News of Ria being an Angel spread through WILLE like wildfire. Rumor far outpaced official announcements. It was an hour after the attack ended that the Pilots, the younger Asuka, Shinji, and Rei, learned the truth, the news reaching them just after they changed out of their plugsuits.
Asuka found herself confused more than anything. It just didn't make sense. Ria was intensely loyal to her parents. That much had been apparent to Asuka from the beginning. And she had generally been quite friendly to the both her and Shinji, clearly seeing both of them as family to some degree.
Yet... She was Angel. She had been a direct enemy of all mankind. Their other selves had even killed her. Shamshel hated them and Okito had been so afraid of them he started a war. So why was Ria so completely different?
Asuka couldn't deny she was incredibly unsettled by this. The knowledge that girl she lived with for weeks, had interacted with almost every single day since she arrived was one of them was frightening. Ria could have killed her at any moment and Asuka would have never been prepared. It was unnerving, a painful reminder of how undetectable they were until they attacked.
In a bizarre way, Asuka felt proud that one of the strongest Angels was a Soryu. It made sense of course. The child of a Pilot being one of the weak Angels would have just been kind of pathetic.
Shinji, however, was handling it far worse than she was.
"She betrayed us!" He slammed his fist into a locker. "She lied to us just like my father did! Our first conversation...everything. She used us, manipulated us!"
Asuka didn't entirely agree with his grief stricken rant but he did have some points. They had trusted her, quite a lot actually. More than Asuka had expected to trust a person. And she lied to them, she kept this hidden from them with no sign of her ever planning on telling them. Sure, she had incredibly good reason for keeping it hidden. But she could have told them, it would have been hard to process but they wouldn't have flown off the handle like Misato had. And knowing what she knew could have helped this greatly.
They had trusted her, but it appears when it came down to it, she never felt the same.
Their other selves had lied about Shinji's involvement in Third Impact, and they had kept the truth about Ria hidden for over a month. Their counterparts were clearly a close knit family devoted to one another intensely. Whose loyalty was first and perhaps only to each other.
Asuka couldn't blame them for it, but all the same it felt like someone had slammed a knife into her back.
Rei stood in the corner. Silent, seemingly indifferent to the news.
"Any thoughts on your near-name sake being the Angel you were fighting before you got dragged here?" Asuka asked.
"I already knew," Rei replied evenly.
Both Shinji and Asuka snapped towards her, bewildered expressions across their faces.
"You knew?" Asuka questioned.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Shinji demanded.
"The Sub-Commander assured me she was no threat and begged me to keep silent. I didn't think I would be believed if I came forward with the truth."
'Of course Wondergirl would say something like that.'
Still, she couldn't really fault her. She had just arrived, at that point.
"I mean, how did you…" Asuka began before shaking her head dismissively. "You know what? I don't want to know how you knew."
Some mysteries were really best left unanswered, particularly when it came to whatever Wondergirl was. She wasn't entirely human, that much was clear. Beyond that Asuka did not want to know.
Silence filled the room for a moment, wrapping around them tightly like a big, wet, awkward blanket.
"Well... this is a strange situation we've found ourselves in," Asuka observed. "Our other selves have an Angel for a daughter, my father, along with who knows who else is more than likely collaborating with another Angel and who knows how many others in some insane plan to make themselves demi-gods. At this point I'm starting to wonder if we should trust Pen-Pen. That penguin has always been on the weird side."
"Who can we trust?" Shinj asked, taking this far more seriously than Asuka had intended "I mean Misato lied to us about Third Impact but so did everyone else here. But beyond that she's been honest with us."
'So far as we know,' Asuka thought.
She considered it further. Who did she trust now? Shinji of course, they were in this together no matter what came. They had been through too much together.
Strangely, she also found herself trusting Rei. After all, she was from another universe, she had no stake in this. No reason to get involved with any conspiracy.
"We need to trust each other, first and foremost," she stated. "None of us can beat a horde of them on our own. To survive out there we need to be able to depend on one another."
Asuka knew she was the best, sure, but being the best meant frustratingly little in the face of four Angels attacking at once. It pained her to admit, but she needed these two.
/
"So, this is what I get? I saved her. I stopped Okito. And all I get is to survive, for now?" Ria mused bitterly as she changed into some spare clothing, her original clothes having been ripped to shreds by the transformation.
Scores of wrappers lay around her on the bathroom floor, she'd eaten more in the past few minutes than most people eat in a week. And still she felt starved. How did the others do it? There had to be more to their full scale transformation than just willpower, the energy needed would kill them in the process.
Ria was bitter and angry, Iruel had pushed and poked her. Trying to get a rise out of her. And she had let him. She lost control, that was dangerous and just shameful. Her anger had always been a source of strength for her, and she had let it control her. Things could have been so much worse, people could have gotten hurt.
That didn't excuse Misato's actions.
'Misato...'
Ria punched a locker. Growling in anger. She had expected this, She knew this how Misato would react to the truth, it's why she hid it. Indeed things had gone better than expected considering Misato wasn't actively trying to kill her anymore.And yet Ria was beside herself in rage and grief.
'All those years, all those memories. And she tosses them away like they're nothing. "I don't trust her" she says. She still thinks I have some nefarious scheme. I saved them! For crying out loud, even Lilith understands my loyalty is to them. Why can't she?' Ria thought.
Part of her wishes she had been too late. Misato would be dead and Mom would have been in command, the others would have been forced to accept her.
'And everyone would think I let Misato die.'
Ria pushed away the thought. Such thinking was beneath her.
She was enraged at Misato, but Iruel was the one to blame for this. If anyone deserved to die, it was him. The bastard had played all of them, even Okito.
Strangely she found herself pitying her former friend. Okito may have been a idiot of the highest measure, he had betrayed her and so many other people. But it seemed like everyone he worked with now was using him. Iruel in particular had flat out tried to have him killed and then left him here. That couldn't have been all of their plan, as much as the others have clearly used and disrespected Okito. Flat out leaving him in WILLE's hands seemed like an incredibly bad idea for Ramiel's plans.
Iruel and Ramiel were working together but it seemed Iruel had his own plans. Matarael had been working with Leliel but openly admitted he did not trust her. They were all petty and backstabbing. Using each other for their own ends. Could any of them be trusted?
Ria laughed at the irony.
The door opened. She turned to see Mana Kirishima walking in.
Ria blinked in surprise.
"Hi," Kirishima said awkwardly. "Your parents said I could come in."
"Hi. Uh...thanks for trying to be the voice of reason back there," Ria replied.
There was an unspoken tension in the air. Mana stood like she was walking on eggshells. She was scared, but she was trying to hide it.
"No problem. Sorry how that all turned out," she replied.
Ria found herself a bit dumbfounded. "You're... being awfully casual, all things considered."
"Ehh," Mana said indifferently. "I kind of figured a few of you couldn't have been completely evil. I mean you have a soul and free will, all that lovely stuff. Though that does lead me to a question."
"Mari's not an angel, nor is anyone else at the school," Ria interrupted.
"Oh," Mana seemed a bit surprised by the news "Well that means...huh, interesting."
"How is she anyway? Does she know?" Ria asked.
Mari had been on her mind since the fight ended. She desperately didn't want to lose her.
The older woman sighed. "She knows. She hasn't really reacted though."
"Oh," Ria said softly.
'Does she hate me? Does she think I betrayed her?' she wondered.
"If she wants to get in contact with you, I'm not going to stop her," Mana went on. "Whatever you are, you've been good to my daughter."
Well that was something. A small ray of hope.
Still, it did little to lift the dark depression Ria found herself sinking into.
"Thank you. Ms. Kirishima," she said.
"Take care of yourself, kid," Mana said as she walked towards the door. "You have a lot of hard days ahead of you."
/
The restraints they were putting on Okito were frankly nothing short of barbaric. Even Misato didn't pretend otherwise. But from all they had seen, it was only way to keep him from breaking out.
That didn't mean she liked it.
What was left of his upper half was tied to a table, his arm outstretched. Bindings fitted with explosives wrapped around his head, neck, wrist, shoulder and torso. His spine had been broken at just the right spot so that he could still breath on his own, but any control of his arm was lost. A metal bar inserted so it wouldn't heal. He was fed through a tube, just enough to not starve but hopefully not enough to allow him to regrow his limbs. The amount of nutrients would be decreased if he showed any sign of regrowth. The room was armored on all sides, vents primed to suck out all the oxygen from the room in moments should he attempt to escape.
"Wouldn't it be easier to kill me?" Okito said, a speaker allowing them to talk through the armored glass.
The Third Angel sounded broken and defeated, all will sucked out of him.
"It would be," Misato replied. "And believe me, I considered it for a good long while. After all, most of the staff, particularly security, would want nothing more then to see your lifeless body tossed into an incinerator. But unfortunately for you, Sachiel, you're going to live for quite a long time. Probably a fair bit longer than most of the other Angels. You see my friend Ritsuko, she's a scientist. One quite familiar with how your original biology worked. And she's been most curious about figuring just how you function now. How you transform into your original selves, how you alter your body, and how to kill you."
Ironically Okito may prove vital in defeating the rest of his kind. An irony he was now quite aware of. He gnashed his teeth as he glared at her in hatred.
"What do you intend to do with Ria once this is all over?" he asked.
That was not a question she wanted to face. That was a reality she was trying her hardest to ignore right now.
Misato deflected the question "Why do you care? She betrayed you."
Okito looked dejected. "She didn't. I betrayed her. Iruel betrayed me. Ria is just too stubborn for her own good."
He laughed, despite the situation.
"It's funny. When I saw you turn your guns on Matarael, I was more scared for her then I was him. I knew where it would end between the two of you when you knew the truth. This entire attack was to protect her from you. Even though I know she would never have wanted it. I'm a terrible friend, a horrid brother, and a worse son."
"On that much we agree," Misato replied sharply.
"Don't act like you're an better," he snapped. "Say what you will about me, I never shot someone who was trying to save me."
Misato glared at him.
"This conversation is over," she said before walking away. She didn't have to dignify his remark with any sort of an answer.
She walked out of the Vault, her mind turning to more pressing matters. Like why did Iruel betray Sachiel. What was his stake in all of this?
/
Dimitri had expected them to return in failure. But he had not expected this.
Shamshel and Sahaquiel looked like they were on the verge of death. Sahaquiel riddled with bullet holes while Shamshel was struggling to hold herself together, one arm missing and the other broken in a dozen places. Israfel was unharmed but looked profoundly annoyed.
"So...how did it go?" Dimitri teased.
"Fuck off," Shamshel said as she collapsed onto the couch.
Where was Sachiel? He seemed suspiciously absent.
Sahaquiel turned towards Israfel.
"So where were you exactly? Because near as I can tell you wandered off immediately and proceeded to do absolutely nothing." Her voice shook with rage.
"I had my own orders," was all Israfel would say.
"So...where's your ringleader?" Dimitri asked. If Okito was dead, they seemed rather indifferent too it.
Shamshel suddenly looked rather distraught.
"Captured," she said weakly. "According to Iruel, Zeruel ambushed him in the Command Center. WILLE had begun forcing him out of their systems before he could do anything to help."
Captured? Hmm, well that was surprising. Sachiel had always seemed like a death before surrender type.
"And it appears WILLE is now aware of who Zeruel is and are sparing her for now," Israfel added.
'Oh of course they spare one of their own.' Dimitri was bitter, he had gone through all that trouble, only to get shot in the face. But Zeruel, an Angel who had done far more damage during the first fight then he ever did, gets to walk free. Now how is that fair?
"We're going to mount a rescue, right?" Shamshel sounded shockingly worried.
Israfel raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Okito's an idiot," Shamshel replied, "But he's loyal. If it were any other Angel who had been captured, he wouldn't rest until they were free. We can't just abandon him. Besides, who knows what WILLE will learn from his biology alone?"
She had a point. Not that Dimitri particularly cared.
The door swung open. Shamshel reached for a gun, worried for a brief, terrifying moment that WILLE had found them.
It was worse than that; on the other side of the door was Ramiel.
Ramiel was an unassuming figure. Average height, built like a stick figure, probably weighed 70 kilograms soaking wet. Even still, Dimitri instantly found himself terrified.
The room went silent, everyone turned towards Ramiel.
He walked in, his face hidden behind a mask of purple glass.
"Ramiel," Shamshel couldn't hide her shock. "I...we weren't aware you arrived. Have you heard…"
"I heard enough," Ramiel interrupted.
Shamshel cowered slightly.
Ramiel nodded. "And believe me, no one wants Okito freed more than I do. It shames me to see my friend imprisoned like that. But a rescue is too risky at this moment."
"So what do we do?" Israfel said, her tone respectful.
"As Sahaquiel is already aware, the Melbourne venture proved profitable beyond measure. I found the SEELE outpost. It was long abandoned, but most of their research was still intact. We now have enough resources to begin the next phase of operations."
Everyone save Dimitri was quite pleased by the news.
"And for that we need more of our own kind on our side," Ramiel went on. "The time has come to rally the troops, to show all of them that only chance of survival is with us!"
