[FFML] [Ranma][NGE][HPL][AMG][Fusion][Fanfic] Sic Semper Morituri Chapter 34 - Not Angles but Angels

[Daniel Jess Gibson]

[Ranma][NGE][HPL][AMG][Fusion][Fanfic] Sic Semper Morituri Chapter 34 - Not
Angles but Angels

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.

Author's Notes: I'd like to thank Tom Hackwood, D I, A.V. Morgan, Charles
and Dale Gibson for their help with this chapter.

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.
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, Jeff and Misato are sent to investigate.
Asuka takes Ranma to Tokyo University, meeting Belldandy and Keiichi.
Then they return to enjoy the carnival set up on the school grounds. The
arrival of an assassin of Nyarlathotep's cult spoils everyone's evening as
it attacks the pilots and senior staff, Asuka in Unit 02 destroys him. In
the aftermath, Ranma, Rei and Asuka, make efforts to draw Nabiki out of her
shell.
Kaji investigates the facts of recent events, but doesn't realize his
contact is a Mi-Go. Ritsuko, Rei and Jeff discuss their origins and other
facts.
The S2 engines are tested, and NERV Tokyo vanishes. Nabiki and Rei
escape and land outside Roswell, NM., they must deal with the aftermath and
loss at NERV Las Vegas.
NERV Tokyo, in the Great White Space, becomes the battle ground
between the crew and alien invaders. Toji and Jeff transfer there to aid
the fight. With the base is the Outer God Ghroth, on the Outer God's
surface is the device that brought the base there, the trapped and
intermixed spirits of the victims of Angel Malaise, including Toji's
sister.
Ghroth awakens and takes revenge on the Pilots and especially
Nyarlathotep.
Toji visits an unusual woman's kitchen, and gets a commission. The
other pilots all suffer nightmares. Rei summons the Meliorist and the
Scholarly Dragon to effect a rescue. She also contacts another self who
just died. Shinji escapes on his own, the Scholarly Dragon helps Asuka
escape, Ranma has to rescue himself from his nightmare.
The NERV crew develops a plan to return them home.
Misato and Jeff are interrogated about the events of the plane crash,
their memories of events are very different.
With the return of NERV Tokyo, everyone is celebrating, except Asuka
who realizes their enemies are taking a direct interest in the pilots.
Nabiki and Rei are returned to Tokyo separately, Rei by express, Nabiki
aboard the Spruce Goose with cargo for the EVAs.

Rise again, rise again, that her name not be lost to the knowledge of men.
Those who loved her best and were with her till the end, will make the Mary
Ellen Carter rise again.
She went down last October in a pouring driving rain. The skipper, he'd
been drinking and the Mate, he felt no pain.
Too close to Three Mile Rock, and she was dealt her mortal blow, and the
Mary Ellen Carter settled low.
There was just us five aboard her when she finally was awash. We'd worked
like Hell to save her, all heedless of the cost.
And the groan she gave as she went down, it caused us to proclaim 'That the
Mary Ellen Carter would rise again.'
Mary Ellen Carter - Stan Rogers


July 8, 1947
We Aren't No Thin Red 'eroes
The three men were nondescript, average height, average build,
complexion tan enough they could almost pass for Asians or Hispanics. All
three dressed in suits of a common enough style they wouldn't have been out
of place anywhere in the Americas, Europe or Japan. Except they were too
similar. When one looked around, the other two did as well. When one
stared at you, so did the other two.
General Tembris didn't like disquieting visitors standing on his
cavern's doorstep, especially when his plans had finally gotten on track
again. He also disliked visitors when the military was closing in on his
current base of operations. He knew he'd have to move again soon, but this
visit made it imperative to move _today_._
"I understand that the Katsuragi woman is your primary target, and
that Pilot Saotome is your goal," one of the visitors spoke.
At least they don't speak as a chorus, Tembris thought as he stood
aside, letting them enter. He hoped no one had followed them. His
lookouts reported nothing.
"That's right, I forwarded my plans to SEELE already, they are well
underway. I'm just hoping you aren't here to `help`."
"You mean interfere," another of the trio said in an amused tone. The
other two immediately smiled.
"We have no intention of operating against you, or your plans," the
third of the trio said.
"We have a different target, we respect your efforts," the first said
in an earnest tone of voice. A little too much like a politician's for
Tembris's peace of mind.
"We are only here to assure you and ourselves that our operations are
not now, nor will become mutually exclusive," the second added.
"We will neither interfere, nor insist we coordinate," the third said.
Tembris disliked this verbal game of hot-potato, almost as much as
these men's mere presence disquieted him. They had still not given their
names, nor the identity of their target, calling it only 'the renegade'.
Tembris wasn't certain they were talking about a male or a female, they had
called it both she and he during their introductions.
"Unless you request it," again the first.
"Well then, why don't you sit in my office and we can draw our plans.
I'm afraid that I'm going to take some time to get Saotome." He gestured
for them to follow him deeper into the cave.
"Saotome is unimportant to us," the first assured him.
"We have a different target," the second reiterated.
"The renegade has exceeded acceptable limits, divulged secrets better
left hidden, conspired against the original purpose," the third said with
all the emotion they seemed to possess, which wasn't much.
"We will kill the renegade without interfering with your plans," the
first assured him.
"Unless, of course, we can arrange it to assist your operations," the
second added.
Tembris didn't trust these men. They were too regimented, too stilted
in their speech and movements. He didn't know what they actually _were_,
but he would have bet money they weren't human.
----------------------------------------
Sammi sat in Asuka's bedroom, she'd been watching the girl the entire
night. She'd only left her to check if Jeff had returned sometime during
the night. A quick call to the Navy got her bumped up to one of Captain
Ramsey's aides. He assured her that they were watching Jeff. She had a
bad feeling about that, but Asuka, then Ranma were her primary concerns.
Asuka slept without dreams, seemingly peacefully. Sammi simply waited
and watched. She didn't know what she could tell the girl when she awoke.
The most obvious, was that humanity was a state of mind and a set of
behaviors, however giving her proof would be counterproductive. She
smirked at that, and the cruel irony of it. At the same time, she wondered
if Ritsuko had any more appropriate parts, Davis and Ayanami needed someone
to look after them, and frankly, a human simply couldn't keep up.
Asuka finally woke late in the morning.
"So are you in the mood for breakfast?" Sammi wasn't certain what
attitude the girl would have.
"Yeah sure," she said, stretched, "Rice, fish, miso soup . . . " Asuka
headed into the bathroom to take a shower.
Sammi was leery about leaving her alone. "So I assume you wouldn't be
interested in beer and sausage?" She asked through the door.
"No."
"Oh boy," Sammi whispered, "Lot of work to do."
She waited until Asuka finished dressing and followed her into the
kitchen.
"I guess I should apologize for acting like an idiot," Asuka said.
Sammi froze, wondering how she should redirect the conversation. "You
brought up legitimate concerns. You just brought them up before the
others," Sammi said quietly, watching Asuka furtively, "That doesn't make
you wrong or weak, just a little more perceptive."
"Yeah, whatever," Asuka said and moved off to sit at the table,
fidgeting with the napkin holder.
Sammi, on the one hand was glad Asuka was acting like a regular
teenager, on the other hand Asuka was also covering over a serious problem.
Sammi was also worried that Asuka hadn't even asked about her friend's
absence.
----------------------------------------
Shinji opened his eyes, he wasn't sure who was pounding on the door.
He was extremely glad that Misato was still snoring and seemed able to
sleep through the disturbance. He did wish she'd been snoring a bit
louder, so he wouldn't have heard it either. He yawned and headed for the
door. Toji was visible through the peephole, Shinji opened the door and
let in the thunderstorm.
"Ya gotta come with, it's real important - " at that point Toji was
talking too fast for Shinji's sleep-addled brain to keep up.
"So you see how important it is?" Toji asked him after finally coming
up for air.
"No," Shinji yawned, "You just woke me up. I was out last night." He
saw Toji didn't understand. "The fireworks, the parties, the parades," he
explained, "Celebrating NERV's return."
If Misato-san was out there, the drunken dancing in the streets, he
thought, he just hoped she left her clothes on this time.
"So that's what that was," Toji seemed mystified, "I heard the Ghost
again, but I guess I slept through the rest."
For a moment, Shinji wished he were Asuka or Nabiki, so he could give
his dear friend the beating he so richly deserved.
"Well, it's 10:00 A.M., you should have gotten plenty of . . . what is
that noise?" Toji asked.
"That's Misato-san." Shinji frowned, hoping that the continuous
snoring would explain why he was still tired, "She can sleep through
anything."
"Shinji! You lucky dog!" Toji punched Shinji's arm, "Not only do you
sleep with a beautiful woman, but you know exactly when to go in and peek!
Does she wear something special - urk?" Toji's advance on Misato's room
was interrupted by Shinji testing the arm lock Nabiki and Ranma had shown
him.
Shinji was considering if he should just toss Toji out the window or
the front door. He knew Misato probably wouldn't make a big deal over Toji
or Shinji looking, somehow that made it worse. Shinji smiled at his
friend, twisted his arm a little more, kept smiling.
"Okay! Okay! Let go!" Toji said. He rubbed his arm. "What's got
you in such a bad mood?"
Shinji released Toji and just stared at him, "Ghroth, or don't you
remember?"
"Oh yeah, I - " Toji said, "I guess since my sister's back, it doesn't
really matter as much. That's why I asked."
Shinji shook his head, trying to wake up some more. "Asked what?"
Toji growled. "I asked you to come see my sister, she wants to see
the pilot who helped rescue her."
Shinji thought that was a bad idea, She's probably going to yell at me
for putting her in the hospital in the first place.
"Well, I'll see if Asuka's busy," Shinji said, watched Toji wilt a
little.
"If you have to bring Sour Kraut . . . "
"What's the matter, Curly?" Shinji asked, then ruffled Toji's hair.
"Getting a little long on top."
Toji punched Shinji's arm again.
"Let me get some breakfast," Shinji replied, then smirked, "Or you can
cook it, all pilots can cook, boys better than girls." He kept from
smiling at Toji's stricken look. "That's really why Raccoon picked you,
Kensuke can't cook."
----------------------------------------
"Card," Nabiki said, she had seen Chemin-de-Fer or Baccarat played in
James Bond movies. She'd never played it herself. She got the card, a
nine and went from a fifteen or five to a twenty-four: four, worse. "I
lose. I thought they didn't let priests gamble."
"This isn't for money." Brother Jonathan turned over his cards,
sixteen, or six. "Your turn."
"Okay." She accepted the deck, shuffled. "Ask your question." She
dreaded this part, the game was simple, whoever won the hand could ask one
question, which had to be answered truthfully, but fortunately _not_
completely.
"What is there between you and Saotome?" Brother Jonathan asked.
Nabiki fumbled the deal, collected the cards and reshuffled. "I don't
know, I thought I did. Then . . . "
"You know it wasn't his fault, but you can't forgive him. Stand."
The man glanced at his cards. He waited for her to nod. "Part of the lack
of forgiveness is you haven't forgiven yourself, now that you have some
distance, what would you have done differently?"
Nabiki sighed. "Seven." Nabiki turned over her cards, she considered
the comment. "I feel there has to be something, but I don't think there
is."
"Reasonable, seven." He waited for Nabiki to either deal or ask her
question.
"What are you? Not _who_ - _what_." Nabiki was shocked when the man
smiled at her insulting question.
"You really haven't studied Shinto have you?" he said, "Eight million
gods representing everything, from the smallest tree to the greatest
island. Did you think that only applied to Japan?"
Nabiki's fingers went numb in shock, dropping the cards on the plane's
deck.
----------------------------------------
As they walked along the hospital's corridors, Shinji kept glancing
worriedly at Asuka. He had asked her along as moral support, and to
counterbalance Toji, who was beginning to get on his nerves. He was glad
that Toji's sister was back, but his friend's enthusiasm was wearing Shinji
out. Asuka's continued silence worried him more.
Maybe I'm jealous, Shinji thought, Because Rei-chan isn't back yet.
Sammi was with them also, she seemed as worried about Asuka as he was.
Toji hadn't noticed as he dragged Shinji along.
Right now he wouldn't notice five Angels tap dancing through the halls
to the music of sacred drums, Shinji thought as Toji hauled him forward.
"See, I brought him." Toji finally released him into the room before
he tore his arm loose.
The younger girl in the bed was propped up on some pillows, Hikari was
there. Whatever they had been talking about was lost beneath an
embarrassed blush by Hikari, and Yumiwashi's enthusiasm. Which appeared to
be a family trait.
"SoHikaritellsmeyou'reacellist, youdon'tlooklikeIexpected,
consideringtheapologiesyougave, yesIcouldhearyou, andyou'reforgiven,
whydidn'tyoubringyourcello? IaskedTojitoaskyoutobringyourcello!" She
glared at Toji.
"She's your sister all right, Curly," Asuka commented, she was still
deciphering the rapid-fire Japanese.
"YoumustbeAsukaI'm - "
"Talking too fast," Asuka commented, "You sound like your brother,
when he's talking about a girl."
Shinji wasn't sure if Hikari, Yumi' or Toji was more embarrassed.
"Pilots have all the tact of a howitzer barrage I'm afraid," Sammi
said, extended her hand to the girl, "I'm Samantha Kraznyzamok, call me
Sammi. I'm here to keep them from killing each other."
Shinji noted the shocked look on Yumi's face, meeting Sammi for the
first time. Sammi was nice, but she was _big_. It was like a grizzly bear
ambling over and saying 'hi'.
"I don't bite," Sammi said, smiled, "I prefer calling in artillery
strikes. Then I can just spoon up the remains."
"She's joking," Asuka assured the startled girl, "She uses chopsticks
like the rest of us. She's Horseface's regular guard. So don't beat up on
Shinji here, she likes dumb, helpless boys."
"So poor Hikari-san will have to compete with her?" Yumi` asked
innocently.
"Did you really pilot?" Hikari asked, trying to change the subject,
"Why didn't you say something about it?"
"Don't tell anybody!" Toji yelped, waving his hands desperately.
"Oh, secrecy," Hikari realized.
"No! Kensuke will never let me hear the end of it. If he found out I
piloted, he'll never give me an instant's peace."
Shinji and the others laughed at Toji's distress.
"So," Yumi` began, speaking in a slower, understandable voice, "You
told me you composed as well as played. Why didn't you bring any of your
music or your cello?"
Shinji nervously looked at the others.
"Just because I was . . . " she paused, shivered, "Well, you told me."
"A composer . . . ?" Asuka was staring at him now. "And you saw fit
not to tell any of _us_," Asuka said, clearing planning a reckoning later,
"Or did you spill your soul to Wondergirl?"
"Well," Shinji explained, hoping to survive the next few minutes, "I
knew you couldn't so I - "
"You kept it from me, to protect my fragile ego," Asuka said sweetly,
"Since you knew I would feel bad. You're so noble."
Shinji was getting more nervous now.
"So when can you give me lessons?" Yumi' asked.
"What do you mean?" Shinji asked, now he was desperate to change the
subject.
"I - play - the - violin," Yumi` told them, "Didn't Toji tell you?"
Toji nervously scratched his head. "It must have slipped my mind."
"All you need is another violin," Hikari suggested, "For a string
quartet."
"Wondergirl plays," Asuka said, then stared at Hikari, "You should
know that."
"She never said anything about it," Hikari replied and shrugged.
"She wouldn't say anything about being on fire, you know that!" Asuka
told her friend, "You didn't try and get her in the music club or the
orchestra or anything?" Asuka seemed mystified.
"She just didn't seem to care about the rest of us, what we thought,
what we did," Hikari explained, "Until you showed up Ikari-san. She was
always forbidding. Most people just wanted to leave her alone."
"Well," Asuka said, hands on her hips.
I think I should leave, as fast as I can! Shinji thought as he
recognized Asuka's 'I have to fix this, no matter who suffers' stance. He
knew what came next was not going to be pleasant.
"That does it, you're going to start taking her on dates, do all the
things robots do when they're alone and in love," Asuka told him. "Maybe
if you take Curly and Hikari along, you three can civilize him." She
smiled to her suddenly terrified audience. "A perfect solution, as
always."
"I thought you didn't approve of Toji-san," Hikari squeaked.
"That was before I found out he could act like a human, for short
periods of time. But those two should teach him reserve, and he can teach
those two how to loosen up. We'll have four humans instead of one."
"Matchmaker Asuka has spoken," Sammi said, "But why haven't you picked
out a man for yourself?"
Shinji suspected that Sammi had someone in mind, and that someone
wasn't Kaji.
"Oh I have, but General Galland is too old for me," Asuka said
breezily.
Shinji saw Asuka was covering up something, he knew how she'd reacted
to being rejected by Kaji in the dream, even though both were the `same
age`. He'd have to broach the subject of Misato and her rescuer later, but
while she was still in matchmaker mood. She'd probably enjoy leaving Kaji
with no one. Shinji wondered if Kaji knew what kind of red-headed hornets'
nest he'd stirred up.
----------------------------------------
If I Do Not Save It, It Shall Not Save Me
Rei bowed to the flight crew, thanked them for the flight, and jogged
down the landing strip. There was no one to meet her. She was actually
glad of this, it would simplify things. She spotted Kensuke among the
group photographing the plane.
I should have expected that, a new aircraft arriving, she thought.
She ignored his shouted questions about 'riding in the XB-36' and ran
towards her apartment, accelerating to full speed once she was out of
sight. She had to check in with the Commander, then she had another
mission.
----------------------------------------
Rei looked around her apartment. She felt as if a year had passed
since she was last here. Simultaneously, she knew it had been only a
handful of days. Over a month ago, she had received the report of
Roku-kun's leave. Her telephone call, a moment ago to the Commander,
revealed that Major Katsuragi had deployed a squad of security to follow
him. She thought the last was a particularly bad joke, but the Commander
wasn't joking.
I agree that leaving him alone on this day is not right, she thought,
But I doubt NERV security guards are the appropriate companions.
She had weighed the advantages of going to see Shinji-kun immediately,
or the responsibility of going after Roku-kun. When the Commander told her
that the security teams had lost contact within minutes, and had not been
able to reacquire, she made her decision. She would apologize to
Shinji-kun, but she knew he would understand. She suspected the Commander
was intentionally leaving the matter to her discretion.
She left her apartment, and found tracing Roku-kun herself proved very
difficult.
----------------------------------------
Rei had a vague idea why she was doing this. The Commander needed all
the pilots, she neither knew exactly why, nor did she need to know for
what. She did understand that the events since the battle with Cthugha had
nearly cost them Nabiki-kun. The loss of the base, Shinji-kun _and_ the
Commander had set despair in her own heart, only by her and Nabiki-kun
mutually clinging to each other, had either of them made it through.
To possibly lose another pilot, after such a hard-fought victory,
greatly offended her.
Rei was also well aware that the anniversary of painful events
seriously affected the victims, far beyond what the reasonable effect
should be. Perhaps that was why the Commander had left taking action to
her consideration. Even she and the Commander had been so affected. Long
ago, he had shown her the cloning tanks, and the brain register system.
She had been overjoyed at meeting so many other children her age, after
being alone for months. She'd wanted to go swimming with all the laughing
girls. Then the Commander had explained the brain register system and it's
recording and playback functions. If he'd been thinking properly, he
wouldn't have shown it to her on _that_day_, on the anniversary of
Yui-chan's death. Rei had asked to go through the process, and it was as
painless as he'd told her. But during that time, she'd developed her plan,
decided that she had the perfect means for revenging herself on Naoko
Akagi. Her own death would be meaningless to her and Gendo, but not to
Yui-chan's murderer, who was ignorant of Rei's new `ability`.
Rei knew how arrogant Naoko Akagi was, how she hated to be compared,
especially unfavorably, to _anyone_._ Rei had listened to Gendo, and to
their associates in the Dreamlands, learned that this type of person would
do _anything_ to avoid judgment by the `lesser` people around her. Rei's
plan was remarkably simple, antagonize Naoko to the point that she would
kill. The Commander had grown tired of her neediness, her endless
complaints and her need to force everything except her from the Commander's
life. Telling her this, calling her an 'old hag', telling her all the
unfavorable comparisons Rei had overheard the senior staff make between
Naoko and Yui, adding her and Ritsuko's feelings, it all worked. In a
blind rage, Naoko had strangled Rei to death. She learned later that Naoko
had thrown herself to her death on her masterwork, the Magi. She did not
damage them, Ritsuko could maintain them, so the loss to NERV was minimal.
Awakening in another body brought the most terrible shock. All the
warm feelings she'd had for Yui-chan, Gendo-kun, even Shinji-kun, all the
time she'd spent with her family. It was all just data. She remembered
it, in exquisite detail. She could tell exactly what Gendo had looked like
when Shinji-kun had eaten a wasabi-smeared rice ball, she could remember
the terrible anger, and the laughter underneath, when Yui-chan and Gendo
had discovered Shinji with his hair painted blue, and Rei with her hair
painted black, each insisting that now they were the other.
However, the emotion, hers and theirs, had been sucked out of it. She
could no longer really understand why they had done all the things that
they had. It was as if it had happened to someone else. It wasn't like
reading a book, because a book might strike chords of similarity with other
experiences. She had no experiences, just dates, faces, names, places.
Even when she learned that Naoko had taken her own life, the knowledge held
no satisfaction. The cost had been too high. Ritsuko would never forgive
her, despite the terrible treatment the new Technical Director had received
at Naoko's hands. Worse, her once-friend's hatred hadn't mattered to her
any more.
Rei hoped Roku-kun was not doing something equally foolish. She was
also somewhat angry with him. He had gone to such lengths to convince them
to seek out each other in times of trouble, and the technique had proven
surprisingly successful for Rei over the last few days. Yet when _he_ was
afflicted, he retreated into isolation. It wasn't that he had suddenly
found the others too traumatized, he had planned this betrayal of his own
ideals back when all was calm. She tried to keep her irritation from
becoming full-blown anger, there might have been rational reasons for it.
He might have made incorrect assumptions.
But it is extremely difficult, she thought as she ran along, following
the faint trace she had of him.
----------------------------------------
Rei stood atop a ridge line, looking at a number of sheltered coves.
She had passed a radio truck and two platoons of Marines. They were
Engineers or heavy weapons troopers, considering their heavy armaments:
machine guns, flamethrowers, mortars, etc. Offshore, a lone destroyer
waited, just sitting there. She suspected there were other ships farther
out, and airplanes high enough overhead that a person could ignore them.
After the events of the past weeks, she suspected that this was as
`private` a moment as any of the pilots were likely to get. There was an
old woman sitting in a short chair under a tree, knitting and watching all
the people coming and going from the coves. Rei suspected the woman's
constant humming to herself and line of chatter was a constant status
report to unseen eyes that all was well. Rei also suspected that the
oversized bag alongside her, opposite her knitting, did not contain golf
clubs.
The woman glanced at Rei, then returned to her knitting and humming,
as if she knew who Rei was, but didn't want to interfere. From the
reactions Rei had gotten from the children at the orphanage, and the
Americans in their own country, ignoring a pilot was never normal behavior.
Rei hadn't heard the words 'arigato' and 'Ayanami' mangled so badly and so
often in her life, yet so many of the Americans had insisted on thanking
her, in Japanese, for what she had done. She replied in English, 'I have
only done my duty.' They never got the hint, and continued to fail to make
themselves understood in Japanese.
Rei glanced around again, for all the people to choose from, she saw
no one she recognized.
He stood by me when I was alone and under attack, seeking to erase
both conditions, she thought as she walked, My tracking has led me here,
where I cannot find him.
Rei considered, and then walked down to the beaches, deciding to make
a methodical search of the five coves.
After the death of Naoko, Rei had always had trouble communicating
with others, as if there was a special set of instructions that somehow
she'd lost with her death and rebirth.
But not all. With Ikari-kun - I could simply be silent with him,
small signs and glances seemed enough. The Commander, I could talk with, I
understand him. Jeff, Roku-kun, he seemed to adjust to whatever situation
presented itself. He had `tricked` me into performing on the U.S.S. Coral
Sea by carefully explaining the rules of the exchange between us to me. I
was gratified by the pleasure of the crowd, and Roku-kun's praise, she
thought and remembered, At school he'd watched my aloof behavior at lunch.
His solution was to sit down near me, set up a chess board and without a
word, play several games against himself. He seemed to know I was
watching, analyzing, learning, so these contests against himself educated
me on the basics of the game. On Saturday of that week, as we all left
school he offered the loan of his chess book and board, on the condition I
play against him the following week. I agreed, and was beaten the first
few games, winning more consistently toward the end of the week. On
Saturday, after we'd finished cleaning the classroom, Roku-kun had asked
for one more game. I had beaten him at lunch and after-school two days
running, his insistence elicited my curiosity. At the lunch time games,
he'd been impatient, taking risks that were not justified, that was how I'd
finally begun beating him. This match was different. He was slow,
methodical. Laying traps for me, and ultimately defeating me with scant
loss to himself. 'People have many sides, different faces for different
circumstances. It even confuses them sometimes.' He'd told me when he
gave me the board as a gift, we played `by mail` now, exchanging moves at
school. I had yet to beat him this way, but I remember and treasure the
lesson, and the effort on my behalf.
Rei wondered if that was part of the reason she was doing this. Rei
wondered which side, which face, this represented, One so alien that I
cannot find him here, but the attention of the military marks this area as
clearly as any sign. She recognized some of those who came and went in the
adjacent coves they were no doubt additional guards, appearing as
out-of-school students or off-duty military with their families. A wide
array of people, but none of them were who she sought. She reversed her
journey to examine the coves again.
A boy stood near the surf, hurling rocks into the glass-smooth sea. A
simple shirt and pants with the cuffs and sleeves rolled up. Rei had
passed this beach twice on her search, and he had continued this useless
activity. She wondered if he'd seen Roku-kun go for a swim or something,
and was standing guard.
Should I ask him if he has seen Roku-kun pass by? Rei asked herself, I
cannot find a trace of him.
She watched the boy for a while, selecting her new course of action.
She realized he was very different from the pilots, and she did not like
the self-conscious awkwardness of his movements, as if he knew someone was
watching him and was disturbed by it.
I have grown so used to the grace and physical confidence of my fellow
pilots, the training by the Fourth and Tendo-san has granted them this, Rei
thought, Some of this has rubbed off on our classmates, especially those in
the `circles` that formed around most of the pilots.
Slump shouldered, fidgeting with his clothes and the stones, and
clumsy, this boy was the antithesis of the pilots.
I will have to approach him carefully to avoid frightening him away,
Rei thought as she walked towards him, My classmates and fellow pilots have
grown used to my irregular appearance, it still unsettles the unwary. Or
makes them act strangely in other ways.
"Excuse me?" she called.
"Yeah," a curt reply, no reaction.
Something sparked her curiosity, He sounds vaguely like Shinji-kun
sometimes does, she thought, Beaten down, uncertain and defeated.
"Have you seen a tall boy in a suit?" she asked, not believing anyone
could have missed Roku-kun, "He walked this way some time ago."
"No." No other reaction, he continued hurling the stones into and
across the water.
No that's not right, his accuracy has fallen off, Rei realized.
She had no other conclusions, Roku-kun clearly came to this area,
additional forces were clearly in place to guard this location. Unless he
expected pursuit, he could not have evaded her.
Regular security, yes, but without extraordinary measures he could not
elude me. She walked away to consider the situation.
"Would he have taken such extraordinary measures?" she asked herself.
"If so, why?"
SKIP, SKIP, SKip, SKip, SKip, SKip, Skip, skip, skip, splash.
SKIP, SKIP, SKIP, SKip, SKip, SKip, skip, skip, splash.
SKIP, SKIP, SKip, SKip, SKip, SKip, SKip, Skip, Skip, skip, skip,
splash.
She stood on the trail leading to this small beach, watched the boy
hurling stones into the water, or rather across the water. She'd heard the
sound on her walk toward the beach, then during the rest of her fruitless
search. Now she watched, nine throws and each time the stone would bounce
across the flat water until it finally sank. She still could see no
purpose to this activity. If a greater number of bounces was good, he
hadn't reacted to 15 bounces any differently than six, or two. She was
wholly confused by this, and her failure in finding Roku-kun.
Perhaps the tanuki 'Raccoon' appellation was more correct than we
realized, Rei thought.
SKIP, SKIP, SKip, SKip, SKip, SKip, Skip, skip, skip, splash.
She had only one source of information immediately available, she must
confront and interrogate the boy here. He must have seen something of use,
even if he didn't realize he had.
But I don't know how, it isn't something I do unless ordered. I have
no orders here, Rei considered, her inability worried her. The other
pilots sometimes struggled to understand when she was speaking to them, and
the reverse was likewise true.
SKIP, SKIP, SKIP, SKIP, SKip, SKip, SKip, SKip, SKip, SKip, SKip,
Skip, Skip, skip, skip, splash.
A solution, she thought, Let him be the one to speak. She lifted a
small stone of her own, Timing.
SKIP, SKIP, SKIP, SKip, <SPLASH> SKip, SKip, skip, skip, splash.
SKIP, SKIP, SKip, SKip, <SPLASH> skip, skip, splash.
SKIP, <SPLASH> SKip, skip, skip, splash.
skip <SPLASH>, skip, splash.
splash <SPLASH>.
splash <SPLASH>.
<SPLASH> splash.
The boy paused, rolled his shoulders and took a deep breath. The
change was remarkable, his anger caused him to stand straighter, more
determined. He threw the last stone in his hand. Rei threw at the same
time.
SKIP, <SPLASH> SKIP, SKIP, SKIP, SKIP, SKip, SKip, SKip, SKip, SKip,
SKip, SKip, SKip, SKip, Skip, Skip, Skip, Skip, skip, skip, skip, splash.
He turned to face her, she could barely contain her shock.
"My Japanese must be no good, Ayanami-sama." A furious Jeffrey Davis
bent down to collect more stones.
For a moment, Rei feared she might be the target.
"It took an hour to evade Major K's assigned bodyguards. What part of
'alone' did I fail to make clear to everyone?"
Typically, Roku-kun would talk to anyone he was aware of, if only to
acknowledge them, she knew he knew she had been there, but he hadn't
reacted with words. She'd watched him and didn't recognize him because he
was so different. The transformation back was as startling as the
appearance. Roku-kun, the Jeffrey Davis she had known, practically
disappeared before her eyes. The stoop-shouldered, fidgeting boy
reappears. Even looking right at him, Rei almost couldn't recognize him.
I have seen him healer, killer, happy, angry, wounded almost to death,
the spirit was always the same and shown through. This person has none of
that, she watched in horrified fascination.
"On this day," her voice faltered, then she charged ahead, "You should
not be alone."
"What's special about today?" Roku-kun glanced guiltily down at the
handful of stones. "Oh I forgot, you have ne plus ultra clearance, you
_are_ ne plus ultra clearance." Roku-kun poured the stones back onto the
beach.
She walked down the slope towards him, tried to remember all the
lessons in communication Nabiki-kun and he had taught her, she abandoned
the effort. They had been tailored for Shinji-kun, but Roku-kun was not
Shinji-kun. Roku-kun would insult Commander Ikari, Admiral Simson, or even
an Outer God to his face, and escape by wit and humor. Shinji-kun feared
the world and especially his father. This sulkier aspect was like neither,
baffling. "You are not to blame."
"Why not?!" His face a mask of fury, he scooped up the handful of
stones and hurled them into the sea. "Every ripple affects every other
ripple, everything we do or hope for effects everything that is and will
be." He stopped, glared at her, "The clown wanted a day off. Is that so
hard to understand? I don't want to look into your faces for one day and
see your hurts, feel the need to help you, teach you to heal yourselves and
each other. I want for one day to be alone and selfish, to wallow in my
own self pity, to do something totally useless, to remind myself I
_can't_fix_ everything and that sometimes God says 'No.'" He finished
shouting at her and sat down on the sand, ran his hands through his hair.
"You don't understand anything but the words." He looked up at her,
"Do you?"
She considered, "To rest." She managed. She was angry, she
understood the words, but the motivation behind them exasperated her.
I cannot understand this, she thought, feeling an anger build. She
thought the anger was out of place. When she thought Shinji-kun and the
Commander had died, she had felt the same desperate confusion. The pain
drove her to run away, to escape within her own mind. She wanted to sit
outside the world and be alone with her heartache, to drown in it until
nothing else was real. She had been utterly wrong, as he and Nabiki-kun
had told her it was wrong, then proved it. "Do we trouble you so much?"
she asked, to keep her temper under control.
"I think they assembled this bunch out of the most self-wounded people
on the planet, they hate each other only slightly less than they hate
themselves. It isn't an onus or a chore demanded by another, but it calls
on me to help and put it right, a responsibility or duty I put on myself."
"What of Samuel?" she asked, trying to get onto more comfortable, less
personal ground. She wanted to ask if he included himself in his analysis,
but it was clear he was in it, whether he included himself or not.
"I wished him dead, and he died. That hundreds of millions died of
smallpox worldwide, immaterial, that he didn't want to go on suffering,
irrelevant, to a six-year-old child. I hated his favored status, hated the
way my parents doted on him and ignored me. I asked God to take him or
save him. God took him. Ergo, _I_ killed him." He scrubbed his face with
his hands. "It isn't logical or rational, the end was more merciful than
the continuation, I know that in my mind. My heart . . . " he paused,
stared at the ocean, the 'middle distance', for a moment he was the
Roku-kun she knew again. "Every year about this time I remember I asked
for what happened, I gave God a choice and he did what I really wanted,
what I never asked for, but I wanted." He looked at her again, "Can you
imagine what it would take to _kill_ another human in cold blood? Not in
combat or in self-defense but murder someone, your own family, because . .
.. "
"You were angry?" she asked, "You were jealous?"
"As good an explanation as any." He sighed, stood, "It takes me a day
to get this out of my system, just let it hurt me, then I can screw the lid
down on it for another year."
"No," she replied to his self-deception, "You seek atonement, always.
To fix and heal. Even the Commander whom you hate, the EVAs that you fear,
everyone and every broken thing." She considered, "You should measure
progress today. 'You cannot rewrite the past or change the present, just
the future.'"
"Terrific," Roku-kun lamented, "Now you're quoting me at me."
"Is it wrong?"
"No. I just don't want to be responsible today."
"I will listen."
"You don't want to hear it, believe me. And I don't want to talk."
"I _will_ listen." She stood close to him.
The other pilots frighten me, more than even the Angels. Why this is,
I do not know. I have listened to others all the time in my silence,
perhaps it was time to listen to the silence of the one who talked all the
time, she thought.
"Then let me be blunt. Go away," Roku-kun told her, walked away from
her.
She knew that might be what he wanted, but it was _not_ what he
needed. She had learned from her experience with Nabiki-kun. Both as
intruder, and intruded upon.
"I said leave!" he shouted over his shoulder, "Get out of here! I
don't want you around!"
Rei knew she needed to get him to talk about this. Talking had helped
Nabiki-kun tremendously. That was why she had gone to Sammi's apartment
first, before pursuing Roku-kun. Not to seek help from the others, but to
get a catalyst. Rei remembered Roku-kun had acted this irrationally one
other time. She removed the pocket watch from her skirt pocket and touched
the catch which opened it, and played the tune.
Roku-kun's head came around, "That's mine, give it back!"
She stood, put her fists on her hips, consciously duplicating the
Second's combative stance. Although she slipped one foot back, as
Nabiki-kun had taught her. "Make me," she said, trying to imitate the
Second's tone and mannerisms.
The accuracy of the rendition was immaterial. She got the effect she
wanted, as Raccoon turned and came at her.
Again Rei could barely recognize him. This was not the young man who
would coolly sit back and manipulate, until you were ordering him to take
the watch from you. This was a frightened child, like one of the younger
orphans.
He is acting like the child he was when the trauma occurred! Rei
realized. She'd been planning to appeal to his logic, and his duty. That
would have worked on the man, but instead she had a little child on her
hands. A child who was hurt and didn't know how to make the hurting stop.
He came straight at her, no finesse, no strategy. He was still taller
than she was, so holding the watch over her head would not be effective.
She grabbed the front of his shirt and held him away from it.
"It's mine! Give it back!" he lunged at the hand with the watch,
pushing her back.
"It is just a watch," she told him, she knew it wasn't. When she'd
seen the others with her I.D., her link to NERV, the Commander and her
purpose, she'd nearly attacked Shinji-kun to get it from him. She
understood that sometimes things represented other things. "Why is it
important? Besides, it is not yours, it is Samuel's."
"Ayanami-san, give me the watch," his tone was angry, not hurt now,
enraged.
"Or what?" she asked as insolently as she could.
She had heard the Fourth speaking about turning an opponent's energy
against himself. She thought it was irrational, a smart foe would never
allow you to do that, But a non-thinking one, she thought as she pushed
Roku-kun off stride, dodging his charge.
"Why do you want it?" Rei asked, "Do you believe you killed him merely
for this?"
Roku-kun stumbled and fell face first into the sand. Rei initially
considered it was a feint, but his stricken look as he sat up told her
otherwise.
"Or did you kill him to get your parent's love and affection?"
There was no charge, he simply sat there and stared at her. Even she
could see the pain on his face.
"It did not work, did it?" she asked. She knelt next to him, handing
him the watch, "What did happen?"
He opened it, stared at the picture inside, listened to the odd
rendition of 'Scotland the Brave'. "They sent me to my aunt and uncle in
Wyoming," he told her in a small voice, "Later, _they_ sent me to Boston,
to be educated."
"Were they proud of you?" Rei asked, Shinji-kun only wanted his father
to be proud of him.
"I don't think - I ever entered their thinking again." He closed the
watch carefully, stared up at the sky. "They were busy, doing important
work. They couldn't be troubled. Nobody could be troubled."
"You reminded them of their loss?" she asked, wondering if
Shinji-kun's uncanny resemblance to Yui-chan was the reason the Commander
had sent _him_ away, but kept Rei close. Wondering if being ignored made
him want to reassemble a family here, it fit the data.
He didn't answer, continued staring at the sky. Rei wondered if she
should reveal that she had the other pocket watch, to spark another
reaction. She rejected the idea, she had other means to use first.
She glanced up at the knitting woman, who was now watching them
through a telescope. A fistfight between two pilots was evidently a matter
worth the loss of subterfuge.
Rei decided not to spark another outburst, but 'attack' from a
different direction. Another direction she knew the answers to for
herself. "Were you pleased when they died? After they had ignored you?
Or did you feel the anger was not worth the emotion lost."
"What would you know about it?" he asked in a low, menacing tone.
"I know," she admitted, aware he might be diverting her again. She
felt beat, talking this way was as tiring as fighting. "I do know, you
have commented on my snarl in combat. I have lost those I care about."
She took his chin and turned his head to face her. "I do not wish to lose
another." She let some of her anger show.
Roku-kun looked ashamed.
"You should consider why you do as you do," she told him, releasing
him.
"I'm not being brave or selfless, I just don't care. Not anymore,"
Roku-kun told her tightly, "I have my mission, my duty - and that's it.
That's the sum total of my existence."
"Perhaps you should consider . . . " Rei paused, this was difficult,
speaking of the others this way, "Perhaps you should include the others."
Your _own_ advice, she thought reproachfully, merely waited to see and
hear his response.
"Rei, you of all people should understand what I'm talking about." He
turned to face her. "Are you going to tell me that if you had to choose,
between saving Shinji's life, and completing the Commander's mission, and
no weaseling about maybe he won't die or maybe one of the others would save
him? Straight up, either _you_ save him or he dies, and if you save him,
the Commander's plan fails."
"If the Commander's plan failed, the human race would be destroyed, it
would make no sense to save him, only to watch him die again."
He smirked at that. "There are a fair number of humans who might say
that dying together was better than dying separately."
Rei refused to be drawn in, his skill with argument could side track
her if she let him. "Still, that is not the case here, events have injured
you, like the others. You have counseled seeking out the others, yet when
you suffer the same fate, you retreat within yourself."
"I don't need anyone."
The statement was so patently absurd Rei almost didn't comment, "Then
you didn't need Samuel, then why do you mourn?"
"That's different!" Roku-kun insisted.
"As Hiroko was different for Nabiki-kun . . . as the Second's feelings
after the death of your dreamself? _How_ are they different?"
Roku-kun said nothing hugging his legs tightly against his chest. She
wished one of the others were here, instead of or in addition to herself.
She was uncomfortable with the anger she felt, Roku-kun was not doing
anything different from what she had been doing for years. When she had
done it, it had seemed right and proper, when he did the same . . . it
seemed a terrible offense, it outraged her and insulted the others. She
considered what the others would do in this situation, from how they had
reacted to each others hurts in the past. Rei decided that Ranko's
approach would be the most effective, she moved behind him and wrapped her
arms around his shoulders. She held steady as he lay his head on her arms.
"You must accept that it is not as it was."
"I don't want to lose anyone else either. I'm tired of being the last
one, the survivor. The one who decides who lives and who dies."
Rei shifted so she could look at his face. "I at least will not be
lost."
He looked at her with a cold smile. "Why are you doing this?"
She considered he was trying to divert her again, then decided to
answer the question. "Many reasons. Abandonment is inappropriate, I
believe you are here for a purpose. You have served a purpose beyond what
the Commander might have intended: maintenance. Even maintenance equipment
may require maintenance. Correct?" She received no answer beyond a shamed
look.
----------------------------------------
Had Anything Been Wrong, We Should Certainly Have Heard
Shinji left the hospital room, he looked a little shell shocked.
Asuka followed, kept glancing at Hikari and Toji still talking in Yumi's
room. Ranma, who'd come looking for the others about an hour ago, glanced
at Sammi who brought up the rear.
"That was . . . ," Asuka glanced back into the room, "Interesting."
Like getting your leg chewed off by a shark, Ranma translated Asuka's
comment as they walked towards the exit of the hospital.
"She must be making up for lost time," Asuka said, "She hasn't said
anything for months." She tapped Shinji's shoulder, "Watch out, if you
ever get Wondergirl talking, she'll never stop either."
Shinji looked stricken. "She was supposed to be back this afternoon."
He looked at the darkening sky. "She's going to think I forgot!" Shinji
ran for the exit.
"She isn't even going to notice!" Asuka shouted as she ran after him.
"Go after them, I'm going back to Rit-chan's apartment," Ranma said.
Sammi looked torn, then headed off after the pair. Ranma walked
outside and then headed home at full speed, he wanted to know when Nab-chan
would return. He also wondered if they should have some kind of party. He
could call Raccoon, find out if he'd help set things up.
Arriving home, the apartment was quiet, with Rit-chan sipping coffee
at the dining room table, and Misa-chan also sitting there, looking like
someone had driven over her, several times.
"Hangover?" he whispered to Rit-chan, when Misa-chan winced and stared
at him, he took an extremely deep breath. Watched her squirm as she
mentally prepared for the noise.
"Yes," Rit-chan said in a normal tone of voice, causing Misa-chan to
wince.
"When's Nab-chan supposed to be back?" he asked quietly, carefully
lifting the chair to sit on it, rather than dragging it across the floor.
"Sometime tomorrow evening or the following day," Rit-chan said, she
looked at Misa-chan, "Why did you want to know?"
The last thing he wanted to do was mention the work 'party' anywhere
around Misa-chan. "Oh, I need to talk to Raccoon about something." He
stopped at the expression on Rit-chan's face. "What's wrong?"
"Uh, he's on leave, you should wait until tomorrow," Rit-chan
stammered.
"Security can drag him back," Misa-chan said.
Rit-chan noisily scraped her chair across the floor. She gestured for
Ranma to follow him. Leaving a tortured Misa-chan in the dining room.
Rit-chan closed the door to her room behind them. "If you want to
plan a party, I think that is a good idea, but I think you'd be better off
finding Shinji and Asuka and getting their help."
"They went after Rei, with Sammi," Ranma said, "What's going on?
Why's Misa-chan so mad, and what's with a leave? What _is_ a leave?"
"Leave of Absence, an official vacation," Rit-chan said, "You haven't
read any of the pilots' biographies, have you?"
"No, what's this about?" Ranma was getting nervous, and a little
irritated.
"It would be better if you read it yourself," Rit-chan said as she
left.
Ranma followed her, back to the dining room, where Rit-chan extracted
two pages from a folder. Ranma spared a glance at Misa-chan, now sound
asleep on the dining room table, starting to make noise that would have
made her homicidal. If anyone else had made it while she was awake.
Ranma returned to his room, climbed into the empty upper bunk, pulled
the reading lamp on the frame over, and read. He was surprised it only
took one reading to get it. He looked out the window at the darkening sky,
considered why Raccoon would want to be alone. He also had no idea what to
do with the information.
----------------------------------------
Rei looked across the driftwood fire at the blanket-wrapped figure.
She stretched tiredly, rewrapped her blanket around herself. She was glad
he was finally asleep. She was equally glad she'd been able to demand
blankets and some food from the Marines, they were Engineers. Both
platoons had been watching from a concealed position, they had admitted
they were worried the two pilots had been trying to kill each other.
The thought of that, and their reaction to her demands, made Rei
smile. An actual grin. She had not felt like explaining why she found it
so funny.
A simple sentence had started it, she had all night to consider why,
and the effort would keep her awake. She hoped it was the last such
outburst, that the others could help the rest of the way.
'No. It is not your fault,' seemed the correct response to his litany
of his actions which his parents didn't approve, from his birth, ending
with Samuel's death.
She saw the sudden rage on his face, she couldn't understand what she
had said to suddenly elicit it, but she had felt a similar rage herself
once.
I think the `lid` is completely off now, she hadn't been
congratulating herself at the time.
The death of Yui Ikari had hurt her this badly. Discovering that it
had not been an accident, and was instead a deliberate act, had filled her
with rage. Rage at the perpetrator: Akagi Naoko; rage at herself, for not
being able to protect or avenge the woman who showed her such kindness; and
rage at Ritsuko `Akagi`, who had the ability to take vengeance, and chose
not to. To Rei, that had seemed the ultimate betrayal. Through all her
`incarnations`, she had never forgiven Ritsuko for that. Nor had she
forgiven herself. She could easily understand the wellspring of his anger.
The attack Raccoon had launched reminded her of a similar attack she
herself had made a little over two years before. Depending on her superior
speed and strength had been her downfall, literally. The coordination of
the counterattack had defeated her. She had ended up impaled on a wrought
iron fence, dozens of fatal wounds from the battle and her fall onto the
sharp points of the fence. She had enough time to realize her folly, as
she watched her blood draining from her body, only to be washed away by the
rains.
She had the advantage in coordination this time, Raccoon's attack was
born of pain, and the vain hope that inflicting pain on another would
assuage the hurt he felt. She'd caught his two-fisted strike, deflecting
it away. Then she grabbed him around the waist, and spun him upside down.
She had paused a moment with his head aimed at the sand, then completed the
loop around and landed him on his feet. To compound his disorientation,
she had grabbed his shoulder and spun him away from her, then back to face
her. She had the advantage, she was thinking right now, but he wasn't.
Roku-kun wove drunkenly, looked physically ill, but prepared for
another attack. Rei had prepared to receive it. With Nabiki-kun, this
stage had happened naturally, her anger at the loss was similar to Rei's
own fury. Rei weathered that anger, held Nabiki-kun until it passed. With
Roku-kun, he had bottled it up, as both she and Nabiki-kun had when she
learned of the destruction of NERV Tokyo. The girls had both released it
when they learned NERV had returned, neither could stop crying, 'Letting
the tension leak out', Nabiki-kun had called it.
This time, with Roku-kun, Rei had had to dig it out. She knew how
destructive such emotion could be. She had watched Ritsuko withdraw, then
Nabiki-kun withdrew. Only the arrival and subsequent chaos of the Fourth
and Nabiki-kun drew Ritsuko back. Only the release of anger, then the
despair of further loss drew Nabiki-kun out. With Nabiki-kun it had been
easy, the return of NERV Tokyo with all the people she cared about was the
appropriate tool. Roku-kun had proven much more difficult.
When Roku-kun had moved forward, Rei stepped into his attack. The
Fourth would not approve, she had thought, catching him over one shoulder
and under the other. While she had the strength to spin him along his
axes, as she had before, she had intended something very different. Only
his coat, boots and all the equipment he regularly carried gave him any
weight advantage. Stripped of those things, this boy who towered over her,
was actually lighter than she was. She had absorbed the impact of his
charge, then reversed it.
Lines of rocks walled the cove, giving it the isolation Roku-kun had
desired. It also gave her a barrier to pin him against. Driving him back,
she selected a smooth section and reduced speed before impact. She had
taken what little force remained on her own arms. She kept her head
against his shoulder and her grip firm. She knew getting that close was
dangerous, she had decided it was worth the risk. She had been
intentionally not acting like herself. It was difficult, but necessary.
Denying him his usual frame of reference disoriented him further, further
broke down his defenses. This once, she felt confident she could
understand the feelings and reactions of another. She knew certain things
would happen, in what order and how they would likely manifest. She'd done
it herself, and saw another play out much the same pattern.
She was ready when he shifted his whole weight. She believed it
wasn't an attack, there was no strength behind it and no place to conceal
his usual weapons. Exhaustion, physical and emotional collapse, she didn't
let him sprawl to the ground, lowering him gently. She said nothing as the
tears came.
Since the others had arrived, she had studied materials and their
properties, to try to understand the Second and Roku-kun's affinity for
building things. Cast iron was much harder than steel, but it didn't bend.
When stressed too hard, it shattered. The comparison to the pilots was too
apt. Mere presence of the Angels killed some, drove others mad. The
pilots hunted and killed them, immune, until the stresses reached some
undetermined limit.
"He would forgive you," she had told him, got no response, but she
hadn't been expecting one. "I know he would forgive you, and you should
forgive yourself." She paused, still no response. She had another tool to
use.
"I do not hold this against you. You may gain some insight," she had
paused, "It was Boston, April 1945. It was a dark and stormy night."
Like so many of the occasions that changed my life, she still wondered
why that was.
----------------------------------------
It had been raining for days. The Commander had not exactly ordered
this. However, he had implied he wanted to be rid of these interlopers.
Their attention threatened the Project, and it was clear the others who
searched Boston, including Lieutenant Katsuragi, had had no luck.
So Rei hunted.
The death or wounding of one of the three should scare off the others.
And she'd found the most active one.
Destroy him, she thought as she silently closed in, And the others
will pull back, the Project will be completed before they can interfere
again.
She left the fire escape silently. With a voiceless snarl, she
sprang.
Some instinct caused her target to roll aside and strike out with his
fighting knife.
Rei gasped in pain as she rolled across the gravel to a stop. The boy
had thrown himself flat at the last moment. The blade he had used had cut
through her arm until it grated on the bone. She didn't cry out, she'd
heal if she had time, but not in the middle of a fight. She moved up,
speed hadn't been to her advantage, she would have to depend on her
strength. She circled carefully. The rain was making the roof slippery.
"Why are you doing this?" the boy called out.
She came in fast again. He thrust with his cane, a feint, the fist to
the side of the head snapped her head sideways and she missed her attack.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked, again and again, changing
languages, trying to communicate.
He wants to know _why_, I will not answer, Rei thought as she circled,
searching for weakness, He is the enemy, that should be sufficient. She
wished she had better control of her abilities, He would have no chance
then. She reasoned the cane was the key, if she could get it away, then it
would come down to hand-to-hand, And even wounded, I will have the
advantage.
She charged, weaving left and right, making it difficult to determine
from which direction she would attack.
Then he drew a pistol. The bullets' impacts were like sledgehammer
blows. In the chest, in the shoulder, in the leg. She was thrown across
the gravel, limp as a rag doll.
But I am not done, if I do not move, I can lure him in, close enough
to attack, she thought, ignoring the pain, If it kills this enemy, I can
afford to be patient.
He walked closer, carefully, the lightning had ruined her night
vision, she hoped it had ruined his.
He cannot know if I am alive or not, she thought as she listened,
waiting for him to get close. Blood stained her clothes, the ground. She
was growing dizzy from shock and her injuries, she knew she only had to
hold on a little while longer. She waited until he was close enough, then
knocked the pistol and the cane from his hands, but that gave him time to
wrap his hands around her throat. He picked her up and slammed her
face-first into a brick chimney. She saw stars and was stunned. She fell
to the ground when he let go. A strip of leather crossed her throat, then
another, and they tightened as he put both knees on her back and pulled.
She stood up and slammed him into the chimney, but the grip didn't
slacken.
Her vision grayed, then narrowed to a tunnel, her fingers clawed at
the straps, scoring them and tearing her fingernails. She stumbled, unable
to stand. She gasped as the bands parted, but before she could react, she
was flying through the air and off the building.
She saw the wrought iron fence racing towards her, Are those spear
points merely decorative?
She hit the fence, still alive despite her terrible injuries.
I can feel the blood draining from me, I am sorry Commander, I could
not stop him, she thought as she watched the boy cross the street and enter
the headquarters, until her vision failed and darkness came.
----------------------------------------
Rei had finished her story, looked at her `guest`, still in her arms,
as he stared at her in amazement and shock. She still marveled at the
changes in both of them after just two years. He is embarrassed, she had
thought.
"I thought you were a twin or a sister," he'd stammered.
"You intended to kill me, I forgive you. You wanted to save him,
could you imagine he would not forgive you? You defended . . . " she
stopped, that had not been what she wanted to say, "I learned, it was not
my function to die. My function was to protect. As is yours. Neither of
us has always been successful, that does not give us permission to cease
trying, even for single a day."
It has just taken me until recently to understand what I should have
learned before, she admitted to herself.
"If you are going to lecture me on my duty to the others . . . "
"Your duty to yourself. You have lost the right to be alone, we have
become interdependent. That _is_ your fault, I blame you for that."
The short bark of laughter was the breaking point. He began crying,
the same type of wounded-animal cries Nabiki-kun had howled at the world
that had taken Hiroko from her.
----------------------------------------
Rei had held him until the cries and he'd fallen asleep, then laid him
on the sand and gotten the supplies. She built the fire and made sure he
was warm.
I should have asked for tea, she thought as she stared at the
driftwood fire, bits of red and blue and yellow in the flames as sea salts
burned away.
Because he thought I was blaming Samuel for his own death. She shook
her head, it was an irrational assumption on his part. But he has hardly
_been_ rational, she realized, Nor would I expect him to be. She also knew
that on the anniversary of Yui-chan's death, something would have to be
done, for the pilots, for the Commander . . . for Ritsuko. She had time,
she had the other pilots to depend on. She knew she shouldn't reveal what
she had shared with Shinji-kun, Yui-chan and Gendo, before he became 'the
Commander'. There would have to be another way to achieve this.
She looked at the fire pit in the sand, the starry sky, she would have
to ask Shinji-kun to do this. Not breakdown as Roku-kun had, but simply
sit outside and watch the night pass. The quiet was pleasant.
----------------------------------------
July 9, 1947
Rei was packing up the breakfast supplies, she had not considered that
Roku-kun would have brought all the relevant pieces for meals: food, water,
a cook stove.
At least that is normal, she thought as she considered their
discussion: Immortality. She had it, because of all the others; Roku-kun
had it, because he could not remain dead; Ritsuko had it, because of what
she was. Others had it by more obscure means.
"So if you remember him, then he is not lost?" Rei asked Roku-kun. It
was a very difficult concept. They had talked of other difficult things,
insights and guesses about the other pilots. She had listened and made her
own comments. She had listened to Roku-kun's stories about Samuel and
himself, since well before sunrise. By the time he had finished, she too
wished she could have met him.
"I know it seems strange, that anyone would make such a promise."
"No," Rei corrected, "I too have made such a promise." She remembered
Yui Ikari and her own actions after the woman's murder.
"Have you kept it?" Roku-kun asked.
She considered, arranging Naoko's death hadn't fulfilled her desires,
perhaps with Shinji-kun, when the war was over. "No, I have not."
Roku-kun staggered to his feet under the weight of his pack and all
the supplies within, despite this, he offered his hand to help her up.
"Then since you will help me keep mine, I will help you keep yours." He
turned and stared at the ocean as she stood on her own. "Perhaps then we
can forgive each other the crime we cannot forgive ourselves."
Rei was horrified. "What crimes?"
He turned to her, smiled sadly, "Having survived, when those better
than us . . . did not."
Rei nodded, stared at the ocean with him. She found she wanted
forgiveness, she wanted Shinji-kun's forgiveness, for what she had failed
to do.
----------------------------------------
Save Me From The Candid Friend
"Of all the stupid, arrogant, self-righteous, hypocritical - "
Horseface's voice rang off the walls of Misato's apartment as he confronted
Raccoon.
Wondergirl had told them a good deal about what had happened, how they
had spent the afternoon and night. Asuka suspected she was holding a few
things back, considering the way she kept glancing at Spineless and
blushing. Asuka figured she could beat it out of Raccoon later. Horseface
was mortally offended that Raccoon had run off when he needed help,
Wondergirl seemed to agree with him.
"Just who are we talking about, Saotome-san?" Raccoon smoothly
interrupted the tirade.
Asuka braced herself to physically intervene, she glanced at
Wondergirl who returned the glance, evidently she was ready too.
"We - are - talking - about - you," Horseface said through clenched
teeth. His fists closing and opening.
Asuka had never seen Horseface this angry before, she suspected
Raccoon had finally offended Horseface's honor beyond redemption. It's
about bloody time, she thought, 'I want a nice, clean fight, and when the
bell sounds, come out swinging.' If Horseface keeps his head, this time
he's got all the advantages in a verbal duel, and he knows if he goes
physical, he loses. Let's see if he's learned anything.
"I didn't want to add to your troubles. If I was wrong, I apologize,"
Raccoon countered softly.
_VERDAMMT_!_ Asuka silently cursed.
"Did he just admit he was wrong?" Asuka held her head. "I may
faint."
"He did not," Wondergirl told them, "He said 'if', and you were." She
stared at Raccoon, who backed up a pace.
She's worked up too! Asuka thought, although she could hardly believe
it, You'd better be on your best behavior, Raccoon. Now you've got _them_
working together.
"No one in this room knows what losing a brother or a sister feels
like."
"That is untrue," Wondergirl told Raccoon in a gentler tone.
Raccoon nodded to Wondergirl. "Point taken, but none - I thought none
of you - would understand."
"You were incorrect, Samuel's death was no more intentional on your
part than Hiroko's was on the Fourth's."
Oooch, Asuka winced as she thought, That's got to hurt! Reassure
Raccoon, and hit ole' Horseface with the back swing, very nice Wondergirl.
Then she saw Wondergirl actually grin, she saw several teeth for perhaps a
quarter of a second. Asuka wondered if the world was instantly about to
end.
"When you kill," Wondergirl explained, "There is no ambiguity."
What's _he_ blushing about? Asuka wondered as Raccoon turned bright
red.
"Why don't you hold your friend?" Wondergirl asked Asuka.
Wondergirl's question completely flustered Asuka, she couldn't figure
out where that had come from.
"He's not Adolf Galland . . . but . . . " Spineless suggested.
Horseface picked it up too. "So when are you lovebirds getting
hitched?" he asked her.
The suggestion so ruffled Asuka that she almost missed Wondergirl
glancing at Spineless, who nodded slightly. Wondergirl immediately kicked
Horseface in the shin.
"_OWW_!_" Horseface rubbed the injury. "What was that for?!"
"You have said you do not trust words," Wondergirl patiently
explained, "So a physical shorthand might be useful. This meant you have
been insensitive and should remain quiet while we repair the damage."
"You didn't have to kick me so hard," Horseface complained.
Asuka expected Wondergirl's next kick.
"OW!" Horseface yelped.
"Better?" Wondergirl asked, all curiosity.
"NO!" This time Horseface got his legs out of the way. "I mean don't
kick me at all!"
Now Wondergirl was confused.
"Ranma-chan." Ice Princess had arrived.
Asuka was a little irritated and more relieved that everyone ignored
what had been going on, as they went to greet her. Horseface got there
first, and to his credit, he paused, arms at his sides. She threw herself
into his arms.
It's just soo _KAWAAIII_!_ Asuka thought, I may be sick.
"Be nice," Raccoon whispered to her.
She blushed, she hadn't thought she'd spoken aloud.
"If they reconcile, you won't have to date him anymore," Raccoon
continued in that quiet tone.
"IT WASN'T A DATE!" she shouted. Then looked at the others staring at
her. She put her hands on her hips in defiance. "What are you all looking
at?"
"A beautiful, young woman," Raccoon told her.
Asuka blushed, readied for the insult that would follow.
"Lonely," Wondergirl added as she advanced on Asuka alongside Raccoon.
"She's always been passionate," Raccoon said, as if recommending a
wine or a song, as he approached, step by step.
Asuka looked at them in horror. Then looked at the others, Spineless
was composed, Horseface was his usual lost, Ice Princess was grinning.
"You . . . you can't be serious!"
"I have always wanted to kiss you," Wondergirl said as she continued
to progress at the same slow pace, "You are truly beautiful."
"NO! You want to kiss Spineless." She waved her hands at them.
"Shoo! Go 'way!" She couldn't believe this was happening, and Ice
Princess was the worst, now ignoring everything, snuggling in Horseface's
arms. When Asuka's heel touched the wall, she lunged forward, diving
between her tormentors. Asuka grabbed Spineless by the shoulders and swung
him in front of her to act as a shield. "See? Here he is." She held him
between herself and the approaching Wondergirl. "You want to kiss _him_,
not me, you really do!"
Wondergirl slowed as she came near.
"Tell her it's all right, Spineless," she hissed in his ear, all the
while watching Raccoon saunter towards, then past her.
"I would like that very much," Spineless managed, "Rei-chan, I've
missed you very much." Then he whispered to Asuka, "Was that all right?"
It was out of a poem they'd read once, but it would serve.
"Go to it." She released him and backed away.
The two maneuvered for the best approach. Asuka didn't have to watch,
she knew they'd get there . . . eventually. She had more pressing
concerns, like where was Raccoon?
He was standing next to Ice Princess and Horseface. Ice Princess was
holding Horseface so tight, Asuka doubted he could breathe.
But breathing, even consciousness itself is unnecessary for the Divine
Ranma Saotome! she thought sarcastically, I will not be defeated!
Then she saw Raccoon pull two bills from his wallet. Ice Princess
grabbed them out of his hand with her teeth, then stuffed them down
Horseface's shirt with her lips and tongue. Which made Horseface squirm
like a man standing on a hot plate. Raccoon merely turned back to Asuka,
favoring her with such an angelic smile, one that radiated peace and
innocence. She instantly knew she'd been had.
"I'll settle now for five," Ice Princess said from her place in
Horseface's arms.
"I have faith in Miss Langley, I know exactly what she'll do," Raccoon
said with such an offensive air of smug superiority, as if the world were
proceeding along _his_ preset path. Horseface either clueless and
embarrassed, or suffocating.
Oh you do, do you? Her disgust at Wondergirl and Spineless, brows and
noses touching, staring into each other's eyes, was instantly forgotten.
She stalked towards Raccoon, forcing the rage and determination from her
face. Horseface picked up Ice Princess and moved her a few steps away, out
of Asuka's direct line of advance.
Asuka clasped her hands under her chin. "Aren't you happy to see your
friends? Aren't they sooo romantic?"
Careful, she warned herself, Don't want to sound _too_ sappy.
"You haven't had time to get a knife," Raccoon said.
She forced herself to only give him a little, hurt smile, instead of
the broadside he deserved. She ignored that all the others were watching
her now. "Maybe you were right," she said in a sad, quiet voice.
I _HATE_ this!
"Maybe I am lonely," she made herself sound even more lost and
plaintive, blinked dewy eyes at him.
You're going to get yours for making me do this! She held out her
hands to him. If he does something funny, I'll kill him!
He leaned into her grasp, she barely stifled the urge to throttle or
crush the life out of him, simply hugging him for a moment. Then she moved
him back slightly and kissed him, breaking it off the moment he started
kissing her back.
"I always wanted a little sister," he told her in Latin.
Asuka gritted her teeth. She knew only the two of them understood
what he'd said. The tone had been affectionate, so it gave nothing away.
Only they would know that he'd insulted her, only they would know _she_ was
the one who pulled away from the kiss.
The others were turning back to their own partners. She'd cheated,
and they were going to just let her get away with it. That was
intolerable. She grabbed Raccoon's collar.
"You don't know if I won or lost," he told her.
She practically threw him into one of the dining room chairs. "This
is how it's done. Horseface! Wondergirl! Attention!"
"And you," she told Raccoon sweetly, "Behave." She tightened his tie
so hard that the special knot came loose, if it hadn't, she would have
garroted him. She could see he'd gotten the message, no comments or funny
business.
Now her nerve faltered. I've kissed him before in the Dreamlands! she
told herself, But never like a lover or a girlfriend! came back the
traitorous thought.
She sat 'sidesaddle' across his knees to equalize their heights, she'd
still have to crane her neck a bit to do this. If he didn't cooperate, he
could make her look ridiculous.
I am _not_ lonely! she told herself, And I am _not_ jealous!
He made her lift her head slightly while he held her shoulders to
steady her.
That almost makes it worse! she thought. She almost broke it off as
they made contact, but he'd shifted one hand to the back of her head. She
mirrored the move, just to keep things fair. She increased the contact
slightly, then broke away, then resumed contact.
Well, if I was expecting fireworks and brass bands, that was a
disappointment, she thought, It was pleasant, and it was warm, but it was
just comfortable. Like a warm wind on a cool day, or a mug of soup and a
place by the fire after a long winter walk or a day of skiing.
She broke it off, looked in his eyes. Despite her best efforts, it
had been the same for him. No mad light of lust or passion, no eternal
fire had been lit there. She saw he'd gladly accept another, or give one
of his own. But neither would swim the Hellespont, or launch a thousand
ships of war to get another.
She stood up, glanced at the others, all watching as she'd told them
to. She leaned over and gave him a more heartfelt, but chaste kiss on the
cheek.
Then pushed over the chair.
"Now you two," she said coldly to Horseface and Ice Princess.
"Without the chair," Raccoon added from the floor.
She ignored him, she was trying to burn holes in Horseface's eyes by
sheer force of will. "Think of it as a martial arts move." She advanced
on him, step, by menacing step.
Ice Princess yanked his head down, within millimeters of hers, "Just
close your eyes and think of England," Ice Princess told him.
He got a stupefied look on his face, which only intensified when Ice
Princess kissed him. Asuka kept glaring at him until he started kissing
Ice Princess back.
Asuka turned her attention to Spineless and Wondergirl. She watched
Wondergirl grab Spineless's chin and turn his head sideways. Then she gave
him a good imitation of the friendly kiss Asuka had given Raccoon. Then
she turned her head to receive one from Spineless.
"Again," Wondergirl said, kissed him, waited to be kissed. They did
that five times before they dissolved in giggles.
Well Spineless dissolved, Asuka thought as she stared at Spineless on
the floor, But I did see most of Wondergirl's teeth for nearly a second, so
it's the same thing. Her job done, her back ramrod straight, Asuka stalked
off.
----------------------------------------
The others watched Asuka leave and heard the bedroom door slam.
Shinji's giggles subsided, "When do you think she'll realize she's in
my room?"
"She knows it now," Raccoon said as he stood and retied his tie, "When
will she admit it, well, never."
"More practice?" Rei asked, almost eagerly.
Shinji was uncomfortable with that. With Asuka glaring at him, he'd
been more afraid of her than kissing, now he was really afraid of -
"Oh great, more girl - " Saotome was cut off by Nabiki covering his
mouth with hers.
A moment later he yanked his head back, "What was that?!"
"Tendo secret wrestling technique," Nabiki stood on her tiptoes, "I
heard Ranko needs to give Raccoon a passionate kiss. I'm not even going to
charge for the lessons. If you are an attentive student." She smiled, as
she pressed Ranma against the wall. "Or you could just admit Raccoon is
better than you are." Nabiki looked at Raccoon and sighed, when she
sighed, a lot of her moved.
Not conducive to Ranma's thinking ability, Shinji thought as they all
watched Ranma's arrogant proclamation die as a surprised 'eep.'
Rei helped Shinji to his feet.
"We'll continue," Shinji said, "Sitting down, on the patio." Shinji
glanced at Ranma trying to come to terms with Nabiki, she'd backed off a
step, letting him act. Raccoon moved to the kitchen to get out of
everyone's way. Shinji knew nothing would distract him in there.
You could roll in a grenade, and his only reaction would be to use it
as a garnish, Shinji thought, After he'd disarmed it.
He pulled the curtain closed after he and Rei were on the patio,
giving them - he and Rei, and Ranma and Nabiki, privacy.
----------------------------------------
Misato yanked the door to her apartment open, she finally had the
excuse she wanted for a party. What she saw at the dining room table and
the shadows from the patio, could not be tolerated.
Her cry of 'What the HELL is going on?!' was cut off by what might as
well have been a steel band.
With Ritsuko covering her mouth and dragging her back from the door,
Misato tried to protest.
"What say we come back in fifteen minutes?" Ritsuko smiled.
Misato nodded, and shivered at that smile. In the ocean, smiles like
that normally had fins attached.
----------------------------------------
"What!" Ranma shouted, "What did I do wrong this time?"
"Oh, thank you very much," Sammi replied, "Asuka, he thinks sharing an
apartment with two beautiful women is a punishment."
"He could always move in here," Asuka commented about Misato's
apartment, where Misato's 'Welocome home Nabiki and Rei' party had suddenly
ground to a halt.
Ranma was about to say something, when he noted Asuka, Sammi, and
Ritsuko's glare. He wisely chose silence.
"As I was saying," Ritsuko continued what she'd been saying when Ranma
reacted, "Maya, Jeff, Nabiki and I will be leaving day after tomorrow for
the Azores, we'll be gone about a month and a half."
"Why can't I go with?" Ranma asked plaintively.
There's a lot more to this, isn't there? Ritsuko silently asked.
"Because with both alternates gone, we need a spare pilot," Ritsuko
said, "And since I'm going to be gone, you have to be supervised."
"Hear, hear!" Asuka added. If she was hoping to upset him, he was
already too upset to be derailed.
"So I'm the spare," he said.
"No, Asuka is," Ritsuko said, "I - "
"What!" Asuka shouted, shutting off the conversations that had
restarted.
"Well, he'll pilot Unit 01, Shinji will take Unit 00, and Rei . . . "
Ritsuko braced herself for the explosion.
"WONDERGIRL in _MY_ EVA - !?" Asuka shouted.
"It will be an honor," Rei said, after a moment's consultation, from
where she was talking with Nabiki and Jeff.
Asuka marched over to engage the other three. Asuka's change of
battlefields gave Ritsuko the chance to explain things to Ranma. "NERV SAR
trained them in diving, not just to rescue you, but for this mission. I
think you can guess what we'll be doing."
Ranma thought about it for a moment, "Yeah, I guess. It's just that .
.. . well, Nab-chan just got back."
In more ways than one, Ritsuko didn't add, Or perhaps, in the one that
really matters.
"Girls and boys _and_ boys and girls," Sammi added in broken French.
Ritsuko kept the look of shock from her face, that made more sense, a
frightening amount. Ranma was losing Nabiki, `Ranko` was losing `Raccoon`.
She wondered if Ranma was even aware of the complete reason for his
distress. "I'm going to bring them back," Ritsuko reassured him.
"So I get stuck with `Lang-ley` for a month, you can't sew her mouth
shut can you?" he asked, worriedly eyeing his new roommate.
Ritsuko glanced at Asuka, who was clearly on the defensive. "How
would she eat? Let her get to know you, she's not as bad as you think."
"Yeah, I know," Ranma said morosely, "I just wish she wouldn't treat
me like I was stupid."
"Like you treat anyone who isn't a martial artist as helpless?" Sammi
asked with an innocent smile.
Ranma blushed at that, stared at the carpet. Rei had detached from
the group arguing with Asuka. Ritsuko was about to tell them to knock it
off. Asuka was looking from Jeff to Nabiki and back again so fast she was
going to get whiplash.
"Doctor, at your convenience, I would like to discuss some things,"
Rei delivered it like a practiced speech. For all Ritsuko knew, it was.
"If I promise not to cook anything, will someone open this door!"
Misato yelled from her bedroom, rattling the door for emphasis.
Ritsuko still didn't know what they'd done to the door, but neither it
nor the window would open more than a handsbreadth. Ritsuko and Sammi had
tried to open it, to no avail. The opening was wide enough to pass food
and drink, but not even Ranma or Rei could squeeze through.
"Don't trust her!" Asuka announced.
"After the party, Rei, I'll walk you home," Ritsuko said uneasily.
Rei never wanted to talk to her. Rei nodded and walked away.
"Why do I suspect there's a lot more going on here?" Ritsuko asked,
returned her attention to Ranma, "You'll survive, I assure you."
It didn't reassure him, but he went off to join the others. Shinji
and Rei had rescued Asuka by practically dragging her into the kitchen.
Ritsuko sighed, "Hard days."
"They have been," Sammi agreed, "And you don't know the half of it.
Having Ranma around will do Asuka some good, she's . . . a little
depressed."
"About what?" Ritsuko asked.
"Nothing much to worry about, but with Ranma moping she can focus on
something besides herself and her fears. Also I think she needs a dose of
his optimism."
"There was some testing I wanted to do, but I doubt I'll have time,"
Ritsuko said, "Ground speed Ranma, Rei and Jeff, find out what the real
parameters are."
"Worried about something?" Sammi asked.
"No, just a baseline for later comparison, as well as a lesson to
Ranma about his physical abilities. He _is_ faster, and stronger, but Rei
should be able to run rings around him, and according to some reports,
young Mister Davis is nearly as fast as she is."
"I lost him _once_," Sammi said with an air of wounded pride, "I
picked him up again."
Ritsuko hid her smile, she thought about the _other_ things she'd have
to do aboard the U.S.S. Bennington while they sailed for the Azores.
Thirteen days there, a day or two to get the Angel, five days to Boston,
then 14 days back, plus up to two weeks for unforeseen problems.
----------------------------------------
The three men watched the apartment, they had already located where
the renegade lived, but she was _here_ now. They would simply intercept
her on the way back to her dwelling.
----------------------------------------
Physician, Heal Thyself
July 10, 1947
Rei walked along the deserted street, she knew Ritsuko was behind her,
but there was also someone - No, some_thing_ else, she thought, glancing
behind her occasionally, she saw nothing.
"I told Roku-kun, that I am not the first Rei he has met," she began
without preamble.
"What do you mean?" Ritsuko asked.
"The early 1945 mission, Major Katsuragi, the Commander and I were in
Boston."
"So that's where you all disappeared to," Ritsuko said, "Is he the one
who shot you?"
"Yes," Rei said, then looked around again, she could almost feel
something out there.
She considered bringing it up to Ritsuko, But she would demand
details, Rei thought, Details I do not have.
Ritsuko seemed to have caught some of Rei's concerns, she glanced
around, but said nothing about it. "How did you . . . your colleague get
those other wounds? Especially the spear wounds."
"He threw me off a six-story building onto a wrought iron fence," Rei
told her. The strangulation was what really bothered her, the tightness
around her throat, the slow fall into death, the loss of faculties and the
awareness of it the entire time.
"That sounds like his sense of thoroughness," Ritsuko said, lit a
cigarette, or rather tried to. She stopped, looked around again.
Rei thought Ritsuko could sense something. "Do you feel it too,
Doctor?"
"I don't feel anything," Ritsuko told her, discarded the cigarette and
extracted a small pistol from her purse, "Bad - old - memories," she
breathed as she scanned the area around her.
Rei drew her own pistol, she had neglected to carry a full allotment
of ammunition, she only had two speedloaders: eighteen shots total.
----------------------------------------
Ranma crouched down, well behind where Rit-chan and Rei had stopped.
He glanced around, it amazed him that he'd nearly missed Raccoon, some 20
meters away. When Rei and Rit-chan left, something had felt wrong, so
Ranma followed them. It was a martial artists' duty to protect the weak.
He only wished he'd brought his sword to the party, then he'd have it with
him. He contemplated trying to sneak over to Raccoon, to see if he had a
spare weapon, something designed to work on these nasties. Alternatively,
he knew he could surrender himself to the 'other', but there was no telling
what it would do. He'd seen animals react to Rit-chan, they weren't happy
she was around, and his own animosity to Rei might get her classified as an
enemy too.
He saw the man in the suit step out of the shadows, Ranma was certain
there was only trash and a few boxes there a moment earlier. Now it was
empty, he'd _been_ the trash and boxes. So it isn't human, he thought,
Terrific.
He considered standing up and announcing himself, at the very least he
could distract it. I'd never survive, Ranma realized, Even if I did beat
it, Rit-chan and Raccoon would kill me for doing that.
Rei scampered off in that odd, super-fast run of hers, leaving
Rit-chan alone.
Except Raccoon wasn't waiting, he was taking aim. Ranma wasn't going
to wait either. As soon as Raccoon started firing, Ranma raced out and
picked up Rit-chan.
Kamis! She's heavy! he thought as he dashed off, at nowhere near his
usual speed. He hoped Raccoon's gunfire had its usual effect.
Raccoon caught up with them, "Run, run, run, it's wearing body armor."
He held up the locked open pistol. "Two clips and nothing."
The punch caught Ranma completely by surprise, he tried to twist
Rit-chan out of the path of the blow. It still clipped her, the impact
made him drop Rit-chan and crash backward into Raccoon. Sprawled on the
ground, he now thought he had a good idea what being hit by a truck felt
like. Raccoon seemed even worse off than he was. The man, looked like the
first one, same suit, similar expression, and the same talent for appearing
out of nowhere.
Ranma scrambled back to his feet and launched into a series of fast
combinations, each punch or kick landed with precision and full power. The
barrage would have reduced an elephant to so much hash. The man acted like
he'd stepped into the rain, he didn't like it, but it didn't hurt him.
Ranma felt the stiffness of the man's jacket, but that wasn't the worst.
The almost jelly-like oozing of what was underneath sickened him, even as
his blows landed. It was like fighting a leather bag of mud. The man
counterattacked, punching like a boxer. Ranma dodged every blow while
continuing his attack, he figured blocking one would break whatever he
blocked with. What got him was what looked like fifteen other pairs of
arms suddenly coming at him. He knew it was an optical illusion, but the
moment of surprise was all the man needed. He only connected once, but
that too was all the man needed. With the glancing blow along his side,
Ranma felt the ribs break and had the wind knocked out of him. He saw
stars and couldn't get back on his feet. He had the terrible feeling the
man was just playing with all three of them.
"Stay down," he heard Raccoon say, from nearby. He didn't look at
him, he was looking at Rit-chan, putting herself between the two men, and
the two pilots. She took the stance Nab-chan had taught her, and her
battle began.
Ranma felt a spooky chill crawling through him, but his ribs ceased
being fractured, the odd, broken feeling inside him stopped, his head
cleared. Raccoon pulled his hands away from Ranma and rolled into a ball,
protecting the same parts on himself that the man had wounded on Ranma.
Besides checking he was alive, he could do nothing for Raccoon for the
moment.
I need to learn that trick, it has to work with Ki, Ranma thought as
he searched for a way to help.
Ranma concentrated on Rit-chan, she was holding her own. The other
two had no skill at all, just powerful brawlers. So powerful in fact the
few times one of them did connect with Rit-chan, she flew back some five to
eight meters. Then got up, still game for the fight. When she connected,
the targeted man seemed to deform like soft plastic, and wound up some
eight to twelve meters away. Unfortunately they too would get back up.
Really unfortunate for anything that was in their way, storefronts, light
poles, the carcass of a truck, all of it was crushed if it was in the
flight path of one of the fighters.
One of them tried that 15 pairs of arms trick on Rit-chan, it didn't
faze her in the least. Ranma realized it wasn't an illusion, the guy
suddenly _had_ 32 arms! He wondered what they were fighting. He really
wished he had his sword, he glanced around, he didn't see Raccoon's stick
around either.
But Raccoon could be curled up around it too, Ranma thought, the other
boy was still rolled into a ball.
"Somebody has to have called the police or the military," he told
Raccoon, unwilling to get too far away from the other boy, who was still
recovering from whatever he'd done to repair Ranma.
One of the men Rit-chan had punched through an abandoned storefront
got up, rather than rejoining the fight, he headed straight for the boys.
Ranma interposed himself. He suddenly realized his art wasn't a good way
of defending a person you dare not move, if the other guy didn't care about
getting hit, and seemed to flow out of your hands before you could throw
him. Ranma couldn't stop him.
"They want you alive," the man said, "He'll be the lucky one." With
Ranma still pounding away, trying to throw him, trying to trip him, the man
picked up Raccoon by the collar and slapped his wounded side. He seemed
angry he didn't get the scream or gasp he was expecting. The man shouted
something at Rit-chan, she looked stricken, and put up her hands.
"Ritsuko, you naughty girl," Raccoon managed, then slapped something
on the man's face. It was a small black crystal.
Ranma lunged forward and twisted Raccoon out of the man's grip. The
man was trying to slap the crystal away. Then he began digging in his face
to remove it.
"Don't look," Raccoon urged, "Don't watch."
Ranma turned his back and carried Raccoon away from the screaming man,
he could see the light making their shadows appear. Ranma didn't _want_ to
know what Raccoon had done to the man to turn him into a torch like that.
He vowed he'd keep his sword with him from now on, even their enemies
didn't deserve that kind of agonizing death. Getting chopped to pieces was
more merciful, than whatever made the man scream, and scream, and scream.
It was horrible to listen to, he didn't want to turn and see what was
happening.
The cavalry had arrived, in the form of Rei and a tank. Rei knelt
atop the turret and sprayed the man fighting Rit-chan with the top-mounted
machine gun. Once Rit-chan scrambled clear, the crew fired the main gun.
The man stood there as the shell passed through and exploded down the
street.
"Running might be a good idea," Rei suggested, as she opened fire with
the machine gun. The man simply walked through the hail of bullets as the
tank's other machine guns also opened up.
"Get me over to Ritsuko," Raccoon ordered. Ranma picked up the other
boy and closed the distance. Raccoon reached out and touched Rit-chan.
Suddenly the three of them were on top of a building. Ranma halted, looked
around.
I _hate_ magic! Ranma thought as he shivered, not just at the wave of
arctic cold that had enveloped him, Even if it did just save us.
"Put me down," Raccoon said, "I've got an idea."
"Just use another of those black things on him," Ranma said as he set
the boy down. He shuddered to think about whatever those were, the
callousness to make a weapon like that.
What if you used them on people? Ranma asked himself, he felt sick
just thinking about it.
"I've only got one more, and I have to set them. You can't."
"There are more than two," Rit-chan said in a desperate voice.
"How do you know that?" Ranma demanded, he hated this stuff, this time
he had an answer, a cleaner answer, "Can we go by Rit-chan's apartment, so
I can pick up my new sword?"
"Not a bad idea," Raccoon said, now he could sit up on his own, the
cold had retreated, so he'd finished whatever magic he'd used. "Like I
said, I have an idea."
"Fine, what _are_ those things?" Ranma demanded of Rit-chan.
Rit-chan laughed mirthlessly, "They're me."
Suddenly Ranma didn't _want_ any more explanations, not from Rit-chan,
not from Raccoon. There were things he just wasn't meant to know.
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko slipped around the walkway of her building, moving from one
shadow to the next, blending seamlessly, moving soundlessly. She had to
admit this was the most ludicrous idea she'd ever heard. But what other
choice do I have? she asked herself, Besides, it's working.
She felt rather than saw the first hit, a line of silver fluid
penetrating her flesh. She could imagine the weapon, she'd seen them often
enough, long ago. A number of bottles of colored liquids, and tubes
running between them, all atop a series of bands that the Elder Thing's
branching arms would go through. The Elder Things' equivalent of a rifle,
firing what would have been for a human, a neurotoxin, everything just quit
working, quit moving. Paralysis or death, depending on the dosage.
Sometimes they wanted to take their rebellious slaves alive.
Marinade, went through her mind, she ignored the thought. It was a
little too accurate to be funny. Fortunately, the Elder Things lacked that
kind of creativity, of all the races she'd heard of, only humans had that
kind of a sense of perverse humor.
Still, the bolt didn't affect her, her stumbling was to draw her
opponent out. Inwardly what she saw amazed her, the patterns of energy,
the myriad colors, the smells and sounds that depended on what she saw, the
light and tastes depending on what she heard, it was nearly overwhelming.
The man in the suit stepped out of his place of concealment, exactly
like the other two, the last of the hunting triple. She wondered why they
always came in threes.
They didn't expect a fight, we showed'em. She couldn't shake her head
at the idea, it would alert the quarry. But she wouldn't have fought, even
a year ago. She wasn't certain what had possessed her, running away had
always served so well in the past. She'd changed, running had suddenly
stopped being an option, despite eons of experience running and hiding.
She might have even defeated three, given time, and a little more training.
She'd never been a skilled fighter.
The hunter carried a rifle exactly as she remembered. She thought it
was a cruel irony that the Elder Things had lost so much of their
technology, they could neither understand nor use many of their ancient
devices. However, another group could, retaining mastery of the
maintenance, even the manufacture of many ancient devices. And one of them
had taught it to others. The rebel became the keeper of the heritage, the
thought came, In another, nonhuman world it might have been ridiculous.
With humans it's appropriate. She forced the thought away and concentrated
on the hunter.
Nondescript, like all of his kind, an appearance designed to be
unnoticeable, easy to overlook. "The hunt is over."
He'd gotten too close, the kick caught him completely by surprise.
The rifle was her real target, and she destroyed it. She'd simply relaxed,
and let the move flow, without conscious thought. The `man` grimaced and
attacked, using all the tricks he knew, he was instantly and completely
outclassed. Ritsuko stood to meet the attack, parrying or dodging as
appropriate. It was so easy. Her hands, arms, legs and body moved
wherever they would do the most good and avoid the most harm. At the same
time, she was aware of the growing rage of her attacker, his attacks became
wilder, more desperate, and correspondingly easier to avoid or deflect.
Her movements had a precision that was different from mathematics or
physics, but still governed by the same kinds of unwavering rules.
Ritsuko's analytical mind watched her body moving with a grace and speed
she would have considered impossible.
Then she struck, thrusting her hand into the man's chest, injecting
the silver fluid from the AT field bottle created to contain it. The man
looked at her in horror, she did not withdraw her hand. The flesh around
the wound became gray powder, the effect spreading through his entire body,
as his thoughts, memories, what few feelings he had, became part of what
Ritsuko now was. She knew, for example, the surviving one would be
arriving soon. Somewhere within her, came the confidence that a deal could
be struck. She had never considered such a thing before, she doubted it
could be done. Yet the confidence remained undiminished.
----------------------------------------
I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends
Ritsuko stood on the roof of her apartment, apparently alone. This
man, the last of the hunters, approached more cautiously.
Patience, a voice not her own cautioned.
He tries anything, another voice added, I'll clobber him.
Patience! the first voice repeated.
Am I going to have to separate you two? Ritsuko thought. They
subsided, she waited.
"You killed the other," he said, glancing around, clearly uneasy about
being alone, "That is new, different."
"The hunt is over," Ritsuko told him, "The Elder Things can't reverse
what they have done. They can barely maintain technology the humans have
mastered."
"You allow me to be your messenger? How magnanimous. You do remember
what happened the last time anyone trusted you?" He hadn't moved, hadn't
bothered to change his expression or the tone of his voice. She sometimes
forgot also, it gave her a reputation for steadiness she didn't deserve.
She controlled the denial that formed instantly, gave her own response
instead, "I am not asking you to follow. I am merely pointing out that the
world has changed. Have you, any of you, been to Antarctica recently?"
"So that's where you were hiding. Clever. No, obviously we have
not," the man said. He hadn't approached, hadn't drawn a weapon, or
prepared a spell. He was frightened, Ritsuko knew that from the colors of
his words, so he was considering his options.
Ritsuko was a little jealous, he and the others knew a good deal more
about being human than she did. She was aware of the preconceptions Jeff
had about her extreme age, and being a font of wisdom and knowledge as a
result. For this one, and his/its colleagues those misconceptions might
actually be true.
"We never served them. We served our own goals."
Ritsuko froze, her hope faded. But the feeling of confidence, that
wasn't hers, remained. She was also well aware of the weapon available to
her, and the available skill to hit him with it, even at this distance.
But the possibility of ending the hunting and the running stayed her hand.
"But we adapt, do we not?" the man admitted, smiled sadly. From the
color of his words she knew the sadness was genuine.
"Almost as well as the humans," Ritsuko replied, relaxing slightly.
"Yes, strange, considering they were an accident. I cannot speak for
all the others, but some might be . . . reasonable."
After you tell them Rit-chan beat you, Ritsuko heard go through her
mind.
She watched the man return the way he came. Through an odd awareness
that extended far beyond sight or hearing, she was able to track him for a
distance.
Do you really see and hear and smell and taste and feel all the extra
stuff? raced through her mind.
Certainly, doesn't everybody? came the sardonic reply, Same as the
energy patterns. Are those what ki flows look like?
"Children!" she said quietly.
This was very useful, and educational, she thought, But I want you two
out of there! Mainly she needed the privacy to actually think about what
was happening.
If you'll permit me? came the question.
She nodded, realized that was no answer. Go ahead. She watched in
fascination as her hand pushed into the side of her leg, and removed a
brass topped, brown wood walking stick.
"Do I tap this on the ground and shout 'I have the power' or
something?" she asked.
I was going to suggest just closing your eyes and relaxing, came the
reply, "Then reooo - oof. Then reopening them. Ouch."
Jeff had fallen over, wearied by the evening's effort. Ritsuko
glanced at Ranma, who had suffered a moment of gender uncertainty,
switching back and forth rapidly as she/he reformed.
"OOOH!" Ranma's female form knelt down, holding herself and moaning
loudly, "I _HATE_ that!"
"So rapid gender changes are disorienting?" Ritsuko asked,
"Fascinating."
Ranma stared at Ritsuko, "And how could that guy be you? He was like,
millions of years old, you aren't that old, are you?"
"A gentleman never - " Jeff began.
"'Asks a lady her age', I know, I'm a lady too!" Ranma finished in a
disgusted tone, looked around, "How did I know that? Wait!" Ranma
commanded, concentrated, "There will be some psychological, eidetic and
mnemonic leakage due to inherent morphic instability of all participants.
Reducing by an inverse exponential curve over an estimated period of four
to six hours." Ranma finished, looked at Jeff and Ritsuko in horror,
positively beside herself, "I've got enough in my head! I don't want you
two in there too!"
"It means go to sleep," Ritsuko counseled, "In the morning we'll be
gone." She stopped at Ranma's stricken look, "I didn't mean it like that,
I meant it as . . . well I - " She stopped, mastered her, no _Ranma's_
raging emotions, "The carrier is leaving in the evening. In the morning
the intrusion should be gone."
"Oh," Ranma subsided, then she brightened again, "This is GREAT. I
finally see why subdividing the individual element of the style into . . .
discrete steps would . . . greatly enhance - AUGGGGH!" Ranma ran off
holding her head.
"You're a bad influence on that girl," Ritsuko commented.
"What about on this girl?" Jeff asked, leered and waggled his eyebrows
at her.
Ritsuko blushed, Ranma's emotions came up on her suddenly,
overwhelming her attempts at reserve. `Raccoon's` weird sense of humor
terming the effect 'a ninja tsunami'. She shook her head to clear it. For
the next few hours, there could few secrets among them. Given the mix of
Ranma's emotions, and her own and Jeff's needs, separating all three from
each other might have been the wisest course of action.
"She really does love you, and Nabiki," Ritsuko said.
"Part of it is this `other`, it definitely enjoys a chase and cuddle,
very catlike in that respect," Jeff said in an analytical voice.
Ritsuko knew it was no mere facade, Jeff really was that cold and
collected, he didn't really feel anything for himself or for others.
Except for his immediate `family`, which both Ranma and Ritsuko had managed
to become part of. "That must have been what saved you, and fought the
tigers. The question is why both you and Nabiki run away, to keep it
chasing, or for your own reasons?" She paused to let Jeff blush and
recover. He wasn't completely immune to Ranma's congenial and cheerful
personality.
"What exactly did _you_ do? And don't say 'magic', I've been around
enough to know that much."
"Do you have, from my memories, the Rite of Ascension?" he asked.
She bit her lip and reluctantly rummaged through the borrowed
memories. "Yes, you and a dragon exchange - something, it's not very
clear. You can turn into a dragon?"
"Only in the Dreamlands, where I can't go anymore. The Rite wasn't
very clear to me either. Simply put, we were three superimposed waveforms
- "
"That's a great oversimplification . . . " Ritsuko was bothered by her
ability to finish the other's sentences. She knew the temporary
combination had overjoyed Ranma, neither he nor `Raccoon` could fully use
their abilities, a human body couldn't take the energy load. Her body
could, so he had moved to entirely an greater level of performance, at
least temporarily. Normally she'd never generate the ki and mana that
performance level required. She suspected, no for a while she _knew_, Jeff
had offered this _solution_ because Ranma would have to get used to the
power increase as they all changed. "You're as Machiavellian as Gendo, you
know that don't you?"
"Machiavelli was loyal to his home." Jeff shrugged, as she expected.
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko returned from dropping Jeff off at Sammi's. She found Ranma
in his room, still in female form, writing furiously in her 'ki' journal.
Nabiki sat on the floor near the martial artist, watching with bemused
silence.
"Wait 'til you see how fast he can type," Ritsuko whispered as she sat
down next to her.
"Saw it," Nabiki smirked.
Ranma sat back with a satisfied look on her face, then focused on the
page. "AUUGH!" Ranma gripped her hair as if to tear it all out. "This is
all written in German, I - !" Frustration instantly became fury.
"Raccoon!!" She shot to her feet. "If this is some stupid joke to get me
to work with Asuka - !" Ranma shook her fist at her unseen tormentor.
"_What_ is she talking about?" Nabiki asked as she stood and looked
over the pages and pages of fresh notes Ranma had entered, "Yep, that's
German." She stared closely at it, "Even I don't understand all of that."
Ranma looked at the tiny double-spaced handwriting, very different
from her own. With a grim expression she began making notes on the blank
lines, checking every so often that the notes were still in Japanese.
"It's complicated," Ritsuko explained, "Let's just say Ranma, Jeff and
I got some insights into each other." She could hardly keep from blushing
at some of those insights.
"Oooo." Nabiki rubbed her hands together, "Like what."
Ritsuko gave in to her first impulse, she wasn't sure if Jeff or Ranma
was the source. She patted Nabiki on the head, "You're far too young to be
worried about that kind of thing now."
She was rewarded by Nabiki's eyes going wide and pointing at Ranma.
Ritsuko smiled, shrugged. "Yes, you would look better with longer
hair. You should let it grow out a bit during the voyage."