That is not dead which cannot die...
Here's our latest chapter. :)
-*-
John Biles & Rod M. Present
A Neon Genesis Evangelion Elseworlds
Children of an Elder God
Part 22
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
-*-
"Put that box over there," Akane said to Makoto.
He nodded and hauled the box over to stack it on top of another
box. He was helping Akane move into her new apartment; it was a pretty
nice two bedroom apartment, better than the place she'd lived in back in
Japan. "That's everything, right?"
"No, we've still got to haul the computer in and set it up," she
said.
"Oh, right." They headed down to her car together.
On the way down, she said, "Thanks for helping me out. I know
everything must be busy for you, what with that crazy neo-nazi attack."
"It's keeping us hopping," he said as he held the front door open
for her.
She slipped through quickly, then held it for him. "So what's up
with these 'Children of the Stars'?"
"With what?" he asked.
She headed over to her car, fumbling with her keys. "They were
proselytizing as I came into town."
"Some religious group?" he asked.
She unlocked the passenger door and hauled out a large box, which
she handed to him, then pulled a second crate out of the footwell. "Yeah.
They think the Children are gods come to save humanity or something. Or
possibly they're crazed pedophiles."
He sighed. "We do not need crazed cultists trying to get into
NERV."
She took the lead as they headed upstairs. "Reminds me of the
Joan Jett cult."
"That's a joke, right?" he asked.
"No."
"Damn."
They headed into her apartment and into the second bedroom, which
Akane was turning into her study. The desk was already in place. "Okay,
slave, go to work," she said, teasingly, sitting down on the bed which was
shoved against one wall.
He began unpacking and assembling the computer. "If you can find
out anything about them, I'd appreciate it," he said.
"I'll keep my ears and eyes open," she said, then sprawled out on
the bed, stretching.
He tried not to stare too much and told himself he needed to talk
to her about Misato. He still wasn't sure what she really thought about
him and Misato, whether she was teasing or serious the times she had told
him to seize any chance he could get. "Thanks."
"You're welcome."
She hummed a tune he didn't know as he finished hooking up the
computer. "Alright, come make sure it all works," he said.
She quickly opened up her email files, then played around with the
browser a little, followed by a quick game of minesweeper. Rising from
her chair, she said, "It all works. Thanks, Makoto."
"Do you want help unpacking?" he asked. "I don't have to go back
and do any work today."
She ran a finger up and down his back along his spine. "I think I
want to unpack you and have a little fun." She smiled her impish smile at
him.
We need to talk about Misato, he told himself. Before I go doing
anything more with her. "And unpack you too?" his mouth asked without his
conscious volition.
She brought his hands up to the top button of her blouse. "You've
got to take the wrapping off your thank-you present," she said, purring.
His fingers began to unbutton her blouse. He leaned down and
kissed her as he did so. We can talk about Misato later, he decided.
I'll be more relaxed after this.
The bed proved to be quite nicely springy, but the topic of Misato
did not come up.
-*-
The Children jostled each other as they waited in the auditorium
with a huge number of NERV staff members, many of whom they'd never seen
before. Fuyutsuki sat on the stage with Misato, Commander Weiss, Ingrid,
and Dr. Himmelfarb. Eleven men and women sat in a row on one side of the
stage, watching all of the staff members impassively.
"Hello, everyone," Fuyutsuki said. "This is the UN Inspection
Team. They are here to examine our procedures and performance. Please
cooperate with them. They'll be wanting to interview some of you, and
they may be dropping by your workspace at any time, so be ready."
He went on to introduce them all to the staff members; Shinji
tried to remember the names, but it was too many at once for him. Asuka
muttered, "Someone's head is going to roll."
"They're after Commander Ikari, I suspect," Hikari said.
Anna nodded. Shinji felt his stomach sink at that. There has to
be something I can do to help Father, he thought. But what?
-*-
"So what do you think about the GGR project?" Ingrid asked Misato.
"The what?" Misato asked, looking up from the personnel folder she
was pouring through. She and Ingrid were having a conference to discuss
whether there might be any surviving traitors in NERV-Germany's ranks, and
if so, how to root them out.
"Oh, I suppose you haven't heard that nickname. I think the
official name is something like the Barbarossa Project. There's an EU
consortium trying to build inorganic EVA units," Ingrid said.
"Unless they've found another way to generate an AT-field, they
can build giant robots until the cows come home," Misato said. "As
conventional weaponry doesn't do the job, and sticking the conventional
weaponry on a giant robot won't somehow make it work better."
Ingrid nodded. "That was my opinion too."
Misato looked down at the files. "I have a strong feeling that
we're not getting anywhere."
Ingrid sighed and put down her folder. "No, we aren't. All the
people we caught committing treason on tape got shot by NERV security
after they hooked up with their neo-Nazi allies. I have a feeling there's
probably some infiltrator in our ranks who used the ones who got shot as
proxies, as I can't believe these neo-Nazis pulled this without further
help. For that matter, even after we checked all the email and phone
logs, I couldn't find any evidence of how they communicated with their
agents inside the base, and the leaders of the neo-Nazis all died in the
fighting."
"I have a theory, though I don't know of a good way to prove it."
"Go on."
"Coded email spam. It would be pretty easy to set up some sort of
code where pleas for helping Nigerians engage in bank fraud means 'Friday'
and 'Make.Money.Fast' means 'We're breaking in' and various other kinds
contain different times or whatever."
"..."
"As the mailboxes of all three of the traitors had a lot of spam
in them."
Ingrid sighed. "Time to have the MAGI analyze the patterns,
then."
Misato nodded. "I don't know if I'm right, but I suspect that,
combined with calling people while off-base, was likely the way in which
it was done."
"It's something to work from, at least," Ingrid said.
"Exactly. If nothing else, it may be a good excuse to shut down
some annoying spammers."
"Can't argue with that."
-*-
Asuka sat down at her computer. Not having to actually take
classes she'd already gone through at about age nine meant she now had
time to try to resume her interrupted research. She stared again at one
of the passages from Kensuke's notes.
[In latter days, men shall wield the powers of the gods, but
lack their wisdom. They shall walk the halls of the dead,
where the Great Cauldron of Life waits for the one who shall master it.
Yet, they shall lack the ancient lore, and find only destruction instead
of life, raising a great funeral
pyre. That light shall call to he who sings the stars into
place, who will set to his work.]
Finding Adam down in Antarctica, she thought. But they did
something wrong and it unleashed the signal which started waking up all of
the Angels and unleashing them on us.
[And the day shall come when the endless weaver shall
complete his creation and cross the abyss which shielded the world from
him and once more gaze upon the sun. And he shall sound the call,
awakening his ancient enemy friends to come forth. The heights will sink
and the deeps will rise; the veils will be parted and what is known will
be occulted; the dead shall walk and the living shall die. ]
The endless weaver is Matriel, Atlach-Nacha, she thought. The ice
cap has partly melted and the deep waters risen and the heights been
lowered. And the Angels have come forth.
[Blood calls to blood. Power calls to power. Fivefold they
rise from the great chasm, stalking across the land in the
visage of men. Dreams made flesh, or flesh made Dream they are, come to
renew the ancient cycle. As before, so it
happens now. In the end, they too shall yield to despair as
did those who came before. In the end, they shall become
what they fight. And the Voice of Endless Chaos will laugh with them at
the shattered ashes of their faded dreams.]
Fivefold...there's a lot of references in his notes to Angels of
the Elements. Except that he seemed to think we were the Angels of the
Elements. But there's six of us. There aren't six elements.
She checked the notes again.
[Four Lords or Five? Asuka must be Fire. Shinji
is...Earth? Plant? Air? Rei could be Water or Air. Who
is the Fourth Child? Someone I know? Probably male, for
balance...but then, their goal is not that of balance.
Story repeats itself? Xoth's defenders betrayed
them for power. As did those of Yhtill. Can fire be fought
with fire? Let he who hunts monsters beware. I can feel
the abyss gazing into me. Will they save or damn us all?]
Asuka shuddered; she too had felt the abyss, the temptation of all
the power. But she hadn't fallen in yet, unlike Kensuke. She stared at
the screen, thinking of him, and how it had ended for him. I don't want
to end up like that, she thought. There had to have been something we
could have done. But she didn't know what.
Finally, she cleared her mind, returning to her work. She tried
to think how elemental references could work, but she wasn't sure; they
all had a mix of powers from the Angels. Sure, she preferred fire, but
she could call on ice as well, or the paralyzing gaze of
Rahab...Medusa...Ghatanothoa.
She thought about the Kingdom of Joy; it had been betrayed by a
man who had become a god by doing so, Hastur, He Who Is Not To Be Named,
the King in Yellow. Part of her mind could remember Xoth and its betrayal
by its defenders. The power they took on was a corrupting power. It was
hard, sometimes, to restrain it, and grew harder as she grew in strength.
Yet, nothing else could stop the Angels.
Perhaps this happened in time, on every world, some crisis which
required its inhabitants to tap into these powers, powers which they could
not contain. And so the saviors they created for themselves came to rule
over them or who destroyed them in wars among themselves. She could feel
fragments of memory of the rivalry of Atlach-Nacha and Shelob and how he
had fled to another world when the war turned against him. The Eight
Crystal Towers of Xoth shattered. The death of Alars. The slow
degeneration of the Old Ones as she watched from her womb/tomb/prison. In
the end, they had not even known why the climate turned against them, only
that they had to flee in search of warmth, for they had abandoned their
sciences to save their sanity, and in the end, lost both in superstition
and chaos.
The Angels...once they had been beings, mortals, like humanity.
Empowered with dangerous arts to save their races, they had been corrupted
by power and risen up to rule over those who made them, or destroyed their
creators in their own games of power or corrupted them into things barely
recognizable, like the Byakhee. They shared a common power, but they
fought because few shared a common origin and it was natural for beings of
vast power to have vast egos. And some, she thought, were close to
mindless.
And behind them all, the Outer Gods, serene, potent,
all-sufficient, insane, uncaring, destructive, creative, all and nothing
at once. And their Voice, their Herald, the Crawling Chaos, Nylarathotep,
who comes down from the Outer Void to mock. A being of a thousand and one
forms, most bringing madness in their wake. But he could also pass as a
man, or in some forms, from what Kensuke and she had discovered, could
apparently possess people as well, like the unfortunate Robert Blake, who
had died from the touch of the Haunter in the Dark.
For a moment, she felt a paranoid fear that Nylarathotep had
replaced Gendo after Adam's breakout. He'd been down with Kaji, who died,
yet had turned up apparently largely unharmed. Maybe Nylarathotep had
taken his place. But if that was the case, he wasn't doing much to
sabotage things. Unless, maybe, he had tired of his old toys and wanted
to raise up new ones. The King of Joy might have fallen into the darkness
by outside conquest, but Xoth had fallen into the dark through victory.
And he did try to get us to serve him, she thought.
What was his game? What did the Outer Gods want, Asuka asked
herself. But she didn't have an answer.
Time for more web searches, she thought. Let's see if that one
guy finished his upload of the Ponape Scriptures...
-*-
"Lamp of Alhazred...Shub-Niggurath...Gordon Walmsley...Falcon
Point...Cthugha...Innsmouth...Book of Eibon. Not again." Fuyutsuki
sighed. "Didn't we just get a translation of that taken down last month?"
"Yes," Gendo said. "And some site dedicated to how 'information
wants to be free' put it back up."
"I am glad you thought to monitor Internet use," Fuyutsuki said.
"I would not have thought of it."
"With MAGI, it's easy to track where people are going and the
contents of any forms they submit to sites," Gendo said. "And essential
for security purposes." He paused. "Who is Walmsley, anyway?"
"He translated the G'harne Fragments."
"Oh, right. Well, we're going to have to see about what we can do
to prevent Langley probing further into these matters. She is neither
qualified to assess which sites are fake and which are real, nor can we
afford to have her risking her sanity any further than it already is,"
Gendo said. "Just imagine if she decided to experiment with the rites in
the Book of Eibon." He shuddered. "It's dangerous enough if you know
what you're doing. Perhaps we should cut off her access entirely."
"That would only convince her we're covering things up. Better to
take two approaches. First, introduce a virus into her system to hunt and
kill anything she's downloaded and not backed up yet. Secondly, since we
know many of the keywords she is likely to search, we can build a website
which has everything she wants to know...all properly sanitized."
Gendo nodded. "A good idea. We'll need experts for the former,
but I now have...time for working on the latter myself." He frowned at
the thought of his demotion. "It may well serve as a good way to hamper
other fools probing into things they can't handle as well."
"I will see what MAGI has in its virus armory which might be
suitable and make appropriate arrangements if nothing proves worthy."
"Good, good, let's get to it."
-*-
For a moment, on waking, Asuka thought she must have somehow
blanked out part of her day, as she was immersed in liquid, and until she
opened her eyes, she thought maybe she had been sleeping in LCL for some
reason. But it was just water, and she was in her pajamas, not her plug
suit. This was no more comprehensible than waking up in LCL would have
been.
She was now lying on a large septagonal block of jade, underwater.
The block was one of eleven scattered about a large plaza, surrounded by
buildings made of various green and black and blue stones, cut in odd
shapes which somehow held together without mortar. Some of the buildings
leaned and others blended together in strange ways.
It must be a dream, she thought, and got up and started down one
of the seven streets leading away from the plaza. The street was paved
with hunks of jade and green marble, fitted together into a pattern which
she couldn't quite grasp. It was empty, except for fish, which clumped
together in nervous schools.
Streets spiraled and curved back on themselves in ways which
quickly left Asuka utterly lost and unsure which way she was going. She
didn't like this place at all.
-*-
Shinji walked down the street of the strange underwater city,
wondering why he was here and if he was dreaming or if his life was just
being slightly stranger than usual. He tried reaching out with his mind
for any form of life he could communicate with, but as he had feared,
there were neither snakes nor spiders anywhere nearby.
Despite that, he had the feeling of being watched, though the
streets were empty. "Is anyone out there?" he shouted again.
No one answered, but the feeling of being watched persisted.
-*-
Rei swam through the streets of the city, trying to follow the
voice. At least she thought it was a voice. It reminded her of Adam and
her sisters; it called to her deep down.
But she couldn't find it, though she kept looking. It seemed to
come from all directions; was the city itself calling her? She didn't
know.
She paused, as she smelled someone she knew. But what was he
doing here? She decided to follow his trail and find out.
-*-
Anna walked along, glancing at times at the buildings which rose
up around her. They were crumbling, slowly but surely; given enough time
underwater, even this mighty city would be erased. Seaweed clung to
exterior surfaces and once polished basalt was pitted and cracked. Fish
swam where once armies had marched.
All things came to an end in time. If this city stayed down here,
it would eventually perish. This was not Anna's problem. She simply kept
going, following the bending, twisting streets towards where they sought
to lead her.
-*-
Touji walked along, holding a large chunk of green stone in his
hands, a crude club. He had a bad feeling about this place. For a
moment, he wondered what the hell kind of rock he'd found, but it seemed
pretty solid, so that was all that mattered right now.
He heard footsteps, so he slumped back into a doorway and waited
to see what would come round the corner. It was just Hikari in a wetsuit.
After taking a few seconds to appreciate how she looked in it, he stepped
out and said, "Yo, Hikari, any idea what the f...the h...what is going
on?"
"We're dreaming," she said.
"How come you got a wetsuit and I didn't?" Touji asked.
"I decided to find one, so I did, then I changed into it," Hikari
said.
"Damn, we can do that?" Touji asked.
"It's a dream, right?" Hikari asked. "Can't you do that in
dreams?"
"Oooh." Touji concentrated, then went to a pile of rubble and
extracted a machine gun. "Now we're cooking."
"Not underwater, you aren't."
"Damn."
"I hear something," Hikari said.
Touji cocked his head and listened. "Shit, lots of people."
He grabbed Hikari and pulled her back into the indented doorway
with him. Then the creatures came into view, some two dozen scaly
humanoids who looked vaguely like a crossbreeding of men, fish, and toads.
They were armed with spears and three of them had harpoon guns.
Shit, I could have snagged me a harpoon gun or a trident, Touji
thought.
Hikari pressed close to Touji, who tried to squeeze himself into
the smallest possible amount of space as they hid in the doorway. I
shoulda opened the door, Touji thought. And hid inside.
And then the creatures saw him. They shouted at him in some alien
tongue, then charged with the spears. "Hikari, get the door open!" he
shouted and stepped up with his stone bat.
Wish I'd fought some monsters with a decent power that works
underwater, he thought. Fire wouldn't do much good and the Violator and
Adam hadn't given him anything useful he could see. He tried to fight
them, but while his blows clearly hurt them, they were better fighters.
He began to bleed into the water, and to his surprise, the little
drops of blood formed into tiny fish and swam off. It was simultaneously
cool and annoying to know he had gotten a power from Adam. An utterly
useless power.
Hikari struggled, trying to get the door open, but it was stuck or
locked or barred or something, resisting her every effort.
This is a shitty way to die, Touji thought. This had better be a
dream. He managed to bash the nose in of one of the fish-men, but another
one simply stepped forward and he took a jab to his right leg, losing more
blood.
And then there was a blur. Claws raked and water froze and Rei
broke through the mob. She grabbed Touji and Hikari, kicked off the door,
and bulldozed through the ranks of the fishmen, swimming at high speed.
The fishmen took off after them.
"Damn, thanks, Rei," Touji said. "This is a dream, right? Please
tell me I ain't got amnesia or something."
"You dream," Rei said.
"Good," he said.
Hikari said, "We've got to stop and bandage Touji, before he
bleeds more." She frowned as she looked at his wounds.
"Can't stop," Rei said.
"But...Touji's hurt!"
Rei simply glanced back at the pursuing horde, which was matching
Rei's pace. Hikari looked and sighed. "But he'll die!"
"Touji," Rei said.
"Huh?"
"Touji, take us home."
"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Touji asked.
"Your power."
"My pow...oh, the teleporting thing?"
Rei nodded.
"I don't know how to control it."
"Be it," Rei said.
"Can you be more vague?" Touji said, irritated.
"No."
"Just try concentrating on us getting to safety," Hikari said.
Safety, he thought. He closed his eyes and thought. Take us
somewhere safe. Somewhere SAFE.
He felt the world whirl around him, and then he was lying on
something soft. He opened his eyes and found he was lying in a bed with
Hikari by his side and Rei under both of them, an arm around each of them.
Hikari opened her eyes. "Touji, you're in my bed AGAIN!"
"Would you rather we all get killed?" he asked, irritated.
"Besides, this is MY bed!"
"This is not..." Hikari began, then looked around and saw all the
basketball and soccer posters and the big great white shark poster and the
junior baseball trophy. "..."
"Hah! So this time I get to beat you up for crawling into MY
bed!" Touji said, seizing a pillow and beginning to pummel her.
Rei sat up just in time to take a pillow to the face. She blinked
in surprise, then grabbed the other pillow before Hikari could. They were
all wrestling around and pummeling each other with pillows when the door
opened.
Misato stuck her head in. "Is this an orgy or what?" she asked.
"We are NOT having an orgy!" Hikari declared.
"It's a pillow fight," Touji said.
"You're having a pillow-fight with two half-naked women at 3 AM?"
Misato asked dubiously.
"Yes," Touji said.
"Uh huh."
"It is true," Rei said.
"We couldn't sleep, so we came over to talk," Hikari said
desperately.
"Whatever. Have all the orgies you want. Just keep them QUIET.
I'm trying to sleep," Misato said.
"We are not having an orgy!" Hikari protested.
"All I ask is that it be quiet," Misato said. "That's all." She
left.
"Touji, everyone is going to think we had an orgy!" Hikari said
angrily.
"Excuse me, this is MY bed. You're the one who got into it!"
"You teleported me into your bed!" Hikari protested.
Rei nodded.
"I was trying to save our lives! I was bleeding, you know!" he
checked his body; thankfully, he was not bleeding now.
Rei looked at the two of them, then looked at her pillow.
Tentatively, she whacked Touji with it.
Hikari whacked him with hers.
Soon, the pillow fight was in full swing again.
-*-
Maya woke up, hearing Ritsuko moaning in her sleep. She shook
Ritsuko gently, until Ritsuko's eyes popped open. Ritsuko was breathing
hard. "Are you okay?" Maya asked her.
"No. The sea was trying to take me," Ritsuko said softly.
"I won't let it have you," Maya said, embracing her.
Ritsuko stared off through the window. "It's still calling me now,
even this far away from it."
"We'll find a way to beat it," Maya said.
"There is another possibility as to what is happening," Ritsuko
said. "But it's worse than if it's just my curse."
"Worse?" Maya asked, worried.
"I dreamed of a sunken city made of strangely angled stones, an
ancient ruins where only fish live now, and the Deep Ones, of whom I told
you before."
Maya nodded.
"They urged me to join them, for their master was waking."
"Master?"
"One of the Angels dwells sleeping, imprisoned beneath the sea.
He nearly escaped in the mid nineteen-twenties, but the time was not yet
ripe, and his home sank as quickly as it rose. But as it rose, the most
sensitive minds on the planet were barraged by nightmares as his mind
touched theirs. Minds like those of the Children. Many of them went
mad."
"We should check on them," Maya said, standing up. "Just in
case."
Ritsuko said, "In the morning. They're not going to go mad after
just one dream."
"Maybe," Maya said. "But I just...don't want to take any
chances."
Ritsuko sighed and got out of bed. "Alright, let's go."
-*-
"It was kind of more boring than scary," Shinji said, yawning.
"Just a kind of feeling of being lost and being watched."
"But it was a city of volcanic rocks with oddly angled buildings?"
Ritsuko asked.
"Yes," Shinji said. "Why are you asking me about this in the
middle of the night, anyway?"
"I think this may be a sign that an Angel with powers over dreams
is coming," Ritsuko said.
"Ugh." He yawned. "Can I sleep now?"
"Sleep tight," Ritsuko said.
-*-
"This is connected to Innsmouth, right?" Asuka asked Ritsuko.
"Indirectly," she said. "I take it you know something of the Deep
Ones?"
"A bit," Asuka said. "Trying to learn more."
"It is dangerous to delve into such lore, but good to know one's
enemy," Ritsuko said, sighing. "I fear that..."
There was a high pitched squeal from another room. Maya said,
"What the...what was that?"
Asuka sprung to her feet. "That was Hikari."
"We'd best go check on her next, then," Maya said.
Asuka followed them to Hikari's room. The door was locked and she
didn't answer when they banged on the door. Ritsuko said, "We may need to
get a master key or something."
Then the door to Touji's room opened and Hikari came out. Asuka
stared in shock. "You...and Touji...in the middle of the night...????"
"We were just having a pillow fight," Hikari said weakly.
"If you feel you must lie to us, please choose something more
believable than that you are having a pillow fight with Touji at 3 AM
while half-naked," Ritsuko said.
"I am not half...my pants!" Hikari was wearing a pajama top long
enough to go down just past her butt, but no pants. "TOUJI! YOU PERVERT!
WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY PANTS!"
"Hey, you didn't have any pants when you showed up in MY BED, "
Touji shouted through the door. "Rei, you didn't take Hikari's pants, did
you?"
"No."
There was a moment of awful, terrible silence.
Maya tried to speak, but couldn't figure out how vocal cords
worked.
Ritsuko rubbed her forehead. "I must still be dreaming," she said
weakly.
Asuka's jaw dropped audibly. "Hikari, were you half-naked with
Rei and Touji in his bed?"
"We were having a pillow fight," Hikari said stubbornly.
"This is NOT real," Asuka said. "This can't be real. You
wouldn't really have sex with Rei and Touji at the same time."
"We were NOT having sex!"
"Damn, you are a PERVERT, thinkin' stuff like that," Touji said,
now sticking his head out the door.
"You're probably wearing Hikari's pants," Asuka mumbled.
"I am NOT wearing her pants!"
"I am going to bed," Ritsuko said. "And in the morning, this is
all going to be a dream." She took Maya by the arm and began to leave.
"I'll just be going to bed now too," Hikari said, then realized
she was locked out of her room and the key was inside it. "Drat."
Touji, shirtless, now came out in the hallway. "Here, I can
teleport you into your room."
"I think I've had enough teleporting for one night," Hikari
mumbled.
"You're half-naked too!" Asuka announced.
Rei now came out into the hallway; she was fully dressed. In
Touji's clothing, which didn't fit. "I'll open it," she said.
"I'm dreaming, right?" Asuka said.
"Yes. Go to bed," Hikari said desperately.
"Right." Asuka turned around and went to bed.
"We tell everyone this was just a dream," Hikari said to Touji.
"Hey, you were in my bed this time. That's all I've got to say,"
Touji said.
"Because you..." Hikari sighed. "I don't care. I just want to
go to bed."
The door opened; Hikari blinked, wondering how Rei had gotten
inside her room. But she decided sleep was better than answers.
-*-
"I had the weirdest dream last night," Asuka said to Hikari the
next morning at breakfast.
"Sunken city?" Hikari asked.
"Yeah, and then..."
"Dreams can be pretty weird," Hikari said.
"Wait, you dreamed about the sunken city too?"
"Yes," Hikari said. "Must be because we're both of the Children."
"Yeah. So...You and Touji and Rei didn't really have an orgy last
night, did you?"
Hikari shook her head. "You must have dreamed that."
"Right," Asuka said with relief. "Did you have that dream,
Shinji?"
"I didn't dream about anyone in anyone's beds, just the sunken
city," Shinji said.
"Going to have to do some more research on that, I think," Asuka
said. "I think it's a real place."
"I hope we don't have to fight a city," Shinji replied.
Several men came in, found Rei at her table nearby, and took her
with them.
"Huh, I guess the UN inspectors want her," Shinji said.
"They can have her," Asuka said.
"I suppose they'll talk to all of us," Hikari said.
"I suppose so," Asuka said. "I intend to give them a piece of my
mind."
-*-
"Have you enjoyed being one of the EVA Pilots?" Inspector Margaret
Mallory asked. She was a short, thin old woman from Britain.
"Yes," Rei said.
"What is your opinion of NERV's performance so far?" Margaret
asked.
"The hunt goes well."
Margaret glanced at the two other inspectors with her, Chang Hsu
from China and Henry N'kambe from Kenya.
Henry said, "So you think of this as a hunt?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Rei looked at him in the manner of someone asked why they think
the color blue is blue. "It is a hunt."
"But why do you think of it as a hunt? Are you imagining yourself
as some sort of Amazon warrior woman?"
"What is an Amazon?" Rei asked.
"It would take longer than it's worth to explain," Henry said.
"So you enjoy hunting?"
"Yes."
"What do you think about the destruction of the base in Japan?"
"It was a good fight."
Henry blinked. "Why?"
"We won. We gained Adam's power."
"So the destruction of the base and all the deaths don't bother
you?"
"I killed no innocents," Rei said.
"What do you think of Commander Ikari?"
"He is powerful."
"Do you think he has been a good commander?"
"Yes."
"Despite the disaster in Peru, the destruction of NERV-Japan, the
escape of Adam and all the other catastrophes?"
"We won each battle," Rei said. "This is war. People die."
Henry frowned. "So you don't care who dies as long as you win?"
Rei struggled to find the right words, and finally said, "No war
can be won flawlessly. We saved far more than who died." She paused. "We
did the best we could."
Hsu seemed satisfied with that response; Henry frowned more. "And
Commander Fuyutsuki?"
"He did his best."
Henry glanced over at Margaret, who shook her head. He then said,
"Well, we'll get back to you soon, I expect, once we've talked to the
others."
"Alright," Rei said, and left.
"She's a strange one," Henry said.
"The profile was more accurate than I thought," Hsu said. "A
strange one, indeed."
-*-
Asuka sat down at her computer. "Okay, let's see what my search
found..."
Her screen sprung to life with a keytouch. A screensaver popped
up, showing a little dancing green man with a squid-like head. "You have
been hacked by Campus Crusade for Cthulhu. DANCE FOR ME!" It then began
dancing.
"Shit," Asuka said, trying to get the screensaver to disengage.
Finally, she had to reboot, praying the damage wasn't too bad.
She ended up having to reinstall her operating system, and found
that most of her data files were utterly trashed or gone.
"Dammit, I should have backed up more recently," she muttered to
herself, extracting her most recent back up of her hard drive, from weeks
ago. "This is what I get for being lazy." She sighed. "Here we go
again."
-*-
Asuka eventually tired of rebuilding her machine and headed off to
find some company. Most of the rest of the Children turned out to be in
one of the lounges, doing homework, except for Rei. Asuka came over to
Shinji and hugged him. "Hey there."
"Hi," he said, smiling and turning to hug her back. "Having fun
while we suffer?"
"My computer died thanks to a virus, so not much fun for me."
"I wish a virus would eat my homework," Touji muttered. "All this
work is making me nuts."
Hikari says, "Well, we could go down to the town for a while, but
neither of us speaks any German, so it might be hard to get around."
"We can make it a double date," Asuka said. "As I could use
getting away from stuff. That good with you, Shinji?"
"Fine with me," he said. "But then we'd be leaving Anna all by
herself."
Anna said, "Oh, don't mind me. I have to catch up on some stuff
anyway."
Feeling guilty, Asuka said, "You sure?"
"I'll be fine," Anna said smiling. "Go down to the city and have
some fun."
"Thanks," Asuka said.
"You're welcome."
-*-
Misato stamped the file closed. "And that's enough of that," she
said. Getting up, she tried to decide what to do tonight. Everything on
TV is in German, everything in the video library is in German, all the
books in the base library are in German... She frowned. There has to be
something I can do with minimal German, she thought.
Hmm, maybe Makoto's free, she thought. I know he brought some
movies and stuff with him. We can go grab some food, then watch some
movies or something. Anything.
She went over to Makoto's cubicle. "Hey, you busy tonight?"
"I'm sorry, I have a date with Akane."
She sighed. "I guess I'll be playing solitaire by myself again."
He looked at her with a tempted look which made her feel a little
better, then he said, "Why don't you see if Dr. Akagi is busy?"
"Oh, great idea," Misato said, perking up. "I haven't cleaned her
out in poker in quite a while."
She found Ritsuko in her lab, closing up for the night. "Hey,
Ritsuko, you want to do something tonight?"
"Maya and I are going into town to see The Three Brothers." She
paused. "Would you like to come with us?"
"Movie?" Misato asked.
"Yes, it's a German film Dr. Himmelfarb recommended."
"In German?"
"Yes."
Misato sighed. "No thanks, I wouldn't understand anything."
"Makoto's busy?" Ritsuko asked.
Misato said a little sharply, "He has a date."
"Ahh. Well, you're welcome to come with us."
"I wouldn't want to intrude on your date," Misato said. "Maybe
Ingrid is free."
"She often goes to the Shooting Gallery in the evenings," Ritsuko
said.
"I'll look for her there."
She found Ingrid in the process of sniping at paper cutouts.
"Good evening, Misato," Ingrid said.
"Hey there," Misato said. "I'm bored out of my skull."
"Want to have a little shooting contest?" Ingrid suggested.
"Alright," Misato said.
They both got ready, then opened fire. Dozens of rounds of ammo
later, Ingrid came over to examine Misato's shooting. "Well, that's one
paper man who will never have sex again," she said. "You pissed at some
guy?"
Misato frowned. "I have no right to be."
"But you are anyway."
"Yes." She sighed. "Stupid, I know."
"Wanna talk about it?" Ingrid asked.
"The irritating thing is that when he was interested, I wasn't,
and now I am, and he has a girlfriend. Sexy little pale-haired girl named
Akane. She's a novelist. Probably writes smut novels from the way she
carries on," Misato said bitterly.
"What, like all those ones lying around your room?" Ingrid asked.
Misato winced. "She's one of those annoying women who hypnotizes
men with her breasts."
"Well, I'd never degrade myself by trying to outflouncy someone,"
Ingrid said. "But if you really like him, and that's the kind of woman he
wants..."
"Dammit, why couldn't I realize I liked him before this?" Misato
demanded. "He only went after her because he couldn't have me."
"Well, just one thing to remember," Ingrid said.
"What?"
"A man you can steal from another woman probably isn't worth
stealing."
Misato sighed. "But he's cute and nice and a good guy."
"So why didn't you date him before?"
"I thought he would be boring."
"And you had someone who wasn't?" Ingrid asked.
"Well, I've told you about Kaji, right?"
"A little," Ingrid said. "And I've met him myself briefly. I
heard about his death too."
Misato sighed. "Maybe I'm just being petty. I just...Maybe this
means I'm growing up or something."
"Ready to marry a man like Dad?" Ingrid teased.
"He's a lot more responsible than Dad was," Misato said. "We
really shouldn't date anyway because he's my subordinate, but dammit, he's
hot and I'm lonely and aaargh. I can tell he wants me, but he's too
responsible to just dump Akane."
"Well, I know some nice guys I can try and hook you up with. Get
your mind off him."
"I'm game," Misato said.
"Cool. I'll think about it, ask around, and get back to you.
Want to go for another round of shooting?"
"Sure thing."
-*-
And as the four Children hit the town, three of them realized
there was a slight problem, which was a considerable lack of knowledge of
the German language. This they realized too late as they stared up at the
movie theater marquee and the long list of movies, the meaning of which
they had no idea.
"Um," volunteered Touji first, after they all spent a long moment
staring at the titles. "Well. Er. 13 Freitag,
Sieben, Alptraum Auf Ulmestrasse, Gebrochen Pffeil, Kampf ins Bronx, I
just dunno. Everything sounds violent in German, man. You guys got any
ideas?"
Hikari shook her head.
Shinji shrugged.
"How about Fruhling Kirschblumen?" suggested Asuka.
Hikari and Shinji looked at her blankly. Touji looked at her
suspiciously.
"What's that supposed to be?" he asked.
"New film, good reviews, trust me," she said confidently.
He was silent for a moment, thinking it over. This was German
cinema, he mused. He didn't know anything about German cinema tradition,
but the German people were, he thought, a pretty rough bunch. Surely
their films would be all mean. Low risk of chick films, yeah.
Touji shrugged. "Sure, okay, let's go."
- * -
"I so HATE you," grumbled Touji as they walked out of the theater.
"Whaaaat?" protested Asuka, in the tone of the Unjustly
Persecuted. "It was a GREAT movie! Isn't that right, Hikari?"
"Yup!"
"It was a German remake of SPRINGTIME CHERRY BLOSSOMS, dammit!!!
Shinji, say something, man!"
Crickets chirped.
Touji glared at Shinji.
Asuka glared at Shinji.
"It was... um... not what I expected," he finally said weakly.
"HA!" yelled Touji triumphantly.
"But I did kinda like it," added Shinji meekly.
"HA!" countered Asuka.
Shinji noticed something as they were walking to the
exit doors, then frowned. "H-hey, guys, I think we have a
problem."
"You bet we do," said Touji. "Asuka is NEVER picking our movies
again!"
Asuka rolled her eyes. "Hikari, remind me why you like this
moron?"
"Um, guys?" Shinji pointed at the exit.
There was an awful lot of people there waiting there.
Touji said, "Okay, so there's a lot of people in line to
see Springtime German Flowers crap."
"But they're staring at us," said Shinji.
Asuka frowned. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
One of them shyly opened the door and asked something to Asuka in
German, who in turn merely nodded. He in turn said something to the crowd
amassed at the door.
"Hey, what'd he ask?" asked Touji.
"He wanted to know if we were the NERV pilots."
"Oh."
A great cry was shouted from the crowd that nearly made the
children jump, and much to their confusion the crowd as a whole began to
bow down to them and chant something German.
Touji asked, "Hey, what're they doing?"
"Worshiping us." Asuka frowned.
She paused a moment, then began lecturing them in German. "We are
not gods! There is only one God in heaven!"
"God has sent you from heaven to save us!" one of the people in
the crowd cried out.
"Angels! Angels of mercy!" another shouted.
"No, we're just humans like you!"
"We are but mere mortals!" an old man called out. "That's why we
give you honor and glory, holy ones!"
"Give us a blessing!"
Touji said, "What are they saying?"
"Even stupider things than you," Asuka said to him in Japanese.
She turned back to the crowd. "I am not divine! I'm just a teenage girl!
I have a boyfriend! I'm on a date! Don't worship us!"
"The gods wish us to go on a date!" one of the people in the crowd
shouted.
Asuka began to tug on her hair. Shinji put a hand on her
shoulder. "Shinji, tell them!" she said, forgetting she was speaking
German.
He stared at her blankly.
She sighed. "Shinji, kiss me," she said in Japanese.
He blushed. "Say what?"
"Oh man, don't make me watch this," Touji said, turning away.
"Maybe that will convince them we're not gods," Asuka said.
"They may decide it means to have an orgy," Hikari pointed out.
"We can't even get out of here," Touji said. "Although seeing you
two kiss might make them all go blind."
To his surprise, Shinji slugged him in the shoulder and said, a
little sharply, "Touji, don't say that."
Asuka blinked, and then smiled. He was standing up for her. Not
that she needed it, but it was sweet of him.
"I'm sorry, man. I just can't imagine kissing the..."
Shinji turned to Asuka, stepped up to her, and kissed her firmly.
She stiffened for a moment, then leaned into it, while holding one hand
behind her back to give Touji the finger.
"Hah! I can kiss better than you two can!" He turned and kissed
Hikari, who froze up, knowing a huge mob was watching her.
Then the mob began to cheer. And then people in the mob started
kissing each other.
"Alright, let's get out of here," Asuka said. "Before we make
things any worse." She began taking her shirt off.
Shinji stared in abject shock.
"I'll destroy my shirt anyway if I sprout wings out of it," Asuka
said, though she was blushing a little. "Better take yours off too.
You're going to have to carry Touji."
"This is startin' to sound like a bad porno," Touji muttered.
Shinji blushed and tried not to stare at Asuka too much. He took
his shirt off and sprouted wings, as did Asuka. The crowd cheered.
"Tell me there's not a news camera," Touji said.
Shinji picked Touji up. "There's not a news camera."
"Good, 'cause you just know some freak would be speculatin' freaky
things about us," Touji said as he was lifted. "Man, you just don't look
this strong."
Asuka rose into the air with Hikari. "Let's go."
They took off, the crowds cheering wildly.
-*-
Die Aufladung had just gotten out, and Akane and Makoto were
taking a leisurely stroll towards a cafe she recommended, when they heard
shouting nearby and saw the Children flying across the sky; Asuka had
wings of flame while Shinji had black bat wings.
"I wish I could fly," Akane said.
Makoto squinted. "Is it just me, or are they both topless?"
"She's still got a bra on, I think," Akane said. "I wonder if
they're going to have aerial sex."
"..."
Akane laughed. "Just teasing, honey, although...ooh, that would
just be very sexy. Sounds like they've impressed their worshippers,
though."
"I can't understand why anyone would worship them."
"They have apparently magical powers and can do five impossible
things before breakfast," Akane said. "They may not be God, but they're
gods for most intents and purposes."
"They're just children," he said.
"Children," she said, emphasizing the proper nouness of it all.
"I wouldn't worship them, but I can see why some people would. They have
magical powers to save the world. People worship saviours, so long as
they aren't failed by them."
"And then the worm turns."
"Exactly." She stared at the Children, fading in the distance and
frowned, her usual good cheer gone. "No one can win every fight."
"Let's go eat," he said. I can try and talk to her about Misato
there, he thought. I will. Really.
She turned to him, and took his arm. "You're too good to me."
"You're too good to me," he replied.
She shook her head. "Then let's be too good to each other
together."
And they headed off to the Cafe.
-*-
The scene flickered before her, reflected in her red eyes as she
watched with an expression that betrayed no emotion. Her in his arms, he
in hers, a kiss that Rei had never known but had always wanted, and a
burst of wings to take flight into the night.
As she stared at the television replaying the news, Rei's lips
ever so slightly edged downward. The others in the cafeteria at large
felt a moment of mild discomfort and the growing need to be elsewhere.
Rei's eyes flickered away from the screen and to her side as she
heard the clatter of a tray and silverware being put down next to her.
"Wow, they sure were bold to do that in public," said Anna.
Rei's eyes moved back to the TV, where a reporter was now
interviewing members of the crowd. That managed to hold her gaze briefly,
before she resumed picking away at her dinner.
"How do you feel about seeing that?" asked Anna.
Rei remained silent, her face carefully composed and calm. Beside
her, Anna began eating her own meal pleasantly.
"Hn. Good bratwurst today." added Anna after a pause in eating.
Rei resumed eating her own dinner.
"I was hoping for Rouladen mit Rotkohl und Salzkartoffeln, but I
guess not today. Though I'll probably just go out later and buy it
take-out."
Rei continued eating.
"Sometimes when you want something, it's best to go ahead and get
it, or else it will drive you crazy later. Know what I mean?"
Rei turned slightly and gave Anna a slight sidewards glance. Anna
smiled back innocently. Rei turned her attention back towards her dinner
and ate in silence. Anna happily hummed the theme from Fruhling
Kirschblumen next to her as she finished her meal.
The cafeteria was notably emptier by the time they were done.
-*-
"It's not so much that the English lost the Hundred Years' War, as
that they ate too much rich French food, bloated up, got too fat to fit in
their armor, and then the French killed them while they waddled
helplessly," Misato said. It had been something like that, anyway. She
thought. Well, world history had been years ago, and she'd been thinking
about Kaji and whether Ritsuko was going to notice they'd eaten up all the
leftover pizza and get mad that day. Or something similar.
Rei nodded solemnly, scribbling in her notebook. Anna gave Misato
a dubious look. "How do the Burgundians figure into it, then?"
"Well, you see Burgundy, the drink, comes from Burgundy, the
region of France. But the English preferred cheap English beer, so they
put heavy tariffs on the Burgundian Burgandy, and the Burgundians got mad
and changed side to the French, who loved good Burgundian Burgandy."
Misato wasn't so sure about that, but she told herself that anyone who
asked HER for help on history pretty much deserved what they got.
"Uh huh."
Asuka, Shinji, Touji, and Hikari now walked into the rec room
where Anna and Rei were doing homework. "We're back," Asuka said. "We
ran into some crazy cultists."
Misato frowned. "Angel cultists?"
"No, they seemed to think we were gods," Touji said. "Assuming
Asuka didn't make that all up so she could take her shirt off."
Misato looked at Asuka, who was wearing her shirt. "She seems to
be wearing a shirt." She sounded rather dubious.
"She put it back on before we could all go blind," Touji said.
"That would have been if we had to see YOU like that," Asuka said
to Touji.
"Will you two stop bickering?" Shinji said sharply. "You both
look just fine with your shirts off, and no one went blind. And I think
you were staring at my girlfriend's chest when you thought no one was
looking."
"WHAT?" Hikari said.
"Hey, I saw how you..." Touji began.
"You can fight later," Misato said. "So this cult thought you all
were gods?" She had a pretty good idea who this group likely was, but she
had hoped they wouldn't start causing trouble yet.
"Yeah," Asuka said. "They were all German, I think, or at least
most of them."
Misato frowned. "I think I'm going to have to look into that. No
one got hurt, did they?"
Rei tensed up ever so slightly.
"No, no," Shinji said. "No one got hurt."
"Good." She sounded relieved.
Rei looked Shinji up and down for a moment, then relaxed.
"I expect an unarmed rabble wouldn't be much of a threat to us,"
Anna said.
"More danger of us hurting them than vice versa, really," Asuka
said.
"I hope they don't cause us any more trouble," Shinji said.
"So do I," Misato said. "But it isn't wise to rely too much on
hopes. I fear they will be more trouble, before we finally get rid of
them. But I guess we'll see."
"I guess so," Shinji said.
"Well, since you're back, you can finish your homework with Rei
and Anna," Misato said.
"You can tell us what is true and what Katsuragi is making up,"
Anna said to Asuka.
"You can take over, Asuka," Misato said. "I should go work on
things anyway." And report this incident to the Commander as well, she
thought.
"Alright," Asuka said. "See you later."
-*-
Dreams are useful things.
With enough control, one can set up a dream like an experiment,
set the parameters, let things run, and see how it all turns out.
Basic elements are needed to meet the requirements of this shoujo
manga moment.
A sunny day. A clean city street. Lots of trees.
And there is Rei, wearing a blue dress, swaying beautifully with
the breeze. A certain inner glow shining about her, with eyes that
sparkled of love and youth.
And there is Shinji, delicately beautiful with hair flowing with
the wind. There were also sparkles in his eyes, youthful-type sparkles,
definitely associated with love.
Scenery. Lovers. All things in place. Disembodied red eyes
observed it all carefully.
Cue sunset.
Cue the jet flying high above.
And... start.
"Rei," he said softly, the air going all pink and sparkly around
him.
"Shinji," she said breathlessly, enveloped in that same pink
sparkly aura.
Movement in slow motion. The two running towards each other with
open arms. See the two birds flying high above them? What a clear sky,
too.
Third element cued into the mix. Asuka, tragic blue sparkles
about her, eyes wide and about to cry. "Shinji!" she cries out.
The birds flapped about in confusion. Clouds crept into the sky.
The imagery around Shinji changes to a monochrome blue.
"A-Asuka," he says weakly, his head turning from Rei to Asuka.
The blue sparkles are infectious, swallowing up Rei's space.
"Shinji?" she asks, fear and doubt replacing the loving tone in her voice.
This was a typically pivotal moment, yes. Two disembodied red
eyes watched all with great interest.
Rei looked at Shinji expectantly.
Asuka looked at Shinji expectantly.
Shinji hesitated. Fatal mistake.
The girls ran away in tears. Of course, in opposite directions.
Stormclouds slam in with violent winds. Everything sets into a monochrome
grey.
Decision time.
Shinji reached out to Rei, then to Asuka. Which one? Which way
would his heart lead him?
The rain suddenly turned into a torrential downpour of epic
proportions, streets flooding in the blink of an eye and transforming into
rivers, sweeping him away with the currents. Fish-like men emerged from
the waters and stood upon the rooftops, waving their spears and chanting
in an inhuman tongue to something that had yet to emerge from the waters.
The red eyes blinked. This wasn't expected.
Rei woke up.
She looked out the window and frowned slightly. An overcast sky
greeted her. She spent a moment staring at it, then began to get ready
for the day.
-*-
Shinji looked nervously at Inspector Svetlana Borodinova and
wondered what she was going to ask him. She seemed to be in charge, while
Inspector Pham Trang sat in the corner and quietly took notes. There was
a third inspector, Guillame Garcia, but he'd left for the bathroom and
Inspector Svetlana didn't seem inclined to wait for him.
They had to use a translator, a withered, bitter looking old man
who had clearly done a lot of rough work in his life. As he spoke, Shinji
wondered if everything the translator said sounded sarcastic or if he'd
done something to annoy the man.
"I understand your father sent you off to your relatives after
your mother died."
"Yes, his work at NERV kept him very busy," Shinji said.
"You don't seem to have been very happy there," Svetlana said.
"I understand why Father did it," Shinji said.
Svetlana said something to Pham which he couldn't understand.
Pham nodded, then Svetlana continued, "We have heard he favors you over
the other pilots."
"I don't think Father favors anyone," Shinji said. "I got sent
into battle in Peru when I was badly injured, and I live just the same as
anyone else."
"I understand you live with Commander Katsuragi?"
Shinji nodded. "Yes."
"How much of a drunkard is she, really?"
He frowned. "She's not a drunkard." He knew he was only half
telling the truth. She had drunk too much most of the time he had known
her, but he could tell the Inspectors were out for blood, and he wasn't
going to give them any. "She's been a good guardian and a good
commander."
"Is she really sleeping with one of her subordinates?"
"No!" Shinji said sharply. "She hasn't been seeing anyone since
Kaji died, and he wasn't her subordinate."
"Ahh, yes, the fellow who died saving Gendo from the Angel known
as the 'Violator', right?"
"Yes." Shinji paused. "He was a good man."
"His record seems to be clean, though I have heard he was rather a
playboy. But no matter. I understand there has been tension between the
pilots since the battle with the Violator."
Shinji frowned. "No one ever gets along perfectly."
"To be precise, there is bad blood between Pilot Langley and pilot
Ayanami, correct?"
"They don't get along," Shinji admitted.
"Why?"
Shinji squirmed, not wanting to think about it. "I'm not sure
exactly what happened, but after we killed the Violator, we suffered
some...side-effects." He shuddered at the memory. "Rei lost control."
"She raped Langley?" Svetlana asked.
"I don't know what exactly happened," Shinji said. "But you can't
understand what it was like. I had to lock myself in the bathroom
and...and..." He blushed. "Can we please talk about something else?"
"So, who would you blame for the destruction of the Geodome?"
"The Angels," Shinji said.
Guillame Garcia, a tall, skinny man with bronzed skin and an
especially expensive suit, now returned from the bathroom. He sat down by
Svetlana. "Ahh, got to the death of the Geofront?" he asked.
She nodded to him, then asked Shinji, "Yes, but lots of other
Angels have shown up without destroying it."
"We did the best we could," Shinji said. "I suppose it would have
been better to store Adam somewhere else, but at the same time, him being
right there meant we could stop him before more harm was done."
Pham finally spoke. "I understand you're dating Pilot Langley."
Shinji nodded. "Yes."
"Would you say she's stable?"
"She's a little impulsive, sometimes," Shinji said, carefully
weighing his words. "But she's as sane as I am. If that's what you're
asking."
"She does not get along well with Commander Ikari."
"Yes," Shinji said.
"Why?"
"Because she doesn't like people keeping secrets and NERV has a
lot of them. And Father can be somewhat rude sometimes."
"I understand she's tried to kill him a few times."
"People say things they don't mean when they get mad," Shinji
said. "And if Asuka really wanted him dead, he couldn't stop her."
"Hmm."
"They do," Shinji said, trying to reassure himself of that.
"My turn," Guillame said, pulling out a sheaf of reports. "We're
going to go over all the missions."
Shinji stared at the stack. This was going to take a while.
-*-
"They call themselves the 'The Church of Disciples'. They don't
have a very clearly set out theology, but they believe you are all gods
who need to be worshipped. There's no clear leadership, as they seem to
be a loose coalition of various groups with different beliefs who all came
to the conclusion you are all divine in some manner, from some fringe
Christian groups who think you are angels to neo-pagans who see you as
reborn gods to people who think you are boddhisatvas. We expect the
movement will eventually fragment due to these divisions, but for now,
they seem united enough to have spread quite a bit in Europe and the most
European-influenced nations." Fuyutsuki shook his head in mild disbelief.
"The US, Canada, Australia, etc?" Asuka asked.
Fuyutsuki, Misato, and the Children sat around one of the briefing
tables at the base, each with a stack of papers in front of them. Shinji
wondered if they needed such a long report when Fuyutsuki was in the
process of telling them everything anyway.
Fuyutsuki continued by saying, "Your presence here in Germany has
attracted many group members to migrate here; they're starting to overrun
the local towns. I don't want to cut off your ability to go to town, but
I must ask you to avoid any contact with these loons, as we aren't sure
what they may do."
"How large is this movement?" Anna asked.
"There's no good measure, but it seems there may be close to a
million members worldwide. Which is a drop in the human bucket, but since
some twenty to thirty thousand of those seem to have descended on the
local towns, their presence for us is quite significant."
Misato frowned. "If they tried something crazy, like breaking
into the base to come and bask in the glow of the Children...we couldn't
possibly stop that many people."
"Really?" Touji asked nervously.
"The Geo-front could have done it, but NERV-Germany, while well
defended, was not designed to fend off thousands of people. It's strong
enough to generally stop terrorists and criminals, but..."
"Well, ones who aren't let in by traitors," Hikari said. "Were
they caught?"
"All the traitors died in the fighting," Misato said. "I suppose
if we deployed the EVAs, we could probably drive them all off if they did
attack for some reason, but there's lots of places in this base an EVA
can't really go."
"Ideally, it won't come down to that," Fuyutsuki said. "They
don't seem hugely violent. But at the same time, I fear they're going to
make life difficult." He paused. "Which reminds me, I'd like you to go
visit the Barbarossa Project, as I'm curious as to whether their work is
viable at all, and I am not inclined to trust their publicity reports."
"Alright, I can do that," Misato said. "I expect they're going to
fail."
"So do I, but it is best to keep abreast of events and avoid
surprises."
She nodded. "I'll see about making an appointment, then."
-*-
"What a bunch of loons," Asuka said, flopping down on her bed.
"Thinking we're divine and all."
"Well, maybe they're right," Anna said. "We do have powers beyond
mortal ken. I mean, look at the things you've done. You can fly, you
throw fire from your hands, you can protect yourself with a force field,
you can shapeshift, your blood has inherent power..."
"That could make me a superhero, not a god," Asuka said. "Or a
mutant freak. But not a god. I don't live in heaven, I can't save souls,
I didn't create the universe. I don't feel very divine."
"You helped save the souls of the Kingdom of Joy," Anna pointed
out. "The Elder Gods seemed to treat you like their own children."
"There is only one God, and I'm not Him," Asuka said. "I'm just a
mortal who has been turned into a freak by stupid powers I don't want.
Damn, I can hardly believe I wanted to be a pilot so much, once upon a
time." She sighed.
"How's your computer doing?" Anna asked. "Did you get it all
fixed?"
"As much as I can. Stupid virus." Asuka sat up and went over to
her computer, kicking it out of idle mode. "I need some better anti-virus
software."
"Here, I know a good place to get some," Anna said. "And I found
some places for you that you might want to check out."
"Thanks, Anna," Asuka said, yielding up control of the machine to
Anna for the moment.
"Anything for a friend."
-*-
Megumi adjusted her suit-dress slightly as she waited, trying not
to stare too much at the various cultists. I've never been to a church in
a strip-mall before, she thought. The place's design made her suspect it
had once been a small gym before being converted. In fact, the conversion
was still in progress as two dozen members of the group were busy
painting, scrubbing, and generally redecorating the place.
They all looked very normal to her, adults in their twenties and
thirties, male and female, dressed in clothing they could afford to get
dirty. The one thing which stood out was the six pointed stars they wore
(which looked rather like reworked Stars of David with a tongue of flame
in the middle).
A man in a suit came out of the back office and the secretary
announced, "Mr. Schmitt will see you now."
Mr. Schmitt turned out to be a well-dressed man in his forties.
He could easily have been some middle-management executive, and he looked
far more sane than Megumi expected. He looked a little overworked and his
desk was piled with papers, but he could have been any of a hundred men
she'd interviewed over the years. He looked up at her and tried to smile;
it was the smile of a man who was making himself smile even though he'd
rather go lie down for a while. "Megumi Kanzaki, I presume?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied in German. "I hope my German won't be too hard
to understand."
"I'm impressed you know our language at all, being from Japan," he
said. "And a little surprised to see a Japanese reporter here in
Germany."
"We take an interest in the whole world," Megumi said. "And I'm
in charge of covering the Children and NERV."
He nodded. "Please sit down. Would you like some tea?"
"Yes, please."
Arnold had some tea delivered, then sat down and luxuriated in it
for a minute. Then he said, "So what would you like to know?"
"Well, I was not familiar with the existence of your group, so I
suppose I'll start with, 'why do you worship the Children?'"
"Because they are divine. Their coming was foretold by many
ancient texts, and they possess divine powers. They are the children of
the old gods, come to save us in our darkest hour," Arnold said. His tone
seemed remarkably matter of fact to Megumi. "The time will come when they
must cast off the mortal shackles which hold them back, so that they may
come into their full glory."
"Mortal shackles?" Megumi asked. "As in, ascending into heaven?"
"As in ceasing to be bound in service to mortals. It is our duty
to serve them," Arnold said. "But, instead, NERV keeps them as servants
instead of giving them honor and praise as they should."
"So, are you planning to do something about that?"
"We are not violent people," Arnold said. "And in the end, it is
up to the Children to cast off their chains. As we are sure they will,
once they come to understand."
"Right," Megumi said. "So, why have so many of you been moving
here?"
"To be near the Children, of course. Most of us can't afford such
a move, but those of us who can have been flocking to this area," Arnold
said. "Which generates vast paperwork for me, as you can see." He spread
his hands across the desk.
"So you're in charge of all these people?"
"I am in charge of directing the expansion of our churches and
trying to help all these folk find jobs and places to live. I don't have
much of a staff, and the work is piling up faster than I can handle. I'm
hoping to hire more staff, but it's hard to find good assistants, and
money is, of course, an issue," he said.
"So, you're like a bishop?" Megumi asked.
"As good a comparison as any. Though it seems the administrative
side of things is overwhelming my ability to have much time for spiritual
matters." He sighed. "But someone must do the work."
"So, what does it mean to say that the Children are divine? What
consequence does this have for a believer?" Megumi asked.
"A very good question," he replied, passing her a pamphlet. "This
will explain things in more detail, but to put it in brief, we believe
that humanity should serve the divine. The Children have come to usher in
a new age of man, in which the old ways must be put away and new paths
forged. Once the Angels are defeated, they will usher in a new golden
age. For now, we must aid them with our prayers and give them the homage
they deserve."
She put the pamphlet in her purse. "Alright. I think that covers
everything I need to start with."
"Feel free to contact me if you need to follow up," he said.
She nodded. "I will."
-*-
"I think we need to plant an agent," Misato said.
Weiss nodded in agreement. "Yes, we need someone on the inside,
so we can tell if it's a significant threat."
Fuyutsuki had called the senior staff together in one of the
conference rooms to discuss the question of the Disciples. He said, "Does
anyone have a suggestion as to who to send?"
"Well, how about Makoto? He's level-headed and can plausibly pose
as someone who has been around the Children and come to see their divinity
from the 'inside'.," Misato suggested.
"We need someone who speaks German fairly fluently," Ritsuko said.
"Enough to pick up on things a non-native speaker might not get."
"I have just the man. Pieter Bremenhofen. He's a good man, very
stable, and able to be discreet. And he's a native German speaker,"
Ingrid said.
"Alright, if you trust him to do something like this, I'll accept
your judgement," Fuyutsuki said. "Get him on it as soon as you can."
Ingrid nodded. "I will do so."
-*-
"What about this rumor we've heard about Commander Ikari being in
the middle of a tryst during the Violator's attack?" Inspector Andrew
Walker asked. He was Australia's representative on the committee of
Inspectors.
"I'd think the man was a enunch. I'm not sure what he was doing
down there, but I'm inclined to think no one would have sex with him, even
if he wanted it. Unless they were really desperate," Misato replied.
Another of the inspectors, Faisal Shahid, who was from Syria,
interjected, "That bad?"
"Yes," Misato said.
"Damn." He sounded somewhat sorry for Gendo.
Walker sighed and rolled his eyes. "Moving on. Am I correct in
understanding that the Violator successfully impersonated Ikari and used
his passcodes to override the MAGI during his assault?"
"Yes," Misato said. "It could change shape and had captured him."
"So he gave up the passcodes to it?" Walker asked.
This is going to look bad, Misato thought. "That remains
unclear."
"I see," he said.
"Certain backdoors seem to have been left in MAGI by its designers
which the Violator may have exploited," Misato continued. "Which had to
be used to regain control of it, in fact."
"It was designed with security flaws?" the third member of the
Inspector triad, Fatima Ummayad, from the Sudan, asked.
"It would appear so," Misato said.
"Interesting. Tell us more about these built-in holes..."
-*-
"So what do you think of these people?" Fuyutsuki asked Gendo as
they met in Gendo's office.
"The inspectors annoy me tremendously, but I'm trying to be
patient," Gendo said. Gendo shifted about a little uncomfortably; he
wasn't used to his new chair in his office. Or having the smaller office.
"I meant the cult."
"Oh, the Children-Worshippers?" Gendo asked.
"Yes."
Gendo paused to push up his glasses. "If they could be
manipulated, they could be very useful, but we have neither the time nor
the resources to try to take them over. Unless they turn out to be a
front for someone. But I think this is likely a spontaneous movement.
It's only natural, and well, better they turn towards the Children than
towards the Angels."
"True. Still, best to monitor them."
Gendo nodded. "I'm somewhat more worried about this." He pointed
to a passage on the screen of his computer.
Fuyutsuki came over and read it. " 'And Lo, From All the Lands of
Man They Come, Come With Presents and Pleadings, To Worship At the Altar
of the Children, To Beg Their Aid, To Give Them Praise, To Hope Beyond
Hope. ' "
" 'And Lo, The Demon Sultan Hears The Praise, And He Too Sends an
Envoy, To Bear His Greeting, To The New Gods, And Claim His Tithe.' "
Gendo concluded. "This is from Chapter fourteen."
"The Cult of the Demon Sultan, down in Turkey?"
"Exactly. One of that cult's main purposes was to watch for this
time referred to in this prophecy and to be ready to greet the 'Envoy'
when it came. The cult has had to start over many times, either dying at
the hands of various creatures from beyond the Earth they tried to summon
or simply attrition due to the failure of the Envoy to arrive. But I
think the time for which they have long waited has finally come, and I
expect his cult will rise again."
"Then we'd best increase our monitoring of the skies. Do you
think we're likely to get one of his Court or is he likely to spit forth
one of his Spawn?" Fuyutsuki asked, returning to his seat.
"Probably his Spawn." Gendo said.
"Alright, I'll make sure Polaris is watching for it."
"It may well be trackable by normal telescopes, depending on how
it travels," Gendo said. "So we'll need to track astronomical data."
"A little harder, but it can be done. I hope."
"I'll call Taiki."
"Tai...oh, Yokojima?"
"Yes," Gendo said. "He's going to be disappointed you forgot
him."
"I haven't thought about him in years. Is he in astronomy now?"
"He runs an observatory in Hokkaido now," Gendo said. "And is one
of the officers of a large amateur astronomical society."
"Excellent. Get him on it."
"I will." Fuyutsuki paused. "How's the fake website coming
along?"
"A lot of it is done, but I'm trying to decide whether to include
this fake Necronomicon or not," Gendo said, calling up the page for
Fuyutsuki to take a look at.
"That seems a good idea," Fuyutsuki said. "Or is it not fake
enough?"
"Actually, I'm worrying slightly whether or not the copyright
holders will spot it and harrass us."
"If they do, the people we most want to fool with this will take
that as a sign of authenticity and use it to justify believing it's real."
"Hmm, good point," Gendo said. "It should be ready in a day or
two, then."
"Excellent," Fuyutsuki said. "I'll talk to you later."
"Good bye."
-*-
Shinji stared at the food. "What is this?" Shinji asked.
"Sauerkraut. It's very good," Asuka said.
He sniffed it.
Asuka frowned. "Shinji, it's perfectly good food."
"Sorry, sorry," he said, and tried a bite. "Hey, this is good."
Asuka smiled. "See?"
"You were right, German food is pretty good," Shinji said.
They were having a picnic lunch under a small clump of trees in
one corner of the base, a sort of pseudo-date, since they couldn't leave
the base with the strange cult running around all the local towns. Asuka
had insisted on making the food, which Shinji hadn't objected to, although
he'd not expected a plate of German cuisine. Though thinking about it, he
knew he should have.
"German food will make you strong," Asuka said.
Shinji laughed. "If you say so."
Asuka stood and flowed quickly through one of her martial arts
katas. "Like this!"
"So if I eat German food, I'll become a ninja?" Shinji asked.
"Exactly!" She paused. "You know what I mean."
"Yes, I do," he said.
She sat down next to him and they ate quietly for a while. Asuka
now leaned back against the tree, putting an arm around his shoulders. He
smiled and leaned a little closer as he worked on his food. "Thank you,
Asuka."
She turned and kissed his cheek a little nervously. "You're
welcome, Shinji."
"Run," a nearby cat said. It was Oscar's pet cat.
Shinji said, "Run? Is something wrong?"
Asuka's eyes widened. "Oh great, if the cat's here, then..."
"Asuka! Come and eat with me!" Oscar said, grabbing her arm.
"I am not going to eat with you!" Asuka said.
Oscar darted forward and grabbed her lunch. "Yes, you will!"
Then he took off running.
"Bring back my lunch!" Asuka chased Oscar off out of sight.
Shinji laughed, and tried to decide if it was his duty to help
chase, then decided Asuka could handle Oscar. He turned back to his food.
"Shinji."
He started, turning and seeing Rei, holding a Japanese style
lunchbox. She held it out to him. "For me?" he asked.
She nodded and sat down next to him. He carefully opened it,
curious as to what Rei might have made for him. It turned out to be a
partitioned box. The longest box held what looked like cabbage leaves
with long strips of white meat on top of them, all of it covered with a
dark, nasty smelling sauce. There was an odd lumpy tan pudding in one of
the smaller compartments and mixed carrot slices and peas in the other
one, also covered with a slightly lumpy sauce. Shinji sniffed the
pudding; it smelled like apples.
"What is this?" Shinji asked.
"Cinnamon applesauce," Rei said.
"Applesauce?"
"Mixed with spices."
"Okay," he said, and started eating. It was reasonably good,
although the sauce on the meat tasted a little funny. "This is pork,
right?" he asked.
"Long pork."
He paused. "It's what?"
"I asked the cooks for some."
"The cooks..." What am I thinking?, he asked himself. "So it's
ordinary pork?"
"From the long part of the pig," Rei said, obviously repeating
something she'd just been told. "Is it good?"
"Yes, it is," he said. It looked nasty, but it tasted okay.
She smiled. "Anna helped."
"Helped you make it?"
Rei nodded.
"That was nice of her." Except for playing jokes about long pork
on her, Shinji thought.
"Yes." Rei leaned back against the tree.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome," Rei replied.
Shinji finished off the food. "How are you doing?" he asked.
"Fine," she said.
"Umm, did you and Touji and Hikari...I mean, I heard, umm..." Shinji gave
up; he couldn't quite ask.
"Dreams, then pillow fight," Rei said. "It was fun." She then cocked her
head, frowned, then said, "Must go." She took the leftovers and quickly
departed.
I hope she's going to be okay, Shinji thought.
-*-
"What do you think of Commander Ikari?" Margaret Mallory asked
Ritsuko.
"He's very secretive. While he's a good commander, he's also
rather brusque and very lacking in people skills, though I am not well
qualified to say that, I suppose," Ritsuko replied.
"Good administrative skills, then?"
"Yes. Overall, NERV has remained successful under his
administration. It would be nice, however, if he wasn't an asshole."
Inspector Chang Hsu laughed. "Would you like to see him replaced,
then?"
"I can't think of anyone else really suited for the job," Ritsuko
said. "But I wouldn't cry any tears if he remained demoted a while."
Inspector Henry N'Kambe nodded. "Do you think most of the
research section would like to see him replaced?"
"Most of us probably don't care one way or another. As an
administrative unit, he's treated us well. As people, on the other hand,
we've not been so lucky."
"What about his combat decisions?"
"He tends to leave the tactical direction to Major Katsuragi,
unless he has some special knowledge to add," Ritsuko said. "In general,
though, he has done a good job on those occassions when he has asserted
his command prerogatives in combat. I'm more worried about his tendency
to hoard critical information until it's almost too late. Which leads to
problems like the King in Yellow."
Mallory consulted some notes. "Ahh, yes, that. Tell us more
about that incident."
"Well, it started with a school play..."
-*-
"So you've been having nightmares?" Ritsuko asked Shinji later,
once she was done talking to the inspectors.
He nodded, shifting uncomfortably in her office's spare chair.
"Yes, about a sunken city made of basalt and all the streets twist about
and the buildings lean."
"With fish swimming about you? And possibly fish-men?"
"Yes," he said. "Do you know...why this is happening?"
"I have a bad feeling. You see, I've had the nightmares too, and
I think a lot of the Children have as well."
"I know Asuka has," Shinji said.
"You are dreaming of the sunken city of R'yleh, where sleeps one
of the Angels. He nearly escaped in 1926, and as the island rose, people
around the world had nightmares about it."
"Escaped?" Shinji asked.
"He sleeps, dreaming, within the ruins of his city. So far as we
can tell, he and his followers came to Earth hundreds of millions of years
ago. They warred with other creatures, but eventually, for reasons which
have been lost, their homeland sank beneath the waves and their leader,
Cthulhu, remained trapped."
"For hundreds of millions of years?"
"The most potent of the Angels do not seem to age. If we can take
various legends seriously," her tone made it clear she wasn't sure if she
should, "they seem to go through long periods of hibernation. The Angels
have all been hibernating for millions of years, it seems, and now they
are awakening."
"Why now?" Shinji asked. "Because of what happened in
Antarctica?"
"It would seem so. Sort of like an alarm going off. But for
creatures which can sleep so long, it can take a long time to rouse."
Shinji frowned. "It seems strange that they all waited about
fourteen years and then woke up after that."
"The only other thing I could think of is that someone is going
around awakening them," Ritsuko said. "But that raises the question of
why they are letting them come one at a time."
"Well, Asuka had an idea, though I'm not sure I want to believe
it." Shinji shifted back and forth on his feet nervously.
"Go on."
"Well, she thinks whoever is unleashing them wants us to win.
That by winning, we build up NERV's authority and power, by being the one
thing which can stop them. I think that's a little too paranoid, though.
I mean, just look at what's happening to Father from just one error.
Surely if someone was trying to do that, they wouldn't let us have the big
failures we've had."
Ritsuko nodded. "I can't quite see that. And there's too much
evidence the Angels predate this war by a huge amount."
Shinji nodded, looking relieved. "I thought that too. I'm
thinking there must be something which happened recently which is setting
it off. Or else maybe some kind of...I don't know...natural cycle is
coming around, and the Second Impact just happened by chance close to
this."
"Well, right now, we don't have enough evidence. However, I can
prescribe you and the rest of the Children some drugs which should help.
I will see about mixing more up and having them ready for you tomorrow."
"Alright." He got up. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Shinji left, and Ritsuko sighed. There were certainly games afoot
beyond what Shinji knew. She just wished she knew for sure what they
were.
-*-
Pieter wasn't sure what to expect. Getting into the meeting had
been easy; the group seemed very trusting. Which probably meant that
nothing important was going to be said. But he had to start somewhere.
The group had split up into smaller groups, and then everyone
started talking about their dreams of all things. A tall, balding man was
rambling on right now about how he'd dreamed about the Children setting
the stars in the sky. Glancing about, he could tell they'd heard this
story before.
"And then I woke up," he concluded.
"Fascinating," the man who Pieter guessed was what seemed to pass
for a priest in this group (called 'guides') said. The guide, whose name
seemed to be Henry, continued, "How about you, Hans?" he asked Pieter.
"What visions have you had of late?"
Pieter panicked for a moment, then said, "I dreamed of the battle
of the Children in Lima, how they defeated the Dark Sun and slew it, that
it might bother humanity no more."
"Ahh, that was a glorious day," Henry said. "Would you like to
tell us more?"
Pieter thought about it. "I could see the souls of the fallen
rising up into heaven, the songs they sung in praise as they rose upwards.
Even the crackling of the fire was a hymn to their glory." He paused.
"I'm not good with words."
"That's very good," Guide Henry said. "We must remember that all
those who perish in these battles will go to be in Heaven; we should not
be too sorrowful, for they have gone to heavenly bliss. And it is from
Heaven that they send us messages. I have had one such, of late."
Everyone became more attentive.
"A messenger is coming. Soon, none will be able to deny the glory
of the Children. From the heavens he comes to show the whole world their
glory. We must be prepared for his arrival."
Hmm, perhaps I've hit gold after all, Pieter thought. "How shall
we know him?"
"He flew, shining with light, descending from the heavens, a great
firey wake in behind him. All will see him and understand," Guide Henry
said, his face lit up with joy.
Pieter asked, "How soon shall we see him?"
"Soon. Very soon."
-*-
The air had a distinctly shiny air about it, though not the
literal shine of fireworks or sparks floating lazily. It was the kind of
shine that made everything appear a shade too bright and a little too
blurry.
Rei walked the streets alone, already knowing where she was. This
was familiar territory, researched frequently, and recently. Perhaps it
would go better this time. She looked about, making sure all things were
in place. A scarlet sunset cast its dying rays of light over the city, as
the first stars of night began to shine above. A jet flew in the skies
high above her, leaving a cloudy trail. Lovers walked about in pairs.
There were also trees, sakura trees, dropping their petals down like snow.
Even better than last time, yes.
Asuka walked the streets alone, knowing she'd been to this place
before, though not quite remembering it. It is difficult, after all, to
remember dreams unless you focus upon it before it slips away.
Hikari looked around with curiosity, feeling an ache in her heart
as she recognized where she was. This was Tokyo-3, before the fall, as if
nothing bad had happened at all.
She turned a corner and saw Touji standing there. The air around
her shimmered a shade of pink, roses framing her blushing face as she
stared at him with starry eyes.
Touji turned and met her gaze, the air around him turning shiny as
well. He opened his mouth, which seemed to happen in slow motion, and
spoke:
"Shit, we're dreaming we're in Springtime Cherry Blossoms. I
think that's definitely a sign we've been watching it too much."
Roses, aura, shining eyes, all gone.
Hikari laughed. "Maybe we are, I guess. Hey, is that Rei?"
Touji turned and looked. It was, in fact, Rei, across the street,
walking down the sidewalk at a modest pace. "Yeah, it is. Though
something's weird."
"You think so too?"
As she walked towards them, on the other side of the road, she
finally noticed their preisence. A gust of wind blew which nearly blew
off her sunhat, and she held it and her dress down looking flustered.
Then she smiled and waved at the two.
"I think I've got it," said Touji.
"Hm?"
"She's... normal. Happy, even."
Hikari looked at Rei again as she walked down the street. Her
walk was relaxed, easygoing, and had a naturalness to it which Rei was
usually lacking in. The expression on her face had been normal too,
instead of the strange mask of emotionlessness she normally wore.
"You're right," said Hikari. "She is. Uh oh."
"Uh oh?"
"Asuka." She pointed further down the street. Touji looked just
in time , where Asuka, looking somewhat troubled, was about to turn the
corner that Rei was approaching.
"She's still pissed at Rei?" asked Touji.
"Yes."
And then they ran into each other. Asuka's foggy uncertainty
sharpened into an angry resolve, while Rei's happiness quickly crumbled
into surprise and fear.
"Like watchin'a car wreck," Muttered Touji.
Hikari grabbed his hand and started dashing for the overpass
walkway. "C'mon!"
As they dashed through the overpass walkway, they could already
hear Asuka yelling over the buzz of traffic noise. But as the two finally
ran down the stairway they saw Shinji had somehow arrived and was already
trying to calm Asuka down.
Off on the horizon, the last rays of sunlight faded, giving up the
sky to the darkness of night and infinite stars.
Shinji stood between Asuka and Rei, holding Asuka's wrists. "Stop
it Asuka!"
"Why?! Why do you take HER side?!" shrieked Asuka. "I'm the
victim here, not her! Why does everyone take HER side!"
"I'm not taking anybody's side!"
"Hey!" shouted Touji, finally arriving with Hikari. "Guys, c'mon,
calm down! We can't fight with each other like this!"
"Why the hell not?!" challenged Asuka.
"Because we're a team!" he shouted back. "We gotta stick together
or we're gonna die out there! All for one and one for all, and stuff like
that!"
"We can't trust that monster!" shouted Asuka, pointing at Rei.
Touji looked her in the eye. "She saved Hikari's life. That's
good enough for me."
There was a moment of awkward silence.
Asuka glared at Touji, who glared back. Finally, Asuka averted
her gaze and sighed. "Whatever," she mumbled.
And then Rei spoke, in the emotionless tone they were used to
hearing. "Something is here." Her eyes swept over the surroundings
steadily and her posture shifted to an attack position.
"Something?" asked Shinji. "What something?"
"Something bad. You should wake up now."
In the darkness of a nearby alleyway a red light shone brightly
for a moment, fading into a crimson tri-lobed eye. There was a hint of a
shape within the shadows, somewhat like a manta-ray, though far larger
than any they had seen.
"You should wake up now," repeated Rei. She turned and looked at
them, and as their gaze met hers, they suddenly felt the world around them
blur and bend. The last thing Shinji saw before waking up was Rei
charging into the alleyway.
-*-
Shinji rushed over to Rei's room the moment he woke up. Hearing
his rapid footsteps out the door, Asuka frowned.
She shook her head, then made her way down to the commisary on the
1st floor. She was in the mood for some hot cocoa to soothe her nerves.
Much to her surprise, she was not the first one there. Anna sat
at a table, sipping her own hot cocoa, looking mildly dazed. She looked
up as Asuka entered. "Can't sleep?" she asked.
Asuka nodded.
"Wanna talk about it?" asked Anna.
"Nothing to talk about," mumbled Asuka, hitting the buttons on the
vending machines. "How about you?"
Anna laughed an embarrased laugh. "You know how I move a lot in
my sleep. I kinda fell off the bed and bumped my head on the desk."
Asuka blinked, then looked at Anna's forehead, where a bruise
marked the left side. "Are you okay?" she asked. "Maybe we should get Dr.
Akagi to look at you."
"I'm fine, really," assured Anna. "It's just a bruise."
Asuka looked at Anna doubtfully for a moment. "If you start
feeling worse, promise me you'll go see the doctor, okay?"
Anna smiled. "I promise."
-*-
"C'mon, Makoto, you can dance closer to me. I won't bite," Akane
said, smiling her usual confident smile at him.
"I might punch you in the nose accidentally or something," he
said, lurching about.
They were in Brown Castle, a dance club; Akane had insisted on
going out to it. Makoto had been nervous about running into members of
the Children Cult.
She began to undulate up close to him. "Follow me," she said.
He quickly caught on, and soon they were both moving in unison,
bodies very close but not quite touching. After a little while, his
nerves relaxed and he began to enjoy himself.
"There, that's better," she said, now beginning to move her arms
up and down his sides, not quite touching them. He did the same without
being prompted and she grinned. "There's hope for you yet."
"This is kind of fun," he said.
"I told you it would be."
"That's him!" someone said.
He turned and saw a woman wearing the star symbol of the cult.
She was pointing at him.
"That's the one!" she said. Several other people turned and saw
him.
"We're in trouble," he said.
She cracked her knuckles. "We can take them."
He looked at the increasing number of people looking their way.
"I don't like brawls."
"Aww. Well, we can get the bouncer."
They headed to find the bouncer, only to spot he was wearing one
of the stars as well. Makoto frowned. "Let's just get out of here and go
eat, okay?"
She sighed. "Alright, let's go eat."
They ended up in a quiet little cafe, where they had a fairly
pleasant meal. However, when they came out, there were dozens of the
star-wearing cultists, from old men to young children. Makoto did his
best to avoid eye contact.
Akane, on the other hand, glared back at them.
One of them said, "There he is! With some cheap whore!"
Makoto's eyes widened and he shouted, "She is NOT a whore!"
"Get him!" The mob charged.
Makoto took Akane by the hand and dragged her after him as he took
off running down the street.
"This way!" she said, now taking the lead as she dodged thrown
rocks.
"We need to get to the police."
"I don't know where to find the police," Akane said. "But I do
know where we can get some help."
They turned several corners, then ran into a pub where a bunch of
men were watching a soccer game. Akane said, "Help! These people are
trying to kill us! Please help us." She fluttered her eyelashes and
radiated helplessness.
Even as some of the mob started to come in the door, the men rose
up, and one of them said, "Don't worry, fraulein. We'll deal with these
morons."
"They're probably Munich fans," Makoto contributed.
The soccer fans charged the onrushing cultists and a massive brawl
erupted. A fair number of the cultists ran as soon as they realized they
were confronting soccer fans. The rest fought on. Akane grabbed a chair
and pitched in, and Makoto seized one and moved to cover her.
She bashed down a middle-aged man with the chair, then followed up
with a kick to his groin, while Makoto battered aside a onrushing punk who
had a bike chain. The punk now went for a knife, but Makoto's chair gave
him more reach. He kept swinging it fiercely, driving the man back, until
one of the soccer fans brought a bottle down on the back of the punk's
head.
He turned and saw Akane bashing a man's head into a table, and
another of the cultists charging her from behind with a chairleg. Makoto
shouted, "Akane, look out!" then hurled his chair at the man, who got
nailed in the side and fell down. Akane threw her foe off to one side and
ran back to Makoto.
Police sirens began to blare in the distance. Akane kissed him on
the cheek. "My hero," she said, wrapping her arms around him.
He kissed her back. "Now you know why I was worried about going
out tonight."
"You can't let the world push you around," Akane said. "You have
to seize it by the throat and make it obey you."
"I'm not very good at that," Makoto said.
"I know. So I'll just have to seize it for you." She kissed him
again. "So, have you jumped Misato yet?"
He looked embarrassed. "No."
"Tsk, tsk. Gotta seize the chance while you can."
"Do you really want me to jump Misato?"
"I want you to GO for what you want," she said. "Don't let life
tell you what to do. Tell LIFE what to do. Though you being so shy is
kind of cute."
"Well, once we talk to the cops, I think I'll take you home and
have my way with you, then," he said, trying to sound confident.
She grinned. "Oooh, I like that idea. Will it involve ice
cream?"
"We'll have to buy some on the way home."
"That's fine. My treat." She purred a little. "This is going to
be fun."
-*-
"Is this really our job?" Misato asked. "I mean, really this is a
job for the German police, right?"
Fuyutsuki, Ingrid, Weiss, and Misato were meeting in conference
room five, seated around a shiny black table, drinking coffee and
discussing what to do about the problems with the cultists.
"They asked us to do something," Fuyutsuki said. "I've been in
contact with the state government, and they don't know how to handle it."
Weiss frowned. "But if we get involved...I mean, this is very
much not in our jurisdiction."
"We need to do something," Fuyutsuki said. "Not necessarily
anything which would involve arresting people, but we have to do
something, because these people are only here because we are here. A
propaganda campaign, encouraging preachers to engage in theological
debate, a television show...I don't know. Something."
"Hmm, perhaps some kind of television show, have the children
announce they're not divine," Ingrid suggested.
"That might be a good idea. Any other suggestions?" Fuyutsuki
asked.
"I'm going to have to think about this some," Misato said. "This
really isn't my area of expertise. Perhaps Maya can think of something;
she's our PR expert. Sort of."
"Alright. Well, let's all think about it and meet again
tomorrow," Fuyutsuki said. "And I will talk to Maya. Now, on to other
business..."
-*-
"Yo, sis, we came to see you," Touji said.
She mumbled something. She mumbled a lot, Touji had noticed.
"Everyone's all settled in now," Hikari said, placing fresh
flowers in the vase by the girl's bed.
"We tried a double date, but it was even more of a disaster than I
would have expected," Touji said. "I'm just glad you're in the hospital
on the base, or we probably couldn't visit you."
"Angles...fish..." Touji's sister mumbled.
"Damn, that reminds me of that stupid nightmare," Touji said.
"I thought we agreed that never happened," Hikari said.
"Right, right," Touji said. He sat and stared at his sister for a
while. "Dad's doing okay," he said. "He's been working hard, but he's
decided he hates German food. Which I have kinda mixed emotions. Some of
it is good, but it reminds me of Asuka."
"Touji!"
Touji laughed a little. "You can see we still don't agree on
that."
And then Touji's sister's back arched and her eyes opened and she
began to screech. "IA! IA! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nahf Cthulhu
R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhatagn. Ng'ngri rty'wnhal gshtn y'aghn!"
"Nurse! She's having some kind of episode!" Touji yelled.
The nurse quickly came and sedated her. "This has been happening
more frequently of late," she said.
"Any idea why?" Touji asked.
"It may mean she's starting to wake up," the nurse said.
"Otherwise...no idea."
He nodded, hoping this was a good sign.
-*-
"This could be it," Gendo said, pointing at some lines on the
printout. "
"I don't think so," Fuyutsuki said. "If I understand what this is
saying, it's moving to parallel the Earth's movement. I think it's
Ghroth."
"Hmm, I suppose the prophecy could refer to Ghroth."
"Ghroth isn't really an envoy, though," Fuyutsuki said. "There is
some chance the prophecy is just another indication of Nylathotep."
"Hmm, that's true. Best we take no chances, though." Gendo
looked at the documents. "If this is Ghroth, then the Spawn isn't showing
up."
"As we might expect. Polaris was designed to monitor the Earth,
not the entire Solar System, unfortunately," Fuyutsuki said. "But we
should get some advanced warning."
"The Children should be able to handle it, but only if we are
quick enough, before it can start to burrow or grow."
"Let us hope for enough advanced warning."
"Indeed."
-*-
Half the leaders of SEELE were present in the flesh, half attended
only by hologram. One of those present at the murky meeting table was
known as Scorpion, due to his choice of a sigil. "I fear they have
betrayed us," he said.
A floating, inverted ankh spoke with a woman's voice. //"You trust
too little. One by one, the Great One's rivals fall. They still follow
the plan." //
//"Perhaps," // a lidless eye with a tongue of flame in the
center, replied. The voice was male and older. //"Best we take
precautions." //
"We have taken precautions," the old man to his right said. His
hair was grey, but his skin still kept the even dark tones of youth, or so
he told himself. "My work on DAGON has been largely successful. We will
have Eidoleons under our direct control when the time comes."
//"But will they be able to match the strength of the Children?"
// the Inverted Ankh asked.
"Quantity tends to beat quality. They will suffice," the old man
said proudly.
Another old man now spoke, his eyes hidden by a red visor. "We
must watch and wait. Should Ikari be removed, it may not matter if they
are loyal or not. But for now, I suggest we wait and see how they handle
the Spawn of the Demon Sultan when it lands near their base." Lorentz
paused, then said, "Though we will have to take precautions in case they
cannot handle it."
"And be ready to take it for ourselves if they cannot handle it,"
Scorpion insisted.
"Yes," Lorentz said. "It could be very useful, and this world
will be of no use to the Great One if Azathoth's spawn devours it."
A floating red cadaceucus now spoke. //"Then is it worth the risk
of not informing them?"//
"That is why we will prepare to step in if they fail. We will see
if they realize what is coming and if they come to us or try to solve it
without us," Lorentz said. "Let the Eidoleons be prepared. The Envoy
comes, and we must be ready."
-*-
Gendo finished drawing the circle on the floor as Fuyutsuki lit
the candles. "Are you sure this will work?" he asked.
"Having never had the misfortune to be in the same solar system as
a Seed of Azathoth, no I am not," Fuyutsuki said, consulting Al-Azif
again. "However, De Vermis Mysteris also contains this formula and an
account of its use against the Black Meteor of 1438. We will have to
renew this protection weekly, but I think it is worth the time we will
have to spend."
Gendo nodded fervently. "True. It is unlikely to make things
worse, and if that thing got into the base..."
"We cannot afford to lose another base," Fuyutsuki said. "And the
bloodshed would be terrible."
"We are so close." Gendo reached out to the invisible prize,
caught himself, and put his hands down.
Fuyutsuki smiled slightly. "I know. Alright, light the red
candle..."
-*-
"Here, try this one," Anna said, pointing to one of the links on
the search page.
"Alright," Asuka said. She clicked on it and waited for it to
load.
THE HALLOWEEN 2006 DISASTER
By Richard Krause
I was long reluctant to talk about this, for fear of my old employers.
However, my sense of responsibility has overcome my fears, as I think
people deserve to know the truth, given the conclusions which can be drawn
from this.
In the fall of 2006, I was a researcher for Gehirn, the organization set
up to 'study the effects of the Second Impact on the environment'. Or so
people believed. While I can't prove it, there is some reason to believe
that Gehirn or its masters may well have been responsible for the Second
Impact. However, that is a subject for the webpage I am still working on.
The German wing of Gehirn was based in Munich in 2006, having taken over
an old industrial park which had been abandoned due to the damage to the
German economy caused by the Second Impact. I was involved in studying
some of the first samples of what is now known as LCL. They were rather
secretive about where the stuff came from, but I didn't care, as I was too
excited about the discoveries we were making to want to risk losing my
job.
There were two highly secure zones in the complex. One of them was Area
Five, where LCL came from, along with various other strange substances.
The other was Area Nine. I had the impression some sort of genetic
experiments were going on in there, but no one really knew for sure. We
liked to sit around at night and make bets on what was really going on in
there.
I only knew Kyoko Soryuu Zeppelin in a rather peripheral sort of way. She
worked in Area Nine, and like most of the people there, tended to largely
only associate with other folk working in that area. At the time I
assumed it was a matter of security and finding it hard to socialize with
people you couldn't talk about work with, but now I am not so sure of
that. She struck me as a strong-willed but somewhat high strung woman,
unlike her much more laid back husband, Pieter Langley, who was a test
pilot for some company up near Berlin. They had a daughter, Asuka, who is
now one of the Children who pilot the Evangelion Units. I have reason to
suspect she is the result of genetic experiments, as you shall see.
Her husband periodically came to visit her, along with their daughter. It
was during one such visit that the great disaster happened.
What follows is my reconstruction of events, based, I must confess, on my
talking to people and observation of some of the locations, rather than
any documentary proof. I will be the first to admit there may be some
errors.
It was Edgar Heinz who was the first to notice that most of the women in
Area Nine were all getting pregnant at once. This happened around late
September. Out of twenty women, fifteen of them were visibly pregnant.
Two of them quit and got abortions and I never saw them again. The other
thirteen stuck it out. Until October 31, 2006.
Pieter Langley showed up with his child for a visit with his wife that day
and the guards on Area Nine wouldn't let him bring his daughter in. I
happened to be passing and offered to take his daughter to our daycare
facility. I took Asuka (who was pretty angry and kept pounding on me)
down to the daycare center, at which point she promptly threw up. On me.
The daycare workers had me take her to the infirmary, at which point I
left to go clean up. This much I can attest to for certain. Beyond this,
we enter the realm of what I believe happened based on what I heard from
people, but I cannot be certain.
Pieter went to see his wife, who he found was feeling sick. The baby
inside her seemed quite agitated as well. Several of the other women felt
sick as well. Pieter went to have an argument with the head of the lab,
Dr. Krupp, to try to get his wife out of work early. While they argued,
the baby inside one of the other women, Dr. Margaret Eidel, ate its way
out of its mother, killing her, then attacked another staff member, Dr.
Lawrence Dupois. Yes, I know this sounds like a cheap horror movie, but
it is the truth.
Asuka paused in her reading and stared. She glanced over at Anna,
who was just shaking her head. She took a deep breath and tried to still
her nerves, which were starting to jangle. "He's got to be making this
up," she said.
"I have a feeling this may have something to do with why Rei is so
strange," Anna said.
"..."
"It would make a lot of sense if she's the result of genetic
experiments," Anna said.
"Hmm, true," Asuka said, then turned back to her reading.
This seemed to be the signal for the babies inside all the pregnant women
to burst out. Or, well, most of them. Eight out of the other twelve now
died as their babies ate their way out and rampaged. Two more of the
pregnant women were savaged by rampaging infant monsters and the children
within them devoured. Equipment was damaged and various poisonous gases
were unleashed into the atmosphere inside the lab. As far as I can tell,
the gasses killed off most of the survivors, including the two pregnant
women who remained.
Gehirn security was called in. The rest of us speculated wildly until we
saw the gases escaping from a damaged window, and we concluded some
horrible lab accident had taken place. That was the public story. Eight
people, all poisoned, survived the disaster. Three recovered, two died
within hours, and the other three, I talked to before they died over the
next few days. They still wouldn't explain everything which had been
going on, but I was able to reconstruct what had happened from what they
did say.
The head of the research facility, Dr. Long, called me in, having found
out about my investigation. He more or less hinted that I would keep my
nose out of things if I wanted to keep my job, and possibly if I wanted to
live. My need for employment and my cowardice outweighed my principles,
and so I remained silent.
Dr. Krupp, who somehow survived, was fired summarily, the blame pinned on
him, and a few weeks later he threw himself into traffic and died. The
lab disaster brought such bad publicity that the facility was soon closed
down, but I was transferred to do research elsewhere. Five years ago, I
was hit by a car and ended up with a disabled pension from NERV and
retired to quiet obscurity.
I might never have told this story, except for my fear that the recent
events with the Angels are connected to what happened that day. I am
still not sure of what exactly was being done in Area Nine, but I fear it
was part of an effort at mass production of Evangelion Pilots, that
somehow they knew what was coming. I have seen both Commander Ikari and
Commander Fuyutsuki of NERV (though, of course, neither held that rank at
the time) go in and out of Area Nine in its heyday, and one of the
Children is connected to two of those who died there. Perhaps I am just
growing paranoid in my isolation, but I think that something is going on
that is being covered up.
"This...this can't really be true, can it?" Asuka asked. "I
mean...You couldn't cover up something like this, could you?"
"The Free Press is often not very free, ever since the chaos after
Second Impact," Anna said. "We're only now really starting to open up
again. So if you have a plausible explanation for something most people
wouldn't want to believe anyway because it sounds like a cheap horror
movie, then yes, I think you could, especially if you offer up a scapegoat
for it."
"I...I should...I ought to talk to this man," Asuka said.
"There is an email address. And you might want to talk to Dr.
Himmelfarb. She might know the truth. If she's willing to tell it."
Asuka shuddered. "I have to know the truth."
Anna nodded. "You have the right to know."
-*-
"My understanding is that Area Nine was doing the genetic research
which enabled the development of the Evangelion Units," Dr. Himmelfarb
said. "Which involved large amounts of working with genetically
engineered mice and rats as well as with samples from Adam. The lab
disaster itself was the result of Dr. Krupp's sloppiness in storage of
various chemicals and failure to inspect various storage containers. The
result of this was the flooding of the air conditioning with
hallucinogenic gases, followed by poisoning and spreading of fires. My
understanding was that your mother, pregnant, succumbed to the poisons
because she overstressed herself trying to help another pregnant woman get
out, while your father went back in to help people and died as a result of
that."
"Why was the lab storing hallucinogenic gases?" Asuka asked in
disbelief.
"They weren't originally hallucinogenic, until containers leaked
and mixed together."
Asuka said, "Did you ever know Dr. Krause?"
"We worked together for a while until his accident. He was a
quiet, nervous man, but a good scientist and hard worker. I did know he
was the one who took you to the infirmary that day."
"Where is he now?"
"I don't know, although I got the vague impression he was from
somewhere in Saxony. Leipzig, maybe."
"I guess I'm going to have to confront Commander Ikari about
this."
Dr. Himmelfarb sighed. "If it is true, he isn't going to tell you
the truth."
"I'll MAKE him tell me," Asuka said.
-*-
"Babies eating their way out of their mothers," Gendo said.
"I want to know the truth!" Asuka banged her fist on the table.
"There was a lab accident due to Dr. Krupp turning out to be far
more stupid than anyone had ever imagined. Your parents died trying to
save people. Who told you this story about rampaging monster babies?"
Gendo's voice was somewhat mocking.
"I found it on a website by someone who worked there. Dr.
Himmelfarb confirmed he was there."
Gendo turned his monitor around and passed his keyboard to Asuka.
"Please show me this website."
Asuka got out her notepad, on which she'd written down the url and
punched it in. She got a 404 instead. "Dammit, I think I wrote it down
wrong."
"Take your time," Gendo said, rising. "I'm going to get a cup of
coffee. Would you like some?"
"No, thank you," she said and kept typing.
He came back with fresh coffee and several donuts, one of which he
began to eat. He leaned back in his chair. "How is it going?"
"Dammit, I can't find the website," she said. "I'm going to have
to get the copy I saved at home and double-check the address."
"Alright," Gendo said. "I am stuck here until five."
"I'll be back sooner than that."
-*-
The web search couldn't find the page. Her bookmarked url gave
her a 404 error. The saved version had vanished off her hard drive. She
hadn't printed it out yet, so she didn't have a hard copy. She did still
have the man's email address in her address book, though.
Asuka cursed loudly. "Dammit!"
Shinji stuck his head in the door. "What's wrong?"
"Shinji, you believe me, don't you?" she asked softly.
"Uh, believe you about what?" he asked, coming over to her.
"About what happened."
"Umm, happened to what?"
"Oh wait, I hadn't told you."
"Yes," he said, a little impatiently.
She got up and hugged him silently. "I found this website, you
see..." She explained the whole story, leaning against him. "But now I
can't find the site, and almost all my evidence is gone."
"Well, you know, given the man got all his information from people
dying of poison after inhaling hallucinogens, it's possible that they
imagined the whole baby thing," Shinji said softly. "If some kind of
genetic experiment creature got loose which they'd made out of
Adam's...stuff, they might have all somehow gotten the idea it ate its way
out of someone."
"Shinji, it...it...you don't think I imagined the whole thing, do
you?"
"No, of course not, but I don't think I'd trust some disgruntled
ex-employee telling a story that sounds like a cheap horror movie either,"
Shinji said. "And even he admitted he hadn't actually SEEN any of what he
claimed happened."
"You saw what my blood did to Anna. Now imagine if some babies
were injected with it or something? Or even engineered to be
part-Adam...Shinji, that could be where Rei came from."
He frowned. "Hmm, I suppose that would make sense. But you don't
have any evidence."
"I have his email address. Once he writes me back, I can find out
more."
"Good luck."
"Kiss me," she said softly.
Shinji leaned in and kissed her. She pressed hard against him
while they kissed, then leaned back and said, "Can you just...sit with me
a while?"
"Sure," Shinji said, going over to sit down on her bed with her,
an arm around her shoulders. "I...I wouldn't mind if you ever want to do
that again."
"Do what again?"
"Make me a German lunch."
She smiled. "You could just ask."
"Ask...oh, right, ask. Yes."
"You don't have to be nervous. I won't bite," Asuka said, then
kissed his cheek. "I'll make you a nice lunch tomorrow, then. What would
you like?"
"Surprise me," he said. "I don't know much about German cooking."
"Alright," she said. "I have some good ideas. Hmm, you all done
with your homework?"
"Ack! I came over to ask you for help with something, but no, I
have a big mountain of it to finish," Shinji said.
She got up. "Okay, then, let's defeat your homework, and then we
can do something fun."
"Sounds good to me," he said.
-*-
"You want us to do what?" Hikari asked.
"We've decided to see if we can lessen cult recruiting by having
each of you record some public service announcements to the effect that
you are not gods," Maya said.
"Maybe we should just make a big public appearance to do it,"
Hikari said.
"We may try that, but we're worried about rioting, whereas radio
and TV ads rarely cause rioting."
"People often don't believe them either," Hikari said.
Maya sighed. "I know, but it can't hurt, I hope."
"Sure," Hikari said. "Let's go."
"Follow me."
-*-
Touji faked left, stutter-stepped right, then pulled back for a
fadeaway jumper.
Clang. Clang. Swish.
He smirked. "Ha. Still got the touch. That's the power of the
captain of the basketball team!"
Shinji picked up the ball and tossed it to him. "Too bad there
isn't a basketball team to play for anymore."
Touji caught the ball and shot a quick jumper. "That's a problem,
yeah."
Clang. Thud. Swish.
Shinji tossed the ball to him again. "How's your sister? Doing
any better?"
"Backboard!" Touji shouted, shooting again.
Thud. Swish.
"Sis is... well, she's still in a coma, but now she mumbles a lot.
Weird stuff. Aiya Aiya Callyou! Or something."
"Uh."
"It's better than her just being quiet," said Touji. "I think."
"Yeah."
Touji shot more baskets in silence for a while, then asked, "Any
strange dreams lately?"
Shinji shook his head. "No. You?"
"Nope."
"Oh."
"Let's hope it stays that way, eh?"
"Yeah," Shinji said. "Has Maya gotten you to do one of those ads
yet?"
"Tomorrow," Touji said. "You think I should dress up?"
"She had me wear my plug suit for the TV one."
"Any idea when these will air? I'd like to see myself." He
dribbled the ball around Shinji in a circle, then took a shot and made it,
grinning.
"You'd have to ask Maya," Shinji said.
"Right. I reckon I'll do that." He made another shot which
missed. "Later."
-*-
"Did you ever hear back from that guy?" Hikari asked Asuka.
"No. We tracked down his address, but he's in Leipzig. And he's
not answering the phone."
"Maybe you should take a train there and check," Hikari said.
"It's about six hours by train there. We could wait for Sunday
and make a day trip of it," Anna said.
"Alright, sounds good," Asuka said. "If it all turns out to be
fake or something, we can just make it a girls' day out."
"I'll see about finding some nice places to visit while we're
there," Anna said.
"Should be fun," Hikari said.
-*-
Touji stared at himself on the screen. "Ugh. I look like a total
dweeb."
"The camera never lies," Asuka said, grinning.
The viewing room was packed full of staffers and Children, as they
watched the various short spots Maya had filmed.
"The camera keeps wobbling," Anna said.
"It's a dynamic viewpoint," Maya said.
"Dynamically wobbling," Misato muttered. "Can we turn the sound
up?"
"You'd hear it better if everyone didn't talk over it," Maya said
a little crossly.
That got the silence she wanted.
-*-
"So bored..." Touji mumbled as he sat on a bench with Shinji.
Shinji, listening to music on his headphones, did not reply.
"I wanna do something."
"Do what?" Shinji asked. "We can't even go into town with the
lunatics on the loose and no one to translate."
"We could play basketball," Touji said hopefully.
"You already beat me enough today," Shinji said. "I wish Asuka
was here."
"I wish Hikari was here," Touji said.
For a time, silence.
"We're pathetic," Touji said. "Our girlfriends are gone, and
we're just sitting here on this bench." He groaned and looked up at the
sky.
"We could go watch TV."
"Wouldn't understand it." Touji paused. "You think they'd let us
try the shooting gallery?"
"We're too young in Germany, too."
He sighed again. "Gotta be SOMETHING we can do."
"Maybe we..." Shinji paused.
"Something wrong?"
"I don't know," Shinji said. "I have a bad feeling."
"As in 'incoming attack' bad?"
"No, just a feeling."
Touji sighed. "Damn. Hmm, we could go play some computer games,
I guess."
"Alright," Shinji said, getting up. "Should be fun."
"Funner than the bench, anyway."
-*-
Far away, Asuka, Anna, and Hikari had found the apartment building
of Dr. Krause, a stolid old brownstone, and gone inside to talk to the
landlord.
"He's dead," the landlord said to Asuka. "Has been for days now.
Someone tried to rob his apartment and ended up shooting him dead." He
was a short, balding man, about as wide as he was tall.
"..."
"They stole his TV, his computer, the silverware and a lot of his
books. Very thorough." The landlord shook his head. "A pity. Dr.
Krause was a quiet man, never bothered anyone. The funeral was very
nice."
"When did he die?"
"The twenty-second."
A week before I found his webpage, she thought. I guess the ISP
wasn't lying when they said his account was shut down for not paying his
bill, but... She could still smell a rat.
Going to have to force the truth out of Gendo, she decided. If he
had this man killed, he's going to PAY.
-*-
"I want to know the TRUTH!" Asuka shouted at Gendo.
Sitting behind his desk, he simply folded his hands and fixed his
stare on her. If it was supposed to intimidate her, it didn't work.
"Some things are sensitive information, which is not simply given out to
anyone who asks for it."
"It's about my parents! I have the right to know what really
happened to them! You were there! You know what happened!" She pointed
at him accusingly.
"I expect that if I was there, I would be dead," Gendo said.
"Your parents died bravely trying to save others. That is all that
matters."
"Because you did some kind of genetic experimentation on my
sibling and on all those other babies! And covered it up!" A soft red
glow was forming around her hand now.
"This matter is closed," Gendo said. He pushed his glasses up and
started to turn away from her.
Asuka's hand burned brightly with flames now, only inches away
from Gendo's chest. "WRONG. You are going to tell me or I am going to
beat it out of you!"
For a moment, she saw a look of fear, and then his emotional mask
slammed back down. She could almost smell it now, through the front he
put up. "Do you think Shinji would be very appreciative if you burned me
to death?"
She winced. "I want to know the truth!"
"Your willingness to kill me over this shows how little ready you
are for any real truths," Gendo said. His voice was cold and stern; it
was hard to tell what he was really feeling. She could get a hint of
contempt from it which only made her more angry.
"I'll show..."
Then she felt a pulse of power behind her and turned to see what
it was. Bubbles dispersed as Touji and Shinji stood among them. Shinji
said, "Asuka, what are you doing?" He looked very worried. Touji was
watching her burning hand.
"I want to know what happened to my parents! They've been lying
to me!" Asuka shouted.
Touji half-stepped towards Asuka, then stopped nervously. Shinji
walked over to her and thrust his hand into her flame and took her hand,
staring into her eyes. He said softly, "Please don't threaten my father,
Asuka."
She held his hand tensely. "I want to know the truth. And he and
Fuyutsuki are the only people who know!"
"Father, Asuka has the right to know what happened to her
parents," Shinji said to Gendo. "Please tell her." His voice was
half-pleading, half-demanding, as he looked his father in the face; he
looked worn.
They stared at each other for a few seconds, then Gendo said,
"Alright. This is what happened. The early experiments with the
development of the Evangelion units revealed that most people went mad or
mutated horribly after trying to control our test model. Others died."
He paused, taking a sip of coffee, then brooded for a minute. Finally, he
said, "Like Yui, my wife, Shinji's mother. However, we were able to
establish that Rei could link safely with an EVA unit, and we isolated
what we thought were the genetic factors which would enable other people
to control them. Through careful work, we created fetuses with those
characteristics and implanted them in volunteers."
"My mother volunteered for something like that?" Asuka asked in
horror.
"Your mother understood the danger our world faced. It seemed a
necessary risk. What followed...was a disaster. Our knowledge was
imperfect. We did not fully appreciate the qualities of Adam's genetic
material. The result was that one of the children did, in fact, eat her
way out. In the resulting chaos, things were broken and spilled, a fire
broke out, and the lab went up in anarchy and death." Gendo paused to sip
his coffee.
Continuing, he said, "We don't know all the details, as most of
those involved died, and most of the survivors were too busy panicking to
pay attention. Your mother died when her child ate its way out as well,
apparently trying to escape the disaster. Your father helped some of the
few survivors out, then went back in after his wife and died as a result
of too much exposure to the poisonous gases. Dr. Krupp, the lab head,
killed himself a few days later from shame."
"How could you do something like that? That's horrible, going
around altering the genetics of babies! How could you do that to my
parents?" Asuka shouted, flames now erupting all over her body. Shinji
continued to grip her hand.
"Because the future of humanity was on the line. Until it was
discovered that YOU could be a pilot, we had no potential pilots but Rei,
and Rei...our efforts to duplicate Rei were a total disaster. And if we
had no pilots, humanity would be doomed when the Angels came."
"So Rei IS a genetic experiment." Asuka struggled to calm
herself.
"Yes. This why all those clones rampaged during Adam's escape.
Unfortunately, they were all flawed. Only Rei can survive exposure to LCL
and remain human and sane, and we don't know why. Even now." Gendo's
voice was firm, but his hands shook slightly.
Asuka's self-control broke down again, though she was trying to
control herself, for Shinji's sake if not for Gendo's. "Why didn't you
ever TELL ME?"
"It could only bring you pain," Gendo said. "And it was true.
The few survivors said they tried to help people and there was a
laboratory accident. You were a small child and having to tell you your
parents were dead was bad enough."
Asuka began to cry. "I'm not a child any more."
"An adult would not, I hope, threaten to kill me because of my
refusal to reveal classified information," Gendo said. "Your power is
vast, but your maturity still has a long way to go."
"Father, that was cruel," Shinji said sharply. "Can't you see
you've hurt her?"
"I tried to avoid having to tell her," Gendo said, turning to
Shinji. "But she insisted on the whole story and so did you." His tone
of voice made it clear he felt no guilt at her reaction.
"Mama, papa..." Asuka broke down completely.
"Shinji, Touji, please take her home," Gendo said tightly. For a
moment, Shinji could see his eyes through the glasses, tracking her
flames.
"Yes, sir," Touji said softly. He seemed relieved to go.
"We will," Shinji said, turning to Asuka and leading her out with
an arm around her.
They departed. Gendo sat in silence, watching them go. Once
their footsteps faded, he got up and shut the door, then came back over to
his chair and took a long draught of coffee. Then he began to shake and
spilled the rest of it on his desk.
And then the tears came.
-*-
Shinji sat on Asuka's bed, his arms around her, holding her.
She'd finished crying earlier, and now she was just quiet, listening to
the soft music he'd put on her stereo. Anna and Hikari sat in chairs
nearby, and Touji lurked near the door with the look of someone who felt
he ought to do something, but didn't know what.
Hikari asked softly, "You want to play cards or something, Asuka?
Or would you rather we give you some privacy?"
"Don't leave me alone," she said softly.
"I'll go get some cards," Touji said.
He left, and quickly after, Rei entered hesitantly, a book in her
hands. "May I?" she asked.
Asuka started to say no, to yell at her and tell her to go away
forever. And then she remembered what she had learned, that Rei was just
an experiment, something which had been made to be a pilot. She'd been a
puppet all her life.
Everything Asuka was struggling with inside herself, the changes
moving her away from humanity, Rei had struggled with that her entire
life. She glanced at the book; it was another manga. 'One Summer Day',
another love triangle story. There had to be some better way for Rei to
get a grip on how to deal with people than that.
She could feel Rei's pain; she could smell the regrets. Asuka
thought about how she'd nearly tried to fry Gendo to a crisp a little
earlier. Control was so hard, and it was so easy to give in to the beasts
howling in her mind, the pieces of souls she had stolen, devoured,
assimilated. They wanted her to be like them, a killer, a monster.
Looking over at Shinji, she wondered if he felt like she did, if
these voices gibbered at him. He seemed so kind and gentle, like they
could never do that to him. He smiled back at her, and his smile made her
feel more human. It gave her strength for what she needed to do.
She reached inside her mind, to a place she didn't want to go,
ever. Where the fragments of the Violator lived, and she beat them down
with the anger she'd been directing at Rei, and probed into them, trying
to find the answers she'd been afraid to look for.
To her regret, it didn't know. It could only see what happened to
those directly under its sway, not what happened to those merely
influenced. She kicked its mind, and came back to herself, back to her
sorrow.
Rei looked just like she felt, Asuka realized. So sad and lonely.
She didn't want to forgive Rei; the memory of what had happened was still
strong. But she had lost her certainty that Rei had done what she did out
of the freedom of her own will. Rei had been overcome, as others were,
and hadn't been able to help herself. She could tell that now,
intellectually, though her gut feelings still screamed in outrage and
pain.
So she forced her instincts down, and tried to keep the reins in
the hands of her rational mind. "Yes, come in," Asuka said softly. "So
you were an experiment."
Rei blinked and came over to kneel in front of Asuka. "My birth,
yes."
"Are we all just puppets? Just someone's experiment?" Asuka asked
bitterly. "Damned to turn into monsters because no one knew what they
were doing?"
"We are the Children," Rei said. "That is destiny. But what we
do, that is us."
Touji came back with the cards, then looked nervously at Rei and
Asuka.
"I feel like a puppet, a doll, just dancing on strings and doing
what I'm told like a mannequin," Asuka said angrily. "What else haven't
they told us?"
"Many things, I think," Anna said.
"Yeah, there's a lot of secrets here," Touji said.
"It doesn't always help much to know the truth," Shinji said. "It
hurts, sometimes."
Asuka began to shake, though not to cry. She said, "I don't want
to be a monster."
"You're not a monster," Hikari said firmly. "You're my friend,
and a good human being. We may have special powers, but that just gives
us more responsibilities. It doesn't make us monsters."
"We are more gods than monsters," Anna said. "Don't fear your
powers. Embrace them and use them wisely. It is why we were born, to
have these abilities. This is why we exist."
"I just want to know what's going on," Asuka said, sighing as her
rage began to fade. She leaned against Shinji. "Shinji...you don't
regret being my boyfriend, do you?"
Shinji blushed slightly. "Of course not," he said. "You're a
very good girlfriend."
Rei stared at the floor.
Asuka tried to make herself smile and failed. She could still
feel her thoughts spinning, but she didn't want to burden everyone too
much with them. I hate feeling like this, she thought. "Let's all play
cards."
Rei got up.
Asuka said, "You too, Rei. I don't like you. I don't know if
I'll ever like you. But...but Shinji likes you. And I trust Shinji. I
want to hate you, but I just...You probably can't help how you are,
and..." She shuddered, and held back the urge to cry more. "I need
people here, right now. Even you and Touji."
"Hey!" Touji said. "I ain't stayin' if I ain't wanted."
"Don't go," Asuka said, staring at him sadly. "Please."
"Uh, okay," he said, then sat down awkwardly with the cards.
"What are we gonna play?"
"Poker," Asuka said.
"I'll get my change cup," Anna said.
The game couldn't take away Asuka's pain, but it did, at least,
dull the edges a little.
-*-
Gendo paced back and forth. "We are going to have to take
stronger measures to try to weaken the cult. The ads are not working."
"Perhaps if we give them more time..." Fuyutsuki began as he sat
at the briefing table, sipping his coffee.
"We don't have time," Gendo said. "If the timeline for the rising
of the Sea King is the same as last time, we have only weeks at best, and
probably less, until he rises. Since we can't strike at them without
proof that would satisfy the inspectors, we have to up the level of our
publicity campaign."
Fuyutsuki sighed. "But the more public the announcement, the
higher the security risk."
"They will deny anything they can't see with their own eyes,"
Gendo said. "It has to be here, and it has to be in public. I don't like
it, but time grows short. We can't afford to risk them being used against
us, or them deciding to storm the base to try to 'liberate' the Children.
Or having more of our staff attacked whenever they go to town. They
actually ambushed one of our supply trucks yesterday. I want them removed
before the 'Envoy' comes for them." He sat down. "Do you think..."
"The inspectors? I don't think they like us, but they do not seem
too hideously biased. And can you blame them?"
Gendo shook his head, sipping his own coffee. "No. I fear I
would not like me either." He stared at his gloves. "We are so close.
So close to the end of it all. Tell me we're going to make it."
"We're going to make it," Fuyutsuki said.
"Good."
"Unless Nylarathotep corrupts the Children and they feast on our
hearts," Fuyutsuki continued.
Gendo winced. "I'm supposed to be the one who looks on the dark
side."
"My hope is great, but so is my fear," Fuyutsuki said, staring
into his glass.
"Just keep telling yourself, only two more to go."
"Possibly plus the Envoy."
"THREE more to go."
Fuyutsuki rose. "Time to make the announcements."
"Good luck."
"I never count on luck."
"Nor I, but I cannot help hoping for it. Even I am superstitous
in my own way."
Fuyutsuki shook his head. "So are we all."
-*-
Maya paced back and forth as everyone got into position and the
cameras finished setting themselves up. It had to be publically viewable,
so that the cultists would have no excuses to claim the broadcast had been
faked by NERV. The advertising campaign was having little effect because
the cultists had convinced themselves it was all staged and done with CGI.
Those present at this conference would see the Children deny their
divinity with their own eyes.
This raised massive security issues, however. They'd set up in
the town square, and the area right around the cameras and platform were
guarded by NERV security and the local police, but both groups were a thin
blue line between the great mob of onlookers and the stage. She had a bad
feeling this could lead to rioting. But Fuyutsuki had decided a very
public statement was best. Anything more secure would be more easily
deniable.
She had agreed at first, but now she wasn't so sure.
Ritsuko put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down," she said.
Maya tried to and failed. "They're going to riot."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Misato said. "If we have to shoot
these people, it's just going to be hideously ugly. I can't imagine why
Fuyutsuki is insisting on doing this in this way. If we wanted a public
announcement, we should have gone to Berlin or something, where there's
more secure locations. Or just broadcast from the base."
"The cultists are here and need to see it. They wouldn't believe
the ads, thought they were faked," Ritsuko said, shaking her head. "But
this, they can't deny. I suspect he may be hoping the cultists will be
willing to take an order to stand down from the Children if they can't be
convinced to stop worshipping them," Ritsuko said. "And we do have a way
out kept open."
"I don't like this," Misato said. "Ingrid thinks we'll be okay,
but I just...Too much can go wrong."
"Let us hope for the best, and plan for the worst." Ritsuko
checked her notes nervously, waiting.
"We're ready," one of the cameramen said to Maya.
She nodded and came to the front, stepping up to the podium.
"Hello, everyone," she said. "I'm Maya Ibuki of NERV. We are aware our
organization is often rather secretive. A lot of that is necessitated by
security reasons; if we tell the world things, our enemies hear them too.
But sometimes we can be more close-mouthed than is really necessary, so
we're staging this show to give you all more of an idea of how things have
been going and what NERV does to work for the security of the world.
We're also going to be dealing with a question which has aroused a lot of
interest, why it is that these Children are the only ones who can pilot
Evangelion units. We hope you enjoy our show, and pardon our lack of
grace, we're scientists and soldiers, not entertainers."
She did her best to smile. "First up is our own tactical section
commander, Major Misato Katsuragi, who will be explaining our past
campaigns."
Misato stepped up and began to give a series of reports on the
past missions, with Maya translating. Nervous at first, she soon forgot
all the cameras pointing at her and became comfortable in her report.
High above them, the sky began to be streaked by falling meteors,
first a few streaks, and then many. Some of those listening gazed up and
watched the rocks fall from the heavens, though it was hard to see them
through the lights of the town.
Ritsuko was next, with Dr. Himmelfarb assisting and translating
for her. She laid out how one of the Angels had been captured in
Antarctica and studied, used as the blueprint for creating weapons with
which to fight the Angels, and how the Second Impact had thrown various
substances into the atmosphere of Angelic manufacture, which had produced
the many mutations noteworthy in children concieved within a year or so of
Second Impact. In the case of some children, there was a mutation which
allowed one to synchronize with and control the Evangelion units.
She repeated NERV's current operating theory: the Angels were
alien war machines, abandoned on Earth for unknown reasons, and now coming
awake due to the shifts in the Earth's magnetic field since Second Impact,
or possibly due to signals released by malfunctioning Angelic machines
shortly before Second Impact.
Gendo looked up at the sky and frowned. "Do you think...?" he
asked Fuyutsuki.
"I have a bad feeling this may be it," Fuyutsuki replied.
Ritsuko then turned things over to the Children to speak. She had
intended for Asuka to be the spokeswoman, but Asuka was so depressed
lately that they expected she would do more harm than good. Since Anna
was the only other one who could speak German, they'd asked her to speak
on behalf of the Children. She'd been eager to accept.
"Greetings, peoples of Earth," Anna said, reading from her speech.
"We are the Children, chosen by destiny to rescue mankind from the threat
of the Angels. We will lead humanity into the light of a new age, out of
this age of darkness which has come since the fall of the old world in the
Second Impact. The old gods have failed, we are the new gods who will
lead humanity in a new age."
Asuka hardly noticed what Anna was saying, too lost in a funk to
pay much attention to it. The rest of the Children, blissfully unaware of
what Anna was actually saying, sat quietly and tried to look responsible.
Misato listened and tried to piece together what Anna was saying,
but couldn't manage it. Ritsuko winced, as did Maya. Fuyutsuki
frantically signalled the cameramen to cut the cameras. They tried, but
Fuyutsuki could still see the broadcast continuing on his monitor. He
signalled again.
The cameraman came over to him, saying, "The cameras won't turn
off, sir."
"We have to stop her," Fuyutsuki said urgently.
"The mob will riot," Misato said, half-watching Anna. "What's she
doing?"
"NERV is a corrupt organization, which has killed the following
people," Anna said, beginning to read from a list.
Asuka failed to notice; she was half-zoning out, lost in her own
thoughts. The other Children listened to the list of names and wondered
what she was doing.
"She's condemning NERV. We're going to have to chance the riot,"
Fuyutsuki said.
And then Weiss' cellphone rang.
-*-
Otto Hausen banged away at his keyboard, trying to get his weekly
report done so he could go home and relax. It had been a quiet week, in
which Polaris had found nary a hint of Angels, but he still had to give a
daily breakdown of the scanning and write an extensive report which would
take 20 pages to say 'Nothing Happened.' His work was interrupted,
however, by his computer speaking to him. "WARNING, ANGEL SIGNAL
DETECTED."
He quickly saved his report and switched windows, calling up the
Polaris Activity Monitor. Polaris had just picked up an Angel signal
entering the Earth's atmosphere from the general direction of the galactic
core.
He fumbled for his cellphone. Time to call Commander Weiss, he
thought.
-*-
Weiss took the call and quickly talked to Otto.
One of the stars high above was growing brighter as Ritsuko
stepped up to another microphone. "There are no gods. The powers of the
Children are entirely explainable by scientific means and reproducible by
science. Would real gods need an extensive support structure to provide
them with weaponry and LCL? Would their divine powers only awaken after
the use of scientifically developed equipment to battle other
scientifically explainable alien beings?"
Anna turned and glared daggers at Ritsuko. Shinji asked Asuka,
"What's going on?"
Asuka started and tried to make sense of the things she'd heard,
but which she hadn't really been paying attention to. Her eyes widened a
little as it all sank in. "Anna is claiming we're gods," she said.
"Which we aren't." She stared at the ground. "Monsters maybe, but not
gods."
Hikari strode up and grabbed another microphone. "We are not
gods!" she said in Japanese. "If we were, we wouldn't need translators
and Touji would get better grades."
"HEY!" Touji said.
"I keep telling him to study, but he won't study hard enough,"
Hikari said. "Anna here may think she's a goddess, but I guess she's
forgotten all the times she's had nightmares and run crying to Asuka."
Hikari looked meaningfully at Asuka for confirmation. Asuka said,
"Anna, what are you doing? Why are you doing this?" She had a very bad
feeling she knew why, but she didn't want to believe it could be true.
Not again. Not to Anna.
"What else could you call these powers we weild but the power of
gods?" Anna asked. "Didn't the Elder Gods tell Asuka and Touji that
their blood flowed in our veins?" she asked them.
"Uhh...yeah, they might have said something about that," Touji
said, trying to remember.
The brightly glowing star became a streak, heading off east of
town.
The crowd stirred restlessly. Gendo glanced over at the UN
Inspectors, who looked rather nervous, for which he couldn't blame them.
If I had known that Anna was going to turn on us, Gendo thought, I
wouldn't have done this. But now all we can do is try to salvage it.
"Angel, incoming, going to land 3 kilometers east of town," Weiss
said to Fuyutsuki.
Gendo winced.
"Children, we have an Angelic attack! We're going to bring your
EVA units. Get ready!" Fuyutsuki shouted.
The crowd began to chant "Blessed be the Children!"
"We do not need your machines any more!" Anna announced. "We are
gods made flesh!" She rose into the air, sprouting a winged aura. "Come,
let us destroy our foe that we might feast on its power!"
And then she flew in the direction the meteor was going.
The Children stared at her in shock as she took to the sky.
Touji mumbled, "What's she talking about now?"
"Anna, come back!" Asuka shouted, taking to the sky and flying
after her.
"Stop, stop!" Misato shouted. "It's too dangerous!"
Rei now sprouted black wings and flew after Anna and Asuka.
"How are we..." Touji began.
Shinji took each of them with one arm and grew great white wings
and flew into the air.
"Well, shit," Touji said.
"Shinji, come back here!" Misato shouted.
"I can't let them go alone!" he said.
"At least turn on your cellphone so you can let us know what's
going on!" Misato shouted.
Shinji said, "Hikari, call Misato's phone."
She nodded and did so as Shinji streaked east.
-*-
As the support staff began trying to load the EVA units onto their
transports, the units stirred to life, sending support staff running in
every direction.
They smashed their way out of the hanger, then began to run
cross-country towards the Rhine.
-*-
The glowing meteor impacted before the Children could catch up
with it. As they approached, they saw it smash into a cannery and a
machine parts plant, reducing both to crushed and twisted metal.
Surrounded by a fused and warped parabola of hotly glowing metal, the
meteor's icy exterior broke open, releasing a large glowing yellow mass
about the size of a small car which oozed up the side of its own crater.
As it moved, it began to devour the metal and rock around it, growing in
size.
"Great, it's the damn Blob," Touji said. "Anyone got a giant
freezer handy?"
Rei spread her arms and the skies clouded over. Shinji and Asuka
saw this and concentrated as well. Soon, a massive snowstorm was erupting
down on the creature. It seemed more annoyed than hurt.
"This isn't the Blob!" Anna shouted. "It's a Seed of Azathoth,
not a B-movie monster!"
"What the fuck is that?" Touji asked.
"In the center of the universe dwells the Daemon Sultan,
Azathoth," Anna said. "Surrounded by his court, which soothes his insane
rages, he rules over all of creation. At times, he spawns, spitting forth
a portion of himself which travels through space until it strikes a world,
which it then devours to become a junior version of its father."
"Shit," Touji said.
"We have to confine it with our AT-fields," Shinji said. "As we
did to Adam."
"Do you really think we can do it without our EVAs?" Hikari asked
nervously.
"We have to try," Shinji said.
Hikari relayed the information to Misato, who replied, //"The EVAs
have burst loose and are coming your way. See if you can hold it with the
AT-fields, but don't risk getting yourself killed before they get
there."//
"Damn, I wish I could sprout wings too," Touji said. "So we could
all spread out around it."
"You can!" Anna shouted. "We absorbed Adam's power, and now our
forms are as fluid as his."
"Really?" Touji asked. He tried telling his body to grow wings.
His shirt ripped as huge red wings now erupted out of his shoulderblades.
"Well, damn."
"What, completely fluid?" Hikari asked as she grew wings.
"We are gods! Our flesh obeys our commands!" Anna shouted as she
moved into position.
The Children fanned out, forming a hexagon around the growing
Seed, which continued to lash about wildly, devouring everything its
fluidly shifting tentacles lashed about. They extended their arms and
formed six AT-fields. Four of them shone brightly, two glowed dimmer.
They extended outwards until they touched each other, and then they began
to close in on the Seed.
It began to lash out against their fields, but the fields held,
slowly pressing it in on itself, compacting it. But the more it was
compressed the stronger the pressure grew.
They could feel the howling of its mind as it pressed against
their AT-fields. Touji began to sweat, afraid it was going to break
through where he was; he could feel his AT-field bending. Rei pressed in
silently, with perhaps just a hint of triumph in her eyes. Anna grinned
like a cat playing with a mouse, while Shinji looked openly scared but
advanced none the less. Asuka looked very grim. Touji glanced over at
Hikari, and saw she looked pretty nervous.
This is too easy, Touji thought. Even if it's not going so well
for me. He felt himself slide back a step and tried to dig his feet into
the ground. I wish our EVAs would get here.
//"How's it going?"// Misato asked Hikari.
"I think we're winning. We got here fast enough, I guess."
Hikari tried to calm her nerves, but she was very scared of all the things
which could go wrong here.
//"Commander Fuyutsuki wants you to contain it until the EVAs
arrive. He's hoping we can take it alive."//
"Can we really contain this thing?" Hikari asked.
//"He believes so, if you can make sure it doesn't grow any
larger."//
The fields had become a sphere, pressing in on the Seed from all
sides. Its sickly yellow glow cast the features of the Children in a
ghoulish light. It was screaming in impotent, ignorant rage, the howl of
a caged animal, a mind full of power but unintelligent.
Hikari shouted to the others, "They want us to contain it until
the EVA units arrive so it can be taken into captivity!"
"Gendo and Fuyutsuki want to steal its power for themselves! Do
you really think NERV can contain this thing any better than they did
Adam?" Anna shouted. "They knew what this is, but didn't bother to tell
us! They're hoping we'll remain dependent on them!"
The Children weren't sure, looking back and forth nervously at
each other. They could feel it growing weaker under their assault, but it
continued to fight back desperately. And then it stopped fighting,
compacting itself ever smaller.
"What the..." Touji said.
"It's getting ready for an all-out assault!" Anna shouted. "We
have to hit it first!"
Several things happened at once.
The Children slammed down their AT-Fields on it, trying to crush
it before it could release itself to strike.
It uncoiled itself and threw all its power at Hikari, who it had
identified as the weakest link.
The result was that it was crushed like toothpaste in a tube, with
Hikari as the cap. The vast bulk of it was crushed to death between the
five other AT-fields, but it blew many small holes in Hikari's AT-field,
and a large amount of its mass was ripped into a fine mist and flung up
into the atmosphere over the town and countryside.
The rest of it, trapped, died screaming as the Children feasted on
its power. It was not a very pleasing taste to their palates, like
drinking battery acid. Hikari, in fact, became sufficiently queasy to
throw up once she was done. But at the same time, the rush of power
brought them all a fierce ecstasy, a physical pleasure in sucking the life
out of the struggling, damned infant creature. It screamed and writhed,
trying to break free, but they were merciless, crushing it and devouring
its soul inch by inch.
And then it perished completely, and the sweet ecstasy faded,
leaving only the bitter aftertaste.
Touji came over to Hikari, fighting the urge to throw up himself.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she said, coughing and shaking. "I feel so...like I
have a fever."
"Azathoth's power, even that of one of his children, is not easy
to contain," Anna said.
"How did you know what this thing was?" Shinji asked. He now flew
over to Asuka, who was staring at the ground.
"Asuka and I have been doing research, and I recognized it from
that," Anna said. "And from Adam's memories."
"You okay?" Shinji asked Asuka.
"I wish I'd never become one of the Children," Asuka said softly,
then turned to embrace Shinji as they hovered in the air. "I liked it...I
liked tasting his death...I'm horrible." She shuddered, feeling even more
depressed, if it was possible. She clung to Shinji like a lifeline.
"It was going to devour the entire planet," Shinji said. "We
didn't have a choice." His voice was shaking as he tried to convince
himself of that.
//"It's dead?"// Misato asked over the cellphone. //"Hikari, are
you okay?"//
"I'm fine, just a little sickly," Hikari said to Misato. Her
stomach gurgled and she prayed she would not throw up.
Touji suddenly realized Hikari was now blonde. He scratched his
head and tried to figure out if this had just now happened a second ago or
if he'd just been not thinking clearly.
"We had to kill it before it could escape, but some of its remains
seem to have been kicked up into the air," Hikari continued.
//"The EVA units are almost here. I suspect you'll need them to
contain the fallout,"// Misato said. //"Please report back."//
"Katsuragi-san says it is time for us to come back," Hikari
relayed to the others.
Anna said, "Yes, it is time for the TRUTH to come out."
-*-
The crowd began to cheer as the Children flew down and landed on
the platform. Anna's voice boomed across the field. "Our foe is
defeated! Rejoice, for we have brought you salvation once more!"
The crowd cheered louder, while Gendo frowned. "What is this
malarky about you being gods, Anna? We're not here to get humanity to
worship us."
"We ARE gods," Anna said. "In every meaningful sense. We can
create life and take it away." She extended one of her fingernails and
cut her palm. A tiny trickle of blood flowed and formed into a half-dozen
butterflies which rose up into the sky. "The elements are ours to
command. We can battle invading gods and win. Our powers are ours by
right of birth and blood. We will defeat the invaders and lead humanity
into a new golden age!"
We're monsters, Asuka thought. More likely to destroy humanity
like all the others did, than to save it. She leaned against Shinji,
feeling very lonely.
"Humanity doesn't NEED gods," Gendo barked back. "And your powers
are hardly divine. With our inventions and our minds, we don't need
spiritual protectors. Your powers are our creation, the fruit of science,
not magic."
"Hah! Big words from a man who has probed into dark magics in the
search for power!" Anna said. "From one who has pondered the words of Al
Azif and used the ancient magical powers of the Outer Gods in combination
with science to create the Evangelion units themselves. FROM A MEMBER OF
SEELE!"
"SEELE? What is SEELE?" Misato asked. She tried to think of what
to do. The cameras couldn't be shut off, and efforts to move them had
been futile as well. The mob would riot completely, and trying to shoot
Anna would just anger the Children and the mob while probably failing to
even hurt her, let alone silence her. And she didn't like the idea of
just shooting a child, either.
"You are making things up," Gendo said.
High above, the sky twinkled with thousands of stars which were
normally not present.
"What is SEELE?" Shinji asked. He wondered how much of this was
true, and how much not. He glanced over at Asuka, but she was staring at
the ground again.
"For millions of years, there have been those who worshipped the
Outer Gods and the Great Old Ones," Anna said. "Every so often, the cults
reinvent themselves as times change. Old fronts become unreliable or
unstable, and beliefs move on. Thus it was that the Order of Starry
Wisdom, also known as the Order of Dagon, reconstituted itself after World
War II as SEELE. Led by the Wanderer, a man now known as Lorentz Keele,
though he has held many names and spawned many legends, it has long
awaited the Day of Return."
"They wait, wait for the day when their master, one of the Great
Old Ones, mighty Cthulhu himself, rises from his burial beneath the sea,
for on that day, his mind will touch the dreams of mankind, and bend them
all to serve him. They believe that on that day, they will be rewarded
for their loyal service. But there has always been a problem, you see..."
As Anna ranted, Ritsuko called Misato, Ingrid, Weiss, and Makoto
together. "We have to do something about the fallout," she said.
"Everyone non-essential needs to be evacuated, and we need to break up the
mob somehow so they will go to shelter. But I fear they'll either ignore
us or panic."
Misato glanced at the crowd. "How are they following the
conversation when everyone is speaking Japanese up on the stage now?"
Ingrid blinked. "What? Anna is speaking German. Commander Ikari
is speaking in Japanese."
"..."
"But we're hearing her in Japanese," Ritsuko said.
They all turned and stared at her as the new stars in the sky drew
a little closer.
"'Great' Cthulhu has many rivals. His power over mortals is vast,
but he cannot command his enemies' dreams. What boots it if he corrupts
humanity, then perishes at the hands of his enemies?" Anna said.
Asuka listened somberly, trying to get a grip on herself. The
fight had given her a bit of an adrenalin rush, but she felt so depressed
that it was hard to make herself care, though deep down, she knew
something had to be wrong. It didn't make things easier that Anna was
confirming a lot of things she'd suspected all along. I have to do
something, she told herself. She tried to convince herself there was
something to be done.
"And that's where NERV comes in. The heads of NERV have been high
ranking members of SEELE. It has been a little dancing puppet designed to
remove all of Cthulhu's rivals so he could have the Earth all to himself.
With the cult controlling the only things which could stop him, the
Children, he would be unstoppable."
"We are not traitors to humanity!" Gendo shouted angrily. "You're
the one who is betraying humanity by trying to set yourself up as a god
over it!"
The crowd booed and hissed at him, clearly inclined to take the
word of the Children over him.
The UN Inspectors took notes and watched carefully, clearly torn
between not trusting Gendo and finding it hard to believe any secret cult
could have been controlling NERV like that.
"And moreover, YOU are under the control of one of the Angels!"
Gendo announced. "The Metatron is upon you! Children, you must capture
her or kill her before her EVA unit arrives and she can do even more
damage!"
The Children turned and stared at Anna in shock. Asuka winced as
her fears were confirmed. I have to do something she told herself. She
started to speak, but was drowned out.
"Lies!" Anna shouted back. "You and Fuyutsuki want to get rid of
me because I know the truth! I am not an Angel, I am a GOD!" She turned
to the Children. "You all know how much of a liar he is! How he's used
and abused us all! He sealed and bound Rei. He blackmailed Touji, using
his sister as a pawn. He hid the truth from Asuka. He threw Shinji away
once Shinji's mother died. He was off having his way with a clone of Rei
when Kaji died! And now he wants to kill me for telling the truth!"
Rei studied Anna intently. Shinji fretted, trying to figure out
what was the truth. He didn't want to hurt Anna, but he couldn't imagine
his father really was part of a cult which was trying to give the world
over to the Angels, either.
Hikari whispered to Touji, "What do you think?"
"I dunno. If Anna knew all this stuff why didn't she say nothing
before? On the other hand, Ikari would lie to us without
hesitating...dammit." He frowned.
Asuka tried to speak, but she couldn't make her lips move. She
feared that Anna was gone, feared that this was like Kensuke all over
again. That there would be nothing she could do. She froze, a deer in
the headlights.
Misato worked on evacuating the NERV personnel as much as she
could and prayed the environmental suits could be delivered from the base
in time. Maya and Makoto tried to work out a plan for evacuation over the
phone with the mayor of the town, but feared there wouldn't be time. And
Ingrid got the security forces ready for the ugly fight she feared was
coming. Weiss hustled the UN Inspectors to a van and got them moving.
Ritsuko stepped forward. "We can argue about who is more evil
later! There's about to be a rain of fallout on this town, and we've got
to get these people to safety!"
"Fallout? Our victory was complete! The ashes of the Seed have
no power!"
"Polaris says they still have Angel energy in them, and I'm not
willing to take risks with people's lives!" Ritsuko said. "If you
actually care about these people at all, you'll tell them to get inside,
out of the fallout!"
"Big words from the degenerate spawn of human and Deep Ones! Like
your mother, you will inevitably become a servant of Cthulhu! Your own
inner corruption prevents you from acknowledging our glory!" Anna
pronounced.
"BEAST!" the mob shouted.
"What the hell is a Deep One?" Touji asked.
Asuka winced, and muttered, "Poor Dr. Akagi." She was doomed too.
But she hadn't just laid down and died. Asuka began focusing her will,
trying to master her own emotions. I have to DO something, she told
herself.
Shinji frowned, then said, "You don't think that's right, do you?
Dr. Akagi has always been very kind to us."
Ritsuko paled and had a panic attack. She tried to pull herself
together. "Whatever my ancestry, I have no intention of serving monsters
from outer space! We can..."
"It was your mother who devised the experiment which impregnated
dozens of women across the world with the hideous spawn of the Angels in
an attempt to breed pilots in bulk! The same experiment that killed
Asuka's parents!" Anna shouted, pointing at Ritsuko.
Ritsuko winced. "I am not responsible for my mother's actions!"
Asuka stared in horror. Shinji winced, and held Asuka's hand a
little tighter.
"Let the light of truth reveal your true form!" And then she
gestured at Ritsuko and a blinding white light shone from her hands over
Ritsuko, who screamed in agony. Her skin began to flake and turn grey.
Where it flaked away, greenish tints took its place. She fumbled
desperately for her purse, but it burned away in the light.
That was enough to finally push Asuka into action. Maybe she was
doomed, Anna was doomed, but she wouldn't let others be pulled down with
them. This wouldn't have happened if I'd done something earlier, Asuka
told herself. Her anger enabled her to push past the paralyzing
depression and self-pity. "Anna, NO!" Asuka said. "Don't do that to her!
She's a good woman! I can't believe she's serving the Angels!" She began
to lumber forward.
"Anna, what are you DOING?" Misato shouted. "I order you to
stop!"
"I am a GOD! I will not submit to mortals telling me what to do!"
Anna shouted back. The light continued to play across Ritsuko,
accelerating her change as she screamed in agony.
Touji looked at what was happening and made his decision. He
didn't like Gendo or Fuyutsuki much, but Ritsuko had always been decent to
him and he couldn't believe she was really some kind of monster spy.
"Anna, stop it!" he said, stepping forwards. Hikari followed his lead.
"Anna, please stop," Asuka pleaded. "She's not a monster. She's
not. Don't turn her into one." Not like us.
"I am only revealing the truth! I have not lied! Just look at
her! Isn't she disgusting?"
Ritsuko's hair was falling out, and her body convulsed. Her skin
was turning dark green and shiny, scaly in places, her forehead bulging.
Fuyutsuki made a pass in the air and mumbled some words, but
nothing seemed to happen. Anna laughed at him. Gendo stood tensely,
close to going for his pistol.
Misato had her hand on hers, stalling in the hopes the Children
would do something, as she feared she could not.
Touji now moved forward, placing a wall of flames between the
light and Ritsuko, who stopped changing, caught halfway through the
metamorphosis. "Anna, STOP IT!"
"So, you reject the truth in favor of your happy, naive lies?"
Anna asked him.
"I think you're either lying or Ikari's right and you are
possessed. You're acting completely crazy!" Touji said.
Shinji stepped up. "Please, Anna, you've got to stop."
"I have seen the truth. I will show it to you!"
Light escaped from her every pore, washing over everyone. There
was only light and then the visions came.
-*-
Anna and Asuka stood on a high place, gazing down on the world.
Wherever they looked, they could see all that transpired. "Gaze on the
world of mortals, my friend," Anna said. "They scurry about as if their
lives meant something, but they will perish like dust, cease to be. Only
we, the gods, will survive the ages, unaging, immortal. Only we can
protect them against the gods who would destroy this, the world of our
birth. But we must rule them, guide them. They are too short-lived and
stupid to be fit to give us orders."
Asuka shivered. "There is only one God, in Heaven above."
"There is no heaven! There is no 'God almighty, maker of heaven
and earth'! That's just a lie people make up to protect themselves
against the night when they're afraid. This..." She spread her arms
wide. "...is all there is, all that matters. There is no immortal soul,
just a body and the mind it creates. And even if there was some God
somewhere, he hasn't lifted a finger to help humanity, so why should we
care? He does nothing while the Angels destroy us."
"He loves us," Asuka said weakly. "And gave us freedom and the
way to salvation."
"The freedom to die horribly? The freedom to end up the slaves of
monsters? What's better, that humanity follow us, who were once human, or
that it be enslaved by alien beasts?" Anna demanded. "There is no God
waiting to save us. He did nothing to save your parents when they were
used and killed. Either we will save ourselves, or we'll all perish and
humanity will be the slaves of aliens. NERV is nothing but a puppet for
Cthulhu. If we don't smash it, it will smash us, and then nothing will be
able to stop him."
Asuka began to cry. "Mama, Papa, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
Anna's face softened. "NERV did that to them. You're not going
to let them get away with that, are you?"
Asuka hesitated and tried to pull her thoughts together.
-*-
Rei watched herself walk down the street, arm in arm with Shinji
and Asuka. Hikari and Touji and Anna walked along with them, all of them
smiling happily. They were on their way to the movies, surrounded by
people throwing flowers at their feet and clearing obstacles out of their
way.
"Wouldn't it be nice to be loved?" Anna asked Rei. "People love
their gods. All we have to do is get rid of the people who are holding us
back, and that could be us."
Rei stared at her other self, who was smiling gently. Her own
face was fraught with longing.
"NERV tried to take you away from Shinji, to make you stop loving
him. They let the Violator escape, so that you would be overwhelmed and
would drive away Shinji and Asuka from you. They sealed you away and
bound you. They want to keep you as their hunting dog," Anna said. "Do
you want to be a puppet forever?"
Rei stared at the six Children, and began to sweat.
-*-
As Shinji and Anna watched, Gendo threw several stone tablets into
the ocean. Then he sat down on a rock and waited. Soon, strange froggish
humanoids came up out of the water. Gendo pointed to several men and
women who lay bound nearby. Some of the froggish humanoids came out of
the water and took the captives, feeding them a strange blue-green moss.
The others sat down near Gendo.
"You have made the offerings, and we have come, in accordance with
the ancient pacts," one of the froggish humanoids said. "What is the will
of SEELE, Simon Magus?"
Shinji frowned. This couldn't be true. His father would never
serve some cult of an Angel.
"The Day of Return approaches. The armies must be made ready for
the time when the Great One ascends to the surface and comes to reclaim
the land. Let the Children of the Great One be made ready to destroy the
naval bases of the great powers, and let the hosts await the dreams of our
Master. But specifically, we need you to scout out sunken Mu. Soon, we
will strike at the Medusa."
The froggish humanoid frowned. "You know how dangerous that is."
"Yes, but we need some idea of what to expect."
"We will go, but there must be bloodprice for any who perish."
"It will be paid," Gendo said firmly. "SEELE has great
resources."
"This can't be real," Shinji said. "Father would never join some
Angel cult!"
"It's quite true. He's also been fucking clones of Rei down in
the basement of NERV all these years. That's what he was doing when he
'died'."
Gendo's sexual practices began to play out before Shinji's eyes.
Shinji turned away.
"Papa wouldn't do that."
"Sure he would. He probably tried to seal Rei's emotions because
he was jealous she liked you better than him."
"He hasn't been sleeping with Rei!" Shinji insisted desperately.
"She does what she's told to do," Anna said. "He's been quite
busy sating his lusts since your mother died."
It can't be, Shinji thought. It can't.
-*-
"She hasn't recovered because she makes a useful oracle, so
they've kept her that way," Anna said as she and Touji floated near his
sister's bed in the hospital.
"She ain't no oracle," he said.
"Just think about the things she's said. And ask yourself why she
isn't getting any better. And you know Gendo has lied to you."
Touji frowned. "I know he's done some crazy shit, but I can't see
him really working for the monsters."
"Do you really think NERV, who can build giant robots that defy
the laws of physics and genetically engineer people to pilot them, can't
fix her damage?" Anna asked.
Touji stared, and wondered if she might be right.
-*-
"He died. And Fuyutsuki brought him back to life," Anna said to
Hikari as she watched Fuyutsuki boiling down Gendo's corpse into a strange
pile of crystals.
"But...that's not possible," Hikari said.
"All things are possible," Anna said. "If only you know how."
Fuyutsuki now chanted over the salts, which shimmered and flowed
and reformed themselves into a naked Gendo.
"No, it's not possible!" Hikari said, her fists clenching and
unclenching. "Only the gods can do that!"
"They used the power of the dark god they follow. But we too are
gods. If we embrace our power, we too will have power over life and
death. You could bring your family back," Anna said kindly.
Hikari felt a wave of emotional pain rise up inside her. "The
dead don't come back. They don't."
"Just ask yourself why they didn't do that for your parents.
Surely they deserved to live."
"Mama, Papa..." Hikari began to cry. As she cried, Gendo now got
up and got dressed and Fuyutsuki began telling him about how he had been
killed by the Violator and how he needed to stop having sex with clones.
Hikari stared and tried to decide what to do.
-*-
"Serve me," Anna said to Maya. "Serve me and I will cleanse her
of her impurities, make her fully human, and the two of you can be
together forever."
Maya shuddered. Maybe she could do it. Nothing else seemed to be
working.
"I will need priestesses, and you are both quite intelligent.
Serve me, and promise to convince her to serve me, and I will break the
curse on her. I have Adam's power within me. I could perfect you both,
make you beautiful and immortal, that your love might last forever without
flaw or shadow. You would not need to conceal your love, for none would
be able to deny her worthiness of it, or yours of hers. I can give you
all of that. If you will serve me."
Ritsuko would never serve Anna, Maya knew. She'd rather die than
bend her knee like that. But if it would save Ritsuko... Maya clenched
her fists and tried to decide.
-*-
Misato made her way through the blinding light to where she
remembered Gendo and Fuyutsuki being. Her instincts were right. "She's
possessed by an Angel?" she asked them.
"Yes," Gendo said. "Or perhaps she has always been the Metatron
and we never realized it. He has at least one human form, and possibly
more."
"But wouldn't Polaris detect him?"
"The Metatron is a being whose power is much greater than that of
most of the foes we have faced," Fuyutsuki said. "He is the voice of God,
so to speak."
"..."
"Not the Judeo-Christian God, but he speaks, in theory, the will
of the most potent beings in the universe, who stand to the Angels as they
stand to us," Fuyutsuki said.
"In theory?" Misato asked.
"They are mindless, for they incarnate the primal, mechanistic
forces. If they have intellects, they are beyond our comprehension. But
while they may accidentally squash us like insects while doing other
things, he seems far more actively malevolent, taking an active interest
in humanity's corruption. That is why I wonder if he really speaks their
will," Fuyutsuki said. "But that is neither here nor there. If we do not
act quickly, his lies may well ensnare almost all of us."
"Hers," Gendo said.
"Let's not argue semantics. You're going to have to shoot her,
Misato," Fuyutsuki said.
"I can't see her to shoot her," Misato said. "And if she's really
that powerful, is my gun going to do much?"
Fuyutsuki frowned. "Possibly not."
-*-
Rei stared at the vision of herself, then turned and gazed upon
Anna. She opened her eyes and gazed deep within Anna; she had to know if
Gendo's accusation was true.
She gazed into Anna's eyes, the mirror of Anna's soul. And for a
moment, before the shields improved themselves, she saw a tri-lobed
burning eye gazing back. And she understood. The Audient Void had taken
Anna. The Crawling Chaos dwelt inside her. It sought to bend the
Children to its service, to chain them and use them as hunting dogs. And
through them, humanity would be bent to its service as well. As had many
races before them.
Rei remembered Xoth, how it had been laid waste as the Children
turned upon each other in the quest for power. She remembered the fall of
the Kingdom of Joy, how the Man in the Pallid Mask had turned its
defenders against each other. The collapse of Borea rose up in her
memory, of how it became an ice planet when its Defenders had been
corrupted by the silver tongue of the Cuckoo, the Blind Ape of Truth, the
Weigher of Worlds.
For a moment, Rei's memories howled and battered at the walls of
her mind, the mind fragments within her tried to take control. But they
were divided against each other, and so she mastered them swiftly. "I
know you," she said.
"Nylarathotep. The Voice of Despair. The Crawling Chaos. The
Audient Void. The Haunter in the Dark. I know you in your forms. I
remember what you have done to a thousand worlds."
"And it's apparently taught you how to talk," Anna said.
"No more lies," Rei said. Her voice raised in intensity, piercing
through the illusions woven around them, to where all could hear her.
"Anna has been taken by Nylarathotep. REMEMBER!"
And the memories rose up within the Children, of the worlds which
had listened to Nylarathotep's silver tongue and been destroyed. Of how
the very monsters they had battled had once been the people and defenders
of worlds which had fallen to the temptation of the power of the Outer
Gods.
And the light of the visions burned away, and then Shinji said,
"Not again. NOT AGAIN! We won't let you have Anna and we won't let you
have our world!"
And then the Children charged, except for Asuka, who could not
bring herself to strike at Anna. Touji called forth fire and Shinji
called down ice and wind and Rei charged at Anna to batter her down.
Hikari, realizing her own lack of offensive powers, ran over to Ritsuko,
who had now crumpled into a ball on the ground, and tried to figure out
some way to use what power she had to help her.
Anna blocked Shinji's ice with fire and Touji's fire with ice, but
Rei then came down on her, knocking her down and beginning to batter at
her relentlessly.
The mob now went berserk and rushed the line of security, which
began firing into the crowd with fire hoses and rubber bullets. The sheer
weight of the mob began to press them back. Misato and Ingrid tried to
coordinate the defense, but there was only so much that could be done.
And now, in the distance, the EVA Units could be seen coming,
trampling flat everything in their path.
Gendo came over to Hikari and Ritsuko. "Get her into one of the
vans. We've got to get everyone out of here; it's not safe."
Maya nodded and with Makoto and Hikari's help, picked up Ritsuko,
then began to haul her towards a van.
And then, with a great cry, Anna flung Rei off herself. She
charged at Shinji, blocking his attacks and knocking him down. Then,
moving at blinding speed, she headed straight for Gendo.
Gendo pulled his gun and opened fire, chanting something. But
whatever it was, it was not powerful enough to stop her. She dodged every
bullet as the other Children gave chase.
Asuka finally came to life and started after her. "Anna, NO!" she
shouted.
And then Anna drove a flaming fist into Gendo's face. His face
crumpled like a plastic toy, smashing his glasses to bits, and her fist
kept going, into his brain, reducing it to fried meat in an instant.
Gendo toppled to the ground, dead.
Shinji stared in shock, feeling his emotions rise up over him like
a wave, leaving him paralyzed, unable to do anything but stare and cry.
Touji's jaw dropped. Hikari shuddered and looked away. Rei faltered a
moment, then resumed her charge.
Anna turned, her gaze sweeping to regard Fuyutsuki, who was now
scrambling for the van Ritsuko was being taken to. Misato saw this and
spun on one foot, running to interpose herself. Anna began to move, not
quite as fast as before, grinning.
Asuka saw Anna coming for Misato. She could feel her heart
cracking. She couldn't bear to fight Anna and she couldn't bear to let
Misato get hurt. Crying flaming tears, she ran as fast as she could and
tackled Anna, even as Misato's bullets splashed off Anna like they were
made of clay. "Anna, stop it! Stop it!"
Fire and ice, light and darkness, wind and water erupted all
around them as they tumbled along on the ground, struggling desperately.
"Don't you understand? You can't kill me! I am immortal! I will be
reborn! You should join me!" Anna shouted. "Because I am the truth made
flesh! I am the Render of Veils, who tears away the illusions which
people use to hide from the truth of the universe! And in the end, the
truth will out! You must draw upon my very power and that of my masters
in order to fight me at all! And the more you use it, the more you will
become like me! I cannot lose!"
Words of defiance aside, she was definitely losing the wrestling
match. Especially now that the other Children caught up to her. Shinji
was berserk now, screaming in rage at her, bashing her head into the
ground again and again as he grappled with her. However, she turned into
a puddle of inky blackness and slipped out of their grasp, then tried to
grow wings and take to the air, trying to make a break for her EVA Unit,
waiting nearby.
She rose, up into the sky, and then Asuka looked up at her and
stared, opening herself to one of the powers she feared to use, the gaze
of the medusa, the stare of Ghatanathoa. She transfixed Anna, who locked
up, then fell, hitting the stage badly. Her neck snapped. And Anna died.
It took a few seconds for Asuka to realize this, and then she fell
down, crying, overwhelmed by sorrow. "No, no, NO!!!!!" she screamed.
And then Anna's body began to twist and bubble and contort.
Fuyutsuki shouted, "Get into your EVA units! He's about to assume
one of his giant combat forms! HURRY!"
Asuka remained on the stage, crying, even as the mob howled in
berserk frenzy and began to break through the line of security. The rest
of the children flew up to their EVA units, and joined with them.
By this time, a huge bat-like creature with a tri-lobed eye was
erupting out of Anna's remains, growing ever larger as it rose into the
air.
And all around them, the glowing motes fell onto the security men
and the mob, and every person touched began to twist and contort into new
shapes. Soon, utter panic and anarchy and violent death erupted in all
directions.
Misato tried to get the van moving, but the Haunter in the Dark
swooped down and flipped the van over, then knocked down the buildings
between which the only way out ran. It turned and flew towards Unit00,
which charged at it, growing wings of its own.
Touji stared, then said, //"Shit! Asuka and I had to fight this
bastard! He pulled the 'burst out of a human body' trick there too!"//
//"How did you beat him?"// Hikari asked as she closed in on the
creature.
//"I had to call on his bosses to come kick his ass for being a
sore loser,"// Touji said.
//"Well, maybe you should try that again,"// Hikari said as she
tried to grab one of the Haunter's wings and got buffeted aside.
//"HEY, OUTER GODS! COME TAKE YOUR PUNK ASS BITCH HOME!"//
The Haunter and Unit00 continued to wrestle, with Unit01 now
joining in. Shinji fought like a man possessed; they could hear him
snarling over the radio.
//"Well, that didn't work,"// Touji grumbled.
//"Fuyutsuki says to focus as much light on it as possible,"//
Misato told them.
Touji concentrated on making Unit03 produce the brightest light he
could imagine. The Haunter began to flicker in and out as the light shone
on it, and then Shinji joined in. Hikari brought Unit04 around and began
redirecting the stage lights which were still working onto the creature.
It gave a great shriek, rising ever higher in pitch, as its body
began to burst into flames. Its skin turned grey, then crumbled into
flourescing ashes which then faded away as if they had never been. Soon,
there was nothing left of it but the echoes of its agony on the wind.
//"Damn stupid form for it to choose to take,"// Touji said.
//"Well, it is night, and it might not have had a choice,"//
Shinji said.
//"It had little choice,"// Fuyutsuki now said over Misato's
cellphone. //"I believe that must have been the form it used to take her
in the first place. I pray it will not return."//
The Children looked around at the town, which was rioting in
chaos. Many townsfolk had become warped in various ways, a few into
rampaging beasts, many just hideously deformed.
Most of the security forces had suffered the same fate, and the
NERV leadership was working out of their tipped over van as best they
could because it was relatively safe from fallout and rioters.
//"What a mess,"// Touji said unhappily.
//"There has to be something we can do with the powers we got from
Adam to help them, right?"// Hikari asked. //"I wanted to do something
for Dr. Akagi, but I couldn't quite figure out how."//
//"Communion,"// Rei said.
//"Uh, what?"// Touji asked.
//"What, we need to get priests?"// Misato asked.
//"Our blood transforms,"// Rei said. //"It can heal."//
//"Uh, I ain't exactly got enough blood to share with this many
people,"// Touji said warily.
//"Our EVAs as well. We can make it heal,"// Rei said.
//"What does Commander Fuyutsuki think about that?"// Shinji
asked.
//"It's worth a try,"// Fuyutsuki said, having now borrowed Maya's
cellphone. //"Though I'm not exactly sure how to properly..."// He
paused. //"How to get them to drink it."//
It was at this moment that Shinji's adrenalin slowed down enough
for the fact of his father's death to sink in again. "FATHER!" he
screamed at the heavens, then pounded a nearby building with Unit01,
crushing it. Then he began to cry. Rei brought Unit00 over and
hesitantly put one of its hands on the shoulder of Unit01. Unit01 sank to
its knees, and Shinji let the tears come.
//"Let's try and restore order,"// Fuyutsuki said. //"Then we can
try and experiment with blood."//
Touji looked around the town and sighed. //"Right."//
-*-
Touji looked at the IV. "You sure you want me to try doing this,
Dr. Ibuki?" he asked Maya.
"I'll ask Rei if you can't manage it," Maya said. "But the
unusual nature of her genetic heritage makes me worried about her trying
to do this."
Touji glanced over at two beds in the ward where Shinji and Asuka
lay crumpled in balls, passed beyond tears into the near-sleep of
exhaustion. Rei hovered over them, moving back and forth between their
beds. Hikari sat next to Touji. "Yeah, I guess so. Well, I dunno if I
know what I'm doing or if this is even possible, but I'll see what I can
do."
"I will risk it," Ritsuko croaked. "I see little other hope for
me."
"Let's do it."
Maya carefully extracted the blood from Touji, then slowly fed it
to Ritsuko via IV. Ritsuko's skin began to gleam, and the dullness of it
faded, though it remained somewhat green. She moaned and grimaced as her
body reconfigured itself again. Touji watched nervously, praying he
hadn't botched things up.
When it finished, she was recognizable, but not entirely human.
She looked like a rather pretty merwoman, with blue-green skin and webbed
fingers and toes. Her hair was still gone, although there was signs of it
starting to grow back a deep green. Her face was recognizable, but
somewhat different, a little longer and more angular. "You look pretty,"
Maya said, trying to be confident and positive. She kissed Ritsuko's
cheek.
Ritsuko stared at her hands. "I feel different. I can feel the
Rhine, but it's not so...compulsive. Except...I feel very strange. Like
I'm not breathing, but I am breathing."
Maya checked Ritsuko's throat. "You have gills."
"What, I have lungs but they just let me talk?" Ritsuko asked.
"Shit, I fucked up," Touji said. "Dammit, I'm sorry, Dr. Akagi."
"I am no longer in writhing agony, and I no longer feel myself
changing." Ritsuko stared at her hands and frowned. "This is better than
nothing."
"I think we'll need to hook you up to a machine to oxygenate your
blood while we work on figuring out if you now need to live underwater,"
Maya said, resignedly.
Hikari began to giggle.
Ritsuko frowned at her. "What's so funny?"
"I just have this image of you wearing a deep sea diving suit, but
the bubble is full of water."
"I am definitely beginning to suffer oxygen deprivation," Ritsuko
said. "I know these symptoms."
"Right, we'll get you hooked up." Maya said. Then to Hikari and
Touji, she said, "You guys had better get some sleep." She sighed. "Can
you three get them home? They are both okay physically, so they don't
really need to stay here."
Touji nodded. "No problem. Hikari, can you manage Asuka or is
her German butt too heavy for you?"
"I will help," Rei said.
"We can get Asuka together, I think," Hikari said.
"Okay, I'll take Shinji. Let's go."
-*-
Shinji woke up being carried. "Is it over?" he mumbled.
"Yeah," Touji said. "Hikari is putting Asuka to bed, and Rei and
I were about to go dump you in your room."
"Put me down," Shinji said.
Touji set him down. "Sorry about your dad, man. I never liked
him much, but that's a horrible way to go."
Shinji wanted to cry some more, but he was too drained to do so.
"Is Asuka okay?"
"Sort of," Touji said. "She's not, like hurt, but she's kinda
cried herself to sleep."
"She had to kill her friend," Rei said softly.
Shinji sighed. "I remember that. Is Misato okay?"
"She's fine," Touji said. "I think. I guess we could go check on
her."
"Let's do that," Shinji said.
They found Misato in her office with Makoto, hard at work. Misato
looked up at the three of them, then rose and came over to Shinji and
hugged him silently. He hugged her back, and began to shake as his body
tried to cry. "I'm sorry, Shinji," she said softly. "I know how much it
hurts."
"We were finally starting to...to get along with each other. And
now this happens." Shinji shivered. "All those things that Anna said.
They have to be lies. They're not true, are they?"
"Shinji, can you imagine Commander Ikari ever bowing down before
some monster from space to worship it?" Misato asked.
"No," Shinji said. "I remember Father told me that people who
follow a god are the sort of people who want to be saved instead of saving
themselves. He called them sheep. I don't think Father worshipped
anything but himself." He remembered his father's other words as well. '
When the gods war on each other, a clever mortal can slip in and take
advantage.' His father would never really serve a cult like that, but
might he try to exploit it for his own benefit? Shinji could see him
doing that.
"I think he forgot that sometimes, we can't save ourselves,"
Misato said sadly. "But I agree, I can't believe Commander Ikari actually
served one of the Angels. On the other hand, this SEELE, it may well
exist. Many of the Angels do have cults."
"Well, we just have to find their boss and kill him too," Touji
said. "The more of these things we beat, the stronger we get for killing
the next one." His voice wavered a little.
Makoto said, "I dunno. I can think of some things which a cult
influencing NERV's formation would explain, like how quickly the first
Evangelion Unit could be made, and how quickly some of the alien
technology was figured out."
"I would think a cult wouldn't want to let all that into the hands
of a UN organization," Misato said. "For fear of losing control of it."
"Yes, but a cult doesn't have the resources to do something like
this. Just think about NERV's budget. And that's with only a handful of
bases and a handful of Evangelion units," Makoto said. "If they could
keep the top leadership in their hands..."
"Hard to guarantee, I'd think," Misato said. She turned back to
Shinji. "Shinji, Rei, Touji, please, don't talk to anyone outside NERV
about what happened tonight. This has been a really big catastrophe, and
we still don't know how we're going to manage to make the world trust us
again after having one of our pilots claim to be divine and go berserk on
live television. No leaving the base for now, and try to be discreet."
"I want to know what's going on, how much of what she said was
true and how much was lies," Touji said. Rei nodded in agreement.
"I wish I knew," Misato said. "I wish I knew."
"Oh, Dr. Akagi's a mermaid now," Touji said.
"..."
"The, uh, heal people with our blood thing had kind of mixed
results. It made her a lot less fucked up looking, but now she can't
breathe air any more. Or something like that. And she's a merwoman,
basically. Green."
"That'll be a sight to see," Makoto muttered.
"Pretty," Rei said.
"She's a mermaid?" Shinji asked, boggling.
"Uh, yeah. I hope it ain't me screwing something up," Touji said.
"I hope we can do something to help all those poor people who got screwed
up."
"I'll have to go see her before bed," Misato said. "Which,
speaking of, you three should go get some sleep."
Shinji nodded. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
"I'm just fine," Misato said. She kissed Shinji's forehead.
"Goodnight, Shinji."
"Goodnight," he said, giving her a final hug, then letting go and
leaving with Touji and Rei.
"Poor kid," Makoto said.
"It's going to be hard on him," Misato said. "But he's gotten a
lot stronger. He'll pull through."
"Things have just been going downhill ever since Peru," Makoto
said.
"Yeah. But they'll turn around," Misato said. "They have to."
-*-
Shinji staggered into his room and fell face first into the bed.
His mind was still reeling, too many things to deal with and not enough
time.
The words Anna said, they swam through his thoughts like fish in
dark waters, surfacing briefly and randomly to eat away at his certainty
and cause ripples of fear and doubt.
The sound of rustling clothes and feel of weight shifting on the
bed caught his attention. He turned over to see Rei seated next to him,
looking down at him with concern.
He said, "I'll be okay, Rei."
"You will?" she asked.
There was a moment of silence as Shinji stared blankly at
the ceiling. He closed his eyes and pulled a pillow over
his eyes.
"No, I won't," he replied, his voice trembling briefly. "Dad's
dead. He was killed by Anna. We had to kill her. She thought we
should've been gods or something, but I don't want to be a god. I don't
want any of this. I just want things to be normal."
Rei listened silently.
"I miss dad. He wasn't a great father, but I thought he was
starting to change. He was trying. If he hadn't..."
He lapsed into silence again.
"Rei?"
"Yes?"
"Anna showed me things. Things about dad. Him making deals with
these things from the ocean. Sacrificing people. Him doing... things...
with clones of you."
Rei did not reply, and just continued to watch over Shinji with a
taint of sadness in her expression.
"Rei, was any of it true?"
She did not reply.
"Do you know?"
There was another moment of awkward silence, broken by Rei finally
as she answered, "Anna wished to bend us to her will. To enslave us."
"Oh."
The uneasiness still would not leave him, but the stress of the
day finally took its toll and dragged him towards unconsciousness. As he
fell to sleep, a distant memory of long ago tugged at the edges of his
mind, of his mother embracing him as they slept, and he thought he felt
her arms around him, even now.
-*-
Touji lurked around Asuka's door, waiting for Hikari to come out
and hoping she hadn't already left. He could hear someone moving around,
but that didn't mean it had to be her.
Fortunately for his nerves, it was her. She stepped out, shutting
the door, then stepped over and leaned on him. "She feels horrible,
Touji."
"I'd feel like shit too, if I had to kill you or Shinji or hell,
even Asuka," Touji said, letting her lean on him as he leaned on the wall.
"What a total fucked up mess."
"Language," she mumbled, then laughed half-hysterically. "Here I
am worrying about language when Anna is dead. She's dead."
"I know, I know," he said, putting his arms around her. "You
should go to bed, get some sleep."
"I don't want to be alone," she said softly. "I mean...I just
don't want to be by myself," she continued when Touji's eyes bulged
slightly.
"Alright, let's go sit down."
They went to her room and sat down on the bed, staring at her
Moonlight Cherry Blossoms poster on the wall in silence, neither knowing
what to say, arms around each other. Finally, Touji said, "Now I feel
kinda bad 'cause I spent that whole movie hoping werewolves would eat
them."
"You haven't got a romantic bone in your body," she said.
"Yeah, I know," he said. "I just know that if something happens
to you, I'm gonna go crazier than Rei."
She shuddered. "Don't get yourself killed, avenging my death."
"It's a man thing. Insane revenge is what we're good at," he
said. "And turning people into mermaids."
Hikari said, "You did the best you could. Better that than
whatever she was turning into."
Touji shuddered. "Man, there's gonna be a lot of people fucked up
in that town, I think."
"I know," she said, sighing. "I keep thinking, there had to be
something I could have done."
He kicked the wall. "I know. I keep turning over what happened
to Kensuke, and now her, and I just don't know what the fuck I could have
done differently."
"Language," she murmured on autopilot, then said, "What a fucking
mess."
He started, and looked at her, and she looked embarrassed. "I
know, I know, I'm a hypocrite. I'm just so..." She kicked the wall
herself now. "I'm pissed and I'm scared and I'm tired and I just...I want
to break something."
"Me too," he said. "I wanna kick Ikari's ass for being a prick,
and kick whatever the hell that was in Anna in the face, and I want to
stomp the rest of these damn Angels, so we can be done." He sighed, then
it turned into a yawn. "I wanna have a normal life again."
She sighed. "Me too."
"Y'wanna go see my sis tomorrow morning?"
"Sure," she mumbled, leaning against him a little more. "You
think...maybe we can help her?"
"I dunno," he said, sighing. "I ain't got enough control to risk
experimenting with her, but dammit...what use are powers if I can't help
her?"
"I know," she said, yawning and sighing all at once. "I couldn't
help my folks either."
"Shit," he mumbled. "Didn't mean to make you think about that."
"I'm too tired to cry," she said, feeling depressed instead. "I
miss them so much, Touji."
"Them dying like that was just a big crock of...it sucked," he
said, stroking her hair clumsily. "I woulda done something if I could
have."
"I know," she said, sighing. "It just...Just don't die. Promise
me you won't die."
"I won't die," he said.
"Liar," she mumbled.
They sat in silence for a while, until both of them drifted off
into sleep, slumping over onto the bed together. There would be trouble
in the morning, but for now, they had a little peace.
-*-
"The Children are out of control, Ikari is dead, Fuyutsuki is
unable to keep his hands on the reins of events, the public has lost
confidence in NERV, and the bloodbath in Shwartzburg has the German
government very unhappy. For good reason," Inspector Halten said to the
assembled UN Security Council.
Its nine members listened sombrely; they had watched the tapes of
that disaster.
"We may well have raised up a threat to humanity beyond our
ability to control," Inspector Halten said. "We recommend the removal of
the top ranking staff of NERV and their replacement with individuals who
can be trusted to keep NERV in line. We recommend action to deal with the
Children as well, but honestly, we don't know what can be done with regard
to them. But something must be done."
"Something will be done," the representative from Bermuda said.
"And soon."
-*-
He had never expected to outlive Gendo. He knew more of the lore,
but Gendo was stronger willed, better able to use it. And in a physical
fight as well, if it came to that, Gendo was stronger than him. But now
he'd seen Gendo die twice. And this time, there was no returning. The
entire body needed to be reasonably intact, or you returned as a twisted
monstrosity. And even if Gendo had been intact, Fuyutsuki suspected
Nylarathotep would ensure it went wrong. He was petty like that.
He was the real threat, not the Outer Gods. They were blind and
uncaring. They might destroy humanity or save it or both. Without even
noticing. They simply were, and you couldn't blame them for their actions
any more than you could blame gravity for making people fall.
It was their servants and fools who glimpsed them and were overly
impressed who were the real menace. Humans wanted to serve something
larger than themselves, wanted something big and powerful to watch over
them, to bless them. And so they turned to the Outer Gods, to the Great
Old Ones, and worshipped beings who barely even noticed them, if at all,
and certainly didn't care.
But their would-be servants cared. They invented a thousand
schemes to bring about the rule of their masters, as if their efforts
meant anything in the cosmic scheme of things. Said rule would come or
not come without their efforts, for such cults were largely impotent to
really accomplish anything. They lacked sufficient power.
Until the EVA units. Every world invented something like them,
when the time came for its old masters to reawaken, when a species faced
beings of power vastly greater than its own. Few things had chilled
Fuyutsuki more than the day it truly sank in that this had happened
before, over and over, and that if any world had survived this crisis
without sinking into corruption, it had avoided anyone noticing it. The
litany of fallen worlds was long enough for a funeral dirge. And the gods
who emerged from these crises went on to provoke such crises on other
world, an ever growing plague spreading across creation.
It had to be stopped. He and Gendo refused to see humanity go the
way of the Byakhee, of the C'thal, who became the Fire Vampires, of the
Deep Ones. He wished there had been some other way than the path they had
to walk. But only the cults had the knowledge they needed, had the
influence they would have to use in order to craft the needed weapons.
They had to fight fire with fire, and inevitably, they had burned
themselves.
And now Gendo was dead. One of the Children had already fallen
into corruption. If she had ever truly been anything but a mask of
Nylarathotep, a face of the Blind Ape of Truth. And the others...Asuka
was unstable, Rei was worse, Shinji was weak, Touji was a macho young
fool. Hikari seemed to have some sense, but was the weakest of the lot.
And this disaster would only make them all worse.
Was the plan even viable? SEELE might become impatient and decide
to use this to put one of their own in place. Certainly they would strike
once the Plan began. Did he have the strength to do what was necessary
alone? Could the Children hold together long enough to win? They had
already beaten most of the prophecies. Whether the future was set in
stone enough to predict, clearly most of the prophets had not understood
it well enough.
Gendo was dead. Yui was dead. No one else had known and
understood. The Children were too young, and so were the rest of his
subordinates. The young were so full of energy, but they lacked wisdom.
Life was wasted on the young.
He sighed. I'm being a maudlin old man, he thought. This is
their world, their age, and I'm just a relic. They didn't understand what
was going on, but they fought for mankind, anyway. They wanted to do the
right thing, and they'd already given up so much...could he ask them to
give up more?
He had to. There was no other way out now, not now that the EVAs
existed. He had helped to precipitate the crisis, in order to ensure it
could be shaped, guided, controlled. Only knowing it was inevitable, that
in the end, something like this would come to pass, no matter what he did,
had enabled him to find the strength...or was it callousness...to do it.
If it worked, humanity would be free, at least for a time.
Though Nylarathotep would still be free. He frowned at that.
He'd always been the flaw in the plan, the thing he and Gendo had never
found a good way to deal with, once and for all. Perhaps with enough
beatings, he would learn to stay away. But probably not.
He sighed. Gendo, I need you. I need your strength. I'm an
advisor, not a leader. I find the problems, you find the solutions, and I
rein you in when you go too far. It wasn't supposed to be like this. But
everything was turning to ill, faster and faster.
And in his mind, he could hear the Haunter in the Dark, and it was
laughing at all his hopes. But he was not ready to give up, not yet. He
might be doomed, humanity might be doomed. But he would go down fighting.
He would beat the odds or perish in the attempt.
For he could not bear to let all the deaths have been in vain.
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