Chapter 7

Sawyer Dell stood outside of an abandoned warehouse. He wore a long black trench coat and he checked his watch as he saw a small blue sports car pull up directly in front of him.

"Punctual." He said under his breath as the car door opened and the young woman got out of it.

"Major Ikari reporting as ordered, sir." She said with a salute as she came up to him.

Sawyer returned her salute and nodded. "You are exactly on time." He said to her.

"Thank you, sir."

"Please, call me Sawyer." He told her. "I don't stand on military formality."

"Pardon me for saying this, sir, I do." Hope said as she stared at him.

"Well then." He told her as he smirked. "You may address me as Commander Dell."

"Yes, sir, Commander."

"Come with me, Captain." He said as he walked towards the abandoned warehouse.

Hope felt uneasy as she walked towards the abandoned, tattered structure and looked around. It didn't seem like the type of neighbor a secret government installation would be found in. Yet, he didn't seem like the type of man who would be a secret agent.

Dell walked inside of the building, Hope followed. He walked into the center of the room and then said. "Pegasus."

Shortly after a small panel rose from the floor, he looked over at Hope and said. "Come over to me and stand within this circle."

As Hope looked at the floor, there was a large round, red circle painted on the floor and Sawyer stood in the center of it. She walked over to him and then stood beside him as he placed his palm on the front of the panel.

Suddenly a light swept across the room and a small beep sounded and the floor that they were standing on starting to travel downward.

"What the…"

"Its all right." Sawyer said to her as he looked at her with a smile. "You'll see shortly."

The small elevator traveled downward where Hope watched as the ceiling above her closed shut. It continued to travel down until it reached its destination, which was a long corridor.

Sawyer stepped off the panel and walked towards another door where he simply turned the handle and opened it.

Hope's eyes widened as she stepped through and stood before a gigantic room full of terminals and people running about. There was much chatter and noise and she saw three large screens each of them with times at the bottom in red digital numbers.

"Major Ikari," Sawyer said to her. ", Welcome to NERV."

Hope breathed in as she couldn't believe the size and the activity within this room. Sawyer walked down a staircase and past several people who all stepped aside the moment they saw him. Hope followed him as he walked up another staircase to a large desk and chair from where the entire room could be seen and on the desk where several embedded panels.

"This is unreal." Hope blurted out.

Sawyer nodded. "Five years ago this was erected. Its purpose was to keep an eye on those out there who would undermine us in our attempt to keep the peace."

"What do you mean? You mean like a terrorist threat?" Hope asked.

"Sort of." He told her. "Tell me, how much do you know of Third Impact? I mean…. what do you know of Third Impact?"

"Third Impact?" Hope asked. "There was an explosion caused by an immense AT field. It was a natural disaster."

"That was what the public was told." Sawyer told her.

"Do you know what your parents did when they were young?"

"My mother was a soldier and my father was a carpenter." Hope said.

"No." Dell said to her. "I mean, do you know what they did when they were teenagers?"

"Teenagers?" Hope asked.

"Yes."

"I suppose they went to school like everyone else." Hope said.

"No."

"No?" Hope asked.

"What I am about to tell you is classified information. Have you ever heard of the Evangel ion project?"

"No." Hope said.

"What if I was to tell you that thirty years ago there was a threat from an entity that we code named the Angels. There were eighteen of them in total. Each of these entities possessed a potential threat to the world. Only it was us who were the aggressors first. You see these angels were not aliens but they were humans who decided to cast off their original form to aspire to something more. Right before Second Impact, a scientist named Yui Ikari, your grandmother, developed a way to possibly defeat the angels and with your grandfather Gendo Ikari, the Evangelion was born."

"How do my parents fit into this?" Hope asked.

"The Evangelions had children as pilots. These children were taught to defend and to kill. These children were trained in a secret government base under the jurisdiction of the UN called NERV. Your father Shinji Ikari and your mother Asuka Langely Soryu were the pilots of Evangelion Unit 1 and 2."

"My parents were?" Hope asked. "I never…. knew that about them."

"When Third Impact occurred, there were no other humans left except for two. Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langely Soryu were the only survivors of the planet Earth for four years. For some reason we cannot explain, humans began to suddenly appear in several cities around the world. We reconstructed cities to handle the growing population and then your parents were found in the home that you grew up in. Your parents were bought back to this very same city and were asked once more to defend the world with the Evangelion. The Evangelion is a marvelous peace keeping tool but in the wrong hands, it could be catastrophic. An organization known as SEELE has been discovered. SEELE is what caused Third Impact, Hope. This SEELE is a group of new maniacs. Recent activity shows that their goal, all though outrageous and outlandish, is to purify humanity by creating a more perfect version of humanity and the way they will do this is by cleansing the Earth of humanity."

Hope breathed in as she heard Sawyer and then asked. "What is my duty, sir?"

"You were bought here for one very specific reason." Sawyer told her. "My government, the United States, has been monitoring the efforts of this group and in cooperation with the United Nations and the Japanese government, we decided to reactivate NERV." Sawyer looked out into the control room as he sat down on the edge of the desk and looked at Hope with a smile. "Thirty five years ago, Hope, NERV kept the peace. Gendo Ikari kept SEELE at bay. Now, SEELE has returned and there is only one person who will be able to stand up to them and defeat them."

"Who is that?" Hope asked.

"You." He told her.

"How?" Hope asked.

"Come with me and I will show you." Sawyer said as he got off from the desk and walked off to an elevator over to the side.

Hope followed and the two of them got inside of the elevator. Hope's mind was flooded with questions. She had never expected so much information would be revealed to her. She wondered what was it I was sent to do?