Human After All
Chapter 4: It only takes one bad day.
Four eyes stared back at her, and one giant smile. This was humanity's key to defeat the upcoming threat, and she was the main piece for the key.
"In December we will start the first synch test…" her husband said and dropped the cigarette, "are you sure about this?"
Kyoko said nothing, she just stared at the Eva in front of her.
"Kyoko-"
"It will be fine. This is a sacrifice for our daughter's future." She turned to look at her husband, then reached out for his hand. "I have to do this."
He sighed, "I'm scared…scared about you. Scared about Asuka." he felt her hand gently caressing his cheek, then she planted a kiss on his lips. "I know. Just promise me you will be at her side when the time comes."
He smiled at her, "Alright, I promise."
Suddenly the sirens started to wail, catching them both off guard. "All NERV personnel, please leave the bay and return to your offices. Thank you."
"Welp, that's our cue to leave." Her husband said and both shared a laugh, walking out and holding hands, Kyoko couldn't help but keep looking back at the Eva. She couldn't explain why but it felt like the Eva was calling her.
"Hey! Be careful with that!" The workers' boss shouted from the shaft that was picking up the body armour for Unit-00. "That thing costs fortune and one simple graze will have you and everyone fired! …And in debt!"
"F-Forgive me sir, I didn't mean to do that." The junior worker answered.
"Well you better not make the same mistake again!"
"Yes sir!" After that, he helped his co-workers with the chains. It was a busy day, and the day had only just begun.
As the chief sighed, he looked to his right where Fuyutsuki was standing. "Forgive the boy, sub-commander. He's still new at this stuff but I assure he will not be making the same mistakes again."
"All is forgiven; I understand how it is to work with people like them." Kozo closed his eyes and smiled, "I used to be a doctor and had many co-workers like him."
Baffled at the news, the chief couldn't help but ask, "You were a doctor before? I thought I had heard you were a professor for Metaphysics biology."
Fuyutsuki nodded, "I was that as well, but that was before the Second Impact. After that incident, I set up a shop at the ruins of Toyohashi." Resting his back at the wall, he continued the conversation. "Many doctors were lost after that tragedy and people needed one more than ever, so I tried my best to help everyone."
"Then I was selected to be part of the United Nations' investigatory expedition to the south pole. That's where I met again with commander Ikari and started our partnership." Kozo chuckled, "Still called me professor when we met, that man had not changed one bit."
Removing the helmet to wipe away the sweat from the heat of the room, the chief let out a whistle. "Didn't know you and the commander knew each other that long. Must have been nice to work alongside him again."
"Sir!" They heard the voice of a woman calling them. Turning around they saw one of the new bridge members rushing at them.
"At ease Miss Izuki, what is the problem?" Kozo asked her and then waited for her to catch her breath.
"Sub-commander, Commander Ikari wanted to see you in his office for some 'important' work."
"Thank you Miss Izuki, forgive me chief but I have to go now."
"Fine by me, it was a pleasure talking with ya." With those words exchanged, Fuyutsuki left. As Izuki fixed her hair, the chief took his chance. "So uhhh, you wanna grab some coffee?"
In the office, Gendo was holding an old portrait of Yui and Shinji. The photo was taken during their picnic. It was Shinji's birthday, and Yui had wanted them to go out in the field together. To 'help the father not be shy with his baby boy' as Yui had said. The memories from then brought a smile to his face.
Hearing a knock on the door, he lowered the portrait and told the guest to enter.
"Ikari, you wanted to see me?"
Gendo smiled, "Good day professor, yes I wanted to inform you about a new scientist joining our lab," fixing his glasses. His facial expression changed to the cold look he'd give the workers at NERV. "And about my final thoughts on Rei."
'Rei huh? I see you made up your mind, Ikari.' Kozo thought to himself but decided to sit down on the chair at the side of Gendo's table.
"First of all, I have hired Dr. Akagi's daughter as our new scientist. She has her mother's knowledge about the Evangelions." The sun lighting shone on his glasses, hiding the truth that laid on his eyes. "And knows how to finish the MAGI system." He finished and waited for his professor's thoughts on this.
"I must say, I am surprised the young Akagi decided to join us. Especially with what happened to her mother here in the lab." He told him and then glared at his old student, "Right Ikari?"
"I do not regret what I did that day, Fuyutsuki." he answered back, "People like her can be replaced, but my son is not like that. He cannot be replaced."
Fuyutsuki scoffed. "Since when do you care for your son that much?"
"Do not pretend like you know everything about me and my family, Kozo Fuyutsuki. You are rather too angry this time, professor. Why is that?"
Raising from the chair and slamming his fists, he stared Gendo down. But the commander was not fazed one bit. "You killed one of my best students, Ikari, and not by accident but by choice."
"And you hide information from the public about what really happened in the second impact. Are you that different from me? Remember why we are doing all of this professor. If we achieve full control of The Human Instrumentality Project. We can bring everyone back."
"Unless you've changed your mind. Have you?" Gendo asked him, the room was silent, silent enough to hear the old man's aggravated breathing and below them, the sounds of the elevator going up, stopping, and then going down.
Sighing, the professor went back to his chair and massaged his forehead, "No, I have not forgotten about our plan." Staring through the gaps of his finger, he continued, "but that doesn't mean I can let this thing slide, Ikari. I hope you don't forget this."
Gendo nodded, "I won't. Now, back to the other topic. I have decided the fate of Rei."
"Rei will live. But under one condition."
Fuyutsuki looked at him puzzled, and asked "What condition?"
"That you raise her." This response caught him off guard, "Raise her, to be obedient to our plan and not turn against us, you can tutor her in private but she won't join the future pilots yet."
"And why is that?"
"A child's mind can be easily tempered with, hanging around others may shift her vision to our goal and turn her against us." With that said, Gendo got up and walked towards the window behind him and looked at the beauty of the geofront. "We can't afford something like that. Especially once we are close to our final step."
Though he knew Gendo couldn't see him, out of instinct Fuyutsuki nodded at Gendo's words. "It feels rather cruel to lock a child away from the outside world but I can't say I don't agree with your logic." Getting up from the chair and resting his hands behind, he continued. "Very well, I will take care of her and start with the documents today."
Hearing no response from him, Fuyutsuki made his way to leave the office but was stopped when Gendo spoke.
"Rei Ayanami, that will be her name. Be careful to keep this as a secret, I've heard that the old men have done something similar like us, we can't afford a battle against them this early."
"Will do, Ikari. By the way, who have you heard that information from?"
Gendo smirked, "a spy of ours."
Back at the Evangelion bay, Eva Unit-00 had just been locked in her cage for further testing due to lack of data on her head, and the fact that her legs were responding to the commands. Ritsuko Akagi, daughter of the now deceased scientist Naoko Akagi, had joined the team to run simulations on the Eva and examine its reaction time before finding a candidate.
"All patterns are ready." one of the workers shouted.
"Eva Unit-00 is ready for the test, Miss Akagi."
Ritsuko nodded, "very well, let us see the head movements first."
"Understood!"
After running some commands to the system of the Eva. The singular eye lightened up and slowly moved her head up, it looked to the left and then to the right. There was a lack of reaction to the commands of the Eva looking up and down. Looking at the graphs on the nearest computer, Ritsuko wrote down each of the Eva's reaction time.
"One second delay for left and right." she murmured to herself then frowned, "6 second delay when looking up and down…that's bad." writing those down, she made sure to circle these reaction times for further troubleshooting. It could be bad in battle against the upcoming angels.
"Alright, let's see some joint movement and finish up for today-" Her words stopped when she saw the Eva hunching down towards the glass panel in front of them. It was looking at her, almost as if it knew who she was.
"Did she move on her own?" She asked her co-workers, who were just as shocked as her at the sudden movement from the blue Eva.
"Y-yes, at least according to the commands here. It somehow gave herself the signal to move."
Frowning at that, she was ready to give them the command to move the Eva back when it suddenly growled. It was awake.
"Quick, release the Bakelite!" Ritsuko shouted at the room but it was too late as the Eva started to punch the glass panel with full force, blow after blow as if it wanted to reach over to Ritsuko. The red liquid now released inside the bay where the Eva was. Hearing that, the Eva turned away from the glass panel and tried to block the tubes where the Bakelite was oozing. Angry from the frustration, the mouth of the Eva opened in response and screamed before starting to bash her head on the wall.
"Dear god…" One the technician mumbled as they saw the Eva slamming her head hard, gripping it as if she was trying to pull out her own hair. Suddenly, the Eva ceased movement and froze on a pose, trying to reach the ceiling.
Not averting her gaze from the behemoth, Ritsuko told the others in the room to report this to the commander and for them to leave her alone in the room. Was this what her mother had been working on? And why was the Eva trying to kill her?
"Mother…what have you been working on?"
December 5th.
Eva Unit-02 synchronization test begins.
Pressing the buttons on her wrist, Kyoko's plugsuit tightened up, now she was ready for the test. Looking at the clock in the room, she saw she still had some spare time before the test. She sat down and reached over for her bag, where Asuka's doll rested. Yesterday was her birthday. It was a wonderful day with the family and her little princess enjoyed every moment of it. As she stared at the doll, smiling, she wondered what her fate would be today.
'Will I die today like you, Yui? Or will I survive and see my daughter again?' she thought to herself, her mind never leaving the image of her daughter. She couldn't imagine what pain she would go through if she was gone today. Lost in her thought, she never heard her husband enter the changing room and hug her behind.
"Nervous?" he asked her gently and planted a kiss on her head. Kyoko responded back by kissing his hand.
"Very, I'm scared." She told him and tightened her hold on his hand.
"Don't be." he assured her, "If things go bad, I will stop the test and pull you out before something bad happens. I won't leave your side."
"Don't do that. You know what must be done." feeling him tremble behind, she turned to face him and then whipped his tears away.
"Kyoko-"
"Shh, I know." she smiled at him, "Just remember, we are doing this for her future."
He shook his head, "but has it to be this way? Can't there be an alternative?"
"You know there isn't one." she told him as the speakers called her name.
"It's time. Remember our promise dear, I will always be by your side." giving him one last kiss, she got up and left the room, leaving her husband behind crying and screaming from the upcoming event. She couldn't help but cry too.
Arriving at her cage, she got inside the machine and crossed her arms. The neon lights of the plugsuit turned on and she slowly descended into the core.
They say that when you are about to die, your life flashes before you. That was what was happening to her right now, from the day she enrolled at her school, when she earned her first medal. She saw her whole life at the moment, her sad and happy days. And the blessed day when she held Asuka in her arms. Then she imagined how her daughter would be. Around the sunflower field, all happy and dancing around. Behind her, a man with brown hair laughing along. A tear ran down her cheek at the image she knew, she would never see.
'Asuka, I will protect you.'
Twenty minutes after they all heard the sirens running as Kyoko's body was slowly being absorbed by the core. Everyone in the room was panicking except for her husband who had his finger ready to press the eject button.
'Promise me you will be at her side when the time comes.' he remembered her saying, gritting his teeth and looking down. He moved his finger away from the button. A moment later, Kyoko was gone.
Asuka was chatting with her friends when she suddenly heard her phone ringing. Reaching for her pocket, she saw it was her father calling.
"Tut mir leid, Papa ruft an." Asuka said to her friends and left the class to answer the call.
"Hallo, Papa?"
"Hallo Asuka, " she heard her father say. She couldn't understand why ,but he sounded sad. "Ich fahre rüber, Es geht um deine Mutter…"
Frowning, Asuka asked "Was ist los mit Mutter?"
"Sie ist gegangen."
To be continued…
Author Notes: Sorry for the long wait, school has been rough. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter release and as always I thank my friend YourBlandestNightmare for bet reading this chapter. Now for the German translation.
"Tut mir leid, Papa ruft an." - "I'm sorry, dad is calling me."
"Ich fahre rüber, Es geht um deine Mutter..." - "I'm driving over, it's about your mother..."
"Was ist los mit Mutter?" - "What's wrong with mom?"
"Sie ist gegangen." - "She's gone."
That's all, see you all next chapter.