Chapter 2: Gemütlichkeit
I've got to admit it, really. If not to Shinji, then to this. I… I'm scared. More scared that it feels like I've been in my life. Not about going in front of the United Nations. That was expected really. I'm afraid… of what comes next. What will they do with us? Will the world decide to take my mama away from me? Tell me that I should be a "normal" girl now that all this is "over"?
No. No, I won't let them take mama away from me. Not if either of us can help it. And… I'll never be a normal girl. That normal girl died in a hospital in Germany long ago. Right beside her mama.
- Personal journal of Asuka Soryu-Langley
Tokyo-3, 2 Days Later, June 2016
Asuka and Shinji opened the door to the apartment that they had lived in, slept together in, for the last year, and sighed wearily as they stepped in from the night. "We're home." Shinji said, equally as wearily, and Asuka could only muster the strength to nod at the pronouncement as Kaji came into view, and Misato came up behind them.
Kaji gave a lopsided smile as he walked up to them, Misato slightly pushing past the two kids as she embraced Kaji, enveloping him in a long, languid kiss.
It was a moment before Kaji pulled away from the kiss, stepping back and regarding Shinji and Asuka as Misato shifted to hugging his side, resting her head on his shoulder with a contented look on her face. "So," he said, "how was New York?"
"We didn't even get to do anything fun there, Kaji." Asuka said. "All of New York, and we get stuck in a fancy hotel room and the UN assembly hall because every rag trying to make a quick buck wants a picture of our faces." she scoffed. "You wouldn't believe what some of them said about… well, all of us."
Misato's expression became sympathetic. "Well, Asuka, that's the price of fame for you. Some idiots are going to blow it out of proportion."
Asuka sighed as she nodded. "Yeah, I guess." she said with an exasperated look.
She looked over at Shinji, putting an arm around him and pulling him into a side hug. "Shinji, think you have the energy to make us some dinner?"
Shinji nodded after a moment. "Yeah. I think I might be able to do that."
Asuka smiled wearily. "Oh, good. I'm not sure I could make it with Misato's cooking."
Misato rolled her eyes. "Har, har. Very funny."
They walked into their home, and couldn't help but feel peace for a moment.
. . .
Kaworu and Rei walked back into the empty apartment and made a beeline for the television. Daniel and Eleanor would be back later, having to pick up Ichigo and all, but for now, it was just them and whatever movie they wished to watch.
As they sat down with the frankly massive disk case of movies and flipped through the pages, Rei could not help but look around and wonder. How long would this last? This quiet in the middle of the storm? With a pang of despair, she realized that… it couldn't. Not for very long, at least.
"That is our lot for now, it seems." Kaworu said, and Rei jumped slightly before she remembered that their souls were still connected.
"But," he continued as Rei looked over at him, "we can at least make the most of this moment."
He smiled slightly, and after a moment, Rei smiled back. "We should have at least enough time for one movie tonight." Kaworu said.
Rei chuckled softly. "Yes. At least one."
She looked down, and spotted one that she hadn't watched with Kaworu yet, a rare achievement. "Perhaps this one."
Kaworu picked out the disk from its casing, studying the title. "Hmm. Interesting. Then we'll watch this tonight."
As Kaworu stood to put the disk in the player, Rei smiled a little more widely. Yes, perhaps there would be trials ahead of them. But, she thought as she threw her arm around Kaworu's shoulder, they had this moment, at least.
. . .
Daniel and Eleanor pulled up to the apartment where Ichigo had been staying. Toji rode with them, anxious to finally be home. They had already dropped off Hikari, and now, they would finally, finally be done driving after this.
They got out of the car, ascending the elevator to the fourth floor, eventually finding themselves in front of a door.
Toji rang the doorbell, and after a moment, the door opened to reveal Sakura Suzuhara, looking up at them with bright, excited brown eyes. "Toji!" she said, flinging her arms around her beloved brother as he chuckled and hugged her back.
"How was America?" she said, stepping back as she looked up at him, then looked down at her shirt, splattered with paint stains of various colors, rubbing at some of them to ensure that they were dry.
Toji rolled his eyes. "Oh, you know. Kinda boring. We didn't get to do anything much really."
"Aww." Sakura said with no small amount of sympathy. "That's no fun."
Toji shook his head. "No, it certainly wasn't."
Sakura looked up at Daniel and Eleanor. "Thank you for bringing Toji home, Mr. Daniel, Mrs. Eleanor."
Daniel smiled. "Of course, Ms. Sakura."
Sakura looked behind her as Mr. Suzuhara appeared in the doorway, hugging his son.
Naoto Suzuhara was a slight, almost mousey man, with a mop of brown hair and black eyes that held pensive energy behind them even as love shone through them. "It's good to see you home, Toji."
"Good to see you too, dad." Toji said, his voice muffled in his dad's chest.
After a moment, Naoto looked up at Daniel and Eleanor. "Mr. Theisman, Mrs. Theisman. Please, come in." he stepped to the side. "Ichigo has been wonderful to have over."
Eleanor chuckled as they stepped in. "That's good to hear."
As they conversed quietly, walking down the entry hall, they turned into the living room, and Daniel and Eleanor beheld a painter's studio, pots and brushes on the coffee table and end tables as three easels took up the center of the room. Elsewhere, in the connected dining room, they saw messes of clay on the table and countertops, baked into various shapes and painted in bright colors.
Ichigo looked up at Daniel and Eleanor as they entered, wearing an apron splattered in paint of a dozen different hues. Normally as reserved as Rei once was, her eyes now gleamed with an inner light. "Hello, Daniel. Hello, Eleanor."
"Hello, Ichigo." Daniel said, chuckling slightly as he took the sight of the living room in. "I didn't quite place you as the painterly type, I must admit."
Ichigo smiled slightly as Naoto cleared his throat behind them. As they turned, he rubbed the bridge of his nose, seeming to look for glasses to push up its slope. "Well, that's mostly my fault. She wanted to look for something to do with Sakura, and I introduced her to some artistic options. She seemed to take to painting the most."
Ichigo stood. "It is a fascinating process, turning a collection of colors into an image. I find it… liberating, somehow."
She beckoned Daniel and Eleanor over to observe her work, Sakura bouncing along behind them with a beaming smile as they all beheld a painting of a white and red flower in a white vase, mirroring the one that sat on the coffee table. It was a rough approximation, but it showed a remarkable amount of detail.
Eleanor nodded. "That's impressive, Ichigo."
Ichigo nodded in turn. "It was difficult, at first, to imprint the image from my mind onto the canvas. But as we had all week to work on it, I feel my efforts during that time have paid off."
Sakura nodded. "Yes indeed." she said sagely. "She soaked up how to paint like a sponge. It was a lot of fun." she said, as another smile split her face.
Daniel chuckled softly. "That's good." he looked over at Ichigo. "Is it dry yet? We can take it home if it is."
Ichigo tapped a portion of the painting lightly, inspecting the tip of her finger. "Yes," she said, nodding, "it is dry."
"If you need," Naoto said, speaking up from behind them, "don't be afraid to talk to us if you need anything more for painting. I don't use enough of my paint anyway. Most of my work just remains sketches or inks."
After a moment more conversation as they prepared the painting for transport, they said their goodbyes, and Daniel and Eleanor began to drive home for the last time in the night.
. . .
As they drove home, Ichigo Ayanami's mind whirled with possibility. She saw inspiration in every streetlight, in the nighttime skyline of Tokyo-3. There was a world that had been opened up to her. And she silently reveled in it.
As they came close to home, her thoughts, as they had often done in the past few weeks after her… awakening, it could be called, turned to that day, deep in Terminal Dogma.
She had believed, with all the might of her soul, that she was Rei Ayanami. In an instant, in the death of a god, that had been stripped away from her. It was a vast, dark void that she had faced then, one that had echoed with a single question. 'Who am I?'
That question had been set aside for a time as she helped her… sister? She was still somewhat unsure of what to think of Rei Ayanami. As she helped save the world that she had been so willing to end only a few moments before.
She still hardly knew who she was. Even with a new name, even with a new color of hair, those had only been shallow distinctions, covering a far deeper pit.
The Children had been… so, so accepting of her. Shinji had nearly wept tears of joy when he concluded that he had another sister. Another part of his own family. She enjoyed his cooking. Asuka had taken the time, what little she had before they went to New York, to show her a variety of video games. Some had sparked her interest, but most were not what she had felt were… her.
Rei and Kaworu were slightly more complex, she thought, as they entered the doorway to their apartment. She had begun to live with them, a spare closet becoming her bedroom, right across from Rei's room.
As they rounded the corner, Rei and Kaworu stood up, pausing their movie as they did so. As Ichigo's sight rested on Kaworu for the briefest of moments, she could not fully control the love, the jealousy, the guilt, that all welled up inside her chest. Why did she still feel these things for him? Why did she still feel those things about her? It wasn't fair to any of them.
Those thoughts were swept away as Rei came to regard the painting that Ichigo had made with wide eyes. "Wow…" she said, and Ichigo thrilled slightly at the look of wonder that her… her sister gave her. "This is a beautiful painting, Ichigo."
Ichigo smiled slightly. "Thank you, Rei."
Kaworu nodded. "Yes. It is very well done."
"Thank you as well, Kaworu." even as Ichigo said this she felt something… raw. It hurt. She didn't like it. Her memories from Rei told her that what she felt was… loneliness. How? She didn't fully know.
"Well," Daniel said, drawing all the children's attention to him, "I know that at least two of you have something to do tomorrow with Shinji and Asuka."
Rei and Kaworu nodded. They finally had access to the Infinity Box once again, and Asuka had wanted something, anything to do to blow off the pressure that had been building in all of them since they had left for New York.
Rei looked over at Ichigo. "Would you like to come and learn some more of how Interfacing works? I'm sure that the others would be more than accommodating."
Ichigo shook her head after a moment. "Not yet. As fascinating as learning Interfacing sounds, I would like to establish somewhat more of my identity before starting."
The others nodded in understanding, and the storm of anxiety within Ichigo abated somewhat. Learning Interfacing was interesting, yes. But… there was still a part of her that remembered the pain, the discomfiture, the… the wrongness of what had been done to make her what she had been. She had started to have nightmares about those days, shrouded in what felt like a distant memory.
"Very well." Kaworu said, nodding in understanding. "The offer stands for whenever you wish to join us."
"Thank you." Ichigo said, and it was quiet for a moment.
"Well, we should still have enough time to finish our movie." Rei said. She looked over to Ichigo. "Would you like to join us? We are not far from the beginning."
Ichigo pondered silently for a moment, then nodded. "Very well. Thank you for your offer."
"Of course, Ichigo." Kaworu said. "But first, we should perhaps put your work in a place of honor."
Ichigo blushed slightly. "My first work…" she began.
"Deserves appreciation." Rei said, with a seeming air of authority on the subject that Ichigo could not deny. "Kaworu's drawings are appreciated by all who see and receive them. There is no reason yours should be any different."
It was silent for a moment. "Thank you." Ichigo whispered.
"Of course, sister." Rei said. She picked up the painting reverently, Ichigo relinquishing her grip on it reluctantly. "So," she said, "let's go find a good spot."
. . .
As the children went to hang up Ichigo's painting, Daniel looked over at Eleanor, the quiet joy in his expression replaced by seriousness. "Alright." he said. "We should probably do this now, seeing as we have the time. Get it out of the way."
Eleanor took a deep breath, then nodded. "Alright. Let's go talk with Adam."
It was a quiet walk into the Infinity Box, its cool blue stone walls an almost welcoming, almost foreboding thing.
They emerged into the central room of the Box, a bare space, as a ripple of energy, more felt than seen, signaled Daniel lifting them out of time.
The floor in the center rippled like water, and a pedestal emerged from it, holding a mechanical sphere the size of a basketball, black as shadow save for the ripples of rainbow color that played across its surface, reminding Daniel and Eleanor both of Leliel, who was incidentally among the souls kept within the machine, linked to Adam's soul as it was.
Daniel stepped forward, then stopped as he chuckled. "What is it this time, dear?" Eleanor said, a hint of exasperation in her voice.
Daniel looked back at Eleanor. "Adam is yet another ghost in the machine, now. We seem to be collecting a few of those here, is all."
Eleanor rolled her eyes. "Very funny. Let's get this show on the road."
Daniel shrugged slightly as a stool rippled into existence in front of him. He turned and sat down, closing his eyes and reaching with his soul behind him, towards the mass of lines and glowing cores that made up Adam's being.
He 'saw' the cores, rippling with colors both possible and impossible, rippling more as he brushed by them, spare memories flashing through his mind if he stayed in contact for long enough. However, he had a task in mind as he grew and spun Frames of his own, creating barriers of inert Metos, the substance of the soul, surrounding all the cores but one.
It was that core, older than the rest, that Daniel brushed up against, seeing the depth of memories, the tenuous connection to what was probably Kaworu's soul. Then, he sent a Frame towards the surface of the core, an intricate pattern at the end of it, designed for a specific purpose, springing into existence like growing ice.
Daniel steeled himself for a moment as the Frame finished growing, then connected the Frame to the core, energizing it.
In the outside world, Eleanor watched as Daniel's eyes opened again. But they were not his eyes. They were black as night, the only thing to break through the blackness was a swirling dot of red and white where the iris and pupil would be.
Daniel, or Adam, raised his arms, seeming to inspect them with no small amount of wonder. "Ah…" he said, his voice reverberating slightly. "This must be… the councilwoman's creations."
Adam looked down at Daniel's hands as his brow furrowed. "What was her name?" he said, and Eleanor could hear the guilt even through the echo of Adam's voice.
Eleanor took a quiet, deep breath as she squared her shoulders. "Adam." she said, clear and calm.
Adam looked up at Eleanor, and though his inhuman eyes were difficult to read, Daniel's face betrayed his emotions as his brow furrowed in confusion. "Adam? Is that what I am known by here?"
He looked down again, a finger tapping Daniel's chin in obvious contemplation. "I'm no linguist, but that sounds as if it were related to something usually found in the…" Adam's eyes widened slightly as he trailed off.
"We have some questions for you." Eleanor said. "Daniel offered himself up to be… a sort of mouthpiece and translator for your soul."
"As a…" Adam said, then Daniel's body stood. "The Soul Arts have been rediscovered?"
"Not exactly. Daniel, if you could?" Eleanor said.
"Certainly, dear." Daniel himself said, and Adam's expression became confused for a moment. Then, Daniel's face slackened and Adam's eyes went wide. "By the Warrior and the Maiden…" Adam said as Daniel's body sat back down again. A shocked, amazed laugh barked past Daniel's lips. "If Tahzuranel could have seen this…"
Eleanor smiled lightly. "As I said, we have some questions. Particularly concerning the souls in your stewardship. Or, at least, the ones that should be in your stewardship."
"Yes. Yes." Adam said, composing himself. "What would you like to know?"
"Well, for starters," Eleanor said, "one of the souls you have carried, who now goes by the name Kaworu Nagisa, tells us that there is another soul that falls under your stewardship out there. One claimed by a force known as SEELE."
Daniel's face scrunched up in disgust. "Them." Adam nearly spat. "I recall them, rousing me from sleep, stripping me of most all of the souls in my stewardship. Many of them were scattered to the stars, and are lost forever. I cannot feel them now. Others were taken from me, mixed with the councilwoman's creation to create the child you now call Kaworu."
Eleanor nodded. "And the Angels."
Daniel's head nodded. "Yes," Adam said, "my children. Who you call the Angels. I sent them out, looking for me. Or, at least, what I had become. Many of them felt the presence and Call of…" the look of disgust faltered for a moment. "The councilwoman."
Daniel's head shook. "They found her, and apparently me, after a while, until…"
The disgust disappeared from Daniel's face as Adam trailed off. "The soul of light returned to me after being vanquished in battle against you. And I saw…"
"Rei and Kaworu's memories of the past." Eleanor said quietly.
"Yes." Adam said, equally quietly. "I remember now." Adam said after a moment, looking intently at Eleanor. "Her name was… is… Suriel." he paused. "Yes. That's it." and now, even the inhuman nature of his eyes could not disguise the wonder and excitement held within them.
Adam blinked after a moment, Daniel's head began to shake slowly. "So, the Forbidden Union has been achieved."
Eleanor nodded. "Yes." she said quietly. "But we can discuss that later, should you so choose." she said after a moment of silence. "For now, there is at least one more of your children's souls out there. One that SEELE has torn to pieces to power mighty war machines called the Evangelion."
"My question is, can you locate the pieces of that soul? You are connected to Kaworu, so it stands to reason, to me at least, that you might be able to locate your other child the same way."
Adam's eyes narrowed as he considered the question. "Well… you are correct." Adam said, cupping Daniel's chin in deep thought. "However… I cannot feel their presence as of yet. Something is… blocking me."
Eleanor blinked, then started after a moment. "Oh," she said, "excuse me. I have us lifted out of time. Just a moment."
Adam's eyes widened as the ripple of force that signified their reinsertion into the flow of time pulsed through them. "A control of time itself…"
Eleanor smiled slightly. "Not control of time. Time itself is a difficult, finicky thing to handle, even at the best of times. This is simply a control of our position within it." she paused for a moment. "Can you feel for the soul now?"
Adam's eyes darted back and forth, up and down as if he were physically looking for the scattered pieces of the soul. "I can… see them…"
"Can you show us where they're located?" Eleanor said hopefully.
Daniel's head shook, then Daniel himself spoke up. "Hang on. Allow me."
In between Adam and Eleanor, stars began to wink into existence one by one, until they became connected by lines of light to form the outline of the world as a globe that began to slowly spin. "Feed me the locations," Daniel continued, "and I will highlight them."
Daniel's head nodded. "Thank you." Adam's voice echoed.
It was silent for a moment as Adam concentrated. Soon, a cluster of bright white stars, three in total, lit up, shifting around within the borders of the Indian subcontinent. "There are three parts of the soul there. They are dim, all of them. I cannot see where they are exactly."
Again it was quiet, then three more white stars lit up, dancing around Australia. "And the other three are there, somewhere." Adam said.
Eleanor nodded, and the globe of stars slowly winked out. "Thank you, Adam."
Daniel's head nodded. "Yes. Yes, of course."
It was silent again, then Daniel's head shook. "The Warrior and the Maiden…" Adam whispered.
"What about them?" Eleanor asked.
"You two." Adam said, looking up at Eleanor. "You two must be the Warrior and the Maiden. You two made my plan work. You two helped make it so that our… our children, Kaworu Nagisa and… Rei Ayanami could come together, and safely achieve the union." Adam scoffed slightly. "And all it took was divine intervention." Adam said quietly.
"We are no gods, Adam." Eleanor said. "We… we just happened to be at the right place at the right time."
Adam stared at Eleanor, then sighed quietly. "I see." it was silent again for a moment. "Well," Adam continued, "I suppose that concludes our business together."
"For now." Eleanor said. "We'll come back from time to time. Ask questions. Answer them."
Daniel's head nodded. "Very well. I suppose I shall see you again another time." he paused. "I have… a lot to think about."
"I'm sure you do. Thank you, Adam." Eleanor said quietly.
"Please," Adam said, "call me Kadmonel. It is my real name, after all."
Eleanor nodded. "Very well. Farewell, Kadmonel."
Daniel's head nodded one more time as his eyes closed. When they opened again, Daniel's blue eyes looked at Eleanor with weary amazement as he stood slowly, the stool sinking back into the floor as the pedestal that Adam's soul machine sat on sank with it.
Daniel took a deep breath. "Well, that was informative." he said, walking towards Eleanor. "But I need sleep right now."
Eleanor nodded as she stifled a yawn. "Agreed." she said. "We'll tell the others in the morning."
"Perfect." Daniel said quietly, as they headed up the stairs of the Infinity Box towards blessed rest.
. . .
Ritsuko Akagi walked in the door of her apartment and took a deep breath, smiling slightly as Maya stood from the couch, dressed in loose nightclothes. She had moved in recently. Simply a cost-saving measure, as she had told most others who had asked.
Of course, anyone who really knew them knew different. "Hello, Ritsuko!" she said with a smile of her own, walking over quickly to embrace her, taking her into a quiet kiss that still thrilled Ritsuko every single time.
As the kiss broke, Ritsuko smiled softly at Maya. "Hello, Maya. How were things here?"
Maya bobbed her head from side to side as she rolled her eyes. "Oh, about as calm as one might expect. Hyuga kept a good lid on things while you were gone. It was almost like business as usual."
"Oh, good." Ritsuko said as the embrace broke at last. "Hyuga has needed some room to grow as a leader, now that Misato's Acting Commander and he's more than likely going to be Operations Director."
Maya nodded, taking Ritsuko's hand and leading her to the couch, where they sat down as Maya leaned into Ritsuko, and the couple cuddled for a silent moment.
"How is mother doing?" Ritsuko said quietly.
Maya sighed. "Well, she's about as snarky and witty as I guess we've come to expect. She kept it from being boring while we continued to study the Plasm we've got." she paused for a moment. "Was she always like this when she was… alive?"
It was quiet again as Ritsuko pondered. She'd interacted with her less and less as time went on and she grew older. "Honestly… I don't remember fully." she said. "She was always more… distant in my mind, growing up. More calm and reserved." she chuckled slightly. "So, I guess her present attitude is… a more recent development."
Maya chuckled as well, then the small smile that came with it dimmed. "She has been getting more… quiet, lately. Something must be on her mind, I guess."
"Perhaps." Ritsuko said. Then she chuckled slightly, looking over at Maya as she looked at her with a questioning glance. "We're all going to have a lot more on our minds, after what Daniel pulled at the assembly."
Maya's brow rose fractionally. "Oh? What did Daniel do?"
After a quick explanation, Maya's eyes widened. "Oh, my…" she slowly nodded. "Yeah. We are going to have a lot to worry about." she smiled slightly. "But we can make it work. After all, we're talking about one of the smartest scientists in the world, and her lovely assistant, of course."
Ritsuko chuckled. After everything that she had been through in New York, the condemnations, from others and herself, and guilt as she faced the stupidest moments of her career, nay, her life, she had needed that.
She squeezed Maya in a side hug. "Oh, Maya." she said quietly. "You think too highly of me."
"No." Maya said simply. "I don't. I think exactly as high of you as you need."
Ritsuko smiled silently and wondered once again how she had gotten so lucky.
. . .
The Next Day
Daniel tried not to be too anxious as Eleanor set up the transmitter in their living room.
It was a wonder of objective Interfacing, physically innocuous, being only a pod on the end of a pole. However, on the Pneumaic level, it was an intricate Framework, pulsing with the energy that its Metos Siphons drew in from the environment.
Eleanor finished the setup and pressed gently on one part of the pod, and a thin portion popped out with a click. Eleanor took the control panel, a black screen that lit up as she touched its surface, and began to type a well-worn series of commands with a speed that could only come with years of practice.
Before she pressed the final button, Eleanor took a deep breath and turned to look at Daniel. "You ready?" she said quietly.
Daniel shrugged. "About as ready as anyone could be, really."
Eleanor nodded, then pressed a button. The only indication of the device's activation was a pulsing red light on the top of it, blinking silently as it reached out into the Worldsea.
After a moment, an image of a woman, dressed in a smart, almost militaristic grey uniform, her skin the color of wet clay even as a few lines ran through a sharp, defined face, rippled into existence, and considered Eleanor with sharp green eyes that darted over to Daniel even as she opened her mouth. After a moment to consider Daniel, she sighed quietly as she ran a hand through black hair that held a few choice streaks of grey, then began to speak quietly.
"Finally. Fucking finally. Of all the times to have the gall, the sheer gall, to disappear dramatically after the end of a climactic battle, it just had to be that one, didn't it, Daniel?"
Daniel opened his mouth to speak, then closed it as Rachna Chandra continued, an irate look in her eyes and her tone.
"Do you know how hard it is to be pestered by the fact that Eleanor arrived on a world you had just so happened to save, just to miss you leaving? It's like you knew she would be coming, and decided to just continue cultivating that mysterious aura about you that disappearing in the first place got you. It's damnably infuriating."
Daniel waited silently and patiently for Chandra to continue, which she did.
"And don't even get me started on how many other people I had to hold back from trying to find you andkill you. Oh, there were at least a few who were concerned after you, but most everyone else just wanted to make sure you couldn't even get a physical body again, much less plead your case before me and the rest of the Sovereign Council."
She grabbed at the air as though she could reach out and shake Daniel physically. Which, granted, she could if she wanted to, through the Interfacing that made the transmission work. After a moment, however, her hands dropped to her sides as she closed her eyes and her expression became weary.
After a moment of silence, Chandra opened her eyes, and concern was evident within them. "How are you, Daniel?" she said quietly.
Daniel looked up at Chandra with a small smile. "Better, Rachna. Not my best, but better."
Rachna sighed quietly. "At least I can work with that."
She looked over at Eleanor. "And I'm guessing that this will be the end of your status reports, now that you've found your darling husband?"
Eleanor sighed quietly. "I wish. The thing is, as I'm sure you've gathered, ma'am, Daniel has picked up a stubborn habit of saving worlds. So, right now, we're in the middle of saving this one. Which is part of why we're calling you."
Rachna arched a singular eyebrow. "Go on."
Daniel stood. "I found a splinter faction of the Scions, hidden with a perfectly fine Unitist mission. We had words, and a few fists every once in a while, and they went running."
Rachna closed her eyes. "Wonderful." she said, voice overflowing with exasperation. "Just what we needed." she opened her eyes again. "And you're sure that they're a danger?"
Daniel nodded. "If they're left alone long enough, absolutely."
Rachna shook her head. "And therein lies the problem. We already have enough going on in Tel proper, what with putting the halves of the Fourth Plate back together, and I've got at least part of the Sovereign Council that wants to decrease the spending and manpower available to us now that the Unity War is over, due to 'wishing to appear as much as peacekeepers as we can'."
She threw up her hands. "Frankly," she said, "I don't have much better than a few willing hands that are already out there looking for you to send to you at this point. I've already got precious little to work with as is, trying to keep the Exclusion Zones we have from being too understaffed to mean anything."
"That's alright." Daniel said. "What we really need right now isn't military support. It's a diplomatic delegation."
Rachna blinked, then blinked again. "A diplomatic delegation? Why?"
Eleanor sighed. "This Echo knows about Interfacing, and the Worldsea, to a limited degree, at least. We've both concluded that the League of Independent Echoes would be interested in having them join. And we're also sure that Tel would like to have some say in the matter."
Rachna snorted quietly. "That would be putting it lightly. Some of the Sovereigns have been champing at the bit for a chance to tie us a little tighter with the League. As if we weren't tight enough already, what with the war and all. And really, with what you've been doing, Daniel, you've been nothing but a boon for League Echo membership, much to the annoyance of said Sovereigns." she said with a slight smile that spoke volumes.
It was silent for a moment as Rachna considered things. A determined nod presaged her looking back up to regard Daniel and Eleanor. "Alright. I'll see what strings I can pull. A lot of my power has been shuffled elsewhere since the war ended, but at least I had the sense to make sure that sort of power went towards someone I at least tolerate."
She looked intently at Daniel with a small smile. "There are a few people who I'll submit as candidates for the delegation. People who have nothing but praise for you and your work."
Daniel's eyebrow arched, and Rachna chuckled. "Of, course, I won't spoil the surprise now. That comes when they actually get there."
Rachna's smile faded slightly. "So, I'm going to go ahead and get the part where I nearly beat my head against a wall convincing people out of the way now, and get those people sent to you as soon as I can, the delegation and Worldstrider support both."
Eleanor nodded. "Thank you, ma'am. We look forward to seeing them arrive."
"I'm sure you do. I'll talk to you later." Rachna said, and her image rippled out of existence.
Daniel took a deep breath as Eleanor got to work breaking down the transmitter. "So it begins." he said quietly.
"So it begins." Eleanor repeated as she finished stowing away the transmitter.
"Do you think that they'll be ready?" Daniel said.
Eleanor turned to look at Daniel. "Frankly, dear, I don't think anyone is truly ready for this sort of thing."
Daniel nodded slowly. "Fair point."