Author: Stephen Mason Email: hagenclaw@icqmail.com
See Prologue for Disclaimer + Author's notes. Now let's continue :)

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The train clattered out of the tunnel. Touji Suzuhara looked out
the small window of the train. Stretching out in front of him was a
vast, pale blue lake. In its shallows and around its edges were the
remains of many buildings. Some were pinnacles of twisted metal and
concrete, others were squatting heaps of rubble. As he watched a
series of ripples spread out across the water's surface, and briefly a
purple spike rose above the water before disappearing below again.
"Tokyo Three." Touji said quietly, as the train carried him and
his companion into another tunnel, "the forgotten city."



NEON GENSIS EVANGELION

THE LAZARUS PROJECT
PART 1: THE FORGTTEN WAR



With a low drawn out screech the train finally came to a halt deep
beneath the Geo-Front. The doors slid apart with a hiss and Touji
stepped out, his artificial leg making a dull clicking sound as he
walked. He had grown in the past three years, but his hair was still a
slightly wild, black brush. He was clean-shaven and his dark eyes held
a look of deep resignation. He was dressed in lose fitting clothes but
it was still easy to see that, despite his injuries, he kept himself
fit.

The station was little more than a concrete platform on a low
hill. It was high enough for Touji to get a good look at the
landscape. Here, beneath the Geo-Front, where once manmade forests,
lakes and watermelon patches had lain, there was now only barren dirt.
The landscape was pockmarked with craters, and dominated by the huge
automated defence towers and missile batteries. The distant drone of
heavy machinery, and deep generators had replaced the soft hum of
people, vehicles, and animals. Even the air itself smelled desolate.

A NERV jeep was parked at the edge of the narrow platform. Not to
far from it, and close enough for Touji not to miss her, stood Asuka.
She was three years older than when he had last seen her and she
looked it. She was almost as tall as he was and she filled out the
creamy coloured NERV uniform well. Her hair flowed down her back like
an orange-red sea. The set of her face still spoke of an underlying,
rock hard determination. As she stood there she regarded him with a
sort of professional indifference.

"Touji Suzuhara." She said stiffly.

"Nice to see you too, Asuka." He replied.

Hikari emerged from the train to stand beside him. She had long
ago abandoned the twin pigtails for a single ponytail tied loosely at
the base of her neck. She too had grown up, her freckles almost (but
not quite) faded away. She wore a simple green dress with a flaring
skirt.

Asuka's business-like demeanour broke as soon as she saw her old
friend. "Hikari!" she exclaimed.

"Asuka," Hikari said running forward to embrace her friend, "It's
been so long."

"You never said you were coming in your letters. I haven't seen
you since... since Misato's funeral." Hikari gave Asuka a sympathetic
smile; she knew how Misato's death was still painful to her friend.

"You're always saying that you can't leave because you're on
constant alert." Hikari explained. "And civilians aren't allowed down
here. So when Touji got the letter, and it said that he could bring
along one other person, I just couldn't let the opportunity pass."

"You still making lunches for this stooge then?"

"If it weren't for her cooking I'd probable stop dating her."
Touji said walking up to Hikari's side. She elbowed him playfully in
the stomach as she smiled at Asuka.

"I do take care of his appetites." Hikari said. Touji just laughed

"The Commander asked me to bring you straight to the Command
Center. We'll take my jeep." Asuka said leading them across the
concrete. Soon they were underway and the jeep was kicking up a plume
of dust as it speed down the road. It would rock now and then as they
dodged the occasional fifteen-foot pothole. Asuka drove with the same
offhand recklessness as her pervious guardian.

"Once we get to head quarters you will be meeting the Commander."
Asuka advised Touji over the noise of the jeep. "Inside it's NERV
personal only, so Hikari, you will have to wait outside. There is
plenty of room in the underground apartment blocks and you'll each be
given a room there, so you could probably use that time to check it
out."

"Separate rooms won't be necessary." Hikari said with a small
smile.

"What?! You two are sleeping together?"

"Well I can see your as tactful as ever Asuka." Touji drawled.

"You never put 'that' in your letters."



Commander Fuyutsuki's Office was similar to Gendou Ikari's in its
featureless interior, but it was neither as large nor as dark. Where
Gendou had favoured an impressive scale Fuyutsuki had gone for a
merely functional size. Instead of the black marble like floor there
were the simple grey panels used in the rest of the base. The back
wall was made up of a series of sloping windows that looked up at the
distant roof of the Geo-Front. When Asuka and Touji entered they found
him standing with his back to them, gazing out those windows.

Asuka saluted. "Lieutenant Asuka Langley Sohryu reporting. I have
brought Mr Suzuhara as you instructed Sir."

"At ease Asuka." He said turning around. He was a tall man and his
strict, grey uniform suited the hardened lines of his face. "So this
is Touji Suzuhara, the fourth candidate who was chosen by the now
dissolved Marduke Institute." He fixed Touji with an iron hard stare.
"You've probably already guessed why you were called here, to the last
remaining branch of NERV. However do not give your answer right away."

The Commander paused as the floor beneath them trembled and thin
streams of dust fell briefly from the ceiling. Touji's eyes widened,
while the other two seemed un-phased. "What was that?" he asked in
shock.

"With the large amount of damage that the Geo-Front has incurred
over the years it has become somewhat... unstable." The Commander
explained. "More importantly Mr Suzuhara; it would be best if you
fully understand our situation. You must go into this with both eyes
open." He retrieved a red folder from his desk and handed it to Touji.
"This will explain most of it. Asuka will tell you the rest.
Lieutenant," he finished formally, "Dr Akagi is waiting for both of
you in the Fifth cage. That will be all. Good-day Mr Suzuhara."

After they were dismissed Touji leaned close to Asuka's ear. "I
thought Shinji's fa... I mean Mr Ikari was NERV's Commander."

"He was." Asuka replied as she led him to the briefing room. "But
Commander Ikari disappeared shortly after the third battle against
Unit 01. He has been assumed dead."

They passed through two large doors and stepped onto one of the
myriad of moving walkways in the base. Touji opened the red folder and
began to flip through the pages. On the first page was a colour photo
of a huge white creature pinned to a red cross by two Progression
Knives driven into its palms. Its limp head was smooth and featureless
except for a grey, mask-like face with seven eyes. Beneath the image
was written 'Lilith, Unit 01 and the Threat of Third Impact'.

Being a civilian when the 'accident' had occurred Touji had only
seen the censored news footage from NERV's PR department. Reading the
contents of the red folder filled in a lot of the blanks.

According to the report; two days after the defeat of the 17th
Angel the third child was recorded entering Unit 01's Launch bay. two
hours later Unit 01 had activated by its self, broke free of its
restraints and the cryo-stasis, and climbed up the 32nd launch shaft.
A sync ratio of 100 percent was part of the limited information that
could be retrieved from the Eva.

The first attempt to stop the rouge Evangelion was using Unit 02
with the first child as pilot. This failed and left the pilot in a
coma. The second attempt had utilised the mass produced Eva Series;
Units 05 through to 13. There was a picture beside the brief of this
battle showing a white Eva with a smooth and maggot white head. The
only features on its face were small slitted eyes and a jagged clown
-like grin. It held a blue, two pronged spear, apparently a replica of
a weapon used against the 15th Angel.

This too had failed. The UN had been so appalled it had banned the
production of any more Eva's and reduced NERV to a single branch, this
one, dedicated to containing the threat of Unit 01.

Touji stared at the last page of the report as the walkway hummed
beneath his feet. After a moment he looked up at Asuka's back. "Is
there any chance he may still be alive?" he asked, not needing to say
whom he meant.

"We don't know." Asuka replied quietly, without turning around.
"Even if the life support was working at maximum he couldn't last
three years. But if he had died the Eva should have stopped
functioning. But it's not a matter of retrieval any more."

The moving walkway stoped abruptly at the entrance to the fifth
cage. Inside there was a heavy smell of salt water and something
metallic. It was dark, fluorescent globes hanging from a distant
ceiling illuminating only a single, long gangway.

Dr Akagi was waiting for them on that gangway. She was dressed in
a long, white lab coat and looked much the same as she did three years
ago when she had told Touji he was the fourth child.
"Ah, there you are." She said, looking up from the red clipboard
she was holding. She noticed the red folder in Touji's hand. "So you
know about the rest then?"

"Yes," Touji replied holding up the folder, "but it doesn't tell
me why I'm here."

"No, it wouldn't. You're here because of the Lazarus project. You
see over the last three years we have made many attempts to first
restrain Unit 01 and later to destroy it. However despite the valiant
efforts of our pilot we have been unable to succeed. Between Unit 01's
S^2 organ, its regenerative abilities, and its incredible resistance
to damage it is virtually unstoppable.

"With all the data from the pervious battles the Magi have rated
our chance of success with a single Eva and conventional weapons
against Unit 01 at 12%. However during the battle with Eva Series Unit
01 somehow was able to recall the Lance of Longinus from orbit. Since
then it has lain at the bottom of Tokyo Three lake. Armed with the
Lance the Magi have rated our chance of success at 76%.

"We do have a problem; the only time Unit 01 is far enough from
the Lake to make the retrieval of the Lance possible is when it tries
to reach Terminal Dogma. We have to maintain an Eva on constant alert
to prevent Unit 01 from getting in to contact with Lilith and causing
Third impact. With a second Evas one could Guard Terminal Dogma while
the other retrieves the Lance. But, with Rei incapacitated, we need
someone to pilot the second Eva."

"But you don't have two Eva's." Touji said, hoping his guess had
been wrong. "The UN banned the production of any more."

"Production; yes. Repair; no."

"What do you mean?" Touji asked getting a horrid sinking feeling.
"The heart of the Lazarus project is the resurrection of
Evangelion Unit 03."

Inside his head Touji swore. "I was in that thing when Unit 01
killed it the first time. It was torn to shreds. There wasn't much
left of it."

"Not much, but enough. Add to that the sections salvaged from the
bodies of the Eva Series as well as parts requisitioned as spares for
Unit 02, and you have one whole Eva."

The chamber's lights flared into brightness with a solid metallic
clunk. There, rising up out of the water that filled the chamber, was
Evangelion Unit 03. It was the same brutish face Touji remembered,
only an unpainted, metallic grey instead of black. The chest and
shoulders that were above the water were a strange patchwork of white,
black and metallic grey. For some reason it reminded him of the old
Frankenstein movies.

"It has taken us the better part of two years to rebuild this
Eva." Said the doctor. "But now it is complete we need only a pilot to
put our final plan into action."

"So you want me to pilot it." His voice was quiet as he held on to
his patience. It was worse than he had expected. To see that thing
that had haunted his nightmares brought back to life.

"The Marduke Institute was dissolved a long time ago, we can't get
any new pilots."

"You were the designated pilot for Unit 03." Asuka said. "I mean
you have been in it been in it before. Which is more than can be said
of any one else."

Touji's patience snapped. "You want me to get back inside that,
that thing. Last time it cost me an arm and a leg, literally." He
said, holding up his stiff, prosthetic arm.

"There is no one else." Asuka said, and for the first time, she
sounded very weary. "This is our last chance to defeat Unit 01. We
don't have any options left."

"I spent seven months in re-hab after that, if it hadn't been for
Hikari's support I..." He was cut off as warning sirens sounded and
spinning red lights descended from the ceiling.

"Warning, behaviour pattern 23. All personal to their posts."

Asuka swore in German and dashed from the room. Dr Akagi shook her
head sadly and began to follow. "Wait," Touji said, his shock at being
cut off wearing off, "what is going on?"

The Doctor turned to him and spoke mater-of-factlly, "Behaviour
pattern 23; it means "Unit 01 is trying to dig through the Geo-Front."



Asuka held on tightly as Unit 02 emerged from the launch shaft.
She heard the restraints release with loud clunk and the Eva slouched
forward. "Do we have a fix on it?" she demanded as she used Unit 02's
hands to pick up two missile launches from the rack that had emerged
from the ground beside her.

Maya's voice crackled over the Eva's com. "He's made it 85% of the
way down the 17th shaft, he's now attacking the last armoured
barrier."

Asuka swore in German again. "That gives me less than a minute."
She muttered. She guided the Eva's steps till she had positioned
herself between NERV Headquarters and the ruins of one of the
buildings that had fallen from the ceiling of the Geo-Front.

Back in the command center Dr Akagi and Touji arrived to look up
at the huge holographic display. Hyuga spun around in his seat. "Sir,
Unit 01 has breached the final armoured doors."

Fuyutsuki stood behind the desk on the central pillar. "Asuka," he
said, speaking to the command centre's general microphone. "remember,
we just want to dissuade Unit 01, we don't want to be drawn into full
combat here."

Back in the Eva Asuka nodded. "Right." Just then part of the
Geo-Front's ceiling gave way, the rubble pouring onto the ruined
building in front of Unit 02. The rubble had barely settled when a
large purple form followed it. Unit 01 fell slowly, seeming to defy
gravity. When it hit the rubble, it did so softly, without dislodging
anything.

Asuka levelled Unit 02's rocket launchers at Unit 01 as it
clambered down the ruins. She unfolded her AT field as it began to
advance towards her.

Back in the Command Center Touji gasped in awe as the screen
changed to show a full image of Unit 01. The towering purple android
walked with heavy steps, its shoulders slumped, its head resting
forward, its mouth open. Its armour was covered in scars, the battery
pack on one shoulder had been broken into a jagged edge and its left
hand was blackened up to the elbow.

Up above Unit 02 AT field met Unit 01's. The purple Eva's head
whipped up, its shining eyes fixing on the red Eva blocking its path.
Two more paces and it stoped, then began a low growl that reverberated
out across the entire cavern.

"Sir?" Asuka asked, shifting the weight of the twin rocket
launchers.

"Hold, Lieutenant." Fuyutsuki said across the com.

Suddenly Unit 01 reared up, its growl becoming a vicious roar. It
swung its arms wide, like a gorilla making a challenge. Curling its
fingers like claws it slashed at the air between them.

"Hold." The commander's voice ripped across the com. Asuka held.
Unit 02 didn't even flinch.

After several moments of this vicious display Unit 01 finally
subsided. Almost contemptuously it shifted gaze from Unit 02 to a bare
patch of earth near the black pyramid. Underneath that patch was the
NERV special Hospital. Unit 01 let out a long, mournful moan. It
stoped only when the ground trembled from a small quake. It gave Unit
02 one last contemptuous glance before turning away and heading back
to the ruined building. Climbing to the top it then leapt straight up,
rising until it was able to grab on to the lip of the hole. Hauling
itself up it began to climb back up the shaft.

"Well done Asuka."

Well done? Asuka thought to herself sourly as her Eva descended
towards the cage. I didn't do anything, that thing just decided it
didn't want to fight today. Once Unit 02 was back in the cage the
entry plug was ejected. Asuka stepped out and ran her hands through
her LCL soaked hair. Touji was waiting for her on the gangway.

"I'll do it." Was all he said.


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