The exact timing of events jumps around a bit here, sorry

X-X-X

Chapter 26

The Siege of Hakone: Iscariot (part 2)

X-X-X

"- Squad leader?" The sound was crackling and weak. "Asherah to Moloch, please respond."

The pain in her head was blinding, and the fury boiling through her blood was almost as bad - but Asuka managed to raise her hand to the yokes, turning off the blaring alarms and flicking the manual comm controls.

"Moloch here."

"Acknowledged. Do you know what just happened, Squad Leader?"

Bardiel hung back, watching the other two units intently. It seemed to have picked up on Unit 02's shift away from reckless aggression, and it had to know that the two evas would be a harder fight when co-operating properly.

"Something... something took over Moloch. Like a fucking icepick through both ears," Asuka ground out. "Killer headache..."

"Could it have been the angel's infection?"

"No," Asuka replied grimly. "It was in-system. An angel doesn't issue legitimate command override codes."

Rei said nothing in response, electing instead to move her Evangelion to cover Unit 02's position.

"Gott, it sure wasn't much of a responsible pilot," Asuka muttered, looking over her HUD's physiological status and armor integrity readouts. "Status, Asherah?"

"Largely unchanged. I was unable to engage without risk of friendly fire," Rei replied.

"Good." Asuka straightened her back. "Same game plan as before. Circle around and get this arschloch between us."

"Yes."

Bardiel twitched, snapping its head rapidly back and forth to track its opponents. Unit 00 moved quickly in a wide perimeter, trying to stay put of range of the huge elastic arms.

"Set your amplifiers to this frequency." Asuka keyed a sequence into her control column, trying to remember the settings that had been in place during the cataclysmic training incident. "Prepare to fire an AT pulse on my mark. Go wide-beam, not ray."

"Yes."

Bardiel's arms lashed out at Unit 02, but in response Unit 00 stepped closer. Asuka smoothly sidestepped the strike, and Bardiel pulled back, apparently recognizing that it was being flanked.

The Angel hesitated a moment longer, and the swords impaled through its body twitched in a grotesque imitation of the monster breathing. Then it ran.

"Pursuit!" Asuka yelled, already gunning her unit into a dead sprint. "Same game plan! Get it between us and fire on my mark!"

"Yes."

As it reached the mouth of the valley, Bardiel swerved straight up the mountain, forcing Unit 00 to break off and try to circle. Asuka charged directly after it, her steps tearing out huge chunks of earth and rock and sending them tumbling to the valley floor.

There was no time to worry about ecological damage. The sharp incline of the ground actually gave Asuka a pursuit advantage - as Bardiel reached the crest, Unit 02's hand managed to catch hold of the other Eva's ankle, sending it crashing to the ground.

"Got him! Asherah, move to position!"

Asuka half-expected to see warnings flare up, but the mycelium-like growth of the angelic pathogen was already covering Unit 02's gauntlets and vambraces. Useless fucking autopilot. Can't even keep its platform safe...

Bardiel lashed out at Asuka, who deftly rolled sideways, dodging the stretching arm. A moment later, she brought to bear the full brute force of NERV's strongest Evangelion as she crushed Bardiel's ankle in her fist and tore the mangled foot from its leg.

"Asherah is in position, Moloch." Rei's voice was as calm as ever, though perhaps more tightly controlled than merely passive.

Asuka pushed herself up fast, springing back to dodge another swipe of the rubbery arms. She'd lost the prog-swords, and regardless, there was little chance of a melee engagement without the complete destruction of at least one involved Evangelion.

Rei feinted forward from the other side of the ridge. Bardiel pulled its attention away from Asuka, staggering awkwardly to its feet as it regenerated the shattered bones of its ankle. The maneuver left the black-armored monster roughly equidistant between Units 00 and 02.

"Mark!"

Asuka punched her control column, simultaneously shutting down all nonessential systems and dumping the majority of her reactor's power straight into her AT amplifiers. An answering bloom of orange light burst from Unit 00's outstretched hands.

Bardiel screamed.

X-X-X

"What happened?"

Ritsuko didn't stop typing on the console, although she did look up - if only to glance at the monitor feed that showed three massive Evangelions standing still in the torn-up battleground. "Good day, Dr. Akagi. Well done, Dr. Akagi. Thank you for working eighteen hour days six days a week on my physics-defying alien technology, Dr. Akagi. Maybe you deserve a raise, Dr. Akagi. Sorry I broke the toys you made for me, Dr. Akagi." Finally, she pushed the chair back from the desk and spun it around. "They dummy plug prototype broke down under stress levels it was never prepared for, of course! What did you think would happen?!"

Gendo didn't visibly react to Ritsuko's mocking tone. "Why wasn't it prepared?"

"Because I may or may not be the smartest human on earth, but that doesn't make me some kind of god!" Ritsuko snapped. "I'm working on the Terminal Dogma projects - all of them - alone, Commander. I only have two hands and one cerebrum. I can only do so much in an hour, and I only have so many hours in a day. That dummy plug system was not combat-ready, especially not against exotic threats like infectors, and there is no way it could have been without several more weeks of work at least."

Gendo stood silently for a moment. His frustrating stone-faced expression betrayed nothing of his thoughts. Ritsuko resolutely met his blank, orange stare with an annoyed frown.

"Would you consider this an acceptable proof of concept, doctor?" The Commander said at last.

"I suppose so. It was almost working properly for a little while."

"And have you identified the failure point?"

"Likely the Rei clone, given that it liquefied into free peptides." It was a brazen lie; even if Ritsuko hadn't manually shut the system down, she'd have guessed it was more likely that the failure would have been Kyoko Soryu's soul catching on and rejecting the external influence. "I'll have to do a deep diagnostic to be sure."

"The physical backup will not be replaced."

"I may not need one. But then again, I may need one after all. Are you willing to freeze the dummy plug project if I do?" Another lie. Ritsuko was, by now, dead certain that the Evangelion link circuit couldn't be completed without sapient life of some kind involved. But Ritsuko had many lies to her name, and at least lying to Gendo Ikari didn't make her feel sick - not like lying to Misato had.

Misato... an icy chill stabbed into Ritsuko's guts, and she fought to keep a wince from showing on her face. She hadn't had time to check the survivor reports from the Matsushiro facility yet, assuming they'd even been able to collect them. Misato could be dead and she wouldn't have known.

"Very well." Gendo turned to leave. "Keep up the good work, doctor."

"You still haven't apologized for breaking my dummy system."

"The battle was won, in an unexpectedly decisive and nondestructive manner, and valuable test data was recovered. I see nothing to apologize for."

The door hissed shut.

What an asshole. Ritsuko shook her head. I can't believe I used to think he was a good commanding officer.

A faint noise from the other room jolted her out of her thoughts, and she took a deep breath, simultaneously annoyed by the distraction and relieved beyond measure that there hadn't been a noise while Gendo was around to hear it.

Ritsuko leaned back over the console, saving her work, then hurried over to the door in the dividing wall.

The sight that greeted her was so comical that she almost forgot her worry.

She'd left the hapless dummy clone, Kyū, lying on her side on a cleanup towel she'd hastily spread out on the floor. Kyū had managed to roll herself over and reach far enough to clutch at a loose power cable on the floor.

Not bad, for someone with the mental development of a newborn and motor skills designed for a body many thousands of times larger than her current one...

The cable was disconnected, hopefully not from any machine that needed constant power. Kyū seemed to be inffectually trying to reach behind her and plug the cable into the small of her back, but the movement of her shoulders was clearly confusing her.

Different proportions, denser bones, fewer muscles, fewer motor nerves... a flimsy hospital gown instead of hyperdiamond armor. Poor thing doesn't stand a chance.

However, Kyū was not completely oblivious to the outside world. She must have heard the door slide shut, because she stiffened, then awkwardly twisted herself to look in Ritsuko's direction. As the doctor approached, Kyū twisted further, eventually turning flat on her back.

Ritsuko liked to think she was good at reading people, but Kyū was already guileless. She was afraid and it showed.

Afraid of me?

A memory; reaching for her gun, clicking the safety off while it sat in the concealed shoulder holster.

She was asleep. She can't have known, then... but she's still afraid of me.

Ritsuko reached for her pistol again, drawing it this time, though she left the safety on. After a moment's hesitation, experimental curiosity got the better of her, and she aimed it at the clone lying on the ground.

Kyū cried out, yelling some short jumble of meaningless vowel sounds. She thrashed, whipping her body forward on weak and poorly-calibrated core muscles, and managed to conjure just enough strength in her arms to clumsily knock Ritsuko's hand off its aim.

No question now; that's definitely fear. I suppose even a tiny Ruger shares at least a few visual similarities with a gauss rifle.

Stuffing the gun back in its holster, Ritsuko knelt down, hooking her arms under Kyū's shoulders.

"Come on, you. Let's get you out of here," Ritsuko muttered, more to herself than the semi-sentient teenaged infant in her arms. "If I'm going to fake your death by link circuit, it won't do for the Commander to find a body."

X-X-X

This body is 10.64 years old and its heart has beat 448,387,212 times.

"You alright, Blue?"

"I am not severely injured, Lieutenant." Not technically a lie. Cerebrospinal strain and a few bruises were relatively trivial injuries. The fact that one of the Angel's blows had likely caused a minor concussion was only a small omission - besides, concussions were like bruises, if the terminology was stretched.

"I'm not your Lieutenant anymore, Rei."

Rei shifted in her seat. "Explain."

"Removed from duty, remember? They bumped me back down to warrant officer."

The thought was strange, disorienting even. Between her tactical confidence and her care for the soldiers under her, it felt... right to take orders from Asuka. The other pilots hadn't acted any different either, deferring to Asuka as if she were still in command.

Is there another I would prefer to serve?

Rei had returned to the question often. It had been easy to step around and avoid when Asuka was part of the chain of command: Rei reported to her Squad Leader, Asuka reported to her Ops Officer, Misato reported to the Supreme Commander.

Now, Asuka was no longer Rei's superior.

And yet, it is she whom I would prefer to serve. If she is a fire, I would want to stand in her warmth. If she is a star, I would want to follow her light.

The thought was... freeing might be the best word. Rei disliked conflict, especially of the internal variety, as it made objectives unclear; and the realization brought a swift end to the conflict that had been pulling her in two directions for a great many heartbeats.

The Commander demands everything, and rewards nothing. I am a tool to him, not a person. A thing he made to serve his purposes, like One and Two, and a purpose that ends with my death, which I had enjoyed anticipating.

Asuka does not want me to die; she wants me to live. Asuka does not make me want to die; she makes me want to live.

Unfortunately, that sense of freedom was also terrifying.

Asuka does not know me. She thinks that I am like her. She thinks that I am human.

"Rei? Asherah, you still there?" Asuka was waving at the cockpit cam. "You spaced out there."

"I apologize," Rei replied stiffly. "I was thinking."

"Clearly. But be careful." Asuka frowned, looking away from the cam to focus back on her tactical display. "We're still on guard here."

Rei nodded. "Are you alright, Asuka?"

Asuka's eyes widened in a shocked expression, but then she looked away, hardening her gaze again. She didn't respond further.

Asuka is not candid with her troubles... yet, I find myself wishing she would be. Though she maintained a neutral expression, she couldn't suppress the wave of anxiety that washed over her. Moloch is severely damaged. Many of her bones were broken, she took a heavy blow to the head, she endured the disinfecting of two angelic pathogens and one of her limiters is entirely destroyed. Asuka is certainly not "fine".

Rei refocused her own eyes on the titan before them. Though not caged like it would have been in Central Dogma, a framework of hasty restraints had been thrown together around it. Currently, a series of crawler cranes were lifting out the entry plug.

"Thank all gods - it isn't punctured." Rei didn't vocalize her agreement, but she felt some measure of tension leave her body in kind. Evangelion pilots were a rare commodity, and no ill-trained fledgling deserved to die at the hands of their own treacherous war machine.

The entry plug was set down in the center of the staging area, and a crew of EMTs in biohazard hazmat suits flocked around it. On the comm screen, Asuka narrowed her eyes and leaned forward, doubtless zooming in the plug hatch.

"Can't see," she grumbled. "The medics are too tightly packed. I think - wait, is that a fucking defibrillator?!"

Rei frowned, looking over and zooming in her own view. Sure enough, the EMTs were activating an AED device, and the black-suited extremities of the pilot's body twitched as the shock was delivered.

"I think the pilot may be female," she murmured. Asuka spared her the briefest glance.

"You think so?"

"The AED pads appear positioned to account for the presence of breasts."

"Hmm, you're right." There was another pause. "Scheisse, I swear I saw her face for a second! Please tell me the mission logging is still active -"

Presently, an EMT brought out what looked like a ventilator mask and an oxygen canister, while the others began packing up the AED. She is stabilizing, then, because they would not put her on external respiratory aids if she was still in cardiac distress. This is good...

"It's Hikari!"

Rei leaned forward far enough to tug the cable on her neck implant. "Are you sure?"

Asuka's comm feed flickered with static, then shifted to a timestamped playback from Moloch's eyes. It froze on a particular frame - the motion-blur was quickly enhanced away by Unit 00's tactical computater imaging, and the result showed ash-brown pigtails and a suggestion of freckles on the girl's face. There was also a smear of blood over her mouth and around the oxygen mask, but the image resolution wasn't high enough to make out the exact nature of the injury.

The sight made Rei feel inexplicably colder, even though the innocuous passive stats widget on the far lower corner of her HUD showed no change in LCL temperature.

I never cared who was hurt in the name of Eva before. Is it in knowing that the pilot was a hapless innocent? Rei dismissed the thought as quickly as it came. No, I think not. All pilots were innocents, before Eva. Perhaps it is that she was... someone to me.

Rei didn't think of Hikari as a friend or anything, but she was, if nothing else, someone Rei knew. At some point, to Rei, the class of 2-A had ceased to be merely nameless and faceless bodies in the sea of souls.

"How could they," Asuka growled softly. "How dare they? Hikari's even younger than Shinji!"

Rei glanced nervously at the control room feed, breathing a sigh of relief as she saw an empty chair on the Commander's terrace.

X-X-X

"How did this happen?!"

Kōzō Fuyutsuki jolted as the door to his office hissed open, spilling the harshest tone he'd ever heard from Gendo in all the years he'd known the man. "I'm - I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand."

"I told you to double-check Ryoji's work. I told you he wasn't to be trusted." Gendo's hands were clasped behind his back, and his uniform jacket was zipped closed; he hadn't looked this formal in many years. "Did you even glance at the final Marduk selection he proposed?"

"Sir, I don't see what the problem is here. Were you expecting another foreign national? Our best selection is in class 2-A of New Tokyo High for a reason." Fuyutsuki leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. "One hundred and eight Japanese candidates, twelve foreign candidates. This is a simple probability calculation, sir."

"And you think Ryoji just happened to pick a close friend of our most insubordinate pilot?"

Fuyutsuki tilted his head, frowning. "That's... troubling, but I thought it was Marduk that made the choice."

"Under advisement from a NERV agent, yes."

"She would have needed to make their top five for his input to even matter -"

"Are you defending him, Sub-Commander?" Gendo's voice was threatening.

"Yes! Yes I am." Fuyutsuki glared back at the opaque orange sunglasses. "Ryoji has his own motivations for what he does. So do you. So do I. So does Dr. Akagi." He looked away, shaking his head. "We're all sinners here, fighting angels and that shadowy cabal that call themselves servants of God... don't throw away a useful ally over your own rampant paranoia, Gendo."

"You dare..."

"Yes, I dare. What are you going to do, huh? fire me? I liked civilian academia better anyway." Fuyutsuki leaned forward, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You're a mean son of a bitch, Gendo, and you always have been. Once upon a time that didn't matter, but Yui's gone now. She isn't around to rein you in when you go too far."

"So now you intend to fill that role, hmm?"

"I intend for you to learn to keep yourself on a leash," Fuyutsuki growled. "I know better than to ask you not to be ruthless, but I must ask you not to be willfully stupid."

"You walk a fine line, Sub-Commander."

"Yeah. Always have done."

"I will... reconsider my handling of Ryoji's missteps."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"I'll get back to you later regarding your insubordination."

"Looking forward to it. Asshole."

X-X-X