Chapter 3 – Live Broadcast

Kaji looked at his monitor in awe, and if he was honest with himself, more than a little fear. Not that that was a surprise, Id had always struck fear into him. Still, Kaji got the funny feeling now was a good time for a vacation. Wait… I've used all my recent vacation time.

Well, a few sick days would suffice. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, they say. Kaji quietly gathered his things and left the room.

Walking out of his room, Kaji got the insane urge to tip-toe through the corridors. That's ridiculous. They'll be tied up watching replays of Id for hours before they get to… urk!

Just like two months previous, Kaji was tugged into a room, flipped around, and slammed into a wall. Catching his breath he idly noted it was Misato again. Nuts. She looks pissed, too. Double nuts.

"I told you then that this wasn't over, Kaji…"

Kaji adopted a confused expression. "No you didn't."

Misato growled reached to her waist with one hand and whipped her pistol into his face. "It was implied, asshole. Now tell me what you did to Shinji!"

"Moi? I didn't do a thing, Misato."

There was a clicking noise as the hammer drew back. "Bull. That was Id out there, and Id shouldn't exist anymore!"

Kaji's voice was quiet. "Not unless the contact was put through some sort of powerful trauma, right?"

Misato's eyes narrowed. "Right. Now tell me what you did to unleash that monster."

Kaji cocked his head. "Me? Bring out Id? Considering my history with him, the last thing I want-"

Misato waved the gun threateningly. "You, your superiors, whatever! What the hell did you do?"

Kaji glared down at her, dropping all pretense of humor from himself. "What makes you think we did anything?"

Misato tightened her grip. "Id never came out here no matter what Gendo put him through."

Kaji snorted humorlessly. "Berserker mode doesn't mean anything to you?"

"That wasn't Shinji, that was-"

Kaji was quiet for a moment. "Are you sure? Even if you're right, can you imagine what that would do to someone's mind anyways?"

Misato was speechless for a moment. She looked at him. "You really had nothing to do with it, did you?" She let him go then stormed out of the room and down the hall.

"A 'I'm sorry for biting your damned head off' would have been nice!" came after her from Kaji. She ignored it and headed back to the command center. It promised to be a long day.

Kaji went home. Definitely time to use those sick days.

Rei and Asuka were changing in the locker room, Asuka still shuddering from both the attack and their savior. Rei glanced at her. "Do you know exactly what that red machine was?"

Asuka growled a moment. "No, but the pilot's a damn pervert! He grabbed my ass out there!"

"I saw."

Asuka looked over at Rei incredulously. "No? Really? Newsflash wonder girl! The whole damn city probably saw that! Do you have any idea what that will do to my reputation? My life is ruined!"

"I predict you will be the object of some teasing for several weeks, then it will die down."

Asuka glared.

For a little while, nothing happened, and true to Rei's prediction, the laughter did eventually die down, most likely due to the absence of any stooges to perpetuate the scene.

At the end of a three month break though, Asuka and Rei were summoned to the command center for business. But not their usual business.

Asuka stormed into the command center, Rei only a step behind her. "What's going on? An angel?"

Misato shook her head from where she and Ritsuko were seated. "No… this is probably a lot worse than that."

The Commander's voice sounded from behind them, and Rei's expression turned even frostier than normal at it's presence, if that was possible. "Show them."

Ritsuko sighed. "This is going to be broadcast later tonight. We were lucky to get a hold of it this early. But…" She glanced at Gendo "We can't stop the broadcast for some reason." She pushed a button, and one of the larger monitors lit up and began playing.

The monitor displayed what seemed a barren wasteland, with a deep crater in it, the view being taken from helicopter. Scattered around the crater were various pieces of scrap metal and what looked like massive, twisted, and burnt human limbs. The area was blocked off, and there were police crews all over the scene. A French voice started over the speakers, which was translated into Japanese on the fly by a reported.

"This is Francois DeLuc from thirty miles outside Paris-2. Earlier today, residents of Eurasia's capital were literally shaken when a massive explosion went up from right at this spot.

"A few people reported seeing strange lights and hearing what sounded like cannon fire shortly before the explosion occurred. Police are unwilling to guess as to what exactly happened, though several scientific sources in the community seem to believe that a 'clean' nuclear reactor, perhaps something similar to an 'N2' bomb, if not an N2 itself was the cause of this devastation.

"As to the massive limbs scattered around… we can only speculate, but inside sources have indicated that these may be Evangelions, the secret weapon that NERV has used to fight off the 'angels' in Japan.

"Has Commander Gendo Ikari lost control of the Evangelion design? Are there terrorists out there with Evangelions at their command? If so… what is NERV going to do about it?

"There are no answers coming yet, and the world hangs in the balance while we ask the question on everyone's minds tonight. If it came down to it, could anything short of a nuclear strike such as this stop an Evangelion?

"Francois DeLuc, Eurovision 6 News."

Ritsuko pushed another button, and the recording stopped, and the screen went dark.

Rei turned to Ikari. "Commander-"

Gendo grunted, and stormed out of the room, not answering her. Rei sighed as other people began filing out of the room, and then turned to the doctor.

"Doctor Akagi, may I speak with you privately?"

Ritsuko, still sitting at her station, looked up with a little surprise. "Certainly, Rei. Give me a moment, then we can go to my office to talk, okay?"

Rei nodded, and waved Asuka off, before sitting down and waiting for the Doctor to finish. It was a short walk back to her office, but since they were alone, Ritsuko started talking anyway. "So, Rei, what's on your mind?"

"I… have been experiencing… my chest tightens, and I'm not sure why. It isn't painful, but…"

Ritsuko frowned. "Hmmm… anything else you can tell me about this? What brings them on?"

"Thoughts of Ik… Shinji."

Had Ritsuko been drinking, she was certain a spit-take would have followed. As it was she still gave a good approximation. Straightening herself, she spoke. "I… don't think we should talk about this here, Rei."

As she said that, she glanced meaningfully at one of the security cameras, and Rei nodded, so Ritsuko continued. "I'll give you a ride home, and we can discuss it there, okay?"

Rei nodded, and they continued in silence until they reached Ritsuko's car. The two drove in silence for a few moments, before Dr. Akagi spoke up. "Okay, Rei. Your chest tightens whenever you think of Shinji, right?"

Rei nodded, and she continued. "Okay, are there any other... symptoms?"

Rei considered for a moment. "My eyes... they seem to burn occasionally."

Ritsuko nodded. "Absolutely anything else, Rei?"

Rei shook her head.

"Okay. The doctor's prognosis is... you miss Shinji."

Rei blinked. "What?"

Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "You miss him. Chest tightening and eyes burning, a prelude to crying, often brought on by thoughts of the subject, Shinji. If he were still here and your eyes didn't burn I'd tell you you were in love with him. It might still be the case."

Rei's thoughts trailed off at that, and they remained in silence until Ritsuko parked outside Rei's building. What... is this dump? She looked over at her expresionless blue haired companion. "You... live here?"

"Yes... is that a problem?"

Ritsuko blinked. Shinji'd reported it as a dump before, so she wasn't expecting it to be pretty, but this was almost condemned. "Um... not really... let's go upstairs and talk some more, okay?" Gotta see the rest of this place. I knew Gendo was slime, but this is how he treats people he actually likes?

Asuka was scared out of her mind as Misato drove her back to their apartment. This was caused not so much by Misato's being all over the road, but by the extreme lack of it. Mein Gott! She's even stopping for stop signs!

Misato drove crazily while sober and ludicrously insane while drunk. Both she and... Shinji (the baka) had grown numb to it. A perfectly stable car with Misato in control was something she was not equiped to handle at the moment. Misato was still silent and contemplative as they walked into the apartment, and fianlly Asuka couldn't take any more. "Misato?"

Misato blinked at her, then smiled a little subdued. "Yes?"

"What's wrong?"

Misato was taken off guard. "What?"

"You heard me."

Misato sighed, and fingered the cross on her choker. "Asuka? Do you know why I wear this cross?"

Asuka shook her head quietly. "No..."

Misato grimaced a little, and got a beer from the fridge. Just when Asuka was about to blow again, she started talking. "When I was a little younger than you are, my father handed it to me before sealing me in the pod that saved my life. I swore on it and their memories that I would never allow those so called 'angels', those bastards, that I would never allow them to hurt anyone else that I cared about."

Asuka grimaced herself. "And now everyone's gone."

Misato nodded. "Everyone but you. And now..."

Asuka looked at her curiously. "What?"

She shrugged despondently. "What were we thinking? The Evangelions... they might end up being as bad or worse than the angels themselves."

"The cure is worse than the disease," Asuka murmured.

Misato nodded again. "Right. I mean, they've hurt everyone who's gotten into them so far."

Asuka frowned. "Misato..."

She shook her head. "Don't deny it Asuka. If that thing hadn't been there and taken out the last angel who knows what would have happened to you."

Asuka snorted. "I'm stronger than that, Misato."

Misato looked at her evenly. "And you regularly cry out for Shinji to help you?"

Asuka wilted, then her head came up in anger. "Fine. I'll make you a promise then. I swear I'll never let the Evangelions hurt people we care about again."

Misato smiled sadly and finished off her can. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Asuka."

Asuka glared at her guardian. "I'm not joking, Misato."

Misato nodded slowly, and then rose. "Wait here."

Asuka looked at her, puzzled, but waited while Misato entered her room. She came back a moment later with a squarish box about an inch high, velvet with silver edges. Asuka's eyes bulged. A jewelry box. Misato handed it to her. "I had this made for you. I don't really know what I was waiting for. Maybe for Shinji to give to come back and make him give it to you, but... here. You need something to symbolize that oath." She looked Asuka in the eyes. "Assuming you're serious."

Asuka snorted. "Of course I am. We can't just let Evangelions wander around hurting people all the time. Especially that baka." The last was added under her breath.

Asuka took the box from Misato and opened it up. Inside was a pendant like Misato's, but different. The cross was more... ornate. Each of the spines was skinnier near the base, but wider near the ends, which tapered off into three points. There was a loop through the spine at the the top, latching it to a black choker. In the center of the cross was a red-purple jewel that didn't look like any stone she'd ever encountered before.

"Nissan..." She whispered.

"What was that?"

Asuka shook herself out of it. "What's the stone made of?"

Misato smiled a little sadly. "A hardened fragment of 01's core. It's not really worth anything, but it looks kinda nice and..."

"It was Shinji's." Asuka said softly.

Misato nodded.

"Thanks Misato." Asuka wandered into her room, never taking her eyes off the pendant.

The person laid a loving hand on the coffin like device and smiled faintly. "Soon. I promise you'll awaken soon." The door hissed open behind the figure, and it spun around, then sagged in relief. "Oh. It's only you."

The other figure snorted. "Seeing how much I invested in this project, I'd think you'd be a bit more grateful. How's it coming, anyway?"

The first figure shrugged. "About what you'd expect. Completely built, systems ready – as far as we know, but she's not combat worthy yet. I have yet to do any formation of a personality matrix, much less get to field testing. You know we don't dare do a thing without the field testing, right Miang?"

Miang nodded and sat on the figure's desk. "I know. You've stated a thousand times how important that is, how many things could go catastrophically wrong, but if we don't do something fast, we'll all be killed. You've gone over the footage as much as I have – if not more. We need something to be able to counter Id. Can she do it?"

The figure smiled. "Yes. She can, but she has to learn, and for that I'll need the time complete her. You're going to have to come up with a way to hold Id back long enough for me to get her online and up to spec. Without it, even she's just going to be another toy in his way."

Miang sighed. "I'm not sure how much time I can buy, but I'll do the best I can."

The figure smiled. "That's all I'm asking."

Miang nodded and stood, stretching a bit. "Okay, next on the agenda. How are the 'extras' doing?"

The figure smiled. "Ahead of schedule actually. It was a simple matter of adapting the blueprints from what I remembered. The hard part was material acquisition and we handled that easily enough."

Miang nodded. "Any containment issues?"

This figure looked a little puzzled. "No… and that worries me a little. Last time I dealt with this kind of thing, all kinds of power spikes came at odd moments. Now… nothing. Feels strange to me."

Miang frowned a bit. "Hmm… Maybe it's because the consciousness left the original. It's not going to draw power…"

"Unless one of the emulators makes a direct request. Makes sense." The figure shrugged. "Ah, the wonders of Zohar. Oh well."

Miang smirked. "Well, just remember who acquired those for you, eh? Hmm. Okay, one more thing and then I'll leave. What about the special project I asked you to work on?"

"The restoration?" The person frowned this time. "Difficult at best. Not only is it decomposed beyond belief, it's under heavy guard constantly. I can't exactly 'acquire' it at the moment. Not without risking myself. Maybe you can provide a distraction?"

Miang nodded. "I didn't expect it to be easy. I'd just feel better with it at my finger tips."

The figure nodded. "So would I, to tell the truth."

Miang nodded. "I'll try to come up with a distraction, but let's see if we can't get sleeping beauty online first. Plausible deniability and all that."

The figure nodded. "Yes, that would be best too. Now get out of here. You're disrupting my work."

Miang grinned and sauntered out. The figure sighed. "There are days I hate that woman."

Neverwhere: WAAAAH! Okay, the lateness is all me this time, but don't think that doesn't mean I won't hound Classic's butt on the next chapter, conveniently forgetting how late this one was. But now that it's done, I'm happy with it as it is. Go me.

C. Cowboy: blank look blink blink