Neon Genesis Evangelion:
The End is the Beginning.

Chapter 4:  Cadets Day off

An EDF Production.

Written by Helix and Rune.
aka Travis Carr and Jonathan Lloyd.

"Personel Files
Fusha, Ryan:  Class 2 Canidate.  Parents:  Desceased.  Immediate Family:
Samuel Johnson.  Currently assigned to cadet dorms.  Classification:
Faction Unknown."

EDF Personel Files.

The debriefing room is perhaps one of the pilot's worst nightmares.  Here
they were interrogated, cross examined, and had their performances literally
torn apart.  And perhaps worst of all, this was the room where pilots were
told to make an appointment with the synchronization specialists.

Fortunately for Lance Lt. Commander Samuel Johnson, this was simply a
debriefing.  A holovid of the previous day's battle was displayed against
the far wall frozen in mid frame.  The current view was of the type 3 angel
being blown to pieces by Jennifer's particle rifle, with the scouts in
front.

"At ease, Lieutenant.  Lieutenant Johnson, your team performed rather well
yesterday.  However, this debriefing is on a different subject.  Mainly that
your team bagged only three kills in the battle, when there were four
contacts sighted."  Shinji leaned back in his chair.  "Do you have an
explanation?"

"I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid that I don't."  Sam replied, running his
fingers through his hair.  "When the preliminary contact with the enemy was
complete, we could not spot the last target.  Due to damage sustained during
the battle, I requested pickup.  I'm sincerely sorry that I could not locate
the last target."

"Excellent.  Then you are dismissed."  Shinji stood up to leave.

"Sir, permission to speak freely."

Shinji turned to look at Sam.  "You know that you are always welcome to.
What's on your mind?"

"Sir, I thought that you would be angry that I lost the target."

Shinji turned and looked at Sam, a curious expression on his face.  "You
press yourself Sam.  It got away somehow.  We also lost track of it on
scanners.  Leave it at that.  When it appears again, we'll deal with it."

"Yes sir."

...

Ryan yawned and stood up out of his bed.  The commander had given the
cadets a day off after the attack last night, probably because Sam needed
some time to recover from the battle.  Ryan considered looking in on Sam,
then decided against it.  Explaining how he had gotten past Stickly, and how
he knew about the attack when the other cadets didn't wasn't something he
was up to at the moment.

Ryan paused for a moment to dig one of his favorite turtlenecks out of his
dresser before he started getting dressed.  Thank god Rei wasn't in the
room, he thought.  That little brat would probably be hounding him for the
rest of his stay at the cadets dorm, and any time that he could get away
from her the better.  Finally finished dressing, Ryan reluctantly hit the
open button on the door and prepared to face the world.  "I never really
appreciated how well these rooms are sound proofed..." he muttered to
himself as a blast of LOUD music hit him.  One of the cadets was playing a
boom box they had brought along at full blast, and it was nearly loud enough
to shake the windows...  if the dorm had any.

On the way past that particular cadets door, Ryan stabbed the close button
with his finger.  The door snapped shut, cutting the music off to a near
silence.  The cadets in the sitting room clapped quietly in appreciation as
he walked in.

"Thanks a lot."  Keith murmured as Ryan sat down on the couch.  "We tried
to get him to turn that off, or shut the door.  And he ignored us..."  Keith
paused as the aforementioned cadets door opened at the aforementioned cadet
stormed out.

"Alright, who in the HELL did that???"  he demanded as he stomped into the
lounge area.  "NO ONE does that type of shit to me...  so WHO DID IT???"

Ryan sighed and stood up off the couch.  "I did it."

The cadet looked over at Ryan.  "So you're the little bastard, eh?  I'm
gonna tell you something...  you're about the receive the biggest beating of
your life."

As the cadet walked over towards Ryan with murder in his eyes, Ryan coolly
responded.  "You are certainly welcome to try."  Oh hell, what am I getting
myself into? Ryan wondered.

"That's it, you're really gonna hurt now."  With that the cadet swung at
Ryan, with a blow that would most likely have lain him out on the floor, had
it connected.  The funny thing was that Ryan was no longer in exactly the
same place he had been a moment before.  The blow snapped past him, the
bully dreadfully overextending himself.  Ryan simply started with a cool
contempt at his attacker.

"Damnit, this guy is good...  I'm having trouble dodging his attacks..."
Ryan muttered as the other cadet launched a few more attacks against him.
He winced as one of the punches snaked through to tag him across the chin.
"Im not going to be able to beat him in a fair fight.  Better try somethings
else..."

"You see..." Ryan started as another punch shot past his head, "you possess
a great deal of power..." another blow went by, "but no skill or technique."
Ryan stepped back a bit to avoid a kick.  "And if you're going to try to
fight me...  or anyone else for that matter," Ryan slipped under another of
the now sweating bully's blows.  His attacker was now panting with the
exertion of trying to hit Ryan, and Ryan had still not made a move beyond
defending.  "Your going to have to work on that."  Oh great Ryan, now he's
REALLY pissed off...

With that, Ryan lashed out with a kick that shot straight into the cadets
stomach.  The bully doubled over in pain, gasping for breath after the one
attack that Ryan had made.  Ryan gazed at him with a look that mixed equal
portions of pity and contempt.  "And you really believe that your cut out to
be an Evangelion pilot?"  Ryan snorted.  "Don't make me laugh."  With that
said, Ryan turned and walked towards the door.

Just before he reached it, his attacked managed to gather enough breath to
speak.  "What's the matter?  Afraid to finish what you started?"  he
taunted.

Ryan paused for a moment, his finger inches away from the door lock.
"No...  you're simply not worth the effort."  And with that, he stabbed the
open button and was gone.

"COME BACK HERE YOU LITTLE SHIT!"  the beaten cadet roared.  He picked
himself up, and was starting towards the door when Sergeant Stickly burst
into the room.

"NOW JUST WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT HERE???"  the Sergeant roared.
Most of the cadets blanched and looked the other way.

...

Ryan walked along the mostly deserted halls of the base.  For all of the
hustle and bustle around the quarters, there seemed to be large areas that
were downtrodden, in poor condition, or simply abandoned.  Ryan thought on
that for a moment.  The world's last hope, no not the world's, just
humanities.  Humanity's last hope, and it was falling apart.  "That just
goes to show what people have degenerated to now a days.  Where people
either are so selfish that they fail to see beyond their own noses, or such
religious zealots that they fail to see that the ones they hate are the ones
that protect them.  Stupid idiots, all of them."

He pulled up one of the sleaves to his jacket, and looked over the purple
bruises that were even now spreading on his arm.  Although it had looked
like he had effortlessly beaten that bully, he had certainly taken a few
good hits, far more than he would have liked to.  "I gotta stop doing
that..."  Ryan grunted.  "Gonna get myself killed one of these days.  Stupid
pride..."

Finally, Ryan arrived at one of the most remote areas of the base, its
flickering lights adding a gloom to the atmosphere.  Ryan looked around,
looking for some place in particular.  Finally he settled on a room set at
the very back of the hallway, set in so deep a shadow that even he had
trouble seeing it.  Touching the open button, Ryan had the satisfaction of
having the door open quietly, without unnecessary pauses or noise.  Ryan
paused for a moment before he stepped in.  No rodents, bats, humans or other
unwanted guests appeared, so he flipped the light switch.  The lights
flashed on rather brightly, and then dimmed.  Ryan smiled at seeing that
only one of the lights had burned out.  He walked over to the slightly moth
eaten mattress, and sat down.  This room will do, he thought to himself.

Ryan pulled his legs up onto the bed, pillowing his head on this hands.
Looking up on the boards of the bunk above him, he thought back on how long
he had been alone before this.  It must have been...  at least a year,
perhaps two.  After that day...  as the memory flooded back to him, a single
tear slipped out of his eye.

It had been a bright, sunny day.  That much Ryan remembered.  His father
had been working in the fields along with Ryan, which they had been doing
since Sam had disappeared several years before.  Ryan always smiled at the
joke that he and Sam had shared.  The old "Big Brother" joke was not quite
accurate, as Ryan was the child of his fathers second marriage.  Sam's
mother had died during one of the first raids of the first Angelic war.  Sam
had never really recovered from that shock...  up to the day that he had
vanished, he still had blamed his father for his mother's death.

The first angel had been what the EDF was calling a class 3.  But to Ryan,
it had been a creature of hell that had landed in his field.  His father had
died when the Angel had begun to fire at the pursuing Eva, the Angel firing
as rapidly as it could.  Launching itself into the air, Ryan had seen it
land on the small house that he and his parents had lived in for all of his
life.  Ryan had screamed and ran towards the Angel, knowing that his mother
had been in the house, when the angel jerked as a missile snaked from one of
the Eva's rocket launchers.  The Angel's energy blast had detonated next to
Ryan, and... and...

And then what?  Every time that the memories threatened to overwhelm Ryan,
they stopped here.  Logic dictated that he should have died, vaporized by
the heat and shock waves of the angel's energy blast.  "And yet logic has
played so little a part in my life..." Ryan murmured to himself.  "Why am I
alive when those I cared for are dead?  Why am I alive?  Why?"

"Life continues, even when we do not wish it to."  Ryan jerked his head up
at the sound, searching the room with his eyes.  His gaze finally settled on
a corner, where he could just barely make out a person standing there.  But
the voice was familiar.  "But when we wish life to continue, how often that
such a sweet thing is denied to us in the final darkness of death."

"Hello Kaoru."  Ryan looked back at the underside of the bunk bed above
him.  "I'm sorry that I didn't hear you come in."

"Not many people do.  Perhaps when you are less troubled, you will find
me."  Shinji's son sat on the bed across from Ryan, staring at him
obliquely.  "I have been here many times before, but never has it felt so
complete.  This is your place, Ryan Fusha.  It has been waiting for you for
quite some time."

"Huh.  I cant imagine anything actually WAITING for me.  Life just seems to
rush past...  like a river that you can never see, and touch only in
glimpses.  So why are you here, Kaoru?"

"I felt that it would be best to tell you that it is safe to return to the
dormitory now.  The Sargent was rather put out that you had vanished, and
called in my father.  I...  spoke with the commander, and he understands
that you were provoked into attacking."

"And what keeps him, or the Sargent for the matter, from believing that you
were lying to help me?"  Ryan glanced over at the pale boy on the bed across
the room.  This had to be a record of incredible things that had happened to
him.  A fellow cadet actually standing up for him?  Amazing.  "I was rather
lucky in that fight, actually.  I don't think that I could have kept that up
for much longer."

"Nice to see someone around here who understands their limits.  However,
don't let your pride blind you to the point that you can no longer see the
chasm in front of you. Even humility can lead to hubris after a time..."

"I'll keep that in mind."  Ryan replied.  "So tell me again why Commander
Ikari and the Sargent arn't hanging me out to dry?  What made them believe
your story about me?"

"I...  I don't lie."

"Oh come on...  everyone lies from time to time."

"I don't.  Lying is simply a way that we retreat into ourselves, hiding
ourselves from truths that we care not to face.  I learned a long time ago
that if we hide from out problems, we can never truly solve them."  Kaoru
stood up from the bed and moved towards the door.  "Remember that no matter
how little you think of yourself, you still have friends.  You will always
have friends."

Ryan watched as Kaoru walked out of the door, and listened as his fellow
cadet started walking down the hallway.  After about three steps, the sound
of footsteps vanished.  Ryan rolled off of the bed and walked towards the
door, peering out.  "Did you forget someth..."

The hall was empty.

...

"Its time Sam."

"Damn, does this have to come so soon Commander?"

"Im afraid so.  I wish that I didn't see the necessity of this type of
training, but withthe sync testing technology developed by NERV was
destroyed during the Tokyo 3 incident, this is the only way of telling if
these kids can actually pilot an Eva."  Shinji rubbed his temples, and
looked at the view screen on his desk.  "The preliminary contact can be
extreemly dangerous...  We found that out the hard way in the Germany
Section of NERV."

"That was the incident with Zepplin Langley, wasn't it sir?"  Sam sat back
in his chair across from Commander Shinji Ikari, staring at his friend,
perhaps one of the most powerful men in the world, but still his friend.  "I
remember reading about that incident during my orientation...  that was
after I had first been plugged into an Eva, and I understood why it could
happen."

"Yes, Dr. Langley was my mother in law.  It was a rather tragic accident,
and we still have not found a way to shield a pilot from contanmination when
their sync ratio drops below 12.8%."  Shinji leaned back in his chair,
looking over the regester of the most recent cadets.  "It seems to be
directly relating to crashing..  except instead of the pilots sync ratio
hyper-accellerating, and the Eva absorbing them, the pilots sync ratio falls
to below 0, and they absorb bits of the Eva.  Unfortunately most of those
pilots go insane..."

"Most of them?"

Shinji pulled out a file and tossed it to Sam.  "Seeing that you may
actually see this tomorrow, we do have quite a few canidates for the
accellerated program in this class, this is all the information on the type
3 pilots."

"Type _3_ pilots, Sir?"  Sam picked up the file that Shinji had tossed to
him.  "I've heard of type 1 and 2 pilots...  the type 1 pilots can only
operate the old style Eva's, while type 2 pilots have the sync ratios
necessary to operation type 2 Eva's, with S2 organs.  But type 3 pilots
sir?"

"Yes.  Actually you were a possible type 3 canidate Sam.  Allow me to
explain..."

...

Jonathan Lloyd,
Rune, Master of Confusion and Being Lost in Time
Korin, Extreemly Confused Seiryuu Seishi