[FFML] [Ranma][NGE][HPL][AMG][Fusion][Fanfic] Sic Semper Morituri Chapter 31 - Sub Rosa, Just Watch

[Daniel Jess Gibson]

[Ranma][NGE][HPL][AMG][Fusion][Fanfic] Sic Semper Morituri Chapter 31 - Sub
Rosa, Just Watch the Thorns

Disclaimer:
I do not own any of the characters from Ranma 1 / 2, Neon Genesis
Evangelion, Ah My Goddess, or the Lovecraft Cycle involved in these
stories.

C&C , MSTs are welcome
E-mail: dan_s.comments@worldnet.att.net
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http://www.cs.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/ftp/archive/anime-fan-works/Ranma/type/Sic-Sem
per-Morituri
(these are the original versions)

What has gone before:
About Book 11 of the Tankoubon Manga, Akane and Soun Tendo throw Ranma
out of the house. Nabiki, in the guise of a wish, follows him. They meet
EVA pilots Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami, Asuka Soryu Langley and Jeffrey
Davis.
Asuka and Jeff make the breakthrough in the equations governing the
AT fields. They teach the other pilots the math to understand it. Ranma
understands enough to use the AT field the way he had against Nyogtha.
Hiroko accidentally discovered the truth about Ranma/Ranko, and is
ordered to keep silent. She asks to be a pilot, both Rei and Ritsuko try
to convince her not to. She is killed during the battle against Cthugha,
along with her entire family, and Ranam's friends Kenta and Seisuke.
All of the pilots react to the disaster surrounding the destruction of
Cthugha and his cult in there own ways. Nabiki retreats, Asuka
investigates, Jeff attacks the SEELE. supporters, Ranma seeks a decisive
battle and is frustrated in this end, Rei and Shinji try to support Nabiki.
One of the SEELE members is killed in Osaka, and Natsumi Matsuda
witnesses the entire event.
Asuka takes Ranma to Tokyo University, meeting Belldandy and Keiichi.
Then they return to enjoy the carnival set up on the school grounds.
Ranko does what she can to help the defense against Nabiki's
nightmares.
The arrival of an assassin of Nyarlathotep's cult spoils everyone's
evening as attacks the pilots and senior staff, he is destroyed by Asuka in
Unit 02.

I, I live among the creatures of the night
I haven't got the will to try and fight
Against a new tomorrow, so I guess I'll just believe it
That tomorrow never comes
Self Control - Laura Branigan

Chapter 31 - Sub Rosa, Just Watch the Thorns
Camera Means Vault
June 25, 1947
Jeff lay in his bed. Something depressed him, Asuka could see that as
she entered his bedroom.
"Why are you moping around here?" she asked, "I don't think Horseface
will mess up too much."
"That isn't it," Raccoon said, "I just learned I'm flying to Osaka."
He paused, "With Captain Katsuragi," he added despondently.
"As long as she's not flying, it shouldn't be too bad." Asuka tried
to jolly him.
"That's what you think."
"I've never understood why you hate her so much," Asuka said.
"It isn't hate, but I just don't trust her. I don't believe she'll do
any good," he replied, "It'll be a waste of time to bring her along.
Natsumi won't react well to being badgered by her."
No, you _hate_ her! Asuka thought, You just won't admit it.
Asuka sighed, she knew there were some things about Raccoon that even
she could never understand.
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko looked at Nabiki, sleeping soundly on her futon. She kept
thinking of the legend of the baby Hercules strangling a serpent sent to
kill him. Ritsuko hadn't seen the colorful and intricate quilt before.
Nabiki had wadded part of it under her head to replace her pillow, then
coiled the rest around her like a python. The faint smile, and the lack of
shouts and cries of fear were the most welcome additions.
What am I going to tell Rei and Jeff? Ritsuko wondered, That's what's
got _me_ worried. She sighed, they had told Rei what Ritsuko was, on at
least one occasion, but there was no reason Jeff should have taken it in
stride. She wondered how the others would react, how horrified would they
be? Would they attack her? Or just shun her? She didn't like either
possibility.
She sighed again and looked out the window at the night sky. She
realized the hopelessness of thinking she could keep her secret forever.
I'm a coward, she thought, I just can't make myself trust them.
They've given me no reason to doubt, and many examples of the reverse. I
just can't trust anyone after so long.
----------------------------------------
June 26, 1947
Morisue Takeshi and his brother Takao had returned to fishing after
their stint in the Imperial Navy. The arrogant young man, who was
questioning them about their service aboard the I-14, was unconcerned about
that, or that he was keeping them from earning their living. During the
war, they had serviced the Aicha M6A1 floatplane/bombers carried aboard
their boat, and both had hoped to remain aircraft mechanics after the war.
The peace treaty made that impossible, so they fished and did odd repairs
on the side.
"So besides the pilot, there were two women aboard the plane when it
returned from its rendezvous with the I-400?" the man asked.
"Yes, we refueled it, and sent it off. Then we waited to refuel the
I-400 from our tanks, both ships returned home," Takeshi said. He didn't
like being interrogated away from his brother. As if they'd lie. The only
dishonorable action they had taken in their service aboard I-14 was
allowing the two Allied warships they had sighted to escape, surely these
Americans weren't objecting to them _not_ taking American lives!
"Thank you for your time and truthfulness," the Japanese-American who
had questioned them bowed as the others accompanying him simply nodded.
Out of custom, the older fisherman bowed in reply.
Takao approached, "We'd better get that engine repaired, if we're
going out tomorrow."
Takeshi agreed. "Why the sudden interest in the mission to refuel the
I-400?"
"I'd guess the I-400 went to America, they asked if I knew anything
about it. Maybe the I-400 bombed their country."
"With those planes," Takeshi laughed, "We could only hope." The two
returned to their fishing boat and their repairs.
----------------------------------------
Kaji looked at his evening newspaper, his back to the door of a closed
restaurant. Just another worker lounging about in the dark, waiting to
sober up enough to walk home. No one would expect that this night, in this
locale, a meeting was actually taking place.
"Take a look at the baseball scores," the voice behind him buzzed,
like someone talking through a rice paper mask.
Kaji paged through the shimbun to the sports section. The envelope
taped there disappeared into his coat. "Gendo seems to be taking all that
in stride," Kaji whispered to his unseen accomplice behind the restaurant's
closed door.
"He thinks he is running things, of course he's taking it in stride.
He plays games with the gods and is drunk on his tiny successes. They are
already very angry with him. Powerful as he and SEELE believe they are,
there are always things stronger, or more dangerous."
"His little snoop, Rei, warned him that he may be working for the
Crawling Chaos, killing the Crawler's enemies. If that is the case, it may
have all been a deliberate deception," Kaji told his contact.
"He'd believe her? You believe her?"
"It's hard to tell," Kaji admitted, "I'd almost bet _he_ did. Me,
that's another story. The kid knows less about people than a cat does."
"The Old Men are getting impatient with his strange reticence."
"Another band of people who think they know everything," Kaji
chuckled.
"You still have to report to them," his ally reminded him, "If they
are ignorant, it is partially _your_ fault."
"How is it my fault if I tell them, and they ignore my information?"
Kaji disliked being called on the carpet, even if rightly so.
"You keep digging?" the other - man - Kaji guessed, asked him,
"Sometimes not knowing is better."
"When information is the only real currency, you don't deny yourself a
source."
"Then do you want to return the money we've paid you?"
"Of course not!" Kaji replied, "I _am_ curious why you want to know
what they're both doing, the steps of their little dance. I know full
well, the major powers have riddled NERV with spies, none lack eyes within
or ears at the walls."
"Perhaps we want independent confirmation. Perhaps, like you, we
prefer to keep our options open."
"A good, noncommittal answer." Kaji folded the paper after noting his
next time of contact. He wondered why the man insisted on that buzzing
trick to disguise his voice. It was effective, even a deep-voiced woman
might have duplicated it. The voice was clear enough, and the money and
information were simply too good to walk away from.
Several blocks away from the restaurant, Kaji discarded part of the
newspaper. Blocks later, he discarded the rest after he'd confirmed no one
was watching the first drop. The information in the envelope was the
important thing, even more than the money. He wondered what Misato was
doing, supposedly she would be headed for Osaka on some mission or other.
Later, he could take her on another date, get the real facts from her. She
always talked too much when she got drunk. While getting her that drunk
was expensive, it was usually worth it.
Many of the things he learned about NERV, SEELE, and their enemies
were horrible. Others were simply embarrassing for those who hid them.
Other things eluded him completely. Such as, overnight Gendo became a
greater expert on their enemies than even the best sages advising the Old
Men, reports were that Pilot Davis likewise had an epiphany of similar
breadth and depth. Neither had been willing to discuss what had suddenly
allowed them this discernment. Kaji wanted to know not only what they
knew, but how they suddenly gained the answers he so desperately sought.
_That_ was a secret he wanted above all else. He suspected he could use
Rei as a wedge against the Commander, but he doubted he'd survive the
riposte. Davis lacked a real weak point, but Asuka might be a good start.
He could get her ensnared again, but she'd been less friendly, and
therefore less talkative of late. If he could reverse that, he might have
a way to pry the secrets loose. But he'd also need another string to his
bow.
"Maybe I should convince Misa-chan to be `friendly`, or better yet,
Rit-chan." He'd seen the way the boy looked at Rit-chan. Kaji wondered
what she'd be willing to do to keep the Children from learning some of her
secrets.
But blackmail's not my style, he thought. He also had to wonder how
much he was going to report to Gendo about this. He had a feeling the
Commander of NERV was hiding the most important and intricate secrets of
all. The very ones that would make sense of all this. The ones even the
Old Men didn't know. Getting him to reveal those secrets was worse than
pulling teeth. In pulling teeth, the other person could know what you were
doing.
----------------------------------------
The street Kaji had left was sparsely populated, but the small figure
in the shadows, who had observed everything, waited until nothing moved on
the street before vanishing back home. He'd seen the other `person`, who
was part of the meeting, take flight through the night sky. He'd already
decided the Russians and their enemies needed further scrutiny. Now he had
proof they were interfering on this side of the Sea of Japan. He
considered all this as he instantly returned home.
Another hour passed. Another figure, less sorcerously capable, but
vastly more patient, left its hiding place to slip from one shadow to the
next in its return home to report all it had seen and heard.
----------------------------------------
June 27, 1947
Gendo watched Kaji lounging in the chair before his desk. Gendo
stared at the other man over his steepled fingers. it was too early in the
morning to stomach such insolence, but Kaji had probably been awake all
night.
"They aren't happy about what you have been withholding," Kaji told
him, "But considering the casualties they've taken in Tokyo, they can't do
much to directly redress the situation."
"That means they will take even more precipitous action when they do
move," Gendo said, completing the thought, none of this was new
information, but he wasn't going to let Kaji know that. "What would they
have me do?" Gendo asked, "They are not the only concern we have here. Not
even they can ignore that they have competitors."
"You think someone is feeding them disinformation, lying to the Old
Men? Impossible!" Kaji seemed aghast.
Gendo suspected it was an act. "They have continually expressed an
interest in _Ranma_ Saotome, not Ranma _and_ Ranko, they implied the two
are different people. There is only one person at NERV who shares that
particular delusion."
Kaji considered Gendo's words. "Then you think I should report all
this? Including what I've learned about what you are doing behind the Old
Men's backs?"
"I'll report the necessity of changes in operations, considering they
have finally gotten the engine upgrades broken loose, I doubt they would be
averse to a few changes that get _their_ agenda back on track. They've
rarely worried about endangering us to accomplish their goals."
"That is true." Kaji smiled.
Gendo returned it, Arrogant puppy, if you _really_ knew half of what
you think you do, you'd crawl into a hole and pull it closed after you, he
thought, but didn't let any evidence of the thought show.
"You play a dangerous game." Kaji stood and walked out, without being
dismissed.
Fuyutsuki waited for the door to close and the Sephiroth in the floor
to flash, before he stepped out of the concealing darkness behind Gendo's
desk. The brief flash indicated whatever listening spells or devices Kaji
had left behind had been neutralized, if not destroyed.
"_We_ are playing a dangerous game?" Fuyutsuki asked in quiet outrage,
"He thinks he can simply play one group off another."
"As long as he reports what I tell him to the Committee, they will
believe it when I tell them the same. He is useful for that alone. A
useful idiot."
"And the _others_ he disseminates this information to?" Fuyutsuki
asked, "There are some things we don't want known."
"Keep him guessing, feed him enough clues, red herrings, half-truths,
speculations, and he happily runs off, chasing his tail, never suspecting
the truth, the real truth. What he tells the others is what we want them
to know," Gendo replied, fully satisfied by the course of the meeting, "I
also tell the Committee things he should have ferreted out, but hasn't.
This guarantees the Committee doesn't trust him fully either. So, if he
does reveal something, we can always blame it on a disinformation campaign
we're running to smoke out spies."
"And are you going to tell him eventually?" Fuyutsuki asked.
"Only after he has no one left to turn to for support, or answers.
There are many things he doesn't know, and great gaps in what we've told
him. He'll investigate and find nothing, so he'll be forced to return to
us for answers."
Fuyutsuki nodded, not accepting, merely understanding and acquiescing.
"It's all about politics, and control, old friend. Who knows what,
and knowing who knows. As long as we control that, we control everything
else. As for Ryoji-san . . . addicts are addicts. They will always need
more, seeking a stronger, purer dose to recapture the initial rapture of
their first time. But, they never can." Gendo's smile had no humor or
warmth in it. Things were proceeding according to plan, _his_ plan.
----------------------------------------
Truth and Ice Cream
"Just like I told you," Jeff whispered to Rei as Dr. Akagi entered the
ice cream shop.
"You two seem to be no worse for wear." Ritsuko smiled weakly, as she
approached the table and sat down.
This place was far enough from headquarters that others couldn't
easily eavesdrop on them, and it had the reputation for having the best ice
cream in the prefecture, good cover for this meeting. Ice cream and truth,
she was vastly more concerned about the later than the former. Both what
she would learn, and what she would have to disclose.
"I took the liberty of ordering three of their largest hot fudge
sundaes," Jeff said brightly, the ice cream was on Ritsuko's tab.
"What should you and I have, Doctor?" Rei asked.
Ritsuko stopped, blinked, shook her head, trying to fit what she had
just heard into her previous view of the universe.
"See," Jeff told Rei gently, "Comment on something completely obvious,
or take the words with a different meaning or with a different
understanding."
"Yes," Rei said, a slight nod.
"Teaching her to tell jokes?" Ritsuko's frame of reference returned.
'Raccoon' was turning the universe upside-down again, to see what shook
loose _this_ time.
"Considering I got an impromptu Philosophy Final when I was with her,
I suspected her education was lacking in a few critical areas," Jeff said,
turned to Rei, "That's a veiled insult."
Rei's brow furrowed for a moment. "A very small veil."
"Very good," Jeff applauded silently.
"We can work on sarcasm and understatement later," Rei told him.
Ritsuko shook her head, 'Raccoon' indeed. She nodded as the waiter
delivered the sundaes.
"Out of respect for your seniority," Jeff told her, "You can go
first."
I guess I deserved that, Ritsuko thought. "I don't remember all of
it. After all, it started in the Precambrian Era, although I wasn't
actually sentient then. So I guess it really began during the
Pennsylvanian Epoch of the Carboniferous Period, when I became - aware."
She paused, she hated these memories, she wished she could erase them from
her mind. However, she couldn't, they hung like a pall over everything she
did. "They used us as construction apparatus, with as little regard for us
as most people have for their machines. I also learned we had been, and
continued to be . . . food." She stared at the ice cream in front of her,
slid it between Rei and Jeff, she'd lost her appetite. "It was a way to
discipline the most intelligent and rebellious, the ones who best
understood what was happening to them." She watched both Children shudder
at that.
"During the Permian Period, there were too many of us who had ideas of
our own. We fought . . . "
"And you lost," Jeff said, "I've read the histories. The `Valusians`
were very disturbed by the goings-on."
"So," Ritsuko smiled, "That's where you learned all of this. So whose
side are they on?"
"Like everyone else," Jeff admitted, "Their own. Which really means a
lot of different ones. What about your people?"
"I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw the Coral Sea, the
water, not the ship."
"Ah," Jeff nodded.
"So you killed the second shoggoth that boarded the Coral Sea," Rei
said, enjoying her ice cream.
"Yes," Ritsuko said, she felt ashamed, killing one of her own. She
also knew she would do it again.
They both turned to Rei.
"And what about you? Do you understand what and who you are?" Ritsuko
asked.
"Yes," Rei told them, "I have an idea." She looked at Jeff, "Like
you, I am a weapon. Unlike you, I am a disappointment."
"You just aren't as vicious, or I should say, experienced. There is
nothing wrong with being gentle. Believe me, that's the real struggle."
"Ah-men!" Ritsuko agreed, "So is being human, very confusing."
"Some `humans` never learn," Jeff added bitterly. "Don't worry about
it. You'll learn. You are already ahead of most, just by acknowledging
you have to learn."
Rei nodded.
Ritsuko thought, Does that apply to me too? And you?
They dug into their ice cream in silence for a while, Jeff with real
anger, Rei more thoughtfully. Ritsuko merely held her spoon, her appetite
had returned, or perhaps she wanted to join in. Rei got the hint when
Ritsuko kept staring at the dish she'd slid over to the Children, Rei slid
the untouched sundae back to Ritsuko.
"So what are you?" Ritsuko asked.
"I'm not trying to be evasive, but I haven't discovered all the truth.
Nevertheless, I know I was conceived a year before the records would imply,
although I was actually _born_ at a time appropriate for being one of the
Children. That might imply something recovered by the first expedition to
the Elder Thing's city was part of my construction. The Americans first
went there three years before the other expeditions. What was brought
back?" He shook his head. "I don't know. There were 15 Americans and 15
British foci. Those running the project divided the Americans into five
sub groups. I haven't learned about what the differences were exactly.
Two of my group, Sharon and I, survived to work with the EVA, Jason was of
a different group. Six of the British survived, and they were all lost
testing Unit 03. You know what happened to Sharon and Jason."
"You alone remain," Rei said, "That does not explain your abilities."
"The curse you saw, I got from El Nureenen."
" 'I was trained as a warrior against Chaos's darkness, by a cabal of
Serpent Man and Dragon sorcerers. Inculcated in their deepest magics,
schooled in the darkest lore of our enemies. Then, implanted with alien
technology of the Great Race, to further enhance my ability to hunt and
kill those things that lurk in the darkness. Then I was cursed by an
ancient meta-god, to live to see the dawn of the last day, to battle my
foes, but not live to see the end. Only then, will I be permitted to die.
After all that, not fighting these things would void my warrantee,'" Rei
quoted.
"Exactly what I told you in the elevator before we fought the Green
Fire," Jeff said.
"So, you made a deal with the `Valusians`, the Serpent Men," Ritsuko
accused.
"He is not alone in having divided loyalties," Rei reminded her.
"My deal with Gendo has nothing to do with this," Ritsuko quietly
insisted.
"No one is accusing you of disloyalty." Jeff glared at Rei, who
nodded. "Just that each of us have several claims on our loyalty and
attention."
"True," Rei added.
"Did you make a deal?" Ritsuko asked.
"Yes," Jeff admitted without shame, "But their deal applies to
something that does not involve protecting humanity, and does include why
the Elder Gods have an interest in us."
"Which is?" Ritsuko asked.
"Our dreams provide the Elder Gods with their chief slave race," Jeff
said with real venom.
Ritsuko didn't need to hear more. She too would jump at the chance to
free such a race. She had tried once before, and her failure had cost her.
Her own people had no allies in their rebellion. With outside help, they
might have won. They might be free.
"The Scholarly Dragon is one," Rei said, pleased with herself for
figuring it out. "That is why they aid you, they value dragons."
"My relationship with the Scholarly Dragon, it's a little more
complicated, but generally yes. So, ironically, does Yig, the Father of
Serpents. He strives for millions of years to create the ultimate reptile,
and a bunch of hairless apes do him one better. Frankly we couldn't have
given him a more worthy sacrifice of our time and talents, and it's rare
the human who doesn't dream a dragon into existence at least once in his
lifetime. Even if it's more dragonfly than dragon."
"So, how do _you_ walk the tightrope?" Ritsuko asked.
"By negotiating, getting my `patrons` to adjust their demands, and
understanding their goals." Then he gave a grin that made him look like
the teenager he was. "It helps to arrange a conference and let them
discuss it directly."
"Very dangerous," Rei said, wide-eyed.
"Less dangerous than letting them continue in ignorance," `Raccoon`
said.
It struck Ritsuko that the change between Jeff and `Raccoon` could be
that noticeable, that he could be that sure of himself. Ritsuko questioned
everything about herself. Ritsuko also noted that Rei was holding back,
intentionally, or because she lacked the force of personality she and Jeff
had. Ritsuko decided not to push, but she would make sure the girl got a
chance to speak.
"So they pulled you out of Antarctica, they reinforced me with
something from Antarctica," Jeff said, turned to Rei, "Your origin?"
Rei sighed, "They sought the perfect pilot, from materials recovered
from Antarctica, and human biological samples. I do not know the source or
details, I have not _sought_ to know, I am not human," Rei spoke quietly,
even for her, "They primarily intended me as a weapon also. The EVA and I
.. . . without it, I would have no reason to exist."
"You will excuse me, I hope, if I tell you you're wrong," Jeff said,
"Everyone can be greater than their `design` capability."
"If you believe so," Rei admitted.
"Rei-chan," Jeff said gently, as he leaned close to her, "I don't just
believe, I know. I was supposed to be a slave to one, then another, and
another. I broke free, I still serve, freely and without reservation, but
because it is what _I_wish_. You can still serve as loyally as ever, but
if you do it because you choose, rather than you must, you'd be amazed at
how different it feels."
Rei nodded, hiding a ghost of a smile.
"So what do we do with this?" Ritsuko asked.
"Understand each other. For example, do you still change shape?"
Ritsuko froze. "Not in a long time, well, not for several years."
"You might want to get into practice again. Since Saotome absorbed
Nyogtha, he may have absorbed its plasticity," Jeff said.
Not Unit 01 absorbed it? Ritsuko wondered, "How do you know that Ranma
may have those powers? Your speed absorbsion from Chaugnar Faugn? Is that
why you were testing Ranko? You think that will happen to the rest of
you?"
"I was able to induce Ranko to test her own capabilities," Jeff
admitted, "I believe I was testing the barest minimum of Saotome's
capabilities. Having an experienced form shifter might soften the blow and
give him a challenge to meet."
"What of your hypergeometric analysis?" Rei asked.
"You mean magic?" Jeff asked with a smile, "Mostly healing and
enchantments, making magic items, that kind of thing. Some alchemy to go
along with that."
"The golden dust for the shotguns!" Ritsuko said, "That was you! I
thought you were joking about the formula!" Ritsuko turned to Rei, "And
what about the songs you sing? I felt their power, even though I wasn't
the recipient."
"I have only a few," Rei admitted, "To heal, but they have little
effect on the creatures we fight."
"Frankly, 'the creatures we fight' are mostly humans."
"And Nyarlathotep," Rei added.
The name still gave Ritsuko shivers.
"I understand that you want to be here, I am curious what happened,"
Jeff said to Ritsuko. "What did they do to you? Since you survived, you
must have been one of the ringleaders. The histories say they killed,
reenslaved, or made examples of the rebels."
Ritsuko thought she could handle the question. Instead, she nearly
broke down, unable to deal with how the Elder Things had tortured her. An
oh-so subtle torture to be sure, they understood their creations very well.
"How much do you know about the . . . the psychology of . . . of my
people?"
"It's not a subject that gets a large amount of research," Jeff
admitted.
Rei simply shook her head.
"We were simple creatures, self-replicating and self-sufficient: eat,
metabolize, mytosis."
"Eukaryote?" Rei asked.
"Prokaryote," Ritsuko shook her head and continued, "They interrupted
the cycle, permanently. No more growth, no more divisions. They broke me
into pieces and scattered me all over their territory - " She broke down.
It had been done to her before the Age of the Dinosaurs, yet the deep,
gnawing hurt, the feelings of failure and emptiness, had never left her.
Jeff and Rei amazed her when both stood and embraced her. She was
grateful for it, even though she didn't understand why they tolerated her.
"They pitted us against each other," she admitted. She wondered why
she was telling them the very things that should repulse them, and why it
seemed to have no effect.
"Nice, get you to destroy yourself," Jeff said sarcastically, then
more sympathetically, "And no progeny. Is that why you want to be with the
Children so badly?"
Ritsuko wanted to curl up and die, Jeff's tone and expression
contained no anger or malice. Rei stared at her with open interest, not
the hatred and loathing she expected. "Yes," Ritsuko admitted quietly.
He patted her shoulder. "Good, now that you realize why you're doing
it." Jeff returned to his seat and his attention to his ice cream. "You
should consider telling the others, not all at once, but bit by bit."
Rei patted her shoulder, as Jeff had done, before returning to her own
ice cream, there was no condemnation there.
"I thought you'd object." Ritsuko was completely mystified, this was
all impossible. She wondered if they fully understood what she was telling
them.
"You've shown whose side you were on aboard the Coral Sea," Jeff said,
"Besides, what exactly do I have the right to object to? I'm a monster
too, a created thing, remember?"
"You have done nothing to disprove your statement of allegiance," Rei
added.
Ritsuko found she was shaking. The reality had not met her
expectations about how the 'meeting' would go, in even the smallest detail.
She felt terribly hurt by her memories, rather than by the questions she
had to answer.
"Rei, do you have any questions?" Ritsuko asked.
Rei glanced up, "Who _is_ the enemy?" Rei looked at Ritsuko and Jeff.
"I think our real enemy among the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones is
Nyarlathotep. I believe he's the only enemy we have among them. The
others, well . . . " Jeff stared at the table. "Is a landmine or a cloud
of poison gas your enemy, or is it just dangerous?"
"Yet if they bear us no ill-will, why do we . . . why does Captain
Katsuragi hate them so?" Rei asked, staring at Ritsuko, then Jeff, and back
again..
Jeff chuckled at that, "She hates them for her own reasons, they don't
have to hate her back." Now he laughed. "I think that they don't, is part
of the reason she does. 'Look at me! Acknowledge my existence by hating
and fearing me!'"
Ritsuko thought that was a little too close to the truth, even if it
wasn't true, it was extremely apt. She smiled as she realized it also
explained a lot of Misato's dealings with other people.
"These creatures do not bear us anymore malice than most people give
ants in their sugar bowl. Just get them out and go on with life."
"What of their worshipers?" Rei asked.
"I don't think most are even noticed. The gods have their own
servitor races, their worship is sufficient," Jeff explained.
"The humans," Rei corrected.
"They believe that they can free their `masters` and the creatures
will lavishly reward them. In 1925, R'lyeh briefly surfaced, other than
opening the door to his tomb, humanity offered the Lord of R'lyeh no more
assistance than that in his return to the world, and he returned to his
slumbers just as peacefully and in his own time. The followers are
initially deluded, then are simply mad. Perhaps they were touched by an
errant dream of one of those who are imprisoned, and they built the rest
out of whole cloth, often simply for self-aggrandizement. The worship of
those that walk free may be very different, but they'll still the use those
gullible fools as tools or pawns in their own schemes. The world will be
theirs, not ours, in the end. Being the last gravedigger is not the reward
most are expecting to get."
"That makes sense, when - " Ritsuko paused, even here, she wouldn't
say the name, "First came down from the stars, he made no attempt to
conquer the entire planet, just one almost uninhabited continent. He was
acting locally, not globally. The legend is, that in 50 million years,
the Stars will be Right again, and they'll _stay_ that way for billions of
years."
"Either we'll be ready to join them, or we'll tear ourselves apart in
our own madness," Jeff commented.
Rei stared from one to the other for a long while. "The human race,
or the pilots?" she asked.
"Ah, that _is_ the question, isn't it?" Jeff said.
Rei lowered her eyes, "You have resolved the uncertainty I desired
purged."
Ritsuko knew she was referring to her standing by when there was
evidence that Akagi Naoko had sabotaged Unit 01's first test, killing Ikari
Yui as a result.
"I . . . ," I wasn't in a position to do anything, she thought, it
was the same old lie. "I was afraid of what she'd do to me, if I made an
issue of it."
Rei nodded.
Dodging another possible mine puzzled Ritsuko. She wished Jeff would
ask Rei some questions, she doubted she could expect the reverse. She
didn't want to divulge Rei's secrets, unless Rei somehow asked her to.
----------------------------------------
Snake in the Grass
June 28, 1947
"So what did they ask you to do?" Misato asked as she followed Deimisu
into the R4D.
"Look, listen, ask questions," Daimitsu walked down the aisle to the
tail.
"I want to sit up here," Misato pointed to the front.
"Who's stopping you, Captain?" Daifitsu glanced at her and asked.
Misato stared, "Do I have to spell it out?"
"Not really." Daifutsu set his oversized bag in the seat next to him,
as he sat down, then pulled his hat over his eyes.
"You're supposed to sit with me," she said quietly. She sat at the
front. Two dozen other people, Navy and NERV boarded the plane. Most sat
some distance from her and the EVA pilot. She didn't know why they needed
her for this mission, it was supposed to be a straightforward
interrogation/investigation, more Security and Technical Branches'
bailiwick than Tactical Branch's.
She settled in to await their take off, and their landing in Osaka.
The plane ride passed in boredom. Too much noise to sleep, not that
it stopped Daimitsu. The others either slept or were immersed in their own
conversations, and she lacked the knowledge make meaningful contributions,
or the desire to. She had no interest in the changes in soil chemistry or
the cellular breakdown of microbes caused by the presence of this or that
Angel. She was hoping she could summon one of the EVAs to kill this one,
but it seemed she was going to be disappointed. There was only one
reported sighting, and that one from a Junior High School girl from the
pilots' school. Shinji had told Misato that Matsuda Natsumi was a science
bookworm. So she might really have seen anything.
Then why didn't they send Ritsuko or Maya? she asked herself. She
wasn't getting any answers.
----------------------------------------
Jeff dreamt of a house, with a major city far in the distance. A
huge, ghostly snake coiled around it like a living pyramid. All around,
attempting to attack the house, were rat-things, like the ones he'd seen
and killed around NERV. The snake's ghostly form repelled them. They
milled around: a confused, teeming, squealing, mass; as though they
couldn't fathom what was keeping them at bay.
Occasionally, the snake would lash out and eat some of the rat-things.
Most of the time it just waited.
Jeff walked through the milling, squealing crowd towards the snake.
One step at a time, seeing how close he could get before he provoked a
reaction from either side. He didn't get a reaction even as he walked
through the phantom snake and into the house. Before he could take off his
shoes, he woke.
"I wish people would at least let me _finish_ when they drag me into a
dream." He stood up to stretch, and talk to the Security and Navy guards.
He ignored the disapproving look from Captain Katsuragi.
What did she expect? he wondered, Sitting in the noisiest part of the
plane. I wanted to sleep, I doubt I'll be getting any sleep this evening.
----------------------------------------
Nabiki was frightened. She had expected a day of talking, not this.
She knew her fear was irrational, but it existed and threatened to
overwhelm her none-the-less. She glanced at Asuka, who waited patiently.
The other girl stared intently into Nabiki's eyes.
To Nabiki's side, Rei took aim and fired steadily at their targets.
Nabiki's finger tightened on the trigger, she tried to ignore the expectant
look on Asuka's face, only the trigger, the target and the fear remained.
'Click.' Nabiki opened her eyes to stare at a frowning Asuka.
"You were expecting it to blow up in your face?" Asuka asked, as Rei
pulled her target back to the firing line on a wire. "Even Wondergirl can
punch the center out of a target. Yet you and Horseface close your eyes
when you fire. Why?"
"I don't know." Nabiki glanced at the LeMat pistol.
"Then cock the pistol and fire again."
"It didn't shoot." Nabiki was actually very glad of that.
"Some of the shells are empties, others are squibs, the rest are
normal. You'll never know, I spun the cylinder so even I wouldn't know and
give it away." Asuka tapped her foot impatiently.
"You must learn." Rei walked over with her target. Nabiki could have
covered the ragged hole with her palm. "Captain Katsuragi's and Ryoji
Kaji's pistols were ineffective. Mine was not. It is reasonable to
believe yours would be equally effective."
"It's not mine, it's Raccoon's."
"That is an excuse," Rei said sternly, staring at Nabiki.
"I hate to agree with Wondergirl - "
"More than she knows," Rei said.
Asuka frowned at the interruption, "Anyway, anything that would help
prevent our deaths is what's important. Tampering with the pilots is like
tampering with the fuses of atomic bombs."
"You're making it sound like we're above ordinary people." Nabiki
didn't like that one bit, it reminded her too much of the `honorable`
martial artists of Nerima.
"We hold ourselves to a _higher_ standard," Rei amplified.
"That means we aren't expendable either," Asuka added.
"How does that apply to learning how to use this thing?" Nabiki
considered tapping the pistol, but she was afraid it might go off.
"Someone evidently wanted us to have these," Asuka explained, "I don't
know why we got them, but they plainly work on things that regular guns
don't hurt. Yes, I'm worried why one of our enemies would want us so well
armed, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth."
"I hate this!" Nabiki said, as Asuka turned her back to the targets,
then stood where she could watch Nabiki's eyes.
"Keep practicing," Asuka insisted as she examined Rei's target, "Do
you always shoot that well?"
Rei paused, considered, "Only when I have a gun."
"That's always! Schiesse!" Asuka complained, "Why do you have to be
so literal?"
"It is who I am," Rei replied, for once, without a trace of apology.
Nabiki pulled the trigger again . . . again, nothing happened except
she flinched as the hammer fell. She angrily recocked the hammer, aimed
and pulled the trigger.
The blast frightened her, she completely missed the target. She was
glad she didn't hit anyone with the wild shot.
"Not as bad as you expected?" Asuka asked.
Nabiki glared at the smiling girl. "Worse," she said.
"Get a decent grip on the pistol, now you know it isn't going to hurt
you, maybe you can use it to hurt someone else."
The temptation to hit Asuka over the head with it overwhelmed her
fear. Nabiki managed to control herself. Instead, she took aim, and fired
.. . . or would have if there'd been a live shell under the hammer. She got
Asuka's point, that she was scaring herself more than the pistol should
have scared her. The next one was a live load, it wasn't as scary as the
first. When the follow up _was_ live, that really shook her up. Asuka's
comments on her flinching didn't help. Nabiki knew she was doing it wrong,
she didn't know why.
"You're as bad as Horseface," Asuka told her, "I'll bet no one ever
told him firearms are _the_ martial art, if you don't count plotting
artillery."
"What about if guns are illegal?" Nabiki asked.
"They were illegal in Europe almost since their inception. So the
knights and local lords could do whatever they liked to their subjects, and
wouldn't have to worry about a bullet in the head from some farmer who
didn't like them taking liberties with his daughter. That doesn't mean the
criminals or the desperate didn't make their own."
"Great."
"The simple fact is: You - have - to - learn," Asuka told her.
Nabiki glanced at Rei, who was busily cutting the center out of
another target.
Nabiki continued firing, now flinching more at Asuka's comments on her
accuracy, rather than the gun going off.
Towards the end of the day, her hand was starting to just ache.
----------------------------------------
They finished unloading their gear from the plane. Misato couldn't
figure out why Daifitsu carried such a load of equipment for such a short
mission.
"I'll go see the girl," she told him, "You can go and survey where she
thought she saw the thing."
"How am I supposed to do that, unless she tells me where it was?"
Deimatsu asked.
"She must have told someone," Misato told him.
He shrugged in response. She angrily ordered everyone into the
waiting jeeps and trucks, then they proceeded out of the city to the
Matsuda residence.
The large convoy drew curious and fearful looks from the citizens, as
it traveled down the country roads.
Misato, in the lead jeep, wasn't that interested. However, it
bothered her that mothers saw the NERV logo on the vehicles and instantly
dragged their children inside. She looked at the others in the jeep, they
all accepted it with bemused silence.
----------------------------------------
Sports Agents
Shinji followed Ranma to the ballfield. Nabiki was with Rei-chan
_and_ Asuka. Shinji was more surprised that Asuka was being civil to both
Nabiki and Rei-chan than Rei-chan's request that 'The females need some
time alone together.' What was even more surprising was that Rei-chan
asked, and Asuka ordered, him not to leave Saotome alone. He'd already
come to that conclusion himself. He had told Asuka about it, then warned
her that when next she got on a rant about how different she was from
`Wondergirl`, he would remind her of this moment. He'd retreated so
quickly, she hadn't reacted, at least not when the reaction would have
damaged his hearing.
It ought to give her apoplexy, he smiled.
The two guards walked with the two boys. Sammi slightly in front and
to one side, Tomiyo behind and to the other side. Shinji thought it was
eerie that he could have two additional people around him, but for all
their reaction to his and Ranma's conversation, the two boys might have
been alone.
At the ballfield, they were holding the tryouts for the softball team.
The team came from the school the pilots would also be going to, when the
new term started. Mirei was trying out, and Ranma had gone on and on how
he wanted to cheer her on.
Shinji was just glad to be out in the sunshine. Without Misato
around, he'd actually managed to thoroughly clean the apartment, and it was
likely to stay that way for a day or two. He wondered who was stuck
cooking for and cleaning up after Misato in Osaka.
There were a lot of families standing around with their daughters. He
wondered why the fuss over the team, it wasn't as if there was a national
championship for girls' softball. He'd thought it was primarily for fun.
Ranma spotted Mirei's parents and headed in that direction.
The two minders got a thorough looking over from their counterparts
who were discretely guarding the family.
"Oh, good! You came!" Mirei hugged Ranma, "Here to cheer me on to my
eventual victory!" she smiled, "And you brought some others to cheer."
"Well, I figured you could use the help, you still can't hit my
fastball," Ranma said sternly.
"Radar-controlled anti-aircraft guns can't hit your fastball." She
frowned at him.
Shinji introduced himself, then watched the girls enjoying the game.
He also saw a group of older teenaged girls watching the Junior High School
girls, all chattering about this and that. He could almost imagine they
were scouting. He envied their ordinary existence, when a day watching a
ball game was a treat to break the boredom. Instead of a chance to escape
the excitement of his `regular` life.
As Mirei came up to bat, the pitcher and team captain, Tomoe Usagi,
sneered and threw a curve that had baffled many of the other girls. Mirei
calmly put it out past the outfielders. She ran the bases. Shinji saw she
was surer on her feet than when he'd last seen her. Later there was
catching, throwing to other players. About half the girls were rejected
and went home. Mirei continued to shine.
Shinji wondered why she fought so hard for this. He muddled through,
doing what he _had_ to do, rather than what he wanted.
But what _do_ you want? he asked himself. He liked being with the
others, especially Rei-chan, but he also liked being with Nabiki-san, and
Asuka, and even Raccoon and Ranma, in progressively smaller doses. He also
liked helping and being needed, _that_ he'd never expected. Yet that
didn't answer the question of what he _wanted_._ Ranma wanted to be a
MARTIAL ARTIST. Rei-chan wanted to be an EVA pilot, so did Asuka. He
couldn't figure out what Raccoon wanted, but he doubted he didn't want
something. He was the only one who was confused and clouded this way. He
envied the others' surety, he sometimes wished he had it. Then he'd think
about 'after the war', what would become of the others. What would Asuka
and Rei do, with no more enemies to fight? What would Ranma do to support
himself? He wasn't a very good teacher, Nabiki-san was a _lot_ better, but
she didn't have the obsession with The Art Ranma did. She'd find something
a _lot_ more lucrative than teaching martial arts. The `adults` were in
the same fix, whether they thought about it or not. Once they defeated the
Angels, his father and Misato would have to step down, as the U.S. military
eliminated the combat wing of NERV. Ritsuko-sensei and Maya might still
have jobs as researchers, but that wasn't something _he_ wanted to do.
Once the war was over, he wanted to put as much distance between
himself and NERV as possible. Maybe never see or hear about Angels and
EVAs again.
And again, he came back to the same problem: what _did_ he want? He
could search a thousand years for what he didn't want. Finding what he did
was proving nearly impossible.
Then he glanced up as one of the older girls was walking towards him.
She'd been staring at him for a while, he'd thought that was particularly
weird. With Ranma only a short distance away, why would anyone look at
him? Why would any girl? Especially a cute one.
The guards came alert as she unerringly homed in, and another followed
in her wake.
"It _is_ you!" The girl stopped about 3 meters away. She had short,
dark hair, and the same intense look Asuka sometimes got. "I recognized
you from the news reels!"
Shinji wasn't sure if that, and her enthusiasm, were good or bad.
"I'm Morisato Megumi, and I work at the college."
Shinji bowed. "Ikari Shinji."
The other girl approached. "Trying to get hired as a 'musu'?" a
taller, prettier girl with long hair and a predatory expression asked
Morisato-san, "He's a little young, don't you think?"
Shinji blushed, he'd heard the stories about that at the orphanage.
`Extra` girls were sent to Tokyo and `sold` to American Servicemen and rich
workers, 'musu' came from the word daughter 'musume'. It was one of the
undiscussed reasons NERV, the University and the military had Japanese
girls all over the place. They were cheap, and worked just as hard as
anyone else.
Slavery was technically illegal, but when the choice was between
servitude and starvation, servitude became much more attractive. Besides,
a female factory worker only earned 16 cents a day, tack on free room and
board, and a few dollars a week was a fortune. He'd also heard rumors that
a lot of the 'musu' were not merely servants, but prostitutes.
Shinji did not need those particular services. He also knew that
Misato and Asuka would kill him if he `bought` a girl. He suspected Rei
and Nabiki would help. Raccoon and Ranma would only intervene to prolong
his suffering.
"What did you want me for?" Now he was hoping she was mad at him for
something.
"Your autograph, silly." She smiled at him.
He took the little notebook and signed his name to her. She seemed
absurdly pleased he'd remembered her name. Once she headed away, the
pretty one stared at him with venom that matched Asuka's worst, then she
turned away.
Ranma or no Ranma, I'm getting out of here! Shinji turned had headed
out the way they came in.
----------------------------------------
Jeff walked through the woods outside of Osaka. He hadn't quite
figured out what he was looking for. Natsumi had led them out here, then
Captain Katsuragi took her to the interrogation team, over a small hill
from the site. She'd looked so scared when she left with the Captain, but
his `commander` had ordered him to help the science teams. Now they were
questioning her, if they were doing it the ham-fisted way NERV Security did
most things, they wouldn't get good quality information. He hoped the Navy
team had the good sense to play `good cop` to NERV's automatic `bad cop`.
He already knew she was holding something back, something he'd have to
get from her personally. Then figure out how to reveal the information
without getting her in trouble for not divulging it, he thought.
His first clue to the deeper mystery was the discarded tie, it was
snake skin, and at least a dozen people walked right past it without seeing
it.
Dark blue with gold thread on a pile of leaves? he thought that was a
coincidence that stretched credulity, 'If it _had_ been a snake, it would
have bitten you.'
He was beginning to get the idea this whole thing was a message. He
pocketed the tie, he could run an analysis after everyone was asleep. Or
trying to sleep, once 'Chainsaw' Katsuragi gets going, nobody will be
getting any sleep, Jeff thought with a smile, I could refight the battle of
Kursk in the hotel's hallways and no one would notice. He still wondered
what had possessed the good Captain to insist on a suite at the hotel, with
the two of them sharing it. He'd been expecting to camp out near the
investigation site, and packed accordingly.
"With the way she snores, I probably will be camping out," he muttered
angrily, "Just to get some sleep."
While the rest of the investigating team chattered about background
radiation, soil chemistry, microbe mortality rates, and even latent
moisture retention, he wondered what a Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrograph
would make of the residue the 'Angel's' appearance had left. Or better
yet, an Atomic Spectrograph.
A few elements not on the Periodic Table, he thought, Atoms composed
of nonstandard particles and odd sub-nuclear particles. Knowing how the
machines operated in the future didn't mean he could build one, or even
duplicate its effects with magic.
But Chaugnar Faugn was an expert in genetic manipulation, he had a few
spells to assist him in those endeavors, he thought, and shuddered at the
implications of those spells and their effect, if he dared use them. He
wasn't insensate to the horror, but it offended him more than it frightened
him. Disgust, rather than rage or terror, motivated him. Those creatures,
their enemy, were unsubtle, clumsy, arrogant. For all his powers and
skills, Chaugnar Faugn and his lesser `brothers` were appetites,
sophisticated, brilliantly intelligent, and alien, but just appetites in
the final analysis. They would consume the universe, not because they
savored the flavor, but because they could. Good and evil had as little to
do with it as a greedy two-year-old with a fistful of stolen cookies: he
had them because he was somehow better or favored, not because he made them
or even understood they had to be made. It disgusted him.
Glancing around at the people, the human beings working so diligently
around him, he wondered how many of _them_ could escape the same trap if
they were simply _given_ the vast powers he and the others would gain from
the Angels they'd helped kill. If they'd take it as their due, as
fortunately none of the pilots had. If they would hide from it, as Ranma
and Asuka seemed to. Or like him, would they investigate, think about what
to do with it, remember the creatures they once were and . . .
"God! I'm getting maudlin early this year." He hated this time of
year. He knew why he got this way, he knew all the theories, explanations
and excuses. That didn't make his reactions any more acceptable. He had a
job to do, in a few weeks he could put it all behind him for another year,
until then, he hated how his mind kept wandering down odd tangents, instead
of focusing on the task before him. He definitely hoped none of the others
caught him acting like this. He didn't need then unnerved by what had
always been a temporary condition.
That's easy, he thought, It wasn't Nyarlathotep. Do the clues point
to who was masquerading as him? Or are they to divert me to _thinking_ Yig
was masquerading as him?
"Coyote," he said, "It fits the legends. I'll have to find out if
Shinto contains a similar creature in their mythology, a trickster but not
malignant. No one tanuki could do all this."
But would the local Coyote come all the way here, or was it someone
else with a worldwide range? he asked himself. Nyarlathotep had many
enemies and rivals among the Great Old Ones and the Outer Gods. Jeff could
even suspect the Elder Gods. But aside from the obvious culprit, it could
be any of them, including Nyarlathotep himself playing his own games. The
only thing he was sure of, was it was a single actor. These creatures
might have _a_ partner or lover, but these creatures definitely didn't
operate by committee.
So who hates the Crawler enough to stage this? And, who would be
willing to risk the Crawler's wrath when he finds out?
The first group had too many members. He could exclude only the most
idiotic and distant. The second list was much shorter, on Earth, shorter
still.
Only Cthulhu, Yig, Ithaqua and Tsathoggua have the guts and the skills
to pull this off. No cold, so no Ithaqua; that leaves the three biggies.
He remembered the snake-skin bow-tie, and Asuka describing it as a
relative of the hoop-snake.
So, Yig wants in on our little games. 'Brother Jonathan' warned me
about that. So, does this presage a more active role, or just a little
creative rearrangement, like Nyarlathotep sending Cthugha at us? Jeff
found he had no answers.
----------------------------------------
"Why'd you leave?" Ranma found Shinji and Tomiyo a short distance
from the ballfield, as everyone else was going home.
"It was a little much," Shinji explained, "Did Mirei get on the team?"
"Of course!" Ranma thought the question was silly, "She was
practicing with me after all." He posed triumphantly.
He smiled as Shinji just rolled his eyes. The game with the Inspector
had taught him the advantage of being `more Ranma` than usual.
"And what about you?" Sammi addressed Tomiyo, "You couldn't keep your
eyes off her!"
Ranma watched the older man squirm.
"That is quite a Lolita complex you've got. You dirty old man," Sammi
teased, "You're 20, she's only 13."
"I thought she was twelve." Shinji seemed confused.
"She had a birthday," Ranma explained.
"And she didn't invite you to the party?" Shinji sounded amazed, Ranma
knew when people were teasing him.
"It was the same day as Hiroko's funeral," Ranma told him.
Now Shinji squirmed. "I'm getting as bad as you are, at sticking my
foot in my mouth."
"HEY!" Ranma protested at the smirking boy. He frowned at the swiftly
hidden laughs and smiles on the two guards.
"So," Ranma said to change the subject, "What do you want to do?
Mirei went home to fall asleep. I'll never understand girls, I'd be
celebrating."
"I want to hunt down the 'Ghost of Tokyo'," Shinji said. "It scared
me to death when I heard it wailing the other night."
Ranma shuddered, remembering the unearthly screeching. It had sounded
so close. "If I boiled ca . . . ca . . . "
"Felines," Sammi supplied, it didn't help.
"Yeah, those. If I boiled a bunch of'em alive, I couldn't make a
noise like that."
"Do you really think it's the sound of a mythos creature's spirit
being dragged down to Hell?" Shinji repeated the most common explanation.
"I would prefer the idea it's the world celebrating the death of one
of those creatures," Sammi said with a smirk, "It would definitely support
my belief that the world is inherently unearthly."
Ranma frowned at their laughter. There was something truly appalling
and unnerving about anything that spooky, sounding so happy.
----------------------------------------
The Cry of All, the Game of Few
The invitation, for Jeff to dine at the Matsuda residence, was
completely unexpected, and very discreetly delivered. With Captain
Katsuragi headed for 'something to eat', read: something to get drunk on,
nobody noticed Jeff slipping out of the hotel.
The five generations of the Matsuda family was very interested that
'bookworm' Natsumi actually knew, let alone was friends with a boy, let
alone an EVA pilot, even if he was a gaijin. While no one actually said it
out loud, that was the gist of the conversations.
Jeff was glad their reactions to him were more horrified fascination,
as opposed to xenophobia. So he took it all in stride, then with Natsumi's
permission, told the story of the Lliogor attack on the school, and
Natsumi's considerable assistance. Natsumi blushed at the description of
her bravery, her cool steadiness under danger and great responsibility.
"It is not praise, it is no more than the truth," Jeff told the group.
There were whispers and comments. Jeff couldn't quite make out the words,
the colored conversation blocks hovering over the table and the people
mostly showed amazement and shock. There was also a fair degree of teasing
from the younger kids, and some from those of Natsumi's own age.
Natsumi was desperately trying to keep her composure. Then came the
questions to both of them.
"Should we expect the same here?" the mother of the clan asked
worriedly.
"I doubt it," Jeff said truthfully, "They seem to be pursuing a policy
of breaking our greatest strength. Osaka should remain a safe haven,
unless we fall. Then there won't be a safe place in this entire part of
the galaxy."
Perhaps I shouldn't have said it so absolutely, Jeff thought, But
we'll need Natsumi with us in Tokyo, with Hiroko gone.
The muted conversations continued, politely excluding him, as they
discussed the future. The children began clearing the dishes.
"Please come with me," Natsumi told him. Jeff followed her into the
kitchen, her uncle followed close enough to make sure nothing untoward
occurred, and to make sure there were no eavesdroppers.
"Sensei," she said quietly, "I suddenly remembered something. The
Angel's head changed just before it looked at me, it changed into a . . .
what's that noisy American snake?" she spoke very rapidly in low tones.
"Rattlesnake, Crotalus or Sistrurus?"
"Yes." She nodded, "A pit viper. I didn't see a tail or fangs, but
it changed and it looked right at me," she paused, she'd been speaking as
if it were all one word. "Why would it do something like that?"
"It might have been a message, an Angel can't exactly send a telegram,
right?"
"Yes," Natsumi considered.
"Are you all right?" Jeff asked.
"It is a little disconcerting that I'd be so . . . involved."
"Well, part of it helped Miss Tendo, she hasn't been able to deal with
Miss Ayami's death."
"I'm glad I could help." The girl smiled. "I wish I could do more."
"The job is hers, I don't think there's _any_ way to hurry it along."
"If you tried, it would lower the `yield`," she joked.
"And no real catalysts. Although, she is on the road to recovery, it
will take time."
Natsumi nodded, then led her guest back to the rest of the family.
----------------------------------------
Misato was frustrated, the can opener she'd brought with her had
broken, and she hadn't been able to get this can of beer open. Trying a
pen and a rock she'd picked up outside the hotel had opened the can all
right. Just enough to spray her with beer, and send the can sailing out of
her grip and across the room of the suite. The rest of the empties fell to
the floor with a series of clangs. She stood there, ringing some of the
beer out of her hair and t-shirt.
She thought of the desk clerk, It was none of his business how I
dressed when I went outside. It's not like there was anyone else around.
She thought a t-shirt and shorts were perfectly acceptable.
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in!" She hated wearing beer, it was sticky and it didn't smell
very good, apart from being a waste of perfectly good beer.
"That is to be taken internally," Daimitsu said as he entered.
Smart mouthed kid! Misato thought, and wondered why Gendo had sent the
two of them to investigate the sighting. Nothing she couldn't have handled
herself. The last thing she needed was his sardonic looks, from objecting
to sharing a suite to the look he was giving her now. He always made her
feel like she was stupid.
"My opener broke," she told him.
"Could be a sign from above to quit for the night, Captain." He
stared pointedly at the not-so-small pile of empty cans littering the
floor.
"Are you saying you think I drink too much?"
"I don't think you _care_ what I think, Captain, about much of
anything."
Misato frowned, that was the other thing he kept doing. She'd ask a
direct question, and he'd deflect it. What he said was always the truth,
but it was never an answer to her question.
"So do you have an opener or not?" she asked, "Yes or no answer."
"Yes, of course." He sat at the room's table and dropped the empties,
one at a time, into a trash bag. Only the sound of steel on steel broke
the silence.
"Well?" Misato asked.
"Well what?" he asked too innocently. Clank. Clank.
"Are you going to give it to me?" she shouted at him.
"I'm a little young." He continued dropping the empties in the bag.
"Besides, I really think Rit-chan would be a lot more - "
"I meant the _OPENER_!_" she shouted at him.
". . . abstemious. The opener of course." He tied the bag closed and
took it to the kitchenette. "How much is it worth to you?" he asked as he
walked back to the chair, "I'm interested what one can of beer is worth to
you."
"I could order you," she told him as she leaned way over to stare at
him. He didn't even look, staring at her face.
"You have no authority." He smiled at her stare. "It's just a simple
question. I didn't say I was going to charge you, but I didn't say I
won't. I just asked for a price. You have already had fifteen beers, you
wasted one, how much are the last two worth?"
"How about letting you sleep indoors tonight? It's supposed to rain."
Misato stood up and glared at him.
"Considering your snoring, I'll be sleeping in the jeep anyway."
"I don't snore!" she countered, folding her arms under her breasts.
"Then somebody's been running a metal stamping plant in your bedroom.
So what else?"
"What else what? For the opener? Okay, a dime."
"How about a dollar?"
"I can go out an' buy two beers for that! And a new opener!"
"Not at 23:00 on a weekend, this place rolls up the sidewalks at 21:00
hours. I doubt there's a bar open anywhere in town."
Misato glared at him again, again to no effect. She couldn't order
him. "Okay, a dollar."
"How about two?"
"You just agreed to one!" she complained.
"No, I asked you if one was acceptable, now I'm asking if two is
acceptable."
Misato glanced at the two cans sitting there, she _really_ wanted
another beer, she could put it on her expense account as a bribe. "Okay,
two."
"How about five?"
"I just agreed to two, now you want five?! If I say five, you'll say
ten, how about fifty, or a hundred?"
"One hundred dollars it is," he said, "Last offer, no price increases
beyond $100, in U.S. dollars."
Misato blanched, it took her weeks to earn that much, and he knew it.
Not even ten beers were worth that. She changed tactics. "Why are you
doing this?" she asked softly, "There's something else you really want,
isn't there?" She was glad she was wearing her T-shirt and shorts, they'd
help. "Something you're too embarrassed to ask for?"
She sat in his lap, facing him, trapping his legs between hers. "You
don't have to be so mean," she said as she pouted, "You could just ask.
Maybe I'd say yes." She slid her hands down his back, leaned into him.
"You're wearing your beer," Deimitsu said scornfully.
Misato bit back her automatic reply, and kept a smile on her face.
"Maybe you should help me with that, get all those hard to reach places."
"It's not in my back pants pockets, so you can remove your hands,
Captain."
Misato stood in a huff.
A moment later he stood up and walked to his room.
Misato fumed, I should have known he wouldn't have it on him, she
thought angrily at the embarrassment of getting caught `searching` him that
way.
A few minutes later, he walked out, wearing a new shirt and tie, and
his coat. He was carrying the opener. "It's good to know the value of
things. How can you expect us to respect you, Captain, if you do not
respect yourself." He carefully opened both cans and left the opener atop
them. "Case in point: you refused to pay $100, but you'd let someone you
hate, cop a feel or even play a little game of slap and tickle. Or would
you have let me go further? Good night, Captain."
He left, closing the door behind him, just before Misato threw the
opener against the door so hard she scored the wood.
She looked at the two beers, decided they weren't worth the teasing
she'd gotten from Daimitsu, but she wasn't going to waste them either.
----------------------------------------
Ranko glanced around the dream dojo. She hadn't done anything except
basic practice for a while, now she had reason to regret that decision.
This time, she doubted it would be practice. The walls of the dojo seemed
a kilometer away. The intervening space was filled with Ranmas, Rankos,
Raccoons, Nab-chans, Asukas, Reis and Shinjis. Some were dressed in Ranma
and Ranko's red and black, other in Raccoon's suits, Asuka's yellow dress,
Shinji's slacks and white shirt, Nab-chan's slacks and pull overs. There
was no limit to the mixing and matching, with girls wearing boys or girls'
clothes, boy the same. A Ranma in a suit, and Raccoon in red and black,
Asuka wearing Shinji's outfit, another in her yellow dress.
"There's a thousand of them!" Ranko gasped, suddenly all of them
turned to look at her.
Oops, she thought as they got ready to fight, she recognized the
stances they all took, they were hers.
"Tens of thousands," a gravelly voice told her.
Ranko turned and looked right into the maw and glowing yellow eyes of
the dragon she's seen before. The one that turned her into a mini-Unit 04.
"What is this?" she squeaked.
"The Koan is an old Zen technique, meditating on an impossible
problem. The Mondo is another, requiring a spontaneous answer, also
instructive. You have to decide which this is. Consider your actions . .
.. or . . . take this as a chance at cathartic violence, while you have the
advantage. As you saw, all of them are as skilled in martial arts as you
are."
Ranko was ashen, "I can't beat 10,000 people as good as I am at
martial arts!"
Especially if they can manipulate dreams as well as the originals!
Ranko thought in terror.
"Koan it is. They don't have the ability to manipulate dreams," the
Dragon smiled, not the least reassuringly, "Also, they aren't all hostile.
Some don't want to fight, some want to be on your side."
"Great, so how badly _am_ I outnumbered?" Ranko asked.
"You and your allies might outnumber those who will fight you no
matter what. All you have to do is find them. How well do you know your
fellow pilots? What really matters to them, and to yourself?"
Ranko frowned. She wanted to beat up someone. She didn't want to
sort through a crowd. She didn't want to play games or politics. "Why are
you doing this?" she asked angrily.
"Because I just discovered one of our `enemies` is willing to pay to
be left alone. The question of attacking humanity has already been
answered, it won't," the Dragon told her, "I believe it. If you could ask
one of them for anything, what would it be? An end to your `curse`,
mastery of ALL Martial Arts? 'Nab-chan's' heart and soul, or perhaps
Raccoon's _and_ Nab-chan's?"
Ranko was thinking about what she would ask for, if she asked.
Everything the Dragon had suggested elicited a - strong - reaction from
Ranko. None of those things were what she'd ask for, tempting as some of
them were.
"You don't know, do you?" the Dragon smiled, "What you'd ask for?"
Ranko didn't feel like smiling back. "No."
"That's why," the Dragon's smile vanished, "This creature won't _try_
to pervert what you ask for, but it doesn't understand humans at all."
"Oh, that's good news," Ranko replied, "I'll tell you what I really
want - "
"A fight," the Dragon smirked, more than 90% of the figures vanished,
"Enjoy, remember, many carry guns." The Dragon vanished as Ranko dove for
cover.
Ranko glanced up, and saw most were carrying hockey sticks, swords,
pool cues, bicycle chains, but no guns. All were advancing at a run,
slipping into formations.
"No, I don't know what I want. At least there are only a few hundred
of them now." She wondered how Shinji had summoned those rabbit-spiders,
she could use a herd of cats, or elephants, right now.
She sideslipped, trying to draw off a few of them. Orders among them
broke the force into platoons that moved in excellent coordination. Ranko
heard Asuka and Raccoon calling orders to their counterparts in the other
platoons.
"What the heck am I supposed to do now?" Ranko shouted as she ran away
at her best speed, changing the dream's parameters so she was faster than
either Rei or Raccoon. The Dragon's mocking laughter was her only answer.
The platoons ground forward at a steady jog.
Okay, think of the battle! Ranko thought, as she turned and charged
the nearest group, there were four Rankos wearing her current clothes in
it. That platoon drew back, as two other platoons with only one Ranma or
Ranko in them moved to intercept.
She crashed into them, and let eighty bodies wash over her.
"Where the HELL did she go? Schiesse!" Ranko, now disguised as Asuka
in her yellow dress, stood up with the other confused combatants.
'Fan out, stay as squads,' came the orders from a dozen throats,
mostly Asukas and Raccoons, but a few Shinjis, Nab-chans and Reis were
included. A Rei in a suit even confronted her.
"You see her, you do not try to be a hero, you call for help! Do you
understand?!" Rei stared at her.
Ranko gulped and nodded. For several hours, she assisted with the
`search` for her. For some reason, nobody had the idea that Ranko had
infiltrated their search parties.
----------------------------------------

Fourth of July
July 1, 1947
Nabiki looked askance at the weird suit. Ugly gray color, none of the
fittings that give the real plugsuits a sense of style, she thought it
looked like a wetsuit.
"The layers of lead, suspended carbon and other materials will give
you increased radiation resistance," Ritsuko told her and Rei, as they sat
in front of Ritsuko's desk. Diagrams of the EVAs covered every flat
surface except the floor and ceiling. The ones on the walls clearly showed
some piece of equipment to be added to the EVAs.
"Why do we need greater radiation resistance?" Nabiki asked, because
she knew Rei wouldn't.
"We have had four new engines for the EVAs delivered. Two of the S
type and two of the S2 type. The S2 type is a much more radical system.
You and Rei will test that system in Units 00 and 04, while Asuka and Ranko
are testing the S type in Units 02 and 01."
"What about Ranma and Shinji?" Nabiki asked.
"The S2 engines have had a bad effect on males," Ritsuko didn't
elaborate.
"When is Raccoon getting back?" Nabiki was getting ever more worried
about this.
"He and Misato have finished checking out what's happening in Osaka,
but they'll be back the day after tomorrow, just in time for Jeff to
celebrate the Fourth of July."
Nabiki nodded.
"Also, you can seal the suits if the L.C.L. becomes contaminated.
There is a system to oxygenate the L.C.L., for a time, to allow you to
escape."
"The face plates are opaque, how do we see?" Rei asked.
"While you're in the EVA, the neural link will allow you to see as you
normally do, in your mind. Once outside, you can release the face plate
and depend on the outside air, unless it's too contaminated. Then remember
the audio alarm is directly over the main door, just head towards the
noise. The face plate isn't completely opaque, you can see through it in
bright light."
They nodded.
"One important note, the oxygen supply is limited in time, there's an
alarm that goes off when you have five minutes left," she held up the
basketball-sized tank and set it off. The alarm was quite noticeable. "Do
you have any further questions?"
Nabiki shook her head, this all sounded like a very bad idea. She
wondered if they were rushing things like this because they didn't want
anyone to find out.
----------------------------------------
July 2, 1947
Nabiki was glad that Ritsuko and Ranko were helping her on with the
new suit, it was stiff and heavy, she could barely move.
Asuka and Maya were suiting up Rei. The pair waddled towards the EVA
bay, "I think you should have loaded us aboard a forklift," Nabiki
complained, she was already sweating from the exertions. She hated getting
in the EVAs all sweaty, it made the L.C.L. taste salty, Salty sewage, yum
yum, Nabiki thought.
Once in the EVA bay, they transferred to the command chairs, which
were then loaded into the EVAs. Nabiki wasn't happy with how worried
Ritsuko looked about this. "I have a sudden urge to update my will,"
Nabiki told Rei as she ran the initial power ups.
"It does not matter." Rei's calm irritated Nabiki.
"It's better to have a chance to say goodbye . . . it's what I really
miss about Hiroko. I never got a chance to say goodbye . . . or thank
you." Nabiki wouldn't let herself cry, she had a job to do here.
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko headed into the control room. They where already running
tests on the powered down S2 engines.
"Sempai," Maya said, "We just received word: Captain Katsuragi and
Pilot Davis's plane disappeared crossing the mountains."
Ritsuko closed her eyes, "There are a lot of explanations, we won't
tell them until we actually know something."
"Yes, Sempai," Maya said.
Ritsuko activated the comm system, "Your vital signs are a little
elevated," Ritsuko told the two girls.
"It's the weight of the suits," Nabiki told them, "It's hard to move."
"Any problems with the life support systems or any subsystems?"
Ritsuko asked.
"No, Doctor," Rei told her.
"None I can see," Nabiki said.
"Maya?"
"All systems nominal: no odd harmonics, no anomalies."
"Engage S2 engines, 1% output," Ritsuko was sweating bullets, if this
system worked, it would free the EVAs from the need for batteries or
tethers. They had worked out the technical considerations months ago, in
theory. They had only recently solved the political ramifications. The
Allied Governments had a collective attack of apoplexy, at the idea that
the EVAs would lose the `safety` factor that a tether or running out of
power provided. The S engines were the compromise, giving the EVAs a range
measured in hours, instead of minutes, or weeks.
That was acceptable, but the S2 engines were even more acceptable, if
NERV could install them in separate vehicles. Vehicles smaller than an
aircraft carrier or a battleship. A railroad boxcar could carry an S2
engine and all the support gear. This increased the places in which an EVA
could operate. The pilots' political reliability had been the real
question that had been answered recently. So the months-delayed tests
could finally go ahead.
"No anomalies," Maya told her.
"Nabiki, Rei, any problems?"
"No, Doctor."
"Nothing serious to tell," Nabiki said.
"What?" Ritsuko felt a twinge of alarm. "What's the problem?"
"Well," Nabiki embarrassedly admitted, "It's like static electricity,
occasionally flowing through the suit, then me."
"Does it hurt?" Maya asked.
"Quite the opposite," Rei added.
"It tickles," Nabiki told them.
Maya giggled, "Well that would make up for being in the plug for hours
and hours."
While she could frown, Ritsuko couldn't manage the appropriate stern
glare at her assistant, "Well, tell us if it increases, or becomes painful
or irritating. Increase to 10%," Ritsuko ordered, she glanced at the
observation gallery, where the other pilots and some of the staff looked
on. Ritsuko had a bad feeling about something, she didn't know why, she
couldn't quantify it, "Any problems?"
"No, Doctor."
"Nothing," Nabiki told her, "Are _you_ all right?"
"Just nerves, if you detect any problem, report it immediately."
"Yes, Doctor."
"You'd better believe it," Nabiki said.
Ritsuko let the test run for several minutes, she felt the eyes of the
others on her, silently questioning her delay. She could find no reason in
the readings or the pilots' reactions for her unease.
Without an excuse not to, "Increase to 50% output," she ordered.
The lights dimmed briefly as the increase occurred.
"A brief power surge, in the tether line," Maya reported, "The safety
systems handled it easily."
"Any other anomalies?" Ritsuko glanced over at the technical staff as
she scanned the tapes from the chart recorders, there was nothing there to
give grounds to her concerns. Maybe I am just worried about Misato, that
if I wasn't working here, I could be assisting in the search. But I can't,
she reminded herself.
"Up to 75%, detach external tether."
"Seventy . . . SEMPAI! 100%! 120%!" Maya's voice sounded distorted.
The girls were both shouting indecipherably, the voices of the staff
around here were a distorted garble. She saw the pattern of lights forming
around the EVAs, "Eject the plugs!" she ordered. She saw Maya stab at the
control, whether from her order or her own sense of the danger Ritsuko
didn't know.
The plugs rocketed up, struck the ceiling, the prayer Ritsuko had been
ready to offer, that the eject system actually worked, died unspoken, as
the plugs passed through the ceiling. They didn't make craters or bore
through, but passed through as if they had become as insubstantial as
clouds or mist. The plugs were through, and vanished from sight. Ritsuko
watched in horror as the light emitted from the EVAs shifted up-spectrum to
higher energies, and the voices of the crew grew more distorted and blurred
together. She managed to get the emergency shutters down, before
ultraviolet light flooded the control and observation galleries.
----------------------------------------
Nabiki felt the rockets fire and was squashed forward against the
forward control column. The babble of shouts and orders had mixed and
gotten shriller until they just cut off with a piercing whine, then that
had cut off as well. She couldn't see outside, she knew she wasn't
connected to the EVA anymore. Leaving only the sound of the rockets.
She'd managed to close the mask, sealing the suit. The flight was
extremely smooth, only the sounds of the rockets for a few seconds, then
silence, complete, unearthly silence. She slid back in the chair and
braced herself for the inevitable crash landing.
"Rei, can you hear me? Rei?"
She got no response, she wondered what had gone wrong, Everything
appeared to be working, until we reached the 75% threshold. The silence
was so great, she could clearly hear her own heartbeat, and the blood
coursing through her body. The pressure that had crushed her to the column
was gone.
Then an explosion of sound, incredibly loud, like suddenly being
thrown into a waterfall. The plug seemed to be trying to shake itself
apart, spinning violently on all three axes. The sound of tearing metal
seemed to prove it was succeeding.
The side hatch ripped loose. Nabiki watched in horror as the L.C.L.
poured out, and burst into flame as it mixed with the outside air. She
couldn't make out anything outside because of the tumbling and the flames.
The initial jerk backward crushed her against the controls, then the force
released the plug with another shriek of metal, and threw her back onto the
seat. Cold began seeping into her suit, then as if changing its mind,
heat, heat and more heat.
The centripetal forces pressed her back against the chair, as the plug
spun and disintegrated in earnest. Through the gaps torn in the walls of
the plug, she spotted another plug some distance away, doing a similar
disintegrating flip across the ground, before the violent motion threw her
out of the plug and sent her skidding across the ground.
She considered trying to make it over to the other crash site, When I
can stand up, Nabiki felt she'd been beaten on every inch of her body,
inside and out, then flash fried to preserve freshness. She couldn't stand
or move. She collapsed, opened the faceplate, disgorging the L.C.L. from
her system. She discovered the rest of the suit was sealed shut, and she
didn't have the strength to force the damaged closures open. Darkness
enfolded her.
----------------------------------------
The sound of the low oxygen alarm woke Nabiki, she had a feeling it
had been going off for a while. She still felt bruised and burned, So it
wasn't a bad dream, not that I haven't been having enough of those lately,
she raised the faceplate all the way, and glanced down at the radiation
plugsuit, soot streaks covered it.
She wondered how she'd survived the impact that had destroyed the
plug, And how am I going to get out of this stupid suit?
She gritted her teeth and crawled towards the other crash site. She
saw men, in U.S. military uniforms, surrounding Rei, carefully loading her
aboard a stretcher.
"Hey," Nabiki managed.
"There's another one," someone shouted in English, several men closed
in, gingerly loading her aboard another stretcher.
"I'm Nabiki Tendo," she told them, matching their use of English, "A
NERV EVA pilot. I have to contact NERV Tokyo."
"First we have to get you to the base hospital, you scared the Hell
out of a bunch of people around here."
"Sorry," Nabiki told them as they loaded her into what looked like a
hearse. In the tail lights, she could make out the greenish to tan
uniforms, Not Navy, probably. "I hope we didn't land on anyone," she told
them. As she started blacking out again, she heard someone ask how they
were going to explain this, one voice suggested a flying saucer, another a
weather balloon crash. She was glad it wasn't her problem.
----------------------------------------
Verify is an Event
July 4, 1947
The tape tugging at her arm was the first thing she felt. Slowly,
Nabiki opened her eyes. The room was a hospital, done in institutional
drab. A soldier sat near the door, on the only chair in the room. He was
reading a comic book.
"This isn't the NERV med center," she said.
"Yes, Ma'am." The soldier snapped to his feet, saluted. "I'll get a
doctor, Ma'am."
Nabiki watched him go, Ma'am, saluting? she wasn't sure about all of
this. She raised her head, then dropped it back, as exhaustion took her.
They'd somehow got the suit off her. She could tell the hospital gown was
military, as was the underwear. She was too confused to really be worried
about that.
The doctor arrived a moment later, an Army green uniform under his
white lab coat, "Miss Tendo, I must say, it's quite an honor to meet you
and Miss Ayanami, even considering the circumstances and all the trouble
you caused. I am curious how you managed to get here." He said as he
checked her pupils and her pulse.
Nabiki expected to get a thermometer in the mouth before she could
answer, "We ejected during a power system test," Nabiki told him, then got
the thermometer.
"Miss Tendo, you are in the United States, an Air Force base in New
Mexico to be more precise. Do you have any idea how you made it all the
way here?" he removed the thermometer, seemed to accept whatever it read.
"No," the realization stunned Nabiki, she and Rei had crossed the
Pacific Ocean! She hadn't been able to time the flight, but it couldn't
have been more than a few minutes, "This is impossible," she murmured.
"Well," the doctor said, "We'll get that I.V. out, then let you rest."
"I need to see Miss Ayanami."
"I'm afraid she hasn't regained consciousness. She was injured far
worse than you were. We had her in surgery, and she's recuperating
nicely."
That damned Nerima stamina, Nabiki thought, It seems I've got it in
spades too.
"You need to rest," the doctor continued, "I realize this is all a
shock, but you should relax and heal. You didn't come away from this
unscathed either, you know."
Nabiki nodded, she suspected she'd aggravated the injuries from the
fight in the museum, "Have you contacted NERV?"
The doctor's professional demeanor faltered, "We've been in contact
with the Las Vegas base, that's the nearest base. They'll be arranging
transport when you are both well enough to travel."
Nabiki didn't feel strong enough to argue. She stared at the ceiling,
then the tube in her arm, wondering about the insanity of the situation,
"Happy Fourth of July."
----------------------------------------
Later that day, Nabiki rolled into Rei's hospital room in a
wheelchair. The girl was still unconscious. Nabiki saw the I.V. going into
her arm, and the four bottles feeding it. She rolled beside the bed, took
Rei's other hand and held it, hoping Rei was all right, that she'd wake
soon. Nabiki needed someone to talk to, she suspected they were keeping
something from her. Everytime she tried to bring it up, they changed the
subject. Considering that Gendo was not raising the roof to get his secret
project back in hand, she wondered how bad it was at NERV Tokyo. How many
casualties? Did they think she and Rei were dead too? Or were they safer
here?
Nabiki lowered her head to the bed. It's too much, she thought, Too
much too soon. She felt terribly beaten up, inside and out. She idly
wondered if the others were worried about her.
She jerked her head up as an officer entered, he quickly removed his
hat. Nabiki noted the stars on his collar and the aviator's wings.
"Miss Tendo, I'm pleased to see you up and around."
"I heal very quickly, General," she smiled, "I also am violently
allergic to bullshit. When are we going to rejoin the other pilots? When
are we going back to NERV Tokyo?"
"Miss Tendo," he stepped closer, rested his hand on her shoulder, "You
and Miss Ayanami _are_ the only pilots, NERV Tokyo is gone. Not destroyed,
it's simply not there anymore," he took a breath, "You'll be transferred to
NERV Nevada at Las Vegas, they should be able to complete construction of
two EVAs to allow you to return to service."
"None of the other pilots or staff survived?" Nabiki felt the bottom
drop out of the world, "What about Pilot Davis, and Captain Katsuragi?"
"Pilot Davis and Captain Katsuragi disappeared on their flight back to
base from Osaka."
Nabiki suspected he'd memorized that fact, as if he'd expected her
question. "Anna Alice?" Nabiki was grasping at straws, and she knew it.
Asuka's friend was the only other EVA pilot Nabiki knew of. She also
wondered what agonies the other girl was going through. Maybe she needed
to talk to someone who had gone through it.
"I don't know. I'm sorry, excuse me."
Nabiki numbly watched the man leave.
She felt Rei tighten her grip on her hand, "Shinji-kun," Rei murmured
in her sleep.
Nabiki wished she had something to say, she just felt empty. She
didn't have any comforting words for herself or Rei. She laid her head on
the bed, let the other girl's breathing lull her into a quiet state.
Nabiki wasn't eager for the nightmares to start again, she didn't want to
feel the anger at the others for leaving her again.
That Rei had to be going through the same, if not worse . . . Nabiki
couldn't imagine what they would do. Without Rei and Shinji, she would
have drawn within herself, and never come out again. If Rei was hit as
hard, Nabiki didn't know what she was going to do. If she could help Rei.
If she could help herself.
----------------------------------------
July 5, 1947
Nabiki wasn't sure if it was a good idea to move Rei this way. The
plane was a converted B-24. Raccoon or Kensuke would probably know the
correct designation. The berths were comfortable and Rei seemed secure,
but Nabiki really wanted someone to talk to, but this was a very rush-rush,
hush-hush mission. So there was a full flight crew, a doctor, and two
nurses, one for each of the Children, but none of them tried to talk to the
EVA pilots.
The takeoff and climb were smooth, as smooth as Nabiki remembered from
the few modern commercial flights she'd been on. They rapidly reached
cruising altitude and the doctor and nurses checked they were secure, but
none of the trio seemed willing to talk.
Maybe this is how Ranma felt, Nabiki thought as the seconds seemed to
crawl by. They had told her the flight would be three hours. Nabiki
reached across the aisle to hold Rei's hand, a touchstone to the reality
that had been, and was no longer. She found the irony particularly bitter,
she would have to see to Rei's mental health, after the girl had been
looking out for her. She wondered which of them had been worse prepared
for the job they'd been forced to take on.
She also knew there would be no last minutes saves. There was no one
left to accomplish them. She didn't care who saw her cry.
The old man who approached and sat next to the two girls said nothing,
merely waited for her to notice him. He reminded Nabiki of the old man who
ran the American fried chicken franchise, it seemed an odd coincidence that
this visitor had the eagles of a Colonel as well. She also saw the cross
on his collar.
"I'm not Christian, Father - ?"
"Brother Jonathan," the old man said in passable Japanese.
Somehow his craggy face reminded her of Ranma, the man was a fighter,
but he was also an honorable and gentle knight. That reminder brought more
tears, the man waited silently until she had finished. "I'm sorry."
"There's no shame, I've felt like that myself, on more than one
occasion. I was with the 442 Regimental Combat Team. I learned a bit
about Shinto and Buddhism. So, I figured you might be a little mad at God
right now, maybe you'd like to file a complaint, I can forward it, if you
like."
Nabiki smiled at that, she had some harsh words, words she wanted to
tell Belldandy to her face. She was supposed to be here to help Ranma.
While she hadn't done the best job, doing that job now would be impossible.
"I don't think he'd care to listen to what I'd say," Nabiki said, "I'm not
sure he has in the past. Of course neither did anyone else, my mother
still died, my best friend still went away, and when I thought I could help
him, my boyfriend was taken away. I don't think I'm on speaking terms with
the higher powers."
"You want to sock one of them in the nose," Brother Jonathan said, a
grin splitting his face. "I met George S. Patton once, never saw a man
quite as devout, nor as profane. Sometimes an old friend has to be
reminded of what's what and who's who. I've admired you, Miss Tendo, and
the others. I haven't been able to tell you, I rarely leave the States."
"But now you have the opportunity," Nabiki smiled, there was something
intriguing about this Brother Jonathan, for all his 'aw-shucks' folksiness,
she doubted she'd enjoy sitting against him in a negotiation, or across a
poker table. "I don't think there are any gods interested in me," Nabiki
admitted.
"Then how do you explain your visitor in the bath?" the old man had a
twinkle in his eye at Nabiki's shock. "There's a few that are interested.
Some don't have a dog in the fight, others most assuredly do, and they
admire you, Miss Tendo, you and the others."
"You mean the . . . Angels?" Nabiki whispered.
The old man raised an eyebrow in confirmation.
One of the Angels saved me?! Nabiki thought, she wasn't quite sure how
to take that. "You're serious?"
The old man nodded again. "Some want nothing to do with us. Others
want us to stay just as we are. Some want to consume us, to nourish
themselves on our outrage. Others only want to watch us die. All play the
game using what ever tools come to hand."
"So it doesn't care?" Nabiki said. Typical, just some_thing_ to be
used to another's ends, Nabiki thought, Now I'm just like Ranma.
"It might not, or it might care enough to just leave you alone," the
old man explained, "Or it may want to help, by giving you whatever you
want, or rather, whatever you ask for."
Nabiki lay back and considered all the things she could wish for, and
the difference between what she would wish for now, and what she would have
wished for only a few months ago. Money, influence and power seemed worth
a lot less in the face of the loss of almost everyone and everything she
cared about.
----------------------------------------
Nabiki half listened to the people around her, as she stared at the
titanic bay in front of her. The base was impressive, the cavernous bay
where they were assembling five EVAs was a step beyond impressive.
"That one on the left is Unit 05," one of the techs told her, "That
one is yours, Miss Tendo."
Nabiki thought it was an odd-looking thing. Not as slim as Units
00-02, nor serpentine like Unit 04. Humanoid, like most EVAs, except it
had three complete sets of arms, like some Hindu god. It was also stockier
and burlier-looking than the EVAs she was used to.
"These have much increased physical strength and thicker armor," the
same tech told her. She realized either he liked to talk, or he'd been
appointed spokesman. "The armor is a type of spaced armor, as well as
several built-in weapons systems. Unit 06 is similar, as are Units 07 to
09."
Which are actually further along in their construction, Nabiki
thought, They weren't expecting we two alternates to need them. No, we'd
get the older Units, if we got anything. Now they've got no choice.
"Well, Units 05 and 06 had to be stripped down," another tech started,
"To - " The slap on the head interrupted him.
"To test the S and S2 engines," Nabiki finished, suddenly everyone
looked ashamed. Nabiki felt rotten at bringing it up. What had befallen
NERV Tokyo was supposed to happen _here_._
She didn't begrudge those people their survival, she still wished it
had happened to someone besides her friends. She was too shellshocked to
react to her realization.
"Um, Miss Tendo, we were wondering what kind of paint scheme you
wanted," the lead spokesman took up his duties, even the subdued mood
couldn't keep him quiet for long. "Maybe you could give us a clue about
how Miss Ayanami wants her Unit 06 to look."
Clumsy an attempt as it was, Nabiki was actually grateful for the
distraction. Truly, Nabiki could have cared less about what color it was.
She was tempted to tell them 'white', and not explain the significance in
Asia, as mourning colors. "Gray and black camouflage, something that would
blend in no matter the background," Nabiki told them.
None of the techs speculated about why she'd want such a somber paint
scheme, they simply argued about stripes versus lozenge patterns versus
blotches.
"As for Miss Ayanami's, paint it like a dragon: scales, fiery extra
eyes, fingers like claws, teeth painted on the jaw, the whole nine-yards."
"I thought she was the quiet one," the spokesman seemed disturbed by
this. That the self-proclaimed `expert` should have failed to realize
something.
"You've never seen her in combat," Nabiki said in a tone that implied
she'd explained everything. She also gave them her most enigmatic smile.
She knew Rei would take whatever they gave her, considering the tacky
orange she was still stuck with.
But our enemies will know, Nabiki thought, Revenants, or remnants,
that's what we are. All that's left, returned from the dead.
She wondered where Belldandy was during the disaster, was she
destroyed as well, or couldn't she leave Japan? A spirit of the place,
rather than worldwide.
Or is it with Ranma gone, Nabiki no longer mattered in 'the
greater-scheme-of-things' anymore? Nabiki asked herself.
The rest of the tour was mildly interesting, but Nabiki knew it was
mainly a distraction. She didn't need distraction, but she wanted to talk
with someone. Someone who might actually understand. These people had
never felt what Nabiki was currently feeling. "Could I speak with the
chaplain who brought us in?" Nabiki asked.
"What chaplain was that Miss Tendo?" the tech asked, brought up short.
"A 'bird' colonel, I guess he was Catholic, he was a 'Brother', rather
than a 'Father', I never asked which Order."
"Miss Tendo, the only chaplain here is a Protestant, a Lutheran
major." The spokesman glanced at the other techs, who were looking at each
other.
"His name was Jonathan," Nabiki patiently explained, "I assume it was
a family name since it was on his uniform."
"There's no such chaplain here, I think we'd know about it, and no
chaplain aboard the plane that brought you in."
Nabiki was mystified, she'd talked with the man for over an hour!
"Would you like a talk with the chaplain?"
"Thank you, no, I'd like to check on Miss Ayanami. She wasn't
conscious when they brought her in."
"I don't think she will be awake yet." Now they were confused.
"Yes, but she's still a good listener," Nabiki told them. She hadn't
expected any of them to get the hint, she wasn't disappointed.
The infirmary was plain, built along the lines of the NERV med center
in Tokyo. Nabiki wondered if it was still there.
Nabiki stared down at the girl in the hospital bed. She had to admit,
there was something about Rei that made her want to comfort the girl. She
reminded her so much of Ranko, not just the odd similarity of their voices,
but they were fighters, hurt and lonely deep inside.
Nabiki sat on the edge of the bed, opposite the arm with all the IV's
in it. Nabiki idly ran her hand through the other girls hair, smoothing
the uncombed mess into something approaching order. Nabiki really didn't
have anything to say that she thought Rei might want to hear. Just being
here with her was an anchor to who she had been for the last few months,
who she wanted to be again. She wondered when Rei too would be taken away
from her, as had everybody else who mattered to her.
Rei rolled unexpectedly, trapping Nabiki's hand between her cheek and
the pillow.
Nabiki froze, wondering if she'd woken the sleeping girl, or if Rei
had moved unconsciously. Nabiki waited, she could pull her hand free.
And abandon Rei, she thought, Or I can just sit here, let her dream
whatever dreams she has left. Nabiki knew reality would demand their
attention soon enough.
----------------------------------------
Making a Majority of One
July 6, 1947
Nabiki was in Rei's room, the other girl was awake. Theoretically
they were eating a breakfast of rice and vegetables. Both were just
pushing their food around on their plates.
"Rei, do you know anything about NERV Nevada?"
"It is an EVA construction base outside of Las Vegas, not optimized
for combat support, or training."
"Maybe they'll send us to NERV Massachusetts, which was a personnel
base."
"No, they will send us to Matsushiro, that - " Rei stopped, closed her
eyes a moment, then continued, "That was the backup for NERV Tokyo," Rei
said, more woodenly than Nabiki had ever heard.
Nabiki didn't know how to say anything that might have done any good,
Ranma and Raccoon's deaths tore her up inside, as did Ritsuko and Maya's.
Yet she knew the intensity of feeling that Rei had for Gendo and Shinji
made their twin losses more devastating.
"We still have a job to do," Nabiki quietly reminded her, "Anna will
need to be brought up to speed. You are the institutional memory, you
remember the established training and standards."
Rei nodded.
Nabiki didn't have the strength or will to continue trying to cheer up
'Wondergirl', she wished there was someone to cheer her up, There was a
month ago, Hiroko, Nabiki felt the tears coming again, But she's dead too.
Everybody who matters to me dies.
----------------------------------------
Ranma walked through the deeper corridors of NERV. The weird things
floating around, in and out of the walls, paid him no mind. That was all
right with him. He'd seen what they could do when they wanted to, or were
surprised. Watching what happened, when they materialized inside somebody,
had been something he could have lived a long time without seeing.
Discovering that he simply passed through them, when he attacked them
hadn't been a pleasant experience either. Even his newest ability had no
effect on these things. He summoned that fiercely protective attitude that
had allowed him to create this the first time. The ball of light was
smaller, still the same fiercely golden color. He shoved it in the lock to
the strongroom and waited a moment. "I should really name this thing."
Then he considered what calling out a name in battle would mean, "It would
mean I'd find Asuka, Captain Ramsey and Rit-chan waiting for me with
baseball bats when I got done. Just to `explain` why I shouldn't yell out
during a fight." Ranma sighed, sometimes his teammates had no sense of
style.
The pain he'd been pushing aside came back full force. He had watched
Nab-chan and Rei die. Once the rockets pushed them through the roof, he'd
run to the other levels, and found nothing. They were gone. Then Rit-chan
had admitted that she had a report that Raccoon and Misato were lost too.
Initially he didn't feel anything for them. It was as if they'd never
been. It was a dreadfully dishonorable betrayal of their memories, but he
had others, others he still _could_ protect. That was the reason he was
here, he was no longer going to let pride, his or theirs, get in the way of
duty, his and theirs.
He yanked the door to the strongroom open. He could almost hear the
trumpet fanfare. He frowned at that, "No need ta rub it in." He walked to
the long box, carefully labeled in Rit-chan's meticulous handwriting. He
opened the box and drew out the sword and scabbard. The weapon he'd woken
up with after that weird dream, two and a half months ago. He'd been eager
to get rid of it then, now he needed it.
It wasn't a proper katana, more like the ancient Ken, a long straight
double-edged blade. It had a large hand guard carved like a pair of
shells, about the only adornment on the whole thing, and two 'arms'
projecting out like a sai. What really disturbed Ranma wasn't the flat
gray metal of the blade, that was harder than diamond, or the perfect
balance, but that it the entire thing was nearly weightless. It bothered
him no end, that someone, or more likely some_thing_, had gone to the
effort to create a weapon that would fit him, his style and sense of
esthetics. After watching Raccoon fight that thing, then Ranma himself
killed one of the shadows armed only with the scabbard, he guessed that the
same something had enchanted the blade to a fair-thee-well. The scabbard
that went with the blade was an equally odd thing. If the blade was plain,
the scabbard was beautiful, the metal seemed every color of the rainbow,
the colors and the swirls were never the same twice when you looked at it.
What saved it from being `artsy` was the strong edge of the same gray metal
the sword was made of, running along the edge of the scabbard, and the
stirrup hilt to guard his hand. You didn't wear this scabbard on your hip,
you used it in the fight, to parry and draw your opponent's eye, while the
sword flashed in unnoticed to do the work. Yes, someone knew Ranma's style
and preferences very well. One of the more aggressive of the invaders
passed through the wall, it looked like a ball of spikes or a sea urchin,
and it accelerated right at him. Ranma flicked the blade and cut it in
half. The pieces fell and twitched for a few moments, then lay still.
Ranma stared at it and the blade. Now he had the means to kill these
things now, to protect the others, but he couldn't help wondering if that
were the right thing to do. The NERV base was the invader into these
things' home, he didn't like the idea of simply killing them all because
they were trying to protect their own.
He sighed as he left the room, he glanced around, there were none of
the strange creatures in the corridor as far as he could see. "Maybe we
finally scared them off," he said, Maybe _I_ - finally scared them off, he
thought sadly as he headed for the command deck.
----------------------------------------
The pair stood on the edge of the crater. One crouched, looking for
details; the other stood, trying to take it all in.
Don't look into the abyss, the abyss looks back, Jeff thought. He
wished he could go elsewhere and not deal with this, but he had no choice.
"This changes nothing, Daifusa," Misato told Jeff as he examined a
pipe that had been sliced by the removal of NERV Tokyo from the planet.
"I wouldn't expect it would." Can't you pick _ONE_ mispronunciation
and stick with it? he wondered.
"Where are you going?" Misato jogged after him.
"Admiral Simson," he replied as he climbed into the jeep, and drove
off before Misato could climb aboard. He'd been stuck with her in close
quarters for over a week, that was well beyond his saturation point.
----------------------------------------
"They're still alive," Jeff told Admiral Simson and General Tomlinson
as he walked into the command tent. Captain Ramsey and Colonel Stedman
were in the base when it disappeared.
"How do you know?" Simson asked.
"That wasn't an explosion, it was a transport, but not along any of
the normal time-space axes."
"How does that help?" Tomlinson asked.
"If we can coordinate with the base personnel, we might be able to put
it right back where it was."
"And what do you need to do that?" Tomlinson joked.
"Toji Suzuhara and a couple of Amerind shamans," Jeff wasn't joking.
"What tribe?" Simson wasn't joking either.
"Navajo, or Cheyenne would be my preference, spiritwalkers."
"Get what or who ever else you need. Now! I'll have those people
waiting for you in two hours."
Tomlinson looked around worriedly, wondering if the madness was
contagious.


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