Apotheosis Echo: Re(verb - it)erations

by StriderInCosmos

The end has passed, and a storm looms over a broken world. At its edge, a Captain who cannot fully chart her course plunges in regardless. Within the lightning, a Priest sees his gods, and hopes to draw them to the dying Earth he wishes to gift to them. Against the rain, a Soldier and his family seek to dispel the tempest. The storm looms, and the End is nigh. But what End?

17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: To See Again

I can't help but think of what might happen when we meet again now.

I've gotten so many questions because of what Mr. Theisman told me about Misato. What she's done to the kids. What's happened to little Ryoshi? Has she kept an eye on him or… I don't even know.

What happens if I see her again? Will I be angry? Confused? A little understanding, somehow? I don't know that either.

I should have reached out to her, Nagisa and his secrecy be damned. Misato… Little Ryo… I'm sorry.

- From the personal journal of Deputy-Commander Ryoji Kaji

New NERV HQ, 3 Days Later, 12th March 2028

Daniel Theisman stood looking down the empty hallway, hands on his hips as he looked at — felt, really — the barrier that was in front of him.

He was glad for the moment at least, that Kaji hadn't been around to wonder why, exactly, he was simply standing here with a rather unamused expression. It would likely be complicated, at least at the moment, to explain that his immediate superior was able to produce AT Fields. 'Then again, when wouldn't it be?'

Daniel shook his head as he turned back, walking away from the route towards Shinji and Kaworu. 'Looks like he's still set on isolating him, acting as the savior. Not that I'm exactly much better sometimes.' Daniel groused as he looked back out with his Sight from whence he came.

The hall, and the halls some ways above and far, far down below, were covered in a hemispherical AT FIeld, massive in its size relative to Kaworu. He wondered if there were any Pattern Blue detectors left in the base, as they likely would have been going crazy right now from the frankly spectacular display.

Through that, he could see the souls of those who occupied the base, a feat that wasn't difficult by any means with how few they were. Who he was sure was Shinji, Kaworu, and the Ayanami clone were likely training in some way to prosecute the operation Commander Ikari wanted to do. Further up above, he saw who was likely Commander Ikari and Fuyutsuki, perhaps conversing with a strangely diminished SEELE. And…

'Wait a minute.' Daniel's eyes narrowed as he paused in the hallway, and saw the lone soul, unmoving and far away from anyone else. 'Who are you?'

It could be another Ayanami clone, secreted away from the others, he thought as he made his way up toward it. That might explain why, exactly, Kaworu's AT Field wasn't covering it. Perhaps it was supposed to be a backup in case the one here died for whatever reason. Perhaps it was a backup Dummy Plug.

'Either way, let's find out.' he thought as he began to go far more slowly and covertly, noticing that the halls became cleaner and more uniform, at least one of the nonsensical new NERV logos sprayed on a wall.

With his Sight, he knew that Commander Ikari was well away from him. Even still, he faded from visible sight, becoming starlight that shifted into the infrared portion of the spectrum, his gaze sweeping for any cameras, hidden or otherwise. If Eleanor were here…

'Given some time, she will be.' he mused as he found himself in front of a mundane, if somewhat imposing, door. He reflected on the message that she had sent him 2 days ago while he figured out a way to slip past. 'About to finish refitting in America. We'll be there in a week.'

A week, at least, to try and contact Shinji, dissuade him from whatever he was planning on doing, and upset Commander Ikari's plans before putting the world back to some semblance of what it once was. 'I've done more with less.'

He found a non-sealed crack in the doorway, his vision narrowing as the starlight squeezed into it, a strange, almost fuzzy feeling compressing him as he passed into the edge of the doorframe, the collective mass of starlight that made up his 'body' becoming almost snake-like as he searched for a way in. He paid as little attention as he could to the mounting sense of claustrophobia that he was experiencing.

Finally, he found an opening, slithering out and reforming his body into the shape it was most familiar with. A quick scan of the room showed that there were no cameras here, and thus he returned to physical form, a slightly queasy feeling in his stomach from the Flux that being so stealthy, or at least what he hoped was stealthy, entailed.

It was utterly dark for a few moments before Daniel found a light switch, the lights shining down on a largely bare, gray room, little larger than a decent-sized closet and smelling slightly of the familiar odor of drying blood. A single console next to a set of shutters was all there seemed to be taking up the room, not even a place to sit to be found. Behind the shutters, the person, whoever they were, was likely floating in a tank of LCL.

'There's never enough secrets, are there, Gendo?' he mused wearily as he walked to the console and tried to puzzle things out. 'If nothing else, Kaji will be interested to find out about… whatever this is.'

A few moments of typing and querying later, filled with no small amount of glancing back at the door, and the shutters began to open, the familiar glow of backlit LCL slowly beginning to light up the room shadowed by…

Daniel's eyes went wide as he saw the girl floating in the tank before him. And the fiery head of hair that floated around her head. 'I'll be damned…'

Bright blue eyes fluttered open, looking around hazily for a moment before focusing on Daniel. "Well, well," the clone of Asuka said. "You're not the usual bespectacled company, are you? Did Ikari finally decide to give me an actual friend, or are you just a little too curious for your own good?"

Daniel was somewhat taken aback for a moment before he found his words again. "Well… it's complicated," he finally said.

The clone of Asuka smiled slightly. "I'm sure it is," she said, a wry tone still breaking through the speaker that allowed them to converse. "Ogling at me, and you haven't even asked my name."

Daniel blinked, feeling a blush coming on despite his best efforts. "Well, you're Asuka Shikinami, obviously. At least, a version of her. I just… didn't know that you were here in the Geofront."

The Shikinami clone sighed quietly, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, I'm not exactly the most advertised part of this base, am I?" she paused for a moment. "And I'm Bradley, by the by."

Daniel nodded slowly. "Shikinami-Bradley?"

"Yep," Bradley said with a grin. "The first of the Shikinami line to make it out of being some poor clump of dead cells that could generously be called a baby. As far as anyone's concerned, I'm the original Shikinami."

"The original…" Daniel shook his head. "You're Langley's sister, then?"

Bradley smiled slightly. "No, I'm her cousin, technically. But yes. Langley. Out of all the faces that looked like mine, she was the one to stand out the most. Mostly by being a brat and challenging me at every turn, but still…"

The smile disappeared. "It made life interesting when everyone else started to disappear. It was actually a real fight between the two of us as to who would pilot Unit-02. I…"

She stared off into the middle distance. "I hope that she enjoyed it. It's been… a long time, I think. And those Entry Plugs were cramped enough as is. I'd hate to see someone your size squeeze in. No offense."

"None taken." Daniel chuckled for a moment. "But… she still is. Enjoying it, that is."

Bradley started at this, looking at Daniel with wide eyes. "What?"

Daniel nodded. "Yes. Something about piloting an Evangelion has caused her to stop growing. Physically, at least. Mentally and emotionally… I was trying to do something about that before I came here."

"You've seen her around?"

Daniel looked around silently for a moment before he sighed. "Like you said, it's been a long time. 14 years have passed, and NERV is now all of two people looking to end the world to bring one woman back. I'm not sure that they're even trying for that anymore."

Daniel's gaze fell back on Bradley. "So, more likely than not, you're going to help us stop the end of the world, whenever that day comes, from the inside. Can I count on you to lend Langley a hand when the time comes?"

Bradley arched a brow. "Can you maybe be a little less cryptic than that?"

Daniel shook his head slightly as he chuckled wearily. "Honestly… probably not. At least, you probably wouldn't believe me if I was more liberal with the truth."

Bradley shrugged. "I mean, I was probably going to say yes anyways, seeing as it's Langley I'll be helping out, but it's just that I'd like something to daydream about when this inevitably closes back up again."

"Fair point." Daniel paused for a moment as he wondered what to say. "There's another pilot here. Shinji Ikari. Langley was taking a shine to him before he accidentally almost ended the world 14 years ago. They were starting to pick up the pieces before he came back to the HQ to try and fix his mistake."

Bradley's eyes went wide, and a grin broke out on her face. "She had a boyfriend? Oh, if I ever get out of here…" she chuckled.

"Of a sort. But I'm here to try and stop him from doing something that could A, get us all killed and B, have Langley square off against him."

Bradley began to grimace. "Oof. If she's kept herself sharp, then… I wouldn't want to be this Shinji kid."

"Yeah. So, if things do go sideways, and Ikari pulls you out, then… well, I trust that you'll know the right time to throw a wrench into things. You're Asuka Shikinami, one of the best Evangelion pilots in the world, after all."

Bradley scoffed softly. "You know how to talk to a girl, don'tcha?"

"I had to get my wife somehow. My good looks weren't enough for her nicely rational sensibilities." Daniel replied drolly as he hovered over the console to close the shutters. He paused for a moment, then looked back at Bradley. "How did you get here anyway?"

Bradley shrugged. "Well, when it became clear that Langley was going to be the pilot of Unit-02, Commander Ikari swept in and decided I was a 'necessary backup' in case something happened to Langley." she scoffed again. "Not like she would have either needed or wanted it, but hey, I'm still breathing, even if it's only in this tube."

Daniel nodded, his hands hovering over the controls as he considered what he might do next. "You probably don't want this conversation to end, do you?" he asked quietly.

Bradley's thus far somewhat cocky grin faded completely. "Well… yeah. I mean, when you've spent as long as I have in this LCL-filled tube, even Commander Ikari becomes a conversationalist."

Daniel nodded, coming up to the vat and placing a hand against it. "I'll be more than happy to explain what I'm doing once I'm done doing it."

As he spoke, a pane of bright red crystal, clear to see against the vibrant orange of the lit-up LCL, formed on the glass, growing to the size of a coin before lifting and floating toward the outstretched hand of Bradley, her eyes wide as it made contact with her skin and seemed to disappear.

As Bradley looked at her palm with no small amount of amazement, Daniel stepped back. "This will allow us to talk, mind to mind, no matter the distance."

"Bullshit,"

she said, her thought reaching him moments before the word tumbled out of her mouth, a hand going to cover it for a moment. "Oh, that is so cool."

Daniel smiled as he returned to the console, tapping out the command to close the shutters. "I can even pipe it in so that you'll be able to see what I can see. But, for now, I'll have to exit the room. See you later, hopefully."

"Be seeing you. Though it's not like I'll stop running my metaphysical mouth anytime soon."

Bradley replied as the shutters finally closed, the room dimming again.

Daniel chuckled as he turned to leave, returning to invisible starlight as he weaved through the gap that he'd found back into the hallway. It was clear thus far, their conversation having done little to see the positions of most of the others in the base shift.

Thus, Daniel made his way down the 'headquarters' of WILLE, soon re-assuming physical form. "So, magic man," Bradley said, "how exactly did you get your crazy mind gem thing? And don't spare the details. I've got all day, after all."

'This is going to be a long conversation, I can tell.'

Daniel mused with a slight grin.

. . .

Shinji Ikari sighed as he sat back in the seat of the simulator. To say that it was arcane was to sell it terribly short.

All manner of indescribable runes floated just outside of his field of vision, jutting in just enough to distract him from the amazingly realistic view of Terminal Dogma. He and Kaworu, in Plugs that were situated side by side, hung over the plane of purple… something that Kaworu had said was a cap placed there when the completion of Third Impact was nullified. To complete the simulation, they had to breach it by combining their synchronizations. It was… a tall order, to say the least.

Not only that, but the synchronization process felt… strange. It must not have registered to the Choker as a normal sync score, as he hadn't exploded the moment the simulator activated. But even still, it felt… off, fundamentally. Like dipping himself in a cold lake after swimming in a heated pool years ago. He didn't know where the sensation came from, but it put him on edge, regardless.

He looked across at Kaworu, who looked back at him patiently. "I understand that this is a rather novel experience for you. It is likewise new to me. Please, try your best." the boy said with a slight smile.

Shinji nodded, looking back at the cap and furrowing his brow. 'I have an infinite sync score.' he pondered. 'So why is this so hard?'

Maybe it wasn't him. Maybe the process of syncing up with another pilot instead of a simple core, regardless of whether there was a person in there, was different. Either way, the path forward still eluded him.

Finally, after a few more moments that felt so, so much longer than that, the simulation cut off, and Shinji slumped in his seat with a heavy sigh as he waited for the LCL in the Plug-like simulator to drain, coughing it up as the door opened.

As he stepped out, he pondered on how strange it was to wear a Plugsuit again, looking down at the dark affair that he now donned. It was colored much like Ayanami's Plugsit was, a near black and muted purple thing with a few red, gray, and green highlights that included a red hemisphere in the center of his chest which looked a little too much like an Angel's core to be comfortable with.

Kaworu walked around towards him, wearing the same suit with the same '13' emblazoned on the sternum. "You did well this time around. We are getting close to being able to pilot Unit-13, I think."

Shinji sighed again. "I'm glad you think that," he said somewhat sullenly.

Kaworu nodded. "It's been a rather long morning." he paused as he looked over at Ayanami. "There was a book you wanted to get her, am I correct?"

Shinji followed Kaworu's gaze as Ayanami walked out a far door. "Yeah. I don't know if there's a bookstore or library in this city that carries it. At least, in any decent condition."

The pair walked out the door they were closest to, towards their separate quarters, as Kaworu appeared to ponder the dilemma for a moment. "Perhaps there is one. The insides of a few buildings have been remarkably well preserved, from what I have seen of my wanderings in the city. Perhaps one of those buildings contains the book you seek."

Shinji grimaced as he considered the sprawl that Tokyo-3 at least was. "That's going to take a while."

"We have the day, as long as we search together," Kaworu replied. "Think of it as a team-building exercise."

Shinji gave it some thought, then shrugged. "I guess if we have nothing better to do…"

Kaworu smiled slightly. "Excellent. We'll dress into something more comfortable, and I'll lead you to the surface."

With that, Shinji paused as they reached his quarters, Kaworu continuing on to his own quarters. Shinji looked on at the boy as he disappeared, sighing quietly as he walked through his door, the Plugsuit hissing as he shrugged it off.

Kaworu Nagisa was… an enigma. He was nice, that much was certain. He appreciated that much. However, that kindness felt like… a mask. Like he was simply acting so to try and get something from him. What he might get from a boy whose only real use seemed to be piloting an Evangelion, Shinji couldn't fathom at the moment. And in trying to sync up with him, he always felt this persistent feeling of… he couldn't quite call it wrongness. Strangeness, perhaps, the touch of something inhuman that he couldn't quite wrap his head around but still felt eerily familiar.

'Maybe he just… needs a friend.' Shinji surmised as he pulled on his undershirt, pants, and button-up. 'I mean, it's not like he's had much in the way of company here.'

With that, he stepped back out, finding Kaworu by the doorway in that outfit that was so similar to his. "Let's not waste any time, shall we?"

They began their trek toward the surface, breaking out into an open Geofront that had the light of midday streaming down onto it, causing the trees that dotted the landscape to cast shadows under them as the two boys went under them towards the long, winding path to the remains of the city proper.

"So," Kaworu began, "where were you before you were retrieved?"

"A ship called the Wunder," Shinji replied as they made their way towards the ruined Geofront wall.

"What was that like?"

Shinji shook his head. "It was… crazy. It's a flying battleship… Eva carrier… thing, in the service of an organization called WILLE that's working against my father. And…"

Shinji went silent for a moment, his expression falling as they entered the tram tunnel that sloped up toward the surface. It was in utter disrepair, unsurprisingly, with only a few lights in the tunnel, sometimes spaced dozens of meters apart, still active. "What happened?" Kaworu asked, his voice echoing in the long, empty space.

Shinji shook his head, slowing to keep Kaworu's dim outline in view. "Well, a lot of people that I knew from 14 years ago were there. Fellow pilots. Old commanding officers. But… so much had changed from when I got consumed by Unit-01 that day. So many cast the blame on me at first for what had happened when I fought the 10th Angel and lost control trying to save Rei. They weren't entirely wrong."

"But you came out of it stronger, I would guess. You did willingly come to try and change the world, after all. Most others, I feel, might buckle under such pressure."

"Maybe," Shinji said with an unseen shrug. "But that sort of pressure only lasted for a little while. Then Daniel and his friends came along."

Kaworu slowed for a moment, and Shinji wondered at the reaction as he caught up to see a furrowed brow just finish smoothing back into neutrality on Kaworu's face. "Who is that person to you?" he asked, and Shinji further wondered at the somewhat guarded tone, almost impossible to find, in the normally cheery boy's voice.

"He's a crewmember of the Wunder. A… well, a long-lived one. Him and his friends. He took all of us pilots under his wing and began to teach us some of the skills and lessons that he learned. He helped introduce the rest of the crew to us, strange though some of them were. He even helped the Captain and I begin to reconnect. Before I came here, of course."

"I see." was Kaworu's only reply, and Shinji couldn't quite figure out the true meaning of the words. "So you count him as a friend, then?"

"I guess." Shinji shrugged. "I mean… I'm not sure I'd have the confidence to try and fix this world if he hadn't helped me gain it."

Kaworu nodded silently as if the explanation had answered some great question. Before Shinji could ask anything further, the light of day grew visible, the outside world seeming to beckon as they grew closer and closer. A breeze gently brushed past Shinji's face, ruffling his hair as the pair emerged into the station, now ruined and open to the world.

Shinji looked around with wide eyes at the life that surrounded him, the sight of trees growing wild through the concrete, vines snaking up light fixtures and power poles and the crumbling sides of buildings, the vastness of seemingly unshakable nature reclaiming the old city of Tokyo-3 making for an almost… idyllic scene.

"Well," Kaworu said as he looked at him with a slight smile, "how much do you think you remember of the city?"

Shinji shook his head as he furrowed his brow in thought, combing his memory of what still didn't quite feel like the distant past. "More than I expected," Shinji said after a moment. "I didn't use this entrance often, but I at least know where my apartment is… well, was in relation to here."

Kaworu nodded slightly. "Then perhaps we should start there. If nothing else, it will act as a point of reference for you to go to other places this book might be."

They were quiet as they walked, allowing Shinji to take in the ruined sidewalks and streets, overturned vehicles, long rusted over, becoming a place for birds to nest. "How is it like this?" Shinji asked after a long while. "Everything else outside of the city's covered in core material. Why not here as well?"

"Before those who were once a part of NERV left and became WILLE, Doctor Akagi set up a ring of Angelic Corruption Containment Pillars around the city," Kaworu replied as they drew close to the building.

"Huh. Maybe they were planning on coming back?"

Kaworu shrugged. "It is not within my knowledge to say definitively."

As he finished speaking, they rounded a corner, and Shinji took in the sight of his old… well, his old home, vines going up and down the facade of the light brown brick, what windows that were left that weren't broken covered in the detritus of years of dirt, dust, and rain. It felt like something out of a dream to Shinji, at once comforting and utterly surreal.

The elevator, unsurprisingly, was out, but the stairwell was surprisingly undamaged, and the pair made their way to the floor that Misato's apartment was on. As they opened the door, making their way carefully across the rubble-strewn floor, Shinji and Kaworu stopped in front of the door. On its surface was a rusted, dirty plaque that read 'M. Katsuragi'.

Shinji proceeded to open the door by hand, taking a step through and looking around. "I'm… home." he nearly mumbled to himself, catching himself from almost instinctively taking off his shoes and trying to find the slippers that were gone.

Before he could linger on the moment for too long, he walked down the dark hall, Kaworu close behind him as he turned into the kitchen.

The furniture that he knew was still there, the table and chairs set up and tucked in nicely, the room silent with the absence of the hum of the lights or the fridges. If nothing else, at least whoever had been through here, likely Misato herself, had somehow cleaned up before the place was abandoned.

The thought of Misato actually cleaning this place herself amused Shinji to no end as he moved through the apartment, reliving memories that had become, somehow, somewhat fond. But the space was bare, the only furniture in the living room was the old couch and coffee table, and his room and Asuka's completely empty.

If they were going to find Rei's book, it wasn't going to be here. "Well, I doubt that Rei's apartment is actually still going to be standing," Shinji said as they made their way to the doorway again. "Even 14 years ago, it looked like it was ready to fall apart. Maybe the school has it."

"The school?" Kaworu said as they began to make their way out of the building.

"The high school that Asuka, Rei, and I went to. Maybe it's a little more intact. It was built post-Second Impact, after all. So perhaps the book she read will be in the school library."

Kaworu nodded as they began to make their way towards the buildings in question, the sun beginning to fall from the noonday peak. "I see. I'm unfamiliar with… school."

Shinji paused for a moment, a somewhat shocked expression blooming on his face as he looked over at Kaworu. "You… what?"

Kaworu blinked, then sighed quietly. "I, much like Ayanami, was created with a specific purpose in mind. To pilot the Evangelion. To help bring about a new world. I did not need education beyond what was expected of me to do. It took me quite some time before I even learned how to play the piano."

Kaworu shook his head slightly before looking over at Shinji with a slight smile. "You are, perhaps… the first somewhat normal person whom I could consider a friend."

"So," Kaworu continued after a moment of silence, "I'm going to help you find that book. Please, continue leading me to this school building."

Shinji nodded after a moment, tracing the path that he vaguely remembered to the school itself, indeed still standing even with the vines draped over its walls. All the way through, he wondered who, exactly, Kaworu Nagisa was. 'He's like Rei. But at least Rei got to interact with people. Maybe… I could convince him to help me.'

"So, Kaworu," he said aloud as they entered the library, the long walls of bookshelves only having a few books on the floor in front of them, "what kind of 'new world' were you supposed to be bringing about? Because… I doubt it's supposed to be like this."

"It is not, you are correct," Kaworu replied as he picked a manga up from the floor, leafing through the pages as Shinji continued his search before setting it on an empty shelf. "It is a world that conforms to the vision that your father and his superiors have in mind."

"But," Kaworu continued as Shinji looked back at him, "it is a vision that I tire of. I look around at this and… it feels empty. Too much like me."

"Then will you help me?" Shinji asked. "I want to return this world to what it was. Make it a place where we all can live normal lives. A place that is green and blue and living again. Would you want that?"

Kaworu studied Shinji for a moment, then nodded. "Your world seems a better place than the one I was created to make. Very well, Shinji Ikari. I will help you make this normal world."

Shinji smiled slightly. "Thank you."

But even as he turned to resume his search, a part of him that was cautious of… well, just about everything here whispered that Kaworu's sudden agreement seemed easy. Too easy. 'Is it really as simple as it seems, when my father's involved?'

Before he could ponder much on the question, he saw the spine of the book he was looking for, still on the shelf though toppled over. His eyes went wide as he picked it up, reading on the cover 'The Iliad and the Odyssey'. It was even still in decent condition, seemingly barely touched by the passing of the years.

"This is it! This is the book Rei liked to read," he said, a small smile of satisfaction on his face as Kaworu came over to observe the cover as well.

"Interesting," Kaworu noted. "Do you think Ayanami will read it?"

Shinji opened his mouth, then closed it silently for a moment. "Well… it's still worth trying. No one should just be a tool. Especially not for my father."

"Then let us make our way back to Ayanami with our prize."

. . .

Daniel looked around and wondered where, exactly, Commander Nagisa had wandered off to.

The AT Field was gone, and the whole base opened up to him to explore if he so pleased. Not that he wanted to just stroll into Commander Ikari's office out of the blue. But now he could try and find Shinji.

He activated his Sight, scanning the base for where Shinji was. Perhaps in his quarters? Or maybe visiting Ayanami. Or, by some slim chance, even visiting his father…

Nothing. 'Kaworu and he must have taken a trip to the surface for something,' he surmised. 'Which means they'll be back.'

Making his way into that part of the base that had been cut off from him, he wondered what he might do to contact him. Simply walking up to him was an option. But it was an option that could, perhaps, bring some rather… dicey company.

"Sounds kind of boring, too, don't you think?"

He'd forgotten he'd left his link with Asuka Bradley open. "Maybe so. But flashy isn't necessarily always my style."

"Surely though, there's gotta be something cool you could do, right?"

Daniel considered his options for a moment, before remembering that there was a piano in one of the Evangelion gantries here.

"You're gonna serenade him? Really?"

"Well, you wanted something less boring,"

Daniel replied as he began to make his way toward what he hoped were the old gantries. "Shinji's a musical kid, too. We started a whole band on the Wunder and everything."

"I'll take your word for it,"

Bradley said with a roll of her eyes Daniel could feel through their link.

It took some doing, and one fruitless look around a thoroughly ruined gantry, but the next one opened up to the sky, the sun beginning to go down illuminating the singular tree and grand piano that had, somehow, been gotten in here.

"Well, I'll be. I didn't expect that big a piano." Bradley remarked as Daniel piped a visual feed to her. "How did that get down here?"

"That's a question for Kaworu,"

Daniel replied as he stepped off the gantry catwalk, gently floating down on wings of the night sky until he touched the clear white tile. "In the meantime, I hope you're ready for a concert."

"I mean, anything's better than stewing in silence,"

Bradley replied as Daniel took a seat at the piano. "You could play just about anything and I'd probably call it a masterpiece."

'Anything, huh?'

Daniel mused, making sure to keep that thought to himself as he considered what, exactly, he could try and play. 'Might as well keep in theme with the Echo…'

He looked across the ivories, carefully maintained to an almost pristine quality, even in the outdoor conditions that they were in. 'Well, Mrs. Bell, I hope I didn't bury your lessons too deeply.' he thought as he chose the first song to play, and began to make the piano sing for him, however slowly it started.

. . .

Shinji looked down at the book in his hands once again and hoped that his plan would work. He would need every ally that he could get if he was to go through with going against his father. Nevermind the fact that there was a good chance that if he tried this… he would die.

'Not that father seems to care.' Shinji mused grimly. As always, he was simply a tool to him. How stupid had he been to not see it back then?

He and Kaworu were making their way back into the base, entering the massive exposed structure within the center of the Geofront that was now HQ. "If you do not mind," Kaworu began as they walked down darkened halls, "I would perhaps like to show you the piano. I feel that learning to play it together in the coming days will help us improve when we enter the simulator once again."

Shinji nodded, clearly unsure of himself. "I don't know… I don't exactly play piano."

Kaworu smiled slightly. "It is no problem. I do not expect you to be perfect at it. Only that it may help us to sync up. I will teach you."

Shinji regarded Kaworu with somewhat wide eyes. "Thank you," he said after a moment.

Kaworu smiled slightly as they changed course, taking the lead. "Of course, Shinji."

As they drew closer to the gantry where the piano waited, Shinji and Kaworu blinked as they heard something entirely out of the ordinary. They heard the piano already playing.

'Who, besides Kaworu…' Shinji wondered. 'Surely not father…'

Indeed, he was sure that even if his father knew how to play piano, he probably wouldn't play something so… jaunty. It was the most fitting word to describe the music that he heard, a tune that danced through the air and seemed to make him want to dance with it. More than that it somehow felt… familiar. Like he'd heard it a long time ago in a faraway place. Stranger still, as they went still and listened to the tune as it finished, the echoes of the song fading away, it made him think of… Asuka. 'Why?'

As they began to walk again, the piano started a new song. A song that Shinji recognized immediately. 'That's… Thanatos. Daniel!'

The pace picked up, Shinji beginning to take the lead as Kaworu kept up, Shinji following his ears and his heart as he weaved through the strange base towards the only man he knew who could play that song.

Soon, the pair burst into the open air, the light of a day beginning to die streaming in on a man in a blue jacket with blond hair in a tail with his back to them, swaying slightly as he played. Shinji and Kaworu approached slowly, Shinji, nearly enraptured by the song, not noticing the guarded look on Kaworu's face.

They came to a stop a few meters behind who Shinji was utterly sure was Daniel and waited for the song to finish, Daniel tapping out the notes slower and slower until the last note rang in the open air before fading away.

As the space fell silent, Daniel turned to face them, looking at Shinji with a weary smile. "You know, surprisingly, it took a lot more effort to get to this piano than it did to get here."

"Daniel…" Shinji said as the man stood and walked over to them. "How did you get here?"

Daniel shrugged. "I flew."

"You… flew," Kaworu said, and Shinji was surprised to hear the boy be… incredulous.

"Indeed I did," Daniel replied simply.

"How? And… why come after me?" Shinji said, several other questions beginning to whirl in his mind.

"First, the same way I can do this," Daniel said as he put his hand out, a speck of deep red crystal that reminded Shinji of core material swirling into a marble of crimson that he tossed to Kaworu, the boys studying it intently. "I'll admit, I've been keeping this from you and the others on the Wunder, but it's for a very good reason that I'm sure we'll have time to explain fully once we stop whatever your father has planned. And as for why…"

Daniel paused as the crystal lifted into the air out of Kaworu's hand, floating back to Daniel's as he shut his hand around it and put it in his pocket. "Well, Shinji… I'll admit, I followed to make sure nothing happened to you. And to make sure you didn't do anything unwise."

Shinji felt a jolt of shock at the words. "Unwise… Daniel, I want to save the world. And I want to do it right this time. If I can control myself when I create an Impact…"

"And how do you plan to do that?" Daniel interjected. "If you have a plan, I'm genuinely all ears."

Shinji opened his mouth… and realized there was nothing he could say with any certainty. Kaworu, however, filled the silence that he left. "His foundation is sound." the boy said rather pointedly. "And with the Spears of Cassius and Longinus within Terminal Dogma to act as key and control point, Shinji will be able to make his will manifest, regardless of what Commander Ikari wishes."

"Can you be so certain that Commander Ikari hasn't played you as much as he's played Shinji in the past… Commander?" Daniel said the last word with a low voice as if it were a great secret.

Shinji blinked as he realized that, yes, Daniel was still talking to Kaworu, and looked over at the boy with no small amount of confusion. "Kaworu? What's he talking about? What are you a commander of?"

Kaworu looked like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck, remaining silent as Daniel answered Shinji's question for him. "He's Commander Nagisa of WILLE, Shinji."

Kaworu's expression became defeated as Shinji felt dread beginning to bubble in the pit of his stomach. "Yes." Kaworu finally said. "I have been the shadow leader of WILLE for quite some time now, Shinji. My time in the Evangelion, and my proximity to Near-Third Impact when I stopped you from accidentally destroying the world, owe much to my youthful appearance."

"But the point still stands," Kaworu continued as he looked back at Daniel, "the Spears are the only way that Shinji will be able to truly change the world."

"And you're sure that Commander Ikari hasn't tampered with them? Like I said, he's played everyone before. And if there's anything I can be sure about, it's that he'd be willing to play you two and everyone else again."

"Commander Ikari, for all his intelligence, is still human. History has shown that humanity, without the help of an Evangelion, cannot tap into the power of a Spear. It is simply not possible."

"If there's anything Commander Ikari seems to not care about, the possible is among the first of them," Daniel warned. "If it's been within reach of your father, Shinji, frankly I don't trust it. There has to be a different solution to mending the world."

Shinji considered Daniel's words silently for a moment before shaking his head. "What other choice do we have besides the Spears?"

The question hung heavy in the air for a moment before Daniel sighed quietly, and Shinji caught him glancing down at the book. "What've you got there? Did you make a library run?"

Shinji looked down at the book before showing it to Daniel. "It's a book Rei read back before Near-Third Impact. I promised Ayanami that I would get it for her so that she would have something to enjoy."

Daniel smiled as he reached out a hand. "May I?"

The book was proffered to Daniel, who flipped through the pages. "The Iliad and Odyssey. Not exactly what I expected, but then again… Rei seems to have a penchant for defying those."

"Well," he continued as he closed the book and handed it back to Shinji, "far be it from me to get in the way of you helping someone out like this. I'll go ahead and move off in case you wanted to use this. But now you know I'm here if you need anything. Please… don't hesitate to find me."

Shinji nodded. "Okay, then. See you later."

The pair turned and began to walk out. Before they could reach the door, Daniel called after them. "Shinji."

Shinji looked back to see Daniel with a look of… anxiety in his eyes. It unsettled him. "Good luck." Daniel continued. "And I hope I'm wrong."

. . .

Daniel watched Shinji and Kaworu disappear and sighed as his hand went back to his pocket, to the gemstone that was within it.

"I've got to say, even past the whole ingrained compulsion thing you told me about a little while ago, the kid's not too bad anyways. I can see why Langley took a shine to him."

Daniel smiled slightly as he found another exit and began to make his way back toward the WILLE 'HQ'. "Yeah, it's a whole thing. But… he gets driven sometimes."

"And he's about to drive right off a cliff, from what you've told me. Unless you can convince him otherwise."

"He didn't even listen to Kaworu trying to stop him the last time I saw that. If he wants something,

really wants it, he'll go after it. I think that's what Commander Ikari's going to be betting on."

"Sounds like it."

It was silent between them for a moment as Daniel picked his way through the ruins, stopping sometimes to take in a sight that had taken on a different tone with the way the years had worn at this place after its nigh catastrophic battle. "So," Bradley said after a while, "why'd ya give Kaworu that funky gem?"

"It's for his soul,"

Daniel said rather matter-of-factly, something that he felt sent a shiver down Bradley's spine. "Damn fool's likely going to get himself killed for Shinji's sake. It's… for both of them, really. Shinji, to see that someone cares enough to try and keep all of what's coming from being a waste. And Kaworu… to see what isolating Shinji does to him."

"You're almost as bad as Commander Ikari."

"No. I've been far worse."

Daniel mourned that fact as he left it at that.