The sun was not yet up but Rei was. She typically went to
bed early when possible so she could rise early. As usual, Lars
got here first, though. They both felt the call of wind and wave
but he lived closer, since this was the pool at his complex. They
could swim without others in the way at this hour.
Usually, anyway.
“So that’s the commander’s son, huh?” Lars said to her,
wearing his usual green speedo. They both had certain habits;
she, as usual, wore a blue one piece fringed in white. She had
bikinis which Misato had given her but she was saving those for
when she met the One.
But though everyone had the delusion she and Lars were
dating, she had yet to meet the One. Or maybe just to notice
him. In the tales she’d seen and dreamed, often you did not
recognize your true love at first and had to slowly grow into it.
Or even rejected him.
Her dreams always guided her true as they had led her to
Japan to find the sword, though they had not told her Shinji and
his girlfriend would be there or how handsome Shinji was. He
looked little like his father, who was very tall and very strong
and very imposing. Shinji, on the other hand, looked ready to
blow away in a wind.
But he was not the one, either. Unless maybe she wasn’t
supposed to recognize it was him. She dismissed the thought.
Duty first, romance later. There was no rush, for she was, like
her ancestors, immortal.
She only wished she knew more of their ways than dreams
and what Commander Ikari and Commander Fuyutsuki had been
able and willing to pass on to her. And what Mother had taught
her. Not all of which Mother endorsed. She was so skeptical.
She had taught Rei well to see through half-truths, but Rei
feared Mother used it to see through truths as well.
Lars waited patiently, used to how Rei sometimes drifted
off into her own world. She was embarrassed; she tried to stay
in the waking with him, instead of letting herself explore dreams
while her body went about mundane business that didn’t require
her full attention. But because Lars always stayed in the real
with her, she wanted to reciprocate.
She was sure he must have some degree of Elven blood;
she knew enough to know all humans had a touch of it now. But
it was stronger in him, for she knew that he, like her, longed for
the sea.
But it was a call in him that could not be fulfilled and that
saddened her. Not in its fullest measure. Nor did she know if
she ever would be able to fulfill it, to see the rising of the great
mountains she sometimes dreamed of and the land beyond them,
the sea-kissed shore and the white ships and the great shining
city on that shore.
For in the uttermost West, where the oceans no longer sail,
unless you find the Straight Road, there is a place where the sea
and the sailor find their rest, where gentle waves greet the long
white sands that stretch to the northern and southern horizons.
Green grass, shining like emeralds climbs gently, then swells
upward as great peaks reach for the sky, a mighty wall to defend
the land, with only a single great cleft to open the way from the
high plains and woods beyond to the warm, balmy shore below.
On that shore is a great city, the home of the Teleri, the
Haven of the Swns, a city nigh unimaginable on fallen Arda,
which groans with age and old sins. For its great halls are
carved of pearl and set with gems and upon their docks one may
find some of the beautiful swanships, set with beaks of gold and
eyes of gold and jet, carven of the finest woods. What is
accounted wealth on Arda is merely a common source of beauty
and even the beaches are strewn with opals and diamonds and
pale crystals and other jewels beside.
Yet Alqualonde is merely one of the wonders worked by
Rei’s people, the Eldar. She had dreamed of the lands beyond
the wall of mountains, the Pelori, home to towns and villages
and magnificent cities, but also to endless stretch of fields and
wild spaces enough for all to find their peace in nature.
But the Straight Road is hidden beyond the ken of man or
beast, and the land of Valinor was reserved now for the first
Children of Iluvatar, the Eldar, and to Rei’s knowledge, she
alone of her people walked this mortal shore. And even she was
only part-Eldar, though it was the dominant part. It was not for
Mortal Men, and she feared that to hear its call when it was
barred to you was a great cruelty. It was not for Men and she
neither knew the way, nor could she go when Middle-Earth
needed her. When Mother needed her. When Lars needed her.
And NERV as well.
She forced herself out of her head and into the waking.
“He is not a soldier or a warrior by nature, but he has power.”
The blood must flow strongly in him, Rei thought. Stronger
than Lars, though she could see glimmers in him. Yet Ikari was
deeply rooted in humanity, or so Rei thought anyway.
Thinking about him having a girlfriend felt strange and
maybe… it must be jealousy, she thought, surprised. Not that
she wanted Shinji, but he had found someone to be close to.
On the other hand, she was old enough to notice how
humans fumbled along and took forever to find the one for them
or sometimes never found them at all. What purpose did that
serve? Why make it so hard for them?
Focus, she told herself. Her body shivered a moment and
felt strange, but she dismissed it.
“I guess that’s why they’re going to study him,” Lars said,
stretching.
Rei began stretching as well. The stars above were starting
to fade as the sun worked on rising distantly. They still had
time; the glimmer of Varda’s handiwork was a comfort to Rei,
stilling her vague worries and odd feelings of the flesh. “Yes,”
she said. “Ready to swim?”
“Always,” he said, smiling brightly and she smiled a smile
that would have surprised her classmates. Then they plunged
into the water and began doing laps. Most women Rei’s age
could not have kept up with Lars but he had to press himself to
keep up with her. He was a very good swimmer for a thirteen
year old pressing on fourteen but Rei was a genius. She could
be a major competitor if not for her duty.
Duty came first.
Mother had taught her that and pressed her hard to do well.
She did her best to excel, for she owed a debt to Mother and the
now dead Dr. Akagi Naoko, her Mother’s mother, that she could
not easily repay. But she would do her best.
Her pendant shone over them from her piled clothing,
shedding silver and golden light across the pool, creating ripples
and reflections of light within it; they were used to it and easily
swam with eyes open, using its light to guide them.
It was soothing to Rei as they swam; they did this regularly
and Rei liked to have structure to her life. His presence was
comforting; him being him was something to rely on when
unpredictable things happened.
They took a brief mid-swim break after thirty minutes,
sitting on the edge of the pool, legs in the water. The sky was a
touch brighter now but it wasn’t quite sunrise. Her pendant cast
odd trailing shadows with the deck furniture across the way.
“How many dead?” Lars asked softly.
“It only bothers you to ask,” Rei said as kindly as she could
manage. “I told you not to worry before.” She shivered a little.
“How many dead?” he repeated, determinedly.
“Three,” Rei said. “I’d been on missions with all of them.”
Rei had first seen death long ago. You never got entirely used to
it, not with people you knew. “I sang for them, though they
would not understand the words.”
He put a hand on her shoulder and suddenly she saw their
faces and then them in death and she shivered. Her eyes
watered, though she’d already mourned for them. And then fled
into realms where she didn’t have to think about it. Rei could
not forget anything; she had perfect memory so long as she
focused on this world. Only in escape could she be released
from it.
But she did not have that surcrease here; the temptation to
shift was strong but she resisted. She would not do that to him.
This was his way of trying to help.
“You did your best,” he said as he’d told her before. He
sounded sad, though he didn’t know any of them. She didn’t
know them well… she knew few people well. But they were
battle companions and needed to be mourned and sung. She
hoped they had families who would remember them.
But she would always remember them because she could
not forget anything, though she sometimes wished to. Not when
she was here, in this world. She remembered the first day she
saw this pool, the day she met Lars, the day…
The day Akagi Naoko had taken a bullet meant for her.
Though she would be reborn in this world and Akagi Naoko
would not.
That was with her always.
Stay here, she told herself. She could feel Lars’ mind
easily. He would share his strength if she asked. But she did
not want to lay her burdens on him. “It was not enough,” she
said to Lars. Mother always pushed her hard to do better. She
tried to do better, but three men were dead because she couldn’t
find the sword fast enough. So a handsome boy and his pretty
girlfriend had simply stumbled on it by chance on a date.
Her face wrinkled in frustration. She had worked so hard
for this and he just got lucky. He’d needed her power to
actually get it all the way open but he wasn’t even trained and…
The urge to withdraw was strong, to escape these feelings;
they only got in the way but Lars was here. She could not go.
“It’s okay,” he said and she shook her head.
“No,” she said. “Let’s swim.”
They got back in the water and continued swimming until
about five minutes before their usual stopping time, when Rei
reached out with her senses to see if her dream had been right.
It was. She could distantly feel Kevin coming and the
sense of anticipation in him which could only mean one thing;
one of his practical jokes.
Rei wished Lars could find a best friend who was not a
would-be comedian.
She pretended to notice nothing until Kevin passed close to
her, trying to sneak up on her clothing; like an eel, she leaped
out of the water, seized him and hurled him into the pool; Kevin
yelped, a box of some kind of powder went flying and Kevin
went down in the water.
As Lars rose out of the water, Kevin surfaced. “Oh man, I
spent ten euros on that stuff!”
“Man, lay off Rei, you know she hates practical jokes,”
Lars said, sighing. “She’s not in the mood for it.”
Kevin looked at her and she frowned at him, trying to look
stern, but this just made him laugh, which annoyed her more.
“I’m sorry, man, I just couldn’t resist it.”
Lars pointed at Rei as she got back in the water.
“Sorry, Rei,” he said but she knew he wasn’t very sorry.
“Man, now I have to change my clothing.”
Rei laughed very shortly. “My joke on you,” she said
flatly.
“Haha,” he said ruefully. “See you both at class.”
They finished swimming after he left and then Rei went
back home to change and make breakfast. If not for the
lingering memory of the fallen, it would have been a perfectly
ordinary morning.
*****************
Rebuild of Neon Genesis Silmarillion
A Tolkien Legendarium / Neon Genesis Evangelion crossover
By John Biles
Book 1: Red Sky at Morning
Chapter 2: The Maiden of the Still Waters
****************
Shinji was still rummaging desperately for food in Misato’s
apartment when she finally stumbled out of her bed, wrapped
around with a sheet because she was too bleary to find clothing
but not quite so bleary as to forget she had a guest. Mainly
because it was the noises he made which woke her up. “We’re
going to Ritsuko’s for breakfast so we can go up with her to
work and you can be tested.”
“Tested for what?” Shinji asked, turning to stare hungrily at
her. Literally hungry, though she could tell he noticed she was a
woman. He was at that age.
“How you could open that door whatever it was,” Misato
said. Some kind of alien tech must have been waiting for some
signal or maybe just malfunctioned was her guess. But maybe
all the new generation had alien DNA in them or something.
She was aware that her generation had become better after the
Vanishing somewhat, just not on the scale of Shinji’s, which
entirely grew up after it. And the cause was unknown. Or at
least too classified for her.
The sword had made her nervous; it was kind of creepy, but
now Commander Ikari had it and he’d likely get down to the
bottom of it. Or so she hoped. It was a little reminiscent of the
Ranger weapons but with four times more creepy.
“You can… oh wait, I have multiple bathrooms. Let me
put towels and soap in yours and you can shower in one while I
shower. And no peeping,” she said teasingly.
He got red in the face and stepped back, turning his head
aside. “I wouldn’t!” he said frantically.
“Good, Kameko wouldn’t like it,” Misato said, reminding
herself to sleep with more clothing on in the future. “And send
her a hello.”
“She sent me eight messages,” he mumbled, taking out his
phone and staring at it.
“She’s thinking of you, so think of her, Shinji. See you
soon.” She went and laid the preparations for Shinji, then went
and bathed.
**************
Ritsuko was ready for work in her white blouse with red
bow tie and a long dark blue skirt down to mid-calf. At the
moment, though, she wore an apron; getting stains out of her
clothing was a pain so she and Rei wore aprons when eating to
keep their clothing clean; Rei’s cooking was good but easily
stained everything. Shinji picked at his apron, clearly unused to
this, but Misato paid it no mind; she wore a durable burgundy
NERV logo shirt, black slacks and had her jacket over the back
of the chair. Rei by contrast wore her uniform, a white blouse
with a burgundy skirt. Her jacket was in the closet. Summers
were cooler than the old days but not that cool.
Ritsuko pulled up Shinji’s apron as he wiggled, so it
wouldn’t gap out in front and let him drop food down inside it,
negating its purpose entirely. “Like this,” she told him. “See
how Rei does it.”
Shinji frowned and Misato put a hand over her mouth. It’s
not funny, just common sense, Ritsuko thought.
Rei was quietly putting soy sauce on her rice; they were
having snap peas, rice, and fish for breakfast. With miso soup.
Ritsuko felt a nostalgic pang for her youth, when her father had
made this for breakfast once a week; the rest of the time,
everyone crammed cereal down their throats and ran to work or
school. Later, when it had just been her and Father when
Mother moved to the Geofront to work, he’d made it or other
fancy breakfasts more often.
Rei usually only made it on the weekends, but with their
guests, she had thoughtfully made it for them. Rei was good at
thinking ahead when she didn’t have her head in the clouds, for
which Ritsuko was grateful. It made taking care of her easier. It
had taken a long time to teach her that, though.
“Did you have a good swim?” Ritsuko asked Rei. Rei
almost always did, but her guides told her that a mother had to
ask about this sort of thing, just in case. And it showed that you
cared about their lives.
Her mother never asked about this sort of thing but she was
determined to be better.
She worried sometimes that Rei’s usual ‘fine’ might be a
failure to communicate and not an accurate conveying of actual
events.
“Sarkowski was, as usual, not as funny as he thinks he is,”
Rei said. Ritsuko saw a fair amount of Sarkowski, since he and
Lars were close. She’d never been fond of class clowns.
“The… boy…” Misato struggled, clearly only dimly
remembering the boy herself.
“Discovered I can always hear him coming and that the
bigger they are, the harder they fall,” Rei said, smiling a tiny
smile.
“You beat him up?” Shinji said, surprised.
Misato was stuffing her face but made an approving noise.
“Tempting as it is, one should avoid violence in private
affairs,” Ritsuko said firmly to Rei, who stared down at her
plate, then started eating. Ritsuko sighed. “He is a boy and you
are a woman, Rei. You must act as such.” This was not entirely
true; Rei was more mature than, say, the Sarkowski boy, but not
up to the level of an adult.
Admittedly, the same could be said of Misato,
unfortunately.
That was not fair; in battle, Misato was mature, responsible
and highly skilled. But in Ritsuko’s mind, a portion of Misato
was always drunk on a bed, asking the name of the boy she was
having sex with.
Ritsuko really wished she could forget that, but her
memory was stronger now, possibly due to her ring, though she
didn’t understand how or why they worked despite her studies of
the lore of the Eldar, the aliens whose technology undergirded
NERV’s war machine. She glanced at it; it glowed when close
to HALO but right now it just reflected the light of the room.
Still, it was beautiful and a link to her mother. One of her
proudest moments was Commander Fuyutsuki giving it to her
when she finished her Ph.D. and was given this job.
There were other memories too, like the time they…
She refused to dwell on it and worked on her food instead.
“Yes, mother,” Rei said calmly, then dug into her rice.
Ritsuko knew the ‘yes, mother’, having honed it to perfection
herself. Further pressing would only yield a rich harvest of yes,
mothers, followed by Rei drifting off inside her head.
“Is it true that Unit-02 started growing faster yesterday?”
Misato asked curiously.
She read the memo, Ritsuko thought, relieved. But then,
Misato did her duty. It was one of her admirable traits. “Cause
unknown. The amount of HALO necessary per pound of growth
lessened for reasons unknown.”
“Unlike in April last year,” Misato said carefully, clearly
trying to be sure she got the date right; it was easy for her to tell
what Misato was likely thinking these days, Ritsuko found.
Indeed, since April of last year, Ritsuko had found it easier to
deduce what anyone was thinking, not just Misato.
One day, for reasons unknown to Ritsuko, there had been a
sudden increase in the benefits offered by the rings and of the
efficiency of HALO production. Certain other things had
happened as well; a large number of youths had undergone some
sort of physical change beyond the normal ones of puberty; there
was no clear pattern to it and it was rare, but people’s hair had
turned kinky or straight, there had been variations in skin color
to some degree, sudden growth spurts and other inexplicable
shifts. Most people had not been affected but with millions
upon millions of youths in existence, people noticed.
She’d studied one such case; Olga Berg had been destined
to be tall and strong anyway, given her upbringing and genetics.
She’d undergone an unusually early puberty at age 10,
apparently as her mother had before her. Her growth spurt had
accelerated after her mother’s death in a classified mission down
into the Deeps under the Geo-Front. A mission Ritsuko
suspected was connected to whatever had changed things that
April. At fourteen, Olga was taller than most men and easily
looked to be a junior or senior in high school, not an eighth
grader. Understandably, this had caused her huge amounts of
trouble and she hated it.
Normally, early puberty would have also meant an end to
growth by now; the final spurt was only three years long. But
Olga was still growing if somewhat slower, and had huge
strength. Study of several dozen cases like hers had led to
improvements which would be implemented with Unit-03,
assuming it ever got funded, which was still an open question.
While there was a clear problem with lunatic cults and
evidence from the Deeps of alien creatures existing, the Enemy
had been quiet enough since the Vanishing that many wanted to
cut NERV’s funding in order to address other priorities. Unit-02
would be the last Ranger until a stronger threat appeared and
Unit-02 had been slowed for years by problems of funding and
slow growth.
Suddenly, it was speeding up. Right after another
classified mission, though this time, she thought Misato had told
her everything. But she couldn’t be sure and that saddened her.
On the other hand, she had secrets she couldn’t tell Misato, but it
made it harder to be friends.
She had few enough friends, she could not afford to lose
any.
Shinji began to salt his rice and Rei said, “Too much salt
raises your blood pressure.” Shinji frowned and put the white
cat shaped shaker down. He reached for the black cat pepper
shaker, glanced at Rei, but she said nothing, lost in her food.
Misato now put too much salt on her food. “Shinji, do
what you want.”
Ritsuko rubbed her forehead. “Rei is right, you know.”
Reinforce good behavior by your children. Praise good
behavior, condemn the bad. Enforce clear, consistent rules so
they don’t have to cater to your foolish whims. Whims were
bad.
“Mother is wise,” Rei said with her usual calm but it made
Ritsuko smile.
“You only die once,” Misato said to Shinji.
Shinji was clearly trapped, not knowing what to do.
Rei said, “Try the pepper if you must.”
So he peppered his food, while Misato tried to choke down
her oversalted food, pouting. Ritsuko couldn’t help but smile,
but made herself stop. Smiling at bad behavior, however funny,
only encourages it.
“Mother, if nothing else happens, Lars and I are going to a
movie on Friday. You have a date, correct?” Rei asked.
“Oooh, a date,” Misato said, eyes lighting up.
“It is not a date,” Rei said firmly. “We are not dating. He
is not the One.”
Ritsuko found the insistence of the old records that the
Eldar somehow knew the one person for them and then cleaved
to that person forever to be hard to believe. But Rei had
apparently swallowed the whole pile of twaddle hook, line, and
sinker to Ritsuko’s surprise and frustration. She absorbed
information about the Eldar and tried to live by it the way
Misato scarfed down beer when off-duty.
Ritsuko thought it ridiculous to let your biology determine
your culture but didn’t have time to argue it with Rei for the
millionth time again.
“Who are you going out with?” Misato asked Ritsuko
curiously. She’d tried fixing up Ritsuko with a couple of her
guy friends but it never seemed to work out.
“He’s actually a member of Asuka’s committee,” Ritsuko
said. “Dr. Harzmann from the University of Nuremberg. We
are colleagues of the same field but he doesn’t work for me,
which is perfect.” Most of the unmarried men Ritsuko knew
also worked under her, which had been a problem for dating.
Misato forced Ritsuko to fistbump with her, then said,
“Perfect. You two have a good time.”
Dragging details out of Ritsuko about the date took up the
rest of breakfast. Shinji wondered who Asuka was and why she
had a committee but wasn’t bold enough to ask.
Then they headed out.
*****************
Terrel stared as Commander Ikari struck a large chunk of
Ranger armor with a sword; it was black and very fancily made;
it looked more a museum piece to him than a weapon and the
piece of armor dwarfed both sword and Commander alike.
Terrel and several others had moved the armor into a room
where the Commander could attack it.
To his surprise, the blows left visible scratches. They
weren’t hugely deep but few things could damage Ranger armor.
Probably if the sword was Ranger scale, it would inflict much
more damage.
In which case they needed countermeasures. Was this a
weapon of the enemy? Terrel frowned at the sword. On the
other hand, a larger version would be a great Ranger weapon.
Commander Ikari called them all over; he was a tall man,
though Terrel was taller; he guessed the head of NERV was
about a hundred and eighty five centimeters tall; Terrel was
strong but Ikari was stronger, though his suit hid it. Rumor had
it that Ikari was heavily scarred and he usually wore a suit and
gloves.
“You tell no one what you saw,” he said. “Repair the
damage and return the part to where you got it.”
“Sir, what is that?” Lara asked.
“Classified,” Commander Ikari said. “You were chosen for
your clean records. Keep them that way by telling no one.” His
voice was commanding and Terrel found himself wanting to
obey. But then his voice softened a little. “It may be key to
developing better weapons. That is all. Continue your good
work.” He saluted and they saluted back. “Get to it,” he said
and left.
Terrel was soon sweating and earning his pay.
***************
Maya was quite happy to assist her sempai, Dr. Akagi, who
she greatly admired, sometimes more than was wise, she knew.
Maya was surprised Dr. Akagi was running tests on the boy
personally; she only vaguely knew why Ikari Shinji was even
here. Had Commander Ikari called his son in for a physical?
“What are we doing, sempai?”
“Taking base readings,” Dr. Akagi said. “I need to
determine if Shinji has an affinity for Telepmalta.” This was the
official name for what was called in public ‘Orange Sign’.
Given it meant ‘silver-gold’, it wasn’t all that more descriptive.
But they still struggled to understand what Telepmalta was. It
was the power rendered liquid as HALO, the fluid which
powered the Rangers and enabled some to synchronize with
Rangers.
“Is he a potential pilot?” Maya asked. A program named
PALANTIR handled the selection of pilot candidates. It had a
long and difficult history because most early testing of
candidates had ended in either failure or madness.
However, whenever Unit-02 finished growing, it would be
necessary to select a pilot. Maya was dreading it, as her reading
of the records indicated a long history of tragedy with only two
real successes so far, Ayanami Rei and Langley-Soryuu Asuka.
“Pilot selection is not in our hands,” Ritsuko said. “Though
we can make recommendations. Ikari-san doesn’t strike me as
someone who would want to pilot, anyway. However, if he
possesses a special affinity for HALO, he might be able to
contribute in other ways.” She spoke quickly, which Maya
knew was a sign of suppressed excitement.
Ikari-san was running on a treadmill, making good time.
“He runs well,” Maya commented.
“Yes. He’s in good health. We will take the soul readings
next,” Dr. Akagi said, making a tick mark on a list. She still had
the slight verbal twitch at the word ‘soul’. But they didn’t have
a better term.
With NERV’s equipment, you could sense a kind of energy
which vanished when a person died and only was found in living
things; the more sapient the stronger. It wasn’t ‘mind’ as your
mind does not suffuse every inch of your flesh. This was the
part of you which responded well or poorly to HALO.
It was either a soul or something equivalent.
This both excited Maya and made her nervous. She lived
in an age of incredible potential and possibility but also in the
shadow of death. And if the soul survived, what was its fate? If
Dr. Akagi knew, she wasn’t telling.
They sent Shinji to a changing room and he put on a
plugsuit of the kind used when interfacing with the Rangers.
But he was simply going to be scanned in a machine rather like
a rotating x-ray machine.
One of the ongoing problems with this technology was that
they were still, after all these years, trying to figure out what
much of what they could detect actually meant; soul scan data
was an art, not a science. This bothered Maya but Dr. Akagi
frowned and grimaced at the results, as she usually did every
time she took readings with it, even if they seemed good.
Shinji then sat quietly, listening to music and snacking on
some chips Maya bought him, while she and Dr. Akagi worked
together, feeding data into the MAGI, the computer which was
crucial to NERV’s operations. It was half-biological with three
giant brains linked to machines, a cyborg computer.
A combination of fuzzy logic and its three massive brains
gave it massive computing power. Its abilities undergirded and
facilitated much of the Advanced Research Department’s work
and it was Dr. Akagi’s legacy from her mother, who created it.
“I hope we’re not boring you, Ikari-san,” Maya said kindly
to him while they waited for the analysis to run.
“It’s fine,” he said, then yawned. He got a text and quickly
fired one off. Then he opened his mouth, looking hopeful, but
then shook his head.
“Yes, Ikari-san?” Maya asked.
“Nothing,” he said, so she let it slide and caught up on
work email while they waited.
Commander Katsuragi stuck her head in. “Hey, everyone.
Why’s Shinji in a plugsuit?”
It was black with silver trim and clung to him, covering
most of his body with plastic, showing off only his head; even
there he had two little clips secured to his temples.
“Testing,” Dr. Akagi said. “Don’t worry, Shinji,” she said.
“We haven’t found anything bad so far. This data is going to
take a while to run, though.”
“Well, your father has been testing the sword,” Katsuragisan said to Shinji. “He seems pleased with it.”
Shinji smiled as if he made it himself.
“I dunno if we’ll be able to get a chance for you to see him
today, but I will talk to him about it,” Misato said to Shinji.
“We have a meeting later.”
“Thanks,” he said appreciatively.
“Okay, I’ll leave you to staring at monitors. I have
paperwork to catch up on.” Katsuragi-san moaned, then headed
out.
Maya suspected she’d have less to catch up on if she didn’t
procrastinate. Sempai *never* procrastinated, something Maya
admired.
Being stuck unable to gain ground while data sets ran…
that was another question.
***************
“Galvorn,” Gendo said to Fuyutsuki in his office. “I am
sure it is made of Galvorn.” Gendo was leaning on his desk
again as usual, while Fuyutsuki sprawled as if he couldn’t quite
figure out what to do with his legs in a plush chair facing him.
Gendo lifted a ladyfinger and broke it in half, then dunked it in
his coffee and ate it greedily; there was a fresh plate of them on
the desk. Fuyutsuki held one in his right hand but had clearly
forgotten it existed.
“Maybe it really is Anguirel,” Fuyutsuki said. “And not a
duplicate.” He stared off at the ceiling, idly flipping his
ladyfinger between his fingers while Gendo ate another one.
“Which alloy was Galvorn?”
“That’s the problem. Only Eol knows how it was made, as
he invented it. Meteoric iron is involved and likely a little
mithril and some others. If I can deduce its composition, then
we can make more and upgrade the Rangers,” Gendo said.
“Unfortunately, this means having to send down another
expedition into the Deeps.”
“Don’t you need to know the composition first?” Fuyutsuki
asked.
“I will need testing materials ,” Gendo said. “Also, we
need to give its denizens a good rap on the nose every so often
to keep them at a distance, anyway.” He frowned, munching on
a ladyfinger.
“I’m curious who put it there and how your son and the girl
and Ayanami unlocked it,” Fuyutsuki said, still twirling his
cookie instead of eating it. “It is not in the prophecies.”
“In and of itself, I don’t think Anguirel is that important,”
Gendo said, then finished his coffee and ate another ladyfinger,
then drummed his fingers on the table. “Shinji should not be
here. It is too dangerous.”
“He cannot simply go back either,” Fuyutsuki said, a little
chidingly. “The enemy targeted his home once, they will likely
do it again.”
Gendo drummed harder, then tried to drink from his empty
glass. He hit a button and told his secretary to bring him more;
she did so quickly, recognizing one of his moods. “He was
supposed to be safe,” Gendo said tensely. “Far from me.”
“Nowhere is safe from the enemy and in this age, it’s hard
to hide, especially since you placed him with kin. Still, I don’t
think they targeted him so much as they tried to take revenge for
the death of the werewolf,” Fuyutsuki said, straightening up in
his chair, then finishing his ladyfinger.
Gendo's gloved hands clenched, crumbling cookies, and
now he looked at his hands, embarrassed. He sighed, wiped
crumbs onto his plate, then said, “I will find somewhere safe and
quiet for him and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law to stay.
They shouldn’t have to be part of this.”
“You should see him.”
“I cannot,” Gendo said to his plate of ladyfingers, then ate
one he hadn’t smashed up.
Fuyutsuki sighed. Gendo always seemed to make trouble
for himself. “We’d best talk about Butterfield.”
Gendo scrunched up his face, then made himself relax.
“Okay. What did he do this time?”
The meeting continued on ground less emotionally shaky
for Gendo.
*************
Rei did well in all of her classes in terms of grades. Mother
would accept nothing less and Rei wished to meet or even
exceed the standard Mother set for her. Participation in class, on
the other hand, was not her strong point. Her mind was
elsewhere, sailing on a white ship into the mysterious lands of
the south, when Herr Jager, the history teacher, called on her.
“So why did Augustus’ plans in Germany fail, Fraulein
Ayanami?” he asked.
Kensuke Aida, a short Japanese boy with brown hair and
glasses, shot his hand into the air. While history wasn’t his
strongest point, he did well in his classes, and unlike Rei, was
usually fully present and accounted for. He was used to having
to answer things Rei didn’t and took a certain pleasure in it. He
didn’t hate Rei but showing off his intelligence pleased him
deeply, especially when someone else didn’t.
Lars poked Rei; this was one of his jobs as her friend.
“Wake up, Fraulein,” Herr Jager said. He was an old man
with short white hair, wearing an old and rumpled suit. He
could have retired by now but he loved teaching. He feared he’d
quickly crumble and die if he stopped working. Right now,
though, he sounded somewhat frustrated.
“Betrayal at the hands of the Sons of…” Rei’s brain
clicked in all the way. “At the hands of a leader of Roman
foederati, Arminius, sometimes called Hermann in Germany.
Depending on your national identity, he is either a wonderful
paragon of heroic virtue or an evil, power-hungry backstabbing
bastard or someone neither better nor worse than his
contemporaries. After all, Augustus had betrayed his former
comrade in arms, Marc Anthony and hounded him and his lover
to the death,” Rei continued.
“Sons of what?” Herr Jager asked curiously.
“Nothing,” Rei said. “My mouth went before my brain.”
He was always curious if she just had an active fantasy life
or sometimes nearly blurted out NERV’s secrets. His grandson,
Terrel, sometimes started to let things slip, then had to silence
himself. It made their meetings awkward, so he tried to avoid
discussing NERV, but so much of Terrel’s life was connected to
it that it was hard to avoid. He didn’t like having a barrier
between them, though he understood the necessity. But the rest
of his family was too far away to see often.
He turned and saw Olga Berg had gone to sleep again. It
was hard to believe she was only fourteen and barely that, as she
could have easily passed as sixteen or seventeen. Further, she
was huge even for her generation, which tended to be taller, and
still growing. It made her the champion of many women’s
sports, but she didn’t show much enthusiasm for anything
beyond sports and having fights with the Suzuhara boy.
Who was trying to covertly read a comic book instead of
paying attention.
Admittedly, this was less disruptive than Kevin
Sarkowski’s efforts to make every subject funny.
Herr Jager found sending him to the hallway with buckets
to be funny.
But today, though he wasn’t paying attention, Sarkowski
was subdued and just doodling quietly in his notebook.
Some of the students paid attention. Kensuke wanted to
show off his brain. Ditto for Biyu Wang, who always did well
and paid attention. And several others too.
But most of them were either lost or didn’t care. It
frustrated him that they all had so much talent and many of them
didn’t care about anything else. And a lot of them could just
coast on general intellect. Their generation was smarter, but he
saw little sign they would do anything with it but goof off and…
Why was Sarkowski designing a catapult?
Lunch could not come too soon.
*******************
“We’re going to have to mount another delving
expedition,” Gendo said to Misato. The heads of the various
sections of the Tactical Division had been assembled in a
meeting room to discuss various issues. “I want that sword
tested in battle, and further, we need to secure various minerals
to try to duplicate it. It has great potential if we can make more.
Prepare a plan by Friday so I can study it over the weekend. To
Sector X-39.” His voice was, as usual, commanding, his hands
folded on the table in front of them. But he did not quite look at
either of them.
Captain Hans Berg, head of City Defense (which included
expeditions into the Deep), grimaced. “X-39 is a dangerous
sector.” His wife had died there in April of the previous year, in
fact. He was a tall man, strong and brave, with ash-blond hair
starting to show a few grey hairs, clean shaven with a strong jaw
and powerful limbs and torso.
“I know. Nevertheless, there is a substantial amount of
already processed minerals of the type we require to be found in
that sector. Need I remind you there is no other known source
for Element Alpha?” Element Alpha was a crucial component
of Ranger weaponry, resembling silver, though it did not tarnish.
Alloyed with other metals, it took on special properties. Most
importantly, it resonated with HALO, creating weapons able to
deal with the most dangerous Wraiths.
“And every trip involves high casualties,” Captain Berg
said, leaning forward; he had a powerful physical presence, but
Gendo was not someone you could impress with that. The
thought of more death there repulsed him. He could not help but
remember Rachel; his wife had been nearly as tall as him, strong
for a woman but not even close to their daughter’s physical
power. She’d faced a lot of difficulty as a female soldier, but
she’d persevered.
And then she’d died, sacrificing herself against a type four
Wraith, somehow killing it and enabling the others to escape.
Including that rat-fucker Agent Kaji, whose poor leadership had
nearly gotten them all killed to start with. But NERV had seen it
differently to Captain Berg’s frustration.
He’d nearly resigned over it, but if he left NERV, he’d be
abandoning his men. And he felt he had a duty to help protect
humanity and avenge his dead brother and now his wife.
But it wasn’t easy some days, like this.
Misato frowned. “I assume you will need Rei.”
“If no other crisis presents itself, yes,” Gendo said. “It is
risky but her talents are critical for any safe operation in this
area.”
Captain Berg grimaced. His own effort to qualify as a
Ranger pilot had shown him why they had to use children but he
didn’t like it. But Rei Ayanami, whatever she was, was loyal to
NERV and amazingly competent, calm, and collected. She also
possessed abilities no one else did.
And if she’d been there, possibly his wife would not have
died.
Captain Ji now asked, “Do we have any idea what is going
on with Unit-02?”
“That’s a question for Dr. Akagi,” Gendo said. “To my
knowledge, Advanced Technology is still trying to determine
what is going on.”
Misato had meant to ask about that and was grateful.
“Captain Berg and I will develop a plan,” she said. “By Friday.”
Various other items were discussed and then the meeting
broke up. Misato took the chance to talk to Gendo privately as
he walked off to another meeting. “Sir, your son is here in the
Geofront.”
“Without authorization,” he said flatly. “Finish the tests,
then send him to NERV-Japan until it is safe to go home. Or
arrange for them to be relocated.” He looked rather stiff but it
was hard to tell. Unless he was selling an idea, Gendo always
looked stiff to Misato. “Also, issue Rei a commendation and I
have sent you letters you can attach to your letters to the fallen
soldiers.” His voice was a little softer on the last sentence.
“Vilaj’s wife will be heartbroken. Ensure she gets whatever she
needs.”
It always stunned Misato that Gendo seemed to know all
about his soldiers and wrote very fluent, empathetic letters to the
family of the fallen when he was usually cold and brusque with
the living.
Like his insane refusal to see his son. “Sir, what better
chance will you have to see him before he goes? Also, I’m not
sure if it will be safe. It’s not impossible the Enemy knows his
role in the affair.” How the cults got their information, she
didn’t know but they often knew far too much, though they
would garble it through their own particular set of lunacy.
“Placing him here in the main target of our enemies will
not make him safer. Further, he’s used to Japan,” Gendo said.
“And I am very busy. Please take good care of him while he
stays.” The final sentence deeply annoyed Misato; she’d heard
it said insincerely too many times in her life. With variations.
Dammit, she thought. The boy deserved to at least see his
father and certainly better than to be sent back to his aunt and
uncle who didn’t seem to care about him. Her parents had
fought constantly and been on the verge of divorce when her
father had died, but they had cared.
Maybe too much.
Misato would rather overdo than underdo things.
Gendo clearly had the ‘conversation over’ face of looking
straight ahead, hiding his eyes and scowling behind his beard,
though.
Maybe Ritsuko will give me an excuse, she thought. She
owed Shinji better than this.
**************
“Rei, you’re joining us for PE?” Horaki Hikari said to Rei,
surprised. Rei usually went to NERV during the last period for
her training. Hikari had curly brown hair (thanks to a perm) and
a pretty normal build for a girl her age; she was one of the
younger students of her grade, but was class representative.
She, like everyone else, was busy stripping to put on gym
uniforms; they were in the women’s changing room; the boys
were busy making noises on the other side like they were having
a riot. Why they needed a daily riot remained unclear to most of
the women.
Evelyn Scott, one of their classmates, was busy carefully
folding her shirt before switching to the gym shirt; like all the
uniform shirts, it was cream colored. The gym shirt, however,
had a bold logo proclaiming the Geo-Front Tree-Keepers; this
was the school’s mascot, a sort of humanoid tree with a vaguely
benevolent or sinister wooden face depending on how exactly
you viewed it. It had been chosen because of NERV’s revival of
an ancient pre-human tree species known as ‘mallorn’. But trees
were perhaps less active than one would want for a team mascot.
Most of the students really wanted a different mascot,
though Evelyn liked it. She liked nature and trees and painting
landscapes, which she had great talent in. Grey-eyed with
auburn hair down below her shoulderblades, she was awkward
of late and not looking forwards to physical education class,
where she would do badly (compared to everyone else) and feel
the pity the coaches had for her and the less athletic students.
She didn’t want to be pitied.
She was good at reading people, but she didn’t always like
what she found out. Like right now. “I feel like I am being
watched,” she said, frowning.
“Mother is studying Commander Ikari’s son, Shinji,” Rei
said. “I need to catch up on my schoolwork, so no battle
training today.” She cocked her head slightly as she quickly and
efficiently stripped to underwear and put on the gym uniform as
if she had drilled to do this.
Being who she was, maybe she had.
Hikari looked over at Evelyn, then said, “There’s not a
window or anything for anyone to peep on us.” But her voice
was hesitant because Evelyn had rather good intuition. “I’ll
report them if there is.” Hikari was known, on the other hand,
for strong adherence to the rules and little tolerance for the
increasingly perverted behavior of a lot of the boys over the last
year or so. “Why they all have to act like such trash, I don’t
know,” she said, frustrated.
“They’re not all bad,” Rosalinda said. She had a boyfriend,
unlike most of the other girls. She was short and on the busty
side for her age (about where most of the girls would end up in
the next two years) and had been the first girl in the class to be
asked out by a boy.
Not that anyone was counting. But she had gone boy crazy
before everyone else too. She was one of the oldest students in
the class… which meant a few months earlier and an April
birthday.
“Kensuke has somehow found or created a hole and he and
Sam are trying to coerce Ernie into looking,” Rei said, her head
returning to normal as she headed for the door, ready for the
soccer field. Ernie was the son of a Baptist minister. But
despite the reputation of preacher’s kids, he was generally one
of the few boys who held up to Hikari’s standards.
Rei’s statement went unquestioned despite the absence of
any normal way for her to know this. Hikari grimaced. “Time
to go give them a piece of my mind,” she said, starting for the
door.
“I’ll help you,” Olga said grimly. “I expect Suzuhara’s
waiting in line for his turn to peep on us.”
“With no shirt on?” Hedda said, vastly amused. Hedda
Sommer was middling in height with short black wavy hair and
a slender but strong figure; with a different hairstyle she could
have easily passed as a boy with a shirt on. She now pulled on a
shirt. “The boys would love that.”
Olga turned red and ran for a shirt, then looked even
angrier. Hikari did the same but was less angry.
Rei said, “Lars will handle it.”
“AIR MAIL,” they heard Lars shout and the sound of
Kensuke in flight ensued, followed by more chaos.
Rosalinda felt a sudden burst of jealousy. Her boyfriend
Bert was cool, but he wasn’t… If he tried to do that, someone
would probably kick his ass.
Evelyn winced sympathetically. While she didn’t want to
be peeped on, she hated to see people get hurt.
“Don’t throw Kensuke even if he is perving!” Touji
shouted on the other side of the wall and Evelyn winced.
Hikari stopped Olga going over. “We’ll just report it to the
coach,” she said. “We might get in trouble barging in.” Having
cooled off a little, her common sense had returned.
Olga hit one palm with her fist. “I’m used to trouble.”
“Ten Euros on Suzuhara!” They heard Conrad shout and
Hedda laughed. Conrad Kruger was considered mostly likely to
either break Vegas or be broken by it in the class.
“I’d take that bet if I was in there,” Hedda said, grinning.
Rosalinda turned red. “You wouldn’t really walk in there,
would you?”
“Ten on Lars,” Rei said to Hedda. “And I would if it was
useful,” Rei continued. “I do not understand this concern with
nudity.”
Evelyn turned red at that. Her parents were sometimes
sloppy about assuring they were not seen by her when they were
up to things she really, really didn’t want to see them doing.
Despite Hikari’s efforts to stop it, two betting pools now
developed instead of people getting ready for gym class.
Despite Rei’s confidence, Touji won, though this mainly
won him a harsher punishment.
*************
Fraulein Fassbinder was the new Classics teacher, also
teaching French. She was tall with long blonde hair bound up in
a bun and glasses, wearing an expensive, well-cut suitdress. She
studied class 8-C. The female half looked fine but the male half
was rather the worse for wear, with a few exceptions like
Conrad, who needed to lose weight but was at least uninjured.
They looked nearly ready to resume the riot, too.
This was going to be a long day, she could tell. Probably
fighting over girls. As if anyone in their right mind would find
most of them attractive.
Well, to be fair, thirteen and fourteen year olds had lower
standards. She could remember that much of her teenage years.
But she put thoughts of too much partying in her youth aside;
she was an adult now and had to act as such.
Set an example of maturity.
Something went off in Kevin’s backpack, announcing it
was a bomb.
“Sorry, teach,” he said, reaching in and shutting off his
phone. “I thought I had turned it off.”
They soon got to work; this was French class and all but the
worst of her students did well; indeed, though Berg and
Suzuhara were the sort who would have bombed this in her
youth, they could at least pull a C in this.
It was gratifying, though she knew it was some sort of
genetic mutation; her own generation had shown some
improvement after the Vanishing. She’d been only seven when
it happened, so she barely remembered the pre-Vanishing world,
but she could remember how she’d gone from barely adequate to
doing very well in the course of two years and how happy her
parents had been. They’d convinced themselves it was making
her listen to classical music, but she hadn’t cared. She’d gone
from always in trouble to being treated well and that had made
her happy.
Now it was time to help these kids make their parents
happy if they didn’t kill each other for no reason first.
*****************
Shinji glanced at the technician who just came in; he was
carrying a large thermos with the NERV logo on it. It was a
kind of leaf with the slogan ‘DAY WILL COME AGAIN’
twined around it. He’d looked it up; it was a Mallorn leaf. A
kind of tree NERV had revived.
The dark-haired technician had Dr. Akagi sign a form, then
handed it over; he wore the usual blue-grey uniform Shinji had
seen on all the Techs, but his proclaimed ‘HALO Production
and Maintenance’. “Thanks, Mr. Harmon,” Dr. Akagi said to
him.
“You’re welcome, Dr. Akagi. You have a nice day,” he
said, smiling under his bushy moustache. “So what do you think
about moustaches?”
“I favor a clean-shaven man,” she said to him, frowning for
reasons Shinji couldn’t grasp. “Why ask me?” She sounded
slightly suspicious.
“Because…” He looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry, this is
between me and my girlfriend. I like it but she wants it to go.”
“I advise you to take her advice. Or at least trim it.”
Ralph Harmon cringed, stepping back and crouching a bit.
“Okay, I give up.” He sighed and headed out.
Shinji felt that was a little too rough on the man but it
wasn’t his place to question an adult.
Except his father, but that was special.
His father had abandoned him and he wanted to at least
know why. He wanted… He was angry with his father, angrier
now that Misato had come by and told him that his father
wouldn’t see him. Why? Can’t he even just come by and say
hello.
He was tempted to sneak off and look for him but if he got
caught, they’d likely lock him up or send him away and he
wouldn’t have a chance. He wanted to do it, but his fear held
him back.
“He asked, I told him,” Dr. Akagi said flatly to Shinji.
“I… ask what?” he asked, then remembered.
“I do not mince the truth,” Dr. Akagi said.
“Why won’t Father see me?” Shinji said, pained.
Dr. Akagi stepped back, eyes widening a little. Her arms
came in close, then she forced them out and relaxed. “I don’t
know,” she confessed. For all that she and her Mother had
fought like two mad cats in a sack, Mother would never have
avoided her.
Admittedly, Mother relished fights and tearing people
down too much.
“Didn’t you say you didn’t mince the truth?” Shinji said
bitterly.
“I work with your father but only Commander Fuyutsuki
knows him well,” Dr. Akagi said, sitting down instead of doing
anything with the liquid, which she put on the table Shinji was
leaning on. She sat ramrod-straight with perfect form. “He
seems to me a sad and melancholy man, prone to fits of anger
expressed only in words, rarely fighting but ending the fights he
enters. Utterly devoted to your mother.” She’d had a crush on
him, when she’d foolishly thought brooding was the same as
romantic; he had shut her down but apparently didn’t hold it
against her, to her surprise and confusion.
But then, she’d been rather young, then.
“But why won’t he see me?” Shinji demanded, starting to
get angry, an unfamiliar feeling to him.
“Probably guilt over your mother’s death, though it was not
his fault. She volunteered to test Unit-00 and it killed her for it.”
Dr. Akagi grimaced. “The beginning of many who died trying
to pilot 01 and 00. Or went mad. Or ended up deformed, like
the man who now had four arms.
Used properly, HALO could heal but using it to
synchronize with the Rangers was risky. Contact with them was
more than some could bear.
Shinji now looked depressed, and Dr. Akagi said, “I lost
my mother too and I could do nothing to stop it.” Her voice was
awkward, and she stiffly patted Shinji’s hand. “She was
murdered,” she said angrily. “By a traitor.”
Shinji looked up but he was clearly only half there and half
inside his sorrows. “I’m sorry,” he said weakly.
A lot of people were only partly there since the Vanishing.
“It is not your fault,” Dr. Akagi said. She started to say
something else and stopped. “Shinji, I will need you to
perform.”
“In this suit?” he said, frowning, still in the plugsuit.
“Its sensors will guide me,” Dr. Akagi said. “Your
performance partner will be here soon.”
“I’m playing with someone?” Shinji said, surprised.
She turned out to be his age, a very good looking redhead;
physically, she was his age, but her glasses and suit-dress made
her look older. She wore a golden ring set with a ruby shaped
like a starburst. “Hello, Ritsuko,” she said very seriously.
“Should I suit up?”
“It would help,” Dr. Akagi said. “Shinji, this is Asuka
Langley-Soryuu. She teaches biology at the gymnasium and
pilots Unit-01.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Shinji said formally and
shook Asuka’s hand.
She studied him through her glasses; her eyes were piercing
like Dr. Akagi’s and he felt like she saw right through him. For
a moment, he instinctively tried to shield himself with his arms.
She sighed. “I would have thought Commander Ikari’s son
would be more impressive.”
Shinji frowned, but said nothing.
Now she looked more disappointed but then glanced at Dr.
Akagi and stepped back slightly and straightened up. “I will go
change.” She left to suit up, returning in a red plugsuit with a
violin.
Shinji had gotten his cello ready.
“Should we get Rei?” Asuka asked. “She plays the viola,”
she told Shinji.
“That would be nice,” he said.
Asuka now got a smirk on her face which made him frown.
“I see,” she said. “I doubt you could take Dahl, though.”
Shinji wondered what she meant, then remembered Lars’
name. “He’s not her boyfriend,” he said. “They both said that.”
“I know a river in Egypt too,” Asuka said cheerfully.
Shinji wondered what that had to do with *anything*.
“We’ll work with you two; Rei needs rest after the
mission,” Dr. Akagi said, frowning. Shinji wasn’t sure why.
Did she think that was coddling Rei?
His uncle complained his aunt coddled Shinji too much but
Shinji thought his uncle didn’t know what it meant.
Dr. Akagi opened the bottle and light flooded into the
room, silver and golden glows rising and falling, tracking across
the room. Her’s and Asuka’s rings glowed softly in the light.
Dr. Akagi let Shinji pick the pieces and soon he and Asuka
were playing and the liquid began to ripple. Dr. Akagi studied
her handheld, which was getting readings from the MAGI. She
kept making noises of interest which made Shinji nervous.
Asuka soon relaxed and soon was smiling brightly. She
was very pretty, Shinji noticed. And pleasant when happy
instead of looking smirky. She had more passion than form in
her playing but it carried her up to a higher level, as this was a
matter of degree; she was good and her passion made her great.
“Am I supposed to do something?” Shinji asked.
“Just keep playing,” Dr. Akagi said, so Shinji played on
with Asuka, impressed by her skill at this. She was better than
the violinists at his school, anyway.
“Shinji, I have to say you’re good at this,” Asuka said.
“Better than you look.”
“Uh, thanks,” he said.
“Are you staying? I could use someone to actually practice
with,” Asuka said.
Shinji was stunned. No one but his music teacher had ever
asked him to practice with them. Except Kameko. He mumbled
something incoherent about girlfriends, then said bitterly,
“Father wants me to go home.”
“Fathers can be rough,” Asuka said sympathetically.
“Mine rushed off and married this idiot after Mother died.” She
grimaced. “So now I have to put up with idiot step-siblings and
a woman with the intellect of a carrot.”
“Asuka, that’s too harsh. The patients in the infirmary love
her,” Dr. Akagi said sharply. “She is a nurse, Shinji.”
Shinji suddenly wondered if Asuka’s father had married the
nurse who treated his wife when she died. Surely he couldn’t be
that cold. He shuddered at the thought.
“Why won’t he let you stay with him?” Asuka asked
curiously.
“I don’t know,” Shinji said, frowning and leaning on his
cello, then making himself stop.
Dr. Akagi said, “Come take a look, Asuka.”
Asuka and Shinji both looked but it was meaningless graph
gibble-gabble to him. “Am I the brown line?” he asked.
“Yes,” Dr. Akagi said. “Notice the power level sharply
rises when you both play but only mildly when you go solo.”
She pointed out the changes with a mechanical pencil. “You
synchronized more as you played together.”
“You can synchronize with people?” Asuka said, adjusting
her glasses and turning to look at the graphs again.
“Not normally but you and Shinji’s effects increasingly
reinforced each other as you went,” Dr. Akagi said.
“As we got used to playing together,” Shinji said hesitantly.
“Yes,” Dr. Akagi said. “Suddenly, I wonder if perhaps
multiple adult pilots together could pilot a Ranger.” She
sounded intrigued.
“Could they really coordinate their body commands
enough?” Asuka asked, sinking back in her seat and folding her
arms over her chest. Her face was twisted into a scowl.
“Wouldn’t you risk mental contamination?”
Shinji was afraid to ask what that was; his phone went off;
it was Kameko, telling him about doing homework, so he sent
her a message about the music test.
He got a quick reply as Asuka and Dr. Akagi discussed the
possibilities of the idea of two pilots at once. ‘I wish I could
come and dance with you; I bet we could do even better.’
Shinji smiled at that. ‘I know. You and Rei could dance
together again.’ The idea of that pleased him and he smiled.
“Friend from Japan?” Asuka asked curiously.
“Girlfriend,” Shinji said. The idea was still strange to him,
but good.
“Oh hoh,” Asuka said, clearly… was she amused? Yes,
she was, Shinji thought. “I have an awesome boyfriend.”
“He is not, in fact, your boyfriend,” Dr. Akagi said, sighing
loudly.
Shinji mostly zoned out the argument over some ‘Kaji’ guy
in favor of texting Kameko.
“I guess we can’t bring Kameko without her parents’
permission,” Shinji said, sighing. Then he had to explain what
had happened to Asuka.
She adjusted her glasses. “You have a talent for getting in
trouble too, I see.” She looked condemnatory but her voice had
a hint of glee. “Well, good luck with that, Shinji. Playing with
you was educational so I hope you stay.”
Shinji at the very least wanted to see his father again before
he went. He could miss a few days for that.
*****************
Rei was supposed to be studying. Instead, she was at
Kevin’s house, busy playing Space Piracy IV with Lars and
Kevin, while their homework sat on the table nearby. Rei and
Lars were flying fighter support for the bulky freighter Kevin
got stuck piloting for this scenario; they were busy working their
way through the second of the three campaigns.
Unfortunately, the Rigellians were attacking and Kevin
kept getting shot. “Dammit, next time we make Rei pilot this
damn thing.”
“You shouldn’t be wasting your time with video games,”
Melinda said from the doorway to the main hallway of the
condo. She was Kevin’s sister, a year younger with straight
brown hair down her back and glasses over brown eyes. She
was tall for a girl her age and would likely eventually be as tall
as her mother. She wore a green dress with a silver cross.
“Kiss my ass,” Kevin said cheerfully, then turned panicked.
“Dammit, heat-seekers!”
Rei swooped down and blew them up. “Do not fear,” she
said calmly. “I will protect you.”
“By throwing him in the pool,” Melinda said, amused.
“He should have known better than to think that would
have worked,” Rei said calmly.
“Bloody hell,” Lars said, dodging incoming fire. “How are
we supposed to fight these many things?”
“I think the game assumes you’ll have four players,”
Melinda said. “Anyway, I’m going to go do my homework like
you three ought to, instead of goofing off.”
Rei now darted to Lars’ aid, taking out a missile-ship which
reduced the pressure on him and he now went after the ramships.
Melinda, however, continued to hover by the door instead
of actually going and doing her homework, watching them fight
the onrushing horde of space pirates.
“The piracy campaign was more fun,” Kevin grumbled,
now struggling with the nearby planet’s gravity field. “This
thing corners like a drunken cow.”
“You really should do your homework,” Melinda said,
though she failed to go do hers.
“Rei needs a break,” Lars said, then frowned at the screen
as one of the ram-ships grazed him. “What kind of crazy people
ram other people in space?” he asked the TV.
“Space battle games are typically adaptations of earthbound tactics to an inappropriate environment,” Rei said.
Melinda continued to linger. “Did your mission go well,
Rei?”
“We succeeded, but Hart, Shiseki, and Stanton died due to
the surprise werewolf attack.” Rei pursed her lips. “They were
good men and deserved better.” For a moment, she shuddered,
then relaxed.
Lars patted her shoulder but now a ramship blew him up
while he was unable to maneuver. “Dammit.”
“You knew them?” Melinda asked, then felt stupid for
asking.
“Of course, we had gone on missions before, into the Deep
and elsewhere,” Rei said, now being overwhelmed by the
onslaught of foes without her wingman. Her voice showed no
concern but her body was tense.
Melinda imagined her friends dying. Ingrid, Helma,
Shinobu… She shivered. She could see them in her mind’s eye
and something about Rei… Rei was probably hiding her pain,
she realized. She looked calm but there was tension there.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly.
Kevin looked very awkward and then his ship blew up. “I
guess I’m ready for church now,” he said, with a badly fake
grin.
“Because you are holy?” Rei said. “You use this joke
about five times a month.”
Kevin sagged. “Am I that predictable?”
“Yes,” Rei said, and Melinda laughed, then felt guilty for
laughing.
“We need to get you fresh material,” Lars said to Kevin.
“We can rent some comedies this weekend,” Rei said.
“Really?” Kevin said, surprised.
“You are not meant to look so unhappy,” Rei said, then she
shook her head and let herself blow up so they could try the
scenario over.
“I wanted to cheer you up,” he said, sounding embarrassed.
“Throwing you into the pool was very cheering to me,” Rei
said to him and everyone laughed but her. But Melinda thought
she looked a little more relaxed.
“I’ll pray for them,” Melinda said to Rei, who she
suspected was about to unleash some of her weird pagan lunacy.
But she told herself not to argue theology this time when Rei
was clearly missing dead friends.
“I…” Kevin sounded nervous. “Nevermind.” He began
getting the scenario to start again.
“Say it,” Rei said flatly. Melinda couldn’t tell if she was
happy, or angry or what.
“It was meant to be serious and comforting but then I
realized the comparison would be insulting,” Kevin said.
“Wait, you’re showing restraint and thinking ahead? Did
the aliens replace your brain?” Melinda said, stunned. She was
used to him acting without thought.
Lars realized what he meant. “I know how I was when my
grandmother died,” he told Rei. “It seems like the end now but
the pain will fade.”
“You know I have perfect memory,” she said softly to Lars.
“I will never forget this. The pain will fade but it will come to
my mind, unbidden, if I am not careful, when I am reminded of
death.”
How could anyone be a soldier if that was the case,
Melinda wondered. “I’ll go leave you all alone,” she said.
“Or…” This would probably cause a fight. “I’ll go.”
“Come,” Rei commanded and she came over, sitting by
Rei, who reached out and touched Melinda’s necklace. It was a
silver cross; she was a Baptist, her family attended a church
whose minister was her friend Helma’s father.
Kevin was pretty casual about religion… about everything.
But she and her parents were pretty serious about it; the
Vanishing had more or less scared her parents straight. And
they’d tried to raise their kids that way, but had less success with
Kevin, who was a natural goofball.
Rei closed her eyes, lips moving as she slowly ran her
fingers along the cross while Melinda watched nervously and
Kevin finished getting everything set up. Lars went and got
another soda.
“Stanton had a cross like this,” Rei said. She let out a
breath. “Thank you.”
She wasn’t sure why Rei had done that but she said, “I’ll
pray for them.”
“I did not forget in the last five minutes,” Rei said calmly.
“Thank you.”
She went and left them to their game, getting her
homework done.
Eventually her mother came home and awkwardly hugged
Rei, who didn’t resist but clearly wasn’t enthused either. But
Louise Sarkowski was either oblivious or thought it important
and Rei didn’t fight it. Eventually, she left with Lars and
Melinda hoped she’d be alright.
*****************
“Umm, do you mind if I invite a guest over tonight?”
Misato asked Shinji while they were in line to get fried chicken
to take home for dinner.
“That’s fine,” he said. “I’m going to just practice some
pieces then watch TV and go to bed,” he told her.
“I’ve asked Rei to organize a party for you tomorrow
night,” Misato said. “There are lots of Japanese kids here, so
you should have fun.”
Shinji hadn’t been to a real party ever, unless you counted
NERV soldiers running wild in his house; he was a little
nervous, but also kind of excited.
He soon regretted giving Misato the go-ahead, though as
‘guest’ turned out to be ‘Misato and a guy named Tom Smith get
drunk and start making out, then Shinji has to hide in his room
for hours’. He also, being curious, drank too much beer and
ended up with a hangover the next morning, though it did help
him to ignore the noises outside his room.
Tom, who was middling in height with short black hair,
turned out to have a suit in the car and brought it in the next
morning and got dressed up fancily; he’d been slobbed out the
night before, like Misato. “I’m sorry,” Misato said ruefully to
him in the morning. Shinji didn’t know why.
Tom kissed her cheek. “It’s fine,” he told her. “No one
would want to be alone after that.”
After what, too much drinking? Shinji wasn’t sure, but had
the feeling he was missing something. But it didn’t involve him,
so he just caught up on the messages Kameko had sent him
while he was asleep.
“It’s not fair to you,” Misato said to him as he made
breakfast and she cleaned up last night’s mess.
“I *like* it,” he told her. “There’s no need for guilt. It’s
not like either of us is cheating on someone.” He cocked his
head and looked at her. “Right?”
“Right,” she said firmly; she still looked kind of guilty and
Shinji suddenly wondered if maybe… But Dr. Akagi didn’t take
the whole ‘wife’ thing seriously.
Shinji decided to ignore it. It wasn’t his business and he
had to focus on other things, like the various ludicrous plans
he’d dreamed up to try to make his father meet him. He’d been
drunk and trying to ignore outside noises.
Stealing a Ranger was definitely out of his league, though
he was pretty sneaky.
Tom took off to work and so did Misato, bringing Shinji
with her. Dr. Akagi had more plans.
“You’re probably wondering about Tom,” Misato said to
Shinji after a while of silence.
Shinji had the feeling of ‘verbal trap’. “Umm…”
She sighed. “We’re just friends. But yes, we have sex.”
She sounded defiant now. “And if you mention cake, I will
throw you out of here.”
Shinji cringed and she sighed. “I’m sorry, Shinji, that was
far too harsh. It’s just that Mom hypocritically harasses me
because I’m not settled down with just one guy. I’m too busy to
date really seriously and I don’t seem to meet a lot of guys I
could marry.” Misato slumped slightly. “But I do have friends
that help me cope.”
‘Cope’, Shinji thought.
“Anyway, if Kameko was here, I wouldn’t say anything if
you two did it, though given she’s not here, it doesn’t matter.”
She smiled a rueful smile as Shinji’s phone went off. “She’s
crazy for you, I see.”
“I… is it normally like this?” Shinji asked. He had the
vague feeling his answers to her were usually too bland. He
wasn’t good with words.
“I don’t know, I was in a coma at your age,” she said.
He winced.
“Well, no, I did have a ‘boyfriend’ before I ended up in the
coma,” she said. “I hung out with him to piss off my parents,
who hated him. I liked him but it wasn’t… Well, it was
fourteen year old love.” She suddenly looked guilty and
clammed up.
“I…” Shinji couldn’t say it but he wasn’t sure if this was
love. He liked the attention and kissing Kameko was nice but…
“What does love feel like?”
Misato said, “Hold on,” and shifted gears to pass a truck,
then roared down the exit that led down into a tunnel which
Shinji knew would lead to the subterranean parking garage for
NERV. “You think about someone all the time, you want to be
with them, you want to have sex with them, you get… they
comfort you and you comfort them and you take care of each
other. Trying to figure out if you love Kameko?” she said
kindly.
He turned red and she grinned. “If you like her and she
likes you and you like doing things together, that’s enough at
your age. Love grows, so if you two don’t break up, with time it
will be love if it isn’t now.”
“But…” He couldn’t say it.
“Adult love is different but you don’t have to know or care
yet. You have to crawl before you can walk,” Misato said, now
roaring into her reserved parking slot, right next to one of the
long escalators. “Be nice to Kameko, use a condom, listen to
her and tell her how you feel. That’s all a boyfriend your age
needs to do.”
A car roared by as they got out, a black sports car, and
Misato shook her fist at it. “Shinji, the man driving that car, he
is pure evil.”
He looked kind of scraggly to Shinji but not evil. “I hardly
saw him. Why is he evil?”
“Evil ex-boyfriend, the worst kind,” she said.
Shinji wondered again why Misato had felt guilty about
sleeping with Tom. But he couldn’t just ask.
“You and Dr. Akagi…,” he began.
“Let’s go down,” she said, getting on the escalator.
Shinji decided to just not think about it at all, though
imagining Dr. Akagi and Misato kissing made his eyes cross.
**************
Kaji drove the sword through a solid steel plate, his eyes
widening. “Well, damn.”
“I know,” Gendo said to him. “You won’t be going on this
mission since it has no covert component but I need you to go
over your experiences with Katsuragi and Berg as they prepare
the mission plan. However awkward it may be.” He studied the
sword, smiling just a little at it.
“Yes, sir,” Kaji said. He was in section 1-C, Covert
Operations, and it had been him who had led the last expedition
into this area. The mission had been a success, but much of it
was classified. And Berg’s wife had died. They hadn’t even
been able to recover her body. “This is going to be dangerous.”
“Berg knows his duty and so will Katsuragi. They can’t
kill you with their eyes,” Gendo said as Kaji handed the sword
back to him.
“I mean for those who go in,” Kaji said. He hated going
into the Deeps and was glad most of the time he was sent on
missions elsewhere. Cultists, spies, greedy industrialists, those
never gave him nightmares.
“Then I am sending you to Japan to make sure there’s
nothing left of that cult,” Gendo said.
Gendo briefed him and he headed out.
************
Shinji was singing; he could sing but he was much better
with the cello. But Dr. Akagi told him to, so he did. The HALO
in the bowl on the table by him reacted, rippling gently, but even
without Dr. Akagi’s fancy gear, he could tell it had much less
effect.
Being this close to it made him feel all tingly; he had to
wonder what it was like for Rei, wearing it with her all the time.
“What is it? I guess it responds to vibrations?” Shinji said. He
knew, vaguely, that music involved vibrating air.
“It is HALO, the liquid form of Orange Sign,” Dr. Akagi
said, studying her monitor. “Keep singing.”
Shinji tapped a beat on the table, changing the ripples in the
bowl. “But what does that mean? This isn’t Orange.”
“The original detection gear registered its power as orange
and the name stuck. Mother never explained why ‘orange’,” Dr.
Akagi said, then touched her ring and looked wistful for a
moment.
“But what is it? It looks kind of like jello that hasn’t set
yet,” Shinji said. It was a little more coherent than water.
“We don’t know exactly what it is,” Dr. Akagi said,
rubbing her forehead and looking a little frustrated. Then she
leaned back in her chair. “Everything has at least a little Orange
Sign in it, but the closer it is to humanity, the more it has. Some
people argue it is in some way ‘spiritual’ or ‘soul’ power.” Her
voice indicated skepticism. “I find using those terms
counterproductive as they insinuate things of which we have no
proof.”
“I’ve never thought about such things much,” Shinji
confessed, then resumed playing his cello.
“You’re better off avoiding superstitious twaddle,” Dr.
Akagi said. “I want you to try and play the tune you played at
the cave.”
Shinji nodded and began playing; it came easily to his
mind. The HALO shone across him and everything and he
could see Dr. Akagi’s ring shining softly, catching and
amplifying the light. She half-watched it and half-watched the
monitor.
“Miss me?” a man said and Dr. Akagi nearly fell out of her
chair. Shinji’s music faltered a moment, but it was just a scruffy
looking man in a NERV uniform. He had his hands on Dr.
Akagi’s shoulders and his mouth near her right ear, into which
he whispered. Her eyes crossed and she shifted nervously.
Then she recovered. “Still the same flirt,” she said; her
tone was condemning but Shinji saw her smile. “Has Misato
given you your beating yet, Kaji?”
“I have to meet with her and Captain Berg,” Kaji said and
Dr. Akagi winced.
Shinji kept playing, though Dr. Akagi wasn’t watching her
monitor. “We’d need Kameko and Ayanami to get the full
effect,” he said. The light was pulsing to the rhythm now but it
didn’t feel as strong as what happened in the cave.
“Her parents have refused, unfortunately,” Dr. Akagi said.
“And NERV can’t assert authority over civilians outside a war
crisis.”
“Which can be pretty broad,” Kaji said. “Who is
Kameko?”
“My girlfriend,” Shinji said, smiling. The thought of her
made him happy and now the light from the bowl got brighter
and Dr. Akagi’s ring glowed more brightly. Her eyes flickered
wider and she turned to study the monitor. Kaji looked at it as
well.
“Asuka’s teaching, right?” Kaji said.
“Yes, and if you flirt with her, I will hit you,” Dr. Akagi
said flatly without looking.
What? He was twice Asuka’s age, Shinji guessed.
She was good looking but he was way too old for her.
The light got brighter still and Dr. Akagi made a throat
noise. Kaji said, “Wait, you’re Ikari Shinji?”
Dr. Akagi laughed. “Yes, right like it says on the monitor.”
Kaji laughed and Shinji laughed a little too. “Commander
Ikari is my father,” Shinji said. “Do you know him?”
“I work in Covert Operations,” Kaji said to Shinji. “We’ve
met.”
Shinji wanted to ask if he knew why his father wouldn’t see
him but he wasn’t sure how Kaji would take it.
The light faltered and began fading down to normal levels.
“Imagine kissing Kameko,” Kaji said to Shinji.
Shinji hid his face in embarrassment but now the light
climbed back in intensity.
“You going to stay with us a while?” Kaji asked.
“I hope so,” Dr. Akagi said. “His talents are giving me
some useful insights.”
Shinji smiled at that and the light shone brighter yet.
“Have you written any pieces?” Dr. Akagi asked Shinji.
“I’m not good at it,” he confessed. “I can try one.”
“Well, I’ll let you two work,” Kaji said to Dr. Akagi. He
kissed her ring hand and then bowed and headed out, smiling as
she said goodbye, smiling too.
“What a flirt,” she said when he was gone.
Only now did Shinji realize this was Misato’s ex. He
wondered what had happened but didn’t ask. Instead, he
focused on his music and the testing continued.
*************
“Hey, Ayanami,” Kensuke said to her as she ate lunch at
school with Lars and Kevin.
“I won’t pose for you,” she said flatly.
“You won’t even explain why!” he said, irritated. Aida
Kensuke was the same age as them, but shorter than Kevin or
Lars, with touseled brown hair and glasses. A camera hung
from his neck on a cord. “But actually, I was hoping you’d tell
me about the werewolf attack in Japan.”
“Classified,” Rei said.
Kevin smirked. He kind of wished he could use that to shut
people down; it was one of Rei’s quirks. If she didn’t want to
talk about something, she just said it was classified.
“The truth needs to be known!” Kensuke said.
“So you can put it on your RangerWatch website and get
more people on your Twitter feed,” Lars said. “Go get a life,
Kensuke.”
“Shut up, Viking boy,” Kensuke said irritably. What
Ayanami saw in Lars, he didn’t know. Okay, he was tall and
kind of good looking but still… A woman deserved someone
smart, not a mediocre student like Lars. Writing stories where
Lars died in a fire did relieve his stress, but it didn’t change
reality.
“Let’s not have a fight,” Kevin said. He was not a violent
man and disliked fighting. It was why he preferred basketball
(graceful movement and skill) to American football (musclebound thugs colliding with each other and getting brain
damage). He was, in fact, on the basketball team, though during
this time of year, he did soccer, which had the same virtues.
“It is not really a fight if one side has no hope,” Rei said,
then turned back to her lettuce wraps. As was common with her,
it was a vegetarian lunch; as far as Kevin knew, while Rei
wasn’t a full blown vegetarian, she mainly only ate seafood as
meat, though she never refused it when a guest.
As she’d been a fair number of times at his house for
meals, despite her periodic fights with his mother; he couldn’t
tell for sure what his parents thought of Rei; in most respects,
she was exactly what they’d want in a friend of their son, but her
weird religious beliefs usually set her and his mom at odds.
Kensuke fumed. “I could take him!” he said, pointing at
Lars. The rational side of him knew better, but Kensuke was not
as rational as he thought.
Rei started to speak, then slumped slightly. “Aida-san, I
am sorry.”
“An… what?” Kensuke said, startled.
Lars blinked and Kevin gave a sigh of relief.
Rei looked around. “Do not tell the entire universe, or I
will crash your website again,” she said. “But commander
Ikari’s son, who is Japanese, is here, and I am ordered to hold a
party for him. Being Japanese, you are invited.” She paused.
“Lars, Kevin, you are invited even though you are not
Japanese.”
Kevin couldn’t tell what exactly Rei thought of him.
Sometimes she seemed to hate him, but she never stopped him
hanging out with her and Lars and sometimes they got on okay.
Or he even got invited to something like this.
“Oh wow, has he come to pilot Unit-02 when it finishes?
And is it true they’ve stepped up its production?” Kensuke
asked.
“No and classified,” Rei said flatly. “Tell Suzuhara he is
invited too.”
Kensuke paused, looked at Rei oddly, then at Kevin and
Lars. Kevin blinked and Lars frowned at him.
“You’re not inviting Olga, right?” Kensuke said, suddenly.
“She is not Japanese,” Rei said, looking across the yard; the
women’s soccer team were sitting together with Olga towering
over them. Only Heilwig Gruber came close to Olga’s height
and she was still a decimeter shorter than Olga. Olga was taller
than anyone else, including even some of the adult male
teachers.
Kensuke relaxed. “Good. Last thing we need is her and
Touji going at it.” He studied her, stared at her really.
Fortunately for his long term survival, she was busy talking to
one of her teammates.
Kevin studied her in what he hoped was a covert manner;
she was hot but too angry to ask out. She’d always said no to
anyone who asked, and sometimes would-be suitors had to run
away from her. What her problem was, he didn’t get at all.
Beyond the vague rumor it had to do with her mother’s death.
God, she’s hot, though, he thought, then dismissed the
thought.
“Why is everyone looking at me?” Kevin said, suddenly
realizing Kensuke, Lars, and Rei were watching him.
“Nothing,” Rei said.
Olga’s head now turned and stared balefully at Kensuke,
who promptly fled. She snorted and turned back to her friends.
“I’m surprised you invited him despite the peeping,” Lars
said.
“I do not care who sees me naked,” Rei said. “And Shinji
is a boy and will want Japanese boys. If I do not invite him,
Suzuhara will not come either.”
“Did you invite Hikari? She’s Japanese, right?” Kevin
said.
Rei looked at him as if he’d just accused Hikari of eating
the dead.
“What? She is, right?” Kevin said, aggravated.
“She is,” Lars said. “He asked a fair question, Rei.”
To his surprise, Rei retreated, settling back a little and
picking at her food. “I will go invite her,” she said to Kevin.
“And yes, she is.”
I don’t get it, Kevin thought as Rei went off to talk to
Hikari, who was sitting with several other class reps under a
tree.
Lars cocked his head and looked very intent for a few
seconds, then relaxed.
“What are you doing?” Kevin asked. He knew Lars
wouldn’t answer; Lars just smiled enigmatically; Lars seemed to
like to know things others didn’t. Rei was the same way.
Then Lars’ phone rang; he answered it, then sighed.
“Mom, badgering me to study more.”
“She’s a hard-ass,” Kevin said. His mom did the same to
him but not HALF as much as Lars’ did.
“Yeah, I know,” Lars said ruefully.
Talk now turned to the next soccer match until Rei
returned.
*************
Danielle Eida was Lars’ mother and head of HALO
Production and Maintenance. This made her privy to things few
others knew. She was tall, and slender with short red hair,
wearing a standard uniform with jacket, shirts, pants, boots, and
hat. Indeed, Ritsuko knew Danielle was privy to a few secrets
she didn’t know herself, namely exactly how HALO was made.
Commander Ikari and Fuyutsuki kept it a tightly hidden secret,
which made the work of the HALO researchers under Ritsuko
more difficult. Her mother had left her hints but they were
enigmatic.
Why it was hidden so tightly and why Ms. Eida was privy
and not her was a mystery and an annoyance to Ritsuko
respectively. But she had a Ring and Ms. Eida did not and she
knew Ms. Eida resented that too.
Even if Ritsuko was not sure how the Rings worked beyond
the fact that they seemed to contain and respond to Orange Sign.
In some manner, they generated power or perhaps multiplied
that of the wearer.
She wanted to know. Ritsuko had a hunger for knowledge
and secrets made her want to unlock them. Her service had led
Fuyutsuki and Ikari to trust her more, but she wanted to part the
remaining veils.
Somehow.
They were watching Shinji perform while Ms. Eida
scowled at the reaction of the HALO. “It doesn’t do this with
recorded music,” Ms. Eida said.
Ritsuko looked thoughtful. “Likely Shinji is generating
small amounts of Orange Sign, while a recording has so little it
produces no measurable effect.”
“Then we should move him to another room and see if he
can affect it via live sound transmission,” Ms. Eida said,
sounding triumphant.
Petty woman, Ritsuko thought, frowning. But far more
intelligent than her son; she was Lars’ mother. Ritsuko liked
Lars more but found him to be far less ambitious, intelligent, or
hard-working than his mother. But he was good to Rei and very
loyal to her, both of which she appreciated. She suspected
they’d be dating if not for Rei’s ludicrously inflated expectations
about romance.
Though it was hard to tell; Lars generally didn’t express
interest in women, so it was possible he was gay. As long as he
didn’t have a thing for that fool Sarkowski, though, she didn’t
care.
“Doesn’t your son play the drums?” Ritsuko asked.
“The saxophone. In theory. In practice, he’s lazy about it
like he is about anything that doesn’t involve water,” Ms. Eida
said, frowning. “I can’t believe he would be able to affect
HALO like this boy.”
They arranged Ms. Eida’s experiment. They ended up
pulling a copy of the same music from online and tried that, then
had Shinji play remotely, then in the same room as the HALO
sample. The online recording had no measurable effect. Shinji
remotely had some small effect, and in the flesh more. A
recording of Shinji proved to have measurable effect, but less
than the remote live broadcast.
Shinji was surprised to find out he had more effect as a
recording than the online composition, which he thought was
played as well as his own work. Maybe not quite as good, but
certainly close. “I don’t get it.”
“Probably because of your generation; if only your
generation can synch well enough to use a Ranger profitably,
then this older musician can’t generate enough Orange Sign to
create the resonance,” Ms. Eida said. “I wish someone had
thought of this earlier.”
Ritsuko felt rather excited. “Shinji, tomorrow, I will get
the pilots to come play with you; I expect they likely will have
the best results due to frequent HALO exposure.”
“We should line up everything from old men to the youth,”
Ms. Eida said.
Hard as she was to deal with, once they’d worked out the
plan, Ritsuko was glad to have her here, even if she was rather
arrogant and pushy. As she was also intelligent and pushed
back, which Ritsuko knew she sometimes needed.
“Music is your greatest talent, right, Shinji?” Maya asked;
she had finished other duties and joined them.
“Yes,” he said, sending a text while he talked. “Hold on, I
missed this message from Kameko earlier.”
“Put your phone down when people are talking to you,”
Ms. Eida snapped and Shinji dropped his phone in a panic. “Do
you have any manners?”
“You shouldn’t be so harsh,” Ritsuko said, though she
actually agreed with Ms. Eida. But instinctively, she opposed
her. “Shinji, it’s very late in Japan, she’s probably in bed.”
“Uncle gets very unhappy if I don’t respond promptly when
called,” Shinji told the floor.
“We are busy with an important experiment,” Ms. Eida
said, picking up the phone and putting it aside. “You can have
this back when we’re done.”
Shinji frowned but did not protest.
“He’s just a child,” Maya protested on his behalf.
“And normally I wouldn’t want him anywhere near
something this important,” Ms. Eida said, frowning at Maya.
“But for whatever reason, his generation has special abilities if
not any special sense of responsibility or hard work or any need
to earn them.” His hands were clenched and she moved stiffly.
“I practice every day,” Shinji mumbled, still looking down.
Ms. Eida opened her mouth, then shut it, made a noise, then
said, a little more kindly, “Good. I wish you’d teach my son
that.”
“Enough badgering *Commander Ikari’s son*,” Ritsuko
said. “Over your own problems with your son.”
The fact that Rei and Lars were friends meant she had to
deal with Ms. Eida far too often, in addition to shared work.
Ritsuko wasn’t impressed by Lars’ work ethic either, but she
thought Ms. Eida overdid it. And he could make her daughter
smile.
Which made her a little jealous as she struggled with that.
Raising Rei on her own wasn’t easy. At least Rei was
dutiful and hard-working. Or I’d probably be as hard to deal
with as Eida, Ritsuko thought.
Shinji made a noise and shuffled, still looking down.
Ms. Eida sighed. “Fine.” She pointed at Ritsuko. “Not
one word.”
Ritsuko smiled triumphantly, while Maya looked at
everyone uncomfortably. She hated conflict, which made
Ritsuko wonder why she was working for a partly military
agency.
“Aoba-san has a band,” Maya said suddenly.
They turned to making plans instead of biting off faces.
**************
Hikari was relieved to see her father was not drunk when
she got home. He tended to be gone on his trucking runs 4-5
days a week, then came home and got drunk with his friends the
other two. And sometimes with one or more women. Horaki
Hikaru was a NERV trucker, hauling goods around Europe for
NERV between facilities or bringing goods of other origin to the
Geo-Front. At times he might be gone up to two weeks, but
usually it was four to five days.
Hikari was thus used to taking care of herself. And him,
since he usually wouldn’t do anything other than house repairs
when home; he viewed everything domestic as women’s work.
Thankfully, he was wearing clean clothes (which she’d
cleaned) and eating something healthy (a bowl of carrots and
celery she’d made for him to have for a snack) even if he was
dipping the food in cheese sauce and drinking a beer.
“Hello, Father,” she said, bowing.
“Hey, Hikari,” he said, not turning around. “I can turn the
TV down if it’s too loud for your studying.”
“Thank you,” she said, relieved and he turned down the
sports channel he was watching. Some soccer game she didn’t
care about; she had little time for sports. She wasn’t in terrible
shape but exercise was not her thing. As long as she was
healthy, her main focus had to be academics, as she wanted to be
the first member of her family to ever go to college.
Coming to the Geofront had made this easier, as she’d
grown up in… you couldn’t call it a ‘trucker commune’ but
pretty close. A half-dozen of her father’s friends who all had
kids and no wives had basically pooled their resources, hiring a
nanny to run herd on their kids and renting a large house to
share (rents had plummeted after the Vanishing); Hikari had to
help the nanny, being the oldest.
It had made studying impossible and no one else in the
place had much ambition beyond drinking beer and watching
TV, as far as she could tell. But she was going places and now
she had a lot less chains weighing her down.
Though she did sometimes miss the other kids for all that
they usually had driven her nuts. She didn’t understand why.
She was especially worried about Kozue, who was older than
her but less responsible and utterly boy-mad.
It wasn’t that Hikari didn’t find some guys attractive, but
she was naturally cautious and keenly aware that half the kids
she’d taken care of happened because their mothers hadn’t been
very responsible.
Anyway, she’d have time for boys later when they were
worth it. Even if…
Why Suzuhara had to be so cute, she didn’t understand.
Sometimes she even…
“You okay?” her dad asked.
She realized she’d been standing in the foyer without
moving for a while now. “I’m fine, I was trying to remember
something.”
“We’re going to have a party, Friday,” he said. “Here’s
your warning so you can run away and pretend I don’t exist.”
He sounded suddenly rather frustrated.
Her father and her had a lot of fights over his behavior and
whether he was being too ‘irresponsible’ and ‘low-class’. She
sighed. “I am going to a party tonight,” she told him.
He rose, came to the foyer and put his hand on her
forehead. “Hmm, no fever.”
She scowled and pushed past him. “Don’t mock me!”
“You mock me all the time!” he said, but now sounded
more amused than angry. “It’s a school night, don’t get drunk!”
he shouted after her.
One, he couldn’t talk about getting drunk, two, she didn’t
drink much, though she had found beer tasted better than it
smelled, and three, she wasn’t old enough to drink legally, even
with parental supervision. She wouldn’t be fourteen until next
February. And four, she wasn’t interested in getting drunk. Not
after watching too many drunks.
Though German beer was better than Japanese. As she’d
found out at the Class Representative party when Heineman’s
Dad had given everyone a single glass of beer. She’d been
reluctant but she couldn’t hold out when everyone else was
having one without insulting the man, and she didn’t want to do
that. ‘Always avoid antagonizing your elders’ was one of her
mottos.
“Dr. Akagi isn’t going to give us beer,” she shouted as she
changed into casual clothing in her room. She put on a loose
blue blouse with short sleeves that were ruffled, then a kneelength green skirt; it had a little silver rim at the top and bottom.
She studied herself in the mirror, looking for loose threads,
stains, or tears. A woman had to look her best and she had a
keen eye for finding such problems. And the skills to fix them.
It wasn’t as urgent now that they had more money. Her
father made twice as much here and everything was cheaper.
She’d been stunned by how much better they lived here than in
Japan. Lots of middle-class families didn’t live this well back
home.
They could live respectably and that made her happier. No
more being looked down on at school; she could never have
been class rep there with her family’s reputation.
“And no sex, you’re too young!” her father shouted.
“I know! And you’re hardly one to talk!” she shouted
back. She agreed with him but couldn’t figure out why he even
worried. She was too young, had no boyfriend and didn’t even
know what to do if she had wanted it.
She was too busy for a boyfriend, anyway, even if…
She sighed. Suzuhara would be there and she’d get all…
mushy.
For a moment, she wished she was pretty, then she told
herself to not care. Looks are superficial, they will pass. At
least I look more womanly now, she thought. Being one of the
youngest people in her class wasn’t easy when some people
were racing ahead.
But she wasn’t going to care.
She finished dressing up, then went to put some makeup
on, trying not to think about bodies, alcohol, her father, or
anything else.
“Holy shit, you have makeup on,” her father said when she
came out.
“You’re on your own for dinner,” she said. “But there are
twelve one person meals in the freezer you can heat up.”
“What’s his name?” her father asked curiously.
“There is not a boy,” Hikari said firmly. “I can wear
makeup if I want.”
“Fine,” her father said, sighing. “Just be careful.”
“I will,” she said wearily.
He sagged a little. “Anyway, go have a good time.”
“You too, Dad,” she said and headed out.
*****************
Kaji knew this meeting was going to be a disaster. Misato
and Captain Berg got to the meeting room first and glared at him
in unison on his arrival. “Howdy,” Kaji said with an
exaggerated accent. "How are y’all doing?”
“Dammit, Kaji, take this seriously,” Misato said, eyes
flashing, her hand clenching a pen.
Berg rumbled; Kaji knew Berg would probably beat him to
death if given an excuse. But something in Kaji loved to risk
disaster too much. “How’s your daughter, Captain? I hear she’s
beloved by her teammates.” If not other kids.
“If you come near her, I will see if you can breathe
underwater,” Captain Berg said darkly; he was a big man with
short blonde hair starting to show some gray hairs. He was large
and muscular and could probably break Kaji in half. Easily.
“I prefer women my own age,” he said, putting a hand on
Misato’s shoulder, knowing she’d slap him.
She just shoved it aside, but Berg turned down two volume
notches, which was the goal.
“I’ve sent you both my report,” he said. “But I’m ready to
answer questions.”
As he expected, it turned into Berg interrogating him like
during the inquiry after the mission where his wife had died.
Kaji greatly regretted that; he’d seen too much death and Rachel
Berg had been a brave, loyal soldier. How she’d killed that
horrible tentacle thing in the lake, he didn’t know.
But without her, he’d be dead. They all would.
But they’d been unable to recover her body before too
many other Wraiths had shown up. They’d achieved the
mission but at great cost. And while he didn’t care what
happened to his corpse, he knew people well enough to know
that this added to Berg’s anger with him.
Dead bodies only mattered in so much as they meant the
end of life. He’d seen too many of them.
But he didn’t want to think about the Vanishing War.
Or later events.
Dammit.
Misato, of course, had her own reasons to hate him; he’d
take the blame for that too. Kaji had a small army of regrets
which drove him on.
“What exactly is Element Alpha?” Berg asked, frowning.
“Is that why you all went down there last time?”
Probably the crowning frustration for him, Kaji was sure,
that he didn’t know the whole parameters of why his wife’s
team had even been down there.
“I can’t comment on that. It’s a silvery metal which as far
as we know is only found in the Deeps. Your men won’t have
to mine it; they will be extracting ingots which were left behind
when this place was abandoned so long ago.” Kaji wasn’t sure
exactly how much Berg was proxy to.
“If it’s so valuable, why abandon it?” Berg said, leaning
forwards, arms folded across his torso.
“I was not there and neither was anyone else currently
alive,” Kaji said, glancing at Misato, who was watching him but
at least not as angry as Berg. “It’s used to make Ranger
weaponry. Your wife’s last mission was a great assistance in
ensuring Unit-02’s current state of preparedness.” Among other
things, Kaji thought.
Except weird things had started happening after it, so there
must have been more to the affair than he knew and Kaji wanted
to know the link. He didn’t like surprise consequences.
They continued bickering until he finished the briefing and
went to go smoke and have a drink before leaving for Japan.
**************
“Nice to meet ya,” Suzuhara Touji said to Ikari Shinji. “I
hear you’re the big boss man’s son.”
“Yes,” Shinji said, looking a little nervous in his blue swim
trunks. Probably because a stiff wind would snap him in half,
Touji thought. But Kensuke was like that too and it looked less
ludicrous than Kensuke in a green speedo trying to flaunt the
body he didn’t actually have.
Touji favored his purple trunks himself, even if no one ever
got the joke. Not even Americans. He was pretty sure it came
from America.
“Good at swimming?” Touji asked.
Ayanami now executed a triple flip dive into the pool.
Touji was a good swimmer. Damn good. But Ayanami … she
was amazing and he was man enough to admit it.
Then Lars did the same thing. Touji’s eyebrow twitched,
but he was man enough to admit that Lars beat him here too.
Then Kevin got up on the board and… tripped, falling off
the board into the water.
SUUUCK, Touji thought. Everyone laughed and Kevin
came up grinning, then glanced at Ayanami, who was not
laughing. He sighed and swam to the side.
Don’t make a play for your friend’s girl, Touji thought.
He’d never had a girlfriend, but he knew that was uncool.
“Holy shit,” Kensuke said, pointing behind Touji.
It had to be Olga, coming to kill him for NO FUCKING
REASON. So he ran and dove into the water, dragging Ikari
with him, in case she had decided to kill Ikari for no reason.
Ikari screamed like a little girl (in Touji’s opinion, anyway).
“That was not what I expected,” a woman said; he didn’t
know the voice.
“I told you not to wear that,” another woman said; her
voice was a little deeper and they both sounded older.
Touji rose and saw a blonde woman in a blue one-piece and
Commander Katsuragi in a black bikini; he goggled, mouth wide
open. Holy shit, she was hot. He couldn’t blame Kensuke for
goggling at that.
Kensuke started snapping photos.
Katsuragi posed for three pictures while the blonde buried
her face in her hands, then walked over and pulled Shinji out.
“Careful,” she said. She turned to Touji. “Why’d you throw
yourself in the pool with Shinji?”
“Mother,” Ayanami said with an unusual warmness. Touji
fought the urge to turn and stare when he had a super-hot
woman talking to him.
It wasn’t easy, despite the super-hotness, though.
“Will you come swim with us, Mother?” Ayanami asked
warmly.
Touji got the ‘I am on the wrong planet’ feeling up and
down his spine. “Sorry, I thought you were Olga.”
“Better get your vision checked,” Kevin said, laughing.
“I would love to,” the blonde said, smiled and went and got
on the diving board and dove in.
Katsuragi blinked, then laughed. “Okay. Shinji, you
good?”
“I’m fine, Misato,” he said.
HOLY SHIT HE GETS TO USE HER FIRST NAME?,
Touji thought.
For a second, Touji wondered if he was her boyfriend but
he was pretty sure Shinji was his age and she didn’t look like a
superfreak, though he… She made his engine race.
Her friend wasn’t bad either. Ayanami’s mother really
didn’t look like Ayanami hardly at all, though.
“Let’s swim, then,” she said and dove in, just from the side
and Shinji soon jumped in; he was an awkward swimmer, so
Touji took him aside and showed him some better moves. This
took a while, by which time lots more people showed up, some
of whom he didn’t know.
“Looking good,” Kevin said to someone, giving a thumbs
up.
Touji turned and saw the rather bossy class rep, Horaki
Hikari. She had freckles and short brown hair pulled back in
two short pony-tails, jutting out left and right from behind her
head. She wore a blue one-piece with a silver stripe down the
front and up the middle of the back. She was kind of cute but
not nearly as good looking in Touji’s opinion as some of the
other girls in the class.
Admittedly, Olga was probably the hottest but bat-shit
insane, whereas Hikari was no looker, but was not a kill-crazed
maniac. Just kind of pushy and rule-obsessed.
But right now, she looked very nervous and shy, which was
totally unlike her.
Studying a nearby lounge chair, she shuffled on her feet
and said, “Thank you, Sarkowski.” As often, she had a moment
where she seemed about to add more after someone’s name,
than stopped. Touji knew the feeling; he’d spent a lot of time
getting used to not using honorifics in German.
“Hey, Horaki, you okay?” Touji asked, clinging to the side
while Shinji paddled off, practicing what Touji had shown him.
“I, what, me, I’m fine!” Horaki said, then looked down at
herself as if trying to find something on her own body.
Touji said, “Uh, you just seem kinda quiet.”
“I can talk!” she said frantically. “What do you want to
talk about?”
Touji froze up. Umm… what? “Tell me you didn’t invite
Berg,” he said to her.
“I didn’t organize this, Ayanami did,” she said, crossing her
arms and regaining her usual strength. “But I think it…” She
looked at Lars and Kevin. “Or maybe not.”
Touji blinked. What? He was starting to feel lost. “Hey,
Ayanami, is Olga coming?”
“If you need a beating, Lars will give you one,” Rei said.
Kevin began laughing, while the blonde woman, the older
woman, said, “Rei, you shouldn’t threaten a guest.”
“I believe Suzuhara enjoys Berg hitting him,” Ayanami
said with her usual calm. She studied Touji with her unblinking
gaze.
“What kind of crazy bullshit is that? She just gets in my
face and on my case!” Touji said.
Katsuragi and Ayanami’s mom both laughed; no one else
did but they didn’t seem to care.
“Don’t mock me!” Touji said.
“You shouldn’t mock Suzuhara,” Horaki said sternly.
“Classmates should respect each other.”
“We’re in trouble, then,” Kevin said, amused. Kensuke
laughed too.
“Don’t mock me!” Horaki said angrily to Kevin and
Kensuke.
“Horaki, this is Ikari Shinji, our guest,” Ayanami said after
her mother nudged her. She pointed to Ikari Shinji.
“Uh, hi,” Shinji said. “Thank you all for coming to this
party.” He fidgeted as he clung to the side of the pool.
Horaki smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Ikari. What brings
you to the Geofront?”
It now hit Touji he hadn’t even thought to ask that.
“Shinji was a big help to me on a mission and now is
engaged in an experiment with Ritsuko,” Katsuragi said, holding
onto the side of the pool as she was now in the water. “We
don’t know yet if he’s staying. I’m afraid, ladies, that he’s
taken; he has a very cute girlfriend named Kameko back in
Japan.” She waggled a finger. “But you can fantasize about
Ritsuko all you like; she hasn’t got a boyfriend.”
“Misato!” Ayanami’s mom, said, clearly aggravated; she
began chasing Misato around the pool while Misato laughed and
Kevin laughed so much he had to get out of the water to avoid
drowning.
“Come swim,” Ayanami said to Horaki, who took a step
forward, then looked nervous again.
“C’mon, I think we have enough for water polo,” Touji said
to Horaki, who now ran forward and jumped in clumsily.
SPLASH.
For a moment, he worried she couldn’t swim but soon she
was swimming adequately, just not well.
Just as he was starting to turn to get more people, he heard
a noise on the diving board. It was his homeroom teacher, who
had gotten the job even though he was slightly older than her, as
she’d somehow already gotten a college degree. Asuka
Langley-Soryuu was fairly good looking in Touji’s opinion,
with long red hair and a decent figure for someone their age, and
her charm added to it; if she was happy, she had a knack for
getting people on her side. Her anger, on the other hand, was
like shoving your face in a grill. She was kind of short but still
had time to grow; they all did. She wore a red and white striped
bikini and now struck a bold pose. “Never fear, Asuka LangleySoryuu is here to show you all how it’s done!” She then
executed a skillful dive into the pool.
Which nearly squashed Hikari, though Touji got her out of
the way in time.
More people were arriving, many of whom Touji knew
only vaguely who were in other classes of the same year as
them. But soon, things were hopping.
**************
Kensuke was glad for digital cameras; he would have run
out of film long ago. But with Asuka and Rei having a
swimming contest, he had to take all the pictures he could. They
were both so hot and the people on RangerWatch would go
CRAZY for this footage.
He had a huge edge over other members, though.
“If you put up even one picture of them, I will ensure you
are sent to live with your uncle back in Japan, one way or
another,” Dr. Akagi said to him.
He jumped. “Hey, it’s not like they’re naked or anything!”
“I don’t mind,” Asuka shouted.
“See?” Kensuke said.
She seemed to tower over him like a giant attacking a
bunny. “You will shut off your camera, delete everything and
cause no trouble.” She glared at him and he felt an icy grip at
his throat and the urge to run screaming.
He caved in, deleted the photos and put his camera in his
bag.
Dammit, meddling…
She’s looking into my soul, Kensuke suddenly thought,
noticing she was still watching.
He’d consider revenge later.
Much later where she couldn’t be watching.
He hoped she couldn’t watch him in his bedroom.
What a waste of a hot body.
So he went over to Shinji, swimming with him for a while,
then asked him, “So what about this adventure with Katsuragi in
the mountains?”
“Mountains?” Shinji asked in confusion. “I live near hills.”
They hung onto the side and Shinji told him about it.
“That’s awesome. So, your girlfriend, got a picture?”
They got out of the water and Shinji showed him a pic on
his camera phone of him and a mousy looking girl with glasses
holding hands. She was kind of cute but oddly reminded him of
Horaki if she had glasses.
It now hit him that Asuka wasn’t wearing her glasses.
Then again, neither was he.
Given he could tell with this little knowing of Shinji that
Shinji was shy even by Japan’s standards, Kensuke concluded
that probably Kameko was stronger than she looked and had
pursued Shinji. “So what’s your knack?” Everyone in their
generation had something where they could totally rock the
house.
“Music,” Shinji said. “And you?”
“I’m good with machines but especially cameras and other
kind of recording,” Kensuke said to him. “I would show you
some pictures but the Ice Queen made me delete them.” He
frowned. He’d lost a lot of non-pool pics too. He’d been so
panicked.
Rei could be cold, but man, her mother was a bitch.
But they were both smiling goofily at each other, making
him feel weird. Rei had won the race. Which Kensuke had
expected.
Asuka was a BRAINS genius.
And hot.
Unfortunately, she’d turned him down because the rules
forbade her to date her students. Which was a damn shame.
But Kensuke knew he was hot enough that his luck would
turn. His dad was always rolling in tail. His sister was too
young to date anyone yet, but she’d likely have an army of
boyfriends when she got older. The Aida family was just born
for the art of love, he knew.
“She’s cute,” Kensuke said and Shinji smiled.
“I wish she could have come,” Shinji said, and sighed.
“Her folks are mad at us.” He clearly was used to people being
mad at him.
“It’ll work out,” Kensuke told him. “Did they let you try a
Ranger?” he asked hopefully.
“I don’t want to pilot a Ranger,” Shinji said. “I just… I’m
just helping.”
You don’t come all this way to ‘just help’, Kensuke
thought.
He could see Touji giving some swimming tips to Hikari.
She was happier than usual, which was good as it would keep
her off his back.
Though Conrad was the one who really made her wig out.
“Do you have a girlfriend?” Shinji asked Kensuke.
“Not right now,” Kensuke said, playing it cool. “It’s the
ideal time of year to just look at sexy women without being
pinned down to one.”
“I guess so,” Shinji said.
“Where are you staying?”
“With Misato,” Shinji said, glancing off at his bag.
“Seriously? You seen her naked?”
“Not all the way,” Shinji said, turning red.
Holy shit. I WISH I COULD LIVE WITH HER, Kensuke
thought.
He never found out why Rei dunked him.
****************
Kevin had been drafted by Dr. Akagi and Commander
Katsuragi to help cook barbeque for everyone. Or at least
grilled food as true barbeque took hours. Like his parents,
Kevin knew barbeque.
“Okay, there’s beer for everyone,” Commander Katsuragi
announced, though she feared she hadn’t brought enough; there
were more kids than she’d planned for.
“Misato, half of them are too young,” Dr. Akagi said
chidingly.
“I can’t let those underage drink,” Asuka proclaimed.
“Like you,” Kevin pointed out, grinning. He was older
than her by a few months. He got a beer just to show off his age
and took a swig. Ahhh.
Asuka fumed but sorted them out. In fact, the only people
who qualified were Shinji, Kevin, the adults, and a girl from
another class, Kanzaki Sora. She was a short-haired brunette,
the class representative of 8-B, short and chesty for her age,
wearing a black and green bikini which had the enigmatic
message ‘Angel Attacks’ across the top.
Commander Katsuragi blinked at her. “That’s Aoba’s
band, right?”
“Aoba Shigeru is the frontman for it, yes. They’re
AWESOME,” Kanzaki said enthusiastically. She began
gushing endlessly at Commander Katsuragi as Shinji got a beer
hesitantly, then drank just a little of it.
While the adults were distracted, Kevin said to Asuka,
“You want one?”
She frowned, then said, “No, I can’t set an example if I
break the rules.”
“Exactly,” Hikari said, striking what Kevin called her
‘triumph of the law’ pose with her arms folded across her chest
and leaning forward a little.
“You’re too young to handle it,” he teased her.
Hikari grabbed Kevin’s bottle and chugged it, then nearly
choked herself. She stumbled, then said, “I am old enough to
handle anything.” She sounded defiant.
Kevin suddenly felt he’d stepped on a landmine and Asuka
said, “Hikari, we are supposed to enforce the rules.”
“We… ahhh!” She dropped the bottle, but Kevin dove and
caught it.
“OWW,” he said, having scraped himself on the concrete.
“I am so sorry,” Hikari said. “I should have been more
responsible, I am so sorry!” She turned to Dr. Akagi. “Do you
have any first aid materials? I can patch him up.”
“Dammit, I am bleeding,” Kevin said. Not much, just a
touch, but now Hikari looked stricken.
Rei rose out of the water. “Follow me.”
She took them both inside, then said to Kevin, “Thank
you.”
“For what?” he asked as Rei now dug out the materials
from the bathroom cabinet.
“That glass could have hurt someone,” Rei said. “This is
my first party I ever organized. You helped it.”
Kevin smiled; Rei didn’t complement him often. “You
could reward me with a kiss,” he teased her.
Hikari took the materials and started swabbing his arm; it
stung but he hardly noticed.
Rei seemed to zone out; Kevin was used to it. She did that
sometimes and you had to just accept it.
Then she pulled his head down and kissed his cheek. “Do
not mistake this for romance,” she said firmly.
“No danger of that,” he said. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, then left.
“Nice bathing suit, by the way,” Kevin said to Hikari,
waiting for her to finish.
“Thank you,” she said. “It’s never been used before. I
bought it at Kilgary’s.” Kevin knew this was a fairly high class
clothing store. He certainly wouldn’t shop there unless he
wanted a suit.
“Nice,” he said. “I guess you’ve got a lot of money.”
“We are well off, thank you,” she said. “And clothing
should be invested in, not just bought, since it is a long term
thing. This fits me perfectly; an off-the-rack might not.”
Kevin said, “It looks great on you.” Hikari was cute but he
got the impression she was really picky.
She turned a little red. “I’m not very pretty.”
He put a hand on her shoulder. The hand on the arm she
wasn’t bandaging. “No one our age looks half as pretty as they
will in a few years. You have nothing to be ashamed of.” He
tried to sound serious for once.
She turned really red. “Thank you,” she squeaked.
It felt weird seeing her like that; she was normally tough
and assertive. It was kind of cute, really. “You’re cute,” he
said.
“You can be really sweet when you try,” she said, securing
the bandage which was probably more than he really needed.
But she knew her business, so he wouldn’t stick his head in.
“You too,” he said.
“You think I’m sweet?” she squeaked.
He wondered if her voice was okay; she normally wasn’t so
squeaky. He glanced at himself in the mirror; still not terrifying.
He took her hand and kissed it. “Thank you, fair lady,” he said,
being a little over grandiose so she would laugh.
“Thank you, Sarkowski,” she said softly, then leaned up
and kissed his cheek.
“Wow, first kiss,” he said. Sort of. Not the lips but the
cheek counted, right?
Her eyes widened. “It was,” she said as if this had hit her
with a mighty revelation. “I never kissed a boy before,” she
suddenly confessed.
“I’ve only kissed a hand before,” he told her.
She licked her lips and pointed to her cheek so he leaned
down and kissed her cheek, feeling himself get excited. He felt
a sudden tension he wasn’t used to.
She giggled. He suddenly wondered if she was drunk.
Surely not on one beer.
He suddenly wondered if she was trying to psych herself up
to make out with him. He could go for that. She was in the
‘cute’ rather than ‘hot’ category but kissing her had felt
strangely good.
So he leaned in close and kissed her, face to face, eyes
closed, lips to lips. She made a noise but before he could pull
away, she pushed forwards, and they kissed slowly, hands on
each other’s shoulders.
He stepped in closer, leaning down as she leaned up on her
tip-toes and he moved his arms to support her. He wasn’t sure
what came next as he’d never actually done this before. Just
imagined it.
So he hugged her and she hugged him, and they kept
kissing and then suddenly she jumped back, very red. “You
can’t just kiss a girl by surprise like that!” she said frantically.
“I’m sorry, may I kiss you by not surprise?” he asked,
smiling at her.
He could see her try to figure out what he meant, then she
said, “I… we… what will people think?” she said weakly.
“Everyone knows you would never do anything wrong or
bad,” he told her. “And there’s nothing wrong with kissing.”
He was surprised by how much he wanted to kiss her again.
“With all the work you do, don’t you deserve a little fun?”
“I… yes. Yes, I do,” she said to his chest. Kevin was a
good four or five inches taller than her, though he had a long
way to go to full height. In the last year, though, he’d grown
like crazy. Four inches in one year!
They kissed again and were still at it when Asuka showed
up, shouting distantly, “Sarkowski, am I going to have to kick
your ass?”
“It’s okay,” Hikari said, running out. “He’s on the toilet
and I was waiting for him.”
“He didn’t try anything, did he?”
“No, he was a gentleman,” Hikari said, sounding happy.
Kevin flushed the toilet, washed his hands and came out.
“Hey, teach. Am I getting in the way of you seducing Hikari?”
Hikari’s eyes crossed and he now had to run away from
Asuka but that was okay. He laughed as he fled with Asuka in
pursuit and Hikari chasing her.
Rei still didn’t laugh, though, which aggravated him.
What a tough audience she was.
***************
Misato shoved Kanzaki at Shinji, trying to get her to stop
talking about the band. “Kanzaki, this is Ikari Shinji, son of the
head of NERV.”
She shook Shinji’s hand, studying him. “Nice to meet
you,” she said cheerfully.
“Nice to meet you,” he said. “Where in Japan are you
from?”
“Osaka,” she said. “Dad hauled me all over the world,
though, so I got to see everything and learn a lot of languages.
But my biggest talent is jewelrymaking.”
Shinji smiled. “That sounds fun.”
She soon was drowning Shinji in exposition about
jewelrymaking and Misato took her food and fled before she
could be trapped again.
Sorry, Shinji, I’ll make it up to you later, she thought.
***************
“You look like the cat who caught the canary,” Lars said to
Kevin as they both ate their food. Rei was nearby, eating as
well.
Lars could see Kensuke and Shinji, both basically trapped
by an endless tide of Kanzaki verbiage as they ate and she
talked endlessly. Several girls from 8-B he didn’t know the
names of were clustered around them.
“Hah, I kissed our mighty class rep,” Kevin bragged.
Lars blinked in surprise and Rei cocked her head, then
kissed Lars on the cheek. Kevin blinked at that, but then
grinned. “I can turn if you want to go full frontal.”
Lars said, “What????”
“Poor choice of words,” Rei said, frowning at Kevin.
“People would misunderstand.”
“I misunderstand,” Lars said warily. Did he just ask Rei to
strip?
Of course, you could guess from any bathing suit anyway.
“I just meant lip-kissing,” Kevin said, frustrated.
“Oh,” Lars said. “We’re not dating, people would
misunderstand.”
Kevin said, “You act like you are dating.”
“We just act like friends,” Lars said very firmly.
“Exactly,” Rei said.
Kevin gave up and worked on eating the fruit of his labor.
And having a beer, just to show off.
Then Asuka stole Rei.
**************
“I hear there is a mission into the Deeps?” Asuka asked
Rei; they sat together, legs dangling into the water.
“Yes, but the full plan isn’t ready yet,” Rei said.
Misato sat down next to Asuka. “Rei will go, you will
stay,” she said to Asuka.
“Why is it always Rei?,” Asuka said, frowning.
“It wouldn’t be either of you but they will need Rei’s
sensitivity,” Misato said, frowning. “I really don’t like risking
either of you, given PALANTIR hasn’t given us any more
candidates yet and you’re both so young.” She sighed. “It’s the
same reason I took Rei to Japan. You are stronger than Rei but
she has…” Misato waved her hands vaguely. “Mystic senses.
And she more easily gets through those security doors in the
Deeps.”
Asuka grimaced. There had to be a trick to it. Why could
she do it more easily than me? I am a genius!
“I do not die easily,” Rei said to Asuka. “It is better to risk
me, than you, for if you die, you will pass out of this world and
not return until the end of days.”
“And you won’t?” Asuka said skeptically. Rei was weird
like this.
“I am bound to this world,” Rei said.
“Neither of you is expendible,” Misato said firmly. “I lost
three soldiers on this last mission and none of them were
expendible.” She kicked her legs in the water, looking at them.
“But they were at least adults. You two have too much to lose.
I will take as little of your youth as I can.”
“I am ready to do what I must,” Asuka said firmly. “I’m an
adult and I have adult responsibilities.” She reached for the
glasses she wasn’t actually wearing, then faked just tapping her
head. “And an adult mind.”
“We are ready to fight. I mourn them, so I will fight in
their memory,” Rei said very seriously, looking at the side of
Misato’s head, since Misato faced forwards and down.
Asuka didn’t know them, but she felt bad for them. They
were real men, unlike her stupid father. They were brave
enough to die for others; her father had apparently forgotten her
mother existed very quickly and remarried. Not that she was
happy with her mother for just giving up on life after giving
birth to her.
Dammit, why did she have to be so weak and leave me,
Asuka thought, frustrated.
She could say one good thing for her father; he never
blamed her for it. It wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t.
“Why hasn’t PALANTIR provided more pilot candidates?”
Asuka asked Misato.
“I don’t know,” she said. “We should have at least a
backup for each Ranger. I know they’re not easy to pilot but
unless the MASK program ever works out, it has to be your
generation. But surely it can’t be this hard. But maybe I’m
wrong,” Misato said. “I don’t want to see kids going crazy
either.” She sounded somewhat guilty.
“Don’t blame yourself, I couldn’t do it either,” Ritsuko told
Misato kindly, sitting down by Rei. “Tomorrow, you two will
work with Shinji. He seems to have a strong affinity to HALO
with his music.”
“I’m not sure what good making it ripple is,” Asuka said.
“Given he and Rei and Ito unlocked an ancient Eldar
defense system without even having anything but Rei’s little
vial, I can see a lot of applications if we can figure out how to
exploit this,” Ritsuko said. “I want to keep him as long as we
can, as there are many of your generation with musical talent. If
music helps us with HALO, that could give many benefits.”
“Well, we need to pry his girlfriend out of hock if we keep
him. I’m happy to have him. Company is nice,” Misato said.
Asuka looked at Shinji. Kind of cute but he didn’t seem
special to her. Or very impressive. He looked kind of trapped
right now.
She decided to white knight, and came over and extracted
him, bringing him over to them. “You owe me,” she told him.
“I didn’t know you could know so much about something,”
Shinji said weakly.
“Oh, I know far more than her, I just don’t feel the need to
shove it all down people’s throats,” Asuka said.
“And she’s modest too,” Misato said, amused.
“Don’t make fun of me!” Asuka said irritably.
“Shinji, I hope you are enjoying the party,” Rei said to him.
“Yes, I am,” he said. “I’ve never been to a party before.”
Misato stared. “Seriously?”
“I didn’t have many friends,” Shinji confessed, then
slumped.
“Well, you won’t lack for friends here,” Asuka said. “I am
the best friend anyone could have. I’ll steer you right.” She
flashed a confident smile and he nervously smiled back.
“Thanks.”
“So let’s plan our concert,” Asuka said. Such as it was.
Shinji impressed her more as they talked music; he knew a
ton of pieces and they more or less ended up rubberstamping his
suggestions, as Asuka was, to her surprise, not as knowledgeable
as she thought. And Rei basically said yes to anything either of
them said.
Hikari now dragged off a surprised Kanzaki . Kensuke
now saluted Hikari and Asuka laughed.
“Is Kaji coming?” Asuka asked Misato hopefully.
“Hell no, he doesn’t deserve to see me in a bikini,” Misato
said. “Or Ritsuko.” She looked angry and Asuka frowned.
“He’s a great guy,” Asuka said firmly. “A real gentleman.”
Ritsuko began to laugh, which made Asuka frown. She
laughed more and more until she fell in the pool, causing Asuka
to angrily say, “Don’t mock me!”
Misato looked at her, laughed, then fell into the pool as
well.
Pretty soon it was just Asuka and Shinji, who wasn’t
laughing at all. She frowned at him. “Fine, you laugh too.”
“I totally don’t get it,” he confessed. “What’s so funny?”
She relaxed a little. “They’re just jealous Kaji likes me
more.”
“Wait, is he Misato’s ex?”
“Yes,” she said, frowning at the laughing people in the
water. Rei was hiding down under the surface for some reason.
“I still don’t get the humor,” Shinji confessed.
“Forget it,” she said. “They’re just being bratty.”
He looked more confused and she said, “Let’s dive.”
He was not a great diver, but she gave him some tips.
Teaching was in her soul.
**************
Touji swam, feeling peaceful. It was nice to relax, away
from his Dad and sister fighting for no reason again. No
yelling, no screaming, no door slamming. A good fist fight, that
could be invigorating but their turmoil, it just wore him out.
“Hi,” Hikari said, swimming up to him.
He treaded water. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I’m going to try and get water volleyball going.”
“Cool,” he said. “I’ll be on your team, then.”
She smiled brightly. “Thank you. And thank you for the
lessons from earlier.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. “It ain’t nothing. Just glad to
get to teach a smart person for once.”
She smiled brighter at that and kissed his cheek. “Thank
you,” she squeaked and swam off.
He blinked and touched his cheek. Did that really just
happen?
I guess even a tiger can be gentle, he thought.
****************
Hikari felt very cold by the time she got home, then
realized she’d walked all the way home in her bathing suit,
while wet.
Her mind had been elsewhere; she’d kissed Kensuke (when
he asked for one) and some guy in 8-B who she now realized
she didn’t even know his name.
She unlocked the door and ran to her room to change,
shouting hello to her father.
He knocked on her door as she put on her pajamas and
underwear. “You okay?” he asked.
“I’m totally fine,” she said. “Just putting on dry clothing.”
“You have fun?”
“It was great,” she said, though now she was really
embarrassed.
“Good. You should have some fun to go with your work
while you can,” he shouted. “I’m going to bed.”
“Me too,” she said.
Hikari went through her nightly ritual and finally flopped
down into her bed, falling asleep quickly as she usually did. She
dreamed a dream of flight, riding a giant eagle across the sky,
and the winds caressed her as she flew. The stars shone down,
kind and friendly, watching over her. It was a common dream,
though she was often afraid to fly when she was awake. But in
her dreams, her fear was always gone and she saw further and
better than others.
And she flew, flew to lands beyond the sea, hidden places
that others could not visit. But she could, for they were her
lands, the land she ruled.
The benevolent rule of the Sky Queen was hailed in all the
lands and all cried out to her for aid. The worthy, she aided.
And the rest were left to suffer the doom of those who broke the
rules.
If only waking life was so easy and so clear.
**************
“If I die, do not try to avenge me. I probably won’t
actually be dead and if I stay dead, I want you to live,” Rei said
very seriously to Lars as they stood in front of his family’s
apartment.
“If you die, I couldn’t avenge you,” Lars said, then sighed.
“I know,” Rei said with her usual calm.
“Thanks,” he said, sounding frustrated.
She patted his shoulder. “It is not an insult. I could not be
you or nor you me. But we are friends and your kindness
sustains me.”
He smiled ruefully. “I’m sure you’ll be fine,” he said.
“Do not worry. I am strong and so are our men. But if I
fall, I fall for the good of our world,” Rei said.
Lars grimaced. “You shouldn’t have to do this.”
“I was born for this,” she said softly. “Many have died for
me. I am unworthy if I cannot risk mine for others.”
Lars shuffled on his feet, then suddenly hugged her tightly.
She hugged him back silently and touched his mind. ~Lars, you
must live so you can go to the sea if I cannot.~
~Do not die,~ he ordered her as firmly as he could.
She smiled a tiny smile. ~Yes, commander.~
She let go of him. “There will be no death. But if I do die,
you will feel it.”
This was not as comforting to him as she clearly intended it
to be. “When do you go?”
“Soon. I should make the movie if I am alive then.”
She was calm enough about it to make him lose his usual
calm. Normally, it was easy to be mellow; he liked being
mellow, though it drove his Mom nuts. Sometimes it was the
reason he did it.
“Then come back alive,” he said.
“I will,” she said and then walked away lightly; you could
hardly hear her move at all and only if you listened for it.
Don’t die, he thought.
He sniffed the wind. It’s going to howl rain tomorrow, he
thought. Bleah.
Do not die, he thought. But it was out of his power now.
He went to bed and soon found himself elsewhere in the
night, as was common with him. He dreamed of armies closing
in on his homeland and a desperate gamble, to take to the sea
and seek the uttermost west. It was forbidden, but there was no
other hope for man or elf alike. Through endless mist and fog
and storm he sailed, across ocean deep and dark; though the
stars were hidden and all light was gone, the light of the gem
which was his heritage shone on.
For with his love by his side, he could face anything.
He awoke, as always, before he could find his destination.
******************
The three main officers of the Alpha Tactical Bridge Crew
usually ate lunch together: Ibuki Maya (MAGI Operations),
Aoba Shigeru (Strategic Operations), and Hyuuga Makoto
(Tactical Operations). Often they were joined by Katsuragi
Misato, and sometimes Akagi Ritsuko, especially if she wanted
to brief them on something.
Maya had been helping Ritsuko with the ongoing
experiments and Makoto and Shigeru had just helped out today,
being in a band together with some other NERV employees. “It
looks like you all racked up second place, after the younger
generation, in terms of effectiveness.”
Shigeru winced; he got increasingly nervous as the supergeneration grew up. He didn’t want to hate them for their
talents, but knowing his lifetime of practice left him in second
place behind people who were just hitting puberty didn’t make
him happy.
Makoto, on the other hand, was simply intrigued by it.
“But we beat out the professional older musicians?”
“They had virtually no impact,” Maya said. She seemed
thrilled by this. “We still have to figure out some practical uses,
but I’m sure we can work this into Ranger and other tech.” Her
hands wobbled with so much excitement she dropped her
chopsticks into her food.
Makoto laughed and she turned a little red. Shigeru
grinned at her.
Then Misato sat down with them. “Don’t forget, the
mission will start early on Monday, so get extra sleep.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Shigeru said, saluting.
“Don’t ma’am me, I’m not that old,” Misato said, then
broke her chopsticks.
“The plan’s been okayed already?” Makoto asked.
“We worked hard and got it done,” Misato said.
“Commander Gendo’s still looking at it, but now I’m free to try
to force him to say hello to his son.”
“What?” Shigeru asked, and Misato explained everything.
“It’s probably best not to poke the hornet’s nest,” Shigeru
said. “Let sleeping bosses lie.”
Maya frowned. “He should see his son,” she said with a
heat that caused everyone else to jump. Then she looked
embarrassed. “Sorry.”
“Just give him time,” Makoto said. “Eventually, guilt will
make him come say hello.”
“Or harden his determination,” Shigeru said.
They brainstormed through the rest of lunch.
*************
Hikari, as usual, sat with a bunch of other class reps at
lunch. She was feeling rather surprised by her boldness at the
party. At first, she’d assumed she had been drunk but a little
research had shown her that you couldn’t get drunk off one beer.
Heinrich, class rep of 8-A, was a boy of middling height
with short brown hair and fuzz under his nose which pretended
to be a moustache. “Did you really kiss eight guys at Ayanami’s
pool party?”
Hikari wanted to DIE. DIE DIE DIE. “I… what… no, no,
no!”
“She isn’t going to kiss you, Heinie,” Kanzaki said to him.
He scowled at her. “Don’t call me Heinie!”
Alphonse, the class rep of 8-D, a tall, muscular blond,
laughed loudly. “Okay, Heinie.”
The whole lunch turned into a making fun of Heinrich’s
name session, which took the heat off Hikari, but she felt
panicked anyway.
***************
“Strange dreams?” Kaji said to Ito Kameko; he was
interviewing her, with her parents glaring at him the whole time.
“Of a dancing maiden in the woods, under the stars,
dancing to a friend’s music. A flute,” she said. “I have the
dreams a lot,” she said.
Then she rose and tried to dance; she wasn’t good at it, but
he could see she was trying very hard and looked very
displeased she couldn’t quite get it right.
Her parents softened a little, watching her, and her mother
now said, “When I was your age, I had that dream a few times.”
She rose and tried to do the steps but was worse than her
daughter. But her daughter danced with her and for the first
time since Kaji got here, they smiled at each other.
The family was well-off by small town standards, Kaji had
noticed. But he also knew the parents’ marriage was on the
verge of collapse due to clashes over work, money and the
husband entering middle-aged-rebellion mode. They’d already
had a huge fight over taking out the garbage, which he refused
to do because he ‘wasn’t a maid’.
Kameko had told him that it had all started to unravel a
little over a year ago when her father had blown a lot of money
they’d saved on a sports car and ever since they’d fought more
and more.
But now the father was trying to dance with them and for
once, they looked like a family to him. It wouldn’t last but Kaji
felt strangely good that he’d actually made someone happy for
once.
But this wasn’t a movie where this one incident would
make everything happy, unfortunately. He’d seen this story
before and he knew how it ended.
Kaji didn’t consider himself a cynic, just a realist.
Worse, he could totally see himself and Misato having this
fight if they’d stayed together. Except probably Misato would
have bought the sports car.
He forced himself not to chew the cud of old regrets. He
suspected the mother probably was misremembering some
generic dancing dream; there was no way you could really have
the same dream as someone else. But if Kameko had dreamed a
dance which unlocked an ancient Eldar door, it meant someone
had somehow made her dream that.
He didn’t know how but what little he knew of the Eldar
included knowing they had ways to touch minds. And if you
could do that, you could rewrite minds.
Someone meant this to happen. It wasn’t coincidence.
Probably they planted desire for Shinji in her too.
If this was possible, it would explain a lot he couldn’t
explain right now. He knew just enough to know there was a
global conspiracy, it was ancient and powerful. And he had to
know who it was and what it wanted.
That was his nature.
But now he had to worry that someone had altered him.
Plus, one datapoint was not enough. He wasn’t so paranoid
as to not realize he might be making a mountain out of a
molehill.
Or maybe the mother and daughter HAD shared the same
dream and their…
All he could be *sure* of was that something had to have
affected Kameko’s dreams.
As you couldn’t dream by chance of a method which
enabled you to unlock an Eldar security system. Unless maybe
the system itself wanted to be unlocked. Could it have
manipulated events somehow?
Time to visit the cave.
****************
It was risky. Possibly crazy. But the cave had seemed
utterly mundane except for weak, fading traces of Orange Sign.
And quite possibly nothing would happen.
But the air mattress was soft and he brought blankets, so
Kaji posted guards (who clearly regarded him as crazy) and slept
in the cave.
******************
“Ill it is to rob the dead, even a criminal such as this one,”
the young man said to his father. Kaji somehow heard their
tongue as both foreign to him and as his own birth tongue. He
rode inside the young man, watching but feeling as the young
man felt.
“From the death of old Eol great good will come
unintended but also great evil. That I have seen,” the father
said. He and his son were both very tall with short dark hair,
tanned from working in the sun but clad like city folk, not
dwellers on cliff and mountain, though before Kaji spread
endless mountains and deep blue sky and they stood partway
down a huge cliff.
What they were scavenging was the sword recovered from
the cave but also a great suit of black armor, finely crafted of the
same metal as the blade.
“Can we trust the Dark Elf’s works?” the younger man
said, picking up the sword and frowning at it as his father
removed the armor from the now skeletal remains of old Eol.
Somehow it was intact despite the death by falling of its wearer.
Animals had eaten some of the exposed flesh, Kaji could
tell, seeing marks on the skull. That protected by the armor was
a rotten mass; the two men both looked sick at the sight of it but
did not cease their work, though they made noises of disgust and
took things slowly.
“This will need washing,” the elder said of the armor.
“Then we must prepare the resting place.”
“Is so much stock to be put in dreams?” the younger said.
“Messages of the Valar and their servants should not be
denied. When it happens, you know,” the elder said. “One day,
this sword and armor will be needed. When those come worthy
to unlock the doors.”
Then the dream faded.
**************
There was no sign of another door. But Kaji knew from
Shinji’s testimony there had been no sign of a door before.
He tried doing the dance, but he only succeeded in making
the guards laugh and he found himself no more adept to it than
Kameko’s mother.
Her parents refused to let her come out here and he didn’t
feel comfortable kidnapping a child.
Using sonic devices to look for hidden chambers in the
walls did not pan out. Either none existed or the Eldar had
installed some kind of shielding when they had hidden the sword
here.
It could be that he’d just had wish fulfillment and dreamed
what he wanted to hear. He’d sent in the report to Ikari and
Fuyutsuki.
Then Fuyutsuki called him. “Assuming the sword is the
real thing, then your dream is compatible with what is known of
its maker’s death.” Fuyutsuki grilled him for every detail of the
vision.
“Why would I have a vision like this, though?” Kaji asked.
“It could be something left behind to help but it smells of a trap
to me.”
“And the old man was named Pengolodh,” Fuyutsuki said.
“Yes,” Kaji said.
“Do not blow anything else up. I am going to come. I
would bring Rei but…” Fuyutsuki made a noise. “Hmm. I am
going to have to bring Asuka.”
Dammit, Kaji thought. “Is that necessary?”
“Yes, since Rei needs to stay here and prepare for the
Deeps,” Fuyutsuki said. “And I will pull some strings.”
***************
Sir Lloyd Alexander Neville Warwick III was a very
handsome man, in Kameko’s opinion. In fact, it was hard to
stop staring at him and her body kept hinting at her to do things
which would have been foolish with her parents here… foolish
to do at all with someone at least twice her age and more like
three times.
Especially since she had a boyfriend, though it was hard to
remember that with this man in front of her, with his neatly
trimmed black hair and utterly smooth, strong jaw and his
perfect skin and his expensive suit perfectly cut to his strong
figure and her mother was staring at him too.
This snapped Kameko out of it enough to notice her father
staring at Maria Alexandra Georgette Warwick, sister to the
Ambassador, who had legs that went on for miles and long
brown hair down to her waist and lips red like rubies and warm
brown eyes under perfectly shaped eyebrows and cheekbones
which were a delicate shade of red and her clothing flowed over
her slender figure like a cloth waterfall and…
And Kameko fled the room and went to her bedroom and
banged her head on her pillow, trying to clear it without hurting
herself too much; their faces still hung before her eyes and she
made herself get her phone and stare at her picture of herself
kissing Shinji (taken for her by Commander Katsuragi) until
they stopped hovering in her mind’s eye.
“Are you okay?” Her mother asked from the hallway,
sounding worried.
“I thought I heard my phone ring.”
Her mother sighed. “Leave your phone in your room; Ikari
will live ten more minutes without you, you know.”
Kameko laughed nervously. At least her mother no longer
looked ready to jump the Ambassador right there.
This image made her want to go dunk her head.
Especially…
AAAAAAA.
“Kameko, what’s wrong?” her mother asked, coming over
to her. She sat down on the edge of the bed by her.
“I’m okay. I’m okay,” Kameko said, while her mother
frowned.
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Her father was busy rambling about dentistry to the
Ambassador and his sister and someone had brought in a lot
more food. Was that an entire turkey??? Kameko stared, eyes
wide. And what was that odd white stuff?
And why had they suddenly ‘dropped by for dinner because
they were in the area’? The man was Britain’s ambassador to
the United Nations. Unless he had something to do with
NERV?
That had to be it, though his suit wasn’t very good for
stomping about in the woods.
Looking at Maria, Kameko suddenly felt very small and
mousy and just hideous, really. She wanted to go hide under her
bed, even though Maria smiled kindly at her. “It’s a pleasure to
meet you, Kameko,” Maria said, her voice nearly dripping
honey. “Your father says you are very smart.”
“I have nearly perfect grades,” Kameko said proudly, her
spirits reviving. She sat down by her mother; her family was on
one side of the now crowded table and the Warwicks on the
other, while two servants… *servants*… flitted about with
more food.
Kameko soon had a plate of turkey, what turned out to be
‘mashed potatoes’, carrots, her mother’s good rice and
mushroom mix, and asparagus. She and her father rambled on
to Maria while the Ambassador talked to her mother about her
convenience store and his work.
The dinner was a kind of blur of talking and eating and
staring at the two visitors. They both spoke Japanese very well,
though Maria had a distinct British accent. Ambassador Lloyd,
on the other hand, sounded like he came from Osaka.
During dessert (one of her mother’s odder dishes,
cinnamon sugared cucumbers), Ambassador Lloyd sprang the
topic of her coming to the Geofront. “This is a perfect
opportunity for your daughter to work with world-famous
scientists. This would be a huge boost to her future career. And
I promise you, it is the safest place on Earth.”
“I am very sorry she was in danger at all,” Maria said with
her voice like honey. She was staring into the eyes of Kameko’s
father and he hung on her every word like she was the oracle of
the gods, his hands on the table, splayed oddly to lift his palms
just a little above it. “But I swear, we will allow no harm to her
there.”
“We just want her to be safe,” Kameko’s father said
urgently.
“I will ensure her safety,” the Ambassador said warmly to
him. “She is a fine young lady and will be safe and happy there
and everyone will know you and your family are doing their part
to help defend our world.”
Pretty soon, they won her parents over; only later, when
they were gone did Kameko rouse from her almost dream-like
state and realize how easily her parents had come around.
But this was what she wanted, so she was not going to look
a gift horse in the mouth.
Even if she now remembered the Ambassador studying her
mother like…
Her eyes crossed. Surely he was just flirting.
She slept somewhat fitfully and kept waking and listening
but there was no sound of any… anything… going on. And the
two weren’t there in pajamas with her parents in the morning
like she’d half expected.
*************
“Thank you for your assistance,” Fuyutsuki said to Lloyd
as they drove out to the cave in a jeep.
Lloyd bounced up and down with the vehicle. “Maybe we
should have walked. But Maria and I were glad to help you.”
He smiled his ‘I win again’ smile. “So this girl dreamed of
being Luthien. Is it possible…”
“It should not be possible,” Fuyutsuki said. “I do not
understand how she could have had this dream, but it’s clear that
she dreamed true enough for her dance to have power. But we
know one thing for sure. Once men leave this world, they do
not return, not until the Dagor Dagorath.”
Lloyd looked a little disappointed, then said, “She’d be too
young, anyway.”
“Far too young,” Fuyutsuki said, keeping his expression
neutral. “The fact that her mother in her youth had these dreams
is interesting, though this may actually be the human tendency
to rewrite their past to suit present needs.”
Lloyd looked thoughtful. “I feel the fool for not realizing
this before, but could it be that ‘photographic memory’ in
humans could be a case of someone with more Eldar ancestry by
chance? Do they rewrite their memories the way others do?”
“I don’t know about the later, but we’ve shown its true for
the former,” Fuyutsuki said.
“Also, this must mean Gondolin was around here, right?”
Lloyd said. “How did it get all the way to Japan?” He frowned.
“The end of the Fourth Age made a mess,” Fuyutsuki said.
“At the time, many thought the Dagor Dagorath must have
begun. That being said, it likely does mean Gondolin is buried
under these hills. We will likely have a strong presence here for
a long time.”
They now saw the troops positioned in crude fortifications
around the hill. They gave the password, and soon were
admitted.
*****************
Kameko was extremely nervous, especially since LangleySoryuu Asuka was so gorgeous, even in a military uniform.
*And* smart, something Kameko had always assumed mutually
exclusive. Smarter than herself in some things.
Kameko did well in school but wasn’t up to the level of
*finishing college*!
Asuka patted her shoulder. “Don’t be nervous. This
should be perfectly safe,” she said. “Rei showed me the dance
and we’re ready for any monsters.” She patted her hip, where
the sword they’d recovered was sheathed. “Be brave. And I’m
sure Shinji will be impressed.” Her words had power too, like
Warwick-san and his sister. And now she realized that
Warwick, but not his sister, had worn a fancy ring like Asuka.
Who had told Kameko to call her Asuka, which made
Kameko feel weirdly excited. She was so friendly and nice, and
Kameko felt swept off her feet.
A carefully picked group of musicians the same age as her
and Asuka played in the cave, looking confused and excited.
They were led by the music teacher from Kameko’s school, and
she and Asuka danced. It was easy to get it right with Asuka
leading. Kameko felt warm inside and the air, it throbbed with
heat.
But the heat was a gentle embrace, a tender caress, a friend
to man and woman and soon everyone was playing stronger than
before.
The music reached a climax; they could feel themselves
pushing at something which fought back by making them skid
off its surface. It was close, but not quite right.
Finally, Kameko fell down exhausted, lying on the great
circular slab of rock in the middle of the cave, with Asuka
sitting next to her. “I think we have the right kind of key but not
the precise key,” Asuka said. She now wore a pendant like
Rei’s; the glow of HALO, ever changing, washed across
everything, constantly fluxing and changing the balance of lights
and shadow.
“Maybe with more HALO, we can force a way through,”
Sir Lloyd said. “The Committee will, of course, authorize it,”
he said confidently, then paused. “Do we need to authorize it?”
Several kids laughed and he frowned, scowling at them and
they all shrank in on themselves as if they’d been slapped.
“I am wary of experimenting with too much HALO in a
place with little capacity for security precautions and a lot of
kids,” Fuyutsuki said to him, frowning himself but not radiating
a wall of anger.
“Maybe we’re just not good enough,” Kameko said,
sighing.
“I am good enough for *any* dance,” Asuka said
confidently. “And have some confidence in yourself,” she said
sternly to Kameko. Then she whispered to her, “Shinji will like
you more if you are more confident. Boys like strong, confident
women.”
Kameko wished she was more confident in things other
than her brains.
“Maybe we need a team of dancers,” one of the boys in the
‘band’ said. “I mean, we have a ton of musicians but only two
dancers.”
“I can dance,” Sir Lloyd said.
“But you’re too old,” the boy said and Sir Lloyd frowned at
him until he hid behind the tuba player.
“I know a dancer,” Asuka said. “We’d have to fly her from
Germany but she’s the only person I know who dances better
than I do.”
“Rei needs to be getting ready for the mission,” Fuyutsuki
said. “Though I suppose we could postpone that since there is
no reason we have to do it right this second.”
“Not Rei,” Asuka said. “Her name is Hedda Sommer.”
***************
“Dad, I am coming back. It will be fine,” Hedda said to her
father, Reinhold; he worked in vehicle maintenance in NERV.
He loved his job, but he’d once been married to a dancer and
she’d run away from the responsibilities of having children and
regular work to keep them alive. Hedda was sure he just had the
jitters over that.
“I just have this feeling that things are going to change
forever,” he said, feeling irrational but unable to help it.
“Dad, it’s a dance gig. I’m not sure why they need me to
dance in a cave, but did you see the money they’re offering?
We could finally get a new car!” Hedda’s family lived better at
the Geo-Front than ever before, but one income and two kids
meant that they still didn’t have as much as they wanted.
Ironically, they didn’t even have a car, since the last one died.
Being a car mechanic with no car got Reinhold mocked at
work sometimes and Hedda knew it.
But the amount of money which Ambassador Lloyd had
offered him made Reinhold nervous. Hedda was only fourteen
and... well, she was pretty tough. She could handle boys her
own age, but he felt a little worried Lloyd was some kind of
freak who liked kids.
On the other hand, surely NERV wouldn’t let something
like that happen. They’d been so good to him.
But his nerves jangled. “I’m going to have a beer,” he said.
He got Hedda one too; she was old enough to start learning to
drink. And old enough to drink legally.
Ermalinda, on the other hand, Hedda’s younger redhaired
sister, just got a soda. She was busy doing her homework, being
the brains of the family. She tried very hard to be a good
student and her father was proud of her.
Even if her birth had more or less started Renate’s freaking
out and led to her leaving.
But he was over the woman and hoped she was having to
turn tricks on Broadway to live. She deserved it.
He sighed. “Okay, you can do it. Don’t make me regret it,
dear.”
Hedda hugged him. She had her mother’s body, the body
of a dancer and her mother’s talent times ten. He could see so
much of her mother in her, which made him nervous, given how
her mother had freaked out and fled in the face of responsibility.
He had to leave Hedda and Ermalinda on their own a lot,
working long hours. But they kept the house clean and everyone
fed and the laundry done and they hadn’t gotten in trouble, so he
gave them a lot of trust.
He was scared, but he would trust them again.
Hopefully this was not a mistake.
*******************
“Are you *trying* to live in detention?” Hikari asked Touji
as she escorted him back to class from detention.
“Berg was dissing on Japan, I had to bust her one,” Touji
said. He was proud of his homeland, unlike his sister, who was
busy rebelling against being Japanese.
“We did lose the war,” Hikari said to him hotly as she
dragged him along.
“So did they! Germany got its ass kicked too!” Touji
protested. “She had it coming.”
They suddenly stopped and Touji blinked. “Umm, about
the other day…,” Hikari said, licking her lips nervously.
Now he was really nervous. “What other day?” he said
with affected casualness.
“The party,” she said.
“I’d be glad to help you learn more swimmin’, if that’s
what you want,” he said. It had been kind of fun to his surprise.
“I only ki… really?” she said, surprised.
“Sure,” he said. “And you don’t have to drag me. It’s not
like I *want* to be in detention.”
She didn’t let go but she laughed softly. “I suppose not.
Anyway, there’s… um… these crazy rumors you shouldn’t
believe…”
“I ain’t no gossip, but Kensuke can probably tell you the
truth. Or Conrad. They’re both big gossips,” Touji said. “I
kinda sub-contracted all my gossiping to Kensuke, as Dad would
say.” He’d been waiting forever to use this joke structure after
his Dad had used it at a dinner party. The reason being that it
would come off ‘smart’ and thus let him impress a smart person.
He got called idiot so much, he felt the need to prove he wasn’t
stupid.
Hikari blinked, then laughed loudly and smiled naturally;
she didn’t smile much but Touji thought it made her look more
cute.
Olga never smiled either, not that he wanted to see Olga
smile.
All he wanted was for Olga to get off his case. Nothing
else, just that.
“Touji, that was very clever,” Hikari said appreciatively
and suddenly Touji felt this surge of happiness that caught him
off guard.
But it was the good kind, not the Olga stuffing him in a
dumpster kind with which he was far too familiar.
Mind you, he’d made *her* familiar with it too.
Hikari smiled the rest of the way back to class. So did he.
*************
“Hmm? Oh, someone claimed she kissed every boy at the
party, but I only actually saw her kiss you and a guy from 8-B,”
Kensuke told him. “And me,” he said. “I think she must have
been drunk but I didn’t see her drink much.”
“She kissed *you*?” Touji said, surprised. It had been his
first kiss, if cheeks counted.
“Yeah,” he said; Kensuke would never admit it had been
his first kiss, ever. Not for a long time, anyway. “It was pretty
good,” he said. It had just been on the cheek, but it had felt
good.
The two of them were with Shinji at Touji’s place, playing
video games. Namely, Space Piracy IV. They were about to
raid a huge shipment carrying gold-circuitry.
“I didn’t notice her kissing anyone but I have kissed my
girlfriend,” Shinji told them, smiling.
“She’s cute,” Kensuke lied to be polite. She didn’t impress
him. But he did have manners when he chose to use them.
“Not bad at all,” Touji said appreciatively to Kensuke’s
surprise when Shinji showed them a picture. “Good kisser too?”
“Yeah,” Shinji said, embarrassed.
“Too bad she’s stuck in Japan,” Touji said. “I mean,
Japan’s nice but it isn’t here where you are.”
“I know,” Shinji said. He was a little worried over the
experiment but feared if he had gone back with them that his
father might never let him come back. And he was determined
not to leave until his father at least explained why they couldn’t
see each other.
At least, he was trying to be determined.
*************
Kameko spoke no German; Hedda spoke no Japanese.
Asuka spoke both and other languages and thus had to act as
interpreter. But she was used to making people make sense out
of things, as a teacher. Asuka felt she had a knack for it.
But then, she was a multi-talented genius, even in a
generation of geniuses.
“This dance?” Hedda said, flawlessly performing the dance
Kameko had clumsily tried to show them.
Everyone stared and Ambassador Lloyd said, “A dream?”
“I’ve learned a lot of dances from dreams,” Hedda said to
him. “Sometimes I dream an angel comes to teach me dances. I
mean, it’s just a dream, but…” It now hit her she’d dreamed
years ago of a dance that someone else had dreamed and which
apparently did something they’d explained to her poorly.
She felt an unaccustomed pang of nervousness.
“Describe her,” Commander Fuyutsuki said intently as
Kameko listened to Asuka’s running translation.
“Umm, middling height, long black hair, green eyes, wears
green and brown dresses, barefoot, sometimes has big fluffy
white wings,” Hedda said, feeling rather nervous as Lloyd and
Fuyutsuki stared at her. “She dances like a dream.” In those
dreams, her dancing was perfect. She was good but also good
enough to see the flaws in her own work.
“Does she have a name?” Fuyutsuki asked.
“She said to call her Vanessa,” Hedda said nervously.
Fuyutsuki’s eyebrow twitched, making Hedda nervous.
“Was there ever flute music?” Kameko asked.
“Usually the winds sang and we danced,” Hedda said, now
feeling very nervous. Why was everyone taking her dreams so
seriously? She’d always assumed it was a dream of her mother
or inspired by her, though the dreams had taught her a lot.
But…
Lloyd and Fuyutsuki gave each other the look. The
‘Parents who know it all and boy are you in trouble look’.
“Did I do something wrong?” she said warily.
“No,” Fuyutsuki said. “Did she tell you anything about this
dance?”
“It’s a song of new beginnings, a dance of the joy of
spring,” Hedda said.
Fuyutsuki looked thoughtful. “Do you know any dances
for summer?”
Hedda knew lots and soon was trying them all with her new
partners; Asuka learned fast, while Kameko was not good at it
but tried so very hard it made Hedda feel bad for her. Why they
had dragged this girl into this, Hedda didn’t understand.
But she began helping Kameko; she had to reward trying so
hard. You just had to do your best, right?
“You’re doing better,” Asuka told Kameko. Then she
noticed Kameko was now wearing a simple ring made of
copper, set with a well-cut but cheap crystal chip. It had been
shaped to resemble a turtle’s shell. She hadn’t been wearing it
yesterday, though.
“For your name, right?” she said to Kameko.
Kameko froze, then glanced at Asuka’s ring and Asuka
understood. Asuka had no idea how her ring worked, which
worried her sometimes but she could tell it helped her. So now
Kameko was placebo-ing herself into a little more confidence
and grace.
She’d think her ring was a placebo, except knowing that
would make it stop working, right?
“Did you make this?” Asuka asked.
“With some of dad’s tools and materials I got from my
uncle the jeweler,” Kameko said. “It’s my hobby.” She
sounded proud. “I want to make Shinji a nice ring for… I guess
Christmas, since his birthday won’t be for a long time.”
She’s a sweet kid, Asuka thought.
This world is going to chew her up, though, Asuka thought.
But let her have her youth while she can. Shinji seems kind of
wussy but a nice boy who will treat her nice.
She was now reminded of Kaji; she’d tried to go see him
but he’d been called off to a meeting last night. But maybe
tonight. He was out with the guards right now, unfortunately.
They kept on practicing dancing and testing different ones
Hedda knew.
*************
Hikari had to know. Which is why in the middle of her
father having one of his wild parties with his friends, she quietly
grabbed four beers and smuggled them back to her room. She
drank the first one as fast as she had drunk the previous one,
setting the others aside, then put on some music and tried doing
homework, waiting to see if she felt the urge to kiss someone.
In fact, she just felt kind of relaxed and got a lot of
homework done.
But then she heard Fritz Gruber shout, “Hey who took the
rest of the beer I brought?”
Hikari’s eyes widened and in a panic, she took the other
three bottles and hid them inside her sock drawer.
She spent the rest of the evening half doing homework and
half terrified she would be caught.
The people in the living room were too drunk to figure
anything out and she didn’t get caught. Or kiss any boys.
Though she now realized there were no boys to actually kiss
here even if she had been seized by the desire for kissing. Other
than guys her Father’s age.
That would not have been good.
So what had happened? She didn’t know and not knowing
made her jumpy.
*************
Gendo was at his computer when Keele showed up in his
office; he was listening to a cello-viola duet, Keele noticed.
“Very nicely done,” he said. “I don’t think I know the piece.”
Gendo quickly hit a keyboard button and it stopped. “You
may have a seat,” he said.
Keele smiled, amused. He sat down. “How is the
investigation in Japan, going?”
“Well,” Gendo said, but Keele knew that he would say that
whether it went well or not. “We will need a new pilot soon.
How are things with PALANTIR?”
“Reading the skein of destiny is never easy,” he said. “We
will have your pilot in time. So why are you hiding from your
son?” he said bluntly.
Gendo’s eyebrows moved subtly. “I am not hiding. I do
not have time and he is safer in Japan.”
“Safer than here?” Keele said.
“Once the war begins in full, yes,” Gendo said. “The
enemy will want to eliminate us.”
“The enemy will want to conquer every inch of the Earth,”
Keele said, leaning forward, his eyes hidden by his red visor.
His eyes had failed before the rest of him but this took its place;
it was worth the periodic Star Trek jokes.
He’d come to enjoy them, really.
Gendo shifted subtly and leaned forward, trying to look
Keele in the eyes. “He is better off in Japan. I have seen it.
Tragedy will dog his life if he comes here.”
Keele suspected Gendo was bluffing. The boy had talents
not to be wasted. “I’m not telling you to make him a pilot.”
Yet. “But I think he should stay here and work with Dr. Akagi.”
“Is that an order?” Gendo said stiffly.
“It’s a suggestion,” Keele said calmly. “But what will you
do if you send him back and someone kills him when he has no
protection? And if he stays at NERV-Japan, how is that really
any different for him than being here? Except that here, there
are people who want him?”
Gendo’s computer now announced he had mail but he
didn’t answer it. “The Sixth Book of the Vinya-Ithil edition of
the Vinyar Silmarillion makes it clear that the enemy will thrust
his spear at the place where moon-silver dwells, which is to say,
here.”
“I cannot deny the accuracy of many of its prophecies, yet I
find it implausible the Enemy will strike here and here alone,”
Keele replied. “And it’s often unclear, especially now.”
A long argument over ancient prophecies ensued.
**************
Asuka felt her genius confirmed as she, Kameko, and
Hedda did a sword dance; she could feel power building and
now the power resisting them was starting to give way. It made
sense. One method got you the master key and then you had to
*use* it.
Further, Kameko was doing better this time, which helped.
She showed steady, slow improvement, in part because she kept
pushing herself, something Asuka admired. She looked
extremely determined.
Hedda didn’t seem to push herself… because she was
already in the lead, to Asuka’s embarrassment. But then,
intellectually, she knew Hedda was a dancing specialist and
didn’t do much else well.
Not multi-talented like her. And Asuka *was* better with a
sword, dancing or not.
They followed intuition, guided by the music and Hedda’s
knowledge and at the climax, all three drove their swords into
the round, flat-topped stone.
The light swirled around the trio and all three swords slid
deep into the stone; you could barely see any of them but now
light rushed through the cracks, widening them and the stones
shook to the beat of the teen orchestra.
And then the rock shattered, revealing a shaft down into the
darkness. A short distance down was a suit of armor for a very
tall man, made of the same metal as the sword, set into a niche
in the wall, but the stone ladder carved into the shaft descended
down into the darkness.
“Obvious, really, in retrospect,” Asuka said grandly. “They
didn’t just hide the key for us, they basically showed us what to
do with the sword to open the way.”
Fuyutsuki frowned, but then he smiled. “Well done,
Asuka.”
“Everything I do is well-done,” she said, feeling like Queen
of the World. But being benevolent, she said, “And I could not
have done it without Hedda and Kameko.” Or at least Hedda;
Kameko probably wasn’t necessary, in Asuka’s opinion. But
she knew who needed criticism to inspire them and who needed
kind words.
Only now did something hit her; one, some of the HALO
in her vial was gone. Two, Kameko’s hair had turned red.
Redder than her own hair, a really, really bright red. Hedda, on
the other hand, looked totally normal.
Asuka prayed that nothing terrible had happened, even as
Fuyutsuki and Lloyd both clearly noticed and looked worried,
while Hedda was just studying her own hair and looking
confused.
*************
Kameko had the feeling she’d done something terrible
because Professor Fuyutsuki and Ambassador… wait, what was
his name? Neville? Lloyd… He had so many names, she
wasn’t sure what to call him. But he was clearly worried too.
Her hair had changed color, she felt weird, and now the
gem in her ring glowed just a little bit. Also, Hedda kept
studying her entire body, clearly trying to figure out if
something had gone wrong. And Asuka was pacing around the
hotel room like a bird in a cage.
A bird that had been poked with a stick.
Hedda said something. Asuka snapped at her, then buried
her face in her hands and said something less harsh.
Now they were both pacing as she sat on the bed, watching
TV and feeling ready to go out of her mind.
“You can go home tonight,” Professor Fuyutsuki said to
Kameko in Japanese, coming in. “Commander Gendo is coming
to see you tomorrow.”
Her eyes widened. “What did I do?” she said desperately.
“He’s not coming to punish you,” Commander Fuyutsuki
said kindly to her. He said something equally kind sounding to
Hedda in German; she relaxed and he did the same with Asuka,
who also relaxed.
“Wouldn’t it be easier if I went to the Geofront?” Kameko
said hopefully. “Won’t Asuka and Sommer be going back
soon?”
Asuka got an odd grin, and Professor Fuyutsuki said, “He
insisted on seeing you here.” He sounded apologetic to
Kameko.
“Okay,” she said. “Why is my ring glowing?” she asked.
“That’s what he’s going to figure out,” Professor Fuyutsuki
said gently.
Kameko hoped it was not because if something went
wrong, he didn’t want the Geofront caught in the explosion.
************
“He’s coming to see you?” Shinji said, shocked. “I just
heard he was going on a trip.”
Expensive as it was, Kameko thought this was worth
calling Shinji about instead of just texting. “What’s he like?”
“I don’t know, he won’t see me,” Shinji said frantically.
“What happened?”
She told him everything, ending with “Professor Fuyutsuki
told my folks it was a success and I claimed I had dyed my hair
to be more like Asuka because I admired her.” Which she did,
but it wasn’t dye.
“She’s rather impressive,” Shinji admitted. But then he
sounded hurt. “I still don’t know why he won’t see me.”
“I will try to persuade him,” she said, hoping to cheer him
up. She had enough sadness, she didn’t want Shinji to be sad
too.
Though now her folks were acting kind of weird. Why
were they so dressed up all the time?
“I don’t know if anything can persuade him,” Shinji said
mournfully.
Hearing him so sad made her more determined to make him
happy.
She’d persuade his father to see him, at the very least.
A girlfriend had to try.
***************
Hikari studied herself in the mirror. She still didn’t have
the figure she wanted, but she looked… Respectable. Right?
Modest bathing suit, hair well cared for, skin clean, not too fat,
smart… well, you couldn’t tell that. She’d contemplated getting
fake glasses but had decided it was too silly. She wanted to be
sure she looked smart so people would respect her. It was as
much hard work as native intelligence, but she got results.
Six guys had all tried to get her to kiss them, to her
embarrassment. She’d turned them down and told herself not to
go on any kissing sprees again, before she got a reputation.
The beer was still hidden in her sock drawer as she didn’t
know what to do with them. She shouldn’t drink them yet, she
worried if she tried to move them she’d somehow get caught.
Even with her father gone so much.
For now, they’d stay. She was going to go get a lesson
from Suzuhara and help him study for finals. Well, not finals
but the pre-vacation test. Technically they ran April to the end
of September, but they had six weeks off coming up.
Anyway. She could do this. He was friendly, no one
would think she was low class or anything for this. Just a
friendly lesson from someone who had the kind of family she
wished she did.
Suddenly, she missed her mother intensely.
This felt like Mom time, the sort of time you’d go to your
mother for advice.
But her Dad was utterly useless for this, though he meant
well.
Sometimes.
But he was gone again and now it was time to go see
Suzuhara. Be brave, she told herself.
**************
Rei said, “Hello, Mother,” when Ritsuko tried to slip in
behind her to surprise her as Rei stood in front of the mirror,
brushing her hair.
Ritsuko took the brush and began carefully brushing Rei’s
hair. “Hello, daughter. Ready for the mission?”
“Always,” Rei said. “I know my duty.”
“I certainly didn’t at your age. You can be proud of
yourself,” Ritsuko said, carefully working out several tangles.
“Yes, Mother,” Rei said calmly.
“But you need to brush your hair more,” she told Rei.
“Take care of your appearance. Not so much that it eats
valuable time, but if you look slovenly, people will look down
on you.”
“Yes, Mother,” Rei said.
“Flarble, glarble bloo,” Ritsuko said.
“Yes, Mo…”
Ritsuko sighed. “Rei, pay attention when I am giving you
advice.” Sometimes the girl seemed to run around on autopilot.
If that was possible.
“If I die, you must ensure that Lars does not blame himself
or do anything crazy,” Rei said. She said this before every
mission.
Ritsuko smiled softly. “He will worry, you know. He
always does.”
“If I die again, I will return again,” Rei said. “He will not.
But sometimes he forgets.” She sounded just a tiny bit tense,
which for her was like screaming.
She finished the hair and began washing Rei’s face. “You
have such perfect skin.”
“My people have control over our bodies, as you know.
We do not experience stray bodily desires or suffer pimples.”
She had the pontificating about Eldar tone.
“I know, I taught you,” Ritsuko said chidingly, carefully
scrubbing Rei’s ears. Despite rumors of pointed ears, her ears
were normal for a human with just a hint towards pointedness.
But then, all the stories made it clear human and Eldar were very
similar in appearance.
Eldar just tended to be better.
It was hard for her to imagine it but one day, she might well
die of old age and Rei would still look young.
She carefully trimmed Rei’s nails next. “Do you want nail
polish?”
“Not for a mission,” Rei said. “Nail polish is for times of
festival.”
From the records Ritsuko had seen, that was when things
most went to hell.
Probably best Germany didn’t have too many holidays.
She eventually got Rei… fancied up more than you really
needed for going down in a dark, dirty hole full of old traps,
monsters, rockfalls, and other dangers.
It suddenly hit her that it rather resembled this game she’d
played with Misato in college. What was it… Caverns and
Crustaceans? That was it. Disreputable swordswomen and
sorceresses wandering through monster infested wildernesses
and city-states run by nutcases and demon worshippers trying to
survive in a world where everything either wanted to sleep with
or kill you. Or hire you, possibly leading to the other two. Or
rob you.
Rei was even seeking treasure. Element Alpha, known also
as Mithril. A crucial component of the alloys which made the
armor of the Rangers.
“Be brave, my daughter,” she said softly.
“And you,” Rei said.
She put a hand on her shoulder. “Did you enjoy the pool
party?”
“Yes,” Rei said.
“Good,” Ritsuko said. “You need more friends.”
“They cannot understand,” Rei said softly. “Lars tries, but
he has not been there.” She paused. “Do not put him there.”
“I would not put you there if I could avoid it,” Ritsuko said,
then sighed. She understood. Her date had been okay on Friday
but there had been too much she couldn’t talk about; it was a
wall between her and her efforts at dating. They hadn’t seen
death and she had. They were not privy to NERV’s secrets. But
she didn’t want to just have superficial sexy fun flings like
Misato did.
Her one time with that in college… She winced. I should
have known they were not serious. But I was young and naïve
and didn’t understand alcohol, not really.
Dammit.
“Mother, do not worry. I chose this path,” Rei said.
You were raised to choose this path, Ritsuko thought. I
helped make you into a weapon for us to wield. But now she
felt guilty about it.
She wished Rei and Asuka got on better. They weren’t
enemies but they didn’t click. They were co-workers, not
friends. But only Asuka and some of the adults could
understand Rei.
Though she and Lars somehow had bonded. Was it love?
At that age, who knows what love is? But Lars was loyal to her
daughter and Ritsuko treasured that.
The fact that being nice to him drove his irritating mother
crazy didn’t hurt.
“You should talk to Shinji. He might understand,” Ritsuko
said to Rei. She knew he had seen death, at least. He would
understand her more, surely. Shy as he was.
“Shinji has seen death, but he has not killed,” Rei said
softly. “I hope he never must do so.”
Ritsuko feared they would not have that luxury, but she
agreed with the sentiment.
“Ready to go?”
“Yes,” Rei said.
“Then let’s go,” Ritsuko said. She would be conducting
experiments, since she was rarely needed during a Deeps
mission. But she would be working with Shinji and be available
during it. Rei was the one taking the real risk, facing the real
danger right now.
Mother, have I done well, she asked herself. Surely Rei
deserved better than this.
She didn’t want… she did want someone, more pilots,
someone to fill the kind of roles Rei needed, friends who could
understand her and the pressures she was under. Asuka wasn’t
enough.
She felt horribly selfish wishing other children to be
dragged down so Rei wouldn’t have to be alone.
But if you can’t be selfish for your daughter, who can you
be?
It was one reason, she felt, that she and Misato were still
friends despite walking different roads, different interests. They
both had seen death and they knew the burden of those who
must… who must kill or be killed.
Ritsuko had never killed anyone herself, but she’d helped.
She was part of this. Her mother had died for this. Her
innocence was long gone.
Misato understood that. At the level of people who had
stared death in the face until it blinked, they understood.
But who else Rei’s age really understood death?
****************
Shinji stared as Olga did not so much drum as assault the
drum set with drumsticks. There was a huge angry power
behind her playing, but it set the beat perfectly. Lars was a
competent saxophone player but Shinji could tell he didn’t
practice enough. Olga… Shinji didn’t know drumwork enough
to tell if she got by on raw passion or skill. But you definitely
got the beat from her.
As they played and Dr. Akagi studied the rippling liquid
HALO, Shinji wondered if a drumset had attacked Olga and this
was her revenge. Touji had said she was a maniac and he had to
agree.
“I hear you killed a werewolf,” she said, sounding angry
but not glaring at him, so maybe that was a good thing.
“I only helped,” he said. “Also, it seemed like just a really
big wolf, but apparently the sword I found with Kameko was the
only thing that could kill it. Rei and Misato did the hard work, I
just brought them the sword.” He wished he could brag about
greater heroism.
Oddly, this seemed to soften her. Shinji glanced at Lars,
then realized he couldn’t talk and play at the same time, so he
wasn’t likely to say much if they talked while they played. He
seemed kind of in a trance, anyway.
“I appreciate honesty,” Olga said to Shinji. “Stupid Touji
would have claimed to kill it himself.”
“I’m not a warrior,” Shinji told her.
Lars clearly wanted to say something but couldn’t speak.
He looked intently at Shinji, nothing happened and he sighed,
which distorted the music. The HALO rippled up in a distorted
shape.
“Do that again,” Dr. Akagi said curiously.
“I’d like to fight but they won’t let me,” Olga said,
frowning. “I’m certainly stronger than Rei.”
“She’s stronger than she looks,” Shinji said.
Lars sighed while playing again and you got the weird
shape again in the HALO. It was less pronounced this time,
though.
“Hmm,” Dr. Akagi said, continuing to study the monitor in
front of her.
“She doesn’t have a stake in this,” Olga said angrily.
“She lost both her parents to the Shadow and her first
adoptive mother,” Dr. Akagi snapped at Olga. “*My* mother
died defending her. That’s not a stake? And what do you think
your father would do if you went down there and got killed?”
“How can you let Rei go, then?” Olga said loudly and
angrily, pointing a drumstick at Dr. Akagi.
The movement of the HALO faltered with the drums silent.
Shinji shifted uncomfortably; he didn’t like people fighting.
“It isn’t easy,” Dr. Akagi said hotly. Shinji could feel her
anger, almost like she was pushing the air towards them.
Olga suddenly looked stunned, then frowned. “I want to
avenge Mother! Is that so wrong?”
“Rei has talents you do not. Someone must be risked, she
is better suited for it,” Dr. Akagi said, grimacing. “When you
are older, if you wish to enlist, we will gladly accept you. But
we are trying to shove as few children onto the front line as we
can.”
“I am not a child!” Olga said angrily, waving one of her
drumsticks in the air.
“An adult would help finish this experiment instead of
wrecking it to yell at me,” Dr. Akagi snapped.
Shinji and Lars tried to play on but the fight was hurting
their concentration. Lars finally gave up and put his instrument
down. “Please don’t remind me Rei is in danger while I play the
saxophone at glowing water,” he said, pained. It was the most
emotion Shinji had ever seen him show.
Olga’s eyes widened slightly, then she slumped. “Okay,”
she said sullenly, sounding frustrated. “Let’s start over. I’m
sorry, Lars, Shinji.”
“I know how you feel,” Lars said sympathetically and they
resumed playing.
****************
Lieutenant Corrine Hall sat on a bench in the changing
room, busy studying the unit rosters for the mission, her short,
wavy black hair tucked inside her helmet. The rest of the
women in her five squads were busy changing into their armor;
painted black and gold, it provided the best protection possible
for anything woman-portable, stopping bullets, claws, and
swords alike. Or at worst, slowing them down. Though she’d
heard that the last mission to where they were going, the
monster had been able to rip people’s armor open.
Said monster was now thankfully dead, due to the death of
Sgt. Rachel Berg. Corrine closed her eyes for a moment and
prayed, remembering her, hoping she was in heaven. If there
was one. But if there was, she had earned her ticket there.
That had been the last mission beyond the range two
checkpoints which had not included the oddest member of her
company, Rei Ayanami, Dr. Akagi’s daughter. Corrine turned
and looked across the changing room at Rei, who was busy
suiting up in silence, while everyone else joked and talked to
dispel their nerves.
Private Josephine Rice towered over Rei, about nine or ten
inches taller than her, changing into her own armor. She was
allegedly Italian in descent but Corrine was pretty sure Italians
didn’t have names like hers. “You ever been down where we
are going?” she asked Rei.
“I have been deeper but in a different sector,” Rei said,
pulling on the top and picking up her helmet. “No one has gone
back to this route since April of last year, I think.” She looked
over at Corrine.
“That’s right. Didn’t you pay attention in the briefing,
private?” Corrine said, irritated. Rice was a crack shot but she
never paid enough attention outside of combat.
“I just shoot who I get told to, sa… Lieutenant,” Rice said,
helping Rei secure her gear.
Corrine had been down into the Deeps multiple times; it
was why she’d been chosen. But she’d never gone quite so
deep. It was going to be a three day round trip and she’d never
been more than a one day round trip. She’d studied the map and
records of the last trip, but they would be beyond any outposts
and beyond contact. If anything happened, they could not call
any reinforcements. Possibly if anything happened, no one
would know what happened to them, until another expedition
found them.
But that was the price of being a soldier. You had to risk
death. As long as the risk was worth the potential gain, you
could handle it.
“ASSHOLES AND ELBOWS!” they heard one of the guys
shout on the other side of the wall. Laughter ensued.
Rei stared at the wall, an eyebrow raised.
“It’s a movie line, from the movie Aliens, from… the
eighties some time,” Lana Garcia said, hefting her rifle. She
was a short, sturdy blond, another member of one of the two
ranged squads going on the mission. Her hair looked bleached,
her one concession to vanity. “This gonna be a bug hunt,
Lieutenant?” she said, grinning.
Corrine didn’t want to be a downer but she was not much
of a joker. “Let’s hope not. Ideally, we’ll get the metal and
everything will go smoothly and no one will die.” Most of the
time, you ended up with a lot of injured but few dead. The
armor was very good and most foes uncoordinated.
But she’d never forget seeing Hannigan simply impaled by
a dropping stalagmite that turned out to have teeth and a boring
tongue.
“I see,” Rei said calmly; it was hard to tell if she approved
or disapproved of the movie or its use here.
“Let’s mourn when we’re dead,” Garcia said.
“The dead do not mourn,” Rei said. “Mourning is for the
living.” She closed her eyes and they could see her lips move.
She always did that before a mission, so far as Corrine had
observed. She waited for Rei to finish, by which time everyone
was ready; she hustled them out to meet with the guys and head
for the gate.
****************
The five squads assembled for the mission stood around
while the gate techs slowly opened Gate D, the fourth of four
gates which connected Sub-Level 12 to the Deeps, the vast
region of caverns and worked stone which lay beneath the GeoFront. Once home to now long dead aliens, it was full of
horrible Wraiths, strange and fantastic landscapes, and
wondrous treasures if you could live to get them home.
Bill Walker was huge; only Cooper was bigger than him,
but Cooper was one of the melee experts and Bill was part of the
transport squad. He could fight but he was there half to use his
strength when needed to move the Element Alpha once they had
it and half because he was trained to do repairs on the carts they
were going to have to haul it in. Bill was also there because
he’d been on the last mission to their destination. He hadn’t
been outside the secure zones since then, as he usually operated
with the squads bringing supplies to the forward perimeter
watch points.
Bill had seen Rei; everyone had seen Rei who did anything
with the Deeps. But he’d never been on a mission with her. She
looked so small and weak. He’d heard stories but never seen her
fight. On the other hand, she was the least nervous person here.
He’d heard she fought with a spear, but instead she carried a
sword of black metal. Rei was kind of creepy but the sword was
really creepy. He instinctively touched his pistol after just
looking at it, then felt stupid for doing so. It was just a sword.
“What the hell is that made of?” Montez asked; Montez,
who was from Peru, was part of the transport squad, but he was
trained as a radio tech. He had scientific pretensions. Middling
in height and build, he was very proud of his nation and his
moustache.
“Galvorn,” Rei said, turning to look at him.
“What the hell is that?” he asked.
“I am not a smith,” Rei said. “It is a sword for me to test.”
Montez frowned.
The gate lumbered open all the way, a huge vault door
which led into a… not a real airlock as there was no great air
differential, but somewhat like one. It was Walker’s
understanding that it was set up with murderholes for dealing
with invaders as a last ditch defense.
The outer gate then opened and they passed into the Deeps.
**************
Squad one, melee experts, took point with Rei in the lead.
There was only one woman in the first melee squad beyond Rei,
upper body strength was key here. They had swords and axes
with shields. Their job was to handle things bullets would not
kill.
Squad Two was armed with two grenade launchers and a
variety of guns; the weakest creatures would be mowed down by
them; most of the women in the squads were in Squad Two and
Squad Four, another ranged Unit.
Lt. Hall was in the middle with the transport experts of
Squad Three, with Squad Four behind them and Squad Five, the
second melee squad, behind them. Sgt. Cooper, who had the
most Deeps experience of anyone present beyond Rei, was in
the middle of Squad Five with a giant two-handed sword.
The first few hours were routine, lots of going up and down
staircases, through long hallways littered with traps that either
failed long ago or had been disarmed (possibly the hard way) by
previous groups, with interludes in natural caverns. The trip
between the gates and the Forward Posts was usually safe, and
everyone here had made that journey to one or more of the
Forward Posts several times; the transport squadders knew it
like the back of their hand due to hauling supplies to the
Forward Posts once or twice a week.
The five squads reached Forward Post Delta-1 at the end of
two hours of travel; this observation post guarded the transition
from Sector D-1 to D-2. Conveniently, for whatever reason, the
makers of this place had put a guard house with slaughter holes
here. The gates had been smashed from the other side originally
but now they had sturdy modern security doors. Generators
enabled lights and air circulation and it was a nice place to take
a five minute break. The men stationed here said everything
was quiet except for a swarm of cave crickets an hour earlier.
That could be chance or it might mean they were fleeing
something. “Rei?” Lt. Hall asked.
Rei stood still and let her mind drift into the world beyond
the world, the realm where dreams existed; probably the dreams
of cave crickets would be useless to her, but perhaps they would
leave some trace which would illuminate affairs.
Nothing; the dreams of the men here had drowned out any
traces the crickets might have left. Regretfully, she returned
fully to the waking world.
“Nothing,” she said apologetically.
“Well, let’s go forward,” Lt. Hall said, shaking her head.
She looked disappointed and Rei felt regretful she had nothing
more to share. The units now moved out.
Sector D-2 was wet and cold; there was a carved flat path,
designed to look like interlocking diamond shapes, but once you
left it, it was full of limestone with misshapen green walls and
stalagtites and stalagmites like jagged fangs as if you were
crawling into a beast’s mouth. There was a small bridge over a
stream full of albino fish and nearby, a waterfall thundered
down over weirdly shaped strands of rock deposited by the flow,
slowly forcing it to bulge out more and more.
Lt. Hall frowned at the stalactites and stalagmites. “Watch
out; lots of creatures like to use these natural formations to hide
inside and then burst out or fall on you and kill.”
Rei felt them out, searching for minds, while everyone
waited and kept watch. This would take a while.
Montez now studied the bulging rockflow which deformed
the waterfall. “Hmm, I bet that thing will eventually bury the
bridge.”
“This world will end before that,” Rei said calmly.
He frowned. “It won’t take that long. Just trying to
remember how long it takes for stalagmites to grow.”
Everyone looked at Rei, who usually seemed to know
everything.
“Far too long,” she said, her gaze still clouded.
“Don’t distract her,” Lt. Hall snapped at Montez, who shut
up, frowning. He now started to reach for his pocket, then
sighed and just leaned on the cart he was helping to push.
Thankfully, someone had oiled them all so they weren’t
squeaking.
“Nothing in this cavern,” Rei said.
Lt. Hall now sent Squad 1 to cross the bridge with Squad 2
covering them. Rei led the way as Hall eyed the rock
formations. Rei wasn’t omniscient, though she was rarely
wrong when it came to this sort of thing if she had time to
concentrate.
The road led up out of the cavern into another similar one;
the surface of the road was now carved to resemble interlocking
axe-blades. “Someone had too much time on their hands,” Rice
said, looking at the surface.
“And so do you; eyes forward,” Lt. Hall said.
“They loved to work in things permanent, trying to make
something eternal in a world which fades,” Rei said sadly, eyes
darting about as they moved forward, lights on helmets
illuminating the forward path.
“Everything dies,” Lt. Hall said, and sighed. “Come on,
everyone. We’ve a long ways to go.”
She made them hustle for a while; best to save time now
while they faced no opposition. They hustled down the path
through endless limestone, passing some side paths. They
stopped at one intersection which actually had tables to sit at,
though it was scaled for really short people. The side path
which crossed their route was engraved with fancy diamond
shapes, each of which had runes embossed into it. This was a
fancier version of how the road had been earlier today. Each
block had three runes carved onto it and there were a dozen or
so repeating blocks. No one knew what any of them meant,
though she had Montez make rubbings of the distinctive ones to
add to NERV’s supply of rubbings of runes.
“It probably says ‘This road sponsored by Blagal Co,’”
Chang said. He was short and slender but quick with his head
shaved; she hadn’t seen anyone else Chinese who shaved their
head completely.
Everyone laughed and they drank bottled water and talked
quietly while Squad four kept watch. Everything was still quiet;
they hadn’t seen anything beyond cave crickets and blind fish.
Rei listened to the conversation without joining in; her
mind was busy feeling out the world of dreams and trying to
sense any lurking minds; the dreaming was heavily frayed here,
nearly faded away, with only a few fragments of ancient dreams
remaining and a handful of dreams of the dumb animals which
formed the base of the animate levels of the food chain.
Lars would still be awake, and likely fretting. He always
worried, even though he knew that in the worst case, she would
return anyway. She’d tried to tell him this but it never quite
sank in.
She was the one who had to worry about him; life was
fragile and if he died, she would not see him again, unless the
prophecies were true, and even then, it was no guarantee she
could find him.
Her mind flicked through all of those on the mission; she
knew their names and faces and fragments of information about
each of them but she didn’t know them well. Not like she knew
Mother or Lars or Commander Katsuragi. She was too young to
really do things like go to bars with them; she knew them
through duty and through their shared missions and the bits of
personal life which surfaced.
The same for most of her classmates. Names, faces, pieces
of information but she knew few of them as a whole. It
suddenly hit her that she actually probably knew Sarkowski the
best after Lars for all that he sometimes aggravated her. She
knew his dreams and his hopes and his flaws and his past. And
the future he hoped for.
It was such a normal dream. Nothing high and noble in
it… but nothing really bad, either. If there was anything of the
high and noble ancestors of men in Kevin, it hid well from Rei.
As it stood, though, it seemed likely his career would be brief if
it happened at all; total war would come soon, and then dreams
such as his would have to be put aside.
Rei hoped for herself to have a chance to follow Mother’s
path, but she feared war would dominate her destiny. And it
was unlikely she would meet whoever was meant for her until
the apocalypse; to love a human was to become part of a tragedy
for an Eldar. Even if her body sometimes had stray thoughts of
its own.
Like Ikari, which it liked to look at. Other boys too were
pleasing to the eye at times until she forced her mind and body
to obey as an Eldar’s body should. She had little time for a
boyfriend, anyway.
“Is something wrong?” Rice asked Rei, looking worried.
“We are in no immediate danger. I was just thinking of
school related matters,” Rei said.
“I don’t know how you juggle this and school,” Walker
said. “And being a pilot, too.” He shook his head, then chugged
the rest of his bottle of water and put it down.
“The main duty of pilots has not yet begun and we hope to
have some years to train and build more Rangers,” Rei said, now
sipping some water from a bottle. It was easy to forget, as she
could control her thirst. Sometimes perhaps too much so.
There was a spurt of gunfire and everyone leaped to their
feet. A strange two-headed albino, hairless dog-like creature
was now dead; the sentries, not recognizing the species, had shot
it just to be sure.
“Time to move on,” Lt. Hall said, rising.
They now moved out.
**************
Oddly, it was kind of a relief when the first attack
happened. Every trip beyond the perimeter defenses led to
combat; sometimes things somehow even got inside the
supposedly secured perimeter. Something happened which
surprised everyone; Rei’s sword began to glow softly, silver and
gold rippling back and forth along the blade, matching the
pendant which she always wore. Rei tensed and so did everyone
else, looking around warily as they made their way through
another flowstone cavern, a forest of stone teeth stretching down
and up, piled up by endless dripping water; the air was cool and
humid and even Rei’s blade had moisture on it.
Lt. Hall felt the urge to just order someone to fire a grenade
launcher and see what came out to play but she resisted it, trying
to keep every stalactite in sight as the road wove its way through
the caravan, dodging around ancient pillars; in places, the
stalagmites and stalactites were fused together by long dripping.
“Rubble,” Walker said, sweeping a hand-held flashlight to
show the broken remains of a stalactite by the side of the road,
shattered limestone fragments mixed with bones of a large
lizard.
There was a cracking sound and now a stalactite somehow
launched itself down at an angle at Rice as she walked along,
rifle in hand, part of Squad 2. Rei had begun to move even as
Walker spoke, shoving Rice out of the way and turning back to
the stalactite. As it broke open, those closest to it felt a wave of
horror press upon them, fear trying to paralyze their limbs. A
mottled mess of dark green, purple and black flesh rose out of it,
a tubular form with a huge maw at one end and a dozen long
legs. As it rose, long bone spikes which had been folded back
against its compacted legs now came out. Slime dripped off it,
staining the ground.
Squad three began to retreat instinctively, with Squad four
trying to move to get a clean shot and Squad five still holding its
ground. Squad one tried to muster the will to close on it, while
Squad two began to scatter in a panic.
“Squad one, close on it,” Lt. Hall ordered. “Squad two,
rally by Parker and watch for more of these bastars. Squad
three, retreat in an orderly fashion!”
Legs lashed out at Rei and her sword whistled through the
air and two of the legs were cut in half, bone spurs flying past
her. She advanced and it retreated and turned, trying to strike at
her. As she fought it, her pendant shone brightly and Squads
one and two regained their courage and their order. Soon,
Squad one was harrying the creature, preventing escape as Rei
began to hack it to pieces.
Once it was legless, one of the heavy weapons men from
Squad Two moved in and flame-throwered it until it burned to
death; it smelled like burning garbage and everyone gagged.
“It really is going to be a bug hunt,” Chang said; he was a
Chinese member of Squad One, armed with a battle axe. He
laughed softly and several others laughed as well.
Rei began to carefully clean her sword as did the other
members of Squad One. Rice came over to her. “Thanks, Rei.”
“Battle sisters must watch out for each other,” Rei said
solemnly, then turned back to her work.
************
After that, Hall moved more carefully, letting Rei feel
things out. However she did it. They encountered two more of
the damn things in the next hour, then passed a flagged
checkpoint, currently unoccupied, and passed down a staircase,
then down a long tunnel. Getting the Element Alpha up that
staircase was going to be a bitch, but there was no other mapped
way to where they needed to go.
Tunnel after tunnel, sector by sector. They passed through a
very nice set of apartments; the furniture remained, though the
softer elements were long gone. But the walls were carved with
pictures of the inhabitants, stocky humans with a lot of hair,
especially giant beards. Some wore armor, others dressed in
more casual clothing of medieval style; a common motif was
travelling cloaked hoods with the fringes of the cloak and hood
elaborately embroidered in repeating geometric patterns. In
places, traces of paint stuck to what was now grey or white or
green stone.
They could hardly see a surface without decorating it; the
labor must have been immense, Hall thought. And now it was all
long abandoned. But so much of it was in good shape.
What happened?
They had to gun down some albino crocodile like creatures
at a bridge and cross a forest of knee-high fungi, green with red
and purple mottled tops with a narrow path wending through it.
The ceiling was dotted with glowing crystals and if you studied
it, you realized it was a fake night sky. They lit everything with
a faint silver sheen.
Montez studied it thoughtfully until he bumped the cart into
another one and Walker shoved his head down and got him
moving forward again.
The worst creatures were too big for the underbrush here,
but they watched it carefully; several times, Hall ordered the
flamethrower carriers to simply burn it away when it got too
close to the path, now carved into great interlocking spirals.
They camped near a waterfall; it smelled terrible and was
yellowish in color; sulfur, according to Montez. They had selfheating rations. How they worked, even Montez didn’t know but
the ability to have warm food was comforting.
They pressed on to another checkpoint, another set of
apartments, where they would camp for the night with rotating
guards. Things had been so quiet that everyone was on edge. On
the other hand, no one was seriously injured, either.
Tomorrow, however, was the killer. She’d been briefed on
the last mission down here. They were going to have to pass
where the Wraith had lived which had mauled that expedition on
its return trip. Hopefully, it was, in fact dead, and hadn’t just
been driven off by Berg’s sacrifice.
And didn’t have any relatives.
Lt. Hall ate her dinner, trying to decide whether to go ahead
and send someone to scout ahead or not. She didn’t want to
risk losing anyone, but conversely, there was no point in hauling
those carts up to be destroyed either. The creature which had
lived at the bridge ahead could easily wreck them.
Best to scout, she decided. She didn’t want to go into this
encounter not knowing if it was an encounter.
“Rei,” she said.
Rei looked up from her food. “Yes, Lieutenant?”
“Is there any way you can feel out the place where the
encounter took place last April from a distance?” Lt. Hall asked.
“I can try,” Rei said. “I would need to get closer but I
could try to sense the mind of anything powerful enough for us
to worry about, once close enough.”
Lt. Hall wondered again exactly how Rei could sense
minds. But she’d seen it. “But you didn’t sense the creature in
the stalactite.”
“Not until very close; its shell blocked me,” Rei said. She
frowned. “I am sorry, sir.”
In the morning, we scout, Lt. Hall decided. She set the
guard pattern for the night and soon laid down to get some sleep.
************
Rei walked through an only slightly distorted version of the
campsite; the presence of so many intelligent minds had greatly
strengthened the world of dreams here, which in much of the
Deeps was very flimsy. It was still weak compared to places
like the Geo-Front, though.
Thankfully, this also meant the world of dreams should be
fairly safe here.
Takashi was thrashing; it was a nightmare. She would not
invade his privacy, but she sat by him and sang a calming song
and slowly his nightmare faded.
There were no wandering nightmares here, which didn’t
surprise her. Even if the creature had survived Berg’s attack on
it, even if it could do as she did, it would be unlikely to come
this far.
It seemed likely nothing would happen tonight and that was
good.
She felt the tiniest hint of a whisper of her name. Lars.
Too far away to reach her in dreams. But not so far she didn’t
notice at all.
“Lars,” she said softly, then felt a pang of guilt. He was
probably sailing in a circle in his sleep as he usually did during
these missions.
“Rei,” came a whisper. Not Lars but a woman. She looked
around but could not see its source.
“Rei,” came the whisper again.
The voice was familiar but she couldn’t place it.
Which probably meant a dream predator. She drew her
sword and turned slowly. “Show yourself!”
There was only silence.
Rei frowned and withdrew, waking Lt. Hall, then explained
the situation.
Lt. Hall stared at her, then frowned. “So wake everyone
up?”
“It should pass if everyone is awake,” Rei said.
No one was happy about staying awake, but while there
was grumbling, people did it. Fairly soon, whatever it had been
passed on without a trace, and they slept again, if fitfully.
**************
They pressed on down a sloping road; hauling the carts up
this was going to be a huge pain. It switched back and forth
several times down the side of a huge crevasse that plunged
deep into darkness out of sight; part way down there was a
bridge, connecting the sloping road to another on on the far side,
but they kept going and then went through an arch into a long
tunnel carved with art of stout, sturdy bearded men hauling ore
carts or leading mules hauling such.
The air was thick and everyone felt jumpy. But then things
started to change, the air remained oppressive, perhaps grew
even more so, but everyone felt more vigorous. Rei felt
everyone’s mind more strongly than before and they
instinctively sped up, hustling at a faster speed without even a
command given.
“Sir, something strange is going on,” Rei said. “It feels
easier to use my abilities. I don’t know what the cause is. It
reminds me of HALO’s effects but it doesn’t feel like HALO.”
Lt. Hall frowned. “Could it be some sort of… equivalent
for our enemies?”
Rei said, “If it is, it may be the sign of a new Wraith. But
while the old report mentioned the oppressive sensation, they
had a harder time doing anything due to the creature’s malice.”
Lt. Hall rubbed her forehead. They were fairly close to the
bridge now. The thing had lived in a huge pool of water at the
base of another water fall; a bridge crossed the pool and it ate
anything trying to cross. It was physically like a giant squid,
more or less. It ate Berg and she killed it from the inside. Or so
the expedition reported, anyway.
Before she could make up her mind, one of the members of
Squad One shouted, “Greys!”
It was a small group of them; they were mostly human in
shape, but their skin was the color of granite, with red eyes and
battered chainmail armor and vicious hooked swords. Greys
were very dangerous in hand-to-hand combat, but this made it
important not to allow them the chance. They were silent and
good at hiding but once they hit the fringe of Squad One’s light
sources, Squad Two opened fire on them for as long as they
could. Half of the seven Greys died in a hail of bullets, leaving
only three to take on Rei and a ten person squad armed to kill
tougher creatures.
More precisely, it left three to flee into the darkness.
“Don’t follow,” Lt. Hall said. The Greys loved to lure you into
traps.
They would advance slowly and cautiously and hope there
were not more of the damn aliens. Why they were down here
was classified and a topic of much debate among the men. But
they were clearly intelligent but highly malicious and dangerous.
At least they didn’t have any Ogres, Lt. Hall thought. Only
heavy weapons and the special gear of the melee soldiers could
stop an Ogre. But generally, at least one person died when they
showed up, unless you got lucky.
There were no more Grey attacks, and Lt. Hall began to fret
that she’d erred and now they’d come back with a damn army.
But nothing to do but press on for now.
***************
Rei felt her senses getting keener; this was not very
pleasant in a place that smelled terrible. Also, incidental noises
like the footfalls of her fifty companions were hard to drown
out.
The oppressiveness of the air mostly faded, though it was
pretty intensely humid. At times, the walls flickered with light.
The tunnel kept alternating between fully worked and just a
worked road through natural caves.
Then the roar started; after a few minutes of tension, they
realized it was just a waterfall, and now they began to speed up
more. Everyone felt vigorous and it was easy to run. Rei felt
nervous but couldn’t figure out why.
Hall said, “Walker, it wasn’t like this, right?”
He frowned. “No, it was very oppressive and then that
damn monster showed up and kicked our asses but good because
we were all terrified by its mind attacks.” He grimaced at the
memory. “I still have scars.”
There was a shape, on the ground, a Grey, recently dead
with its flesh burned and its armor melted at various points,
mostly on its front. One of the transport squad, Casimir, studied
the body; he was trained as a medic even if he was pushing carts
right now. “It looks like acid to me.”
Acid, Hall thought. Delightful. “Okay, we go very
cautiously.”
There was no sign of acid but the cavern of the bridge was
slick with moisture that glowed softly, not as brightly as Halo
but you could see here dimly without any other light source.
The water in the waterfall, plunging fifty meters from a very
high ceiling, did not glow but the pool at the base of the
waterfall shone like HALO itself, shifting gently from silver to
gold and back, and the bridge over the pool shone softly from a
layer of moisture.
Walker said, “What the fuck?” He stared.
The pool opened into a stream that carried away the
glowing water. The water was not as bright as the HALO in
Rei’s pendant but it was evocative of it.
“Maybe this is what burned the Grey,” Montez said.
“Rei?” Lt. Hall asked tensely.
“Do not touch it, and under no condition enter the pool. It
is not safe for you,” Rei said. She frowned, studying the room.
Then she shifted her sight to look beyond the veil. Vivid,
powerful dreams clustered here. The liquid fueled them as did
the powerful memories of the survivors of the battle here.
There was something, at the heart of the pool. A fighting
knife, NERV issue. But it was a dream and a reality at once,
like the sword she bore. In seeing it, she knew it, the knife
which had slain the Wraith which had lurked here.
It called to her, begged her to take it. It was meant for the
heir of Rachel Berg, its master, for Olga. To protect her as her
mother had died protecting her. It held a little piece of Rachel
within it, born of her desperate need.
Rei could see it now with her special sight, the Wraith
pulling Rachel down, its excessive eagerness to devour her, to
trap her within its inner darkness and slowly enjoy her torment.
It had shown her how it would grow and one day come forth and
destroy the Geo-Front, destroying everything she ever loved,
while she would remain trapped inside it, watching it being
destroyed, for it would swallow not just her flesh but her very
soul.
But a parent’s love is a powerful thing, and so while her
flesh endured, she had swam through its darkness and hacked
her way through the walls of its stomach and stroke home into
its brain. Its form had many benefits, but squid should not eat
prey which can hold on and fight back. Her desperate love for
her husband and child had driven her and…
And…
Rei’s breath sped up.
“Rei, what’s wrong?” Lt. Hall asked tensely but Rei barely
heard her.
Her willingness to die to protect them had given her blade
strength, enabled it to slice shadow-flesh like a knife through
velvet, and when light met darkness inside the brain, its hate
became an acid for the consumption of its own flesh, and the
creature had burned away, agonized, like the Grey. The
arrogant Wraith Harguklak had died, howling in outrage, and
there had been soft, mocking laughter, barely audible, and then
only light.
The laughter bothered her; it was neither Rachel nor
Harguklak, yet no other being had been present when Harguklak
had perished, cast back into the Void. Who had been laughing?
There was no presence of evil here now except the faint vestiges
confined with the dreams and nightmares people had of this
place.
Rei decided to worry about it later. She knew what she
must do. “We must sing,” she said, half-opening her eyes.
“Sing?” Garcia said, staring at her.
“Most of us are not great singers,” Lt. Hall said.
Experience showed that however odd Rei’s requests might be,
she knew what she was doing.
“Like at the gate back in February?” Rice asked.
“A different song, but yes,” Rei said. “I will lead you.”
Her voice was beautiful and it had an unaccustomed
warmth to it which surprised them, full of sorrow and loss, but
also of joy at a companion’s triumph. The words were strange
to them, but the more they sang, the brighter the water shone and
now Rei strode forwards towards the pool.
Lt. Hall sang but felt herself get tenser and tenser, but then
she stared as Rei walked out onto the surface of the water. The
water gently rippled and her reflection shifted as the waves of
silver and gold washed across it. She held out her hand and the
water spiraled up around her, and with it came a shining blade, a
NERV combat knife but with odd runes on it, in silver on one
side and gold on the other.
“I hight thee Amillemique,” Rei said softly. “I will ensure
that you are taken to your rightful master.” She then stowed the
blade on her belt and walked off the water, singing, while the
soldiers sang on, staring.
The glow in the water grew brighter as they sang, and they
felt strength flow into their veins. The urge to go forward came
upon them urgently, the need to act.
The song was over but now they glowed. “Do not be
afraid,” Rei said. “Her strength protects us. We should go, and
go swiftly.”
Lt. Hall nodded. “Move out!”
They ran like they had never run before.
**************
Hikari had her game face on, smiling confidently as she
knocked on the door of the Suzuhara family. They lived on the
third floor of yet another of the apartment and condo complexes
set into the walls of the Geofront, which rested in a depression
surrounded by cliffs. These cliffs were now full of (allegedly)
retractable housing for the safety of the residents during a battle.
Touji came to the door in green trunks. “Hey,” he said.
“Who’s there?” another girl shouted.
“It’s Horaki Hikari, the class rep. Giving her a swimming
lesson!” he shouted.
Hikari could see only the arms of whoever it was, but she
now came curiously to the door; she had Japanese features but
long blond hair, and she wore a Geo-Front Treekeepers Tennis
team shirt in blue and black with blue jeans. “Hi, I’m Tom’s
sister, Ingrid.”
“Dammit, sis, don’t call me Tom,” Touji said irritably.
“You can change your name but if I did take a German name, it
wouldn’t be TOM,” he continued. “I don’t want to be named
after a train.”
“Train?” Hikari asked weakly.
“Don’t ask,” Touji said. “Kid’s show thing.”
“I didn’t name you after the train!,” Ingrid protested.
“I’m happy with the name I got from our parents,” Touji
said. “You want to pretend you’re German, that’s your thing.
Don’t drag me into it. I’m in enough trouble already,” he said,
rubbing one of his temples.
“Hilary, that’s it!” Ingrid said excitedly. “You’re Hilary,”
she said to Hikari.
“…” Hikari stared at her.
“Enough! Go drag nag race your friends,” Touji said.
“Do what?” Ingrid said, but Touji was now dragging Hikari
down the walkway and down the stairs.
“She had trouble adjusting last year, but when her hair
finished changing, she went crazy or something,” Touji said,
sighing and shaking his head as he pulled Hikari along.
“Anyway, she insists on being Ingrid now and is totally trying to
be as German as possible. She’s always been kind of contrary
but this takes the cake.”
“Hilary isn’t a German name, I think,” Hikari said, trying
to keep up as Touji pulled her along.
“Anyway, you need to strip and we can get in the pool,” he
said.
She put her bag on one of the lounge chairs at the
apartment pool, which had a fair number of people in it. Then
she took off her blouse and skirt, revealing a blue one-piece
covered with orange clouds.
“My dad’s an accountant for NERV; he’s in… Logistics, I
think,” Touji said. “Mom’s dead, unfortunately. One sister,
she’s a loon. How about you?” He put his towel on the back of
the chair with Hikari’s bag.
Hikari jumped nervously. “I… what?”
“I… umm…” Now he was nervous. “We don’t really
know each other well, so… family, right?” He rubbed his
temple nervously.
Hikari didn’t want to talk about family when her father was
so low-class. Especially since Touji had a respectable… father,
anyway.
“Father travels a lot for NERV, so I have the house to
myself,” she said nervously. It was true. Technically.
“Cool. Ingrid would probably try to build a shrine to the
Kaiser or something if Dad left us alone much,” he said ruefully.
“I can see why you’re so responsible. Okay, let’s stretch.”
Stretching exercises she could handle, even if people
stared. It was all easy stuff, really. Especially smiling this
much. “You think I’m responsible?” she said, smiling goofily.
He glanced at her. “You are the class representative,” he
said. “I couldn’t do that. I get in too much trouble.”
“If you didn’t get in fights with Berg all the time, you’d be
fine,” she said as she stretched up and left.
“She’s a crazy violent maniac,” Touji said, frowning.
“Who starts fights for no reason.”
Her continued efforts at reasoned persuasion bore little fruit
but she forgot about it once they got in the water; the air was
warm, the water was cool and distantly, she could hear the cry
of… was that really an eagle?
She tread water and pointed up to Touji. “Look!”
Touji looked up. “I don’t see… oh! Is that an Eagle?”
“I didn’t think Germany had them roaming free,” Hikari
said. But it cheered her to see it. It gave her the feeling
someone was watching over them, a relief when she was so used
to watching over herself.
“Dude, if you don’t do something fun, you will go crazy,”
Kevin said nearby. “Get in the damn water, you know you like
it.”
“I’m not in the mood,” Lars said gloomily.
Hikari saw Kevin and totally didn’t know what to do or
say. She’d seen him at school but minimized contact out of
embarrassment. Kissing him had felt very good, but he
wasn’t… she didn’t… She was here with Suzuhara!
“Hey, guys, you wanna come swim?” Touji said to them.
“Hi, Hikari,” Kevin said with that bright smile which made
her brain freeze.
“Hi, Kevin,” she said weakly.
Touji gave her an odd look.
Ack. But everyone used the first names here, but she
knew… Japan… eeeee. Hikari felt her brain melt.
“Touji, we have to throw Lars in for his own good,” Kevin
said. Kevin was down to just trunks already but Lars was still
wearing a shirt.
“Don’t force him,” Hikari said commandingly. “It’s only
natural for him to worry about Ayanami.”
“I’m not in the mood for fun,” Lars said, sitting down on a
lounge chair, sideways instead of settling into it.
“You need to get your mind off it,” Kevin said, then sighed.
“C’mon, man, you know Rei knows her stuff. She’s probably
hacking off werewolf heads right now.”
Hikari shivered. “Is it just me or is it kind of creepy
knowing there are creatures like that roaming around?”
“I think this is the first time they found one that wasn’t
underground,” Touji said hesitantly, then looked at Lars.
“Most Wraiths can’t stand sunlight,” Lars said. “That’s
what Rei told me.”
Hikari felt bad for Rei suddenly, down in the dark with a
bunch of rough soldiers, doing who knows what, against
monsters that might come out of the darkness at any time. She’s
no older than me, Hikari thought. But she has the weight of the
world on her shoulders. She suddenly felt very small and
insignificant. What did all this matter when some people her
age had to risk death, while she was here, safe?
She could tell they all felt this as they looked
uncomfortably at each other, suddenly feeling the weight of
what Rei did in their stead.
Then Kensuke came up to them. “We having a pool
party?” he said hopefully. “We need more women, though.”
“Discussing Rei’s mission, what little we know,” Hikari
said, frowning at him.
“I wish I was there. I’d kick some ass,” Kensuke said. He
mimed stabbing things. “I rock at Heroes of Lankhmar.”
“It’s not a VIDEO GAME,” Lars said, suddenly looming
over Kensuke, looking angry. “She could die! You would be
eaten up and shat out in ten minutes by the crazy shit that lives
down there!”
“Back off,” Touji said, stepping up to shield Kensuke, who
stumbled back, landing on his ass on a lounge chair. “I ain’t
gonna let you kick his ass for just talkin’.”
Hikari now stepped in and pushed Touji and Lars back.
“No fighting,” she said sternly. “We’re all on the same side,
right?”
There was a distant cry of the eagle and they all looked up.
“Ayanami’s watching over us, just like that eagle. Let’s not
disappoint her by coming back to find everyone in the hospital.”
Hikari lowered her arms. “Aida, it’s good of you to want to
help. Lars, he didn’t mean anything bad by it. Someone our age
shouldn’t have to do what she does.”
Lars looked at the ground, didn’t find what he wanted and
just idly swung his foot around. “Sorry, man,” he mumbled.
“But it’s sweet of you to care,” Hikari said to him, then
kissed his cheek without even thinking about it. “I’m sure
Ayanami worries about you even if she’s in danger.”
“That’s the part that makes me feel the most guilty,” he
mumbled. “She goes off to get cut up and tells me to be careful
I don’t overdo it without her here to practice with me.”
“I can come swim with you,” Kevin said. “Even if I hate
getting up that early.” He clapped Lars on the back.
“Explaining Hikari kissed you, you’re on your own for that.”
“It was just a friendly consolation kiss! I wouldn’t make a
move on someone with a boyfriend. GIRLFRIEND,” Hikari
said, starting to come unglued with panic.
“If you kiss all of us, it won’t matter,” Kevin said, deadpan.
That really left her no choice, though now she was
incredibly embarrassed and worried people noticed and would
tell everyone. And then she’d be teased and everyone would
think she was like her father.
I am nothing like my father, she thought urgently as she
kissed each of them on the cheek.
A kiss on the cheek didn’t matter, she told herself
nervously. No one will care.
Kevin said, “Anyway, Lars, c’mon, give it a try. You know
you’ll feel better.”
Soon, they were swimming together and having fun, the
shadow of death banished for now.
**************
Walker was stunned; what should have taken six hours had
taken three. They’d passed two walls which had been very hard
for the expedition he’d been on to open. Rei had opened them
with a minute of song.
He was rather worried that this HALO exposure… or
whatever it was… would have bad effects. He knew HALO
could be dangerous to some people, though he didn’t really
understand it.
But he felt incredible, like he was a kid again. Better than
when he’d been a kid. How could they move so fast in their
gear?
But here they were in the vault, loading ingots into carts.
How this could be enough, he didn’t understand. Rangers were
huge. They could make a lot of armor or weapons but how
could this be enough for Ranger armor?
But that wasn’t his worry right now. Load the carts and
move out.
“Trouble,” one of the sentries said.
They heard drums beating, and then the giant carnivorous
lizards stormed into a hail of gunfire and died in droves. A few
got through and one managed to bite Dubois, but they couldn’t
stand up to modern weaponry, unlike some creatures, thankfully.
They were only about the size of dogs. Vicious but the armor
largely stopped them penetrating flesh and they died as easily as
dogs.
But they didn’t come on in a wave of thirty naturally.
They were a softening attack, meant to test the group’s strength,
driven at them by the Greys, who liked to herd the stupider
creatures before them.
They finished loading the carts, then came out of the vault
and sealed it, then moved forward, knowing there was likely an
ambush somewhere ahead, but not knowing the geography of
the area well enough to go around. They were a long ways
down.
Worse, no ambush came, just the periodic beating of
drums, echoing down side tunnels.
“They will break the bridge,” Rei said.
Lt. Hall touched her forehead and cheek in frustration. “If
we leave this route, we may get very lost. And there’s no way to
send for reinforcements.”
She decided they would just have to push through as best
they could, putting out a few scouts with infrared goggles to
hopefully spot any ambushes before they walked into them.
Then they got moving.
***************
They fended off three more forces of carnivorous giant
lizards, mowed down an unfortunate force of Greys, and
managed to blow up a single Ogre who decided to charge them
all by himself down a long, straight hallway.
They got as far as the switchback road upwards, only to
find that there were hundreds of Greys, armed with bows and
Ogres armed with very large rocks. Some quick skirmishing
showed they couldn’t deploy effectively to bring their strength
to bear without basically all becoming targets, so they pulled
back out of missile range to either come up with a plan or an
alternate route.
The armor could generally fend off the arrows, but the
rocks were another question. Further, with so many Greys, the
odds of someone getting lucky increased.
They hadn’t lost anyone yet and Lt. Hall didn’t want to lose
any more people than she had to.
Distantly, they could hear the hooting and howling of the
Greys and the Ogres; they didn’t know the words but it sounded
mocking.
“Rei, can you find us another way out?” Lt. Hall asked her.
“I can try,” Rei said. “But it may take too long. The way
we need to go, ultimately, is that way,” she said, pointing at an
angle towards one of the walls. “Knowing that, I can try and
navigate us.”
“Risky as it is, we will have to try, before they fence us in,”
Lt. Hall said.
They backed up and headed off down a side path, hoping
this would eventually let them get where they were going,
following Rei’s lead.
***************
“Cut this and mount it in this setting to this design,”
Commander Ikari said to Kameko; she had not expected him to
meet her in her parents’ garage. But that’s where her father’s
tools were. He had a ton of tools for handyman stuff, but they
were not ideal for doing jewelrywork. She had a few of her own
but it was a hobby and she’d never been so fancy and…
This was a huge diamond.
A diamond!
Crude, uncut, but a diamond.
“I’m just an amateur,” she said hesitantly.
“I can go back to Germany if you can’t handle this,” he
said flatly.
She frowned. “I’ll do it.”
Worse than trying to do the precision work with imperfect
tools was having him hanging over her, making judgemental
throat noises. She couldn’t get into the mindset all her best
work, gems or homework, came from. Where she worked
without the cacophony of her own thoughts undercutting her.
She studied the notes and the gem and frowned. It wasn’t a
good design for this stone; by the time she got one dimension
down right, the others wouldn’t quite work. Not without a
degree of fine control she couldn’t do with hand tools in a
garage.
Further, she didn’t like the style of the ring. Silver and
gold were not simple replacements for each other and this design
came from gold but he’d given her silver.
So she sketched out a better design and he made the throat
noise. She frowned and stared at him, but the glasses hid his
eyes.
She worked long hours until the gold was now twisted like
a braided rope and the gem was cut into an octagon with facets
climbing up to a smaller octagon facet, set into the braided gold.
It was different but better and the ring caught the light nicely.
When she held her own ring near it, the tiny silver and gold light
in the gem reflected and refracted nicely through the new ring.
“Here you go,” she said to him.
“This isn’t what I told you to make,” he said calmly to her.
“It’s better. Your design was inadequate to the materials.”
He stared at her and she stumbled back a step, feeling the
weight of his stare literally. She nearly fell down from shock
and she could feel his disdain for her work. “You didn’t follow
orders,” he said. “I cannot use someone disobedient.”
She’d heard that from her parents a lot, when not fighting
with each other. They were always disappointed in her, and…
Shinji smiled at her. Unlike them. He was gentle and kind and
cared about her.
“Your orders were bad, like the way you treat Shinji,” she
snapped, then suddenly realized this would probably anger him
more. But she didn’t care. “He wants to see you but you won’t
see him!”
“That is none of your business,” he said. “You are too
much a child to understand.”
She got that a lot too, and she was sick of it. She’d never
been able to stand up to her parents, but she had to stand up to
Ikari-san. As if she couldn’t handle him, she’d never see Shinji
again. She could sense it.
“I’m his girlfriend, of course it’s my business!” Kameko
said angrily. She drew herself up and tried to look strong,
knowing she was faking it. “You’re running away from him!”
she said angrily, pointing at him. “He just wants you to be his
father! Why is that so wrong?”
“I don’t want him there. It’s too dangerous,” Ikari said to
her, arms folded. He advanced and she stepped back, and then
he snorted. “And you won’t be able to handle it either, if you
can’t face me.”
She could remember her mother drunk and shouting at her
for not vaccuming the living room… after yelling at her for not
getting her homework done, so she’d stopped cleaning and went
to do homework. Her father out cruising in his car instead of
being home with them. One of her classmates telling her that
she would never be pretty and no boy would ever like her.
It was all there and more in his contempt for her, a boring
little teenager in a tiny town in the backwards part of Japan,
someone going nowhere and doing nothing. Shinji probably had
a German girlfriend by now, some big blond woman. She’d
never see him again.
In the kind of show she favored, her love for Shinji would
have sustained her, but she and Shinji barely knew each other.
Their love was a surge of hormones and hope, and in the face of
Ikari’s contempt, it seemed so fragile, like everything in her life.
Only her grades were consistently good. They held her together.
But he cared nothing for that, not for her skills she was so proud
in. The thing which carried her through everything else did not
avail.
What was left?
In the face of the shadow of Darkness, how does one stand?
In a world of no guarantees, what do you believe in? For in the
end, all things made by men crumble, great and small. There is
no eternity in this world. Death waits at the end of every story,
spoken or unspoken.
Kameko was a small person, a no one in the greater scheme
of things, no figure of prophecy, no great lineage, no great
wealth, brilliant in some skills but so was her whole generation.
How could such as herself overcome the will of the mighty?
She saw in his eyes, the Wall of Night, and glimpsed what
laid beyond, what waited for her on this path. If she went to the
Geofront, it was quite possible she would die and most certainly,
she would face the coming storm. Was Shinji worth it?
For she saw too in his eyes the wreckage of so many
dreams of love, the knowledge that so many loves fail and even
the enduring loves must end in death.
As his had. His wife was gone, gone beyond all the power
of a mighty one. If Kameko could not endure him, how could
she endure that one day? *If* that day ever came, and it was a
mighty if. This was no love born of prophecy, destiny, or fate.
No guarantees. If she opened the door, there was no turning
back.
The river might lead her to foreign shores or it might drown
her. For a moment, she saw a boat floating down a great river
and in it lay a dead prince; he had left on a mighty quest to save
his homeland, yet in the end, he found only death and his line
passed from power and faded. And he had been a great prince,
guided by dreams and omens, raised to greatness by training and
blood.
She was a teenage Japanese girl like so many others. Big
dreams but little but hope and a talent or two to fuel them. So
many dreams died, how could she think hers would be special?
It wasn’t contempt, just realism. A bitter sorrow and
cynicism born of pain, yet enough kindness remained to wish to
deter her from shattering herself on what could not be. They
would probably break up in less than a year and then what
would she have? If she went for Shinji, what happens if that
ends? As it probably would. And even if it didn’t… the end
must eventually come.
And one of them would have to go on without the other.
His ring blazed, not with light but with the force of his
personality, making him more than just himself. Making him
great. As Asuka’s ring heightened her fire, as Ayanami’s ring
heightened her grace. They were art, but it was an art that held
power. As her ring, made with her love of her work, now held a
tiny flicker of the light of Ayanami’s pendant.
If she could make this ring, capture a touch of the light
without even knowing how, she could make better rings,
necklaces, other jewelry, to wield that light more potently. She
wanted that. She wanted that for herself.
She wanted to be someone great. To make a place for
herself by her skills. So people would respect her. So they
would listen to her. So it wouldn’t just be Shinji who paid
attention to her and respected her.
She could do it. She’d gotten this far without even
knowing what she aspired to, but now she knew. She wanted to
make something beautiful. She didn’t know what yet, but she
wanted to create something that would last in this world of
imperfection. She wanted respect. She wanted to be great
instead of small and she wanted to be a great maker.
She closed her eyes and gathered her strength and then she
pushed back. She would yield no more ground and she would
not give up. “You can teach me to do this, or I can find
someone else to teach me. I will learn and the only question is
whether I learn it from you or learn it from someone else.” She
held up the ring she wore and the ring she’d just made.
“Because one day, I will surpass you.” She was surprised at her
own boldness. It was half desperation and half a desire to be
stepped on no more. To push back instead of being pushed,
instead of hiding.
He pushed harder and she lost ground, stumbling back. His
mind… he hadn’t even used his full strength. Whatever he was
doing.
“Are you so sure of that?” he asked angrily. His anger was
a dangerous thing.
“Yes,” she said defiantly, not so sure as her words. But to
show weakness would only invite him to push harder. She had
to show her strength. The work of her hands comforted her,
reassured her she was doing the right thing. She could make
things. Make beauty.
This world needed beauty.
She donned the second ring she had made, one now on each
hand and held them up. “This is what I can do with little
training and few materials. Imagine what one day I can do if I
have both.” She could feel this was the right line of attack. “Do
you really want to waste this?”
She shivered, afraid she’d blown it. But she wasn’t going
to give up without a fight.
And then the anger, the contempt, the tide of emotion that
was somehow physical, all of it was gone as if it had never
happened. “It will not be easy.”
“Shinji can tell you I am a hard worker,” Kameko said.
“*If* you actually talked to him.” She was still not happy about
that, but this was a start. Her mother always said you had to get
influence first, then change people’s minds.
“Come,” he said. “We will start making the arrangements
for everything.”
****************
“You don’t think the girl is a spy for them, do you?”
Fuyutsuki said, frowning and shifting in his chair.
Gendo was busy methodically laying waste to a pile of
crackers. “It may be that Lloyd was simply trying to be helpful
sincerely. He does tend to think he can charm his way through
everything. But while I think they wanted her and Shinji here, I
can’t be sure of why. So best to put her in a position where we
can begin trying to ensure her loyalty and building closer ties to
those under our influence, not just Shinji,” Gendo said. “And
she has talents which should not be wasted. She will require
some time of adjustment due to the language barrier, however.”
He sighed. “Anyway, I will handle setting everything up.”
“And Shinji?” Fuyutsuki prompted him.
“Would have been better off out of this,” Gendo said. “I
am too busy and too inapt for parenthood.” He ate more crackers
and they sat silently for a short time as Gendo wolfed them
down. “And I could not keep our secrets if he moved in. He is
not ready for them.”
“That doesn’t mean you can’t at least say hello.”
“Not yet. He will want answers and I do not even have lies
for him, let along truths I can share,” Gendo said. “For him to
live here is enough for now. However, we do need him to start
attending school before he gets too far behind.”
“If his girlfriend trains with you but he cannot see you, it
will be trouble,” Fuyutsuki pointed out.
Gendo was used to trouble.
**************
Misato drummed her fingers, frowning. They were running
Unit-01 through an exercise, letting Asuka do weapon drills in
it, part of their ongoing efforts to ensure the pilots would be
ready to fight in them when the time came. It was expensive, so
they couldn’t do it too often; the Rangers ate electricity like
crazy from their batteries. She had asked Ritsuko why they
couldn’t just eat food, given they were biological, but apparently
they lacked true digestive organs.
The exercise was going well; Asuka knew her stuff and this
was not too hard for her, not even with Misato tried to press her
with tricky stuff.
The problem, though, was that Lt. Hall’s force was at least
six hours late and there was no way at all to know how or why.
She’d ordered out scouts to see if they could find anything
but she didn’t want to risk sending them too deep. They hadn’t
reported back yet.
She forced herself to focus on the issue at hand; there was
nothing else she could do yet.
***************
They were trying to conserve food; fortunately, there was a
ton of water they could boil in these caves. Everyone’s stomach
grumbled but they could go without food longer than water.
They were down by two people now after a clash with Ogres,
and lots of people were injured. Food was the biggest worry,
combined with the constant stress of harassing attacks.
The drums were the worst part; they signaled that trouble
was coming… except the times they didn’t, causing everyone to
tense up for no purpose. They took down a fortified enemy
position with two more grenades, a hail of bullets and some
swordwork, then found themselves in a huge fungal forest, full
of green and red and black fungi which were a good five to eight
meters tall, impossibly large, under a ceiling which glowed a
soft purple. Several streams ran through the cave and there was
only a rough worn path here, no true road.
Montez whispered to his seargeant, then said, “Lt. Hall, I
know this place.”
There was a huge wave of sighs of relief.
“The good news is I know a way back to Sector A-2 from
here. The bad news is that there’s a lot of fungi in here that
spew spores on you if you get too close and then you get sick
and possibly die. Also, there are nasty things that come eat
these, so we may encounter predators,” he said. “I am not sure
which way is which but if we stick by the walls, we should
eventually hit the exit I know.”
A lot of rock throwing and burning of fungi ensued as they
slowly made their way along the walls. Progress was slow and
Lt. Hall worried that the Greys would find them again before
they got moving forwards.
“About how long once we leave the cave?”
“About a day,” he said.
They’d have to camp again; she hoped they could camp
unmolested long enough to rest and be ready for a final push.
***************
Danielle Eida felt like a zombie. The reason was that it
was two AM, she was awake and couldn’t sleep, and her son
was stomping around the living room, somehow being far more
noisy than when he was awake. She wanted to get up and tell
him to stop but her body would neither obey orders to get up nor
go back to sleep.
Finally, she managed to stumble out of bed to the living
room. “Go to bed, Lars,” she said. “I can’t sleep with you
stomping around like you’re trying to kill the floor with your
feet.”
He was wandering around in his underwear like some kind
of savage. Like his father used to do; she wore pajamas like
decent people. She bought him some but he generally slept in
minimal clothing. He was getting too old for that.
“I can’t sleep and I can’t do anything or it’ll wake you up,”
he said.
She sighed, rubbing her forehead. “I am awake, you know.
Can’t you just read a book or something?”
“Too tired to read,” he said, then leaned on the living room
table, staring at the wall; a picture of him at age six, his mother,
and her parents, hung on the wall past the table; they were all
dressed like sailors and he was smiling brightly. Danielle
looked at it and couldn’t help but smile. It had been his
birthday, so they’d all dressed up like that at his request.
He was starting to look a lot like his father now, which
frustrated her. She’d raised him but he’d come out so much like
his father.
Which wasn’t good at all.
If the Dahl family didn’t have money, his father would
probably be starving in a gutter now. The man was lazy and too
laid back for his own good. He had never taken anything
seriously. That had appealed to her when she was too stressed
out from her own high-pressure family, but after they’d married,
it had made everything fall apart.
She’d resented her parents pushing her so hard to break out
of the bottom of society but now she was glad for it. But
pushing Lars didn’t work. He just didn’t care about his future, it
seemed.
The only thing he’d work hard on was sports but that was a
dead end run. By thirty, thirty-five, he’d have a broken body
and a wasted youth and nothing else. But she couldn’t bear to
make him give up something that made him work hard, either.
That would send the wrong message.
“You’ll drown yourself in the morning if you don’t sleep,”
she told him.
“I’m a better swimmer than that,” he said, the table
wobbling a little. They needed a new one but it cost so much
and she didn’t spend money if she could help it.
She wasn’t paid as much as that bitch Akagi, even though
she got results and Akagi pretty much was piddling around on a
bunch of projects and had INHERITED her job because of her
damn mother.
She hadn’t even bothered to have a child the normal way,
just taken someone else’s.
Danielle touched her forehead again and tried to make
herself relax. Thirty years old and I’m already on blood
pressure medication, she told herself. I’m going to die by forty
if I can’t relax a little.
At least he won’t make my mistake, she thought. Lars
seemed to not have any interest in women, unlike his father. He
and Rei were close but they were utterly chaste. It worried her a
little sometimes, but really, it was much better he wait until he
was older. Four generations of his father’s family had ended up
getting someone pregnant and having to marry them. Best that
ended with him.
She forced herself to stop thinking about that. Relax. “I’m
sure she’s fine.” Whatever the mission was, exactly. She knew
there was a mission… it was hard to keep any expedition to the
Deeps a total secret… but not what the objective was. HALO
didn’t come from the Deeps, so she knew little beyond ‘aliens,
caves, high casualties, special minerals’.
Lars now gripped the table tightly, shivering. “Either no
one knows anything or they won’t tell me. The last time they
went down that far, people died.”
Danielle had no idea what to say that wouldn’t sound
utterly clichéd. “Rei is the toughest person I know,” she said.
“I’m sure she’ll be okay unless they all die.”
Within a few seconds, she regretted putting it that way.
“Whereas, you’d be happy if she died because it would
make Dr. Akagi cry,” he said bitterly, not even looking at her
when saying something so horrible.
“I wouldn’t wish death on her just to make that bitch cry!”
Danielle said angrily.
“Why do you hate her so much?” Lars asked, now glaring
at her angrily, looking even more like his father.
“Dr. Akagi entirely parasited her way to the top!” Danielle
said angrily, hands on hips. “She didn’t earn it. I worked my
ass off to get to where I am but she just got it by nepotism!”
Lars made a face. “She doesn’t go around doing perverse
things like that! What kind of crazy accusation is that!”
“Not ‘perverse’. ‘Corrupt’,” Danielle said. Getting in
through your connections was not a freaky sexual thing, though
it wouldn’t surprise her if Akagi was sleeping with Ikari like her
mother probably had.
“What has she ever done to you?” Lars demanded angrily.
“You just hate both of them for no reason!”
“I don’t hate Rei,” Danielle said. “You could learn a few
lessons in working hard from her, you know!” She pointed an
accusing finger at him.
“I don’t intend to work myself to the point where I’m
starting to die by the time I’m thirty like you!” Lars said angrily,
then stormed off to his room. “Go to bed!”
“YOU GO TO BED!” she shouted, then went to bed, lying
there, feeling her blood pound and trying not to cry too much for
fear she’d dehydrate herself too.
Eventually, she fell into a restless exhaustive sleep.
***************
Walker was trying to sleep. He was pretty sure he was
asleep, yet in his dreams (if dreams they were), he was lying in
the camp, listening to water drip and people snoring and the
sentries keeping watch and murmering among themselves.
And someone kept whispering his name. He tried to ignore
it, as Rei had told them to if they heard someone whispering
their name in their dreams.
If this was a dream. But if it wasn’t, whoever was
whispering would have to be right next to him and no one was.
So he tried to fall back asleep… deeper asleep… whatever
the right thing was, and eventually it gave up and he slipped
away.
***************
Rei was not happy with the return of whatever dream
predator was stalking them. Being hunted in both worlds raised
the danger of facing something in both worlds at once. Probably
it had nothing to do with those hunting them, but she didn’t want
to lead it back to the Geofront either.
Unfortunately, it was very good at skulking about,
whispering her name and making her tense. What did it want?
Was it a random predator or did it serve some greater evil?
Worse, would one of the men listen to its call and invite it
in? She might not even be able to tell, depending on what it
was.
“Ogres with barrels, incoming!” Gunfire started and
everyone began waking up. Rei rose, drawing her sword as
barrels came flying into the cavern from a large tunnel with a
half dozen Ogres in it and many Greys.
Gunfire began ripping the Greys apart but not before the
Ogres hurled the barrels, which had burning fuses.
Rei had not seen this before and it did not bode well.
“Get away from the barrels!” Lt. Hall shouted.
They had aimed for the carts, but the transport crew was
able to evacuate the carts before the crude bombs went off. They
were basically black powder explosives with oil soaked rope
wicks. But now there was smoke everywhere and it was hard to
breathe as the Ogres came on.
Rei took one of them on, dodging his blows and slicing his
legs until he fell down but the cave was chaos now, people
running around, shooting at the surviving Greys and the Ogres.
The melee squads were getting bashed but their weapons cut
Ogre flesh and the creatures were not utterly fearless. Further,
the men and women fought bravely, able now to stand up to
their fearsome foes, partly by Rei’s example, partly by their own
determination.
Eventually, there were three dead soldiers, eighteen injured,
and four dead Ogres and two fleeing out of sight. Two of the
four dead Ogres had been cut down as they tried to flee.
Rei studied the dead, who included Garcia, who had been
bashed to death against a wall. She kneeled and did the sign of
the cross over her and prayed silently; she was pretty sure
Garcia had been Catholic, at least nominally.
Lt. Hall grimaced, but then she said, “Good job, everyone.
You protected the Element Alpha carts; our main job here is to
get it back to the base. I’d hoped we could get more rest, but it’s
clear that nowhere is safe enough. We’re going to just hustle the
rest of the way, tired as I know you all are. As soon as we treat
the injured, we will move out. We can mourn the dead later,
when it won’t risk adding to their numbers.” Her voice was
determined. “It looks like those bastards have learned a new
trick, but that just puts them in the sixteenth century instead of
the fifteenth.”
Fifteenth instead of fourteenth, Rei thought but did not
contradict her. It would undercut her authority and she
approved of Lt. Hall’s efforts to raise everyone’s morale.
She could not help but to mourn the dead, though.
**************
They made it back without any more death, exhausted and
filthy. But every cart had made the trip successfully and the
mission was a success.
“You all did well against heavy odds,” Commander
Katsuragi told them as technicians took the ore carts and others
took the dead to prepare them for burial. “I thank you all. The
injured should report to medical. Lt. Hall, you can report to me
in private in a minute. Everyone else, hit the showers, get clean,
and go home. You all have the next three days off.”
“Sir, there’s a problem we need to discuss,” Rei said to her.
Everyone looked at her nervously. They wanted to go
home but Rei never would say that unless it was serious.
“Come with the Lieutenant and I,” Commander Katsuragi
said, frowning. “The rest of you, you can go.”
She took them back to a meeting room. “Lars is tearing his
hair out,” she said kindly to Rei. “Since you all took two extra
days.” She paused. “That is not meant as a criticism, Lt. Hall.”
“Understood,” Lt. Hall said tensely.
“You did very well, losing less people than the last
expedition,” Commander Katsuragi said.
“They have bombs now. Crude ones, but bombs,” Lt. Hall
said, frowning.
Commander Katsuragi grimaced. “Delightful.”
They now sat down in the meeting room, and Rei reported
on the dream predator. “I don’t know if it followed us,” Rei
said.
Lt. Hall frowned. “Are these things common?”
“I have not had to fight many, thankfully,” Rei said. “I will
watch for it, tonight.”
Commander Katsuragi frowned. “Is there some way to
reinforce you? I don’t like you having to face something
dangerous alone.”
“Mother can assist me. Most people do not have enough
mental strength to be any use,” Rei said to her. “In this fallen
world.”
They discussed the matter a little longer, then Rei left and
Lt. Hall gave her report to Commander Katsuragi.
**************
Hikari was about to go to the after school class rep meeting
when she heard the distinctive cry of Aida Kensuke running for
his life with someone older than him chasing him. She sighed.
He’s done something stupid again. Odwin Weber was a big
muscular soccer player, a good three years older than them.
“You touch my girlfriend again, you die!”
“She didn’t even say yes!” Kensuke wailed as he ran
towards Hikari. “Horaki, SAVE ME.”
She touched her forehead, then stepped inbetween them.
However, Odwin couldn’t slow down and they collided and
went tumbling. “Dammit, woman, look where you’re going!”
he said angrily.
She rose, gathering her dignity; she pulled out her wallet
and flashed her ID. “I am Hikari Horaki, Class Representative
of 8-C, Mr. Weber. You shouldn’t be attacking other students in
violation of school policy. Whatever foolishness they may have
done.”
“Yeah, what she said!” Kensuke said, lurking halfway
around the next corner.
“I know that name,” he said, clearly shuffling through the
rummage room of his mind. “But I can’t remember why.”
Hikari said, “Because it’s the name which will be writing
you up if you don’t apologize to Kensuke.” She stepped closer
to Odwin and he backed up.
“He tried to kiss my girl!” Odwin said angrily.
“Not against school rules,” Hikari said.
Kensuke made a mental note.
“Violence is. Also, I doubt she actually kissed Kensuke,”
Hikari said firmly, then pulled out a pad.
Kensuke grumbled and kicked the wall.
“Are you backing off or do I write you up?” Hikari said,
pencil at the ready.
“Bitch,” he said angrily and stormed off.
She let out a deep sigh. “Aida, are you suicidal?”
“I figured, if the hard-ass class rep digs me that much,”
Kensuke began.
“Aida, did your father raise you to commit suicide? Is that
it?” Hikari said. “There’s someone I… dig… but it isn’t you.
Sorry.”
“Well, you have kissed a lot of guys but that doesn’t make
it less of a compliment,” he said. “I probably aimed a little too
high.”
“Given you tried to kiss a junior, yes,” Hikari said.
“Anyway, you owe me.”
“A kiss?” he said hopefully.
“I’m putting a get-together together and I need enforcers to
ensure everyone shows up,” Hikari said.
“Oooh,” he said. “Party time, I dig it. I’m your man!”
Hikari tried to remember if he always talked like this or
was today special. But either way, she could use him. She had
a plan.
***************
Rei could feel Lars relax as he hugged her tightly. “I was
very worried,” he said.
“I am sorry,” she said softly. “But this is going to happen
over and over.”
“I know,” he said, sounding pained, his strong limbs
trembling around her. She was utterly still, holding him tightly.
They were at her home; she’d be returning to the base later
to watch out for the creature and see if it tried stalking any of the
soldiers that night.
“I hope I am not keeping you from practice,” she said to
him.
“You are more important than practice,” he said, then
grimaced. “Mother was being a bitch last night.”
“Did you wake her up at 2 AM again?” Rei asked a little
chidingly.
“I didn’t WANT her to wake up,” he said, sounding angry.
“She needs earplugs or something.”
Rei let it go. It was between Lars and his mother. She
never woke her Mother up. But then she didn’t have the
problems with her Mother that Lars did with his.
“Let me help you tonight,” he said.
“Your mother would be angry if I brought you into it,” Rei
said to him. She wished Commander Katsuragi could come, but
while she was an intelligent commander, she did not have the
strength of will that Mother did or the knack Lars possessed for
it, due to his Eldar heritage, distant as it was. Mother… Rei
could see her ancestry too but Commander Katsuragi was
humanity incarnate, rather like Kevin.
But humans were more adept to war than the Eldar from
what Rei understood, so that was only appropriate. The human
propensity for violence could be used to good ends as well as
bad, turned into the desire to protect instead of to destroy.
Just as her kind’s urge to creation sometimes had turned to
darker ends, even such a beautiful creation as the Silmarils. For
a greedy love of the work of your hands and excessive pride in
one’s creations were flaws that the Eldar might blame Dwarves
for but only because they shared them.
And in the end, the sins of the soul could do more damage
than the more human sins of the flesh.
She reminded her body to stop giving her weird signals
from being so close to Lars and it shut up. But humans didn’t
have that option. On the other hand, even if they went bad, they
would not be able to cause trouble for millennia like her own
kind.
Or become as stubbornly arrogant as some had.
Rei forced herself back to reality.
“I can’t just do nothing,” he said, frustrated. “I want to do
something to help you.”
“You can help me practice,” she told him.
They sat down on the couch, each holding the other’s hand
and closed their eyes and slid over to the other world, the world
forged by the thoughts of Eldar and man alike, the world of
creation, of ideas made real. The world of dreams. The
ephemeral and enduring sub-created world.
**************
The world was ocean and upon it a great white ship sailed,
the wind billowing its sails as the sun shone down; it was a little
warm, enough to be pleasant without being oppressive, as the air
was rather humid and would turn high temperatures into hell.
The crew flitted about, imaginary people, though some
resembled real people, forged to greater stability by long
practice at controlling his dreams. In a normal dream, Rei
would have expected most of the crew to be naught but
shadows. But she felt proud of Lars for his elaboration of his
creation and his control here.
“Good day,” she said to Nils, the first officer, who anyone
would easily see as resembling Kevin. Right down to his bad
habits like trying to palm an ink packet to burst on her hand
when he shook it. She deftly evaded it, letting it fall on his pants
but he just laughed.
“One day, one day,” he told her.
She found this unlikely but she went round greeting
everyone; it was easy here to forget they were not real. They
moved naturally. She could see Ronald busy picking his nose
when he thought no one was looking.
Lars stood at the wheel and she went to join him. “Where
to?” he asked.
That was the question. They could probably try and seek
out the predator but his mother would likely forbid her to see
him even if it went well. The thought of that made her stomach
churn, though she forced it to stop.
Best to just work on training him. He had to remain safe.
She needed him to be safe, if she must be in danger.
As safe as any place in this world.
****************
Olga was busy doing homework with some friends from
the basketball team when her father came home; it was not
basketball season but they still hung out together. Her father
looked rather shaken up.
“Did it go badly?” she asked, frowning.
“No, it was a success despite three deaths,” he said, coming
over and setting a box on the table. It was about the right size
for a large book in length but too narrow for one. “This is for
you,” he said. “Fuyutsuki studied it briefly, then said it was
meant for you.”
Olga blinked and everyone looked curious. Then she
opened the box and stared; it was a NERV combat knife but it
had the soft glow of HALO on it. “Is this a new model?” she
asked, confused.
“This was your mother’s blade,” he said softly. “Rei
recovered it for you. She said you were to have it and Fuyutsuki
agreed. But if you do anything crazy with it, I will be very
angry.” His hands were shaking, though the rest of him was
sturdy.
“Mother?” Olga whispered, hands trembling as she picked
it and its sheath up.
“They tried to explain but it more or less came out as
florgle blorge blah to me,” he said, frowning, but he put a hand
on her shoulder. “Don’t use it unless somehow… you end up
face to face with a Wraith. I’m serious.”
“I won’t stab Touji with it even if he deserves it,” Olga
said, frowning.
“Don’t even joke about it,” he said intensely, while Olga’s
friends tried to pretend they weren’t here and watching this. “I
can’t deny your mother’s wishes but you have to be responsible
with it. I’m counting on you.” He stared her in the eyes.
“Hopefully it will never come to that but if something somehow
gets loose, you may have to fight it.” That clearly displeased
him.
“You know I’m ready to fight,” she said urgently.
“You shouldn’t have to,” he said. “But just in case…” He
slumped. “We can talk later when your friends go home.”
“We can go now, sir,” Heilwig said. “It’s just homework.”
“Thank you,” he said; the others left and he ended up
telling Olga stories about her mother’s war experiences until
they got so hungry they had to eat sandwiches for dinner
because anything else was too slow.
******************
“I don’t know if that was wise,” Ritsuko said to Rei as they
got ready to meditate together in a lounge near the soldiers’
dormitories on the base.
“It was meant for her,” Rei said. “It would not happily
serve another master except perhaps her father. It is not a
factory made weapon.”
Ritsuko did not like the idea of tools that cared who used
them. It would make modern society a lot harder. “Ready?”
“I am glad to have you with me,” Rei said softly.
Ritsuko smiled, feeling vindicated as a mother. Rei could
be difficult sometimes but moments like this made all the
moments of wondering how her own mother had not killed her
worth it. “You are the best daughter I could have.”
“I know I do not always live up to your expectations,” Rei
said sadly.
“I’m sure I don’t live up to yours sometimes, either,”
Ritsuko said.
“Gaiseric was unworthy of you,” Rei said flatly. “He only
wanted your body.”
She’d only wanted his body. A woman had needs. Though
Rei apparently did not. Even though she was pretty sure Rei
was infertile, it was for the best that Rei not be running around
with boys. Too much and too far, anyway. Just having a
boyfriend would be fine.
But Ritsuko tried to avoid just sleeping with someone just
because her body wanted it. It felt weak and she didn’t like
being weak. And it wasn’t as satisfactory as the few times she’d
done it in a real relationship. But none of those had lasted, to
her frustration.
“I decide that, dear,” she said to Rei. She could be so
blunt. But she came to it by me and Mother, Ritsuko thought.
Female Akagis were blunt; the men usually needed it.
“Yes, Mother,” Rei said, though Ritsuko suspected the
incidents of Rei trying to drive off unworthy men would
continue.
She got the stonewalling from me too, Ritsuko thought
ruefully.
“I’m here,” Misato said, coming in, still in her uniform
with a gun that wouldn’t matter, since she could dream any
weapon she wanted.
“You are not very good at this,” Rei said. “You would be
better advised to go rest.”
“While my waifu and one of my only two pilots risk
themselves? No,” Misato said bluntly. “I decide what I do.
You’re normally good at obeying orders, Rei, so listen. I am
coming.”
If she can manage it, Ritsuko thought. Misato had learned
to defend her dreams but usually got too wrapped up in them to
do more. She was not really good at this. “Come here,” Ritsuko
said.
“Do not call her your waifu if you do not mean it,” Rei said
more heatedly than usual, but then said, “Yes, commander
Katsuragi. I do not mean to challenge your authority. I am
sorry.”
Yes, you do, Ritsuko thought. But you’re a teenager and
teenagers always challenge authority. “Be respectful of your
commander, Rei. In the end, she decides who goes to battle and
who does not.”
“Yes, Mother,” Rei said stiffly.
Ritsuko took Misato’s hand with one hand and Rei’s with
the other. “Meditate on fire, both of you. A single, floating
flame,” she said to them and began the exercise to guide them
into the world of the mind together. She was still trying to
understand it from half-translated, highly metaphorical bits of
Eldar lore they possessed.
Soon, she was in the astral realm. The NERV base was
very solid and real there; it was constantly reinforced by many
minds. It was quite possible the predator would be unable to
even enter it as a result.
Whatever it was. Again, they had only fragmentary lore
and limited experience. She would have... not killed for more
information but probably done quite a bit. She had a constant
feeling of not knowing enough about what was going on.
Ritsuko did not like to act on incomplete information,
unlike Misato, who seemed to thrive on it. But Misato lived by
intuition, like Rei, instead of logic and reasoning, like Ritsuko.
Rei showed up quickly, but Misato took longer and kept
flickering because her concentration wasn’t good. But if they let
Misato sleep for real, she’d likely never get out of her own head.
“Dammit, I feel like I’m in a strobe light,” Misato
grumbled. From her perspective, it was like the world was
flickering, not her, Ritsuko knew.
Rei made the ‘I told you so’ noise, so subtle that only those
who knew her well would notice it.
It helped that Ritsuko’s ring helped her to read people. It
was how she’d known Gaiseric just wanted her body, even if it
couldn’t stop her deciding that was okay at the time.
It also let her easily read Misato’s concern for her and Rei.
In a crisis, Misato would act fiercely to protect those she cared
about, Ritsuko knew. From that angle of things, she was glad to
have Misato here. If Lars was not a child, she would have
wanted him here for the same reason. But he was a child and
she agreed with Rei that it was better not to risk him. If Rei was
not so potent here, and so well trained, she would not have
risked Rei. Probably this thing was just sneaky and not a major
threat.
But it might be.
Ritsuko ran her finger along her ring; it never changed
here, however she might shape things with her will. It existed
here and in reality at once, like the knife did now. She did not
dream of the Ring; it dreamed of itself.
If they had known Berg could make things like that, they
would never have put her on combat duty.
But then the previous mission might have failed.
Her sacrifice… had that somehow caused the other changes
too? She had died just before the anomalies started.
Too many mysteries taunting her with a lack of evidence.
She needed evidence to address things with logic.
“How do we find it?” Misato asked her. Rei was looking at
her too.
“We patrol and listen. I should be able to track it once I
hear it whispering, trying to lure its victim,” Ritsuko said.
They walked through an eerily silent version of the base, up
and down the hallways, trying to be silent themselves so they
could hear the predator if it was here. Rei had her pendant
covered so it shed no light, but the night time lights were on here
as they were in the waking world.
And then Ritsuko heard a soft whisper. “Ritsuko…” It
sounded like her mother, which made her frown.
She held up a finger to the others; Misato and Rei did the
same and then Rei touched their minds. ~You hear it?~ Rei
asked via the mind-touch.
~I hear it,~ Ritsuko replied.
Misato mumbled something incoherent, made worse by her
flickering. She tried again. ~I h a i.~
Misato grimaced and became solid. ~I hear it.~ she said,
trembling with the force of her concentration.
The next part was risky. Ritsuko listened to the voice, each
of them with a hand on her shoulder, and walked towards it.
The dream around them distorted and twisted and then they were
in another place.
*****************
Ritsuko felt disoriented. Her body wasn’t quite right and
Rei was five and Misato wasn’t here and she was on the bridge
but it had much cruder equipment. Some man was in a plugsuit,
not anyone she knew… Dr. Koln. It was a contact experiment.
They had managed to grow the first Ranger but they couldn’t
figure out how the thing was controlled; working with
fragmentary records was extremely difficult and things kept
going wrong. Rarely as wrong as they had with Yui, but wrong.
And then Ritsuko understood. This was the day her mother
had died. This was the trap the predator had laid for her.
No. She began the chant Fuyutsuki had taught her, silly as
it was, and the world began to waver, voices becoming distorted.
This thing was not strong enough for her. Not when she had Rei
and Misato here with her. She would not let them be hurt.
But it pressed harder and she was along for the ride,
listening to Mother’s voice as the experiment progressed. Rei
looked angry and kept kicking the wall despite her…
Mother’s… efforts to make Rei stop. There had been a fight or
something… Ritsuko wouldn’t let the information into her mind.
Or she’d succumb to this as Rei clearly had.
I am Dr. Ritsuko Akagi and I will not let this go forward,
she told herself, wondering where Misato was.
Misato looked like her younger college self at a party,
enjoying herself and having fun. Ritsuko even glimpsed her
own younger self at said party.
Then it started to become more real.
No! She pushed it away. She would not abandon Rei;
Misato was in little danger if she remembered that party; the
predator clearly couldn’t handle three of them directly at once.
At once.
“Misato! Suit up, we need you!” she shouted.
Misato-in-the-dream looked around, confused, then looked
at Ritsuko-in-the-dream, who was dancing with some tall brunet
whose name the real Ritsuko had long forgotten. “Rits-chan,
you okay?” she asked.
The guy Ritsuko-in-the-dream was dancing with looked
offended. “Hey, I ain’t done nothin’ wrong!” he said angrily.
“Misato, I *need* you,” Ritsuko said urgently; she could
see the experiment headed for its disastrous ending with one eye
and the party with the other. She knew enough to know what
happened next, even if she didn’t know the full truth.
Misato-in-the-dream looked around, confused. “Rits-chan,
what’s wrong? How drunk am I?”
She could feel the predator trying to kick her out, into
Misato’s dream; it wanted Rei.
She would not let it have what it wanted.
“Misato, PLEASE!” she shouted.
Misato-in-the-dream’s eyes hardened and she reached out
to Ritsuko, who grasped her hand and drew her over; as she
pulled, she touched Misato’s mind; it was far easier here in
dreams. Misato turned from the college party girl back to her
current self and landed in the room and as the cultists broke
through the door… Ritsuko wondered again how they had
gotten this far into NERV, though she knew there had been a
traitor and this was just a dream… Misato gunned them down,
killing three, injuring three and sending the rest fleeing; they had
counted too much on surprise.
It made Ritsuko shiver; she knew Misato’s job but she’d
never been this close to it and it normally happened where she
couldn’t see it. And it wasn’t like Misato was an assassin. But
she did what she had to.
For a few seconds, Misato grimaced and closed her eyes.
Then she said, “Are there more of them?”
Ritsuko was about to answer and then the predator turned
its full strength on her. The world tore away around her and she
fell into darkness, darkness whispering her name with her
mother’s voice.
“You were busy on another continent at a party while I was
dying,” it whispered.
“Damn you,” Ritsuko said as she forced the world to give
her something to stand on. “You are not my mother!”
“Not that anyone there wanted you. You couldn’t even
party well enough to get Misato’s interest, or a boy’s, not even
when they were drunk,” the voice said bitterly. The shadowy
outline of her mother could be seen now, standing on the floor
Ritsuko had forced into existence.
Not that night, but there had been times she’d been with
someone. Not that she found it something to brag about. “Show
your true face and stop pretending to be my mother!” she said
angrily.
Instead, it looked even more like her mother, her mother at
her angriest, most bitter worst. “Your grades were never as
good as they could be, you chose to stay with your father instead
of coming with me, and you pretty much just rode my coattails
to get your job. Which used to be *my* job.”
It hurt. That was her mother all over, except her mother
died before she took her mother’s job. But she had *earned* it.
“I *earned* my job.”
“By brainwashing a child to fight to kill people, who you
sat back and kept your hands clean,” her mother said bitterly.
No, not her mother, the monster. “I died protecting our daughter
but you just sit back and let her fight while you remain safe in
your fortress. But you’ve always been good at letting others
take the fall while you’re safe. You didn’t help me either.”
“I was in JAPAN,” Ritsuko said. No, focus, she told
herself. If I engage it like it *is* my mother, it will get into my
head and I will lose. She fingered her ring determinedly. She
charged at the creature and punched it in the gut, knocking it
down. It tumbled, looking utterly shocked, then rose and kicked
her, sending her flying.
“One punch does not make up for a lifetime of cowardice,”
the creature sneered, then rushed her and they grappled in the
dark, punching and kicking. There was something strangely
liberating about it, shouting angrily and just unloading on the
shadowy semblance of her mother.
This turned the metaphorical battle of minds into a literal
one; it was strong but so was she and she felt a need to prove
herself.
She got it in a hold but it squirmed and she was getting
tired; eventually, she would wear out and then it would have her.
Until light pierced the darkness; it was Misato and Rei,
armed for battle; Rei’s light pierced the darkness and she carried
that black metal sword in her hands. Misato was in her uniform,
armed with her gun. “Ritsuko!” Misato shouted.
“Do not shoot, the bullet may pass through its shadowy
flesh and hit her,” Rei said urgently. “Mother, turn it loose and I
will kill it.”
Maybe. Or it might make it past her to Misato; Misato’s
prowness in reality might not translate as well here, though she
had mowed down those cultists.
Ritsuko’s stomach churned at the memory of death and her
grip wavered. She’d felt Misato’s gentleness but now she’d
seen her tough side. The warrior. Which she’d known was
there but she’d never seen Misato kill someone, even just
dreams of people.
It nearly reversed the hold but she rallied as the two
hesitated, fearful to hurt her if they attacked her foe. If she lost
her grip, it would have a hostage. It would hurt them, the two
people she most cared for. Her daughter and her best friend who
had once…
The world started to change and she banished the memory.
Not that, not now. It would never happen again.
“She only did it because she was drunk,” it hissed at her.
“No one will ever love you for real.”
Rei looked confused for a few seconds, then her expression
and stance changed. “I love you, Mother,” Rei said, with an
oddly disapproving tone. “Do not listen to its lies, mother. Turn
it loose so I can stab it safely without risking you.”
“Shut your fat face, you stupid monster,” Misato said
angrily. “I won’t let you hurt my best friend! Ritsuko, is there
some way to either restrain it or pass it to one of us? How do we
stop this thing?”
“Pass it to me, and I will kill it,” Rei said.
“I don’t define myself by my ability to get a boyfriend,”
Ritsuko said angrily the creature. “Name yourself.”
“I am your…”
“NAME YOURSELF.” Her ring blazed and it howled.
“Dakglarak,” it howled in pain.
“Dakglarak, I bind thee,” Ritsuko said, forcing the world of
dreams into golden chains which wrapped around it. She let go
of it, keeping it bound by the chains on which its name was
written. It now hung down, through the ‘ground’, away from
her, like a spider’s prey caught in its web.
But she was tired and now it began to wiggle loose. She
couldn’t hold it for long. I need to practice more, she thought.
“Get it,” she said angrily.
Bullets rang out, and backed by Misato’s will, they injured
it, then Rei hacked it into pieces which burned and dissolved
into blue powder that fell into darkness.
Ritsuko sagged, exhausted. “I’m surprised it didn’t strike
before if it was that strong.”
“Maybe it got stronger,” Misato said.
“It may have feared to show itself around fifty people at
once,” Rei said. “Also, we came to it; without it luring us to it,
it may well have been weaker.”
They woke up now with Ritsuko breathing hard. Misato
put an arm around her. “You okay?” she said softly. “You want
some company tonight?”
Rei squeezed Ritsuko’s hand and pulled it up to her own
heart, then studied Misato carefully.
She’d just killed something, Ritsuko realized. She’d been
part of it. Something that could think. It was a horrible thing
that preyed on people’s dreams, but… She suddenly felt ill and
she could tell they saw it.
We had to do it to protect everyone, she told herself, but it
wasn’t easy. It had… “Bucket,” she said.
“Bucket?” Rei said, confused.
“Get the trash can,” Misato said urgently, but her face was
sympathetic.
Rei got the trash can as fast as possible.
“I threw up too, later,” Misato whispered sympathetically
to Ritsuko.
We had to do it, Ritsuko told herself. Please let that have
been necessary. She was trembling and she suddenly felt so
cold.
She’d seen things die, done dissections, but it had all been
animals, creatures which were not sapient. She threw up dinner,
then sent Rei to get her some bottled water to drink.
“I’m staying with you tonight,” Misato said to her firmly.
“I’m fine,” Ritsuko lied, feeling weak, which she hated,
and guilty. She knew its name but still didn’t know what it was.
Just that she’d killed it.
Having Misato holding her was an intense comfort. She
wanted… but no, Misato had only done that, that one time,
because she was drunk. And Kaji had been drunk. And I was
young and naïve, Ritsuko thought. She’d surprised herself too.
Also, drunk.
“You need company,” Misato said to her. “I’ve been there,
I understand. We had to stop that thing. It was a Wraith and it
would have hurt or killed people. It’s only natural to feel like
this. Killing should never feel good or easy. But I fear we’ll see
a lot more of it.”
Maya, Ritsuko thought. This would break her. But
hopefully, they would have lots of time before Maya had to see
any death.
But I am going to have to work with her on dream defense,
in case more of these things show up, Ritsuko thought.
Her stomach churned. “So hungry, but if I eat, I will throw
it up,” she said, frustrated.
“We will go to your house, make you some vegetable soup,
even I can cook that, and then I will stay with you,” Misato said
to her.
“I will make soup,” Rei said to Ritsuko, holding the water
for her. It made Ritsuko feel like a baby but she didn’t stop Rei,
drinking until her mouth didn’t feel horrible any more.
“Let’s go home,” Ritsuko said softly. They got up and
headed out.
**************
Ritsuko felt better with food in her. Tired but good. Rei
finally went to bed and she changed for bed; Misato just stripped
down to her underwear, which was how she usually slept to
Ritsuko’s memory. They hadn’t actually slept in the same room
in a long time.
“Just like old times, but with a nice big bed instead of two
cramped singles,” Misato said, looking more nervous than
Ritsuko was used to seeing her.
“If you hit me in your sleep, I will bite you,” Ritsuko told
her, then laughed softly.
“Well, lots of people think I’m tasty,” Misato said, relaxing
a little and smiling. She pulled down the sheets. “You don’t
have to wear that much; I have seen you naked, you know.”
“I’m used to it; I’ve seen you naked, too, you know,”
Ritsuko said to her.
Too often, given Misato tended to shed clothing when
drunk.
They got under the sheets and then Misato cuddled up to
her. Ritsuko froze up nervously, but then slowly relaxed.
“You’re so warm,” she mumbled.
“Don’t feel guilty,” Misato said softly to her. “Or believe
its lies.” She shivered. “It said some horrible things to me
about Father. And I. And Mother.”
Ritsuko realized she hadn’t even asked Rei about her
experience and she felt like a bad mother. “I hope Rei is okay.”
“She is fine. This is what we do. We are as used to it as
it’s safe to get. But you’re not. This is only the start, though,
you know,” Misato said softly to her. “You’re going to have to
see a lot of death.”
“I can handle it,” Ritsuko said, her head on Misato’s arm
and shoulder. “I have to handle it. NERV needs me and I can’t
be on the bridge if I can’t handle this.”
“This is why I hate having to bring the kids into it,” Misato
said to her, sounding guilty. “I didn’t have to do anything like
this until I was an adult. I feel terrible for Rei and Asuka.”
Not terrible enough to stop using them, though, Ritsuko
thought, then regretted it. She wouldn’t stop either. It was
necessary.
Was that good enough? Rei and Asuka would say they did
this by choice but they were made by adults into kids who would
say that.
“Part of me wishes for an amnesia pill to forget this,”
Ritsuko said, then sighed. “But that would be cheating and
cowardly.”
“Wanting to forget things like this is normal,” Misato told
her. “If we remembered everything all the time, we’d go mad. I
could use an amnesia pill.” She frowned at some memory she
did not share.
“Rei remembers everything,” Ritsuko said, moving her
hand down to take Misato’s hand.
“Really? I know she claims that but… I mean, really
remembers it? Eidetic memory?” Misato asked softly, sounding
a little scared.
“Yes. She will never forget tonight,” Ritsuko said. “She
can go back to it in her head any time.”
“I wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t forget things, though I
wish I could remember what exactly happened on that damn
island.” Misato had been at the disastrous end of the Katsuragi
expedition, an event probably somehow connected to the
Vanishing, though if NERV knew exactly how, Ritsuko had not
been told.
But she wanted to know.
“If there’s anything I can do to make you feel better, I’ll do
it,” Misato said softly to her. “I have no amnesia powers,
though I do know the things I do to forget my worries a while.”
Sex and beer, Ritsuko thought. It was tempting but getting
utterly drunk and sleeping with Misato was something she’d
only done once and she’d been… she’d thought… But as far as
she could tell, Misato didn’t even remember it.
She’d been crushed but eventually gotten over it. How
anyone could forget that, she didn’t know.
Sex did not mean love, something everyone needed to learn
but some never did. It had been a valuable learning experience
for all the awkwardness it caused her.
“The only alcohol we have is for Rei to cook with, not
enough to really get drunk and I don’t want to get out of this
bed, anyway,” Ritsuko said to her.
Misato laughed softly. “Rei would no doubt go get us
some if we asked her.”
“I don’t think women with our responsibilities should be
sending a thirteen year old for beer, anyway,” Ritsuko said.
Misato studied Ritsuko, looking nervous; she could feel
Misato’s nervousness with her ring. “We could… never mind,”
she said. “I shouldn’t even ask.”
Was she talking about sex? Ritsuko felt a sudden thrill at
the thought but was nervous to even breach the subject. Misato
didn’t seem to normally chase women… as far as she knew, she
was the only woman Misato had ever slept with. And Misato
didn’t even remember that.
What else could it be, though?
But if it wasn’t… She didn’t want to push things into
awkwardness. And she wasn’t desperately wanting it, though
sex probably would make her feel better. But she shouldn’t just
use Misato as an living sex toy to make herself feel better.
Though now she felt a sudden need to connect to someone.
But the specter of past experience floated in her mind, holding
her back.
“I’ll make breakfast in the morning,” Misato suddenly said.
“For you and Rei.”
“Rei will make her own and go swim with Lars, but you
can make me breakfast,” Ritsuko said. Maybe Misato had been
trying to offer to cook all along. It made more sense than her
suddenly offering sex now after all these years of not.
On the other hand, her memory was that Misato had been
very good at it.
No, don’t push things, Ritsuko thought. She preferred sex
as part of something committed, anyway.
Misato yawned. “We’d better sleep.”
She eventually drifted off to sleep and slept solidly; if she
dreamed, she had no memory of it.
******************
Rei reached the pool, ready to swim, only to find to her
surprise that despite the early hour, it was full of people.
Groggy people. Her entire class was here, though most of
them were half-asleep. Horaki Hikari stood on the diving board,
looking triumphant. “Welcome back, Ayanami,” she said.
“We’ve come to show our appreciation for the danger you face.”
Rei felt a shiver of surprise go through her body.
“Now, everyone, time to get wet!”
Soon, everyone was in the water, laughing and horsing
around under the stars. It was to protect this that she fought.
She suffered so that they would not have to.
But she felt an unaccustomed happiness at their coming to
greet her, of their effort to step into her world and meet her.
She did not know how to really step into theirs.
Kevin was looking right at her, then he deliberately tripped
himself and fell in the water. She’d seen this too many times,
but she laughed, deliberately, and he smiled. He was trying in
his own way to help her, she realized.
That made her feel better about him.
After a while, Lars took her aside. “Everything go okay?”
“Mother and…” Rei paused, realizing it probably best she
not mention Mother sleeping with Commander Katsuragi.
“Mother and I and Commander Katsuragi defeated it after some
struggle, then we went home and went to bed. We were okay.
Are you?”
He relaxed. “I am now.”
She hated to worry him. Part of her wished he’d been
there, but she didn’t want him to go through what Mother had
gone through. She understood the feeling completely; weirdly, it
made her feel closer to her.
She just hoped Commander Katsuragi had been gentle.
Then she decided to try not to think about it, at all. Ever.
“Whoever has the best dive gets to kiss me or Hikari,”
Kevin shouted.
“Hey!” Hikari shouted back. She turned red.
“Can we kiss both of you?” Hedda shouted.
“HEY!” Hikari shouted, turning more red.
“Who’s judging?” Kensuke asked.
“Lars and I will judge,” Rei said.
“You should enter the contest,” Kevin said. “Hikari and I
will judge, since we do the kissing.”
“I have not agreed to a contest!,” Hikari protested.
“Bert and I will judge since we can’t kiss anyone,”
Rosalinda said.
“And I, since I have a girlfriend; she’s flying in tonight,”
Shinji said excitedly.
Rei deliberately messed up her dive to avoid winning. Lars
didn’t think of that and ended up winning a kiss from Hikari.
Olga would have won for the women but refused the kiss,
leaving Kevin to act mortally wounded until Rei threw him in
the pool.
For his own good.
Watching everyone laugh and horse around, she felt good.
Part of it. Not all the way but more than usual.
“Thank you,” she said to Hikari.
“I didn’t mean to kiss your boyfriend! Kevin made me!”
Hikari said frantically. “Wait, what?”
“For the party,” Rei said. “It feels good to have everyone
here.”
She yawned. “I am going to fall asleep in class but it’s
okay. I want you to know we appreciate you fighting to protect
us.” She patted Rei’s shoulder. “Anyway, I just… got caught
up in everything. I’m sorry.”
“He is not my boyfriend and can kiss whoever he likes,”
Rei said. “Also, you clearly enjoyed it.”
Hikari mumbled incoherently.
“One day, I will find the one who is my destiny,” Rei said.
“The one and only person I will love.” But that day hadn’t come
yet.
She found herself looking at Shinji batting a ball around
with some of the others and made herself stop. He was taken.
Cute but taken. If it lasted; so many human loves did not. She
pushed the thought away.
She just had to be patient.
“He is kind of cute,” Hikari said to Rei. “But he has a
girlfriend.”
“I do not think of him that way,” Rei said firmly. “You
seem to like kissing boys.”
“No, no, I mean, I don’t hate it but I’m not going to kiss
every boy in sight! Not like…” She made a noise. “I’m not like
that!”
The best defense was a good offense, Rei knew.
********************
Dark haired and fire-tanned, Celebrimbor was one of the
greatest of all Elven craftsmen; since the greatest, his
grandfather Feanor, was confined to the Halls of Mandos still, it
fell to him and his, the Elves who had once dwelt in the great
city of Ost-in-Edhil in now lost Eregion, to forge the finest
weapons for the war to come. Many other workshops rang out
across the land and he spent a lot of time trying to get the
younger Elves in line with their elders and vice-versa.
He was down deep underground in an old cavern they’d
tunneled into; it was very cold here, kept that way by experts in
the arts of cold forging. Certain volcanic materials could be
cold-forged into the strange, wonderous material known as laen.
The warmer it was, the harder and stronger it grew, while in the
coldest chills, though the forger must himself bundle up for
warmth, it grew soft and pliable, easily reshaped with hammer
and mallet or at the most cold, pushed with fingers like clay.
A crucial component of the process was the use of
mataure, a clear crystal which would absorb heat in cool rooms
up to a certain point, then would radiate it back out; you could
use it to suck heat out of an area or material, then move it to the
hot forges where it would provide a steady, even heat until it
went dry.
He had sent two apprentices to bring him some mataure
ready for use, as he needed his current work to be extremely
cold. He was forging laen to use for a set of blades and
arrowheads to be used for fighting drakes; their fire would only
make it stronger.
Unfortunately, they had not made it back and he had no one
else to send, as the other smiths in the rooms down here were all
hard at work.
Chance, if chance it was, brought him help. To his
surprise, his distant relative Finduilas had descended down to
the cold-forging rooms and was herding his errant apprentices,
who looked very embarrassed. She had long golden hair and
grey eyes and was buried in many layers of warm clothing and
still shivered. She was not used to the extremes like him.
Neither were his apprentices, who started shivering again. He
sighed; they were too soft, all the younger generation were.
But they had fresh mataure, and so his work could
continue. They carefully placed it where the old ones had been,
then stepped back, standing close to each other, one boy and one
girl. Adults in theory but children to him.
“I’m sorry to bother you, cousin,” she said. There was a
technical term for their precise relationship but he didn’t care;
this was good enough. Their fathers had feuded but
Celebrimbor had broken with his father Curufin, son of Feanor,
long ago.
“It is fine,” he said. “What brings you here?” Finduilas
was neither a crafter nor a user of weapons; rather, she was a
healer and a counselor, and a true romantic. Whether you
thought she was crazy or noble to hold onto her memories of the
human she had loved so long ago, she still had not given up on
seeing him again.
Celebrimbor hoped this trip had nothing to do with Turin
Turambar, a man who had destroyed everything he touched,
including Finduilas’ home. Yet it seemed she did not hold that
against him.
Love was a crazy thing. But he’d had his own love that
never came to aught. So he worked in the forge and left
romance to the young.
Which, given the way his two apprentices were studying
each other, foolishly thinking he did not notice, would explain a
few things.
“I ask you to make me a lens of light blue laen,” she told
him, getting out a set of plans. “To these specifications. I will,
of course, return the favor however I am able.”
As she explained her idea, he found himself getting
interested in it. Whether it would work, he did not know, but the
idea of crafting something new appealed to him. Once this
project was done, but in the time scale of his kind, that would be
a short time indeed.
And it thankfully had nothing to do with romance. Neither
would the punishment for his apprentices for running off to kiss
and cuddle when they ought to be working. Starting with a nice
long run to get some needed supplies.
END CHAPTER TWO