The Archon
Chapter Four
"Come, brothers and sisters, and bask in Lilith's love."
The speaker was a woman, hooded in gray robes, who carried a small, terracotta bowl. A single red candle floated within, and dozens more lit up the room with irregular, twinkling light. Two great windows from floor to ceiling spanned the wall by the door, showing a view of an empty city street at night. Posters for DVD releases lined the walls, but they were torn, faded, or halfway taken down, and at the counter by the door, there was only a faded outline where a cash register had been. There were no shelves full of videos to rent in that place—not any longer. In that abandoned rental store, adherents to the Cult of Lilith met to hear the great news of her wonders, and it was their Archon who delivered this message for all to hear.
"She has sacrificed Her physical body, Her existence, so that we may walk as human beings once again," said the Archon. "Every day, She speaks to the lost souls in the ocean to remind them what they can accomplish as individuals. We've all heard Her voice, or else we wouldn't be here, and that's why we gather today—to rejoice and celebrate and spread the word."
The Archon pursed her lips and went silent for a moment, and her followers nodded their heads slowly. On firm cushions, eight rows of ten men and women kneeled before the Archon in deference to her knowledge, wisdom, and experience, and she wouldn't make them wait long to hear her guidance.
"Now, more than one person has approached me over the last few weeks," said the Archon, "asking me why Lilith would permit Eisheth to exist and if we have something to fear from Eisheth's coming. I admit, I've wondered the same thing, but I've thought very carefully on the matter. I've talked to the other Archons and studied what Lilith had to say to all of us after the attack, and let me share with you my belief. I don't think anyone should worry or think that Lilith has abandoned us. Why would She appear to us in warning if She cared nothing more for us? I believe Lilith won't interfere in the free will of men. She has done everything she could to undo the damage She herself had a part in, but the rest is up to us. It is our imperative to live good lives, to prove that we're capable of overcoming the flaws that brought forth Third Impact in the first place.
"But, if you've been paying attention, you might realize that that answer has nothing to do with the other question—why does Lilith permit Eisheth to exist? To that, I can only say I don't believe Lilith is all-powerful. She was and is a person as we are, and she must have limits to her abilities. Some of you might think that saddening, but I don't. I wouldn't want to pin my hopes on a being without limits. How could I hope to understand Her that way? How could I believe She thinks the way we do? Yes, it means Lilith can make mistakes, but it also means that She understands who we are in a way that a truly omnipotent and omnipresent being never could. That, I think, is a comfort beyond words."
The cultists bowed their heads once more.
"Now, let us think on our friends and loved ones who are still in the sea," said the Archon. "I'm sure Lilith will take your thoughts to them. Masuyo will come around and take any messages you have for them—they could be to family or to someone you've never known."
One of the Archon's helpers, a high-school-aged girl with blonde locks, passed around cards for the other cultists to write on. Each was then folded once and handed back down the rows, where Masuyo picked them up. From there, the Archon invited other cultists to come forward and tell stories of how Lilith came to them in the sea—what form she took to reach them, how her message impacted their lives and continued to do so, for that was the goal of these meetings: to encourage people to speak and share their hopes with one another.
Still, the Cult of Lilith was far from an organized religion, and the weekly meetings were purposefully kept restrained—an hour and a half long at most. When no one else wished to speak, the Archon closed the meeting with kind words for all.
"Thank you all for coming to help spread the word of Lilith's continued life and message," she said. "Let me just remind everyone that this weekend, there's will be a charity marathon held between here and Chino to help raise money for victims of Eisheth's attack. You can run in the race or volunteer. If you have any questions, you can talk to Ami outside. She'll have flyers and other information for you."
A blonde woman with a long ponytail raised her hand with a bundle of flyers for everyone to see. "Oh, and please, please, please, if you plan on coming, we could really use some umbrellas," said Ami. "Archon Juniper and I have about six between us, but there's rain in the forecast, and we don't want anyone getting soaked, so if you can donate some money or loan us an umbrella to share for the weekend, even if you're not coming, we'd be very grateful! More information outside, once again!"
As the cultists dispersed—some congregating around Ami outside the window, others leaving in groups to head to the nearest bus or train station—Archon Juniper took to extinguishing the candles, putting the wooden podium she'd spoken at away, and securing the locks on their improvised meeting site. She went through the storage room and out the back door, but on her way through the building's back alley to the street, a boy emerged from the shadows, wearing sunglasses and hooded sweatshirt. Only one boy she knew went to such lengths to hide his features.
"Hello, Archon Juniper," he said. "How was the service?"
"Fine, thank you," said the Archon, smiling, "but you really don't need to call me that. What brings you here, Shinji-kun? Are you considering joining us after all?"
"I really couldn't imagine worshiping Ayanami," he said, "and I'm afraid that's not why I'm here. Misato-san and I—and Ayanami, too—we need your help."
"With Eva?" The Archon turned away. "I don't do that kind of work anymore. We did awful, awful things to you, Shinji-kun—to you and Rei and Asuka. I'd rather not be a part of that again."
"I wouldn't ask that of you," said Shinji, "but you can help us in other ways. Trust me. I've listened to your sermons. I know you believe people can find something good in this world. That's what we're fighting for. Please."
The Archon pursed her lips, and with a steady hand she lowered her hood, revealing her short, brown hair and smooth, fair complexion. She met Shinji's eyes and hesitated before speaking.
"What do you need me to do?" asked Maya.
#
As a child, Ibuki Maya hadn't grown up with any particular religious devotion. Her family had raised her with an awareness of Shinto and Buddhism, but as her interests turned to science and biology, she found most talk of deities and planes of existence truly incompatible with her views. The pantheon of Shinto gods made for good stories, beautiful shrines, and festive holidays, but she approached talk of spirits and higher powers with intellectual curiosity, not belief or fervor. It was useful to understand what others believed, if only to avoid offense through ignorance, but that was all.
In the days after Instrumentality's end, however, a new movement cropped up. Most people Maya met had some kind of experience in the sea, encountering someone familiar to them—a parent, a child, a wife or husband, or a dear friend—who encouraged them to return from the ocean. Many would meet with the people they thought had convinced them to return from the ocean only to find the other didn't remember such a thing but had a different experience instead. The rumor spread that maybe something or someone else had appeared to each person, that Lilith herself had seen to it people would imagine themselves in their own hearts, enough to piece themselves back together from being dispersed and spread to the winds. Combined with the miraculous preservation of human civilization despite the passage of time, Lilith's power and influence over mankind was difficult to ignore.
Thus, the Cult of Lilith began to take shape, with followers gathering to worship her image and calling Rei little less than a god, but that was something Maya could never believe in, either. Whatever powers Rei had, whatever being Rei had originally been, Maya had known her as a person—someone who had been wounded and bandaged trying to do something that wasn't even her choice. Still, many people had found the new world difficult to adjust to. The idea that some powerful being had spoken to them and encouraged them to live on proved a profound comfort. With some family and loved ones still missing or gone, with whole sectors of the economy disappearing amid disorder and strife, the Cult was giving people hope. And people desperately needed that. Maya, too—after the horrors she'd seen, the perversions of the mind and body she'd participated in to help make Eva come to pass. All her life, she'd pursued the quest of science—how body, mind, and soul interact in terms of electrical impulses, molecular forces, and so on—but science was a tool, and people without hope could use that tool for ill. Without some belief in the prospects for the future, mankind would never use the tools it had for good.
So Maya joined the Cult, aspiring to help spread their message of one good miracle in the world. While she wasn't nearly as recognizable as Shinji, her name was one people knew, and her status as a distant associate of Rei and Shinji gave her significant influence. When followers came to cult meetings, more and more they wanted to hear from her, hoping for stories about Rei and what they could learn from her life. For a time, Maya felt like one of the apostles who'd witnessed Jesus's life. Had they been heeded over time for their own wisdom or their association with Christ? Both? Who could say? Maya wasn't sure why people really wanted to hear from her, but she used that position to her advantage. Over and over, she emphasized to people that Rei shouldn't be looked upon as an all-powerful god. She'd given mankind a new opportunity; that was all. And while that message seemed to run counter to what her fellow cultists expected at first, over time Maya had built a like-minded group of followers—adherents, rather, to the teachings of Archon Juniper, the name she'd given herself. While it seemed a bit pretentious, that title helped her keep her identity as a private individual and as a leader in the Cult separate, and she preferred to keep it that way. Her true identity was no secret, though—not to the Cult at large, to the public, or to Shinji.
Truly, the only person Maya's adherents in the Cult revered as much as Rei was Shinji. She had given him the choice to initiate Instrumentality—or to step back from it when he saw it was wrong. Shinji himself was a subject of some fascination within the movement, then. That much Maya knew well, for one of her followers had been so bold to corner Shinji on a train a few weeks before, but Shinji hadn't wanted any part of the Cult, and Maya understood that. It was difficult for her to affect such reverence for Rei on a routine basis. Shinji had been closer to Rei and would most likely find the Cult's attitudes toward her impossible to fathom.
Despite their difference on this matter, Shinji and Maya had run across each other from time to time, and though they'd hardly known each other while Shinji was a pilot, he treated her with respect even after hearing of her new position within the Cult. That's why Maya felt safe trusting in him as he implored her to lend a hand, regardless of where that might lead.
At the end of the alleyway, an SDF vehicle had been waiting for them, and the men gently tied a black cloth around her eyes. Though Maya would never know the way to wherever they were going, Shinji at least had the heart to explain why.
"Maya-san," he said, "we think some of your people have chosen to follow Eisheth."
Maya shook her head at that. "That just can't be. The people in the movement appreciate what Rei has done for them. Why would anyone choose to believe in this Eisheth instead?"
"I don't think I'd ever really understand it, but I've seen them. More than one of them, too."
Maya couldn't see anything, though—not while the SDF members and Shinji drove her across the city, walked her through a security checkpoint with her eyes still blindfolded, and stayed with her on some sort of subway car. A journey through narrow hallways and by several elevators at last led Maya to her destination. The SDF removed the blindfold, and Maya blinked twice to adjust her eyes. It was a small room with a wide window into the adjoining one, and the lights through the window—harsh, white, and fluorescent—were noticeably brighter than where Maya was.
"Welcome back, Lieutenant Ibuki," said Misato, who stood by the window, looking into the other room. She didn't face Maya. "Think you can help us out?"
"I'm not a lieutenant anymore." Maya followed Misato's gaze. In the other room, a single man sat on a metal chair with his hands bound behind him and his ankles tied to the chair's legs. There was no table there, only one other chair. "What's the meaning of this?" she asked. "Who is that person?"
"A follower of Eisheth, or so he claims to be." Misato handed her a sealed plastic bag, just big enough to hold a piece of jewelry or a bracelet. "He was carrying this ring when we found him. Take a look."
The ring was of a strange design—double-sided with decorations that were identical in shape. On one side was the Diamond and Eye, the insignia of the Cult of Lilith, but if one wore this ring and spun it around on their finger, the other decoration would be most visible. It was, on first glance, similar to the Cult's insignia, but instead of a single shape for an eye, there were three on the face's left and two on its right.
"Do you know him?" asked Misato.
Maya squinted, looking through the window. The man's features were common—brown eyes, dark and disheveled hair. There was a small mole the left side of his neck. Surely, if she'd known anyone like that, she would've recognized him then.
"I'm sorry, but I don't," said Maya.
"No surprise. The Cult is a growing movement, isn't it? More and more people are joining every day, particularly since Rei went on television after the attack, am I right? The Prime Minister's office is concerned about so many people flocking to a single ideological movement. Maybe you think this cult of yours is benign and good, but that doesn't mean there aren't bad seeds mixed into the crop. If you can already worship Rei as a god, worshiping Eisheth isn't that far off, is it?"
"That's not what we do, Colonel, and I'm shocked that you think so! What evidence do you have other than this one ring? Is that going to help us find others? What did this man do, and why are you holding him?"
"He tried to kill a pilot." Shinji pulled at his collar, revealing a nasty bruise on his shoulder. "I lost feeling in my arm for nearly a week from what he did. This is a bad man, Maya-san, and while I don't want to believe there are others like him in your cult, there might be. We have the ring, and he promises there are more like him. Misato-san, if you could?"
Misato nodded, going to the radio that was velcroed to her chest. "Hyūga-kun, go ahead."
The door to the interrogation room opened, and in walked Captain Hyūga with a file folder and a pad for notes. He sat in the empty chair, with several feet separating him from the prisoner, whose seat was fixed to the ground by sturdy bolts.
"Let's try this again," said Hyūga. "What is your name?"
The man narrowed his eyes, saying nothing.
"You call yourself an 'acolyte of Eisheth'?"
The man nodded once, still silent.
"Are you alone, or are there more of you?"
At that, the man grinned. "We are everywhere. When you buy bread and fruit from the market we are there. We're buying vegetables and canned goods same as you. When you go out to watch a movie or see a show, we're in the seats all around you. We've seen all there can be in this world. We've come back from the ocean and found this Earth empty and devoid of meaning, but Eisheth gives us purpose. When you ride a bus or a train across town, we're standing all around you, holding on to the support poles or straps, but soon enough, when the bus takes a turn, we'll let go. We'll throw the whole cabin into panic. When you're sitting at the theater, we'll stab you in the neck, and when you're shopping for ice cream, we'll make you choke on it. There is no place you can go to escape us. Eisheth abhors this violence, but as long as you continue to fight her, you are a taint that contaminates the consciousness of mankind with false promises. We will pursue you wherever you may hide. You cannot stop us all, and until you submit or die, you will never know peace or safety. We will draw out these destructive tendencies of men so they can be seen for what they are and then destroyed. Only at that time will mankind be free—in the ocean, where we should've stayed, if not for Ikari Shinji, Lilith, and their foolishness."
Hyūga yawned. "Wake me when you're done with the diatribe. We want specifics. Names, places. It's in your best interest to cooperate now before we resort to other methods of persuasion. I don't think you want to see those. I don't know what Eisheth's done to you, how she's broken or confused you, but it's not worth suffering over."
"You think she's confused me? I chose this of my own free will, as any reasonable man should. That is why we will outnumber you. It is an undeniable truth people still maim and murder and threaten one another for love, money, and other petty reasons. There is no chance of salvation from that but what Eisheth offers. Lilith can't help you. She is powerless—too afraid to do anything of consequence. The more you resist, the more difficult you make things for yourselves. Be assured, Lieutenant, Eisheth has tested the mettle of men and found it lacking, and soon, she will spur us on to a Reckoning—to determine who will fight for her and who will be considered an acceptable loss. Our numbers grow by the day, as do our powers." The man looked past Hyūga, directly into the window, making eye contact with Maya.
"Can he see me?" she asked.
"No, that's a mirror," said Misato. "He's just looking in a random direction."
"We take from your misguided believers," the man went on. "You can't keep control of your flock, Archon! And Colonel, even your men betray you. Otherwise, how could I do this?"
The man's handcuffs snapped, and despite the bindings on his ankles, he stood upright and defiant even as SDF guards swarmed the room.
Misato jammed an black button on a wall-mounted panel. "Hold your fire!" she cried, her voice resonating through an intercom. "We need him alive!"
"You mean you need me talking!" the prisoner corrected her. "If you think you can keep me here—if you think you can keep any of us here—then you're wrong. You cannot touch us, Colonel Katsuragi! Eisheth gives us the ability to realize our true selves, and when she comes for all of you, she'll reward us for our sacrifice. She'll join us with all mankind. Watch!"
The man shut his eyes, clenched his arms, and—
POP!
He splattered into LCL, with a fine mist of the stuff peppering the one-way mirror. The guards and Hyūga recoiled as the fluid ran up against their boots.
#
To deal with this mess, Misato summoned clean-up crews to vacuum the LCL and store it in an impenetrable tank (just in case the man wanted to reconstitute himself). Once the interrogation room had been cleared, Maya was escorted out. With the prisoner reduced to goo, there was little Maya could do then and there to help them—at least, for the moment. Though Maya hadn't wanted to believe it, the possibility that followers of Eisheth had been recruited or turned from Lilith's Cult was too great to ignore. The prisoner had said it himself—they were not safe. Any wandering person on the street could worship the "five-eyed monstrosity," as Misato called her. Whether such a person was a member of the Cult or otherwise, Maya agreed to be watchful, even though she hadn't the faintest idea where to look. Though a scientist had to be skeptical, such a discerning eye had never been in her nature. She'd looked up to mentors to learn and help develop that sense, but it never came easily. As much as she'd admired Ritsuko, that woman's cautious, discriminating eye was something she could never emulate, no matter how hard she'd tried.
Then again, Maya had had the temerity to return to the world while Ritsuko, as far as Maya knew, had not.
Regardless, Maya resolved to keep a watchful eye within the Cult and without, whatever good that would do, but any watching would have to wait until morning. With less than ninety minutes to midnight by the time SDF dropped her off at her apartment building, Maya stomach was rumbling mightily, and her eyes stung and watered up with fatigue. But whether she could eat or sleep after having watched a man blow up into LCL right before her eyes she couldn't say. For the moment, it would do well enough just to be home.
No sooner than she put the key into the lock of her third floor apartment's door, the knob turned all on its own. The door flung open, and Maya was embraced before she could speak a word in protest.
"Thank goodness you're safe!" said the other woman, holding her tight. "Some people on the street said they saw SDF taking you away, and I thought that just couldn't be! You would never do anything wrong. It all just had to be a misunderstanding, but then you didn't come back…"
"It wasn't a misunderstanding," Maya explained, unable to escape the embrace. "They just wanted some help from me. They're very secretive, though. It's always been like that."
The woman pulled away, meeting Maya's gaze. She had blonde hair halfway down her back with a hint of darkness coming up from her roots. Her wide brown eyes watched Maya carefully.
"So it was for him?" she asked. "For Ikari-san?"
"Among others, yes," said Maya. "Now, why don't we go inside? What are you doing up so late? If it's for me—oh dear. I wish I could've called you. They wouldn't let me near a phone."
"It's all right, really. I couldn't have slept not knowing if you were safe. Why don't you get out of those robes? I'll heat up your dinner, okay?"
Maya smiled to herself. Her roommate, Ami, was always thinking about others before she took care of herself, and this incident had proved to be no exception. Their two-bedroom apartment was somewhat small. The kitchen and dining areas jutted right up to each other, and the bedrooms and bath weren't far from there. Still, the balcony outside the dining area gave a great view of the mountains outside the city during the day.
An empathetic nurse, Ami had joined the Cult about a year before, finding that all the medical and scientific truth she could bring to her patients couldn't give them all the hope and will to live that they needed to go back out into the world. Though cautious at first, she'd grown enamored with the notion of Rei's power and how humanity had been given a second chance that they should make the most of. It might not be easy, but in Ami's words, "I don't think Lilith would've given us this chance if She thought we would fail. We just need to have a little faith in ourselves, the same as She does."
From their first meeting, Maya knew that someone like Ami was perfect for the continuing evolution of the Cult. She could be idealistic, yes, but was that such a bad thing in these times? Her duties as a nurse spoke to her responsible nature, and she'd applied those skills toward organizing community events and programs to help turn the Cult from a movement of like-minded individuals to a group of people trying to help others in both philosophical and material ways. How she found the energy to do this despite long hours on the morning shift at the hospital Maya couldn't fathom, but Ami never seemed to fade out or let her work get her down. Indeed, the only thing that could put a dent in her positive personality was the suggestion that fellow cultists might secretly worship Eisheth instead.
"That simply can't be!" Ami insisted. "How can you even say that? Every single person we've met and brought into the fold has felt Lilith's grace and wisdom. There's no way anyone would be taken by Eisheth's lies!"
Maya shook her head, poking at a plate of tofu, seaweed flakes, and rice. "It just takes a few people. On a statistical basis, even if we were 99.9% certain that the people we bring into the Cult are good, one in a thousand would be susceptible to being turned. That's no fault of ours, Ami, and it says nothing about the message Rei has tried to send us all along. It's just unlikely that every single person in a movement as big and dispersed as ours would be completely immune to Eisheth's deceptions. I've seen the evidence." Maya held out her right hand, showing a ring with the Diamond and Eye emblem. "The man had a ring like mine, but corrupted and defaced to celebrate Eisheth instead."
"Maybe a few people, but only a few." Ami nodded at that, convincing herself. "All right. Let's not talk about that. Tell me about Ikari-san. I really would've liked to meet him, you know."
"I know. I wish you could've had the chance. He's getting taller, I think. He looks a little more like his father, but his face isn't tainted with that creepy, sinister air that Commander Ikari had. Shinji-kun is doing well, at least from what he said. I think Eisheth's been doing a lot to try to get to him, too."
"If he's not safe where he is, tell him he could stay with us. Between the two of us, we can make sure he won't come to harm."
Maya chuckled slightly at that. "I don't think Asuka would approve of Shinji-kun staying with two women."
"She could come too. I just love the color of her hair. Besides, even if I were interested in men, a woman my age couldn't possibly make a move on a sixteen-year-old boy."
Maya winced. "You might be surprised."
"What?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing. I was just saying that, um, Shinji-kun is probably fine with Colonel Katsuragi and her men to protect him. And speaking of not being interested in sixteen-year-old boys, is there something about last Saturday night that you'd like to tell me?"
Ami laughed nervously, her cheeks lighting up. "Whatever do you mean, Maya? I don't know what you're talking about, honest!"
"Of course you do. You come back at five-thirty just long enough to wash up and go to the hospital. And the blush on your face tells me I'm right. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I'm just glad you're having a good time and meeting people. I'm sure you're making quite a few women happy—and more than that, jealous."
"It's not a lot of women!" Ami protested. "It's…just one."
"Just one?"
"Yeah. We met a couple weeks ago at the bar by the square, and I went to her place that night. I didn't think we'd meet again, but we ran into each other last week as well, and it was just awkward enough that I tried to strike up a conversation. It turns out she's a nuclear engineer, and we talked for over an hour about the prospects for something clean and safe like fusion power and such. I'm really excited to have met her, and we're planning on meeting up this weekend, too. Isn't it great?"
Maya nodded twice, deliberate and firm. "Yes, yes. Very great. Very, very great."
"Maybe you should come with me," Ami added. "I'm sure there's someone there you'd find interesting."
"Oh, no, I don't think so. I'd just be a third wheel, and that's no fun for you. No, I'll be fine. I'm just glad for you, honest."
At that, Ami beamed. "I think I might want to make myself pretty for when I see her next, too. I could go get my nails done and buy some new makeup. I was also thinking it might be time for a change with my hair. What do you think—just a trim, or…" Ami ran her fingers through her long blonde hair. "Maybe a change of color?"
Maya pursed her lips, putting down her chopsticks. She studied Ami closely, from her cheekbones to her eyelashes.
"Maybe," Maya said at last, "you should cut it short. Halfway down your neck, I'd say, with bangs. That'd be really cute, don't you think?"
After a moment's contemplation, Ami nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I think I'll do just that. Thanks so much, Maya."
"I should be the one thanking you for keeping my food out. Now, go to sleep so you don't miss your shift. I'll clean up."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, yes, it's fine. Go to bed."
At that, Ami climbed up from her cushion and left the table, but she squeezed Maya's shoulder as she went past. "I'm glad you came back," she said. "Lilith truly must've been watching over you."
"I'm sure she was," said Maya. "Good night."
"Night."
As Ami headed down the hall behind Maya, the former lieutenant mopped up her dinner leisurely, lost in thought. Ami represented the best hope the Cult could offer—the hope of someone who'd witnessed the horrors mankind could fall to and yet who still believed in humanity as a whole. Ami's positive outlook stood despite her past, for she was no stranger to grief or sorrow. It was a story Ami told often to new members of the Cult, just to hit home that her belief in Rei was more than just platitudes or rhetoric. Maya could still remember the first time Ami had told her the story. When Ami had approached her wanting the join the Cult, Maya had asked her why and if she'd felt Rei had really changed her life.
"Absolutely," Ami had said. "She appeared to me as someone very close to me, someone I lost just a few months before Third Impact. You see, my girlfriend Minori and I—and yes, that is what I meant to say—had gone for a day trip to the ocean. We'd been dating for a little over half a year. We were going to call it a half-anniversary, if you can believe that. Minori went to the bar to get a pair of strawberry daiquir\'is—she was just crazy about them, and I'd never had one. I waited by our umbrella. It was dark, and a man came up to me, smelling of beer and staggering. He tried to make a pass at me, and at first, when I refused him, he just walked off muttering. When Minori came back with our drinks, that changed. The man came back, angry and rowdy. He yelled at us, saying, 'You dirty dykes think you're so superior, huh? Can't appreciate what a man has to offer. I'll show you!' When my Minori and I tried to leave, even without our things, the man slapped the tray of drinks out of my Minori's hand. I never got to taste them. The crushed red ice splattered over the sand, and so did Minori's blood. I tried to step in, but he swatted me away, and I hit my head on a rock. I didn't stay conscious for what happened next. I'm told it's a blessing I didn't. When I woke up, they were already taking me away in an ambulance. That man—that senseless, hateful bigot—had violated her in the most ugly and horrific way. They never found him, either. They could never get justice for what we'd gone through.
"When I got out of the hospital, Minori's family made arrangements for the funeral, and they barred me from going. They blamed me for tempting their daughter, for keeping her in a childish, immature relationship. They blamed me, not the man who brutalized her. Maybe it was because he wasn't there to blame, but it still hurt me. And I knew that even twenty or fifty or a hundred years later, maybe then no one would hate a person like me, but there would still be something people found a reason to fight each other over. When Third Impact came, I felt all that just reinforced what I'd believed. So, honestly, I wasn't going to come out of that ocean. I could feel other people's hate and loathing, and it just made me so sad. What did I have to do to convince them I was a person just like them? And I thought, maybe, if I just dissipated further maybe I could give myself away to neutralize some of that hatred and loathing.
"But in the ocean, someone appeared to me. Minori, with her long, dark hair in curls. I was so happy to see her; I would've stayed with her forever, but she asked me if there were any reason I'd go back. I thought that, knowing other people were leaving, I could go back and try to help people look beyond their prejudices, but that was assuming I, a single person, could really make a difference. Minori told me I could, though, and that her passing shouldn't make me think it was impossible. It could be done. People can change their minds and think differently, one opinion at a time.
"In time, I heard about your Cult and how some people were afraid of it, but coming here, I see that there's nothing to shun or consider dangerous from you, and I realize now that someone I never even knew was encouraging me. She saw into me, saw the hopes I had for people that were almost extinguished on that night. I'm ready to pledge my devotion to Her, and to you, as Her servant."
And Ami had done just that, always keeping in mind that it was not she who had to have faith in Rei. Rather, Rei had shown faith in humanity by reaching out to her, and that was a message worth spreading. It was remarkable how much people could do when they understood others believed in them and had hope in their existence, and Maya worked every day to reinforce that message, whether in the Cult or in other ways.
#
Though Maya was earnest in her promise to be vigilant and look for followers of Eisheth, she had other obligations to tend to. The work of reaching out to those teetering on the precipice of despair consumed more of Maya's life than just her time with the Cult. She made it her life's pursuit, too, casting aside her love of science to care for those in need. Working for the city government of Tōkyō-2, Maya journeyed around town, making a two-week circuit to give aid to the destitute and homeless. While there was no shortage of living space in the post-Instrumentality world, a lack of liquidity and personal possessions made it difficult for people to assert true ownership of any space they waded into.
In a way, it made the problem of finding these people in need worse—instead of wandering the streets, they most often hid themselves from plain view. When before Impact commuters who missed their afternoon trains might put down at a net café for a night, enjoying the convenience of included food, drink, and showers, these establishments had become rife with lonely refugees from the LCL sea, victims of a sort of cyber-homelessness. Just as common were petty squatters who came to occupy abandoned homes or apartment buildings. Without steady income or support, they scrounged around for food out of sight of most people, afraid to leave lest some other unfortunate soul discovered their home and rifled through their belongings without recourse to the rule of law.
So Maya went to them. She walked her route day after day, knocking on doors and checking underneath bridges for those in need. Over the months she'd spent on this job, she'd come to know some of her charges. There was the old man Saito under the railway overpass, who fancied himself a botanist and collected all manner of flowers, weeds, and grasses. Given how thin he was, Maya worried more that he was eating those grasses instead of genuine food, but no matter how many times she gave him her business card, he merely folded it into a small, sturdy paper plane and threw it away with no small hint of amusement.
"It's better if you eat less, you know!" he'd insisted once. "The more you eat, the more all that stuff has to go through you. It's damaging. There's a reason plants don't get cancer. They don't have to eat."
As peculiar as he was, Old Man Saito was relatively well-off, though. He was active and energetic. The isolated shut-ins tended to be another story. Of particular concern to Maya that day was a pair of twin teenage sisters, Suō Yūko and Yūka, who'd taken refuge in what used to be a junior high school. Despite their lackluster accommodations, the Suō girls had managed to collect fine clothes, large televisions, and jewelry, all courtesy of their "customers" who went to the girls for "aerobics training." That the girls had been distance runners before Impact was the only scintilla of truth to this story, and Maya worried greatly over their well-being. How long could they stay independent before some thug invaded their home and insisted they work for him instead? How long could they sell themselves before an unruly customer asked for something they couldn't give and beat them into submission?
"You worry too much, Maya-san," said the older sister, the left-handed Yūka, who happily showed Maya into the redressed classroom. "Yūko and I are just fine. We get tested every four weeks. We're not pregnant. We're getting by. Yūko was just thinking about going back to school, actually. We've been putting some money together for that, a little at a time."
Maya looked Yūka up and down, from the perfect curls in her hair to her glossy red lipstick, her perfectly manicured fingernails, and the large, colorful tattoo of a leaping fish on her ankle. Yes, clearly this girl had to ration out money and save up to send her little sister to school.
"Well, I wish you luck with that," said Maya. "Any recent injuries or illnesses?"
Yūka touched two fingers to the corner of her eye, glancing away. Under her heavy makeup, the eye and socket looked pristine, but Maya glimpsed a slight inflammation in the general area.
"You covered it up," Maya realized. "Someone punched you."
"I ran into a chair."
"Is that what they're saying now?"
"Honestly, Maya-san, this isn't your problem," said Yūka, tying off a bag of trash. "Men use me for their pleasure, and I use their money for mine. It is what it is. You understand why it sucks. None of my men think I'll go Julia Roberts for them. We all understand the only good way for strangers to get along with each other is in a business relationship. That's all."
Maya pursed her lips. "I don't believe that. If I did, I wouldn't be in here checking on you."
At that, Yūka huffed, saying nothing, and Maya realized the depths of what she was fighting against. People like Yūka could be susceptible to Eisheth's philosophy. A few bad experiences could cement Yūka's misanthropy and convince her that mankind itself was irrevocably flawed.
"Right, well, it's a good thing your heart bleeds so easily," said Yūka, "or else I wouldn't have been able to take another twenty-thousand yen from my last customer in exchange for this favor."
"What favor?"
Yūka went to her icebox and picked out a can of coffee grounds. "He asked if you were the welfare agent who comes by and wanted me to keep a hold of this can for when you next came around. Just said to keep it frozen because it might spoil. Apparently it's a gift. It has a Cultist mark on it. He said you and he were both members."
Maya studied the lid closely. In the yellow plastic, there was indeed a mark, but it wasn't the Diamond and Eye that Maya knew so well. Instead, the Mark of Eisheth had been drawn in thick black marker—a crude drawing, yet the sight of it gave her shivers. Shaking the can, Maya heard only hard bouncing within, so she put out a paper towel and poured out the contents, and five round objects rolled out.
"Oh, what the fuck!" cried Yūka, covering her face and retching.
Maya shuddered, turning away, for she withered under the stare of Eisheth, delivered by the five human eyes on that rolled on the counter.
#
The followers of Eisheth—could they have been watching her? Did they know her patterns? Did they know where she and Ami lived by trailing her every day? Or did Eisheth herself give them this knowledge? Could she have been haunting Maya all along?
Irrelevant. Irrelevant. How Eisheth and her followers know about Maya couldn't have mattered less. Maya was still alive. Ami was still alive, and Maya moved to keep it that way. She called the hospital and told Ami as calmly as she could to get out of there, at least for the rest of the day. "If they could leave me a set of eyes, they could've left something much worse," Maya told her. "We need to get together and make sure we're safe."
On the whole, Ami took that news rather well. Having a gaggle of SDF members go through their apartment looking for explosives or biochemical agents just to be on the safe side was less enjoyable, even though it was necessary.
"Just to be on the safe side, the Colonel can arrange for you to work another route." That was Hyūga keeping Maya and Ami company outside the girls' apartment building while Misato's men swept the place. "As well as for you, Ami-san. A transfer to another hospital might buy some time. It really would be no trouble."
But those were small promises, and Maya couldn't feel safe or be satisfied with them. The threat of Eisheth and her people demanded more. She was an important leader in a cult with a worldwide following—the least she could do was stir up those cultists to do some good.
When Hyūga and his men cleared out, Maya and Ami returned upstairs, and right away, Maya started donning the garb of Archon Juniper once more. Rarely did she walk about in broad daylight wearing those gray robes, but it was long past time to make a statement—to be bold and be seen. She slipped on her ring with the Diamond and Eye, and with Ami at her side, she walked bravely through the town, with every passer-by as a witness.
"Is this really a good idea?" Ami asked, sticking close to Maya's heels.
"If you and I can't walk about freely, then why should anyone else? We can set an example here, an example for others to follow. They don't need to be afraid."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course." Still, Maya's pace quickened, and she took Ami by the hand to help her keep up. They don't need to be afraid because I'm afraid for them.
Fortunately, their destination wasn't far, and they could see it looming ever closer with each step. A large broadcast tower with a flashing red light at its peak was their goal, for through radio waves and focused transmissions to satellites around the world, the Cult of Lilith made its message heard. This tower was the Cult's headquarters in both Japan and worldwide. For the red beacon at its apex, it was dubbed the Crimson Eye, and the glow of that light reflected off the building's cylindrical surface and myriad windows. The tower itself seemed overcome with that light as it pulsed slowly from nothing to full brightness and back again. With that shining beacon above the city, the Cult relayed its message far and wide, and from there, Maya hoped to stir all the followers of Rei to action.
To do that, Maya called together her peers—other archons within the Cult who represented different portions of the city. As Tōkyō-2 went, the rest of the Cult would follow. Maya needed only convince these two colleagues of her goal first.
"You want to work with SDF on this matter? With the government? Impossible!"
Alas, the task was more difficult than Maya had hoped. The three archons, along with Ami as Maya's assistant, met in a glass-walled studio in the basement of the Crimson Eye tower, and while the microphones were off—they checked twice to be sure—that didn't mean the four of them were immune to posturing in front of the others. Most strong-willed of all was Archon Camellia, a middle-aged woman who had long deemed herself Lilith's most fervent follower on Earth. Her animosity toward nonbelievers was no surprise, and to Maya's discomfort, Camellia had much more to say.
"Maybe you've forgotten how police patrol the outside of this building looking for excuses to arrest us," said Camellia, pointing at Maya with the tip of a ballpoint pen. "Maybe you've forgotten how, when one misguided nut murders another in the mall or the park, we are inevitably blamed, and the police and SDF will chase down the first Cultist they can find. Even if he is unarmed and surrendering, they will beat and brutalize him to extract a confession, and they will kill him in disgust for his beliefs. If you think this doesn't happen, perhaps I must show you my son's headstone."
Maya winced. Camellia was always quick to bring up her son's death at the hands of the police as a reason to distrust them—and to distrust all outsiders to the Cult. "That was a year and a half ago," Maya pointed out. "I know there's much work to be done, but things have changed. The laws passed to protect us from prejudice and persecution are working. There hasn't been violence against Cultists in this city for the better part of a year."
"Until Lilith showed Herself," Camellia corrected her. "And then, it becomes justified to 'maintain order' and 'keep the peace.' What you must understand, Juniper, is that the government is run by people who cannot understand our faith, and as such, we have no incentive to work with them. They will only use this opportunity to undermine us when we should be strong. You say SDF believe there are traitors in our midst, betrayers of our faith who follow Eisheth instead of Lilith? Fabrication. Utter, total fabrication. Lilith's wisdom is all-encompassing and absolute. No one can deny it once they let it wash over them. Lilith is the one true God of our age. Her powers extend further than any one man or woman can imagine. We must trust that She will lead us to any perverse followers of Eisheth. I do not feel working with SDF is Her will."
At that, the last archon in the room—the pallid, gray-haired Archon Larch—chuckled to himself, amazed and amused. "And so in time, our devotion to Lilith is to become a religion unto itself," he said, his words colored by a slight accent—Maya thought it English or American, but she couldn't be sure. "Please, Camellia, I have heard such words before. In my life before I came to Japan and was stranded here in the Impact, I grew up with those words, that single-minded devotion. No good can come from it. Lilith's intentions for us were very clear. She has put her trust in Colonel Katsuragi. Why shouldn't we do the same?"
"Because Katsuragi is one woman," said Archon Camellia. "Regardless of your personal connection to her, Juniper, she does not control the whole of SDF or the government. There are people out there who hate us, and they will not see the light of Lilith's wisdom today, tomorrow, or even years from now. They are too stupid to understand the truth that is right before their eyes, and if you put your faith in them to help us, you will only be burned for it a thousand times over. Speak to our brothers and sisters worldwide if you like, Juniper. If that's the word you think Lilith wants you to spread, so be it. I will have no part in it. I will wait and gather my followers to meditate until Lilith reveals Herself to us. I know She will. Then I'll be prepared to do whatever She commands."
"What if she doesn't appear to you, Archon?" asked Ami. "We have a responsibility to do something. She asked us all to help fight against Eisheth. Don't you think She believed we could judge the situation and make our own choices how to do that?"
Archon Camellia glared at Maya. "Is this really appropriate? I thought this was a meeting between equals."
"I think Ami has a good question that you should answer," said Maya. "Nothing else matters."
Camellia huffed, rising. "It's a ridiculous question. If Lilith trusted us to make decisions for ourselves, why would She bother appearing to us in the ocean at all? Why preserve the remnants of human civilization? She knew we would destroy ourselves otherwise and fall victim to strife and panic. Lilith knows how weak and feeble we are and how we must strive to be something better. Neither you nor your pet here should forget that, Juniper. Good day."
At that, Archon Camellia strutted out from the studio, and Archon Larch, with his unnaturally blue eyes, watched her go.
"For what it's worth, I share your concern, Juniper," he said. "At the same time, I understand why Camellia is so guarded. It can be difficult to find common ground between those of us who believe and the strangers we deal with who don't. More than that, it's one thing to ask us to be vigilant, but this accusation that our own people in the Cult may have betrayed Lilith can only divide us. It may be that division is inevitable, that we truly have some misguided people who have lost faith in Lilith, but that's a difficult realization to accept. Of course, if someone has already lost that faith, it's all the more reason not to look for nonbelievers."
Maya frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Well, it stands to reason, doesn't it? There is no one who takes disappointment harder than the fervent, the fanatical believer. When someone feels betrayed by the person or being they believe in, they can easily turn to hate instead, to the antithesis of the one they believed in before. I can't think of anything more disappointing than to believe in Lilith the All-Powerful only to realize She has an enemy, a counterpart. Eisheth's very existence threatens everything some of us have believed—not you, not me, but there are others who want to believe that. To realize it isn't true is to conclude Lilith lied to them. I don't condone this view. I cannot see Lilith and Eisheth as gods. They are powerful, yes, but they have their own wants and desires, as do men. Men should decide on their own what they want. Would-be gods have nothing to do with it."
"You don't see Lilith as a god?" asked Ami. "Someone who could preserve the world while mankind made up its mind to return, who visits us and speaks to us every day, isn't a god?"
Archon Larch shrugged. "She is what She is. To insist She must be a god is to insist on terminology, on a word." He looked to Maya. "I welcome a statement from you, Juniper, on what you would have our movement do. Camellia may find the notion of cooperation with SDF offensive, but that doesn't mean we can't make a statement. Let me know what you decide."
Hobbling out on a cane, Archon Larch left Maya and Ami alone in the empty studio.
"I don't like him," said Ami. "He doesn't talk like he has any faith in himself or in Lilith at all."
Maya didn't reply. Ami could've been right, but perhaps Larch had only been making a broader point. There were people who wanted to believe, almost to a fault, that Lilith should protect them and shield them from hardship, and though the threat of Eisheth's corrupting influence was dangerous to the Cult, the doubts her presence forced on the minds of Maya's followers could be equally crippling, but she could do something to mitigate that. The Cult's message was broadcast at every hour of every day, and all Maya had to do was find a microphone. She and Ami searched through the building, finding the studio that was on the air.
"Archon Juniper, welcome," said the producer, who covered her headset microphone as she talked. "I'd love to give you a tour, but right now we're running a show, and—"
"Do you take guests?" asked Maya.
"Well, yes, of course, though usually it takes some weeks to prepare the program—"
"Can I sit in?"
At that, the producer's eyes lit up. "It'd be a pleasure! Let me get everyone up to speed, all right? It'll just take a few minutes."
After a little last-minute rearranging of the show's schedule, the producer equipped Maya with a headset and sent her in. It was a dizzying environment, full of blinking lights and transmitted chatter that only she was meant to hear, but in a way, it was frightfully similar to the control room at Nerv, where she'd had her own panel of instruments and sensors to monitor while Misato rattled off orders, Gendō and Fuyutsuki watched ominously, and Ritsuko moved from panel to panel, steadfastly looking for information to guide decisions on the pilot and the Eva's safety. Ritsuko had always been better at dealing with the abundance of data than Maya. If only Maya had learned more from her then, she'd be better equipped to dealing with complex situations.
But as an archon, she would have to cope as best she could—and help others find strength in her resolve, too.
"Brothers and sisters, we have a special surprise guest for you today," said the radio show host. "Many of you have questions and are seeking guidance, and she is here to provide. She is at the heart of our faith and movement, and I'm looking forward to her wisdom as much as you. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Archon Juniper. Archon, welcome."
Maya nodded her head, even knowing she wouldn't be seen. "Thank you so much. I apologize for dropping in so suddenly, but like all of you know, this is an unusual time, a time in which many are looking for answers and direction. That's what I'm trying to give now.
"Since Lilith appeared to us, we learned that She is opposed by Her sister, Eisheth. Eisheth stands for the opposite of everything Lilith represents. She has no faith in humanity, and sadly, she isn't alone. Lilith has brought many people back from the ocean to walk the earth, but not all of them still believe in the hope She offered. There are people who choose not to listen to Lilith. Rather, they follow Eisheth instead. I know they exist. I've seen them. I've heard their insane ravings. I know this is a difficult time—a time of uncertainty and strife—but we are Lilith's servants on Earth. As Her servants, I implore all of you to look out for followers of Eisheth. Be responsible and be wary. It is our movement's continuing mission to ensure the world Lilith helped make for us stays good. Watching for followers of Eisheth, the people who wish to dismantle it instead, is part of our duty. I'm confident all of you can do this. I'm as confident as Lilith was when She appeared to you and asked if you had something worth returning from the sea to pursue. Thank you."
"Let me be the first to say thank you, Archon," said the radio host. "I think we're all honored and proud to play such a critical part in Lilith's effort to save this world. Your words are an inspiration. Archon, would you stay with us a while? I'm sure many of our listeners would enjoy hearing your thoughts on Lilith's wishes for us."
Maya had no objection to that. She just exhaled and nodded, glad that she'd managed to stay coherent as long as she had. She'd spoken her piece; now it was time to listen to her people and give them counsel. If she could ask them to be watchful, hearing their concerns and worries was the least she could do in return, and their concerns were many indeed.
"Why hasn't anyone else emerged from the sea lately?" asked one caller. "What is Lilith doing about that?
"Why didn't She appear to us after She went on television and showed Herself to the world?" asked another. "We've served Her faithfully. Doesn't She appreciate that?"
"I heard Lilith let a man die after he was shot by one of Eisheth's goons," said a third caller. "Why would she do that? Why does she tolerate death at all? Wouldn't people get along better if they couldn't hurt each other?"
And that was just the beginning of the barrage Maya subjected herself to. While she did her best to handle herself adeptly, the nature of these remarks and the answers the listeners expected helped Maya realize something: the people on the other end of the line were going through a crisis of faith. Eisheth's existence and Rei's apparent lack of power to deal with her forced them to question all they believed in, and while the people she talked to that night honestly wanted to find relief, security, and truth, others may have already given up.
The people who expected the most from Rei could also be the most disappointed.
When Maya's time on the radio ran out, she and Ami headed home. While Ami prepared dinner, scrounging through the cupboards to find something that hadn't been thrown out as a possible hazard, Maya went to the phone in the hall and dialed.
"Yes, Hyūga? It's me. I have a tip for you. It's not much, and it may be nothing, but it could be a start. What do your people know about Archon Camellia?"
#
Based on Maya's tip, SDF and Tōkyō-2 police began investigating Camellia and her followers for signs of any surreptitious activity in support of Eisheth—acts of terror or intimidation like the eyeballs Maya found or assassination attempts on "critical personnel" to the new Eva project, whatever that meant. Being an ordinary citizen, Maya wasn't privy to most of the dangers Eisheth's followers faced, but she'd passed on her fears to the people best equipped to finding the truth. That had to be enough.
As for Maya own safety, Misato came through and had Maya reassigned to a different section of the city. Maya regretted having to leave all her old charges behind, but she left careful notes to her successor about their whereabouts, their tendencies, and how to deal with them. Still, her first few days on the new welfare route were like being fresh on the job all over again. Each new person she dealt with presented her with an experience. She heard their stories of loss or desperation. She witnessed the expressions of their malformed obsessions and thoughts. Having dealt with the same group of people for so long, Maya had forgotten how many more had left something behind in the LCL sea—a loved one, a friend, or perhaps even a part of the mind or soul. Seeing a man with a scraggly beard barricade himself in an abandoned apartment with a collection of baseball cards as his only possession was a cruel, painful reminder of that, and there were too many more examples to count.
Still, once a few days had passed and Maya had reviewed some of the files on her new charges, she was hopeful she'd get used them. The job was the same, after all, and Maya was working to ensure they all could get by in life. Yet while she was adapting, Ami had found the transition to a new hospital difficult. The commute was longer, and the staff seemed to resent having her dropped into their nursing corps out of the blue. One doctor even suggested she must've been incompetent or a screw-up to need an escape from her old position so quickly. "Either that," the doctor had said, "or you're just a bored, underqualified girl with too many connections for anyone to get rid of. If so, congratulations. I don't want you anywhere near my patients."
Ami was doing her best to prove herself a capable nurse despite this suspicion, but the confluence of circumstances around them had slowly worn her down. She'd cut her hair short on Maya's suggestion early in the week, looking forward to her weekend fling, but as the week wore on, nothing seemed further from Ami's mind. At the very least, she didn't approve of Maya tipping of SDF to Archon Camellia's opinions.
"She's a believer like we are," Ami insisted. "Even though she's never nice about it, I just can't imagine Archon Camellia betraying us. She adores Lilith."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Maya explained. "Someone like Camellia, who wants Rei to resolve everything in their life, could be disappointed that Rei isn't an all-powerful god."
"And you don't see Her that way?"
"How could I? I knew her. I worked with her. She was no perfect person. Given her situation, I don't know if she really understood what it was to be a person at all until right near the end."
Ami frowned at that, struggling. "Then as wise as She is, do you think She has a right to impose Her will on us? Do you think She had a right to speak to us and encourage us to come out of the sea?"
"I don't think that's a question of rights—only what is good. People do what they will do. That goes for Rei as well. I think she wanted to make up for the fate she forced upon all of us. I'd call that a good thing, wouldn't you?"
"Perhaps. I just don't see how you can have faith in Her if you don't think Her wiser and more righteous than us, than people. You don't even think of Her as a god, but you speak to and instruct people who do. How can you do that, Maya? Isn't that…misleading somehow? Isn't that misleading me and everyone in our faith?"
Maya blinked. "This isn't a faith, Ami. We're telling people the truth about what Rei did and how that should give them a reason to keep going."
"But you wear the robes, and you light the candles. You call Her Lilith when we're holding services, but in private, you call Her Rei instead. And now you've tipped off the SDF on another Archon. Why? Is it just because she believes in Lilith where you don't?"
Shaking her head, Maya took Ami by the shoulders, trying to calm her. Really, Ami was too upbeat—too beautiful—to be weighed down by doubts like this. Her short blonde hair and bangs spoke of a smart, strong woman, one who couldn't be defeated or broken down even if she were stripped naked and presented for all to see. "Trust me," she told Ami. "I believe in Rei's message for humanity. Every one of us can come back from the ocean and put our mistakes and regrets in the past. You and I are proof of that. Look what you've done for yourself."
"What about you?" asked Ami.
"Me?"
Ami touched a finger to the cut of her hair. "You've moved on, too, right?"
"I—" Maya's mouth hung open, and she squinted slightly. "I'm not sure what you're asking me. That's what I just said, isn't it?"
Ami looked away. "Of course. Of course! Silly me. That is what you said. Well, I should be going, right? Grocery shopping to do. I'll be back around five before going out for the evening, okay?"
"Sure," said Maya.
"Are you sure you don't want to come along?"
"That's quite all right. You'll have fun."
Closing the door behind her, Ami peeked through the gap as she left. "Well, I'll be going now."
"Be safe," said Maya.
The door shut.
Really, it wasn't an atypical Saturday at that point. Ami would fetch groceries and supplies while Maya cleaned the apartment and tended to laundry. Still, perhaps that was a good day to change the routine. It'd been a stressful week, and to give Ami space right then, even ostensibly out of respect, could've left her to wallow in her own doubts instead.
So Maya went to the closet and traded her indoor slippers for walking shoes, hoping to catch up to Ami. When there was a knock at the door, her spirits rose further—surely that was Ami coming back to ask her that they go together—but when Maya answered the door, her hopes were dashed. Two SDF officers in full camouflage gear stood outside, armed for battle.
"Ibuki-san, would you come with us, please?" asked one of the men. "Colonel Katsuragi requests your presence."
"What's happened?"
"Rogue cultists have taken an SDF officer hostage. Colonel Katsuragi wants your help to negotiate a settlement."
"How? Who could've done this?"
"We believe they're led by Archon Camellia."
#
An armored caravan drove Maya to the scene, which was blocked off from all directions by a mix of police cruisers and personnel carriers. Snipers lined the nearby rooftops, the sun glinting off their scopes. The target was a narrow townhouse with a brick façade, and by the time Maya arrived, the occupants had boarded up the windows with plywood.
"Good of you to join us," said Misato, who gave orders and monitored the situation from behind armored van. "Here's the situation: based on your tip, we inserted an undercover operative into Archon Camellia's flock. Right away, he started hearing rumors that Camellia was suspicious of SDF and was arming herself to defend her people against unjust oppression, but we think that's all public justification for her real goal: this Night of Eisheth's Reckoning that the monstrosity and her agents have planned. Based on our intelligence, we discovered Camellia had a car full of weapons sitting within just a few blocks of us, and not light weapons, either—machine guns, grenade launchers, the works. Our man was looking through Camellia's home here, making sure that no other weapons had been delivered, but somehow, he was discovered. Camellia is holding him now, hiding out with a dozen or more of her followers, and she wants to speak with you."
Maya gulped. With all these armed men, with dozens of lives on the line if she said the wrong thing? It was enough to make anyone nervous, but then, had working with Eva been any different? Just as many lives had relied on her to do her job and do it well back then.
"I'll give it a try," she said. "Whatever you need me to do."
With a solemn nod, Misato motioned to one of her men, who brought over a bulky, portable phone pack. The officer dialed, and Maya waited as it rang, with Misato intently listening over a radio earpiece as well.
The ringing stopped. "Is that you, Juniper?" Archon Camellia's voice was harsh and scratchy; it was undeniably her.
"Yes," said Maya. "It's me. I understand you asked me here."
"I just wanted to hear your voice and know it was true. You called SDF on me, didn't you? You've always been suspicious of my faith."
"I did call them to investigate you. I won't deny it. I'm here to speak the truth. That's what our movement is all about, isn't it?"
"Yes, yes, the truth gives us strength, and that is not something I'll abandon at this time. I tell you, Juniper, I did not procure any weapons. SDF must've planted them. I may be an outspoken woman, but I do not condone violence."
Frowning, Misato pressed a square, black button on the phone pack, and Maya heard a click in the receiver. "Don't challenge her," Misato advised. "Let her pretend she's noble. Keep this situation calm, and it'll all work out."
Misato let up on the button and pointed at Maya to speak.
"I know that," said Maya. "I know you don't want any bloodshed, Camellia. How do you want to handle this?"
"The SDF man I've taken refuses to admit they planted weapons here," said Camellia. "I want a public admission that SDF did this. I want everyone in the public to know of this duplicity—theirs and yours. Only then will I release their man and surrender. Make the arrangements, Juniper. I know Colonel Katsuragi is listening. She'll make it happen. You understand?"
Maya frowned. "How do you know that?" she asked. "How did you know that man among your followers was one of Colonel Katsuragi's people?"
Archon Camellia scoffed. "How do you think? Because Lilith told me so."
Click.
Her eyes narrowing, Misato yanked her earpiece out. "Rei."
Right away, Maya felt a warmth at her back. "Colonel Katsuragi."
Sure enough, it was Rei, summoned with but a word from Misato's lips. She was the image of the same sad, isolated girl as she had been two years ago, but there was a sternness about her, despite the translucence of her body. Standing beside Maya, she met Misato's gaze and never wavered in it.
"I don't imagine that was you talking to her, was it," said Misato.
"No. Eisheth has a hand in this."
"What's the situation inside? How's my man?"
"Your agent is safe," said Rei. "His wounds from interrogation are superficial."
"What are they armed with?"
"There is a cache of weapons on the ground floor, with rifles, rockets, and plastic explosives. It's hidden under the floor boards. Several of her people are armed, but Archon Camellia is not."
Misato narrowed her eyes. "Camellia's right to arm her people. She's being played by Eisheth."
"Played?" echoed Maya. "You don't think she's working with Eisheth?"
"How could she be? Why bother saying Rei told her about my man? It makes little difference to the situation right now—we have to save my man either way—but understanding what Eisheth is doing is key. Camellia was so ready to believe we were out to get her that all it took was Eisheth whispering lies into her ear to get her to do this. But that works to our advantage, too. Camellia wants a little theater? We can do that. I'll organize her little show. I'm sure the press will be eager to get involved in it." Putting her earpiece back in, Misato headed into the command vehicle, already rattling off orders to her subordinates. Only Rei and Maya were left behind.
Maya's heart sank. Perhaps it was good that she'd tipped off Misato about Camellia, even if Camellia wasn't working with Eisheth. Knowing what a hotbed of armed rebellion and dissent Camellia had built was useful, too, but still, something didn't seem quite right about it.
"Lieutenant Ibuki."
Maya flinched. "Yes, Rei?"
"You're right to say I'm not a god," said Rei. "In this time and space, where Eisheth and I both have influence, I cannot do enough. People like you will carry most of the burden in convincing humanity to fight her."
"I'm honored to do it," said Maya, bowing her head, "but do you really think I—"
She looked up, and the glowing image of Rei was gone.
Maya glanced about, baffled. "Where did she…?" No, that wasn't the right question. Why did she go so quickly? Didn't she know Maya had questions? What did she think of the Cult and what Maya had done?
Or maybe Rei wasn't interested in hearing those questions, knowing that Maya was only looking for approval in her answers.
As the sun set on Tōkyō-2, Maya waited with the combined SDF and police forces as Misato summoned reporters and cameramen to help meet Archon Camellia's demands. The shadows of buildings loomed larger with each passing minute, and the north wind was cool and brisk on Maya's face. On any other summer day, it would've been refreshing, but then and there, it only unsettled her, for the intermittent buffeting of the wind kept her from standing steady and still. Amid the silent flurry of red and blue flashing lights, the SDF and police forces waited, using their vehicles for cover and looking for even the slightest sign of a threat.
Within half an hour, a satellite van was allowed through the outer barricades. A cameraman—blonde, American, and with stubble—came out first. The reporter, with perfectly combed jet-black hair, smoothed out any wrinkles in her blouse and skirt before picking up her microphone. Misato's instructions to the camera crew were very clear.
"At any time, SDF can and will cut your feed," she said. "There will be no direct shots of the building or any of the suspects. We're just here to make a statement. Understand?"
"Of course, Colonel Katsuragi," said the reporter. "We have three waivers signed in blood just for you and SDF. Can we get moving with this? We're on the air in five."
"It'll just take me a moment to get everything in order." Misato took Maya by the arm eased her aside. "Listen," Misato told her, "you're going to call Camellia back and ask her if she's getting the broadcast. If she is, just nod at me, and we'll get started. As much as I'd like to believe Camellia's just going to tell her men to put down their arms and surrender if we put out a message admitting all blame, I really can't be assured of that. I need you to keep her distracted. Do you understand what I'm saying? The longer we can keep Camellia from giving orders in there, the better."
Maya gawked at her. "So this is all just an elaborate trap? You're not going to give her the chance to give up? She doesn't know what's really going on. You should tell her!"
"With the weapons they have? They're not interested in giving up or listening to us. If you feel differently, I understand, but I can't put too blunt a point on this: you can walk away, and I won't blame you, or you can do as I ask. Give us the advantage, and we can end this quickly, with a minimal loss of life."
Minimal loss, huh? Misato seemed to think loss of life was inevitable, and in fairness, maybe she was right. With explosives and heavy weapons in her arsenal, would Camellia really surrender herself without finding a chance to use them?
So Maya fought the empty feeling in her stomach and lugged the phone pack back onto the hood of a nearby cruiser, and when the TV team's producer came out and counted down the seconds to life, Maya picked up the handset and dialed.
"Is that you, Juniper?" asked Camellia. "This reporter seems like a shrill young woman. I tire of her already."
Maya looked to Misato. "So you're getting the broadcast?" she asked Camellia.
"Of course, of course. It will be good for people to see SDF humiliated. They cannot be trusted. Even with Lilith thinking them the last, best hope against Eisheth, someone like Katsuragi should not think herself so powerful. She should remember her place."
Meeting Misato's gaze, Maya nodded once, and Misato put a hand to her radio earpiece. "First team, the pinball is on the plunger. Launch when ready."
CRACK! An excruciating sound came through the receiver, and Maya hunched over, covering her ears.
"What on earth…?" cried Archon Camellia. "Juniper, what have you done?"
Maya winced, looking away from the face of the building. "Get on the ground, Archon Camellia. They won't hurt you if you don't struggle. Rei will see to it."
Camellia's voice went faint and muffled. "What are you doing? Where did you get those? Do you work for SDF, too?"
BANG, BANG! Click! The line went dead.
Ka-PAM! A boarded window blew out in a fireball, spraying the street below with burning splinters. The police and SDF members tightened their grips on their guns, but Misato kept a steady hand out, trying to keep her men calm. "Easy!" she called out, peeking over the roof of a police cruiser. "Second team, you're up!"
A squad of SDF members charged to the front door, and with a metal battering ram, they bashed their way inside and filed through one by one. Flashes of gunfire lit up the interior of the building, and a square of plywood boarding up a window cracked in half, opening a gap. A small, round object flew through the gap, clinking on the sidewalk. It bounced high in the air, bounding for the police and SDF's barricade.
"Grenade! Get down!"
BANG! Windows shattered, and a police cruiser lurched and titled before falling back on its wheels. Shrapnel peppered the street and nearby cars, and a deadly fragment zipped under the car Maya had hid behind, leaving a mark on the road not four inches from her leg.
Her heart pounding, Maya peeked over the roof of the cruiser once more. Snipers' bullets chipped and pierced at the window where the grenadier had been. Back at ground level, a gray figure appeared in the doorway, her hands in the air.
"I surrender!" cried Archon Camellia. "I surrender!"
"Keep your hands up!" Misato yelled back, reloading a magazine for her pistol. "Walk slowly!"
Obediently, Camellia came down the stairs, one at a time, as if one bad step might wake a sleeping giant. She kept her steady pace even as intermittent pop-pop-pop sounds of gunfire reverberated from the house.
"Archon!"
Just five strides from the circle of police cars and SDF vehicles, Archon Camellia halted. Under the shadow of smoke from a damaged cruiser, she turned back in surprise.
"Do you betray your own people, Archon?" asked a man, hidden in the doorway. "Do you leave them to die?"
"You are not my people!" she cried back. "I don't know who you are!"
"Then you will die ignorant!" The man wheeled into view with a machine gun, and a spray of bullets flew from his muzzle, and four rounds pierced Camellia's chest and torso, striking her down.
"Take him down!" shouted Misato.
A barrage of gunfire bombarded the façade, with the shots all running together in until they couldn't be distinguished from one another, like the buzz of falling droplets in a rainstorm. With all the police and SDF focused on taking down the shooter, no one went after Camellia, who coughed and twitched a hand weakly, clinging to life. Maya didn't have a gun, though, so while the others might've had a plausible excuse for their inaction, she did not. She crawled into the line of fire, staying as low as she could, and dragged Camellia to safety by the cloth of her hood, despite the woman's pained, shallow groans.
"Why?" Camellia asked weakly, staring at the twilight sky. "Why bother saving me, Juniper? To die here…" She wheezed, blood coming to her clips. "Or to die a few meters away, why?"
Maya looked away. The sight of blood made her weak and dizzy, but she took slow, steady breaths, trying to stay in the moment. "That's what I wanted to ask you," she said. "You thought Lilith appeared to you, but it wasn't. It was Eisheth, and you believed her. You believed her because you wanted this. Why did you pick this fight with SDF? To discredit them? Is that what you wanted all along?"
Camellia shook her head mere millimeters in each direction. "I did not want this," she said. "I didn't—"
She coughed, gasping for air, and a spray of saliva and blood stuck to Maya's face.
"I didn't…do this."
"Don't lie!" cried Maya. "We found the weapons, Camellia. Your own men are armed like a military! Colonel Katsuragi found the shipment in your car. Just tell me why before you can't say anything anymore."
Camellia stared at her. "I don't have a car, Juniper."
To the intermittent sound of gunfire and explosions that rattled the earth, Maya went cold. Camellia's head turned aside, and she stared along the road, into nothingness. Her eyes went empty—as empty as this operation and Maya's tip to Misato had been.
#
It took ten more minutes for SDF to mop up the rogue cultists and declare the area secure, and more than the sirens of ambulances on the way to the scene, Maya remembered the moans and cries of the wounded as they waited for help that couldn't come fast enough.
It was senseless—all of it, senseless. Eight men and women died in that brownstone, and what had it accomplished? Medics took Misato's undercover operative out in a black body bag, and Camellia had been innocent. She had to have been. Even with her dying breath, she denied having had a hand in planning for this bloodshed, and as skeptical as Misato had been when Maya told her what the dead Archon had said, even she could be persuaded.
"Sounds like you were right about one thing," Misato said after a fashion as she studied a new report on a clipboard. "The car we recovered in Camellia's name? The documents were forged and planted. Her identity was stolen just to make it look like she was involved. It doesn't explain why her people had so much firepower, but it's enough to cast doubt."
More than doubt—Maya was certain. She'd heard Camellia's surprise when her people took out guns to fight back against SDF. It couldn't have all been an act, could it? Who would go to such lengths?
And to think otherwise would be to deny the possibility Maya had been wrong. She'd pointed the finger at Camellia, suspicious of her worship and attitude, and without a scintilla of evidence or reason.
"Hey, someone must've thought Camellia would make a likely suspect," Misato reminded her, "or else they wouldn't have bothered to try to set her up in the first place."
But none of that would've mattered if she'd been more reasonable, more accepting of Camellia's worship of Rei. Even though she could never do that herself, it was no reason to worry that Camellia's faith might drive her to some ill deed instead.
When the bodies were shipped out and the scene cordoned off with restricting tape, Maya started walking for home. She refused an SDF escort, preferring to be alone instead. Her face was sticky with the spray of blood Camellia had released with her last breath. She could rub her skin clean, but a towel or rag could never wipe away the stain of what her fear and suspicion had led to.
So Maya kept walking. She walked past her apartment, knowing nothing and no one would be there to give her comfort and solace. Instead, she pressed on north and west, despite the panicked looks of passers-by when they saw her face. It was a half-hour's walk to her destination: a small bar on the corner of two minor roads, but despite the poor location, the place was alive with the smell of booze and happy chatter. Maya went to the head of the line—about twenty women long—and made for the door.
"Excuse me," said a tall, dark-haired bouncer with a ponytail, who loomed over Maya in a muscle shirt. "I don't think you should be going around all these people, Miss." The bouncer frowned, studying Maya. "…are you all right?"
"I'm sorry, it's just my friend is inside, and I need to take her back home," Maya explained. "Please? We won't be staying. I'm not trying to cut in front of anyone. It's just…something happened."
The bouncer looked down the line, and with a sigh, she stepped aside for Maya. "Hurry it up, all right?"
Maya nodded, trotting inside, and once she was past the door, she mingled with the crowd and became lost among them. As long as she didn't make eye contact with them, they hardly paid her any heed. The bartenders, with their bare arms and tight black shirts, slid bottles back and forth with flair and enthusiasm. Maya found the person she was looking for there, at a stool one from the far end of the bar. The woman stared in the mirror on the wall behind the bar, touching a finger to the ends of her hair. Maya waded through the crowd, coming up behind her, and met her gaze in the reflection.
"Maya?" Ami spun around, gaping. "What are you doing here? I thought—" Her eyes went a little wider, and she studied the red dots on Maya's face. "What happened to you?"
Maya braced herself on the edge of the wooden bar counter, feeling weak, and she sat down at the last stool. "I saw someone die today, Ami. I…I felt her as her life went out, and it's my fault. I needed to find you."
"And I'm here!" Ami assured her, taking Maya's hand. She looked back down the length of the bar, catching the eye of a bartender. "Excuse me! Can I get a glass of water for my friend here? And some towels or napkins or something?"
"It's fine, really," said Maya. "I don't mind it."
Ami shook her head at that. "It's not sanitary. Here." With a glass of water courtesy of the bar, Ami tipped the glass slightly onto a napkin and wiped down Maya's face, picking up every last trace of Camellia's blood. "That's better, isn't it?"
Maya smiled. "It feels better. It feels better being with you."
"Maya…"
There was a third voice just behind them. A woman cleared her throat. "Am I interrupting something here?"
Maya looked in the mirror, seeing a tall, graceful woman with cherry-red lips and long, curled black hair.
"This must be your roommate, right?" the woman asked Ami. "I thought I'd be meeting her pretty soon. Seemed like only a matter of time before you went back to her."
Ami blushed, embarrassed. "We're not like that. Maya here just witnessed something horrible, so she went looking for me. That's all."
"That's right," said Maya. "We're just going to go back to our apartment. We don't need to do anything else."
The dark-haired woman raised an eyebrow. "That would go with what I was told—that you two had never been in a relationship. Pretty strange if you ask me. Two women living together, who are themselves interested in women, but the topic never comes up?"
"What about it? Maybe we're just taking our time."
"The way Ami-san is, I don't think you need to wait for anything. She can get quite…excited, let's say. I was looking forward to seeing that again."
Ami squirmed on her stool, going red up to her ears. Maya took her by the hand and stepped between her and the dark-haired woman. "Why don't you leave Ami alone, hm? We're going home together tonight, and that's the end of it."
"Is that right." The woman scoffed. "Suit yourselves. Ami-san, if you change your mind, you have my number. I'll keep a candle burning just for you with the rosemary incense you like. You two have fun."
With that, the dark-haired woman touched Ami on the shoulder and left, slipping into the crowd of patrons around the bar.
"Maya," Ami asked sadly, "why did you do that?"
"What do you mean?"
"You told her off; you made it sound like we were together."
"I didn't. It's just…it's not the time. That's all. I need you, Ami. I need you now more than ever—your positivity, your faith. These are things I thought I had once, but now, I'm not so sure."
Ami looked away, her expression pained. "I'm not so sure, either, if you mean to say this to me or someone else."
"What are you talking about? You're the only person here right now, Ami."
"Right now, yes, but when you look at me, do you see me? Or do you see someone else?"
Maya stared at her—at Ami, with her short, pale, blonde hair and stringy bangs. "I…I don't…"
"Some time ago, I found a photo of her, Maya," Ami went on. "Buried in old research papers and conference minutes. She was your mentor, right? She was brilliant. I could tell that much. Is she the person Lilith made herself look like when she asked you to come out of the sea?"
Shuddering, Maya looked away. "That's very personal, Ami. I'd rather not talk about it."
"Of course. I don't mean to press you. It's just—Maya, you know almost everything about me, but you don't talk about your past. You haven't been in a relationship with anyone that I've known about. And now, the way you acted just a minute ago, the way you suggested I cut my hair, making me look like that doctor. You didn't take me under your wing just so we could—I mean, did you? So I would look like her?"
"Of course not; I promise I didn't," Maya insisted. "How can I prove it to you?"
Ami looked back at her, baffled and at a loss. Really, she was the last person who should look so lost, so confused and mixed up, and as a friend—never mind anything else—Maya didn't want to stress her anymore. What Ami needed was a genuine show of what their relationship meant to Maya, of how much Maya needed her. A token of affection shouldn't wait until the last moments before the apocalypse. That's what Maya reasoned, and if she was heartfelt and earnest enough in her deeds, then Ami would understand, wouldn't she?
So Maya leaned in and touched Ami's soft, glossy lips to her own.
But Ami's hand pushed her away. "No, Maya, don't—don't do that yet." Ami wiped her lips clean, shaken. "I need some time to think. I might go stay with my sister for a while, just to get a handle on what's happened. I'm sorry." Ami dug through her handbag and left some change for the bartender to cover her drink. She made a beeline for the door, not looking back, and Maya watched her until she couldn't pick Ami out of the crowd anymore. A pit formed in Maya's stomach, deep and hollowing.
Ami, maybe you were right.
To sustain herself for the walk home, Maya finished the glass of water Ami had ordered before leaving, and the cold ice left in the glass was a testament to how slow things change—cubes of ice or people, for that matter. Long had Maya believed in the wonders of science and technology and what they could do to improve human civilization. That fascination drew her to work with Akagi Ritsuko, a brilliant scientist whose talents were dwarfed only by the ambition of the project she was working on. And though Maya had seldom spoken about her preferences with her coworkers, it was hard to deny to herself how Ritsuko's cool demeanor and sharp intellect had appealed to her. Ritsuko was taken with someone else, though—the ruthless and cold commander, Ikari Gendō. Never mind that he was a man; what would anyone see in him? How could anyone see that man smile and not shudder for the wrongness of it?
Yet still, Maya had waited for Ritsuko—both then, in the days before Impact, and in the two years since returning. How such a strong, unyielding woman could refuse to come out of the sea—or choose to stay away from her—Maya didn't understand, and in time, Maya had hoped to fill that void in her heart with Ami's warmth and optimism instead, but she'd never forgotten about Ritsuko, had she? Her suggestion that Ami cut her hair like Ritsuko was proof of that. She'd clung to the memory of that woman, and because of that, she'd been stuck in time, trying to capture Ritsuko in Ami instead.
With these heavy thoughts, Maya returned home, finding it empty, and it might stay empty for a while. Feeling sticky and weary, she splashed her face with water from the kitchen sink, erasing any last trace of Camellia's blood, and with a heavy breath, she headed down the hall for her bedroom.
'Do you think you have hope, Maya?'
She stopped just short of her bedroom door. In darkness, the apartment was quiet and peaceful, but through the curtains in the main room, Maya spotted someone on the balcony—someone with short, blonde hair.
'If you had hope for your people, would you have cast doubt and suspicion on Camellia?'
Maya threw the curtains aside, revealing a woman in a laboratory coat. She glowed in the night, appearing almost ghostly, but she faced away from Maya, gazing over the cityscape.
'If you hoped for a peaceful resolution, why did you go along with Misato's plan? You knew there was no hope of a solution without bloodshed. It is in your nature.'
Sliding the glass door open, Maya stepped out, onto the balcony. The space was narrow, with hardly enough space for the two of them to be comfortable. Maya tried to lean out and glimpse Ritsuko's face, but shadows obscured every detail.
'If you had hope for happiness with yourself and another soul, then why have you waited to enjoy it? Why do you look for someone else in her, someone who will never return?'
A wind blew across the balcony, and Maya, unsteady on her feet, grabbed at the railing for support. This couldn't be real. How could it? Why would Ritsuko come there? How did she get inside Maya's apartment?
Maya shivered, and more likely than not, the wind wasn't responsible for it.
'You stand for hope among your followers, but you know no hope yourself. Your faith was false; it fails you. That is why all humanity must be relieved of its false hopes.'
There was a distant creaking sound, and light streamed into the dark main room from the apartment door. "Maya? Are you here?"
Maya opened her mouth, but her voice was silent. The image of Ritsuko in front of her didn't move, and an overwhelming aura of dread forced Maya back against the corner of the balcony railing. Though she couldn't see Ritsuko's face, the five black buttons on Ritsuko's labcoat caught her eye.
Buttons that shouldn't have been there.
Words that Ritsuko would never say.
A glow and translucence that, though subtle, Maya recognized. She'd seen it before with Rei, but that wasn't Rei. It was the demon herself, the harbinger of death, destruction, and doom, and her presence could only mean one of those terrors would soon be upon her.
'What do you say, Ibuki Maya? Do you see how your hope has been false and fleeting? Or do you cling to it in delusion?'
Maya shook her head. It couldn't be true; it couldn't be. Perhaps she'd deceived herself, but that didn't make all she'd worked for wrong. Maya took those doubts and bottled them away, using them to fuel not fear and loneliness but an ounce of strength instead. "Ami!" Maya cried at last. "Out here!"
The image of Ritsuko spun, facing Maya, but where her nose and mouth should've been, there was only a bony purple mask instead, fused to the skull, with stretched flesh growing at the edges. Eisheth cocked a hand back to grab at Maya, who recoiled, but though the hand went through her harmlessly, Maya's body lurched and tipped over the balcony railing. Grasping at air, Maya caught one of the thin iron shafts of the railing, but she dangled over the side, swaying to and fro in the wind. She groaned, her arm and hand stinging from the scrapes of rubbing against the concrete balcony floor, and her palm went slick with sweat, losing its grip on the smooth iron shaft.
"AMI!"
"I'm coming, Maya!" Ami slammed the glass sliding door open. "I'm—" Her eyes went wide, seeing Eisheth, but who- or whatever she saw she didn't address by name. "You can't—you're not real," she muttered. "When she saw me, she'd always smile." Boldly, she stepped right through the image of Ritsuko and reached her arms through the iron shafts of the balcony railing. "I've got you," she assured Maya. "Just climb!"
With her dangling hand, Maya grabbed at the lip of the balcony, and by her fingertips, she pulled. Ami took her arm and tugged until Maya could wrap an elbow around the bars and keep herself steady. She struggled to the railing, and with Ami's help, she climbed over, straddling the guard bar and falling to the balcony's cold floor in a heap.
"How did you know?" asked Maya, panting. "Just a few seconds later, and I would've fallen…"
"As sad as I was over what happened, I decided I had to come back and see you at least one more time," said Ami. "Whatever else we may have been or wanted to be, you've been a good friend to me, Maya. You've tried to tell the truth as you saw it. That's all any good person can do."
"You didn't know," Maya realized. "You came all on our own."
At that, Ami beamed. "I like to think that, if I'd waited too long, Lilith would've found me and told me what I needed to do. But if people make the right choices, we don't need Her guidance, do we? We only need it when we go astray."
There was a faint light in the dining room, and over Ami's shoulder, a girl in a green and white uniform stared back at Maya, ethereal and translucent. She said nothing, for nothing need be said.
"You're right," said Maya, smiling in relief. "I think we can both agree on that."
"But why you?" Ami wondered. "Why would Eisheth bother trying to turn you or kill you? I like to think we're important, yes, but we're not SDF. We don't run the Eva."
True, Maya couldn't make sense of it either. She was just having trouble standing up without feeling the scrapes and bruises from her near-fatal tumble. Still, with Camellia gone, if Maya had died, more than half of the cultists in the capital city would've been leaderless. Perhaps they would be the force rife with doubts and nihilism like she intended—there could be no more persuasive group that those who had followed Rei and chose Eisheth to worship instead. As for the rest of the Cult in Tōkyō-2, they would be embattled, fighting off such foes with Archon Larch in the lead…
Archon Larch—the man whose doubts about Camellia had reinforced Maya's own.
"It's Larch," she realized. "Archon Larch is the one who serves Eisheth."
Ami shook her head in disapproval. "Maya, please, is this really the time to point the finger at someone else? I didn't like what Larch had to say, either, but—"
" 'Men should decide on their own what they want. Would-be gods have nothing to do with it.' " Maya nodded, convincing herself. "All alone, it's an innocent remark, but you have to think, Ami: who would say that? Who wouldn't be satisfied deferring to one godlike being or another? Someone who has his own reasons for wanting what Eisheth wants. Where do you think Archon Larch is from?"
"He said he was from America. Somewhere north, I think. I don't remember."
"He isn't. He disguises it well, but I worked with a lot of them before Impact. The difference between native English and their language isn't so big, and it can be hidden, but it's there. I should've realized it sooner."
Frowning, Ami looked at Maya quizzically. "The difference between English and what?"
Maya looked past her, to Rei. "German," said Maya. "Archon Larch is German."
#
At the stroke of midnight and not a second before, Misato and her men converged on the Crimson Eye, the broadcast tower of the Cult of Lilith in the capital. They raided the building in search of Archon Larch, but they found the studios empty, with the antenna set to transmit on continuous loop. By the strength of that antenna, all the people of Tōkyō-2 could hear and see this message and pass it along to the rest of the world. Larch stood before a simple black background, a stark contrast against the sickly color of his skin.
"People of Earth, Cultists of the Grace of Lilith, what follows is only the truth: you have been deceived." Larch outstretched his arms as if to cradle his audience in them. "Lilith would have you believe that you can come from the LCL sea with dreams and aspirations, with the hope of going about life in peace and harmony with other men and women. That is a lie. The hope she offers you is false. Just today, an Archon of the Cult was killed in a firefight between cultists and the Self Defense Force, and she came under suspicion thanks to the tip of another Archon, the vaunted Juniper. Doubt and paranoia are the pests that make the human crop nonviable, and to ensure our coexistence with one another, we must bring those pests to light, so that all mankind may see them for what they are.
"In the months since Eisheth's influence became felt on this Earth, I have slowly built a following within the Cult of Lilith, and I have had little trouble doing it. My people infiltrated Camellia's ranks and planted the evidence to fuel her paranoia, and even Archon Juniper's people are not wholly pure and immune. If you are listening and are discontent with this world that Lilith has supposedly given you, you are not alone. Join me. I do not serve Eisheth. I work with her toward a common goal, for all my life, I have known how humanity in its current form is inadequate, and the only reason I came back is to tell those who need to hear it most."
Larch paused, and from offscreen, he retrieved a visor of some kind, a mix of red and white metal with plastic coatings.
"I am Keel Lorenz, and my people—Eisheth's people—are everywhere. And if this message doesn't convince you, then perhaps what happens tonight will convince you. Join us and be part of Eisheth's coming, or stand by while we expose mankind's terror, selfishness, and greed. We do not make violence indiscriminate, but it would be a greater crime to stand by while humanity continues on this course, and that is what we will demonstrate now. Lilith preserved civilization. She made it easy for men to emerge from the sea. She made it too easy. We will show you the world as it was meant to be after years lying asleep. We will do what nature could not. The time of Eisheth's Reckoning is at hand, and when you see how Lilith fails you, you must decide—will you be counted as one of Eisheth's vanguards, or will you cling to false hope, denying the truth that is all around you? That decision is yours and yours alone, but it is our duty to show you just how terrible life on this Earth can be."
POP! A distant gunshot echoed through the night.
POP-POP-POP! Three more followed. Soon, they became patternless and irregular, and Maya cringed just at the sound of them, but Ami was braver. She rose from her seat and looked out, over the balcony, peering just over the rail.
"Maya," she said, "the city's on fire."
Hesitantly, Maya followed her. Sure enough, scattered flames lit up Tōkyō-2, burning silently to Maya's ears. Without feeling the heat or hearing the crackling of wood, Maya thought it more like a decoration than a danger, and that made the sight all the more horrifying. Each flame told of followers of Eisheth—one or several—and since every few blocks showed such a shimmering light, Maya knew they were many.
There was a knock on the door, and Maya and Ami both jumped a little in fright. They exchanged glances, puzzled, and together they went to answer. Cautiously, Maya stood aside from the door. "Who is it?" she asked.
"Pardon me, Ibuki-san, it's Tsuru from across the hall. Can we come in?"
Maya opened the door, finding a woman with straight dark hair and her two children—a boy and a girl, aged five and seven respectively, who clung to their mother tightly.
"I'm so sorry to intrude," said the woman, Tsuru. "It's just—the children are scared, and I know you preach hope to people. I thought it might be good to have some company tonight, if it's no trouble."
"Of course," said Ami. "Please, come in, come in."
The Tsuru family entered, and Ami showed them to the table to sit around and rest. Ami kept the lights subdued, lighting only a small lamp at the table for them all to see each other, and Maya, still standing, looked out through the glass door to the balcony and the burning city beyond.
"So many of them," she said, half to herself, half to the group. "So many people with doubts about the world they've come back to, about the hopes they had when they emerged. You know, we're not so different from them."
"What do you mean?" asked Ami.
"We can have dreams we cling to that keep us from living the lives in front of us. They know that too, but they think that means all our hopes are doomed to fail. That's not true. I believe we can move on and find something fulfilling. I have to believe that, or else why would anyone choose to come back? It may be that we struggle with that every minute of every day, and sometimes we lose sight of how to go about it, but we have to keep trying for it. If we don't, then when we're hanging on to a ledge, looking for help, why would anyone be there to help pick us up?"
Ami nodded solemnly, smiling warmly and saying nothing. The woman Tsuru took both of her children by the hand. That was the role of the Archon—to give hope where there might be none. It wasn't about worship or prayer, merely a message of faith in humanity and the truth of the miraculous choice that had brought humanity back from the sea.
As the night went on, more and more of Maya's neighbors came by, hearing the laughter of children and the songs Maya, Ami, and the Tsuru family sang to keep the frightful sounds outside at bay. Their candlelight vigil for the city of Tōkyō-2—and for the world—grew louder and brighter with each new visitor. As the city burned and crackled under Eisheth's gaze, Maya, Ami, and their neighbors rode out the night, their vigil forming a small light of hope amidst the black void of space.
Next: Eisheth's majordomo, Keel Lorenz, orders a massive attack of terror on all mankind. Coming soon: "Assassins"
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