inevitability. For one fact that your father never found out about, is that all of us have shared knowledge that cannot be lost no matter what."
Fear and anger. Jubilation and lamentation. Peace and war. Two sides of the same coin. Shinji's triumphant reward for saving Rei and achieving maximum synchronization with his Evangelion as no pilot had done before him, was an ever so brief walk down the line that divided him somewhere in his mind. On the border line at the edge of where he had walked alone his entire existence. Even if he had all the words in the world to say, he'd keep completely silent. For this was not a moment he could afford to waste by not listening to Rei with all the intensity of which he was capable.
Before he had cursed fate for not making him a more talkative and confident socialite, but now he was instead thanking it with all his being that it had gifted him such stiff lips so as to better allow him to hold his peace in this critical moment where a single word would ruin both himself and what remained of a world that despite its failings desperately deserved to live.
"Now goodbye Shinji. My hero Academia who taught me everything I needed to finally come to the ultimate realization that allowed me to part ways with my evil. The ultimate realization that I see only now in my dying breath which will make it all the easier to let go of this wasted life to begin the first step into my eventual rebirth into a world where we will be able to play together as friends instead of enemies."
Shinji was at a loss for words. Quite literally. Even if he had his mouth right now, he'd slap it shut with all his might. Rei. A god and a human. An Angel and a Demon. His sweetest love and his most despised antagonist. Now he understood what Dr Akagi meant by her theorem of relativity, in which concepts such as big or small existed only in our minds but never in reality. As well as what the great pacifist Albert Einstein was trying to convey through his seemingly childish rambling that reality was just another illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
"I pitted us against each other and you against the world for no other reason than because I was told to by my creators. Yet you still chose to save us all Shinji and in doing so, managed to set me back on the path of heaven which I had strayed from over my many lifetimes. So now I see. Thanks to you. I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are."
"Rei. Don't GO!" Shinji somehow managed to scream out despite lacking any conceivable body parts as the cyan light before him begun to dim. "What will I do without YOU!?"
"Go now and do what you must, dearest Shinji. And know that I will watch over you eternally. Where you are and wherever you go. There will I be also." Then her cyan light was gone and his consciousness along with it. One other interesting tidbit he'd take away from this bizzarre experience was that time passed faster for a soul in the absence of its constraining body.
What seemed like nary five minutes in the spirit plane of his Evangelion, would instead amount to Fourteen human years.
Long enough for the irresponsible Misato to reek even more strongly of rank alcohol, and the violent Asuka to become even more quick to anger.
And just long enough for Sakura to grow from the hapless toddler into the charming young woman and symbol of liberty that had shown him the first spark of human kindness upon his return to his body that he wished to have nothing to do with having seen the wonders of the spirit world.
…
"Hello. Earth to commander Shinji!" Sakura happily chirped, rousing him from his stress induced trance which left him bleary eyed and runny nosed.
"Huh. What!?" The young commander quickly asked, wiping his face with his sleeve and turning to regard the well-dressed nurse with his complete attention.
"It is okay if you don't want to answer my question about your inspiring tactics that you used to save myself and my brother Toji. I'll understand. I have patients currently waiting in the medical word anyway that require my attention so..."
"No Sakura" he gently cut her off, rubbing his acheing head a little
"No. Thank you for asking. I do want to answer it. Because it is the current reasoning I am using to plan our current attack and defense plans that I gurantee will lead us to our square deal we richly deserve."
Sakura squealed in delight as she drew out a notepad and pen from her pockets.
Shinji took a deep breath as he looked his eager disciple square in the eyes to show she had his undivided attention and his total honesty.
"You are probably familiar with the common saying that a direct attack almost never ends well. Even if it can be won easily, you would still have to expand more manpower than if you actually bothered to take the time instead to draft out a well planned ambush. As well as a lesser known saying that the best battle is one never fought. "
Sakura nodded eagerly. Such wisdom. Such ignored wisdom that could have prevented so many needless casulties.
"If there is one thing that video games got right in spite of their clear disregard for the rules of reality, it is that shooting at a "weak point" does a ton more damage than anywhere else.
It's the same in medieval jousting. A strong hit to your opponent's chest obviously won't do jack because that's where their armor is strongest. But a gentle tap on his arm where he has barely any armour at all, and his lance slips out of his hand and of course then he would be weaponless and you'd win automatically. "
Shinji paused a little to let Sakura rigorously scribble down all he had said, only continuing when he observed she had stopped writing and had locked eyes with him again.
"Many people do not know this or if they do know, they ignore it. This is because they think that in this example I provided, the chest hardly moves and is a big target while the arm is a constantly moving and small target.
So obviously being able to score a weak hit is far better than no hit at all, right?
Well here's the thing. The "safe" option, may not be safe at all. Because in the time it takes your opponent to get a hit on you, you only have really the chance for a single strike. So why then, should you not make that one strike count? Furthermore, the lance arm which you plan to make the strike on is going to be the exact arm your opponent is going to need to bring close to you if he wants to hit you. So when you think of it that way, it's not such a tough target after all."
"But what about if you're so strong that you technically could knock the opponent from his horse by hitting his strong chest. Would it not be better then to just go for the chest?" Sakura asked, becoming prouder and prouder of Shinji's expertise with his every breath.
"I was really hoping you'd ask that" Shinji replied, raising his right fist as he could not help but crack a tiny grin despite his usual aversion for violence of any kind. But if he could at least prevent some needless deaths through his constant study of history books, anything was worthwhile.
"Remember how I told you before that you only need a gentle tap to make your opponent drop his lance whereas you'd need a really powerful strike to do any meaningful damage at all to his chest? What if right after this joust, you have another joust with another knight? If you did as you said and used all your energy to win the first joust, you'd be screwed in the second one because you'd be unable to hold your lance up.
And even if that's not the case, constantly putting full exertion into your lance arm is going to eventually damage it and you're going to die from natural causes instead of in a joust. Bottom line, it is not clever to use more force than you need to."
Shinji's expression hardened. "Especially since stabbing a person in the chest and cracking their ribs is nothing but a ruthless act of spiteful barbarism. If there is one good thing Asuka taught me Sakura. If you at all have any regard for the times I saved you and your brother Toji's lives. Just remember this for my sake if nothing else."
Two streams of tears rolled down his cheeks as he grimaced uncontrollably
"Our goal is not to take revenge on my father or NERV. NERV are people just like you and me. Plenty of cleaners and doctors and chefs and other people NERV employs have done absolutely nothing wrong, and to punish them along with those who are actually at fault would go against everything WILLE is supposed to stand for. Just picture the knight and his lance the next time you get any bloodthirsty ideas about going on a killing spree to bathe yourself in NERV's blood. And remember that all that's really needed to win the joust is to make the knight drop his lance."
Sakura nodded solemnly as she practically scribbled her own arm off, nearly breaking the pages from her notepad in the process.
"Thank you commander Shinji. Not one word you've just told me now will ever be forgotten."
She glanced at her cheap wristwatch to see that she had not much time left.
"One final question Commander Shinji, and tben I'll leave you to your duties."
"Fire away, young Skywalker (Quite frankly, a far better Skywalker than the previous one)"
Sakura nervously fidgeted with her cap as her entire form tensed up.
"Me and Toji have seen a lot of your Evangelion fights on television. Why is that you never go right for the killing blow when fighting an Angel.
But instead, you seem to prefer knocking them over and then pausing between each attack?
You know that the Evangelion has only limited power and that doing what you do, gives the Angels plenty of openings to fight back.
I think that's part of the reason your father gets mad at you often. So I know it's not a pleasant question, but out of curiosity. Why Shinji? You must have a very good reason."
It was with a queer mixture of timidity and boldness. Of great amusement and annoyance that Shinji regarded this final inquiry.
His usually meek eyes seemed to bore into those of the young nurse that had been the first WILLE member to show him any manner of human decency whatsoever, as he looked her up and down.
He saw in her youthful and fresh face a great desire to build an empire without ever shedding a drop of blood.
An image of Rei standing beside his late mother flashed in his mind as he cleared his throat.
"It is because I hope one day. Maybe, just maybe one of the Angels I am forced to fight against will decide it is better to simply give up peacefully instead of fighting to the death. Already you have seen that while Rei was willing to extend herself to me in my time of need, Asuka was perfectly okay with continuing to abuse me for her own sick and perverted pleasure. And if you do not know this already Sakura. Know now that Rei was part Angel while Asuka was completely human."
Sakura was about to ask him further what this meant when she quickly decided against it, and instead bowed modestly to withdraw without another word.
The saviour of her beloved brother had given her much to sleep on.
...
"We of SEELE were once the undisputed overlord over the elements. Fire, Earth, Air, Water and Void were once under our full control."
Came a nasal monotone of obvious Russian accent from one of the many sound pillars constructed in the otherwisely empty Headquarters of the sole organization possessed of greater military might and wealth than even NERV.
"Everything was perfect. It was all going so well. Instrumentality was being accepted by the globe as a joyous thing and our schemes were going off without a hitch. They would be our puppets without knowing that we had taken away their freedoms for our own glorious gain. Loathsome common human scum. Who are not as we ascended should be."
The Russian commander was laughing along with the half a dozen other officials from their secure bunkers which had cost vast fortunes of extorted money and slave labour to construct.
A second later and there was a confused screaming as one by one, the holographic pillars were bathed in a sheet of glowing flames.
"Then all that changed when the fire nation attacked" retorted a furious Brendan, as he let off a spark of flames from his flamethrower in an attempt to show off. "The people who you deceived were finally shown the truth, and when you refused to give them back their freedoms they rebelled and you couldn't have that so you instead committed atrocities."
"Bozhe Moi" cried the Russian voice pillar.
"Mein Gott" shouted out a German voice from another pillar.
"Mon Dieu" gasped out a third.
He slammed the butt of his weighty flamethrower into the pillar, shattering it with a single impact.
"Well Mr Smarty-pants. Here's a piece of philosophy for you. Freedom is a human right. And if we can't be free under your rule, then neither can you."
He wiped his sweaty brow as he let off another searing plume of flames.
"Fire is a catchy substance. SEELE. And if we burn. You'll burn with us."
"Well...Said...Brendan. Well...said"
Courtney agreed, smoothing a lilac strand of her short hair as Brendan stared at her lovestruck.
"I...could not...agree...with...you...more."
...
"You. Hey. You. You. Yes you." Coxswain May of the feared sea vessel known to all the seas as "the Shellshocker" boomed in a surprisingly large voice for a girl so small. "Do you know who I am?"
"Ha. Ha. Yes. I know who you are" The captain of a NERV destroyer a short distance from her own spat back.
"You're the no good brat who sold her soul to Davy Jones all for a lie told to you by a group of uneducated swine who wouldn't hesitate to sell you out for ten doubloons. You're the worst pirate I've ever heard of."
May grinned lightly. News of her exploits spread fast after all.
She had already gotten much better with her cutlass and pistol following the previous raid, where one decisive shot at a thousand paces away felled a NERV swashbuckler about to stick a dagger in captain Winona's exposed backside.
"But you have heard of me." She fired back. "As for me selling out. Don't let that distract you from the fact that your oh so "brilliant" commander Ikari sold his son Shinji and his daughter Rei to the flying Dutchman for 62 cents. But enough chitchat. As an honourable pirate of my honest ship, I offer you parley. All your wrongfully imprisoned prisoners and half your cargo of food and medicine, in return for your complete safety."
"Take your parley and go to hell with it" The opposing captain snarled. "Those little vermin who won't stop crying for their mama's and papa's all day and all night are going to make me very rich at the slave market."
"So every penny of their fortune really is blood money after all then." May muttered to the watching members of her crew who regarded her as a devout Catholic regarded a great prophet. "Make sure that when we take their ship, we take only weapons, food and medicine.
Do not touch their treasure. Burn it all with matches if we must."
...
...
Red continued to stuff piece after piece of delicious cheesecake into his gaping jaw as Erika continued her retelling of the life-changing event that let her see the truth about Team Rocket's goodness.
He cried, but these were tears of gladness that healed his sadness like magic.
...
"You, you saved me" Erika gratefully whispered, as she put a hand on her no longer hurting lungs and stood up straighter than she had in the past several years. "If you were truly as evil as Ash and his friends seemed to think, you'd not have done that."
"That's because we care about you Erika." James wholeheartedly replied.
"Team Rocket may be villians but we are not in the habit of breaking apart dreams. Why one time Meowth got himself in trouble before a big crowd and I had to throw my favourite bottle caps just so that my feline friend could be saved."
"Yeah." The talking cat in question remarked. "You did that James. And till this day I still haven't found a way to repay you for that, being the dense jerk I am and always will be."
The mutation that had been plaguing the Earth was stronger than ever now. Life forms were changing left and right. Meowth was proof of this phenomenon.
"You deserve a reward. You three. I know from Red that Ash has been treating the three of you terribly, and I want to change that."
The raven haired gardener imperiously stated as she furrowed her brow at the mention of the boy that had near-fatally wounded Jessie, James and Meowth more times than they could count without the faintest shred of remorse or guilt.
"Oh. No. You don't need to do that" Jessie remarked, far more bashfully than she was normally was. "We are just happy you are alive and well and that we could be the ones to save you. We wouldn't feel comfortable putting you in such danger."
She had barely finished her sentence when she had to rush several steps from the rest of the group to unleash a mouthful of sickly vomit onto the grass.
The unfortunate side-effect of being forced to ingest uncleaned water out of poverty.
But Erika merely shook her head stubbornly and stamped her sandal into the ground with enough force to throw up a thick mound of mud.
"No one should electrocute others the way Ash has done, and not receive judgement for their wrongdoings. I will accompany right now and we will find Ash and make him give up his Pikachu even if it's the last thing I do. Lead me to him right now."
"Please don't Erika. We don't want Pikachu. We just didn't want to starve to death and our boss Giovanni ordered us to take Pikachu or face a punishment so serious I can't even say what it is." James pleaded. "Please don't tangle with such a ruthless killer. I'd never forgive myself if you did."
"And I'll never forgive myself if you don't take me to him right this instant. Did you expect to save my life and then get away with no reward? Well that is not how the legendary Shinji Ikari taught me to act. I will never forgive myself either if I don't get the chance to repay you for your kindness either. And Shinji will never forgive either me or you." Erika somewhat crossly retorted, fire flashing in her usually calm eyes.
In the end, the Team Rocket Trio gave in and told Erika that Ash loved to eat chocolate donuts outside officer Jenny's police station on a Saturday morning as fine as that one.
They pointed her each step of the way, recoiling in self-hatred with every direction she forced them to give her.
"If you are lying, then I will not leave you until we find Ash and you have his Pikachu."
Erika had long since assured them, so leading her astray was not even an option.
They found the murderer at the exact spot they expected.
A raven haired boy sporting a blue jacket and slightly ripped blue jeans complete with a red back and yellow tipped baseball cap.
As well as black fingerless gloves and pale blue trainers.
Olive skin and brown eyes. Fairly typical for a teenage Japanese boy as he sat plopping donuts into his mouth as his yellow pet mouse with pointed ears and with three brown stripes on its back that he called "Pikachu" did likewise.
A thunderbolt shaped tail on it's rear end completed its mirage of complete adorability and cuteness.
But Erika was not fooled. She could see that deep in his soul lay the sole desire to shock each and every Team Rocket member into total submission.
No matter how unfortunate their circumstances. No matter their wholehearted intent of pacifism.
His seemingly innocent expression and well-oiled mannerisms only made his vicious bloodthirst all the more apparent.
Here was a diabolical assassin that would not look out of place beside Jack the ripper and Sawney Bean the cannibal.
"Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town. Your crimes against humanity have come back to haunt you today."
Erika brashly began, failing to rouse his attention in the slightest.
She shook her head as she turned to the trio who with an uncomfortable nod, obliged her silent request.
"Prepare for trouble" Jessie very weakly muttered, despising herself for every syllable she had been obliged by Erika to utter.
She really regretted doing this kind action that could only end in misery for the innocent gardener who deserved no part in any of this madness.
"And make it triple" James added, unsure whether it was the lack of rhyme or the identity of Team Rocket's honorary third member of the day that was making him more frustrated.
He truly wished that he had been evil enough to instead leave Erika to her doom so as not to make her in his debt.
Perhaps her cancer would have turned out to be safe and she would have never set foot here.
"To protect the world from devastation." Jessie sadly continued.
"To ignite all peoples within our nation" James painfully announced, choking back a sob.
Unity was not an option in these dark times where children were being torn from their parents to be sold as slaves, and huge rewards were given to those who ratted out any dissenters of NERV for said naysayers to be unceremoniously tortured before the terrified crowd as examples of how NERV's reign was supreme and absolute.
There was but one kind of FUN remaining.
Fire that burned down the whole town. U for uranium bombs. And N for no survivors when you were...
"To denounce the evils of truth and LOVE" (LOVE in this instance taking on Flowey the flower's definition: Level Of ViolEnce)
"To extend our reach to the stars above"
All light was fading from Jessie and James's forlorn expressions.
Woe betide them that they bring a hapless minor into Ash Ketchum's cruel clutches.
"Jessie."
"James"
"Erika!" Erika impatiently snapped, raising her skinny fists and stepping forward with a clumsy step that nearly tripped herself.
The drawback of sandals was a lack of stability especially when wandering on less than steady ground such as upon grass.
Sweat dripped in sticky beads down Erika's forehead as she awaited the next verse in the Team Rocket Motto she loved hearing so greatly.
When it failed to come, she very nearly cracked her own knuckles as she inhaled a sharp breath of air through her now thankfully repaired lungs.
The words that next came out her mouth were amplified tenfold so that they nearly deafened the usually cool headed Ash, who had slowly grown more incredulous by the minute at the sight of the third human Team Rocket member several years younger than her two predecessors.
This couldn't be happening. This just couldn't. No one would be so stupid as to sympathize with such lumps of moronic filth.
"TEAM ROCKET BLASTS OFF AT THE SPEED OF LIGHTNING!" Erika roared, notwithstanding of how quickly Ash's confusion was quickly turning into rage nor how badly her raised voice of excitement had all but pierced his usually rock-solid eardrums.
...
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