[FFML] [Eva][B5] Forgotten Warriors Chapter 3

[Christopher Smith]

Forgotten Warriors
Chapter 3: Rebirth
An Evangelion/Babylon 5 crossover
By: Lord Legato Deathscythe and Isamu

Disclaimer: See part 1


She looked over the deck of the carrier, ocean winds stirring her hair as the 
VOTL set down.  She walked over to it, recognizing the purple haired 
woman getting out, but not the three boys her own age that accompanied 
her.  One of them is the Third then. 

She was in a galley, sitting with the woman and her three charges, one was 
the pilot.  The man was there too, only problem was he was paying more 
attention to the purple haired woman then her.  She locked her eyes on the 
other pilot, the Third.  "Come with me," she said, and dragging him from the 
room. 
 
They were on another ship now, and walking over a bridge spanning the 
purplish fluid in the cargo hold that led to a red armored behemoth.  She 
looked with pride, and a little bit of insane affection, towards this object.  
She turned to the boy, Shinji, and proclaimed, "This is the first real 
Evangelion Unit, actually built for combat!  Eva Unit 02."  Asuka was still 
smirking when the ship jarred, waking her. 
 
 	Asuka sat bolt upright in bed, trembling and breathing heavily.  

"Just a dream.  Just a dream…" she whispered to herself. She looked at 
the clock.  It was only a quarter to four in the morning.  She sighed and lay 
back down.  Sleep did not soon claim her. When it did, images of the red 
monster began to fade, but the name Shinji continued echoing though her 
mind. 

--

	“So we haven’t been able to find out anything about it?”

	It was early the next morning, and Captain Sheridan had hoped that 
the technical and scientific crews would have made short work of this piece 
of technology from Earth’s past. 

	He did not expect the difficulty that the crews had encountered 
though. Sporadic equipment malfunctions caused by the Evangelion’s 
energy field had made analysis beyond the armor layer almost impossible. 
They had been able to analyze a sample of the armor to determine its 
makeup, but more scans of the machine had not produced much in the way 
of results.

	“What have you been able to figure out about its weapon; that lance?” 
Sheridan asked.

	“Not much sir. We haven’t been able to gain any sort of usable sample 
for analysis. Nor have we really been able to get a good scan of the internal 
structure. I’m going to speak with Doctor Franklin about getting one of the 
heavy medical scanners to do a scan. That should allow us a relatively 
usable image of the Eva’s super structure,” answered Chief Torres.

	“Alright, do what you can. I’ll call for a meeting of the Council in ten 
hours and then you can brief them on what you’ve been able to figure out.”

	After Chief Torres was dismissed, the room briefly fell into silence as 
Sheridan and Ivannova considered the report they had just heard. 

	Sheridan broke the silence after a moment, "I love a good mystery as 
much as the next man, but this is getting ridiculous."

	"I don't understand how Earth could have created something like this. 
We don't even have the technology to build something like this now, and 
we've come a long way in the past two hundred years."

	“I know, and that is what’s troubling me.”

	Before Sheridan could say anything else they were interrupted by the 
sound of the Captains link.

	“Sir, we just received a request for clearance to dock for a Psi-Corp 
shuttle.”

	The hair on the back of Ivannova neck began to stand on end.

"What would Psi-Corp send a person here for?" she asked. 
 
"I can guess," Sheridan said, looking down at the pictures of Unit 01, before 
he and Ivannova went to great whoever had been on that shuttle.

--

Sheridan and Ivannova got to the landing bay that the Psi-Corp ship had 
been docked at just in time to hear Bester's all too cheery voice call out, 
"Ahh, Captain, commander.  How are you both doing?" 
 
     Sheridan heard Ivannova mumble "Fine until you showed up," and he 
quickly hushed her.  "We're doing fine Bester, but to what do we owe a visit 
from Psi-Corp?" 
 
     Bester looked taken aback by the captains comment and said, "Why 
Captain, you mean Earth Dome can't send me here just out of curiosity as 
to how you're doing?  Out of a sense of concern for the well being of our 
fellows?  I'm hurt," the telepath finished smugly. 
 
     Sheridan plastered the most sincerely insincere smile he could on his 
face when he answered, "Some how, I doubt it.  Now really, why are you 
here?" 
 
     Bester shrugged.  "You always have to make this difficult, like we're on 
two different teams or something. You are correct, I am here for a fairly 
specific purpose.  Now, how is our guest from the past doing?" 
 
     "Hmmm," Sheridan intoned with a nod, "I kind of thought as much.  But 
why did they send a telepath?  This is a machine, your telepathic abilities 
are pretty useless here." 
 
     "We'll just have to see I guess. Now, can you take me to where it's 
stored?  I can barely contain my excitement at seeing this. My daughter is 
a big fan of giant robot stories, and she'll be thrilled to hear about this. 
And, before you raise any complaints about my clearance levels, or mission 
briefing, or any of the other little formalities, here are my marching orders 
as they were."  

Bester handed Sheridan a sheet that did indeed grant Bester official and 
high up permission to inspect and use his talents to help in the investigation 
of the Evangelion. 
 
     After he finished reading them, he looked up at the smugly grinning 
Bester and with a politicians smile said, "Right this way then."

--

Sheridan escorted the grinning Psi-Cop to the hanger where the Eva had 
docked itself with a mixed feeling of unease and curiosity. Why would Earth 
send a Psi-Cop?  While he had expected an Earth dome representative, he 
had thought it would be a general or admiral, some of the higher up military 
brass here to inspect the new toy that had just been dropped into their laps.  

Instead, he got Bester.  

He caught Ivannova eye and all she could do was make a confused face at 
him with a little shrug. Bester was walking a step or two ahead of them, and 
seemed to know where he was going. That he knew almost precisely where 
to go was a fact that really unsettled Sheridan. 

Bester began asking questions about what the other races thought of the 
situation.  What the Narn and Centauri thought of this turn of events, as well 
as the Minbari? Sheridan answered the questions as best he could, but was 
all in all relieved when they finally arrived. 
 
     The bay had been somewhat converted since the night before.  Hastily 
erected scaffolding had been built around the Evangelion, and tech crews 
were moving about it trying to get samples, measurements, or set up some 
of the larger medical scanners that Med lab had been able to sent over. 
They were pretty impressive.  For a moment Sheridan wondered why med 
lab was even equipped with anything that large.  He'd make a note of asking 
Dr. Franklin about it later.

Bester turned and looked quizzically at him after a few minutes of studying 
the scene himself and said, "Captain, while it's really not my place to say 
anything, it looks like these men have been in a bar fight recently?  One 
would expect better discipline really." 
 
     Sheridan blinked and took another look around. Sure enough, almost 
ever tech there was sporting black eyes, tears in their uniforms, or some 
other sign of a struggle.  He tuned and looked at Ivannova who simply 
shrugged her shoulders nervously.  

"I asked, they said they kept having minor accidents around the thing. 
Tripping over gear, wires coming lose, stuff like that.  They seemed pretty 
evasive about it too," she said. Much more softly she added "Some of them 
are starting to say it's cursed." 
 
 Sheridan turned back to ask Bester what he planned on doing next, but 
saw that the he was already doing just that. The Psi-Cop was walking 
towards the Eva taking off his gloves.  Sheridan could almost see the smug 
expression that would be painting the other side of his head as he continued 
his purposeful stride. 

Then, suddenly he tripped.

Every one stopped, staring at the imposing Psi-Cop lying flat on his face 
having tripped on the even clear surface of that part of the hanger bay.  
Bester was only there a moment before he picked himself up, brushed the 
arms of his uniform jacket almost absently, and continued forward again.  
This time it was a conspicuous surge of power that suddenly arched out in 
front of him that caused him to throw himself back, again losing his balance 
and landing on his ass. He blinked at the Eva, and then started to question 
the techs gathered there, in a rather loud and agitated voice, about what 
sort of badly insulated devices they were using. 
 
     Bester continued to try for nearly a half hour, with more unexplainable 
accidents befalling him every time he tried to approach the robot. It was 
during one of these less then successful attempts that Asuka cautiously 
entered the bay. Both Sheridan and Ivannova noticed her when she came 
in, although Bester was to intent on the Eva.  Before Sheridan could even 
think about it Ivannova had taken the girl aside quietly to the corner of the 
bay indicating that she should stay quite. Once she was there, Sheridan 
walked over to where a now slightly bedraggled Bester was standing. 

"Listen, Bester, you look awfully tired, I'm sure the trip from Earth took a 
lot out of you.  Maybe you should get some rest and then try again in a few 
hours, when you're, well, more rested." 
 
     Bester glared at him at this point, before grudgingly nodding to him. 
"You're right captain. I could use some rest and a chance to freshen up. If 
your people find anything I expect to be made aware of it." 
 
     "Of course, if the techs find anything out I'll make sure you're 
informed." 
 
     Bester looked at him quizzically as the captain called a security officer 
over to lead him to a room. Bester looked like he was about to add 
something, then he thought the better of it and simply followed the officer 
out of the hanger, obviously somewhat relieved to be able to leave with his 
some of his dignity intact.

Once Bester had left the cargo bay, Sheridan moved quickly over to where 
Ivannova had secreted Asuka. They both were silently watching the Eva, 
waiting for Bester to leave.  Sheridan joined them in watching the Eva while 
he contemplated tearing into the girl.  Her timing had nearly been 
disastrous.

“You mind telling me what brought you down here?” the Captain asked.

“Kosh called, told me to meet him down here. He didn't say much, just said 
to go to Eva. No reason, no explanation, just to come here.”

Ivannova had a “sounds like Kosh” look on her face. It was all the captain 
could do not to throw his hands in the air. 

“So I suppose you should just stick around here and not get too close to the 
Eva. You could get hurt, there is a lot of heavy machinery around here and 
the Eva has been giving the maintenance crew a hard time all night. Out of 
curiosity, did Ambassador Kosh say why he wanted you down here?”

Asuka’s brow creased as she thought, “I asked about that, he only said one 
word. Rebirth.”

Sheridan and Ivannova nodded and left Asuka to watch the Eva. 

--
The command staff had gathered in one of the meeting rooms on blue level.  
Sheridan, the most visibly upset of the four, was pacing back and forth 
while Ivannova, Garibaldi, and Dr. Franklin sat at the table.  The captains 
ill humor was spreading to the others there, edging out from him like some 
the radiation of some fidgety star.
	
“For God’s sake Captain, please, sit down!” Susan finally said, half standing 
and glaring at him.
	
“Yeah, I’m even getting a little twitchy with you pacing back and forth like 
that,” Garibaldi added.
	
“Listen, it won’t do you, or any of us, any good for you to be wound up when 
Bester gets here, just, calm down,” the doctor added.
	
“Fine, but I do so under protest,” Sheridan said as he sat down at the head 
of the table, and began to move some papers there back and forth.  Susan 
rolled her eyes and swore softly in Russian.
	
“Good, now that settled.  Next topic, what are we going to do about Bester?  
We can’t have a Psi-Cop nosing around here, and no way are they gonna 
touch Langley’s kid,” Garibaldi said.
	
“He’s not going to.  We won’t let him know,” Sheridan said.  “Now, we didn’t 
have enough time to really do much in the way of countermeasures for him 
probing us, and I don’t want Ms. Winters here, too many awkward 
questions.  So, we’re just going to have to hope in Bester being just 
professional enough to not do more then a surface scan, which we all know 
he’s going to be doing, and keep our minds off you know what.”
	
“I don’t like it,” Garibaldi said.
	
“Don’t like what, Mr. Garibaldi?” Bester said as he strode confidently into 
the room.  He then tisked, and a fawned look of hurt crossed his face.  
“Well, look at this, I don’t even have to be a telepath to know I’m not 
welcome here.  Please now, we’re all here for the same reason: to try and 
find out what our guest out there has been up to these past few hundred 
years, and to find out how it got all the way out here.”
	
“Our guest?” Ivannova asked, indignation creeping into her voice.  “How is 
she our guest?”
	
“’She' is our guest in that ‘she’ is a guest of Earth Force, of which we all 
are a part, are we not?” Bester said with a sicken pleasantness.  “Now, what 
can you tell me about her Captain.  Bring me up to speed on things here.”
	
Sheridan glared at the Psi-Cop, then started into his carefully prepared 
speech.  “Well, the most obvious first, its physical qualities and 
dimensions.”
	
Bester sighed inside as the Sheridan began to recite off the most basic of 
observed facts about the Eva. It was information he already had; in spades. 
It had taken some time, but Earth Dome had been able to dredge up some 
fairly accurate physical details on the Eva project, as well as some various 
notes from people involved. Most of it was from a Dr. Akagi, one of the 
chief researchers as well as some from the projects tactical commander, a 
Misato Katsuragi. However, he had only been given a little of both while the 
science groups and think tanks back home mulled over the rest. He 
guessed Sheridan knew at least as much as he did, maybe even a little 
more. This irritated him to no end.
	
As the captain continued on, going over what they presumed to be the 
Eva’s flight path, Bester did a surface scan on each person in the room. Dr. 
Franklin seemed to be going over some of the biological data that he’d been 
sent from Earth Dome on the Eva, but his thoughts were well guarded, 
especially for a baseline. But then again, they always were. So he moved to 
the next. 

Garibaldi, like every other time he’d visited, was boiling over with anger, 
all directed at him.  A muddled mess, but there was something flitting in and 
out from time to time, a name, or maybe a face. When he focused in on that 
ever so gently, he got the image of an attractive red head. He did have good 
taste from time to time. 

Captain Sheridan, as always, was a tangle of thoughts and emotions. It was 
hard to get very far in on this level of basic surface scan, but most of it 
seemed to be concerned with Eva. Yes, things he was holding back.  
Ambassadors meeting about it, interest by many parties, even, yes, Kosh. 
That the Vorlon was interested almost made Bester start, but he was able 
to control himself as the Captain continued on to the subject of the Eva’s 
weapon without missing a beat. 

He quickly shifted over to Ivannova, not wanting to give himself away just 
yet. Her thoughts were the most guarded of the lot, he sometimes 
suspected that she was a latent telepath of some sort, especially 
considering her mothers power, but he’d never pushed the subject. She was 
too old and probably far too weak to be of any use to him, or the Corp at 
this point.  He touched gently, and, as he expected, found very little. It was 
time to push some buttons.
	
He waited until the captain was pausing between breaking points in his 
notes before he started in. 

“Yes Captain, that’s all very interesting, but I’ve seen as much myself in the 
notes Earth Dome has been able to uncover on this particular project. I’d 
like something tangible to bring back with me to the President. For example, 
how are the Narn and Centauri taking this? Sentiment back home is that we 
don’t want to get involved in anymore alien wars, so if this has the potential 
to drag us in, the President wants to know.”
	
Bester watched as the four of them exchanged guarded looks, and smirked.  
“Well,” Sheridan began after a slight pause, “ambassador Mollari and G’Kar 
are going to be meeting with me in private later today to discuss this, try to 
smooth out any of the issues. I’ve already been prepped by Earth Dome 
with what action we’re willing to take on it at this point. I’m confident that 
we won’t become involved in their war because of this incident.”
	
“Good, I’m glad to hear that. Now, what else do you have for me. Ivannova, 
you refereed to it as a she, didn’t you? Why she? It doesn’t look particularly 
maternal to me,” Bester said, quickly changing attack angles, and again 
performing surface scans.
	
“Well, I don’t know. It just kinda felt like the right thing to call her.  
Does it matter?” she answered hesitantly.
	
“No, just idle curiosity,” Bester replied with a smug grin. He was getting 
closer now, it was floating to the surface of their thoughts. But what? “Now, 
besides from the maintenance crews and ambassadors G’Kar and Mollari, 
has anyone else had contact with the Evangelion?”
	
“Well, some of the other ambassadors, and members of my security detail 
have been inside, but not too close to it. We’re being careful to keep them 
back,” Garibaldi said, all business.
	
Bester picked it out that time, from Garibaldi’s mind. The Vorlon was 
interested in it and had gone to see it, and with someone else to boot.

“That’s all? Good job Captain, you and your crew should be complimented 
for keeping this situation so well in hand. I’ll make sure I include that in 
my reports,” Bester said cheerily. “If there’s nothing else then, I have some 
other business to attend to. Some people I need to see. A certain red haired 
friend that happens to be passing though. It’ll be nice to catch up with her,” 
Bester said, taking a gamble on either flaring Garibaldi’s paranoia or jarring 
something else loose. He grinned as one last surface scan showed it was a 
risk well taken. “Please see that I get a report of what happens at the 
meeting this afternoon and I’d like another chance to examine the 
Evangelion either later today or tomorrow. Good day,” Bester said with a 
grin as he walked out the door.  He had a face and a name.
	
“I’m glad that’s over,” Franklin said with a sigh.
	
“No, it’s not,” Ivannova said.
	
“Why not,” Garibaldi said, annoyance at Bester’s last comment creeping 
into his voice.
	
“He knows about Asuka,” she said.

“Dammit!” Garibaldi said as he got up quickly, he was walking out the office 
as he hit the com button on his link. “Garibaldi to Allen! Zack, get down to 
the holding area and keep an eye on Asuka, Bester may be heading your 
way. I’m going to swing by Soryu’s quarters and we will meet you down 
there.”

As Garibaldi stormed out, The remaining three people stood and began to 
move

--

A few hours had past since she had entered the bay, after a while one of 
the technicians had set a few crates near her so she wouldn't have to stand 
the whole time. So Asuka just sat there and watched the technicians scurry 
about the behemoth trying to find out all they could about this ghost from 
Earth. As time passed she fell into a light sleep, leaning her head against a 
bulkhead as the workers continued on. 

In her dream she was standing on a catwalk, staring the Evangelion in the 
eye. This dream though was different from the rest. In all the other dreams 
it had been as if she was watching things through someone else's eyes. 
Here, she was herself. 

She heard something to her right and turned. There she saw the albino girl 
she had seen before in her dreams. The girl was wearing some skin tight 
outfit that was all white. It also had numbers on it, a simple “00” just above 
the girls breasts. 

When Asuka looked down at herself she saw she was wearing a similar 
garb, only in red with “02” on it. She kept looking around, seeing that she 
was no longer anywhere on Babylon 5. She was in some launching area, 
cold gray metal along all sides and some windows along the top showing 
some control area.

“You are the second.” The girl said.

Behind her an older woman stood. She wore a short black dress with a red 
jacket over it. Her face was defiantly Asian, possibly from one of the main 
islands of Japan. Her hair was a dark violet, and her brown eyes looked at 
Asuka almost as if this woman felt that she was Asuka's mother. 

“The two who stood alone wish to stand together,” she said. What did that 
mean?

“He will come,” said another voice. This had been the voice of an older man, 
who now stood in what Asuka had thought was a control area. Just looking 
at him unsettled her. He had what her mother had called a face of stone. 
Nothing but hardship had been known by that brow. There was also 
something sinister about the way he looked at her. The beard and 
sunglasses hid much of his face from her. 

“Who?” Asuka asked.

“The Third,” again the albino girl.

Asuka sat up with a start as she was shaken awake. She wiped the sleep 
away from her eyes and looked up at who had brought her from the dream. 
It was just Zack.

“You doin' alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, just nodded off for a bit. Haven't been sleeping well lately,” she 
said.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I don't think anyone has had a decent nights 
sleep for a while around here,” Zack said.

Asuka caught a glimpse of the Night Watch band Zack had been wearing of 
late. She didn't understand what that was all about. Seemed to her that it 
was just a way for him to make an extra few credits a week. At least that 
was how he always said it was. Some how Asuka got the feeling he wasn't 
too thrilled with what was asked of him by them a lot of the time.

“Do you ever feel as if you've walked into something bigger then you could 
possibly imagine?” Asuka asked him.

“All the time. Listen, the chief sent me down here to keep an eye on you. 
We got a Psi-cop on board and he's not exactly known for his adherence to 
Psi-corps rules,” Zack said. Bester just being on board was enough to make 
him nervous.

“A Psi-Cop? What, is this thing some kind of really big rouge telepath?” 
Asuka joked, trying to lighten the moment.

Zack chuckled, “I don't know, but he's probably headed back down here so 
keep your guard up.”

Asuka's gaze drifted back to the Evangelion, “Honestly Zack, right now I'd 
take any help trying to figure out what's going on. Even if it's a Psi-Cop, it 
could help me figure out what this thing is.”

“It's just a robot though, right?” Zack asked, kind of spooked by how she 
was talking.

“I wish I could be that sure.”

--

Sarah Soryu had just gotten back from the post office. It seemed that 
Grandmother Soryu had decided to send a few boxes from back home. And 
from the look of them, they came from the family storage area. She had just 
had enough time to set them down when the door chime went off.

“Come on in,” she called out. In came a man she didn't recognize, but she 
did recognize the black uniform and the ever present badge on the collar. 
Psi-cops weren't known for their subtlety.

 “Mrs. Soryu I presume?” he asked.

“You're a telepath, you tell me,” she said, a smirk playing on her lips.

Bester chuckled, “I like you. The names Bester, I wanted to talk to you 
about the situation you've found yourself in.”

Sarah felt her defenses going up at the mention of the Evangelion. She was 
especially on guard because she knew he was a telepath. She wouldn't be 
able to even think of the situation if she wanted to be safe. That was when 
the door chimed again, and she could almost swear she saw Bester 
swearing under his breath.

“Come in,” Sarah said, grateful for the save.

Garibaldi walked in, himself looking annoyed when he saw he had been 
beaten there by the smug Psi-cop. Garibaldi just grumbled, “I was coming 
by to check in, see how things were going. Looks like you could use an 
exterminator for the rats crawling around in here.”

The last was said pointed directly at Bester. The Psi-Cop knew he wouldn't 
be able to get much from her with Garibaldi there. So he just kept his 
senses open, prodding where he could. Right now all he wanted was more 
information, he couldn't decide what to do without knowing more. 

“I suppose I should start off then, so as not to waste anyones time. I would 
like to know how a simple security officer got herself into the middle of a 
serious diplomatic situation. I'd also like to know how you seem to be 
connected to the Evangelion,” Bester asked, all business now. He had 
asked the questions, knowing that she would either think the truth or if he 
was lucky just blurt it out.

“Bester, I don't think you have the authority to ask those questions. I'm not 
a telepath, so that makes this outside your jurisdiction,” Sarah replied, 
keeping her thoughts focused on one single image.

Bester choked slightly, stunning Garibaldi. The usually unshakable Psi-cop 
was actually showing a break in his cold exterior. Then the chief noticed the 
sadistic looking grin on his officers face. He didn't know what she was 
thinking, but just looking at it started creeping him out.

Bester straightened himself out, and then moved to the door, “I think I'll 
come back later, then we can have a civilized conversation without anyone 
interfering.”

Sarah smirked, “Sorry, but my calender has been pretty booked up just 
recently. You are going to have to take a number, and get in line behind all 
the other people who want to talk to me about this for right now. If I have 
the time, well I'll see if I can squeeze you in.”

Bester smiled, and then tipped his fingers in a sort of mocking salute, “Be 
seeing you.”

After Bester had left Garibaldi had to know what she had done, “What was 
on your mind that got him so flustered? I've never seen him taken down like 
that.”

Sarah smirked at the chief, “Oh not much, just a situation involving him, 
me, and a forty pound sledgehammer.”

Garibaldi just laughed, “I'd pay to see that. I was hoping to cut the little 
leech off before he got here.”

“What about Asuka?” Sarah asked, concerned.

“I sent Zack down to keep an eye on her just in case. Speaking of which, 
how's she holding up?”

Sarah moved over to the couch next to the boxes and sat down, putting her 
head in her hands. She looked like she herself hadn't really had much sleep 
lately, which wasn't a shock really. She collected her thoughts and then 
said, “Not good. She's become withdrawn, bottled up. She actually told me 
that this thing had come from her nightmares. I haven't seen it myself, but 
that worries me. She's always had problems with nightmares, but I can't see 
why she would say this had come from one.”

“Well, I have seen it. If it came from anywhere, a nightmare is as good a 
place as any,” Garibaldi said. He glanced at the boxes sitting on the floor 
and asked, “What's in those?”

Sarah was thankful for the change of subject, “I don't know yet. My mother 
sent them, and they look like they've been in the storage unit back home for 
years. I was just about to open them when Bester showed up. I haven't 
even read the letter that came with it.”

Sarah picked up the small envelope and opened it. She read the letter and 
then looked confused, “What the...”

Garibaldi moved beside her, “What?”

“She says it has to do with the Evangelion, she also says I shouldn't open it 
without Asuka. I don't get this, how would we have anything that related to 
this thing?”

She then started to move to the boxes. She pulled the seal off the top one 
and made to open it, muttering while she did, “Sorry old woman, but I don' 
have the time to follow your crazy instructions.”

“I take it you don't get along well with her?”

“She's always been a bit eccentric, Richard just loved her. Hell, he couldn't 
keep from  doing one crazy thing or another himself,” Sarah said. She just 
stopped for a bit at that. 

“What happened to him?” Garibaldi asked.

“He died during the war with the Minbari. Asuka was only three at the time, 
and we were trying to escape Earth with the rest, but he stayed. He told me 
before he went off that he knew he was going to die, but at least it would 
give the two of us a chance to escape. I wanted him to come with us, but I 
knew there was no convincing him otherwise. That was the last time I saw 
him. He died trying to protect us,” Sarah said. She was fighting back tears 
when the chief's hand came to rest on her shoulder.

“I'm sorry.”

“Well, time to see what's so damned important in these boxes.” Sarah said, 
cracking them open. Later, she wished she had never heard about anything 
related to Evangelions.
--

Sheridan had been on the gold channel with the Joint Chief's and several 
senators for the better part of an hour bringing them up to speed on the 
situation. General Hague himself had stated the importance of keeping this 
out of the hands of the other governments. John felt a high level visit from 
Earth Dome was certainly in the future for him and Babylon 5. He also knew 
that the general wanted to keep this weapon out of the hands of President 
Clark. That would just give him another card to play when the time was 
right.

He was sitting in the garden, just taking a short amount of time to rest from 
the hassle of the day. He often came here to take a time out from the 
everyday grind or whatever current crisis came up. Sometimes he even had 
some conversations with Ambassador Delenn, those had been interesting at 
times. With the current crisis Sheridan could use some of the Minbari's 
wisdom as he walked this tight rope.

As he thought that the aforementioned Minbari walked into the garden. 

“Ambassador,” he greeted.

“Captain Sheridan, I was hoping to find you here. G'Kar and Londo are both 
wanting to arrange a meeting between them and Asuka's mother. G'Kar has 
requested that you and I both be present during the meeting.”

“I wouldn't have it any other way. This incident has made relations between 
Earth and most of the other worlds tense,” he said. He was tense though, 
Delenn could see it.

“There's something else on your mind besides diplomatic relations,” she 
said. The tone of her voice when she spoke like that always made Sheridan 
feel like Delenn was less an ambassador and more a councilor. 

“I was just thinking. It seems wrong for a kid to be entangled by something 
like this. She shouldn't have to be worried about diplomacy or some two 
hundred year old beast,” he said. 

“You were yourself the son of a diplomat,” Delenn said.

“That's different, I knew what to expect. I wasn't just going to school or 
trying to catch up in my studies. My dad always said that developing a good 
relationship between governments depended not just on what we said in 
private, but what we did in public. So far all this girl has done in public 
has been see this thing and be around Kosh. I think the fact the Vorlon has 
taken an interest in her is what's really driving a lot of this,” John said. 
He chuckled for a moment then said, “If I didn't know better, I'd think Londo 
and G'Kar are a bit jealous that Kosh had taken more interest in Asuka in 
the last twenty-four hours then he ever has in their war.”

Delenn smiled, “You could be right. For now though, we should concern 
ourselves with how best to serve Asuka, and how best to provide her with a 
chance to grow beyond this.”

Sheridan was about to answer when his link went off, “Sheridan.”

Ivannova answered, “Captain, we're detecting a power spike from the 
Evangelion.”

--


Asuka was just watching the Eva now. Most of the work detail had taken a 
break in order to get some rest. It had been decided that for now there was 
no other data they could get from the Eva, and everyone needed a chance 
to eat and catch some sleep. Zack had stuck around, just keeping her 
company. Asuka was thankful for that, Zack wasn't exactly that bad 
looking. He had also made her laugh a few times while they had talked.

But something was pulling her attention to the Evangelion. For a moment, 
she could have sworn it was looking directly at her. It felt as if it were 
calling to her somehow, wanting her to come near. She hadn't even noticed 
she had started walking towards it. 

“Hey, careful that things been shocking the techs all day,” Zack said, trying 
to stop her. He was stopped however by an orange hexagonal field stopping 
him.

“What the Hell?” he said, trying to get around it, but every time he tried 
another one just popped up. 

Kosh had just walked into the bay and calmly surveyed the scene. He was 
not worried as he watched Asuka walk towards the scaffolding leading to 
the top of the Eva. His exhaled breath from his encounter suit drew Zack's 
attention.

“She is ready,” Kosh said through the translator.

“For what?” Zack asked.

“Rebirth,” was all that Kosh said before he looked upwards. 

Asuka had made it as close to where the Entry Plug was as anyone had 
been able to go. The walkway she was on ended there, so if the plug had 
ejected it would be  within easy reach. She didn't know what was coming, 
but her instincts screamed for her to be in that spot.

“Allen to C and C,” Zack said into his link.

Commander Ivonnova's voice answered, “Go ahead.”

“I'm in cargo bay 4. Asuka's walked up to one of the walkways near the top 
of the Eva. I can't get to her.” 

“What do you mean you can't get to her? And what's she doing up there? No 
one's been able to get that close,” Ivonnova asked. Zack could hear the 
aggravation in her voice.

“Every time I try to get close enough some energy field pushes me back.”

“Hold tight, the Captain and Mr. Garibaldi are both on their way down there. 
Keep trying Zack, we're picking up a major energy spike from that thing,” 
she told him. Her voice carried the urgency and seriousness of the 
situation.

“I'll try. Tell the captain that Ambassador Kosh is down here too.”

“Why am I not surprised. C and C out.”

Zack continued to try to get past the energy field, trying to get up to Asuka. 
If something happened to her he wouldn't forgive himself.

--

Talia was walking through the Zocolo, on her way to a relativity simple 
meeting between business men. It was nothing spectacular, just a normal 
meeting with a normal commission so that they could make sure everything 
was on the up and up. Just another mundane day for a registered telepath.

Suddenly she felt a presence in her thoughts. A very human, and very 
unpleasant presence. The sort of telepathic intrusion only a Psi-Cop would 
perform. Then a few words and a voice were in her head, nothing menacing 
just asking to talk with her.

“Mr. Bester, what brings you out here?” Talia asked verbally.

“I was in the area when this beast came knocking on Babylon 5's door,” 
Bester said. Walking up beside her as she continued her shopping.

“Seems everyone's interested, it's been the talk of the station for the last 
few days.”
“Yes. I actually had a chance to see it today,” Bester said.

Talia smiled, “I heard about that. Honestly though I can't say I'm as 
interested in this sort of thing.”

Bester just continued to smile, “You aren't interested in a piece of Earth 
history? Something dating back to a more simpler time, before man had 
even taken to the stars?”

Talia turned to Bester and looked him over, “Mr. Bester, you didn't come to 
me to just talk about this thing did you?”

Bester just smirked, “Actually I was wanting to talk to you about it. I was 
wondering, have you felt anything strange since it came on board?”

Talia thought back for a bit, “No, nothing strange. Everyone on the station 
was understandably tense, nothing out of the ordinary. Why? It's some robot 
from what I've heard, and robots don't have thoughts to pick up.”

Suddenly something broke through the walls she had in her mind to keep 
the voices out. It was powerful, and overwhelming. It felt as if something 
was screaming in her mind, the kind of scream that ran straight through 
your soul. It almost overloaded her mind, but she was able to pull herself 
together. A look to Bester told her he had heard it as well.

Bester recovered, “I guess that answers that. I have to be going Ms. 
Winters, I'll talk with you more about this later.”

Bester moved and started making his way back to the cargo bay. Talia was 
still shaken, but she knew she had to tell someone about this. She headed 
straight to a com station to notify the captain.

--

At first she'd been, well, responsive. If you'd call insulting him and telling 
him to get back to work responsive, but the spark had been there. That's 
what counted, what had always counted. Her fire. But then she just... lost it. 
It was lonely here now, without her or someone to talk to.

He looked over at the strangely lethargic red-head, the girl around which his 
feelings twisted and noted in both wonderful and frightening ways. But for 
some reason she was gone now.  He wished he knew why...

The night was falling, it would be getting colder soon. The night was always 
cold, without any light or warm wind to keep the chill away. So he gathered 
what wood he could and built his fire for the night. After it was lit and 
burning, he pulled a small blanket over his companion. She may not have 
been moving, but she was still alive. He could only hope he could keep her 
alive long enough for someone to find them, if anyone else was still in this 
world.

As he did, he did not notice the two ghostly figures watching him. The 
specter of another young girl he had known, and the intimidating visage of 
the Vorlon known as Kosh.

“This has been his world for two-hundred and fifty years. He doesn't know 
it's been that long though, for him only days have passed,” Rei told the 
Vorlon.

The sound of Kosh's melodic voice was heard then translated, “The girl?”

“It is only an after image of the Second's soul. A perception, her soul does 
not reside in this place as his does. It could not, for it was not her destiny 
to be here.”

Kosh felt something in his mind, “And so it begins, again.”

--

Alarms had started going off all over the place. The energy being generated 
by the Evangelion had continued to build from the initial power spike. 
Technicians and security officers had begun running to their stations 
knowing there was probably nothing they could do. Garibaldi and Sarah had 
joined Zack in the cargo bay, all three unable to get past the Eva's energy 
field and up to Asuka. All they could do was watch her as she just stood 
there watching the beast.

Sheridan and Delenn entered the cargo bay, Delenn moving over to where 
Kosh was. She asked him, “Do you know what is happening?”

All the Vorlon would say was, “A new beginning.”

Sheridan went to where the other officers were, “Status?”

Garibaldi answered, “Asuka walked up there all on her own. Zack tried to 
follow but then this damned barrier came up. It's like the Eva doesn't WANT 
us to get too close to it or to Asuka.”

Sheridan looked up to where the girl was, “What's she doing up there, 
Zack?”

“I don't know captain, we were just talking then she got up and started 
walking to it. I tried to stop her but then this thing came up.”

A rumble was felt through the deck then, almost knocking everyone from 
their feet. A part of the bulkhead buckled and began to fall. Sarah watched 
in horror as the piece of the station fell directly towards her daughter.

“ASUKA!” she screamed.

Asuka looked up and saw it headed towards her. She pulled her arms over 
her head as if that would protect her. Sarah could only watch as she saw 
her daughter's death before her eyes. 

It never came though. 

The Evangelion's arm had shot up and it's hand protected Asuka. The 
bulkhead bounced off the metal armor of the beasts fingers, leaving 
everyone shocked and awed as the Evangelion's arm moved back down to 
where it had been. 

It was then that the deck stopped rumbling, and the Evangelion bowed it's 
head. A panel on the back opened and slide backwards, allowing the entry 
plug to eject from the beasts back. Liquid began shooting out of the plug, 
discharging some kind of orange fluid along the cargo bay. Sheridan couldn't 
help but recognize the smell of blood.

It was quiet all of the sudden, as if everyone was holding their breath afraid 
to wake the monster yet again. Sheridan tapped the com on his link, 
“Ivonnova, status.”

“The Eva's power levels are beginning to drop back down to what we have 
been monitoring. Whatever it did, it used a lot of power doing it,” Ivonnova 
reported.

“Alright, keep an eye on it's power output. If it starts building again I want 
to know about it.”

Garibaldi moved forward and tried to see if the energy field was still up. 
When his hand wasn't stopped by the energy field he moved forward, 
followed by Sarah, Zack and Sheridan up to the walkway. The hatch to the 
entry plug had opened, leading into a poorly lit cockpit. Asuka started 
moving in to explore the inside of this thing. She gasped at what she found.

Everyone looked inside the entry plug and saw the same thing. Sheridan 
immediately activated his link, “Sheridan to Medlab. Medical emergency to 
cargo bay four. I repeat, medical emergency in cargo bay four.”

After the doctor had acknowledged the request Sheridan returned his 
attention to the scene before him. He didn't know what to think about what 
had just happened or what he saw before him.

Sitting in the pilots seat was a naked fourteen year old boy.


To Be Continued...


Authors Notes: Well, this one has been a long time coming. Sorry for the 
delay, however I've had some major distractions over the past several 
months to include the revamping of DS, moving yet again, PCS'ing to a new 
base, and a three month stint in the Middle East. What I wanted to do in 
this chapter was to get a bit more of the feel of Babylon 5 itself. This is 
just as much a B5 fic as it is an Evangelion Fic. The difficulty in any 
crossover is getting an acceptable mixing of the two stories. That's 
especially difficult when the main story occurs in one setting predominantly. 
However you can't do a good crossover without a decent setting. And 
Babylon 5 itself, the station not the series, is the primary setting for this 
story. 

Next Chapter: More questions are asked as the crew tries to discover the 
identity of the young boy from the Evangelion. But as few answers are to be 
found, and with Bester snooping around, Sheridan must try to hold things 
together between Earth and the rest of the Galaxy.

While the boy sleeps, Asuka and her mother make some discoveries of 
their families past. Old ghosts are revealed, and a hidden legacy uncovered 
as they discover their link to the mysterious boy in medlab. But all of this 
is a prelude to something more, as Kosh begins to act on behalf of the boy.

Next Chapter: In the Shadow of NERV

Later.