Chapter 31: SEELE

Writing tip: If you want to show the main character is clever and powerful, don't make everyone else stupid and weak. It's not that Asuka and Rei are bad pilots by any means, but that Shinji is just slightly better enough so that he can tackle the few life-risking situations they cannot. While Shinji does win every battle, it is never without a fierce and tense struggle which badly traumatizes him for life. And it is only a few battles that Asuka and Rei fail, where he has to step in. Not every single one, showing that Asuka and Rei are certainly by no means weak.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have Kirito and Sword art online.

The problem with that show is that while Kirito is indeed powerful because of a high level of grinding, anyone with a gram of common sense could learn to do the same thing as him and grind low level monsters instead of recklessly running at high level ones with a deathwish.

Also Sword art online has safe zones where no one can be attacked.. So anyone with a brain could just hide in those until Kirito (the strongest player) has cleared the game. Also, people shun Kirito because he is stronger than them, even though his strength is the one thing that can get them out the game alive.

Instead of making Kirito seem powerful, it just makes everyone else seem pathetic and weak.

Especially when the final boss goes down in one hit.

Which brings me to another writing tip. Do not give your characters an easy way out if you want a long running series. Kirito is a master hacker who can bring even sentient AI's back to life, so it stands to reason he could just hack the game and get everyone out instead.

Also if he is so powerful, he could have gone after the final boss right away instead of wasting time living in Asuna's cabin and letting thousands of players get brutally killed one by one (although it is sort of their fault since as previously mentioned, safe zones do exist)

Slice of life stories tend to be the ones that can go on longest, because there is no clearly established goal and each new episode is able to have its own goal and conflict independent of each other. Which is actually a clever metaphor that life has no real goal, unless you specifically aim for a goal. Everyone has different goals. Asuka wants to be the most famous pilot, Shinji just wants peace and quiet. Neither of them are right or wrong in their different goals, but the way they go about accomplishing their goals is what makes Shinji better than Asuka.

Quite simply put, Shinji doesn't crack other people's skulls or break their self-esteem sadistically.

Kaworu POV

I said before that we did not use a robotic workforce. This did not mean we could not indulge in a little tinkering to augment our already formidable , that all and every automation we built was given a level of awareness so great, it would be both demeaning and morally inept to give them any less treatment than we would a biological human. The advanced technology NERV had been hoarding, made it possible to construct brilliant beings of cogs and wires that were almost indistinguishable from live humans.

More proof that the Evangelions were nothing more than excuses for NERV to launder more ill gotten money from the already bleeding dry citizens working their backs off, having been betrayed to austerity. Another definitive piece of evidence that salvation of mankind was not Gendo's goal.

We proceeded to examine every last corner of NERV's storage chambers, both sub and overground in more detail following the respectful funeral we gave to those victims we were forced to neutralize. In one of the deepest, darkest vaults were stored two especially curious robots. Or rather, their fast decaying remains after most of their exoskeleton had been removed no doubt to be salvaged for parts.

One silky white. One caramel brown. One sleek and thin, one broad and stocky. One with a stylishly constructed holographic screen in the place of what appeared to be its vision sensors, the other sporting a haphazardly glued on set of simple binoculars instead.

The two machines were as opposing to one another as a wealthy aristocrat to a destitute beggar. One seemingly propelled entirely by a very complex looking anti-gravitation device on its underside, the other carried by rugged yet tough brown tracks a tad darker than its main square shaped body. They were found next to an emptied metallic capsule reading A113. The metal, still lustrous despite its obvious age from the fungi quickly infesting the floors and walls of this forgotten area that had clearly not hosted even a brief visit for eons. Another weakness of NERV was that their desire to steal left them no time to even appreciate what they'd stolen past the superficial aspects.

Clearly whoever designed these marvels, the incredibly durable capsule inclusive, was a technological behometh.

Despite their missing parts, I could not help but feel a tint of true sadness at the position the two robots were found in.

Their very different hand appendages clutching each other through their final movements.

Even age had not separated their hold on each other despite their gradual decay.

I felt I was truly looking at two living people slightly different only to true humans in appearance. They gripped each other no differently to how Romeo might grip his Juliet in the classical Shakesperean play that united us all in a teary tantrum of heartbreak.

How two doomed lovers might have held each other for comfort in the final minutes the sinking Titanic spent afloat.

Taking one final close and careful look over the front, side and rear of the two fantastic automations before me, I called an orderly who had joined me to take in this bewildering side to get them immediately to the robotics sector of the laboratory i had recently commissioned.

They were to be reconstructed in as meticulous and precise detail as was humanly possible under the attentive care of our most heartfelt and devoted mechanics.

The thin, white shiny floater to be provided the sexy form and figure of a young, twenty year old supermodel of middling height, with shoulder length silky hair the same pale white as her robotic form.

Her rustically charming tracked companion, to be reanimated to appear a good few years younger as a teenage boy, his hair to be far curlier while only reaching to his chin with a caramel brown a few shades darker than Shinji and Yui's in their photo.

I didn't know much about them yet. The one comforting truth I had learned through giving their memory chips a quick scan with one of NERV's many supercomputers, was that the brown tracked trash collector and waste disposal bot bore the personage WALLE-85, while "his" (for this was the gender his creators referred him by despite "him" technically being genderless) white, smaller, life form reconnaissance data surveyor robot had the codeEVE-91. "Her" flight systems and now missing built in plasma cannon, were conceived in preparation of when she'd get to perform her intended mission of exploring alien planets and asteroids for a new safe haven mankind could relocate to in order to escape the incrasingly dangerous and uninhabitable habitat of Earth, upon which the Angels were firmly taking central stage as the new dominant species.

Neither had any kind of malicious software, intentional or otherwise to code for murderous intent upon humanity or any living being, unless in justified defence. Most of the other code was garbled and indecipherable even with my advance system, but the little i could discern made it apparent that their admiration for one another was as genuine as any human relationship.

A small chunk of readable code also contained a few base details detailing the planned construction of a so called Axiom.
A high-tech, massive budget luxury space hotel also capable of quicker than light speed travel through clever use of wormholes. Paul and his small group of followers who'd managed to evacuate to Tokyo 3, following the destruction of the Mushroom Kingdom: the largest confederation of rebels opposing NERV, would certainly be glad to hear of this new and improved spaceship.

Recollecting the sad tale, the red jacket showman regaled upon me, I could only hope this news would help put Paul's late scientist companion Rosslyn's soul at rest. That was planned to be called the axiom, and for which I heard rumours that its mere concept was part of NERV and SEELE's driving force in wanting its rapidly expanding designing company dead. No one dared say anything out of fear, but it was a common urban legend that the company whose escape pods bore its iconic logo did not simply disappear by itself in the apex of its rising success.

Clearly this tyranny did not want its prisoners breaking free from the only planet it intended to trap them all within. The most acclaimed scientific committees both past and present, a group of hypocritical flat Earthers.

I took one final admiring gaze at the soon to be resuscitated robotic lovers, with their carefully selected new bodies designed to be as faithful to their original designs as a high budget English dub to a blockbuster Japanese Anime by devoted actors in it for the fans more than the profit.

They would be provided the most advanced language recognition and expression systems avaialable with access to Japanese, English, German, Russian, Roman Latin and several others, some of which I'd never even knew existed. Their newly upgraded operation systems would be fine tuned to allow for each and every known feeling that signified sapience to the increasingly snobbish members of the human race.

From the most blissful sensations of joy and happiness, to the most difficult of virtues in loyalty and love, to the painful yet necessary hurts of sadness, fear and anger that we all wished to avoid at all cost but deep down knew were necessary to our overall well-being.

I was willing to ask for nothing in return when this Romeo reawakened to find his Juliet happily waiting for him, safe and sound.

It would have been all too easy to reprogram them to be wholly subservient to me and Squid girl, not to mention more practical. But if there was one thing honourable Shinji had taught this heartless beast, it was that the most valuable treasures in existence were the ones that could neither be bought nor sold.

True gratitude from the heart, was one of them. The great satisfaction of reuniting a pair of star crossed lovers, was another.

Perhaps, I think to myself as I decide to spend the next hour or so, poring through a history volume encompassing a thousand pages and more, this was why several countries were built rather than one.

So that the world could be unique and interesting. So that when I got bored of Sushi, I could turn to German sausage and when I got tired of those, to switch to fish and chips. So that life would always be flavourful and worthwhile with something new awaiting me. Perhaps the next time the invaders considered a new land distasteful and not suited to their own needs, they could take the wise decision of returning to their much preferred homeland.

There was nothing wrong with liking your own country more than the others. This was why you had the option to remain within it while leaving others who did not share in your opinion, free to remain in theirs. I am truly relieved when the hand of the clock beside my calendar, strikes the third hour of the afternoon. It's Sunday. The day of rest where my duties as Squid girl's tank commander are cut to the bare minimum.

Which means it's time once more to contact my friend Shinji through the secure tunnel we've set up between our two private computers, with the help of our respective scientific experts. A good thing Dr Akagi was able to escape with him.

I lock the door to my soundproof bedroom, check once more that all several inch thick shutters are securely barred before flicking on my computer and clicking to the link where I find Shinji already eagerly awaiting my connection with bated breath. Discretion would normally be of vital importance, but for this meeting it could easily be the difference between the fate of the entire Earth.

Squid girl POV

I did not spend the majority of my time as the democratically elected "queen" of Japan lounging around on my throne, being waited on hand and foot.

Life was too short to spend in such dull frivolity in which you may as well not have lived at all.

Aside from the select few speeches I was obligated by my legions of ardent admirers to give, most of my time was spent in much the same way as I had done when I first arrived on land.

Waiting tables, and serving mouthwatering cuisine which i had actually come to truly enjoy thanks to the kindness of Chirizu.

Only this time, it was in a soup kitchen for the homeless rather than a diner for the priveleged.

It was also out of my free choice, rather than any need to pay off a debt.

The only way I could possibly be a good leader, was if I walked alongside my subjects in their struggles by their side.

I reduced the tax rates to nothing.

Yes, you heard right. Absolute zero.

The gigantic pile of boxes filled with all manner of items, in my seldom occupied office were free presents that were given out of pure generosity.

Being a Squid person not used to the hustle and bustle that many surface dwellers chose to trap themselves within, gave me a unique perspective on living.

In that so long as there was a warm shelter to shield from the elements, and three square meals a day, material goods made up a vanishingly tiny part of contented living.

It always upset me to see piles of furniture being bought by my employers at the diner, only to be thrown to the back of the basement as soon as the recipts had been read and stashed away also. It was why I almost never saw any human I was forced to be in contact with, take a relaxing day off of their own volition.

Busy. Busy. So busy.

Too busy to spend a little time with your loved ones and leave them to suffer alone, and you to suffer alone? The tragic alibi for me leaving my undersea home to seek excitement on the surface which back then, I despised with every fibre of my being as the naive child I once was.

I did not have a lot. I did not need a lot.

Refreshing hot coffee was only a dime and delicious sushi, only a yen.

Living in the sunlight. Loving in the moonlight.

Having a wonderful time.

It wasn't that I minded if an occasional fishing boat pulled up a net of herrings now and again to have for a tasty little snack.

I did that sometimes when I got bored of land food.

But trying to empty the entire ocean all in the name of a few scraps of paper with the photographs of dead presidents and some shiny round buttons, was inexcusable.

What would we squid people, and by extension the surface people eat tommorow when we squandered all we had today?

Tipping waste haphazardly to save a few of the same paper pieces which seemed to be a common cause of the human's evil, was where I drew the line.

As Kaworu had wisely pointed out, the Angels loved the sensation of oiled seawater, and the stench of factory waste.

We squids were no fans of those mindless barbarians either.

We very much were in the same boat when it came to this otherwordly apocalypse.

The only problem was that the humans didn't believe us when we tried to peacefully tell them, that it was their own fault that pollution was drawing the Angels in.

Shinji POV

"Yeah. Hey Kaworu. It's so nice to be able to hear from you once more" I reply to the grey haired Russian who I had till last month, abandoned all hope of ever seeing before me even in my dreams. I wiggled my feet in the pink bunny slippers I'd taken to wearing, along with a grey trouser and fluffed white nightshirt set of pyjamas.

Not only did I not have to endure pointless lessons in a school where everyone was daily looking for a chance to pick on me because of their jealousy over my position as a pilot, which I tried time and again to explain I despised and would give anything to offer to one of them, but now I could wear whatever clothes suited me without my domineering father to intimidate me into submission.

"How's it going, my dearest ally Shinji? You look even better this week. Has your you time been treating you well?"

"Great. Just great. No exaggeration or sarcasm intended this time. Just plain epic.

Rei and I really owe you one for you sacrificing your lives for our sake and the sakes of all our loved ones. The time spent away from NERV has really helped us all in ways we cannot begin to describe, and we have you to thank for it."

Kaworu POV

"It was the least I could do. You'd have done the same for me. But anyhow Shinji"

My cheery, soft tone began to harden to solid rock.

"There's something serious I need to talk to you about today, and it's very urgent even if it may not seem so."

"I'm all ears, Kaworu."

I narrowed my eyes and furrowed my brow. I needed for Shinji on the other side on his computer screen, to know that this was no laughing matter.

"Did you or did you not, witness a strange vision that seemed to come completely out of nowhere. A vision involving the mention of the Britannic empire, a scythe and the planet Saturn. Which in turn, concluded with a desperate plea to memorize a code containing the term: Geass?" I could see Shinji's jaw drop before I could even finish my sentence.

He put his hand over his gaping mouth as his eyes darted from side to side briefly, before locking into mine so hard that I felt I would soon be blinded by the intensity of his glare.

"That was exactly what I saw three days ago. Me, Mari and Rei all witnessed the exact things you just described, exactly as you described them. This cannot be pure coincidence."

"It indeed cannot." I agree, barely managing to compose myself. "I am here to explain to you that our intelligence sources back in Japan have picked up an irrefutable lead that relates almost exactly word for word to the telepathic mental message we all saw."

A fleeting weakness seizes me and I clench a hidden fist below my desk to overcome it. "An inside spy by the name of Mr James bond, managed in his flight from England to obtain some top secret data on SEELE's next movements.

It nearly killed him but he was still able to come to us with the information intact. Following our bold movement helped by your escape which greatly weakened NERV, SEELE have decided no longer to remain as passive observers and to instead take matters into their own hands. We've awakened a sleeping dragon, Shinji."

Shinji's eyes snap as wide as saucers. He is clearly on the verge of fainting, but just manages with a bite of his lip to keep himself sane in the nick of time. I can but pray he doesn't pierce that delicate piece of skin.

"Steady yourself, my valiant hero. We can still put a stop to them." I insist at him, more sharply than I would have liked, my own jangled nerves getting the better of me. "SEELE have decided to make England their next base of operations. Their new plan will leave a large part of the landscape it is conducted within, a barren wasteland that can never be repaired even with all the time of eternity. They chose England, caring so little for such an impoverished puppet that has been sacked of so much of what once made it the proud Britannic Empire where the sun never set."

I flick out a dossier from a nearby drawer, giving it a brief glance to ensure that everything I'm telling the terrified Shinji still holds water.

"Bond told us that SEELE want to awaken the power of an ancient harbringer capable of destroying entire galaxies, with the greatest of ease. A messiah of silence, if you will. He claims they will begin the awakening in the capital of England, London, as a message that this is truly the end of all things Britannic. To conclude their and NERV's longtime victim of suffering with a brutal show of force, that will end it for good. They plan to make use of a specialized device known as the Geass, to make it impossible for this otherwise invincible titan of pure power to resist their insidious demands. She will be unable to refuse, even if she should try."

"Who is this messiah of silence?" Shinji asks, more sympathetically than fearfully. I can see tears forming in his eyes. Not of hatred, but empathetic evangelism. He wants the unlucky girl marked by cruel misfortune saved at any cost, and he is prepared to give up everything he has in order to do so. He truly is the knight in shining armour that I alone of all SEELE saw him for.

Curse you, SEELE. I place away the dossier and take out in its place, a police report filed by the Juban district.

The one district that still gives a damn about stopping crime and wanton abuse, especially towards minors unable to defend themselves.

Her name was Hotaru Tomoe, I told Shinji as he listened with complete attention as almost on a whim, he was joined by an equally concentrated Rei and Mari. Rei now sported a far more stylish lavender dress with far shorter legs. Another subtle but comforting sign of her decreasing fear and increasing closeness with Shinji.

I took great pains to emphasize before continuing any further in my description to clarify, despite knowing that even Mari was proficient in Japanese kanji, that her name meant "Firefly of the Earth". That a firefly was a bringer of light and hope. She was twelve with short, but extremely pretty and lustrous dark purple hair that bordered on pitch black. A certain sign of purity, I wistfully let my loose tongue whiff out.

She wore simple dark clothes that camouflaged her perfectly when up against the darkness. Long sleeved jumper. A short skirt, but long legged trousers that reached all the way to her shoes.

All black. No markings. This, despite how it had been several years since the lab accident that badly burned her, only for her to have made a fairly successful recovery with no need for her to hide her no longer existent injuries any longer. This bleak yet strangely elegant choice of attire, seeming only to endear Shinji's gang on the other side even closer to the gothic maiden.

She had a shady scientist for a dad, who could not endure losing his wife and her mother and fell into despair trying to seek a method however immoral, to bring her back.

"Just like my dad and me" Shinji regretfully remarked, chinking away my first chunk of worry.

The maddened genuis's wife died in a fire caused by one of his own experiments at harnessing an otherworldy power, even he himself did not fully understand. The accident nearly killed his daughter but his wife gave her life to allow her young and precious daughter to come out alive, but grotesquely charred.

Her father had been allowed to retain custody over her, despite multiple psychiatric examinations declaring him ill with severe anxiety that only worsened with each new appointment he turned down with the psychologists trying to help him.

The neighbours reported hearing strange sounds from the usually eerily silent Tomoe laboratory in the dark of the night.

The mansion itself, composed of at least five dozen rooms each at least the size of a high class apartment suite.

It would give NERV's headquarters and Gendo's throne, a run for its money in terms of exquisite opulence.

Reports stated that Hotaru missed several days of school with the apparent purpose of helping her father with his research.

When questioned why the unhinged scholar needed a not yet fully educated young thing such as her when he had an acclaimed team of employed researchers with which to call upon, she commented that parts of the experiments required that she be present to attain their full result, but refused to comment any further.

Her unusually pale skin was attributed to two severe health conditions, Anaemia and Rickets.

The former spanning from the lack of proper nutrients in her diet, and the latter from the lack of sunlight and vitamin D as a result.

"Just like what a certain monster (whose name I will not lower myself by even mentioning for he as good as dead to me) forced me to tell everyone else, when I had to miss even my promised appointments with my Shinji, all on his whim." Rei growled in a low but dangerous voice.

Hotaru's few fellow students who did not consciously try to keep a distance from her on account of her gothic demeanour, claimed her to be a cheery spot of sunshine who was quick to laugh despite her seeming gloominess. They say her greatest passion despite her monastic lifestyle of seclusion, were Anime and music. Anime music videos were her paradise where she was in her element.

That even the slightest mention of pain, anyone's pain made Hotaru herself tear up in the most sincere remorse rarely shown by even the great evangilists that history commemorated. The phrase she was once heard muttering in a state of unconsciousness, following one of her routine fainting fits as a result of her weakness from her grievous wounds of youth. "No one. Should have to die."

So said a pink haired child even younger and smaller than herself, her "best friend forever" Chibiusa Tsukino who'd vanished without a trace some time ago. Well, her only friend forever might have been a more approrpiate yet tragic term.

Mari POV

"Music, laughter, fun and noise... All too similar to the interests of...myself"

I sombrely noted as I, Rei and Shinji shared a deadly serious look of pure adoration for the black clad minor whose photo Kaworu was still holding up on his side of the video camera chat. The kind of look one gave to a long, lost friend who'd been gone an unbearably lengthy epoch.

"Please. We have to save her from SEELE at all costs" Kaworu pleaded, unable to hold himself together any longer as he too shared in our united expression of fawning over this pure and innocent cinnamon roll, not caring in the slightest that we were but regarding her photo and not her personage. From this very moment, this white hearted gothic child, would have the absolute protection and blessing of the world's four most mighty titans of pure power.

She would call upon us and we would answer her, no matter the danger to ourselves.

"Darn right we do" I retorted with a raised fist to the sky.

"If Mari's going, then so am I" Rei quickly chimed in with equal zeal.

"Nami brown is never complete without Nami blue and so, her quest is also mine."

But neither of their ardour came close to the terrifying height of passion that were present in Shinji's every motion and breath, as he returned before the screen and dramatically raised his bowed head to let me see the blazing sparks in his usually dull orbs of sight.

It was as if an inner fire was blazing within him, and he was quickly burning apart from its hotness that he could do naught to quell. His entire form seemed to redden and the creases in his every visible line on his face wrinkled, blind to the shakes and shivers he was sending up my spine and Rei's.

"Japan and Germany made a grave mistake when they invaded England to the yapping of greedy stockmen and corrupt bankers" He quietly but threateningly hissed, barely louder than a whisper.

"NERV made an even graver mistake in choosing to put the lives of depressed and faultless children on the line for their own sick sadism. Making us put out the fire they started without so much as a "thank you" after we practically lived for them.

Thinking that a fist to the skull was a more appropriate token of gratitude when we risked tooth and nail in the name of our duty to them." He waved a hand as he straightened himself, spasms of grief still coursing through him as he gritted his teeth so tightly together, I feared they'd snap from the immense strain.

"But SEELE. You took your wicked schemes to new extremes. You. Abused. The. Wrong. Little. Sweetheart. In doing so, you've called down heaven's wrath. You claim to be gods among men."

He leered menacingly as his head lurched forward. Me and Rei covered our mouths in unison.

"Well this time SEELE. You're not dealing with a mortal man. They called us EVA pilots, the sole barrier between humanity's survival and eternal oblivion. They call the Angels, divine agents from up above that no mortal instrument could hope to stand against. They say the Evangelion was heaven's final gift to man in God's abundant mercy. That those whom the Evangelion chooses, are the truly blessed."

He fills himself with a brief flash of pride, uncharacteristic for him even following the extensive therapy Doctor Akagi was generous enough to arrange for him and Rei.

The Shinji who stood before us, was no longer speaking directly on our level but from a higher plane that he and he alone had ascended into.

He was reaching his caring hands down from the clouds in a truly loving attempt to lift us up alongside him. We had helped him get this far and the least we could do now to please the boy who brought so much grace into our dark and pointless lives, was to let him help us.

"Everyone called me, the best EVA pilot." He matter of factly stated, plain and unembelished in his declaration of this undeniable truth. "They called Rei second best after me, and Kaworu, you a close third. Which leaves Mari as the even closer fourth even with how little time she's had to prove herself upon arriving just at the right time to give me strength where there was none."

He slowly unclenched his jaw, his clearly sore lips forming into the ghost of a smile.

"We four. Are the strongest, smartest, most talented and most valuable assets currently roaming this desecrated planet. No one else can even compare to our level unless we severely limit ourselves. Our only limitations now, are the shackles we bind to ourselves. But I've had enough of setting myself up for failure. Of lying to myself that I'm worse than I really am. Having to hide the truth about my talent because of a pointless competition that only cares about showing off, and not solving the key problems that will be our shared demise if we do not all work together and put our differences aside for the greater good."

He shook his head and manages with incredible force of willpower, to hold himself back from giving himself another punch to the forehead.

His tragic days of masochism are slowly beginning to end, courtesy of the support from his devoted waifu and psychologist who never had a chance to help him under Gendo's watchful gaze.

"We're the best fighters and strategists on this entire planet. We each regard Hotaru as one of our own. But one more question before I go on Kaworu. How powerful are SEELE's defences?"

He asks this question almost rhetorically, like he knows what the answer will be, long before it comes.

I too anticipate the exact same reply as him.

Not one out of the three of us are in the slightest surprised, when Kaworu simply holds up a detailed yet simple diagram on a page from a video game manual, rather than reply with any meaningless and hollow words.

Age of war: Defensive turrets.

Each epoch, mankind creates newer and better defensive structures to better defend against their enemies. War never changes. In each age of time, there will be a cheap turret assembled with minimal budget and effort, a standard turret which balances cost with quality.

As well as an ultimate turret which stretches the technology and ingenuity of that age and era to its limit.

Stone age (5000 BC)

Rock Slingshot - 100 yen

Egg Automatic - 200 yen

Primitive Catapult - 500 yen

Medieval age (60 - 1550 AD)

Catapult - 500 yen

Fire Catapult - 750 yen

Boiling Oil - 1000 yen

Renaissance age (1550 - 1850)

Small Cannon - 1500 yen

Large Cannon - 3000 yen

Explosive Cannon - 6000 yen

Modern age (1912 to 1999)

Sniper Rifle - 7000 yen

Rocket Launcher - 9000 yen

Gatling Gun - 14000 yen

Future age (1999 onwards. The future is now)

Prototype Lazercannon - 24,000 yen

Lazercannon - 40,000 yen

Ionray - 100,000 yen

"During Agent Bond's close brush with death in his escape from his homeland, he was able to catch a brief glimpse of the base he suspects to be housing SEELE's next operation involving Hotaru." Kaworu clarifies reluctantly.

"With their expansive budget and unfortunately, their access to all the data and research gathered by the greatest minds over history, SEELE have placed an uncountable number of powerful plasma-fired Ion rays all around the capital. They want no risk of failure this time, after seeing how all of you were able so easily to escape Tokyo 3"

"Well their scientific aptitudes will be no match for me"

The faux blonde former personal assistant of Gendo, scoffs as I only now turn to realize she has silently slipped to join us in front of the computer to see the latter part of Kaworu's plea.

"I cannot allow such misuse of the sacred knowledge, so many generous souls have poured their hearts and souls into."

She crossly adds. "Especially not to a precious young thing with so much potential. And especially not one that my daughter Rei has such a deep regard for."

She would later explain that she had been following Tomoe laboratories and their research for quite some time, and that the Mugen academy also run by the father of Hotaru was the great fountain of knowledge from which she obtained her fourth out of fifth degree.

"It's too late for her emotionless father, but not too late for her if I can just get to her before SEELE does."

"It seems your change of heart is real after all, doctor." I hear Rei think to herself, with a hint of childish glee.

"If Shinji and all of you are going. Then so am I" The oldest member of the Ikari household, bodly declares as she swaggers into the already crowded chamber.

The older brunette's clothes are still dusty and her skin is drenched with sweat and shrapnel after another exhausting training session with the hunters that now form her makeshift platoon.

Even if this location is meant to be top secret, we had learned the importance of a professional standing army from past experience with another "secret base" that turned out to not be so secret after all.

She had been drilling them with a quality of education not seen on the battlefield in quite an age. Already, their aim was steadier and their breathing far better under control.

Prior to her arrival, the gunmen we had at our disposal often indeed failed to hit the broadside of a barn. An emptied out wooden pen still in pristine condition, surrounded by fragments of shattered trees stood perfect testament to that fact.

In Maya's own words when she regaled us with her tales still hot and heavy from fatigue, this squad had proven to be the best she had worked alongside in her life.

She had never known how a simple change of role from follower to teacher could bring out her own inner strength.

"Didn't have to come clear out here to find it, Maya. You had it inside you all along. I know you did" Shinji once earnestly told his older sister whose birth was perhaps the least harmful of the accidents his father's indecency had lead to. "I always had the feeling we were connected in some deeper way."

Then he gently caressed her cheek while she did the same with his while me and Rei watched them with a fuzzy warmth in our hearts, holding each others hands.

Love came in many flavours. Not just romantic.

Maya POV

"I'm not going to sit by this time while my younger brother has to deal with all his problems himself with no one to watch his back, the way he watches everyone else's."

I hold my rifle in a brilliantly formed firing position, and switches the safety off.

My brown eyes narrowing to slits as she puts on a serious scowl, say to us all I has to say without needing to say anything more.

"Wherever you go Shinji. So will I"

Shinji POV

"Then together we go" I conclude, not wanting to waste further time in useless chatter knowing that each second we delay is a second that a mirror of the sufferings we've fortunately left behind us, will continue to endure the same inhumane torture we've been subjected to all our lives.

Following the departure of Lola and the other rebels who claimed that America needed their presence and my own battles with loneliness, I had learned full well the importance of friendship.

"I do not wish to be apart from you any more than you do me. Words alone cannot begin to describe how thankful I am to have you all by my side."

Even if I was no longer the useless coward everyone once branded me as, I was not about to spurn the gracious assistance my true friends were offering me as much for their own benefit as mine. Love went both ways. A fundemental rule Asuka never seemed to understand regardless of how much prompting I tried to offer her.

I was already the best EVA pilot from since the Evangelion's conception.

Now I had every pilot that mattered at my back, as well as the most skilled military leader and the smartest scientist to fall back on.

Everything could only go according to plan.

My plan.

My bulletproof, Angel proof, NERV proof, SEELE proof and Ion proof (pun intended) scheme that could be halted by no interruption.

Taking a quick glance at one of the manga comics I had left lying around my room last night as I fell to sleep still lost within its pages, I tell Ritsuko as our resident chemist to ready a can of rainproof black hair dye.

Rei immediately catches onto my idea and requests leaf green dye, as she wolfs down the final slice of the oversized pizza she's been chewing upon all this time.

When I speak my next sentence, it is in a far stronger, more confident and far more unhinged tone. And only after letting out a demented cackle that forces everyone around me to clutch their ruined ears as a nasty crack forms on the sole glass window.

A frightening noise that would have made the Shinji back in Tokyo 3 with no access to therapy, seem normal and mentally fit in comparison.

"All according to plan" I sneer, rubbing my hands together as I prepare myself to pay a visit to the valley tailor for the overly accentuated royal outfit the tone of midnight that I've been meaning to acquire for some time. "I always have a plan. Hehahahahahaha."

Why everyone save myself found such a fine cloth too menacing and unsettling for their taste, I knew not and cared not a whit.

"I can't wait to go to England" Rei joins in, her tone even colder and less emotional than usual.

"I've heard that they have Pizza hut there and that Pizza hut makes the greatest Pizza's the world has ever tasted. The pizza's they sell here are getting rather tasteless and not to my liking."

"We will do everything in our power to ensure the Britannic empire is freed from SEELE's tyranny. So that there truly will be the pax Britannica, that good Queen Victoria gave her life to make possible only for it all to be ruined." Mari choruses.

SEELE was not dealing with an undisciplined coward any longer.

The master of schemes and plots was about to meet their match. They would fear no battle line, nor battle.

No heavily shielded tanks to be easily blown to smithereens by their impregnable and seemingly foolproof outer defences that it had selfishly kept to itself. No white knight in shining armour for the dark overlord to face this time. The forces of darkness could not combat darkness itself.

I spared one final thought at how powerful Hotaru must truly be for SEELE to take such paranoid precautions with her.

The brief voice recording of her that Kaworu played for all of our convenience, revealed that it perfectly matched the fragile voice in our shared visions. I remembered the sound of a scythe, the iconic tool used to depict the Grim reaper in popular myth and culture.

I remembered Saturn, the planet of death. Hotaru feared no death. She was death itself.

We were not seeking to bathe this already glowing Earth in yet another blinding neon light as NERV and SEELE were trying through their deceitful devilry.

We were here to extinguish that blinding light and to let the world know that darkness and death were as much a part of life, as light and life.
That a neon light that sought to deceive was worse than no light at all.

Now I knew how it was possible for my mother in her insanity to so selflessly sacrifice herself.

She hadn't been trying to cheat death and now neither was I. The one way to revive our dying race, was to embrace death itself. The one way to solve a problem, was to stop running from it. We were about to have a good, long talk and pleasant little tea party with darkness, our old friend.

Most disguises fell flat on their faces. The disguiser acted so similar to their original self that their paper-thin disguise only served to expose their identity and make them look stupid. Well not me and my family.

We would not simply arrive in England looking like different people. We would talk like different people, walk like different people and most importantly, act and think like different people that SEELE did not regard as a threat.

Our performance needed to be flawless to an exact science. We would know if we were succeeding if we begun to struggle to recognize ourselves for who we really were. Before setting off, I also make sure to collect a briefcase of the rare gemstones that the unique geographical location of the wind valley has allowed it to form beneath its surface.

A good thing the toxic forest kept NERV and SEELE out till now. The pristine jewels sparkled beautifully in the morning sun.

If SEELE was going to be selfish and prideful, I was going to give them exactly what they wanted.

A maddened beam spread across my face, almost cracking my lips as I waited for my waifu, my older sister, my mother in law and psychiatrist, and my waifu's best friend to get ready themselves. The perfect demonstration of just how effective this month of friendship, rest and therapy had been to a suicidal self hater nearly worked to death. How perfectly sane and sensible I had become thanks to every kind benefactor who helped me this far.

Rei. Mari. Maya. Ritsuko. You had always been trying to get through to me all my life, and it took me till now to truly get the chance to express my wholehearted appreciation. Thank you all.

"Do you know why my hair is colourless and not brown, Shinji?" Rei philosophically inquires as she eagerly paints her waist length hair green.
"It is the same reason why snow is white."

"No. Rei. Why?" I emphatically reply, knowing I will not get the chance to refer to my sweetheart by her name for quite some time.

"It is because it has forgotten its original colour"

"Well, whatever the reason. Rei. I like it just the colour it is. Just as I will always love you the way you are now and however you choose to become."

...

Yet once more, really special thanks to fictionelement777, neoWarkid4, bandiras2, An enemy of the state, Fantasian, Kycosoccerref and every other unnamed guest for your kind and generous reviews.
You are all great people. Thank you so much for reading and see you all next time and bye.
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