Chain Lightning Studios Presents
 Together We Stand Book Two
        Divided We Fall
         by T. L. Webb



mamas gonna keep you right here 
under her wing
she won't let you fly but she might let you sing
mama will keep baby cozy and warm
Ooooh babe Ooooh babe Ooooh babe
of course mom'll help build the wall

             Mother
            Pink Floyd, The Wall


[]==============================[]
   Book Two, Part Twelve
[]==============================[]


     It had taken him most of the day, but Kensuke had finally
finished hooking up his computer equipment and was about to
head back downstairs to join Touji for dinner. However, once
he'd confirmed all the systems were in order, he'd been unable to
resist the need to check his Email after several hours of being
unable to access it.

     The computer booted up smoothly, and as he scanned over the
new files he flagged a few to be read later and opened the ones
that didn't look like random fanmail and other info regarding his
website. One was from TetsuShojo, and to his delight she was
letting him know that she might be able to meet him now that he
had moved in with Touji's family, apparently the place where she
worked was fairly close to his new home. It was something that
he'd begun to think might never happen, and the possibility was
exciting.

     After saving it to a secured file he went through the others.
There had been another battle earlier that day and he was happy
to find that one of his sources had taken a few snapshots of the 
glowing band of light before he or she had gone to the shelter. It 
would be another prize find for his underground Eva newsgroup.

     While he openly ran a webpage devoted to the Eva series, he'd
always been careful not to place any information or photo's that
were not cleared by official press releases-- or at the least Major
Katsuragi. Unfortunately, this had left him with a glut of images and
data that he'd accumulated. 

     On a whim, he'd started a little unadvertised newsgroup with a
few close friends to share that information. This had exploded
from a little gathering to a fairly large community over the past few
months. While the size of the group had him worried, he couldn't
help but feel a little proud of what he'd accomplished. The truth
was getting out, and he was responsible. It was a heady feeling.

     He was about to go ahead and switch off-- not thinking any of
the other mail could be that useful-- when he decided to open the
last one. 

     What he found both thrilled and scared the hell out of him.

The Email read:

Mr. Aida, 

          It recently came to our attention that you had 
     gained possession of information concerning the E  
     project that no one else has yet been able to 
     acquire. You are, of course, aware that under your  
     previous residence you were in a dangerous position 
     of being discovered,  and in order to safeguard that  
     information we entered  your computer and  
     replaced the more sensitive data with a file that  
     would not get you killed should it be discovered. 
     We apologize for the intrusion, but under the 
     circumstances it was vital to our goals to procure 
     those files. Attached to this Email is the uncorrupted 
     copy. Now that you are free from heavy Nerv 
     surveillance you are relatively safe from discovery. If 
     you have any additional information for our group, 
     or wish to get in contact, please post a blank 
     message on your newsgroup under the title 'Fire 
     from Heaven' and we will respond immediately. 
     Again we wish apologize for the deception, and to 
     do so we extend an offer of  apprenticeship with our 
     group. 

     Highest regards

     The Prometheus Alliance

     Kensuke blinked in amazement, and as he opened the
attachment he found the entire scanned file he'd taken from the
principal's office about a month back. He knew who this alliance
was, of course. Everyone on the net had at least heard of them.
The thing was that they were supposed to be just an urban
legend-- a myth. According to the rumors they were a group of
the best hackers in the world who'd joined together to play
watchdog to various powerful government agencies. 

     If the stories were to be believed, then they had been active
since the late 1990s. Until that moment, He'd never really believed
they existed, however. He'd always thought it was a neat idea that
there was a group out there trying to make sure that governments
didn't keep deadly secrets from the people. Most people assumed
the idea had been started by a bunch of Americans who watched
too many conspiracy shows.

     While he thought about this he saved the file to one of his more 
obscurely named files and closed it out. When he looked back in 
his mailbox to read over the Email again--however-- he found that 
it was gone-- leaving only the delivered file.

     Whoever this had been was good enough to sneak into his
system so subtly that- had they not told him- Kensuke would
probably not have known without comparing those saved files to
the printed copy. But had they known about it in the first place?
He suddenly wondered who else might have been peeking around
in his system. He'd never thought about it, but his main website
was devoted to the Eva series, and that _had_ to have attracted
_some_ attention. 

     Shaken by the possibilities, he closed out his computer,
unplugged it, and went down to join Touji for dinner.


[]====[]
[]====[]


     Asuka was more excited than she'd ever been in her life. 

     She'd just been told that she would be one of the pilots for the
huge robots that her mama had helping to build. The one they had 
at the lab that her daddy had shown here looked kind of weird-- it 
was all wires and a big head with four eyes and while it _was_
ugly-- it was still kinda cool. She guessed it wasn't finished
because when they had told her about her new job they'd use a
bunch of terms like 'projected synchronization ratio' and other stuff
that she knew was important but she still didn't know what any of
it meant, but it sounded like it wasn't finished yet.

     But while that was ubercool and all, it wasn't why she was so
excited.

     The real reason she was running like a manic was that if she
really got to fly the big robot, then maybe, just maybe, it would
finally get her mama to stop being so scary.

     Asuka didn't know why her mama had been doing it, but for 
weeks and weeks she'd been pretending that stupid doll was her.
It frightened her mostly because she didn't understand why it was 
happening. At first she'd thought it was a joke, but after a day or
so the whole thing just got more and more creepy.

     The worst had been when her mama had started talking to the 
doll-- telling it stuff like if it didn't eat all its food that 'that girl 
over there wouldn't like her'. 'That girl' had been Asuka and it had
pushed her beyond being afraid, it had made her angry. Then it
had made her scared, and then she got mad again until she was so
confused she couldn't keep from crying.

     She wasn't angry now though, mama had loved her robot
project, and if her daughter was going to play such a big part then 
she was _sure_ to finally stop ignoring her.
 
     As the elevator doors opened and she ran down the hall of
the hospital she laughed and dodged past the doctors and people
milling about. One last turn and she could see the door to her 
mother's room and she could help but start calling out to her.

     "Look at me mama! They're gonna make me an elite pilot!" she
yelled as she pushed open the door, "I'm gonna..."

     The words died on her lips as she looked into the room. The 
setting sun had tinted the sky red, and the small amounts of light 
that filtered through the blinds were framing a silhouette in the 
center of the room. Asuka's skin began to break out in a cold
sweat as she followed the shadow up to its source.

     Hanging by her neck from the light fixture was her mother.

     Asuka's breathing began to speed up as she looked on. She 
barely understood what she was looking at, but that lack of 
understanding only made it all worse. She ran up to try to help her
mother down, and when she did, she saw that she was too late.
Letting go she stepped back and was beginning to cry when she
looked to the right. The thing that caused her to begin screaming
that day was what she saw there. Beside her mothers all to still
body, there was a smaller shape also hanging by it's neck. 

      It was the stupid doll

     The stupid doll that had taken her place at her mothers side,
apparently even in death. Even from where she stood on the floor
she could she that the damned thing was still smiling-- smirking at
her.

    She was still screaming when the Nurse dragged her out of the 
room.

     In a way, she'd never stopped.


[]====[]
[]====[]


     "Mama No!" Asuka shouted as she burst awake, "don't kill 
me!"

     "Please remain still," a young male voice said to her right.
Whatever energy she'd used to break from her sleep was
exhausted, and as the relief of realizing that she wasn't six
anymore washed over her, she started to slip back unconscious--
still unaware of her surroundings, but painfully aware that the
memory she'd nearly died to escape had follwed her the entire
way.


[]====[]
[]====[]


     When Asuka woke again, the first thing she noticed as she lay
on an uncomfortable surface was the awful taste of salt in her
mouth. As she tried to spit it out, her other senses began to
return-- greeting her with a series of aches pains and other areas
of general soreness.

     "Are you alright?" the same gentle voice asked, "you took a
rather nasty fall."

     She opened her eyes and found that she was in one of the
VTOL's that Nerv used sometimes. As she coughed up some of
what she realized was seawater, she turned to see who had
spoken to her.

     She couldn't make him out clearly, it was getting darker by the
moment and she was still woozy. He was wearing an orange shirt
and black pants. His hair was very light, and the sunset was
making it difficult for her to tell just what shade it was. One thing
she did notice as she drifted back to sleep was his eyes.

     They were the same crimson orbs she'd seen as she'd struck
the water. 


[]====[]
[]====[]


     As the VTOL left the pad and the doctors rushed Asuka down 
to the medical ward, one of the Section Two officers finished
debriefing the boy who'd saved her life. The paperwork was going
to be exhausting, made even more difficult by the fact the guard
who'd found her was being evasive about exactly what he'd seen
happen. All they could say for certain was that Soryu had fallen to
the beach below and had landed in the water. By a stroke of
unbelievable luck someone had been there-- and had been able to
rescue her before the tide could sweep her out to sea. That person
had, amazingly enough, turned out to be the Fifth Child.

     Kaoru Nagisa seemed more amused by the entire situation than 
anything. According to his statement, he'd only just arrived in
Japan that afternoon and hadn't planed to check in until the
morning. As the officer finished up his notes he found himself liking
the boy's easygoing attitude and almost ethereal calmness-- such a
pleasant switch from most of the kids under his watch.

     "I don't know how many other ways I can thank you Mr.
Nagisa," he told the pale boy, "our officer had damaged his radio 
and had you not been there we'd have never saved her. She owes 
you her life."

     "I could not in good concience let her die right in front of me. 
Tour thanks is appreciated, but unnecessary. Anyone would have
done the same."

     "Well you probably won't get it from her, so I figured someone
ought to say it."

     "Really? I had heard that the second was strong willed, but I
find it surprising that she'd be ungracious."

     "You haven't seen the files, kid. This place reads like a Greek 
tragedy," the agent didn't know why, but something about this boy 
made him feel comfortable talking. He wouldn't think it odd that he
was telling the boy so much until the next morning and by then he
would be too worried about his job to tell anyone about it.

     "Interesting," Kaoru said as he looked toward the access door
were the doctors had wheeled Asuka away, "how do her friends
feel about this?"

     "Ha! If that girl has any friends left after the crap she's been
pulling I'll eat my badge. Say, just what were you doing out there
on the beach anyway?"

     "Ah, that's a long story," Kaoru said with a laugh, "my last
name is part of the reason. being 'of the seashore' I have a great
love for the ocean, and I wanted to find a good place to watch the
sunset. I was just a few yards up the beach from her when she fell
into the water."

     "What's the other part?"

     "You perhaps noticed the statue on the rocks-- just at the
high tide line?"

     "I think I remember seeing something, kinda looked like it had
wings or something."

     "That was the very one. This may surprise you, but there are
thousands of those all over the world. They date back at least two
thousand years, and the most interesting thing about them is not
that they're origins are unknown, or even that they appear all
across the planet, but that they are almost all at the post Second
Impact high tide line."

     "That's weird, kinda like those Stonehenge rocks in Europe, 
huh?"

     "In a sense. I've been visiting as many of them as I have been
able to since I was a child-- call it a hobby. I find them...
comforting."

     "Well, that should do it for my report, see ya around kid,"

     "Good evening, Mr. Keiichi."

     "Huh? Sorry, how'd you know my name?"

     "You look like a Keiichi," Kaoru said with a whimsical smile as
he bowed and strolled off-- humming an odd tune. As he left,
agent Akira Keiichi glanced down at his notes and shrugged,
before pocketing them and heading off to the car to drive home.


[]====[]
[]====[]


     "Shinji!" Misato hollered as he stepped out of his room, "they
found Asuka!"
        
     "Is she okay?" he asked as he hurried into the kitchen.

     "She seems fine, Ritsuko says that they're going to medicate 
her... but she said that happyjuice or no happyjuice, it might not be 
a good idea for her to move back in with us."

     "I... But why wouldn't..." Shinji sat down as his voice trailed
off. He let out a sigh as he slumped back into the chair. He knew
why Asuka didn't want to come back. She blamed him, Misato
and most of the world for what she was going through. 

     "Hey, don't blame yourself," Misato said, "I'm just as much at
fault here."

     "I know I shouldn't, Misato... I just keep wishing there was
something I could do."

     "Sometimes there just isn't Shinji... I wish I could say
otherwise. She blamed me for taking Kaji away from her... and it's
not like I was chasing after him or anything at the time."

     The mention of Kaji's name caused Shinji to brighten up,
"maybe there _is_ something I could do," he said suddenly.

     "What's that?" Misato asked

     "Well... Kaji had a garden down in the Geofront," Shinji said as
Misato's eyes lit up, "maybe she'd feel a little less hostile towards
me if I took her to see it?"

     "I am such an idiot," she said as she took a sip from her beer
and smacked her forehead, "I listened to the tape every night for a 
month and totally tuned that part out!"
 
     "W-what are you talking about?" he asked-- totally confused.

     "Don't worry about it, it's a good idea, she could take care of
the flowers for him... I'm sure he'd like that."

     "Misato... what flowers?" Shinji asked, still wondering what
page his guardian was on.

     "The one's he was growing in that garden of course," Misato
said.

     "But... he wasn't growing flowers," Shinji informed her,
wondering just what Kaji had told her.

     "What do you mean?"

     "He was growing melons," Shinji told her as her face went
blank, "um Misato? Are you okay?"

     Misato stared off into space for several seconds as Shinji tried
to figure out what he'd said to invoke such a state in his guardian.
Finally, animation returned to her features as a tear suddenly ran
from her eye to her chin followed by several more. Just as Shinji
stood and walked over to her, she began laughing as well as
sobbing.

     "Misato? What's wrong?" he asked as he placed a hand on 
her shoulder.

     "Just another one of my past screwups come back to haunt
me," she said as she took hold of his hand, "Kaji joked once back
when we were at school that if I ever gave up alcohol that he'd
take up farming... I always thought he meant it as just a dumb
joke, but... it looks like he was going to hold me to that stupid,
drunken promase after all. Could you do me a favor, Shinji?"

     "Of course," Shinji said.

     "Grab as many of those bottles as you can carry," she told him
as he gestured towards the row of liquor on the shelf behind him, 
"and meet me on the patio in a sec, kay?"

     "Um... okay," he replied as she got up and walked into her
room. Shrugging, he grabbed an extra bag from the cabinet and
started placing bottle after bottle inside. When he had just enough
so that the bag would tear he walked through the living room and
found Misato out on the balcony-- loading her gun.

    "What are you going to do with that?" he asked as he gently set
the bag on the patio chair.

     "Ever go skeet shooting Shinji?" she asked him as she checked
the rounds in the extra clips she'd set out.

     Shinji looked at her--eyes wide, then back to the bag full of
what had to be several thousand yen-worth of alcohol.

     "You're kidding?" he inquired as he watched her down the last 
of the beer she'd been drinking earlier in one gulp.

     "No," she told him calmly, "it's high time I stopped using this
crap as a crutch."

     Looking out to the water filled cavity that had recently housed
Tokyo Three, she picked up her gun and turned to Shinji, "when I 
say pull, throw one of the bottles as far as you can."

     "All right," he agreed as she took the can and crushed it against
the balcony, "but what about all the stuff in the fridge?"

     "This was the last one," she told him as she tossed the nearly
flat circle of aluminum to him, "as of now I'm officially on the
wagon. Are you ready with that bottle?"

     "Um," he shuffled through the bag and took out the first of the 
bottles, "Yeah, I'm ready." 

     "Then we might as well get started... pull!"

     The gun roared in her hand a few seconds after the bottle of 
scotch left his own, and there was a flash of sparkling reflected 
light as the shattered pieces and the contents of the bottle tumbled 
down to the ground below. 


[]====[]
[]====[]


     Asuka was tired of the medical building. She'd been poked and
prodded since she'd woken up, and probably before that. To
make it all the more insulting, they'd been giving her some kind of
sedative with her meals, but she'd just palmed it after the first dose
or two-- it made her feel... odd.  

    After a few hundred excuses from the nurses, it was becoming 
clear to her that they were running out of reasons to keep her 
there. She, of course, knew that the Section Two agent hadn't 
told them the whole truth about her little swan dive. He'd most 
likely be shot if he admitted he'd been within sight when she 
fell. As far as anyone here knew she'd just tripped, and she 
wasn't about to admit otherwise.

     She felt... weird about having survived. At the time she'd been
fully prepared to end it all, but when she'd first woken up, the
driving need she'd felt to do it had faded. She wasn't sure if it
would come back or not, or if it was just some lasting effect 
of whatever they'd given her, but at the moment she just wanted to
go back to her room and sleep for a month-- in privacy. Having
someone take samples of every fluid her body produced had
gotten old long ago thanks to Dr. Akagi, and she was in _no_
mood for it now.

     She'd finally gotten them to call Akagi, and was now waiting on
her to give her a once over so she could get the hell out of the
building and to somewhere that didn't smell like industrial strength
bleach. 

     As she counted the cracks in the ceiling for the thousandth
time, she suddenly heard the door open, and turned to tell Dr.
Akagi that it was about damn time.

     To her surprise, it wasn't Dr. Akagi. 

     "Hello, Miss Soryu," the boy from the VTOL greeted her, "I 
trust you're feeling better now?"

     "What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded--
instinctively clutching the covers up to her chest despite the 
modest gown the hospital provided.

     "I actually came to retrieve my shirt," he told her as he held up
a white school shirt that looked a lot like the one Shinji always
wore, "but I thought I'd stop by to see how you were feeling while
I was here."

     "Riiight..." she said-- eyeing him suspiciously, "and what was 
your, um, _shirt_ doing at a hospital?"

     "I suppose you were not conscious enough to notice, but I put
it on you when I saw that you had lost your own in the water."

     Asuka's eye's widened, "you... you saw me n-naked?" her face
grew red and she was just about to jump out of bed and slap the 
hell out of the little creep when she noticed his face.

     Most people recoiled when she got angry with them-- she
knew just how frightening she could be when she was pissed off.
She had even grown proud of it. But he didn't seem frightened at
all, merely confused. She sat back down and stared at him as she
wondered if he was insane, also, there was something about him
that unnerved her-- something she couldn't put her finger on

     "I do not mean to be rude," he said as she tried to figure out 
what was wrong with him, "but your priorities seem a little strange.
You were drowning and I didn't noticed your lack of attire until I
got you back to the shore, at which point I immediately placed my
own shirt over you... why this upsets you is beyond me."

     "Oh," she said as she realized she didn't have an argument for
that. She paused for a moment and took a good look at him. The
first thing she noticed was how pale he was, even his hair was
almost white. He was slender, and his features looked almost
delicate, but he had a pleasant enough smile. It was his red eyes
that she decided was setting her on edge; they reminded her of the
stupid Doll.

     'What,' she thought, '_another_ albino? What the hell is wrong 
with these Japanese? Does their gene pool need a filter or what?' 

     "At any rate I am glad you are recovering. Good luck to you
Miss Soryu, and good night."

     "Hey!" she shouted suddenly, "you never told me who you
are."

     "Of course, you are right, and I apologize for the oversight. My
name is Kaoru, Kaoru Nagisa," he said as he smiled and walked
out of the room.

     It wasn't until a few minutes later that she realized the entire 
conversation had been in German. 

     'Too bad I'll never see him again,' she thought as she sat back
in the bed, 'that was the most interesting thing that's happened in a
long while.'


[]====[]
[]====[]        

       
      The next day, as Shinji and Hikari walked to Rei's apartment; 
they passed the time discussing the imminent arrival of the newest
pilot. 

     "Well, personally I wish the new pilot was a boy," Hikari told
Shinji, "I've heard about all the jokes about 'Ikari's little 
harem' that I care to hear thank-you-very-much."

     "You say that like it's my fault somehow," Shinji responded
with a chuckle, "and actually I admit it would be kind of fun to
have a friend I could talk to about synch tests and stuff."

     "I guess," she said playfully, "but I might get lonely if you spent
time with someone else. Having you all to myself so much has kind
of spoiled me in the past few days."

     "Oh don't worry," Shinji told her as he put an arm around her
waist, "I wouldn't dream of abandoning you to spend time with
some stranger. Besides, I can't picture them finding just the right
spot on my back to scratch like you do and that's way too perfect
to give up."

     "Mmmm," she said as she leaned her head against his shoulder, 
"you really know how to make a girl feel wanted, you know that 
Shinji?"

     "If you say so," he told her with a smile, "I'm making most of
this up as I go along you know."

     "I'm aware, and that's what makes it even more special to me."

     They continued to flirt with one another the rest of the trip.
When they finally reached Rei's apartment they paused a moment
before Hikari shrugged and pushed the door open.

     "Rei? It's me and Shinji," she said as they walked in. After
removing their shoes they walked to the living area and were only
a little surprised to find that no one was home.

     "That's odd... I don't think Ritsuko has any tests scheduled until
later tonight," Shinji commented as he looked around. Doing that
brought a sudden realization to him about the same moment, "Hey
Hikari.... What's wrong with this picture?"

     Hikari looked around the room, and it took her a moment to
realize that the entire room was spotless. The trash and bandages
that had littered the floor were gone and it looked like the place
had even been scrubbed. 

     They'd given Rei the photo album in hopes that it might help her 
remember how close she'd been to them... to hopefully build a
base of  trust in the event they needed her help in digging up dirt
on Nerv. One of the reasons they'd stopped by was to see if any
progress had been made... but this? This was unexpected.

     "What, so she got tired of living in a pigsty," she said-- with a
touch of nervousness. 

     "Yeah, but even before... it was never _this_ clean," he told
her.

     "Maybe we ought to go?" Hikari suggested.

      "Right... we'll talk to her after we meet the new pilot tonight."

     They left the apartment as fast as they could. Each of them was
dimly aware that something important was going on, but there was
simply no way they could have known that the gift they'd given
Rei'd had an even stranger effect than anyone could have
anticipated.


[]====[]
[]====[]


     As Kaoru followed the map to the briefing room, he couldn't
help but admire the layout of central dogma. The place had been
designed so that unless you were actually familiar with they layout
it was very easy for a person to get lost. No doubt this had been
intentional since it was so difficult to defend against a tactical 
force-- given the allotted budgets and staff.

     As he rode up the escalator to the next level, he hummed a bit
of his favorite symphony and went back to reading his map. When
he finally saw the top come into view out of the corner of his eye
he lowered the map to find a familiar face standing just beyond the
end of the line. 

     He quickly searched his memory and realized that this was the
First Child, Rei Ayanami. Even though he had seen photos of her
back in Germany, he realized almost immediately that her
appearance was not the thing that was familiar about her.

    Stepping off the escalator, he walked closer and was about to
speak when he noticed she'd yet to respond to his presence. 

     She was standing by a window staring at a set of benches as if
the eternal secrets of the Dead Sea Scroll's were contained within.
As he drew even closer he saw that her lips were moving as if she
were reading from a book... no, more as if she were reciting
something. 

     As exciting as it was to know that he was not the only nephilem
in existence, her behavior had him completely at a loss.

     Finally, she seemed to notice his presence and he was
surprised to see her flinch and look around. It was similar to a
sleepwalker he'd seen wake once. 

     "You are Rei Ayanami, are you not?" he asked, deciding to 
place what he'd just seen aside for the moment. 

     "What?" she asked, seemingly disoriented, "I... yes, who are 
you?"

     "I am the Fifth Child," he said as he smiled at her, "we are alike
you and I... aren't we?"

     "I do not understand," Rei said as she took a step back,
something was frightening her, and Kaoru didn't think it was just
him.

     "The same eyes and skin... and you can not deny that you feel
the presence of the soul that does not belong within me, as I can
sense within you."

     "No, I-- I must... I have... to go," she said as she turned and
ran down the hallway.

     Kaoru stood there for a while with a puzzled expression on his 
face. He'd assumed that if Ayanami was a fellow nephilim then
she would have known the things that he did... apparently Kiel had
not told him all there was to know about his purpose here at Nerv.


[]====[]
[]====[]


     Twenty minutes before the introduction meeting, Ritsuko was
sitting at her desk looking wistfully at several photos that she had
saved on her computer. She didn't know how much longer she'd
be able to keep up her appearances with Gendou, the meeting
with Seele had thrown her into an emotional hurricane-- one that
she'd yet to totally free herself of.  

     As she flipped through the files, she took another glance at the
control pad for the Dummy plug core. It tempted her greatly to
just reach out and press the switch to destroy the clones. She
didn't know exactly what Gendou was up to, but Seele had made
it clear that he was deviating from the plan, and that he considered
less important to his goals than whatever he had in mind for
Ayanami. 

     She wondered what he would do if the current Rei suddenly
became completely indispensable. What if he couldn't replace her
anymore? What would his reaction be? Would he have her
arrested? Kill her? Or was this dilemma exactly what he'd planed
all along? Did he have that much control over her? Over
everyone?

     Finding out the answer to that was awfully tempting... all it
would take was the press of a button.

     More or less the only things that were currently keeping her
from doing so were her curiosity at just what Ikari was up to, and
her concern over the Fifth child. She'd known that Fuyutski and
Yui's theories had been put to use even as the Katsuragi
expedition had begun it's efforts... she'd learned it the day she'd
been elected as the chairperson for Project E. She'd also known
that Fuyutski had recreated the process with Rei, and she'd always
assumed that Seele had known as well. Her contact with them was
very limited, mostly an occasional report of the Eva series
progress. 

     It hadn't been until the meeting just after the sixteenth angel that
she'd realized Seele didn't know the full story behind Rei, and she
had also realized then that if she wanted to live much longer she'd
better keep what she knew to herself. 

     The nephelim project was a vital step in fulfilling the prophecies
in the Dead Sea scrolls-- in achieving the goals of human
instrumentality. The very idea that the creation of Ayanami had
been unauthorized was outrageous. It implied a direct rebellion
against Seele's timeline... whatever Gendou had planed was
definitely going to upset the old men.

     Whatever his plans they had to be connected to Yui
somehow... as Rei had grown older the resemblance had
continued to become more and more obvious. She'd for a long
time merely assumed that Yui's genetic material had been chosen
out of availability and sentimentality, but now she had to wonder
what Gendou and Fuyutski's real reasons had been.

     It angered her to know that even with the important position
she held there were still things that were kept from her. As of late
it seemed as if every time she turned around a new dirty little
secret was making itself known to her.

     Now she knew how her cats felt when she dangled a piece of
string in front of them.

     Frustrated, confused, but totally unable to stop chasing after it.

       
[]====[]
[]====[]


     "So," Hikari said to Kaoru with a laugh after Ritsuko had left 
them to get aquatinted, "you're a boy."

     "Yes-- for a long as I can remember," Kaoru said with a
bemused smile. He'd long grown accustomed to people not
knowing this in advice. Apparently his name could be used as
either masculine or feminine. It tended to only happen when he'd
dealt with the Japanese staff of Germany's third branch, not often,
but enough to prepare him for this kind of thing.

     "And not a girl," Hikari continued, "cause we thought a girl was
coming, and there you are in a boy way."

     "Just one of those crazy mix-ups Hikari," Shinji said as he and
the new pilot shook hands, "but welcome to Tokyo three, we
could show you around sometime if you like... we have a lot of
free time since they closed the school."

     "I would enjoy that very much," Kaoru told him, "but I am 
confused, you refer to the city, yet most of it is now gone."

     "Force of habit I suppose," Shinji answered, "but there are a lot
of buildings that survived in the outskirts and the train station still
runs to the other nearby towns."

     "I shall look forward to it," Kaoru said, as they began walking 
toward the lift, he noticed that Shinji and Hikari were holding
hands, "forgive me for being forward, but are the two of you a 
couple?"

     Hikari and Shinji both blushed slightly and Hikari smiled as she
let him know his guess was correct, "we've been going out for 
awhile now."

     "It is good that you both have someone to share one's heart
with," Kaoru told her warmly, "I can only imagine how hard this all
must be on a person... to go through it all alone would be difficult
to say the least."

     "You're not kidding," Hikari agreed, "I think its been worse on
Asuka than anyone."

     "I have heard rumors to that effect," Kaoru said as they entered
the main lift to the testing facilities, "but with any luck the ordeal
will soon be over."

     As he turned to face the elevator doors, neither of them saw
the knowing smile on his face.


[]====[]
[]====[]


     After the synch tests were done and over with, Kaoru retired
to his room in the Geofront. He was exhausted from the ordeal--
he hadn't expected to have to work that hard to maintain a low
synch ratio. In fact he was a little concerned that they might have
suspected something anyway. The chairperson of the E project
had been staring at him suspiciously during their brief meeting, and
it was obvious that she was aware _something_ was amiss.

     At the moment, however, he required rest. Without opening
himself to the S2 organ laying dormant within him he did not have
access to the unlimited energy that it would provide and the moral
shell he occupied still needed to go into it's nightly coma. It was a
bit annoying to have so much time lost to him, and he did not have
the entertainment of dreams to make the lost time more interesting.
If he envied the Lillian anything it was that they at least had
something to do as they slept

     As he opened his door and walked to the bed he did not-- in
his exhaustion-- hear the light snoring coming from the bed a few
feet away. He didn't even bother turning on the light. It wasn't until
he sat down on the bed and was unbuttoning his shirt when he
realized something was wrong. 

     Suddenly something on the bed shifted and there was an
earsplitting scream that caused him to leap away from the bed and
cover his ears in shock and pain.

     Reaching over, he flipped on the lights and was surprised to
find Asuka staring back at him with a expression of shock that
mirrored his own.


[]====[]
[]====[]


     "What the _hell_ are you doing here?" she screamed at him as
her blue eyes flashed in anger.

     "This is my home," he said calmly-- as he effortlessly switched
to German, "why are you in it?"

     "Your home? I-- oh crap... they must have gone through the
official channels," she muttered as she slapped her forehead in
frustration.

     "May I ask what it is you are talking about?" he asked as he sat
down at the desk at the end of the bed.

     "The damn security jerkoffs didn't tell whoever keeps track of
where people live that I was back here. Damnit!"

     "I understand that you used to live here?" Kaoru asked her--
just as she cut him off.

     "Hold on, why are you in the Geofront anyway? Do you work
for Nerv or something?"

     "I am the Fifth Child," he told her, "truth be told, I'm actually--"
   
     "What?" she yelled out-- her eye's widening momentarily
before she sunk down onto the bed with a miserable expression
on her face, "they replaced me?"

     "I do not know if that is an accurate way of putting it," he said,
"I did wonder why you were absent from the meeting, I had
assumed it was because you were still at the medical center."

     "Shiest... you should have just let me drown," she said bitterly--
still ignoring him, "if Id known they were going to replace me with
a skinny dork like you I would have found a higher cliff."

     Kaoru's eyes widened, and he frowned suddenly, "I'm 
sorry, I didn't know that you had jumped on purpose."

     Asuka snorted and rolled her eyes, "what, you'd have let me
drown if you had?"

     "I had no right to interfere with a discision you made of your
own free will, Miss Soryu, I hope you accept my humble
apology."

     "Say _what_?" Asuka said in disbelief. Whoever this guy was
he was weird, interesting, but weird.

     "I am very sorry," he continued and Asuka was amazed that he
actually sounded as if he meant it, "to tell what a persons motives
are is a difficult task... would you mind if I asked a favor of you?"

     "Uh... I guess so?"

     "If you wish to take your life in the future, please tell me
beforehand and I promise not to intervene. Is this acceptable?"

     'Holy shiest, what drug is this guy on?' Asuka wondered in 
amazement. This had to be sarcasm... but he sounded so sincere!

     "Um, alright, I'll keep that in mind," she told him as she tried not
to laugh.

     "I must admit, I hope you do not chose to do so, however, If
the time does come, I will honor your wish... there is one more
thing though."

     "What?" she asked him.
 
     "Would you mind terribly if I used your phone, I need to
arrange somewhere to spend the night, I am very tired."

     Asuka looked at the clock, then back at his earnest face and
shrugged, "look, I'm going back to sleep, you can crash out in the
streets or on the floor or on top of the pyramid for all I care."

     She turned back to the wall and pulled the covers over her
head-- she'd had enough weirdness to last her one night. After a
few moments she fell asleep.


[]====[]
[]====[]


     "Why are you following me?" Asuka demanded the next
morning as she and Kaoru walked along towards the train station.

     "You said you were going for breakfast," Kaoru said as he
smiled at her, "I assumed you were inviting me to join you."
     
      Asuka wanted to tell him to piss off, and had come within a
hairs breath of doing so several times in the past fifteen minutes.
The problem was that every time she opened her mouth to yell at
him she'd find herself looking into that earnest, friendly face and for
some damn reason it would take the wind right out of her sails.
That, and his smile was downright disarming.

     The morning had gotten off to a annoying start when she'd 
stepped out of bed and right on his stomach. After a short- and
one sided- argument, he'd reminded her that she had told him he
could sleep on the floor. 

     A smaller part of the problem was that she still wanted to figure
out what it was about him that she found interesting. It might be his
voice, she figured, he spoke very good German with absolutely no
accent and there was a quality about it that she found.... Soothing
for lack of a better word.

     On the other hand she was seriously getting tired of loosing 
arguments to him.

     "Look," she told him as she stopped, "I'm sure you're a very 
nice albino and all, but I just don't feel like having company right 
now."

     "As you wish, Pilot Soryu," he said, but before he could say
anything else Asuka put up a hand.

     "Stop calling me that," she said as she shook her head in
annoyance, "its bad enough you look like her, but if you're gonna
insist on talking to me you don't have to sound like the stupid doll
too. My name is Asuka, okay?"

     "As you wish, Asuka," he said, and with a quick bow he turned
and headed off down the path.

     'Now why the _hell_ am I blushing?' she wondered as he 
walked away.


[]====[]
[]====[]


     As Asuka tried to figure out what it was about Kaoru Nagisa
that was completely flustering her, Rei was sitting at a desk in the
recently closed Junior High school. She sat looking at the empty
room, while in her mind's eye she could see the faces of former
classmates as they talked and played before class. If she
concentrated, she could hear what they were saying. 

     What she was experiencing--she suspected-- was some type
of side effect of the Memory transfer procedures which were part
of the dummy plug programming. While the memories she
possessed were for the most part disjointed and although there
were many gaps she had yet to fill, she was discovering that the
memories she did carry were amazingly vivid and detailed. She'd
been amazed to also find that if she focused she could actually
relive the experience to a degree. 

     It was utterly fascinating to her, because although she knew
that the memories were in a sense her's, many of them she was
experiencing for the very first time. She felt as if she were watching
some movie that played out through her mind's eye. Much of what
she was seeing was so new that it had come as a shock to learn.
And there was so much more yet to see! Each of the photos of
her and the others from the book that Shinji and Hikari had given
her brought out fresh impressions and memories. Yet... there were
a series of older pictures near the back that she'd found almost
frightening.

     The photo's showed a woman in her mid to late twenties along
with some of the Commander and Mr. Fuyutski. The men looked
at least a decade younger--perhaps more. What fascinated her
about the woman in the photos was that there was an
indescribable familiarity about her. Something touched the back of
her mind each time she looked at the photos and she suspected
that if she dug deeper into those feelings and impressions she might
discover something of great importance. Whatever that might be,
however, it frightened her as much as it excited her.

     So for now she was content to try to fit the missing pieces of
the puzzle that was her past back into place.


[]====[]
[]====[]


     "So... you got your own room then," Asuka commented as
Kaoru packed his few effects into his bag later that afternoon. 

     "Yes, just next door actually."

     "Well at least the walls are thick enough-- I won't have to put
up with your snoring."

     "Asuka, is something the matter?" he asked as he set his bag on
the desk, "you seem.... Well not to put too fine a point on it, but
you seem a bit sad that I'm leaving."

     "What?" Asuka squeaked--caught off guard by his comment.
She quickly tried to feign a happier demeanor, "no! I uh... no... I'm 
totally happy about it, ecstatic even!"

     "I see," he said and as he smiled, Asuka couldn't stop herself
from blushing again as she realized how totally unconvincing she'd
sounded.

     "Um... I guess I'll see you around then..." she said quietly.

     "I will just be one room down Asuka," Kaoru told her, "but
anytime you would like to talk, my door is open for you."

     "Right..." she whispered.

     "I hope to speak with you again soon Asuka, have a nice
evening."

     After Kaoru had stepped outside, Asuka let out the breath
she'd been holding for the past several seconds. It had taken
everything she had not to say what she'd wanted to.

     'What the hell is wrong with me,' she though, 'I don't need 
anyone! why am I thinking these things?'

     She looked back to the door and let out a sigh. She'd been
about to ask him to stay.      


[]=====================[]
    To be continued...
[]=====================[]


Author's incoherent babbling

  
      Look, I know Kaoru's effect on Asuka is a little weird here,
but there are two factors you need to keep in mind. First up is the
fact that Asuka's first encounter with him after the realization that
she wasn't going to escape her deamons through killing herself (or,
at least thats the conclusion SHE reached ^_^ ) so-- her first
impression of the fella has allowed a grain of interest to take hold
and she's finding it hard to just brush him off. Also as you may
have noticed people have this tendency to open up to Kaoru. The
second thing  is that I see her _wanting_ to open up and trust him,
but her experience with Kaji has left her with a mental block. She's
afraid of being rejected as she was with Kaji. I'll be going into this
a lot deeper in the last chapter of DWF.

     Btw, major props go out to Mr. K Oska Archer for writing 
Daughter of Elysium, which was one of the inspirations for the 
interactions between Kaoru and Asuka. He disserves credit for 
doing it first. Y'all should all go read it now at
http://www.senet.com.au/~archer It's some interesting stuff that
uses the director's cuts to maximum effect.

    On the spelling of Kaoru's name-- since all evidence points to it 
being spelled either way, I just went with the one that I liked, that's 
all there is to it ^_^ (and lets face it, Kaoru is nothing if not
ambiguous)

     A note to anyone writing Kaoru-- I personally believe the
character should not be written without a copy of Beethoven's 9th
playing in the background, but that's just my opinion ^_^ and
besides, it's worth buying on it's own merit, there is some beautiful
music to be had in Beethoven's works. Moonlight Sonata
immediately springs to mind as my personal favorite. Also, I'll 
probably be buying some Wagner when I start working on the 
combat sequences of Carpe Diem, I can't think of a better
composer for what I have in mind.

    Um... about the whole hacker thing... you'll find more out about 
that in the intermission between DWF and Carpe Diem... it's
mostly going to be covering events that are happening behind the
scenes. It will cover what Kaji's been up to, and even feature
Maya, Kensuke and his ladyfriend off the net... 

     All right, look, she's Mana okay? I think I've made it more
than obvious at this point ^_^ according to the Webster English to 
Japanese Dictionary, Tetsu means Iron, and Shojo means Maiden. 
Mana fans might be happy to know that she will take on a
noteworthy role in CD. For the record the inclusion of the hacker
stuff is the result of a back-to-back viewing of Serial experiments:
Lain and Eva. No this is not going to turn into a crossover, but the
whole 'evolution of mankind' theme runs through both and I cant 
seem to untangle it from my mind, so I'm running with it. For 
better or for worse ^_^
 
     About Ritsuko.... Just how much she knows about Rei has 
been a headache for me... she helped wake up Rei 3, and she was 
the creator of the dummy system... but did she know about the AT 
field? Or what about having Lilith's soul bonded to her? I just 
don't know... Gendou and Fuyutski expected Unit One to wake 
up... Ritsuko seemed shocked as hell when it happened. Did She 
know Yui was in Unit One? I don't know. I assume she didn't
since she kept acting like Fizini from princess bride and shouting 
how impossible it was when Unit one kept reactivating. It seems to 
me like she was just another pawn for Gendou, kept in the dark
and fed misinformation mixed with enough truth to keep her from
suspecting what he was really doing.

     Or I could be totally wrong-- it's been known to happen ^_^

I'm Out

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