Dawn broke over Japan, the sun's powerful orange rays obliterating the red
glow in the sky that came from the billions of dead souls that permanently
orbit the earth.
A blue sports car steadily made its way along the newly-repaved road, past electric pylons that once stood tall but were now bent and twisted, forced down onto the earth by the force of N2 explosions. On either side of the road were bomb craters and unexploded ordnance, leftovers from the day the JSDF invaded NERV, the day of the Third Impact.
As the car negotiated a sharp bend, the Pacific Ocean became visible, a giant dead hand lying offshore, its giant palm facing the heavens in a mockery of prayer. Nearby, behind the hills was a giant head split in two, its eyes gaping open, silently watching the car come closer and closer to the sea.
The car slowed down as it reached its final destination, a gigantic hole in the ground almost three kilometres in diameter, and a long way down, separated from the hungry ocean by only several hundred meters of solid earth. This was its destination, the hollowed-out crater that once housed the Black Moon of Lilith, the old Geofront that housed NERV, and continues to house NERV through the resurrection of Man.
There was no parking lot, the car merely stopped alongside the road, along with the other vehicles haphazardly parked along the way. Its occupant, a blond woman, slowly edged herself out of the driver's seat. Ritsuko Akagi closed the car door and walked for a few minutes, her eyes fixed on the pair of dead eyes that stared, unseeing, in her direction. She paused for a second, to curse the abomination that she had failed to destroy.
Ritsuko cursed Ayanami Rei, not loudly, not in an enraged yell for the whole world to hear, but silently, in her laughable excuse for a heart. She cursed her for not being able to stop Gendo when the three of them stood under Lilith. She cursed her for the Impact, and most of all, she cursed Ayanami because she had been able to die with the rest.
The moment passed, and Ritsuko walked to the edge of the crater, waiting for the lift to arrive at the crater's lip and take her down, to the crater bottom, where NERV's engineering and science buildings were. It was going to be another day at work, another day in the life after the Third Impact.
This was what she chose over Heaven itself.
NEON
GENESIS
EVANGELION
A3I: Doctrine
"What the hell is this?" Shigeru bellowed out from behind his desk. His forefinger impatiently tapped the thick bound file on his desk.
Ritsuko stood there in front of the table, her cool gaze never wavering from the angry young man she had to pay obeisance to. Shigeru Aoba, the Commander of NERV.
"As you can see from the cover, sir, it's the feasibility study on bringing Asuka back." Ritsuko replied, affecting bored tones.
"Look, Ritsuko, I know it's a little hard to deal with, we all miss her, but I don't think.."
Ritsuko interrupted him. She continued to be amazed at how he can still let her interrupt him. She concluded a while ago that the man simply hasn't adjusted to the power he now has.
"There's enough evidence that she was shunted into a Sea of Dirac when Asuka ruptured the core of Eva 03. Just like when Shinji was swallowed into the Twelfth Angel. She's still alive, Commander, just out of reach." Ritsuko said, her eyes fixed on Shigeru's own retinas, yet she was careful not to stare into his eyes too harshly.
"I remember when it was Shinji who was shunted into a Sea of Dirac," Shigeru said, almost wistfully. "You wanted to drop nine hundred N2 mines on him, Ritsuko, if I remember correctly."
"I didn't know then what I do now, Commander. The Sea of Dirac effect is..."
"And I would like to know when did you find the time to research this? Have you been neglecting your official duties?" Shigeru asked before she could finish the sentence, the edge returning to his voice, his eyes steeling for an assault.
"I have a lot of free time on my hands, Commander. You will find that all the projects I am assigned to are on schedule. You can inspect the Eva sockets and the Geofront armament buildings yourself if you want to." Ritsuko said, ignoring the stinging rebuke from Aoba. She reminded herself that the boy has valid reasons to be so hostile to her.
Shigeru nodded, noting that Ritsuko was right. His surveillance did show that she spent a lot of her free time at home in front of the computer.
"It's already three weeks.. What makes you think Asuka's still alive in there?" Shigeru asked.
"At the very least we'll be able to salvage Unit 02." Ritsuko replied.
Shigeru sighed softly. She stymied him yet again. He can't afford to trust her too much. Ritsuko had a hand in engineering the Third Impact behind everyone's back. Yet, NERV needed the Evas. Even with Unit 05, the Mass Production Eva on its way, he couldn't just abandon Unit 02. Relying too much on one Eva could lead to disaster.
"You'll find that my recommendations are feasible, even with our budget and equipment restrictions." Ritsuko said again.
Shigeru admitted defeat. "I'll forward it to the UN for approval."
Ritsuko nodded her head in satisfaction. "If there's nothing else, Commander, I'll take my leave now."
Shigeru scowled in assent, and Ritsuko efficiently rose from the chair she was sitting in, and stood up to leave. She took unhurried steps to the door, which she had to pull herself.
There was a man standing outside the door. He smiled at her. Ritsuko barely nodded her acknowledgement, side-stepping Admiral Starling and getting him out of her way as quickly as possible.
"Good morning, Commander," Admiral Starling said from the other side of the open door. Not bothering to wait for his response, he stepped through the door.
Shigeru stood up to salute, which was returned. Starling pulled up a chair and sat down, his hands in his lap, leaning in the chair.
"You do know why I'm here?" Starling asked.
"Yes sir, Eva Unit 05" Shigeru replied.
"That's right. Japan is entrusting us with the transfer of the Eva We're prepping the Eva for airlift from the USS Pine Bluff. It's a bit of a challenge landing in this crater, but I think the VTOL should be adequate,"
"Yes sir, " Shigeru replied.
"Once the Eva enters Japanese airspace ownership transfers to NERV. We drop your cargo, and she's all yours."
"That sounds so simple," Shigeru commented.
"Well yes, Commander, it does sound simple. It was a hell of a logistics nightmare for the Navy, but it's nothing we want to worry NERV about. We get things done, Commander. We always do...."
Starling stopped speaking, his eyes caught on the file that Ritsuko earlier placed on Shigeru's desk.
"Do tell me, Commander, if that's what I think it is?" Starling asked, his finger pointing at the thick volume.
Shigeru cleared his throat, not that he was nervous, but the question did come unexpectedly. "Ah, that's the Chief Scientist's recommendations for salvaging Eva Unit 02."
Starling's eyes widened a little. "Indeed? Do go on."
"Well, I've told Ritsuko of the unfeasibility of the idea, and.."
"Go on, Commander," Starling said. His artificial smile didn't change one bit.
"I was planning on forwarding it to the UN, but I'm recommending against it." Shigeru finished, slowly picking up the huge bound volume and offering to Starling.
"Well, I'm going to recommend you go for it," Starling said as his fingers closed around Ritsuko's proposal. "The world needs as many Evas as we can get, Commander. Never forget that."
"If you say so, Admiral, but..." Shigeru stammered, at a loss for words.
"We'll talk about this later. I have to oversee the transfer operations. Once the Eva is safely in your possession, I'll introduce you to the Sixth Child." Starling said as he got up to leave.
"Sixth Child?" Shigeru asked. "I thought the Committee wanted to test Shinji for suitability first before invoking that option," He continued.
"All in good time, Commander," Starling said as he briskly left Shigeru's office, the door closing behind him with a slight whoosh.
Shigeru leant back in his chair, as far as the springs would allow him. He covered his worried brow with his arms, squinting a little at the bright ceiling lights.
Sixth Child, he thought. Perhaps a last-minute candidate, he thought, trying to ease himself. Shigeru sighed inwardly, confused about the wishes of Admiral Starling. He wished they would make up their infernal minds whether Shinji should pilot an Eva or not. After all, today was the day the psychological assessment panel was due to check up on him.
Shigeru shrugged helplessly, and set about to doing some paperwork instead.
***********
"Stand. Bow. Sit"
Hikari dispensed with the formalities with practiced efficiency, but her mind was not on the mathematics lesson. Today was an eerily familiar day. The knock on the door, the men in suits, the look of surprise on Shinji's face which turned into doomed resignation when they took him away.
Hikari now felt sorry for him. It seemed that he was destined to be an Eva pilot, and whatever free will he had didn't apply. She wished him well, wherever it was that they took him.
Shinji was sweating, despite the air conditioning. Perhaps because on some instinctual level he felt he was in danger.
There was a woman, a middle-aged, Chinese-looking woman, in a dark blue dress sitting in front of him. She held up a card with a strange looking ink-blot shape. She smiled as she spoke. "Now Shinji, this is the last card, tell me what this is?"
"Uhh.. A flower? A bird?" Shinji guessed, trying to find the best answer that would suit the woman.
To be sure, this was not such an unpleasant surprise for him. He usually knew that whenever his bodyguards took him away from class, it usually meant being driven back to the Geofront, where he was usually expected to pilot an Eva and save the world from another Angel. This time, the strange people just wanted him to answer questions. It was disturbing, but much better than facing the nightmare of the entry plug once again.
Shinji nodded nervously, trying to signal that he had given his answer.
The woman put the card away.
"That's good, Shinji. Now, would you like to have a glass of water before we go on to the next round of tests?" the woman asked him.
"I .. I'd like to take a walk around, get some fresh air," Shinji answered in his most confident voice. He didn't know who these people were, but they had the proper identifications, and his bodyguards surely would have done something if these people had meant him harm.
"Go on ahead," the woman said, as she got up and opened the door.
Shinji took tentative steps, but he was out of the trailer soon enough. It was large, attached to one of those huge American trucks he had seen on TV as a small boy. Both the truck and its trailer were painted white with the UN logo stenciled on the sides. A small group of people, old men and women stopped their conversation when they saw him walk out. Another group of people, wearing the dark suits of Section 2, stood nearby.
Shinji looked up to the blue, cloudless sky, where a strange looking aircraft was flying westward. He strained his eyes to see what exactly was unusual about the plane. It seemed larger, and it was irregularly shaped, but he couldn't make out what was so unusual about it. Shinji looked away, turning his gaze to the green hillsides and the empty countryside. Truth be told, he really had no idea where he was. He was told he was still in the Kanto area, but that was it. There was no sign of the Tokyo 03 reconstruction as far he can see.
"Ready to come back, Shinji?" someone called out from behind him.
Shinji wordlessly turned around and went back in, so they can finish testing him, making sure that he can pilot an Eva. At least, these people were honest about it. Shinji took slow steps back into the white trailer, not really eager to confirm what he knew in his heart - that the old days were back again.
He didn't feel bad about it. Somehow, even if the old days were back again, he just couldn't get too worked up about it. Maybe Hikari had a point. Maybe it should hurt a little to know that soon he will be trapped inside the Eva again, but he sincerely didn't feel any hurt.
"Yes, Ma'am, I'm ready," Shinji answered.
************
Back in the Geofront crater, a large crowd gathered around the large helipad. It seemed like everyone at NERV was out there, standing in the heat of the midday sun, their eyes expectantly scanning the sky for their prize.
Evangelion Unit 05 was attached to its transport plane which was now making its final approach to land vertically in the crater. The various NERV staff hesitantly took several steps back away from its shadow as it made its final descent to the crater floor. As the plane got closer all eyes were on the shape attached to the undercarriage of the black plane, with US Navy markings and insignia.
Ritsuko Akagi narrowed her eyes, amazement briefly causing her mouth to gape.
"They painted it purple?" She muttered silently to herself. Not that anyone could hear her, the roar of the engines were deafening as the plane got nearer to the ground, and the echo in the Geofront crater made things worse.
Lower and lower the plane flew, lowering itself away from the sightless gaze of Rei Ayanami's giant head. It fired its thrusters harder as it sank below the crater lip, blowing eddies of dust on the crater floor, which got into Shigeru's eyes.
Shigeru cursed, rubbing out the dust from his irritated eye, hoping that no one would notice him in such an undignified act.
With a final thud, the plane finally touched down. Ritsuko stood with interest as the plane unlocked the clasps which held the Eva securely to its undercarriage. With an angry hiss, a giant purple shape loosened itself from the plane. It was recognizably the same Mass-Production type that Asuka mauled to a bloody mess, only to regenerate and trigger off the Third Impact. Evangelion Unit 05 finally loosened itself from its transport plane, and landed on the crater floor with a loud thump.
The Eva was painted purple and green in a similar design to Unit 01, but the narrow eyes, the sharklike grin, the inhumanly shaped head, put paid to any resemblance. Some of the NERV staff visibly recoiled from the sight. They remembered what this Eva helped start almost a year ago. Shigeru stood in awe of the Eva, which now lay on its back under its transport plane. The cockpit of the plane opened, and Shigeru saw Admiral Starling wave at him, giving him the thumbs up sign.
There was a girl with him, who looked too young to be military.
"Must be the Sixth," Shigeru muttered.
****************
"Stand. Bow. Dismissed!"
Hikari stood still at her desk along with the other students, who politely waited for the teacher to leave the room first, before rushing to the exits, boys pushing and pulling to be the first out, while the girls patiently waited. It didn't take long for the classroom to be emptied, and the courtyard was now alive with the sound of teenage chatter.
Hikari stood, alone, at her desk.
Shinji still hadn't returned. She remembered that back in the old days, in the war against the Angels, that probably meant an Angel attack was imminent, or he was injured, hurt.
Hikari shrugged off the fear. She had no reason to worry unduely about his safety - he wasn't anyone special to her, was he? He was a friend, she supposed, but he was never as close to her as Asuka was. So why did she worry about him so?
She shrugged off the feeling, and made her own way out, taking care to close the doors and windows before she left. It was time to return home to another lonely lunch.
*************
Starling and the girl took their seats opposite Shigeru in his office.
"So where is she?" Starling asked, looking left and right searching for her.
"Who?" Shigeru asked, before he suddenly remembered. "Ritsuko's with the engineering teams, working on the Eva."
"I see. Well, I guess you'll have to introduce her to Ritsuko then. Well Commander, this is Virginia Langley, the USA's recommendation for the Sixth Child and pilot of Eva unit 05. She's related to the late Lt. Asuka Langley, and her DNA is, well, frighteningly close to Asuka's." Starling said, gently nudging the girl on. "Go on, Virginia, say hello to the Commander."
Virginia slowly extended her hand, which Shigeru took. Her grip was weak, non-existent.
"I am pleased to meet you," she said softly in a clear whisper. Shigeru took the limp hand and shook it, before quickly releasing her hand. He looked at her intently for a few moments. The Langley family resemblance was there, all right. The high cheekbones, the blue eyes, the reddish-brown hair. Shigeru supposed that given the right lighting and angle, she could look very much like Asuka. Only Asuka's temperament seemed to be missing, but he had only just met her.
"She's about one year younger than the original Children, but she meets Marduk's criteria, as far as we can tell. She'll make a good pilot. If you take her, of course." Starling said. "Of course, it doesn't mean we can forego the Third Child option,"
"How so?" Shigeru asked.
"Virginia's totally untrained. We know she can sync with an Eva, but that's it."
"I see. So you're suggesting we use Shinji as pilot of Eva 05 until Virginia can pilot?" Shigeru asked again, already knowing the answer but wanting Starling to confirm it.
"If he can pilot. I really don't want to risk an insane Child piloting."
Shigeru leaned back in his chair, looking at Starling, then Virginia. The girl had been very quiet all this time. Her eyes stared blankly at a spot just behind his left ear. Her legs remained crossed, her hands in her lap as she sat there like a good little girl as the adults talked.
Virginia gave Shigeru the impression of someone who looked like Asuka but acted like Rei.
"Well it looks like we've found the best course of action, don't you agree, Commander?" Starling asked, smiling even wider.
Starling turned his head a little, so he can bring his lips to the girl's ear. He whispered something in her ear, which Shigeru couldn't lip-read. Virginia nodded her assent.
Starling spoke again. "Well I can't really stay here too long. I need to return to my ship and report the successful handover of the Eva."
"I see," Shigeru replied.
"I have to take Virginia with me. Her guardian is what we'd call a little strong in the maternal department." Starling said.
Shigeru chuckled at that almost-funny statement. Ritsuko suddenly came to mind.
"I'll reintroduce the two of you later," Starling said, as he gently nudged Virginia to stand. "We'll keep in touch," he said, gently placing his hand on the girl's back, guiding her out of Shigeru's office.
**************
"Horaki's place? Well we can't really stop you but wouldn't you prefer to go home?" asked Shinji's bodyguard as he gently brought the car into cruise control. The black Mitsubishi felt like it was flying over the deserted highway. Shinji sat in the back, his hand twitching, opening and closing almost of their own volition. He clamped his other hand onto it, forcing it closed into a fist.
"Take me there, please," Shinji replied.
"Yes, sir," he replied, as the car continued to cruise along the highway.
Several silent minutes later, as the outline of the Tokyo 3 reconstruction area came into view, his bodyguard spoke again.
"Did they tell you?" he asked, surprising Shinji a little. In all his time at NERV, his bodyguards had always been quiet and unobstrusive
"No." he answered, turning his face to look out the window.
"Well, doctor?" Shigeru asked, leaning forward in his chair, impatiently tapping a pen on his desk. "How's the Eva?" he asked.
Ritsuko paused for a moment, trying to find a proper, inoffensive word. Seeing Shigeru's impatient tapping, she decided not to bother. "Crippled," Ritsuko said with a hiss.
"What?!" Shigeru thundered in shock. Ritsuko took perverse pleasure in seeing Shigeru flustered a little, but she made no outward display of pleasure, her attitude set on what Misato often called "cold bitch".
"The day of Third Impact, these things had wings, an S2 Engine and regenerated even after Asuka mauled them, correct?" Ritsuko asked.
"Yes. That's all true," Shigeru answered.
Ritsuko's eyes narrowed as she started to recount the things that are wrong. "This Eva doesn't have them. No S2 engine, no wings. The internal battery will last exactly one minute after the power supply is cut. The armored bindings are a joke, even the alloy type used is wrong. That Eva will run, but going to be the weakest Eva we've ever had."
"That's bad news," Shigeru said, nodding his head in agreement.
"This Eva is not one of the original Mass Production units. It's brand new, and if you want me to put it down in writing, I will." Ritsuko said.
.
A blue sports car steadily made its way along the newly-repaved road, past electric pylons that once stood tall but were now bent and twisted, forced down onto the earth by the force of N2 explosions. On either side of the road were bomb craters and unexploded ordnance, leftovers from the day the JSDF invaded NERV, the day of the Third Impact.
As the car negotiated a sharp bend, the Pacific Ocean became visible, a giant dead hand lying offshore, its giant palm facing the heavens in a mockery of prayer. Nearby, behind the hills was a giant head split in two, its eyes gaping open, silently watching the car come closer and closer to the sea.
The car slowed down as it reached its final destination, a gigantic hole in the ground almost three kilometres in diameter, and a long way down, separated from the hungry ocean by only several hundred meters of solid earth. This was its destination, the hollowed-out crater that once housed the Black Moon of Lilith, the old Geofront that housed NERV, and continues to house NERV through the resurrection of Man.
There was no parking lot, the car merely stopped alongside the road, along with the other vehicles haphazardly parked along the way. Its occupant, a blond woman, slowly edged herself out of the driver's seat. Ritsuko Akagi closed the car door and walked for a few minutes, her eyes fixed on the pair of dead eyes that stared, unseeing, in her direction. She paused for a second, to curse the abomination that she had failed to destroy.
Ritsuko cursed Ayanami Rei, not loudly, not in an enraged yell for the whole world to hear, but silently, in her laughable excuse for a heart. She cursed her for not being able to stop Gendo when the three of them stood under Lilith. She cursed her for the Impact, and most of all, she cursed Ayanami because she had been able to die with the rest.
The moment passed, and Ritsuko walked to the edge of the crater, waiting for the lift to arrive at the crater's lip and take her down, to the crater bottom, where NERV's engineering and science buildings were. It was going to be another day at work, another day in the life after the Third Impact.
This was what she chose over Heaven itself.
NEON
GENESIS
EVANGELION
A3I: Doctrine
"What the hell is this?" Shigeru bellowed out from behind his desk. His forefinger impatiently tapped the thick bound file on his desk.
Ritsuko stood there in front of the table, her cool gaze never wavering from the angry young man she had to pay obeisance to. Shigeru Aoba, the Commander of NERV.
"As you can see from the cover, sir, it's the feasibility study on bringing Asuka back." Ritsuko replied, affecting bored tones.
"Look, Ritsuko, I know it's a little hard to deal with, we all miss her, but I don't think.."
Ritsuko interrupted him. She continued to be amazed at how he can still let her interrupt him. She concluded a while ago that the man simply hasn't adjusted to the power he now has.
"There's enough evidence that she was shunted into a Sea of Dirac when Asuka ruptured the core of Eva 03. Just like when Shinji was swallowed into the Twelfth Angel. She's still alive, Commander, just out of reach." Ritsuko said, her eyes fixed on Shigeru's own retinas, yet she was careful not to stare into his eyes too harshly.
"I remember when it was Shinji who was shunted into a Sea of Dirac," Shigeru said, almost wistfully. "You wanted to drop nine hundred N2 mines on him, Ritsuko, if I remember correctly."
"I didn't know then what I do now, Commander. The Sea of Dirac effect is..."
"And I would like to know when did you find the time to research this? Have you been neglecting your official duties?" Shigeru asked before she could finish the sentence, the edge returning to his voice, his eyes steeling for an assault.
"I have a lot of free time on my hands, Commander. You will find that all the projects I am assigned to are on schedule. You can inspect the Eva sockets and the Geofront armament buildings yourself if you want to." Ritsuko said, ignoring the stinging rebuke from Aoba. She reminded herself that the boy has valid reasons to be so hostile to her.
Shigeru nodded, noting that Ritsuko was right. His surveillance did show that she spent a lot of her free time at home in front of the computer.
"It's already three weeks.. What makes you think Asuka's still alive in there?" Shigeru asked.
"At the very least we'll be able to salvage Unit 02." Ritsuko replied.
Shigeru sighed softly. She stymied him yet again. He can't afford to trust her too much. Ritsuko had a hand in engineering the Third Impact behind everyone's back. Yet, NERV needed the Evas. Even with Unit 05, the Mass Production Eva on its way, he couldn't just abandon Unit 02. Relying too much on one Eva could lead to disaster.
"You'll find that my recommendations are feasible, even with our budget and equipment restrictions." Ritsuko said again.
Shigeru admitted defeat. "I'll forward it to the UN for approval."
Ritsuko nodded her head in satisfaction. "If there's nothing else, Commander, I'll take my leave now."
Shigeru scowled in assent, and Ritsuko efficiently rose from the chair she was sitting in, and stood up to leave. She took unhurried steps to the door, which she had to pull herself.
There was a man standing outside the door. He smiled at her. Ritsuko barely nodded her acknowledgement, side-stepping Admiral Starling and getting him out of her way as quickly as possible.
"Good morning, Commander," Admiral Starling said from the other side of the open door. Not bothering to wait for his response, he stepped through the door.
Shigeru stood up to salute, which was returned. Starling pulled up a chair and sat down, his hands in his lap, leaning in the chair.
"You do know why I'm here?" Starling asked.
"Yes sir, Eva Unit 05" Shigeru replied.
"That's right. Japan is entrusting us with the transfer of the Eva We're prepping the Eva for airlift from the USS Pine Bluff. It's a bit of a challenge landing in this crater, but I think the VTOL should be adequate,"
"Yes sir, " Shigeru replied.
"Once the Eva enters Japanese airspace ownership transfers to NERV. We drop your cargo, and she's all yours."
"That sounds so simple," Shigeru commented.
"Well yes, Commander, it does sound simple. It was a hell of a logistics nightmare for the Navy, but it's nothing we want to worry NERV about. We get things done, Commander. We always do...."
Starling stopped speaking, his eyes caught on the file that Ritsuko earlier placed on Shigeru's desk.
"Do tell me, Commander, if that's what I think it is?" Starling asked, his finger pointing at the thick volume.
Shigeru cleared his throat, not that he was nervous, but the question did come unexpectedly. "Ah, that's the Chief Scientist's recommendations for salvaging Eva Unit 02."
Starling's eyes widened a little. "Indeed? Do go on."
"Well, I've told Ritsuko of the unfeasibility of the idea, and.."
"Go on, Commander," Starling said. His artificial smile didn't change one bit.
"I was planning on forwarding it to the UN, but I'm recommending against it." Shigeru finished, slowly picking up the huge bound volume and offering to Starling.
"Well, I'm going to recommend you go for it," Starling said as his fingers closed around Ritsuko's proposal. "The world needs as many Evas as we can get, Commander. Never forget that."
"If you say so, Admiral, but..." Shigeru stammered, at a loss for words.
"We'll talk about this later. I have to oversee the transfer operations. Once the Eva is safely in your possession, I'll introduce you to the Sixth Child." Starling said as he got up to leave.
"Sixth Child?" Shigeru asked. "I thought the Committee wanted to test Shinji for suitability first before invoking that option," He continued.
"All in good time, Commander," Starling said as he briskly left Shigeru's office, the door closing behind him with a slight whoosh.
Shigeru leant back in his chair, as far as the springs would allow him. He covered his worried brow with his arms, squinting a little at the bright ceiling lights.
Sixth Child, he thought. Perhaps a last-minute candidate, he thought, trying to ease himself. Shigeru sighed inwardly, confused about the wishes of Admiral Starling. He wished they would make up their infernal minds whether Shinji should pilot an Eva or not. After all, today was the day the psychological assessment panel was due to check up on him.
Shigeru shrugged helplessly, and set about to doing some paperwork instead.
***********
"Stand. Bow. Sit"
Hikari dispensed with the formalities with practiced efficiency, but her mind was not on the mathematics lesson. Today was an eerily familiar day. The knock on the door, the men in suits, the look of surprise on Shinji's face which turned into doomed resignation when they took him away.
Hikari now felt sorry for him. It seemed that he was destined to be an Eva pilot, and whatever free will he had didn't apply. She wished him well, wherever it was that they took him.
Shinji was sweating, despite the air conditioning. Perhaps because on some instinctual level he felt he was in danger.
There was a woman, a middle-aged, Chinese-looking woman, in a dark blue dress sitting in front of him. She held up a card with a strange looking ink-blot shape. She smiled as she spoke. "Now Shinji, this is the last card, tell me what this is?"
"Uhh.. A flower? A bird?" Shinji guessed, trying to find the best answer that would suit the woman.
To be sure, this was not such an unpleasant surprise for him. He usually knew that whenever his bodyguards took him away from class, it usually meant being driven back to the Geofront, where he was usually expected to pilot an Eva and save the world from another Angel. This time, the strange people just wanted him to answer questions. It was disturbing, but much better than facing the nightmare of the entry plug once again.
Shinji nodded nervously, trying to signal that he had given his answer.
The woman put the card away.
"That's good, Shinji. Now, would you like to have a glass of water before we go on to the next round of tests?" the woman asked him.
"I .. I'd like to take a walk around, get some fresh air," Shinji answered in his most confident voice. He didn't know who these people were, but they had the proper identifications, and his bodyguards surely would have done something if these people had meant him harm.
"Go on ahead," the woman said, as she got up and opened the door.
Shinji took tentative steps, but he was out of the trailer soon enough. It was large, attached to one of those huge American trucks he had seen on TV as a small boy. Both the truck and its trailer were painted white with the UN logo stenciled on the sides. A small group of people, old men and women stopped their conversation when they saw him walk out. Another group of people, wearing the dark suits of Section 2, stood nearby.
Shinji looked up to the blue, cloudless sky, where a strange looking aircraft was flying westward. He strained his eyes to see what exactly was unusual about the plane. It seemed larger, and it was irregularly shaped, but he couldn't make out what was so unusual about it. Shinji looked away, turning his gaze to the green hillsides and the empty countryside. Truth be told, he really had no idea where he was. He was told he was still in the Kanto area, but that was it. There was no sign of the Tokyo 03 reconstruction as far he can see.
"Ready to come back, Shinji?" someone called out from behind him.
Shinji wordlessly turned around and went back in, so they can finish testing him, making sure that he can pilot an Eva. At least, these people were honest about it. Shinji took slow steps back into the white trailer, not really eager to confirm what he knew in his heart - that the old days were back again.
He didn't feel bad about it. Somehow, even if the old days were back again, he just couldn't get too worked up about it. Maybe Hikari had a point. Maybe it should hurt a little to know that soon he will be trapped inside the Eva again, but he sincerely didn't feel any hurt.
"Yes, Ma'am, I'm ready," Shinji answered.
************
Back in the Geofront crater, a large crowd gathered around the large helipad. It seemed like everyone at NERV was out there, standing in the heat of the midday sun, their eyes expectantly scanning the sky for their prize.
Evangelion Unit 05 was attached to its transport plane which was now making its final approach to land vertically in the crater. The various NERV staff hesitantly took several steps back away from its shadow as it made its final descent to the crater floor. As the plane got closer all eyes were on the shape attached to the undercarriage of the black plane, with US Navy markings and insignia.
Ritsuko Akagi narrowed her eyes, amazement briefly causing her mouth to gape.
"They painted it purple?" She muttered silently to herself. Not that anyone could hear her, the roar of the engines were deafening as the plane got nearer to the ground, and the echo in the Geofront crater made things worse.
Lower and lower the plane flew, lowering itself away from the sightless gaze of Rei Ayanami's giant head. It fired its thrusters harder as it sank below the crater lip, blowing eddies of dust on the crater floor, which got into Shigeru's eyes.
Shigeru cursed, rubbing out the dust from his irritated eye, hoping that no one would notice him in such an undignified act.
With a final thud, the plane finally touched down. Ritsuko stood with interest as the plane unlocked the clasps which held the Eva securely to its undercarriage. With an angry hiss, a giant purple shape loosened itself from the plane. It was recognizably the same Mass-Production type that Asuka mauled to a bloody mess, only to regenerate and trigger off the Third Impact. Evangelion Unit 05 finally loosened itself from its transport plane, and landed on the crater floor with a loud thump.
The Eva was painted purple and green in a similar design to Unit 01, but the narrow eyes, the sharklike grin, the inhumanly shaped head, put paid to any resemblance. Some of the NERV staff visibly recoiled from the sight. They remembered what this Eva helped start almost a year ago. Shigeru stood in awe of the Eva, which now lay on its back under its transport plane. The cockpit of the plane opened, and Shigeru saw Admiral Starling wave at him, giving him the thumbs up sign.
There was a girl with him, who looked too young to be military.
"Must be the Sixth," Shigeru muttered.
****************
"Stand. Bow. Dismissed!"
Hikari stood still at her desk along with the other students, who politely waited for the teacher to leave the room first, before rushing to the exits, boys pushing and pulling to be the first out, while the girls patiently waited. It didn't take long for the classroom to be emptied, and the courtyard was now alive with the sound of teenage chatter.
Hikari stood, alone, at her desk.
Shinji still hadn't returned. She remembered that back in the old days, in the war against the Angels, that probably meant an Angel attack was imminent, or he was injured, hurt.
Hikari shrugged off the fear. She had no reason to worry unduely about his safety - he wasn't anyone special to her, was he? He was a friend, she supposed, but he was never as close to her as Asuka was. So why did she worry about him so?
She shrugged off the feeling, and made her own way out, taking care to close the doors and windows before she left. It was time to return home to another lonely lunch.
*************
Starling and the girl took their seats opposite Shigeru in his office.
"So where is she?" Starling asked, looking left and right searching for her.
"Who?" Shigeru asked, before he suddenly remembered. "Ritsuko's with the engineering teams, working on the Eva."
"I see. Well, I guess you'll have to introduce her to Ritsuko then. Well Commander, this is Virginia Langley, the USA's recommendation for the Sixth Child and pilot of Eva unit 05. She's related to the late Lt. Asuka Langley, and her DNA is, well, frighteningly close to Asuka's." Starling said, gently nudging the girl on. "Go on, Virginia, say hello to the Commander."
Virginia slowly extended her hand, which Shigeru took. Her grip was weak, non-existent.
"I am pleased to meet you," she said softly in a clear whisper. Shigeru took the limp hand and shook it, before quickly releasing her hand. He looked at her intently for a few moments. The Langley family resemblance was there, all right. The high cheekbones, the blue eyes, the reddish-brown hair. Shigeru supposed that given the right lighting and angle, she could look very much like Asuka. Only Asuka's temperament seemed to be missing, but he had only just met her.
"She's about one year younger than the original Children, but she meets Marduk's criteria, as far as we can tell. She'll make a good pilot. If you take her, of course." Starling said. "Of course, it doesn't mean we can forego the Third Child option,"
"How so?" Shigeru asked.
"Virginia's totally untrained. We know she can sync with an Eva, but that's it."
"I see. So you're suggesting we use Shinji as pilot of Eva 05 until Virginia can pilot?" Shigeru asked again, already knowing the answer but wanting Starling to confirm it.
"If he can pilot. I really don't want to risk an insane Child piloting."
Shigeru leaned back in his chair, looking at Starling, then Virginia. The girl had been very quiet all this time. Her eyes stared blankly at a spot just behind his left ear. Her legs remained crossed, her hands in her lap as she sat there like a good little girl as the adults talked.
Virginia gave Shigeru the impression of someone who looked like Asuka but acted like Rei.
"Well it looks like we've found the best course of action, don't you agree, Commander?" Starling asked, smiling even wider.
Starling turned his head a little, so he can bring his lips to the girl's ear. He whispered something in her ear, which Shigeru couldn't lip-read. Virginia nodded her assent.
Starling spoke again. "Well I can't really stay here too long. I need to return to my ship and report the successful handover of the Eva."
"I see," Shigeru replied.
"I have to take Virginia with me. Her guardian is what we'd call a little strong in the maternal department." Starling said.
Shigeru chuckled at that almost-funny statement. Ritsuko suddenly came to mind.
"I'll reintroduce the two of you later," Starling said, as he gently nudged Virginia to stand. "We'll keep in touch," he said, gently placing his hand on the girl's back, guiding her out of Shigeru's office.
**************
"Horaki's place? Well we can't really stop you but wouldn't you prefer to go home?" asked Shinji's bodyguard as he gently brought the car into cruise control. The black Mitsubishi felt like it was flying over the deserted highway. Shinji sat in the back, his hand twitching, opening and closing almost of their own volition. He clamped his other hand onto it, forcing it closed into a fist.
"Take me there, please," Shinji replied.
"Yes, sir," he replied, as the car continued to cruise along the highway.
Several silent minutes later, as the outline of the Tokyo 3 reconstruction area came into view, his bodyguard spoke again.
"Did they tell you?" he asked, surprising Shinji a little. In all his time at NERV, his bodyguards had always been quiet and unobstrusive
"No." he answered, turning his face to look out the window.
"Well, doctor?" Shigeru asked, leaning forward in his chair, impatiently tapping a pen on his desk. "How's the Eva?" he asked.
Ritsuko paused for a moment, trying to find a proper, inoffensive word. Seeing Shigeru's impatient tapping, she decided not to bother. "Crippled," Ritsuko said with a hiss.
"What?!" Shigeru thundered in shock. Ritsuko took perverse pleasure in seeing Shigeru flustered a little, but she made no outward display of pleasure, her attitude set on what Misato often called "cold bitch".
"The day of Third Impact, these things had wings, an S2 Engine and regenerated even after Asuka mauled them, correct?" Ritsuko asked.
"Yes. That's all true," Shigeru answered.
Ritsuko's eyes narrowed as she started to recount the things that are wrong. "This Eva doesn't have them. No S2 engine, no wings. The internal battery will last exactly one minute after the power supply is cut. The armored bindings are a joke, even the alloy type used is wrong. That Eva will run, but going to be the weakest Eva we've ever had."
"That's bad news," Shigeru said, nodding his head in agreement.
"This Eva is not one of the original Mass Production units. It's brand new, and if you want me to put it down in writing, I will." Ritsuko said.
.