]+ ELECTRONIC TRANSCENDENCE PRODUCTIONS +[
presents
]+ NEON EPOCH +[
]+ E V A N G E L I O N +[
]+ EPISODE 4: LOVERS UNAWARE +[
By Eliot "Lostfactor" Lefebvre
Based off of "Shin Seiki Evangelion" by GAINAX
]++[
The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
- JEREMIAH 17:9
]++[
Misato leaned against the wall, staring out of the hallway into the
den. Neil wasn't saying anything, simply staring at the screen,
watching one of his various movies, the sound low enough to keep Misato
from catching most of the dialogue. He hadn't said a word to her since
they'd left Central Dogma earlier, eating his dinner and silence and
going straight to the den. It worried her, especially because she had
a fairly good idea of why he wasn't speaking to her in the first
place. "Neil," she said, receiving no proof that he was listening.
"You're going to have to talk to me eventually."
"I know that," he replied, slumping forward on the green felt couch.
When Neil had first come to the apartment, he'd liked the way that the
orange-yellow of the walls combined with the couch's tones. Now, they
seemed vile to him, almost as though they were closing in. "But I
don't want it to be now." He grabbed the remote off the couch seat
next to him, turning the volume up noticably before tossing the remote
back down decisively.
Frowning, Misato walked over to the couch, turning the volume down as
she sat next to Neil. His eyes remained fixed on the television atop
its stand, an anger still visible in his gaze. Swallowing hard, she
forced herself to remain calm, making her voice as soothing as she
could. "Neil, if I hadn't sent Ryo up, you would have been killed.
There was a good chance that you would both have been killed if I'd let
you keep going with EVA-01. I know that it seems cruel, but we had no
choice but to -"
Neil's gaze hardened once more, his eyes narrowing further as he
crossed his arms across his chest. "I know that, too," he muttered,
suddenly sounding less angry at Misato and angrier with himself.
"There weren't any other options. But..." He sighed, grabbing the
remote and clicking off the movie, as if it were making him feel even
worse. "It doesn't feel fair, Misato. Ryo's the better trained
between us. I'm not suited to being a pilot, not really able to hold
my own."
"These things happen, Neil," she offered, reaching over and squeezing
his shoulder. Neil felt his cheeks flush, something that made Misato
smile slightly, a fact that only intensified his blushing. "You're
only sixteen, like you said in the car. Nobody expects you to be
perfect at this just yet. Besides, you just disobeyed orders to save a
teammate, and it worked out all right in the end, didn't it?" She
smiled, and he managed to smile weakly back at her. "There you go.
Nobody blames you."
"I blame me," he replied, the smile turning somewhat bitter as he
picked up the remote and clicked the movie on again, rewinding for a
moment to get back into the film. Misato watched him for a moment,
thinking on the one piece of news that she'd neglected to give him,
trying to figure out if it was a good time. Noticing the stare, Neil
glanced back towards the woman, eyebrows cocked. "What? Is something
wrong?"
Misato shook her head, sighing. "No, there's just something I should
have told you." Standing, she stretched, almost wishing that she was
wearing her uniform instead of her tank top and shorts - it would have
helped Neil to take her more seriously, at least in her mind. Closing
her eyes for a second, she turned towards him, unconsciously crossing
her arms across her chest. "Neil, EVA-03 and 04 are on their way to
NERV from our facility in America. The Fourth and Fifth Children are
being recruited to pilot them."
"Hopefully it's not like the recruitment I had," replied Neil, sounding
a little bitter but still focusing his attention on the movie. Misato
took a deep breath, feeling a little relieved - the biggest part, as
far as she knew, was out of the bag. He sighed, then paused the movie
and looked up at her, his interest apparently sparked. "So, who are
they? Where are they from?"
"Japan. They're native." She sighed, sitting back down next to Neil.
"We've actually known who they were for a while, but we've concealed
their identities for a while since they haven't been a part of the
project." Smiling, she hit the play button herself, letting the movie
start rolling once again. "You probably haven't met them - Koji Nekasa
and Eiko Suzuhara."
The last name didn't ring a bell, but Neil immediately recognized the
second name, and he could draw the obvious conclusion for himself.
"Koji Nekasa?" he asked, feeling something that he couldn't quite
identify bubbling under his skin, shutting his eyes tightly. "He lives
in the area, doesn't he? Stands a bit shorter than me, has blonde hair
and blue eyes?" Blinking, Misato nodded, not quite understanding where
the questions were going. "I've met him, then. He prefers to be
called 'Vash.' I met him the day after I got out of the hospital."
"You don't mean...?" Misato stared at Neil, having some idea of who he
was referring to but not wanting believe in the odd synchronicity of
the event. "His brother? Was it his brother that you put in the
hospital during -"
"No. It was Eiko's brother." He was breathing heavily, eyes closed
tightly and anger beginning to come to the top of his emotions. "He
hit me, hard. As though I'd done it intentionally. And I..." His
eyes tightened, then snapped open, glaring at Misato with an intensity
that she hadn't seen before. "You can't let them be pilots! Eiko
doesn't deserve that kind of pain, and Vash isn't qualified to pilot
the machine!"
Misato was taken aback for a moment, not expecting such a strong
response from Neil, but she reasserted herself a second later, staring
back at him harshly. "Neil, this isn't a question," she said, trying
to sound firm without sounding angry. "We don't have any control over
who can and can't pilot the Evas, and we need all of the Children to be
able to assist us during crisis situations."
His anger visibly intensifying, Neil almost threw himself to his feet,
glaring at Misato, hands clenching into fists. "Vash doesn't have the
first clue about piloting an Eva! He'll just be a burden!" He stopped
for a second, taking a deep breath and visibly trying to restrain
himself. "I'll do better. I won't make another mistake like I did
before. So you don't need to bring in the other Children."
"It isn't because of your performance," replied Misato, shaking her
head as Neil seemed to briefly calm down slightly. The statement made
her feel a little uneasy, simply because she harbored her own
suspicions that EVA-01's performance during the battle against the
Third Angel had something to do with the sudden centralization of all
the Evangelions. A silence settled in the air for a moment, Misato
picking up the remote and clicking off the movie once again. "While I
appreciate your feelings on the subject -"
"Don't you understand? These are facts!" Neil's anger resurfaced
almost immediately, his eyes flashing under the light of the living
room lamp. "Vash is only concerned about himself, about his friends
and his situation! The first time he gets hurt in the Eva, the first
time things don't go entirely right, he'll be off for the hills. And
Eiko..." He stopped, and Misato could swear that she saw a drop of
water fall from his left eye. "I'm asking you, Misato, as one of the
pilots, please, don't do this."
"This isn't up for discussion, Neil!" Misato snapped, getting angry
despite her best efforts. Somewhere inside her, she was vaguely aware
of the fact that she agreed with Neil, but she pushed that feeling
underneath, knowing that it wouldn't get her anywhere. "They're
already going to be contacted and brought into the project. Whether
you approve or not, it's going to happen."
Neil stared at Misato, his face twisted into an angry expression that
she couldn't remember ever seeing before. "What gives you the right?"
he asked, voice quiet but still obviously angry. "What gives you the
right to just tear people away from their lives, to make them get
inside of..." He looked away, shutting his eyes tightly. "Misato,
don't do it. They don't need to come to NERV."
"It's already done," replied Misato, no longer truly angry but keeping
her voice firm. "I understand that you might have personal issues with
Vash, but there's nothing that can be done about it. You're just going
to have to learn to live with it." She looked away, feeling terrible
about the words coming out of her mouth. "The need gives us the
right. You're the only people that can do it."
An uneasy silence hung in the air for a moment, Neil staring at Misato
and Misato hiding her head from him. Then his face grew angrier, brow
furrowed as far as the skin would allow. "Don't you have any kind of
conscience?" he shouted, whirling on his heel and stomping off to his
room. Misato didn't follow him, listening as the door slammed shut
down the hall and sighing heavily.
]++[
Eiko felt anxious, but didn't say a word, something that would have
surprised most of her friends if they'd known it. She'd never been
someone to hide her emotions, especially something like anxiety, but
now she found herself feeling uncomfortable simply by feeling it,
knowing that she shouldn't be feeling anything but normal and knowing
that her friends would be upset if she said anything. So she kept
silent, but as she walked across the lawn towards school, she couldn't
help but keep her eyes peeled for Ryo, knowing that he wouldn't be
difficult to spot if he was in the area.
"Hello? Earth to Eiko?" The voice startled her, and she had to glance
back and forth for a second before realizing that Hikari had been the
one speaking, standing to her left. She looked towards her friend and
smiled sheepishly, trying to hide her embarassment. Hikari had stopped
walking, folding her arms across her chest as if awaiting an answer.
Eiko's grin widened, and Hikari cocked her head to one side, her brown
hair's twin ponytails swinging with it and her blue eyes staring at
Eiko from above her freckled cheeks. "Is something wrong, Eiko?
You've been acting totally out of it for the past couple days."
"Feh, she's just worried about finally losing me to some other woman,"
Vash interjected, poking his head between the two women and smiling at
both of them for a second, his thin-framed sunglasses perched on his
nose. "With my dashing good looks and sparkling personality, I can
hardly blame her." He smiled broadly, then noticed that Eiko, Hikari,
and Kensuke were all staring at him, at which point his smile slowly
shrank to nothing. "Or maybe not."
Shaking her head, Eiko smiled at Vash, leaning over and giving him a
quick peck on the cheek as a sort of consolation prize. He smiled back
at her warmly, and for a brief moment Eiko's anxiety seemed to lift
away. Then she noticed two men moving towards her out of the corner of
her eye, and she turned her head, studying them in confusion. They
were dressed in black business suits, both wearing dark sunglasses and
with slicked-back hair. At first, she thought that they might simply
be heading in her general direction, but as they walked past the school
she knew they were heading towards her.
"Wait - I recognize those guys," noted Kensuke, adjusting his glasses
slightly as they walked closer. "Those are intelligence officers from
NERV. Probably here for Ayanami about something." Kensuke glanced
back at his friends, noticing that they were all staring at him out of
curiosity. "I find out a lot of stuff on the Internet. It's a
military buff's heaven."
As the agents continued walking towards her, Eiko felt her pulse
quicken for a moment, a fear rising within her that she'd gotten Ryo in
trouble because of the sketch. She gritted her teeth, glancing up
towards Vash, who put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently.
The agents seemed to take no notice, stepping up to the four students
and standing for a moment. "Are you Koji Nekasa?" one asked after a
moment, ignoring Eiko entirely and staring at her boyfriend.
"Yeah," replied Vash, squeezing Eiko's shoulder again in a way that
made her wonder if he was nervous about something. Then she remembered
the day he'd met Neil, and another rush of panic went through her body,
wondering if NERV or even Neil would send out agents as a result. "Is
something the matter?"
Neither agent paid attention to Vash's question, turning their gazes
towards Eiko. "And you are Eiko Suzuhara, correct?"
"I am," she replied, unsure of whether to be terrified, honored, or
embarassed. It was one of the few times that she could remember being
truly without words, something that did absolutely nothing to make her
feel any less anxious. Gritting her teeth, she stepped forward
slightly, putting her own hand over Vash's on her shoulder and trying
not to look intimidated. "Listen, I don't know what we did to deserve
this, but -"
"This is just about your birth, not your actions," noted one of the
agents, the statement thoroughly confusing Eiko and Vash. They both
reached into their pockets, pulling out small red plastic cards with
pictures of the Eiko and Vash on the left side and a recognizable logo
in white on the right side. "NERV wishes to welcome both of you as
pilots of the Evangelions."
]++[
It was hard not to hear Misato as she got ready to go in to work for
the day, but Neil did his best to shut the sounds out, focusing instead
on the mournful notes wafting from his CD player, basking in the music
as he laid back with closed eyes. He wasn't really mad at Misato, or
at least not like he had been the night before, but he still didn't
feel up to talking with her, both out of embarassment and because he
wasn't very happy with himself, either. It was a sensation he was
growing accustomed to, but that didn't make it any more tolerable.
Hearing Misato sing to herself in the shower, Neil flicked the pause
button on the CD player, smiling to himself - he'd only been living at
her apartment for a short time, but he'd learned that Misato would only
sing in the shower or when drunk, and while her voice slurred horribly
when drunk, she did have an excellent sense of pitch. Besides, she
sounded different when she sang, since it was one of the few times he
heard her speak Japanese. It was worth savoring.
"Besides, I'm probably not going to be here much longer," he muttered
to himself, sighing deeply as Misato hit a particularly high note. He
knew that he had driven a wedge between them with his final harsh
words, and it seemed unlikely that she'd want to continue living with
him afterwards. Rolling from his back to his side, he thought for a
moment, feeling a prickling sensation in his body as he heard her
giggle loudly. Even if he did stay, he knew that their relationship
would be different, and he found himself unintentionally thinking about
whether or not he still had any chance with her romantically.
Less than a second after the thought popped into his head, he found
himself chuckling at it, as if his subconscious hadn't been serious
about it. Then he took a deep breath, feeling the thought come rushing
right back and making him frown at himself. It was ludicrous, to think
that a woman nearly twice his age was interested in him as anything
other than a younger brother, and merely thinking about it made him
feel like some kind of pervert. But the thought wouldn't remove itself
from his mind for a moment, and he found himself thinking about her for
a second before he shook his head, reminding himself that he had better
chances with Eiko.
Eiko. The thought of the other woman brought back his at once pleasant
and painful memories of that day, a meeting that he'd assumed would
never be repeated. For all he knew, it would never be, considering the
fact that he put her brother in the hospital because of his own
ineptitude. Still, he felt hopeful, knowing that she might feel some
sympathy for him once she'd experienced piloting the machines herself.
It wasn't easy, and perhaps actually dealing with it would make Neil's
faults seem more bearable.
Then the thought of Eiko actually piloting the things hit him full-on
once again, and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he didn't want
her to have to go through the pain that the great machines put the
pilots through. Thinking back to his first battle in EVA-01, he
recalled the horrible sensation when the Angel had blown through his
head, wondering if Eiko would have to deal with the same thing. It
felt wrong for him to inflict that on someone else, for another person
to have to deal with it. Recalling what he'd thought when he heard
Misato tell him that the Fourth and Fifth Children were arriving, he
closed his eyes more tightly, feeling like a reprehensible human
being. Even though he'd had to stay because of NERV's reliance on him,
it wasn't fair to others to make them go out because he was unwilling.
Before his thoughts could go any further, the door to his room swung
open, and he opened his eyes, turning to see Misato standing in the
door, wearing the short brown skirt, black shirt, and red jacket that
she seemed to wear every day to work. "Neil," she said flatly, her
tone utterly devoid of emotion. "Were you planning on avoiding me
again?"
"Not really. I was more planning on just not going towards you." He
smirked, realizing the stupidity of his response even before he'd said
it. "But that's the same thing, isn't it?" He sighed, sitting up and
looking towards the doorway, trying to judge Misato's emotional state
from her face but seeing that she was keeping herself calm for
precisely that reason. "Misato, I'm sorry. I said some things last
night that were far too harsh, things that you really didn't deserve.
And I -"
"Don't worry about it," she replied, her characteristic half-smirk
drawing itself across her face and finally giving Neil some idea of
what was going through her head. "We both had a lot of stress to deal
with last night, and I wasn't really fair to you either." Neil paused,
then nodded, and Misato stepped into the room, grabbing him by the
shoulder and pulling him up. "Now let's have some breakfast."
]++[
Sitting in the employee lounge a few hours after breakfast, Misato
watched over one of the surface cameras as EVA-03 and 04 were taken
down off their transports, launch ports open to bring them down to the
bays that they would be stored in. The area had been roped off by the
local police, allowing NERV all the time they needed to get both
machines down to Central Dogma. The procedure wasn't particularly
interesting, but like most of Central Dogma the lounge had been
designed with a purely utilitarian point of view, and as such was kept
a perfectly bland white all around except for the silver of parts of
the furniture. There were windows along the wall that Misato was
facing away from, but she didn't feel like watching the Geo-Front do
nothing - there were no animals to make it interesting, just plants and
the eerie almost-sunlight from the top of the chamber.
Tilting her head to one side, she studied the two new units a little
more closely, noting that they looked different from both of NERV's
Evas in subtle ways - they were mostly a solid color with slight
shading of another tone, and their heads looked far more human than
either of the original units. If she had to put a word to them, it
would be regal. As EVA-03 began to be lowered into the Geo-Front, it
occurred to her that they were completely identical except for color,
that otherwise their structure was identical. It also occurred to her
that if she was picking out minor structural details in the machines,
she was getting dangerously close to going numb from boredom.
"It's good to see you showing some interest in your position," came a
male voice, and Misato whipped her head around to the door of the
lounge, seeing Fuyutsuki standing and watching. She suppressed the
urge to blush, sitting straight up and trying to straighten her shirt
out before he held up a hand for her to stop. "Don't worry about it,"
he offered, grinning wryly, almost bitterly. "You look better than
most of the professors that I used to work with."
Unsure of what to say, Misato smiled politely, then looked back towards
the monitor hanging from the ceiling. Fuyutsuki watched, then sat down
at the table nearby, watching with her as EVA-04 began to be removed
from its restraints and loaded onto the entry port. "It's good that
they're arriving now," she noted at length, doing her best to cut the
awkward silence that had settled in the air. "With Ryo's unit out of
comission, we need all the help we can get."
"Mmm," replied Fuyutsuki, nodding sagely. "It was never designed for
combat. It was only supposed to be a test bed. Small wonder that it
didn't fare well." He sighed, shaking his head. "The damage done to
it is going to cost a huge amount to repair, and we're already over
budget because of the repairs for 01. And that's on top of the costs
for upgrading EVA-00."
"So you're making it more suited to combat," Misato stated, almost
meaning it as a question, glancing towards Fuyutsuki for some kind of
confirmation. He nodded, understanding the intent, and she turned back
towards the monitor, the tension rising again. She could tell that
there was something he wasn't telling her, and after a moment of
waiting she looked back at him. "You didn't come down here to watch
the new units be brought down."
"No," replied Fuyutsuki, shaking his head and sighing ever so
slightly. Misato had some idea of what was coming, and leaned back in
her chair, still focusing her gaze on the monitor's display on the
surface. "I suppose you probably expected some kind of questioning
about Neil."
"After he outright denied the Commander? Yes." Closing her eyes
gently, Misato was vaguely curious about whether they were going to try
and deny Neil the right to pilot the Eva anymore. It wasn't something
that she expected, especially considering that Neil was the only pilot
who'd managed to reliably dispose of the Angels, but it didn't leave
her mind as a possibility.
Fuyutsuki smiled to himself, not entirely certain of what Misato was
thinking but willing to make a guess about it. "It isn't about Neil's
defiance with the last Angel," he offered, drawing her attention back
over to him. "Commander Ikari has other plans for him. A little
disobedience is acceptable, I suppose." He paused, frustrating Misato
as he simply sat for a moment, glancing back up towards the monitor.
"It's about his rooming with you."
"What do you mean?" asked Misato, now thoroughly confused. She
remembered discussing the housing situation with the commander, and
he'd seemed almost pleased to have her volunteer. "If you're worried
about a conflict of interest, it seems rather counterproductive. My
first concern is supposed to be the safety of our pilots, isn't it?"
"You're being quite defensive today." Fuyutsuki turned his gaze from
the monitor towards Misato, and she saw that there was a sort of glint
in his eye, a sort of smug satisfaction further augmented by the grin
on his face. "We're extremely pleased with the fact that this has
worked out so well, and it's obviously strengthened the ties between
you and Neil. So Commander Ikari decided that it might be an idea
worth taking further." He paused, Misato now getting another thought
about where the discussion was going. "If I remember correctly, you
have two spare rooms in your apartment?"
Misato nodded, feeling slightly relieved by the seeming confirmation of
her new suspicions. "Building up unit cohesion, then?" she asked,
smiling to herself and looking up at the finally-descending EVA-04.
She thought back to the prior night, remembering what Neil had said
about Koji. "It could hardly make things worse."
]++[
By the time the agents had finished with Vash and Eiko, it was time for
lunch in the classroom, something that they were both eager for, if for
no other reason than to have a brief respite from the military
information that the agents had fed to them. They'd said outright that
most of the information the two children were being given wouldn't make
sense until they'd actually had a chance to pilot an Eva, but that
hadn't stopped them from going on for hours about terms that still
seemed vague even after hearing them several times. They were both
assured, however, that when they arrived at NERV headquarters after
school, they would be given their chance to pilot the machines. It
made Eiko more than a little nervous, but she said nothing.
Running to get back to class on time, both found themselves arriving at
the room faster than they'd expected, though it wasn't clear if fear or
hunger was spurring them onward. Placing his hand on the door to the
classroom, Vash stopped, then glanced back at Eiko and winked, a sure
sign to her that he was planning something. He turned the handle, then
stepped into the room and spread his arms wide, obviously pleased with
himself. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the new pilots of
the Evangelions," he announced, drawing everyone's attention
immediately. "Vash Nekasa and Eiko Suzuhara!"
Eiko caught a glimpse of Ryo out of the corner of her eye, but before
she could even take a full step towards him the rest of the class
rushed towards them, running off at the mouth with questions. Everyone
other than Ryo bunched around them, trapping them around the door, a
fact that didn't seem bother Vash in the least. She smirked to
herself, relieved to see how well he was taking the news, though
suspecting that part of his enthusiasm came from the attention he was
receiving. "Excuse me," grunted Eiko, trying to elbow her way out of
the throng. "Coming through."
"Vash, why'd they pick you?" asked one of the other students, someone
that Eiko didn't recognize but wasn't paying much attention to in the
first place. "I mean, you're kind of a goofball, and it's not like
you're that threatening..."
"That's not true!" replied Vash, blushing even as his face contorted
into a frown. He reasserted his prior demeanor swiftly, however, once
again being the serene new pilot. "Besides, it's not about combat
experience, it's about talent! Only a few people can pilot the Evas,
which makes it even better luck that I happen to be one of them!" He
smirked to himself as Eiko finally neared the outer edge of the crowd,
placing his hands firmly on his hips. "Now that I'm in NERV, I'll show
all of the slackers working there what it means to be a pilot -"
"Will you?" Ryo asked, his voice quiet as usual. Something about the
tone demanded attention, and the murmur of the other students died down
as Vash looked at Ryo. The boy remained seated for a moment, then rose
to his feet, his eyes still peering down at his notebook. "You're so
certain that the problem is we're not doing our job correctly?"
For a second, Vash seemed taken aback, simply staring at Ryo while Eiko
managed to work her way out of the crowd. More than ever, she wanted a
clear view of what was going on, especially considering the fact that
she needed to talk to Ryo. Then Vash's expression changed to one of
anger, his blue eyes flashing as they narrowed. "If you were doing
what you're supposed to, Eiko's brother wouldn't be in the hospital!"
he shouted, gesturing more in the general direction of his girlfriend
than directly towards her. "You're supposed to be defending this city,
and instead you nearly kill someone on your first mission!"
Ryo finally turned towards Vash, his expression calm enough to be
unreadable, red eyes almost seeming to look right through the other
boy. "Neil had never piloted the machine before," he stated, still in
a quiet but forceful tone. "He had no combat experience. Much like
yourself, Vash."
Eiko couldn't tell if Ryo knew his final statement would strike a
nerve, but she could tell from the swift darkening of Vash's expression
that it had succeeded anyways. "If he didn't know what he was doing,
he shouldn't have gotten in the Eva!" shouted Vash, thrusting his fist
into the nearest desk forcefully enough to produce a loud noise. "He
should have known that!"
"And who would have piloted the machine then?" asked Ryo, remaining
motionless and apparently unafraid of Vash's anger. The comment made
Vash's eyes widen, though the boy's anger seemed to remain just as
intense. "I couldn't walk, much less pilot an Evangelion. Neither of
you were part of NERV at the time. If Neil hadn't gotten in the
machine, everyone would have died."
Vash continued to glare at Ryo, while Ryo's expression remained
unchanged, simply staring back at the other Child. "Well, you won't
need Neil anymore," Vash snapped, obviously trying to keep a handle on
his anger. "Eiko and I are going to do the job better than you've been
able to."
"I see. Because you obviously know more about how it should be done."
Ryo stared at Vash for a second longer, then sat back down, turning
away from the other boy while Eiko stared at him in shock. She knew
that Vash's boasts were out of line, but she also knew that it was part
of who her boyfriend was, part of the way that he related to the world
around him. Ryo's words had been too harsh, and she suddenly wondered
if Neil would feel the same way once he knew she was a pilot, if she
wouldn't get to try and be friends with him because of it. The thought
of it made her sad, though she couldn't quite place why.
The crowd around Vash was laughing slightly at Ryo's final comment,
deepening Vash's frown as he elbowed his way towards Eiko. "Shut up,
guys," he muttered, touching Eiko's shoulder affectionately before he
walked down to his desk and slouched back in the chair, obviously no
longer so pleased about being a pilot. Eiko walked over to her desk,
sat down, then glanced over at Ryo and thought for a second about
asking him. Sighing, she looked away again, wishing that she could see
some trace of emotion on Ryo's face, so she could at least guess at
what he was thinking.
]++[
Nieve Soryu-Leary, bored, overheated, and irritated, stared over the
rail of the massive battleship, watching NERV personnel confer amongst
themselves on the docks as she pushed back a few red hairs that had
fallen to stick on her forehead. "I'll admit, I wasn't looking forward
to this to begin with," she announced loudly, glancing over her
shoulder to make sure that Kaji was listening to her. "But now I've
changed my mind. This isn't a stupid plan, this is the -worst-
possible plan."
"Your objections have been noted," replied Kaji, grinning at her.
Nieve still found the gesture attractive, but considering the
circumstances it made her feel more self-conscious than anything else.
He was leaning against the side of the ship's bridge, wearing a white
shirt with rolled sleeves and black slacks, apparently comfortable in
the heat. "Why don't you enjoy the rest and relaxation a little?
We're not likely to get much more of it."
"Ick. How can you relax in this weather?" Nieve shook her head, then
wiped the thin film of sweat off her forehead, feeling extremely
unattractive. She knew how much she was sweating, and even the thin
fabric of the light green sundress she was wearing (which, mercifully,
wasn't thin enough to show her underwear, something she'd been afraid
of) held in what seemed like enough heat to cook a chicken. Her hair
was going limp from sweating, she'd already had to run to her cabin to
put on another layer of deoderant twice, and no matter what she did it
seemed to get worse. She looked as though she didn't have any control
over her appearance at all, something that made her feel extremely
unsettled. "Can't this branch of NERV get its act together and arrive
on time?"
Almost on cue, Kaji leaned forward off of the side, staring down the
road that led to the bustling gray concrete dock. Nieve frowned in
curiousity, then followed his gaze, seeing at length what he was
looking at - a visibly huge transport rumbling towards the docks, with
something yellow and equally huge strapped to the back of the truck.
"They're moving pretty fast," he noted, walking over to Nieve's
position to get a better view. "Should be here in a few minutes."
"Good," replied Nieve, turning away from the transport. She knew that
the yellow machine on the truck was EVA-05, but she hadn't been in the
mood to wait for it for hours, and she hardly felt like watching its
final approach. "It's about time. Now we can get to Japan and get the
Angel situation under control, before the Third Child's luck runs out."
Kaji said nothing, glancing towards Nieve and making a small "hmmph"
noise that seemed halfway between amusement and exasperation. Then he
was off, heading towards the plank that led to the docks while Nieve
remained on the ship. She folded her arms, feeling resentful despite
herself and wanting to simply get moving to Japan. Kaji had given her
an explanation about why they couldn't simply airlift EVA-02 from
Ireland with a stop in America, but it seemed ludicrous to her that
facilities built to service the Evangelions couldn't accomodate one.
More likely it had something to do with politics, a suspicion that she
couldn't prove but accepted in her mind as more or less factual.
Glancing up, she saw a few smaller trucks ahead of the one carrying the
Eva were approaching ahead of it, one of which was probably carrying
the Sixth Child. Scoffing, she turned away from the docks again,
seeing if she could find a spot that was at least somewhat shielded
against the light of the sun. It had frustrated her to be so powerless
when she'd first found out about the transport method, and it had
gotten no better, to the point where it seemed to her for brief moments
that even the sun was mocking her lack of control with its heat. She
knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she could keep a handle on the
situation without the Sixth Child, and she found herself almost
involuntarily resenting the other pilot without having even met her.
"Nieve." The voice wasn't quite a shout, but it was loud enough to
draw her attention towards the plank that Kaji was walking up,
attention that was immediately refocused on the girl walking behind
him. She was taller than Nieve, but that barely registered in Nieve's
mind - she had gotten used to being shorter than almost everyone a long
time ago. Nieve did wonder how she was able to tolerate the heat in
jeans and a button-down white blouse, but the woman seemed unaffected
by the heat, long black hair waving behind her as she walked, blue eyes
glinting in the sun, her features sharp and almost edged. "They're
here."
"I can tell that," Nieve muttered, pushing away from the rail and
walking over towards the Sixth Child. Kaji and the girl walked towards
Nieve at the same time, and Nieve extended her hand to the other Child
as they met, a gesture the woman accepted. "Nieve Soryu-Leary. Second
Child. Pleased to finally meet you."
The other woman's gaze seemed harsh, almost disapproving of the
presence of someone else on board the ship. "Niobe Littmore," she said
calmly, her voice deeper than Nieve had expected but still notably
female. "Sixth Child." She paused, still holding Nieve's hand as if
unsure what to do with it. "But you should know that already,
considering your background with the project."
"Well, yes. I was being polite." She shrugged, still feeling rather
resentful of the girl simply because she'd delayed their progress.
"Daughter of Joseph and Mary Littmore, lived in Neo Cape Town for most
of your life, father worked as a bureaucrat for NERV before positive
testing came back and you were confirmed as the Sixth Child. You
entered the program three years ago, when EVA-05 was completed."
Giving a self-satisfied little grin, she let go of Niobe's hand and
turning her gaze immediately back towards Kaji. "So, does this mean
that we can get on our way to Japan?"
Kaji looked at her uncomfortably for a moment, then Niobe turned away
from Nieve and towards Kaji as well, a motion that surprised the other
girl. "Nieve is right. Every second we stay here is another second
that we're falling behind in our goals." She sighed, then stared at
Nieve somewhat resentfully. "If not for you, I would already be in
Tokyo-3."
"And if not for you, I'd be closer," replied Nieve, her gaze narrowing
slightly at the accusation. She didn't like the idea of this girl
thinking of herself as the more important one, especially considering
the fact that Nieve had been with the program for nearly twice as long
and had more experience with her Eva. Both girls glared at one another
for a moment, then Niobe's expression softened, and Nieve realized the
humor of the situation. She smirked, then looked back at Kaji. "So?
Can we leave?"
"Gods," muttered Kaji, holding his forehead and shaking his head.
"There's two of you." Sighing, he looked up at the two girls, an
expression that Nieve knew meant he was going to tell them something
they didn't want to hear. "We've still got to wait for EVA-05 to get
loaded onto the other transport, and that will probably take another
hour or so. Then we can leave." He paused, letting both girls sigh in
exasperation before continuing. "Don't worry. The ships are fast
enough to get us there within another couple days. You'll be in Tokyo-
3 before you know it."
"Not soon enough," muttered Nieve, turning her head away from Kaji as
defiantly as possible. From the corner of her eye she could see him
shaking his head again, then heading towards the plank down to the
docks once again. Nieve kept her head turned for a moment, then looked
over at Niobe, who seemed no happier with the situation than Nieve.
"At least we didn't go all the way to South Africa, right?"
"I suppose," replied Niobe, a bitter grin on her face as she turned
towards the docks, surveying the huge yellow machine on the transport
truck. It seemed patient, unconcerned with whether or not Niobe was
tired of waiting for it, simply waiting until it was needed once
again. Shaking her head, Niobe turned back towards Nieve, who'd
followed her gaze towards the Evangelion. "Would you like to get some
lunch?"
]++[
He'd marked the hill where he and Eiko had first met on his map of
Tokyo-3, and somehow it only seemed appropriate for him to go back
there, staring out over the horizon as the sun continued its descent
below the horizon. Teal shirt hanging uncomfortably over his back,
Neil sighed, dangling over the guardrail that he'd leaned on when he
first met the girl, not sure if he had come to steel himself or simply
to avoid having to deal with the reality of the situation. He would
have liked to believe that he was doing it to be symbolic, but
something inside him knew that he was afraid of going to Central Dogma,
knowing that both of them would be there.
And, he admitted silently to himself, he wanted to believe that Eiko
would be there, too. It was stupid, overly romantic, and a chance in a
million, the sort of scene that he'd seen millions of times on screen
but he knew never happened in real life. Closing his eyes, he chuckled
at his dellusions of grandeur, for once not feeling particularly bitter
about them so much as amused. Part of the reason why he enjoyed the
movies so much is because they obeyed a logic that he could understand,
that you could break down. And much to Neil's personal chagrin,
science had never provided hard and fast rules about how individuals
worked.
"Neil?" The voice was instantly recognizable, and it took Neil half a
second to realize that he wasn't just imagining Eiko's voice. Pushing
off of the rail, he glanced to one side to see her standing a few feet
away, still wearing her school uniform and smiling at him. The irony
didn't escape him, but he pushed it out of his mind, more concerned
about what she would say next. "I didn't expect to find you here."
"Ditto," Neil lied, turning fully to face her and suddenly feeling very
exposed. "I... well, I expected to see you down at Central Dogma, but
I just wanted to come up here first, with the sun going down and
everything." He paused, shifting uncomfortably on his feet and rubbing
the back of his head, wishing that he had something better to say, that
he actually was in a movie and knew all the right words. "I was afraid
you were still mad at me, and I knew that Vash would still be."
"He'll come around sooner or later," replied Eiko, shrugging and walked
across the street to her perch beneath the tree. Neil hesitated for a
moment, then she gestured for him to come over towards her, smiling.
Glancing back and forth, he walked across as she fluffed her skirt and
sat down, setting her schoolbag down to her side. "Actually, I came up
here because I didn't want to go to Central Dogma right away." She
paused, letting Neil sit down, leaning back against the tree behind her
and feeling the rouch bark against the skin of her neck. "So, when did
you find out that we were the Children? Did you know when we met?"
Suddenly feeling as though he were being accused, Neil shook his head
vigorously, eyes widened a little at the implication. "I wasn't told
until last night," he replied, more firmly than he'd planned but still
conveying the message. "Misato let me know - she didn't think that I
knew you." He paused, easing himself a little closer to her. "I'm
assuming that they didn't let you know until this morning, or I would
have seen you before."
Eiko nodded, letting her hands touch the grass, the soft give of the
ground tempered by the thin sharpness of the blades. For some reason
it suddenly felt as though every sensation was keener, more important,
something she had to experience anew and remember. "They told us on
our way to school," she replied, watching as the light glanced off the
buildings of Tokyo-3, admiring the way that it seemed to put on a
spectacle for the whole city without realizing it. "Neil? Can I tell
you something?"
Neil looked at the girl sitting next to him, admiring her for just a
second, the way that her hair fell around her pale face, the way that
her eyes reflected the light from the sun, the way that her face
curved. One part of him felt disgusted with himself for studying her,
knowing that he couldn't have her, but he was unable to help it, caught
up in the unspeakable sadness that seemed to be hanging over her.
"What is it?"
"I'm scared, Neil," she replied, her eyes still focusing on the
gleaming light of Tokyo-3. "I'm really afraid of piloting those
things. Not just because of what happened to Toji, but because..."
She sighed, turning her head away from Neil, almost as if she were
ashamed. "Because I don't want to get hurt." Closing her eyes, she
laughed bitterly. "Selfish, isn't it? You're putting your life in
danger every day, and now that I'm supposed to share the burden I don't
want to do the same."
"Hey, don't say that," Neil replied, putting his hand on Eiko's
shoulder before his mind had even registered the fact that he very much
wanted to touch her. A slight flush rose to his cheeks, but he ignored
it, knowing that it would fade by the time she looked back at him.
"It's not something that anybody wants to deal with. Heck, when I got
here, I was expecting to be put into a school program. If I'd known
what I was getting into..." He paused, stopping to think about the
implications of the statement. "Well, I probably still would have
come, all told."
"You're brave," she said, her voice no longer sounding angry but
impressed. Looking back towards him, she smiled, feeling touched by
the fact that he hadn't outright told her she was being cowardly.
"Vash would probably laugh at me, tell me that we wouldn't have
anything to worry about." The though made her laugh involuntarily,
remembering how he'd pranced about in class before Ryo had spoken up.
"He's not a bad person, Neil. I know that you -"
Shaking his head, Neil held up his free hand, and Eiko stopped talking,
feeling that she owed him that much. "I don't think he's a horrible
person. If anything, I'm more angry at -" Pausing, Neil shook his
head again, somehow feeling uncomfortable telling Eiko how he'd felt
the night afterwards. He thought that it was because of his thoughts
about her, but something within him knew that wasn't it. "It's not
important. The point is that I'm not really that brave."
It was Eiko's turn to shake her head, barely believing the words that
she heard coming from Neil's mouth. "You've got to be kidding me," she
replied, almost laughing but restraining herself. "Staying in a
foreign country, changing your entire life, all to put yourself in
danger? That's bravery, at least by everyone else's definition." She
turned towards the city once again, leaning back against the tree's
rough surface. "You're a strange boy sometimes, you know that?"
"This isn't the first time it's come up," replied Neil, recalling
Misato saying similar words to him the first night he'd been out of the
hospital. Removing his hand reluctantly from her shoulder, he edged
closer to Eiko, pulling his knees up to his chest and looking at her
intently. "Look, I'm not going to lie to you - piloting those things
isn't fun, and it's not that safe. NERV would probably tell you
otherwise, but - well, you've been around for both of my performances
in EVA-01." Eiko nodded. "I wouldn't blame you for not wanting to
pilot them, even for not piloting them."
Neil's voice trailed off, and for a second he wondered if the world was
working cinematically enough that Eiko would move in to kiss him, if he
could really be that lucky. She did no such thing, however, looking at
him for a moment before turning her gaze back towards the city. "It
sounded like there was a 'but' coming," she said softly, a tone in her
voice that Neil couldn't quite place.
"But..." He trailed off again, still unsure of whether or not he
wanted Eiko to pilot the Evas or not. Try though he might, he couldn't
think of anything good to say for or against it, then he gritted his
teeth and said the first thing that sprang to his mind. "But if you
pilot one of the machines, I'll protect you." His cheeks flushed the
instant he said it, but she was looking at him now, and he knew that he
couldn't just stop talking. "We'll be on the same team, right? So
we'll back each other up. I'll keep you safe as best I can, and you'll
keep me safe. So it's not so frightening after all."
Eiko stared at Neil as if she were considering the implications of his
words, then she smiled and nodded, relaxing the stress on Neil a
little. "Thank you," she said, putting her hand on his and giving it a
small squeeze. Neil forced himself not to blush again, although he
felt the unmistakable urge to. "I would have talked to Vash about it,
but... well, I thought he would think I was being silly. And I knew
that you knew more about being a pilot."
It took a great deal of restraint on Neil's part not to say what he was
thinking, and he forced himself to remember that Eiko was touching his
hand and he wouldn't be thinking entirely clearly. He wanted to tell
her to leave Vash, that he knew he would be better for her, that she
was incredibly beautiful. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew
that was what he would say in a movie, and the thought made him wonder
if he wanted to say it because it was true or because he felt obligated
by the situation to say it. "Don't worry about it," he replied, simply
smiling and cocking his head slightly to one side. "I'm glad I could
help."
Opening her mouth to speak again, Eiko was cut short as a blaring alarm
filled the air, a noise that Neil had only heard once before but
wouldn't have forgotten no matter what. "The Angel alarm," he said,
rising to his feet and looking around. Eiko hesitated for a moment,
then gritted her teeth and stood along with him, trying to follow his
gaze enough to find the cause. "They might have detected it before it
got close enough to the city to -"
"There," Eiko gasped, watching the horizon as the sun slowly sank
beneath it. Neil followed her gaze, watching the sun for a moment
before he realized that something was blocking his sight. Moving his
eyes towards the obstruction, he realized that it was a gigantic
octohedron, as if two pyramids had been glued together at their bases,
floating slowly out of the hills towards Tokyo-3. For a moment, he
wondered if it might be some kind of defense system that NERV hadn't
deployed before, then he saw the aerodrones flying towards the thing
and exploding as they hit the unmistakable AT field.
"Welcome to the monkey house," muttered Neil, hoping that NERV had some
kind of contingency plan until he and Eiko arrived at Central Dogma.
Grabbing her wrist, he tugged gently on it, and she began following
him, both of them first jogging and then running down the hill. Neil
surveyed the slope on the other side rail, then decided that he didn't
want to pull the same stunt he'd tried on his first day with a sheer
drop. "This way," he decided, pointing to his left as he started
jogging, Eiko following shortly after as the Angel slowly approached
the city.
]++[
"I wonder what's going on in Tokyo-3 right now," muttered Nieve, lying
on her back in a reclining chair in the shade. She'd finally given up
the dress entirely and changed into her swimsuit, a low-backed black
purple one that she'd tied an absolutely transparent sort of beach
skirt around. It was still warmer than she would have liked, but it
was at tolerable levels, even though she felt horribly exposed out of
her dress, especially with Niobe sitting nearby still wearing more
casual dress. "Hopefully not -another- Angel."
"At the speed we're going, they'll all be destroyed by the time that we
get there," muttered Niobe in agreement. Nieve was curious about
Niobe's eagerness to get to the city, but she didn't say anything, too
concerned about the thought of not being there to really think much on
other details. "It's because your facility was built so far away from
all the others, you know. If they'd built the European branch in
Germany like they'd originally planned, then we both would be there by
now."
Nieve let out an indignant squawk, sitting up like a shot. "Pardon me
for not being born in Germany, Miss Littmore, but the European facility
was built because that's where my father was and that's where my mother
was. It would have been silly to build in an entirely different
country." She leaned back, ignoring the retaliatory stare from Niobe.
"Besides, I would probably be there by now if we didn't have to pick up
your machine along the way."
Both girls remained silent for a second, staring at each other before
letting their mouths curl into smiles. "You're surprising, Nieve,"
muttered Niobe, turning her gaze out towards the sea. She'd been on
large freighters before, but it was always a rare occurence, and never
for so long a time. In some ways, it was a little frightening, but in
other aspects it made her somewhat invigorated. "Not at all like what
I'd expected."
Scoffing, Nieve propped herself up on her elbows, smirking at the other
girl. "What?" she asked, trying to make her speech sound as accented
as possible. "Did you expect me to down a pint, curse, swear upon the
name of God, Jesus Christ, and the Saints, then dance a jig?" Niobe
giggled in response, and it made Nieve feel a little better,
considering how dour the other girl seemed to be. "For what it's
worth, I expected you to be squatting in the bush rubbing paint onto
yourself and crying out that the ships were demons."
"Fine, fine, point made," replied Niobe, still giggling slightly but
feeling slightly stung by Nieve's comment. Though she recognized that
the statement was being made ironically, she had felt very isolated as
she'd boarded the ship, driving up amongst the the mass numbers of NERV
personnel made up almost uniformly of caucasians and oriental
individuals. "I didn't mean to imply that, I just... well, I know your
background with Project Eva. I would think you'd be comfortable
waiting."
"Waiting for what my entire life has led up to? Not likely. I want to
get out there and get a move on with this already." She leaned back
once again, staring up at the overhang from the deck that shielded her
from the bright sun. "Besides, I've read the reports about the Third
Angel's attack, and I heard some of the radio chatter about the
Fourth. The Third Child might be lucky, but he hasn't spent his life
preparing for this." Glancing towards Niobe, she gave a smug grin. "I
have."
"You're not the only one," replied Niobe, sounding a little resentful.
Nieve leaned forward again, trying to get a better look at the other
girl's face, but her face was angled so that Nieve could only see her
profile silhouetted against the light of the sun, not enough to make
out an expression. "You might have been in testing for three years
before I was, but I've been training my entire life to be the best at
everything I do." Niobe turned her head and smiled at Nieve, but the
smile wasn't exactly a friendly one. "So don't think you're alone in
having the initiative."
Nieve frowned slightly, not having expected such a reaction from
Niobe. It was common knowledge that she'd been in NERV longer than any
of the other Children, and she'd certainly been training with her
Evangelion longer than any of the others. She'd assumed that her
seniority would give her some kind of clout with the other Children,
but she was beginning to wonder if the others might also prevent her
from maintaining control over the situation. "Well, then," she
replied, mirroring Niobe's smile. "We'll just have to make sure that
we both do our best, won't we?"
"Sounds about right to me," replied Niobe, leaning towards the red-
haired girl with her hand extended. Nieve took her hand and shook it,
the grip between them exchanging all the information either of them
needed to know. In the back of her mind, Niobe found herself wondering
if perhaps she was wrong, if Nieve might turn out to be the better
pilot of the two of them despite her best efforts. "We'll be the best
together."
]++[
"Fifth Angel 'Ramiel' is approaching a position directly above Central
Dogma," announced Makoto, fingers dancing across the keyboard as the
monitor displayed the strangely-shaped Angel's approach. The alert had
sounded some time prior, but as the sun set the Angel still had made no
motion to attack, causing Misato to wonder if perhaps it had another
destination in mind. "There's no mistaking its route. It'll be
overhead in a few moments."
Misato sighed, worried about where both Neil and Eiko were. They
should have headed straight to NERV when the alert had sounded,
although she wasn't sure if they'd run into problems along their way.
The thought of an aerodrone crashing down on them occurred to her, and
she shook her head, trying to push the terrible concept out of her
mind. "We can't wait any longer," muttered Misato, more to herself
than to anyone in the control area. "Maya, what's the status on EVA-
03?"
"Unit 03 fully secured, all equipment checked out," replied Maya, her
monitor still displaying a flat line for the unit's synchronization
gauge. Vash had been put into Unit 03 on standby when the alert had
sounded, but Misato had been reluctant to deploy him alone, especially
considering the fact that he didn't have any combat experience. "We'd
need to flood the cockpit and begin synchronization before we could
deploy the unit, however. Estimated time if we begin now is one
minute."
"All right." She took a deep breath, then motioned to the
communications officer to open a channel with the cockpit of EVA-03.
"Vash?" she asked, still feeling a little uneasy about the reliability
of the production-model units. Academically, she'd been informed by
Ritsuko that they were designed to be more functional than 00 and 01
and knew that to be the truth, but she wasn't used to working with
them, and had learned from prior tests that an Eva couldn't be counted
on until it had been activated at least once. "Can you hear me?"
Sitting in the cockpit of the machine, half-admiring the purple
plugsuit with its black chestpiece, Vash almost didn't realize that
Misato was speaking to him until she'd fallen silent, and which point
he sat back in the cockpit correctly, gripping the metal handles on
either side. "Loud and clear," he replied, nodding to nobody. "What
about Eiko? Is she inside her Eva yet?"
The response was a bit delayed, giving Vash all the answer he needed
without Misato having to speak a word. "Damn it, where -is- she?" he
muttered, thumping his hand idly against the side of the cockpit.
"I've been down here training, and she's off doing God knows what." He
shook his head, feeling betrayed despite himself. Though he would have
liked to say that he wasn't a jealous person by nature, the thought
that both Neil and Eiko were missing made it dangerously easy for his
mind to draw the connection, and he was beginning to feel very much
alone.
"Don't worry. I'm sure she and Neil will be here soon." Misato
paused, glancing towards the main screen, wishing that the Angel would
stop or that Neil would arrive before she had to send Vash out. She
shut her eyes, then turned back towards the primary microphone. "We're
going to send you out to engage the Angel on the surface. We don't
have much information on its capabilities at the moment, so you're
going to be flying blind for a little while. Are you ready?"
"Of course," replied Vash, drumming his fingers eagerly against the
metal handrests, eagerly awaiting the activation that he'd heard
about. "What happens now? You flood the chamber with some kind of
liquid, right? The agents told us a lot about the machines this
morning, so I -"
"It's called LCL," replied Misato, motioning for Maya to begin flooding
the cockpit. She briefly considered mentioning to Vash that she didn't
think the liquid was particularly pleasant to inhale or even be around,
but decided against it, waiting until Maya gave the sign that the
cockpit was completely flooded and that she was ready to begin
synchronization. "All right, Vash, we're going to begin synchronizing
you with your Eva, and we'll be moving you to the launch pad at the
same time."
Coughing at the uncomfortable sense of having the noxious liquid in his
lungs, Vash nodded before realizing that Misato couldn't hear him. "Go
ahead," he announced, watching as the the space around him flashed
before his cameras turned on and gave him a clear view of the drained
holding room. He felt as though there were a second set of limbs
besides his own, a sensation that he'd been expecting from his earlier
briefing as the machine started moving towards the launch pad. "All
right. I think I'm ready. Let's get this started."
"You're being cocky," announced Ryo's voice, coming over both Vash's
radio and the speakers in the control room. Misato sighed, shaking her
head at the communication, wishing that Ryo were emotional enough so
that she could write it off as jockeying for position. With EVA-00 out
of comission, Ryo could only wait in the locker room on the off chance
that he was deployed in another unit, something that she assumed the
other Children would have been resentful of. Ryo had accepted it
without a word, and had remained silent until he'd opened communication
with the Eva. "Don't be so sure of yourself."
Vash frowned inside of the Eva's cockpit, feeling as though Ryo was
hoping he'd screw up. "You just watch, Ayanami," he shouted over the
radio, extending his mind outwards towards the Evangelion's limbs,
flexing the machine's fingers and preparing for combat on the surface.
"You don't think I can do it? I'll show you just how great a pilot I
can be."
"EVA-03, launch!" shouted Misato, half because she knew that the
machine needed to be deployed immediately and half because she wanted
to stop whatever was going on between Ryo and Vash as soon as
possible. The main screen, which had a small box window in the upper
right-hand corner displaying EVA-03, showed the machine's launch pad
rocketing upwards, and Misato turned towards Maya, with Ritsuko leaning
over the other woman's shoulder. "What's the status of the pilot?"
"Synch ratio at 47%, the standard projected rate for the production
models." Maya's fingers were moving with practiced grace, the computer
shifting displays at an amazing rate. "The AT field is deploying
normally. No problems with the machine."
The mention of EVA-03's AT Field surprised Misato, and she cocked her
head to one side, apparently unsure if she'd heard Maya correctly.
Ritsuko noticed the gesture, and she sighed, shaking her head and
knowing that Misato hadn't been paying attention to her e-mail again.
"All of the production models are fitted to automatically deploy an AT
field upon synchronization," she explained. "We've incorporated the
design into EVA-00, and made some tweaks to EVA-01's systems so that
the field will activate more easily. Didn't you read the brief on it?"
"I had other things on my mind," replied Misato, blushing slightly at
the embarassment. Watching the monitor, she waited as Vash reached the
surface, his Eva screeching to a halt with the platform, the black
machine reflecting the setting sunlight just right to show off the
iridescent purple underneath. The Angel was only a short distance
away, still slowly floating through the air, approaching Central
Dogma's location horizontally. "All right, Vash, there should be a
weapon depot a few meters to your right. Retrieve a standard rifle and
get a bead on the Angel."
Vash shouted an acknowledgement, and Misato watched as the machine took
a hesitant step forward. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed
Makoto's screen suddenly light up a brilliant red, and she refocused
her gaze on the display as his fingers raced across of it. "Energy
buildup detected in the Angel!" he shouted, and Misato looked up to see
a glowing pinprick of light suddenly appear on the smooth side of the
Angel. "It's about to attack!"
A warning came over the loudspeaker, but Vash had only barely
registered it when he saw a column of light erupt from the Angel,
streaking towards his chest as though it were seeking him with its own
intelligence. He watched, horrified, as it slammed into the AT Field,
the green octagons rippling outwards for only a second before the beam
tore through it without hesitation, as if the field had only been a
momentary distraction. Then it his the center of his chest, and Vash
had a split second to contemplate the fact that there was something
touching his chest, something that burned with the heat of the sun.
Then the touch became a violent stab, and he couldn't help but scream
as his Eva was flung backwards against the rails of the entry port,
feeling like his flesh was being burnt away vigorously.
"EVA-03's frontal armor is currently at 37% and falling fast! AT Field
is not slowly the beam! Synch ratio is down to 22% and falling
rapidly! Pilot's mental activitiy is peaking dangerously!" Maya
stared up at the screen as her hands seemed to pound the keyboard,
glancing back and forth before the gauge of the remaining chest armor
stopped at 13% and the beam dissipated. "It looks like it's charging
for another shot! Captain Katsuragi -"
"Recall EVA-03 immediately," Misato said firmly, trying to ignore her
feelings of despair at the machine's sudden deactivation. She'd paid
attention to the briefing about the capabilities of individual
production models, and she knew that Vash's unit had armor unsurpassed
by the other Evangelions. Shaking her head as the black machine
descended once again, the Angel beginning to drift away towards their
location, she turned towards the communications officer, forcing her
gaze to remain stoic and calm. "Aoba, try to establish contact with
the pilot. Do we have a location for Neil and Eiko yet?"
"Both entered the facility shortly before the Fifth Angel attacked EVA-
03," replied the officer, moving more calmly than the other two
technicians. "We've kept a link open to the entry plug - you should
still be able to talk to Vash. I don't know how responsive he'll be,
though."
Misato stepped over to the primary microphone, hardly able to blame
Vash for his silence. The size of the control room seemed to only
redouble the volume of his heavy breathing, and it did nothing to quell
Misato's growing fears about the Angel and their chances. "Vash?" she
asked, hoping that he could hear her. "It's all right. We'll get you
out of the machine, and we'll figure out a plan. You didn't do
anything wrong." She wanted very badly to say the same thing about
herself, but having watched what happened to the machine and heard Vash
scream couldn't even believe the concept.
]++[
There wasn't time to go to the lockers for changing, not even enough
time to get some kind of briefing from Misato, only time to rush to the
docking area as fast as possible, clambering over the catwalks through
the massive rooms housing the Evangelions before finding EVA-03's room,
Eiko and Neil watching as the black monstrosity was slid back into
place, restraints clamping over it as the entry plug slid out and let
the LCL spray out to the sides. Cranes brought the white cylinder down
to the catwalk, and Eiko leaned over it as Vash emerged, holding his
chest and coughing up first LCL and then blood. "Vash," she said
softly, touching his shoulders gently. "Vash."
"It's okay," he said, trying to sound as undisturbed about the
situation as possible as the doors at one end of the catwalk slid open,
medical personnel rushing in with a stretcher as Vash tried to stand.
His nose was filled with the scent of burning skin and blood, a
combination that did nothing to raise his spirits. "Just a little more
intense than I'd expected. Give me a few hours, I'll be up and running
without a problem."
"Honey, I'm sorry," Eiko replied, hugging Vash as gently as she could.
Drips of LCL fell from him onto her hair, and the liquid seeped through
the white cloth of her blouse as she held him. "I should have been
here sooner. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Honey, please, I'm sorry."
She leaned forward, kissing him gently on the lips before the medics
motioned for her to move aside, picking Vash up and putting him on the
stretcher while she watched.
Neil watched from a few feet away, Eiko kneeling on the catwalk and
watching forlornly as the stretcher was wheeled away, Vash looking
fairly confident despite the experience. On some level, Neil felt as
though he should be touched, but he only felt resentful, wishing that
he could be the one she felt that way about. Swallowing the sense of
resentment, he stepped over to Eiko, putting his hand on her shoulder
and drawing her up. "It's okay. He'll be all right. Now come on,
we've got to get in our own machines."
"Correct," announced a familiar voice, and Neil glanced around before
seeing the same skybox from EVA-01's holding back slightly to one side
of the black machine, Gendou Ikari standing inside and looking at Neil
and Eiko dispassionately. "We have ascertained the Angel's
capabilities, and Captain Katsuragi has plotted a course of action.
Both of you will put on your plugsuits and prepare for a briefing on
the plan of action. Eiko, you will pilot EVA-04."
Eiko's eyes were shut tight, and as he watched Neil could see a single
tear seep out of the corner, something that tugged at the strings of
his heart powerfully. Without even realizing it, he reached up with
one hand, wiping the tear away from the girl's face, feeling an
electric tingle across his arm as he touched her soft skin, another
tingle coming as she looked at him, her eyes filled with an expression
that he couldn't describe. She nodded, and he nodded back, smiling
slightly at her. "I'll show her down to the locker room," he
announced, shooting one last stare at Dr. Ikari before leading the girl
towards one of the catwalk's exits.
Before they'd reached the end of the walk, the facility seemed to
shudder slightly, and Neil stopped, looking towards the skybox once
again in hopes of some kind of explanation. "The Angel is drilling
into the Geo-Front," announced Dr. Ikari, sounding perfectly
unconcerned by the fact. "It extended an appendage slightly before you
arrived in this room, and it has begun to penetrate the upper levels of
armor. We have approximately an hour before it gets through the armor."
"So we're on a schedule now," muttered Neil, not having been terribly
comfortable with the situation before and certainly not pleased by the
new development. Then he felt Eiko squeeze his upper arm, though he
couldn't be sure if it was out of fear or sympathy. Either way, it
made him less afraid, and he smiled at her before continuing their path
from before, his steps falling faster now.
]++[
The plan, as it had been described by Dr. Fuyutsuki, seemed simple
enough. After Vash's disastrous encounter with the Angel's attack
capabilities, it was decided that an indirect attack was required, and
Misato had suggested the use of a long-range weapon to penetrate the
Angel's AT Field and destroy it. NERV, apparently, didn't possess
anything up to the job, but after a few quick phone calls they'd
obtained a prototype photon weapon from the JSSDF and adapted it for
use by the Evangelions. Neil got the distinct impression that the
Japanese government was not happy about having to hand over the weapon,
but he also got the impression that they didn't have much say in the
matter. Combined with a makeshift shield that Ritsuko had gotten
assembled, Neil was to shoot the Angel with the rifle while Eiko
shielded him from any retaliatory strikes.
It was simple, but risky, and as Neil sat in the soft grass near the
entry plug, the plugsuit managing to keep him surprisingly warm, he
could only think about the chances of the plan actually succeeding.
Between the time it had taken to deploy the Evas, to move the photon
rifle, to prepare the pilots for remote insertion into the machines,
and to hook the rifle into the Tokyo-3 power grid so that it could
actually fire, there were only ten minutes left, and Eiko and Neil had
been told that it would take a few minutes before everything was truly
ready. "I'll have one shot, two if I'm lucky," he muttered. "This is
going to be impossible."
Feeling a touch on his shoulder, he looked back, expecting to see
Misato and being suitably surprised to find Eiko standing over him.
Her plugsuit looked different than his, less armored and almost
entirely silver to match her Eva, with the arms along with a few bits
of highlighting here and there a bright red. It looked far more like a
wetsuit than his did, aside from the two bits that looked almost like
headlights just below her ribs and the high collar. What attracted his
attention first, however, were the thin wire-framed glasses she wore.
"I didn't know you wore glasses," he said, wanting to talk about
anything besides the obvious.
"Most of the time, I wear contacts," she replied, sitting in the grass
next to Neil. He was trying his best not to notice her figure, knowing
that he let his thoughts drift in that direction that the plugsuit
would do nothing to hide it, but in the skintight garment she wore it
was severely difficult. "Misato told me that they'll get me ones I can
wear inside the Eva, but until then I'm wearing my glasses. My
contacts would just float off, since they flood the cockpit, and all."
"Yeah. Flushing your eyes." He glanced towards the two silent
machines for a second, watching as the technicians scrambled to ready
the entry plugs. "Eiko? I've got to be honest, here... I'm scared,
too. This is a hit-or-miss operation, and..." He paused, struggling
for the words despite himself. "You've seen my track record in EVA-
01. Screwing up at the beginning is the way that I operate."
A shout from the raised platform where the entry plugs lay told both
Neil and Eiko that it was time to begin the operation, and both stood,
walking towards the platform as swiftly as possible without running.
"It's my turn to reassure you, then," she shouted as she climbed into
EVA-04's plug, Neil stepping gingerly into his own cockpit. "I'll
watch over you. Just do your best, and I'll take care of everything
else."
The words seemed to echo in Neil's head even before Eiko had finished
saying them, and as the top of the entry plug slammed down he gripped
the handles of the cockpit firmly, determined to perform the operation
correctly. He felt the plug lurch into the air before being lowered
into the machine, and for the first time he barely even noticed the LCL
flooding the chamber, simply waiting until the unit was active and
taking his position, lying on the ground with the rifle in his hands,
targeting systems circling around the Angel as the Eva's fingers
wrapped around the rifle's trigger. In front of him, he could see the
silver Eva that Eiko was piloting grasp a massive shield, holding it at
just the right angle so that Neil could still get a clear shot at the
Angel. "We've got five minutes left, guys," announced Misato's voice.
"You've got to make this count."
"Don't miss. I've got it." Neil closed his eyes for a second, then
gently nudged the rifle to the right, watching as the target crosshairs
centered themselves around the Angel. The lower right-hand corner of
his display popped open a window to keep him up to date about how much
time he had left, but he forced himself to ignore it, watching
carefully for the instant that the crosshairs lined themselves up and
then pulling the trigger. The sudden sense of firing was liberating,
and for a moment he could see the beam streaking towards its target,
the blast a perfect shot through the center.
That was an instant before a spot of light flashed on the Angel's
surface, and a beam struck out directly in the opposite direction from
the blast of the photon rifle, sending Neil's beam off into the hills
harmlessly and slamming hard into the shield that EVA-04 wielded.
"SHIT!" shouted Neil, losing his control for a moment as he watched the
world around him explode in a spray of red energy. "This is EVA-01.
The Angel managed to deflect the shot. How soon can I fire again?"
It was a moment before any response came from Central Dogma, and Neil
could see the shield that Eiko was wielding didn't hold up as well as
NERV's staff had hoped, the Angel's beam obviously damaging it before
the beam subsided. "You can fire again in ten seconds," announced
Misato, sounding quite pleased with herself. "It'll take the Angel
another twenty seconds by out calculations, so you should -"
"-No-!" shouted Eiko, her Eva lurching into action. Before, it had
stood beside the prone EVA-01, holding the shield to one side to act as
a barrier. Now it stepped over the rifle, standing with its legs wide
enough to straddle the weapon, the shield held close against its body.
"If we try to fire like that again, it'll just deflect the shot again,
and I doubt we've got the time for a third shot. We've got to wait
until it takes a shot at us, and then fire at it before it can react."
"Eiko, that's suicide!" shouted Neil, slamming his fists against the
sides of the cockpit. He could see the targeting crosshairs lining
themselves up, but he resisted the urge to fire, suspecting that Eiko
was right about the Angel being able to stop them. "That shield
couldn't possibly last against another shot, and once it goes, you'll
be -"
"Protecting you," replied Eiko firmly, her eyes focused on the thin
point of light she could see on the Angel's surface. She felt
adrenaline rushing through her body, a terror like she'd never
experienced before, but tempered at the same time by the certainty that
she'd make it through. "Neil, don't fight me on this. I know that you
won't let me down now, that you'll make the shot and destroy the
Angel." She shoved EVA-04's heels into the ground, bracing herself.
"Go for it."
The blast hit with the force of a hurricane, and the silvery Evangelion
couldn't help but slide backwards slightly with the power of the
blast. Neil cursed as he focused on the targeting crosshairs once
again, thrown off their target by the sheer force of the impact. He
tried to move the rifle closer to the target's center, but the cone of
light exploding against the shield was too intense, all but blinding
him as he focused on the crosshairs. Above him, Eiko felt the shield
melting away, and gritting her teeth she released it, letting it fly
away as she crossed her arms across her chest and focused all of her
energies on remaining stationary.
When she'd been greeted by the agents, she was informed that EVA-04 had
reflective armor, that it would cut down on the impact of any such
energy attack. The fact was small consolation as the sheer force felt
as though it seared away her flesh, and she couldn't help but scream,
gripping the handles of the cockpit until her knuckles turned white as
the Angel seemed to drive a knife straight through to her bones. The
sudden, pained scream was all Neil needed to hear, and he closed his
eyes, focusing on the weapon for just a second, turning it slightly to
one side, and pulling the trigger.
Below, every voice inside of the command center went silent, the main
display showing the blue-white bolt of energy streaking towards the
Angel even as the rumbling above Central Dogma grew louder. Misato
found her lips beginning to move in a prayer half a second before the
beam burst through the Angel's AT field and then through the Angel
itself, the Angel's attack suddenly dissipating as the tip of its drill
broke through the ceiling of the Geo-Front. There was a moment that
time stood still, and then the Angel began to fall, the monitors of its
condition all showing that it was dead. "Eject EVA-04's entry plug
immediately," announced Misato, knowing that the machine had to be
causing its pilot severe pain.
"EVA-01, eject!" shouted Neil, watching as Eiko's machine tumbled to
the ground in front of him. He could only see it for a second, then
suddenly the view went blank and he felt the entire entry plug lurching
upwards with a speed that he'd never experienced before, and the thing
rotated madly as it flew into the air, the LCL spraying out with a loud
noise as he felt the plug fall back towards the ground. It hit with a
thump, and without hesitation he kicked the top of the plug open,
jumping out as Eiko's plug skidded to a halt from the back of her
machine.
Grabbing the handholds for the manual opening, Neil pulled hard for a
moment, then suddenly felt a spray of hot LCL directly in his face, a
disgusting sensation under any circumstances. Forcing it out of his
mind, he climbed into the plug, worried that he'd find Eiko dead
inside. She lay in her chair, body limp and eyes closed, but her chest
was slowly heaving up and down, breathing regularly. "Thank God," he
muttered, stepping over to the pilot's chair along the curved surface
of the plug, hoisting himself up next to her. "Eiko? Eiko?"
"Mm." The girl's eyelashes fluttered for a second before her eyes
actually opened and stared up at Neil, a pain filling them even as they
looked hopeful. "You... got it, right?" He nodded, words escaping him
as she coughed up a mouthful of LCL. "I... I'm glad. I knew that you
would get it in time. I knew -"
Neil knew, on some level, that it was the wrong thing to do, but he
couldn't keep himself from grabbing Eiko and holding her tightly,
embracing her even as he felt his eyes begin to water. "Don't do that
again," he whispered, unsure of what he was feeling, whether he was
crying from fear of failure, fear of her near-death, fear of the
machines, or even just to remind himself that he could cry. The tumult
of emotions inside simply wouldn't give him the moment's respite that
he needed to sort himself out. "Please, don't put yourself at risk
like that."
"All right," replied Eiko, returning the embrace. Neil felt his cheeks
flush as his body acknowledged the attractive woman in a skintight
outfit hugging him, but if she noticed she didn't say anything. They
needed no more words for a time, and both lay in the embrace until the
technicians came to check on them, their Evangelions silent without
their pilots, both pilots answering to the most basic need of human
contact.
]++[
Outro: Neon Epoch Evangelion is based off of -Shin Seiki Evangelion- by
GAINAX and company. It is not intended to be a straightforward fanfic,
but it is building off the work of others, and as such it is done with
the utmost respect for the original works and their authors.
Basically, even though this is an original work, it's based off the
work of others, and if you read this, you should go to see the original.
Special thanks to all of the real Children - you know who you are.
Extra special thanks to Joe Augulis for his consultation on the
Japanese portions of the story. He might not know much Japanese, but
that's more than I know.
Copyright 2002 Eliot Lefebvre.
NEXT EPISODE:
A voyage across dangerous waters.
An encounter of momentous implications.
Hearts with perilous secrets.
NEON EPOCH EVANGELION 5: LEVIATHAN
"You might as well have asked me to turn back the tide."
]++[
We only have a little time in our lives to waste. Make the most of it.
Electronic Transcendence Productions:
Producer of, um, stuff for an unspecified time-period.
Rants:
presents
]+ NEON EPOCH +[
]+ E V A N G E L I O N +[
]+ EPISODE 4: LOVERS UNAWARE +[
By Eliot "Lostfactor" Lefebvre
Based off of "Shin Seiki Evangelion" by GAINAX
]++[
The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
- JEREMIAH 17:9
]++[
Misato leaned against the wall, staring out of the hallway into the
den. Neil wasn't saying anything, simply staring at the screen,
watching one of his various movies, the sound low enough to keep Misato
from catching most of the dialogue. He hadn't said a word to her since
they'd left Central Dogma earlier, eating his dinner and silence and
going straight to the den. It worried her, especially because she had
a fairly good idea of why he wasn't speaking to her in the first
place. "Neil," she said, receiving no proof that he was listening.
"You're going to have to talk to me eventually."
"I know that," he replied, slumping forward on the green felt couch.
When Neil had first come to the apartment, he'd liked the way that the
orange-yellow of the walls combined with the couch's tones. Now, they
seemed vile to him, almost as though they were closing in. "But I
don't want it to be now." He grabbed the remote off the couch seat
next to him, turning the volume up noticably before tossing the remote
back down decisively.
Frowning, Misato walked over to the couch, turning the volume down as
she sat next to Neil. His eyes remained fixed on the television atop
its stand, an anger still visible in his gaze. Swallowing hard, she
forced herself to remain calm, making her voice as soothing as she
could. "Neil, if I hadn't sent Ryo up, you would have been killed.
There was a good chance that you would both have been killed if I'd let
you keep going with EVA-01. I know that it seems cruel, but we had no
choice but to -"
Neil's gaze hardened once more, his eyes narrowing further as he
crossed his arms across his chest. "I know that, too," he muttered,
suddenly sounding less angry at Misato and angrier with himself.
"There weren't any other options. But..." He sighed, grabbing the
remote and clicking off the movie, as if it were making him feel even
worse. "It doesn't feel fair, Misato. Ryo's the better trained
between us. I'm not suited to being a pilot, not really able to hold
my own."
"These things happen, Neil," she offered, reaching over and squeezing
his shoulder. Neil felt his cheeks flush, something that made Misato
smile slightly, a fact that only intensified his blushing. "You're
only sixteen, like you said in the car. Nobody expects you to be
perfect at this just yet. Besides, you just disobeyed orders to save a
teammate, and it worked out all right in the end, didn't it?" She
smiled, and he managed to smile weakly back at her. "There you go.
Nobody blames you."
"I blame me," he replied, the smile turning somewhat bitter as he
picked up the remote and clicked the movie on again, rewinding for a
moment to get back into the film. Misato watched him for a moment,
thinking on the one piece of news that she'd neglected to give him,
trying to figure out if it was a good time. Noticing the stare, Neil
glanced back towards the woman, eyebrows cocked. "What? Is something
wrong?"
Misato shook her head, sighing. "No, there's just something I should
have told you." Standing, she stretched, almost wishing that she was
wearing her uniform instead of her tank top and shorts - it would have
helped Neil to take her more seriously, at least in her mind. Closing
her eyes for a second, she turned towards him, unconsciously crossing
her arms across her chest. "Neil, EVA-03 and 04 are on their way to
NERV from our facility in America. The Fourth and Fifth Children are
being recruited to pilot them."
"Hopefully it's not like the recruitment I had," replied Neil, sounding
a little bitter but still focusing his attention on the movie. Misato
took a deep breath, feeling a little relieved - the biggest part, as
far as she knew, was out of the bag. He sighed, then paused the movie
and looked up at her, his interest apparently sparked. "So, who are
they? Where are they from?"
"Japan. They're native." She sighed, sitting back down next to Neil.
"We've actually known who they were for a while, but we've concealed
their identities for a while since they haven't been a part of the
project." Smiling, she hit the play button herself, letting the movie
start rolling once again. "You probably haven't met them - Koji Nekasa
and Eiko Suzuhara."
The last name didn't ring a bell, but Neil immediately recognized the
second name, and he could draw the obvious conclusion for himself.
"Koji Nekasa?" he asked, feeling something that he couldn't quite
identify bubbling under his skin, shutting his eyes tightly. "He lives
in the area, doesn't he? Stands a bit shorter than me, has blonde hair
and blue eyes?" Blinking, Misato nodded, not quite understanding where
the questions were going. "I've met him, then. He prefers to be
called 'Vash.' I met him the day after I got out of the hospital."
"You don't mean...?" Misato stared at Neil, having some idea of who he
was referring to but not wanting believe in the odd synchronicity of
the event. "His brother? Was it his brother that you put in the
hospital during -"
"No. It was Eiko's brother." He was breathing heavily, eyes closed
tightly and anger beginning to come to the top of his emotions. "He
hit me, hard. As though I'd done it intentionally. And I..." His
eyes tightened, then snapped open, glaring at Misato with an intensity
that she hadn't seen before. "You can't let them be pilots! Eiko
doesn't deserve that kind of pain, and Vash isn't qualified to pilot
the machine!"
Misato was taken aback for a moment, not expecting such a strong
response from Neil, but she reasserted herself a second later, staring
back at him harshly. "Neil, this isn't a question," she said, trying
to sound firm without sounding angry. "We don't have any control over
who can and can't pilot the Evas, and we need all of the Children to be
able to assist us during crisis situations."
His anger visibly intensifying, Neil almost threw himself to his feet,
glaring at Misato, hands clenching into fists. "Vash doesn't have the
first clue about piloting an Eva! He'll just be a burden!" He stopped
for a second, taking a deep breath and visibly trying to restrain
himself. "I'll do better. I won't make another mistake like I did
before. So you don't need to bring in the other Children."
"It isn't because of your performance," replied Misato, shaking her
head as Neil seemed to briefly calm down slightly. The statement made
her feel a little uneasy, simply because she harbored her own
suspicions that EVA-01's performance during the battle against the
Third Angel had something to do with the sudden centralization of all
the Evangelions. A silence settled in the air for a moment, Misato
picking up the remote and clicking off the movie once again. "While I
appreciate your feelings on the subject -"
"Don't you understand? These are facts!" Neil's anger resurfaced
almost immediately, his eyes flashing under the light of the living
room lamp. "Vash is only concerned about himself, about his friends
and his situation! The first time he gets hurt in the Eva, the first
time things don't go entirely right, he'll be off for the hills. And
Eiko..." He stopped, and Misato could swear that she saw a drop of
water fall from his left eye. "I'm asking you, Misato, as one of the
pilots, please, don't do this."
"This isn't up for discussion, Neil!" Misato snapped, getting angry
despite her best efforts. Somewhere inside her, she was vaguely aware
of the fact that she agreed with Neil, but she pushed that feeling
underneath, knowing that it wouldn't get her anywhere. "They're
already going to be contacted and brought into the project. Whether
you approve or not, it's going to happen."
Neil stared at Misato, his face twisted into an angry expression that
she couldn't remember ever seeing before. "What gives you the right?"
he asked, voice quiet but still obviously angry. "What gives you the
right to just tear people away from their lives, to make them get
inside of..." He looked away, shutting his eyes tightly. "Misato,
don't do it. They don't need to come to NERV."
"It's already done," replied Misato, no longer truly angry but keeping
her voice firm. "I understand that you might have personal issues with
Vash, but there's nothing that can be done about it. You're just going
to have to learn to live with it." She looked away, feeling terrible
about the words coming out of her mouth. "The need gives us the
right. You're the only people that can do it."
An uneasy silence hung in the air for a moment, Neil staring at Misato
and Misato hiding her head from him. Then his face grew angrier, brow
furrowed as far as the skin would allow. "Don't you have any kind of
conscience?" he shouted, whirling on his heel and stomping off to his
room. Misato didn't follow him, listening as the door slammed shut
down the hall and sighing heavily.
]++[
Eiko felt anxious, but didn't say a word, something that would have
surprised most of her friends if they'd known it. She'd never been
someone to hide her emotions, especially something like anxiety, but
now she found herself feeling uncomfortable simply by feeling it,
knowing that she shouldn't be feeling anything but normal and knowing
that her friends would be upset if she said anything. So she kept
silent, but as she walked across the lawn towards school, she couldn't
help but keep her eyes peeled for Ryo, knowing that he wouldn't be
difficult to spot if he was in the area.
"Hello? Earth to Eiko?" The voice startled her, and she had to glance
back and forth for a second before realizing that Hikari had been the
one speaking, standing to her left. She looked towards her friend and
smiled sheepishly, trying to hide her embarassment. Hikari had stopped
walking, folding her arms across her chest as if awaiting an answer.
Eiko's grin widened, and Hikari cocked her head to one side, her brown
hair's twin ponytails swinging with it and her blue eyes staring at
Eiko from above her freckled cheeks. "Is something wrong, Eiko?
You've been acting totally out of it for the past couple days."
"Feh, she's just worried about finally losing me to some other woman,"
Vash interjected, poking his head between the two women and smiling at
both of them for a second, his thin-framed sunglasses perched on his
nose. "With my dashing good looks and sparkling personality, I can
hardly blame her." He smiled broadly, then noticed that Eiko, Hikari,
and Kensuke were all staring at him, at which point his smile slowly
shrank to nothing. "Or maybe not."
Shaking her head, Eiko smiled at Vash, leaning over and giving him a
quick peck on the cheek as a sort of consolation prize. He smiled back
at her warmly, and for a brief moment Eiko's anxiety seemed to lift
away. Then she noticed two men moving towards her out of the corner of
her eye, and she turned her head, studying them in confusion. They
were dressed in black business suits, both wearing dark sunglasses and
with slicked-back hair. At first, she thought that they might simply
be heading in her general direction, but as they walked past the school
she knew they were heading towards her.
"Wait - I recognize those guys," noted Kensuke, adjusting his glasses
slightly as they walked closer. "Those are intelligence officers from
NERV. Probably here for Ayanami about something." Kensuke glanced
back at his friends, noticing that they were all staring at him out of
curiosity. "I find out a lot of stuff on the Internet. It's a
military buff's heaven."
As the agents continued walking towards her, Eiko felt her pulse
quicken for a moment, a fear rising within her that she'd gotten Ryo in
trouble because of the sketch. She gritted her teeth, glancing up
towards Vash, who put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently.
The agents seemed to take no notice, stepping up to the four students
and standing for a moment. "Are you Koji Nekasa?" one asked after a
moment, ignoring Eiko entirely and staring at her boyfriend.
"Yeah," replied Vash, squeezing Eiko's shoulder again in a way that
made her wonder if he was nervous about something. Then she remembered
the day he'd met Neil, and another rush of panic went through her body,
wondering if NERV or even Neil would send out agents as a result. "Is
something the matter?"
Neither agent paid attention to Vash's question, turning their gazes
towards Eiko. "And you are Eiko Suzuhara, correct?"
"I am," she replied, unsure of whether to be terrified, honored, or
embarassed. It was one of the few times that she could remember being
truly without words, something that did absolutely nothing to make her
feel any less anxious. Gritting her teeth, she stepped forward
slightly, putting her own hand over Vash's on her shoulder and trying
not to look intimidated. "Listen, I don't know what we did to deserve
this, but -"
"This is just about your birth, not your actions," noted one of the
agents, the statement thoroughly confusing Eiko and Vash. They both
reached into their pockets, pulling out small red plastic cards with
pictures of the Eiko and Vash on the left side and a recognizable logo
in white on the right side. "NERV wishes to welcome both of you as
pilots of the Evangelions."
]++[
It was hard not to hear Misato as she got ready to go in to work for
the day, but Neil did his best to shut the sounds out, focusing instead
on the mournful notes wafting from his CD player, basking in the music
as he laid back with closed eyes. He wasn't really mad at Misato, or
at least not like he had been the night before, but he still didn't
feel up to talking with her, both out of embarassment and because he
wasn't very happy with himself, either. It was a sensation he was
growing accustomed to, but that didn't make it any more tolerable.
Hearing Misato sing to herself in the shower, Neil flicked the pause
button on the CD player, smiling to himself - he'd only been living at
her apartment for a short time, but he'd learned that Misato would only
sing in the shower or when drunk, and while her voice slurred horribly
when drunk, she did have an excellent sense of pitch. Besides, she
sounded different when she sang, since it was one of the few times he
heard her speak Japanese. It was worth savoring.
"Besides, I'm probably not going to be here much longer," he muttered
to himself, sighing deeply as Misato hit a particularly high note. He
knew that he had driven a wedge between them with his final harsh
words, and it seemed unlikely that she'd want to continue living with
him afterwards. Rolling from his back to his side, he thought for a
moment, feeling a prickling sensation in his body as he heard her
giggle loudly. Even if he did stay, he knew that their relationship
would be different, and he found himself unintentionally thinking about
whether or not he still had any chance with her romantically.
Less than a second after the thought popped into his head, he found
himself chuckling at it, as if his subconscious hadn't been serious
about it. Then he took a deep breath, feeling the thought come rushing
right back and making him frown at himself. It was ludicrous, to think
that a woman nearly twice his age was interested in him as anything
other than a younger brother, and merely thinking about it made him
feel like some kind of pervert. But the thought wouldn't remove itself
from his mind for a moment, and he found himself thinking about her for
a second before he shook his head, reminding himself that he had better
chances with Eiko.
Eiko. The thought of the other woman brought back his at once pleasant
and painful memories of that day, a meeting that he'd assumed would
never be repeated. For all he knew, it would never be, considering the
fact that he put her brother in the hospital because of his own
ineptitude. Still, he felt hopeful, knowing that she might feel some
sympathy for him once she'd experienced piloting the machines herself.
It wasn't easy, and perhaps actually dealing with it would make Neil's
faults seem more bearable.
Then the thought of Eiko actually piloting the things hit him full-on
once again, and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he didn't want
her to have to go through the pain that the great machines put the
pilots through. Thinking back to his first battle in EVA-01, he
recalled the horrible sensation when the Angel had blown through his
head, wondering if Eiko would have to deal with the same thing. It
felt wrong for him to inflict that on someone else, for another person
to have to deal with it. Recalling what he'd thought when he heard
Misato tell him that the Fourth and Fifth Children were arriving, he
closed his eyes more tightly, feeling like a reprehensible human
being. Even though he'd had to stay because of NERV's reliance on him,
it wasn't fair to others to make them go out because he was unwilling.
Before his thoughts could go any further, the door to his room swung
open, and he opened his eyes, turning to see Misato standing in the
door, wearing the short brown skirt, black shirt, and red jacket that
she seemed to wear every day to work. "Neil," she said flatly, her
tone utterly devoid of emotion. "Were you planning on avoiding me
again?"
"Not really. I was more planning on just not going towards you." He
smirked, realizing the stupidity of his response even before he'd said
it. "But that's the same thing, isn't it?" He sighed, sitting up and
looking towards the doorway, trying to judge Misato's emotional state
from her face but seeing that she was keeping herself calm for
precisely that reason. "Misato, I'm sorry. I said some things last
night that were far too harsh, things that you really didn't deserve.
And I -"
"Don't worry about it," she replied, her characteristic half-smirk
drawing itself across her face and finally giving Neil some idea of
what was going through her head. "We both had a lot of stress to deal
with last night, and I wasn't really fair to you either." Neil paused,
then nodded, and Misato stepped into the room, grabbing him by the
shoulder and pulling him up. "Now let's have some breakfast."
]++[
Sitting in the employee lounge a few hours after breakfast, Misato
watched over one of the surface cameras as EVA-03 and 04 were taken
down off their transports, launch ports open to bring them down to the
bays that they would be stored in. The area had been roped off by the
local police, allowing NERV all the time they needed to get both
machines down to Central Dogma. The procedure wasn't particularly
interesting, but like most of Central Dogma the lounge had been
designed with a purely utilitarian point of view, and as such was kept
a perfectly bland white all around except for the silver of parts of
the furniture. There were windows along the wall that Misato was
facing away from, but she didn't feel like watching the Geo-Front do
nothing - there were no animals to make it interesting, just plants and
the eerie almost-sunlight from the top of the chamber.
Tilting her head to one side, she studied the two new units a little
more closely, noting that they looked different from both of NERV's
Evas in subtle ways - they were mostly a solid color with slight
shading of another tone, and their heads looked far more human than
either of the original units. If she had to put a word to them, it
would be regal. As EVA-03 began to be lowered into the Geo-Front, it
occurred to her that they were completely identical except for color,
that otherwise their structure was identical. It also occurred to her
that if she was picking out minor structural details in the machines,
she was getting dangerously close to going numb from boredom.
"It's good to see you showing some interest in your position," came a
male voice, and Misato whipped her head around to the door of the
lounge, seeing Fuyutsuki standing and watching. She suppressed the
urge to blush, sitting straight up and trying to straighten her shirt
out before he held up a hand for her to stop. "Don't worry about it,"
he offered, grinning wryly, almost bitterly. "You look better than
most of the professors that I used to work with."
Unsure of what to say, Misato smiled politely, then looked back towards
the monitor hanging from the ceiling. Fuyutsuki watched, then sat down
at the table nearby, watching with her as EVA-04 began to be removed
from its restraints and loaded onto the entry port. "It's good that
they're arriving now," she noted at length, doing her best to cut the
awkward silence that had settled in the air. "With Ryo's unit out of
comission, we need all the help we can get."
"Mmm," replied Fuyutsuki, nodding sagely. "It was never designed for
combat. It was only supposed to be a test bed. Small wonder that it
didn't fare well." He sighed, shaking his head. "The damage done to
it is going to cost a huge amount to repair, and we're already over
budget because of the repairs for 01. And that's on top of the costs
for upgrading EVA-00."
"So you're making it more suited to combat," Misato stated, almost
meaning it as a question, glancing towards Fuyutsuki for some kind of
confirmation. He nodded, understanding the intent, and she turned back
towards the monitor, the tension rising again. She could tell that
there was something he wasn't telling her, and after a moment of
waiting she looked back at him. "You didn't come down here to watch
the new units be brought down."
"No," replied Fuyutsuki, shaking his head and sighing ever so
slightly. Misato had some idea of what was coming, and leaned back in
her chair, still focusing her gaze on the monitor's display on the
surface. "I suppose you probably expected some kind of questioning
about Neil."
"After he outright denied the Commander? Yes." Closing her eyes
gently, Misato was vaguely curious about whether they were going to try
and deny Neil the right to pilot the Eva anymore. It wasn't something
that she expected, especially considering that Neil was the only pilot
who'd managed to reliably dispose of the Angels, but it didn't leave
her mind as a possibility.
Fuyutsuki smiled to himself, not entirely certain of what Misato was
thinking but willing to make a guess about it. "It isn't about Neil's
defiance with the last Angel," he offered, drawing her attention back
over to him. "Commander Ikari has other plans for him. A little
disobedience is acceptable, I suppose." He paused, frustrating Misato
as he simply sat for a moment, glancing back up towards the monitor.
"It's about his rooming with you."
"What do you mean?" asked Misato, now thoroughly confused. She
remembered discussing the housing situation with the commander, and
he'd seemed almost pleased to have her volunteer. "If you're worried
about a conflict of interest, it seems rather counterproductive. My
first concern is supposed to be the safety of our pilots, isn't it?"
"You're being quite defensive today." Fuyutsuki turned his gaze from
the monitor towards Misato, and she saw that there was a sort of glint
in his eye, a sort of smug satisfaction further augmented by the grin
on his face. "We're extremely pleased with the fact that this has
worked out so well, and it's obviously strengthened the ties between
you and Neil. So Commander Ikari decided that it might be an idea
worth taking further." He paused, Misato now getting another thought
about where the discussion was going. "If I remember correctly, you
have two spare rooms in your apartment?"
Misato nodded, feeling slightly relieved by the seeming confirmation of
her new suspicions. "Building up unit cohesion, then?" she asked,
smiling to herself and looking up at the finally-descending EVA-04.
She thought back to the prior night, remembering what Neil had said
about Koji. "It could hardly make things worse."
]++[
By the time the agents had finished with Vash and Eiko, it was time for
lunch in the classroom, something that they were both eager for, if for
no other reason than to have a brief respite from the military
information that the agents had fed to them. They'd said outright that
most of the information the two children were being given wouldn't make
sense until they'd actually had a chance to pilot an Eva, but that
hadn't stopped them from going on for hours about terms that still
seemed vague even after hearing them several times. They were both
assured, however, that when they arrived at NERV headquarters after
school, they would be given their chance to pilot the machines. It
made Eiko more than a little nervous, but she said nothing.
Running to get back to class on time, both found themselves arriving at
the room faster than they'd expected, though it wasn't clear if fear or
hunger was spurring them onward. Placing his hand on the door to the
classroom, Vash stopped, then glanced back at Eiko and winked, a sure
sign to her that he was planning something. He turned the handle, then
stepped into the room and spread his arms wide, obviously pleased with
himself. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the new pilots of
the Evangelions," he announced, drawing everyone's attention
immediately. "Vash Nekasa and Eiko Suzuhara!"
Eiko caught a glimpse of Ryo out of the corner of her eye, but before
she could even take a full step towards him the rest of the class
rushed towards them, running off at the mouth with questions. Everyone
other than Ryo bunched around them, trapping them around the door, a
fact that didn't seem bother Vash in the least. She smirked to
herself, relieved to see how well he was taking the news, though
suspecting that part of his enthusiasm came from the attention he was
receiving. "Excuse me," grunted Eiko, trying to elbow her way out of
the throng. "Coming through."
"Vash, why'd they pick you?" asked one of the other students, someone
that Eiko didn't recognize but wasn't paying much attention to in the
first place. "I mean, you're kind of a goofball, and it's not like
you're that threatening..."
"That's not true!" replied Vash, blushing even as his face contorted
into a frown. He reasserted his prior demeanor swiftly, however, once
again being the serene new pilot. "Besides, it's not about combat
experience, it's about talent! Only a few people can pilot the Evas,
which makes it even better luck that I happen to be one of them!" He
smirked to himself as Eiko finally neared the outer edge of the crowd,
placing his hands firmly on his hips. "Now that I'm in NERV, I'll show
all of the slackers working there what it means to be a pilot -"
"Will you?" Ryo asked, his voice quiet as usual. Something about the
tone demanded attention, and the murmur of the other students died down
as Vash looked at Ryo. The boy remained seated for a moment, then rose
to his feet, his eyes still peering down at his notebook. "You're so
certain that the problem is we're not doing our job correctly?"
For a second, Vash seemed taken aback, simply staring at Ryo while Eiko
managed to work her way out of the crowd. More than ever, she wanted a
clear view of what was going on, especially considering the fact that
she needed to talk to Ryo. Then Vash's expression changed to one of
anger, his blue eyes flashing as they narrowed. "If you were doing
what you're supposed to, Eiko's brother wouldn't be in the hospital!"
he shouted, gesturing more in the general direction of his girlfriend
than directly towards her. "You're supposed to be defending this city,
and instead you nearly kill someone on your first mission!"
Ryo finally turned towards Vash, his expression calm enough to be
unreadable, red eyes almost seeming to look right through the other
boy. "Neil had never piloted the machine before," he stated, still in
a quiet but forceful tone. "He had no combat experience. Much like
yourself, Vash."
Eiko couldn't tell if Ryo knew his final statement would strike a
nerve, but she could tell from the swift darkening of Vash's expression
that it had succeeded anyways. "If he didn't know what he was doing,
he shouldn't have gotten in the Eva!" shouted Vash, thrusting his fist
into the nearest desk forcefully enough to produce a loud noise. "He
should have known that!"
"And who would have piloted the machine then?" asked Ryo, remaining
motionless and apparently unafraid of Vash's anger. The comment made
Vash's eyes widen, though the boy's anger seemed to remain just as
intense. "I couldn't walk, much less pilot an Evangelion. Neither of
you were part of NERV at the time. If Neil hadn't gotten in the
machine, everyone would have died."
Vash continued to glare at Ryo, while Ryo's expression remained
unchanged, simply staring back at the other Child. "Well, you won't
need Neil anymore," Vash snapped, obviously trying to keep a handle on
his anger. "Eiko and I are going to do the job better than you've been
able to."
"I see. Because you obviously know more about how it should be done."
Ryo stared at Vash for a second longer, then sat back down, turning
away from the other boy while Eiko stared at him in shock. She knew
that Vash's boasts were out of line, but she also knew that it was part
of who her boyfriend was, part of the way that he related to the world
around him. Ryo's words had been too harsh, and she suddenly wondered
if Neil would feel the same way once he knew she was a pilot, if she
wouldn't get to try and be friends with him because of it. The thought
of it made her sad, though she couldn't quite place why.
The crowd around Vash was laughing slightly at Ryo's final comment,
deepening Vash's frown as he elbowed his way towards Eiko. "Shut up,
guys," he muttered, touching Eiko's shoulder affectionately before he
walked down to his desk and slouched back in the chair, obviously no
longer so pleased about being a pilot. Eiko walked over to her desk,
sat down, then glanced over at Ryo and thought for a second about
asking him. Sighing, she looked away again, wishing that she could see
some trace of emotion on Ryo's face, so she could at least guess at
what he was thinking.
]++[
Nieve Soryu-Leary, bored, overheated, and irritated, stared over the
rail of the massive battleship, watching NERV personnel confer amongst
themselves on the docks as she pushed back a few red hairs that had
fallen to stick on her forehead. "I'll admit, I wasn't looking forward
to this to begin with," she announced loudly, glancing over her
shoulder to make sure that Kaji was listening to her. "But now I've
changed my mind. This isn't a stupid plan, this is the -worst-
possible plan."
"Your objections have been noted," replied Kaji, grinning at her.
Nieve still found the gesture attractive, but considering the
circumstances it made her feel more self-conscious than anything else.
He was leaning against the side of the ship's bridge, wearing a white
shirt with rolled sleeves and black slacks, apparently comfortable in
the heat. "Why don't you enjoy the rest and relaxation a little?
We're not likely to get much more of it."
"Ick. How can you relax in this weather?" Nieve shook her head, then
wiped the thin film of sweat off her forehead, feeling extremely
unattractive. She knew how much she was sweating, and even the thin
fabric of the light green sundress she was wearing (which, mercifully,
wasn't thin enough to show her underwear, something she'd been afraid
of) held in what seemed like enough heat to cook a chicken. Her hair
was going limp from sweating, she'd already had to run to her cabin to
put on another layer of deoderant twice, and no matter what she did it
seemed to get worse. She looked as though she didn't have any control
over her appearance at all, something that made her feel extremely
unsettled. "Can't this branch of NERV get its act together and arrive
on time?"
Almost on cue, Kaji leaned forward off of the side, staring down the
road that led to the bustling gray concrete dock. Nieve frowned in
curiousity, then followed his gaze, seeing at length what he was
looking at - a visibly huge transport rumbling towards the docks, with
something yellow and equally huge strapped to the back of the truck.
"They're moving pretty fast," he noted, walking over to Nieve's
position to get a better view. "Should be here in a few minutes."
"Good," replied Nieve, turning away from the transport. She knew that
the yellow machine on the truck was EVA-05, but she hadn't been in the
mood to wait for it for hours, and she hardly felt like watching its
final approach. "It's about time. Now we can get to Japan and get the
Angel situation under control, before the Third Child's luck runs out."
Kaji said nothing, glancing towards Nieve and making a small "hmmph"
noise that seemed halfway between amusement and exasperation. Then he
was off, heading towards the plank that led to the docks while Nieve
remained on the ship. She folded her arms, feeling resentful despite
herself and wanting to simply get moving to Japan. Kaji had given her
an explanation about why they couldn't simply airlift EVA-02 from
Ireland with a stop in America, but it seemed ludicrous to her that
facilities built to service the Evangelions couldn't accomodate one.
More likely it had something to do with politics, a suspicion that she
couldn't prove but accepted in her mind as more or less factual.
Glancing up, she saw a few smaller trucks ahead of the one carrying the
Eva were approaching ahead of it, one of which was probably carrying
the Sixth Child. Scoffing, she turned away from the docks again,
seeing if she could find a spot that was at least somewhat shielded
against the light of the sun. It had frustrated her to be so powerless
when she'd first found out about the transport method, and it had
gotten no better, to the point where it seemed to her for brief moments
that even the sun was mocking her lack of control with its heat. She
knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she could keep a handle on the
situation without the Sixth Child, and she found herself almost
involuntarily resenting the other pilot without having even met her.
"Nieve." The voice wasn't quite a shout, but it was loud enough to
draw her attention towards the plank that Kaji was walking up,
attention that was immediately refocused on the girl walking behind
him. She was taller than Nieve, but that barely registered in Nieve's
mind - she had gotten used to being shorter than almost everyone a long
time ago. Nieve did wonder how she was able to tolerate the heat in
jeans and a button-down white blouse, but the woman seemed unaffected
by the heat, long black hair waving behind her as she walked, blue eyes
glinting in the sun, her features sharp and almost edged. "They're
here."
"I can tell that," Nieve muttered, pushing away from the rail and
walking over towards the Sixth Child. Kaji and the girl walked towards
Nieve at the same time, and Nieve extended her hand to the other Child
as they met, a gesture the woman accepted. "Nieve Soryu-Leary. Second
Child. Pleased to finally meet you."
The other woman's gaze seemed harsh, almost disapproving of the
presence of someone else on board the ship. "Niobe Littmore," she said
calmly, her voice deeper than Nieve had expected but still notably
female. "Sixth Child." She paused, still holding Nieve's hand as if
unsure what to do with it. "But you should know that already,
considering your background with the project."
"Well, yes. I was being polite." She shrugged, still feeling rather
resentful of the girl simply because she'd delayed their progress.
"Daughter of Joseph and Mary Littmore, lived in Neo Cape Town for most
of your life, father worked as a bureaucrat for NERV before positive
testing came back and you were confirmed as the Sixth Child. You
entered the program three years ago, when EVA-05 was completed."
Giving a self-satisfied little grin, she let go of Niobe's hand and
turning her gaze immediately back towards Kaji. "So, does this mean
that we can get on our way to Japan?"
Kaji looked at her uncomfortably for a moment, then Niobe turned away
from Nieve and towards Kaji as well, a motion that surprised the other
girl. "Nieve is right. Every second we stay here is another second
that we're falling behind in our goals." She sighed, then stared at
Nieve somewhat resentfully. "If not for you, I would already be in
Tokyo-3."
"And if not for you, I'd be closer," replied Nieve, her gaze narrowing
slightly at the accusation. She didn't like the idea of this girl
thinking of herself as the more important one, especially considering
the fact that Nieve had been with the program for nearly twice as long
and had more experience with her Eva. Both girls glared at one another
for a moment, then Niobe's expression softened, and Nieve realized the
humor of the situation. She smirked, then looked back at Kaji. "So?
Can we leave?"
"Gods," muttered Kaji, holding his forehead and shaking his head.
"There's two of you." Sighing, he looked up at the two girls, an
expression that Nieve knew meant he was going to tell them something
they didn't want to hear. "We've still got to wait for EVA-05 to get
loaded onto the other transport, and that will probably take another
hour or so. Then we can leave." He paused, letting both girls sigh in
exasperation before continuing. "Don't worry. The ships are fast
enough to get us there within another couple days. You'll be in Tokyo-
3 before you know it."
"Not soon enough," muttered Nieve, turning her head away from Kaji as
defiantly as possible. From the corner of her eye she could see him
shaking his head again, then heading towards the plank down to the
docks once again. Nieve kept her head turned for a moment, then looked
over at Niobe, who seemed no happier with the situation than Nieve.
"At least we didn't go all the way to South Africa, right?"
"I suppose," replied Niobe, a bitter grin on her face as she turned
towards the docks, surveying the huge yellow machine on the transport
truck. It seemed patient, unconcerned with whether or not Niobe was
tired of waiting for it, simply waiting until it was needed once
again. Shaking her head, Niobe turned back towards Nieve, who'd
followed her gaze towards the Evangelion. "Would you like to get some
lunch?"
]++[
He'd marked the hill where he and Eiko had first met on his map of
Tokyo-3, and somehow it only seemed appropriate for him to go back
there, staring out over the horizon as the sun continued its descent
below the horizon. Teal shirt hanging uncomfortably over his back,
Neil sighed, dangling over the guardrail that he'd leaned on when he
first met the girl, not sure if he had come to steel himself or simply
to avoid having to deal with the reality of the situation. He would
have liked to believe that he was doing it to be symbolic, but
something inside him knew that he was afraid of going to Central Dogma,
knowing that both of them would be there.
And, he admitted silently to himself, he wanted to believe that Eiko
would be there, too. It was stupid, overly romantic, and a chance in a
million, the sort of scene that he'd seen millions of times on screen
but he knew never happened in real life. Closing his eyes, he chuckled
at his dellusions of grandeur, for once not feeling particularly bitter
about them so much as amused. Part of the reason why he enjoyed the
movies so much is because they obeyed a logic that he could understand,
that you could break down. And much to Neil's personal chagrin,
science had never provided hard and fast rules about how individuals
worked.
"Neil?" The voice was instantly recognizable, and it took Neil half a
second to realize that he wasn't just imagining Eiko's voice. Pushing
off of the rail, he glanced to one side to see her standing a few feet
away, still wearing her school uniform and smiling at him. The irony
didn't escape him, but he pushed it out of his mind, more concerned
about what she would say next. "I didn't expect to find you here."
"Ditto," Neil lied, turning fully to face her and suddenly feeling very
exposed. "I... well, I expected to see you down at Central Dogma, but
I just wanted to come up here first, with the sun going down and
everything." He paused, shifting uncomfortably on his feet and rubbing
the back of his head, wishing that he had something better to say, that
he actually was in a movie and knew all the right words. "I was afraid
you were still mad at me, and I knew that Vash would still be."
"He'll come around sooner or later," replied Eiko, shrugging and walked
across the street to her perch beneath the tree. Neil hesitated for a
moment, then she gestured for him to come over towards her, smiling.
Glancing back and forth, he walked across as she fluffed her skirt and
sat down, setting her schoolbag down to her side. "Actually, I came up
here because I didn't want to go to Central Dogma right away." She
paused, letting Neil sit down, leaning back against the tree behind her
and feeling the rouch bark against the skin of her neck. "So, when did
you find out that we were the Children? Did you know when we met?"
Suddenly feeling as though he were being accused, Neil shook his head
vigorously, eyes widened a little at the implication. "I wasn't told
until last night," he replied, more firmly than he'd planned but still
conveying the message. "Misato let me know - she didn't think that I
knew you." He paused, easing himself a little closer to her. "I'm
assuming that they didn't let you know until this morning, or I would
have seen you before."
Eiko nodded, letting her hands touch the grass, the soft give of the
ground tempered by the thin sharpness of the blades. For some reason
it suddenly felt as though every sensation was keener, more important,
something she had to experience anew and remember. "They told us on
our way to school," she replied, watching as the light glanced off the
buildings of Tokyo-3, admiring the way that it seemed to put on a
spectacle for the whole city without realizing it. "Neil? Can I tell
you something?"
Neil looked at the girl sitting next to him, admiring her for just a
second, the way that her hair fell around her pale face, the way that
her eyes reflected the light from the sun, the way that her face
curved. One part of him felt disgusted with himself for studying her,
knowing that he couldn't have her, but he was unable to help it, caught
up in the unspeakable sadness that seemed to be hanging over her.
"What is it?"
"I'm scared, Neil," she replied, her eyes still focusing on the
gleaming light of Tokyo-3. "I'm really afraid of piloting those
things. Not just because of what happened to Toji, but because..."
She sighed, turning her head away from Neil, almost as if she were
ashamed. "Because I don't want to get hurt." Closing her eyes, she
laughed bitterly. "Selfish, isn't it? You're putting your life in
danger every day, and now that I'm supposed to share the burden I don't
want to do the same."
"Hey, don't say that," Neil replied, putting his hand on Eiko's
shoulder before his mind had even registered the fact that he very much
wanted to touch her. A slight flush rose to his cheeks, but he ignored
it, knowing that it would fade by the time she looked back at him.
"It's not something that anybody wants to deal with. Heck, when I got
here, I was expecting to be put into a school program. If I'd known
what I was getting into..." He paused, stopping to think about the
implications of the statement. "Well, I probably still would have
come, all told."
"You're brave," she said, her voice no longer sounding angry but
impressed. Looking back towards him, she smiled, feeling touched by
the fact that he hadn't outright told her she was being cowardly.
"Vash would probably laugh at me, tell me that we wouldn't have
anything to worry about." The though made her laugh involuntarily,
remembering how he'd pranced about in class before Ryo had spoken up.
"He's not a bad person, Neil. I know that you -"
Shaking his head, Neil held up his free hand, and Eiko stopped talking,
feeling that she owed him that much. "I don't think he's a horrible
person. If anything, I'm more angry at -" Pausing, Neil shook his
head again, somehow feeling uncomfortable telling Eiko how he'd felt
the night afterwards. He thought that it was because of his thoughts
about her, but something within him knew that wasn't it. "It's not
important. The point is that I'm not really that brave."
It was Eiko's turn to shake her head, barely believing the words that
she heard coming from Neil's mouth. "You've got to be kidding me," she
replied, almost laughing but restraining herself. "Staying in a
foreign country, changing your entire life, all to put yourself in
danger? That's bravery, at least by everyone else's definition." She
turned towards the city once again, leaning back against the tree's
rough surface. "You're a strange boy sometimes, you know that?"
"This isn't the first time it's come up," replied Neil, recalling
Misato saying similar words to him the first night he'd been out of the
hospital. Removing his hand reluctantly from her shoulder, he edged
closer to Eiko, pulling his knees up to his chest and looking at her
intently. "Look, I'm not going to lie to you - piloting those things
isn't fun, and it's not that safe. NERV would probably tell you
otherwise, but - well, you've been around for both of my performances
in EVA-01." Eiko nodded. "I wouldn't blame you for not wanting to
pilot them, even for not piloting them."
Neil's voice trailed off, and for a second he wondered if the world was
working cinematically enough that Eiko would move in to kiss him, if he
could really be that lucky. She did no such thing, however, looking at
him for a moment before turning her gaze back towards the city. "It
sounded like there was a 'but' coming," she said softly, a tone in her
voice that Neil couldn't quite place.
"But..." He trailed off again, still unsure of whether or not he
wanted Eiko to pilot the Evas or not. Try though he might, he couldn't
think of anything good to say for or against it, then he gritted his
teeth and said the first thing that sprang to his mind. "But if you
pilot one of the machines, I'll protect you." His cheeks flushed the
instant he said it, but she was looking at him now, and he knew that he
couldn't just stop talking. "We'll be on the same team, right? So
we'll back each other up. I'll keep you safe as best I can, and you'll
keep me safe. So it's not so frightening after all."
Eiko stared at Neil as if she were considering the implications of his
words, then she smiled and nodded, relaxing the stress on Neil a
little. "Thank you," she said, putting her hand on his and giving it a
small squeeze. Neil forced himself not to blush again, although he
felt the unmistakable urge to. "I would have talked to Vash about it,
but... well, I thought he would think I was being silly. And I knew
that you knew more about being a pilot."
It took a great deal of restraint on Neil's part not to say what he was
thinking, and he forced himself to remember that Eiko was touching his
hand and he wouldn't be thinking entirely clearly. He wanted to tell
her to leave Vash, that he knew he would be better for her, that she
was incredibly beautiful. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew
that was what he would say in a movie, and the thought made him wonder
if he wanted to say it because it was true or because he felt obligated
by the situation to say it. "Don't worry about it," he replied, simply
smiling and cocking his head slightly to one side. "I'm glad I could
help."
Opening her mouth to speak again, Eiko was cut short as a blaring alarm
filled the air, a noise that Neil had only heard once before but
wouldn't have forgotten no matter what. "The Angel alarm," he said,
rising to his feet and looking around. Eiko hesitated for a moment,
then gritted her teeth and stood along with him, trying to follow his
gaze enough to find the cause. "They might have detected it before it
got close enough to the city to -"
"There," Eiko gasped, watching the horizon as the sun slowly sank
beneath it. Neil followed her gaze, watching the sun for a moment
before he realized that something was blocking his sight. Moving his
eyes towards the obstruction, he realized that it was a gigantic
octohedron, as if two pyramids had been glued together at their bases,
floating slowly out of the hills towards Tokyo-3. For a moment, he
wondered if it might be some kind of defense system that NERV hadn't
deployed before, then he saw the aerodrones flying towards the thing
and exploding as they hit the unmistakable AT field.
"Welcome to the monkey house," muttered Neil, hoping that NERV had some
kind of contingency plan until he and Eiko arrived at Central Dogma.
Grabbing her wrist, he tugged gently on it, and she began following
him, both of them first jogging and then running down the hill. Neil
surveyed the slope on the other side rail, then decided that he didn't
want to pull the same stunt he'd tried on his first day with a sheer
drop. "This way," he decided, pointing to his left as he started
jogging, Eiko following shortly after as the Angel slowly approached
the city.
]++[
"I wonder what's going on in Tokyo-3 right now," muttered Nieve, lying
on her back in a reclining chair in the shade. She'd finally given up
the dress entirely and changed into her swimsuit, a low-backed black
purple one that she'd tied an absolutely transparent sort of beach
skirt around. It was still warmer than she would have liked, but it
was at tolerable levels, even though she felt horribly exposed out of
her dress, especially with Niobe sitting nearby still wearing more
casual dress. "Hopefully not -another- Angel."
"At the speed we're going, they'll all be destroyed by the time that we
get there," muttered Niobe in agreement. Nieve was curious about
Niobe's eagerness to get to the city, but she didn't say anything, too
concerned about the thought of not being there to really think much on
other details. "It's because your facility was built so far away from
all the others, you know. If they'd built the European branch in
Germany like they'd originally planned, then we both would be there by
now."
Nieve let out an indignant squawk, sitting up like a shot. "Pardon me
for not being born in Germany, Miss Littmore, but the European facility
was built because that's where my father was and that's where my mother
was. It would have been silly to build in an entirely different
country." She leaned back, ignoring the retaliatory stare from Niobe.
"Besides, I would probably be there by now if we didn't have to pick up
your machine along the way."
Both girls remained silent for a second, staring at each other before
letting their mouths curl into smiles. "You're surprising, Nieve,"
muttered Niobe, turning her gaze out towards the sea. She'd been on
large freighters before, but it was always a rare occurence, and never
for so long a time. In some ways, it was a little frightening, but in
other aspects it made her somewhat invigorated. "Not at all like what
I'd expected."
Scoffing, Nieve propped herself up on her elbows, smirking at the other
girl. "What?" she asked, trying to make her speech sound as accented
as possible. "Did you expect me to down a pint, curse, swear upon the
name of God, Jesus Christ, and the Saints, then dance a jig?" Niobe
giggled in response, and it made Nieve feel a little better,
considering how dour the other girl seemed to be. "For what it's
worth, I expected you to be squatting in the bush rubbing paint onto
yourself and crying out that the ships were demons."
"Fine, fine, point made," replied Niobe, still giggling slightly but
feeling slightly stung by Nieve's comment. Though she recognized that
the statement was being made ironically, she had felt very isolated as
she'd boarded the ship, driving up amongst the the mass numbers of NERV
personnel made up almost uniformly of caucasians and oriental
individuals. "I didn't mean to imply that, I just... well, I know your
background with Project Eva. I would think you'd be comfortable
waiting."
"Waiting for what my entire life has led up to? Not likely. I want to
get out there and get a move on with this already." She leaned back
once again, staring up at the overhang from the deck that shielded her
from the bright sun. "Besides, I've read the reports about the Third
Angel's attack, and I heard some of the radio chatter about the
Fourth. The Third Child might be lucky, but he hasn't spent his life
preparing for this." Glancing towards Niobe, she gave a smug grin. "I
have."
"You're not the only one," replied Niobe, sounding a little resentful.
Nieve leaned forward again, trying to get a better look at the other
girl's face, but her face was angled so that Nieve could only see her
profile silhouetted against the light of the sun, not enough to make
out an expression. "You might have been in testing for three years
before I was, but I've been training my entire life to be the best at
everything I do." Niobe turned her head and smiled at Nieve, but the
smile wasn't exactly a friendly one. "So don't think you're alone in
having the initiative."
Nieve frowned slightly, not having expected such a reaction from
Niobe. It was common knowledge that she'd been in NERV longer than any
of the other Children, and she'd certainly been training with her
Evangelion longer than any of the others. She'd assumed that her
seniority would give her some kind of clout with the other Children,
but she was beginning to wonder if the others might also prevent her
from maintaining control over the situation. "Well, then," she
replied, mirroring Niobe's smile. "We'll just have to make sure that
we both do our best, won't we?"
"Sounds about right to me," replied Niobe, leaning towards the red-
haired girl with her hand extended. Nieve took her hand and shook it,
the grip between them exchanging all the information either of them
needed to know. In the back of her mind, Niobe found herself wondering
if perhaps she was wrong, if Nieve might turn out to be the better
pilot of the two of them despite her best efforts. "We'll be the best
together."
]++[
"Fifth Angel 'Ramiel' is approaching a position directly above Central
Dogma," announced Makoto, fingers dancing across the keyboard as the
monitor displayed the strangely-shaped Angel's approach. The alert had
sounded some time prior, but as the sun set the Angel still had made no
motion to attack, causing Misato to wonder if perhaps it had another
destination in mind. "There's no mistaking its route. It'll be
overhead in a few moments."
Misato sighed, worried about where both Neil and Eiko were. They
should have headed straight to NERV when the alert had sounded,
although she wasn't sure if they'd run into problems along their way.
The thought of an aerodrone crashing down on them occurred to her, and
she shook her head, trying to push the terrible concept out of her
mind. "We can't wait any longer," muttered Misato, more to herself
than to anyone in the control area. "Maya, what's the status on EVA-
03?"
"Unit 03 fully secured, all equipment checked out," replied Maya, her
monitor still displaying a flat line for the unit's synchronization
gauge. Vash had been put into Unit 03 on standby when the alert had
sounded, but Misato had been reluctant to deploy him alone, especially
considering the fact that he didn't have any combat experience. "We'd
need to flood the cockpit and begin synchronization before we could
deploy the unit, however. Estimated time if we begin now is one
minute."
"All right." She took a deep breath, then motioned to the
communications officer to open a channel with the cockpit of EVA-03.
"Vash?" she asked, still feeling a little uneasy about the reliability
of the production-model units. Academically, she'd been informed by
Ritsuko that they were designed to be more functional than 00 and 01
and knew that to be the truth, but she wasn't used to working with
them, and had learned from prior tests that an Eva couldn't be counted
on until it had been activated at least once. "Can you hear me?"
Sitting in the cockpit of the machine, half-admiring the purple
plugsuit with its black chestpiece, Vash almost didn't realize that
Misato was speaking to him until she'd fallen silent, and which point
he sat back in the cockpit correctly, gripping the metal handles on
either side. "Loud and clear," he replied, nodding to nobody. "What
about Eiko? Is she inside her Eva yet?"
The response was a bit delayed, giving Vash all the answer he needed
without Misato having to speak a word. "Damn it, where -is- she?" he
muttered, thumping his hand idly against the side of the cockpit.
"I've been down here training, and she's off doing God knows what." He
shook his head, feeling betrayed despite himself. Though he would have
liked to say that he wasn't a jealous person by nature, the thought
that both Neil and Eiko were missing made it dangerously easy for his
mind to draw the connection, and he was beginning to feel very much
alone.
"Don't worry. I'm sure she and Neil will be here soon." Misato
paused, glancing towards the main screen, wishing that the Angel would
stop or that Neil would arrive before she had to send Vash out. She
shut her eyes, then turned back towards the primary microphone. "We're
going to send you out to engage the Angel on the surface. We don't
have much information on its capabilities at the moment, so you're
going to be flying blind for a little while. Are you ready?"
"Of course," replied Vash, drumming his fingers eagerly against the
metal handrests, eagerly awaiting the activation that he'd heard
about. "What happens now? You flood the chamber with some kind of
liquid, right? The agents told us a lot about the machines this
morning, so I -"
"It's called LCL," replied Misato, motioning for Maya to begin flooding
the cockpit. She briefly considered mentioning to Vash that she didn't
think the liquid was particularly pleasant to inhale or even be around,
but decided against it, waiting until Maya gave the sign that the
cockpit was completely flooded and that she was ready to begin
synchronization. "All right, Vash, we're going to begin synchronizing
you with your Eva, and we'll be moving you to the launch pad at the
same time."
Coughing at the uncomfortable sense of having the noxious liquid in his
lungs, Vash nodded before realizing that Misato couldn't hear him. "Go
ahead," he announced, watching as the the space around him flashed
before his cameras turned on and gave him a clear view of the drained
holding room. He felt as though there were a second set of limbs
besides his own, a sensation that he'd been expecting from his earlier
briefing as the machine started moving towards the launch pad. "All
right. I think I'm ready. Let's get this started."
"You're being cocky," announced Ryo's voice, coming over both Vash's
radio and the speakers in the control room. Misato sighed, shaking her
head at the communication, wishing that Ryo were emotional enough so
that she could write it off as jockeying for position. With EVA-00 out
of comission, Ryo could only wait in the locker room on the off chance
that he was deployed in another unit, something that she assumed the
other Children would have been resentful of. Ryo had accepted it
without a word, and had remained silent until he'd opened communication
with the Eva. "Don't be so sure of yourself."
Vash frowned inside of the Eva's cockpit, feeling as though Ryo was
hoping he'd screw up. "You just watch, Ayanami," he shouted over the
radio, extending his mind outwards towards the Evangelion's limbs,
flexing the machine's fingers and preparing for combat on the surface.
"You don't think I can do it? I'll show you just how great a pilot I
can be."
"EVA-03, launch!" shouted Misato, half because she knew that the
machine needed to be deployed immediately and half because she wanted
to stop whatever was going on between Ryo and Vash as soon as
possible. The main screen, which had a small box window in the upper
right-hand corner displaying EVA-03, showed the machine's launch pad
rocketing upwards, and Misato turned towards Maya, with Ritsuko leaning
over the other woman's shoulder. "What's the status of the pilot?"
"Synch ratio at 47%, the standard projected rate for the production
models." Maya's fingers were moving with practiced grace, the computer
shifting displays at an amazing rate. "The AT field is deploying
normally. No problems with the machine."
The mention of EVA-03's AT Field surprised Misato, and she cocked her
head to one side, apparently unsure if she'd heard Maya correctly.
Ritsuko noticed the gesture, and she sighed, shaking her head and
knowing that Misato hadn't been paying attention to her e-mail again.
"All of the production models are fitted to automatically deploy an AT
field upon synchronization," she explained. "We've incorporated the
design into EVA-00, and made some tweaks to EVA-01's systems so that
the field will activate more easily. Didn't you read the brief on it?"
"I had other things on my mind," replied Misato, blushing slightly at
the embarassment. Watching the monitor, she waited as Vash reached the
surface, his Eva screeching to a halt with the platform, the black
machine reflecting the setting sunlight just right to show off the
iridescent purple underneath. The Angel was only a short distance
away, still slowly floating through the air, approaching Central
Dogma's location horizontally. "All right, Vash, there should be a
weapon depot a few meters to your right. Retrieve a standard rifle and
get a bead on the Angel."
Vash shouted an acknowledgement, and Misato watched as the machine took
a hesitant step forward. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed
Makoto's screen suddenly light up a brilliant red, and she refocused
her gaze on the display as his fingers raced across of it. "Energy
buildup detected in the Angel!" he shouted, and Misato looked up to see
a glowing pinprick of light suddenly appear on the smooth side of the
Angel. "It's about to attack!"
A warning came over the loudspeaker, but Vash had only barely
registered it when he saw a column of light erupt from the Angel,
streaking towards his chest as though it were seeking him with its own
intelligence. He watched, horrified, as it slammed into the AT Field,
the green octagons rippling outwards for only a second before the beam
tore through it without hesitation, as if the field had only been a
momentary distraction. Then it his the center of his chest, and Vash
had a split second to contemplate the fact that there was something
touching his chest, something that burned with the heat of the sun.
Then the touch became a violent stab, and he couldn't help but scream
as his Eva was flung backwards against the rails of the entry port,
feeling like his flesh was being burnt away vigorously.
"EVA-03's frontal armor is currently at 37% and falling fast! AT Field
is not slowly the beam! Synch ratio is down to 22% and falling
rapidly! Pilot's mental activitiy is peaking dangerously!" Maya
stared up at the screen as her hands seemed to pound the keyboard,
glancing back and forth before the gauge of the remaining chest armor
stopped at 13% and the beam dissipated. "It looks like it's charging
for another shot! Captain Katsuragi -"
"Recall EVA-03 immediately," Misato said firmly, trying to ignore her
feelings of despair at the machine's sudden deactivation. She'd paid
attention to the briefing about the capabilities of individual
production models, and she knew that Vash's unit had armor unsurpassed
by the other Evangelions. Shaking her head as the black machine
descended once again, the Angel beginning to drift away towards their
location, she turned towards the communications officer, forcing her
gaze to remain stoic and calm. "Aoba, try to establish contact with
the pilot. Do we have a location for Neil and Eiko yet?"
"Both entered the facility shortly before the Fifth Angel attacked EVA-
03," replied the officer, moving more calmly than the other two
technicians. "We've kept a link open to the entry plug - you should
still be able to talk to Vash. I don't know how responsive he'll be,
though."
Misato stepped over to the primary microphone, hardly able to blame
Vash for his silence. The size of the control room seemed to only
redouble the volume of his heavy breathing, and it did nothing to quell
Misato's growing fears about the Angel and their chances. "Vash?" she
asked, hoping that he could hear her. "It's all right. We'll get you
out of the machine, and we'll figure out a plan. You didn't do
anything wrong." She wanted very badly to say the same thing about
herself, but having watched what happened to the machine and heard Vash
scream couldn't even believe the concept.
]++[
There wasn't time to go to the lockers for changing, not even enough
time to get some kind of briefing from Misato, only time to rush to the
docking area as fast as possible, clambering over the catwalks through
the massive rooms housing the Evangelions before finding EVA-03's room,
Eiko and Neil watching as the black monstrosity was slid back into
place, restraints clamping over it as the entry plug slid out and let
the LCL spray out to the sides. Cranes brought the white cylinder down
to the catwalk, and Eiko leaned over it as Vash emerged, holding his
chest and coughing up first LCL and then blood. "Vash," she said
softly, touching his shoulders gently. "Vash."
"It's okay," he said, trying to sound as undisturbed about the
situation as possible as the doors at one end of the catwalk slid open,
medical personnel rushing in with a stretcher as Vash tried to stand.
His nose was filled with the scent of burning skin and blood, a
combination that did nothing to raise his spirits. "Just a little more
intense than I'd expected. Give me a few hours, I'll be up and running
without a problem."
"Honey, I'm sorry," Eiko replied, hugging Vash as gently as she could.
Drips of LCL fell from him onto her hair, and the liquid seeped through
the white cloth of her blouse as she held him. "I should have been
here sooner. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Honey, please, I'm sorry."
She leaned forward, kissing him gently on the lips before the medics
motioned for her to move aside, picking Vash up and putting him on the
stretcher while she watched.
Neil watched from a few feet away, Eiko kneeling on the catwalk and
watching forlornly as the stretcher was wheeled away, Vash looking
fairly confident despite the experience. On some level, Neil felt as
though he should be touched, but he only felt resentful, wishing that
he could be the one she felt that way about. Swallowing the sense of
resentment, he stepped over to Eiko, putting his hand on her shoulder
and drawing her up. "It's okay. He'll be all right. Now come on,
we've got to get in our own machines."
"Correct," announced a familiar voice, and Neil glanced around before
seeing the same skybox from EVA-01's holding back slightly to one side
of the black machine, Gendou Ikari standing inside and looking at Neil
and Eiko dispassionately. "We have ascertained the Angel's
capabilities, and Captain Katsuragi has plotted a course of action.
Both of you will put on your plugsuits and prepare for a briefing on
the plan of action. Eiko, you will pilot EVA-04."
Eiko's eyes were shut tight, and as he watched Neil could see a single
tear seep out of the corner, something that tugged at the strings of
his heart powerfully. Without even realizing it, he reached up with
one hand, wiping the tear away from the girl's face, feeling an
electric tingle across his arm as he touched her soft skin, another
tingle coming as she looked at him, her eyes filled with an expression
that he couldn't describe. She nodded, and he nodded back, smiling
slightly at her. "I'll show her down to the locker room," he
announced, shooting one last stare at Dr. Ikari before leading the girl
towards one of the catwalk's exits.
Before they'd reached the end of the walk, the facility seemed to
shudder slightly, and Neil stopped, looking towards the skybox once
again in hopes of some kind of explanation. "The Angel is drilling
into the Geo-Front," announced Dr. Ikari, sounding perfectly
unconcerned by the fact. "It extended an appendage slightly before you
arrived in this room, and it has begun to penetrate the upper levels of
armor. We have approximately an hour before it gets through the armor."
"So we're on a schedule now," muttered Neil, not having been terribly
comfortable with the situation before and certainly not pleased by the
new development. Then he felt Eiko squeeze his upper arm, though he
couldn't be sure if it was out of fear or sympathy. Either way, it
made him less afraid, and he smiled at her before continuing their path
from before, his steps falling faster now.
]++[
The plan, as it had been described by Dr. Fuyutsuki, seemed simple
enough. After Vash's disastrous encounter with the Angel's attack
capabilities, it was decided that an indirect attack was required, and
Misato had suggested the use of a long-range weapon to penetrate the
Angel's AT Field and destroy it. NERV, apparently, didn't possess
anything up to the job, but after a few quick phone calls they'd
obtained a prototype photon weapon from the JSSDF and adapted it for
use by the Evangelions. Neil got the distinct impression that the
Japanese government was not happy about having to hand over the weapon,
but he also got the impression that they didn't have much say in the
matter. Combined with a makeshift shield that Ritsuko had gotten
assembled, Neil was to shoot the Angel with the rifle while Eiko
shielded him from any retaliatory strikes.
It was simple, but risky, and as Neil sat in the soft grass near the
entry plug, the plugsuit managing to keep him surprisingly warm, he
could only think about the chances of the plan actually succeeding.
Between the time it had taken to deploy the Evas, to move the photon
rifle, to prepare the pilots for remote insertion into the machines,
and to hook the rifle into the Tokyo-3 power grid so that it could
actually fire, there were only ten minutes left, and Eiko and Neil had
been told that it would take a few minutes before everything was truly
ready. "I'll have one shot, two if I'm lucky," he muttered. "This is
going to be impossible."
Feeling a touch on his shoulder, he looked back, expecting to see
Misato and being suitably surprised to find Eiko standing over him.
Her plugsuit looked different than his, less armored and almost
entirely silver to match her Eva, with the arms along with a few bits
of highlighting here and there a bright red. It looked far more like a
wetsuit than his did, aside from the two bits that looked almost like
headlights just below her ribs and the high collar. What attracted his
attention first, however, were the thin wire-framed glasses she wore.
"I didn't know you wore glasses," he said, wanting to talk about
anything besides the obvious.
"Most of the time, I wear contacts," she replied, sitting in the grass
next to Neil. He was trying his best not to notice her figure, knowing
that he let his thoughts drift in that direction that the plugsuit
would do nothing to hide it, but in the skintight garment she wore it
was severely difficult. "Misato told me that they'll get me ones I can
wear inside the Eva, but until then I'm wearing my glasses. My
contacts would just float off, since they flood the cockpit, and all."
"Yeah. Flushing your eyes." He glanced towards the two silent
machines for a second, watching as the technicians scrambled to ready
the entry plugs. "Eiko? I've got to be honest, here... I'm scared,
too. This is a hit-or-miss operation, and..." He paused, struggling
for the words despite himself. "You've seen my track record in EVA-
01. Screwing up at the beginning is the way that I operate."
A shout from the raised platform where the entry plugs lay told both
Neil and Eiko that it was time to begin the operation, and both stood,
walking towards the platform as swiftly as possible without running.
"It's my turn to reassure you, then," she shouted as she climbed into
EVA-04's plug, Neil stepping gingerly into his own cockpit. "I'll
watch over you. Just do your best, and I'll take care of everything
else."
The words seemed to echo in Neil's head even before Eiko had finished
saying them, and as the top of the entry plug slammed down he gripped
the handles of the cockpit firmly, determined to perform the operation
correctly. He felt the plug lurch into the air before being lowered
into the machine, and for the first time he barely even noticed the LCL
flooding the chamber, simply waiting until the unit was active and
taking his position, lying on the ground with the rifle in his hands,
targeting systems circling around the Angel as the Eva's fingers
wrapped around the rifle's trigger. In front of him, he could see the
silver Eva that Eiko was piloting grasp a massive shield, holding it at
just the right angle so that Neil could still get a clear shot at the
Angel. "We've got five minutes left, guys," announced Misato's voice.
"You've got to make this count."
"Don't miss. I've got it." Neil closed his eyes for a second, then
gently nudged the rifle to the right, watching as the target crosshairs
centered themselves around the Angel. The lower right-hand corner of
his display popped open a window to keep him up to date about how much
time he had left, but he forced himself to ignore it, watching
carefully for the instant that the crosshairs lined themselves up and
then pulling the trigger. The sudden sense of firing was liberating,
and for a moment he could see the beam streaking towards its target,
the blast a perfect shot through the center.
That was an instant before a spot of light flashed on the Angel's
surface, and a beam struck out directly in the opposite direction from
the blast of the photon rifle, sending Neil's beam off into the hills
harmlessly and slamming hard into the shield that EVA-04 wielded.
"SHIT!" shouted Neil, losing his control for a moment as he watched the
world around him explode in a spray of red energy. "This is EVA-01.
The Angel managed to deflect the shot. How soon can I fire again?"
It was a moment before any response came from Central Dogma, and Neil
could see the shield that Eiko was wielding didn't hold up as well as
NERV's staff had hoped, the Angel's beam obviously damaging it before
the beam subsided. "You can fire again in ten seconds," announced
Misato, sounding quite pleased with herself. "It'll take the Angel
another twenty seconds by out calculations, so you should -"
"-No-!" shouted Eiko, her Eva lurching into action. Before, it had
stood beside the prone EVA-01, holding the shield to one side to act as
a barrier. Now it stepped over the rifle, standing with its legs wide
enough to straddle the weapon, the shield held close against its body.
"If we try to fire like that again, it'll just deflect the shot again,
and I doubt we've got the time for a third shot. We've got to wait
until it takes a shot at us, and then fire at it before it can react."
"Eiko, that's suicide!" shouted Neil, slamming his fists against the
sides of the cockpit. He could see the targeting crosshairs lining
themselves up, but he resisted the urge to fire, suspecting that Eiko
was right about the Angel being able to stop them. "That shield
couldn't possibly last against another shot, and once it goes, you'll
be -"
"Protecting you," replied Eiko firmly, her eyes focused on the thin
point of light she could see on the Angel's surface. She felt
adrenaline rushing through her body, a terror like she'd never
experienced before, but tempered at the same time by the certainty that
she'd make it through. "Neil, don't fight me on this. I know that you
won't let me down now, that you'll make the shot and destroy the
Angel." She shoved EVA-04's heels into the ground, bracing herself.
"Go for it."
The blast hit with the force of a hurricane, and the silvery Evangelion
couldn't help but slide backwards slightly with the power of the
blast. Neil cursed as he focused on the targeting crosshairs once
again, thrown off their target by the sheer force of the impact. He
tried to move the rifle closer to the target's center, but the cone of
light exploding against the shield was too intense, all but blinding
him as he focused on the crosshairs. Above him, Eiko felt the shield
melting away, and gritting her teeth she released it, letting it fly
away as she crossed her arms across her chest and focused all of her
energies on remaining stationary.
When she'd been greeted by the agents, she was informed that EVA-04 had
reflective armor, that it would cut down on the impact of any such
energy attack. The fact was small consolation as the sheer force felt
as though it seared away her flesh, and she couldn't help but scream,
gripping the handles of the cockpit until her knuckles turned white as
the Angel seemed to drive a knife straight through to her bones. The
sudden, pained scream was all Neil needed to hear, and he closed his
eyes, focusing on the weapon for just a second, turning it slightly to
one side, and pulling the trigger.
Below, every voice inside of the command center went silent, the main
display showing the blue-white bolt of energy streaking towards the
Angel even as the rumbling above Central Dogma grew louder. Misato
found her lips beginning to move in a prayer half a second before the
beam burst through the Angel's AT field and then through the Angel
itself, the Angel's attack suddenly dissipating as the tip of its drill
broke through the ceiling of the Geo-Front. There was a moment that
time stood still, and then the Angel began to fall, the monitors of its
condition all showing that it was dead. "Eject EVA-04's entry plug
immediately," announced Misato, knowing that the machine had to be
causing its pilot severe pain.
"EVA-01, eject!" shouted Neil, watching as Eiko's machine tumbled to
the ground in front of him. He could only see it for a second, then
suddenly the view went blank and he felt the entire entry plug lurching
upwards with a speed that he'd never experienced before, and the thing
rotated madly as it flew into the air, the LCL spraying out with a loud
noise as he felt the plug fall back towards the ground. It hit with a
thump, and without hesitation he kicked the top of the plug open,
jumping out as Eiko's plug skidded to a halt from the back of her
machine.
Grabbing the handholds for the manual opening, Neil pulled hard for a
moment, then suddenly felt a spray of hot LCL directly in his face, a
disgusting sensation under any circumstances. Forcing it out of his
mind, he climbed into the plug, worried that he'd find Eiko dead
inside. She lay in her chair, body limp and eyes closed, but her chest
was slowly heaving up and down, breathing regularly. "Thank God," he
muttered, stepping over to the pilot's chair along the curved surface
of the plug, hoisting himself up next to her. "Eiko? Eiko?"
"Mm." The girl's eyelashes fluttered for a second before her eyes
actually opened and stared up at Neil, a pain filling them even as they
looked hopeful. "You... got it, right?" He nodded, words escaping him
as she coughed up a mouthful of LCL. "I... I'm glad. I knew that you
would get it in time. I knew -"
Neil knew, on some level, that it was the wrong thing to do, but he
couldn't keep himself from grabbing Eiko and holding her tightly,
embracing her even as he felt his eyes begin to water. "Don't do that
again," he whispered, unsure of what he was feeling, whether he was
crying from fear of failure, fear of her near-death, fear of the
machines, or even just to remind himself that he could cry. The tumult
of emotions inside simply wouldn't give him the moment's respite that
he needed to sort himself out. "Please, don't put yourself at risk
like that."
"All right," replied Eiko, returning the embrace. Neil felt his cheeks
flush as his body acknowledged the attractive woman in a skintight
outfit hugging him, but if she noticed she didn't say anything. They
needed no more words for a time, and both lay in the embrace until the
technicians came to check on them, their Evangelions silent without
their pilots, both pilots answering to the most basic need of human
contact.
]++[
Outro: Neon Epoch Evangelion is based off of -Shin Seiki Evangelion- by
GAINAX and company. It is not intended to be a straightforward fanfic,
but it is building off the work of others, and as such it is done with
the utmost respect for the original works and their authors.
Basically, even though this is an original work, it's based off the
work of others, and if you read this, you should go to see the original.
Special thanks to all of the real Children - you know who you are.
Extra special thanks to Joe Augulis for his consultation on the
Japanese portions of the story. He might not know much Japanese, but
that's more than I know.
Copyright 2002 Eliot Lefebvre.
NEXT EPISODE:
A voyage across dangerous waters.
An encounter of momentous implications.
Hearts with perilous secrets.
NEON EPOCH EVANGELION 5: LEVIATHAN
"You might as well have asked me to turn back the tide."
]++[
We only have a little time in our lives to waste. Make the most of it.
Electronic Transcendence Productions:
Producer of, um, stuff for an unspecified time-period.
Rants:
