Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Neon Genesis Wing ❯ Mankind's Fears ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: You know the drill by now, I don't own Eva or Gundam, no matter how much I want to.

Neon Genesis Wing

Mankind's Fears

Half a world away from where Gendo was making his promise, twelve individuals met. They met only through holographic communications, using ominous black numbered monoliths. This wasn't due to the fact that they were afraid of revealing their identities, since each of them commanded considerable intelligence gathering assets, more than it was for the fact that a black monolith is much more imposing than the face of a man. SEELE had a great many things which they had to discuss, but all of them centered upon one thing, NERV and the final implementation of their lifelong goal, Instrumentality.

SEELE 05 spoke into the darkness. "The Angels have been defeated, and our goal is within reach. All we need do is remove Ikari from our way and the path is clear."

After a silence SEELE 08 answered "You speak of removing Ikari from our way, but doing so could prove most difficult."

Again silence reigned as the members thought to the data that came from their agents inside of NERV. The fact that the Second Child had awoken from her coma was disturbing but not very much so. What was more disturbing was the five mysterious white robots that had appeared on NERV's doorstep.

The next few minutes were taken up with various SEELE members bickering over what the robots meant and if they could somehow stand in their way.

Then. "It doesn't matter what these robots may or may not do, we will overcome." The voice of SEELE 01, Kiel Lorenz, hung in the air.

08 spoke up. "But we no longer have the Lance in our possession and the Second Child-"

Kiel cut the man off in mid-sentence. "Irrelevant. Yes the Lance is out of our reach, but it is out of Ikari's reach as well. As for the Second Child that too, is irrelevant as we have nine Evangelions, as well as the JSSDF to NERV's two. The robots pose no threat at all."

That was SEELE's proverbial ace in the hole. The nine Mass Production Evangelions, driven by Dummy Plugs of the Fifth Child, rather than a flesh and blood pilot. Without having to depend on the fickleness of a pilot SEELE's Evas were that much more deadly, as well as merciless.

With nothing left to debate all the monoliths faded out of the room, each member to continue or finalize preparations for the Final Genesis. But the room was not empty long. After five minutes both Kiel and SEELE 05 came back on-line.

"Is it wise" 05 said "To dismiss out of hand those robots?"

"They pose almost no threat. They are significantly smaller than an Evangelion, and even if there are five of them whatever damage they might be able to inflict is minuscule compared to what can be done to them."

"What of Ikari then, his . . . unwillingness to no longer cooperate was not expected. We thought him to be the perfect surrogate for us."

Kiel shrugged. "No matter, Ikari's usefulness has long been outweighed by his own agenda. He thought to use Instrumentality to be reunited with his wife."

"Could that actually be done?"

A harsh laugh cut the air. "No, there is no chance of her ever returning to her previous state, no matter how much he wishes it. Even if he could somehow untangle her soul from that of Unit-01, she would have no physical form. The LCL that made up her body has long since degraded." Kiel laughed again, "It is fitting that the loss of his wife proved without a doubt that Instrumentality was possible. "

"Yes, all these years and he never suspected that his wife's accident was anything but. Using Naoko Akagi's obsession for Ikari and her hatred of his wife was genius, and the woman covered her tracks so well he's never suspected otherwise."

"Even if Ikari has any suspicions it doesn't matter now. All he will see is the vain hope of his wife. It has always blinded him and always will. It has blinded him so that even his own son is not important to him."

05 spoke again. "Will we give Ikari one last chance to come back to the fold or shall we implement the contingency plan now?"

"For all his disobedience" Kiel intoned "Ikari may still have some shred of loyalty to us. We will give him a final chance then we shall strike."

With that both monoliths faded and the room was again plunged into darkness.

As she walked into her flat, Misato rolled her neck. The meeting with Gendo had drained her. All she wanted now was a few hours of sleep before she took the kids into meet those pilots. Getting into the living room she stopped dead in her tracks and blinked. There lay Shinji Ikari, fast asleep with his head in Asuka's lap. As for the Second Child, she was saying something in a low voice into the boys' ear. Misato blinked again to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. The sound of someone else breathing alerted Asuka that there was another person in the apartment, and she looked at Misato with slitted eyes. Gently moving Shinji's head onto a nearby pillow the redhead got up and beckoned for Misato to follow her into the kitchen. After both women sat down Asuka glared at Misato. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Huh . . . " the maven haired Major was confused "You know where I was, I had to go in . . . "

"I didn't mean tonight. I meant where the hell were you while Shinji has been killing himself? He's so thin he looks like he hasn't eaten in a week." There was fire in Asuka's blue eyes as she stared. "He's so tired that after he finished crying he fell asleep, probably for the first time in as long. Now I want to know Misato where the hell were you? Your Shinji's guardian, you're supposed to take care him, or at least make sure he takes care of himself."

Misato was stunned to say the least. Normally Asuka wasn't one to outwardly express when she thought something was wrong with Shinji. Obviously whatever had happened to her during her coma, or at least since she'd woken up had changed that. "I. . . I. . ."

"I'm waiting Misato."

She couldn't do it, Misato couldn't look the girl in the eye. Casting her gaze to the tabletop, she felt both guilt and shame. She should have known what Shinji was going through, should have seen that he was tearing himself up, but she hadn't. She'd been too caught up in her own grief, and her quest for both the truth and vengeance that she hadn't seen. "I don't deserve to be their guardian. I can't even take care of myself what the hell made me think that I could take care of two children!" With this realization Misato cradled her face in her hands and began to cry.

Across the table Asuka was, to say the least, stunned. Given what she'd seen so far today when she'd thought she had the monopoly on suffering and mental anguish she was very wrong. Pushing her chair back from the table she consoled the major the exact same way that she had Shinji, with a hug and soft words. After a few more sniffles Katsuragi lifted her head from betwixt her hands. "Wallowing in my own guilt isn't going to change anything." She realized. Standing up she flashed Sohryu a wan smile. "I'll start making it up to them right now." As she padded out into the living room, Asuka followed, wondering what Misato was going to do. Moving to the couch the Major gripped Shinji under the armpits. "Come on Asuka, don't just stand there, come over and give me a hand." She whispered "He's not that light."

Between them they managed to move Shinji into his room and put him down on his bed without waking the boy. Pulling the blanket over his torso Misato ruffled the hair on top of his head and then she and Asuka left. When both were outside Misato hugged Asuka murmured "It's good to have you home." And shuffled off to bed, leaving the dumbfounded redhead alone in the hallway for several minutes before she too made her way to her room and drifted away to sleep.

Twelve hours later Misato, Asuka and Shinji were seated in a small conference center, waiting for both the pilots and Maya to arrive. Asuka thought it strange that Rei wasn't present, since this was mandatory for pilots, but when she'd asked Shinji if he knew where Rei was all she got was silence.

"There's definitely something that Shinji knows about Wondergirl. Something he found out while I was in that coma, something that scared him really badly. I wonder what it could be?"

Resolving to ask Misato about it she turned to face the now open door where the five boys were led in. Her first thought was that the girls at her school would drool over these guys. Each one was what the Japanese referred to as a 'bishounen', which roughly came out to 'beautiful man'. In this case girls would probably use the term 'hottie'. Giving each one a casual once over she noticed something about each.

The tall one with the massive comb-over moved like a dancer and drank in everything around him.

The blonde next to him seemed to be deep in thought, for some reason.

The Chinese boy was antsy, the one dressed like a priest with the braid that went past his ass looked relaxed, but she saw something in his eyes that looked like wary caution.

The last one however, he made the hackles on Asuka's neck go up. She could tell by looking at him that he was Japanese, but that wasn't what creeped her. It was his eyes. They were nearly the same color as Shinji's, which was odd to say the least as blue eyes aren't common among Japanese, but they looked so cold. Looking into the boys eyes reminded Asuka of the few times she'd made direct eye contact with Rei.

Misato then figured that there had been enough silence and that it was time to start the meeting. "Good morning, please make yourselves comfortable." After all five had taken seats, the Major continued. "There was supposed to be a technical briefing, but since the head of our technical division isn't here, we'll just put that on hold. Before we go any further, I'll do introductions and then you can ask questions you might have." Pointing to Shinji Misato said "This is Shinji Ikari, pilot of Unit-01, I think you've met him."

Across the table Quatre blinked. "So that's the boy, the one who piloted that . . . thing"

Misato continued. "Next we have Asuka Langley Sohryu, who's pilot of Unit-02." Asuka was surprised by Misato's comment, she knew that she was still technically a pilot but she hadn't been able to pilot in so long she was surprised she was still on the roster.

"Rei Ayanami couldn't be here as she has duties to attend to, but I'm sure that you'll meet her."

Misato was surprised by how well the lie rolled off her tongue. Truth be told she was very glad that Rei wasn't here. She hadn't seen hide nor hair of Rei since the night that Ritsuko had taken care of Rei's 'sisters' and the longer she could avoid seeing her the better. Shinji probably felt the same, especially considering his reaction to seeing all those clones, and what he'd found about them. Misato suppressed a shudder as the memory of what Ritsuko had told them about Rei's genetics tried to force itself to the front of her brain. "I'm Misato Katsuragi, head of Tactical Operations." Misato sighed hoping that she didn't sound corney. "Now do you have any questions?"

The Gundam pilots had agreed before hand that Quatre would do most of the talking since he was the most diplomatic of them all, excluding Relena. The Arab rose and made cursory introductions. Once he was done that he got down to what they'd all agreed on to be the first questions. "Thank your Major. I guess the first question that I have is where are we?"

Misato figured that she could answer that and not give away too much. "You in NERV's First Branch in what's left of Tokyo-3."

Quatre's brow furrowed. "Tokyo-3. Since when has there been a Tokyo-3? And what is NERV?"

Now Misato was confused. Where had these kids been living for the last 15 years, under a rock? Then again, with those Gundams of theirs they may have been kept sequestered somewhere, that or they had amnesia. Still, she might as well answer. "Tokyo-3 was built in 2003 as a fortress city to defend mankind against the Angels. NERV is a United Nations special organization that was created for the purpose of defeating the angels."

Duo couldn't help himself. "Angels. You mean, cute little halo wearing harp playing, God's Angels?"

"Not quite." A new voice said

All eyes turned toward the doorway as Misato heard a voice from the threshold of the room she hadn't expected to hear again. "Major I'm shocked that you'd start without us." Ritsuko Akagi chided as she and Maya Ibuki entered, each one carrying a fair sized pile of files and test results. After both had laid down their burden Ritsuko straightened. "Before you go any farther I have some news that will shock all of you but it will clear up a lot of lingering questions that you all have." The blonde doctor had everyone's attention as she said "These boys are from another dimension."

To be Continued

Authors' Notes: I am very, very sorry that this didn't come out sooner. It should have been up over a month and a half ago. Computer viruses however don't follow schedules. So I didn't just slack off and forget to put this up. I hope that you can fins it in your hearts NOT to lynch me.

Here's a Thought for the reader. What would happen if you put Shinji in Wing Zero?? He he he.