Disclaimer
The series, Neon Genesis Evangelion, from which this work of fiction is based, is owned by GAINAX. Characters presented in this document that come directly from the series are also owned by GAINAX. Madison Timlitt is owned by "Lady Pheaura". All other original characters are owned by me.

Evangelion: Primum Revelation
Chapter 7: Tower
Written by T.S. a.k.a. "Kain Tempest"
German translations by "Steve Vader"

Despite the cramped confines of the helicopter's hull, Asuka could feel an enormous rift between herself and Tristan. It wasn't something she truly felt bad about, but on the other hand it made her feel uneasy. Tristan sat directly across from her, legs and arms crossed and a stern look on his face made only the more grim with the wrap-around sunglasses on his face. Asuka sat directly across from him and play only mild interest in the captain's dirty look.

Asuka first took a great interest in her feet. She had not been given anything special to wear, mostly her common clothes that she had in her bag. But then, dressing up was a silly thing to be worried about. She may be a girl, but she didn't like the stupid attitude everyone expected of her. In fact, she suspected that they would have provided her with a proper uniform. Slacks and a T-shirt were not what she considered something her new commander would be interested in. Besides, the Evangelions were gone now and so by becoming a member of NERV wouldn't she be in an administrative role?

The redhead wanted to be satisfied with what was going on, but it seemed that she would have no such luck in finding an answer. She just hoped that no other questions would arise. Her life was complicated enough as it was and so anything that could be used to tie off the loose ends to her life seemed be invaluable.

Tristan shifted in his seat and turned his head to look towards the cockpit. Asuka took the opportunity to steal a glance at the young man through the corner of her eye. It didn't seem like an illusion anymore, Tristan had indeed changed. Not only that but he was also speaking what she knew he was feeling. He hated her, and not in the same way Asuka hated everyone. It was the kind of passionate ardor of someone who had been betrayed. Asuka was able to understand that feeling, considering what Shinji had done. She frowned inwardly, she wanted to forget about Shinji, not bring him back to her mind.

The young man's head snapped back to look at her, and Asuka refocused her sights on the vacant seat next to hers. Before now, Asuka could only remember Tristan raising his voice to only his father. They hated each other to the point that if it weren't for the NERV secret service, the two would probably come to blows. But here he was now, showing just as much hatred for her just because she betrayed something that wasn't actually real. He was an idiot. He didn't deserve her pity.

"Be aware that we are not going to Berlin." Tristan stated. Asuka glanced at him and frowned.

"Why not?"

"The NERV base we are using is beyond in the northwest. Tower Four."

"Why are we going there? I though we were going to the NERV HQ?"

"Before Third Impact the government had us flood E-NERV HQ. It was either that or the same violence that occurred at Japan."

"You idiots." Asuka grumbled.

"It was the commander's decision, not mine. If someone deserves that name it's him. Besides there is not much difference between headquarters and Tower Four except fewer labs and no development facility for Evangelions."

"But isn't the Evangelion series destroyed?"Tristan looked at Asuka strangely and removed his glasses, a perplexed look on his face.

"The only ones that are confirmed as gone are Units-00 through 04, there are still nine more." Asuka shook her head.

"That can't be right. Nine Evangelions were deployed to attack NERV. I had to the fight them."

"Now who is having delusions. No Evangelions were sent, they weren't complete." That unsettled Asuka. The Evangelions she fought and was defeated by weren't Evangelions at all. If they weren't EVAs then what where they? "What the Hell's the matter with you?" Tristan asked. Asuka shook her head. She didn't understand anything.

"If no new Evangelions were deployed in Japan, then where are the others?" Tristan put his sunglasses back on, a wry smile on his face. Something in Asuka's heart jumped at the thought, half from joy half from fear. But also there was more uncertainty.

"Wait. So I'm being brought back to NERV to be a pilot?"

"Correct."

"But the Angels are gone. What one Earth could be so dangerous that Evangelions have to be used?"

"I was waiting for you to ask that." From a leather folder next to the captain, he produced a thin ream of paper and handed it to her. Asuka quickly scanned over the German document.

"'The Vanguard Report'?"

"Essentially it was a theory developed about a month before Third Impact. Although the actual identity of the theorist is unknown, they somehow managed to provide a small amount of data pertaining to the Angels to come to the conclusion that each of the Angels encountered beyond the first were designed in some way to be a probe, a scout designed to learn adapt, and create a form that could effectively defeat humanity's largest and strongest defensive force."

"Tokyo-3."

"Yes. The Evangelions are the best weapon we have against the Angel and at that time they were programmed to attack the largest concentration of those weapons. That was incidentally Tokyo-3."

"But the Sixth Angel attacked the UN Fleet. If it was supposed to attack the largest concentration of Evangelions, it would have went for Tokyo-3."

"Perhaps the Angels are able to recognize individuals and the relationship they have with the Evangelions. One part of the theory suggests that the largest concentration of Evangelion pilots attracts the Angels."

"So if the First Child, Third Child, and I were in say... Australia, the Angels would attack there?" Tristan nodded. Asuka looked back at the report.

"I never understood why they do these things, but now it seems they are smarter than they look. As for the changing of their forms, all of the Angels were defeated so they never found a proper form to win."

"You continue to assume that there are a finite number of Angels. The Committee had said there were only seventeen, but that was based on pre-Second Impact information. We don't really know how many there are. For all we know, if Third Impact didn't occur, more Angels would continue to appear."

"But Third Impact was their goal. They did what they-"

"No! These beings were not here to herald the rebirth of humanity. Their purpose has to be more sinister. Something that occurred in Third Impact only lead to the blow being softened. Leaving humanity alive and in disarray. The Vanguard Report suggests that the true purpose of the Angels are to annihilate all human life. That was the purpose of Second Impact.

"The ice caps melted, the poles shifted, causing a severe climactic change. They wanted to try and wipe us out by making the planet unbearable to live, however, humans and many of the other things on the planet have adapted to become resistant to change within a tolerable limit. The Angels came to be the mop up crew, initiating Third Impact in order to finish what they started." Asuka couldn't help but laugh.

"Why would they want to destroy humanity? What have we done to them? Are they just freaky space invaders that want to live on our planet?" Asuka always ignored the details of her job, the nature of the Angels was so strange that there was no point in bothering over it.

"Perhaps. Perhaps the Angels are aliens or the agents of another group of beings who want to use Earth as a new colony. Or perhaps these are truly God's messengers coming down to Earth to bring about the final judgment of mankind. The end to the imperfect race that controls this planet. Whatever the case, if the Vanguard Report is correct, the Angels will continue to arrive until the day that humanity finally dies out." Asuka flipped through the report.

"When are they supposed to return?" Tristan shook his head.

"A week? Ten thousand years? We don't know. All we know is that if the theory is correct, the Angels will begin the process all over again and try and find some form that can defeat us. And when they do, we will be up to our armpits in these destroyers as they crush all of our defenses. We cannot allow any of the Angels to survive and win. If we do, humanity will be destroyed. That is the purpose of EVA and that is why you must become a pilot once more." Asuka cracked a smile.

"I knew that was why E-NERV wanted me back. They need someone to pilot their Evangelion."

"Evangelions." Tristan corrected.

"How many Evangelions do the NEC and UNIT have?"

"The NEC has three Evangelions, and UNIT last reported having one. But honestly, there is still much debate over whether you should pilot"

"Why?"

"After what you did to Shinji Ikari..." Asuka blinked at the defiance seemed to slip away from her, she had almost forgotten all about that. She looked away from Tristan for a moment to collect herself.

"He deserved what he got."

"What did he do to deserve it? Did he just look at you and you went berserk?"

"No! Of course not! I didn't because..." She paused. The truth of what happened was embarrassing. She didn't want Tristan to find out. If he did, he'd probably laugh or scorn her. Anyone would, if the great Asuka Langley had been overpowered by a skinny little kid and he had his way with her.

"Because what?" Tristan pushed, a look of amusement on his face, like an attorney who already knew that the witness was guilty and would never dig themselves out of their grave. Asuka had to find something to answer. From the tone in the captain's voice, this was a serious matter. She scrambled to figure out something to say. Something she could use in her defense.

"H-he tried to rape me..." Asuka stammered. There was a fell silence, Tristan was absolutely still but then shifted, as if considering the statement. The glasses came off and he examined Asuka carefully, coming down onto the still healing bruises on her neck. She had tried to hide it with the collar of her jacket, clearly ashamed by it. When Tristan looked into Asuka's eyes, the girl's expression hardened, knowing that the captain was trying to see the truth now. Asuka's mind constantly tried to pound in the idea that it was true. That Shinji had tried to rape her on the road. That he wanted to replay the same disgusting act he had done but now with the chance of doing so to someone who was more active. She could feel herself want to have her face contort in disgust. But she couldn't help hold back the tears as the reality of her rape came to mind and painted the picture of the evil little boy in tennis shoes violating her.

"So you were trying to protect yourself?" Asuka slowly nodded. Tristan closed his eyes and frowned, thinking hard, as if considering what next to say. Obviously this was a difficult thing for him to deal with. He was still only a fifteen year old kid, even though he was a captain. Besides, rape was not something that ordinarily frightened men as much as women. "As you can see... I don't really know what to say to that." Tristan finally announced, saying each word carefully. Asuka nodded, still concentrating on making the lie real in her mind.

The silence persisted, the two teenagers not sure what to say to the other on the subject. The pilot glanced back into the hull from the cockpit, feeling the air of solemnity in the place. He was about to speak but stopped himself and returned to piloting the craft. Clearly, this was not something to get involved in. No matter what it was that they had been actually talking about.

Even though NERV was designed to be a veritable fortress, the design had a knack for not leaving the aesthetics left behind. Undoubtedly, their style translated to even the auxiliary bases as well. Asuka looked out the glass walls of the elevator as it descended down in the earth. Natural geofronts were rare and Germany had to alter the expansion of Berlin significantly in order to incorporate the base into it's defense sphere. Places like Tower Four were simply enormous vertical shafts with the a massive column in the center, reinforced by hundreds of metal struts and supports connected to the walls.

Sunlight came in through large windows in the ceiling, reflected off of the silver tinted windows and walls and illuminating the shaft. Down far below, a sort of office park had been made. Paths, trees, benches, and ponds, all made so that the long term workers didn't get too antsy about being underground. When Asuka was an infant and when she was being trained as a pilot, she never spent much time 'outdoors'.

Asuka could remember a few memories of when she had come to Tower One, when not working directly with the entry plug prototypes, Asuka's mother often studied and developed her theories at that base. Even when she was still just an infant she could remember and distinguish between Tower One and Four, the first being the true pride and joy of the original staff. Asuka would often be brought there by her father expecting his wife to care for the child when he went to work, or simply to be there when both were busy. NERV wasn't properly staffed back then, it was never really a daycare center either.

Asuka closed her eyes and tried to conjure up images of the crayon drawings she made. Something she did on her spare time. Somewhere down the line that was what convinced her father and stepmother to get her involved in music. She seemed artistic and at that time they were never really aware she was going to be an EVA pilot. It was a secret after all. They didn't seem to care. Asuka thought only her mother would give a damn.

Her face contorted in disgust as she remembered the day her mother did the trial run of the entry plug. Before she left Asuka had given her a picture. She never knew where it had gone after that event, but God help her if she found it she would burn it and the ashes. She hated herself as an infant. She was far too naïve.

When sense returned from out of the fit of anger, Asuka assumed that the piece of paper was destroyed in the bombing of Tower One. She moved to Berlin before it happened but from what she had heard, a member of a religious cult believed that whatever testing that was being done at Tower One was morally evil and had to be destroyed. The tower had collapsed and was probably the largest act of terrorism ever recorded in Post Second Impact Europe.

"You're not sick again are you?" Tristan asked bluntly. Asuka started and looked over her shoulder. Tristan was leaning against the frame of the door, still wearing his sun glasses. Asuka remembered that soon after they had landed she had to throw up. The morning sickness had come back.

"No. I only get sick when in an aircraft. Why do you think I agreed to take a boat to Tokyo-3?" It was a lie she could justify and after what she said on the chopper, she didn't think she needed to complicate things anymore by revealing her pregnancy. In fact, that was something she didn't want to remember anymore.

A pang of guilt struck Asuka as she felt as though she was trying to ignore the child she was expecting, doing something her parents probably did. If Asuka was to bring a new life into the world, she didn't want to treat it the same way that her parents did. If there was anyone she needed to turn her back on, it was the ones who raised her. They deserved to be forgotten.

The cause of her pregnancy, however, was something that bothered her. If Shinji was indeed the father. How would she explain it? Would she explain it? For that matter, would she actually keep the child? Asuka's brow furrowed as she thought about those possibilities. Soon though she chose not to continue that train of thought. It was too taxing for her. Getting used to being in Germany again was difficult enough. Facing Tristan again was even more difficult. Who knew what other surprise guests would appear before the day was out.

"You grew up near Tower One, right?" Asuka nodded, not turning to look at Tristan. Why was he trying to make conversation with her now? Was it because he thought this place was private? Without even looking, Asuka knew Tristan had positioned himself directly below the security camera. She was surprised she never noticed it before. She would have expected to notice it to be so deliberate.

"Near Munich... Yeah." Asuka added. "Tower Three, Weimar?" She didn't even know why she wanted to keep talking. Perhaps to try and escape from the horrors of her reality. Tristan seemed surprised as well.

"That's right." Tristan murmured. Asuka didn't continue the conversation. Growing up, she had heard enough about the captain to know he wasn't interested in talking about his personal life just like Asuka. Flashes of her mother came and the girl stared intently on the distant walls of Tower Four's shaft. Neither of them spoke, the brief exchange being sufficient to ending the stifling silence they felt they were under.

The elevator at last stopped with a chime. Asuka turned to leave, motioned by the captain to go first. Asuka stood at the meeting point of the perimeter hall with a corridor reaching out from the center of the facility. The place was quiet and sterile, the walls seeming to absorb noise, leaving only the echoes of people moving down the halls in the far distance.

The outer walls of the perimeter hall featured heavily reinforced windows and covered balconies from which the smoking members of the staff could enjoy a puff. While Tokyo-3 didn't have smoke detectors in the offices, the Towers' rules were different as any problem could compromise the ability for the Tower to be defended.

Unlike Tokyo-3's base, the Towers, as Asuka could recall, were actually designed to be highly defensible structures originally built to defend against an invasion force. Digging deep underground was a logical thing to do what with the advent of more destructive weapons of mass destruction. When Germany became a member of the NERV program, the places were refitted to provide the dual role of research and combat. A limited community capable of surviving a long term siege.

"Where are we going?" Asuka asked as Tristan passed her and started down the corridor into the center of the structure. Tristan turned after a few paces.

"You might as well come and meet the staff you will be working under. It's not going to be a formal thing, but you out to pass a brief introduction with the top brass." The captain explained matter-of-factly. Asuka didn't remember ever being introduced to the commanders of E-NERV or J-NERV. In fact, all she had were there names and she never actually met them. This was a change in a tradition that Asuka had quickly gotten used to. But then again, who was to say that the commander of E-NERV was the commander who was running the show before Third Impact?

Also, because of her veteran status as an Evangelion pilot, this was probably a by product of the prestige the title carried. Besides, being someone who knows how to fight Angels, her opinion would probably be very valuable. Asuka grinned to herself as she imagined the perks of such recognition.

The redhead followed her guide to a second elevator and climbed in. This one now windowless and devoid of anything decorative except the metal hand railing. Tristan pressed a button and the car began to descend. The silence was short as a cell phone in his pocket chimed. Tristan pulled it out an answered.

"Hallo? hier spricht der Captain..." It was Lieutenant Sai, a member of the staff Tristan wanted Asuka to meet. He was responsible to ensure everyone was around, something must have been wrong. "Pardon? Sie ist was? 'Sicher'? Gott, wer befehligt diese Idioten? Der Sub-Commander?" There was a pause. It seemed that the NERV Secret Service was giving Sai a hard time. "Fein, ich werde mit ihr sprechen. Ich werde auch mit ihm über die Entscheidung reden. Nein, der Zeitplan wird nicht geändert. Sie hat das Boot verpasst, also muss sie auf das nächste warten. Ja. Ja. Wiederhören." Asuka was about to speak up when Tristan immediately punched in a speed dial code and put his ear back to the unit.

"Madison? Wo zum Teufel bist du? lch bin ich nicht dein Bewacher, und sicherlich nicht dein Vater! Leutnant Sai sagte mir du warst nicht anwesend... Ich sagte dir gestern du sollst mich in der Lobby der unterirdischen Büros treffen... Dieser Dienst ist nicht dazu da dich mit einem Haufen persönlicher Sekretärinnen zu versorgen... Ist mir egal wie leid es dir tut, das Treffen ist gestrichen. Bleib wo du bist, und mach weiter, was auch immer du gerade tust. Wir können uns ein anderes Mal treffen. Tschüss.." Tristan couldn't believe it, how irresponsible could Madison be to forget this when she had several days to prepare.

"Who's Madison?" Asuka asked.

"Don't worry about it."

"I'm not worried about it, I just want to know. Who is Madison?"

"It's none of your damn business!" Asuka stifled a chuckle. "What's so funny?"

"You are getting awfully defensive. I thought you were the officer who was cool under pressure."

"And you're supposed to be a pilot, yet you seem to inherently suck at killing Angels. At least she has natural talent."

"Natural talent, hmm?" A sly grin crawled on Asuka's face. "You got a thing for her, captain?" She drew close. Tristan responded with an irritated snort. "Sounds like you do. So is she a looker, or brains before beauty? C'mon, I want to hear the details." Asuka chuckled as she could see Tristan seem to tense from her teasing. She tapped her chin in mock contemplation.

"Now let's see... What kind of look would you go for? Blonde? No, too airy. Brunette?"

"Definitely not redheads, they have a tendency to be bull shit flingers."

"What do you mean by that?" Asuka asked, her teasing mood being replace by her dangerously even tone.

"And they cannot catch a wisecrack."

"Mein Gott! Nicht schon wieder!" Asuka cried. "There was nothing between us, Tristan. Nothing! Everything you thought we were was just your own damn daydream. I hated your guts then and I hate them now." Tristan spun around and glared at the girl.

"Hate is a word you don't understand."

"And you do? That's the largest load of bull shit I ever heard from you!"

"At least your parents actually gave two shits about you!"

"So I should pity you? God, you are even worse than that reject, Shinji." Tristan paused for a moment, considering what to say.

"At least I-" The elevator chimed and the door opened before Tristan could finish.

"Captain?" A gruff voice inquired from behind Tristan. The youth's body tensed for a moment before he spun around and snapped a hard, practice salute. Asuka lagged several seconds behind before snapping to attention as well.

"Grüsse, Kommandant." The captain said in as authoritative of a voice as possible.

"At ease." The man said. The solemnity in his face faded to something anyone else would consider a happy tone, but for those present, it looked more like his mouth had been stretched wider. "What seems to be the trouble?" He asked.

"Nothing, sir." Tristan smartly responded, despite the previous order. The man looked away from the captain and laid his tired eyes on Asuka. She looked up at the man, standing at a height of well over six feet with blonde graying hair and a thick mustache. He wore a uniform of NERV authority, the clip on his collar revealing to be of far higher rank than the captain. The commander. Asuka shifted her stance, concealing the rank clip on Misato's jacket, becoming aware of how much confusion it may cause.

"And who is this? A civilian?" A twinge of disappointed sounded in the commanders voice.

"No, sir. This is Asuka Langley Sohryu. Former pilot of Unit-02, our contribution to the defense of the Tokyo-3 branch."

"Hmm... I do not believe we have ever gotten the chance to be formally acquainted before the circumstances now. I am Sub Commander Aaron Septerra." The commandant stepped into the elevator and offered his hand to Asuka. She took it and received a firm handshake. Tristan glanced at his watch.

"You're late for the meeting." Tristan pointed out and signaled for the elevator to keep going down.

"Yes, I suppose so, but there is a lot of duties that I needed to get done. Especially after the previous operation."

"That was a week ago and we're still trying to pick up the pieces?" Septerra nodded.

"What operation?" Asuka inquired.

"Evangelions don't just make themselves." Briefly glancing at the captain, Septerra looked back at Asuka and elaborated.

"Have you heard of the Vanguard Report?" Asuka nodded. "Soon after that information was given, all primary and secondary branches of NERV began to start full production of the Evangelions all over the world. After Third Impact, however, not all of the Evangelions were completed and considering there was no one at the abandoned NERV bases, the NEC decided the most prudent action was to find and transport the Evangelions back to Germany, to be completed. The operations involved finding and securing the Evangelions for transport from the other NERV bases, many have which have been locked down soon after the attack on the Japan branch."

"So you get the Evangelion, but what is there to clean up?"

"Information." Tristan answered. "Each of the NERV branches have been working on research independently and have been working to develop new technologies to further the efforts in defending humanity against the Angels. For example, the former U.S. branch was trying to manufacture an Evangelion with an S-2 organ. Canada was developing newer extreme environment equipment. Brazil was working on improving battery capacity, since they were pessimistic about A-NERV's ideas. Since it was decided that NERV was to be shut down, our operatives have been working to try and get into every part of these facilities to find as much information as we can to try and improve the quality of the Evangelions."

"As if the reinforced structure wasn't enough, many also were flooded with cryostatic fluid." Septerra added. "Just like E-NERV itself." Asuka nodded. Tristan had already mentioned the flooding of E-NERV, but he didn't mention it was with that ruby red gunk. If the stuff wasn't so dense, Asuka knew that NERV would have used it as some kind of weapon against the Angels.

"Makes you wish that we discovered a solvent for the stuff."

"So where did the last operation occur?"

"The construction hangars in southern China." Septerra answered. Something in the back of Asuka's mind pricked up, warning her that something was wrong with this. As if she was forgetting something important, but for some reason, she couldn't place what it was. The elevator chimed again.

"We're here." Tristan announced. He offered to allow Septerra and Asuka off first.

"I hope you enjoy staying here." Septerra mentioned as he lead the captain and their newest staff member towards the meeting hall. "It would be nice to get to know the daughter of Professor Sohryu." Another twinge of something. Septerra knew her mother? Asuka watched and followed the sub-commander intently, as if drawn by the promise that he could reveal some of the mysteries behind Kyoko. She never understood her mother, as a scientist or as a person before she went insane. This middle-aged man could be the key to finally doing so. However, even with the excitement of discovery, something deep in Asuka's heart warned her it wasn't something she wanted to know. But then, the heart was always an irrational thing, something that only a child listened to.

To Be Continued...

Author's Notes
It might be just me, but it seems that I am getting more used to writing these slightly shorter chapters, but despite that, they usually involve the information that I wanted to get out. There is no sign of Shinji in this chapter as I think the events between the two main characters are getting farther and farther removed at this point. Obviously this is because the relationship between the two of them has been horribly torn apart. Don't worry, Shinji fans, chapter eight will feature the spineless hero.