So, the following is not a passive-aggressive "what's taking so long?" kind of thing, but a genuine, sincere, worried question brought about by how long it's been since I remember last seeing him even show up in this thread:
Is Strypgia still alive?
As alive as I can be.
Hi everyone. Sorry for the long silence. Life just decided 'you don't get spare time anymore', and I've been more or less off SV entirely for most of a year. SB is not blocked at work, so I may start posting first there, though I'm not going to leave all you folks here entirely.
Is he back in the military? Last I recalled, he'd been discharged (honorably, hopefully) and he was in the middle of civilian life and raising his kids.
Honorable discharge a while ago, yes. Military contractor at one of the three-letter-agencies these days. Not deploying anymore, for better or worse. Better: safer. Worse: not nearly as well-paid.
I have a question in regards to the setting of Advice and Trust as well as its spin offs. How would Asuka and Shinji celebrate Mothers Day?
At this point, wheedle whatever excuse they could out of Misato and Ritsuko for a 'Synch Test' that let them sit in their Evas for as long as they could get away with. Not that Misato or Ritsuko would say a word against it by now. A nice present and favorite meal for Misato would probably happen too. Like so:
Ok, back to the show?
We left off
almost a year ago, here, Backstage:
"Better living through chemistry, man." Gendo pulled a plastic bag of mushrooms out of his jacket pocket and downed most of it in one gulp. He passed the rest to Rei, who emptied the bag before folding into a giggling ball at the foot of Gendo's desk, away from the camera. "Ahhh, that's the shit. Go time!"
The cheery, friendly demeanor everyone associated with the world's most popular Best Dad fell away, and a forbidding air of cold indifference settled over him. "Ready," Gendo Ikari said grimly.
Even the Director shivered. "God, that's creepy. Rei, you ready too?"
A pale arm came up from behind the desk and gave a thumbs up.
The Director sighed. "Alright, fine. Misato, you ready? Good? Cue Ritsuko. Action!"
Gah. Part of the delay was new job not giving me writing time, and part of it was this scene took
months thanks to it being both a scene where I had to get into Gendo's head again, which I hate, and because this was a big one. I pecked at it for months, but never felt fully satisfied with it. But the betas approved and I'm just not willing to make it even more than a full year between canon updates, so here we go. Gendo has summoned Misato and friends to his office, SEELE is on the move, and the JSSDF may be mobilized already.
Yes, this is a for real canon new scene. A&T is still alive.
Here's 3000 words of the confrontation we've all been waiting for: Misato and Gendo face off, no more games.
Art? But of course.
Chapter 12.6
Götterdämmerung
+++
Misato's expression clouded a bit as she exited the elevator on the Commander's floor of the NERV pyramid. Doctor Akagi was coming out of the one next to hers. She was still not very pleased with what she now knew her old roommate had been up to for the last five years.
"Doctor Akagi," she growled. Then she blinked as a thought struck her. "Is Rei going to be alright alone down in your lair right now?"
Ritsuko fell into step with her as they headed down the hall to Commander Ikari's office. She shrugged. "The master calls, we come. Whatever it is, it's urgent enough he called me to come up from the lab right the heck now. I assume you got the same call?"
Misato nodded. She opened her mouth to respond, but the bing of the next elevator arriving behind them interrupted her. A glance over her shoulder at who else might be arriving with them at this appointment revealed her fiancé. She couldn't stop the smile that sprang to her face. It took a moment of internal wrestling to convert her happy squeal into a more professional greeting. "Kaji. Good to see you. You too?"
He gave her one of his trademark sloppy grins and nodded. "And I've got more not-so-great news to share about our friends at the Ministry of Defense, too. I wonder if it's related to whatever has Commander Ikari calling us all here so suddenly."
Misato frowned lightly. "Same. Let's find out, then."
Kaji gave a brief chuckle. "Just like college, the three of us making a big entrance at the best parties."
"Oh, shush."
The doors to Commander Ikari's office swung open silently as they approached, revealing the Commander at his desk, at the far end of his strangely enormous office. The Commander just stared at them as they came to a stop well back from his desk, the lenses of his glasses a blank, obscuring glow over his folded hands.
"Tensions with parties hostile to NERV in the Human Instrumentality Committee have come to a head," he began without preamble. "We should expect direct action from them very soon, likely through the Japanese government at their direction. Military action is a high possibility."
Misato's jaw tightened. Shinji's text message about his friend's discovery was even more disquieting now. She darted a quick glance at Kaji, then spoke up. "Sir, I may have something to corroborate that."
Commander Ikari's glowing lenses stared at her. "Proceed."
+++
Rei was so deep in pleasant memories of kissing and holding her loves and anticipation of resuming such at next opportunity it took her a while before she noticed the change to her immediate surroundings. The LCL of the cylinder kept flowing by as before, but had picked up a tiny new hum. The flow did buffer her senses a little, but she should not have been so distracted to miss someone entering the lab. But the hum of a new soul was just outside the tube, bumping against her AT-Field.
She slowly opened her eyes to behold Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki bent over the console where Doctor Akagi had been before, peering at the displays. His hands were on the keyboard, occasionally tapping out a command.
He eventually sighed and stood up. His eyes widened in surprise when they met Rei's. "Ayanami-san. I did not expect you to be awake. Doctor Akagi was given instructions."
Rei's first impulse to ask why he was making one of his infrequent visits down here died before reaching her lips. The Vice-Commander had spent little time down this far in the Geofront once the Evas had been built, preferring to do what scientific work he still found time for at labs within the Headquarters pyramid itself. But his face was oddly blank this time. No, not blank. It still had the usual faint look of worried concern it often did when he looked at the First Child, but this time there was something else as well. Resignation?
"This would probably be easier if you were asleep. Though I suppose this gives me opportunity for one last, futile apology. I'm sorry it had to be like this, Ayanami-san. All of this," he said sadly. He looked down at the displays on the console again. He sighed again. "We truly live in a fallen world, that this is the better way."
"I do not understand, Vice-Commander," Rei said, in as close to her old monotone as possible. Her head felt fuzzy.
"You know I was never happy with Ikari's plan, or what it demanded of you. But it is still preferable to what SEELE would inflict on us all. There is no other path for us. Humanity's time has run out," the old man said sadly, shaking his head. His eyes rose briefly from the console to meet Rei's.
"I…" Rei tried to focus her thoughts. It was difficult. "I do not think humanity is so doomed. We… we must protect what it… holds." Her eyes were heavy. So tired. Why…
"We know, Ayanami-san. We know. That disagreement is why I am here. SEELE is going to move soon, and we cannot let them move faster than us. And if you are unable to fulfill your role in this, then that burden can fall to another. A sad facet of how we've treated you." He walked over to the cylinder and placed his hand on the glass. "I am truly sorry it had to be this way. I think this will be the last time we speak in this world. Goodbye, Ayanami-san."
Rei's eyes closed and darkness swirled up to meet her.
+++
Gendo's pose did not shift as Misato finished her debrief. His glasses made glowing shapes in the air as he simply sat, apparently digesting her information.
"That confirms some of what we already suspected, but changes little overall," he eventually said. His voice betrayed no surprise or shock. "We are already committed to our course, and the fuse already lit. Humanity's time has run out, and this is the best road left to us."
The hairs on Misato's neck stood up. This didn't sound like someone who thought they were going to win. "Sir, whatever force the JSSDF might deploy against Tokyo-3 and the Geofront, I'm confident the defenses can hold them off for a good while, especially with the Evas to buttress them. We just have to hold long enough to get the UN to get them to halt-"
"You know perfectly well the UN will not be intervening here," Gendo interrupted. "The Human Instrumentality Committee is ordering this. They want this to happen."
Misato frowned. "Why? We're a UN Special Agency. What reason do they have to do this?"
"You know why, Major. The time for such pretenses is over. We have a task to accomplish. One that is inevitable. There is little time left. The end is near, and we have all the key pieces. They will have to come here and take them from us, to fulfill their own plan for the end. And no matter what you may think you know, you do not want them to succeed."
"What I think I know, sir?" Misato said stiffly, fighting a wave of unease.
The phone in the drawer in the Commander's desk rang. Without taking his eyes off Misato, he reached down to the drawer and picked up the receiver. He raised it to his ear without speaking. After a moment he grunted and said "Good. Return here," and hung up.
"What you think you know, Major," Commander Ikari resumed. "There is only one more Angel to eliminate. With the JSSDF on the way, we will have to accelerate our own actions, but not excessively. The first moves are already underway. There is no more time for pointless rebellions against inevitability. We will kill the last Angel, and end this without the Committee's interference."
"Sir, if the JSSDF are about to march here, how are we supposed to take out an Angel that can appear when and where they please?" Misato objected. "We should be getting the Ministry of Defense to halt them, not hoping the next Angel will appear on our schedule."
Commander Ikari still did not move a hair. "The last Angel is down below us, and we all know it, Major. I told you, we have no more time for pretenses. The last Angel is in our grasp, and we have already begun."
Misato darted a single quick look at Kaji. There
was indeed an Angel deep below them, but Misato was almost certain the Commander was not referring to Lilith. "Should we recall the Third Child, sir? The Second, Fourth, and Fifth are ready."
"The First Child will suffice to deal with the Fifth, Major. I have summoned you here to see what you will do," the Commander replied evenly.
Misato stiffened, and felt Kaji and Ritsuko do the same next to her. "The Fifth. The Fifth Child is the 17th Angel?" she croaked.
Commander Ikari's stare was flat and hard. "I doubt this is a surprise to you, Major. I told you the time for pretense is over. Yes, he is. And the First Child will eliminate him. The way will then be open for us to finish this on our own terms, not those of the Committee."
Misato's left hand balled into a fist at her side. Fine. "
Your terms, Commander. I doubt anyone else at NERV or anywhere in the world is that eager to join in your plan. And if the Com-... if
SEELE wants him dead, we should keep him alive. As a hostage, if nothing else. That will buy us time."
Commander Ikari did not appear to react to Misato's dropping of the true name of their superiors. "I would have thought you'd be on board with killing the last Angel more than anyone, Major," he said calmly.
"We don't shoot prisoners, sir. And he surrendered last night. Right after I tried to shoot him for being an Angel. The First Child negotiated his surrender. War is done, Commander. Now we stop SEELE from destroying everything else."
"He needs to die, Major. He is an Angel. He cannot resist what he is. And the First Child will do as I order. Once the Angel is dead, we finish things before SEELE does it anyway."
"Your plan ends the same way, Commander," Misato snapped back. "Everyone dead. We object."
"Your objections are irrelevant, Major. Humanity has no time left. There is only inevitability. And if you will not assist in holding off the JSSDF and SEELE, then we have no time to waste on you." Commander Ikari unlinked his tented hands and reached under the desk for a phone. He raised it to his ear. "Major Katsuragi, Inspector Kaji, and Doctor Akagi have been relieved. Take them to detention."
He replaced the phone and stared at them all for a moment, then turned his stare to Doctor Akagi specifically. "You should know better than them this is foolish."
Ritsuko's face hardened. "So should you. You think this is going to work? You don't even-" She clamped her mouth shut abruptly. Her arms were shaking, fists thrust into the deep pockets of her lab coat.
Misato could guess.
'Maybe he doesn't know his little key isn't taking orders from him any more. I need to distract him.' She broke her position of attention and took a step closer to draw his eye. "She's right. This isn't going to work." She narrowed her eyes at the Commander. "Do you really think she will forgive you for doing this? That she will approve?"
Commander Ikari's stare shifted back to her, a faint wrinkle of annoyance joining his expression. "Doctor Akagi's forgi-"
"Not Doctor Akagi!" Misato interrupted. "Doctor
Ikari's."
Gendo somehow stiffened without moving at all. "You know noth-"
"We know everything!" Misato overrode him again. "She's been talking to your son for weeks. And if you ever bothered to talk to
him at all, you might even know that. He's certainly been telling us what she's been saying, and she's not very happy with
you!"
Gendo's glare was harder than steel now. "I have no time for your lies, Major. Communication with the Evangelions is impossible. We tried, for years."
"Maybe she just doesn't want to talk to
you," Ritsuko spoke up. "Maybe you don't know anyone as well as you think. Not me. Not Major Katsuragi. Not Doctor Ikari. Not the First Child. Maybe you're making a mistake. People make mistakes. I thought I was in love with you." She pulled her right hand out of her pocket and stared at her fingertips. Her left hand was still in its pocket, the arm shaking slightly. "And you think Ayanami will let you end the world on command."
Gendo's face was somewhere between blank ice and fury. He stared hard at Ritsuko and dropped his right hand below the surface of the desk again, to his side. He snapped his fingers gently. "Up."
Rei Ayanami stood up from where she'd been sitting at his side. She turned to face the three NERV officers and stared mindlessly at them, her student uniform crisp and fresh.
Misato blanched. How? She heard Kaji muffle a hiss of surprise to her left. Ritsuko did not bother stifling hers.
"I told you, Doctor. I always have contingencies." A faint note of cold triumph colored Commander Ikari's voice now. "Rei will do as she is ordered, as she always has. It is what she was created for."
"Rei, what are you doing? You know what this means!" Misato asked in confusion.
Rei Ayanami just stared silently at her.
Commander Ikari turned his head a few degrees toward the First Child. "Go. Kill the last Angel, then await my arrival."
"Yes, sir," the First Child said, barely loud enough to hear in the cavernous office. She began to walk around the Commander's desk.
"Rei, stop! You can't-" Misato began, taking another step forward.
Ritsuko grabbed her shoulder from behind. Misato snapped her head around to look at her friend.
"
That's not Rei!" Ritsuko hissed urgently. "I left her in my lab down below. That can't be her!"
Misato's eyes widened in surprise and she whipped around again to look at the young woman walking towards them, mind kicking into overdrive.
'If that's not Rei, the Commander must have had another clone stashed away. A Rei that doesn't know us, that will just do what she's ordered. Who can still start Third Impact for him. We can't let her. We can't let him.'
It was hardly a decision. Her hands were already moving, one pulling her jacket slightly more open, the other darting snake-fast for her holster.
Her USP was in her hand, the sights drifting past the false First Child for a second as she lined them up on Commander Ikari. The red bullet was at the top of the magazine, but the conventional round already in the chamber needed to go first.
'I've got one AT-Field bullet for the fake Rei. And if I'm in for that, might as well make the bastard who left my father to die face the music too. You earned this, Commander.'
Commander Ikari wasn't moving, wasn't dodging. He just kept staring at Misato over his laced fingers, apparently unperturbed by the sight of a pistol pointed right at him.
Misato's thumb flicked the safety off. She felt her teeth grit. If Commander Ikari was going to make it this easy, she wasn't going to protest. Her father's face flicked across her mind for an instant. She squeezed the trigger.
The pistol barked in her hand. She was already moving, the sight post settling on the bluenette. Her finger was about to pull the trigger again when a now familiar weird hum reached her hearing.
Commander Ikari sat unmoved and cold, the humming octagons of a protective AT-Field shimmering in front of his desk. His right hand was raised, palm out towards them, a warding gesture much like the one Rei had used last night to protect Kaworu.
'Shit!'
The shock made Misato hesitate just a second, caught between pulling the trigger on the fake Rei and swinging her aim back to Commander Ikari for her sole anti-AT-Field bullet. It was a second too long.
Rei's hand came up too. She made a sweeping gesture at Misato. The Operations Manager felt something like an electric shock blast through her at the same time as a smooth, hard wall smashed her hand aside and sent her flying backwards. Her pistol flew out of her hand and went skidding backwards past her on the polished stone of the office floor, well out of reach.
Misato tried to get up from where she landed. Her limbs wouldn't answer. She was too dizzy to think and her vision swam. She dimly heard Kaji shout her name and rapid footsteps. They came towards her and then past. There was another humming buzz, the sound of a body falling, and another clatter of a pistol hitting the floor and skidding.
Muffled words from a deep male voice. A short, curt reply from a woman's. A terse order. Misato heard the doors to the office open and unhurried steps of hard shoes approaching her. Misato barely managed to shake her head and blink, forcing concentration.
"-for attempted mutiny and refusal of orders. Take them to the holding cells. I will deal with them tomorrow. I have no time for this foolishness right now," Commander Ikari ordered the Section 2 detail.
Hard, unfriendly hands pulled her up off the floor. She mostly managed to stand under her own power as they cuffed her. It was only after they forcibly turned her around that she managed to see Kaji being similarly treated.
Commander Ikari's stony face appeared before her. "I told you, Major. There is only inevitability. This only ends my way or theirs."
Misato narrowed her eyes in as harsh a glare she could manage. "She won' forgive you f'r this… Tol' us," she slurred, her tongue and lips half-numb. "You hur' Shi'ji…"
His face somehow hardened further. "She will understand. I have no time for your lies."
He jerked a nod at the guards. "Take them away."
+++
