lavanya_six | Taking Sights - Ch 13 is a GO! (Reply)

Chapter 13 of Taking Sights is finally here! Read it at FFnet, Darkscribes, or right here!

Special thanks to blueinkedlines for pre-reading this chapter.

It was nighttime. The world was silent.

On the shore of a desolate beach two women sat. More precisely, there was one woman and one gangly teenager. The woman was happy to enjoy the soft call of the surf rising and retreating and rising and retreating along the shore. The teenage redhead appeared to be at that age where a child takes on an adult's form but not their maturity. She did not find the ocean vista spread before her impressive.

Also, the teen did not move.

She displayed no ticks, no sudden movements. She did not even blink. She simply... existed. Her poise transcended grace into something faintly disturbing, hinting of the Uncanny Valley. To observe her would lead one to inevitably conclude that she nothing more than a fresh corpse – if not for the damning counterevidence of her chest rising and falling with shallow, paced breaths.

"Asuka," began the woman in Japanese, breaking the hours old silence, "how do you feel?"

"It is weird," she enunciated in careful German. "I feel... heavy." She flexed her right hand, but stopped when she thought about how He used to do the same thing. "I do not think I will ever get used to hauling around meat again."

"But it works, right?"

Asuka hummed her satisfaction.

"Everything?"

"Christ," she said, torn away from the calming repetition of the surf. "It's always about the pussy with you, is it not?"

The older woman coughed.

"Are you blushing?" asked Asuka. She stared up, up, up at her traveling companion. "I cannot tell under all that armor." When the last of the Ikaris failed to respond, she carried on. "The plumbing works fine, though I seem to have forgotten the concept of bladder control. I am not really hungry or thirsty, though." She rubbed her stomach gingerly. The movement was entirely mechanical in execution. "I feel heavy."

"You mentioned that."

"Well, I do."

"You aren't going to try and 'lighten up', are you?"

"No."

"Because it takes a lot of work to put your vessels together."

"I am not going to kill myself again, Mrs. Ikari. I am not crying or screaming or ranting anymore, am I?" She slid her toes into the cool chocolate-colored sand. Asuka supposed it felt pleasing. "Besides, what would be the point if I did? It would just be a waste of time. There is nowhere left for me to go."

"Or me," added Yui softly.

"You do not count!" insisted Asuka. "You had a choice in the matter, so do not go bitching to me about your lot in life." She looked away from Yui's body and stared out onto the choppy waves of a lifeless sea on a barren world. "I am perfectly well aware."

Yui looked up at the starry sky. A rusty light fell upon her masked face from the twin slivers of the two fat red moons that hung low in sky. That moonlight mattered little. The night was almost painful to look into; so many stars burned above them. "Where do you want to go next?"

"What is the point? There is only darkness and dust out here."

"Thank you, Nietzsche."

"For someone who personifies the Übermensch, you have a shocking lack of understanding about what Nietzsche was writing about."

"Sue me. I'm a scientist, not a philosopher."

"Well, some of us were. Some of actually bothered expanding our horizons when we went to college instead of plotting the annihilation of their species."

"As I recall, you only took three hours of credit in philosophy, Miss Expert."

"So? You are – were – supposed to be an Ark of Humanity but you know fuck all about Nietzsche, History, and the Smurfs."

"I know he said 'God is dead.'"

"Which just goes to show you know shit about Nietzsche." For the first time in centuries, Asuka willing managed to shift her features into something that almost resembled a glare. She tried projecting it at her traveling companion. "But if you want to be literal, God is dead. We killed Her. You, me, NERV… Him." A large wave came in, washing up to Asuka's ankles. She observed it happening, then watched the water retreat. "God is dead. I watched Her bones erode down to sand. I watched Him run away."

"Asuka," Yui said carefully, "you're not here because God hates you."

"I know," she said. "I am here because God hated Himself."

"..."

"I knew God better than you, Mrs. Ikari."

"…maybe you did."

"You know," she mused, voice cold and brittle, "if it had been Him you were stuck with, you would be happy. If it had even been Her, you would still be all right. Instead you found me. And I got you instead of my Mama. Hell really is other people." Asuka looked up at Yui's towering form. "If I knew how, if it was even possible, I would kill you."

"Well, if it's consolation, I think with the careful application of my AT-Field we might be able to have sex."

"Mein Gott!" snapped Asuka. "Get your mind out of the gutter!"

"What? I'm bored. You're bored. It's about the only thing we haven't done yet."

With an honesty lacking any trace of levity, the redhead countered, "I would rather spend another five billion years screaming then sleep with you."

Yui shrugged. The ground trembled as her weight shifted slightly. "Your loss." She let the sound of crashing waves take the edge off their conversation, then spoke again after several minutes. "Just… let's not fight, Asuka. It's a lovely night."

Despite spoiling for a fight, the former Second Child did set aside her anger. For the moment. Feet in wet beach sand was a rare occasion. Besides, there was time enough to fight later.

"So," said Asuka, "whose turn is it?"

Yui looked over to her. "It's your turn."

"Oh. Okay." She looked up at the strange constellations overhead, the ones that held more red than white now, and began their ritual again, "Once upon a time there was this little girl and her mama..."

# # # presenting # # #

TAKING SIGHTS

Chapter 13 – Sandalphon (Part 1 of 2)

Written by: Lavanya Six

(please don't sue)

# # # another installment in a continuing series # # #

Fifteen minutes after the Evas were loaded onto their transports, Neo-Path 200 and 300, two of the half dozen Airbus Ultra-Heavy Transports in NERV's private fleet, lifted off from the Mount Asama Area. The twin planes trudged over the Japanese countryside with a convoy of light VTOLs carrying staff and MIG 55D transport helicopters carting heavy equipment back to Tokyo-3.

Aboard Neo-Path 300, the transport hauling Unit-02, a conference was taking place. Asuka listened with Shinji, who attended via a video-linkup that took up half of one of the small walls of the room, as they were briefed by Captain Katsuragi on the battle plan.

"We have no idea when Sandalphon will attack," said Misato. "It could be in five minutes. It could be five hours. In any case we can't risk wasting time with a landing so you'll be air dropped into Tokyo-3. Asuka—"

"Yeeesssssss?"

"Unit-02 is to take position on the Geo-Front surface adjacent to Central Dogma."

Asuka sagged.

"You'll protect the Command Center in the event the Angel goes after the MAGI. If Sandalphon approaches Tokyo-3 topside you'll be sent up first. It'll take at least six minutes to retrieve Unit-00 or 01 from Terminal Dogma in the scenario. If the Angel does attack Terminal Dogma, it will take four minutes for the Linear Carriage to carry you down." She turned to the video screen. "Shinji?"

"Yes, Misato?"

"You'll join Rei in Terminal Dogma. Unit-00 has point."

Asuka exploded. "What?! I should be down there! I should have point! I've got the training! And the First has the lowest synch rat-"

"Can it." Misato's tone made it clear she was not in the mood for the Second's antics. "Rei's operated her Eva in Terminal Dogma before. The place is a maze but she knows the terrain. Rei takes point." She paused for a moment, mulling her options, then added, "And for the record, Shinji has a higher synch ratio than you now."

Asuka clenched her jaw and her fists, but in a rare show of tact, said nothing more.

Hyuga maneuvered around Misato and to hand the Second Child a data pad. Misato explained, "We'll reach the drop zone in 52 minutes. Until you board your Evas, I want you both to familiarize yourselves with the layout of Terminal Dogma. Doctor Akagi will brief you once the MAGI have had a chance to crunch the data we obtained from the volcano. Hopefully we'll be able to find a chink in the Angel's armor."

Asuka set the data pad down, balancing it on her plug suit-clad knees. "And if we don't? That thing was tough as hell, Misato. My prog knife just slid off it. And last time I checked coolant lines weren't exactly standard combat issue."

"Then we'll go with Plan B."

The redheaded gaijin frowned. "Plan B?"

"The SDS warheads."

"Schiest!"

"It's that or Third Impact. Now, both of you start reading. There's only 51 minutes until we reach the drop zone."

Shinji nodded in the affirmative, then closed his video link.

Asuka stood up to leave the cramped conference room. Misato stepped forward and grabbed her nearest elbow. "Wait." The redhead turned and looked at her CO, then, with disdain, at the hand laid upon her. "We need to talk about what just happened."

Without a word, Hyuga walked out of the tiny room and shut the door behind him.

"Units 01 and 02," chimed the voice of Lt. Hyuga, "be advised we are sixty seconds from the Tokyo-3 drop zone."

Through the sympathetic nerve links of her Evangelion, Asuka Langley Soryu stared down at the countryside trailing past beneath her. As they neared the Toyko-3 metropolitan area, the hollowed out ruined cityscapes that littered Japan's coastlines gave way to patches of urban areas. Ahead, peaking their heads above the mountains that ringed the area, were the skyscrapers of Tokyo-3. Asuka wondered why they had yet to be retracted.

"After you reach the LZ, advance southeast down International Highway 245 until you reach Access Lift 97. There will be power cables waiting for you. Reconnect to the grid, then proceed to the Geo-Front. Acknowledged?"

"Unit-02 acknowledges," grunted Asuka.

"Yes. Um, Unit-01 also acknowledges."

A glowing overlay of the landing zone appeared on her HUD. Her Neo-Path began to bank to the left.

Lt. Ibuki came on, "Be advised, NERV reports no seismograph anomalies or ground-penetrating radar contacts. Angel status unknown."

You better not screw me over, Misato, thought Asuka. I'm not worthless. I'll show you!

The primary restraint bolts on Unit-02 gave way. The Eva began to slide down its mounting fixture.

I'll show you all!

Unit-02 fell.

FIVE DAYS LATER

12:01am

Unit-02 shuddered as the restraining bolt locked into place. Asuka Langley Soryu leaned back in her Entry Plug's throne and reflexively worked through the checklist for shutting down her Eva. She performed the operation with a collected efficiency, long used to the motions required. Before she deactivated Unit-02's external cameras, she spotted a blue giant being wheeled across the huge Seventh Cage. Broken from her routine, Asuka's fingers fumbled over the plug's butterfly controls and paged open a secure radio channel to the blue Eva. "Seeya on the flip side, Ayanami."

"Roger."

"Asuka," announced Lt. Ibuki, "we're shutting you down now. Prepare to dis—"

"—embark after ejection," said the redhead, stretching out lazily as the LCL began to cycle and drain. Her spine popped. "I know what I'm doing. I've done it a million times before."

"…sorry."

"This is the Second Child," said the teen over the radio, "signing off."

The line cut out.

"Man," pronounced Aoba, absentmindedly tapping out a drum beat on his computer console, "someone's cranky."

Lt. Ibuki said, "Who can blame her?"

"We're all exhausted." Hyuga sighed, pushing his eyeglasses up and massaging the bridge of his nose. His sentiment was mirrored across the Command Center as First Shift moved to replace Third Shift.

The three senior bridge bunnies, however, remained seated. They, unlike their peers, were on 24-hour call unless relieved by Doctor Akagi or Captain Katsuragi, both of whom had seemingly forgotten or simply chosen to ignore their subordinates' human limitations.

"At least we can walk around, instead of being stuck inside metal tubes eight hours a day." He moved to stand. "I'm getting some coffee. Who wants some?"

Maya stood first, stifling a yawn behind a cupped hand. "You stay. You never get the cream right in mine."

"That was one time."

"Soy has no place in coffee, Shigeru." She turned and made for the exit. "I'll be right back."

"Bring back donuts!" Aoba shouted after her. "With sprinkles!"

"I've had this song stuck in my head all day," said Kaji, slouching in his chair at the break room table. "For the life of me, I can't remember what it is."

"Huh," said Dr. Akagi, fiddling with her lighter. "Me too."

Misato Katsuragi did not bother looking at her pager when it buzzed. After a hundred and ten-odd hours into NERV's longest Second Stage Alert, she automatically knew when the shift changes took place and was apathetic to them. If there were an Angel, the alarms would ring.

"Asuka's off now, isn't she?" asked Kaji, munching on a powdered donut. He was careful to avoid dusting sugar onto his stubble.

"Thank God, too," said Ritsuko. "I'll sleep easier with Rei down there."

"You find time to sleep?"

"Cat naps," she answered.

"Ah."

"I'll feel better once Shinji's downstairs," added Misato, standing. "I'd even rather have Asuka, come to think of it."

"No faith in the Commander's favorite?" needled Kaji.

"Rei's competent," offered Misato, sliding the coffee pot off its hot plate, "but she's hardly frontline material. She doesn't have the fight in her. She's not a warrior."

"She follows orders," said Doctor Akagi.

"Following orders makes you a soldier, not a fighter."

Kaji bowed his head melodramatically and swept one donut-wielding hand in front of him in supplication (incidentally, scattering dots of powdered sugar onto his pants). "I bow to your wisdom, Sensei Katsuragi."

Misato ignored her ex as she refilled her mug. "Asuka's our melee fighter, or at least she was before the volcano. Even Shinji would be better than Rei." She set the pot back and reached for the sugar. "Rei's strictly support, especially with that patchy Eva of hers." She glanced at her blonde friend. "No offense."

Feeling too lethargic to banter, Ritsuko replied matter-of-factly, "Unit-00 is fine now, Misato. Whatever its flaws, we've worked them out in the later models. After all, we've never had any problems with Unit-01 or Unit-02, have we?"

"No." She plopped herself back down in a chair at the break room table. "My only problem is that they're not the one patrolling Terminal Dogma right now."

"Trust me," Ritsuko said, not quite believing what she was about to say, "we're safe in Rei's hands."

Only 178 days until I can die, Rei Ayanami chanted to herself.

Clinging to the lift cable, Unit-00 descended into the long dark of the Main Shaft. Its passage lit only by the waxy yellow glow of the sodium vapor lamps sprinkled along the kilometer-long vertical tunnel.

He promised. He promised that if I tried living he would allow me to die.

Only ten Angels and 178 days to go until I can finally die...

Asuka drew a long, wet lock of her hair in front of her eyes and grimaced in disgust. "LCL," she muttered, eyeing the almost-imperceptible film that coated her hair. "Fuck."

Twisting the knob controlling the showerhead to a higher heat, the Second Child eyed her toiletries bag resting on a nearby ledge. The kit contained the dozens of hair and skincare products that she used to maintain her appearance. But what's the damn point if I'm just going to get back inside the Eva in sixteen hours? So stupid! Fuck Misato's plan.

The plan, if Asuka could bring herself to even call it that, consisted of patrolling on three shifts.

One pilot would spend eight hours in Terminal Dogma, synched with their Eva. There they would stand vigil until either the Angel attacked (looking more and more unlikely) or until they were relieved by the next shift. Once they were off-duty, they and their Eva would ascend to the Seventh Cage, disembark, shower, and then fall dead asleep in the bunkroom next to the boys' and girls' pilot locker rooms.

Then, after less than eight hours of sleep, the pilot would be woken up, prompted to suit up, and then spend another eight hours standing around, this time in the Seventh Cage, waiting for an Angel Alarm to sound. During this shift the pilot would eat, relax, and kill time until it was their turn to relieve the person on-duty in Terminal Dogma.

Eight hours in the darkness, aboard an Evangelion. Eight hours (less, really, with showering taken into account) of sleep. Eight hours lounging around in a plug suit (which sucked, because the suit was itchy without being immersed in fluid).

Three shifts spread over twenty-four hours, day in and day out.

This had been going on for five days.

Five days without seeing the sky. Five days without any sort of private time. Five days of Asuka catching people looking at her out of the corners of their eyes.

But Asuka did it anyways - without complaint - because the alternative was worse. If she breathed so much as one bad word, showed a sliver of weakness, then she was sure Misato would carry through on her threat from their friendly chat on the plane.

"Not my mother," she whispered.

Tired of being wet, tired of being on edge, and most of all tired of being tired, Asuka twisted the water valve of the shower to OFF. Lingering only a moment in the comforting steam, she picked her head up and grabbed a clean towel. Draping it over her shoulders, she strode out of the shower, around the corner, into locker room...

…and straight into Shinji Ikari.

"No one likes an eavesdropper," Maya's mother had told her. The lieutenant had taken care to follow her mother's advice all her life, always mindful that there were limits on how far one could intrude into another's life without permission. Maya supposed it was one of the reasons – though a minor reason – why Doctor Akagi had taken her on as her protégé. The young woman trusted her sempai's judgment even in the more… morally squishy areas of NERV's domain.

Yet when she heard her sempai's voice drift around the corner, Maya paused mid-step, her morality suspended when the question asked tugged at her own curiosity. Here was a chance to answer the question that was on everyone's lips these past few days.

"What exactly did you talk about with Asuka," her sempai asked, "and why is the Commander letting her pilot Eva?"

"What we talked about is between Asuka and I," came the response of Captain Katsuragi, her tone friendly but the steel in it apparent, "but it's enough to say that I trust her to pilot Eva for now. The Commander agrees."

"Asuka isn't stable," declared her sempai. Maya was forced to agree. "She shouldn't be in an entry plug."

"I trust Asuka to not fail."

"Your trust doesn't exactly reas—"

"Now now, ladies," said Mister Kaji, pausing for a moment to yawn, "no fighting over the past, especially not with Miss Ibuki eavesdropping."

Fiddlesticks. "Um, sorry," said Maya, stepping out from around the corner.

The three old friends, all seated around a table, looked unimpressed with her espionage skills. Mister Kaji smiled slyly as he eyed her up. Captain Katsuragi seemed more concerned with Doctor Akagi's irritated expression.

"Maya," said her sempai in that lecturing tone she only used when she'd found bad code in Maya's work, "what do you think about Asuka's performance at Mount Asama?"

"Um…"

"What she's asking," Kaji explained, the good cheer in his voice slipping away, "is if you think Asuka is crazy."

Maya went with the first, most professional 'passing the buck' that came to mind. "Maybe it would best for Asuka to talk with someone. Professionally. She's been through a lot of traumatic events in her life."

Mister Kaji and her sempai said nothing.

Captain Katsuragi, however, snorted in a distinctively piggish manner. "Psychologists."

Lt. Ibuki retreated behind the three empty coffee mugs in her hands. "Ma'am?"

Mister Kaji stepped in. "You'll have to forgive Katsuragi. She doesn't truck with shrinks."

"But if Asuka's not able to cope with her psychological issues then she shouldn't be allowed t—

"Everyone has psychological issues," interrupted Captain Katsuragi, stirring her coffee. "What happened with Asuka and her mother was horrible, but is it really any more terrible compared to what any of us went through in the Second Impact?" On this, Maya was forced to agree. "And we all made it out okay." She set her spoon aside and blew across the surface of her milk- and sugar-laden beverage. "Leave Asuka alone. She'll be fine."

"Could you top me off?" Ritsuko, leaning back in her chair, thrust out her half-empty mug behind herself. Misato took it, filled it, and handed it back. "Thanks." The Operations Director rejoined her co-workers at the table. Ritsuko said, "You know, Misato, it wasn't too long ago that you wanted Rei to see a psychologist."

"That's because Rei needs professional help. The girl's just messed up." No one moved to disagree. "Asuka just needs to man up."

"And Shinji? You said he was a headcase too."

"Shinji needs more friends and he needs to get laid," explained the Captain, tapping a neat fingernail rhythmically against the side of her coffee mug. "Men are simple."

Mister Kaji thumped his chest. "You wound me."

"Oh, shut up."

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" screamed Asuka, quickly throwing her towel around herself.

Shinji backpedaled away from the near-naked irate German girl, taking two and a half steps before his back slammed into the row of disused lockers. "I, um, er, uh." The girl's very exposed skin highlighted the growing red blush of righteous anger. "Wh-what are YOU doing in the BOYS locker room?!"

"What? No! You're in--" The girl froze. Her eyes darted around the room. Shinji didn't expect an apology as the truth sank in, though, a part of him noted, some form of embarrassment would have been nice. Instead, Asuka swore in German and glared at him like it was his fault.

"What?"

If possible, she clutched the small towel closer to her curvy body. "Don't keep looking at me, Shinji! What are you, stupid?!"

("That's my line.")

Shinji Ikari shivered as an awful sense of déjà vu washed over him.

Asuka, of course, misinterpreted his response as something else.

"Pervert!"

She brushed past him, going out of her way a half-step just so she could hit him with her shoulder on her walk to the locker room cold welled up inside him. Shinji mumbled something under his breath.

"What?"

The Third Child startled. Hiding his hands in his pants pockets, he said, "I-it's nothing."

"No," said Asuka, turning about and stalking towards the boy. "No. I want to know what you just said."

"I didn't say anyt—"

"Bull. Shit." She got up into his face, thrusting an accusing finger at him. Shinji backed up into the lockers. Asuka moved in, trapping him. "If you have something to say, say it to my face."

Shinji swallowed back the bile that threatened to rise up in his throat. He tried to look the redhead in her eyes but found the gleam in them disconcerting. Very conscious of how close their bodies were, he said, "Y-you know what I said, Asuka."

"Maybe I misheard you," she said, her breathing shallow and rapid. Shinji noted the swells of her breasts through the damp yellow towel. "Maybe I want to hear you say it again to clear up any misunderstanding we have."

"I... I only said..."

"Yesss?" she asked, drawing out the pain.

Bitch.

"...that you look like you should get more sleep."

Asuka snorted but backed off. "Right."

Staring at a bare spot on the far wall, Shinji whispered, "It's what I said."

"Whatever." The Second Child turned her back to him and walked towards the locker room exit. "You disappoint me, Shinji."

Shinji's hands clenched into tight fists. Before he could stop himself, he called out, "Like I care what a coward thinks!"

Silence.

The two teens stood frozen in place. Asuka, closer to the doorway than the boy, stopped mid-step, one hand clenching the fluffy yellow towel around her body. Shinji, meanwhile, felt his blood run cold.

Without turning around, the Second Child said flatly, "You think I'm a coward."

Shinji stayed silent. Inside his chest, his heart pounded harder and harder as the Fight or Flight instinct kicked in.

"You think I'm a coward," she repeated, voice still toneless. "That's a laugh coming from you." She turned her head and glanced at him from out of the corner of her eye. "I'm not the coward here. I've never run away from piloting Eva."

"No," he admitted, his pulse pounding in ears like some devil's song, "you only had a breakdown while pil—"

"SHUT UP!" She snapped, wheeling around to glare daggers at him. "Shut the hell up, you little shit! You have NO idea what happened!"

"I know what happened," Shinji replied, finding it oddly enjoyable to watch his normally condescending roommate lose her temper. The whole experience was a bit like standing outside himself, making his mouth say things that he could never bring himself to say. It was a bit like playing a game of pretend. "You're so arrogant all the time, always talking yourself up like you're so superior," he stalked forward and, amazingly, Asuka took a half-step back, "but you screwed up. Just like with the 7th Angel! And this time Rei's going to have to help me carry your dead weight too." He paused, half-amazed he could make his mouth say these things, then added as the final comeuppance, "I'm not sure what's more impressive – that you somehow managed to beat the 6th Angel on your own or that you didn't get yourself killed doing it."

Asuka narrowed her eyes. Her bare shoulders began to tremble, though with what emotion Shinji was not certain. The diversion of his attention to her bare white skin and the wet, uncombed strands of crimson-colored hair draped behind her shoulders struck up an odd thought inside him.

She's thin, he thought to himself.

Not thin in the sense of attractiveness or health, Asuka was thin in the sense of youth. There was not much muscle nor much fat there; she was undeveloped. In those bare shoulders, skin still flushed from the heat of the shower, Shinji suddenly saw that Asuka Langley Soryu was the same age as him. She was like him. He looked at her again, as if for the first time, and saw an angry fourteen year-old gaijin, dressed only in a towel that ran from armpits down to show more than a little leg.

"Third Child," she said, the trembling in her shoulders moving down her arms and legs, "you... you!"

"I... Asuka, I'm sorry," he said, for once genuinely meaning it as something other than a conversational crutch. "I'm sor—GerruuHK!"

Before he could react, before he could think, Shinji found himself up against the lockers, the soles of his feet dangling an inch off the floor, with Asuka Langley Soryu's fingers wrapped around his neck.

In the vast, barren office, the two commanders sat hunched over a Go board.

"Ikari?"

The clean-shaven man murmured his acknowledgement of the question but did not look up from the pieces in play.

Fuyutsuki, sensing he had already lost, made a nonsensical move. Against someone like Gendo Ikari, who always looked for wheels within wheels, it occasionally proved an effective tactic. "About Shinji—"

"Yes?"

"I think… no. You need to talk with him."

Gendo didn't look up. "That would not be prudent. Shinji pilots. I require nothing more from him."

"He's your son."

"Biologically speaking, that is correct."

"It's not too late for you two to—"

"Reconcile?" Gendo smirked. Here, at last, he looked at him over the frames of his designer glasses. "I'm afraid that train has left the station."

Kozo sighed. "You're both still alive, Gendo."

"Hope isn't enough, old man, despite what Yui might have said." Fuyutsuki's ear twitched at the reference to Yui in the past tense. It still rubbed him wrong, coming from Gendo. "Some wounds don't heal, not even with the passage of time."

"Or death?"

"Or death."

"You could still try."

"That would only cause Shinji more pain. I've done enough of that for two lifetimes already, and the boy will endure far worse before this farce reaches its inevitable climax."

"He's not the only one." Fuyutsuki sipped his drink, letting the cool amber liquid burn its way down his throat. He set his glass back down, covering his mouth with his free hand to hide a yawn. "But Shinji's still your flesh and blood."

"Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki," said the Commander, stressing the use of his title, "I have the situation with Shinji well in hand."

"GhhhKKT!" Asuka Langely Soryu tightened her grip on his neck. Shinji kicked out at her legs, clawed at the hands around his throat, but it was no use. "assss-kkaa!" he hissed through the vice.

"Du Hurensohn!" she spat in his face, eyes wild. "Sie sind besonder nicht!"

Oh God not like this.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
Idon'twanttodie
Hikari!
Misato!
Ritsuko!
F-Father!
Ayanami!

M-M-

"—mother," he grunted.

Asuka let go.

Shinji collapsed to his knees. His hands ran to protect his neck, where, in a few short hours, a set of nasty and distinctive bruises would form. Eyes red and tear-filled, he gasped in lungful after lungful of sweet oxygen.

He looked up at his attacker.

Towel still – barely – hanging around her midsection, the Second Child looked positively green. Her focus, Shinji noted, was not on him, but rather on herself. "No," she said, staring at her hands. "No no no no no no."

Shinji staggered to his feet but stumbled. Unsteady, he went with crawling away from his attacker. Halfway to the door he heard her call out to him.

"Shinji!" she pleaded.

He hurried faster.

"Shinji!" Closer this time. He felt her touch his shoulder. "Mein Gott, Shinji, I'm sorr—"

Shinji wheeled around and threw a blind punch towards Asuka.

It never should have landed.

Asuka, having received extensive physical and combat training during her upbringing at NERV's Second Branch base in Germany, was more than capable of handing someone like Shinji – who had never even been punched before – his skinny ass. But Asuka was distracted, and Shinji was riding a raging adrenaline high, the likes of which he had never had outside of an Angel fight.

The punch never should have landed, but it did.

Asuka crumpled, her nose exploding into a bloody mess.

"Captain Katsuragi."

"Hyuga, Shigeru," she said, approaching them. "Anything to report?"

"No ma'am," said the long-haired technician, accepting his coffee from a happily humming Maya. "No seismograph anomalies, ground-penetrating radar contacts, or AT-Field signatures."

"Great. Nothing like getting stood up."

"No donuts?" asked Hyuga.

"Mister Kaji ate them all," explained Maya.

Shinji stared down at the near-naked, bleeding body of the Second Child, her modesty preserved only by the towel haphazardly cast over her. As she wrenched herself off the floor, onto her hands and knees, even that shred of dignity was denied her as the towel fell off her shoulders, exposing her pink-tipped breasts.

Shinji looked away.

"Asuka, I'm s—"

The Second Child leapt at him.

The teens crashed to the hard concrete floor in a tangle of limbs. Shinji, dazed from his head hitting the ground, could not fend off Asuka as she hauled herself up over him, fistful by fistful of his white dress shirt. When the pounding of drums in his head subsided somewhat, he refocused on the world around him – only to be swallowed whole by draped red hair and fierce blue eyes.

"Third Child," she hissed, hot blood from her weeping nose dripping down onto his face, "if you say you're sorry one more time I swear to GOD it will be the last thing you EVER say."

"Fuyutsuki?"

"Yes, Ikari?"

"Why are you humming a lullaby?"

He blinked. "I am?"

"Yes." Gendo Ikari adjusted his glasses. "It's irritating."

He bucked up, only to find the weight of Asuka on his chest kept him down. His wrists were pinned by her hands. Oddly, his next thought was not of finding a means of escape but of making sure not to stare at her bared breasts. Asuka, he decided, would murder him if she thought he was ogling her.

She continued, this time her voice flat and without inflection. "I am not a coward. You are. You run away from everything, even your asshole father. I never give up. You do." Her fingers loosened their grip on his wrists. Shinji tried to pull them away from her, but, in an instant, Asuka had him captured in her vice again, her nails digging into his flesh. "Stop it!"

"Let me go!"

"NO!"

"~No no no no no, No no no no no
And a no no no, with a ah ah ah and a hey hey hey
why does love have to be this way, tell me mama~"

Hyuga Makoto sipped his caffeine fix as he watched his friend sing and strum an air guitar like a pro. Once Shigeru Aoba finished his rendition, Hyuga said, "Nice."

"Thanks." He picked up his own coffee mug and gulped some down. He then leaned back in his seat and groaned, "God, I feel like I've been on a bender."

"Tell me about it," said Hyuga, idly drumming his fingertips along the side of his own mug. "The Captain has to stand us down sometime."

"She doesn't have to do anything," said Aoba, smirking without humor. "We have our orders."

"Thanks for reminding me."

"Hey, no problem." Aoba tapped the heel of his uniform boot against the metal floor of the Command Center, working out a half-remembered song at the back of his mind. His stomach grumbled. "Man, I wish Mister Kaji hadn't been such a pig."

"Seriously."

"What the hell's wrong with you?!" he shouted up at her.

"With ME?!"

Despite his fear, Shinji barked a laugh. "I insulted you and then you strangle me and I'm the one that's messed up?"

"I... I..."

Doctor Ritsuko Akagi flicked her lighter on, then flicked it off, then flicked it on…

"Tempted?" asked Kaji, smiling over his coffee mug.

Off. On. Off. On. Off… "Yes, to be honest. The worst of the headache has passed, but my mind doesn't seem to be working as fast as it used to." She looked away from the flame of her lighter and closed her eyes. Laughing softly, she added, "I've also been eating too much chocolate."

"It's natural to seek comfort," Kaji drained the last dregs of his drink, "to escape from pain."

"Some people like pain, Ryoji."

"Is that a come on, Ritsu?"

"If you think so," she said, tapping the butt of her lighter on the break room's table, "then you don't know me very well."

"That's not an answer."

"I know you better than you know me, Kaji."

He smiled. "Oh? How so?"

"Well, for one," she said offhandedly, fiddling with her lighter, "I know you're Keel's spy."

"I'm… you… you shouldn't have said those things!"

"I know," he said, staring past her bloody, leaking nose to her cutting blue eyes. "I'm s—"

She glared down at him.

"I… I apologize."

Asuka turned her eyes from him. "Disgusting," she muttered.

It lurked in the back of the minds of thousands of men and women, hiding at the edge of consciousness in the form of a half-remembered tune. To Shinji Ikari, it was a half-remembered cello chord ringing in his blood, one that, if completed and properly accompanied, he might have recognized as the Ode to Joy. To Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki, it was the lullaby hummed in the shade by Yui Ikari to her son that fateful summer day all those years ago. To each person who felt it inside themselves, the tune dredged up memories of dreams lost and of the death of hope – it was a song of pain, the very song of the Lilium themselves.

It materialized in the physical world the form of fingers drumming, shoes tapping, knees bouncing, humming and whistling. It was a song unlike any other, played out by a band scattered across NERV headquarters.

The thing about songs, though, is that all of them must end.

Maya leaned against the command console and closed her eyes.

"Maya?"

She groaned.

"Are you alright?" asked the Captain.

"I… I'm sorry, ma'am. I feel—"

"—free to tell me why you insist on humming when I've asked you to stop," said Gendo Ikari. He narrowed his eyes a fraction. "Twice."

"Ikari," he said, rubbing his forehead as a terrific headache bloomed inside his skull, "I wasn't humming."

"Yes, you were."

"I think I'd remember—"

"—that story about the girl with the two umbrellas?" Aoba typed in a root command, then glanced back at his coworker when no response came. "Hyuga? Hey! Wake up! Man, don't—"

"—tell me," said Ritsuko, blinking wildly as she fought to keep her eyes open, "did you ever once consider what your death will do to Misato? Because Ikari will kill you once he's used you up."

Kaji wanted to stand up, to yell, but he could not. He legs were dead weight, and he could not raise his voice to full strength. "D-don't lecture me right and wrong."

"Damn it, Kaji... why... why don't you—" But she never finished her thought, instead punctuating her sentence with the smack of her head on the desk. Ritsuko Akagi did not move.

Across from her, Ryoji Kaji slumped back in his seat, unconscious.

"WAKE UP!" Gendo shook his subordinate by the collar of his beige uniform jacket. "DO YOU HEAR ME, OLD MAN?!"

Vice-Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki snored.

"WAKE UP!" He backhanded his friend, but the only result was Kozo's head rolling aside. "Damn it!" Gendo lowered the old man to the floor. He turned to his desk and picked up the phone again. He tried calling both the Infirmary and the Directory, both to no effect. "Damn, damn, damn. What the hell is going on?"

Taking one last look at the dead phone and his unconscious Vice-Commander, Gendo Ikari ran for the door of his office.

"..."

"Shinji?" Asuka grabbed hold of the boy's shoulders and shook him. "Shinji?! Hey! Wake up!"

The blood-stained, bruised boy spread out beneath her didn't respond.

"Oh shit."

Misato Katsuragi laid face down on the main deck of the Central Dogma.

She was not alone.

All around the Command Center the men and women of NERV's ranks were either slumped over computer consoles or scattered on the metal flooring like so much carelessly scattered grain. No one remained awake to hear the MAGI sounding the First Stage Alert siren, nor did anyone see the prompt that flashed on the main holographic projector:

ALERT!
AT-Field Detected
Blood Analysis: BLUE
8th Angel CONFIRMED

# # # To Be Continued

Next Chapter: Sandalphon (Part 2) –– With the rest of NERV incapacitated, Asuka and Gendo are left to formulate a counterattack. But to defeat Sandalphon, they will have to risk Third Impact itself! Meanwhile, in Terminal Dogma, Unit-00 waits...