Sekhmet: Before we start anything, we have some announcements to make. Due to work and home lives getting increasingly busy up until the holidays, we can't upload two chapters a week anymore. I's just not feasible. Instead, we're gonna work on the chapters like usual, but post one chapter a week on an alternating schedule. It's why this week's chapters were late. We need to keep up a buffer of already done chapters, because we may not have a chance to work on a chapter one week, but we can still publish something that week. Usually we have a buffer of ten chapters.
Sekhmet: Jet Alone was boring. So we made it interesting.
Susano-o: Isabelle gets the first arc on her road to mental health, mostly because she's the easiest. Again not bottling up problems will help.
Sekhmet: And I got to use Fortunate Son. I like that song, Sue me.
Susano-o: And finally Rei being adorable, precious cinnamon roll is too good for this world too pure.
Sekhmet: Friendship is gonna come in handy later. Hehehe.
Susano-o: So lets go!
Chapter 7: Jet Alone, When You're All Alone….
"Isabelle's in the hospital," Misato said as she looked over the three remaining pilots. "She'll be there for the rest of the week recovering from the angel's attack."
"But she's gonna be ok, right Ma'am?" Mary asked.
"Yes, the beam was low powered," Misato explained. "However is boiled the LCL and caused the crash to be worse than it would have been normally."
"Well that's a relief." Mary said.
"Yes," Misato said nodding. "For the time being you three will be returning to school," She said smiling. "Grades are important after all."
"Right…" Mary said, head in the clouds.
"Yes Ma'am," Shinji said nodded.
"Affirmative," Rei added.
….
As soon as the three left the room, Mary piped up. "We're going to visit Isabelle."
"Umm I was gonna say the same," Shinji said as well.
"Is that an order from Misato?" Rei asked.
"Well umm no," Shinji said nervous under Rei's intense stare. "-But you should go visit your friends," He answered.
Rei blinked as her eyes widened in confusion. "We are...friends?"
"Well yeah. We almost died together, that's good enough for me." Mary said.
"Y-yeah," Shinji smiled.
Rei looked at the two in shock before a small smile stretched across her face. "Very well," She said softly.
…
"Isabelle? We're here to visit." Mary said, opening the door to her hospital room. Inside Isabelle was sitting up against a mountain of pillows with an older man dressed smartly in a lab coat with a pressed shirt and pants underneath and polished loafers. His face was hard and rugged speaking of years of being outdoors, but his greying mustache and beard were neatly trimmed and his hair was a close cut.
"Oh hey," Isabelle said waving at the three in the door. "Don't just stand there like bludgers come on in!"
"Language dear," The older man said, his voice low and commanding.
"Oh right sorry papa," Isabelle said smiling.
"You must be Mr. Watanabe." Mary said.
"Yes," He said nodding, the australian tinge that Isabelle also had coming through the longer her spoke. "And you're the sixth child correct?"
"Yes, that's me." Mary said.
"Ah," He said nodding. "And then you two are the third and first," He said nodding at Shinji and Rei. "It's nice to officially meet you two as well."
"Umm, yeah." Shinji said, a little awkward around a new person.
"Yes." Rei replied, as quiet as usual.
"Well then," He said standing up. "I'll leave Isabelle in your hands then," He said before giving her a small nod. "I have a lot of work to get back too, the angels wait for no man after all," He said before walking away, leaving the four children alone.
"He seems nice." Mary said, completely oblivious to the awkward atmosphere in the room.
"Yeah," Isabelle said with a stiffish smile. "He is."
"So how's everything going? The whole not dying part that is." Mary asked.
"Good," Isabelle answered. "In all honesty the landing was worse," She giggled. "Thank you S-Type equipment."
"Well I'm just glad you're gonna be ok. When do you think they're gonna let you go?" Mary asked.
"Friday, so I guess you'll be with Misato till then while I'm having a sickie," She replied. "Papa promised to visit at least so that'll be good."
"Great to hear. I don't think you're gonna miss much to be honest." Mary said in a reassuring way.
"Maybe," Isabelle said shrugging before letting out a loud yawn.
"Well we should leave you to heal, right?" Mary said. "We'll see you around soon."
"Umm, yeah. Get well soon Isabelle!" Shinji added.
"Yes." Rei added as well, and the three left with kind smiles and waves.
….
"So umm, her dad," Shinji said looking away.
"Yeah, that was bad." Mary said. "I'm gonna be honest, I only realized what the situation was until it was too late."
"I don't understand. Their interactions seemed normal to me." Rei said, not aware of how awkward the situation was.
"He seemed like he wanted to leave really quick," Shinji said looking off at something only he could see.
"Yeah. I mean I know the Angels are important and crap, but are they really THAT important?" Mary asked. "I didn't even get to ask if he knew my dad."
"I wonder what he does," Shinji asked. "I mean, we haven't seen him on the bridge."
"Maybe he's one of those people who works on all the paperwork." Mary suggested. "I mean fighting giant monsters can't be easy on the paper forms."
"This seems like the most obvious answer." Rei said.
"Yeah, and I mean Occam's Razor and all that crap." Mary said, waving her hand.
"Yeah I guess," Shinji said. "I think we should go home now."
Mary got a look on her face like she just remembered something important. "You go on ahead, I'll catch up later. I gotta do something first." She said, and patted the inside of her bag. Yep, it was there.
"Oh ok, well see you later then," Shinji said smiling. Rei nodded as well and the two left. Mary started walking towards the nearest set of elevators.
…
For such a big building, it was hard to find a suitable location. Mary was looking for a big empty room, as far away from noise as possible.
The elevator clicked as the numbers ticked by, and each time the door opened, she looked around. She had gone through about eight floors already without so much as a decrease in foot traffic.
Another floor went by. Still too much noise. Another floor. Too much. Another. Decreased, but still too much. Too much, too much, too much.
The 16th floor was completely empty. There was still foot traffic from floors further up, but she was onto something. The 17th floor was exactly what she had wanted. Quiet, dark, and when she checked the acoustics, echoey. It was perfect.
Mary made a note of which floor she was on, got out, and reached into her bag. On top of her bag of peaches was a tape recorder and an empty tape. She went around the floor, testing the doors. Most of them were locked, but one wasn't. Taking a look inside, it seemed to be an older conference room, just not in use anymore. It would be perfect.
Mary unplugged her headphones from her Walkman, rewound the tape to a certain point, turned it all the way up and let it play from the middle of the table. She closed the door and walked to the end of the hall, testing the distortion. It sounded great. She went back to the room and repeated the process, but this time rewound it a little further and loaded the empty tape into the recorder.
She walked to the end of the hall, waited for the song she wanted to play, and pressed record. What resulted from all this effort was a distorted, echoey version of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" being played from another room.
When the song had ended, Mary stopped recording, collected her things and started back up to the surface to go home.
…
"Sorry I'm late." Mary said, walking into Misato's apartment. The air was thick with artificial flavoring smells.
"There you are! I was starting to get worried." Misato said. Her and Shinji were already sat down. An abundance of instant foods were scattered around the table.
"I got distracted, Sue me." Mary laughed, sliding off her shoes and taking a place at the table. "Itadakimasu!" She chimed, and dug in. She was hit with a wave of salt and strong flavors, which she loved. "Mmm, this is great!"
Misato seemed taken back by the compliment for a split second, but quickly started basking in the praise. "Thanks! The secret is to put less water in the soup so it forms a sludge!"
"Umm, if you don't mind me asking, where were you?" Shinji asked, taking less enthusiastic bites and being flat out bewildered that someone actually liked Misato's cooking.
"Oh, I was just doing my hobby. No big deal." Mary said enthusiastically.
"Ooh, a hobby! Do tell!" Misato jokingly egged her on.
"It's not a big deal really. I just distort audio tracks." Mary said. "It makes them sound weird and I like to do it."
"It sounds like fun." Shinji said.
"It is. My favorite way to distort is to go to an open echoey place like an abandoned building and record the echoes." Mary said. "Don't you have something you enjoy doing?"
Shinji looked down at his soup carton in sadness. "Oh fuck, I said something wrong. Oh god I messed it up! Oh god I fucked it up!" Mary screamed in her head, thoroughly convinced that she just ruined this friendship. Her expression on the outside however, was just as cheery as ever.
"I play the cello, but that's about it." Shinji replied.
"Oh thank GOD." Mary thought. "Oh, ok. You wanna come with me the next time I distort a tape? I bet together we could come up with something that sounds really cool."
Shinji was surprised for the second time that evening. Someone wanted to spend time with him? "That sounds like fun." He said simply.
Inside her head, Mary was ecstatic. "YES YES YES! I didn't fuck it up!"
"Oooooh, someone's on a daaaate!" Misato teased. "But seriously, keep it professional you two. Wouldn't want to pull you due to indecent conduct."
Both teens blushed and started chastising her for teasing them so, which she laughed off.
…
Isabelle whined again as she looked over at her bedside clock, it was nearly midnight but she was determined to stay awake as long as possible in the hope her dad came to see her again.
"Papa," Isabelle muttered as she watched the numbers tick up. "You promised," She hissed throwing her pillow at the offending electronic device with a pained sound. Throwing herself back onto the bed Isabelle turned to stare out the window at the artificial light of the Geofront's ceiling. She knew it was a possibility that he wouldn't return to see her again after her friends visited, but the fact he had made a promise and broke it sent a painful spike into her chest. Top it off with the fact that no one else had visited since, including Misato, and Isabelle soon devolved into a crying ball in the middle of her bed. A knock at her door however made her quickly sit up and start bouncing in excitement.
"Ms. Watanabe," One of the nurses said as she opened the door, sending all of Isabelle's hopes crashing to the ground. "I've got your medication," she said smiling as she walked into the room. "Oh you dropped your pillow," She said walking over and grabbing it off the floor. "Here you go," She said with a smile, Isabelle didn't return it as she took the pillow and medication.
"Thank you," Isabelle said softly taking the pills.
"No problem my dear," The nurse said rubbing Isabelle's head. "You pilots do a lot for us, this is the least we can do for you," She smiled.
Isabelle blushed under the praise, returning the nurses smile with a shaky one of her own. "Thank you."
"It's no problem," The nurse said again. "Now is there anything I can get you before I go?"
Isabelle grabbed her pillow and clutched it tightly to her chest. "Can you call my dad?" She asked shakily. "He promised he'd come again, but I think he forgot."
The nurse's smile tightened. "Of course dear," She said before pushing Isabelle back lightly onto the bed. "Now try and get some sleep, I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you," Isabelle whispered before the medication pulled her into the realm of Morpheus, leaving one angry nurse to tuck her in and leave to go make some calls.
…
For once, Mary had gotten to sleep at a reasonable time. For once, she had gone more than an hour without waking up. For once, she was having a nice night. Then 1 AM rolled around.
Shinji was deep asleep at this time. Somewhere deep in his dreamless sleep, he got the feeling he was being watched. His instincts kicked in and he woke up. His door was open, and illuminated by the light streaming in from the hallway was Mary, hair obscuring her face as she stared down at him unblinkingly.
He nearly screamed in fright, but it came out as more of a yelp and he nearly jumped out of the bed. Her eyes followed him, but otherwise, she was completely motionless. It was almost like she was put under a spell.
"Mary? What's going on?" He asked finally. No response, not even a sign she acknowledged him in any capacity. About five minutes went by of Shinji trying to get her attention to no avail. Finally, after all hope seemed lost of getting her to leave, she turned around and walked back out, and went back to her room.
"What was that about? I'll have to ask her tomorrow." He thought, and went back to sleep, thoroughly creeped out.
…
Rei blinked as she stared up at her ceiling, the sounds of construction noises outside were the only thing that could be heard in the apartment.
"Friends," She thought blinking again, the word made a warmth bubble in her chest everytime she said it. At first she thought it was making her sick, but she knew that was impossible for her so she looked for other reasons it could be happening. After multiple hours of thinking it over she realized what she was feeling was happiness.
"Friends cause happiness," She thought with a small smile as she closed her eyes, for once actually eager for tomorrow to come.
…
Misato whined as she reached for her cell phone in the dark of the night. "Hello," She mumbled into the receiver while desperately trying to stay awake.
"Hello Captain Katsuragi?" The voice on the other end said. "This is Oye Saito, from the NERV hospital, I'm Ms. Watanabe's nurse." She explained.
"What?" Misato said sitting up with a groan. "What's wrong, did something happen to Isabelle?"
"Yes and no," Oye said. "Look this may not be any of my business, but Ms. Watanabe has been rather depressed that no one has been able to see her, her father and friends came by earlier, but since then she's been on her own and it's not helping her recovery."
Misato woke up now. "Oh," She said nodding. "Ok then, I'll stop by tomorrow," She said nodding.
"Thank you Captain Katsuragi," Oye said relieved.
"It's ok," Misato said ending the call as an odd feeling bubbled up in her chest. "I'll bring the rest of them too," She decided before rolling back over to get some more sleep.
…
Mary woke up first, around 5 AM. She couldn't get back to sleep. Lets see. Usually they wouldn't get ready for school for another two hours, but it's not like she could just fall back asleep. Why did her head hurt?
"Mary? What's going on?"
Of course. She had been sleepwalking last night. She didn't remember the whole thing, but she had to watch Shinji as he slept for some weird, now clearly convoluted reason. Something about not letting his ghost escape even though he wasn't dead.
She clutched her head and tried to drive the thoughts out. God, she hoped that he hadn't woken up during that. She had read once that humans could perceive watchful eyes while they slept somehow.
She pulled her pillow back into her clutches and tried to go back to sleep, no matter how fruitless it was.
…
Shinji woke up the next morning to unusual set of circumstances. Usually, Misato wouldn't be up yet and he'd start making breakfast, which would wake her. Instead, he woke to the smell of already cooking food and some heavy footsteps.
He slid open his bedroom door and saw something unexpected, at least for him. Mary was almost done making breakfast, and was bobbing her head and tapping her foot to the music in her headphones, completely unaware of his presence. Currently, she was setting two small bowls of rice in places and laying small dried fish from a package on top. She placed a raw egg next to two of the places and a piece of toast next to each. Finally, she poured tea into each of the set out cups, and stayed completely still. She almost looked like she was a computer controlled character in a video game deciding what her next action was. She started playing air guitar and mumbling the words to "I'm a Believer" by The Monkees. As the chorus started, Mary turned her head and then toppled over herself when she realized Shinji had been watching her this whole time.
"Oh! I must have caused a ruckus or something while making breakfast. I'm sorry…" she muttered, as if shy of her actions.
"No, it's ok." He said, getting up. "You just surprised me is all."
"Well I'm still sorry." She said, then looked back to Breakfast. "I couldn't sleep, so I made breakfast."
As the two are their breakfast in silence, there was a lot on both their minds. Mary was concerned that she was being weird and creepy, and while Shinji did find her incident last night kind of creepy, he was more just looking for an explanation. "So, can I ask you about last night?" He asked.
Before she could answer him, Misato walked in, wearing a uniform of all things.
"Hello you two," She said in her commander tone, a rare thing for them to hear at home.
"Hi..," Mary said, a bit wary. "If I may ask, what's the occasion for the formal wear?"
"I'm going to a conference in Old Tokyo," She explained sliding her dress shoes on with a shoehorn of all things. "And I need you two to go in and spend some time with Isabelle today, she's feeling depressed and I can't make it till after the conference is over, understand?"
"Of course." Mary said with a nod. "I'll pack some travel games."
"Right."
"Thanks you two," Misato said smiling. "I'll be back late tonight, so no hanky panky you two," She giggled with a wink and a smirk as she left the apartment.
Mary's eyes narrowed. "What kind of weird perverts does she think we are?" She thought.
…
Mary knocked on the room door. "Isabelle? Are you ok? I brought Scrabble."
"Hey," Isabelle said with small wave. "How are you guys?"
"Oh never mind about us. We heard you weren't feeling too good so we came over to keep you company." Mary said.
"Yeah, we couldn't stand to know you were sad." Shinji agreed, and Isabelle's megawatt smile confirmed they made the right choice.
"T-thanks," Isablle stuttered scrubbing at her eyes. "Where's Misato?"
"She has to attend a conference, but she said she'd be straight back here as soon as it was over." Mary said.
"Correct, Commander Katsuragi and Dr. Akagi are attending the presentation of the new Anti-Angel weapon code named Jet Alone," Rei explained from behind the two.
"Oh, hi Rei." Shinji replied, a bit startled by her sudden appearance.
"Come on in, I brought Scrabble." Mary said, waving her in.
"Hey Blue," Isabelle smiled patting her bedside. "Come on, you can share the bedside seat."
Rei nodded as she slid into the room and onto the bed. "Let us begin."
….
"Blue how are you so good at this?" Isabelle asked as Rei got a 1,458 point word.
"I am smart," Rei deadpanned. "Does this mean I win?"
"I mean, we were only playing to 100 so...yeah." Mary said.
"Excellent," Rei said cleaning up the board and pulling out Axis and Allies. "I will play Japan."
"Britain!" Isablle yelled.
"Dammit, I wanted to be Japan. I guess I'll take America then."
"Then Shinji has to be the German's," Isabelle cheeked.
"I'm ok being Germany." He replied.
"Then let us being," Rei said, before the alarm sounded. "After we get back," She said standing up.
"Let's go," Isabelle said trying to stand up.
"Don't strain yourself, whatever wants to come at us can wait." Mary said.
"I'll be fine," Isabelle insisted before Rei's hand forced her down.
"Friend Watanabe, do not attempt to stand, we will be able to complete this mission without you," She insisted walking away.
"Yeah, it's best if you keep resting." Shinji agreed.
Isabelle sighed as she sat back down. "Ok."
"We'll kick it's ass extra hard for you." Mary grinned as Rei finally got them all to leave towards Central Dogma.
….
"Ok so here's the plan," Misato said as she put on the radiation suit. "I'm gonna go inside and shut it down, you three are gonna hold it still while I do, simple," She said smiling.
"Yeah, sounds easy enough." Mary agreed, cracking her knuckles. Shinji nodded in agreement.
"The inside of Jet Alone is highly radioactive," Rei said. "You should be careful to avoid tearing your suit and being exposed."
"Thank you for the vote of confidence," Misato smirked standing up and clapping her hands. "Now you three into positions!" She ordered.
…
"Some folks were born! Made to raise the flag! Oh that red white and blue!" Mary scream sang over the intercom.
"Ok!" Misato yelled over the intercom. "Shinji hold on tight! I don't want to fall!"
"Right ma'am!" Shinji gulped as they passed over Jet Alone.
"Drop!" Misato ordered as the three Eva's fell from the sky.
"And when the bands play Hail to the chief! Oh they point the cannon at you, Lord! It ain't me! It ain't me! I ain't no senator's son, no! It ain't me, it ain't me! I ain't no fortunate one, no!"
The three Eva's slammed into the ground hard and took off running. "That's it you three!" Misato smiled as they got closer to the crazed robot. "You're almost there!"
Mary ran past the floppy armed bastard, pivoted on her foot and slammed her hands into its torso, stalling it from going any further.
Rei tackled its legs to stop it from running while Shinji grabbed the back hatch and set Misato on top. "Ok now you three hold it while I shut it down!" Misato ordered climbing inside.
"Affirmative."
"Yes Ma'am!"
"Ok, here we go….what…..the password isn't working!" Misato yelled over the intercom. "Damn it! I've got to try something else!"
"Commander Katsuragi, Jet Alone is reaching critical point," Rei said. "You need to get to the safety of the AT-Field before it melts down."
"Yeah, come back! It's the safest place to be!" Mary agreed.
"We've got to go!" Shinji yelled.
"I can do this!" Misato grunted.
"Commander Katsuragi," Rei said. "You need to leave."
"I got it!" Misato yelled.
"Get back here!" Mary pleaded.
"It's about to blow!" Shinji cried.
Misato screamed as she shoved the control rod forward, and it went in, stopping the reactor.
….
Isabelle sighed as rewatched the latest battle on for the fifteenth time. "Wish I was there," She muttered.
"We're back!" Mary said, opening the door. "And look who we brought!" All her friends piled into the room, and caught up in their tiny mob like formation was Misato.
"Hey guys," Isabelle said wistfully.
"Don't look so sad, it wasn't even an Angel that we fought." Mary said, trying to sound like she was playing it off but her words didn't quite fit in the context. "Anyway, now the gang's all here!"
Isabelle smiled sadly. "Sorry, it's just...been a boring day," She explained.
"Understandable," Rei said sitting down. "You have been here alone for two days already."
"I got a call last night." Misato explained. "Isabelle, you don't have to be scared or sad about us not coming to visit. We'll always have time for you." It was weird to say those words, she thought. She sounded like a mom.
Isabelle blinked in confusion and then buried her face in the sheets.
"No, no sadness, just happy." Mary said.
"I'm not sad," was muffled through the sheets as her ears turned red.
"No, not upsetting." Mary said, and then gave her a hug.
Misato awwed at the cute scene before glomping the two into her chest. Shinji awkwardly joined in, and after a few seconds Rei added her own stiff armed hug to the mix too.