Rebuild: A Warrior From A (Counter) Earth Chapter 4, an evangelion fanfic

Tal again everyone. Sorry this one took so long! Please enjoy Rebuild: A Warrior From A (Counter) Earth chapter 4.

Berlin 2003

Tarl Cabot mused, fully conscious of the irony, that it was like something from a pulpy spy novel.

They met in a park. He was wearing dark aviator sunglasses and a red sport shirt that would be offensively bright if not against the background of the historic district. Her disguise, such that it was, consisted of dark glasses and a grey silk scarf pulled over her head. Her dull blue wool skirt and drab jumper were expected of an academic, but quite unbecoming given her status when they had last met.

"So is there a code phrase I have to give or is it a secret handshake?" He asked, folding his paper.

"Witty as ever, captain."

"Captain? It has been a great while since anybody called me that."

She looked this way and that and, with no one about, leaned towards him and whispered. "Well I'm not going to very well call you master this and master that like I used to, am I?"

The last time Tarl Cabot and Yui Ikari had met, it had been in the pirate haven city of Port Kar, rising from the sea in the delta of the Vosk river which flowed to the sea called Thassa. Then he had been a captain, sitting on the council of men that governed the city. She had been kajira, a glamourous slave girl glad in gold, silk, and jewels, who served at the feet of a reaver feared from the polar fjords of Torvaldsland to the islands so far they were thought myth.

Tarl smiled and rose, extending his broad hand. "It has been a long time, Yui."

"Too long, captain." Yui clasped Tarl's hand between her own and shook it with a small bow before letting go.

They began to walk the path through the park to the street. "I was surprised when I got your letter. I thought you two were living in Japan."

"We are. I knew you might be in Germany and I was going to be here for a conference, so I thought it would be fun to catch up."

They walked together to a nearby cafe. Orders placed and coffee brought, they then continued.

"You look well for being back on Earth all this time."

"Thank you. A woman does not always feel at her best when caring for a toddler."

"Oh yes, I heard. How old is he now, a year and a half?"

"Two."

"Wonderful. Is the little rogue showing any inclination to take after his parents yet?"

"If you mean raising every sort of hell between here and Port Kar and getting away with it, oh yes."

Tarl's lips twitched up into a smile. "I never thought myself the sort for children, but they certainly grow on you. You know, I always thought the same of Gendo."

"That he grows on you?" Yui quipped.

Tarl chuckled. "That he would not desire children. I thought him an outlaw that would never settle down."

"He has taken a liking to peace."

"Even if it is only peace in comparison?"

Yui conceded the point with a nod and a "Yes" that Tarl thought sounded rather exasperated. "It can change people."

"It also makes a different sort of person. We share an experience you and I, growing to adulthood here but only maturing on Gor. We understand how denying certain fundamental truths twists people."

"That is actually what I wished to speak to you about. I… We would like to see Shinji raised traditionally. Perhaps back on Gor, back home."

One copper eyebrow raised above his sunglasses. Tarl had not missed the substitution of the plural for the singular. "That is surprising. I recall Gendo being eager to follow you back to Earth."

"I know, but perhaps time makes memories fonder. I know with… what we did, we are just outlaws."

"No."

"Tarl, I know…"

"I will finish, if the kajira who has forgotten her manners will let me."

Yui very quickly bowed her head. It was reflex from trained deference.

"He was an outlaw, you were and are kajira."

"Yes."

"What was that?"

"Aye, Vana'she."

"Thank you. Continue."

"What I meant was, we don't have caste. Even if we returned we couldn't give him any sort of life for a child. What I truly mean is, if he was to be raised in the traditional way we would like to see him fostered into the high castes. Specifically the warriors."

Tarl said nothing for a moment. He leaned back in his chair and rested his chin on his knuckles, his elbow on the arm of the seat.

"I suppose we have come to the purpose of this meeting. I take it you wish us to foster the boy?"

Yui nodded. Tarl made a slight nod against his fist, his eyes inscrutable behind the dark glasses.

"This is about the project, isn't it?"

"Yes… Has she told you?"

"My companion has told me much." And I will not be expanding further lest you know how much I know, was left unspoken. "I know what is to come. I will soon return to Gor to make preparations and then come back to this world once more to ferry them home, to safety."

"And how is your daughter?"

"Harrowing hell in some kind of pincer movement with your son, so I am told. My visits have been less frequent than I would like. However you are trying to distract from the point."

"Would it be so bad for her to have a brother to grow up with? They seemed to get on well when..." Yui stopped herself when Tarl raised his jaw from his hand and held up a finger for silence.

"I am not going to be stealing Gendo's son, and her living under the same roof as a boy is just asking for trouble. But... this project requires sacrifices from all of us."

"So that our children may have a future."

"If they live that long."

"They will be safer there."

"And you want to put Gendo's son in the agoge?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because anything less and the chances of anyone surviving, here or there, are substantially less."

"Your master doesn't know you are here." Tarl said. It was in that way he so often did, phrasing what should have been a question as fact. She had been found out. What came next would be crucial. Her husband, for Gendo was no longer truly her master, would stop this scheme before it started. She had to convince Tarl Cabot that this was necessary.

"No, he does not."

"Give me a reason not to send you back black and blue."

"Gendo is a good man, who loves me and our son without reservation. However guided by that love he will obstruct cruel things which must take place. Tarl, I have a plan. I know, and I am better equipped to understand than anyone, that it will work but I need your help."

He stared at her for some time. She watched tension pass across his arm and shoulders, how his brow twitched, looked for an indication of his answer. When he did not speak, Yui took off her sunglasses and laid them on the table. She pulled down her scarf. Then she bowed her head, hands resting on her legs, and spoke.

"Please, captain, this girl begs your favor. To listen to what she has to say. If you find her wanting, return her properly corrected, but please just hear her out."

Her head still low, she listened. After a tense moment, she heard him take a sharp breath through his nose.

"Very well." He said. "Speak."

It took twenty minutes for her to explain. Her pitch, as it was, had been carefully practiced. The meal finished as well, they rose from the table. Tarl saw the merit of her words.

Present

Hikari did not so much sit on the concrete bench as she fell and happened to land comfortably. Almost immediately, she yawned.

"Hey bae."

"Hey." Hikari responded weakly. With her class duties this was their normal routine and it had been nice to have it back along with her boyfriend. Toji would leave for lunch with the rest of the class and stake out their normal spot. She would then catch up once she retrieved her bento or bought something. That had been until the weird new transfer student arrived and brought all sorts of headache inducing chaos with him. Today he was blissfully gone, having ditched class at some point in the morning. Kensuke Aida, Toji's usual accomplice, was also indisposed with some project or other.

"You alright?" Toji asked, his hand already wrapped serpentine around her waist and over her hip.

"Yeah…" Hikari said, slumping against his big shoulders. "Was just up late helping Nozomi with her solar system project."

"How late?"

Hikari didn't answer. Toji cared. The big lug always cared, about everything about her. He was a great boyfriend and he had never been pushy. Even when she had been really sad once and he had cheered her up, and she had been ready to do the deed right there, he had so no. He had said that it would not be right to take advantage of her like that.

He fussed over her it seemed sometimes. Every little bruise or scrape required an explanation, but she understood. He loved her and cared about her enough to want to know.

"Hikari…" Toji asked, both a question and an authoritative command. Despite her reluctance, that voice, that tone which spoke his concern, compelled her to tell the truth. That concern sometimes made her feel bad though. Sometimes she did not want to answer just because she did not want to disappoint him.

"I made her go to bed about midnight so she wouldn't be such a terror in the morning."

"And you?"

"I… stayed up to finish it."

"When did you go to bed?"

HIkari pulled her shoulders forward and bowed her head before answering meekly. "I didn't."

A sharp intake of breath and a slow release. Hikari winced. Despite his size and willingness to come to violence over trivial things like honor and who said what and things like that, Toji had never ever, not once, laid an unwelcome hand on her.

Sometimes when he got like this though, she kinda wished he would. Then it would be over and done. He did not shout, or rant, or do any of those things. If someone didn't know him they might not even realize he was mad. Instead he brooded, and his anger just hung over him like the shadow under a storm.

Most people never saw it but Toji was a deep guy. Her especially never even bothered to look. He thought a lot. When he did anything, he did because he chose to, not because he lost control.

To the outside world, whatever displeasure he had had passed, but she could feel it still.

"She should of had it done a few weeks ago. I remember that project, teach assigns it at the start of term and you get like two months." He finally said..

"I know."

"Did she even start it before last night?"

Hikari shook her head. "Nope."

"She is such a little shit." He said, then his shoulders were rumbling with laughter and that dark cloud was gone. She was laughing too.

"Oh she is, the little monster. Do you know what she said when I asked her why?"

Toji stuck his chopsticks in his lunch and put his hands together, making big eyes at Hikari and cracking a high pitched voice. "But I knew big sis would help me!"

"Exactly! With that cheesy grin and everything!"

They snickered until her stomach rumbled so loudly she put one hand over her belly and the other over her mouth just in case a belch was to follow. Toji looked her up and down. He had not noticed when she sat down and she was hoping he wouldn't.

Hikari kept her hand over her mouth and turned her eyes to the ground. Before, with the thing with Nozomi, he had not been mad at her. Just mad that it happened and she suffered for it.

"What happened to your lunch?"

She groaned behind her hand.

Slowly, softly, he wrapped his fingers around her wrist. His hand on her wrist was not uncomfortable, but he was firm when he pulled her hand from her lips.

"I didn't get a chance to make one. By the time I finished her project, I just had enough time to make her's, Kodama's and dad's."

He didn't ask why she did not go buy something. He didn't need to. Neither of them were from rich families.

"Have some of mine. Dad's cooking is better than any of that swill the lunch cart has anyway."

"No no, I'm fine, really…"

"Bae…"

"Toji, no really it's okay…"

"Hikari…" Toji plucked up a piece of salmon from his lunchbox in two fingers. "Eat."

Hikari opened her mouth to respond. She may have even gotten a sound out before there was fish, rice, and her boyfriend's fingers in her mouth. The heat wave through her face made her want to just go hide. It was not that it felt dirty… it felt… good.

"You need to eat. Dad is trying to make me explode with all the food he gives me." He said as he pulled his fingers away and she chewed her food as the color left her face. "So eat or I am going to keep feeding you by hand."

Aaaaaand the flush was back!

She thought about something she would not do.

She absolutely would not do it. That was her solid decision as she swallowed and he lifted the box towards her. That was something just… just unbecoming, especially in public! It was scandalous. That was her opinion on the matter as she pushed his hand away and turned up her nose impishly.

"Come on, eat."

"Make me."

An eyebrow raised. "Excuse me?"

"You do it better." Hikari said and bit her lip with a blush.

Had this been a somewhat saner world, functioning in a reasonable way, these two nice kids might have grown into otherwise productive members of society with an interesting private life and a large collection of exotic leather goods. The sort who say they value 'structure' and 'traditional gender roles'.

As if a reminder that this was not such a world, the sirens began to wail.

This was Tokyo-3 and this was a world in which a mother sending her only son to a savage world to toughen him up seemed reasonable. Sanity had never even heard of the place.

Makoto Hyuga jammed furiously at his keyboard before pushing off the floor and riding his swivel chair to another console while the MAGI finished compiling the first. Klaxons blared across the command bridge as a dozen holographic screens bathed the floor in rainbow light.

"Damn angels. Sixteen years since impact and now we barely get a week!"

Captain Misato Katsuragi arrived, clipping an earpiece into place.

"Status Report!"

"The MAGI have confirmed the blue pattern and designated it as the 4th angel. Blue pattern is moving overland, approaching the city from the West. At current speed it will reach the first defensive perimeter in fifty five minutes." Maya Ibuki called out.

"Okay, we have time. What's the twenty on the children?"

"Um, about that… They are already in the number thirty seven elevator heading down." Hyuga read off his screen, adjusting his glasses. "That's odd… it's nowhere near the school."

"Don't know, don't care. How long until they get down here?"

"Should be at the ready room in ninety seconds."

"Great. Eva status?"

"One is ready to go, zero won't even be ambulatory for…"

"It's not ready now, I don't care."

In the number thirty seven elevator, Shinji was anxious. The alarm brought them both back from their lust and all of that angry passion had been given over to nerves before the coming battle. While Rei simply stood there, he could not for his life sit still. So he bounced his feet, paced the elevator, wringed his hands, stretches his limbs, anything to occupy his body while his mind raced with excitement, thoughts of glory, and the ugly head of doubt.

Rei watched him, following only with her eyes as he moved in the elevator like an animal in a cage. She had always approached the thought of placing herself in harm's way with detachment. It was as it was, and she was fulfilling her purpose in doing so. He, like everything he did, approached it with passion. His passion and a veritable storm of emotion practically emanated from him. His excitement and fierce anger was on display for any who looked to see.

She found herself… envious. He was the other side of the passion of slaves which she had read about. Which made a certain sense. It must take men like this to arouse such in women. She wondered what his thoughts were that his emotions could be read so clearly.

As the elevator came to a stop and the door opened, Shinji's thoughts were simple and straightforward. He was going to kill that angel. Twice.

Religion was an odd thing for Shinji, as it was for any member of the high castes. However there were traditions. As he followed Rei to the ready room, he traced a circle on his chest and spoke just above a whisper.

"Tar Sardar Gor, lo rastari kiimacus."

"What does that mean?"

Shinji looked up to find the lady's crimson eyes upon him.

"I did not think you would hear."

"What does it mean?"

"It only a thing said before battle."

He made to walk past her, but she caught him by the wrist. Her fingers were small, her grip light, but he stopped.

"Please tell me."

"By the Priest-Kings of Gor, I now make war."

He watched her nod and then, to his surprise, make the circle over her own chest.

"By the Priest-Kings of Gor, I now make war."

Shinji smiled and her hold on his wrist became their hands hands wrapped around each other's. "And so we shall, Lady Rei, and so we shall."

"Dude come on!" Kensuke yelled over his shoulder.

"Dammit, Kensuke, the shelter is this way!"

"And if I go there, I'm not going to be able to see the fight. Now come on, this is going to be awesome."

It is a fact universally acknowledged that a teenage boy in possession of a stupidly dangerous idea, will always be followed by his otherwise reasonable friend. If for no other reason than when the story of the adventure is told later, someone can verify. Or identify the body.

Shinji watched the moving images of the angel. Purple with bits of bone sticking out, floating through the air like a leaf on the wind. And that red gem, like the first one.

"Will I be assaulting this foe with a knife as well?" Shinji asked with absolutely no attempt to mask his sarcasm. It was a giant flat slug. Or perhaps it was like a man-o-war, the creatures which sailed on the sea like men with stinging tentacles beneath. Tarl said they had those nasty things on Earth.

"Cut the sass, this is serious." Misato snapped. "You'll have a rifle, just like the one you trained with. The plan is for you take up position and wait until you have a clear shot at the core, here."

The captain pointed towards the red gem on the largest display. "We believe that will immediately kill the angel. You are to engage as far from the city as possible."

At that moment, Rei spoke for the first time since the meeting began. At first her eyes had been on the material, but from the moment he spoke her attention had been on Shinji.

"What shall I do, Captain?"

"Unit 00 is still not mobile, and even if it was, it's not rated for combat yet. You'll be on standby."

"Yes Captain."

"Dude! There it is!" Kensuke shouted. He and Toji had come around the final hill between them and the angel. It was still at least a couple kilometers distant, but the sheer size of the thing simply awed them both for a moment.

"O-okay. Now we've seen it, so let's GO!"

"No way, it's all the way over there. Nowhere close to us. 'Sides, Shinji will come out in the eva and take it down no problem. He's a gorean warrior, he's got this."

"It's still not safe."

"Man, let me tell you about Gor and what he knows…"

Shinji relaxed as the not-quite-blood engulfed him and the tingle of static crawled over his body. This was easy now, simple, even comfortable.

Despite how alien the whole situation was, for the first time since he had come to Earth Shinji felt like things were as they should be. Like his mind was right. He was going to go out, kill the enemy, then come back and force the true woman in Lady Rei to yield. This was good, this was right, this was as things should be. As his fingers squeezed the control yokes, another mind was equally pleased with his condition.

In this moment, Shinji was the picture of the gorean warrior. Proud, aggressive, confident and totally sure that whatever he wanted in the world could be found at the tip of his weapon.

Perfect…

The battle was going…. Poorly.

He had positioned himself exactly as Captain Katsuragi had ordered and had awaited her command before firing. The effect on the angel would charitably be described as annoyance. As if bothered by a fly. And as if bothered by a fly, the beast responded by swatting at the source of irritation.

The swat, with burning whips of light, had ripped the rifle from the eva's hands, his hands, and sent it far afield. That had just been a reaction. When the beast stopped and moved into an upright posture to confront him directly, then things took a turn for the worse.

"Unit One has lost 20% of its exterior armor layer!"

"Pilot status."

"Synchronization is dropping rapidly. The damage is mainly across the arms, so no direct damage to the cockpit. Synchronization has dropped below levels known to cause sympathetic damage."

"What's he doing, is he conscious, what?"

"We just lost comms, I'm sorry captain, we can't reach him! No vitals either!"

Inside the evangelion, Shinji was conscious. Conscious of the fact he was barely deflecting the creatures lightning strike fast blows from his torso. It had burned, at first. He didn't have time to think on the fact it didn't hurt anymore. He didn't have time to think about anything but where the next attack was coming from.

And he most certainly did not have time for doubt. For the idea that this was not difficult because he was doing the impossible, but because he was inadequate to the task. He did not have time for it but yet it made itself known and so the burning tentacle of light made its way through his guard.

The soul within the evangelion raged.

Dammit dammit dammit it by the priest kings and all the hells!

Strong but feminine hands grabbed him by the shoulders, his body slamming against the walls of the entry plug as though shaken with bloody violence.

You are a warrior! Face the enemy! Shout your war cry and Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!

She yelled and she screamed until she was hoarse, or would be if she had a throat. She cursed him, extolled him, probed his mind for any lever she could work to push him, but everywhere there was the inky black cloud of doubt.

Such fools boys could be, and men doubly so! And he was caught between one and the other and all the worse for it.

The final impact came as the giant slammed into the hillside on its back. Shinji coughed and blood bellowed out in a red cloud in the LCL. He croaked out slurred words, his head swimming.

What? WHAT?!

"I go… I go with pride and honor."

This is not where you die, warrior! Get up! Fight! Stop this self righteous pity and FIGHT!

"And may my comrades…"

More funeral rites, pointless to listen further. Think, think, think… Damn the warriors and their word of mouth apprentice and master soldier bullshit. Had she her way she would have memorized all the codes and teachings but her access to his mind did not work that way she needed…

"...Find me worthy, and may songs be sung and…"

Warriors, soldiers… That was it! Comrades, pride, honor, it's all about the group mentality. No matter how skillful and deadly they are, they are meant to work in groups. He needed comrades, friends. With an objective, something to seek out, she dove into his mind, searching… searching… Friends, okay he had made friends. The blue haired wench was no good, no he already had designs on her in other ways, but these boys and one an enclaver, yes they would do nicely. Where were they? If he could be convinced he was fighting for them perhaps.

Her mind expanded, signals reaching out to every sensor and databank within reach. She found them quite a bit closer than she had imagined.

Kensuke and Toji were watching with held breath when the angel broke the evangelions guard, grabbed the machine, then hurled it like a ragdoll across the valley.

And very much in their direction.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck…"

"Less cussing more running!" Toji yelled, hand iron clamped around his stunned friend's arm. When Kensuke did not move immediately, Toji growled. With both hands and a clean jerk, he pulled his friend free from the ground and over his shoulder, and then beat dirt across the hillside. He made to move laterally, not up or down. He figured that was the best way to avoid getting squashed by the incoming giant ragdoll.

When it came, the impact shook the earth beneath Toji's feet so strongly that Kensuke fell away from his shoulders and they ended up a tangled pile on the ground. The main body of the eva has missed them, but just barely. On their other side was the the purple arm and ground further down the hillside had sloughed away. They were trapped, and the angel was coming, whips of light tearing through the hills and sending arcs of dirt and ash into the air.

"Shitshitshit…" Toji swore, until there was a tugging at his jacket. This time it was Kensuke who was being sensible. The noise of the impact must have done something to his ears, for he could not hear his friend. But he could see him pointing. He could see the gap formed by the armpit of the evangelion. The machine was not flat on its back, rather its arms had propped it up just slightly, as though a man was laid out in relaxation on the green hill. They could get through there, if they bent over.

In trauma, one's mind often grasps at the odd things. Like just how hot the evangelion was. Even in the scant seconds as they passed between its arm and torso, Toji felt himself sweating. When they straightened up, his spirits fell. The evangelion's head was on the right side and the sleek black blade that rose from its shoulder on the left. Further up the hillside was too steep to climb. They both turned back and saw the angel, floating ever closer with tendrils raised and ready to deliver the final blow… and taking them too.

"Well, we're gonna die." Toji could hear Kensuke saying, as if on the other end of a long hallway.

"Yep." While Toji could hear himself clearly, it seemed his friend would also spend his final moments half deaf as he was yelling back.

"What?"

"I said there is something I want to tell you." Toji said, raising his voice but keeping himself facing the angel. Better to go that way than with your back to death.

"Better make it quick!"

"Kensuke, my…"

The ground shook once more as the purple giant stirred and the boys fought for footing while the earth shifted beneath their feet. The black pylons rose from their self dug ditches as the evangelion brought its back fully out of the earth, panels shifting along its shoulder blades until the white entry plug emerged. The hatch opened, the amber LCL flowed out.

"Shinji?"

"IN!"

"The hell is he doing?..."

"Who are they? Get me facial rec… wait I sec, I recognize the one with the glasses. Kensuke something or other, one of the kid's classmates."

"What are they doing here?"

"It doesn't matter. Do we have comms back?"

"No captain."

"Well shit, looks like we are going to have ask later." Misato said, eyes back on the cluster of views from fixed cameras and aircraft. 'If we survive' was left unsaid.

The hatch slammed shut, the darkness made even more disorienting as the plug slammed home and the evangelion began to rise, LCL flowing back in.

"Uh, Shinji, there is uh, water in here 'cept it doesn't smell like water." Toji said, sniffing. "Is that blood?!"

"Dude dude dude, it's cool, he told me about this stuff." Kensuke said as the LCL reached their legs. "We can breath it like air."

"What?!" Toji felt around until he found Shinji's arm. At least he figured it wasn't Kensuke's since it was covered in rubber. They had not gotten a real good look inside before the hatch closed. "Shinji, whats going on? Shinji!"

Toji shook his friend but with no result, he was stiff and silent. Toji felt a crawl of static across his body as the LCL rose and suddenly there was light. The outside world was all around him, from the viewpoint of a giant, and still approaching with the great worm, anxious whips circling.

Toji Suzuhara…

The outside world stopped, while warm hands cradled Toji's face.

You are the heir to greatness. Would you content yourself with the plain and boring life this world will offer you, with normalcy? Your inheritance, your birthright, is power. Take what you want….

Images of Hikari flashed through his mind. She was staring up at him, wanton, needful, bare to the world and reaching to him. Then hands pulled her away, covering her, concealing her.

Do what you will! Reject that any can stop you and you will stand above these lesser people.

Toji tore through the coverings and threw aside the guarding hands. He grabbed Hikari, His Hikari, by the hair and lifted her lips to his, his teeth biting down on her lip as her body wrapped around his.

It will be yours.

Now Toji was again faced with the angel.

If you fight. What will you do?

"I will fight."

At the same time, Unit One's attention was also on the other boy.

Kensuke Aida.

"I'm gonna die. Fuck fuck fuck, I am going to die."

Only if you choose to, only if you allow it.

"I think the angel has kind of made the decision for me."

What you see is no more dangerous than a human who has made a choice. You have a choice to make. To be plain, boring, weak, ineffectual, impotent…

"I get the message."

Or…

Kensuke's mind swam with visions. Strength, victory in battle, hardship and fortune. His will forced upon the world, his will commanding, his will as master. Weapons, women, whatever he desired was his to take at the tip of his blade.

So what will you do?

Kensuke felt gentle hands caress his face, nimble fingers lifting his glasses away from his eyes.

"I will fight."

That done, she turned her attention back to Shinji. She had been holding him, cutting him off from the world until everything was ready. Prepared, she released her grip, gently stroking his mind back to full consciousness. This environment would leave no room for his doubt. She showed him visions of his wench, not as she was now, but when she would truly be his. She showed him himself, covered in the blood of his enemies and shouting victory at the sky. His mind was awash in the warrior's will to power, reinforced by the two likewise hopped up young men beside him and feeding back into them in turn.

Just one final step.

She let go of them all, to give them a single space in which to think. And the result was beautiful.

Down in the geofront, there was great excitement as well though the reaction was somewhat less ecstatic.

"Captain!" Lt. Ibuki called out. "We have transmission from unit one, comms are back up."

The image of the entry plug interior which opened to occupy much of the bridge display was not entirely surprising. They had all seen the other two boys enter after all. The audio was a great deal more astonishing. Three voices spoke as one, like a demon with legion voices.

"This land will be your grave!"

The occupants of the bridge watched the evangelion rise to its full height. Enormous feet dug into the ground and titanic muscles clenched like catapult ropes drawn tight. The immediate area around the giant waved and flicked, the sheer heat generated by the machine cooking the air around it.

"Synchronization data is coming through… Captain, synch is at 300%!" Maya said, eyes locked on her console. "Brain noise is minimal, the wave pattern is almost identical across all three pilots."

Dr. Akagi was at her shoulder, reading, verifying. "Something is wrong, that shouldn't be possible. Make sure we are recording this, we never tried three pilots at once, had enough trouble getting the damn things to move with just one."

Misato Katsuragi was not issuing orders nor watching data come in. She was transfixed by the largest monitor in the room, watching the battle. There were no commands to be given. This wasn't war, this was not even a fight. It looked like nothing more than an animal being put down. A decidedly one sided affair at that.

The angel Shamshel lashed out with both appendages. This would end the resistance and allow it to fulfill its life defining goal.

Then the demonic opponent caught its arms.

That took a moment to process. The lilim shaped enemy held a tentacle in each of its shining fists, its arms raised above its head. Those hands should be not but ash. It should be writhing in pain, burning down to cinders. Not standing defiant, crushing the light of Shamshel's soul with its own.

Shamshel willed the whips of light to withdraw, but all of its strength did not loosen the grasp of its enemy. Its struggle increased, to no avail, and it did not comprehend vibrations through air that the lowly lilim used to communicate.

"Your kind comes here seeking to kill us, to hunt us? Just who the hell do you think we are?"

And then the world began to move.

Unit One pulled and spun, slamming the angel like a hammer throw into the hillside where it had lain a minute before. With a hunter's shout, the evangelion let go of the burning tentacles and lunged, landing with knees driving into the angel's body. Whips of light lashed at the machine, tearing armor from grey flesh with no reaction.

"Pain? You seek to drive us back with pain! We are not beasts!"

Orange light shined about Unit One's hands and they thrust down to the angel's abdomen, towards the ruby core. Bony fingers sought to block them and were snapped to stumps or torn straight from the flesh in return.

"Animals and slaves are coerced by pain! We are neither, we are men, we are not your prey, monster!"

Shamshel was not human. That was a path which it had rejected and so taken its current shape. In pain it lashed out blindly, not caring where its blows fell, only that they harmed the demon straddling its body.

There was little armor left across the arms and shoulder of the evangelion, the shoulder pylons themselves little more than snapped blades upon rings encircling the joints. Even the helmet had been cracked and torn away, leaving a rictus grin bare to the world and green eyes to serve as the face of death to the angel. The brown grey flesh smoked under the angel's barrage, but for every blow that landed, the flesh knitted itself back together and black char dissolved until it was if nothing had happened.

Finally roused to action by the attacks, Unit One did not grab the core. Instead one hand took hold of each of the short, rigid arms from the flailing limbs grew. Then the evangelion began to pull. In opposite directions, engaging the muscles across its chest and back.

"We are not the hunted."

The angel's entire body began to convulse beneath the evangelion, but the giant was not deterred. It threw back its head and it mouth opened, shrieking its war cry to the sky and lifting its arms in triumph. Held in each hand were the arms of Shamshel, blood spraying onto the eva's grey-brown flesh from above and below, painting it in warrior's crimson.

"We are the hunters!"

The angel disarmed, there was nothing between Unit One and the final work. Blood soaked fingers took hold of the red gem core and began to pull. When vital fluids and viscera prevented a sufficient grip to extract the core, the eva began to push instead. Those same muscles that had torn the angel limb from limb brought giant hands together around the core. The worm flailed in futility. Light pulsed from the core, blood covered the valley, and above it all was the fleshless smile of Unit One.

The core began to crack, and its light dimmed as the angel made its first and last sound.

Shamshel screamed.

"Blue… b-b-b-blue…" Maya Ibuki could not finish the terminal statement. She had just enough time to pull the small waste basket from beneath her console before she wretched into it, quickly emptying her stomach.

"Blue pattern terminated, captain." Lt. Aoba finished. When there was no reply, he turned in his seat "Captain?"

It took the second 'captain' to rouse Misato. She had been staring at the image from the camera some hills away from the fight. The evangelion had shut down, left in a pose as if throttling a straddled victim beneath it. It's bare teeth gave it a creepy, manic smile.

"Recovery… get the recovery teams out."

"Ma'am." Makoto Hyuga also turned to face her. "With the shoulder pylons that damaged, we won't be able to bring Unit One down the railway."

"Right… Get the uh, the…"

"The helos with the clamps to remove the entry plug, will do." Hyuga finished her sentence and turned back to his console. Misato looked to the height of the bridge. The commander had been silent through the battle, as was his want. Misato saw only his back now as he left the bridge, the vice commander close behind.

It took half an hour for the NERV heavy lift helicopters, old style sikorsky's better suited for the precision lift to remove the plug than the ubiquitous VTOLs, to remove the entry plug from the EVA. Setting it down geeeeently was another matter still. All in all it was a fifty minutes from the end of the battle until Misato stood in front of the hatch as crews worked the emergency release. The landing site, such that it was, was land cleared by excavator on the same hillside upon which the evangelion had been thrown. A trench had been dug to cradle the plug so it would not role as weight shifted within.

And just in case the emergency ejection rockets fired, which would only drive it into the soft dirt of the hakone hills. Can never be too careful around solid fuel boosters.

However the time had given the pod time to cool, and the hatch was opened quickly with bare hands. The boys' vital signs had been just fine before communication was lost and Misato expected the two boys had calmed down from whatever hysteria had gripped them and Shinji would be shooing the civilians out or boasting of his deeds.

Things were not as expected.

No sooner had the metal seam parted than Misato and all around were assaulted with a stream of of the most vulgar English, Japanese, and what was assumed to be particularly descriptive Gorean, profanity. The LCL flowed out and all three boys, still thoroughly soaked, emerged pushing past the rescue crews and each other. All stood back and watched the three, apparently engaged in a multilingual free for all of an argument. The most curious part was who was speaking what.

Shinji could barely say hello in Japanese, yet was making great use of it beside his Gorean and british accented English. Likewise both of his friends, though given the heated nature of the discussion that term may not be as applicable anymore, were freely slipping into the alien language alongside Japanese and English.

"Okay boys…" Misato tried, hands raised for quiet. If any of the three noticed her, they paid no mind. Right now both Shinji and the freckled one, Kensuke she remembered, were screaming just inches from the jock's face. While the jock yelled at Kensuke Just as quickly, Kensuke switched his attention to Shinji while the tall one kept on him.

"Boys…"

And now they were both on Kensuke, ignoring her.

"SHUT UP!"

All three stopped, frozen looking at her. The surrounding staff swore they saw trees move and the puddle of LCL ripple when she spoke. When the story was retold later, the multi-ton entry plug may have moved beneath her fury.

"I don't care what you are fighting about, and I don't want to hear it!" She said, knife hand raised and nearly poking them each in the nose in turn, punctuating her speech as she continued with a fed up mother's zeal. "You are all going to shut up and do what you're told. I will listen to what you have to say when I am good and ready. Do you understand? No no no no, don't talk! Do. Not. Talk. Just nod."

All three boys nodded, in rather disconcerting unison. Misato's thoughts were 'god that is weird' but her face did not show it.

"Good, now everyone in the trucks, go!" She said and the marched the boys to the waiting vehicles, directing them with slaps on the shoulders. "No way are you all going in one. Shinji, you go in that one. Aida, there. You…"

Misato pointed at the jock in the tracksuit as the other two were 'escorted' to their transports by section two men.

"What's your name kid?

"It wasn't my-"

"Ah ah ah. Only your name, because I swear to god you will wish that angel got you if you try and drag me into your little hen fight."

"Toji. Toji Suzuhara… Ma'am."

"Damn straight. Get in the truck."

"Okay Mr. Suzuhara. Tell me what happened." Maya Ibuki had her laptop out across the interrogation room table from Toji. She had chosen him to interview first. As soon as the boys had been brought into custody, staff had started to report very strange behavior. The others were in separate rooms.

"Okay, so my friend Kensuke right, he's a good kid, it's just he gets these ideas sometimes. I mean honest ma'am, he's a good kid, we didn't mean any harm..." Toji began.

"So I was like 'DUDE, we got to see this' and he was all like 'naw man it's too dangerous' and I was like naw I got this." Kensuke said., rising out of his chair in excitement as he spoke.

"We were just looking." Toji continued. "Anyway, so the kaiju shows up and to get to what you are probably really interested in, we ended up in the tube with Shinji."

"Right." Maya said. "Tell me what happened after that."

"It's hard to explain."

"Dude, it was awesome! You know I used to need glasses? My mind was expanded, I knew things, I had these memories and everything just all fell into place. Like in highschool you don't really know what to do with your life and it's all so big and mixed up and unknown then BAM!" Kensuke slammed his hand down on the metal table. "I know stuff! Well I knew stuff, some of it's kind of slipping away now…"

"It felt like we were inside each other's heads. No barriers, just pure emotion and information... And no secrets." Toji said. "Anyway, next thing I wanted was to just fight and kill the big ugly. That's all still kind a blur but after it was done the lights went out and… yeah. We got to talking."

"And this is where the argument began?"

"Yeah."

"What was it all about?"

"It's personal."

"That motherfucker, that's what! I've known him since… since…. Since a really long time, okay? All that time and he doesn't trust me! But Shinji shows up and he tells him his big secret after five minutes! Can you believe that?... Huh? No I'm not gonna tell you!"

Maya Ibuki let out a heavy sigh

Several frustrating hours later…

"Rits, tell me something good."

"I have a good theory on what happened to the third child and the other two boys."

"Excellent."

"And it is terrifying."

"I said something good!"

Doctor Ritsuko Akagi rolled her eyes, pulling up wave graphs on her terminal. "Our theory right now is that the evangelion served as a medium to synchronize their neural patterns. You can see here here and here…"

Ritsuko pointed to a single chart with three overlapping lines, labeled subject one, two, and three, Misato looking over her shoulder. "Are scans we have taken since we took them into custody. They all share some basic similarities, but each are distinct. Understand?"

"So far."

"Now this is the information we got from the unit one while we had communications during the battle." Three new charts each one with an identical line merged into a single graph. "They were in absolute synch. That doesn't happen naturally, it's not possible."

"Okay, why is that bad?"

"Well Misato, here's the thing. You reported Shinji speaking Japanese fluently?"

"Yeah."

"The other two have been slipping in and out of his language, they were speaking Gorean. My theory is that for the duration of that battle, while synched up, they shared minds. Memories, thoughts, everything."

"Kay…"

"Misato, that means they know everything the third child knows. You thought he couldn't be a worse security problem? Guess what, those two kids know about our capabilities, our access protocols, everything."

"And about a whole 'nother another planet, full of assholes." Misato said, slapping her forehead as the door to Dr. Akagi's office slid open. "Damn It!"

There was a yelp from the door and both women turned to see Maya Ibuki, holding her closed laptop up defensively.

"Maya, report."

"Oh, uh, yes Ma'am. I have several pieces of news, both good and bad."

Ritsuko rolled her eyes and set her chin on her palm, her elbow on the desk. "Let's hear the bad then."

"I haven't interviewed Shinji yet, Kensuke Aida is still way off his personality profile, we have no idea why his vision has corrected, and I still don't know the specifics of what they were arguing about. Or exactly what happened besides both boys describing it as a mind altering experience in which they shared memories."

"I have a theory. What's the good news?"

"Well neither of them mentioned lawsuits." Two cocked eyebrows and utter silence greeted Maya's rather ill-advised 'joke'. "Uh, right. So neither of them have any sign of physical injury, Mr. Aida now has twenty-ten vision, and both have reported starting to forget details they became aware of during the experience. Given it has only been a few hours, so long as they don't go posting on the internet our security risk will probably be over soon. Also I do have a general idea about why they were arguing."

"Let's keep them confined until tomorrow, alert their fathers. Go see the pilot then interface with the recovery crews. They should have their preliminary damage assessment done by then."

"Yes senpai." Maya said then, with a short bow, heading out the door again.

"And Maya." Dr. Akagi said. Lt. Ibuki stopped mid stride. "Good job."

"T-thank you." The pixie haired girl said before disappearing down the hall. Once she had gone, Misato gave her friend a rather pointed look.

"What?"

"You know how she feels. It's not nice to string her along."

Waving the sentiment off, Ritsuko took her pack of cigarettes from her lab coat pocket, slapped it twice against her palm and drew one. "Its schoolgirl stuff. She'll get over it when she finds a guy."

"She's 26."

"Some take longer to grow up, Misato. Look at you."

Ritsuko was intent now on her terminal screen and did not even raise her gaze to Misato as she walked out.

"Lady Maya, my friend. Tal and welcome. I apologize that my sitting room is less than comfortable." Shinji said, waving around the concrete walls of the interrogation room. The steel table in the center of the room held a styrofoam serving trail, bare but for crumbs, and several paper cups. "How are you?"

"Tal, Shinji. Did you get enough to eat?" Maya replied, closing the heavy door behind her.

"There is always more to eat, but I do not suffer hunger nor feel faint." Shinji said, stacking the cups together and putting them upon the tray. He slid it out of the way as Maya moved towards the seat across from his own.

Since his arrival, Shinji had given more concern to food than in a great while. It was abundant here and he could have it whenever he liked. He had even been informed that if he wished to eat while attending classes it would be allowed. It was something to do with the heavy gravity of this world, or so he had surmised. His body was used to Gor, which held a less firm hold on its inhabitants than Earth.

Whatever the cause he hungered far more than ever before and when deprived of food quickly began to feel ill. Once he had been placed in the small stone cell food and drink, water fortified with some potion called lizard aid or something, were quickly brought and swiftly replaced as he finished.

"Well don't worry, we will have you out of here as soon as we get done with this. I just need to debrief you. Ask what happened, any information you may have, that sort of thing." Maya took her seat and began to arrange her things.

"Very well. I suppose that you have all the information you need as to the battle itself and that this is about the aftermath."

"Yes and no. Shinji, something very strange happened once your friends entered the cockpit. Our sensors, those are machines which watch what goes on inside the cockpit, cannot give us a full picture of what occurred. I was hoping that you could help tell the rest of the story."

Shinji nodded. "Have you spoken to Toji and Kensuke yet?"

"I have, but they seemed half confused and half reluctant to talk. I hope that maybe since you have experienced what it is like to use the Evangelion before, you could give a better explanation."

"Perhaps. It was a quite amazing experience and I admit some reluctance to tell it, for I fear you might think me quite mad after I do."

Maya smiled. "Well, what your friend's said was fairly similar between them, so if you say you felt like your all shared one mind, I won't be surprised."

"Oh, well then. Yes it happened. It was quite fascinating."

"How so? Or rather I imagine it was, but I want to know why you found it so, Shinji."

"In the instant after the angel died, before the plug went dark, we had between us a moment of complete clarity. I grew up on Earth twice, I experienced the frustrations and wonder of childhood again, it was all quite nice. I think I learned Japanese as well." Shinji changed to his third, or perhaps it is his first, language. "Am I sufficiently understandable, Maya-san?"

"Oh quite, but your accent is certainly interesting." She responded, also in Japanese.

"Ah, and I can understand you perfectly as well. I shall-... What is the word, experiment I think. I shall experiment, to see if I may read and write as well. It is certainly an interesting language, however I feel lie I have already lost the some of the insight I gained. So perhaps it will fade in time."

"Right. Back to the subject at hand, both Mr. Aida and Mr. Suzuhara have been heard speaking your language, so did…"

"Oh yes! That was perhaps the most wonderful part. I could sense their emotions as they watched my life. I was a little disappointed by what I felt, but I understand they would not share the same… Oh bother what is the word. It is love for experience, love of living in the most full way. I think that they found that perhaps a bit overwhelming and extreme. I understand now, to a much greater extent, what Tarl taught me of the cold machine lives of Earthlings. No offense intended of course."

"I'm not sure I'm offended, but could you explain that? What do you mean by machine lives?"

"When Tarl began to teach me about the society of Earth, he began by explaining the complex machine. Interlocking assemblies and components consisting of the same, and so on scaled to greater or lesser size. The societies of Earth are not dissimilar, except that instead of cogs and bearings, they are made up of people. Like those cogs and bearings however, these people are made, that is raised and educated, to be interchangeable and disposable. When a cog is ground down beyond usefulness, it is discarded and replaced. The machine was made with the intent of helping people, freeing them somehow, but instead they are chained to it and its only function is to grind every shred of humanity from them.

"I, um, apologize if that was offensive. As I said, it is what I was taught. I would not say that I have seen it exactly that way since I came here. However from what I saw in their minds, I understand what Tarl means."

"Can you elaborate?"

"Certainly. My friends, they were raised without challenge or hardship. Even if they failed, there was little consequence. They both resented it muchly in fact, but after a time simply came to accept it as inevitable. They were made to feel that they were wrong for the normal desire of agency and excellence, for possessing the will to power."

"So you think that our lives are too easy?"

"No no no, I'm sorry." Shinji said, quickly waving his arms defensively with open palms towards Maya. It was a very familiar, that is to say Japanese, gesture and did not go unnoticed by Maya. "These are familiar concepts which I am trying to express with words with which I have never described them before, you see. Forgive me if I make mistakes or speak in error."

"Okay. Well, say what comes to you and maybe I can help you figure it out."

"My thanks." Shinji took a breath then placed his elbows on the tabletop before setting his jaw across the knuckles of his fist. He sat like that for a moment, slowly breathing and his eyes shut. Once ready, he opened his eyes and began to speak. Maya noticed he was not looking at her so much as staring off in her direction.

"There is a saying, a quotation really, that is well known among my people. Tarl told me a similar story is known on Earth. In this fable, a boy is raised by his mother, alone in a deep cave within the forest. He has looked upon the world outside but never ventured too close to the opening of the cave, for his mother told him there was nought by danger out there. Sometimes, he and his mother would steal away to the deeper parts as men came. His mother said they were fearsome men, warriors who would take them away. The boy observed them only by their shadows upon the wall of the cave."

"Okay, so what happens?"

"One day the boy leaves the cave. He finds himself upon a cliff, looking out at a great valley, and in the distance a great city. The air pure, and the world beautiful. When he looks back at his mother, beckoning him to return to the darkness, he realizes how foolish it is that she taught him the world was to be feared. Surely there will be things which are dangerous and there are great unknowns, but before such beauty the risks are nothing. What he tells his mother in that time is what I am trying to say about the lives of my friends as opposed to my own."

"And what is that?"

"Is it not safer to cower in the caves of lies than to stand upon the cliffs of truth, surveying the world? Yet when one stands in the sunlight, and feels the winds of reality, how dank and shameful seem the dark shelters of falsehood, and how foolish it seems then to have once feared daylight and fresh air." Shinji said, then breathed out a happy sigh.

"You see my lady, to my people the world as my friends have been taught of it would be the cave. Reality is what they see of the shadows dancing on the wall. By seeing my world through my own eyes, I think they have glimpsed the sunlight. While it might be seen with Toji clearly, I think it would surprise most to know that deep down, Kensuke is truly of the warriors. His admiration and play is childish perhaps, but only because he has not been able to be as he is meant to be. I do not think there is a place for the warriors in this world the people of Earth have built, and I think it is lesser for it."

"Oh… But I mean we have warriors. We are all soldiers here…"

"Soldiers perhaps. But any man might become skilled at arms, he may bare weapons and he may even wear the crimson and iron helm of the red caste but this does not make him a warrior, Lady Maya. They are not truly needful. There is quality which I personally believe one is born to, and if I must say something of what this world lacks it is that it does not breed such men as my world does."

"So you don't think there are people on Earth are… strong enough? That we have been made weak?"

"Not exactly know, but something like it."

"I think if I told you about how things were not so long ago, about my own life, it would change your point of view. Do you mind?"

"Of course not, M'lady."

"Very well. What do you know about Second Impact?"

"A great calamity which affected the entire planet when the southern ice cap melted, raising sea levels and throwing your climate into chaos. Many died."

"Half the world died. Three billion people. I was nine years old when it happened, Shinji. They didn't die for a cause, or because some social machine discarded them. Being stronger, or better, or richer wouldn't have helped. It's everyone you have ever known, and everyone they have ever known, and them and them and them after that. Your friends were too young to remember that, but I do. Tarl might've had a point in the mid 20th, I don't know, I wasn't there. Here though, only the very young have the privilege of growing up without hardship. So what you saw is not representative."

Shinji thought on this for a moment, then nodded. "Would you tell me more of those times?"

"Pardon?"

"I wish to know more of those times, of your experience. I would propose that we enter into the evangelion together, however I doubt such a phenomenon could be repeated on command. Because if you saw my world, I think you would not find it as alien as you might think."

"And why do you say that?"

"Because anyone who might survive such a thing as you did, a little girl no less, and remain so cheerful and bright, that is a woman who would be at home in my city."

"Oh I don't know about that..."

"No no no… M'lady Maya I know your picture of my people is incomplete, I beg your favor to allow me to explain. That you will speak of these things without boasting, without asking for sympathy or pity, this would endear you among us. Such a strong woman is to be admired muchly."

Maya squirmed in her chair, blushing. "I'm not strong."

"Certainly you are. But we have digressed very much."

"Yes, yes we have." She said, flipping through her notes and relieved to be done with the topic. "Can you maybe tell me what that argument was all about when you exited the entry plug?"

"I suppose that was the question we originally started with, is it not? Very well. Toji concealed a knowledge from Kensuke but had informed me after we only just met. He did not think Kensuke, his longtime friend, trustworthy to keep the knowledge secret." Shinji took a deep breath, the memory of the exchange visibly bothering him as nerves twitched down the side of his face. "In our exchange, Kensuke found this out. Despite being his friend, both Toji and myself were guilty of lying to him."

"That sounds like it could become nasty rather quick."

"Indeed."

"If you don't mind me asking, what was the knowledge?"

"Lady Maya, I mean no disrespect however it is secret for a reason. Were it known it might endanger Toji and his family."

"Oh. Alright then."

"Forgive me my lady, but I am tired. Are we finished?"

Lt. Ibuki was true to her word and not two minutes later, Shinji left the little concrete room and stepped out into the hall, Maya having already made her way out. Turning towards the elevator, he found himself face to face one Rei Ayanami. She was looking, if he was to be honest, rather frustrated. She was also still in her plugsuit, a sight that despite the garments more annoying properties very well redeemed it in Shinji's eyes.

"Lady Rei, tal."

"Ikari."

"Shinji, please."

"I should like to continue what we were about before the angel arrived."

"I would like nothing more, but I beg your favor to not take offense, but am I tired and in very much need of a bath."

Rei blinked. She examined him with her eyes, from his LCL encrusted hair to his feet, much of the plug suit still bearing the sheen of the fluid.

"I will accompany you to the locker room. If physical activity is beyond you, I would still like to speak to you."

"By all means."

Rei turned smartly on her heel and Shinji could not help but notice a certain tension in her walk. It was pleasing and though her stride was quite a stride to behold, he took a long step to walk beside her. They were alone and the hallway silent, so when she did not speak, Shinji chose to.

"I find Lt. Ibuki to be quite interesting. She is friendly, but our speaking as we did just now revealed a surprising depth of strength."

"How so?" Rei asked.

And so Shinji related the conversation to Rei, coming to point which followed Maya's relating her experience of growing up amid the aftermath of disaster.

"I have a question."

"You need but ask, m'lady."

They were in the elevator now. Leaning against the handrail, Shinji only now noticed he was tracking LCL still. The foot shaped puddle glared beneath the buzzing white lights of the cab, and that is where his heavy lidded gaze rested.

"You said that to have and be able to use weapons and to wear red and an iron helmet does not make one a warrior. That these things were not needed."

"Indeed. Any man might have those things, he may be strong and brave, but that does not make him of the warrior caste."

"What does?"

"Pardon?"

"What does make a warrior?"

"His codes of course."

"What are the codes?"

"They are many and varied. You fight as a warrior, were you not taught codes that you should honor?"

"I have been given instructions."

"That is not the same. What are your principals?"

"I… I will do whatever is necessary to complete my task."

"Admirable, but not fully similar."

They did not continue for several minutes. There was only the machine noise of the cars and the insectoid buzzing of the lights.

Rei broke the silence. "Ikari…"

"Shinji."

"Shinji... Aida directed me towards literature about your home. My observations of yourself and of this literature have fascinated me."

"So I gathered."

"I find what I have seen… admirable." She said, pronouncing the final world unlike a naval rank and rather that this was a thing she was able to admire.

"My thanks."

"If I am to fight, I should then be a warrior?"

"That is the duty of the crimson caste. Men are warriors though, women may be of the warriors but they do not take up the profession itself."

"Oh."

"On Gor that is the way of things anyhow. To judge by Captain Katsuragi however, it would seem the warrior women of Earth well hold the title."

"I want to be more like you."

Shinji's head came up and turned to Rei cocked sideways. Her eyes were away and to the side. One arm was across her chest, beneath her bust, gripping the elbow of the other nervously. "A warrior, you mean?"

No. She lacked his passion to act on her feelings. She wanted that passion, to be able to act on emotions and desire. She had glimpsed it before the angel arrived. She had touched it and it had filled her with happiness and a burning need for more. Yes, burning was a good word. Rei did not love herself, but this man had sparked the smallest of fires within her. She would gladly throw her old ways and thoughts on the pyre to have what she saw in him and read about in Aida's books.

"Yes."

"That is a great thing, Lady Rei. I do not think myself educated enough about Earth or the Evangelion to provide instruction, but you lack for codes. This I can teach you."

"And…" She started, a flush coming to her lily cheeks. She could feel the heat within her skin, but Shinji's mind was not hers to read. Were it though, how pretty her eyes were against her flushed skin would have been what she saw.

"Yes, Lady Rei, what is it?"

"If there are other things I wish to learn… I mean, of a certain nature. Like before…" She spoke slowly, a difficulty articulating her unfamiliar thoughts abundantly clear. At this he chuckled. Her heart sank. Did he find her an object to deride?

"M'lady, I am no fool. I enjoyed our encounter earlier and I am being completely honest when I say that were I sure I was able to do so, I would suggest continuing in the nearest dark corner. You are very beautiful, and I do desire you muchly so be assured of that. I am also exhausted, my belly is full, and I fear that were I to find myself in a suitable place to continue it would also be a suitable place to sleep and sleep I would."

Rei's flush rapidly become several shades deeper and while her mouth worked up and down, coherent sound did not emerge, nor did her gaze turn upon Shinji.

"As well, there is no need to be so circumspect about the topic. My people are very open on the subject." He said with a laugh in his voice. "So ask anything you like, Lady Rei. I promise I will always answer.

He had thought her tense before but now her whole body was as stiff as an iron bound mast. Even the muscles of her face were clenched and her response was delivered in a squeaky whisper and a tiny nod.

"Ok."

How strange these Earthlings were about the most natural thing beneath the sky. Shinji wondered what nonsense could make a beautiful girl so wary she could hardly speak of the subject.

"Lady Rei, would you like to discuss something else now?"

Another small nod, lips still pressed together and line of sight glued to the corner furthest away from his face and her cheeks still shining pink. "Mmhm." She hummed.

"I may speak to you of the codes if you like. I think it may also allow me to hold on to consciousness."

"Ok."

"Very well. The civilized people of Gor share a system of castes. Each caste has its duties and its members are fiercely proud of their profession and their honor rests upon their tasks"

Honor. This was the word that came up most when he spoke of the codes. A nebulous idea, but vitally important. She asked why.

"Honor, Lady Rei, is so valuable, especially to the warriors, that a man who is good and true would not trade it for the greatest riches. Before honor, all the gold and jewels of the world are not but tawdry decoration. A man who has nothing but his honor is great, but a man without it may have all there is and ever will be before him and be destitute."

The car came to a stop and Rei walked behind Shinji, watching his muscles through the tight plug suit. It was like watching a great predator's stride. The ones at the top of his legs were particularly compelling. They made their way to the pilots' locker room.

"What I would not give for a proper bath, Lady Rei." Shinji said, pulling his arms from the loosened plugsuit

"There are tubs in the next room if you like."

"What? No no, a thermae, a public baths. It is…" Shinji stopped, his hands moving in front of chest shoulders as if he were determined to grab the very ideas from thin air. "A baths is a complex with several rooms meant to not just bath but refresh it is… There was nothing in Toji or Kensuke's memories that was similar, the closest thing I think is called a spa, or sento or an onsen. They are not the same though."

"Would you tell me of them? While you…"

"Certainly." He replied, resuming in stripping off the rubbery garment. "A thermae is a public place, most often constructed for the citizens by the city. Within it are rooms to bathe in in so far as…"

Having pulled his feet from the rather clingy soles of the suit and so finally freeing himself fully, Shinji had looked up to find his companion facing away, towards a wall.

"What are you doing?"

"I have been told some find being seen naked uncomfortable."

"Do you?"

"No."

"Does seeing others in such a state bother you?"

"I…" Rei gulped down any further response, quite flushed again. To see him naked would not bother her in the least, but there was something that resisted looking upon him that way.

"Well it does not bother me. Earth is very strange. Now come on, stop staring at the wall and disrobe."

Rei suddenly felt her skin burning from her chest to the very tips of her ears. "Wh-why?"

"Well I am not going to shout to speak to you and if memory serves your shower this morning was not done with the intent of strictly bathing. Besides, this is how my people do it, I will tell you of it."

As she removed her own plugsuit, Shinji described the grand baths of his home.

"When you first enter there is a common I think one would call it, where you socialize and men if so inclined exercise in the open. Women would not of course."

"Why not?"

"Well, Lady Rei, where I come from there are rules about a free woman revealing herself in the view of men to whom she is not related or partnered. My city is known to be quite liberal about these customs but even so a woman would not participate in these exercises."

"I have read of these things. Aida gave me books about your home."

"Ah yes, Tarl's autobiography, I have not read it myself."

Her plug suit discarded, she steeled herself and looked out upon him naked for the first time. The gorean was a sight to behold. His muscles were sharply defined beneath the fading tan of his skin. The chalky white of calluses stood out on his feet, his hands, and up his elbows and his knees. It was the ill fitting shirt and the white of the plug suit against the sterile white of the walls that had hid his muscled neck atop powerful shoulders. His face, nearly devoid of fat with his high cheekbones only made him resemble his father more. His blue eyes and a bright white smile were framed by hair left to grow out since being cut weeks ago. All of this on a slim frame reinforced her earlier observation. The warrior looked like nothing less than a predator in the shape of a man.

Her eyes then finally focused between his legs. It was… there. She had never actually seen a man unclothed that she could remember. She knew clinically what had to be present and certainly there had been pictures and illustrations, but this was different. It was not disgusting as she had heard other girls say, nor was it enticing in its flaccid state. His manhood, nestled in a nest of curly black hair, just was.

"Right, so you have me thinking…" He said, speaking with the frenzy that may come upon the exhausted when their interest is peaked. "... while there may be no bath house, we can certainly simulate part of the experience. Come come come…"

Motioning for her to follow, he made his way to the showers, a wall of overhead faucets set on a tile wall.

"Stand here, yes, and I shall stand here." Moving her by the shoulders he set her in place in front of one shower head while he put himself below the one beside it. "Now, I prefer to begin in the cold bath."

With that he reached forward, took the knob and turned it with what appeared to be a certain level of confidence. Rei did the same and swiftly realized she may have committed an error in following Shinji's advice.

Shinji merely turned and stared at her, head cocked, after she jumped away from the frigid water with a squeak. Shinji found her wide eyed with her arms wrapped around her body.

"Well it does not work if you do not allow it to touch your skin."

"It is cold."

"Of course it is. What use would it be if it was not? Come on!"

To Rei's surprise, he simply reached for her and pried her her hand from her body with only his fingers.

"Ikari, please do not…"

"I told you!" He interrupted her, pulling her back into the cold water with him. "I do not like Ikari, call me Shinji!"

Things were not quite so cold as Rei thought they had been a moment before. The circumstances were a little different though, and so that might explain it. Before she had simply been beneath a flow of cold water. Now she was pressed up against him, chest to chest with his arms holding her in a bear hug.

This felt quite a lot nicer.

"Observe, it is not as bad."

Despite what had happened that very morning, these were all very new sensations for Rei and she was having a spot of trouble processing.

"Lady Rei?"

"Wha-huh?"

"Not as bad as you thought, aye?"

"Uh-huh…"

"Well, now that the cold water has invigorated us, we would go to the hot baths."

And that was how Rei had found herself in her present position. Held against a man who had by his very presence changed her world, beneath hot water turning her china white skin pink, steam enveloping them both. They stood beneath a single shower head, he had turned off the other when… actually she wasn't not quite sure when. Now her hands were flat against his abdominals and her forehead rested against his chest.

His arms were around her, his hands resting one across the other over the small of her back. She breathed in the moist, hot air. She breathed in his smell, his presence.

"So you see, m'lady, it is very relaxing."

"Yes."

"Now were we on my world, there might be a visit to a skilled slave girl for a massage, a final rinse, oils perhaps, and back into the street. However…"

Rei felt his right hand leave his left and slide across water slicked skin up her back. She shivered as his fingertips brushed between her shoulder blades before lifting away. His fingers were soon digging through her hair to push against her scalp. At first she only pressed further into his chest, until those fingers began to draw back and she finally looked up to find her sight filled with his blue eyes.

"... I think I prefer tonight, here with you, to the great baths. You see on my world men and women enjoy these things apart, the baths are segregated. Which means we could not have had this experience and that would have been very tragic."

The lady Rei fascinated Shinji. It was not just her uncommon features. On the outside she could seem cold and distant. Even before the morning's encounter though, Shinji had seen what could happen if he engaged with her. She had the spark in her.

Of course Shinji was taught, as all boys are on Gor, that every woman has that spark within her. That quality deep down that need only be stoked to a roaring flame by the right master to bring out the slave within her. Even among his people though, simplistic as they sometimes insisted they were, such things were not so definite. Not every woman was made for the collar, even as there was a collar to tame any woman.

No, some women are forged for it as truly as the collar might be forged for them. Those were ones who needed but a breath to turn the spark into a roaring flame.

For the first time, Shinji saw Rei truly smile. Not of idle amusement or momentary pleasure, but of genuine happiness. She smiled and as her hands moved to wrap her arms around his torso she even laughed, in that squealing way that girls do, as she pushed her face into his shoulder. He could feel her breath against his neck.

Shinji had learned many things since coming to Earth. Some of it was about people. He mused that perhaps one always learns when one is taken away from the familiar. Lady Rei had taught him a thing that the men of his home knew well but also knew they could not simply teach it to their sons. That though there may be pleasure in forcing out the slave in a girl, there was a pure and simply joy in watching her burst forth, bidden only by kindness.

Rei had learned from the Gorean as well. She had learned there was something more, outside her old understanding. She wanted to be like him, but not to emulate him and his ways. That would be foolish. She wanted to… she frowned as the words escaped her mind to properly construct the thought, to enunciate her own emotion.

He was known. His strength and his passion were a quantity on one side of an equation. On the other side was an answer, a state of completion. Beside him was an unknown quantity. A variable. This variable, together with him, she felt would create something rare and wonderful and somehow perfect.

As best she could grasp it, she wished to be the variable which reached the solution. She felt like she was approaching it as this fire she had begun to feel within her grew. A path to this perfect thing was a path which fed that fire.

Shinji felt the lady Rei nuzzle her cheek against his shoulder. Cool air passed over his skin as she drew in breath.

"Would you tell me of your home, Ika-" She paused. "Shinji."

"What would you like to know, Lady Rei?"

"Tell me of the kajira."

"Of course, m'lady."

Cut loose after signing an NDA and dropped off at home by a black car as dusk turned to night, Kensuke Aida was a conflicted young man.

On the one hand, he had seen real combat for the first time. He was still processing that hours later. His eyes were fixed too, and that was cool. He was still holding onto his glasses though, just in case.

On the other hand, he had gotten to watch a life on a planet called Gor. It was pretty much the best VR movie ever. Joy, pain, pride and tears, it had been amazing. There had still been some detachment though, much like a movie with a VR rig. Sex had been… interesting. Was he still a virgin if he didn't actually do it but experienced someone else doing it?

On the gripping hand, Kensuke was also keenly aware that his circle of friends had shrunk once again to zero. Toji and Shinji had both lied to him, and he had told them exactly what he thought of that. And about their mothers. And about their mothers' sexual experience, among other things. Ayanami was sweet on Shinji, so that is kind of mutually exclusive, same with Hikari and Toji.

So yeah. That sucked.

The little two bedroom house he and his father lived in was dark. Dad was working late again. Kensuke fished his key from his pocket and let himself in, kicking his shoes off and leaving them where they fell.

His pack was still at school, crap. Homework was easy. There wouldn't be school for a couple days anyway and when he did find it he would just do it all in five minutes before class anyway. Like always.

But his laptop was in there too. Crap.

Past the kitchen, down the bare walls of the hallway. He didn't feel hungry. The food NERV had given him had actually been surprisingly decent. Given who their head chef was though, that shouldn't be surprising. Oh joy, there was another thing he had lost today.

Kensuke didn't bother turning on the hall light and went to his room. Past model kits, posters, skewed stacks of books and DVDs. Past piles of laundry which he honestly could not remember whether were clean or not.

Past… stuff. Stuff he thought had mattered only hours before. Kensuke got to his bed and flopped, scissoring his legs to land ass first and letting his body fall where it would.

Toji steeled himself. He had been dropped off at his family's house and now stood in front of the door. He could hear voices inside. His father, his grandfather, and his sister. Given the time, dad was just home from work.

This was not going to be an easy conversation.

Well, when you can't retreat and you can't hold ground, the only option is to go meet fate Toji thought as he opened the door. He didn't even have his shoes off when it started.

"Toji Suzuhara, where have you been?"

"It's a really long story Sir."

"Well you can wash up and start telling me while we cook. These mushrooms ain't gonna clean and chop themselves."

"Oi." Toji sunk his shoulders in defeat before hanging up his jacket next to dad's white double breasts chef's jacket. Next to the white jacket was a belt on which dad kept his knives. The metallic holster was empty of course. Dad insisted on HIS knives and they went with him. He carried, and frequently used, them as the head chef of NERV's many cafeterias and in his own kitchen.

Toji put on his house slippers and crossed into the kitchen. He snatched his apron off the row of hooks with one finger. There were two others still hanging. His grandfather's, professional black and faded like his son and grandson's, and a little gingham one that belonged to his sister. Not that she used it much. Cooking in the Suzuhara house was a man's business.

Above the hooks was a chalkboard, upon which the week's meals were written as well the precise times they would be served. 'If you aren't home when dinner is served, you better find something else to eat' was written across the top.

Tonight was Stroganoff. Which meant Toji had a shiitake-ton of button mushrooms to clean with a stupid little brush and slice up. It was actually really annoying. Toji didn't mind mushrooms, he just hated when dad made them. Because dad refused to listen to freakin' reason that mushrooms did not soak up that much water and so did not need to be cleaned with a freakin' toothbrush. But nooooo, that was the way it was done, and Sora Suzuhara would hear no arguments to the contrary.

Their home was reasonable, perhaps even a little small for the four of them but that never bothered any of them much. Only the galley kitchen was an annoyance, but it was familiar. Toji did not need to think about the graceful side step he took around his father without touching the oven door behind him. It was practiced.

"Behind ya."

"Got ya."

Sora Suzuhara was as most imagined his son would be soon. Tall and broad with thick arms and legs like stone columns, now in his 40s he had acquired a larger stomach than he once had. Not that it was at all soft, Toji once saw him take a bunch to the gut and laugh it off while the other guy cried over his fingers. Toji had nearly matched his height, but lacked his father's adult brawn and bristly beard.

That beard, incidentally, was trimmed close to his jaw and cut to sharp and crisp angles. His hair was still dark with no grey and kept short as well as close to his skull by a haircut every twelve days, in contrast to Toji's own which was only kept tame by occasional cuts and one pass straight back with the brush each morning. Once his son's hair reached an inch and half, it was officially deemed 'long' and in need of attention or a hat until such attention might be paid.

That is all to say that Sora Suzuhara is a man of order. Things in his home happen when, how, and why they are supposed to happen; and that meant that mushrooms were cleaned with a brush, not water.

"They told me at work that you were involved in what happened today." Sora began, eyes remaining on his hands as he began to cube the tenderloin.

"Yes, Sir." Toji replied, picking up the accursed mushroom brush. They often had talks like this, hands busy with the physical so they could discuss the important things. "They, um, kept me for a while to talk about how it all went down."

"What's botherin' ya son?"

"It's a long story."

"That's what you said already. We got time."

"It may be done before the stroganoff."

"Then we'll make time."

So Toji told the story. Start to finish. He had told dad and grandpa about Shinji the day he met him, that was important. Left out the bit about the almost fight of course. The beef and mushrooms were simmering together, with just a little bit of fried onion, in the sauce as he finished. His father did not interrupt but for to ask him to use his inside voice, Sakura was doing her homework after all and if she did not finish before dinner it put her behind on everything else. It was an exciting tale though, no wonder he got loud a few times. Otherwise Toji's father only nodded.

"So to surmise." Sora said. "You ran after your damn fool friend like a damn fool yourself, an' got caught in the middle of the big ol' giant robot versus kaiju fight."

"Yes Sir."

"Then, because we now appear to be living in a cartoon, you and Kensuke ended up inside the cockpit and helped fight the tentacle monster."

"Yes Sir."

"Suppose I should just be thankful your mother didn't have a daughter first or this would not be conversation suitable for preparing dinner at all. Anyhow, in the midst of this you had a mind meld with the home worlder and Kensuke. Now Kensuke's mad at ya because you didn't tell him the particulars of our extraction before. That about sum it up?"

"Yeah just about. I know it sounds crazy."

"Toji, I work for NERV. Even if my daddy wasn't a goddamn alien, it's gonna take more than that to be too incredible to believe."

Toji did not respond. Dad was making light of the situation, so he guessed he couldn't be too mad. Then again dad used humor to deflect too, so really no way to tell.

"Bottom line bein' now Kensuke knows the family secret."

"Yeah."

"So the question becomes, seein' as you did not trust him to keep it before, do ya trust him to keep it now?"

Toji thought. And thought. And finally, when he had finished, his shoulder slumped forward and he breathed a heavy sigh.

"So is that a yes or a no?"

"I guess… Dad, I dunno. When we were in there, I mean it was like we all lived each others lives. So he knows why it had to be a secret, and he's heard all the talks you and gramps gave me. Heard'em again when you gave'em to Sakura too. I'm afraid he might say something by accident, but I don't think he would ever do it intentionally. But I went and pissed him off so…"

"Toji, I know Kensuke. Known him since you two were building giants outta blocks and swinging around cardboard tube swords. Hell, you two have been tearin' around this house since your mothers were still around. I know him and you know him. Now is there anything in all that time that makes you think Kensuke Aida would do a petty thing like that?"

"No Sir."

"Damn right. An' the both of us should be ashamed for considerin' it."

"Yeeaah…"

"So, when you gonna tell Miss Horaki?"

"Oh my god, dad!"

"I'm just saying."

"No, you are not just saying! You are never just saying when it comes to her!"

"Course if our providence is to be known I suppose I should start addressing her as Lady Hikari."

"And you wonder why I don't bring her over more."

"She's certainly a good woman, in fact pappy and I were just sayin' that not too long ago." Mr. Suzuhara said before yelling through the kitchen door. "Weren't we pappy?"

"Weren't we what?" Toji's grandfather called back. Toji's head was starting to hurt. He had a great relationship with his father… Almost as good as his father and his grandfather. Relationships which they were, for lack of a better word, leveraging to push the relationship between Toji and Hikari Horaki ever onward. Toji swore they wanted him married before he got out of high school.

"Talkin' about little Ms. Horaki!"

"Oh yes, sweet thing sweet thing. Makes some fearsomely good pastries, she does. When is she coming over again?"

"That she does." Sora called back before turning back to Toji. "Y'know your sister certainly likes her too."

"Yes dad, I am very aware you all like Hikari very much. The problem is her sisters like to attack me onsite."

"In fact, you know what son?" Mr. Suzuhara continued without concern. "Should invite her over. In fact let's get that homeworlder too, and maybe ya can patch things up Kensuke. I'll put out a good spread and grandpa will make sure it's all homeworld type stuff. We'll have a feast for you and your friends' victory, now how's that sound?"

"It sounds great dad. You want that before or after my funeral?"

"Before certainly. No son of mine is gonna get killed by a coupla hens before he at least gets me some grandchildren. Still slow on that front if I may, despite me an' pappy doin' our best."

"You two are a couple of damn hens!" Toji yelled, just to make sure his grandfather could hear too.

"Buck buck buck…" Was the response from the next room.

"And on that bombshell it's time for dinner. Go get washed up and get your sister."

"Yes, dad." Toji said, quickly hanging up his apron and beating feet up the stairs.

"And you better call Ms. Horaki after dinner and let her know you're alright."

"Yes, dad!"

Soon the Suzuhara family was around the table. With only the four of them the table was not a large affair. If more chairs were crowded in it might fit eight, but for now there were just two chair on each long side.

"Now while I usually spare us all the time, I want us to all pray tonight before dinner." Sora Suzuhara said, seated next to his daughter and across from his father, Toji on his diagonal. The family look ran strong in the men, and Toji's grandfather was much like his son and his grandson, broad and strong. His face was wrinkled and not without scars. While his son's hair stayed dark, his own was filled with streaks of gray.

"Toji did a brave thing today. Now don't you worry he'll tell y'all about it but I want to say something. When you have warriors in your family, you gotta know they might not be at dinner table when you expect them. That is the nature of their lives. What happened today though wasn't about being a warrior. It was about watching out for a friend. Even if that friend doesn't like you much afterwards. So I want us to give thanks tonight, because Toji is here to eat this meal with us. A friend is a terrible thing to lose, but Toji came back to us alive and with all his parts attached. And I think his friend will come around too, and they will both be better for it. Now none of us talk to the old priest kings in their mountains much, it's just not our way, but I know we all remember how."

After dinner was eaten, Toji was dismissed from cleaning up so he could let his woman know he was okay.

"Yeah… No, no, I'm sorry I just couldn't call and then I got home right before dinner and you know how dad is about that."

"But you're okay, you're sure?" HIkari asked, worry clear in her quiet voice.

"Yeah, no, I'm okay, don't worry." Toji reassured her.

"Hikari! Stop wasting time on the phone. Are you talking to that ape Suzuhara again!?" Someone else, a female voice, shouted from Hikari's end of the line. Hikari sighed heavily.

"Hey hon, I need to go." She finally said.

"Yeah, I got ya. Love you babe."

"You too. See you." Hikari said, glaring at the back of her big sister Kodama's head. Toji had told her, repeatedly that her not being able to respond in kind when he said he loved her did not bother him, he would say it enough for them both. It was only when they were on the phone and her elder sister Kodoma was around. Of course if her younger sister Nozomi was present, Kodama would hear about it too. She just idolized her big sister and so shared her unkind opinion of Toji. Now if dad was around he would never say anything, but he would speak to Kodama about how concerned he was about that Suzuhara boy and… ugh.

"Big sis, I'm hungry!"

"Nozomi, you just had a snack. Dinner will be ready soon." Hikari said, brushing her little sister off her skirts.

"Hey would'ya take this to the trash, thanks." Kodoma said, lifting her beer can over her head. She actually dropped it, not waiting for someone else to get a grip. Hikari still caught it of course, even with Nozomi hanging on her skirt again.

"But Nee-saaaaaaaaaaan!"

"Nozomi , if you have a snack now you won't be hungry for dinner."

"Yeah I will!"

"Nozomi, come on, please can we not do this tonight? Dinner will be ready in ten minutes."

"But you haven't even started and I'm staaaarving!"

"Fine!"

"Hikari! Don't yell at your sister! She's just hungry, why are you being so mean?" Kodama, ever protective of her younger siblings, was up from the couch with her arms wrapped around the pouting twelve year old.

"Yeah, why'a bein' so mean Hikari?!"

Hikari, cowed, bowed her head. "I'm sorry I snapped at you."

"As you well should be. You'll give her a complex yelling at her like that. Stop forcing your expectations on her." Kodoma said, glaring daggers at Hikari and stroking Nozomi's hair.

"Yeah. I'll… I'll get dinner done."

Kensuke awoke with the morning light coming through the window above his bed. His sleep had been fitful, restless, and full of dreams that never felt like his own.

The memories he had gained before were like dreams. You were so sure of what you saw during and right after you wake up, but every moment that passed made it that much harder to grasp, to bring into focus. In the same way, they were quickly fading away. His dreams had been vivid, but disconnected. One moment the setting was familiar, the next all but alien. It had all been hard to tell apart, especially the times when the memory was one he knew was his own, only to discover it was of the same thing, but seen from Toji's eyes when he saw himself walk by.

He sat up, swinging his legs off the bed and reflexively reaching for his glasses. But the distortion was just dried sleep, and his vision was sharp. It was the inescapable reminder that what had been had truly been, and not a dream.

Kensuke was not sure what to feel about what had happened. The experience of battle, the imposition of Shinji and Toji's lives upon his own, had forced him into a new perspective. Before Kensuke had at least been satisfied, if a little bored in life. Now… Now it just felt like he hated everyone and everything, and mostly himself.

The allegory of the cave. Reality is much more full and real than it seems from your narrow view. When thrust forward into the light, the instinct of the ignorant is to cower back in the darkness. The man who steps forward into the sun, hungry for the world, is… the word was not coming.

Something about that thought had not been his, and it was slipping away. There was no holding onto them. He could catch an idea and hold it just long enough to begin, but to finish was elusive.

Kensuke grabbed and pulled at his hair, a growl turning into a scream of anguish.

He wanted to stop it, to be able to see the picture and find all it's little details. Details. Kensuke liked details, data, statistics, hard facts. Fuck metaphor, fuck allegory, fuck impermanent subjective bullshit!

He didn't have data to help him make sense of this. He had feelings.

"Do not fear your storms and your powers… Fuck, where did that come from?!" Kensuke snapped at himself. Okay Ken, think. The really weird shit has got to be from Shinji and all the little stuff is fading away already. What remains is strong emotions and attachment. So what's fuckin' with you is real strong feelings with all the context gone.

Great. Well it was a start. He needed context. If he could make sense of this crap at least it wouldn't be so jarring. Ken mused that reading the Gor books might help make sense of Shinji's crap, but his laptop was at school, so not doing that.

Kensuke looked for his phone and found it laying on his desk. Did Shinji even know how to use a phone? Ken knew he had a number, he'd saved it when Shinji first showed him the cell phone they had given him to use. Maybe he learned how to use it. Kensuke got a bunch of fucked up memories and angst, maybe Shinji learned how to use a stupid phone.

Why would he pick up? Granted the both of them had it coming, but Kensuke figured he had been a real asshole yesterday.

So he picked up the phone. It rang. Many times. Just as Kensuke was considering hanging up, figuring that if he could not pick up the phone he definitely had not set up voicemail either, Shinji picked up.

"Tal, you are speaking with the warrior Shinji Cabot of Tokyo-3."

"Uh Hi, its Kensuke… you know that seems like a sort of clumsy way to answer the phone."

"Agreed, it is long winded. I have received very few telephone calls and have had correspondingly few attempts to improve it. However I do not believe you called to discuss my telephone greeting. What did you wish to discuss?"

"Uh, well, I guess I wanted to say I'm sorry. Yesterday was a lot to take in and I should not have said what I did. You didn't do anything wrong, I shouldn't be mad at you."

"Kensuke, my friend… No, we are friends and between friends no apologies are necessary,"

"Thanks."

"You are most welcome."

"So, what I wanted to talk about. Man, I got some weird shit through my head and I think a lot of it is from you. I… I can't think straight but I think if I could get some help understanding it maybe it would help."

"Certainly. Would you amenable to visiting my quarters? There are circumstances which prohibit my going out and visiting your own."

"Do I want to know?"

"I will explain if you wish when we meet. Do you need the location?"

"Yeah one sec, lemme get something to write with…"

The angel having not actually reached the city, the largely automated trains were already back up and running. As such, Kensuke was soon knocking on the door of the apartment shared by Misato Katsuragi and Shinji.

And apparently a certain blue haired classmate whom Kensuke still had rather vivid memories about, 'borrowed' from Shinji.

"Ayanami?!"

"Good morning Aida."

"W-what are you doing here?"

"I spent the night."

Not just memories, but rather detailed fantasies. Kensuke was considered if it was possible to die from an impending sight gag nosebleed as squealing laughter erupted from the apartment.

"Oh my god Rei! You're going to give the poor kid a heart attack attack talking like that." Kensuke remembered Misato's voice, along with a healthy dose of fear, and he was rather relieved to hear Shinji as well.

"Kensuke my friend, come in, come in."

Breakfast was shared, tea was served, and explanations were made. Ken had difficulty keeping up at times, as visions of being served tea in the fashion Shinji must have considered normal still flitted through his mind. Obscene was a good word to describe them.

"So Captain Katsuragi decided to blow off all of her paperwork and after actions to take you out to dinner, Ayanami asked if she could come long. Except hardly anybody was open, 'cause you know giant monster attack. So you got take out from a convenience store and all came back here."

"Yep! Was still fun too!" Misato beamed.

"And Ayanami spent the night because...?"

"It was late." Shinji said. "Well not extraordinarily so, but I was not sufficient to the task of escorting the Lady Rei home."

"Shinji was kind enough to extend me the use of his bed." Rei added with not a hint of inflection.

"Rei, if I didn't know better I'd say you were doing that on purpose. They did not get up to anything." MIsato said, throwing a look at the two pilots. "Don't let her or Shinji fool you into thinking otherwise Aida. We rolled out an extra futon for him in the living room. Uh-uh, I am keeping my eye on these two after what I found them doing in the showers last night."

Ken's head snapped back to look at the other teens. "What… what were ya doin' in the shower?"

"Sharing my culture over a private conversation." Shinji said, not hiding his glare towards his minder. "Before we were rudely interrupted."

"Oh don't start this again." Misato said, rolling her eyes.

"All I was going to say was that you Earthlings have such primitive attitudes towards nudity. We are all beings of reason yet you assume we cannot be in the nude and close without mounting like a couple of beasts. Besides, Lady Rei was assisting me in washing."

"It would be totally awesome if we could talk about something else please."

Shinji adjourned with Kensuke to the balcony and they spoke, both sitting on plastic chairs.

"I feel like everything I have done, everything I enjoy… it just doesn't matter anymore. The books I've read, the comics, the anime, I mean none of it accomplished anything. In comparison to what you've done-"

"Do not compare yourself to me my friend. Our experiences are too different."

"That is what I mean!" Kensuke leapt to his feet, throwing his hands out and shouting. "I haven't done anything, and I haven't learned to do anything worth shit! All I've learned how to do is be a sheep! To be a useful part… a device… a cog! Just one stupid part nobody even thinks of in a machine."

Kensuke dropped his hands, his shoulders collapsing as though all of his energy had been expelled with his words.

"And here I am screaming like an idiot to you about it. Sorry I got out of control."

"Do not fear your currents and your powers. It was something Tarl told me when I foolishly thought I had allowed my emotions to somehow best me. A man's emotions, a warrior's most especially, are not an adversary. We are not lesser for expressing our feelings. Even shedding tears openly is nothing of which to be ashamed."

"Okay, what does that mean to me, what should I do?"

Shinji shrugged his shoulders. "I cannot tell you the meaning or means of your life my friend. Perhaps you are now without a heading. You do not know where you will journey next in this wider world our experience has opened to you."

"Yeah… I guess I don't know where to go."

"You know… well, I presume you know at some level anyway, that my people have a saying."

"Shinji, I am very aware your people have a great many saying and I am also rather sure none of the ones I know would be helpful here."

"Aaah, but you would be incorrect my friend. For it is said that when at a crossroad with no understanding of where one should then travel, you are in infinitely better conditions…"

"If you just choose one and go instead of standing around?"

"What? No! You are in infinitely better conditions if you had bothered to bring a damned map. Find your direction in the wisdom of others if you seek to travel known paths and know it well before you decide to blaze your own."

"Oh… Yeah that makes more sense."

"Yes, foolish nonsense what you were saying before."

"Yeah." Kensuke said, nodding. The more he thought about it the more insipid it sounded.

"The exception being if you truly have no other choice, but the occurrence of that, so I was taught, is far less than we would think. So use your time now and seek wisdom where you may find it, you quite like reading, aye?"

"Yeah. Have to wait until school starts again though. I got some paper, but most of my books are on my laptop."

"And so?"

"I left it in my bag, which is still at my desk. The angel alarm rang during lunch."

"I see. Shall we retrieve it then?"

"Huh?"

"Why wait until classes begin again? We can go ourselves and retrieve your device."

"Uh, school is closed dude."

"We are students, it is our academy, surely none would contest retrieving our belongings. Come, there it but a door in the way. Lady Rei may accompany us as well, it shall be an outting!"

Captain Katsuragi had been surprisingly blase about the affair, which Shinji proposed quite honestly.

"Eh, I'm going to head into work. If the cops show up call me, otherwise you are on your own."

And so they found themselves before the doors of Tokyo-3 Municipal High School.

Kensuke tugged on one of the bank of doors into the high school building's lobby.

The doors which were very much locked. Kensuke reported as such.

"Then we shall find a window."

"The windows on the ground floor don't open."

"Ah, but.." Shinji pointed upwards. "The windows in our classroom do. I have seen it and there is no latch."

"Yeah but that is on the second floor."

"Exactly, an easy climb."

"Wha-?"

"It is simple!" Shinji said as he set off, hand raised and counting windows with his fingertip. Kensuke followed. "We climb up, enter the window, retrieve your things and exit as we came in."

"Uh, yeah, I'm not so sure. You been climbing the walls when nobody's looking?"

"It is only one floor!" Shinji said, coming to a stop below their classroom window. He certainly did look confident, palms resting on his hips. "I need only find one perhaps two good toeholds and I will be in."

"Uh huh… Where exactly are you going to find these toeholds? I'm not seeing it." Kensuke said, staring at the wall. Shinji was now sitting on the turf, taking off his boots.

"I shall leap from the ground and take hold of the wall just above the window there, I suppose that is a beam or some such extending out. I will pull myself up, set my toes upon the exterior wall and that should be sufficient to reach that bottom base of the window frame. From there, I need only bring my feet to the initial position of my hands. Simple."

"Yeah alright Ezio." Kensuke said as Shinji rose from the ground.

"Et-sio?"

"Nothin'. Alright, let's see it." Kensuke gestured towards the building.

"And see it you shall my friend!" Shinji stretched his shoulders and set his feet to the ground for a running start. "And too you will see that while my upbringing may not be as academically rigorous as yours, there are advantages to rigorous training!"

Leopard taught muscles flung Shinji forwards. As he neared the wall he drew his arms back and threw them up, launching himself upwards...

Before continuing, it should be said that when Earthlings come to Gor, they find themselves benefiting from their worlds noticeably heavier gravity and in possession of extraordinary strength. This is the case even if they are not in possession of the most fit physique. It is perhaps not as well known that the reverse is also true.

Shinji's face smacked against the glass window and he stumbled back from the wall, one hand holding his nose.

"Ow… It appears I missed my mark."

"Yeah, you barely made it ten centimeters off the ground." Kensuke said. Shinji cocked his head and Kensuke held up his hands to show the small distance.

"That's not right…" Shiji said, looking up the side of the building again. "I can jump higher than that without a running start."

"Gravity is a harsh mistress."

"Uugh… and very ready to correct us." Shinji said, his steps unsteady as he moved away from the wall to assess his plan again. "Alright, very well. If I cannot jump to reach the first handhold, we need only lift me to that point and I should be able continue the ascent as planned."

"We?"

"Yes we."

"I don't see Ayanami around to try lifting you up."

"Where has she gone? Now see, it does not matter I would not have asked her. It is not a woman's work. Now come and give me a boost."

Kensuke made an attempt to protest or at least to expound on why this was a poor idea. The cyclical nature of life being what it is however, he found himself dragged along with it. The result was his legs were shaking, trying to keep back braced against the first floor window as Shinji first placed one foot in his hand, then the other on his shoulder.

"Shinji, hurry up!"

"Almost there my friend!... Wait, I hear something… The window is opening its…"

Kensuke watched his back pack fall beside him, landing cushioned by a bush.

"Lady Rei, how did-"

At this point, Kensuke gave up and only gave thought to not taking the brunt of his friend's weight in the resulting fall. He certainly was not going to hold the Gorean up to have a conversation with his crush. Shinji fell on his side and was back on his feet as Kensuke recovered his bag. They both looked up to Rei's head poking out of the window.

"My ID card."

"Wait, Ayanami, why does your ID card open the school doors? I thought only teachers had those." Kensuke asked.

"Commander Ikari said I may need greater access." She replied.

"I am not sure breaking and entering is what he had in mind."

"We have broken nothing, she only entered." Shinji replied, rubbing the shoulder he had fallen upon while stretching his arm in tall circles and looking up at Rei, still peeking out of the window. "Well done m'lady!"

And with that Rei swiftly pulled her head inside, which made Shinji smile. Perhaps she had sought to conceal the color in her cheeks, but he saw it plainly enough. They were soon on their way again, back towards the Katsuragi-Ikari apartment.

"Now Kensuke my friend, if you have any questions, perhaps you wish more information or maybe Tarl was unclear, please ask."

"Yeah."

"Our ways are beautiful. I hope that with your new insight you may enjoy Tarl's works more."

"Yeah…" Kensuke said again. He was looking past Shinji to Rei, who walked on his friend's opposite shoulder. Memories and a certain amount of context were coming together in his head. It was past being weird and awkward, now it was just becoming distracting. Ayanami had always had such an impassive stare, in every situation. She was just limp, existing. Now though her hands were constantly reaching for the gorean, and her eyes were on him more than the path before them.

Desire was only part of the frustration Kensuke felt watching her. There was envy of a kind. She was being drawn into a new world, one he knew and very much wanted to be part of, and he was not. The experience in the battle had made that all the more bitter. Kensuke did not envy what she would become, but that she would be part of it at all.

The thought came to him that this feeling was the true source of the surge of anger he had felt for Shinji and Toji and so the cause of his outburst, rather than betrayal. It was jealously. They both had a means to what he himself wanted. Pride, power, money, women, adventure. The whole do well in school, go to a good college, get a good salary career ladder was not really setup for such goals. Even when those things were achieved, they were more in imitation than reality. A really rich guy might set himself up with a house like a king and all that, put swords on the wall, have mistresses he keeps around with money. That is not the same thing as a man going out and making that for himself though.

Kensuke was struggling to form an accurate concept of what he envied. It wasn't really freedom, because caste codes and the like. Goreans would say they value freedom, but their idea of it was different from that of Earth. Kensuke was not sure of the best way to describe that either.. A thought he recognized as Shinji's intruded into his mind, reminding him that wild things like animals and plants are free, and so to be respected.

Something about the idea of being able to make one's own life by the sword while not being a criminal was alluring, even if it seemed naive to believe that was anything but being a barbarian.

Kensuke looked to Shinji and Rei again. She was hanging on his arm. Her eyes were on his face, letting him guide her. Kensuke looked away.

He wanted that someday. He wanted other stuff first. Women could wait, he had his right hand. Which was not an entirely good place to start when looking at one's own self esteem. The issue was further worsened by whom he saw waiting for them at the entrance to the apartment building.

"Uh, hey guys…" Toji Suzuhara said. Kensuke could tell as they closed the distance with Toji that he was already nervous. Which was sorta funny to Kensuke at least, since Toji was normally pretty chill.

"Hello Suzuhara." Rei replied, lifting her head from where her cheek had been pressed against Shinji's arm.

"Tal… my friend?" Shinji said, his voice lifting to the question. "Lady Rei, I do not mean to be rude but this is something of a private matter. I beg your favor, leave us men to our talk, aye?"

Rei looking from Shinji, to Kensuke, to Toji. With a distinctly disappointed huff she let go of Shinji's arm. "I will go inside."

Kensuke said nothing, his gaze staying on Toji as Rei passed him and went in the building. When she was inside, Toji spoke again.

"Yeah… uh… Look I said some mean things and I shouldna'. And I should have trusted my best friend a lot more. I hope you know why I had to do it." Toji then held his arms straight to his side and bowed. "And I really hope we can still be friends. All of us. I'm sorry."

"Yeah." Kensuke said, quite dryly.

"Do you understand why I had to do what I did?"

"I get why you had to do it. I don't like that you don't trust me."

"Man, I trust you, I just had to protect my family. I promise, I won't lie to you again. Like ever." Toji continued.

"I appreciate that." Kensuke replied.

"So... we cool?"

"Oh we're cool…"

The smaller boy took two steps forward and raised his hand, index finger pointed inches from Toji's face.

"But you!" Kensuke raised his other hand to point at Shinji, still sitting on the parapet. "And you! I saw things when we were in there, dude. Awesome things! I want to learn, man, I want to learn it all. Everything!"

"Everything, huh?" Toji said, crossing his arms. Shinji rose to his feet.

"Everything about what, my friend?"

"About you guys, about Gor! How to talk, how to act, how to fight! I want to learn to, no I want to BE Gorean."

Shinji began to laugh, then Toji. It took Kensuke a moment to realize they were not mocking him, it was only joyful.

"We have fought together." Shinji said.

"Side by side!" Kensuke said, pumping his fist in the air.

"We killed a damn angel." Toji added with a toothy grin.

"That makes us comrades." Kensuke said.

"Makhaira i'mota. Sword brothers!" Shinji corrected, and embraced Kensuke with one arm about his shoulders

"Sword brothers." Toji agreed. He grabbed both his friends with strong arms around them, and they him.

"Makhaira i'mota. Ta Sardar Gor." Shinji said. Kensuke did not need him to translate.

"Sword brothers. By the priest kings."

"Against all comers, my friends."

Berlin 2003

"Well then, if we are agreed I will be off to inform the missus that plans will be moved up. The boy will need a caring mother after all." Tarl turned, hooking his thumbs into his belt. One blue eye glared over his shoulder at Yui. "Because he certainly does not have one now."

"I…"

"Yui, do you know how a warrior mother sends her son off to fight for the first time? Exactly as a companion might. She hands him his shield and tells him 'with it or on it'. That shield represents everything she has taught him, because it is his mother who showed him what would be expected of his heart as well as how to be wily and cunning."

"I won't be there for that, that does not mean I do not care."

"No Yui, instead you are perverting the entire way of things. You wish the boy's father to hand you a weapon, your son, to fight with. Wishes are not reality, no matter how much this world likes to teach they are. So Shinji will be the warrior you need. However a warrior is a man of passion, of powers and storms. So I will raise him to be the warrior you need, regardless of whether that is what you want."