Tokyo-2, Inner District 5
January 13, 2042
0743 hours

Going to school that morning made Kaworu keenly aware of the events that took place three days before. Between his home and the school, three times he saw armed and uniformed soldiers patrolling the sidewalks, staying out of the pedestrians' way and looking relaxed but still very much present. Once he even saw a pair of armored vehicles roll by, followed by a large armored humanoid with an equally large rifle he vaguely remembered from something Kensuke showed him once.

"Mk III/B Durandal battleframe." – Asuka supplied when she noticed his look. – "Not sure what the point of them wasting time and fuel being here is; it's overkill against looters and roadkill against Angels before we even have a chance to get to the Geofront elevator."

But he had an idea. Although there didn't seem to be fewer than usual people on the streets at this time in the morning, he could still hear the sound of heavy machinery off in the distance and when he glanced off in that direction at one crossing, he could see a road closure in the distance with debris beyond. Even though Shamshel and Sarafiel were no Ramiels, damage to the city was simply unavoidable when the two in question weren't even trying to mind their step.

A fact Asuka seemed to be very much aware of, if her having been glum and distant since watching the evening news over the weekend was of any indication. Yet when she still decided to wait for him before heading out for school, he chose not to press the matter. After all, it wasn't as if he could claim to be different in that regard: on clearer days, one could still faintly see some of the snowed-over craters pockmarking the hills around the city after his playing a rather dangerous game of tag with Ramiel so that Rei could win the day.

If Shamshel or Sarafiel would've been accompanied by another Ramiel... the fact that they weren't might very well be the sole reason the girl was walking next to him.

The military weren't here as a deterrent against the Angels. They were here to give a populace that knew nothing about what they were up against an illusion of security.

When they reached their destination, he couldn't entirely ignore the aura of fear around the school. Even with his success at figuring out what Rei had been trying to teach him in private having been extremely limited, the air was so thick with tension he could practically bite down on it. With Asuka breaking away to head for her own friends as soon as they reached the classroom, Kaworu looked ahead for Toji and Kensuke and found both of them in their usual places with no worse for the wear. True, the battle took place away from the school, but one could never know. Especially after the counterexample of Toji's sister.

"You guys alright?"

Toji flashed a thumbs-up before reaching out with the same hand to bump his fist against Kaworu's offered one. – "Yeah. What the fuck were those things?"

Kaworu had a pretty good idea what the other teen was referring to, but decided not to say it. – "What things?"

In response, Toji wordlessly snapped his fingers at Kensuke, who pulled out his tablet and fiddled with it for a second before holding it up to present a few seconds long video of Shamshel and Sarafiel towering over the cityscape, obviously recorded with a handheld camera.

"Where did you get that?"

"It's all over the internet, spreading like wildfire. Don't you read the news?"

"Surprised the censors aren't all over it." – Toji noted.

"They tried." - Kensuke replied with a hint of smugness. – "I heard they tried to have all of it deleted after the attack, but gave up after a few hours because people were spreading it faster than they could email the orders."

"With you among them, I presume." – Kaworu guessed.

Kensuke gave him a look. – "Who do you think I am, a master hacker or something?"

"You do sell those photos you make of girls." – Toji pointed out.

"Hey, I'm not doing anything illegal there. You think I never had upperclassmen asking me to snap a pic or two of the girls' showers?"

Toji's eyes instantly went wide like saucers. – "You know somewhere you can see into their showers from?!"

"No!" – Kensuke declared instantly. – "I'm not going anywhere near there and I told them as such. I need the money but I'm not going to sell nudes for it, let alone nudes of high schoolers I didn't even ask for permission!"

"Come on, man. A lot of guys would be interested in having that shit, you know."

Kensuke put the tablet aside and planted both hands on the desk between him and Toji, leaning forward. – "So would the police, you idiot!" - he hissed between his teeth. – "Fat lot of good pocket money would be if I'm in prison for making and distributing underage pornography, wouldn't it? Besides, I'd like to see how you would like it if someone started selling nudes of your sister."

That visibly hit a sore spot, based on the speed at which Toji's expression darkened into one that promised nothing but pain. – "Oi, you leave Sakura out of this, y'hear?!"

"My point exactly." – Kensuke declared, leaning back and folding his arms in front of his chest.

"Besides, they might not actually want the photos themselves." – Kaworu noted. – "They could just want to bait you, see if you'd do it for real and blackmail you if you did."

Kensuke nodded at that. – "Yeah. That too. I still wouldn't do it."

"If they try, let me know."

"Let us know." – Toji corrected, pointedly looking at Kaworu. – "He wants to do it, that's his business, but the second they try to make him do it, it's my business too."

"Or you could just tell the class rep." – Kaworu offered. – "That's what she's there for, isn't she?"

"Besides tormenting me for existing, you mean?" – Toji quipped, causing Kensuke to snicker.

"What do you need the money for so badly, anyway?" – Kaworu continued as he turned to Kensuke.

"Camping." – the other boy replied. – "That stuff doesn't pay for itself and I don't want to mooch off of my father when he doesn't earn that much to begin with. Anyway... what's interesting about yesterday is this." – He tinkered with his tablet before turning it back around and tapping a finger on what was an unmistakable image of Evangelion Unit-02. – "That looks like a battleframe, but it's like nothing I'd ever seen or known about. I know the military contracted Gehirn last year to develop a next-gen replacement for the Mk II, but I don't think this is it."

"I'm not familiar with battleframes." – Kaworu noted. Not beyond the fact that they existed, of course; junkyards near major cities tend not to have state-of-the-art military equipment that could still potentially be restored to working condition. And in any case, there was a difference between soldering things onto a circuit board in a specific order and restoring a giant robot to moving condition. He was a hobby electronics guy, not a mechanical engineer.

"Right, so here's how it went-"

"Here we go..." – Toji muttered, eyes glazing over with the resigned expression of someone who already heard an upcoming rant before. Over and over again.

"Shut up. So, after the Combine left, the military spent a while seeking out and restoring whatever old tanks and other armored vehicles survived the Seven Hour War. But they knew it wasn't gonna be enough if the Combine came back because most of what was left was already outdated and mostly fit only for museums and such. So, around the time we were born, the military started looking into building something new. The idea of battleframes isn't new, there were proposals way before Second Impact, they just never could make it work with the materials, tech and power supply means they had. But after the Combine left, they got a ton of corpses from Striders, Hunters, you name it, so they could figure out how the Combine did it."

Kaworu wasn't 100% sure whether he heard Kensuke breathe even once during that. – "Weren't those things organic?"

"Partially." – Kensuke continued. – "Some things are universal, no matter if it's flesh or metal. So, the engineers tossed together a preliminary prototype, that was the Mark I. Except it didn't work: it was too heavy because of the fusion reactor, the legs not powerful enough to make it fast enough to keep pace with tanks without risking a breakdown, and the whole thing was just way too complicated to be manned by one guy like they wanted. Plus even though they gave it articulate hands, all those finger joints made it so mechanically complex it kept jamming all the time and maintenance was an absolute nightmare. Military finally just rejected the thing altogether, it didn't even enter mass-production. Whole idea of battleframes almost got sunk right then and there."

"But it didn't." – Obviously, as he himself saw it on his way to school.

"Nope. Gehirn came, bought up the development team and went back to the drawing board. They figured the Mk I failed because it tried to be too generic, so they decided to pick one role and stick to it. They lost the arms to save weight for up-armoring the torso, they lost the hands to save on maintenance in favor of just bolting a howitzer into the torso, they added two more seats for a dedicated gunner and a spotter and in the end they presented what's basically self-propelled artillery on legs. It won't fistfight you, it'll just blow your ass up the moment you see it on the horizon. That's the Mark II. Following so far?"

As weird as the mental image of an armless walking cannon sounded when they could just put it on wheels or treads, Kaworu could see the logic. Especially since all those times he heard at work why Unit-00 always had to hang back despite Rei arguably being the better fighter between the two of them; something about the Evangelion's joints getting damaged if she went all-out. – "Yes."

...on that note, he found himself wondering if replacing the arm Zeruel destroyed with a cannon was what Yui had in mind for Unit-00's repairs. Or even Unit-01's.

"Right. Few years ago, Gehirn decided to try making something more general-purpose again but this time, they decided to go smaller. The Mk II can crouch down behind the crest of a hill to keep its legs from being shot off from under it by direct fire over open terrain, but taking it into a packed city street is just asking for a lone guy in a window to kneecap it with an RPG. So they built a battleframe specifically for fighting the aforementioned guy at his own game: only about three meters tall but fast enough to keep up with a troop transport, lightweight enough to rappel up and down thicker walls, can be armed with a variety of weapons from anti-personnel to anti-air to anti-tank and is armored enough to withstand small arms fire. That's the Mark III. Of course, a Mk II can still smear it across the ground in a single hit, but the Mk III is not for taking those on anyway, it's an infantry fighting vehicle that just happens to be a battleframe."

"So it didn't replace the other one?"

"No, they're for different battlefield roles." – Kensuke explained. – "They don't even run on the same fuel; Mk II's reactor is deuterium/tritium, Mk III is deuterium/helium-3 because it needs less radiation shielding, whole reason why they could build the Mk III as small as it is. Gehirn rolled out a B model for the Mk III two years ago and they're supposed to officially present a replacement for the Mk II at the national military expo this spring. Hell, I even heard of the military considering asking Gehirn to run a pilot program for developing a tank that runs off of a D/He-3 reactor instead of petrol like the old ones still in service, so there are some really out-there ideas in the proper circles. But this?"

Kensuke tapped at the image of Unit-02 again.

"I'll be honest. I'm not claiming I'm a professional or anything, but I'm pretty sure a battleframe should crunch under its own weight at this scale. There are people online who know the numbers better than I do and they're all losing their shit hardcore over how something like this should be physically impossible. So do those aliens, granted. Some guys are guessing whether the third one's an alien too, but it's clearly marked with human numerals, so I don't think so. Probably a black project."

Now it was starting to make sense to Kaworu why Yui talked about the Evas as a very big deal. And yet again it came with the caveat that he couldn't actually tell them since as far as he could tell, they were in fact a "black project", if the phrase Kensuke used meant what he thought it meant. He was on thin enough wire already to know provoking his boss with a breach of contract via violation of the non-disclosure agreement he signed would make being fired the least of his worries.

The ringing of the bell for the beginning of classes that day mercifully removed such decisions from him anyway.


Geofront, AEL Headquarters
January 25, 2042
1526 hours

The rhythmic sound of heavy boots echoed down the empty corridor as Rei strode onward, black leather coat all but billowing after her. Without even slowing down, she all but slammed her ID card against the reader on the wall to her right, then instantly took a right turn herself to slip through the door before it was even fully open to enter the expansive office beyond.

On the other end, Yui looked up from her desk and pressed a button, causing the two dozen holograms floating in the air at various locations across what was both her office and her personal lab vanished. Not that it bothered Rei much, as she walked straight through one without pausing. Holograms weren't solid, after all, and ones used solely for displaying something didn't have to be solid in the first place.

As abruptly as she entered, Rei halted around half a meter from the desk, still as a statue and making no motion to sit herself. – "You summoned me." – the girl stated in a level tone.

"I got a call from school." – Yui began, resting her elbows on the armrests of her chair with her fingers loosely steepled together on her stomach as she leaned against the backrest. – "Apparently you've been absent from class for two weeks now. And seeing how I know for a fact it wasn't due to sync tests, I'm hoping you have an explanation."

"I am busy."

"With what? I may have authorized your request for surplus equipment, but don't believe I overlooked the MAGI's access logs of the Sector T access elevator. You've been going down there on a daily basis. Why?"

"It is not negatively affecting my duties."

"But it does your schooling. I may have gotten the authorities to have the school overlook your absences whenever your duties require your presence, but that doesn't mean you can use it as an excuse to skip school whenever you feel like it." – Yui sighed. – "Rei, I've given you considerable leeway over the years, both as my employee and as my daughter. I've received my share of criticism over it, but so far you've given me no reason to doubt that decision. The reason we're having this discussion off the record, with me asking as your mother instead of as your superior, is in the hope that you will continue to do so."

"For how long?"

The blunt question visibly caught the adult off-guard. – "Pardon?"

"How long do you insist on maintaining this charade?"

"It is not a charade to me."

The girl's eyes narrowed. – "Until it becomes convenient for you to dispose of me."

"I won't-"

Rei cut her off. – "It is what you do."

Yui paused for a few seconds before replying. – "If this is about mister Nagisa, miss Shephard already convinced me. Gehirn will be sending a consultant in a few weeks to evaluate options for restoring Unit-01 to operational condition, so we'll have need of his services yet."

At that, Rei slowly leaned forward, silently planting both hands on the desk between them as she looked Yui directly in the eyes. – "Needing him once more is why you recruited him, did you not?" – she posed the question.

The silence lingered on for what felt to both like an eternity before Yui closed her eyes with a sigh. – "...you know who he is, don't you?" – she asked quietly.

"Yes."

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect you to figure out eventually."

The girl's eyes narrowed at that. – "How long have you known?"

"Since he came. His DNA doesn't lie and Sanada confirmed it too."

"Yet you had no intention of telling me." – came the calm accusation as Rei pushed off the desk and back onto her feet.

"What was I going to say? What could I say?" – Yui retorted in a tone betraying helpless frustration. – "Does he know?"

"No."

"And he doesn't remember anything?"

"You know the answer already."

"I didn't know for certain if he was telling the truth."

"Did you make arrangements for him to be transferred to Japan?"

The woman shook her head. – "Rei, I didn't even know he was still alive. If I had known-"

"Do not attempt to deflect blame." – Rei interrupted her again. – "You, solely, are responsible for what happened."

"You think I don't know that?!" – Yui erupted before visibly exerting effort to calm herself back down to continue in a level tone. – "You think I'm not reminded of it every single time I see him before me?"

"No." – Rei replied simply.

"What makes you believe that?"

"You would not have done it otherwise."

"Rei-"

"Save it."

Whatever the adult was going to say, she evidently decided not to. The atmosphere was very much unlike one would expect in a meeting between a Japanese parent and their child, especially with said child now pacing back and forth in front of the desk like a caged animal, without an ounce of respect or deference to her elder.

"What do you intend to do?" – Yui finally asked.

"What I have to." – Rei declared. – "I will protect him. Even from you."

"I don't want any harm to come to him either."

"Then why did you make him Unit-01's pilot?" – the girl pressed.

"First, I didn't know about the Angels at the time. Second, are you listening to yourself? First you question why I'd want to take him off the roster, then you question why I put him on the roster to begin with. You're not making any sense."

"I do not have to explain myself to you."

"Then what do you want?"

The sound of Rei's palm striking the desk echoed across the expansive room like a whip, the piece of furniture audibly protesting the abuse. – "I want you to stop interfering in his life!" – the girl erupted, raising her voice for the first time since her arrival.

Yui looked on as if the very sight in front of her was a knife slowly being driven into her. – "...does he really mean this much to you?"

"I will not let go of him again." – Rei all but growled, slowly rounding the desk like a predator stalking its prey. – "If you try to get in my way, I will kill you."

"Threats are entirely unnecessary." – Yui pointed out. – "You know all it would take is one press of a button and the guards won't let you lea-"

Rei's hand short forward faster than lightning, clamping down Yui's neck like a vice grip to lift the adult woman up by the throat without even the slightest hint of strain.

The chair loudly fell over as the girl all but threw the adult through the backrest to none-too-gently slam her into the window overlooking the landscape outside, holding her up while Yui's legs impotently tried to find footing in air, the woman's eyes going as wide as it was anatomically possible for human eyes when Rei's free hand laid the muzzle of a revolver against her temple. Unseen to her, the girl's index finger only rested on the trigger guard, thumb idling over the safety but not actually flicking it off.

"Look into my eyes." – Rei whispered softly.

Not that it was necessary. She was more than close enough to be heard by the woman even through the latter's breathless choking as her hands desperately clawed at the unyielding hand around her neck.

"All it would take is one pull of this trigger and the guards would not arrive in time to save you."

"R-... st-...!"

There was no way for Yui Ikari to make any coherent sounds through the choke, her legs kicking out even more frantically to try to find purchase on either the smooth glass behind her or Rei's own legs in front of her, both to no avail.

"You know full well what I am capable of. What we are capable of. You are not the only one who has been giving someone else leeway."

Without even the slightest wavering from the deadly calm, the girl continued, eyes boring their unblinking stare into ones slowly beginning to lose their focus from the lack of life-giving oxygen.

"After what you have done to us, I do not owe you anything. You, on the other hand, owe me the two people who ever mattered to me in this world, both driven away by you."

Not for a single second did Rei's tone or posture changed, even as her adoptive mother's struggling grew weaker and slower.

"My being here is entirely out of my choice. Not out of any feelings of obligation towards you."

Then just as abruptly as she attacked, she let go of Yui. The woman crumpled to the floor like a sack of potatoes, almost throwing up on the spot from the sheer intensity of the hacking coughs as she gasped for air clutching her visibly bruised neck.

None of which could hide the adult's entire body trembling like a leaf, or the dark spot spreading out on the carpet under her thighs.

"You may reap what you have sown, mother." – Rei all but spat the last word as she turned away. – "But you will not separate me from him again."

She left the office.

And on her way out, none of the security guards she encountered showed any signs of having been ordered to detain her, even once she was headed for the central elevator column to take her back to the city above and ultimately to the room she called home. No concern, shame or regret wore on her mind, only irritation at having been interrupted for this.

True, she actually was finished for today but were it not for Yui distracting her with such trivial things as school attendance, there could've been more accomplished today. And no matter what that woman thought or said, this was important work. It had to be done and Rei did not need people second-guessing her... or saying something that might cause her to start having second thoughts herself.

She was committed now.

She needed to stay committed.

'I will sell my soul for him if I have to.'


Chapter completed on 21/12/31.

In the spirit of preempting accusations of whitewashing or apologia, I'm fully aware that not all of Kensuke's "merchandise" was SFW in the original anime; case in point, crotch-shots, cleavage-shots and that long-distance take of his female classmates changing for PE, including at least three girls in only underwear and a fourth visibly topless (though with her back to the camera, which is likely how it could've made TV in the first place). It never made much point to me personally and judging how it was cut from Rebuild and replaced with Kensuke being an actually decent guy, it would seem Anno ended up regretting it too.

On that note, I chose to celebrate Christmas Eve by finally watching Rebuild 3.0+1.0. Gave me ideas, but nothing that will be relevant in the near future and I'm not intent on reusing the plot itself. I have my own things in mind.