Tokyo-2, Outer District 8
November 21, 2041

It was an apartment building just like all the others around it, without any special distinguishing feature. Yet those who lived in the vicinity knew what made it not-so-ordinary and avoided it if they could. For those who actually lived inside, that obviously wasn't an option, so they simply tried to make their time in the corridors when going and leaving home as short as possible. Nothing happened so far that warranted it... but when it came to those very nice people, one could never know.

Said very nice people did nothing to discourage this line of thought either. Why would they have done it? It kept outsiders from butting into things not their business.

Thus it was that the two Asian men standing guard at a certain upper-floor apartment's door were rather bemused when a blue-haired teenage girl in a long, black coat and shades walked out of the stairwell and headed right for them with purpose in her steps.

"What do we have here?" – one of the guards murmured when she stopped in front of them.

"I wish to speak with your employer." – Rei stated, plain as day.

"What for?"

"Business."

"Yeah, right." – the other guard scoffed. – "Go run back home, princess."

"I said I wish to speak with your employer." – she repeated.

"And I said go back home before you get hurt. Do you even know who we work for?"

"That is why I am here."

The two men shared a look for a long moment before the first one slightly gestured downward with his head. His colleague briefly exhaled through his nose before shrugging and replying with a 'go ahead' gesture.

Behind her shades, Rei's eyebrow inched upwards ever so slightly.

"If you want it so badly..." – The guard who initiated the silent exchange pushed himself away from the wall and walked around her from the left, stopping at her right to slowly draw an index finger down her side. – "...I think we might be able to arrange something."

Without a twitch, Rei's eyes shifted in his direction a second before her hand shot up lightning-fast and grabbed him by the wrist. The man had no time to react before she yanked on his hand, sending him tumbling forward – at precisely the right angle to have his forearm intercepted by her knee and snapped in two with a wet crack that was immediately drowned out by his howl of agony.

The other one immediately reached for his concealed weapon, but had no chance to draw it before Rei launched herself into a leap, her entire body twisting around in mid-air before she let loose a roundhouse kick that connected with the side of his head with enough force to launch him several meters away. Yet without stopping her momentum, Rei planted her other foot on the wall and kicked herself off without even touching the ground, flipping over mid-flight to plow into her first victim's face boots-first, sending him down to the ground as well.

The still-uninjured guard barely managed to regain awareness of his surroundings from having been kicked in the head when Rei walked up to him, planted her boot on his chest and leaned so far forward that their faces almost touched. – "Your employer, if you will."

Twenty minutes later, Rei deftly flipped her cellphone open as she walked out of the building. – "A meeting has been arranged."

"Any problems?" – Kaworu asked on the other end.

"Nothing worth your concern."

"How about the ones not worth my concern?"

The corner of Rei's mouth snuck a millimeter higher. Her brother evidently knew not to take everything others said at face value. That was good. While most people would feel shame at their deception attempts being discovered, Rei instead felt a small tinge of pride. Not at herself, but at her kin's perceptiveness.

Besides, she would've told him the truth anyway.

"Minor resistance from his bodyguards. No fatalities. Will not affect negotiations."

He sighed. – "I hope so."

"Have you informed the others?"

"Not yet. I'll do it tomorrow."

"Are you certain they are trustworthy?"

"We'll see. I mean, baiting someone into doing something illegal for the sole purpose so that you can report them to the authorities? I'm pretty sure that's illegal too. Anyway, what did you agree on?"

"Negotiations will commence on the 29th of next month, 1700 hours. The involved parties will meet personally."

"You want me to be there too?!"

The amount of alarm in his voice was not inconsiderate. A very small part of Rei, a part she didn't even know existed until her brother suddenly walked back into her life, wondered if she truly made the right choice... but Rei silenced it. It had to be done. There were, are, and will be, things she cannot teach him through words alone. He needs to experience them himself in order to be prepared for everything in life.

And to prepare him for that was a responsibility Rei would not entrust to anyone.

"I will handle the actual negotiation. You are merely required to give the final say."

In some way, she considered herself lucky. Plowing the land means nothing if it's a lifeless desert – and Kaworu's mind wasn't a desert. He wasn't a naive child who could see nothing but good in the people around him, nor a fearless fool who jumped into everything without restraint or care for the consequences, nor a hapless coward who couldn't muster the will to strive for the betterment of himself and those around him. He was a realist with a solid grasp on the world around him, honed by years of hardship, loneliness and depending on himself and himself alone.

In that way, he was unintentionally shaped the same way Rei intentionally shaped herself. She could work with that.

"...fine. Where?"

"The meeting point is being selected. I will inform you in due time."

As she slipped her phone back into her pocket, Rei wiped the fresh layer of snow off her bike's seat. It was about the time of the year when she had to start digging out the snow chains soon if she wanted to keep using the vehicle, considering that the naturally humid local climate combined with Second Impact's climate changes meant that Japan saw absolutely brutal snowfall each year. Rei still remembered the time when she was an elementary schooler and opened her apartment building's outer door to go to school one morning... only to face a wall of snow taller than she was at the time with a door imprint in it, all of which had fallen overnight. It took the military over a week and several fatalities to dig the city out, no thanks to the sound of their heavy lifting machinery triggering a minor avalanche on one of the hills around the city that wrecked a significant chunk of their infrastructure and re-buried the primary motorway leading into the city, setting their work back to zero.

Rei herself spent that week alone, huddled up on her bed and staring at the whiteness in her window. It was a small comfort when Yui finally got home as soon as the Geofront's elevator access was dug out of the snow. Small, but still a comfort - especially since as her adoptive mother hugged her, Rei felt that the woman's worry for her was genuine.

How ironic was it, then, that Kaworu's oldest recalled memory was about snow, even though it wasn't the same winter.

In a way, Rei was still in an emotional turmoil over him. She knew what she expected herself to feel: anger at Yui for lying to her and anger at herself for believing that lie instead of checking the woman's mind. Yet that anger failed to materialize, for one simple reason: Yui fully, genuinely believed what she told Rei back then. Even if it wasn't true, Yui still believed it was true and acted on that belief when she passed it on.

And since she did not intentionally deceive Rei, Rei was at no fault for believing Yui either.

For the first time in her life, Rei felt at a loss about herself. She wanted to be angry, to blame someone, but there was no one to be angry at, no one to blame. Retribution had to be sought for the hardships her brother went through while she was all nice and comfy in a high-earning household, but her wrath lacked a target. Despite her outwardly calm demeanor, inwardly the girl was on the verge of exploding from not being able to vent her frustration. Nonlethal violence against those two was cathartic, but not nearly enough.

It was almost enough to make her wish for another Angel to appear right now for her to kill.

Killing is what she existed for, after all.


Geofront, AEL Headquarters
1807 hours

"Oh, thank god our shift's over..." – Maya sighed, leaning back on the cafeteria's lounger.

"You want to go home that badly?"

Maya accepted Hyuga's offered bottle of water before replying. – "Whoever actually likes to work is an idiot, but we all have to eat."

"And you gotta have fun sometimes." – Aoba pitched in, taking another bottle from Hyuga and taking a sip.

"That too. Night shift can take it from here; I'm beat."

Hyuga sat down onto the lounger's remaining free room. – "We got a lot of new equipment recently. You guys have any idea what it's for?"

"No. Though I wouldn't put it past the boss to be up to something shady." – Maya muttered.

"Like what?"

"Have either of you ever been down to Sector T?"

"Not me." – Aoba quipped, taking another sip.

"Me neither." – Hyuga added. – "You seen the kind of security at the access elevator, didn't you?"

"The cameras or the triple-level biometric identification?" – Maya asked back.

"Both."

She pushed herself back up to a proper sitting position. – "I actually looked up that section's cabling map and the cameras are wired directly into the MAGI instead of the security division. You remember that big alarm last year?" – Both men nodded. – "That was tripped by one of the cameras going offline because of a malfunction. But get this: the MAGI also actively logs everyone who uses the elevator."

Hyuga just shrugged at that. – "Everyone checks in when they come in. What's so special about that?"

"Because according to the logs, nobody ever goes down there."

"So?"

"You don't get it? There's an access log for the elevator, but there's only one or two actual accesses per year. Nothing else. No scientists, no technicians, no security, not even maintenance. And according to maps, that is the only personnel entrance down there."

"What about the cargo elevator?"

"It hasn't been fired up for years." – Maya paused before continuing. – "You see it now? There's a whole sector with restricted access, but not even authorized people go in or out."

"I seem to remember that some of the initial R&D on Evangelions was done there. Like, very early stuff."

"Yes, but all of it is done up here now and all the data is in the MAGI." – she pointed out. – "There's no logical reason for it to be secured so heavily. So then, why the security?"

"I wouldn't worry about it." – Aoba piped in once more, looking not the least bit interested in her arguments.

"Easy for you to say." – Maya shot back. – "You never worry about anything."

"What's the deal, anyway? Does it get in the way of your job or something?"

"No."

"Then don't think about it. I too heard those rumors about things behind the scenes, but thinking about it gets you nowhere. And talking about it gets you in trouble. So don't worry so much."

Maya was about to open her mouth and retort when a voice all three of them knew very much beat her to the punch.

"That is a commendable attitude, mister Aoba."

The trio's heads immediately snapped around to see Yui taking her own bottle of water from the vending machine. It was a sight all three were wholly unused to: outside tests, they almost never saw their boss whatsoever, much less see her doing something so mundane. Yet as much as she tended to hole up in her office all day, Yui was still a human and as such, evidently had needs to attend to.

Not that if she wouldn't be a human would that fact be changed, seeing as vortigaunts didn't live off sunlight either and even the dreaded shu'ulathoi needed their bodysuits to keep their bodies operational – to say nothing of the Evangelions' massive nutrient intake, even with their mostly stationary lifestyle.

For her part, Maya felt more than a little apprehensive; after all, her boss just overheard her talking rather animatedly about the one area of the facility she had absolutely no business with.

Fortunately for her, Hyuga seemed to have figured out her predicament and immediately enacted damage control.

"Ma'am, we got the memo about Unit-02's activation test this Saturday."

"Good." – was all Yui replied.

"Does that mean we have a pilot?"

"Indeed... and I hope miss Shephard will be able to perform as expected of her."

The trio shared a look between each other.

"I'm guessing this has something to do with why the lieutenant colonel looked so upset recently...?" – Hyuga asked slowly.

"Correct on that count as well. But while I may have taken him on as a military consultant, adjustment and allocation of human resources is not within his jurisdiction. His daughter has the skill set we need right now and I intend to use her. That is all there is to it. He has every right to be upset, but I will not lose an asset and compromise our work because of his personal feelings." – Yui suddenly turned towards the three. – "Have you finished going over the documentation of the new gravimetric array the military will begin installing next week?"

"I, uh... I'm only halfway through." – the man admitted, slightly sheepish but not enough to appear unprofessional.

"Then get it done by the end of your shift." – With that, Yui turned to leave.

"Ma'am? Our shifts just ended."

Yui paused in her step.

"...indeed. My mistake. Carry on, then."

As she resumed walking away and left earshot range, Hyuga was the one who broke the semi-stunned silence. – "Did... she just apologize?"

"Nope, she didn't." – Aoba replied.

"No, she definitely did."

"No, she only said she made a mistake. She didn't say the S word, ergo she didn't apologize for said mistake." – Aoba pointed out. Without waiting for a response, he walked away towards the personnel locker rooms, casually dropping his empty water bottle into the trashcan he walked past without slowing his pace.

Behind his back, Hyuga and Maya shared a silent look before the latter motioned at Aoba's back with her head and mouthed 'grammar Nazi', eliciting a barely-repressed snicker from the former as they followed him.


Chapter finished on 16/06/18.

Shu'ulathoi is the vortigaunt name of the entities that function as the Combine's leadership caste, referred to by humans as Advisors. The entity in question resembles a white-skinned slug (hence the 'slugfucker' slang term applied to collaborators) the size of a large motorcycle, with all of it except for the 'face' covered in a form-fitting dark green bodysuit that makes them capable of surviving on Earth without life support machinery after a short adaptation period. No limbs or other external features are present, not even eyes (whose function are fulfilled by a small camera implant on the front); it does, however, have a small orifice on its face through which it can extend a long, flexible tentacle that can strike hard enough to break a human skull and is implied to be somehow capable of patching into the victim's nervous system and acquire their knowledge in a split second. They also have a pair of spindly robotic arms extending from their bodysuit.

What makes shu'ulathoi exceedingly dangerous despite their lack of natural weaponry is their overwhelmingly powerful psychic powers. Aside from being capable of inducing hallucinations accompanied by debilitating headaches, their telekinetic power allows them to float and move around deceptively quick for something of their size, immobilize multiple targets by suspending them in mid-air, crush metallic objects with no visible effort whatsoever and casually snap a person's spine in two. They are not, however, invulnerable, with sufficient pain being capable of disrupting their concentration enough to interfere with their powers.

For those familiar with the X-COM universe, be it the original or the reboot, shu'ulathoi are basically the local equivalent of an Ethereal but altered to a far more radical extent to the point where they are little more than flying brains with just enough other tissue to hook life support machinery into. They are utterly dependent on technology for their continued existence and on their slave races to do the actual fighting.

It is unknown how many shu'ulathoi arrived on Earth during and after the Seven Hour War, but a significant number of them were present on the Prime Citadel in City 17, the Combine's planetary capital. When the Prime Citadel was destroyed during the Great Revolution, the shu'ulathoi escaped on self-propelled, biomechanical-looking pods that carried them to a safe distance while simultaneously incubating them for Earth's environment. For the purposes of this story, I'm positing that a shu'ulathoi's bodysuit utilizes nanotechnology to break down bodily waste at the atomic level and restructure it back into nutrients that are then injected back into the creature, with the required energy to do so (in accordance with conservation of energy, since the chemical energy metabolism extracts from nutrients to harness for biological functions gets used by the body and thus will not be present in bodily waste, ergo an external supply is required) being harvested from the ambient environment through the bodysuit's contact surface with said environment, like a full-body, full-spectrum solar panel. While it may sound not entirely possible with what we currently know about physics and chemistry, keep in mind that the shu'ulathoi (for the purposes of this story) are literally hundreds of millions of years old; the only reason they aren't Vorlon levels of advanced yet is because they have no need to advance further when their current technology is sufficient to grind down any resistance with sheer industrial output.