Neon Genesis Evangelion: Altered Destinies
Launch Twenty-Five
The information was on a zip-drive someone dropped into Ritsuko Akagi's coat pocket before she went home, though there was no name or other information attached. The file was in the most common notepad format, presumably so that it could be read on any computer the user needed. Ritsuko herself didn't access it until she virus scanned the whole drive, then warily opened it.
'Is this a glossary?' Ritsuko wondered as she sat at their home computer in their bedroom, skimming through entries. It was written in badly translated English, making things even more hard to understand, but as she read certain things leaped out at her.
[Human Complementation Plan] (JINRUI HOKAN KEIKAKU)
A plan to induce artificial evolution for human, who had reached an impasse in becoming a colony of worthless, to become a total single-form organism. It was under the direction of SEELE, and the secret agency NERV was the implementation organization. However, the expectations of SEELE seems to be different from the objective of NERV (which means the objective of Gendou and Fuyutsuki).
EVA was in fact not planned as a weapon. It was built with the aim to realize this plan. More specifically, it seems that the plan is to artificially start the Third Impact, thus erasing all human, and after human shed their physical form, they will then evolute into a new stage.
"This sounds like what Yui was planning," Ritsuko murmured as she tapped away at the keyboard, looking at more entries.
[Tree of Life] (SEIMEI no KI)
When the Human Complementation Plan starts, EVA-01 will grow into something like a tree, with its roots spread towards the sky and its branches extended to the ground. A Tree of Life that has its roots and branches inverted appears on both Hindu scriptures and the Kabbalah. This was called "the Inverted Tree"
Ritsuko blinked, "Unit-01? IS this even possible?"
[SEELE]
A secret organisation that existed even before the Second Impact. It hid the truth about the Second Impact and the existence of Angels and uses its power to abuse UN and other countries. After the Second Impact, it used UN as a cover, established the Committee of Human Complementation and the secret agency NERV, and built the EVA series.
SEELE's Human Complementation Plan is mapped out according to what was recorded on the "Secret Dead Sea Scrolls". The objective of the plan is to move human up to another stage of evolution. However, with the loss of the Spear of Longinus, and then the rebellion of Ikari Gendou, the commander of the secret agency NERV, it became inevitable that the plan has to be changed at the last stage.
"SEELE," Ritsuko muttered, blinking. The name came up in murmurs and rumors, like some kind of modern Illuminati, a cabal who secretly ran the world. No one really believed they were real, though. Or at least no one who wasn't considered a total crackpot. 'Is this data real?' she wondered, 'Or an elaborate fake?'
[Single-Form] (Tantai)
The objective of the Human Complementation Plan is the induced artificial evolution of human into "an organism which lives as a total single-form". This "single-form" means a life form which ends as a single individual. And this term is used to distinguish with "community form", which is life form formed by a multiple of individuals.
"God, is this what Yui meant by Instrumentality?" Ritsuko muttered, shaking her head. As a scientist she found some of the ideas here fascinating, but as a human being it seemed horrible.
[Lilith]
A giant crucified on a red cross at the extreme depth under NERV HQ. Its face is covered with a mask which has the Arm of SEELE drawn on it. Its hands are penetrated by nails that are stuck on the cross. Although it does not have the lower body when it was pierced by the Spear of Longinus, it grows its lower body after the Spear was pulled out. Originally the Human Complementation Plan planned to use this Lilith. However SEELE changed the plan after the Spear was lost, and they attempted to use EVA01 for Complementation purpose. At that moment, Keel Lorentz says this is "the copy of Lilith". By this it seems that EVA01 was actually made by copying Lilith.
Ritsuko sat back, shaking her head. 'Whoever put this file together even knows about Lilith?' she thought, stunned. Only the highest levels of clearance at NERV were even aware of Lilith's existance, hell, even Misato hadn't known until Ritsuko had told her! Who put together this file?
[Dummy Plug]
A virtual Entry Plug which was developed for starting and using EVA without the pilot. Even though it has a copy of the personal pattern of the Children, the digitization of the soul is impossible. Thus the Dummy Plug can only serve to simulate the thought pattern. The Dummy Plug prepared by NERV had the copy of the personal pattern of First Children (Ayanami Rei). On the other hand, the Dummy Plug prepared by SEELE used the personal pattern of the Fifth Children (Nagisa Kaworu).
"Kaworu Nagisa?" Ritsuko blinked, "Who the hell is Kaworu Nagisa?"
Ritsuko heard the sound of people coming in, and quickly closed the file before unplugging the drive and putting it in her pocket. She didn't want to risk anyone else opening it, or finding out she had something like this in her home.
Misato was just leading Rei and Shinji in, both girls talking quietly. Rei stopped in fairly often, even though she lived in official NERV housing, and often shared meals with them. It helped that Shinji was a pretty damn good cook, on the nights they didn't order take-out.
"Wark," Pen Pen noted as the penguin waddled by, heading for the sardines that had just been dished up for him.
"I don't know if I'll ever get used to that," Shinji noted mildly, her hair loose today instead of the usual ponytail.
"I think he's cute," Misato defended her pet even as she got a beer.
"Evening all," Ritsuko called as she left the bedroom, smiling at them warmly.
"Hey love," Misato pulled her down into a gentle kiss as Ritsuko was passing her.
"Eww, mushy stuff," Shinji joked as she and Rei walked to the kitchen, the albino girl watching attentively as Shinji began to make dinner.
"Is it hard to learn this?" Rei asked her curiously as Misato and Ritsuko talked softly behind them.
"Not really," Shinji admitted as she opened up the fridge and peered inside. "There are a lot of books you can study, then you start making up your own recipies."
"I don't know if I could manage that," Rei admitted mildly as Shinji began to reheat some items while cooking up new stuff.
As the food cooked there was enough noise cover for Ritsuko to quietly tell Misato, "Someone passed me a zip drive, today. It's got some remarkable data on it."
"How?" Misato murmured, worried that Gendo might know about them.
"Slipped into my labcoat. No idea who or how," Ritsuko admitted softly.
"And the data?" Misato asked.
"Looks valid, thought I'm going to cross check it against files we're recovered from Gendo, Yui and my mother," Ritsuko said softly. She stole a sip from Misato's beer and winced as she loudly said, "How do you stand this stuff?"
Misato took her beer back, "Acquired taste?"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Maya Ibuki frowned as the slim young woman monitored survielance data on Kensuke Aida, Asuka Soryu Langley and Mana Kirishima, watching the three on split screens. Section 2 agents tailed the kids wherever they went, sending back streaming data, and NERV could tap into street cameras and other sources of data.
'A bit excessive, but who knows?' Maya admitted as she drank from a cup of now cool coffee in the recently redesigned security office.
Ken was back hanging with his friends, though he showed a marked increase in popularity. Teachers at the school were reporting that rumors had already begun to circulate that he was a Evangelion pilot. Thankfully it didn't look like the rumors were coming from Ken himself, in fact it seemed he was downplaying the rumors.
'Did he tell us everything that happened in the Dirac Sea?' Maya mused as she zoomed in on a image, 'Whatever happened, he seems more mature.'
Maya switched to watching Asuka and Mana leaving school, the two women walking together. They were visually very different, with the fiery looking Asuka and her long red hair beside the more boyish looking Mana with short, dark hair. Despite being nearly the same height one got the sense that Mana was being protected by Asuka, somehow.
'Which is funny, considering Mana has more military training than Asuka,' Maya noted thoughtfully. Her recent promotion gave Maya more access to confidential files, and she had been surprised at what she had read.
Mana Kirishima, for example, was a orphan and a military brat, raised on army bases. She was rifle and side arm certified, had two black belts, and could probably fold your average person in half. Reading between the lines she had no close friendships or relationships, which made her interactions with Asuka so interesting.
'They're bonding,' Maya smirked, wondering how something so unlikely could have happened. 'Then again, I never expected Shinji and Rei to click so well too,' she admitted.
Yawning tiredly Maya got up, saving the files to the new secure archive she had created. She headed up to the door, looking over at the other desk where her new minion was also working. "Satsuki?" she called, "I'm going now. Once you finish checking the security logs, you can go too."
Satsuki Ooi looked up, her long brown hair flowing around her face. "Yes ma'm," she smiled warmly, "it should be done in half a hour."
"Would it help if I stayed?" Maya offered, just like she knew Ritsuko would have.
"It's easier if one person cross checks files," Satsuki smiled as she answered, "it's fine. Have a good night, ma'am."
"Thank you," Maya smiled, leaving the offices and heading upstairs to change.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Kensuke Aida excused himself, ducking into the bathroom of the snack shop he, Touji and the others had stopped in for a snack. He ducked into a stall then locked the door before pulling out her small, portable computer. He opened up the file he created earlier that week, filled with information the alternate Ken had told him. All the details on NERV, on what Gendo did on his world, and how it all went horribly bad.
'I hope passing this to Ritsuko was a good idea,' Ken thought, downloading the file onto a newly bought zip disk then erasing the file. 'Better safe then sorry,' he decided, hiding the drive and putting the computer away, 'I'd better not be caught with this on my computer.'
"Are you gonna be in there forever!" one guy shouted from outside.
"Just a minute," Ken yelled, flushing the toilet for effect then going out to wash his hands. 'My life was a lot easier before I became a pilot,' he sighed, then went out to be with his friends once more.
To be continued...
Notes: The zip drive Ritsuko gets is based off the Red Cross Book that was released when End of Evangelion first came to theaters, with some edits from me.