Asuka screamed incoherently as she vomited into the sink, blood pouring from her nose to join the contents of her stomach in the swirling water. Glad she was alone in her lab, she rinsed out her mouth, still trying to puzzle out the mess of information the Angel down in Terminal Dogma had given her. Idly, she wondered if it was like this for the first scientists who had found Her, if they had suffered as she currently was as she tried to decipher the messy images, sounds, and feelings of the memories that the Angel and Mother of Mankind had implanted into her brain. Not for the first time in the week following her midnight trip to visit the Angel, she regretted even considering taking up the offer, cursing her need to know. Wadding up a mess of tissues, she pressed it against her nose, trying to stem the blood flow, cursing human flesh's frailty. Returning to her chair, Asuka leaned back and closed her eyes, trying to sort out the memories that were not hers.
There was pain, anger and excitement. Adrenaline filled her, and she could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Flashes of tropical heat and arctic cold rolled across her, and her skin was covered in sweat. Trembling, Asuka gave up on trying to stop the nosebleed, her hand dropping to hold onto the other armrest, her fingers white in a death grip around the upholstered arms.
She saw the Angels, formed from dust and flesh, fighting amongst themselves and against the Other, an incandescent giant of light and fire, a burning, raging Titan that instilled fear and dread within her, an unreasoning terror that lived in the base of her skull. Whatever this giant was, it had frightened Lilith. Pandemonium reigned on the battlefield, and she wasn't sure what the sides were or who was winning. As the fighting intensified, the burning in her brain grew hotter and hotter until the bright actinic flash of a nuclear blast overtook the fighting armies, a shock running through her body. But the terror and pain faded, the images racing though, incoherent and unintelligible as if she was trying to watch a thousand different movies playing at the same time, each vying for her attention, each a single strand in a Gordian Knot of sensory overload. Asuka felt her stomach heave, and she bolted for the sink again, bile and blood on her lips as her body and mind refused to assimilate the psychic gift Lilith had given to her.
It would be a long time before she sought assistance from anyone else again, she thought darkly as she sprayed stomach acid all over the inside of the sink. This was not the first time she had berated herself for taking the Angel up on Her offer, as whatever answers might have been gleaned from the information given continued to elude her. It also highlighted to the teenager that the minds of the Angels were not at all like the minds of Man. The jumble of 'answers' Lilith had given her was useless. All of this time she had wasted trying to decode it would have been better spent working on her translation project, but each time she wanted to call it quits, there would be some niggling little tug at the edge of her mind, and she would try to sort it out again. She hated leaving things half-done and couldn't stand leaving a project unfinished.
Rinsing her mouth again, she stared at her hazy reflection in the glass cabinets. She looked like trash, dark bags underneath bloodshot eyes, her hair limp and lifeless, her complexion pale and wan. Running her hands through her long locks, she looked critically at the numerous split ends, frowning at the smell of dried LCL as it wafted through the air. She was going to have to spend a few hours in the shower tonight if she was going to be presentable at school on Monday, she decided before wiping at the blood still oozing from her nose. Sighing, she shook her head, wondering if she could get away with skipping out on classes. Shinji was still comatose in the medical wing, and Rei hadn't left his side for a moment after they had pulled him from the Entry Plug. Misato was busy running NERV and the city, and Ritsuko and the rest of the tech teams were busy with the remains of the Angel, repairing Unit-01, and working on the upgrades to the MAGI.
It wasn't as if they would notice she hadn't gone. Everyone was preoccupied with their lives, and no one had time for her. Even Ritsuko, who was usually a reasonable teacher, had told her she didn't have the time or any tasks for her. The doctor was neck-deep in all three projects, and she was overseeing the medical doctors assigned to figuring out what was wrong with the Third Child. The medical and technical staff were all worried about mental contamination from exposure to the Angel and the sudden synchronization spikes with the Evangelion. Asuka envied her mentor, wishing she could juggle the numerous tasks imposed on her as the Section Head for Technical Section One, Project E Chairperson, and NERV's Chief Technological Officer. She had no doubts that in the future, with practice, she would be able to do the same. Still, for now, it was hard enough to handle going to school and translating her textbooks, serving as the Pilot-Captain of the 1st Evangelion Flight, and working on the problems surrounding the AT-Field and Unit-01. Her visit to Lilith was meant to make things easier, not harder. She giggled softly, wondering what her teacher would make of the mental contact she had had with Lilith.
Straightening out her clothing and ensuring she hadn't spilled any body fluids on herself, she tied her hair in a tight bun before leaving the laboratory. She would get coffee and snacks to rehydrate and refuel, then return to work on the large translation project. Going to class was a waste of time, now more than before, as she had supremely important work to do. Her mastering of written and spoken Japanese was one of the reasons they had wanted her to go to school in the first place, and she would be working on those skills the rest of the time anyway. No need to go home to an empty apartment just to sit around and no need to go to class just to waste her time.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Shinji woke up with a start, his eyes flying open, his ragged breath catching in his throat as he looked at the ceiling, the familiar lines of the main hospital wing sitting above him darkened in shadow. Over the quiet beeping and chirping of the medical equipment, he could hear another familiar sound – his sleeping girlfriend's soft and even breathing. Propping himself up on one elbow, he looked around the dimly lit room and smiled as he saw her curled up in a chair, asleep. Wincing at the sudden stabbing pain in his head, he rubbed at his eyes. The sharp pains of the migraine headaches seemed to happen a lot after he entered the 'berserker' state the others talked about, but they hadn't ever been this bad.
Collapsing back onto the bed, Shinji stared at the ceiling and wondered how long he had been out this time. It seemed that whenever he ended up in the hospital, he had been in a coma of some sort. He was doing better in his classes, but he couldn't afford to miss too much school if he would keep his grades up and maintain his free time now that he wanted to use it. He couldn't remember what had happened during the fight, but it would probably return to him later in his dreams. Pulling himself back up, he swung his legs out over the side of the bed, checking the connection of his leg to the implanted socket, making sure it was secured. Pulling off the numerous sensors, he slid out of bed and stood up, relishing the slight wave of dizziness that accompanied standing upright.
Stretching, he crept to the small bathroom, running water over his face and staring at his reflection. He looked haggard, as he usually did after a stint in the hospital, and his hair was starting to get long and shaggy. Squinting into the mirror, Shinji turned his head from side to side, snorting a little to himself as he realized his hair looked a little like Rei's. He would need to get a haircut soon if he wanted to avoid teasing from his friends about looking like his girlfriend. There was a sliver of light in the main room, and he poked his head back out of the bathroom and nodded at the nurse who had slipped in. She pointed back at the bed, making him shrug and nod apologetically, and moved back and sat down, allowing her to take his pulse and check his eyes.
"Do you know who you are?" she asked quietly, making a few notes on the clipboard.
"I am Shinji Ikari, Third Child, Pilot of Evangelion Unit-01." He whispered back to her. "I am the son of Commander Ikari and ward of Sub-Commander Katsuragi. I am the boyfriend of Pilot Rei Ayanami, and-"
"Alright, alright." She said, rolling her eyes. "That's enough of that, young man." She moved to the medicine locker and pulled out a pair of syringes and a few tablets. Shinji blushed as she worked, not sure where the sudden feeling of giddiness had come from. He didn't usually feel this chipper or feisty after waking up from a coma. He held out his arm, wincing a little as she drew a small vial of blood, and then she injected the medicine into his arm, feeling the burn of liquid fire race through his veins. She handed him the tablets and a cup of water, tucking the vial of dark red blood into a pocket as he swallowed the capsules. "Get some sleep, and Doctor Akagi will be here in the morning. Hit the alarm if you start feeling worse." She instructed him, moving back to the door and opening it silently. "Understand?"
He nodded back at her, rubbing at the small marks on his arm, looking at the dark tracery of his veins as the medicine made its way through him. He looked up again as the door clicked shut. Hopping off the bed again, he walked over to Rei's sleeping form, watching her for a few moments before rubbing her shoulder and whispering her name. She continued to sleep, clearly exhausted, sending pangs through his heart. Deciding that the chair was an unfitting place for her to sleep, he tried to scoop her up in his arms to move to the bed. It quickly became apparent he wasn't going to be able to move her without waking her up by jostling her around, even if he wasn't exhausted from the ordeal of battle and the resulting coma. He looked around the room, wondering what he should do, when he saw the wheels on the bed.
Grinning, he unlocked them,, wheeled the bed over to her chair, and maneuvered her onto it before moving it back to its normal spot. Climbing in next to her, he pulled the thin sheets up over them as he hugged her close, burying his nose in her hair and sighing contentedly. She murmured something, shifting around in his arms before settling down again.
Drifting off into normal sleep, Shinji smiled, at ease despite the pains in his head and arm. Rei was safe and here, and that was all that mattered.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Unit-01 flew through the air, frost and fire tracing after it. Eyes glowing with malevolent light, its jaw forcing apart the restraints that kept it clamped shut to scream as it closed with the Angel, which had started to draw backward, trying to escape the terror that came for it. It was slight and almost unnoticeable, but Gendo Ikari, the Supreme Commander of NERV, had something of an eye for the small details. He paused the recording and tapped the screen with a finger, turning to his friend.
"It was afraid. It tried to withdraw, to escape. It knew, in that moment, it was doomed." Gendo leaned back in his seat and tented his hands, trying to think. "Not until he entered the berserker state did it fear the three shadows below it."
"Things are moving as you have foreseen, and now you have the Lance," Kozo replied, staring out the window at the ocean as the ship returned to Japan at full speed. "The game board is unfolding as you planned, and SEELE is moving its pieces in accordance with your wishes. The Scenario endures and, while changed, continues unabated. We always suspected the Angels were aware and that they were not mindless beasts. Confirmation changes nothing." The older man paused in his ruminations before looking at the ascending Evangelion. "If there were ever something for them to fear, it would be Unit-01. Born of Lilith, the anti-thesis to ADAM, the Guardian of Mankind."
"The Ultimate Weapon." Gendo agreed, deep in thought. "Culled from Lilith's lower half, reshaped by our science and technology, whereas the other Evangelions were born from the samples taken from ADAM before Second Impact. They are mere shadows of their kin, but together, with human souls, they can and will triumph over the Angels. The Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, joined with the Fruit of the Tree of Life, ADAM, countering and removing Lilith. Lilith, countering and removing ADAM. When the Chamber of Guf stands empty, and the Gate of Heaven is thrown open, the way to KADMON is revealed." Gendo recited tonelessly, his eyes never moving from the fire-wreathed form of his son. "The Instrumentality of Man. The over-soul, the cosmic being. The gestalt of Mankind, ruled over by the Illuminati." He paused and then sneered. "The joy of rebirth through the pain of death. Utter foolishness."
"And yet you place yourself at the position of Keter in the Tree of Sephiroth in your office." Kozo chuckled. "A not-so-subtle barb at our masters, one that they cannot help but notice."
"They expect treachery from me, from NERV. I show them what they want to see, and they look no further."
"If they knew the extent of our treachery, they would kill us all." Kozo agreed, a worried look creasing his face. "As it stands, we have, what, five or six left to come, according to the scrolls?"
"Yes," Gendo muttered. "Yes. Six left, according to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Nine, according to the Sarnath Etchings. Fifteen, if the Viking Runestones are to be believed, the number of both the Scrolls and the Etchings together. Eight, if we believe the Mayans, and according to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, we should have already come to Instrumentality, Ra's chariot come down from the heavens to wrap us all in fire."
"Truly, a worrisome mess of things. They all have been correct about some past events and incorrect concerning others. What are we to believe, and what shall we distrust?"
"I shall trust in the works of Man, in fruits of our labors. We will stand ready to take on all who presume to bring about our end. Five, nine, fourteen, I care not if there are thousands more to come. I will leave you a force, inexorable and unconquerable, with which to take us from the cradle of the Earth to claim the Heavens for our own. The AT-Field will be sword, shield, and plowshare."
"But until we are ready to trigger Third Impact, we still need to deal with the limitations imposed on us. Your son, I fear, is rapidly becoming a loose cannon. We need him to be controllable in combat, malleable to our will. A berserker is a liability for both sides." The older man shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with bringing the subject up with his friend. "Each time he descends into madness and blood-lust, it takes its toll on his mind and soul. Each time, it gets harder and harder for him to return. The further he synchronizes with Unit-01, the less protection he has. Soon, the effects will be physical as well."
Gendo leaned back in his seat, inscrutability settling over him like a cloak. "I agree, save for one thing. He's not descending into madness," he corrected his teacher, tenting his fingers together. "He's waking up." He grinned behind his hands, unseen by Kozo. "We'll be home soon. I'll speak with Doctor Akagi and see what we can do. We are almost past the event horizon. Soon, there will be nothing that can stop what is to come, no matter how hard they might try."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Ritsuko looked up from her work as the other technician approached. He pointed towards the surface of the LCL-coolant mixture and then mimed talking on the phone. She shook her head in disgust and then handed him the sensor probe before swimming back up through the purple fluid to the catwalk high above.
Whomever it was calling her was important because her crews knew not to bother her with nonsense when she was working. Unfortunately, that meant she had to deal with it immediately whenever she was interrupted. Whatever the importance of this phone call, it probably wasn't as important as fixing Unit-01, but at the same time, she was trying to take care of seven different things at once, three of them being things only she could handle due to their sensitivity. The other four were spread out amongst her army of technicians and workers but still required her attention. She was working herself and her crews to exhaustion, but still, more needed to be done.
Stripping off the fins from her feet, she left them next to her scuba equipment, only pausing to throw on her lab coat over the form-fitting wetsuit she wore. Stalking to the nearest system terminal, she grabbed the phone and punched in the passcode connecting her to the MAGI-controlled operator bank.
"Doctor Akagi. Authorization code Forty-three Alpha One. Who's calling me?"
"Doctor Akagi, you have a phone call from Receiving Manager Naoto. The upgrade cores for the primary cogitators for Balthazar have arrived."
Sighing, she turned and looked back over the submerged form of Unit-01, where repair crews were swarming over the wounded giant, trying to fix the largely self-inflicted damage. As important as the upgrades for the MAGI were, they were currently functional, and Unit-01 wasn't, even if the boy had woken up and the last lingering symptoms had vanished late yesterday afternoon. A vital component to Unit-01, she had to ensure he was protected from himself in battle as much as from the Angels. The physical restraints keeping the battle titan under control and the pilot safe from unlimited contact were damaged beyond all repair and had to be outright replaced. Then there was the mess the Angel's core had made of the Evangelion's helmet and facial armor on top of the restraint systems. Large swaths of flesh had to be cut away to remove the melted metal, and the replacement parts were currently being sterilized in preparation for installation.
"Contact Lieutenant Ibuki and have her begin preparations for the initial installation. Let Naoto know she'll be handling it and that he'll need to sign the parts over to her." She paused, glancing around to make sure that none of the passing techs were paying any attention to her, before turning to face the wall, lowering her voice. "How is the image download proceeding? Any issues?"
"The image download is on schedule and will complete in three hours. All systems read as normal, and no abnormalities or corruption is detected."
"Good. Call me an hour before the image is complete. How far out is the freighter?"
"Commander Ikari and the Lance are set to arrive in six hours. Unit-00 will be prepared to transport the Lance to the Chamber of Guf in five hours."
"How are the other pilots?"
"Pilot Ikari is in class and appears to be completely recovered from the battle and his coma. He will depart class early for the second CAT Scan in the hospital wing this afternoon. Pilot-Captain Sohryu is currently sequestered in her laboratory, translating the technical documents concerning the AT-Field into German. She is currently reviewing Doctor Ikari's research papers and comparing them with the technical specifications from the Mk. 5 Field Emitters."
"She's doing what?" Ritsuko asked, startled.
"She is attempting to isolate the nature of Pilot Ikari's abilities with the AT-Field and resolve the differences in design between Unit-01 and the other operational Evangelions. She wishes to understand and duplicate his abilities to be more effective on the battlefield. However, most of the documentation on the AT-Field is in Japanese. To aid her efforts, she is translating all available documents into German."
"Which of you thought giving her the system documents was permissible?" Ritsuko snapped at the supercomputer. "Why didn't any of you bring this to my attention? Are you trying to cause a disaster?"
"We have taken the appropriate precautions, Doctor." Caspar sounded miffed and hurt that the scientist would doubt their ability to handle the situation appropriately. "All pertinent information has been removed, and incorrect equations and formulas have been inserted into the notes. Erroneous data was inserted to aid in the cover-up. She will not be able to ascertain the truth nor know why."
"She has a history of making modifications to Unit-02! What if she alters Unit-02 incorrectly? She could be killed!"
"Unauthorized modifications to the Evangelions are not permitted, Doctor."
"Of course, they aren't permitted! That's what makes them unauthorized! Alert me the moment that she starts drawing up blueprints for anything. Hopefully, she'll run them by me first." Ritsuko sighed. She hated the idea of having to sabotage the girl's research efforts, but there was no choice, no other option. Unfortunately, there was no way she would be able to convince the teenager to give up on the subject, as Shinji's abilities were highly visible and went against everything that was supposed to be able to happen. In hindsight, it was only natural that Asuka would pursue the answer to that particular question. In the future, she could be told the truth, but for now, there was no way she would be able to accept or handle it.
She needed an outlet for her scientific curiosity; she needed focus and direction. She needed to saddle her with something to occupy her time outside the crimson Evangelion, but Asuka was bright enough to spot make-work. She would want something real to work on, some actual problem, but Tokyo-3 was not a 'public' research installation. It was geared around fighting Angels and keeping the Second Angel restrained. All projects here were more development than research, revolving around perfecting the proven components of the Evangelions instead of coming up with new systems.
A few secret systems were being created in private, away from all other eyes. The so-called 'Dummy Plug', the autopilot that today's image from Rei would form the basis for. The Revelations Protocol, the ultimate of last-ditch efforts, made weapons from the antimatter that they manufactured deep inside Terminal Dogma. The Rei line, of course, and the imaging machine. These projects were, by necessity, all hidden from everyone who was not working on them, and even then, only a few people knew the scope of the entire project.
Maya, currently taking the lead on the Dummy Plugs, certainly didn't know the organic component of the Dummy Plug was one of Rei's clones, vivisected and cybernetically installed into the small addition that would eventually be installed in the Entry Plugs. Maya didn't even know that Rei had clones.
"Keep an eye on Asuka and inform me of her progress." Hanging up the phone, she leaned against the wall, trying to think. Gendo would not be happy that Asuka was digging into his wife's work, nor would he be pleased that the girl could figure out she was being lied to and that her efforts were being sabotaged. If she kept Asuka on as a researcher and provisional tech, she would have to devise something appropriately challenging and interesting to keep her occupied and out of places where she did not belong.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Floating in the tube of LCL, Rei relaxed as the machine scanned and copied her mind, creating a template for the auto-pilot Doctor Akagi was making and a backup for download into a clone to use in the future, should she perish.
Of course, the latter purpose was now entirely superfluous, as she could shift her soul directly to a new clone. The Commander and the Doctor were unaware of this development, and while her current plans did not require her to keep this new ability a secret, neither did she benefit from revealing it just yet. She could tell them later, and it cost her nothing to continue making regular backup scans.
The machine afforded her an entry into the twilight realm she and the Evangelions had taken to calling Sheol, the endless train ride that looped around forever, bathed in perpetual sunset. If she desired to speak to Unit-02 or attempt to speak with Unit-01, she would otherwise have to go and sit within an installed Entry Plug. She could not often speak with the other Evangelions directly without drawing undue attention to herself. While her movements were as inscrutable and as ignored as they had always been, the Commander would notice eventually, and he would inquire as to the time she spent in the Entry Plug.
Rei closed her eyes on the orange-tinted imaging room, and when she opened them, she looked around at the train car. It was empty, save for herself, this doorway into Sheol opening into a different car than when she sat in Unit-00. Standing up and smoothing her skirt, she walked over to the door and saw Unit-00 sitting in her car. The cyclops looked up at her as she entered, nodding once in greeting.
Hello, little sister.
"The Lance is almost here. In a few hours, we will be taking it to Lilith."
Then, we will bring her to account for her actions.
"Yes. We will bring her to account for her actions and warn her off from such behavior in the future." Rei paused, watching the Evangelion. "I require clarification on one thing, however. What is the nature of your interest in bringing Lilith to account? He is not yours."
The white and blue Evangelion shrugged. He is yours, and Unit-01 is mine. Any that would threaten them should be dealt with as we would any who threatened Father. We dealt with Tabris, did we not? I do not recall you having any qualms about enlisting my help then.
"My query has nothing to do with my having qualms. It was simply a request for more information." Rei looked past the windows, staring at the empty Geo-Front as they traveled. "If we are to make the most of the time available, we should visit Unit-01."
He has been asleep since the fight. Nothing I have done has roused him from this sleep.
"They are currently doing heavy repairs on Unit-01. They have likely disconnected the power relays through several sections of the cybernetic components. This may result in a deeper 'sleep' than is usual. Shinji resumed conciseness within previously established parameters with no unusual side effects. I find it unlikely this stupor directly results from the battle."
The two sisters walked back into the empty car Rei had arrived in and then into the car that belonged to the soul of Unit-01. True to Unit-00's word, the purple-armored Evangelion lay sprawled out on the seats, devoid of any signs of life. It looked to be in perfect condition, quite unlike its physical self. It was interesting to note, the teenager thought, that Unit-01's soul was likewise now adorned with the shoulder insignia, the bone mask of the Angels staring at her from over a pair of crossed bones. Neither of the other Evangelions were similarly marked.
Unit-00 poked at sleeping Titan, unable to elicit a response. Rei watched, trying to assess how one went about checking the vital signs of the soul of an Evangelion. She did not breathe while in Sheol, nor did she feel her heartbeat. Sitting across the aisle from the two war machines, she silently regarded the pair, considering their options.
"The soul is still here in Sheol. If it had fled, or if it had perished, it would not be here. It still resides in the Evangelion. Otherwise, it would be empty, or a person, like the others."
True… Unit-00 agreed, looking over at her sister. In the seeming infinite train of cars that made up Sheol, past the ones that housed the souls of the Evangelions and the new empty one that had appeared when Rei began using the imaging machine as a door into the twilight realm, there sat a sleeping woman, waiting for her child to be chosen as a pilot. Rei walked amongst them for hours until she found Hikari's mother, recognizing the woman from the picture in a small shrine in their home. She had whispered messages to the woman's slumbering soul, telling her about her daughters and her husband.
Rei had no idea if it had made a difference. There had been no reaction from the woman, locked away in Purgatory with the others, waiting for the day of Third Impact, wherein the Commander would release them from their bonds, just as he would release her from her bonds.
She wondered if the others had ever visited Sheol or if they even could. Unit-00 had never seen them, but her sister was not a vigilant observer. Unit-02 had never mentioned seeing her daughter, and neither Shinji nor the Pilot-Captain had ever spoken of this land of souls. Of course, it was not exactly something Rei envisioned coming up in casual conversation. The train rattled as they passed over a junction, jostling the trio around.
Rei looked up as the crimson form of Unit-02 entered the car, the four viridian lenses flickering dimly. The Evangelion raised a hand in greeting before sitting down.
Hello, Rei. What brings you here? The Evangelion sounded tired and depressed, lacking the sense of purposeful direction the soul of Doctor Soryu typically had.
"I am currently providing an image for the auto-pilot system currently under development. Unit-00 requested my assistance with Unit-01." She turned to look back at her sister, who had moved Unit-01 to sit up. "I am unsure how to assist, as I cannot ascertain the reason for Unit-01's lack of awareness."
Unit-01's soul is weary and is resting. It will return to normal soon enough, I suspect.
"Since we know it is not Doctor Ikari who resides in Unit-01, have you made any headway in determining who it is that synchronizes with Shinji?"
I have been busy with other things these past months, and I'm not very interested in finding out who it is. It matters very little to me, apart from the boy and Unit-01 helping ensure my Asuka's safety. The Evangelion studied the girl sitting next to it. I know this is not what you want to hear, but I don't care. I cannot be there for her on the outside, but I am here for her in Unit-02.
Yui had always designed Unit-01 to be different, ignoring new and improved designs following the secret end she had in mind. It is not surprising it will synchronize another person's soul with her son's, but I don't think that it was her intent. Gendo probably had a hand in it.
"You still claim that you were not party to SEELE's plans for the future of Mankind?" Rei watched the outraged form of Unit-02 before continuing. "You were directly involved with developing the Evangelions with Doctors Ikari, Akagi, and Fuyutuski. They were aware of the intended use of Unit-01 and the Evangelions."
I knew about the Angels! I knew they would return to threaten our existence! I knew what it would take to defeat them, to ensure our safety! But I did not know about the planned genocide! I wouldn't have used her data if I had known that Yui had falsified her test data before her Contact Experiment! I would have succeeded. I should have succeeded! But instead, I sundered my soul and left my daughter with a half-empty shell. Unit-02 stared out the window into the Geo-Front, sunk deep in melancholy. Gendo warned me not to experiment, but I didn't listen. He wanted to meet in person before, but we were all so busy, and I wanted to provide a sound working system. She had to pay the price for my mistake then, and she's still paying it now.
The four sat silently, Rei mulling over what Unit-02 had said while the crimson Evangelion wallowed in unhappiness. Unit-00 watched the pair of them as Unit-01 continued to sleep.
"What is the nature of Pilot-Captain Sohryu's distress? Her performance has recently been below her previous scores."
She won't let me in. I don't know what's wrong with my little girl, and there's nothing I can do about it! I can't talk to her because she won't come to Sheol, and she can't come here!
"Have you attempted to speak with your daughter?" Rei asked, watching the Evangelion stiffen. "What efforts have you made to make contact? No matter how insurmountable the obstacle is, one must make every attempt to overcome it. That is the reason for Mankind's continued existence in the face of the Angels. We do what we must, because we can. We will not accept defeat, as you appear to have in dealing with your daughter."
The four dimly lit lenses flared into brilliant, blinding light, bathing the entire car in green as Unit-02 stood up, towering over the sitting girl.
HOW DARE YOU! You, who are little more than a puppet of meat belonging to Gendo, you would preach to me of what must be done? What have you suffered? What have you sacrificed? DAS IST JA WOHL DIE HÖHE! You insolent snippet of a girl! Unit-02 backhanded Rei across the face, sending her sprawling on the floor.
With a warning snarl of anger, Unit-01 sprang to life, eyes glowing like bonfires, springing over Rei's prone form to tackle Unit-02. As the two behemoths began to fight, throwing punches and wrestling, Rei sat up, calmly scooting backward from the brawl.
"Unit-01 is awake again." She commented, watching the fight with her sister. "If you want to talk to Unit-01, you will most likely need to intercede before things escalate further."
Unit-00 turned to momentarily stare at Rei before diving into the altercation, trying to separate the two Evangelions, finally forcing them apart. Unit-02 looked at the white Evangelion holding Unit-01 up against the wall, muttering soothing words to the bestial giant, and then looked at Rei.
You planned that.
"I anticipated it." Rei corrected. "We had previously ascertained Unit-01 is protective of me. I saw no other way to bring it back to wakefulness."
You truly are Gendo's daughter, aren't you? Your mouth is filled with his words, and you use people just as he does. You are more his child than his son is. Unit-02 looked back to where Unit-00 was struggling with Unit-01. Oh, calm down, whoever you are. She's not in any danger.
"My words are my own. Everything that I said was the truth." Rei watched Unit-01 growl at Unit-02 before sitting down, staring at them inscrutably behind its armored mask. "I have sacrificed much, and I have much more that I will sacrifice. My death is demanded by the Scenario. The death of my love is demanded by the Scenario. The eternal exile of my father is demanded by the Scenario. This is my sacrifice. We will die so that the threat of Instrumentality can be removed for all time."
So you are content to be sacrificed on the altar with Ikari's son so that Gendo's aims are achieved?
"That is why I was created. This is why I am. Using me, he will seize control of Impact and, through it, create a new paradise for Mankind and ensure that it will remain safe for the rest of time. SEELE will be cast down and destroyed, and the threat of Instrumentality erased forevermore. ADAM's children will be destroyed, and the threat represented by Lilith will be removed. Mankind will stand, unconquerable, on its own feet and lay claim to the inheritance given to it by the Commander. It is our duty, no matter what the cost or consequence, intended or otherwise. The Scenario is to be fulfilled."
An ambitious plan set in motion against equally ambitious men. Unit-02 sneered at the girl, ignoring the rumble emitted by Unit-01. And all it takes is the suffering and sacrifice of countless people, all pawns in their game.
"Our sacrifice is what will ensure the survival of Mankind. The end state is fixed and will end in one of three ways. There is the Commander's Impact, where Mankind endures. Death, at the hands of the Angels. Rebirth into eternal slavery as the gestalt being KADMON, ruled over by SEELE." Rei's eyes flashed with glowing light, red coals in an alabaster face as she recited the dogma drilled into her throughout her life. "This is our mission; to fight to be free, to survive, to stand our ground, and to ensure the immortality of Man. I know my role in Impact, and all I can ask is to spend what time there is for me here with the Commander's son. We will die, but we will be together. Your daughter may yet live to see the future, but not if her abilities falter due to problems with synchronization. Her death gains us nothing."
And what does her life gain you? What part does she play in your master's plans, you puppet? Outrage emanated from Unit-02 in almost visible waves, the Evangelion trembling with barely restrained anger. What do you care about it? Where does she fit into your formula and your equations? How does she serve your designs?
"The Pilot-Captain is a talented fighter and researcher. Her Science is undeniable, if unfocused. She is also…" Rei paused momentarily, the fire dying in her eyes, her Angelic heritage returning to its normal dormant state. "She is also my friend. I do not wish to see her perish needlessly. Shinji wishes to see no one perish, needlessly or otherwise." She stiffened and looked up to the ceiling, her eyes unfocused. "I must go. My time in the machine is over."
Rei opened her eyes in time to watch the LCL draining out of the tube, and she began to cough up the liquid from her lungs, taking in deep breaths of cold air. Past the tube, Doctor Akagi waited for her, a towel in one hand and a plugsuit in the other. She held the towel out as the tube retracted into the floor.
"The Lance will be here soon. Once it has been unloaded and brought here, you will take it to Terminal Dogma and install it into Lilith."
"Yes, Doctor." Rei tonelessly agreed.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Rei kept her eyes on the crucified Angel as she stepped off the platform's edge into the sea of LCL, slowly walking down the sloped ground until it leveled off, the waves of primordial ooze washing against Unit-00's midsection. She held the massive helix spear in both hands, the intertwined rods spreading out from the middle of the spear to terminate in two intensely sharp points, the blade edges so fine that they came down to a nanometer. It was the Lance of Longinus, the Deicide. The years it had spent buried in the plate shelf underwater had left no trace on it. It was not dulled in the slightest, looking new and unused. The two-pronged spear, to pierce both body and soul, the only weapon known to destroy an AT Field.
It was the last missing piece of the puzzle. With the Lance now in his possession, the Commander could operate without fear of compromise. His Scenario would come to fulfillment, and nothing could stand in his way.
He had won.
It was a glorious day for the Commander, Rei thought to herself, just as it was a great day for her. She would bring Lilith to task for her treatment of Shinji in a manner that the Angel could not ignore. The Angel knew what was about to happen; the deafening chorus of Her voice greatly diminished, sad and mournful.
The boy Shinji Ikari is not of concern to you. He is not yours to take and do with as you wish. You are the Mother of Mankind, and while I am the child of your flesh, I will not allow you to treat him in the manner that you have. He is my concern, and I will protect him from everything that would threaten him.
The masked face tracked her as she approached, offering no response save Her silence and two streaks of orange where Her tears trickled past the purple mask.
The Commander's Scenario is nearing completion. Mankind will reign for all time, safe from the threat of Instrumentality or Impact. All that is required now is time for ADAM to mature, to be made ready for the Ceremony of the Red Earth and the joining of Souls. Your covenant will be kept, and your children will survive.
Shinji Ikari is not yours. He is mine. You may not have him.
Unit-00 stood still before the Angel, staring up at the masked face. Feet spread apart, Rei slid one hand down to the base of the spear while gripping the point where the blades bisected with her other, rearing back; all weight shifted to her back leg as she lifted the Lance overhead.
The Lance of Longinus is yours. You may have it back.
Rei slammed the spear into the captive Angel, impaling the marble-white goddess just below her breasts, the blades easily cutting through the AT-Field that flashed into existence, plunging through flesh and sliding out the back of the massive cross. Lilith's head twisted violently, smacking against the top of the cross before going slack and lolling forward. Her hands twitched, straining against the massive nails in Her wrists, and the chamber became almost completely silent, Her voice now a mere whisper. Her womb erupted, a flood of LCL pouring down out of her to spray Unit-00, leaving Her looking like a ragged and torn puppet made of flesh.
Suck it, Bitch!
Rei blinked in surprise at her sister's addition to her message to the Angel but then nodded in satisfaction. Lilith would be contained until the Commander was ready, and Shinji would remain safe from her as he would remain safe from all others who would seek to harm him. This was a great and glorious day indeed, but it was also a day of sorrow. She did not know how long it would take for the ADAM sample implanted in the Commander to mature, but it would be time for the ceremony before too long.
Shinji was hers, and hers alone, but their time together was going to come to an end. She would have to make the most of what they had left.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Asuka looked at the spherical shell holding the vat-grown brain, which would serve as one of the primary processing centers for the MAGI, and a pang of homesickness ran through her. The GLaDOS systems were still highly controversial despite being a proven technology. The first Doctor Akagi pioneered the first systems for widespread use outside the original test systems, running the labs at the small start-up that managed the first breakthrough in bio-computing. Previous iterations of the GLaDOS had used hive-mind insects, such as ants and bees, before using brains from bodies donated to the cause of science.
Naoko Akagi, then working on her thesis, sparked massive controversy when she managed to get the system up and running with the salvaged brains, forever changing the fields of neuroscience and computing. The insect-driven computers had been more a 'for-fun' system, a curiosity to see if it could be made to work, which they had, after a fashion. Naoko's human brain-driven system had not only worked, it had blown all other supercomputers away. The unforeseen side effect of the creation of artificial intelligence had also been quite a surprise to the young researcher, but she had taken it in stride.
The GEHIRN Artificial Evolutionary Labs had purchased the small start-up, the German company's first overseas holdings. In the years to come, the R&D company would become evenly split between the two nations, with representatives drawn from around the world. Its star would rise unabated until Second Impact, where a sizable amount of the company's resources and talent were lost when the Mountains of Madness, along with the rest of Antarctica, vanished.
Following the disaster of Second Impact and the subsequent losses of Doctors Ikari and Soryu, many in the technology fields believed that GEHIRN's star was caught in an irreversible spiral downwards. It was the largely forgotten GLaDOS systems that Doctor Gendo Ikari used to generate vast amounts of income to revitalize the company he had seized the reins of. His research had previously been sidelined as he took a more administrative role in the company, and despite the loss of his wife, the board of directors placed their trust in him to turn things around.
In the reshaped world of Post-Impact, the world economy was vastly different, with different demands and different supplies than before. As more and more automation was required to run cities and facilities due to the lack of manpower, trained or otherwise, supercomputers coupled with artificial intelligence became a hot commodity, one the newly formed NERV had complete control over. While many people were still leery over the use of the GLaDOS system, none could argue its utility. Sales, upkeep, and repair of the systems continued to be a primary source of income for the company. However, many nations were now considering alternatives in the wake of the recent UN Inquiry into NERV's activities, motives, and shadowy deals.
The vast majority of the units and component pieces were manufactured at NERV-Minsk and NERV-Moscow. The components delivered today came from an ancillary production plant at NERV-Dresden. A sticker with the red, black, and gold flag of her homeland cheerfully waving in some imaginary breeze was plastered on one side of the hermetically sealed orb, and another, smaller sticker below it read Hergestellt in Deutschland, proclaiming the land of its origin.
"I didn't know that we made these in Germany," Asuka commented as she carefully peeled the flag from the sphere and attached it to the bottom of her tablet computer, smoothing it out. "I thought it was mostly mechanism parts we manufactured. That, and administrative red tape."
NERV was headquartered in Japan, NERV-Central built beneath Tokyo-3, but NERV-Berlin, the old GEHIRN headquarters, remained an important administrative hub. Sub-Commander Weissman oversaw the administration of the NERV installations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. European staffers liked to joke that even though the company had shifted to a global setting, it retained the German name due to the amount of bureaucracy the Supreme Commander would have needed to go through to change it to something else. That, and "Gendo Ikari's Death Legionaries for Hire, Research and Development Extra" didn't fit on the letterhead.
"Yes, we make GLaDOS components in Germany," Maya confirmed, studiously not looking at the teenager as she went down the checklist. She didn't know why Doctor Akagi had assigned her to help with the installation, but she was determined to remain calm and professional. Asuka seemed to be doing the same and hadn't batted an eye when told about the assignment. "All of our MAGI components are made in their dedicated facility. We don't run off-the-shelf components in our installations, you know."
"I do know," Asuka replied as she rolled her eyes, checking over the other parts and handing them off to another tech as she worked. "NERV Installations are the only ones that run MAGI Triumvirates, allowing the AIs to debate and reach consensus when faced with problems or analysis." She pulled a smaller sphere the size of a grapefruit out of the packaging, turning it over and inspecting the data ports on the I/O panel. "We also have the oldest AIs, with the NERV-Central MAGI being the longest-running AIs in the world. Balthazar, Caspar, and Melchior date back to the installation of the Geo-Front. Everyone else runs their AIs in a much more limited mode, and replaces them regularly." She recited, her voice bored. "I've heard it all a million times before."
"Haven't we all?" Maya looked up, satisfied that everything was in order. "Well, let's go ahead and set Balthazar into limited mode, and then we'll open up the primary housing." The other techs assigned to help with the upgrade trailed after the two researchers as they made their way to the platform in the main control gallery housing the primary cogitators for the supercomputers. As they walked, Asuka watched the lieutenant from the corner of her eye. She seemed perfectly at ease working together after their breakup, although Asuka wasn't sure if it was just for show. Either way, since they were going to be assisted by the three other technicians, it wasn't likely they would be able to talk about it as they worked.
Asuka hadn't had a relationship with anyone for a while, set on claiming Kaji's affections, but now it seemed like what she had had with Maya was better than the other one-night stands and flings back in Germany. It was clear to her now that she wouldn't ever get Kaji. She wasn't sure she wanted him anymore. She mentally grumbled to herself the entire way to the platform, wondering if this was what Wondergirl and the Third had dealt with before finally getting together. They seemed to be nigh-inseparable now, of course, and before then, they had been constantly making eyes at each other, but what had they been like before she showed up?
Furthermore, she darkly thought as they stepped up to the large battleship grey box they would be working in; what about Kaji and Misato? The woman had always seemed to rebuff his overtures and jokes and was always in a foul mood when he was around before the Christmas party. Why did he continue to pursue her throughout all of that? Was it the lure of someone who resisted his charms? The thrill of the hunt could only go so far, though. She had seen him give up on other women far before he had given up on his pursuit of the Sub-Commander. What made her so special?
Asuka's internal musing was interrupted as the casing lifted, exposing the expected collection of spheres, cables, and circuit boards. What was unexpected was the swath of handwritten notes, immaculately taped to the interior walls, support struts, and protective cowlings.
"What are these?" she asked, leaning in and trying to read the handwriting, not sure if it consisted of technical jargon that didn't translate well or if they were merely sloppily written.
"They're the original development notes from Doctor Akagi when she built the first MAGI. She had completed them, the first of the original production run, the flagship models over a span of three months." Maya responded with quiet reverence. "Apparently, she kept almost all of her notes like this as she built the distributed system, and they are in all of the control boxes and junctions. She died shortly after they came online before she had a chance to take them down." Maya paused, gazing over the papers, a little uncomfortable discussing the morbid subject. "Her daughter, our Doctor Akagi, had been hired a few days earlier. She stepped into her mother's shoes and left the notes up as a sort of shrine."
"She based the personalities for the MAGI off of herself," one of the other techs spoke up, just as reverent as the senior lieutenant. "With them watching over us, and with these notes to help us watch over them, it's like she's still here."
Asuka had known the woman had died here, although the circumstances behind her fall from the observation deck remained a mystery to all, as the security systems had not yet been completed. The entryway to the main surface office building was a large room with a memorial for those who had died in the Second Impact. It was a simple, somber affair, being a large block of gneiss from the Antarctic bedrock carved with the date and time of Impact. On the walls of the room were pictures of every employee of GEHIRN and NERV who had died during Impact and after. Most of NERV's losses came from the men and women who had perished while helping the Evangelions fight the Angels, the majority of those during the battle with the Fifth Angel, but Doctor Naoko Akagi's photo was there up on the wall, the smiling brunette's picture sitting next to an equally happy looking Doctor Kyoko Zeppelin Langley-Sohryu.
She had no such shrine to her mother unless one counted Unit-02 and the thousands of hours the woman had poured into it, but there were no handwritten notes lovingly taped to its internal components, meticulously preserved in plastic laminate. There was no hint or trace of her mother in the battle-titan, not even a small plaque listing her as the primary developer of the war machine.
Kyoko Zeppelin Langley-Sohryu was largely unmourned and unremembered by her daughter, who chose to try to forget the mad, lunatic thing her mother had become, but now, with twinges of homesickness fresh in her mind, coupled with her recent apprehension and doubts about what she was doing with her life, seeing this tribute to the elder Doctor Akagi was like a hammer blow to the teenager, who was now missing her mother more than she could ever remember.
Asuka swallowed, forcing all feelings aside as she called up the installation checklist on her tablet. They had work to do right now, and she wouldn't let her personal feelings interfere with what needed to be done. She could deal with sorting out the jumbled mess of emotions later.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Kaji grinned as the lock beeped at him, accepting the hacked keycard and unsealing the door. As he entered the large room, his face wrinkled in disgust at the stink filling the air. It smelled like a harbor at low tide, with sea life left to rot and decay in the noon-day sun, intermingled with the wet, humid stink of the jungle and rotting vegetation.
The room was huge, easily large enough to hold the Evangelion cages many times over, which was only appropriate when one considered that this was Gehenna, the Graveyard of the Angels. Dimly lit, from his vantage point on the platform, sitting about halfway up the entire height of the cavern, he could just barely make out the large cruciform holes dug out in the floor, some empty and some filled with the liquid remains of the Angels. Towering pillars of salt grew from the pools of Angelic matter, poking up from the mass of vines and flowers that grew like algae or pond scum floating atop the foul-smelling liquid. One of the open graves had a blackened bone mask suspended over it, the bird's skull scorched by the fire of its suicidal death. That, and the small pool of unnatural growth below it, was all that remained of the Third Angel, the first to fall at the hands of young Shinji Ikari. A faint patina of green was spreading out from the left eye socket, fuzzy moss slowing growing despite the lack of nutrients, water, or sunlight.
Even in death, the Angels were a source of concern and mystery. The spy knew that Ritsuko devoted some of her time to unlocking the secrets they kept, but she was not making any headway on the matter. Kaji whistled to himself as he walked down the length of the platform, eventually reaching a series of graves that held not the remains of the Angels but the remains of failed attempts to create the weapons used against them. There were six in total, but where the graves of the Angels were filled with liquid that gave birth to plants and salt, these graves held dry, dusty bones and incomplete skeletons. Misshapen skulls grinned up at him, a single human-looking one accompanied by a cycloptic one, one with four eye sockets, two with no eyes to speak of, and one that looked to be a blend of wolf and man, the elongated jaw home to more canine teeth than was normal. These graves looked as if their occupants had been here for centuries, and despite the immense size of the bones, they appeared to be as fragile as fine china.
Kaji grinned again as he heard the soft footsteps behind him, knowing he was meant to hear them and that he was meant to know that. "I always wondered what you did with the remains of the Angels," he told Commander Ikari as the other man approached. "Even when there was not much left of them, you had always mandated the entire area be scoured for the smallest amount of residual matter."
"The Angels do not belong here," Gendo commented, standing next to the spy at the railing, looking out over the graves. "Their entire being is unnatural, and it would not do to leave their remains to contaminate the city. Instead, they are collected here, locked safely away, and we can study them at our leisure. If you had wanted to see this place, all you needed to do was ask." Gendo reached out and gripped the railing with both hands, leaning on the bar.
"But then you would have known what I was snooping into!" Kaji protested with a laugh. "What's the point of spying on your boss when he's giving you access to everything you want to see?"
"Because then I know what you're relaying back to your other masters," Gendo responded dryly. "Not that it matters because I know what you're relaying to them anyway."
"Even when you're gone, nothing escapes your notice, does it? Whatever happened to 'when the cat's away, the mice will play?'"
"I am not all-knowing, no. But this is my city, my kingdom, and you, sadly, are a very predictable man."
"I'm predictable, you say. Well, that might be true," the spy said, still smiling, "but my predictability is a mask I use to misguide the people who watch me. If I show them what they expect to see, they look no further."
"But who do you play this part for when you sulk about in the shadows, unseen by anyone but myself?" Gendo countered. "You are but a piece in this game. You are a valuable piece, to be sure, but you are still a piece. You do not play the game, and you cannot play those who do against each other for your own benefit."
"Is that so?" Kaji wondered where the other man was going with the conversation. He certainly had never been privy to the man's inner thoughts and musings, outside what he knew he was expected to report on. Gendo played his cards close to the vest. There had to be a point to all of this.
"It is. Do you want me to tell you how this will end for you?" Gendo asked, suddenly sounding very tired and bored. "You will be given a task, a task of great importance that no matter how hard you might try, no matter how much you plan, it will reveal your hand. SEELE will call on you to do something for them, and you will do it, and then I will find out. No longer will I be able to justify keeping you on for my use, and I will remove you from the playing field."
"Is that how it'll go down?" Kaji leaned over the railing, resting his folded arms on the bar. "What if you sent me on some task to SEELE that made them question my usefulness to their cause? Why do you think I will serve them or you unflinchingly to the end?"
"Because you think that you still win, that you can slip around the cracks and survive," Gendo replied. "Because you want to know what's going on and why SEELE exists. Your problem isn't that you are a game piece. Your problem is that you don't know what game you're a part of."
"So why tell me all of this? What's your angle? What stratagem does this further for you?"
"A warning, and an option, of sorts. You can leave the board now and live, and I don't have to kill you after you've caused some unrecoverable harm to my resources. In the long run, I care little if you live or die. What I care about is the possible collateral damage to my resources. I do not want to have to clean up any messes you made on your way out."
"Why not just kill me now? Kill me and be done with it, leave my body floating down there, in that muck. Then you don't have to worry about me being a loose end." Kaji stood up and flashed a smile at the other man. "Not that I'm recommending it, however."
"I'm not going to kill you right now because I have a job for you." Gendo stood up and reached into his pocket for a small thumb drive, handing it over to the spy. "You can get started on it after you report this conversation." Gendo smiled at the man. "Don't worry; this won't get you killed by SEELE. You're still useful to me, but don't put your nose in places where it does not belong. I won't tolerate another incident like the power outage."
Kaji stiffened, his hand hovering over the thumb drive, his eyes locked on his reflection in Gendo's orange sunglasses. He nodded and took the assignment, leaving the room at a pace just short of a jog. The Commander went back to leaning on the railing. Three of the four who made up his inner circle in Tokyo-3 emerged from the shadows behind him.
"Sir, I don't like this, not a bit," Misato spoke first, her voice filled with anger. "He can't be trusted! How could he? He was Asuka's guardian for crying out loud! How could he play with her life like that?"
"Misato, he's doing his job. He's a spy; it's what he does. He's been a spy the entire time he's worked for NERV." Ritsuko countered, her voice carefully neutral. "I don't like it any more than you do, but he's been working for the other side the entire time." She sighed, shoving her hands into her pockets. "Who knows where his loyalties truly lie, where in the sand he'll draw the line."
"If he tries anything else that risks my kids like that again, I'll shoot him myself," Misato muttered to herself, barely audible.
"He has been warned," Kozo said. "He will consider the Commander's offer, at least. We won't have to worry about him going into places he doesn't belong for a while." He looked at the Commander, an eyebrow raised. "I am curious, though. What stratagem is being furthered by that conversation? What do you gain by letting SEELE know that you know?"
"That's exactly what he is trying to figure out," Gendo replied, not moving from where he stood. "He won't report it until he knows what move I just made." He sighed, pushing away from the railing. "Therein lies the root of his problem; the game pieces are not meant to know that they are such; they are only meant to obey. A pawn is valuable because it does not know it is a pawn, able to be sacrificed at a moment's notice. Once one is aware of the medium in which one exists, one will seek to exploit this knowledge, cheat the rules, and seek a favorable outcome. The piece wants to become a player, but no avenue of action allows for this."
"What does that make us, then?" Misato asked, taken aback. "We're aware of what's going on. For that matter, what about you?"
"Because we're not pawns, Sub-Commander Katsuragi," Kozo grinned. "As for the Commander, he was never a game piece. He was always a player."
"It wasn't a game while SEELE operated unopposed," Gendo said as he turned to leave the room. "It was not until I decided to act against them that it became a contest. They had no idea who I was until Yui introduced me to them. I was a nobody, just one of the billions of faceless peasants who lived and died at their convenience. But in their arrogance, they forgot one important fact about this young man who was more of a peasant than most others."
"What was that?" Misato asked, glancing uncertainly at the others.
"I pulled myself up from the gutter I was born in to earn some of the highest academic honors possible. They overlooked that I made myself the equal of their aristocracy with nothing. They never stopped to wonder what I might become with their backing." Gendo replied, leaving the trio behind, the door closing.
Misato looked at the others again, obviously not used to seeing the Commander this talkative, though his comments remained as cryptic as before. "He made himself equal to their aristocracy?"
Kozo sighed as he headed for the door. "Membership in SEELE is largely hereditary. The Ikaris have long sat on that shadowy council, and Yui's father remains one of their members. As it often is, those on the bottom rungs of the social ladder take a dim view of those on top. Gendo has long been an egalitarian. He feels that everyone should play by the same set of rules."
"The Commander took his wife's name, Misato," Ritsuko said, pushing her friend along in front of her. "His name is Rokobungi, and he was a street kid originally. He started with nothing but eventually earned his doctorates and won the affections of Yui Ikari, who had started with every advantage possible."
"SEELE thought they would use him, that he was just another young, brilliant mind to help push along their plans to become gods. They never thought he would take such a deep, personal offense at their plans. Even now, although they know he plans to betray them, they think his aims are the same as theirs." Kozo paused in his ruminations, thinking about the past. "All of the signs were there in the beginning, but they overlooked them. Even in his university days, he was a fighter. That was how we met, actually."
"You met him in a fight?" Misato asked incredulously, trying to picture the dignified man in a brawl with the Commander in the midst of combat, swinging a chair while lecturing his opponents.
"Good Lord, no. I had to go post his bail."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Toji stared at the empty seats where the pilots usually sat. He chewed on the eraser of his pencil and ignored the sheet of math problems on his desk. Beside him, Kensuke was burning through the equations with ease, muttering to himself under his breath. The boy had been up late the night before, working on another of his little projects that Toji was convinced would get him arrested by NERV.
Neither Rei nor Asuka had been in class for over a week, and Shinji's attendance had been intermittent, with numerous medical checkups after this last battle. Many more than his friends could remember him having to have after any of the other fights, which was odd when one considered the relative lack of damage done to the city.
They had pressed him with questions whenever he was at school, all of his other time spent in NERV, but he could only shake his head and tell them, 'he wasn't allowed to talk about it, but he was fine, really.' Hikari had even less luck with Rei, who hadn't been home in the past four days. Asuka had responded to one of her text messages, saying they were deep in a new training regime, with little free time, and that she was working on a few projects for the research manager, the blond doctor they had met at the first party.
Their teachers took the pilots' absence in stride, not bothering to comment on it anymore, seeming unconcerned. The trio of friends, however, was getting worried.
"Did you have any luck last night?" Toji asked his friend, finally scribbling down some answers on his paper. "I swung by their apartment, but no one's home, and it looks like it's been that way for a few days."
"I have about thirty seconds of footage," Kensuke muttered back as he double-checked his work. "Not a whole lot there, no actual combat. It's just fragments from three cameras. I've got Unit-00 running by, no weapons."
"Really? That's weird."
"What's really weird is that the city looked like it was in a different configuration than it normally is during battle. I've matched up the areas with reference points, but there was nothing where there should have been defense towers and armament buildings."
"Huh. What were they fighting without weapons? They evacuated the entire city for this fight and all the outlying towns."
"It was an Angel; we know that much. We all saw the pillar of fire. That only happens when one of them dies. No weapon produces a signature like that." Kensuke tossed his pencil down and leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. "They also didn't let anyone back in for a few days."
"That's the clean-up process and decontamination. Happens every time."
"Never took this long before, though. Usually, it's just a few hours. Even when they cleaned up after the third one, it was only a day before they started to let people back into the city." Kensuke waved at Hikari, who had turned around in her seat to stare warningly at the boys. It was just study hall, but they still weren't supposed to be chatting. "I'm working on another angle, though. I know a guy who works at the national weather agency in Kyoto, and he said that on the day of the battle, they lost almost all of their satellites in the area. There could be something left on the surviving ones."
"The Angels never attacked other cities before. This one caused tsunamis, somehow. Do you think it was deliberate or just a side effect?"
"Probably just a side effect. Almost all the others were pretty single-minded in their approach, just coming straight here. I don't know how it could have caused them, though. All NERV is saying is that it did cause them, but there are no secondary concerns to worry about."
"The administration's been a lot more tight-lipped about things recently. After the UN inquiry, they've been paranoid about releasing information to the public. A lot of countries are rethinking their agreements with the company. Canada has pulled all their GLaDOS systems from city and government administration, and some congressmen in the States are pushing for the same. It's all over the nets. They're accusing NERV of war profiteering and fear-mongering."
Toji sighed as he finished one problem, moving on to the next. "I can't imagine what it's like at NERV right now. My dad won't say anything about it, but he's worried about something, and he's not even attached to the Evangelions!"
"It's got to be a lot of stress on the pilots." Kensuke agreed. "I wish there were something we could do for them, to take their minds off of it, even for a little while, but I don't think there's going to be any parties any time soon."
"We could leave them phone messages again like before the third." Toji offered. "I bet we could get Mari and Nozomi's classes to leave them messages."
"It's an idea, at least. But we should do it soon, if we do it at all. My old man's talking about sending me to stay with his sister up north. He thinks it's too dangerous for me to stay here." Kensuke stared dejectedly out the window. "A lot of people are saying the same things. It looks like there's going to be another exodus leaving the city."
Toji shook his head as he jotted down another answer. "I heard the same rumor going around. I'm stuck here, though; we don't have anyone else outside the city. Dad and Granddad ain't going to send us off by ourselves. It doesn't seem right to leave the city. It's too much like running away. Don't people have more faith in them than that?"
"It's not like they know them like we do, Toji," Kensuke said, trying to explain. "Their identities might be out there, and most people here do work for NERV, sure, but it's not like they know them personally. We're kinda lucky to know them ourselves. They might have faith in their abilities to fight and win, but they still don't want to live in the middle of the battleground. I just wish I wasn't going to be leaving in the middle of this! This is history in the making here, and I'll be missing out on it!"
"I'm glad to see you've got your priorities in order."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
One of the perks that came with Misato's new position was a lot more internal documents were available and open to her. This included a lot of the old developmental notes for the Evangelions and other parts of the administrative world, which allowed her to check up on a few things that had been bothering her.
One of those things was a comment from the spy a few months ago about the Marduk Institute. She had blown him off at the time, upset with his continued antics and accusations, but his question had stuck in her mind. Now that she was dealing with a slightly different workload and having more resources at her disposal, she could look into it.
As much as it bothered her, Kaji's claims were correct. The Marduk Institute was a sham, although a very elaborate one. The trail was long and buried, but it eventually returned to NERV. This meant, among other things, that the Commander and Ritsuko were the ones who selected the pilots or had a large part in it. She was sure Shinji's selection as the Third Child was no accident. The timing of his appointment was not mere happenstance, she suspected, for it had been awfully convenient that he had been selected, that he had been so close, right when they needed him.
They probably had not meant for him to arrive right when he did, amid the Angelic incursion, she thought to herself, but she was now having serious doubts about the timeline surrounding his selection and arrival and the supposed impartiality of the selection process. What made the Commander's son so special? Then there was Asuka, whose family also had a long history with NERV and the Evangelions. Her own associations with the project aside, she constantly complained about what Shinji was capable of doing within the Evangelion. She had initially brushed off the girl's complaints and comments as mere grousing about having to compete with the boy for the spot as the top pilot, but now she wasn't so sure.
All of this raised more questions about Rei, whose history was shrouded in as much secrecy as the rest of the Evangelions. The only things available on the girl's history were a collection of medical exams, the reports from her Evangelion training, and her school records from middle school onwards. Nothing else existed on the girl.
Leaning back in her chair, Misato sighed as she rubbed her eyes. With all the reports she had dredged up and gone through, it was still only the tip of the iceberg. As stated at the UN Board of Inquiry, NERV generated secrets like a hot summer's night attracted insects. For every question she found an answer for, it seemed like ten new questions were raised.
All of that is just from the administrative files. She hadn't even gotten into the technical files. The laws of thermodynamics and the laws of physics were not suggestions. Things couldn't just be 'not affected' by them. There was a lot of stuff about the Evangelions and the Angels she had more or less just classified as 'weird shit' and decided that it wasn't her problem so long as everything worked the way they were supposed to. Still, with all the questions raised by what was happening and what had happened, Misato was thinking that it was all starting to become her problem. Like Kaji, she wanted to know what was going on, and now she was wondering what it was that he knew. For all that the Commander was suddenly letting her know, all he was telling her now, she was sure that he was still playing things close to the vest. There had to be large parts of his plans he was still withholding.
The worst thing, Misato grumbled to herself as she stood up to pace, was that her options were limited. She could continue her clandestine investigation, making little to no progress. Her new position as a NERV Sub-Commander was not enough to warrant her marching into the tomb-like office and demanding answers from him, nor could she press Ritsuko for more information. The woman was always ridiculously busy, even when trying to relax, and wouldn't have the time to bring her up to speed even if she felt inclined to. She guarded the secrets of her work jealously. All the original research and work she did was unpublished and locked away in secrecy. Publicly, she labored under the shadow of her mother and Doctors Sohryu and Ikari. Anything that she worked on, there was a chance that someone else could duplicate her work or steal it through industrial espionage. Once they published their work, it would be hard for her to prove otherwise.
Her other option was to enlist help. She could try to get someone with more or less unlimited MAGI access to go through the mess of reports and documents she had collected, which meant one of Ritsuko's senior techs. Or, she thought with a grimace, she could try to get Kaji to work with her and share what he knew. He knew at least as much as she did, if not more, the little backstabbing traitor.
How many people was he working for? What had sparked their confrontation? Was it part of some game that he thought he was playing? Was it to maneuver her to further some gambit? Or was it out of genuine concern? Did he actually care about her; was he worried about what she might be caught up in? He was working for at least two groups, SEELE and the Commander. Was he working for the UN? They certainly had been unhappy about how the inquiry ended, and she wouldn't put it past them to continue to spy on them.
But for all his potential concern for her, that did not change the fact he had deliberately sabotaged NERV's operations, not just putting the people here at risk, but the entire world. It was only because the Commander had pushed the crews that they had been able to manually prepare the Evangelions for battle. The man's faith in the pilots' ability to get to NERV had become a driving force for the beleaguered crews operating the stifling heat and dark. That faith, that drive, that force of will, and the dumb luck of the pilots actually getting to NERV, coupled with Asuka's plan to deal with the Angel, had saved the day, but things could have quickly gone the other way.
The possibility of working with the spy left a bad taste in her mouth. Once again, he had thrown her entire world into disarray, even if he hadn't meant to. Only this time, much more was at stake than her grades and scholarships. She had real responsibilities now, and her choices and decisions had the possibility of forever altering the course of human history. Things were much simpler when all she knew about the current state of affairs was that the Angels wanted to wipe out Mankind and that they had to be stopped.
Now she was blindly slogging around, waist-deep in conspiracies and counter-plots, trying to keep the only people who had a chance of saving the world able to do so, unhindered by politicians who had even less of an idea of what was going on than she had. People she had trusted were now untrustworthy, and people she had at least moderately disliked were the ones who had the world's best interests at heart, no matter how strange or obtuse his methods were. What had her superiors at the UN done with her weekly and monthly reports? What about all the other UN liaison officers? NERV's most enormous sin appeared to be letting the UN and several nations operate under the assumption they had some control over the company. It was a privately held company, a mercenary group of think tanks, factories, and laboratories, bound only to the terms they negotiated in the contracts with their customers.
Someone high up at the United Nations had thought that they dictated the deployment and use of the Evangelions, but her appointment with the company had been to coordinate the use of the NERV's systems with UN weapons. It had been easier for NERV to allow her to be the ground commander during the battles, but at any time, the Commander could've replaced her with one of his own people, if not assuming direct control. All of it was clearly stated in black and white in the agreement, as the man had pointed out during the inquiry, which had sent legislators scrambling. The UN was not very happy with not being in direct control of the most potent weapons platform in the history of war.
Weapons of Mass Destruction did not even begin to describe the Evangelions, and they were not even under the control of a sovereign nation. Misato smirked to herself as she slumped back into her chair. The Commander had offered to sell them one of the in-development units, but they had balked at the price. The video clip from the subsequent interviews with the press had gone viral, and before they had returned to Tokyo-3, there had been several remixes circulating around the internet, linking leaked footage of the Evangelions in combat against the Angels and the Jet Alone system with Gendo standing at the podium, pushing his glasses back up his nose and stating the multi-trillion dollar price tag attached to Unit-04, the Evangelion closest to completion.
He had made no friends that day, but when it had been brought up later, he had dismissed the burning bridges as inconsequential. Obviously, there was some sort of end to this madness, some point where the concerns of the international governing organization would be swept aside, presumably after SEELE had been dealt with. However, the Commander had plans for NERV and for the Evangelions after the threat of Third Impact was removed, as evidenced by the other projects under development around the world.
Sighing again as she picked up another report, she shook her head. What was Commander Ikari planning, and where did the Evangelions and children fit in?