The steady beep and wave of an EKG standing too close to her ear was oddly reassuring. Windows stretched across the infirmary floor, including her room, complete with automated blinds. But the Geofront had been dark almost since the invasion, and only harsh floodlights out in the forests lit the cavern. Ritsuko groaned, feeling more rested and put-together than she had been in weeks. Unconsciousness quickly gave way to a wide-eyed general alert as she remembered exactly where she was and what was going on.
Fumbling, she reached for the fuzzy hand that offered her glasses and shoved them on, licking dry lips. "How long was I out?"
"Not long." The blur resolved as Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki. "Just a few days since you and the Inspector recovered ADAM. We're not exactly sure what happened yet, but Pilot Sorhyu, Shinji and I all believe you and he will make a full recovery."
"A few days?" Ritsuko's mind thundered with a hundred questions, and one leaped off her tongue without much prompting. "How widely known-?"
"The degree of code word clearance is being relaxed, somewhat." Fuyutsuki reassured her, grandfatherly and austure as always. "Of the senior command staff, only Katsuragi hasn't been fully read in yet."
"Yet? Fuyutsuki Kozo, she will eviscerate someone once she understands what that thing is!" Her harsh whisper was hampered how her cotton tongue caught on her lips.
Nodding, Fuyutsuki idly pulled his chair in a bit closer. "That is a legitimate concern, but one we may have to contend with. The Commander believes otherwise, but NERV may not be capable of fulfilling its intended purpose, for anyone."
A glass of water sat on the table next to her bed. Sitting up in the hospital bed, she gingerly minded the IV lines in her arm and moved to take a few careful sips. She let Fuyutsuki's declaration wash over her. The old man sounded so... relieved, and couldn't help but envy his aplomb. She closed her eyes and hurridly reviewed her last few waking memories, frowning. The retrieval mission with Kaji, making it back to NERV, collapsing... Her mind was on fire, and she couldn't remember the last time her thoughts had been so clear.
"I was coughing up bits of my lungs and soul... Well, maybe not my soul." She sipped more water, throat demanding moisture. "A few days? if you haven't noticed, 'a few days' around here lately could mean the difference between waking up on the other side of the planet or finding out Shinji has weaponized the moon."
"It has been determined that Tokyo-3 and a not insignificant chunk of the Hakone region has rotated ninety-six degrees clockwise." Fuyutsuki smiled thinly. "Lake Ashi is now west of Tokyo-3, instead of south-east."
While she mulled that over, a shadow played across the building. Unit-00 held a half-dozen trailers in its hands, setting them down next to a recently cleared patch of Geofront forest. Its armor was riddled with punctures and streaks of congealed LCL, and most of its left arm was bare down to the flesh. Misato peeked her head in through the infirmary door, waving. Her hair hung in thick wet locks around her shoulders, and her NERV-issue sweats and t-shirt were spotted damp. Her sidearm still dangled under her arm. Ritsuko caught the quick little grin she shot her way, easing inside and sliding the door shut behind her.
"Glad you're up and about. I just checked in on Kaji. He's fine." Misato rolled her eyes with a tired grin. "Attempted to pinch my ass. I might have to let him if he keeps all this up."
Ritsuko looked down at herself, frowning at the hospital gown. Her tan hadn't faded much either. "I need my clothes. And some scratch paper."
The old commander and her friend exchanged a quick look, and Misato cocked her head to one side. "You alright, Ritsuko?"
"Can't complain. Sub-Commander- clothes, paper?" Ritsuko stared through her glasses. The Eva brought to mind AT-fields, and then the invaders and their strange powers. Sorhyu might have been better for the science, but right now she needed a supernatural engineer. "And get Shinji-kun down here, if he can be spared."
Fuyutsuki raised his hands, surrendering. "I'll make the arrangements. Major."
He shuffled out without further comment while Misato took his seat, smiling faintly. "Already working on something?"
Ritsuko shrugged, not willing to voice her thoughts aloud just yet. Hunches, mostly. "What else has been going on?"
"Eh, they tried to drill into the Geofront, and then they dropped a walking castle on Tokyo-3." Misato's grin turned a little rueful. "As of an hour ago, Shinji and Asuka are astronauts, and we got some reinforcements from Tokyo-2. Jet Alone and NHIS helped out. Tokita survived."
Ritsuko shoved a hand beneath her glasses and massaged her face. Despite his presence, she was glad to note the absence of bags under her eyes. "NHIS's project succeeded? How'd they make it here?"
"Believe it or not, Jet Alone can manifest AT-fields. Shinji can confirm it when he gets here." Misato shrugged, smiling despite herself.
Just as Misato finished her brief little summary, Shinji eased his bulk through the door. The look on her face was likely a think to behold, she was sure. Now she really needed him. What did she have though, her resources- the memory transfer machine, and the second generation of metaphysical analysis equipment. An increasingly large stockpile of salvage and recovered material from the invaders, thaumaturgical divination methods...
Ritsuko stared off at nothing in particular while Shinji cleared his throat, hefting a full duffel bag in one hand and MAGI tablet terminal in the other. "Fuyutsuki-sensei said you needed this stuff, and me?"
"Yeah." Ritsuko huffed, reaching out to take the bag into her lap, then gingerly unhooking herself from the life support and intravenous shunts. She ignored Shinji's pinched look. "And then you and I are going to spend thirty minutes designing new soul cameras."
* * *
When the castle fell and straddled Tokyo-3, it carried night with it. Mist and fog clung to the underside, spreading out into a thick blanket that swallowed up guttering campfires and lingering blazes from the earlier battle. Snow started to fall on Japan, for the first time in nearly twenty years. The hundred or so hostages Ayumi could see had started shivering, huddling together for warmth while their captors hovered around them.
The elegant ones lazed about, full of blithe gesture and hedonistic action. For have seemingly lost a battle, they were in good spirits. Clowns, jugglers and performers seemed to fill the cafeteria, milling between hostages or drawing them into obscene games with silk ropes and smiles that cut like glass. The horrors clapped their hands and servant creatures swanned out carrying trays of succulent looking-
Ayumi forced herself to not think about it. When the aliens deigned to notice the state of their captives, the woman with all the arms clapped six hands. A dozen or so of the little living tree men snapped to attention, practically vibrating with apprehension plain on their wooden faces. Ayumi watched as they were put to the torch one by one and consigned to being burned alive. One soft-stepped with hot feet in her direction, burning with silent screams but dancing the whole time. The heat washed over her, making her skin prickle with sweat and uneasy relief. Were they prisoners or guests, she couldn't say.
Pressed up against one wall, Toji trembled despite the sudden bonfires dotting the cafeteria. He clutched his empty sleeve, eyes wide and casting about at things that weren't there. "Totally fine. I can take care of myself. Just put it down and leave it there, like that..."
The leaden weight in her legs was unbelievably heavy, but Ayumi fought past the creak and twinge in her knees. Slowly, she heaved herself up onto hands and knees, pushing aside the glass and fallen ceiling tiles until she reached him. Elsewhere in the cafeteria, a handful of civilians had managed to muster up the strength to go on hunger strike. She watched the sentries and attendance force food down their throats.
Easing around one of the more majestic, foppish courtiers, Ayumi froze when it turned to look at her. It's face was a perfect, symmetrical blend of beautiful androgyny with antlers curled down like blonde ringlets. Its body looked positively sculpted, and it raised a golden, jewel-encrusted goblet, toasting her as the guttering firelight seemed to sing across the gleaming rim. A pair of car-sized tigers made of silk bounded and pounced on each other on the other side of a conjured oak table, snarling playfully. The amber-eyed creature turned away with a delicate sniff, and Ayumi reminded herself that air was necessary to life.
"Hey. Suzuhara." When she finally reached him, she kept her voice low, but the guards and burning men didn't seem to notice or care.
"S-Saneda?" He wasn't focusing. His eyes kept pointing separate directions.
"We-" She licked her lips. "We'll get through this. Right? I have to tell your girlfriend that you were brave... And you need to be there to show her that."
"...Y-Yeah." Toji managed to get one eye fixed on hers, while the other stubbornly looked somewhere off and to the right. "Got it..."
Huddling in a bit closer, Ayumi snuck an arm around his back, trying not to think too much about how accessible that side of his body was. With the walking bonfires filling the cafeteria with warmth and light, the trembling changed flavor. Chills gave way to dread. They obviously wanted the hostages alive for something, if they cared enough to feed and keep them warm... Toji still wasn't focusing. Shifting again, Ayumi gently cupped her hands around his eyes. Almost immediately, he stilled.
Then the shivers started up, but somehow Ayumi could tell they were healthier. Toji shuddered, quaked hard enough that his shoulders thumped into her chest and arms hard enough to sting, but she endured. When the spasms passed, took in a deep, deep breath and exhaled. Then another. He was unimaginably strong, no wonder he had a girlfriend. She laid her head on his shoulder, not quite good, but feeling better than she had in weeks.
A flash of white grabbed her attention, barely catching it out the corner of her eye. It was tough to tell how far away it was, the mist and night sky was playing tricks with perspective, and she was exhausted too.
It approached, moving with grace and short legs across the snow, while the other hostages and the carnival of horrors seemed to ignore it utterly. She couldn't place it, not for any animal in Japan. Not a fox, racoon or dog. The fur was more white than the snow, casting a shining halo in the air and across the ground. It stepped through the gap in the cafeteria wall, bending its long body around the rubble with sinuous ease.
Sitting down on its haunches, it turned a pair of dark obsidian eyes on her. They were flat, black pools at first, but when its eyes met hers, a spark of knowing appeared. With her heart pounding in her chest, Ayumi could only wait while it's whiskers twitched, and it took her measure. The sublime creature spoke without words, and Ayumi felt peace settle into her chest.
Stories end, you will endure, it told her.
Glancing to the side, she opened her mouth with a question on her lips, but stopped. Ayumi couldn't have asked Toji- he couldn't see anything. She looked back, and the beast was gone, not even leaving footprints in the snow...
Behind her, the courtier with the curling antlers raised its hand and pulled a pair of captives to their feet. With a gesture, it bid them fight to the death for their enjoyment.
