Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the property of Gainax. Any profits made by writing this fic are purely intellectual.
Reis Ayanami
By: Taiteki Kagato
Chapter 2
"Shinji, concentrate on walking right now," Dr. Ritsuko Akagi said, leaning forward to talk into the microphone. Like everyone else however, her eyes were glued to the screen upon which Unit 01 stood facing the Angel, which for some reason was designated the third Angel on the smaller display before me.
Moments ago, the Evangelion unit had lurched forward as a set of clamps released its shoulders, and I wondered again why someone with absolutely no training was being put into a situation like this. Before I could say anything, everyone around me gasped as Unit 01 took an unsteady step forward. The next step, however, was even less graceful, and the Eva fell forward, landing on its face.
"Shinji? Shinji? Are you okay? Get up. Hurry!" Captain Misato Katsuragi shouted over my shoulder. Before the young pilot could get the Unit up however, the Angel made its move, grabbing Unit 01 by the head and lifted the Eva up so that its feet hung above the ground. That the Angel had done this almost effortlessly was readily apparent to everyone on the bridge.
With its free hand, the Angel grabbed Unit 01's arm and began to pull, eliciting a small alarm from my station, and a much louder one from Lieutenant Maya Ibuki's. Looking down, I saw that the Eva Unit's arm was being stressed beyond recommended levels, and intervention was recommended before it suffered severe damage.
Misato shouted at Shinji to calm down, and a quick glance at the screen Ibuki was sitting at showed me that the Pilot was apparently feeling whatever the Eva felt. Unit 01's piloting handles entirely ignored, Shinji sat in the Entry plug holding his left arm above the wrist as if trying to keep his arm in its socket.
Dr. Akagi started asking questions about the Units defenses and I turned to look at my screen for a moment before tapping the "Defense" icon, only to find that all area defenses were either disabled or offline. Apparently, however, they were talking about something else, as Lt. Ibuki and the Doctor quickly exchanged comments, before the warning tones from all consoles got louder.
Looking back up at the main screen, I watched in horror as the Angel squeezed unit 01s arm until it snapped halfway up the fore arm, then dangled limply.
"Left arm has been damaged!" Lt. Ibuki declared, somewhat redundantly. We'd all just seen it happen, after all. The screen before me said that a number of circuits had been disconnected, but I assumed Dr. Akagi would know this and kept quiet, watching the screen and dreading what the Angel would do to the Eva next.
The Angel quickly hoisted Unit 01 up by its head again and held it there as the spike on the elbow-end of its forearm lengthened and started to glow white. I heard the Captain scream for Shinji to look out, but to no avail; the spike plunged inward rapidly, apparently battering the faceplate of the Eva Unit from the palm of its hand, and a quick glance at the Lieutenant's monitor showed the pilot covering half his face with both hands as he apparently felt each and every impact.
"The front of the brain case is cracking!" Ibuki stated, obviously worried but doing her best to sound professional. Doctor Akagi was staring up at the monitor, and muttered something about the armor not lasting much longer, a moment before the ram forced its way through the Eva's head and emerging from the back, sending the Unit flying back to crash into a building.
Unit 01's entire upper body slumped to the right, a moment before a red, blood-like fluid began spraying out of both openings in its head.
The monitor before me began flashing "Emergency," as beside me Lieutenant Shigeru Aoba turned towards Dr. Akagi and told her the head had been damaged, but the extent of the damage was unknown. Someone announced that there was a problem maintaining activation, and I assumed that meant the Unit was shutting down. A second over-sized screen to the right of the bridge suddenly flickered to life with red hexagons containing the words "Emergency," a moment before switching to a series of stacked sine waves sliding away from each other.
"Status?" Captain Katsuragi shouted, obviously worried.
"The Synchrograph is reversing! Pulses are now flowing backwards!" Ibuki shouted back, and I assumed that's what the shifting pattern of red, orange, and blue sine waves meant.
The primary bridge, unlike the subsidiary bridges below, was apparently prepared for this kind of emergency, and despite the obvious worry, everyone seemed able to continue without panicking like some of the people below. Having read up on the Evangelion Project, I knew that a failure of the Evangelion to destroy an Angel before it reached Central Dogma meant the end of mankind, and I hoped there was some sort of backup plan to prevent that from happening.
"Cut the circuit! Block it" Dr. Akagi said to the Lieutenant.
"I can't! Control circuits are breaking off. It's not accepting the signal. It won't take it!" Lieutenant Ibuki replied, sounding both frustrated and worried. I couldn't blame her, I felt the same way.
"What about Shinji?" Misato asked, leaning over my shoulder again.
I looked down at my screen to give a report and blanched as I realized the status meter of the Pilot, which had been running across the bottom of the screen the entire time, was now flashing in synch with the rest of the screen, the character for "Unknown" proceeding the "Pilot Status" prompt.
"Pilot's status is currently unknown," I informed the Captain, who was once again staring at the main screen. Tapping the character brought up a detailed line graph of the pilots status. Detailed, that is, had the status been available. Currently, all lines were flat, and I frowned, wondering if our new pilot was dead, or the Unit had just ceased to broadcast the information.
"Shinji" I heard the Captain yell, and I winced, reaching for the "defense" button. However, I stopped as I realized that Tokyo 3's defenses weren't yet ready, and that screen had been rather useless so far. Moving to the "Evangelion" button, I tapped it, which displayed a series of boxes connected by black lines and numbered disconnecting from each other, somewhat like computer circuits or something. Realizing this was above and beyond my understanding, I went back to the pilot's status page, and waited for whatever orders would be issued next.
"The pilot's not responding," Aoba stated, turning to look over his shoulder at the rest of up.
"Misato!" Dr. Akagi said, turning to look at Captain Katsuragi.
The Captain muttered something to herself for a moment, before turning towards Lt. Ibuki.
"Abort the Operation! Prioritize the pilot's retrieval. Eject the entry plug!"
The lieutenant frowned, punching in a command at her keyboard a couple times before turning to look at the captain, "we can't! It's gone completely out of control!"
"That can't be!" Misato practically screeched, making me wince since she was still standing right behind me. There was a moment of silence, the alarms going off around us the only sound, as everyone contemplated that. Suddenly, a new beep from Ibuki's console got everyone's attention.
"The... the Unit has re-activated," she stated, frowning in confusion. I mirrored the expression; how could a robot turn back on after taking that much damage?
"Impossible! How could it?" Misato asked, apparently as confused as the Lieutenant and I.
".. Berserker..." Dr. Akagi mumbled, a moment before Unit 01 turned its head towards the evening sky and roared.
"What the..." I muttered, staring at the screen in shock. Suddenly the unit crouched, all unsteadiness in its movement gone, before leaping a few hundred meters, and landing on the Angel's chest in a crouch. With its good hand, it looked like it grabbed a hold of the angel's mask-like face and began tugging at it, while the angel tried to grasp it around the torso. Unit 01 gave a couple more yanks before jumping back. It landed, and slowly turned to face the Angel again.
This time, instead of leaping, Unit 01 charged, roaring once more as the Angel tried to right itself. Before it could reach, however, the unit bounced off a wall of semi-transparent orange hexagons, a barrier that hadn't been there moments ago.
"AT-Field!" Dr. Akagi cried, watching the screen much like the rest of us.
"No! As long as that's there..." Misato said, apparently talking to herself. I remember reading about the AT-Field, or Absolute Terror Field in the packet on the Eva. It was some sort of force field both the Angels and the Evangelion Units could deploy to stop almost any sort of attack.
However, I also remembered the term from my psychological studies in college. The term was used to signify the threshold at which someone's personal space was violated to the point of inducing absolute terror. It was typically attributed to people with Autism, who reacted more noticeably to a personal-space violation than normal people. How the tern had wound up here was just another odd, unanswered question.
"He can't get near the Angel!" Dr. Akagi finished for Misato.
Unit 01 stood there for a moment, flexing the hand of its broken arm for a moment, and suddenly the missing pieces of its shattered armor materialized, appearing to repair the damage done by the Angel earlier in the battle.
"The left arm regenerated!" Lt. Aoba said, sounding awed. Not that I could blame him, the documents I'd been given had mentioned nothing of an Evangelion Unit being able to do something like that.
"Incredible," Misato gasped, as Unit 01 stepped forward and reached into the core of the AT field with its fingertips and flexing, apparently trying to tear the field open. A new tone originated from Lieutenant Ibuki's panel, and she leaned forward, watching as two mirror images of graphs took up most of the screen.
"Unit 01 has deployed its own AT Field!"
The Evangelion button was flashing on my screen, and I tapped it, bringing up the same display Ibuki was currently looking at. Unit 01s field, at the top, was, I realized, not mirroring the Angel's AT field; it was canceling it out.
"It's neutralizing the phase space!" the Lieutenant added as the graphical lines merged into vertical lines, then merged towards the center.
"No... It's eroding it!" Dr. Akagi said, sounding shocked. A moment later, Unit 01 tore through the weakened AT-Field like it were a sheet of paper before stepping towards the Angel aggressively.
"It tore through that AT Field with ease..." Captain Katsuragi mumbled, sounding as shocked as Dr. Akagi had. Which was, I realized as I looked around, just as shocked as the rest of the bridge crew. Not having been briefed on what to expect (since this wasn't really my job) I was probably more surprised than the rest of them, but if they weren't screaming yet, I wouldn't screw things up by freaking out now.
Unit 01 roared again, and the Angel's Eye flashed, a moment before a stream of explosive flame shot out from the Angel, wrapping around Unit 01 and continuing down one of the streets of Tokyo 3 before branching off in three directions.
When the flames died down, Unit 01 straightened up again, apparently none the worse for wear, and lunged, grabbing the angel's arms and grabbing both forearms in one hand, before twisting, the external microphones clearly picking up the sound of the angels bones snapping. On screen, a purple ichor poured out of the injuries, as Unit 01 lifted its foot and kicked the Angel squarely in the chest, the momentum tearing the ruined forearms from the Angel as it slid back into one of Tokyo 3's skyscrapers.
The Eva tossed away the dismembered limbs, and charged, leaping towards the Angel and slamming its shoulder into its chest. Instead of stopping there, however, the entire first floor of the building shattered, as Unit 01 managed to slide the entire building from its foundation, crushing the angel between it and the sliding building as it moved down the lane.
Tapping my way back to a map of Tokyo 3, I clicked on the building on the map (which was flashing red) to see if it had been occupied. I winced when I realized it had been an apartment building, but felt some relief when the terminal informed me that sensors inside the building could not detect any people. Apparently, the city had been evacuated at the first sign of the Angels approach.
When I glanced back up at the main screen, I saw that Unit 01 had pulled the Angel away from the building, and was now straddling it as it beat the bright red core in the Angel's chest. From what the papers had said, this was the Angel's core, destroying it would destroy the Angel.
Unit 01 apparently knew this, as it tore one of the horn-like projections surrounding the core off violently, and began pounding away at the core with the sharp end. The core cracked on the first hit, and the Evangelion unit continued pounding away, until the Angel reared up, and suddenly wrapped around Unit 01's head and torso, it's previously solid black body warping to surround the Unit until it looked like a glob of oil.
"Shit! It's going to self destruct!" Misato said, as a white ball of light became visible from within the Angel.
The screen turned white a moment later, and the bridge, as well as the rest of NERV shuddered under the shock. After what felt like hours, the glare began to fade away, and Misato leaned forward, staring intently as the white was replaced by flames.
"Is the Eva...?"
The audio pickups, which had muted so as not to overload from the sound of the explosion, came back on then, and a muted roar could be heard, as well as an almost rhythmic pounding.
As the screen cleared some more, the obvious outline of Unit 01 appeared, walking almost directly towards the camera, answering the Captain's unfinished question. However, as the details grew sharper, it was apparent the Unit's armor had been blown off in numerous places by the blast.
"That's the..." Dr. Akagi muttered, staring at the screen.
"-true form?" Misato finished, staring just as hard, and sounding just as shocked. Below us, someone screamed in apparent shock, and I gulped, staring at the screen in horror.
What I had though... What I had been TOLD- that the Eva was a robot- was obviously untrue, after looking at the display.
"What the hell is that thing," I muttered, which was fortunately drowned out by a chime from most of the displays on the Bridge.
"Circuits reconnected," Lieutenant Aoba said, shocking those that hadn't responded to the chime into action.
"Systems... restored. All graphs have normalized," Ibuki said, taking a breath mid-sentence to calm herself. Not that I could blame her.
Glancing down at my own display, I realized the meters detailing the Pilot's current state had begun back up, and turned to look at Misato, "Pilot Shinji's life signs are confirmed."
She nodded and turned towards one of the lower-levels, shouting down for them to start the recovery procedures.
"Preserving the Pilot's life is your, no, OUR first priority!" She added.
Then Unit 01's mask fell off, and all activity ceased. Unit 01's head was... organic. It had obvious plates of some sort screwed into it, but beneath it all you could see signs of organic tissue. When it suddenly opened a pair of unearthly green eyes, and Shinji started screaming, I realized there was a lot more to NERV and the Evangelion Units than I was being told.
After a moment of unsteady silence, Misato turned to look at Commander Ikari who had sat through the entire thing rather quietly.
"Commander, requesting permission to join the Pilot recovery team."
For a moment he sat there, staring down at her through his glasses, before finally nodding, "granted. Dr. Akagi, You know what needs to be done; report to my office when you return. Fuyutsuki, take charge." Without another word or a backwards glance, he left, disappearing into a door set in the back wall. The Sub-Commander stepped forward and looked down at us. Dr. Akagi and Captain Katsuragi both practically ran to the lift that would take them to the main hall and the rest of us glanced up at the Sub-Commander.
"Well done everyone. Lock down your stations, and the secondary crews will be here in a moment to relieve you. Kerrigan, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but since your presence here wasn't scheduled, you're still on call for the remainder of the day. The rest of you are free for then next 24 hours as per NERV regulations."
Shigeru and Maya both locked down their consoles, and after a moment of confusion, I did the same, after Ibuki told me how to do it.
"Not too bad today, Kerrigan," Aoba commented, as we made our way to the locker rooms.
"Right," I replied frowning in thought, the end of the battle replaying over and over in my mind.
"I wonder where Hyuga was," Lieutenant Ibuki asked, "It's not like him to be late."
"Captain Katsuragi will probably have Section Two look into it when she gets back," Aoba answered. She nodded at that, and moved off towards the women's locker room, while Shigeru made his way towards the Men's.
He held the door open for me, but I waved it off, "I'm going back to the office, like the Sub-Commander said. I'll catch up with you all later."
"Are you sure? Being on-call, you can work from home, as long as you have your phone with you."
"I know, but today's been rather hectic, you know? I don't want to drive any more than I have to, and if I get called upon, I'd rather be here than try to drive back."
"Makes sense," he replied, nodding. Without another word, he slipped into the locker room, and I made my way to the office I shared with Captain Katsuragi. Sitting down and pulling out the folder I'd been given, I read through the section on the Evangelion Unit again, then moved on to the section on the Angels. Aside from the rather basic descriptions, however, there was still little information to be had. The Angel's were, as far as the packet said, merely an opposing force of oversized organic bio-weapons. Whether they were the enemy, or were being sent by an enemy was unstated. Where they were stored until being deployed against us was unstated.
Frowning, I flipped through the packet to the information on Third Impact, and realized that aside from Terminal Dogma, their objective, there was no information on how or why there would be a cataclysmic occurrence. Was Terminal Dogma an area that, upon entering, would cause some sort of apocalyptic event? That almost sounded like an AT-Field, but if that was the case, what was in Terminal Dogma to cause that?
My musing was interrupted by the ringing of my desk phone, and I tossed the packet down with a sigh, realizing that all I was doing was coming up with more questions.
"Kerrigan," I mumbled, after picking up the phone.
"Lieutenant, this is Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, do you have a moment?"
Straightening up in my desk, I responded, "Yes, sir!"
"Good. Be in my office in fifteen minutes. Try to organize your thoughts in the meantime," he said evenly.
"Sir?"
"Fifteen minutes, Lieutenant," he repeated, before hanging up.
"... okay, that was strange," I said to myself as I straightened up the packet on my desk. A moment later the door opened, and someone in a suit walked in, nodding once at me before setting a couple sheets of paper down on Misato's desk and leaving. Blinking, I stepped over to her desk and glanced at the papers, before realizing they were complaints filed against NERV. The sheet below it was a damage report, though it looked rather hastily thrown together. Shrugging it off as Misato's problem for now, I made my way down to the Sub-Commander's office, and arriving a couple minutes early.
A moment later, the Sub-Commander stepped out of the elevator down the hall, a woman in civilian clothes following him. Spotting me at his door, he said something to her I didn't hear, then grinned at me, "Not just prompt, but early? Let's get started."
"Sir?" I asked, looking at the civilian. Remembering just how many confidentiality things I'd had to sign, I wasn't quite sure what we were going to be discussing.
"Miss. Nomura here is an aide to the UN's Security Council. She's been briefed on the details of the Evangelion Project, and is merely going to be here to witness your report."
"Report?"
"Post-Operation Battle Report. Normally, you wouldn't have to do this, but since Lieutenant Hyuga wasn't present, and you were in his place, you're going to have to give one as well."
I wondered about that for a moment, then shrugged, "I'm not quite sure what this entails, sir. Lieutenant Ibuki told me to come to the Bridge, so I went. When Hyuga failed to show up, Dr. Akagi sat me down in his chair, told me which exit point to use, and that was about it."
"Recordings indicate you also assisted in keeping Director of Operations Captain Katsuragi and Project. E Director Dr. Akagi informed as the battle progressed," Miss Nomura said.
"Well, Lieutenant Aoba and Ibuki were doing most of that. A couple time I saw information that might have been useful and let them do what they wanted with it. I figured that was what Hyuga was supposed to do, since the three of them work together, and that was what the other two were doing."
"There's a bit more to the Lieutenant's job than that, but for the most part, you're right," The Sub-Commander said, glancing at the aide for a moment before continuing, "All in all, for someone with little training, you did fairly well out there. Considering your upcoming task, putting you on the Bridge might be the most reasonable reallocation of resources."
"Err... what about Lieutenant Hyuga?" I asked, blinking.
"The Lieutenant will retain his spot. However, now that the complexities of operating an Eva in the field have come to light, we might reassign some of his duties to you, so he can concentrate more on the Evangelion itself."
"So he's been found?"
"Getting a little familiar, aren't you Lieutenant?"
"I'm sorry, Sir. I just... I knew Hyuga. Sir."
"Yes, that's been mentioned in your file. Friendships are nice, but you must remember, Lieutenant, we are at war, against nothing mankind as ever faced before. Do your best to keep your personal life separate from your professional life, much like you did today on the Bridge."
"Understood, sir."
"Good. Lieutenant Hyuga was found in an elevator on the west side of the facility. Power to that portion of the facility was only recently restored, and so he spent the duration of the skirmish trapped between floors. His absence was due to no fault of his own, and he will not be punished for something he had no control over."
"Yes sir," I said, feeling relieved. We weren't best friends, but he was still someone I trusted, and his absence had been somewhat unnerving.
"Back to the matter at hand, Kerrigan, could you briefly detail the battle, from your point of view, doing your best to remain objective?"
I nodded and described for them the battle, omitting my thoughts as best I could. When I finished, the Aide nodded at the Sub-Commander, who turned to me.
"And your thoughts, Lieutenant?"
"On?"
"The battle. Suggestions, Questions, Observations... we are not totally military, as you know. If something can be made more efficient, we'd prefer to do that now, before it becomes a problem."
"Oh. Well, I have some questions about the Evan-"
"Those kinds of questions should be directed to Doctor Akagi," Fuyutsuki cut in, quickly.
"Oh... Yes, sir. Aside from the lack of online defenses within the city, everything turned out okay. I was somewhat surprised that the Pilot had no training, but after that brief scare, he managed to pull through quite admirably. My only concern is the fact that the pilot was subjected to feeling everything the Eva unit felt."
"A concern we all feel, I assure you. Dr. Akagi can give you more details on the interface system of the Units, but from what I understand, it's as necessary as it is unwanted."
I nodded at that, then frowned, "I do remember that one of the Bridges below us started to panic when Shinji- Excuse me- when Pilot Ikari's Evangelion Unit was damaged."
As I said that, Fuyutsuki winced slightly, before nodding gravely, "Yes, their lack of discipline was apparent to both Commander Ikari and I, as well as everyone else present. Their training should have been sufficient to prevent such, and the fact that you, without Bridge training, managed better than them merely makes them looks worse. That lack of discipline will be taken care of." He then grinned slightly at me, and asked, "Anything else?"
"Not off the top of my head, sir."
"All right. If this happens again, you will probably be asked to do this again, but on paper. One of the reasons you had to give your report verbally was your lack of security clearance at the time."
"You mean I wasn't cleared for the Bridge?" I asked, incredulously.
"Excuse me, Lieutenant?"
"Err... I wasn't informed that I was not cleared to be on the Bridge during battle, Sir."
"You weren't, but you are now. Your clearance from Internal Affairs covered a large portion of the internal workings of NERV. Project E, however is given its own clearance levels that are above anything else. I'll have a breakdown sent to you, but understand that as we are the last defense Mankind has, we must all take security seriously."
"I... I understand sir. I'll look over the information and do my best to avoid any more mistakes."
"Very good, Lieutenant. I'll take care of that particular problem with Section Two, and see to it that your Clearances are updated accordingly. The error was not entirely your own fault. Commander Ikari will be calling for you soon, so I'll let you get back to your work."
"Yes, sir," I said, saluting and leaving.
"Lieutenant Kerrigan! Wait a moment," Someone behind me shouted as I stepped into the elevator. Holding the Door-Open button, I waited for whoever it was to join me. A second later, Miss Nomura entered the Elevator.
"Miss Nomura," I said, nodding.
"Lieutenant, I was wondering if you had a moment," she said, quietly. Glancing around at the empty elevator, I nodded once.
"You said you had some questions about the Eva series back there. Mind sharing them?" she asked, getting straight to the point. Remembering what had happened when I had brought that up, I turned to look at her with a frown, "I'm not quite sure I'm allowed to talk about it."
"I understand your hesitation, Lieutenant, and I sympathize. I'm sure today's been a rather hectic one for you, as well as everyone else here at NERV. However, don't forget that I am an Aide to the UN Security Council, which played a major role in establishing NERV. I've been fully briefed on the Evangelion line of Robots, and thought I might be able to shed some light on things."
I shrugged at that, glancing at the floor indicator, before turning to glance back at her. Was this some sort of poorly-disguised test the Sub-Commander had put her up to? He hadn't seemed that upset by my apparent breach of security, but then again, what if he was just good at hiding his dislike of the situation. He had seemed genuinely amiable about it, though, so that wasn't very likely.
"I'll just ask Doctor Akagi when she returns. Since she works directly with the Units, I'm sure she could help; besides, the question had no relevance to the battle directly," I replied after another moment. Hopefully that was more deflective than defensive. Before she could say anything to that the elevator doors opened on my floor, and I stepped out, heading towards my office.
"Lieutenant, wait!" She cried from the elevator, holding the door open as she stared somewhat imploringly at me, "there's... something going on here; something not-right. I can feel it, Lieutenant, tell me you can too."
A door down the hall behind me opened, and I glanced over my shoulder to see two black-suited Section Two agents entered the hall, walking our way. Taking a step back, I shook my head, "what I feel isn't as important right now as what I do. Killing the Angels takes precedence."
"Why are the Angels coming here, Kerrigan? Ask yourself that, Lieutenant," She said, slapping the door close button as she stared over my shoulder at the two approaching agents.
"Excuse me, Lieutenant," one of the said as they passed me, headed for the elevator. They'd have never made it in time, but suddenly the doors stopped about an inch from being closed, and snapped back open, allowing the lead agent into the elevator.
"Commander Ikari has asked for your presence at a meeting with your superiors, Miss Nomura," the agent in the elevator said. The second one stood beside me for a moment, mumbling into his wrist-mic for a moment before glancing my way, nodding an "affirmative," and stepping into the elevator. A moment later the door closed.
I stood there for a moment wondering what had just happened, before frowning in thought at Miss Nomura's last words. Slowly making my way back to the office, I sat down in my desk, and stared at the folder I'd been reading before the Sub-Commander had called me. After a couple minutes of flipping through them, however, I sighed and tossed the packet back. I'd have to wait for my security clearance to change before searching for answers.
Glancing at the clock on the wall, I slumped into my chair a little more and turned my gaze towards the ceiling. Was killing the Angels as important as I had told the Aide? On one hand, it was fairly obvious that, yes, killing was the first and highest priority. After all, with their success, mankind would cease to exist, so killing them was an issue of self-defense, as well as world-wide importance. On the other hand, was this really the only way it could be done? Cape Canaveral had been lost during Second Impact, but since then, several launch sites had been created... could we just launch whatever was hidden away in Terminal Dogma into the sun and be done with it?
I pulled myself to my feet slowly, dismissing my previous idea. A solution like that would have been readily apparent to some of the people who helped establish NERV. Of the hundreds of people who probably worked together to start it, they all must have agreed that this was the most effective way of combating the threat the Angels presented.
Shaking my head of the endless loop of questions I could not currently answer, I glanced at the hallway stretching before me, before making my way towards the Elevators. It was time to go see my future charge.
Arriving at the Medical Center of NERV, I grimaced at the number of people in the waiting area, and briefly considered turning around, before pressing forward. Slipping through the crowd as quickly as I could, I made my way to the rear elevator, only to be stopped by a tired-looking but obviously attentive Security Guard. That he was armed with a highly-visible Submachine gun made me feel better for Rei's safety, but getting past him might require more talking than I'd prefer. I could only hope that my intended profession had gotten me listed as an allowed visitor.
"Can I help you, sir?" the Sergeant asked.
"I'm here to see Rei, the First Children," I replied, wondering again why they were referred to as such, and hoping again that I was on file as I handed the man my Identification. With a grunt, he slid the magnetic strip through a reader nearby, glancing back at me as the computer pulled up my files. The fact that he'd straightened up a little when I'd said who I was here to see had me thinking, as well. Was she the sole reason a guard had been posted here? I shook my head as I realized by now Shinji was probably within, being checked up on.
"Sir, you're cleared for a 5 minute visit with the First. Do you know the way?"
I nodded, and stepped past the guard, who opened the door for me, into the elevator beyond. As the doors slid closed I glanced at the readout and smirked when I realized the Elevator was being controlled from the guard's station, before I turned back to look at my reflection in the stainless steel door as the Elevator rose. Halfway there, however, it jarred to a halt, before plummeting, the descent rapid enough to make me grab the rail to the side as my weight became almost nonexistent. After a moment, gravity returned, then increased as the elevator slowed its descent, and I realized something or someone had just called the elevator down to whatever floor we were now on.
When the car finally stopped, the doors slid open, and a stretcher was quickly pushed inside, a comatose Shinji lying on it as Dr. Akagi, Misato, and a couple unfamiliar personnel piled into the elevator as well. A pair of strong hands grabbed me and pulled me towards the door, and I twisted, only to find myself staring into the sunglasses of a section two agent.
"Hold it, you two. He's fine," I heard Doctor Akagi say, a moment after I had tried to protest. Being physically hauled out of an elevator, however, my protest had been more of an incoherent noise than an understandable string of words. The two agents turned to look at Captain Katsuragi, who was currently staring at Shinji in the stretcher, as if waiting for her orders. Unfortunately, the doors slid shut before she even glanced away, and I sighed as the two agents let go of my shirt.
"We're sorry, sir, but our orders are specific," one of them said, as I did my best to tuck my shirt back in. I sighed, and turned to look around, finally noticing It was some sort of parking garage within the GeoFront, filled with emergency vehicles of every kind. Around me were numerous ambulances, while further away, I saw fire trucks, water tankers, and beyond that, trailers, earthmovers, and more. In the far back, however, I saw a tunnel leading off and up into the distance, obviously leading towards the surface. The path was lit by a series of sequentially flashing lights, and I assumed the ambulance that had brought Shinji in has used it to avoid getting lost in the maze of corridors that existed within NERV.
Looking at the two agents from Section Two, I waved my hand back at the elevator, "can I go back in, now, or will I have to walk?" I asked with a frown.
"That depends. We'll need your ID, and a couple minutes to get this sorted out. The Elevator you were in is off limits to all but Command-level Personnel."
I blinked, then hung my head as I handed over my card, "I'm Pilot Ayanami's caretaker. I was on my way up to see her," I said, as they took the card towards a nearby terminal. He scanned it and began typing, while the other agent spoke into his radio. After a minute, the two glanced at each other, before turning to me.
"Sir, you're going to have to come with us."
"What? Why?" I asked, annoyed. If this was another error in the computers, I was going to have to request to Dr. Akagi and Misato that things be fixed immediately. A fuck up like this in the middle of a battle could prove disastrous. Not that I was all that important on the bridge, but if Rei were with me, a delay of this magnitude could be catastrophic.
The tree of us marched through the back halls and corridors of NERV, one behind me, the other in front of me, as we made our way to an unknown destination. Finally, I groaned when we passed a sign that announced to us that the Detention Block was ahead.
Staring down on the bench-like cot attached to the wall of the miniscule cell they'd placed me in, I wondered how long it would take for someone to discover where I was. Glancing at the oversized NERV logo on the wall above the cot, I sighed and turned, sitting down on the hard metal bed and wondering how long it would take me to fall asleep on it.
After five minutes or so of staring at the floor, I turned and lay back, wondering how often these cells had been used, if ever. Nobody had asked any questions, and they hadn't even bothered emptying my pockets before shoving me in here. I considered digging out my car keys, but decided against it, since that would serve no real purpose. Glancing once more at the logo of NERV, I closed my eyes, and did my best to fall asleep, despite the chill in the air, and the density of the bed.
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Author's Notes: Chapter 2 has come and gone.. and now to start on Chapter 3. Geeze, that was a pain... you may not know this, but the fight shown at the beginning of episode two is not the same as the one shown at the end. Almost all the dialogue is different, and because of that, I had to sit here and write down every line of dialogue for both versions, then do my best to mesh them into one complete version, and then proceed to alter it so that Daniel was there instead of Hyuga. Hopefully it flows well enough (For an Eva-fic, that is. Heh) that you can't tell I did that until you read this.
I'd like to thank Nate and Nidoking for helping pre-read this chapter.