Neon Genesis Evangelion: Altered Destinies

Launch Thirty-Two

"Where is Zeruel?" Gendo growled out as a week slowly ground by.

"Personally I'm glad it hasn't appeared as scheduled," Kozo dryly noted. "We're rebuilding defences and training the pilots. Admittedly it's anti-mass production Evangelion tactics, but working together as teams will help them against Zeruel too."

"Hmm," Gendo sighed. Kozo was unhappy he hadn't revealed at least some of the data on Zeruel to Misato. However, if he did THAT it would raise questions on what else he might know, and he was certain Misato WOULD ask. "What's the status of the defences?" he asked.

"Repair crews are concentrating on rebuilding the outer line, it's about ninety percent back up," Kozo reported.

"Why the outer line?" Gendo asked, frowning a bit. Given a choice he'd rather have the defences around him fully repaired.

Kozo gave him a look indicating he was fully aware of Gendo's cowardice, but didn't say it. "Early warning," he answered him seriously, "once a angel breaks through there, we'll know where it's coming from."

"And how long we have," Gendo conceded.

Kozo nodded. "And from what we think we know about Zeruel, I doubt our inner defences would do much good anyway. We will need to rely on the Evangelions."

"Hmm," Gendo nodded. "SEELE has been suspiciously silent."

"As has the American branches," Kozo agreed. He sighed as he added, "In this case, I think no news is not good news."

"Agreed," Gendo nodded. He sat back with a sigh, "Should we attempt opening up communications with the Americans?"

"You think we can ally with them against SEELE?" Kozo raised his eyebrows in mild surprise. "Is that wise?"

"We both know SEELE will eliminate us when we're no longer of use to them," Gendo said, "when we defeat the Angels. We'll need allies then."

"Possibly, but if America has turned it's coat once, can we trust them not to do so again?" Kozo countered calmly.

"Trust has little to do with it," Gendo shook his head. "It may be a matter of survival."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Ken really, really hated hospitals. The antiseptic smell, the cleaning chemicals and all that, it all brought back when his mother died. In his mind, at least, hospitals represented death, or at least the possibility of death. Still, today they were here for good reasons.

"You don't have ta come along, ya know," Toji noted as the group of teens walked down the hall together.

"She's probably bored seeing all the same faces," Shinji offered, smiling.

"When does Sakura get released?" Ken asked curiously as they headed to the room where Toji's little sister was in.

"She's got to get over any infection risk from the amputation," Hikari told them seriously. "Then they'll look into fitting her with a prosthetic."

"How's she holding up?" Shinji asked.

"Pretty well," Toji noted, "I think she's just happy to be alive, y'know?" He knocked on the door, waited.

"Come in!" a cheery voice called.

The young girl was sitting up on the bed, smiling as she read a book. Her brown hair was a bit scraggly, and she had a innocently cute face. A cute face that swiftly turned to a frown.

"Big brother, you didn't say you were bringing company!" Sakura yelped, reaching up to try to smooth down her messy hair.

"Sorry, Sakura," Hikari smiled apologetically.

"You already know Ken and Hikari," Toji noted, "and this is Shinji. She's a classmate and a Evangelion pilot."

"You aren't supposed to just blurt that out," Shinji muttered.

"Hi Ken," Sakura was actually blushing a bit, interestingly as she smiled at the boy. Ken, thankfully, didn't notice.

"Yo," he nodded.

"We brought ya some more books," Toji noted as he sat the bag down beside her hospital bed, "and manga."

"Are you having any trouble with school work?" Hikari asked, channeling her usual 'class president' mode.

Sakura didn't quite roll her eyes. "Yes, I'm up to date. My class rep brings in the homework sheets," she told her.

Shinji hid a smile. "If you need some help, I'm SURE Toji can manage," she added impishly.

Sakura gave her a 'What, are you stupid?' look. "I think I'd ask Hikari."

"Hey!" Toji protested as everyone laughed.

They visited for awhile longer then headed out. As they walked down the hall, Shinji let Ken a nd Toji get ahead a bit so she could talk to Hikari. "You know she's got a crush on Ken, right?" she asked her curiously.

"Ken and Al, yeah, after they saved her," Hikari agreed. "Thankfully Ken is clueless and Al's both got a girlfriend and isn't around much."

"Okay, that's good," Shinji nodded. She smiled wryly, "And since Sakura is not a tank or a mecha, she won't make his military heart go pitter pat."

Hikari snorted, barely keeping from laughing. "She could join the army," she snickered.

"Don't tell her that," Shinji suggested.

"Do I wanna know what you're talking about?" Toji asked from up ahead.

"No," both girls answered.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Leona Ozaki, reporting for duty," she saluted, standing stiffly with several of her junior officers. They were in a office in the NERV pyramid, facing the very impressive Major Misato Kartsuragi.

"Ar ease," the attractive black haired woman smiled.

Leona relaxed a bit. "Ma'am, I'm not entirely clear on what's going on," she admitted. "Are we formally being reassigned to NERV?"

"You're being seconded to NERV until local military command structures get their asses together," Misato admitted frankly.

There were some visible winces from the tank jocks, army types and cops. While blame for the Bardiel disaster could be placed on various officials, military commanders had ignored warnings from NERV to keep troops clear. Warnings in writing. So several had to resign, and command was pretty much up in the air.

"The good news, what there is of it," Misato smiled charmingly, "is that we're mostly just helping with search and rescue, along with police services."

Al winced, slightly. The young man had been on the front line of searchers after the Bardiel attack, and had seen some shit.

"We've got assignments ready, assuming the Magi aren't acting up you should have gotten the emails," Misato finished.

"The Magi act up?" a tall, attractive blond asked.

"You'd be surprised how often, Miss...?" Misato looked at the woman thoughtfully.

"Motoko," she smiled, "Motoko Kusanagi."

"Nice to meet you," Misato shook her hand as she looked over her uniform, "Military Police?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'll look forward to working with you," Motoko smiled sincerely.

"Thanks," Misato agreed.

To be continued...

Notes: Sorry for the shorter chapter. Easter's this weekend and I have errands to run.