Disclaimer: All Series and Character appearing in this story are used without permission and are the property of their respective owners. This story will be promptly removed if requested by said owners.
For this Chapter: Evangelion is copyright ADV Film and GAINAX and whoever else licensed the name and property from GAINAX. A!MG/O!MG/A!MS! (Pick a version of the title ) is copyright Fujishima Kosuke and all the companies that licensed the property (Pioneer/Geneon, Dark Horse Comics, etc.)
Anata Ni Aete
Prologue
(v0.2 – 11 Sept 05)
NERV, Tokyo-3
A lone man sat at the sole desk in the vast expanse of his office, seemingly contemplating. Known in many circles around the world, many feared him. He was known, however, by some of those that worked for him by a very simple term: "King Bastard."
Ikari Gendo of course, wasn't thinking of such trivial matters. No, he had other thoughts on his mind.
'A failure,' he thought, sitting in his classic signature pose. 'It was a failure. A decade of effort, planning, deception…Ruined.' His eyes glanced about his office behind his shaded glasses. In a very rare act, Ikari Gendo did something most thought he never did: He relaxed. Leaning back in his chair, he stared at the pattern adorned on his ceiling, the Tree of Sephiroth, for several silent minutes.
"Yui…" he said, breaking the silence. He sat up and reached for one of the lower drawers in his desk. He pulled it out and reached in, retrieving what seemed to be picture frame. This frame contained his motivation, what had driven him to create his scenario: the only surviving photo of his beloved wife. He looked it over and saw a yellow sticky-note placed on it in the upper right corner.
"Please be so kind as to dial the following number at your most convenient time," it read, written in neat, cursive writing with a smiley face at the end. Below the written note was a string of numbers long enough to easily contain up to three phone numbers.
'Someone has infiltrated my office, it seems,' he thought, pulling the note off the frame. 'Section Two is getting laxed in it's practices.' He crumpled the note and tossed it in the trash while he reached for his phone.
In another place, the person who wrote said note was staring at a computer screen, reading the scrolling text as they went by.
"What!" she exclaimed. "He tossed it out! After all I went through to make it nice and everything…Fine!" She began to type quickly. When she was done, she looked up and over to her co-worker. "Say, Ere, can you do me a favor and call a number in a few minutes?"
"Umm, sure, I guess…What do I do when they answer?"
"Just transfer it to the second number." Ere was handed a note with the numbers she needed on it. Ere didn't recognize the first number, but immediately recognized the second.
"Say, Ex, you sure I'm supposed to connect to this number? I mean…"
"Yep. He asked me to get in touch with that number earlier today. Just dial when I tell you to, okay?"
"If you say so…"
Gendo lifted the receiver and was about to dial the number for Section Two's main office when he realize there was no dial tone. He glanced at the display on the phone base and saw another message there.
"Would you mind putting down the phone and picking it up when it rings?" he read. Keeping the receiver in his hand, Gendo glanced about his office once more. Confident that no one was there, he slowly replaced the receiver back on the base of the phone. Two seconds after it was placed back, it rang. He eyed it warily for several moments before looking at the display on the phone to find out who was calling. The display showed a single word: "Unknown." No name, not even a number. This intrigued him, as his number was a private encrypted line and very few had access to it. Those that did were readily identified when they called. Whoever this person was must be very skilled…And patient; the phone had rung nearly a dozen times so far. Gendo leisurely picked up the phone and placed it by his ear.
"Ah! Hello?" he heard a perky feminine voice answer. He answered in return with silence. "Umm, hello? Is this Ikari Gendo?" Again, silence. He heard a sigh. "Look, I can hear you breathing on the line. If this is Ikari Gendo, please wait while I transfer you over to my boss." The line went silent, but not before a quietly mumbled, "Prick," was heard by Gendo. Five seconds later, another voice came on the line.
"Hello, Mister Ikari," a gentle, soothing, but confident voice said, identified by Gendo as a male. "I see you wish to remain silent, but that would make having a conversation difficult, would it not? How may I go about to gain some of your trust?" All was said in a relaxed, conversational tone.
"Who is this?" Gendo finally answered.
"Ah. He speaks," the voice laughed. "As your reward, I shall answer. I am that which you had sought to become."
Gendo knew what that implied. 'Ridiculous. This person must be insane,' Gendo thought.
Prompted by Gendo's silence, the voice continued. "Ah, I see you do not believe me. And it seems my chances of gaining your trust has dwindled. Hmm…I have an idea. Grant me this small bit of trust and switch hands with the phone so I may prove myself to you. I don't want you dropping it with that injured hand of yours."
'Well informed I see. Perhaps I have another leak…' Gendo thought, not moving.
"I am waiting," the voice said, amused. "I do recommend the hand switch, if you please."
Gendo removed the phone from his ear and stared at it, before finally switching hands and placing by his other ear.
"Thank you. Now this might hurt a bit."
An instant later, a sharp pain ran though the hand that Gendo had been holding the phone with. He tensed, not expecting it, but it soon disappeared. He placed his hand on his desk. The moment he did, he felt something different. Still gripping the phone, he removed the white glove from his hand. Underneath, he did not find the prosthetic hand Doctor Akagi had made for him. Instead, he found his original, flesh and blood hand. He flexed it several times while staring at the phone receiver. Once he was positive it was his real hand, he brought the receiver back to his hand.
"Do I have your belief and trust now?" the voice asked jovially the moment the receiver was against Gendo's ear.
"You do not. However, I will listen. What do you want?" Gendo asked in return.
The voice laughed. "I suppose that is better than nothing, coming from Ikari Gendo. Now, on to business." The voice dropped all pretenses of humor and amusement. "I am allowing you a second chance, Mister Ikari. A second chance to achieve your dream and a chance to atone and redeem yourself. But without the, shall we say, 'extravagance,' of your previously failed attempt."
"And your conditions?"
"Straight to the point, as expected." A trace of humor had snuck back into the voice. "It is very simple. You shall abide by the scenario I will give you."
"And what guarantee will I have of your scenario's success?"
"None."
"And if I refuse this proposal?"
"Nothing. You just lose a chance at achieving what you desire in your life. However, I will leave the gift I gave you in the form of your new hand."
Gendo stared at his hand, flexing it once more.
"I will add, however, that if you accept, the scenario's success will be heavily dependent on you and those that are involved. I promised no guarantee for you. I only offer a chance. It is a simple question of faith and belief, Mister Ikari. Do you believe me? Do you have faith in me and those that will be involved and affected?"
"You do realize I do not believe you to be who you say you are?"
"Of course. Many stay in that mindset until I prove otherwise."
"And you are also aware that what you offer I do not believe is possible?"
"Oh, come now. We are both aware of your latest actions. If that was possible, what's to say this is not?"
"Indeed. However, even if what you say is all true, it is a very large gamble."
Another laugh emanated from the phone. "Yes, yes it is. And previously, you had all of humanity at stake. Today, I offer you a chance with what you hold dear at stake. Which is the larger stake? I shall let you decide. I hold the cards, Mister Ikari, while you hold the chips. Shall I deal, or will you fold?"
Silence reigned for several minutes. The voice waited patiently, no sound coming from the receiver. Gendo admitted to himself that offer was…Compelling. He had done everything humanly possible for his scenario. Perhaps, that was the problem…
"No guaranteed, correct?" Gendo broke the silence.
"Correct. Much will depend on the whims and wills of those involved."
'A question of faith, you say?' Gendo thought. 'We shall see then…'
As if reading his mind, the voice asked, "Shall I deal, Mister Ikari?"
"Agreed."
"Excellent! Listen now as I tell you what is required of you. All else, I shall take action for. This, my friend, is your scenario…" Gendo listened. After what seemed like ages, the scenario was laid before him. 'I see why many saw me as playing God,' Gendo thought, an amused smirk on his face.
Elsewhere…
In a place many only believe to exist, a woman sitting at her computer station answered her ringing phone.
"Yggdrasil System Administration. System Operator Chronos speaking. How may I help you?" Chronos answered with a smile while continuing to type on her console.
"It is I. Is First Class Goddess Peorth there?"
"Yes, Milord. She is currently overlooking a routine system check with some of the other operators."
"I see. Send her down to see the Council. I am assigning her on a temporary assignment. They will inform her of what is needed of her. You along with System Operators Ex and Ere shall be taking on her responsibilities during her absence."
"Sir? Are you sure?" Chronos stopped typing and sat up. "We're just operators, not administrators…We may not have the ski-" Chronos was cut off.
"I have faith in you three. See to it that Peorth receives the information promptly."
"Yes, sir." Chronos hung up the phone and sigh, leaning back in her chair. 'Great. Our workload's gonna double while she's away. It's ALWAYS the case when an admin leaves. Same thing happened when Urd left…' Chronos sighed again before sitting back up. "But it gives us the chance to make up our own working hours!" she said to herself in a more upbeat attitude, sitting up. She nodded to herself and quickly got up, heading to the station where the Goddess in question along with two system operators were staring at a screen. "Oh Peorth!" Chronos yelled while waving to get their attention. All three looked up and turned their heads to Chronos' direction. With a gleam in her eye, she continued, "I got some news for you!"
Tsuzuku…
Credits: Random1377 and HappyDude/Unobliged for pre-read.
NOTE: This is a beta chapter. I reserve the right to change this as I see fit. Mainly because it might suck in everyone's opinion and I wanna make it better. I'll update when I have the time, but I'm thinking this will a rather complex story, if my semblance of an outline indicates.
Author Notes: How was this prologue? If I actually get off my lazy butt and continue this like I want (It's been in planning for a few years now), I should have the rest of the series I want to include introduced in the next 2 chapters or so…Or I might just wait until I write it all before posting…shrug This was just a release for reaction and stuff, see how it MIGHT fair. Let's see how I fair with a REAL chapter. Ciao!