Chapter 16 - Shark Fishing With Explosives!
Dani
After Dani had sensed that an Angel was approaching underwater, the part of her that was scouting ahead raced back to the fleet at top speed. At the same time, another split quickly warned Major Katsuragi, then literally jumped ship into the water.
A third instance jumped into the cooled LCL bath containing Unit 02 aboard its transport, and fled from Asuka's sight. In hindsight, she would've shouted for the Second Child to get into her Eva, but her mind, already stretched between three bodies, couldn't quite come up with the thought fast enough, so instead Dani moved the three parts of herself out of sight as fast as possible...
And now, underwater, the three translucent instances of Dani Fenton fuse back together, and immedeately blast up toward the surface, roughly equedistant between the Over the Rainbow, Unit 02's transport, and the quickly approaching Angel.
"I'm going GHOST!" And in a familiar ring of white light, she opens her green eyes under white bangs.
Misato & Admiral Gibbs
"Er, SIR! Look, out the window!" The Over the Rainbow's first officer shouts, more confused than panicked.
The Admiral does as asked and sees something like a thunderclap or a flashbang explode out of the water on the supercarrier's starboard side. After the flash fades, he sees the silhouette of a young woman wearing a black suit with white gloves, white boots, a single shoulder pauldron with a long, fashionably asymmetric cape. He can't make out the diagonal stripe of white running across her suit, or the DP logo on her chest, but from a distance, the Admiral and Misato both can most definitely the immedeately recognizable long ponytail of belonging to miss Fenton.
Misato puts two and two together and can't help but smirk. From what Danny had told her, his sister was just as much of a threat as he was... Though she wasn't one for fancy tricks, she instead spent all her time improving the basics. Speed, strength, and endurance.
Something hitting harder than Danny pound-for-pound? That was something Misato was looking forward to unleashing upon the Angel. Especially out at sea, without having to worry about wrecking the city.
"Is that our target, or is she friendly?" Misato hears the Admiral ask, his voice leaning on the second option already.
The NERV Major nods her assent. "Quick on the uptake I see... Yeah, Supergirl is on our side."
The Admiral nods curtly, then immedeately turns to his communications officer. "I want all ships to go to full stop. Interlocking formation. Frigates first line, battleships second line, cruisers around us, ready to fill any gaps."
Then he looks over to Katsuragi. "Get the Major here a line to captain DiNozzo." He then leans into the Major, and says quietly. "If Soryu and the Evangelion need anything, let me know immedeately. I'll buy you some time to get that monster operational, so we can neutralize the thing's force field crap and start shooting it."
Misato hesitates for but a moment, then nods vigorously. "Yes sir!" She then takes the phone and immedeately starts rattling off her passcode to the Evangelion engineering chief aboard the barge floating somewhere to starboard.
Asuka, Unit 02
The call came early, but the magnificent Asuka Langley Soryu is ready to answer anyway.
I feel almost lightheadedly gleeful with anticipatio- "Yes, lift her! Now!"
I yell at the NERV hardhat they've got "managing" my Unit 02, my raison d'etre.
After a moment's hesitation the dummkopf turns on the winches that will pull my Eva's torso up so I that I can get at the Entry Plug, even with the monstrous machine's pilot still standing on its soon-to-be-vertical chest.
Normal procedure would involve lowering a glorified plank from the side of the LCl pool to get me into the Plug.
Normal procedure would take too long.
I clamber up the side of 02's shoulder, and as it rises up I lower myself down its hunched back.
Evas have terrible posture, but Evas aren't built for tea parties... They're buit to make gods bleed!
The unexpected mental image of Ayanami's Eva in a top hat sipping from oversized ceramics causes me to almost lose my footing as I use my pathetic 13-and-nine-tenths strengh to pop the Entry Plug release.
As soon as it opens wide enough I climb in and immedeately reseal the damn plug. Faster faster faster! The more I dawdle, the more people die, and I will NOT be the first Eva pilot to hit triple-digit casualties.
I settle into the plug just as the OS boots up. Language: German indeed. I can do English and quite a bit of Japanse, but German is the language I trained to pilot 02 with.
The radio chatter hits me like a hammer to the face. "New Jersey, do you read me?! Crap..." Admiral Gibbs's voice. "Whatever that monster just did, it knew where to hit the bridge... All crews, spread out to secondary stations THROUGHOUT THE SHIP! Skeleton crews on bridge only!"
And just like that, this Angel made it personal. I wish I'd read Moby Dick when I had the chance, that way I could quote something nice. One frigate alone has got to be at least fifty people... By that count this is already almost as bad as the fight against the Fourth.
I feel my Eva coming to life around me. The Entry Plug awakens into the familliar "tunnel of light" pilots see when their nervous system synchronizes with the Evangelion.
...And there I go quoting my paper again. It was incredibly in-depth and weighty stuff... But I guess I got the love for Evangelion-like biotech from the same place I got my brains. And besides, Unit 02 is my ride! A girl should know how to fix her ride!
"Next time you see a giant pillar of light, don't hesitate, don't even AIM, just put high-explosive into the water to try and destabilize its aim until Soryu can deploy!" The Admiral instructs.
I do believe that was my cue!
Muscles the size of train modules flex and I sit up in the tub of LCL
I allow myself the pleasure of a smile as Unit 02 throws the enormous tarp off its body. Curtains up indeed.
Before the tarp can even catch the wind, I guide 02 into an explosive jump, from Captain Dinozzo's freighter...
(Thank you for the smooth ride so far, sir!)
...Onto a small frigate, and from there, sadly, a swan dive into the deep blue sea.
There simply isn't a good way to get from the freighter to the stable platform of the enormous Over the Rainbow (which also holds my power cord!) by playing hopscotch with pocket frigates.
No, instead I dive into the water and activate my shoulder and ankle turbines.
B-type equipment, Ha! I told Kaji we'd need it! He just wanted to leave ASAP... Hmph. Heck, if it wasn't for Dani basically making my case for me before we set sail, I'd be sinking like a stone right now.
It's a short swim to the supercarrier, but the Major and the Admiral seem to have noticed my explosive arrival.
Hard to miss a 70 meter red metal silhouette doing the breaststroke.
...Gott, I'm glad no boys were around to hear THAT thought...
Stupid pervert bakas would immediately run away with it and I'd have egg on my face again.
And the Admiral is telling a cruiser to fill the gap left by the New Jersey getting cored, while Misato quickly shouts at me to get aboard.
For reasons that have nothing at all to do with pent-up emotion, Unit 02's red gloved hand distorts the sheet metal edge of the supercarrier's flight deck as we pull ourselves aboard.
Crap... Must I fuck everything up?
I theatrically lunge for the extension cord, plug it in with a flourish, and grab my Progressive Spear.
"Giant Death Robot ready to go spearfishing, sir!" I announce with agressive glee.
As I await my orders, I swing my head around to scan for...
Glimmer of light... In the water...
Crap, DOWN!
Unit 02's legs buckle under my guidance, and not a moment too late.
A white-hot, cross-shaped energy blast shoots out of the water and misses Unit 02's face by a hair. I can feel the heat of he blast through my synchronization...
The AT-field shaped plasma beam ends, and in the heat of the moment I will Unit 02 to scrabble back up and throw the Progressive Spear at the blast's point of origin.
As I dive into the drink after it, I see the top of the handle come to a stop just above the waves as the ever-sharpening molecular blade pierces flesh.
I hit the water and not one but three wisps of green light fly up behind me and begin unloading torrents of green energy blasts.
An instant later, the artillery shells begin to drop.
[BGM: The Hives - Try it Again]
A beam of green plasma slices into the water to my left, another to my right, and then a third.
They slice cleanly past the speared Angel, but the monstrous white whale, already hurt by my Progressive Spear digging into its side, jinks madly from side to side to avoid more pain.
Much as I try, even with the turbines on my ankles and back roaring, I can't keep up with the Angel as it disappears into the depths.
"Scheisse... Lost visual!" My hand hammers down on my armrest.
"Asuka, get Unit 02 back up to the surface!" Major Misato's orders come down through my umbilical.
I'm embarassed that I squandered the opportunity to chase down and kill the Angel even if I wounded it. I'm supposed to be the best, after all... But... Misato has a good point, and no sense humiliating myself even more over broken pride. I restrain myself from sighing into the LCL. "Roger, on the way..."
"By the way, what were those green... oh." A floating, color-inverted Dani swims/flies alongside Unit 02 and gives a mocking salute... "Never mind, just saw Dani. The hell..." But Asuka quickly recomposes herself. "Never mind, that's for later. I've got a fight to win."
Up on the Over the Rainbow's bridge, Misato just rolls her eyes. "Don't worry about Dani. I've been working with her brother. She's your fire support. Think of her like an attack drone with personality."
Admiral Gibbs just raises a knowing eyebrow. When you wanna work with the best, you can't always be choosey.
His subdued amusement in the heat of battle is sadly shattered by Pilot Soryu shouting over the comms. "AT-field! To the... Northwest!"
Gibbs looks down onto his map. "Lincoln, Glasgow, full power to engines, get away from the San Francisco!" He shouts to the two destroyers closest to the carrier holding the northwest of the gigantic defensive formation. "Captain Vasquez, launch fighters and prepare to recieve hostiles."
Misato is already on the ball. "Unit 02, get onto the San Francisco. Dani, try and stall- Dani?" Misato closes her eyes and sighs. She's not wearing an earpiece, is she?
Thankfully, the great Asuka Langley Soryu is already on it. Unit 02's enormous fingers pointing toward the northwest horizon is enough to send Dani speeding in that direction, splitting into three as she barrel-rolls down toward the water surface.
Damn. She has to show me some more of her tricks when we're finished here...
I command Unit 02 to pull us up to the smaller aircraft carrier. It's not quite as tiny as the frigates I had to hopscotch over earlier... But the Nimitz-class carrier is still not much bigger than a raft compared to the Over the Rainbow's gargantuan flight deck. It'll have to do. I set myself up in a battle stance and get ready to meet the Angel head-on. I can sense its AT-field in the distance, it's propelling itself toward the carrier at phenomenal speed...
With my Eva's enhanced vision I see Dani's ectobeams slicing deep into the water, sending up gouts of steam in front and to the sides of the Angel, trying to trip up its momentum.
Three plus-shaped blasts of white light shoot out of the water and nail all three of the darting black-and-white shapes. Nothing as big as what the Angel used on me a few moments ago, but the co-ordinated blasts prove enough to swat Dani out of the sky.
Angel: 3, Dani: 0
To my mounting horror, the Angel now feels confident enough to kick his charge into high gear, plowing through the rolling artillery barrage the fleet is sending its way. I can see its skin flickering with light... the Angel has molded its Absolute Territory so close to its skin that its hide has been infused with its prenatural power.
It makes the mistake of opening its mouth wide as it lunges, exposing its core, but sadly I don't have a pallet rifle nor my Progressive Spear. I'd pull out my knife and throw it, but I'm far too busy projecting my own AT-field forward to meet this ravenous shark.
I jumped. At the last moment, I jumped off the carrier, hard as I could, launching Unit 02 toward the Angel and spreading my own AT-field. I'm taking a page from the Third Child's book. When two Absolute Territories equalize, the force they bring with them is redistributed a lot more evenly. What this basically means is that I'm about to go flying backward, probably over the carrier I just jumped from, back into the sea.
And the Angel? I smirk. To the Angel, it's gonna feel like it charged teeth-first into a concrete wall.
Giant human biomech meets Kaiju, time seems to slow to a crawl, 02's four cameras are but feet from the Angel's maw... And with a glassy shriek and a flash, phase space equalizes and I find myself tumbling legs-over-entry-plug in the air, only to slam down onto the Over the Rainbow's deck.
"Ow..." I whimper. "Feel like I cracked a rib..." But my eyes widen as I look into the distance. The Angel might've been a lot heavier than we were, but it did not come out of that one looking pretty either. It's thrashing around in the water, head and front fins sticking up. I can almost see the chirping birds that indicate the stunned/confused status in Final Fantasy and Pokémon spinning around its head The San Francisco's anti-missile miniguns try and take advantage, shooting a thousand high-explosive rounds a minute into the monster, trying to carve out a pound of its unprotected flesh. I hear the warning of 'danger close' just as the Over the Rainbow's artillery cannons start booming on both sides of Unit 02.
It's sadly an instant too late. Just as the shells launch, the Angel regains enough presence of mind to curl up and project the traditional octagonal tesselation of translucent AT-field plates... And all the artillary barrage really does, beside wreck the side of the San Francisco, is throw up a smokescreen Gaghiel can use to dive into the depths again, and heal up, again, before coming in for another pass.
"Crap!" I hear Misato shout. "It's fighting smart. Harrying us! Attacking, then falling back!"
The Admiral huffs in agreement. "Raider cavalry tactics. Guerilla warfare. We need a way to pin it, blow it to pieces."
"I'm TRYING!" I cut in. "But every time I get close it manages to wriggle out of my grasp! Stupid fish!"
"Not your fault." Admiral Gibbs responds immedeately, not hesitating to break his hardass habits for someone who really wouldn't benefit from them. "This thing is at home in the water, you, and we, aren't."
I feel a little better, but the Admiral, it seems, has more to say. "My fleet is just as screwed! Every last ship I've got is built for fighting other ships, at a distance of miles! Not a giant laserfish at point-blank range! Heck, the only person who seems even a little in their element is Fenton, and the Angel doesn't seem too impressed with her Green Lantern schtick!"
"Excuse me?" I hear a voice say... Dani! She's okay!?
But Misato snaps her fingers. "Fenton... Phantom... Whatever, good that you're here. The Angel could be back any second so listen to me! You too, Asuka!"
Two minutes later, Gaghiel
Ah... A few moments of rest made all the pain go away. The Lilim's devices are complex and potent indeed. Nothing compared to an Angel, but for tiny chaff to build devices that can rend my flesh and even pressure my Absolute Territory? I am impressed... and like my brother said when he injected me with his 'enhancements' The Lilim have done the impossible and evolved beyond even their defective default forms. This... Ghost creature my brother's nanites taught me about. And the Evangelions... Abominations, all of them! To try and look like us, to actually manage to project an Absolute Territory... It's like seeing your own twisted reflection... Even if Adam nor Lilith are here, my brother was right. Destroying the Evangelion is important. ...And I might as well have their fleet of built ships as dessert. Fruit of knowledge indeed. For all my glory, I am what I am. The lilim can just build bigger, build better.
They say the definition of madness is doing the same thing, and expecting a different result...
Again, the nanites my brother Tabris injected into my flesh whisper something into my mind. ...Hm, I suppose like Tabris, I too can use 'tech' to my advantage.
I stir, ready myself to enter combat again. The nanites bonded to my Core show me my memories of the humans's earlier strategy...
Again the Ghost girl is flying out, shooting plumes of life's fire into the sea, trying to scare me.
I am not scared. She can taunt me all she likes! I swim back up to the surface, using my Domain to push myself forward and the water around me backward, along with my strong fins.
One of my own blasts of living flame, shaped like a cross, shoots out to meet the Lilim girl, but she dodges. Another, another... Small beams, controlled, as Tabris's gift of knowledge taught me. The cross shape of the blasts is inherent to our kind, and I have no inclination to change it further.
The girl dodges. Her own life's fire seems poorly aimed... What is her priority? Is she trying to shoot me or trying to bait me!?
Rrrraaagh! I break the water's surface, and find the Lilim ships arrayed against me in a crescent. Let them try! A few token artillery shots ring out, only to detonate harmlessly against the AT-field that's rolling down my skin.
Grow. Improve. Incr- A plasma blast from Dani Phantom hits home. Again, I am not hurt, but I am getting sick of this game!
Another, another, another. The woman drives me to madness with her beams of light, but I mustn't react. I must carry on forward! If I waver with my Absolute territory, try and spear the gnat, I will slow down. And if I slow down, the artillery will find their target.
...Why does this feel like a giant trap? I have no recourse, I have to either keep charging or dive. And... and there it is. The Evangelion! Standing on top of the big ship, sending waves of unformed Absolute Territory out toward me, trying to erode MY WILL! It is daring me. They're all daring me...
But the constant blasts from the ghost girl break my thoughts, drive me ever forward. Kill the Evangelion, shoot the ghost, break the fleet. I need something to kill.
And so my agression is exploited. I lunge toward Unit 02.
"All engines, forward!" The ship the Evangelion is on surges forward, so the scarlet enemy is thrust right in front of me before I've even properly broken the water and opened my maw. The red monster... doesn't raise its Absolute Territory to block me. Instead it... what's it doing!? I can feel the creature's WILL enveloping my own. Phase space neutralizes without the Eva ever really forming a shield bubble. Hands wrap around my open jaw, the beast's metal feet dig into the Over the Rainbow's flight deck...
"Engines, back!"
I try and force my jaws closed around the Evangelion, but the abomination lets go and my maw snaps shut. The red Evangelion takes a fearful step back even as the ship it's on pulls it away. I am left inside the water, my Absolute Territory shattered but otherwise no worse for wear.
The Evangelion's distruptive presence ebs away as the seconds tick by and it gets further and further away... I try and erect my own Absolute Territory again, but suddenly feel a tremendous heat building inside my maw.
An instant later, my core, my HEART is lit up with life's fire and I roar in agony.
Dani Phantom throws the giant sphere of ectoplasma she'd been gathering for the last few seconds onto the Angel's Core just as it begins to glow again, then swiftly gets the hell out of dodge, flying out on the Angel's tormented bellow.
"All ships, open fire! Code NOVA!" The Admiral shouts into the radio, and at his command, the thundering of over three-hundred artillery guns, ten times that many smaller weapons, a dozen medium-range N2 missiles (the same type used on the Third Angel) and even four old ICBMs, launch and detonate in waves over the Sixth Angel.
With arms outstretched and stance wide, Unit 02 stands on the Over the Rainbow, which has since maneuvered into the center of the crescent-shaped fleet formation. Projecting an AT-field of this size and width is a difficult task, and Asuka can feel the strain on her mind and body. Each explosion is like a nail being driven through her skull.
But she also knows that each explosion is doing far worse to the unshielded Angel, the Angel who killed hundreds of people. Hundreds of soldiers, dying to buy her time.
BOOM.
"Fuck..."
BOOM.
"You.."
BOOM.
BOOM.
...Okay... those were the nukes. With a cringe, Asuka catches the slightly smaller explosion of the last N2 bomb.
The German text in front of her eyes is flashing the all clear, but she doesn't need her AI to tell her the explosions have stopped. She spreads out her hands, and her Absolute Territory comes apart. The sailors on the ships of the Pacific Fleet take in the image. A wall of of glimmering glass shattering as it falls down toward the sea.
The cheer that goes out an instant later can be heard throughout the fleet.
Dani, who'd flown over to the Angel's irradiated corpse for a visual inspection, hears the sound even from the site of the Sixth's demise.
As she flies back to the Over the Rainbow though, she starts to hear a word forming out of the indestinct elation.
It makes sense, Dani muses. Nobody really knows her as anything but 'Asuka's guardian.' But ever since the world watched the fight with the Fifth Angel, the Second Child and her Evangelion were the talk of the fleet.
Dani glides up to Unit 02. She wonders if the girl's just tired or shocked. Well then girl, this is what you wanted... See what you do with it. Dani closes her eyes and smiles.
"ASUKA! ASUKA! ASUKA! ASUKA!"
The pronunciation is off...
The pronunciation is off...
That's the only thing the Second Child can think of as she mutely stares at the fleet, image magnification automatically focusing on the sailors crowding the railing and pumping their fists in unison.
Then Dani floats up, closes her eyes and smiles sagely at the giant red cyborg.
...Oh. Oh right, I'm supposed to do something now, aren't I?!
Asuka shivers. Fame. Fortune. Public speaking.
Something soothes the Second Child's fears, and she feels... reassured. Okay then. This is what you've always wanted, nyeh? Acknowledgement? Getting cred for saving the world? Saving these people? Nyeh?
Asuka Langley Soryu grins, activates her radio and punches the air. "WE WON!"
For almost five more minutes, Asuka and Unit 02 cheer along with the rest of the fleet. They all fought to survive, to beat this thing, and they won.
Finally, Admiral Gibbs gives a fleetwide signal and everything returns to the regular order. Unit 02 sits down, plugs in its cable and weights for the freighter to pick her up from the Over the Rainbow.
So, what now? Asuka asks herself. She'd always considered herself to be more important than... than anyone really. It was justified, she was an Evangelion pilot after all, and by their very nature, Evangelion pilots were precious things. Now that the Angels have arrived, that's even more true. And now everyone around her was cheering for her, and Asuka felt she deserved it. She'd been chosen by happenstance, granted, but she'd made the absolute most out of it, sacrificing everything except a bit of cheap fun here and there to become the best. She'd saved all their asses.
...Well, not all their asses. Which might be the thing keeping her from enjoying her victory completely.
"Cheer up, Asuka." Dani's voice suddenly says on the radio. "You wanted to be appreciated, well, here you are. They mean it. You did your best, and, well... the voice of the people has spoken. You did more than enough for them."
A brief pause...
"Are you happy with yourself? I mean, there's always room for improvement, but are you happy with how you did? Only one ship was destroyed. Only one. And that was when Unit 02 was still powering up for christ's sake. You-"
'Yes, yes!" Asuka cuts in irately. "Sheesh, quit the speech, I'm not some little whiny bitch. I was just thinking, is all..." Nevertheless, the Second Child can't help but smile victoriously. "But yeah... I am happy at how this fight turned out. And I'm also glad that I'm not alone in this."
Now it's Dani's turn to grin. "Told ya being nice would work."
Asuka's only reply is a warped "yeah, yeah..." transmitted as Unit 02 goes into rest mode.
A manor in Colorado Springs, NERV America
Red eyes snap open, startled. A simple white pillow and a simple white sheet furnish an ornately carved oaken bed.
The boy sighs loudly.
"Another one dead?" A girl's voice asks with over-the-top ominousness.
The boy rubs the sleep out of his eyes as he sits up. "Get out, Makinami." He says tonelessly to the silhouette in the doorframe.
Mari Makinami chuckles. "Aw, Fiver, why? You're like an open book to me. I saw your reaction when that giant D8 got blown up."
Kaworu Nagisa stands up from his bed and smiles faintly. Of all the Lilim he's met, this one has been one of the most... unique.
"Ramiel's death was... very unexpected. Getting a little suprised when Unit 01 sprouted wings and brought down a good portion of the Tokyo-3 geofront can be expected, no?"
The fifth child flips on the lights and raises a friendly eyebrow at the Sixth. "I recall you cursing quite a bit when you saw the amount of power Shinji-kun brought to bear."
Mari narrows her eyes. "There you go again with your Shinji-kun bullshit. I get it, you have a crush on him, but it's not like you've met him! Dial it down, alright?"
Nagisa turns away from the Sixth Child, feeling a little... hurt by the British girl's accusation. "Makinami... We've known eachother for half a year now, yes?"
Mari raises her purple eyebrows behind her glasses. "Yeeess..." She says hesitantly.
"Then please don't talk about my feelings like they're flights of fancy. You know my motivations are more complex than that." And with that, Nagisa flicks off the light and shuffles back into bed.
For her part, Makinami's a bit stunned. "Um... sorry?" She tries. She'd never heard Nagisa actually raise his voice like that ever before, always staying aloof and teasing even when she tried to provoke him.
Nagisa just shrugs with closed eyes. "Good night, Makinami..."
Mari sighs and turns to move away... but an unexpected question from Nagisa stops her in her tracks.
"Um... Why do you keep calling me Fiver? " Kaworu sits back up in his bed, and Mari turns to look into her fellow Pilot's almost luminescent red eyes contrasted against the dark.
Hey, wait a minute... those eyes actually ARE luminesecent... Stupid Fiver and his stupid Angel hybrid bullshit
But back to the man's question! "It's a joke, because you're always looking dreamy and then when it comes to the Angels you keep having those... psychic flashes."
"A joke?" The Fifth Child asks confused.
Makinami sighs. "Yeah! You're Fiver, like from Watership Down!" The boy's deer-in-the-headlights look is as appropriate as it is frustrating. "Christ, kid! Read a book every once in a while!"
Kaworu seems to be mulling it over. "Actually..." He raises a finger in a gesture to 'wait one' "I think I might've read that once. Long, long time ago. Lifetimes." He puts his finger to his mouth to think.
"I suppose it fits, but I'm really not like Fiver at all." Setup, aaaaand...
"Oh..." Makinami looks dejected for a moment... then immedeately swings back to hyper. "Then what character are you like, Fifth?"
...Flawless. Internally, Kaworu Nagisa, also known as Tabris, congratulates himself on his growing interpersonal skills.
With effortless faked nonchelance, he shrugs and settles into bed for a third and final time. "Well I suppose the closest you can get is Bill Murray from Groundhog Day... Night, Makinami."
Mari Makinami, master of the 'psycho Evangelion' unit 04, half-English half-Japanese and 100% genki nerd... cannot quite process what she'd just heard.
But instead of shutting down and walking away to give Kaworu a good night's rest like he predicted, Makinami responds... a mite differently.
"WHAAAAT!?" The young woman lunges at Tabris, and physically yanks him out of bed by the lapels of his pyjamas.
"I was JOKING!" Tabris raises his voice out of pure necessity and grabs Makinami by the hands to push her away.
"BULLSHIT!" The Sixth child shouts, and as he looks into her eyes the Fifth child realizes he might have undrestimated the amount of... imagination... within this particular Lilim.
Tabris almost gets thrown into the wall, but at the last moment Mari reconsiders and lets the red-eyed and grey-haired boy go. "I'm sorry but... I... again, WHAT!?" She apologizes- Or tries to, settling for throwing her hands into the air, trembling in frustration.
Nagisa sighs with closed eyes. "Alright." He motions over to his bed. "Sit down. We'll talk. I've been feeling like I needed to get some of this off my chest at some point anyway."
Hesitantly, Makinami nods. "So.. you're not... you've actually been here before? Done all this?"
The Fifth child bursts out laughing, of all things. Soft, melodious, but nevertheless tinged with madness. "Technically, yes." He eventually answers.
Mari frowns. "But?"
Kaworu gives a resigned, almost tired shrug "In practice... In practice we've gone so far off-script already that I have no idea what's going to happen next."