1.1.9: Disassembled
Tokyo-3 Airport
July 10th, 2015
From the terminal, the assembled children watched as the three Avalons took to the sky, making a very steep inclination after taking to the air. The three fighters where very quickly out of sight.
"Well that sucks." Toji stated, straining to see the fighters with his eyes. "We should be helping them instead of staying here."
"And just how the hell are we supposed to help against aliens?" Asuka asked. "The Evas are still broken, and we can't exactly fight them with our fists."
"It still feels wrong to just sit here and do nothing." Toji barked back. Kensuke came in between them, placing a hand on each of their shoulders.
"Calm down you two, just because we can't fight with them doesn't mean we aren't doing important things."
"He's right." Hikari agreed. "We still have ways of making ourselves useful."
"Yeah, well it still sucks we're being broken up." Toji lamented.
Hikari was going to reply to that, but when she saw the final two members of their team present she let the others speak amongst themselves. Rei and Shinji where simply standing next to each other, Mei being held closely in Rei's arms. The two where starring into the sky, looking towards where the fighters had gone.
"Will they be alright?" Mei asked, looking up at Rei.
"They will, of that I am certain." Was her reply.
"So where are you guys going?" Toji asked.
"The nerd is coming with me to Germany." Asuka informed him. "Along with Unit Two. Hopefully they'll be able to get it back up and running."
"Germany, huh. Well that sounds a lot nicer then Russia." Toji stated back. "I don't see what they can possibly see for me to do there."
"Look on the bright side, you'll have me and Shinji." Hikari spoke up. "I feel sorry for Rei, her and her sister are going to be alone in Area 51."
The group started continued to have casual conversation until about an hour later a massive explosion in high orbit took the attention of everyone in the terminal, dozens of nuclear warheads going off at once as S.W.O.R.D. started a dance of death with invaders from another star system. Another hour later it was announced that normal flight schedules would return, meaning that they had won the day and pushed back the invaders. It was with great reluctance, but one by one the team split up as they took the military transports which would bring them to their destinations around the world.
3 months later
Nerv under-lab
Jay wasn't sure he was happy with the arrangements he found himself in. He hadn't liked it coming forward to Fury, but there where necessities. As was the usual he was doing his monthly visit to the base where his comrades where working, making sure things where moving along as they had hoped.
"Don't touch me!" Shin's yelling confirmed he was at the right spot, not that there was any question of that in Jay's mind.
"But Shinji I…" The voice of Yui Iraki stated before being cut off by another yell.
"I'm not Shinji! Shinji Ikari in my timeline died the day my Earth did. I am Shin!" Shin yelled. "You want a mama's boy, go to that pussy in Russia. My mother died when my Unit One was destroyed, just like my dad died when I crushed him with it."
At the comment, Gendo Ikari, who was in charge of the lab, shuddered at the mental image. Unlike his wife, he had quickly learned not to treat the man who called himself Shin as his son. He had tried to convince Yui to stop trying to 'get through' to him, but just as her attempts towards Shin, his had failed to convince her. Had Gendo not known any better, he'd almost have thought the man preferred him to his wife due to how he treated him as just another lab member.
"Will you two stop, we have a visitor." Doctor Langley told them. "Sorry about that, you know how those two can be."
"Oh I know, and I thank god every day my father isn't aware of my existence." Jay replied, extending his hand to her. After she shook it and turned he discreetly pinched her. She didn't say anything, but gave him a quick wink while no one was looking. Though his visits where few and far between the two had started a not-so-secret relationship. "Key, where are we on the Tagrisian revival program?"
Key, who pretended not to have noticed her mother and boss' interaction, walked up to him with a paper. She looked out of place being the only one whose skin was green, the change from her human form still permanent. "We're about half way through, we've got forty three hundred eighty two of them out of the LCL and walking around the base, with another forty five hundred twenty six to go." She informed him.
The previous three months the lab had been going through the proses of taking the Tagrisians out of the LCL which had been keeping them in stasis for the past decade and a half since the tanks had been built. The small ship which had come to Earth almost directly after impact had held much knowledge from the forbidden tree, to build things like the Evas using that technology they first had to unlock it, and to do that they had two requirements, have two identical embryos on the ship brought to term, and to build a tank to rebuild the thousands who had their bodies turned into data in the ship's database. The results had nearly been a disaster due to the container of the two embryos had been damaged, requiring an immediate need for someone to bring them to term. Thankfully Yui Ikari had been on the team which found the ship in the ice of Antarctica.
"That's a bit slower then I'd hoped, but that's still within an acceptable level." Jay told Kay. "How about the other projects?"
"S.E.T.H. says the shadow fleet is well underway, and thankfully S.W.O.R.D. has started their expected expansion of the actual fleet due to their little space war." Kay flipped through the different papers. "The first plasma weapon prototypes are also well underway, but it'll take time to actually build the things."
"What about the miniaturized proton rifle?"
"You mean this?" Kay asked, removing the tarp which covered an object on one of the many desks in the large room. The revealed item was a good meter and a half from end to end, but in every way it looked like the JSSDF's proton rifle on a human scale. The only difference was that where the original had used the fuel of two Avalon's, the miniaturized version used an arc reactor which had been built in. Jay took the weapon in his hands, feeling its weight and balance.
"This looks nice, but how does it handle?"
"Accurate for two kilometers, though capable of altering between a sniper and assault rifle mode with the use of that switch at the bottom."
"I like the sound of that, what's the unit cost?"
"A hundred and twenty thousand."
"That I don't like."
"Sorry Jay, nothing I can do about that. If you or Fury want an army of these, it'll cost you."
Jay put the weapon back down on the table. He sighed, looking Kay in the eyes. "This whole thing is a god dame nightmare. Working with S.H.I.E.L.D. again, it feels weird after what happened."
"Like you have a right to talk, you've been running the SEELE bases while we've been here." Key replied. "I swear its creepy how similar things are to the way I remember them to those dame days."
"Look I'm sorry but we need you two here to get these project done while I take out H.Y.D.R.A. within SEELE and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ranks." He said apologetically.
"Yeah well that doesn't make me any happier about it. By the way what happened to that aged up clone you made?" Jay had a pained look at the question.
"Cellular degeneration, she's a pile of LCL in Israel now." He let out a sigh. "I've lost her, I've accepted that now." He looked at Doctor Langley for a moment, who was helping Yui and Shin with some work. "There are things which make moving on easier though."
Kay tried not to be revolted by the idea of her longtime friend, who was practically a family member, in a sexual relationship with her mother. Even if both they and her mother where about the same age due to time travel.
"Well silver lining and whatever it is they say." Kay said, moving on to the small tank of LCL. The colour seemed slightly off, but it was clearly LCL none the less. "This is the one part we've been having a bit more trouble than we hoped."
Jay tapped on the tank's glass. "What's the problem?"
"The artificial LCL seems to be taking longer to perfect the refining proses then we'd hoped." She explained. "It's also been pegged for lower priority due to the fact we've managed to stop our reserves of natural LCL from evaporating, and at the rate we're using it we should be good for another two years."
"That's probably a good call, the only thing we even use this for now are the sarcophaguses S.W.O.R.D. uses, and they aren't exactly burning the stuff like an Eva does."
Kay sighed as she looked around the lab. "Is this really the best way we can change things? I mean, we only have a few years before it gets here and destroys everything, is this really going to work?"
"Kay, you seem to forget how just a small thing can change everything. When you look up into the night sky, what do you see?" Jay asked.
"I see a bunch of stars." Kay deadpanned.
"Well I see two space stations that where not there in our time." Jay replied. "We are already having a major effect on how things are playing out, we can actually do this."
"I'll save my hope for when we kill that dame thing."
Gehirn base
Germany
Asuka felt odd inside the new entry plug. The light was brighter then she was used to, and the LCL was absent, replaced with inertia dampeners commonly used on starships. She also had a new seatbelt in place, going over each of her shoulders to meet in the middle.
"Arc reactors at 99.9999% output, all systems green." A women stated over the comm. System.
"Hydraulics are green. Bay area ready for activation." A male voice continued. "Pilot status?"
"Pilot status ten on ten, ready for activation test." Asuka stated.
"Confirmed, you are clear for reactivation."
For the first time since leaving Japan, Asuka felt nervous. Over the past three months her Unit Two had her empty cavern around her core replaced with machinery to replace the lost biological components. To her knowledge things had gone smoothly in Area 51 with Unit Zero, Rei activating her unit for several minutes before returning to dormancy.
"Beginning reactivation of Unit Two in three…. Two…. One… now." On her mark Asuka began to turn on the now fully mechanized machine. She could feel a slight but constant vibration rumbling though the machine. On the holographic projection in front of her, the bar showing progression of activation was moving at a steady pace, quickly going from zero to sixty. At around seventy percent it started to slow down, at eighty it slowed to a crawl, and it stabilized at eighty six percent. "Come on you son of a bitch." Asuka swore quietly. Despite her comment the progress didn't continue, then all at once it collapsed to zero percent.
"Son of a bitch!" Asuke yelled in frustration. "Langley to tower, reactivation failed."
"Copy that, we're reading some of the power regulators as offline. Test is marked as a failure, return to previous duty until further notice."
"Roger."
In the locker room, Asuka punched a noticeable dent into one of the lockers in frustration, almost turning into her other form but keeping in enough control not to.
"God dame it, why won't it work."
"Mechanical issues, nothing you did." A male voice replied. Asuka turned to see Kensuke standing at the door.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Asuka asked, trying to keep her breathing steady.
"I heard about the test, thought you might need some cheering up."
"And you thought your stupid face would do that?" She asked, tears starting to flow.
"No, but I did think this would help." He removed his hands from behind his back to reveal a bag from a fast food burger joint that he knew Asuka quite enjoyed, though would never admit to it. She said nothing as she walked up to him and took the bag.
There was a long silence between the two as she ate the burgers on the bench, Kensuke taking a seat not too far from her. Neither said anything for a long time, one eating and the other simply not speaking.
When she was done eating, she paused for a moment before whispering "Thank you."
Over the three months they had been stationed in Germany both had formed an odd bond. They didn't have much in common outside of working together, but if there was one thing they could both spend hours speaking about on end it was Eva, something very relevant to their work and their lives. Over time they had started to have an unspoken understanding. They were not dating, no, but they would spend long periods of time together doing things friends would.
Their relationship had developed to the point where she was quite worried a few weeks earlier when Kensuke had been transferred to S.W.O.R.D. for a few days to help in an operation on some planet neither had ever heard about as backup to Jon. She hadn't been told directly, but from the look in his eyes alone she knew Kensuke had at least slightly traumatized by the event. She didn't know the details, but there was no doubt in her mind that he had been forced to kill.
She leaned slightly to her side, pressing up against him as they sat in the locker room.
"Kensuke I…."
"Pilot Langley and Sergeant Aida to transporter room, Pilot Langley and Sergeant Aida to transporter room." The intercom announced.
Kensuke let out a sigh. "Duty calls."
"Yes it does." Asuka agreed reluctantly. It took them a few minutes of navigating the concrete hallways to reach the transporter room. "Why where we called?"
"Message from the Peak." The transporter chief informed them. "You two have been ordered to the Helicarrier immediately."
"When do we leave?" Kensuke asked.
"Right now, step on the pad and I'll beam you there now."
"Great, can't even get my stuff." Asuke complained while stepping onto the pad.
"Seems to be some emergency, no time for that." The chief explained, making the two disappear in a beam of light.
Kapustin Yar
Russia
Shinji was feeling restless. This was a common occurrence for him, and the moment he got his powers things only got worst. Because of this he choose to run around the base, known cordially as Russia's Area 51, a few dozen times to get his mind off things.
Unlike his comrades in the US and Germany, he hadn't gone through reactivation tests due to Unit One still having machinery usually used in starships forced into its interior to make it run. The delays seemed to be based on human error, the Nerv techs who had been assigned to the base for the work having a few choice words to describe the Russians they were directing.
After a few minutes of running, he stopped by the barracks to take a drink from one of the drinking fountains. The wind made things slightly cooler then he was comfortable with, but the early September air wasn't nearly as bad as it would soon be.
"Shinji?" He stopped drinking at the voice, looking to his side to see Hikari standing in a jacket.
"Hey, little late to be us isn't it?" He asked, straightening himself out.
"I could say the same to you." She stated back.
"I needed to stretch my legs, and given my… well running a marathon helps."
"I see."
"Former Strike Force members to transporter room." A voice boomed over the base's loud speakers. Some curses and groans came from the barracks, soldiers who had been woken up by the announcement. Shinji and Hikari walked towards the building with the transporter room, but before they made it half way alarms started to go off.
"Condition 1, condition 1, the government has announced full mobilization. Scramble all fighter, scramble all fighters, this is not a drill. I repeat, we have entered full mobilization, this is not a drill."
Hikari picked up her pace while Shinji disappeared in a flash towards the transporter room. As she ran Hikari noticed lights turning on as soldiers ran and fighters, many from the cold war, where taken from hangers, pilots rushing to their machines. By the time she reached the transporter room Shinji had already been beamed away, Toji just walking onto the pad when she arrived.
"What's happening?" She asked, rushing to the pad as well.
"No idea, I just run this place." The chief informed her. "I was just told to transport you to the Helicarrier."
And with a few pressed buttons he did.
Area 51
Ayanami Residence
Rei put the plates of food down on the table, lunch finally finished.
"Mei, it's time to eat, stop watching that television."
"Yes Rei." The four year old stated, walking to the table and climbing onto the chair. They were only half way through their meal when there was a knock at the door. Neither spoke as Rei walked to answer it. She hadn't been pleased to have her meal interrupted, but that feeling quickly disappeared as she opened the door and saw that it was Jon.
"Hi Rei."
"Is your return from space permanent this time?" Rei asked. He had visited her once before during the three months they had been away from Japan, that time he had called her for a few days on a mission to a planet Earth was at war with.
"I'm afraid I am, I need you now."
"For what purpose am I needed?"
He sighed in displeasure at what he was about to say. "The Initiative has been activated. Strike Force is getting back together, and it's time for the Avengers to Assemble."
Author's Notes
Sorry for the long absence, I got an idea for another story and it just kept on going (it's the reason why the time skip was three months instead of my originally planned one month). I had the story involve Jon and Mary, as well as having Rei, Kensuke and Mana appear a few times. I feel awful for this story being neglected for so long, but rest assured I'm going to divide my attention equally between my three active fics. So stay tuned for next time when we start a new story arc: The Initiative.