Episode 2
A Worm In The Root, A Tiger In The Parlor/ Lifeboat Politics
After a clip show from the previous episode, a caption appears over the image of the
GeoFront, reading:
(A few hours earlier…)
Shift to the bridge. Aoba, Hyuga, Ibuki Maya, and a swarm of techs we don't know
feverishly examine printouts and diagrams, calling out names of operations and code
words for results, designations and descriptions, a mass of semi-raw data like globs of
masticated nourishment that this churning flood of human and electronic enzymes must
catalyze and digest to transform into sustenance for the Titan that is NERV.
Fuyutsuki is standing on the Commander's dais, peering towards the screen like a hawk
pretending nearsightedness, but fooling no one. He is still as a statue of a guardian god,
but seems to tense with energy as if resisting an impulse to bounce up and down on his
toes. In one hand, he holds a cell phone, as if expecting some vital call at any moment.
GENDO:(with a voice that does not, even slightly, reflect the dizzy combination of
exhilaration and exhaustion that Fuyutsuki knows he is feeling right now) Rei is almost
ready. Status?
He speaks the last word with an expression that the aforementioned status better have a
v-e-r-y good explanation for itself, or it is in shortly going to land in some seriously hot
water. Asuka herself would have to make a strenuous effort to sound that menacing,
though she is probably the one person on this Earth who could top it.
FUYUTSUKI:(shakes head sadly) Nothing to open the champagne about. We are doing
our best but… The MAGI-level machines of all the world are arrayed against us.
Matsushiro must be truly stirred up by whatever the old men saw fit to drop on them.
MAYA:(behind him, in the background, voice pealing with urgency) Sir! I don't see how
our protocols can hold them off any longer!
FUYUTSUKI:(resigned) I think I know where this is going.
GENDO:(conciliatory) It is foolish to bother with acquiring a tool, if one does not use it.
FUYUTSUKI:(doubtful) A tool… Are you that certain that tool won't turn in your hand,
Ikari?
GENDO:(smirk) Reasonably certain. This one took too much pride in her… function…
to fail when it counts. She should last this day at least, and afterwards… none of it shall
matter.
FUYUTSUKI:(face set with determination) One way or the other… (raises voice so he
can be heard in the ordered din of the desperate electronic combat enveloping the
bridge) Lieutenant Ibuki! Proceed to holding cell block number 3, cell 19E. I believe
you will find a friend there you'll be glad to meet. Bring her to the bridge with all
possible celerity.
MAYA:(breathless) Hai!
She runs out.
They watch the bridge bustle in silence for a while.
GENDO:(musingly) All tools, honed to last one all-important day… We must not fail,
Fuyutsuki.
FUYUTSUKI:(looks at bustle around him) All of these people, each born… nurtured…
trained… All fitted together to carry out one all-important function
GENDO:(implacably) Yes. Rei must have time to play her part
Gendo's cell phone rings. He holds it up and looks at the "line" readout.
GENDO:(does not want to show how nonplussed he is) That is peculiar…
***
Ibuki Maya follows a guard through sterile, gray corridors, with a spot of color coding
beneath a garish red NERV logo forming the only splay of color on lifelessly blank walls.
She looks around her at the oppressing emptiness and shivers slightly.
The Section Three guard accompanying her is either feeling really damn lonely, or feels
it his duty to entertain the lovely lady with gallant chitchat.
THE GUARD: Yeah, I know what you mean, Lieutenant. This is a piece of work, these
blocks… I'm guessing they're made this cheerful with a reason – to break the "guests" of
all bad habits faster. A two-week ticket here is like a five-year term anywhere else, even
in those severe-regiment places. (Pauses, apparently the idea gives even his denial-
trained sensibility the creeps) You know, Lieutenant… Sometimes, I think that in here,
they… no longer feel they're alive anymore…
MAYA:(her voice breaking) How… how can you stand working here?
GUARD:(ever the charmer) What, drop it and miss the pay-and-a-half?
He tries to laugh it off, but even Maya, who is not precisely Dr Freud, can tell that the
hours spent in this section have not passed by traceless – the guy seems to s-w-e-a-t
tightly repressed jitters!
GUARD:(tugs at his collar like his neck is itching) Naahhh, my only prob… lem with,
with this place is, you can't get any baseball games here. Radio isolation. Guess the
Commander wants us to pay attention, no?
Maya gives him a helpful smile clearly indicating two not-very-contradictory emotions:
"Poor baby, it's terrible what they make you go through…" and "Sorry buddy – nice
smile, but I haven't the time to hold your hand while you recover your macho-macho-
manliness."
GUARD:(badly flustered, face slightly flushed) Uh, well, where does the time fly,
Lieutenant… We're already here… heh, heh…
He sweeps his entrance card through, punches in a complex code, and lets a thing that
looks like a crucified R2D2 take his retinal scan. Maya watches with an expression that
says without words "What, no rectal probe? What lack of proper protocol!"
***
GENDO:(into the cell phone) What's your game this time, Lorentz? Did you really think
I would not know you've tapped into my secure lines?
Camera sweeps back and we see he is taking this call in his office. Apparently this is
something for which he needs privacy, even from Fuyutsuki.
VOICE FROM PHONE:(precise to the point it seems barely human) Take it or leave it
Ikari, but I suggest you take it. The protocols, codes and frequencies you need to counter
Tokyo-2's electronic blanket are coming into your phone's DMU as I speak. Use them,
and you'll be tapping into t-h-e-i-r lines.
GENDO:(hanging up) Your generosity astounds me.
***
GUARD:(makes a sweeping bow, flourishing an imaginary cape) Come right in, Lieu…
Maya screams. The guard turns to look and…
GUARD:(desperately hitting a comm. button on a wall terminal) Hiuzi, I need a Rapid
Response team here, fast, with a medic! Tell'em it's an emergency! YES, it IS an
emergency we've got…
Maya stumbles deeper into the room and the guard's voice melts away into the
background as her vision shimmers like a mirage. Through underwater-like distortion,
she can see the inside of this gray-plane box for the body and soul.
… and see the spread-eagled form of Akagi Ritsuko, sprawled across the floor by her cot,
seeming to float atop a puddle of dark red color. More red, thick wetness spouts in weak
periodic bursts from her body cavity, opened like an envelope, edges peeled back like
flaps of carefully carved roast beef that seems somehow just t-o-o rare… Various
pancreas, kidneys, a lung, long winding liverwurst shapes of gut lie, abandoned in this
mess like toys thrown into peculiar red mud by a careless child. Sometimes they blow
bubbles and q-u-i-v-e-r slightly, as if being thrown there jerked some hidden spring loose.
MAYA: (at a loss, torn between her desire to just stick it back in, make it better
somehow, and the knowledge that disturbing the critically wounded is a bad idea) Akagi-
sempai, it will be better… please, Akagi-sempai just… rest easy… and, and, there'll be
people to come and help…
She stands on her knees over Ritsuko's head, trying to reassure herself by talking to her
mentor. As she sways, near passing out from sheer shock, something on a wall of
Ritsuko's cell catches her attention. A bolt of lightning seems to freeze her spine to
absolute zero as she registers what it was.
It is quite an impressive piece of graphic design, done by someone with an obvious taste
and excellent hand-eye coordination combined with superior artistic sensibility. Dure,
perhaps. Or even Da Vinci. Provided whoever it was had recently developed rabies.
A phoenix, wings outspread in the crimson sweep of gory splashes, rose from crimson
ashes smoldering on the bottom of the wall, dripping bloody rivulet-pinions in a grand
flourish. The phoenix's eye, done by enclosing a drop of the viscous burgundy near-
blackness between two gracefully intersecting curves of bright crimson, seems to hold
Maya's eye with its mocking gleam.
Maya's eyes focus enough to make out what appear to be tiny chunks of her mentor's…
liver, or lung, or something nasty, anyway… stuck here and there into the artwork. Maya
was trained as a computer expert, not a polymath like Ritsuko, and at the moment, her
thoughts are not tending towards tissue analysis anyway.
MAYA:(gritting teeth) I am… not going to faint. Akagi-sempai needs… me. I am not…
Some noise from the corner of the cell behind her
GUARD:(desperate to DO something against whatever is causing the first girl to smile at
him this year such horrible pain) What the hell? Is anyone hiding… (throws something)
Lieutenant, look away!
***
Caption:
(Some minutes later)
GENDO:(in office, looking at a readout on his laptop, hits a button on his desk)
Commander to Bridge. Attention Lieutenant Aoba. Attention Lieutenant Hyuga.
A shot of the bridge as first Hyuga, then Aoba raise their cell phones and listen.
GENDO:(goes on) An intel source I must consider suspect has forwarded to me the codes
NERV will need to intercept elintel from Tokyo-2's forces. Considering the dire
situation we find ourselves in, you are ordered to use the codes…
A shot of the duo's faces. Hyuga is worried, Aoba is stoically unshaken as he
contemplates the risk. His face looks like something Kurosawa would film – a kamikaze
in the last seconds before battle run.
GENDO:(voiceover while a montage of bridge shots is run) … by routing our
transmissions through one of our reserve OS's, taking previous care to disconnect every
connection to the MAGI.
FUYUTSUKI:(wathes the bridge explode into a new fever pitch of activity) With you, it's
never something I'd expect, is it, Ikari?
Gendo's lips barely have time to form a smirk before some noise startles him.
***
Caption:
(Some minutes earlier)
There is a sudden screech as of car brakes on sheet metal, and simultaneously, a glare
like a million suns stuffed in the space of a nutshell erupts in the formerly-shadowed
corner of the little holding cell. Maya's training has kicked in just in time, so she turns
her head away before her conscious mind has time to register the guard's yell. But the
guard himself, his retinas protected by his standard-issue helmet visor can distinctly make
out some… outline appears in the suddenly-lit holding cell, several sharp edges that
somehow give the impression of a lanky leaping figure that streaks across the field of
white light, bounces off the wall, and vanishes in mid-flight, as if some chameleon device
took that split-second to adjust to the incandescent explosion.
GUARD:(as eloquent as anyone can be when gut-punched into the wall of the corridor
opposite the holding cell) OOOOOFFFF!
There are shots fired in the outer corridor, as the arriving Rapid Response team gets its
clock cleaned by an invisible opponent charging through them. They did not expect
anything, and so get no chance to use another incandescent grenade.
A MEDIC(rushing up to the guard) Can you talk? What's going on here, in the name of
all the kamis there are?!
The guard has, for once, fallen silent. His helmet protected his brains from any further
scrambling, but his diaphragm wasn't so lucky. No air in his lungs to talk with. It is all
he can do to raise a weak hand and point in the direction of the holding cell.
The Medic looks into the open door… and rushes in, desperately screaming into a cell
phone. Maya's head is swimming, she can make out fragments about organ banks, blood
transfusions and operating rooms, but can't string them together. The devastated young
woman can barely push feeble attempts at clarification past her bloodless lips.
MAYA: It… there was a noise… bird… Akagi-sempai
MEDIC:(sweating bullets and working with the speed of a jazz pianist and the precision
of a bomb squad expert as she tries to fit organs and stitch arteries back together) Don't
worry, Lieutenant. Since it appears to have happened only a minute or two ago… I'm
sure Iguwazi-sensei will save her… He was the world authority on hear transplants
before he joined NERV, you know. (She never ceases working while she talks, her
expertise evident.)
The rest of the Rapid Response team rush in, taking positions to cover every inch of the
holding cell's small space. They do give space to Maya and the medic, though, careful
not to interrupt the painstaking work.
She and several other Rapid Response people lift Ritsuko on a stretcher and carry her
out, careful not to shake a lung loose.
The RR team's commander and Maya are running alongside the stretcher, trying to
make sense of what the hell just took place.
RR LEADER:(extremely professional, even after his sudden encounter with the ceiling as
the mystery assailant rammed through him) We never saw a thing.(to the cell guard)
You tried to use an incandescent to smoke'im out?
GUARD:(still wheezing from his gut punch, trying hard to keep up) Yes, sir… It (huff,
puff) sorta took time to adapt to the flash, so I could see it for sec there… lotsa good it did
me, too.
RR LEADER:(unflappable) Yes, it seems to be proving itself quite an adversary… get
into a locked cell, escape past a team of reaction experts… (his mask of professionalism
slips for a brief instant, in what is for him a desperate cri de coeur) Personally, I would
suggest you have the MAGI scan the GeoFront for a Blue Pattern.
MAYA:(brain kicking in to overcome body's attempts to go into shock and never come
out) … and that thing must have done it seconds before we entered, hiding in the shadow!
It got away right past us! That bird on the was w-a-s freshly… (gulp) painted… (Here
she finally registers what the RR Leader has been saying) Blue Pattern? I doubt it,
Sergeant. This… this Angel horror is supposed to be over for now… at least that's what I
heard… although it could be… did I hear her refer to a heart… t-t… heart…
RR LEADER:(trying to recover lost professionalism) Outside my scope, Lieutenant.
They do know their business at the Infirmary, though.
A blur of stairways and elevators, as Maya focuses on Akagi Ritsuko's bloodstained
comatose face lolling against a stretcher pillow. Her fingers are squeezing the metal
frame of the stretcher in a bloodless grip as it rolls down the final stretch of hallway.
MEDIC:(running opposite Maya on other side of stretcher) We're here, we're almost
here! They tell me the op room's been prepped, we can pull her through! We're
professionals, we've t-trained for this, we can…
A shot rings out. Maya lets go of the stretcher from sheer shock staggering back.
Almost immediately response shots are heard as the RR Team returns fire. Maya can see
a dark-clad figure run forward, apparently unfazed by numerous body shots it takes.
MAYA:(dizzily, I. M.) Am I shot? … (aloud) Oh, Kami-sama, Akagi-sempai!
She has time for a glimpse of a man on the floor tiles, his head shot nearly off his neck,
his throat a mess of gore. Dimly she recognizes that it's the holding cell guard who tried
so desperately to be charming on their walk to discover the horror awaiting them.
MAYA:(realization dawns, I. M.) It was meant for me… he took a bullet that was flying
towards me…
A soldier is shoved aside and Maya finds herself staring down a pistol muzzle. The
mystery assassin is wearing black bulletproof body suit and helmet, but the helmet's visor
is transparent. Maya just has time to realize that the face she sees in the clear faceguard
is not a reflection.
MAYA:(screams) Me?!?!!!!?
An armor-piercing shot takes her doppelganger down from the left. She crumples like a
cardboard cutout whose base suddenly vanished, her fibroceramic helmet clanging on
floor linoleum with an incongruously bell-like chime. Maya suddenly remembers she
had a service pistol along all this time, fingers it uncertainly, then visibly decides that
pulling it out would be really dumb and just lets go.
MAYA:(bending over the doppelganger, who obviously is not long for this world) Who-
who ARE you? Why did you want to do this? Did you attack Akagi-hakase?
DOPPEL-MAYA:(struggling to speak) The pit… the pit opening… the abyss… no, not
the dreams!
MAYA:(pouts in confusion) Huh?! Pay attention, you… thing… creature… whatever!
DOPPEL-MAYA:(eyes suddenly focusing) You!? Ibuki Maya! I must kill you, kill, kill
Ibuki Maya, kill Ibuki Maya, have to kill her, you… hafta kill or can't you tell… the
dreams… oh… (dies)
MAYA:(getting up, with all the sarcasm she can muster in her innocent soul) Inter…
esting…
***
Maya, in surgical scrubs and gown, watches doctors gently lay her mentor's mangled
body on the operating table. A surgeon walks in from the room nearby.
THE SURGEON:(gently tapping Maya on the shoulder) Ahh, Lieutenant… concerning
that heart transplant… We were aware that Akagi-hakase's medical history shows that
she can accept transplanted tissue from a very narrow range of individuals – in fact, there
is at this time only one person in the GeoFront whose proteins her immune system would
not reject outright. Namely you.
MAYA:(deliberately maintaining calm with a superhuman effort of mind over fight-or-
flight response hormones) I see. And the… stranger? From what I could see of her
before the troopers shot her, I… (she nearly breaks down but catches herself) That is, I
mean we seem to share a… similarity. Or, you know, it seemed at the time she just
like…
SURGEON:(calmingly. He is aware of how NERV works, knows he is threading on
extremely thin ice here, and really does not want to complicate this screwery any more
than he has to.) Yes, Lieutenant, that was what I was about to ask. A conclusive DNA
test is still pending, but from random-sample analysis we could have our computers do on
such short notice, she seems to b-e you. In every respect we could so far investigate. I
realize that such a phenomenon could very well come under the jurisdiction of the
Special Investigations Research Division, so, as Akagi-hakase's immediate subordinate…
I hope I am getting the hierarchy correct, am I not?
MAYA:(giddy with relief that she can finally do something to help) Uh – certainly. Is
there something you want me to sign?
As Maya signs her name to some papers the surgeon's assistant pushes at her, she can
see the doppelganger's corpse being rapidly prepped for heart extraction next to the
machine-sustained Ritsuko. As she catches the "other her"'s eyes on a gaunt, pain-
deformed face, she thinks to herself:
MAYA:(meditative, I. M.) The pain that woman must have endured! Who is she? Am
I… here and there too… will I ever know what went on today?
***
GENDO:(we see nothing but his mouth) Not likely.
A VOICE:(very forceful and ironic, savoring the moment of pure power its owner treats
herself to like it was the richest chocolate cake she ever tasted. ) Bad guess, Ikari. You
get one more chance.
As she talks, the camera caresses her black-gloved hand holding a silvery sleek pistol.
We see a little more – aha, it's taking place in Gendo's office. Behind the black-clad
hand and black-draped wrist of the mystery lady, we see the Systema Sephirotica on the
ceiling over the Commander's desk, and then pan out to see Gendo lying on the floor,
staring up at her gun, with a lady clad all in black and twilight gray standing over him in
a classic "Come here little boy, and I'll teach you some… manners" imposing pose that
seems to come to her extremely naturally and unselfconsciously. She threatens
commanders of dark and powerful organizations with a pistol the way a cat stretches,
ballerinas dance, or Shaherezade tells tales. Even though we can't see her face from the
POV just over her head, she has a figure that would make Shinji's friend Kensuke cream
his jeans before he finished a single blink. Gendo, however, does not find it a comforting
company.
THE WOMAN:(In a flawless, sonorous, "You've been a bad boy, Ikari Gendo" voice)
The crystal, Ikari. I trust I shan't have to demonstrate to you the folly of useless attempts
at skullduggery.
Gendo is somewhat crumpled, but unflappable. He is still hoping this is all a temporary
setback – after all, what crystal could be more important than Rei and the nasty surprise
he has planned for the old men with her!
GENDO:(politely but tiredly, as if he wishes her all the best, but really can't spare that
much time from his myriad concerns) This is hardly the time for it, Yantaro.
YANTARO:(terse and laconic, a sudden change from her sensuous temptress routine)
Make time. We had a deal, Ikari. Deals are kept by those that live to evolve. (With her
demonic perception, she catches some subconscious change in him – he can't tell what –
and lets out a bemused "hmmm!") Oh, that. No, don't bother to call security, Ikari. I
made sure we would not be interrupted. Those Section two goons of yours are such
stifling conversationalists, don't you agree? Now, concerning my pay? Business ethics,
the value of trust, elementary game theory?
GENDO:(the voice of reason itself – butter wouldn't melt in his mouth) Yantaro, surely
even the most scrupulous ethicists have heard of a rain check.
YANTARO:(striking words out like sparks of iron on granite) The crystal was my pay,
Ikari. You've had a reprieve of 15 years. You shall pay now. And try not to squirm
more than you can help, you'll ruin your sterling reputation.
Ikari Gendo can see that he is out of his league here. But the game of trick and counter-
trick, honed over long epics of shenanigans as first a pawn and then an adversary of
SEELE, has by now become an essential element in his blood. He does not smirk. For
all he knows of his current and long ago "business partner" it could very well be fatal.
But… with a perfect poker face on his dark countenance, he smirks i-n-w-a-r-d-l-y. He
knows something she doesn't. He hopes.
GENDO:(deliberate) Very well. It seems you have me in somewhat of a… sticky spot.
(sarcasm tinges his voice like a barely perceptible mist over a still lake.) Yantaro-
Shirako-sama.
The woman walks up to him, still keeping the gun trained at his gut. We cannot see her
face, but we can see his. He is… apprehensive. Not twitchy, or anything so vulgar. But
he can think of a much better scenario than having this charm queen pointing pistols at
him at a critical moment.
Before that face can register a change, she steps up to him and pats him on the cheek as
if to say "Ooooooh, aren't you a cutie when you growl!" Her voice almost insidiously
changes from terse, to sensual and relaxed again.
YANTARO:(almost in a purr – of a leopard) Don't outsmart yourself, Ikari. I have a
hunch you won't get out of the game that easily… Your fate appears to have quite a bit
more plans for you before she lets you… attempt… your oh-so-exciting plans for the
human species.
Gendo stands there, wondering how much longer must he suffer looking unflappable
and privately seethe with worry at the hidden agendas moving around him like branching
fault lines, shifting the foundations of his plans in directions he cannot see.
Finally, the tall woman breaks eye contact, moving towards the door. A barely
perceptible sigh echoes in the strangely silent office. For half a second, it is the only
sound. Then:
YANTARO:(stands by door, ironically gestures with the pistol) Lead on, oh wise one.
GENDO:(under his breath) grumble, grumble
YANTARO:(musingly) You, know, Ikari, if that little flitting cherub Yui didn't snap you
up, we might have had something, the two of us
***
In a darkened twisted corridor, two shapes are moving among the shadows. One shape
is caught in the light his flashlight reflects off a white paint stripe from some insignia
pained on a dark wall. From the orange-reddish glint of sunglasses and the beard we
correctly assume it is the Commander of NERV.
OTHER SHAPE:(we never see it outright, but from the voice, it's fruitful to assume this
is Yantaro) What a time you picked to conserve GeoFront power, Ikari. Really, couldn't
you ask SEELE to be more considerate when they're picking time to besiege you?
GENDO:(visibly swallows all the responses he could make to this, then moves flashlight
so he is just a dark shadow shape again) We're almost here. Come on. (opens door,
outlining himself in an oval of light)
YANTARO:(in her mock-sulky voice) You wouldn't be trying to pull one over on me,
Ikari, would you? You do recall my little lesson from Antarctica, of course…
Gendo, silent, steps through the door. She follows.
***
NERV infirmary, neural division. A caption before a closed door reads:
(After Asuka's awakening)
Misato is sitting on Asuka's bed, after a makeshift one had been wheeled in for the
unconscious Shinji. The covered tray with Shinji's supper on it is standing by the main
bed, at Asuka's night table. Misato is trying to hug Asuka. Asuka does not push her
away (as she half dreads) but she stiffens up, refusing to accept the caress.
MISATO:(gently) Asuka, please. I know it hurts. It will heal. I hurt a lot too, after
Second Impact. Come on. You've got to eat, I know you're hungry. If you want to take
something from here… (realizes offering Asuka food that she brought because she cared
about Shinji is a BAD IDEA) … or I could dial the GeoFront kitchens and have them
make anything you want…
ASUKA:(speaks every word as if dropping a box of rocks on a sheet of rusted metal) So
I'm awake. Big whoop. I should have died! Just… cleansed the world of me…
Couldn't even do that right, figures…
MISATO:(about to get angry before she remembers that this child has been more hurt
than even she can know about) Asuka, do you see Shinji over there. You know, the one
unconscious? You know that he didn't sleep for fifteen nights worrying over you? Look
at him, Asuka. Look at him. He cannot be happy if you're suffering.
ASUKA:(strangely quiet)… Fifteen days… (The quiet does not last long) Still, he's a
retard. He always agonizes. It's his nature to whimper and moan like a sheep with a
stomachache! Still… (her eyes stare into distance as her recent vision roars again before
her eyes) … can't keep the Heir to NERV throne unhappy, can we…
She buries her face in Misato, in the position that most guys would kill for. She doesn't
cry. She would die first! But she just… holds on. Misato, stirred by instinct for which
she herself can't account, wraps her arms around the girl's body and feels her is still
shaking like a strummed string from sheer tension. Stifling a sob, Misato bends her head
over Asuka, crooning something wordless. After several seconds she starts, remembering
her father crooning the same tune over her at 3 years old.
After a short while, when Asuka is sure she would not drown, she lets go. Her breathing
is calmer now, and her teeth feel no urge to chatter. Her lips still tremble, ever so
slightly.
ASUKA:(I.M.) I know it'd kill me to fail again… but if I give up, it'll be on more than
just me. (aloud) Well? What'd you bring me, oh, I'm sorry, what'd you bring the Snot-
Faced Messiah over there? Hmmm, shrimp… ooooh, spare ribs… (sits atop the coverlet
cross-legged with the tray on her knees and a determined expression on her face. The
sort of expression that would convince a tank battalion not to mess with HER.)
Misato is watching the tray emptying in disbelief. To tempt Shinji into eating at all, she
brought a whole row of various dainties in the hope he was seduced by at least one sort.
So now, that tray held enough delicacies to entertain Mikado's court! But it held them
for a very short time before being convicted and executed by a ravenous flame-crowned
valkyrie in a hospital gown.
ASUKA:(daintily pausing to gulp down a whole bowl of hot & sour soup to wash down
whatever she had in her mouth) Hey, Misato! Gimme your cell phone! When this idiot
(gesture of a queen towards her faithful, if incontinent, puppy) wakes up again, he's
gonna whine that you gave his food away!(snatches phone with the speed of a diving
hawk) Now don't bother with your credit card number, I already hacked it out of your
NERV files back when I moved in. Y'know, that was a nice pic of Kaji you had in your
private notebook… did he often pose as a nude model in college?
MISATO:(to herself) I have a feeling she'll live.
***
NERV infirmary operating theater, where the battle for Akagi Ritsuko's life draws to an
apparent conclusion. The doctors are crowded around the patient, while Maya, left to her
own thoughts, stares with horror at her double's disassembled corpse.
MAYA:(introspective) Who is that me? She would have taken my life… but instead she
gave hers to save… Risuko. And… if she wasn't here? If I was the only matching
donor left!? Would I have sacrificed myself to save Akagi-sempai? (a pause as she is
struck by an epiphany) I would, wouldn't I? I always knew how important she was to
me, but now… I only just realized…
Close-up of a surgeon's hand, putting the final stitch on an artery.
SURGEON:(proud, beaming, and near death from exhaustion brought on by the sheer
force of his focus) And it's pretty much routine after that, Miss Ibuki… (catches self)
pardon me, Lieutenant. I am… a bit tired right now.
MAYA:(absently) Oh, that's quite all right. (Dubious) Routine? From what I've
heard…
AN ASSISTANT:(in reassuring tone, as he waits till the surgeons need his help) Don't
worry Lieutenant. If that bizzarro evil twin of yours didn't do us the favor of dropping
by… well, better not to talk of that. As it is, though, the rest is just a lot of busywork.
Re-attaching, sewing, propping up… soon all Akagi-hakase's organs will be right where
the kamis put'em, with nothing lost but a night's sleep for us. You can just go and relax
now, get some rest. This is the best team I ever worked with, we… (sees a doctor
gesture) Yes sir. I apologize humbly, sir. Here you go, now…
MAYA:(introspective; touches her dead double's bloody hand) I sacrificed… myself…
and I'm still alive. And it looks like Akagi-sempai will live, too! But you… (pause, as
she searches her feelings) … I would die for her… I never knew… is it... do I… (her
eyes get bigger, then a smile breaks out like sun through rainy gray.) What matters is
that Ritsuko will live!
***
GENDO:(morose) Must you h-u-m while you do that?
YANTARO(singsong voice) Buuuuuut of cooooooourse, daaaaaaaaaaaaahling.
(They are both at MAGI physical location, Gendo keeping a reluctant lookout, Yantaro
playing up to her elbows in BALTHASAR's frontal cortex. CASPAR and MELCHIOR
stand there gaping at the duo with dark holes in their towers, the frontal panels that used
to protect their cortexes standing stacked against them. She is making motions like she's
an Amish farmwife churning butter.)
… Gooooot it!
(Gendo's unexpected playmate yanks something multifaceted and glowing from inside
the bio-computer's guts (or cortex convolutions, whatever the case may be). A black
gloved hand opens the pouch on her belt, removing two others. The latest on glows
yellow and the two she had in the pouch glow cyan and a combination of brick red with
lilac purple.)
… And for my next trick… I'll move the destiny of this planet in the right direction!
Gendo looks at her as if to say "Woman, your style creeps me out". Unfazed, Yantaro
takes the three crystalline… components, bringing their tips together. Even before they
touch, the tips seem to… germinate.
A close up of the three tapering ends of the three components. The crystal edges
suddenly sprout shoots of spun liquid forms that can only have vague analogues in our
concepts of petals, centipedes, fern leaves, tendrils, antennae, butterfly wings or coral
reefs. Outwards they spin, blossoming, curling, branching, drifting as if with an unseen
current, re-crystallizing and re-liquefying so swift they seem to be in both states
simultaneously… shining with a kaleidoscopic array of brilliant hues, swirling around
each other in an intricate dance, and softly chiming as they flow together – at the very
edge of human hearing like a ghost of a dream song after you wake.
Shortly, we are treated to the sight of a single perfect crystal born from the joyful union
of its three ancestors. It shines with a hypnotic white light that occasionally gives out a
spark of iridescent colors that human languages lack words to describe. Yantaro
carefully passes a hand over it and the glow dulls as if the crystal has gone to sleep.
Gendo adjusts his glasses and gives the same sort of grunt Ritsuko has heard from him
during orgasm.
GENDO:(drily) Well, that brings back memories. Now would you mind replacing these?
(gestures at the MAGI covers) Wouldn't want to let Section Two know the GeoFront has
acquired a burglar problem.
YANTARO:(pouches the muted crystal) Sure, Ikari. Keep your pants on. Although…
(assumes a "thinker" pose) Nah, ain't got the time. (Starts putting covers back on. Talks
as she works.) You know, if you ever get Yui back, try doing it while you're still so…
well preserved.
Gendo's cell phone goes off.
GENDO:(all business, talks into the mike) Ikari here. What is happening?
***
FUYUTSUKI:(on bridge) !!!
Before he has time to say anything, we see Hyuga jump up behind him.
MAKOTO:(almost screaming, veins bulge on his neck) We're detecting a massive power
su…
***
In the MAGI room, Gendo and Yantaro see a flare of golden glow envelop the three
MAGI towers. Gendo staggers back, desperately guessing what kind of trap SEELE just
closed on him. He pulls out his own pistol.
YANTARO:(smoothly covering him with hers) Nothing to fear, Commander! All's right
with the world!
***
Tokyo-2. A JSSDF war-room – techs beat out staccato rhythms on computer consoles
in an antipodal counterpart to NERV's own bridge. High muckety-mucks in somber
uniforms are bent forward, eyes riveted on various holo displays.
JSSDF GENERAL:(fingers clawing at emptiness) Reinforce! Reinforce, damn you!
TECH:(he is grossly obese and his folds of blubber are quivering like melting jello) N-no
use, sir! It's refusing all signals. It's like the computer itself has refused to go on!
Nothing we can do when the equipment mutinies! Court-martial me if you want, it's
true!
GENERAL:(in a voice of a walking dead, jaws snapping like a steel trap once he's done)
If these readings are true, we must prepare humanity's funeral pyre.
***
NERV bridge. Gendo, alone, comes out of an elevator.
A TECH:(pumps fist in air) The El Riad and Paris devices just went off-line! That's the
last of them!
SHIGERU:(giddy with relief) Sir, we've used the codes in that file to intercept signals
from all UN military satellites! MAGI-level bio-comps world over are going belly up!
Whatever the MAGI did to those hackers, their machines are all suffering splitting
headaches right about now! (confused, to himself) But how did our MAGI manage the
processing power to take them all for a spin like that?
GENDO:(looking over the bridge like a lion looks at his pride lands off a height)
Fuyutsuki-sensei?
SHIGERU:(sneaking a glance at the two) I probably don't want to know…
FUYUTSUKI:(frowns at the things he's imagining, some of which are uncomfortably
close to the truth) You're certain?
GENDO:(serenely) What is certainty? But it seems… reasonable… to act as though
NERV will live through this.
Next episode: Why is the JSSDF assault, that seems to be Tokyo-2's only chance to
dominate NERV and defeat Commander Ikari, been put on indefinite hold? See Major
Misato Katsuragi lead a team of crack Section I operatives to match JSSDF on its own
ground and obtain the secrets vital to NERV's survival. But who is this new partner
she's been saddled with – by Commander Ikari's direct orders! And who is the
mysterious enemy that turned her little squad's cat-and-mouse game with JSSDF into a
fruition of a very personal vendetta?
On the home front, see Asuka terrify random medical personnel. See Shinji evoke
Asuka's… maternal side? Oh, he's in for it now! All on the next episode of Evangelion:
The Apotheosis!
A Worm In The Root, A Tiger In The Parlor/ Lifeboat Politics
After a clip show from the previous episode, a caption appears over the image of the
GeoFront, reading:
(A few hours earlier…)
Shift to the bridge. Aoba, Hyuga, Ibuki Maya, and a swarm of techs we don't know
feverishly examine printouts and diagrams, calling out names of operations and code
words for results, designations and descriptions, a mass of semi-raw data like globs of
masticated nourishment that this churning flood of human and electronic enzymes must
catalyze and digest to transform into sustenance for the Titan that is NERV.
Fuyutsuki is standing on the Commander's dais, peering towards the screen like a hawk
pretending nearsightedness, but fooling no one. He is still as a statue of a guardian god,
but seems to tense with energy as if resisting an impulse to bounce up and down on his
toes. In one hand, he holds a cell phone, as if expecting some vital call at any moment.
GENDO:(with a voice that does not, even slightly, reflect the dizzy combination of
exhilaration and exhaustion that Fuyutsuki knows he is feeling right now) Rei is almost
ready. Status?
He speaks the last word with an expression that the aforementioned status better have a
v-e-r-y good explanation for itself, or it is in shortly going to land in some seriously hot
water. Asuka herself would have to make a strenuous effort to sound that menacing,
though she is probably the one person on this Earth who could top it.
FUYUTSUKI:(shakes head sadly) Nothing to open the champagne about. We are doing
our best but… The MAGI-level machines of all the world are arrayed against us.
Matsushiro must be truly stirred up by whatever the old men saw fit to drop on them.
MAYA:(behind him, in the background, voice pealing with urgency) Sir! I don't see how
our protocols can hold them off any longer!
FUYUTSUKI:(resigned) I think I know where this is going.
GENDO:(conciliatory) It is foolish to bother with acquiring a tool, if one does not use it.
FUYUTSUKI:(doubtful) A tool… Are you that certain that tool won't turn in your hand,
Ikari?
GENDO:(smirk) Reasonably certain. This one took too much pride in her… function…
to fail when it counts. She should last this day at least, and afterwards… none of it shall
matter.
FUYUTSUKI:(face set with determination) One way or the other… (raises voice so he
can be heard in the ordered din of the desperate electronic combat enveloping the
bridge) Lieutenant Ibuki! Proceed to holding cell block number 3, cell 19E. I believe
you will find a friend there you'll be glad to meet. Bring her to the bridge with all
possible celerity.
MAYA:(breathless) Hai!
She runs out.
They watch the bridge bustle in silence for a while.
GENDO:(musingly) All tools, honed to last one all-important day… We must not fail,
Fuyutsuki.
FUYUTSUKI:(looks at bustle around him) All of these people, each born… nurtured…
trained… All fitted together to carry out one all-important function
GENDO:(implacably) Yes. Rei must have time to play her part
Gendo's cell phone rings. He holds it up and looks at the "line" readout.
GENDO:(does not want to show how nonplussed he is) That is peculiar…
***
Ibuki Maya follows a guard through sterile, gray corridors, with a spot of color coding
beneath a garish red NERV logo forming the only splay of color on lifelessly blank walls.
She looks around her at the oppressing emptiness and shivers slightly.
The Section Three guard accompanying her is either feeling really damn lonely, or feels
it his duty to entertain the lovely lady with gallant chitchat.
THE GUARD: Yeah, I know what you mean, Lieutenant. This is a piece of work, these
blocks… I'm guessing they're made this cheerful with a reason – to break the "guests" of
all bad habits faster. A two-week ticket here is like a five-year term anywhere else, even
in those severe-regiment places. (Pauses, apparently the idea gives even his denial-
trained sensibility the creeps) You know, Lieutenant… Sometimes, I think that in here,
they… no longer feel they're alive anymore…
MAYA:(her voice breaking) How… how can you stand working here?
GUARD:(ever the charmer) What, drop it and miss the pay-and-a-half?
He tries to laugh it off, but even Maya, who is not precisely Dr Freud, can tell that the
hours spent in this section have not passed by traceless – the guy seems to s-w-e-a-t
tightly repressed jitters!
GUARD:(tugs at his collar like his neck is itching) Naahhh, my only prob… lem with,
with this place is, you can't get any baseball games here. Radio isolation. Guess the
Commander wants us to pay attention, no?
Maya gives him a helpful smile clearly indicating two not-very-contradictory emotions:
"Poor baby, it's terrible what they make you go through…" and "Sorry buddy – nice
smile, but I haven't the time to hold your hand while you recover your macho-macho-
manliness."
GUARD:(badly flustered, face slightly flushed) Uh, well, where does the time fly,
Lieutenant… We're already here… heh, heh…
He sweeps his entrance card through, punches in a complex code, and lets a thing that
looks like a crucified R2D2 take his retinal scan. Maya watches with an expression that
says without words "What, no rectal probe? What lack of proper protocol!"
***
GENDO:(into the cell phone) What's your game this time, Lorentz? Did you really think
I would not know you've tapped into my secure lines?
Camera sweeps back and we see he is taking this call in his office. Apparently this is
something for which he needs privacy, even from Fuyutsuki.
VOICE FROM PHONE:(precise to the point it seems barely human) Take it or leave it
Ikari, but I suggest you take it. The protocols, codes and frequencies you need to counter
Tokyo-2's electronic blanket are coming into your phone's DMU as I speak. Use them,
and you'll be tapping into t-h-e-i-r lines.
GENDO:(hanging up) Your generosity astounds me.
***
GUARD:(makes a sweeping bow, flourishing an imaginary cape) Come right in, Lieu…
Maya screams. The guard turns to look and…
GUARD:(desperately hitting a comm. button on a wall terminal) Hiuzi, I need a Rapid
Response team here, fast, with a medic! Tell'em it's an emergency! YES, it IS an
emergency we've got…
Maya stumbles deeper into the room and the guard's voice melts away into the
background as her vision shimmers like a mirage. Through underwater-like distortion,
she can see the inside of this gray-plane box for the body and soul.
… and see the spread-eagled form of Akagi Ritsuko, sprawled across the floor by her cot,
seeming to float atop a puddle of dark red color. More red, thick wetness spouts in weak
periodic bursts from her body cavity, opened like an envelope, edges peeled back like
flaps of carefully carved roast beef that seems somehow just t-o-o rare… Various
pancreas, kidneys, a lung, long winding liverwurst shapes of gut lie, abandoned in this
mess like toys thrown into peculiar red mud by a careless child. Sometimes they blow
bubbles and q-u-i-v-e-r slightly, as if being thrown there jerked some hidden spring loose.
MAYA: (at a loss, torn between her desire to just stick it back in, make it better
somehow, and the knowledge that disturbing the critically wounded is a bad idea) Akagi-
sempai, it will be better… please, Akagi-sempai just… rest easy… and, and, there'll be
people to come and help…
She stands on her knees over Ritsuko's head, trying to reassure herself by talking to her
mentor. As she sways, near passing out from sheer shock, something on a wall of
Ritsuko's cell catches her attention. A bolt of lightning seems to freeze her spine to
absolute zero as she registers what it was.
It is quite an impressive piece of graphic design, done by someone with an obvious taste
and excellent hand-eye coordination combined with superior artistic sensibility. Dure,
perhaps. Or even Da Vinci. Provided whoever it was had recently developed rabies.
A phoenix, wings outspread in the crimson sweep of gory splashes, rose from crimson
ashes smoldering on the bottom of the wall, dripping bloody rivulet-pinions in a grand
flourish. The phoenix's eye, done by enclosing a drop of the viscous burgundy near-
blackness between two gracefully intersecting curves of bright crimson, seems to hold
Maya's eye with its mocking gleam.
Maya's eyes focus enough to make out what appear to be tiny chunks of her mentor's…
liver, or lung, or something nasty, anyway… stuck here and there into the artwork. Maya
was trained as a computer expert, not a polymath like Ritsuko, and at the moment, her
thoughts are not tending towards tissue analysis anyway.
MAYA:(gritting teeth) I am… not going to faint. Akagi-sempai needs… me. I am not…
Some noise from the corner of the cell behind her
GUARD:(desperate to DO something against whatever is causing the first girl to smile at
him this year such horrible pain) What the hell? Is anyone hiding… (throws something)
Lieutenant, look away!
***
Caption:
(Some minutes later)
GENDO:(in office, looking at a readout on his laptop, hits a button on his desk)
Commander to Bridge. Attention Lieutenant Aoba. Attention Lieutenant Hyuga.
A shot of the bridge as first Hyuga, then Aoba raise their cell phones and listen.
GENDO:(goes on) An intel source I must consider suspect has forwarded to me the codes
NERV will need to intercept elintel from Tokyo-2's forces. Considering the dire
situation we find ourselves in, you are ordered to use the codes…
A shot of the duo's faces. Hyuga is worried, Aoba is stoically unshaken as he
contemplates the risk. His face looks like something Kurosawa would film – a kamikaze
in the last seconds before battle run.
GENDO:(voiceover while a montage of bridge shots is run) … by routing our
transmissions through one of our reserve OS's, taking previous care to disconnect every
connection to the MAGI.
FUYUTSUKI:(wathes the bridge explode into a new fever pitch of activity) With you, it's
never something I'd expect, is it, Ikari?
Gendo's lips barely have time to form a smirk before some noise startles him.
***
Caption:
(Some minutes earlier)
There is a sudden screech as of car brakes on sheet metal, and simultaneously, a glare
like a million suns stuffed in the space of a nutshell erupts in the formerly-shadowed
corner of the little holding cell. Maya's training has kicked in just in time, so she turns
her head away before her conscious mind has time to register the guard's yell. But the
guard himself, his retinas protected by his standard-issue helmet visor can distinctly make
out some… outline appears in the suddenly-lit holding cell, several sharp edges that
somehow give the impression of a lanky leaping figure that streaks across the field of
white light, bounces off the wall, and vanishes in mid-flight, as if some chameleon device
took that split-second to adjust to the incandescent explosion.
GUARD:(as eloquent as anyone can be when gut-punched into the wall of the corridor
opposite the holding cell) OOOOOFFFF!
There are shots fired in the outer corridor, as the arriving Rapid Response team gets its
clock cleaned by an invisible opponent charging through them. They did not expect
anything, and so get no chance to use another incandescent grenade.
A MEDIC(rushing up to the guard) Can you talk? What's going on here, in the name of
all the kamis there are?!
The guard has, for once, fallen silent. His helmet protected his brains from any further
scrambling, but his diaphragm wasn't so lucky. No air in his lungs to talk with. It is all
he can do to raise a weak hand and point in the direction of the holding cell.
The Medic looks into the open door… and rushes in, desperately screaming into a cell
phone. Maya's head is swimming, she can make out fragments about organ banks, blood
transfusions and operating rooms, but can't string them together. The devastated young
woman can barely push feeble attempts at clarification past her bloodless lips.
MAYA: It… there was a noise… bird… Akagi-sempai
MEDIC:(sweating bullets and working with the speed of a jazz pianist and the precision
of a bomb squad expert as she tries to fit organs and stitch arteries back together) Don't
worry, Lieutenant. Since it appears to have happened only a minute or two ago… I'm
sure Iguwazi-sensei will save her… He was the world authority on hear transplants
before he joined NERV, you know. (She never ceases working while she talks, her
expertise evident.)
The rest of the Rapid Response team rush in, taking positions to cover every inch of the
holding cell's small space. They do give space to Maya and the medic, though, careful
not to interrupt the painstaking work.
She and several other Rapid Response people lift Ritsuko on a stretcher and carry her
out, careful not to shake a lung loose.
The RR team's commander and Maya are running alongside the stretcher, trying to
make sense of what the hell just took place.
RR LEADER:(extremely professional, even after his sudden encounter with the ceiling as
the mystery assailant rammed through him) We never saw a thing.(to the cell guard)
You tried to use an incandescent to smoke'im out?
GUARD:(still wheezing from his gut punch, trying hard to keep up) Yes, sir… It (huff,
puff) sorta took time to adapt to the flash, so I could see it for sec there… lotsa good it did
me, too.
RR LEADER:(unflappable) Yes, it seems to be proving itself quite an adversary… get
into a locked cell, escape past a team of reaction experts… (his mask of professionalism
slips for a brief instant, in what is for him a desperate cri de coeur) Personally, I would
suggest you have the MAGI scan the GeoFront for a Blue Pattern.
MAYA:(brain kicking in to overcome body's attempts to go into shock and never come
out) … and that thing must have done it seconds before we entered, hiding in the shadow!
It got away right past us! That bird on the was w-a-s freshly… (gulp) painted… (Here
she finally registers what the RR Leader has been saying) Blue Pattern? I doubt it,
Sergeant. This… this Angel horror is supposed to be over for now… at least that's what I
heard… although it could be… did I hear her refer to a heart… t-t… heart…
RR LEADER:(trying to recover lost professionalism) Outside my scope, Lieutenant.
They do know their business at the Infirmary, though.
A blur of stairways and elevators, as Maya focuses on Akagi Ritsuko's bloodstained
comatose face lolling against a stretcher pillow. Her fingers are squeezing the metal
frame of the stretcher in a bloodless grip as it rolls down the final stretch of hallway.
MEDIC:(running opposite Maya on other side of stretcher) We're here, we're almost
here! They tell me the op room's been prepped, we can pull her through! We're
professionals, we've t-trained for this, we can…
A shot rings out. Maya lets go of the stretcher from sheer shock staggering back.
Almost immediately response shots are heard as the RR Team returns fire. Maya can see
a dark-clad figure run forward, apparently unfazed by numerous body shots it takes.
MAYA:(dizzily, I. M.) Am I shot? … (aloud) Oh, Kami-sama, Akagi-sempai!
She has time for a glimpse of a man on the floor tiles, his head shot nearly off his neck,
his throat a mess of gore. Dimly she recognizes that it's the holding cell guard who tried
so desperately to be charming on their walk to discover the horror awaiting them.
MAYA:(realization dawns, I. M.) It was meant for me… he took a bullet that was flying
towards me…
A soldier is shoved aside and Maya finds herself staring down a pistol muzzle. The
mystery assassin is wearing black bulletproof body suit and helmet, but the helmet's visor
is transparent. Maya just has time to realize that the face she sees in the clear faceguard
is not a reflection.
MAYA:(screams) Me?!?!!!!?
An armor-piercing shot takes her doppelganger down from the left. She crumples like a
cardboard cutout whose base suddenly vanished, her fibroceramic helmet clanging on
floor linoleum with an incongruously bell-like chime. Maya suddenly remembers she
had a service pistol along all this time, fingers it uncertainly, then visibly decides that
pulling it out would be really dumb and just lets go.
MAYA:(bending over the doppelganger, who obviously is not long for this world) Who-
who ARE you? Why did you want to do this? Did you attack Akagi-hakase?
DOPPEL-MAYA:(struggling to speak) The pit… the pit opening… the abyss… no, not
the dreams!
MAYA:(pouts in confusion) Huh?! Pay attention, you… thing… creature… whatever!
DOPPEL-MAYA:(eyes suddenly focusing) You!? Ibuki Maya! I must kill you, kill, kill
Ibuki Maya, kill Ibuki Maya, have to kill her, you… hafta kill or can't you tell… the
dreams… oh… (dies)
MAYA:(getting up, with all the sarcasm she can muster in her innocent soul) Inter…
esting…
***
Maya, in surgical scrubs and gown, watches doctors gently lay her mentor's mangled
body on the operating table. A surgeon walks in from the room nearby.
THE SURGEON:(gently tapping Maya on the shoulder) Ahh, Lieutenant… concerning
that heart transplant… We were aware that Akagi-hakase's medical history shows that
she can accept transplanted tissue from a very narrow range of individuals – in fact, there
is at this time only one person in the GeoFront whose proteins her immune system would
not reject outright. Namely you.
MAYA:(deliberately maintaining calm with a superhuman effort of mind over fight-or-
flight response hormones) I see. And the… stranger? From what I could see of her
before the troopers shot her, I… (she nearly breaks down but catches herself) That is, I
mean we seem to share a… similarity. Or, you know, it seemed at the time she just
like…
SURGEON:(calmingly. He is aware of how NERV works, knows he is threading on
extremely thin ice here, and really does not want to complicate this screwery any more
than he has to.) Yes, Lieutenant, that was what I was about to ask. A conclusive DNA
test is still pending, but from random-sample analysis we could have our computers do on
such short notice, she seems to b-e you. In every respect we could so far investigate. I
realize that such a phenomenon could very well come under the jurisdiction of the
Special Investigations Research Division, so, as Akagi-hakase's immediate subordinate…
I hope I am getting the hierarchy correct, am I not?
MAYA:(giddy with relief that she can finally do something to help) Uh – certainly. Is
there something you want me to sign?
As Maya signs her name to some papers the surgeon's assistant pushes at her, she can
see the doppelganger's corpse being rapidly prepped for heart extraction next to the
machine-sustained Ritsuko. As she catches the "other her"'s eyes on a gaunt, pain-
deformed face, she thinks to herself:
MAYA:(meditative, I. M.) The pain that woman must have endured! Who is she? Am
I… here and there too… will I ever know what went on today?
***
GENDO:(we see nothing but his mouth) Not likely.
A VOICE:(very forceful and ironic, savoring the moment of pure power its owner treats
herself to like it was the richest chocolate cake she ever tasted. ) Bad guess, Ikari. You
get one more chance.
As she talks, the camera caresses her black-gloved hand holding a silvery sleek pistol.
We see a little more – aha, it's taking place in Gendo's office. Behind the black-clad
hand and black-draped wrist of the mystery lady, we see the Systema Sephirotica on the
ceiling over the Commander's desk, and then pan out to see Gendo lying on the floor,
staring up at her gun, with a lady clad all in black and twilight gray standing over him in
a classic "Come here little boy, and I'll teach you some… manners" imposing pose that
seems to come to her extremely naturally and unselfconsciously. She threatens
commanders of dark and powerful organizations with a pistol the way a cat stretches,
ballerinas dance, or Shaherezade tells tales. Even though we can't see her face from the
POV just over her head, she has a figure that would make Shinji's friend Kensuke cream
his jeans before he finished a single blink. Gendo, however, does not find it a comforting
company.
THE WOMAN:(In a flawless, sonorous, "You've been a bad boy, Ikari Gendo" voice)
The crystal, Ikari. I trust I shan't have to demonstrate to you the folly of useless attempts
at skullduggery.
Gendo is somewhat crumpled, but unflappable. He is still hoping this is all a temporary
setback – after all, what crystal could be more important than Rei and the nasty surprise
he has planned for the old men with her!
GENDO:(politely but tiredly, as if he wishes her all the best, but really can't spare that
much time from his myriad concerns) This is hardly the time for it, Yantaro.
YANTARO:(terse and laconic, a sudden change from her sensuous temptress routine)
Make time. We had a deal, Ikari. Deals are kept by those that live to evolve. (With her
demonic perception, she catches some subconscious change in him – he can't tell what –
and lets out a bemused "hmmm!") Oh, that. No, don't bother to call security, Ikari. I
made sure we would not be interrupted. Those Section two goons of yours are such
stifling conversationalists, don't you agree? Now, concerning my pay? Business ethics,
the value of trust, elementary game theory?
GENDO:(the voice of reason itself – butter wouldn't melt in his mouth) Yantaro, surely
even the most scrupulous ethicists have heard of a rain check.
YANTARO:(striking words out like sparks of iron on granite) The crystal was my pay,
Ikari. You've had a reprieve of 15 years. You shall pay now. And try not to squirm
more than you can help, you'll ruin your sterling reputation.
Ikari Gendo can see that he is out of his league here. But the game of trick and counter-
trick, honed over long epics of shenanigans as first a pawn and then an adversary of
SEELE, has by now become an essential element in his blood. He does not smirk. For
all he knows of his current and long ago "business partner" it could very well be fatal.
But… with a perfect poker face on his dark countenance, he smirks i-n-w-a-r-d-l-y. He
knows something she doesn't. He hopes.
GENDO:(deliberate) Very well. It seems you have me in somewhat of a… sticky spot.
(sarcasm tinges his voice like a barely perceptible mist over a still lake.) Yantaro-
Shirako-sama.
The woman walks up to him, still keeping the gun trained at his gut. We cannot see her
face, but we can see his. He is… apprehensive. Not twitchy, or anything so vulgar. But
he can think of a much better scenario than having this charm queen pointing pistols at
him at a critical moment.
Before that face can register a change, she steps up to him and pats him on the cheek as
if to say "Ooooooh, aren't you a cutie when you growl!" Her voice almost insidiously
changes from terse, to sensual and relaxed again.
YANTARO:(almost in a purr – of a leopard) Don't outsmart yourself, Ikari. I have a
hunch you won't get out of the game that easily… Your fate appears to have quite a bit
more plans for you before she lets you… attempt… your oh-so-exciting plans for the
human species.
Gendo stands there, wondering how much longer must he suffer looking unflappable
and privately seethe with worry at the hidden agendas moving around him like branching
fault lines, shifting the foundations of his plans in directions he cannot see.
Finally, the tall woman breaks eye contact, moving towards the door. A barely
perceptible sigh echoes in the strangely silent office. For half a second, it is the only
sound. Then:
YANTARO:(stands by door, ironically gestures with the pistol) Lead on, oh wise one.
GENDO:(under his breath) grumble, grumble
YANTARO:(musingly) You, know, Ikari, if that little flitting cherub Yui didn't snap you
up, we might have had something, the two of us
***
In a darkened twisted corridor, two shapes are moving among the shadows. One shape
is caught in the light his flashlight reflects off a white paint stripe from some insignia
pained on a dark wall. From the orange-reddish glint of sunglasses and the beard we
correctly assume it is the Commander of NERV.
OTHER SHAPE:(we never see it outright, but from the voice, it's fruitful to assume this
is Yantaro) What a time you picked to conserve GeoFront power, Ikari. Really, couldn't
you ask SEELE to be more considerate when they're picking time to besiege you?
GENDO:(visibly swallows all the responses he could make to this, then moves flashlight
so he is just a dark shadow shape again) We're almost here. Come on. (opens door,
outlining himself in an oval of light)
YANTARO:(in her mock-sulky voice) You wouldn't be trying to pull one over on me,
Ikari, would you? You do recall my little lesson from Antarctica, of course…
Gendo, silent, steps through the door. She follows.
***
NERV infirmary, neural division. A caption before a closed door reads:
(After Asuka's awakening)
Misato is sitting on Asuka's bed, after a makeshift one had been wheeled in for the
unconscious Shinji. The covered tray with Shinji's supper on it is standing by the main
bed, at Asuka's night table. Misato is trying to hug Asuka. Asuka does not push her
away (as she half dreads) but she stiffens up, refusing to accept the caress.
MISATO:(gently) Asuka, please. I know it hurts. It will heal. I hurt a lot too, after
Second Impact. Come on. You've got to eat, I know you're hungry. If you want to take
something from here… (realizes offering Asuka food that she brought because she cared
about Shinji is a BAD IDEA) … or I could dial the GeoFront kitchens and have them
make anything you want…
ASUKA:(speaks every word as if dropping a box of rocks on a sheet of rusted metal) So
I'm awake. Big whoop. I should have died! Just… cleansed the world of me…
Couldn't even do that right, figures…
MISATO:(about to get angry before she remembers that this child has been more hurt
than even she can know about) Asuka, do you see Shinji over there. You know, the one
unconscious? You know that he didn't sleep for fifteen nights worrying over you? Look
at him, Asuka. Look at him. He cannot be happy if you're suffering.
ASUKA:(strangely quiet)… Fifteen days… (The quiet does not last long) Still, he's a
retard. He always agonizes. It's his nature to whimper and moan like a sheep with a
stomachache! Still… (her eyes stare into distance as her recent vision roars again before
her eyes) … can't keep the Heir to NERV throne unhappy, can we…
She buries her face in Misato, in the position that most guys would kill for. She doesn't
cry. She would die first! But she just… holds on. Misato, stirred by instinct for which
she herself can't account, wraps her arms around the girl's body and feels her is still
shaking like a strummed string from sheer tension. Stifling a sob, Misato bends her head
over Asuka, crooning something wordless. After several seconds she starts, remembering
her father crooning the same tune over her at 3 years old.
After a short while, when Asuka is sure she would not drown, she lets go. Her breathing
is calmer now, and her teeth feel no urge to chatter. Her lips still tremble, ever so
slightly.
ASUKA:(I.M.) I know it'd kill me to fail again… but if I give up, it'll be on more than
just me. (aloud) Well? What'd you bring me, oh, I'm sorry, what'd you bring the Snot-
Faced Messiah over there? Hmmm, shrimp… ooooh, spare ribs… (sits atop the coverlet
cross-legged with the tray on her knees and a determined expression on her face. The
sort of expression that would convince a tank battalion not to mess with HER.)
Misato is watching the tray emptying in disbelief. To tempt Shinji into eating at all, she
brought a whole row of various dainties in the hope he was seduced by at least one sort.
So now, that tray held enough delicacies to entertain Mikado's court! But it held them
for a very short time before being convicted and executed by a ravenous flame-crowned
valkyrie in a hospital gown.
ASUKA:(daintily pausing to gulp down a whole bowl of hot & sour soup to wash down
whatever she had in her mouth) Hey, Misato! Gimme your cell phone! When this idiot
(gesture of a queen towards her faithful, if incontinent, puppy) wakes up again, he's
gonna whine that you gave his food away!(snatches phone with the speed of a diving
hawk) Now don't bother with your credit card number, I already hacked it out of your
NERV files back when I moved in. Y'know, that was a nice pic of Kaji you had in your
private notebook… did he often pose as a nude model in college?
MISATO:(to herself) I have a feeling she'll live.
***
NERV infirmary operating theater, where the battle for Akagi Ritsuko's life draws to an
apparent conclusion. The doctors are crowded around the patient, while Maya, left to her
own thoughts, stares with horror at her double's disassembled corpse.
MAYA:(introspective) Who is that me? She would have taken my life… but instead she
gave hers to save… Risuko. And… if she wasn't here? If I was the only matching
donor left!? Would I have sacrificed myself to save Akagi-sempai? (a pause as she is
struck by an epiphany) I would, wouldn't I? I always knew how important she was to
me, but now… I only just realized…
Close-up of a surgeon's hand, putting the final stitch on an artery.
SURGEON:(proud, beaming, and near death from exhaustion brought on by the sheer
force of his focus) And it's pretty much routine after that, Miss Ibuki… (catches self)
pardon me, Lieutenant. I am… a bit tired right now.
MAYA:(absently) Oh, that's quite all right. (Dubious) Routine? From what I've
heard…
AN ASSISTANT:(in reassuring tone, as he waits till the surgeons need his help) Don't
worry Lieutenant. If that bizzarro evil twin of yours didn't do us the favor of dropping
by… well, better not to talk of that. As it is, though, the rest is just a lot of busywork.
Re-attaching, sewing, propping up… soon all Akagi-hakase's organs will be right where
the kamis put'em, with nothing lost but a night's sleep for us. You can just go and relax
now, get some rest. This is the best team I ever worked with, we… (sees a doctor
gesture) Yes sir. I apologize humbly, sir. Here you go, now…
MAYA:(introspective; touches her dead double's bloody hand) I sacrificed… myself…
and I'm still alive. And it looks like Akagi-sempai will live, too! But you… (pause, as
she searches her feelings) … I would die for her… I never knew… is it... do I… (her
eyes get bigger, then a smile breaks out like sun through rainy gray.) What matters is
that Ritsuko will live!
***
GENDO:(morose) Must you h-u-m while you do that?
YANTARO(singsong voice) Buuuuuut of cooooooourse, daaaaaaaaaaaaahling.
(They are both at MAGI physical location, Gendo keeping a reluctant lookout, Yantaro
playing up to her elbows in BALTHASAR's frontal cortex. CASPAR and MELCHIOR
stand there gaping at the duo with dark holes in their towers, the frontal panels that used
to protect their cortexes standing stacked against them. She is making motions like she's
an Amish farmwife churning butter.)
… Gooooot it!
(Gendo's unexpected playmate yanks something multifaceted and glowing from inside
the bio-computer's guts (or cortex convolutions, whatever the case may be). A black
gloved hand opens the pouch on her belt, removing two others. The latest on glows
yellow and the two she had in the pouch glow cyan and a combination of brick red with
lilac purple.)
… And for my next trick… I'll move the destiny of this planet in the right direction!
Gendo looks at her as if to say "Woman, your style creeps me out". Unfazed, Yantaro
takes the three crystalline… components, bringing their tips together. Even before they
touch, the tips seem to… germinate.
A close up of the three tapering ends of the three components. The crystal edges
suddenly sprout shoots of spun liquid forms that can only have vague analogues in our
concepts of petals, centipedes, fern leaves, tendrils, antennae, butterfly wings or coral
reefs. Outwards they spin, blossoming, curling, branching, drifting as if with an unseen
current, re-crystallizing and re-liquefying so swift they seem to be in both states
simultaneously… shining with a kaleidoscopic array of brilliant hues, swirling around
each other in an intricate dance, and softly chiming as they flow together – at the very
edge of human hearing like a ghost of a dream song after you wake.
Shortly, we are treated to the sight of a single perfect crystal born from the joyful union
of its three ancestors. It shines with a hypnotic white light that occasionally gives out a
spark of iridescent colors that human languages lack words to describe. Yantaro
carefully passes a hand over it and the glow dulls as if the crystal has gone to sleep.
Gendo adjusts his glasses and gives the same sort of grunt Ritsuko has heard from him
during orgasm.
GENDO:(drily) Well, that brings back memories. Now would you mind replacing these?
(gestures at the MAGI covers) Wouldn't want to let Section Two know the GeoFront has
acquired a burglar problem.
YANTARO:(pouches the muted crystal) Sure, Ikari. Keep your pants on. Although…
(assumes a "thinker" pose) Nah, ain't got the time. (Starts putting covers back on. Talks
as she works.) You know, if you ever get Yui back, try doing it while you're still so…
well preserved.
Gendo's cell phone goes off.
GENDO:(all business, talks into the mike) Ikari here. What is happening?
***
FUYUTSUKI:(on bridge) !!!
Before he has time to say anything, we see Hyuga jump up behind him.
MAKOTO:(almost screaming, veins bulge on his neck) We're detecting a massive power
su…
***
In the MAGI room, Gendo and Yantaro see a flare of golden glow envelop the three
MAGI towers. Gendo staggers back, desperately guessing what kind of trap SEELE just
closed on him. He pulls out his own pistol.
YANTARO:(smoothly covering him with hers) Nothing to fear, Commander! All's right
with the world!
***
Tokyo-2. A JSSDF war-room – techs beat out staccato rhythms on computer consoles
in an antipodal counterpart to NERV's own bridge. High muckety-mucks in somber
uniforms are bent forward, eyes riveted on various holo displays.
JSSDF GENERAL:(fingers clawing at emptiness) Reinforce! Reinforce, damn you!
TECH:(he is grossly obese and his folds of blubber are quivering like melting jello) N-no
use, sir! It's refusing all signals. It's like the computer itself has refused to go on!
Nothing we can do when the equipment mutinies! Court-martial me if you want, it's
true!
GENERAL:(in a voice of a walking dead, jaws snapping like a steel trap once he's done)
If these readings are true, we must prepare humanity's funeral pyre.
***
NERV bridge. Gendo, alone, comes out of an elevator.
A TECH:(pumps fist in air) The El Riad and Paris devices just went off-line! That's the
last of them!
SHIGERU:(giddy with relief) Sir, we've used the codes in that file to intercept signals
from all UN military satellites! MAGI-level bio-comps world over are going belly up!
Whatever the MAGI did to those hackers, their machines are all suffering splitting
headaches right about now! (confused, to himself) But how did our MAGI manage the
processing power to take them all for a spin like that?
GENDO:(looking over the bridge like a lion looks at his pride lands off a height)
Fuyutsuki-sensei?
SHIGERU:(sneaking a glance at the two) I probably don't want to know…
FUYUTSUKI:(frowns at the things he's imagining, some of which are uncomfortably
close to the truth) You're certain?
GENDO:(serenely) What is certainty? But it seems… reasonable… to act as though
NERV will live through this.
Next episode: Why is the JSSDF assault, that seems to be Tokyo-2's only chance to
dominate NERV and defeat Commander Ikari, been put on indefinite hold? See Major
Misato Katsuragi lead a team of crack Section I operatives to match JSSDF on its own
ground and obtain the secrets vital to NERV's survival. But who is this new partner
she's been saddled with – by Commander Ikari's direct orders! And who is the
mysterious enemy that turned her little squad's cat-and-mouse game with JSSDF into a
fruition of a very personal vendetta?
On the home front, see Asuka terrify random medical personnel. See Shinji evoke
Asuka's… maternal side? Oh, he's in for it now! All on the next episode of Evangelion:
The Apotheosis!