Author's Note: FFN didn't properly alert subscribers from the last posting, so if you didn't see an alert for Chapter 11 please go back and read that first! Thanks!
The next morning I went to Plan B, which for me would require some serious emotional stuffing. I'd have to find a way to charm the beast today, in order to get downstairs. But, I figured, if Patrick was so anxious to have some sort of connection with me maybe I could use this to my advantage after all. It would be tough but I would give it the best go I could.
From the clothes they brought me I picked out another jogging outfit, with running shorts and a green and white t-shirt. How did they know green was my favorite color? Oh, of course, my "twin" must have told them. But then how did he know?
After getting dressed I tried to figure out a way to contact Patrick. Because I was still restricted, I couldn't just try and go down there. I needed to find a way to get him up here to A Level. But maybe the best way was just to go and ask someone.
I left my quarters and started walking around the residence area where they kept me, making my way towards a large windowed area that looked like some sort of lobby. Of course, I wasn't alone and hadn't been since I arrived here, as nearly every time I left my room there was always at least one black-suited security guard following me, often a Japanese woman in dark sunglasses who I could only guess was there to keep me from going places I wasn't supposed to go. But now to the task at hand: how to communicate with Patrick.
Fortunately a solution presented itself right in front of me: as I walked through the NERV reception lobby I saw another boy about the same age as me, dressed in a camouflage uniform happily using a camera to take pictures of various things around the lobby. From my mission briefing I knew that he was one of NERV's other EVA pilots, his name was Kensuke Aida, and he was the son of a Japanese Army general. Kensuke, despite the uniform, looked anything but military: he was short, bespeckled and freckled, with wavy brownish hair, and had this very impish look on his face as he kept taking photos. Were all EVA pilots weird? I really had to wonder by this point.
After seeing the boy in the lobby I carefully approached him, Kensuke not noticing me as he was so busy with the camera until I was just a few feet away. He turned and was startled, suddenly seeing me right in front of him.
"Woah!" Kensuke said as he jumped back a step.
"Hi," I greeted him, smiling and trying my hardest to really turn on the charm.
"You must be Erin," he said in accented English that I barely understood. "You look just like Patrick!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, but a lot more cute!" He promptly took his camera and took several photos of me.
"Hey," I said to the boy while he took the photos, "I'm actually looking for him. Do you know how I can get in touch?"
"He's up here somewhere," Kensuke replied, putting the camera down. "Looking for you too, no doubt."
Well that was going to make things much easier today, "He is?"
"Yeah. I just saw him go over there," he pointed towards a small doorway on the far side of the reception lobby. "it's a stairway to the top of this building, I watched him pop in about a minute or two ago. If you hurry you can probably reach him inside."
"Great, thanks!" I moved to get past Kensuke and then make my way to the stairwell. As I hurried off Kensuke called behind me. "Hey, when you make it downstairs come and see me, will ya?" I just turned and waived, flashing a big smile and then kept going.
I made it to that staircase and nearly immediately heard voices above me, one was a girl's voice speaking in what sounded like English-accented English, and other voice was all too familiar to me already. I slowly made it up the stairs and after about a flight finally saw them.
Patrick was there, sitting on the steps and having his arm tightly around another girl. This other girl was fairly tall, with brown hair tied in twin-tails and with red-rimmed glasses, and she wore the NERV uniform. From the briefing I knew she was another pilot, named Mari Illustrious. She looked emotionally bothered, her face was flushed red. Interestingly enough I had somehow expected the blue-haired girl to be with him somehow instead of this one. Maybe he's two-timing her then.
As I walked up the stairs I was spotted by the two of them as the "glasses girl" whispered something to Patrick. The boy looked right at me, not especially so cheerful to see me this time.
"Hi, Erin."
"Another girlfriend of yours?" I asked him. He didn't even blush.
"Right now Mari's more of a sister to me than you are," he replied as they both got up from the stairs. "Looking for me?"
"I was." I stepped up to the same stair as Patrick and the other girl. "Can I have a word with you?" I asked as I shifted my gaze to the English girl. "Privately."
Patrick thought to object but then Glasses Girl spoke up and excused herself. "I'll leave you two be. I've got training I'm supposed to be at anyway."
"Will you be okay?" He asked Mari.
"I'll be alright," she replied, trying to smile wide. "I just got my two steps back, now it's time for the three steps forward."
Patrick seemed genuinely concerned about her. "Take care." Mari then gently took his hand and squeezed it for a moment, just to give him some reassurance, and then she went down the stair way as her security escort of two female guards followed her. Just as she started down she looked at me, and then looked over her shoulder and called for Patrick again. "Pats?"
"Yeah?"
"Do remember what your Angel said to you before." Patrick didn't say anything but just nodded, and they all continued downward and out of sight.
Once we heard the stairwell doorway slam shut Patrick spoke. "Okay, you've got me alone."
"Not quite." I shifted my head towards my own black-suited escort who was standing just feet away from me. I'm sure he understood my meaning.
"Unfortunately as long as we're here in the building they won't be going away," he replied. "Don't worry, they don't really care what we do or say. Heck, Rei and I…"
"…If you want to know why I'm here," I interrupted at nearly a whisper, "I'm only going to tell you and you only, and with no one else around including them."
"Unless we go to the bathroom together," he whispered back, "unfortunately we're not going to be that private."
"Do they follow you into the EVA?"
"Thank God, no!"
"Then that's where I want to go."
"Sorry. That's not going to happen until they get your security card stamped for entry past A Deck."
It was time again for Game On and I swallowed my anger, approaching him to just inches away. I tried to make myself look forlorn, girl in distress and all that, and hoping that my own charm offensive would work.
"I really need to go down there and see it. I'm sorry if I was a bit difficult before. It's just so many things going on and being out of it for so long and…"
"I get that, you know," said Patrick, his voice sounding more cheerful. "I know this can't be easy for you."
"Can you help me then?"
He thought about it for a few moments and then an idea suddenly came to him. "Go to your room and stay there. I'll be there in one hour."
"What are you going to do?"
"You'll see," he said with a smile.
Patrick had darted off from the stairway, hurrying to somewhere to set up whatever plan was in his head and seemingly very anxious to find a way to get me downstairs. Hopefully this would work. So I went back to my quarters, said on the bed and waited, unsure of what was going to happen next. The wait was intolerable and after an hour he didn't show. Had he been caught? I was angry at myself for trusting the dolt. But five minutes past an hour there was a knock on the stateroom door and I got up off the bed and opened it.
There he was, standing in front of me wearing an orange EVA plugsuit with black piping, virtually the same style as my own except the suit was cut for a boy, along with a black cap and dark sunglasses. Over his shoulder was an orange-colored duffel bag with the number "04" printed on it. Patrick quickly pushed his way inside the room and shut the door behind him.
"You're late."
"I had to make a couple of stops to make this work," he replied as he threw his duffel bag onto the bed. Reaching inside Patrick pulled out a duplicate of his own plug suit along with the same hat and sunglasses that he was wearing.
"Here's how we do it: we're going to be twins!"
As Patrick explained his plan, I initially though that this was massively stupid. Basically we would both wear plugsuits at the same time and then go in different directions in order to meet up at the EVA. As he continued with the plan I realized that there was actually a ghost of a chance this would work, as both suits were lead-lined and blocked the microchip that I was injected with when I first arrived at Tokyo-3, so I wouldn't be tracked trying to run past NERV security. I just had to fake being a boy for however long it took to make it downstairs.
Sensing that I was still very skeptical of this working, Patrick pleaded for me to have confidence in him. "Look, it's not a perfect plan but if we move fast enough they won't catch up to us until we make it to the plug. They might catch you in the EVA and bring you back but at least you get to see her again. Isn't that worth the risk?"
It sure was. "Okay," I agreed, smiling to myself that I'd finally found a way to get downstairs to the EVA after all.
To get rid of my security escort, I conjured up a task for them that they'd hopefully couldn't ignore: I needed menstrual pads, like, now. Poking my head out of the doorway I asked the black-suited female agent that NERV put on my security to help me run and get some. She promptly did so, leaving two other male agents who were Patrick's own escorts standing in front of the door.
After sending the female agent on my wild goose chase I went to the bathroom to change into the plug suit. Because it was built for a boy there wasn't a lot of room for my "womanly accessories" and it wasn't particularly comfortable on my chest as a result.
"This really pinches," I complained to the boy.
"Sorry, but if you're me you can't have boobies, can you?" Patrick replied with a smirk.
What an asshole. I just grabbed the hat and sunglasses out of his hand and then put them on, hoping that with my now short-cut hair I could be convincing in my new role. "Just tell me where to go."
Patrick gave me detailed instructions on how to make it down to the EVA cages, and as basically I was wearing nothing but a plug suit my security team would be making sure I got there as I didn't have an ID/Key card with me. Conveniently, the pilots at NERV were allowed to access their Evangelions at any time, so just before we split up he called the crew chief to have them waiting for me/us.
Once I was sure on the path and adjusted my disguise to conceal as much of me as I could, I burst out the front door and practically ran towards the elevator banks. I took me a couple of minutes to make it to the security gates first and as I got there I waited for the guards to catch up. Wanting not to be recognized, I didn't stay put but rather wondered around and otherwise tried to keep in motion as one of the two men ran his own ID/Key card and opened the gates for us. Then as soon as the doors were open I again went into a near sprint and rushed right through the open doorway.
Seeing that the security guards were struggling to keep up I decided to turn up the speed and tried to remember everything that the boy had told me about getting around the GeoFront. Even though I was rushing as fast as I could, I couldn't help but be awed at just how huge this place was, as the Geofront was inside of what looked like an underground cave literally miles across. Blue sky shown through the top as I briefly looked around and then found another passageway that took me back inside the fortress interior.
To make it to the EVA cages I had to run through several corridors and then reach another central, well-guarded elevator bank. Because I had the plug suit, much to my own surprise the camouflaged-uniformed soldiers let me right on the elevator! I quickly pushed the "close" button after giving the elevator the floor number, but unfortunately for me they were just quickly enough to catch the door with their hands to get them a push open.
While the elevator car took me far down into the interior of the GeoFront, I stood facing the wall with my back to the guards and ran through my head what had to happen next. If Patrick could get me into the EVA then I could activate it from inside and then it was going to be time to get the heck out of here but there were some big worries for me. One was whether or not this was just some sort of trick on Patrick's part, some sort of plan to get me isolated and alone and then do whatever with me he pleased. He seemed sincere, almost needy in the way he spoke, but I couldn't let that get to me: this was the boy who had killed Vance, and Dad, and everyone else. He was dangerous, and I was hoping that I wasn't his next target. I had to make it my unit however as soon as I could, and given that NERV hadn't officially cleared me yet, this seemed like the quickest way to do it.
The other part of my own plan was what to do about Patrick once my EVA was activated. After all, if it was as he said he'd be in the plug with me at least in the beginning, and I didn't want him in there while I escaped. I needed to work out a way for just me to get into the EVA and make sure he didn't make it in.
The elevator doors opened and then I promptly walked out as fast as I could. I was now on the floor where NERV kept their EVA cages, and those things were truly massive. Basically like ship drydocks for their Evangelions, each one being nearly fifty yards across and bigger than anything either at Second Branch or at SEELE's hidden mountain outpost. Jogging across steel scaffolding, I hurried as I tried to reach Unit 04's berth, passing by at least two other EVA units that were being worked on or just in repose as they stood chest-deep in giant pools of LCL. Once past the scaffold for Unit 08, I could see the familiar white-silver finish of my unit. There she was! I didn't realize until now how much I missed my EVA until I saw it again, and once I did I sprinted as fast as I could to reach the cage.
Unfortunately I got to about just the edge of the Eva cage itself when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Nearly tripping as I spun around, I saw the two escorts that I had ditched at the elevator and they were not happy at all.
"All right!" one of the two men said to me in accented English. "Joke's Over!" I tried to get away but the other agent grabbed me by the arm and with his other hand took off my hat and sunglasses. The gig was up.
Feeling annoyed, I shook off the guard's arm and then gave them both a sneer. They didn't try to grab onto me again but surrounded either side of me, waiting for their supervisor to come and get us. There was no one else here at the EVA cage other than us and three maintenance crewmen in red jumpsuits, all of whom started to approach us.
"Pilot Forrestal?" asked one of them, a tall guy with red curly hair.
"Sorry," replied the first agent. "Just a prank."
I looked around and saw my EVA, standing tall and just within feet of me. So close and yet so far away, I thought and I closed my eyes and let out a large sigh. I had failed in my goal, and now I was caught. It couldn't get much worse than this, I suppose.
A second later I heard several "pumps" and looked behind me as both of the black-suited agents immediately fell down backwards on the steel gantry. My heart jumped as I swiveled around to see what had happened, and it was then when I saw that the maintenance crew were holding their own guns.
Two of them rushed over to grab the bodies of the security agents and drag them underneath a large tarp on the gantry, while the third, the red-haired man, approached me.
"Are you all right, Princess Tiger?" he said, using the code word I had worked out with SEELE before I left the fortress.
"I think so," I said, still shaking after that sudden attack. For the second time in my life I had watched someone being killed right in front of me, and it made me feel horrible inside. Even so, EVA was right there and now the tables had turned.
"I need to get into the unit," I told the SEELE agent as I moved to open the EVA entry plug hatch.
"Not yet," he ordered, "stand there and wait. We've got to get the other one first."
What other one? Before I could ask the question I saw Patrick approach, dressed in his own plug suit and being practically dragged towards us by another black-suited NERV security agent wearing dark sunglasses. The new agent was also Japanese and was very tall and gruff-looking. I grabbed my own hat and sunglasses up off the deck, knowing that I might need them again very soon.
Patrick shook off the bigger agent's arm and then ran right up to me, a sorry look on his face. "Sorry you got caught," he told me. I didn't reply back but I couldn't calm myself down and still felt myself shaking. I knew what was about to happen: the boy was going to die right in front of me, and while it was what I had wanted something started to bother me about the whole thing.
He was about to say something else when Patrick took a good look at one of the red-clad men that were behind us on the gantry, noticing something unusual about him. I watched as Patrick's eyes went up in surprise. "Hey!" he called out at the technician with red hair. "You're not my crew chief!" The black-suited agent who had come down with Patrick suddenly reached for his gun inside of his jacket.
Before he could do anything else, the red-haired infiltrator produced a pistol and came down hard on Patrick's head with the butt of the grip. As that happened, I clenched my fists and shut my eyes as tight as I possibly could: I had already seen two people get killed today, and I didn't want to see it happen again, even to the boy I hated. There was the bangs of several shots and I could hear bodies and other objects hit the steel gantry, and there was an overwhelmingly acrid smell of gunpowder. The echoes of gunfire faded and I kept my eyes shut for a few more seconds then slowly opened them, afraid of what I would see. On the floor next to me were four bodies, one of which was Patrick in his plug suit.
I looked at Patrick down below me and didn't see that he had any bullet wounds, and then noticed that he was still breathing. Something inside of me felt relieved that he didn't die, even though I wanted him dead so badly.
The survivor of the gun battle, the big man with red hair, pointed to me and then to the EVA's entry plug. "Get Inside!" he shouted, "I've already given the signal. The other one will be here any moment!" By that he meant Weird Creepy Boy, the one called Kaworu, would be coming with Unit 06 to help me escape.
As I shook my head and tried to get myself to focus, I saw that the SEELE agent picked up an unconscious Patrick up off the floor and carried him over to Unit 04's entry plug. As he hurried, part of his hair shifted and it was then I saw that the red hair was a wig, and that the agent had worn a disguise. Much to my surprise, the man tossed Patrick inside of the open hatch of the plug.
Oh no, this was not in the plan. "Why is he going in there?" I asked.
"Orders," he curtly replied. "You get in there, NOW!" he practically barked at me. Well, he didn't have to tell me to get inside and I quickly hopped through the hatch and back inside my own EVA.
The inside of Unit 04's entry plug was exactly as I remembered it, and for the first time in a long while I breathed a long sigh of relief. I was home again, finally in familiar surroundings. I saw on the floor of the plug Patrick's unconscious body, crumpled up on his side and oblivious to what was now happening. Should I tie him up or something, I wondered? But he looked pretty out of it, and I knew I didn't have time and didn't want to risk waking him up by moving him.
Time to get moving. I jumped to the Throne seat and immediately grabbed the hand actuators, popping off the cover of one of them to reveal the keypad. Dad had installed a few extra features in our EVA units, things that he said the Japanese units didn't have and one of them was a control-lock out feature. It wasn't a simple matter of just flipping a switch, but using the keypad on the actuator I could find out if NERV had a remote control over the entry plug. After about a minute of searching through programs using one of the smaller video displays in the entry plug, I found out where the NERV software was installed and them promptly wrote a short but sweet script to force a command loop. Smiling to myself at being able to get that done, I was now in complete control over my EVA and everything was going to be just the way it should be.
For the next few moments I waited, careful to put back on the hat and sunglasses Patrick had provided me with. If Weird Boy attacked with Unit 06, then NERV would naturally call out all of its other EVAs to respond and here I was, all ready to go. All I had to do was wait for the alarm to sound.
It took a few minutes but finally alarm klaxons were heard all throughout NERV. Inside of my entry plug, I grabbed my actuators nervously and waited in anticipation. Would they find out who I was? With Patrick actually in my entry plug, I realized this increased my chances of getting out of here as they wouldn't find him on the outside and wonder who was piloting Unit 04.
Finally the screens on the wraparound entry plug display fully came to life and the EVA started through its activation phase. There were voices in Japanese all around the audio, I guess checking off different steps in the launch process. But on the throne I just sat silently and waited, closing my eyes and trying to concentrate on the EVA itself. Would the ghost show up again this time? I dreaded seeing that again and hoped that it wouldn't be coming back today, or ever again for that matter.
I looked up at the screen above me as a warning was displayed: ACTIVATION FAULT. That had never happened before now. What did these jokers do, break my EVA unit? I closed my eyes again and kept focusing all of my mental energy on the EVA. Through my brain I ran through every strong thought I could think of, parsing through memories of Mom and Dad, of Vance, of anything that I ever did that was wonderful, from birthday parties and gymnastics, and Doctor Foch's cookies and everything else I could think of. After a few tense seconds I heard an electronic ding and opened my eyes. On the display was "EVANGELION UNIT 04 ACTIVATED." Hurray! One more step forward.
A display reading to my left read SYNC RATE 12.31% and I knew it was poor but I guess being stressed and out of it probably left me a bit weaker than before. No matter, I could still pilot. The whole wraparound display went through various schematics and then showed me the exterior of where I was in the EVA cage. Suddenly a video call screen appeared, on the display was a Japanese male NERV officer with glasses. I turned my head slightly so he couldn't get a good look at me.
"Forrestal?" he asked in English. "Are you feeling okay?"
I tried to disguise my voice to make it deeper, so they'd think I was Patrick. "EVA-04 ready for launch!"
There was a long pause before the NERV controllers gave me any instructions, and in the meanwhile I could hear the audio chatter mention that there were two other units, EVA-01, and EVA-08, that were both being activated elsewhere around the cages. On a smaller call-out screen on my display there was an image of something that had just dropped in the middle of the GeoFront interior, something that I knew might be my ticket out of here. Trying to keep myself calm, I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on just the EVA and nothing else.
"Boys Team!" called out a voice on the audio. "Units 01, 04, 08, move into the interior, now!" Now was my time to get out of the cage, as an elevator slowly pushed us upwards towards the surface level of the GeoFront's spacious interior space. The other two EVAs that were in my "team" were also being pushed forward along other ramps, and within a minute we had reached the inside. I looked all around me, now appreciating just how large the interior of this place was, as even the EVA looked small compared to what was above me. At the very top I could see the large, torn-out opening of the dome and in the center of that was a EVA-sized blur that was hovering just a few hundred feet above NERV's HQ pyramid.
Seeing movement below me I looked downward and saw a mechanical conveyor track over and open up its compartment, revealing a Pallet Gun intended for my use. I immediately picked it up and then moved a few more steps into the interior. Checking the gun, I saw that it was loaded with fifty rounds of live ammo, and was armed and ready to go but that the safety was on. I kept the safety on but started working on where everyone was placed in the Geofront, in case I had to shoot my way out of here. My heart was beating fast and my breathing was hard. Feeling horribly nervous, I just swallowed and tried to maintain composure. After all, I was supposed to be my evil "twin" for the next few moments.
The hovering blur got closer to the ground and moved towards the black pyramid, and then Admiral Vinson's voice was heard on the audio: "Boys team, move into position surrounding the unit and close to five hundred meters. Hold your fire until we get a firm idea on what's going on here."
I could hear the other pilots' voices on the speakers. "Yes, sir!" said two others in accented English. But I didn't reply. I didn't want to give away any chance I had. Instead I just quietly thumbed off the safety on the Pallet Gun and waited.
On my cockpit audio came another voice, this one from the pilot of the EVA unit that had just intruded NERV's airspace. It was Kaowru, sounding smugly confident. "Greetings to NERV and the Alliance," he said.
The Admiral's voice came back in reply. "Who the hell are you?"
"This is Evangelion Unit 06," said Kaworu, "which I am now surrendering to you." That threw me off a bit. Surrendering? I'm pretty sure that's not what he really had planned.
"That's very appreciated," said the admiral with a skeptical tone in his voice, "but I'd like to know whom I'm speaking to."
"All will be revealed to you very soon, but I will only surrender this EVA to the boy named Shinji Ikari."
It was a trap, I knew, and I stood at the ready, prepared for anything. My EVA's finger was on my trigger, and I watched and waited with agony. I really just wanted to get the hell out of here. Then through the audio, I could hear one of the other pilots, Shinji Ikari the pilot of Unit 01, start crying with emotion. "K-K-Kaworu?! You're alive?!"
"Shinji, come to me! Come to me now."
I watched on the display as the purple-colored Unit 01 dropped its gatling gun and then ran like a moth entranced by flame, towards the blurred object right in front of us, both of it's arms reached out wide-open. Well that was completely unexpected I thought, figuring that apparently I had really missed out on a lot of history while I was away. What would happen next?
"Forrestal!" I heard the Admiral's voice on the speaker, "Get your goddamn act together and grab Unit 01 before he does something stupid. Now! Forrestal! Forrestal?" But again I didn't reply, knowing any second now the trap would be sprung.
Unit 01 moved at a full run just to within arms's reach of the blurry image in the center of the GeoFront, and on the speakers I could hear shouting as several of NERV's controllers and other screamed at the boy to warn him off. Just as the EVA made it to Kaworu's own unit, the forcefield around him changed colors and extended further outward.
The admiral had lost his patience. "Unit 06," he demanded, "withdraw or shut down immediately or we will engage you as a hostile target!"
"As you wish," came the boy's voice and immediately the forcefield disappeared, revealing the blue-colored EVA. From the back of the EVA came something else, a glowing blue tentacle of light that started waving around like a long whip. For Unit 01, Kaworu's EVA grabbed it with its right hand and then pulled out this large spear-looking thing from its back with it's left hand. The sight of it freaked the NERV controllers out immensely.
"It's the real Lance of Longinus!" Maya Ibiki's voice came on the audio. "Shinji-kun! Don't go near him!" The warning came too late, and Unit 06 took the spear and thrust it right into EVA-01's left side. The screaming voice of the pilot filled my audio.
The silver-haired boy didn't mess around, as now Unit 01 was paralyzed and collapsed on its knees right in front of us. Almost immediately guns and missiles from firing positions all around the GeoFront's interior lashed out at Unit 06. There was a ring of blasts all around '06 as it used its own force field to defeat all of the incoming attacks, and then it sprang out in a widening circle of blue light that stretched all around the outer perimeter, striking nearly everything around it. There were explosions everywhere, and I had barely remembered to get up my AT Field just before I could feel the shockwaves around me.
Over the audio I could hear shouting of orders from the NERV commanders, to me and to the others to try and marshal up a response to the intruder in their midst. They continued to call for Unit 04 but I still kept quiet, shutting my interior video camera down but keeping focused on the screen, looking for our chance to escape. In the background of the audio I also heard the continuing, terrifying screams of the pilot of Unit 01, as whatever the spear was doing to his EVA was hurting him as well.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead and tried to keep my mind on what was happening. What was I supposed to do now? Fight, run? No one was giving me orders, it was up to me to figure it out. NERV still hadn't suspected who I really was yet, but I felt like it might happen soon. If a move needed to be made it was now. On my video display I saw the green, black and white colored Unit 08. Instead of running away or taking cover, he instead ran the EVA towards the gatling gun that Unit 01 had dropped and picked it up, and then began charging Unit 06.
"Hold on, Shinji!" the boy piloting EVA-08 shouted through the audio, "I'll save you!"
As he grabbed the cannon, I could see Unit 08 right in front of me, and my EVA's tactical display put a target marker right on it. In my EVA's hands was a Pallet Gun, fully loaded with live ammo. I knew I could take him down any moment I wanted. I could shoot him and then join up with Unit 06 and then I'd be home free from there. Grasping the actuators, I concentrated on the target. It would be so easy, with his back turned to me all I needed to do was use a short burst to take him down while his AT Field was focused towards the front of him. Then run over and finish him off while he was on the ground before he could get up again. I had done it before, in simulations dozens of times, and I had watched Vance do it to targets with savage efficiency. Holding the grips tightly, I focused on the target and waited for just the right moment.
Unit 08 fired the gatling gun right at EVA-06, blowing all of his ammo in one long blast as hundreds of bullets bounced off of '06's AT Field. Whoever this kid was he really didn't know how to fight. Who was that pilot anyway? Unit 08 was one of the recovered Mass Production series that had been recycled into a pilotable EVA by NERV, I remembered from my pre-mission briefing. It's pilot was Kensuke Aida, the same boy I had run into at A Deck while I was looking for my so-called twin brother. He had taken my picture like I was some sort of model while I was searching for Patrick, and to me seemed kind of nice. And now he was in front of me, locked in combat with my ally, with my crosshairs right on him.
No, push it back, I told myself. This is war. These people killed Dad and Vance and all of those other people back home. It's time for payback, it's time for…
My breathing got heaver and then I felt something, something I hadn't felt for a long time. There was a sort of feeling that weighted on me and I couldn't tell if it was from within the EVA or just inside of me, but something held me back. I didn't move the gun up to shoot. I couldn't. I could do a lot of things, even a lot of bad things, but this I couldn't do. NERV hadn't discovered who I was yet, as on the audio I could still hear people calling for Patrick and Unit 04 to help in the battle. I knew that I was in a perfect position to exploit their weakness and royally screw up things for them. But I wasn't going to shoot a teenaged boy in the back, no matter what he was doing. There wasn't much difference between me and him, I knew, so what could I do? I didn't know, so I just stayed stationary and waited for something to happen.
The gatling gun had run of ammo, so Unit 08 dropped it and tried to rush towards '06 to free his captured friend. Kaworu's unit then pushed out a new force field, one that kept Kensuke and his own unit from getting much closer. I could hear the pilot on audio feel as he struggled to close with his enemy, and now there was another pilot on the battlefield as the green-colored Unit 05 entered from one of the side gates of the GeoFront's interior. My gaze shifted towards the blue light forming again from the back of Unit 06, and I saw the glowing tentacle slender itself into something that looked like a stinger. Over the audio came the other EVA pilot's voice, screaming loudly. She had a British accent, just like that crying girl in the stairway, and I knew who she was.
"Kensuke! Forget the field, just get going now! Run away, damn it! KENSUKE!"
But the girl's warnings came too late. Before he could react, the blue stinger plunged right through the center of his EVA. There was a blinding flash and a blast wave that filled the whole space of the GeoFront, and I kept up my AT Field and closed my eyes as we shook with the explosion.
A few seconds later I opened my eyes again and saw a fiery cross emerging from the wreckage of what used to be Unit 08. It had been utterly destroyed. The boy, Kensuke, was dead.
Oh shit, I thought to myself, what I am doing here? Was this what Piotr's warning was about? Kids killing kids? Oh God I just want out of this mess. I didn't' sign up for this I…
A video screen opened up on my display, as somehow the pilot of Unit 05 had been able to get through my own firewall while she fought with Unit 06. "Patrick!" she shouted at who she thought I was. "What the hell's wrong with you? Why are you just standing around?" Still I didn't reply, but I knew how angry she was having watched while one of her friends had been butchered right in front of her, while I just stood idly by and did nothing. Finally facing the video call screen I looked right at her without taking my sunglasses off, and finally she knew what had really happened.
"Oh, no!" gasped the girl on the screen, genuinely surprised by her realization of who I was. Using my keypad in the control actuator arm, I turned off the video call and then quickly re-coded it to prevent another intrusion. I had been found out.
Instead of attacking me however, Unit 05 was instead struck by Kaworu's light tentacle and one of it's legs was sliced off as LCL sprayed all around. The Evangelion itself screamed with a horrible howl but then did something I had never seen EVA do before, it transformed into an animal resembling a misshapen three-legged beast.
Could EVA do that? I was horrifying to see it twist and transform like a werewolf right in front of me. What was really going on? I froze in fear, my hands gripping the actuators tightly but I was unable to do or say anything else except watch the battle in front of me.
The green beast that Unit 05 had become charged '06 in fury, racing towards it as it howled. She got to within just beyond arm's reach of the enemy when EVA-06's tentacle again swiftly found its mark and sliced the whole thing neatly in two. I saw from where I was standing that the entry plug started to fly out of the back of the EVA, but then the blue tentacle of death came back for one more swing and sliced up what remained of the EVA. The explosion filled my screen and I felt the shock wave push against my EVA again. I closed my eyes, holding on tight and not sure of what else I could do except just stay here.
When the blast wave cleared I could see another cross-shaped plumb of fire right in front of me, the pyre on which Unit 05 had been burned. Standing not far away was Unit 06, unscathed by the battle, and with the collapsed Evangelion 01 laying at its feet. All around us the interior of the GeoFront was a field of fires and explosions and acrid black smoke. Expecting to be attacked myself, instead my unit remained standing in the midst of it all.
A voice came over the audio, crackling with disturbance. It was Admiral Vinson, and he spoke in a grave tone.
"Forrestal," the Admiral said over the speakers, "I don't know what the hell your problem is, but you just saw two of your fellow pilots get sliced to pieces by that enemy in front us. Right now you're pilot Ikari's only hope. Get over whatever your problem is and go after him. That's a direct order!"
Someway or somehow NERV still didn't realize that I wasn't actually on their side, and even now they were calling for our help. I looked down below my control throne and saw the unconscious body of Patrick lying on the floor of the entry plug. Idiot, I thought, you missed your chance to save your friends.
"Forrestal," Vance's father's voice came over the audio. "Do it now or you're through!"
I guess he was right about that as another voice came over my speakers, this one was much different, and spoke in an indifferent tone. "Time to go," said Kaworu. I breathed a deep sigh of relief, wanting nothing better than to get out of here. Snapping out of my battleshock I ran the EVA right towards Unit 06 at full speed. As I moved closer to it, Unit 06 produced an energy field of glowing blue light and quickly expanded the sphere close to where I was. Within another second I only saw blue light all around me as I stopped moving my EVA. My display went haywire as text and graphics screamed in random directions all around. I could feel the EVA being lifted off it's feet however, and knew this must be what the Chairman had said about Unit 06 being able to get us away. I leaned back in my control throne seat and breathed out air slowly, then took my hand and wiped off the sweat from my forehead as I finally removed my hat and sunglasses. Frustrated and still scared I threw the sunglasses towards the display, watching as they floated towards the screen in front of me. This was not what I had ever expected EVA piloting to ever be like.
The journey back to SEELE-2 was short and uneventful, as within maybe a minute we appeared right above a giant hanger door in the mountain that was SEELE's base. For the first time I could see SEELE-2's home from the outside. The peak was sharp and looked like a blade cutting into the sky, the mountain itself appeared as black granite covered with patches of snow. It wasn't as picturesque as Mount Fuji, but instead it was dark and ugly as I'd ever seen any mountain be. Appropriate, I thought.
Unit 06 let us float down in his blue bubble sphere until we finally landed somewhere near SEELE's EVA cages. Controllers called to me and directed me to one of the open berths, and I maneuvered Unit 04 to nestle within the dock until it was plugged back in. As soon as the entry plug was pulled out I got out of my chair and rushed towards the exit. Along my way I looked at the unconscious Patrick just lying there against the entry plug wall, not sure how to feel about him. Exhausted, I left him there and then burst out of the open hatch once it was opened.
While I wasn't really happy to be back at SEELE-2 I was certainly relieved. Nothing had really gone as I expected, and all I wanted to do now was sleep. Kraus was waiting for me at the gantry but I just rushed past her on my way back to my cabin. I didn't want to talk to anyone.
Once in my room I practically tore off my plug suit and put my naked self in the shower, pushing the water as hot as it would go. Maybe it was me or maybe they just ran out of hot water, but I shivered inside underneath the spray while I tried to clean up. I had seen more death and horror than I had ever wanted to see before, and hoped at least the shower itself would transform me back into something more normal. But I felt cold, and I kept feeling cold and I couldn't stop myself from feeling cold no matter what I did.
The image that fixed most in my mind was Unit 08, and watching as Kaworu's tentacle of deathly blue light had sliced right through the center of him. Kensuke Aida had just been trying to save his friend and he died for it, right in front of me as I stood and did nothing. No I didn't kill him, but I didn't really help either.
Kids killing kids. Was that what EVA really was? My heart sunk as I finally felt myself drift off in my bed. I was a part of this now, but I felt dirty.
I was so exhausted from the whole experience of going to Tokyo-3 and getting my EVA back that I didn't really wake up for about two days. I just spent the time in my cabin, mostly on my bed just lying there. My mind went into complete neutral, barely getting up except to go potty or drink something.
In the end I had accomplished what I had set out to do: I had taken Unit 04 from those who had stolen it from us, and then got revenge on those who had done it. Well, I'm not really sure how much revenge it was, it wasn't like I was the one who had set NERV on fire after killing off all of their EVAs. But I had helped make it happen.
Furthermore the boy, my so-called twin Patrick, had been captured and brought back to SEELE for what I was sure was going to be an unpleasant ending for him. I had expected that they'd just shoot him back at Tokyo-3, and while I didn't want to see anyone die, if anyone deserved that it was Patrick. Vance, I got the boy who got you, I got him pretty good.
None of this was very satisfactory for me however. Sure, I had my EVA back, but I was still living in the hollowed-out inside of a mountain like some mole, surrounded by people that were either weird, scary, or both. Where would I go now? I still had no home, no family. Just little ol' me and my EVA.
As I kept thinking of everything I tried to put in mind all of the people I had done this for, Dad, Vance, Jan, and all of those others at Second Branch. I tried to think about the happy times I had spent with all of them. But it was hard, hard because images and sounds from that last battle inside the GeoFront kept seeping into my brain. The screaming of Shinji Ikari over the audio when Kaworu had stabbed him with that big spear of his, was haunting. Then when Unit 08 was penetrated by that big blue tentacle of death. The pilot had died almost instantly, the boy named Kensuke, who was only trying to save Shinji. And finally seeing the green EVA piloted by the British girl get sliced to pieces. Well, I told myself, at least I was on the winning team. Otherwise maybe it would have been me who they'd be picking up off the GeoFront floor with a sponge. But I didn't feel good about it. I didn't feel good about it at all.
Finally dressing in something warm and getting out of my cabin I walked along the gangway searching for Victor, who was at least the one person here I could sort of rely on. He was standing at the end of the hallway close to the elevator bank.
"Welcome back," he said in a gruff voice.
"Where are they keeping the boy?" I asked him directly. I was in no mood for anything pleasant and had decided that I wanted answers.
"If you're meaning Patrick Forrestal, he's in a cell several decks below us."
"I want to see him."
Victor didn't at all seem surprised. "I thought you might."
The guard took me down the elevator and then to the security level where they kept Patrick. In front of his cell door there was another guard, who Victor motioned to and then the narrow steel door was opened up. The two of them waited outside as I went in.
The cell itself was part of two rooms, divided by a concrete and rock wall, both of which looked like it was dug into the mountain itself. There were no windows at all, only a single plexiglass wall facing the outside. There were about half a dozen moving security cameras facing both cells to keep an eye on things. The further cell was empty, but the near one had one inhabitant. Patrick was sitting there against the far wall looking out towards the front. He wore grey-colored prison pajamas, and looked cold and miserable. Good.
I just stood there in front of him, this boy who had given me so much trouble. Finally something horrible had happened to him, and while I was happy for at least some form of justice it didn't bring me any closer to knowing why he had done everything he had.
Patrick looked at me from where he was seated on the floor. He didn't move, but just spoke to me from there.
"Happy?"
"Oh," I replied, matching his sarcasm. "I'm ecstatic. I only wish it was you and not the other boy who had died." He grimaced a little. "Then that makes two of us."
This was driving me crazy, and I walked around in frustration, not sure if wanted to scream at him or just open the cell door and strangle him. Shaking my head to get my mind clear, I stepped up to the plastic wall. "Just tell me why you did it!"
"What, you mean NERV-2?"
"Yeah. Why did you blow it up like that? Why?"
He cocked his head a little. "Well, if you must know it might have had something to do with being lied to and being kept from your family, having your best friend killed, and then being tied up and thrown in a cell like this one for two weeks. After all of that and then hearing that Dad wanted to, you know, go and let the Angels bring the world to an end and all, the last thing I wanted was to let Dad have an EVA all of his own. I guess the EVA agreed with me."
Oh, God not this again. "There you go again about the EVA! It's just a robot, you idiot!"
"And you call yourself a pilot. The one time she talks to you straight up and you freak out."
"That's not what happened!"
The boy stood up and then moved to the wall, putting himself now inches away from me. He looked at me intently, his gaze piercing inside. "So do you remember it, then? Before you blacked out?"
I hated it when he did that and I backed away from the glass. "Nothing, that's all! Nothing happened! I just blacked out!" But he knew, from that slight smile of his on his face. He knew about the ghost.
Before we could get any further the outside cell door opened. Inside came Chairman Kiel, being pushed in his chair by Piotr and followed by several guards. I hadn't checked in with the Chairman since I had returned, just not having the energy to deal with everything that had happened after my return to the fortress. In any case I was relieved that at least I wasn't in here alone with Evil Twin Boy behind the glass. As he wheeled the Chairman in, Piotr avoided looking at me, perhaps not wanting to give away what had happened before I left.
"Miss Forrestal," the Chairman called to me as he approached. "I need to speak to you."
"Yes, Grandfather?"
"Did you find our operation to recover the Evangelion to your liking?"
I smiled, at least pleasantly surprised someone appreciated me here. "I'm glad to have it back, although I don't know why we brought the fake pilot back" I answered, nodding to Patrick behind the glass.
"I'm gratified that we could return it to its rightful operators," he said to me as the guards fanned out around the prison room, "I do have one issue with you however and that is this: why did you disobey our orders during the recovery mission?"
"What do you mean? I thought I played it along pretty good."
"That you were able to gain the trust of those within the rogues in order to gain access to your EVA was commendable, but once in the EVA and when Unit 06 arrived you were instructed to attack the other NERV EVAs as they engaged Unit 06. Why did you not do so?"
Seriously? It was hard to take what the Chairman was telling me. "Why bother?" I told him. "Your pilot pretty much wiped everything out!" Which was true, as Weird Boy had pretty much laid waste to everything at NERV.
"That is not the point," the Chairman continued. "It was essential to the operation's success that you use the EVA to engage the other units and destroy them. EVA-04 was considered a friendly unit to them, any attacks you conducted would have had immediate success."
Frustrated with the unwarm reception I felt like I was not getting anywhere with this. "Look," I replied back as I worked to try and keep down my anger. "I just wanted my EVA back. I didn't sign up for shooting other kids in the back."
Unfortunately Kiel wasn't particularly happy with my responses. "You were instructed before you left to follow our orders to the letter."
"Hey, do you know what it was like to have to go through everything I did for the last week?" I argued. "I should get a freaking Academy Award for playing along like that, and it got you the EVA. Besides, your pilot pretty much creamed everything he ran into, having me out there would have just gotten in his way." Jeez, give me a break.
"I see that you feel that our commands are subject to your interpretation. It was important to our goals that NERV understand that EVA-04 was not to be trusted. It's not your position to judge this. If you wish to continue piloting her you must do as we say!"
Yeah, right. "Or what? You're going to get another pilot? According to what Father told me I'm the only one who can really pilot it, you know."
For a small moment the Chairman was quiet, then he looked at me again, speaking with a grave voice. "Fortunately for me I have an alternative to dealing with a spoiled brat such as you." He then snapped his finger and pointed at me. From behind two of the guards that had come in the prison with him suddenly grabbed me by the arms.
I struggled as hard as I could but the men simply had too much strength and control over me. Panicked, I screamed for help but nearly as soon as I did so one of them put a cloth around my mouth and head and pulled it very tight, while the other one pushed me down on my knees. They then both put handcuffs on my hands behind me, binding me so tight it hurt.
What had just happened? Here I was the hero of the day, infiltrating the bad guy's lair and charming and tricking my way into getting my EVA back, and now suddenly I was bound and gagged. I feared for my life, in fact I don't remember a time when I wasn't more scared than I was right now, including the time I nearly got molested down below. I looked towards the prison cell and saw Patrick. He was now standing up against the glass, his eyes wide open in emotion. He clenched his fists and shouted at Kiel. "Hey! Don't hurt her!"
On the base of my neck I felt cold steel against my skin. A gun, pointed right at me. Something had gone horribly wrong and now I was going to die for it. My whole body shook and I felt tears streaming from eyes, tears from the fear, and tears from pain I now felt.
Kiel swiveled his wheelchair to face Patrick behind the glass. "If you wish no harm to come to your sister," the Chairman told him flatly, "you will do exactly as we say without any reluctance or resistance. Do you understand me, boy?"
Patrick looked at me and our eyes met, and perhaps for the first time I realized just what might really be going on. Then he returned his glance to Kiel. "Yeah, I get it" he spoke in a determined voice. Kiel then ordered Patrick to pilot Unit 04, using me as his security collateral.
"If you do not follow our orders precisely as we give them to you your sister will die," the Chairman instructed Patrick. "There will not be another warning. Is this understood?"
"Yes."
The Chairman then motioned to his guards. "Remove him from the cell." As they opened up the door to grab him, the two guards that were on me took off the handcuffs and pulled the gun away from my neck. While I was relieved to not be immediately executed, it didn't last long as my parka was stripped away from me and I was thrown into the empty cell.
Just as they were pushing me inside I could see Patrick as they pulled him away and towards the opening. He looked at me, not with anger or fear but with worry. I only got a glance before was dragged out of the prison but it only took one look from him to know how wrong I had been about everything.
Welcome to the next installment of The Other Side of Me, and now we've gotten to the "good stuff" as it were. Most of you have read The Awakening already and knew what was coming, but seeing it from Erin's perspective gives you a very different side of the battle and aftermath. She's quite conflicted between anger and conscience, annoyed with the strange boy that was intruding into her dreams but also feeling terrible about what she's doing with SEELE. Unfortunately she's found the answer she was looking for, and it wasn't at all what she expected.
Next installment in about 2-3 weeks. Enjoy!