Uh... well, I know I
said I'd write comedy or WAFF or an omake, but... I sat down and accidentally an update. Me sorry.
Also, Strypgia take as much time as you need to.
How soon is now?
Art!
Chapter 11.21
Cards On The Table
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Rei's stare remained locked on Misato as she edged closer to Kaworu, putting herself between him and the Operations Manager. She kept her hand raised, the humming orange AT-Field staying up, lighting the room.
Misato shook her head slowly, trying to reject what she was seeing. "No... no, not you too, Rei. Not you too..." she whispered, her gun still raised. It now pointed right at Rei's heart. It trembled minutely.
The door to Asuka and Shinji's room slammed open and a furious Second Child rocketed out. "OK, YOU SON OF A-" She cut off and skidded to a halt as she saw the frozen tableau in the living room. "...Scheiße." Asuka lowered the aluminium crutch she had run in with, ready to unleash it on another SEELE gunman. "This isn't how we wanted to tell you, Misato."
Misato's ashen face swung from Rei to Asuka. "...you
KNEW?"
"That talk Rei and I had last night," Asuka admitted. "You can see why I wanted to talk to Shinji and Kaworu before we broke it to you? Because we knew you would... not take it well." She threw a glare at the Fifth Child. "We
told you not to do this, idiot."
Kaworu shrugged slightly. "I admit, I did not expect Major Katsuragi to
immediately try to shoot me, but-" He waved at the standoff in front of him.
"Asuka, he's an
Angel," Misato growled through clenched teeth. "And... Rei?"
"She's... not exactly an Angel, Misato. She's something... else," Asuka tried. It did not seem to pacify the Major.
Misato's gun had not moved. Neither had Rei. No one did until the rattle of an IV stand rolling across the floor broke the silence. "Misato-san, I would appreciate it if you stopped pointing your gun at my friends," Shinji said, fatigue oozing from his voice.
Misato darted a look at Shinji before focusing back on Rei. "Shinji, he's not your friend. He's an Angel. Our enemy."
"He is
not our enemy," Shinji replied. He wearily advanced into the room, putting himself in front of Rei, facing right into Misato's gun from almost arm's reach. He closed his eyes for a moment and sagged against the IV stand before taking a deep breath and standing up straight again. "He is my friend. My teammate in combat. And more than that, he loves me, just like Rei and Asuka. I am not going to abandon someone who says that to me and means it. It doesn't matter he's an Angel. He's not like the others. He doesn't want to fight us."
"Whoa, hey, none of that, baka!" Asuka protested. She squeezed in front of him, interposing herself between Misato's gun and her boyfriend. "I told you,
no more getting shot."
Kaworu's head swiveled towards the kitchen and the entrance hall to the door. Rei did not break her stare. "There are several Section Two Agents approaching the door to this apartment. I think someone should intercept them before they-"
Asuka was already moving. She spared one second to glare at Misato on her way, then sprinted to the entry hall just a second before the pounding on the door started. Asuka scowled and pressed the 'open' button on the frame.
"Major Katsuragi! One of our-Oh... ah, Second Child. One of our sniper teams saw a sudden flash in here that appeared like a possible gunshot. Is everything alright?" The black-suited agent looked suddenly uncertain. Asuka did not look like someone fleeing a shot. She looked like she was about to punch the much taller man.
Asuka gave him her best 'fick dich und geh sterben' glare and growled, "If someone had been shooting at anyone in this apartment, I think I'd know all about it,
especially after today. We just had a bulb blow out when Misato flipped a switch. It's nothing. Now go away and let us sleep. My boyfriend has had a shitty week, and you clowns aren't helping by banging on the door this late." She crossed her arms and practically dared him to do anything but slink away.
He looked around Asuka and stuck his head in the doorway to peer down the short entry hall. The shadowed silence and lack of screaming or more gunshots coming from around the corner that cut off his line of sight seemed to satisfy him. "Sorry to bother you. Goodnight," he said curtly, and stepped back.
Asuka darted her hand towards the 'close' button as fast as she could, but the automatic safties wouldn't allow her to catch his head in the door in any case. She let herself have one second to slump in shaky relief against the inside of the door before slapping the 'LOCK' button and running back to the living room. No one had moved. So she slipped right back into where she'd been standing, between Shinji and a gun.
A gentle hand on her shoulder moved her slightly to the side to let Shinji face Misato directly. "Please put the gun down, Misato-san," Shinji said gently. "Kaworu is not our enemy."
"Shinji,
he's an Angel," she repeated. "He
has to die. It's the only way to end this war."
"I will
not permit you to harm him, Major," Rei said flatly. The hum of the AT-Field between the Pilots and Misato that she had let fade when the door was opened resumed and got a little louder.
"If I die, it would guarantee I do not-" Kaworu began.
Rei snapped her other hand out at him to furiously point at him with one delicate finger. "
You shut up!" she snapped. "I love you, you idiot, and I am not going to let you die while there's anything we can do about it! So none of that!" She kept her eyes on Misato.
Kaworu blinked at the sharply pointing digit, then gave Rei a heartbreakingly sad smile. "I love you too," he said wistfully. He shook his head, then looked thoughtful for a moment. He turned his eyes to Misato. "I surrender."
Rei turned around to look at Kaworu. "What?"
Shinji turned his head far enough to look at the Fifth Child as well. "What?"
Asuka blinked. "Was?"
Misato's hands gripping the pistol lost a fraction of their white-knuckle tension. "What?"
"I surrender. I yield. The war is over," Kaworu said. "And you don't shoot prisoners, do you, Major? I ask to be remanded to Rei's custody. She can control me if anything happens."
"You can't just-" Misato sputtered.
Shinji started to smile. "Who says he can't?"
"He's still an
Angel!" Misato insisted. "He's a lethal threat to the entire world just by being here! You know what your mother told us! Angels will be drawn to the Geofront and try to end the world!"
"Well, I
am rather drawn to Lilith..." Kaworu said with a small smile of his own.
"Not
now, stupid fish!"
"You must be hungry, Misato-san," Shinji said suddenly. "Can I make you something to eat before bed?"
Misato blinked again and looked Shinji in the eye for the first time. "I...what? Shinji, we are-"
"He's surrendered, Misato-san," Shinji said firmly. "You are not going to shoot him. Because that's not war anymore. That's murder. And you are not a murderer. So I will make you something to eat and we will talk about everything Rei and Kaworu were afraid to tell us before. Why they were afraid should be obvious now."
He stepped forward, gently moving Asuka out of the way and then Rei. He stopped with his chest less than three centimeters from the barrel of Misato's pistol. "And I'm not moving otherwise. You want to kill my friend, you'll have to kill me too."
A bead of sweat rolled down Misato's temple and along the side of her neck. "Shinji,
please move-"
"Baka, you get the
Hell back from there, or-" Asuka began tightly.
Shinji just put his hand back to her and curled his fingers. "Asuka, you still have them in your pocket, yes? Can you hand me one?"
Asuka looked uncertain. "I... I do, but... are you sure about this, Shinji?"
Shinji's gaze never left Misato's face. "Yes. Misato wants revenge for her father, but she's not a heartless killer. She wants to protect us and avenge his death on the ones responsible. Kaworu may be an Angel, he may be a threat... but he's not guilty. SEELE sent Doctor Katsuragi to die, not him. Misato-san knows that."
Asuka bit her lip worriedly for a moment, but dug into her skirt pocket. She pulled out one red-tipped bullet and put it in Shinji's hand. "I hope you know what you're doing, Liebling."
Shinji took the bullet and held it up to Misato. "You know regular bullets won't get through. This is what SEELE tried to kill him with today and yesterday. If you truly want to kill him, you'll have to use this. But you'll have to take it from my hand. And shoot me too." He swallowed, betraying his calm mask. "Or I can make you dinner, and we can talk about how we're all going to live through this and save everyone."
Misato's left hand let go of the gun and reached forward slowly. She took the bullet from Shinji's palm. She mechanically ejected the magazine from her pistol, loaded the new bullet into the top, inserted it back into the gun and racked the slide. The tiny
pit-pat of the ejected round hitting the floor of the living room was louder than anything she'd ever heard. She raised the gun again with glacial speed. It shook as it came level. "Shinji..."
Silently, Asuka stepped up right behind him, putting her arms around him. She put her chin on his shoulder and closed her eyes. They breathed together.
Rei was frozen behind them. She'd let the AT-Field fade once Shinji had gotten too close to keep it up, but was poised to snap it back into place in an instant.
Kaworu slowly stood and stepped just behind her. He just stared at his friends' back, enrapt. "They... they're so beautiful. I... I've never seen something so pure..." he whispered to Rei. She just nodded.
"Kaworu isn't the one you want. That's SEELE. You know the difference. He's fought beside us for months. If he wanted to hurt us, he could have a hundred times already," Shinji said, likewise closing his eyes. "I trust you, Misato-san. Please trust me. What do you want for dinner?"
Silence rang for thirty seconds before Misato hoarsely said, "J-just some ramen and a beer. Please."
She lowered her gun.
Shinji and Asuka opened their eyes. They took a deep, relieved breath in unison before Asuka let go of him. She tapped him on the head. "You stay put, baka mine. In fact, you and the fish go sit down. You're supposed to be resting. I'll handle food." She whispered something else into his ear, then headed to the kitchen, with several backwards glances at Misato.
Misato looked at Kaworu, who had carefully taken Rei's left hand. Rei's right was still raised defensively towards Misato. She slowly let it drop, but kept staring at the Operations Director. "I have more reason to want him dead than anyone else in the world, Major Katsuragi. And I refuse to kill him if there is any other way," the First Child said rigidly. "Please listen to Shinji's proposal."
Misato slowly shook her head. "Rei," she rasped. She coughed and cleared her throat. "Rei, if... if he's an Angel, what are you?"
"I am Lilith. I am the source of all life on Earth, sent to seed this world billions of years ago. He is my opposite. Another Seed. We were never meant to be here together. Though I would have wished it if we were not."
".......what?"
"Misato-san, you are not going to believe how things got this way," Shinji said wearily. He sank gingerly onto one of the beanbags, dragging his IV stand closer as he sat. He patted one next to him and waved Kaworu closer. "But I think you will understand it." He nodded tiredly at Rei.
Rei pursed her lips, but nodded, and sat down on the floor next to Kaworu, still holding his hand. "We were the first. There were no others," she began once more.
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