Allegiances

"The next World War will be fought with stones"- Albert Einstein

Chapter 1: ReCall

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This room had not been used in a very long time.

Its twin of a room had been used much more recently. The holo-pads in that room had been used only days before, in an entirely different sort of conference.

The walls of this room had never really felt threats. Sure, its occupants had tried, but the just couldn't do what SEELE did without trying. Even the leader of the council seemed subdued here, keeping his true voice of command to himself and allowing the others to all voice their opinions.

Had this room not been owned and operated by NERV it wouldn't even have been cleaned. Several months, nearly a year had passed since its last use. Commander Ikari had not even bothered to order it cleaned.

But he didn't have to. NERV employed the largest cleaning services ever, plus two other services nearly as big. These had a lot to clean, and a lot to be careful of. Employees literally served a tour of duty here, working quietly and hoping they wouldn't try to clean the wrong room. NERV did have absolute legal immunity and it had proven this on several occasions.

Both this room and its twin were kept spotless. A worker had found them seven months ago and discovered that they were rooms that could be cleaned and have the worker live. He had passed it to his friend when he was rotated away. From there it had spread, being notified as one of the most wanted places on the duty list.

Commander Ikari had not used this room for a long time. Now, for some unknown reason, he had been called back to it. 'The UN appointed council has no reason to call this,' he thought, 'Keel has to have ordered the meeting.' Through his glasses he gazed into the emptiness of the room, waiting for the five other projectors start up so that he could finish with this nonsense.

His posture remained the same, at least the visible part, to the others as they all appeared at once. Beneath the desk he sat at his feet quivered slightly, wanting to reach out and kick each and every one of the council members, the leader of the gathering more then any of the others.

"Why have you called me here?" he asked immediately, no hint of disrespect in his voice. He did not want to give them even a moment to gather their thoughts. Not that they would need it, they had all surely done that before coming into the meeting.

"Such disrespect Ikari," sneered the councilman from Russia. The man had been an interesting choice for a member country, Russia having shrunk into a seeming obliviousness to the rest of the world. Only occasionally would it reach out and try to do anything.

Even these things were rarely of any importance.

"Roll the clip," snarled the council-man from Germany, a man with small glasses on his to large nose. This member seemed angry, now even more then usual. His breath came in short gasps, as if his fat body had just finished running somewhere.

The room sank into even deeper darkness as the clip began. It was a 3-D representation, taking up all the space between the council members and Gendo. Commander Ikari's eyes widened when he saw what the video was showing.

'How is this possible?' he thought. The video showed citizens running for their lives. The monstrosity, no, the angel stopped from time to time and shot one of its head out to eat them as they attempted to escape.

It was a bizarre creation. It seemed different from how the other messengers had always appeared, if any pattern besides blue could've been said to have existed between the Angels. It had a pair of heads, each with six shining eyes on stalks. Each eye swiveled around, searching the night for its targets. Whenever an eye found a group of fleeing humans the head would lower and scoop them up.

It walked on four legs, like a few of the other messengers had, but it also had a tail. The tail swept around, smashing humans who had had the "intelligence" to run in a different direction from the others of their kind. At least they didn't see their fate coming like their countryman had.

Gendo decided the general color was an olive green with pieces here and there in red and purple. Each eye seemed to glow a different color, all twelve of them. Gendo didn't bother to take notice of each of these colors; he'd already decided to move on.

Both of the heads balanced on necks to thin to support their weight. Still, they stayed aloft. The heads were only lowered when it was time for the Angel to feed again.

'That's what's wrong,' Gendo thought, 'its killing the humans.' Despite the high number of human fatalities involved in the Angel conflicts Gendo had never known an Angel to actually waste energy on the weak ants at its feet. True, an Angel could not actually waste energy, their S2 engines kept them powered infinitely, but this also meant that they didn't need to eat. Angels had only stirred to actual combat, rather then attempts to enter Central Dogma, when an Evangelion was deployed. It didn't add up.

"I see," he spoke as the clip ended, "What do you wish for me to do?"

"You must deploy an Evangelion to stop the Angel," the German emissary demanded. Gendo noticed that the man's breathing had not slowed, even after the considerable length of the clip.

"I am sorry," Gendo replied from beneath his hands, "But I am afraid that we have not received any information on this newest Angel. I am also not familiar with the geography of that event."

"It's in Germany," spoke the Russian envoy.

"That's why he's in such a stir," the American ambassador spoke up. He jerked his head towards the eccentric German messenger.

"Yes!" the German panted again, "We are in a desperate state of emergency here. And all because you guaranteed us that an Angel would not attack in this part of the world! If we'd known that an Angel would shown up here we never would've sent you Unit 02 and its pilot."

Gendo nodded calmly. Apparently this man was not up to date, or else he would've demanded the Second Child's return to her homeland when her mental breakdown began. That is, just shortly after her arrival in Japan.

"I will send an Evangelion as fast as I can," Ikari said, "But I can not guarantee its success."

The German slammed his fist onto his desk. "Then send two dammit!" he shouted. Gendo only barely managed to notice the Russian make a small smile. He was sure that no one else in the conference room, except perhaps Keel, had noticed. It didn't help the Russian's case that Keel scowled.

"I'm afraid I cannot at this time," Gendo said. He thought he was beginning to catch onto their game now.

"Why not?" asked the Chinese ambassador, attempting to keep some sort of control of the situation.

That was just like the modern China; try to act like they were the peace dealers. The only reason they tried to do this was to stop others from attacking them. 'China is only mildly military minded these days,' Gendo had to remind himself.

Gendo decided he had better answer fast; the German emissary looked like he might explode soon. The Russian didn't seem particularly happy either. "I'm afraid that I only have one transport plane at this time. All the others were damaged or destroyed when Unit 03 was capture," he said. Just to add a little fuel to the fire, he decided to throw in, "If you'd approved my budget requests we, of course, wouldn't be having this problem."

Three of the council members scowled and the German fumed. Keel continued to contemplate Gendo with his hands folded neatly in front of him. 'Rubbing that in their face should end this now,' he thought. "I believe," he continued, "that I should probably go prepare for the Evangelions launch." He stood and waited to be dismissed.

The German, through gritted teeth, waved him off before disappearing. As always, the other council members all went together, disappearing in an instant.

Now only Ikari and Keel remained. "What are you aiming at Keel?" Gendo asked neutrally.

"Instrumentality," Keel responded, "as always." Then he to faded into the darkness of the room.

Ikari stood and went to find his second-in-command. Fuyutsuki would need to hear about this, Gendo wanted to make sure that his interpretation had been correct.

It was very rare for Gendo Ikari to second guess himself. Nevertheless, he began to now.

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Fuyutsuki stood in front of Gendo's desk as the story was told. Kozo did not look around or even glance at the detail pressed into each square inch of the room; he had long since given up trying to understand every aspect of this room.

He had also decided that Gendo had as well. Despite the fact that Gendo had executed all of the dozen painters and craftsman that he'd pressed into service to make this room, Gendo could not have had enough time to understand every inch of their work. When the room had been finished Gendo had barely even glanced at it before asking the craftsman if they had followed the layout perfectly.

When they'd said that they had, sure that they would be released by his mercy, they'd been gunned down by the pair of Section 2 agents next to Gendo and Fuyutsuki. Neither commanders of NERV had even blinked at the killings.

Kozo blinked now. "Another Angel?" he asked Gendo for authentication.

"That is what they told me," he said calmly, "but I don't believe that they were telling the truth."

"Why would they lie?" Fuyutsuki asked, perplexed by the fact that their "allies" in the council would make such an obvious attempt at working behind NERVs back. They surely could've done good enough job that Gendo would not have noticed right away.

"They want an Evangelion deployed to Germany," Gendo answered, "and I noticed that the Russian seemed especially happy when the possibility of two deployments was discussed."

It dawned on Fuyutsuki then. "I see," he said. His voice was laden with sadness and the wisdom of old age. It had become obvious to him that the council could've done a better job…if they'd all been working together. Either the American and Chinese Ambassadors were especially good actors or they had no ideas about the German's and Russian's plans.

"What will you do then?" he asked Gendo.

Gendo settled into his most comfortable position. "We will send them the least essential piece in the puzzle," he said. Fuyutsuki nodded calmly, understanding.

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Well, that's the most Gendo I've ever written. And the premiere of Keel in one of my stories. Let me know what you think. Thanks to both of my reviews so far.

Everyone else, I know that the first chapter didn't have to review about, and this doesn't have much either, but you can still let me know what you think. Ideas for what I might do? Was everyone in character? You liked... You disliked... Constructive criticism is appreciated, as are compliments.

Hell, fill in the questions up there and you've given me one hell of a review.