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 am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Chapter Thirteen: Desperate Measures
The world seemed to move in slow motion as Ritsuko Akagi watched her worst nightmare coming to life. The unmitigated disaster that her counterpart in that other dimension had gone through was about to happen to her.
She watched as hidden emitters in the walls of Terminal Dogma slid out of their hiding places. Crackling tongues of blue energy sparked around the emitters before they streaked out through the air, about to converge on the very spot where she was standing.
The blonde moved, trying to get out of the way of the high tech onslaught, but even as she did, she knew that she was too late, too slow, to avoid the surprise attack, even though she had a split second more to react than her unfortunate counterpart had had.
She might've been too slow, but the scarab wasn't. Barely.
In an instant, she was in her azure and black armor, the Blue Beetle once again. Yet even with the alien materials offering her some protection, the sapphire superwoman couldn't just shrug off the assault. She threw her head back and cried out in pain, staggering back a step.
Still, when the assault ended, she remained conscious. She was even still on her feet, though she felt that a stiff breeze could've knocked her right over.
She really had been through too much damn punishment lately, a small, strangely detached part of her mind mused.
(Ritsuko, I think the time for all this subtly stuff you're so into is over.) The scarab said.
I think you're right, she agreed, deciding to ignore how pleased it sounded about it.
With a quick mental command from her, the armor covering her right hand and forearm shifted, forming a long firearm. It was not the non-lethal Suppression Rifle.
"I didn't want to do this," she said as she trained the weapon on Gendo, the gun releasing a menacing hum.
The Commander of NERV didn't beg for mercy. He didn't say anything at all, actually.
Instead, he just pushed the button on that damn remote of his again.
Lightning burst forth from the walls a second time, and Blue Beetle screamed again, her legs buckling as she fell to one knee.
In hindsight, she really should've moved away from the spot that all the damned wall emitters were aimed at before she'd threatened Gendo. Misato would've remembered to do that, being military and all. Unfortunately, brilliant scientist though she was, the computer nerd turned super heroine that she was still missed those kinds of things.
The attack finally cut off, and Blue Beetle shakily raised her weapon once more.
Gendo hit the button again and held it down this time.
"Ahhh!" Blue Beetle screamed, her other leg giving out and leaving her now down on both knees.
Scarab, get me out of here! She thought desperately.
(On it!)
The chunk of alien hardware in her back immediately shifted her out of phase with the rest of their reality. The attacks bombarding her suddenly went straight through her, but since the scarab wasn't engaging any of the hardware that made the armor capable of flight, she ended up falling straight through the floor and into the massive chamber where NERV kept Lilith hidden, landing in the vast pool of LCL with a splash as the scarab quickly shifted them again so they were back in step with the rest of their dimension.
"That could've gone better," Blue Beetle remarked, struggling to keep her head above the surface as her muscles continued to spasm randomly from the abuse they'd just gone through.
(Give me a second, and I'll have you all sorted out. Then we can go back and kill him.) The scarab said with its characteristic cheerful viciousness.
"It might be too late," Blue Beetle said.
(It's never too late to kill someone unless they're already dead.) The scarab said bluntly.
"I mean it might be too late to keep it from getting out that I'm the Blue Beetle," the sapphire superwoman clarified, wondering how something that was hooked up directly to her central nervous system like the scarab was could so completely miss the point she'd been driving at sometimes. "Even if he's kept it to himself so far, I'd bet anything that he recorded all that. The video's probably already on its way to god knows where."
(That doesn't mean that there's nothing to be gained by killing him.)The scarab countered, like a dog with a bone by this point. Clearly it had its heart set on murdering Gendo Ikari.
Blue Beetle wasn't so sure that killing Gendo would be a net plus for her, though. There was no doubt in her mind that her secret was out regardless of whether she reduced him to atoms right now or not, and removing him would still leave SEELE in more or less total control of NERV. Fuyutski would never be able to check them the same way that Ikari did.
…and maybe she just didn't want to have to explain to Shinji why she had murdered his father, and see the look in his eyes as he asked her just that, creep though the elder Ikari was.
While she was mulling all of this, several doors in the walls of massive pool opened up.
"Oh crap, the Polysomes!" Blue Beetle hissed, recognizing the robots that she had deployed against the Eleventh Angel with so little success. "Ikari really planned this out. Screw it, scarab, let's get out of here!"
(Fine.) It grumbled, irritated.
Blue Beetle phase shifted once more, just before the aquatic robots could fire their lasers at her. Then the sapphire superwoman took off, flying straight through the ceiling and back into the chamber she'd just come from.
She was unsurprised to see that Gendo was no longer present. No doubt he'd gone to execute his Plan B. And knowing him, his Plans C through F, as well.
However, even he couldn't prepare anything to thwart her phasing ability, which was why she had managed to escape this trap, and the gruesome fate her counterpart had endured. The sapphire superwoman said a quick word of thanks to the dead alternate of herself; having seen the terrible ordeal of the Scarlet Scarab was the only reason she'd escaped unharmed.
Blue Beetle continued to ascend, rushing through floors so quickly that she couldn't keep track of them, until she finally made it outside into the Geofront. Hovering invisibly and intangibly in the air above the NERV pyramid, she stopped for a moment to take one last look at it. It was only starting to sink in that she wouldn't be coming back in the foreseeable future, that she wouldn't be reporting for work tomorrow morning.
Despite having escaped the trap, her life as she'd known it was over.
(Ritsuko? Are you okay?)
"Fine," she replied. "We have to get back to my place and get all the Reach tech and stuff there. And if I know Gendo half as well as I think I do, we only have minutes to do that."
(Then let's go.)
General Katsuro, flag officer of the JSSDF and head of that force's special anti-Angel taskforce, was having a good day.
There were no ceremonial events or stupid publicity stunts on his schedule for at least the next week, which he always viewed as a good reason to be happy. The production of the new Reach tech military hardware was continuing at a brisk pace, more so now that the other branches of the military were getting interested in the stuff. Also, according to the news, the UN Security Council had scheduled a vote on whether to slash NERV's main budget.
The measure wasn't expected to pass. Considering that any motion needed the unanimous approval of the council's five permanent member nations in addition to a simple majority in order to pass, most things didn't.
However, the mere fact that it was being brought up at all was progress. Not long ago, the very idea of pulling the bulk of NERV's funding—effectively disbanding the organization, or at least thoroughly de-clawing it—would've been utterly unthinkable.
If things keep working out so well, NERV and Gendo Ikari will be finished pretty soon, he thought with a smirk on his face as he sat down behind his desk and grabbed hold of his coffee mug.
Considering that Blue Beetle had informed him she suspected that NERV was responsible for the attack on their base, he had high hopes of being able to sound the group's death knell any day.
So it made what happened next an even worse shock than it would've been.
A tentative knock sounded from his door.
"Enter," Katsuro grunted, looking up from the paperwork he'd only just started.
A pretty young woman, one of the base's military secretaries, poked her head inside, looking nervous.
"Excuse me for interrupting, General," she began, "but there's been a…development."
Katsuro frowned. "Well? Don't leave me in suspense. Spit it out already."
The secretary hesitated. "I'm sorry, sir, but I really think it would be better if you saw this for yourself."
Now getting worried, Katsuro got up from his desk and followed the secretary to a nearby lounge where a television playing the news was present. A number of the base's staff were clustered around it, but they quickly made way when they saw the general approaching.
The officer nearly did a double take when he saw the caption at the bottom of the screen.
It read "Blue Beetle attacks Commander of NERV, revealed to be member of NERV staff."
Meanwhile, the rest of the screen was showing an image of the alleged attack. The Blue Beetle was shown in a dark room, pointing a weapon mounted on her arm directly at Gendo Ikari himself.
"The details are all still coming in now," the off screen anchorwoman said as Katsuro got in front of the TV. "However, our staff at Channel Four News has examined this image and found no evidence that it was tampered with or edited in any way.
"As usual, NERV is not being forthcoming with details. They have confirmed that Commander Ikari is alive and unharmed, but have not explained how he was able to escape the apparent assassination attack," the anchorwoman continued. "In addition, NERV has stated that Commander Ikari did see the Blue Beetle transform, and that she is none other than a member of NERV Central, Doctor Ritsuko Akagi."
The image shifted to a photograph of the woman in question, a blonde with green eyes.
Dimly, some weirdly detached part of Katsuro's mind mused that she would've looked a lot prettier if she smiled.
"As of right now, NERV has not issued any further statements on the matter, but that could change at any moment," the anchor went on. "Channel Four News has not yet managed to reach either the Diet or JSSDF command for comment. We will bring you more on this story as it develops."
The news program then shifted to some other story, but Katsuro wasn't paying attention. His mind was already reeling as he tried to think about what would come next.
The answer to that question, unfortunately, came all too quickly.
"Excuse me, sir?" one of his aides approached him. "The Prime Minister is on the phone for you."
Once it reached the media, the story of how Blue Beetle was actually a member of the NERV staff immediately spread like wildfire across all of Tokyo-3, and from there, the rest of the world.
It wasn't all the surprising, given how the Blue Beetle had rapidly become a very public figure. The world had watched her rise to become a well known superwoman, a destroyer of Angels, and then the JSSDF's ace in the hole. It was only natural that they'd be captivated by her fall as well.
Of course, different people reacted to the news in different ways. Many of the NERV personnel, especially the members of Technical Division One, expressed disbelief over the revelation. Many of them had, after all, seen Ritsuko during times when it was known that the Blue Beetle had been out and about.
Many others just felt betrayed, either by a co-worker they had known and trusted, if not necessarily liked (Ritsuko Akagi was known to be a very tough, even brutal boss, after all), or by a hero they had seen and placed their faith and hopes in.
Still others had a different reaction…
"I knew it!" Asuka exclaimed that evening in the apartment she shared with Misato and Shinji. "I knew it! I knew that the Blue Beetle couldn't be trusted!"
Seated at the kitchen table with a tall can of beer from her expensive stash, Misato didn't say anything. She just rolled her eyes and continued to sit there and look miserable.
Shinji, however, was apparently feeling in a more argumentative mood.
"Asuka, how can you say that?" he asked, frowning.
"What? Are you calling the Commander a liar or something?" the redhead demanded, getting right in his face.
"N-No," Shinji admitted, before quickly regaining his composure, "but we don't know everything yet."
"What's ambiguous about a picture of the Blue Beetle pointing a gun in the Commander's face?" Asuka countered with obvious disbelief. "There's not a whole lot of room for interpretation there."
"Maybe not, but the Blue Beetle's saved us a bunch of times," Shinji pointed out. "We might very well be dead if it wasn't for her. So I think she deserves the benefit of the doubt until we have all the details."
The redhead gave him an incredulous look. "Are you really that stupid?" she asked bluntly.
Shinji's frown deepened. "What are you talking about?"
"Mein Gott, you really are!" Asuka exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "Has it occurred to you to wonder now just why we needed the Blue Beetle's help all those times?"
"Uh, no."
"Stupid Shinji! She was probably sabotaging our Evangelions!" Asuka shouted.
Shinji took a step back, almost as if struck. "What? But that…that's crazy!" he sputtered.
"Is it?" Asuka pressed. "Akagi was obviously looking to put NERV out of business. There's no other reason why she would've joined the JSSDF and given them so much help in creating their own force to fight the Angels with. And for her, making NERV look bad would've been just as important as making the JSSDF look good. I'll bet I would've been killing Angels left and right if not for her!"
"But it's not like EVA ever shut down in the middle of combat or anything," Shinji argued weakly.
Asuka rolled her eyes. "Akagi's a genius, remember?" she asked. "She could easily make some subtle adjustments to mess up the Evangelions, and then completely cover her tracks. Hell, it was probably easy for her, since she's the one in charge of analyzing all the data after a battle."
"But…" Shinji trailed off, unable to find a weakness in the redhead's argument but still not willing to let the issue drop.
Regardless of how solid the logic might be, the Third Child couldn't quite believe that Ritsuko had betrayed them and put their lives in danger like that to further some political agenda or personal vendetta.
"I guess we should give her some credit," Asuka added. "She probably could've gotten us killed if she wanted to, which would've helped the JSSDF, but she didn't. So that just makes her a traitor, instead of a murderous traitor."
Having had his fill of listening to Asuka condemn Ritsuko, Shinji just turned and headed for his room. He was unsurprised when the Second Child decided to take this as a sign of surrender.
Sliding open the door that led to his little room, the Third Child stepped inside and flopped down onto the bed with a gusty sigh. In spite of Asuka's argument and the strong evidence against Ritsuko, Shinji couldn't believe that the blond scientist could have betrayed them all like that.
The Third Child shifted his position slightly, and his head bumped into something he'd left on his bed as a result. Reaching out, he grabbed it, and he was unsurprised to discover that it was his SDAT player. Opening it, he pulled out the tape inside, seeing that it was the recording of his mother's lecture that Ritsuko had given him.
He sighed again. He had faith in Ritsuko, but he was afraid that the only reason he did was because she'd been nice to him, that he would be as loyal to anyone who was nice to him.
Am I that…easily led along? He wondered, frowning.
He didn't know. He didn't really trust his own judgment, and why should he? He had never been good with people.
All he knew was that he really hoped Ritsuko was all right.
"Well, I really screwed up things this time," Ritsuko grumbled to herself.
(Oh, come on, you're being too hard on yourself.) The scarab protested. (You took every precaution you could think of to keep your secret from getting out. This was probably inevitable. And besides, things aren't that bad.)
"Not relative to what we know could have happened, no," Ritsuko conceded. "But still, I'm in a damn cave. Unless you're a spelunker, I really can't think of anything that says 'You seriously screwed up at life somehow' louder than being in a cave."
She looked around at her surroundings as she said this, holding back a sigh as she took in the rocky walls and the pile of equipment on the sandy ground.
Following her flight from NERV headquarters, Blue Beetle had grabbed all the Reach tech from her home and then gone out and…commandeered a few other pieces from here and there. Only once she'd collected an absurd amount of hardware did she realize that she had no place to actually go with all of it.
She'd wanted to stay, if not in Tokyo-3, then at least somewhere with civilization. After all, civilization was where things like running water were. However, given her need to avoid detection while she did what she had to, it had ultimately become clear that she needed to be away from people.
Thus, a cave. Specifically, a cave by Yuaki Harbor, which was located just between Tokyo-2 and Tokyo-3.
She was in the process of enhancing the generator she'd obtained with Reach tech when the scarab informed her that she was getting a call on the Blue Phone.
Ritsuko sighed. "Knew this was going to come sooner or later," she muttered. "Let's answer it, scarab."
(Right.) The scarab replied as it quickly put her in the armor.
"General Katsuro?" Blue Beetle said.
"Yes, it's me, Beetle," he replied, sounding incredibly harried and tired. "Or perhaps I should call you Doctor Ritsuko Akagi."
Blue Beetle couldn't help but wince. "That wouldn't be inaccurate."
"So, you work for NERV," Katsuro said.
"Worked," she corrected the general. "I think it's safe to say that my tenure as the chairperson of Project-E is over."
Katsuro ignored her. "Do you have any idea the kind of nightmare this knowledge has unleashed?"
"I can imagine," she replied.
"No, I'm not sure that you can," he growled. "Every superior I have, both in the military and the civilian government, has been calling me up and demanding answers. The media is parked right outside my home, and they seem to be setting up for the long haul. The god damn UN Secretary General wants a word with me. Oh, and Commander Ikari's put through a few calls to my office as well. All of them want answers that I don't have, except maybe for your former employer. They all know that I didn't know who you were under that armor, even though I told everyone I was aware of your identity. The reputation of the JSSDF is more heavily stained than ever."
The volume of his voice rose steadily as he delivered this tirade. Blue Beetle reflexively tried to pull her ear away from the phone, but since the "phone" was inside her helmet, this didn't work.
"I'm sorry, General," she said once she was sure he was finished. There didn't seem to be much else she could say in response to that. "What do you want me to do?" she asked.
Of course, she had her own agenda, so if the general's desires conflicted with that, then that was just too bad. However, she had ultimately brought a lot of trouble down upon Katsuro and his branch of the military, so if there was any way she could alleviate his difficulties without endangering everything she was working toward, then she felt obligated to try and help him.
"First, answer me this," Katsuro said, "did you ever sabotage an Evangelion or anything else used by NERV to make yourself or the JSSDF look better?"
"Absolutely not," she answered immediately.
"All right, well, at least there's that," Katsuro said.
(You did sabotage the Jet Alone to make NERV look better, though.) The scarab put in.
Quiet, you, Blue Beetle replied.
"Are people really saying that I did that?" she asked the general. "I would never endanger any of the EVA pilots like that!"
"Good luck getting anyone to believe that, though," Katsuro grunted. "Look, just stay hidden for a while, if you can. This is one hell of a mess, but it's possible that it could die down eventually, especially if NERV somehow drops that ball in a way that doesn't immediately result in the death of us all. People can be very forgiving of someone's sins when their survival is at stake. I, or more likely my replacement, might have use of you at some point, but only if nothing else happens."
"I understand, sir," Blue Beetle said.
"Good," Katsuro grunted. "Also, until such as a time comes that everyone becomes more willing to forget your sins, it would be unwise for us to have any further contact after this. Or for you to have contact with anyone in the JSSDF, for that matter."
"I understand," Blue Beetle said again.
The general chuckled grimly. "Who knows, maybe if things go well, you'll be able to show your face in public again in time for you to attend the party to celebrate my retirement, which I'm sure is imminent," he said. "Sayonara, Dr. Akagi."
"Good bye, General."
He terminated the call then, and for a moment, all was quiet inside the little cave that Ritsuko had reluctantly made her new home.
(Well, that could've gone worse.) The scarab observed.
"It could've gone better, too," Blue Beetle said with a sigh.
Shedding the armor, Ritsuko got back to the task of setting up her hideout, silently making the connections between the various pieces of hardware she had, both those from her home and the others ones she'd picked up on the way.
(Ritsuko, are you okay?) The scarab asked quietly after she had spent several minutes working in complete, dour silence.
"What do you think, scarab?" she asked.
(Probably not.) The scarab replied.
"Probably not," she agreed.
(But why?) The scarab asked, and she was surprised by how dismayed it sounded. (I mean, we escaped the Scarlet Scarab's fate! That has to count for something! You should be happy about that! Or at least relieved!)
"I know, and I am relieved," she said. "But I guess I just…"
(Just what?) The scarab prompted.
"I'm just feeling pretty…disheartened, I guess," she said. "Things were going so well. It looked like we were actually going to succeed in getting NERV disbanded and saving the damn world. I actually got my hopes up, which believe me, hasn't happened in a long time. Then just like that, Ikari turns it around on us, and it looks like a safe bet that he's going to get to carry out his precious Scenario. He's going to win. He always wins." She finished in little more than a whisper.
(Ritsuko!)
She jumped, caught off guard by the scarab's shout. "What?!" she demanded, annoyed.
(That's no way to talk!) The scarab scolded her sternly. (Gendo Ikari hasn't beaten us until we're dead, or lobotomized like the Scarlet Scarab was. Or if we give up.) It added meaningfully. (The whole plan to get the UN to pull NERV's funding may have fallen apart, but you still have me and the armor. Not to mention all the knowledge of advanced Reach technology that's stored in my database. There's more than one way to skin a rat.)
"Cat," she corrected the scarab. "There's more than one way to skin a cat."
(Whatever!) The scarab said, immediately going from pep talk to the verge of a temper tantrum. Ritsuko had to admit she was rather relieved by the shift; she was much more used to the scarab acting childish. (The point is that there's no reason to give up just because we've been dealt a setback! The world's at stake! And so are the lives of Shinji and Misato and Maya! Also, that figure of speech makes no sense and is barbaric anyway!)
"This coming from a being whose solution to everything is a bigger gun and more explosions," Ritsuko retorted. "Still…I suppose you have a point."
(Well, of course I do!)
The blonde couldn't help but smirk at how the scarab managed to sound triumphant and exasperated at once. She connected one last wire. "I think I'm finished setting all this up," she said.
(Let me check…yes, all our activity inside this cave should be completely undetectable by anyone not using Reach tech sensors.) The scarab confirmed.
"Which we never gave anyone," Ritsuko added.
(That's right. It looks like you're done.)
"No, I'm not," Ritsuko said, gathering up all the spare components she had. "In fact, I've only started. After all, the people I care about are still in danger from SEELE and Ikari's crazy Scenario."
If the scarab had had a human face, it would've been grinning smugly.
Located in the Volga district of Russia, the Totskoye Air Base had been used heavily during the time of the Soviet Union, then shut down just prior to Second Impact, only for the Russian government to quickly reactivate it when the Impact Wars had commenced. Following the signing of the Saint Valentine's Day Treaty, which had ended that conflict, the base had again been closed.
Officially, it was still closed.
In reality, the base had been quietly reopened by order of the Human Instrumentality Committee's Chairman Keel, for the purpose of Evangelion construction. It was a perfect place for such a secret project; the Totskoye range had been the sight of a nuclear test in the 1950's, which had been immediately followed by some extremely ill-advised military exercises. As a result of the scandal which had followed, the government had tightly controlled the area ever since, taking onus to any journalist's attempts to so much as have a look. The government and the military acting as though there was some great secret hidden there was the norm and aroused no suspicion.
Seated in a small watchtower on the perimeter of the main base, a young soldier by the name of Gregory was aware of the place's history but largely indifferent to it. Actions the Soviet Union had taken more than fifty years ago hardly seemed relevant to him.
Indeed, at the moment, very little that was happening seemed relevant at all to him.
"Damn place turns into a ghost town practically overnight, but do I get reassigned? No," he grumbled to himself, shuffling the worn deck of cards he was using to play solitaire. "Gregory gets left behind all alone to guard the giant robot, as though someone might steal it if the thing was left unattended."
The young soldier wasn't really the only one left at the base, although he would've said that it felt like it. Unit Eight, one of the new Mass Produced Evangelions, had recently been completed, and since then, people had been leaving the old base in droves. It would eventually be transported to…wherever it was the Committee intended to send it (Gregory could only assume Tokyo-3), but until then, it was the responsibility of the Russian military.
Hence, Gregory's intensely boring guard duty.
"In other news, the UN Security Council decided to preserve NERV's funding in a unanimous vote earlier today," the little radio he'd smuggled up to the watch tower crackled.
"Big surprise," Gregory said as he set up another game of solitaire with now practiced motions.
He scowled. It didn't look like he had much chance of finishing this one.
With a sigh, he reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a battered cigarette. Producing an equally battered old lighter, he struck it one, twice, three times…
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion, powerful enough to shake the ground, went off the second he managed to finally get a flame, prompting Gregory to release a cry of fright and drop the scratched Zippo to floor as he fell out of his chair. Turning the air blue with Russian profanities, Gregory climbed to his feet.
The unlit cigarette fell from his lips.
The massive steel container where Unit Eight had been housed was now no more than a smoke wreck, the area around it littered with twisted pieces of the thing's once white armor, as well as…flesh?
"I am so dead," the man moaned.
As he was gazing out at the burning wreckage, the two-way radio he had clipped to his belt crackled to life.
"Gregory, are you there? Damn it, you'd better not be sleeping!" a familiar voice barked out. "We've just gotten a message from command! Someone's been destroyed the new Evangelions in rapid succession! Look alive down there, man!"
The young soldier could only release a mirthless laugh. "He couldn't have called two minutes ago, could he?"
(Well, that's another one down.) The scarab observed cheerfully as the Blue Beetle flew away from the Totskoye Air Base, out of shift with the rest of reality so as to avoid detection.
"Which leaves only one left to go," Blue Beetle agreed, consulting with a map she called up on her HUD. "The last one's in the States, though. SEELE will have plenty of time to scramble some forces to defend it before we can get there."
(So what?) The scarab asked dismissively. (Nothing they have can even see us, let alone stop us.)
"I'm worried about collateral damage, scarab," Blue Beetle answered with some irritation. "The last thing I want is to slaughter a bunch of soldiers who are only doing their jobs when I blow the last of the MP Evangelions."
(Oh, right. I suppose that would be bad.) The scarab admitted sheepishly.
Blue Beetle supposed that, having been engineered as a weapon, the scarab really couldn't be blamed too much for not giving very much thought to preserving life, but it still wasn't something she could overlook, let alone encourage.
(If you wanted to destroy them in really rapid succession, we could've done that, you know.) The scarab pointed out. (Some orbital bombardment from us would've taken care of them. With their AT Fields inactive, it wouldn't have been hard.)
"I know that, but if we did it that way, it would've been obvious that it was us," Blue Beetle pointed out, "and we've already made more than enough trouble for Katsuro."
(And you think people won't "know" that you're behind the destruction of the EVA Series?) The scarab asked skeptically.
"I'm sure they will, but this is the best I can do," Blue Beetle replied. "If maintaining a little plausible deniability is the most I can give Katsuro and the JSSDF, then so be it. But we have to take out the whole EVA Series. The damn things are too powerful, and they're completely under SEELE's control. Shinji and the other pilots are in danger from the old bastards so long as they exist."
(And what about Gendo?)
"One problem at a time, scarab," Blue Beetle retorted. "Now punch it."
(You got it.)
The armor on the bottom of the sapphire superwoman's feet shifted, sprouting a pair of rockets which quickly ignited. Blue Beetle grimaced as she felt the force of acceleration pressing down on her.
We're doing Mach 4 at the moment, right? She asked it, not even attempting to speak out loud.
(We're doing Mach 4 and still accelerating.)
Have I mentioned that you're the best accessory a girl could possibly ask for? She queried.
(Yes, but not nearly often enough.)
In seemingly only minutes, Blue Beetle found herself traveling from the middle of Russia to the middle of the United States, specifically a NERV base in Kansas that was firmly under the control of SEELE rather than Gendo Ikari.
"Damn," Blue Beetle said as she slowed down to observe the place with her armor's advanced sensors.
Despite the breakneck pace at which she had destroyed the other Units in the EVA Series and then crossed the ocean, her prediction about SEELE having time to scramble forces proved itself completely true. What looked like an entire armor division was parked outside the base in the dusty Kansas desert, and dozens of soldiers were standing guard right next to the EVA Unit.
Blue Beetle found the latter much more of an issue than the former. The tanks she could easily bypass; with her out of step with the rest of her native dimension, they couldn't even detect her anyway. The same was true about the soldiers, of course, but Blue Beetle didn't want to kill them when she blew the last MP EVA.
"One thing at a time," she muttered to herself.
Flying through the walls of the base itself, Blue Beetle headed straight toward her target. The massive form of the EVA stood surrounded by scaffolding, with the soldiers nearby, a silent giant in white armor being defended by Lilliputians.
"God these Mass Produced Units are ugly," she whispered, feeling the need to keep quiet even though she knew the squad of armed men present couldn't hear or see her.
(And the other Evangelions are so pretty?) The scarab asked.
"More than this," she replied.
The other Evangelions were fearsome, but there was something about these that were simply grotesque, at least so far as Blue Beetle was concerned.
Flying behind the white EVA, the sapphire superwoman affixed a blue and black cylinder about twice the size of a soda can to it. The special bomb utilized Reach tech and stayed phased until she sent it the detonate signal. It also packed the punch of a large N2 mine, more than enough to destroy an Evangelion if it didn't have to go through an AT field.
(Now what?) The scarab asked, knowing that they'd kill over a dozen people if they simply blew the bomb.
"Now we blast those guys with the Suppression Rifle and get them out of here," Blue Beetle answered.
(They're armed with Reach-tech guns.) The scarab warned her. (Those rifles can pierce even your armor.)
"I don't care," she replied. "I won't kill a roomful of innocent people to further my own agenda, no matter what it is. I wouldn't be any better than Gendo or Keel if I did that."
The scarab was silent for a second, then the armor on Blue Beetle's right arm started to shift and change into a weapon. (Suppression Rifle ready.)
Nodding, Blue Beetle quickly went around so she was in front of the MP EVA but behind the group of soldiers standing guard. She pointed her weapon at them.
"Now!"
The scarab phased her back into sync with the rest of reality, and Blue Beetle fired. The blast of light crashed into the group of soldiers, and about half of them collapsed limply to the ground.
The other half, unfortunately, reacted as though they'd expected a sneak attack from behind. Displaying no confusion or surprise, they immediately turned and starting firing their weapons, which spat blue bolts of deadly energy her way.
Cursing, Blue Beetle quickly ducked behind the scaffolding that surrounded the MP EVA, occasionally firing her weapon at the remaining soldiers from this cover and missing every time.
Once again, the fact that she was a scientist and not a soldier definitely worked against her.
(You do know we're gonna have a whole damn army in here in a minute, don't you?) The scarab asked.
"Shut up," Blue Beetle snapped.
(Hey, you were the one who insisted on saving them.)
She was about to retort when she heard something behind her. Turning, the Blue Beetle's eyes widened.
The MP EVA was moving. The damn thing had been activated, probably with a Dummy Plug.
(It's a trap!)
"No, really?!" Blue Beetle shouted sarcastically.
The white giant abruptly lashed out, attempting to swat her out of air like a house fly. Blue Beetle barely managed to dodge the blow, but the EVA's movement completely destroyed the scaffolding surrounding it. The heavily metal structure released a loud creak, then began to completely collapse.
"No!" Blue Beetle screamed.
It was too late; hundreds of tons of twisted metal went crashing down onto the group of soldiers, instantly burying all of them. There was no way they could have possibly survived that.
"God damn it!" the sapphire superwoman swore. She hadn't wanted anyone to die, let alone a group of young men who'd just been doing their jobs. "Scarab, get ready to blow that bomb! We're getting out of here!"
(I can't! The detonation signal can't get through an AT Field!)
Blue Beetle cursed again, her mind whirling even as she dodged the attacks of the MP EVA, which were steadily bringing the whole damn building down around their ears.
She likely had only minutes, if not seconds, before the soldiers outside got close enough to be within the blast radius of the bomb, or anything else she could do that would destroy the EVA. She needed to blow the damn thing now unless she wanted more innocent people to die.
"God damn it," she swore, more resigned than anything else. "Scarab, start transmitting the detonation signal continuously."
(Okay.)
Blue Beetle gave her armor a mental command, and the gun on her arm shifted, changing from the Suppression Rifle to a much largeer, more deadly firearm.
"Die, you ugly bastard!" Blue Beetle snarled, flying straight toward it, weapon blazing.
Azure death met the orange wall of the EVA's AT field, and for a moment, the unstoppable force battled with the immovable object.
Then Blue Beetle's weapon breached the field, and the detonation signal got through. The bomb returned to their dimension an instant before it exploded.
And the world turned white.
Meanwhile, in a virtual meeting chamber, twelve holographic monoliths were circled around an equally holographic image. It was a live feed from the Kansas NERV base.
The men hidden behind their blank avatars watched silently as Blue Beetle appeared and opened fire on the soldiers guarding the last of the Mass Produced Evangelions. None of them said a word when the EVA came to life and destroyed the structure surrounding, causing it to crush the soldiers.
The feed finally terminated when the Blue Beetle's bomb exploded.
"It is done," SEELE 01 spoke into the silence. "The Blue Beetle is dead."
"But at what cost?" SEELE 08 groused. "All the Mass Produced Evangelions are gone!"
"Frankly, the odds of stopping Blue Beetle's campaign to destroy them were always slim, especially given how quickly she carried it out," SEELE 01 replied. "In any case, we have other means of getting what we desire. Make no mistake. With the Blue Beetle eliminated, we can seize control of matters once again."
Author's Notes: I swear, I didn't intend to end this chapter like this. I actually had a completely different conclusion in mind when I sat down to write this. But somehow I ended up leaving Ritsuko's fate extremely uncertain once again.
Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.