A's N's: Yes, this is a shorter than average chapter. AEE will be getting a double update this cycle, in return. Essentially, this section is too long to go at the start of the next chapter, which is being worked on, and would lose its impact if it wasn't isolated. After discussion, therefore, it was decided that it would be better to release it now, to tide you over until the rest of the chapter came out. So enjoy.
Chapter 17
I Shall Always Arise / 'I cannot cry, Wherefore thus sleepest thou?
EVANGELION
~'/|\'~
"We have obtained high-resolution Arcane Theory Field Structure (ATFS) spectra of the inactive modal state of a cross-lineage p-vector waveform, covering the r-bar states from -1 to 15, in an environment configured for pro-atavistic action. For the first half of our 1.7 ks examination, the ATFS was in a quiescent state, with negligible arcane-active atavistic states, after which its r-emission state increased noticeably, to values given within. The differential arcane states indicate the presence of ATFS-scale internal structure. From this data, a model for this method of alignment under such conditions was created, which models the two waveforms as (n+im
) dimensional constructs, where n
and m
are variables based on the current r-state. A phase diagram was produced, and compared to empirical data; it is found to be within 2σ of predicated values. We therefore submit this model for external evaluation on a wider range of r-bar states."
"A model for the alignment of cross-lineage p-vector aninaneural waveforms in pro-atavistic conditions"
M. Makinami, C. Habegger, S. Site, Y. Ikari, T. O. Corru, and D. A. Usk, 2070, AnNeuBioJ-[cen], 12, 882, 101-131
~'/|\'~
3rd of March, 2078
The battle lines were drawn. The very terrain had been divided up between the two sides, who, despite a brief period of peace, would always be drawn into inevitable conflict. They both had their own assets, but they both wanted more, and so despite the greater powers which would prefer a cessation of violence, war was inevitable. But one of them had taken their eyes off the goal, and so, predatory and hungry, the more powerful of the two sides now had an unbeatable advantage. They may have been rebuffed before. They may have had the greater powers move to intervene, to stop the reclamation of that which was rightfully theirs. But now it all came down to this, and there was no-one, and nothing that could stop them.
Shinji Ikari, chubby hands balled into fists, glared at the toy car in the hands of the red-blonde girl who shared the sandbox with him. It was white with blue stripes, and headlights that turned on when one squeezed the roof. And he
wanted it. Discarded clothes littered around him, he placed one foot in front of another, approaching the little girl, who was squatting down, dressed only in a food-stained top. She was committing the unforgiveable offense of holding a broken, babbling conversation between the car and a doll, and that could not stand. It was a car. Cars were meant to do driving. Not talking. And he wanted to make it jump off the pile of sand that he had scooped together.
Last time he had taken it from her, some giant adult had taken it from him, and given it back to the girl. And then they had said things at him in the Unhappy Voice with Telling Off Words. But he had looked around, and there were no adults to use the Unhappy Voice on him. Which meant that everything was going according to the scenario.
With deliberate force, he shoved the red-blonde girl over, face-first into the sand, and snatched the car from her hand, running away with his prize clutched in both hands even as the tears started. The loud, booming voices of adults sounded from somewhere out of sight, and he dropped down heavily onto his bottom. With care, he put the car on the ramp he had built, and started moving it back and forwards, churning up the sand and making a humming noise as he did so.
The consideration that maybe he should have paid more attention hit him at about the time that the screaming three year old, her sandy face red and tear-streaked, did.
The sight which greeted Kyoko Soryu and Gendo Ikari as they came running was as follows; one three-year old female child, wearing only her t-shirt, beating one three-year old male child, dressed only in a nappy, with her fists and screaming "Car!" at the top of her lungs. Which lasted right until he, using all two-and-a-half months of his superior age and slight advantage in bulk, shoved her hard, sending her sprawling over into the sand again, and picked up the aforementioned toy automobile, cradling it protectively.
Slowly, the little boy turned to face the two adults already scurrying over. From his still-sitting position, he toppled backwards, face screwed up, and clutching at his ribs. And then Shinji began to cry, in great lung-emptying sobs which seemed to speak of some great and profound misery.
Gendo sighed. "He's not going to make it as an actor," he muttered to Kyoko, stepping over the fence around the sandpit to recover his son. "Honestly, you take your eyes off them for a minute…"
Kyoko was already squatting over her sand-covered daughter, wrapping her arms around the small figure. "Come on, come on, Asuka," she sing-sang to her, hugging her tight. "Mama's here, and there's no need to cry, and there's also no need to take all your clothes off like that because we do need that nappy in case of accidents and I don't even know how you managed to get it off again, because, really, my baby, how do you do it?" She paused for breath, and continued to coo to the three-year old, relying more on tone of voice than words.
"I don't know how they do it," the man remarked, as he sorted through the clothes, separating out his son's stuff from the little girl's. "Shinji, I know you're putting it on. I saw you push her over, and you were fine until I…" Gendo exhaled, "… I don't know why I try to be rational," he sighed, bending down to hug his son. "Despite the fact I know he's putting it on, he keeps on pretending to be upset until he gets it."
"So you're the softy," Kyoko said with a grin, scooping the little girl up. "Come on, Asuka, you're high up and no-one's going to push you over and really, please, please stop crying. Please. Please." She started to rock her against her shoulder. "It's okay, please, stop crying, please, it's okay, okay?"
"Small children are brutes," the clean-shaven man said, as he tried to pull the dark-coloured t-shirt back over Shinji's head. "Really, I can't wait until he grows up and becomes more rational and less likely to throw tantrums as soon as we catch him doing anything naughty. Personally, I track parenthood by how far away we get from the first six months. Nothing can be as bad as those six months." He groaned. "I really need Yui for this sort of thing," he admitted. "He just doesn't seem to get that other people are allowed to have toys that he wants."
"Shh shh, shh shh," Kyoko said. "Mmm. Yes. And," she looked at her daughter, who was clinging onto her mother's shoulder, and shaking, "yes, Asuka's sensitive. I've tried to see if I can get her into a proper nursery, but she just keeps crying if I leave her alone. I hate to think what it'll be like when she starts school properly." The woman grinned. "Actually, I have to thank you for how understanding you've been as Project Supervisor."
Gendo produced a handkerchief from a pocket, and shook his head, his gaze drifting over to the window. "I don't care where you get it done," he said, bluntly, "just as long as it's done." A faint smile crept onto his lips. "Of course, I'd be less appreciative if you were doing things that needed labtime, rather than just the MAGI." Dabbing at Shinji's face, his jaw tightened as he tried to deal with the flailing hands. "Shinji, stop fighting me... if..." he let out a long, slow breath. "Fine. You know what? I'm not going to dry your tears. It's entirely your fault. You're fine."
Kyoko checked her watch. "Actually, it's getting close to one of her snack times. Maybe he has low blood sugar, too."
"No, it's because he's a little brute who's found that by throwing a tantrum, he gets his own way," Gendo muttered. "So what you're going to do, young man, is say sorry to little Asuka for pushing her over."
Hands suddenly going to chubby fists, Shinji shook his head, with a loud "No!"
"Oh, yes you are."
"No!"
Kyoko stooped down to grab the discarded clothes which belonged to her daughter. "I just need to get her dressed again, before she has an accident in the sandbox," she said, manhandling the girl with her out of the sandbox, to lay her down on a chair. "Seriously, Asuka, please make this easy for us, and then we can go have food. Om nom nom nice biskies, yes?"
"Food time?"
"Mmm hmm," her mother said, to a giggle from the little girl. "Now, come on. Just lift your legs up like this, and we can get the nappy back on... maybe we can get you wearing a dress instead, if you're going to be like this with shorts. Yes, yes, we've only got a bit of time over in Tokyo-3, and then we've got to go back into the whoosh-plane and go back home, and you've been
very good even if people have been mean to you and that's why Uncle Cal is going to be looking after you this afternoon while Mama has to go to a review board and you always like Uncle Cal, don't you? You got to sit next to him on the plane, and you were very well behaved and hardly cried at all and that nasty woman was very, very mean for complaining about you... she should try having children, shouldn't she?" The little girl nodded enthusiastically, just at the tone of voice, as her mother resealed the nappy. "Good, good, now just keep on being good while I get the shorts back on and then we can go get nice-nice yum-yums, yes?" She shuffled her daughter along the seats as the little girl squirmed, trying to fasten up the top of the shorts. "And then maybe some time I'll find out how you manage to get these things off so quickly," she added, as Gendo approached her from behind.
The man cleared his throat. "I think Shinji has something to say to you, Asuka," he said, holding his son's hand in that very certain way which, as a parent, made it quite clear that what he had just said was not, in any way, a suggestion, and disobedience would result in trouble. "Go ahead."
"'rry."
"What are you sorry for?" Gendo prompted.
"'rry for pushi'," the little boy muttered sullenly.
"I didn't hear you. You're muttering."
"Sorry for pushing!" Shinji grumped, trying to squirm away from his father's hand; his face screwed up and reddened. The little boy was leaving a trail of sand behind him, from his pockets.
Kyoko pulled her daughter onto her knee. "Wouldn't it be nice to be nice?" she suggested, a faintly optimistic note in her voice. The little girl, instead, preferred to try to turn around, and burrow her face in her mother's jumper. "Oh dear," the woman said, shaking her head. "Oh well. Maybe she'll be more talkative after some food. She's normally such a little chatterbox." Staggering slightly, she got up. "And they get so big so quickly."
"Yes," Gendo replied, biting a lip. "Hmm, Yui gets out of the talk with the ANB board in about half an hour. If we leave them with her, that means we can go over your implementation of the Banneru-Anabupoli procedure together. I've got some doubts over your approximations, and whether they'll be valid under the ATFS-model that Akagi predicts. Miyakame has his doubts, too, with how it'll harmonise with the design for the new SQUIDs." As he spoke, he began to head down the corridor, holding his son's hand, the little boy taking two steps for every one of his.
"I already told you," Kyoko said, slightly wearily, bouncing her daughter onto her other hip. "We can use the flat approximation when at these low field intensities... Gendo, slow down. Look, let's just get them fed, and then we can do this properly."
~'/|\'~
16th of October, 2091
Asuka Langley Soryu breathed a sigh of relief as she yanked the hatch closed, screwed it tight and pulled the lever beside it. There was a hiss as the entry plug sealed, and began to flood with LCL. The noise outside was terrible, the shriek of foundations warping, and the walls were coming apart. In the Eva bay, the main power was entirely out, and their dash to the packed-for-transport Unit had been through red emergency lighting that left far too much to the imagination. The pair of them had been drenched when the sprinkler system had burst, spraying chill fluid over the two teenagers, and it was only now that she had enough time to realise that her dress had turned partially transparent. It was stupid, she knew, to think about that when something seemed to be bringing down the building on top of them, but she was now very, very glad that she had worn white underwear today, rather than black.
"Your LCL tastes funny," Shinji accused her, gagging, and she sighed. Honestly, was she meant to babysit the Third Child or something? A completely untrained, useless, complaining boy who nevertheless had the sole redeeming feature that he had a freakishly high synch ratio? And his Eva was in L2, an ocean away.
She had to admit, this seemed about normal. They had moved her to Chicago-2 right before Harbinger-5 had shown up; of course they wouldn't have two Evas around when Harbinger-6 arrived. She grinned, a small smirk which she held even as the old drowning reflexes protested that
LCL was not meant to go into the lungs, exhaled, and drew in a deep breath. "Well, of
course," she drawled through the fluid. "You're new and completely untrained. Pilots have a specially tailored, unique cocktail of LCL, appropriate for their individual metabolisms," the girl recited. "If mine tastes different to yours, then maybe it's because this is my Eva! Not yours!"
"... wait. This is a specially tailored one for a g... for you, and..."
"Oh, I'm sure you'll be fine," Asuka said, heartlessly, shifting on her seat, hair drifting around her face like strange seaweed. "Gehirn, begin start-up process," she added, as the plug walls lit up in red, a complex networks of LAIs waking from the sleep of inactivity. In the neutral buoyancy of the LCL, she kicked up, and drifted over to a panel in the wall of the plug, pulling it open to recover an emergency replacement plug suit. It was tossed at Shinji, who didn't see it coming, and so was hit in the face.
"Ow!"
Asuka sighed again, drifting back down. "Let's get some rules straight!" she ordered, glaring at the boy, as she grabbed her red carry-bag with her spare hand. "Okay? Firstly, my Eva, my rules. You're here because if you get killed if the building collapses, that makes your Eva useless until they find a replacement pilot. You are not the pilot, and trying to do things without
my permission is not okay. In fact... you're probably used to the Test Model, not the Production Model, so... so don't touch anything unless I tell you to! This is a true Evangelion, the first on Earth to be built for dedicated combat rather than just some test-bed for experimental technology!" She kept her eyes on him; the boy looked rather greenish, insofar as anyone could look green in inactivated LCL. "It won't just synchronise with anyone untrained, like how your Unit 01 did!"
"No, we wouldn't want that in our war machines," Shinji said, rolling his eyes, an expression which would have come across better had he not been flinching slightly, and looking sick. "It feels... warmer... in here," he added, thoughtfully.
Asuka nodded. He was right there, she thought, deliberately choosing to ignore his other comment. "Almost certainly due to the warding," she guessed, no sign of her uncertainty showing. "Clearly something's going on, which... yes!" she exclaimed. The girl thumped one hand against the side of the plug. "Listen! You're going to put on that emergency plug suit, so you don't break your neck or anything. And I'm going," she hefted the spare bag, which she always kept stashed under the seat of her Unit, in every plug she used, "to put on my proper one." She leaned in close, grabbing his shirt collar. "You go up the top end of the plug, and I'll be down the bottom. And if you look, I'll make you
pay."
Shinji, for his own part, wisely declined to comment that she had already flashed her knickers at him when she had been floating around in the LCL, and that certain parts of her clothing were already turning rather transparent. The entopics on his own t-shirt were doing rather odd things, and appeared to have shorted out in the orange fluid, the moving images breaking apart into pixelated blocks of colour, which left the garment below clear. Taking the packaged plug suit, he clambered over the back of the seat, and quite deliberately turned around, in a way which made sure that the glaring girl could see that he wasn't looking.
Two problems immediately presented themselves. Firstly, this plug suit – which was lighter than his own, a simple white garment which looked like one of Rei's and which was only kept in the Eva for emergencies, like if the primary was damaged – was made for someone slightly taller than him. And secondly, it was made for someone who was, not to put it too lightly, female. And thus, anatomically, exhibited certain examples of anthropic sexual dimorphism. As he stripped off his trousers, trying not to think of the – attractive, abrasive, annoying – girl also changing behind him, that's when she started talking.
"Gehirn?" she said, and he half-turned, before remembering that that was the name of the LITAN of this Unit, just as Unit 01's one was called Nerv.
[Start up is 75% complete, Test Pilot. Waiting for response from central control. Standby.]
"Override. Independent start-up mode." She paused. "Override safety protocols about another person in the plug."
"Safety protocols?" Shinji protested, pausing for a moment, even as his trousers floated upwards. "You didn't say anything about safety protocols." He was not going to turn to look her in the eye, he was not going to turn to look her in the eye.
"Well, what did you think?" Asuka snapped back, her own back also turned and both hands still going down protectively to hold her dress down. With her head, she tried to nudge the free-floating knickers down into the bag, cursing her own rush for not stowing them properly. "Until you came along, there's only been two Eva pilots for years, and I've never even met the First Child! But unless you want to go outside and be crushed by falling debris, then... shut up!"
"But..."
"Just don't put the SQUIDs on, and you'll be fine!" Asuka ordered, sticking both legs into the top of the plug suit, before muttering a curse to herself and peeling LCL-soaked socks from flat against her skin.
Shinji muttered his own complaints, as he tried to work the plug suit up, the currents of LCL thick and swirling. "So what's going on?" he asked, to distract himself.
"Gehirn, have you got a connection to ChicagoCom yet?" Asuka asked the LITAN, on his behalf, unfastening her bra and pulling the plug suit up to her shoulders with a sigh of relief. The floating garments around her were stuffed into her bag with extreme prejudice.
[No, Test Pilot.
ALERT! Networks are in full lock-down mode. ChicagoCom is bouncing all requests from non-military authorities. Evangelion Unit 02 is not currently registered as a military asset.
WARNING! Pattern Blue detected on Unit's external sensors.
WARNING! Code Red emergency on civilian networks. Extrapolation; extra-normal entity of Harbinger classification probable.]
"A Harbinger," the two Children said together.
"... well looks like this is my chance," Asuka muttered to herself, before pumping her fist. "Right, you d... gagh!" she exclaimed, hastily turning back around.
"What happened to not turning around!" Shinji protested, trying to work his leg down the unfamiliar proportions of his plug suit.
"I can't believe you're taking this long!" she retorted. "And you were facing me too! Staring, with a stupid perverted look on your face!"
"No I wasn't! I was just trying to get this on and sort of floated," Shinji claimed, to something which would have been a glare from the girl had she not remembered that she wasn't meant to be looking half-way through, and hastily turned around. "It's hard work! It doesn't fit, and..."
"Oh, you can't expect me to believe that you've never practiced in-plug changing!" Asuka snapped, before she tilted her head slightly. "Okay," she relented, folding her arms, "yes, you are almost completely untrained. So tell me when you're done... which had better be done soon! I need access to the controls! Gehirn, see if you can get access to anything military so we can see properly what is going on."
[Yes, Test Pilot. ArcSec networks report widespread flooding from unidentified substance. Surface temperature of Chicago-2 is anomalous; 90K plus or minus 10K. Optical feed acquired. Relaying to main screen.]
The plug wall lit up, displaying a camera feed blurred by the thick ice that covered the lens of the screen. Through this veil, the world was lit in orange, which seemed to pulse and shift in waves of crackling shimmers of varicoloured light. There was none of the weapons fire, none of the crack of charge beams and roar of plasma weapons that there should have been, and that alone was terrifying.
[Analysis of wavelengths indicates that there are anomalous levels of various chain hydro-23-carb-23-ons in the atmosphere. Cross-sourcing camera feeds. Confirmed. Displaying ratios. The r-state mean is twenty-three, showing expected breakdown rates. Local r-state remains equal to unity. Altering LCL mix to compensate for possible exotic state exposure. Harbinger not located.]
"Get changed!" Asuka snapped, turning around to grab the controls.
"I'm done! Just need to..." the boy pressed the button on his wrist, and winced, as the suit suddenly contracted in a way which was not quite appropriate for the male physique. "This... ow. Tight!"
"Good!" She pulled herself back into the plug seat. "Sit right behind me, don't touch anything, don't even
think like you're piloting an Eva! And hold onto the seat, not me! I don't want any distractions! Gehirn, prepare for launch!"
[Launch sequence initialised.
WARNING! Evangelion is locked down for transport. Beginning override lockdown, under emergency protocols.]
Shinji let out a sudden breath. "Misato! Toja and Kensuke are out there and..."
"I said don't think!" the girl snapped at him, checking the position of the clips in her hair, before pulling her cowl up, which locked. A second stage unfolded to cover her eyes, leaving only a semi-circle of face exposed, and concealed the sudden, too-old expression that flashed across her face, the pain in her eyes. In that eyeless, thick plug suit, she looked somewhat like some kind of alien insect, only the pale flesh distinguishing her from some automata. "I... I know that Uncle Cal might be up in that, and... Gehirn!"
[We are ready, Test Pilot,] Gehirn intruded, the four lights of the ARvatar retreating out of sight after that announcement.
Asuka grinned, a predatory pale crescent-moon of teeth flashing beneath her covered eyes. "Right. Third Child, hold on tight. And try not to break your neck." A practiced thumb motion flicked the covers on the control yokes open. "Gehirn, begin lock release process."
"Ha. Ha," Shinji said, trying to suppress the squirming feeling in his gut.
"I'm glad you found it amusing, Third," Asuka smirked despite her worry, fingers twitching as she opened a communications channel. "Gehirn, broadcast this. NEG-Chicago, this is Evangelion Unit 02. I will be deploying to engage the Harbinger. Gehirn will handle communications synch." After a moment's pause, a new cascade of lights opened up on the left hand side of the plug, and Shinji boggled slightly at the complexity of the command array. His one was basically just used for communications with the Geocity, and, now, with Rei in the tiny amount of practice they'd done together.
"You're not holding on tight enough," Asuka reminded him. "Right! Gehirn, locks?"
[Locks are released. Status report indicates that tracks are operational. Autonomous emergency A-Pod flight mode engaged in case of derailment. Unit is ready.]
The girl flexed her fingers, one last time, and deliberately rested them on the control yokes.
"Evangelion Unit 02, launch!"
~'/|\'~
