Evangelion: Redemption (Ch. 14 of 19) - Part 1

[fanfic_mausoleum_n_grill]

Neon Genesis Evangelion

EVA-R Prime Extension

(c) Alex Voutsis

Writer's Notes:

Credit where credit is due to Gainax, etc etc. Evangelion is someone else's prop erty, etc.

Additional Credits to the creators of EVA-R Illustrated Fan Fiction. Find it at http://www.eva-r.com - it is an absolutely brilliant fan fic and essential reading to understand this story. You should have read EVA-R up to episode 53 PRIME before reading this fan fiction.

The other fan fictions that are a part of this storyline are

Light of the Soul/Contact

Light of the Heart/At Last, a Reason

The Runaway

Stand By Me

Another's Touch

Thanks for Caring

House of Cards

In the Shadows

A Wish for Dreamless Sleep

Pandora's Box

Progeny / Second Child

Homeostasis/Transistasis

This fan-fiction is intended to continue the story begun in the above episodes.

Faces in the Crowd

The events in this story follow on directly from Episode 12, Homeostasis/Transistasis.

(Darkness flickers into light.

The visual tips up and down slightly, the audio picking up the whistle of wind and the distant sound of machinery. We see a concrete floor, a guardrail.. we are somewhere above the ground, a high floor somewhere? We see sunlight, blue sky. We see a row of doors with keycard locks. It is the balcony walkway of an apartment complex in Tokyo-3.)

Kensuke: (voice) Okay..

(REC, flashing in red in the bottom right corner shows that the digital camera is recording.)

Kensuke: Batteries.. okay. Uh, hi. I'm Kensuke. Kensuke Aida.

(The view suddenly shifts. The giant face of a freckled, bespeckled teenager grins sideways at the camera. Then the view flips more upright.)

Kensuke: I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. I mean, events of enormous importance to the entire world are happening right under my nose, and I'm doing nothing to document them. I've taken some recordings of the evas, yeah, but.. the pilots!

(The view shifts away from the young man's face, pointing out over the guardrail. We see now that we are at least five stories up, probably further. The skyline of the city, seen against a clear morning sky, looks distinctly worse for wear. Wreckage and rubble criss-cross the landscape while demolition teams and repair crews move about like ants across a mound.

The camera pans slowly, letting the audience take in the damage for a full minute before the boy resumes his commentary in a furtive whisper.)

Kensuke: (whispering) From what I've heard, this last attack wasn't an Angel, but another Evangelion!

(.. then, cheerfully ..)

Kensuke: But I'm sure that you, whoever you are, already know that this meant a big swing in how the war was fought. Will be fought. I guess. I hope it'll be turn out to be something big, 'cause then we'll get to see some real hardware, as well as some Evas duking it out!

(The view goes back to the teenager's face, the sunlight glinting on his glasses as he pushes them up over an enthusiastic grin.)

Kensuke: I guess a lot of what I'm saying will be common knowledge to you already, whoever you are, since if these events are as important as I think they are, you'll already all about this stuff.

(He frowns.)

Kensuke: But if you don't, probably because of some Earth-shattering catastrophe, then I guess I'll have to tell you. Oh damn. Wait, lemme start again..

(There is a noise, a door sliding open. The young man looks up suddenly.)

Voice: Oh crap!

Kensuke: Well I'll be..

Asuka: (loudly) Clearly someone upstairs hates me. Of all the people in the world, why you?

(The camera tilts around again, eventually settling on the new arrival silhouetted at the end of the balcony.)

Kensuke: Asuka Langley Sohryu, the pilot of Evangelion Unit Two.

Asuka: Thanks moron, I'd forgotten who I was.

(The view zooms in on her.)

Kensuke: I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to the camera.

(The view zooms in closer, getting an extreme close-up of her narrow-eyed expression, her mouth tight and annoyed.)

Asuka: You're a lonely, sad little boy Aida.

Kensuke: Any words for future generations?

Asuka: Yeah, get out of my way!

(The user backs off, unzooming as the redhead walks past. She wears jeans and a shirt, with a bag over her shoulder.)

Kensuke: So where is the Second Child going to be today?

Asuka: Good question. (sweetly) Where won't you be?

(Closing elevator doors steals Asuka away from the camera. The view rises up to the level indicator as it drops.)

Kensuke: Going thataway, huh..

Misato: (calling) Kensuke? Kensuke, is that you? I thought I heard something out here..

(The vision blurs around once more to catch a woman in frame. She is twenty-thirty-somewhere with dark hair, wearing a tank-top that's ideal for Tokyo-3's typically warm weather, but a little on the revealing side.)

Kensuke: Major Misato Katsuragi, NERV's head of operations, and effective guardian of both the Second and Third Children. (quietly) And a total babe.

(Kensuke struggles not to zoom in.)

Misato: Is Touji with you? Actually, could you do me a favor?

Kensuke: (eyes watering) Anything for you, Miss Misato!

Misato: Great! It's about Shinji. I'm on my way into the Geo-Front.. just switch that thing off for a second and come inside and I'll -

(The digital recording stops. After a frozen instant it restarts. We are still on the balcony, but now looking downwards towards the street. Layer upon layer of apartment floors are visible as the camera records the scene.

A figure is visible crossing the road, heading away from the apartment. A girl with a bag over her shoulder and red hair.)

Kensuke: Well, there she goes.. Misato just told me Shinji's in the hospital.. maybe the demon's off to get an early start..

(Another freeze, and suddenly we are somewhere else.)

Security: Is that thing on?

Kensuke: Err... no.

(The view shifts around clumsily, the digital camera autofocusing as it looks down, then sideways, then down again. Sneakers. Another person, wearing black tracksuit pants. Seats, windows.. inside some sort of.. train cabin? Finally the view awkwardly centers on a man wearing a black suit and sunglasses. The camera angle is strange, sideways, and viewed from hip height.)

Security: (repeating) Is that thing on?

Kensuke: No.. really!

Security: And so that red light means..?

Kensuke: Uh. The batteries are charged?

Touji: (voice) Kensuke..

Security: (extends hand) Hand it over.

Kensuke: I've got express permission from Major Katsuragi, if you call her I'm sure she'll explain-

Security: (interrupting) The Major briefed me. You are still not permitted to use that while viewing the complex. Hand it over.

Touji: Just hand it over man..

Kensuke: Crap.

(A giant finger goes over the lens as the teenager uses both hands to correct the camera's position. The view points upwards suddenly, and freezes again.

When the view returns to recording, we see the familiar ceiling of a hospital room.)

Kensuke: Okay, everything's cool.. and there he is.

(The camera view zooms in on a figure on the bed in the room. Male, maybe fifteen, with short hair that might be black, or might be brown. He seems to be asleep.)

Kensuke: That gorilla standing outside the door least let us film in here, at least.

Touji: He looks okay.. not hurt or anything.. maybe we beat her here..

Kensuke: (theatrically) We can only hope..

(The view zooms onto the young man in the hospital bed.)

Kensuke: The pilot of Evangelion Unit One, Shinji Ikari. A guy torn by conflicting forces. The poor bastard who has to live with Sohryu, the demonette you saw earlier. The lucky bastard who gets to live with Misato, the megababe seen previously..

Touji: Torn 'tween heaven and the hell..

Voice: (softly) What are you guys doing here?

(The bedridden boy's eyelids lift drowsily, revealing dark eyes; maybe brown, maybe deep blue. They are surprisingly pretty eyes - almost a feminine in their shape, and now drift around the room sleepily, finally falling on the pair of visitors.)

Shinji: Kensuke? Touji?

(The camera follows his movements as he struggles to sit upright, amazed. Touji hurries forward to grabs the pilot's hand, both shaking and supporting the boy, and then..)

Touji: Ahh, screw it.

(The taller boy hugs the Third Child roughly. Slightly stunned, Shinji responds by returning the embrace cautiously.)

Touji: (muffled) 'Good to have you back, man.

Shinji: (surprised) Good.. to see you too, Touji..

(Slightly embarrassed, Touji lets go and straightens up. Then he sees the camera.)

Touji: You didn't record that too, did ya?

(The vision swings up and down.)

Touji: Aww.. crap.

Shinji: Wait up, what time is it? How long have I been gone?

Kensuke: That depends, where were you?

(The dark haired boy on the bed looks down briefly, a frown forming on his face.)

Shinji: Where was I..? (looks up) What about Asuka? She made it out, didn't she?

Touji: "Made it out?"

Kensuke: I saw her at your place, she seemed normal.

(The camera view zooms on the boy, on his concerned expression.)

Shinji: Normal?

Touji: Fine, for Asuka. We thought she was comin' here.. you been released, you heard? Miss Katsuragi asked us to come down and help you with your stuff..

Kensuke: (distraught) She wouldn't even talk to the camera..

Shinji: .. Yeah.

Kensuke: Not even for the sake of mankind!

(The Third Child's frown fades as he grins at his friends.)

Shinji: Thanks for.. coming by.

Kensuke: This footage could be really important one day..

(Shinji slides back down into the mattress, letting Kensuke ramble on in the background while Touji shuffles awkwardly from foot to foot, trying to decide on a way to shut his friend up. If it wasn't for Aida's continuing chatter about the importance of his video, punctuated by gestures that make the camera bounce and leap, it would have caught the expression on Shinji's face as he looked up towards the ceiling..)

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(Upwards, above the Geo-Front infirmary to the surface of the city, we find another of Tokyo-3's children returning to the "real" world..)

Voice: (shouting) We need to push all of this down the crossroad!

(.. though whether it is the "real" world to Lyn Anouilh is another matter. The Sixth Child has been missing for several days - but to him, he is just waking up after falling into a strangely listless, dreamless sleep the night before.

But the world he wakes up to will not be one he will find easy to recognize..)

Voice: (shouting) Mark the damaged buildings for demolition - and be careful! Don't stick your nose in anything that might fall on you! You over there, you with our shift? Yeah? Then get back to work!

(They sound very close, the voices drifting easily through the jagged rips in the walls. Machinery starts up, beginning a pounding rhythm on the concrete. The building shakes, dust rising from broken plaster and catching in the sunlight that streams through the hole above the telephone.

The room is full of holes. That is the first impression that the Sixth Child gets when he opens his eyes.

Lyn Anouilh lies at the foot of the bed on a rumpled sheet, staring at the dead TV set. The screen is cracked and coated with dust. Parts of the ceiling are missing, and daylight is pours in onto the rubble and dust and debris. Aoi Tamashii's apartment has been shattered.

This is not anything like how he remembers this place, from before he fell asleep. That was.. last night?

He hadn't bothered to ask her if she lived alone. After his activation in Unit 01, he hadn't been curious about much. It was fortunate that she apparently had no family - very much like himself in that way. If she had had siblings, or parents, or someone else living with her, Lyn doubts he would have been able to hold a polite conversation.

Fortunately, the Sixth Child had been spared that. Aoi had brought him to a quiet, protected home, not pushing him to talk about what had happened - what little he understood of what did happen. Her silent understanding had been comforting, and her open acceptance of him had been a relief after the failed experiment, after being grilled by NERV officers about what he had seen..

They had been watching a movie that night. The tape's cassette cover lies half-buried in powdered plaster and concrete. Aoi's hair spreads out over the pillow - still asleep, still next to him. Lyn rolls onto his back, staring up at the sunlight streaming through the gaps in the ceiling.

The sheet and pillow that Aoi had brought him are still there, oddly unsmeared by the dust and debris - much like Aoi and himself. While every surface in what is left of the apartment is layered with gray, the two children themselves are completely clean, untouched. While the walls have been torn open, and every system - power, water, telephone - to the apartment has failed, they are unharmed.

He remembers how it had felt - lying on the carpet before the TV, a cushion for Aoi's elbows. Her eyes, dark in the dim light.

There had been nothing. No sounds in the night. No explosion. Nothing. He had slept soundly through whatever had caused this.)

Lyn: There's no way on Earth I'd have slept through this..

Aoi: (mumble, sleepy) Whasssimatta?

Lyn: Just -

(He freezes when he sees the gun.

The barrel of a carbine. Gloved hands. A figure in the doorway. Lyn's eyes suddenly pick up the slight movements - men and weapons at every entrance, watching - and a lesson from his shooting days rises in his mind. While the night remains a mystery, this memory from years past is incredibly clear.)

-(flashback)- Arnold: Never point your gun at anything you're not willing to kill.

(There are many, many weapons pointed at both him and Aoi. Lyn stays very, very still.)

Security Agent: Lyn Anouilh?

(The small, black NERV insignia on the soldier's shoulder - a barely visible mark on the dark uniform - does not make Lyn any more comfortable.)

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(Like some morbid puppet show, the grisly remains of Evangelion Unit 04 rise into the air, suspended by cables and harnesses. The brief analysis of a sample taken from the corpse had confirmed what the creature was; the fourth Evangelion, fabricated in the United States and lost during the catastrophic disappearance of the Second Branch. It had been heavily modified, redesigned for another purpose.

It has also been torn apart. Exposed tissue gleams red, sealed with synthetic coagulants and polymer sprays. A torn limb rises from the floor of the cage as the cranes carry it away from what is left of the Evangelion. The giant lies shattered, its blood splattered dry and dark on the floor and the wall behind where the monster had finally fallen. Among Unit 04's bloody and torn remains are the broken components and casing of the rifle that Rei had used on the creature, first emptying the entire payload into its body, and then smashing it as a club across the crippled giant's form.

The redesigned Eva had been sleek and deadly, blue black and built for stealth. Now its armor was red-brown with dried blood wherever it was still intact. The giant had fallen to the chamber floor, its chest torn open from neck to navel. Unit 00 had not been kind, tearing into the body until it had found its most vulnerable components. Some distance away from the carnage - a fair throw for a hysterical Evangelion - an area has been marked off limits with concealing canvas and security personnel. Only staff with the highest clearance can enter that area and see what remains of MARI's entry plug.

Now, NERV puts itself to the task of removing the giant cadaver. Adding to the mutilation already inflicted on the monster, their most hardened personnel have been put to task, sawing and liquefying the remains as necessary, to assist in shifting the massive bulk out to a location more.. convenient.)

Shigeru: The salvage teams have compiled their reports, Major. Recoverable tissue grafts and transplants have been marked for removal.

Misato: What did the MAGI have to say about the salvage?

Shigeru: A high probability that the tissues will be compatible with either of the Production Models, Ma'am.

(Misato blinks at the console operator's use of plural, then remembers - there are now two production model variants housed at NERV.)

Misato: What about the recovered UNSYNAPS Evangelion?

Hyuga: It's just entered the refabrication cage. The damage to the Unit itself is relatively minor, but it looks like it'll need a major overhaul simply on the basis of design incompatibilities.

(Katsuragi glances over to Hyuga's display.)

Misato: I was hoping we'd end up ahead with a new Eva.

Hyuga: The data from the French personnel, combined with their salvaged records, has given us a pretty clear idea of what we've got to do. Unit 06 wasn't designed with our systems in mind, and will need to be extensively reconfigured.

Misato: (reading) Armor differs from our spare parts, docking clamps incompatible with our restraints.. no umbilical port, no internal battery. Lighter armor specs.. (leaning forwards) is that an S2 engine port?

Hyuga: That component would have been nice to see. The Eva may have been intended to use an S2 engine, but it hadn't been installed.

Shigeru: The technical department will get a closer look when they begin the reconfiguration. On that point, Major, the tech departments wants to know which way to prioritize.

Misato: Prioritize..?

Shigeru: They want to know if they should commence repairs on Unit Zero, or rework the recovered Eva..

(The Major considers this quietly, running over the facts known well to both her and the high-level staff around her.

The damage to Unit 00 had been extensive; severe cranial injuries from artillery fire, fractured and broken bones and hemorrhaging tissue from the fight, and then there was the issue of its bent, broken and abused armor. None of that had not been enough to stop Rei from throwing her Evangelion down the launch tube to wreak vengeance on the enemy that had brutally dispatched the Ev.N complement.

The complement: Tenkei. Normally Maya Ibuki would be here, dealing with issues like this, determining what would take more work, what would be the better option. But the Project-E leader has a harder task elsewhere - keeping what is left of the boy alive. Misato had seen only a glance of Tenkei's torn body when the crews carefully transported him into the Geo Front depths. That might believe that some life can persevere in that shattered form is incredible, but it had..

Rei believed - that was obvious. The First Child, unlike Misato and even Maya Ibuki, did not or could not allow herself to think that the boy might be released from this life, might be spared the ongoing suffering..)

Misato: Until the Chairperson gets a chance to talk to the Sixth Child, push the priority towards analysis of the recovered Unit and whatever compatibility modifications we might need. Given the status of the complement, I don't know if Rei will be up to piloting soon.

Shigeru: Yes Ma'am.

Misato: (thinking) We could at least give her a break.

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(While the Evangelion storage cage bustles with activity, at least one part of the chamber remains relatively quiet and peaceful. Unit 02 was barely damaged during the battle, and the recovery of its pilot has long been completed. Even Unit 01 is an ant hill of activity with crews removing the networks of probes, nutrient tubes and data cabling that had been used for Shinji's recovery. But the production model Evangelion is unbothered in its cage, immersed to the shoulders in fluid.

This leaves Asuka and her scarlet Evangelion alone; the Second Child doesn't mind it one bit.)

Asuka: (leaning back) They wouldn't let me synchronize. Something about some more tests that the tech staff wanted to run.

(The pilot of Unit 02 sits in the crook of her Evangelion's neck, where the flexible material covering the collarbone area meets the armored plates of the shoulders and back. Whether or not she had been allowed to clamber off the safety of the umbilical bridge and onto her Eva doesn't seem to matter to her, or to anyone else in the chamber. Most of the workers are too far away to see her tiny form on the red giant's shoulder; most have too much else to do. Again, Asuka is perfectly happy with this state of affairs.)

Asuka: More tests, as if I've still got something wrong with me. Well, whatever, I feel fine. Not as if being in an entry plug would make a difference anyway.

Asuka: Misato doesn't seem to think I've got anything wrong with me, and I guess that's what'll count to the doctors around here. Mind you, Misato has been hugging the stuffing out of me the last few days - not that I'm complaining, but it's just.. weird.

(She turns over slightly, resting sideways on the vast neck of the Evangelion.)

Asuka: We've got a lot to talk about, you and me.. (smirks) A lot's happened since you went away.. your little girl has grown up. She's gone to school, she's had her first crush, kissed her first boy. You'll have to tell her about the birds and the bees fast, before she gets into trouble..

(Sohryu grins and turns back, easing her head against the giant's armor.)

Asuka: I'm kidding. I know about that stuff, Mama, and I don't think I'm anywhere near doing any of that stuff. Besides, he's not much of a kisser. And not much of a talker. He's not much of anything, really.

(She makes a disappointed face - one that Shinji would recognize, one that was normally followed by Asuka calling him a name or something. The expression fades suddenly as a new thought strikes.)

Asuka: It's hard to think that you're in there, somewhere. I've touched you, hugged you.. you were so familiar, a.. a shape I'd forgotten.. but I remembered as soon as you were there. Sometimes I'm afraid that seeing you in there wasn't real, that it was..

(The Second Child closes her eyes, thinking back. Like the Third Child more recently, Asuka had awoken in a hospital bed. But she thinks back further, to that place she and Shinji had been, when she had left him to find the voice that had called her. She remembers her mother, waiting, standing at the fenceline, asking to be let into her daughter's life again.

A memory or a dream? Oddly enough, it is only Shinji who can confirm it for her. If he remembers.)

Asuka: I was told you tried to reach me when I.. went. Shinji and I were sick, and you reached out..

(How long had it been this way for her? Ignore the problem, blame another person, until eventually the truth is so clear, the source of the pain so obviously herself - her fault, her failure, leaving only herself to blame. The pain in her mother's eyes, the woman's desire to be with her daughter.

Asuka turns and opens her eyes, looking towards the tear in the wall where Unit 02 had rammed its fist in a short moment of movement. It had moved independently, without controller or power, in the moment when Asuka had finally fallen to the effects of the contact. It had reached out, she had reached out for her daughter.)

Asuka: It tells me that it wasn't a dream. It tells me that you're real. That makes me feel better, in a way.. even though it also makes me feel worse..

(Asuka gestures flippantly with one hand as she continues.)

Asuka: Anyway, there's a lot of other junk I'm sure we should be talking about, lots of deep introspective stuff that Shinji would just die to hear, not to mention those other two stooges he always hangs around. You wouldn't believe what Aida was doing with his camera yesterday, like I'm going to waste time talking to guys like him because I've been.. well.. somewhere..

(Now the Second Child becomes a little more serious, some of the lightness in her voice disappearing.)

Asuka: There's.. so much I want to tell you. And so much about you that I want to know. I never wanted to know much about you, Mama, about you as a person, what you liked, what you really wanted. So much I don't know..

(Her eyes drop to look at the red shoulder plates of Unit 02.)

Asuka: And how much of this I could have known.. no, how much we could have shared if I had just wanted to.

-(flashback)-Rei: If you do not open your mind to her, your Eva will not move.

Asuka: (muttering) I hate it when Shinji's right.. but when Wondergirl gets me in a corner its about a zillion times worse. (looks up) You see, Shinji doesn't really have it in him to deliberately hurt someone when he's got them like that, but Ayanami doesn't have to! She can just look at and you and.. crap. (shakes head) I'm being stupid.

Asuka: Well, I'm not going to make that mistake again. Mama, next time I'm in you.. I'll listen. I'll wait for you. I'll.. let you in, if I can.

(The girl smiles, closing her eyes and lying back on the Eva's armor.)

Asuka: But for now, Mama, I'll be close by.. like you always were.

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(Maya opens her eyes, realizing she had fallen asleep.)

Hyuga: (stepping back) Sorry, Maya, I thought you were-

Maya: (slightly groggy) Don't worry about it..

(The Chairperson of E-project Maya Ibuki straightens up from her slouch. She sits at a table in one of the canteens that service NERV personnel in the Geo-Front. Having found a place in a corner, she had taken a brief break over a cup of much-needed coffee and rested her eyes for a moment.. and must have dropped off.

The coffee is cold. Her cheek tingles where her hand had supported her as she dozed. Ibuki mentally shakes herself awake.)

Maya: The time..

(Aoba Hyuga stands on the opposite side of the table before her. His tray is already down on the table - triangle-cut sandwiches wrapped in plastic sit on a paper plate. Both Hyuga and Ibuki check their watches simultaneously.)

Hyuga: It's-

Maya: (sighing) It's been three hours..

(She had just stopped to rest for a second before heading up - a long wait standing in an elevator had seemed too much for her tired legs to take after the long shift, and an equally-long rail trip seemed a sure way of nodding off and missing her stop. A hot coffee, maybe two, and she would have been well prepared to take the trip up to the surface, to her apartment and her bed.

But now that seems a little redundant.)

Hyuga: How is.. the work going on the Ev.N complement?

(A stab of thought. Suddenly Maya is reaching through her jacket.)

Maya: Tell me I left it on.. (retrieves mobile, looks at it) Good.

Hyuga: Sir?

Maya: (dialing) I left when Yuri came on shift.. I asked her to call me if the process was disrupted. (raising phone to ear) He's not doing well.

Hyuga: Yuri's taking care of him?

Maya: She's overseeing it while I'm away. (to phone) Yuri, it's me. Has anything..?

Maya: Okay. No, I'm still at NERV.

Maya: Be there in a minute. Bye. (hangs up, stands)

(The chairperson hangs, pulling the cold cup of coffee towards her. She looks at it with still-sleepy eyes, calculating the much-needed effect of caffeine versus gulping down what's left in the cup.)

Maya: So how's everything at your end?

Hyuga: Frantic, but it's slowing down. Most of the trouble was separating what had to be done immediately from what can wait. Everyone's division wants man-hour priorities because everyone thinks that their division has the most important job.

Maya: And everyone know that their division is the one that catches the most complaints when their job isn't done on time. What happened to everyone? We used to have spare personnel in every department, but now it's as if we're barely getting through a regular shift, let alone one like this.

Hyuga: Shortages, transfers.. NERV has been bled off, I guess. That's probably going to change soon.

Maya: Why's that?

Hyuga: Oh, I don't know.. just.. stuff I've heard.

Maya: What do you mean, stuff?

Hyuga: Down in Central, we've been routing a lot of high-level communications around. Representatives, inspections, presentations, military briefings, advisory bodies.. someone is planning a big party and a lot of military and political groups are trying to get tickets. We got the first call about an hour after we confirmed that it was an Evangelion we destroyed. People - even from outside the UN, other countries and alliances - all wanting to get in touch with the commanders, trying to set up liaisons.

Maya: What would they want from NERV now?

Hyuga: (shrugging) Protection. This was the first time an Evangelion not of NERV has been fielded - with video evidence and reports and the works. I hear that pretty much every military group is in an uproar because they're essentially helpless against the threat of an Evangelion and want a counter-weapon. And NERV..

Maya: You fight Evas with Evas.. they want NERV to protect them in case whoever made this Eva tries to attack them..

Hyuga: It seems so.. what did Yuri say?

Maya: Wha - oh. (looks away) Nothing good. Not a disaster or anything, but..

Hyuga: ..

Maya: ..basically what I had expected. He's not going to..

(The young woman sits down, her eyes half-focusing on a ball of scrunched-up plastic wrapping on Hyuga's tray.)

Maya: He hasn't got any friends - at least, that's what his teacher told me. He was saying something about being a potential disruption to the class if he had any problems.

(Her mind drifts back to the conversation; it might have been called a parent-teacher interview, if she had actually been a parent. And all the while he had been insinuating how difficult it must be for a single mother to raise a child today, especially given how young she must have been when the father left. Yes, the man's condescending smile said, I know. Children can be so worrying.

He had been referring to Tenkei, but Maya had been certain that some of that was about her.)

Maya: I guess that nobody at his school really got to know him yet.. so nobody will really miss him..

(The teacher had been almost insulting; that interview reminding Maya of why she had been so glad to be get out of school, out from the too-close faces of teachers and fellow students. She had been tempted to walk out of the teacher's office, too. The entire interview rated as one of the worst she had ever sat through. But at this moment she would gladly go back to that tiny office, sweltering in the constant Tokyo-3 summer without air-conditioning, with a singularly unpleasant baby-sitter of a man trying to degrade her..

.. because she would know that Tenkei would be outside, waiting patiently in a chair, his feet just barely touching the floor, his schoolbag tucked under his seat. Maya would know that he was okay - and that would be so much easier to handle than going back to work on his shattered remains.)

Maya: I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

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(The room fills quickly.

No one arrives late to this meeting; most of them simply have nothing else to do, nowhere else to go. This meeting gives them a semblance of organization, something for them to hold on to, a remnant of the organization they had once worked for.

UNSYNAPS Major Arnold Hayridge had been fortunate to secure one of NERV's larger meeting rooms in the Geo-Front for this meeting. It was luck, mostly, because many of the staff that usually handle mundane tasks like room reservations were busy elsewhere. Hayridge had wandered aimlessly, found a large enough room and a staff member to assure him that nobody would be using it, say, tomorrow at nine. Then he called this meeting.

There aren't enough chairs in the room for everyone to sit. Personnel stand at the walls and cluster in the corners, far outnumbering those that sit at the large rectangular table in the center of the room. Hayridge himself is standing as he addresses the audience.

The Major has discarded his UNSYNAPS uniform for this occasion, instead choosing to don a new uniform provided by NERV. It fits him well, in more ways than one, since as the ranking officer of what remains of UNSYNAPS, he will be staying on with NERV to oversee whatever staff of his continue their work.

That final point being the reason for this little get-together.)

Arnold: Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I'm glad to see so many of us made it through - and that NERV is willing to find places for all of us, if you're willing.

Arnold: (continuing) Some of you I know are anxious to get in contact with friends and loved ones; from what I understand, the people here are still tying up loose ends from the battle, and the infrastructure is a mess.

(Someone calls out, someone standing outside of Hayridge's vision.)

Voice: You mean they think we're spies.

Arnold: They are concerned about the possibility. But that is an issue for their security forces - otherwise, I'm sure NERV is as eager to have as many on you on staff as possible as you are to continue the work.

(Arnold knows full well that is not just a "concerned" possibility, but something that NERV security is working double shifts on. He can hardly blame them for the precaution; UNSYNAPS had shown themselves as dupes, their leader a puppet strung along by promises and assurances. Hope, too - perhaps that had been the reason? The Major had been doubtful at times at SEELE's intentions, but all the while he had wanted to be proven wrong; like Anouilh, he had hoped.

Most of these people - no, none of them - had any idea of what "SEELE" had wanted in ordering the deaths of so many of their colleagues; or really any idea of who SEELE are. Many of them had, from the first instant of the assault, placed the blame on NERV. After all, who else has Evangelions to send into battle? Some had even thought the soldiers who had met the fleeing craft at the hangers where the same forces that had massacred UNSynaps personnel at Nantes and Aurillac. Misato Katsuragi had ordered the soldiers to escort the refugee personnel to shelters, and to prevent spies from infiltrating NERV headquarters. It had been an edgy moment when the UNSynaps staff walked into the armed NERV escorts.

But still, none of them know what SEELE wants, or why they saw fit to launch strikes against the UNSynaps facilities. And Arnold Hayridge has no plan of telling them. Commander Fuyutsuki had ordered it. And so, for all of these people who had lost friends and colleagues there would be no answer, no reason for the deadly morning strike that had taken so many of them.

Maybe if Anouilh was here then he would have dealt with them differently - found a way to tell them it was important, to ease their anger and confusion without giving away the critical truth. Anouilh had been good with words, with a way about them that Hayridge knew he would never command. But it is too late for the former director of UNSynaps to make such a speech - Jean Phillipe Anouilh's craft had been shot down over the Sea of Okhotsk, and there wasn't a damn thing anyone could do about it.)

Voice: What if we don't want to work for NERV, Sir?

(Arnold blinks, surprised - not surprised at the question but at it being asked so early in the meeting. The Major raises a placating hand, taking a breath to frame his response.)

Arnold: I have also heard a few questions about continuing the work. There's a substantial language barrier to overcome; some of you have already experienced this during transfers to Evreux from other bases in Europe.

(He can hear a few muttered objections rising, and continues hurriedly to quell them..)

Arnold: Japan's a larger jump - for those of you who don't want to make it, Commander Fuyutsuki has told me you're free to leave immediately with full severance pay.. but those of you who do want to continue working with the Evangelions will be folded into the existing NERV staff with as much consideration as possible.

Arnold: If, on the other hand, you want to leave because you have a personal problem with NERV.. I won't tell anyone. They may not be the same organization you heard about while we worked in France..

(The last comment earns immediate objections.)

Voice: (angrily) This is a sell-out!

Voice: (vehemently) What a lot of bullshit!

Arnold: (quietly) We have not sold out.

(The raised words of protest go soft suddenly, losing steam as the former UNSynaps officer continues in a quiet voice.)

Arnold: If anything, we were sold out by the people we worked for. We are damn lucky that NERV offered us a haven, protected our Evas, and put their own pilots at risk - one of which I was told is in a critical condition right now - to make sure we stayed alive.

Arnold: But if any of you can't accept that, I understand fully and you're free to go. I urge each of you to take your time and think things through - we've been through a lot in a short space of time and we're still reeling.

(At the last, the Major smiles slightly, and tries a joke..)

Arnold: You might say we've had a change of management - and so has NERV.

--------------------------------------------------

(The elevator doors slide open and reveal the tall, uniformed shape of Commander Fuyutsuki.

Not Vice-Commander - not anymore. The graying scientist now wears the black uniform with the bars of a full Commander; never mind the fact that to the public, the rank is merely 'acting'. Since the last battle, Commander Ikari has been on sick-leave, and only a few know exactly why. Major Hayridge is not one of them, and this fact makes him uncomfortable. It is one of many things that Arnold is ill at ease with.)

Fuyutsuki: How did it go?

Arnold: (slowly) Better than I expected..

Fuyutsuki: That says a lot.

(Hayridge steps into the elevator, face to face with the second fact that is making him uncomfortable. Fuyutsuki speaks nearly perfect English! In comparison, Arnold can barely understand a word or two of Japanese. In his day-to-day contact with NERV personnel the language barrier makes him feel helpless, while Fuyutsuki - who is technically now his boss - adjusts for him. He had heard, somewhere, that many schools and universities are multi-lingual in Japan. It doesn't matter - the inequality here is more than sufficient.

Hayridge knows he will have to learn Japanese, and very quickly. This leads him to his first point.)

Arnold: For the sake of the personnel transfer - at least for those that will still want to work for NERV at the end of the day - we'll need language training. This isn't an airport; you can't afford to have the people under you waiting on the English or French translation before responding to orders.

(His companion waits for the doors to slide closed before he replies, dry humor in his tone.)

Fuyutsuki: Lessons will give us all something to do until security clears everyone, after all.

Arnold: ...

Fuyutsuki: But until then, you can use these..

(The Professor holds up a hand - in it dangles what might resemble a walkman. A small plastic box, small enough to fit in a pocket, light enough to clip on a belt, with a single earpeice on a slender wire.)

Fuyutsuki: It's a translator - it uses software similar to the language interface we use in the Evangelion entry plugs.

Arnold: It's one way?

Fuyutsuki: Yes. It translates heard speech into the set language and relays it through the earpeice. We'll be issuing them to bridge staff, and you can always carry a few extra in case you encounter someone not fitted with it..

Arnold: Only one way, no good for the long term.. but it will do for now.

(The Major accepts the earpeice, listening to the elevator as it whispers the passing floors in Japanese..)

Elevator: Go jyu ichi.

(.. and lifts it to his ear, tucking the slender cable over and behind..)

Elevator: Go jyu ni.

(.. and thumbs on the power button on the pocket unit.)

Elevator: Fifty three.

Elevator: Fifty four.

(..and he waits, listening to the floors slide past. Conversation stilled by the awkwardness of translation. Finally, abruptly..)

Arnold: I know you're concerned about security, but I need a compromise. I need at least some of the personnel who you've already cleared to be able to leave.

Fuyutsuki: There's cross-checking to be done, you know that. These things take time.

(Time - and plenty of it. Until NERV's security branch was completely satisfied that they had identified the moles hidden among the UNSynaps refugees - if there were any - those people would not be allowed out of the Geo-Front shelters. Hayridge had an idea of what the security forces would be doing - following paper trails, personnel transfers, relatives, cross referencing workers who were alive with those that died in the attacks, who was on shift when MARI struck, and God knows what else. Drawing invisible lines from fact to fact until they could turn and look into a suspect's eyes and know that they were looking at the enemy.

Interrogations and searches. Of course, they were called interviews and security checks. Nothing NERV security did in front of the UNSynaps staff had been overt or intrusive, but there was a pressure building up among the refugees. They had gone from a helpless situation on the fleeing craft to a helpless situation at NERV. During the first days after their arrival, a few of the staff had started to jokingly refer to the shelter as "the concentration camp" or just "the camp". Now the joke was no longer funny, but the word was still being used.)

Fuyutsuki: We can't be sure until everyone is -

Arnold: (interrupting) I know, that's why it's a compromise. The longer my people stay in there, the more trouble you'll get. And the searches.. your security forces are going to have trouble when every person they interview becomes a hardhead who doesn't give anything apart from name, rank and serial number.

(Fuyutsuki seems to consider this. Hayridge watches the older man out of the corner of his eye, waiting for some response. Eventually the Commander nods and speaks.)

Fuyutsuki: I understand. We can also arrange some communication with family, friends. It's not much, but..

Arnold: Thank you. A lot of my people are still in the dark about.. a lot of things.

Fuyutsuki: (pauses) .. and .. yourself?

(The soldier sighs, letting the clicks and soft vocalization of the elevator fill the silence as he formulates a response.

He had been briefed, on some matters. While he hadn't been told about the status of Commander Ikari, he was fortunate enough to have been shown the evidence that NERV themselves had received - the evidence from Chiba Kimio, the evidence that had scared SEELE enough to order Seyoko Okazaki's death.

He had seen what had been shown to Anouilh, and he now had an inkling of the man's regret. With Anouilh dead, and himself still alive, Hayridge cannot find any justice in this survival-by-chance. They had all been made fools of - even NERV.)

Arnold: I've seen the package, if that's what you mean. I'm still not sure what to make of it all. Its so incredible to believe that.. that girl could inspire such a thing from one of the old men of SEELE.. that we were all led along so easily..

Fuyutsuki: (thinking) If only you knew how far some of us were led.

Arnold: And now, so conveniently, she upped and left, after 'saving' us from ourselves.

Fuyutsuki: She's returned.

(The elevator slides to a halt, the doors opening with a loud chime that partially covers Arnold's curse of surprise and anger.)

Arnold: What?? When?

Fuyutsuki: While you were in the meeting - NERV Security recovered her - and the Sixth Child.

Arnold: What are you going to do?

(Both men finally step out of the elevator, two sets of boots clanking on the crisscrossed metal of a gantryway. Their new room is vast, the air hardly moving, catwalks visible at multiple heights, crossing the room from side to side in multiple directions. Fuyutsuki ignores them, continuing onwards, while Hayridge falls behind, slowing as he tries to take in the size of the room.)

Fuyutsuki: To be perfectly honest, I'd prefer to kill her.

(The older of the two stops, watching the military man examine the layout of the chamber.

Before them, at what appears to be the center of the room, a red circle has been hastily painted on the ground. In that circle is a small chair, presently empty. Gaze still raised, Arnold notes with a shooter's eye that the placement of the marker is very near perfect - a soldier standing on any one of the many gantries would have an unobstructed path of fire to whoever was inside.

The level of preparations brings a sense of satisfaction to the man, his hatred of the girl becoming clear.)

Arnold: (clenching a fist) I can sympathize with that.

Fuyutsuki: (sighing) But for the time being, my - NERV security teams are bringing the pair here. She is.. something, after all. If she was like the last "pilot" SEELE sent us, then why hasn't she made a move already?

(The Commander gestures to the gantries - the shooting positions that Hayridge had noted before, the shooting positions clearly intended for whoever stood in the circle.)

Fuyutsuki: If she's one of them, then this will have no chance of stopping her. But on the other hand, she won't have any reason to fear it.

Arnold: Then why bother?

(Now the old man looks towards the red circle in the center of the room, at the empty chair. Perhaps he is imagining the girl who will soon occupy it.)

Fuyutsuki: Because if we have an Evangelion stand over this meeting then it might push her in the wrong direction.

Arnold: But as long as she's in control..

Fuyutsuki: (finishing) .. she'll be willing to talk, as long as she thinks we're powerless.

Arnold: Or she might just kill us all. This relies on arrogance.

Fuyutsuki: True.

(Hayridge grimaces slightly.)

Arnold: Well.. you are in charge.

(He had hoped that Fuyutsuki would have something up his sleeve, in the manner of Commander Ikari that he had heard so much about - but it seems somehow that the situation hasn't really changed: at someone's mercy, and trying to use weakness to buy time.)

Fuyutsuki: (suddenly) I'd like you to brief the Sixth Child. I understand you two know each other.

Arnold: (startled) I.. yes, I tutored him. A favor to his father. It was several years ago now, before I entered full-time UNSYNAPS employment..

Fuyutsuki: (waves his hand) Our Director of Operations, Major Katsuragi - have you met her, by the way.. ?

Arnold: Only briefly..

Fuyutsuki: .. will be assisting you. I'll be briefing the Seventh Child here, in this.. area.

Arnold: Good luck.

(His remark brings a chuckle from the older man.)

Fuyutsuki: You too.

--------------------------------------------------

(Nobody was very talkative, which was sort of alright by Lyn Anouilh, as things went. It gave him a lot of time to think.

He wasn't quite sure when it had happened. They had been driven into the Geo-Front, left the vehicle behind and walked, and walked, and walked - now stepping into an elevator..

It must have been somewhere during the drive, the Sixth Child thought in silence. That time spent seated next to a strange girl, watched over by an armed soldier as they drove through a heavily damaged city. It had sunk in, looking through the window at the broken concrete spilled across the street like the toy blocks of some giant child's tantrum, that things are not right.

The elevator doors slid shut with a soft chime that seemed directed at him. Sullenly, the boy corrected his own thoughts: 'Not right' was probably a mild way of putting it - but he wasn't quite ready to declare things completely wrong. Lyn felt as if he were slightly separated from what was happening - one step back from reality. Watching the speeding car coming towards you, not really believing that it is really happening, not really understanding that the car won't stop.

"Everything is going to be okay." It would be a nice thing to hear, but no one is telling Lyn that. It occurs to him that maybe he should say that to Aoi - even if it isn't true, it just seems like the thing he should say. But Tamashii doesn't seem to need his support - she seems even more distant than she had been in the car. She neither looked at him or at the guards. The soldiers escorting the pair were perfect matches for their weapons.. they were meant for combat, not for conversation.

The elevator doors opened on nothing in particular. Perhaps he had ceased caring. Lyn stood there, unmoving, until a soldier nudged him gently. He moved forward and noticed in passing that the girl was looking at him strangely. Big deal.

This was another room. Wow. There were more soldiers in it, too, standing on the many levels of gantryway - the Sixth Child didn't bother looking up to see where all the gantries were, exactly. What little attention that he still held for the elaborately twisted play taking place around him was drawn to the tall figure near the center of the room. Was that the Commander? The black-uniformed man seemed taller than he remembered, and strangely enough, clean shaven.)

Fuyutsuki: Ah, Mr Anouilh and Ms Tamashii. Thank you for joining me.

(With a shock, Lyn realizes that the man in the Commander's uniform is instead the Vice-Commander, Kozou Fuyutsuki. Another piece of the puzzle is revealed; another piece of normality is shaken out to crumble on the ground.)

Fuyutsuki: Mr Anouilh, if you'll step through the door on your left, the Majors are waiting to brief you.

Lyn: (thinking) Majors..?

(Slowly, he steps away from Aoi's side, the girl not even acknowledging him as he leaves. That hurts; last night it seems her eyes were constantly on him while he lay close, and her ears receptive to whatever he wanted to say. Now, as he turns away, expecting to hear a word, feel her gaze on his back, there is only silence.

He almost doesn't recognize the door when he meets it - barely more than an indentation in an otherwise featureless wall. Pressing slightly on a pad to one side causes the door to slide open with a faint hiss; the room beyond is not well lit, and the bright lighting in the main chamber makes it difficult to pick out who is waiting for him. It seems official though, and given how he feels now, the Sixth Child has no real problem stepping through the doorway to face the next impossibility.

The door shuts as quietly as it opened, and, as his eyes adjust to the light level of this smaller room, the man is the first of the pair to voice a greeting.)

Arnold: (kindly) Hello, boy.

(The Sixth Child closes his eyes briefly.)

--------------------------------------------------

(In the room Lyn left behind but a moment ago, the Seventh Child carefully takes note of her surroundings.

The room was one of the less well known in the Geo-Front, originally used for the construction and repair of Evangelion armor. It is a gigantic chamber, with powerful lights in the ceiling high above banishing every shadow from the room.

Catwalks and lifting equipment are still in position to construct the exoskeleton of the next Evangelion to be produced - an event that never came about. Now the vast chamber is empty, the room nearly forgotten - which makes it perfect for Fuyutsuki to use today.

The gantries and catwalks swarm with personnel - or rather, with troops. Soldiers stand on the numerous walkways as they cross over each other at varying heights, each man spaced an equal distance away from any other. Each man is armed, and each man has a good, clear shot towards the center of the room. And at the center of the room is a circle, painted on the floor in red.

That circle is all but empty - save a mobile phone 'carelessly' strewn on the ground within. The Seventh Child eyes the device cautiously; to ask Commander Fuyutsuki, standing across the chamber, she would have to shout. And then the phone begins to ring.

A quick glance shot at NERV's new Commander picks out a mobile phone, held loosely in his right hand. Even from this distance, Aoi can see his expression. The implication is clear - enter the circle to talk, and become a target for the soldiers if you then leave.

Aoi Tamashii gazes slowly around at the soldiers on the gantry, a slight smile touching her lips. Smoothly she steps over the painted line and moves towards the phone. Thirty rifles raise the required two inches to track her movements as she bends to retrieve the ringing mobile.)

Aoi: ...

Fuyutsuki: You're not surprised by my uniform?

Aoi: Why would I be?

Fuyutsuki: Nearly everyone I speak to these days notices my new rank.

Aoi: Are you proud of what you've accomplished?

Fuyutsuki: (pausing slightly) .. No.

(There, just for a second, there is almost a touch of regret in the old man's voice. Aoi moves onwards with the conversation, her voice tinged with a strange tone - perhaps weariness, perhaps fear, or perhaps something far more alien.)

Aoi: So why this elaborate setup, old man?

Fuyutsuki: Privacy.

Aoi: Are you afraid I might plead for my life, that a few of your killers might refuse to shoot a little girl?

(Two questions now - both bear unusual depth and cynicism for her age. Still Fuyutsuki answers, almost without pause, as if he had expected these sorts of responses.)

Fuyutsuki: They're not killers yet. Provided you stay where you are, they won't be today.

Aoi: I thought you were better than tossing threats.

(The professor smiles a little, bringing humor to try and ease the tension.)

Fuyutsuki: I'm filling in for the Commander.

Aoi: (tiredly) We both know he isn't coming back from his 'sick leave'. Have you bothered to tell his son yet?

Fuyutsuki: ...

Aoi. That is at least some measure of decency.

Fuyutsuki: ...

Aoi: So what do you want with me, Professor?

(Fuyutsuki ignores the reference to his background, deliberately avoiding her appeal to his younger days. He did not see a young woman in the center of the circle - nor a defenseless person, who might tempt his ethics.)

Fuyutsuki: I want to know what to do with you. I've considered sending SEELE a postcard about our discovery, or perhaps the UN.

Aoi: What are you saying?

Fuyutsuki: (stepping forward) Don't bother to play the innocent. I'm very well aware of who - and what - you are. Chiba Kimio made sure everything was well documented - including your creation.

Aoi: (angrily) I'm far beyond who, and what, they thought I would be.

(The girl steps forward, gesturing with the phone in her anger. Even without the mobile phone, her voice is clear and loud to Fuyutsuki - not a shout, but somehow carried to his ear. Aoi draws close to the edge of the circle, glaring at the Commander, uncaring as the soldiers on the gantry tense fingers on triggers.)

Aoi: (angrily) You think you know what I am? Do you think Kimio had any real concept, before he died, of what was set in motion?

Fuyutsuki: (seriously) I know exactly what you are.

(Anger overwhelms the girl standing in the circle, and she hurls the phone aside in her anger, coming right to the edge of the line, toes touching the painted border.)

Aoi: (furious) You have no idea what I am.

(She lunges forward, crossing the circle, and is shot. Muzzles flare as the rifles let loose, each soldier firing a precise shot, just as they had been briefed. Bullets travelling at three times the speed of sound hurtle into Aoi's chest, back, face and head, each round easily capable of punching through a car door and blasting a human skull apart like a watermelon hit with a sledgehammer.

Fuyutsuki, never a military man, cannot help but duck, covering his ears with both hands as the incredible roar of automatic weaponry echoes in the relatively confined space of the chamber. Clutching at his head, he shouts orders to his men..)

Fuyutsuki: (shouting) Cease fire! Cease fire, stop shooting!

(There is no flash of light; no mystical hexagonal pattern blossoms into existence. There isn't even any blood or bullet marks. Aoi Tamashii's body has not been rendered unrecognizable by the high velocity impacts. She has not fallen over, or jerked backwards - there is no blood.

Aoi Tamashii has not moved an inch beyond her initial lunge.)

Soldier: (quietly) Holy shit..

(The Seventh Child - if that name can still apply - stands just beyond the 'circle of death' completely unharmed. She is completely protected within her AT field - homeostatic, unchanging, invulnerable - because she wishes to be so.

An Angel stands before Kozou Fuyutsuki, her power brought to bear with casual ease.)

Fuyutsuki: Get out.

(There is silence in the room - neither the Angel nor the Professor move.)

Fuyutsuki: You heard me! Dismissed!

(The Professor jerks his head slightly upwards - and the soldiers slowly move towards the exits, realizing it was they that the Commander addressed. Some shake their heads, others check their magazines. To a man, their faces show disbelief, confusion, and in not a few cases, fear.

Fuyutsuki thumbs off the mobile, its pointlessness abundantly clear.

It rings immediately, causing him to jump. He answers slowly, eyes still locked on the Angel standing in front of him.)

Fuyutsuki: Yes?

Shigeru: (phone) AT field detected in the Geo-Front Sir! We're trying to localize, and crews are scrambling the Evangelions..

Fuyutsuki: Cancel the alert. The situation under control.

Shigeru: Sir..?

(Fuyutsuki touches the off button again, this time switching the phone off to make sure. By the time he looks up from fiddling with the device, the Angel stands directly before him, less than a hand's reach away, looking as the Seventh Child did, but somehow.. different. Fuyutsuki strains his eyes, looking for the shimmer of an AT field around her, or the slight glowing aura that had seemed ever-present around the 17th Angel. Or maybe it is just the sharp sense of fear that makes Aoi Tamashii look like more than Aoi Tamashii. Yet for all her apparent ability, she does not laugh, or belittle, or threaten, but instead states plain and simple fact.)

Angel: You see?

Fuyutsuki: ...

Angel: (gently) I could have ended this charade long ago. I could have killed your pilots at any time; I could have crippled your Evangelions, destroyed your response capabilities, and handed you to SEELE on a platter.

Fuyutsuki: I could have had an Evangelion waiting here to crush you.

Angel: Why didn't you?

Fuyutsuki: (seriously) Would you be here, discussing this, if I had met you with real force? No - you would have fought to defend yourself.

(The Angel falls silent, considering this.)

Fuyutsuki: The natural urge is to be in a position of strength before negotiation.

Angel: You wanted to avoid a conflict. I see.

Fuyutsuki: As you said, you could have easily obliterated this facility at any time. The trust has to start somewhere.

Angel: This has always been about trust.

Fuyutsuki: After all, if my suspicions were wrong, you would not have been able to save yourself from the bullets and this problem would be over.

Angel: ...

Fuyutsuki: But you are one of many problems. I have SEELE to worry about.

Angel: You could always let them have what they want, and finish it.

(The Commander smiles at that.)

Fuyutsuki: But that's not what you want. Besides, I have two Evangelion pilots that came back, despite having gone to what SEELE would consider to be 'heaven'.

Angel: Do you know what I want?

Fuyutsuki: (nodding) I know who you are. I also know what it means. The old men of SEELE can't or don't wish to grasp that.

Angel: They're not wrong about everything. Humanity is the 18th and final form, as stated in the scrolls.

(Kozou Fuyutsuki falls silent at the Angel's last remark.

When he speaks next, his age shows - as he reluctantly gives voice to long pondered thoughts to the Angel it seems that he trusts - though why, at this point, is unclear. Perhaps he knows something that the soldiers, Major Arnold, and indeed the other NERV staff are unaware of.)

Fuyutsuki: Shortly after I was brought into NERV - when it was still GEHIRN - I was able to examine the scrolls. Being a scientist, I had never really paid much attention to religion or religious documents - but the way SEELE treated then..

Fuyutsuki: It was with respect - the way you would treat someone with a great gift. A clear image of the future, somehow captured in the past and handed to us. To SEELE, the nature of it was such that it was open to interpretation, but not error or 'forgetfulness'.

Fuyutsuki: I had always thought the scrolls were literally correct - that what lay within would come to pass. The number of forms, for example, has never been open to question. Who, of humanity, is to guide us, is a different matter entirely - SEELE would like it to be themselves, and only themselves, in control of the outcome. The scrolls themselves are unclear, perhaps deliberately so.

Fuyutsuki: And often, it was only in hindsight that we knew that a predicted event had come to pass.

Fuyutsuki: Unlike SEELE, I came to realize that the scrolls do not state everything that is to happen. Even Ikari saw as much; after a particular incident he said that to me. Events not depicted in the Scrolls may occur.

Angel: He was not mistaken.

Fuyutsuki: ...

Angel: When I handed the Book of Knowledge to Adam, it was as complete as was allowed; if I had included all of the inconsequential acts of humanity into it, it would be both enormous and useless.

Fuyutsuki: (softly) This is why you came..

Angel: Your pilots understand why it must be - better than you, now. But SEELE does not. They have a grand vision of what 'must be', and they are determined to execute their plan, and they believe that they can provide the missing details.

(Both the Angel and the Commander of NERV remain silent, each waiting for the other to speak. When neither does, Fuyutsuki begins, voicing his next concern.)

Fuyutsuki: And now that you have confirmed this, will you be leaving?

Angel: (shakes her head) I will be here until the end. They will attack again soon - you know that. The battle just fought was but a sample - one of their weaker minions, sent to test your capability and resolve.

Fuyutsuki: ...

Angel: Gather your defenses, Kozou Fuyutsuki. When SEELE attacks next, it will be for the last time. If NERV cannot stand, the choice will be made by those old men.

Fuyutsuki: Can you help us?

Angel: That's never been my role. Knowledge yes, I can help you. But the Evangelions will be your weapons.

Fuyutsuki: Can... she help us?

(The Angel pauses, quietly determining just who Fuyutsuki is speaking of.)

Angel: It wouldn't be a good idea to place her - us - in an entry plug.

(.. then, softly, with his scientific curiosity showing through at last..)

Fuyutsuki: Does Aoi know?

Angel: (nodding) We're not really.. separate people, you might say. Two people live together, talk sometimes, but only one answers the door when someone knocks.

Fuyutsuki: ...

Angel: Speaking of which, new accommodations within the Geo-Front would help - I think we both need a bath, and our old apartment is a ruin.

Fuyutsuki: I'll see what NERV can spare for you.. both.

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[Continue]