Daniel Jess Gibson
7th April 2005, 05:37 AM
[Ranma][NGE][HPL][AMG][Fusion][Fanfic] Sic Semper Morituri Chapter 44 -
Sturm und Drang signifying . . . nothing Denouement
Disclaimer:
I do not own any of the characters from Ranma 1 / 2, Neon Genesis
Evangelion, Ah My Goddess, or the Lovecraft Cycle involved in these
stories.
C&C, MSTs are welcome
E-mail: dan_s.comments@worldnet.att.net
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Author's Note: You might want to check out John St. C Patrick's Fan-art
'NERV Publicity still from aboard Coral Sea' on my site
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Hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping, left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains
Within the sound of silence.
The Sound of Silence - Paul Simon
Jeff and Nabiki were playing pool. Ritsuko and Maya watched from a
safe distance. Ritsuko was glad the two pilots were acting out their
rivalry/strain in a more civilized fashion. She was also glad most of the
sharks would `swim` close, realize how badly outclassed they were, and
flee. With Nabiki's skill and Jeff's experience, they had to ricochet the
cue ball off at least two other objects before it hit its declared target.
Sinking a ball without doing that meant that Ritsuko or Maya would replace
the sunk ball and the cue ball wherever they wished. It yielded some very
complicated shots, and Ritsuko hoped that Luigi's would open soon, before
the confrontation between the pair escalated.
Nabiki got three shots in a row, which allowed her to run the table.
The last three games had gone that way, a stalemate until one or the other
got the rhythm, then they'd win.
"You'll have to challenge Ranma when we get back," Jeff said. Nabiki
didn't miss her shot, although not by much.
"I'd get a few victories," Nabiki admitted, as she lined up her shot,
"Before he slipped into 'Ranma-cannot- lose' mode, and nobody'd ever beat
him again."
Jeff waited for her to line up another shot then, "Langley would."
The ball missed her intended target. She glared at Jeff as Maya
placed the cue ball in a nearly impossible place. Then both of them
smiled at him.
"When does that place open for dinner?" Maya asked as she stepped
away and winked at Nabiki.
"Six o'clock," Jeff told them as he studied how he was going to do
anything, "That early we don't have to dress for dinner."
Ritsuko checked her watch. "Then this is the last game," she said,
"I want to make sure we get a table."
"We will," Jeff said as he made his shot, and accomplished nothing,
"I know the owner."
----------------------------------------
Sergeant Malkowitz wasn't taken by surprise. He often wondered how
someone supposedly so smart could have failed to notice the clues. His
surveillance subject had never let on that he knew that he was being
observed. Too many people could never see what was in front of them.
He'd learned that on Guadalcanal, someone assured him that 'Japs don't
bother with landmines, and the engineers cleared all the boobytraps.'
Just before the man stepped on a landmine that wasn't made in the U.S. of
A.
The bone fragments cost Malkowitz the use of his legs. He was still
glad to serve his country. The rifle he had might have made a difference
against a human. Not against the mad thing he was confronting. He'd
still emptied the clip into it, just to satisfy himself that it was
useless.
The blow hurled him against the wall. He heard his bones break as
well as the wheelchair. At times like this, he wished he knew a lot less
than he did.
The next blow landed, and everything went dark.
----------------------------------------
"Where'd you disappear to?" Nabiki asked Jeff as they entered the
restaurant.
Ritsuko thought it wasn't as elegant as it could have been, ~But it's
kind of nice.~
"Taking care of some details," Jeff answered he spoke to the maitre
d' in Italian. From her knowledge of French, Ritsuko guessed he was
confirming they had a table and the owner was aware they were here.
Ritsuko was looking forward to some good food. She noted that
neither Nabiki, nor Maya, were as enthused as she and Jeff were. She
looked around, expecting a special evening. Jeff seemed extraordinary
calm. "You must be homesick," she said.
"Not really," he admitted, "I was the first couple months, but I got
over it."
"Not going to admit it," Nabiki said cattily, everyone was now
speaking English.
"Are you?" He smiled at her. "There's a simple solution." She
smiled back nastily.
Ritsuko wondered, he seemed to be waiting for something. She doubted
anyone except her would have noticed. The waiter came and took their
orders, then bustled away. She didn't want to drink, or the others to
drink, but she wondered why the waiter hadn't offered a wine list.
"Blue laws," Jeff explained to her unasked question, "No alcohol
unless you specifically ask for it, and none at all on Sunday."
Ritsuko nodded. She noted that Jeff's air of expectation grew, he
was carefully glancing around. The waiter arrived with large trays, the
appetizers she figured. Another man approached as well. This seemed to
be what Jeff was expecting. Ritsuko looked forward to seeing what
surprises he had prepared.
----------------------------------------
Major ggreg heard the gun fire from where he was heading alone in the
Boston streets. He pulled his Browning Hi-Power and ran towards the sound
of the guns, fewer now.
He arrived at his original intended destination, to a scene from an
abattoir. Soldiers slaughtered, the armored limo they had been guarding
was blazing merrily, a blistered hand halfway out of the door. The stench
told him all he needed to know. The girl with the long black hair staring
at the scene told him even more. Especially that he'd been wasting his
time aboard the carrier when he should have been _here_.
"Are you with them . . . or with him?" she asked.
ggreg backed up a pace, then dove for cover behind a group of ashcans.
He wasn't sure what she was firing, but the ash cans fragmented, sending
coal ashes everywhere, disguising his retreat.
He fired into the cloud, not waiting for the girl to come through.
He switched clips and waited for her to emerge. Some instinct caused him
to turn, it prevented her from flattening his head with the pipe she swung.
Her next stroke went wide, ggreg dodged, counterattacked with fists
and gunfire. A direct hit to the girl's head didn't faze her, a gunshot
to the same point staggered her slightly, but by the time he changed clips,
she was back.
The blow knocked him flat and the gun skittered from his hand, it
stopped and moved back, until the girl held it in her hand. There was no
madness in her eyes, she looked calm and poised as she took aim. The look
of a soldier.
The bar of almost pure white struck her, surrounding her with fire.
ggreg took to his heels, favoring his ribs as he ran. The fire died down
quickly, but he had lost sight of her and he changed direction rapidly and
randomly.
He found himself at the waterfront. He took no chances and dove in,
he could swim to the Bennington from here.
----------------------------------------
The men whisked away the metal covers from the plates they'd placed
before them. In front of Jeff was an odd sandwich, but in front of Nabiki,
Maya and Ritsuko was a riceball and a bowl of miso soup. Even the dried
seaweed was correct. The maitre d' gave Jeff a salute and moved off.
"Thanks Luigi," Jeff said.
"How did . . . ?" Then Nabiki was speechless. Maya was more
practical.
"Bean jam!" Maya said excitedly, showing the interior of the rice
ball her bite had exposed, to Nabiki.
"Oh, a magician never reveals his tricks," Jeff said airily.
"He probably sent a radio message ahead," Ritsuko said, sipped the
miso soup silently, Western-style. It was excellent.
"If you're going to reveal all my tricks . . ." Jeff grumped.
"I _do_ appreciate it," Ritsuko said. Maya's and Nabiki's mouths
were full.
"I saw and heard all the comments about the bad food. Luigi is the
best cook I've ever met. But I had to challenge him, and did he meet your
expectations?"
"Yes," Nabiki said, "I'm not ready to forgive you, but I have decided
not to kill you without Ritsuko's permission."
"Nabiki-chan!" Maya chided.
"Oh, I don't mind," Jeff said, "I didn't mean to erase . . . well, I
did want you to feel better." He was the shy little boy again. Ritsuko
wanted to hug him. She knew that it wasn't appropriate in the instance or
the circumstances. She knew what was acceptable in the situation. "Thank
you," Ritsuko told him in French. He nodded. The tension among the four
reduced significantly for the rest of the evening.
----------------------------------------
They walked home in the quiet. The last vestiges of twilight
illuminating the people just arriving to dine and party.
"Lost in thought?" Ritsuko asked her charges.
"Just wondering . . . why?" Nabiki stared at Jeff.
"All the questions about homesickness, the gripes about pretty good
food. I figured you could all use a taste of home. I was getting one,"
he replied.
"Still looking after us?" Maya teased.
"Well of course. You and Brown Bess are too young to be let out on
your own," Jeff replied, then had to run ahead to avoid a poking/tickling
attack by Nabiki.
"It's good to see them like this, Sempai," Maya said.
"Thinking about a course of action of your own?" Ritsuko asked.
"No, Sempai, I think the best course, is no course. Any decision we
make here will have a different meaning when we return to NERV. Major
Katsuragi would never allow it. I . . .I don't know if Commander Ikari
would allow it either."
"I don't think he would interfere," Ritsuko said as she picked up the
pace to pursue the two kids, who were yelling and carrying on like two
kids.
~At least he wouldn't with you and me,~ she thought. "The rest . . .
I don't know," she admitted.
----------------------------------------
And the sign flashed out it's warning, in the words that it was forming.
Aug 1, 1947
Boston P.D. was a professional, big-city department, no shortage of
war veterans meant most had seen quite a bit. Lieutenant Sullivan was
Irish, which in Boston meant he was a cop, so the joke went. He'd seen
action in the First World War, but even the WW2 vets hadn't seen this.
Some of the younger ones had lost their breakfasts down the hall.
Sullivan was covering his mouth with his handkerchief.
"Poor bastard," he said quietly of the victim. Harvard wasn't the
place for a murder, especially one this gruesome.
The NERV technician was looking at the body, he looked awfully young
to be so immured to death, especially one as violent as this. "Death was
by blunt force trauma, all this - " He indicated the dead man's viscera
spread all over the room. "Was done post mortem. Someone was extremely
angry."
"You want to sign the death certificate?" Sullivan asked, "Our
coroner took one look and went out to get some air."
"No, the Commonwealth pays him, so he works for them. Besides, I
have to tell NERV about this. You know who Sergeant Malkowitz's roommate,
until this March, was? One of the EVA pilots."
"Christ Almighty!" Sullivan swore, it would cost him a Hail Mary or
three but it was appropriate, "Do they know?"
"Unless you called them, no. They're probably going to go a little
nuts when they learn about this. Be ready for _lots_ of questions." The
man walked out of the room, removed the little slippers he'd worn over his
shoes to walk across the blood soaked floor. "And then be ready for the
fit to hit the shan."
Sullivan nodded, there was something creepy about a guy who could
look at this, and not swear.
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko charged up to the officer of the day. Her expression would
have made a veteran cower, the poor, brand-new O1 looked like he wondered
if she'd let him make out his last will and testament.
"What did the Sergeant of the Guard mean 'I can't find them.' _Both_
pilots signed out, I would have expected a company of troops to have been
following them!" Ritsuko said as reasonably as she could manage.
"We had no special orders regarding the pilots. It was probably just
an oversight," the man managed.
"Ensign," Ritsuko said calmly, mainly because being calm at times
like this scared people a lot more, "There are perhaps seven pilots in the
entire world, that we know of. Major ggreg was hauled out of the harbor
after tangling with something he couldn't deal with. He regularly dealt
with the entire Nazi Reich. Now they aren't expecting him to live. You
would think that should have triggered some restrictions on who gets on
and gets off this boat, wouldn't you?"
"I didn't have any orders, ma'am." The man nervously flipped through
the clipboard's contents.
~Probably hoping Nabiki and Jeff signed out _before_ they found
ggreg,~ Ritsuko thought. "What has been done about a searching party?
There are 1800 Marines on this boat," Ritsuko asked pointedly.
"I don't have that information." The ensign looked like he wanted to
crawl under his desk, or volunteer for an immediate combat assignment.
Getting shot at looked like a healthier situation than the one he was in
right now.
"Dismissed Ensign," Admiral Adams came up behind her. The Ensign
tried to break the land speed record while saluting as he left the office.
Adams closed the door behind the boy.
"There won't _be_ any search parties from this ship. The Marines
aren't carrying the requisite firepower." He handed her several manila
folders. "The Army is preparing to look for Miss Tendo. They've called
up an armored division, and we'll be putting back to sea with Unit 04
until the crisis is resolved."
Ritsuko stared at him, Adams didn't seem the kind to joke about
things like this. As she read the contents of the folders, she felt a
cold seeping through her. "Bastards," she whispered.
"No need to be so polite," Adams agreed.
----------------------------------------
Nabiki realized she'd made a mistake. Raccoon's descriptions of
Boston last night made her want to walk around its streets. So she'd
gotten a rare early start, and then just enjoyed walking and shopping.
The people she'd met had been friendly, if a little distracted. It
reminded her a little of Nerima, when the local populace realized a battle
was in the offing and had evacuation in the back of their minds, she
couldn't believe such an event was going to occur here.
She'd let herself forget that Raccoon had been known here and also
had friends in many places. He was also a WASP and male. Outside that
protective shell, she was a 'Jap', they were rare in the U.S. East Coast,
and while they had been defeated, there was still a war going on in
`their` country. This had been explained to her, usually at the top of
somebodies' lungs from a distance. She was beginning to regret not having
collected a couple of escorts. A couple of Marines would have been useful,
both in protecting her in the current circumstances, and preventing them
from occurring.
She decided _not_ to point out that as heavy as the casualties at
Pearl Harbor were, they were easily dwarfed by the losses from the
firestorming of Tokyo, of Yokohama, of Nagasaki, of nearly every
industrial city in southern and central Japan, or by the starvation and
disease that swept every island that followed the collapse of the Japanese
government and way of life. None of that was enough to offset the
'treacherous' tactics which 'everyone knew about'.
She thought Kuno or Ryoga would fit in perfectly, with their
prejudices. She was heading back to the carrier at her best walking speed
when she realized that she'd strayed too far off the beaten track, and
somehow the crowd had gotten in front of her as well.
~This is going to be a problem,~ she thought, ~I don't want to
abandon what I bought.~ The money was unimportant, the time and effort of
picking out the gifts and souvenirs, that she resented losing. She
glanced at the crowd in front. ~Unless it is absolutely necessary, which
is looking more and more likely,~ she thought, ~If I was Ranma I'd fight
my way out. And get reamed royally for doing it.~ She suspected that
Akane's anti-Hentai Horde techniques would work only until someone decided
firearms were the appropriate remedy.
~I hate retreating,~ she thought, ~But it's already my only option.~
The car that pulled up, blocking her, brought the decision from
eventually to right now. The tall, blonde woman climbed out of the sedan
and smoothly drew a pistol, fired into the air. "You have homes to go
back to," she told them in a no-nonsense tone, holding a badge over her
head, "I suggest you all do that." There was murmuring among the crowd,
but a good portion of it dispersed. The hot heads didn't like the odds so
well now.
"Get in Miss Tendo," the woman told her, pulling a different badge, a
NERV ID card, and showing it to her. The picture was the typical
unflattering one, the name was Lauren S.
"Thanks," Nabiki told Lauren, "I could have handled it, but I'm glad
I didn't have to." She gratefully got into the car with her parcels.
"Should I drop you at the carrier, or at Harvard?" Lauren asked,
winked at her. She knew Jeff's parents were at Harvard.
"The carrier I guess," Nabiki said, "I guess I shouldn't have
eschewed an escort. I can't go wherever I want."
"You might, in Frisco or Chicago, but not in the `civilized` East,"
she practically spat the word, "And especially not with what's been going
on. I'm surprised they didn't have a squad of Marines following your
every step."
"I didn't really tell anyone where I was going," Nabiki admitted.
"Miss Tendo, with all due respect, that was incredibly stupid," she
said as they drove away, "My dad is old enough to remember the signs 'dogs,
Irish and Niggers need not apply' for jobs and housing. The old Mayflower
crowd wants only the best, read WASPs, and Orientals are decidedly _not_
welcome. They don't even like the Welsh. So everybody has to have
someone to dump the shit they get, on someone else."
"My mom had me baptized Presbyterian," Nabiki said, "Would that
help?" Nabiki hung on tightly, Lauren seemed to have gone to the Misato
Katsuragi school of offensive driving.
"If it was stenciled on your forehead, maybe," Lauren told her,
taking turns with squealing tires.
"Thanks for the save then, a friend told me certain areas should have
been safe."
"The Irish and Italian areas I'll bet. They aren't quite so rigid,
and I'll bet your friend expected to go with you," Lauren said, seemingly
unaffected by the angry horns and near collisions, she drove like an
unstoppable force of nature. "Something's been stirring up things, mostly
at night, but everybody's on edge."
"Since you already guessed who it was," Nabiki said, she didn't like
games, the woman seemed to be trying to scare her with the driving and her
lack of reaction to it.
"I have an idea," Lauren said, "Tell him this is as bad as '45, and
to keep whoever he cares about under lock and key." They pulled into the
Navy Yard, Lauren did stop at the guard shack, and showed her ID, then
proceeded at posted speeds. Nabiki hadn't realized she was this close.
"Well, here's your stop. All a float who's going afloat," the woman
joked as Nabiki collected her parcels. "Oh, and if you see your friend,
tell him I'll be in the last place he'd ever look. I'm glad to have met
you, Miss Tendo. I never met another girl with no shadow before."
Before Nabiki could respond, the woman drove away. Nabiki stood for
a moment, staring at the car, wondering if she should deliver the message
or not.
"No shadow?" she asked, glanced at the sun over head, then straight
down. "Oh KAMIS!" she shouted as she stormed onto the carrier.
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko stared at the few technicians - ~Few _surviving_
technicians,~ she thought ruefully, ~The last ones cleared for the
complete Chicago project. Somebody has killed all the bosses, the last
one died last night.~
"It was never our intention to let it get this far," the Lead
technician, a nonentity called Jones, told her with a nervous laugh.
The old man had arrived at Ritsuko's cabin, as she'd been preparing
to leave to confront NERV Mass. about what was in the files Adams had let
her read. The man, a bird colonel chaplain, had given her a few more
sheets to read and keep. 'That's shocking fare, the boy might need to
know this, but I'll leave that to your judgement.' What she'd read had
horrified her.
Just mentioning the codewords that classified the reports had been
enough to arrange this meeting. Now she was confronting the NERV staff
survivors who were named in the reports. She could understand why someone
had been killing them, she just wondered why it had taken so long.
Ritsuko was sorely tempted to revert to her original form and tear these
malignant little men limb from limb, except she couldn't absorb their
thoughts, and she wanted answers far more than she wanted their blood.
"The effect was never intended to be used this way," Jones admitted,
the others nodded their agreement and whispered among themselves about how
this or that might have gone wrong. "We needed the weapons," Jones tried
to fill the stony silence Ritsuko was radiating.
~Once they're allowed to talk about it,~ she realized as she glared
at them, ~They're actually proud of what they've done.~ She wondered if
Gendo would be as disgusted as she was.
"So how were the thirty chosen, or was it two hundred?" she asked
coldly. She doubted Jeff had lied to her, with her memories it would have
been impossible, he was accurately reporting all he had found out. The
fact that what he had discovered was all a tissue of lies wasn't his fault.
"The total with the British and Commonwealth subjects it was closer
to 800. The U.S. was a larger area, allowing proper security."
"So what, the Wyoming base was where you kept them all? And what
happened to the others. 'Lost due to control issues' doesn't really
describe things now does it? The British officially lost six to EVA Unit
03, the American only had three and there is no official word on
'Commonwealth' pilots."
"As the report said, they mostly died in 1939. There was a revolt.
The subjects were always uncooperative, pressing the limits, well most of
them were. Some 30 stood against the revolt. All but the last nine were
killed. We were designing killing machines who feared nothing," Jones
said defensively, then wilted a bit under Ritsuko's stare, "Perhaps we
should have had more levels of control."
~Like Gendo has with Rei?~ Ritsuko thought, ~But she loves and
respects him. Is that something he earned, or was it programmed into her?
Gendo, you think you're a bastard, you don't even make the first cut.~
"They were good at it," Jones told his comrades, getting nods and
murmurs of agreement and approval, "But after killing all the other
`children` they'd grown up with, there were . . . well, behavioral
anomalies. If they were human, we'd call it shell shock, simple
malingering some said. So we erased their memories of the actual events."
He smiled. "We gave each one an interesting childhood, and one traumatic
memory to focus all their free floating guilt on," he said cheerfully,
"Then we placed them with trustworthy relatives of project members."
"Samuel?" Ritsuko couldn't say any more. Her own borrowed memories
of the event were too close, too raw.
"Made up out of whole cloth, I was particularly proud of the - subtle
- touches . . . "
Her stare silenced the man. "I assume Sharon Lauren had such a suite
of false memories."
"Well, of course," Jones said defensively, "We needed a failsafe in
case . . . well there was a repetition of the event of 1939. We also
established limiters to prevent that very occurrence."
"And just _who_ provided you with the information on these `limiters`,
and did it ever occur to you that they might have provided you with
something that they could reverse or sabotage at a later time?" she asked,
barely restraining her temper. ~I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that this is
the `Inspector's` work. Give these ivory tower idiots something they
wouldn't care about the consequences, because they had `safeguards`!~ she
thought in a fury, ~Did Gendo get the same deal? With Rei? With Shinji?
Or did he realize the other pilots and their needs were the layer of
safeguards we needed for Rei? Gendo, was that why you secretly lobbied
for Asuka and Jeff, and not Sharon and Anna? The ones with the more
deeply buried flaws? I owe you an apology Gendo, cold-blooded but not
cold-hearted.~ She glanced that the gossiping chickens around her. ~And
definitely not stupid,~ she thought.
"The limiters appear to have failed with Miss Lauren," Ritsuko said,
"How do we prevent a failure of Mister Davis's?" she asked coldly.
They chuckled. "I don't think there's any worry, after all, he
hasn't manifested an AT field outside an EVA or anything like that." More
general nervous laughter, all the more nervous because Ritsuko stared
stonefaced at them.
Ritsuko couldn't imagine how Gendo had managed to keep _that_ little
tidbit out of any reports back to these clowns. "I don't find any of this
the least bit funny. If you're through laughing at your cleverness, I
need information on what I can expect if our forces have to engage Sharon.
Will conventional weapons suffice. You certainly have to have had
experience in '39, you have to have considered it. Will the EVA be
necessary?" She noted how nervous and silent they all got. "Two . . .
_THREE_?_"
The men turned to stare at each other, whispering anxiously.
~Oh by all the gods and kamis!~ she thought in terror. "I'll have
the pilots man the EVA."
"No!" a different technician piped up, "That - that may not be a good
idea." He glanced around nervously before continuing, "It may be possible
for a subject without limiters to sync with an EVA . . . externally."
Ritsuko felt the world slipping away. It explained some of Jeff's
odd sync behavior. ~If he doesn't need to be physically present in a
cockpit to control an EVA . . . we already know a 400% sync rate would
bypass the need for batteries and external power,~ she thought, ~The only
protection is that the pilot would dissolve into the EVA. If a pilot
would be able to operate an independent EVA . . . I can barely imagine the
disaster _that_ could become.~ She wondered if that ability could also be
developed for the other pilots, then discarded the idea.
"What was the operation in Boston in '45?" Ritsuko asked, she had a
terrible feeling about this. The technicians looked at each other.
"There was some concern that the subjects were losing their
aggressive edge against their real enemies. Since a minor one was here in
Boston, a test was arranged," Jones told her.
~So you lured or invited Gendo here, maybe even wanted to see if your
'subjects' were a match for Rei,~ she thought, ~I'll have to ask Rei if it
was Jeff, Sharon, or circumstances that killed her.~ "What would have
happened if they lost?" Ritsuko asked, and was shocked at the surprised
looks.
"They wouldn't have," Jones said, "Either Davis or Lauren could have
taken it alone, together it would have been simplicity itself. But we did
have a battleship standing by if we needed it."
~And that makes it all right?~ she wanted to scream, ~So that's what
the inquiry is all about. If Misato knows anything about who helped her.
What would Jeff do if he realizes that it was all a test of him and his
allies? What will they do if they realize Nyarlathotep was probably
pulling _everyone's_ strings?~ She didn't let any of her emotions show.
"So, are you hoping Sharon and Jeff will destroy each other?" she
asked angrily and was horrified when no one denounced her statement
automatically. ~That's what they want. It would let them eliminate their
problems all at once. One goes nuts and their last problem dies honorably
to save the world,~ she thought, ~They expect to bury the whole thing.
Except they don't know the facts.~
"Unfortunately we don't have the pilots to spare. How do we stop
her?" Ritsuko demanded.
"We don't know," Jones admitted, "We thought the drugs we were giving
her would continue to prevent her from being a problem."
Again Ritsuko decided reverting to her true form and consuming all
these idiots was a bad idea. She might accidentally absorb some of their
stupidity. ~So why am I wasting my time talking to you?~ she wondered.
"Well, I need to rescue an EVA pilot from an insane monster, and you can
only tell me nothing will work?" No one answered her. She turned and
left, wondering what had they been thinking.
----------------------------------------
And the signs said, the words of the prophets are written on the subway
walls
Nabiki rushed through the carrier towards where the pilots and senior
staff were billeted. Maya, Ritsuko and Jeff, nobody knew where they were.
She could only pray one of them was in their quarters, or nearby. She
entered her cabin and found Belldandy waiting for her.
"I am glad you are well," Belldandy told her and smiled.
Nabiki considered asking her where she had been the last few days,
when she could have used someone to talk to, instead she had a more
important question. "Then maybe you'd like to tell me where my shadow
went," Nabiki replied harshly. Nabiki turned on the desk lamp, nothing
fell on the floor. Nabiki also wanted to know what had prevented her and
seemingly everyone else from noticing.
Belldandy paled, looked away.
"So it _is_ true!" Nabiki said in shock, "What did you do to me?"
"It wouldn't harm you," Belldandy told her, it clearly sounded lame
to her.
"Harm me, so what change _did_ you do, and for what ends?" Nabiki
considered dragging the woman to her feet and pummeling her to get the
truth. Akane wasn't the only Tendo who was capable of extreme violence
against the unresisting.
"No normal human can encounter these creatures and remain sane,"
Belldandy told her sadly, bowed her head, "I do apologize."
"What about the others?" Nabiki couldn't imagine where her anger had
suddenly disappeared to.
Belldandy only looked guiltily at the deck as she drywashed her hands.
"What about Ranma?" Nabiki demanded, desperation and cold fear ruled
her now.
"The neko-ken training gives him a level of resistance, his curse
also protects him. The three personae he uses dilute the effects, but you
have no such defense, so you touch the world only lightly."
Nabiki reeled back against the bulkhead. 'Touch the world only
lightly,' rang in her mind. "Is that why Ranma reacts to me that way?"
"When you . . . molest him?" If she was going to lecture Nabiki, the
glare she was getting silenced her.
"Yes, when I molest him," Nabiki said icily, her fury returned full
force.
Belldandy shivered as if the cold were real. "He, he doesn't . . .
doesn't connect with you as he does the others because . . . you . . . ."
Belldandy looked down at her active hands. "I'm sorry, but it was
necessary for your survival. And _your_ survival is necessary for his."
Nabiki wondered if the closeness she enjoyed with the others, was due
to the fact she didn't have a full effect on them. What she did really
didn't register, good and bad things. She hated being taken lightly, but
clearly this was what was happening. That it was done _to_her_ infuriated
her. "So, you adjust your agent fighting these Angels to enhance her
survival?" Nabiki asked. She remembered that Lauren had said 'Someone
else', someone else without a shadow. ~Was she another of their agents?
Was the girl a _failed_ agent and Tendo Nabiki was her replacement, and
Belldandy was the replacement to whoever Lauren's handler was?~
"She wanted to talk to Jeff, why?" Nabiki asked distantly.
"Who?" Belldandy asked, glad the subject had changed.
"Lauren S., a woman I met, one who pointed out my lack of shadow,"
Nabiki answered.
"Nabiki-chan," Belldandy said worriedly, "Lauren was Sharon Lauren,
the other American pilot."
Nabiki's mind raced. ~She was the pilot, did what they do cause her
to go insane when she linked with the EVA, or did that make her nuts
instead of dissolving like Jason? Why didn't I dissolve or go nuts? Did
they get the process right or did the others condition the EVAs so they
didn't do anything permanent to me?~ She glanced at Belldandy staring at
her with a mix of hope and dread. ~Did she know that might happen and
they didn't tell me . . . or did nobody tell _her_?_~
She narrowed her eyes and approached the girl. "You did all these
things so I wouldn't be hurt," Nabiki said sweetly, smiling the whole time,
at the same time restraining herself for grabbing the girl's fancy dress
and beating her against the bulkheads.
"Yes," Belldandy said, relaxing at the less menacing atmosphere.
"Well, guess what?" Nabiki smiled right in the girl's face.
"What?"
"You failed miserably," Nabiki said flatly, "Either you lied to me,
which is bad enough. Or you used me as a guinea pig without my approval,
and maybe without yours. So, after harming me worse than anything since
the death of my mother, which are you? A liar, unfeeling, or
incompetent?" Nabiki asked sweetly, while the girl cringed, then burst
into tears.
A sobbing pretty girl would have the desired effect on Ranma, maybe
even on Raccoon, but the Ice Queen was back. She wanted Raccoon in her
life, exactly as what was unimportant right now. And Sharon Lauren would
probably kill him when she found him. And _N_O_B_O_D_Y_ took anything
away Tendo Nabiki without her permission. And _anyone_ who tried was
asking to pay a terrible price. "You - _owe_ - me!" Nabiki said calmly,
"I want to know everything you know about what Sharon Lauren is, and what
I'll need to beat her, and if it will take Unit 04, I want to know that
part right _now_."
The girl had been squirming and sobbing the entire time Nabiki had
been naming her conditions.
"I can't tell you all that," she said weakly.
"Then I'll think of something to permit you to make up for what you
owe," Nabiki said reasonably, "After you tell me
_ab_-_so_-_lute_-_ly_everything_ you can think of that will be of use.
And if you are thinking of doing something foolish like erasing my
memory . . . you'd better do a _very_ complete job, and find all the
places I've written it down."
She looked straight into Belldandy's eyes. "Or I will be very, very,
very angry," with each word she dropped the pitch and the temperature.
Belldandy visibly retreated into the chair from the smiling girl.
----------------------------------------
Belldandy had been warned the girl was dangerous, likewise they had
explained that her avariciousness would be necessary to stave off a
disaster. 'Grab hold and hang on like a snapping turtle.' She did agree
with Tendo Nabiki on one point, she wished someone, anyone would explain
why she had to do these things. Especially the orders to come here, those
were the most frightening. They hadn't come from Kami-Sama, but directly
from the One Above. The Archangels had occasional contact with . . . but
never one of her low station. The message had warned her that Tendo-san
would react exactly as she was reacting, with insults and threats, and
every intention of carrying them out. And that regarding what information
to pass along, Belldandy was to 'use your best discretion'. Her tears
were not entirely due to the hurtful things Nabiki was saying about her,
but her frustration over not knowing what to do at such a critical time.
So much was in the balance.
Nabiki was deciding which enemy to destroy, Belldandy desperately
hoped she wasn't to become that enemy.
"There is nothing you can do to stop the girl, even with Unit 04.
Only Jeffrey can stop her, and he will," Belldandy said quietly, "Bringing
the EVA in, could be very dangerous."
"Why?" Nabiki was trying to hide her fear. Belldandy only saw it
because her own fear mirrored Tendo-san's.
"It may be possible for her to usurp control from an . . . "
Belldandy glanced at her. "From an inexperienced pilot."
Nabiki was clearly staggered by the possibility. "Someone could
control an EVA without being inside it . . . I heard stories about Unit 01,
experienced it." She shook her head and took a deep breath. "That's a
long way from active control. What about our enemies?" Nabiki asked,
retreating fully into the `Ice Queen` persona, to cover her horror and
dread.
"The pilots are the only ones who can interface with the EVAs,"
Belldandy said miserably, "We think."
"You don't _KNOW_?_!_ You work for _GOD_!_" Tendo-san shouted.
"He doesn't tell us everything," she replied quietly. ~Like why I
have to do this,~ she lamented silently. "It has never come up,"
Belldandy explained.
"Very well," Nabiki said coldly, "What you did to me, and what did
you do to Ranma?"
Belldandy sighed, she was tempted to tell Tendo-san everything she
knew and perhaps the two of them could make sense of it.
----------------------------------------
And tenement halls.
Nabiki felt the cold fire of deep betrayal. She'd been granted the
wish, supposedly, allowed to come here. But unlike Ranma, she wasn't
really part of this world. Little would change her as it changed the
others. It would be easy for her to slip back `home` when she was done.
Abandon Ranma, Rit-chan, Raccoon, Asuka, etc. to their inhuman fate.
~Once the job is done,~ she considered coldly, ~I was never meant to
stay, I could look after him, but never marry him, have his children, grow
old with him.~ She made the sadness turn to anger.
Her deal with Raccoon, about connecting her with Ranma, was so much
ash now. She'd watched Ranko carry on and get closer to Raccoon. If
things remained the way they were, those two would marry and raise kids,
and while Nabiki would definitely be welcome, in their home, in their
relationship, but she wouldn't really be a part of it.
She decided, she didn't want to be an outsider. Not anymore, not
with Ranma, raccoon, Rit-chan, not even Gendo and Admiral Simson.
Belldandy would `arrange` things so Nabiki would stay, and the girl would
find a way that Nabiki wouldn't need the `outsideness` to protect her, and
Nabiki did not _care_ how. The others had welcomed her in, as long as
they were willing to do that, not 'Touching the world lightly,' allowed
her to maintain and strengthen that connection. But the connections would
no longer be so ephemeral, they wouldn't fade, the good and the bad things.
She would have to be on her best behavior for a while.
She had to find Ritsuko, maybe together with Raccoon, they could deal
with Sharon. She was headed for the gangway to get off the carrier.
"Where is Doctor Akagi?" Nabiki asked the O.O.D., Officer of the Day,
a pale ensign who had suddenly grown a good deal paler.
"Mmmmmmmiss Tendo, Iiiiii, I'm afffraid Iii caaaan't let you leave,"
the ensign told her, "We're caaaasting off,"
Nabiki leaned closer, smiled. "Where - is - Doc - tor - Akagi?"
Nabiki repeated her question.
"NERV HQ, Cambridge," the ensign said, too terrified to be afraid.
Nabiki turned away from the gangway she'd used to leave earlier. The
Marines who fell in behind her were a liability now. Her target was the
deck edge lift. She wasn't Ranma, but she wasn't porcelain either.
"Miss Tendo." Chief Cole was running across the hanger towards her.
"Please step away, we're getting underway."
"Follow when you can," she called back and leapt off the lift to the
concrete pier 10 to 15 meters below. She stood stared at the amazed
Marines and sailors clustered on the lift. She turned back and marched
off.
----------------------------------------
"Is this the only way?" the voice asked, nearly scaring Jeff off the
rail car.
He recognized the voice, but he wasn't going to deal with it: the
same thing he'd confronted outside Rei's apartment. He steadfastly
continued his preparations.
"If you care for her, this won't be necessary."
"You prepare for what _may_ happen," Jeff replied as he climbed down
the ladder to the ground. She was at the bottom of the ladder of course,
blocking his way. "Don't you have someone else to pester, or am I
particularly entertaining?" He stepped around her and began cranking the
pump.
"I am here to help you. We are not your enemy."
"Pull the other one, it's got bells on, dandy thing too," he told her
as he cranked, examining the piled stones for any signs that might betray
what he was doing.
"This is not the only way."
"Look, you want to try the 'Peace, Love and Brown Rice' method, stick
around. It'll be interesting watching you get your head handed to you."
"She does not trust us." The girl hung her head and turned away. It
was an excellent attempt to engender sympathy, but Jeff knew a trick when
he saw one.
"Huh," Jeff said, "Imagine that? Maybe she's not as nuts as I
thought. Or maybe if I kill her, either your lot or the other bunch will
have to deal with her." ~If we even _have_ souls,~ he added silently, he
could feel her, searching for him, her anger growing, ~Just like the Great
Old One Brown Bess encountered. I wonder if I'll be in any condition to
scream when this is over, curse or not, not withstanding.~
----------------------------------------
Maya was waiting for her beside an Army 6x6 truck outside NERV Mass.
Ritsuko marched for the truck, Maya pulled the cover off the back. Inside
the bed were bazookas, heavy machine guns, and flamethrowers. The rest of
the 2.5 ton load was ammunition.
"You heard?" Ritsuko asked as Maya reclosed the cover.
"I heard what Major ggreg described, and I've read Jeff journals,"
she jogged for the cab, to open the door for her Sempai. "The only thing
she's afraid of is fire." In the cab were six double-barreled shotguns in
a rack between the driver and the passenger positions. "Jeff's parents
had these prepared for him . . . in case it was Sharon."
Ritsuko wanted to tell her the truth, but decided not to. "You drive,
if I have to shoot. I'll take shotgun." Ritsuko slid over to the
passenger side.
"Nabiki-chan left the carrier, told the Marines to follow when they
can. Admiral Adams has ordered her arrest," Maya said as she climbed in.
"He's just covering himself." Ritsuko broke open one shotgun,
removed and shook the shells. It seemed like such a pathetic thing to use
against something that might be as powerful as an Angel. "And we can't
use the EVA against it."
"What!?" Maya exclaimed as she drove on the correct side of the road.
"Don't ask questions you really don't want the answers for." She
glanced back into the truck bed. "Does that radio work?"
"Yes, Sempai."
"Let's find `Brown Bess`, I hope you two won't have to prove your
training in fire arms."
Maya only nodded and concentrated on the road.
----------------------------------------
Jeff tossed the barrels of diesel fuel and the feed line aside. He'd
emptied the dozen barrels into the two fertilizer filled hopper cars. He
wished there was more, he wished that he could use something better than
gravity and time to mix the material. He prayed she wouldn't spot the
dynamite, or the wires. There was some time to get up to the water tank
so he checked that the three sticks of dynamite, the booster caps were all
in place, and the wires were all buried in the railroad roadbed, and that
all of them were hard to spot. The barrels just looked like a fuel dump.
He climbed the ladder to the water tower and waited.
She would be able to feel him, she'd find him fairly soon. His only
advantage, was that he'd know she was coming before she knew exactly where
he was. Experience versus raw power. He actually hoped the silly angel's
approach worked, Sharon would be a valuable asset, and could be a good
friend. But he wasn't willing to stake millions of lives on an angel's
delusions.
~Besides,~ he thought morosely, ~She'd be angry if I didn't take her
seriously. Is 30 to 40 tons of TNT equivalent serious enough?~
----------------------------------------
Sharon advanced across the small switch yard for the farm products
warehouse. She had tracked him here. She scanned the railcars, he could
be hiding with a rifle or a bazooka behind any of them. She actually
suspected the small switch engine at the end of a long empty section of
track would be his favored weapon. If he really understood what she'd
become, that would be the minimum necessary to harm her. But she saw no
smoke and heard only the distant traffic. She still dashed across that
particular track.
"I wanted to talk to you away from the others."
She heard his voice and she headed in that direction. "You always
did talk when you should have been fighting, that's why I'll beat you,"
she shouted back.
"I am curious, it is a failing at times."
The voice, his voice, drew her forward. She would catch him while he
blathered. "You really don't understand what you and I are." She kept
searching for the source.
"I have an idea." His voice was so infuriatingly calm, he always
thought he was in control.
"You don't realize what they kept from us, what we are being used
for."
"On the contrary, I know. The EVAs and the pilots, they're the same."
"Except they really didn't understand what we'd become. They have
such plans," she said disdainfully.
----------------------------------------
And whisper'd in the sounds of silence
"You can escape their plans." Jeff covered his face as that
ludicrous angel he'd encountered outside Rei's apartment, stood atop the
hopper cars and spouted platitudes.
Sharon sprinted, at high but human speed, across the distance and
sprang atop the hopper.
"What are you?" Sharon asked as she peered closely at the angel, "You
aren't one of us, you aren't human!" Sharon circled this girl-looking
angel.
Jeff wanted to warn her, but he'd let her draw Sharon out. Maybe
Sharon had gotten her vengeance and could be negotiated with. Failing
that, she was exactly where Jeff needed her to be.
"I serve the Lord," the girl laughed nervously.
"A nun?!" Sharon laughed back, "Well run away little nun, this is not
for you."
"I cannot abandon a lost soul. What we did - "
Sharon's laugh interrupted her. Jeff shook his head, the angel
didn't seem to understand evil or insanity.
"A lost soul, my soul never existed . . . you're one of them," she
added in horror, backing away from the girl, "You let them make us without
souls! Your kind promised you could help me. But when I needed you,
where were you? Where was your precious God when they had me in a cell
filling me with drugs to test their new `restraint`? Where were you while
I hallucinated my . . . ?" Sharon touched her never pregnant belly and
fell silent, stared at the girl. "I know where you were, you'd already
picked out my replacement. Nice girl, but she knows the truth, the truth
about you and your kind. She knows now she isn't 'big picture', just a
mushroom like the rest of us. Except I'm not your mushroom anymore. I
don't have to worry about your God, your threats of damnation don't apply
to me, only Humans have souls."
"All have souls," the girl tried to sound reasonable, "You haven't
lacked one, you've just gone astray we . . . "
"Had to let them torture me, so I'd fall in line? And they sent you
instead of the other one. Why, so you could admit you lost me because of
a filing error? If you're really from Heaven you'd have to be perfect,
you wouldn't lose files." Sharon seemed on the verge of violence, the
girl seemed not to have noticed. Then Sharon gathered herself in. "I was
started out wrong. I'm a monster, they wanted monsters. The sin of Cain?
How about multiplied a hundred times? We tore their beating hearts from
their bodies and reveled in the carnage!" Sharon shouted at the girl.
"Now they want us to kill each other, the last two. How's that for
parental love, for a reward for our patriotism?" She turned to look
around. "Are you there? Too shocked to speak?"
"He is here, he is listening," the girl responded, "He believes you
can be saved."
Sharon smiled. "Why would I want that?" she asked, stood with her
arms open wide, "Why don't you kill me if you can see me? Why don't you
try? Why don't you show yourself? Are you shy? Are you afraid of me?
Worried about how I might react after being separated for so long?"
"I'm here, and I am listening," Jeff called, still concealing himself.
"Maybe I should prove I'm serious!" Sharon called, faced the girl.
~Get out of there!~ Jeff silently urged, but he knew she either
couldn't or wouldn't listen.
The girl never expected the blow, Sharon tore the girl's head from
her shoulders, preserving the look of surprise and disappointment on her
face. The body and head vanished before they hit the ground.
"We're alone now," Sharon told the empty surroundings, "No more
gadflies, no more distractions!"
"Why did you kill Malkowitz? He couldn't have harmed you."
"Why should I care?" Sharon answered, "He wouldn't tell me what I
asked. Besides, he was working for them. Didn't you know?"
"Did it occur that he didn't know?" Jeff asked.
"He knew, his job was to track your `progress`. He was spying on you
for them, the doctors." She paused. "I'm not paranoid! I made them tell
me. Over and over it was the same story. Do you know what they had in
mind for us? For all of us? We weren't to be forever, but we could have
been, and that scared them. We could go on forever! We threatened their
plans to move humanity to the next step, as if everything we've done in
the past half million years were nothing. 'No changes in 50,000 years',
as if evolution worked like that. We weren't to be the next step, just a
means, a rung, to reach it. I decided not to be part of that, even the
gods would marvel at what we could become." "They've already achieved
the next step," Jeff replied, showing himself for the first time, "All
your wishes won't change that. As for the gods, who needs their
admiration? We're weapons, plain and simple. There's nothing
dishonorable or demeaning about that. We serve, do what's needed instead
of what's ordered, and then we get out of the way. Humanity doesn't need
us cluttering the stage either, they'll have enough competition."
"Ha. You think I care. This place is an anthill, a dung pile for
people like us. We could soar above and beyond them until they'd never
see us again," Sharon shouted, spittle collecting at the corners of her
mouth. "But they couldn't allow that, couldn't have any more competitors,
they were to be the _only_ gods."
"One God, the old dream of Babel, one race all under one goal. We
were to clear the field for them. So no, you aren't paranoid, but you are
wrong. The doctors and the other humans weren't the ones who were driving
things. Stepping aside isn't the same as dying. There are places to go,
places - _people_ - like us would be welcome. Places that would need
people like us. We could fight - "
"Nyarlathotep?" Sharon sneered, "That fool thought he could _control_
us through those idiots and their lies. We'll break him too. Antarctica
is the key. None of the others dare go there. So they ready their pawns.
But we would be like knights, go and do as we will."
"The Elder Things city there has many secrets," Jeff admitted, he was
glad she seemed willing to remain atop the hopper cars. ~Maybe it's the
height difference,~ he thought, ~Atop the hoppers, she's `taller` than
me.~ "But the Crawling Chaos doesn't _give_ presents, unless they're
poison. For the body, mind, or soul. Whatever he told you can't be
trusted. And how does doing a little service for our creators harm us.
It buys time and training to master what we are."
"What I have - I _took_, I didn't bargain, negotiate or beg! That's
_your_ way!" she told him disdainfully, "And I did check to make sure it
is all true. What you do with the EVAs, I don't need them. All those
enemies you've killed, I could kill without them. I can take what I wish
and none dare resist me!"
"Misquoting Tolkien, I guess you steal what you like," Jeff replied,
"Did it ever occur to you that we were meant for more than that? That
there might be a higher purpose?"
"What could be higher than apotheosis?" Sharon asked, "The angels
can't be trusted."
"You're preaching to the choir on that one," Jeff replied, "But God
didn't create humans to be angels, and _we_ aren't supposed to be humans.
As for apotheosis, I don't relish becoming one of those oversexed
parasites in bed sheets. No kings and no other gods before me."
"Then maybe you'd like to know what your girl friend is doing, she's
working for them, maybe Ranma Saotome too. It seems they want us to be
under their control too. Fancy being their lapdog? I was, and what did
it get me? Betrayal, imprisonment, chemically-induced madness."
"You killed all those scientists of your own free will," Jeff
countered, "If you're going to be a god, a little understanding of human
weakness - "
"Such an attitude," she scoffed, "You'd never be a good soldier. The
first thing you need is obedience, and to make your enemies fear you.
That's what a soldier needs."
"A soldier needs to remember what he's defending, and not become the
enemy," Jeff replied calmly.
"Those are the thoughts of a weakling," she told him, "Once you'd
tasted blood, I thought you would have grown up."
"I did." He shoved the plunger down, heard the whirl of the dynamo
inside.
----------------------------------------
Nabiki stared out the windshield of the truck. The column of smoke
was reaching up towards the doughnut-shaped annulus. "Atom bomb," she
whispered in a horrified voice, the fear of that image had long been
drummed into her, and nearly every Japanese of her generation. The idea
Jeff would even consider using one, would _need_ to use one against Sharon.
Or that Sharon had used one against Jeff, and didn't care about the
consequences . . . Nabiki didn't want to think about it.
"No," Ritsuko said coldly as she drove the truck. "Any sufficiently
large explosion will create that pattern."
"Sempai," Maya asked from between them, "How large is 'sufficiently
large'?"
"I don't know."
Nabiki now worried that 'sufficiently large' might not be large
enough. She dreaded the idea of facing the girl alone. There were
weapons in the back of the truck, the truck itself was a formidable weapon.
~But would any of it be enough?~ she asked herself, ~Or did he succeed.
Carried out the plan the others wanted, destroyed each other?~ That
thought was almost worse than the other two possibilities.
Sturm und Drang signifying . . . nothing Denouement
Disclaimer:
I do not own any of the characters from Ranma 1 / 2, Neon Genesis
Evangelion, Ah My Goddess, or the Lovecraft Cycle involved in these
stories.
C&C, MSTs are welcome
E-mail: dan_s.comments@worldnet.att.net
Stories are available in Rich Text Format and HTML at:
<http://home.att.net/~danjess.gibson>http://home.att.net/~danjess.gibson
(these are the most updated versions)
Stories are available in Plain ASCII at:
<http://archives.eyrie.org/anime/Ranma/Sic-Semper-Morituri/>http://archives.eyrie.org/anime/Ranma/Sic-Semper-Morituri/
ftp://ftp.cs.ubc.ca/pub/archive/anime-fan-works/Ranma/Sic-Semper-Morituri/
<http://www.cs.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/ftp/archive/anime-fan-works/Ranma/type/Sic-Sem>http://www.cs.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/ftp/archive/anime-fan-works/Ranma/type/Sic-Semper-Morituri
(these are the original versions)
Author's Note: You might want to check out John St. C Patrick's Fan-art
'NERV Publicity still from aboard Coral Sea' on my site
<http://home.att.net/~danjess.gibson>http://home.att.net/~danjess.gibson
Hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping, left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains
Within the sound of silence.
The Sound of Silence - Paul Simon
Jeff and Nabiki were playing pool. Ritsuko and Maya watched from a
safe distance. Ritsuko was glad the two pilots were acting out their
rivalry/strain in a more civilized fashion. She was also glad most of the
sharks would `swim` close, realize how badly outclassed they were, and
flee. With Nabiki's skill and Jeff's experience, they had to ricochet the
cue ball off at least two other objects before it hit its declared target.
Sinking a ball without doing that meant that Ritsuko or Maya would replace
the sunk ball and the cue ball wherever they wished. It yielded some very
complicated shots, and Ritsuko hoped that Luigi's would open soon, before
the confrontation between the pair escalated.
Nabiki got three shots in a row, which allowed her to run the table.
The last three games had gone that way, a stalemate until one or the other
got the rhythm, then they'd win.
"You'll have to challenge Ranma when we get back," Jeff said. Nabiki
didn't miss her shot, although not by much.
"I'd get a few victories," Nabiki admitted, as she lined up her shot,
"Before he slipped into 'Ranma-cannot- lose' mode, and nobody'd ever beat
him again."
Jeff waited for her to line up another shot then, "Langley would."
The ball missed her intended target. She glared at Jeff as Maya
placed the cue ball in a nearly impossible place. Then both of them
smiled at him.
"When does that place open for dinner?" Maya asked as she stepped
away and winked at Nabiki.
"Six o'clock," Jeff told them as he studied how he was going to do
anything, "That early we don't have to dress for dinner."
Ritsuko checked her watch. "Then this is the last game," she said,
"I want to make sure we get a table."
"We will," Jeff said as he made his shot, and accomplished nothing,
"I know the owner."
----------------------------------------
Sergeant Malkowitz wasn't taken by surprise. He often wondered how
someone supposedly so smart could have failed to notice the clues. His
surveillance subject had never let on that he knew that he was being
observed. Too many people could never see what was in front of them.
He'd learned that on Guadalcanal, someone assured him that 'Japs don't
bother with landmines, and the engineers cleared all the boobytraps.'
Just before the man stepped on a landmine that wasn't made in the U.S. of
A.
The bone fragments cost Malkowitz the use of his legs. He was still
glad to serve his country. The rifle he had might have made a difference
against a human. Not against the mad thing he was confronting. He'd
still emptied the clip into it, just to satisfy himself that it was
useless.
The blow hurled him against the wall. He heard his bones break as
well as the wheelchair. At times like this, he wished he knew a lot less
than he did.
The next blow landed, and everything went dark.
----------------------------------------
"Where'd you disappear to?" Nabiki asked Jeff as they entered the
restaurant.
Ritsuko thought it wasn't as elegant as it could have been, ~But it's
kind of nice.~
"Taking care of some details," Jeff answered he spoke to the maitre
d' in Italian. From her knowledge of French, Ritsuko guessed he was
confirming they had a table and the owner was aware they were here.
Ritsuko was looking forward to some good food. She noted that
neither Nabiki, nor Maya, were as enthused as she and Jeff were. She
looked around, expecting a special evening. Jeff seemed extraordinary
calm. "You must be homesick," she said.
"Not really," he admitted, "I was the first couple months, but I got
over it."
"Not going to admit it," Nabiki said cattily, everyone was now
speaking English.
"Are you?" He smiled at her. "There's a simple solution." She
smiled back nastily.
Ritsuko wondered, he seemed to be waiting for something. She doubted
anyone except her would have noticed. The waiter came and took their
orders, then bustled away. She didn't want to drink, or the others to
drink, but she wondered why the waiter hadn't offered a wine list.
"Blue laws," Jeff explained to her unasked question, "No alcohol
unless you specifically ask for it, and none at all on Sunday."
Ritsuko nodded. She noted that Jeff's air of expectation grew, he
was carefully glancing around. The waiter arrived with large trays, the
appetizers she figured. Another man approached as well. This seemed to
be what Jeff was expecting. Ritsuko looked forward to seeing what
surprises he had prepared.
----------------------------------------
Major ggreg heard the gun fire from where he was heading alone in the
Boston streets. He pulled his Browning Hi-Power and ran towards the sound
of the guns, fewer now.
He arrived at his original intended destination, to a scene from an
abattoir. Soldiers slaughtered, the armored limo they had been guarding
was blazing merrily, a blistered hand halfway out of the door. The stench
told him all he needed to know. The girl with the long black hair staring
at the scene told him even more. Especially that he'd been wasting his
time aboard the carrier when he should have been _here_.
"Are you with them . . . or with him?" she asked.
ggreg backed up a pace, then dove for cover behind a group of ashcans.
He wasn't sure what she was firing, but the ash cans fragmented, sending
coal ashes everywhere, disguising his retreat.
He fired into the cloud, not waiting for the girl to come through.
He switched clips and waited for her to emerge. Some instinct caused him
to turn, it prevented her from flattening his head with the pipe she swung.
Her next stroke went wide, ggreg dodged, counterattacked with fists
and gunfire. A direct hit to the girl's head didn't faze her, a gunshot
to the same point staggered her slightly, but by the time he changed clips,
she was back.
The blow knocked him flat and the gun skittered from his hand, it
stopped and moved back, until the girl held it in her hand. There was no
madness in her eyes, she looked calm and poised as she took aim. The look
of a soldier.
The bar of almost pure white struck her, surrounding her with fire.
ggreg took to his heels, favoring his ribs as he ran. The fire died down
quickly, but he had lost sight of her and he changed direction rapidly and
randomly.
He found himself at the waterfront. He took no chances and dove in,
he could swim to the Bennington from here.
----------------------------------------
The men whisked away the metal covers from the plates they'd placed
before them. In front of Jeff was an odd sandwich, but in front of Nabiki,
Maya and Ritsuko was a riceball and a bowl of miso soup. Even the dried
seaweed was correct. The maitre d' gave Jeff a salute and moved off.
"Thanks Luigi," Jeff said.
"How did . . . ?" Then Nabiki was speechless. Maya was more
practical.
"Bean jam!" Maya said excitedly, showing the interior of the rice
ball her bite had exposed, to Nabiki.
"Oh, a magician never reveals his tricks," Jeff said airily.
"He probably sent a radio message ahead," Ritsuko said, sipped the
miso soup silently, Western-style. It was excellent.
"If you're going to reveal all my tricks . . ." Jeff grumped.
"I _do_ appreciate it," Ritsuko said. Maya's and Nabiki's mouths
were full.
"I saw and heard all the comments about the bad food. Luigi is the
best cook I've ever met. But I had to challenge him, and did he meet your
expectations?"
"Yes," Nabiki said, "I'm not ready to forgive you, but I have decided
not to kill you without Ritsuko's permission."
"Nabiki-chan!" Maya chided.
"Oh, I don't mind," Jeff said, "I didn't mean to erase . . . well, I
did want you to feel better." He was the shy little boy again. Ritsuko
wanted to hug him. She knew that it wasn't appropriate in the instance or
the circumstances. She knew what was acceptable in the situation. "Thank
you," Ritsuko told him in French. He nodded. The tension among the four
reduced significantly for the rest of the evening.
----------------------------------------
They walked home in the quiet. The last vestiges of twilight
illuminating the people just arriving to dine and party.
"Lost in thought?" Ritsuko asked her charges.
"Just wondering . . . why?" Nabiki stared at Jeff.
"All the questions about homesickness, the gripes about pretty good
food. I figured you could all use a taste of home. I was getting one,"
he replied.
"Still looking after us?" Maya teased.
"Well of course. You and Brown Bess are too young to be let out on
your own," Jeff replied, then had to run ahead to avoid a poking/tickling
attack by Nabiki.
"It's good to see them like this, Sempai," Maya said.
"Thinking about a course of action of your own?" Ritsuko asked.
"No, Sempai, I think the best course, is no course. Any decision we
make here will have a different meaning when we return to NERV. Major
Katsuragi would never allow it. I . . .I don't know if Commander Ikari
would allow it either."
"I don't think he would interfere," Ritsuko said as she picked up the
pace to pursue the two kids, who were yelling and carrying on like two
kids.
~At least he wouldn't with you and me,~ she thought. "The rest . . .
I don't know," she admitted.
----------------------------------------
And the sign flashed out it's warning, in the words that it was forming.
Aug 1, 1947
Boston P.D. was a professional, big-city department, no shortage of
war veterans meant most had seen quite a bit. Lieutenant Sullivan was
Irish, which in Boston meant he was a cop, so the joke went. He'd seen
action in the First World War, but even the WW2 vets hadn't seen this.
Some of the younger ones had lost their breakfasts down the hall.
Sullivan was covering his mouth with his handkerchief.
"Poor bastard," he said quietly of the victim. Harvard wasn't the
place for a murder, especially one this gruesome.
The NERV technician was looking at the body, he looked awfully young
to be so immured to death, especially one as violent as this. "Death was
by blunt force trauma, all this - " He indicated the dead man's viscera
spread all over the room. "Was done post mortem. Someone was extremely
angry."
"You want to sign the death certificate?" Sullivan asked, "Our
coroner took one look and went out to get some air."
"No, the Commonwealth pays him, so he works for them. Besides, I
have to tell NERV about this. You know who Sergeant Malkowitz's roommate,
until this March, was? One of the EVA pilots."
"Christ Almighty!" Sullivan swore, it would cost him a Hail Mary or
three but it was appropriate, "Do they know?"
"Unless you called them, no. They're probably going to go a little
nuts when they learn about this. Be ready for _lots_ of questions." The
man walked out of the room, removed the little slippers he'd worn over his
shoes to walk across the blood soaked floor. "And then be ready for the
fit to hit the shan."
Sullivan nodded, there was something creepy about a guy who could
look at this, and not swear.
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko charged up to the officer of the day. Her expression would
have made a veteran cower, the poor, brand-new O1 looked like he wondered
if she'd let him make out his last will and testament.
"What did the Sergeant of the Guard mean 'I can't find them.' _Both_
pilots signed out, I would have expected a company of troops to have been
following them!" Ritsuko said as reasonably as she could manage.
"We had no special orders regarding the pilots. It was probably just
an oversight," the man managed.
"Ensign," Ritsuko said calmly, mainly because being calm at times
like this scared people a lot more, "There are perhaps seven pilots in the
entire world, that we know of. Major ggreg was hauled out of the harbor
after tangling with something he couldn't deal with. He regularly dealt
with the entire Nazi Reich. Now they aren't expecting him to live. You
would think that should have triggered some restrictions on who gets on
and gets off this boat, wouldn't you?"
"I didn't have any orders, ma'am." The man nervously flipped through
the clipboard's contents.
~Probably hoping Nabiki and Jeff signed out _before_ they found
ggreg,~ Ritsuko thought. "What has been done about a searching party?
There are 1800 Marines on this boat," Ritsuko asked pointedly.
"I don't have that information." The ensign looked like he wanted to
crawl under his desk, or volunteer for an immediate combat assignment.
Getting shot at looked like a healthier situation than the one he was in
right now.
"Dismissed Ensign," Admiral Adams came up behind her. The Ensign
tried to break the land speed record while saluting as he left the office.
Adams closed the door behind the boy.
"There won't _be_ any search parties from this ship. The Marines
aren't carrying the requisite firepower." He handed her several manila
folders. "The Army is preparing to look for Miss Tendo. They've called
up an armored division, and we'll be putting back to sea with Unit 04
until the crisis is resolved."
Ritsuko stared at him, Adams didn't seem the kind to joke about
things like this. As she read the contents of the folders, she felt a
cold seeping through her. "Bastards," she whispered.
"No need to be so polite," Adams agreed.
----------------------------------------
Nabiki realized she'd made a mistake. Raccoon's descriptions of
Boston last night made her want to walk around its streets. So she'd
gotten a rare early start, and then just enjoyed walking and shopping.
The people she'd met had been friendly, if a little distracted. It
reminded her a little of Nerima, when the local populace realized a battle
was in the offing and had evacuation in the back of their minds, she
couldn't believe such an event was going to occur here.
She'd let herself forget that Raccoon had been known here and also
had friends in many places. He was also a WASP and male. Outside that
protective shell, she was a 'Jap', they were rare in the U.S. East Coast,
and while they had been defeated, there was still a war going on in
`their` country. This had been explained to her, usually at the top of
somebodies' lungs from a distance. She was beginning to regret not having
collected a couple of escorts. A couple of Marines would have been useful,
both in protecting her in the current circumstances, and preventing them
from occurring.
She decided _not_ to point out that as heavy as the casualties at
Pearl Harbor were, they were easily dwarfed by the losses from the
firestorming of Tokyo, of Yokohama, of Nagasaki, of nearly every
industrial city in southern and central Japan, or by the starvation and
disease that swept every island that followed the collapse of the Japanese
government and way of life. None of that was enough to offset the
'treacherous' tactics which 'everyone knew about'.
She thought Kuno or Ryoga would fit in perfectly, with their
prejudices. She was heading back to the carrier at her best walking speed
when she realized that she'd strayed too far off the beaten track, and
somehow the crowd had gotten in front of her as well.
~This is going to be a problem,~ she thought, ~I don't want to
abandon what I bought.~ The money was unimportant, the time and effort of
picking out the gifts and souvenirs, that she resented losing. She
glanced at the crowd in front. ~Unless it is absolutely necessary, which
is looking more and more likely,~ she thought, ~If I was Ranma I'd fight
my way out. And get reamed royally for doing it.~ She suspected that
Akane's anti-Hentai Horde techniques would work only until someone decided
firearms were the appropriate remedy.
~I hate retreating,~ she thought, ~But it's already my only option.~
The car that pulled up, blocking her, brought the decision from
eventually to right now. The tall, blonde woman climbed out of the sedan
and smoothly drew a pistol, fired into the air. "You have homes to go
back to," she told them in a no-nonsense tone, holding a badge over her
head, "I suggest you all do that." There was murmuring among the crowd,
but a good portion of it dispersed. The hot heads didn't like the odds so
well now.
"Get in Miss Tendo," the woman told her, pulling a different badge, a
NERV ID card, and showing it to her. The picture was the typical
unflattering one, the name was Lauren S.
"Thanks," Nabiki told Lauren, "I could have handled it, but I'm glad
I didn't have to." She gratefully got into the car with her parcels.
"Should I drop you at the carrier, or at Harvard?" Lauren asked,
winked at her. She knew Jeff's parents were at Harvard.
"The carrier I guess," Nabiki said, "I guess I shouldn't have
eschewed an escort. I can't go wherever I want."
"You might, in Frisco or Chicago, but not in the `civilized` East,"
she practically spat the word, "And especially not with what's been going
on. I'm surprised they didn't have a squad of Marines following your
every step."
"I didn't really tell anyone where I was going," Nabiki admitted.
"Miss Tendo, with all due respect, that was incredibly stupid," she
said as they drove away, "My dad is old enough to remember the signs 'dogs,
Irish and Niggers need not apply' for jobs and housing. The old Mayflower
crowd wants only the best, read WASPs, and Orientals are decidedly _not_
welcome. They don't even like the Welsh. So everybody has to have
someone to dump the shit they get, on someone else."
"My mom had me baptized Presbyterian," Nabiki said, "Would that
help?" Nabiki hung on tightly, Lauren seemed to have gone to the Misato
Katsuragi school of offensive driving.
"If it was stenciled on your forehead, maybe," Lauren told her,
taking turns with squealing tires.
"Thanks for the save then, a friend told me certain areas should have
been safe."
"The Irish and Italian areas I'll bet. They aren't quite so rigid,
and I'll bet your friend expected to go with you," Lauren said, seemingly
unaffected by the angry horns and near collisions, she drove like an
unstoppable force of nature. "Something's been stirring up things, mostly
at night, but everybody's on edge."
"Since you already guessed who it was," Nabiki said, she didn't like
games, the woman seemed to be trying to scare her with the driving and her
lack of reaction to it.
"I have an idea," Lauren said, "Tell him this is as bad as '45, and
to keep whoever he cares about under lock and key." They pulled into the
Navy Yard, Lauren did stop at the guard shack, and showed her ID, then
proceeded at posted speeds. Nabiki hadn't realized she was this close.
"Well, here's your stop. All a float who's going afloat," the woman
joked as Nabiki collected her parcels. "Oh, and if you see your friend,
tell him I'll be in the last place he'd ever look. I'm glad to have met
you, Miss Tendo. I never met another girl with no shadow before."
Before Nabiki could respond, the woman drove away. Nabiki stood for
a moment, staring at the car, wondering if she should deliver the message
or not.
"No shadow?" she asked, glanced at the sun over head, then straight
down. "Oh KAMIS!" she shouted as she stormed onto the carrier.
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko stared at the few technicians - ~Few _surviving_
technicians,~ she thought ruefully, ~The last ones cleared for the
complete Chicago project. Somebody has killed all the bosses, the last
one died last night.~
"It was never our intention to let it get this far," the Lead
technician, a nonentity called Jones, told her with a nervous laugh.
The old man had arrived at Ritsuko's cabin, as she'd been preparing
to leave to confront NERV Mass. about what was in the files Adams had let
her read. The man, a bird colonel chaplain, had given her a few more
sheets to read and keep. 'That's shocking fare, the boy might need to
know this, but I'll leave that to your judgement.' What she'd read had
horrified her.
Just mentioning the codewords that classified the reports had been
enough to arrange this meeting. Now she was confronting the NERV staff
survivors who were named in the reports. She could understand why someone
had been killing them, she just wondered why it had taken so long.
Ritsuko was sorely tempted to revert to her original form and tear these
malignant little men limb from limb, except she couldn't absorb their
thoughts, and she wanted answers far more than she wanted their blood.
"The effect was never intended to be used this way," Jones admitted,
the others nodded their agreement and whispered among themselves about how
this or that might have gone wrong. "We needed the weapons," Jones tried
to fill the stony silence Ritsuko was radiating.
~Once they're allowed to talk about it,~ she realized as she glared
at them, ~They're actually proud of what they've done.~ She wondered if
Gendo would be as disgusted as she was.
"So how were the thirty chosen, or was it two hundred?" she asked
coldly. She doubted Jeff had lied to her, with her memories it would have
been impossible, he was accurately reporting all he had found out. The
fact that what he had discovered was all a tissue of lies wasn't his fault.
"The total with the British and Commonwealth subjects it was closer
to 800. The U.S. was a larger area, allowing proper security."
"So what, the Wyoming base was where you kept them all? And what
happened to the others. 'Lost due to control issues' doesn't really
describe things now does it? The British officially lost six to EVA Unit
03, the American only had three and there is no official word on
'Commonwealth' pilots."
"As the report said, they mostly died in 1939. There was a revolt.
The subjects were always uncooperative, pressing the limits, well most of
them were. Some 30 stood against the revolt. All but the last nine were
killed. We were designing killing machines who feared nothing," Jones
said defensively, then wilted a bit under Ritsuko's stare, "Perhaps we
should have had more levels of control."
~Like Gendo has with Rei?~ Ritsuko thought, ~But she loves and
respects him. Is that something he earned, or was it programmed into her?
Gendo, you think you're a bastard, you don't even make the first cut.~
"They were good at it," Jones told his comrades, getting nods and
murmurs of agreement and approval, "But after killing all the other
`children` they'd grown up with, there were . . . well, behavioral
anomalies. If they were human, we'd call it shell shock, simple
malingering some said. So we erased their memories of the actual events."
He smiled. "We gave each one an interesting childhood, and one traumatic
memory to focus all their free floating guilt on," he said cheerfully,
"Then we placed them with trustworthy relatives of project members."
"Samuel?" Ritsuko couldn't say any more. Her own borrowed memories
of the event were too close, too raw.
"Made up out of whole cloth, I was particularly proud of the - subtle
- touches . . . "
Her stare silenced the man. "I assume Sharon Lauren had such a suite
of false memories."
"Well, of course," Jones said defensively, "We needed a failsafe in
case . . . well there was a repetition of the event of 1939. We also
established limiters to prevent that very occurrence."
"And just _who_ provided you with the information on these `limiters`,
and did it ever occur to you that they might have provided you with
something that they could reverse or sabotage at a later time?" she asked,
barely restraining her temper. ~I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that this is
the `Inspector's` work. Give these ivory tower idiots something they
wouldn't care about the consequences, because they had `safeguards`!~ she
thought in a fury, ~Did Gendo get the same deal? With Rei? With Shinji?
Or did he realize the other pilots and their needs were the layer of
safeguards we needed for Rei? Gendo, was that why you secretly lobbied
for Asuka and Jeff, and not Sharon and Anna? The ones with the more
deeply buried flaws? I owe you an apology Gendo, cold-blooded but not
cold-hearted.~ She glanced that the gossiping chickens around her. ~And
definitely not stupid,~ she thought.
"The limiters appear to have failed with Miss Lauren," Ritsuko said,
"How do we prevent a failure of Mister Davis's?" she asked coldly.
They chuckled. "I don't think there's any worry, after all, he
hasn't manifested an AT field outside an EVA or anything like that." More
general nervous laughter, all the more nervous because Ritsuko stared
stonefaced at them.
Ritsuko couldn't imagine how Gendo had managed to keep _that_ little
tidbit out of any reports back to these clowns. "I don't find any of this
the least bit funny. If you're through laughing at your cleverness, I
need information on what I can expect if our forces have to engage Sharon.
Will conventional weapons suffice. You certainly have to have had
experience in '39, you have to have considered it. Will the EVA be
necessary?" She noted how nervous and silent they all got. "Two . . .
_THREE_?_"
The men turned to stare at each other, whispering anxiously.
~Oh by all the gods and kamis!~ she thought in terror. "I'll have
the pilots man the EVA."
"No!" a different technician piped up, "That - that may not be a good
idea." He glanced around nervously before continuing, "It may be possible
for a subject without limiters to sync with an EVA . . . externally."
Ritsuko felt the world slipping away. It explained some of Jeff's
odd sync behavior. ~If he doesn't need to be physically present in a
cockpit to control an EVA . . . we already know a 400% sync rate would
bypass the need for batteries and external power,~ she thought, ~The only
protection is that the pilot would dissolve into the EVA. If a pilot
would be able to operate an independent EVA . . . I can barely imagine the
disaster _that_ could become.~ She wondered if that ability could also be
developed for the other pilots, then discarded the idea.
"What was the operation in Boston in '45?" Ritsuko asked, she had a
terrible feeling about this. The technicians looked at each other.
"There was some concern that the subjects were losing their
aggressive edge against their real enemies. Since a minor one was here in
Boston, a test was arranged," Jones told her.
~So you lured or invited Gendo here, maybe even wanted to see if your
'subjects' were a match for Rei,~ she thought, ~I'll have to ask Rei if it
was Jeff, Sharon, or circumstances that killed her.~ "What would have
happened if they lost?" Ritsuko asked, and was shocked at the surprised
looks.
"They wouldn't have," Jones said, "Either Davis or Lauren could have
taken it alone, together it would have been simplicity itself. But we did
have a battleship standing by if we needed it."
~And that makes it all right?~ she wanted to scream, ~So that's what
the inquiry is all about. If Misato knows anything about who helped her.
What would Jeff do if he realizes that it was all a test of him and his
allies? What will they do if they realize Nyarlathotep was probably
pulling _everyone's_ strings?~ She didn't let any of her emotions show.
"So, are you hoping Sharon and Jeff will destroy each other?" she
asked angrily and was horrified when no one denounced her statement
automatically. ~That's what they want. It would let them eliminate their
problems all at once. One goes nuts and their last problem dies honorably
to save the world,~ she thought, ~They expect to bury the whole thing.
Except they don't know the facts.~
"Unfortunately we don't have the pilots to spare. How do we stop
her?" Ritsuko demanded.
"We don't know," Jones admitted, "We thought the drugs we were giving
her would continue to prevent her from being a problem."
Again Ritsuko decided reverting to her true form and consuming all
these idiots was a bad idea. She might accidentally absorb some of their
stupidity. ~So why am I wasting my time talking to you?~ she wondered.
"Well, I need to rescue an EVA pilot from an insane monster, and you can
only tell me nothing will work?" No one answered her. She turned and
left, wondering what had they been thinking.
----------------------------------------
And the signs said, the words of the prophets are written on the subway
walls
Nabiki rushed through the carrier towards where the pilots and senior
staff were billeted. Maya, Ritsuko and Jeff, nobody knew where they were.
She could only pray one of them was in their quarters, or nearby. She
entered her cabin and found Belldandy waiting for her.
"I am glad you are well," Belldandy told her and smiled.
Nabiki considered asking her where she had been the last few days,
when she could have used someone to talk to, instead she had a more
important question. "Then maybe you'd like to tell me where my shadow
went," Nabiki replied harshly. Nabiki turned on the desk lamp, nothing
fell on the floor. Nabiki also wanted to know what had prevented her and
seemingly everyone else from noticing.
Belldandy paled, looked away.
"So it _is_ true!" Nabiki said in shock, "What did you do to me?"
"It wouldn't harm you," Belldandy told her, it clearly sounded lame
to her.
"Harm me, so what change _did_ you do, and for what ends?" Nabiki
considered dragging the woman to her feet and pummeling her to get the
truth. Akane wasn't the only Tendo who was capable of extreme violence
against the unresisting.
"No normal human can encounter these creatures and remain sane,"
Belldandy told her sadly, bowed her head, "I do apologize."
"What about the others?" Nabiki couldn't imagine where her anger had
suddenly disappeared to.
Belldandy only looked guiltily at the deck as she drywashed her hands.
"What about Ranma?" Nabiki demanded, desperation and cold fear ruled
her now.
"The neko-ken training gives him a level of resistance, his curse
also protects him. The three personae he uses dilute the effects, but you
have no such defense, so you touch the world only lightly."
Nabiki reeled back against the bulkhead. 'Touch the world only
lightly,' rang in her mind. "Is that why Ranma reacts to me that way?"
"When you . . . molest him?" If she was going to lecture Nabiki, the
glare she was getting silenced her.
"Yes, when I molest him," Nabiki said icily, her fury returned full
force.
Belldandy shivered as if the cold were real. "He, he doesn't . . .
doesn't connect with you as he does the others because . . . you . . . ."
Belldandy looked down at her active hands. "I'm sorry, but it was
necessary for your survival. And _your_ survival is necessary for his."
Nabiki wondered if the closeness she enjoyed with the others, was due
to the fact she didn't have a full effect on them. What she did really
didn't register, good and bad things. She hated being taken lightly, but
clearly this was what was happening. That it was done _to_her_ infuriated
her. "So, you adjust your agent fighting these Angels to enhance her
survival?" Nabiki asked. She remembered that Lauren had said 'Someone
else', someone else without a shadow. ~Was she another of their agents?
Was the girl a _failed_ agent and Tendo Nabiki was her replacement, and
Belldandy was the replacement to whoever Lauren's handler was?~
"She wanted to talk to Jeff, why?" Nabiki asked distantly.
"Who?" Belldandy asked, glad the subject had changed.
"Lauren S., a woman I met, one who pointed out my lack of shadow,"
Nabiki answered.
"Nabiki-chan," Belldandy said worriedly, "Lauren was Sharon Lauren,
the other American pilot."
Nabiki's mind raced. ~She was the pilot, did what they do cause her
to go insane when she linked with the EVA, or did that make her nuts
instead of dissolving like Jason? Why didn't I dissolve or go nuts? Did
they get the process right or did the others condition the EVAs so they
didn't do anything permanent to me?~ She glanced at Belldandy staring at
her with a mix of hope and dread. ~Did she know that might happen and
they didn't tell me . . . or did nobody tell _her_?_~
She narrowed her eyes and approached the girl. "You did all these
things so I wouldn't be hurt," Nabiki said sweetly, smiling the whole time,
at the same time restraining herself for grabbing the girl's fancy dress
and beating her against the bulkheads.
"Yes," Belldandy said, relaxing at the less menacing atmosphere.
"Well, guess what?" Nabiki smiled right in the girl's face.
"What?"
"You failed miserably," Nabiki said flatly, "Either you lied to me,
which is bad enough. Or you used me as a guinea pig without my approval,
and maybe without yours. So, after harming me worse than anything since
the death of my mother, which are you? A liar, unfeeling, or
incompetent?" Nabiki asked sweetly, while the girl cringed, then burst
into tears.
A sobbing pretty girl would have the desired effect on Ranma, maybe
even on Raccoon, but the Ice Queen was back. She wanted Raccoon in her
life, exactly as what was unimportant right now. And Sharon Lauren would
probably kill him when she found him. And _N_O_B_O_D_Y_ took anything
away Tendo Nabiki without her permission. And _anyone_ who tried was
asking to pay a terrible price. "You - _owe_ - me!" Nabiki said calmly,
"I want to know everything you know about what Sharon Lauren is, and what
I'll need to beat her, and if it will take Unit 04, I want to know that
part right _now_."
The girl had been squirming and sobbing the entire time Nabiki had
been naming her conditions.
"I can't tell you all that," she said weakly.
"Then I'll think of something to permit you to make up for what you
owe," Nabiki said reasonably, "After you tell me
_ab_-_so_-_lute_-_ly_everything_ you can think of that will be of use.
And if you are thinking of doing something foolish like erasing my
memory . . . you'd better do a _very_ complete job, and find all the
places I've written it down."
She looked straight into Belldandy's eyes. "Or I will be very, very,
very angry," with each word she dropped the pitch and the temperature.
Belldandy visibly retreated into the chair from the smiling girl.
----------------------------------------
Belldandy had been warned the girl was dangerous, likewise they had
explained that her avariciousness would be necessary to stave off a
disaster. 'Grab hold and hang on like a snapping turtle.' She did agree
with Tendo Nabiki on one point, she wished someone, anyone would explain
why she had to do these things. Especially the orders to come here, those
were the most frightening. They hadn't come from Kami-Sama, but directly
from the One Above. The Archangels had occasional contact with . . . but
never one of her low station. The message had warned her that Tendo-san
would react exactly as she was reacting, with insults and threats, and
every intention of carrying them out. And that regarding what information
to pass along, Belldandy was to 'use your best discretion'. Her tears
were not entirely due to the hurtful things Nabiki was saying about her,
but her frustration over not knowing what to do at such a critical time.
So much was in the balance.
Nabiki was deciding which enemy to destroy, Belldandy desperately
hoped she wasn't to become that enemy.
"There is nothing you can do to stop the girl, even with Unit 04.
Only Jeffrey can stop her, and he will," Belldandy said quietly, "Bringing
the EVA in, could be very dangerous."
"Why?" Nabiki was trying to hide her fear. Belldandy only saw it
because her own fear mirrored Tendo-san's.
"It may be possible for her to usurp control from an . . . "
Belldandy glanced at her. "From an inexperienced pilot."
Nabiki was clearly staggered by the possibility. "Someone could
control an EVA without being inside it . . . I heard stories about Unit 01,
experienced it." She shook her head and took a deep breath. "That's a
long way from active control. What about our enemies?" Nabiki asked,
retreating fully into the `Ice Queen` persona, to cover her horror and
dread.
"The pilots are the only ones who can interface with the EVAs,"
Belldandy said miserably, "We think."
"You don't _KNOW_?_!_ You work for _GOD_!_" Tendo-san shouted.
"He doesn't tell us everything," she replied quietly. ~Like why I
have to do this,~ she lamented silently. "It has never come up,"
Belldandy explained.
"Very well," Nabiki said coldly, "What you did to me, and what did
you do to Ranma?"
Belldandy sighed, she was tempted to tell Tendo-san everything she
knew and perhaps the two of them could make sense of it.
----------------------------------------
And tenement halls.
Nabiki felt the cold fire of deep betrayal. She'd been granted the
wish, supposedly, allowed to come here. But unlike Ranma, she wasn't
really part of this world. Little would change her as it changed the
others. It would be easy for her to slip back `home` when she was done.
Abandon Ranma, Rit-chan, Raccoon, Asuka, etc. to their inhuman fate.
~Once the job is done,~ she considered coldly, ~I was never meant to
stay, I could look after him, but never marry him, have his children, grow
old with him.~ She made the sadness turn to anger.
Her deal with Raccoon, about connecting her with Ranma, was so much
ash now. She'd watched Ranko carry on and get closer to Raccoon. If
things remained the way they were, those two would marry and raise kids,
and while Nabiki would definitely be welcome, in their home, in their
relationship, but she wouldn't really be a part of it.
She decided, she didn't want to be an outsider. Not anymore, not
with Ranma, raccoon, Rit-chan, not even Gendo and Admiral Simson.
Belldandy would `arrange` things so Nabiki would stay, and the girl would
find a way that Nabiki wouldn't need the `outsideness` to protect her, and
Nabiki did not _care_ how. The others had welcomed her in, as long as
they were willing to do that, not 'Touching the world lightly,' allowed
her to maintain and strengthen that connection. But the connections would
no longer be so ephemeral, they wouldn't fade, the good and the bad things.
She would have to be on her best behavior for a while.
She had to find Ritsuko, maybe together with Raccoon, they could deal
with Sharon. She was headed for the gangway to get off the carrier.
"Where is Doctor Akagi?" Nabiki asked the O.O.D., Officer of the Day,
a pale ensign who had suddenly grown a good deal paler.
"Mmmmmmmiss Tendo, Iiiiii, I'm afffraid Iii caaaan't let you leave,"
the ensign told her, "We're caaaasting off,"
Nabiki leaned closer, smiled. "Where - is - Doc - tor - Akagi?"
Nabiki repeated her question.
"NERV HQ, Cambridge," the ensign said, too terrified to be afraid.
Nabiki turned away from the gangway she'd used to leave earlier. The
Marines who fell in behind her were a liability now. Her target was the
deck edge lift. She wasn't Ranma, but she wasn't porcelain either.
"Miss Tendo." Chief Cole was running across the hanger towards her.
"Please step away, we're getting underway."
"Follow when you can," she called back and leapt off the lift to the
concrete pier 10 to 15 meters below. She stood stared at the amazed
Marines and sailors clustered on the lift. She turned back and marched
off.
----------------------------------------
"Is this the only way?" the voice asked, nearly scaring Jeff off the
rail car.
He recognized the voice, but he wasn't going to deal with it: the
same thing he'd confronted outside Rei's apartment. He steadfastly
continued his preparations.
"If you care for her, this won't be necessary."
"You prepare for what _may_ happen," Jeff replied as he climbed down
the ladder to the ground. She was at the bottom of the ladder of course,
blocking his way. "Don't you have someone else to pester, or am I
particularly entertaining?" He stepped around her and began cranking the
pump.
"I am here to help you. We are not your enemy."
"Pull the other one, it's got bells on, dandy thing too," he told her
as he cranked, examining the piled stones for any signs that might betray
what he was doing.
"This is not the only way."
"Look, you want to try the 'Peace, Love and Brown Rice' method, stick
around. It'll be interesting watching you get your head handed to you."
"She does not trust us." The girl hung her head and turned away. It
was an excellent attempt to engender sympathy, but Jeff knew a trick when
he saw one.
"Huh," Jeff said, "Imagine that? Maybe she's not as nuts as I
thought. Or maybe if I kill her, either your lot or the other bunch will
have to deal with her." ~If we even _have_ souls,~ he added silently, he
could feel her, searching for him, her anger growing, ~Just like the Great
Old One Brown Bess encountered. I wonder if I'll be in any condition to
scream when this is over, curse or not, not withstanding.~
----------------------------------------
Maya was waiting for her beside an Army 6x6 truck outside NERV Mass.
Ritsuko marched for the truck, Maya pulled the cover off the back. Inside
the bed were bazookas, heavy machine guns, and flamethrowers. The rest of
the 2.5 ton load was ammunition.
"You heard?" Ritsuko asked as Maya reclosed the cover.
"I heard what Major ggreg described, and I've read Jeff journals,"
she jogged for the cab, to open the door for her Sempai. "The only thing
she's afraid of is fire." In the cab were six double-barreled shotguns in
a rack between the driver and the passenger positions. "Jeff's parents
had these prepared for him . . . in case it was Sharon."
Ritsuko wanted to tell her the truth, but decided not to. "You drive,
if I have to shoot. I'll take shotgun." Ritsuko slid over to the
passenger side.
"Nabiki-chan left the carrier, told the Marines to follow when they
can. Admiral Adams has ordered her arrest," Maya said as she climbed in.
"He's just covering himself." Ritsuko broke open one shotgun,
removed and shook the shells. It seemed like such a pathetic thing to use
against something that might be as powerful as an Angel. "And we can't
use the EVA against it."
"What!?" Maya exclaimed as she drove on the correct side of the road.
"Don't ask questions you really don't want the answers for." She
glanced back into the truck bed. "Does that radio work?"
"Yes, Sempai."
"Let's find `Brown Bess`, I hope you two won't have to prove your
training in fire arms."
Maya only nodded and concentrated on the road.
----------------------------------------
Jeff tossed the barrels of diesel fuel and the feed line aside. He'd
emptied the dozen barrels into the two fertilizer filled hopper cars. He
wished there was more, he wished that he could use something better than
gravity and time to mix the material. He prayed she wouldn't spot the
dynamite, or the wires. There was some time to get up to the water tank
so he checked that the three sticks of dynamite, the booster caps were all
in place, and the wires were all buried in the railroad roadbed, and that
all of them were hard to spot. The barrels just looked like a fuel dump.
He climbed the ladder to the water tower and waited.
She would be able to feel him, she'd find him fairly soon. His only
advantage, was that he'd know she was coming before she knew exactly where
he was. Experience versus raw power. He actually hoped the silly angel's
approach worked, Sharon would be a valuable asset, and could be a good
friend. But he wasn't willing to stake millions of lives on an angel's
delusions.
~Besides,~ he thought morosely, ~She'd be angry if I didn't take her
seriously. Is 30 to 40 tons of TNT equivalent serious enough?~
----------------------------------------
Sharon advanced across the small switch yard for the farm products
warehouse. She had tracked him here. She scanned the railcars, he could
be hiding with a rifle or a bazooka behind any of them. She actually
suspected the small switch engine at the end of a long empty section of
track would be his favored weapon. If he really understood what she'd
become, that would be the minimum necessary to harm her. But she saw no
smoke and heard only the distant traffic. She still dashed across that
particular track.
"I wanted to talk to you away from the others."
She heard his voice and she headed in that direction. "You always
did talk when you should have been fighting, that's why I'll beat you,"
she shouted back.
"I am curious, it is a failing at times."
The voice, his voice, drew her forward. She would catch him while he
blathered. "You really don't understand what you and I are." She kept
searching for the source.
"I have an idea." His voice was so infuriatingly calm, he always
thought he was in control.
"You don't realize what they kept from us, what we are being used
for."
"On the contrary, I know. The EVAs and the pilots, they're the same."
"Except they really didn't understand what we'd become. They have
such plans," she said disdainfully.
----------------------------------------
And whisper'd in the sounds of silence
"You can escape their plans." Jeff covered his face as that
ludicrous angel he'd encountered outside Rei's apartment, stood atop the
hopper cars and spouted platitudes.
Sharon sprinted, at high but human speed, across the distance and
sprang atop the hopper.
"What are you?" Sharon asked as she peered closely at the angel, "You
aren't one of us, you aren't human!" Sharon circled this girl-looking
angel.
Jeff wanted to warn her, but he'd let her draw Sharon out. Maybe
Sharon had gotten her vengeance and could be negotiated with. Failing
that, she was exactly where Jeff needed her to be.
"I serve the Lord," the girl laughed nervously.
"A nun?!" Sharon laughed back, "Well run away little nun, this is not
for you."
"I cannot abandon a lost soul. What we did - "
Sharon's laugh interrupted her. Jeff shook his head, the angel
didn't seem to understand evil or insanity.
"A lost soul, my soul never existed . . . you're one of them," she
added in horror, backing away from the girl, "You let them make us without
souls! Your kind promised you could help me. But when I needed you,
where were you? Where was your precious God when they had me in a cell
filling me with drugs to test their new `restraint`? Where were you while
I hallucinated my . . . ?" Sharon touched her never pregnant belly and
fell silent, stared at the girl. "I know where you were, you'd already
picked out my replacement. Nice girl, but she knows the truth, the truth
about you and your kind. She knows now she isn't 'big picture', just a
mushroom like the rest of us. Except I'm not your mushroom anymore. I
don't have to worry about your God, your threats of damnation don't apply
to me, only Humans have souls."
"All have souls," the girl tried to sound reasonable, "You haven't
lacked one, you've just gone astray we . . . "
"Had to let them torture me, so I'd fall in line? And they sent you
instead of the other one. Why, so you could admit you lost me because of
a filing error? If you're really from Heaven you'd have to be perfect,
you wouldn't lose files." Sharon seemed on the verge of violence, the
girl seemed not to have noticed. Then Sharon gathered herself in. "I was
started out wrong. I'm a monster, they wanted monsters. The sin of Cain?
How about multiplied a hundred times? We tore their beating hearts from
their bodies and reveled in the carnage!" Sharon shouted at the girl.
"Now they want us to kill each other, the last two. How's that for
parental love, for a reward for our patriotism?" She turned to look
around. "Are you there? Too shocked to speak?"
"He is here, he is listening," the girl responded, "He believes you
can be saved."
Sharon smiled. "Why would I want that?" she asked, stood with her
arms open wide, "Why don't you kill me if you can see me? Why don't you
try? Why don't you show yourself? Are you shy? Are you afraid of me?
Worried about how I might react after being separated for so long?"
"I'm here, and I am listening," Jeff called, still concealing himself.
"Maybe I should prove I'm serious!" Sharon called, faced the girl.
~Get out of there!~ Jeff silently urged, but he knew she either
couldn't or wouldn't listen.
The girl never expected the blow, Sharon tore the girl's head from
her shoulders, preserving the look of surprise and disappointment on her
face. The body and head vanished before they hit the ground.
"We're alone now," Sharon told the empty surroundings, "No more
gadflies, no more distractions!"
"Why did you kill Malkowitz? He couldn't have harmed you."
"Why should I care?" Sharon answered, "He wouldn't tell me what I
asked. Besides, he was working for them. Didn't you know?"
"Did it occur that he didn't know?" Jeff asked.
"He knew, his job was to track your `progress`. He was spying on you
for them, the doctors." She paused. "I'm not paranoid! I made them tell
me. Over and over it was the same story. Do you know what they had in
mind for us? For all of us? We weren't to be forever, but we could have
been, and that scared them. We could go on forever! We threatened their
plans to move humanity to the next step, as if everything we've done in
the past half million years were nothing. 'No changes in 50,000 years',
as if evolution worked like that. We weren't to be the next step, just a
means, a rung, to reach it. I decided not to be part of that, even the
gods would marvel at what we could become." "They've already achieved
the next step," Jeff replied, showing himself for the first time, "All
your wishes won't change that. As for the gods, who needs their
admiration? We're weapons, plain and simple. There's nothing
dishonorable or demeaning about that. We serve, do what's needed instead
of what's ordered, and then we get out of the way. Humanity doesn't need
us cluttering the stage either, they'll have enough competition."
"Ha. You think I care. This place is an anthill, a dung pile for
people like us. We could soar above and beyond them until they'd never
see us again," Sharon shouted, spittle collecting at the corners of her
mouth. "But they couldn't allow that, couldn't have any more competitors,
they were to be the _only_ gods."
"One God, the old dream of Babel, one race all under one goal. We
were to clear the field for them. So no, you aren't paranoid, but you are
wrong. The doctors and the other humans weren't the ones who were driving
things. Stepping aside isn't the same as dying. There are places to go,
places - _people_ - like us would be welcome. Places that would need
people like us. We could fight - "
"Nyarlathotep?" Sharon sneered, "That fool thought he could _control_
us through those idiots and their lies. We'll break him too. Antarctica
is the key. None of the others dare go there. So they ready their pawns.
But we would be like knights, go and do as we will."
"The Elder Things city there has many secrets," Jeff admitted, he was
glad she seemed willing to remain atop the hopper cars. ~Maybe it's the
height difference,~ he thought, ~Atop the hoppers, she's `taller` than
me.~ "But the Crawling Chaos doesn't _give_ presents, unless they're
poison. For the body, mind, or soul. Whatever he told you can't be
trusted. And how does doing a little service for our creators harm us.
It buys time and training to master what we are."
"What I have - I _took_, I didn't bargain, negotiate or beg! That's
_your_ way!" she told him disdainfully, "And I did check to make sure it
is all true. What you do with the EVAs, I don't need them. All those
enemies you've killed, I could kill without them. I can take what I wish
and none dare resist me!"
"Misquoting Tolkien, I guess you steal what you like," Jeff replied,
"Did it ever occur to you that we were meant for more than that? That
there might be a higher purpose?"
"What could be higher than apotheosis?" Sharon asked, "The angels
can't be trusted."
"You're preaching to the choir on that one," Jeff replied, "But God
didn't create humans to be angels, and _we_ aren't supposed to be humans.
As for apotheosis, I don't relish becoming one of those oversexed
parasites in bed sheets. No kings and no other gods before me."
"Then maybe you'd like to know what your girl friend is doing, she's
working for them, maybe Ranma Saotome too. It seems they want us to be
under their control too. Fancy being their lapdog? I was, and what did
it get me? Betrayal, imprisonment, chemically-induced madness."
"You killed all those scientists of your own free will," Jeff
countered, "If you're going to be a god, a little understanding of human
weakness - "
"Such an attitude," she scoffed, "You'd never be a good soldier. The
first thing you need is obedience, and to make your enemies fear you.
That's what a soldier needs."
"A soldier needs to remember what he's defending, and not become the
enemy," Jeff replied calmly.
"Those are the thoughts of a weakling," she told him, "Once you'd
tasted blood, I thought you would have grown up."
"I did." He shoved the plunger down, heard the whirl of the dynamo
inside.
----------------------------------------
Nabiki stared out the windshield of the truck. The column of smoke
was reaching up towards the doughnut-shaped annulus. "Atom bomb," she
whispered in a horrified voice, the fear of that image had long been
drummed into her, and nearly every Japanese of her generation. The idea
Jeff would even consider using one, would _need_ to use one against Sharon.
Or that Sharon had used one against Jeff, and didn't care about the
consequences . . . Nabiki didn't want to think about it.
"No," Ritsuko said coldly as she drove the truck. "Any sufficiently
large explosion will create that pattern."
"Sempai," Maya asked from between them, "How large is 'sufficiently
large'?"
"I don't know."
Nabiki now worried that 'sufficiently large' might not be large
enough. She dreaded the idea of facing the girl alone. There were
weapons in the back of the truck, the truck itself was a formidable weapon.
~But would any of it be enough?~ she asked herself, ~Or did he succeed.
Carried out the plan the others wanted, destroyed each other?~ That
thought was almost worse than the other two possibilities.