Asuka growled in frustration while reviewing the data feed from Shinji's entry plug. "How does he do it?" she complained, pointing to the waveform representing his AT-Field. "How does he have such fine control over the AT-Field at these levels – he's not even at a fifty percent setting! He shouldn't be able to shape the fields like that. It goes against all our research and development tests on Wondergirl and me! What makes him so special?"
Ritsuko smirked at her assistant as she typed away at her terminal, lowering the cap on the boy's synchronization ratio, watching the waveform shudder momentarily before stabilizing. "Well, Asuka," she said in a bored tone, "there is one way that makes him different from you and Rei."
"Don't patronize me! I refuse to believe that just because he's got a Y chromosome, he's got an advantage with the Evangelion. It's not built like that!" She threw her arms up in the air in frustration, watching, flabbergasted, as Shinji reshaped the defensive field so that it was visible to the naked eye, the glowing yellow hexagons barely noticeable. "Now look at this Blödsinn!"
Aoba looked over at the angry girl with a frown. "Well, he did have a higher baseline score when we first plugged him into the entry plug than either of you two," he said with a shrug before returning to his panel, monitoring the boy's central nervous system readings. "He might be a natural at it – like some people are good at sports or music. He's good at Evangelions."
"But his Marduk scores are garbage! He should just be barely acceptable as a pilot, not able to play the AT-Field like it was his cello!" She scowled at the screen and punched in a new query to the MAGI from her terminal, stabbing at the keyboard. She pointed at new readouts, her finger quivering in rage. "See? See? Look at this! He simply should not be able to do this unless everything we know about the AT-Field is wrong!"
Maya looked over to the girl's screen, frowning. "She's right. He's currently running at a thirty percent synch and only on two emitters. The AT-Field shouldn't be able to envelop him, but he's got a complete bubble."
Ritsuko walked over, peering at the diagram. The Evangelion was indeed encased in a complete bubble, shielded on all sides by the force field. Leaning over both girls, she opened up a line to the titan.
"Shinji, go ahead and hold what you've got right now. We will begin the next phase of the test at this time. I want you to keep your field up for as long as possible."
"Yes, ma'am." The boy's response was somewhat strained, and if he hadn't been encased in LCL, he probably would have had a sheen of sweat on his face. As it was, he looked a little pale, and his eyes were extremely dilated.
Standing back up, the doctor nodded to Makoto. He typed a rapid string of commands into the MAGI, and a dull clanking sounded throughout the lab as the next part of the test got underway. Ten 155mm howitzer cannons deployed, aimed at the giant and began to fire rapidly in a random sequence. The field shone brighter at the points of impact, deflecting the rounds in some cases and causing others to simply drop to the ground, based on where on the field they hit.
Asuka studied the sensor readings from the field projectors, watching as they tried to keep an even level of protection for the armored giant. The waveform shifted back and forth under the onslaught, vanishing in some areas to reinforce in others. She twirled a strand of hair around a finger absently as she watched.
Behind the Evangelion, another group of doors opened up, and ten more cannons were sighted on their target, battering the back of the Evangelion. Shinji shuddered onscreen, but the war machine remained steady, shrugging off the new attacks.
Behind the assembled technicians, the door opened, and Misato strolled in. Rei followed her in, dressed in her plug suit and still slightly damp from the operational tests she had been running through in the simulator body. Both stood beside the doctor as they watched the battery test on the main view screen. "How's our boy doing?" the Major asked cheerfully, pulling her PDA from a pocket and making a few notes. "Rei did very well in the sims today."
"He's doing something weird with his AT-Field," Ritsuko said, not taking her eyes off the readouts. "We're doing a few tests to see if we can learn how he's doing it."
Rei stirred a little, her eyes moving from the vid-link in the plug to the cannons firing at Unit-01. "What is he doing?" she asked, trying to make sense of the readouts. They were not anything she had bothered to study or learn before, being largely unnecessary to her. But if the others were beginning to notice that her boyfriend had unusual abilities regarding the AT-Field and his Evangelion, they might start going back over old data in a more in-depth review; they might notice the same thing she had after his first fight.
She did not know what they might do if they found out he could hold a one hundred percent synchronization rate with the Evangelion. It was theoretically impossible outside of an unregulated Contact Experiment. It was also theoretically impossible to do while maintaining one's Ego Border and remaining corporeal.
"He's doing very well," Misato commented, watching the impacting rounds. "What's he doing that's so weird?"
"He shouldn't be able to hold the AT-Field with a visible phase space reaction at this level, is what," Asuka said, pointing at her monitor.
"Asuka, you know I can't make heads or tails of that stuff." Misato sighed. "I rely on our tech teams to keep an eye on that while I tell you guys to beat the Angels into dust."
"Change to HEAT rounds," Ritsuko ordered, tapping at a side console. "Let's see how he handles explosive rounds instead of solid slugs.
The automatic feeders whined as they shifted, withdrawing and changing out. The barrage started up again, this time the anti-tank rounds exploding against the projected field. The Evangelion violently shuddered as the AT-Field struggled and the firing patterns began to shift, raining the explosive rounds all over the giant's profile.
On the secondary screen, the waveform of the AT-Field was going insane, dancing about like water on a hot skillet. On the video screen, Shinji's eyes were squeezed shut as he tried to maintain control over his defenses. So far, he was able to not only cause the rounds to detonate on the AT-Field as opposed to his physical armor, but his field was defeating the Monroe-Effect of the anti-armor rounds, the penetrating explosion of the shaped charge proving to be ineffectual against the force-field.
Rei watched the synchronization level, artificially capped at thirty percent, the locks engaged to keep the inner portion of the plug from descending deeper into the Evangelion, limiting the level at which Shinji could control and manipulate the system. As synchronization between the pilot and cybernetic war machine increased, the cockpit of the plug would sink lower into the giant, as the pilot effectively became the Evangelion, coming into contact with the core and transcending the Ego Border. A fully realized Evangelion, with a pilot operating at a complete one hundred percent synchronization, would be able to – in theory at least – fight as if it was the pilot who was a towering giant protected by armor and his AT-Field.
Theory, unfortunately, was not fact. The Evangelions required massive amounts of power to run, and to date, there has not been one successful contact experiment. This lie was told to nearly everyone who knew about the science behind the Evangelions.
The truth was that the cyborg giants were born of Man and Angel, culled from the bodies of the First and Second, and the so-called contact experiments were the preparation of the pilot corps, drawing on the maternal instincts built into Mankind's genome to give motive and function to the bio-mechanical shadows of the Angels. Having eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, Mankind was clever. Lilith had chosen a different route than Adam for her progeny.
But for all the cleverness man possessed, there was something to be said for brute force. Shinji could not hold out forever under the continuing assault, his natural affinity for manipulating the AT-Field only going so far. There was a bright flash as his defenses failed, the actinic light flaring around the hole. The next several rounds impacted against the armor on the Evangelion, the giant swaying as Shinji lost his concentration, the field dropping entirely for a few moments before he managed to reestablish it. His face was pale on the video feed, and his features screwed up in intense concentration.
Dr. Akagi ended the test with a curt command. "All right, let's run the data against his past tests. Also, have the maintenance crew check out the armor systems on Unit-01 and replace anything that needs it."
"But the B-Type armor is proof against any regular artillery." Misato protested. "There had better not be anything that needs to be replaced on it!"
"So a check of the armor here to ensure that will be better than if he's out in combat and it fails on him." Her friend countered. "Maya, go ahead and run retrieval on Shinji and get him up here. We've got a surprise for the pilots." She said with a grin to the girls.
Misato started to laugh. "So the modifications are complete? I can't wait to-"
"Hush, you!" Ritsuko interrupted. "You'll ruin the surprise."
Asuka shook her head absently, pulling up the raw data from the same test she and Unit-02 had undergone the day prior and comparing it to the information from Shinji's test. Rei only left the control room, heading for the gantry where Shinji would be dropped off after Lieutenant Ibuki recovered the Entry Plug from Unit-01 and locked it into the cradle. While she was mildly curious about what manner of surprise the modifications mentioned were about, she needed to tell him about the dinner at the end of the week.
He was already out of the plug when she arrived, coughing up LCL into the recovery trough. He waved weakly at her as his lungs continued to expel the viscous fluid. She patted him helpfully on the back until he could breathe normally again. She hugged him after he stood back up and wiped his mouth with the offered towel.
"You did very well with the AT-Field test today."
"It didn't seem like it," he confessed, using another towel to try to get the most of the LCL out of his hair, "I had a hard time trying to keep the field up at all. How were your tests? They had you in the simulators, right? Ramiel again today, right?"
"It was Ramiel and Sachiel." She said, grabbing his hand as they walked back to the elevators. "Major Katsuragi said that I did well. I was able to destroy the Third Angel without much issue and destroy the Fifth Angel before succumbing to wounds and damage."
Shinji winced as she went into an in-depth explanation of the simulated battle, her tactics, and the damage she dealt out and took in return. He squeezed her hand. "I'll never let you go into a fight alone."
She squeezed his hand back and leaned in against him as they walked back towards the control room. "Doctor Akagi has some manner of surprise for us. I am not sure what it is regarding, but I also have a surprise for you. This Friday, I am making dinner for Commander Ikari and us. We will have it at the Horaki's home."
The boy stopped, staring at the girl. "What?"
She looked up into his worried eyes, ignoring the doubt and uncertainty on his face. "Please. I know… I know that you do not like him. But… he is your father. You are both important to me."
His face relaxed, but she could still feel the tension in his body. "Friday?" he asked, looking unhappy. He sighed. "The parent-teacher meetings are on Thursday. He said he wasn't going to go to mine, that he had no time for anything like that, but he's coming to dinner the very next day?"
"He has never shown up to my teacher meetings in the past. It was always Doctor Akagi." She paused and tugged his arm to get him walking again. "Dinner is more important than meeting with teachers. Your studies have improved recently, at any rate."
"Because of you and Asuka! Not because I think that the classes are interesting or anything."
"If you do not have acceptable grades, Major Katsuragi will not let you use your free time as you want. That is not acceptable."
He laughed a little. "No, I guess not. Do you want any help making dinner or anything? What time did you have planned?"
"I am making dinner. It is a gift to you and the Commander. You are not allowed to help."
"I want to help out, though! I mean, he is my father."
Rei was quiet for a little while, mulling it over. She and Hikari were going shopping the next evening after she was done at NERV and thus needed no assistance there. She and Shinji were going to be studying tonight and could not do anything anyway. "You could obtain decorations, perhaps."
"Decorations? Is it a party-type dinner?"
"Sometimes Hikari or Kodama purchase flowers for the center of the table." Rei clarified, thinking about the first time she had seen the class representative put the vase of flowers in place before the evening meal. "If you like, you could get some."
Shinji's response was cut off as Misato rounded the corner. "C'mon, you two!" She cried at them, tapping her foot impatiently. "Don't you want to see what the surprise is?" Ushering them into the room, she nodded to Ritsuko. "Okay, I found the lovebirds. Let's get on with the big unveiling, I'm hungry."
Rolling her eyes, Ritsuko grabbed a box from underneath her terminal station. "After the new paint jobs on the Evangelions, I went ahead and had these made up since we were making some design changes to them anyways, incorporating some improved linkages and sensors." She opened the box and handed the pilots each a new plug suit package. "Go ahead and open them up."
Looking at each other, the pilots shrugged and tore open the wrappers, pulling out their new uniforms. They did not look much different from the current iteration of the plug suit, but on the shoulders of the suit was a matching copy of the designs on their Evangelion's shoulder fins. Asuka started to laugh wildly.
"This is great! This gives me an idea! You know what we need?" she asked, a grin on her face as she stuffed the uniform back into the bag.
"What's that, Asuka?" Ritsuko asked, a smile on her face. This was the happiest she had seen the girl in some time, the usually energetically cheerful pilot having been down in the dumps for weeks, and her foul mood was infectious, felt by the rest of the technicians she worked with. Even Maya, with her sometimes annoyingly persistent cheerfulness, had been depressed and unhappy, snapping at some of the other techs. A truly happy Asuka was a pleasant change.
"Patches! We need Evangelion patches!"
"Patches?" Shinji echoed, looking around to see if anyone was as lost as he was.
"I do not have anything that requires a patch," Rei commented.
"That's because you didn't grow up on army bases." The redhead countered. "I've got a jacket that a patch would be perfect for."
"I did not grow up on military installations." Rei agreed. "I grew up here at NERV."
"You what?" Asuka asked, staring at the girl. "You've always been here?"
"Yes, she's been here as long as I've known her," Ritsuko interjected. "She was selected by the Marduk Institute out of the initial screenings, much like you were, Asuka. She had no other home, having been in one of the state-run orphanages in Kyoto-2."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"NERV is not a military organization. It is the successor to the GEHIRN Artificial Evolution Labs and is a privately funded, for-profit, international research firm. It receives funding from the UN, NATO, and the Commonwealth of Independent Nations. It has branches in numerous countries and has major holdings on every continent."
"Correct," Gendo replied, staring down the panel of modern-day inquisitors. "All of this information is freely available from our website." He sounded bored and entirely at ease.
"But you do not hold the position of CEO. You are referred to as the Supreme Commander. The UN has seconded several military advisers to your senior staff. You maintain weapons systems of strategic importance. You maintain what can only be referred to as a private military. JSSDF generals defer to you regularly. You regularly visit numerous nations' military complexes, even those who are, for lack of a better term, at odds with each other."
"Correct."
Misato sighed inwardly but forced herself to keep from slumping down in her seat. The inquiry into the workings of NERV was not going well, and the Commander's one-word responses only worsened the situation.
Even worse was the security issues and need-to-know restraints about the true nature of the war meant they couldn't tell these pompous fools about anything, even if they needed to in their defense! Only a few top officials in the world knew the whole story, and until they could squash this board, they would have to suffer this indignity.
The whole affair left her feeling sick to her stomach. She wished she could mimic the Commander's aura of still being in charge. He certainly didn't look or sound any different than usual. If he was as irritated at these proceedings as everyone else, he hid it far better than anyone.
"What were you doing when your city, your fortress, with its nigh impossible-to-fail power systems, sensor arrays, and security, went dark?" Another board member spoke up, changing the line of attack. She felt her eyes widen, and she watched her Commander from the corner of her eyes, wondering how he would respond.
"I was preparing for a family dinner with my son and his girlfriend."
Silence reigned in the room for over a minute as the assembled men and women digested that piece of information. Gendo Ikari did not strike anyone as a family man.
Looking down at his notes, the official continued, trying to chip away at the bearded man's cold exterior. "Your son, Pilot Shinji Ikari, and his girlfriend, Pilot Rei Ayanami." The man's voice was skeptical, and Misato could just see the questions concerning the pilots' qualifications and the obvious questions of nepotism.
"Correct."
Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!
Kaji scowled at the blueprints on the screen of his computer tablet, trying to figure out the mess of ducts, cables, and pipes. While the on-file blueprints were similar to the Geo-Front's infrastructure, nothing matched up correctly. He could understand that they didn't want to make anything easy for people like him, but at the same time, he found it annoying that Gendo had planned for saboteurs in this way years in advance. It was utterly unfair.
The fact he had to isolate three different power plants, all located deep underground, from the power grid that ran NERV without permanently destroying their power capability was bad enough. Not for the first time since receiving his new instructions, he wondered what the other infiltrators would be doing during the ensuing blackout.
Each nuclear power plant had multiple reactors and produced roughly 2000 MW. They powered all of the Geo-Front and the surface city and supplied the power for the Evangelions during battle. They were the largest plants in the world, and each had numerous redundant systems and linkages to the power grids.
Each had its security force, subsections of Section 2, who maintained their own patrols and sensor nets. While still ultimately controlled by the MAGI, it meant he had three different networks of security to evade and overcome. This, plus the fact that each was deep underground, nestled into the bedrock, meant sneaking around was extremely difficult. The access shafts to conduct maintenance were hardened systems in their own right.
It was obvious they had picked the most demanding job for their best spy. High, if still annoying, praise.
He turned the corner and sighed, rechecking the blueprints. This hallway ended with just a single door set into the far wall. Yet another discrepancy from the on-file plans.
The door's electronic lock was easily circumvented, which was odd, as all the other doors down on this level had much more stringent security, but that puzzle was overshadowed by what lay beyond.
The door opened onto a walkway running along a massive access shaft, one meant for an Evangelion to have ample room to move about. He could not see the far end, shrouded in darkness, but he could see a vast door almost a quarter mile away from where he stood, all reinforced armor and bristling with gun turrets, all facing down the hall. The fig leaf logo was painted onto the gray metal, red carnelian standing out in the bright spotlights trained on the door, and above it, picked out in a deep azure, was a triangle with seven eyes in two columns, one with three and one with four. It wasn't anything he had ever seen before. Whatever it meant, Gendo did not want anyone to have an easy time getting to or past that gate.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Rei tasted the soup she was working on, more critical now than she had ever been. While she strived for excellence in everything that mattered, this was the test run for tomorrow night's dinner. Everything had to be perfect, even if the recipe was slightly different. She handed the small dish over to Hikari for her assessment.
"It's fine, Rei! You're stressing out over this way too much." She filled the dish and handed it to Nozomi, who had spent the afternoon 'helping' the older girls, although it was more of getting in the way and irregularly chopping vegetables. "I mean, you've made this how many times now?"
"We have made this particular dish twenty-five times since I moved in with your family." She accepted the bowl back from the younger girl and set it into the sink. "It will be acceptable for the dinner."
"Right, so that's taken care of." Hikari laughed. "Everything will be fine, I promise!"
Rei looked skeptically at her friend as she cleaned up the counter. "And everyone was agreeable to letting us make use of the house, uninterrupted, for the duration?"
"I'll take Nozomi to the movies with Toji and Mari and eat at a restaurant. Dad will go out with some friends from work, and Kodama will be off with her boyfriend." She said, counting off items on her hand. "You will return right after school, and Shinji will be here at three-thirty. The Commander is supposed to be here at four."
Rei nodded, having memorized the agreed-upon schedule for the following day. "I will be alone for two hours after school is released to prepare the dinner and set the table. I will have thirty minutes alone with Shinji to set up the centerpiece, which Asuka informs me will be quite acceptable. That will take approximately five minutes, which will allow us twenty minutes of unsupervised free time, allowing for five minutes to straighten up for the arrival of Commander Ikari." Rei paused, curiously watching Hikari blush as she covered Nozomi's ears. "Dinner will be from four until six, at which point Commander Ikari will depart, and Shinji and I will clean up."
Hikari nodded vigorously. "We'll be getting back soon after he leaves. So, unless an Angel attacks, everything will be fine. I don't see what else could happen that would throw things off."
"An Angel attack would be unfortunate. However, all sensor nets currently report none of the anomalous readings that have in the past heralded the Angels." She paused as she set the cooking pot to one side. "Those readings are not always pertinent, though. Sometimes, they have appeared without warning."
An Angel attack would be very unfortunate, especially since the Commander would be more or less incapacitated. While he could perform the duties his position demanded, he would not be his normal self.
It was a risk that she was taking, but a calculated one. Commander Ikari rarely needed to assume direct command during the battles, as Major Katsuragi was proficient at commanding them in combat. Shinji, of course, would be restored to his usual self shortly after immersion in the LCL and synchronization. The purging effects of the liquid merited studies all on their own, but she had no time to conduct them and few test subjects to use.
"I'm sure everything will be fine," Hikari reassured her friend. "It's been a while since the last incident, and there's no reason to think there will be one tomorrow just because you're having a family dinner with the Ikaris!"
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Kaworu chuckled to himself as he watched the two Evangelion pilots. His sister was not present, and so he did not need to hide himself from her view. The two Lilim would not be able to sense him the way she would.
The girl, the 'Captain' of the coterie of pilots, was trying to explain to Shinji about flowers and how to select them for different events. The boy was lost, caught up in the hurricane of his Captain's exuberance. While annoying, it did make it easier for him to move in and make Shinji's acquaintance. All he needed to do was wait for her to go and inspect something else and leave him alone for a moment.
He did not have to wait long, as she became embroiled in an argument with the clerk. Shinji rolled his eyes and wandered off, looking at the displays of flowers and other sundry gifts.
Kaworu smoothly and quietly moved up alongside the other boy, pretending to look at the flowers. "Your girlfriend has quite the temper." He commented dryly, nodding over at the counter.
Shinji jerked suddenly, not expecting to be addressed, but quickly laughed. "Oh, she's not my girlfriend. Just a friend."
"Just a friend? You must be an easygoing person to put up with a temper like hers."
"Oh, she's not usually like this." Shinji explained, "She's just very energetic about her opinions."
"That's one way of looking at it." Kaworu smiled as he held out his hand. "I'm Kaworu Nagisa, by the way."
"Shinji Ikari." Shinji shook his hand. "That's Asuka Sohryu." He motioned over at the redhead. "We go to the Tokyo-3 high school, class three. Are you a student there? I don't think I've ever seen you before."
"Oh, I'm not from here," Kaworu explained. "I'm just visiting. I'll be moving here in a few months and thought I'd take the time to check the city out, see the sights, that sort of thing." His smile deepened. "Meet new people, make some friends."
"It can be hard starting someplace new without knowing anyone," Shinji commented. "Does your father work for NERV? We don't get many new people here in the city who don't work at NERV in some way or another."
"Yes, he works for NERV. I'm not sure what he does, but we're moving over from the German branch in Berlin. I take it that you also have a family member who works at NERV?"
Shinji frowned briefly before answering. "Yes, my father works at NERV. He's usually busy with work, and I don't see him very often."
"It's the same with me, I assure you," Kaworu replied, his tone breezy. "Well, it was very nice meeting you, Shinji. I have a prior engagement to keep, but are you free this Friday? You look like you know the area. Would you mind showing me around? I'm sure you know all the best places."
"Well, I'm not free this Friday. I'm having dinner with my girlfriend and my father." Shinji said, "But I think I have off Saturday afternoon. We can show you around."
"We?" Kaworu asked, unhappiness creeping into his voice.
"Asuka, Rei, and some of our friends."
"I'm sure that it will be fun. I'll see you later, Shinji!" Kaworu turned and left before the other boy could ask when and where they would meet up, leaving him slightly flabbergasted.
Asuka walked over to her friend, a catalog in her hands. "Who's that?" she asked, nodding at Kaworu's back.
"Kaworu Nagisa. I guess he's moving over from Berlin in a few months and is here seeing Tokyo-3."
"Really…" she said, drawing out the word, her eyes narrowed. "I don't remember any Nagisas while I was there."
"Maybe his dad's in a different department. Could be Section-2 or Section-1." Shinji shrugged. "Not everything revolves around the Evangelions."
"I know that, dummy! But Berlin and Tokyo-3 are Evangelion-centric. Especially Berlin. All the other research departments were out of Munich or Ramstein." She tossed her head, flipping her hair back. "I'm pretty sure I would have noticed." She snorted. "Besides, he's not even German! Nagisa. Hah, what a joke! Anyways," she paused, opening up the catalog, "You're going to be getting a vase of tulips for tomorrow night. They look nice, and since it's not a romantic dinner, what with Commander Creepy, you won't be needing roses."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Hikari waved goodbye to Rei as she hustled Nozomi down the walkway. "Bye Rei! We'll see you later!"
Rei waved in response before walking back into the house, pulling the small vial of anti-depressants out of her pocket. It had taken her half an hour to grind the pills into a fine powder, which should dissolve nicely into the miso soup. Ten minutes into the meal, Shinji and the Commander would have the happiest dinner in their lives.
She smiled, humming the song that Shinji constantly hummed to himself. This was going to be a glorious day for Science.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Misato stabbed the button to close the elevator doors, trying to evade Kaji's desperate attempt to catch a ride. He slid into the lift just as the doors closed.
"Whew, that was close!" he cheerfully commented. "So, beautiful, how are you doing today?"
Misato sighed loudly. "I was having a good day before you showed up."
Kaji looked hurt, pointing to himself. "What? What's wrong, dollface?"
"I've got work to do, and it never seems to get done while you're around."
He grinned impishly at her. "You don't have to worry about me seducing you today," he said with a wink, "I'm a man on a mission. I've got a laundry list of things to do today myself." He held up his hand as if taking an oath. "I promise."
Misato groaned after the lights went out, and the elevator shuddered to a halt.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Shinji and Asuka were arguing as they walked back home from the mall, the boy's hands full of flowers, the girl's empty and swinging from side to side, occasionally poking the taller boy.
"I'm just saying the data says you're doing something else! You cannot be that much better at AT-Field manipulation than me or Wondergirl!"
"I don't know what else to say, Asuka."
"Whatever." Her frown deepened into a scowl as they passed a restaurant. "You could at least cook something before heading out for your dinner date. Misato can't cook anything right!"
"You could cook," Shinji replied, shaking his head. "It's not that hard, and I know that you can! You've bragged about how you are perfectly capable of taking care of yourself!"
She grumbled under her breath as they rounded the corner. "GOTT IM HIMMEL!" She screamed in anger and surprise as Shinji dropped the vase of flowers, the glass shattering on the ground. Far off in the distance, a giant spidery form moved slowly towards the city. Above it, a single plane circled overhead, watching its progress.
Vier, Drei, Zwei, Eins!
Gendo looked up from the report cards from the pilots and the reports from Major Katsuragi detailing their progress at school as the lights in the office flickered and then died, leaving him in total darkness.
Grinning to himself, he set the report on the desk and leaned back in his chair. His hands shot up, grabbed the would-be assassin by the shoulders, and slammed the bottom of the man's chin into his chair. Rolling out of the chair, he kept one hand on the man, slamming the other into his stomach as he kicked the garrote away into the dark.
The assassin fought back, but he was no match for the Commander, not without the element of surprise and certainly not with the breath knocked out of him. The fight was over almost as soon as it was started. After stuffing the unconscious man into his closet and locking it, he changed into a fresh set of clothes. It would not do to show up with another man's blood on him.
He nodded at Fuyutsuki as Section-2 men pried open the door to his office. "The time for subtle moves is over." He commented to his second in command while forcing one agent who was dragging the unconscious assailant away to maneuver around him. "We must ensure the Evangelions are prepared for deployment. Get the emergency diesel generators into position. We'll prep everything manually." He shoved his hands into his pockets as the group hurried down the hallway. "Have someone locate the Major and Doctor Akagi. Send someone to find the pilots – they will be on the surface. If an Angel attacks while the power is out, it will be disastrous."
"I've started most of that. Doctor Akagi has her crews working. Maintenance is working on the power issue. Evangelion crews 00-02 are starting to prepare the Evangelions." He looked at his protégé. "It's ahead of schedule, but nothing we hadn't planned for. How does it feel, being constantly vindicated?"
In the gloom, Gendo grinned again.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Asuka growled in irritation as they hurried through the air ducts. "This is garbage! Why is the power all over the Geo-Front and the city is out? We've got, what, three nuclear reactors powering this place?"
"There are three power plants, each with five reactors providing power to the Geo-Front and Tokyo-3." Rei corrected from the front. "It is highly unusual that all three would be offline simultaneously."
"What does that mean, then?" Shinji asked. "Did someone sabotage NERV? Who would do something like that?"
"I don't know," Asuka growled back through gritted teeth. "But if I ever find out who, I will kill them! An Angel is attacking, and we have to crawl through these stupid air ducts again just to get to our Evangelions!"
"I suppose it's a good thing we've done this before. Otherwise, we'd probably be lost right now."
"I still wish we could have waited for the guards to get one of the lifts running," Asuka complained. "I am not dressed for this."
"Time is a luxury we do not possess," Rei commented. "We should be able to exit here."
"Okay, Shinji. You're up."
Shinji crawled over the prone form of his girlfriend, who then moved back to give him room to wrench open the grate. He jumped into the corridor and turned around to help the girls. They started to run down the hallway towards the cages, not bothering to brush the dust off themselves.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Ritsuko sighed as the Geo-Front shook violently as the three Evangelions climbed up through the launch tunnels, punching and kicking hands and footholds into the walls, fighting against the time limits the backup diesel generators imposed on them. They would only be able to provide electricity for a limited time before running dry, and the umbilical cables would be useless once they hit the surface, being not long enough to reach even on the most direct route. Then, they would have to deal with the Angel before the five minutes of onboard battery power ran out.
"I can hardly wait for the damage assessments." She said with a shake of her head. "Well, let's see what we can do to restore power.
"Do you think we'll be able to get power restored in time?" Maya asked, trailing after the doctor. "If all three plants are offline,"
"It means that someone wanted them to be." Ritsuko finished the thought. "It's not likely we'll have power back up in time to help in the fight, but the sooner we get it fixed, the better. It's annoying, though, not being able to help or keep track of what's happening. We won't know what happens until it's all said and done."
Her dark mood was brightened by the younger technician's following words. "But we've got a good chance, though. The pilots were ready and on the way, and we got the Evangelions ready for them! It's pretty amazing, the Commander leading the charge to get everything set up in preparation for them."
Ritsuko chuckled. "I guess that it's not all bad. He was pretty impressive, wasn't he?" She shook her head. "Even Shinji was impressed. I don't think he's ever seen his father in action."
"Ma'am?" Maya asked, a little confused.
"Well, it's not like he's ever had time for it. Plus, they didn't have the warmest of reunions." Ritsuko shook her head again before lengthening her stride. "Well, enough of that. We've got work to do."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Kaji and Misato looked up at the ceiling as the lift shook, screams of tortured metal echoing around in the underground base. "What's going on, I wonder?" Kaji asked lightly, casting a look at the woman.
"The Evangelions are moving out," Misato replied, worry in her voice. "They're climbing up one of the launch tubes." She was staring at the ceiling, head cocked to the side.
"Do you think that an Angel is approaching?"
She turned to stare at him. "It's not like they'll be of much use against anything else, would they?"
He frowned at her, disappointed. "You don't believe that, do you? Misato, have you even looked at these things? They could take on entire armies and win!"
"Have you seen the things they fight? They have to take on things that do take on entire armies and win."
"But what about when there are no more Angels? What happens then?"
She smiled wolfishly at him. "Then we've won."
"And Ikari has a group of unstoppable weapons, with pilots loyal to him. What's to stop him from taking over the world?"
"Are you being serious?" She asked, crossing her arms and scooting backward to sit against a wall across from him. "You've seen the oversight reports. The UN has us on such a short leash, and-"
"Misato, I can't believe you! The oversight reports go nowhere! The committees that watch NERV are all owned by NERV! The Marduk Institute – it's nothing but shell companies, Misato. NERV selects its pilots based on its own advice and counsel."
She eyed him suspiciously. "What have you been up to, Kaji? Where have you been snooping?"
"Where does your loyalty go, Misato? The UN? NERV?"
She leaped across the elevator, slapping him. "My loyalty is to the pilots. My loyalty," she hissed, "is to the world."
"Do you know how far this rabbit hole goes? How far down it have you fallen?" he asked sadly.
"I've seen the Truth, Kaji. I saw what waits at Third Impact. The Angels must be stopped." She glared at her lover. "You're playing a dangerous game, Kaji. NERV might be a little dirty, but it's all that stands between Mankind and extinction. You can't mess around here like you did in Africa. There's only one side to be on."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Shinji flexed his hand, opening and closing it, trying to ignore the sympathetic pain from the acid that had eaten into the hand of Unit-01. He leaned back against the seat, staring at the frozen numbers of his internal battery. He keyed the radio.
"I don't think the acid will let up any time soon." He said, watching the acid slowly flowing down the sides of the tunnel. "What are we going to do?"
"We have limited resources. We have limited time. A full-out frontal assault is not likely to be successful. We are still several hundred meters short of the surface."
"So we've got what, about three minutes of life apiece, our prog knives, my spike thrower, my brains, Wondergirl's brains, and Shinji's brawn."
Shinji ignored Asuka. "Does this tube lead to another vertical shaft?"
"No, it does not. We will have to backtrack for at least a minute before being able to proceed again. It will not work in the time we have left." Rei answered after a moment's thought. "Two of us could cut a path through the rest of the vertical distance, although I do not know how capable the structure would be in supporting the weight of the Evangelion left to battle the Angel."
"It's an idea, at least." Asuka sighed, and Shinji could imagine her hitting the control yoke in front of her in frustration. "This is stupid!"
"We need a shield," Shinji said, thinking out loud. "Could we use one of the blast doors to block the acid and cover our approach? It's not that far for an Evangelion."
"One of us could be a shield. We just need to get out of the tunnel." Asuka offered. "One to block, two to attack."
"If Pilot Ikari can form his AT-Field, he could be the shield," Rei said. "He has the most skill in AT-Field manipulation."
"Not even the wonderful Shinji can form an AT-Field large enough to use as a shield with only three minutes of emergency power." Asuka snapped back.
The three pilots sat silently, watching the acid eat away at the concrete and steel.
"I wonder how much is pooled up at the bottom," Shinji said. "When is it going to try to come down the tunnel? Why is it still waiting?"
"It's waiting for us, dummy! I hate waiting here; useless! We need to do something before it starts another Impact."
"A frontal assault is all we can do. Waiting is not an option."
"Right." Asuka's voice cut through the air like a blade. "I'll give Shinji my knife. I'll be the shield. I'll swing up and out first. Rei – you jam yourself in the shaft and get ready to give the Third here a boost. Shinji, you're going to jump off of Rei and me, and then you're going to tackle this beschissene Arschloch right in the fucking face. We'll climb up the rest of the way and help you kick this thing's head in if you need help," she said, her voice getting dark and angry, "which you had better not need, Mister 'rip-and-tear'."
"He is not the one who showered in the blood of an Angel, Pilot Sohryu."
"Have you watched his fight videos? Have you paid any attention to him in the sims?"
"Can we just concentrate on saving the world already?" Shinji asked, his voice strained. "It's as good a plan as we can come up with. Let's get on with it already."
The pilots engaged their power systems again, and Asuka quickly passed her knife to Shinji. "Here we go." She said irritably, swinging out, bracing herself against the shaft's walls. Above them, the Angel screeched at her, and the formerly slow-moving acid began flowing faster. Gritting her teeth, Asuka hissed under her breath as the caustic liquid splashed over the Evangelion.
Rei scrambled out behind the red titan, holding her hands out to give Unit-01 a boost. He wasted no time and flung himself up at their enemy, one progressive blade cutting into the Angel, the other catching the wall. Pushing off the blade, he slammed the wounded and wailing spider-thing aside, cutting it open and searching for the core.
The Angel had none of the bulk its predecessors had, and the red orb sat near the top of the back segment of its body. The Angel was fast and agile, trying to maneuver to bring its vicious fanged maw on the Evangelion trying to fillet it.
Shinji was having none of that, however, ripping off one of the Angel's legs, sending it staggering off, oozing more acid, and melting a path through the buildings and streets. It spun around and lodged a fang in his arm, and he howled in pain, stabbing wildly at the core.
The Angel died with little fanfare, no towering explosion of light and fire, instead going limp against Unit-01 before it began to dissolve, giving in to liquid putrefaction as entropy reclaimed it. Shinji sat down, leaning against a building as his battery ran down. He relaxed in the darkness as synchronization was cut, the pain in his arm fading into a dull throb, the memory of an old hurt rather than the sharp sting of a new wound.
Hoping the girls were fine, he settled in to take a nap. It would probably be a while before anyone came to get him.
It was, in fact, five hours and thirty-three minutes before his Evangelion returned to life, and he gasped as synchronization returned like a spike of ice thrust into his brain. The override code flashed across his eyes as the MAGI took control, and he felt his expanded consciousness disappear as the plug began to eject.
Floodlights illuminated the night sky as helping hands reached out for him. He accepted the aid and scrambled out of the plug. Unit-01 had been partially recovered and was stretched out on a transit bed, strapped in. He weakly waved at the others, who had already been recovered and were waiting for him.
"How was it?" He asked in between coughing spasms. He wiped LCL and snot from his face. "Everyone okay?"
"Unit-01," Asuka said imperiously, "is a lard ass. You are like a ton of bricks! You sent me falling down the tube! If it weren't for Rei and Unit-00, I'd have fallen into that pool of acid! Which, by the way, is almost thirty feet deep!"
"You are the Captain. I will not let you fall." Rei answered.
Asuka shook her head. "At least it's all over now. Only minor injuries, some light scarring." She held up her hands, the fingers red and a little puffy. "They've got a lot of work to do here, so they're cutting us loose for the night." She looked a little apologetic at them, shaking her head. "It's too bad about the whole dinner thing, but there's no use in crying over spilled milk. Let's go get something to eat. NERV's paying."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"Major Misato Katsuragi, this panel feels that your performance as the Tactical Liaison Officer to NERV, while commendable, is subversive and not in line with the organization's intent. Furthermore, for reasons already gone over in the course of this investigation and inquiry, such as the continued use of underage pilots, questionable tactics, and willful negligence, you will be court-martialed and stripped of rank, as well as being dishonorably discharged from the UN Army." The woman paused, looking up at the shell-shocked Major. "This body is lenient, however, and you will not be prosecuted for war crimes, nor will you be imprisoned."
Misato would have cried, and she wanted to cry as she stood there, but she had no tears left. She shook slightly as she stood there, listening to the rest of the woman's speech, a ball of ice slowly sinking in her stomach.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Rei looked up from the table in the food court, the sense of unease now stronger than ever. Eyes tracking and searching, her gaze settled in on a single boy, leaning against a railing several floors above them, watching her. Two pairs of crimson eyes locked, and he smiled at her as she frowned slightly. He waved and then disappeared.
Turning back to the conversation, she nodded at Shinji's comment and resumed eating, listening with one ear while starting to plan. She knew now why she had been feeling uneasy, and she suspected how the sabotage had occurred.
On one hand, she was furious. On the other, she was pleased. Dealing with the interloper would be a gift for the Commander, but not just yet. She needed to figure out how to deal with him and to find out what he knew and why he had sabotaged NERV.
If he was here, it meant that SEELE was moving in for the kill, to betray NERV and begin Instrumentality.
Her brother could not be allowed to live.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Kaji sat in the darkness of his apartment, bitterness and bile in his mouth as he watched the news, flipping through the channels.
"Four member nations of NATO have elected to freeze NERV assets in the wake of the-"
Static filled the screen as he changed the channel, having heard enough from that particular reporter.
"Your organization is part of the UN and must abide by its edicts!" The board member was furious, almost shouting at the impassive form of Commander Ikari.
"You are incorrect. NERV, like its predecessor, GEHIRN, is a private research and development organization. We are a for-profit company, not part of any government. Our services are rented by various organizations, such as the UN, and we deal with events and things they are not capable of handling. Our systems are currently all prototypes and are, for technical reasons, only capable of being used by a small, elite group of individuals. Some nations have offered to purchase the systems, even in their test bed state, but the cost of each unit is currently too high."
"That was so-called "Commander Ikari", the owner of the multinational R&D giant NERV, refuting the rulings of the United Nations-"
Kaji turned the television off, tired of watching. Things were heating up all over the place, and he had received a rather nasty note from his SEELE handler, demanding to know why he had sabotaged the power plants. The note was threatening and furthered his suspicions that the boy was not all he seemed. He had been played like a fiddle.
The problem was that he could hardly turn to Ikari for sanctuary from SEELE. This was not something that man would forgive. He had to be a raging volcano of emotion right now, no matter how glacier-like his exterior was.
Plus, if Misato ever found out, she would kill him. Ikari might be able to protect him from SEELE, but against the Operations Director, he would be useless.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Misato looked up from the bed in the hotel room she was staying in with Ritsuko as someone knocked on the door. Ritsuko sighed and got up, checking the peephole. "It's the Commander." She said, unlocking the door.
Misato sat up as the man walked in, leaning against the wall, hands in his pockets, his face still and calm. Ritsuko closed and locked the door and sat back down.
"You have been dismissed by the UN. You are no longer an officer of the United Nations, and they have revoked your security clearances. As a civilian, you are not suitable to share a room with the research director of NERV." He spoke without a preamble. "You are currently unemployed. I am offering you a job and the title of Sub-Commander. You are a valuable, capable woman, and I do not wish to lose your services. They owe you more than an apology, but it will be a long time if it ever comes."
Misato stared, open-mouthed at the man.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
NERV was in a time of upheaval as the UN recalled funding and liaison officers. Doctor Akagi had been engrossed in checking over the repairs to the Evangelions; the Commander had been locked away in his office, not seeing anyone except for the Sub-Commanders.
Rei had been extremely busy, even as all current training and regular tests had been put on hold as NERV realigned personnel rosters and filled in the gaps left by the recalled men and women. It had taken much deliberation and discussion with the MAGI, but her sacrifice was small compared to the payoff. In the long run, it wouldn't matter, and in the short term, she could always replace what she was losing.
The trap was set and baited; all she needed was for her brother to bite. If he was anything like he used to be, he wouldn't be able to keep from boasting about his supposed superiority. If she was lucky, he would also brag about his sabotage efforts. Knowing how he did it and why he did it would be helpful. She could not let SEELE's plans come to pass.
Nagisa took the bait, sliding in after her into an elevator deep inside the Geo-Front. She ignored him, staring at the mirrored doors, knowing he could stand the silence even less than Asuka could.
"You're a hard person to track down, you know. I'd say that you were avoiding me." His reflection grinned at her, his smug demeanor getting on her nerves more than she remembered it doing the last time he had been around when one of the SEELE directors had brought him along to show off to the Commander. "I'm hurt, you know. I hear you've been making friends and learning to talk, and here you are, avoiding your brother! I'm hurt."
"I have no desire to make small talk with you." She replied, still a near-perfect replica of the Commander, calm and in control of the situation.
"Shinji wants to make small talk with me." He shot back, still grinning. "Well, we'll be hanging out later, anyways." His grin became a leer as her eye twitched slightly. "I do like your taste, but he was always meant to be mine, sister."
"He is not yours."
"But he will be. He will be mine, and we will complete each other. Can't you see his broken little soul cowering inside of him? Hurt and wounded by his father and time, alone and lost in this cold, cruel world. It will be very pleasurable, healing him, making him my own."
"Perhaps your ears are faulty. I said that he is not yours."
"Oh? And what will you do with him, sister? The light of my soul is music and love. We were made for each other! Do you not hear the music of his soul? Do you not hear him? What could you do with him?"
"You are flustered," Rei commented, reaching out and hitting the button to stop the elevator. "Are you feeling guilty over your stunt, putting him in danger?"
"My stunt? Oh, you silly little thing. He was in no danger as long as I was there. But you, he is in much more danger from you than from anything else. Your voice is Rage and Ruin. You are imperfect, an incomplete Human, an incomplete Angel. I am the real thing." He paused, studying the back of her head. "Do you want to hear why I think you are always the one who initiates contact with him? Why is it he who does not trail his hand across your back?"
"I am not interested in what you think."
"For all of our differences, we're still the same, you know," he sighed, shaking his head. "There's no reason for us to fight right now. I don't want to fight my family. But I want you to stay away from him."
"If we are the same," Rei answered, turning around to face him, "then you should have brought more of you."
Kaworu had only a moment to look confused before the elevator ceiling collapsed, and a tide of blue-haired clones came crashing in through the hole.
Rei watched dispassionately as her nude clones beat the boy into unconsciousness. He fought back, pulping several of them into LCL with his AT-Field, capable of manifesting one due to his higher percentage of Angelic heritage, but he was still no match for Rei's drones. He finally succumbed as one of them beat his face into the floor, the crunch of bone filling the otherwise silent elevator.
Pulling out her cell phone, she sent a text message to the MAGI.
Please open gates four through sixteen. I will deal with him at the apartment. Your masking of his Pattern Blue readings and his AT-Field is appreciated.
The lights in the elevator flashed on and off, the MAGI signaling their acknowledgment. The elevator began to rise faster, headed for the secured lift tube to deliver her to the old apartment, now empty save for her laboratory. Her clones stood waiting against the walls and would return to the tank once she was finished with them.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Kaworu awoke with a start, the last traces of headache dissipating quickly. He chuckled as he took in his surroundings. He was bound with chains to a large metal table in a shabby apartment. Shelves lined the walls, full of metal and glass instruments, collection jars, and flasks. He could hear running water in the background and the hum of electricity.
The water shut off, and shortly afterward, Rei came into view, walking around the table. She was wearing a much-used lab coat, drying her hands with a towel. He grinned at her. "That was a neat trick, Rei."
She ignored him as she walked around the room, checking things and making a few notations into the book she pulled from her pocket. He followed her with his eyes, trying to understand what she was doing. There had been nothing of this in the files on her back in Berlin. The photographs of her apartment showed a messy and empty existence that was devoid of life.
"You can't hope to keep me here forever." He mocked her, still smiling his ever-present smile. "I'll be missed, and SEELE will come looking for me." He paused, and he continued when it became apparent she was still not paying attention to him. "I like the scientist look, though. The style suits, I think."
Rei shut the book with a snap and slipped it back into her coat's pocket. She walked out of the captive boy's view but returned almost immediately with a cooler plastered with biohazard stickers.
"Are you going on a picnic?" He called after her as she went to one of the several refrigerators. "How quaint." He craned his neck, trying to see what she was getting. He quirked an eyebrow as she began to remove Petri dishes and vials of blood and pack them into the cooler, which steamed with condensing dry ice vapor. "So it's not a picnic you're planning on unless you've taken up some kinky habits."
To his growing irritation, she continued to ignore him, and it showed, but he kept the same easy, friendly tone, and the smile never slipped from his face. She finished her chore, closed the cooler, and walked off again.
"You'll have to answer me sometime, little sister." A door opened and closed, but he could hear her light footsteps still moving about. When she returned, she wore a pair of welder's goggles, messy blue hair spilling out over the top, and had a large backpack contraption on, all metal and tubing. Her concentration seemed to be on him for the first time, although it was hard to tell through the dark lenses.
"I didn't want to have to do this, at least not right now," he warned her, still smiling, "but it seems that you're going to be unreasonable about things." His smile widened, stretching nearly across the entirety of his face, far wider than any human's mouth should have been capable of, and he continued in a voice like an orchestra. "I AM the Angel of the Morning, the Ninth Hour, of Choice and Free Will. In the ninth hour, I have come and will deliver the Message. I AM Love and Light, and I AM the Way to Instrumentality. I AM Tabris, Angel and Son of ADAM."
Rei coolly regarded him momentarily as he paused to gauge her reaction. "I am Rei Ayanami," she said quietly, her voice no different than usual, "and your message is invalid. I have a flamethrower."
Tabris only had time for a single, startled cry of confusion as Rei lifted the flamethrower's nozzle and sent waves of fire over the captive Angel. His AT-Field flashed into view as he rose from the table, breaking his restraints with ease, but Unit-00 was waiting for the flare of energy and crushed it with a thought, its own AT-Field traveling along the make-shift emitter chain that Rei had cobbled together from spare parts over the week, aided by the MAGI who sent erroneous work orders to the maintenance and technical teams, who rewired and installed necessary components piecemeal along the path from the cage to the girl's apartment lab. The final crucial linkages had been finished this morning by the girl.
He went down almost immediately afterward, the rush of flame too much for him. Rei kept the spray of liquid fire on him for several minutes after he stopped thrashing, ignoring the swath of flames spreading around the lab. Finally satisfied, she unbuckled the weapon, dropped it to the ground, walked over to the large switch on the wall next to her, and engaged the fire suppression systems.
Ignoring the halon flooding the room and extinguishing the flames, she walked through the boy's ashes and picked up the grapefruit-sized orb. The core was cool to the touch, and the ashes stuck to it, attracted by the static electricity it exuded. She waved it around in the air experimentally, listening to the hum of energy. An intact, miniaturized S2 Organ! Part of her was tempted to keep it for study, to try to wrest the secrets of the unlimited energy core from it, but she knew she had to destroy it. It was far too dangerous to keep.
She left the lab and returned to her old room, now home to her particle accelerator. She had disassembled and moved it over from the lab, not wanting to risk damaging it with her attack on Tabris with the flamethrower. She carefully placed the humming orb into a socket near the bottom of the towering machine and then typed in a few commands into the control terminal.
With a final glance around the room that had been her home for years, she threw the last switch and walked over to the door where her cooler with blood and tissue samples from Shinji and herself waited. Closing the door behind her, she marched down the hallway, still wearing her goggles and lab coat, and entered the elevator. Pushing the button that would send her down into the Geo-Front, she allowed herself a small, satisfied smile, watching her reflection in the door.
The machine hummed in the room as it fired a small collection of hydrogen anions through the accelerator. The dark room was lit only by the soft red glow of the orb, which vibrated slightly in the padded socket it was nestled in, right at the end of the aperture of the coil accelerator. The sub-atomic particles sped downwards in the coils, racing faster and faster, receiving regular radiation boosts, nearing the speed of light as they burned a path toward the waiting core.
There was a momentarily flash of blue light as the air ionized in the wake of the particles as they slammed into the glowing orb. The initial reaction was underwhelming, a tiny chip of red flaking off, a hairline crack running across the sphere. Half a second later, the explosion was much more impressive, the pillar of light and fire consuming the apartment building and the buildings next to it.
Rei's elevator was almost halfway down to the Geo-Front when the lift shuddered violently, shaking as Tabris' core detonated. She looked up at the ceiling, her smile turning into a savage grin.
"We are not the same, Tabris," she said in the silence of the lift. "We are not the same," she repeated to herself, "and Shinji is not yours." Behind the dark lenses, her eyes began to glow with red light. "Shinji is mine."
As she traveled down to her new lab, she could hear the laughter of her older sister cackling madly in their minds.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Gendo finished reading the reports from the latest debacle. The MAGI had no explanation for the detonation that had consumed the block of buildings centered on Rei's old apartment. Rei wasn't involved, at least, having been in class at the time. He looked up to the waiting faces of his Sub-Commanders, sitting in the two chairs set aside for them. Katsuragi looked pale, still recovering from the shock of being discharged from the army and subsequently being hired on as a sub-commander, and then from the shock of exposure to Lilith, the Second Angel. She had known, of course, that there was a secret thing attracting the Angels that NERV used to draw them to Tokyo-3 and the Evangelions, but she hadn't known what it was. She had taken the news badly.
She had taken the news of SEELE's existence and their conspiracy even worse. He did not think she was ready for the rest of it, for the final truth behind the Evangelions. It would come in time, perhaps, if needed.
"SEELE's hand was forced. This entire affair was badly done; it's like the work of an amateur. They gained nothing by the public inquiry into our affairs and were not expecting it at all; otherwise, they would have been quicker to squash it. The old men are furious and in an uproar. They wanted to know what we were doing, orchestrating such an affair."
"As if we stood to gain anything by more public scrutiny into our affairs." Fuyutsuki sniffed. "Ridiculous. We were badly compromised by the power outage. Dr. Akagi thinks that the primary aim was to map out our power grid and isolate key nodes and sections based on the return of electricity to the Geo-Front."
"It would be beneficial to anyone who was going to invade the Geo-Front and NERV." Misato offered. "They could use it to identify central locations where command and control could fort up to direct the fight."
"There are no other players in this battle of wills. It is us and SEELE. There may be a power struggle of some sort happening, dissension in their ranks." Gendo mused, tenting his fingers and leaning back in his chair. "Lorenz will not allow such infighting to continue for long. I doubt we will be able to capitalize on the situation. We will have to be vigilant. He knows we plan sedition but thinks our aims mirror his."
"The cold war is heating up. Open fighting, I fear, may arrive before the last of the Angels." Fuyutsuki remarked, looking at the others. "The Pilots may be called to war against the forces of man as well as the Angels."
"I have full confidence in the Pilots," Misato said firmly. "They can handle anything anyone can throw at them. Asuka and Rei won't have a problem fighting. Shinji might, but I don't think it'll be an issue for long if they shoot at Rei."
Gendo stood up from his seat and walked over to the window, gloved hands clasped behind his back. "I have adjusted the Scenario. If anyone decides to play games with NERV, they shall see that we play hard and don't play nice. Let the armies of the world come against us to dash themselves against this fortress city. I have molded the Children into Colossuses, and they shall trample our foes to dust beneath them. They are Titans, who stand towering over the cities of Men, protecting them against all who would seek our destruction." He smiled into the window, watching the sheltered wilderness of the forest park. "If I must, I will rebuild the world from this seed, this Eden, out of the ashes of the old. If the winds of war must blow in our direction, we will not be found unready or wanting."