Author: Stephen Mason Email: sm04@uow.edu.au

Author's note: Sorry this has taken so long, the next episode
will be much sooner Remember any input is apreciated.

See Prologue for Disclaimer. Now let's continue.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The sun blazed down upon the shining steel and glass of Tokyo 3's
skyscrapers, apartments and empty streets. Through them strode the
giant, grim form of Unit 03. Held in its mismatched hands was the
long barrel of a missile launcher. Deep with it Touji sat immersed in
LCL, concentrating on making the Eva move as he desired. It was easier
now than in the beginning, it almost felt like the Eva was a part of
him, or he of it.
Doctor Akagi's voice filtered across the com. "Asuka's reached the
point position, Touji. When you've made it to the flank position, be
prepared to fire on the target as soon as she attacks."
"Ok." He said as he increased the Eva's pace. He knew the target
was quiet for the moment but it could move at any time. As he
approached the flank position, behind one of the blast shield
buildings, a small red screen appeared on the Eva's display. Inside of
it was Asuka's grinning face. "Ok rookie," she said, "Now I'll show
you ho... Hey!" she was cut off as the Doctor's voice blared across
the com again.
"Touji the target is on the move and it's headed your way."
"What?" Touji exclaimed, and swung the Eva's vision around to the
city. There a small apartment suddenly exploded in a shower of white
stone. Erupting from the debris was the massive, dark green form of
the Third Angel. A light flashed inside the empty sockets of its small
white face. Touji swore and spurred the Eva the rest of the distance
to the blast shield. Just in time too, for as he pressed the Eva's
back up against the barrier he watched as a huge column of energy
erupted where he had just been standing.
When the light faded Touji tensed the Eva's muscles and swung out
from behind the barrier. The Angel was advancing with long, purposeful
strides, this time he didn't give it the chance to attack first. He
fired the first missile straight into the creature's chest, making it
stagger and surrounding it in smoke. He followed this with the second,
the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and then... click, click. He was out
of ammunition.
He scrutinised the cloud created by the missile detonations. That
much fire power should have been enough to take it out. He realised
how wrong he was when the Angel staggered out of the smoke, its chest
and face, blacked and scared, but intact.
"Asuka," he said into the com, "where the hell are you?"
"Right here rookie!"
It was then that he noticed the blood red Eva charging down one of
the side streets, a huge axe griped in its hands. He wasn't the only
one to notice however, the Angel had stoped and turned to face its new
assailant. There was a flash and a wall of burning energy swept down
the side street.
Touji seized the opportunity, discarding the missile launcher he
drew Unit 03's progression knife, and charged. The Angel, distracted
by its attack on Unit 02, was too slow to react and he was able to
tackle it before it could fire its beam attack. Wrapping Unit 03's arm
around the Angel he drove the knife into its white face and began to
drag down. However the Angel was holding the Eva's arm and midsection
in its own hands and the blades had begun to slam into his armour.
Then Asuka's voice sliced across the com. "Eat This!" she yelled
as she rose up behind the Angel, the axe high to strike. She must have
dodged the blast. Swing the axe she buried it in the Angel's back
where it sheared through whatever the Angel was made of to smash into
the core from behind.
With that Touji's display went blank except for several large
white words: 'Nerve connections released, simulation 2.31 terminated.'
Asuka's image appeared in the bottom corner of the now black
screen. "What do ya think of that, pretty good huh?"
"Yeah, well, you have been doing this for the last four years." He
replied.
Doctor Akagi's voice filtered over the com. "Asuka? Are you still
taking the day off tomorrow?"
"I've built up a lot of leave being on level 3 alert all the time.
It's about time I used some."
"Ok, but we still got a few hours of today left you two, we'll
try another simulation, and this time, I'm not telling you what your
up against."



NEON GENSIS EVANGELION

THE LAZARUS PROJECT
PART 4: GRAVESIDE



Commander Fuyutsuki stood in a small circle of light at the center
of a dark holographic chamber. Encircling him were the 12 black
monoliths of SEELE. It is obvious that they have already been talking
for some time.
SEELE 01: "So the Lazarus project is proceeding well?"
"Yes," replied Fuyutsuki, "If anything we are ahead of schedule."
SEELE 04: "What of Unit 03, have there been any problems with the
synthesis?"
"No, Unit 03 is preforming very well."
SEELE 01: "Very well. That will be all 'Dr' Fuyutsuki."
With a hollow click the spotlight turned off and the commander
disappeared from the chamber. For a long moment the monoliths gazed
eyelessly at each other. At last one of them spoke.
SEELE 11: "Once more we find ourselves drawing towards success."
SEELE 08: "It depends, of course, on the ability of the remaining
pilots and their Evas to preform their tasks."
SEELE 09: "And even if they do preform, something arose to hinder us
last time, we would be fools to believe there would not be something
this time."
SEELE 04: "Could it be Fuyutsuki?"
SEELE 07: "He does not fully agree with our plans."
SEELE 02: "He will continue to do as we instruct. He has no other
option."
SEELE 06: "Can Unit 02 be used instead of Unit 01?"
SEELE 03: "Unit 02 possesses an incomplete soul, just as Unit 01 did."
SEELE 04: "The scrolls do allow for it, they even allow for this three
years delay."
SEELE 01: "Then it will be as it was written, Instrumentality will be
completed. The future will be ours. That will be all Gentleman."
With the same hollow click the monoliths disappeared, leaving the
chamber to brood in its own infinite darkness.



"Yeah, it's like so weird. Imagine, the fifth turning out to be an
angel." Kenskue said pushing his tinted glasses back up his nose.
Touji was staring down at the screen of the public Vid phone from
which his long time friend looked back. For reasons Touji couldn't
fathom his friend had grown his hair long and started wearing tinted
glasses. It probably had something to do with him going to university.
"What else could you find out?" Touji asked into the receiver. His
friend had assured him that this phone was on a different grid to the
rest of the ones near Nerv HQ, and wouldn't be monitored.
"Well the 5th, I mean the 17th Angel was defeated in terminal
Dogma by Unit 01. I also did a bit more digging into the pilots for
the Mass Produced Eva Series. Apparently there were none, they used
some kind of 'dummy' plug. What is really weird is that one of the
encrypted files is KN2150, the same one I keep finding with the Fifth
child and seventeenth Angle folders."
"What could you find out about Shinji?"
"Not a dam thing. All files pertaining to Unit 01, the Third Child
and the days after the defeat of the Seventeenth have been moved into
a secure section of Balthazar. I don't think even I can hack into
there."
"So that's it?"
"Yeah, I'll keep looking but I don't know how much more I'll be
able to find."
"Ok." Touji said with a sigh, "See ya, and thanks again."
"No problem, Bye." Kenskue said and the small screen flicked off.
Hanging up the receiver Touji began to make his way back to the bench
where Hikari was sitting.
It had seemed so simple when Asuka had stepped out of the entry
plug on his first day here. Pilot the Eva, help stop Unit 01, do what
needed to be done. Now he had questions without answers, and every
time it looked like he was getting close, there were only more
questions.
Worse, he had begun to have strange dreams. Always the same one,
he would be on one of the old Tokyo 3 train carriages, and further
down had been Shinji and the Fifth child. Shinji had been sitting down
with his eyes squeezed shut and his hands clutching at his head. The
fifth had been standing over him and they had been talking, though
Touji couldn't hear them, just see their lips move. At no stage of the
dream did either of them take any notice of Touji himself.
Touji shook himself out of his strange thoughts and sat down next
to Hikari. They were up near a cliff edge away back in one of the
corners of the cavern beneath the Geo-Front. Beside them was a small
road and the Nerv jeep they had requisitioned. In front was the cliff
edge with its bent railing and the old telephone booth. Behind them
was what had once been one of the cultivated parklands but had long
since become no more than an overgrown tangle.
"So what did the second stodge have to say?" Hikari asked with a
smile.
"Not much," he replied shaking his head. "Nothing that will be of
any help."
"This is really starting to get to you isn't it?"
He sighed and nodded. "And I think I'm running out of time. Doctor
Akagi stepped up my training program today, they want me combat ready
in less than two weeks."
She put her arm around him and lent her head on his shoulder.
"Your sure about this? I love you too much to lose you down here."
"You know my reasons. I'm sure." He replied softly, putting his
real arm around her. For several long moments they sat like that, arms
around each other, sharing each other's warmth. The view from the
cliff was spectacular, they could see most of the cavern floor. The
barren, brown earth with the huge craters, the large discoloured lake,
and the numerous automated defence towers.
After a moment Hikari spoke, her eyes fixed upon the landscape
before them. "Before we came here, I mean I never knew... the
destruction. It's so desolate, so empty. I don't know how Asuka could
stand it, living down here for all these years. It's like a tomb."
"That's a bit morbid." Touji said, realising how depressing their
conversation had been. "Come on, it's getting late and we should be
getting back." He gave her a wicked smile as they stood up "Besides I
have a much better view from the bedroom."
Touji spoke again as they were getting into the jeep. "Asuka's
having a day off tomorrow."
"It will be good for her to have a break." Hakari replied doing up
her seat belt.
Touji nodded in agreement. "So what are you two going to do
tomorrow?"
"I'm, ah, not seeing her until the afternoon."
"Oh, I just assumed... what is she doing then?"
"She said there was someone she needed to visit."



The bulky Nerv transport settled down on the small patch of tarmac
beside the vast field. It wasn't a field in the normal sense; nothing
grew here. It was paved in a vast, continuous sheet of white concrete,
broken only by the rank upon rank of slender, severe, black
headstones. Established after second impact by the government, these
huge necropoli were now used for military funerals and for people who
had little time to spend on their dead.
As the whirring engines quietened a short ramp extended from below
a closed hatch. When it reached the ground the hatch hissed opened
revealing Asuka and a Nerv solider. The officer saluted and Asuka
saluted back. It may be her day off but protocol still applied.
Walking down the ramp she entered the field. She was wearing her
cream uniform, she didn't own as many dresses as she once did. Anyway,
it felt more formal, this way. Lieutenant to Major.
At last she entered the section for Nerv personnel. It was not
large, but nor were the headstones sparse as she walked she paused
briefly at the headstone of Yui Ikari, to each side of it were empty
plots, dug, but never filled. Tearing her eyes away from the empty
holes she kept walking.
Asuka had a strange sensation, like she knew this place much
better than her one visit may account for. In her childhood she had
been to quite a few graveyards, but they had been different to this
one, much older, with a variety of headstones, from huge gothic ones,
to small white crosses. And yet, and yet they somehow felt the same.
Asuka shook her head. No one should find graveyards so familiar.
At last she reached her destination. The headstone was simple and
black, with narrow white writing, just like all the rest except in
what was written: 'Major Misato Kartsurgi. 1992 - 2015. Decorated
officer of Nerv. She died in the service of the protection of
humanity.'
Asuka stared down at the black surface, no longer seeing the
words. She tried to remember all the things she could about Misato:
The dishevelled woman who had stumbled into the kitchen every morning.
The skilled tactician and Major. The smiling face with the beer in
hand. The one who knew all about her but still treated like any other
girl. Asuka missed that most of all, having someone who knew and
didn't pity, just accepted.
Asuka blinked, and blinked again. Reaching a hand up she touched
her own cheek. Taking her hand away she looked at the water on her
fingers. She had been crying, she realised. She hadn't thought that
she had any tears left.
The last three years had been terrible. All the time alone below
the Geo-Front. The only teenager, the only pilot. The only time she
even saw the sunlight was during the brief, and often disastrous,
forays against Eva Unit 01. One part of her had spent the last three
years waiting in dread for the day when she just wasn't good enough,
when she wouldn't be able to hold Unit 01 back. The day when it would
crush Unit 02 and tear it's way into terminal Dogma and... with a
shuddering breath Asuka drew her mind away form those thoughts. She
would beat Unit 01, she had to.
Asuka had meant to say something, she didn't know what, and now
she couldn't think of anything. Kneeling down she placed the small
bunch of flowers and the can of beer beside the headstone. It was an
empty sentiment she knew, but she felt a little better for making it.
At last she turned her back upon the dead and waked back to the
transport. Without a backward glance she saluted the soldier and took
her seat near the window. The hum of the engines intensified and with
a lurch the transport lifted off.
Asuka gazed out the window as the transport made its way back to
the landing platform near the train station. It passed over the ruins
of Tokyo 3. Far below she could see the huge form of Unit 01 walking
about near the lake. In an almost child like fashion it was picking up
chunks of rubble and piling them on top of each other. After a few
moments a small quake made the lake waters ripple and toppled the
towers of rubble. Asuka turned away from the window and permitted
herself a small shudder. Even this high up, even through the whir of
the transport's engines, she could still faintly hear the Eva's
bestial and yet almost human, roar.



With a hollow booming sound Touji again slammed his foot into the
armoured door. He glared at the door's solid surface, which hadn't
even had the decency to dent satisfactorily. Another dead end, and it
was getting late. Tired and frustrated Touji began to make his way
back to the surface.
He had been so stupid; thinking he could just sneak down into the
secure areas of Nerv Headquarters and find the answers he was looking
for. Oh it had seemed a good idea, when he had gotten out of the
showers after a day's training and no one was around. But of course he
hadn't considered the security cameras, armoured doors and coded
locks. The only reason he had gotten this far was because every second
camera had stopped working a long time ago. Thankfully Nerv had better
things to spend its reduced budget on than camera maintenance.
The path Touji wove back up through the levels of Headquarters was
convoluted, since he had to avoid the working camera and the areas to
dark for him to see his own way. Sometimes he even had to go up a few
levels and then down again. While in one of the higher levels he
paused near the intersection of two hallways. He thought he had heard
something. He strained his ears; yes, there it was again. It sounded
like two people talking. Following the noise he made his way to the
slightly open door from which a bright light shone. Listening
carefully he could make out what the two people were saying, the first
voice he recognised as Dr Akagi's.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"...cross-referenced all the incidents when Unit 01 went berserk.
The battle's with the Third, 12th 14th Angel as well as when the dummy
plug was used. I also tracked the pilot's movements during the days
leading up to the accident. I believe I may know why Unit 01 went
rouge last time." At this statement Touji pressed hid ear closer to
the gap at the edge of the door.
"In the first instance," she continued, "during the battle with
the third Angel, the pilot received a huge level of feedback pain from
the Eva, sending his mind into shock. Against the twelfth the pilot
had drifted into an unconscious state. Against the fourteenth his mind
was again under a huge amount of stress, though the data from that
incident was somewhat difficult to analyse. Also with the initial
dummy plug the Eva was receiving a signal but not a dominant mind
pattern and again we witnessed a berserk reaction."
"So what are you trying to say?" Asked the Commander in his steely
tones.
"According to my theory, the trigger for the berserker reaction
lies in the withdrawal of the pilot's mind. The Eva only requires a
signal to activate, and if that signal is not strong but still present
such as with the dummy plug or an unconscious pilot, the Eva's own
mind takes over."
"So what happened the last time?"
"The third child, after having to destroy the seventeenth Angel,
was grieving and upset. In the absence of anyone human to turn to he
sought comfort inside the Eva. Once inside his mind continued to
withdraw from the world until he triggered the rouge reaction. Of
course it is explained in full inside the folder."
Touji had begun to creep away, he had heard enough and besides
it was very dangerous sitting just out side the door. As he snuck
away he thought he heard their muffled voices accompanied by the soft
whir of a paper shredder. He reflected that this little foray of his
had not been entirely useless. Now he had one more piece of the puzzle
and it was helping him to understand some of the other pieces.
He realised now that Shinji, almost alone after the city had been
evacuated, must have befriended the fifth child, only to have him turn
out to be an Angel, one of the enemy. Once more Touji could see the
dream in his mind: his friend's lips moving without sound, but now he
could read his lips, match words to the movements. "Go away, your not
real, your dead, I should know, I killed you."





Comming soon: The Next, and final, Eposide of THE LAZRUS PROJECT:
'The Hour Of The Beast'