]+ ELECTRONIC TRANSCENDENCE PRODUCTIONS +[
presents
]+ NEON EPOCH +[
]+ E V A N G E L I O N +[
]+ EPISODE 5: LEVIATHAN +[
By Eliot "Lostfactor" Lefebvre
Based off of "Shin Seiki Evangelion" by GAINAX
]++[
No one is fierce enough to rouse him.
Who then is able to stand against me?
- JOB 41:10
]++[
It was an unusually warm day, even for Tokyo-3, and as Eiko reached to
her forehead to brush the beads of sweat away she wondered if it might
have something to do with the prior day's battle against the Fifth
Angel. She'd heard Ritsuko mention something about the particle
disturbance thrown up by each blast that EVA-01 fired, and having
experienced its attacks she would be willing to guess that the Angel
could have left more than enough have residual heat in the area. She
frowned at the thought, glancing down to her thin red blouse, the
lightest long-sleeved shirt she owned that was still too thick for the
season. She'd even caved in and worn jean shorts, but still the heat
insisted for lighter material.
A cough from her left turned her attention back towards Hikari, and she
blushed slightly, feeling a little silly for having not paid attention
to her friend. "Sorry," she said, grabbing the front of her blouse and
flapping it, trying to get some cooling air into the shirt. "It's just
too hot out today to focus on anything. Good thing that we're not in
school, or nobody would be paying attention."
"-I- would," insisted Hikari, and Eiko flashed her a quick smile before
giving a slight giggle at the concept. Hikari took her position as
class representative far too seriously sometimes, something that Eiko
found astonishing given the young girl's other tasks. Mercifully
enough, however, Eiko had been able to drag the brunette away from
housecleaning duties to the hill where Eiko had first met Neil, a hill
that now provided an excellent view of the Fifth Angel as NERV
struggled to break it down and move it. "If it's so hot out, why did
you wear a long-sleeved shirt?"
Eiko sighed, then pulled up one of the sleeves slightly, revealing the
criscrossing pattern of red marks that extended down from her wrist.
Hikari gasped lightly, and Eiko shrugged, pulling the sleeve back
down. "They didn't mention exactly how painful things are," noted
Eiko, sounding just slightly bitter. "Oh, sure, the Evas have armor,
but it doesn't feel like it on the inside - it felt like the damn thing
had set me on fire and then gone after me with a knife."
Hikari spread her arms sympathetically, and Eiko leaned over, letting
her friend give her a quick squeeze before they both returned to their
prior positions, Eiko with her legs extended and arms propping her up
against the ground, Hikari with her knees drawn up to her chest and
arms dangling around them. "Weren't you scared?" she asked, eyes wide
with curiosity. "Knowing what that thing was able to do to Vash... I
know that I would have been terrified."
"Yeah, I was scared," replied Eiko, sinking her head slightly at the
thought. She felt some measure of guilt for not being in time to keep
Vash out of harm's way, but she had to admit that she was glad it had
been him that went up first instead of her. "But I knew that Neil
would protect me." The thought of the blonde boy made her smile again,
his green eyes standing out in her mind with their unique light shade.
"He's amazing. Even if he isn't the best pilot, he feels more
determined than anybody, like he could destroy the Angels by force of
will alone."
"Sounds like quite a guy," noted Hikari, a touch of cynicism sounding
in her voice. Eiko looked over to her friend, but she was still
smiling, though there was a touch of sadness to her. Before Eiko could
take a guess at what was bothering her, however, the girl spoke up, her
voice cracking slightly. "He did put Toji in the hospital, though.
And they're still not sure when he'll get out."
"I know," replied Eiko, sounding more resentful than she had meant to
despite herself. The information from the doctors came daily, but
after being nearly crushed by a collapsing building there didn't seem
to be a particularly good prognosis for Eiko's elder brother. There
were questions about whether or not he would ever walk again, and every
so often his condition would start drifting towards critical and send
Eiko's entire household into a flurry of panicked activity. "But that
wasn't his fault, not really. He was trying as hard as he could. He
just was outclassed by the Angel."
"Probably," replied Hikari, sounding as though she genuinely believed
Eiko but still had some nagging doubts in her head. "I... I don't
blame Neil, not really, I just wish that I knew Toji would be all
right." She sighed, then glanced at her watch, eyes widening slightly
at the display. "It's 9:30. We should probably head towards NERV,
then I head back to housework."
Eiko nodded, and both girls rose to their feet, Eiko trying her best to
remember Neil's directions into the locker room. It was a complicated
facility, and the fact that she'd only been in it once under a high-
stress situation only made things worse. "I wonder if Neil will be
there," she muttered to herself, drawing a stare but not a comment from
Hikari. For a split second, she found herself wondering about what
made him captivating to her, but she shoved the thought out of her
head, knowing that there were other matters to deal with. Glancing one
last time at the remains of the Fifth Angel, she kept heading towards
NERV, trying her best to ignore the sweat seeping out from beneath her
skin.
]++[
Despite the other thoughts swimming around in his head, Neil found
himself feeling rather pleased with himself as he rewound one of his
movies, listening to the gentle whir of the VCR as he leaned back on
the couch and stared at the ceiling. He'd felt bad about being pleased
with Vash's injuries, he'd felt bad about the fact that he'd caused
Eiko pain, and he felt bad about not having been at Central Dogma fast
enough. But despite all of that, he felt as though he'd regained both
Eiko and Misato's goodwill, and that was a prize more than worth the
few negative feelings about who he was.
Misato, for her part, was thumping about in her bedroom a few meters
away, ostensibly getting dressed, though Neil wondered what sort of
dressing procedure required a large amount of noise and the occasional
Japanese curse. The longer he spent around Misato, the more he became
convinced that she acted responsible at work because she had to, that
if she could have swaggered in and had a grand time directing the Evas
on the surface she would have. Glancing towards the half-opened door,
Neil briefly found himself considering peeking inside, then shook his
head and scolded himself for the thought. "Come on, you're finally
managing to be a decent person," he muttered, smirking to himself.
"Don't screw it up now like you usually do."
Closing his eyes, he flashed back to the momentary embrace between he
and Eiko, something that managed to feel more real than anything else
from the previous few days. Even with the blood-stench of LCL floating
in the cockpit and the knowledge that she was hurt, simply feeling the
warm embrace of someone who he knew might like him was electrifying,
something that he hadn't felt in too long a time. It felt almost like
a benediction, as if with one hug Eiko had absolved him of everything
that he'd done wrong since his arrival, that a single piece of human
contact made everything brighter once again.
A few final thumps came from the bedroom, and the door creaked open,
Neil looking towards it almost unconsciously. He knew that part of
that was on the off chance that the door had opened before Misato had
finished changing, but he pushed the thought out of his mind,
determined to feel at least decent about himself for the rest of the
day. It turned out to be an empty suspicion anyways, as Misato stepped
out a second later in the same black dress she'd worn the day Neil had
met her, red jacket slung over her shoulder. "You look good, Misato,"
he noted, nodding his approval. "I didn't think you were going into
work today, though. I was getting a movie ready."
"Didn't I tell you?" asked Misato, her face wrinkling into a frown at
the thought that she'd forgotten. Neil felt a knot beginning to form
in his gut, a familiar memory pushing itself back to the surface, and
he turned away from Misato, stopping the VCR and turning it off with
the remote. "I didn't tell you. Neil, I'm sorry, I must have
forgotten." She paused, noticing that his face was drawn tightly. "To
be fair, I had a lot of other things that I -"
"It's not you," Neil interjected, shaking his head and shoving the old
thoughts back in the dark little recesses of his mind where they
belonged. "You just reminded me of... someone that I used to know."
Sighing deeply, he shut off the television and turned towards Misato,
his face neutral once again. "So, then. What did you forget to tell
me?"
"The convoy carrying the Second and Sixth Children is only about a
day's travel away," she replied, flopping down on the couch next to
Neil. Neil, for his part, was doing his best to avoid the sensation
that Misato had given him, reminding himself that there was no alcohol
upon her breath and that she'd genuinely forgotten. "NERV wants me to
go over to greet them, especially since..." She paused, biting her
lower lip for a second, a gesture that Neil didn't notice. "Well,
Commander Ikari has his reasons. The big thing is that they want for a
member of the staff to meet them on the boat, for diplomatic reasons."
Neil nodded, trying hard to focus on what Misato was saying instead of
his own bitterness, reminding himself that there were more important
things to consider. "Are you going to be riding back with them?" he
asked, slouching slightly in his seat, fixing his eyes on the green
fabric of the couch, his determination to feel good about himself
slowly eroding from within.
"-We're- going to be riding back with them," replied Misato, drawing
Neil's attention back towards her. She smiled broadly, winking at him
and flashing a victory sign with her fingers. "NERV doesn't just want
a member of the administration on the voyage - they want their best
pilot, too. The flight leaves at around 10:30, and we should be there
by 11. Then we just get to enjoy a bit of a cruise until we get back
into Tokyo-3's harbor." Looking at Neil, her eyes widened slightly,
noticing that he was obvious displeased with Misato's news. "What's
wrong? Don't you like boats?"
"You just decided that I'd come along, without even asking me," he
muttered, standing and turning away from Misato once again, holding the
back of his head tightly and closing his eyes as he paced. "Hell, you
didn't even decide that I got to be -told- that we were going until it
was too late to do anything about it -"
Before he could continue on his tirade, Neil was stopped by Misato's
hand on his shoulder, pulling him around and making him realize that he
was failing dramatically to keep his mind off of less pleasant
thoughts. "Neil, I know that I should have told you, and I'm sorry,"
Misato said, her voice measured and calm. If Neil hadn't seen the
concern on her face, he would have been certain that she was furious
with him. "What's going on? I know that I didn't get a chance to tell
you about this beforehand, but it seems like this is really getting to
you."
"I know, I know," replied Neil, shaking his head and scolding himself
internally, reminding himself that dwelling on his past failures wasn't
a good idea. "It's just... something that I got used to once before, a
situation that I hate. Nothing that you did." He sighed, sinking his
head and staring at Misato's feet. Almost instantly he felt his eyes
tracing the path of her pantyhose, and he shut them, feeling even worse
about prior events. "So. When do we leave?"
Misato cocked her head slightly to one side, trying to figure out what
was wrong with Neil. An answer presented itself almost immediately,
but she pushed it out of her mind out of discomfort. "Hey. Don't look
so sad." Neil stared up at her, and the look in his eyes brought back
the same uncomfortable thought. She pondered for a second if it made
her uncomfortable because of what it said about his past or because of
what she was, but then forced herself to forget it, smiling and tugging
Neil forward. "Now, get some clothes together, and we'll head down to
the airfield. You might actually enjoy yourself as a dignitary."
"Heh." The thought made Neil smile a little, and he shook his head as
he stepped into his room, trying to figure out what he could bring and
not worry about the next day. He felt bad about being so awkward
around Misato, but the memory of being forgotten by people he cared
about was too strong in his mind, still fresh even with the time
between. "And I guess I do care about Misato," he muttered, smiling to
himself as the words passed his lips. He'd known it, but he hadn't
really admitted it - the woman had something about her that made her
likable, even when she did things that angered him. Sighing heavily
but painlessly, he grabbed a shirt from his bureau, trying to figure
out if he should bring another pair of pants.
]++[
NERV's planes, Neil discovered, had apparently been designed by the
same team that had come up with the aerodrones. It would have been
visible to anyone that had seen the drones before that there were
obvious design similarities - tilt-wing thrusters, a blocky body with
an almost awkward tail behind it, short wings - but on the inside, it
seemed to still echo the same design philosophy of complete
pragmatism. He'd been expecting the same sort of padded nylon seats
that the Eva cockpits sported, and instead was given a cold metal bench
painted a nauseating shade of blue. "They could have made the planes a
little more appealing," he noted, staring across the narrow room
towards Misato.
"We hardly had the budget," replied Misato, a grin drifting across her
face despite herself. "NERV was barely given enough money to buy a
coffee machine, much less fund the development of the Evangelions. So
we have to make do with what we can get our hands on." She sighed,
glancing out one of the small glass windows as the plane began to lurch
away from the city, its movements feeling awkward and forced. "And
there are nations in the UN still opposing further budget increases for
the project."
Giving an absent nod, Neil leaned towards his own window, watching as
the plane turned to unintentionally give him a clearer view of the
city, out into the surrounding foothills and the smaller portions of
civilization. He distantly recognized an area he thought might have
been the part of Tokyo-3 that he'd first entered, but as the plane
continued turning it became a moot point. Letting his viewpoint shift
with the plane's movement, he watched the Fifth Angel's remains
shifting into view, the slumped-over octohedron lying in the road,
cranes busying themselves by taking apart the smooth surface with
precision. "Misato?" he asked, leaning back towards the dark-haired
woman and away from the window. "Why did I get chosen to meet the
other Children?"
Misato almost didn't seem to notice Neil's question for a moment, a
briefcase open next to her and papers being rearranged swiftly within.
Then she paused and looked up at him, smiling but obviously
distracted. "Because they wanted one of the current pilots to be
there," she replied, turning almost immediately back to the papers.
"Why do you ask?"
"That's not what I meant," Neil replied, giving another glance out the
window as the plane began to fly over other parts of Japan, too quickly
for Neil to get anything but a quick glimpse at them. "Why me,
specifically? Why not Ryo, or Eiko, or even Vash? They don't have
functional Evas at the moment, right?"
"Right," replied Misato, still sounding distracted. "I don't think
that the medical division is even particularly taken with the idea of
having Vash pilot a machine at the moment." Neil leaned forward, and
he caught a momentary glimpse of what looked like a personnel report
with a picture of a red-haired girl before Misato shuffled another
sheet atop it, scanning the lines quickly. "But Commander Ikari didn't
want one of the other Children on the ships. He wanted you."
"Ikari," muttered Neil, glancing out the window almost as a reflex,
noting the blue water absently. He'd never had a chance to speak with
the commander for more than a few seconds, only knew him from their
distant interactions in the Eva docks. Still, something about the man
felt infinitely cold, almost as bad as the Angels themselves. "Was he
trying to sell out Tokyo-3, or did he have some kind of rationale
behind it?"
Flipping her hair back with an odd sort of nod, Misato continued to
stare at the papers in her briefcase, almost as if she was looking for
information that wasn't there. "You have the best record against the
Angels, that's why," she replied, sounding distracted. "I think he's
worried about the prospects of having 02 and 05 be attacked on their
way here, especially since it'd be a difficult proposition to fight
back against an Angel on the ocean. So he's sending the best."
Neil opened his mouth to respond, then closed it again, gritting his
teeth and staring out the window of the plane as the blue ocean
stretched along outside. "The best fighter," he muttered to himself,
not liking the concept of being good at fighting even though he knew it
was necessary. A thought tickled at the back of his mind, and he found
himself wondering if he didn't like the idea of fighting or just the
fact that he piloted the Eva to do it. Closing his eyes, he remembered
the green iris of the Evangelion, a memory perfectly fresh despite the
fact that it had been more than a week since his first battle. Then he
remembered tackling the third Angel in his crimson anger, the sensation
as he drove anything sharp he could find into the beast's body.
Then he recalled the memory that had driven him into the fit, a memory
that time had mercifully dulled but not removed. His brow furrowed
unconsciously as he remembered kneeling in the sand of the playground,
dark red stains in front of him, a thin trickle of blood running down
his wrist as the teachers milled about the bully. At the time, he was
too young to understand what had happened, only knew that he was trying
to do the right thing and had obviously made a mistake. They'd moved
away soon after that, as soon as the older boy's family had decided not
to press charges against Neil's parents.
"He didn't die," Neil muttered to himself, eyes still closed tightly
and brow furrowed. His words were quiet, but Misato heard him, and she
turned away from the papers in her briefcase to look up at him with
concern. "They said his arm would never work right again, but he
didn't die. And he never bullied anyone again, I'm certain of that.
So it was the right thing then, the right thing now..."
"Is something wrong?" asked Misato, drawing Neil's attention away from
his memories with a sharp and surprised reaction. "You seemed to be -"
Shaking his head, Neil turned away from Misato again, feeling even
worse for her having heard him. He suspected that she already knew
what a horrible thing he'd done, but on the off chance that she didn't
he wanted to make sure that she didn't find out, either. "It's
nothing," he replied, focusing on a speck in the distance that he
assumed was either Tokyo-3 or the boats that they were approaching.
Misato frowned, then stood and walked over to his side of the plane,
sitting down beside him and touching his shoulder gently. "I said it's
nothing," he snapped, recoiling slightly at her touch, but he fell
silent afterwards, simply staring out the window. Misato hesitantly
extended her hand again, then withdrew it, standing and walking back
over to her briefcase. Whatever Neil was going through, she knew it
was probably best for her to remain uninvolved.
]++[
"Are we sitting in these entry plugs for a reason?" shouted Vash,
visibly irritated from the small window on the computer display as he
crossed his arms and sulked. Kozou Fuyutsuki involuntarily smiled,
amused both by the boy's insistence upon information and his continued
zeal to pilot the Evangelions despite his first encounter with the
machines. He glanced up towards the three entry plugs barely touching
the surface of a pool of LCL, on the other side of the observation
booth, letting his eyes rest upon the one with "03" emblazoned across
its hatch in blocky letters, almost feeling disappointed at the fact
that Vash couldn't see the smile.
"This is a synchronization test," replied Fuyutsuki after a moment,
stepping away from the computer console and towards the room's primary
microphone. The room itself was fairly large, although the fact that
it shared the same bland color scheme as the rest of Central Dogma made
it seem even larger. However, the testing area, more or less a
vertical column filled to the windows with LCL, was only about the size
of a truck, just large enough to fit eight entry plugs and not a single
one more. "It's designed to help us keep track of how solid your
connection is with your Eva unit. All you have to do is synch up with
the machine like normal."
Vash turned his gaze to one side slightly, biting his lower lip and
looking intensely undecided about Kozou's response. "Couldn't you just
do that while we're in the machines?" he asked, perking up slightly as
he turned back towards the camera monitoring his cockpit. "I mean,
that's when it matters anyways, so then you'd have the most pertinent
information right away, and -"
"Keep in mind that this would be occurring during an Angel attack,"
noted Ryo calmly, his eyes shut inside the entry plug, resting his
hands calmly on his knees. Vash immediately took offense at the
comment, but without any way of glaring at Ryo he simply crossed his
arms and scowled at nothing. "It's very simple. I've undergone the
tests before. I am ready when you are, Professor Fuyutsuki."
"Understood. You should feel something in a few moments." He stepped
away from the microphone, over to the unoccupied monitoring station to
his left, checking the vital signs of the pilots briefly before
stepping over to the other station. Maya was already tapping away at
the keyboard, Ritsuko leaning over her shoulder and watching the graph
move up and down regularly with an air of calm superiority. "How are
they doing?"
"Ryo is at 43% - higher than we'd been able to get previously, due to
00's eccentricities. I suspect that the modifications made to the unit
have helped the synch ratio somewhat." She furrowed her brow slightly
for a moment, took a quick note of something on her board, then turned
back towards the display of the Children's synch ratios. "Eiko is
holding steady at 46%, while Vash is managing to peak at 50%. It's a
testament to the connections of the production models that he hasn't
fallen below that yet."
Fuyutsuki nodded, glancing briefly at the display of the pilots' status
before watching the synchronization graph himself, noticing something
about the display for a second without being able to place it. He
watched the graph move for a moment, then realized what it was. "The
graph is updating on a real-time basis," he said, turning towards
Ritsuko. "I thought that your mother -"
"Dr. Akagi modified the code yesterday," interjected Maya, grinning
slightly at the fact as she swapped a couple of displays. "She said
that her mother must have been drunk when she wrote the code for some
of the monitor displays, that there was too much unnecessary code that
was clogging it down. The whole system is running faster." She
stopped, then blushed, turning to Ritsuko immediately as her brown eyes
widened. "I'm sorry, ma'am, I spoke out of turn."
"It's fine, Maya," replied Ritsuko, giving a little smile to the
younger woman. Maya's blush disappeared, and she gave a quick nod, her
almost boyish haicut bobbing ever so slightly before she turned back to
her station. Ritsuko shook her head gently, then turned towards
Fuyutsuki. "I was simply going through some of the operations code
that mother put onto the systems, and I noticed that there were ways to
streamline the process. She probably just didn't think of them at the
time."
Nodding, Fuyutsuki turned back towards the console, unable to keep
himself from smiling. He remembered Naoko Akagi as though he'd worked
with her the day before, and she seemed to have produced an almost
identical child - the same motivation, the same passion, the same
absolute unwillingness to let even the smallest imperfection remain.
It was one of the things about Naoko that had helped get the project
rolling. "You're very much like your mother, you know," he noted,
looking over at the blonde woman. "If you hadn't changed your hair
color, you might be indistinguishable from her."
"Then I suppose it's just as well that I did," replied Ritsuko, smiling
grimly. Fuyutsuki stared at her for a moment, then shook his head,
turning back towards the display before him and studying it. He wanted
to say something to her, but somehow it seemed like entirely the wrong
time, and he was willing to stay silent for the time being. Besides,
he had other matters to attend to.
]++[
Ryo stared into the single eye of EVA-00, the same bright red as his
own eyes by what he assumed was a rather ironic coincidence.
Technically, his routine dictated that he should have gone straight to
the locker room and changed out of his plugsuit, but considering that
his routine was inextricably intertwined with that of the Evangelion it
only made sense for him to examine the updated machine at least once
before he piloted it. So he'd made his way down from the testing room
to the holding room where the prototype unit was housed, standing on
the catwalk above the huge pool of liquid surrounding the machine, arms
hanging limply by his sides.
He'd expected that some changes would have been made to it, but he
hadn't expected that it would be turned blue. Aside from the neutral
white arms with a few bands of black around them, the entire machine
was a bright blue, white highlights in a few key locations. There were
other modifications made as well, and Ryo could see that the shoulders
had been fitted with the standard flanges of the EVA series, the left
arm already equipped and the unit for the right arm visible from his
position on the catwalk. It looked far better suited for combat,
something that Ryo could tell was in order after his battle with the
Fourth Angel.
"Ayanami-san?" The voice was clearly recognizable, and Ryo turned his
head towards the source to see Eiko, now dressed in the same red shirt
and jean shorts from the morning, walking towards him casually.
Staring for a moment, Ryo wondered if she'd figured out he hadn't given
Neil her sketch, something that he assumed she would be upset about if
she knew. "Is something wrong? Vash said that you weren't in the
locker room, and I wasn't sure if -"
"I was examining my Evangelion," replied Ryo, turning his gaze back
towards the machine and studying its lines. Eiko took a step back,
getting the impression that Ryo didn't want to talk to her, something
that seemed a little odd considering his usual dearth of emotion. Ryo
was distantly aware that she took a step back, but it was of little
concern to him. "I expect that it will be ready for operation again in
the near future."
"Um... I'm looking forward to that," replied Eiko, not sure if there
was a correct response to the statement that she simply didn't know.
"We can use all the backup we can get, right?" She smiled, suddenly
wondering why she'd come all the way down to the Eva bays to find Ryo.
She'd never asked him about the sketch she'd gave him, but she knew
that things were fine between her and Neil, and that meant that it
hardly mattered.
Ryo glanced towards the girl, noticing that she was uncomfortable but
barely even considering that it could be because of him. He remembered
watching the video of the battle, watching Neil eject himself the
second the Angel had been defeated and rushing to her side. She had
put her life dangerously close to being extinguished for him, and Neil
had done the same for Ryo, an action that he still hadn't figured out
the rationale behind. Looking at Eiko, he began to wonder if there was
some connection between the two incidents, if there was a single
unifying cause behind the risks they had taken. "Would you put your
life on the line for me, Eiko?" he asked, looking back towards the
Eva. "Like you did for Neil?"
The question surprised Eiko into taking another step backwards, her
face drifting somewhere between fear and indignation. "I... I don't
know. It hasn't happened, has it?" Ryo said nothing, only continued
to stare at EVA-00's single red eye, and the girl wondered what made
him ask her something like that. "I guess that I would, if I knew that
you would do the same for me. That's how people keep each other safe,
isn't it?"
Something in Eiko's voice made Ryo want to speak up, but before he
could get past opening his mouth the same door that she'd entered from
slid open and Vash stepped out. He stared for a moment, then stepped
over to Eiko almost too swiftly, standing just far enough between her
and Ryo for the implications to be obvious. "Ayanami," he said, trying
to sound formal but making the name wind up sounding more like an
insult than anything else. "I was a little worried about you. Thought
you might have gotten yourself hurt."
"I see," replied Ryo, staring at Vash intently, trying to gauge the
man's intentions. "Because that's something that I do often." Vash's
brow furrowed at the remark, and Eiko gently put her hand on his
shoulder, seeming to calm him somewhat. Ryo simply stared for a
moment, then turned back towards EVA-00, knowing that he couldn't ask
Eiko anything with her boyfriend around and having lost the thought
anyways. "I'm fine."
"Yeah. You're just the spitting image of a normal teenager." Vash
turned slightly away from Ryo, then put his hands on Eiko's shoulders
and turned her away gently as well. Ryo noticed that Vash was still
staring at him, and he turned his head slightly towards the other
Child, expecting to see the same sort of hateful gaze that he was
accustomed to getting from Vash. The expression, however, was quite
different than he'd been expecting, torn somewhere between pity and
confusion. "Well, we're off to actually enjoy our day, but... um, glad
you're all right, Ayanami."
"Thank you for your concern," he replied, turning his gaze back towards
EVA-00 completely. He was distantly aware of the sound of the catwalk
doors hissing open and then closed, but he busied his minds with other
thoughts until he heard the noise a second time a few moments later.
It still might not have piqued his interest had it not come from the
other end of the catwalk. As it was, he turned his head towards the
noise, seeing Gendou walking towards him, long black coat hanging
loosely over the red turtleneck he wore, dark glasses obscuring his
eyes as usual. "Dr. Ikari. Am I late for something?"
"No," replied Gendou, stopping about a meter away from Ryo, one hand in
the pocket of his black slacks while the other hung limply at his
side. "I was looking for you, but I was informed by Dr. Akagi that you
had not returned to the locker room after the testing. The Magi
pinpointed your location here." He paused, and Ryo knew without him
saying another word that Ryo needed to undergo further testing
elsewhere. "There are still things that I need you to attend to today."
Ryo nodded, turning towards Gendou and walking towards the commander
even as Gendou himself turned away from the boy and headed for the door
that he'd come in from a few moments earlier. "Dr. Ikari?" he asked,
coming to a stop rather suddenly as a thought occurred to him, causing
the doctor to stop in mid-stride and turn back to face Ryo. "Eiko said
that people sacrifice themselves for others because they expect the
action will be reciprocated. Is that why Neil saved me against the
Fourth Angel?"
"Perhaps," replied Gendou, turning just enough so that Ryo could see a
satisfied sort of half-smirk on his face. It was an expression that he
recognized as a sign of Gendou's approval of his actions, and to the
best of his memory it had never come as a result of asking a question
before. "But you don't need to worry about that, Ryo. You're
different, and you know that."
"Yes," replied Ryo, nodding and beginning to walk once again. Gendou
nodded, then continued walking towards the exit from the Eva hangar.
Glancing back at the Eva one last time, his lids half-closed from a
sensation that he couldn't put a name to, he remembered what he was
going to ask Eiko before - if she would be willing to put her life on
the line for the Eva, knowing that it was as alive as Ryo.
]++[
It had been years since Neil had been on a boat, and the most recent
occurrence had seen him below deck and vomiting for much of the trip
due to a stomach virus. As the plane gently touched down on the
surface of the carrier that Misato had directed his attention towards,
he felt a slight sense of excitment, his determination to feel decent
about himself fighting to make being on the boat at least vaguely
enjoyable. Stepping outside, he was almost immediately struck by the
wind, and he winced as a blast hit him directly in the face, sending
his hair fluttering and forcing him to shut his eyes instinctively. "I
didn't remember this much wind," he shouted to Misato, the hum of the
engines of the plane still too loud to speak normally over.
"Because the boats are going so fast," replied Misato, smirking as she
stepped out of the plane, dark sunglasses obscuring her eyes and both
her jacket and skirt fluttering madly. She glanced around for a
second, then pointed towards the front of the ship, drawing Neil's
attention to the tapered point. "See, that's the front of the ship,
called the port... and, um, up there is the observation deck, which
they call the starboards." She paused, glancing around. "And I think
you're supposed to bow when you get on an unfamilar boat."
Neil stared at Misato for a second, not sure whether to laugh or sigh.
He finally settled for shaking his head, resting his hand on Misato's
shoulder and smirking. "The front of the ship is the bow. Port is the
left side of the ship, and starboard is the right side." He paused.
"I had to learn that for a report at school one year."
Misato didn't seem to be pleased at learning about Neil so much as
irritated at being proven incorrect. "All right, then, what do they
call the observation deck?"
"'The observation deck,' usually," replied Neil without missing a
beat. He and Misato stared at one another for a moment, then both
laughed, the silliness of the situation overcoming them. Neil felt a
momentary rush of confidence at the laugh, as if the one moment of
humor made everything else correct itself. "Listen, is it okay if I
walk around for a little while? I'd like to get some time to clear my
head."
"Go right ahead," replied Misato, waving somewhat distractedly towards
him as she glanced around. "I'm fairly certain you can't get too far
on a boat." She smirked, then took a few steps away from the plane,
motioning for Neil to do the same as it prepared to lift off once
again. "I'll try to find the Children and get you introduced, you just
take the time you need. No worries."
Offering a quick nod, Neil stepped away from Misato's position as the
plane's engines started full-force and began to lift it away from the
surface of the carrier. The wind was blowing something fierce, and
Neil forced himself to resist the temptation to stare at Misato's skirt
on the off chance that it would fly up, instead walking towards the
starboard walkway of the ship and taking in the salt air. Looking
around, he found himself taken by the sheer visual blandness of the
ship, the ship basically one big mass of gray and the ocean one big
mass of blue. It was the exact sort of environment he didn't want -
completely uninteresting to anyone except a military buff, giving him
plenty of time and space to think.
Shutting his eyes for a second, he placed his hands firmly on the rail
of the ship and leaned slightly over the edge, staring down into the
blue depths that stretched on below him. "The sea has no memory," he
muttered to himself, knowing that he was mangling the quote but knowing
also that the sentiment was the same. There was something unspeakably
comfortable about the waves, and the thought ocurred to him, almost
idly, that if he fell into them he would probably drown within
seconds. It wasn't a contemplation of suicide, nothing that he wanted
to do, but the thought popped into his mind regardless, and it
disturbed him for understandable reasons. Staring down into the water
again, it almost seemed to be surging upwards, and he pushed backwards,
away from the rail.
"Hey, watch it!" shouted a light female voice behind him, too late for
Neil to do anything but surrender himself to inertia. The same voice
let out a shriek as Neil fell on the source, sending both himself and
the unidentified girl staggering backwards into the bulkhead behind
them, and Neil could feel his unstable position on his feet. Then he
felt himself get shoved from behind, he heard the girl shriek again,
and his foot hit a puddle as he staggered forward, feeling very
confused as both of his feet ceased to be underneath him. Not wanting
to crack his spine, he forced himself to twist around in midair,
landing roughly on the soft, warm deck.
It took him a moment to remember that the deck of a military transport
would be neither soft nor warm, and only half a second to recall the
girl's voice that he'd heard. Pushing himself up slightly on his arms,
his face turned a bright crimson as he looked down to see his hand
firmly atop the girl's breast, her legs just wide enough for his to
slip between them. The girl herself was blushing as well, her face
beginning to match the color of her hair, and Neil found himself
forcing himself to resist the temptation to take the opportunity he had
with the thin fabric of the green dress the girl wore. "Hi," he
offered sheepishly, trying to smile.
Almost the exact second that he offered his apology, the girl's face
shifted from surprise to anger, and she brought her left hand hard
across Neil's cheek, shoving him away with her right arm. Neil
acquiesced, rubbing his cheek as he backed away into a standing
position once again, while the girl was still blushing as she stood up
once again. "You -pervert-," she snapped, a distinct Irish accent
showing through her words as she crossed her arms tightly, almost as
though she was hugging her chest. "First you nearly crush me, then you
try to cop a feel?"
The accusation stung more than the girl could have known, and Neil
scowled, still rubbing his cheek for a moment. "I wasn't trying to cop
a feel, I -fell-." He sighed, dropping his hand to one side and
scowling at the girl. "Besides, it's not my fault that you told me to
watch out after I couldn't stop. You might as well have asked for me
to turn back the tide."
"Very convenient that you fell directly onto me, isn't it?" she asked,
obviously not about to let the event drop. Looking somewhat closer,
Neil could see that there was still a slight flush to her face, as if
the event had embarassed her more than she wanted to admit to herself.
"And don't think that I didn't see you turn in mid-air. You wanted to
land on me, right where you wanted me."
"Gods, how much thought do you think I put into this? I didn't want my
spine to hit metal and crack into half-spines." He shook his head,
closing his eyes, brow still furrowed out of anger. "And to think that
I was going to apologize to you." Still shaking his head, Neil turned
to continue walking, then felt the girl's hand grip his shoulder
firmly. "What? What -now-?"
"You had bloody well -better- apologize!" she snapped, tugging hard on
his shoulder and spinning him around to face her again. She was
standing right next to Neil now, and he could see that she was
significantly shorter than he was, forcing him to look down at her.
"No moral person would -" She paused, and Neil could tell that she was
tracing the path of his vision with her own eyes as her gaze slowly
moved down until she was staring down her dress, at which point she
began trembling with what Neil assumed was anger. Neil sighed, then
winced as her hand slapped him once again. "And cut that out!"
"Cut -what- out? Listening to you?" The accusation about immorality
had stung far more than her slap, but Neil didn't want to say that,
especially not under the circumstances. He rubbed his cheek, feeling
somewhere between angry at the girl and disgusted with his own
actions. "What the hell was that slap for, anyways?"
"That's the price of admission," she replied, folding her arms now
across the top of her dress, a rather awkward-looking position by
Neil's standards. "You tried to grope me and look down my dress. Any
self-respecting woman would make a man pay for that, don't you think?"
Grimacing, Neil felt his fist clenching, eyes shut tight as he felt
anger begin to trickle in from the back of his head. He was the
victim, not the aggressor, and he hated being treated as though he'd
done something terribly wrong, just as he'd hated the way people had
stared at him on that day in the schoolyard, like he was some kind of
monster. "You don't want to know what I think," he snarled, his nails
beginning to bite into the palm of his hand. Then he realized what he
was doing, and his fist relaxed as he felt the crushing weight of shame
begin to fall on him, the mere thought that he'd been ready to hit the
girl making him feel almost nauseous.
Opening his eyes again, he stared at the girl, seeing on her face that
she'd recognized the sudden change in his mood, though he couldn't
quite tell from her expression whether that had made her angrier or a
little frightened. "I'm sorry," he muttered, stepping around her and
walking away without looking back. The thought of having almost wanted
to attack her wouldn't leave his mind, and he was so intent on the
concept that he nearly slammed right into Misato, skidding to a halt
inches away from her.
Misato was smiling, the sort of satisifed grin that she wore whenever
she was particularly pleased with how things had worked, a grin that
came up fairly frequently living with her. "Good job, Neil. The two
of you saved me the effort of finding you." Putting her hand firmly on
his shoulder, she turned him around towards the girl, who was now
several meters away and staring at Misato as if she'd seen the woman
before. "Nieve! Nieve, come over here!"
The girl took a step hesitantly, then faster, then faster again, wooden
sandals clanking against the surface of the ship as she stepped towards
Misato and Neil. "Misato, you've got to be kidding me," she said,
raising her eyebrows as she stared at Neil, now looking him over as if
he were for sale. "There's no way that he's the Third Child. I refuse
to accept it."
Neil had been suffering from a fairly consistent sinking feeling since
he'd almost hit the girl, who he assumed to be Nieve. As Misato smiled
and shook her head at the girl's comments, Neil looked back towards
Nieve and felt the feeling redouble itself. "You haven't changed at
all since I left Ireland. Nieve Soryu-Leary, this is Neil Richelieu,
the Third Child. Neil, this is Nieve, the Second Child."
Staring at Nieve for a moment, Neil opened his mouth to say something,
but Nieve obviously had no intention of letting him speak just yet,
still looking him over with a critical eye. "So this is the great and
mighty Third Child. Small wonder you've had such uneven performance
against the Angels - you can't even keep your hands off a girl when she
happens to be walking behind you." Neil frowned, and Nieve shot him a
grin that at first looked nasty before Neil realized that it was more
mischevious than anything. "Don't worry about it, though. Now that
I'm at NERV's headquarters, I'll keep everything under control. After
all, I do have the most experience."
"Really? Where were you during the first three attacks, then?" asked
Neil, sounding as bitter as he felt, though his bitterness was
direction more towards himself than towards Nieve. She scowled, and
Neil shook his head, holding up his hand in an abortive peace gesture.
"Sorry. I'm not trying to fight you." She seemed to listen, at least
for the moment, and he turned back towards Misato. "Didn't you say we
were meeting the Sixth Child, too?"
"Oh! Niobe!" Nieve slapped her forehead, apparently no longer
interested in dealing with Neil for the time being. "She and Kaji were
taking a quick tour of the ship. I don't know why he offered to take
her instead of me, but they should be around any second now." She
smiled, obviously satisified with herself, then noticed that Misato's
face had contorted into what looked like a painful grimace. "What's
wrong? Low tide hit you?"
"Kaji?" Misato asked, her voice barely above a hiss, somewhere between
rage and trepidation from what Neil could hear of it. "Do you mean...
Ryoji Kaji?"
"Hey, Misato. Long time no see." The voice was deep, eminently
masculine, with just the slightest touch of sarcasm in it. Neil turned
to look behind himself and Misato as the elder woman still stood in
abject horror, and saw the man standing there, tall and sinewy, a sort
of scruffy attractiveness about him with his slight beard stubble and
unruly hair tied into a ponytail. His blue eyes sparkled with a
notable intelligence as he walked towards the group, gesturing for the
girl next to him to walk along with him. "I see you've already been
reunited with Nieve."
"Captain Katsuragi." The girl next to him extended her hand towards
Misato, ignoring the fact that Misato still seemed to be in some kind
of shock. Her deep brown skin stood out in stark contrast to the tones
of the rest of the group, long black hair fluttering in the wind, and
Neil instantly realized that she was the Sixth Child. "Captain
Katsuragi?" She paused, hand still waiting, then looked towards Neil
and Nieve. "Is something wrong with her?"
Misato finally seemed to spring into action again, whirling on her heel
and glaring at Kaji with venom. "Since when have you been a part of
NERV?" she snapped, the words coming out with stuttered gasps and an
emotion that Neil couldn't quite place. "The last I knew, you were
trying to -"
"People change careers, honey," replied Kaji, smirking as Misato
visibly ruffled. He turned towards Neil, ignoring the angry woman
standing a few feet away as if he didn't have a care in the world. "So
you're the Third, right?" Neil paused, then nodded. "Hmm. A little
scrawnier than I thought you'd be. Has Misato told you any stories
about us, or does she keep mostly to herself now?"
"Wait a minute. You two used to -date-?" Nieve knew on an
intellectual level that she had absolutely no chance with Kaji, but the
thought that Misato had not only had the chance but succeeded got under
her skin for reasons she couldn't quite explain. She glanced back and
forth between the two adults, her face twisted into a grimace of
confusion, as if she was trying to envision the pairing. "Why didn't
you ever tell me?"
"It's not like it matters," Niobe interjected, shaking her head at the
situation. "As long as you're both responsible officers, there's no
problem, is there?"
"-Responsible-? This man is the least responsible person I -know-!"
Misato's gaze remained fixed, but Neil still thought that he saw a hint
of something else there.
Kaji smirked at the accusation, obviously not disturbed in the least.
"I managed to keep Nieve alive, didn't I?" he asked, letting his smile
grow at Misato's indignation. "I think you're just afraid that you
won't be able to control yourself around me."
"...this isn't going well," muttered Neil, shaking his head and turning
away from Misato and Kaji's shouting match. Much as some part of him
wanted to watch the scene unfold between the two of them, he had other
things to think about, most importantly the creeping feeling of guilt
in the pit of his stomach. He glanced at Nieve for a moment and found
himself wondering what sort of person would even consider hurting
someone like her, what the fact that he'd thought about it said about
him as a person.
]++[
"No way." Niobe cocked an eyebrow, reaching across the table to grab
the salt shaker as she stared towards Nieve. "I don't believe it."
Snatching the shaker, she poured another round of salt onto the meal in
front of her, hoping that the flavor would cut the actual flavor of
what she'd been served. Whatever innovations the military had managed
to make over the years, cooking was not one of them, and even if NERV
was in command of the transports it was still a UN military action.
"Believe it. He landed -right- on my breast." Sighing, the redhead
idly took another bite of the gummy meat that had been served to her,
the flavor almost like that of a hot dog but not quite as enjoyable.
The event still hadn't left her mind, that instant of being completely
helpless, and she had to admit to being terrified for just a moment.
She certainly wasn't going to tell that much to Niobe, however,
especially considering how draconian the other girl seemed to be about
being the best. "Then he was trying to cover up, like it was a total
coincidence. His hand landed on my breast, and he tells me it was an
accident."
"Stranger things have happened," replied Niobe idly, taking a sip of
the dark black coffee in front of her, savoring the sharp bitterness of
it that helped keep her awake. The bland gray surroundings of the mess
hall did little to keep her attention on the events going on around
her, and though she'd been getting more than enough sleep since the
voyage began she was finding herself getting tired from simple boredom,
something that the coffee helped to offset. "Still, even if he was
taking advantage of the situation, you can't blame him. You are a
pretty girl his age, after all."
"Um. Yeah." Nieve shifted uncomfortably in her seat at the remark,
and Niobe noticed but stayed silent. For a second, Nieve simply stared
down at the food in front of her, feeling a pang of guilt, then she
looked back towards Niobe and forced other thoughts to the forefront.
"I guess you're right, though. Besides, other than the charming first
impression he made, he is kind of cute."
Chuckling to herself, Niobe smirked slightly, pleased to see that Nieve
had apparently gotten over the fixation with Kaji that she'd professed
on one level, wishing that it had remained on another. As long as
Nieve remained focused on personal relationships, she wasn't focusing
on piloting the Eva, and that meant that she was falling behind. It
was one of the first things that Niobe's parents had taught her, that
she needed to stay focused on the task at hand, that anything else was
a dangerous distraction. "Considering how much you were cursing him on
the way here..."
"That was before I met him," muttered Nieve, thinking for a second
about the few moments that she'd actually interacted with him. He'd
seemed nice underneath the anger of the circumstances, fairly witty and
more polite than she would have expected. Then she remembered that odd
moment when he seemed as though he were angry enough to hit her, his
fist clenched tightly and his entire body simply seeming threatening.
It had almost been scary, and for a moment she thought that he was
going to hit her back. Almost idly, she wondered if that was how he
managed to be such an excellent Evangelion pilot, with that same sort
of anger. "Now... well, he doesn't seem like the sort of person I'd
envisioned. Different. In a good way."
Niobe's smile dimished slightly, but she didn't seem to notice, simply
taking another bite of the same gum-meat that Nieve had and feeling the
blandness of the meat shine through despite the excessive salting she'd
heaped on it. "I'm reserving judgement," she said, poking at the meat
almost idly with her fork. "After all, now that we're here, he might
start to slack off. You can't really be certain about him as a pilot
until you work with him in a combat situation."
Shaking her head, Nieve smiled back at Niobe, sipping the iced tea
before her and idly wondering how it was Niobe could drink hot coffee
when she knew she'd be going back out under the hateful sun. "Niobe, I
wasn't talking about him as a pilot. Just as a person."
Pausing for a moment, Niobe stared at the gleaming metal of her fork,
as if it might give her some sudden burst of clarity. She wanted to
believe that she'd known that was what Nieve had meant, but there was a
nagging suspicion in the back of her head that she was intentionally
avoiding thinking about Neil as a person. "We're Eva pilots," she said
at length, standing up and picking her tray up at the same time.
"There isn't much difference for us." Just saying the words made her
feel something knot inside of her, but she pushed it out of her mind
and reminded herself that she was telling the truth, stepping away from
the table and walking towards the dish disposal. "I'm going to go
check on EVA-05. Will I see you for dinner?"
"Yeah, sure. The USS Constance isn't known for its collection of fine
eateries." The comment brought a smile to the lips of both girls, but
as Nieve continued to poke at her meat, Niobe's comment wouldn't leave
her head, even as Niobe's shoes clicked along the metal floor out
through the door, the room becoming dangerously empty except for
Nieve. Shutting her eyes for a moment, she remembered the anger on
Neil's face, and she couldn't help but wonder for an instant if there
was some truth to Niobe's words.
]++[
The hold that contained Niobe's Evangelion was differently structured
from the holding bays of the NERV facilities she was used to, the Eva
stretched horizontally in a bed of the same liquid that usually covered
its entire body, gently sloshing against the machine as the ship moved
with the waves. She hadn't been given much explanation as to why the
liquid was necessary, but her theory was that it provided the organic
parts of the machine with nutrients, to make sure that it stayed
healthy despite any extertion. "Not that you've been getting much
exercise," muttered Niobe, wanting to reach out and touch the machine,
a desire made impossible by the position of the Eva. "You're getting
fat and sloppy."
Her comments were ironic, and she knew it - EVA-05 had been
intentionally designed as the fastest machine of the initial production
run. Still, she could feel that she wasn't talking so much about the
machine as she was talking about herself. There was something under
her skin that had been nagging at her ever since she'd met Nieve, a
nagging question about herself that she couldn't seem to shake despite
what she knew to the contrary. She knew that she'd had excellent
performance during every single test run of the machine, that she'd
never failed a synchronization test and never missed a beat on a
training simulation.
"But all that was artificial," she muttered, slumping against the gray
wall of the hold, still staring at the yellow form of her Eva as it lay
in the liquid. "I've never actually participated in combat, and I know
that Nieve's never had the chance to, either." Closing her eyes, she
remembered watching the initial footage from the battle with the Third
Angel, remembered the sudden pang of fear she'd gotten when the Angel
broke the Eva's arm, when it tore a hole through the machine's head.
Even though she'd prepared for the shock associated with the neural
feedback, she couldn't help but be scared by the idea.
"And I can't be afraid. I know that." She smirked to herself, pulling
her knees to her chest and hugging them tight against her body, feeling
very small next to the massive Eva. That was another thing that Joseph
had taught her, that she needed not to be afraid. Sometimes she
wondered, when she was certain that nobody was looking, if her father
expected her to do all this through force of will alone. It was
certainly the most likely possibility, but considering that she was the
pilot of a machine piloted solely by force of will, she could hardly
blame him for his view of things.
Realizing that she was focusing on the issue at hand and blowing it out
of proportion, she shut her eyes for a moment, focusing on clearing her
mind and focusing on the important matters. "You're just worried about
whether or not you're going to be as good as you need to be," she
scolded herself, opening her eyes again and staring at the Eva. It was
the truth of the matter, she kept reminding herself, that she was
starting to have doubts about whether or not she could live up to
Joseph's standards.
Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself of her training, of
everything that she'd learned as a child. "I will be the best pilot,"
she muttered, almost seeming to address the Eva instead of herself. If
she could pilot the machine by the force of her will, then all that was
necessary to pilot it better was more willpower. And she knew that the
only way that she'd be noticed as a pilot was to be the best at it, to
not shrink at the responsibility. "I'm not afraid. And I'll show them
all just how good I can do."
]++[
"Does this mean that you've forgiven me about the accident on deck?"
shouted Neil, trying his best to keep up with Nieve without bumping
into her, a difficult task given the darkness of the ship's corridors
and the fact that his legs were much longer than hers. She'd hunted
him down while he was in the middle of lunch, insisting that he
finished immediately and come with her, and since he still felt guilty
about his earlier moment of angery he had acquieseced without much
resistance.
"I'm considering it, anyways," replied Nieve, doing her best to
navigate the dull gray corridors in the insufficient light provided by
the small bulbs on the ceiling. The corridors did have differing looks
to them, but since they were so narrow and dark, and the fact that most
of the differences between them were the arrangements of pipes and
objects on the walls, it was still difficult to tell where she was
going. Stepping forward and counting the doors on her left, she nodded
decisively, then walked to the third door and flung it open. "Come on!"
Neil, still unsure of where Nieve was taking him, shrugged and followed
her through the door, down an equally narrow corridor of stairs with
much brighter light at the end. Stepping down off the end of the
stairs, he looked around the room and felt an immense sense of deja vu,
staring at the massive red golem before him that he knew to be an
Evangelion unit. The holding bay wasn't painted the digusting teal-
gray of NERV, but the purpose was obviously the same. "Evangelion unit
02," announced Nieve proudly, gesturing towards the Eva with a
flourish. "Mine."
"Very nice," replied Neil in a tired voice, looking around the room and
ignroing Nieve's indignation at his reaction. He could see a crane set
up to insert the entry plug, a few computer consoles up against a wall
presumably for monitoring the Eva's status, even a catwalk over the
prone Eva's back. Stepping forward and peering into the orange-purple
liquid that filled the pool in which the Eva lay, he could see long
metal tubes attached to a few ports on the machine, what he assumed to
be the equivalen of the machine's normal restraints at Central Dogma.
Glancing towards the head, he saw two pairs of almost camera-like eyes,
one stacked on top of the other. "It's kind of odd-looking."
"Odd-looking?" replied Nieve indignantly, turning him forcibly away
from the Eva and towards herself. "This is the first -real-
Evangelion! The one you pilot was just a test model. EVA-02 is the
world's first production model." She smirked at the machine for a
second, then shrugged. "It doesn't mean as much now that the other
three Evas have been completed, but this thing was the parent of all
their designs. They wouldn't exist if it wasn't for my machine."
Something about that comment struck Neil as odd, and glancing back
towards the Eva's head he realized immediately what it was. "I've seen
03 and 04, and neither of them have four eyes." He cocked his head
slightly, examining the head more closely. "Did they change the design
after yours was made?"
"Don't be an idiot," replied Nieve, gritting her teeth at the mention
of the other two Evangelion units. She already felt as though she'd
let everything get out of hand by not being in Tokyo-3 sooner, and Neil
had inadvertantly reminded her of precisely that. "There were two
production designs approved by NERV. Those units are part of the
American-Japanese design run. EVA-02 is the Euro-African design, same
as EVA-05 over in the other bay." She paused for a second, realizing
what that statement must have sounded like. "But most of the systems
that the production designs on both sides incorporated first debuted in
this machine. It's the first ever."
Neil stared for another second, then shrugged, not sure of exactly what
Nieve wanted him to say. He still felt guilty about what had happened
earlier, but considering the way he'd felt at the time the last thing
he wanted was to be anywhere near an Eva. Looking back towards the
immobile goliath, Neil recalled Gendou's initial name for the Evas, an
artificial life form, and found himself wondering for a second if they
had minds of their own underneath the mechanical parts. Shaking his
head at the thought, he turned back towards Nieve, determined to change
the subject. "Do you know where you'll be living in Japan?"
"I was told that NERV would set up housing for me," replied Nieve,
leaning back against a wall of the holding bay and crossing her legs as
she leaned. "They didn't say where, though." She paused, then opened
her mouth to speak again when the boat suddenly rocked violently,
sending both Children to the floor, Neil landing roughly on his back
and Nieve falling face-forward onto the metal floor. The liquid in the
Eva's tank sloshed violently, splashing onto the walkway to either
side, a few drops falling onto Neil and Nieve.
Getting to his feet, Neil waited a second or two before standing
completely, knowing that he'd probably fall right back down if the ship
rocked again. The ship remained stable, and he rushed over to Nieve,
helping her back to her feet gingerly, trying to keep his hands far
clear of any area that might be distantly construed as sexual. "Are
you all right?"
"Fine. Just wondering what the hell is going on." She rubbed one of
her knees for a second, then both Children froze as a blaring alarm
came over the ship's speakers. Nieve glanced around for a second, then
tugged Neil over towards the console that he'd noticed before,
hammering down a few keys as if she'd been using the Eva monitoring
equipment all her life. Recalling Misato saying something about Nieve
having been with NERV longer than any of the other Children, Neil
suddenly wondered if she might have been using the equipment for almost
her entire life. "No way. I don't believe this."
"What?" asked Neil, leaning over towards the computer screen that was
now displying an external camera view. He watched nothing for a
moment, simply a picture of the ships moving along with them, then saw
a sudden burst of waves besides one of the ships, a massive bone-white
form emerging from the water and smashing into the ship before diving
once again. He stared for another second, trying to figure out what it
could be, before he realized that the answer was obvious. "An Angel.
One of the Angels is attack us."
Nieve couldn't keep herself from grinning broadly at the thought,
glancing over to the other side of the room before running from the
console towards a strongbox. Neil almost didn't notice for a moment,
then glanced over to see her quickly rifling through the contents of
the box as if looking for something specific. "What are you doing?" he
asked, confused."
"Isn't it obvious? I'm getting out my plugsuit." She continued
looking for a moment, then proudly grabbed something red, tossed it
atop the box, and began to push off the straps of her dress before
realizing that Neil was still looking at her. "Turn away!" she
snapped, blushing a deep crimson and pulling the straps back up in
indignation. Neil shrugged, and turned his back towards her, at which
point she resumed the process of undressing.
Despite everything, it took Neil a great deal of self-restraint not to
turn around and glance at Nieve, especially as he heard her make small
grunts of effort that his mind turned into different noises entirely.
He drummed his fingers against his leg, still anxiously watching the
external camera as the Angel slammed agains the surrounding boats of
the convoy. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder, and he turned to see
Nieve in the same style of plugsuit that Eiko wore, red where her suit
had silver and orange where Eiko had red. "You're going to have to act
as my operator, all right?"
Without waiting for a response, Nieve began dashing across the floor
towards the entry plug, and Neil stared at the console, wondering what
it was she expected him to do. "Nieve!" he shouted, causing her to
stop as she climbed into the white entry plug, glancing backwards at
him. "I don't know how to work the console!"
The sudden expression of frustration on Nieve's face let Neil know that
she was not happy with this sudden development on his part, though he
assumed she knew he'd not had the time to learn how the console
worked. "All right," she shouted across to him, climbing in the entry
plug but not closing the hatch. "Press the big red button on top to
open the comm lines, and I'm assuming that Misato can coach you through
the process. The green button to your right starts the synchronization
process, and the yellow one moves the crane. Hit the yellow one when I
close the plug."
Seeing the plug slam shut, Neil gritted his teeth and shook his head,
then pressed the yellow button as Nieve had told him, then immediately
looked back towards both the plug and the Eva, worried already that
he'd done something wrong. The port on the back of the Eva had opened
correctly, however, and the crane had started to move, obviously on a
path to insert the plug. Taking a deep breath, he slammed down on the
red button, glancing around for a second before finding the
microphone. "This is holding bay... um... holding bay..." He shook
his head, putting a hand over the microphone as he sighed. "This is
the holding bay with EVA-02 in it. The Second Child is preparing to
activate EVA-02. Entry plug is being inserted."
"-Neil-?" came Misato's voice, obviously spoken with intensity but
oddly quiet. Neil looked around for a second, then saw a small headset
resting to one side, the obvious source of Misato's voice, and grabbed
it, slipping it over his head and adjusting it slightly. "What the
hell are you doing in the holding bay? And what do you mean that EVA-
02 is being activated?"
"Well, Nieve and I were down here looking at EVA-02 when the Angel
started attacking, and, well, we just sort of assumed..." He shook his
head, glancing behind himself towards the Eva, watching as the entry
plug screwed itself into the Eva's back, the plates sliding closed with
a satisfying mechanical noise. "Look, that's really not the important
thing to think about right now. What is important is the fact that I
need you to give me a hand, that I don't have the vaguest idea what any
of the buttons on this console do."
There was a pause on the other end, then Neil could hear muffled
cursing in Japanese before Misato came on again. "All right. Console
operation isn't exactly my forte, so we'll have to do without some
functions of it. There should be a green button to the right of the
screen that says 'Activate' on it. Hit the orange button above that,
then hit the green button."
"Got it," replied Neil, hitting the orange button and watching various
labeled displays pop up on screen. He knew most of the terms on them
from his own experience in the Eva, and closing his eyes for a second
he hit the green button. He waited a second, then stared back at the
console display, watching as the information from the Eva suddenly
began assaulting the screen at lightning speed. "Um... plug flooded
with LCL! Synchronization currently at 51%, some fluctuation, and...
uh... what do I do now?"
"You type in 'launch,' backslash, 'port one,' backslash, 'zero-two.'"
The calm tone to Kaji's voice was a sharp contrast with Misato's angry
explanation moments earlier, but Neil hesitated for a moment, unsure
about why Kaji was on the radio. As if sensing his question, Kaji
offered an answer almost immediately. "Niobe's being launched in EVA-
05. We've got power cords ready for both machines on the ship."
Misato shouted something about the fact that she should be in charge of
deploying the Evas, but Neil ignored it, typing the commands as Kaji
had instructed. The top of the holding bay seemed to fold away, and
Neil watched as the Eva behind him slowly rose to its feet, pulling
itself out of the opened ceiling. He'd never watched the huge things
move before, only having seen them stationary or while he was inside
one, and the effect was somewhat terrifying, seeing the great beast
slowly clamber out of the holding bay like some undead monstrosity from
its coffin. "EVA-02 is out of the bay," he stammered, still somewhat
shaken by the sight of the huge thing in motion. He glanced at the
display again, then his eyes went wide. "It's saying that the unit has
only three minutes of operation left!"
"EVA-02 activated on battery power. That number will jump back up once
it plugs itself into the main power feed at the top of the ship." Sure
enough, Neil heard a mechanical noise above, then the screen flashed a
green light saying that EVA-02 was connected to an external power feed
and the operation time began to go back up towards five minutes. "Now
hit the red button again to open a communications line with the pilot
as well."
On the deck of the ship, Nieve smiled to herself as she drew the Eva up
to its full height, feeling comfortable as she watched the spray of
foam that she knew concealed the Angel racing about the other ships.
Hearing the hiss of the radio, she leaned back in her seat and
tightened her grip on the handles of the cockpit, keeping her mind
focused on the external limbs of the Eva. "Nieve, there should be a
standard-issue pistol on Ship Seven," said Neil, sounding a little
hesitant, something she only took quick notice of as she glanced around
and located the seventh ship. "Can you make it?"
"I think so," replied Nieve, judging the distance quickly. The Eva
couldn't make the jump directly, but Ship Twelve was between her and
the target, and that made it the ideal stepping stone. Crouching, she
pushed off of the ship with all the force she could muster, feeling the
air whistle past the surface of the unit as it hurtled towards the deck
of the ship. Forcing herself to ignore the sensation of fear that
she'd miss the deck, she focused instead on the machine, keeping
careful control as it slammed down on the ship's deck, tilting it
slightly from the impact. Letting herself drop into a crouch again,
she jumped once more, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Niobe
had already moved to her target and had the pistol in her hands.
Grimacing to herself and controlling her machine carefully as it landed
on Ship Seven, Nieve saw the pistol instantly, grabbing it and letting
her targeting system kick in as the furrow of water stilled slightly,
then lunged in her direction. Niobe was aiming at the beast already,
and she made a quick gesture towards Nieve, who immediately took aim
and started firing. The bullets flew true, but slammed off the air a
few feet away from the Angel, bouncing off the characteristic octagonal
disturbance. "Damn! The Angel's AT field is too powerful! Our
weapons don't have any -"
Before she could finish speaking, Nieve realized that the Angel was
headed straight for her, and to her shock the thing sprang out of the
water, a spray of sewater following it as its huge jaws snapped open.
The thing was even larger than she'd thought, far larger than the boat
she was on, with jaws that seemed to take up half of its sharklike
body. As it lunged towards her, she saw a glint of red down where a
throat should have been, a sign that she recognized instantly. Moving
quickly, she sent her Eva flying to one side as the beast's massive
bulk smashed into Ship Seven, snapping the ship in two as the Angel
sank back beneath the waves.
The leap hadn't been as controlled as she'd wanted, and she found
herself almost tumbling out of control for a second before she forced
the Eva to remain under control, landing roughly on Ship Twelve as the
other ship began to sink, the spray of water cloaking the Angel pausing
for a second as though unsure of where to go. "Are you all right,
Nieve?" asked Niobe, and Nieve glanced over to see EVA-05 on the move
towards her position.
"Yeah," she replied, forcing her machine back to its feet as the
Angel's distinctive wake began to turn around, curving back towards the
ship that Nieve was standing on. "I've figured out where its core is -
it's located inside the Angel, down its throat." She paused, still
unsure if the radio feed was working correctly. "Misato? Can you hear
me?"
"Loud and clear," replied Misato's voice as Nieve jumped away from the
ship she had been standing on, letting the Angel slam into it and start
to turn as she jumped closer to Niobe. Niobe fought down a rush of
panic as the other Eva landed on the boat, finding herself suddenly
terrified of the thought that the Angel might come towards her. "When
the Angel attacked you, it opened its mouth. You've got to hit it
while it's attacking, otherwise you won't have a chance."
"Roger," replied Niobe, closing her eyes tightly for a second while she
brought her pistol to bear. She couldn't be afraid, not now, not once
she'd finally gotten the chance she wanted to show how good she really
could be as a pilot. Keeping her eyes open and gritting her teeth, she
rooted her Eva in place, waiting as the beast sprang out of the water
and let its massive jaw open, then giving the target crosshairs a
second to center on the glinting red core before pulling down hard on
the trigger, repeating that she must not be afraid over and over like a
mantra.
The bullets raced towards their target, then bounced harmlessly off of
the Angel's AT Field, and Niobe's spirits sank. "Target's AT Field is
still too powerful to penetrate!" she shouted, hurling her Eva sideways
with panicked quickness. She meant for it to land on the nearest boat
lightly, but she wasn't moving gracefully enough, and the yellow
machine moved too far, flying over the boat and straight over the
ocean. Horror seeped into her bones, and for a split second she could
feel the LCL in her mouth as if it was choking her, feeling like she
was drowning. Then she jerked hard on the handles and forced her
machine to turn, barely grabbing onto the bow of the ship before the
rest of her machine sank into the water with a colossal splash.
"Niobe!" shouted Kaji, watching with gritted teeth as the displays
showed the malfunctioning portions of EVA-05's lower body. The
machine's access ports for the chemical bath hadn't been completely
shut, and the salt water that was flooding into them was preventing
most of the lower body from functioning until she could flush them
out. "Misato, EVA-05's lower torso is malfunctioning! It's a sitting
duck on that ship!"
Misato began to shout orders, but Nieve knew that there wasn't any time
to debate tactical strategies, just to act before EVA-05 was eaten by
the Angel. And as she stared down at the spray of water sent up by the
Angel, she knew there was only one way that they could neutralize the
AT Field and still be able to defeat the Angel. "Hey, Neil, you
remember your battle with the Fourth Angel?" she asked, popping out the
progressive knife from her left shoulder flange and grabbing it as she
dropped her Eva into a crouch. "Time for me to steal a trick from your
book."
Before anyone could even try to talk her out of it, Nieve had launched
her Eva skyward, but this time it wasn't towards another ship. The
Angel almost seemed to notice that she was descending towards it, blade
the prog knife pointing downward, but it didn't slow down until she
slammed hard into its AT Field, pushing the field inward for just a
moment before it dissipated and she landed on the Angel's back.
Without hesitation, she drove the prog knife hard into the beast's
back, then gripped it firmly as the Angel began thrashing, desperate to
get the Eva off of its back.
For a second, Neil could only stare in disbelief, then he remembered
his role as operator and began watching the graphs again, occasionally
glancing at the external camera and hoping that Nieve was all right.
"EVA-02 has... um... I don't know what it did, exactly, but the Angel's
AT Field has been dissipated." His eyes widened, and he gritted his
teeth, wishing that he could be outside, making up for the horrible
thoughts he'd had earlier. "It's taking a lot of damage from all of
the Angel's thrashings. Can't last much longer."
Hearing Neil's words felt like a slap across the face to Niobe, and she
gritted her teeth, letting go of the pistol and preparing for something
that she'd only tried once before with limited success. "I'm not
afraid," she whispered to herself, swinging EVA-05's body forward under
the water, then backwards, then forwards again, then back and up in a
massive arc. The Eva pushed itself up and out of the water in a huge
spinning flip, water flushing out of the chemical ports in long trails
as the machine regained control over its lower body, then started to
fall back towards the ship. Slamming to a stop on the ship's deck,
Niobe grabbed the pistol, taking aim on the Angel. "Hold on just a
little while longer, Nieve."
The targeting crosshairs centered on the Angel, and Niobe took a couple
shots, drawing the Angel's attention. Without thinking, it lunged
towards the ship that Niobe was standing on, bursting out of the water
with an added flourish as EVA-02's ducts began to flush themselves.
Nieve smirked inside the machine as Niobe gritted her teeth, once again
forcing herself not to be afraid as she let the crosshairs center on
the red core, then fired without hesitation, jamming down on the
trigger as hard as she could, firing until the pistol clicked empty.
All those watching the battle saw as the pistol discharged over and
over into the Angel's mouth, a painful and decisive sight as the Angel
continued to sail through the air. Then they saw the thing slam into
EVA-05, and there was a moment of panic as the ship lurched downwards,
unable to easily support the combined weight of both Evas and the
Angel, no clear indication that the Angel wasn't about to drag both
Evas to the bottom of the ocean and leave them there. It wasn't until
the entire scene had remained frozen in place for a moment or two that
it became clear that the Angel had only made it to the ship through
sheer momentum. "The Angel has been neutralized," announced Nieve,
flashing a thumb's-up with her Eva as she climbed off the back of the
huge sea beast.
]++[
Getting EVA-02 and EVA-05 back into their holding bays had proven to be
an interesting task at best, an infuriating one at worst. While
transporting the two machines back was a simple task, they lacked the
fine manipulators to reattach most of the restraints, and it was also
difficult to shut the machines back down properly under the
circumstances. In the end, both machines wound up not being fully
restrained except for a few jury-rigged mechanisms, with the entire
crew assuming that any damage done to the machines would be easily
repaired along with the damage from the Sixth Angel.
It had been an uninteresting voyage otherwise, though as Neil idly
watched the two Eva units being unloaded from the ship he realized that
there were few other things that could have happened to make the trip
any more interesting. For his part, he simply wished that he'd done
more to help, along with still feeling bad about what he'd almost done
to Nieve. It had stuck in his brain uncomfortably, something that
struck him as somewhat petty considering that nothing had actually
happened, but disturbed him more by its implications than by actuality.
"Neil!" shouted Misato, drawing Neil's attention away from the ship and
back to her newly-repaired car. She'd gone to pick it up almost as
soon as they'd arrived back in Tokyo-3, and she seemed quite protective
of it now that it was finally out of the shop again. "I've gotten all
your stuff squared away - not that there was much of it. Now all we
need to do is to get Nieve, and we can go."
Before Neil could ask the question that sprang into his mind, he saw
Nieve approaching the car herself, backpack slung over her shoulder and
a suitcase in either hand. Neil stepped forward to help, but she waved
him off, looking particularly irate. "Kaji just told me to come over
here," she announced, not sounding happy about it. "Would you care to
explain to me why that is?"
"You need to live somewhere while you're in Tokyo-3," replied Misato,
smirking as she took a set of keys out of her pocket and tossed them
towards Nieve. Nieve dropped a suitcase and caught the keys, examing
them suspiciously for a moment as though they might bite. Neil had a
sneaking suspicion where the discussions was headed, a suspicion that
was confirmed in his mind as soon as Misato stepped over and picked up
Nieve's suitcase. "Commander Ikari's orders. You're rooming with us."
Staring for a second, Nieve looked at Neil, then at Misato, then back
towards Kaji, who was busy loading Niobe's belongings into his car.
She doubted, somehow, that she was going to be rooming with him, but
the simple thought that she was getting that lucky ruffled Nieve's
feathers, especially considering that she had more or less won the
battle against the Angel for them. "This trip just keeps getting
better," she muttered, stepping over to Misato's car and cursing the
heat.
]++[
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. Considering that he also gave me a hand with
the bible quote this time around, I'm starting to seriously owe him.
Copyright 2002 Eliot Lefebvre.
NEXT EPISODE:
Know thy friends.
Know thy enemies.
Know thyself.
NEON EPOCH EVANGELION 6: GNOTHI SAUTON
"You don't work with the Eva, you tell it what it's going to do."
]++[
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 5: LEVIATHAN +[
By Eliot "Lostfactor" Lefebvre
Based off of "Shin Seiki Evangelion" by GAINAX
]++[
No one is fierce enough to rouse him.
Who then is able to stand against me?
- JOB 41:10
]++[
It was an unusually warm day, even for Tokyo-3, and as Eiko reached to
her forehead to brush the beads of sweat away she wondered if it might
have something to do with the prior day's battle against the Fifth
Angel. She'd heard Ritsuko mention something about the particle
disturbance thrown up by each blast that EVA-01 fired, and having
experienced its attacks she would be willing to guess that the Angel
could have left more than enough have residual heat in the area. She
frowned at the thought, glancing down to her thin red blouse, the
lightest long-sleeved shirt she owned that was still too thick for the
season. She'd even caved in and worn jean shorts, but still the heat
insisted for lighter material.
A cough from her left turned her attention back towards Hikari, and she
blushed slightly, feeling a little silly for having not paid attention
to her friend. "Sorry," she said, grabbing the front of her blouse and
flapping it, trying to get some cooling air into the shirt. "It's just
too hot out today to focus on anything. Good thing that we're not in
school, or nobody would be paying attention."
"-I- would," insisted Hikari, and Eiko flashed her a quick smile before
giving a slight giggle at the concept. Hikari took her position as
class representative far too seriously sometimes, something that Eiko
found astonishing given the young girl's other tasks. Mercifully
enough, however, Eiko had been able to drag the brunette away from
housecleaning duties to the hill where Eiko had first met Neil, a hill
that now provided an excellent view of the Fifth Angel as NERV
struggled to break it down and move it. "If it's so hot out, why did
you wear a long-sleeved shirt?"
Eiko sighed, then pulled up one of the sleeves slightly, revealing the
criscrossing pattern of red marks that extended down from her wrist.
Hikari gasped lightly, and Eiko shrugged, pulling the sleeve back
down. "They didn't mention exactly how painful things are," noted
Eiko, sounding just slightly bitter. "Oh, sure, the Evas have armor,
but it doesn't feel like it on the inside - it felt like the damn thing
had set me on fire and then gone after me with a knife."
Hikari spread her arms sympathetically, and Eiko leaned over, letting
her friend give her a quick squeeze before they both returned to their
prior positions, Eiko with her legs extended and arms propping her up
against the ground, Hikari with her knees drawn up to her chest and
arms dangling around them. "Weren't you scared?" she asked, eyes wide
with curiosity. "Knowing what that thing was able to do to Vash... I
know that I would have been terrified."
"Yeah, I was scared," replied Eiko, sinking her head slightly at the
thought. She felt some measure of guilt for not being in time to keep
Vash out of harm's way, but she had to admit that she was glad it had
been him that went up first instead of her. "But I knew that Neil
would protect me." The thought of the blonde boy made her smile again,
his green eyes standing out in her mind with their unique light shade.
"He's amazing. Even if he isn't the best pilot, he feels more
determined than anybody, like he could destroy the Angels by force of
will alone."
"Sounds like quite a guy," noted Hikari, a touch of cynicism sounding
in her voice. Eiko looked over to her friend, but she was still
smiling, though there was a touch of sadness to her. Before Eiko could
take a guess at what was bothering her, however, the girl spoke up, her
voice cracking slightly. "He did put Toji in the hospital, though.
And they're still not sure when he'll get out."
"I know," replied Eiko, sounding more resentful than she had meant to
despite herself. The information from the doctors came daily, but
after being nearly crushed by a collapsing building there didn't seem
to be a particularly good prognosis for Eiko's elder brother. There
were questions about whether or not he would ever walk again, and every
so often his condition would start drifting towards critical and send
Eiko's entire household into a flurry of panicked activity. "But that
wasn't his fault, not really. He was trying as hard as he could. He
just was outclassed by the Angel."
"Probably," replied Hikari, sounding as though she genuinely believed
Eiko but still had some nagging doubts in her head. "I... I don't
blame Neil, not really, I just wish that I knew Toji would be all
right." She sighed, then glanced at her watch, eyes widening slightly
at the display. "It's 9:30. We should probably head towards NERV,
then I head back to housework."
Eiko nodded, and both girls rose to their feet, Eiko trying her best to
remember Neil's directions into the locker room. It was a complicated
facility, and the fact that she'd only been in it once under a high-
stress situation only made things worse. "I wonder if Neil will be
there," she muttered to herself, drawing a stare but not a comment from
Hikari. For a split second, she found herself wondering about what
made him captivating to her, but she shoved the thought out of her
head, knowing that there were other matters to deal with. Glancing one
last time at the remains of the Fifth Angel, she kept heading towards
NERV, trying her best to ignore the sweat seeping out from beneath her
skin.
]++[
Despite the other thoughts swimming around in his head, Neil found
himself feeling rather pleased with himself as he rewound one of his
movies, listening to the gentle whir of the VCR as he leaned back on
the couch and stared at the ceiling. He'd felt bad about being pleased
with Vash's injuries, he'd felt bad about the fact that he'd caused
Eiko pain, and he felt bad about not having been at Central Dogma fast
enough. But despite all of that, he felt as though he'd regained both
Eiko and Misato's goodwill, and that was a prize more than worth the
few negative feelings about who he was.
Misato, for her part, was thumping about in her bedroom a few meters
away, ostensibly getting dressed, though Neil wondered what sort of
dressing procedure required a large amount of noise and the occasional
Japanese curse. The longer he spent around Misato, the more he became
convinced that she acted responsible at work because she had to, that
if she could have swaggered in and had a grand time directing the Evas
on the surface she would have. Glancing towards the half-opened door,
Neil briefly found himself considering peeking inside, then shook his
head and scolded himself for the thought. "Come on, you're finally
managing to be a decent person," he muttered, smirking to himself.
"Don't screw it up now like you usually do."
Closing his eyes, he flashed back to the momentary embrace between he
and Eiko, something that managed to feel more real than anything else
from the previous few days. Even with the blood-stench of LCL floating
in the cockpit and the knowledge that she was hurt, simply feeling the
warm embrace of someone who he knew might like him was electrifying,
something that he hadn't felt in too long a time. It felt almost like
a benediction, as if with one hug Eiko had absolved him of everything
that he'd done wrong since his arrival, that a single piece of human
contact made everything brighter once again.
A few final thumps came from the bedroom, and the door creaked open,
Neil looking towards it almost unconsciously. He knew that part of
that was on the off chance that the door had opened before Misato had
finished changing, but he pushed the thought out of his mind,
determined to feel at least decent about himself for the rest of the
day. It turned out to be an empty suspicion anyways, as Misato stepped
out a second later in the same black dress she'd worn the day Neil had
met her, red jacket slung over her shoulder. "You look good, Misato,"
he noted, nodding his approval. "I didn't think you were going into
work today, though. I was getting a movie ready."
"Didn't I tell you?" asked Misato, her face wrinkling into a frown at
the thought that she'd forgotten. Neil felt a knot beginning to form
in his gut, a familiar memory pushing itself back to the surface, and
he turned away from Misato, stopping the VCR and turning it off with
the remote. "I didn't tell you. Neil, I'm sorry, I must have
forgotten." She paused, noticing that his face was drawn tightly. "To
be fair, I had a lot of other things that I -"
"It's not you," Neil interjected, shaking his head and shoving the old
thoughts back in the dark little recesses of his mind where they
belonged. "You just reminded me of... someone that I used to know."
Sighing deeply, he shut off the television and turned towards Misato,
his face neutral once again. "So, then. What did you forget to tell
me?"
"The convoy carrying the Second and Sixth Children is only about a
day's travel away," she replied, flopping down on the couch next to
Neil. Neil, for his part, was doing his best to avoid the sensation
that Misato had given him, reminding himself that there was no alcohol
upon her breath and that she'd genuinely forgotten. "NERV wants me to
go over to greet them, especially since..." She paused, biting her
lower lip for a second, a gesture that Neil didn't notice. "Well,
Commander Ikari has his reasons. The big thing is that they want for a
member of the staff to meet them on the boat, for diplomatic reasons."
Neil nodded, trying hard to focus on what Misato was saying instead of
his own bitterness, reminding himself that there were more important
things to consider. "Are you going to be riding back with them?" he
asked, slouching slightly in his seat, fixing his eyes on the green
fabric of the couch, his determination to feel good about himself
slowly eroding from within.
"-We're- going to be riding back with them," replied Misato, drawing
Neil's attention back towards her. She smiled broadly, winking at him
and flashing a victory sign with her fingers. "NERV doesn't just want
a member of the administration on the voyage - they want their best
pilot, too. The flight leaves at around 10:30, and we should be there
by 11. Then we just get to enjoy a bit of a cruise until we get back
into Tokyo-3's harbor." Looking at Neil, her eyes widened slightly,
noticing that he was obvious displeased with Misato's news. "What's
wrong? Don't you like boats?"
"You just decided that I'd come along, without even asking me," he
muttered, standing and turning away from Misato once again, holding the
back of his head tightly and closing his eyes as he paced. "Hell, you
didn't even decide that I got to be -told- that we were going until it
was too late to do anything about it -"
Before he could continue on his tirade, Neil was stopped by Misato's
hand on his shoulder, pulling him around and making him realize that he
was failing dramatically to keep his mind off of less pleasant
thoughts. "Neil, I know that I should have told you, and I'm sorry,"
Misato said, her voice measured and calm. If Neil hadn't seen the
concern on her face, he would have been certain that she was furious
with him. "What's going on? I know that I didn't get a chance to tell
you about this beforehand, but it seems like this is really getting to
you."
"I know, I know," replied Neil, shaking his head and scolding himself
internally, reminding himself that dwelling on his past failures wasn't
a good idea. "It's just... something that I got used to once before, a
situation that I hate. Nothing that you did." He sighed, sinking his
head and staring at Misato's feet. Almost instantly he felt his eyes
tracing the path of her pantyhose, and he shut them, feeling even worse
about prior events. "So. When do we leave?"
Misato cocked her head slightly to one side, trying to figure out what
was wrong with Neil. An answer presented itself almost immediately,
but she pushed it out of her mind out of discomfort. "Hey. Don't look
so sad." Neil stared up at her, and the look in his eyes brought back
the same uncomfortable thought. She pondered for a second if it made
her uncomfortable because of what it said about his past or because of
what she was, but then forced herself to forget it, smiling and tugging
Neil forward. "Now, get some clothes together, and we'll head down to
the airfield. You might actually enjoy yourself as a dignitary."
"Heh." The thought made Neil smile a little, and he shook his head as
he stepped into his room, trying to figure out what he could bring and
not worry about the next day. He felt bad about being so awkward
around Misato, but the memory of being forgotten by people he cared
about was too strong in his mind, still fresh even with the time
between. "And I guess I do care about Misato," he muttered, smiling to
himself as the words passed his lips. He'd known it, but he hadn't
really admitted it - the woman had something about her that made her
likable, even when she did things that angered him. Sighing heavily
but painlessly, he grabbed a shirt from his bureau, trying to figure
out if he should bring another pair of pants.
]++[
NERV's planes, Neil discovered, had apparently been designed by the
same team that had come up with the aerodrones. It would have been
visible to anyone that had seen the drones before that there were
obvious design similarities - tilt-wing thrusters, a blocky body with
an almost awkward tail behind it, short wings - but on the inside, it
seemed to still echo the same design philosophy of complete
pragmatism. He'd been expecting the same sort of padded nylon seats
that the Eva cockpits sported, and instead was given a cold metal bench
painted a nauseating shade of blue. "They could have made the planes a
little more appealing," he noted, staring across the narrow room
towards Misato.
"We hardly had the budget," replied Misato, a grin drifting across her
face despite herself. "NERV was barely given enough money to buy a
coffee machine, much less fund the development of the Evangelions. So
we have to make do with what we can get our hands on." She sighed,
glancing out one of the small glass windows as the plane began to lurch
away from the city, its movements feeling awkward and forced. "And
there are nations in the UN still opposing further budget increases for
the project."
Giving an absent nod, Neil leaned towards his own window, watching as
the plane turned to unintentionally give him a clearer view of the
city, out into the surrounding foothills and the smaller portions of
civilization. He distantly recognized an area he thought might have
been the part of Tokyo-3 that he'd first entered, but as the plane
continued turning it became a moot point. Letting his viewpoint shift
with the plane's movement, he watched the Fifth Angel's remains
shifting into view, the slumped-over octohedron lying in the road,
cranes busying themselves by taking apart the smooth surface with
precision. "Misato?" he asked, leaning back towards the dark-haired
woman and away from the window. "Why did I get chosen to meet the
other Children?"
Misato almost didn't seem to notice Neil's question for a moment, a
briefcase open next to her and papers being rearranged swiftly within.
Then she paused and looked up at him, smiling but obviously
distracted. "Because they wanted one of the current pilots to be
there," she replied, turning almost immediately back to the papers.
"Why do you ask?"
"That's not what I meant," Neil replied, giving another glance out the
window as the plane began to fly over other parts of Japan, too quickly
for Neil to get anything but a quick glimpse at them. "Why me,
specifically? Why not Ryo, or Eiko, or even Vash? They don't have
functional Evas at the moment, right?"
"Right," replied Misato, still sounding distracted. "I don't think
that the medical division is even particularly taken with the idea of
having Vash pilot a machine at the moment." Neil leaned forward, and
he caught a momentary glimpse of what looked like a personnel report
with a picture of a red-haired girl before Misato shuffled another
sheet atop it, scanning the lines quickly. "But Commander Ikari didn't
want one of the other Children on the ships. He wanted you."
"Ikari," muttered Neil, glancing out the window almost as a reflex,
noting the blue water absently. He'd never had a chance to speak with
the commander for more than a few seconds, only knew him from their
distant interactions in the Eva docks. Still, something about the man
felt infinitely cold, almost as bad as the Angels themselves. "Was he
trying to sell out Tokyo-3, or did he have some kind of rationale
behind it?"
Flipping her hair back with an odd sort of nod, Misato continued to
stare at the papers in her briefcase, almost as if she was looking for
information that wasn't there. "You have the best record against the
Angels, that's why," she replied, sounding distracted. "I think he's
worried about the prospects of having 02 and 05 be attacked on their
way here, especially since it'd be a difficult proposition to fight
back against an Angel on the ocean. So he's sending the best."
Neil opened his mouth to respond, then closed it again, gritting his
teeth and staring out the window of the plane as the blue ocean
stretched along outside. "The best fighter," he muttered to himself,
not liking the concept of being good at fighting even though he knew it
was necessary. A thought tickled at the back of his mind, and he found
himself wondering if he didn't like the idea of fighting or just the
fact that he piloted the Eva to do it. Closing his eyes, he remembered
the green iris of the Evangelion, a memory perfectly fresh despite the
fact that it had been more than a week since his first battle. Then he
remembered tackling the third Angel in his crimson anger, the sensation
as he drove anything sharp he could find into the beast's body.
Then he recalled the memory that had driven him into the fit, a memory
that time had mercifully dulled but not removed. His brow furrowed
unconsciously as he remembered kneeling in the sand of the playground,
dark red stains in front of him, a thin trickle of blood running down
his wrist as the teachers milled about the bully. At the time, he was
too young to understand what had happened, only knew that he was trying
to do the right thing and had obviously made a mistake. They'd moved
away soon after that, as soon as the older boy's family had decided not
to press charges against Neil's parents.
"He didn't die," Neil muttered to himself, eyes still closed tightly
and brow furrowed. His words were quiet, but Misato heard him, and she
turned away from the papers in her briefcase to look up at him with
concern. "They said his arm would never work right again, but he
didn't die. And he never bullied anyone again, I'm certain of that.
So it was the right thing then, the right thing now..."
"Is something wrong?" asked Misato, drawing Neil's attention away from
his memories with a sharp and surprised reaction. "You seemed to be -"
Shaking his head, Neil turned away from Misato again, feeling even
worse for her having heard him. He suspected that she already knew
what a horrible thing he'd done, but on the off chance that she didn't
he wanted to make sure that she didn't find out, either. "It's
nothing," he replied, focusing on a speck in the distance that he
assumed was either Tokyo-3 or the boats that they were approaching.
Misato frowned, then stood and walked over to his side of the plane,
sitting down beside him and touching his shoulder gently. "I said it's
nothing," he snapped, recoiling slightly at her touch, but he fell
silent afterwards, simply staring out the window. Misato hesitantly
extended her hand again, then withdrew it, standing and walking back
over to her briefcase. Whatever Neil was going through, she knew it
was probably best for her to remain uninvolved.
]++[
"Are we sitting in these entry plugs for a reason?" shouted Vash,
visibly irritated from the small window on the computer display as he
crossed his arms and sulked. Kozou Fuyutsuki involuntarily smiled,
amused both by the boy's insistence upon information and his continued
zeal to pilot the Evangelions despite his first encounter with the
machines. He glanced up towards the three entry plugs barely touching
the surface of a pool of LCL, on the other side of the observation
booth, letting his eyes rest upon the one with "03" emblazoned across
its hatch in blocky letters, almost feeling disappointed at the fact
that Vash couldn't see the smile.
"This is a synchronization test," replied Fuyutsuki after a moment,
stepping away from the computer console and towards the room's primary
microphone. The room itself was fairly large, although the fact that
it shared the same bland color scheme as the rest of Central Dogma made
it seem even larger. However, the testing area, more or less a
vertical column filled to the windows with LCL, was only about the size
of a truck, just large enough to fit eight entry plugs and not a single
one more. "It's designed to help us keep track of how solid your
connection is with your Eva unit. All you have to do is synch up with
the machine like normal."
Vash turned his gaze to one side slightly, biting his lower lip and
looking intensely undecided about Kozou's response. "Couldn't you just
do that while we're in the machines?" he asked, perking up slightly as
he turned back towards the camera monitoring his cockpit. "I mean,
that's when it matters anyways, so then you'd have the most pertinent
information right away, and -"
"Keep in mind that this would be occurring during an Angel attack,"
noted Ryo calmly, his eyes shut inside the entry plug, resting his
hands calmly on his knees. Vash immediately took offense at the
comment, but without any way of glaring at Ryo he simply crossed his
arms and scowled at nothing. "It's very simple. I've undergone the
tests before. I am ready when you are, Professor Fuyutsuki."
"Understood. You should feel something in a few moments." He stepped
away from the microphone, over to the unoccupied monitoring station to
his left, checking the vital signs of the pilots briefly before
stepping over to the other station. Maya was already tapping away at
the keyboard, Ritsuko leaning over her shoulder and watching the graph
move up and down regularly with an air of calm superiority. "How are
they doing?"
"Ryo is at 43% - higher than we'd been able to get previously, due to
00's eccentricities. I suspect that the modifications made to the unit
have helped the synch ratio somewhat." She furrowed her brow slightly
for a moment, took a quick note of something on her board, then turned
back towards the display of the Children's synch ratios. "Eiko is
holding steady at 46%, while Vash is managing to peak at 50%. It's a
testament to the connections of the production models that he hasn't
fallen below that yet."
Fuyutsuki nodded, glancing briefly at the display of the pilots' status
before watching the synchronization graph himself, noticing something
about the display for a second without being able to place it. He
watched the graph move for a moment, then realized what it was. "The
graph is updating on a real-time basis," he said, turning towards
Ritsuko. "I thought that your mother -"
"Dr. Akagi modified the code yesterday," interjected Maya, grinning
slightly at the fact as she swapped a couple of displays. "She said
that her mother must have been drunk when she wrote the code for some
of the monitor displays, that there was too much unnecessary code that
was clogging it down. The whole system is running faster." She
stopped, then blushed, turning to Ritsuko immediately as her brown eyes
widened. "I'm sorry, ma'am, I spoke out of turn."
"It's fine, Maya," replied Ritsuko, giving a little smile to the
younger woman. Maya's blush disappeared, and she gave a quick nod, her
almost boyish haicut bobbing ever so slightly before she turned back to
her station. Ritsuko shook her head gently, then turned towards
Fuyutsuki. "I was simply going through some of the operations code
that mother put onto the systems, and I noticed that there were ways to
streamline the process. She probably just didn't think of them at the
time."
Nodding, Fuyutsuki turned back towards the console, unable to keep
himself from smiling. He remembered Naoko Akagi as though he'd worked
with her the day before, and she seemed to have produced an almost
identical child - the same motivation, the same passion, the same
absolute unwillingness to let even the smallest imperfection remain.
It was one of the things about Naoko that had helped get the project
rolling. "You're very much like your mother, you know," he noted,
looking over at the blonde woman. "If you hadn't changed your hair
color, you might be indistinguishable from her."
"Then I suppose it's just as well that I did," replied Ritsuko, smiling
grimly. Fuyutsuki stared at her for a moment, then shook his head,
turning back towards the display before him and studying it. He wanted
to say something to her, but somehow it seemed like entirely the wrong
time, and he was willing to stay silent for the time being. Besides,
he had other matters to attend to.
]++[
Ryo stared into the single eye of EVA-00, the same bright red as his
own eyes by what he assumed was a rather ironic coincidence.
Technically, his routine dictated that he should have gone straight to
the locker room and changed out of his plugsuit, but considering that
his routine was inextricably intertwined with that of the Evangelion it
only made sense for him to examine the updated machine at least once
before he piloted it. So he'd made his way down from the testing room
to the holding room where the prototype unit was housed, standing on
the catwalk above the huge pool of liquid surrounding the machine, arms
hanging limply by his sides.
He'd expected that some changes would have been made to it, but he
hadn't expected that it would be turned blue. Aside from the neutral
white arms with a few bands of black around them, the entire machine
was a bright blue, white highlights in a few key locations. There were
other modifications made as well, and Ryo could see that the shoulders
had been fitted with the standard flanges of the EVA series, the left
arm already equipped and the unit for the right arm visible from his
position on the catwalk. It looked far better suited for combat,
something that Ryo could tell was in order after his battle with the
Fourth Angel.
"Ayanami-san?" The voice was clearly recognizable, and Ryo turned his
head towards the source to see Eiko, now dressed in the same red shirt
and jean shorts from the morning, walking towards him casually.
Staring for a moment, Ryo wondered if she'd figured out he hadn't given
Neil her sketch, something that he assumed she would be upset about if
she knew. "Is something wrong? Vash said that you weren't in the
locker room, and I wasn't sure if -"
"I was examining my Evangelion," replied Ryo, turning his gaze back
towards the machine and studying its lines. Eiko took a step back,
getting the impression that Ryo didn't want to talk to her, something
that seemed a little odd considering his usual dearth of emotion. Ryo
was distantly aware that she took a step back, but it was of little
concern to him. "I expect that it will be ready for operation again in
the near future."
"Um... I'm looking forward to that," replied Eiko, not sure if there
was a correct response to the statement that she simply didn't know.
"We can use all the backup we can get, right?" She smiled, suddenly
wondering why she'd come all the way down to the Eva bays to find Ryo.
She'd never asked him about the sketch she'd gave him, but she knew
that things were fine between her and Neil, and that meant that it
hardly mattered.
Ryo glanced towards the girl, noticing that she was uncomfortable but
barely even considering that it could be because of him. He remembered
watching the video of the battle, watching Neil eject himself the
second the Angel had been defeated and rushing to her side. She had
put her life dangerously close to being extinguished for him, and Neil
had done the same for Ryo, an action that he still hadn't figured out
the rationale behind. Looking at Eiko, he began to wonder if there was
some connection between the two incidents, if there was a single
unifying cause behind the risks they had taken. "Would you put your
life on the line for me, Eiko?" he asked, looking back towards the
Eva. "Like you did for Neil?"
The question surprised Eiko into taking another step backwards, her
face drifting somewhere between fear and indignation. "I... I don't
know. It hasn't happened, has it?" Ryo said nothing, only continued
to stare at EVA-00's single red eye, and the girl wondered what made
him ask her something like that. "I guess that I would, if I knew that
you would do the same for me. That's how people keep each other safe,
isn't it?"
Something in Eiko's voice made Ryo want to speak up, but before he
could get past opening his mouth the same door that she'd entered from
slid open and Vash stepped out. He stared for a moment, then stepped
over to Eiko almost too swiftly, standing just far enough between her
and Ryo for the implications to be obvious. "Ayanami," he said, trying
to sound formal but making the name wind up sounding more like an
insult than anything else. "I was a little worried about you. Thought
you might have gotten yourself hurt."
"I see," replied Ryo, staring at Vash intently, trying to gauge the
man's intentions. "Because that's something that I do often." Vash's
brow furrowed at the remark, and Eiko gently put her hand on his
shoulder, seeming to calm him somewhat. Ryo simply stared for a
moment, then turned back towards EVA-00, knowing that he couldn't ask
Eiko anything with her boyfriend around and having lost the thought
anyways. "I'm fine."
"Yeah. You're just the spitting image of a normal teenager." Vash
turned slightly away from Ryo, then put his hands on Eiko's shoulders
and turned her away gently as well. Ryo noticed that Vash was still
staring at him, and he turned his head slightly towards the other
Child, expecting to see the same sort of hateful gaze that he was
accustomed to getting from Vash. The expression, however, was quite
different than he'd been expecting, torn somewhere between pity and
confusion. "Well, we're off to actually enjoy our day, but... um, glad
you're all right, Ayanami."
"Thank you for your concern," he replied, turning his gaze back towards
EVA-00 completely. He was distantly aware of the sound of the catwalk
doors hissing open and then closed, but he busied his minds with other
thoughts until he heard the noise a second time a few moments later.
It still might not have piqued his interest had it not come from the
other end of the catwalk. As it was, he turned his head towards the
noise, seeing Gendou walking towards him, long black coat hanging
loosely over the red turtleneck he wore, dark glasses obscuring his
eyes as usual. "Dr. Ikari. Am I late for something?"
"No," replied Gendou, stopping about a meter away from Ryo, one hand in
the pocket of his black slacks while the other hung limply at his
side. "I was looking for you, but I was informed by Dr. Akagi that you
had not returned to the locker room after the testing. The Magi
pinpointed your location here." He paused, and Ryo knew without him
saying another word that Ryo needed to undergo further testing
elsewhere. "There are still things that I need you to attend to today."
Ryo nodded, turning towards Gendou and walking towards the commander
even as Gendou himself turned away from the boy and headed for the door
that he'd come in from a few moments earlier. "Dr. Ikari?" he asked,
coming to a stop rather suddenly as a thought occurred to him, causing
the doctor to stop in mid-stride and turn back to face Ryo. "Eiko said
that people sacrifice themselves for others because they expect the
action will be reciprocated. Is that why Neil saved me against the
Fourth Angel?"
"Perhaps," replied Gendou, turning just enough so that Ryo could see a
satisfied sort of half-smirk on his face. It was an expression that he
recognized as a sign of Gendou's approval of his actions, and to the
best of his memory it had never come as a result of asking a question
before. "But you don't need to worry about that, Ryo. You're
different, and you know that."
"Yes," replied Ryo, nodding and beginning to walk once again. Gendou
nodded, then continued walking towards the exit from the Eva hangar.
Glancing back at the Eva one last time, his lids half-closed from a
sensation that he couldn't put a name to, he remembered what he was
going to ask Eiko before - if she would be willing to put her life on
the line for the Eva, knowing that it was as alive as Ryo.
]++[
It had been years since Neil had been on a boat, and the most recent
occurrence had seen him below deck and vomiting for much of the trip
due to a stomach virus. As the plane gently touched down on the
surface of the carrier that Misato had directed his attention towards,
he felt a slight sense of excitment, his determination to feel decent
about himself fighting to make being on the boat at least vaguely
enjoyable. Stepping outside, he was almost immediately struck by the
wind, and he winced as a blast hit him directly in the face, sending
his hair fluttering and forcing him to shut his eyes instinctively. "I
didn't remember this much wind," he shouted to Misato, the hum of the
engines of the plane still too loud to speak normally over.
"Because the boats are going so fast," replied Misato, smirking as she
stepped out of the plane, dark sunglasses obscuring her eyes and both
her jacket and skirt fluttering madly. She glanced around for a
second, then pointed towards the front of the ship, drawing Neil's
attention to the tapered point. "See, that's the front of the ship,
called the port... and, um, up there is the observation deck, which
they call the starboards." She paused, glancing around. "And I think
you're supposed to bow when you get on an unfamilar boat."
Neil stared at Misato for a second, not sure whether to laugh or sigh.
He finally settled for shaking his head, resting his hand on Misato's
shoulder and smirking. "The front of the ship is the bow. Port is the
left side of the ship, and starboard is the right side." He paused.
"I had to learn that for a report at school one year."
Misato didn't seem to be pleased at learning about Neil so much as
irritated at being proven incorrect. "All right, then, what do they
call the observation deck?"
"'The observation deck,' usually," replied Neil without missing a
beat. He and Misato stared at one another for a moment, then both
laughed, the silliness of the situation overcoming them. Neil felt a
momentary rush of confidence at the laugh, as if the one moment of
humor made everything else correct itself. "Listen, is it okay if I
walk around for a little while? I'd like to get some time to clear my
head."
"Go right ahead," replied Misato, waving somewhat distractedly towards
him as she glanced around. "I'm fairly certain you can't get too far
on a boat." She smirked, then took a few steps away from the plane,
motioning for Neil to do the same as it prepared to lift off once
again. "I'll try to find the Children and get you introduced, you just
take the time you need. No worries."
Offering a quick nod, Neil stepped away from Misato's position as the
plane's engines started full-force and began to lift it away from the
surface of the carrier. The wind was blowing something fierce, and
Neil forced himself to resist the temptation to stare at Misato's skirt
on the off chance that it would fly up, instead walking towards the
starboard walkway of the ship and taking in the salt air. Looking
around, he found himself taken by the sheer visual blandness of the
ship, the ship basically one big mass of gray and the ocean one big
mass of blue. It was the exact sort of environment he didn't want -
completely uninteresting to anyone except a military buff, giving him
plenty of time and space to think.
Shutting his eyes for a second, he placed his hands firmly on the rail
of the ship and leaned slightly over the edge, staring down into the
blue depths that stretched on below him. "The sea has no memory," he
muttered to himself, knowing that he was mangling the quote but knowing
also that the sentiment was the same. There was something unspeakably
comfortable about the waves, and the thought ocurred to him, almost
idly, that if he fell into them he would probably drown within
seconds. It wasn't a contemplation of suicide, nothing that he wanted
to do, but the thought popped into his mind regardless, and it
disturbed him for understandable reasons. Staring down into the water
again, it almost seemed to be surging upwards, and he pushed backwards,
away from the rail.
"Hey, watch it!" shouted a light female voice behind him, too late for
Neil to do anything but surrender himself to inertia. The same voice
let out a shriek as Neil fell on the source, sending both himself and
the unidentified girl staggering backwards into the bulkhead behind
them, and Neil could feel his unstable position on his feet. Then he
felt himself get shoved from behind, he heard the girl shriek again,
and his foot hit a puddle as he staggered forward, feeling very
confused as both of his feet ceased to be underneath him. Not wanting
to crack his spine, he forced himself to twist around in midair,
landing roughly on the soft, warm deck.
It took him a moment to remember that the deck of a military transport
would be neither soft nor warm, and only half a second to recall the
girl's voice that he'd heard. Pushing himself up slightly on his arms,
his face turned a bright crimson as he looked down to see his hand
firmly atop the girl's breast, her legs just wide enough for his to
slip between them. The girl herself was blushing as well, her face
beginning to match the color of her hair, and Neil found himself
forcing himself to resist the temptation to take the opportunity he had
with the thin fabric of the green dress the girl wore. "Hi," he
offered sheepishly, trying to smile.
Almost the exact second that he offered his apology, the girl's face
shifted from surprise to anger, and she brought her left hand hard
across Neil's cheek, shoving him away with her right arm. Neil
acquiesced, rubbing his cheek as he backed away into a standing
position once again, while the girl was still blushing as she stood up
once again. "You -pervert-," she snapped, a distinct Irish accent
showing through her words as she crossed her arms tightly, almost as
though she was hugging her chest. "First you nearly crush me, then you
try to cop a feel?"
The accusation stung more than the girl could have known, and Neil
scowled, still rubbing his cheek for a moment. "I wasn't trying to cop
a feel, I -fell-." He sighed, dropping his hand to one side and
scowling at the girl. "Besides, it's not my fault that you told me to
watch out after I couldn't stop. You might as well have asked for me
to turn back the tide."
"Very convenient that you fell directly onto me, isn't it?" she asked,
obviously not about to let the event drop. Looking somewhat closer,
Neil could see that there was still a slight flush to her face, as if
the event had embarassed her more than she wanted to admit to herself.
"And don't think that I didn't see you turn in mid-air. You wanted to
land on me, right where you wanted me."
"Gods, how much thought do you think I put into this? I didn't want my
spine to hit metal and crack into half-spines." He shook his head,
closing his eyes, brow still furrowed out of anger. "And to think that
I was going to apologize to you." Still shaking his head, Neil turned
to continue walking, then felt the girl's hand grip his shoulder
firmly. "What? What -now-?"
"You had bloody well -better- apologize!" she snapped, tugging hard on
his shoulder and spinning him around to face her again. She was
standing right next to Neil now, and he could see that she was
significantly shorter than he was, forcing him to look down at her.
"No moral person would -" She paused, and Neil could tell that she was
tracing the path of his vision with her own eyes as her gaze slowly
moved down until she was staring down her dress, at which point she
began trembling with what Neil assumed was anger. Neil sighed, then
winced as her hand slapped him once again. "And cut that out!"
"Cut -what- out? Listening to you?" The accusation about immorality
had stung far more than her slap, but Neil didn't want to say that,
especially not under the circumstances. He rubbed his cheek, feeling
somewhere between angry at the girl and disgusted with his own
actions. "What the hell was that slap for, anyways?"
"That's the price of admission," she replied, folding her arms now
across the top of her dress, a rather awkward-looking position by
Neil's standards. "You tried to grope me and look down my dress. Any
self-respecting woman would make a man pay for that, don't you think?"
Grimacing, Neil felt his fist clenching, eyes shut tight as he felt
anger begin to trickle in from the back of his head. He was the
victim, not the aggressor, and he hated being treated as though he'd
done something terribly wrong, just as he'd hated the way people had
stared at him on that day in the schoolyard, like he was some kind of
monster. "You don't want to know what I think," he snarled, his nails
beginning to bite into the palm of his hand. Then he realized what he
was doing, and his fist relaxed as he felt the crushing weight of shame
begin to fall on him, the mere thought that he'd been ready to hit the
girl making him feel almost nauseous.
Opening his eyes again, he stared at the girl, seeing on her face that
she'd recognized the sudden change in his mood, though he couldn't
quite tell from her expression whether that had made her angrier or a
little frightened. "I'm sorry," he muttered, stepping around her and
walking away without looking back. The thought of having almost wanted
to attack her wouldn't leave his mind, and he was so intent on the
concept that he nearly slammed right into Misato, skidding to a halt
inches away from her.
Misato was smiling, the sort of satisifed grin that she wore whenever
she was particularly pleased with how things had worked, a grin that
came up fairly frequently living with her. "Good job, Neil. The two
of you saved me the effort of finding you." Putting her hand firmly on
his shoulder, she turned him around towards the girl, who was now
several meters away and staring at Misato as if she'd seen the woman
before. "Nieve! Nieve, come over here!"
The girl took a step hesitantly, then faster, then faster again, wooden
sandals clanking against the surface of the ship as she stepped towards
Misato and Neil. "Misato, you've got to be kidding me," she said,
raising her eyebrows as she stared at Neil, now looking him over as if
he were for sale. "There's no way that he's the Third Child. I refuse
to accept it."
Neil had been suffering from a fairly consistent sinking feeling since
he'd almost hit the girl, who he assumed to be Nieve. As Misato smiled
and shook her head at the girl's comments, Neil looked back towards
Nieve and felt the feeling redouble itself. "You haven't changed at
all since I left Ireland. Nieve Soryu-Leary, this is Neil Richelieu,
the Third Child. Neil, this is Nieve, the Second Child."
Staring at Nieve for a moment, Neil opened his mouth to say something,
but Nieve obviously had no intention of letting him speak just yet,
still looking him over with a critical eye. "So this is the great and
mighty Third Child. Small wonder you've had such uneven performance
against the Angels - you can't even keep your hands off a girl when she
happens to be walking behind you." Neil frowned, and Nieve shot him a
grin that at first looked nasty before Neil realized that it was more
mischevious than anything. "Don't worry about it, though. Now that
I'm at NERV's headquarters, I'll keep everything under control. After
all, I do have the most experience."
"Really? Where were you during the first three attacks, then?" asked
Neil, sounding as bitter as he felt, though his bitterness was
direction more towards himself than towards Nieve. She scowled, and
Neil shook his head, holding up his hand in an abortive peace gesture.
"Sorry. I'm not trying to fight you." She seemed to listen, at least
for the moment, and he turned back towards Misato. "Didn't you say we
were meeting the Sixth Child, too?"
"Oh! Niobe!" Nieve slapped her forehead, apparently no longer
interested in dealing with Neil for the time being. "She and Kaji were
taking a quick tour of the ship. I don't know why he offered to take
her instead of me, but they should be around any second now." She
smiled, obviously satisified with herself, then noticed that Misato's
face had contorted into what looked like a painful grimace. "What's
wrong? Low tide hit you?"
"Kaji?" Misato asked, her voice barely above a hiss, somewhere between
rage and trepidation from what Neil could hear of it. "Do you mean...
Ryoji Kaji?"
"Hey, Misato. Long time no see." The voice was deep, eminently
masculine, with just the slightest touch of sarcasm in it. Neil turned
to look behind himself and Misato as the elder woman still stood in
abject horror, and saw the man standing there, tall and sinewy, a sort
of scruffy attractiveness about him with his slight beard stubble and
unruly hair tied into a ponytail. His blue eyes sparkled with a
notable intelligence as he walked towards the group, gesturing for the
girl next to him to walk along with him. "I see you've already been
reunited with Nieve."
"Captain Katsuragi." The girl next to him extended her hand towards
Misato, ignoring the fact that Misato still seemed to be in some kind
of shock. Her deep brown skin stood out in stark contrast to the tones
of the rest of the group, long black hair fluttering in the wind, and
Neil instantly realized that she was the Sixth Child. "Captain
Katsuragi?" She paused, hand still waiting, then looked towards Neil
and Nieve. "Is something wrong with her?"
Misato finally seemed to spring into action again, whirling on her heel
and glaring at Kaji with venom. "Since when have you been a part of
NERV?" she snapped, the words coming out with stuttered gasps and an
emotion that Neil couldn't quite place. "The last I knew, you were
trying to -"
"People change careers, honey," replied Kaji, smirking as Misato
visibly ruffled. He turned towards Neil, ignoring the angry woman
standing a few feet away as if he didn't have a care in the world. "So
you're the Third, right?" Neil paused, then nodded. "Hmm. A little
scrawnier than I thought you'd be. Has Misato told you any stories
about us, or does she keep mostly to herself now?"
"Wait a minute. You two used to -date-?" Nieve knew on an
intellectual level that she had absolutely no chance with Kaji, but the
thought that Misato had not only had the chance but succeeded got under
her skin for reasons she couldn't quite explain. She glanced back and
forth between the two adults, her face twisted into a grimace of
confusion, as if she was trying to envision the pairing. "Why didn't
you ever tell me?"
"It's not like it matters," Niobe interjected, shaking her head at the
situation. "As long as you're both responsible officers, there's no
problem, is there?"
"-Responsible-? This man is the least responsible person I -know-!"
Misato's gaze remained fixed, but Neil still thought that he saw a hint
of something else there.
Kaji smirked at the accusation, obviously not disturbed in the least.
"I managed to keep Nieve alive, didn't I?" he asked, letting his smile
grow at Misato's indignation. "I think you're just afraid that you
won't be able to control yourself around me."
"...this isn't going well," muttered Neil, shaking his head and turning
away from Misato and Kaji's shouting match. Much as some part of him
wanted to watch the scene unfold between the two of them, he had other
things to think about, most importantly the creeping feeling of guilt
in the pit of his stomach. He glanced at Nieve for a moment and found
himself wondering what sort of person would even consider hurting
someone like her, what the fact that he'd thought about it said about
him as a person.
]++[
"No way." Niobe cocked an eyebrow, reaching across the table to grab
the salt shaker as she stared towards Nieve. "I don't believe it."
Snatching the shaker, she poured another round of salt onto the meal in
front of her, hoping that the flavor would cut the actual flavor of
what she'd been served. Whatever innovations the military had managed
to make over the years, cooking was not one of them, and even if NERV
was in command of the transports it was still a UN military action.
"Believe it. He landed -right- on my breast." Sighing, the redhead
idly took another bite of the gummy meat that had been served to her,
the flavor almost like that of a hot dog but not quite as enjoyable.
The event still hadn't left her mind, that instant of being completely
helpless, and she had to admit to being terrified for just a moment.
She certainly wasn't going to tell that much to Niobe, however,
especially considering how draconian the other girl seemed to be about
being the best. "Then he was trying to cover up, like it was a total
coincidence. His hand landed on my breast, and he tells me it was an
accident."
"Stranger things have happened," replied Niobe idly, taking a sip of
the dark black coffee in front of her, savoring the sharp bitterness of
it that helped keep her awake. The bland gray surroundings of the mess
hall did little to keep her attention on the events going on around
her, and though she'd been getting more than enough sleep since the
voyage began she was finding herself getting tired from simple boredom,
something that the coffee helped to offset. "Still, even if he was
taking advantage of the situation, you can't blame him. You are a
pretty girl his age, after all."
"Um. Yeah." Nieve shifted uncomfortably in her seat at the remark,
and Niobe noticed but stayed silent. For a second, Nieve simply stared
down at the food in front of her, feeling a pang of guilt, then she
looked back towards Niobe and forced other thoughts to the forefront.
"I guess you're right, though. Besides, other than the charming first
impression he made, he is kind of cute."
Chuckling to herself, Niobe smirked slightly, pleased to see that Nieve
had apparently gotten over the fixation with Kaji that she'd professed
on one level, wishing that it had remained on another. As long as
Nieve remained focused on personal relationships, she wasn't focusing
on piloting the Eva, and that meant that she was falling behind. It
was one of the first things that Niobe's parents had taught her, that
she needed to stay focused on the task at hand, that anything else was
a dangerous distraction. "Considering how much you were cursing him on
the way here..."
"That was before I met him," muttered Nieve, thinking for a second
about the few moments that she'd actually interacted with him. He'd
seemed nice underneath the anger of the circumstances, fairly witty and
more polite than she would have expected. Then she remembered that odd
moment when he seemed as though he were angry enough to hit her, his
fist clenched tightly and his entire body simply seeming threatening.
It had almost been scary, and for a moment she thought that he was
going to hit her back. Almost idly, she wondered if that was how he
managed to be such an excellent Evangelion pilot, with that same sort
of anger. "Now... well, he doesn't seem like the sort of person I'd
envisioned. Different. In a good way."
Niobe's smile dimished slightly, but she didn't seem to notice, simply
taking another bite of the same gum-meat that Nieve had and feeling the
blandness of the meat shine through despite the excessive salting she'd
heaped on it. "I'm reserving judgement," she said, poking at the meat
almost idly with her fork. "After all, now that we're here, he might
start to slack off. You can't really be certain about him as a pilot
until you work with him in a combat situation."
Shaking her head, Nieve smiled back at Niobe, sipping the iced tea
before her and idly wondering how it was Niobe could drink hot coffee
when she knew she'd be going back out under the hateful sun. "Niobe, I
wasn't talking about him as a pilot. Just as a person."
Pausing for a moment, Niobe stared at the gleaming metal of her fork,
as if it might give her some sudden burst of clarity. She wanted to
believe that she'd known that was what Nieve had meant, but there was a
nagging suspicion in the back of her head that she was intentionally
avoiding thinking about Neil as a person. "We're Eva pilots," she said
at length, standing up and picking her tray up at the same time.
"There isn't much difference for us." Just saying the words made her
feel something knot inside of her, but she pushed it out of her mind
and reminded herself that she was telling the truth, stepping away from
the table and walking towards the dish disposal. "I'm going to go
check on EVA-05. Will I see you for dinner?"
"Yeah, sure. The USS Constance isn't known for its collection of fine
eateries." The comment brought a smile to the lips of both girls, but
as Nieve continued to poke at her meat, Niobe's comment wouldn't leave
her head, even as Niobe's shoes clicked along the metal floor out
through the door, the room becoming dangerously empty except for
Nieve. Shutting her eyes for a moment, she remembered the anger on
Neil's face, and she couldn't help but wonder for an instant if there
was some truth to Niobe's words.
]++[
The hold that contained Niobe's Evangelion was differently structured
from the holding bays of the NERV facilities she was used to, the Eva
stretched horizontally in a bed of the same liquid that usually covered
its entire body, gently sloshing against the machine as the ship moved
with the waves. She hadn't been given much explanation as to why the
liquid was necessary, but her theory was that it provided the organic
parts of the machine with nutrients, to make sure that it stayed
healthy despite any extertion. "Not that you've been getting much
exercise," muttered Niobe, wanting to reach out and touch the machine,
a desire made impossible by the position of the Eva. "You're getting
fat and sloppy."
Her comments were ironic, and she knew it - EVA-05 had been
intentionally designed as the fastest machine of the initial production
run. Still, she could feel that she wasn't talking so much about the
machine as she was talking about herself. There was something under
her skin that had been nagging at her ever since she'd met Nieve, a
nagging question about herself that she couldn't seem to shake despite
what she knew to the contrary. She knew that she'd had excellent
performance during every single test run of the machine, that she'd
never failed a synchronization test and never missed a beat on a
training simulation.
"But all that was artificial," she muttered, slumping against the gray
wall of the hold, still staring at the yellow form of her Eva as it lay
in the liquid. "I've never actually participated in combat, and I know
that Nieve's never had the chance to, either." Closing her eyes, she
remembered watching the initial footage from the battle with the Third
Angel, remembered the sudden pang of fear she'd gotten when the Angel
broke the Eva's arm, when it tore a hole through the machine's head.
Even though she'd prepared for the shock associated with the neural
feedback, she couldn't help but be scared by the idea.
"And I can't be afraid. I know that." She smirked to herself, pulling
her knees to her chest and hugging them tight against her body, feeling
very small next to the massive Eva. That was another thing that Joseph
had taught her, that she needed not to be afraid. Sometimes she
wondered, when she was certain that nobody was looking, if her father
expected her to do all this through force of will alone. It was
certainly the most likely possibility, but considering that she was the
pilot of a machine piloted solely by force of will, she could hardly
blame him for his view of things.
Realizing that she was focusing on the issue at hand and blowing it out
of proportion, she shut her eyes for a moment, focusing on clearing her
mind and focusing on the important matters. "You're just worried about
whether or not you're going to be as good as you need to be," she
scolded herself, opening her eyes again and staring at the Eva. It was
the truth of the matter, she kept reminding herself, that she was
starting to have doubts about whether or not she could live up to
Joseph's standards.
Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself of her training, of
everything that she'd learned as a child. "I will be the best pilot,"
she muttered, almost seeming to address the Eva instead of herself. If
she could pilot the machine by the force of her will, then all that was
necessary to pilot it better was more willpower. And she knew that the
only way that she'd be noticed as a pilot was to be the best at it, to
not shrink at the responsibility. "I'm not afraid. And I'll show them
all just how good I can do."
]++[
"Does this mean that you've forgiven me about the accident on deck?"
shouted Neil, trying his best to keep up with Nieve without bumping
into her, a difficult task given the darkness of the ship's corridors
and the fact that his legs were much longer than hers. She'd hunted
him down while he was in the middle of lunch, insisting that he
finished immediately and come with her, and since he still felt guilty
about his earlier moment of angery he had acquieseced without much
resistance.
"I'm considering it, anyways," replied Nieve, doing her best to
navigate the dull gray corridors in the insufficient light provided by
the small bulbs on the ceiling. The corridors did have differing looks
to them, but since they were so narrow and dark, and the fact that most
of the differences between them were the arrangements of pipes and
objects on the walls, it was still difficult to tell where she was
going. Stepping forward and counting the doors on her left, she nodded
decisively, then walked to the third door and flung it open. "Come on!"
Neil, still unsure of where Nieve was taking him, shrugged and followed
her through the door, down an equally narrow corridor of stairs with
much brighter light at the end. Stepping down off the end of the
stairs, he looked around the room and felt an immense sense of deja vu,
staring at the massive red golem before him that he knew to be an
Evangelion unit. The holding bay wasn't painted the digusting teal-
gray of NERV, but the purpose was obviously the same. "Evangelion unit
02," announced Nieve proudly, gesturing towards the Eva with a
flourish. "Mine."
"Very nice," replied Neil in a tired voice, looking around the room and
ignroing Nieve's indignation at his reaction. He could see a crane set
up to insert the entry plug, a few computer consoles up against a wall
presumably for monitoring the Eva's status, even a catwalk over the
prone Eva's back. Stepping forward and peering into the orange-purple
liquid that filled the pool in which the Eva lay, he could see long
metal tubes attached to a few ports on the machine, what he assumed to
be the equivalen of the machine's normal restraints at Central Dogma.
Glancing towards the head, he saw two pairs of almost camera-like eyes,
one stacked on top of the other. "It's kind of odd-looking."
"Odd-looking?" replied Nieve indignantly, turning him forcibly away
from the Eva and towards herself. "This is the first -real-
Evangelion! The one you pilot was just a test model. EVA-02 is the
world's first production model." She smirked at the machine for a
second, then shrugged. "It doesn't mean as much now that the other
three Evas have been completed, but this thing was the parent of all
their designs. They wouldn't exist if it wasn't for my machine."
Something about that comment struck Neil as odd, and glancing back
towards the Eva's head he realized immediately what it was. "I've seen
03 and 04, and neither of them have four eyes." He cocked his head
slightly, examining the head more closely. "Did they change the design
after yours was made?"
"Don't be an idiot," replied Nieve, gritting her teeth at the mention
of the other two Evangelion units. She already felt as though she'd
let everything get out of hand by not being in Tokyo-3 sooner, and Neil
had inadvertantly reminded her of precisely that. "There were two
production designs approved by NERV. Those units are part of the
American-Japanese design run. EVA-02 is the Euro-African design, same
as EVA-05 over in the other bay." She paused for a second, realizing
what that statement must have sounded like. "But most of the systems
that the production designs on both sides incorporated first debuted in
this machine. It's the first ever."
Neil stared for another second, then shrugged, not sure of exactly what
Nieve wanted him to say. He still felt guilty about what had happened
earlier, but considering the way he'd felt at the time the last thing
he wanted was to be anywhere near an Eva. Looking back towards the
immobile goliath, Neil recalled Gendou's initial name for the Evas, an
artificial life form, and found himself wondering for a second if they
had minds of their own underneath the mechanical parts. Shaking his
head at the thought, he turned back towards Nieve, determined to change
the subject. "Do you know where you'll be living in Japan?"
"I was told that NERV would set up housing for me," replied Nieve,
leaning back against a wall of the holding bay and crossing her legs as
she leaned. "They didn't say where, though." She paused, then opened
her mouth to speak again when the boat suddenly rocked violently,
sending both Children to the floor, Neil landing roughly on his back
and Nieve falling face-forward onto the metal floor. The liquid in the
Eva's tank sloshed violently, splashing onto the walkway to either
side, a few drops falling onto Neil and Nieve.
Getting to his feet, Neil waited a second or two before standing
completely, knowing that he'd probably fall right back down if the ship
rocked again. The ship remained stable, and he rushed over to Nieve,
helping her back to her feet gingerly, trying to keep his hands far
clear of any area that might be distantly construed as sexual. "Are
you all right?"
"Fine. Just wondering what the hell is going on." She rubbed one of
her knees for a second, then both Children froze as a blaring alarm
came over the ship's speakers. Nieve glanced around for a second, then
tugged Neil over towards the console that he'd noticed before,
hammering down a few keys as if she'd been using the Eva monitoring
equipment all her life. Recalling Misato saying something about Nieve
having been with NERV longer than any of the other Children, Neil
suddenly wondered if she might have been using the equipment for almost
her entire life. "No way. I don't believe this."
"What?" asked Neil, leaning over towards the computer screen that was
now displying an external camera view. He watched nothing for a
moment, simply a picture of the ships moving along with them, then saw
a sudden burst of waves besides one of the ships, a massive bone-white
form emerging from the water and smashing into the ship before diving
once again. He stared for another second, trying to figure out what it
could be, before he realized that the answer was obvious. "An Angel.
One of the Angels is attack us."
Nieve couldn't keep herself from grinning broadly at the thought,
glancing over to the other side of the room before running from the
console towards a strongbox. Neil almost didn't notice for a moment,
then glanced over to see her quickly rifling through the contents of
the box as if looking for something specific. "What are you doing?" he
asked, confused."
"Isn't it obvious? I'm getting out my plugsuit." She continued
looking for a moment, then proudly grabbed something red, tossed it
atop the box, and began to push off the straps of her dress before
realizing that Neil was still looking at her. "Turn away!" she
snapped, blushing a deep crimson and pulling the straps back up in
indignation. Neil shrugged, and turned his back towards her, at which
point she resumed the process of undressing.
Despite everything, it took Neil a great deal of self-restraint not to
turn around and glance at Nieve, especially as he heard her make small
grunts of effort that his mind turned into different noises entirely.
He drummed his fingers against his leg, still anxiously watching the
external camera as the Angel slammed agains the surrounding boats of
the convoy. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder, and he turned to see
Nieve in the same style of plugsuit that Eiko wore, red where her suit
had silver and orange where Eiko had red. "You're going to have to act
as my operator, all right?"
Without waiting for a response, Nieve began dashing across the floor
towards the entry plug, and Neil stared at the console, wondering what
it was she expected him to do. "Nieve!" he shouted, causing her to
stop as she climbed into the white entry plug, glancing backwards at
him. "I don't know how to work the console!"
The sudden expression of frustration on Nieve's face let Neil know that
she was not happy with this sudden development on his part, though he
assumed she knew he'd not had the time to learn how the console
worked. "All right," she shouted across to him, climbing in the entry
plug but not closing the hatch. "Press the big red button on top to
open the comm lines, and I'm assuming that Misato can coach you through
the process. The green button to your right starts the synchronization
process, and the yellow one moves the crane. Hit the yellow one when I
close the plug."
Seeing the plug slam shut, Neil gritted his teeth and shook his head,
then pressed the yellow button as Nieve had told him, then immediately
looked back towards both the plug and the Eva, worried already that
he'd done something wrong. The port on the back of the Eva had opened
correctly, however, and the crane had started to move, obviously on a
path to insert the plug. Taking a deep breath, he slammed down on the
red button, glancing around for a second before finding the
microphone. "This is holding bay... um... holding bay..." He shook
his head, putting a hand over the microphone as he sighed. "This is
the holding bay with EVA-02 in it. The Second Child is preparing to
activate EVA-02. Entry plug is being inserted."
"-Neil-?" came Misato's voice, obviously spoken with intensity but
oddly quiet. Neil looked around for a second, then saw a small headset
resting to one side, the obvious source of Misato's voice, and grabbed
it, slipping it over his head and adjusting it slightly. "What the
hell are you doing in the holding bay? And what do you mean that EVA-
02 is being activated?"
"Well, Nieve and I were down here looking at EVA-02 when the Angel
started attacking, and, well, we just sort of assumed..." He shook his
head, glancing behind himself towards the Eva, watching as the entry
plug screwed itself into the Eva's back, the plates sliding closed with
a satisfying mechanical noise. "Look, that's really not the important
thing to think about right now. What is important is the fact that I
need you to give me a hand, that I don't have the vaguest idea what any
of the buttons on this console do."
There was a pause on the other end, then Neil could hear muffled
cursing in Japanese before Misato came on again. "All right. Console
operation isn't exactly my forte, so we'll have to do without some
functions of it. There should be a green button to the right of the
screen that says 'Activate' on it. Hit the orange button above that,
then hit the green button."
"Got it," replied Neil, hitting the orange button and watching various
labeled displays pop up on screen. He knew most of the terms on them
from his own experience in the Eva, and closing his eyes for a second
he hit the green button. He waited a second, then stared back at the
console display, watching as the information from the Eva suddenly
began assaulting the screen at lightning speed. "Um... plug flooded
with LCL! Synchronization currently at 51%, some fluctuation, and...
uh... what do I do now?"
"You type in 'launch,' backslash, 'port one,' backslash, 'zero-two.'"
The calm tone to Kaji's voice was a sharp contrast with Misato's angry
explanation moments earlier, but Neil hesitated for a moment, unsure
about why Kaji was on the radio. As if sensing his question, Kaji
offered an answer almost immediately. "Niobe's being launched in EVA-
05. We've got power cords ready for both machines on the ship."
Misato shouted something about the fact that she should be in charge of
deploying the Evas, but Neil ignored it, typing the commands as Kaji
had instructed. The top of the holding bay seemed to fold away, and
Neil watched as the Eva behind him slowly rose to its feet, pulling
itself out of the opened ceiling. He'd never watched the huge things
move before, only having seen them stationary or while he was inside
one, and the effect was somewhat terrifying, seeing the great beast
slowly clamber out of the holding bay like some undead monstrosity from
its coffin. "EVA-02 is out of the bay," he stammered, still somewhat
shaken by the sight of the huge thing in motion. He glanced at the
display again, then his eyes went wide. "It's saying that the unit has
only three minutes of operation left!"
"EVA-02 activated on battery power. That number will jump back up once
it plugs itself into the main power feed at the top of the ship." Sure
enough, Neil heard a mechanical noise above, then the screen flashed a
green light saying that EVA-02 was connected to an external power feed
and the operation time began to go back up towards five minutes. "Now
hit the red button again to open a communications line with the pilot
as well."
On the deck of the ship, Nieve smiled to herself as she drew the Eva up
to its full height, feeling comfortable as she watched the spray of
foam that she knew concealed the Angel racing about the other ships.
Hearing the hiss of the radio, she leaned back in her seat and
tightened her grip on the handles of the cockpit, keeping her mind
focused on the external limbs of the Eva. "Nieve, there should be a
standard-issue pistol on Ship Seven," said Neil, sounding a little
hesitant, something she only took quick notice of as she glanced around
and located the seventh ship. "Can you make it?"
"I think so," replied Nieve, judging the distance quickly. The Eva
couldn't make the jump directly, but Ship Twelve was between her and
the target, and that made it the ideal stepping stone. Crouching, she
pushed off of the ship with all the force she could muster, feeling the
air whistle past the surface of the unit as it hurtled towards the deck
of the ship. Forcing herself to ignore the sensation of fear that
she'd miss the deck, she focused instead on the machine, keeping
careful control as it slammed down on the ship's deck, tilting it
slightly from the impact. Letting herself drop into a crouch again,
she jumped once more, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Niobe
had already moved to her target and had the pistol in her hands.
Grimacing to herself and controlling her machine carefully as it landed
on Ship Seven, Nieve saw the pistol instantly, grabbing it and letting
her targeting system kick in as the furrow of water stilled slightly,
then lunged in her direction. Niobe was aiming at the beast already,
and she made a quick gesture towards Nieve, who immediately took aim
and started firing. The bullets flew true, but slammed off the air a
few feet away from the Angel, bouncing off the characteristic octagonal
disturbance. "Damn! The Angel's AT field is too powerful! Our
weapons don't have any -"
Before she could finish speaking, Nieve realized that the Angel was
headed straight for her, and to her shock the thing sprang out of the
water, a spray of sewater following it as its huge jaws snapped open.
The thing was even larger than she'd thought, far larger than the boat
she was on, with jaws that seemed to take up half of its sharklike
body. As it lunged towards her, she saw a glint of red down where a
throat should have been, a sign that she recognized instantly. Moving
quickly, she sent her Eva flying to one side as the beast's massive
bulk smashed into Ship Seven, snapping the ship in two as the Angel
sank back beneath the waves.
The leap hadn't been as controlled as she'd wanted, and she found
herself almost tumbling out of control for a second before she forced
the Eva to remain under control, landing roughly on Ship Twelve as the
other ship began to sink, the spray of water cloaking the Angel pausing
for a second as though unsure of where to go. "Are you all right,
Nieve?" asked Niobe, and Nieve glanced over to see EVA-05 on the move
towards her position.
"Yeah," she replied, forcing her machine back to its feet as the
Angel's distinctive wake began to turn around, curving back towards the
ship that Nieve was standing on. "I've figured out where its core is -
it's located inside the Angel, down its throat." She paused, still
unsure if the radio feed was working correctly. "Misato? Can you hear
me?"
"Loud and clear," replied Misato's voice as Nieve jumped away from the
ship she had been standing on, letting the Angel slam into it and start
to turn as she jumped closer to Niobe. Niobe fought down a rush of
panic as the other Eva landed on the boat, finding herself suddenly
terrified of the thought that the Angel might come towards her. "When
the Angel attacked you, it opened its mouth. You've got to hit it
while it's attacking, otherwise you won't have a chance."
"Roger," replied Niobe, closing her eyes tightly for a second while she
brought her pistol to bear. She couldn't be afraid, not now, not once
she'd finally gotten the chance she wanted to show how good she really
could be as a pilot. Keeping her eyes open and gritting her teeth, she
rooted her Eva in place, waiting as the beast sprang out of the water
and let its massive jaw open, then giving the target crosshairs a
second to center on the glinting red core before pulling down hard on
the trigger, repeating that she must not be afraid over and over like a
mantra.
The bullets raced towards their target, then bounced harmlessly off of
the Angel's AT Field, and Niobe's spirits sank. "Target's AT Field is
still too powerful to penetrate!" she shouted, hurling her Eva sideways
with panicked quickness. She meant for it to land on the nearest boat
lightly, but she wasn't moving gracefully enough, and the yellow
machine moved too far, flying over the boat and straight over the
ocean. Horror seeped into her bones, and for a split second she could
feel the LCL in her mouth as if it was choking her, feeling like she
was drowning. Then she jerked hard on the handles and forced her
machine to turn, barely grabbing onto the bow of the ship before the
rest of her machine sank into the water with a colossal splash.
"Niobe!" shouted Kaji, watching with gritted teeth as the displays
showed the malfunctioning portions of EVA-05's lower body. The
machine's access ports for the chemical bath hadn't been completely
shut, and the salt water that was flooding into them was preventing
most of the lower body from functioning until she could flush them
out. "Misato, EVA-05's lower torso is malfunctioning! It's a sitting
duck on that ship!"
Misato began to shout orders, but Nieve knew that there wasn't any time
to debate tactical strategies, just to act before EVA-05 was eaten by
the Angel. And as she stared down at the spray of water sent up by the
Angel, she knew there was only one way that they could neutralize the
AT Field and still be able to defeat the Angel. "Hey, Neil, you
remember your battle with the Fourth Angel?" she asked, popping out the
progressive knife from her left shoulder flange and grabbing it as she
dropped her Eva into a crouch. "Time for me to steal a trick from your
book."
Before anyone could even try to talk her out of it, Nieve had launched
her Eva skyward, but this time it wasn't towards another ship. The
Angel almost seemed to notice that she was descending towards it, blade
the prog knife pointing downward, but it didn't slow down until she
slammed hard into its AT Field, pushing the field inward for just a
moment before it dissipated and she landed on the Angel's back.
Without hesitation, she drove the prog knife hard into the beast's
back, then gripped it firmly as the Angel began thrashing, desperate to
get the Eva off of its back.
For a second, Neil could only stare in disbelief, then he remembered
his role as operator and began watching the graphs again, occasionally
glancing at the external camera and hoping that Nieve was all right.
"EVA-02 has... um... I don't know what it did, exactly, but the Angel's
AT Field has been dissipated." His eyes widened, and he gritted his
teeth, wishing that he could be outside, making up for the horrible
thoughts he'd had earlier. "It's taking a lot of damage from all of
the Angel's thrashings. Can't last much longer."
Hearing Neil's words felt like a slap across the face to Niobe, and she
gritted her teeth, letting go of the pistol and preparing for something
that she'd only tried once before with limited success. "I'm not
afraid," she whispered to herself, swinging EVA-05's body forward under
the water, then backwards, then forwards again, then back and up in a
massive arc. The Eva pushed itself up and out of the water in a huge
spinning flip, water flushing out of the chemical ports in long trails
as the machine regained control over its lower body, then started to
fall back towards the ship. Slamming to a stop on the ship's deck,
Niobe grabbed the pistol, taking aim on the Angel. "Hold on just a
little while longer, Nieve."
The targeting crosshairs centered on the Angel, and Niobe took a couple
shots, drawing the Angel's attention. Without thinking, it lunged
towards the ship that Niobe was standing on, bursting out of the water
with an added flourish as EVA-02's ducts began to flush themselves.
Nieve smirked inside the machine as Niobe gritted her teeth, once again
forcing herself not to be afraid as she let the crosshairs center on
the red core, then fired without hesitation, jamming down on the
trigger as hard as she could, firing until the pistol clicked empty.
All those watching the battle saw as the pistol discharged over and
over into the Angel's mouth, a painful and decisive sight as the Angel
continued to sail through the air. Then they saw the thing slam into
EVA-05, and there was a moment of panic as the ship lurched downwards,
unable to easily support the combined weight of both Evas and the
Angel, no clear indication that the Angel wasn't about to drag both
Evas to the bottom of the ocean and leave them there. It wasn't until
the entire scene had remained frozen in place for a moment or two that
it became clear that the Angel had only made it to the ship through
sheer momentum. "The Angel has been neutralized," announced Nieve,
flashing a thumb's-up with her Eva as she climbed off the back of the
huge sea beast.
]++[
Getting EVA-02 and EVA-05 back into their holding bays had proven to be
an interesting task at best, an infuriating one at worst. While
transporting the two machines back was a simple task, they lacked the
fine manipulators to reattach most of the restraints, and it was also
difficult to shut the machines back down properly under the
circumstances. In the end, both machines wound up not being fully
restrained except for a few jury-rigged mechanisms, with the entire
crew assuming that any damage done to the machines would be easily
repaired along with the damage from the Sixth Angel.
It had been an uninteresting voyage otherwise, though as Neil idly
watched the two Eva units being unloaded from the ship he realized that
there were few other things that could have happened to make the trip
any more interesting. For his part, he simply wished that he'd done
more to help, along with still feeling bad about what he'd almost done
to Nieve. It had stuck in his brain uncomfortably, something that
struck him as somewhat petty considering that nothing had actually
happened, but disturbed him more by its implications than by actuality.
"Neil!" shouted Misato, drawing Neil's attention away from the ship and
back to her newly-repaired car. She'd gone to pick it up almost as
soon as they'd arrived back in Tokyo-3, and she seemed quite protective
of it now that it was finally out of the shop again. "I've gotten all
your stuff squared away - not that there was much of it. Now all we
need to do is to get Nieve, and we can go."
Before Neil could ask the question that sprang into his mind, he saw
Nieve approaching the car herself, backpack slung over her shoulder and
a suitcase in either hand. Neil stepped forward to help, but she waved
him off, looking particularly irate. "Kaji just told me to come over
here," she announced, not sounding happy about it. "Would you care to
explain to me why that is?"
"You need to live somewhere while you're in Tokyo-3," replied Misato,
smirking as she took a set of keys out of her pocket and tossed them
towards Nieve. Nieve dropped a suitcase and caught the keys, examing
them suspiciously for a moment as though they might bite. Neil had a
sneaking suspicion where the discussions was headed, a suspicion that
was confirmed in his mind as soon as Misato stepped over and picked up
Nieve's suitcase. "Commander Ikari's orders. You're rooming with us."
Staring for a second, Nieve looked at Neil, then at Misato, then back
towards Kaji, who was busy loading Niobe's belongings into his car.
She doubted, somehow, that she was going to be rooming with him, but
the simple thought that she was getting that lucky ruffled Nieve's
feathers, especially considering that she had more or less won the
battle against the Angel for them. "This trip just keeps getting
better," she muttered, stepping over to Misato's car and cursing the
heat.
]++[
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. Considering that he also gave me a hand with
the bible quote this time around, I'm starting to seriously owe him.
Copyright 2002 Eliot Lefebvre.
NEXT EPISODE:
Know thy friends.
Know thy enemies.
Know thyself.
NEON EPOCH EVANGELION 6: GNOTHI SAUTON
"You don't work with the Eva, you tell it what it's going to do."
]++[
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:
