Gendo had been wandering along the beach for hours, now, but he wasn't tired. He didn't feel hungry or thirsty, either. He didn't feel anything, except a vague need to reach the source of the smooth light that he saw in the horizon. With the passage of time, any other purpose or desires had become strange to him, and the memories of things that had seemed very important in his life were now a pale shadow. The Human Complementation Plan, the Third Impact, Seele and Nerv. He remembered all of them now with only a vague interest, the reasons of their importance forgotten.
The eerie whisper that came from the dark ocean wasn't longer a bother. He had got used to it some time ago, and now it was something natural to him. Although he had been walking for what seemed hours, a night of black velvet, only broken by the warm bright of the sand, was still surrounding him, and Gendo was starting to think that a never ending night wouldn't be very strange for an endless beach.
The light seemed to come from a small dune of sand that could be seen, far in the distance. It was the only discordance that Gendo could see until the sand melted with the sky. He smiled, feeling a strange joy in his heart.
"I've found her," said a voice. "She was forgotten and lost till the Earth fades away, but I have found her."
He blinked surprised when he realized that the voice was his own. He didn't know why he had said that; the words had come to his mouth unwillingly, as had done the smile. The urge to reach the source of light that he was feeling suddenly grew, becoming an irresistible force. He couldn't help but head to the dune, wondering what was hidden behind the sand's wall, and why he felt the need to reach it.
Finally he arrived. The dune was the source of the light itself. It seemed that its sand shone brighter than the rest of the ground, but when Gendo picked a handful of it, its bright quickly faded away, becoming as softer as the another kind was. He thought about climbing up to the dune and try to see something, but somehow he knew that the only thing that he would be able to see from there would be more and more sand and dark water. He chose to border the dune, instead. What he saw left him confused like he never had been before.
In the another side of the sandy formation there was a rather old wooden house, partially buried within the sand that fell from the dune. The roof was black, covered with slate's stones. Except for one, which was white. Gendo recognized the house. It was the house of the old grandfather Rokubungi in a beach of Okinawa, where Gendo had passed his summers long time ago, playing under the blue sky when he was still a child. But the house was now submerged below the Pacific Ocean, as many other places after Second Impact. It couldn't be here, in this place -whatever it were-, he thought.
In front of the house, sat down in a blanket and wearing a white sundress, there was a woman with short and unruly brown hair. Gendo stared at her for several minutes, without daring to say anything. Humming softly, she had her eyes closed while a blow of wind was stirring her hair. Gendo also recognized her.
"Yui," he said, still staring at her.
She opened her green eyes and looked at him. She waved from the blanket over the sand, and Gendo walked slowly till there. When he was arriving, she got up, jumping over her bare feet, and she smiled warmly at him.
"Yui?"
"What do you think?" she asked back, approaching him.
"I... I don't know."
"Why?" she asked, looking at him with her deep green eyes.
"I..." whispered Gendo, hugging her suddenly. "I've missed you, Yui."
When Gendo felt her hands on his back, returning the embrace, his knees went weak. Both sat down on the blanket and he held her hand; Gendo closed his eyes.
"What place is this?" he asked, while she looked curiously at his hand.
Yui left his hand and got up. She looked at the horizon.
"A house," she said, "in a beach."
"But..."
"What?" she asked again.
"I don't know how did I arrived here."
"But you're here. Why do you want to know it?"
Gendo didn't reply. Yui was humming again, looking at the sea; now he recognized the song. It was the lullaby that she used to sing to Shinji when he couldn't sleep. He remembered the lyrics; something about the clouds, the rain and the sky, and being happy under them. It brought him memories of what life had been when Yui was alive, of how delightful had been every single second at her side. It hurt.
"I'm sorry, Yui," he muttered.
"Of what?" replied Yui, turning back and staring again at him.
"I've failed you."
"Why?"
"I couldn't bring you back. And now I'm..."
"What?" asked Yui nonchalantly, dancing over the sand the song she was humming.
"Dead."
"Do you think so?"
"Yes," replied Gendo, looking down. "What else could be this?"
Yui smiled sweetly, but she didn't reply.
***
CHAPTER 2: MEETINGS
The Geofront, buried beneath the often rebuilt city of New Tokyo 3, was a really peaceful place, filled with trees and green fields. Although its existence wasn't a secret -such a compound was impossible to hide-, few people had been able to throw a gaze to the subterranean colony.
Rei Ayanami was one of the few that could.
The young bluehaired girl was staring at the small lake inside the Geofront. The strange soft light that illuminated the big cavern, coming from all directions and from no one of them, gave to her red eyes an unusual bright while she stood near the water.
Unaware to her, Shinji was staring at her in turn. He was uneasy. Rei had asked him to meet her there, but he didn't dare to disturb her. He always had felt that Rei thought that he was stupid. At least, Asuka claimed that he was a big one, leaving no place to doubts. With Rei he never could be sure of anything.
While he was wondering what he should do, Rei finally became aware of his presence. She turned back and looked at him.
"Ikari," she said finally.
"Ah, Ayanami... Do you want to see me?" Shinji replied.
She didn't answer, and she kept staring at Shinji for some time more so intensely that Shinji felt how he blushed.
"Why are you uneasy, Ikari?"
That made Shinji felt more uneasy, of course. He gulped.
"I... I'm not uneasy," he lied.
"You're blushing," stated Rei, approaching him slowly. Shinji went redder as Rei studied him from near. "Why, Ikari? It's because of me?"
"No!" babbled Shinji nervously. "It's only... I cannot help it."
"I see."
Shinji tried then to carry the conversation to a safer ground. "What do you want to talk me about, Ayanami?" he asked.
"I need to understand something," she replied vaguely. "Why do you pilot?"
"Is that what you need to understand?" replied Shinji, confused.
Rei turned back and let her gaze wander across the waters in front of them. A warship was sailing slowly across the lake, making small waves that shone under the light of the Geofront. Somebody could have described the scene as 'romantic', with both Children alone in the side of a small lake watching a sundown, but she wasn't aware of that.
"No," she replied.
"Then what?" asked an intrigued Shinji.
"I cannot tell you," Rei sighed, looking again straight at Shinji's eyes. "Why do you pilot?"
"I don't know," Shinji muttered. "The first time, because you were hurt... And later.... But I never have thought about it. I don't know. Maybe to get a praise from my father, maybe to protect all of you... maybe..."
Rei nodded slowly, pondering his words. "Thank you, Ikari," she said. "I must go."
Shinji watched how Rei walked into the headquarters, leaving him with more questions than when he had gone to see her. Helping Rei to understand something was a easy way to make him understand less things. He had thought that the albino girl would want to talk about the Commander -although it was a theme that Shinji preferred to avoid, he knew that Rei was closer to his father than he had been in all his life-, but she didn't seem to be affected by Gendo's accident. If something, she had seemed slightly annoyed by the bothers of the change in the command's chain.
Shinji thought before that he understood Rei. Now he wondered if he had really known her to the lesser extent.
***
In the eternal summer that had become the days after Second Impact the noise of cicadas could be hear wherever a small field be near. The old condominium was in the outskirts of the city, where the green fields started, but there the noise of the construction didn't let Rei hear the song of the summer insects.
And it was ruining Rei's viola solo. She didn't mind, since she hadn't audience, and she could hear perfectly the music that came from the five strings. She liked to feel the soft touch of the wooden instrument under her fingers. Rei wasn't a complicated person: she liked water, blue color and the sound of her viola; she disliked red color and the taste of meat. And that was almost all.
The music kept resounding for a few seconds when she ceased to play. Neatly, she guarded the viola in its case. It was the only thing in her apartment that she kept with care.
'That's not true,' she thought.
'There are other things.'
The glasses of the Commander, for once.
She had kept them carefully for a long time, now. She remembered how angry she had been when she had seen the young Ikari touching them, but she couldn't understand now why she had felt like that, then.
Feeling tired, she undressed slowly under the soft light of the moon that came from the window, letting absently her clothes fall silently to the wooden ground.
She picked up a shirt from the dresser. Unlike the rest of her clothes, the shirt was neatly folded. She put on it, revealing clearly that the shirt wasn't of her size -it fell loosely over her shoulders, and it ended below her hip-. Rei lay down on the unruly bed and she buried her face between her arms. Since the arrival of the Angels, the Commander had been more distant, always reminding her what was her true purpose, and a cold loneliness had been growing in the bluehaired girl; her nature and the reason of her creation didn't bother her, but she didn't like to be alone.
And now, the Commander was gone, but he had left her alone much before the battle.
'Why?' she thought.
'Why I am alone? I don't like it... but I'm alone.'
She didn't like to think about it, but sleep refused to come that night.
Rei wasn't the only one that couldn't sleep that night. One kilometer beneath the bluehaired girl, in a dark corridor inside Nerv's headquarters, Ryoji Kaji was trying to break a door. When the electronic lock biped to announce the opening of the door Kaji damned to his mouth and hid between the shadows of the corner. He waited for the sudden green lightning that would reveal that the lantern attached to the barrel of a soldier's gun was aiming at him, but nothing happened. Sighing in relief, Kaji readjusted his goggles and started to walk, as silently as the air that surrounded him, along the dark corridor.
The plaques in the doors were merely pale shadows in his green line of sight. Finally, he recognized what he was searching for after turn a corner. The elevator's door what would lead him to Fuyutsuki's office. He commenced to work in the panel that would open the door,
'Almost,' he thought. Only a month before, he would have been able to reach the room while the sun was still high in the sky, and the damned soldiers that were patrolling the headquarters would have had to salute him. Now, he had to come like a thief in the night. He was sure that Ikari wanted his head, since he was useless to the Commander now.
'And now he's like a vegetable,' he thought.
'And I have to know what's cooking Fuyutsuki, but...'
The noise of steps distracted him. Automatically, he closed the panel and picked up his tools. Turning back, he saw, awfully bright in his night vision device, the light of a lantern approaching the corner. Twenty seconds, before the guard discovered him.
Quickly, he considered his options. He could kill him with his gun, but they would miss the soldier soon, and he didn't know how much time he would need down there. So he had to hide somewhere, but it was easier say it than do it.
Fifteen seconds.
Kaji grabbed a picklock and tried to break through the nearest door, but he was nervous and he broke the small metal piece inside the lock.
Ten seconds. The noise of the footsteps was now clearly audible.
Sweating and swearing to his mouth, the pigtailed man tried with the next door. He couldn't open it.
'Damn locksmiths,' he thought. Although Nerv used to be stingy like Harpagon in many things, it seemed that locks weren't one of them.
Five seconds.
There wasn't anything that he could do, now. Just at the end, trapped like a rat. He sighed and pulled out his gun, passing a hand over the latch as farewell.
Three seconds.
He wasted other two seconds staring like a stupid at the open door. Grinning hysterically, he entered the dark room and closed the door as silently as he could. While he hid behind the desk, waiting, he noticed that the small office belonged to Miss Ibuki, as a small plaque on the desk announced to whoever that could be interested.
'I have to send her two dozens of roses,' thought Kaji while he was watching how in the frame of the door the light of the lantern turned away to patrol another corridor. He still waited silent in the shadows another five minutes before walking out of Maya's office and heading to the elevator.
Without overzealous guards wandering everywhere, Kaji only needed three minutes to make the twin doors open. The elevator wasn't there, and he had to use a thin rope to descend to the next floor. Another three minutes of manipulation allowed him to reach a small corridor with only one door. He smiled.
Gendo's former office -now occupied by Fuyutsuki- was the deepest department of the headquarters. Beneath it started the Dogma Terminal, the stronghold that surrounded Heaven's Door and the Angel imprisoned there. The sight of the seven-eyed giant still chased Kaji's nightmares.
He shook his head; he hadn't time to waste pondering about the nature of Lilith. A small sigh of relief could be heard in the huge office when he discovered what he was searching for: the own MAGI terminal of the Commander. If Fuyutsuki had stored his plans in any other place than his mind, it would be in the small laptop that Kaji was activating. He switched off his goggles and blinked at the white bright of the screen.
He was aware that the virus he had just activated only would hide his activities for a few minutes, but he needn't more time. He had found something interesting. A copy of a report from Ritsuko to Fuyutsuki.
---
12/10/2015 11:23PM
FROM: Akagi Ritsuko, DS4 (Nerv ID: 334579805)
TO: Fuyutsuki Kouzo, Commander.
Following your orders, I've rearranged Adam Project's schedule to accomplish the new directives you have issued. I estimate that in three weeks we will be able to execute the SSD-24 protocol on the sample. Four, if we're delayed by another attack.
Sincerely, Ritsuko.
PS: Have you reconsidered it? I know that you're now in command, and I won't discuss your orders, but I don't think that it be a good idea. The risk is excessive, sir.
---
'Interesting,' thought Kaji,
'but too much vague. I need...'
Thinking can become difficult when somebody is trying to discern if a rifle's butt is harder than your head. Kaji fell heavily to the floor, and the last thing he saw before he fainted was a pair of black boots.
'Damn,' he thought.
***
Kaji awoke to realize that his head hurt like if somebody would have blown it with the butt of a rifle.
'Ey, but that was exactly what happened,' thought Kaji sarcastically. He risked opening an eye, hoping that he were outside the Geofront, lying on his bed -preferiblely with Misato at his side- and that the pain were only the effect of a bad hangover.
The sight of Fuyutsuki's grinning face destroyed his hopes. Opening the another eye, Kaji realized that he was sat down in a chair with his hands tied behind him.
"I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff, Commander," he said.
"Not really," shrugged Fuyutsuki, smiling. "What were you looking for, Kaji?"
"For the toilet," replied Kaji cheery. He couldn't help it.
"It seems you got lost somewhere in your way," replied Fuyutsuki, getting up.
"So you're going to free me after telling me what are you scheming?" yawned Kaji, trying to appear indifferent.
"No, of course not," chuckled the old man, walking around the room. "I'm going to throw you in a dark room and forget where I put the key."
"You're following Gendo's plans, aren't you?" Kaji claimed, relieved to know that he wasn't going to die in any immediate future. "Why?"
"If I were following Gendo's plans, you would have died..." pointed Fuyutsuki, approaching him, "...hours ago. I'm not Ikari, Mister Kaji. I'm a different man. Try to remember it."
Fuyutsuki got up and looked at the guards. "Enough," he said. "Sergeant, keep him under constant vigilance."
The officer nodded blindly. Kaji saw how the door closed behind Fuyutsuki, leaving him trapped in the last stronghold of the human race.
He was imprisoned in the Geofront.
Author's Notes
As always, Lynx sweated ink to correct my grammar mistakes. How he could do it without ending hating this, is something that surpass me. Thank you!
Well, the Kaji Bond part is obviously a copy-plagiarism-tribute to the well-known spy movies. I had always wanted to write something with Kaji as a secret agent, carrying a lot of cool gadgets... ^_^
Not much else to say. The next chapter will be published in early April, more or less. As always, you can write to chobits@hotpop.com if you want to comment me anything or perhaps preread the next chapter; this story can also be read in my home page in a more stilish way.
See you!
Athos
