The author of this fan fiction makes no claim to the ownership of any aspect of the Evangelion franchise, or the ability to finish a fan fiction in reasonable time. "It's been a while."
Rating: T - foul language and innuendo, they go together like peas and carrots. Insert joke about long orange adult novelties and green balls here.
Chapter 26: Stable
The darkness faded. Shinji rubbed his eyes, his vision sharpened.
"Ceiling...unfamiliar...what ever..."
With a groan, Shinji sat up from the cold hard floor. The battle-weary boy took a moment to get his bearings and stretch his cold joints. He was in a large open room with glass walls and ceiling. Escalators lead to other levels, wetal chairs and tables were strewn around obscuring the way. 'Such a mess...Misato's cooking again...?' his groggy mind wandered as he noted the post-attack mess room.
A red plug suit caught his eye. "Asuka!"
Scrabbling over to the still-sleeping girl nearby, he resisted the urge to grab her and hold her close. Images from the battle swallowed his vision, and he clutched his head until the vertigo subsided. "The plug...Keele...Rei!"
With a gasp, he looked down. "Oh Asuka..." Slowly, his gaze swept the length of her sleeping, prone figure, looking for injuries. He jerked back fearfully when she let out a cute little snort. Fearful now, Shinji leant in to check her breathing.
"Uhh...what...?"
"Asuka?"
"Shinji...where...?"
"We're in the mess room."
"How...did you drug me...?"
"No! It, uh...you were in the plug and the rockets fired and then you were unconcious and I found you here!"
"On my back. Blacked out."
"Hai."
"And now you're lying on top of me."
"Uh...hai."
"...baka. You know, you should ask first before trying something like this..."
Shinji hung his head and crawled off her. "Yeah..."
The girl sat up with a groan, cradling her head. "At least act like you get it when I'm kidding. Dumpkopf."
"But I'm glad you're okay."
"Yeah..." Asuka closed her eyes. "I think I'm going to be sick."
Shinji collapsed back on his hands, staring up at the now semi-familiar ceiling. It was a victory to savour, but not to celebrate. He closed his eyes, serene.
"Right now all I want to do is sleep."
Asuka nodded absently.
"And forget."
Lifting her head slightly, the Second Child looked at him. "Forget what?"
"Everything."
Asuka lowered her head nodded again.
They had but a short pause before a ruckess of shouted paramilitary orders and shuffling feet brought a force of nature barreling up the escalator. With a crash, Misato burst in with tears streaming from her eyes.
"We're alright." Shinji smiled before becoming engulfed in Misato's arms.
Asuka sighed, stretching her tired, bruised body and savoured the feel of clean, dry clothes as she put them on after her shower. 'Time for a debriefing no doubt, before they let us poor pilots relax.'
Idly flicking through her locker-room wardrobe, she ignored the speck of smeared, hastily cleaned blood, the bullet marks and the glint of a spent gun shell on the floor. The fighting had been intense, but the tired Nerv staff had tried to hide the worst of it from the Children. 'Maybe we're not the only ones who deserve a rest. After all, we were unconcious for a little while.'
Finally dressed in her Nerv Dress Uniform, which she hadn't worn since transferring in to Tokyo-3, Asuka looked herself up and down in the mirror. With a satisfied nod, she headed for the tactical room.
Shinji sat in a doze, dressed in an ill-fitting Nerv Officer's uniform (he had never had the dress uniform fitted), slumped on an office chair while the top officers of Nerv (ie the bridge crew and a few others) stood around the edges of the room. Some sported bandages and crutches, and Asuka quickly noted some faces that were absent. Putting that thought away for later, the teenager whisked back her hair and stood to attention in front of Misato, still in her duty uniform and notably haggard. She saluted back with a minimum of enthusiasm, and Asuka noticed the tiredness in her eyes.
Asuka went to Shinji and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up and managed a weak smile. "Hey." he said quietly.
"Hey yourself." she almost whispered back. "You're in trouble, mister."
Suddenly a bit more alert, Shinji frowned. "Wha...what did I do?"
"Back in the mess room." she leant in to whisper in his ear. "You, on top of me. Pinning me down, helpless to resist. Your warm body pressed down on mine..."
"But..."
"And you didn't take advantage of me. Bad man..."
She stood back to watch the effect. Shinji blinked and gulped a couple of times. Asuka smirked, mission accomplished.
"I understand." Shinji said aloud, quietly but not bothering to hide it from everyone inthe room. "Don't worry, I'll definietly do something about it later. I'll make up for it." he managed a small smirk to match her earlier one.
Fuyutsuki walked in, his presence somehow more commanding since he had taken the top job. "Second Child. Third." he acknowledge with a small nod each.
"Where's Rei?" Asuka asked, ignoring the officious mood. "And Dr. Akagi?"
The Commander's face became grim.
Touji sat, in a borrowed gym uniform, on a borrowed basketball court with a borrowed ball in his hand. Glumly, he let the shadow it cast grow longer as he avoided going to the borrowed home he was living in in New Kyoto. "At least my arms and legs aren't borrowed." he grumbled.
"That's true. They wouldn't fit anyone else." Kensuke approached, his hands seeming strangely empty in lieu of his traditional camcorder.
"Hmmph. You know I have to get them adjusted every two weeks? And I'll need new ones within three months."
"Gosh, you didn't tell me that seventeen times before." the bespectacled boy complained, sitting down cross-legged with his long-time friend.
"Wait for number eighteen. It'll be even better."
"Sure."
"It will. It will have a basketball flavour." With that, Touji jumped up and pressed the ball into Kensuke's face. With a shriek, the smaller boy laughed and fell backwards onto his elbows. He raised his arms in surrender and Touji relented, a grin plastered onto his face.
"Any news?"
"Actually yeah. Asuka managed to route an SMS to me via email - they're OK but still in Tokyo 3 because of some beaurocratic bullshit. She says even Shinji is struggling to make edible food with what they've got. They both seems OK, Misato too, but no sign of Rei."
"Hmm..."
"Oh, and she says for you to go, well you can guess, me to find a nice military weapon to marry, and says 'Hi' to Class Rep."
"Why do they always do that?"
"What?"
"Say to 'say hi' to people."
Kensuke shrugged. "Because they can't think of anything more interesting to do?"
"No wonder you can't get a girlfriend."
"Yet."
Touji smirked.
"Say..."
"Yeah?"
"How long until we're all back together, do you think?"
Kensuke shrugged. "Knowing Asuka and Shinji will be pushing for it, no longer than it has to be I guess."
Shinji bowed his head to the marker stone before him, a simple cross next to those of his parents. The amber light of dusk cast a heavy shadow against his brow, another burden for his young body to hold aloft. Holding a bottle of sake, he observed the markings on the ceremonial liquor for a moment, then pulled the top from it. Carefully, he poured the content on Rei's marker. The unfamiliar smell of the strong liquor made his eyes water all the more.
Stepping back, he felt hands fall onto his shoulders.
"Look at it this way. Misato would have made you drink it."
Shinji pushed one hand off.
"Okay...not the best thing to say."
Shinji shrugged. "Thanks for trying, Mr. Kaji."
The ex-spy stepped forward to observe Rei's marker with the teenager, his jacket strewn accross his shoulder and cigarette held between his lips in trademark style. "I've never been good at holding my tongue when I needed to. But her," he gestured toward the stone. "Maybe it was how she was brought up, but she was strong enough that she didn't need to burden others. Perhaps that was her wisdom, for who among us could possibly have stood firm under the secrets she carried?"
"She wasn't like that, not...toward the end..."
Kaji tilted his head down slightly. "You're wrong. She was a lot more talkative, yes. Ever since Asuka and you became her friends she was able to express herself. But tell me, did she ever give you so much a the whisper of a hint of instrumentality, and her role in it? And your and Asuka's roles?"
"Did she really know?"
Kaji scratched his neck. "She knew, but I take your point. We will never know for sure if she knew how things could play out, and what everyone's roles were."
Shinji shook his head. "It doesn't matter. She's gone, to save us from that evil monster."
"That may not be why she did what she did. But in any case, the only thing that truly matters is the Rei that we keep in our hearts. Whereever she is now, I don't think Rei needs our help anymore."
The two mused in silence. Finally, the sun had set so that shadows took over the grounds. Shinji rubbed his arms to warm them, prompting Kaji to put his jacket over him.
"Come on. Time to go."
Shinji nodded, silent as he followed the man away.
"Get in. I'll give you a lift."
"Thanks."
"Where to? Chateu de Katsuragi-Sohryu-Ikari?"
"Yeah..."
"Speaking of which, why wasn't Asuka with you?"
"Misato said that they had to mourn Rei in their own way. Sounded like an excuse for a girl's day out to me. Anyway, they both visited earlier."
"Hmm. Misato, bless her...I suppose we mere men can only hope to comprehend. If you figure it out, please tell me. Mysteries may have been my trade, but there are some things that I can never hope to understand."
"Don't you dare get yourself a beer, schwein-frau."
Misato threw a 'we'll talk later' glare at the Second Child as she took her collection of snacks and drinks to the convenience store counter.
After paying, the two Nerv employees walked to the car. "Green tea flavour?" Misato asked, bemused.
"Just something I felt like." Asuka replied evasively, biting at her ice-cream.
"Uh-huh." the older woman raised an eyebrow.
"Seems like something Rei would order." the teenager shrugged in resignation.
"Hmm..." Misato occupied herself with her convenience-store coffee, wincing a bit at the taste and reaching for a sugar sachet.
The car was filled up with food. Fresh vegetables, tinned goods, even a small amount of fresh meat in a portable cooler. Misato had not spared any expense. Asuka had even been able to wheedle Misato into getting some expensive European coffee and salami. With Tokyo 3 all but destroyed, nothing would help the trio settle into their temporary dorm in the remains of Nerv like food. If there was a religion in the Katsuragi-Sohryu-Ikari household, it was the faith of, and in, Shinji's cooking.
Asuka gazed into the darkening sky, the remnants of rouge fading to black as another day ended. "Misato...do you know what really happened to her?"
The Sub-Commander opened the car's driver door, and sighed. Hand still on the door, she also turned to face the horizon. "We...don't know. After Rei touched Lillith, the MAGI stopped working completely. We only know what happened because of Unit 01's recorders. When the MAGI came back online, we couldn't detect her or the angel anymore. Only Unit 01 remains, that we know of."
Silence reigned as the two consumed their respective snacks. Not even the passing traffic bothered their reverie.
"Do you think Shinji knows anything? He was in his Eva, after all..."
Misato got into the car and started the ignition. "You're asking the wrong person."
Reluctantly, Asuka got into her side of the car. "Did...you ask him?"
"He didn't want to talk about it."
Misato began driving back toward the Geofront.
"Look after him, Asuka. He's lost a lot, but for the moment at least, he's got you."
Asuka hugged her knees up onto the car seat. "Yeah...he's got me. And not just for the moment."
Misato gave her a glance, judging her mood even as she piloted her sporty Renault. "Has...he said anything about your mother?"
The girl let out a sigh. "No...I'm not sure I blame him. At least mother must have been released from Unit 02's core. But with Unit 01 flying away and Rei missing...he's got a lot on his mind."
"That doesn't mean that you're not suffering."
"I...didn't even know she was in there until recently."
Misato nodded, eyes still fixed on the road. "You should mention it. If he realises you've been bottling it up...he'll want to help you, to share it with you."
"Hmm..."
"It will probably help him with dealing with it too. I know what that sort of thing can do to a young person...I don't think you would go silent for several years, but Shinji might. When he gets around to mentally processing everything."
"...ok."
(To old friends. May they rest in peace.)
Standing before the obelisks, the Commander of Nerv raised his cup of sake and tried to hide the faint revulsion he felt for the ritual. Solemnly, and a touch grimly, he drank at the cue pronounced by the Committee. He could only assume that they all partook of the wake according to their own cultural traditions.
(Fuyutsuki-kun. Instrumentality has been completed in an unforeseen and unwanted fashion, we have lost many comrades and the Technology of God itself. Those of us who remain are scattered and in hiding. Even our chairman was turned against us in the end.)
"Yes."
(Indeed. So, tell us. Whom may we hold responsible?) Said the obelisk to his left.
(It would be wise, I think, not to blame those whom we toast here today. Such would seem a touch...desperate.) Interjected an obelisk over his shoulder.
Fuyutsuki smiled wryly. "I would never dream of it."
(Good.)
(Very good. So then, sir. If you would, in your own words.)
The old man stood very straight before his accusers. "It would be false of me to do anything but to take the blame for what has happened. After Gendo passed, we were set onto a path of no return. I set that path."
(Indeed. Do continue.)
"And I can state unequivitably that Chairman Keel Lorenz was in no way involved with this."
(You do you and your organisation credit, Fuyutsuki-kun.)
"And so, my good sirs, you may hold me solely responsible."
(For?) the obelisk before him prompted.
"For your extermination." The Commander stated with satisfaction. "Though I intend to recruit a promising talent in the termination business, please hold me responsible as the one who will now proceed with hunting down every last one of you foul creatures. Good day gentlemen, the next time I meet each of you it will be in person and in an extremely...intimate fashion."
The room was cast into darkness as the obelisks terminated their connections of one accord, without a sound.
For the first time in decades, the old man felt his heart lighten. The burden of what was to be done was heavy, yet somehow well within his strength to carry once more.
[It should be counter-offset, not positive.]
[Is that so, Ritsuko-chan? Think about it, we are trying to amplify something that doesn't *quite* exist.]
[Fundamentally Yui, a positive feedback will introduce an unstable, chaotic response.]
[Give me a quantum of chaos and some neutrinos. Give me a protoge and a loving man. I will accomplish the impossible.]
Ephemerally, a ghostly quantum image appeared in the optical centers of Unit 01's brain.
[Oh yes. Am I good?]
[Yes, dear.]
[Argh. Can't you be wrong just once?]
The image became a composite. Three faces, one male and red-headed female in a single frame, another female and set against a pitch-black surround.
[My, my.]
[Indeed.]
[Is that...Rei floating in space?]
Pensively, Asuka kicked the toe of her sandles against the fencepost. She was standing in a facimile of her original yellow sundress, looking down at the crater of Tokyo-3, up in one of the few parts of the surrounding hillside that had not succombed to flash fires. The grass and trees were recovering, green buds and grass blades pushing past the withered yellows and browns.
"I do want to talk about it. Only I don't." her gaze moved from the site of their trials up to the boy who had stood firm those trials with her.
Shinji shrugged noncommitally. His gesture implied no pressure, either way.
Asuka looked back down at the Nerv, still exposed and broken. "I was lying low. I didn't want Keele to know I had control, so I was waiting for the right moment to do something. It was lucky, if Keele had been smart there would have been nothing I could have done at all!"
"I was worried about you."
She pushed off the fence and went to him. Kissing him on the tip of his nose, she grinned. "I know. That's what you're good at. Baka."
"Hmmph. Meanie." The Third Child snorted while pulling her into a hug. Pulling back for a moment, his gaze lowered downward of her face.
"Getting a good look?"
The boy's face coloured slightly, but he recovered smoothly. "Actually, I was looking at your necklace. Is it new?"
Asuka smirked. "Not quite, I bought it shortly after arriving here. You were off being an electronic punching bag for the idiot twins. But...this is the first time I've worn it."
Shinji nodded and smiled. "I like dolphins too."
The girl looked away. "I...never told Rei about what I saw on the Over the Rainbow."
Shinji watched her face pensively, waiting for her to go on.
"Do you...know what happened to her?"
He looked down at his feet, shuffling his toe as if kicking something. "I...no. After...Giant Rei touched my Eva, I don't remember anything until waking up with you at Nerv. But..."
It was her turn to watch him.
"I just have a feeling. Like she's around, but she's different. Like she doesn't...have to stay here anymore. Like...she's a part of my family, and they live somewhere else now. Like they've abandoned me, but not deliberately. I don't know. Does that make any sense? I don't think that made any sense."
Asuka put a hand on his cheek. "No, it doesn't. But we're two teenagers who saved the world with our giant robots. It doesn't have to make sense.
Rei looked up to the Earth above, smiling her now-constant, serene smile. With a sigh, even in the vacuum of space, she settled into a sitting position hugging her crossed legs in front of her, kicking up white moon dust in great fluid sprays. Closing her eyes, she lifted her left hand and conjured a translucent yellow-tinged sphere into being around her. With the passing seconds, it graduallu solidified into a opaque pale blue.
Suddenly, Rei stopped her act of creation. At a blink, the Egg around her collapsed to nothing. She opened her eyes and gazed introspectively at the lunar surface before her.
"I...am free."
Silence.
"I choose my own fate now."
Silence once more.
"What...shall I do now?"
Standing up, she looked up not at Earth, but into the infinite heavens. Her vision, not limited by puny human senses, soon found a pretty blue sparkling sun off to her left.
With a small push of her feet, Rei lifted from the Moon's surface. Gently, she accelerated toward the boundless heavens, heedling the call to the unknown beyond.
OMAKE
"So..." Misato crossed her arms under her ample breasts uncomfortably, avoiding looking into his eyes.
"Uh...yeah. So..." Kaji also looked away, reaching over to scratch his back in a similarly embarresed gesture.
"This is...weird..." Shinji mumbled, shadow hiding his eyes as he stared downward at the floor.
"Un-comfortable..." Ritsuko held her arms crossed behind her head as she looked skyward, playing with the tense atmosphere.
"A-hem." Kaji cleared his throat. Squaring his shoulders, he looked up. "R-Rei..."
The pale, giant being looked down at the mere mortals before it. "Yes, Agent Kaji?"
"W-well...why are you...?"
"Why are you NAILED TO A GIANT CROSS?" Misato cried, unable to bear it any longer.
"And why are you bleeding LCL...?" Shinji added quietly.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
The Supreme Being managed to look contrite.
"Talk about your Elephant in the Room..."
**SLAP**
Sorry, that was a bad one. Couldn't help myself.
[Guten tag! Well, if it isn't the holy threesome itself. So this is the secret you were keeping from me, Yui? Special specifications for Unit 01?]
[Kyoko! My goodness, it's been...decades!]
[Are you kidding me? Just how big is this core anyway?]
[Yui...has always been sociable.]
[So, how's Unit 02? I saw you get pretty beat up in the last battle.]
[Well, the only bit that matters is the core, of course, so as good as need be I suppose. Even if it does look rather grotesque on the outside. But enough about that. I understand you have figured out how to look in on the children back on Earth?]
[Of course...and it's getting a bit steamy too...]
[Even in space, all you want to talk about the soap-opera on TV...?!]
Author's Rant
Thank you for reading. The journey has been one of learning for me, this being the third iteration of the story and an ending that at one stage seemed extremely unlikely be concluded. The odd word of encouragement goes a long way, as does a break to let the creative juices build up, as I am sure many of you know all too well. So thank you all who posted comments and reviews.
I dedicate this chapter to my fellow, tragic, foolish, wonderful and hopefully sated, fanfiction writers. Keep on imagining!
Despite
July/August 2012
EXTRA
A small figure settled atop Mount Fuji. A little smaller than a man, it brought it's whispy, translucent wings in toward it's body.
"This land...it has a different smell now. There is no trace of Adam, and even Lillith has faded."
Kaoru appeared as he had when he encountered Shinji and Asuka, by appearances even clad in the same plugsuit. The wings and prominent yellow core on his chest were new though.
"This land smells...new." he smiled. He looked up toward the moon. "You have chosen to move on and leave these Lillum to their own means. A brave choice."
The being paused, looking down on the Geofront. He could see a Pilot speaking at length with the Commander, negotiating, discussing the future. He saw the old man clap the boy on the back. He could see plans, starting with an iron purpose and coalescing into something grand in their minds. It seemed that the Professor had business as yet unfinished, and that he had recruited help in chasing the Old Men. Together they schemed, even as Nerv was dissolved around them in a flood of red tape and politics.
The smile became a grin. "This may be interesting...I shall observe. For now."
- fin?