The air was dusty and stale. It was hot, and no one had bathed in days. Absently pushing his glasses further up his nose, Gendo waited as his guide talked to the ancient digger on the side of the road. Apparently, after his agent here and sent the message to him in Tokyo-3, he had disappeared into the ruins and hadn't come out since. He sent the local workers back and forth between the dig and their encampment to obtain food and water, as well as batteries and fuel.
At long last the guide turned to the Commander, waving the elderly man along. "Sir, the director of the dig is at the bottom of the ruins, and awaits you there." He fidgeted nervously. This simple expedition was rapidly becoming more than he had signed on for. Who showed up looking for a guide across a wasteland to reach a well-known archaeological dig when they had their own airstrip? Especially when the man paying him was paying enough to hire his own aircraft.
Gendo watched the local guide. It was clear that more had been said. "What else did he say? Is there trouble with the dig?" He knew well there was no such trouble, at least, any official trouble with the dig.
"It's nothing, sir. Just, old superstitions. He says this is an unholy place, full of evil and wickedness. That we should not be here, that we should leave the evil where it lies. He says this valley's curse has claimed many lives and souls in the past."
"Foolishness. If we should not be here, if this dig should be stopped, then why is he here, digging for us?" Gendo Ikari was not known for making small talk with his underlings, but he knew if his guide decided to high-tail it out of the ruins, getting back out unnoticed by SEELE's agents was going to be difficult.
The guide's face brightened. "Exactly, Senor! If this is such an evil place, why is he here helping?" Cheered up immensely, his troubles banished by this seemingly bulletproof logic, he tapped out a cigarette and lit it. "Shall we be on our way then?"
"Yes. I need to speak to Dr. Aberness."
It amused Gendo to no end to think that the valley and the city that had been constructed here in old were once indeed home to a most definite power of destruction, an incomprehensible horror from beyond time and the stars. Nothing slept here but relics of the past. There was much to be gleaned from these relics and ancient tales of otherworldly terrors, however, for the stories they told gave hints of the Angels to come.
Dr. Henry Aberness was a dedicated archaeologist and historian and had been devastated by Second Impact, which had thrown the world into disarray, plunging sites and digs under tidal waves, and then later, when others became war zones in the Impact Wars. In all the turmoil, no one was interested in the past anymore. So when he had been approached by an anonymous benefactor to begin new digs at several points across the globe, he jumped at it but also did some digging on his own. Who, in this day and age, had such money? Why was it being used for this, rather than being used to help rebuild the world? He was dedicated, yes, but he was not naive, or stupid. Someone had another goal, and he did not like being used.
His breakthrough had come far away from the lands of the Yucatan in Central America, on the other side of the world. His dig had found texts akin to the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls. When they had been "lost" when revolutionaries hit the caravan taking them to be mailed off to a lab to be tested, he knew then that someone had been looking for them.
The world of academia is not unlike the world of spies. Everyone has contacts, and everyone seems to know each other. Dr. Aberness's contacts had finally come through for him, and he had the name of the man who had funded his digs.
This man was a powerful man, highly placed in the UN and sitting on several advisory boards. A man with no history of even a passing interest in archaeology. Dr. Aberness was at a loss for what to do when his confidant mentioned there were others interested in such relics. Through several indirect methods, word had reached Gendo Ikari's ear that someone connected with the "Second Dead Sea Scroll Find" wanted to talk to him.
It had been a long, hard journey to get here, traveling to avoid the prying eyes and ears of SEELE. He knew that Dr. Aberness was working on a SEELE-funded dig, but for him to find a way via an extremely roundabout way to contact him meant he didn't want SEELE to know they were meeting or had opened lines of contact.
Fortunately for both of them, Gendo made several trips to seemingly nowhere locations each year at random times, dropping off all grids, just to further obfuscate his true designs and further the air of mystery surrounding him. It also allowed him to meet secretly with people if needed, in cases such as this.
Another guide appeared at the entryway into the deepest tunnels of the dig, waving to them.
Leaving his escorts to wait inside the entryway, out of sight of the rest of the workers, Gendo made his way down into the earth following the guide.
Misato glanced at 1LT Ibuki. "What was that Maya?" She asked the younger woman, before moving her eyes back to the main monitor.
Maya Ibuki stole a glance at the other techs, who shrugged back at her. "I said that his sync ratio is showing odd fluctuations; it's not settling down on a steady rate."
Moving closer to look at the synchronization graph display, Misato watched as Shinji's sync ratio hung around the mid-30s, bumping up and dropping a few points. "Will it keep him from being able to pilot?"
"N..no, but it will make controlling the Evangelion harder. A steady ratio is necessary for-"
Misato cut her off absently. "Keeping fine control of the unit. Right." Opening a comm channel to the purple behemoth, she noted Shinji had set the Evangelion to display sound only. That's odd... "Shinji, is everything okay? Your sync ratio is fluctuating. You'll be alright, just remember your training. You've done the hardest part, the second time is always easier."
Hyuga shot the Captain a questioning look. Noticing his gaze, she covered the mike. "The hardest time to open fire and kill the enemy is the first time. Once you're past that mental block, it gets easier. The Evangelion is just a massive, specialized tank, after all."
As positive and upbeat as she sounded, she felt horrible for saying it though. The first time you kill is the hardest. It just keeps getting easier to kill. What are we doing to these kids? Adults don't even always get over it. As bad as she felt about putting Shinji through this, and as much as she wished she could take his place, she knew that right now Shinji was the only one who could. Which meant it was her responsibility to make sure that it happened.
"I'm... I'm okay, Captain." His voice hitched a little, but his sync rate smoothed out, though it was lower than his previous harmonics tests. Which was only to be expected after all, as this was going to be a real battle.
Misato turned to the main screen again, watching the incoming insectoid Angel, still making its way into the city, not using the appendages tucked underneath it to move, but simply floating along. "Launch the Evangelion!" She cried, her eyes narrowed. Let us win, oh God, please let us win. We don't need the Commander here to watch over us. We'll kill it and have the place cleaned up before he gets back... from wherever it is he's gone off to.
Misato, intent on the operation at hand, did not notice Rei slip into the command center, up on the Commander's platform, high above the rest of the main floors. She stood off the side, opposite of where the Sub-Commander normally stood. She had not changed into her plug-suit, as her arm was still bandaged up. Also Unit-00 was still currently encased from the waist down in bakelite, and it was doubtful that in an emergency necessitating her activating the Evangelion, she would be able to do so.
Denied her purpose today, she decided to content herself with gathering data as first-hand as she possibly could in the current circumstance, especially seeing as she could hide up here and observe with no one noticing or commanding her to wait in the locker room. Not wishing to interfere with the running of the operation, and wishing to remain unnoticed, and thus not affecting that which she observed, she remained hidden on the tower. She turned to view-screen, observing the Angel, and listening to the Captain's briefing to Pilot Ikari.
"Okay, Shinji. You'll come up inside one of the false buildings. Exit, and button-hook left. The Angel will be right in your sights. Just do it like you've practiced!
"Roger." His voice, Rei noted, was devoid of any enthusiasm or anticipation of engaging the Enemy. Is Pilot Ikari always like this? Observed behavior patterns in school neither overly support nor discredit this. He is usually... somewhat more animated than this, or perhaps less... apathetic. This is an event of major importance. The Future and Fate of Mankind hinge on these battles. Does Pilot Ikari not realize this?
Perhaps he does not care about the Future and Fate. Mankind, at the hands of student Suzahara has not particularly endeared itself to him. It also appears he has not been fully or properly briefed on the resources afforded him if he was unaware of his Section 2 escort. If he realizes this, he perhaps thinks that mankind is conspiring against him and, as such, is not worthy of his guardianship.
Would Pilot Ikari allow himself to be injured and/or killed in order to prove a point? Rei pondered this for a moment; it was all the time she needed to apply everything she knew about him to the question. Commander Ikari will not hesitate to do such a thing if it fits into his scenario. Pilot Ikari no doubt would as well. What then, should be done to properly motivate him to fight the Angel? If he no longer cares about not becoming extinct via Third Impact, that makes properly motivating him a major issue. The dead do not care for the affairs or trappings of the living.
While Rei was mulling over that mental puzzle, Shinji was preparing to engage the Angel once the catapult delivered him to the surface, and dealing with the LCL in the plug. Being submerged in LCL helped with the connection between Pilot and Evangelion and acted as a shock absorber, but it also did nothing good for his broken nose, which now began to bleed freely once more. Despite this, and the multiple G-forces pulling at him, his mind wandered to the beating he had received and Rei's odd behavior. She only tried cleaning up and bandaging me because she felt obligated because of what I did on that catwalk. She doesn't care. Nobody does. Section 2 didn't stop that guy from breaking my nose, or my ribs! Nobody told me they were even around! What else are they not telling me?
The time for introspection and speculation had come to an end, however, for he had reached the top of the catapult, and the false side of the skyscraper dropped and the final locks released, and he eased off the platform. Readying his pallet rifle, he spun around the left side, his eyes widening as he spotted the insectoid enemy, and pulled the switch once the Angel was centered in the electronic sight. It was different from the rifle he had shot with 1LT Shigeru at the range, as they had used what the technician called iron sights. The triggers were the same, however, and as he pulled the switch in the Entry Plug, the pallet rifle spat car-sized shells at the Angel.
Smoke and debris billowed up, and Shinji lost sight of the Angel. Where is it? Is it down? He heard Miss Misato's voice yelling at him from the comm line. He paused, trying to catch what she was saying, his head throbbing from both the beating and synchronization. He caught sight of the electric pink of the tentacles of the beast, and jumped back awkwardly, his rifle coming apart in his hands. He made to flee but was tossed backward through the building behind him, the tower of steel and glass crashing down on him, doing absolutely nothing helpful for his head, which now felt like it was on fire, in addition to the throbbing.
Of course, the fact that Unit-01's head was on fire probably had something to do with that.
On a hilltop, not very far from the outer edge of Tokyo-3's city limits, Kensuke Aida watched the debacle through the viewfinder of his camera. His friend, Toji Suzahara stood next to him, mouth agape as he watched the gigantic figures fighting. "This guy sucks!" He finally yelled in disbelief.
Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!
Toji and Kensuke sat in the shelter, lounging on one of the provided mats while they waited out the battle. Kensuke mumbled something under his breath about NERV censorship of the press, as all wireless connections showed only a sideshow of "soothing" images, with a message superimposed over them about how all communication lines and signals were restricted during the Alert due to interference with the electronics of NERV weaponry.
Deciding he wasn't that interested in the series of kittens that was currently being shown on the public broadcasting channel, he shut the camera's wireless connection down. "You know, Toji, you really messed that Ikari kid up. I mean, he was spitting up a lot of blood. You probably broke his nose too." He watched his friend sitting across the mat. "If he hadn't kept talking about it, I would have doubted that he was the pilot. I mean, where was his security? Why didn't he at least try to defend himself? He just, I dunno... took it. Even after you got nasty." He glanced around at the others around them, keeping his voice low so as not to be overheard. "We need to talk. Privately."
Toji leveled a stare at his nerdy friend. "Are you being serious?" Watching him nod, Toji sighed. "Alright." Putting his shoes back on, he balled up a piece of paper from his bag and chucked it at Hikari, lightly hitting her in the back of the head.
Flushing red, she spun around from the conversation she had been having with her more dignified friends, ready to chew whoever was throwing things in the shelter out. Toji cut her off before she got started, pushing Ken along in front of him. "Hey Class Rep, we're going to the can!"
Choking a strangled response, she watched as they left the main shelter room. She narrowed her eyes at their retreating backs. She'd have something for them once they got back.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Toji folded his arms, not believing the insanity being spewed by his long-time compatriot. "We are not going up to the surface to watch the robot slug it out with a giant monster. Going out while a war's going on is how people get hurt or killed. How do you think my sis got hurt? She was mucking around outside a shelter. Like hell I'm going out there with you."
Ken stared in open disbelief at what he just heard. "WHAT? You beat the living daylights out of the pilot and it wasn't totally his fault? Why was she outside the shelter? This is great. We're gonna be so screwed after all this is over. He's gonna press charges, and NERV security's gonna pick us up and kill us. I mean, what the hell?"
Toji's eyes widened as the potential long-term consequences of his actions suddenly popped into his head. "Oh shit. Wait, no one would believe him. Who would beat up a pilot?"
Ken shook his head. "Dude, you broke his nose. His face was all torn up, and you can't tell me you didn't break something when you were kicking him. That's not something you just let go."
"What...what about you? You stood there and watched! Oh man..."
"And even if he doesn't say anything about it, for whatever reason, what about Rei? She walked in on it! She's weird, but she'll definitely say something."
"Maybe we can talk to her. Convince her not to say anything." Toji was grasping at straws now, desperate to escape what dark fate was now in store for him.
"Dude, that sounds like a bad idea. Besides, I don't think I saw her with the others."
"Duh, she doesn't have any friends." Toji wasn't sure why Ken was being so thick right now when their very lives depended on them thinking of a way out of their current predicament.
"No, I mean I don't think I saw her in the shelter at all! She's all banged up and probably can't move around that well. Maybe she fell behind in the evacuation and got locked out?"
Toji paled at the thought of the fragile-looking bandaged-up girl trapped on the outside in the middle of a war. A war where the pilot was a careless moron who smashed up his own city. "We've got to rescue her! If she's stuck up there, there's no telling what might happen to her!"
Ken nodded. If they managed to get her to safety, she might stay silent out of gratitude, at least until they could come up with some plausible explanation. Besides, she might be a cold and distant weirdo, but that was no reason to leave her to die. Not to them, at any rate.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Evangelion Unit-01 stumbled around downtown Tokyo-3, reeling like a dazed man, trying to both beat at the flames burning on its head and clutch its head in agony at the same time. From their vantage point at the entryway to the shelter, the young boys watched as the giant came into contact with the Angel once more.
"This guy SUCKS!" Toji shouted again. "Look at him! He's not even fighting back!"
Kensuke lowered the camera. "Maybe you knocked him around a little too much man. I don't think it's easy to try to fight with broken ribs or bones."
"Shut up! It's not my fault! C'mon, let's just find Ayanami and get the hell back down into the shelter." Kensuke nodded, but still paused, filming the scene below once more. He was torn between his love of military equipment and photography and the need to find the lost injured girl. Toji made the choice for him, however, pushing him down the path before him.
They made their way down, calling out for Ayanami, Kensuke still filming the fight, such as it was, with the robot being tossed around. "C'mon, guy, get it together!" Ken muttered under his breath.
Almost as if he had been heard, he watched, stupefied as the robot grabbed a rifle out of a building and opened up on the Angel. "That's it! Yeah!" He squinted at the rifle, and the shells falling to the side. "Dude, Toji! Look at the size of the rounds! They've got to be the size of a truck!"
Toji halted, if only to smack Ken, but watched the shells ejecting from the rifle. They were huge. And yet, from what he could tell, they weren't doing anything to the Angel.
As suddenly as the pilot seemed to get his act together to fight back, he lost it all again, as the electric whips swung out and caught the power cable plugged into the back of the robot, and then tossed the robot high up into the sky. The boys stared in horror, tracing the arc down... right onto them!
Shinji sat for a moment in shock, stunned by the impact, and then he caught motion on the screen in the corner of his eye. The sensors following his eye movement focused and magnified the faces of the boys on his screens. It's those guys from class! The ones who beat me up! Why are they here?
Misato stared at the display showing the Pilot's point of view. "Who the FUCK are those kids?" She screamed, pointing at the screen. "What are they even doing out of the shelter?"
Rei was also staring at the displays, mind racing. This is... oddly coincidental. What was the likelihood of the two boys who had beaten Pilot Ikari being out of the shelter, running around when an Angel fight was going on? Why are they outside of the approved shelters?
Shinji looked back up in time to catch the Angel's tentacles in his hands, the crackling energy starting the melt the armor on the hands and cook the flesh beneath. He tried to move around as little as possible, trying to watch both the boys and the angel.
"Shinji!" Misato's voice cut through the haze of battle for some reason, cutting through the pounding of his heartbeat, strong in his ears. "Hold the Evangelion on its current commands, eject the plug, and get them in it. Retreat to the nearest sub-section, and we'll regroup. You've got 3 minutes left of power."
"Roger!" His voice was hoarse, even though he hadn't screamed as much this time around.
Dr. Akagi was not so accepting of the Captain's orders, however. "What makes you think that you can put two civilians in the entry plug?"
Misato glared at her college friend. "I'm authorizing it. We need to get them out of the way so he can maneuver. METTT-C, Rits. Besides, they won't be in the plug that long." She turned back to the screens. "What's the current power level?"
Hyuga spoke up, his fingers flying over his keyboard. "He's got two minutes left. Plug is reinserted, coming on line now!" The moment he spoke, however, a new alarm went off. The synchronization score had tanked.
Maya cried out to the rest of the crew, desperation in her voice. "There's noise in the plug! It's from the foreign bodies! He won't be able to fight!"
"He's not supposed to fight, he needs to retreat! Shinji, retreat! Get out of there!"
Inside the entry plug, which was filled with some thick liquid that stank of blood that they told them to breathe, of all things, Toji and Kensuke could see nothing but blank gray walls, the chair and harness of the plug, and the Pilot. They could hear people shouting, but they couldn't see any speakers.
"Hey, new guy! They're telling you to retreat! C'mon, let's go! What are you waiting for?" Toji's voice began to grow more and more frantic as the kid sat, slumped in the seat, staring at the wall of the tube. Then he began to scream, of rage and mindless anger. The entry plug shook, and Toji's eyes widened as he traced a thin tendril of red in the liquid up to the boy's nose. The light in the plug turned red, and he felt as if someone was stabbing him in the gut. He clutched his head as images flashed before his eyes, the nondescript tube replaced with a full-on view of the Angel, and he watched with a weird sort of out-of-body sensation as the movements of Ikari moved his body and view, thrusting a knife deep into the body of the Angel.
Ikari never stopped screaming, mindlessly as he tore chunks of meat from the Angel's body. From somewhere, he wasn't sure where, Toji got the idea of a clock running down to zero. Just as this mental countdown ceased, the Angel stopped struggling. The images stopped assailing Toji and Kensuke's minds, and they sat there, clutching onto the sides of the seat. Ikari had ceased screaming and now sat, hunched over, clutching his head and side, making odd gurgling sounds.
It would not be until much later, while in solitary quarantine, that Toji realized that Ikari had been crying.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Misato paced back and forth in the hallway, waiting for Ritsuko to give Shinji a clean bill of health so she could go in and give him a piece of her mind. He had to know that he couldn't just disregard her orders on the battlefield. He might have gotten lucky today, but what about next time? She stopped as she watched Rei exit the elevator. What was that girl up to? She hadn't waited in the locker room like she should have but had been hanging out in the control room. If she hadn't picked the out-of-the-way location of the Commander's tower, I would have ordered her back to the locker room. Misato smirked. Not that the locker room is very interesting or that she would have been of any use in an actual emergency. She probably wanted to watch the action firsthand instead of getting the tapes later. But what is she doing down here? The Captain's eyebrow raised questioning. "Ayanami? What are you doing down here?"
Rei stared at the Captain for a moment before answering. It wasn't long enough of a pause to be rude, just enough to be odd, if Rei had been anyone else. Misato had gotten the rundown from her friend about some of the girl's oddities. "I came down to see about Pilot Ikari's injuries."
"Ritsuko is inside with him." Misato jerked her head at the door, missing the barest narrowing of Rei's eyes at this information. "She should be out soon enough."
As if mentioning her had summoned her, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi exited the boy's hospital room. "Well, he'll live. He's got some broken bones, a lot of bruising, but he shows no signs of mental contamination at the moment." She turned to the Captain. "He's extremely disconnected from things right now, mostly due to the painkillers and adrenaline let-down. You might not get the reaction you want when you discipline him. Yell at him, if you want, but don't get frustrated at him and shake him. He's got a broken nose and two broken ribs. His sync ratio jumped up high enough at the end for him to develop sympathetic injuries."
Misato's eyes widened. "What caused it? Do you think it was because of the other boys being in the entry plug with him? They both reported sensations similar to synchronization and activation. Can multiple people pilot the Evangelions at one time?"
Dr. Akagi sighed, tucking her clipboard under an arm. "It might be possible, but not viable. They didn't get a full connection, it's most likely signal "spill-over" into their minds. The pilots would have to be in sync with each other as much as with the Evangelion in order for any real benefit to be obtained. Adding more variables to the equation wouldn't be advisable."
"Hmm. When will the boys be released from quarantine? They've already been debriefed by the security guys, and we've got their depositions on tape."
"If they haven't developed signs of contamination by now, they'll be okay. I'll contact Section 2 and have them delivered home. What were they doing out of the shelters anyway?"
Misato laughed and pointed at Rei. "They were looking for Ayanami, of all things. They had noticed she wasn't with the others in the shelter and were worried about her. We told them later that she had been found in another shelter." She turned to the shocked and silent girl. "If anyone asks, you were in Shelter V-101A. They were very concerned about you, Rei."
Rei merely nodded at this information. Were they truly looking for me? Why? They have never shown interest in me before, apart from the initial interest when meeting a new person. It must be connected with their treatment of Pilot Ikari. Perhaps they wish to purchase my silence? But then, if I had been outside of the shelter during the attack, it would have been to their advantage, as I could have been killed accidentally. Research will be needed to settle this. "I will... talk to them in school." Having satisfied herself that the true nature of Pilot Ikari's injuries would be accepted as injuries from the battle, she turned and left.
Both adults watched her leave, entering the same elevator she had arrived in. Ritsuko spoke up first. "What was she doing down here?"
Misato grinned. "She wanted to check up on Shinji. I think she's got a crush on him. He did rescue her from having to pilot Unit-01 when he got here. And don't forget the way he held her when she got knocked off the gurney." Her happy face evaporated as she looked at the door to Shinji's room. "I wonder why she left though? Why not actually see him?"
Ritsuko shook her head. "I doubt she wants to see him all banged up, high on painkillers, and being yelled at by you for disobeying orders. She places a lot in obeying orders."
Mistao's devious grin reappeared. "Well, she's disobeyed at least one order today." Her smile deepening at the doctor's confused look, she continued. "Instead of hanging out in the locker room like she's supposed to, she snuck into the control room and watched the battle from the commander's tower.
Ritsuko was shocked. "You're kidding me! Rei did that? Really? That's... so out of character for her to be that interested in something." She leaned up against the wall, looking at the elevator Rei had disappeared into.
Misato shook her head. "Something... or someone?" She sighed, all business now, shifting her weight to her other leg. "Rits, what am I going to do with him? He can't disobey orders like that. Whether he likes it or not, he's a soldier now, fighting for all mankind. He's got a major responsibility now and can't just do what he pleases. The Evangelion is a war machine, not some toy for him to play with."
Ritsuko clapped a sympathetic hand on Misato's shoulder. "Well, go in and explain it to him that way. He got press-ganged into this, remember? None of us were very nice to him that day. He was blackmailed into it, and we all helped. No matter what else we do for him, that fact remains. Rei's probably been the only person who can be said to have been truly nice to him, and I doubt they've even talked to each other. Yes, he can't do what he did anymore, but remember this has all been dumped on him."
"Hey, I've been nice to him! I've even taken him into my home!" Misato protested, poking Ritsuko in the arm.
"Well, whatever you're going to do, you might as well do it before he falls asleep, and get it over with. He's been expecting it. And don't forget you'll need to contact the Commander and let him know that an Angel attacked." Smiling at Misato's fallen and horrified face, she started down the hall to the elevators herself.
Shaking her head, Misato groaned. "Well, I might as well get this over with."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
The class dragged on forever and forever. Toji and Kensuke sat in their seats, paying rapt attention to everything that was going on, instead of giving into the normal distractions of sleep, camera manuals, and chatting on the school's computer system. Hikari was going to ask them about their odd behavior at lunch, but they disappeared before she could catch them and showed up only right before class was about to resume, not giving her a chance to find out what was going on.
Both boys had been watching Rei during lunch, hiding up on the roof as she ate her lunch under one of the trees in the courtyard. They had tried to catch her alone to talk to her, but while she never really interacted with anyone, she was always within earshot of somebody else, which would make the conversation the boys wished to have.. troublesome, to say the least. Now, they waited for the end of the day, and then they could follow her home, and talk to her on the way. They knew that she lived in the eastern district, and wasn't neighbors with any of the other students. She ignored them completely, not looking at them during class or responding to attempts to chat over the network. She didn't even look towards the empty seat that Shinji normally sat in. She just stared out the window, resting her head on her good arm.
Students Aida and Suzahara appear to be unnaturally attentive today. Indeed, they have kept a close eye on my movements and on me throughout the span of class and lunch. Rei, being Rei, had noticed the abrupt change in behavior in the two boys and had kept an eye on them during lunch, observing their furtive movements up on the roof. Captain Katsuragi had said that the reason they had left the safety of the shelter was because I was not present, and that they were worried since I was injured, I had not been able to get to such safety. While entirely within the realm of possibility, I doubt their concern was entirely altruistic. Perhaps they wish to find out if I will inform the authorities that I witnessed them beating Pilot Ikari.
Rei, despite telling the Captain that she would speak to them during class to allay their fears about being trapped on the surface outside of a shelter during the Angel Attack, had not yet deemed it necessary to talk to them. She wanted to observe their actions towards her and Pilot Ikari. Unfortunately for her, Pilot Ikari had not come to class today. Instead, he was sitting in the brig at NERV Central, spending some time in isolation as a paltry penance for disobeying orders. Being punished for not following orders and protocol was proper and to be expected. However, the boy's absence rankled her somewhat. Additionally, she found herself feeling somewhat put out by the fact the other boys had assaulted Pilot Ikari, for reasons she could not properly explain to herself.
Rei checked the time display on her computer against her mental count. Once again, she matched the clock's opinion on the time. 16:45. Pilot Ikari should have been released by now. I wonder if he will make an appearance tomorrow, or if he will stay at home to recuperate. The last time I had broken ribs, I remained at home for one week to allow them time to heal to the point I felt no danger of further stress on the injury before returning to class. Rei felt a minor irritation at the idea of not being able to observe Shinji and the other's interactions for such a time. Frowning slightly, she stopped to study that feeling.
Is this irritation I feel solely due to this? Or is there something else at play here? I have not yet been able to conduct further research on him. He is still largely unknown to me. Dr. Akagi said his nose was broken. I wonder how this has changed his appearance. Some reading materials suggest that a previously broken nose lends a "rakish air" to the person's appearance. Initial observation does not suggest that having one's nose broken leads to a more dashing appearance. He seemed to be extremely bloody and in pain. Full body submersion in the LCL does have regenerative effects on the body, but it appears the trauma of combat offset those healing properties. His medical diagnosis was not significantly changed from before combat.
The LCL was a wondrous thing, serving as a shock absorber, synchronization aid, restorative, and a base for many of the fluids used by technicians and maintenance crews to service the Evangelions. Rei had done numerous experiments on the fluid, introducing all manner of things to it, from bacteria cultures to molds and more.
The school bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. After the class paid their respect to the teacher, Rei collected her things and made her way to the main entrance, thinking about her mold and bacterium collections. Thus, it came as a bit of a surprise that she was cornered by both Suzahara and Aida without anyone else around. My Section 2 escort is downstairs. If I should fail to make an appearance, they will investigate. I can outrun Student Aida, but not Student Suzahara.
Should he-
"Ayanami, are you okay?" Toji interrupted her mental calculations, breaking the silence first. "When you didn't show up in the shelter, we were worried that you weren't able to get to safety."
She glanced at him, shifting her weight to one side slightly in order to make a sudden sprint for freedom. "I managed to obtain shelter in Safety Shelter V-101A, not far from here. You did not need to leave your shelter in search of me."
Toji snorted. "Yeah, we did. You weren't with the rest of the group. The last we saw of you, you were with the new kid. We needed to be sure you didn't end up hurt." He shifted to one side, his eyes looking at the ground as he mentioned Shinji.
Interesting. He seems to not only be telling the truth about the nature of his concern for me, at least in part, but he also appears to be uneasy at mentioning Ikari. "His security escort showed up for him, and deposited me at the shelter on the way to their base." She saw both the boys looking uneasy now.
Aida spoke up now, while Toji stared at the ground. "How.. how badly hurt was he?"
They are concerned about his injuries. They had to know that Student Suzahara injured him at the fight, and they were present in the Entry Plug during the last of the fight. They know he was badly hurt, but are asking me, despite them having seen him later than I. Will they reveal they were present there?
"He has a broken nose, and I suspect that at least one of his ribs was fractured during... your altercation with him. I have not seen him since we were separated that afternoon, and he was not in class today. Perhaps he was hospitalized after the battle with the Angel?" She watched their faces closely and was rewarded with twin displays of guilt, which was gratifying.
Toji spoke up again. "We saw him during the fight. We can't say much about it... but it was bad. The way he pilots the robot is... weird. It's like whatever happens to it happens to him." While he was talking, he touched his side, not noticing he was rubbing over the spot where the energized tentacles had pierced the Evangelion. Aida knocked his classmate's hand back down.
"We... we just wanted to know if you knew how to get in touch with him."
Rei blinked. "Why would I know such a thing?"
"Well, you seemed to be friendly with him. I mean, uh.." He trailed off, unable to articulate what he was thinking in a way that wasn't sure to make her mad at them.
Kensuke leaped to the rescue, being much better with words than Toji. "What we're trying to say, is... you seem to be on better terms with him than anyone else."
Rei blinked again. Is my interest in Ikari that obvious to others? How can I use this? "Well... I could give you his phone number. But you can't tell him you got it from me."
Aida looked back at the ground briefly, before speaking again. "Did you tell anyone what happened? Please, we're sorry! It won't ever happen again!"
Very interesting. "He asked me not to-" She was cut off by a strangled shout from behind the two boys. Shinji stood in the open door to the stairwell, his face going red, and glaring at them. His eyes were ringed with dark purple bruises, and his nose was slightly off-kilter. An ugly yellow and purple bruise marred one side of his face, running from the base of his jaw up into his hair. Both arms were covered in bruises and sympathetic injuries from the Angel battle, and his eyes were bloodshot.
He does seem... more dashing... in a roguish way. Why is he here?
All three students stared at the boy as he limped towards them, his body quivering in rage, his arms held at his sides, fists clenched. "You beat me up, and I don't tell anyone. I asked her not to tell anyone. If she had, you'd be in jail right now! I rescue! You! I saved you! Even after beating me up, I save you and don't tell anyone. I managed to hide everything from them, they think it's all from the fight. And now what? It's not enough? You're going to beat Ayanami up? What'd she do to you? She's already hurt! She's in bandages! No! You can't hurt her! You won't hurt her!" Shinji was yelling now, growling at them, barely able to talk.
All three started to back up, and Toji put his hands up in the air, trying to placate Shinji. "No, no, man, it's not that... We were just-"
Whatever he was about to say was lost as Ikari threw himself at the jock, headbutting him. Both went down, with Ikari screaming at him incoherently, for the most part, fists flying. Both Rei and Kensuke stared at the two, and then Kensuke went to help Toji as the other boy screamed for his help, for him to do something to get the crazed pilot off of him.
For his troubles, Aida got punched in the groin, and went tumbling to the ground, tears streaming from his face.
"You can't hurt her! You can't hurt her! I won't let you!" Ikari was screaming at them as suited Section 2 men poured into the hallway, hauling him off the considerably bloody Toji.
"Jeez, kid, calm down. We're not going to cover for you if you go beating him into a paste." One of them said, standing in between the fighters. He cocked his head at the boy, squatting down to eye level. "I think you've paid him back, okay? I think he gets the picture." He turned and looked at the prostrate form of Toji Suzahara. "Right, Mr. Suzahara? You're not going to hurt Miss Ayanami over there, right?" He lowered his sunglasses with a finger, letting the boy see his eyes.
"Right, yes sir! It was just a misunderstanding! We'd never think about it!" Toji moved so that he was kneeling on both legs before the restrained pilot. "Ikari, please, forgive me. I shouldn't have hit you then, and I'm sorry."
Shinji, breathing hard, and wincing because of his ribs, looked away. "It's.. okay. I wasn't going to tell anyone about it. I... I... I was just worried about Ayanami."
Toji looked up as the Section 2 men let Shinji go. "Man, I owe you my life. You saved us out there, and we saw..." He shot a glance at the girl, standing in silent shock behind him, considering his words before continuing. "-what it was like for you. If anyone tries what I did to you again, I'll knock them straight." Behind their sunglasses, all of the Section 2 men rolled their eyes. "And if anyone tries anything like that with Ayanami, I'll do the same."
Shinji gaped at the boy. "What? Uh... you don't have to do that.."
"Yeah I do. It's a matter of honor now for me." He smiled through split lips, offering his hand to Shinji. "I think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Toji Suzahara. Pleased to meet you."
Tentatively smiling, Shinji shook his hand. "I'm Shinji Ikari."
Toji stood up, helping Kensuke to his feet. "Well, I guess we'll see you in class tomorrow, right?"
"Uh, yeah. I'll be here."
Toji waved goodbye, and the two limped off. The head of the Section 2 escorts shook his head at Ikari. "You're a crazy kid. Miss Ayanami wasn't in danger at all."
Suddenly realizing that Rei was standing three feet away from him throughout the entire thing, Shinji's eyes went wide and he started blushing furiously, although it was hard to tell under the bruising. "Ayanami! Uh..umm"
Rei stared at him in shock; her eyes also widened. You can't hurt her? You won't hurt her? I won't let you? He seems... protective of me. Extremely protective. He must have been worried all day to come here to find me. He jumped to the most dire conclusion of seeing us standing there. Is this protectiveness the reason why he decided to pilot in the first battle? Is it because of me?
"Ikari, why did you attack them? They were asking if I managed to get to a shelter before the fight started. They were concerned for my safety as they did not see me in the shelter with the rest of the class."
Shinji opened his mouth in shock and then closed it. "That's why they were out there?"
"Apparently so. You are not answering me again. Why did you attack them?" She walked over to him, removing another part of her bandages to wipe the blood off of his face. She felt his skin grow extremely warm under her fingers, but he made no move to push her away.
"Um.. uh.. I thought they were threatening you to make sure you wouldn't tell on them. I... kinda snapped."
Pocketing the bandage, she clasped her hands in front of her. "Why did you pilot the Evangelion only after seeing my condition?"
His eyes grew wider still, something she thought would have been impossible. "I couldn't let you go out to die. You're too hurt to even think about piloting the Evangelion!"
Commander Ikari knew he would react this way! That's why he suggested I speak to him about it directly. I was.. emotional blackmail. I wasn't ever meant to pilot that day. The Commander is truly a master of the Science of understanding and manipulating people and events. What other hidden agendas and meanings are there to everything? If I am to unravel them I must do massive amounts of research into that.
"Ayanami? Is everything OK?" Shinji sweated, thinking he had offended her in some way.
She cleared her throat. "Everything is fine, Ikari. I am... flattered that you would be so protective of someone you haven't met or known for very long."
Shinji rubbed the back of his head nervously, still blushing. "Yeah.." Oh my god, I sound like a moron... what do I say to something like that?
"Why did you come to school today? You had to have known you would not make it to any part of the class."
"Oh, I wanted to pick up the assignments to work on them. I wasn't allowed to do anything in solitary..."
"You are indeed coming to class tomorrow?" She looked at him, locking her crimson eyes on his blue ones.
"Yeah..."
"Then I will see you tomorrow, Ikari." She scooped up her bag from the floor and left, leaving Shinji standing in the hallway by himself.
"What happened?" He wondered out loud.
His Section 2 escort leader poked his head out of the classroom, holding a stack of papers. "She likes you kid, and ran off home to stare at her wall and think about it. He handed the papers to Shinji.
"I... what?"
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Gendo paused the recording of the school security camera feed. He glanced at Kozo, who was sitting with his feet propped up on the desk. "I told you she would be a good focus for him. Look at that. Injured, thinking nothing of himself, he throws himself into battle to save her. When we start Third Impact he is going to break the universe to get at her. If you had any doubts before, this should settle them." He grabbed a pair of glasses from a drawer, along with a bottle of scotch. "It's almost like old memories."
Kozo, for his part, wasn't entirely assured. "We still need to get to the point where we can trigger Third Impact. Your son's enthusiasm for Rei's safety and well-being won't do us any good if one of the Angels triggers it, or if SEELE triggers it instead of us. We'll be all dressed up with no place to go at that point."
"We'll be fine. I got a major piece of the puzzle on my trip."
"What was that all about, anyway? He didn't have another relic from the second set of scrolls did he? Or some other trinket to add to your collection of prophecies and esoterica?"
Gendo smiled, sipping the scotch before answering. "Something even better. I know the name of SEELE 04." His smile grew as Kozo dropped his glass.
"You know the name of SEELE 04."
"I know the name of SEELE 04."
"We know the name of one of the most powerful, secretive men in the world's history, one of the real Illuminati, one of the shadow puppet masters, who triggered Second Impact, who want to ascend to godhood."
"Yes. Yes we do."
"We really are going to win this, aren't we. We're actually going to win. With that name added to the ones we already know, we should be able to find out the other six of the inner circle. They won't be able to hide behind their pawns on the Instrumentality Committee any longer. When do we begin to move?" Kozo paused, relishing the feeling of victory.
"We start once we receive ADAM and the Lance. One of my agents is already making preparations to steal Him from their laboratories. We have scouts combing the wreckage of Antarctica for the Lance. Once we have both, we will begin to move. Once we've disposed of the final Angel, we will remove them from play, and trigger it on our terms."
"Shinji tries to rescue Rei, and maybe they both escape with their lives and sanity coupled with years of therapy. You get to be with Yui for the rest of eternity, and I get to lead a fractured, betrayed mankind out of yet another living hell. Wait, why am I helping you again? It seems like you're the only one who is getting anything out of this whole affair."
Gendo shot his old professor a look. "Because all of this is sort of your fault, and you don't really want to be part of some hive mind made up of all the souls on the planet?" He sipped his scotch and then grinned. "Also, you like sappy romance novels and this whole thing appeals to you."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Rei stared at her wall, thinking. Why has the Commander apparently decided to throw myself and his son together? How does this fit in with his Scenario? On the day of Third Impact, I will finally be allowed to die. What purpose does this pairing serve? What is he not telling me? How can I serve him without knowing what his aims are? Something is not right here.
She shifted so she was lying on her back, staring at the ceiling. When she returned home, she was so preoccupied with the mess of the situation that she didn't care about checking on the myriad experiments she had going on in the empty apartment to the left of hers. She was too busy trying to sort out the information surrounding Pilot Ikari, and how he and she figured into the Commander's plans. Things definitely were not as they had been explained to her. Things were awry. She was working with faulty data, and if she disliked being bored, she hated working with faulty data. Faulty data ruined experiments.
Across the fortress city, Shinji likewise lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Unlike Rei, he was not thinking about how everything fit into some twisted and labyrinthine plan of his father's; he was thinking about what a certain injured, blue-haired girl that he barely knew meant to him.
The Section 2 man had said nothing more about the situation to him as he drove Shinji home, stating he refused to comment on the whole thing, saying it was Shinji's mess to clean up and figure out, not his. If he needed advice on girls, he could ask his guardian. He was just a bodyguard, not his nanny. If someone were pointing a gun at him, he'd fix it. If someone were beating the crap out of him, he'd fix it. He also told him to shout out or something if someone was beating him up, and not sit there and take it quietly.
He was attracted to her, that was for sure. She seemed to care about him, at least on some level. She did clean his face up again today. That meant something, right?
He sighed. He wished he could talk to Miss Misato about this, but she would just tease him about it. She had said something about Rei to him earlier, right before she put him in solitary. Something about Rei being worried about him.
He sighed again. Solitary had sucked. He knew why she did it, putting him in there for the day. She had explained it. He needed to obey the commands from the Ops Director. They could keep track of the big picture, while troops in the field sometimes got "tunnel vision". At least, that's how she explained it to him. It didn't make much sense to him. He turned over, resting on his uninjured side.
Nothing here in Tokyo-3 makes any sense. After leaving me with Uncle, with no word from him for over three years, he calls me back, not to his side or home, but to a city that he's the ruler of? How does that even work? This whole place is more like it is its own city-state that happened to be in Japan. He has me pilot a giant robot that hurts me when it gets damaged, and there are giant monsters we've decided to call Angels. What is going on? They say that Rei is another pilot, but why did she receive training and not me? Why does she get to live by herself? Why does he talk to her and not me? Does she really like me?
Back across town, Rei moved from her room, which was bare and empty, and walked into her bathroom. Opening the ceiling-to-floor cabinet, she walked through the hole in the wall into the next-door apartment. This apartment, unlike hers, was locked and barred and had a secondary wall that she had built in front of the entryway. The layout was similar to hers, except mirrored.
This apartment, however, was filled to the brim with salvaged lab equipment Rei had dug out of storage from the labs in the Geo-Front, smuggled back here bit by bit, piece by piece. She knew Section 2 kept an eye on her movements when she left the building, but they either did not keep track of where in the building she was or did not care that her movements seemed to take her outside the floor plan of her apartment without her leaving by the front door.
She pulled the bloodied bandage from her pocket, placed it in a petri dish, and put the dish in the refrigerator next to the other samples she had collected from Pilot Ikari previously. Moving back to the counter, she pulled over another petri dish, containing a small chunk of bloody bandage.
Dropping a tiny bit onto a slide, she put it into one of her microscopes and leveled her gaze at the display on the computer screen.
His blood is hyper-oxygenated. An elevated red blood cell count, and he has an unusual amount of iron present. Elevated white blood cell count suggests his autoimmune system is fighting off an infection. Perhaps he has a cold? She pulled the slide from the microscope, labeled it Ikari S., and placed it into the freezer. Hyper-oxygenation can be explained by trace amounts of LCL remaining in the lower regions of his lungs. It would absorb oxygen much more efficiently than his alveoli would. He will also begin to benefit from long-term exposure to the LCL, as it will cause his lungs to regenerate and repair damaged tissues. He will, however, lose some of his natural buoyancy. This will be offset by the greater amounts of oxygen present in his blood, which would help allow him to swim longer without tiring. Also, if the amount of LCL trapped in his lungs was greater than the amount of water, it is likely he would not be able to drown, the LCL drawing oxygen directly from the water. Of course, any pollutants in the water would have a discomforting sensation on the tissues of the lungs and esophagus.
She pulled up another slide, similarly marked from a machine that looked like it was cobbled out of the apartment's built-in microwave, considered it underneath the microscope, and returned it to the machine. She glanced at a printout that spooled out from underneath the contraption. It appears he is on a mild anti-depressant. This is not surprising, considering the stress put upon him in the past few weeks. She stood there, staring at the printout, but no longer paid attention to the information it held.
He is... he is... he is not unattractive, if apparently uninformed about the options available to him as a Pilot. He was surprised by the intervention of Section 2 today as if he had forgotten about them.
I need to... talk with him, but about what? I cannot skew my data by interfering too much myself, but the idea of watching him interact with another girl is... irritating. She glanced at the clock on the wall, noting it agreed with her internal one and left for her apartment.
Pouring herself a beaker of water, she downed the medicines given to her to ensure a speedy and complete recovery from the disastrous activation experiment with Unit 00.
Her medicines were mostly painkillers but the main attraction was the gel-caps of LCL. The fluid that served as a cushion, breathing aid, and sync aid inside the Entry Plugs had a side affect of helping the body heal. When the Evangelions were not in cryo-stasis, or being worked on in open-air required situations, the secondary cages were flooded with LCL, submerging the cybernetic giants.
I wonder if Ikari was prescribed LCL caplets to help aid in his recovery from the battles. If he has not been, perhaps he would be appreciative of me offering some of my gel-caps? I can always get more from the Commander.
Feeling drowsy, and deciding that perhaps a discussion on the regenerative effects of consuming LCL could help provide further evidence as to the amount of interest the younger Ikari had for Science, Rei discarded her clothing and crawled into the rumpled sheets of her bed and drifted off into her dreamless sleep.
Shinji, however, was not having any luck sleeping in a dreamless state. He would toss and turn until sometime after two in the morning, muttering threats to the specters that loomed over him and a bandaged girl.