Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Mst: Children of an Elder God ❯ chapter 8 ( Chapter 8 )

Hikari: Wow it's getting late isn't it.

Asuka: How long were we playing that game?

Shinji: Very long.

Asuka: And who won? The girl! Take that males!

Kensuke: You cheated!

Touji/Shinji: Give up man. She beat you fair and square.

Hikari: Well sorry guys but my dad won't let me stay over much later so I'll see you tomorrow.

Mana: My dad doesn't care, I have the family mecha outside.

Rei: You saying my dummy plug controlled Mass Eva units aren't enough?

Mana: Look at those things! I wouldn't trust all eight of them to take Asuka down.

Shinji: Mana.

Asuka: I'd kick their ASSES!

Hikari giving Shinji a peck on the cheek: Don't stay up to late now.

Touji: Yes mom.

Mana: And you wonder why girls don't like you.

They all wave good-bye to Miss Hokari as she walks out the door.

Rei: Now what?

Asuka: I'm eager to see what's happened in that movie!

Shinji/Rei: But it's getting late.

Touji: So?

Mana: Sleep over!

Asuka: We can talk about it later, key up the next installment.

Kensuke: Did I hear something about a stalker?

Shinji enlightens the two gamers of the previous events.

Kensuke/Asuka: Creepy.

The seats are taken, the popcorn made, the movie keyed up.

Asuka: Activating Disk! Viewing unit ON!

Shinji: No more Nadesico for you, those old cartoons rot your brains.

>>>Beginning mst! If ya don't know about the >>> let this be the warning.

The team of divers made little noise as they swam

through the ruins of a once-great city.

>>>Mana: Oh goody more dead people.

>>>Touji: Always nice to start with a healthy dose of death.

Millions had once

lived here; now it was home only to fish. Crack diver Eiko

Kappabungi led the team, who followed her directions despite

not being sure what they were looking for or why they had

come.

>>>Shinji: Or why that statue was looking at her.

>>>Asuka: Or why they had to write a will before the mission.

The harpoon guns they carried indicated there was

likely to be danger, although the only real danger was

smacking into a rock in the dark as far as most of them

could tell.

"Johnson, Taka, you go that way." Eiko pointed to

the left entrance of the huge sprawling building they were

about to enter.

>>>Rei: Divide and conquer?

>>>Kensuke: Typical horror movie actions. Divide and die.

Once it had reached to the sky, dozens of

stories tall; now it couldn't even break the surface of the

water far above. "Anderson, Hino, circle around to the

back. Rippongi, you come with me around to the right."

>>>Shinji: Why are all their wet suits red?

>>>Asuka: Because red is a stylish color!

>>>Kensuke: No, all extras in red uniforms tend to die. `Asuka pales.'

They all nodded and split up, one diver in each pair

carrying a substantial lamp, most of them wondering why they

had to split up to enter an abandoned building. They

wouldn't say anything, though. Eiko had a sharp tongue.

>>>Touji: And if they questioned orders what would that make them.

>>>Mana: Useless soldiers, right guys?

>>>Pilots: Shut up.

Eiko and Rippongi were still poking around the foyer

when Taka came on the radio. "Kappabungi-san, we've found a

huge well. And...uh...You're going to have to see this."

>>>Rei: It looks like the electric rodent.

>>>Shinji: Well maybe pokemon ARE elder gods.

Eiko and Rippongi quickly swam down the long hallway

to the grand central chamber of the building. It would have

been impressive, once upon a time, carved of marble, basalt,

and onyx, the walls covered with reliefs and squiggly

letters.

>>>Kensuke: I bet one of them says "Kill Roy was here."

The ceiling was about four stories above the

floor, a great dome studded with gems which sparkled in the

light of the flashlights the divers used. They could only

see pieces of the room; it was too big for their lights to

illuminate more than bits of it at a time.

>>>Mana: So…they don't think it odd?

>>>Asuka: Maybe they think cavemen could build skyscrapers.

And in the center, there was a great well, a shaft

sinking into the darkness. The water was warmer around the

well; they could feel a gentle current running away from it.

Reliefs in the floor showed people being hurled into the

well by ceremonially dressed priests who wore tentacled

headdresses and a contorted, inhuman mask.

>>>Asuka/Mana: I hate that word!

>>>Rei: Mask?

>>>Asuka: Tentacle, and if you knew why we did, you'd hate them too.

Bits of yellow

paint still clung to the masks, and a band of purple stone

ringed the well for six feet.

Anderson looked up at the ceiling. "Everything's

so...it's too clean. It's like this place sunk yesterday.

>>>Shinji: Anderson knows something so he'll die first.

There's broken stuff everywhere, but nothing is worn or

covered with barnacles or...anything. But of course, this

is the really weird thing."

>>>Mana: If they show something with red eyes…

>>>Touji: Asuka will die.

She shone her lamp upon a

statue made of limestone or some other sort of greenish rock.

It was kneeling at the edge of the pit, gazing down, a look

of horror upon its amphibian face, for it looked like a

strange cross between a fish, a frog, and a man, for its hands

and feet were webbed, its head fishlike, with bulging eyes

and a receding, hairless brow, its flesh carved cunningly in

the likeness of scales.

>>>Kensuke: Ah sweet! It's a Deep One!

Yet its form was clearly human, bipedal

and proportioned much like any man. "Strange, eh?"

"Yes," Eiko said. "Perhaps one of their gods."

>>>Shinji: Religion has taken a sad turn for those people.

Anderson nodded. "I thought that at first. The

legends do claim some contact with fish-gods, but...look

closer." The light flashed on the creature's wrist. Not

only could they see the watch it was wearing, they could

read 'Timex' on it.

>>>Asuka: That's so cheap its funny.

>>>Touji: Now the slaughter begins.

"I'd almost think this was all some

sort of fraud, but...what sort of conman would build a giant

underwater temple in the middle of the Pacific? And then

make a mistake like that?"

>>>Shinji: A very stupid one.

>>>Rei: Did the commander have an excess budget again?

Taka was carrying a box whose purpose he didn't

know, other than the fact that it beeped periodically.

>>>Mana: A Nerv present.

>>>Asuka/Shinji: So it'll explode soon.

He

was being paid enough that he didn't care that he didn't

know. NERV

>>>All: AHAHAHA we were right!

seemed to be big on giving orders and not

explaining them. He just hoped it wasn't a geiger counter,

especially now that it was beeping louder and faster. "The

box is having a fit," he said.

"Take it closer to the pit," Eiko said.

>>>Kensuke: Why?

>>>Mana: So the thing coming out of it gets him first.

The box had a louder and longer fit. Taka frowned.

"I don't like this."

Hino nodded. "This place gives me the creeps,

although the night sky ceiling is kinda neat."

"The what?" Taka asked.

"The gems are all laid out where various stars are,"

Hino said. "It's a star chart." She took Anderson's lamp.

"There's Polaris. Algol. Aldebaran. Betelgeuse. Sirius.

Fomalhaut." The light jerked about, illuminating various

'stars'. "There's the Big Dipper, Orion, Gemini...I'd guess

this shows the sky in a few months;

>>>Asuka: How dumb are these guys! The night sky CHANGES over time.

>>>Shinji: So…if it were made millions of years ago…and shows next month…shit.

some of these stars

won't be visible much at night until fall. Especially

Fomalhaut. I'm gonna take some photos...now I'm curious.

Gimme the camera, Johnson."

>>>Kensuke: Johnson's hand floats by.

Johnson didn't answer; in fact, he had moved out of

the light range of everyone else. Then his head drifted

into the light of Rippongi's flashlight, neatly severed at

the neck.

>>>Touji: You were close man…very close.

For a moment, they all stared, then Rippongi and

Anderson both brought their lamps around to see what had

happened. The last transmission from the expedition was the

sound of screaming.

>>>Shinji: Is that going to be the standard opening from now on?

>>>Rei: Didn't they notice the red hint to the water?

~*~

John Biles & Rod M. Present

A Neon Genesis Evangelion Elseworlds

Children of an Elder God

Part 8

Under the Sea

>>>Mana: Under the sea, were you and me…

>>>Asuka: If you sing Disney songs…so help me I'll break you.

~*~

"Ready for your checkup, Rei?" Maya asked

pleasantly.

>>>Mana: You haven't killed anybody have you?

>>>Asuka deadpan: No.

>>>Mana: Then you're ok for now.

Rei nodded, then stripped out of her clothes

and laid down on the examination table.

>>>Rei: Eyes, now.

Slowly, methodically, mechanical arms holding a

dazzling set of sensor arrays moved over her body. Screens

running along the wall came to life, streaming with data on

her body chemistry, brainwave activity, and dozens of other

details about Ayanami's body that an untrained eye would

find totally undecipherable.

>>>Shinji: What is that one with the hearts?

>>>Asuka: Life? Damn theirs hundreds of them.

>>>Rei: That's my `love-love' mood…what?

"How's things going in school?" asked Maya, punching

a few buttons and flipping through charts as she did so.

"Everything okay?"

Rei nodded.

>>>Touji/Kensuke: What happened we can't see?

"And are things going well with Shinji?"

>>>Asuka: Bad, she lost him to me!

Something unexpected happened.

>>>Mana: She had some readable emotion on her face?

>>>Touji: She bite off Maya's head?

>>>Rei: I don't like meat.

The sensors all beeped, not loud alarms, just beeps,

signifying a change in Rei's body chemistry. Her body

temperature was slightly warmer, and there was an increase

in her blood pressure and respiration.

>>>Mana: Ah, lil-monster Rei is in love.

Rei frowned, looking unsure, and averted her eyes

from Ibuki's.

Maya looked at the screens, then scribbled a quick

note in her notepad. "Rei, what's wrong?"

>>>Asuka: A question with infinite answers.

>>>Rei: But it has a solution.

>>>Shinji: Why are you all looking at me?

"Langley," she replied quietly.

"Asuka? What about her?"

"She was with Ikari."

"With Shinji?"

>>>Kensuke: Damn man you move fast!

>>>Mana: Well this Asuka is actually nice, kinda like me. So it was expected.

Rei nodded.

"What do you mean, 'with Ikari'?" asked Maya. "They

weren't..."

"Ibuki-san," said Rei evenly, "I want to kill her."

>>>Asuka's face drains of color, Rei smiles a bit, Mana and Shinji look shocked.

>>>Touji: HA HA, big blue is going to KILL you.

>>>Kensuke: Either that or drive her insane.

-*-

"Sit down, Langely," Gendo said, pointing to a

chair.

Asuka sat down, frowning. "Am I going to be chewed

out again?"

>>>Mana: No, he's going to give Ayanami an opportunity.

>>>Asuka: You'd like that wouldn't you.

"I want you to teach Shinji about controlling his

dreams."

Asuka blinked. "You do?"

"Since the two of you live together, you are the

ideal teacher. And I understand he is having recurring

nightmares."

>>>Shinji: I think my life is one.

>>>Touji: Stop your damn lying your life is sweet as hell and you know it!

"Yeah. Sure I'll teach him. I'm just...Anything

else?"

>>>Touji: Were garlic when you go to sleep.

>>>Kensuke: And tell Shinji to keep extra protection around his stalker is making >>>house calls.

"That's all. You have one month. Possibly less."

Asuka frowned. "Is something going to happen in a

month?"

"He must learn quickly, and some of our intelligence

indicates one of the Angels may be able to influence dreams.

Rei has the training to defend herself, but Shinji..."

"Would crumple. I'll do my best."

>>>Shinji: I'm not that bad! My dreams are actually…

>>>Kensuke: Wise to stop talking Shin-man, very wise.

"You have one month, then I'll call in someone who

can do a better job if you can't handle it."

>>>Mana: Cthulhu is going to make an appearance?

>>>Rei: It seems that I can already invade Shinji-kun's dreams.

"I CAN handle it," Asuka said.

"We shall see. Dismissed."

Asuka got up and left. Gendo watched her go, then

smiled faintly. That would light a fire under her feet.

>>>Shinji: Its not that hard to do watch. Asuka I bet you can't make some popcorn.

>>>Asuka: You don't think I can? WATCH ME! `walks off.'

~*~

"You're going to what?" Shinji said, sitting on his

futon.

>>>Touji: Ah dude! It's a bedroom scene!

>>>Rei: Calm your hormones, I'm not there.

>>>Mana: And if you were? `She is met with only silence.'

Asuka leaned against the doorway. "I'm going to

teach you to control your dreams. You need to learn."

"Is this some hypnosis thing?"

"No, just some mental techniques. It's easy, and

you'll sleep better and have more interesting dreams."

"My dreams are already too interesting."

>>>Shinji: That they are.

>>>Kensuke: Your harem attacking you in your dreams too?

>>>Mana snuggling up to Shinji: Why dream if you can have the real thing?

>>>Mana flies across the room as Rei's at-field pitches her: Oops it slipped.

She came over and sat down. "Okay, let's get

started."

"Hey, I..."

She gave him a look.

"Okay, okay, I'll try it."

>>>Asuka: Burnt popcorn anyone?

>>>Touji: We didn't…want…burnt…

>>>Asuka: You'll eat it and like you'll like it!

~*~

He was on the train. Again. The maglev zoomed

through the Japanese countryside. Shinji did his best to do

what Asuka had told him.

>>>Kensuke: Surrender all opposition?

>>>Rei: That's what I tell him, she tells him not to mind the marks.

Focus on the image of a mountain

until it appears in the dream. So he had chosen to think

about Mount Fuji.

>>>Asuka: How Japanese is that?

He could see mountains out the window, but they

weren't the right mountains. He concentrated harder, doing

his best to remember what Fuji looked like.

>>>Shinji: Didn't it erupt during 2nd impact?

The train zoomed around a mountain, turning towards

the sea, whipping about so fast he nearly fell out of his

seat. As it was, it turned him around and he looked out the

other window. There was Fuji, looking lost in the middle of

the plain. The train turned again and pulled into a station

at its base.

>>>Touji: You can do anything you want in your dream and what do you do?

>>>Mana: Dream of Mount Fuji. Shin-chan never mind.

Shinji blinked. The train never, ever stopped

before. He got up, went to the door, and looked out. A

road led up the mountain. He thought about it and realized

Asuka hadn't told him what to do if the mountain actually

showed up. Climb it, he guessed, so he got off the train,

which pulled away.

>>>Rei: Shinji is taking initiative.

>>>Asuka: Only in his dreams, how sad is that.

I wonder if there's a yogi who will tell me the

secret of life at the top, he thought as he started to walk

up the gently sloping cobblestone road. Probably he'll just

ask me how many licks to get to the center of a tootsie-pop

or something.

>>>Mana leaning heavily: Why don't we find out…Shin-chan.

>>>Asuka: Shinji isn't a tootsie-pop.

>>>Mana: I have my imagination.

The road seemed endless; while it was an easy slope

spiraling up the mountain, it was also incredibly long.

Several times he passed steeper staircases and ladders cut

into the sides of the mountain, but he ignored them, not

feeling like going the hard way.

>>>Shinji: I like things slow and easy, what's wrong with that?

>>>Kensuke: It's boring as hell. How about that?

The easy way, however, was also proving to be the

slow way. He had circled the mountain at least eight times,

but he still hadn't reached the top. He looked back down

the mountain at the train station. It would be easier to go

back down, get on the train, and leave, then even to keep

going up this road.

>>>Touji: Now that's the Shinji I know. Running away.

>>>Shinji: I'm getting better. `I think.'

But then Asuka would laugh at him...she probably

would be climbing the sheer cliff face right now, just for

fun, he thought. He didn't want her to laugh at him. I'll

be here all night going this way, though, he thought.

>>>Rei: Does time have meaning in dreams?

>>>Mana: No. And before you ask…don't ask. `Rei shuts her mouth.'

With a sigh, he turned to the nearby steep staircase

and began to make his way up it. Soon, he was sweating; the

steps were huge, the angle was steep, and the sun had become

relentless. But he was making much better time.

>>>Shinji: Wow! I'm actually doing something difficult.

>>>Asuka: Now if we could only get you to…

>>>Mana/Rei: Make progress in other areas.

Once he reached a high ledge, he sat down to rest.

"I didn't think a staircase could be so hard to climb."

He sat for a while, looking out across the

countryside. Rice fields, forest, hills, and a long beach

bordering the Pacific Ocean stretched out north and south to

the east of him. The train track wended its snakey way

through the countryside, though there were no buildings, no

towns, and no human habitation. Beautiful solitude, with

only the animals, the wind, the sun, and the long shadows of

the western mountains cast across the land as the sun sank.

>>>Touji: So you dream world has no people.

>>>Kensuke: Wait till his dream stalker finds him.

>>>Rei: Nobody will hear him scream.

As it sank. It was going to be dark soon, Shinji

realized. Climbing the mountain in the dark would be

dangerous, even just going up a staircase. He then realized

two things.

>>>Touji: A black mass with red eyes was there.

>>>Rei: And it had Suzuhara's head.

The staircase down had vanished. The staircase

up was fading away as the light faded. He hesitated,

uncertain whether to run up the fading stairs or stay on the

ledge.

Shinji hesitated and was lost.

>>>Asuka: Lost? He can go up or down. How can he be lost?

>>>Kensuke: It's Shinji.

>>>Shinji: HEY!

Within seconds, both

staircases were gone, and he was stranded. I'm stuck, he

thought. They'll have to send a helicopter to...wait, I'm

only dreaming. I can just wake up. He closed his eyes and

concentrated on being back in his bed.

>>>Touji: Then his dream got a lot better.

>>>Mana: I'll second that notion.

A few seconds later, he was back in bed, staring up

at the ceiling. I did it, he thought. I got to the

mountain! He jumped up, ran out into the hallway, threw

Asuka's door open and shouted, "I did it!"

>>>Shinji: And was beaten back to unconsciousness.

>>>Asuka: Do not wake a girl from her beauty rest.

Asuka, sprawled out on her futon with a stuffed cat

on her face, sat up groggily. "Whu?"

>>>Touji/Kensuke: Y-y-you have a stuffed cat!

>>>Rei: She calls it Neko-san.

>>>Mana: And you claim to be so mature too.

"I got to the mountain!"

She stared at him. "Good job, Mohammed. Now let me

sleep." She flopped back onto her pillow. "We can talk

about it in the morning."

Shinji went back to bed and slept peacefully.

>>>Shinji: That's a new one. Nothing bad happened.

>>>Others: Yet.

~*~

"You made it partway up the mountain?" Asuka asked

during breakfast.

"Yeah," Shinji said. "Is that good?"

>>>Shinji: With Asuka part isn't good enough.

>>>Asuka: I'm a perfectionist.

"That's great!" I didn't even have to tell him, she

thought. Showing some initiative for once. "You have to

climb the mountain to the top. Once you do that, you'll be

ready for the next step."

>>>Kensuke: The fall off.

>>>Touji: Rock-jumping?

If I can remember the next step, she thought. I hope I'm doing this right.

"When you get to the top, ask the old man if he

knows any good auto body repairmen," Misato said. "I need

to get rid of some dents."

>>>Rei: Suzahara, Aida shut your mouths, you are not to comment.

>>>Mana: Can I?

>>>Shinji: If you want her to deport you. This place is wired.

Shinji laughed. "I have to find out how to get you

to do your chores first."

"Hey! I do my share of the work!"

"If you define 'share' as 'nothing'," Asuka said.

>>>Shinji: She does.

>>>Asuka: How she survived until we got here is a mystery.

"Can you go shopping today? I made a list of stuff we need."

>>>Touji: A list for what?

>>>Mana: Whip cream, chocolate sauce, cherries…

>>>Shinji: Add ice cream we don't have any.

>>>Mana: Who said I wanted a Sunday `winks at Shinji.'

"No problem. I have to go pick up some stuff,"

Misato said. "I have a little surprise for you tomorrow

afternoon." She winked.

>>>Kensuke: I want to say it…but right now I can't.

>>>Asuka/Shinji: Good.

"Ooh...I have to remember to watch the Shark Attack

Hour on the Discovery Channel tomorrow...Helga is going to

be on it!" Asuka smiled excitedly. "I ought to tape it."

"Who?" Shinji asked.

>>>Rei: A stereotypical German name, so a friend of hers.

"She's a marine biologist from NERV-Germany. They

filmed this a few weeks before I left; I've been wanting to

see it."

>>>Mana: So do they get eaten by the water God too?

>>>Asuka: Knowing this movie, it's a possibility.

"Why was NERV employing a marine biologist?" Shinji

asked.

"She was helping develop equipment for EVAs to

operate underwater. In fact, I think she was trying to

build one with gills or some such weird thing." Asuka

shrugged. "She had a great aquarium."

>>>Shinji: Guess they failed, we could hardly move.

>>>Rei: Nerv doesn't fail the world fails Nerv.

>>>Kensuke: Bet she embezzled the money for the tank.

~*~

Shinji brought the mail up to the apartment when he

and Asuka got home from school. They quickly sorted it.

>>>Shinji: Hospital bill…hospital bill…Yebisu stock report…Hospital bill.

Asuka had a letter from Anna and junk mail from a credit

card company, which she quickly tossed out, laughing.

>>>Asuka: BUT I NEED ANOTHER CREDIT CARD!

>>>Rei: How much debt have you accrued?

>>>Shinji: Don't ask, those Mass Prod Eva's have been fighting repo men.

Misato had a large pile of junk mail and bills. Shinji had

a single purple envelope with no return address. His name

was typed onto the envelope. "Weird." He tore it open and

found a greeting card. It showed two children playing in

the rain on the front. The printed message inside stated,

'Thinking of you on a rainy day.' Shinji blinked. It hadn't

rained in a week.

>>>Asuka: Those who think it's from Ayanami.

>>>All hands raised.

In addition to the printed message, someone had

composed a message by cutting out letters from magazines and

gluing them into the letter. They spelled out a haiku.

>>>Touji: Is…is that supposed to scare you?

>>>Mana: It looks like a ransom note.

'Here is rain for you.

You make me feel these things

Do you feel them too?

A Secret Admirer.'

Shinji stared at the card. What the...here is rain?

Why would I want rain? Feel WHAT things?

>>>Shinji: So I forgot I talked about rain in a haiku?

>>>Rei: Yes, and you don't seem to notice are love.

>>>Mana/Asuka: Nobody does.

Is this a love letter or a missive from a lunatic?

>>>Kensuke: Seems like both.

"Is it biting you?" Asuka asked.

"Eh?"

She got up and came around. "You're staring at it

like it's going to...ooh, a love card!" She grabbed it.

"Haiku. Here is rain for you? Is this some culture thing

foreigners can't get?"

>>>Mana: Yes, yes it is.

>>>Asuka: You're just saying that.

He tried and failed to grab it. "I don't know!"

"Oooh, a secret admirer! That's so romantic!"

Misato surprised them both by stepping out of the

hallway and saying, "Shinji's got a secret admirer?"

>>>Touji: If by secret you mean obvious.

>>>Asuka: And by admirer you mean stalker.

>>>Shinji/Rei: Hey!

"Yeah!" Asuka handed Misato the letter, holding

Shinji at arm's length. "You're a lucky guy, Shinji!"

>>>Asuka: Yeah because he gets to feel my skin on his.

>>>All just stare at her…she promptly blushes and walks out of the room.

She read the poem. "Hmm. This reads like something

Shinji would write. Did you send this to yourself?"

"NO!!!!" He tried and failed again to get the card

back.

"I'll take it around and see if I can get a

confession for you, okay, Shinji?" Asuka asked, grinning.

He sighed. "Whatever."

She waggled a finger. "Now, Shinji, it's no fun if

you give up."

"You've got a weird idea of fun."

>>>Shinji: That's the understatement of the year.

>>>Mana: Is that more burning popcorn…Damn it Asuka! `Runs to kitchen.'

~*~

"That's MY chair!" Asuka said, pointing at the

recliner, which Touji had snagged for himself. It was the

only nice chair in the entire apartment.

>>>Touji moving to said chair: Its mine now.

"Ain't got your name on it," he sneered.

>>>Shinji: Look under the armrest.

>>>Touji: Son-of-a-bitch!

"Touji! She had it first!" Hikari said from the

chair next to it.

The taping had turned into a 'Shark Attack' party,

and Hikari, Touji, and Kensuke had joined Asuka and Shinji.

Misato was in her room, fiddling with something she wouldn't

let them see which she had picked up the previous day.

>>>Shinji: She didn't buy another beer helmet did she?

>>>Rei moving even closer to Shinji: That would make fifty correct?

Asuka looked over at Shinji. "Tell your friend the

moron to get out of the chair!"

>>>Kensuke: Like Touji would listen to Shinji.

"Umm...she was... er... there first," Shinji said,

with enough authority to not make an impression on Touji.

>>>Rei: Get out of the chair…now.

>>>Touji: Yes ma'am! `damn creepy powers!'

"It ain't gonna kill her to sit on a wooden one!"

Touji said. "And my feet hurt, so I need to put 'em up."

>>>Shinji/Kensuke: WUSS!

"The show's starting!" Kensuke said. "Sit down and

be quiet so I can hear!"

Asuka fumed and sat down. "Thug."

>>>Rei: She seems to have lost her power of verbal abuse.

The show soon started, and soon images of people

getting mauled and chased by sharks took control of the TV.

>>>Guys pale: That is disgusting!

>>>Rei: Why is the water so red?

Shinji asked himself why he was watching this and failed to

get an answer. Kensuke and Touji started cheering the

sharks on.

>>>Shinji: You guys are sick! How can…can you like this?

>>>Kensuke: Because it isn't happening to me.

>>>Touji: Cold man…cold.

"Be quiet!" Asuka shouted.

"Hey, I can't understand their English...they're

talking too fast," Touji said. "Nothing to do but cheer on

the sharks."

>>>Shinji: So the American's are being eaten?

>>>Kensuke: Wasn't this a German show?

"I'm getting a beer. Anyone else want one?"

Kensuke asked.

>>>Asuka walks back with a beer: What I miss?

>>>Rei: Sharks eating Americans.

"You shouldn't drink up Katsuragi-san's beer!"

Hikari said.

"She doesn't mind," he replied, getting up. He then

frozen in place. "Uh..."

"You're blocking the TV," Shinji said.

"She..." Kensuke gaped and pointed.

>>>Touji: He looks like he just wet himself.

Everyone turned around and saw Rei standing there,

wearing a wetsuit and carrying some diving gear. Hikari

said, "Going swimming?"

>>>Rei: No, I have Eva cleaning duty.

>>>Mana walking back: That's a joke right…right?

Misato stepped out of the hallway, also wearing a

wetsuit. Kensuke and Touji stared, as did Shinji, though

not so blatantly. She laughed and struck a magazine-style

pose, then laughed some more.

>>>Touji/Kensuke: I can die happy now.

>>>Asuka: Good, I'll help you. `Pitches can at Touji's head.'

"The Children and I are going diving. The rest of you want to come along?"

"We're going diving?" Shinji said. Images of shark

attacks danced in his head. "I've never been diving."

>>>Shinji: Or swimming for that matter.

"It's easy to learn," Misato said. "And since

you're going down underwater for your next mission, you need

to know how. Although doing it in an EVA won't be exactly the

same, it's a good way to start learning."

>>>Rei: It won't be anything like real diving.

>>>Shinji: So why do it?

>>>Mana: To show you off in speedos!

"Sure!" Touji said. "I'd take up skydiving if you

were going to do it wearing that!"

Hikari promptly thwapped him in the head. Asuka

snorted.

>>>Kensuke: Asuka can snort like a pig…

>>>Shinji: You didn't have to knock him out.

>>>Asuka: Be grateful I didn't kill him.

"Ready for service, Captain!" Kensuke said,

saluting.

"I bet a shark will bite you," Hikari said.

"No way," Kensuke said. "I'm too cool for a

shark."

>>>Rei: I believe he is too bony to sustain a shark.

>>>Mana: Doesn't mean we can't hope.

"C'mon, Asuka, Shinji. We'd best make sure these

wetsuits fit...The rest of you too." Asuka and Shinji went

with her, leaving the others to bicker about who would be

eaten first.

>>>Girls: Show him in the wetsuit!

>>>Touji: I don't want to see that!

>>>Mana: Fine…'hits a pressure point on his neck' you don't have too.

~*~

The NERV van pulled up to the beach. It had been a

fairly lengthy drive, farther than the kids had thought

would be needed. They were just south of the ruins of

Tokyo; someone had set up a tent pavilion here, and two more

NERV vans were parked here.

>>>Shinji: Why go to Tokyo?

>>>Mana: Why not fly?

It soon became obvious why. Maya and Ritsuko were

here, fiddling with some equipment set up on a table. Maya

was wearing a yellow one piece bathing suit with an

incongruous labcoat over it, although the fact that Ritsuko

had done the same thing with a blue bathing suit and labcoat

made it look a little less odd.

>>>Mana: Shinji…don't look at Maya.

>>>Shinji: But I wasn't.

>>>Asuka: Good…keep it that way.

Kaji was stretched out, shirtless, on a beach chair,

next to Shigeru Aoba, who was playing a catchy pop tune on

his guitar.

>>>Rei: Asuka, you are drooling.

>>>Asuka: It's...um...not what you think?

A fishing pole and a tackle box lay in the sand

next to Kaji. Makoto was wearing a wetsuit; he was sprawled

out next to Shigeru, half- asleep with a newspaper over his

face.

Asuka blinked. "Is this the NERV bridge beach party

or something?"

Misato blinked as well. "Makoto."

He didn't answer.

"MAKOTO!"

>>>Shinji: Why isn't he breathing?

>>>Mana: Is that…blood?

>>>Shinji: Did he pass out from seeing Misato…again?

He started up, snagged his leg, fell over and ended

up in the sand, face down. Finally, he got up. "When I

mentioned we were going diving..."

"I thought it would be a good idea to have a party,

since we all have the day off," Shigeru said. "And Maya and

Akagi-san needed to test some equipment anyway, so..."

>>>Rei: Did they just blush?

>>>Shinji: Why is Ritsuko's wet-suit unzipped?

>>>Asuka: I feel dirty…very dirty.

Asuka zoomed over to Kaji. "You'll be my diving

buddy, won't you?"

"Sorry, liebchen," he said. "I have a hard enough

time swimming in a pool. But I have an extra reel in the

car if you want to go fishing with me when you're done."

>>>Touji: Uh…the hell?

"Sure!"

Hikari looked faintly disgruntled. "So much for..."

She turned to Touji. "Want to be my diving buddy?"

He blinked. "Who, me?"

"No, the evil kappa behind you.

>>>Asuka: I'd trust the Kappa before Touji.

>>>Touji: HEY!

Yes, you."

Touji scratched his head. "Uh, sure."

"Hey, what about ME?" Asuka frowned at Hikari.

>>>Touji: You're a stuck up bitch and nobody likes you.

>>>Rei: You'll be eaten by the Deep Ones.

>>>Kensuke: AH! Football practices! `Wakes up.'

"You can...," Shinji began.

"And Rei and Asuka will be partners," Misato said.

>>>Mana: She just wants Shinji to herself doesn't she.

Maya twitched faintly. "I think you should partner

Rei with Shinji and Asuka with Kensuke. Keep them

in...ummm...balance."

Ritsuko looked over at Maya, amused. "They're not a

math equation."

>>>Asuka: No…its to easy to make fun of them for that one.

Makoto came over to Misato, cleaning the sand off

his glasses. "I think Maya's suggestion is good. Shinji

needs an experienced partner."

>>>Mana: SHUT YOUR MOUTH REI!

>>>Rei: I was just going to say…

>>>Asuka: WE don't want to hear it!

"Hey, I've been diving four times!" Kensuke said.

"Rei has been learning since she was seven," Makoto

said. "She's better than you.

>>>Kensuke: That's a damn lie…

>>>Shinji/Rei: No…no it isn't.

And I'll go with Misato soshe doesn't drown."

"HEY!"

"You nearly got yourself caught in that reef last

time, you know," he said.

"I've got as much experience as YOU do!" Misato

said. "And I'm the highest in rank! So there!"

>>>Asuka: `So there'? She sounds like a five year old.

>>>Touji: Works for me.

>>>Mana: It should, you have the mentality of a five year old.

He sighed. "Okay, so who do you want as your

partner?"

"You, of course.

>>>Shinji: You know he's not thinking of dive partners right now.

We've got to play instructor to

all the others. This way none of us is tied down with just

one person."

Maya laughed, and he shook his head. "You're

confusing, Katsuragi-san."

>>>Rei: No, just so simple it seems complex.

"Just agree with what she says, then do what you

would do anyway, Makoto," Kaji said. "That's what I always

do."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Kaji! BE QUIET!" Misato said.

>>>Mana: Remind me why Misato hates Kaji?

>>>Asuka: She doesn't appreciate his charms.

The tactical commander of NERV and a NERV inspector

were soon demonstrating the fine art of kicking sand at each

other.

>>>Rei: So the point is to get it in the others face?

>>>Asuka/Shinji: I fear for humanities safety.

~*~

Wait for me!, Shinji thought as he paddled along

after Rei. She was zooming about like a fish, completely in

her element.

>>>Shinji: Somehow I feel that this will come into play later.

>>>Kensuke: You learn well grasshopper.

He wasn't even sure if she remembered he was

alive as she circled about him, darting along the edge of

the ruins to the north.

>>>Touji: Just wait till she remembers she's stalking you.

The ruins of Tokyo-1 were a little creepy, a

reminder of a great failure of humanity, and the loss of

millions of lives when it sank in a single night. They were

well lit, for the water was shallow, and the buildings far

apart here at the fringes. Many of them poked up above the

surface.

>>>Asuka: This is important how?

>>>Mana: Fanservice…see how that wet suit clings in all the right places?

Moving with the tank on his back felt strange,

though it wasn't too much of a burden. He wished for a

moment that he was a fish, able to swim about with need for

tools and fake flippers. Rei would make a good fish, he

thought.

>>>Touji: Cold…damp…

>>>Asuka: Lacks any real sense of life. HEY! When did you do that?

>>>Rei sitting on Shinji's lap: While you were talking about fish, `Shinji…just sat there.'

She darted past him, her red eyes glinting almost

cheerily. I guess she really likes swimming, Shinji

thought. The pitch black wetsuit accented the pale skin of

her face and her blue hair. He found it a very pleasant

sight.

>>>Mana: WHY?

>>>Shinji: If you take the color into mind…the contrast brings out her features.

>>>Kensuke: She wasn't asking that.

She circled around, and paused in front of him, then

beckoned him to follow her. She began to swim lazily

towards one of the buildings, and he followed.

>>>Touji: Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly.

>>>Rei: But Shinji-kun is the spider in this movie.

~*~

Makoto wished desperately he could speak underwater.

Being able to shout would have helped. The kids had

scattered all over, and it was running him ragged trying to

keep rounding them up.

>>>Rei: How can he run underwater?

>>>Shinji: Its an expression…is that your hand?

>>>Mana: Oops.

Misato looked harried as well. I feel like we're the parents on _Six is Sweet_, he thought.

He got a mental image of himself and Misato married

and living in a nice little house like the one he had grown

up in, and he smiled.

>>>Touji: So he's fantasizing about Misato now?

>>>Kensuke: Join the club man…join the club.

Sometimes I envy Shinji, getting to

live with her, he thought. He watched her waggling a finger

at Kensuke, who had been trying to get into one of the

buildings, and he laughed. We should have picked a site

further away if we'd known they'd all be coming.

>>>Mana: They DID know they were coming.

>>>Shinji: Misato doesn't really like `telling' people about her plans.

Still, the Children would have to go into a ruins,

so they needed the practice. Kensuke probably had some

crazy idea about trying to get Asuka to make out with him.

>>>Asuka/Kensuke: I'd rather die!

>>>Mana/Touji: Maybe you two do make a good pair.

>>>Rei: Then you two would as well. `Said pairs just scream in frustration.'

Makoto couldn't blame him; he'd had a few fantasies about

doing that with Misato himself on times they had gone

diving.

>>>Shinji: We know that already about him.

>>>Asuka: A sad, sad man.

>>>Rei: Didn't stop him from having relations with that stranger.

At least I've got a chance to show her I'm more

responsible than her ex-boyfriend, he thought. Assuming

they're still ex.

>>>Rei: That is wishful thinking.

>>>Touji: Nah, that's just plain denial.

He had seen them kissing, and he wasn't

sure what was going on. Maybe I should ask Shinji, he

thought.

>>>Asuka: Sure, if you don't want an answer.

Off in the distance, he spotted Touji going farther

out than they had been told to go, so he tapped Misato on

the shoulder. She blinked, followed his pointing finger,

and nodded. He went after Touji (and Hikari, who Touji was

outpacing).

>>>Touji: See I AM good at sports.

>>>Shinji: You know Rei could swim laps around you, right?

~*~

Asuka frowned slightly. Why do I feel so...

uncomfortable? I like to swim. She had a vague feeling of

lurking doom, as if the water...didn't like her or

something. Which was ludicrous.

>>>Mana: Well Ayanami IS in the water by you.

>>>Kensuke: And she DOES want you dead.

>>>Rei still on Shinji: But I'm `busy' so you should be fine.

>>>Mana/Asuka: THAT'S IT GET OFF HIM! `What follows…well…you know.'

Kensuke tapped her on the shoulder. She turned,

wishing she could talk without drowning. He pointed and she

looked.

>>>Asuka: YOU PEVERT!

>>>Kensuke: But it looks like my tank buckle is falling off.

A large school of iridescent fish were swimming in

and out of the broken doors and windows of a nearby former

store. They were beautiful and apparently quite unafraid of

humans. For a few seconds, she and Kensuke simply watched

them.

>>>Touji: Are they eating one another?

>>>Shinji: Cannibals?

The ruins, in Asuka's mind, changed from a haunted

place to feeling more like a sort of giant aquarium. She

almost expected to see an abandoned diving suit nearby, or

to look up and see a giant hand dropping flakes in the

water. She grinned and gave Kensuke a thumbs up.

>>>Shinji: Maybe these "Elder Gods" see earth like an aquarium.

~*~

Kaji sat up and went to his car. "You should be out

in the water, Rits-chan. I don't think I've ever seen you

be at the beach for more than ten minutes without jumping

in."

>>>Kensuke: She's afraid she won't get out again.

"I have no intention of swimming," Ritsuko said,

gazing at the sea with a bit of a longing look, like she was

denying herself candy.

>>>Mana: So why the swim suit?

>>>Asuka: Does Akagi even LIKE candy?

"Maya and I are here to do work,

unlike you. We're just suited up since we'll likely have to

get wet."

>>>Shinji: On the beach, in their tent?

>>>Touji's nose spouts blood: DUDE! Don't you get it! Oh wait it's you.

"Playing with that sonar thing again?" Shigeru asked,

coming over to look at it.

>>>Rei: Is that some metaphor for…

>>>Asuka: I hope not.

"Something's interfering with it," Maya said, "But

yes. We've planted some drones that are going around,

testing it. It's called Hypersonar." She glared at the

monitor, which kept fuzzing out.

>>>Kensuke: Can't you guys come up with better names?

>>>Mana: Hypersonar that's about as lame as they come.

"You used to love to swim," Kaji said. "I remember

the time you went topless at that one beach."

>>>Kensuke's nose bleeds: DAMN!

Everyone swiveled and stared at Ritsuko, who caved

in on herself slightly. "So did Misato...everyone was like

that!"

>>>Touji joins Kensuke: Why can't we see these things?

"Sempai! That was daring!" Maya said, smiling.

"Better not tell Makoto," Shigeru said. "He'd die

because he missed that."

>>>Kensuke/Touji: Can you blame him?

>>>Rei: Yes.

Kaji began walking down to the shore with the toy he

had gotten out of the car. "This won't interfere with your

test, will it?"

"I don't think so," Maya said. "In fact, you can

use it to help us!"

>>>Mana: How can a Hello Kitty bucket help?

>>>Shinji: Maybe they want to build a sand castle.

~*~

It's creepy, looking at all these sunken buildings,

Touji thought. He glanced over at Hikari, who was looking

at a shop front window. Somehow it survived intact, and some

decade and a half old dresses were still standing on

mannequins in a store. He shook his head; leave it to a

girl to find dresses in a sunken city, he thought. She'll

want to try them on next.

>>>Rei: How could she try it on, she's in a wet suit.

>>>Shinji: It doesn't matter. She'd find a way.

He looked down the street and saw a shape move

through the next intersection. It had been gray with

streaks. Somehow familiar... a really BIG fish.

>>>Kensuke: Ok, that's VERY cliché.

>>>Asuka: Only if it gets somebody.

Then it circled back, and he recognized it. A

shark. He poked Hikari in the shoulder. She turned around,

looking irritated, so he grabbed her and started swimming.

She would have yelled at him if they could speak.

>>>Touji: I'm saving her life! Why is she mad?

>>>Mana: Don't interrupt us when were shopping!

Then she noticed what was following them, and she started swimming as

well.

No way we can outswim this thing, he thought.

>>>Asuka: Touji thinking?

>>>Shinji: See! He's not that bad.

We've

got to split up or take cover or something, he thought. He

pointed to a building, and they swam through the door, then

slammed it. Touji was breathing hard. Gotta warn the

others somehow, he thought.

>>>Kensuke: If you had ANYWAY of doing that it would mean something.

>>>Rei: Slamming a door underwater seems somehow impossible.

He waited for the thing to try to ram down the door,

bracing himself against the metal. No shark.

After a while, he looked out through a crack. No

shark.

He waved for Hikari to move back, then stuck his

head out. No shark.

>>>Asuka: Then there was shark and no Touji.

>>>Kensuke: But Hikari was able to escape during the bloodshed.

They headed out into the street and looked around.

It was gone. They stared at each other, then started

heading back towards the beach. A few seconds later, Makoto

swum into sight, and a game of underwater charades began.

>>>Shinji: Three words….first word….I?….second…want…third…

>>>Asuka: MANA STOP THAT!

~*~

Soon, a stream of would-be divers erupted from the

water, fleeing up onto the shore. Touji shouted, "Shark!

Shark!"

Maya giggled. "Uh huh. And a wolf too, I'm sure."

>>>Asuka: She'd only believe him if she was missing an arm.

>>>Rei: And his leg. Has to be both arm and leg.

Kaji shook his head. "No wolves around here."

Shigeru said, "Can't fool us!" He started playing the

theme song from Jaws, laughing.

More people came out of the water. Misato did a

quick head count. "We missed Rei and Shinji!"

>>>Shinji: I don't a shark would dare try to get Rei.

>>>Rei: Fish doesn't count as meat…'smiles wickedly…very small'

"Damn it," Makoto said, turning around. "I'll find

them."

"You stay here, I'll go."

"Better I risk my life than you. You're the

tactical commander; I'm just your assistant," he said.

>>>Shinji: She knew he would say that.

>>>Asuka: So she was just saving face and pretending to care.

They stared at each other. Finally, Misato said,

"We'll both go. They're my responsibility."

He nodded. "Well, if I can't persuade you to stay,

then let's go."

>>>Touji: He's about to die of happiness.

>>>Kensuke: Swimming WITH Misato…should be a documentary.

>>>Shinji: You two really need to wake up.

~*~

Shinji stared at the kanji painted on the side of

the building he and Rei were next to.

>>>Mana: So what's it say Asuka?

>>>Asuka: Do you HAVE to keep doing that to me?

Some of it had

eroded, but he could still read some of it. 'The Yellow

Sign rises in place of . The stars move.

The time of has ended. After winter,

summer, after summer, winter. All is '

>>>Touji: If that's not a sign that something is going to happen I don't know what is.

>>>Shinji: Last angel was the Yeti so the next going to be something very nasty.

The end of the 'message' was eroded beyond recognition,

except for a strange scrawled sigil, an eye of flame in the

heart of a five pointed star. Rei had pulled him over to

it, but couldn't tell him why.

>>>Mana: Does she ever give reason for her actions?

>>>Rei: Only when needed.

He turned to her questioningly, and she stared at

him.

>>>Touji: Took her mask off and got some underwater funk on.

>>>Shinji: You must love being unconscious.

>>>Rei AT Fields Touji across the room.

Her right hand rested on the sigil, her left drifted

freely. Then it came around, and pulled his right hand over

to touch it.

>>>Kensuke: Touch what?

>>>Mana: You're worse than I am.

For a moment, he felt a strange thrill, as if

the wall had tried to jolt him.

>>>Asuka: Well it is a building underwater maybe the electricity is still on.

>>>Shinji: Then I'd be dead, wouldn't I?

She guided his hand along

the contours of the sign. The wall was pitted and eroded,

but the sign remained vibrant, and seemed even brighter,

somehow, where they had touched it.

>>>Mana: But the physical impossibility of that DOESN'T seem odd to them.

>>>Kensuke: Shinji's just happy to have somebody hold his hand.

Just as they were about to trace over the eye, he

saw the shark. It was a fair distance away, swimming

languidly towards them. He jerked back and pointed. Rei

turned and saw the shark and began to swim towards it.

>>>Shinji: Rei-chan didn't we talk about the death wish?

>>>Rei: Yes, that isn't me nor is it a real shark.

Maybe she DOES think she's some undersea princess,

he thought. He wanted to run away, but he didn't want to

leave Rei to face it alone. He compromised by not moving,

placing his hand on the oddly comforting sigil.

>>>Asuka: Going to need that comfort when Ayanami gets ripped into.

>>>Kensuke: Or the sigil rips his mind from his body.

A few seconds later, Makoto came round the corner,

then turned to wave off the way he came. He came over to

Shinji, pointed at the shark, then gawked as Rei swam up to

it and poked it in the eye. It tried to swim away, and she

grabbed it.

>>>Asuka: OK Rei attacking a shark is where I draw the line.

>>>Mana: Welcome to fantasy land.

Misato came around the corner just in time to see

Rei swimming towards them, dragging the shark by the tail.

It thrashed about, so she stopped and broke its tail.

>>>Kensuke: DAMN! She's a female terminator! And you talk back to her?

>>>Shinji: Maybe…I shouldn't. `Looks at Rei and back at the screen.'

A

black fluid leaked out of a rip in it, and began to rise

slowly, feathering out into rivulets of dark liquid.

Shinji stared at the liquid. It wasn't LCL, it

was...

Misato stared at the shark, then at Makoto, and they

both nodded, then sighed.

>>>Touji sitting again: Can they really do that underwater?

>>>Asuka: You want to tell them they can't?

~*~

"KAJI, YOU DIE!" Misato stormed out of the water.

"Where the hell did you get a mechanical shark, anyway?"

>>>Kensuke: Taking the James Bond role a little to far.

"You'd be amazed how much weird stuff is stashed

away if you can find the right storage room in NERV," Kaji

said, dropping the remote control.

>>>Rei: That much is true. That's were we found the life size copy of…

>>>Mana: You still haven't given me one of those.

"You didn't have to break it."

"It could have been hostile," Rei said, dumping it

on the beach.

"I think it's funny," Asuka said, laughing.

>>>Kensuke: You would.

>>>Shinji: Guys…how much would such a thing weigh?

>>>Asuka: Around 500 pounds why?

>>>Shinji: Rei…carried it from the beach in one hand.

"I think we should throw Kaji out in the ocean

without his swim trunks," Hikari said.

Misato grinned. "Perfect."

It was fortunate that Kaji could run quickly.

>>>Asuka: NO FAIR!…DAMN IT!

>>>Mana: Shin-chan didn't Hikari dump Touji for less?

~*~

Ritsuko and Maya had taken over the beach chairs

somewhat later, while most of the assembled company were

swimming, except for Asuka who was cooking dinner with help

from Shigeru. Pleasant, though unfamiliar smells were drifting

towards them. Maya said, "I guess the next step is to build

the EVA sized units."

"And to field test those. And to build a larger

version of the mechanical shark to use as a hunting

subject." Ritsuko sniffed the air. "Been a while since I

last had sauerkraut."

>>>Shinji: What IS sauerkraut?

>>>Kensuke: Asuka on a bad day a real sour kraut…ah man that was funny! LAUGH!

>>>But nobody laughed, the groaned and pretended not to hear.

"Is that what I'm smelling?" She looked over at the

grill. "Where did Asuka find that thing, anyway?"

>>>Mana: The answer to that will destroy your mind.

"Aoba-san brought it. I think he planned to make some

okonomiyaki with it, but Asuka had other ideas. Now, how

she knew he would bring a grill...don't ask me." Ritsuko

shrugged. "I won't complain."

>>>Shinji: Complaining will only make matters worse.

>>>Asuka patting Shinji's head: See he can learn.

"Are you sure you don't want to swim?"

"Yes," Ritsuko said. "I don't like brine." Her

voice took on a bit of a sharp edge. "And I can swim all I

want back at the Geofront anyway."

>>>Kensuke: And when she transforms into the fish monster.

>>>Touji: Have you been smoking something?

She looked at Touji and Kensuke, who were having a race. "I'd just get in the

children's way, anyway."

Maya blinked, then frowned. "I knew I had forgotten

something."

Ritsuko cocked her head. "You have children you

forgot about?"

>>>Rei: It's possible, we don't know anything about her.

Maya laughed, as did Ritsuko. "No, Rei came in for

her checkup and..."

"She's not starting to degenerate like DAGON subject

32 is she?" Ritsuko frowned. "You should have told me

before."

>>>Asuka: DAGON?

>>>Rei: Why do I feel so cold?

Maya shook her head fervently. "No. It's not

physical. Not directly. I mean...the machine pretty much

told me about part of it, but...She has a crush on Shinji,

and she's jealous of Asuka."

>>>Touji: Why do scientist like to downplay the severity of things?

>>>Rei: I only said I wanted to kill her not that I will kill her.

Ritsuko stared intensely at Maya. "Are you sure?"

"She said she wanted to kill Asuka. And the feeling

comes on whenever Asuka touches Shinji." Maya frowned.

"With most children her age, I would be sure she is

exaggerating, but...Rei doesn't exaggerate."

>>>Asuka: So…she just told Ritsuko this now because?

>>>Shinji: Maybe Maya doesn't like you.

"And you didn't tell me this?" Ritsuko fought to

keep her voice low. "What did you tell her?"

>>>Kensuke: Where Asuka's room is.

>>>Mana: I see now! She gets Rei to kill Asuka, Rei gets put in jail and she takes Shinji!

"I forbade her to kill Asuka. And that Shinji would

be very unhappy if she did that. So would everyone else.

The creepiest part was that she didn't understand why she

wanted to kill Asuka. She can't quite understand she has a

crush on Shinji."

"Are you sure that's it?"

>>>Asuka: It better be!

"Why else would she care? And just asking about him

caused her to have a physical reaction. Of course, it could

be that she just doesn't understand her own feelings about

Asuka either."

>>>Kensuke: Rei loves Asu…ka…

>>>Asuka/Rei: Don't say that again or you'll learn new definitions of pain.

"Or it could wreck everything," Ritsuko said. "I

wouldn't care if Rei simply hated Asuka, though I'd rather

they all like each other. But if Rei has actually reached

the point of saying that...This could be disastrous. She's

losing her balance."

>>>Rei: I can stand fine.

>>>Shinji: She means your going insane.

>>>Kensuke: The Lovecraft affect in action! You'll all die!

"Well, I think she'd be better off if she wasn't so

passive, but...better passive than homicidal."

>>>Touji: But how long will it stay that way!

>>>Mana: I'm getting scared! Hold me Shin-chan! `Glomps the poor boy'

"I will talk to her. I have a few ideas for things

that might help. It may simply be jealousy. I hope you're

right. Do you have any idea how the boy feels about her?"

>>>Rei: He loves me.

>>>Touji: He's terrified of you.

Maya tapped her cheek thoughtfully. "I don't know

for sure, but I think he does like her. Just look at how

comfortable he is around her." She pointed out at the

playing children. "I think they've all gotten more

comfortable with her."

>>>Asuka: Shinji's the only one within five yards of her.

>>>Kensuke: See those two make the best couple.

"She needs human contact," Ritsuko said. "But it's

also dangerous to her, I think. We all have monsters

lurking inside us; I fear Rei's may devour her if we handle

this poorly." Her voice wobbled slightly. "And if she goes

out of control..."

>>>Kensuke: Shinji will have one wild night.

>>>Shinji: Or she'll rip your head off Ken, how would you like that?

"What can I do, Sempai?"

>>>Asuka: KILL HER!

"You can start by never forgetting anything this

important again."

Maya blushed.

>>>Rei: What did they do to me…I'm…scared.

~*~

Makoto picked up his mail. Most of it was junk

mail, but one letter came in a purple envelope and smelled

faintly of lilacs.

>>>Touji: Ayanami's sending love letters to Makoto now?

He blinked and sat down at the table to

read it after hanging up his wetsuit in the bathtub to dry.

'Dear Makoto,

I have finished the first draft of 'Forbidden Love

in NERV', the story I'm writing about a romance between two

fictional EVA pilots, inspired by the stories you told me.

>>>Mana: See that they said `fictional' love story.

>>>Shinji: Won't she be arrested and jailed for using the NERV name?

>>>Rei: Yes.

I will be in Tokyo-3 in a few weeks; I'd like to drop you off

a copy to look at. I need help making the action scenes

more realistic; I don't know much about how things operate.

Or at least so they SEEM realistic. Most people don't know

much about how you run things either.

>>>Kensuke: So she'll sleep the info out of him? That's got potential.

>>>Asuka: Yes to the first part, and if you even try it you'll be killed.

>>>Kensuke: I'll just get Shinji to do it for me!

How are things going with you and Misato? I suggest

you start a secret admirer type thing if you haven't made

any progress. See if she finds that exciting. You can

always cut it off without losing any face if she doesn't

respond, and it just might get you where you want to be!

>>>Shinji: Does that mean she's my admirer too?

>>>Asuka: No, her letter didn't look like some criminal admission.

Anyway, I hope to see you! Give me a call at

555-975-9066, or you can email me at Akane@Ozaka.Net. Well,

I'm going parachuting. See you!

Hugs and Kisses,

Akane Toshiba'

She writes fast, he thought. I suppose she'll want

to write Asuka into it.

>>>Touji: If she wants a horror novel.

>>>Mana: Or murder mystery.

And the shark. He laughed, putting

down the letter. Going down to face the shark together was

the closest thing to a romantic moment he'd managed to get

with Misato-san, although the other times they'd gone diving

had been nice too.

>>>Shinji: Fighting a shark isn't romantic.

>>>Rei: He is a very pathetic man.

Kaji didn't help himself with the shark stunt.

Misato-san was REALLY mad. No one had been hurt, but...

Hmm, he thought. Secret Admirer...I need to find

out what kind of flowers she likes. Although I probably

should send flowers and beer instead of chocolate...

He laughed and started making plans.

>>>Rei: Is it legal to send beer in the mail?

>>>Asuka: Don't think so.

~*~

Shinji came out to the kitchen to get a drink of

water before bed while Asuka was showering. Misato had

changed into a set of actual pajamas; he hadn't realized she

had any.

>>>Touji: That's a crime against nature!

>>>Mana: Yeah, heaven-for-fend she actually wear decent cloths.

And she was wearing her amulet. With a start, he

suddenly realized the amulet was identical to the glyph that

had been painted on the building. "That...there was

something like that where Rei beat up the shark."

>>>Shinji: Am I going to be afraid of Misato-san now?

>>>Rei: You should be.

Misato blinked. "Something like what?"

"Your amulet. There was some freaked out message

about winter and summer and rising signs and something. And

a thing like that."

"Weird. Continuing your dream training tonight?"

He nodded. "Climbing the mountain."

"I had to go down a staircase," Misato said. "Ever

down into the dark."

>>>Kensuke: Damn! It really is the dreamlands!

>>>Others: Kensuke you really need to get a girlfriend.

He blinked. "You've done this?"

"I used to have horrible nightmares after...Second

Impact. I was there, you know."

>>>Asuka: Wasn't everybody it covered the entire planet.

"WHAT?" He stared in surprise. "In Antarctica?"

>>>Shinji: What's left of it.

"I was the only survivor. I still can't remember

most of it. But the dreams were awful. Ritsuko taught me

how to stop them in college. I mostly dream about food and

friends and driving now.

>>>Mana: Somehow that sounds right for her.

What do you dream about, Shinji?"

>>>Touji/Kensuke: Nothing interesting.

"Riding on a maglev train."

"And?"

>>>Shinji: Being devoured by creatures from beyond time.

He looked embarrassed. "That's the happy one. The

other ones get disturbing, but...I think this mountain thing

may actually work."

Asuka stuck her head into the room. "Of course it

will! Because I'M the one teaching you.

>>>Rei: Shouldn't you keep the towel on?

Now, go take a bath so you can go to bed and dream your way up the

mountain."

>>>Shinji: Asuka, how far can you trace your family history?

>>>Asuka: Twenty eight generations why?

>>>Touji: Its just you `command' so well just wondering if…never mind.

"I didn't go fishing with Kaji and get fish stink on

me like you did," Shinji said. "And I already took a bath.

I'll be fine."

"I do not smell like fish!" Asuka started chasing

Shinji around the apartment while Misato simply laughed.

>>>Asuka: Escape is futile.

>>>Mana: You will be assimilated.

>>>Shinji: We've been over this before. My escape book is far from complete.

~*~

The ledge had an occupant when Shinji returned to it

in his dreams. A spider had made a web in one of the

corners, and sat in the middle, waiting for business. The

pattern glistened in the sunlight, the pattern of Misato's

good luck charm, of the glyph on the wall in the sunken city

of Tokyo-1. She had told him it was supposed to bring good

luck and ward off evil spirits.

>>>Kensuke: I guess she was wrong. It's a spider attractor.

>>>Shinji: Why can't I even sleep peacefully!

A good sign, I hope, he thought. He stared at the

rock face; the staircase was still gone. This wasn't much

help. I can't climb this, he thought. Now, if I had wings,

I could fly, but...

>>>Mana: You'd have to actually take initiative for that to work

There had to be...ahah, he thought. This is a

dream. I ought to be able to MAKE a staircase like I made

the mountain. He closed his eyes and tried to think of a

staircase, imagining the one in his apartment building.

When he opened his eyes, there was a tiny model of his

apartment building lying at his feet, along with a tiny toy

model of Misato's car.

>>>Touji: And in real life a new Angel stood outside his apartment.

>>>Rei: But I'd be sleep…you didn't mean me?

Something buzzed in his ear, so he swatted at it.

It dodged, buzzing around his head, a tiny winged annoyance,

which he started chasing around the ledge. A few seconds

later, a thick stand of webbing shot down where he had been

standing.

>>>Shinji: Did it miss or was it trying to help?

>>>Asuka: This is your life so I'd say it missed.

Shinji looked up. A spider the size of a horse was

perched just below the next ledge on a huge web it had spun.

It stared at him with multifaceted eyes. Its eyes grew, or

perhaps the universe shrank. Dozens of reflections of

himself hovered before his gaze, swallowing up the universe.

>>>Rei: That is disturbing.

>>>Mana: Excuse me…I'm going to go vomit now, `Runs from the room.'

>>>Asuka: Wuss.

They danced and sang and ran and burned and pillaged and

killed and howled at the moon, growing more and more alien

as he looked at them.

>>>Shinji: Did that water have LSD in it or something, cause I'm freaking.

They were around him, a sea of Shinjis. Shinjis in

plug suits, Shinjis in school uniforms, Shinjis dancing

half-naked and daubed with paint,

>>>Kensuke: That can't be Shinji it has muscle mass.

>>>Rei: I'd like to view it some more to make sure.

Shinjis wearing masks of

bone and wood and metal. They sought to tear him apart, to

devour him, tugging him in a million different directions;

there was nothing in all the universe but himself, and every

Shinji was insane.

>>>Shinji: Well subtract one from the universe because I'm out of here! `runs out.'

>>>Touji: Can't blame him this time. This is some messed up shit.

He had failed. He was going to die. He couldn't

fight this many of himself. No one could. The cold black

pit that lurked inside him began to grow, chilling him,

leaving him unable to move, to act, to do anything but

suffer.

>>>Kensuke: So he's back to normal?

A few months earlier, he would simply have died,

unable to find the strength to fight back. Even now, it

was, perhaps, only chance which saved him. One Shinji

carried a spear and wore a mask of cleverly carved wood that

depicted some sort of snarling bestial face with eyes dyed

red. He knew the mask; one of the priests in his dream of

the sacrifice in the forest during the mission against

Salgiel had worn it. And the spear he carried...

>>>Asuka: What dream? What priest?

>>>Rei: You would not like to know. Trust us.

Shinji howled with anger as his mood suddenly

snapped. I would never do something like that! NEVER!

"You're not me! NONE OF YOU ARE ME!" He leaped at his

other self, ripping off the mask and pummeling his face

until he collapsed, then he launched into the other Shinjis.

>>>Touji: Now is that suicide or murder?

>>>Asuka/Rei: Its survival.

One by one, they popped like balloons, and as they fell,

crumbled into threads; they had been made out of webbing.

He stood on the web, confronting the spider, hanging over a

great chasm in a subterranean cave.

>>>Kensuke: Atla-nacha!

>>>Rei: Can't be, we destroyed her in the first scene.

Shinji pulled out a knife he hadn't known he had,

and charged. The web bounced under his feet, trying to

catch him, but unable to hold him. The spider leaped at

him, and the knife came down. It popped like a balloon, and

with it, the cavern popped. He was back on the ledge, and

now the huge spider kneeled at his feet.

>>>Touji: All hail Shinji lord of the spiders.

>>>Kensuke: Bet that web thing looks familiar…

>>>Rei: What are you implying?

>>>Asuka: Oh…oh no you didn't…PIG! `beans Kensuke in head with remote.'

Shinji blinked. "What the..." The knife was gone

back to wherever it went from. He patted the spider on the

head, not sure what to do. "Uh...good boy."

>>>Rei: Why haven't Shinji and the spy returned?

>>>Kensuke: Anybody else hear that?

It jumped up like a dog, ran around him once, then

began to climb up the long thick ropelike webstrand which

ran down from the next ledge to this one. Shinji blinked

again, then began to shimmy up the rope. It was easier than

he expected, less tiring than the stairs had been, and soon

he reached the next ledge, a broader one.

He sat down for a rest. Next time, I'm gonna dream

every ledge has some food on it, he thought.

>>>Asuka: Misato has corrupted him!

>>>Touji: Give him a break! He just killed himself over and over again.

~*~

The next day, Shinji had other things on his mind,

like the three people bearing down on him at high speed. I

hate soccer, Shinji thought, looking around desperately for

someone to pass to. He spotted a reporter...Megumi

something or another...at the edge of the field, taking

pictures. Now what's she up to, he wondered.

>>>Kensuke: Not the best thing to do while playing a game.

>>>Rei: Is he leg supposed to bend that far forward?

This took just long enough for a kid named Youta to

steal the ball from him. "Hey!" Shinji ran over, but Youta

passed to another kid, and soon the other team scored.

"Whadya zone out for?" Touji asked Shinji while the

game raged around them.

>>>Asuka: MANA! If you do ANYTHING you'll regret it!

>>>Few seconds pass and a blushing Shinji and Mana rejoin the others.

"That reporter's here again," Shinji said,

pointing. But now she was gone.

>>>Shinji: You didn't kill the reporter did you Rei?

"I ain't seeing nothing," Touji said. "Rei didn't

do nothing to ya, did she?"

"Huh?"

"No magic whammies?"

"What are you TALKING about?"

>>>Touji: No late night Funk sessions?

>>>Rei: He's been locking his window.

>>>All:…Oooooooooooooook.

"Dunno. I wouldn't be surprised if she did magic on

the side. She's..." *Whack!* Luckily, touching the ball

with your head is legal in soccer. This doesn't make it

feel good, though.

>>>Mana: Nice shot Ayanami. That was from the other court too!

>>>Asuka: You DO have promise!

Touji fell down. "Take it, Shinji!"

Shinji blinked. The ball was at his feet, and the

five man line of the other team was boring down on him,

while his three other teammates yelled at him to do

something. He kicked wildly, the ball soaring over the wave

of humanity, zooming down the field, and bouncing into the

net while the goalie was still trying to accept that Shinji

had actually managed a kick like that.

>>>Shinji: I…did that?

>>>Kensuke rewinding the scene: Why don't you play like that for real?

The onrushing horde paused, turned, stared, then

turned back and stared again. "How the hell did you do

that?" one of them asked.

"I... uh... used my foot." Shinji said. "I just

got lucky."

"I wish I had your luck," the guy said.

>>>Touji: Almost every guy on this planet does.

>>>Asuka: See Shinji, by having ME like you makes you important.

>>>Rei/Mana: Now who's delusional.

I wish I didn't, he thought. Except when it's like

this. He smiled a little smile for the rest of the game,

although his luck didn't hold out.

>>>Kensuke: Did that ball just hit his…

>>>Rei: I hope there won't be any permanent damage.

~*~

Asuka charged down the field with the soccer ball,

having broken through the pathetic defense of the opposing

team.

>>>Asuka: POLAND!

>>>Shinji: Asuka, having another past life regression?

Hikari loped along beside her; they had left the rest

of their own team behind as well. Only one thing stood in

the way of her scoring.

Rei was the other team's goalie,

>>>Mana: So that's what that red dot on her forehead is.

>>>Rei: I will protect the net.

and she was good.

Rei's team had scored five goals to Asuka's team's two, and

the reason was that Rei had stopped a good dozen shots that

might have scored. Asuka had a simple plan.

>>>Kensuke: Can you think of anything BUT simple plans?

>>>Touji: All her plans involve rushing head on without knowing what to expect.

Drive forward,

set up for what would look like a shot by herself, but

instead pass to Hikari and let Hikari take the shot at a

different angle. Ideally, Rei would move to block Asuka's

shot.

>>>Shinji: You get the suspicion that things won't work out that way?

Time seemed to slow down. Asuka moved in, and Rei

responded by moving over. Then Asuka twisted her leg around

and passed instead of punting. Hikari spun slightly and

took the shot.

>>>Mana: And Asuka fell over dead.

>>>Touji: Ayanami hypnotized Hikari to become an assassin.

And Rei was over, positioned perfectly to block

Hikari faster than Asuka could blink. Her leg reared back

to kick the ball, even as the ball left Hikari's foot. As

time continued to slow, Asuka knew the ball was going to

come right at her. It was still possible to take the kick

with her head and bat it in, though it would hurt like hell

and maybe not even work.

>>>Kensuke: Decapitation!

>>>Rei: `Mental note- need to work on developing leg strength'

It was a stupid gamble; she took it.

>>>Shinji: Asuka-chan you need to learn you DON'T always have to win.

The ball arced

up towards her forehead, and as it struck her brow, she

wondered why Rei hadn't simply caught it and gone for a

longer kick. The pain was incredible, like being slammed

with a hammer, but the ball arced off and zoomed into the

net, rolling off Rei's shoulder as she tried to intercept

it. Then Asuka fell to the ground and passed out.

>>>Asuka: I WON!

>>>Shinji: But you're unconscious.

>>>Asuka leaning on Shinji: I have my guardian from the monster don't I?

~*~

She woke up in the school clinic with Rei and Hikari

seated nearby watching her. Hikari said, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Her head didn't even hurt. "I can't

even feel it."

"You shouldn't have done that!"

"I do what I have to do to win," Asuka said. "And

I feel fine."

>>>Kensuke: Anything to win?

>>>Mana: We have to keep are eyes on her…Living here gives her unfair advantages.

"Rei, you shouldn't have kicked it at her head!"

Hikari said.

"She knew the risk." Rei's voice was calm, her face

expressionless.

"Rei, that..."

>>>Touji: It's a game!

>>>Mana: Was a good idea, but you failed in the end.

>>>Shinji: Was in fact a legal move.

Asuka shook her head. "She's right. I'd have done

the same thing if she'd been charging me. It wasn't like

she wanted to kill me or something."

>>>Shinji: Is that red-dot back on her forehead?

>>>Asuka: Why doesn't the movie me REALIZE this?

Rei started slightly. Hikari laughed. "True. So

when are you going to wear that dress you bought, Rei?"

Rei asked, "When should I?"

>>>Kensuke: When you can take it off really quick.

>>>Shinji: Ken, don't encourage.

"..."

Asuka said, "Well, you can't wear it to school, but

some time when you want to impress someone, you ought to

wear it."

"Like Shinji," Hikari said, smiling slightly.

>>>Asuka: TRAITOR!

>>>Rei: We knew that already.

Asuka nodded. "Yeah, we could all tell Shinji liked

seeing you in it. Hmm...I've been wanting to do a date with

Kaji. We could set up a double date with him and me and you

and Shinji. Sound good to you, Rei?"

>>>Shinji: A…date?

>>>Rei/Asuka/Mana: Yes a date. AND NO MOVIE!

Here's where she just stares at me, Asuka thought.

"When?"

"Next weekend?"

"Okay." Rei turned and left.

Hikari watched her go. "She's weird."

>>>Rei: I answered the question. How is that weird?

>>>Asuka: We don't really expect you to talk.

"I guess Shinji has weird tastes. Maybe he just

likes her body. She is cute, although I'm better looking

than her."

"All hail goddess Asuka, Norse Goddess of Love,"

Hikari said. "Will you carry me to Valhalla on your winged

horse now?"

>>>Touji: Hey…is Hikari hitting on Asuka?

>>>Kensuke: Shin-man you may lose your girl to…one of your girls.

>>>Shinji just shakes his head as Asuka proceeds to thrash the pair.

"Anyone you want to ask out, Hikari? We could make

it a triple date."

Hikari blushed. "Well, maybe." I don't know if

taking Touji on a date with Asuka would be a very good idea,

though, she thought. "I'll think about it."

>>>Asuka: She will and you'll mess it up.

>>>Touji: No I wouldn't.

>>>Shinji/Rei: We have evidence that you already DID do that.

"Don't think too long! You gotta show a guy how you

feel; if you wait for him to make up his mind, you may wait

all your life." Asuka jumped off the bed. "Let's go, even

if it is just back to class."

>>>Shinji proceeds to dash around the room as the girls decide to take

>>> the movies advice…five minutes later they all settle back down.

>>> Shinji winded but untouched.

~*~

Later that day, Asuka said, "You're pretty good at

the flute," as she listened to Hikari play. "But you need

to take up the viola so we can have a string quartet."

>>>Rei: So she should abandon years of practice for you?

>>>Asuka: Of course. She should be honored to play with me?

Hikari finished her piece, then laughed. "Why don't

you take up the viola? I found a piece for flute, viola,

violin, and cello that Mozart did."

>>>Shinji: Then who'd play violin?

>>>Kensuke: Since when did Asuka or Hikari even PLAY an instrument?

Asuka stuck her tongue out. "You want to stay for

dinner? We're having some of the fish Kaji and I caught.

Kaji will be here in a few minutes to help me cook it."

"To stand around and watch you cook it, more

likely," Hikari said. "Men are like that."

"I'll make Shinji help if I have to." She shrugged.

"Kaji has other talents."

"Like chasing other women."

>>>Touji: And failing.

>>>Kensuke: Getting Asuka's attention.

>>>Mana: Saving Shinji FROM Asuka's attention.

Asuka frowned. "He..." She sighed. "Yeah."

"I think you ought to find someone our age," Hikari

said. "Just about every guy in our class wants to ask you

out, you know."

"Kaji's better than any of them."

>>>Shinji: But we know how to shave.

Hikari began digging through her flute music sheets.

"He's gonna break your heart."

"He is not!"

>>>Rei: What is the verdict on that one?

>>>Asuka: Um…I'd rather not say in the present company.

"At least if you're gonna date someone twice your

age, find someone responsible," Hikari said. "Like maybe

Katsuragi-san's assistant or the guy with the guitar."

"You don't even know their names! How can you tell

they're responsible?" Asuka waved her arms about; she was

getting aggravated.

>>>Shinji: He didn't attack us with a robotic shark.

>>>Kensuke: What IS his name?

Pen-Pen came over and looked at the music Hikari was

about to play, then shook his head. Hikari blinked. "How

smart is this penguin?"

"Smarter than Shinji sometimes," Asuka said.

From his room, Shinji shouted, "I HEARD THAT!"

>>>Pen-Pen: Wark! "I'm smarter than all of you combined."

>>>Mana picks up the bird: What cutie you are. Wonder what it's saying.

~*~

Misato plunked down the mail just before they were

going to eat. "Hmm. Two anonymous purple envelopes. One

for Shinji, one for me."

>>>Asuka: Why is it always purple?

Kaji laughed. "Someone's in love with you AND

Shinji?"

"How'd you know about..." Shinji asked.

>>>Kensuke: OH MY KAMI-SAMA! Kaji loves Shinji!

>>>Shinji: Don't make me destroy your house Ken.

"Asuka asked me to help her figure out who sent you

that card."

Shinji ground his teeth and opened the card while

Misato opened hers and oohed and ahhed over it. This one

showed Dorothy asleep in the poppy fields.

>>>Touji: Doesn't that mean drug use?

>>>Mana: So Ayanami is drug fiend…

>>>Shinji/Rei: Do prescriptions count?

On the inside was printed, 'Dreaming of you'. The poem made of snipped

letters read,

'You make me forget

Why it is that I exist

You make me feel good.

A Secret Admirer'

>>>Asuka: Rei, you can never write another poem again. That was AWFUL!

>>>Touji: Feel good in what type of way?

Asuka tried to grab it, but Shinji sat on it.

"Asuka!"

"Hey, I'm just trying to help you!"

Kaji tapped his chin. "Let's see...it's a bisexual

bad poet. That rules out Pen-Pen."

Misato and Shinji thwacked him in unison.

>>>Rei: I am a bad poet?

>>>Kensuke: It rated a 10.0 on the suck scale.

~*~

Shinji knocked on Rei's door. After a long pause,

he heard footsteps, and she opened it, staring at him. He

said, "Hi. I...uh...wanted to ask about why you took me to

see that thing on the wall. Do you know what it is?"

>>>Touji: She answered by dragging him into the apartment.

>>>Mana: Sucking his soul out with a straw?

"Katsuragi-san wears one. I thought she had put

that there for us to find."

Shinji nodded. "Did you understand it?"

"The seasons."

That part had been pointless, but comprehensible, he

agreed. "I guess it was just a coincidence. Misato didn't

know anything about it."

>>>Asuka: Not like she's a bastion of knowledge anyway.

>>>Touji/Kensuke: Don't knock Misato-san!

"There are no coincidences." Her voice was level,

making him wonder if she was saying there had to be some

meaning to it.

"So you think it means something?"

"It meant something once." Silence.

>>>Mana: Can they make Ayanami any creepier?

>>>Asuka: Doesn't anybody question why she knows so much?

"Umm...have you done the math homework?" He glanced

around, feeling silly standing in the doorway.

"No."

"Wanna...er...do it together?"

>>>Kensuke: He just asked Ayanami to `Do it!'

>>>Shinji: I didn't mean it like that and you know it!…ah HELL!

>>>Rei blushing: If you insist we can.

She looked at his hands. "You don't have books."

"Well...we'd need to go back to my place."

"Wait." She closed the door, and he heard her

footsteps recede. Then they drew closer again, the door

opened, and she came out, carrying a briefcase, which she

was in the process of closing. He caught a glimpse of

something that looked like 'Vogue', but he assumed it

couldn't possibly be.

>>>Rei: `Vogue?'

>>>Mana: Actually doing some good reading. You may be competition after all.

For a moment, he had a mental image of Rei hiding in

the dark under the sheets of her bed, reading Vogue by

flashlight and giggling to herself, then carefully hiding

the magazine and faking emotionlessness when Akagi-san came

in to check on her. He laughed loudly at the thought.

>>>Shinji: That is just uber-kawaii.

>>>Asuka: No, it's hilarious! But I'd love to see it.

Rei glanced over at him, but said nothing.

>>>Mana: Such is normal life.

As they walked, Shinji began to feel curious as to

what exactly he had glimpsed. I suppose I could ask her, he

thought. Somehow, he just couldn't quite do that, though.

He tried to think of something to talk about. "How many

more Angels do you think there will be?"

"Ten."

He blinked. "Just Ten?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

>>>Kensuke: Hands for those who think she's lying.

>>>All but Rei raise their hands.

They walked in silence for a while after that, then

Shinji blurted out, "Do you really have an issue of Vogue in

your bag?"

"Maya said to study it."

"..."

>>>Rei: Why should I read such a magazine?

>>>Touji: Its just girly crap. Make-up shit, how to get a guy and that.

>>>Shinji/Kensuke: How do you know that Touji…Touji?

~*~

"So who do YOU think Shinji's secret admirer is?"

Asuka asked Rei as the three of them rode up the elevator to

get into their entry plugs. They were on their way to do

some special training in their EVAs.

"A secret," Rei replied.

"Well, DUH!" Asuka shouted.

>>>Asuka: What type of answer did I expect from her anyway.

>>>Mana: I was thinking she'd confess. She's not the best liar.

"Can we discuss SOMETHING ELSE?" Shinji asked.

"Okay, who do you think is Misato's secret admirer?"

Asuka asked.

>>>Touji: That one would be tougher. Shinji knows what three girls now Misato…

>>>Kensuke: All of Tokyo-3 would be on the list.

"I don't know, but she sure is enjoying it," Shinji

said.

"There's a lesson for you, you know. You should

LIKE having a secret admirer," Asuka said.

"I didn't say I didn't like it! I just don't want

you reading my mail!"

"Do you... like it?" Rei asked.

>>>Mana: There is the confession. But will are heroes NOTICE?

>>>All: Not a chance.

Shinji blushed. "I never had one before. I never

thought that..." He blushed more. "It is kind of nice."

"o/~ First comes love, then comes marriage o/~"

Asuka began to sing.

Shinji simply quietly wilted.

>>>Rei: Her terms are acceptable. Shinji let us finally wed.

>>>Mana: Not so fast there blue.

>>>Touji/Kensuke: Fight! Fight! Fight!

~*~

The underwater exercise went well, although Asuka

managed to snag Unit02's cord on a sunken telephone pole in

the ruins of Tokyo-1 at one point and unplugged herself.

Unit01 stepped on a shark without noticing, which got a few

laughs once they loaded the Unit into the transport, as it

was still embedded in his foot.

>>>Shinji: The species deserved it for scaring us before.

>>>Touji: Remind me never to piss you off. And Ayanami I don't mean now.

They returned home, and slunk contentedly into bed,

exhausted. Shinji went to climb the mountain some more,

while Asuka had other business on her dreaming mind...

>>>Touji/Kensuke: I'm out of here for this. I don't want to see her dreams!

>>>Asuka: That's right get out you chickens! I didn't want you to see them anyway!

~*~

The Red Knight threw a few more logs on her fire,

then got back up to finish brushing her horse, which was

tethered to a nearby tree. She was passing through a light

forest which ran up and down the thinly occupied hills

between Zakarion (her destination) and Thorabon (her

starting point).

>>>Shinji: Well at least we know kinda what's going on.

>>>Mana: Now if you start speaking Japanese we may understand.

Thorabon was a dying sea port along the

coast of the Southern Sea, east of Dylath- Leen, where she

had recently made herself not welcome by burning all the

slave traders' ships in the harbor.

>>>Rei: Must you destroy everything in your path?

>>>Asuka: Force of habit.

Loathsome half-human things had leaped from the

burning boats, confirming her suspicions about the black

galleys which came to port in Dylath-Leen, accepting only

humans in return for the wines and cloths and spices and

gems they brought there in trade. They would think twice

about returning to Dylath-Leen.

>>>Shinji: While you're there.

>>>Asuka: Maybe I should have sacked the whole town then.

On the other hand, she would also have to think

twice, as the locals had not taken kindly to this. Indeed,

there was some risk now of war between Celephais and

Dylath-Leen. She needed to return home and warn King

Kuranes.

>>>Mana: Great, burn a few boats and start a war.

>>>Rei: Killing thousands.

Thorabon had been no help in that regard; the city

was vanishing, fading away bit by bit. Once it had been a

place of wonders, of buildings made of shining crystal which

would accept no paint but took on the colors willed into it

by their owners. Great galleons of the same crystal, mined

in the hills, had sailed forth to all the cities of the

Southern and Cerranian seas.

>>>All: Ok…this is making no sense.

But one day, the city had begun to fade, and nothing

could restore it. Buildings vanished, and with them their

inhabitants.

>>>Mana: Suck to live there.

>>>Shinji: Wouldn't `live' there for long.

Thorabonian crystal everywhere began to

vanish, stripping wealthy homes of windows and glasses,

devastating its fleets, and even slaying its king when the

balcony of his palace faded away beneath his feet.

>>>Asuka: What he gets for having see-thru floors.

Only a few desperate people remained, trying to find

some way to save their city or unable to afford to leave, a

village huddling amongst the fading wreckage of greatness.

So she had turned north, to cross the infertile

lands that lay between Thorabon and Zakarion, a city of

sages too wise for the waking world, it was said. Knowing

the waking world as she did, she could believe it.

>>>Rei: These Dreamlands seem to be a decrepit place.

>>>Shinji/Asuka: Killing it's gods couldn't be helpful.

It was a region of gently rolling plains, covered

with short grass tinged with brown due to a lack of water.

A few trees with thin trunks and deep, wide roots clung to

the land, doing their best to shade it with their leaves.

Asuka took off her helmet and shook out her hair,

then began to comb it. She sat by the fire, having finished

brushing her horse (with a seperate brush of course).

>>>Mana: Don't want to dirty the horse's hair.

>>>Asuka: You're just pissed cause your dye job sucks.

She

gazed up at the stars. I wonder how long Shinji's going to

take to climb that mountain, she thought. I wouldn't mind

having a travelling companion.

>>>Shinji: You mean a pack-mule right?

>>>Asuka: You know you'd love it.

Although maybe I can hook up

with Anna again once I get back to Celephais if she's

finished her quest.

>>>Mana: This sounds like an RPG.

Her stomach rumbled. She got up and got her bow off

her horse, stringing it. Time to shoot me a rabbit or even

a squirrel, she thought.

An hour's tramping about caught her a rabbit and

finished the job of the sun going down. It was dark, and

the stars came out, not the constellations of Earth, but

familiar to her now, for she has passed much time in the

strange world that Dr. Himmelfarb had taught her to enter,

and which she now strove to teach to Shinji.

>>>Shinji: Why?

>>>Mana: So you can't escape us. Even in your dreams.

The hardest part was getting in, whether it be to

find the ninety nine steps of dream from the cavern of

eternal flame,

>>>Rei: Katsuragi did that one I believe.

or to swim across a river full of piranha, or

to climb a mountain. A true Dreamer had to be determined in

order to find the place where dreams were reality.

>>>Asuka: To bad, that means you won't be making an appearance Rei.

And yet, in time, it grew harder for even the most

determined dreamer to enter. Asuka had no idea why. Doktor

Himmelfarb had a very hard time, though Asuka still ran into

her sometimes. Not since her arrival in Tokyo-3, though.

>>>Mana: 10000 yen says she's dead.

>>>Shinji: Or in a psyco ward.

That time had not yet come for Asuka. I ought to teach

Hikari too, she thought. She'd like this, I think. I just

have to make sure no one EVER teaches Touji.

>>>Rei: By saying that you will be the one to teach him.

>>>Asuka: I'd never allow him to pollute my dreams.

>>>Touji from kitchen: Like I'd LET you!

A shape blurred across her sight, drawing her out of

her thoughts. There was something among the trees, its

shape blurred by rapid movements. Something with red eyes

and a faint blue halo above those eyes.

>>>Asuka: DAMMIT!

>>>Shinji/Mana: Looks like you have company.

The haunter of the dark, she thought. She had

fought it once, long ago, when it had stalked her dreams.

By defeating it, she had won her way into the Dreamlands.

Doktor Himmelfarb had warned her it would not stay dead,

that one day it would likely come again.

>>>Rei: This should be interesting.

She had beaten it before, but she feared it

nonetheless, for it could take a thousand forms, some of

them horrible beyond measure, but others quite innocuous

until one realized one had placed one's head into the lion's

mouth.

>>>Mana: Keep that in mind Shinji.

>>>Shinji looks at Rei: Rei…isn't going to kill me… `I think.'

She slung her bow over one shoulder, and drew her

sword, an onyx blade forged for her by the smiths of

Ilek-Vad after she had defeated a great sea beast that had

threatened the city upon the great glass cliffs and the

labyrinths of the Gnorri, the sea-dwelling allies of the

people of Ilek-Vad.

>>>Shinji: Gazontite.

Fire flickered along the blade, lighting a circle around her with its comforting, warm glow.

The shape blurred away from her into the darkness of

the half-moon lit sky. It was flying with great bat-like

wings. She remembered the wings, the eyes, the tail with a

stinger that had injected a poison that had nearly killed

her in their last confrontation. She had been unarmed then,

a panicked child, saved only by her strength of will and the

lessons she had been taught. She felt she was no child now.

>>>Mana: Yet your title is Second Child.

>>>Pilots: Don't push that one.

"Come and fight me! Don't skulk in the darkness,

you bastard!

>>>Rei: The term is Bitch, I am female.

I am Asuka Soryuu Langely, the Red Knight of

Celephais! I've whooped you before and I'll do it again!"

She felt a gust of cold air, but her sword flared

brighter, the warmth dispelling the cold air, the light

shoving back the darkness. "FIGHT ME!"

The red eyes stared at her from above, then settled

to the ground far away. They closed, and vanished.

>>>Asuka: Wait…did I say the Shinji part out loud?

>>>Shinji: Yeah, why?

>>>Mana: You're dreams will be interesting.

She ran

about for a while, trying to roust the thing out, but it was

gone. She spent the rest of the night fruitlessly on edge,

but it never returned.

~*~

>>>Kensuke/Touji take there seats: She didn't have get ya did she?

Kensuke, Touji, and Shinji lay in a field on the

outskirts of the city goofing off when they were supposed to

be studying, watching the clouds drift by instead. "I envy

you, man," Kensuke said.

"Why?" Shinji asked.

>>>Asuka: His life is so pathetic he needs an escape?

"I think deep sea diving is cool. I bet you'll

probably meet a mermaid or something," Kensuke said.

>>>Mana: What does a half fish girl have that's appealing?

>>>Kensuke: Actually…yeah.

"Or find some golden treasure. I wish I could pilot an EVA."

"I wish you could do it for me. LCL is disgusting.

And we'll probably end up stranded on the ocean floor,"

Shinji said. He idly tied a long stalk of grass into a

circle, then began to weave a second stalk into the first.

>>>Touji: Way to think positive.

>>>Asuka: When did you start making grass necklaces Shinji?

"I wish I got to live with a babe like you do,"

Touji said.

"Yeah, but you'd be living with Asuka too," Kensuke

said. "I wouldn't mind, but I think you two would kill each

other."

>>>Asuka: I'd kill him.

>>>Touji: You wish!

>>>Rei/Mana/Kensuke: Fight! Fight! Fight!

"Naah. I'd get Shinji to go out with her so she'd

focus on him while I got Misato," Touji said.

>>>Touji: Sorry Shin-man but you'd have to suffer for my benefit.

Shinji laughed. "I don't think Misato dates people

our age." I wonder if he's Misato's secret admirer. He

laughed. As long as he isn't mine...

>>>Shinji looks at Touji: They'd kill you for that.

>>>The girls eyes gleam over as they look at Touji who wisely keeps his mouth shut.

"Hey, a man can dream a noble dream!" Touji said,

shaking his fist at the sky. "It'd beat living with my dad

the prick anyway." He snarled. "Bastard won't even go see

my sister. Says she's already dead."

Shinji blinked. "What?"

>>>Shinji: Mari-chan is getting better!

>>>Rei: In the movie she's not.

"Mom was like that for a while before she died, but

I mean...she and Mom didn't get hurt the same way." He

sighed. "Mom just breathed in the wrong chemicals. She

died a lot faster than my sister. I mean...Miki's been in

the hospital a lot longer than it took Mom to die."

Shinji sat up and frowned, feeling guilty. "She's

still in the hospital?"

>>>Kensuke: Warning angst alert!

"Yeah. She hasn't come out of her coma fully,

except to babble sometimes," he said, sighing. "But the

doctors say she should recover."

"I'm sorry," Shinji said.

"It ain't your fault," Touji said. "Just beat the

hell out of the next Angel for me, okay?"

"I will." Shinji said.

>>>Kensuke: Shinji actually saying he'll fight. That always gets me.

>>>Asuka: He'd kick your ass.

>>>Shinji: Asuka…no provocation.

~*~

Asuka pirouetted on the deck for Kaji as the sun was

setting. She was wearing a white sundress with red tongues

of flame dotting it, and a matching white hat. "How do I

look?"

>>>Mana: Like you should be strapped to a pyre.

>>>Rei: They did burn witches didn't they.

"You missed a step," he said, laughing.

"I meant the dress!"

"It's very nice, though not too practical for deep

sea diving," he said, leaning back on his deck chair.

Several crewmen stared at both of them and grumbled, then

moved on.

>>>Shinji: Not helping with the work load will get people angry at you.

She came over and sat down on the one next to him.

"Do you think we're ready for this?"

"Nope." He said.

She frowned. "Then why are we going?"

>>>Kensuke: Because Nerv received a new bunch of pilots and needs to get rid of you.

>>>Shinji: Father doesn't care if we're ready or not.

"You'll never really be ready. Not when we can't be

sure what we're fighting or where they come from. The

universe is a large scary place, and we're really tiny. We

can't even be sure if the rest of the universe obeys the

same laws as ours. Certainly the Angels you've fought so

far...we can't explain how they do what they do."

>>>Rei: Good special affects.

>>>Shinji: Somebody forgot to read a physics book?

Now she felt a little worried. Usually he was much

more confident. "Do you really think we're going to lose?"

"I fear we will lose. I hope we will win. You're

carrying the weight of the world, Asuka. If you die,

there's no one to replace you.

>>>Asuka smiles: Kaji!

Not yet.

>>>Shinji: Guess that means he only cares while he has no option.

And there's no way

of knowing how many of these things there are,

>>>Rei: We were over this, Ten.

>>>Mana: But only you miss Freak girl knows that.

or if they'll

get lucky and nail one of you." He turned to face her.

"Gertrude would never forgive me if I let you die."

"I'm not going to die," she said. "You...you'd miss

me if I died, wouldn't you?"

>>>Rei: We don't want you killed by an Angel.

>>>Mana: We don't?

>>>Rei: I want to do it.

"Of course I would. I'd only have Misato left to

tease for one thing; Rits-chan won't take my bait anymore."

She'd hoped for him to say something more romantic

than that. "I'd miss you a lot if you died."

"Let's not give the universe any hints, okay?" he

said.

>>>Shinji: I think the universe heard that one.

>>>Asuka: Kaji seems to die a lot in these movies.

The sun finished setting, and the red sky faded to

darkness. One by one, the stars came out, and Asuka settled

down to watch them and listen to the sea. I wonder what Rahab

will be like, she thought. That was the name of their next

target, the Angel of the Sea. Probably going to be a great white

whale, she thought. She drifted off into a nap, dreaming of

Shinji's father as Captain Ahab.

>>>Mana: Ahab dies right?

>>>Shinji: Yup, Moby Dick kills him.

>>>All: Then I like that analogy.

~*~

Diving in an EVA had several advantages. No worries

about the bends, for one thing. The pressure in the entry

plug would never change and an EVA could handle the outside

pressure with ease. No need to stick close to an aircord or

anything. However, they did need power, which effectively

was the same thing. There was a cable for each of them, and

a fourth one which held several powerful explosive charges;

EVAs weren't likely to fit through any doors they found, and

they hadn't come to do archaeology.

>>>Rei: Asuka arrives so something must be destroyed.

>>>Shinji: Millennia old ruins and we detonate high explosives.

Another advantage was that EVAs could carry BIG

lights. Each of them had the largest headlamps in the

history of the world. It was like having a portable sun.

They could see the ruins as they descended into it. It sat

at the base of a mountain, spreading out along three roads

away from the plaza that sat at the point of the mountain's

base directly below a building that perched halfway up the

mountain on a small plateau. A great gully ran through the

city that must have once been a river.

>>>Touji: Taking in the sights before the destruction?

The buildings were of stone, with odd gaps between

them in some places. The gaps were not ruined buildings,

simply empty spaces with no coherent pattern. The buildings

themselves were made of many kinds of stone, from basalt to

granite to a handful of buildings faced with marble. Most

were only two or three stories high at best, though near the

plaza some rose as high as ten stories, interconnected by

now broken walkways above the level of the road.

>>>Kensuke: Elder God construction. No rhyme, no reason, no humans.

Asuka said, "Hey, Rei, is this your underseas

kingdom?"

Shinji laughed. "Rei is from Atlantis, not Mu."

>>>Kensuke: No Ayanami is…

>>>Touji: Did her eyes just flash red at you?

"Mu?"

"I don't see any cows," Shinji said, laughing.

Asuka frowned. _Someone_ was showing a bit more

spine than usual at _her_ expense.

>>>Shinji: And you know I can't have a spine when it's at your expense.

>>>Asuka: Exactly. You can only do it for my benefit `smiles brightly.'

"Don't make fun of me! What is Mu?"

"In the nineteenth century, a man named Colonel

Churchward claimed to have deciphered a set of tablets which

told the story of a continent named Mu in the Pacific Ocean,

which had once held a great civilization, then sank into the

ocean. He was generally laughed at because of two reasons.

First, his method of translating them basically involved a

lot of mysticism since it was a supposedly dead language,

and secondly, he couldn't produce the tablets."

>>>Mana: So…he `said' he found it but in reality?

>>>Rei: He was insane and wanted attention.

"Sounds to me like he made it up."

"Well, unless he built this city too, he must have

known something."

>>>Kensuke: How to milk idiots out of their money.

"There are other writings besides his which speak of

Mu," Ritsuko said over the comlink. "While this city may or

may not have ever been part of a kingdom named Mu, it does

show there's some truth to the legend. Indeed, it's

possible that Atlantis and Mu are simply both distorted

versions of the same truth--this city, whatever it may be

named."

>>>Pilots: How does she do that?

>>>Touji: She pays attention.

Rei pointed at the building on the mountainside.

"Looks Mayan."

It was a huge step pyramid, taller than the EVAs,

though not by much, sitting on a small plateau, most of

which it occupied. They couldn't make out much detail from

this distance.

>>>Mana: It's so beautiful.

>>>Asuka: Yup…lets trash it.

"Maybe Mayans colonized this place before it sank,"

Asuka speculated.

"Or vice versa," Shinji said. "I wonder how old it

is."

"Thousands of years," Misato said over the comlink.

"The sensor feeds we're getting indicate you need to climb

the mountain to that pyramid."

"Right," Shinji said, and they started down one of

the broad streets to the plaza at the mountain's base.

>>>Asuka: It must be nice to order people around and never be in real danger yourself.

>>>Shinji/Rei: We can dream.

"I can hardly believe this place is real," Asuka

said. "It's at least as advanced as the Egyptians or the

Aztecs or the Maya or Incas. Just look at the architecture.

But if it's thousands of years old, it must predate them.

When we're saying thousands, how many thousands do we mean,

Katsuragi-san?"

>>>Touji: Does it really matter your just going to vaporize it.

Misato consulted someone off screen. "Older than

any known civilization."

"Wow!" Asuka said. "This must have been the first

human civilization then.

>>>Kensuke: AHAHAHAHA! You STILL don't realize it's the elder Gods.

>>>Shinji: Ken…your scaring us. Stop praising them.

What kind of people lived here?"

>>>Rei: Dead ones.

"We have no clue," Misato said. "Probably they

looked just like us, though. It's not THAT old."

>>>Shinji: Does she expect us to believe that?

"The temple looks sort of like the Mayans. Maybe

they came from here," Asuka speculated.

Shinji looked about as they crossed the great plaza.

"Reminds me too much of Tokyo-1. I wonder if people will

wander through the ruins of Tokyo-3 one day and wonder what

we were like."

"Don't be gloomy," Asuka said. "This place is

really neat!"

>>>Mana: If you have a love of the dead.

>>>Touji: Just massive carnage.

Rei, who was lugging the explosives said, "How many

charges to level the temple?"

>>>Mana: You do have a purpose, the workhorse.

"Try just one," Misato said.

"We can't just destroy it!" Asuka said.

"Unless you want to get out and swim, we don't have

much choice," Misato said.

>>>Shinji: Be funny to see us trying to fight then.

>>>Kensuke: Be a very fast battle.

"They probably sacrificed humans if they were really

like the Mayas or the Aztecs," Shinji said. "It looks just

like that one in our history books."

"Whatever. I guess we blow it up," Asuka said.

>>>All: As we expected.

~*~

The building was tougher than it looked, but two

charges leveled it.

>>>Kensuke: I want one!

Clearing the rubble took a while, but

since they had power from above, this wasn't a problem.

They also had power packs with them for an emergency.

Finally, they found the huge well which had once sat at the

heart of the temple. Infrared sensors indicated the water

welling up out of it was warmer than the surrounding

ocean water by a good twenty degrees.

>>>Shinji: That's not supposed to happen right?

>>>Asuka: No…no its not.

"Go to Hypersonar," Misato said.

"Why?" Asuka asked.

"Just do it," Misato replied, frowning. She started

to say something, then heard something the pilots could

not, frowned more,

>>>Mana: Don't you love how they tell you everything you need to know?

>>>Touji: Have a nice swim in the dark now…hope no monsters get you.

and said, "Conserves the flashlight power, and

we need to make sure it'll work in the confined space of the

shaft. You're going to have to go one at a time. The Angel

is down below. Do not turn on your lights under any circum-

stances without a direct order."

>>>Asuka: So we fight in the dark.

>>>Shinji: Wonders never cease.

Misato wasn't happy giving these orders; they had come

down from Commander Ikari, who she suspected had censored the

report they had gotten from the divers before passing it on to

her.

>>>Rei: The details about finding floating heads not important?

Why fight in the dark? It made no sense. Not for the

first time, she was certain Commander Ikari knew something he

wasn't telling. More precisely, that he knew far more about

the Angels than he was telling. How had the divers known where

to look? And why was it so important for the Children to fight

Rahab in the dark? Did he get stronger with light or something?

>>>Shinji: Doubt it. Just have to add to the drama.

>>>Asuka: Can't have our lives get boring now can you?

>>>Shinji blushes at Asuka's expression when she said boring but says nothing.

"Are we gonna have enough cable for this?" Shinji

asked.

"As long as they didn't dig a half-mile shaft, yes,"

Misato said. "Our readings indicate it isn't much more than

five to eight hundred feet down."

"Why is it just sitting here?" Asuka asked.

>>>Mana: He's been tired for the past few thousand years.

"We believe it isn't fully functional yet," Misato

said. "It hasn't left since we found it."

"I'll go first. Shinji, you go second. Rei, you go

third."

>>>Shinji: All Hail Furher Asuka!

>>>Asuka: You know I love it when you say that.

Asuka switched on her Hypersonar, as did the

others. The ocean turned into a black void with shapes

outlined in green with distance markers by them. "Can I

turn on infrared too?"

"Affirmative," Misato said.

Asuka gritted her teeth and swallowed, then relaxed.

"Let's go."

>>>Touji: Then Ayanami tosses the last charge down the well after Asuka.

>>>Rei: Not a bad idea.

>>>Shinji/Asuka: TOUJI!

~*~

The shaft dove three hundred feet and let out into a

huge cavern that would have been vast and impressive under

most conditions, extending hundreds, maybe thousands of

feet, lacking the stalactites and stalagmites that one

normally finds in caves, the walls polished smooth.

>>>Shinji: How do we know this?

>>>Touji: Maybe Ayanami can see in the dark.

Two

things reduced its impressiveness. The first thing was that

hypersonar made everything look like a cheesy late seventies

video game. The second thing was that the EVAS were so big

the cavern shrunk in comparison.

Asuka dropped down into the chamber first,

progressive knife in hand. She wished they had been able to

take better armnaments, but most weapons work poorly

underwater. It would likely do the job anyway. Assuming she

could find the enemy to hit him. Feh, she thought.

>>>Asuka: Why don't they make larger knifes?

>>>Kensuke: Shinji'd cut your arms and head off on accident.

The ceiling was low, which bothered her; it was

going to be hard to move in here without whacking her EVA's

head into the ceiling frequently. To make matters worse,

she could make out a huge shape on her Hypersonar which

occupied the far end of the cavern.

>>>Shinji: Gee I wonder where the angel is.

Hypersonar couldn't

handle it well; it was too complex, a tangle of tubes and

arms and legs and spheres and bulbous malformed hunks of

seemingly pointless flesh, all mounted around a large sphere

which might have been an eye, but which was featureless to

hypersonar. It had no infrared signature at all.

>>>Asuka: This isn't going to be a fun battle is it.

>>>Mana: Say hello to the tentacle beast for me…I'm glad I won't be any where near it.

"That's the Angel!" Misato said. "Our sensor feed

from you is heading up the scale."

"It looks like old, rotten spaghetti," Asuka said.

"Just like Oscar used to make."

Rahab, the Angel of the Sea,

>>>Mana: Was in fact…rancid spaghetti.

charged across the

cavern, its hundreds of tentacles, tubes, and limbs flailing

about, and Asuka charged it as Unit01 dropped down. "You

call this 'not fully functional'? Shinji, draw your knife

and move left. Rei, move right when you get down. I'll

take the middle."

>>>Rei: Your death will not be in vain.

>>>Asuka: I'm not dead yet!

"Good plan," Misato said, slightly irritated.

"Produce an AT- Field as you strike. Force your way through

the limbs to the center; you'll spend all day hacking at him

otherwise."

This was easier said than done.

>>>Shinji: Isn't it always?

Up close, Rahab was

one big smear on Hypersonar, and you couldn't see him on

Infrared at all. While they could swat things aside on

touch alone, soon, each of them was effectively snared in a

sea of limbs which tried to crush them. His AT-Field was

strong, but it was the sheer weight and strength of his

extremities, combined with the problems of trying to

navigate through them which was holding them back.

>>>Touji: I don't see the problem just swing forward. If it's all around you.

>>>Asuka: You see that seeing IS the problem!

It was hard to keep from being tangled completely

and immobilized. Asuka was sure she had sliced a good two

dozen tendrils, tentacles, tubes, arms, and even one thing

that had resembled a leg. "We need to use our lamps! It's

like fighting two dozen perverts in the dark! I can't even

tell what direction I'm facing and..." Unit02 smacked into

the ceiling.

>>>Rei: Forward. Unless your head was twisted around.

>>>Mana: Anybody notice how Asuka's the only one complaining?

"Request denied," Ritsuko said. "We have reason to

believe that using light against this Angel would be a bad

idea."

>>>Shinji: Can't be a little more specific can you?

"It's trying to cut my cord, but I'm afraid to

strike or I may hit it myself!" Shinji said. "I can't tell

the difference in this mess!"

"Absolutely not," Ritsuko said.

>>>Rei: We know we can't let it cut the cord. You need not remind us of that.

After a few more minutes of fighting, Asuka couldn't

take it any longer. Her left leg was immobilized and

despite hacking up dozens of tentacles, she wasn't gaining

any ground. Hypersonar just wasn't hacking it, she thought.

I need light or I'm going to die.

She clicked her light on.

>>>All:…AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

He was a nightmare, looking as though someone had sewn

together thousands of random body parts of various sizes

into a huge throbbing mass with a single eye in which danced

a cold blue flame. She could now see the pain in her EVA's

left leg was from a huge mouth which had bitten down on it.

His flesh was multicolored, greens and browns and tans and

reds and harsh purples, and many of his limbs flailed about

apparently mindlessly.

>>>Rei: I will be leaving the room momentarily… `leaves room.'

>>>Asuka/Mana: We'll…go check on her…yeah… `run out.'

>>>Touji: Girls…such wimps.

I'll go for the eye, she decided. Then her EVA

wouldn't move, and her eyes widened. "MOVE!" she shouted,

but it moved only in slow motion, ever slowing. Something

was wrong.

>>>Shinji: This just keeps getting better doesn't it.

~*~

Back at the bridge, Ritsuko cursed. "You idiot!

Anything that can see Rahab will..." She sighed. "Maya?"

"The Angel's AT-Field is invading the three EVAs.

At this rate, they have about three minutes before it's too

late."

>>>Touji: Thank Asuka for killing everybody.

>>>Shinji/Kensuke: Thanks Asuka.

"You didn't say we'd get paralyzed just LOOKING at

it!" Asuka shouted over the comlink.

"You wouldn't be in trouble if you hadn't disobeyed

orders!" Misato yelled. "And someone didn't TELL ME THAT!"

>>>Kensuke: Where's the fun in knowing massively important information.

"You have to generate your own AT-Fields," Ritsuko

said. "And drive out the energies invading your EVAs.

Otherwise, you'll be rendered immobile and it will likely

eat you or worse."

>>>Kensuke: This is becoming a hentai movie very fast.

>>>Touji: That means Shinji's the only one that will die.

Shinji winced and began to concentrate, as did the

others, and soon the bridge sensors showed a struggle of

pure energy was in progress between Rahab and the three

EVAs. The tentacles ceased to move, as the battle became

one of will and power rather than physical might.

>>>Shinji: We're screwed.

Asuka found herself thinking about Kaji. I love

you, she thought. I can't die...I have to come back to you!

Not to mention I have to show that bastard Touji I'm not so

weak I got killed by just LOOKING at the Angel. And Shinji.

I have to finish his lessons, and he's counting on me!

>>>Shinji: She actually thought about me during this?

>>>Kensuke: Looks like the triangle is again in affect!

>>>Touji: Place your bets gentlemen!

And

Hikari...I'd miss you if I died. Thoughts of her loved ones

(and a few hated ones) sustained her will to struggle.

Shinji found it hard to focus at first; efforts of

will didn't come easily to him; paralysis did. The void

opened before him, and he saw the Earth from space. It was

a tiny marble, just one of millions, doomed to die when the

Sun swallowed it.

>>>Touji: Not the most inspiring thought.

>>>Shinji: Give me a moment.

Humanity was just a crawling fungus upon

its surface that one day would die. That day had come;

somehow he could see the horrors rising from the deeps,

crawling from the cracks of the earth, descending from the

sky, all come to reclaim the world that once was theirs.

The stars were right, and they sang the fall of mankind.

How could one man stand against that?

>>>Shinji: In a giant robot fueled by his mothers love!

>>>Touji/Kensuke: Shinji's brain must have checked out.

If he had been alone, he would have likely failed.

But he could see Asuka and Rei's faces on his monitors, and

he didn't want to fail them. They were counting on him.

Asuka wouldn't give up, and neither would Rei.

>>>Touji: Does Shinji think of one girl? NO!

>>>Kensuke: Mega playboy has all the honey's on his mind!

Misato was

counting on him too, and his friends...he could hardly

believe he had friends. His life had changed more than he

could imagine since he had come to Tokyo-3, changed for the

better, despite the bad parts of it.

>>>Touji: The dream stalker part must be hard.

>>>Shinji: Its actually neat. My dreams aren't boring anymore.

He didn't want to die.

He wanted to live. He was going to live. I refuse to die,

he thought. The image of humanity's doom hung before him,

and he denied it. We're not going to die! I'm not going to

die! We beat all the other Angels and we WILL BEAT YOU!!!!

>>>Kensuke: Shinji finally grew a pair!

>>>Shinji: Can't let others die because of myself.

Shinji snarled, and then his Eva's arm began to

move, followed by its legs. Slowly, it began to press

forward. Asuka's EVA was beginning to move as well, and so

was Rei's. They shoved forward, hacking through the flabby,

pustulent flesh, ignoring the gore that repeatedly showered

the three EVAs.

>>>Shinji: How much of the budget was spent on blood!

>>>Kensuke: A lot…a lot.

"Its AT-Field is wavering," Ritsuko said. "Asuka,

use your feeding tendrils."

"That's disgusting!" Asuka shouted.

>>>Shinji: Is this the time to worry about taste?

"Shinji, use your claws and bite it. You can chew

through it faster than you can use your knife," Misato said.

"Ditto for you, Rei."

>>>Kensuke: Does Ayanami even know what that means?

>>>Shinji: Wonder if they're ok.

Rei seized one of the tendrils, and ice began to

spread up it to the central tangle of body parts which

formed what passed for Rahab's torso. Shinji reluctantly

forced himself to make his EVA bite a pulsating arm, then

began to rip his way forward at a much higher pace. It felt

disturbingly good to just shred his way through the

repulsive thing, and he could almost taste its vital fluids.

>>>Touji: Shinji's got a bit of bloodlust.

>>>Kensuke: The only type of lust he has.

>>>Shinji: If you had my problem you'd fear it too.

He would have spat if his spittle wouldn't have ended up on

him. His body quivered with nervous energy as his EVA

sliced and bit and render and chewed and fed upon Rahab.

>>>Kensuke: That count as meat?

>>>Shinji: Hope not or Rei will be upset.

Unit02 sprouted the facial tendrils, and where they

struck, the limb soon lost all its color and crumbled to

gray flakes, then dust. At random intervals, large veins

pulsed visibly under 02's skin, and Asuka felt a horrifying

euphoria. What her EVA was doing repulsed her, but it also

brought a faint pleasure she tried to reject.

>>>Shinji: I'm glad she's not watching this.

>>>Touji: Why?

>>>Shinji:… `When she's scared she gets clingy.'

~*~

Back at the Geofront, Maya frowned. "Asuka and

Shinji's synchro rates have fallen slightly."

Misato shuddered. "Can you blame them?"

>>>Shinji: Ritsuko-san would.

She couldn't see clearly; they weren't accepting visual signals

from the Children, just Hypersonar, but it still looked

awful. She fingered her necklace nervously.

"Angel AT-Field has fallen to fifty percent," Shigeru

said.

"I'm surprised it hasn't actually severed their

power cords yet," Makoto said.

"Let's not give it any ideas," Misato replied.

>>>Touji: Whenever they say something like that it happens.

>>>Kensuke: Does that mean Ayanami will kill Asuka?

~*~

Much of what was left of Rahab was covered with ice

and dripping with its own gore.

>>>Shinji: How can it drip underwater?

Unit00 slashed its 'torso'

with mandibles, Unit01 was eating one of its...legs?, and 02

moved forward, sinking its feeding tendrils into the huge

eye.

A shriek erupted through the cavern, shaking the

walls, and Asuka's monitors suddenly filled with a flurry of

images, her ears filling with sounds, her nose with smells,

all her senses overloading.

>>>Touji: She on drugs?

>>>Mana: Is it over yet?

For a moment, the Earth floated before her as seen

from space. Then she saw a vast continent, and a volcano.

Pink scabrous creatures, winged crustaceans flew down and

built a city, mining the local area for rock, and silencing

the volcano with a machine. They built a city to guard the

cave where Asuka slept. One day, they were gone, and much

later humans came and dwelt above her, worshipping her.

>>>Shinji: Well she does believe people worship her.

>>>Kensuke: But a sleeping god?

She howled; these were not her memories, not her

senses, not her, but she could not resist them, could not

fight them off. Much of it was utterly alien to her and

incomprehensible. Angled time. The smell of a dying world.

Twelfth dimensional spheres.

>>>Shinji: MY EYES!

>>>Touji: Geometry! NOOOOO!

A music which permeated the

universe. A universe dying as the atom which contained it

was crushed in a cyclotron. An ever surging, constantly

changing blasphemous mass surrounded by a court of idiot

gods and mindless flautists playing a tuneless symphony.

>>>Kensuke: The plot line has left the building.

And over and over, snatches of the words of the

priests in a language she refused to know, but which

overwhelmed her, forced itself upon her. They spoke now, on

the last day before her home sank beneath the waves, calling

out the final prophecy of their time supposedly in her

service. She had always ignored them, a buzzing annoyance,

>>>Shinji: That's familiar. Its over girls!

>>>Asuka walking back: We weren't hiding form it…really we weren't.

along with the stupid people dropped down the great well.

They had talked of her wrath, her desires, her hopes and

fears for their land, but they had meant nothing to her any

more than one would care if the termites in ones walls

worshipped one.

>>>Rei: Is she talking about Shinji again?

>>>Kensuke: No just worshipers.

She had simply waited for the Day of Return. And yet one day...

>>>Shinji: It'd be eaten by three teenagers.

~*~

"The priests of Ythogtha have destroyed us all,"

Zar-ya said, as he looked out across the land and watched

the rising waves of waters devour it, watched the great

cracks in the land consume it, watched the people flee up

the mountain towards the temple.

>>>Touji: A lot of good that will do.

>>>Mana: Maybe if they can hold their breath for a REAL long time.

He was an old man, pale

skinned and white haired. "We have gambled and lost."

"Great Ghatanathoa is watching over us!" Yarke-shu

was dark skinned and young, with bright yellow hair, an

humble acolyte of the temple. "He will save his faithful

ones!"

>>>Rei: Save them from the existence.

>>>Shinji: Denial is such a nice thing.

"He cares nothing for us," Zar-Ya said. "We have

only pretended to speak in his name, used his power for our

own personal gain. Have you not studied our histories? He

did not save those who built this temple and this city from

destruction. He will not save us."

>>>Asuka: How can they even LOOK at it?

>>>Kensuke: Masks.

"That...that is blasphemy!" Yarke-shu was shocked.

"We are his chosen! We have closed down all the other

temples at his command! He...he has to save us!"

>>>Rei: Why?

"The Gods care nothing for men," Zar-Ya said. "Only

the weak Great Ones who live now only in dreams have any

caring for mortals, and they cannot touch this world; they

are but a shadow.

>>>Shinji: So only the weak ones care about us.

>>>Touji: And they don't even exist on earth…makes ya feel happy don't it.

The Gods, the universe...it does not care

if we live or die. We have gambled, and we have lost. Now

we pay the price."

"NO! It is not possible!" Yarke-shu paled as much

as he could, which wasn't much.

>>>Rei: His paleness is nothing compared to my own.

"We have served him well,

given him blood and lives! Are you saying we slew those

people for nothing?"

"Perhaps it appeased his lust for blood...if he

lusts. We know nothing of him save that to look upon him is

to die.

>>>Mana: And they worship it…that's just sad.

Only one thing comforts me as I gaze upon the wreck

of all there is." He stared out across the railing and

watched some people huddling in the wreckage of one of the

banned temples, the temple of Cuthag, the fire god, trying

to light fires in the hopes their lord would notice them.

No chance of that. If he did notice them, it would likely

spell their deaths.

>>>Kensuke: Gives a new hope for atheism.

"One day, he too will die. I have seen it."

"That is not possible! The Gods cannot die!"

"All things die. On the day of Oracles, I have

taken the sacred drug Leri, as you would have one day.

>>>Asuka: If you weren't about to die.

I

have travelled the curves and angles of time, dodging the

hounds that guard its ways, and I saw the day...the day that

the Slaying Gaze would be no more. Destiny cannot be

escaped. When I saw that, I knew one day Mu would be

destroyed. But I knew that the one who abandoned us to our

fate would perish as well."

>>>Mana: He seems happy that his God is going to die.

>>>Touji: Who doesn't like revenge?

"No!" Yarke-Shu screamed. "He will come! He will

save us!"

"Three of his fellows, beings like himself, will

slay him, three Gods masquerading as men.

>>>Shinji: There were three of us…

>>>Kensuke: You're a god now? Cool.

>>>Mana: I always knew Shin-chan was the god of… `her cheeks turn red.'

They will come in

the visage of man, the ultimate insult. They will smite him

with the power of the Gods, and steal away his might. On

the very eve of his freedom, on the verge of triumph, he

will be destroyed just as we have been smitten on the day of

our victory. I will die with his death throes in the eye of

my mind, and I will die content to know his turn will come

in time."

>>>Shinji: At least he can die happy.

>>>Rei: At the expense of something else's life.

"BLASPHEMY!" Yarke-Shu screamed. "You must be

thrown to him! It must be you who brought down his wrath!"

He drew his sacred knife and charged.

>>>Touji: Oh no he'll die quickly.

>>>Kensuke: And the other slow and painful…what a bargain.

~*~

Asuka did not see the end of that tableau, for she

remembered she had lost interest with the end of the

prophecy. She screamed. "I AM NOT THIS MONSTER! GET OUT

OF MY MIND!"

Her brain swam with names. Ythogtha, Illisia,

Toriak, Knn- Yrr, T'yui'oik-H'al'sha, Yuggoth, T'yog,

Zanthu, Idh-yaa, Tlaloc, Ghatanathoa, Ghadamon. They might

have been people or places or names, she could not remember.

She did not want to remember. They were not her memories!

They were not!

>>>Asuka: I can't even pronounce those words.

>>>Shinji: I'd be worried if you could.

She called forth her deepest resources.

>>>Rei: No…not that.

>>>Asuka: Yes…my batgirl costume.

Berlin in the summer. The Wagner festival. Goethe's house. Anna.

Dr. Himmelfarb. Her parents. NERV-Germany. They faded in

and out of her sight, and then soldified, the alien images

popping one by one.

And then it was over.

>>>Mana: Her head exploded.

There was nothing left of

Rahab but currents of pus and gore floating through the

water and massive gray flakes of flesh quickly dissolving

away into the water which took on a dismal tinge.

>>>Rei: I do believe I won't be able to sleep alone tonight.

>>>Mana: Take a ticket.

A ripple ran through the cave outwards from Rahab's

remains, and when they struck the explosive charges, they

went off. The water boiled and that part of the cavern

collapsed, cutting off their com lines. More importantly,

their power line went out.

>>>Asuka: You have to be shitting me.

>>>Shinji: We win and still die.

>>>Touji: We'll attend the services.

While they each had a backpack, they were now down to thirty five minues power, while

trapped in an underwater cave with no explosives.

>>>Kensuke: Sucks to be you guys.

~*~

At the Geofront, the remote transmissions went

blank. A comline from the boats kicked in. "Something

severed the cables, we think," Kaji said.

"They won, DAMMIT!" Misato shouted. "They beat

him! Who's the...WHO MADE THOSE EXPLOSIVES?"

"Some armnaments company," Makoto said. "I can look

it up."

"Find them. Kill them," Misato said grimly.

>>>Touji: She doesn't mean that right?

>>>Shinji: She had Asuka destroy the Mr. Coffee company for a bad machine.

"MAGI estimates there's only a one percent chance

they were actually slain. Probably their cables were simply

cut," Shigeru announced. "If their backpacks were not damaged,

they have enough power to try to dig their way out."

>>>Rei: Dig through tons of stone in under thirty minutes?

>>>Asuka: He's just trying to keep Misato from N2 mining most of Japan.

"Maybe," Misato said, crumpling up sheet after sheet

of paper into tiny balls. "If they're dead," she rubbed her

eyes to avoid crying. "They can't be dead. They have to

live. They HAVE TO!"

"DAGON is not yet ready," Ritsuko said. "We cannot

afford to lose them."

"And we could if it was?" Misato said fiercely,

glaring at her.

>>>Mana: Remind me why Akagi isn't dead yet?

>>>Asuka/Rei: We haven't found the right place to do the deed yet.

"This is a war. They're soldiers. Soldiers die.

>>>Shinji: The problem is you only have three soldiers.

Right now, they're the only soldiers we have, but if we

didn't need them...I like them. But I'd watch them die a

thousand times to keep humanity from being destroyed.

>>>Mana: Urge to kill rising.

>>>Shinji: Still want to be a pilot Ken?

And

one of these days, likely one of them WILL die. Are you

going to let that break you, Misato?" Ritsuko's voice was

intense. "This is a war. A commander who collapses when

someone dies isn't much use to those who lived."

>>>Asuka: Watching one third of your troops die would be worth collapsing.

>>>Rei: Akagi's lack of concern is unnerving.

"I'll do what I have to," Misato growled.

"And so will I. I intend to fight to the last and

stab the Angels in the eye with my mechanical pencil as they

eat me if I must," Ritsuko said. "Let us hope it doesn't

come to that."

>>>Kensuke: I'd love to see that.

>>>Shinji: Wonder how much damage a mechanical pencil could do.

~*~

"SHIT!" Asuka said as she peeled her EVA off the

wall; they'd all been flung into them when the explosives

went off.

Shinji looked around. "There's some tunnels going

further off from here...this whole cavern complex is HUGE.

Maybe we can find a way out."

"We have to try. Lead on, Shinji," Asuka said.

>>>Shinji: You did that so you can blame me when we fail didn't you.

>>>Asuka: I don't know what your talking about.

Shinji quickly played eenie-meenie-minnie-mo with

the various tunnels, then picked the largest one. Fifteen

minutes later, it seemed like they had been wandering

forever. Then Rei pointed down one of the many cavern

forks. "Lights."

They saw tiny lights off in the distance. "It can't

be people," Shinji said.

>>>Touji: When did people start living underwater?

>>>Kensuke: And in underground cities.

"Maybe the crabs came back," Asuka muttered,

>>>Mana: Don't they have shampoo for that Asuka?

>>>Asuka: No words can describe how much I hate you.

remembering the vision. It disturbed her...that thing

couldn't have been here when the city was built, could it?

Why the hell would the aliens put it down at the bottom of

the sea, anyway? Well, I suppose it would keep people from

finding the thing before it was ready...

"Crabs?" Rei asked.

>>>Rei: What type of crab requires shampoo?

>>>Asuka/Mana: Ask Shinji later.

>>>Shinji: So it was you that had her ask me about… (Mst of "I used to Love her")

"Nothing. Let's follow them."

For five minutes, they followed the lights, and then

the nature of the caverns changed. There were signs of

workmanship, as if the caves had been widened, and blast

marks. The last two minutes took them through a great

carven hallway, completely artificial, finally issuing out

through a great arch to one side of the mountain. The

lights had vanished by that point, and looking around, there

was nothing which could obviously give light.

>>>Kensuke: That was odd.

"What the...what made those lights?" Shinji asked.

>>>Shinji: I don't think I want to know honestly.

"Let's not question luck," Asuka said. "Let's go

find the temple; the cables should still be there. We

can...umm...climb them if nothing else."

>>>Rei: Are we not almost out of power?

>>>Mana: Minor detail.

~*~

"Something's pulling on the lines," Lt. Hamnes, a

young blond from Germany, said to Kaji. "Should we reel it

in? It seems...to be tugging in morse code. S. O. S."

"Do it," he said. "We've got to get them to the

surface before their power goes out."

>>>Shinji: Assuming that's us.

>>>Kensuke: Won't they be surprised when they get attacked.

"Is everything to do with NERV this weird?" Lt.

Hamnes asked.

"Often it's much stranger," he said. "But we've won

this time."

>>>Rei: Weird?

>>>Asuka: A word you should have a lot of experience with.

"How many of these damn Angels are there? And when

are their makers gonna come back for them?" Hamnes asked as

he punched in commands to the computer operated cables.

"When the stars are right," Kaji muttered.

>>>Kensuke: Again nobody but Ayanami knows how many there will be.

"Don't give me that astrology shit," Hamnes said.

"My damn grandmother hated my last girlfriend because she

had the wrong sign."

Kaji simply laughed.

>>>Shinji: He laughs at very bad times.

>>>Mana: Oh look! Ayanami's unit lost power and fell.

~*~

Asuka nearly crushed Kaji to death once she got out

of her entry plug. "That was...awful!"

>>>Touji: Is that Kaji or Asuka talking?

He hugged her loosely. "Yeah, I know. But you all

made it back okay. So how was your undersea kingdom, Rei?"

"Wet."

She stared at them in confusion as they all began to

laugh hysterically.

>>>Shinji: That was actually very funny.

>>>Rei: I…tried.

>>>Touji: You didn't and you know it!

~*~

As the boats headed back to Tokyo-3, that evening,

Shinji found Asuka staring out across the water. "What are

you looking at, Asuka?"

>>>Mana: The water.

"Shinji...when it died...did you see anything?"

>>>Shinji: I saw bits and pieces of him getting digested.

"I got a big gusher of green-gray pus in my face and

a wave of nausea. That was about it. And a sort of...I did

see a lot of scary stuff about how pointless humanity was

when we were trying to break its AT-field, though." He

sighed. "Do you think...do we matter?"

>>>Kensuke: Depends on what you think is important.

"Of course we do," Asuka said. "We're made in the

image of God." A memory of her vision struck her, and she

shuddered slightly. Gods in the visage of men... "He tried

to pull that 'You don't matter because the Universe is real

big and you're real small' bullshit with me too.

>>>Rei: But in her view she is the same size as the universe.

>>>Touji: Her ego saved the day.

Who gives

a flying...We're here, and that's what matters. A big

universe just gives us a bigger playground. We'll walk

among the stars one day," she said.

>>>Shinji: I hope not literally…I like earth.

"If we don't die first," Shinji said, standing by

the railing and watching the gentle waves. "We nearly

died."

"But we didn't. So how did you overcome what Rahab

was trying to make us believe?"

>>>Mana: This should be good.

"I...I didn't want to let you and Rei down. To let

my..." He hesitated, part of him fearing that saying the

words would make them cease to exist. "My friends needed

me. You all...you matter to me." He blushed,

>>>Girls: You big softie…well small softy.

>>>Touji: Ken, girls are mindless. Let Shinji have `um.

though only slightly. Mercifully, Asuka either didn't notice it or

didn't comment on it.

>>>Mana: Seems to be a lot of that going on in this movie.

"You matter to me too, Shinji." She thought a

moment. "Have you ever heard of...a god named Ghatanathoa?

Or Ythogtha? Or..." She couldn't quite remember the other

one.

>>>Shinji: Did you just sneeze?

"Nope," he said. "Although it sounds vaguely

familiar. Why do you ask?"

>>>Rei: She's trying to save her sanity and loosing.

>>>Asuka: At least I'm not already a monster.

"I had a..." I must have just tripped out, she

thought. It made no sense...and yet...the temple was

clearly built to sacrifice to the thing that lived under it.

But it couldn't be that old if aliens made it. Something

was fishy.

>>>Kensuke: That was very punny.

>>>Mana: Asuka's always tripping. Didn't you get enough of that in college?

"It was nothing...don't worry about it."

~*~

Shinji found it hard to breathe as Misato hugged

him. "Urgle..."

>>>Asuka: Get her breast out of your mouth!

>>>Touji: She put it there!

She let go. "I'm glad you all made it back!" she

said. "We thought we'd lost you."

>>>Rei: Shinji is unconscious. The major's affection is deadly.

They walked from the docks towards her car together,

her and Asuka and Shinji. "I need to talk to you later,

Katsuragi-san," Asuka said.

>>>Mana: I doubt she knows about your drug-induced visions.

"That's fine," she said. "But right now...how does

a nice juicy steak dinner sound? I feel like celebrating."

>>>Asuka/Shinji: We heard that one before.

"Sounds great!" Asuka said. "Can we bring Kaji?"

"This is just going to be a 'family' outing," Misato

said, winking.

"Can I have a raise in my allowance, then, 'Mom'?"

Shinji asked, laughing.

"NERV already pays you a hundred thousand yen a

week," Misato said. "And I NEED my salary."

"They do?" Shinji asked.

>>>Shinji: To bad it's spent before I see it.

>>>Girls: Did you say something?

"Yes. It goes right to your bank account."

"I have a bank account?"

>>>Kensuke: What else do you have that you don't know about?

>>>Shinji: I..uh..don't know?

"Did you read all the stuff I gave you?"

"Umm...I read the 'Welcome to NERV' brochure and the

one on Penguin Care..."

>>>Shinji: Misato really needs to read that one. Pen-Pen is allergic to beer.

A moment later, after a little thought, he said, "So I have money?"

They reached the car. "Get in the car. I'll tell

you about it on our way home."

"I... I have money?"

>>>Rei: No.

>>>Asuka: Not anymore.

>>>Mana: Its not `only' yours.

~*~

Kaji pulled up in front of Rei's building. "There

you go."

"Do you live alone?" Rei asked him as she picked up

her clothing bag.

He blinked. "Yes."

"Always?"

>>>Shinji: Only if he was spontaneously generated.

"No, I lived with my folks growing up, and I've had

roommates a few times.

>>>Asuka: See Rei, normal people have parents at some point.

I lived on Misato's couch for a semester. Well, when I wasn't...anyway.

>>>Mana: See Asuka, he doesn't CARE about you that way.

Tired of living alone?" I always wondered why they made the poor kid live

by herself, he thought.

>>>Kensuke: She can rip a man in half if she wanted?

Rei started to get out of the car. "I do need sleep."

He blinked. "I meant...you want a roommate or

something?" Maybe Misato would have room for her, he thought.

>>>Rei: Yes.

>>>Asuka: Shinji's taken so keep looking.

Kids need someone who can at least fake being a parent. Then

again, maybe Maya would be a better choice in that regard.

>>>Mana: See you already have Maya so move in with her.

>>>Rei: My sister are fine.

She turned back to face him. "Something. Thank

you, Kaji- san."

"You're welcome."

He watched her walk into the building. She

shouldn't be alone, he thought. Maybe she could move in

with Maya or something. Or Misato, although Misato's

apartment was already holding three. The girl shouldn't

be living alone at that age; it could lead to trouble, he

thought. Especially if certain rumors were true.

>>>Touji: The whole "I love Shinji" bit?

>>>Kensuke: Most likely its so she has a witness.

~*~

"It's a pity we can't just skip the next one,"

Fuyuutsuki said.

"It's a pity we can't FIND the next one," Gendo

said. "They could turn him loose almost anywhere."

"Anywhere that people won't notice a few monoliths."

>>>Rei: Seele sneaking around again?

"Space them widely enough...they could already be in

place for all we know," he said. "And POLARIS won't feel

anything until they use them." He stroked his chin idly.

"And there's the Rei situation."

>>>Shinji: Is it so bad for her to like somebody?

>>>Touji: If it means killing other people to get to that somebody?

"It was bound to happen eventually. But compared to

DAGON, she's still a success," Fuyuutsuki said. "I suspect

DAGON will never work in time. It took years to properly

train Rei to maintain her balance. And even that may not be

enough. The DAGON subjects have days at best. Only the

ones whose functions are too minimal to be of use to us

survive."

>>>Asuka: Making them pointless.

>>>Mana: Doesn't anybody want to know what exactly this DAGON is?

"And now she risks losing it. We will have three

weak links instead of two. Until DAGON succeeds..."

"IF DAGON succeeds."

Gendo frowned at Fuyuutsuki. "When DAGON succeeds,

>>>Kensuke: You're old man doesn't listen well does he?

>>>Shinji: Never contradict him…ever.

we can reassess, but until then...she must be made to lean

towards her human side, if she cannot be kept balanced.

Because if she leans the other way..."

"We could easily end up with one pilot or none

instead of three," Fuyuutsuki said. "How do you propose to

do this?"

>>>Rei: Give me what I want.

"I must think on this," Gendo said. "It is far

easier to destroy innocence than to create it."

>>>Shinji: Why do I feel cold all the sudden?

-*-

end part 8 -

end mst 8

-*-

Asuka: This thing is starting to really creep me out.

Mana: Your just getting scared that's all.

Shinji: It's odd and gory.

Touji: Man it's getting late!

Shinji: Past 11 o'clock already. Rei when did your sister say she was going to show up?

Rei: In exactly 28.5 minutes.

Kensuke: Well I'm not ready to watch any more tonight. Have a bad feeling about the next one.

Touji: Ah…is Ken scared?

Kensuke grabs a pillow: So what if I am? `smacks Touji with pillow.'

Touji grabs his own weapon: The battle has been joined, `Leaning back to hit Kensuke Touji turns and bops Asuka.'

Asuka: Bastard! `Reaching back to grab another pillow Asuka is cracked by both Rei and Mana.'

Rei/Mana: I will not lose!

Shinji watches the battle escalate and the damage grow. `At least this time only the pillows will be ruined. And they're leaving me out of…' WHACK! This.

Suddenly the room grows quit as everybody looks at Shinji, a cold look in his eye.

Shinji: I was hoping I wouldn't have to show you this but…'grabbing a pillow and waving it around like a pair of nun chucks' I will teach you.

What followed was easily comparable to a kung-fu movie. Shinji pelting all on comers with trained accuracy, not hurting them but keeping them all at a distance, they never scored a hit.

Eventually they all collapsed on the floor as Rei III walks in.

Rei III: Sister are you ready to go?

Rei II: One moment. I believe we need to protect Shinji.

Shinji: Protect me, from what?

Asuka: Those adults are planning something.

Kensuke: Whatever I'm gone, see ya tomorrow. Lets go Touji.

Mana: He can stay with me.

Asuka: Me.

Mana/Rei: He would still be here!

Asuka: Well..Shit.

Shinji: Don't I have a say in this?

Mana: Not this time Shin-chan.

Shinji: Oh…why not pick numbers or…or…Rei…Rei…what are you two doing?

Rei II grabs Shinji's arms while Rei III grabs his legs: Problem solved.

Mana: No fair!

Rei: He will not be harmed, will he sister?

Rei III: No…'smiles' well maybe a bit.

Shinji: HELP ME!

---------------------------------------------------------------- --------

Mst author notes.

Damn what a large chapter and they only get bigger from here.

Hope you don't mind such big reads, but then again nobody said you had to read it in one chunk.

That last bit was all done in attempts to lighten the mood. Even my mst of this story is a bit darker. The story demands it.

Well I'll try to keep things funny and released in timely fashion.

Review, comments, questions, requests welcome

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie@secondimpact.com)