MAGETOBRIGA
"The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill."

NERV HQ, JAPAN, 2015

"Damn it all!"

Kaworu bit his lips as he paced inside his and Rei's shared room in the Med Ward. They never liked to be apart and Yui had long since determined it was separation anxiety. Right now, Kaworu was mad he couldn't have gotten to the Centurion sooner, as Rei had suffered some major and minor burns from the fire, not to mention the trauma of the event. He looked at his bandaged up palms and contemplated: "I should have volunteered. Why didn't I stop her from doing this?! Idiot!"

His self-recrimination was interrupted when he heard the door being knocked on. 'Weird,' he didn't expect Dr. Ikari to be arriving so soon. When he swung the door open he was surprised by Asuka standing there, tapping her foot impatiently with a pout on her face. "About time you opened up!", she exclaimed, "Don't you know it's rude to keep a girl waiting?"

Kaworu tried responding that it had taken him only a few seconds, but he didn't get the opportunity to do so, as she pushed past him and headed over to Rei's bed, where the white-haired albino laid unconscious. Her arm was in a sling and her eye was bandaged. An oxygen mask sat over her mouth, and the sound of her breathing in and out, in and out filled the heavy and empty silence of the ward.

"Wow, Wondergirl got messed up badly", Asuka said. She opened her mouth slightly, perhaps to say more, but no sound came out and she closed it after a few seconds.

Kaworu strolled over to his unconscious sister and gently squeezed her unburned hand. "It's my fault, he said with remorse. "I should have been the one to pilot the Centurion. But no, I just had to leave everything to my sister because I was too scared, too much of a coward." He sighed and looked away in shame. He really hated seeing his sister hurt. Especially because it was his fault.

"Are you dumb?! Why wouldn't you wanna pilot the Centurion?!" Asuka yelled out, looking extremely annoyed. Kaworu sat down on the side of his bed and thought. Why didn't he? There was no reason for him to decline at the time. Both Centurion 00 and 01 were ready to be built. Was he really that much of a coward, to accept the possibility of his sister dying if it meant he would live?

"Say, I never asked. But why do you and Wondergirl look like that?" Asuka asked, breaking him out of his thoughts. "It's Albinism", he explained, not really thinking about what he was saying, "Rei and I are from Eastern Europe." Asuka raised an eyebrow, intrigued, and asked another, more sensitive question.

"Why'd your parents let you come here?"

Kaworu's head shot up from looking at the floor. Their parents? They never knew them. They never needed them.

"They abandoned Rei and I and left us to starve by the wayside. But Dr. Ikari found us and took us in. We also met her son, Shinji. Between you and me I think Dr. Ikari did this for his safety." He recalled those early memories of him and Rei huddled together with a torn up blanket to protect from the freezing cold... It hurt, both the physical cold, and the cold inside his heart that such a memory stirred, but much to his dismay, Asuka kept talking.

"Oh, really?", Asuka intoned, venom in every letter she spoke, "Dr. Ikari, best scientist in the world, did this, adopting you and your sister, for her son's sake, sent you and your sister to do battle in his place? What is he, a wheelchair-bound paraplegic or something?"

Kaworu stared daggers at her, Shinji was like a brother to him; he'll be damned if anyone talked down to him or Rei on his watch.

"Don't say that. He's been sick his whole life and here you are, traipsing in with your expensive shoes and toothy grin, expecting this to be all heroics and action. Let me tell you something: the training Rei had to be put through to even be allowed inside the Centurion is more brutal than most militaries. And that says something considering the times we live in. You are insensitive, childish, and with outdated notions of-"

His rant abruptly ended, cut off, when Dr. Ikari walked into the room, causing him to stand at attention. Asuka giggled at his presumed fear. "That girl wouldn't know fear from respect if her life depended on it", he thought.

"Kaworu. Asuka. I see you two are getting along."

Yui said, unaware of the exact contents of their previous "conversation".

"Negative, ma'am. Dr. Kyoko's daughter and I have not befriended each other." Kaworu said without a hint of hesitation, earning him a glare from Asuka who proceeded to launch into a lengthy tirade in German.

Yui sighed. Today was gonna be a long day...
-

A few hours had passed. Yui had made sure Rei was in stable condition, then entrusted Naoko to monitor her. She had to get back to the Centurion and find out what exactly made it malfunction so badly.
Even now, she knew it was sabotage. Someone was after them, and although it was unlikely they had found out their true purpose so soon (the computer would have told her, that accursed thing-), she had a few candidates in mind for NERV's enemies. Her rapid rise in the weapons business bred hatred and contempt among the rival companies.
She headed across the facility, pristine and white and sterile, her shoes tip-tapping on the tiles, until she re-entered the Centurion testing area. The hangars still had some bakelite stains clinging onto them, red as blood, reminding her of the First's eyes. She shook her head and focused her attention back onto the disobedient machine, Centurion 00.

Even though the Sanhedrin, (that cursed Whore of Babylon, only-begotten daughter of Ananke), recommended that their mech be much, much larger, they didn't have the funding for a skyscraper sized mecha and so had to make do with a much smaller design, between four and five meters tall.

The Sanhedrin… Yui still wondered why Naoko was so insistent on creating a second computer, especially after the disaster that Ananke's reveal was, but she couldn't dispute it had given them good advice and guidance thus far.
Their future, too, was again shown to them, but instead of the horrifying imagery Ananke painted for them, Sanhedrin showed them quiet and stillness, the views from cameras looking into labs and hangars, long-ruined and empty. And most importantly, the view from a beach, with red waves crashing into it. That view had provided them the most information out of them all, though again not a single human was to be found.

Yui had two candidates in mind for saboteur. It had to have been either Naoko or Dr. Katsuragi. It was no secret their children, Ritsuko and Misato, worked for enemies of NERV, and not as agents either; so, in Yui's mind, their parents could be the agents. But no, Naoko knew their Scenario, and Katsuragi was a workaholic, his honesty always blunt, and not a politician or a schemer. Yui was more confused than anything, but still she had to find out who was behind it.

Warm arms embraced her from behind, and she immediately recognized her husband's hands and beard rubbing against her cheek. "Don't worry," Gendo said softly, "I and Section Two will work on finding who did this. You can worry about more important matters."
"Thank you, Gendo." She said, then turned and kissed him, but drew back quickly. She turned on her heel for her office; there was still work to be done.

Naoko made her way through the labyrinthine halls of the Geofront, undeterred from the day's earlier mishap. She had to consult with the Sanhedrin; this responsibility was best left to her, and her alone, yet Yui still interfered with her work from time to time. Luckily she had programmed less informative cycles into the machine, else Yui may have gone mad with the knowledge.

She was the only one who could handle this knowledge. Yui was too mentally feeble, Gendo too manipulative, Soryu too rash, and if not any of them, then why not her? This knowledge was instrumental to the future of not only NERV, but the entire world, but the future is not meant to be seen for a reason. She had learnt the lesson Ananke had taught; show everything, and you only incite panic. She was the gatekeeper for the future, giving only hints as to how to fix it, and leaving out the un-pleasantries.

Soon enough she was in the elevator, heading down the levels of the Geofront.

If only Yui knew how much her knowledge had saved NERV time and resources and given them an edge. She was the one who found Rei and Kaworu (though she did not know why Rei looked ever so slightly different from how the Sanhedrin depicted her…). She was the one who proposed the building of a Geofront, and the one behind the design of the Centurions, yet it always seemed Soryu and Yui would receive all the attention, from journalists, co-workers. Even their own children gave them more love and attention than hers.

No matter; she had bigger fish to fry. The Sanhedrin did give information, yes, but it still needed a human mind to interpret it. As the doors of the elevator opened and the cold white lights greeted her, she knew this was what she was destined for all along.

SHIN-SHINKIRO, JAPAN

The city of Shin-Shinkiro had been built near the beginning of the Resource Wars, one of the many military colonies spread out over the ruins of the Japanese countryside in the wake of the aerial raids during the First Resource War. This city had been reinforced with state-of-the-art radars, anti-air defenses, protective walls around the city, the works. And, least popularly, the city was occupied directly by the Japanese military and governed from their military base there, "to keep the peace, defend the city", and track down (and kill, he knew that well enough even if they'd never admit it-) any dissenters or insurrectionists who dared to oppose their righteous war effort.

But all that still didn't deter one nosy investigative journalist from going out of his way to gain (possibly illegal) information at every turn. Right now, he was waiting in a rather seedy bar to meet with his contact in the JSDF. Apparently, there's a new project being developed by the paramilitary corporation known as NERV, with the help of the JSDF, and he wanted to know everything, especially if it might relate to The Secret. Or, at least he would've like to, because right now he had been waiting for his contact for forty minutes and they were a no-show. He considered just leaving before a purple haired woman took a seat on the stool next to him and began speaking

"Are you the contact?", she asked the unshaven man. He was rather surprised, he expected a stereotypical grizzled man in a trench-coat, or something cliché like that. Not a woman his age. And - wait, did he know her from somewhere?

"That would be me. So, what do NERV and the JSDF have planned, miss … sorry, what's your name?"

"Katsuragi. Major Misato Katsuragi."
"Katsuragi? Didn't we go to the same college?"
She thought for a moment, clearly thrown off-center. Good. "You do seem familiar. I don't think we attended the same classes, though."
She then continued. "The new collaborative project is an effort to create a battle-ready mechanical weapon, codenamed the Centurion. In addition, you're not the first person I've leaked this information to; I've already told an acquaintance of mine who works for Jet Alone." She waved the barkeep over and ordered two beers - both for her.

"Jet Alone? The aircraft company? Why would they be interested in a "mechanical weapon", and what does that even mean?"
She took a sip before replying. "You ever watch anime?". Her tone was too serious for such a mundane question, and he had to stop himself from chuckling.
"Sure I did," He said, no idea where she was going. "Did you ever watch Gundam?", she continued.
At that point, his surprise must've showed, because she wore a smirk on her face and took a swig from her beer bottle. So, they were essentially … building a mech. Their top secret weapon. Was a mech. He felt like he had just entered a bad anime plot, but why would she claim such an outlandish lie? That proved she was saying the truth, or at least part of it, in his mind.

"Well," he said, stuttering, trying to recover his calm, "how much will our little secret be?". He tapped the suitcase under the table for emphasis, placed there by a well-bought rat.
"Oh, do you think I'm some cheap whore who does it for the money? I told you a secret. Now you have to tell me one." She leaned in closer and whispered. "What are you really after, "contact"? I noticed you prowling around bases up and down this entire prefect. Are you a dissenter? Insurrectionary? Republican?"
He summoned up his most charming smile and said, "I didn't know what I was after before, but now I know who I am after, Miss Katsuragi." She seemed utterly unimpressed, though her eyes betrayed some mirth.
"You still have to give me a secret, tit for tat", she said, leaning back in her chair and no longer whispering. "Fine," he stalled, "How about this one. NERV was only founded in 2005. That's in between the First and Second Wars. Every military company involved in the Wars aside from NERV was founded either right before the First, or during a War. So, what does this suggest?" He said, his palms opened on the table, trying to keep things vague. He didn't want to give her too much, and phrasing it like a non-sequitur would throw her off his trail. He hoped.
"It means they weren't founded for war-profiteering like the rest," she fired back immediately, and he was both glad that she caught it, and mad that she got one over him.

He let the silence stand for a while, then spoke. "Well, Miss Katsuragi, a pleasure to see you again. I do hope it isn't the last time?" He offered his hand. She shook it, but said nothing back, her satisfaction evident on her face, and slunk through the seedy bar into the night.

He lingered a while, but eventually the journalist paid his tab and made his way out. He had to admit, she was a looker, but he couldn't get reliant on her in case she was investigated by her employers. For now, what he was given was sufficient enough. As he was walking out, it struck him that she mentioned something about a friend in Jet Alone. That didn't connect at all to The Secret, so what were Jet Alone up to? What was she up to, mentioning that out of nowhere, but being otherwise tight-lipped, well-vetted? He didn't know, and if there was one thing Ryouji Kaji despised, it was not knowing.
JET ALONE HQ, JAPAN
In a dark and forgotten corner of the Jet Alone HQ in Tokyo, Head of the Science Division Dr. Ritsuko Akagi sat down beside a certain Major Misato Katsuragi.
"Are you sure he's smart enough to catch your little hint? And what makes you think he can get his hands on that "mechanical weapon" anyway? He's just some journalist." The bottle-blonde said, pacing around the room, lit up only by old computers and populated by a roadway of wires.
"He's not just some journalist, Rits. He busted the old War Minister back in '04, remember?"
"That makes it worse!" Her arms hit an old computer square in the monitor, leaving a crack. "That Kaji guy is a dissident, he's on at least three blacklists. Why would you ever involve a blockhead like him in this?"
"Rits, Rits, Rits," Misato tutted, "He's the fall guy in case we're caught. How can he prove I spoke with him, I gave him nothing for evidence. He, on the other hand, will give us the blueprints to NERV's fancy Centurion."
This was the wrong thing to say. If Ritsuko was agitated earlier, this little statement sent her into the realm of hysterics.
"Blueprints?! Blueprints?! Ha! Fat chance! You doomed us, Misato. NERV will now surely become a monopoly, NERV will own the war business, and NERV will lord over the next 30 years like a cartoon villain. You. Doomed. Us." The scientist stormed out, blue in the face.
Misato leaned back in her old chair, though it creaked. Ritsuko would see reason, she was sure. Kaji had a mission, and it involved taking down NERV. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Misato says.

NERV will not win.
Special thanks to: a friend of mine for beta reading.

And thank you for reading.

Original publish date for this chapter: Feb 25, 2023.