Kaji woke up to the sounds and smells of breakfast being made. Bacon and coffee fought each other for supremacy, and while he wasn't sure, he thought he smelled blueberry pancakes. He grinned, his stomach already growling in anticipation. It was a vast improvement from the coffee and doughnuts from the vending machines at NERV. He sat up, stretching, taking stock of the room in the dim morning light.
It was a small room with barely any space for the futon on which he had slept. The bed, desk, and chair that had come with the apartment occupied most of the space, but the room's inhabitant didn't own much. There was a cello propped up in the closet, along with several school uniforms and the suit he had worn on the date, as was a white lab coat with NERV's logo stitched on the breast and a name tag that read 'Ikari'. A small stack of t-shirts in varying colors sat on a shelf in the closet and a few pairs of shorts. Another shelf held a small pistol case, which was locked.
On the desk sat the boy's schoolwork and laptop, along with a small framed photograph of the boy and Rei, obviously from the night of their date.
Shinji mumbled something and rolled over onto his side, causing the spy to shoot a glance at the sleeping boy. Shaking his head, the spy stood up and stretched again before quietly leaving the room, taking care to slide the door shut behind him.
He quietly padded through the hall, peeked into the kitchen, and was greeted with the image of Rei preparing breakfast, wearing a white apron over her blue cotton pajamas. He noted where most people would have had some sort of background noise, such as a television or radio, or perhaps even humming to themselves, the mysterious girl worked in complete silence, with precise and deliberate movements.
His investigations into the history of the First Child had run dry almost as soon as he had begun. Where the Agents responsible for the safety and well-being of the Second and Third Children would talk about their charges, the men and women assigned to the First Child were surprisingly tight-lipped about the young girl.
He knew she was Commander Ikari's legal ward but lived alone in her apartment building. He knew she went to the Tokyo-3 Municipal High School and had attended the Tokyo-3 Municipal Middle School on the same grounds. She was a member of the Literary Club but had a penchant for reading books outside the club's usual purview. She had poor homework scores but outstanding test scores, and her instructors had long since given up on trying to get her to participate in class.
The Marduk Institute published its first selection report on her three years and five months after the accident claiming Yui Ikari's life. There was nothing on the girl's history before she arrived at NERV. She had lived in the Geo-Front for a time, first with the Commander and then by herself. At age ten, she had reduced the small apartment building she had been living in to ashes and subsequently moved to the surface and enrolled in classes.
There was nothing else. Until recently, she had made no friends, had no hobbies outside of the book club, and had no other clothing besides her school uniforms.
Kaji strolled into the kitchen, turning his best disarming grin upon the girl as she glanced over to see who it was. Ignoring the smile that usually reduced women to putty, she returned to her work without so much as a nod in greeting.
"Good morning, Rei. Sleep well?" Kaji walked over to the cupboard, picked out a mug, and filled it with coffee from the automated machine. He wasn't sure when Misato had started drinking coffee in the morning instead of her usual beer, but he wouldn't complain. He was more fond of coffee for breakfast, anyway.
"Yes."
He moved over to the table, pulled out one of the chairs, and sat down. After taking an experimental sip of the coffee, he nodded in appreciation. It was much better than the stuff served at headquarters. He lifted the cloth napkin covering a plate on the table and grinned as he saw the bacon underneath.
"That's for Ikari."
"Oh?" Kaji's grin deepened. "You didn't make enough for everyone?"
Rei didn't turn around from where she was fiddling with the pancakes. "No. If you desire breakfast, you can make it yourself."
"Isn't it the host's job to make the guest feel at home?"
"I do not live here."
"Well, I'm sure Shinji wouldn't mind sharing." Kaji went to lift the cloth again to nab a piece of bacon but threw himself backward, springing out of his seat as a knife buried itself in the table. A pale hand shot out and caught the coffee mug out of the air, and Kaji stared as Rei set the now half-empty cup on the table and returned to her work at the stove. Forcing himself out of his assumed defensive posture, he hesitantly shook his head. "Rei, did you just throw a knife at me?"
"Yes."
"Why?" he asked, his voice incredulous.
"I told you it was for Ikari. You attempted to take it anyway."
"What if I had gotten hurt?"
"I know where the first aid kit is."
"Are you serious?"
Rei turned to look impassively at the spy, who was still standing over the fallen chair. "Yes."
She turned back to the pancakes, calmly flipping them with her spatula. "It is in the cupboard next to the sink."
Slowly, cautiously, Kaji righted the chair and sat down again, drinking what was left of his coffee, his eyes hard as he watched the girl finish her preparations. She arranged everything on the table and then pulled the knife free. She wiped up the spilled coffee with a towel, and placed placed it next to the sink. She looked at the spy as she placed the knife with the other dirty utensils before smoothing out the apron.
"I am going to wake Ikari up. I do not advise eating his breakfast."
Kaji was still drinking his coffee in quiet contemplation when the two pilots entered the kitchen.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Misato checked her watch for the tenth time since arriving at the central control room of the Mount Asama Geothermal Power Plant and Geological Survey Station, causing Ritsuko to chuckle as she looked up from the data output scrolling down the monitor.
"They're fine, Misato. Kaji will make sure they don't kill each other."
"I'm not worried about that." Misato snapped at her friend, crossing her arms with a huff. "I just don't like that lout being around my kids. He's a bad influence."
Ritsuko shook her head and made a few notations on her PDA, sending the numbers to the MAGI back in Tokyo-3. "He's a bad influence? That's your complaint against him? What about you? If I recall correctly, Kaji was a better housekeeper than you. Mind you, that's not saying much-"
"He's an obnoxious, insufferable, insolent lay-about! He's also the worst kind of womanizer, and as a Special Inspector from the UN, he's here to spy on us!"
"My, my, that's quite the list of offenses," Ritsuko commented, ignoring the glare the Operations Director shot her way. "Are you sure you're not letting the past color your judgment?" She turned and gently tapped Maya's shoulder. "Maya, you haven't been hit on by the Special Inspector, have you? Or have you seen him snooping about in places he shouldn't?"
Maya shook her head as she tried to focus on the numbers scrolling past on the screen.
"N-no, I can't say that I have."
"See, Misato? He'd be snooping about in our departments if he was here to spy on us. And what sort of womanizer could resist Maya here?" Ritsuko squeezed Maya's shoulder for emphasis before letting go to check the MAGI's response and thus missed the shiver that ran through the other woman.
Ritsuko, of course, knew very well their old friend was indeed there to spy on them, but as he was more useful to Gendo alive than not, actions had not been taken. She also knew the man's causal attitude towards relationships was partly her and Misato's fault. Still, her friend obviously wasn't about to admit to herself how much the man had meant to her once and, in all likelihood, still meant to her now. Frankly, it was impressive enough she had formed the level of attachment with Shinji that she had. It surprised her when Misato decided to take the boy with her instead of letting him live alone like Rei.
Frowning at the MAGI's response of 'Undecided', she looked up to Chief Technician Isobe, standing off to the side, wearing the same worried look he had upon their arrival.
"The MAGI are undecided at the moment, Chief Technician. Until we can get our scanners up in place at the caldera's rim, we won't be able to get any conclusive evidence. When will your team be ready to deploy the modified detector?"
"They are running through the last diagnostic tests now, Doctor. After that, they will pack it for transport and deliver it to the vault location." He paused to pour himself a cup of coffee. "Thanks to your MAGI, we should be able to get a better picture."
Ritsuko nodded, going to the large table currently home to large amounts of transplanted technology and numerous hard-copy reports. The picture that had brought most of the central Operations and Technical Departments out from NERV sat on top of several reams of papers worth of numbers, some tracking the area's ambient temperature, tectonic activity, power output, usage, and a hundred other things. However, the picture was the critical item of interest to NERV. They couldn't care less that for the past two weeks, there had been a drop in the temperatures of the volcanic system or about a slight increase in tectonic activity.
But when the panicked chief technician emailed NERV with a high-resolution image of what looked like an egg resting underneath a few hundred meters of magma, that sparked a lot of interest.
The egg was described as such because it was an oblong ovoid about fifty meters long and forty meters wide. It had not been present in the underground lava chamber two days ago, and its origin was a mystery. It was resting at a depth of four hundred meters below the surface of the main lava dome, which in and of itself was unusual.
Even if one put aside the fact the 'egg' could stay solid at temperatures ranging from seven hundred to thirteen hundred degrees Celsius, it would be a super dense object and wouldn't sit where it was in the liquid rock. Another thing to consider was that the shell seemed to be completely smooth, and the muons used in the imaging devices were unable to penetrate the shell when they were used for such things, precisely because they were ideal for deep penetration imaging.
Quite simply put, the egg should not exist.
NERV was considered the resident experts on things that shouldn't exist, so it was only natural for them to be contacted. After Ritsuko gave her initial report to Commander Ikari, he gave her the green light to take everything she needed to the power station before locking himself in his office. She knew he was likely poring over the information from the scrolls, trying to divine some insight as to whether this could be the next Angel.
After refilling her coffee mug, Ritsuko took careful sips as she went over the data printouts and composite images spread out over the conference table. Misato sighed as she looked at her phone again, checking for any messages.
Perhaps it was a bad choice to drag Misato out here. We're not sure that it is an Angel yet, but if it is, she needs to be able to start putting a plan together before the Evangelions get here, and it's easier for her to do so on the ground, where she can see what she's got to work with. But until then, she's just getting in everyone's hair and isn't helping anything with her obsessing over 'her kids'.
At least if we do need to deploy them, power won't be an issue. Ritsuko smiled into her cup as she looked out the control room's windows into the main transformer room. We can plug the umbilical cables into the primary grid with only a few modifications. Of course, if it is indeed a dormant Angel, we'll be given an unprecedented opportunity. If we can capture it while it lies asleep, we can study it at our leisure. But then, how does one capture something at the bottom of a volcano?
Misato looked at her watch again before sighing, pacing back and forth. She ran her hands through her hair.
"Jeez, Misato. Calm down, will you? Give him a call if you're so worried. Besides, do you think he's the type of person to get in trouble, even if Kaji is the bad influence you think?"
"N-noo." Misato grudgingly admitted, frowning.
"And Rei's going to be right next to him. She'll keep him out of trouble."
Misato raised an eyebrow. "Say, just when are you so keen on Rei sticking next to Shinji anyway? What happened to"
"Improved synchronization scores, Misato. Increased stability of the ego border. Lack of Mental Instability issues leading to Class III Cascading Wave-Form Reversal." Ritsuko paused to take a few more sips of coffee before grinning smugly at her friend. "Plus, they're cute together."
Misato held up one finger, about to make a counterargument, but when she opened her mouth to speak, she found that she had nothing to say. Clamping her jaw shut, she shot her friend a suspicious glance before going back to pacing back and forth.
Maya's phone began to ring, and both women looked in her direction. The upbeat song was out of place amongst the mounting tension and fraying nerves. The technician blushed as she answered it, one hand still flying over her keyboard in a flurry of activity.
"Oh! Good, good. I'll let everyone know then. Let us know when it's in place." Hanging up, Maya cocked her head to the side to look back at her superiors. "Makato says they've got the last modifications done on the wide-spectra scanners and are loading them up for delivery now. He'll let us know once they have the first of them in place on the caldera's rim. We'll be able to start scanning for the energy signatures associated with the Angels immediately after the first one goes up. Still, we won't get a positive blood type reading back until at least four sensors are in place."
Misato frowned as Ritsuko smiled and nodded. Moving over to the table bearing the hard copy readouts, the Operations Director shook her head in confusion. "Why do we need four sensors to get a blood type reading? That doesn't make any sense."
Ritsuko sighed as she took off her glasses to rub the bridge of her nose, which she did quite often when she was about to explain how meta-biology and meta-physics worked to her friend. "Well, we actually want more than four, as that's the minimum number we can use for scanning for Angelic activity in a given area. But as for why we need four of them, it lets us work around the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and utilize the Schrodinger Dogma Protocols. Because the Angels warp reality around them with their AT-Fields, the radiation they emit and reflect acts differently than the normal world; you have to take into account that the Angels also exist in more dimensions than we can perceive, which also alters how the world around them reacts. For example, evidence suggests the Third Angel changed the speed of light in its locality."
Maya nodded as Misato and Isobe stared in horrified shock at how calmly the doctor mentioned the desecration of a universal constant. "Sempai, don't forget that the Fifth Angel also showed that same tendency but also altered Planck's Constant." She blushed as strangling sounds emitted from the geologist. "It took us a while to figure it out, but the only way to make the mathematics work was to reduce it by a third. After that, it was as easy as pie!"
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Shinji stared at the brooding figure of Unit-01, his eyes locked on the dull glow shining from within the recessed and armored eye slits. He was waiting for Rei, who was busy meeting with his father. Instead of hanging around the door to the Commander's office, Shinji had elected to come down to the cage to see his Evangelion. It had been some time since he had seen it, let alone synchronized with it, and he didn't have anything better to do.
It's strange... I never thought I'd miss seeing this thing. But it feels weird standing here now. Like I've come back home. The boy frowned at the thought as he carefully sat down on the catwalk in front of the giant helmeted visage of his war machine. Have I become that... used to it? Just a year ago, I wouldn't have believed something like this could exist, let alone that there would be three of them. And then there's the Angels.
I hate the Angels.
Shinji blinked, surprised at the thought that had bubbled up from the depths of his mind. As a rule, he wasn't much given to intense displays of emotion. It was hard for him to get riled up over most things, as he just couldn't bring himself to care. This meant he was something of a pushover, and it was easy for others to bully him into things, but it didn't matter to him. It was easier to go along with what the others wanted rather than put up a fight. For some reason, he knew this irritated Asuka, but he couldn't muster up the effort to care; it just didn't matter. The few times he had gotten into verbal or physical altercations, it had surprised him as much as it had the others.
Do I hate them? Do they deserve to be hated? Do they hate us? Do they know what they are doing, that it hurts us? I suppose Doctor Akagi would probably say something like it's the human mind's rationalization of an impossible situation. Asuka would say I'm just being dumb. He smiled softly at that thought, imagining the redhead with her hands on her hips shaking her head at his latest bout of 'idiocy'. Miss Misato would say... I don't know. Maybe I'm trying to dehumanize the enemy. But they're not human at all in the first place. Rei would tell me that I'm developing a bond with Unit-01 and accepting my purpose of protecting everyone. I wonder if it's the same with her and Unit-00. Does she hate the Angels, too?
I wonder what Father would say.
He yawned again, still tired from the previous night. He hadn't gotten much sleep, as he had left the sleeping pills under his pillow untouched since he didn't want to let Kaji know he was self-medicating. He still wasn't sure how he would explain it if they showed up on one of the numerous tests he was subjected to monthly, but he filed it away as something to worry about later. Shaking his head in a vain effort to clear it, he noticed an Entry Plug inserted into the socket that ran into the cyborg's spine, numerous cables running out of it and into the diagnostic machines.
"Huh... they must be doing some tests..."
Shinji yawned again and then looked around the cage as a new thought struck him. I wonder if I can take a nap in the Entry Plug... I don't see anyone around... It's not like I can synchronize with it while the plug is open and it's in diagnostic mode, so it'd be okay to just rest in it while I'm waiting...
Shinji pulled himself back upright and maneuvered his way up the stairs and catwalks to the Entry Plug, which lay open and inviting, like a favorite chair at the end of a long day. Leaving the crutches propped up on the lip of the access point so the hatch couldn't accidentally close on him, he settled himself down into the cockpit, automatically threading his foot into the waiting stirrup. Relaxing back in the seat, he folded his hands behind his head and closed his eyes with a satisfied sigh.
I do feel better in here...
His eyes snapped open again as he heard a train whistling, jerking upright as the sound shattered the background hum of electronics.
Looking around, he found himself not standing on the lonely platform where his father had left him but instead inside a train car as it moved along the tracks, the sound of their passage steady and regular, like a heartbeat. He was also not a child as he was in those terrible nightmares, but as he was now.
Looking up and down the dimly lit train car, he saw he was alone.
Well, this is a new dream... Wait, how do I know if I'm dreaming? Can I be aware that I'm having a dream? How does that work?
Looking around again but still finding nothing, he tried to concentrate on summoning up something, reasoning that if this was some sort of dream, then he should be able to call up stuff from his imagination and thoughts.
Despite his best efforts, he could not change the environment or bring anything into existence. Somewhat discouraged, he stood up and walked down the length of the train, noting with growing dread the blank concrete walls of the tunnel that the train traveled through. Apart from the regularly spaced lights, there were no markings, whereas, in Tokyo-3 and the Geo-Front, the tunnels had level and location codes. He reached the end of the car and looked through the window to the adjoining car.
He reeled in shock as he saw a miniature version of Unit-00 sprawled out on a bank of seats, its long arms folded underneath its cyclopean head. As if sensing that it was being watched, the Evangelion shifted, its red eye moving from where it was staring at the ceiling to look at him. Transfixed by the singular eye, Shinji froze as it observed him with what he supposed was interest before shifting back up to the ceiling after a few moments.
Not sure what to do, Shinji stood at the door, watching the war machine. His continued observation was noted by the white Evangelion, which then pulled itself to its feet, walked over to the door, and threw it open.
As it stood before him, hands on its hips, head cocked to one side, Shinji noted despite it being the same height as him, there was a distinct sense of cautious animosity emanating from the cyborg that made it seem to loom over him.
Well? What do you want?
He took a few steps back as the words resonated within his skull. Unit-00 did not follow after him but stayed where it was.
Look, I've been nice to her. We're okay now—no need for you to get all crazy.
Confused, Shinji opened his mouth to speak but couldn't find his voice. Deciding this dream was weird enough without him looking like a slack-jawed idiot, he closed it again, trying to think.
Unit-00 shook its head and turned back to go sit down.
If you're going to talk, do so. Otherwise, stop bothering me.
Shinji, starting to put things together, hesitantly stepped into the train car, looking around. It was the same as the one he had left, and beyond this one, he saw another. He sat on the bank of seats across from the sprawled-out Evangelion, thinking.
Unit-00 must represent Rei. My subconscious is weird. But if my subconscious representation of Rei is telling me to finally talk to her, what does that mean? We talk to each other all the time. The boy grimaced and clapped a hand over his face. Of course. She means for me to hurry up and kiss her. Of course, my subconscious would be obsessing over this; I've only been obsessing over this while awake for the past, oh, I don't know, forever. I'm trying to associate kissing with something I've already managed to do. That way, it makes it seem easier to do.
Unit-00 turned to regard its companion with confused curiosity.
What are you mumbling about over there? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're at least starting to interact with me, but you're beginning to creep me out. The Evangelion shifted and sat up, crossing its arms in front of its chest. And another thing, I've been wanting to ask you about your-
Unit-00 was cut off mid-thought as Shinji, deciding to try to see how his subconscious representation of Rei would react, pushed up out of his seat and drew the Evangelion into a deep embrace. Despite the armor, it was a lot like hugging Rei, the sense of eminent surprise that washed over him, feeling exactly like her. He drew his head back from where he had rested it between Unit-00's head and shoulder and kissed the smooth metal plate where its mouth should have been.
As Unit-00 went into surprised shock, Shinji opened his eyes and caught his reflection in the glowing lens of Unit-00's singular eye. His eyes went wide, his jaw dropped, and he pushed back in shock, looking up to the window above the confused Evangelion.
Unit-01's face stared back at him from the window, eyes glowing like coals underneath the helmet's horned brow.
Shinji looked down at his arms and body, only to find it wasn't his. Gone were his shirt and slacks, along with his shoes. Instead, armor encased his limbs and torso, the sectioned plates a deep, rich purple, the color of ancient royalty, while the emerald green highlights, representing immortality, stood out in stark contrast. He backed away from the stirring Unit-00, raising his hands placatingly.
Oh, that was nice. Unit-00's eye dimmed and then brightened, burning like a torch. Let's do that again. It pushed him down onto the seats behind him, straddling him, its face leaning towards his.
Shinji woke up, screaming, in the Entry Plug. After a few seconds, he managed to get his heart rate down to a manageable level, with it merely pounding in his chest like a racehorse rather than like a machine gun being fired at a cyclic rate. He scrambled to get out of the cockpit, looking around to see if anyone had heard his screams.
I either need to kiss Rei or give her back that psychology book she lent me, he thought as he began to make his way toward the elevators as quickly as possible, glad the cage was otherwise empty. Maybe both. He had no idea how he could begin to try and explain this away. Definitely both.
He stabbed the button for the floor to the Pribnow Box, sighing contentedly as the doors slid shut, hiding his Evangelion from view. Leaning up against the wall, he fished his phone out of his pocket, wanting to see how long he had been asleep. He froze when he saw the glowing numerals, then groaned.
He had been in the Entry Plug for barely one minute.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Rei watched the silent form of Commander Ikari with some trepidation. He was sitting behind his desk, as was the norm, but he had assumed the posture and position that he used either when deep in thought or trying to intimidate people. She had long since completed her studies on the psychology behind the carefully constructed pose and had witnessed its utility firsthand in limited trials amongst the members of her peer group. So she understood why and how it worked, but that knowledge did not reassure her, nor did it do anything to quell the slightly elevating level of panic currently churning in her abdomen.
"You wish to eat at Captain Katsuragi's this Friday." He repeated her statement, rolling it around in his mouth as if tasting it. This was not the venue he had expected the girl to choose. "So you do not wish to have dinner with me, then."
"No, Sir. I wish to dine with you at Captain Katsuragi's."
Gendo did not shift in his seat, but Rei noticed the appearance of a facial tic on the Sub-Commander's face. The older man twisted his mouth in a manner associated with attempts to conceal mirth and amusement, Rei noted with interest. However, she failed to understand how her request could be cause for such amusement on the professor's part. Nothing she had said was inherently humorous, and there were no hidden meanings in what she had said, the so-called 'double entendre'. At least, she did not think there was any way to misconstrue her request for them to eat at the Captain's apartment as sexual innuendo.
"You wish to dine with me at Captain Katsuragi's apartment."
Rei shifted her crimson gaze back toward her father. She did not understand why he kept repeating what she was saying. He had certainly never done so before, and although the action was much more in line with the habits of the younger Ikari, she would not have thought it was something he had inherited from the elder.
"Yes, sir."
"For what purpose? If you do not wish to dine in a restaurant, we can eat here in the Geo-Front."
That course of action was not without precedent, she knew. They had done so often when either time constraints or other issues kept them from actually eating at the restaurant that provided their meal. But this time, she did not wish to dine with the Commander with just food from one of the many restaurants they had sampled in the past. She had another agenda.
"I wish to prepare the meal myself, Sir."
"You want to prepare the meal yourself."
Rei bit the inside of her lip to keep from asking why he kept repeating her, the urge to comment on the inanity of the Commander's actions thus far in their meeting as a result of near-constant company with the Second Child. However, Rei was not about to slip up in front of the man she considered her father by allowing such irritation to show. It was not something that he would ever do, after all.
"Yes, Sir. I wish to prepare the meal, not only for us but for... Pilot Ikari as well." She seethed inwardly at the slip, knowing both the men had noticed it. She had almost called him by his given name, something she had promised herself that she would only call him when talking to him. That way, he would know how special he was to her. She rarely called people by their given names, except Captain Katsuragi, who demanded she do so with her, and Hikari, who likewise demanded it, although not as adamantly as her commanding officer.
But when she thought of him as Shinji, it was hard not to use that designation when talking about him with others.
"You wish for Pilot Ikari to dine with us."
Rei wanted to scream.
"Yes, Sir."
"To what end?"
Rei opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again. She knew why she wanted to incorporate Shinji into their dinner plans, but she had no way to explain it so that the Commander would likely approve her request. Despite his suggestion for her to 'become closer' with his son, he had given no more evidence he thought of the boy as anything more than a pilot, nor had he ever asked her about him. Ever.
Of course, Shinji had never asked about the Commander either. The one time they had discussed him, the talk had ended very poorly.
"I... I... I wish for Pilot Ikari to dine with us because I want him to."
It was a redundant statement, a tautology. It said nothing. And yet, it spoke volumes to the two men who watched the young girl.
Rei stared blankly at the Commander, waiting for him to veto her choice, and in turn, the Commander stared back at her, the light reflecting off of his glasses and the rest of his face obscured by his hands.
"Very well. I will arrive at six in the evening."
Rei's eyes widened significantly, but her voice remained as steady and subdued as ever.
"Yes, Sir."
"You may go, Rei."
Rei turned and headed for the door, feeling light-headed and giddy, with a small smile now that her back was to the two men. That smile froze and slid off as Commander Ikari spoke again.
"Have fun, Rei."
She slowly turned around, looking back at the Commander, but the man was already poring over one of the reports on his desk, pointing out something to the Sub-Commander, who had his PDA out, making a notation on it. Both men, sensing her gaze, looked up from their work.
"Yes, Rei?"
"Nothing, Sir."
Gendo nodded and returned to the report. Rei quickly left the room, the door sliding shut behind her with a hiss.
Kozo shook his head. "That was mean, you know," he commented, tucking the digital assistant back into a pocket, "I thought that she was going to snap at you for repeating everything she said."
Gendo shook his head as he leaned back in the chair, tossing the paper back onto the desk. "So did I. An interesting turn of events, isn't it? I have to admit I did not see this coming."
"That's unusual," the older man smirked, retrieving a chair from the hidden closet. "She wants to bring her boyfriend home to meet her parents. I would have thought you would have had this written down in your master plan somewhere."
Gendo stared at his mentor, a blank look of vague horror etched on his features, his mind running at near light-speed, trying to wrap itself around the concept just handed to it.
"Do you think that's it? That's what she's thinking?"
"I doubt she knows that's what's going on, but it's as plain as day," Kozo said as he sat down with a satisfied sigh, rubbing his left knee. "Unfortunately, Doctor Akagi isn't here to officiate as the girl's mother."
Gendo took off his glasses to rub at his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose, starting to feel another migraine being born behind his skull. "I am eternally grateful that she isn't here to participate if this is a 'come to meet my parents' dinner. I wonder if he knows about this?"
Kozo chuckled. "I doubt she's told him. He'd probably start hyperventilating. I think it's going to be a surprise."
"And what a surprise it will be. If this dinner happens at all."
"You think that it's an Angel then?"
"What else could it be? No, it's an Angel. I don't need the scrolls to tell me this. It all boils down to whether they can verify and devise a plan before it wakes."
"It would be quite the coup to take one in an embryonic stage. It would open up more avenues of research."
"Yes. It would be a definite boon to the work on the S2 engine and our work with ADAM."
"How is that going? I've been busy with our other preparations." The older man pulled out another PDA, a replica of the first one he had held before, but where that one had disappeared into a pants pocket, this one emerged from his jacket. "Speaking of which, our agents with the Chechnians report they are ready to initiate Operation Blackjack."
"Are they? Good. Tell them to proceed. The outcome of this next battle won't affect Operation Blackjack at all." Gendo made a few notations on the computer calendar and moved several desktop shortcuts into a new configuration. "Regarding the work with ADAM, the Doctor thinks we'll be ready to operate in a few weeks."
Kozo turned his hands in front of his face, deep in thought. "There won't be any turning back for you then. Nothing will be the same."
Gendo's eyes flicked to his hands, currently sheathed in his white gloves, one on the keyboard and the other on the mouse, and then to the door Rei had just exited. "True. Even if we decide to adjust things or the situation changes, the operation cannot be easily undone. It is an invasive procedure." Looking up at the intracite design inlaid on his ceiling in glowing LEDs, he sighed. "This course was laid out years ago. There is no turning back from destiny."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Asuka walked through the main armament room on her way to look over the new stocks that had been delivered. They had come from NERV-Moscow, and while the children had seen them in the simulations, they had yet to use them in actual battle. When selecting her load-outs for actual battles and combat sims, Asuka liked seeing their weapons choices in person. Down in the vast armory, there were a lot of weapons to see.
There were racks upon racks of firearms of both 'normal' and advanced munition types. Of course, it was necessary to remember the normal munition for the basic Evangelion scale firearm was still on the scale of a mid-size naval gun, and they were 'just' depleted uranium rounds. The solid-state rounds only increased in caliber or velocity after that, depending on whether or not one was using the new or old-style rail-gun systems.
While Asuka was familiar with most of the ranged weapons, she bowed to Shinji's superior knowledge in this area. The Third Child favored the long range weapons systems by far, for all that he often went into a beserk rage and ended up killing his foes in hand to hand combat. The boy had a definite preference for the higher velocity and more extended range of the newer rail-gun systems, but he also had on more than one occasion gone for the ridiculously over-sized MK 3 M117 shoulder launcher, which they barely had munitions for, having only ten of the massive bombs, each weighing in with 750lbs of explosives.
Then there were the particle guns, the small store of weaponized particle accelerators, scaled-down versions of the massive prototype from the fight with the Fifth Angel. They only had four of the weapons, but they were devastatingly powerful. NERV was continuously improving on the weapons, and some days, it seemed like they were trying to make the ultimate weapons of mankind capable of slagging entire cities. She knew there had to be some reason they were making anti-matter down in the lowest levels of the massive complex. She had also seen some of the work being done on the barium-seeded plasma guns, but her expertise lay elsewhere, so she wasn't actively working on those projects.
But as terrifyingly devastating as their ranged weapons were, Asuka was by far a larger fan of the melee weapons, and she was interested in the latest additions to her arsenal, the new progressive swords.
There were eighteen of them, in both one-hand and two-handed styles, but all were done in various styles from Europe's history rather than Asia's, despite where they had ended up. One in particular caught Asuka's eye, a massive renditioning of a fifteenth-century German two-handed longsword. She grinned as she surveyed the enormous weapon, mentally comparing it to one of the dozens of human-sized swords owned by Berlin University, ones she had trained with extensively.
The sword had been a favorite of the German foot soldiers, and her ancestors had developed various combat styles for it. The Landsknechts, the elite mercenary soldiers of the time, had equipped their elite shock troops with them. The weapon's length was for reach and was made for short thrusts and cuts, aided by the large pommel, which gave the wielder fine control over the weapon.
Despite their intimidating size, the swords were usually no more than five pounds, with the heaviest ones meant for combat topping out at about seven pounds. It was a no-frills weapon, being a pure sword made for killing.
Asuka had to make a conscious effort to not drool. She also had to find out more about it.
As it turned out, the MK 5 Progressive Sword was not a progressive weapon; the sword's blade was larger than the vibrating mechanism of the knife and ax weapons could handle. Instead, the sword had been given an absurdly keen edge, thanks to the advanced laser machinery located underneath NERV-Moscow, and AT-Field Focus Projectors had been installed into the cross-guard to allow the wielder to sheath the blade in the reality-altering force-field, enabling the use of the defensive force field as an offensive weapon.
The applications of such a device were clear to the redheaded girl, as the AT-Field enhanced weapon would be able (in theory) to rip through the AT-Field of an Angel without her having to focus on degrading the shield first, to make a way clear for the weapon. And then, if there was no field up, the AT-Field would cleave through her opponent's flesh like a hot knife through butter. Of course, she was also the one who had suggested it to the design teams, based on her research on the Third Child and his bizarre use of the AT-Field.
I know what I'm going to be using in today's sims...
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"You know, Third Child," Asuka commented as the landscape flickered and flowed together for the fourth time that day, the simulation resetting itself, "You're not half bad at this. You're no Misato, but one wouldn't think she's any sort of tactical genius just by looking at her. You might be of more use outside the Evangelion than in it."
"Umm... Thanks... I guess."
Asuka shook her head in irritation. "C'mon, take some pride in yourself! You're in command of a brilliant and deadly warrior, and Rei!"
Listening with half an ear on the command channel, Rei raised her eyebrows fractionally before speaking. "And despite the Second Child ignoring even the simplest of orders, you have successfully led the operations to an acceptable end-state, with minimal collateral damage."
"What's that supposed to mean, First?" Asuka snapped at the 'SOUND ONLY' icon on her screen.
"I was agreeing with you," Rei commented, allowing the smallest amount of surprise to enter her voice. "Pilot Ikari should indeed take pride in himself for his accomplishments." She shifted slightly in her seat, mentally preparing herself. She reasoned that this was as good a time as any to step up the pace of her current experimentation with Shinji. Besides, now that the Commander had consented to have dinner with his son, she had little time to waste on the Second Child or her Sister, who had been bugging her with questions about the boy and Unit-01 throughout the tests.
"Shinji, you have successfully killed four extra-dimensional entities, thus preventing the extinction of mankind on each occasion, and you operated in support of an operation that dealt with the fifth such being. You have three solo kills and one assisted kill, setting you in the lead for reaching the so-called 'Ace' status. You have also saved the city of Toyota from the depredations of a malfunctioning robot with an onboard nuclear reactor undergoing meltdown. Now you are doing a commendable job as Acting Assistant Operations Director, a position usually given to seasoned military commanders. You should be proud of your accomplishments."
Seething in her Entry Plug, Asuka glowered at the icon again. "Don't be going and giving him a big head, though! He still screws things up! Three of those fights were multiple engagement battles because of him! They don't count! And it's not like they would let him take charge of a real operation anyway. Good in the sims is one thing; good in real life is another." She crossed her arms and glared ahead at her screens but perked up as Kaji's voice came over the communication net.
"Now, Asuka, is that any way to talk about your Operations Director?"
"But Kaji, he's just doing it for these simulations, so he's not just sitting around and being useless. Besides, why don't you have a go at this?" She asked, a sly tone entering her voice. "I bet you'd be a great commander!"
Kaji's laugh, at times insolent and others good-natured, sounded over the communication relay. "Oh, I'd be a terrible commander. I'm not very good at these military things, Asuka. I'm just filling in for Misato as you three's watcher while she's gone."
As soon as the words left the spy's mouth, he winced, wishing he could take them back. It was not the first time he had made that particular wish, for he had often said things that had come out the wrong way. He could almost feel the coldness emanating from the simulation body, though it was several rooms away and sitting in a pool of nutrient-rich goo.
Asuka, her face screwing up in anger, desperation, betrayal, and disbelief, forced the ball of ice that had formed in her stomach down so far into herself that she couldn't feel it. She managed to convince herself the spy hadn't meant what he had said, which was true enough, but she also convinced herself he had meant things he had not.
"Well," she said with false cheer, "Let's get this next simulation underway, shall we?"
The technicians assigned to work with them for the day set about starting the next battle simulation without a word.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
It was night, but the lone inhabitant of the eastern wing of the mansion did not sleep. Instead, he sat at the keys of a piano, an ancient relic of time past, a symbol of wealth and status. The piano before him was one of many sitting in the vast room, each arrayed in a large circle. The one he currently played was a Blüthner model, and it had been owned by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. As impressive as this was, it was perhaps not the most famous, as the one to his left, another Blüthner. Johannes Brahms had owned it.
Kiel Lorenz was nothing if not generous to those who pleased him. The young man who sat at the piano of a dead emperor had pleased the man who was SEELE 01, the Chairperson of the Human Instrumentality Committee and the leader of the Illuminati. Yes, Kaworu Nagisa had pleased his master well, so he had an entire wing of the ancient man's palace to himself, where he could content himself with the music his master had come to detest.
A man, a servant so low that the gray-haired albino boy does not even know his name, stood behind and to the side of the piano's bench seat, waiting patiently, albeit nervously. Most of the mansion's staff disliked the soft-spoken child. His mannerisms, while always the height of politeness and civility, seemed to be lacking in some nebulous and unquantifiable way, just as his too-wide smile seemed empty and meaningless. His voice, which could only be described as melodic, was a maddening melody without meaning or meter.
This servant's job was to wait on the Young Master, to see to his every whim. It was a job that fifteen other men had done before him and had driven fifteen men before him to suicide. He had pushed this to the back of his mind for his own good.
The Young Master's hands flowed like water with unnatural smoothness over the keys of the ancient instrument, calling forth the music of the old masters. Tonight, the boy favored Mozart, a pleasant change from all of the Beethoven. It was not that the butler disliked Beethoven, but the child would often play the man's music for days and days on end.
Behind the pair, the door to the library opened, and a woman rushed in, moving quickly and silently, not wishing to disturb the Young Master as he played. No one wanted to do that, not after the last one who had done so had clawed out her own eyes as she went insane.
Everyone knew it was the Young Master who had done it. He had a way of getting into people's heads, into their minds. Before he had leaped from the roof of the mansion, one of the old butlers had whispered to the wine steward that he could hear the boy's sibilant voice in his mind, and he could no longer hear his own thoughts. That was silly, though.
She leaned up and whispered into the butler's ear, her eyes wide with fear simply at being in the same room as the young man who sat with his back to them. The butler nodded to her, and she fled as she had come, swiftly and quietly.
Kaworu had overheard everything, of course. It was either that, or he was psychic; the man wasn't sure, as there should have been no way for the boy to overhear the young woman's words.
"I am being summoned to the master study," the boy stated, never breaking from his playing, the notes sliding into each other like oil over water. "I am to report at once. Master Lorenz has questions, questions again!" The last sentence was spoken with an almost reverential glee.
"Yes, Sir."
"Then I must report at once! I must answer the questions!"
"Of course, Sir."
The boy spun around on the bench, hopped up to his feet with feline grace, and headed for the door. The butler fell in behind him, trying to ignore that the sonata continued to play out for several notes after the boy's fingers ceased dancing on the keys.
As they made their way through the halls to the large master study in the center of the house, the boy hummed the same song he had been playing. They encountered none of the myriad staff, not even the hardened killers that served as the private security for the most powerful man on the planet. No one wanted to be near the boy if they could help it.
"He's going to ask about the Angels, you know," the boy confided in his manservant. "He's going to ask about Sandalphon!"
The butler, of course, had no idea what the boy was going on about. Of course, this didn't bother the man at all, because the ashen-haired, red-eyed GOD child was glorious insane. He didn't ever want to serve anyone else want to know what the Young Master meant when he chatted about angels.
"Oh, and he will want to know about Ikari-kun!" Though they were speaking German, the boy added the Japanese suffix to the Commander's name. The man following after Kaworu didn't want to know what that was about, either.
Presently, they arrived at the doors to the study, doors beyond which the man had never passed and, with luck, never would. The Old Master was just as strange in his manners and habits, according to the men and women who served him directly, although less likely to make you go insane. He was content to serve for all time wait patiently outside while his betters conversed about things beyond his comprehension.
The master study was not brightly lit, but neither was it dark. Instead, the lights were at a soft level, but bright enough for easy reading of delicate documents that could be damaged by bright lights, bleached of color, drying them out and destroying them. Kiel Lorenz had many such documents, ranging from books to scrolls and loose parchment.
This was not because he took pleasure in owning antiques or was a diligent owner and student of the ancient tomes; these sources of knowledge were far older than he, though he was far older than any other human on the planet. It was because these things had knowledge and power, and while some were tablets of clay, metal, and rock, nothing on them was set in stone.
A prophecy could be met in many, many different ways. The outcome was sure to occur, but the specifics were as mutable as the clouds in the sky. The winds of Fate could blow in many directions.
Thus, Kiel Lorenz had a vested interest in keeping the numerous objects that detailed the path to his Ascension and Immortality in a state where he could use them. Instrumentality would occur, and he would be damned if he was not at it's helm.
Kaworu approached his master's desk with all the decorum he usually did not have. Kiel Lorenz did not appreciate the boy's unique sense of... being... at all and demanded that the ashen-haired child act appropriately in his presence. It was a lesson the boy had learned hard. This body, the human body, was very good at feeling pain. Kiel Lorenz was a master at granting it. All one had to do was know what buttons to push, what levers to pull, and it was the simplest thing to reduce even a cloned god-thing to a whimpering ball of tears, blood, piss, and snot.
"You summoned me, Sir?"
The ancient cyborg looked up from the bronze tablets before him, carved with words in a language so old no one alive knew its name. The man's visor sat in front of dead eyes, eyes which had ceased to function almost ten years ago. The visor served as his eyes now; he could see things he hadn't before. Things that others couldn't. Things like the halo above the boy's head or the wisps of energy rising from his shoulders, looking more like tentacles than wings. Things like the pinpricks of light burning behind his eyes.
Things that could drive a man mad if he saw enough.
Some would say Kiel Lorenz had gone mad years ago, even before the loss of his eyes. They would say this in hushed tones, and throw worried looks over their shoulders, but they would say it all the same.
They were, of course, entirely correct. Kiel Lorenz had traded his sanity away almost a century ago now. However, that hadn't stopped him in his rise to power, just as the loss of his eyesight hadn't even been a speed bump on that same road. The visor he wore was what had taken his eyesight, after all.
"Yes, yes, I summoned you. You know what is happening right now?"
The boy nodded, eager to please, his red eyes shining brighter than they should have in the muted lighting. "Sandalphon is next. He will awaken in twenty-four days, on the day reserved for"
"Enough." Lorenz interrupted his ward, holding his hand up to halt the boy's chatter. "Sandalphon has been found."
Kaworu's eyes widened in shock. In the gray-scale world that Lorenz saw, the halo and energy whips brightened in conjunction with the boy's eyes. "He, He has been found?"
"Yes. Inside Mt. Asama, in Japan. He is still in embryonic form. They say it is a huge, super-dense egg that sits in a magma lake. Even now, NERV works to confirm it is an Angel in Waiting, but when they do, they will move quickly."
"But it's not time yet!" the boy wailed, his cry sounding like the pealing of bells. "Ikari-kun is supposed to take him! But he's not better yet!"
"No, it's not time yet. I do not wish for NERV to go on the offensive. The schedule must be adhered to. The Scenario must be played out according to my will." The old man gestured to the tablets in front of him. "These are being less than helpful. Tell me, what can we do to arrest this disaster and set things back onto the course I have laid out?"
Kaworu began to pace back and forth, his eyes narrowed in concentration, the omnipresent smile having vanished, applying all of his towering intellect and otherworldly knowledge to the problem of how to salvage the situation.
Kiel stood up from his chair, not being the invalid he presented himself as, and began to circle the room again, scanning all of his assembled items for something, anything at all that could be used or could offer up some new insight into the changing rivers of inevitability.
Lorenz could call off the investigation, but that would significantly weaken his position of authority. Sandalphon would emerge in Its due time and anything he would say from that point on would be considered suspect. While being an annoyance, it was still unacceptable.
They could arrange for some accident or another to occur, one that would call back the team, sending them scurrying like the mice they were to face whatever threat he had conjured up, but would tip his hand for when the actual invasion began. They would fix things so that they could not be taken again in such a manner. That too, was unacceptable.
But brute force was not the only tool he had at his disposal. His agents were numerous and subtle. With a word, he could strike down the pilots, one or all of them. But sicknesses were tricky, and he couldn't afford to permanently lose one of the pilots at this juncture. That would throw the rest of the Scenario off balance, which he was attempting to fix in the first place.
The First Child, though. The First Child was a clone, just as Kaworu was. Better yet, she was not nearly as robust as the boy, for just as Unit-00 was a prototype, so was she. The Ayanami bloodline was weak. Not so the Nagisa cultures, which benefited from much more Angelic DNA. She could fall prey to some sickness, some bug. The flu, perhaps. It was always a danger. And should she die, there was no doubt Ikari would have a new clone decanted on the hour, the old one cremated. However, the scientists would have to return to Tokyo-3 to keep up appearances. They would have to abandon their little inquest into that which they should not have found.
Kiel Lorenz smiled, his gray lips stretching in a smile that did not have the decency of looking pleasant, if empty, such as the one his ward usually wore. When Kiel Lorenz smiled, it was never pleasant.
This plan also had the bonus of letting Ikari know he could and would strike at any time. A warning. Since it was against the replaceable cog, the man would undoubtedly think it was retaliation for stealing the sample from Berlin. It was, after all, precisely the type of thing he would do.
He returned to his seat, settling in, making himself comfortable. Kaworu noted the activity and stopped packing to watch his patron curiously, noting the grin on the old man's face.
Kiel explained his new adjustment to the boy, and the child closed his red eyes, letting his limited precognitive powers cast out into the possible future. Seeing things would move along as the Old Master said they should, he opened them and nodded as he spoke.
"Ayanami will die of the sickness, the consumption stealing away her life. They will return, but it will be to no avail. She will pass from this world, but the Commander will activate a new clone. They will think she has recovered, but he will know we have struck. Sandalphon will go unnoticed and will emerge in His due time. Ikari-kun will take him as planned."
"Good, good. Thus, the Scenario is safe. I will maintain command of Instrumentality. I will ascend."
Kaworu raised his eyes to the dead ones of his master, hunger present in his crimson orbs. "And Ikari-kun?"
Lorenz smiled again. "He will be yours, to do with as you wish, forever."
If one were to look at Lorenz and Nagisa side by side and ignore such things as eye and hair coloration, they would look nothing alike. This was because they were, in fact, not related at all.
But the smiles they wore, the smiles of sick and twisted hunger, those were mirror images.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Misato woke up with a start to the pounding on the motel room's door. Her hand automatically closed around her .45, but she let it go as she recognized Lieutenant Hyuga's voice calling out for her. She opened the door on the excited technician, her esteem taking a small hit as the man she knew who had a bit of a crush on her did not notice that she was only wearing a sports bra and her jeans, having been too tired to change before collapsing on the bed a few hours earlier.
"What is it?" She asked, watching him as he panted, trying to catch his breath.
"Its... it's a pattern blue!"