Neon Echo Evangelion

Episode 7: Saints and SINers

	Lily walked into the Interrogation room, on one side of the table in the middle of the interrogation room sat Jan, on the other sat a figure dressed in crimson robes, a SIN guard stood by the door.
	“Is this the intruder?” Lily motioned to the figure in the robes, their head was hooded and their head was hanging down, obscuring their face.
	“Yes,” Jan said calmly.
	“Well, what have you found out so far?” Lily asked.
	“Nothing,” Jan replied, “They haven’t said a thing since we dragged them in here.”
	“So do something, make them talk!” Lily raged, “I want to know what they did to Eva-Artillery!”
	“Calm down Lily,” Jan said.
	“No, they nearly killed my brother, they may have for all I know, so, Jan, I will not calm down,” Lily said.
	“That Demon worshipper deserved to die,” a voice said.
	“What was that?” Lily glared at the Intruder, who still kept their head hanging  down, “What did you just say?” Lily reached across the table and grabbed the Intruders hood, jerking their head upwards, to stare straight into their eyes. The hood fell back, revealing their face. Lily gasped. The whole room fell silent. At last Lily said, “Ana?”

	“Hi there Tony,” Brian said, he stared through the window into Tony’s hospital room. He was glad that he was been kept in the SIN hospital, so he could visit him when he wanted to. “The Doctors said you’ve stabilised, and that your just resting now,” Brian said, he knew that Tony couldn’t hear him, even if he wasn’t unconscious Tony still couldn’t have heard him from outside the room. He deliberately didn’t mention that Tony might never wake up, Brian liked to think it was not to discourage Tony from healing himself, but deep down he was just trying to avoid the fact that he might never get the chance to talk to his best friend ever again. “You certainly had everyone worried,” Brian laughed, “And you did a good job of getting Lily all worked up.” Tony just lay there, on the bed, his eyes closed, a blank expression on his face, it didn’t even look like he was breathing, the only signs that showed he was alive was the rhythmic beeps of the machinery hooked up to him. Brian sighed, feeling a bit foolish, “I tell you what,” he said, “I’ll save up and buy a computer console for the apartment, and then when you wake up we can play on it together, deal?” Brian stared hopefully at Tony, expecting him to sit up and say, “Oh sure Brian that sounds like a great idea,” but he didn’t move. “I’ll take that as a yes,” Brian said at last. “Well, I better get going,” He said, “I don’t want to keep Eve waiting, she wants a report of what happened. I’ll see you later,” Brian turned and walked out of the room.

	“Why Ana, why would you ever want to do this?” Lily asked, rage vied with confusion in her head, she wanted to kill Ana, but at the same time she also wanted to find out why she had done it.
	“Because the Eva are Demons,” She said, “Can’t you see?”
	“What do you mean Demons?” Lily asked.
	“They are an abomination, SIN and NERV have sold their souls for the power to create life. Only God can create life, these Evangelion are mockeries of life, vessels carrying the souls of Demons,” There was a power in Ana’s voice, a determination, like she believed herself to be above reproach, and that she took offense to being questioned like this.
	“You did all this, because you hate the Eva?”
	“I do not hate the Eva, but God compels me to destroy them, to help the Angels in their crusade, and if that Angel hadn’t shown up early then I would have made sure all the Eva were destroyed,” Ana said brashly.
	“What do you mean help the Angels? These things are evil, you’ve seen the destruction they cause,” Lily argued, still bewildered by these turn of events.
	“Evil!?” Ana roared, trying to stand up, but her hands handcuffed behind the chair she was sitting in stopped her, “How dare you call them Evil! The Angels are the one pure thing left in this world, they have been awakened in our time of need, to cleanse the impure and save the sinless.”
	“So Tony deserved to die then?” Lily asked, becoming more and more angry at Ana as her knowledge of the situation increased.
	“Yes!” She shouted, “He should burn in hell for fighting alongside a Demon! He did not deserve to receive such a light punishment!” Lily slapped Ana in the face, rocking her back in her chair.
	“Ana… You… I…” Lily desperately tried to say something but the anger clouding her mind prevented her. Ana laughed.
	“The truth cannot be questioned,” she said, laughing at Lily inability to speak, “You realise the truth and now you know I am right. And I expect you think that now you have me you are safe,” Ana laughed again, “There is no escape from the Saints, I am but one of many, chosen to be a martyr, to forward our cause. And there will be more Angels, much more, and we know of all of them,” Ana laughed again. Lily wanted to run away from this, betrayed by her best friend, her brother as good as dead, and a seemingly endless supply of Angels coming to rain destruction on the world. She wanted to shout her fury to the heavens, but again, no words came.
	“Did you say you were a Martyr?” Jan asked.
	“Yes, and as you know a Martyr has to die,” Ana smiled a cruel grin, and then clamped her teeth down on each other, Jan heard a crack.
	“Run!” he shouted, he grabbed Lily by the arm and followed the guard already rushing out the door from the interrogation room, he dived to the side just as a fireball erupted from the door. “Dear God,” Jan said in shock, “She had an explosive hidden in her teeth, she killed herself.”
	“We have to tell Eve,” Lily said, sounding resolute, “Everything has changed now,” she said, “And we must prepare.”

	Josh looked at the wrecked Eva, it was still lying in the middle of the street, the dead Angel lying just further up the street from it. He was uncomfortable having to move about in a Biohazard suit, but he could see quite clearly that the Eva, the Angel, and its putrid blood, in great puddles in the street, were all infected. And the air smelled foul even through the filter on the suit, he would hate to know what it smelled like without an air filter.
	“Mr. Richards,” A data analyst in similar Biohazard clothing called to him, Josh made his way over to him, which was quite difficult with the amount of people combing the street for data, taking samples of the Angels blood, and so on.
	“Yeah what is it?” Josh looked at the man, who was standing by the damaged entry plug.
	“We have something here you might want to see,” The man came over to Josh and walked him round to the back of the Entry Plug. “Well we were checking the Access Panel on the Entry Plug, to see if that was used as the entry point for the computer virus, and we found this,” The man pointed into the open Access Panel, a green orb was in there, nestled in the wires. 
	“What is it?” Josh asked.
	“Well we had hoped you would be able to tell us,” The man explained, we thought you would be privy to more information than us,” the data analyst explained.
	“I’m afraid I don’t know much more than you guys,” Josh said, “But I can tell you one thing, and that’s that that is not a normal part of the entry plug.”
	“Were getting all kind of crazy readings off it,” the analyst explained, “But we think that it isn’t radioactive.”
	“Okay,” Josh said, “Have it shipped back to SIN HQ. And don’t tell any of these UN guys,” he said, jerking his thumb in the direction of one of the other people bustling about, he had UN emblazoned on his Biohazard suit, “I want to take a look at this myself.”
	“Yes, sir,” The analyst called over a team holding a metal box and they diligently began packing the orb into the padded box. Josh looked up and whistled at the destruction wreaked by the fight that had taken place here. 
“I sure hope that was the last of them,” Josh said staring at the fallen Angel. UN helicopters swept over head again.

	“And is it true that you sortied damaged Eva’s to fight this Angel?” Maria Folstein asked.
	“Yes, I had no other choice, We may have lost track of the Angel if we had waited,” Eve answered.
	“And you also nearly got one of your pilots killed in the process,” Gerhard Wenger commented, “These are human beings, children even, not just pilots. You must look out for their safety as well.”
	“I had no Idea of what would happen,” Eve said.
	“But do you agree that if the Eva’s had been fully functional then this disaster could have been averted?” Maria asked.
	“No,” Eve said, “If I had waited until all the Eva’s were fully repaired then the agent would have been able to sabotage all of the Eva’s, not just one.”
	“Oh yes, the sleeper agent in your midst, and just how exactly did she manage to keep her presence secret, I thought that you did full background checks on everyone you hired for SIN?” Alphonse Tomay asked.
	“We believe that she became involved with this Saints group after joining SIN,” Eve explained, “She was also exceptionally resourceful, she hid her true agenda until the end.”
	“I agree with Director Cardinal,” Sebastian Cole said, “We had no Idea that such a group existed.”
	“As of today I propose sending a group of UN soldiers to SIN HQ, to investigate this Saints group and attempt to neutralise them,” Alphonse Tomay said. “Until then they will make a good scapegoat for what has been happening, we can blame them for the attacks on the cities. So far no one has believed the rumours of monsters fighting, but they have been more willing to believe stories of terrorist attacks.”
	“However, what are we planning to do about the cost of maintaining SIN?” Lisa Morgenson asked, “If it is true that there are more Angels coming then what are we to do about the long term cost of maintaining SIN, especially if each encounter turns out as badly as that one. Eva-Artillery will have to be completely rebuilt to avoid the infection spreading from old parts to new ones.”
	“We will just have to redirect money from current and future projects to SIN,” Sebastian Cole said.
	“That is ridiculous,” Alphonse said, “How are we expected to try and cover up an input of that much capital into SIN without raising suspicion?”
	“That is your job Director Tomay,” Sebastian said, “Therefore you will have to figure that out.”
	“As for your pilot, what is his current status?” Gerhard asked.
	“He has stabilised and I am confident he will recover eventually, he is an asset to SIN due to his extensive experience in piloting an Eva, and I would not replace him just yet,” Eve defended Tony.
	“We could not even if we wanted to,” Lisa said, “A replacement would have no Eva to pilot,” she said bitterly.
	“What of the mental state of the remaining pilots?” Gerhard asked.
	“Eva-Assault’s pilot seems to be coping well, however the pilots of Eva-Sniper and Shield, especially Shield, have been shaken by the ordeal,” Eve said, “However I believe that some time for rest and relaxation would do the pilots good, and they would be back to normal within a week.”
	“Are you sure?” Gerhard Wenger asked, “I believe the Pilots of Shield and Artillery were quite close, Shield may have been mentally scarred by the event. Are you sure you picked the right people to pilot these Eva’s?”
	“Yes, and I believe that NERV made a mistake with their choices,” Eve said defiantly. “NERV’s pilots seem to cope well in situations such as this because they already suffer from mental instabilities, and as such are indifferent to these events, which is a dangerous state of mind for an Eva pilot,” Eve saw Sebastian nod his head in consent.
	“Once again I support Director Cardinal’s view,” Sebastian said, “And I believe she needs all the support she can get from us,” he looked round at the other video screens, “Especially due to the dangerous territory we are about to venture into.”
	“Thank you Director Cole,” Eve said.
	“I have heard a rather disturbing rumour,” Maria said, “That the pilot of Eva-Sniper was born before Second Impact, are you willing to comment on that?”
	“That is incorrect,” Eve said, “There has been no such thing mentioned,” she said calmly, cursing inwardly. How did they find out about that? She thought.
“Is that all?” Sebastian asked, “No, very well. From now on we will schedule a meeting every week, and the production of the second Eva team will be hurried as much as possible. Good Luck Director Cardinal,” Sebastian said, his video screen switched off, and the other members of the UN council quickly joined him.

	Brian woke up. He had lost count of the weeks, but he knew that today was the day his extended leave from SIN finished, he would have to go back to the base today after school. He got up and made breakfast, switched on the TV and sat down on the couch. It had become a ritual for him everyday now to go through the same routine, keeping a routine helped him to keep his life regimented and kept his mind off the bad memories he didn’t want to revisit. He had nearly all but got over that last fight with the Angel. Tony was still unconscious, but good news had came about a week ago, Tony was starting to respond to the antibiotic treatment they were giving him and they were now confident he would recover, eventually. He had thrown himself into his schoolwork recently, it was really the only thing he had to do. Emma was spending a lot of time with Jacques recently, so he didn’t see her much. He had bought that games console, but he only had a few games and so only played on it occasionally. And he really only saw Art and Beta team over the weekends, and even then usually not for very long. So he had spent most of his free time doing schoolwork, which had improved his grades dramatically, he was now predicted mostly B’s and A’s, but it hadn’t done his social life much good. The apartment was also very lonely since his dad had left, he had only stayed for a week, but Brian had enjoyed his time with him. And now SIN faced the threat of Saints he was becoming more and more nervous about going back to SIN, but he knew he had to, for himself, for Tony, for his mom, and for the whole world. So he showered, got dressed, and left for school.

	“Hi Brian,” Art said, “How you feeling?” Art was generally friendly to everyone, and as such if anyone had a problem they usually went to Art for help, it was amazing how world-weary a 14 year old could be. So after the incident with the Angel Art had been trying his best to make Alpha team forget what had happened. He didn’t actually know what happened, since SIN had taken the decision not to show the other teams the fight, but he knew whatever happened was bad, and it ended up with Tony being hospitalised. This had had a very negative effect on the other teams, most looked up to Tony, because he was the loudest, and as such most well known, member of Alpha team. So hearing that their favourite Eva pilot had just been nearly killed by an Angel seriously knocked their confidence.
	“Better,” Brian said, he had become more friendly with Art since the incident, although he still objected to his inappropriately timed phone calls. “I just tried to relax over the weekend, I just listened to music and chilled out.”
	“Sounds good,” Art said, “Hey, we got some visitors over the weekend,” he said, subtly nodding towards two new pupils sitting over the other side of the classroom from them.
	“Who are they?” Brian asked.
	“I heard they were the other two members of Charlie team, apparently they only got here yesterday, I’m gonna go talk to them, wanna come?”
	“I suppose so,” Brian got up out of his chair as Art hopped off his desk.
	“Hi there guys!” Art said cheerfully as he walked over, most of the rest of the pilots were clustered in a group discussion in the centre of the room, Emma was once again the focus. Brian could see her laughing and joking with the girls from Bravo and Charlie team, Dmitri was quite introverted and so he was just sitting at the back of the classroom sketching on a piece of paper. Nearly every time Brian saw Dmitri he was on his own sketching something, he obviously had talent, as he was always top of the class in Art.
	“Hi there,” One of the two new students said, Brian could immediately tell from his accent that he was Australian, “You fella’s from SIN as well?” He asked. The Australian seemed well built, he looked much older than 14, he had long, shoulder length hair, which was a dirty blonde colour, this gave him the appearance of a windswept surfer.
	“Yeah,” Art said, standing next to the two seated students with his hands in his pockets, “The names Arturo Ripman, but you can call me Art, I’m from Bravo team.” He stuck out his hand and the Australian shook it.
	“Nice to meet you,” He said, “My names Rick, Rick Powell, I’m gonna be joining Charlie team.”
	“Hello,” The student sitting next to him said, he had strong oriental features, “My name is Yu Ching Wang,” he said jerkily.
	“You’ll have to excuse him,” Rick said, “His English ain’t great, he’s from China you see.”
	“That’s okay,” Art said, “There’s no need to apologise,” Yu smiled at Art.
	“So who are you then?” Rick asked staring at Brian.
	“Me? Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself, I’m Br-”
	“This guy,” Art interrupted him, “Why you have here a genuine member of Alpha team,” Art said, trying his best to build up Brian’s introduction. “Scotsman, expert fighter, in and out of the Evangelion, and the person responsible for taking down, two, yes two,” Art said, dragging the introduction out, “Angels, Mr. Brian Robertson!” Art stepped to the side and stuck his arms out in the style of someone modeling a prize on a game show, and tried his best to sound like a cheering crowd. Rick stuck his hand out and Brian shook it.
	“A real man’s man then, eh Brian?” Rick asked.
	“Something like that,” he said, incredibly embarrassed.
	“I heard you lost a member of our team on the last mission, is that right?” Rick asked, with as little tact as humanly possible. These damn Australians, Art thought, they’ve got no decency.
	“Ixnay on the Loss-say,” Art said, under his breath, to Rick.
	“Sorry mate,” Rick said, “I didn’t really men to be so rude, it’s just that we thought it was some kind of sick joke the others were playing on us,” Rick said.
	“I know what you mean,” Brian said, remembering when he was told by Jan that they had to fight in test Eva’s, “No, it happened,” Brian said, but I’d rather not talk about it.
	“I understand mate, I wouldn’t really want to talk about what happened if I had lost a friend,” Rick said, brushing his long blonde hair away from his face.
	“Well he isn’t dead,” Brian said quickly.
	“He isn’t?” Rick said.
	“No, he’s just, well…” Brian didn’t really want to talk about Tony’s current condition, “Well, he’s recuperating in Hospital now.”
	“Oh, that’s good to hear,” Rick said, “The way everybody was talking about him it sounded like he had been killed.”
	“Well, I suppose we haven’t really talked about what happened that much,” Brian thought, rubbing his chin in thought. “And I suppose SIN not showing the video of the engagement didn’t help matters.”
	“No, we all imagined really bad things had happened,” Art said.
	“Okay class, take your seats,” The teacher announced as he walked into the classroom.
	“Well it was nice meeting you guys,” Rick said.
	“Yeah,” Brian said.
“Don’t worry you’ll probably see a lot more of me,” Art said, “I’m usually ringing the pilots for a social get together every now and then,” Art said, imitating swigging a bottle of beer.
	“Sounds good,” Rick said, “See ya.”
	“Goodbye,” Yu said.

	“Hi Guys,” Brian said as he sat down at the school dinner table with the other pilots.
	“Hi Brian,” They all chorused, except for Jacques, who seemed more interested in his food. The pilots usually all stuck together at school, as such the other pupils in the school normally kept their distance, preferring not to be seen with “the strange foreigners.”
	“What did you think of that quiz in Math’s,” Alice asked, she was the most outspoken in the female pilots, Brian was beginning to think that all Americans were born with a loud gene.
	“That was hard, I kept screwing up the Pythagoras Theorem,” Rebecca said.
	“Oh that’s easy,” Brian said, “It’s just A² + B² = C².”
	“Yeah I know that bit, but I kept messing up when you needed to do those reverse calculations, where you’ve got C but you need to work out A or B.”
	“Oh yeah,” The pilots chorused in agreement.
	“Surely you didn’t find that quiz hard,” Brian said, “It was easy.”
	“Well I found it hard,” Art said, a smile began to spread across his face, “And don’t call me Shirley,” Art spluttered and burst out laughing. The pilots erupted into a chorus of laughing and disgusted groans.
	“We’re not all as sad as you are,” Jacques said, cutting up a potato on his plate, “And we all don’t spend our whole day doing nothing but work.”
	“Jacques!” Emma shouted, trying to shut him up.
	“Are you trying to say something?” Brian said, leaning across the table and glaring at Jacques.
	“Oh God, here they go again,” Liza said, covering her eyes, and peeking out between her fingers at the two rivals.
	“Does this happen a lot?” Rick asked.
	“A little too often for my liking,” Rebecca said, “Why can’t those two just get on?”
	“Yeah, I’m trying to say you’re a bad Eva pilot,” Jacques said, leaning across the table as well, until his face was only a few inches from Brian’s.
	“What!?” Brian shouted, by now everyone in the hall was staring at the two boys.
	“Yeah, you can’t handle the fact that you’re a crap Eva pilot, so you bury yourself in work,” Jacques growled.
	“Brian, Jacques stop this now,” Emma said.
	“And exactly how many Angels have you taken out?” Brian said.
	“Brian stop it, don’t encourage him,” Emma pleaded.
	“You only got those Angels by luck,” Jacques said, “And where were you when Tony needed you?” 
	“You Bastard!” Brian roared.
	“Break it up you two,” A teacher shouted, the two boys sat down, glaring at each other.
	“I’m not hungry any more,” Jacques said, he stood up and walked off.
	“Yeah that’s right,” Brian shouted after him, “Just run away!”
	“Phew! Well at least that argument didn’t end in a fight,” Liza said.
	“Do their arguments usually end in fights?” Rick asked.
	“I can’t remember one that didn’t,” Art said.
	“He’s such a Jerk,” Brian grumbled to Emma, “I can’t believe he would say something like that.”
	“Don’t worry, he didn’t mean it,” Emma said, “He wasn’t there he doesn’t know what happened like you do. I’m glad I didn’t see what you saw,” Brian remembered running round the corner into that fateful street, seeing that awful Angel torturing Tony’s Eva.
	“He’s rotten to the core,” Brian said, “He knew what he was saying, he’s pure evil,” Emma seemed taken aback at that statement. “I wish that Angel had got him instead of Tony,” Brian said, an angry tone in his voice, “Then we’d see who would come to his rescue, I know I wouldn’t.” Brian felt a sharp pain in the side of his face, “Ow!” he cried out. Emma was standing up, looking incredibly angry, she just slapped me!? Brian thought, he was very confused at this. 
	“I don’t know how you can say that,” She fumed, “I would never wish that on anyone.”
	“But, I… er…” Brian struggled to say something, but the pain of his throbbing cheek, and the fact that he had no clue what had angered her so much, kept distracting him.
	“And for your information,” Emma said, picking up her dinner tray, “That’s my boyfriend your talking about.” Emma turned and marched off after Jacques. For a minute the pilots sat in silence for a while, trying to take in this new revelation.
	“What!?” Brian shouted, the whole dinner hall went quiet and stared at him.

Episode 7: The Nature of the Beast

	“Hi Brian,” Lily said, “Good to see you again.”
	“You too,” Brian said smiling back at her.
	“It’s been a while, you feeling okay?” She asked.
	“Yeah, I’m fine now,” Brian said.
	“And your school grades have improved a lot too,” Lily said approvingly.
	“What can I say, I’m a natural,” Brian joked.
	“And your looking well Emma,” Lily said, Emma did seem different, normally she was reserved and nervous, but she seemed to have become more confident over the time off.
	“Thanks,” Emma said.
	“And well, your looking the same as ever Jacques,” Lily said to Jacques, who was standing close to Emma.
	“Thanks, I think,” Jacques said. Brian stifled a laugh, trying to avoid another fight with Jacques. He was still amazed that those two were dating, no wonder they had spent so much time together during the leave from SIN. Brian knew why Emma was looking so happy, and why she had became more confident recently, it was because she was in love. How can she be in love with Jacques? He thought, but he remembered the things she had said before.
	“He’s just, he’s just hiding his emotions, I think, He doesn’t like people knowing how he really feels, so he cover it up by being unemotional and vicious to those around him,” Emma said, “Well, at least that’s what I think.” Maybe there is a side to Jacques I haven’t seen, well, so long as he makes Emma happy, I don’t mind him going out with her, Brian thought.
	“Please take a seat,” Lily motioned to the seats around her office, there were four now, she’s obviously learned from last time when me and Jacques had to stand up, Brian thought. They each took a seat.
	“First I would like to congratulate you all for coming back time and again to SIN, despite the amount of things you’ve seen while working for us,” Lily looked round at all of the pilots, “You could have all left whenever you wanted, but you stayed, thank you very much.”
	“Hey, who can resist the chance to save the world?” Brian said rhetorically, Lily smiled at him.
	“Well I have an information update for you all,” Lily said, “We have identified the group responsible for sabotaging Eva-Artillery, they appear to be some kind of highly religious terrorist group, calling themselves Saints, they believe that the Angels actually are Angels.”
	“Actually,” Brian interrupted, “Why are the Angels called Angels?”
	“Well, we don’t know, NERV named them that, so we just kept that name here,” Lily explained. “Due to this new threat there will be an increased security presence around the base, you probably noticed the UN soldiers around the base today.”
	“Yeah, I was wondering what they were doing here,” Brian said.
	“The UN is working on infiltrating Saints to destroy them but until then we must treat them as a serious threat, we saw what they were capable of doing if they put their mind to it, and we still don’t know if there are any more agents within SIN.”
	“Wait a minute,” Emma said, “Are you saying that it was someone within SIN who sabotaged Tony’s Eva?” 
	“Yes,” Lily said reluctantly, “Ana was a member of Saints.” The pilots all gasped in shock.
	“But she…” Brian tried to come to terms with this news, “But, she was a good friend, a good person, why would she do that to Tony?”
	“It was a display of Saints determination,” Lily said, “Ana was able to build up our confidence and become good friends with us despite the fact that she thought we were in league with the Devil.” The pilots still seemed to be shocked, this certainly is a time of revelations we’re living in, Lily thought. “Due to what happened to Tony, Alpha team is currently one man down, and his Eva is still undergoing extensive repairs, as such I recommend you get in as much training as you can to make up for this handicap. SIN has just received a VR training booth that should allow you to train as effectively as in the training ground. Apparently Jan became worried that repairing structural damage to the training ground was costing too much,” Lily stared at Jacques and Brian.
	“What?” Brian said, completely oblivious to the obvious implication.
	“Well that’s about all new that’s happened,” Lily said, standing up, “I hope you take my advice and get some training in, and remember you can come and see me whenever you like.” The phone on Lily’s desk rang, “Hello?” she said, the pilots sat and stared at her, Lily waved her hand for them to leave, the pilots began to get up and walk out of the room. “Wait!” She called after them, the pilots froze, “Yes, they are here,” Lily said down the phone, “Uh huh, yeah, I’ll send them to you right away, thank you, goodbye Director Cardinal.” Lily put the phone down, the pilots were still standing in the doorway, waiting to be told what to do. “That was Director Cardinal,” Lily said, “Emma, Jacques, she wants to see you.”

	“Please take a seat,” Eve said, she swept her hand across her desk indicating the seats in front, Jan was standing by her side looking stern. Emma and Jacques sat down nervously. “Now first let me say that you are both currently doing an excellent job, and that I do not hold any of you responsible for what happened to the pilot of Eva-Artillery.”
	“Oh, er, Thank you,” Emma managed, confused as to whether she should be feeling offended or proud from this compliment.
	“But, I have recently heard that you are currently in a relationship, is this right?” Eve looked at them questioningly.
	“Yes,” Jacques said, sounding cautious, “But do you really need to know about this?”
	“Yes, I do,” Eve said flatly, “You see mental instabilities in all of you have led to the most problems for SIN and I. As such I was planning to make you call off this relationship, to avoid any further mental problems should something happen to one of you. Eva-Shields pilot, for instance, has suffered the worst from what happened to the pilot of Eva-Artillery, because he was so close to him. I believe it would be best for you two, and SIN, if you ended this relationship,” Eve said. Emma stared in shock, she had never even felt the need to disobey any orders, but now she was compelled to do so, leaving Jacques now would break her heart.
	“You can’t be serious!?” Jacques bawled, “You may be our boss but that doesn’t give you the right to play God with our lives!” Emma looked up at Jacques in admiration, it was the first time he had acknowledged their relationship publicly, and at the same time he was defending her.
	“I said I ‘was’ planning to make you call off this relationship,” Eve said, putting emphasis on the ‘was,’ “But as my second in command has pointed out, it is pointless trying to create a military team without any kind of friendship forming within the team. As such I am not going to interfere with your lives,” Eve said, with an air of finality, Emma sighed in relief. “However,” Eve said abruptly, “Once Bravo team’s Eva’s arrive I will be transferring you, Jacques, to Bravo team, this will prevent this relationship from interfering with confrontations with Angels, and should hopefully curb your growing rivalry with the pilot of Eva-Shield.”
	“Huh?” Jacques said in disbelief, “That’s nearly as bad as telling us to split up, when I’m fighting alongside Emma I feel driven to protect her, if you transfer me to Bravo I’ll lose that drive,” Jacques said trying to reason with Eve.
	“And it is precisely that drive that got your Eva seriously damaged in your last encounter with an Angel,” Emma remembered seeing Jacques dive in front of her to protect her from the particle beam. Did he have feelings for me even then? She thought. “And I will not compromise with this decision,” Eve said sternly, Emma looked at Jan, hoping for some kind of help from the Executive Director, he shrugged his shoulders hopelessly. “Don’t worry, Bravo team will be deployed with Alpha for their first few engagements, so you will be able to see Emma still. You may go now Jacques, Emma stay here, I still want to talk to you,” Jacques looked across at Emma, shrugged his shoulders and left. As the door swung shut behind Jacques Eve fixed Emma with a steely gaze.
	“What do you want to talk about?” Emma asked nervously.
	“We have received word from Miss. Alvara that you are being kept behind a year in school, is this true?” Eve asked.
	“Yes,” Emma answered, still completely ignorant to what the point of this interrogation was.
	“So this would mean you are a year older than the other pilots, making you 15, correct?”
	“I suppose so, but officially I’m still 14.”
	“How is this?”
	“Well when I was found after second impact,” Emma saw Eve twitch nervously, she paused, startled by this crack in the stone hard exterior of this woman, and then quickly carried on to avoid offending Eve, “Er, the rescue team couldn’t find anyone who knew who I was. Because they had to fill out some kind of form, reporting me as an orphan, they had to put don a birth date, so they put down the date that they found me, which was a few days after second impact. Nobody knows my real birthday, so that date has just stuck,” Emma explained.
	“So how did you end up in the year above the other pilots in England?” Eve asked, looking decidedly unnerved.
	“Well when I enrolled for comprehensive school I explained that I was actually a year older. Is there some point to this?”
	“No not really,” Eve said, Emma could see that the woman was finding it hard to retain her composure, when she glanced across at Jan she could see he had broken out in a cold sweat. Emma was becoming more and more worried. “I just want to get to know my pilots better, I feel I could greater increase your battle performance if I knew what you were like,” Eve said, it was obvious that she was lying. “That will be all,” Eve said, “You can leave now,” Emma got up nervously and walked down the long office and out of the door.
	“So its true then,” Jan said, “She was born before second impact.”
	“What does this mean, according to our sources inside NERV people born before second impact should be unable to synchronise with an Eva.”
	“You said that her performance is dropping, and that she is having nightmares, perhaps these are the first stages of rejection from the Eva?”
	“No, whenever people have tried to synchronise with an Eva and they were born before second impact the Eva immediately rejected them. And also Emma’s synchronisation ratio is gradually increasing, she has an average synch ratio of 66% at the minute. No, what is happening with her we have no clue about it.”
	“What should we do about it then?”
	“We will watch her for the moment, she is a potential wealth of information,” Eve looked up, and Jan saw a glint in her eye, “In her is the power for me to surpass NERV,” a smile spread across her face.

	“So are you the new head technician?” Brian asked. He looked down, and swallowed nervously, when he was in the Eva he never realised quite how big they were, but now, sitting on his Eva’s shoulder, he really wished they weren’t so tall. How did I ever agree to come out here? He thought.
	“I certainly am,” the Frenchman said, he looked in his early 40’s, with thick black hair, and a large black mustache covering most of his mouth. “I hear there was a bit of a hoo-hah with your last head tech, sounds very odd.”
	“Yes it was a bit strange,” Brian said. Part of him still didn’t believe that Ana had done what she had done, he had come up with several theories, like she was brainwashed, or replaced by a look alike, but he knew these were just there to try and make him accept those awful acts. “You never said your name,” Brian said hopefully, he had noticed already that the man seemed to wander off into his own world every now and then, he had asked the man his name three times already, and each time the man had started talking about a completely different topic.
	“I must say I’m still amazed by all this,” the man said as he stood up and observed the Eva’s head, Brian groaned, “And you really pilot this thing, er…” he looked round at Brian a quizzical look on his face. Brian realised he wanted his name.
	“Oh, me, my name’s Brian, Brian Robertson,” Brian said.
	“So you really pilot these things?” The man said with an astounded tone in his voice.
	“Yeah, I have several times already,” Brian said.
	“Amazing,” the man said, “I’m Jean, by the way, Jean Grier. Can you believe we’ve been talking all this time and we didn’t know each others names?” Jean laughed.
	“Yeah, amazing,” Brian said, resisting the temptation to shout loudly at him.
	“Who ever thought mankind would have the technology to create something like this?”
	“What exactly are the Eva’s?” Brian asked, as he said it he was amazed the question hadn’t occurred to him before.
	“I don’t know exactly,” Jean said, “The Eva’s weren’t created by SIN, and I’m relatively new here, I just used to work in the UN military before coming here.”
	“Really?” Brian said, “So who did create the Eva’s?”
	“Apparently they were created under the supervision of the UN council in various secret factories around Europe. From what I know from having a look around them is that they appear to be some kind of cybernetic lifeform, I’m amazed they were able to create a living thing so large.”
	“Wow,” Brian feigned interest, he had worked all this out before, it was obvious that there was something more to the Eva’s, but Eve was certainly keeping that secret. No wonder, Brian thought, I wouldn’t trust this guy with a secret, he’d get so excited with it he’d tell the first person he met. But knowing that the Eva’s were constructed in secret, and not in SIN, intrigued Brian, it was clear to him now that there was something else about the Eva’s, and whatever it is it must be big if they think the people piloting them can’t be trusted with the secret.

	Emma broke off the kiss with Jacques and returned to sitting on her seat. They were sitting in the base cafeteria, which was basically deserted at the minute, some UN soldiers had came in before to buy some food but they had left as soon as they had got their goods. Emma liked it that everyone knew that she and Jacques were dating, it meant that she no longer needed to hide her feelings for him any more.
	“Did you really need to tell everyone about us?” Jacques asked, as he picked at his sandwich.
	“Why, do you have a problem with people knowing about us?” Emma said as she smiled across the table at him.
	“Well I would have preferred it if you hadn’t told Brian,” Jacques said.
	“You have to stop fighting with him,” Emma said, “What did he ever do to you in the first place?”
	“Well, nothing, but there’s just something about him that I don’t like,” Jacques said, and took a bite out of his sandwich, “He’s a bit of a loser really,” he said with his mouth full.
	“No he isn’t,” Emma said, “I know, your just jealous really.”
	“What!?” Jacques exclaimed, spraying bits of lettuce and breadcrumbs all over the table.
	“Yeah, you’re just jealous of him, ‘cos he took out two Angels and you haven’t even got one yet,” Emma laughed, and Jacques realised that she was just winding him up.
	“Hey you have only taken down one of them yourself,” Jacques retorted haughtily.
	“You don’t need to be so serious all the time,” Emma laughed, and they both smiled, “Your so easy to wind up,” she leaned across the table and they kissed again. “Urgh, mayonnaise!” she cried, remarking at some of the offending foodstuff left on Jacques’ lips from the sandwich. Jacques laughed. They sat in silence for a while, as Jacques finished off his can of lemonade.
	“Thanks for standing up against Eve back there,” Emma said at last.
	“Hey, she was bossing me around as well,” Jacques said, “I was just doing what I thought was right.”
	“Well I think you were very brave,” Emma said.
	“You sound like my mother saying that,” Jacques said, “And anyway, she has no right to boss us around. I’m still not happy that I’m getting transferred to Bravo team.”
	“Well, there’s nothing really you can do about that,” Emma said sympathetically, “Bravo are going to be sortied with Alpha for their first few missions anyway, so don’t worry. And there’s going to be nothing stopping us seeing each other between missions,” she reached across the table and squeezed his hand.
	“Yeah, you’re right,” He smiled back at her.
	“So tell me, when you flung yourself in the way of that particle beam, did you like me then, is that why you did it?”
	“Yeah,” Jacques began to blush, Emma found it hilarious that the unshakable Jacques Martier was embarrassed by something, she started to laugh. “Hey, what’s so funny,” he demanded, trying to cover up his reddening cheeks.
	And then the alarms started to sound.

	“What?” Jan shouted down the phone, “How the hell did it get to Paris?”
	“What’s going on?” Lily rushed into the control room, alarms still blaring, “What is it, is it another Angel?”
	“Yes,” Jan said, “It appeared out of nowhere in the centre of Paris.”
	“Paris!” Lily exclaimed.
	“What is it, is it another Angel?” Josh asked as he rushed into the control room.
	“Yes, in Paris,” Lily and Jan said simultaneously.
	“Paris!” Josh and his team of data analyst’s exclaimed.
	“Yes, Paris,” Lily said, “Now take your seats, we’ve got another battle to co-ordinate.”
	
	Brian was looking down, watching the world pass by below him between the breaks in the clouds. Just like before, Brian thought. He didn’t like having to pilot the Eva’s, especially without Tony’s support any more, but he felt bound to it, by some kind of unwritten rule or code of honour. And he knew he was fighting to protect something, or really everything, he was fighting to protect everything. And he knew he was the most experienced of all the pilots now, he didn’t want to unnecessarily burden anybody else with what he had to do. He could hear the wind whistling past the plane that was carrying him, he remembered Tony’s words.
	“If you stand still long enough, the wind will blow the world by,” Tony had said. Brian smiled. You could know Tony for most of your life and he could still surprise you.
	“Paris is currently being evacuated,” Lily said, “Bear in mind that the evacuation won’t be complete by the time you get there, you’ll be fighting the Angel while civilian’s are still present, try to keep the casualties to a minimum.”
	“You mean we could kill people?” Emma said.
	“Yes, but the Angel has already destroyed a lot of the centre of Paris, killing a lot of people, just remember that the people you save by killing this Angel will far outweigh the number of people who might die today.”
	“That still doesn’t make it right,” Emma said.
	“Whoa, just look at the mess,” Brian said, up ahead through a large gap in the clouds he saw a large purple cross shaped explosion erupt from the centre of Paris. Large plumes of black smoke billowed up from the huge city. Paris had grown to a massive size over the years, the centre of Paris, usually referred to as old Paris, was now completely encircled with ranks of skyscrapers and clusters of business districts. “Wow, that’s the centre of the French economy,” Brian said, “Imagine the damage that Angel could do to the whole country, just by destroying Paris.”
	“Hey, shut up!” Jacques said, “That Angel is going down,” Jacques said defiantly, “Nobody messes with my home town and gets away with it.” Brian looked to his right and saw the broad winged plane that carried Jacques’ Eva, her saw the Eva reach to the scabbard hanging by its side and pull the large sword from its sheath. Brian remembered the envy he felt as he heard Jean talking to Jacques about his new weapon.
	“This is a prog sword,” Jean had said.
	“Whoa, just like a samurai sword,” Jacques had said, marveling at the long blade laid in front of his Eva.
	“Yes, a Katana actually,” the French technician had said, “It appears that your previous head technician had also been delaying the production of new Eva weapons, however it didn’t take me to long to get this working.”
	“So I just use this like an ordinary sword?”
	“Yes, but be very careful, it’s even more deadly than a prog knife, if you swing it the wrong way you’ll take your arm off.”
	“Drop me now!” Jacques shouted.
	“What?” Lily asked.
	“I can see the Angel,” Jacques said, “Its nearly right below me, if you can drop me now then I can get the drop on him, no pun intended, and end this thing quickly,” Jacques said tightening his grip on the hilt of the blade. Brian looked down and he could see the Angel below, it looked like a large grey person rampaging through the city. It had a featureless face, adorned only by a black sphere in the centre of its face, and very long tentacles stretching out from the back of its head swaying gently in the wind. It was casually laying waste to the city, it was standing next to the Eiffel Tower, which already looked like it had taken a beating, and slowly turning round. Occasionally the black sphere on its face would glow and a building would be obliterated by one of those cross-shaped explosions.
	“Okay, drop him now,” Lily said. Brian saw Jacques’ Eva drop immediately and went soaring down to the ground.
	Jacques let out a roar of anger as he fell down, he could see the Angel right below him. He raised the prog sword over his head, ready to strike. If I time this right I’ll split him in two, Jacques thought, that’ll show that Brian who’s the better pilot. As he neared the Angel it looked up, Jacques realised it had spotted him. It tried to side step. Too late, Jacques thought, reveling in the moment, feeling the Angel’s life in his hands. He swung downwards.
	As he landed his sword cut straight from the Angel’s right shoulder to its right hip, slicing the right half of its body off. Blood spayed out from the huge wound as Jacques’ Eva landed next to the Angel, hunkered down to protect itself from the impact of the fall. 
	“Now that’s how it’s done!” Jacques shouted. As the right half of the Angel fell down towards the ground it turned black and dissolved, as if it were sand being blown in the wind, it had all disappeared before it hit the floor. But then the wound on the Angel, where it’s right arm, leg and the right half of its torso used to be, began to quiver and growth’s like tumors began to appear rapidly all over the wound. “Huh?” Jacques said, mystified by this. Suddenly a whole new section of the Angel’s body shot out of the wound to replace the severed parts. “What!” Jacques shouted.
	“My God it’s regenerating!” Lily shouted.
	“That’s impossible, no Angel can regenerate that fast!” Josh said in disbelief.
	The Angel span round and caught Eva-Assault full in the chest with its fist as Eva-Assault tried to stand up to parry the blow. Jacques felt the impact and his Eva was sent flying backwards. His Eva hit the Eiffel Tower, smashing straight through it. Jacques cried out in pain as his Eva landed on the ground, the remains of Paris’ iconic tower strewn around him. He started to get up, as he did he looked up, he saw the Angel appear over the rubble of the ruined landmark, the sphere in the centre of its face began to glow.
	“Okay, I’ve got a problem,” Jacques said.

Ending Theme: Metallica - Fuel