Chapter 3: And His Arms Stood Ready to Embrace
I've found myself looking up at my wall more often now. Seeing as I'm one of the lucky few to get her own space, I've dominated one wall with all the sticky notes I've had written by people as I've given them one with my name.
My sticky notes, all of them given to just about everyone I've actually talked to. There are some I haven't caught yet, but even still. It's a big ship. It's going to take some time.
I can't stop looking at Daniel Theisman's sticky note. The cheery note that he left on my copy as I gave him mine. I can't stop thinking about what he said about Shinji Ikari. The boy that ended my world. Whose actions took my family.
I've hated him for that. Now, though, with the confusion and the brokenness of him that Daniel described… I can't help but wonder if he should get a sticky note too, sometimes. Maybe he needs some cheering up as much as we do now. Maybe... it's time to start really trying again, after all that's happened.
- From the personal journal of Midori Kitakami
AAA Wunder, February 2nd, 2028
Daniel stepped out of the bunk room into the empty hall, pausing in the doorway for a moment to take a deep breath as he stretched. Hamar'ramah hadn't visited him again yet, but… the night had not been a restful one.
His Interfacing had kept him from being too exhausted these past few days, but he was hiding Vent Frames under his clothes now, thankful that the jacket he wore over his shirt, and the somewhat baggy pants, would conceal the veins of quartz-like crystal that could be found running up and down his skin for the next few hours.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, knowing who it belonged to as Eleanor squeezed gently. "You know you can't keep this up forever," she said, a gentle warning to her tone as she sighed.
"Yeah," Daniel admitted quietly, his sigh equally gentle. "But if I go to sleep, even if he doesn't appear again… the memories will. They always do whenever I even think about him. Having him visit…"
Eleanor drew nearer to him. "Then we'll help you through them," she said firmly as she shifted her hand to his right shoulder, and rested her chin on his left. "Me and Nynrya and the others."
Daniel looked down for a moment as he smiled slightly. "I don't deserve you," he said with a quiet chuckle.
"I don't care. You're stuck with me." Eleanor replied, and he could hear the smile in her voice without even having to glance at her.
"Now, seeing as we're off shift today," she continued, a slight smile still able to be heard, "we have a meeting to get to, do we not?"
"Yes, we do," Daniel said, a gleam of excitement in his eyes as he looked back at the others, still in the process of getting ready for the day.
"I do hope you're all ready to meet another bunch of big damn heroes. They've got quite the stories to tell," he said to the Children, a slight smile on his face.
"Yeah, maybe," Asuka replied, and Daniel didn't need to see past the curtain that they had set up for privacy to know she was rolling her eyes. "So do we. We'll see how cool theirs are once we meet them."
Daniel chuckled. "Well, they saved the world several times too, you know, between the bunch of them," he said, a playful pointedness to his words.
"Yeah, but I bet they didn't use Evas, did they?" Asuka shot back as she opened the curtain revealing both Shinji and the other curtain Kaworu and Rei were still behind.
Daniel opened his mouth, closed it wordlessly, then bobbed his side to side wordlessly for a moment. "You know what, I'll give you that much."
"Hah!" Asuka said in clear triumph as she and Shinji walked towards the door, ready for the day. "That's what I thought."
. . .
Daniel, Eleanor, and the Children made their way to the rec room that Toph had said, along with the rest of the hallway, would be clear of anyone else for the next few hours, the group weaving through corridors that shifted and zigzagged up and down and left and right, corridors that were becoming more and more natural to tread for a crew such as theirs.
As they walked the halls, boarding the central tram that would take them most of the way to their destination, and as the crew continued to live in it for longer and longer, they all had come to realize what was perhaps the ship's greatest oddity: its uniformity. Not simply in its mechanical aspects, which was something appreciated by Chief Ship's Engineer Takao, but in many of the more… fundamental things as well.
Though the ship was in use by a crew of many varied people, its designers (or perhaps designer, singular, as many people speculated) didn't seem to have many, or perhaps even any of them, in mind. The only partitions for bathrooms and bunks there were now had to be added by the vagabond crew, and areas that were usually cloaked in privacy or partitioned off for rather logical reasons to everyone else were found to have been laid open to those who could pass by, simple walls at times welded into the vessel itself as time could permit. Beyond a few physical fitness rooms, most everything was bare in a way that stretched beyond even the most dedicated military life. There were breathtakingly few personal amenities of… really any kind to be found anywhere around the vessel.
That it had taken this long for the group to start connecting the dots embarrassed them somewhat. But now that they had… the ship had started to take on a somewhat eerie character. Not quite unlike Rei herself had first been.
Finally, though, they reached the rec room, Daniel glancing around to confirm that no one had followed them to this point. Thankfully, they were alone here.
He glanced back at the others, a slight smile on his face betraying his excitement. "Here we go," he said, a gleam in his eyes as he saw the others smile slightly at him, and he opened the door and entered the room.
All eyes in the room turned to look at him as he entered, the others trailing behind him as Kaworu closed the door behind him. All in the room looked to be about their age, some a little older, sitting at a few scattered round tables. One, sitting next to Katara and being quite clearly related to her, with tanned skin and blue eyes that looked intently at Daniel, was silent with the rest of them for a moment before he chuckled. "You know, I always said you'd look better with a beard. Shame you were as good at shaving your face as Aang was at shaving his head." the man said with a shrug.
The others sighed quietly as they rolled their eyes, Katara shaking her head as she looked over at Daniel. "Thank you, Sokka. Hello again, Daniel," she said with a smile.
"Wait a minute." A fit woman, clearly from the same place as Sokka and Katara were from, said as she sat up, looking at Daniel with no small amount of confusion. "That's who Daniel is?"
Toph rolled her eyes as she punched the woman in the shoulder. "Yes, Korra, that's the Daniel I've been talking about to you, Zuko, Mako, Bolin, Suki… and nobody else. I'm sure you can guess why," she said the last sentence with a voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Well," a fair-skinned man with black hair, a clean-shaven face, and a red welt that stretched across his right eye replied, "it makes sense that Kin was just an alias, considering what we've seen of the rest of… well, whatever's beyond our world."
"So… how did he manage to not age then?" a man with a round, friendly face asked, green eyes under brown hair narrowing in confusion as he looked at Daniel. "Did you do the same sort of… spirit world nonsense that we did?"
"That's part of what I'm going to try to explain, Bolin," Daniel replied as he stepped forward into the room. "But first, I think a few introductions are in order."
He turned to the side as he looked at the Children. "Kids, these are my friends and found family from a world that is defined, in no small part, by the arts of elemental bending and something known as the Avatar cycle."
He looked over at Korra. "Korra here, at least, is able to bend the four classical elements where most can only bend one: water, earth, fire, and air."
He paused for a moment as his brow furrowed, then he looked at the other man that sat next to Katara. After a moment's examination of the thin man with short, black hair and friendly grey eyes, he blinked. "Aang. I didn't recognize you without the airbender tattoos for a moment," he said with no small amount of amazement.
Aang nodded as he smiled patiently. "Yes. There's at least a reason for that. I did die, after all, leaving behind my life as the last airbender, and as an airbender nomad. I emerged from the spirit world with a new life, one not tied to my previous one. A life that was free from many of my old obligations and traditions. It's…"
He hesitated for a moment before he shook his head slightly. "Well, it's still a little odd, I'm not going to lie. There may be many similarities to the life I led before, but there are some… significant differences."
Sokka chuckled as he looked over at Aang. "I'm not going to lie, watching you try meat for the first time…" he sighed as he got a dreamy look in his eyes. "I'm going to treasure that memory forever."
The woman that sat next to Sokka, who had light brown hair and blue eyes, jabbed at Sokka's shoulder with two fingers. "Focus, dear," she said patiently as he stifled a yelp. "They still haven't introduced themselves to us."
Sokka rubbed his shoulder as he looked over at the woman. "Sorry, Suki," he said sincerely, muttering under his breath about someone called Ty Lee teaching her something.
"So, you know us, Daniel, obviously. As for the rest of you…" Sokka said after a moment, glancing around the room as he launched into a rapid-fire dialogue. "I'm Sokka, this is Suki, my wife, this is Aang, he was the Avatar when I was a kid, this is Katara, my sister and resident waterbender who found him trapped in ice, that's Toph, she's an earthbender you've met before, Zuko over there is a firebender and was the Fire Lord, that's his wife Mai next to him, and…"
He blinked before he finally took a deep breath. "Well, that's the original Team Avatar and friends for you," he said with an easy smile and a swept-out arm.
Eleanor and the kids looked at Sokka with varying degrees of confusion, some small sprinkling of being impressed mixed in with the kid's expressions especially. "That's…" Asuka began. "Well, I'm sure I'm going to understand all that eventually."
Daniel, on the other hand, smiled slightly and chuckled softly. "Thank you, Sokka. Your skill with speaking didn't diminish, I see."
Sokka preened slightly as Daniel looked over at Korra. "Would you like to introduce yourself and your friends?" he asked with an arched brow and a bemused smile.
Korra nodded as she shrugged. "I mean, yeah, I guess."
She looked at the kids as she began. "I'm Korra. I was the Avatar after Aang. Part of that cycle Daniel mentioned. This is Asami, she's my wife and the resident tech genius we all get to share. Mako and Bolin over there," she continued as she pointed to Bolin and another man, with a sharper face and black hair, "they're brothers, a firebender and an earthbender, respectively. And…"
She shrugged. "That's really about it for us."
Shinji nodded slowly. "I don't really recall seeing any of you before now… besides Toph, of course," he said, equally slowly.
Toph shrugged. "I mean, I'm Chief of Security here, obviously. Most of us are in security as well. Aang's in logistics along with Mai, Katara's Chief Medical Officer, and Asami's in the tech department taking care of that Magi thing. She's about the only one who would have ever crossed wires with you guys."
She paused, leaning forward on the table as she looked at Eleanor and the kids. "Speaking of you guys… we have at least some idea who Daniel is now, but the rest of you…"
She trailed off, her eyes narrowing slightly as Daniel sighed quietly. "Well… that gets to the other side of introductions, then."
Daniel looked over at Eleanor. "This is Eleanor Theisman, my wife and partner in crime, as it were," he said as he put an arm around her and drew her close, Eleanor smiling as she waved.
"I told you guys I knew it," Mai said quietly, drawing the attention of everyone as they looked at her smiling slightly.
"What?" she asked, shrugging. "I make a good listening partner. So sue me."
Daniel waved the digression away. "Anyways…" he sighed quietly as he looked over at the kids. "This is where it gets complicated. Toph, you're sure this place doesn't have any monitoring of any kind?"
"Why do you think I chose this place?" Toph asked.
Daniel nodded. "Alright, kids, you can drop the disguises now."
Kaworu and Rei nodded, their skin becoming pale again, their eyes and hair returning to their regular colors. The sight of it widened more than a few eyes among the assembled gang.
"Okay…" Toph said slowly, saying what everyone else was clearly thinking. "That's a hell of a trick, I'll give it to you guys."
Then, she blinked as she focused on Rei, her eyes narrowing. "Wait a minute…"
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Shinji and Asuka Ikari-Soryu and Kaworu and Rei Nagisa," Daniel said, pausing as the people in question nodded their silent greetings.
"Wait," Mako said, as utterly confused as the rest of them were, "if you're who he says you are…"
"And now we get to the meat of the matter," Daniel said, stepping over to an open wall. "Something that's going to take a lot of time to explain."
As he spoke, he produced a long, tubular crystal in his hand, the end shaped like a delicate snowflake, and pressed it tip-first against the wall. After a moment, the wall rippled, and the crystal sank into it like so much water, a hollow ringing sound echoing for a moment as the ripple expanded, then parted down the middle of a doorway that led into a hall of blue stone, a set of steps leading downward.
The assembled Avatar gangs rose to their feet in utter shock as Daniel turned to look at them, a mysterious smile on his face. "Come," he said dramatically, stepping aside and sweeping his hand down the corridor. "We have such sights to show you."
. . .
As the assembled group entered the mysterious, seemingly sacred grounds of what Asuka had helpfully told them was called 'the Infinity Box', they all heard something that none of them expected.
Something clattered against a hard surface. "That's… 5 sixes. Rolling for invuln saves…" a young man's voice said. There was a pause, then the clattering again. "That's 4 more."
A dramatic sigh. "Farewell, sweet Boyz. You truly were the best at goin' fasta." a woman replied, a clear British accent to her voice.
More than a few confused looks passed through the gangs as they entered the main room, and found, in its center, a table, surrounded by six people. Three of them leaned over the table, looking down at what was apparently a miniature battlefield. The other three simply stood, seemingly less interested in their peers' game.
One of the players, a woman with brown hair and bright blue-green eyes behind red-rimmed glasses, looked up at them and waved. "Hello, there! Sorry if we're taking up space…"
She paused for a moment as Daniel came into view, a rippling of energy pulsing through the room as he stepped forward with a patient expression. "Hey, Danny boy! Brought some new friends, I see."
Daniel smiled slightly. "That we did, Mari. We've got some things to talk about, so I've lifted us out of time. You're stuck with us now, I'm afraid."
"Wait, you can do that?" Sokka asked incredulously.
The question went unheeded for the moment as Daniel continued. "Think you could move the game out of the way? We're going to need the space."
Mari looked at her opponent. "Would you be okay with pausing the game, Kenny? I'm kind of interested in meeting our new friends."
'Kenny' shrugged. "I don't see why not," he said, stepping back as the third person leaning against the table, an almost carbon copy of Rei save for her deep green hair, also stepped away and to the side, the table sliding into a cavernous opening that appeared as suddenly as it disappeared once the table had crossed its threshold.
Mari walked up to the Avatar gangs, coming to a stop in front of them and coming to attention, offering a sharp, palm-out salute. "First Lieutenant Mariah Marlowe of HERZ, at your service!" she said with a smile. "My mates here are Kensuke and Ichigo, 2/3rds of the Aida's, and Toji and Hikari, our dear Suzuhara's."
The majority of the group nodded, a few waved, and the two couples waved back. As greetings were exchanged, Daniel walked into the center of the room and turned to face the group.
"I'm sure you're wondering how there can be two Shinjis, Asukas, Reis, and such on a single world." he paused for a moment. "Well, maybe not so much the Reis, but I digress."
"It all begins with the place you traveled through to get here. A place that we call the Worldsea." Daniel said as Eleanor came to stand by his side, several benches coming into being surrounding them that the groups took a seat in.
"The Worldsea is a vast, basically infinite space that rests in what we call Physicality: the real world, as it were." Eleanor elaborated. "It contains what are called World Engines, things which form the basis for multiverses of a breathtaking variety of things."
As she spoke, the room dimmed, and a World Engine, shining like a massive star with shifting colors that seemed layered on top of each other as if they sank into an endless ocean, came into being in front of them. The Avatar gangs were utterly enraptured, staring at the sphere, and the tiny bubbles that flashed across its surface, with wide and wondrous eyes.
"Wait a minute," Hikari said, tilting her head slightly. "If you aren't from this Echo… is this your first time seeing a World Engine?"
"I mean… kind of?" Aang said. "We got here by riding inside of Appa's… soul, I guess. There wasn't much of a view from in there."
"There was the nice-looking blue sky that we saw," Katara said helpfully. "I guess that must have covered the actual view."
Toph shook her head. "Still one of the weirdest things I've done thus far."
"And wait a minute. You said multiverses?" Aang said, cupping a clean-shaven chin in thought. "That's fascinating. Does that mean that there are multiple worlds where I succeed in different ways? Or even… fail?" he thought aloud, the thought sending a slight shudder through his immediate friends.
"Everything will happen in a World Engine, Aang," Daniel replied. "And I don't just mean anything, I truly mean everything. The universes within which such things occur are what we call Echoes. The versions of Shinji and Asuka and Rei and all the others we have with us come from one such Echo on this World Engine."
"Okay, World Engines and Echoes, got it," Katara said with a nod. "So… why are you here, then?"
Daniel was silent for a moment, then sighed quietly. "We're here to try and stop a splinter group of dangerous people. People looking to revive a religious movement that seeks to take the Worldsea and smash every world together in a process that would kill a number of people I can barely express in a legible sum. A group called the True Scions of Unity."
"Wait…" Toph said slowly, a conflicted look growing in her eyes. "Ymris…"
"You've met Ymris before?" Eleanor asked.
"Yeah. She's been here for… nearly half a decade now. Since Near-Third Impact, at least." Toph replied.
Then, her eyes widened before she shut them with a weary sigh. "Oh, boy. Don't tell me."
Daniel nodded. "She is a part of the Scions, yes. But I think she sees the reality of what her actions might cost, now that she's become part of this crew."
"As for the rest of them, and our fight with them…" Daniel continued, pausing before sighing quietly, a stool appearing underneath him as he took a seat. "That's going to take enough explaining to justify lifting us out of time."
. . .
Captain's Quarters, The Next Day
Daniel stood at attention in the middle of Captain Katsuragi's quarters, facing her and Doctor Akagi. "Captain. Vice-Captain. Thank you for allowing me to meet with you." he said.
Katsuragi nodded slightly, bereft of her shades and her hat, revealing the neat bun her hair was in. "At ease, soldier. This is hardly a military affair, anyway."
She sighed quietly as Daniel went to parade rest instead. "Old habits die hard, I see," she said with a ghost of a smile.
Daniel's smile was equally slight, barely touching his eyes. "That they do, ma'am."
"So," Katsuragi said, "what is it you wanted to talk to us about?"
"I have a request to make, with the realization that I hardly stand in your good graces at the moment, ma'am," Daniel replied. "However, I believe that what I am about to ask, while also beneficial to certain members of this organization, may also mean, should the proper circumstances arise, the difference between keeping this world safe, and dooming it."
"And what would that be?" Akagi asked archly.
"I would like to take the pilots under my wing, as it were. All of them." Daniel said.
"Including those that have just emerged from Unit-01," Akagi said, an utterly level expression on her face.
"Yes." Daniel nodded.
"Why?" Katsuragi asked.
"Because, as we've seen, awakening an Evangelion is caused by deep, uncontrolled emotions deepening the synchronization of the pilot with the Evangelion. What we have seen is that anger is a potent trigger. But what about other negative emotions? Sadness or fear, for instance." Daniel asked as he looked at Akagi.
Akagi was silent for a moment before she nodded slowly. "It can be assumed that the Evangelion, along with the soul within, would respond to other such emotional stimuli."
"Thus, teaching them to control those emotions seems to be of the utmost importance, to ensure that no pilot, regardless of whether they're in or out of an Evangelion, has the easy ability to initiate an Impact," Daniel said, his gaze sliding between Katsuragi and Akagi as he spoke.
His gaze landed on Katsuragi before he closed his eyes and sighed quietly. "To help them master their emotions, however… it's going to take time. Because frankly, from what I've seen, these kids are all broken, psychologically and emotionally, in one way or another. I can't claim that I can fix them, or even relate fully to them. I don't know what it's like to pilot an Evangelion."
A blatant lie that Toph would have called in a second, but she wasn't here, after all. Nor would she have cared. "But I know what it's like to be a soldier without compare or many companions. I know what it's like to shoulder a massive duty alone. And I can at least start them on their way." he finished.
"How magnanimous of you, Vice-Chief," Akagi said.
"And you want to start this program with all of the Children now?" Katsuragi asked.
"Yes. On my own time, so as not to take away from my duties to this ship and to WILLE." Daniel replied.
"I'm afraid that Ayanami is not going to be able to participate in this… guardianship of yours," Akagi said, finally deciding on what she wanted to call Daniel's request.
Daniel's brow arched. "Why is that, ma'am?" he asked, a slight chill entering his voice as his eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
"Because she will be under my care, Mr. Theisman." Akagi began. "I'm still unsure of how large, exactly, her role was in initiating Near-Third Impact, and what changes the 10th Angel might have made to her that bled over to her reconstituted body. I will be running a thorough battery of tests on her to ensure that she is of no threat to us."
"Given what little I understand about young Ms. Ayanami's origins… I will admit to understanding your concern." Daniel finally said after a moment of consideration. "However, cutting off all social contact will do nothing but harm the girl's development, and leave her at greater risk of initiating an Impact should she be captured by NERV. I think the same of Shinji."
"And why would NERV want Shinji Ikari, a boy who we've found will likely never be able to pilot an Evangelion again, or the second in what we now know is likely hundreds, if not thousands of the Ayanami line?" Katsuragi asked as her eyes narrowed slightly.
"For one, ma'am," Daniel replied, "we are, at the moment, unsure of NERV's capabilities. That they are able to produce the Mark series of Near-Evangelions is a highlight of such. If they were to make a play at grabbing either of the pilots, it would likely be due to the fact that they could possess the ability to enable Shinji to synchronize with an Evangelion again."
"Given his readings, I highly doubt that," Akagi said coolly.
"And what were those readings, if I may ask?" Daniel asked with a slightly arched brow.
Daniel was silent in his satisfaction as he watched Doctor Akagi openly hesitate. "I will admit, the only readings we got, after repeated tests and multiple checks to ensure the instruments were functioning properly, were error messages. Several tests since we lifted off have done nothing but confirm such readings."
Akagi shrugged. "The only reasonable explanation is still that his sync score is too low for the sensors to register."
'And you, Doctor Ritsuko Akagi, former head of Project E, left it at that? I can't help but find myself somewhat disappointed.' Daniel mused.
"Even still, ma'am," he said aloud, "I must admit that I am a firm believer in Murphy's Law. Anything that can go wrong often does, without the proper preparations. Should we be able to prevent Shinji Ikari from reaching such a mental state that he does initiate an Impact, however unlikely, it is worth the time and effort spent, in my estimation. To say nothing of the potential sync score increases such efforts might present to Shikinami and Makinami."
'If there's anything that I'm sure will sway you, it's going to be an increase in effectiveness.' Daniel thought bitterly as he waited for an answer.
"An improvement to our current pilots' sync scores is a tall order to promise," Katsuragi said, an arched brow the only indication of any sort of reaction to Daniel's claim.
"Indeed it is," Daniel admitted. "But if the current pilots, with their current states of mind, are doing this good, I can only imagine what they'll be capable of when they are more mentally stable."
Katsuragi and Akagi looked at each other silently for a moment, deliberating with each other in a way only those who were as close as they were could. Daniel, without realizing it, held his breath as he waited for their answer.
Finally, Katsuragi looked back at him and nodded. "Very well. You are the pilots' guardian now. I trust that you'll do what you think is best with them, Mr. Theisman."
Daniel exhaled, nodding. "Thank you, ma'am. But what about Ayanami? Will she be released into my care following the completion of Doctor Akagi's testing?"
Akagi nodded. "As long as she is not deemed a hazard, I see no reason not to. However, the tests are rather in-depth. It will likely be about two months before I reach a conclusion that I deem satisfactory."
Daniel opened his mouth for a moment, then shut it and nodded. 'I'll take what I can get.'
"Very well, Doctor," he said aloud, coming to attention again. "Captain, Vice-Captain. Thank you for your acceptance. I'll return to my duties now."
As he turned, he celebrated silently, within himself. It was a small victory. But it was a victory nonetheless.
. . .
Misato watched Vice-Chief Theisman walk out the door and wondered at him, not for the first time. 'What an utterly odd man for this day and age.'
"I've got to say, Misato," Ritsuko piped up, "I thought you would be a little more conflicted that someone you barely know is asking that you give him your old job. I recall that, for a little while at least…"
Ritsuko paused for a moment as Misato looked at her with a questioning glance. "You enjoyed it." Ritsuko finished quietly.
Misato looked away. Ritsuko wasn't wrong. At least for the most part. But now…
"I'll let him have it, Ritsuko," she said with a quiet sigh. "Besides, I'm the captain of a ship now, fighting to save the world. I haven't got time to take care of the kids. If he wants to do it, more power to him."
Misato stood, replacing her hat and shades as she made her way to the door. "I'll see you on the bridge."
With that, she exited the cabin, leaving Ritsuko alone with her thoughts for a moment. The scientist stared at the door. She knew the look in Misato's eyes. She'd spent a decade and a half looking at her through every emotion she'd displayed.
'You were jealous of him. Guilty that you hadn't thought of it before.' Ritsuko mused. 'You may have hidden it from him. But you can't hide things from me anymore, Misato.'
She wondered, for the briefest of moments, whether that was a gift… or a curse.