Preface Notes: I've received quite a few comments from various readers about how slow I'm taking with this. I admit that this is not untrue but I like to think that I'm building up dramatic tension. One of the biggest complaints I had about the original Evangelion series was how rushed things were.
I mean there seemed to be a very complex, incredibly detailed back story but it glossed over and only commented on in brief snippets. I understand it 'cause the creators had to compact it into a bunch of thirty-minute episodes and they had to focus on Shinji and the occasional other supporting character but I had so many questions about what was going on and about some of the technology that they were using that I felt cheated sometimes.
DC Evangelion is my response. I get to fill in the stuff that was going on in the background. The JSSDF, SEELE, the political machinations going on, and the various characters as well.
I get a kick out of it. Hopefully, so will you and you won't find it too boring and you'll continue to read. If so, I gotta warn you that you'll be seeing quite a bit more of the stuff going on in the background like this chapter in particular. And I really was always planning on having this interlude bit in, I actually didn't include it just to torment you guys.
DC Evangelion
Chapter 12: The Greatest Game Of All
Multiple holographic projections hovered in the darkened room, displaying images and information from various sources around the world. Financial transactions, stock market fluctuations charts, and more. But he ignored them in favor of one lone holographic screen displaying a Japanese news broadcast accompanied by a voiceover, "…state of emergency in the Kanto Region has been reported…"
He leaned back in his padded chair and pursed his lips thoughtfully. So, it was time, he thought to himself. He had been waiting and preparing for this day and he found himself actually eager to begin.
Failing to plan, is planning to fail, he mentally reminded himself and spoke, "Chessboard."
Instantly in response to his command, the various projection screens blanked and then faded away, darkening the chamber and a new holographic image formed in midair in the center of the room.
It was a three-dimensional image of a chessboard only it was far larger than normal. The number of surface tiles was easily five the size of a regular board and instead of being a square, it was rectangular.
It had to be after all. The four separate corners indicated four separate and distinct forces. Each with their own objectives, agendas, powers, and allies. And all in contention with each other.
Various figurines and symbolic objects rested on the tiles. Even as the images stabilized and solidified, certain pieces moved and repositioned themselves.
A game was in play. The Greatest Game of All, the bald man thought to himself as he studied the board and the movements.
In the first corner there was a scowling man wearing a high-tech visor. Lorenz Keele.
He felt a sneer of hate on his face forming but stilled it. Instead he studied the various pieces belonging to Keele.
Keele had numerous pawns arrayed around him. Moving and dancing to his will. He ticked them off. The inner council of SEELE. The various governments and agencies that he secretly controlled and manipulated from the shadows. Others represented certain political factions that he secretly funded and influenced. Still more represented the so-called terrorist groups that in actuality did his dirty work.
Scattered around Keele's corner lay his discarded pieces. His numerous pawns and various tools that he had used and then thrown away afterwards almost carelessly.
But that was not all.
Keele had other resources to call upon.
A finely worked scroll of aged parchment hovered in midair.
Beside it, a two pronged spear lay tilted at a forty degree angle.
They were all huddled together, clustered around the very edge of the board and keeping well away from the center of the board where a major conflict that was taking shape.
Finally the bald man turned his attention to the final piece that was tucked away at Keele's side, clearly protected by SEELE and the others but still in play. It was a naked woman with a pair of wings sprouting from her shoulder blades. She was kneeling, a heavy iron chain wrapped around her and her wings draped pathetically around her. He stroked his chin as he thoughtfully examined that last particularly valuable trump piece. Then he glanced away.
The second corner possessed a wide variety of pieces and many of them were in busily in play, a number of them were industriously shifting and repositioning themselves at that very moment.
He squinted as he found the miniature figure of General Hiro Matsuda. The General was standing in the position of the King but as far as the bald man was concerned, Matsuda was nothing more than a pawn as well. At the General's side stood Yui Ikari in the role of Queen. Kozo Fuyutsuki stood beside them, the faithful retainer. On the opposite side hovering in midair were a trio of circles interconnected with bands of faintly glowing electricity representing the quantum computer and artificial intelligence known as BRAINIAC.
He swept over a host of lesser characters scattered around the board; Doctor Ritsuko Akagi, General Yuri Ivanov, Marshal Luo Zhang, Professor Jay Garrick, Colonel Alan Scott and innumerable others composing the ranks of the Japanese Scientific Analysis and Advisory Board. The JSA. But they were purely insignificant.
Only one truly mattered.
Carefully screened and under the watchful gaze and protection of the others was a man with a pair of wings mounted on his back. Like the other figure guarded by SEELE, this man was also kneeling and shackled, his wings drooping as he crouched, imprisoned and locked away.
Arrayed before them stood 5 gigantic robotic knights holding a silent vigil. The EXO-Frames.
He studied the robots minutely and then directed his view to the third corner.
Centered around a golden cross stood a number of shadowy figurines. They were hazy and indistinct. Only one of their pieces was fully revealed and it was the only one in play.
It was a gigantic spindly limbed humanoid with a white almost bird-like mask for a face. A gigantic red globe was affixed to its chest.
The Third Angel.
Sachiel.
A number of pieces surrounded the Angel as it moved forward into the central area of the board. A tracked missile, a number of tanks, and a pair of aerodynes representing the various military units of the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Forces. But many more pieces lay broken and discarded as the Angel strode forward.
The bald man snorted as he watched the JSSDF position a few more tanks and rearrange their formations as they moved a glowing atomic nucleus representing the pinnacle of their military might. The N2 mine.
Useless, he thought to himself. Sachiel could not be defeated by the forces of man. Only another of it's kind might be capable of matching it. And perhaps only the strange extraterrestrial strength of the EXO-Frames. They were an unforeseen variable. Even he could not accurately estimate their true potential and power. Yet.
Finally he turned to survey the fourth and final corner. A slight smile appeared on his features as he scrutinized a bald man with features identical to his own seated on a miniature throne. Naturally he was positioned in the King. As well he should. Like Keele, he too kept far away from the battle taking shape in the middle of the board.
He had a number of pieces as well. Through careful positioning, he had a number of them and even a few which were straddling between the two corners controlled by the JSA and SEELE. He felt a smug smirk twisting at the corner of his mouth.
Keele wasn't the only one who could plot and manipulate things. He too had been orchestrating things behind the scenes. Carefully advancing the JSA, subtly supporting them to negate SEELE at critical junctures. Keele had spent considerable influence and resources of his own to secretly sabotage and delay the JSA itself. Keele controlled several dozen terrorist organizations and government agencies that had blocked or delayed the JSA's agenda.
But that was fine.
Because Keele never realized that he was being played himself. Being manipulated to expend his time, his influence, his power against his obvious opponent and arrogantly assuming that no one else would dare challenge him.
Someone like him.
"Sir." A soft female voice interrupted his musings.
He turned from his contemplation of the board. "Yes, Eve?" he inquired.
The short, slender slip of a girl stepped forward into the light cast from the holographic chessboard and continued in her low voice, "A communiqué was transmitted to you fifteen minutes ago. From Lorenz Keele. Requesting an urgent meeting."
His eyes glinted with amusement. "I see."
He turned back to the board. Things were becoming very interesting. Very interesting indeed. Keele was getting desperate. Desperate enough that he was attempting to form an alliance with him no less.
Slowly, the corners of his mouth tugged upwards, splitting his blank face into a cold and cruel smile. Oh yes, things were moving exactly as he had planned. Even to the new figurine that had appeared by his throne on the chessboard. His own special trump piece. His ace in the hole as it were.
She was short and slender. Blood red eyes gazed placidly out from a pale white face and from bangs of light blue hair. He studied Eve's piece on the board. It was almost identical to her own appearance. Almost. After all, the albino girl standing next to him did not have the pair of furled wings visibly growing from her shoulder blades.
A/N: It wouldn't be Evangelion if there wasn't Rei Ayanami around. I mean the original blue haired, red eyed one. In case you may have missed it or were wondering; my own version of Rei Ayanami is a hybrid clone of Yui Ikari and Kal El, so she is essentially half human and half Kryptonian.
Eve on the other hand, appears to be like the Rei in canon, half Angel, half human. Or so it seems. That's one of the reasons why my "Rei" has black hair to help differentiate between them. I did think it would be so cool to have this little sub-plot in where there are two almost identical Rei's running around.