I thought that I should repost this again, as some people may have been a
bit cautious to read the one I sent before because of it's content. This
fic has the same content as the series, so if you've seen the show before,
you won't be shocked. Here it is. Hope you enjoy it.
Okay, first of all, this is a spoiler warning. This fic reveals just about
everything from the movies and the shows. If you haven�t seen the movie and
shows, then I suggest that you don�t read this. On the other hand, if you
are depressed easily, I don�t suggest you see EOE in the first place.
Okay, that�s the spoiler warning done. Neon Genesis is the work of
Director Anno, this work is an original piece based on what he�s done. It�s
not done for profit or anything, so hopefully it won't be a problem. I
should also credit Metal Gear and Hideo Kojima, as I got a few ideas from
there as well. Plus, I try to write in the style that Kojima has. Thanks to
Trevor Hoffert, Ketheres Elyion, Timothy Miller and everyone else who has
helped with this fic.
End of Evangellion, beginning of Bond.
Is this really the end?�
"Yes ma'am."
"All of SEELE and NERV has been wiped out."
"Those two are still alive."
"Central and Terminal Dogma?"
"Yes ma'am,
"It's failsafe explosives should become activated soon."
"Right on schedule."
"Yes ma'am."
"I've recovered all of Rei's Dummy Plug data."
"No ma'am. My cover is intact."
"...Nobody knows who I really am."
"Yes, Ritsuko Akagi knew my identity,
"but she's been disposed of."
"Yes."
"The inferior Ayanami caused the Third Impact."
"...That's right."
"It was clear to me,"
"That the one who sacrificed herself thought she was inferior, and
replaceable."
"Yes ma'am. I agree completely."
"It takes a well balanced individual...
"Such as yourself to command the United Nations."
"No, ma'am."
"No-one knows that you're around...
"Miako."
"...What should I do about Asuka?"
"Yes ma'am. I'll keep her under surveillance."
"Yes. Thank you."
"Goodbye."
"Rei Bond."
Rei put down the cellular phone she had used to talk to her agent in Tokyo
3. She glanced outside at the baron wastelands of Alaska, wondering how
long she would be stuck in this snowstorm.
At least no one will come looking for me here, she thought. She wondered
how much damage Ikari�s creation had done to the world.
"To play God, and to cross the blood of man with the blood of monster,"
Rei said to herself. "What was he thinking?" For a moment, she thought of
Yui, a fine woman who Rei had thought of was killed, inadvertently it may
have been, by her husband, Gendou Ikari.
"Why? Why create something like Ayanami?" It wasn't like she had a problem
with it personally, she knew that her name was Reine Miako Bond, climbing
through the ranks of the U.N, and a woman of many talents. No, what
affected her so much was what has happened on a worldwide scale. Billions
of people must be dead, she thought sadly, and perhaps the wars that she
had no doubt will follow could very well wipe out mankind, like they nearly
did after the Second Impact. Reine dismissed that thought immediately,
choosing instead to think of what her agent had told her.
"It takes a well balanced individual, such as yourself to command the
U.N." Reine repeated the words, then thought of what Ikari must be doing if
he was still alive.
No, she thought. There was no way he could have survived that� Unless...
No. She knew better than that. Reine remembered an old video game where
monsters were created for military application, and a even earlier cartoon
that had man playing God with an alien race.
"And the ignorant bastards didn�t pay attention to any of that, even though
it was mostly fiction. They didn�t even stop their God games after the
Second Impact." There was something else to think of from what her agent
had said.
"NERV�s failsafe explosives. Their personal would have been the first to
go," Reine thought sadly. "There were still good people working for them,
Katsuragi, Ibuki�" Reine shook her head sadly, then it dawned on her.
"What about the soldiers that SEELE had sent to wipe out everything?
There�s a thousand questions I want answered with that one. Gendou was
going to betray them, that much we do know, but what is all this about him
doing it for Yui? What has his wife got to do with anything?" It was a good
question, a hole, like so many others, that needed filling.
"At least, oh, at least half of SEELE�S army would have been wiped out with
NERV, there is that." Reine thought that might sound cold, but she would
have to leave all her thoughts aside, for now. There wasn't much time, and
there were things that needed to be done.
"We�ll need to find the two remaining members of NERV, the pilots, Shinji
and Asuka," Reine said. Talking to herself again. That was one of her
character failings, so she thought.
"I�d better make that call to pick up any survivors."
Patric had every reason in the world to believe that humanity were screwed.
"And why?" he asked himself. "Because someone thinks they�re God and tries
to create Armageddon." Patric Taikoyo could only think of one silver lining
about the Third Impact.
"At least Ikari would have died as well." Patric wondered how many people
had died this time. Not a happy thought. He lit a cigarette as he thought
about the woman who had sent him in to clean up the mess.
"Rei Miako Bond. She shares her name with one of the Eva pilots, Rei
Ayanami." That was another thought that Patric had. Patric had all of Rei�s
dummy plug data, but he thought about bringing Rei herself.
Impossible, Patric thought. One killed herself, one caused the Third
Impact, and the rest were destroyed.
"By that bitch, that Ritsuko Akagi," Patric said to himself. He remembered
how there was another altercation, between Ayanami and Ritsuko�s mother,
Naoko.
"Too bad about her." A cruel, thin smile spread across his face. "Too bad
for Akagi at least. The psychosis must run in the family.
"It�s ironic," Patric continued to himself. "If it wasn�t for Akagi, there
would be no Rei. We also would not have had the EVA�s to defend our world.
On the other hand, if it wasn�t for Naoko, Yui Ikari wouldn�t have been
killed, and one of the Rei clones wouldn�t have�" Patric stopped himself,
and for one brief minute he felt sadness as he remembered that night.
"Well, Rei has had her fair share of chances at life. I wonder if she
really cared? Still, I guess we don�t need to worry about that anymore," he
said to himself, shrugging off his sadness. Rei, Patric thought, meaning
queen.
I would be surprised if the first child knew that, Patric thought. On that
note, Patric wondered if there was anyone she looked up to, apart from
Gendou Ikari.
"Well it sure wasn�t Stone Cold Steve Austin." Patric chuckled at that.
Hell no, he thought, an influence of Walker wouldn�t be Ayanami�s style.
"I�ll take one more look at what�s left of NERV headquarters, then I�ll
get back to that other matter, the other two." Patric thought about a
friend of his, a General named Duke.
"Yes, he�d be perfect for this operation. Once he�s found the other two,
he can join me in exposing SEELE." Patric considered that. "German for
souls. Asuka is German. I should look into it," he said as he raised his
cigarette to his lips.
It had been a few hours since Reine had been able to see daylight, but that
did little to change her mood. Patric had suggested that his friend Duke
Andressons look for the surviving two Eva pilots, but since then she has
heard nothing.
"What�s the status of NERV headquarters, Patric?" she asked. Patric seemed
a bit uncomfortable with the question.
"Uh, I wanted to have one last look through what�s left of it before I
vape the place. I haven�t yet ascertained exactly what happened since SEELE
took over. All I know I�ve already told you." It occurred to Patric that
they still haven�t talked to each other face to face. This Reine, Patric
thought, relied on contacts and phone calls.
"Is there any word on Shinji and Asuka?"
"Well," Patric said, "Like I said, they�re alive. Where, I�m not certain,
but we�re looking where we lost contact with our Pirate satellite."
"It wouldn�t have been the Third Impact that caused it, would it?" Reine
asked.
"It�s possible, but it was still working after the worst was over."
"This is terrible. To think, we may be half of the population of Japan,"
Reine said.
"Yeah, it�s nasty. I was thinking more about the political implications of
it. For instance, NERV would have to be denounced by the U.N, it might even
bring Chairman Keel down."
"Patric," Reine said, "for God�s sakes, the touchy feely side of things is
at the bottom of our priority list."
"Point taken."
"Not quite. When Hitler declared war on the world, it became an event that
has shook the world until the Second Impact. Imagine what this will do to
our world. The Third Impact may be over, but because of how bad things are,
there will be a number of suicides, I guarantee you that."
"So you�re worried about moral?"
"Well wouldn�t you be?" Reine asked.
"Of course I am. NERV was set up to prevent the Third Impact. However, we
know now who is responsible for it, Ikari."
"Yes," Reine said. "Our Pirate was able to keep track of his every move,
and he was planning this all along."
"He may have destroyed the world, but that doesn�t mean that I�m done
fighting. I won�t stop until SEELE and NERV are exposed for what they
really are. The situation was FUBAR�d long before the Third Impact. Since
that Eva three went berserk."
"How did that happen?"
"I think it was because of the S2 engine."
"Human Beings trying to become God," Reine said. "We should be happy with
the way he made us. Beauty by nature, no plastic surgery, don�t you think,
Patric?"
"I understand what you�re saying. And to think, this was to be a simple
investigation into misconduct with a minor."
"You mean Rei? I don�t know, but the people who know about it say that it�s
anything from the fact that it was Gendou who raised her to the possibility
that she was Gendou�s�."
"Yeah, I get your drift. I don�t know about that, however," Reine said.
"You think she would have liked it?" Reine shrugged. Patric didn�t see it
of course.
"Dunno. Carville would have been out of the loop about NERV�s secrets, her
job was the same as Walker�s if he was employed with NERV."
"To make sure that the pilots and personnel were mentally stable. She was
the one who wanted us to investigate Ikari�s �private life.�" Patric
remembered an old South Park episode, where Cartman was dressed as Hitler.
Patric couldn�t suppress a smile, it was easy to imagine him working for
someone like NERV. He then remembered the reason why he quit being a
security guard there, and sighed.
"Have we heard anything yet on casualties?"
"Reports are still coming in, but right now, it�s run into the hundreds of
millions." Patric didn�t say anything.
"I know, it�s bad. But we knew that something like this would happen if
the Third Impact did happen."
"That�s true," Patric said. "And we can leave the whole mess on Gendou
Ikari�s doorstep."
"You don�t like him, do you?" Reine asked.
"No, and there�s no reason why I should. He was one of the most heartless
people I�ve ever known."
"Did you ever meet him?" Reine asked.
"No, but I�ve kept track of all his movements. I have a recording of a
conversation between Gendou and Kouzou when they were in Antarctica. I
think you may want to hear it, if you haven�t already." Patric played a
tape recording he had heard off the Pirate spy satellite.
"The Pole," Kouzou said, "ah, just another name for hell." Patric stopped
the tape.
"Listen carefully to what Gendou says here." He played the tape again.
"Nevertheless, mankind has returned to this wasteland. In the midst of
death, we still live."
"That�s because we�re protected by the power of science."
"Science is what makes mankind powerful."
"That kind of self righteous arrogance is what caused the disaster of
fifteen years ago, the Second Impact. And here, before us, is the end
result. This is a far greater punishment than mankind deserves. This is the
real dead sea!"
"And yet this is a world that has been purified and purged of the Original
Sin."
"I prefer a world where there�s people, no matter how stained in sin." A
pause.
"Well?" Patric asked.
"You mentioned how you thought that Brigadier General Andrewssons would be
appropriate for the search," Reine said finally. "After meeting the man, he
reminded me of Commander Ikari."
"The recently deceased Commander Ikari, thank God for sparing humanity of
such, filth."
"Yes," Reine said. "Well, what�s your opinion of Andrewssons?"
"Like I said, he�s a friend. And one thing is that if there�s only one
difference between him and Ikari, it�s that he cares, he gives a damn."
"On the subject," Reine said, "what has become of Kouzou?"
"Dead," Patric said flatly. "Apparently shot in the back. We�re following
that up."
"It was said how the Third Impact would destroy mankind. I wonder why it
didn�t," Reine said.
"You want my opinion?" Patric asked. "I believe that the Ayanami creature,
whatever it was, stopped it." Reine thought about it.
"That may be true. But it would seem that it was too late for a lot of
people."
"It�s a shame that there are no clones of Rei left," Patric said. "There�s
a million possibilities with that."
"There is one possibility..." Reine started.
"Yes, there is that. There�s another, but we�ll find out if SEELE knows
anything about it soon enough." Reine sounded startled.
"You can�t mean that they�ve been up to the same things that Ikari has been."
"It would explain the connection between two things. One, how Asuka is
German, and SEELE is German for soul."
"What are you getting at?" Reine asked.
"Just a feeling I have. The other possibility is that the fifth child, he
was sent by SEELE, made like Rei, to cause the Third Impact himself."
"Well it is true that Germany is home to the Nazis," Reine said. "Maybe
Kaworu was their answer to Hitler�s ethnic cleansing."
"That�s what I was thinking."
"Do you think they would do something that direct though?" Reine asked.
There was silence.
"Point taken. Anything else?"
"�Fraid not. Though it was good to hear that Duke is on this. I might
visit his 'adopted' daughter. I�ll see you later." Almost as soon as Patric
had hung up, Reine had gotten another phone call from Duke."
"...ere the hell have you been? I�ve been trying to get to you for ages.
I�ve found them. I repeat, I�ve found Shinji and Asuka."
There had been a lot of reports on what exactly had happened, she thought,
as she put the brown hair colour through her hair.
"How bad is it? Really?" She had been questioning herself from the
beginning, but it was only after the battle against the rogue Eva, renamed
the thirteenth Angel, that had her questioning NERV itself.
"And Commander Ikari," she said to herself. Why would he do something like
that? She trusted him, would probably die for him, at least back then. Then
she thought that a lot of things at NERV were wrong, Lilith, the so called
Lancea Longinus...
"The Spear of Destiny." When everyone was worried about Shinji, she had
made her move. Now that she was officially dead, she had done some
research, and found out that some of the things that Gendou had been up to
went against her growing humanity.
"Who do I owe that to, Shinji, or Suzahara?" After she thought about it,
it occurred to her that it was Walker who was responsible. She had heard of
him through the internet, and his reasoning had made her listen. Through
the internet, she had asked him about what she should do with her life.
Walker, being the philosopher, said how she should just live life, to not
act or react, but to just be. It wasn�t long before she had started using
Walker�s influences herself, and thought that perhaps she should start
thinking about investigating everything that NERV had covered up.
Will I have a chance, though? I'm only fourteen. Still, she already knew
most of what NERV had done. It would only take a look through what was left
of NERV headquarters to find the rest. Then, she didn�t know what she�d do
next. Still, she had already run the chestnut brown through her hair. She
sighed as she looked through her apartment.
"Walker would have a fit if he saw this," she said to herself. That was
him, she thought, a neat freak. Not exactly the words that she would use
but she decided to look through the little clothes she had.
"I really do have more than I need, thanks to Commander Ikari." That
thought stuck. Why was he like that, he wondered. Why did Ikari care for
her so much? And his son, Shinji. He cared for her more than anyone else at
her school.
"Apart from�no, that was only for a few weeks, before he disappeared."
There were a thousand things to go over, but despite who she was, she knew
that now wasn�t the time to think about things like that. Walker fitted in
well with the somewhat Biblical attitude that NERV had, he referred to his
teachings as verses, such as Walker 1:54. He said that he got the idea from
a wrestler, someone by the name of Steve Austin, she heard. She remembered
how Walker had said not to live in the past or the future, but in the now.
She considered this meant that she should not dwell on what has happened,
or to have expectations for the future, which she never has done yet.
"But then there was that incident where he, hurt me." She took off the
sling she was wearing and looked through various articles of clothing. She
saw several outfits that interested her, apart from her usual school dress.
One was another one for school that, she thought, she might have worn in
another life.
"Another life," she said. There were two other things that she could wear,
one was a black dress, which she thought would clash, considering what had
happened. The third was a loose singlet and green knaki jeans, which
reminded her of the military.
"That�s pretty much out of my league, but then again, everything has been
for a fourteen year old." She sighed. "Well, if I�ve saved the world once,
I can do it again." It wasn�t really what she would say, she guessed that
she was getting more off Walker than she thought.
"Besides," Rei Ayanami said to herself, "If I die, there�ll be a
replacement. My �former� employees had taken care of that."
"This is Andrewssons, Duke, Brigadier General, requesting permission to
land." Since the Armageddon that Duke had heard was the Third Impact,
things had been hectic. First, he�d tried to find any survivors there may
have been, things were actually better off than he thought.
Still, he thought, out of, how many in Tokyo 3? We�ve only found about a
thousand so far.
"General Andrewssons, permission granted. Head for sector ten, left three
zero." It may have been doomsday, but it was still business as usual for
the military.
Yeah, just keep telling yourself that all this is a dream, that I don�t
have two of Earth�s saviours, his mind whispered sarcastically. Duke had
searched by chopper for several hours, looking for the two remaining
members of NERV, Shinji and Asuka.
Does it matter? Armageddon�s already happened, hasn�t it? What can these
two kids do? What did Reine Bond want with them? From all accounts, Bond
was a bit of an enigma. He knew almost nothing about her, but she seemed to
know everything, everything that she needed to know anyway. Duke looked
towards the back of the Apache Longbow at Shinji.
"You holding up, kid?" Shinji looked up from the unconscious body of Asuka.
"Uh, yeah." Duke nodded.
"Good. How�s the girl?"
"I don�t know," Shinji said. "I can�t really remember what happened."
"Kid, I don�t think any of us really know what happened."
"General Andrewsssons, you have new orders," a voice said. "You are to
follow our lead." Two Mig helicopters appeared from nowhere, as Duke swore
under his breath.
"I should�ve known that something was wrong, what with the Third Impact
and everything." Duke wanted to kick himself for his stupidity. "It was all
too casual for it to be anything but a trap."
"It�s ironic," Irvine said to himself. "I get E-mail from this Rei
Ayanami, who�s a Eva pilot for NERV, the information that I have tells me,
among other things, that SEELE, who formed NERV, is German�God bless my
wife�s soul. SEELE is German for soul, NERV is German for NERVe, Eva is
German for Eve, as in Adam and Eve, Asuka is German." Irvine considered
phoning his contact, Reine Bond, but since he was driving, he didn�t want
to risk crashing while he talked on a mobile phone.
"Mitsubishi GTO, Twin Turbo. That would be two hundred grand down the
crapper, that�s for sure." Not very diplomatic, he thought, but he can get
into character for that when he got to Tokyo 3.
"Huh, what�s that?" Irvine saw someone sticking their thumb out at the
side of the road. Obviously he wanted a lift. Irvine smiled to himself.
"I guess not even Armageddon will stop hitchhikers." He pulled over to see
what this, hitchhiker wanted.
"Can you give me a lift?" the man asked. Asian, Irvine thought.
"Where to," he asked.
"Los Angelas." That can�t be, Irvine said. It had to be, though.
"I hate L.A," Irvine retorted.
"Yeah," the Asian said. "Why?"
"The Clippers suck, the Lakers have stuck it to Boston too many times, the
Raiders are bad boys�" Irvine stopped himself. "I�m Irvine Walker, get in."
"Hideo Jun." He looked at Irvine�s dark glasses, his clean shaven youthful
face.
"You�re the diplomat that our associates mentioned?" he asked.
"That�s right. You wouldn�t know it by looking at me, but that�s me."
Hideo got in as Irvine said "And a damned good one as well. Not that it
will help now, but�anyway, Jason Kidd attended a collage in L.A and then
went to a team I hate." Hideo didn�t say anything.
"It�s a shame about Kaji, don�t you think?"
"Yes."
"So, what can you tell me about SEELE and NERV? I know about the first
child, Rei Ayanami. I don�t think that Kaji got around to talking to her,
did he?"
"I�m not sure. There�s a lot of secrets there," Hideo said. "We chose you
to continue the work that Kaji had already done because of your past
connections to the U.N."
"Why haven�t they done anything about what SEELE and NERV were up to? Was
it all covered up to them as well?"
"We believe so. The human instrumentality project needs to be exposed, Rei
would be able to help us with that, if she�s alive."
"I was thinking about some of the ironies of it all," Irvine said. "SEELE
is German, SEELE is German for soul, Eva is German for Eve, Adam�s wife.
NERV is German for NERVe, you understand what I�m saying?"
"No, not really."
"Well, Asuka is German. Misato said it best when she said how they find
them is too convenient."
"That�s true," Hideo said, thinking. "However, it would be unlike you to
think that Germany is going to try and accomplish what Hitler tried.
Because of your wife, I would have expected you to try and defend them."
"Hideo," Irvine said, "my wife was only part German, and a small part at
that. Besides, the Germans have some real strange sex practices."
"What has that got to do with anything?" Irvine shook his head.
"Oh, never mind. Say, you listen to music?" Irvine asked, trying to change
the subject.
"I don�t mind." Irvine put a CD on.
"NERV use Mitsubishis, don�t they?" Irvine asked. "What else can you tell
me about them?"
"Well," Hideo began, "Kaji was able to find out that NERV had kept the
first Angel, the one that caused the Second Impact."
"Uh huh, he mistook it as Adam. It�s actually called Lilith, some
religious circles believe that she was Adam�s first wife, but was rejected.
I hear that she mated with demons to create offspring."
"Where did you hear that?" Irvine didn�t say anything for a minute.
"I have my sources," he said finally. He snorted. "Messengers from God,
huh. I�m betting that the Angels that we�ve seen, what Rei and that have
been fighting, were Lilith�s offspring."
"Yeah, you are probably right," Hideo said. "And if they are messengers of
God, then I will say that if he has something to say to me then he can tell
me himself."
"The Angel attacks isn�t why I took up this assignment, the main reason is
because Commander Gendou Ikari, because of what he�s done, is undoubtably
the world�s dumbest son of a bitch."
"Do you know something that I don�t, Walker?"
"Probably. I know that Ikari had planned this, he caused this to happen."
"You�re telling me that he planned to destroy mankind?"
"Yeah, that�s what I assume. But I want facts. We �assume� that Rei was
killed fighting the sixteenth Angel, we �assume� that humanity�s been wiped
out. And we want to find out what happened to Ibuki and the others. Were
they shot by SEELE�s shock troops, did they die in that reunification with
Rei and Lilith, you know what I�m saying? I�ll tell you now, I want
Goddamned facts."
"Reunification?"
"Yes. I think you know how Ayanami is, was a clone of Yui Ikari, and part
of Lilith was put in too, for good measure I guess."
"How do you know this?" Hideo asked.
"Because of�Rei. In all seriousness, it must have been part of Gendou�s
master plan."
"From Rei? How?"
"I have received a few E-mails from Ayanami herself, however, the bulk of
the information is from Reine Bond."
"Colonel Reine Bond?"
"Yes, and that�s who I hope to meet up with right now."
General Andrewssons felt lower than his boots. Gendou Ikari had pretty
much blown humankind to hell when he could have stopped him, and now it
looked as if he was going to get Shinji and Asuka killed as well.
"SEELE. I might have guessed," he said to himself. "Hang on, kid, this may
be a tough one."
"General Andrewssons," a voice said. "You are to hand over your two
passengers to us."
"Who are you?" Duke asked.
"We are with the U.N. You have been given orders to hand over your
passengers. Land immediately."
"Yeah, right," Duke said to himself. "I�ll land, to talk." The Apache
landed as directed, followed by the Migs.
"What�s going on?" Shinji asked.
"Relax, kid," Duke said. "This should only take a few minutes." Duke
stepped away from the Apache, where he saw men armed with what he saw were
automatic rifles, AR33�s.
"What do you want?" Duke asked. A man who was roughly the same height as
Duke approached.
"Simple, General Jackson Andrewssons. The two remaining Eva pilots, Shinji
and Asuka."
"Who?" Duke asked. "I never heard of them."
"Don�t lie," the man replied.
Hypocrite, Duke thought. "We know that you were transporting them for the
U.N. We are to pick them up."
The hell you are, Duke thought. So, they�re claiming to be with the United
Nations? Play along with them.
"Oh, you mean the kids who pilot those robots, right? I wasn�t able to
find Rei. Apparently, she�s dead."
"I wouldn�t test my patience if I were you, General." �Push harder,� Duke
thought.
"That was something I never understood. The robots, I mean, Evangellions.
Why did you make kids pilot them, and mostly unstable kids? Surely the
fifteenth G.A.S.T would have done a much better job."
"The ground assault shock troops of the U.N�s covert operations strike
force?" the man asked. "I know that you�re a part of Special Operations
Echo, Black Ops 9, and a friend of yours works for Delta Red of the British
Secret Service, but that�s not your concern. I have given you an order, I
suggest you follow it."
"Who are you, anyway."
"That is not your concern," the man said.
"What�s your rank?" Duke asked.
"That�s not your concern."
"How about I make you a deal," Duke offered. "I�ll give you Asuka, the boy
stays with me."
"I�ll make you a counter-deal. Give me Asuka, as well as everything you
know about NERV."
"NERV, huh," Duke said. "Well, I know that they are a secret service
organisation with the U.N, they were put in place by SEELE, who obviously
operate in Germany. Um, one of Ikari�s classmates might be able to tell you
more. His name�s Aida, Kensu�You�re not just after information on NERV, are
you?"
"No," the man replied. "I�m after anything you can tell me about Gendou
Ikari�s master plan, the dummy plug system."
"Say what?" a female voice said. "NERV, the dummy plug, what is this all
about?" Duke saw his adopted daughter behind the man who he thought of as
Keel. For a brief moment, Duke imagined her being with SEELE.
"Uh oh," he said under his breath. "Reiko�"
"What the hell�s going on here?" Reiko asked. She turned to the tall man
wearing glasses. "We don�t know nothin about any, dummy plug? Sounds like a
sex toy if you ask me." Reiko�s talking, not to mention her language, drew
Shinji and Asuka from the helicopter.
"Stay back," Duke warned, but Asuka still approached.
Typical, Duke thought as she approached Reiko. It�s fitting that Reiko�s
wearing all black. Asuka�s fixed for a six inch hole in the head.
"The first child? No, it�s�" Asuka looked at Reiko.
"Yes, I was one of the Rei clones, Asuka. It�s been eight years since I
was involved with NERV, but it looks like things haven�t changed much,
don�t you think?" The man looked uneasy. Soldiers who surrounded the group
prepared to open fire.
"Wait," the man said. He then turned to Reiko. "So what do you know about
this?"
"I know that you�re the asshole that wanted this..." she spread her arms
out to signify the devastation of what was left of Tokyo 3 "...to happen.
Pity that your Kaworu knew the truth of the first angel. If he didn�t know,
then you would have won. You would have caused the Third Impact."
"Wait," Asuka said. "You mean the kid who replaced me, he was an angel?"
Reiko nodded.
"I�m afraid so."
"You said that you were one of the Rei clones? What do you mean?"
"Rei is not human. She is a clone of Yui Ikari, Shinji�s mother. You were
pretty cold about her when you mention her." Asuka looked shocked.
"How did you know that?"
"Never mind. What you need to know is that your fellow countrymen have
betrayed you. It was soldiers under the command of the German based SEELE
who were trying to kill you."
"So, you are a clone of Rei as well?" Asuka said. "What do you mean that
you were involved with NERV before? I know that Shinji�s mother was killed�"
"By Naoko Akagi," Reiko said. She grimaced. "That�s�not a happy topic for
me." Shinji looked on from the helicopter.
"If she�s one of the Rei clones, then that must mean that, she has�"
Before Shinji could go on, a soldier walked up to Asuka and hit her in the
head with the butt of his gun.
"Asuka!" Shinji yelled out.
"Stay back," Duke warned. "It looks like they may open fire." The man in
glasses walked up to Duke as two soldiers went up to Shinji.
"We will be taking both of them," he said. Duke looked as if he was about
to hit the man, but he kept his anger in check. Unlike Rei, he wasn�t
suicidal.
"Nice doing business with you," he said, barely controlling his rage. The
man and his soldiers left. Reiko walked up to Duke.
"Did you give the C4�s to Shinji?" she asked. Duke nodded.
"Yeah, but we don�t want to use them yet. We want him alive."
"If you ask me, he was the piss boy I expected him to be." Duke turned to
Reiko.
"Don�t you like him?" he asked. Reiko shook her head.
"It�s not that. I�I don�t know." Duke was apparently trying to get someone
on his mobile phone.
"Yes, that�s right. Colonel Bond. Reine Bond. I need to see her.
Immediately."
"Are the two kids okay?" Reiko heard a voice say.
"I�m afraid they�re gone."
"Dead?"
"No. They were captured by SEELE."
"Damn," a voice muttered. Reiko recognised the voice as Patric.
"Here, gimme the phone. Patric, Keel held us at gunpoint and took both the
pilots. He also wanted information on NERV. Duke told him that that Aida
kid would know more than we would."
"Do you believe that?" Patric asked.
"I don�t know. We�ll need to see each other," Reiko said, running a hand
through her dark brown hair. "Face to face."
Rei Ayanami walked the streets of what was left of Tokyo 3. Considering
that this was meant to be hell, she felt surprisingly cold. It was meant to
be spring, but it was cold enough to be snowing. She put her green flack
jacket back on, which was hard because of her broken arm.
"This is horrible." She couldn�t think of another term for it. She
remembered how Maya approached her after the Eva Three incident.
It was after she spoke with Asuka. Rei was ready to go back to NERV, back
to Ikari, when a woman she recognised as Luitenent Ibuki approached her.
She wasn�t wearing her usual uniform, Rei figured that she was off duty. It
wasn�t the first time that she had worked with Maya. Mainly it was with
sync ratios and the like, however, Rei asked Maya for any information on a
student at her school. He was similar to her, but he knew so much, about
life, about how to get along with other people. He had some ideas, Rei
thought. However, he disappeared some time ago.
"Rei," Maya said, striving to say the right words. "Look, I�m sorry, about
what happened to you." Rei didn�t say anything. "I, I wanted to tell you
that it wasn�t my fault�no, that�s not quite right. The Commander, he,
forced me to do it." She handed Rei a video.
"Ikari?" Rei asked, taking the video from the Luitenent. Maya nodded.
"Look, Rei�um." Like everyone else, Maya found it hard to talk to Rei. "If
there�s anything I can do. I have a brother in the military, he�no, he
might not be the best one to talk to." Maya thought for a moment. "There
are psychologists who may be able to help. Irvine Walker, you remember him?
He could talk with you again. Or there�s Ayane. I have a good doctor, Dr
Blair�"
"Are you trying to help me?" Rei asked. Rei had caught Maya off guard.
"Yeah," she said. "I guess so." Rei stood up to leave.
"You�ve helped already." Maya didn�t know whether Rei was upset with her
or genuinely felt gracious for what she said.
The next time Rei saw Gendou, right after Shinji quit, she felt as angry
as she had ever been in her life.
"Why did you do that?" Rei asked.
"Because there wasn�t any other choice," Gendou said. "We couldn�t afford
to lose Eva Unit 00." Gendou�s voice became softer. "And it was the only
way to save you."
"Yes, but my arm was broken in the process." In truth, she didn�t care
what happened to her, however, what infuriated her was that someone she
trusted, she loved, had done this to her. "Couldn�t you have ejected the
entry plug? Shut off NERVe connections? Anything?"
"There was not time," Gendou said.
"And there was time to debate over it with Maya? I know, I, I trusted you."
"Rei," Gendou said, his voice soft, "this is war. In war, people get hurt,
people are killed. But if we are to win against the Angels, then we have to
keep fighting." A lot of people would have listened to what Gendou was
saying, but Rei felt that she was no patriot, she always believed that she
would just walk away at the first opportunity. Then she remembered how
Shinji was able to walk away, twice.
"What about your son?" Rei asked.
"Shinji left on his own free will."
Free will, Rei thought. It seems that Shinji is right, about everything
about the Commander.
Rei�s trance was broken when she saw a helicopter, combat by the looks of
it. Rei went off to hide, noticing that she was near a hospital.
"So, I�m not the only survivor, if this was the Third Impact," Rei said to
herself. "Military?" Rei looked on as a man with flat, blonde hair talked
to a young woman. She could see the man�s hard facial features, as he
jabbed his finger at the woman. Rei could only see the back of the young
female, about her age, she guessed, and she had similar hair to hers. Rei
ran a hand through her own hair, that she changed to brown earlier. The
woman had dark brown hair, she noticed. In fact, Rei figured that they
looked a lot like sisters.
"I�m starting to get a bad feeling about this." It looked as if they were
getting ready to leave. Rei went to a fire escape to get a better look. As
she began climbing it, Rei heard a noise, almost like a groan. It seemed
impossible for anyone to be alive, but she felt she had better look. She
heard it again, it was clearer this time, easier to make it out.
Sounds familiar, she thought. It sounds like, no� She heard the groan again.
"Can�t be�" Rei�s voice became soft. "Could it?" She headed to where she
thought she heard the groans. She looked towards a pile of what she thought
of as debris from an Eva, and saw a large figure. It was male, laying face
down on the ground. He looked familiar, except he had a bandage around his
head.
"Adam�?"
Damn headache. Hurt like hell all over as well. I wasn�t like that before.
Must have fell asleep, or passed out. What happened? I heard jets, I heard
something that sounded like one of those robots, the, what are they called?
Evas? Did something happen? What? What is this liquid I�m in? It smells
like hell. I remember smelling it before, where though? Pain�s getting to
me. Huh? What�s that? I can hear something, it�s, it�s a voice. It�a female
voice? I remember that voice, I recognise it. Have to get up�who�is that her?
Rei held Adam�s head in her arms. She didn�t know whether he was okay. He
seemed to be alive, and apart from the bandage around his head, she didn�t
know how badly hurt he was.
"Rei?" Adam�s head turned to face her, which was when she saw that the
bandage was over Adam�s eyes. She reached towards it as Adam spoke again.
"Rei, what happened? An Angel attack?" Rei wished she knew herself exactly
what happened. To her, it seemed that the Angels had succeeded in causing
the proposed Third Impact. So why were they still alive?
"I don�t know," she told Adam. She knew it was her standard disclaimer.
She started to take Adam�s bandage off, despite his protests.
"No, leave it, it�s for my eyes," he tried to explain to Rei. She
continued to unravel the bandage until she could see Adam�s eyes. For a
moment, they were closed, then Adam slowly opened them. Rei gasped and
backed away. His eyes were red, but not like hers. They were pools of
blood. And his eyes weren�t really open. One was swollen so bad that it
only opened a bit, while the other didn�t seem as bad. Adam seemed to take
a humorous tone.
"You�ve coloured your hair." Rei felt relief that he was able to see. "It
looks nice." Rei knew that Adam was trying to lighten up the situation.
However, she wanted to know why he disappeared.
"What happened to you?" she asked. Adam shook his head.
"I was only meant to be gone for an hour." Rei listened as Adam told her
how he ended up in hospital.
"Into town, do what I wanted to do, then probably catch a bus back. But
no." Adam looked at Rei with the pools of blood he had for eyes..
"Hate the colour red, huh?" Adam sounded amused, a bitter, anguished type
of amusement, that seemed to be a mask for how he really felt. "Well,
you�ll probably hate me now. This is what you�ll see every time you look at
me."
"No, I don�t," Rei said. "How do you feel?" Adam didn�t say anything. He
seemed to be thinking of what to say.
"When you�ve been through as much as what I�ve been through..." Adam
stopped, then tried saying it another way. "After a while, it doesn�t even
get to you anymore."
"Learned helplessness. That�s something that Irvine mentioned when I told
him about Shinji." Adam winced. Rei figured that he still must have a
headache.
"Irvine Walker?" Rei nodded.
"Shame I wasn�t suffering from that before." In Rei�s mind, Adam�s voice
had gone past deadpan. "Someone was having a go at me. I know that you and
Hikari think I�m paranoid, probably true, but someone was having a go at
me." Adam had told Rei about his past. He had autism, he suffered from Post
Traumatic Stress Syndrome because of the trauma from his past school. Rei
didn�t know if he was exaggerating, Hikari would know better than she
would. Rei had dealt with this type of thing before, with Shinji.
"I ran after him." Adam paused, wondering how much he should tell Rei. "I
admit that I wanted to tear him apart...God knows I shouldn�t have gone
into town after the police went crazy in the past few days."
"Adam, you don�t have to tell me if you don�t want to," Rei said.
"No. It doesn�t matter now, but I still want you to know, I want to tell
you, because I trust you." He then noticed that Rei�s arm was in a sling.
"What happened to your arm?" he asked.
"He broke it. Ikari..." She couldn�t mean Shinji, Adam thought. His father?
"Wait, you don�t mean Shinji�s father, do you?" Rei nodded without answering.
"The son of a�Rei, what do you think of him now?"
"Shinji was right," Rei said. "About everything." Rei felt that it was
time to end the discussion. "You wanted to tell me what happened to you."
"Yeah, well, I�m not sure if I want to. The thing is will things still be
okay between us after I tell you?" Neither of them said anything for a
moment, then Rei thought of the best way of helping Adam through
his�assault? That seemed to be what has happened to him.
"That doesn�t matter at the moment. Can you tell me who did this to you?"
Rei was surprised at how concerned she was about Adam. When she wasn�t
around Gendou, she was, well, she didn�t act like the other kids in her
school. Shinji and Adam had made some dramatic changes to her life.
"I believe so. I think�it was�" Rei could see that the pain that Adam was
going through was taking hold. She thought about saying not to talk about
it, but he seemed determined to say what he wanted to say. "I think, I did
a bit of detective work on it, from what I�ve been told. It�I believe it
was�" Adam�s voice trailed off.
"You don�t have to tell me," Rei said.
"No," Adam said, "it�s okay. I think, it was Nigel." Rei heard of Nigel
Nakia before, from Hikari. He was a half aboriginal from Australia, where
Adam came from.
"What makes you so sure?" Rei wanted to know. For a moment, Adam didn�t
say anything. Then, Rei could almost see the pain lift from him.
"The police thought that they knew who attacked me. They said he was let
out of court the day it happened. And in the paper, it said how the coon
attacked someone else with a baseball bat. He crazy, attacking people in
daylight in a public place, assaulting police, Rei, why don�t they deport
him?"
"I don�t know," Rei said. "Why are you asking me?" Adam shrugged.
"Oh, I thought you might know, that�s all. So what do you think happened?"
Adam asked, getting back to more important matters.
"I�m not too sure. Have you heard of the proposed Third Impact?" Adam
turned his head to one side.
"I know that it goes against what Christians believe." Rei didn�t have an
answer to that. "If that�s what happened, then why are we still alive?"
"I don�t know."
"Well, whatever the story is, I smell�" Adam paused, his face turning to
one of disgust. "What is that smell?" Rei suddenly noticed that there was
LCL everywhere, the same liquid used in Evas, and from what she heard, was
from the Second Impact.
"�Cause of this." Rei scooped up a handful of it and placed it into Adam�s
paw. Adam squeezed the LCL through his fingers.
"Feels like shampoo," he noted. He sniffed his hand. "Man, this is rank."
"It smells like blood," Rei said.
"That�s right," Adam said. "I was thinking that it smelled like roadkill."
He wiped his hand on his jeans.
"Whatever," Rei said. She noticed a laptop computer that she thought was
Adam�s.
"Could you pass that to me please?" he asked. Rei handed over the laptop,
then noticed a book that she figured must have come from the library.
"What�s that about?" she asked. Rei figured that seeing as how Adam might
be the only other survivor of what seemed to be the Third Impact, she
should try and adapt to Adam�s personality as best she could.
"That�s a book on self defence," Adam said. Rei picked it up.
"Street Ninja?" she said to herself. "Why would he want�" Of course. Adam
was attacked by Nakia, so he wants to read up on self defence to stop it
from happening again.
"But if this type of thing happened to him before, like he said it has,
then why didn�t he have it sooner? Maybe I just didn�t see it."
"Rei, take a look at this." She leant over Adam�s shoulder to look at the
computer screen.
"If we�re the only one�s left, then this won�t matter anymore," Adam said,
"but I was trying to look you up on the internet. Well, I think the
computer crashed. When it was fixed, it had all of this on it."
"What is it?" Rei asked.
"I was hoping you could tell me. It seems to be all on NERV, but I didn�t
dare look at it. You know what they�re like." Rei nodded, then began
reading down the list of files.
"Central Dogma, Terminal Dogma, Lilith, Dummy Plug�what is this?"
"I have no idea. But I don�t really have the guts to read most them. You
understand, don�t you?"
"Where did you get this?" Rei asked, ignoring Adam�s question.
"I�m not sure. I did look up a few of the files on you, just standard stuff."
"Why?" Rei asked.
"Why?" Adam seemed irritated. "Rei Ayanami, NERV�s Secret Service pilot.
Since when have you ever asked why?" Rei didn�t say anything.
"Look," Adam said, his voice softer, "we need to try and find any survivors."
"Yes," Rei said. "Adam, will you be okay?"
"Yeah. I think I might be able to walk. You�ll need my help."
"No." Rei paused before continuing. "I don�t want you�to get hurt."
"Too late for that," Adam said. Rei thought that he was joking.
"No, what I�m saying is that�" Rei remembered how she talked to Shinji
when he was in hospital. "I�ll take care of everything."
That makes sense, Adam thought. She�s older than me, waaaay older than me.
Three weeks to be exact, he thought sarcastically. Plus, she�s a soldier.
Well, part of the Secret Service at least.
"Thanks," he said.
"Thanks?" Rei felt good about that. It made her feel�she couldn�t describe
what the feeling was. She felt like she was around Ikari.
"Adam, you�ll be okay if you stay here, won�t you?"
"Yeah, I�ll be fine. There�s not much I can do to help when I�m like this
anyway." Rei started to leave.
"Thanks Rei," Adam said. She didn�t even look back, Adam never saw it, but
Rei smiled. Despite everything that has happened, she felt that if there
was someone who cared for her the way that Adam appeared to, that was enough.
"You got some aspirin? I got a headache."
Irvine and Hideo were on a boat in what was Tokyo Harbour. Irvines�s
Mitsubishi was parked on the wharf, where he thought that piracy and
illegal smuggling went down before the Second Impact.
"Tokyo Harbour," Irvine said to himself. "What I would have given to visit
here." He noticed that Hideo overheard. "Before the Second Impact." Irvine
then turned his attention to the video that was playing, Silence of the
Lambs. Irvine still felt queasy from seeing the cop who was crucified.
"Turn that damn thing off."
"Irvine," Hideo said. "What information are Patric and Reine meant to give
us?"
"Who knows," Irvine said. "On NERV, I guess. And Rei."
"You have a, thing for Rei, don�t you?" Irvine shrugged.
"Have you met her?"
"Um, no, I don�t think I have." Irvine noticed a white Station Wagon
pulled up. Four people got out.
"Let�s see�Patric, Reine, the third one�s�that looks like Rei. I recognise
the other one, General Andrews." He watched as they climbed into a
inflatable raft. All except the kid, who seemed to be more interested in
Irvine�s car.
A bit flash, I know, but get away from it. He then relented and thought
that that was the least of his worries.
"Here they come," Hideo said. Irvine watched as the kid was led by Duke to
the raft.
"Yeah, looks like it." Irvine began thinking. "Say, do you have any idea
on the casualties?"
"I�m not sure. When we took cover in those bomb shelters, there wasn�t
many people there." Irvine mulled over this. "Something you should know
about Duke. He was the one who raised the alarm and allowed us to take
cover in time. He also got the message out about what was happening to
governments around the world."
"Yeah, I remember hearing about that."
Duke began his operation as soon as the A-801 has been called. He had a
bad feeling about what was about to go down, and allowed the use of the
newest version spy satellite, the Pirate 0017. He watches with Patric from
the safety of a specially built shelter that was meant to protect humanity
should the Third Impact take place. The butchery of the JSSDF soldiers, and
later the mass produced Evas, horrified Patric, Duke, and Reiko who was
with them. Their attention was then called to Gendou who was on his way to
Terminal Dogma with Rei.
"Duke, he�s really going to do it," Reiko said. Duke paused. "I mean his
on his way to Dogma now. He�s nuts. The Third Impact�"
"It�s imminent," Patric said. Duke took a commanding persona.
"Tell this to everyone you can. Seek shelter immediately. For Tokyo 3 and
the major cities in Germany and around the world, there are bomb shelters
made to withstand the Third Impact. Patric, we need to get this out to the
Japanese and German governments, as well as the U.N." Reiko went off in an
attempt to warn the world of the Third Impact.
"Reiko, Duke said. "Careful. Close means�" He didn�t have to finish. Reiko
knew. She nodded as she left Duke�s sight.
"Yeah, I remember it now," Irvine said. "But how did they know that this
was going to happen?"
"The 801 had been called, it was general knowledge. Besides, you can�t
move a force like they did without someone noticing it."
"Yeah, perhaps." The raft reached the boat that Hideo owned.
"Irvine Walker, I�m Duke Andrews, United States Army," Duke said, holding
out a hand for Irvine to help him aboard.
"Good to have you," Irvine said.
"And this," Duke continued, "is Patric�"
"Yes, I�ve heard of him. Nice to meet you."
"�Reine�"
"Yes, I know. She was at the same collage as me. She was a teacher, but
wasn�t much older than I was."
"�and my daughter, Reiko." Reiko climbed aboard.
"You�re the one who was looking at the car," Irvine noted.
"You own it?" she asked.
"Yeah. Mitsubishi GTO�"
"Twin Turbo," Reiko interrupted. "Front and rear racing tyres, soft, front
and rear shocks, hard, automatic six speed gearbox, modified for racing,
all the extras�it�s pretty sweeet." For the first time in a while, Irvine
laughed. Not only did Reiko have a good knowledge on cars, she was also a
South Park fan, judging on how she quoted Cartman.
"So, you know your way around a gearstick, huh?" It was a gutsy move,
Reiko might take it in as sexual content, but to Irvine�s surprise, Reiko
was mature about it.
"Yeah, you might say that." Then she smiled. Irvine guessed that Reiko
might have interpreted it the wrong way.
"Come on," Hideo said. "We�ve got work to do." As he led everyone else to
the living cabin, he talked with Patric.
"So what have you got for us?" Hideo asked.
"Um." Patric didn�t seem willing to talk about what he had. "Basically,
it�s what you already know in more detail. The JSSDF, Dogma, everything
that the pilot Shinji saw, we�ve got, thanks to our Pirate." Hideo sensed a
tone of pride in the last part of what Patric said. But what happened to
the Pirate?
"I heard that we�ve lost the spy satellite, lost communications with it at
least."
"Irvine told you, huh? If I knew the story behind that, I�d fix it."
"Right."
"Say, you think you should bring up what you found out on Rei?"
"Yeah, probably."
"This is Hideo Jun, report to Reine Bond. I'm at what's left of the entry
plug of Eva Unit 00. Evaluation, total loss. The pilot," he pauses,
"vaporised." Hideo needed a drink. He found his second in command and
handed over jurisdiction to him. Hideo's mind was a mess, he had a gut
feeling that this was only the beginning. Hideo decided to walk back to
where he was staying. About two kilometres from the wreckage of Eva 00,
Hideo thought he was seeing things. He blinked, looked again, but there was
no mistaking it. On a bush was what looked like a piece of cloth. Hideo
went to pick it up. It was white, with black writing on one side of it, two
00. Hideo was suddenly very, very thirsty. He pocketed the piece of cloth
and took out a mobile phone, dialling a number.
"C'mon, pick up," he said to himself. Someone did pick up, but before the
person could say anything, Hideo started talking.
"Irvine, listen to me. I found a piece of cloth near the wreckage of Eva
00. I think it's from Rei."
"What?" Irvine asked. "You don't think that Rei survived."
"I don't know." Hideo heard a woman's voice.
"So what's that doing there?"
"Damn," Hideo whispered as he recognised Reine's voice.
"I don't know. Maybe some kind of message?" Hideo suggested.
"Saying 'I'm not dead', perhaps," Irvine said.
"Maybe it's saying that she's quit NERV, and has been enlisted as part of
a military role for SEELE."
"I don't think so," Irvine said. "Rei's not that type of person."
"Well, in any case, watch your back, Jun," Reine said.