Disclaimer: This story is a compilation of some of my favorite manga and anime. I don’t own any of these characters. This story is intended for free and simple enjoyment of anyone interested in reading this. It uses characters and situations ranging from Ranma ½, Evangelion, Sailor Moon, and Ah, My Goddess!. Enjoy the story. If you would like to send criticism, compliments, questions, or have an interest in tae kwon do, email me at:
jehtek@hotmail.com.Once again, enjoy the story.
Dark Star
Chapter Two
Three years ago . . .
It was another one of those uncomfortably hot days. The sun was beating down on the training field for NERV’s Evangelions. In a normal world, there would have been picnic and outings to the beach to enjoy the clear skies and warm sun. But this was not a normal world, however, and there weren’t any picnic to enjoy anymore.
Soryu Asuka Langley had no qualms with any of this, though. She had been raised, taught, and prepared to devote her life to the Evangelion project and for her there wasn’t much she rather be doing. Right now she was dressed in her plug suit and heading for the main hanger where Eva 002, her Eva, was waiting.
They were testing a new power source that would give the Evas greater mobility without having to rely on the power cables. It was some sort of reactor based on the N2 bombs that would meld with the Eva’s systems safely, they hoped. Her job was to test the first real application of this new power source. They couldn’t count on First Child because she was just a doll, Asuka had haughtily remarked.
This got its usual reaction from Rei, none.
Eva 002 was red, the same as her hair, and reflected the pilots attitude quite succinctly. Asuka gazed upon her Evangelion with some pride. Everyone knew she was the best pilot in NERV, all thanks to her tempering of the red Eva’s control and her hard-earned talent. When the Angels attacked, she would be the one to destroy each and every one of them. Her ability was unmatched. Just like her beauty, Asuka smirked and tossed a few locks of her long red hair over her shoulder.
"Asuka?" Misato’s voice echoed through the main hangar as she spoke through a mic in the observation room. "The new system shouldn’t make too much difference in the Eva’s handling. We just want you to go out there and run through some drills so we can monitor the power regulators."
"I know that!" Asuka spat out. "I’m not a stupid doll like some pilots!" She scoffed at the men who tried to help her into the entry plug and jumped in on her own. The red feedback cords were fit on place on her head and the entry plug was sealed. All that was left was to wait for Misato to order the launch. Taking a deep breath, Asuka settled into her seat and waited while engineers made final adjustments and readings.
"Eva 002, launch!"
About time, Asuka thought grumpily. Her body tensed as she felt the Eva lifted to the training grounds for her first test run in the new system.
The Eva reached the surface in a few seconds. The sun shined brightly off of the new finish of the red monster. Locks about the frame of the NERV lift disengaged and Asuka was set free to move about. Her sync ratio, she was told, had hit a new high in the mid seventies. The new system had made so improvements, Asuka thought.
Speakers in her piloting chamber hissed on and brought commands from the observation room. "Alright, Asuka. Let’s begin the test. Start slowly with some walking and basic drills."
"Hai."
Still locked within the hangar, Rei was stationed in her Eva as backup in case of Angel attack or some other unforeseeable problem. She didn’t mind the darkness of the inactive monitors or the fact she seemed to have been forgotten. It was simply her duty to wait for orders from ops.
She thought over the Eva operational manual to check her memory against the systems, recalling the needed program to override the hold order on her Eva. It wasn’t something most people knew about. Asuka was not one of those trusted with the information because of her unstable nature. The same reason for Gendou’s choice on the self-release held true for this test. Asuka was expendable in Gendou’s eyes and everyone seemed to realize this but the Second Child.
Two hours passed. The running time of the new Eva system would be running out soon and Rei would be released to help them pull Eva 002 from the valley floor. Ops was pushing the remodeled engine and energy pack to their limits. Misato had ordered Asuka to go through a whole regiment of hard training like they had done for her training. Occasionally, Rei heard the girl scream as she pushed herself harder, cursing at the Eva for being to slow though it was marginally faster than the originals. So far, no real problems had been found with the system. Greater mobility with faster, more expensive systems.
Asuka screamed.
"Asuka! What happened? Are you alright?" Misato’s voice was tense and frightened. She got that way when things went wrong. It seemed strange to Rei, aren’t they supposed to be Eva pilots? Wasn’t it their duty to defend the planet at the cost of their lives? The sooner Katsuragi understood this, the easier her life would be.
Asuka screamed again, a piercing sound of agony that had no right to come from human vocal cords. Rei could hear her pleas, "Get out of my head! I don’t want to see that!" but her orders were to remain in the docking bay until she received orders from ops.
"We are tracking an in orbit Angel over the training field. It seems to be transmitting some sort of energy beam into the Eva unit." One of the nameless technicians answered a question Rei assumed Commander Gendou had asked.
Ritsuko could be heard through a low din of noise. She was a bit further off from the open com. "Asuka’s readings are jumping all over the place. Whatever is going on, it’s causing mild seizures in her. I’m going to administer a sedative to see if we can’t knock her out of it."
There was a moment of silence as the open com went down. Rei’s monitors were still blank. She waited for the order she expected to come from Katsuragi.
The speakers crackled. "Rei, an Angel has taken over 002 and is heading for NERV. Stop it at all costs." Gendou’s voice was flat and emotionless much like her own. He was basically ordering Asuka’s death and Rei understood that, those were her orders.
"Hai."
Monitors began to glow to life as the docking bay shot for the surface. In mere moments Rei was on top with her Eva, grabbing a large rifle off of a nearby stand. From telemetry, she could see Asuka’s Eva was still a few hundred meters off around the mountains and closing fast. The energy should be running out soon, but with an Angel infecting the Eva, who knew how that would effect its power levels.
Unit 002 came around the mountain on full tilt. The metal locks around the red jaws had splintered and broken, allowing the beast to roar a shrill, gurgling sound.
Rei remained unfazed and uncaring. She held the rifle up to sight it with the incoming target. Thoughts of Asuka’s welfare had yet to rise in her mind; Rei pulled the trigger, aimed for the vital points of unit 002’s nerve structure.
With sudden flashes of speed, Eva 002 dodged to one side of Rei’s pointed rifle, skipping out of the way of heated uranium charges. Only a few dozen meters away now, it lunged the remaining distance with claws open and ready to kill.
Rei’s Eva was doubled over and bowled onto the ground. She groaned in shared pain, but otherwise remained indifferent to the situation. Too close for rifle fire, she released the energy blade from her Eva’s forearm and tried to plunge into the red unit’s belly. Her first hit glanced off the side of her opponent’s armor as it rolled away. Sweeping her legs, Rei brought the red Eva back to the ground and quickly mounted the beast with the blade aimed at its head. If she hit, Asuka would surely die from the feedback trauma. Voices over the com were shouting at her to stop.
"Understood." The red Eva continued to struggle under her.
Gendou’s flat tone came back over coms. "Rei, I ordered you to kill Eva 002. Now do it."
Showing the first bit of hesitancy with an order from Commander Ikari, Rei simply held her Eva still. "Asuka may suffer a traumatic repercussion from such an act." She stated back.
"You know my order."
Rei looked back at the other Eva, cocking her head to one side as if thinking upon his response. The option was soon taken from her anyway.
The possessed Eva gained some leverage of Rei’s unit and pulled an arm free. Striking quickly, its claws sank into her side, leaving sizable gashes along the abdomen.
Screaming in pain, Rei reacted instinctively and plunged the energy blade down. It felt little resistance because of its particular design and passed out the back of Eva 002’s head to connect with the valley floor. Gasping, Rei let the blade disappear as she stood up, standing sentinel over the body.
"Finish the job." Gendou ordered coldly.
"The Eva is already dead."
There was a pause and a small amount of commotion over the com. Then, unbidden, Eva 000 bared its claws and dove in to the downed Eva. Ripping and tearing at the body cavity, it pulled away layer after layer of protection until Asuka’s entry plug was clearly visible. Ramming its fist in once more, Eva 000 removed the entry plug and began squeezing with mechanically reinforced strength.
When it was over, the entry plug was a scrap of twisted metal, covered in a strange purple substance, which had prevented Asuka’s emergency release sequence. Rei only watched dispassionately as the torn metal cylinder fell to the green earth, spattering mixes of red and purple over the grass.
"Remain on sight until recovery units have arrived." Misato choked out before the coms did.
"Understood."
Present day . . .
Nightmares.
Since the meeting at her house, Rei had begun to have some of the strangest, delightful, and absurd dreams of her life. The worst came as glorified memories of her past. She looked back at herself and hated how emotionless she was to her co-workers. There was not a feeling of remorse any time she turned someone down as if they never existed. Her whole life until that meeting with Ranko was devoted to Gendou, a man cold enough to deny his own son a word of acknowledgment for some twelve years.
New emotions and feelings ran through her body these days and she was still coming to grips with all of them. When she woke up in that hospital to find Shinji waiting at her bedside, she felt relief and joy. They overcame her control and sought release, which she found in the boy.
Since then, their relationship had grown closer, no longer colleagues, but more like friends. The kiss had been their first and for a time they did try to remain together, but things for Eva pilots were never easy. They worried over each other during the battles with the Angels and it affected their concentrations. If not for Ranko and Ranma, this planet may have been lost long ago.
Rei wasn’t certain what she and Shinji had now. He knew of her beginnings. It came up somewhere in conversation on one of their dates. A fancy restaurant, as far as Shinji could afford, and some slow love songs had gotten to her and Rei was certain that things could not continue. It had been beautiful, one of their best dates, and she had confessed all. Shinji had been shocked for a second then kissed her. He said that what she was did not change how he felt about her.
They weren’t sure what it was since neither of them had felt love before. Since then they had lapsed back into amiable companionship, friends. It was good for both of them.
"Morning Rei." Shinji smiled at her as he moved down the row of desks to take his seat.
Smiling back, she greeted him and went back to her window. Some things never changed. School was still so boring and had no real meaning for her when her life was still devoted to playing puppet for the Commander. His command was still top priority; it had to be if the planet was to be saved.
The last of the Angels had met their death at Ranko’s hands and everyone was grateful. For a time, everyone had celebrated their victory then things started happening. Gendou ordered technicians to conclude their research into newer models of the Evas. People started asking questions.
After a month, neither Ranko nor Gendou would speak of the meeting held between Eva 002 and Angel-12, a report was finally released. Another generation of Angels was expected to assault the Earth.
Rei was worried. The last Angels had almost been too much for them. This new generation of killing machines was likely to be more than they could handle. This time, the world was really going to have to lean on Ranma and Ranko for support. She and Shinji would not likely . . .
The door opened then and a girl with long, flowing red hair entered. She did not wear the uniform of the school, but blue pants and a white blouse. It was close enough to the school colors, probably hasn’t received her uniform yet, the teacher assumed.
There was a slight limp in the girl’s walk and streaks of white ran up and down her arms. She handed the teacher a note and waited for him to respond.
The teacher almost choked on the air, but settled quickly, giving the girl a closer look. Nodding, he spoke softly and the girl walked down the aisle, her hair drifting in the wind and Rei could finally get a good look at the girl.
Rei would have gone white if she weren’t already so pale. She watched in horror as a nightmare given form glanced in her direction from a desk that had once carried a black ribbon to a lost student. The truth of the student’s death had been kept secret to protect NERV and its pilots. Truth that had obviously been repressed from Rei as well.
"Asuka." Rei whispered as if to say the name too loud was to call upon the wrath of some deity. Soryu Asuka Langley would act as its tool, Rei had no doubt.
Fear had become a common emotion in Rei’s life, but it had been directed more to Shinji’s safety during each of their battles. This new fear was more terrible and frightening to the pilot. It demanded immediate response, but she did not know how to act. Rei could not go to Shinji, who sat oblivious to the situation in front of Asuka.
She needed help. There was one other person in the school that Rei felt secure around.
Without a word, Rei picked up her book bag and walked calmly out of the room. No one asked questions due to the nature of her job.
She may have been calm on the outside, but inside Rei wanted to run screaming down the halls and find some dark corner to drop herself in.
Rei had run into Ranko’s first period class very distressed. Ranko had never seen the cool girl in such a state. Giving the class a series of drills to perform, Ranko took her friend to the side and tried to calm her down.
Stuttering for a start, Rei finally got a hold of herself and tried to explain things calmly. "Ranko, Asuka is back!"
Sometimes you and your emotions are running on separate tracks.
"Calm down, Rei. Who is Asuka?" asked Ranko. There wasn’t much she could do but hold Rei’s shoulder. The girl seemed to be on the verge of tears. Whoever Asuka was, seeing her had upset Rei greatly.
"A-Asuka is the Second Child."
Frowning, Ranko went over what she knew of NERV. "No, Shinji is Second."
Shaking her head vigorously, Rei continued. "No, Shinji is not the Second. We tell him that to cover the death of the true Second."
A little confused. "Excuse me?"
Chimes rang and the two looked up to see the class lining up to be dismissed. Making sure that Rei wasn’t going anywhere, Ranko headed to the front of the class and bowed them out. Some of the students stayed a little after to ask questions. Once the room was empty, Ranko returned to the bleachers and waited for Rei to continue.
"When NERV first started up, I was the First. It soon became apparent that we needed more support and a second Eva was constructed.
"In Russia, there was a young girl who had been raised and taught to handle the Eva units. She was to become the Second, Soryu Asuka Langley.
"Together, we were able to handle the next Angel attacks without much difficulty. During the battle her power cord was cut and we only barely finished before time ran out." Ranko paused when she noticed Ranko’s blank look.
"Back then, the Eva’s did not have the NC3 battery, but a long cable running from its back and into the NERV center for power. When the cord is cut, the Eva has an excess charge good for five minutes.
"You can see how the cable was a weakness. We would have had no chance against some of the later Angels with those old models." Rei’s voice started to trail off as her eyes traveled across the empty gym. Tears rolled down her cheeks, as she seemed to see something far away.
Ranko was deeply concerned, but couldn’t be certain of what to do. Part of her wanted to hold Rei and banish all the pain, but for some reason, Ranko thought interrupting the girl was a mistake. Rei was strong willed and still quite new to the emotions she was feeling. Let her decide what will happen next, Ranko decided.
"After the second Angel attack, NERV researchers came up with the new system and wanted it tested. They chose Asuka to test pilot. All I had to do was wait on standby if something should happen.
"The third Angel was a parasite. It infected the prototype Eva. Gendou gave me the orders and . . ." Her hands hid her face as she tried to hide the pain in her tears.
"And she shot me down like the puppet she is."
Rei gasped and Ranko turned about in her seat to get a look at the new voice. Remaining calm and collected, Ranko looked over the new girl with pity. She had beautiful silky red hair that reached her lower back, but scars along the right side of her head, just above the ear, left patches of exposed scalp when it wasn’t combed over. Asuka wore a long sleeved blouse and pants, likely to hide the trail of white scars Ranko could see across the clenched fist.
Barring the way of the raging girl, Ranko had obviously been nominated as mediator. "You know that is not entirely true."
Asuka tried moving Ranko aside, but the smaller girl wouldn’t budge. She had at least five inches on the pigtailed girl. "Out of my way, dumkoff! You don’t know anything!"
"Oh?" Ranko’s eyebrow raised for a moment. "You’ve been gone for a long time as I understand it. Things are not the same as they used to be."
Glaring at the unmovable redhead, Asuka tried shouting in her face. "What are you talking about?! Do you know who I am?!"
"From what I’ve heard, you were the Second Child."
"I am the Second Child!" She screamed back, her hand lashing out to slap Ranko across the face.
A squawk of surprise, Asuka dropped to her knees as Ranko pressed her strength into the captured wrist. "Then act like it." Ranko snarled.
"How dare you!" Asuka started spitting out a dictionary of Russian expletives that no one in the room could follow. She tried to stand, pressing her other hand to build leverage; Ranko didn’t budge. "Who are you?!"
Ranko studied the other girl’s frustrated face. She could see hate, anger, and pain. The girl had been raised to pilot the Evas and follow NERV’s orders. Her whole life given one purpose and it led down a dark path, ignorant and lost, and then it was ripped from her as her plug was ripped from the Eva prototype. Asuka may not have realized it, but she was as much a puppet as Rei was.
"It would have been no different if Rei had been taken by the Angel. Gendou would have ordered you to do just as she did." Relaxing her grip on Asuka, Ranko’s gaze softened. "If you want revenge then return with us to NERV. The Angels are to blame for this, not Rei. We will help you if we can."
"Why do you care?" Asuka was calmer, but the ice in her voice still made Rei shiver. "Who are you?"
"Third Child." Asuka gave her a good look over, settling on Ranko’s eyes for a long time. Millennia ago, the cold inspection she was getting would have unnerved Ranko terribly. Now she could see Asuka’s mind working, looking for the edge and ruthlessness she expected to see in a pilot.
Nodding, Asuka stood up to her full height and extended her hand. The years spent in recovery didn’t mean she had been kept out of the loop entirely. She had been privy to some of the footage of the last battles because of her concern over the Angels. "Soryu Asuka Langley, Second Child. People call me Asuka."
The handshake was firm, but it was not a challenge, more like an understanding and respect for the other. "Ranko Saotome. Ranko is fine."
Asuka nodded again and gave Rei another cold look before leaving the room.
"Poor girl." Ranko muttered as she watched the redhead disappear down the hall. "You can stay here if you want, Rei, but I should return to class. I’m sure my next class is waiting."
"Thank you, Ranko." Rei remained in her seat for another hour, thinking over the confrontation with Asuka.
Around the corner, a thunder of conflicting emotion, uncontrolled as the storm cloud, Shinji forced himself not to run the short distance to Rei. He would scream and accuse her of the things she could not have controlled back then. Though it hadn’t been said, he knew as well as anyone that the order could not have come from anyone else.
When he was very young, Shinji lost his mother before he could begin to build long term memories of her. Then he lost his father, a man that felt like a cold lump in his being, a cancer to his heart. This was the last straw. How could he continue on with such a man in control?
Were they saving the world, or a people on the verge of moral collapse?
All around him, people lived small lives that kept them away from the bigger picture. The world was falling apart and the people reflected their environment, a whole is not complete without its parts.
"Damn you." A small impact against the gym wall pressed against his fist. The few things young and corruptible, Gendou had taken with both hands and squeezed. Rei was a clone, but they were all puppets to the man. His order came down to fight the Angels and no argument Shinji could think of would let him run from the dark destiny. Couldn’t his father see how much it hurt to fight most of the time?
Leave it to Ranko and Ranma, he wanted to say. They were warriors and used to the pain. Shinji could kill and suffer an injury, but each time he lost something more to the Eva.
But shouldn’t he leave now? The next generation will be way beyond his ability to contend. Ranma and Ranko, they were the only ones who could stand up against the threat. It wasn’t fair to keep him and Rei at NERV. Wasted lives.
He was just a little, scared kid, not the strong, confidant fighters they were. Even Asuka, a girl who had lost everything to NERV, was stronger than he was now. Shinji could tell from the way she carried herself that Asuka was a pilot NERV could use, not him.
Not him.
Not anymore.
Heaven was a combination of huge expanses of awesome scenery and the small simplicity of a working life. Of course, the big difference between the jobs in Heaven and those on the mortal plane has to deal directly with the area of influence and the power involved. Where else could you see the Greek parthenons and Mayan temples on the same mountain range?
Heaven was power and control. The slightest nudge here or a little push there and the northern continents took a plunge off the deep end. That was why only the most skilled, intelligent, and responsible Gods were employed to work with Ygddrisll.
Leaning back in her chair, Skuld rubbed the weariness out of her eyes. She had been hard at work running through the subprograms of send receive protocols through the flux matrix, a sophisticated mode of transportation across planes. With the threat of Ragnarok around the corner, debuggers around the system had been forced to work overtime to be sure nothing was slipping through the cracks. In Skuld’s case, she was being set to work on spatial anomalies. Not very hard work considering the divine power at her disposal, but everything had to be looked into and full reports made before the work could be finished.
It was this second part, investigation, which had really bothered her. Wasn’t it easier to just close the problem up and not worry about it? Apparently not.
Skuld was, at the moment, chewing her nails nervously after picking through her latest project. The anomaly was depicted on her screen, reflecting a myriad of colors off her sleep-deprived features. An hour ago she had called for consultation. Having no one above her in expertise of this area, she was expecting to receive another systems specialist to concur her findings.
"What’s up, squirt?"
She groaned. It must be some sort of cosmic irony that she would be sent.
Too distracted to give Urd a proper look of disgust, Skuld only bristled slightly at her sister’s taunt and turned back to her computer. She was one of the best technician/debuggers because the little annoying things didn’t distract her.
Finishing the last few keystrokes to her program, Skuld set up a second monitor, appearing overhead so Urd could examine her findings from a distance. "This is what’s up."
Urd only gave the monitor a glance than shrugged indifference. "C’mon little girl. You know I’m not a big techno geek like yourself. Looks like sandscript for all I know." It wasn’t exactly a lie since she could read sandscript and speak it fluently, but it was enough to annoy her little sister to remove the unnecessary chunks of data scrolling by on the screen. Soon it was replaced by a single image.
"How about that? Or should I get out some crayons?" She sneered at the tall platinum haired woman. Urd was in one of her revealing, two piece, black leather things that defied gravity as it supported her Amazon like figure. If she weren’t so damn tall, Skuld may have had less to complain about with her older sister.
Rolling her eyes, Urd leaned over to get a closer look. "So what? You needed help to identify a portal? That’s beginners stuff, squirt."
Skuld ground her teeth, holding back a retort. "Well, maybe you should head back to school, old woman. That," she pointed to the fluctuating rift in space. "is not a portal. It’s a tear."
Frowning again, Urd took a closer look. "It’s a mess. Probably a screw up in the incantation, but it looks like a portal to me."
"Do you even know what a tear is?!" Skuld asked incredulously. This was like explaining biparticle fusion in a cold solid state, kid stuff.
Urd shrugged and waited for her to continue.
"Portals are divine power with order and permission to exist. This is a forced entry through existence."
Rubbing a finger over her chin in thought, Urd ventured a guess to the explanation. "You saying this thing was made by Lucifer?"
Skuld blinked, looked at her sister as if she had claimed to be lost in a closet (she heard it happened to soul with bandannas), and patted the platinum haired woman on the shoulder. "That’s okay. I hear a lot of older women start to lose their minds."
Huffing, Urd looked at the screen closer. "Well spit it out, will ya?"
"Tears can’t be made by anyone. Not God or Demon. Whoever is trying to push through is as powerful or possibly more so than the Almighty himself."
Urd turned from the monitor with a contemplative look on her face. One didn’t see this expression on the tan Goddess often. "So you’re saying this is a bad thing."
Yggdrisl experienced its first small tremor due to massive facefault.
School passed by slowly. Ranko continued to have visions of the girl, scarred and broken, lying within the hand of an Eva. She knew Gendou was cruel. Most likely he still was, but it also made sense. He wasn’t cold because the human side of him was gone. Commander Ikari was a bastard because that is what the people of NERV needed him to be. Nothing would be accomplished in their work without this seemingly small sacrifice on his part.
No matter the reason, it still hurt to think that that poor girl had once lived for one reason and lost it all to an order.
Rei had been silent since that morning. Shinji had also been strangely absent, but there was likely a good reason for both.
During these times when something was truly troubling Rei, she would revert too much of her old personality. She became aloof and curt to a point where people thought of her as nothing more than a walking machine. Her movements were mechanical and made to conserve energy in space. Her red eyes dulled without a gleam of life.
The two of them stood in the changing room. Ranko had yet to break the girl’s thoughts, hoping Rei would find a way to express herself. If it took much longer though, Ranko was getting ideas of holding the blue-haired girl under a frigid shower. If that didn’t work there was always the other extreme.
Rei seemed to finally take note of Ranko’s sidelong glances. She pulled herself up and took a deep breath. "I love the gift, Ranko."
Ranko blinked in response and sat down on one of the benches across from the girl.
Smiling, Rei followed suit and looked at her hands resting in her lap. "I never got around to thanking you before. I suspect you figured out that your ki jump-started all of my new feelings.
"That’s what your ki is, right? Wrapped up emotions and feelings, a color to reflect the greatest of them?
"It was the very day I woke up and saw Shinji waiting for me. He didn’t know I was awake for a long time because I kept silent, watching him sitting there with his head in his hands.
"I’ve been in that very chair a few times myself, waiting for Shinji to recover from one injury or another. I couldn’t explain it or understand it myself at the time, but I knew I must have been worried."
Chuckling a bit to herself, Rei let her gaze wander into the distance. "If it weren’t for you, I might never have known why I waited in that chair, but I still would have gone."
Ranko wasn’t sure if now was the right time for her to respond. She had yet to hear what Rei truly had to say. It wasn’t hard to figure out that Rei had feelings for Shinji, but why she talked about it now, Ranko had no idea.
They sat silently in the changing room for a few minutes, the sound of water dripping periodically off the faucet heads. The plug suits were draped over benches, waiting to be put on.
Breaking away from the uncomfortable stillness, Ranko started pulling on her blue and green plug suit, adjusting the matching trodes to sit snugly on her head. She waited for a moment before zipping up to see if Rei would follow; the girl had yet to move from her seat.
"Rei?"
Vibrant red eyes focused on Ranko. Their gaze no longer the unreadable orbs of an alien hybrid. She saw some fear in them, something Ranko shouldn’t have to see in anyone.
"Take Shinji and go. You don’t need to be here anymore." Ranko smiled at the new hope shimmering in Rei’s eyes. "Stay at the temple if you like."
Standing up, Rei grabbed her own white and black plug suit. She dressed in it quietly, thinking over what Ranko had just offered her. It was everything she wanted right now, leave NERV and the fight, keep Shinji safe, and try to find some place to live. A tear rolled down her cheek; it was all she wanted and yet, "I . . I can’t leave Shinji-kun unprotected."
The walls echoed with Ranko’s footsteps as she headed out of the changing room. "I’m not going to tell you how to live your life, Rei, but there isn’t much you or Shinji can do against the Angels any longer. Talk to Shinji. Trust me with his protection, and yours."
Rei smiled and zipped up her suit. Shinji was out there now, but maybe, with Ranko’s word, she could take him away from this before it’s too late.
They were told to assemble in the main docking bay for a brief announcement before exercises. Ranma stood silently leaning against the metal post around unit 001, closest to the observation room. The black and blue plug suit he wore could not hide the occasional twitch in his muscles.
Ranko led Rei out of the girl’s changing room and found him, muttering curses in his impatience and glaring at anyone that came his way. "Settle down, little brother. Scrunch up your face like that anymore and it may stay that way."
Ranma scowled and stood up straighter. His attention stayed with Ranko until she was right before him. "What do you want?"
"You could be nicer." She admonished.
On the sidelines, Rei and various technicians of NERV watched the siblings cautiously. Ranma’s recent behavior, while exceptional in training, was to be feared anywhere else. Some of the people feared that he might fall into the same fit his wife did. The nature of Ranma and Ranko’s power was not wide spread knowledge; most thought it magic, but it did leave many cowering at night. They were afraid that the two pilots could be worse than the enemy could if situations weren’t handled carefully.
"You could leave me alone."
Mock pouting, Ranko hugged Ranma about the waist and gave him her best puppy dog eyes. "Awe, that’s not very nice of you. I’m tattling the next time I see Akane."
"Shut up."
A little irritated, Ranko reached up for his collar and pulled the boy down bodily to her level. He tried to resist, but the way they sparred and the way things were held different results. Ranma choked and stumbled to the floor, somewhat kneeling to meet his sister eye to eye. "Now you listen good little brother," Ranko hissed, quietly enough that only Ranma could hear. "The tough guy act is a fine way for you to behave after Akane’s death if you think it’ll help, but there are other people around here who still care and respect you. Play tough all you want, but I better not hear about you being cruel. That’s not the Ranma I know and love."
Scowling a little more, he tried to extricate himself from Ranko’s grip. "Let go."
"Not until you promise to behave."
"Or else what?" He asked flatly, as if she were a fly on the wall.
Smiling wickedly, Ranko brought his face closer to hers. "Or else I kick your butt up and down the city like any good sibling should."
Ranma looked her straight in the eyes and swallowed nervously. It shouldn’t feel like a threat when a girl a foot shorter than you held you by the lapels. Even with her face slightly frowning with anger Ranko looked adorable. But after feeling the weight of some of the little redhead’s blows and seeing the fire burning in her eyes, even the biggest man would wilt.
"I promise."
"Good!" Ranko instantly brightened and gave him a slight peck on the cheek before releasing her grip. "So, have you seen Shinji?"
Shaking his head, Ranma peered out over the metal walkways and technician holes. "Haven’t seen him since you, him, and Rei left this morning. Why?"
"Oh, Rei has a question for him, but I suppose it can wait. Wasn’t he in the changing room?"
He shook his head again. Looking over to where Rei stood, her hands clasped behind her back and the turmoil in her eyes, Ranma became concerned. "What’s wrong with Rei?"
"She’s worried about him, of course." Ranko stated.
"Who?"
Frowning, Ranko knocked on his head, waiting for the hollow reverberation. "Shinji. Who else?"
Taking a moment to think things through, Ranma pondered why Rei should be worried. It got really annoying when Ranko treated him like a child. Not everyone had the luxury of thousands of years of experience to help them work things out. "Commander Ikari isn’t going to like it if they ask to leave."
"So who’s asking?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Ranma waited for the rest in thoughtful silence.
Misato and Ritsuko arrived a few minutes later, the young medical assistant, Maya, in tow. They had little to say and less to reveal about Gendou’s meeting. This was actually a first for any of the pilots to receive a pep talk before heading out for Eva training. It will be the first time all but Rei had even seen the Commander for a few months. He had locked himself away somewhere in the facility, working on a new project that only Dr. Akagi knew anything about.
"Good, you’re here."
Above them, a small open landing with some background lighting, the Commander stood looking down on them like a king to his subjects. No one really cared for his theatrics, mainly because they hated the man in general. The little things he did to make himself look superior grated on everyone’s nerves.
Gendou wore his regular button up shirt and slacks of unremarkable gray and green. His eyeglasses rested on the curve of his nose to give him an extra ounce of pomposity. He leaned up against the hand railing with the same unreadable and slightly unsettling expression as always.
"What’s this all about, Commander?" Misato asked, annoyed about being forced to walk all around the NERV facility just to end up running into Ritsuko and have to ask for directions, again.
He either missed the edge in her voice or just didn’t care because he went on like nothing had been said. "Ranko, I can assume that a year is not enough time to train anyone adequately enough to pilot the Evangelions at your level."
"Correct." Ranko answered, a bit confused to the direction of his statement. Was he looking for more pilots?
Gendou nodded. "Research on past conflicts and the remains of each Angel is still underway, but we will be beginning tests for upgrades of the Eva system."
Misato and Rei shifted nervously at the idea. For them, the last upgrade to the Evas was quite fresh in mind.
"What sort of upgrades?" Ranko asked cautiously.
Pressing his glasses further up his nose, the Commander pulled up a remote to the nearby monitors. He switched it on and the screen to his left was filled with different layouts to various components of the Eva system. Most of them had minor adjustments, but some were completely unfamiliar. "With the new Angels about to attack, the need for quicker recovery time in the units has posed as a problem for the Evas. So some of the new armor and weaponry will be comprised of an alloy found in the last Angel attacks. You will have to be retrained when the newer systems are released, but we will be using the Evas to begin experiments."
"Experiments?!" The door to the main dock burst open and a small angry boy stomped through the area to glare at the Commander. "The same kind of experiments you did with Asuka, father?!"
To anyone who knew Shinji, this was completely unexpected. Not once in the year that the boy had come to NERV had his temper flared so dramatically. He was upset when Gendou ordered Rei to continue fighting in her crippled condition, but the venomous anger was never heard.
Misato gasped as she heard Shinji scream. "Who told you about Asuka?"
"Told me?!" Shinji turned on the startled brunette. "No one told me about Asuka at all! I had to find out about it when she came hunting for Rei at school!"
"Stop your whining, Shinji. It was not necessary for you to know about the failure." Gendou stated evenly.
Screaming in outrage, Shinji made a show of clenching his fists and stomping on the steel grating. "Her name was Asuka and she was not the failure, father. You were! You have always been the failure. You don’t care about anything but making our lives miserable!"
"I’m not here to win a popularity contest, Shinji. I’m here to save the planet." Gendou showed some disappointment in his son’s attitude by frowning and turning his attention to something more important than a whining brat did.
"You can’t shut me up with that lame excuse anymore, dad. I’m still one of the Eva pilots and you need me so you’re gonna listen to everything that I have to say!" He waited for some sort of rebuttal, but when it didn’t come, Shinji looked around to see what had happened.
Everyone in the room was no longer looking at the family dispute. Instead they had turned to see a new figure standing in the doorway to the main hangar. The person wore a red and blue plug suit and had long, curly red hair, but the rest of their features were hidden in the shadows.
"As you can see," Gendou nodded to the open doorway below him.
"I have no need for you at all."
The room was quiet for a few moments as everyone got a good look at the new arrival. She stepped in closer so the light could touch her face. They saw a sly, cocky grin and strangely bright green eyes on a young girl, somewhere in her late teens. She looked something like a cross between Rei and Asuka.
"This is Mei, Fifth Child."
Shinji stood, his mouth open and eyes wide in horror. He hadn’t gotten a good look at the original Second Child, but he was certain she and the Fifth looked very similar except for the scars. Rei’s origins were no longer a mystery to him, but certainly she had been the only clone his father would . . .
"Now shut up or get out."
Lightning, crackling blue-white energy striking the ground from the sky. People of this mortal plane look up to the sky, that great blue expanse of sometimes serenity and other times tumult, and claim they see Heaven. But Heaven is a reality away and in that fact, more impossible to reach than a young boy on his toes, stretching for the stars is.
The thunder was a soft rumble across Tokyo-3, echoing across the valley floor to sweep over the mountains like a low wave. The Masaki shrine stood over the valley almost as a sentinel to the tribe or a cliff lighthouse. In many ways, the shrine was a watchtower as it held the world’s first and last line of defense to the Angels.
Upon the courtyard, from where the skyscrapers and neon lights could be seen, Bellandy thought over the nature of the storm.
Lightning was the result excessive negative charge risen from opposing weather fronts. A very technical and understandable proof for their cause, yet they were also chaotic and unpredictable.
Rounding the corner, Urd came into view, her leather dress replaced with a more conservative, billowing robe of a Goddess. She wasn’t bothered by the cold since she could maintain a high body temperature, as could all those in Heaven. Somehow dressing appropriately for the temperature seemed right though.
Bellandy, lost in thought, didn’t see her sister come to stand up behind her. If she weren’t the Goddess of Tranquility, she might have jumped at the sound of the other’s voice.
"I’ve been looking all over for you. Did you hear from Skuld yet?" Urd was uncharacteristically serious. It should with concern in her voice.
Nodding, Bellandy watched another flash of lightning touch down a distance beyond the city. A moment later they felt the wave of sound wash over them.
"We have orders to return by tomorrow afternoon. They want us to get prepared." She was nervous, a feeling of dread growing in the pit of her stomach. "Bellandy, is this what it’s like? Skuld thinks something powerful, more than the Almighty, is readying to attack. That’s ridiculous though, right?"
There was silence for a moment, Bellandy features flashing into brilliant detail for a second in the night. "I’m sorry, Urd. I can’t think of anything that would make any of this seem any better. I’m worried too."
Urd choked back a sob. She wasn’t nervous anymore. The pit in her stomach had spread across her very being until her hands shook. She was scared. "Is there anything we can do?"
"Pray." Bellandy responded in a quavering tone. "Pray that mom can find the power to save us. With Hell knocking at our door, the Guardian of Heaven is all that we have to stand up against this new threat."
Smiling weakly and holding onto her sister’s hand for support, Urd nodded. "Mom is arrogant when it comes to her abilities, but you know what?"
Bellandy turned to regard her little sister.
"I would never doubt her for a second." She smiled hopefully.
Out in the distance, the thunder and lightning began to strike in greater numbers and force. The valley almost shook with their strength.
She hated the storm.
End Chapter Two
* * *
Boy that took me a while to finish. It wasn’t difficult or time consuming in itself, but I had to go through my story outline a few times because things were getting a little confusing. I still haven’t got a clear idea of how this will all end, but it ought to be fun finding out, ne?
Anyway, send comments, criticisms, and questions to
jehtek@hotmail.com and make sure to visit my website www.geocities.com/jehtek/ where you will find all my great works and possibly, some of yours.Ja ne.