Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Third Labor (Forward to the past) ❯ A Paler Shade Of Grey ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

THIRD LABOR: A paler shade of Grey (Chapter One)

Note that this builds on events in "Skysaber's Choice" and directly follows the events in "Reluctant Bet"

---------

Grey felt things fall apart, the Worldgate shutting down in mid-transport, and did what little he could, gathering Ami and Sasami close with his arms as he used a leg to hook around a support and try to anchor himself. The horses screamed, and there were other screams as well that indicated other people were caught unawares by the vortex.

Something slammed into the back of his head, and Grey loosened from the impact and it felt as if Ami and Sasami vanished in that moment as well as the comforting solidity of the wagon.

---------

"Shinji? Shinji!"

Grey groaned, not wanting this to be confirmed. He opened his eyes to see Misato Katsuragi looking down on him. ~Oh, crap!~

"Shinji! You *are* Shinji Ikari, aren't you?" Misato stood up.

"Certainly looks that way," Grey held up a skinny arm, without any of the callouses or scars he'd had at Shinji's age. Certainly without the muscle he'd developed later, particularly after going through battle training by some particularly sadistic Valkyries. ~Okay, dimensional vortex, and now i've 'leapt' into Shinji Ikari. Best to go along with this until i figure out what to do next.~ "Uhm, you're my contact, right?"

"Captain Misato Katsuragi! C'mon, we've got to get out of here!" Misato jerked a thumb at a 60ft+ tall figure walking away from their position. At that point a shot from a UN Combat chopper struck Misato's car, instantly transforming it from "sports car" to "flaming wreck".

Misato rose up from where she'd ducked behind a bench and whimpered.

"You *did* have Giant Monster Battle insurance on that, didn't you?" Shinji (best to go with the flow) asked as he scratched his head.

Misato whimpered again in reply, staring at the ruin. "...I've still got payments..."

Shinji nodded and took stock: no equipment, no backup, and he was in the physical body of an anemic spineless wimp. This sucked. "Okay, how about calling for alternate transportation?"

"My phone was..."

Shinji winced. "In the car. Right. And the phone lines here are down. Well, that leaves us with only one option, doesn't it?"

Misato kept staring at her car and mumbling about the damage to her bank account.

Realizing he wasn't getting anywhere, Shinji paused. He could *feel* someone's presence. One of the benefits of having your wedding ceremony performed in Asgard by an actual goddess. Even if it *had* been rather crowded and a shotgun affair. Telepathy wasn't possible, not here at least, but he could feel the presence of a wife in THAT direction.

Shinji opened his eyes. "C'mon, Captain, this way."

"But..." Misato eyed the boy as he went walking off with determination. Certainly he carried himself differently than she expected. "...but..."

Shinji smiled as he heard Misato following him. It didn't take long before he found someone sprawled unconscious on the street and ran towards her. Shaking her gently, the girl finally stirred.

"Who's she? Why isn't she evacuated?" Misato was a little surprised but still in shock and going over her monthly payments on a car that had attained the past tense.

Ami blinked, not recognizing the face, but something told her..."Grey?"

Shinji smiled and nodded at Ami's hesitant response, he whispered just loud enough for her to hear: "We'll talk later. Check your purse for identification while I keep Misato there occupied. Then introduce yourself, please follow my lead."

Ami nodded, so Shinji walked back to where Misato was finally coming out of her "I'm financially doomed" trance.

"Well, Captain, what's with the Giant Monster? You obviously know what's going on around here!" Shinji went on the attack, knowing that keeping Misato off guard would buy them some valuable time.

"Hey, I wanted to know who's this girl! And... oh man, how am I going to explain this to the Commander?" Misato winced at the thought of the report she'd end up filing.

"She's with me. We go everywhere together. Now, what's with the Giant Monster? You're not getting either of us until we hear some answers more than that irresponsible deadbeat poor excuse for a father -Gendo Ikari wants to see me. After seeing a Giant Monster from way too close, *i* am supposed to just swallow my questions and go gallivanting off after him. Next thing you know there'll be Giant Robots in a Hidden Base and Secret Plans of World Destruction."

"I don't..." Misato bit off the rest of her reply and went thoughtful. "Actually we're the Last Best Hope For Mankind's Survival."

"That's what they *all* say in the old cartoons." Shinji cocked his head to the side and regarded her. "So you're not denying the Secret Base and Giant Robot stuff? You didn't hit your head when you dove behind the bench, did you?"

"No!" Misato yelled, briefly losing her temper.

"Excuse me," Ami said, easing up to Shinji's side and taking his hand. "I'm Ami Mizuno, you know Grey-chan?"

"'Grey-chan?'" Misato repeated.

"A nickname i got after my horrid excuse-for-a-father, Gendo Ikari, dumped me after he turned my mother into a puddle of goo during an experiment. As you might expect, it was a bit of a traumatic event." Grey smiled at Ami and squeezed her hand. "You ought to call me Shinji just to avoid confusing people."

Ami blushed but smiled herself. "Uhm. Well, I, ah, anyway I'm... Shinji-kun's girlfriend. Here's my ID. When the request for his school records came through, I took the liberty of having my own transferred as well."

Misato's hair was toinging again. "I think I've heard of you... Rits mentioned something about some girl genius transferring to Tokyo-3. That's you?"

"H-hai..." Ami's shyness was returning with a vengeance and she felt the need to lean on something. Naturally, she chose the boy who's hand she was holding. Coincidence, of course.

"But why aren't you in a shelter? It's dangerous out here." Misato winced as the rumble of autocannon in the background punctuated her sentence.

In answer, Ami lifted a keyring out of her purse and punched a button on the side of a 'pillbox' hanging from it. A rental truck flashed its lights in response.

"You're fourteen, and driving?! No no no no NO." Misato held her hand out. "Kids nowadays. Geez! I'M driving. How'd you..."

Ami just shrugged and smiled happily as she leaned against her boyfriend. Using the action to whisper to him. "There's a little diary in my purse. I need more time to read it."

Shinji nodded and whispered back. "It may have to wait. i'll see if we can't drop you off outside of NERV, otherwise they'll probably search your stuff."

Misato found herself wincing. The two were whispering to each other, and she'd seen enough to extrapolate. A couple THAT close and unchaperoned on a crosscountry trip. If they hadn't been sleeping together she'd be *very* surprised and they probably couldn't bear to be apart very long at THAT stage of their relationship. The 'girl genius' showed every sign of having been transformed into a giggly schoolgirl, while the 'pilot' probably wasn't able to think of anything beyond his girlfriend for long periods of time. She wondered what other details were going to pop up and start slapping her in the face.

---------

To Misato's considerable relief, the rental truck had a working phoneline and a call to NERV HQ did manage to go through. The relief was only temporary, however.

Ritsuko's annoyance was quite obvious despite the line static. "What do you mean you're driving a rental truck?! What happened to your car?"

"Uhm, well, it looked like a small missile managed to hit it," Misato tried to laugh about it.

"Did you get the insurance package that covered military actions?"

Misato winced. "Well..."

"Translation: no. Well, did you at least manage to get the pilot?"

Misato's wince was joined by a sweatdrop. "Errr. Yes... he's here with me."

"I hear a 'but' in there."

Misato's sweatdrop was joined by several cousins. "Well... there's kind of a complication..."

Ritsuko's voice dropped slightly. "What *kind* of complication?"

"He brought his girlfriend... or she brought him, or something like that..."

"WHAT?!" Ritsuko's voice was loud enough that it drew curious looks from Shinji (who was otherwise just watching the scenery) and Ami (who had had her nose in a book since Misato had started driving). "What do you mean 'girlfriend'?!"

"Her name's Ami Mizuno, you remember mentioning some girl transferring to Tokyo 3 High School?"

"Mizuno-san?!" Ritsuko's voice lost the edge that had appeared in it. "That's... interesting. I read her term paper on the longrange climatic effects of the Second Impact, and her theories about the dwindling number of children being born- particularly male children. With the scanty data she was able to access, it was quite impressive. Completely wrong, but impressive nonetheless..."

"Something occur to you?" Misato was glad the streets were so deserted, it made driving this ornery thing much easier than it otherwise would have been.

"This is not a secure line," Ritsuko reminded.

"Talk to you when I'm there, then." Misato hung up the phone as they approached a tunnel.

"WHAT THE?!" Shinji yelped. "Ami-chan, does your compact have a mirror?"

"What's the problem?" Misato looked over the boy but couldn't see anything different. His girlfriend, on the other hand, was definitely blushing *again* as she handed him the requested article. ~Damn. If they're *that* much into each other... the Commander isn't going to like this.~

Shinji fumbled it open and stared long enough for Misato to notice.

"Shinji, is something wrong? You didn't get too much sun, did you? With that fair skin, I've bet you've got to be careful." Misato wasn't sure why Shinji had that "punched in the gut" look to him.

"Oh yeah," Shinji nodded. "Albinos like me tend to burn pretty quickly out in the sun..."

---------

Fuyutsuki looked at the report. "So it's happening much as you've planned. Chairman Keele has his hopes pinned on this Human Instrumentality Project (HIP), but SEELE's backup plan..."

Gendo nodded, his gaze never wavering from the geofront view outside his window. "The Genetic Upgrade Test Series (GUTS) is progressing ahead of schedule. So Shinji has been seeing the Alpha unit..."

Fuyutsuki glanced at his superior, not bothering to mention that the Alpha unit had a name. Gendo would use it when he wanted to. Not before.

----------

"Estimate fifteen minutes until the yoma arrives," a female voice announced over the intercom.

Another female voice spoke immediately thereafter. "N2 Mine has successfully destroyed 90% of 'troop' yoma, the General *is* regenerating."

Ritsuko watched the monitor. "Look at that, the boy's being quite protective of his little girlfriend. How... useful."

"Useful?" Maya wasn't quite sure what to make of that comment.

"It gives us a tether by which we can manipulate him," answered Ritsuko absently. "Look at how he's ready to start a fight with that one security guard for copping a feel while frisking Mizuno-san. Despite the guard being quite a bit larger. With territorial instincts like that, we'll be able to get him jumping through any rings we want."

"A guard did what?!"

"Actually he was planting a chempatch onto her skin, the grab was just to distract attention." Ritsuko Akagi pursed her lips and considered the display briefly. "Now we just have to seperate the two of them and we'll be able to get Alpha ready."

Maya blinked. "She's the Alpha unit? What about..."

"Shinji will pilot Unit One. Asuka will pilot Unit Two. Ayanami will pilot Unit Zero. The others all have their own places."

Maya winced. Yes, she had a crush on Ritsuko Akagi, she admired the woman's fierce intellect and ability to pull solutions out of nowhere. That didn't mean that Ritsuko didn't scare the piss out of Maya every so often.

---------

"Mizuno-san will have to stay here, it's too late to get her to a shelter." Misato didn't mention that the security teams were likely going through the packed belongings on the truck with a fine tooth comb right now.

"I don't trust Secret Government Organizations running out of Hidden Bases," noted Shinji with a calm voice, fingering an odd little marble in his pocket. "The prediliction for secretive behavior often copies over into other areas, like hidden agendas and secret plans. Therefore, Ami-chan should stay with me."

"I'll be okay," Ami reassured her boyfriend (that thought sending a fresh blush across her cheeks). "I'm feeling a bit tired, anyway."

Shinji frowned some more but finally nodded. "Okay, if you insist."

"I insist. Go out and save the world or whatever." Ami sat down in one of the plastic "bus station" sort of chairs, ending the argument.

Ami watched the two go off and tried (unsuccessfully) to find a magazine of interest. She finally settled on an old issue of Cosmopolitan and started reading THAT with a fair heaping of guilty pleasure. Especially when the first article she turned to was on how to rate your relationship using the Kinsey-Matsumoto System. (She'd never heard of either, though the article indicated that one was a psychologist and the other a marriage counselor.

Acting out fantasies was the first question. Maybe if she played Doctor...

She was sound asleep with an odd little grin when the men in dark suits came for her.

---------

Eyecatch #3:

Minako Aino in a framed picture, wearing a skirt and blouse. With a click, the picture turns over and she's wearing a plugsuit. Click/turn. Minako's wearing a Sailor Venus seifuku. Click/turn. Minako's wearing a cheerleader outfit. Click/turn. Minako as a Lodoss style elf. Click/turn, Minako the cute lil' angel.

Eyecatch #4:

Ami Mizuno in a framed picture, wearing a labcoat and stethoscope. The picture turns over with a click, revealing a picture of Amy Anderson as a Vulcan in a Star Fleet science uniform. Click/flip: Sailor Mercury. Click/flip: Ami as a RIFTS Rogue Scientist in a suit of Urban Warrior megadamage armor. Click/flip: Ami as a cute little angel.

---------

Ritsuko, Misato, Gendo, and half the crew from NERV HQ noted the difference between the sulking albino led into the storage bay to the fierce boy ready to do his level best to defend his girlfriend at the security checkpoint.

"Are you sure about this? Isn't there someone better? What about the effect on the environment? Has anyone even *tried* to talk with these yoma?"

"Commander," mumbled Fuyutsuki as he stood behind Gendo, "maybe we *need* Alpha after all."

Gendo smirked (smirk#7) and didn't respond verbally.

Misato, in the bay, pointed towards Unit One. "Get in there, you're a boy you know!"

Shinji blinked at Misato for a moment, then very deliberately, looked down the front of his pants. "Oh my lord! You're right! Well, no sense sending a boy in to do a woman's job. Good luck, Misato, go kill that yoma-thingie..."

Misato blinked as she realized that Shinji was halfway towards the door. "HEY!"

Shinji got to the door, found it wouldn't open, and sighed. Not that easy to get out of this Reality...

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Misato screamed, having absolutely no idea what to do about a suddenly *very* reluctant pilot.

"Shinji. You will pilot Unit One."

Shinji dropped the pretense. "What are you doing to Ami-chan?"

Gendo frowned and it showed in his voice. "The girl is safe. For now. This will not be the case if the Yoma accesses this Geofront."

"Let Ami-chan go and i will pilot Unit One."

"You are not in a position to negotiate," replied Gendo. "Bring the First Child. The spare is proving difficult."

Shinji blinked. ~Waitaminute. If Rei Ayanami is *also* here, then why am *i* a half-angel clone... and of *who*? i certainly don't look like Yui Ikari, Gendo Rokubungi/Ikari, or anyone else in the series i remember.~

The answer was swift in coming, with identical wounds to what he had seen in Evangelion, the figure of Rei was moved through the door by several large officious types. However, her hair and eyes were dark, her skin several shades darker than his own bleached-looking albino skin. Rei was quite obviously a relatively normal human.

The wounds, the bloodstains, the gurney, were all the same from the Evangelion series he'd seen.

"Rei, you must do it again," Gendo's voice echoed over the "waters" of hangar bay.

Rei winced and tried to get up.

Shinji turned his attention towards the observation booth. "I'll pilot it. But I swear on my mother's grave," here he pointed at the Eva unit, "if you do *anything* to Ami I will find a way to hunt you down and kill your sorry ass. And don't forget I *always* keep my promises."

The cold, heartfelt, sincerity in that statement reached a few of the people there. Misato and Ritsuko had absolutely no doubt that the albino was serious. Gendo made plans for finding another pilot immediately, this one appeared to have a spine.

Nobody saw him pull a marble out of his pocket, inflate it to the size of a baseball, then release a mountain lion as Shinji got into the entry plug. They just noted his presence in the entry plug and accepted his brief absence from camera view as continued jitters.

---------

In an odd place that combined aspects of a late 70s MIS Department, a garden, and the Starfleet Administration Computer Research Center (she'd worked there once, and discovered that Klingon Warriors could be repelled quite easily with Hello Kitty merchandise) a young-looking goddess frowned and checked her readings. "Oh, fubar!" This was both an assessment and a term of lack of endearment.

"Ama-chan!" Celeste held the button on the intercom down briefly. "Amaterasu! I've done traces on the explosion. Looks like Grey's little red wagon and the horses ended up in Staging Area 3. I've sent Joe to recover them. The problem was caused by Son Usagi's battle aura interfering with the gate process. I *know* she wasn't supposed to go! Yeah. Sixteen. No, I'm not sure."

Celeste listened a little longer. "Because those were just the obvious trails. Look I think the best thing to do is get Grey to accept the marriages as valid. Because THEN he can use the connection there for Similarity & Contagion, and use the bond to trace them to wherever they ended up. Uh huh. Looks like Ami and Sasami are there in the timeline where he landed. Depends on your definition of danger."

Celeste nodded. "Actually they're all genetically engineered beings. SEELE is planning on having them mate with 'Shinji' so as to produce a next stage in human evolution. They call their plan GUTS. Genetic Upgrade Test Series or something like that. No, Makoto is in another timeline, so are Usagi, Minako, Honey, Belle's here merged with her local aspect, Haruka and Michiru ended up in Sky's homeplane merging with their aspects there, Hotaru's in another plane, so is Setsuna. Actually she's not that manipulative in this variant.

"Well, of course they're in trouble. Ayanami and Misato didn't sneak aboard. The four bracer-genies are in the wagon. He's got his weapon-bracers, but what use he can get out of them... No, there *are* local versions of Ami's friends, they're just not the ones who tried to sneak
on his Labor."

------

On the monitor, the bridge crew could see Shinji settling back as the LCL rose around him, finally taking a deep breath of the fluid and making a face. "It tastes like blood, it smells like blood."

"Cut it out, you're a boy you know!" Misato fussed at the albino, momentarily forgetting his last reaction to that statement.

"i'd really like to hear Ami's comment on that."

Maya looked up from her board. "General has released soldier-yoma. Actions?"

"Release our soldiers," ordered Gendo, "tell them shoot to kill. They only have to hold them off long enough for Shinji to defeat the General anyway."

--------

Shinji looked at the interior of the Entry Plug with a certain degree of surprise. It more resembled the cockpit of a Gundam unit (later series) than a Evangelion plug that he was familiar with. "Ami-chan..."

"Cut it out, you're..."

"OH SHUT UP!"

Everyone in the bridge stared at the monitor briefly as Shinji lost his temper.

"i DON'T need some criticism from some drunkard washed out military dupe who can't even fix INSTANT RAMEN! Someone whose failed relationship with her high school sweetheart continued to set the pattern of dangerous rebel and self-destructive behavior all her life."

Ritsuko blinked, making a little squeegee noise. "Misato, how does he know you that well?"

Misato turned to her friend with a startled expression. "What?"

"Man, he really nailed you," Makoto Hyuga said thoughtfully.

"Hey!"

"Fuyutsuki. Check our security files and find out how Shinji could have such accurate intelligence on Katsuragi."

"HEY!!!" Several hairs had toinged by this point.

Shinji hadn't stopped talking. "AND you're not getting any younger, you know! What do you
think that 'drink till you puke' lifestyle is gonna do?"

"STOP THAT!" Misato yelled at the screen, thoroughly rattled.

"Well *excuse me* Captain Mushroom!" Shinji fussed as he checked the controls. "i'd be a lot
less stressed out if you'd let Ami go!"

"Mushroom?" Misato pondered that.

Hyoga volunteered some information. "Means everyone keeps you in the dark and feeds
you..."

Maya decided to interrupt. "Registering a synch rate of 52%. 64%. 72%... stabilizing at 74%."

Everyone sweatdropped except Gendo, who merely smirked.

Ritsuko finally gave a low whistle. "Rei's best synch rate so far is 14%, and that was just
before her Eva went wild."

"Mushroom?" Misato repeated. There weren't things going on around her she wasn't aware of,
were there? She was in the loop, wasn't she?

"Launch Eva Unit One," commanded Gendo.

"Unit One, Launch!"

"I am *not* 'washed out'," muttered Misato.

Aoba looked up at her and temporarily disabled the mike to the Eva. "He's just stressed out
about his friend being in detention. Maybe if we put her on voicelink he'll settle down."

"We can't do that in her present condition," Ritsuko said ominously.

"What?! Why wasn't I informed?" Misato looked to her friend for answers.

"Need To Know, Captain, and you don't." Gendo interrupted as the EVA unit sped up the
shaft to the streets above.

---------

From a catwalk above the LCL to the bay, from the bay that had contained Unit One to a
hallway, something walked.

"A-ka-ne!"

Another security camera became molten metal and cracked plastic as a mountain lion stalked
the top secret corridors of NERV.

"WHAT THE?!" A NERV Security agent saw a large carnivore, decided that one of the
soldier-yoma had penetrated the security perimeter, and drew his weapon. That was as far as he
got before said large carnivore did a head butt attack that sent the agent into dreamland.

Akane considered, lashing her tail about as she pondered. Wandering around aimlessly was no
good. Grey (she'd recognized his scent even if the face had changed) had told her that Ami was in
trouble and he was counting on her to effect a rescue.

Akane *liked* that. None of this smarmy superior male crap she'd had to put up with from
Kuno or the Hentai Horde. No condescending at all. He'd taken her seriously, and asked her to do
something really important. Save his girlfriend, that weak little bookworm, if she remembered the
briefing right. Oh, and there'd been that video party while they got ready for this mission. She
remembered Ami, and Ami smelled like...

Akane sniffed the air. There it was, faint, but it was there. Akane grinned, revealing sharp
teeth. Her senses were so acute now, she felt so vital, it was like this form was a drug and she was
thoroughly enjoying it. Eventually she'd return to being human, but she was enjoying the enhanced
senses, the power and strength of this form.

"Aka." Another burst of flame caused a suite of sensors to curl up into a blackened molten
nub.

She didn't have any camouflage abilities, but she could move pretty quietly, and she was quite
capable of shredding some of the walls and doors she ran across. And if anyone happened to see
her, well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

--------


"Where..." Shinji immediately started looking around for the villain, only to notice all the little
robot-thingies running around in the street. "What the hey?!"

"Ignore the soldier-yoma, destroying the General will end their threat as well," Hyuga's voice
advised in the cockpit.

Shinji blinked as he saw the big guy step out. "Jadeite?! Errr. Where are my weapon systems?"

"You have a progressive knife in the right shoulder. Can you walk?"

Shinji thought about walking. The EVA responded. Shinji thought about giving Jadeite the
finger. The EVA responded, then Jadeite responded.

Black lightning shot from Jadeite to Eva, knocking the big purple robot on its butt.

---------

There was silence in the control room for a few moments.

Aoba broke the silence first. "He must *really* be distracted by his girlfriend being held
incommunicado."

Hyuga nodded. "Yes, that does appear to be the case."

"That's pathetic," Misato watched as the fallen Eva was being pounded on by the Yoma
General.

"Chest plate has just been cracked. Cracks occurring in the faceplate. Right arm broken,"
Maya kept up a running commentary about the amount of damage being done. "Structural
integrity of abdominal wall compromised."

Gendo watched as the broken arm of the Eva unit was ripped out of its socket and the General
turned his attention to ripping the chest plate off.

Fuyutsuki sidled a little closer. "Commander. If this keeps up, the Unit and the pilot will be
destroyed."

"Eject the entry plug, get that pilot out of there!" Misato commanded.

"The signal's being rejected," Hyuga noted.

"Nerve connections are failing across the board," continued Maya, "synch ratio is plummetting,
45% and dropping. Power cord severed. Pilot's synchrograph is nearly flatline, if I didn't know
better I'd think he was in a depressive fugue, but that's not possible in these conditions. Is it?"

Gendo scowled.

"Commander!" Fuyutsuki looked down on the seated Gendo.

"Feed the video of Alpha to the cockpit of Unit One," Gendo reluctantly allowed, "and if
anyone asks, I've just left for our Kansai base."

"Do it!" Fuyutsuki waited until the appropriate orders had been given. "Commander?"

"If he chases this misdirection to Kansai, his power will run out," explained Gendo. "We'll have
to find a substitute for Shinji after this..."

---------

In the Unit One cockpit, a little videobox opened, revealing Ami. Revealing Ami drugged out of
her mind. Revealing the same Security agent as earlier...

---------

"What is that person doing?!" Misato was more than a little upset.

Maya eeked and turned her eyes from the display.

"That's not going to look good in his personnel record," remarked Ritsuko. She glanced up at
Gendo. "Isn't that a bit much?"

"If it motivates the pilot, then it is sufficient." Gendo frowned at his subordinate. Was he not
the Commander? Dr Akagi publicly questioning his authority was not something he was prepared
to tolerate.

Misato twitched as she heard enough to indicate that Gendo had ordered the guard to do this
during the transmission.

A bleep returned Maya Ibuki's attention to the console. "Synch rate rising, but..."

"That's odd, it looks like higher brain functions have shut down." Ritsuko began to run an
analysis of the readings. "Fascinating."

"He's...." Maya's voice trailed off as the Eva unit braced one finger with another and drove it
deep within the eye of the General.

The Eva roared animalistically, and started kicking and punching at the General. When the
General's head snapped back, the Eva bit deeply into the neck of the General, causing a fountain
of blood to spew.

"Berserker," said Ritsuko.

Maya pulled her wastebasket out and began to spew herself.

"The right arm's regenerated! But that's impossible!" Ritsuko glanced at the synchrograph.
"110%! How is this possible?! This can't be!"

"Less than two minutes remaining of power," noted Hyuga.

Disdaining tools, the beast ripped open Jadeite's chest and lifted the still beating heart of the
General to its mouth and fed. Maya looked up in time to see this, and was quickly excused to the
Ladies room. She was joined by Misato a moment later. She was joined by Hyuga as well, but
they quickly ejected him from the Ladies room a moment later.

"That's... pretty gross," indicated Aoba, looking a little green himself.

"Eva is taking in the S2 unit!" Fuyutsuki stared at the screen. "It's too early."

With another roar, Eva slashed Jadeite's head off, snapped his back over one knee, and then
threw the Dark General's body down the street where it imploded. Then the Eva turned its
attention to the elevator shaft that had delivered it.

"Uhm. If THAT is coming back here..." Aoba's green was rapidly turning pale. The Eva's eyes
were glowing, blood spattered its hands and mouth, and its stance definitely indicated that
whoever was home wasn't exactly running on all cylinders. "Then, may I ask permission to
evacuate?"

"Permission denied. Activate all barriers in elevator shaft nine. DO IT!" Gendo raised his voice
slightly for the last.

On the screen, the first barrier came apart like aluminum foil.

"Shinji? Shinji? You can calm down now," Hyuga had returned to his post in time to see the
barrier get wadded up and the Eva begin climbing down the shaft. "The General's dead and the
minor yoma have vanished. You can stop any time now!"

Eva roared in reply, leapt down the shaft, and began pounding away at the next layer of
armor. It immediately started to crack.

"Well, on the good side, he's really got over that indecisiveness problem..." Aoba offered as a
quick joke. Nobody laughed.

"How quickly can you get his girlfriend coherent? That might snap him out of it." Fuyutsuki's
voice was slightly louder than he intended, he was a little paler than normal himself.

"Barrier three is at 50%," noted Aoba. "Maybe you overdid it a little, Commander."

Unit One ripped another section up and threw it to the side, growling all the while.

"Timer's at zero," noted Hyuga quietly. "Isn't the Eva supposed to stop?"

"It hasn't fully absorbed the S2 unit into itself," Fuyutsuki noted with rising hope, "it's slowing
down."

The Eva on the screen held it's hands together as if cupping an invisible ball.

"AT Field is folding in upon itself!" Ritsuko stared at the displays. "The Eva is concentrating its
entire AT Field into a single point, feeding the field into a closed loop!"

"Um, I must have missed that class. What does that mean, exactly?" Aoba wasn't too proud to
ask for directions, and he certainly felt lost.

"RRRRRRRAAGGGHHHHH!" The Eva on the display roared and the "ball" began flickering
into visibility and then up through the spectrum.

"The AT field is increasing in density and power output," Ritsuko noted. "Fascinating."

"Uhm, is this dangerous?" Misato made her way back into the room, followed by Maya.

Eva Unit One released the AT Field missile, which cut through four more layers of armor plate.

"I'd say so," supplied Aoba.

The Eva slowed and gradually came to a stop.

"Get teams up there immediately," Gendo ordered. "Get the pilot out, arrest him, throw him in
the brig, and put Unit One in cryostasis before the S2 unit is completely absorbed!"

--------

The Security Guard glanced up, bored out of his skull, when the door to the cell suddenly came
apart in neat little one-inch slices.

Akane entered the room, took in the girl mindlessly babbling into some recorder, the guard trying
to draw a gun from his holster even as some magazine he was reading fell from his lap, and the
presence of recording equipment.

The recording equipment ended up in little slices, a flame burst sent the guard screaming to the
floor, and the recorder was left for the moment. Akane's eyes glowed as she regarded the man in
front of her.

"It was under orders!" The man backed away. "It wasn't my idea!"

Akane wondered what he was talking about briefly, then looked at Ami's state of undress and the
camera. ~Chemical interrogation? And recording all aspects of it? How *dare* they take
advantage of such a nice (if overly bookish and terribly naive) girl as Ami? They. Must. Be.
Punished!~

-------

The discussion between Ritsuko and Misato (regarding Rei's ability to cover) was cut short
as the entry plug of Unit One ejected itself and then burst open.

"Aaaaaa!" Aoba managed. "What the hell is *that*?!"

"A yoma!" Ritsuko gasped and stepped back. "During the attack the General must have
infected Unit One!"

Gendo frowned. That was as good an explanation as any, he'd use it.

"Looks more like a dragon to me," opined Hyuga, having played AD&D years ago.

The dragon flickered and vanished from Elevator Shaft Nine.

Ritsuko had had too many shocks lately, and was freaking out. "Where'd he go?"

A roar from directly outside their building answered.

---------

Akane looked up as the lamp began swaying and a shudder racked the building. "Aka?!"

The security guard reached for his weapon, Akane swatted him with a paw, claws retracted.
The security guard ceased to be conscious.

Now the pyrolion examined the chair that the girl was tied into. She could cut through the
straps without problem, but how to...

"Believe in a sign of Zeta, yappa pai, yappa pai, Miracle Romance..." Ami's babbling abruptly
cut off, catching Akane's attention. Ami had gone all stiff.

"Aka? Ne? Ne?" Akane frowned but delicately bit through the steel restraints holding the girl
in place. Actually, Ami reminded her of herself. Physically at least. If a bit anemic.

"He's angry. He's been submerged in anger, the nature of the Evangelion units..." Ami's voice
was weak.

Akane heard something that sounded like part of the building collapsing and wondered what
was going on out there.

---------

Guns blazed as the two security guards began sweeping the dragon before it could get in.
Gendo fled, going to an elevator and vanishing as his bridge crew tried to find cover.

Scales began flying off under the barrage, and the dragon reared its head back to blast again
with a cone of frost that stopped everything in the bridge. After another moment the dragon
shredded three supercomputers and tried to claw its way through the bridge until it shuddered and
collapsed.

"Damn," summarized Aoba as he crawled out from under his console.

Fuyutsuki stared at the huge head lying a few feet away from him.

Shinji suddenly realized where he was, what he was, and that he was dying.

"Hold it right there!" Misato held her pistol and pointed it at the dragon's head. "Don't
move! You..." Her aim didn't seem too steady.

"Not a yoma. There was no AT Field." Ritsuko pulled herself up and tried to look unshaken.
She wasn't successful.

The dragon raised his head and regarded Misato directly. "Beware Gendo. He's planning on
starting the Third Impact by... dummy plugs... I..."

The dragon's form slowly shifted, becoming an albino boy whose eyes stared at the floor.

---------

At the moment that Shinji died, Ami shook her head. What had been going on? Where was
she? She was a genetic experiment?

Of Akane there was no sign.

---------

"Man, did *i* blow it. Remind me not to try piloting an Eva unit again."

"Uhm, where are we? And why are you a dragon?"

Grey checked himself. "Silver dragon again. Can't seem to shift back. Likely because of the
injury level in the last timeline. That and if you're altered significantly in one timeline, you need to
fix it before you travel or it'll still be altered in the next."

Akane sniffed the ground. "Aka. Ne."

"Sure, go ahead Akane. We'll stick around here for awhile. Just don't go too far off."

Akane and Ami both stared at Grey.

"Huh?" The dragon considered them. "Oh. My breed of dragon is able to understand most
intelligent species. If i'm a dragon, i can understand her."

"Are you okay?" Ami considered the large vaguely reptillian creature before her.

"The wounds aren't bleeding, though the translation to this universe has the injuries as being a
day or two old. They ain't pretty though."

Akane snorted at typical male-foolishness and trotted off, she needed to stretch her legs and
maybe get some water.

Ami considered the dragon again. "So any idea where we are?"

"It feels familiar, but I don't immediately place it," Grey announced. "Hmmm. I seem to have
downshifted in age categories."

"Age categories?" Ami decided she was going to examine his wounds while talking to keep the
dragon distracted.

"Yeah. Just like humans go through age categories like baby, infant, adolescent, etc, so do
dragons. Ours is a bit different than yours though. If i'm guessing right from your relative size,
you're normally just over five feet in height, right?"

Ami winced at the chewed scales and flesh that marked a line from Grey's "collarbone" down
to the abdomen. "Five feet, four inches." She paused as something about his speech patterns
penetrated.

"Well, i'm looking, and i think i'm about ten or twelve Ami-lengths. Add another four
Ami-lengths for the tail. That means i'm a 'adolescent' in dragon terms." Grey winced as Ami
probed the wound. "Do you mind? That's rather sensitive. This is a problem in that i wouldn't
have the full range of clerical spells i'm used to."

"Is that a big problem?"

"Yeah, it looks like i can only access third level spells and below. Which is a problem if those
dragons over there keep coming closer."

Ami looked. "Those birds?"

"Dragons who normally hunt in the air have greater visual acuity than a land-dragon or a
human." Grey made a grumbling noise. "If this is where i think we are, remain really close to me."

Ami watched the "birds" get closer and resolve into dragons, though different in shape and
color than Grey. They landed a short distance away and seemed to regard Grey with suspicion.

"What do you here, silver?"

"i rest from battle most strenuous, and given rest will fly on without harm to your lands. i am
but a travelling priest."

"Battle, silver?" The lead red said in a questioning tone. "With what?"

"Humans who would be dragonslayers. i escaped, and did their castle grievous harm."

"Humans? Where? I see no humans, silver."

"They don't like humans?" Ami realized she'd blurted that out, and the way the other side was
looking at her, she didn't think that drawing attention to herself had been wise.

"A human? HERE?!" The lead red dragon snarled at Grey. "What do you think you're doing,
bringing HUMANS into our territory!"

"The human is my bonded Kindred," Grey replied. "She accompanies me."

The lead red was prepared to argue when one of the other dragons nudged him and whispered
something to him. The leader blinked, stared at Ami, then back to Grey and slowly began to smile.

"Well, well," he chuckled a moment later. "I'd always heard you Silvers were into some kinky
stuff. Bet you couldn't do anything like THIS in your own aeyrie, eh?"

"Hmmm?" Grey was momentarily lost but was willing to go with the flow if that meant Ami
wasn't eaten.

"Playing a little game with your mate using polymorph, eh?" The red leader started laughing
out loud now. "The (hee hee) terrible Dragonslayer (bwah hah) and the (snicker) poor dragon
victim (snort)! No doubt using her (snicker snort) 'special attacks' to (hits the ground laughing
uncontrollably) 'dominate' the dragon and (starts crying from laughing so hard) have her way with
him..." At this point the red leader wasn't the only one laughing and many of the other dragons
were at least openly snickering.

"Well, that's not quite it," said Grey, managing an embarassed look, "she's not a dragon, at
least at the moment.

This, of course, convinced the rest of the dragons that their leader was right and they all
began laughing themselves silly about it. Especially when the mage among them remembered
something about how some of the metallic dragons used their transforming ability only to get
"stuck" in their other shape and not be able to transform back. Many suggestions and speculations
followed.

The leader recovered enough to notice a tiny little creature come running up to where the
"human" stood, then vanish into a gem or something in the female's hand. "What's your name, O
Perverted Silver?"

"Grey," said Grey.

"Well, Grey, you're on Bloodtide Isle about six hundred wyrmlengths from the city of Malice.
If you go that way, you can keep your perversions away from decent red dragons. Though wait'll
I tell the boys in the barracks about this...(hee hee hee)."

Taking as much of his dignity as he could, Grey lifted Ami to a point just behind his skull and
advised her to hold onto the spikes back there. Then he lifted off, hearing another roar of laughter
as further jokes were made at his expense.

"Uhm, do you know where we are now?" Ami gripped as tightly as she could, her face quite
red from some of the suggestions that had been made about their relationship.

"This is the land known as Io's Blood, where dragons are relatively civilized and rule over the
lesser races. Humans are all but unknown, as humans have the ability to become a feared thing
called a DragonSlayer." Grey took the flight as easy as he could, knowing that Ami had no saddle
or experience. "We're currently flying over Bloodtide Isle, which is red dragon territory. Reds are
not nice people, by the way. We're heading over towards the lands ruled by silver dragonkind, if
i'm right."

Ami spent a lot of time in silence, considering carefully. The rocky ground below them turned
to swamp, which turned to ocean, which eventually became a beach again. Finally, she thought
she had the right idea. Why had they been so convinced that she was a dragon? Because of that
'dragonseed' she'd heard mentioned, no doubt. Which meant that...

Grey felt a moment of panic as the tiny weight of Ami vanished from his head. He
immediately wheeled and looped around, his eyes scanning for the tiny form that should be falling
to her doom.

And collided with another form in midair that was slightly smaller than he was. The two fell
in a tangle, crashing to the sand dunes below them.

Grey's nostrils twitched at a bewitching scent and he opened his eyes to behold a picture of
loveliness. Her scales were a waterfall of gleaming silver, her head-spines slender and refined, her
limbs and tail the very picture of feminine delicacy. That she was sprawled rather inelegantly in a
heap was beside the point.

"Ouch," said the strange dragon in a voice that was nonetheless familiar as she uncoiled.

"Ami?" Grey stared. Her wings were so delicately tapered, with a hint of deep blue along the
vanes, while her claw webbing had that iridiscent feminine sheen. Her scent hit him like a blast of
lightning, rich and feminine.

"Grey?" Ami stared herself. He made quite a handsome dragon now that she was looking
with draconic eyes herself. His scent filled her nostrils, and she found it oddly exciting. She found
herself taking off and looping in the air, Grey following as instincts took over.

He moved, she moved. He quickly found a thermal- cleared bare rock heated by the sun
which caused the air above it to rise. He swirled lazily into it, the female pursuing and then
slipping around and over him.

He half-furled wings and flared his "light" - the magical aura that allowed such a massive
creature to float as easily as a seagull. Ami swerved closer as she rode the "bow-wave" circling
her larger partner, acting on instincts she hadn't possessed a few minutes ago and letting her own
light flare.

The pulsings of that magical light began to synchronize as the two dragons circled each other
and steadily rose within the thermal.

Some nearby silvers noted that two others were initiating a mating flight and sat back to
watch until their superior told them to give the lovebirds some privacy.

The two finally pulled out, beginning another phase as Ami became the center of another
aerial ballet, though the larger dragon was slower and more clumsy than the female. Almost but
not quite touching, the two glided to a clumsy landing, both in the grip of set of behavior that was
ancient and engraved in the dragon's racial memory.

Ami went to all fours, flattening her wings against her body, then roared to the sky with a
blast of frost. Grey answered similarly and moved closer. Ami lowered her neck, Grey moved his
own so that their head-spines briefly touched.

"WHOA! Major bad timing!"

A burst of cold water would not have been more sobering. The two were shocked into
awareness of what they had done when a blaze of light appeared before them, solidifying as a 3x
lifesize hologram of a human-looking woman.

"Ahem, well, I'm kinda sorry I interrupted now..."

Even though Ami was a dragon, she still managed to look embarassed.

"Celeste? What the heck happened?" Grey looked at the sort of landscape damage that had
occurred from a 54 foot long and a 45 foot long pair of dragons without a lot of experience
landing. "Wait a minute, we didn't... did we?"

"Dragons have their seasons and instincts too, and Grey you should know that your default
form is a dragon at present. Though, no, you didn't actually mate. Just all the normal things
leading up to it. Back to the shapes: the angelform, humanform, and cyborg shell are all
dependent on which universe you're in, and they're overrides. Right now in any universe where
there is a close match to your type of dragon, that's what you'll be. Ami is your mate, and got a
dragonseed, so if she's in a universe where you're a dragon - she will be too. Same type too, and it
oddly fits her: scholarly type with a frost breath weapon. Thor wants to know if you two are
available for parties. (He's always running out of ice.)" Celeste shook her head. "Kids nowadays, I
tell you."

"So we both basically went into something like the Vulcan *pon farr*? Geez. And how come
i lost age categories?"

"They were swiped from you to form the dragonseeds." Celeste shrugged. "So you're a
teenager again. Deal with it. You're still a silver dragonpriest, and since you're of Etragar, that
means you've got to deal with his weapons restrictions. Better learn an unarmed style of combat."

"i'm not *too* bad with a staff, but you're right," grumbled Grey. Dragons could grumble
particularly well. "Most of what i know is *armed* combat."

"Now are you ready for the rest of the bad news?" Celeste paused until both dragons craned
their heads closer. She had to admire them, they really were quite attractive - regal looking in fact.
"The other brides tried to tag along. The gate might have handled it anyway, but Son Usagi's
power level was quite enough to destabilize that." Celeste listened to something going on outside
the holocam's range. "Thor wants to know if Usagi would like to wrestle sometime. Sif's objecting
to the entire concept."

Both dragons nodded at the sounds of off-camera violence.

"So i need to go pull them out of where they are?" Grey guessed.

"We," corrected Ami, craning her long neck closer, not entirely sure what to make of this
newest development.

"Got it in one," agreed Celeste.

================

the Eva timeline was cut short to avoid any comparisons/parallels with Skysaber's Otaku Rising
chapter 2.

The votes were:

1. The usual Senshi-candidates are the <i>dummy plugs</i> in this timeline.
2. The usual Senshi-candidates are part of an attempt to genetically engineer a next stage in
human evolution. Ami has an enhanced intellect, etc. The GUTS plan by Seele has them mating to
produce a superior human race whose development they can guide.
3. The usual Senshi-candidates are actually <i>fatima</i> and are necessary processing units to
run an Evangelion.
4. Since the Second Impact in that world, 80% of the world's male population and 40% of the
women died. Ami is Shinji's first girlfriend, but he has others as you might expect.
5. The usual Senshi-candidates are power-armor pilots who take care of the smaller yoma while
the big General/Angel/Yoma is fought by the Eva unit.
6. I haven't been able to make <b>any</b> sense out of this Timeline. It looks like Ami's his
girlfriend, but I don't see any sign of the rest of the usual Senshi-candidates.
7. The usual Senshi-candidates are actually the yoma, and Ami is filling Kaoru's role.
8. The usual Senshi-candidates are actually unawakened Senshi in this timeline.

Senshi are Dummy Plug Inserts - 1, Senshi are genetically engineered New Types - 7, Senshi are
fatima - 2, Senshi are girlfriends in a man-poor environment - 4, Senshi in Power Armor -1,
Senshi are missing - 1, Senshi are Yoma - 1, Senshi are Senshi - 4


Go for next:
1. Usagi, at the Tenkaichibudokai in a Dragonball setting...
2. Makoto Kino, who ended up in a Sabre Marionette timeline.
3. Minako Aino, who is either in Lodoss
4. Minako Aino, currently a freighter pilot/gunner in the Rebellion against the Empire.
5. Rei Hino, who is currently in RIFTS - Kyoto in the New Empire.
6. Setsuna Meiou is a Vulcan science officer who is assigned to researching the Guardian Of
Forever.
7. The bleak human vs robot future of the Terminator movies, where a young warrior named
Haruka Ten'nou tries to survive each day.
8. Something else that you can think of.
9. Usagi is in a SM/Cutey Honey fusion timeline, as Cutey Moon
10. MM Xover This could only happen with Sky's permission, but one or more of the worlds he's
written of and then abandoned is where one or more of the tagalongs end up. Such as the world
where Moongirl is a Batman-esque defender of Justice.

Usagi at the Tenkai -3, Makoto in SMJ -4, Minako as a Lodoss elf -2, Minako in Star Wars -4,
Rei in RIFTS -0, Setsuna in Star Fleet -1, Haruka in the Terminator future -1, Cutey Moon -2,
Mirrors Multiplied Xover -1, the Senshi as dragons -1, All the Senshi as being Cutey Honey style
androids -1

===============