Chapter 28: Eye of the Storm
Who's to say how much it will take to make it so that the League, and their cronies here on Earth, step back and allow us the space and time we need to grow? Even I cannot fully tell. But I do know this. We survived the Second Impact, and the Impact Wars that followed. We survived Angels seemingly willing to destroy the world. Who's to say we cannot be unified again, to show the League that we can create a world that is perfect, without their interference?
- To Stand Apart, Post 15
Kishimiya District, Tokyo-2, September 18th, 2014 Hours
Daniel Theisman walked the streets of a twilight Tokyo-2, seemingly alone. The I-Breaker had cloaked again, and was walking a ways off. Apparently, though he was watching over the Lone World chapter here, his employer's Geas made it so that he could not be seen by them. Such a thing left him alone with his thoughts.
They swirled like a hurricane as he got closer to his destination, plans and tactics for saving the Children of every kind that he could think of that started with walking in the front door unarmed brought up, considered, then discarded in seconds, all due to one overwhelming, implacable fact. 'If I try to do anything, the Children die. And I don't know what could happen to their souls. If it were just the Lone World, I'd be a bit more confident, but… there's someone else at play.'
He couldn't help but grimace at how useless he felt in the face of this. How little all his power really mattered right now. It was an old feeling, really. He should have been ready for it, he thought darkly.
The thoughts continued to pick at him regardless as he approached his destination, a warehouse in the middle of a quiet part of the district. Daniel looked the building up and down, and shook his head as he sighed quietly. "Why is it always warehouses?" he muttered to himself.
He walked to the door and knocked, waiting for a moment before the door cracked open. "You Daniel Theisman?" a pair of eyes peeking from the side that belonged to a young woman asked.
Daniel simply nodded, and the door opened further. "In. Now." the woman said, nodding back into the warehouse.
As he entered the spacious interior, he took stock of the room he found himself in. Much of the floorspace was dedicated to temporary partitions made of curtains, particle board, and thin sheet metal, behind which he could only discern the souls of somewhere around 3 or 4 dozen people. In the back, a cluster of six rooms, offices or break rooms or server banks, or whatever other things the previous owners used them for, sat above the floor, two staircases their only access points
Far more prominent, however, were the six gurneys in full view of the entrance, attached IV drips pumping what he assumed was sedative into the Children. And their guards, armed with submachine guns and pistols, pointed casually at the Children.
His jaw set as he focussed on the collars around the Children's necks, utterly black. Pneumaically, his Sight showed that they were like limpets, sucking out the Metos within their souls at a barely sustainable level. 'Expression Inhibitors. Interfacer containment I've only seen once before. Hell, put a dash of red on the front, and we have a terrible irony on our hands. Who is this puppeteer pulling the Lone World strings?'
Another man, holding an open Expression Inhibitor, a section within it glowing slightly, stepped forward. "You're putting this on. No funny business around here." he said in a tone that brooked no argument.
"There wouldn't be any 'funny business' without it, either." Daniel replied, a quiet snarl underlying a calm demeanor.
The man paused, then looked back at one of the guards, who began to motion the barrel of her gun towards Asuka's head. "Trust me." the man replied as he looked back at Daniel. "There would be."
Daniel's fist clenched along with his jaw for the briefest of seconds, and he caught himself spinning up an Expression. No. Not yet. Not until the Children were safe.
He slowly nodded, and the man walked forward, clasping the Inhibitor around Daniel's neck, stepping back as Daniel winced as a sharp pain pronounced the collar's activation as his Sight shut off, the slight enhancement to his senses disappearing as he became, after the longest time, perhaps the closest he could ever be to fully human again.
"Alright, then." Daniel said, rubbing slightly at the spot where the collar attached to his soul. "What next?"
In response, the man drew a pistol, obviously alien in origin, and fired it at his chest, Daniel jumping slightly as he felt something silently slam into him.
To his great surprise, he wasn't dying bleeding on the floor, as he looked down and saw the dart sticking out. He felt the overwhelming urge, however, to sleep. And as his vision tunneled into darkness, he felt… something, reassuring him. Himself? Someone else? He couldn't tell. 'How odd.'
Then, nothing.
. . .
Hotel Room, Tokyo-2
John Price did something that he usually didn't, which took quite an effort to achieve in even the most pressing of circumstances. He paced around the small living room as he glanced from time to time at Ghost, sitting at his laptop with a phone seemingly glued to his face, listening to his reply to Jem as they scanned through hotels, camera system by camera system.
Jem was proving to be a real rockstar, whatever timezone she happened to be in, combing the Kotoban and Hasarigaru districts as quickly as she could. Some hotel systems proved to be somewhat tricky to get into, making the duration between the switch for some last for minutes before she got to the next. Add on top of that the fact that, even within only two districts, there were hundreds of possible locations that they could be at, and the pressure of having to outstrip several special forces groups, one of them native to the area, the result left Price somewhat… impatient.
"How many left?" he asked brusquely as he paused for a moment, staring intently at the laptop as if willing it to give Ghost the proper answer.
Ghost repeated the question to Jem, then paused for a moment before looking at Price. "She says we've got maybe 25 left out of 105."
Price took a deep breath. "Alright." he said quietly as he resumed his pacing, suppressing an annoyed growl.
After minutes more, Ghost looked back up. "Got it." he said, drawing all in the room towards the computer. "1226 Hasarigaru, 40 minutes from here."
Price looked down at the screen, saw stills from security camera feeds that showed the pilots of NERV walking in and out of the building with their superior officers, but most importantly, on a still timestamped '16/9/5 AM 1100', was his daughter, walking with two of the pilots, a few other girls, and a man, out of the hotel lobby.
That was all Price needed. "Alright, then." he began as he moved towards their stash of weapons and armor. "Let's suit up and go get her. Covert, but combat ready."
As the others moved to prepare themselves, Julius Marlowe couldn't help but be somewhat excited. Even hopeful. 'Not yet.' John Price replied. 'Get the girl to safety first, then I can go back into the ground where I belong.'
With thin, but strong plates in plate carriers under zipped-up jackets, and submachine guns tucked away in backpacks, they were out the door, into the van, and on the road in minutes.
As Soap drove, the others behind him and Price doing the best they could to distract themselves from the fact that they had just entered a race to a finish line they just learned about, he glanced over at Price. "Do you think our friendly opposition found them too?" he asked.
"Hell, I'm surprised that they hadn't found them in the first place." Price replied. "It is the SFG's city after all. Maybe they have, and they just needed the time to marshal their allied forces."
"Either way," Price continued, "we're on the clock. And we need to beat it pretty handily in order to make sure we accomplish our objectives."
He looked back at Ghost, who finished holstering a pistol. "Make sure to have Jem spoof the spotters off of Moto's family when we arrive."
As Ghost nodded, Roach spoke up. "What about the other kids, sir?" he asked as he did one last check on his MP5K. "Are they considered to be of secondary importance to Mariah?"
Price looked out the window at the city they made their way through. He could leave. Based on what he'd seen of the UN judiciary meeting, they'd have the equivalent of several, well, basically magicians keeping an eye on them. But, as he knew well from far too many foiled super soldier programs during the Wars, for all the power that they had, all it would take was one bullet in the wrong place to make such power useless.
"Negative." he finally said. "We'll ensure that they're protected before we leave with her."
He shook his head. "Bloody girl's probably friends with most of them by now, anyway." he muttered.
. . .
Kishimiya Warehouse, 2032 Hours
Slowly, but surely, Daniel Theisman began to struggle back to consciousness.
The first thing he noticed was that he was sitting, and that he could not move. His hands and feet were bound, and he appeared to at least be in a somewhat comfortable chair, he noted with some grim amusement.
As his vision came to him, he began to look around himself. He was in a small room, an office of some kind that had its blinders closed and the door shut, and had been cleared of almost all other furniture save for the simple chair that he sat on and a few other empty chairs scattered about the space that he could see. The being that stood in front of him deigned not to use them.
He felt the Expression Inhibitor around his neck, a gentle tugging sensation at the point where it attached to his soul feeling not unlike a soft bite, as he finally focused on who was in front of him.
He stood in stark contrast with the room's lights, pale white and lime green skin stark in the light blue-walled room, his pitch-black eyes looking intently into the face of a man who had seen him before. "Vinis." Daniel said quietly.
"Mr. Theisman." Mashor Vinis levelly replied. "If that is, in fact, still your name."
"This is a long way from Siberia, I must say." Daniel began after a moment's regard. "So, you're the one puppeteering the Lone Worlders. What did you promise them in return?"
"My support to their cause. After the world has been put right, I would advocate that the League allow this world time to develop and get back on its feet. Give it the choice it deserves, so to say. It made them quite pliable assets. Not unlike your assets which we are holding out there. I wonder what you told them to ensure their loyalty."
"Assets?" Daniel repeated in shocked disgust. "They are my family." he growled. "You demean them by calling them that."
"I see." Vinis said coolly. "Perhaps the Scion mindset about such things is… different."
"The Scion…" Daniel's eyes widened as his face slackened from anger to shock. "You think I'm still the Hollow Saint." he said numbly.
Vinis's eyes only narrowed slightly. "I do not simply presume. I know. You were, after all, the face of the Unity War in the greater Reality. After your defeat, you disappear, then begin to go from world to world, building a shadow network of assets that you can call upon at a moment's notice to begin your 'holy work' again, all under the guise of your former self, having come to his senses and looking to atone for his actions. It's almost brilliant, really."
"Why, then? Why all this, when you could just accuse me openly?"
Vinis was silent for a moment. "Do you know that, in the history of salarian intelligence agencies, of all the files that we keep on potential enemies of all kinds, all numbered meticulously so as to be called upon instantaneously, yours is the only file to have a name?"
Daniel slowly began to put the pieces together.
"It began only a few years after the incident on Eden Prime concerning then Commander Shephard. After the discovery of the Reapers, the Scions of Unity came, and one of them, one who we would name 'The Star Dragon', promised a solution. A way to shackle the Reapers, contain them so that our civilizations would not be swept away. This man led the unification of the disparate nations into a true alliance, so as to enact the plan that he had proposed."
Vinis paused. "It took great sacrifice. So many died in the war with the Reapers, thousands of worlds burned to ashes, Sur'Kesh, our home, among them. We became a vagabond people, living only to fight and die."
The slightest edge of anger pierced the calm, collected tone of Vinis's voice. "And when we had spent ourselves to achieve victory, when the Reapers had been taken under the Scion's control… you left. Left broken fragments of what were once mighty nations that spanned the stars, the ashes of untold billions, to gain the slightest advantage in your quest."
It was silent again for long moments. "I was a boy then. And I promised myself, on my dead friends and family, that I would bring justice for all the silent souls that now wandered this broken universe. I promised… that I would bring you to justice."
Daniel took it all in, a familiar, forlorn weight heavy on his heart. "I'm not surprised you are as such. And I am sorry that things have led to this moment between us. But I must ask… you can look at my soul, correct?"
"Of course, I am Interfaced." Vinis replied quickly. "It is what has allowed me to live as long as I have needed to bring you what you deserve."
"Then, if you can see my soul now," Daniel continued, "do you know what the soul of the Hollow Saint looks like? Do you know that one of the Guides attached itself like a parasite to it?"
Daniel could not use the Sight, could not see beyond the alien, inscrutable look on Vinis's face. He desperately hoped that he could convince him.
"I see what you are trying to do." Vinis finally said, his tone deflating any hope Daniel had. "Playing upon the knowledge that we lack in order to perhaps free yourself in order to continue your work. Your ploy has failed against me."
Vinis stepped back, taking a pad from a pocket on his side. "You will be transported to a salarian vessel cloaked in orbit in 2 hours."
"And my prepared speech that I'm giving for the Lone World to what I'm assuming is the rest of the world?"
"We have prepared your speech." Vinis said as a portal opened silently next to him. "You will be speaking to all Reality, decrying your actions, disbanding your shadow network and discouraging all assets from attempting to continue your work, and turning yourself in to be judged and sentenced by the League of Independent Echoes."
Vinis paused. "I am finally ready to see justice served this day. Prepare for such."
With that, he stepped into the portal, the tear in space shutting without a sound, and Daniel dipped his head and sighed, a tear sliding down his cheek.
. . .
Misato's Apartment
Misato sat with Ritsuko and Maya as she watched and somewhat listened to Mariah elucidating on Warhammer 40,000 to the other girls and Kensuke, the Ikari's, Naoko and Kyoko having a separate conversation in one of the bedrooms. It seemed a rather bleak place, a mostly totalitarian galaxy embroiled in endless war, but it had its interesting elements. One of them, the Eldar, stood out to her particularly.
"Hey, Mari." she said, leaning forward as she got the group's attention. "Would one of the names of the Eldar be the Aeldari?"
Mariah paused for a moment, cupping her chin thoughtfully. "Yes, actually." she said slowly. "It is. Why do you ask?"
Misato smiled slightly. "Oh, we just have a few running around as part of the League. One in the diplomatic delegation, one in the Outriders. They aren't from just… what did you call them, the Craftworlds?" Mariah nodded. "But they're here."
Mariah's eyes went wide. "Woah." she said, utterly in awe. "Can… can I meet them?"
Misato chuckled. "I'm sure I can probably arrange something."
Mariah positively glowed in excitement. "That's awesome! I have so many different questions for them. Like what it's like being in the Webway, or how their view of a soul is different from ours, or what a Tyranid smells like, or-"
Before she could continue, there was a knock at the door, drawing everyone's attention towards it. "I'll get it." Misato said offhandedly as she stood, looking with the Sight as she walked to the door. Four men. Pretty big, probably military or ex-military. Anxious. Prepared for... something.
She opened it, looking up at a white man with mutton chops connected to a mustache, three others standing behind him.
"Hello." the man said in Japanese. "We're looking for Mariah Marlowe."
"Yeah." Misato said slowly. "She's here. I'll get her."
She looked behind her into the living room. "Mari! Someone's here to see you."
As Mariah walked into the entryway, her eyes grew wide. "Dad! What are you doing here?"
Misato stepped aside as Mariah rushed to take who was apparently her father into a bear hug. "Looking for you, obviously." the man replied with a quiet chuckle. "And it looks like it's mission accomplished."
Mariah groaned after a moment. "You know, hugs with an armor plate in between them aren't all that comfortable, Dad."
Misato's eyes widened slightly as she stepped back, and all in the vicinity felt the temperature drop a few degrees as her Grip appeared in her hand.
The man raised his hand as he stood from the hug. "We're not here to hurt anyone present, Commander Katsuragi. I'm just here for my daughter. I'd be here for her mother, too, but…"
He went quiet for a moment as Misato's Grip disappeared. Mariah stepped back, her expression filled with shock. "You knew about mom?" she nearly whispered.
Dad drew himself back, a deep sigh and a weary look coming into being. "Yeah, nightlight. I did. I had to keep my mouth shut, or else SEELE would have disposed of me. I'm sorry, kiddo. I wish I could have told you sooner."
Mari looked at him for a little while longer, then nodded. "Alright. But you won't just have to apologize to me. Mom will want a word once she's out of Unit-05."
Dad's eyes widened, his mouth dropping slightly as he looked over at Misato. "You mean…" he whispered.
Misato simply nodded. "Yes. Mari Makinami is going to be extracted as soon as we have at least three Frame Titans ready to deploy."
Dad took a deep breath. "Alright." he shook his head slightly. "But right now, we have somewhat more pressing matters to deal with. Such as the special forces teams that are on their way to terminate the Children."
The man got everyone's attention with that as he and the other three men stepped into the apartment and took stock of the children present. "Where are the other pilots?" he asked. "They'll need to be gathered together here so that we can keep them safe."
"That's the thing." Ritsuko said. "They've been kidnapped by the Lone World movement."
The man's eyes widened, then shut as he shook his head with a sigh. "Christ." he muttered. "Just what we needed."
"And why does that concern you?" Ritsuko said, a hint of caution in her voice. "After all, like you said, you're just here for your daughter. Like it or not, we can take care of ourselves, should it come to it."
One of the men behind Dad narrowed his eyes. "We're special forces, ma'am. We understand sacrifice when needed. But we're still human. We're not going to leave a bunch of children to die for the sake of one."
"Which is why we're staying and preparing you for what's coming." another said firmly. "It's tight quarters for any sort of defense, but we can make it work for us."
It was silent for a moment as the other adults emerged from the bedroom, regarding the new visitors with a wary eye. Finally, Misato sighed slightly as she stepped forward. "Well, far be it from me to turn down help when it presents itself."
She extended a hand towards Dad. "And what would your name be, sir?"
Dad glanced at Mariah, then back at Misato for a moment before taking the hand in a firm shake. "Julius Marlowe, Price, Blackadder. This is Soap, Ghost, and Roach."
"Blackadder…" Misato murmured. "It sounds familiar."
"I believe we had a squad in South America during your time in the SFG." Julius replied.
"Oh, yeah." Misato said, nodding slowly and chuckling softly. "Gaz and Otter. Odd duo scout-snipers."
Julius smirked slightly. "That's right." the smirk disappeared as he continued. "But we'll reminisce later. Let's get this place defensible. Then we can worry about securing the other Children."
Misato smirked confidently. "No need to worry about that. We have someone taking care of it."
. . .
Kishimiya Warehouse, 2120 Hours
Daniel sat quietly in the office, left alone as he waited for his 4 hours to be up. His armor nano-cuffs had returned to his pocket, their auto-return protocol going off without a hitch. With his hands behind his back and the mental link to them, which depended on Pneumaic power, severed, however, reaching them was out of the question
Tied up as he was, with his clear-pad and earbuds confiscated, he made do with what he had. That being, a soft, quiet singing voice.
"I think we're alone now." he sang somewhat ironically, his head bobbing slightly from side to side. "And every pair of genes is a hand-me-down…"
He paused for a moment as his brow furrowed. "Wait a minute." another pause. "What were the original lyrics again?"
He shook his head after a moment, chuckling softly. "Damn you, Weird Al Yankovic."
He continued to hum the tune regardless.
As he hummed, he caught movement from the corner of his eye, glancing to his left. There was nothing. Just chairs by the door and the shadows under them. Wait a minute…
"-there doesn't seem to be anyone around." a bodiless voice, muffled yet familiar, began to sing along as the shadows moved out from under the chairs. "I think we're alone now. The beating of our hearts is the only sound."
Daniel smiled as the shadows began to ripple and bulge from the floor, coalescing into the welcome sight of Eleanor and Ryoji.
Daniel heaved a sigh of relief. "Well, I hate to drag you from what you were doing, but I can't say that you aren't a sight for sore eyes."
"This is what we were doing, Daniel." Eleanor replied as she advanced towards him, her Grip fashioned into a small knife as she cut at his restraints. "You didn't think that we'd just let you barge in to try and save the Children on your own, did you?"
As Daniel stood, rubbing at his wrists, Kaji nodded to the Expression Inhibitor that he wore. "What's that? Something to stop you from Interfacing?"
A somewhat shocked expression appeared on Eleanor's face as she noticed the collar as well. "In essence, yes. These Inhibitors come in a lot of forms, but they're all used to contain captured Interfacers. Someone was ready for you."
"They were ready for the kids, too." Daniel said, a hard look in his eyes. "How long have you been here?"
"About 30 minutes, most of it spent looking around this place." Ryoji replied. "There's about 45 or so people here, mostly armed with pistols and rifles, a few submachine guns scattered around. In the middle of it all, what we're presuming is the cloaking device and the kids are right next to each other."
Daniel nodded slowly. "Well, I can tell you where they got the Inhibitors, the cloaking device, the Expression rounds used to knock us out, all of it. It's Vinis. He has a vendetta against me based on my actions while I was the Hollow Saint."
A quiet gasp went up between the two of them. Ryoji shook his head. "And all this cloak and dagger nonsense to get at you when he could have just come and decked you in the face." he chuckled grimly.
"It's a very salarian form of warfare." Daniel replied as he put his nano-cuffs back on. "No statement of intent, no obvious movements. A lot of intelligence gathering, followed by a quick, easy defeat of an unprepared enemy." Daniel shook his head. "And he pulled it off masterfully."
After a moment's rumination, Daniel looked at the other two with determination in his eyes. "So, what's the plan?"
"Well," Ryoji said with a slight shrug, "I was going to get you and the kids out of here with my shadowrunning, get those collars off, and then we'd move on from there."
Daniel nodded. "Alright. However…"
It was quiet for a moment. "We need to make sure they can't do this again. If they can pull this off, even with needing Vinis's support, they can do it again now that they have the resources on hand. We need to deal with them, here and now. So while the end goal stays mostly the same, we can't just sneak out and leave these kids behind to wreak more havoc."
"So, with that in mind," Eleanor said after a moment, "how does the plan change?"
"Well…" Daniel began as he crossed his arms in an x, the cuffs touching and beeping for a moment before he brought the arms to his chest, activating the armor as it spread over him. "It gets just a little bit louder."
. . .
Misato's Apartment
Captain Maya Ibuki of HERZ watched as the people around her, now seemingly armed to the teeth, with either regular guns or Grips in the form of pistols and rifles, and couldn't help but look down at her own Grip, still in its base form, and feel… nauseous.
It brought back memories that weren't even hers, of the last stand that would have happened a city away, if it even still existed. Of all the people that she knew and worked with dead because of the machinations of SEELE. But most of all… of the terrifying prospect of having to take someone's life, and watch it with her own eyes. Not just an Angel from behind a screen that had to be stopped so that the world might be saved, but another thinking, feeling human being that would give her no choice in the matter.
She wanted to hide. To curl up and wait for the fighting to be over so that she couldn't see the blood and brains and viscera that would paint the walls of the hotel hallway like a horror film. She could do it, even. Say that she would protect the kids in case the special forces, somehow, broke through her friend's defenses.
Then, she saw a familiar body move into view, felt a familiar hand on her shoulder. She looked up. And she saw the patient eyes of Ritsuko Akagi looking back at her.
"Is it what I think it is, Kouhai?" she asked softly.
Maya nodded wordlessly.
"It's okay. I understand." Ritsuko continued. "This is… frankly the last thing I want to do. But we can make a difference. Make sure that the kids here stay safe." she looked over at the bedroom that hid the children in it. "Make sure that Kyu is safe."
"I know." Maya said dejectedly. "But… what if it comes to that? What if I have to pull the trigger? I haven't shot a human being before. I've only ever shot at paper targets."
"Then do it with the assurance that you'll only do it when it's necessary." Ritsuko paused for a moment. "You're such a gentle soul." she said quietly. "That's… part of why I love you. You have such a big heart. But for what comes next… you'll have to shield it. In order to do what has to be done. I hate that I have to say that, but in order for you to protect them… you're going to receive wounds that might never heal fully. But I'll be there for you. Just like you've been there for me. I promise."
Maya looked into those eyes silently for a moment. Then she sighed quietly and nodded. "Okay. I'll… I'll do my best."
Ritsuko stole a quick glance over her shoulder, then gave Maya a quick kiss. "You always have."
As Ritsuko walked away, she looked down at the Grip in her hand again. The hazy, frosted-glass held behind it a stream of prismatic, flowing letters, numbers and figures. Data was her Aspect Core, that thing she seems to understand intrinsically and could manipulate. Offhandedly, she remembered wondering at how data could be construed as a physical thing for an Aspect Core to be based on, as it was simply information codified into programming. Eleanor had clarified that anything in the Physical Realm that could be deeply understood, even if it was only tangentially connected like data was, could be an Aspect, rare as it was to have it be one's first. And with the power of the soul, the digital could become physical and vice versa. After all, she mused for a moment, one had only to look at Mrs. Akagi for living proof.
And now, as the frosted glass flowed into the shape of a compact pistol, the data changed, lines of code in a dozen different programming languages streaming through, bits and pieces looking like equations for material strength, velocity, and explosive pressure.
She took a deep breath, steeling herself for what was to come. 'I can do this. I can protect them. I will protect them.'