Tokyo-03, the city of the future, was gone. Destroyed when Unit 00's self –
destruct system took out the Sixteenth Angel. The armament buildings, gone.
The Eva power sockets under the asphalt, gone. The levers and gears that
lowered civillian buildings into the Geofront, gone. The Geofront, too was
gone, taken up into space as the Black Moon, the Egg of Lilith … but NERV
remains. And as long as NERV remains, there would always be occupants of
apartment block 17 in the suburbs. Someone to keep her company, or at
least, be in close proximity. Ritsuko sighed, feeling the tiredness wash
over her as she climbed up the stairs to what was once Misato's apartment.
There was dinner to cook, then she had to check with the MAGI about the
blue pattern signal they found this morning. If it was a bona fide Angel,
then there's an Eva to prep into battle. All by herself, because everyone
else who knew what to do was dead.
NEON
GENESIS
EVANGELION
A3I: Transistasis.
The chunk of salmon sizzled as it hit the frying pan, attracting the attention of a very peckish hot water penguin. "Pen-pen, bad bird!" Ritsuko mock-threatened as the bird rubbed itself ingratiatingly against her hose- covered leg, much like a cat would.
"Oh, all right. I'm spoiling you," Ritsuko said, smiling as she broke off a hot piece of salmon, offering it to Pen-pen, who wasted no time grabbing the fish with its beak, the morsel of fish rapidly disappearing down it's throat. Ritsuko reached out a hand to pet Pen-pen's head, but the penguin had already waddled away before her hand could reach it.
"Ungrateful bird," Ritsuko snarled.
"Ungrateful hag," Gendo said to her, the day after she destroyed the Dummy Plugs. She hatefuly resisted every word that bore its cold uncaring judgement into her skull, as she sat on the cold steel bench in NERV's brig, head bowed, fists clenched tight in hate.
"It's not worth it, Gendo," she said to him, soft enough for him to need to strain to hear her. "Rather than face Instrumentality with you, any woman would prefer death! There's no glory in standing besides you in the face of God…" Ritsuko said, a bitter tear leaving her eye, running across the mole on her cheek. "I'd rather be judged alone, than be the one that carries you to heaven"
"You are a disappointment. Perhaps the trait is inherited." Gendo said, before he had the lights turned out.
"I hope you burn in hell with me, Ikari. All of you," Ritsuko wept bitterly in the dark.
"Ritsuko! Baka! Pay attention when you're cooking!" Asuka's shrill voice broke through Ritsuko's reverie.
"Huh, Asuka, what?" Ritsuko asked, confused, then the burnt smell registered in her brain. The salmon was ruined to the point even Pen-Pen wouldn't touch it. Asuka stood in front of her, her hand still on the switch that turned the gas burner on and off.
"I'm sorry, I must have dozed off.." Ritsuko said, trying to find an excuse.
"I'm sorry about the fish," said a small voice behind them. It was Shinji, looking on nervously at the two women,uncertain how he should react to the situation.
"Pizza night," Ritsuko said with resignation.
They sat in a semicircle facing the TV watching reruns of the Japanese version of "Who wants to be a millionaire". A fat man was visibly sweating as he tried to find the answer, finally wringing his hands in despair and telling the host he was giving up.
"Fool. The answer's transistasis," Ritsuko said dismissively. "The opposite of homeostasis, the biological force that moves towards change."
"Is there such a word, Ritsuko-san? " Shinji asked. "Yes, Shinji. Homeostasis is the natural tendecy of living organisms to remain the way it is. The desire to remain constant. Transistasis is what makes us grow, change, without it, there would be no growth, no change."
"So this transistasis is a good thing, right? It makes us better than before?" Shinji asked, as the crowd clapped in appreciation at the efforts of the fat contestant.
"Baka. See what happens when you skip school?" Asuka sneered at him, yet with a twinkle in her eyes. "The two forces balance each other. If you were in a state of total transistasis, you'll have no control of your own body temperature, your blood pressure, your heart rate. You'll die trying to cope with all the changes to the environment."
"She's right, Shinji-kun. Too much homeostasis, however, and you get stuck. You'll simply age thoroughout the years but never grow," Ritsuko said calmly, taking a final bite from the pizza.
"Take a look at us, and our daily routine. I go to work, and Asuka is still an Eva pilot. Even after Third Impact, some things remain the way they were. Think of that as homeostasis," continued Ritsuko.
"Now look at yourself. You've decided never to pilot Eva again. You've decided to start going to school again. You're taking steps to building a life that doesn't involve NERV, or the Angels. Maybe one day, you won't need either myself or Asuka around, " Ritsuko said, as Asuka gave her a weird look.
"I think I understand, " Shinji said. His head was swimming a little from the lecture, and he really, really didn't get all of it, but he kind of felt this transistasis concept was interesting. The power to change.
"Agh! Dumkopf!" Asuka yelled at the TV as the contestant asked to use a lifeline.
"Do you know the answer to that, Ritsuko-san?" Shinji asked.
"C" Ritsuko replied, engrossed in the show. She felt strangely focused watching the show, she could feel her mind work trying to remember what was the world's tallest building, pre-Second Impact. There was no pressure on her to be correct, no deadly price to pay for a wrong calculation.
For the first time in a long time, Ritsuko Akagi, Chief Scientist to NERV, felt utterly content, sitting there with Asuka and Shinji trying to answer a TV game show.
"You're wrong, Gendo," Ritsuko silently thought to herself as the TV contestant got the answer right, a C. "You're nothing. I have your son. I have a life of my own. I die a free woman."
The three of them continued to watch the show in silence. Pen-pen waddled in, curious at what the humans were doing, setting himself up next to Shinji and standing there looking at the TV. Shinji picked up the penguin and placed it on his lap, the bird unprotesting, as he wrapped his arms around Pen-Pen like a big plush toy. Ritsuko noticed, but said nothing.
Several hours later, Asuka and Shinji retired to their respective apartments, getting ready for bed. Shinji didn't feel like playing the cello tonight, so he shut the curtains to his window, before turning out the lights. The red glow from outside made it hard to sleep. Tonight, he felt like he wanted to.
The power to change, he thought pleasantly to himself.
Ritsuko didn't want to sleep just yet, so she stood by the window, looking out to the hillsides and the giant Rei-Lilith hand that defiantly lay there on the ground, like a monstrous mountain that glowed red under the ring of souls in the sky. She stood there, sighing. The Angel Lilith, the Second Angel, caught and used by NERV to produce the very LCL that the pilots breathed inside the Evangelions. The very Angel she thought posed the least harm, was the one that triggered the Impact. Which one of them will return first, she wondered. The Third? Fourteenth? Sixteenth? Or will the return of Man prompt the appearance of the theorized Eighteenth Angel? She sighed, and turned in for the night. The MAGI would provide the data she needed tomorrow. She downed two sleeping pills to guard herself from the dreams, and let her head hit the pillow.
"Red, that colour I hate," said the voice inside Shinji's dream.
"Ayanami…" Shinji heard her voice behind him in the train carriage he often dreamed about. Ritsuko had said the train represented his soul, and its endless moving represented his passage through life. But what Ayanami represented, he didn't know. He never told Ritsuko about Ayanami.
"Ikari-kun," said Rei, her voice small, yet quietly determined. "Did you try to understand?"
Shinji did not turn behind to face the dream Rei, instead he focused his attention to the scenery outside the window, constantly moving yet remaining the same.
"I think I do now, " he said softly. "You gave me what I wanted."
"Ikari-kun," said the dream Rei, "Red, that colour I hate. Rain, the thing you hate…"
"But, I can learn to love the rain. Just like you can learn to love Red. I think.. I think Red cannot hate you. Ritsuko said, hate is something we choose to keep."
The scenery outside changed to the old Geofront. Shinji felt a chill run up his spine.
"I only wish I was wasn't so disposable," Shinji said, as the scenery changed to the corridors and hangars of NERV headquarters.
"Ikari-kun, the choices you made, the point of the view you see the world with, it is all your doing. Without you, you have no world. You don't see it?"
The scenery changed again, this time to the cold, dead, dark hell that was Terminal Dogma. Shinji involuntarily looked away, catching a glimpse of the black shoes that Ayanami used to wear when she was alive. Alive.
"Don't worry, all living things have the potential to return to it's usual shape," said another voice. Mother.
"Mother?" Shinji said, whirling around in his dream, to see nothing but an empty train carriage.
"As long as the will to live exists…"
Shinji's eyes opened to bright sunlight. He had better hurry if he wanted to make it to school.
"What is going on here?!" Ritsuko shouted to the room as she stormed in. "Why is the American Seventh Fleet offshore? Why are there so many blue helmets around here?"
"The United Nations is going on here," said Shigeru, walking towards her from the far end of the computer room. Behind him, three blue berets kept pace, briskly walking with their assault rifles shouldered. "I've reported the blue pattern signals to the Security Council, as ordered, and.."
"But it's not even a confirmed signal!" protested Ritsuko as Shigeru finally reached her. "Doesn't matter, orders are orders." Shigeru said. "Besides, they have good reason not to entrust the matter to us, don't they, Ritsuko?"
"Fine then." Ritsuko said, masking the irritation. "So," she sneered at one of the blue berets, "the Security Council fears us in addition to loathing us. Who's in charge here?" she asked aloud.
"Rear-Admiral Starling from the USN, ma'am" replied one of the UN soldiers. "NERV is to stand by until authorized to act," said Shigeru.
"Fools." Ritsuko spat the words out. "Only an EVA can defeat an Angel.." Shigeru shrugged. "Considering what we... you did behind their backs the last time, they have reason to distrust us," he said.
Ritsuko saw no further point in continuing the conversation, and walked past Shigeru and the guards, to the large clear area of the building that functioned as a war room. A 3-D topographic map of Paris was projected in the middle of the room, the kind used when Angels attack.
Fifteen red triangles encircled in white discs were moving in from the north.
Ritsuko recognized the symbol for cruise missiles. "You're all mad," she said as she finally realized what the UN was planning.
"Ritsuko, you will not interfere!" Shigeru warned from behind her.
Shinji barely made it to school in time, huffing slightly from the effort of moving so fast. It had been a while since the last time he engaged in physical activity. Not able to do anything else, he quickly made his way to his classroom, hastily sitting down on the hard plastic chair. He consciously tried not to look at Hikari, if indeed she was his classmate.
Hikari's eyes were on him, but he didn't realize it. She sat five rows behind him, looking at him with mixed emotions. She was angry at him for the Third Impact.
Yet, she could see that it haunted him, she could feel it in the way he didn't even raise a hand in self-defence when she attacked him. How could Asuka still speak well of him when she knew that it was all because of him?
Ritsuko stormed out of the room, and walked as fast as dignity would allow, out of the NERV command building, past the blue-helmeted UN guard, and out into the Geofront crater. It was mid-morning. NERV personnel were walking from one building to another, scurrying like nervous ants under the watchful eyes of the millitary. Eva Unit 02 stood silently nearby, powerless and still.Ritsuko wiped a bead of sweat from her brow and leaned back against the grey prefabricated concrete wall. A weary sigh escaped her lips.
Shinji spent the recess period under a tree, eating gyoza, observing the other students. He felt tired, even bored. School just didn't feel so normal, so comfortably routine to him anymore, not after yesterday. He wondered if this is what Rei felt at school, an outsider, lost in the familiar, not knowing what was the right way to react. He reasoned that if Hikari could feel such hate for him, what about the other students? It would be their right to hate him, would it not? He didn't dare ask someone for fear it would be true.
Yet, he wondered, would that not just be fooling himself? Like that accursed day when he thought he would find comfort in the death Rei.. Lilith offered? Shinji ate the last of the gyoza and walked alone to the basketball court. He used to sit here and watch Touji and Hanamichi and the others play the game. He wished Asuka was still in school. He didn't mind her short temper anymore, he just craved the familiar.
"Shinji?" asked a small voice behind him. Shinji jumped back, reflexively covering his face with his arms protectively at the sound of Hikari's voice.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" he yelled, curling up into a ball.
"Shinji, I'm sorry. I just came here to talk…" Hikari pleaded with him.
"I didn't want it to happen. I never wanted it to happen to them!" Shinji cried out.
"Shinji, please, let me talk to you," Hikari said again. There was no response from the Third Child.
Finally, he whispered. "Please. Leave me alone. Leave me alone until I can figure it out."
When the bell rang to mark the end of recess, Shinji remained as he was.
Ritsuko and Asuka stood with Shigeru as the satellites and ground cameras tried to re-establish contact with Ground Zero. The monitors continued to show static while the MAGI terminals only showed the words "Establishing Connection" in large red letters. Asuka bit her lip, nervously fidgeting with the buttons on her red NERV jacket. Part of her hoped for the justification of her existence, while another part of her wanted to see fools pay for their fear. Shigeru stood calmly, his hands in his pockets, his eyes never wavering away from the computer screens.
"So much like Ikari, so quickly," thought Ritsuko about the serious young man that not so long ago, was just another console jockey in the War Room.
The MAGI terminals screamed "CONNECTION ESTABLISHED" and a wireframe representation of the area was immediately generated for all to see.
As expected, downtown Paris was no more. Smoking craters and rubble replaced a city.
There was something else the MAGI registered, moving through the rubble. The MAGI screens flashed a warning, just as the visual data from the satellites came in.
"Blue pattern confirmed! It's an Angel!" shouted someone.
The warning was unnecessary, because the thing was there for all to see. It was humanlike, clad in black titanium alloy plating from head to toe, with unnaturally elongated arms and it walked westward with an apelike gait.
"Lieber Gott," was all that Asuka could say.
"Evangelion Unit Three," Shigeru said, almost breathless with surprise.
"The Thirteenth Angel," Ritsuko said, correcting him. She turned towards one of the UN soldiers. "Your Admiral Starling has some things he should personally explain to us."
School finished early, to allow the students and their families time to evacuate. There was no fooling anyone. The Thirteenth Angel was heading to the ruins of Tokyo 03, humanity was fatalistically certain of that. Shinji was immediately whisked away by his security detail. He was put in a NERV car, unprotesting, and driven straight to the Geofront crater.
"There's no running away," he mumbled silently to himself.
"You're quite young. Not a day over thirty, right?" sneered Ritsuko.
"Doctor, I hope my youth doesn't disturb you," replied the admiral, flashing her a pearly white smile from across the table. "And you're quite mistaken. I'm thirty-two years old. Third Impact makes for rapid promotion through the ranks." He finished, leaning back in his chair, his eyes reflective and blank, meeting Ritsuko's own.
"Ritsuko, you will not antagonize him, is that understood?" Shigeru whispered harshly in her ear.
"Very well, Commander," Ritsuko replied in her iciest tones. "On to business, then. The Thirteenth Angel. Eva unit 03. You bastards tried to rebuild it, didn't you?"
Shigeru stared daggers at her, while Admiral Starling leant forward earnestly in his chair, his reassuring smile rapidly acquiring a plastic appearance.
"I expressly wrote that the remains of Eva unit 03 must be disintegrated at the CERN particle accelerator, but the UN had other plans, didn't it? You never trusted us even back then!" she snapped, pointing a long accusing finger right at Starling.
"Every time you try to start up that infested Eva, a blue pattern shows up on the MAGI and you shut it off hoping we don't notice. When you finally realize that thing was beyond human control, you nuked it all!!" she accused him, her voice forceful, angry yet controlled.
"Ritsuko! That's enough!" Shigeru shouted at her.
"And I'm the one with a suspended sentence for genocide!" she shouted, colour appearing on her normally pallid cheeks.
"I apologize for her unseemly behaviour, sir," Shigeru said to Starling, trying to defuse the situation.
"Not to worry, commander. The good doctor is merely sharing her theory with us," Starling said. He stared up at Ritsuko's long finger that was pointed at him. "As for your sudden concern for human lives, let me assure you that the French took all measures to evacuate the city. In fact, those missiles were launched off one of their own subs in the North Sea. Now, regarding our current problem, it's painfully obvious. That freakish blue pattern you all saw earlier must have been a Sea of Dirac, left over from the Third Impact.The combination of a Dirac Sea effect and multiple N2 detonations must have opened a time portal that summoned Unit 03 from the past." Starling's smile continued as Ritsuko could only roll her eyes towards the heavens and groan in frustration.
There was a knock on the door.
"Ah, it's a bit earlier than expected. Your security people really work fast," Admiral Starling said, getting up from his chair and opening the door himself.
Two NERV bodyguards promptly saluted. The Third Child stood between them, shuffling his feet nervously and looking at the floor.
It almost drove Ritsuko into a murderous rage. "You monsters," she snarled at Shigeru and Starling. "Haven't you done enough to him?" Starling thoughtfully scratched his chin. "We have to play it safe. You understand."
"So they found a use for me again after all," Shinji thought to himself, dreading what must now come to pass.
NEON
GENESIS
EVANGELION
A3I: Transistasis.
The chunk of salmon sizzled as it hit the frying pan, attracting the attention of a very peckish hot water penguin. "Pen-pen, bad bird!" Ritsuko mock-threatened as the bird rubbed itself ingratiatingly against her hose- covered leg, much like a cat would.
"Oh, all right. I'm spoiling you," Ritsuko said, smiling as she broke off a hot piece of salmon, offering it to Pen-pen, who wasted no time grabbing the fish with its beak, the morsel of fish rapidly disappearing down it's throat. Ritsuko reached out a hand to pet Pen-pen's head, but the penguin had already waddled away before her hand could reach it.
"Ungrateful bird," Ritsuko snarled.
"Ungrateful hag," Gendo said to her, the day after she destroyed the Dummy Plugs. She hatefuly resisted every word that bore its cold uncaring judgement into her skull, as she sat on the cold steel bench in NERV's brig, head bowed, fists clenched tight in hate.
"It's not worth it, Gendo," she said to him, soft enough for him to need to strain to hear her. "Rather than face Instrumentality with you, any woman would prefer death! There's no glory in standing besides you in the face of God…" Ritsuko said, a bitter tear leaving her eye, running across the mole on her cheek. "I'd rather be judged alone, than be the one that carries you to heaven"
"You are a disappointment. Perhaps the trait is inherited." Gendo said, before he had the lights turned out.
"I hope you burn in hell with me, Ikari. All of you," Ritsuko wept bitterly in the dark.
"Ritsuko! Baka! Pay attention when you're cooking!" Asuka's shrill voice broke through Ritsuko's reverie.
"Huh, Asuka, what?" Ritsuko asked, confused, then the burnt smell registered in her brain. The salmon was ruined to the point even Pen-Pen wouldn't touch it. Asuka stood in front of her, her hand still on the switch that turned the gas burner on and off.
"I'm sorry, I must have dozed off.." Ritsuko said, trying to find an excuse.
"I'm sorry about the fish," said a small voice behind them. It was Shinji, looking on nervously at the two women,uncertain how he should react to the situation.
"Pizza night," Ritsuko said with resignation.
They sat in a semicircle facing the TV watching reruns of the Japanese version of "Who wants to be a millionaire". A fat man was visibly sweating as he tried to find the answer, finally wringing his hands in despair and telling the host he was giving up.
"Fool. The answer's transistasis," Ritsuko said dismissively. "The opposite of homeostasis, the biological force that moves towards change."
"Is there such a word, Ritsuko-san? " Shinji asked. "Yes, Shinji. Homeostasis is the natural tendecy of living organisms to remain the way it is. The desire to remain constant. Transistasis is what makes us grow, change, without it, there would be no growth, no change."
"So this transistasis is a good thing, right? It makes us better than before?" Shinji asked, as the crowd clapped in appreciation at the efforts of the fat contestant.
"Baka. See what happens when you skip school?" Asuka sneered at him, yet with a twinkle in her eyes. "The two forces balance each other. If you were in a state of total transistasis, you'll have no control of your own body temperature, your blood pressure, your heart rate. You'll die trying to cope with all the changes to the environment."
"She's right, Shinji-kun. Too much homeostasis, however, and you get stuck. You'll simply age thoroughout the years but never grow," Ritsuko said calmly, taking a final bite from the pizza.
"Take a look at us, and our daily routine. I go to work, and Asuka is still an Eva pilot. Even after Third Impact, some things remain the way they were. Think of that as homeostasis," continued Ritsuko.
"Now look at yourself. You've decided never to pilot Eva again. You've decided to start going to school again. You're taking steps to building a life that doesn't involve NERV, or the Angels. Maybe one day, you won't need either myself or Asuka around, " Ritsuko said, as Asuka gave her a weird look.
"I think I understand, " Shinji said. His head was swimming a little from the lecture, and he really, really didn't get all of it, but he kind of felt this transistasis concept was interesting. The power to change.
"Agh! Dumkopf!" Asuka yelled at the TV as the contestant asked to use a lifeline.
"Do you know the answer to that, Ritsuko-san?" Shinji asked.
"C" Ritsuko replied, engrossed in the show. She felt strangely focused watching the show, she could feel her mind work trying to remember what was the world's tallest building, pre-Second Impact. There was no pressure on her to be correct, no deadly price to pay for a wrong calculation.
For the first time in a long time, Ritsuko Akagi, Chief Scientist to NERV, felt utterly content, sitting there with Asuka and Shinji trying to answer a TV game show.
"You're wrong, Gendo," Ritsuko silently thought to herself as the TV contestant got the answer right, a C. "You're nothing. I have your son. I have a life of my own. I die a free woman."
The three of them continued to watch the show in silence. Pen-pen waddled in, curious at what the humans were doing, setting himself up next to Shinji and standing there looking at the TV. Shinji picked up the penguin and placed it on his lap, the bird unprotesting, as he wrapped his arms around Pen-Pen like a big plush toy. Ritsuko noticed, but said nothing.
Several hours later, Asuka and Shinji retired to their respective apartments, getting ready for bed. Shinji didn't feel like playing the cello tonight, so he shut the curtains to his window, before turning out the lights. The red glow from outside made it hard to sleep. Tonight, he felt like he wanted to.
The power to change, he thought pleasantly to himself.
Ritsuko didn't want to sleep just yet, so she stood by the window, looking out to the hillsides and the giant Rei-Lilith hand that defiantly lay there on the ground, like a monstrous mountain that glowed red under the ring of souls in the sky. She stood there, sighing. The Angel Lilith, the Second Angel, caught and used by NERV to produce the very LCL that the pilots breathed inside the Evangelions. The very Angel she thought posed the least harm, was the one that triggered the Impact. Which one of them will return first, she wondered. The Third? Fourteenth? Sixteenth? Or will the return of Man prompt the appearance of the theorized Eighteenth Angel? She sighed, and turned in for the night. The MAGI would provide the data she needed tomorrow. She downed two sleeping pills to guard herself from the dreams, and let her head hit the pillow.
"Red, that colour I hate," said the voice inside Shinji's dream.
"Ayanami…" Shinji heard her voice behind him in the train carriage he often dreamed about. Ritsuko had said the train represented his soul, and its endless moving represented his passage through life. But what Ayanami represented, he didn't know. He never told Ritsuko about Ayanami.
"Ikari-kun," said Rei, her voice small, yet quietly determined. "Did you try to understand?"
Shinji did not turn behind to face the dream Rei, instead he focused his attention to the scenery outside the window, constantly moving yet remaining the same.
"I think I do now, " he said softly. "You gave me what I wanted."
"Ikari-kun," said the dream Rei, "Red, that colour I hate. Rain, the thing you hate…"
"But, I can learn to love the rain. Just like you can learn to love Red. I think.. I think Red cannot hate you. Ritsuko said, hate is something we choose to keep."
The scenery outside changed to the old Geofront. Shinji felt a chill run up his spine.
"I only wish I was wasn't so disposable," Shinji said, as the scenery changed to the corridors and hangars of NERV headquarters.
"Ikari-kun, the choices you made, the point of the view you see the world with, it is all your doing. Without you, you have no world. You don't see it?"
The scenery changed again, this time to the cold, dead, dark hell that was Terminal Dogma. Shinji involuntarily looked away, catching a glimpse of the black shoes that Ayanami used to wear when she was alive. Alive.
"Don't worry, all living things have the potential to return to it's usual shape," said another voice. Mother.
"Mother?" Shinji said, whirling around in his dream, to see nothing but an empty train carriage.
"As long as the will to live exists…"
Shinji's eyes opened to bright sunlight. He had better hurry if he wanted to make it to school.
"What is going on here?!" Ritsuko shouted to the room as she stormed in. "Why is the American Seventh Fleet offshore? Why are there so many blue helmets around here?"
"The United Nations is going on here," said Shigeru, walking towards her from the far end of the computer room. Behind him, three blue berets kept pace, briskly walking with their assault rifles shouldered. "I've reported the blue pattern signals to the Security Council, as ordered, and.."
"But it's not even a confirmed signal!" protested Ritsuko as Shigeru finally reached her. "Doesn't matter, orders are orders." Shigeru said. "Besides, they have good reason not to entrust the matter to us, don't they, Ritsuko?"
"Fine then." Ritsuko said, masking the irritation. "So," she sneered at one of the blue berets, "the Security Council fears us in addition to loathing us. Who's in charge here?" she asked aloud.
"Rear-Admiral Starling from the USN, ma'am" replied one of the UN soldiers. "NERV is to stand by until authorized to act," said Shigeru.
"Fools." Ritsuko spat the words out. "Only an EVA can defeat an Angel.." Shigeru shrugged. "Considering what we... you did behind their backs the last time, they have reason to distrust us," he said.
Ritsuko saw no further point in continuing the conversation, and walked past Shigeru and the guards, to the large clear area of the building that functioned as a war room. A 3-D topographic map of Paris was projected in the middle of the room, the kind used when Angels attack.
Fifteen red triangles encircled in white discs were moving in from the north.
Ritsuko recognized the symbol for cruise missiles. "You're all mad," she said as she finally realized what the UN was planning.
"Ritsuko, you will not interfere!" Shigeru warned from behind her.
Shinji barely made it to school in time, huffing slightly from the effort of moving so fast. It had been a while since the last time he engaged in physical activity. Not able to do anything else, he quickly made his way to his classroom, hastily sitting down on the hard plastic chair. He consciously tried not to look at Hikari, if indeed she was his classmate.
Hikari's eyes were on him, but he didn't realize it. She sat five rows behind him, looking at him with mixed emotions. She was angry at him for the Third Impact.
Yet, she could see that it haunted him, she could feel it in the way he didn't even raise a hand in self-defence when she attacked him. How could Asuka still speak well of him when she knew that it was all because of him?
Ritsuko stormed out of the room, and walked as fast as dignity would allow, out of the NERV command building, past the blue-helmeted UN guard, and out into the Geofront crater. It was mid-morning. NERV personnel were walking from one building to another, scurrying like nervous ants under the watchful eyes of the millitary. Eva Unit 02 stood silently nearby, powerless and still.Ritsuko wiped a bead of sweat from her brow and leaned back against the grey prefabricated concrete wall. A weary sigh escaped her lips.
Shinji spent the recess period under a tree, eating gyoza, observing the other students. He felt tired, even bored. School just didn't feel so normal, so comfortably routine to him anymore, not after yesterday. He wondered if this is what Rei felt at school, an outsider, lost in the familiar, not knowing what was the right way to react. He reasoned that if Hikari could feel such hate for him, what about the other students? It would be their right to hate him, would it not? He didn't dare ask someone for fear it would be true.
Yet, he wondered, would that not just be fooling himself? Like that accursed day when he thought he would find comfort in the death Rei.. Lilith offered? Shinji ate the last of the gyoza and walked alone to the basketball court. He used to sit here and watch Touji and Hanamichi and the others play the game. He wished Asuka was still in school. He didn't mind her short temper anymore, he just craved the familiar.
"Shinji?" asked a small voice behind him. Shinji jumped back, reflexively covering his face with his arms protectively at the sound of Hikari's voice.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" he yelled, curling up into a ball.
"Shinji, I'm sorry. I just came here to talk…" Hikari pleaded with him.
"I didn't want it to happen. I never wanted it to happen to them!" Shinji cried out.
"Shinji, please, let me talk to you," Hikari said again. There was no response from the Third Child.
Finally, he whispered. "Please. Leave me alone. Leave me alone until I can figure it out."
When the bell rang to mark the end of recess, Shinji remained as he was.
Ritsuko and Asuka stood with Shigeru as the satellites and ground cameras tried to re-establish contact with Ground Zero. The monitors continued to show static while the MAGI terminals only showed the words "Establishing Connection" in large red letters. Asuka bit her lip, nervously fidgeting with the buttons on her red NERV jacket. Part of her hoped for the justification of her existence, while another part of her wanted to see fools pay for their fear. Shigeru stood calmly, his hands in his pockets, his eyes never wavering away from the computer screens.
"So much like Ikari, so quickly," thought Ritsuko about the serious young man that not so long ago, was just another console jockey in the War Room.
The MAGI terminals screamed "CONNECTION ESTABLISHED" and a wireframe representation of the area was immediately generated for all to see.
As expected, downtown Paris was no more. Smoking craters and rubble replaced a city.
There was something else the MAGI registered, moving through the rubble. The MAGI screens flashed a warning, just as the visual data from the satellites came in.
"Blue pattern confirmed! It's an Angel!" shouted someone.
The warning was unnecessary, because the thing was there for all to see. It was humanlike, clad in black titanium alloy plating from head to toe, with unnaturally elongated arms and it walked westward with an apelike gait.
"Lieber Gott," was all that Asuka could say.
"Evangelion Unit Three," Shigeru said, almost breathless with surprise.
"The Thirteenth Angel," Ritsuko said, correcting him. She turned towards one of the UN soldiers. "Your Admiral Starling has some things he should personally explain to us."
School finished early, to allow the students and their families time to evacuate. There was no fooling anyone. The Thirteenth Angel was heading to the ruins of Tokyo 03, humanity was fatalistically certain of that. Shinji was immediately whisked away by his security detail. He was put in a NERV car, unprotesting, and driven straight to the Geofront crater.
"There's no running away," he mumbled silently to himself.
"You're quite young. Not a day over thirty, right?" sneered Ritsuko.
"Doctor, I hope my youth doesn't disturb you," replied the admiral, flashing her a pearly white smile from across the table. "And you're quite mistaken. I'm thirty-two years old. Third Impact makes for rapid promotion through the ranks." He finished, leaning back in his chair, his eyes reflective and blank, meeting Ritsuko's own.
"Ritsuko, you will not antagonize him, is that understood?" Shigeru whispered harshly in her ear.
"Very well, Commander," Ritsuko replied in her iciest tones. "On to business, then. The Thirteenth Angel. Eva unit 03. You bastards tried to rebuild it, didn't you?"
Shigeru stared daggers at her, while Admiral Starling leant forward earnestly in his chair, his reassuring smile rapidly acquiring a plastic appearance.
"I expressly wrote that the remains of Eva unit 03 must be disintegrated at the CERN particle accelerator, but the UN had other plans, didn't it? You never trusted us even back then!" she snapped, pointing a long accusing finger right at Starling.
"Every time you try to start up that infested Eva, a blue pattern shows up on the MAGI and you shut it off hoping we don't notice. When you finally realize that thing was beyond human control, you nuked it all!!" she accused him, her voice forceful, angry yet controlled.
"Ritsuko! That's enough!" Shigeru shouted at her.
"And I'm the one with a suspended sentence for genocide!" she shouted, colour appearing on her normally pallid cheeks.
"I apologize for her unseemly behaviour, sir," Shigeru said to Starling, trying to defuse the situation.
"Not to worry, commander. The good doctor is merely sharing her theory with us," Starling said. He stared up at Ritsuko's long finger that was pointed at him. "As for your sudden concern for human lives, let me assure you that the French took all measures to evacuate the city. In fact, those missiles were launched off one of their own subs in the North Sea. Now, regarding our current problem, it's painfully obvious. That freakish blue pattern you all saw earlier must have been a Sea of Dirac, left over from the Third Impact.The combination of a Dirac Sea effect and multiple N2 detonations must have opened a time portal that summoned Unit 03 from the past." Starling's smile continued as Ritsuko could only roll her eyes towards the heavens and groan in frustration.
There was a knock on the door.
"Ah, it's a bit earlier than expected. Your security people really work fast," Admiral Starling said, getting up from his chair and opening the door himself.
Two NERV bodyguards promptly saluted. The Third Child stood between them, shuffling his feet nervously and looking at the floor.
It almost drove Ritsuko into a murderous rage. "You monsters," she snarled at Shigeru and Starling. "Haven't you done enough to him?" Starling thoughtfully scratched his chin. "We have to play it safe. You understand."
"So they found a use for me again after all," Shinji thought to himself, dreading what must now come to pass.