Chapter 12: We're not cavemen. We have technology.
Nearly half an hour earlier...
Gendo POV
"Um sir. I'm afraid that despite our best attempts to contain them, the first, second, er sorry third and fourth child have um somehow managed to escape."
A trembling orderly repots, stammering all the wild as his entire body shakes with terror and sweat practically drenching his entire face.
His pallor is most gratifying for me in spite of my sheer rage at his incompetence along with the complete uselessness of the rest of the second most powerful personal army existent on the face of this planet, which I paid a great fortune providing with the best training and weaponry money could buy.
I wait a little moment to let him continue to shake and shiver with his white cheeks providing me great entertainment despite this catastrophe in my perfectly concocted plans.
"I'm deeply sorry sir we..."
He never gets to finish his plea as I reach forward and with the raw strength that so incredibly well kept my underlings in line, I lifted him by the collar so that his feet were flailing off the ground and his eyes were level with mine.
He was so incredibly terrified now that he could not even bring himself to thrash out of my grip knowing if he did how much angrier that would make me.
"You are going to find them" I hissed softly but dangerously, deciding this time to be merciful and preserve my shouting voice a little longer so as not to injure my own throat unnecessarily.
"You are not getting another penny of your paycheque until you bring my beloved and greatly valuable son and daughter back to me alive and well. Do you understand?"
I bear my teeth as I deliver my ultimatum and it's all my feeble pawn can do to nod with a weak gulp and an even weaker grunt of acknowledgment.
I keep him in my grip a little while longer while I take as much bemusement from the man's suffering as I can possibly savour in my rageful moment.
Then I reluctantly drop him back to the floor, his back landing first with a nasty snap of bones.
That would be enough punishment for now for him as he hobbles away clutching his spine with a look of utter anguish.
"Damn you Shinji!" I shout as soon as he's out of earshot.
"Curse you Rei!"
I take the glass photo of my useless little runt of a son and with a deep throated guttural growl, throw it all the way across the room where it hits the wall on the other side and shatters into minute fragments.
The cleanup crew will have quite some work to do before they go home for the night.
Good for them for failing me so.
But as much as I hated to admit it, that orderly had a point.
He had despite his uselessness revealed an obvious gap in my perfect strategies which had never failed once before.
The amazing army I was going to fully mobilize to scour every corner of the globe in search of Shinji and Rei wasn't going to be enough by its own.
The unstoppable horde of death needed something a little extra.
Something that couldn't be attained regardless of the quality of the ammunition my soldiers used.
Nor the nonstop combat lessons I issued each soldier, working them several sleepless nights until they all but collapsed of exhaustion.
What was needed in this search to guarantee my traitorous children was righteous fury.
A lost and lonely bloodthirst that could be soothed only by the recovery of the desired target of this so called search and rescue mission.
"Call the second child." I order to another soon arriving orderly even more cowardly than the first.
"She and I have a problem to discuss."
"Sir. She is still recovering from a severe head trauma which is causing her quite an uneven pattern in her behaviour and I strongly believe it is best that she..."
"Bring her here. Her recovery can wait."
Not that I gave a damn about her wellbeing. As long as she found my son...her victimized object of objection that she perfectly trained into submissiveness for my purposes.
I had to admit this was pretty impressive of her.
Less than half an hour later and the Red-haired German in question manages with a bit of a stagger to get into the chair before my desk where I motion for her to sit and make herself quite at ease.
It's clear from the unsteadiness in her step that she is very dizzy and blatant from the redness in her burning face that the loss of Shinji has really riled her up.
Absolutely what I needed from her.
"My lovely son and my even more spectacular daughter have gone missing." I nonchalantly recap, taking care to emphasize the spectacularism in which I refer to Rei knowing this will really make her jealous of the attention I refuse to give to her despite her importance in my plot.
"I know that" She growls in annoyance as she clenches a fist.
If she hadn't blundered into my office nearly hitting several pieces of furniture in the process, I'd be almost scared.
I really had to admit why NERV recommended her as one of my pilots. Such undiluted hatred for life was a rare trait not commonly found even in the most efficient killers mankind had to offer.
"You know also that without those two, in particular my son. You are as good as useless and your glorious career of great reputation at my grand and mighty enterprise of NERV is as good as finished." I continue, holding out an arm in a disapproving gesture.
"What would your mother think?" I add, completely intending to snap her remaining shreds of sanity.
"Your late mother who worked so hard and gave so much for this organization so that you could achieve yours and her lifelong dream of being a pilot and fighting alongside my son and daughter.
And for you to disgrace yourself so as to be relieved of your duties..."
I hang my head back a little, faking sadness and sympathy for her plight even as her mouth drops open at the memory of the death of one more woman who had more than served her purpose to me in her life's sacrifice.
"It would break her poor heart in two. You would be spitting on her grave In such dishonour."
"Nein. Stehen blieben!" The German girl begs, my accusations hurtful enough to temporarily default back to her native language.
"You can't let me go. My mother. She worked so hard to get me here. And what that will do to my social standing as the most popular girl at school I..."
"You can still redeem yourself. My glorious second child." I cut her off as I shoot a finger up to stop any further melodramatic prattling from her in this urgent moment.
"You and only you can find my son and his dear and cherished sweetheart, my daughter Rei."
I take care to pronounce Rei's name with all the grandeur and pride I can muster up in light of my disdain for her. I need to get Asuka really wound up and single minded in her hatred of Rei and for her to fully realize that every moment Shinji spends away is another moment he doesn't spend with her.
Not that I have any intention of letting her have Shinji back once he is found, but she doesn't need to know that now does she...
"I have reserved for you Asuka, the most powerful weapon in my arsenal." I explain as she gushes pale with childish jealousy. Ah such youthful immaturity.
"I have prepared a special EVA which has been in development since the day you arrived from Germany. It has a special power pack giving it almost indefinite power long enough to last several days without battery recharging unlike its lesser brethren. Not only that but this behemoth has a wide arsenal of the most recent arms and armour plating which has only just now been realized by our research.
You will find the full specifications in this instruction booklet which I highly advise you to look over before you begin your mission."
I draw a thick and heavy book from a compartment in my desk and slide it over to the now madly twitching psychotic German who grins almost maniacally as she accepts it.
"You are to take this EVA and use it to lead the search in my son and daughter before they become unfindable. You are not to return until you have tracked them to their exact location and brought the two of them back to me alive and well without a scratch on either of them."
"I understand!" She quickly blurts out without me needing to even ask. It's obvious that her fear of losing her position is deathly and I relish such fear.
"And when you do complete your task. I have prepared for you a great reward that for certain will exceed your every belief. It is a great prize that you will be beyond glad to receive for it will involve great fame, great fortune. Great celebration in honour of your heroism."
"I will be boundless in my gratitude" I say as her fear turns to utter amazement. "I will spread your name far and wide. The heavens themselves will sing of mighty Asuka with the red hair. The greatest Evangelion pilot to have ever walked the face of Terra itself. You will be blessed with unthinkable wealth too. I shall see to it personally that you will never go hungry again. There will be enough riches for you to taint your fingernails with solid gold if you so wish it and you shall live out the rest of your life as long as it may be in exquisite finery the likes of the highest members of my council could not hope to imagine."
"And what of my relationship with your son, Shinji?" Asuka happily asks, her eyes seeming to light up like fireworks as my grandiose declarations fire her up with ambition.
"The time you and Shinji will have together will be limitless. There will be no obstacle in your amorous endeavours. I shall personally bless your marriage and see to it that not even his already blossoming connection with my Rei shall come between you two."
It was as if the mention of how she could have Shinji all to herself was all that was needed.
For the next moment, she was stood and saluting me with the lowest bow anyone had ever made as she kept her palm on her forehead all the while.
She very nearly facepalmed but managed to quickly jump back to her feet as she immediately followed up with a dutiful declaration of "sir. Yes sir. You won't be let down in the slightest Mr Ikari sir. I will personally see to it that the two of them are brought back in complete safety in record time sir. "
And a long list of other military jargon drivel which I was frankly not interested in hearing, satisfying as it was to see one of my pawns who understood her place so well.
She sprinted from my room with a final curtsey after hearing the location her EVA was parked in the hangar.
I rubbed my hands together as I pictured the mental image of the furious red haired German in the ginormous metal "robot" kicking apart buildings as she stomped the ground to send pulsing tremors that made the world revibrate.
Big blocks of rubble fell as she continued her deadly march, crushing several screaming citizens into pools of blood.
Still rubbing my hands together as I too begun to grin with her madness, I put my desktop radio to play my favourite tune for these times of sheer destruction.
The imperial March of Star Wars's Darth Vader sounded across my office and then the entirety of my headquarters as with a flick of a switch I set my intercom to blast the wicked music across the entire perimeter.
And then I laughed. Big, loud laughs that I let lose completely upon allowing my composure to completely disintegrate at least for this special celebration.
Maya POV
"We did it Ritsuko Senpai" I wearily exclaim in relief as I move my hands across the entirety of the walls of Gendo's private luxury hotel suites we had been assigned to spend all afternoon painting as punishment for accidentally yawning from being overworked several days on end late into the evenings without being allowed to go home.
"We painted the whole house without getting a drop of paint on anything and the..."
Then my alertly trained sniper's eye catches a tiny drop of paint on a tiny object in an even tinier corner of the leftmost wall nearest to his crowdedly furnished bedroom which was hard to even walk through with how packed with high end furniture it was.
"FLIPPING FLOTSAM WHAT'S THAT!" I shout, my relief completely dissipating and complete angst and panic taking its place.
There it was. Despite several rubs of my sharp brown eyes which were the same tone as Shinji's until they were sore, there it was.
A slight drip of permanent paint we had been given to paint the house with, had splattered complete unintentionally onto a certain picture.
A very special picture.
A picture of a very special someone to our commander who was one of the few human beings who meant anything to him at all.
On the long deceased Yui's angelic smiling face just slightly left of her left temple, my tiredness had dropped a tiny droplet of white paint that could be washed off with nothing and absolutely nothing.
Gendo liked permanent paint because it looked so much more imposing and vivid and represented his authority so much better in his chambers.
My eyes seemed to melt from their sockets as Ritsuko, the blonde haired chief scientist of NERV and my greatest hero perhaps only slightly exceeding Shinji took a look herself and before I could register, she was holding me so tightly that I felt I might snap apart.
"Maybe if I just um..." I gulp the moment she recomposes herself enough to let me go as I take out a nearby handkerchief and wipe at the incredibly small circle of paint only to grow more terrified as it expands to cover the entirety of the photo.
It even begins to blot out Yui's innocent smile as if to tell us both as a message from beyond we are both now screwed.
"Do you know what that jerk will do to us when he finds out?" Ritsuko worriedly blurts out as she chatters her teeth while stamping her feet as if she's suffering from hypothermia.
"Cut our butts off?" I even more worriedly suggest as my brain flashes the disturbing image of both our butts hanging from Gendo's mantle as he sips tea in the relaxing moonlight night by the glow of a candle.
We grab each other's hands and hold them tightly as we share a panicked shriek.
"We need to get this paint off" Ritsuko insinuates, being the first to resalvage a touch of sanity in this insane second where nothing is going right.
"But Commander Ikari said..." I start.
"Forget what commander Ikari said Maya. Every paint. Comes off with something"
We quickly take the photograph to the nearby washing machine where I hastily place it into the washer, close the door and set the machine's power to maximum after adding in as much soap as it can possibly hold.
"Did it work?" I eagerly ask as the machine rolls to a stop after five minutes and the photograph is revealed to still be covered head to toe in the permanent paint.
"No!" Ritsuko ashamedly answers.
We take out a shred of sandpaper from the cleaning supplies cabinet and take turns sanding the photo with all our might, resting when one of our arms comes close to falling off with the sheer force we were exerting to brush the coarse paper against the photo with all our might.
"Did it work?" I ask once again when I feel my arms can handle not one second more of unbearable agony.
"No!" Ritsuko sorrowfully remarks as she holds up the still completely stained photo in her now badly scraped hands.
Then in a fit of desperation, Ritsuko retreats to the chemistry set she seemed to be able to go nowhere without even when off her main duty in the living room and returns carrying a beaker of bubbling sulphuric acid.
With her eyes half closed and hands vibrating like crazy, she dumps the contents of the container onto the photograph causing an entire section of the surrounding table to sizzle and peel off in the process.
"Did it work?"
"No! Maya. No it didn't"
My mind now on the verge of collapse, I rummage around one of Gendo's closets in the kitchen until I manage to find a bloodstained baseball bat, the blood dried but still very visible.
I ready my crude but heavy instrument as Ritsuko holds the photo at the ready.
Then I swing. Again and again as Ritsuko yowls in pain with each blow that connects with the photo but also with her fragile human body which gets even worse when in a fit of fatigue my arms cause a wild swing that thuds incredibly hard into her skull causing a massive bruise on her forehead.
I drop the weapon as I put my hand over my mouth.
"Nothing's working!" I vigorously yowl, now completely at a loss of hope only for Ritsuko to inexplicably perk up with a full on ear to ear grin that was the last thing I could expect in this catastrophic catastrophe where our very lives were on the line.
"Wait Maya" She begs, holding up a shaking hand as she manages to look me dead on in the eye.
"We're not cavemen."
She gestures to the most expensive furnishing of all in Gendo's bedroom as she walks there and sets the photo on the table its placed on.
Gendo's massive ten terabyte computer complete with hi-fi display and speakers and "lightspeed" broadband. It's finely designed silicon frame glitters as we approach.
"We have technology" She proudly announces as I puzzledly stare at the chief scientist with five college degrees and straight A's stretching from kindergarten to her final day in college.
Then with a animalistic bellow, she scoops the entirety of the display monitor up in her hands almost perfectly mimicking the motions of a stone age clubber in a nature documentary. With several savage grunts, she smashes the expensive machinery onto the photo.
I cover my mouth but dare not disturb her knowing how dangerous a caveman could be first hand from one of the few times I bothered to tune into such boring scientific animation.
The monitor is smashed repeatedly until all that is left is irreparably small fragments of nut, bolt and jagged metal and half broken electrical boards and glass.
"It didn't work..." I sob as tears blur my vision.
A quake of the building brings me to my senses enough for me to wipe away my tears to look out the window.
This time I give my eye such a fierce rubbing I feel they are burning on fire when I manage through the blurs to see through a nearby window marching down the street, the feared and respected second child and Shinji's redhaired German roommate in the most fearsome war machine seen in the land for half a century.
A bright gleam glistens off the new EVA's reinforced hull as it thunders onward on the road leading out of town.
At least I could amend my earlier statement about how Gendo's wrath at discovering our disrespect to his late wife would be our downfall.
Now Asuka Langley Soryu was going to kill us instead, and bring the remaining survivors of humanity down with us.
My dear companion Ritsuko had never been more astute in her observations than today when she quite rightly pointed out we had technology in our modern age of discovery.
Technology that would tear us apart in a glorious irony of self destruction without the Angels having to lift a finger. If they had hands that was.
I hit my head against a wall as the last shred of sanity wanes and I find myself cackling dementedly.
"Run Shinji Run. Run for your life and all that is good and worth living for wherever you are now." I exclaim with my final bit of lucidity.
Thanks once again everyone for reading.
Special thanks to fictionelement, bandiras, thehiddenlettuce and KycoSocceref for your kind reviews and support.
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But for now thanks for being awesome and bye.
