Chapter 3: Memories of the Past, Plans for the Future
Chairman Keel's eyes moved over the display screen in front of him, then darted upwards to the nervous-looking agent standing in front of his desk.
"Tell me if I understand this correctly," Keel said, in his cruel, gravely voice. "Both Kaita and Ikari's brat were together in Dallas, and you simply let them walk out of there?"
The agent visibly gulped.
"Sir! M-my men were not informed that Unit 11 was going to be used in the operation! There was a great deal of confusion! It wasn't our fault!"
"You were not informed about Unit 11 because you did not need to know. Pawns aren't supposed to question their king's orders. You had a chance to eliminate two of the biggest thorns in our side, and you failed. You also had a chance to recover Daidouji's daughter, and you failed at that, too."
"It wasn't our fault!" protested the man again. Keel sneered. As the agent stared into the Chairman's cybernetic visor, the actual consequences of his situation began to sink in. "Oh god, I'm sorry, sir! Please give me another chance!" he cried, his voice cracking. "Please sir, I have a family!"
"Yes. And they will die for your failure, just as you will. In fact, I think I'll let you watch their deaths, just before your own execution." The agent turned to run, but Keel motioned slightly with his hand, and two guards who had been hiding in the darkness of Keel's office intercepted the agent's path, and brought him down with sharp blows to the head with their heavy nightsticks.
"Get that garbage out of my sight," ordered Keel. As the guards dragged the unconscious agent out of the office, he looked back to his computer screen and sighed. Kaita and Ikari. Both of them had slipped away again. This was not good. The Dead Sea Scrolls were worthless now. Adam and Lilith were gone forever. He would have to make his own scenario from now on. He picked up the phone on his desk and dialed the Head of SEELE's branch in the United States.
"Yo, Shinji! Welcome back!" shouted Kenske, over the roar of the nearby jet's engines. Shinji smiled and waved at him as he stepped down off the jet's boarding steps onto the runway. NERV was now using an abandoned, rundown airstrip on Okinawa for most of their air traffic. It had definitely seen better days, as the concrete was cracked and weathered, with grass growing up through it in places.
Shinji walked over and shook his friend's hand.
"Everything okay while I was gone?"
"Oh yeah. Toji wanted to come too, but I told him to stay at HQ just in case something happened while I was away to pick you up. Can't really have much in the way of security if the head of security leaves, can we?"
Shinji nodded in agreement as the two of them headed towards Kenske's nearby car, a simple black sedan.
"So," said Kenske, once they were on the road. "Did you meet with him?"
"Yes."
"Well, what did he say?"
"He accepted, but on his own terms. He's definitely a lone wolf. But he told me he'd be along soon."
"I guess that's good news," said Kenske, in a relieved voice.
"He also knew where we're located now."
"What?"
Shinji nodded grimly.
"I need to talk to Toji about that. If he knew about it, then SEELE easily could, too. I'm afraid there might be a leak."
It was early evening by they time they got back to NERV's base of operations out in the middle of nowhere. The facilities had existed before the battle at the Geofront, but had been pretty much forgotten about since then. Shinji and his team had been lucky to stumble across it. Although nowhere near the level of the Tokyo-3 facilities, there were still adequate facilities for Eva storage and maintenance.
Shinji was tired from the jetlag of the flight, so he politely excused himself upon arrival and went to his room for the night. Lying down on his bed, he took off the silver cross necklace he had worn for the last five years and looked at it.
"I wish you were here, Misato," he said quietly. "Sometimes I just don't know what we're doing anymore." He put the necklace on his nightstand, and tried to sleep, but memories of the past haunted him…
Shinji gasped in surprise as Misato shoved him into the emergency elevator, and got one last glance of her smiling face before the door slid shut. The engines kicked on, and he felt the elevator begin moving upwards. Looking down, he saw that she had pressed her necklace into his hand. It was stained with her blood. There was a slight jolt from below, and Shinji realized that the sector of headquarters had just blown up.
"Don't worry, it's not as bad as it looks," Misato had said, just after she had been shot, but Shinji knew she had been lying. She was gone. One of the only people who had ever cared about him and given him a place to belong, and now she was gone. Those people called SEELE had stolen her away forever. But, there was one thing he could still do for her. Misato had wanted him to help Asuka. He might never be able to look Asuka in the face again after what he had done in the hospital room, but for Misato, he had to fight. Gritting his teeth, he slipped the necklace on over his head.
It didn't look good, he saw. Unit 02 was down, impaled through its head by what appeared to be the Lance of Longinus. Saying a silent prayer to a god Shinji wasn't even sure existed; he gripped the controls of Unit 01 and hoped against hope that he wasn't too late.
"Asuka! Asuka! Are you all right?" yelled Shinji into his communication link. He was answered by a chilling scream, and a long stream of German curses. Still, he was relieved she was still alive. Then, he noticed the nine white figures that were hunched around Unit 02. They looked… somewhat like Evas, but these things were straight out of a nightmare. However, they were all battered and mutilated. Obviously Asuka hadn't gone down without a fight. And now, Shinji had their full attention.
He drew his progressive knife, and braced himself for combat, but suddenly, the pyramid-shaped building that was NERV headquarters blossomed outward in a huge fiery explosion.
"What the hell?" yelled Shinji, "That came from… inside? A self-destruct?" He didn't time to think about it, though, as the white Mass Produced Evas began advancing on him. However, a nagging thought at the back of his mind surfaced. If the central base were gone, then he would only have five minutes…
"NO!" he screamed. "For Misato, I will win! I'll save you, Asuka!" Hot tears of rage and frustration began running down his cheeks. "Mother! Please, help me, Mother! I need you now more than ever!" For a brief moment, there was silence, and then Yui Ikari gave her son an answer. Unit 01's eyes began to glow, and its mouth opened as it let out a mighty roar, the S2 engine fully exposed and thrumming with power as wings of light leapt out from its back. The Mass Produced Evas hesitated at the fearsome sight, and then Unit 01 fell upon them.
His thoughts returned to the present. "You would have been proud of me, Misato," whispered Shinji, as he lay in bed. "No matter what, I'll avenge you." Sighing, he realized he probably wouldn't be able to get to sleep. He reached over for his trusty tape player.
Tomoyo looked out the window to the left of her seat. They were far above the clouds by now, and even if they hadn't been, it was too dark to see anything. She turned her head back to the right, and saw Ryo was sleeping in the seat next to her. They were on a commercial flight to Japan, an idea that Ryo had come up with. He had decided that SEELE probably wouldn't be expecting them to use such obvious transportation. She sat back in her reclined seat.
Tomoyo remembered the day Ryo had told her everything. She would never be able to forget it. He had come into her room with a sad look on his face. At first, it hadn't seemed real. Her mother couldn't be dead. Impossible. It had to be a dream. However, eventually it had sunken in. Dead. Her mother was dead.
Then, she had been angry. Furious. Ryo said that he had been working for the people who killed her mother. It had to be his fault. He should have stopped them. He was evil!
But if he was so evil, said the rational part of her mind, then why was he crying too? If he was so evil, why was he hugging her? Why was he whispering that he was sorry over and over again?
Tomoyo just wasn't the kind of girl who could hate anyone. Her anger had faded, replaced only with a dull sadness. Yes, sadness, but also relief that someone was there for her.
They had had to leave right away, and she hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to her best friend, Sakura Kinomoto, but it was for the best, she knew. SEELE had burned her home down the next day and planted the remains of bodies in the ashes; to make it all look like an accident. They had taken her very identity away. She didn't understand it all, and she didn't know why SEELE was trying to get her, but she did know that Ryo was there for her, no matter what happened. He had said that he always wanted a daughter. Those words echoed in Tomoyo's mind. Yes, she knew he would always be there for her. She leaned against Ryo and rested her head gently on his shoulder.
"I'll be alright. 'Papa' is with me," she told herself, as she drifted off to sleep.
Elsewhere, half a world away, Supreme Commander Asuka Langley Souryu was meeting with the Prime Minister of Germany. Well, being chewed out was more like it.
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" barked the aging statesman. "You destroyed over half a major American city! Is this all just a game to you, little girl?"
"Don't you even care that I captured another Eva for us?" she asked, in an annoyed voice. "So I trashed some American property. Big deal. Can't you appreciate what I did? You should commend your talented Supreme Commander for such a lucrative victory."
The Prime Minister glared at the smug girl sitting in his office.
"I don't know what the hell I was thinking giving a brat like you so much power. I must have been blinded by your accomplishments with your Eva. But I'm going to rectify this situation immediately, before it causes us to lose anymore face in the international community."
Asuka frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm relieving you of all your rank and placing you under arrest. Guards!" Two military police brandishing submachine guns burst into the room. Asuka shook her head and laughed. "What's so funny?" demanded the Prime Minister.
"I knew this was inevitable, I just wasn't planning having to go though with it so soon."
"What are you talking about?"
"A coup, my dear Minister." She snapped her fingers, and the military police leveled their guns directly at the Prime Minister.
"You'll never get away with this!" he shouted, desperately. "There are guards all throughout the capital building. You won't make it out alive!"
Asuka grinned.
"You underestimate this country's loyalty to you."
"What?"
"Unlike you, I don't want to be the United States' obedient lapdog. I think most of the people feel that way too. And they know that under my leadership, this country can be great once again. Sorry, Prime Minister, nothing personal."
The guards' guns spoke, tearing the Prime Minister to ribbons.
Asuka stood up.
"Have some one take care of this mess. I want my new office to be nice and tidy."
