Chapter 12
Over the course of the next couple of months, Misato was constantly amazed at how people all over the world pulled together in order to recover from the after effects of Third Impact. There had been numerous times where she worried that warlords or dictators would rise up, attempting to aggressively expand and conquer during the chaos, but as time went on and none showed their faces she began to relax and let that fear dissipate.
In fact, there appeared to be very few people taking advantage of the situation. Shops and warehouses were looted, but only for essentials like food and clothing. Any car that had been taken was eventually returned to its rightful owner once it was no longer needed, and the food situation was quickly remedied once farms and factories were able to turn out goods once more. So many people were volunteering to aid with food production that some had to be turned away due to simply not being needed.
A week after the first load of fresh food from Tokyo-2 had been delivered to Tokyo-3 to end the need for scavenging and rationing, NERV personnel were hard at work reconnecting the Geofront's utility lines and vehicle tracks to the crippled city. An entire day was set aside for a final test of all the power lines, with the official power-on time scheduled for just after sunset.
Despite the destruction of most of the city there was still enough infrastructure left to make the spectacle worth watching as streetlights blinked back to life, and even from the roof the eleven people and one penguin on top of Misato's apartment building could hear the cheers of Tokyo-3's citizens as an essential modern-day need was returned to the populace.
On the morning of March 4th 2016, only one day after power was restored, the very first call to NERV from outside the city came from the office of the Japanese prime minister, demanding to know just what had happened. A revised version of the truth was told about how SEELE, along with Gendo Ikari, had been the masterminds behind Third Impact.
While there were obviously holdouts that refused to believe in a secret organisation that had been plotting the destruction of humanity, a single VTOL flyover of Tokyo-3 was enough to convince the majority of people that were sceptical about how badly devastated the city had become.
Or perhaps it was the scattered, decaying remains of Lilith that silenced the sceptics.
The news was quickly spread all over the world, and offers of assistance with reconstruction were made, mostly from the Americas and Germany, as thanks for NERV's heroic efforts in the Angel War. Builders and material were flown or shipped in, and new housing began to quickly spring up wherever there was space.
Now that the problems of basic survival had been dealt with, thoughts turned to the hole torn through the fortress city.
Around the table in one of NERV's conference rooms, a discussion was well under way, and already people were feeling tired. Misato, Ritsuko, and Maya were on one side of the table, and several people from the Japanese prime minister's office were on the other.
"The next order of business, the hole in Tokyo-3 made by the N2 strike and the lifting of the Geofront," one of the men announced.
Misato sighed and took another sip of her coffee. "It's simply too large to just fill with earth, that would take forever. We're going to need space as quickly as possible if we're to get housing for all of Tokyo-3's citizens, and that thirteen kilometres would mean a lot of homes."
The slim, blonde-haired man across from her replied, "Unfortunately, it's going to take forever anyway, Major Katsuragi. Even if we could level a mountain and drop it into the hole, there simply isn't a vehicle in existence large enough to make it take less time."
"What about the rubble that's currently sitting above us?" the man at his left side asked. "We're going to have to shift it anyway, so why not push it into the hole?"
"A good idea," Misato replied. "But unfortunately there isn't nearly enough of it."
"True, but the rubble would just be for starters." Ritsuko said.
"Oh? What else are you planning to dump in there, Doctor Akagi?" the blonde-haired man asked.
"Angels, Mr. Sonodo. We still have the bodies of most of them, and no further need to keep them. NERV already has enough samples from each corpse to last a very long time."
"Still, their bodies won't exactly fill it to the brim, will they?" Misato queried.
"Well, if you're only thinking of the smaller ones, then no." Ritsuko adjusted her glasses before tapping at the keyboard built into the table in front of her. "But you seem to be forgetting the size of one of the Angels."
A holographic screen flashed into life in the middle of the table, showing an immense orange form sporting what looked like three-fingered hands coming out of a central ovoid body.
"The Tenth Angel," Ritsuko announced for the benefit of the suited men. "The single largest being we encountered. Its apparent goal was to annihilate us by simply crashing into Tokyo-3. The force of its impact would have wiped this entire region from the face of the Earth and turned it into just another piece of ocean."
Another image sprang up to replace the diagram of the Angel. Unit-01, with its arms outstretched, holding back the Angel as it attempted to crush the Evangelion under its weight. Even the massive bio-mechanical creation of NERV paled in comparison underneath the central 'eye' of the Angel.
"Thanks to the insane plan of our very own Major Katsuragi," the scientist continued, "we managed to catch this Angel before it landed and killed it. While the core did explode, there is still much of the body left intact. This Angel alone would fill up most of the hole by itself, and it's conveniently in small enough pieces that we can move them."
Misato began chuckling to herself, and Ritsuko turned and raised a quizzical eyebrow at her friend. "What's so funny?"
"We're planning to bury the Angels in a mass grave, right? So how does this sound?" Misato stood up and leaned on the table. "Tokyo-3 will be reborn. The Angels attempted to kill us, but we still stand. We shall rebuild our city over the corpses of those that tried to destroy humanity!"
Silence reigned at the table for a moment, before the brown-haired man to Mr. Sonodo's right coughed into his hand. "We... might have to edit that last part when we tell it to the media. It sounds a little too... macabre."
"There's still the matter of the hole in the Geofront roof, Doctor Akagi," Mr. Sonodo reminded Ritsuko as Misato let out a deflated sigh. "What are you going to do about that? There's no point in even planning to fill the hole until the Geofront is repaired."
Ritsuko brightened up and tapped at her keyboard again. "Ah, we have some very good news there." The screen now showed a frozen image from a video camera just above the hole. "That hole in the ceiling will be rather easy to fix, thanks to a discovery we made back when construction of NERV began."
The image unfroze, and playback began. Several men carried a sheet of steel into view, and laid it down just over a section of the hole. Immediately, the Geofront roof began to ripple around the edges of the metal, before beginning to flow over it like water. Excited shouts could be heard from off-screen, and the camera shook as the person holding it moved forward to get a closer look.
Whatever it was that comprised the material of the Geofront, it was now replacing the steel. Within seconds, the rippling stopped as the material finished converting the sheet. Another was brought to a different section of the hole, and the process repeated itself.
"As you can see," Ritsuko said as the recording stopped. "Whatever species built the Geofront also appear to have added in some capacity for self-repair. It makes sense, seeing that as far as we know these things were shot across space on their own. The ability to maintain itself would be incredibly useful in the event of, say, a rogue asteroid striking it. We originally ran into trouble while building doors and such, because any metal would get absorbed and become a solid piece of the Geofront wall again, which ruined any effort we had just made. One builder had the brilliant idea of 'framing' the cut pieces of wall with something that wasn't mineral-based, like wood, and that got construction back on track."
"I don't suppose this is something we could replicate ourselves, is it?"
"Unfortunately not, Mr Tatenaka. While we can remove pieces of the Geofront, they become inert and no longer exhibit the repair capability, except when placed back in contact with the Geofront itself."
The man who had asked the question looked disappointed. "That's a shame. But we are able to... help by giving it material to use?"
"Correct. It appears that it will 'accept' any piece of metal. A worker who had metal in the soles of his shoes found that out the hard way when his boots started to melt into the roof. Fortunately he was unharmed, but the order was passed around to refrain from placing any metal objects on the roof apart from what's being used to repair it."
"Excellent. How soon will the roof be repaired?"
Maya passed her mentor a PDA, which the woman analysed for a moment before answering. "At our current rate of progress, it will be two weeks until completion. The process is also being simplified, as the Geofront is even shaping the pieces it receives to ensure a perfect sphere once more. I've already given the order to prepare the bodies of the Angels for transfer."
The phone next to Misato began to ring. She picked it up. "I'm in a meeting. What is it?... What kind of problem?... Are you sure it's them?" Her voice turned grim. "I see... No, prepare a transport. I'm going to handle this personally."
Misato put the phone away, and stood up to leave. "I'm sorry, everyone. Something has come up that requires immediate attention."
"What is it, Major?"
The major stopped at the door, and unconsciously put a hand on her pistol holster. She looked back at the table with a grim look. "The JSSDF squad that attacked NERV just came out of the ocean."
She left before anyone could stop her. After a moment, the blonde man finally said, "Well that might make this last issue a bit harder to deal with. The future of NERV, and who to place in charge if we decide to keep it running."
A week after his return, Toji had voiced a concern about Shinji to the Katsuragi household.
"He needs exercise, even if all he can do is walk. He's already a skinny dude. If you keep Shin-man laying in bed all day, his muscles are gonna disappear. You gotta get him out and about, just to try and keep what little he still has."
Misato had immediately made the suggestion that Asuka take him for a stroll, which the redhead grudgingly agreed to. Now that people had returned, she could no longer simply drag him around by the hand as she had done before. Instead, Asuka had to order Shinji to follow her, and tended to stay close to the apartment building.
Unfortunately, that order tended to come with a problem. When Shinji followed her, it was always right on her heels, and that plus the blank look on his face tended to attract strange looks directed at him and Asuka, and a few people had even tried to stop the boy, believing him to be a stalker.
Asuka was almost annoyed that nobody else could get through to the semi-comatose boy but for some reason she always felt a twinge of jealousy when somebody tried, followed by faint relief at their failed attempt.
And then she felt bad for being relieved. But Shinji was her responsibility, and it didn't feel right to pass him off to somebody else even if they could communicate with him.
Shinji now at least looked much better physically, especially after Hikari had offered to trim his unruly hair. Since the two Evangelion pilots were approximately the same size, it had been rather easy for Asuka to loot new clothing for him before civilisation had returned. Clothes that were most definitely not a plain white button-down shirt and black pants.
Today she had been planning a trip to the mall to, as she said to Misato that morning, "update the Third's wardrobe". They both could do with more clothing, although Asuka would admit that the trip was more for her benefit than Shinji's.
When they left the apartment building, Shinji was on her heels like a lost dog as usual. They made it to the mall and Asuka immediately went to the nearest clothing store. It was clear that the people of Tokyo-3 wanted to return to a normal life as quickly as possible. Most of the shops and stalls were already open, with people wandering around as if a cataclysmic event had not just recently happened.
Asuka would have enjoyed her time at the mall, had it not been for a couple of incidents. The first was when a clerk walked up to the redhead after she had spent about twenty minutes picking out clothes for Shinji.
"Excuse me, miss," the woman said. "Is this person bothering you?"
"No, he isn't," Asuka tersely replied while holding up a shirt. "He's my... house-mate."
The clerk nodded and turned to Shinji. "Well, I'm afraid I'll still have to ask you to leave, sir. You're... disturbing the other customers."
Asuka looked around, and saw several other people looking their way suddenly turn around and become incredibly interested in whatever was in front of them. She groaned in frustration.
"There's nothing he can do about it, alright?" she growled. "He was traumatised by Third Impact and I'm the one that looks after him. If you have a problem with that then I'll take my business elsewhere!"
Backing away in shock, the clerk stammered, "O-oh! I didn't know! Please accept my apologies!" She bowed profusely in front of Asuka, who grunted in annoyance and turned back to the rack she had been perusing. It might have been better after all to simply leave Shinji on a bench just outside.
The redhead grit her teeth in anger. If people knew just who Shinji was and what he had done, what he had sacrificed for them, they wouldn't be so quick to judge him, but security concerns meant that the identity of the pilots had to remain secret.
When Asuka decided that she had enough clothing for the two of them, she walked up to the front counter, and sighed as the same clerk once again apologised. She silently paid for her things and left, carrying three bags of clothing. The German girl would have given one to Shinji to hold, but it felt too much like she would be... using him if she did that. At least clothing didn't weigh much.
Perhaps if she had done it anyway, the second incident would have been avoided. Asuka almost made it to the mall exit when she was stopped by a black-haired teen.
"Hey Soryu, is this freak troubling you?" he asked, grinning at the redhead.
Behind her, the teen's two friends were holding onto Shinji, who was futilely trying to reach Asuka.
"Hey! Let him go, you shitheads!" she yelled as she stomped over to them.
"Whoa, are you defending this creep or somethin'?" one of them asked as they relaxed their grip on the boy.
"Yeah, he's been hangin' all over you ever since you came here!" the other added. "Least he could have done was hold your bags. Why don't you ditch him and walk home with me? I'll carry them for you." He shoved Shinji away, and the boy immediately fell over and lay still on the ground.
The three teens were only seconds away from being flayed alive by Asuka when a voice from behind said, "How about you go find someone else to harass, Hiro?"
The black-haired teen turned and snarled. "Suzuhara. You're jumping in to protect him too?"
"Damn right I am."
While the delinquents were facing off against Toji Suzuhara, Hikari and Sakura were gently lifting Shinji off the ground as Pen-Pen made angry penguin noises at the hoodlums. The boy hadn't even attempted to soften his fall when he had been shoved, and had been only centimetres away from hitting his head on a planter box.
"Phew, he isn't badly hurt," Hikari said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Sakura was visibly upset by the teen's treatment of Shinji. "Those mean boys almost hurt him!"
"And now your brother needs to have a chat with them about their behaviour, so let's go outside and wait for them."
Only a minute later, Hiro was in the foetal position on the ground after being kicked in the gut by an irate redhead. The other two had attempted to intervene, only to be stopped by Toji grabbing handfuls of their shirt and lifting them both effortlessly into the air. Their struggles ceased instantly once they saw his expression.
"Get the hell out of here," he practically shouted in their faces, before dropping them back to the ground. "And don't let me catch you picking on my friends again."
They hastily picked up their defeated leader and fled. As soon as they were out of view, Toji exhaled deeply and glanced sidelong at Asuka, who still had her fists clenched with a hateful look on her face while staring in the direction the teens had retreated. Toji called out to her, and Asuka snapped out of it, shaking herself and letting her arms drop to her side. He jerked his head towards the exit, and they left the mall.
Outside, the two girls and Shinji were sitting on a bench, with Pen-Pen being hugged to Sakura's chest. It was hard to tell who was comforting who. Asuka rushed over to check on Shinji, but apart from a lump on his head where it had connected with the ground, the boy seemed unharmed.
She gently pushed the boy to one side and sat down on the bench next to him before turning her attention to the jock. "Okay, Suzuhara, who the hell were they? You apparently knew one of them. And what are you all doing here? I thought you had plans for today."
Sakura stood up to make room for Toji, and got on his lap when the boy took her place next to Hikari. "We did. We were on our way home when Sakura asked to go to the mall for a bite to eat at the food court." Toji smiled at his little sister. "I'm glad she did, now.
"Anyway, the guy who stopped you was Hiro Kitamura. I never bothered to learn the names of his cronies. You're not the first girl they've tried to," he put up his hands and made finger quotes, "'impress' with what they probably think is chivalry. I heard Hiro actually paid someone to harass a girl last time, just so he could swoop in and get rid of him."
The redhead rolled her eyes and scoffed. "I guess even Third Impact can't change some people. Well they should just consider themselves lucky that Section Two isn't back on their feet yet to guard us pilots. They'd probably have shot him and his flunkies dead."
Sakura bounced up and down on Toji's lap. "Big bro! Did you teach them a lesson?"
Toji looked down at his sister, and gave her a thumbs up. "Asuka did the teaching. I just made sure they paid attention in class!"
The noise of the transport VTOL seemed to be trying to pound its way into Misato's skull, even through the flight helmet she was wearing. It was too loud to speak, even to the guards on either side of her.
When the news of who had just emerged from the ocean broke, it seemed as though everyone in the base had been clamouring to grab a gun and join her. Since there wasn't nearly enough room, Misato simply selected six guards for her own escort and ordered the rest back to their duties.
Somebody had obviously made their own decision though, as three attack VTOLs and another transport quickly joined hers in the air, and Misato didn't feel like ordering them back to base. Looking to her right, she could see the transport was full nearly to bursting with NERV personnel. She wondered if they were just there to protect her in case a fight broke out, or hoping to get some well-deserved revenge.
Her fingers clenched and unclenched repeatedly on the sub-machine gun in her lap. While the report had not mentioned the JSSDF soldiers keeping their weapons on their return, she was taking no chances. Her escorts were checking their own weaponry, wearing expressions as grim as the one on Misato's face.
Every single person in the gunships and transports heading for the beach had been attacked and killed by the men they were now on their way to intercept. The guards had died defending the base, Misato had bled out from a bullet wound received while escorting the Third Child; even the aircraft pilots had been gunned down where they stood without mercy. If the JSSDF tried to to purge NERV again, they would encounter much fiercer resistance this time.
Privately, Misato hoped they would at least try to escape. They had almost killed the closest thing she had to a son. The fact that Shinji had then gone on to initiate Third Impact due to the machinations of old men didn't matter to her.
The aircraft touched down gently not far away from the beach. As soon as the wheels hit the ground, Misato was already out and striding towards where the soldiers had been sighted. The dozen men now accompanying the major rapidly formed around her, each with their weapon drawn and aimed forward as if they were expecting an ambush. Misato's own gun was hanging at her side by its strap and loosely clasped in her right hand.
The guards ahead of her suddenly started muttering to each other as the beach came into view. Expecting trouble, she pushed ahead to get a view of the area and start issuing orders. Misato had honestly been anticipating at least a scuffle. What she got instead was...
Several groups of JSSDF soldiers were kneeling on the sand with hands behind their bowed heads. The posture, combined with their demeanour, made them look like prisoners of war. The fact that there had been merely three NERV troops guarding them before the major arrived, and only one with a sidearm, did not seem to matter to the soldiers. There was clearly no fight left in them.
Misato held her men back for a moment with an upraised hand. "Do not shoot until I give the word," she quietly ordered. "But feel free to look as menacing as possible." She chopped her hand forward, and the guards moved forward to relieve the men that had intercepted the soldiers. The three troops walked up the beach to Misato, and the man with the sidearm stepped up and saluted.
"Report," Misato tersely said.
"Major Katsuragi," the man replied. "We were on patrol here for more returnees when Private Koteki spotted movement in the water, ma'am. The moment we saw what they were wearing, I sent Private Namida to call HQ."
"Did you order them to... prostrate themselves like this?" She waved a hand towards the prisoners.
"No, ma'am. We honestly thought they would try to rush us. Per orders, only I'm armed so as not to scare any returnees, so we would have had no chance to stop them."
The man to his left, Private Koteki, spoke up. "As soon as they saw us, they started looking... ashamed, ma'am. Then one of them ordered the others to place themselves in our custody."
"Hmm. Do you remember which one it was?"
"Unfortunately not, ma'am. They all look alike and they did move around a bit before sitting down."
Misato stared at the soldiers for a few moments. Once or twice one of them would look her way, before quickly looking back down at the ground. She pointed the privates towards the VTOLs, and they gratefully left the beach while she moved on.
Her squad leader stepped forward. "Nothing to report, major. No weapons on them that we could find."
"They're probably still in our hallways," Misato remarked. "Alright, I'm going to speak to them. Stay alert and pass the word. If any of them make a sudden move towards one of your men, that idiot is to be dropped."
"Understood, ma'am."
The NERV guards parted as she approached, closing the gap behind her once more. Misato placed one hand on her hip, raised her sub-machine gun to the sky, and barked, "Which one of you is in charge?"
None of the soldiers made a sound. A few of them cringed at the sound of her voice, touching the ground with their foreheads.
"Come on, I haven't got all day," she said, raising her voice. "Surely there's a Sergeant among you, or at least a Leading Private."
Somebody finally spoke up near the back. "What are you going to do with them?"
"I'm going to ask some questions," Misato replied, hunting for the source of the query. "If I like the answers, I might decide not to let the people you murdered get some revenge."
With a sigh, the voice said, "I'm going to stand up now."
Misato nodded to her squad leader, and the NERV troops relaxed their weapons slightly. The man who had spoken stood up, keeping his hands behind his head. Misato motioned for him to step to the front, and he carefully picked his way through his brothers-in-arms, coming to a halt in front of her.
"I am Lieutenant Okamura, and I'm the highest ranking soldier here," he calmly said.
"Take that helmet off slowly," the major ordered. "I want to see your face."
The helmet was dropped to the sand, and Misato stared into the haggard face of a man who might have been the one that shot her. Or he might have been the one to nearly kill her surrogate son. His voice did sound strangely familiar. The plastic grip of her sub-machine gun began to creak slightly as her fist tightened.
"First question. Why did the JSSDF invade NERV?"
"Our orders were to assault the Geofront and eliminate everybody," the lieutenant replied, adopting the look of a soldier being dressed down by a superior. He looked as if he were just barely refraining from saluting on impulse. "We were told that you were all planning to bring about Third Impact."
"Whoever told you that is a goddamn liar," Misato replied. "There was only one person in NERV plotting the end of the world, and that was Commander Ikari. You could have just gone straight for his office."
"The order came from General Tokutei." Okamura's gaze was fixed at a point somewhere beyond Misato's left ear. "He said that every single person in NERV was complicit in the plot, and demanded that there be no surrender accepted and no mercy given."
The lieutenant's calm facade began to crack as Misato's face began to contort in rage. His eyes shifted to the weapon in her upraised hand and back. "T-those were our orders! We're soldiers! We were just following orders!" he stammered.
There was a blur of movement, and the man suddenly found himself staring down the barrel of the major's gun. Behind it, Misato's eyes had narrowed to slits.
"You'll need to do a lot better than a Nuremberg defense, lieutenant," she growled through clenched teeth.
"P-please, ma'am! You have to understand, we didn't want to do this! NERV are heroes for killing the Angels, none of us really thought you were going to initiate Third Impact, no matter what we were told!"
Misato stepped closer, and the man went cross-eyed as he stared at the barrel pointing at the middle of his forehead. "So then why the hell did you do it?! You're soldiers, not mindless drones!"
"It was you or our families!" the lieutenant screamed, clenching his eyes shut.
Misato lowered her weapon in disbelief. "...What did you just say?" Her voice had rapidly shifted to a dangerously low tone. Okamura swallowed and opened his eyes slightly.
"T-that was what we were told, ma'am," he unsteadily replied. "We could either do as we were ordered, or we would be executed along with our families. One of my fellow officers, Kunisada, he... he called their bluff and tried to leave. One of the general's men shot him in the back as soon as he turned around, then the general gave the order to... purge Kunisada's family and asked if there was anyone else who didn't believe him."
All around her, Misato could see disbelief on the faces of her men. While a few of them were still pointing their weapons at the JSSDF soldiers, many were now muttering to each other.
"Why the hell would a general go to such lengths to control his own men?" she thought aloud.
"There were... rumours about General Tokutei," Okamura offered. "Rumours that he hadn't gotten his rank purely through skill."
"Of course. SEELE must have helped." Misato tapped her forehead with the top of her sub-machine gun. "They could have easily slipped people into such a role." She stared the lieutenant down. "And is all of what you just said true?"
The man looked directly back at her as he instantly replied, "On my word as a soldier, I have not uttered a single falsehood since coming ashore, ma'am."
Misato began to pace back and forth for a moment, deep in thought while still tapping her gun against her forehead. After a minute she turned to Okamura. "Then as a fellow soldier, I'll accept your word. You may return to your men."
Okamura slowly began to remove his hands from his head, and Misato called for her escort to stand down. While there were a few grumbles, the NERV troops accepted her order and shouldered their weapons. She then called NERV and asked Ritsuko to find everything she could on General Tokutei and anyone that may have been affiliated with him.
As Misato reached the end of the beach, Okamura called out, "Major!"
By the look on his face, the sergeant probably felt that he had spoken too suddenly as a couple of weapons were now trained on him. Misato walked back, signalling her men to relax.
"What is it?" she asked.
Okamura drew himself up and looked her directly in the eye. "I just wanted to say... thank you, ma'am."
"For sparing your life?"
"No, for ending it."
Misato almost asked him what was meant by that, when she abruptly realised where she knew the voice from.
'It's nothing personal...'
"You... you were the one that was about to shoot my boy!" she yelled, anger flaring once more as her gun swung up to point at him.
"Forgive me, major!" Okamura's hands shot up above his head. "I-I didn't sign up to kill children, I tried to put it off for as long as possible! That's why I'm thanking you for stopping me! My daughter is the same age as that kid!"
The gun lowered once more, but the lieutenant kept his hands in the air. Misato walked up until their faces were only a few centimetres apart. "Well, once you're cleared, you should go see if she's come back yet," she whispered.
Before she got back onto the VTOL, she called Ritsuko once more. "Another search, Rits. See if there are reports about the families of JSSDF soldiers being killed, or 'disappearing', just before Third Impact as well as after."
"What are you planning, Misato?"
"I want to make sure that there's nothing left of SEELE to threaten us. The Old Men haven't come back yet, and I doubt they will since they're right where they want to be. If we can't put them on trial, we may as well go after any underlings that might have returned. No doubt they'll be trying to get revenge."
"And the family search?"
Misato sighed. "Speak with the ranking officer of the JSSDF squad that will soon be getting taken back to NERV for debriefing. He has some... interesting information about how his squad was motivated to attack us."
"Oh right. That."
"Huh?" Misato wondered what her friend meant for a moment, before shaking it off. "Whatever. Now, I hope there's no more questions for me. I'm tired and I want to go to bed."
"Sorry, but you'll need to come back to base first, I have to speak to you in person about a couple of things."
Another, longer and louder sigh. "Can't it wait until tomorrow?"
"Afraid not. One of them concerns Shinji and Asuka, mostly Shinji, and I need to know your answer as soon as possible."
Her bed would have to wait a little longer, it seemed.
The expressions on the faces of all of the returning NERV personnel were almost identical as they disembarked the VTOLs; confusion, mixed with anger. Many of them would be nursing hangovers the next morning as they attempted to cope with what they had learnt that day. Misato was wishing that she could join them, but duty called. She stopped at the armoury to return her borrowed weapon before heading to the command centre.
She nodded to Ritsuko as she entered and almost plopped down into a vacant chair in front of the main screen, but the chief scientist's hand on her shoulder stopped the tired major.
"Let's go to my office, Misato."
Ritsuko refused to speak further until the door was closed and they were both sitting down on either side of her untidy desk.
"I'll start off with the only thing that could be completely good news," she sighed as she leaned back in her chair. "Evas Zero and Two are now armoured enough that I once more feel safe walking into their cages. They still won't be combat-capable for a long time, however."
"'Combat-capable'?" Misato repeated with a raised eyebrow. "You're actually bringing them back to full readiness, Ritsuko?"
Ritsuko nodded. "Something brought all three of them back for a reason. Their purpose was supposed to be fulfilled after Third Impact, but they're here and sitting in our cages. I would rather armour them up now and never have to launch them, than to suddenly need the Evas and have them be useless. It's giving the crews something to do, anyway."
The scientist exhaled and sat back up in her chair. A document was located and placed in the middle of the desk. "Which brings me to my next point: the future of NERV. You missed out on the last half of our meeting."
"I'm sorry Rits, but I had to be there myself," Misato began to explain, but a waved hand cut her off.
"It's fine, Misato. We had to make a very important decision, but I'll get to that in a minute. One of the men in that meeting was a representative from the U.N. They were recently in discussions about whether or not to continue letting NERV operate as it currently is, with the threat of the Angels no longer around."
Misato leaned forward in her seat. "I take it they were talking about shutting us down?"
"Some of the people that fund us believe it should happen. Others want to convert NERV into a research centre, since we're pretty much halfway there as it is. But no, for now, this is their decision." Ritsuko pushed the document in front of Misato, who picked it up. Her eyes flashed across the page as she read the short paragraph several times, letting the information sink in. Finally, she slowly dropped the paper back to the desk and stared at Ritsuko.
"They're... simply going to let us stay like this?" she asked.
"Correct. Until the end of 2018 or until we can absolutely guarantee that there is no further threat to humanity from Angels or similar entities. It seems that enough people took our suspicions seriously that they don't want to dismantle NERV and the Evas only to suddenly need us again. We're still a massive money sink though, even at our current level of operation. In 2019, our future will be brought up again, with the only likely options then being dismantling completely, or conversion to research."
While NERV produced its own power, it still required food, parts, and other amenities. The outdoor area of NERV could be turned to agriculture, but it would still need to bring in resources that were impossible to produce in the Geofront.
"Well, looks like we'll be sticking around for a couple more years then," Misato said, yawning slightly before continuing. "Damn. I wanted to quit and find a far more relaxing job, but it seems as though I'll still be needed."
The sudden sheepish look that appeared on Ritsuko's face caught Misato's attention, along with the way the faux-blonde began looking through the papers on her desk and muttering to herself about having something only a moment ago. She finally retrieved another document that looked similar to the one Misato had just read.
"Here we go. The third point, and the final part of the meeting you missed out on." The paper was gently placed in front of Misato, and Ritsuko withdrew to her side of the desk as if expecting something nasty to happen. Misato directed a suspicious glare at her friend for a few seconds before picking the paper up. The glare quickly vanished and was replaced with a look of complete shock.
It is the decision of the United Nations that Major Misato Katsuragi be promoted to the currently-vacant position of Commander of NERV. Her heroic efforts in the Angel War, as well as her actions during recent events, lead us to believe that she is the right person to replace the late Commander Ikari as head of NERV.
Misato Katsuragi will remain Commander until such time as she proves unfit for the position, or until the dissolution or conversion of NERV in 2019. She is free to select whomever she wishes as Sub-Commander to replace the late Kozo Fuyutsuki.
We offer Commander Katsuragi our sincere congratulations on her promotion, and hope that she strives to always do what is best for all of humanity.
Remember: we will be watching.
Reading the document worked better on Misato's tiredness than a triple shot of espresso.
"This... there's no way this can be true!" she exclaimed. "I'm just a major, a freaking tactical officer, not a leader of... of an entire organisation like NERV!" She jumped out of her chair and began pacing back and forth.
"The U.N. thinks otherwise, Misato. They believe you're the best person for the job." Ritsuko grinned and leaned her head on an upraised arm. "Hey, look at it this way. You really cannot do any worse than the previous Commander."
Misato stopped her pacing and slumped, leaning her head to the side to glare at her friend. "Considering that the last person who had the job tried to destroy humanity, that's not exactly a high bar to reach for, Rits." She picked her chair back up from where it had fallen over and plopped back down on it.
"Okay, so I pretty much led the defence against the Angels. I was the one in charge of the Evas in the field and helped save humanity from utter extinction, I get that. So what is this 'actions during recent events' stuff they're talking about." Misato poked at the offending document.
"You should know, Commander," Ritsuko replied, eliciting a glare from Misato to which she gave a disarming grin. "After all, you just returned from said event."
The glare faded, to be replaced by confusion. "They already know about the beach?!"
"Yep. One of the birds that escorted you recorded the entire incident. The U.N. are going to be conducting their own investigations into the matter of the JSSDF's... involuntary operation. That's an evil way to get people to do what you say. This General Tokutei has apparently given the U.N. headaches before. Something about using children in their own prototype military robots. While there's no guarantee he'll return from Instrumentality, we can at the very least posthumously condemn him and try to figure out who he was really taking orders from."
"Instrumentality's far too good for the likes of him."
"I know, but we can't exactly go back in there and drag him out."
Misato rubbed her eyes as the tiredness began to seep back into her. "Alright, so what did you have to speak to me about concerning my ki- concerning Asuka and Shinji?"
Ritsuko turned serious. "This... is the thing that I'm most concerned about. I'm sure I know what your immediate response will be, but please consider this," Ritsuko pleaded. "For both of their sakes, promise me you'll stop and seriously think it through before making your first decision as Commander."
The new Commander sighed and thought for a moment, before saying, "Alright alright, I'll listen carefully and not give an answer straight away. So, what are you planning?"
The room was silent as Ritsuko fidgeted in front of her friend, now her superior officer.
"There's one thing left that we can attempt to try and help Shinji, and something we can do for Asuka at the same time, since she knows the truth about her mother and Unit-02." The doctor took a deep breath and looked Misato in the eye. "I want to get them both into their Evangelions one more time."
