Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction ❯ Sic Semper Morituri ❯ Chapter 27-29 ( Chapter 13 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Sic Semper Morituri

Chapter 27 - Battalions of Steel and Mathematics
Cat Scratch Fever
Price of Doing Business
Feigning Reversal
Epiphany or Epitaph
The Cost of Victory
Sirdar or Steersman
Truth's Keen Lancet
Marring by Blunder's Echo

Chapter 28 - Nabiki's Awakening

Chapter 29 - Restitution
Return
Requital
Redress
Reckoning
Retaliation
Recompense

[Ranma][NGE][HPL][AMG][Fusion][Fanfic] Sic Semper Morituri Chapter 27 - Battalions of Steel and Mathematics

Disclaimer:

I do not own any of the characters from Ranma 1 / 2, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ah My Goddess, or the Lovecraft Cycle involved in these stories.

C&C, MSTs are welcome

E-mail: dan_s.comments@comcast.net

Stories are available in Plain ASCII at:

http://archives.eyrie.org/anime/Ranma/Sic-Semper-Morituri/

ftp://ftp .cs.ubc.ca/pub/archive/anime-fan-works/Ranma/Sic-Semper-Morituri/

ht tp://www.cs.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/ftp/archive/anime-fan-works/Ranma/type/Sic-Sempe r-Morituri

(these are the original versions)

What has gone before:

About Book 11, Akane and Soun Tendo throw Ranma out of the house. Nabiki, in the guise of a wish, follows him. They meet EVA pilots Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami, Asuka Soryu Langley and Jeffrey Davis.

Asuka and Jeff challenge each other to a cooking contest. Rei participates as referee and facilitator. The cooking contest goes to Asuka, although Rei discovers Jeff made sure she won.

Asuka and Jeff begin continue analyzing the equations to manipulate the AT field, they discover an important side-effect of AT fields. They begin teaching the other pilots the math to understand it.

Hiroko accidently discovered the truth about Ranma/Ranko, and is ordered to keep silent.

Captain Ramsey meets with the cult leaders, laying down the law and arranging for their cooperation.

Nabiki and Ranko interrogate Raccoon about the nature of their enemies, and the details of his mission.

The first Sonic Glaives arrive and the pilots train with them.

Ranko discovers Raccoon knows about the Ranma/Ranko transformation and has reduced the curse (attracting water) but still believes Ranma and Ranko are different people. Ranko uses this to her advantage against Nabiki.

An attack by were-tigers causes Asuka and Rei to band together to shoot it out with one group, while Ranma undergoes the Neko-ken, transforming into a large tiger who destroys a far larger group.

Shinji decided he must move back to watch over Misato.

A prince should therefore have no other aim or thought, nor take up any other thing for his study, but war and its organization and discipline, for that is the only art that is necessary ro one who commands.

Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince, Chpt. 14

Chapter 27 - Battalions of Steel and Mathematics

Cat Scratch Fever

June 12, 1947

Rei squatted atop the building, beneath her feet was Dr. Akagi's apartment. Somewhere within, Shinji-kun slept. He would sleep safely, as long as she kept watch. The total number of the attackers accounted for was 55, the captives all reported 60 was their number. They had taken her pistol, the Second's and Roku-kun's for testing. She, alone of all the pilots, could engage and defeat the creatures without weapons.

So she waited in the cold air, she would not have wanted to return to her apartment. NERV Technical Services were removing the last of the corpses, reinstalling the security door and conducting their tests. She also hated the smell of blood that had permeated the area. The scent of blood revolted her, brought up memories she would rather not recall. She was content to wait, standing guard over the others. However, after all the hours of wakefulness, she was beginning to nod off occasionally.

The warm blanket over her shoulders brought her to full wakefulness.

"You could have asked to stay with Dr. Akagi."

She focused on Roku-kun, speaking with her and adjusting the blanket around her as he squatted in front of her. The smile and gentle movements were at odds with the scoped rifle cradled in his lap. She also noted the other difference. She squatted with her feet flat on the ground, but he balanced on his toes. She was waiting, he was ready to attack.

"I could be more effective here," she told him, she glanced around and saw Kraznyzamok-san and Hiroko.

"We got them all, the last five," he assured her, "And we found Hiroko asleep on your doorstep." He leaned close, "I think she wants to talk to you. If you listen to her, maybe she'll give you some of the food she has."

Rei nodded, "I will listen." She considered, "Are you certain?"

"He's certain," Kraznyzamok-san said with some irritation, "He thought he could sneak past me."

"I did," Roku-kun frowned, "I never expected one of those things would be right outside the apartment. Boy was he surprised. If you don't mind, Langley and I will go over and clean the blood off the floor and walls of your apartment."

Rei noticed Hiroko pale at that statement. "I do not object."

"Just give the cleaners a few hours to dissipate, the smell should be gone by the time you get home."

"Thank you," Rei said.

Roku-kun nodded and stood up, he and Kraznyzamok-san walked back into the darkness.

"The blanket is large enough for two," Rei told Hiroko, who blushed.

"Thank you, but I dressed warmly. Strange, in a few hours it will be hot and humid," she opened the basket she carried, "I have rice balls, plain I'm afraid, tea, some pickles." When Rei didn't respond Hiroko added, "You can have some if you like. Which would you like?"

"Rice and tea," Rei said, "You have something to ask?"

"Yes," Hiroko put the rice balls and a cup of cold tea on a platter, waited until Rei took it to begin, "I would like your help to become a pilot."

Rei blinked, stared, uncertain she had heard the girl correctly, Why would she want to become a pilot?

"I'm not like Kensuke, so in love with the power of the EVAs that he'd do anything to see them. I believe I can be of use to you all."

"You do not want to be a pilot," Rei told her.

"I understand about the dangers," Hiroko countered, "I was there when the mortar attack happened. I was at the school when those creatures attacked, and when that sinkhole tried to eat that girl. I've been investigating things. Some of them are pretty awful. I know I can help."

"You are helpful," Rei told her, "You do not want to be a pilot."

"Rei, Ayanami-san, I'm asking you instead of the Boss, because you're truthful and logical. The Boss would spin me around with words until I'm too dizzy to see straight. You'll tell me the truth, that's what I've always heard about you, that's what I've always admired about you. Ever since they put you in my elementary school class. I've known you had secrets, but in the five years I've known you, you've never lied, not once, and you always try your best. I want you to tell the NERV officers I want to help, I want them to consider me as a pilot," Hiroko paused, "Unless you already know I'm not qualified."

"You are qualified," Rei told her, "You do not want to be a pilot."

"You are assuming a lot," Hiroko said, "You've never understood people that well."

"I understand death, pilots are for killing, and for dying," Rei told her flatly. "There was an EVA test pilot before me, Shinji-kun's mother, he watched her die. There was a German test pilot before the Second, her mother, she went mad, then committed suicide, the Second . . . " Rei's tone softened, "Asuka, found the body. About the time Shinji-kun battled the Angel, alone . . . the first of the three American pilots died. Roku-kun watched. A short while later, the second American pilot went insane and attacked Roku-kun."

Rei paused, nibbled the rice ball, "All this is public, not secret. You do not want to be a pilot."

"Is that why you pilot? So somebody else doesn't have to?" The revelations had staggered Hiroko, "So others don't have to . . . die?"

Rei nodded.

"I'm sorry, I never realized - " Hiroko stammered, "I've been a fool."

"No. I would die before another, to save another, you hoped to as well," Rei said, "That is not foolish."

"Thanks."

Rei was shocked when Hiroko hugged her, she didn't know what to say or how to react to that.

Ranma barely made it to the bathroom before he threw up.

He'd been so distracted by everything else, that he'd failed to realize one thing that had happened yesterday. When he finally made the realization, it nauseated him.

I killed them, he thought as he ran some warm water to wash his mouth out. Simply acknowledging the thought again made his stomach heave. He controlled it, but decided he wasn't going to swallow any water.

He could tell himself that it was the 'other', that he had no control over it, but the simple fact was the 'other' - was him. Less restrained, but still him. And if the bits and pieces he'd put together from the briefing and debriefing were accurate, he hadn't simply killed them, he'd torn them apart.

Remembering the descriptions made him go through another bout of dry heaves. He'd completely dismissed it, until a few moments ago. He could accept killing Angels, but those things had been at least partly human. Despite that they turned themselves into ca . . . they'd been human at one point. And I killed them, shredded them, he thought miserably. He couldn't square in his mind that the 'other' would destroy so viciously, that he'd destroy so viciously, then rescue another pilot so carefully. The only saving grace was that only he suspected what had really happened. He'd truthfully told the interrogators that he remembered very little of the fight, and Raccoon's description of Ranko supported her assertions. They assumed that the 'other' was a separate creature, not part of him. Raccoon hadn't known what happened, until Ranma had told him in the EVA bays. And he didn't put the pieces together for you, Ranma thought, Because he didn't think they were important or unusual. He's killed before, it doesn't bother him.

However, Ranma knew differently, he knew that only he and Raccoon were in that alley. Raccoon hadn't seen what happened, but he had seen the aftermath. He had seen that it was bad enough, that he'd tried to keep Ranko from looking at it. Looking at what Ranma, as the 'other', had done to their attackers. Ranko had nearly thrown up. Ranma nearly threw up just remembering it, remembering that the thing which did that, was him.

As he straightened up, a warm cloth wiped his face clean and an arm went around his shoulder.

"Couldn't sleep?" Nab-chan asked, carefully wiping his face clean, "I think we've all been having nightmares about yesterday."

"I haven't slept," Ranma admitted as Nab-chan sat him on the edge of the furo. He thought about the 'other' cleaning Raccoon after the fight. "I haven't told anyone, not directly anyway." He sighed, he had to tell somebody, "Raccoon didn't do all the fighting," he bowed his head, bowing to the inevitable, "Or all the killing."

He expected condemnation, not a chin on his shoulder as her other arm encircled his waist.

"You did what you had to," Nab-chan told him, "I tried to kill those things. If the rifle I picked up had worked, I might have done it."

"But you didn't," Ranma countered, "I did."

"You've also killed Angels, I haven't done that either," Nab-chan pressed close, "If you hadn't, Rei would be dead, or Shinji, then the whole world. Ranma, nothing else would have stopped them." She turned him to face her, "I know you. You would have done everything you could have, before you took that step. You're afraid of cat figurines, you wouldn't have had a chance against those things."

"I had the advantage," Ranma told her, "I don't want to say how, but I wasn't afraid of them anymore."

"So you fought them, and left Raccoon to be eaten by them? Or did you do whatever you could to protect him?" Nab-chan asked, "You took off after those things that caught Rei, without a thought for your own safety, no matter how mad it made me. You couldn't abandon another pilot."

"I didn't just fight back, I murdered them," Ranma told her, "They never had a chance."

"They could have left us alone, they could have surrendered when they saw what they were up against." Nab-chan lowered her voice, "If they were SEELE, they could have told you what they wanted." Her voice returned to normal, "The one - one . . . we fought, getting scattered all over by a shotgun didn't slow it down. If Dr. Akagi's door wasn't armored, it would have gotten inside to kill and eat us. It told us that's what it would do. You may have killed them, but they were committing suicide coming after us when they saw what we could do."

Ranma shook his head, he wasn't sure if the 'other' had enjoyed killing them. He hoped not, but it hadn't shown them any mercy either. "I lost control," he explained, "I'm a Martial Artist. I should show restraint, I shouldn't use that kind of force, I shouldn't - "

"Assume any lesser amount of force would do the job," Nab-chan interrupted, "Maybe you should talk to some of the soldiers, or when he comes by, Tomiyo Tendo. He didn't even try to use Martial Arts on those things, he shot one three times. It got back up."

"Ranma," she said the word so softly, "I know you, I've watched you. You don't hit anyone, unless there's no other choice. I don't believe you'd take a life, unless there was another life in the balance. You shouldn't believe you would either. From everything I know, from everything you and Raccoon said at the debriefing, the only other choice you had was to die, and leave them to kill Raccoon. That - you could never do."

"That doesn't excuse anything," Ranma countered.

She turned to face him, "Your enemies will never forgive you."

Ranma thought that sounded oddly like what Raccoon had told him in the EVA bay. "I'm worried about doing it again."

Nab-chan finished wiping his face clean, "I didn't hear about anyone else getting hurt," she slid her hand behind his neck, guided his head to rest on her shoulder. Then she rubbed a hand over his back, "You did your best, you probably gave them every chance to give up and go away. Now you feel guilty about what they forced you to do. I don't think your honor has anything to worry about. I don't think you or your friends have anything to worry about either."

Ranma squeezed his eyes closed, trying to keep the tears from falling. Guys weren't supposed to cry, but he was frightened and he needed, and was grateful for, the reassurance Nab-chan was giving him.

"I'm just saying it was overkill," Sammi accused, enjoyed the sardonic look she got in response. They were outside her apartment, hoping to get some rest before the morning.

"I didn't call in the squadron-strength air strike," Jeff countered, "Rockets and napalm, and you call a rifle overkill?"

"I only shot them while they were alive," Sammi countered, "I didn't walk over and head shoot their burning corpses."

"It's only overkill if you really didn't need it," he tried the door, "Langley, it's us. Unblock the door."

"What's the password?" Asuka's voice came from the other side of the door.

Sammi thought she could just shove the door open, and she didn't remember any password.

"Sammi," Jeff said loudly, "Should I tell you about Langley crawling up on my - "

The sounds of the blockage being removed interrupted him. "I'm opening it, I'm opening it!" Asuka yanked the open door and glared at Jeff.

Jeff dropped bonelessly to the floor. Asuka grabbed him by the collar of his suit coat and dragged him inside.

"You could help," Asuka told her.

"Young lovers are - "

"THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE!" Asuka shouted at her.

"Of course," Jeff rallied, "She's actually my sister."

Asuka dropped him, "If that were true, I'd have to kill myself," Asuka replied.

"Are you still planning to go clean up Ayanami's apartment?" Sammi asked, "I'll see if Technical Services are done. Knowing what you two must have mixed up to use, I'll order up some air bottles too." She smirked, "And an armored car."

She smiled at their frowns.

"So you got them?" Asuka asked quietly.

"Gunfire and an air strike," Jeff explained, "I guess a radio is a heavy weapon. I'm surprised she didn't call down naval gunfire."

"People were sleeping," Sammi countered before Technical Services picked up the phone at their end.

Price of Doing Business

General Borodin heard the cursing from the repair bays and the thrown tools that accompanied it. He didn't usually curse, unusual for a Russian General. He'd learned a long time ago, that a mild oath used rarely had the effect of a thunderbolt. Screaming constantly never had that result. He did however, appreciate the skill with invective that the man throwing the tantrum was displaying.

"Comrades," the General announced his presence, ending the throwing of tools, but not the hurling of curses. "Is there a problem?"

"These," the man launched into a long string of condemnation, profanity, all describing the part he had in hand.

Borodin carefully removed a pen and small notebook from his coat pocket, and began taking notes. That calmed the man down immediately. "Please continue," the General urged, "I give them to my old sergeant as presents."

A few laughed at that, some laughed because a superior officer's jokes were always funny, but others because they were amused.

The man, the Ogromniy's senior mechanic, calmed down enough to discuss things, "I repaired the unit. But not from the spares Moscow sent us."

The General looked at the collection of parts, and the GM truck, a legacy of lend-lease. He could guess where the repair parts had come from. "What is wrong with the spares?"

"Our comrade is too exacting," the political officer told him.

"I want our machines and pilots to survive," the mechanic retorted, "'The survival of these magnificent machines is the survival of the Motherland', or doesn't that apply when Moscow is involved?"

The political officer turned purple, as the mechanic turned his own words against him. The General saw the GRU man enter, in the black trench coat, seemingly untouched by the heat.

"For a poor, old cavalry officer, not trained in the modern ways," the General said, "What is wrong with the output of our Socialist brothers?"

"Electric motors are magnets, a wire winding, and a strong metal casing. In one, the magnets are set wrong, in another the winding is no good, in two the casings are cracked and will fail. In short Comrade General, you ordered 10 fine horses, and those govnyuk mudila thought five tonnes of dog food would suffice instead." [shithead fuck ups]

"My Socialist brother here," he pointed to the political officer, "Doesn't believe I should go to the factory manager, and crush his balls with a set of pliers!"

"He is correct," the GRU man said coolly, "You didn't let him explain you would need a microscope and tweezers instead."

There was some chuckling. The General nodded to the GRU man, "Then how were you able to get the parts, and what is the real cause of this argument?"

"The truck had all the parts I needed," the mechanic offered.

"He wanted a mission to buy American automotive parts for spares," the political officer said in high dudgeon, "As if the Soviet Union could not produce the parts we need."

"If they have, Comrade Commissar, why can we not get them here? I do not suggest we depend on them, but that is what will let us overhaul the machines. Comrade General, the machines need extensive repairs, we simply do not have the parts to do it. Unless we can get those parts in a week, none of the machines will be able to operate. There is no swapping parts, they are all worn out."

"You have a list of the parts you need?" the General asked.

"Yes, Comrade General."

"Submit them to me. Comrade Commissar, you will contact the political officers at the factories who provided these parts. It seems that the political fervor of the workers and the managers is lacking. My report will indicate this." He turned and left. A moment later the GRU man fell in behind him. "How do you enjoy this delightful weather?"

"I grew up in such weather, Comrade General," the GRU man said. "Have you considered the Ministry of State Security? This is nothing less than sabotage."

"I would have thought the GRU would oppose bringing Beria's assassins into this," the General said.

"State Security is supposed to be their responsibility. They are supposed to defend we peaceful Socialists from the evils outside. And even the fascists didn't intend to kill all of us."

"Agreed. Comrade, I have seen the American's Sherman tanks. Even the latest versions are inferior to the T-34's that threw the Hitlerites back from the gates of Moscow, but they made them in vast numbers. Most were well made. I wonder why we cannot duplicate such a thing."

"They have the advantage for the moment," the GRU man admitted, "I have always believed our spies should learn their secrets, and teach them to our workers."

"You will undertake the mission to obtain the parts."

"Regrettably, General, my English is lacking. I do have people I can trust, some are in America. I think they will appreciate their `secret mission`."

The General chuckled at that, as they walked through the concrete hallways of the Tunguska headquarters.

Ranma led the group up to the roof. He was the first to see Rei awake in a blanket, and Hiroko in a heavy jacket asleep on her shoulder.

"Did you spend the entire night up here?" Rit-chan asked.

"Yes, Doctor," Rei carefully roused Hiroko.

The girl stared at the assembled pilots and their guards, as Rei walked over to Shinji.

"Where are Raccoon and Asuka?" Hiroko asked.

"Testing chemical weapons," Sammi said with all seriousness.

"You want to join us?" Ranma offered.

"Sure, what are you doing?" Hiroko asked, "Martial arts?"

"Of course," Rei said, "Perhaps Nabiki-kun?"

Ranma hadn't seen anybody that red since Asuka and Raccoon had their duel over cooking. "Good idea, Nab-chan, start with the basics: falls, basic punches."

Nab-chan nodded, she seemed almost as embarrassed as Hiroko, but neither would refuse.

Ranma was worried about how tired everyone looked, except Rit-chan looked ready to take on the world. He wasn't looking forward to today's practice. He hated when the practice didn't turn out well, it always meant it was going to be a bad day.

The Ordinance section had the pilots' pistols on stands. Admiral Simson watched the various armorers chattering excitedly about this or that feature.

"Admiral, you have to see this!" the chief armorer, a U.S. Army Major bustled up.

"The extractor of the Schofield allows the use of .45 APC ammo, the Peacemaker has a similar mechanism, the seeming 45 Government has a gas cylinder like the Garand rifle," Admiral Simson said, "I've studied them before, Major. What about the effectiveness of the ammunition?"

The Army Major deflated, "I can't explain it, Admiral. One of the ones we have in interrogation took nine rounds of .30-06, but another died from two rounds of .45 APC. It doesn't make an ounce of sense. Some of the bullets, all of Miss Ayanami's, were iron and silver."

"But that didn't improve the lethality any?" Simson asked.

"Not that we could tell. The rounds have better penetration, but they seem to do the same amount of damage as standard military ball." The armorer picked up several bullets, "These are hollow points, Davis's, they had no more effect than the fully jacketed rounds, it still took two hits to kill them."

"So you don't know any more than we did before," the Admiral suggested.

"No, I know one thing." The armorer carefully collected the pistols, slipping them into holsters and carrying cases. He added a fourth. "I know you'd better get Miss Tendo down here to practice with her LeMat, and make sure they all carry them at all times."

Simson nodded, "I'll have these delivered to the kids. You'll have instructors available soon?"

"Yes, a day or three, I don't think a regular drill instructor is the right person to teach them. I think Miss Tendo is leery of carrying her weapon, but Miss Ayanami and Miss Langley both wanted theirs, not Miss Tendo."

"Get on it, I think Mr. Saotome will be an even harder sell." Simson nodded and left. He was concerned that these `magic` weapons had such an effect, and normal weapons were nearly powerless. Although napalm works just fine, he chuckled at that.

Ranma had seen worse practices, but not recently. Hiroko giggling like a loon hadn't let Nab-chan stay serious. It also infected the others, and they started messing up and being silly. Rei demonstrating Rei-fu by picking up Sammi over her head and Rit-chan doing the same with Tomiyo, then threatening to throw them at each other, broke everybody up. Except the potential missiles who pleaded to be back on the ground.

He hoped that the others assumed the jokes distracted him, rather than his memories of yesterday. Or rather his speculations about what he did yesterday.

"Sorry about yesterday," Sammi told him as they tramped downstairs.

"There was nothing I could do," he said miserably, Does everybody know about what I did?

"No, I mean me," Sammi explained, "I should have been with you. That is my job. That I couldn't get to you in time. I'm sorry."

"Did you hear what happened?" Ranma asked.

"I heard that no one really knows what happened," Sammi admitted, "Three of those things killed an entire rifle platoon. Nobody knows how you pilots managed to kill them with pistols."

"I mean the others that got killed," Ranma pressed.

Sammi pulled him aside, letting the others pass him by to enter the apartment. "We'll be in in a moment," Sammi told Nab-chan who lingered with a concerned look on her face. "There was an animal, a huge, black and white tiger. It tore them apart, then rescued you and Davis. I should be jealous, it did my job better than I could have."

"Aren't you hunting it down? Worried about it?" Ranma asked nervously.

"We have an eyewitness who saw it, from the start of the attack, to it taking you and Davis onto the roof," Sammi smiled at him, "If Security or the Military started hunting it, it would be to give it a medal. I've been briefed fully, I don't think it was trying to hurt you, or scare you. Don't worry Saotome, if you run into it, all you'll get is wet, when it licks you, like it did `Raccoon`."

"So you think the others aren't in any danger?" Ranma asked. I turned into a tiger!? Ranma's mind was racing, I can't do that either, he stopped himself, Or can I?

"I don't think so. You were hors de combat, so was Davis, so was our eyewitness. It could have killed all three of you. It didn't." She patted his shoulder. "Anything with 30 centimeter fangs that carries people up five stories by the scruff of the neck, without giving them so much as a bruise . . . I'd bet money it's not hostile." She knelt down enough so they were face to face, she hugged him tightly, "I know about your - but I don't think you have to worry. You did the best you could, considering."

She lowered her voice, "They knew, they were trying to hurt you without touching you. You didn't do anything wrong. I don't know what your orders are in the EVA, but outside it, your first job is to survive. You did that."

Ranma couldn't understand, couldn't understand any of it. He'd felt terrified, then angry, then exhausted. Somewhere something else, two something elses, saved him. One was outside him, the other within. Both mysterious, murderous and beyond his control. Those two are more alike than any of the rest of us, Ranma thought.

"Everyone is leaving me!" Dr. Akagi wailed. The others in her apartment laughed, understanding it was a joke.

"I am not moving here," Rei told her, hoping it was the correct thing, to say to continue the joke.

"Ayanami hates me!" Dr. Akagi wailed in the same tone.

"No," Rei said, "I do not hate you."

"With enough ketchup!" Hiroko and Nabiki added. The others laughed, including Dr. Akagi.

"Yes, we'll help you move back to Misato's place," Dr. Akagi said in a more serious tone, "But we aren't delivering breakfast."

"Roku-kun and the Second can do that," Rei suggested to Shinji-kun, "You and Captain Katsuragi can daily judge their success."

Rei was glad the laughter continued, she hadn't discovered how to initiate it intentionally, but she had some success in contributing to the duration.

Kraznyzamok and the Fourth entered.

"You're losing your roommate again," Dr. Akagi told the Fourth.

"`Horseface`," Nabiki-kun tried to sound like the Second, "Once could be an accident. Twice, you are just being careless! They aren't prog knives after all."

The Fourth's confusion was amusing.

"Shinji's moving back to look after Misato," Nabiki-kun explained.

"Wait," Hiroko interrupted, "He'll be looking after her?"

"Yes," Rei told her.

"Do I want to know?" she asked.

"We could tell you," Nabiki-kun said in a serious tone, "But then we'd have to lock you in a room with Ayanami and a barrel of ketchup."

"I dislike meat," Rei reminded them.

"We'll have you declared a watermelon first," Nabiki-kun told her factor.

Rei noted the others seemed to enjoy this utterly irrational discussion. Rei had some other business to attend to. She walked towards Dr. Akagi, catching Hiroko's sleeve as she passed, pulling the girl along.

"She has requested to become a pilot," Rei said in low tones, she hoped the others didn't hear, "I was not dissuasive."

Rei turned and headed into the boys' room, to start packing Shinji-kun's things. She found that her memories instantly hampered her efforts. She would pick up an object, his suit coat in the first case, then a box of rosen for the bow of his cello. The memories of her experiences with Shinji-kun, related to the object, would cause her to pause. The third time it happened, the clothing she had brought to him after his injury by Tulzscha, she turned to the others. They were all standing at the doorway, watching her, "I am afraid I cannot be of assistance here."

"It's all right Rei," Nabiki-kun told her.

She expected a statement from the Fourth that would embarrass or anger Shinji-kun or Nabiki-kun. She was very surprised that he said nothing, he simply stared at her. She had seen him looking like that, when someone demonstrated a new fighting technique, a look of intense study and analysis.

When he learns to apply the same techniques to non-combat interactions, Rei thought, He might step away from many of his limitations.

"What interested you?" she asked as she stepped past him out of the room.

"You, remembering stuff, I guess," he said.

"Yes?" Rei wasn't sure why watching someone remembering would interest him.

"I just never saw you do it before, that's all," he held up his hands as if he expected her to hit him.

"I take no offense," she reassured him.

"No, I could belt you and you wouldn't take offense," he said with downcast eyes and an odd tone of voice, "But if I laid a finger on Shinji or ole' Stoneface, you'd tear my fingers off."

"An accurate prediction," she told him, she didn't understand where this was heading, or what it was supposed to accomplish.

"I don't think they need us in there just yet," the Fourth indicated Nabiki-kun and Shinji-kun laying out Shinji-kun's possessions on the two beds, sorting them for packing. The Fourth headed into the bathroom, Rei followed.

Rei's request had shocked Ritsuko. Both that she of all people had made it to her, and what it entailed. "You asked Rei to be a pilot?"

"Yes, Doctor, I've seen a lot of what happens around them." Hiroko fidgeted. "I guess I wanted to be part of it, thought I could help."

"Not everyone can be a pilot," Ritsuko tried to put her off with the standard response.

"Ayanami-san already said I was qualified," Hiroko said, "Maybe pilots can see other pilots."

More like Rei knows about the class, Ritsuko didn't say. "There are also complications to the process."

"Rei told me about those too," Hiroko said, "I'm willing to take the risk."

"Why?" Ritsuko asked sternly, she couldn't figure out why Rei had told the girl all these things. "If you know you might die, why would you want to risk it. Not for friendship, or love, you have to give me a concrete, logical reason."

"Twice, I've seen people hurting the pilots, first the mortar barrage, second the attack on the school, then yesterday night. Seven targets would be better than six."

I can't tell her that both of those attacks, and the others were to capture Ranma, Ritsuko thought. "You'd be throwing your life away as a decoy? I'm sorry, that's unacceptable." That's Security's job, as if Kaji and his organization would ever do their job, she thought angrily. She watched Rei and Ranma go into the bathroom, she hoped they weren't going to fight. Things had been going well between them.

Feigning Reversal

"You wanted to speak," Rei told him, as she verified both doors were closed and locked.

"Those things, yesterday," Ranma watched her closely as he ran a little cold water over his hand, Ranko saw the slight change in Rei's stance. That still doesn't mean Rei has a crush on Ranko! Ranko forced herself to think. "You and Asuka killed some. Were they human?"

"That does not matter," Rei replied, "They attacked, we killed them. We survived, they did not."

"Where do you get the right to say that?" Ranko demanded.

"We did not attack them," Rei replied coolly, even for her, "They could have left at anytime. They did not."

"So killing them is proper, honorable, acceptable - just because they didn't leave you alone?" Ranko asked.

"If you attacked, and were badly hurt," Rei replied, "Would you continue fighting?"

"No, I'd figure the other guy was better."

"Your reasoning is poor," Rei said, "However, they could not reason even that far. Only death would stop them."

"So you think killing them is okay?" Ranko asked, then backed up as Rei approached.

"You are inconsiderate, flawed," Rei said, "You are for fighting, nothing else. Yet you fail in that end, despite your skills. To allow others to die, to avoid discomfort, is reprehensible." Rei unlocked the door and walked out, closing it behind her.

Ranko ran hot water over her hand. All I am is a body, all I am is for fighting, Ranma thought, Well what else do you have, `Wondergirl`? A life with Shinji? Home and kids? You don't care about anything but your precious mission. Kill the Angels, you and Raccoon, both of you are . . .

"All three if us, are just killing machines," Ranma said quietly, "That's what all this is about. She and Raccoon . . . are what, weapons? They both think that's what I am?" I have to admit, Ranma thought, It fits. The greatest Martial Artist on the planet, I can pilot an EVA. There's probably not an Angel who could take me in Unit 04 in combat. But is that what I'm for? Just something to fight battles, is that what they're for? Just to kill the enemy? With Raccoon's tricks and Rei's AT field, if they worked together, they could take one of those weak Old Ones without their EVAs or any help. I can see why they'd make people like that. But is that what I am? All three of us have been training a lifetime. Just to fight, and if - to die?

"There has to be more than that," Ranma said, trying to make himself believe it. But with the 'other' in his head, he wasn't sure. Ranma might just be the `carrier` for the 'other'. It seemed more like what Ayanami expected, Ranma thought, It killed, and felt nothing. Did it rescue Raccoon 'cause it's programed to, or is it my `flaws` affecting it?

Ranma opened the door and walked out to see if the packing was done.

Asuka walked some 10 meters from the entrance of Wondergirl's apartment, before she took off the air mask, "Gott im Himmel! I can taste that scheisse you're using!"

Raccoon kept scrubbing at the blood stains with a wire brush. Both of the Security guards had moved upwind of the stench.

"Earphones," Raccoon told her, "I did warn you."

"Yeah, yeah, it comes through the eustachian tubes," Asuka replied, "Can you take a break or something?"

"You feeling okay?" Raccoon asked her as he removed his mask. He left on the gloves and heavy lab coat.

"It isn't the chemicals," Asuka wanted to wipe her hands off, but was mindful of what was on the heavy gloves she wore, "I don't resent rescuing Wondergirl. She's helped us out often enough. But the killing - I - Asuka Soryu Langley, never killed a human before."

"I think your record's holding," Raccoon told her, "Those things weren't human. Not by a long shot."

"They became human when they died," Asuka countered.

"Well, you show me a human being that can survive a hit from a rifle, or getting cut up, or any of the other things they did. I'll show you something that doesn't qualify as human."

"It's not that easy," Asuka replied, she felt unclean about killing them.

"Ashamed you survived, Langley?" Raccoon asked softly, "We've both seen it before. We've both felt it before. Some twit challenges you to a duel. In ten seconds you know, you've got him completely outclassed. You start looking for a way not to kill him, but he doesn't let you. Survivor guilt, you lived, they didn't."

"You of course, are immune. You killed them and . . . no remorse, no regrets?"

"If they'd been innocents drugged or brainwashed into attacking, yes. But they kept coming, even after the outcome was obvious. At 10% casualties, I'd start reassessing; at 30%, maybe I'd break off the attack; at 50%, I'd start negotiating; and at 70%, I'd be getting out of there. They kept coming, so I kept firing. I'm just glad they quit when they did, I was down to two bullets," Raccoon paused, "No, no remorse, no regrets. Beyond wishing they didn't make me do it. They could have talked, I would have listened."

"If only to await reinforcements," Asuka replied, shivered at the thought.

"To change the subject," Raccoon said, "Did you finish those graphs?"

"Of course!" Asuka said angrily, "What did you think I did? Slept after you shot that thing right outside the door? Played cribbage with Erin? I still don't know what you needed them for."

"First to give you practice doing three view drawings - "

"You want to turn me into an engineer," Asuka accused.

Raccoon frowned at her. "The girl who designed the Sonic Glaives, the girl who designed those rotary cannons for EVA use, thinks she isn't an engineer." He covered his face with his coat, like a bad movie vampire. "We will seduce you into ee-vil! Or me-vil, you're more a mechanical engineer."

"As my first act, I'm considering throwing him over the balcony," Asuka said, "Are you done?"

"Yes, let's get back to cleaning." Raccoon pulled his mask back down and headed back.

"How many centimeters of cement do we dissolve off the walls and floor with this stuff?" Asuka asked as she pulled her mask on.

"Just two and three respectively."

"Dr. Akagi," the Marine guard snapped to attention, and held the door for her as she entered her lab.

That's the fourth time that's happened today, she thought, normally she didn't mind the admiring looks, or the whispered compliments. Gendo had made it clear 'look but don't touch', Admiral Simson had quietly supported the policy. Only Misato seemed to resent it. And I've never figured out if it's the 'look' or the 'don't touch' she resents, Ritsuko thought.

Ritsuko picked up the phone and dialed her home number, "Akagi residence," Nabiki's voice came over the line.

"Nabiki, could you put Sammi on the line?"

A moment later, "Kraznyzamok Samantha. Akagi-sensei?"

"Don't 'Akagi-sensei' me! What did you tell them?" Ritsuko reproached her.

"Oh, nothing nothing. I just pointed out, that after we two poor, helpless women killed one of those things, for the second time, with our bare hands. You decided to rip its spine out, as a way of keeping it dead," Sammi told her, "It did work."

Ritsuko had covered her face during Sammi's explanation, she wasn't sure whether she should laugh or cry. "Well, thank you for the explanation. I notice you did include yourself."

"Well, I couldn't tell them I just held your coat, while you did all the work. They'd never respect me."

"Good bye, Sammi."

" 'Bye mom."

Ritsuko frowned as she heard the connection go dead. She glanced at the Marine at the door, he caught her looking and braced himself up. Make his drill sergeant proud, she thought, Or he's trying to hold up the entire building. She was wondering where Sammi got her bizarre sense of humor, Ritsuko had a limited list of sources.

"They look like lampshades," Ranma described the two odd frames with the sheets of paper on them. The swirls of color with dots on them didn't help. There were sheets on the top and bottom, as well as all four sides, so it really was a cube. Ranma still didn't understand what their purpose was.

The pilots had assembled at Dr. Akagi's apartment. They were waiting for the truck to arrive to take Shinji's stuff to Misato's apartment.

"This represents the AT field in a standard vertical plane." Asuka moved the first one towards him. "This one represents an AT field in a horizontal plane." The swirls were different on the second one, so were the dots, but Ranma couldn't decipher the full meanings.

"The lines within," Rei stared at the two objects, "Represent what?"

"The lines are the field at zero dimension," Asuka explained the lines that went through the center of the colored swirls, "In effect a horizontal or vertical line. Strangely," Asuka traced her finger over one of the structures, "A line of inter - " Asuka glanced at Ranma before she continued, "That would be the same in both structures, doesn't graph the same." She looked a little chagrined. "We still can't figure that out."

"So the various colors, represent, what?" Nab-chan asked.

"There are fifteen dimensions, so, we represented five different groups of three dimensions. The little colored dots represent where that structure intersects the other of that color, mathematically, rather than physically as indicated here."

"Why all this?" Ranma asked, he still couldn't figure out what they were doing. It was as if he was missing the piece that would all make it understandable.

"The drawings are what you would see if you were looking through a window at the object. Front, back, right side, left side, top and bottom." Raccoon turned each frame to show each side.

"So all these swirls, on all these sides are really one thing you're looking at?" Ranma asked. He could almost feel the answer, it was there right in front of him. He was groping around blind, he didn't even know what questions to ask to find it.

"So how do the differences . . . ," Shinji began, "Why are there fifteen dimensions? Aren't there only three?"

"Four," Asuka said, "Height, width, thickness and duration. The dimensions have to be defined. Here we have assumed a one-to-one correspondent and a standard arithmetic gradient."

Ranma didn't understand anything they were saying, except the words. The flames, that's how he thought of them, twisted and swirled in front of him. One set representing a horizontal wall, the other a vertical. That much he understood. Raccoon's admonition, 'Don't think with your head, think with your whole body' came back to him. He started to `sculpt` the shapes with his fingers, watching them move, feeling the different flow of the muscles, how the joints worked as they moved through space. It's almost like a kata, or a dance! he thought. Still understanding eluded him. He knew he could master any move he saw. But these weren't moves, they were just the beginning and the endpoints.

" . . . but setting it to a natural logarithmic base would make it nearly impenetrable at the center, or the edges, but not both," Asuka was defending an assertion from Rei's probing question.

"Only if both the correspondence and the gradient were so. If just the correspondence were set so, and the gradient was arithmetic, what would the effect be?"

Asuka sat back to consider.

"Guys," Ranma said, he felt like he was half-dreaming, he almost had the answer.

"Thank you."

Raccoon shushed Asuka, "What is it?"

"What about something with no size, no cor - anyway and no grades?" Ranma asked.

"Mathematical point?" Raccoon asked Asuka.

She nodded and started sketching. Ranma caught a glimpse of a lightning fast move from Rei, grabbing Nab-chan's hand before she touched him. He was grateful, he was afraid this thought was as transitory as his memories. There, but a mere glance would blow them away like smoke. Tempting him to try to follow them, but he could only guess what they were. This idea was that way, as he tried to find the key to unlock it.

"Front, right, top." Asuka set the papers in front of him in an L-shape.

He stared at the colored lines, tried to convert them to the flowing full shapes he saw on the frames, how one moved into the one frame, the sheets, to the other frame, and back. He'd always felt the sense of foreignness that surrounded their enemies. THEIR AT fields, he realized, Shaped around them, not like we do it. It replaces their ki and its flows.

He heard only silence around him, he was aware the others were staring, for once he didn't care what anybody else thought. "What range is this, how close to the EVA?"

Asuka snatched back the sheets, she made a series of lines, Asuka only changed some of the colors. But Ranma could already see the patterns forming. Some of the entire lines moved, others kinked in one or two places, some were untouched.

"From zero range, and at 50 meter intervals, straight out from the center of the EVA's mass. Flat, straight and level," she explained, shot Raccoon a sour look.

Gendo waited patiently for Kaji's report. He sat at his desk, in his office, fingers steepled. Fuyutsuki stood, slightly behind him and to the left. Kaji sat down and discovered the chair was just a little too far away to let him put his feet up on Gendo's desk.

"You set it here on purpose," Kaji accused after his feet hit the floor.

"You have something to report?" Gendo asked.

"Whoever sent the message to SEELE, about SEELE Japan, decided to punctuate the message. Someone with a very sick sense of humor."

"The poison?" Gendo tried to keep the meeting on track. He considered Kaji's need to prove how clever he was, while Gendo also had pilots doing the same, when all of them were actually wallowing in ignorance.

"No record of it. They have something like it that would induce a heart attack like that. The Assassins of Cthulhu use it, but it has to be injected. Its effect is instantaneous."

"I never came in contact. No one else did, once he ushered me into the room," Gendo said, considered the facts, someone had penetrated mystical security he would have considered impregnable to all but the Great Old Ones themselves. That almost invited an assumption it was a physical poison, But everything had to have been checked, Gendo thought, Those who failed would have been severely punished. It all made no sense. "His planned replacement suffered some accident?"

"Someone dropped an anvil on him," Kaji said flatly.

"You're joking!" Fuyutsuki's outburst mirrored Gendo's own thoughts.

"No. Out of a clear, blue sky, an anvil hit him right on the head. You could have buried what was left in a large sponge." Kaji seemed as mystified by the event as Gendo himself was. "No aircraft on radar or that the bodyguards saw."

"The Northrop company's flying wings are reportedly impossible to detect on radar, put lights on the leading edge of the wings," Fuyutsuki explained, "The plane becomes effectively invisible."

"Or someone had a catapult set up," Kaji added, "But an anvil? Why not an explosive device, or just a rock?"

"You already explained it," Gendo said, "The assassin had a very sick sense of humor. What was SEELE's response?"

"Considering it happened only 15 miles from their Zurich headquarters?" Kaji smiled broadly. "They panicked, what else. I've seen a barnyard full of chickens taking more coherent action. It's going to cut into our budget, as they increase their security outlays to protect themselves."

"That assassin has done us a great favor," Gendo commented, "Their attention is diverted, for as long as it is, we have a free hand to act."

"We just have to use it," Kaji agreed.

"I have another project for you to undertake," Gendo said.

"I expect to get paid for what I've just brought you . . . " Kaji smiled at Gendo. ". . . First."

"Very well," Gendo said. He sat back, sighed. "I fear you won't like what you find."

"Never-the-less," Kaji insisted.

"Professor Fuyutsuki," Gendo told his friend, "Please take care of this."

Fuyutsuki nodded and led Kaji out. Leaving Gendo alone, to gloat.

He walks deeper into my web, Gendo thought, Of his own free will. Soon I might consider ensnaring the others. All I need is suitable bait and rewards.

Nabiki looked worriedly at Ranko. She carefully arranged the cold cloth on her forehead.

"She will survive," Rei assured her.

"I just can't figure out why Raccoon and `Langley` aren't joking about him overheating his brain."

"The structure of benzene appeared to Kepler in a dream," Rei told her, "They hope for such a revelation."

"I guess." Nabiki hadn't thought Ranma could actually think so hard he'd faint. Despite the opinions of some in Nerima, she thought.

The hard stare he'd been giving the drawings on the frameworks had frightened her. Then he sat up so suddenly, with a look of comprehension on his face, then keeled over.

"So." Asuka stuck her head in the room, "Has he recovered from his epiphany?"

"No."

"We shouldn't have been pushing him so hard," Asuka admitted.

Nabiki stood up to confront her, "Why!? Because his brain couldn't take it? Because he's not a super-genius like you?"

"Oh good," Asuka said sarcastically, "You're going to give yourself a stroke too."

Nabiki's shoulders slumped, "I'm sorry."

"You `martial artists`, who solve the world's problems with your fists, forget thinking takes a lot of effort and energy too, and it is possible to think yourself into fainting or a stroke. That's not me being mean, that's a fact. For all his physical durability, I doubt he's thought that hard before in his life."

"So you think he'll recover?" Nabiki glanced back at him.

"Probably just fainted," Asuka said, "Like gripping something until you choke off all the blood going to your hand, and put it to sleep."

Nabiki wasn't exactly thrilled with Asuka's explanation.

"Since he's a she, why don't you let Raccoon in, to take a look at her, while you work on the AT field stuff. Raccoon understands it, you don't. Besides, the truck's here. You think you're so smart, you're in charge of the loading and unloading."

Nabiki reluctantly agreed. She wasn't sure what Asuka said to Raccoon as he headed in, but the nod she got seemed a lot more purposeful than personal.

Epiphany or Epitaph

Gendo had been expecting the summons to a conference with SEELE. The monoliths were there, indicating the real members rather than their front men. Gendo saw each of the 15 monoliths softly glowing in the darkened room. The fact that SEELE 01, always Kehl, was having difficulty keeping the meeting on track, and that there were no comments from SEELE 03, 06 and 11, convinced Gendo that much more was going on than they wanted him to know.

Which one of you three got squashed, Gendo wondered, And where are the other two. By the panic in the rest, Kehl should be ruling with an iron fist. Instead he's desperate, Gendo analyzed as he listened to the crosstalk, sorted out exactly who was arguing with whom. From that, he could analyze what the arguments were really about. So, Kehl, one murdered, two go renegade, your latest operation goes sour. Do you know we captured three of your operatives? Gendo wondered as he sat patiently, enjoying every moment of the maelstrom.

"Ikari," Kehl finally had to shout over all the others, "We will require heightened vigilance from you and your organization for the foreseeable future."

So you do have renegades, Gendo thought, he nodded, "Of course. Is there anything in particular to watch out for?" That should set a cat among the pigeons, Gendo thought, keeping a straight face.

After several long moments of argument, Kehl finally got control of the meeting again, "There is nothing specific you need to know." The images of the monoliths faded. Gendo stood, stretched and headed out. He was surprised that Fuyutsuki was waiting for him.

"There is another, complication," Fuyutsuki said, he seemed to be both frustrated and smiling. "It will definitely simplify some things, and seriously complicate others."

Gendo nodded, "My office."

The pair headed off in silence.

"Not there!" Asuka complained, as she saw where Nabiki was directing the cargo in Misato's apartment.

"You said I could be in charge," Nabiki complained back. She remembered the seeming hours of standing around while Asuka and Misato argued about what would be in the apartment and what would be elsewhere.

"Fine, be in charge," Asuka countered, "But why are you sticking Spineless in the closet? I'm not ever coming back here."

I hate it when she's right, Nabiki thought. "Okay, move the bed in there!" She then jumped out of the way as Rei picked up the entire bed and threaded it through the door. How strong is that girl? Nabiki wondered.

"We should have gotten more help," Shinji said as he dropped off another load of boxes.

"And had Kensuke mooning about how marvelous being in Katsuragi's apartment was?" Raccoon dropped off his stack of boxes. "I would have had to throw him out the window. No offense, but if I'm never here again, it'll be too soon."

"I think it's kind of nice," Shinji said.

"You're young, you're naive, you didn't see what Langley and I did, nor do you remember her trying to poison us before she tried to burn the place down around our ears."

"I get the message," Shinji mumbled.

"Then there was the time . . . " The two boys and their guards walked out.

"SHUT UP!" Nabiki and Asuka heard Shinji yell in the corridor outside.

"I think he irritates people on purpose," Asuka confided as she helped Rei set the bed in place.

"Which one?" Nabiki asked as she collected a couple of boxes.

"Good point," Asuka agreed, then started hanging up Shinji's clothes. "Well, we know what to get him for his birthday," Asuka told the other two.

"Birthday?" Rei asked.

"The anniversary of your birth, it's a celebration like the Saturnalia, 'Congratulations you aren't dead yet!'"

"A reason to celebrate," Rei agreed.

"What do we get him?" Nabiki asked as she pulled the empties out, and replaced them with full boxes.

"Some decent clothes, these are pathetic!" Asuka insisted, "Wondergirl's too embarrassed to admit it, but she likes the way he dresses, so we'll need to take her."

"It is the thought that counts," Rei added.

"Do me a favor," Asuka said, "Tell me Bartlett's Quotations haven't been translated into Japanese."

"What's Bartlett's Quotations?" Nabiki asked.

Asuka shook her head.

Ranma was used to weird dreams, that's all he'd been having for the past months. Even when he was just talking to another person, it had a surreal element.

This was no different, five flames of different colors danced and wove around each other. A tiny blue-white light orbited around it. The circle it followed was flattened out. Asuka told me what that was called! he thought, but he couldn't remember the name. The dance repeated as the orbit did. He reached out and tugged on the invisible string that defined the orbit. The dance was different, but it stayed consistent with the orbit.

He couldn't see his hands or feet, but he felt himself moving along with the dancing flames. Two hands, two feet and his center, all moving along with the flames. He would adjust the orbit, and `feel` how the necessary patterns would change.

What frustrated him was that he couldn't adjust the orbit much beyond a narrow arc that would be in front of him.

"So," he heard his own voice, "If it's directly in front of me, within a certain range . . . I can hit it. Then I let my AT field take on the shape of it's AT field - " He instantly saw a possible flaw, "Would it travel through them? Or would it be at their center, then on their outside? I FORGOT TO ASK!" he shouted his lament.

Then he realized one other thing, "I can bet Raccoon and Asuka are going to be really happy about me asking about different angles, left, right, behind, above and below," he sighed, "Too bad there're no machines to turn math into pictures. That's what I really need."

Asuka slammed the refrigerator door and shook her head in disgust. "She still has some of the food we made for her on the 31st. Some of her beer cans are actually rusty!" Asuka told the other pilots in Misato's apartment, "No wonder she's been acting weird. Heavy metal poisoning."

"Dump the rusty beer," Ice Princess told her, "Go with Carter-san to get some replacements."

"You can't get decent beer in Japan," Asuka replied. The idea of anyone drinking the swill Misato liked made her cringe. She wouldn't have used it to cook sausages in.

"Go to the PX, they've got a wider selection," Raccoon suggested, as he and Spineless exited the bathroom. The two looked like they'd just taken on Horseface in hand-to-hand, with predictable results. "Cleaning up that mess is your punishment for standing up to your dad."

Spineless's frown and glare were priceless.

"You expect me to buy beer for you?" Carter asked.

"No, for the Captain," Wondergirl told her, "They will reimburse you."

"I never agreed to that!" Ice Princess complained.

"No one asked you," Asuka shot back, "Let's go."

"You'd better," Tomiyo added, "Or she'll just steal the jeep."

Asuka waited for Carter, she understood why the guards hadn't helped them unload or carry. With all the weird stuff going on lately, she would have loved to have her own gun back. The pair headed down the stairs. She could understand why Spineless wanted to move back in with Misato. She wouldn't have wanted to be a boy living with Horseface, he was always one step short of picking a fight with other boys. She knew it was typical, but neither Spineless nor Raccoon did it. Because with both of them, Asuka thought, Once the fight really began, you'd have to kill'em to get them to quit. Horseface doesn't realize that. He still thinks fighting's a game. She sighed, she didn't mind working with Raccoon on those kind of projects, like the AT field. It worried her that they seemed to be doing the first work on it at all. How would they test it? Asuka reminded herself as she climbed into the jeep. Without Raccoon's field, all my brilliance would just be theories, Asuka thought, then grinned, Raccoon wanted a fait accompli, now we've got one. I can't wait to see `Rit-chan` and ole Ikari when we tell them about this.

The pair met in a secreted area beneath the ground. The large number of celebrants disguised them. No one could call this artificial cavern poorly lit. Fires, from single candles, to the three huge bonfires at the center, provided ample illumination. They watched as some devotees leapt over the flames to show their contempt for the danger. The smell of burnt hair and flesh filled the air as others held hands and feet in the fires.

"How soon?" one of the pair who watched, asked the other hooded men beside him.

"Two days," the man told the shadowed figure, "The aviation gasoline is the last."

"Can our brethren wait two days?" the figure asked.

"Even now we show our devotions," the man indicated the men dragging the screaming, struggling figures forward. "No more of Kehl's foolish caution, we strike now."

Another figure wearing a mask like a sun and a robe with yellow and orange streamers approached. No one paid attention to the victims' pleas while they chained them in place.

The robed priest spoke words that were ancient when the world was still a molten ball. As he finished his entreaties, he stepped back.

The victims looked around in terror, as the revelers stepped forward. All could feel it permeating the room. The air becoming hot and thick, the feeling of hunger from the fires. The victims screamed in terror, the revelers in joy. One of the victims brightened, light shining out of his eyes, from his screaming mouth. Fire poured out from him as it consumed him from within. Some of the other sacrifices shared the same fate, others were taken by the Fire Vampires that had manifested through the first victims.

"How beautiful," the priest crooned, he reached out, let a tendril scorch his flesh. The rest of the `congregation` did likewise.

The pair withdrew a short distance, "They will serve, the plan is sound."

"Two days - ?"

"We must move quickly. Besides, what can Ikari do in just two days? Kehl will tell him nothing, that means he'll have to guess. So many forgotten men and women, no one will notice if we take lightly, from the most desperate."

"Agreed. Did you ever see it? The firestorms? LeMay achieved more than any of us ever could, whole cities made over as seas of fire. Rivers, ground stripped to the soil for a hundred yards were no barrier."

"Dresden, the Nazis and their pitiful ovens. The Allies showed them what a real fire could do. We should have realized this years ago, no wonder we have displeased the gods."

"We will regain their favor, an entire city of sacrifices consecrated to them. Our reward will be great."

"Agreed. Do we really have to wait two days?"

Their laughter drown out the last screams of the victims.

"Come on!" Misato urged the guests in her apartment, "Drink up!"

"So, Rit-chan," Kaji asked as he maneuvered around the embarrassed pilots, "How many more beers before she does a striptease."

Ritsuko considered, "With what she's wearing right now, I think we're past that mark."

"What's wrong with you two?" Misato confronted her friends, "It's a celebration!"

"Oh, we're celebrating." Ritsuko looked at the pilots, who were clearly not pleased by the outcome. Their guards weren't sure who they were guarding the kids from, Misato or something else.

"Not everybody's here!" Misato insisted. "Where's . . . ?" She lurched a bit as she searched through the room.

"Where are Davis and Saotome?" Kaji asked.

"Davis said something about having to see a man about a horse," Ritsuko shrugged.

The pair watched Misato `dance` with Maya, the two of them sort of spinning around a common center, until Maya became too dizzy to stand.

"So," Asuka sidled up behind Spineless and Wondergirl, she'd been staying away from both Misato and Kaji, simply observing them. "Was this what you had in mind?"

"Dinner - party," Spineless said, shrugged.

None of the food had gotten prepared. Only by the most strenuous effort, had she and the others managed to warm up the long frozen leftovers.

Considering the amount of beer everyone is having, a tenderized manhole cover would be haute cuisine, she thought sadly, I don't miss this one bit. She liked parties, but this had too desperate an air. The `adults` were having fun, not as if there were no tomorrow, but as if they had to prove they knew how. So far only Maya and Ritsuko have managed to prove it.

"You should have suggested a poker game," Ice Princess brought them some of the remaining food. She helped herself as she served them. "Call me an old stick in the mud - "

"Very well," Wondergirl said, then smiled at Spineless.

"As I was saying," Ice Princess continued, "At least with a poker game, we'd be getting some dividend for this."

"STRIP POKER!" Misato announced, to the entire prefecture, "Na-breeki wansa play STRIP POKER!"

Ice Princess hung her head, "When am I going to learn?"

Misato dragged the pilots to the table. The guards merely stood, and glared at anyone who suggested they participate.

"This is nuts!" Ranko told Raccoon, It would have been better if he just laughed at me, Ranko thought as they pair walked through the corridors of NERV towards the command deck.

"We're gonna get in trouble," Ranko insisted.

"Why?" Raccoon asked, "We're allowed here, we've got security clearances, our guards would tell us if we were headed into an area we weren't supposed to be in."

"But at night?" Ranko protested.

"What, you have to be up early for school?" Raccoon asked, then tousled her hair. "I came here a few weeks ago. Technically, the pilots are supposed to be trained as watch officers, what Maya does when the EVAs are out there. Getting you familiar with the equipment won't get you into trouble. Frankly, I did a few things the regular watch officers can't. Considering your sync rate is even higher than mine, you ought to be even more impressive."

"Oh, so I shouldn't be scared to death if Rit-chan or ole' Stoneface catches us?" Ranko asked.

"Only if he heard that new nickname you've got for him," Raccoon warned.

Ranko glanced around, rumor had it that ole Stoneface wired the entire base for sound. She could just imagine Gendo stepping out like some villain from a movie, glaring maniacally, and walking away.

They arrived on the command deck without incident.

"Hey you two," Raccoon hailed a long-haired Japanese guy and an unhappy looking American officer.

"Look time no see," the Japanese guy said in English.

"We really need to concentrate on our work," the American said in a whiney voice, in Japanese.

That officer's hair is shorter than mine! Ranko realized, And my English is better that the other guy's.

"Just showing Ranko how the Magi and the sensory systems work," Raccoon told them, "Considering I could treat this whole building as if it was glass, I wondered what Ranko can do."

"Ran - ma," the American insisted, "Her name's Ranma."

"Isn't that his name's Ranma, after all if Ranko and Ranma were . . . "

Ranko tuned out Raccoon's argument, it was clear to her why both of these two were working the night shift. The Japanese guy looked like he was having nervous tics while he was sleeping, the other was an officious ass.

"So, Aoba-san, when are you actually going to buy a guitar?" Raccoon asked, after reducing the other officer to a shivering, quivering blob of flesh.

Ranko could sympathize, talking with Raccoon had that effect, although she rarely argued with him, for that very reason.

"When I can go without eating for a month," the Japanese, Aoba responded.

"Good grief, you can buy a decent one for around 10 bucks!" Raccoon replied.

Aoba looked at his comrade, Ranko hadn't figured out if it was a really ugly man, or a really, really ugly woman. "At the risk of being reduced to that . . . we aren't in America."

"The PX, is in Japan, I can - " Raccoon was interrupted by a $10 bill appearing in his hand. "Six or twelve string?" Another $10 bill.

"One of each, I have $50 saved, I thought I'd need another 60 more," Aoba said.

"You want a banjo too?" Raccoon asked.

Aoba shook his head. "Hey, you brought your own A10 Nerve Clips, those are the ones from the EVAs?"

"Yep," Ranko told him.

"Good, we won't have to dial them in." Aoba took the end of the cord and fitted it into the console. "That's what we're looking at."

The idea of a glass building didn't describe it. Ranko looked around at the NERV campus, the city of Tokyo and beyond. Up, down, side to side. She could see the building and the people around her, but she could see through them as well.

"This is wild!" Ranko said.

"She must be having the same effect you did," Aoba said, "We only see a little bit, what we concentrate on. The picture's really fuzzy, and gray. But looking at Angels, not being able to clearly see them isn't a problem."

"It's all in color," Ranko said, she staggered back and grabbed the chair as Misa-chan's apartment building became solid and rushed up at her.

"Focusing on something," Raccoon told her, "The machine magnifies it. You'll get used to it."

"Can you - " Ranko gulped, "See through people's - clothes?"

"Hyuga never could," Aoba said, "Looking at Captain Katsuragi's apartment?"

"I thought they were playing cards, but I - " Ranko looked away, looking at the ships in the harbor, then towards the mountains to the west. "I can't see that way."

"Sensor coverage over the mountains is pretty poor. As we make more packages, we install them," Aoba explained, "That's why the sand table and the Observer Corp. Fortunately our enemies aren't smart enough to come at us from the west, instead of straight through the harbor. Or over the hills to the north and south."

Raccoon had plugged in his nerve clip, "There are also some additional things, take a look at the harbor."

Ranko did. Steadied herself as it zoomed towards her. She stared at the brightly colored people moving through the buildings. "What am I looking at?"

"That's the heat traces, there's something that realizes there isn't enough light, so it goes looking for other parts of the spectrum. Infrared and Ultraviolet seem to be its first choices. I wish we could get x-ray and gamma ray," Raccoon explained.

Ranko sat down and looked around, amazed at the vistas this device opened. She also saw the little pictures and keyboards that appeared in front of the two watch officers, and the much larger one that appeared in front of Raccoon. She could zoom in and see the hiragana characters on the keyboards the watch officers were using, but the keys on Raccoon's keyboard baffled her, they were blank. The pattern was like a starfish, a large central button and five legs of five buttons each stretching straight out from the center. The other difference was that Aoba and the other one typed at their keyboards. Raccoon's screen just had the patterns of dots appear, Raccoon sat back with his eyes closed.

"Hey Raccoon - " Ranko began.

A little window with the person in the middle of it appeared. Raccoon's image shushed her, "Don't disturb them, we can talk just like in the EVAs."

"What are you trying to hide?" Ranko sent to Raccoon.

"The system is a lot more complicated than they think," Raccoon explained, "You mentioned that you wanted to convert the math to pictures, the systems are available. I'd rather not let them know what we're working on, until everybody can do it."

"Oh," Ranko said. She wasn't sure why the keyboard, the weird characters on the screen, and Raccoon not having to touch either of them worried her so much. Those characters aren't like any writing I ever saw, not that I'm the language expert Raccoon is, Ranko admitted to herself.

She looked around again, trying to see the room she was in, and the areas around her at the same time. She tried not to stare at Raccoon's guard, she still didn't know the man's name, or what his voice sounded like. She wondered why Raccoon had been saddled with someone who could give Rei lessons in non-communication.

The screen appearing in front of her surprised her. A white dot in the center and the same five, colored, intertwined flames off to one side. Ranko stared at it.

Another window with Raccoon's image appeared to one side, "Is that what you had in mind? Touch the white dot and move it to where you want it, you can expand it by holding one corner with a finger and dragging with another."

"You came up with this so fast?" Ranko reached out and moved the dot with her finger.

"No, there was already a set of instructions to do that, I just had to find it," Raccoon's little image admitted, "Then plug in the data. The view is actually three dimensional. The center is your center, looking deeper is you looking forward. So any movement or change is from your point-of view."

Ranko moved the little dot around, and watched the flames twist and change. She sketched out the square that was typical of an AT field. "How big is it? Relatively. One meter to one centimeter, or what?"

"There isn't a scale, besides the obvious, twice as far is twice the distance. This isn't an exact duplicate, just to give you a relative idea. It is accurate though."

Ranko nodded, glanced over at Raccoon. He seemed to be looking at more of those patterns of dots, suddenly a bunch of them changed color and a duplicate of those appeared in another place on the screen, with another group of the dots. She thought he was collecting important bits to read through separately.

The Cost of Victory

Asuka was glad they'd managed to escape before Misato lost too many clothes. She idly wondered why Kaji had agreed to play cards, and especially why when it was clear Ice Princess was winning most of the hands.

She wasn't happy being alone in the apartment, but it didn't prevent her from getting to bed. Her pistol was with her in the bathroom, and then under her pillow, if something nasty visited. She'd been tempted to invite Wondergirl to stay over. Better to fight fire with fire.

Not that she was lonely! But considering what was waiting outside the apartment last night, and what had attacked Wondergirl's place, Asuka didn't like the idea of any of the pilots being alone.

She'd decided she wasn't going to spend the entire night awake, waiting for Raccoon and Sammi to return. She also wanted to see the effect that Spineless being back in Misato's apartment had on her.

Finding herself in the Romanesque banquet hall with Misato trapped in the central pillar, again, disgusted her. She wasn't disgusted that nobody seemed to have any shame, inhibitions . . . or taste, in whom they were doing what with, but that Misato had placed herself as a non-participatory element who controlled things. Misato couldn't enjoy the fun everyone else was having, but she could disrupt everyone else's good time at will. It infuriated Asuka, so it wasn't pity that moved Asuka, but disgust at her selfishness.

"Enough of this." Asuka put her foot on a sobbing Misato's behind, and shoved her right through the surface of the pillar. Misato's sudden appearance didn't affect anyone's activity, although everyone did look at her for a moment. "You want a nightmare," Asuka asked Misato, as she walked past Misato to the banquet table. Asuka selected a large tureen of thick lobster bisque that didn't seem too hot, and a glass drum filled with rolls.

Misato seemed terrified of Asuka, as the pilot walked back to her, trying to get back inside the pillar to get away from her. Asuka had prevented that from happening by changing the details of the dream. Asuka yanked open the front of Misato's shirt, and poured the entire tureen of slightly-warm, very greasy soup through the stretched collar. Misato stared at Asuka in a mix of terror and rage.

Good, Asuka thought, And I thought Spineless was gutless. Asuka picked up one of the rolls, selected Horseface as a target. "FOOD FIGHT!" The roll struck Horseface, distracting him from the attentions Ice Princess was lavishing on him. A handful of peeled grapes came sailing back in reply, but Asuka was safely within the pillar, leaving Misato as the only target.

Asuka watched quietly as the fight became general. Unseen servants refilled the various containers, Asuka guessed that Misato had intended the servants to disconnect the debauchers from any concerns about some dainty running out. Now it gave them an unlimited supply of ammunition. Asuka noted that the various participants favored specific ammunition, even if it hadn't been at hand when the battle began.

Spineless throwing cream puffs seemed almost a cliche, except they were light, easily thrown with accuracy, and made a mess on impact. Raccoon lobbed pomegranates to land near the targets, spraying them with pulp. Misato was concentrating on pistachios, trading a handful of inaccurate shots for the precision shots most of the others were making. Asuka did wonder how much of the missile choice was Misato's opinion of the person, rather than the choice that person would actually make.

She chuckled at that, Ice Princess had dragged Horseface under a table and pulled the table cloth back down to conceal them. She doubted they were fighting.

Asuka sat back and watched the entire episode with some satisfaction.

Ranko sat at the console in the headquarters, she glanced over and watched Raccoon select and collect more of the funny writing. Ranko was drawing a line, complicated, jagged, that completely surrounded the center point. Once that was done, she started expending the line along a vertical plane, and a horizontal plane, simultaneously. She had to use all five fingers on one hand to do it. She was proud of the manipulation, and the flexibility it required of her to do it. She also could almost predict what the flames would do when the expansion took place. Several hours of moving the things around had helped, so had the assumption that the colored flames were actually the paths taken in an elaborate kata by the hands, feet, and center. She was very proud of herself for figuring all of that out.

As she released the dot to start it's work, the entire screen went blank, then vanished. She looked over, she could only see the room, not any of the screens or anything beyond the walls. The huge boxes that housed the Magi were all making sounds like dozens of shuffling feet. Aoba and the other officer were checking things, Raccoon was looking around. When his eyes fell on her, she wanted to run away.

"Relax, it's happened before," Aoba told them, "Just not very often." A moment later he reached out and started typing on a keyboard only he could see.

Ranko concentrated on him, so she didn't have to meet Raccoon's eye.

"We're back," Aoba sounded relieved.

"I think having two pilots hooked up, probably isn't a good idea," Raccoon said carefully, staring at Ranko the whole time.

"I think that's probably right," Aoba didn't sound any happier.

Ranko tried to smile charmingly, the angry glares she got in reply reduced it to a sick-looking grin.

"I'll have the guitars in a day or two," Raccoon told Aoba, finally looking away from Ranko. He stood and disconnected his A10 nerve clip from the console. Then he walked out without a backward glance.

Ranko pulled her connection loose and rushed after him. "Raccoon, Raccoon! Raccoon, come on, don't be mad!"

Raccoon neither slowed, nor turned, simply marching ahead, using his longer stride to force her to run occasionally to keep up.

"I didn't mean it," Ranko urged him, "I don't even know what I did!"

"Nor do I," Gendo stepped out in front of them, both pilots halted. "I do intend to find out. You and the others will meet in my office, with Dr. Akagi, tomorrow morning. You will now return to your apartments and sleep." Gendo walked off.

"That - is why I am upset," Raccoon said, then headed towards the locker room at an even quicker pace.

Ranko looked at Sammi, "What did I do?"

"Shut down the defense center of NERV, and the whole world," Sammi told her, "Or he did, or both of you did."

Ranko sighed, then walked slowly after Raccoon.

Jeff woke in a brightly lit room, surrounded by elaborately robed men, meaning males, some were humans, some had the heads of rattlesnakes, Serpent men. Several dragons lounged at the periphery of the light. One in particular had silver scales, when she, and it was a she, didn't move, she looked like an ice sculpture.

"Hi, Altara. My first step to the Archchancellorship I take it?" Jeff asked.

Her only movement now was a wry smile.

He also noted the metal chair he was sitting in, it looked like a single crystal of hematite, silver, mirror bright. It would flash red if anyone told a lie while seated on it, even a dragon couldn't obfuscate while in it. He was rather proud he'd been able to make such a device. It also told him he was still asleep in his bed in Sammi's apartment. He wasn't the only one who could manipulate dreams.

"What in the father's name were you thinking?" one of the Serpent men demanded.

From his tone and his robes of the Camilenn Order, Jeff guessed he was the contact he'd met a few times before in the Waking World.

"Sleeping, you'll have to be more specific. It seems this is my week for interrogations." Jeff hadn't minded providing Nabiki and Ranko the answers they sought, the only part that bothered him was that they weren't secure enough to ask the questions while he had all his faculties. He'd only kept the secrets, to keep them from getting back to SEELE and Ikari. Better he doesn't know all that I do, Jeff thought, His bosses keep him in the dark too.

"The meeting you arranged!" the Serpent man insisted.

"Went well did it?" Jeff's question elicited laughter from some of the others. "The 'Why' should be obvious, someone's been mucking around with things. Altach-Nacha wanted out of the game, but he doesn't care about anyone. The Father of Serpents has never been hostile to humans, at least those who showed him a modicum of respect. Arranging the meeting prevented a useless conflict, one that would have cost both sides." Jeff's tone changed from explaining to thundering anger, "MAYBE YOU'VE FORGOTTEN MY MISSION, BUT I HAVE NOT! Those chained souls weigh on me, as heavily as almost anyone else in this room."

He calmed down, "If pointing out common cause and opening lines of communication is contrary to that mission, then why did neither participant object?" Jeff asked.

"How many others are you working for?" one of the others, a human, asked.

"I'm only working for my mission. I started that long before I got any offers of help, and you all knew that, or should. I'm supposed to give you all the secret details, then watch as you get scooped up by the Cthonians? How many secrets did your predecessor give away before he died?"

"You are here to answer our questions," the first Serpent Man reiterated.

"Than ask questions that can be answered." Jeff remembered what the creature wanted to be called, he already knew his name, but you didn't use that in Council. "Ciril, you know why security is that way it is. How long have you been working to this goal? Ten centuries, a hundred? I'm not claiming all the recent progress has been my doing, but I certainly have been removing many petty obstacles. Having two groups on the same side not talking to each other is lunacy. You told me yourself, you were wounded at Breed's Hill, two of your kids were wounded at Gettysburg, and one is buried there. Considering what would have happened to you or them, if you'd been discovered . . . I would think you want to avoid a war with American military forces. Hell, you didn't come over on the Mayflower, you were already here when the Amerinds arrived."

"That isn't the point," Ciril ignored the chuckling of the dragons.

"That's exactly the point," Jeff insisted, "I am not disloyal. I just take a little wider view of things."

"And if they ordered you to move against us?" Ciril asked.

"The meeting was an effort to prevent that from happening. I am well aware of the advantages and the costs of my divided loyalty. I'd also remind you that you came to me, not the reverse."

"That - thing - in your head, it still works?" Ciril sounded almost sad.

"Oh yes . . . perfect memory, reduced need for sleep, everything as advertised. As is seeing everyone around me as pawns to be moved around on a chessboard, and being able to look at a naked, pretty girl, and feel almost nothing." Except what some Great Old One put there, Jeff didn't say. He was glad the chair didn't give him away. "You were correct, the price was hardly worth it. But I didn't have a choice, did I?"

Ciril didn't have anything to say.

Altara did, "The meeting was very successful. Your, Brother Jonathan, was quite reasonable in his requests. The Father of Serpents also apprized him of your mission, goals, et cetera. He was quite amused."

"I'll bet he was," Jeff murmured, "Both of them."

"Yes, 'The sharpest hammer in the shed'. Something about the right tool for the right job." Altara paused to let the chuckling of their colleagues die down. The pause extended longer, everyone was looking around worriedly.

The change in the atmosphere was palpable. Mighty dragons and wizards of great dominion all looked around in fear.

A deep, gravelly voice spoke, "I am not intruding, am I?" The Scholarly Dragon's tone indicated that anyone who thought he was, would get a few moments to complete their last will and testament.

"Would you cut it out?!" Jeff told him, "They were just asking legitimate questions."

"No, I shan't. Not when there is talk of your expulsion. From your seat on the Order, from the Order itself, even from the Council as a whole." The Dragon stared at all of them, "Reason enough for my presence, boy?"

"Re - reason enough," Altara said, "But expulsion isn't death. I myself has - have been, expelled."

"The boy might not have thirty years to mend bridges and gather allies," the Dragon said, "Do you object to his methods . . . or his successes?"

That, Jeff realized, Was the real nub of the problem. There had been no serious progress on the `Great Work` for almost eight centuries. Arguments that were old in Roman times had hamstrung the Council.

The Camilenn's were a second-rate order, competent, but not one of the six `Upper` Orders. Jeff had started making deals, 'I'll help you get the wand of Skymos if you let me read the Book of the Ages.' A few others in the minor orders had begun cooperating. Agreeing with Jeff's reasoning that it was better that another benefits, if I benefit more, rather than nothing ever getting done. He'd collected allies and favors across all the orders.

It had all come to a head when Jeff's web of alliances let the minor orders displace the `strongest` of the Upper orders. From first among equals, to being given a `provisional` place out of tradition. Nineteen of the minor orders had risen in power, not to that of the remaining five Upper orders, but too much to be discounted anymore. Jeff had earned many allies, and a reputation as a dangerous and shrewd operator. He had also gained many enemies, some personal, some professional. But the Council was moving forward again, that was all he cared about.

"So which is it?" the Dragon asked quietly. Both he and Jeff realized the danger, when no one would meet their eyes. "Very well," the Dragon said, "Ask what you need. There are other places to protest this."

Jeff sat just in front of the shoulder blades of the Dragon, as they flew through the realms of dreams.

Other people's dreams, Jeff thought bitterly, Not mine anymore.

"I can . . . " the Dragon rumbled.

"No, thank you." Jeff rested his chin on his knees, "I've seen enough death and destruction for one night."

"Even if they do, throw you out I mean, that won't change anything," the Dragon assured him.

"That's - not - what I'm worried about. Have you ever wondered how we're supposed to accomplish this? All of it?"

"No," the Dragon rumbled a laugh, "That's been your job."

"Oh, thank you," Jeff said quietly.

"There is talk, about the end approaching," the Dragon said wearily, "They aren't talking about victory. While your efforts have reduced casualties from what should have been friendly fire. Our enemies have also woken from their self-imposed exile. The chess master approach of the past centuries is failing. They don't believe in your checkers approach, a single stroke can gain that victory."

"I never said that," Jeff replied, "Only that we should quit playing there games."

They flew on silently for a while, the Scholarly Dragon keeping the flight smooth.

Jeff was not happy with the possibilities, the problems and the recent insights he'd gotten about their enemies. There were simple solutions, which would drown the world in blood, Ours, theirs, and a lot of innocents caught in the crossfire. Letting the whole world die just to win is not an option.

"I have also been investigating, talking to some others, including Altach-Nacha. Separated from your efforts of course."

"They can't help but connect them it seems," Jeff replied, "Langley at least sees the truth."

"Langley is unusually perceptive, and she was there," the Dragon replied, "Is it true they've found the Chosen One?"

"They think so."

"You aren't sure?" the Dragon asked, "You always have doubts."

"I've never believed that the Chosen One would save us. So, of course they make it my job to provide training and protection. I wish it were Shinji or Rei, it would make my job a lot easier."

Sirdar or Steersman

June 13, 1947

Gendo knew the pilots, their guards, and some of the senior staff had been assembled in his office. He knew if he made them wait, it would increase tension, make them more likely to give away what they actually knew. He didn't like the idea that the pilots had been working on something that hadn't gone through the correct channels. Miss Langley's Sonic Glaives were bad enough, but this might have been something even worse.

What he saw as he entered his office shocked him, again, the pilots had made a shambles of his careful plans.

"What the Hell did you think you were doing!?" Ritsuko shouted at Ranma and Davis as she stood over them. Both boys cowered, and their guards seemed ready to take action.

"I made a mistake, I underestimated how clever Ranko could be," Davis admitted. That revelation stunned everyone.

At least until Gendo could take control of the situation. "Dr. Akagi sit down," Gendo told them as he took his seat behind his desk, "We will get to the bottom of this."

"I hope I'm not intruding?" Admiral Simson, and his lapdog Captain Ramsey strode in.

"Of course not," Gendo said, while inwardly fuming. "What exactly were you doing with the Magi? Davis-san, I want to hear from Saotome, you keep silent."

He watched Ranma squirm a little under his gaze. The boy evidently expected the others to provide cover for him.

"We were working on the AT fields," Ranma said, staring at the floor.

Even though Gendo knew to expect that, simply hearing it staggered him.

Simson was not as controlled, "How? You were no where near the EVAs."

"Raccoon and Asuka figured out how to manipulate them," Ranma admitted, glancing side to side at the others, as if expecting them to suddenly speak up and cover for him.

"Wait a moment, manipulate the AT fields?" Ramsey interjected, "I thought they were just up and down walls." He stared at Gendo, "That's what our briefing said."

"The briefing was accurate," Gendo replied calmly, glad Ramsey was unintentionally being his stalking horse, "Saotome-san, please continue. I want to know why the briefing is no longer accurate."

"What briefing?" Ranma asked, again glancing around.

"Since Roku-kun and I can generate an AT field without EVAs," Rei said, "We could test our theories."

It was all Gendo could do not to shout, he knew about Rei's and Davis's fields, but he also knew he was the only one who did. Now she'd told everyone. Is this a rebellion on her part? Gendo thought desperately, Or an extension of my order to Saotome?

"When did this happen?" Ritsuko demanded.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Misato added.

"You had no need to know," Davis replied, "Only Langley can control the field, and then only in her EVA. Once we had it all figured out, we were going to tell you." Then he stared at Gendo, "Besides, Mr. Camber must have told you everything he saw. Funny, I thought he was working for the U.S. Navy."

Davis's guard shifted uncomfortably, both from the revelation and from the Admiral's gaze. Gendo was disinclined to help him.

"This can't be possible," Misato said.

Ah, good, deny what's right in front of you, Gendo hid a smile. Then Asuka stood up, stepping in front of Davis, then stepped up on something unseen. She stood there suspended about 30 centimeters off the ground, then stepped down.

"Yes, impossible, like the Sonic Glaives. If you didn't invent it, it doesn't exist, and never will." Asuka retook her seat.

"The point of the meeting was discussing what you two did to the Magi," Ritsuko said angrily.

Gendo couldn't guess whether she was more angry at the deception, or the possible damage to the computer.

"I think we'd like to find out more about this AT field business," Simson said, "How you've been working on it, what you hoped to accomplish . . . the effect it has on the EVAs' combat capabilities. I think that's a little more important that the computing engine shutting down and restarting."

Hiroko looked at Kensuke and several other members of the photography club, who had collected outside Toji's apartment building. Since the destruction of the school, their source of free photo developing chemicals had vanished. Toji had lent them the closet his sister had used as a dark room, the use of which, and the supplies of chemicals, was their pay as 'eyes and ears'. They were currently trying to make good.

"Are you sure about this?" Hiroko asked.

"Pictures don't lie," Kensuke pointed to the men photographing the ships, and the pumping stations. "That says bunker fuel. That was one of a dozen tankers. There's enough fuel somewhere to run the whole American Pacific fleet for a year."

"Why would someone be interested in that?" Hiroko asked, "Could they steal it and sell it? Or could they burn it?"

"No, bunker fuel is like tar. You could extinguish a match in it. Unless they have some special process to turn it into gasoline or propane, they have no reason to steal it. Only ships use bunker fuel," Kensuke assured her.

"So, you're the military expert," Hiroko said, "Why would someone be taking pictures of that? Unless they were some ship enthusiast, or fascinated by pumping stations."

"Those aren't all." Kensuke reached behind him, another club member handed him several more pictures. "We also took these."

They were again, pictures of people taking pictures. Hiroko noticed some of the people taking pictures of different things at different times were wearing exactly same clothes. That implied concerted action, the same people acting to a plan.

"You've mapped these," she tried to sound as controlled as the Boss would. Inside, her guts were doing flips. She didn't need Raccoon's chemistry to know what bunker fuel storage, a paint factory, the Navy's new welding shop, and a huge propane storage all had in common.

The map showed all these locations clustered around the harbor. Near where the Coral Sea, Alaska and Hawaii were docked. "They destroy those ships, the EVAs aren't going anywhere, unless they walk."

"That's what I thought," Kensuke admitted, "I was hoping I was paranoid."

"That's what we pay you for." Hiroko opened the satchel she carried. She could see the ill-disguised greed on some of the faces, others waited for her to tell Toji they could use the darkroom. She extracted, not the bag of coins, but a wad of bills. Several of the 'eyes and ears' looked ready to faint. "Keep me apprized," she said sternly as she gave each one a single, crisp $1 bill. She knew the pilots earned five times that in a single day. But for the rest of them, that was a couple days' wages for their parents. Her talk with Rei let Hiroko realize why the Navy paid the pilots such an exorbitant amount, NERV expected them to die. She did wonder who would get their back-pay if they did die.

Hiroko turned to Toji, who'd been lounging a short distance away, "Give them what they need, I'm going to steal somebody's bicycle," she said as she collected the map and the photos, "The Navy has to know about this, right now."

Gendo had managed to keep his composure during the entire interview, so far. The revelation of how far the pilots had gotten in their investigations, before he became aware of it at all, disturbed him. That even his spy had ferreted out so little of all they had discovered, disturbed him even more. It did explain what Rei had been trying to explain for the past few days. She couldn't break a confidence to them, or me, he thought, I'll have to correct her misconception about her loyalties.

Asuka had revealed her successful use of the new system in combat. Gendo also noted that Simson didn't seem surprised that Davis and Rei could manifest an AT field. He realized he'd underestimated the man. The idea that they might create fields of various shapes and sizes made the capture of one of their enemies a possibility again.

"Can we at least get back to why and how you shut down the Magi?" Ritsuko asked Davis.

Saotome's initial explanation had even managed to confuse Gendo, while the pilots had comprehended most of it.

"Ranko mentioned that if there was a way to turn math into pictures, she might be able to teach Ranma how to use the field," Davis explained.

"Ranma and Ranko are the same person," Misato blurted out.

Gendo noted Saotome covered his face, Probably trying to keep from laughing.

"Anyway, there is such a device built into the Magi, that's how the keyboards and screens were set up," Davis's statement got Gendo's and Dr. Akagi's full attention.

"How did you find that out?" Ritsuko asked.

"There's a huge file of notes on the system, all in Japanese," Davis explained, "How it was set-up, repair procedures, the internal tools it uses, that kind of thing."

Gendo and Ritsuko glanced at each other, they had wondered where Naoko had hidden all her notes. They would get Davis to lead them to that file.

"It is interesting that the system used to detect the Angels, was originally used for detecting seismic events."

"That's beside the point," Simson said.

"We will want to know later, all of what you found." Gendo exchanged a glance with Dr. Akagi.

"Next time," Davis said, "When someone steals Elder Thing technology, they should at least steal a manual."

"What!"

Gendo wasn't sure which of all the people yelped.

"It's not like we built the first EVAs either," Davis added, "They were all dug up."

Saotome and Shinji were staring, Rei and Tendo were quiet.

So some knew, and some didn't, Gendo thought, "Can we get back to the induced failure of the Magi system?"

"Well I set up the matrix to represent the calculations and a visual image to show Ranko how it looked."

"All I did was draw a line, then extended it into horizontal and vertical planes," Saotome complained, "What? There's nothing wrong with what I said."

"Did the line overlap?" Asuka asked.

"Of course not. It just sort of spiraled around."

Davis and Asuka covered their faces. Gendo heard a comment about 'ingenuous fools' from someone.

"The overlap would result in a drastic discontinuity in phase space," Ritsuko explained, "The mathematical model couldn't resolve discontinuity. The limits would approach zero and negative infinity simultaneously."

Gendo doubted Saotome had the faintest idea what she meant.

"Math go boom," Tendo said.

That everyone understood and agreed with.

"You will show me exactly what you did," Ritsuko told them, "Both of you."

Neither boy was inclined to argue.

Ranma walked towards the command deck. "What did I do wrong?" he complained, "You should have told me something like that could have happened, Raccoon."

"I never expected Ranko would decide to doodle, and then do that calculation," Raccoon replied.

You're probably mad that you lost all the dots you were collecting, Ranma thought, but he knew enough not to say that. Raccoon was mad enough he'd probably cut him in half if he mentioned it. Raccoon was keeping secrets from Gendo. Ranma didn't trust Gendo either.

Ranma also wished he could figure out exactly what Raccoon was looking at, and hiding. Evidently it took a pilot to access the full capabilities of the Magi. If I know Rit-chan, Ranma shuddered at the thought, She'll chain him in a chair until he shows her absolutely everything she wants to know or even thinks she wants to know. Then it will be my turn. Ranma actually wouldn't have minded if Rit-chan and Stoneface had locked him in an EVA to practice the AT field.

"You sit here," Rit-chan pointed Ranma at a chair, "Plug in, but DO NOT touch anything!"

"You, young man," she told Raccoon as she dragged him to a particular station, "Plug in here, and bring up those files."

"As you wish." Raccoon put on the nerve clip and Japanese text began scrolling across the main screen.

Ranma tried to read it, but he hadn't the faintest idea what half of it meant. He waited until it was his turn.

"Miss Ayami, am I pleased to see you?" Admiral Simson asked as he entered his office. He had been more than a little boggled by some of the revelations. He'd already resolved to do a little poking around the Magi himself.

"That depends," the girl told him as she laid out the photos on his desk, "If knowing about this in advance is good news."

Simson looked over the photos, and the similar figures in several of the pictures. "Mr. Ramsey, please get in here, now," he said into the intercom. Then he turned his attention to Hiroko. "Where did you get these?"

She set a map out in front of him. She had numbered the pictures, to correspond to the spots on the map. "Fire has always been a real cultural phobia for my people. It would seem good cover for their real targets." She pointed to the mooring points of the capital ships of Task Force 7N.

While that threat chilled the Admiral, he also knew it could serve as a diversion for any of a hundred targets.

Ramsey entered.

"I think we need to turn out the Marines," Simson told Ramsey as they examined the evidence in front of them.

Truth's Keen Lancet

Ranma learned one of the side-effects of sitting while Rit-chan interrogated someone else while awaiting a similar fate. Ranma had to sit and listen to her drawing ideas out of Raccoon, like pulling threads out of a piece of cloth. It got him thinking. The idea he was at least a murderer was bad enough. But there were other things. Little pieces of data that only Rit-chan's persistent `mining` of Raccoon's knowledge brought up. Asuka's and Raccoon's descriptions of the other world had some differences, but a huge number of similarities. He'd realized, the feeling of correctness caused by their descriptions, were similar to the odd sense of rightness that occurred on other occasions, when he felt certain behaviors or actions were `typical` of him or weren't.

However, this time it wasn't something inside he was comparing with something outside. He was comparing two things he'd heard, two things that he now distinctly remembered. The feelings of anger and betrayal that accompanied the recollection were not new either. Although their intended target definitely was.

Ranma burst into the girls' room and angrily faced Nab-chan . . . Nabiki, "You lied to me," Ranma bitterly accused, "You knew the whole thing, you are from my home, wherever, or whenever it is!"

Nabiki had the smarts not to deny it, "How did you come to that conclusion?"

"On the approach to San Diego, you told me exactly what the situation was back home. Your 'mysterious stranger' affianced to your sister, which was exactly what Raccoon and Asuka described too. Just how stupid do you think I am? That I wouldn't figure it all out? That you'd be able to keep lying to me and I'd never know?"

"I didn't lie!" Nabiki countered, "You died. You blew yourself up, and all you left was a hole in the concrete! Should I have told you all that, and had you rush off back there?!"

"You should have told me," Ranma insisted, he forced his anger down, "Let me have a choice in the matter, instead of deciding everything for me!"

"And what would you have done? Run back there? To let them destroy you - again - I suppose because honor and duty demanded it?" Nabiki was shouting at him.

"It would have been my choice!" Ranma shouted back, he felt like hitting her, but he wouldn't. She may have betrayed me, but I won't betray myself! he thought.

"You don't have the right to kill yourself, when so many people are counting on you. So, I didn't give you a choice!"

"Are you going to say you did it, because your love," he spat the word, "Well save it! If you really cared about how I felt, you wouldn't have hidden the truth."

"THE TRUTH!" she exclaimed, she pushed him against the wall, she spoke clearly, right in his face, clipping each word, "They MURDERED you, and would do it again! NONE of your so-called fiancees did anything except beat you up! Is that what you want? I can tell the others, and they can start beating you with sticks to show how much they care."

"That isn't it."

"THAT'S EXACTLY IT!!" Nabiki shouted, then stepped away.

In the back of his mind he knew he'd really struck a nerve with Nabiki. That he should back off and let her cool off, but he wanted answers.

"Fine, I didn't tell you, what good does it do you?" Nabiki spoke calmly and rationally, although Ranma could tell it was a thin facade, "Are you happy now, do you even remember any of those people? Your father got you or himself into trouble all the time, and it was your fault, always blamed on you, and the solution was perpetually your responsibility. Your fiancees fought you and fought each other, over who would possess you. They didn't care about you, they cared about who won!"

"So you're trying to protect me from that?" Ranma asked carefully, trying to reign in his own anger, he could see her point, She didn't have to lie to me about it, he reminded himself, "And you don't think I could?"

Nabiki's face darkened, she too spoke carefully, "You never could in the past."

"Well, maybe I've learned."

"You said you wanted to be given a choice in your future, they wouldn't let you."

"That's what you assume, but you don't know."

"Yes, I do." Nabiki just shook her head and left the room. A moment later the outside door slammed.

Ranma walked out of the girls' room. Rit-chan glanced at him, then shook her head. Raccoon gave him a flat stare that was even less expressive than Rei's or Gendo's. Ranma ignored him, he walked into his bedroom and climbed into his bunk. As soon as he had, Raccoon walked in and closed the door behind him.

"You must feel really proud of yourself Saotome, put a good polish on the old honor."

"So what, she lied to me."

"When you grow up, maybe you'll learn to trust other people's judgement, sometimes you don't need the information."

"I want the facts about my life," Ranma countered sullenly, "I deserve to know."

"Okay, I can understand that," Raccoon said, he knelt next to the bed. "From my and Langley's dreams, here are some pertinent facts: The Grandmaster and originator of your Art - was a filthy, little pervert who spent all his time stealing womens' underwear and molesting girls, because he had devised a method of immortality based on a lifetime of doing these two things. When he wasn't trying to douse you with cold water to molest you, he was beating you up for standing up to him. He never taught you anything, because if he did, you wouldn't have had to put up with him. Your father was a lying, honorless, cowardly thief. All you were to him - was a meal-ticket - not a son, but a way he could retire and live the good life at your expense. He probably planned to live off your hosts, the Tendos, until they got tired of it, then he'd marry you off. Once that was done, he'd sell your new home and dojo out from under you, and leave you behind to clean up the mess. That mess would have been Nabiki, her older sister, their father, and your new wife. And at that point, all of them would probably rather spit on you than look at you. The other Master of your art, Nabiki's father, was a manipulative, cowardly bastard who sacrificed his honor, the honor of his House and his daughters' - daughters, plural - honor and safety to the 'master' because he'd already decided that defending them was your job, not his. And Heaven help you if you didn't. His plan was to sacrifice one of his daughters to a Saotome son, so he could live the easy life. If your father had dragged in a shoggoth, they would have had the priest perform the service, as soon as they got its `bride` sedated. That's what Nabiki had to look forward to, selling herself to whatever your old man dragged in."

That shook Ranma, He's guessing, based on a dream and what Asuka said her dream was, Ranma thought, There's no proof, "It's still my choice, my obligation, and my honor," Ranma angrily countered.

"Since you seem to be a little slow," Raccoon replied coldly, "Let me sum it up. You didn't have any honor. Your family, is honorless, your school, is honorless. Those two facts erase any personal honor you might have. Nabiki saw an opportunity to let you actually gain some honor, the one thing you proclaim to the sky and gods is more important to you than life itself. She wanted you to get some honor based on what you actually do. However, you are correct, she was quite wrong," Raccoon told him, "She should have left you back there, and come here by herself. After this tantrum, good riddance to you sir. To Hell with your honor, sir, your family's, your school's and especially to you. Unfortunately, you wouldn't notice the difference."

Ranma was on his feet confronting the other boy. "You take that back!"

"Or what?" Raccoon stared at him. "You'll hit me? Are you really that stupid, as well as deaf? You would abandon billions of worlds to their fate, because of petty commitments made by people who didn't care that those commitments were mutually exclusive, even fatally injurious to their own plans and schemes? Are you really that wrapped up in yourself? Are you so desperate for your imagined parents illusionary love, that you'd tear yourself to pieces, just to get the people who are supposed to care about you to actually love you? Is that all your honor is? A desire to be loved and accepted by some arbitrary list of people?"

"Honor isn't about me, it's about - "

"What? Your parents who don't have any of their own, your school which never had any? You talk about people lying to you, but you don't have to look any farther than inside your own skin, Saotome. You refuse to see that, the honor you get so worked up about, you never had it to lose in the first place. The only way you could have gained it, was by accepting the real truth, and making decisions for yourself. That means defying your parents, maybe getting banished from your school, to start fresh. If you go back there, unwilling to do that, all you're doing is putting a noose around your neck, enslaving whoever you do marry to an endless pattern of servitude and random attacks by whatever nut happens by. You also hurt a lot of people who depend on you a lot more than those idiots ever did or will. Some even, for reasons that completely escape me, actually care about Saotome Ranma the person. So you want to give up all of that, just so your marvelous parents can go back to threatening you with dishonor or disembowelment the instant you don't do exactly what they say."

"You're exaggerating," Ranma said weakly.

"Fine, believe what you wish. I don't care about your illusions, because I know one very important fact."

"What's that?" Ranma asked.

"Nobody knows how to send you back there, except maybe whoever sent that dream. Are you going to make a deal with Cthulhu or Nyarlathotep to send you `home`?" Raccoon asked as he headed towards the door, "I'm sure they'd be more than willing. Your father and mother, or the other members of your school would make that deal in a heartbeat. One less pilot, and considering the abyss you'd be descending into," he paused, considered, "Yes, they'd gladly send you back, think about that little bit of truth. There's even a way of contacting them. But I'm kkeping that from you, so I guess I'm as guilty as Miss Tendo." He closed the door behind him.

Ranma shivered, crawled back under the blankets, trying and failing to get warm again.

Marring by Blunder's Echo

Nabiki was in a foul mood when Raccoon caught up to her. "I don't want to talk about it." She continued walking down the darkened street. The streetlights were few and far between.

Raccoon shrugged, walked on in silence.

"I did the right thing," Nabiki told him.

"Actually your shoes are on the wrong feet."

Nabiki glanced down, saw he was wrong, "I'm not in the mood for jokes."

"I was speaking metaphorically. You should plant one of those firmly in Saotome's butt, the other firmly between your jaws. You shouldn't have lied to him, you knew how he'd react. That was stupid. You should have said nothing."

"Considering the whoppers you tell," Nabiki replied angrily, "You're one to talk."

"Tall tales and sea stories aside, I don't lie. I let others lie to themselves. It saves having to remember all the lies I've told."

"So what do I do?" Nabiki asked sarcastically, "Since you know so much."

"Time, let him stew. You're expecting maturity from a outraged fourteen-year-old, only one with deep psychological problems could give it to you. Although if you have a secret way of sending him home, one you haven't told him or us about. I'd suggest you destroy it."

"You actually want him around?" Nabiki asked, feigning shock.

"We need him. If the U.S. could ally itself with Stalin, who was as big a butcher as Hitler, I can put up with Saotome Ranma, who is merely an irritant. The original definition of an asshole: unpleasant, not discussed in polite company, but absolutely necessary."

"Because of his 'hidden depths'?" Nabiki asked caustically.

"No, because I can run faster than he can, the pursuers will eat him first," Raccoon replied. He peered into the darkness, "Isn't that Hiroko? She's in an awful hurry. That usually means offal things."

Nabiki ignored the pun, wondering how Raccoon could see through the gloom.

"I'm glad I found you two," Hiroko gasped, as she ran up, "I gave Admiral Simson a heads up, but I figured I should tell you two too."

"Great, more puns," Nabiki griped.

"Fight with Ranma," Raccoon said.

"You can stay at my apartment tonight," Hiroko suggested.

"What's the news?" Nabiki asked.

"A cult, a bad one." She laid out what the eyes and ears had found. "One possibility is they'd make bombs or burn down a building. Security is getting a heads-up, but since they never tell you anything . . . "

"Thank you," Nabiki said. She sighed, "I guess I'd better get back. Can you walk her home - oh, that's right, you don't have a guard anymore." Nabiki glanced at Juri Kon, who had stayed a discreet distance behind the two pilots.

"I'll take her home. I also promise to keep the death toll down."

Nabiki patted his cheek, "That's so sweet."

Hiroko watched the Boss depart.

"I heard you asked to be a pilot," Raccoon said.

"Yes, Ayanami tried to convince me otherwise," she said, "Are you going to try and convince me too?"

"Of course, how far do you live from here?"

"About 5 kilometers, why? Eeep!"

Raccoon had scooped her up in his arms, "What time is it?"

"21:45, put me down!" she insisted.

"I'll put you down in about two minutes." With that he took off at a dead run.

Hiroko had to bury her face in his shoulder because of the force of the wind of their passage that tore at her clothes and hair. Her screams of fright were carried away by the same wind. As quickly as it started, it was over.

"What time is it?" Raccoon asked as soon as they stopped.

The trip so disoriented Hiroko, she had trouble focusing on her watch, when she finally could, it was 21:48. She also recognized she was at the door to her apartment building.

"That's impossible!" she exclaimed as Raccoon set her down.

"That - is one of the more innocuous manifestations of what it means to be a pilot. The 'Boss' hasn't experienced it yet, she's still human. Ayanami-san knows what being a pilot really entails."

"Most innocuous?" Hiroko squeaked, "Can race cars go that fast?"

"Not carrying their own weight. I showed that to you because no one will believe you. As the pilots - advance - or is it devolve, they, we, will need a human anchor far more than a colleague going down the same road."

"I understand." Hiroko paused. "You said innocuous, what other . . . ? I shouldn't really ask, should I?"

"If you really want to know, but the knowledge often brings insanity, to humans. Yet, I'm immune, completely, think about that."

"That's more answer than I wanted, thanks." Hiroko bowed. "Thank you for telling me. You haven't convinced me, but I think I'll put it aside. At least until school starts." She smiled. "Wherever they decide to send us."

"I think they'll be keeping the class together, as much as possible."

"Good night, Raccoon-san." Hiroko went inside. She was not looking forward to dreaming tonight. Too many nasty possibilities.

June 15, 1947

Unit 04 bounced eagerly from foot to foot, mirroring the impatience of its pilot. Ranma wasn't thrilled about getting woken up at 3:00 in the morning. But there was an Angel on the way in. That was a good reason to be up that early. There was nothing confused or confusing about what he was to do, he'd fight it, he'd kill it. It was an easier formula than all the stuff with Nabiki and Raccoon. Or the questions about whether he should be in this place, or trying to rescue his family's and his school's honor where he came from. Or even what the 'other' really was, and what it would and could do.

He wasn't worried about facing another Angel. He knew he had it. What he'd done that first time out, he knew he could do it again. Asuka's stick knives made going hand-to-hand with these things a game.

"Relax, Ranma," Ritsuko told him, "It's too high for you to engage. We have to wait for it to descend a little more."

"Yeah, okay," Ranma admitted as he waited for his quarry in the cockpit of Unit 04. The other EVAs in the bay showed none of his impatience.

"Relax, Horseface." An image of Asuka's face appeared in front of him. "I'll get it, you won't have to do anything except hold my coat."

"Like HELL," Ranma shouted, "I'll get it, by myself, just watch me."

"I hate to interrupt your lovers' quarrel," Misato broke in, "But get ready to launch, its almost in intercept range."

"Captain," Rei's voice and image appeared, "Do we have visual?"

"Just a moment," a ball of glowing gas replaced Misato's voice and image. The glow was bright enough it dispelled the night over Tokyo.

"That looks like those things around the hospital," Shinji said.

"This one's a lot bigger," Ritsuko told them.

"Launch!" Misato commanded. The tethers were fully energized as the heavy doors rumbled open.

Ranma could feel the flow of chi, ki or whatever energies the AT fields were made of. A tiny ball of white-hot fury formed between his hands, Unit 04's first pair of hands, and several similar ones formed in a half-dozen pairs of the centipede-like EVAs hands.

Ranma intended to release them as a salvo, once he was out ahead of the others. He shouldered through the half-open doors, racing into the open, into the Angel-defined twilight.

He saw the creature, the Angel of Fire, 'Cthugha' the remnants of the others he'd killed echoed through his mind. He narrowed his eyes, and released the first missile. It streaked straight and true at the target. He released a second and a third, but they both vanished immediately.

I guess only one active at a time, Ranma thought as he raced towards his target. He watched with expectation as the first one sailed over the harbor and hit the creature's AT field, detonating violently. He released the next immediately. He ignored Misato's order to wait for the others as he raced towards the waterfront.

"Asuka, you too!" Misato ordered, watching the pair race ahead of Units 00 and 01.

"AT field down 70%," Lt. Baker reported the effect of the third of Ranma's AT 'bombs', as Ranma released a fourth.

"Doctor, are you analyzing this?" Commander Ikari called down from his place on the command deck.

"Yes, Commander, but other than an immense power drain on firing, there's not much to analyze."

"I'm sure Ranma will be only too happy to show you," Misato complained, "Ranma, Asuka, wait for the others! Take up position at grid reference 81 by 20! Are you listening to me?"

Ranma easily dodged a number of poorly aimed fire bolts. His shots actually sought out their quarry, so they were more accurate and effective. Cthugha was spiraling down drunkenly. After the pounding he had given it, it looked like a half-deflated beachball painted like the sun, not a monster from the depths of time and fire. He hadn't headed towards Misato's grid reference.

Ranma caught a flash of red, "Hey!"

"First blood!" Asuka's lance shoved deep in the creature. Her tether flying after her like a kite's tail. She landed in the harbor, but Unit 02 managed to keep its footing in the mud.

Ranma heard the sound/thought from Cthugha, he interpreted it as a scream of agony. He couldn't fire another of his AT bombs with Asuka that close, so he set his lance and charged. He was glad the creature was drawing them away from the place Misato had tried to send them. Ranma knew it was full of people. He'd first saw it was full of people when he'd looked at it through the Magi days ago, then today he'd watched people scrambling into the abandoned buildings as he charged towards the Angel. He didn't want to think what having an EVA/Angel battle in the middle of them would mean. I'm not going stomping around in a crowd, he thought.

There was a better, more empty place closer to the entrance to the harbor, he had hurried and caught it over the mouth of the Ara River. He and Asuka were holding it there. Many of the smaller creatures were swarming around Asuka and her lance, but they couldn't get through her AT field, a pair of cylinders, one around Unit 02, the other protecting the lance.

"Okay," her image and voice showed the strain she was under, "Horseface, catch." She flipped the huge creature at him.

Ranma braced himself, then charged when he realized Cthugha still had some control. Ranma felt as if his own arms were plunging into flames as the lance pierced the Great Old One. He felt the spells it cast coiling around him, they joined dozens of the little ones, trying to find away in, a way through his AT field. But he held it, it couldn't advance.

"Ha!" Asuka's face reappeared in his screens as Unit 02 slammed its lance in, meeting the tip of Unit 04's lance outside the core.

"Shove it in, Horseface!" Asuka ordered.

The heat and resistance soared, then faded. Ranma felt the familiar sick, sweet sensation as the creature's intellect and experiences tried to find a new home.

But here too, Ranma was ready: Ranma, Ranko, and even the 'other', cat and moused the force until it weakened too much to be a danger, it simply faded into the background. He felt the changes, the knowledge, but still he remained him. Unlike the first two times when the Angel nearly overwhelmed him.

Ranma glanced at the outraged expression on Asuka's face, The one she killed before was only a little one, Tulzscha was hard to grasp and lacked the mental force of the others, he realized, "Asuka, don't throw up!" he urged, Ritsuko had warned of acid burns and lung infections.

"THAT'S DISGUSTING!" she shouted, before covering her mouth with both hands.

The disintegrating corpse had rolled against a small hill, residual heat let it burn into the ground.

A moment later, a huge column of fire erupted into the air.

"Whoa!" Ranma exclaimed, "Even dead it's got some kick."

"Ranma, Asuka, get back with Rei and Shinji to deal with the little ones!" Misato ordered.

"You could give us a little time to celebrate," Ranma griped, "That's got to be the fastest kill ever."

"Well, you aren't done yet," Ritsuko reminded them, "They're attacking a fuel dump and a paint factory. That could be a serious problem too."

"Yeah, yeah, come on 'Langley'. Let's help the slowpokes with the small fry."

"Yeah," Asuka's tone was subdued.

Ranma knew she was still trying to deal with the new realities in her mind, the memories that weren't hers, the feeling of power and poisonous contamination she'd never felt so strongly before. Ranma felt a little sorry for her, it wasn't something he'd wish on anyone, But if you can handle it . . . Ranma thought about the 'other', and weird stuff they said it did. He wondered how much of that he could do himself. If I wanted to give up my humanity, he reminded himself.

Misato marched into the locker room. Shinji tried to cover his nakedness as Misato angrily marched past, she flipped the release on the dividing partition, letting it retract into the ceiling with a crash. Asuka screamed and tried to cover herself, Rei unashamed of her nakedness, continued dressing and merely stared.

"Asuka, Ranma, did I, or did I not order you two to wait for the others?"

"Yeah, Misa - to." "Yes." Ranma and Asuka answered.

"Why didn't you?"

"There were people all over where you sent me. I thought we could get it somewhere else," Ranma said, "And we did," he added defensively.

"Orders are given for a reason," Rei countered, as she stood.

"Thank you," Misato said.

"The Commander has summoned me," she told them as she left.

Misato's attention returned to her two targets, "I won't tolerate that kind of showboating in the future. It could have been a trap or a diversion. Command has a better view of the situation than you pilots do. You're expected to follow orders!" She waited until they both nodded. "Don't bother showering, you've got an appointment in the simulators, and you," Misato faced Ranma, "Ritsuko has some special tests for you." Misato walked out.

Ranma fumed, ignoring Asuka's attempts to pull the divider back down, without jumping and dislodging the towel she was barely covering herself with. Shinji managed to get on his shorts, and recovered the pole used to lower the partition. He pulled the curtain down into place, then he stripped down and put his plugsuit back on.

"Better view," Ranma complained, "What does she know about piloting an EVA? All she knows about is paperwork and beer. I could see what I was looking at."

"If the fuel dump had gone up," Shinji told him, "Or that paint factory, a lot of people could have gotten hurt."

"From those little ones?" Ranma scoffed, "The big one was the real danger, it could have set half the city on fire. There was a line of burning ships under it, and it didn't even try to set those aflame."

Shinji shrugged.

Ranma looked across the open field at the target, an EVA breastplate. The flows were correct, he did exactly what he'd done in combat against Cthugha. The only difference was, there was no real target.

"Nothing," Ranma admitted as he sat in Unit 04's plug, "It just isn't working."

"Okay, Ranma, you tried," Ritsuko was trying to hide her disappointment.

Ranma remembered something about 'emotional energy', "I guess maybe I have to actually be in combat." Or have something that actually has an AT field to target, he didn't add, he didn't want to risk shooting at another EVA. He didn't have that kind of control over the balls he fired, until he did, he wanted to avoid endangering others with his abilities.

"All right," Ritsuko said, "We'll plug you into the systems, so you can run a harmonics test along with the others."

"Where'd Raccoon and Nabiki disappear to?" Ranma asked, as he headed back into the EVA bay, "I figured they'd be getting yelled at like the rest of us." He walked back to where the other EVAs was waiting.

"They went out with Search and Rescue."

"Waiting for us to screw up," Ranma joked, but he felt some irritation, at Misato and the others for the implied insult, She sits behind concrete, looking at little radar pictures and listening to radio reports, and thinks she knows better what's going on than someone who can see what's going on, someone who is actually out there. Then she sends the two know-it-alls to watch over us, in case we screw up too bad.

Ranma backed Unit 04 into the restraining frame and as soon as it was locked down, he dropped into the deep meditation that went along with the harmonics test.

Maya looked out over the EVA bay at the various EVAs, orange, purple, and red humanoid Units 00, 01, and 02, and the sandy-gray snake-headed centipede that was Unit 04. She always smiled at that, the Americans always had to do something weird, which either worked well, or not at all. She, Lt. Baker and the rest of the team were monitoring the systems and the four pilots. Rei had returned from her mysterious errands, and was participating as well. She'd been more laconic than usual, barely acknowledging Maya's instructions.

Normally, Rei shows at least a semblance of courtesy, to me at any rate, Maya thought, Her errand must have been very troubling.

"Asuka's up five full points on average, her fluctuations are nearly plus or minus 20%," Maya told her sempai as she went over the tapes from the chart recorders. "She might be more disturbed by her experience than the others have been."

"We should check the pilots after a mission from now on." Ritsuko was walking through the observation room, checking the EVAs' systems.

"Well, Shinji and Ranma are closing the gap," Baker reported, "Ayanami's better, but she's firmly in fourth."

Maya watched her sempai check Baker's analysis, then she nodded.

Misato burst into the room. "Cut the comm lines to the EVAs," she ordered.

Maya switched the mikes off immediately.

"We will not discuss the details of this after-action report on today's sortie. Understood?" Misato shook the papers in her hand and glared at the others.

Maya and the others nodded in confusion. We never discuss the after action reports, Maya wondered at the concern, That's your job, Captain.

Misato threw the papers in the trash and left.

Maya couldn't figure out if Misato had been extraordinarily angry or extremely shaken, or both.

Ritsuko retrieved the papers, "I want to see what exactly we're not supposed to talk about."

Maya watched Ritsuko's smirk vanish, then sempai walked slowly over to the phone. She dialed a number. "Search and Rescue, where are pilots Tendo and Davis?" she listened, "Hospital!? Oh, working, yes. Security is still keeping an eye on them? Thank you." She hung up the phone.

Maya was worried, Ritsuko's face was colorless and frozen as she dropped into the chair next to Maya.

"Sempai?" Maya's concern overrode any considerations of privacy.

"Oh, Maya," Ritsuko whispered, "There's been a disaster."

Back to Index

Chapter 28 - Nabiki's Awakening
WARNING: This chapter includes the depiction of Mature themes. There is no sex or splatter and little profanity. However, this is not for young children or the sensitive. The events of this chapter will be discussed in subsequent chapters. You will not lose the thread of the story if you skip this chapter.

I am not trying to tantalize you into reading this, I sincerely mean this as a warning. Thank you for your indulgence.

[Ranma][NGE][HPL][AMG][Fusion][Fanfic] Sic Semper Morituri Chapter 28 - Nabiki's Awakening