Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Chapter Five: Unintended Consequences
In some dim corner of her mind, Ritsuko Akagi realized that she must have looked like quite the mad scientist at the moment.
The blonde was bent over a small workbench she kept inside her basement, intensely focused on her current project. Strapped onto her face was a pair of heavy duty goggles which both protected her eyes and magnified what she was seeing to help her perform delicate work on small components; anyone who looked at her would have found her green eyes badly distorted by the thick lenses. The tool she held in one hand sent up sparks every time she applied it to her project, and she was wearing her white coat, just because.
(Victor Frankenstein, eat your heart out.) The scarab commented, clearly at least as aware of the picture Ritsuko currently made as she herself was.
"Oh, knock it off," Ritsuko grumbled. "It's not like anyone's down here to see me."
(Would they even be surprised, if they were?) The scarab asked.
"Shut it," she said. "I need to concentrate. I'm almost finished, and I don't want to mess this up at the end."
The scarab fell silent immediately, clearly not wanting to endure waiting while Ritsuko redid the whole project.
The blonde returned her concentration to her work, silently admitting to herself that not only did she look like a mad scientist, she felt like one, too. Up until recently, she'd been far too concerned with one problem or another to really stop and think about how having her mind directly linked to the scarab—with its awe-inspiring processing power and knowledge of advanced, alien technology—opened up possibilities to her. Now that she had, her head was spinning with the seemingly unlimited possibilities, and an N2 mine could have gone off outside without breaking her attention to her current project.
"Almost…" she muttered to herself as she performed a few final touches on the object on her workbench. "There! Finished!"
Pulling off her goggles and putting down her tools, Ritsuko took a moment to regard the fruit of her labor. On the workbench sat a device that was, perhaps not surprisingly, shaped like a beetle and had a blue exterior. It was about the size of her hand, making it approximately half the size of the scarab.
"It looks like your little brother," Ritsuko commented in amusement.
The scarab performed the mental equivalent of an offended snort in response. (Please, you know better than that.)
Indeed, Ritsuko did know, having built the new beetle-shaped device. While superficially it might have looked like a miniature version of the chunk of alien hardware she had inside of her, it was very different under the hood, and nowhere near as sophisticated as the scarab.
Though, given how advanced the scarab was, that really wasn't saying much.
(Well?) It asked impatiently. (Aren't you going to try it out? You didn't go to all the trouble of building that thing just so you could stare at it.)
Nodding, Ritsuko placed the small device on the floor and then pressed a button on the bottom of it. Immediately, the top of the gadget opened, revealing a sort of projector.
A burst of light followed, bright enough to momentarily blind Ritsuko. Blinking away spots, she made a mental note to adjust the device to prevent or at least tone down the intense flash.
Her vision clearing after a few seconds, Ritsuko looked again and found herself face to face with… herself. A perfect duplicate of Ritsuko Akagi stood where her new gadget had been a moment before, standing stock still.
Though she'd been expecting this, it still startled Ritsuko—the real Ritsuko—to see such a flawless copy of herself standing before her.
"Amazing," she said, walking in a slow circle around her duplicate.
(I told you that this holographic projector would create illusions good enough to fool anyone.) The scarab said smugly.
Nodding absently, Ritsuko placed a hand on her doppelganger's shoulder. A series of force fields gave the hologram the illusion of substance, and it was an amazingly good illusion, too. The feel of the hologram's blouse beneath Ritsuko's fingers was indistinguishable from the real thing.
"As impressive as this is, it's not going to be very useful if all it does is stand there," Ritsuko commented.
"I'm perfectly capable of doing more than just standing around," 'holo-Ritsuko' replied.
Startled by the sudden movement, her flesh-and-blood counterpart jumped back slightly. Then, realizing how needlessly jumpy she was being about all this, Ritsuko let out a small laugh.
"Do I really sound like that?" she asked.
The question was directed at the scarab, but it was her holographic duplicate who answered. "Oh, yes, you certainly do," holo-Ritsuko answered. "In fact, I sound more like you than you do right now. You're usually not startled so easily."
"I see," Ritsuko said.
Absently, she noted that while the duplicate's voice was coming from the projector that was hidden by the hologram, it sounded like it was coming from the hologram's mouth.
"Still a little shell-shocked, I see," holo-Ritsuko noted with a sardonic grin. "Considering you just made the projector that's creating me with your own two hands, you really shouldn't be."
Holo-Ritsuko then removed a pack of equally holographic cigarettes from her pocket, along with a Zippo lighter. The genuine Ritsuko watched enviously as her holographic doppelganger lit up and took a long drag.
Still far from over her desire for tobacco, Ritsuko happily allowed holo-Ritsuko to exhale the smoke right in her face. Unfortunately for the nicotine-starved blonde, this was where the hologram's realism finally failed; the faux cigarette smoke had absolutely no scent to it.
"You can't smoke," Ritsuko flatly told her double. "People will realize something's wrong when they can't smell it, and anyway, I've told people that I quit."
"Nobody would be very surprised if it seemed like you fell off the wagon," holo-Ritsuko said, but she removed the cigarette from her lips and carelessly tossed it away.
The holographic cigarette didn't make it halfway to the floor before it vanished without a trace.
"You can't do that sort of thing in public," Ritsuko admonished. "People would realize something was up in a second."
"I know that," holo-Ritsuko said. "You can give me a little credit."
Ritsuko actually gave her illusionary counterpart more than a little credit; aside from the attitude, she was perfect. Almost too perfect. "Scarab, have we created a sentient artificial being here?" she asked, rather nervous about the prospect. "Because this thing definitely passes the Turing Test."
(Relax.) The scarab said. (It only seems so lifelike because it's wirelessly connected to me.)
"Ah, so you're controlling it," Ritsuko said.
(Basically.) The scarab replied. (It can function without the connection to me, but it wouldn't be as convincing.)
"So, you're the reason it's jerking my chain a little bit," Ritsuko deduced.
"Oh, yes," holo-Ritsuko answered. "Not that it would hurt you to lighten up a bit, and it wouldn't kill you to start referring to me as a 'she' instead of an 'it.' But I can act just like you when I need to. The scarab can use its connection to you in order to make me react to things exactly as you would."
"That's good to hear," Ritsuko said. "Now, Scarab, turn it off."
Holo-Ritsuko vanished, leaving only the beetle-shaped projector on the floor where she'd been standing. Ritsuko picked it up.
"Well, it looks like I won't have to worry about people missing me on the command center when the next Angel shows up," Ritsuko said.
Shinji Ikari would have been lying if he said he understood everything about the Evangelion. Indeed, the fact of the matter was that even after months of piloting one of those beasts, he still had more questions than answers about them.
He didn't understand the basic principles behind the functioning of the Evangelion.
He didn't know why only Evangelions and Angels could project AT Fields.
He didn't know why he felt so comfortable inside the entry plug but not the test plug.
Yet regardless of all of that, he was starting to believe that he might actually be good at EVA piloting.
It was a conclusion that Shinji—so accustomed to not thinking much of himself—had at first been very reluctant to arrive at. However, that had started to change after the battle against the Tenth Angel, which had been so successful, and the praise he'd received from his father for it. The approval-starved Third Child had eagerly lapped it up and craved the opportunity to earn more.
Which was probably why he was focusing his mind on the task of doing as best he could on the sync test he was currently taking with far more enthusiasm than he'd displayed in tests of the past. Shinji had a good feeling about this particular test; the synchronization felt smooth and practically effortless that afternoon.
So when one of the technicians announced that the test was complete, Shinji, instead of silently crawling out and going toward his locker room as usual, eagerly asked Misato how his scores were.
Smiling, his guardian gave him a thumbs up. "You did great today, Shinji! In fact, you're number one in the sync scores!"
"WHAT?" Asuka shrieked from nearby.
The Second Child immediately began to rant after her explosive exclamation, stating that the test plugs had to be broken, that one of the technicians must've deliberately skewed the results to boost Shinji's confidence, and whatever other excuses she could think of. But for once, Shinji found he didn't care that he'd pissed the redhead off.
He was proud of himself.
Ignoring Asuka's displeasure, he playfully saluted Misato and then headed off for his locker room, where he took a quick shower and changed back into his normal clothing. Emerging from the locker room, Shinji immediately spotted the chairperson of Project-E, who happened to be passing by.
"Hello, Dr. Akagi, er, Ritsuko," he greeted her.
She seemed (understandably) startled by his uncharacteristic cheerfulness but not displeased to have run into him. "Hello, Shinji," she replied. "How are you doing?"
"Good," he replied, severely tempted to just blurt out his recent success but still reluctant to brag. "Really good."
"Glad to hear it," Ritsuko said. "Have you been back to the Whiz Kid to play the games since I took you there?"
Shinji nodded. "Yeah. I took Toji and Kensuke—my friends—with me, and they absolutely loved it," he said. "We're going again this weekend."
"I'm glad to hear you had fun," Ritsuko said, smiling.
A brief moment of silence followed.
Finally, Shinji could resist no more. "I got the highest score in today's sync test," he proclaimed.
Ritsuko smiled at him in response, but there was a certain edge of sadness to it that perplexed the Third Child.
"Are you busy?" she asked him abruptly. "Is there someplace you need to be soon?"
"No," Shinji answered.
Ritsuko nodded. "Then let me buy you a drink, Shinji," she said. "I'd like to speak with you."
"Sure," Shinji agreed gamely.
Ritsuko gestured for him to follow her, and she led him to an area with some vending machines and a few benches with thin cushions. Such places were the closest things to break rooms in the NERV base so far as Shinji knew, and they were fairly plentiful. However, he'd never been to this particular one. It was pretty out of the way, and Shinji supposed that the only reason Ritsuko knew about this particular nook was because she worked in the base for years.
Wordlessly, the scientist took out some money and deposited it into one of the machines, causing two cans to fall out. One can contained coffee, which she took for herself. The other was a soda, and she gave it to Shinji. It wasn't his favorite kind, but there was no point in saying anything; it wasn't as if they could exchange the soda for a different one. And in any case, the blonde looked so distracted at the moment that Shinji couldn't even imagine being annoyed at her for choosing a beverage for him without consulting him first.
He sat down and opened his soda. Ritsuko sat next to him but just held the can of coffee in her hands. Shinji was somehow unsurprised when she was silent for a long moment, despite having said that she wanted to talk to him.
Finally, she spoke. "I never apologized to you for the way I tried to pressure you into piloting EVA that first time," she observed quietly.
Shinji, who was fresh from an EVA-related triumph and not about to hold that against her, blinked in surprise. "It's all right, Ritsuko," he said awkwardly. "If I hadn't piloted, you would have had to send Rei out, and she couldn't have won in her condition. The Angel would have destroyed everything."
"That's an explanation for forcing you to pilot, not a justification," Ritsuko said. "I don't think anything could actually justify forcing you into that position."
Shinji, who had quickly grown to like the scientist since she'd started to show him kindness, was eager to absolve her of any guilt but unsure how to go about it.
Before he could even figure out how to try, she spoke again. "Remember what I said about you just having to sit in the seat?" she asked. "I thought you might be more willing to climb into the entry plug if you thought you'd be just an ignition key, instead of a pilot. I was scared enough of dying that I was willing to deceive you."
"Ritsuko… I… why are you telling me all this?" Shinji asked helplessly, just wanting the blonde to stop beating herself up over something he didn't bear the least bit of ill will toward her for.
She gave him a smile that was somehow both wry and bitter at the same time, coming close to looking more like the Ritsuko he knew. "Maybe I just felt the need to confess, and I thought it would be more appropriate to spill my guts to you rather than find a priest or something."
"…oh," Shinji said, not able to think up any other response than that.
The bitterness left Ritsuko's smile, leaving only wryness in its place, and she at last looked completely like herself.
"Anyway, Shinji, I wanted to congratulate you on your victory today," she said, finally opening her can of coffee.
He straightened up. "Thank you."
"I'll bet Asuka's fit to chew nails and spit staples right about now," Ritsuko commented.
Shinji smiled at the metaphor; even though he knew he'd be suffering later for enraging the redhead, it seemed amusing at the moment. "Yeah," he said.
"I also wanted to caution you about… excess enthusiasm, when it comes to EVA," Ritsuko added.
"Huh?"
"I don't want to burst your bubble, or make you stop giving piloting your full effort," Ritsuko clarified quickly. "It's just… it often doesn't pay to throw yourself heart and soul into something that someone else has chosen for you."
"What do you mean?" Shinji asked.
"Well, you might invest too much into something you don't want," Ritsuko said, suddenly looking rather awkward.
Shinji still didn't really understand what the scientist was saying.
She sighed softly and reached into one of the pockets of her lab coat. After groping around in it for a second, she produced only a pack of gum. She looked at it hatefully, and Shinji abruptly realized that she'd been searching for cigarettes. Wordlessly, she offered him a piece, which he turned down. Ritsuko put the pack of chewing gum away and took a sip of her coffee.
"When I was younger, and thinking about which university I would go it, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that I'd study science," she said. "The only question was which branch of science."
"How did you choose?" Shinji asked.
"In the end, I did what my mother encouraged me to do and studied the same fields she had, then I ended up working for NERV, like her," Ritsuko said. "My mother and I always got along better as fellow scientists than as mother and daughter. When I was growing up, no interaction between us was ever as smooth as when she helped me with a science project. I guess she just wanted to increase the amount of time we spent getting along comfortably. I guess I did, too."
The scientist fell silent for a moment, but Shinji suspected that she was just figuring out how to proceed with her story. Regardless of why she had paused, he felt no inclination to speak.
"But when I started working for NERV, I discovered that I'd placed myself directly in my mother's shadow," Ritsuko resumed eventually. "I wasn't 'Doctor Akagi' to anyone. I was just 'Doctor Akagi's daughter.' Even now, the people who were around during my mother's tenure still think of me like that. It's because my mother created the MAGI. I've never had an achievement to rival that, and since I work with the MAGI everyday, I'm always being reminded that my mother was the better scientist.
"If I hadn't done what my mother wanted, I might have ended up working somewhere else and been happier for it," Ritsuko said. "I guess what I'm trying to tell you is that it's not a good idea to invest yourself completely into something unless you chose it for yourself. It would be…prudent for you to remember that, at the end of the day, piloting Evangelion is still something we forced you to do in order to save our own skins."
Shinji nodded solemnly, finding that his enthusiasm and glee from beating Asuka earlier had been thoroughly tempered, if not dampened entirely. After finally receiving some praise from his father, it had been surprisingly easy to all but forget how the man had treated him upon his arrival to NERV. Much as Shinji hated to admit it to himself, it was probably wise to exercise at least some degree of caution when it came to trusting his father.
"I think I underst—"
"Shinji-kun!" the familiar voice of his guardian cut him off in mid-word.
"Misato," he replied.
"I've been looking everywhere for you. Where did you…?" she trailed off as she noticed the presence of the blond scientist who was sitting with Shinji. "Oh, hello, Ritsuko."
Her tone suddenly turned cold as she greeted her friend, much to Shinji's confusion.
"Hi, Misato," Ritsuko replied in a far more neutral voice. "Shinji and I were just talking about the results of his latest sync test."
"I see," Misato said, her voice not warming, and then turned her attention back to the Third Child. "Come on, Shinji, we have to head back home now."
"Oh, sure," Shinji agreed. "Just let me say good-bye to Rit… um, Dr. Akagi."
Misato's eyes narrowed, and she directed a suspicious look at the blonde. "All right, Shinji-kun," she said. "I'll head for the parking garage. Don't take too long, all right?"
What on earth happened between them? Shinji wondered as he watched Misato depart, completely befuddled to see his guardian directing such obvious hostility toward Ritsuko.
The scientist answered before Shinji could even decide whether or not to pose the question. "We… had an argument," Ritsuko said.
Of course, this just made Shinji even more curious, but it was obvious that the blonde wasn't about to divulge any details. And he had a sneaking suspicion that Misato would be similarly tight-lipped about whatever had come between her and her friend, even if (when) she got drunk…
"Well," he said, putting all that out of his mind, "it looks like I have to go. I guess I'll see you around, Ritsuko."
"I guess," she echoed doubtfully, glancing off in the direction that Misato had departed in.
Shinji also started to leave, but then paused before he turned a corner and lost sight of Ritsuko, who remained in the little break area, apparently planning to nurse her can of coffee for a while.
He almost lost his nerve and just left, but somehow he found enough courage to blurt out, "Ritsuko, I never knew your mother, but for what it's worth, I don't think anybody who can hack into an Angel deserves to be thought of as the second-best scientist."
Ritsuko looked surprised by the compliment for a moment, then she beamed at Shinji. The EVA pilot felt his heartbeat accelerate at the sight, and he wondered, not for the first time, when exactly the scientist had gone from merely attractive to outright stunning.
"Thank you, Shinji. That means a lot to me," she said. "Now, you'd better get going. Misato is waiting for you."
The car sped through the streets of Tokyo-3, tires screeching loudly just about every time it made a turn. The driver was navigating through the urban jungle with a total disregard for the safety of others, as the several crumpled vehicles he'd left in his wake—all of which had crashed in their attempts to avoid him—could attest to. Behind this car was a long line of police cruisers, lights flashing and sirens wailing as they pursued the offensive driver. However, in the narrow streets, with the trail of destruction they had to chase him through, they were having difficulty catching up to the car.
(So it's a good thing that the Blue Beetle's on the scene!) The scarab said exuberantly as the superwoman in question chased after the speeding car from the air.
Blue Beetle sighed. "Are you narrating for me?" she asked.
(…maybe.)
Shaking her head, the superwoman in the blue and black armor decided to ignore her constant companion and put on an extra burst of speed to help her catch up to the speeding car. Within moments, she was flying right alongside the vehicle, and was easily able to look directly at the driver through the window, finding that a heavyset man with a wild look in his eyes was clutching the steering wheel with a white knuckled grip.
"Hey!" Blue Beetle shouted. "You're going pretty damn fast there! What's the big…?"
The insectoid superwoman trailed off as her gaze shifted to the rear of the car's interior, and she realized exactly why the man was willing to leave a trail of destruction in his wake as he fled from the police.
In the back seat was a young woman. She was only half dressed, clad in just panties and a tank top, and her ankles and wrists were tightly bound by lengths of thick cord. Something that Blue Beetle suspected was a nylon stocking had been wadded up and stuffed into her mouth to prevent her from talking.
Dark, purplish bruises marked her pale skin all over. She turned and gave Blue Beetle a desperate look, mumbling loudly through the fabric that was crammed into her mouth.
The woman behind the Blue Beetle's helmet felt an instant rush of sympathy for the poor woman. Gendo had never struck her; while the Commander of NERV had once gotten into at least one barroom brawl a week, he had become more sophisticated in his cruelty as he'd gotten older. His abuse had always been of a more emotional and psychological nature.
But she could only too easily imagine a world in which Gendo hit her, and suddenly, Blue Beetle had to rescue that poor woman.
(Ritsuko!) The scarab suddenly shouted.
She snapped her attention back to the crazy driver, only to find herself staring down the double barrels of a sawed off shotgun.
Oh, fu—
BOOM!
The report of the weapon was deafening, and the shot that erupted from the gun blasted the Blue Beetle right in the face. The armor protected her from injury, but even it couldn't prevent the pain that she felt from being shot at point blank range by such a powerful weapon. She released a cry of pain and lost control of her flight entirely.
The next thing she knew, she was no longer on the street but the sidewalk, laying atop a pile of metal garbage cans that she'd apparently knocked over.
(Ouch.) The scarab commented.
Blue Beetle didn't bother to respond, still very determined to save that poor woman. With a thought, she was aloft again, once more in pursuit of the speeding car.
"We need to stop them," she said.
(Just give me the word, and I'll blow out the tires.) The scarab offered.
"Hell no," Blue Beetle replied. "If we blow out the tires when the car's moving at that speed, it'll go out of control and crash into something. Violently."
The scarab briefly considered commenting that it liked violence, but thanks to the connection it shared with Ritsuko, it knew that that wouldn't be received well.
"I need to get that car off the road without making it crash," Blue Beetle said. "Nobody dies today. Especially not that bastard's hostage."
(…I have an idea.)
"Let's hear it," Blue Beetle said.
The scarab told her. The armored superwoman's eyes widened. "You're insane."
(You have a better plan?) The scarab countered, and she could feel it mentally grinning.
"No," Blue Beetle admitted with a sigh, putting on an extra burst of speed.
Soon, she had positioned herself directly over the speeding car and carefully began to decrease her altitude so she was within arms length of the roof of the car.
The driver, however, was not oblivious to her presence. Holding onto the wheel with only one hand, he picked up his weapon again and pointed it upwards. Satisfied that there was no way he could miss, he squeezed the trigger.
There was another terrific blast of noise, but this time his shot went completely wild and the shot sprayed harmlessly out his window. He would have hit his target, but the whole car had jolted when Blue Beetle had grabbed hold of the roof and lifted it into the air.
"…the hell are you doing?" the driver demanded as his vehicle was lifted higher and higher, its wheels now spinning pointlessly in the air. The roof of the car creaked and bent slightly, never having been designed for the stress it was being subjected to.
"Taking a huge creep off the road!" Blue Beetle retorted as she continued to fly through the city. "Now, why don't we talk about this calmly? If you cooperate, a jury might show you some mercy, and in case you haven't noticed, you don't have a lot of options."
"No! You don't have a lot of options!" the driver barked, leveling his gun at the bound woman in his back seat.
Blue Beetle's eyes widened, and she cursed inwardly. She should have figured out some way of getting the bastard's hostage to safety before she did this.
"Don't do it," she growled at him.
"If you want her to live, then you're going to take me outside the city and put the car down nice and gently," the driver demanded, "or I'll kill her!"
"If you kill her, I'll kill you!" Blue Beetle snapped.
(Slowly!) The scarab piped up.
"Slowly!" Blue Beetle added.
The driver of the now airborne car smirked. "Mexican standoff, girlie."
"Yes, but time isn't on your side, jackass," Blue Beetle snapped.
The driver looked confused.
Blue Beetle smiled maliciously at him. "My arms are already starting to get tired here."
The driver's face paled and he looked out the window and down at the street below, realizing just how high up they'd gotten. A fall from this distance would be lethal for sure.
"So let's be reasonable here, big man," Blue Beetle sneered. "You agree to let her go, and I don't let you go splat. In fact, I'll even fly you outside of the city just like you want."
"Oh, please, the second she's safe, you're gonna grab me and haul me to the cops," the driver scoffed. "So if you want this bitch to live that much, just let us go."
"I'm not letting you leave with her," Blue Beetle said firmly.
"And I'm not letting you take her away," the man retorted.
"Time still isn't on your side," Blue Beetle reminded him.
"Actually, I think it is," the man replied confidently. "You're not gonna let this car drop and kill that bitch in the back seat just because your arms got tired. You're gonna have no choice but to put us down and let us go, eventually."
Blue Beetle was silent for a long moment.
"Well, I have to hand it to you," she said. "You have a serious pair."
The man smiled triumphantly.
"Unfortunately for you, you're also an arrogant jackass, and just plain wrong," Blue Beetle added. "Happy landings."
"What? Hey! Wait! Nooo!" the man screamed as Blue Beetle released her hold of the car roof.
The car went plummeting downwards, heading straight for Lake Ashi, which the azure superwoman had carefully positioned them above before dropping the vehicle.
However, Blue Beetle wasn't done yet. She gave the scarab a mental command, and it immediately took over control of their flight, guiding them far more precisely than she could have. In a second, they were right next to the passenger side rear door of the falling car, descending at the exact same rate it was.
With a thought, Blue Beetle caused the armor over her hands to shift and change, becoming long, thin blades that were curved at the ends. Using them as a makeshift Jaws of Life, she easily tore off the door.
(Hurry!) The scarab urged.
Not wasting any time replying, Blue Beetle commanded the armor to change back to its usual setting. The process took only seconds, but those seconds were some of the longest that she had ever experienced.
Finally, she was able to use her hands again and she grabbed the bound woman in the back. Pulling her out of the vehicle, the Blue Beetle reclaimed control of her flight and soared upwards, but still only narrowly avoided getting splashed by the water that was thrown up when the car hit the surface of the lake.
"It's okay," Blue Beetle told the woman she held in her arms. "You're safe now."
The woman still had a mouth stuffed full of nylon and couldn't answer, but the relief in her eyes was unmistakable.
Scarab, medical scan, she ordered silently.
(Other than some bruising and a little malnutrition, I don't see anything wrong with her.) The scarab informed her.
Malnutrition? Blue Beetle asked, concerned. Her mind immediately began to weave all sort of ghastly possibilities in which the man who'd been holding her hostage had kept her prisoner in his home for possibly months on end, barely feeding her the whole time.
(She hasn't been getting enough protein. I believe she's more or less on what you would call 'the Misato diet.') The scarab answered, sounding amused.
In other words, lots of cup ramen and other instant junk, Blue Beetle thought, feeling relieved as her imaginings proved to be just that.
(By the way, in case you're wondering, the man survived the fall without any significant injuries.) The scarab added.
Blue Beetle spared a glance downwards, and spotted the man swimming toward the shore. He couldn't hope to escape, however; police cars were already pulling up to the edge of the lake to wait for him. And his weapon would be useless after the thorough soaking it had doubtlessly received, assuming he'd even managed to keep it from sinking to the bottom of the lake.
Turning her attention back to the young woman in her arms, Blue Beetle quickly landed atop the roof of a nearby building and put her down. In a moment, she had freed her from her bonds and removed the crumpled up stocking from her mouth.
"Are you all—?"
Blue Beetle was cut off as the woman threw herself at the azure superwoman, embracing her in a tight hug and stammering out words of gratitude in such a crazed rush that they were barely comprehensible.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you," the woman said, half sobbing. "I thought I was going to die for sure!"
Blue Beetle awkwardly put her arms around the frantic woman, holding back a sigh.
Now, if I was a man, this would be the part where I sweep the damsel off her feet, she thought. But what the heck am I supposed to do?
"Um, there, there," she said, trying to sound comforting but knowing she probably just sounded uncomfortable. "It all right. You're safe now."
"I knew that he was starting to lose it. I knew it, but I just didn't have the guts to walk out," the woman chastised herself. "I almost died because I was a coward."
"Hey, it's all right, you're safe now. No one's going to hurt you," Blue Beetle said. Then, after a brief pause, added, "What's your name?"
"Azumi," the young woman answered with a small sniffle.
"Well, Azumi, is there any place I can take you?" Blue Beetle asked.
Part of the azure superwoman was very eager to be away from Azumi, now that she was out of immediate danger; the whole situation was very quickly becoming awkward and extremely uncomfortable. However, she still felt empathy for the abused woman, and she didn't want to just abandon her, especially since Azumi was only half-dressed.
"I guess my mother's is the only place I can go now," Azumi said.
"Tell me address," Blue Beetle said.
Azumi did, and soon the insectoid heroine was again flying through the air, carrying Azumi in her arms. Blue Beetle went at a leisurely, relaxed pace, not wanting to make the flight unpleasant for her passenger.
"What happens now?" Azumi asked after a long period of silence.
"Well first, I'm taking you to your mother's home, and you're going to have a shower, get dressed, eat something, and just try to relax after this experience," Blue Beetle said. "After that, you're probably going to have to testify against that man."
"Oh," Azumi said fearfully. "I'm not sure I can do that."
"Of course you can," Blue Beetle said, trying to encourage the battered woman.
Azumi shook her head. "I'm not brave like you are."
Blue Beetle almost laughed aloud at that comment. Her? Brave? She didn't think she'd ever heard anything so preposterous. She had settled in to meekly accepting Gendo's actions a long time ago, and only finding the scarab at the exact right moment had gotten her off that fatal course.
"Hey, I'm really not as brave as you think," Blue Beetle said.
Azumi released an unladylike snort in response to that.
"And you're not as cowardly as you think," Blue Beetle said. "The only real difference between you and me is that I've got a…friend I know I can rely on to back me up and support me."
Knowing that she was talking about it, the scarab preened wordlessly.
"And the superpowers," Azumi added wryly.
"And the superpowers," Blue Beetle agreed. "But you don't need to start picking up cars and the like. You just need to get your life back on track and make sure that bastard gets thrown in jail where he belongs."
"I… thank you," Azumi said.
As if on cue, Blue Beetle arrived at the apartment building where Azumi's mother lived. She came to a gentle landing on the roof and set her passenger down on her feet.
"Is this all right?" Blue Beetle asked. "I could take you down to the street if you need."
"No, I'd rather enter this way," Azumi said, gesturing toward a door that led into the building. "I really don't want to be seen outside like this."
"All right," Blue Beetle said. "Well, I guess this is where we part ways."
Azumi nodded. "Thank you," she said. "I don't know how I could ever repay you."
"Just don't let that evil man scare you into letting him get away, and we'll call it even," Blue Beetle said. "Ja ne."
And with that she returned to the air, though she surreptitiously circled the apartment building a few times, just to make sure that Azumi got inside all right. Once the young woman had disappeared from sight, Blue Beetle randomly picked a direction and flew off.
"You picking up anything else interesting on the police broadcasts?" she asked the scarab.
(Nothing yet.) The scarab answered.
Blue Beetle wasn't too fussed about the absence of other emergencies for her to address at the moment. Holo-Ritsuko was filling in for her at work, as she had already a few times without incident, and the Blue Beetle already had a good reputation as a heroine around the city. She still wanted to kill an Angel, but that, of course, had to wait until one would be good enough to show up.
So she contented herself to flying around the city, which was usually something that brought her no small amount of pleasure. However, as she continued to soar, and the immediate satisfaction over helping Azumi started to fade, her mind drifted back to her current problems.
She sighed.
(Are you getting depressed again?) The scarab asked her.
It sounded so comically exasperated that Blue Beetle couldn't help but crack a small smile. "Yeah, I guess I am," she confessed.
(What's got you down this time?) The scarab asked.
"I thought that you could read my mind," Blue Beetle replied. "Share my thoughts and all that."
(Oh, I can, you know that. But that doesn't mean I understand your every thought. In fact, I have a hard time understanding your thought processes more often than not.) The scarab replied, sounding mildly miffed at her and the confusing species that was humanity in general.
Blue Beetle smirked at the irony. The scarab was literally hooked up right to her central nervous system, and they still had so much trouble understanding one another. There had to be some sort of social commentary to be had there, or something.
Of course, the fact that it's an alien probably doesn't help, she thought.
"I guess I've just been feeling a little lonely recently," she told the scarab.
(How could you be feeling lonely? You're never alone.) The scarab pointed out, clearly confused.
Again, Blue Beetle couldn't help but smile slightly. Things were always so simple so far as the extraterrestrial intelligence was concerned.
"I guess I'm just missing human companionship," she replied.
(You're not thinking about…?)
"Going back to Gendo?" Blue Beetle asked. "God, no. It's just Misato and I haven't been on very good terms recently, so even when I can find some time to just relax, I don't have anyone to spend it with."
She had known, of course, that the Operations Director wouldn't take well to being so obviously shut out of her friend's plans. However, in the last few days, Misato had been positively chilly to her, and, on top of that, she had done her damnedest to keep Ritsuko away from Shinji as much as possible, seemingly just for good measure. Blue Beetle hadn't expected to receive the cold shoulder from Misato to the degree that she had.
(I thought you were going to spend time with that Maya girl. You went out for drinks with her a few days ago.) The scarab said. (She's cute.)
Blue Beetle rolled her eyes. "Now you're starting to sound like Kaji."
(What's wrong with that?) The scarab asked.
Deciding that she simply wasn't ready for that very long conversation, Blue Beetle returned to the earlier subject of their discussion. "Maya isn't exactly as much fun to spend time with as Misato."
This was something of understatement. Blue Beetle genuinely liked the petite brunette, and the technician was an exemplary worker. Unfortunately, Maya had apparently felt compelled to keep talking about MAGI diagnostics and the like while they were at a nightclub, apparently unable to leave work at work while she was around the Project-E Chairperson. Even worse, the small woman had proven to be such a complete lightweight that the evening had ended early, with Ritsuko having to practically carry Maya back to her apartment.
Blue Beetle could feel herself blushing behind her helmet at the mere memory of being caught by Maya's elderly neighbor, a Mrs. Takanawa. The old bat had point blank refused to believe Ritsuko's story that the two of them were just friends, and had instead been clearly of the belief that they were lesbians about to hop into bed for drunken lovemaking.
It rather ashamed Blue Beetle to realize that she was still wondering if Maya had ever given the old woman a good reason to believe that her next door neighbor was a lesbian.
(Isn't there anyone else you could spend your free time with?) The scarab asked.
"I don't have a whole lot of friends," Blue Beetle said. "I never did."
(Ugh. Just go back to work before we end up watching teary movies tonight, and I have to work to keep you from gaining ten kilos from the gallon of ice cream you'll eat while watching it.) The scarab said.
Blue Beetle snorted at the mental image of her behaving like the stereotypical, depressed woman. Exasperating as the scarab could be, she had to admit that it never let her sink into depression. "What work should I go back to?" she asked. "I sort of have two jobs, as you know."
(Either one. Just get your mind off of all this.) The scarab urged.
"All right," Blue Beetle said. "I don't suppose there are any disasters going on down there now?" she asked hopefully.
(No, nothing that I can detect.) The scarab answered, obviously disappointed.
"Damn, guess that means I have to get back to my day job, then," Blue Beetle said. "Shift me."
(Roger.) The scarab replied, and Blue Beetle soon felt a now familiar tingling sensation that told her she'd been shifted slightly out of phase with the rest of reality.
As undetectable and as intangible as a ghost, Blue Beetle returned to NERV headquarters. She made her way to one of the ladies' lavatories, where the scarab had directed holo-Ritsuko to. Her doppelganger was waiting for her in one of the stalls, and Blue Beetle flew into it and landed, the scarab shifting her back into alignment with the rest of the universe as she did so.
"Everything going well?" Blue Beetle asked.
"Fine, fine," holo-Ritsuko replied. "Just the usual routine. The scarab can fill you in on any details you need, of course."
"Right," Blue Beetle said. "In that case, I'll take it from here."
Nodding, holo-Ritsuko promptly disappeared, leaving only the projector in its place. Blue Beetle shed her armor, once again becoming Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, and scooped up the device, placing it into one of her lab coat's large pockets.
"Best gadget I ever made," Ritsuko commented to herself as she left the stall.
Returning to her office, Ritsuko sat down at her desk and got to work. However, there weren't very many urgent tasks before her; her holographic double was at least as industrious as she was. It didn't help Ritsuko that she was just coming back from the adrenaline rush-inducing activities that went with being a superwoman. The blonde soon began to fidget in her seat, and she found that she had difficulty keeping her focus on her current task.
Her work ethic kept her in her seat for all of five minutes after she realized she wasn't going to get much done, at least until she had really let herself unwind. Getting up, she left her office and made her way to a nearby group of vending machines. Popping several coins into one, she made it relinquish a can of coffee.
Then, after considering for a moment, she inserted a few more coins and got another can of coffee. Taking the two containers, she headed, not back to her own office, but toward Misato's.
"Knock, knock," she said as she arrived at the open door to the Ops Director's personal workspace.
Misato looked up from the paperwork she'd been doing with a look of surprise.
"Well now, this is a role reversal," the purple haired woman commented sardonically, as it was usually she who pestered Ritsuko while the scientist was trying to work.
"Yeah, I guess it is," Ritsuko said. "Coffee?"
"Thank you," Misato said curtly.
She took the can, opened it, and then took a long drink. Ritsuko did the same.
Neither of them spoke.
(If you're just going to stand there silently and feel awkward, you might as well just leave.) The scarab commented.
"Come on, Misato, you know you could never keep up the silent treatment for very long," Ritsuko urged.
"My dad would say different if he was around," Misato replied.
Ritsuko resisted the urge to rip out her own hair in her frustration, wondering if pulling the world back from the precipice of the abyss (or trying to, anyway) was really going to require that she sacrifice her friendship with her best, and really only, friend.
"Misato, why are you being so—"
(Ritsuko!) The scarab shouted, interrupting her.
What? She demanded. What's so important that—?
The scientist was interrupted again, this time by the wailing of the all too familiar klaxons, and Misato instantly jumped to her feet.
The Twelfth Angel had apparently come to town at last.
Shinji Ikari had learned how to do a lot of things in EVA that he hadn't had the first clue about when he'd first been forced to climb into the entry plug.
He could now, for instance, competently wield Unit One's progressive knife, utilize his AT field, and he knew how to fright with various different kinds of giant firearms.
However, one thing that he'd never exactly been trained for, and had certainly never expected to do, was to be stealthy while in the giant death machine. Yet that was just what he was doing, making Unit One creep through the city and use the skyscrapers as cover as he approached the Angel, which had given no indication that it realized the Evangelions were even there yet.
This latest Angel had taken a decidedly strange form, appearing as a zebra striped sphere that hovered slowly over the city, completely silent.
"We're still getting an orange pattern from the Angel," Ritsuko told the three pilots over the radio. "So far, the MAGI is still trying to get information on this one, but they're not having any success yet."
"Which means that all of you are to exercise extreme caution until we understand this Angel better," Misato chimed in. "Asuka, I want you to take point."
"Oh, but shouldn't the brave new number one pilot take point?" Asuka asked in a far too innocent tone.
Shinji visibly started within the entry plug, unable to believe what he was hearing. Asuka heaping praise upon him was incredible enough, but her wanting him to take point, too? Pretty much from the moment she'd arrived in Japan, the Second Child had tried to play field commander of the Evangelions, even though their direct link to headquarters almost always made that unnecessary.
"You are brave enough to take point, right?" Asuka asked Shinji, opening a direct link between their two Evangelions.
Shinji bristled at the obvious challenge, his hands clenching into fists as his long dormant ego suddenly woke up and started kicking. The redhead had put him down at every opportunity, and now that he'd finally beaten her score, she was deliberately putting him on the spot. He suddenly burned with the desire to tear the Angel apart and make Asuka wish she'd kept her big mouth shut.
But then, almost in counterpoint, he remembered what Ritsuko had told him days earlier about not throwing his heart and soul into something that had been forced upon him to begin with. The last few battles had gone relatively smoothly, but not enough to make him forget that he could very well die during a confrontation with an Angel.
The Third Child hesitated, caught between sound advice and a rare but intense desire to one up the Second Child.
And Misato seized upon the moment this provided her.
"In case you've forgotten, you don't get to decide who leads by committee," the Operations Director said sternly. "I'm in command of this operation, not any of you, and I say that Asuka takes point."
"Roger!" Shinji and Asuka both said automatically.
That matter taken care of, all three Evangelions continued to creep closer and closer to the Angel. Unit One got there first, largely because it had emerged closest to the Angel when they'd all been deployed. Shinji waited patiently for the other two EVA Units to approach. The Angel continued to act completely oblivious to the presence of the trio of death machines.
"All right, everybody's in position," Asuka finally reported.
"Then commence the attack," Misato said.
Shinji fired first; the Third Child had become more and more tense as the minutes of stalking the Angel had dragged on, until he was a tightly coiled spring. He commanded Unit One to depress the trigger of the Evangelion pistol he held before Misato was even finished speaking.
His aim was true, not that it was very hard to hit the immense sphere. Shells the size of small cars flew right into the Angel…causing it to instantly wink out of existence.
Chaos followed this bizarre occurrence.
"What the hell?" Shinji exclaimed.
"It vanished!" Asuka shouted.
"Pattern blue!" Hyuga added. "Angel confirmed!"
Shinji suddenly realized that the ground beneath Unit One's feet had turned as black as midnight, and he wasn't the only one to notice.
"What? A shadow!" Asuka yelled.
The feet of all three Evangelion Units began to sink into the inky darkness. Feeling panic rear up and threaten to overwhelm him, Shinji pointed the pistol his EVA was holding and fired several shots right into blackness beneath him. The slugs disappeared into the abyss without doing any visible damage to the Angel.
"Retreat!" Misato shouted, easily making herself heard over the din in the command center.
The Third Child commanded Unit One to raise its feet, hoping he could still run away. But the Angel proved more difficult to escape from than quicksand, and he couldn't easily free his EVA from it.
I need something to grab onto, he decided.
Unit One immediately grasped onto a nearby building, its fingers digging into the sides of the walls and deforming the metal with ease. With a grunt of effort, Shinji forced his Evangelion to pull itself out of the Angel and begin climbing the side of the building.
I'm going to make it! I'm going to make it! He thought, a desperate sort of hope filling him as he scaled the side of the structure. I'm going to make it! I'm going…why am I going down again!
Against his better judgment, he directed his gaze toward the ground…and he felt his face pale at what he saw. The building he was climbing was sinking! In fact, every building within the circumference of the bizarre Angel was starting to sink into it.
Okay, you can still get away, he told himself. Just get to the top of the building, and use Asuka's crazy 'hopscotch' trick to escape.
He felt that something was wrong before he realized what it was, registering the way the weight of his EVA and himself were shifting at a subconscious level.
"Oh no!" he exclaimed as he finally pieced together what was the matter.
The building he was climbing up was tilting, and to make matters worse, it was tilting toward him.
"Crap!" he shouted, and threw Unit One into a frantic burst of climbing, scaling the side of the building almost completely in seconds flat.
He might have made it, too. For a second, it seemed like he was going to make it. However, the frantic Third Child had failed to consider the way that moving the weight of his Evangelion from the bottom of the building to the top of the building would affect its descent. Just as it looked like he might have been home free, the slow tilt of the building abruptly accelerated. In seconds, it would crash into the vast lake of darkness beneath him.
Knowing that it probably wasn't going to work but having no other choice, Shinji commanded Unit One to leap away before it was too late, silently hoping and praying that he would reach another perch.
The purple and green destroyer went soaring through the air, arms and legs flailing wildly as it reached out for another more stable building…and missed.
"No!" Shinji yelled as Unit One crashed right into the ebony blackness of the Angel.
"Shinji-kun!" Misato shouted, able to do nothing else but stare at the huge main screen as Evangelion Unit One vanished into the darkness.
"No," Ritsuko breathed next to her.
The Operations Director spared just a moment to toss the scientist an angry glare before directing her full attention back to the battle, which was quickly turning into a full blown catastrophe.
"Asuka! Rei!" she barked. "Rescue Shinji!"
"Little busy here, Misato!" Asuka replied, as Unit Two leapt from rooftop to rooftop in an attempt to avoid getting swallowed up by the Angel.
"On my way!" Rei said.
Unit Zero, Misato realized too late, had almost been out of the danger zone when she'd given that command. And Rei, without a second thought, threw away her chance of safety to head back toward the center of the Angel.
The Operations Director cursed herself as she realized that she'd gotten emotional and given a bad order. But Unit Zero moved like lightning, despite the First Child's relatively low sync ratio. The blue Evangelion was already drawing near to where Unit One had sunk into the Angel, though; it was too late to countermand the order.
Hoping that her bad decision wouldn't bite her in the ass, Misato resisted the urge to wring her hands as she watched Unit Zero carefully draw near to Unit One's umbilical cable. The blue behemoth grabbed hold of the massive power cable and began to pull. Misato felt her heart leap she started to pull some of the length of the cable out of the Angel.
And then the Angel pulled back, catching Rei completely by surprise. The First Child made a valiant attempt to keep Unit Zero stable, but it was short-lived, and in seconds, the cyclopean Evangelion had fallen into the artificial blackness of the Twelfth Angel. It disappeared from view seconds later.
"Asuka! Get out of there!" Misato ordered, unwilling to lose all three Evangelions to one Angel.
"I'm trying!" the Second Child retorted.
Unit Two was still hopping crazily from rooftop to rooftop, but as more and more buildings toppled over and were swallowed completely by the Angel, the red titan was rapidly running out of stepping stones.
Yet in spite of the rapidly worsening situation, Asuka was making good progress, and Misato held out hope that she, at least, would escape. Within moments, the red Evangelion was almost to safety, but it was also standing on one of the last of the buildings. It was going to have to jump.
Fortunately, Misato had seen Evangelions make longer leaps than that.
Unit Two squatted down and jumped. The arc of its leap was just right, everyone could see at once. Asuka was going to escape; at least one pilot was going to make it out of this disaster without being swallowed by the Angel.
Then the production-model Evangelion's umbilical cable ran out of slack. Asuka let out a loud yelp as her jump was rudely interrupted and immediately ejected the cable, but it was too late. The treacherous cord had robbed Unit Two of much of its needed momentum, and it couldn't make it beyond the edge of the Angel any longer.
Unit Two crashed into the blackness and began to sink almost instantly. Defiant as ever, the scarlet giant managed to reach out and lay a hand onto the street just outside the Angel's dark shadow, causing the asphalt to shatter. For a brief moment, it looked as though Unit Two might just make it out yet.
Then, as though a giant hand within the blackness had grabbed hold of the crimson war machine's ankle and pulled, Unit Two was abruptly yanked into the abyss and disappeared along with the other Evangelions.
"No," Misato breathed softly. "Oh, no."
All three Evangelions had been consumed by the Angel.
About an hour later found much of NERV's senior command staff and scientists in a hastily erected outpost outside the Twelfth Angel which had, wonder of wonders, just stopped moving entirely once it swallowed up the trio of Evangelions.
Ritsuko was currently standing before a large white board, using a long pointer to indicate specific diagrams and equations as she spoke to a group of scientists.
"Here's what we've learned so far," she said. "That sphere up there is not the Angel. It's actually the Angel's shadow, while what we thought was the shadow is the real Angel. It is 680 meters wide, but only 3 nanometers thick, making it essentially two-dimensional. Unlike all the other Angels, this one possesses an inverted AT field, which is how it was able to absorb so much matter. Within the Angel's body is something known as a Dirac Sea, a sort of pocket dimension which was only theoretical until today. And that, unfortunately, is all we know so far, and that's not going to cut it. Not even close. So I expect you people to be complete professionals in the coming hours. We're working on a tight deadline here."
Taking the dismissal for what it was, the assembled group of NERV scientists rose from their chairs and began to disperse, heading off to their respective tasks. Ritsuko herself was just about to start making her way to her personal workstation when she spotted someone in a very familiar red NERV officer's jacket approaching her.
"Ritsuko, I need to speak you. In private," Misato said without preamble.
The scientist considered making some comment about how Misato only wanted to speak to her now that she was busy, but she restrained herself. "Of course," she said.
Ritsuko led Misato to one of the trailers that was part of the impromptu NERV outpost and then shut the door after them once they were inside.
"Ritsuko—" Misato began, but the blonde held up a hand to silence her.
Scarab, any listening devices in here? She asked.
(None.)
"Sorry," Ritsuko said. "I was checking for bugs."
(Ha ha.) The scarab grumbled sarcastically.
"I'm going in after them," Misato announced.
"What?" Ritsuko blinked.
"I'm going in after them," Misato repeated.
As if to clarify the statement, the Operation Director's warm brown eyes suddenly changed to a piercing shade of green, and she held up her fist, displaying the ring of jade metal on her finger.
"I wanted to ask you to try and cover for me," Misato went on. "I know you probably won't be able to pull it off—explaining the absence of the Ops Director at a time like this will be impossible if I'm gone for too long, but I was hoping you could try, anyway. I don't want to blow my secret identity unless I absolutely have to."
"Misato, no, please, don't do this," Ritsuko pleaded. "You could die."
"I have to, Ritsuko," the purple haired woman practically growled. "I can't just abandon those kids when there's a chance I can save them, even if it means risking my own life."
"But, Misato, for all we know, they could already be dead," Ritsuko blurted out.
The scientist was aware of the stinging pain on her cheek before she realized that Misato had slapped her. The scarab hissed angrily in Ritsuko's mind.
"Don't you dare say that!" Misato barked.
"Sorry," Ritsuko said, rubbing her cheek. "Look, Misato, we should still have about fifteen hours left before the Evangelions' internal batteries can't power the life support systems any longer. There's no need for you to rush off half-cocked right now."
"And is this situation going to be any better in fifteen hours?" Misato demanded.
"Yes," Ritsuko said firmly. "I'm going to figure this Angel out, Misato. I swear it. I promise you."
Misato just narrowed her eyes, clearly skeptical.
Ritsuko felt hurt by the other woman's doubt despite herself. The blonde had always made a point of keeping her promises.
"Don't you trust me at all anymore, Misato?" she asked, dismayed. "I'm your friend."
Misato sighed. "I want to trust you, Rits. I really do," she said. "But you've clearly had your own agenda ever since you started doing this Blue Beetle thing. And ever since you started with that, you've been spending time outside of work with Shinji, who is my responsibility, in case you've forgotten. And you won't tell me about any of your plans, which definitely does not fill me with warm and fuzzy feelings. And now you want me to trust you with all the pilots' lives?"
Ritsuko sighed softly. I've been such an idiot.
(Huh?)
This is why Misato's been so hostile. It's not just me keeping her in the dark that's pissing her off. She thinks I might have malicious intensions toward Shinji, she answered.
"Misato," Ritsuko said. "All I want to do is help Shinji. I swear on my mother's grave that I don't have anything besides that in mind when I spend time with him, and I'm not focused on anything else but rescuing all the pilots right now."
Misato regarded her silently for a long moment, and then her green eyes became brown once more. "You really think you can figure out a way to get them out?" she asked.
"I have an alien artifact in my back that has enough processing power to put the MAGI to shame," Ritsuko said. "I can solve this puzzle. I know I can."
Misato nodded. "I'll give you four hours. Then I'm going in."
"Four hours? But that's barely more than a quarter of the time we have left!" Ritsuko protested.
"Well there's no point in me going in after we're out of time," Misato responded. "Four hours, Rits."
And with that, the Operations Director and Green Lantern left the trailer, leaving Ritsuko with a significantly shorter deadline than she'd had before.
Four hours later…
"Well, Ritsuko?" Misato asked, approaching the blonde scientist, who was furiously scribbling away at her whiteboard.
"I've managed to figure out a lot about the Angel," Ritsuko said, barely pausing in her work long enough to spare her friend a glance. "For one thing, I've worked out that the inside of the Angel is shaped like a giant Klein Bottle."
"Klein Bottle?" Misato echoed, not particularly interested, but knowing Ritsuko well enough to realize that the scientist wouldn't be able to focus on anything else until she'd explained everything she'd learned.
Ritsuko pointed to a crude drawing she'd made on her whiteboard.
"Looks like some kind of squash," Misato commented.
"I guess it does," Ritsuko replied absently. "But this really isn't an accurate depiction, and not just because I'm no artist. A real Klein Bottle is a four-dimensional shape, you see."
"Four-dimensional?"
"Yes," Ritsuko said. "It is a non-orientable surface with no boundary."
"I really hope you don't expect me to understand this," Misato said bluntly.
Ritsuko sighed. "Look, the bottom line is that this Angel is virtually impossible to escape from," she said.
"This is what you've been doing the whole time?" Misato demanded. "Figuring out why the Children are all doomed?"
"I've just been studying the Angel," Ritsuko said defensively, then leaned in close to Misato and added in a conspiratorial whisper, "You know what this means, don't you? If you go in there after them, the odds of you getting out again are infinitesimal."
"Never tell me the odds, Ritsuko," Misato said.
The scientist resisted the urge to groan. She had just known Misato would say that ever since NERV had defeated the Tenth Angel.
"You can't hope to go in there and come out, but I can," Ritsuko said.
Misato frowned. "Why?"
"Thanks to the scarab, I can teleport to this place between dimensions called the Bleed," Ritsuko said. "I can go in, find the EVA's, and get them out by going out through that place."
Ritsuko could clearly see suspicion in Misato's eyes. A long, tense moment followed.
"I just hope you realize that with you gone, there's no one left to convince me not to head in there as soon as I think something's wrong," Misato said at last.
Ritsuko let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Thanks, Misato," she said. "Could you come with me for a second?"
Shrugging, the Operations Director followed the scientist back to the little trailer. Once they were inside, Ritsuko wordlessly took the projector out of her pocket and set it on the floor. A moment later, it had activated, and holo-Ritsuko had joined them.
"Whoa!" Misato exclaimed. "Double trouble!"
"I like to think of us as 'doublicious.' Speaking of which…" the hologram reached into her pocket and withdrew something wrapped in silver foil. "Gum?"
"Uh, no, thanks," Misato said.
"Don't mind her," Ritsuko said. "The scarab's just making her act snarky because it can get away with it right now."
Misato nodded. "I'd been wondering how the Blue Beetle managed to save people while you were at NERV."
"This is how I pull it off," Ritsuko confirmed. "But the illusion won't be as good once I'm inside the Angel and can't be connected to this thing anymore. It'll still look and sound fine, but it might say the wrong thing in response to something somebody else says. I'd like it if you could hang around her and try to cover up any stumbles."
Misato shook her head at being relegated to the role she had asked Ritsuko to take up only hours before. "All right," she agreed. "But be quick about this."
"As quick as I can," Ritsuko promised, and told the scarab to suit her up.
Almost instantly, she was in the familiar blue and black, and Ritsuko Akagi vanished beneath the visage of the Blue Beetle. The scarab then phase shifted her, and she vanished from sight.
"Okay, scarab, let's go," she said.
Immediately, the Blue Beetle took off, her intangible form flying straight through the walls of the trailer and toward the Angel. The azure superwoman couldn't help but swallow as she looked into the pitch black maw of the Twelfth Angel.
I know that I wanted to kill an Angel, she thought. But I was really hoping that the next one to show up would be a regular, giant monster type Angel.
For once, the scarab seemed to share in her trepidation; she could feel it. (Well…let's go.) It said without much enthusiasm.
Nodding, Blue Beetle altered her course so that she was in a power dive toward the Angel. Her heart started to hammer as she approached it, and for a moment, she seriously considered pulling up and scraping her entire plan. How on Earth had Misato been so gung ho about doing this herself?
Then she passed the threshold of the Angel, and it was like she had just stepped outside of the universe she had always known. The boundary of the Angel was instantly nowhere to be found; it was like she was in the middle of outer space, except that there was not a star to be found as far as the eye could see. She was in the middle of total and complete emptiness.
The Blue Beetle shivered, and not just because of how devoid of everything the place she'd found herself in was.
(I'm adjusting the armor's climate controls to increase the temperature.) The scarab said contritely before she could speak up. (I didn't expect it to be so cold in here.)
"Good," Blue Beetle said, and was surprised for some reason that her voice didn't echo in the vast nothingness, even though she knew that it shouldn't. "Now, we don't have a lot of time before, Misato…"
She trailed off, suddenly getting the feeling that someone was watching her. Blue Beetle had never gotten this sensation so strongly; it was as undeniable as the feeling of the sun on her back, except that it was cold.
Slowly, and with no small amount of anxiety, she turned.
Blue Beetle thought she felt her heart stop as she saw what was behind her.
Naoko Akagi was behind her, floating in the blackness without any sort of protection. And this wasn't Naoko Akagi as scientist, the one Ritsuko was most familiar with and respected. Nor was it Naoko Akagi as mother, the one Ritsuko had so rarely seen. Nor was it Naoko Akagi as woman, the one Ritsuko had held nothing but contempt for but had ended up emulating anyway.
No, this was a Naoko Akagi that Ritsuko had seen only once, and the last Naoko Akagi to ever exist: Naoko Akagi as madwoman. She looked almost exactly as she had the last time Ritsuko had seen her, on that yerrible day when the first Project-E Chairperson had snapped, murdered Rei's first incarnation, and then killed herself. Her usually immaculate white lab coat was stained red with blood, and part of her skull was crushed from the leap she'd taken off the top tier of the command center, exposing bits of brain matter.
The only difference that this Naoko showed from the version that was burned into Ritsuko's memory was the glowing, reddish mass she had covering part of her face and body. Blue Beetle knew exactly what that was; she had seen it when she'd used the scarab to connect her mind directly to the MAGI. The Eleventh Angel had taken the worst part of her mother and made it even worse.
"Ritsuko-chan," Naoko gave her daughter a smile that looked truly grotesque on her ruined face. "Come to Mommy."
"No!" Blue Beetle shrieked.
The armor over her hand instantly transformed into the annihilator ray, the weapon that the scarab had always been so eager to use. For once, Blue Beetle didn't hesitate at all, and fired, sending a blast of dark blue light shooting from the barrel.
The deadly energy hit Naoko Akagi right in the torso and went through the woman like she was made of smoke, leaving no visible mark on her.
The elder Doctor Akagi smirked. "Do you really think it would be that easy to kill me? I'm already dead," she stated smugly. "Now, come here, Ritsuko-chan. It's time you finished following in my footsteps, all the way to the grave."
"No!" Blue Beetle yelled, panic overwhelming her calculating scientist's mind. "NO!"
(RITSUKO!) The scarab roared, and only belatedly did the Blue Beetle realize that it had been shouting at her all this time. (She's not real!)
"Wha-what?" she stammered.
(I know what you're seeing because of my link to your mind, but I can't see it!) The scarab said. (Or detect it all, for that matter! What you're seeing isn't real! It must be the Angel trying to trick you!)
"I…I'm not sure I can make myself believe that," Blue Beetle said in a small voice.
It was an embarrassing admission for the scientist to make; she usually prided herself upon not letting her emotions affect her judgment. Oftentimes, people knew things intellectually but didn't act on them because they didn't know those things emotionally, too, and she usually felt naught but contempt for such individuals.
But with someone or something that looked just like the malicious ghost of her mother, bonded to an Angel, looming over her, Blue Beetle just couldn't make herself act like the guise of Naoko Akagi wasn't there.
(Close your eyes.) The scarab said. (I can take us to the Evangelions.)
Blue Beetle had her doubts about relinquishing the proverbial steering wheel to the scarab, but she herself was frozen with fear. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and immediately she could feel herself starting to move through the blackness.
But she couldn't escape her mother's voice. Naoko's words followed them no matter how fast the scarab made them go, reminding Blue Beetle of all the similarities between them and urging her to end it all like she had. Even worse, other voices soon joined in. She heard Gendo telling her that she wouldn't evade his detection forever, Fuyutski wondering tiredly why she had thought she could ever fight and win against forces like SEELE, and a hundred other voices saying things she didn't want to hear.
Shinji's soft, forlorn voice was the worst though. The Third Child spoke in resigned tones about how she couldn't save him, or anyone, and how she had been foolish to try.
I'll never have to go to see a horror movie again, she thought, resisting the temptation to open her eyes and face her tormentors, to see if they were really all there or just disembodied voices. If I ever want to be scared, all I'll have to do is close my eyes and remember this experience.
"Why isn't the Angel conjuring up any illusions for you?" she asked the scarab.
(I don't know.) The scarab answered thoughtfully. (It could be that it can't affect me since I'm not from this world. Or it could be because I don't remember my past, so there isn't a whole lot it can do to really disturb me.)
The flight lasted an interminable amount of time for the Blue Beetle, though she hoped it wasn't very long in reality. She knew that Misato would follow her in if she took too long.
Finally, Blue Beetle crashed into the side of something very solid, and the voices that tormented her abruptly felt silent, as though the object she'd hit was some island of sanity and stability inside the dark madhouse that was the inside of the Angel's body.
Opening her eyes, and getting up, Blue Beetle saw that she was perched atop Unit One's massive purple helmet. She grinned in relief, glad that the ordeal she was going through wouldn't be for nothing.
"All right, scarab," she said. "Let's get Unit One out of here and into the Bleed, and then back to the real world. And no lost time this time, either!"
(You got it.) The scarab said, then, in a less eager voice, added. (But you should know that transporting this much mass is probably going to hurt.)
"When doesn't it?" Blue Beetle asked with a sigh. "Let's just get this over with scarab."
(Roger.) The scarab said, and with that, superwoman and Evangelion Unit disappeared from the Twelfth Angel's trap.
Moments later, there was a flash of light in the air above Tokyo-3, and suddenly Evangelion Unit One had appeared from nowhere. The purple and green engine of death materialized a few hundred feet above the ground, and it immediately went crashing down to the street, shattering the asphalt and shaking the ground as it landed.
They had emerged from the Bleed not far from the NERV outpost, and within seconds, scientists and uniformed soldiers alike were scrambling toward the Evangelion, which had so unexpectedly been plucked from the jaws of the malevolent god that had invaded the city that day.
Blue Beetle, jauntily perched atop Unit One's shoulder, looked down at everyone with a grin. She soon spotted someone in a familiar red beret who was at the front of the approaching pack, and she gave Misato a small salute. The Ops Director automatically returned the gesture.
Satisfied that her friend hadn't plunged into the abyss and now probably wouldn't, Blue Beetle flew off, heading back toward the Angel. There were still two Evangelions for her to pull out of the darkness.
Hours later…
"How are the Children?" Ritsuko asked Misato.
By this point, twilight had drawn over the city, the setting sun bathing Tokyo-3 in orange light. The Blue Beetle had managed to pull all three of the Children from the Twelfth Angel in what had been, in retrospect, a rather easy rescue. The Twelfth Angel had apparently had no ability to stop her other than to cast its illusions.
Of course, every time she had appeared with a new Evangelion, NERV had launched into a flurry of activity, getting the pilot out and giving him or her a complete physical right on site. Though she had gotten Unit Two out over an hour ago, and had been able to dismiss holo-Ritsuko only minutes after that, she was just now getting an opportunity to speak with Misato.
"Physically they're fine," the Operations Director answered, "but they're all pretty shaken, even Rei. Asuka's the most disturbed, but she's trying to hide it, and she'll never admit it, of course."
After what I saw in there, I'm not surprised they're all shaken, Ritsuko thought.
"Anyway, thanks," Misato said quietly.
Ritsuko smiled. "You're welcome."
"You're still not going to tell me exactly what you're up to, are you?" Misato asked.
"I'm sorry, Misato, but no," Ritsuko said, feeling a guilty squirm in her stomach.
Misato sighed. "If you get in too deep, you'll ask me for help, right?" she asked.
Ritsuko nodded. "I promise."
"Good," Misato said.
"So, now all we have to worry about is the Angel," Ritsuko said, changing the subject as she looked at the massive hole that was now in the center of the city.
Misato sighed tiredly. "Yeah," she agreed. "Though fortunately it doesn't look like we have to be in any rush now. The Angel's remained motionless so far, thank goodness. I don't even want to think about what my in box would look like tomorrow if it ate the whole city."
"Any plans yet on how to deal with it?" Ritsuko asked.
"Your, um, counterpart suggested we chuck every single N2 mine we have into it and detonate them all at once," Misato said.
(Oh, I like that plan.) The scarab said, always eager for violence and explosions.
You would, Ritsuko replied, before turning her attention back to Misato.
"Just overwhelm it with as much destructive power as we can bring to bear, huh?" she said. "Well, I suppose it could work, but—"
That was when the zebra-shaped sphere, the Angel's shadow, winked out of existence for a second time that day, vanishing soundlessly. Both women saw it, and after trading a brief, horrified look, they took off running toward the trailer containing the makeshift outpost's mobile command center.
Misato reached the door first, easily outpacing Ritsuko, who was wearing high heels. "Report!" the Ops Director barked as she entered. "Did some idiot shoot that thing?"
"Negative!" Makoto answered. "It just…happened!"
"What's happening?" Ritsuko demanded as she followed her friend inside.
"The shadow of the Angel just spontaneously disappeared, and now its real body is shrinking in diameter," Maya said.
Ritsuko turned to look at one of the screens in the cramped mobile command center, observing as a display of the Angel rapidly decreased in size. At this rate, it would be the size of a puddle in mere minutes.
"Is it…dying?" Misato asked, sounding like she knew it was too good to be true, but hopeful nonetheless.
"I wouldn't bet on it," Aoba said. "Its size is decreasing, but its energy signature is only increasing."
"Then what's happening?" Misato snapped testily. "What's it doing?"
"We don't know yet, ma'am," Maya said. "None of the MAGI are offering an explanation, and this is something completely new in our experience with the Angels."
"The Angel's size appears to have stabilized," Makoto said. "It is now approximately one quarter of its original size."
"It's…it's changing shape!" Maya exclaimed.
"What?" Ritsuko asked, pulling her gaze away from the suddenly jumbled, computer generated diagram of the Angel and looking at a live feed video of it.
Her eyes widened at what she was. In place of the black hole was now a black cloud, and one that was slowly but surely starting to expand.
"What's going on? What's it doing?" Misato demanded.
"It looks like…it looks like it's evolved somehow," Ritsuko said.
"Evolved?"
"Yes, don't you see, Misato?" Ritsuko asked. "The Angel's gone from being a two-dimensional entity to a three-dimensional one."
Remembering her brief spiel about the properties of a Klein Bottle, Ritsuko knew that Misato was just itching to ask how many dimensions it had on the inside now. However, the Ops Director resisted the temptation and began rapidly barking out orders to the technicians.
Ritsuko didn't really pay attention to Misato's yelling, instead keeping her attention focused on the Angel. How on Earth had the thing evolved? The Eleventh Angel had managed to undergo rapid evolution, but it had been formed of a collective of cells which reproduced at a very rapid rate. At the end of the day, that had still been more or less evolution as they knew it, even if it had gone at a supercharged pace. But the Twelfth Angel was a single entity, and single entities didn't evolve.
Then it hit her like a bolt from the blue. The only possible explanation for the Angel's abrupt transformation.
(The Bleed.) The scarab said before she would even let herself think it. (Exposing it to the Bleed must have changed it somehow.)
My god, what have I done? Ritsuko wondered as she watched the black mass that was the Angel continue to grow and grow.
Author's Notes: This one was actually supposed to cover all of the battle against the Twelfth Angel, but I guess I just ran out of steam. And this seemed like a good, cliff hanger-y place to stop.
Normally, I don't mess with the Angels too much, just with how the characters respond to them. But this idea just sort of popped into my head, so I decided to run with it.
Those of you who follow both SOE series will probably note how Ritsuko has found a similar solution to the problems of having a double life as Maya did in The 4th Degree. I didn't want to have Ritsuko go as far as Maya did in that fic, though, so at the end of the day, holo-Ritsuko is really just an incredible simulation.
And that's all for this note. So thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.
Now for some fun.
Omakes!
Holo-Ritsuko was not created for this
Ritsuko placed the small device on the floor and then pressed a button on the bottom of it. Immediately, the top of the gadget opened, revealing a sort of projector.
A burst of light followed, bright enough to momentarily blind Ritsuko. Blinking away spots, she made a mental note to adjust the device to prevent or at least tone down the intense flash.
Her vision clearing after a few seconds, Ritsuko looked again and found herself face to face with… herself. A perfect duplicate of Ritsuko Akagi stood where her new gadget had been a moment before, standing stock still.
Though she'd been expecting this, it still startled Ritsuko—the real Ritsuko—to see such a flawless copy of herself standing before her.
"Amazing," she said, walking in a slow circle around her duplicate.
She stopped when she was directly behind holo-Ritsuko, this situation giving her a unique opportunity for self-observation.
"Damn," she gave a low whistle. "I have a smoking hot ass. You could bounce quarters off those buns!"
"You're right," holo-Ritsuko agreed, abruptly coming to life and startling the genuine article. "We are pretty damn hot."
Before the real Ritsuko could react, her holographic counterpart had glomped her, and rather aggressively at that. The two blondes tumbled to the ground, one amorous, the other struggling.
"Scarab!" Ritsuko exclaimed, furiously trying to fight off holo-Ritsuko's advances. "Turn the projector off! Turn it off now!"
The scarab, of course, ignored her entirely. (I wonder, does this count as incest or narcissism?)
The Angel's Ultimate Attack
Then she passed the threshold of the Angel, and it was like she had just stepped outside of the universe she had always known. The boundary of the Angel was instantly nowhere to be found; it was like she was in the middle of outer space, except that there was not a star to be found as far as the eye could see. She was in the middle of total and complete emptiness.
Blue Beetle spoke. "We don't have a lot of time before Misato…"
She trailed off, suddenly getting the feeling that someone was watching her. Blue Beetle had never gotten this sensation so strongly; it was as undeniable as the feeling of the sun on her back, except that it was cold.
Slowly, and with no small amount of anxiety, she turned.
Blue Beetle thought she felt her heart stop as she saw what was behind her.
A purple and green monster was in the darkness with her, and it wasn't Unit One.
"Hey there, little girl!" giant Barney the dinosaur exclaimed. "We're going to have a good time!"
"AHHHH!" Blue Beetle screamed. "Scarab! Get us out of here, now! Forget the Children!"
However, the scarab was unable to heed her command. It was far too busy screaming inside her mind.
Set Up
(So it's a good thing that the Blue Beetle's on the scene!) The scarab said exuberantly as the superwoman in question chased after the speeding car from the air.
Blue Beetle sighed. "Are you narrating for me?" she asked.
(…maybe.)
Shaking her head, the superwoman in the blue and black armor decided to ignore her constant companion and put on an extra burst of speed to help her catch up to the speeding car. Within moments, she was flying right alongside the vehicle, and was easily able to look directly at the driver through the window.
What she saw nearly caused her to fall out of the air and to the street in surprise.
"Aoba?" she exclaimed. "Why the hell are you doing this?"
The insectoid superwoman's gaze drifted off to the rear of the car's interior, and she suddenly the situation became even more bizarre than it already was.
In the back seat sat a young woman clad in a top hat, tuxedo vest and shirt, a black mask, and fishnet stockings. She raised a magic wand that she held in one hand.
"Ekat su ot ecalpemos erom elbatrofmoc!" she exclaimed.
Suddenly, the magician and the Blue Beetle both vanished from sight with a puff of smoke.
Aoba quickly turned to look at his car's empty back seat in alarm.
"Hey! Where did you go!" he exclaimed. "You told me you'd help me escape from the cops if I did this! And what about the three wishes you promised me?"
Behind him, the police cars started gaining.
Elsewhere in Tokyo-3…
"Ugh, where the hell am I?" Blue Beetle wondered aloud. "And how the hell did that woman teleport us?"
(I don't know. She used some kind of energy I'm not familiar with.) The scarab answered worriedly.
Blue Beetle sat up, then blinked as she took in her surroundings. She was in what looked like a posh hotel room, sitting in the middle of a very large, heart shaped bed with red silk sheets.
"Glad to see that you're finally up, sempai."
Blue Beetle's head snapped up to see that the masked woman from earlier had entered through a nearby door, except she wasn't masked any longer.
"Maya?" Blue Beetle exclaimed.
"That's right, sempai," the magician said, twirling the magic wand she held in her fingers.
Except, Blue Beetle realized with trepidation, that she wasn't holding a magic wand any longer. Now she held a riding crop.
Wow, I guess now I know why that old bat who lives next to her was so convinced that we were lovers, Blue Beetle thought.
"Oh, sempai, I'm so glad that we can finally be alone," Maya cooed. "Now, let's lose that armor, shall we?"
She waved her wand, and suddenly Blue Beetle's armor rapidly started to melt away. In seconds, she was left in nothing but her under garments.
"Wow, sempai, I didn't realize you were in such good shape," Maya said, climbing onto the bed and proceeding to crawl toward Ritsuko.
She's completely lost it, the scientist thought. Scarab, get me out of here!
(…why?)
Why?
(Well, I mean, she's really hot.) The scarab replied. (I mean, did you check out the legs on that woman? Yowza!)
"Ugh!" Ritsuko exclaimed. "Scarab, this is the reason why I don't want you to be just like Kaji!"