AN: Hello, I have taken a lot longer than I anticipated. Being bedridden for close to two weeks did not help either, but I am up and writing again! I have one other project that I will now prioritise, which is a Harry Potter fic, but once it is finished, which should be relatively fast now, I am going back to focusing on ASD.
Now to the big news, this set of chapters will be final in this fic. We are near enough at 80K words, and I would rather bring some resolution to an aspect of the story and then start a new "Book" then create a doorstopper of a fic and have every new reader decide if they want to take my word on several hundred thousands of words of text before they get an ending. This will NOT mean that I am done with the story. Quite the opposite.
But I want the next volume to start off right and keep going right till the finish line. That may mean that I will choose to sit on ready-to-release chapters for a while. If that happens, expect more additions for the ASD:Seques.
That also gives me an opportunity to pull this volume in for an overhaul, so while, as ever, I am grateful for all constructive criticism and general comments, I would most appreciate it if you noticed any continuity errors or anything like that, that you comment on that.
As ever, credits for grammar and stylistic improvements go to Cheerful Clatter, and "credits" for any remaining mistakes are mine alone. Credits for helping with Crazy Scientist stuff go to ArwenHermione from Ao3.
Also, I still do not own NGE.
Enough of my ramblings. On with the story!
Suite No.7,01 Get Worse to Get Better
"You are NOT serious!" If they were not in an onsen, Misato would have yelled that question and slapped her best friend for good measure…
Ritsuko shook her head. "I told you. You won't like the solution, and this is not even the worst thing…"
-x-
Katsuragi household, Friday before
-x-
Misato looked at her charges as all four of them sat around the coffee table. She noted with satisfaction that the animosity was definitely gone. It had mostly gone away by Wednesday evening when they had ordered out from their favorite Chinese food place, and Misato had all of them watch the movie Nikita together. By the end of that evening, she managed to get across that she was DONE punishing the pilots for their stunt.
Misato drank some coffee from her cup and smiled. She had some important news. Misato waited till Rei finished explaining the strategy she used to defeat Shinji in their last game of shogi, then spoke: "Listen up guys, I have to go for an overnight trip to Tokyo 2; it is overnight because Ritsuko wants to talk about how we will help Rei. When we are gone, you answer to Maya and Lieutenant Hyuga as you would to either of us. I trust that you won't abuse it to dodge the house arrest?" They all nodded.
Asuka gave Misato a piercing look. "I hope the Hexendoktor comes with something good. If not, I still have some of the chili!" it was not an empty threat. The chili sat in the fridge in sealed glass marked with a skull on the cap. Misato suppressed the need to defend Ritsuko from the accusation at the moment.
'If she helps Rei, and Asuka is still acting like this, THEN I lay down some law. Right now, Ritsuko deserves that nickname.' Openly, Misato nodded and gave her best reassuring smile to the bluenette and then to the other two pilots.
She was not surprised when she got up to leave for her trip, and she found a neatly packed lunch made by Shinji. She was surprised when she met him at the door, and he was, no, he was not glaring at her, but he had a look of determination that Misato was still not used to seeing outside the Pribnow box.
His question was simple, but it caught Misato unaware: "Do you think it will work out?"
How was she to answer that? She knew next to nothing about the kind of medicine Ritsuko would have to pull off to help Rei. She was about to answer that, but she stopped.
Misato stood there for a moment in silence, broken only by the sounds of the two female pilots making ready for school. Then she smiled. "I believe it will work, Shinji-Kun. Doctor Akagi is by far the smartest person I know, and even if she is not our favorite person right now, if SHE says she has a solution, then there IS a solution."
Shinji took her statement in silence a moment later. He nodded and outstretched a hand. "Good luck out there, Misato," he said, somewhat like he was unsure if he talked to his guardian or to his commander.
Misato smiled at him and pulled him into a bear hug. "Thank you, Shinji. Care for Pen-pen while I am gone? And for the girls?" When he nodded, Misato let go, fixed her beret and looked in the mirror.
"Looking fabulous? Check! Feeling good? Check! Out on a heroic mission? Double and triple check!" With that, she left. Shinji looked at the closed door for a minute before Asuka brought him out of his reflection.
"So we agree: she is a little crazy, right?" asked the redhead with a smile. She handed Shinji his school bag and put on her boots. He smiled back. Half a year ago, Shinji would not dream about calling anyone crazy, be it serious or in banter…
This Shinji just nodded and said with a grin, "She is, but that is alright."
Then out of nowhere, both pilots heard: "We are all crazy in here, I think."
As they turned in unison, they saw Rei wearing her customary ghost of a smile. She looked more present than she had for most of the week, having taken only half her usual dose of painkillers. Asuka and Shinji both gave her an inquisitive look, and then the redhead rolled her eyes at Shinji.
"Two things. Why is Wundergirl making sense? And more importantly, we are late for the train, which means we are late for school, meaning we are in trouble with Hikari!"
When Pen-Pen left his freezer thirty seconds later, the Pilots were already gone… He picked up his papers and began reading. For him, all was well.
-x-
Friday evening, Tokyo-2
-x-
Misato sighed; she HATED Tokyo-2 traffic, with nearly four times as many people in the city. It was a horror compared to Tokyo-3 streets, which were often empty whenever she was on the road.
The four hours of meeting with the Ministry of Defense officials who were once again pressuring for more oversight over NERV did little to help. And finally, she spent the whole day in Ritsuko's company. The scientist was close enough to her usual self around Misato that they no longer got looks from their coworkers, but every once in a while, she would make a comment that was just sarcastic enough or a jab that reminded Misato that they may have patched things but did not repair their friendship yet.
And in a few minutes, they would talk about a problem that could make things a lot worse yet…
Misato hit the wheel, realizing that keeping her pent-up irritation from Ritsuko was a pointless endeavor. The scientist grinned: "If we were not heading there, I'd say we visit an onsen right now. You look like you could use a week in a spa."
Misato was about to remark that she was fine when she realized that this was the first time in a while that Ritsuko had said something that really sounded like she cared. If this was an olive branch, Misato would take it, even if it had a barb attached.
"Yeah, fending off the end of the world does that to a man, let alone talking to politicians." She pulled the Alpine to an empty parking spot. "This is about as close as we get," she said as she killed the engine, and the car went silent.
Misato thought for a moment about how to reciprocate the peace offering, and then she grinned. "Rits, are you REALLY sure you want to go to an onsen with me, and ONLY with me?" That made the scientist laugh: again, something she had hardly done between the disaster chilli dinner and this Friday.
"Oh, I am sure that you can keep your hands to yourself tonight. What would your man say? By the way, what will you tell him? That we only hit an onsen, just the two of us and a private one, to not have to care about listening devices?"
Misato put on her best serious face, which was not very good, and replied, "Why, yes, that is exactly what I will tell him. Why would he think anything of it? It's not like we're nineteen any longer…"
Ritsuko retrieved her handbag and got out of the car, followed by the Major. She nodded. "That will certainly not make his mind come up with a lot of ideas; that's not the Kaji I know…."
"You know, Rits? I like when he gets ideas!" Misato said with a "cat that ate the canary" grin as they walked into the reception space. Misato just about heard her best friend chuckling.
They got a private bath set up and were soaking themselves in less than twenty minutes, even getting a hefty discount once Misato's NERV uniform was spotted. She took it gladly.
Once she checked that nobody from the staff was around and that they were indeed alone, she asked the one question she needed an answer to the most: "So what exactly will we do to help Rei?"
Ritsuko shook her head and answered with, "I should probably start establishing some stuff; otherwise, what I plan won't make sense to you."
That irritated Misato. 'She can run circles around me in this; if she wants to, she can talk me silly with science and say nothing!' Misato folded her arms and glared at her friend, noticing with a flicker of amusement that Ritsuko could not quite keep unbroken eye contact, but she suppressed that.
"Fine, then simplify it. What are we doing to help Rei, in PLAIN Japanese?"
Ritsuko sighed and leaned against the wall of the bath, where she lit a cigarette before speaking. "The simplest version is, we are going to make one of her lesser arteries burst; is that plain Japanese enough?"
"You are NOT serious!" If they were not in an onsen, Misato would have yelled that question and slapped her best friend for good measure…
Ritsuko shook her head. "I told you. You won't like the solution, and this is not even the worst thing…" She puffed out the smoke and closed her eyes. "We will need to kill her current body after that. Now can I explain how this actually HELPS Rei, and how it is the only real option, or will you not let me speak?" Ritsuko seemed to slump down as she spoke and Misato saw something that looked suspiciously like a tear in the corner of her eye.
Misato gulped. 'This does not make ANY sense… her "current" body? What is she? How can Killing her be helpful?' The ostensibly sensible approach right now would have been to tell Ritsuko to go screw herself and return home, but that would have killed Rei in time anyway. Asuka was certain of that, and Misato had no reason to doubt that.
Besides, Misato did not believe that Ritsuko was lying: her plan was crazy, but the doctor seemed to believe what she was saying. And Misato realized she had no expertise to actually judge Ritsuko's plan: no, she would have to instead depend on her ability to judge Ritsuko as a person and whether she knew her well enough.
And on that count, Misato's instinct was clear. 'I can trust her; if I have to trust someone about helping Rei, I can trust Ritsuko.' Misato nodded. "Go on; what all do I need to know?"
At first, Misato felt surprise and disbelief, but as Ritsuko went on, she realized that cloning a human was likely no more difficult than making an EVA, so Clone Rei was a possibility. She stopped her a few times to ask a question or two, but mostly let her friend speak.
The onsen around was pushed out of Misato's mind, and instead, a doozy of massive breaks of the laws of nature and Vatican treaties alike floated in her mind.
"So that is why she has no listed parents. NERV made a tailored baby to have a pilot? Then if they can just clone all the pilots they need, why bother to find Shinji and Asuka?!" she asked after Ritsuko was done with the overview.
Ritsuko frowned. "I don't know, Misato. There is a LOT that I don't know about NERV, things my mother was working on, things that Yui Ikari did…" She tossed her hands in a way that almost broke Misato's concentration for a moment. "All I know is that when they cloned Ayanami…"
She stopped when Misato shot her a look: "Rei, her name is Rei. She has a given name. Use it!"
"...that when they cloned Rei, to begin with, they made spare bodies so that NERV can switch her conscience to another vessel whenever necessary. I have a working understanding of how it works, since I was around when they did it ten years ago, but I'd have to teach you two whole PhDs worth of material to tell you precisely how it works. And you still want to keep this in plain Japanese, correct?"
Ritsuko waited till Misato nodded, and then she finished: "Besides, the only people who I think truly know everything going on at NERV are Gendo and the Human Instrumentality Committee."
"Does that list include Professor Fuyutsuki?" Misato inquired.
"For the 'how' of everything happening at NERV, I think so - but maybe not the 'why'. I suspect the true goal of what we're doing here has only ever been known by two people: Gendo and Yui Ikari. And now it's only known by one."
Misato felt a moment of dread. 'What if our intervention somehow jeopardizes the mission of NERV?' She thought about that for a moment and then shook her head. When Ritsuko looked at her quizzically, she sighed: "Just settled something for myself. What was done to Rei is NOT justifiable, not even by our mission, so we are putting an end to it even if we don't know for sure it will not put the mission in risk."
Ritsuko gave her a hard glare. "There are three billion people depending on that mission, Misato. I wonder what reason you have to justify that?" It was a question, not an accusation, Misato realized after a moment. And it was one she knew she had better have a satisfactory answer for.
"I just CAN'T do it, Ritsuko. Maybe someone else could; I can't…" They were both silent for a few minutes afterwards. Then Ritsuko spoke: "I don't get how it differs from commanding her in a fight. You send her to harm's way, possibly even to die, in every mission."
She was surprised when Misato smiled. "You answered yourself, Rits: possibly, maybe even most likely, but NEVER certainly. Every time I send the three of them to fight, they have a fighting chance. There it is, your difference."
"Even if it is a one-in-a-billion shot?" asked Ritsuko, and Misato nodded again.
"Even then, I must trust them to win, and I do." Misato watched her friend's reaction; it was a mix of surprise and wistfulness - and finally, a smile.
"You tactical people are so emotional!" said the doctor eventually and nodded, taking the explanation Misato provided.
Misato sank deeper into the bath. Damn, she needed this… "So three things… How do I tell this to Shinji and Asuka? How do we make it happen? And do you understand that if it goes bad, I won't be able to put a leash on Asuka ever again?" she said after a while.
Ritsuko surprised her with an outburst of both hysterical and sarcastic laughter: "Trust me, if this goes poorly, Asuka won't get to hurt me because I will be dead before she even knows!"
Misato thought for a moment what to say to that, but found nothing that made sense. She could not promise Ritsuko protection from NERV and/or Commander Ikari, nor would going down with her in such an event make it any better. So she just bowed her head and said a soft "Thank you."
The scientist shook her head. "Shove that. When it is done, we go out drinking like we are back in college, and YOU are paying!" Ritsuko still could not mask the smile on her face, but then she drew a cautious breath.
"Now, the part you are going to hate: you need to mess with Rei's medicines in the EXACT order I tell you to. I ran the calculation myself, and it is as safe as I can make it. But she will suffer; there's no pain-free way to do this. There will be all manners of side effects, and within four weeks from now, she will be at risk of an artery burst. That should be enough to get her conscience transferred, but if not, you will need to know how to give first aid in case of that scenario."
Misato felt cold gripping her guts. "What if her primary arteries give way? That's dead on the spot, Ritsuko. I saw that before!"
The doctor gave her a crooked smile. "They actually ran a simulation for that when they first made Rei. The chance is about as good as winning the national lottery, and there would definitely be enough evidence for me to notice it before it happens."
Misato nodded. "If we pull this off and if there are no angel attacks, I think I am going to actually start calling you a master mad scientist!" she said. She felt that a lot of weight fell off her shoulders; she had a solution now, at least.
Ritsuko grinned. "Knock yourself out, all you want - and I am a mad scientist already, Victor Frankenstein would beg for my autograph!"
Misato relaxed in the bath. She was still not quite sure of her feelings for the scientist, but it was no more because she mistrusted Ritsuko, or was still somewhat pissed at her: for the first time in weeks, it was because she still was NOT entirely immune to her friend's - well, there were no two ways about it - her killer looks…
-x-
Katsuragi household, Saturday, lunch time
-x-
As expected, Asuka almost cracked the dining table with her fist. "Hexendoktor says we do what!?" She barely contained herself from launching on a tirade describing precisely what she thought of Ritsuko Akagi, her skills as a scientist and her ancestry…
Shinji took the news in silence and was now still wrapping his mind about it, frowning slightly as he thought.
What was most surprising was Rei. Misato expected anger, denial, or even despair. What she did not expect was a calm and collected nod.
She looked at the bluenette and thought to ask how she was feeling.
But Rei spoke first: "This makes sense. It is compatible with my memory of the events, and with the blank space ten years back. I do not remember anything for about three weeks, which corresponds to the event Doctor Akagi alluded to that forced the first conscience transplant."
Asuka ceased muttering curses under her breath and looked at Rei. "We have to find out what happened back then and who hurt you when you were four!" Her expression told everything about what she wanted to do to the person responsible.
And Misato and Shinji nodded to that. A few weeks before, Rei would have insisted that she was not significant enough to warrant that; a few months back, she might have even gotten physical with Asuka about that.
'I am important enough. I was wrong to think it is not so. Shinji was telling me that, showing me… I was just too bent on my path to really understand… I am a Person, and I am worth all the consideration of a human being. And I have to treat myself as one.' Rei realized she was smiling again.
Misato cleared her throat. "Revenge aside, we need to set some rules on how we do this. First, we all learn the new pills regime by heart before this is good to go. Second, unless the two of you, AND me, are all called to NERV, Rei is NOT to be left alone, not for a moment. Third, if it is to ease Rei's pains, anything goes."
She got four nods, including Pen-Pen. Still, she wished Kaji could be here. This felt more like a family deciding on something than a military outfit… but Kaji was on one of his snoops somewhere in Tokyo-2.
Misato finished giving the instructions from Ritsuko after that, and gave Rei a written set. The bluenette was shaking almost imperceptibly. Misato gave Shinji a look, but when he did not pick it up immediately, she decided to ask herself: "Rei, are you in more pain than usual?"
She had learned quickly that asking Rei if she was in pain at all was pointless, and she shuddered at that. Misato knew "managing pain" well enough.
Rei shook her head. "I am not in exceptional pain, Maj… Miss Misato," she said with a slight smile. Misato felt relieved enough that she forgot to scold Rei for using the honorific.
Before anyone else could pitch in, Rei added one more statement: "I am excited, I think. If Doctor Akagi is right in her predictions, and she always is, this means more freedom than I ever had! I only need to be reborn - Is that the correct expression?"
That caused a moment of amazed silence. Rei looked around in surprise, her smile fading as she took in the shocked expressions of the others.
"Was that not an appropriate reaction?"
Nobody answered that immediately. After a moment, Shinji spoke: "I don't think that anyone else ever was in your situation, so there is no right or wrong reaction… nobody to compare to, right?"
Rei nodded to that and everyone fell silent once again. Then Misato smiled and said, "It does make a difference whether you're being thrown into an arena or walking into the same arena on your own terms."
"And with a pair of wingmen," added Asuka, grinning. "Come on, let's get to it!" With that, all the pilots got to reading the notes.
-x-
Saturday afternoon, Geofront
-x-
Professor Fuyutsuki sipped his tea as he read the MAGI report that landed in his email that morning. There was a program deep inside the MAGI code that kept him informed on certain specific keywords being used: it was not complex, nor was it hidden. Just a few hundred lines of simple code.
In this case, it let him know that there was a spike in a few keywords related to Rei Ayanami but what was particularly worrying was that the word "recycle" also showed up. There were but three people with enough access to information about Rei Ayanami to make use of that particular keyword combo.
Kózo Fuyutsuki knew he did not use them, and he knew that Gendo Ikari would have delegated anything science-related that was more complex than a yay or nay decision to either him or the Akagi women.
Also, he knew that the current Ayanami clone was set to last many more months, so there was no urgent need to look into recycling Rei's conscience into a new vessel yet.
'What is it you are playing at, Doctor Akagi?' he thought as he finished the cup and set it down. He figured that he had three courses of action available to him.
He could tell Gendo and ask if he had given the order for this.
He could pressure Doctor Akagi into talking and revealing the purpose of this.
Or he could do nothing for the time being, and trust that there was an innocent purpose that just was not apparent enough from the facts at his disposal.
Not for the first time in the last few weeks, he stopped and thought, 'What would Yui do if she were here?' He had watched the videotapes Yui had left him a few times now. That made him think about Shinji for a moment.
Professor Fuyutsuki had chosen not to interfere in Shinji's life when he returned to Tokyo-3 out of the belief that between Gendo and Major Katsuragi, the boy was sufficiently provided for. And while Major Katsuragi was doing a good enough job, Gendo was not. Even if Commander Ikari's claim that his command responsibility precluded him from taking day-to-day involvement in his son's life was true, he still fell short of what Professor Fuyutsuki expected of him. And he fell extremely short of what his wife expected.
The professor sighed: 'I cannot be very harsh on Gendo if I took months even to watch Yui's message, let alone to do anything about it.' He smiled a bit, thinking about the four times Shinji and he had played Shogi. The young man was certainly improving under Miss Ayanami's merciless tutelage. Kózo smiled. He doubted very much that he could score more than a few points in a match with Rei Ayanami these days. He certainly lived his life surrounded by some very smart women, and scary ones to boot…
That brought his mind back to the issue at hand. Kózo quickly discarded the option of telling Gendo. If the Commander intended this, there was no need to tell him. If he did not, his reaction would very likely be that of a bull - nay, an elephant - in a china shop. Unless the professor would find himself in a situation where he could predict Gendo's reaction or absolutely would need to tell him, he preferred to gain more knowledge instead of escalating the situation.
So that left either pressing Doctor Akagi for information directly or observing the situation from the shadows. If he pressed the issue, Kózo knew that Doctor Akagi would admit to what he could prove and then clam up.
'An apple never falls far from the tree, right, Naoko?' Kózo smiled at that. He long found that many of the ways he created to work with Naoko Akagi needed only very superficial adjustments to be applicable to Ritsuko.
No, pressing her directly would not be advisable under the circumstances. Also, there was a very good chance of her finding out how the information initially got to him, and then writing her own defense code into the system. She was the main system admin, after all.
That left only the last approach. Kózo would have to wait and see… and to trust Doctor Akagi's judgement, at least for the time being. He recalled the last few words of the videotape Yui left him. The "I regret I was not able to love you as you would have liked, and I am deeply grateful you returned the love I could give" still hit like a freight train…
But Yui's very last words hit harder still. "Please, trust Gendo. He has a good heart. But above all, please trust and help Shinji. If I can ask you only one thing, be there for my son. Goodbye, dear friend."
True enough, it was not directly applicable to Ritsuko Akagi, and true enough, Kózo always doubted Yui's judgement of Gendo. But…
It had worked (so far) with Shinji.
It had worked with Major Katsuragi.
It had worked with Miss Sohryu and Miss Ayanami…
Yui would have wanted him to trust Doctor Akagi now. Kózo smiled. Doing what Yui would have wanted was working quite well so far. He would try it once again.
The old man of NERV finished his tea, shut down his laptop and left the office.