Chapter 12 - PROMETHEUS
Ritsuko Akagi entered her apartment and closed the door.
Her gaze fell upon two pairs of shoes.
So, Rei´s already at home... and someone else?
"Rei, I´m home!" she shouted while taking off her own shoes.
No answer.
Hm...
She casted an eye into the kitchen, then into the living-room.
Nobody there...
Ritsuko walked to the door of her daughter´s room and knocked.
"Rei, it´s me!"
Again no answer.
She frowned.
"I´ll enter in a second, so better tell me now if I shouldn´t..."
She waited a moment, then she opened the door.
In the middle of the room her fourteen-year old daughter and her boyfriend, the same aged Shinji
Ikari stood in a very intense hug, like the other one would be a safety anchor.
Ritsuko cleared her throat.
"Do I disturb you at something?"
Neither of them reacted, each had the face burried at the other one´s shoulder.
Akagi reached out and touched her daughter´s shoulder softly.
"Rei?"
She twiched when touched, finally looked up.
"Mama..." she whispered.
***
Thomas Shingen seemed tired when he entered the Tokio-EVA-center´s control room. But within his
remaining eye a fire burned that bright that it was even visible through his contact lense.
Midori Sekigahama, the center´s manager and recruiting officer of NERV, turned around with
surprise.
"You are back from China..."
"One day earlier than planned, yes. I wanted to be here when Falk arrives with the PROMETHEUS
and the clones."
His face hardened.
"I have to talk to you - alone."
"Yes, so..."
She pointed at her bureau´s door.
He nodded, followed her, gave his companion, Deiko Tamakura, a short sign to wait.
"So?"
Midori looked at him, suppressed hate in her eyes.
"I looked at the reports of our pilots´ last missions. First I noticed that they haven´t visited
the center for days now. So I inspected the last reports closely again. - Who ordered the use
of a Warrior-class-Zeruel?"
"I did."
"Why?"
His voice was sharp as a blade.
"To test the childen´s abilities. The success proved me right!"
"Oh, no... And why was the synch-ratio of the First Child and her plug raised to the limit, having
her suffer complete synchronization with a heavyly damaged unit?"
"I..."
"Why?" he whispered, producing the same effect as if he had shouted at her. "WHY?"
She twitched.
"As a part of the test... her resistance to pain..."
Unconsciously she was rubbing the back of her neck.
"Don´t lie to me! Why?"
"Don´t you know it by yourself?"
"Why?"
She started to laugh.
"When did you become such a cold-hearted bastard?"
Thomas shook his head.
"The day you told that our son´s death was my fault..."
A shadow fell across his face.
"Midori, you are released from your duties."
"You can´t do this! For fifteen years..."
"Oh, yes, I can. Your actions are unpredictable and unstable! We have no use for somebody here
who cannot stay in control of herself!"
"Cannot stay in control? We can´t be as cold as you are..."
"Cold? You are accusing me of being cold?"
"Yes, I do, Warlord!"
She laughed again.
"Born to kill, made to conquer humanity... and what does happen? You are joining us... and those
idiots at the UN-council don´t even know who you are, who... what the man is they are placing
all their hopes in. Shall I tell them? Shall I tell them that the man they might even trust with
their children is an Angeloi himself? Shall I?"
"You must be crazy", he whispered.
"No, I never seen things cleared than now. The man I once loved never existed at all. Why did I
got pregnant? Did you try to create another one of your kind? Or just a suitable pilot for your
precious silbings?"
Again she was rubbing her neck.
Thomas looked at her shocked.
"How can you... I loved our child..."
"You killed him. Genetical incompatibility... I hate you!"
"And all the years..."
He took a deep breath. Then he walked to the door and opened it
"Major Sekigahama, you are relieved of your command. You are under arrest until I decide otherwise."
he told her before the assembled staff.
Deiko looked at him shocked.
"What happened?" she whispered.
"She broke..." Thomas replied and lowered his gaze.
In his back his former life´s companion laughed...
***
A large, deep and broad river parted the Geofront below the city of Tokio, the waters came out
of a large gap in the wall and vanished at the other side into the ground, where the Geofront was
connected to the ocean via a series of submerged caves.
The pyramid of the NERV-headquarters had been erected at the river´s beach next to large docking
installations.
Thomas Shigen, his constant companion Deiko Tamakura, operation commander Selene Shigen and
the leader of the tactical staff, Colonel Gendo Ikari stood at a large window on one of the
pyramid´s upper floors and watched the river.
"There...!"
Deiko pointed at the hole in the ground where the waters vanished.
At the same time it was reported via the speakers that the PROMETHEUS had reached the Geofront.
Something was coming... a large shadow appeared out of the hole, visible from a far.
"They are here." Selene mumbled.
Gendo stepped closer to the window.
"The ship´s bigger than I imagined."
"It has to to transport the clones."
"PROMETHEUS reaches docking-bay."
The leviathan emerged, at first only a dull metal stump showed out of the water, than the mighty
main-deck appeared, than the cargo-containers.
Selene touched her headset.
"Unload the cargo."
She turned to the others.
"I am going."
Thomas nodded.
"I´ll join you in a few minutes."
Mighty hatches opened at the top sides of the containers. Inside of them where humanoid giants,
one yellow and white, the other one purple and green.
"Unit one", Gendo whispered with hoarse voice. "My son is going to pilot it, isn´t he?"
Thomas nodded again.
"Is there no other way?"
"Colonel, I´d do it myself... but I can´t after what happened at the south-pole... I lost too much
of myself fighting the Matriel. Your son is able to form an AT-field, the mightiest weapon the
clones can wield."
"But he´s just a child!"
"Yes... an innocent... one of those we should protect..."
"So, this is the prize for you rescuing him ten years ago."
"No, Ikari. It´s destiny..."
The cranes of the docking-bay lifted the EVANGELIONs out of the containers and loaded them onto
heavy transport cars and vanished into the basement of headquarters via ramps.
"... as it is destiny that you discovered this place, Colonel. I will talk to the children and
their parents the next days, that much I owe them... the possibility to chose... If your son
agrees to come with us to antarctica, you´ll be able to stay close to him, I promise."
"That..."
Ikari looked at him for a long time.
"Talk to my wife, you already know what I am thinking about it."
"Good."
***
When Lieutenant-Colonel Roderick Falk left the PROMETHEUS he was already expected by Selene.
They embraced.
"Good, to finally see you again, Selene."
"Yes. How was the journey?"
"Nothing happened. Changing to dive-mode caused no problems, the same is to be said about the
stealth-mode. The engineers did a great work, I am nearly sorry to give up the command."
"Captain Tamakura doesn´t seem to be able to wait any longer entering the bridge."
Falk laughed.
"We are well within the schedule. When the ODYSSEUS arrives in a week with the other two units
we can join the UN-convoi heading for the Antarctic. So, any problems here?"
"Midori..."
"What´s up with your second-in-command?"
"Well, she tryed to kill one of the pilots."
"What? Why?"
"Don´t ask me. She´s in a holding cell at the moment."
"And thee pilot?"
"Has recovered. But maybe we lost the candidats as a result."
"That would be... disastrous."
"Thomas asked me to leave it to him."
"Hm..."
***
Captain Shigeru Aoba looked up to the bridge, the top level of the high tower.
"Chief, the MAGI have managed to decrypt the signal partly."
Selene nodded.
"Continue!"
"How many systems are busy with decoding?" Falk asked.
"Well, our MAGI-system here, that´s SOKRATES, PLATON and ARISTOTELES, as well as one of the
systems at Osaka. And Diane´s also working at it."
"Well, since your arteficial intelligence needed a week to decrypt the first layers of the code
I guess I need to offer my own abilities."
"Ah, a few years did pass by since the CIA trained you, husband. I fear you´d be of no use."
"At least Talbot isn´t straining my nerves anymore."
Aoba looked up from the screen.
"Chief, trouble!"
"What?"
Selene got up.
The order of the lower levels had turned into an ant-hive-like chaos with techs running around.
"A virus! Obviously it was part of the signal! By decrypting it we activated it!"
"State?"
"Virus is tying to take control over SOKRATES and PLATON! Now it is tying to access the system
at Osaka via the data stream!"
"Disconnect at once!"
"That... that can´t be... the virus seems to have an intellect of its own!"
"Selene!" Falk hissed.
"Yes, an Angeloi-construct... and we downloaded it to our own main system... - Aoba, disconnect
the infected computers!"
"Confirmed! Confirmation from Osaka, Diana stopped the virus from accessing the MAGI there...
The AI is downloading itself into our system via data link eight..."
"State of the infected systems?"
"PLATON´s offline, SOKRATES refuses to deactivate! Virus is entering ARISTOTELES! Selfdestruct-
sequence has been initiated!"
"Evacuate the Geosector! Have the PROMETHEUS prepare for taking to sea! Have the clones brought
to the surface via route five!"
"I´ll take care of the ship!"
Falk left the control center.
Next to Selene the hologram of Diane appeared.
The metallic face was overshadowed by colums of figures.
"Diane?"
"I´m working at it. The virus´ tough! It´s downloading data, I can´t determined where it is
sending them."
"Which kind of data?"
"Operations and installations..."
For the very first time the AI showed an emotion - fear...
"It´s adapting!"
"Countdown to selfdestruct: One minute! PROMETHEUS has submerged! EVAs are on their way to the
surface. 80% of the Geofront are evacuated!"
Aoba didn´t look up. His fingers were dancing over the keyboard.
"I am connected to the german branch... the hacker unit is ready to enter cyberspace via the
VR-link!"
"No, the virus would kill them!" Diane whispered, her face showing the strain. "I´ll try to push
it back to SOKRATES, the MAGI-unit will have to be deactivated manually!"
"Captain Aoba..."
"Understood, Chief!"
Shigeru hastly climbed the ladder to the MAGI-level, followed by two techs.
"We still have 40 seconds. - Remove the covering!"
"Done! I´ll keep it there as long as I can!"
"Diane!"
"Covering removed!"
Aoba and his men removed several parts of the MAGI´s interior.
"Connections A-01 to A-15 disconnected!"
He removed another covering, found a lever.
"Ready for manually destruction of SOKRATES!"
"Do it!"
Aoba pulled the lever, jumped back, protecting his eyes and face with an arm.
Lightning shot out of the computer, followed by smoke.
"Done!"
At the same time the hologram blurred and vanished.
Selene did hesitate for just a second.
"ARISTOTELES, disrupt self-destruction-sequence!"
"Order accepted", Aoba whispered, reading the screen. "Selfdistruction aborted... This was close..."
"Good work, Captain... Stop the evacuation. Have PLATON brought to the lab, full quarantine!"
"Confirmed."
"This was truely close... well done, Diane", Selene mumbled. She got no asnwer. "Diane? - Aoba,
check if Diane managed to leave SOKRATES before we blew it up!"
For a moment Shigeru just stared. He knew the AI better than his last three girl-friends taken
together.
"Working at it! No traces of her within the memory of ARISTOTELES... Wait, activity within the
mainsystem at Osaka! The backup-files are opened!"
The hologram reappeared next to Selene. In a strange way Diane seemed incomplete like she had
lost substance.
"Diane?"
"Recognizing: Selene Shigen, commanding officer of NERV-tactical-headquarters at Tokio. Alpha-
ranking. Waiting for orders."
"Diane, what´s your state?"
"Heavy damages within sub-algorhythms."
"Chief, Diane´s emotio-algorythms are nearly gone", Shigeru said. "I´m tying a reconstruction
using the back-up data. And the hacker-squad´s also working at it."
"Good... if there are traces of the algorhythms, they will find them."
"Irrelevant." Diane said emotionlessly. "Emotions are unnecessary."
Selene decided to ignore her.
"Tell them to hurry up. - And find out wher our data have been sent to!"
***
Yui Ikari opened the apartment´s door. In front of her Ritsuko Akagi stood with a blue-haired
girl Yui didn´t know that was holding the hand of her son, Shinji.
"Doctor Akagi."
"Good evening, doctor Ikari. I wanted to bring you your son."
"Eh, yes. What´s up?"
Shinji was just staring apathically.
"Shinji, what´s wrong with you?"
"Nothing, mother."
Shinji let go of Rei´s hand, looked at her for a moment, then he walked by his mother, dragging
his feet towards his room.
"Shinji... - Akagi, what..."
"I don´t understand it, too. When I returned home I found him and my daughter, both seemed to
be in a state of... shock... Well, Rei told me that they had been at this EVA-center in the city
and that an accident had happened there."
"But... First, thanks for bringing him... What did happen?"
"Neither of them told me by now. I wanted to call a doctor, but..."
"That´s not necessary." Rei said with monotonous voice.
Yui looked from her to Ritsuko.
The older Akagi shook her head.
"She´s mostly talking like this."
"Ah... Come in..."
Yui stepped aside.
***
Shinji laid on his bed knees drawn up to his chest, his whole body shaking.
His eyes were closed, he was sleeping, had fallen asleep the moment his body had touched the
sheets. And he was dreaming...
This world´s my doing... created when it was within my power... but what´s happening now...
why do the EVAs exist? Why angels...?
"Nothing´s perfect", a familiar voice whispered.
In his dream he opened the eyes, saw a grey-haired boy with pale skin and red eyes standing in
front of him.
"Kaworu! You´re alive!"
The other one smiled.
"I do exist within this reality... but you wouldn´t recognize me."
"How do are mean this?"
"Unimportant, my friend... So, you´ve seen the truth."
"Yes. I possessed the creational power of all humans... and..."
"And this world is the result."
"But why isn´t this world the way I wanted it to be?"
"Because of the power you had was tained with the wishes, the longing of others. Countless
individuals created this world, not just not being like it would have been the case had the
Third Impact happened as planned... no, not feel guilt, there was no other way for you..."
"I don´t understand..."
"It was your power... but power brings responsibility... are you ready to face responsibility
for your creation? Are you willing to protect it?"
"Kaworu, I do not understand!"
"Soon, soon you will understand."
The boy started to vanish.
"Kaworu, stay, please... Don´t go!"
"Here´s no place for me anymore, except within your heart. Don´t forget me."
"I never will."
"We will meet again... if you recognize me..."
"Kaworu!"
He woke up...
***
In the kitchen Ritsuko had her daughter tell the events of the last days for the second time.
Rei didn´t mentioned her memories of another reality.
"And today there had been a feedback within this EntryPlug, yes?"
"Yes, Mom."
"You were hurt!"
"Not really. It was just a... simulation."
"But it hurt! I am going to sue them!"
"But what has Shinji to do with it? Why does my son walk around like a ghost?" Yui asked.
"He was startled." Rei explained.
"I was." it came from the door.
Yui turned around, saw her son standing in the door. The colour had returned to his face.
"Shinji!"
"Everything´s alright, Mother."
He smiled.
"Thanks, doctor Akagi, for driving me here."
Hesitatingly Rei rose from her chair and walked up to him.
"Are you really... alright?"
Their eyes met when she stopped directly in front of him.
"Yes." he replied with unshaking voice. " And I´m glad that you are here."
Rei smiled, understanding the special meaning of his words...
Ritsuko looked at Yui.
"Do you think too, that we are disturbing them?"
Rei turned her head.
"Mom!"
"Hm, I think she´s alright now."
*************************************************************************************************
Next: Recruitment * And a glimpse at earth´s future...
Ritsuko Akagi entered her apartment and closed the door.
Her gaze fell upon two pairs of shoes.
So, Rei´s already at home... and someone else?
"Rei, I´m home!" she shouted while taking off her own shoes.
No answer.
Hm...
She casted an eye into the kitchen, then into the living-room.
Nobody there...
Ritsuko walked to the door of her daughter´s room and knocked.
"Rei, it´s me!"
Again no answer.
She frowned.
"I´ll enter in a second, so better tell me now if I shouldn´t..."
She waited a moment, then she opened the door.
In the middle of the room her fourteen-year old daughter and her boyfriend, the same aged Shinji
Ikari stood in a very intense hug, like the other one would be a safety anchor.
Ritsuko cleared her throat.
"Do I disturb you at something?"
Neither of them reacted, each had the face burried at the other one´s shoulder.
Akagi reached out and touched her daughter´s shoulder softly.
"Rei?"
She twiched when touched, finally looked up.
"Mama..." she whispered.
***
Thomas Shingen seemed tired when he entered the Tokio-EVA-center´s control room. But within his
remaining eye a fire burned that bright that it was even visible through his contact lense.
Midori Sekigahama, the center´s manager and recruiting officer of NERV, turned around with
surprise.
"You are back from China..."
"One day earlier than planned, yes. I wanted to be here when Falk arrives with the PROMETHEUS
and the clones."
His face hardened.
"I have to talk to you - alone."
"Yes, so..."
She pointed at her bureau´s door.
He nodded, followed her, gave his companion, Deiko Tamakura, a short sign to wait.
"So?"
Midori looked at him, suppressed hate in her eyes.
"I looked at the reports of our pilots´ last missions. First I noticed that they haven´t visited
the center for days now. So I inspected the last reports closely again. - Who ordered the use
of a Warrior-class-Zeruel?"
"I did."
"Why?"
His voice was sharp as a blade.
"To test the childen´s abilities. The success proved me right!"
"Oh, no... And why was the synch-ratio of the First Child and her plug raised to the limit, having
her suffer complete synchronization with a heavyly damaged unit?"
"I..."
"Why?" he whispered, producing the same effect as if he had shouted at her. "WHY?"
She twitched.
"As a part of the test... her resistance to pain..."
Unconsciously she was rubbing the back of her neck.
"Don´t lie to me! Why?"
"Don´t you know it by yourself?"
"Why?"
She started to laugh.
"When did you become such a cold-hearted bastard?"
Thomas shook his head.
"The day you told that our son´s death was my fault..."
A shadow fell across his face.
"Midori, you are released from your duties."
"You can´t do this! For fifteen years..."
"Oh, yes, I can. Your actions are unpredictable and unstable! We have no use for somebody here
who cannot stay in control of herself!"
"Cannot stay in control? We can´t be as cold as you are..."
"Cold? You are accusing me of being cold?"
"Yes, I do, Warlord!"
She laughed again.
"Born to kill, made to conquer humanity... and what does happen? You are joining us... and those
idiots at the UN-council don´t even know who you are, who... what the man is they are placing
all their hopes in. Shall I tell them? Shall I tell them that the man they might even trust with
their children is an Angeloi himself? Shall I?"
"You must be crazy", he whispered.
"No, I never seen things cleared than now. The man I once loved never existed at all. Why did I
got pregnant? Did you try to create another one of your kind? Or just a suitable pilot for your
precious silbings?"
Again she was rubbing her neck.
Thomas looked at her shocked.
"How can you... I loved our child..."
"You killed him. Genetical incompatibility... I hate you!"
"And all the years..."
He took a deep breath. Then he walked to the door and opened it
"Major Sekigahama, you are relieved of your command. You are under arrest until I decide otherwise."
he told her before the assembled staff.
Deiko looked at him shocked.
"What happened?" she whispered.
"She broke..." Thomas replied and lowered his gaze.
In his back his former life´s companion laughed...
***
A large, deep and broad river parted the Geofront below the city of Tokio, the waters came out
of a large gap in the wall and vanished at the other side into the ground, where the Geofront was
connected to the ocean via a series of submerged caves.
The pyramid of the NERV-headquarters had been erected at the river´s beach next to large docking
installations.
Thomas Shigen, his constant companion Deiko Tamakura, operation commander Selene Shigen and
the leader of the tactical staff, Colonel Gendo Ikari stood at a large window on one of the
pyramid´s upper floors and watched the river.
"There...!"
Deiko pointed at the hole in the ground where the waters vanished.
At the same time it was reported via the speakers that the PROMETHEUS had reached the Geofront.
Something was coming... a large shadow appeared out of the hole, visible from a far.
"They are here." Selene mumbled.
Gendo stepped closer to the window.
"The ship´s bigger than I imagined."
"It has to to transport the clones."
"PROMETHEUS reaches docking-bay."
The leviathan emerged, at first only a dull metal stump showed out of the water, than the mighty
main-deck appeared, than the cargo-containers.
Selene touched her headset.
"Unload the cargo."
She turned to the others.
"I am going."
Thomas nodded.
"I´ll join you in a few minutes."
Mighty hatches opened at the top sides of the containers. Inside of them where humanoid giants,
one yellow and white, the other one purple and green.
"Unit one", Gendo whispered with hoarse voice. "My son is going to pilot it, isn´t he?"
Thomas nodded again.
"Is there no other way?"
"Colonel, I´d do it myself... but I can´t after what happened at the south-pole... I lost too much
of myself fighting the Matriel. Your son is able to form an AT-field, the mightiest weapon the
clones can wield."
"But he´s just a child!"
"Yes... an innocent... one of those we should protect..."
"So, this is the prize for you rescuing him ten years ago."
"No, Ikari. It´s destiny..."
The cranes of the docking-bay lifted the EVANGELIONs out of the containers and loaded them onto
heavy transport cars and vanished into the basement of headquarters via ramps.
"... as it is destiny that you discovered this place, Colonel. I will talk to the children and
their parents the next days, that much I owe them... the possibility to chose... If your son
agrees to come with us to antarctica, you´ll be able to stay close to him, I promise."
"That..."
Ikari looked at him for a long time.
"Talk to my wife, you already know what I am thinking about it."
"Good."
***
When Lieutenant-Colonel Roderick Falk left the PROMETHEUS he was already expected by Selene.
They embraced.
"Good, to finally see you again, Selene."
"Yes. How was the journey?"
"Nothing happened. Changing to dive-mode caused no problems, the same is to be said about the
stealth-mode. The engineers did a great work, I am nearly sorry to give up the command."
"Captain Tamakura doesn´t seem to be able to wait any longer entering the bridge."
Falk laughed.
"We are well within the schedule. When the ODYSSEUS arrives in a week with the other two units
we can join the UN-convoi heading for the Antarctic. So, any problems here?"
"Midori..."
"What´s up with your second-in-command?"
"Well, she tryed to kill one of the pilots."
"What? Why?"
"Don´t ask me. She´s in a holding cell at the moment."
"And thee pilot?"
"Has recovered. But maybe we lost the candidats as a result."
"That would be... disastrous."
"Thomas asked me to leave it to him."
"Hm..."
***
Captain Shigeru Aoba looked up to the bridge, the top level of the high tower.
"Chief, the MAGI have managed to decrypt the signal partly."
Selene nodded.
"Continue!"
"How many systems are busy with decoding?" Falk asked.
"Well, our MAGI-system here, that´s SOKRATES, PLATON and ARISTOTELES, as well as one of the
systems at Osaka. And Diane´s also working at it."
"Well, since your arteficial intelligence needed a week to decrypt the first layers of the code
I guess I need to offer my own abilities."
"Ah, a few years did pass by since the CIA trained you, husband. I fear you´d be of no use."
"At least Talbot isn´t straining my nerves anymore."
Aoba looked up from the screen.
"Chief, trouble!"
"What?"
Selene got up.
The order of the lower levels had turned into an ant-hive-like chaos with techs running around.
"A virus! Obviously it was part of the signal! By decrypting it we activated it!"
"State?"
"Virus is tying to take control over SOKRATES and PLATON! Now it is tying to access the system
at Osaka via the data stream!"
"Disconnect at once!"
"That... that can´t be... the virus seems to have an intellect of its own!"
"Selene!" Falk hissed.
"Yes, an Angeloi-construct... and we downloaded it to our own main system... - Aoba, disconnect
the infected computers!"
"Confirmed! Confirmation from Osaka, Diana stopped the virus from accessing the MAGI there...
The AI is downloading itself into our system via data link eight..."
"State of the infected systems?"
"PLATON´s offline, SOKRATES refuses to deactivate! Virus is entering ARISTOTELES! Selfdestruct-
sequence has been initiated!"
"Evacuate the Geosector! Have the PROMETHEUS prepare for taking to sea! Have the clones brought
to the surface via route five!"
"I´ll take care of the ship!"
Falk left the control center.
Next to Selene the hologram of Diane appeared.
The metallic face was overshadowed by colums of figures.
"Diane?"
"I´m working at it. The virus´ tough! It´s downloading data, I can´t determined where it is
sending them."
"Which kind of data?"
"Operations and installations..."
For the very first time the AI showed an emotion - fear...
"It´s adapting!"
"Countdown to selfdestruct: One minute! PROMETHEUS has submerged! EVAs are on their way to the
surface. 80% of the Geofront are evacuated!"
Aoba didn´t look up. His fingers were dancing over the keyboard.
"I am connected to the german branch... the hacker unit is ready to enter cyberspace via the
VR-link!"
"No, the virus would kill them!" Diane whispered, her face showing the strain. "I´ll try to push
it back to SOKRATES, the MAGI-unit will have to be deactivated manually!"
"Captain Aoba..."
"Understood, Chief!"
Shigeru hastly climbed the ladder to the MAGI-level, followed by two techs.
"We still have 40 seconds. - Remove the covering!"
"Done! I´ll keep it there as long as I can!"
"Diane!"
"Covering removed!"
Aoba and his men removed several parts of the MAGI´s interior.
"Connections A-01 to A-15 disconnected!"
He removed another covering, found a lever.
"Ready for manually destruction of SOKRATES!"
"Do it!"
Aoba pulled the lever, jumped back, protecting his eyes and face with an arm.
Lightning shot out of the computer, followed by smoke.
"Done!"
At the same time the hologram blurred and vanished.
Selene did hesitate for just a second.
"ARISTOTELES, disrupt self-destruction-sequence!"
"Order accepted", Aoba whispered, reading the screen. "Selfdistruction aborted... This was close..."
"Good work, Captain... Stop the evacuation. Have PLATON brought to the lab, full quarantine!"
"Confirmed."
"This was truely close... well done, Diane", Selene mumbled. She got no asnwer. "Diane? - Aoba,
check if Diane managed to leave SOKRATES before we blew it up!"
For a moment Shigeru just stared. He knew the AI better than his last three girl-friends taken
together.
"Working at it! No traces of her within the memory of ARISTOTELES... Wait, activity within the
mainsystem at Osaka! The backup-files are opened!"
The hologram reappeared next to Selene. In a strange way Diane seemed incomplete like she had
lost substance.
"Diane?"
"Recognizing: Selene Shigen, commanding officer of NERV-tactical-headquarters at Tokio. Alpha-
ranking. Waiting for orders."
"Diane, what´s your state?"
"Heavy damages within sub-algorhythms."
"Chief, Diane´s emotio-algorythms are nearly gone", Shigeru said. "I´m tying a reconstruction
using the back-up data. And the hacker-squad´s also working at it."
"Good... if there are traces of the algorhythms, they will find them."
"Irrelevant." Diane said emotionlessly. "Emotions are unnecessary."
Selene decided to ignore her.
"Tell them to hurry up. - And find out wher our data have been sent to!"
***
Yui Ikari opened the apartment´s door. In front of her Ritsuko Akagi stood with a blue-haired
girl Yui didn´t know that was holding the hand of her son, Shinji.
"Doctor Akagi."
"Good evening, doctor Ikari. I wanted to bring you your son."
"Eh, yes. What´s up?"
Shinji was just staring apathically.
"Shinji, what´s wrong with you?"
"Nothing, mother."
Shinji let go of Rei´s hand, looked at her for a moment, then he walked by his mother, dragging
his feet towards his room.
"Shinji... - Akagi, what..."
"I don´t understand it, too. When I returned home I found him and my daughter, both seemed to
be in a state of... shock... Well, Rei told me that they had been at this EVA-center in the city
and that an accident had happened there."
"But... First, thanks for bringing him... What did happen?"
"Neither of them told me by now. I wanted to call a doctor, but..."
"That´s not necessary." Rei said with monotonous voice.
Yui looked from her to Ritsuko.
The older Akagi shook her head.
"She´s mostly talking like this."
"Ah... Come in..."
Yui stepped aside.
***
Shinji laid on his bed knees drawn up to his chest, his whole body shaking.
His eyes were closed, he was sleeping, had fallen asleep the moment his body had touched the
sheets. And he was dreaming...
This world´s my doing... created when it was within my power... but what´s happening now...
why do the EVAs exist? Why angels...?
"Nothing´s perfect", a familiar voice whispered.
In his dream he opened the eyes, saw a grey-haired boy with pale skin and red eyes standing in
front of him.
"Kaworu! You´re alive!"
The other one smiled.
"I do exist within this reality... but you wouldn´t recognize me."
"How do are mean this?"
"Unimportant, my friend... So, you´ve seen the truth."
"Yes. I possessed the creational power of all humans... and..."
"And this world is the result."
"But why isn´t this world the way I wanted it to be?"
"Because of the power you had was tained with the wishes, the longing of others. Countless
individuals created this world, not just not being like it would have been the case had the
Third Impact happened as planned... no, not feel guilt, there was no other way for you..."
"I don´t understand..."
"It was your power... but power brings responsibility... are you ready to face responsibility
for your creation? Are you willing to protect it?"
"Kaworu, I do not understand!"
"Soon, soon you will understand."
The boy started to vanish.
"Kaworu, stay, please... Don´t go!"
"Here´s no place for me anymore, except within your heart. Don´t forget me."
"I never will."
"We will meet again... if you recognize me..."
"Kaworu!"
He woke up...
***
In the kitchen Ritsuko had her daughter tell the events of the last days for the second time.
Rei didn´t mentioned her memories of another reality.
"And today there had been a feedback within this EntryPlug, yes?"
"Yes, Mom."
"You were hurt!"
"Not really. It was just a... simulation."
"But it hurt! I am going to sue them!"
"But what has Shinji to do with it? Why does my son walk around like a ghost?" Yui asked.
"He was startled." Rei explained.
"I was." it came from the door.
Yui turned around, saw her son standing in the door. The colour had returned to his face.
"Shinji!"
"Everything´s alright, Mother."
He smiled.
"Thanks, doctor Akagi, for driving me here."
Hesitatingly Rei rose from her chair and walked up to him.
"Are you really... alright?"
Their eyes met when she stopped directly in front of him.
"Yes." he replied with unshaking voice. " And I´m glad that you are here."
Rei smiled, understanding the special meaning of his words...
Ritsuko looked at Yui.
"Do you think too, that we are disturbing them?"
Rei turned her head.
"Mom!"
"Hm, I think she´s alright now."
*************************************************************************************************
Next: Recruitment * And a glimpse at earth´s future...