Chapter 5: Bridges Once Broken
To see the souls of those around me as they react to the possibilities of the future is a humbling thing. It is something that I saw in all that I interacted with, more and more as time went on and I weaned off the drugs that kept me compliant.
And everyone, from Shinji to Misato, to Doctor Akagi, and even to Commander Ikari, all felt the same things at their cores, beneath all else that they felt. Fear. Confusion. But also hope. And that hope… is what drives them. Drives all of us. It is what connects us.
To see the soul, regardless of the person, do such hoping, watch as the soul's desire becomes thought, then action, is… wondrous. Perhaps even miraculous. I am uncommonly privileged. But not, it seems, for much longer.
- Personal journal of Rei Ayanami
Tokyo-3 Municipal Mall, Early July 2016
Shinji looked around the spacious, quiet mall, one of a few found in Tokyo-3. It was a decent enough place, and he (or, well, mainly Asuka and Rei) had shopped here before. He was away from the others right now, trying to find some normalcy through shopping as they were, and looked for someone in particular.
The mall still bore the scars of the fighting that had taken place only a little over a month ago. Many stores were still simply bombed out, particle boards covering their fronts and often only allowing a peek into the ruined, charred mess inside.
Other stores, far fewer in number, had only a few stray bullet holes and blast marks, easily repaired. Those that managed those stores counted themselves very lucky indeed.
Even still, the sound of his footsteps echoed far louder than he felt was right, as he scanned the signs of the stores that were still open. It was quick work, and he passed by only a scant few other shoppers as he walked.
As he made his way to the second floor of the mall, he found an open store, its flickering sign showing the green words 'Fine Cameras and Recording' next to a picture of a camera that looked like it had come from the 80s. Within the open front store, Shinji's eyes widened at the sight of a familiar young man peering down at a row of camcorders.
Kensuke looked odd in the new, rectangular glasses that now adorned his face, his familiar round lens frames apparently destroyed in the evacuation of Tokyo-2 just before the Battle of Tokyo-3 began.
As Shinji walked into the store, the middle-aged owner nodding at him as he passed her, Kensuke looked up, his eyes widening as a small smile grew on his face. "Shinji," he said, obviously surprised, "I didn't figure you'd come around to this store."
He paused as he looked around him. "To be honest, I was afraid it got blown up during the battle."
His smile faded, and Shinji could not help the spike of sympathy that he felt as he watched the light leave his friend's eyes somewhat.
Kensuke shook his head after a moment. "Good thing it survived, though. Cause…" he trailed off as he chuckled. "Well, my camcorder didn't. And..."
He trailed off again, and his smile disappeared. "Well, dad… left money in the will so that, if the need ever arose, I could get a new one." he said softly.
A soft scoff escaped Kensuke. "He was always thoughtful like that." he nearly whispered.
Shinji was somewhat unsure of what to say next. Or, rather, he knew what to say, but not how to say it.
Finally, he settled on just telling Kensuke about the news straightforward. "So… Misato's Commander of NERV now." he said quietly.
Kensuke's brow arched slightly as he looked at Shinji. "Oh, really?" he said.
After a moment, he nodded. "Makes sense, I guess. Seeing as your father died, too."
Shinji nodded silently. "Well," he continued after a moment, "Misato says if you want to throw another party for her like last time, she'd enjoy it." he paused. "I guess it wouldn't be a surprise, but…"
Kensuke chuckled softly. "Well, I'll see what I can do." He said. "Can't promise anything spectacular, though. My money's going to be… pretty tight for a little while after I get the camcorder I want."
Shinji nodded. "Alright. I'll let her know."
It was quiet again as Kensuke picked up a camcorder, showing a patient Shinji the many features of the device, Shinji smiling slightly as he watched at least a little part of his friend's old excitement return to him.
"So, I'm guessing that's going to make taking pictures of the battleships and military vehicles you come across that much better, then?" Shinji asked as Kensuke finished showcasing one of the camcorders.
He was somewhat taken aback as Kensuke shook his head. "Nah. I've taken enough pictures of those to last a long, long time. I'm… well, I'm still thinking about what I would want to take pictures of instead."
Shinji blinked for a moment, then understanding bloomed within his mind. After how he lost his father… he couldn't blame him for his sudden shift in interest.
"So…" Shinji said slowly as Kensuke compared two camcorders. "What's next, then?"
"Good question." Kensuke said, putting down one of the camcorders and picking up another. "Technically, I'm a ward of the state here in Tokyo-3. So, I'll be staying here."
"Okay." Shinji said. Then, a flash of memory came to him. "What about the two girls that you were dating? Sayaka and Kyoko?"
Shinji heard Kensuke's breath hitch. "Well," he said quietly, "their families moved them to Tokyo-2. Permanently. Which means I probably won't see them again for… a long time."
Kensuke chuckled softly at the sad look in Shinji's eyes. "It's a bummer, I know. We actually had a pretty good thing going there for a while."
It was silent as Kensuke regarded the camcorders in front of him, then shook his head. "Anyway, back on topic. Like I said, I'm a ward of the state here in Tokyo-3. That means the most obvious choice is to probably go to one of the orphanages that recently opened up. It's either that, or I accept an offer from Doctor Akagi for an internship at NERV." Kensuke continued, and Shinji's eyes grew wide.
"Yeah, I know, right?" Kensuke said. "I have been dabbling in coding, along with some mechanical work, for most of my school life. I'm pretty decent at it too. I guess that's why Doctor Akagi approached me in the first place."
He finally seemed to decide on a camcorder, picking it up as he faced Shinji fully. "I mean, if I accept the internship offer, I get an apartment, a paycheck, and I get to work with you guys. It's a win-win, really, even if I have to 'learn an experimental coding language'. Whatever First Lieutenant Ibuki meant when she said that."
Shinji said nothing, having a pretty good guess at what exactly Miss Ibuki meant.
Kensuke opened his mouth to continue, then his jaw went slack as he looked past Shinji.
"Shinji, man..." he asked quietly after a moment. "Am I seeing things?"
Shinji's expression was puzzled as he turned around, then he smiled slightly as he caught sight of Rei, Kaworu, and Ichigo walking by. Rei caught sight of him as he waved, and she spoke quietly to the others as they stopped and made their way into the shop.
"Hello, Kensuke." Rei said, a serene smile on her face as she took in Kensuke's apparent astonishment.
"Hi, Rei." Kensuke said numbly. "Long time, no see."
He looked over to Ichigo, who studied him intently. "Is this, uh… is this your sister?"
Rei looked over at Ichigo. "Yes, actually. Her story is… complicated."
Ichigo nodded her head. "Rei is correct. My name is Ichigo."
"Hi." Kensuke said almost bashfully, and Shinji could swear that he was blushing slightly. "I'm Kensuke. I'm Shinji and Rei's friend."
Kensuke extended a hand, and Ichigo regarded it for a moment before slowly taking it, giving a single shake.
"Good to meet you." Ichigo said quietly.
"Same." Kensuke said.
He paused for a moment. "So, wait a minute. How come I've never seen you around then? Were you, like, homeschooled or something?"
Ichigo looked to Rei and Kaworu, then to Shinji, the whole group silent for a moment.
"Uh… guys?" Kensuke said, looking around at the rest of the group. "What do you know that I don't? Cause I'm seeing a lot of glances at each other right now."
"Well…" Shinji began. "First things first, are you going to accept the NERV internship?"
"Well…" Kensuke replied slowly. "Yeah, honestly. I'm guessing that it has to do with some classified information?"
"That would be putting it mildly." Kaworu finally said, and Kensuke regarded Kaworu properly.
"You transferred in recently, didn't you?" Kensuke asked. As Kaworu nodded, Kensuke did the same. "Figures. I wouldn't really have noticed. I was with… Sayaka and Kyoko." The pause was minute, but it was noticeable.
"Indeed." Kaworu said. "But," he continued after a moment, "there are other matters to discuss."
"Alright. Let me go ahead and get this camcorder." Kensuke said. Already, his mind was whirling. What could they possibly tell him? Was it about the Evangelions? Where Rei came from? Where Ichigo had apparently been all this time?
Well, there was only one way to find out, Kensuke thought, as he steeled himself for whatever might come next.
. . .
Kensuke exited the mall in a daze, as what he had learned in the past… was it really an hour and a half? spun around in his head like a mad carnival ride.
His mother's soul was safe somewhere? NERV had narrowly averted the apocalypse, multiple times? Rei, and by extension, Ichigo, were clones composed of an alien being deep within the Geofront?
That didn't even touch the parts that concerned things from outside of the universe or the magic that they called Interfacing.
Kensuke's whole… well, everything had turned upside down. Now, he lagged a little behind his friends, behind Shinji and Toji and their girlfriends (as weird as it was thinking about Shinji and Asuka, of all people, hooking up), behind Rei and Kaworu and Ichigo, as they walked back home, looking down at his feet. How could he measure up to his friends now? They were… so far out of his league that trying to catch up to them somehow seemed laughable. They were heroes, practically sorcerers. What was he, besides some guy with glasses and a camera?
"Do you mind if I walk with you?"
Kensuke jumped slightly as he looked to his side, and found Ichigo there, looking at him intently with her deep red eyes.
It was silent for a moment as they regarded each other. "No, no." Kensuke said quickly. "It's fine."
They walked together for a little while in a silence that could be called companionable. Then, Ichigo looked over at Kensuke, who had once again cast his gaze to the ground. "I know that look." she said quietly.
Kensuke blinked. "What do you mean?" he said, looking back up at Ichigo with no small amount of suspicion.
"Your entire world, everything that you know to be true, is either gone or seriously in question. Or was never there in the first place. You're confused, somewhat scared, and…" Ichigo trailed off for a moment as she looked ahead to the others. "You're not sure what to think of the people you were sure you knew more than anything in the world."
Kensuke looked over at Ichigo with wide eyes. "How do you…" he whispered, trailing off.
Ichigo's expression was veiled in a slight sadness. "Because, up until the Battle of Tokyo-3, I believed myself to be Rei Ayanami. I was given her memories, in an edited form. Then…" she trailed off as she went silent for a moment. "The truth was presented to me." she nearly whispered. "And I had no idea what to do."
It was silent again for a long moment as Kensuke processed this. "How…" he trailed off as he tried to find what he wanted to ask. "How do you get out of that?" he finally settled on. "Do you know?"
Ichigo looked into the middle distance as she pondered the question. "Well," she finally said, "I decided to find out who I could be. If I was no longer Rei Ayanami, then what could I, as Ichigo, do? It has been… fascinating, exploring what interests I might have."
"What have you done so far?" Kensuke asked, his eyes beginning to gleam with an old, almost forgotten light.
"Well," Ichigo said, pushing a strand of her green hair out of the way, "I have mostly explored what I can do creatively to distinguish myself. So far, I have mostly explored artistic avenues, especially painting and pottery."
Kensuke nodded. Not really his forte, but interesting nonetheless. Ichigo continued as she looked over at him. "What do you do?"
"Well," Kensuke said as he cupped his chin in thought, "I do photography, obviously." he said as he almost unconsciously wiggled the bag that he carried slightly. "I make models, and I tinker with small mechanics as well. Mostly robotics and firearms that my father allowed me to work with."
"Could you…" Ichigo said, trailing off as Kensuke looked back at her. "Tell me more? Perhaps show me some of these things?"
A smile began to grow as Kensuke nodded. "Sure!" he said, and a small smile appeared on Ichigo's face.
"I mean, most of my stuff from my apartment here survived, miraculously." Kensuke continued. "I just have to get it out of storage first. But let me start by explaining things."
He looked over at Ichigo with an excited expression. "So, first off, here's the basic deal with model building…"
Up ahead, Rei could not help but smile as she glanced back. Kensuke had needed what Ichigo had to offer, just as Ichigo would benefit from a new friend who was less… connected than they all were to each other.
She looked back ahead. It was good to see the light in Kensuke's eyes when he talked about his passions again. Just like it was good to see that light beginning to reflect in Ichigo's eyes as well.
. . .
Ritsuko's Lab, NERV HQ, Geofront
Ritsuko looked intently at the screen of her computer as she listened to Maya type on her own computer a few feet away from her. 'Daniel and Eleanor should be here any minute now.'
As she waited, she remembered what Maya had told her about her mother the evening she returned from New York. She looked over at Maya, who continued to look, frankly, adorable as her expression edged on pouting as she concentrated on the baseline plans for the Evangelion Platform Replication Project. 'Well… I should have time for at least a quick talk.'
"Maya." She said, and Maya blinked as she looked over. "I'm going to have a private chat with mother. If Daniel and Eleanor get here before I'm done, just set up and get me up to speed when I get back."
Maya nodded in understanding. "Alright. Will do."
Ritsuko stood and went into an adjacent room, the door sliding shut behind her with a quiet hiss. It was where the main computer bank was stored, a backup in case the Magi ever failed. The fact that the Magi resided in it anyways spoke to the system's importance and pervasiveness.
As Ritsuko came to a stop in front of one of the monitors, she took a deep breath as she sat in the chair facing it. After a moment to prepare herself, she typed out a message in a specialized chat room, only readable by her, Maya, and her mother. 'Mother? Are you there?'
As she pressed send, she waited for a moment. Then, she blinked, managing not to jump too much as the face of Naoko Akagi appeared on the screen before her.
It had been so long since she had actually seen the face of her mother. Most of her pictures were elsewhere, either tucked away out of sight or destroyed. She'd forgotten how much she looked like her, save for the bleached blonde hair that Ritsuko had used to distinguish herself.
"Hello, dear." Naoko said, her expression serious. "It's been a while."
"That it has." Ritsuko said wearily.
"How was New York?" Naoko asked, her expression softening slightly.
Ritsuko sighed explosively as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "About as well as it could have, reliving many of my worst mistakes for all the world to see. The worst part is how long it took, really."
"Ah." Naoko said, her image on the screen nodding sagely. "The UN are still ever the masters of thoroughness, I see."
Ritsuko chuckled darkly. "Indeed." she paused for a moment to consider what to say next. "How were things here?"
"Oh, just peachy." Naoko said, a slight smile coming to her face. "Your girlfriend is a real sweetheart, as I'm sure you know quite well."
Ritsuko smiled. "That I do. She remarked on you keeping life interesting around here."
A cocksure smile crossed Naoko's face. "Well, when I've got little more to do besides managing the most powerful computer in the world?" she said assuredly. "I have to find something to keep myself sane."
It was quiet for a moment afterward as Naoko's smile faded. "I…" Naoko said, trailing off.
She sighed quietly. "I've missed you, Ritsuko." she said simply.
It was silent again. "I…" Ritsuko said, trailing off as well. How did she respond to that? How did she respond to hearing that from the woman who had been perhaps the most absent in her life up until only a few months ago?
"You know…" Ritsuko finally said. "I don't know how long I've waited to hear that from you."
"I mean," she continued, "my whole life I've respected you as a scientist, as a woman with depths of knowledge. But…" she grasped at the air as she trailed off.
"I've hardly been a competent mother." Naoko said quietly.
"That's almost putting it lightly." Ritsuko said. She didn't know why she was standing now. She instinctively reached for her cigarettes, then stopped. Neither Maya or her mother would quite appreciate the smoke getting into the machines. Her hand twitched.
"I mean, all the time you gave to GEHIRN, to the Magi, to… to Gendo," she continued, her voice beginning to rise, "and barely a single second could be spared for your own daughter."
It was all coming out now, years of confusion, of anger and jealousy and guilt, and Ritsuko barely cared to stop it.
"And in order to feel like I could even be anywhere near you, get even a shred of your praise, I had to do all this, be burdened by the sins that GEHIRN would take part of, that NERV would take part of, just so every once in a while I could hear you say 'Good job, Ritsuko'!"
"But no. All your focus was on the Magi, your new child. All your focus was on Gendo, who played the both of us like we were cheaply made slide whistles! And where was I? Being a perfectly serviceable lab assistant, just like you needed from me."
Ritsuko finally paused for a moment to catch her now heaving breath before she continued. "And then, when you died, I finally just… just… had it. If I couldn't connect with you, why would I ever be like you?"
Ritsuko paused again as she seemed to deflate. "And yet… I turned out to be just like you there, for a while. Even with my dyed hair, even with everything I did to make sure I could never see you when I looked at myself in the mirror…" She chuckled softly. "I still became you. All the same wants. All the same jealousies…"
Ritsuko walked slowly back to the chair in front of the monitor, sinking back into it with a sigh. "It was like you never left." Ritsuko whispered.
The silence in the air pressed down almost oppressively now as a silent tear ran down Ritsuko's face before she blinked. "I'm sorry," she said, shaking her head and wiping her eyes, "that… kind of came out of nowhere."
"No, it didn't." Naoko said. "You are far smarter than me, and it shows. You saw what was happening, even if it took time. I never did."
Naoko paused for a moment and chuckled grimly. "At least, not while I was alive."
Naoko shook her head. "But now," she continued, "we have a fresh start. You have a fresh start in Maya. And I…" she chuckled again with a sad smile. "I had mine here in the Magi."
Naoko's smile faded. "But… As wondrous as this all is, I can't help but miss being able to… to hug you. To hold you in my arms and wonder at how amazing you could be."
Ritsuko looked up at the image of her mother. "You want to have a body again." She said simply.
"It would be nice, wouldn't it?" Naoko admitted. "To be able to experience that again."
Naoko sighed. "But right now, I still have work to do in here. Looking for SEELE, for this Marlowe Child, making sure that there isn't another digital attack… Right now, popping into another body is a luxury it seems I don't have the time for."
Ritsuko pondered on her mother's words silently for a moment. "Well…" she said. "I have some ideas on that. I'll think about it and get back to you."
Naoko's eyes widened slightly. "Oh." she said softly.
It was silent again for a moment. Now, though, the silence was one of contemplation. "Thank you."
Ritsuko smiled slightly. "Of course, mother."
. . .
Ritsuko and Naoko talked for a little while longer, then Ritsuko said her goodbyes as she got out a notepad and began to scribble down her ideas.
As she passed through the door back into the main lab, she looked up to see that Daniel and Eleanor had arrived and that Maya was assisting them in moving a few pieces of small machinery, which mainly consisted of two small pillar-like pedestals, and two larger, rectangular slabs. Each had a smooth, black surface with little in the way to outwardly indicate their function.
Maya looked back at Ritsuko and smiled, waving after she set one of the pedestals in place. "Hello! Did your chat go well?"
Ritsuko looked at Maya and could see the concern that she hid behind her chipper expression. In response, she gave a wan smile. "Somewhat exhausting. Informative. A little soul-searching. All in all, par for the course."
The concern she saw behind Maya's eyes disappeared as her smile widened, and Ritsuko couldn't help but smile a little wider herself.
She scanned the new additions to the lab's space with a raised eyebrow. "And what new implements of science would I be looking at?" she said, aiming her gaze at Daniel as she came to a stop by one of the waist-high pedestals.
"Well," Daniel said, looking over at Eleanor, "I think that Eleanor could give a far better explanation than I could."
Ritsuko's gaze turned to Eleanor, and her eyebrow arched slightly.
"So," Eleanor said, setting down the slab that she and Daniel carried and placing her hands on her hips, "these are databanks that allow for the display, viewing, and manipulation of data related to Metos and other elements on the Pneumaic level."
"And these," she said, gesturing to one of the pedestals, "act as both monitors and tool storage."
Ritsuko nodded appreciatively as she approached one of the databanks, noting a glowing green rune that pulsed intermittently. She tapped it, and a line of white light went across the top of the slab before lifting up into the air, dragging a long, wide screen with it until it stopped, hanging in the air a few inches above the device.
Ritsuko and Maya looked at the sight with wide eyes, wondering at the windows that began to display on the screen. "Wow…" Maya said quietly. "It's like the holographic tables onboard some of the newer American naval vessels."
Ritsuko merely nodded silently as she intently studied a display of what was labeled as a typical Vent Frame, which looked almost like a branch filled with leaves, each one precise in its geometry.
"And the kicker," Eleanor said, drawing the two scientists' attention as she activated the display of the second databank and walked over to them, "is this."
She grabbed the display with one hand, and pulled it off the screen, carrying it to the center of the circle that the machines had now made, and released it to float in midair as Ritsuko and Maya watched with wide eyes. "You can take the displays you're working on anywhere you want within this area." she said, unmistakably proud of herself.
"Where did you get these?" Maya said as she ogled at the databank's displays.
"Well," Eleanor said, "I made them with the help of my ship the Errant's fabricators." She paused for a moment. "Assembly took more than a little time with just Daniel and me, but we used the Infinity Box to get around most of that."
"I see." Ritsuko said, walking over to one of the pedestals. "And what do these contain?"
Eleanor walked over to the pedestal Ritsuko was studying and tapped one of the sides. An outline of light pulsed, and a compartment opened, containing a rack of what appeared to be handheld devices and visors, along with two sleek, yet geometric pods, all of which seemed a little much to fit into the seemingly small space that it emerged from. "The whole pedestal contains different tools that we'll be using over the course of the project. Right now…"
Eleanor picked up one of the visors and one of the tools. "These will help us get started with the first part of this project. That being, scanning one of the Evangelions."
"Scanning them?" Maya said, walking over to Ritsuko's side as Eleanor handed the visor and the tool to Ritsuko and picked up one of the pods.
"Yep." Eleanor said. "In order to replicate an Evangelion using Interfacing, we're going to need to know what they look like on the Pneumaic level. These drones will need to scan one of them from top to bottom to ensure we have the best possible start."
"So…" Ritsuko said as a gleam began to glow in her eyes. "Let's get started, then."
. . .
Off the Coast of Egypt, 7 Days Later
Mariah leaned against the railing of the ship as she peered at the coasts of Africa with wide eyes, taking in everything at once. It was a good day for her, even with all the traveling. She could focus on things now without having to rely too heavily on the Thrill, which even still glowed like an ember within her chest.
Even still, her gaze jumped from place to place, drinking in the sights of the Egyptian coast almost as much as she drank the water she held to stave off the heat.
It had been a somewhat interesting lead-up to coming here, getting to see some of the sights of the Mediterranean as she passed through it. But afterward, it was going to be a long, boring blue ocean that waited for her.
She finished her drink as she pouted at the tragedy of the moment. Then, she straightened up and turned away from the view as they passed through into the Suez Channel proper, the canal built decades ago now turned into a far more massive causeway by the melting of the Antarctic ice at Second Impact.
As she went down into the ship, tossing her drink into a trashcan in passing, she got out her phone and forced herself to look over the briefing packet that Commander Townsend had given her one more time, just to make sure that she knew everything about what she was getting into.
She skimmed the parts that she knew she had memorized. The mission was about retrieving some Lance or another and making sure that they got a hold of some big white thing called Lilith, she'd be accompanied by some Mass-Production Evangelions who'd take things from there, and should expect at least 4 enemy Evangelions, with the possibility of there being up to six, blah, blah, blah. That was basically ancient history by now.
She slowed as she got to the part of the briefing document that still interested her. She would be going into battle not just with the automated MP-Evas, but with two other manned Evangelions as well.
She had wondered at first if the ashen-haired boy would be one of them when Townsend told her about that. Kaworu was a nice enough puppy, once you got past the weird eyes and slightly creepy smile. She'd trained him for a little while as she was finishing with getting her feet under her in the simulators, and, she had to admit, he was actually pretty good.
But no, sadly, she thought as her pout began to return. It disappeared as she considered the names, faces, and most excitingly, the Evangelions, of her two (two!) wingmates. Now, they… they could be fun. Or at the very least interesting.
. . .
Uluru Blacksite, Australian Outback
A phone rang in the pocket of a suit jacket, and its owner pulled it out to answer it.
As the phone beeped, its owner steeled himself for the inevitable.
"Major Howard." The deep, rough voice of former Chairman Lorenz Kihl said simply.
"Yes, sir. Speaking." Major Terrence Howard said, fighting for a moment to not run a hand through his chestnut brown hair to straighten it out.
"Are Beta Child and Cephus Child prepared to sortie?" Kihl asked.
"Yes sir. At a moment's notice." Major Howard replied.
"No need for such alacrity, Major. Alpha Child will be arriving at your location in approximately 25 days. Then, the operation will commence."
"Very well, sir." He paused for a moment as he caught himself before saying the names of the Children under his command. "I'll make sure they're up to speed and ready when Alpha Child arrives."
"Good. You and the Children who will be under your command will not fail us." There was no questioning, only a command, an order to be carried out to the fullest to ensure the salvation of all mankind.
The line went dead without another word, and Major Howard kept the concern he felt from showing in his hazel eyes. 'Mana… Mayumi… I hope you're ready. Hell, I hope I'm ready.'