Few weeks ago,
Kagerou proposed a certain crack pairing that I thought might be fun to try. It was about two background characters that are kind of important, but usually absent from NGE fanfiction.
Thus, I present: Two Souls: an Evangelion fanfiction:
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Two souls
Chapter 1., part 1. – tea time
On a warm, summer afternoon, a woman is walking the corridors of a house. The sun shines through large windows; the sunrays dance on the dust that rises as she passes. This is a mansion, an opulent house, a relic of the past – or a result of someone's grandeur and fascination with the old. It is filled with a lot of art: paintings, sculptures, old furniture… and yet it is eerily empty.
Corridors are endless. The woman is roaming them, looking for something, something very important, something critical, but she does not know what it is.
'It must be here. There is no other place it can be.' She has no idea how she came here. She does not know where she is. She does not know–
'Who am I?'
She walks the corridors, looks through the windows, enters the rooms. A living room, with large fireplace, but there is no fire in it. A study, filled with shelves and shelves of books; she stifles the urge to browse them; the answer is not in the books, that she knows. A large bedroom, with huge double bed, empty and neatly made. Smaller bedroom, with colourful furnishing and small bed, most likely a child's room. A nursery, with a baby bed and some toys. A dressing-room.
She feels drawn inside this one. There are several closets, a clothing rack or two, a mannequin, and a large standing mirror in heavy frames.
The woman in the mirror is dressed in proper XIX century dress, her face bright; she is younger than she remembers herself from the day she–
The day she–
Died?
Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu beholds her reflection with mix of confusion and fear.
'
This is who I am. But this is wrong. This is like lifted from a damned Jane Austen novel, this is not Berlin, this is not my home, this is not the laboratory, this is not… Where am I?'
***
The mansion is enormous. Kyoko enters another floor; finds a kitchen, dining room, some kind of workshop for stuffing animals. All rooms are full of things, all rooms are devoid of people.
'Am I a prisoner? Is this some nightmare?', a seed of panic starts to bloom. Her steps hasten, leading her to a corridor, seeking an exit. She heads outside, swinging the garden door with force.
"Oh."
An Asian woman sits in the garden behind a table set for an afternoon tea. She wears a dress from the same time as Kyoko's and a simple, if appropriate to the time period, straw hat.
"Hello, Soryu", the woman says. "Please, join me", she gestures at a wicker garden chair across the table. Kyoko stares at her, unmoving. Woman's slender hands reach for a porcelain teapot. "Please, sit down. I will explain. Tea?"
"Hello", Kyoko manages to say. The woman does look
familiar… her name is on the tip of Kyoko's tongue, her importance on the verge of Kyoko's understanding… but still eluding her. She sits down on the edge of the seat. Somehow, she is able to handle this unwieldy dress without tripping. In different circumstances, she would wonder about that little detail; now, she is too busy figuring out what the Hell is going on.
The woman pours the tea into an elaborate teacup and hands it to Kyoko with steady hands; Kyoko notices her own hands shaking. She sets the teacup it on the table with a sudden move and is glad when it does not break. "What– what is happening? What is– what is this?"
The woman looks at her with surprise, her dark eyes expressing worry. "This… may be more problematic than I thought. Let's start from the beginning, then. Do you know who you are?"
"I… I am Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu", Kyoko replies hesitantly.
'Tip of my tongue…'
"Good. What is the last thing you remember?", the woman inquires while slicing the cake.
"The corridors… and not much before."
The woman sighs. "Not good. Something must've gone wrong. The beginning is further than I thought; good that we have time", she smiles. "Next question: do you know who I am?"
Kyoko shakes her head. Her mind is racing. The woman sighs again: "I was hoping to avoid that; it ruins the immersion, but it seems your memory needs something familiar to latch on."
She stands up, Kyoko's eyes track her movements: she is small, graceful, and confident in her movements… and annoyingly familiar. "Look at me, and remember", the woman says softly. In an eyeblink, her appearance shifts: Kyoko now stares at a short-haired woman in modern clothing and a lab coat. She smiles a familiar smile: "How is it now?"
Kyoko's mind is suddenly flooded: images, voices, scenes.
This was a woman she heard of and finally met, a brilliant scientist whose work she admired and continued, person that sacrificed–
"Ikari. Yui Ikari."
The woman smiles.
***
Kyoko sits on the edge of her seat, her head spinning. She tries to collect her thoughts, but for now, she focuses on her tea; the peach pie tastes great, so does the infusion. Yui sits across the table, back in her period dress; she changed back as quickly as she assumed modern attire the moment before. She is still smiling; Kyoko takes a deep breath.
"All right. I know who I am, I realised that when I saw my face. Now you stirred my memory on who you are", she trails off. "Are we dead? Is this Heaven? Hell? Purgatory?"
"It is… complicated. I feel pretty alive, thank you, but it is no surprise you thought me dead; after all, all the methods of measuring soul presence had no baseline", Kyoko nods, not really following. "And no, this is neither: this is not afterlife at all. I didn't exactly
name this place, there was no need for it; I just call it
my garden. I created it when I was… well, bored", Yui explains, a bit sheepishly. Kyoko raises one eyebrow. "It is lonely and empty inside the Evangelion."
Kyoko freezes for a moment, teacup in hand starting to shake.
'I died. I am… Eva?'
Memory of horrible pain and feeling of burned skin floods her mind. Images follow, chaotically: preparations for Contact Experiment; more pain, pain that felt like something was clawing on her soul, leaving scorched marks; moment when she saw herself inside the Core, as she were looking from the outside; then silence. Long silence, interrupted by hazy dreams of her… daughter? inside the Evangelion.
She shakes her head repeatedly. "I am Evangelion. I am inside", she manages to say.
"Yes", Yui replies; Kyoko feels a warm hand touching her own. Kyoko reflexively pulls back.
Silence surrounds them for a time, interrupted only by a bird screeching in the bushes. Kyoko's breath slows down, and she raises her eyes back to meet Yui's.
"I'm… sorry. This is… I knew it could end like this, but…", she shakes her head again and takes a sip of tea. "I… I don't have memories after the… accident. Experiment. No clear ones… what… how?"
Yui sighs. "It is not exactly easy to explain. My transformation must have caused changes in protocol. Unit-01 is… specific. Unfettered. Less fettered. Contrary to you, I am aware almost all the time, and it the beginning, it was maddening. But then I realised I control the soul of this… thing, or at least some components of it. So, I started to shape it. Carved out a corner for myself. I had years to do this", Yui elaborates, smiling.
"You made yourself a garden. Inside a most powerful war machine known to humanity. Like a poet forced to become a warrior", Kyoko realises, with a hint of awe.
"I am not a poet, Soryu", Yui objects. "I am a scientist. I wanted a place. Somewhere to go. So, I made it with my own mind."
"All right", Kyoko shakes her head and pinches bridge of her nose. "I am tempted to interrogate you on
how did you manage to create all this and
how I can replicate it in my own machine, but there is a more pressing matter, beside me going mad from all this revelation. Tell me:
why does this look like a film set for Pride and Prejudice adaptation?"
"I like the dresses" is the only reply; Yui hides her face behind a suddenly enormous teacup. Kyoko rolls her eyes at the blatancy of the guise.
'Well, what can I say, they do look nice. Of course, it requires ignoring many, many unpleasant aspects of the era to enjoy; well, maybe this is why place is so empty?', she muses. She takes another piece of cake;
'for an illusion, they really taste great.'
There is a moment of silence with only cutlery clattering.
"Ikari…", she speaks up after eating another slice;
'This is actually neat, I guess I can eat all I want here and not even worry once about my health', she spares a thought before returning to serious tone of thinking. "Why did you bring me here? You could create any company you wished here, I suppose, why bring me here? And how?"
Yui puts down her suddenly normal teacup, her face serious. "This is the grimmer part. 'How' is relatively simple – Evangelions have numerous systems, and while most of them are disabled when they're locked down, some are not considered dangerous enough to warrant separate locks – and they use very little power. I subverted the comm system; please, don't ask me
how I did that
exactly, most people don't know how their bones realign when they turn their palm or how move their vocal chords to speak; they just do it and it works. I used my instinct and Eva's feedback. I flexed the mind's muscles, so to say, and just did it."
"There was one soul in another unit, but it was… hostile, messy, wrong, almost alien. I suppose I confused it further, made it angry. Or maybe I misread its expressions. I just don't know. I stopped reaching when she screamed at me", Yui picks up her teacup again. "I didn't try again, lest I cause damage or singe myself. Then there were some battles and healing that took my attention, and then I sensed some other presence. I reached out… and found you."
Kyoko nods, her head still spinning. "And you somehow transferred me here? Is the other Eva empty? Why couldn't I do it?"
"One thing at a time, dear", Yui smiles and briefly touches Kyoko's hand; this time, Kyoko does not pull her hand back. "No, I did not
transfer you here… I think I did not. You're not
exactly here, I believe. Please, keep in mind it's the first time I do this, so there is a lot of
ifs and
maybes", she pauses and pours tea to Kyoko's nearly empty cup. "As far as I know, you're still in Core of your Evangelion. I… pulled your presence, established a link… again, don't ask me what exactly I did. There were some problems: locating you was difficult, you were… slippery, for the lack of better word. I kept hearing your voice, but sometimes it was… mangled, for lack of better word again. It took me a few days. Not that I had much to do between battles and healing", she smiles wistfully. "But I managed, and then busied myself with setting up the table until you found me", she finishes happily.
Kyoko takes her time digesting the explanation. "All right", she speaks up. "This kind of explains the
how. Somewhat. It is fascinating, to be frank, and I would love to understand the process. But
why? Aside the company, of course, but I don't think of myself as a very good company. Unless you want to discuss science, of course."
Yui's face turns serious, and she takes Kyoko hand in both of hers. "We have a role to play, Soryu. We have a world to save… or to transform. And I need your help to do that."
Kyoko looks into Yui's eyes and sees a steely determination.
'Suddenly, this summer day feels very chilly…'
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That's it for now. Comments and constructive criticism welcome, if feared.
While true, this didn't yet start to show on Asuka, she seems to have grown up just fine, despite Kyoko being absent. The truth may hit Kyoko a bit... hard.