End of the Future, Part 15
Broken Hearts
Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I am doing wrong (to correct it).
Same Building the Katsuragi-Ikari-Soryu Apartment was located
First Floor, South Apartment 2
"What's going on? Where is she?" Doc slid the door violently open, alarmed by Marty's call. Asuka was close behind, holding a small crowbar as a weapon, ready to strike.
"Who are/re/re you, people?" A face stared at them from one of the computer screens. She looked strange, like her face had been covered in angular latex make-up, her hair looked almost as if a beehive had exploded and frozen in time. Behind her, colored bars rotated and spun in the screen. Her movements went back and forth, and her speech interrupted and repeated itself randomly.
"Marty?" Doc asked, "We heard a crash." He looked around, looking for an attacker, ignoring the screen. Unconsciously, he rubbed his left armpit.
"Uh, that was Jennifer." He was pulling her up, "she fell over the coffee table when, uh, she screamed at Rei." His thumb pointed at the screen, while Jennifer managed to stand up again.
She rubbed her back, wincing. "Yeah, I'm okay, Doc. Sorry about that."
"You st/t/till haven answered my qu/question!" The face in the screen insisted, her tone heavy with barely contained anger. "And What/t/t did you do to/to/to me? I have never been in such poor res/res/res! And why am I Stu/tu/tering? Where is the/the/the rest of me?/me?/me?" She looked down. When she looked back up again, she caught her reflection on a mirror, "Oh, great/t/t… I'm M/M/Max Head/He/Headroom!" (1)
"Uh?" Marty said, helping Jennifer sit down.
"Hell! That doesn't/t/t matt/tt/tter. That murderer has to face justice/ce/ce!" She looked at Rei.
Doc put a hand on his forehead, while he loosened the collar of his shirt with the other. "Miss Ayanami? A murderer?"
"I saw her turn people into liquid/quid over at Ame/me/merica! She tried to do the same t/t/to me! But I escaped/pe/pe/ped!"
Rei looked down. Was she ashamed? "I…" she looked up, back to the face in the screen, "I am not a murderer!"
"No? I saw your handiwork/k/k first hand! Turning/ing/into people into Tang is not killing th/them?"
Marty defended Rei, "Everybody Can return if they want! They are not dead."
"What? H/h/how?"
Shinji sat down in fron of the screen, "You just have to want to come back." He said hesitantly. "Their souls are all there. The Sea contains everything needed to remake their bodies. All they need to do is to want to come back to the real world."
"Yeah, s/s/s/sure!" She scoffed. "And how do you know th/th/that, kid?"
Seeing there was no immediate threat, Asuka put her crowbar down on the table with a muted "clunk" sound, "First. Hand. Experience. He and I came back. The tanging is what happens when your soul leaves your body behind." She paused, "I mean, without dying first. The body loses cohesion and turns into primordial soup. Or whatever you wanna call it."
"And that is not/not/not murder?"
Jennifer spoke, "Look, things got really bad with the Angels and stuff. Rei did the best she could to guide Third Impact and save people."
The apparition seemed to consider things, "Exp/p-p/plain. Quickly/ly."
Asuka stood up, pulling Shinji after her. "Third and I have already seen this movie several times. I have no wish for another encore. We are going to prepare coffee. You guys explain things. Shinji, with me. I have a craving for over-sugared black coffee and stale cookies." She announced. Meekly, Shinji followed her to their apartment.
Minutes later
"I see. So… I have/ve/ve enough soul to ent/t/ter Instrumentali/li/lity?"
"It seems so, Miss LeBrook." Doc said, with a wince. He worked his mouth a little, "Excuse me, I think something I ate disagrees with me." He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe his forehead.
She simply nodded, as she lacked hands to express herself. That was really annoying! "Hmm…" Lisa looked up, deep in thought. "And you think/k you can prevent the Impacts? Both of them?"
Marty nodded, "We need to do a lot of things, and make extra plans, in case we can't stop the Impacts."
Lisa's image froze. When she moved again, it seemed she had accumulated several words worth of speech. "ThenIdemandtobeincluded! You'llneedalotofcomputeranalysis and I c/c/can do that. Even nerfed, I can gather and analyze data faster than any oth/th/ther system in the world."
Doc winced again, rolling his left arm, "Your help would certainly be appreciated, Miss LeBrook. But how can we get you back? In the computers memory cards?"
Lisa thought for a moment, "I lo/lo/lost part of myself during the travel here/here. I guess the computer/ter network that held my self must have f/f/failed while I was transmi/mi/transmitting myself here. I was a reality/ty/ty warper. Now I'm just an A. I./I./I. I don't have a physical/sycal body now. So, I just need to compress/sss/ss myself into a hard ha/ha/hard drive and store myself/myself in it."
For the first time in a long time, Rei spoke, her head tilted to one side. "That would not work."
"What? I traveled here/re/here as data!" Lisa argued.
"You are more than just an Artificial Intelligence. You have a soul. If you travel in time as data stored in a mechanical medium, you'll lose what makes you an independent entity. You would devolve. I myself I'm in the process of recreating my original body so it can function independently of my presence as a fully functional entity. You are in a similar situation. Though it would affect your whole state of existence."
"And you/ou/you know everything/g/g about souls, don't y/ou/You?"
"I am connected to all souls, yes. I do know about souls. As Rei Ayanami, I was created to be the ultimate psychopomp. The ferrier of souls into Instrumentality. I am part of Lilith, the entity that created the original souls in the first place. I know what I speak of. I was literally made for that very purpose."
Lisa looked at her with a strange expression on her face. "You are not/t/t th/th/that big, girl."
"This body is just an avatar created for the purpose of communication. My true being is, simultaneously, buried in a subterranean chamber under the ruins of NERV, dispersed into a web of connections in the Sea of Souls, as the mind supervising the Gestalt that forms Instrumentslity." She paused, "And as this avatar."
"God C/c/complex much?" Lisa asked acidly.
"I am no God. I ceded that role to Shinji Ikari when Instrumentality started. That…" she sighed, "that was not the best decision, I realize it now; but he was the only candidate I could think of. The ones who planned for Instrumentality were not judged worthy."
"Why?" For once, Lisa's voice was even. "Why hi/hi/him?"
"Because he was nice to me."
Former Katsuragi-Ikari-Soryu Apartment
"Do you think they are on the level?" Asuka asked while she poured her coffee, without any preamble to her question.
"I hope so." He muttered, "maybe I'm wrong, but I want to believe in them."
"Yeah." She mumbled. "So do I."
"Do you… do you believe we will… um…" he waved his hand vaguely.
"Yeah. If they are right, this universe can't allow paradoxes. The timelines can change, but paradoxes are erased." She sipped her coffee with a calm that disturbed Shinji. "Stupid single timeline universe… In a branching multiverse, this would be a piece of cake. This kind of paradox cannot exist in a branching multiverse."
"You seem to be okay with not existing." He noted.
"I am a soldier, Third. I was raised as one. Most of my life I have known death in the line of duty could happen." She explained, patiently; though her eyes flicked around. Shinji guessed she was looking for her imaginary companions. She continued, "And those last months before Third Impact did quite a number on my psyche." She stirred another spoonful of sugar in her cup. "And yours too. Don't even try to pretend it didn't. I remember what happened on the beach when we returned." She rubbed her neck. "And some flashes of Instrumentality."
Shinji averted his eyes. She continued. "Stop that. I am not free of guilt in that. I've had a lot of time to think about it. And I am not so deluded as to deny my own part in that train wreck."
He stared at her, raising his eyes to meet hers. But didn't know what to say.
Asuka nodded, "Tell you what. I propose we work together. You, me, Wonder Girl and the others." She put her coffee mug on the table, and extended an open hand to him, "We go to 1986, and take the time to have a well deserved vacation. Rebuild our strength and our minds as best as we can, learn all we can about our true enemies. And then, we sharpen our blades and don our armor. And in the name of everything we hold dear, everything that was taken from us, we do our damned best to end this stupid Engel War before it even begins, destroy everything those mummified bastards want, and go into oblivion with our heads held high. Are you with me?"
He looked at her hand for a brief moment. Then at her eyes. Ah! There it was. The proud fire that showed her spirit. It was mesmerizing to see it again. After all those months when she had been a sad shadow of herself, she was back!
Without realizing it, his own eyes shone with similar fire. He pursed his lips decisively, and extended his hand to shake hers. However, instead of the usual handshake, she gripped his wrist, allowing him to grip hers. He didn't know why she had done it that way, it was a strange grip; but somehow, it felt natural.
Her lips opened in a vengeful smile. "We fight, Third. We fight to win. We fight to protect. And we fight knowing this time we will die. We die so others will live."
"Yes." His grip was strong now. Instead of the timid shake he used to have, now he was answering her forceful grip with the same force. Just as it should have been from the beginning. It thrilled and scared her in the same measure. If a meek and downtrodden Shinji was dangerous if forced to fight, what would a determined Shinji be?
Same Building the Katsuragi-Ikari-Soryu Apartment was located
First Floor, South Apartment 2.
"Then, what can we do to transport Miss LeBrook with us?" Doc rubbed his chest, wincing.
"We, I, must convert her current being into a variant of LCL. I can convert her back into data once we are in the past, provided we have access to a big enough computer system to contain her initial download. That way, I can ensure her soul is preserved."
"That's…" Doc clutched his chest with his right hand, and fell onto the floor.
"Marty! What's happening?" Jennifer exclaimed.
"Doc! Doc!" Marty turned Doc's body face up. The old scientist eyes darted wildly around the room. Marty checked the pulse, it was weak and erratic. "Damn! I think it's a heart attack, Jennifer! We need to get him to a hospital!" (2)
Author's Notes:
(1) Max Headroom is a curious character in the 1980s pantheon. He was original created as a host for music videos in England in early 1985. As the videos played, there were snippets of a TV movie with the character as part of a dystopic future. This was the basis for a short lived series in England, and for another series in the USA. Max was also part of several ad campaigns, most notably, Coke. In the Back to the Future 2 scene at the 1980s Café, Max is referenced indirectly, as all the servers are basically, computer programs simulating 1980s celebrities, done in a similar style to Max Headroom. The Ronald Reagan and Ayatollah Khomeini parodies try to convince Marty to order food, only for him to buy a Pepsi. But the first one we see, is Michael Jackson, wearing his trademark Thriller red jacket.
(2) According to the BTTF Wikia, Doc was born, at the earliest, in 1914, the date I'm using in this story, though there are contradicting dates. He is not exactly young at 71 years old, and has been under a lot of stress. Though he didn't mention any heart problems in Back to the Future 2, I don't think it's farfetched to think all that stress would end up causing a heart attack.