Chapter 17:
House of Gold
"We've met before?"
Of all the questions I cold have asked, that was the only one that I could manage to articulate. This woman knew my mother. My mother knew the Admiral of the Fleet? No, she couldn't have been so high ranking back then. Somehow, though,
we had met? I would have remembered--
I heard the snapping of fingers and my eyes snapped back into focus on the woman in front of me. She had her eyebrow raised and her mouth curled on the corner. "Seems like a concussion if you're
this out of it. I said 'Yes, but you were just a baby' but I've had my eye on you for a
number of years."
"What makes me so special that the Admiral of the Fleet cares about me?" The question seemed stupid the moment I asked it. I was Gendo Ikari's child and the pilot of an Evangelion. Everyone in the system knew my name and the name I was born with. Of course the Admiral of the Fleet would give a shit. She probably knew that I was a potential pilot this whole time.
"I don't think that there was anything that would make the Admiral of the Fleet care about you, but that's not why I was keeping track of you. I owe a debt to Yui that I can never repay to her, so I have been trying to repay it to you instead."
I blinked at her. What could I say to that? She owed my mother and was watching over me. I supposed things could have been worse than Ganymede. Hell, in some respects Earth definitely
had been worse. If she'd been pulling strings, well...
"So why are you here
now?"
She offered me a shrug and a smirk, "I would have been sooner but it's been very busy. Keeping information suppressed for as long as I did, well, that was the real trick."
"
What?"
"I was protecting you. Even with a picture of of the face of the most sought-after person in the system and it took them over a month to find anything. Why do you think that is?" Mari answered to my outburst.
"They still found out in the end, and well... you can guess how that went."
"I really wish I could have done more. I mean that." Her face shifted to a frown and the sadness seemed to reach her eyes too.
"I don't know how you did what you
did do, to be honest." I admitted. Wouldn't do to get mad at her for not being able to help more than she did. There were enough people to be angry at, I couldn't extend that to
her too.
"I'll tell you all about it later. For now I just need you to know that I'm on your side and I'm always going to be looking out for you." Her demeanor shifted. The air of levity in her disposition had evaporated and she seemed stiffer.
Her heels clicked against the steel flooring as she walked towards the row of windows set into the side of the hallway. She was looking out into the geofront and the sunrise being carried in via the massive mirrors that were set up on the surface.
"That's... kind of heavy. I guess it all really is, but... well, why that, why now?" I asked as I hobbled after her. My legs were weak but they'd hold me, through sheer force of will if nothing else. At the very least, the railing along the window gave me something to hold onto.
She was taller than me, but then that wasn't really all that surprising. I had to look up to meet the reflection of her eyes in the glass. There was more there than I could see, I was sure.
"Now, because this is the first chance I've had to see you and... and why?" She paused, maybe for dramatic effect, or maybe to find the words. Or maybe she just didn't want to say it. Her jaw finally tensed up before her shoulders relaxed, more in defeat than calm I suspected.
"The why is unfortunately very simple," she started. "Things are going to get a lot worse, very quickly, and very soon. People are going to die and the only thing you or I can change is how many. We won't save everyone or, I fear,
most of them."
I blinked and took a step back. Everything I'd been doing was to save people
and it had been working! She couldn't just come and tell me that it was for nothing. That would mean I'd fought for nothing. I'd endured for nothing. I'd hoped and had that hope stolen for
nothing.
"No, that's bullshit." I snapped at her. My fist was clenched down at my side and I found I'd squared up with her. "Don't tell me I can't do anything about it. I haven't come across the whole god damned system to get my ass beat down here just to have it mean
nothing. I didn't get kicked out into space without a suit, get my ass kicked, bleed, fight, and get my heart broken just so you could tell me they're gonna die anyway. I don't know who the hell you think you are that you can tell me that I can't stop it because that's
exactly what I'm gonna do!"
I felt the
fire coursing through my blood. Adrenaline and stubborn insubordination fought gravity for me. I didn't have another fight in me and we both knew that but damn if I didn't feel like giving it the good old college try anyway.
She shook her head and took a step back, that somber expression melted away to be replaced by a smug smirk right at the corner of her mouth and a laugh. A deep hearty laugh from the belly that threatened to knock the wind right out of my sails, but only just barely.
"Well aren't you just the spitting image of Yui Ikari after all? Well I never said I wouldn't let you try your hardest. If you wanna go down swinging that's just fine with me. You think you're gonna give fate a one-two punch? Well I'm in. All the calculation in the
world couldn't account for an Ikari with a head of steam." She clapped a hand down on my shoulder and shook her head again, still laughing her laugh.
"What? Is that all it took? An impassioned speech to get the Admiral of the Fleet on my side?" I asked, sure that my shock was written all over my face.
She shook her head, "No. It was that fire in your eyes, Ikari. Didn't sway the Admiral of the Fleet, but it did sway Mari Makinami, and of the two I think you've got the better deal. I meant everything I said about what's coming for you, but if you think you've got it in you, I'm willing to be wrong."
"Is it really just that easy?" I asked with a growing sense of whiplash. If she'd meant to startle me out of my anger she'd done a bang-up job of it. Maybe the concussion made it easy or maybe she was just pulling my strings to see how I'd dance but at the end of it I didn't really have much of a choice either way, did I?
"Nothing about what lies ahead is going to be easy, Natsu Ikari. It would have been
easy if you'd let me help you run away."
I stopped and blinked. What? "That's what you were trying to offer me? An escape?"
She nodded and turned back to the window. "Like I said, I owe Yui more than I can ever repay. I don't think that when she build that Evangelion that she did so with the intent that
you would be the one piloting it."
"What--"
"Oh, no, I guess you wouldn't have known that. Unfortunately it looks like our time is just about up. The other shoe is about to drop and neither of us can afford to miss it."
"
What?!" I yelled, finding my
outdoor voice to respond to the added layers of confusion she just kept piling onto me. The scatterbrained way the conversation had meandered to this point had just about short circuited any chance I had at following it and I needed
some kind of clarity.
She pointed her finger at the ceiling tile and, a moment later, the alarm klaxon began to echo throughout the base. "That would be the other shoe dropping."
"This doesn't get you off the hook." I protested as she turned to leave. I, of course, had places to go as well but
still.
"No, it doesn't. So, until next time, Miss Ikari, I'll be keeping my eyes on you."
I found myself staring blankly after her as the alarm continued to shrill in my ears. I would need to get to the cage and then they'd deploy me, I'd go fight another Angel--
My phone's buzzing distracted me from my train of thought and jarred me out of my trance. Everyone who mattered knew I was already inside headquarters, so I shouldn't have received a phone call as long as I reported to the cage on time.
Misato's face was on the screen and I hit the accept button. "Hello?"
"
If you're not already in the elevator take the section C-6 emergency exit directly into the geofront. We're deploying Unit One directly in front of the pyramid. You'll have to board it in the field. Run, because we don't have much time." She sounded hurried, impatient, but most concerning, she sounded
afraid.
Her order was punctuated with a loud, though distant, explosion and one of the light panels set into the dome blew out in a cloud of broken glass.
That hadn't happened before. "Roger that."
It was going to get worse? I'd have to meet that head on.
xxx
The explosions were increasing in frequency and intensity. Whatever the hell was happening up in the city was getting closer to breaking through the armor plating. I could feel the concussion in my chest and it made my ears ring.
My legs burned and if it weren't for the adrenaline and the
fear I might not have been able to keep going. As I was, I knew I was injuring myself more and more with every step, but I had to keep going. Even if I didn't care about anyone else, the only safe place to be was going to be inside of the Evangelion.
As hard as it was to keep my legs under me, the shaking and heaving of the ground under me didn't make it any easier. It felt like the planet was going to split open and swallow me up at any second if I didn't keep going.
The alarm klaxons and flashing yellow strobe lights ahead of me signaled that I was where I needed to be. The probably meters-thick steel doors set into the courtyard lawn not a dozen meters to my left retracted into the ground. Two steel rails extended upwards and the rumbling intensified.
And instant later a blast of high pressure air made my ears pop and nearly knocked me off my feet, and then Unit One burst through the opening and hit the end of the launch railing with a thunderous
clang. It was a awesome, intimidating sight. I'd never been so close to an Evangelion while standing on the ground before. It was one thing to stand in front of the head, it was another entirely to stand at its
feet.
It was ready for me. I could feel the shadow of feedback, even at this range the implant was trying to link. I couldn't move it, couldn't really
feel it but I could feel that it was there without even looking. The entry plug was extended and waiting for me.
There would be a cable lift that would carry me up to the hatch, I could board from--
An explosion and a bright flash of light came from directly above me. I threw my hand up to shield my eyes and, as the light faded, I could see the open sky beyond the hole in the armor plating. It was only a moment later that the foundation of one of the retractable buildings failed and it broke free, to fall straight down towards me.
The cable lift wouldn't be fast enough. There was nowhere to run. There was no time for
fear, only realization: This was how I'd die. Not on Ganymede. Not on the orbital station after it decompressed. I wouldn't die falling to Earth either. Not even during a battle against an Angel.
At least, not while actually fighting one.
So I looked towards the sky as the small concrete five story building fell towards me. Mari would have to live with letting me down. Misato would have to find someone else to save the world. I would... I would...
"I'll see you soon, Mom."
A twinge in my mind, I felt it before I heard it. The sound of high carbon steel
tearing.The launch railing was mangled but more than that, Unit One was free. I could
feel an animalistic urgency rolling off of it.
In one moment it was standing still as a statute in the face of my impending demise, in the next I was wrapped up in its left hand and felt like I'd been hit by an emergency braking burn. No, that wasn't right. Even the Tengu hadn't punched me that hard when we'd dropped into the atmosphere.
I couldn't see from inside of the closed fist and I couldn't hear over the roaring of the air and the smashing of concrete.
As quickly as the forces had hit me and let off, they hit me again. I tried not to throw up from the rough handling and had mostly steadied myself when I was finally able to see light again. The hand was open--
--and I was falling from it. A few moments of panic before I splashed into a half-full entry plug full of LCL. There was no time to think about it: I was alive and I needed to stay that way. I was half way into the seat by the time the hatch closed, and I was already punching in my startup sequences by the time the plug started to retract.
Unit One saved me. It saved my life and nobody was piloting it. There was always more to it than a simple machine, wasn't there? This was more, even, than that. I could feel... not quite a mind, but
something on the other end of my link with it. Something that wanted me to live.
The screens finally came online and I could see the destruction outside. Unit One was collapsed onto the ground in a half-crouch and in front of it was the building that had fallen and almost killed me. The launch rails were destroyed and it looked like the entire catapult assembly had collapsed back into the launch tube.
And that could have been
me.
"
--moved by itself?! I want systems diagnostics run right now!"
The comms had finally come back up.
My controls were online and I was ready to fight. Everything felt full one-to-one and I could feel every single rivet and joint my Eva
had. "No, Doctor Akagi, it's fine. I'm fine. I can feel it, I'm ready to fight."
"
You almost died. We have to get you back here and run tests, there could be--" That was Maya's voice. I hadn't talked to her as much lately, but it was nice to see she still cared.
"
If she doesn't fight, we all die. If she says she's fine, she's fine. We'll do it. Give me status!" Misato. She was going to drink about this later. If I had my way, so would I. As long as we were all alive for it.
"Power generation is online, feedback is responsive, feels very close to realtime. Sync rate is..." I trailed off as I read the display. There was no way. "This can't be right, display is saying one-fifty on the money."
"
That's... Shit. Don't worry about it, We'll discuss it when we're not dead. The Angel is going to be right in front of you in about thirty five seconds. If you can't beat it, try to keep it busy. The Martians are giving it hell but it's not going down. We've got a few tricks up our own sleeves, so give it your all."
"Roger that, Misato. Natsu Ikari, Unit One, ready to fight!"
"
Sorry to butt in. This is Soryu, The Nikola Tesla just took a reactor hit and she's going down. I can't hold it back any longer, I'm withdrawing to the Geofront. Ikari, you better be as good as they said you are."
I wanted to say that I was, but fear wouldn't let me make that boast. At least, not before I felt a warm embrace around me, even though I was alone. Through the link? I felt love, protection, confidence? I wasn't alone, but then I'd never ridden alone, had I?
"I'll show you how it's
done."
