From: eltf@hotmail.com (Eliot Lefebvre)
Subject: [Eva][Fanfic] Neon Epoch Evangelion: Episode 11
X-Original-Date: 28 Oct 2002 05:11:34 -0800

That sugarcane, that tasted good, that's cinnamon, that's a pre-story 
warning:

This fanfic is an original take on GAINAX's "Shin Seiki Evangelion."
It contains alternative characters, plots, and a different overriding
internal logic.  It is intended, from the beginning, to be different.
This includes different Children and different histories.  In short: if 
the mere thought of someone other than Shinji in the cockpit of EVA-01 
makes you queasy, you are in -entirely- the wrong place.  Any and all 
flames stemming from this alteration will be mocked mercilessly.  You 
have been warned.

Looking into the future, it seems painfully clear that I will be 
finished with the final episode long before I run out of things to 
post.  (Should probably finish today, actually.)  So we don't have to 
worry about that.  Posting should conclude sometime next year, though 
their might be some pre-determined breaks - no huge gaps like before, 
though.

And I continue to receive a distinct -dearth- of hate mail.  This 
really does seem to be working.

                                  ]++[

               ]+ ELECTRONIC TRANSCENDENCE PRODUCTIONS +[
                                presents

                         ]+ NEON       EPOCH +[
                   ]+ E  V  A  N  G  E  L  I  O  N +[

                    ]+ EPISODE 11: AUTHORITY SONG +[

                     By Eliot "Lostfactor" Lefebvre

             Based off of "Shin Seiki Evangelion" by GAINAX

                                  ]++[

"We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for
blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."
- JOHN 10:30

                                  ]++[

Emerald eyes fluttering opening slowly, Nieve's morning began as most
of her mornings did, the sharp and piercing beep of the alarm clock
waking her from a series of nightmares about falling into the depths of
something unspeakably tall and malicious.  She took a moment to flex
her limbs gently, feeling the fabric of her sheet rub smoothly against
her skin as she wanted, reminding herself that she had control over
where she went once again, then she rolled over and extended her arm
just far enough to hit the snooze button, less out of a desire to go
back to sleep and more because of the simple fact that her alarm clock
was propped on the edge of her nightstand so that the only button she
could reach from her bed was the snooze button.  It meant that she had
to get up to turn it off but didn't have to listen to it blare the
whole time, the best of both worlds in her opinion.

Blinking a few times, Nieve pushed herself to her feet, letting the
blanket slide off her body as her eyes began to focus once again,
taking in the pale yellow of the walls with slightly darker trim,
nightstand sitting beside her bed, the closet at the opposite end of
the room, her dresser near the closet, various magazines strewn about
of the ground.  The sun was already beginning to filter into the room,
and Nieve winced away from the light, still adjusting to the dimly-lit
room, taking a moment before the light was no longer painful to stare
at.  "Mornings suck," she muttered to herself, glancing down at her
legs, resisting the urge to think of them as fat as she stood,
reminding herself that nobody else thought anything like that about her.

Tugging her nightshirt down so that it went as far down her hips as she
felt it could safely go, Nieve half-walked and half-stumbled to the
alarm clock, flipping the small switch on the top that turned off the
alarm.  She took a quick glance at the time, making sure that she'd
moved fast enough so that she was still in control of the schedule
she'd set for herself, then took a quick look at herself in the mirror
situated over her desk, blinking a few more times as the sun streamed
in through the window.  "Hair," she muttered, still feeling half asleep
as she grabbed her brush, straightening the tangled red mass into
something slightly more presentable.

As the brush worked through her hair, Nieve's brain began to kick into
gear once again, beginning to remember the previous day just as a dull
ache started seeping through her back.  She was still smarting from
when the Angel had slammed her into the wall, the armor having cracked
and frayed just enough to let some of the white-hot fingers of magma
reach in and scrape along her back.  Her thoughts, however, only
briefly touched upon the reasons for the minor stinging burns across
her back, more concerned with Eiko's words and the way the other girl
had seemed to regard Neil.  "Just wait," she whispered, noting to
herself that her voice sounded normal once again and undulled by sleep
as she reached down to her desk and grabbed a small object, palming in
and taking a deep breath.  "I've got the relationship in my hands."

Opening her door quietly, she glanced down the hall towards Misato's
room, making sure that the elder woman still hadn't woken up as well as
making sure that Neil was still in his room.  She smirked, then heard a
small noise coming from the kitchen, and her head whipped around to see
Pen-Pen emerging from the refridgerator, looking somewhat sleepy before
he glanced over towards Nieve and blinked.  His beak opened slightly as
though he was about to make a noise, but Nieve shook her head
vigorously, then placed her finger firmly against her lips, the gesture
obvious.  The penguin cocked its head to one side, somewhat confused,
then turned and waddled over to the larger fridge, apparently willing
to listen to Nieve.

Letting out a quiet sigh of relief, Nieve made one last glance down the
hall, then slowly walked over to Neil's room, her hand gingerly
touching the doorknob as though she expected it to be hot.  Letting her
hand curl around it slowly, she turned the knob gently, wincing at the
slight rattling noise that it made, feeling it stop turning and waiting
for an instant before pushing the door inward.  The hinges on the door,
mercifully, were new enough that they hadn't developed any kind of a
squeak, and Nieve opened the door just enough to slip inside of the
room, then shut it behind her, taking another deep breath before she
turned towards Neil.

Neil was still asleep, lying face-up on his bed, blanket clutched
around him as though it had been deathly cold the previous night.  The
sun was streaming onto him, light dancing along the low-necked black
shirt that he was wearing and catching a few strands of his blonde hair
in the process as his head tossed back and forth.  Nieve couldn't help
but smile at the still-sleeping boy, and tucking the small object from
her desk into the spandex of her underwear with a quick hand movement
she stepped over to his bed, looking down at the boy as he tossed back
and forth.  "Cutie," she muttered to herself, kneeling next to the bed,
trying to get a closer look at the boy's face.

His head rolled back in her direction, and Nieve could see that to her
surprise his expression was one of agony, face twisted into a grimace
and eyes shut tightly as he tossed back and forth.  Nieve frowned for a
moment, unsure of what to do, wishing that there was some way that she
could take control of the boy's dreams and make everything all right,
that she could fix the problem somehow.  Sighing, she stared for a
moment longer, then reached over to him, letting her fingers gently
brush against his shoulders.  "Neil," she whispered, hoping that she
could wake him up peacefully.  "Neil, wake up.  You're having a
nightmare."  She waited for a moment, the boy's thrashing continuing,
head tossing back and forth as though he was trying to shake the
thoughts out of his head.  "Neil," she repeated somewhat louder,
shaking the boy's shoulder.  "Neil!"

Without warning, Neil's green eyes flew open, and the boy lurched
upright into a sitting position, his breaths coming quickly and
raggedly, seeming so shocked that he didn't even notice as his quick
movements forced Nieve's hands off of his shoulder.  Nieve watched as
he breathed, leaning forward against the bed and his entire back moving
up and down with every breath.  Frowning, Nieve reached out and touched
his back gently, and Neil whipped around, staring at her with an
unreadable expression for just a moment before he visibly calmed.
"Nieve," he said, breath still coming raggedly as he looked at the
girl.  "I heard your voice.  You were calling to me."

Nieve nodded, rising from the floor and sitting next to him on the bed,
putting one arm around his shoulders and feeling a warm rush begin to
move through her body.  "I was," she replied, rubbing his shoulder
slightly with one hand.  "You looked as though you were having a
nightmare, and I was worried about you.  I woke you up."

"That's not it," replied Neil, shaking his head and leaning forward for
a moment, looking as though something was frustrating him terribly.
"There was something else.  You were saying something about..."  He
paused, then shook his head again and looked towards Nieve, appearing
slightly more calm but still obviously haggard.  "Never mind.  It's
just a nightmare.  Why were you in here, anyways?  Was I making too
much noise?"

Shaking her head, Nieve felt a minor rush of nervousness, her free hand
involuntarily moving towards the place on her hip where her underwear
held the item in place.  "I didn't even now you were having a nightmare
when I came in," she replied, feeling her own voice grow a little husky
as though to match Neil's.  Taking a deep breath, she looked towards
the boy, reminding herself that she wasn't doing anything wrong and
that she was doing what she wanted, looking into the boy's green eyes
as the sunlight filtered through his hair.  "Neil... have you ever
thought about what you want your first time to be like?"

Cocking his head to one side, Neil looked as though he didn't
understand the question for a moment, then his eyes widened and he
blushed a deep crimson.  "Um... not really," he replied, instinctively
gripping the blanket and trying to bunch it up around his lower torso,
feeling his body react to the thoughts that the question sent through
his mind even as he didn't want it to.  "I try not to think about stuff
like that.  It'll happen when it happens."

"You're too complacent somtimes," noted Nieve, sinking her head away
from Neil and smiling, hoping that her hair was hiding the nervousness
in her eyes.  She reminded herself to be steady, to not lose sight of
the fact that she didn't want to lose Neil, that he was a wonderful
person and that she was making a valid choice.  "See, me, I think about
what I want it to be like.  I -know- what I want it to be like.  And
you've probably noticed that I'm not someone who likes to let things
slide like you do."  Closing her eyes for just a second, Nieve turned
her gaze back towards Neil, smiling at him still, trying to peer into
the depths of his green eyes.  "What would you like it to be like?
Just thinking about it now."

Giving a shrug, Neil closed his eyes for a moment, feeling guilty for
humoring Nieve but also knowing that he'd feel guilty if he didn't at
least give her a fair chance.  "I... I don't know," he replied after a
second or two of thought, feeling himself blush even as he began to
think about the fantasies that he'd had, the compounded guilt from
every dream he'd ever had about a woman hitting him almost
simultaneously.  "I've never really given it any thought.  I suppose...
I would want it to be somebody nice.  Somebody who likes me."  He
shrugged, opening his eyes and doing his best to look normal.  "That's
all I can think of.  Somebody who likes me."

"I like you, Neil," Nieve offered, her voice now noticably more husky
than before as she edged closer to Neil, her free hand moving from her
hip and slipping underneath the covers gently.  Neil stared at Nieve,
eyes wide, as though he were watching something from a movie play
itself back in real life.  "Would you be happy if it was me?  Would you
want to make that kind of a comittment with me?"

"Nieve, I..."  Neil stammered, backing away from her slightly and
clamping one hand down on top of her hand beneath the covers.  Nieve
frowned slightly, already feeling somewhat vexed by the situation, but
she tried her best to restore her prior expression, knowing that her
being angry would only scare Neil off irrevocably.  "Nieve... we've
only been together for a week now.  It seems awfully fast to be
bringing something like this up."

The girl forced herself to ignore the sensation that Neil's words gave
her, the sudden red spike of tightness that drove through her chest as
he spoke.  "I'm just asking," she asked, sounding as innocent as she
could, trying to keep her expression unchanged as she edged back
towards Neil, closing the gap between them once again as the blankets
shifted around them.  "Be honest.  Haven't you ever thought about it?
Haven't you ever -wanted- to, even if you didn't want to deal with the
consequences?"

A memory of the night that he and Nieve first kissed shot through
Neil's mind, and he was suddenly certain that the girl knew everything
that had happened, that she wasn't in the dark about all of his little
perversions.  "N-no," he stammered, trying once again to back off from
the girl and feeling incredibly guilty, as though he'd violated her
even without touching her.  "I wouldn't do that to you, Nieve.  I
wouldn't want to objectify you like that, like you were some kind of...
I don't know.  No.  No.  I respect you too much."

Once again, Neil's words stung entirely unintentionally, and Nieve
frowned for a split-second before moving closer to him once again, her
mouth opening to speak once again.  Then a loud crash came from down
the hall, and both Children glanced at one another momentarily, their
discussion quickly shifting to the backseat against the instincts
they'd begun to develop from piloting the Evas.  Nieve reluctantly let
go of Neil as both of them rushed to the door of his room, almost
hurling it open and glancing down the hallway, half-expecting Misato to
have injured herself.

Instead, Misato was simply walking out of her room, looking
surprisingly well-composed for the morning, a short khaki skirt
wrapping around her waist and a tight black shirt peeking out from
beneath her red uniform coat.  "Morning, kids," noted Misato, stepping
past both of them and waving almost idly, giving Pen-Pen a quick
scratch on the side of his head before removing the cereal from the
cupboard.  "This is new.  You two are usually up long before I am."
She paused, then glanced back at them, grinning somewhat sinisterly.
"Did you two do something that I probably shouldn't know about?"

"No!" exclaimed Neil, blushing a deep red and shaking his head
vigorously, not noticing the pained expression that came over Nieve's
face as he spoke.  Nieve, for her part, hid her face behind Neil's
back, grateful for the first time that he was tall enough to allow her
to do such things, her hand gravitating once again to the spot on her
hip.  Closing her eyes for a moment, she turned and followed Neil as he
stepped into the kitchen, looking rather sheepishly towards Misato.
"Nieve just came in to talk.  Nothing happened."

Misato smiled at Neil, then reached over and tapped him lightly on the
nose before returning to the process of pouring herself a bowl of
cereal.  "Not my place to judge.  But I was sixteen too, y'know - I
remember what it was like."  Neil felt another wave of guilt move
through him at the remark, knowing that it was supposed to be joking
but that it felt more like an accusation in light of Misato's
attractiveness.  The woman finished with the cereal and handed it off
to him, stepping over to the table.  "So, are you two going to be ready
in time?"

Everyone froze for a moment, Neil's expression turning from embarassed
to forlorn, his motions slowing slightly as he retrieved a bowl from
one of cupboards and grabbed a second one for Nieve.  Nieve hesitated
for a moment, then reached out and touched his shoulder gently, knowing
that something was very wrong even as Misato let out a small gasp.  "I
forgot to tell you again, didn't I?" she asked, sounding as though Neil
had broken her heart.  Neil said nothing, and Misato stood from her
cereal, stepping over to Neil and putting her own hand on his
shoulder.  "Neil, I'm sorry.  I'm so sorry."  She paused for a moment,
then winked at Nieve and turned the boy around, unintentionally pulling
Nieve's hand off of his shoulder.  "I'm sorry that you can -fall- for
something like that!"

Staring at Misato blankly, it took Neil a second to realize what was
going on, and he managed a weak smile, pouring his cereal and shaking
his head.  "I'm sorry, Misato, I just don't find that particularly
funny," he said, stepping over to the refridgerator and retrieving the
milk as Nieve watched, feeling as though she'd lost control of the
situation entirely.  "It reminds me of... of something that my father
used to do."

"Oh."  Misato paused, and she and Neil exchanged a look, one that Nieve
almost wished she could have been a part in simply because she knew she
was missing part of the story.  Almost without realizing it, her left
hand clenched into a fist, her frustration at the situation.  Not only
had she failed to get anything accomplished in Neil's room before, she
couldn't stop Misato from making upset, and she didn't know enough to
know why he was upset in the first place.  "I'm sorry, Neil.  That
wasn't fair of me."

"It's okay," he replied, sounding somewhat more energetic than before,
then glancing down at his cereal for a moment, then pouring in the milk
and leaving it behind for Nieve.  Nieve stood in place for a moment,
still trying to figure out how to get the morning back under control,
her hand closing against her hip once again as a bit of strength.
Taking a deep breath, she poured herself a bowl of cereal, resolving
that she had to be patient, that such things took time.

                                  ]++[

Breakfast, by necessity, wound up being somewhat quiet, although Nieve
wanted to say something to Neil through the entire meal.  She wanted to
continue their discussion from the bedroom, to try and get him to admit
that he was attracted to her, but with Misato sitting and watching them
it seemed almost unspeakably uncomfortable.  Then Neil had asked to
take a shower more or less immediately after breakfast, and Nieve had
been left alone to her own devices as Misato went back to her room to
sort out a few final papers before she went into Central Dogma.  She
distantly heard when Neil emerged from the bathroom, but she knew that
it would be better to wait this time.

The words he had said to her about respecting her too much still stung
slightly as she looked over her body, reminded herself that he must be
attracted to her, that he wouldn't have kissed her in the first place
if he hadn't wanted to.  She wanted to believe that about herself, but
it felt rather difficult in light of how easily the situation in his
bedroom had gone out of her control, how eager he had seemed to deny
that he had any attraction to her the second that Misato showed up.
"He was just trying to look like a gentleman, though," she muttered,
pulling on a rather short green skirt, one that she'd managed to bleed
out of Kaji before they'd set sail for Tokyo-3.  It flowed nicely while
being short enough to be revealing, exactly the sort of thing that she
wanted for today.

As she buttoned a low-cut red blouse and listened distantly to the
noises of Neil dressing in the next room, she forced herself to remain
calm, her breathing already coming slightly heavier as she reviewed her
plans in her mind, figuring out what she wanted to do, how she was
going to approach her.  One of the signs of being in command of a
situation was being versatile, something that her mother had taught her
years before and that she'd remembered despite her relative youth at
the time.  "Eiko won't get him," she whispered to herself, grabbing the
object that she'd tucked against her panties from her desk once again
and slipping it into the pocket of her skirt, closing her eyes and
reminding herself to be brave.

Waiting for a moment until the noises of getting dressed faded from
Neil's room, Nieve once again opened the door to her own and stepped
out, glancing down the hall to see if Misato was watching her or not.
There was no sign of the woman, and smirking to herself Nieve turned
and opened Neil's room, ignoring the distinctly wet scent of steam and
the mild perfume of the shampoo as she stepped towards the boy, who was
still busy brushing his hair and didn't seem to notice Nieve for a
moment.  "Oh.  Hi, Nieve."  He paused briefly, then turned towards her,
teal shirt hanging open around black jeans, his green eyes showing no
traces of his prior nervousness as he brushed his hair.  "I'm sorry if
I seemed angry with you before, but -"

"Don't worry about that now," replied Nieve, letting her eyelids fall
closed just enough for her lashes to dangle in front of her eyes,
placing her hands behind her back and folding them together, then
walking as seductively as possible towards Neil, an odd smile upon her
face.  Neil gave her a somewhat odd look, but she ignored it, stepping
up until they were nearly touching, then placing one hand flat upon his
stomach, slowly walking it up to his chest.  "You and I, we were having
a conversation before.  That's what I wanted to finish."

"Um."  Neil stared for a moment, then took a step backwards directly
into his dresser, the furniture clattering against the wall as he
stepped into it and shocking him into freezing in place for a moment.
Nieve began to step forward, and Neil clumsily began to button his
shirt, looking almost as though he expected her to try and bite him.
"Much as I like the topic, Nieve, can I ask what brings it on?  It just
seems... awfully sudden."

"What's wrong with that?" asked Nieve, feeling a growing knot of dread
about what she didn't know that Neil wasn't telling her, wanting
nothing more than to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until he
told her everything.  Instead, she simply walked over to the bed,
sitting down and trying to look as seductive as possible, not bothering
to fold her legs and letting them hang open slightly.  "I just want to
talk about it.  I thought you were attracted to me."  She paused for a
moment, then sank her head slightly.  "Don't you find me attractive?"

Blinking, Neil shook his head to clear it, then realized the gesture
that he was making and began nodding more enthusiastically even as
Nieve's expression darkened somewhat.  "Of course I'm attracted to
you," he said, sitting next to her on the bed and looking somewhat
scared of making a mistake, something that made Nieve at once happy and
disturbed.  "You're a beautiful girl.  But... I don't just think of you
as a sex object.  I don't want you to believe that about me."

"I don't," replied Nieve, edging herself closer to Neil to his
surprise, twisting her body around so that her lips brushed against his
softly as her mouth moved in speech.  "But you think of me sexually,
don't you?  You think of what I would look like without my clothes
on."  She grinned, assuming that Neil's blush and his look of
discomfort came solely from her proximity as she leaned her lips harder
against his.  "I know that you do.  I remember the day that we met on
the ship, how you tried to sneak a peek at me as I changed into my
plugsuit.  You were attracted to me.  More than that, you wanted to
sleep with me.  Didn't you?"

Then a knock came on the door, and both Children froze as Misato opened
the door, smirking at the two as Nieve hung around Neil and Neil
realized what the situation looked like.  He began to gesture
frantically that nothing had happened, trying to break free of Nieve's
grasp, not noticing the hurt expression that drifted across the girl's
face even as Misato held up a hand to stop the boy.  "You don't have to
explain anything to me," she said firmly, shaking her head in an amused
manner, clicking her tongue slightly and smirking at the two Children.
"I understand.  I'm going to be at Central Dogma for most of the day,
but I'll be back for dinner, and I might see you when you come in for
your synch testing."  She paused, then winked at them as she stepped
out of the door.  "Have fun today."

"Wait!"  Neil bolted up from Nieve's grip, a sense of guilt surging at
the implications she'd made as he blushed again and rushed towards the
door out of his room.  "I didn't do anything!  We were just..."  His
voice trailed off just as he opened his door and the front door shut
decisively, leaving him standing into the doorway of his room looking
rather blank.  Pausing for a moment, he glanced back towards Nieve, who
had taken the opportunity in Neil's absence to bring her legs up
against her body, knees tight against her chest.  "Nieve, I'm sorry, I
just don't want Misato to think -"

Nieve shot a rather harsh stare at Neil, feeling rather guilty in the
back of her mind but knowing that it was necessary.  She was already
feeling as though she'd lost control of the situation once again, and
the only way that she could think of to regain control was to be just
the slightest bit devious.  "To think what?" she asked, sounding as
hurt as she possibly could as she stared up at him, her green eyes
wide.  "That you're attracted to me?  Is that such a bad thing?"  She
batted her eyelashes twice, trying her best to play up the sort of hurt
that she was feeling, reminding herself that it wasn't lying so much as
overplaying.

Shaking his head, Neil stepped back over to the bed, obviously confused
and embarassed at the same time, feeling another knot of regret
bubbling through the back of his skull.  "That's not it at all," he
insisted, sitting down on the bed once again and touching Nieve's knee
gently, feeling an electric rush through his arm at the contact.  Nieve
kept her face hidden as she smirked momentarily, ignoring the sense at
the back of her mind that she'd manipulated Neil when she shouldn't
have.  "I just don't want you - or Misato, or anybody else - to think
that all I'm interested in sex."  He remembered the night that he and
Nieve had first kissed again, another pulse of guilt going through his
body.  "I don't want you to think that about me."

Taking a deep breath, Nieve steeled herself for what she knew she had
to do, knowing that she didn't want to let Neil go no matter what it
took, that she wanted to keep him close to her as she reached out one
hand and pressed it down against his.  She let her hand rest there for
a moment, then tightened her grip around Neil's hand and pulled him
towards her even as she pulled her own body backwards, yanking him down
towards the bed as she fell flat on her back.  The bed squeaked
slightly as Nieve felt the warm weight of Neil sink on top of her, and
before he had a chance to say anything she pulled his head close to
her, expecting that it would fall just to one side of her own until she
felt his breath softly blowing on her chest.  "I don't think that about
you, Neil," she said gently, not missing a beat despite the slight
shock of his position.  "I think you're wonderful.  And I think you do
think about me like this."

Feeling the soft warmth of Nieve's breasts encompassing his head,
smelling the unmistakable perfume that he knew came solely from her own
personal scent, Neil lost himself for a moment before his brain
reminded him of what he'd done to the poor girl, how he'd thought of
her exactly like this.  The pleasure of the moment began to give way to
regret and trepidation, and Neil pulled away, staring at Nieve with
some surprise as he stumbled off of the bed and groped for his socks.
Nieve stared at him as he moved away, her expression shifting from a
secure grin to one of abject horror.  "I - it's too soon," he
stammered, backing his way into the door before opening it.  "I - we -
I need to take a walk.  Later."

Neil stumbled out of the room, then a few seconds later Nieve heard the
front door close as well while her head slowly turned towards the
ceiling.  Her hand slipped into the pocket of her skirt, fingers
brushing gently against the rigid foil of the condom wrapper, a small
shiver going through her body at the thought of what could have
happened before she felt herself cursing at how she'd gone wrong.  "I
just didn't want him to leave," she muttered, rolling slightly to one
side, her eyes watching the sunlight coming in through Neil's window
even as she curled back into a semi-fetal position as before.  "I
wanted to make sure he stayed with me."

Closing her eyes, Nieve closed her fist around the condom wrapper once
again, drawing it out from her pocket and staring at the small item for
reasons she couldn't entirely explain, suddenly feeling intensely
embarassed.  "But maybe he'll leave anyways," she muttered, tossing the
condom over her shoulder, hearing it distantly fall into the depths of
one of Neil's various still-present boxes from when he moved in.
"Maybe I couldn't have done anything to stop him."  She sighed,
wrapping her arms around her and squeezing herself, feeling as though
she'd let herself lose control of the situation once again.

                                  ]++[

Misato was still smirking about Nieve and Neil as she arranged her
desk, the thought of the two of them hugging with such intensity making
even the unspeakably mundane process of filing paperwork about the most
recent Angel incident somewhat enjoyable.  She'd managed to use the
increased lull between attacks to give herself slightly more leeway,
but there was still an amazing number of forms that needed to be filled
out, and that wasn't even counting the report that she had to type up
later.  Despite the stack of forms in front of her, however, she was
whistling to herself, reminding herself that things seemed to be
getting more normal, that if nothing else the Children seemed to be
adjusting to their lives in Tokyo-3.

Humming to herself with satisfaction, Misato heard the noise of her
door opening only distantly, busying herself with the paperwork and
determined to get as much of it done in a day as possible.  "I'm a
little busy at the moment," she announced, raising her hand and waving
the person off, seriously doubting that it was anyone particularly
important.  "My job comes with a lot of responsibilities, so if you
don't mind -"

"Not at all," replied Kaji's distinctly masculine voice, and Misato
whipped her head up to see the man standing in front of her, still
dressed in the same sort of unkempt outfit as the last time she'd seen
him, wearing his characteristic half-smirk.  "I'm happy to wait."  He
leaned casually against one of the teal-gray walls of the woman's
office, folding his arms across his chest and staring idly at the
ceiling, his lack of faith in Misato's determination to work obvious
from his position.

"What are you doing here?" snapped Misato, still feeling somewhat
irritated about how hurt he'd managed to make her feel the other day at
the same time that he'd managed to make her miss being with him.  She
didn't like the idea of wanting to be with him again on a basic level,
and the knowledge that he was allegedly seeing somebody else entirely
only made the concept seem more replusive to her.  "I have work to do,
Ryoji.  Please, whatever you came for, make it fast."

Chuckling, Kaji shook his head gently, a gesture that made Misato
somewhat nervous for reasons she couldn't entirely place.  "Since you
put it that way, I just came here to offer you a congratulations," he
replied, smiling broadly at her despite her expression of confusion.
"You probably wouldn't find out normally until later today, but there
are benefits to being at the head of Intelligence.  I managed to sneak
a peek at your promotion paperwork, and it's gone through without a
hitch.  And I couldn't wait until later to let you know."

Misato stared at Kaji for a moment, then shrugged, turning back to the
paperwork.  "It's a meaningless promotion to me," she replied,
scribbling more notes onto the forms in front of her, trying to work as
quickly as possible in hopes of getting the whole thing filed and
finished before the end of the day.  "If it means anything, it'll
probably just translate into more work for me to get done on a daily
basis, and I'm swamped as it is.  I was already in charge of
operations."  She paused, realizing that she was sounding almost as bad
as Ritsuko, and she looked up at Kaji with a small grin.  "But thank
you."

"Put it like that, then you're welcome," replied Kaji, sounding
somewhat half-hearted about it as he turned his head slightly towards
the door, still leaning against the wall.  Misato turned back to her
work, expecting him to leave at any moment, then glanced up to see him
still standing in place, apparently perfectly comfortable in the small
square room under the mind-numbing fluorescent light.  She cleared her
throat, and he simply looked back at her, his expression as innocent as
she imagined he could fake.  "What?"

"You said you came down to congratulate me," replied Misato, cocking
her head slightly to one side.  "You did.  Don't you have other work to
be doing?"

"Not at the moment.  The Intelligence department doesn't have to deal
with nearly as much paperwork as the Operations department.  Most of
what we do is on the field."  He paused for a moment, and Misato
internally prayed to herself that he wouldn't step over to her desk,
knowing almost as soon as the thought materialized that he would do
just that.  Surely enough, he walked over to the desk and stared down
at the form, reading it upside-down but still staring at it intently.
"Hmm.  They classified it as 'Sandalphon.'  Who names the Angels,
anyways?"

Growling, Misato glared up at Kaji, trying her best to snatch the forms
out of his sight and ignoring the smug grin on his face.  "Maybe you
don't have any work to do now, but the rest of us do, and some of us
would actually like to have a chance to -do- it."  She glared at him
for a moment longer, then returned to her work, feeling something odd
knot within her from her words but not sure of exactly what it was.
"Did you just join NERV to pester me?"

"That's not a very mature way to look at things, is it?" he asked
innocently, moving around so that he was once again standing in front
of her.  She continued to write on the forms, trying to push thoughts
of Kaji out of her head even as he looked at her, then jumping slightly
as she felt one of his hands touch her cheek.  She looked up to see
that he had kneeled so that he was at eye level with her, his other
hand moving up and clasping the other side of her face, leaving her
gaze locked on his face.  "Think about something, Misato.  The United
Nations has convinced more or less everyone that the Second Impact was
caused by a meteor striking the South Pole.  The alternate branches of
NERV, the majority of the UN itself, even some of the Children, all of
them are in the dark about what -really- happened at the South Pole."
He paused for a moment, letting his words sink in.  "Doesn't that
disturb you a little bit?  Doesn't that make you wonder what might
really be going on?"

Misato stared at Kaji, and her arm twitched uncontrollably, the pen
hard against the paper tracing a long black line through the majority
of the form that she'd been writing on.  A second afterwards, her brain
realized what had happened, and she tore her gaze free of Kaji's face,
looking down and seeing that she'd managed to runin the form.  "Now
look what you did," she snapped, snatching the form and crumpling it
into a ball, tossing it into the small garbage can next to her desk as
she stepped around the lone piece of furniture besides her chair and
headed towards the door.  "I've got to go get another copy now.  I'm
going to trust you enough to assume you'll leave."

The doors slid open and shut as Misato stepped through them, trying to
maintain a calm expression as she stepped into the artificially-lit
corridors of the base, walking towards the nearest elevator, Kaji's
words still ringing in her ears.  Something about it disturbed her for
reasons that she couldn't quite place, as though she should have stayed
and asked him more, thrown the desire to get the forms filed away to
the wind for just a moment.  Reaching the elevator, she pressed the
button and waited for it to ding open, her mind still circling around
the question he'd raised.

As the elevator opened, Misato instantly felt the strong burning aroma
of a cigarette hit her nostrils, and she realized a second later that
it was from Ritsuko, standing in the elevator, clipboard in one hand
and a cigarette in the other.  "Good morning, Misato," she said
distantly, flicking her blue-gray eyes up from the clipboard
momentarily as the other woman stepped in.  "You look disturbed.
Hangover?"

"No," Misato replied, wincing slightly at the barely-veiled
accusation.  She glanced over at the blonde woman, studying her for a
second before shaking her head and simply turning her gaze back towards
the doors of the elevator.  "Kaji."  She paused for a moment, staring
at Ritsuko as the other woman continued to let her cigarette smoke
drift into the air, the small stick of paper perched between the
woman's fingers for no apparent reason.  "If you're not going to smoke
that, would you mind putting it out?"

Ritsuko glanced up at Misato for a moment, then slowly placed the
cigarette against her lips, took a single long draw from it, then
returned to her prior position as she exhaled the cloud of smoke from
her mouth, ignoring Misato's angry stare.  "Why are you so irritated
with Kaji, anyways?" she asked at length, a note of nervousness seeming
to creep into her voice.  You seem to be getting along fine with him.
As though you're willing to just let all of the years between you be in
the past."

"Don't even joke," replied Misato, scowling and turning away from
Ritsuko, feeling a little hurt by the implications as the smoke of
Ritsuko's cigarette continued to seep into her nostrils, reminding her
of the time spent with Kaji years before.  Crossing her arms across her
chest, she gripped her upper arms almost instinctively, the feeling of
nostalgia creeping into the back of her head with the same slow
infectiousness of the smoke.  "Besides, even if I wanted that jerk
back, it's a moot point.  He doesn't know that I know it, but I
overheard him talking with Fuyutsuki before, and -" she paused for a
moment, trying to enhance the dramatic effect of the moment "- he's
been seeing someone new since he came to Tokyo-3."

The comment seemed to upset Ritsuko, and the other woman's body
suddenly seemed to tense at once, her grip on the cigarette tightening
and sending the growing ash at the tip falling to the ground.  She
turned towards Misato, mouth almost opened to say something, then was
cut short by the loud grinding noise of the elevator coming to a stop
violently, sending both woment crashing to the floor as the elevator
shuddered.  Misato didn't even notice the other woman falling
immediately, feeling only the hard impact of the wall against her back
followed by a sharp burning pain against her leg.  Glancing down, she
saw that Ritsuko's cigarette had relocated itself directly beneath her
leg, and she snatched the small item out from beneath her, frowning at
it as she lamented the assumed ruination of her pantyhose.  "What the
hell just happened?" she asked, turned towards Ritsuko as she tried to
get back to her feet.

"I think -"  Ritsuko's reply was cut short by the lights flickering and
snapping off, and the blonde woman glanced towards the ceiling briefly
before pushing her upper body up, forced flat against the floor of the
elevator from the shock.  "I think we just lost power.  And from the
looks of it, the emergency generator hasn't kicked in just yet."  She
sighed, dusting herself off as she stumbled back to a standing position
and retrieved her clipboard.  "This isn't going to be good."

"Great," muttered Misato, slamming her fist lightly against the almost
oppressive teal-gray of the wall, the metal beginning to grow warmer to
the touch.  "We're stuck in here until the emergency power kicks in.
And without any air conditioning."  She paused for a moment, then
noticed that Ritsuko was frowning.  "What?  Don't tell me that we're
stuck here longer than that?"

"Emergency generators are geared solely towards combat operations under
severe duress," replied Ritsuko, shaking her head and slipping out of
her lab coat, letting the white fabric fall to the ground to reveal her
pale arms against the sleeveless blue pull-ring top she wore.  "They're
meant to facilitate minimal operating parameters of the command center,
including the three Magi supercomputers, our positioning systems and
cameras, and the operation of the Evangelion units."  She stopped,
wiping her brow as the heat in the elevator continued to grow.

Misato frowned back at the woman, feeling a growing sense of
nervousness.  "Elevators weren't on that list," she said weakly,
receiving a nod from Ritsuko that carried the implication that she
should have figured that out sooner.  Muttering a curse under her
breath, Misato slid off her red jacket, already feeling the warmth in
the closed metal container, knowing that it was probably going to get
worse with the oppressive heat of Tokyo-3.  "God damn it.  And I
thought I was finally going to get ahead with my workload."

                                  ]++[

Staring at the console in front of her, waiting for the emergency power
feed to allow her to resume working, Maya Ibuki couldn't help but feel
a momentary surge of panic at the situation, even hoping that the only
logicaal reason for the sudden outage wasn't the actual reason.  "Dr.
Akagi isn't here," she muttered, hunched slightly over her console,
hands between her legs, the half-skirt portion of her uniform pushed up
slightly in a way that would have disturbed her except for the white
leggings beneath.  She glanced backwards, short black hair jostling
slightly as she turned.  "Makoto, do you have any idea where she might
be?"

"Not without the computers," replied the young man, leaning back in his
chair and staring at the ceiling, thick round glasses not dark enough
to block his eyes even with the lights on like Commander Ikari's.  "We
don't know where Captain Katsuragi is, either."  He paused slightly,
then tilted his head towards Maya, smiling slightly, the tension
visibly lying just beneath the surface of his expression.  "Don't
worry, Maya.  I'm sure that you'll do fine.  Ritsuko wouldn't trust you
with so much responsibility if you weren't good."

"Yes, but..."  Maya trailed off, turning back to her console and
feeling oddly uncomfortable.  She didn't like the idea of working
without her superior around, not having Ritsuko's approving gaze
watching as she took care of the Eva pilots and the machines.
Something about the blonde woman made her feel safer, more reliable,
and the thought so distracted her that her drak brown eyes took a
moment to focus once the computer console reactivated.  Blinking
slightly and shaking her head, she placed her fingers nervously on the
console, then forced herself to keep moving, letting the displays come
at their usual pace.  "All three Magi computers are back on-line.  We
have auxiliary power."

Makoto stared at Maya for a moment longer, then turned back to the
console in front of him, letting his fingers dance across the keyboard
and displaying the camera feeds near the power plant that served as
NERV's primary generator on the main screen.  He frowned as he glanced
up at the display, able to identify right away what the problem was
with the power feed - something large and conical, like a spear, had
jabbed directly through most of the facility, tearing apart the
facility like a toy.  The source of the devestation took little to
guess at.  "Requesting a new power feed from Tokyo-2.  Estimated time
until reply is three minutes.  Activating local scan for AT fields."

Sitting on the upper tier of the command center, Gendou Ikari stared
dispassionately at the display in front of him as it brought up a
picture of what he knew to be the next Angel, a dead ringer for a
gigantic spider with four massive long legs supporting a small disk-
like body.  He heard the footsteps behind him, but ignored them, simply
watching as the Angel moved slowly through the city, trying to gauge
the beast's capabilities from the way it moved.  "AT field pattern is
blue!  This is an Angel, without a doubt!"

"And it managed to slip in past our detection systems," noted Kaji,
standing a few feet behind Gendou.  Fuyutsuki, at one side of the
commander, seemed surprised at the younger man's presence, but Gendou
simply raised a hand to indicate that he was fully aware of the
situation, stopping the vice-commander's turn without even turning the
gaze.  Kaji smirked, taking another few steps towards the commander
casually.  "Rather impressive, considering that we're talking about
something that doesn't look capable of swift movement.  I wouldn't
think it could get past us that easily."

"It couldn't," replied Gendou, only distantly listening to the shouts
of the console technicians on the levels below, doing their best to
analyze the beast with no thoughts about how it could have arrived.
"Even if it materialized out of thin air right in the middle of Tokyo-
3, the UN scanners would have detected it before it destroyed the power
plant.  The scanners have far too wide of a range to be that easily
avoided."

Kaji nodded gravely, shooting a quick glance towards Fuyutsuki as if to
remind the older man about their earlier conversation.  Fuyutsuki said
nothing, simply kept staring at the main display, and Kaji shrugged,
stepping slightly in front of Gendou and staring at the commander's
reflective glasses with a slight smirk.  "So if it got in without us
knowing, somebody let it get in.  And I know it wasn't us."  He paused
for a moment, glancing over his shoulder back at the gigantic spider.
"You think this is part of the old men's plan?"

"There's no question about it," replied Gendou, calmly adjusting his
glasses as though Kaji had simply asked for the location of the
restroom.  "They know far more about the Angels than they are willing
to reveal to anyone.  And I would not put it beyond them to send an
Angel to us where we live."  He paused for a moment, staring at the
screen still, his expression unmoving, then reached over and bent the
microphone slightly in front of him down towards his mouth, knowing
that the amplification was necessary for the technicians to hear him.
"What is the status of the Evangelion units?"

On the second level of the command center, both of the technicians
froze for a moment, then Maya turned to her console, drawing up the
dimly-lit feed to the Eva hangars.  "All six units are prepared for
combat," she replied, sounding somewhat nervous about the words.  "But
we don't have any pilots.  And with Tokyo-3's power cut off, we can't
even sound the Angel alert."

Gendou resisted the urge to frown, knowing full well what was going on
with the Angel's sudden attack and the loss of power.  "Reach as many
of the city's emergency support personnel as is possible via cellular
phone," he said curtly, making sure to remain calm, knowing that he was
being watched carefully.  "Tell them to spread the alert through the
city through any means possible, and to evacuate the city's population
to the outskirts.  The Angel is after Central Dogma; it will not
pursue."  He paused, then stared at the Angel once again, watching it
slowly lumber towards the center of Tokyo-3, remaining confident in its
eventual destruction.

                                  ]++[

Neil simultaneously loved to take walks in the middle of the day and
hated them, both for the exact same reason.  He'd been informed by
Misato that the sort of widescale desertion of the city seemed to
happen in most Japanese cities, that everyone was at work in the middle
of the day for the most part, leaving the streets almost entirely empty
as Neil walked through them.  On one level, it was extremely nice to
not have to compete with others for space or volume, to simply be able
to walk casually through the whitewashed streets with the sun pouring
down on him, to soak up the inexplicable serentiy of the fortress city
with only a few people around to possibly distract him.  On another
level, however, it meant that he had nothing to dull the sound of his
own thoughts, even when the last thing he wanted was to be with himself.

At the time, he'd felt guilty about knowing what he'd done the night of
their first kiss, the way he'd let himself think about her as nothing
more than a sex object.  He had been almost certain that she'd known,
that she was trying to force him into showing that to her, making it
clear to her what a demented little pervert he really was.  But the
more he thought about it, the more he realized that she hadn't had the
vaguest idea about what he'd done to her in spirit, a thought that
somehow made him feel even more disgusted with himself as he turned a
corner, heading unconsciously towards Eiko's school despite the fact
that lunch was hours away.  Knowing that she was genuinely asking him
about what he thought only made him feel worse about the way he'd acted
in the morning, as though he'd been trying to convince her that she was
unattractive despite the fact of the matter.

"I don't deserve her," he muttered, his thoughts drifting to Eiko, mind
fully aware that he shouldn't be thinking of Eiko of all people but
unable to tear away from his mental picture of the girl.  He felt as
though he were betraying Nieve anew simply by thinking about the other
girl, as though he was driving a dagger through her heart as his feet
pulled him without thought towards the girl's school.  "I don't think I
deserve Nieve.  That's got to be it."  He sighed heavily, feeling
something else bubbling beneath his guilt, as though he'd given himself
the wrong conclusion, that there was something else lying beneath his
own insecurities.

Stepping to the crosswalks of an intersection, his finger pressed the
button to request a walk signal automatically, head sinking to the
street and waiting for the telltale noise that announced it was safe to
walk.  Lost in his own guilt, it took Neil a few minutes to realize
that there hadn't been any noise even though there should have been,
and glancing up to the traffic lights his eyes widened when he realized
that the lights themselves had gone out.  Frowning, he glanced down the
street both ways, then started running, his sneakers making a light
slapping noise against the pavement as he dashed to the other side and
started moving consciously towards the school, hoping that the others
might know something about what was going on.

He had no idea of the time between when he started running and when he
arrived at the school, his brain blotting the interceding minutes out
in a blur of fast-moving scenery and the rythymic sound of his feet
hitting against the pavement.  All he knew as that the school's entire
population seemed to be already waiting for him as he rushed to the
front gates, milling awkwardly about the courtyard in front of the
white school building and talking to one another in hushed voices.
Frowning, Neil glanced about for a moment, then caught a glimpse of
Ryo's thin blue hair, enough to send him jogging through the glut of
students towards the other boy.  "Ryo!  Ryo!"

Ryo turned towards Neil slowly, almost sluggishly, movements that would
have seemed robotic in anyone other than the strange pale boy.  As Neil
neared his position, he could see that Vash and Eiko were standing
nearby, obviously as confused as everyone else by the circumstances.
"The power went out," Ryo said flatly, somehow managing to sound as
though he wasn't simply explaining the blatanly obvious.  "Our teacher
assumed that something must be wrong.  He told us to wait out here for
the Angel alert."

Neil frowned, his own jumble of guilty feelings pressed beneath the
reality of the situation.  "I haven't seen any signs of the UN
aerodrones," he noted, gesturing towards the sky somewhat idly.  "Why
would it have to be an Angel attack?"

"Because it's obvious," replied Vash with a shrug, speaking louder than
was absolutely necessary.  "Take a look around you.  This entire city
is designed to fight the Angels.  Whenever anything big happens here,
it involves either NERV or the Angels.  Hell, the parents of most of
the children in this school work for NERV or a company related to it."
He shrugged, gesturing his arms in a wide arc as though he was trying
to impress somebody, a thought that Neil found just the slightest bit
disturbing in light of his own feelings about Eiko.  "So if something
goes wrong... well, if you lived in a city structured around the
Angels, what would -you- assume?"

"I live here too, Vash," replied Neil, sounding slightly exasperated as
he glanced around the area, the other students giving the four Children
more space as though the Angel was targeting them specifically.  It was
an odd sensation, being so visibly isolated, and Neil felt a pang of
something that he couldn't quite place before he turned back towards
the group.  "So what do -we- assume?  Should we head for Central Dogma,
or -"

The boy's words were cut short by the loud screeching of tires from
down the street, followed by a load engine roar that seemed to fill the
street and hurtle towards the school like a meteor.  Everyone standing
in the courtyard of the school seemed to turn towards the source of the
noise at once, watching a billowing cloud of exhaust trailing behind
the source vehicle as it screamed down the street, finally revealing
itself as a red compact car, obviously not designed for the sort of
driving it was receiving.  The Children watched as the car turned and
screeched to a stop, the howl of screeching tires filling the air
before it froze in place and the driver's-side door opened forcefully.

Smiling broadly, Nieve leaned out from behind the driver's seat, waving
at the four Children enthusiastically.  "Hey, guys!" she shouted,
leaning slightly further and waving the group over.  Neil started
walking first, followed closely by Ryo and more distantly by Eiko and
Vash.  "The police are sweeping the city, and they got to us first.
It's an Angel attack, but NERV doesn't have power, either.  Disabled by
the Angel's arrival."

Nieve's sudden appearance had shocked most of the courtyard's residents
into silence, but the announcement of an Angel attack started most of
the students talking once again, Japanese pouring out of their mouths
in panicked tones.  "They must have recognized the word Angel,"
muttered Nieve, scowling momentarily towards the ground before turning
back towards the assembly.  "Hey!  Listen!  You don't have to worry!
The Angel is only headed towards the center of the city!  Wait for the
police, and they'll help you evacuate towards the edges!  You'll be
fine!"  She paused for a moment, perceiving only a visible increase in
the panic of the area at the mention of the word "angel."  "Vash, could
you translate that?"

Vash cocked his head slightly, curious why she asked him, and Neil felt
the same curiosity, suddenly wondering if he was getting what he
deserved for his actions earlier in the day.  Then Vash shouted
something in Japanese, and Nieve smirked once again as the courtyard's
inhabitants seemed to calm slightly.  "All right!  Everyone, get in the
car now!  I've already picked up Niobe, and we're in a rush!  There's
an Angel on the loose!"

The four Children glanced at one another for a moment, then all four
ran towards the car, Vash reaching it first with trained muscles and
opening the door for the others.  Neil prepared to get in, then
hesitated and glanced towards Nieve, giving her a somewhat quizzical
look.  "How did you get the car, anyways?" he asked, giving the car
another look and distantly noting that her expression seemed to droop
into shock slightly.  "Misato took her car to work this morning, and I
know you don't have a car here -"

Feeling a hand close around his chin, Neil had only an instant to smell
the natural perfume of Nieve's skin before the girl jerked his face
towards hers, pressing her head close to his, less than an inch between
them as her lips parted slightly.  "Girls get to have secrets," she
whispered alluringly, smiling broadly and making a quick kissing motion
with her lips before leaning away from Neil and releasing his chin as
she slipped back into the driver's seat.  Neil paused for a moment,
then sat in the backseat, feeling himself wedged against Ryo.  He gave
a quick glance towards the pale boy, and the boy stared back, red eyes
emotionless as usual.

Nieve, only concerned with the fact that all of her necessary
passengers had arrived, smirked broadly, slammed the car into reverse,
and whirled it around towards the nearest entrance to Central Dogma.
Ignoring the shouts of her passengers, she slammed on the gas, letting
the tires squeal for a moment before the car went screaming towards the
Children's destination.

                                  ]++[

Her hand gripping the small red-white plastic card firmly, Nieve swiped
the card defiantly through the small scanner at the door once again,
then glanced up at the massive gray doors, expecting them to slide open
and split the NERV logo painted on them in half as they revealed an
entrance to the Geo-Front.  "God DAMN it!" she snapped, slamming her
fist against the scanner and turning back towards the other Children,
all standing near the car and watching as Nieve tried desperately to
open the door set slightly into the side of a hill.  She knew that an
explanation was unnecessary, but more than anything she wanted to give
one just to make herself feel better, as though she'd screwed up
slightly less.  "The scanners aren't going to read our cards," she
announced, not even bothering to mask her anger.  "Who in the hell
designs an emergency power system that seals you off from help?"

"We're not cut off," replied Ryo flatly, stepping towards Nieve and
gesturing towards the lower corner of the door.  Nieve followed the
gesture with her eyes, letting them rest on a small square grate that
was barely big enough to let a person crawl through.  "The air ducts of
the base are designed to allow entry during situations like this.  We
can crawl through there and then make our way to the Eva hangars."

Staring at the duct for a moment, Nieve sighed, sounding dissatisfied
with the plan.  "That could take forever.  By the time we find the
hangars, the Angel could be done with whatever it came for.  And
besides, if the doors out here aren't working, I doubt the doors within
are going to be much better."  She paused and stared for a moment, then
sighed loudly once again, shaking her head even as she tried to think
of a better plan.  "Maybe there's another way in for things like this.
I know that the Ireland NERV base had an external entrance that led
directly into the Eva hangars... maybe we've got one here, too."

"That could take -longer-," argued Vash, speaking loudly enough to draw
everyone's attention towards him.  He shifted somewhat uncomfortably,
wanting more than anything to finally have a chance to do well with his
Eva, more than aware of the fact that his performance had been rather
lackluster aside from his action against the Seventh Angel and that he
still hadn't lived down all of his original bragging.  "If we go in
through the air ducts, at least we know that we'll get in.  Wandering
around searching for an alternate entrance might wind up making
everything worse."

Nieve frowned for a moment, knowing that the responsibility for the
group had to fall on her, that she was the most capable of keeping
control of the situation.  Forcing thoughts of the morning's events out
of the mind, she took another quick glance towards the air duct, then
nodded.  "All right, we'll need to split up, then.  Three pilots
against one Angel should be more than fair, and with any luck power
will be restored sometime soon."  She glanced at Neil, trying to figure
out whether she was angry with him or herself.  "Who's heading into the
ducts?"

Vash and Ryo both raised their hands in almost perfect unison, and
Nieve paused for a moment, glancing at both of the boys briefly before
sighing.  She knew that neither of them would be able to keep
themselves under control, and that meant that either herself or Neil
would have to go with them, since she hardly trusted the others to keep
the situation stable.  "All right, then I'll deal with the ducts, too,"
she offered, realizing a moment later that Neil and Eiko were winding
up in the same group.  She frowned briefly, looking towards the boy and
staring at him.

"We'll search for something outside," Neil offered, taking a step
towards Nieve hesitantly, then awkwardly planting his hands on her
shoulders.  He began to move towards her lips to kiss her, but she
smirked and put a finger over his lips, stopping him mid-motion and
winking at him.  Neil frowned slightly, obviously still feeling bad,
but Nieve made another quick kissing motion at him, some little sense
of relief creeping into her at the thought that he was at least aware
of the situation.  "First team to get to their Evas launches first, I
suppose."

The boy released Nieve's shoulders, then glanced to his left and his
right, trying to decide which way to start looking first.  At length,
he turned to his left and started walking, Niobe following closely
afterwards.  "Don't worry," called Eiko, putting a little more distance
between herself and Neil, her pace indicating that the situation wasn't
going to last long.  "I'll keep a close eye on Neil for you."

Nieve frowned, staring at the group as they walked away, now suddenly
wishing that she'd let Neil kiss her before.  She'd felt for a moment
as though she'd regained control in their relationship, but now she
couldn't be sure of whether or not he was simply trying to humor her.
"That's exactly what I'm worried about in the -first- place," she
muttered at Eiko's receding form, tapping her foot impatiently for a
moment before turning towards Vash and Ryo, storming over towards the
air duct.  "Come on.  Let's get this moving."

                                  ]++[

Misato's shirt was untucked, one hand lifting her now sweat-soaked
purple hair away from her neck and the other flapping the open bottom
of her shirt in some attempt to cool herself off.  Sitting at the
opposite corner of the room, Ritsuko had unzipped her top down about as
far as it could go without becoming outright obscene, her makeup
beginning to smear slightly from sweat.  She was still puffing on a
cigarette, and the bitter taste of smoke filling the room combined with
the salty taste of her sweat was an unpleasant combination for Misato,
especially in the suffocating heat of the elevator.  "This is
terrible," she muttered.  "How long do you think it's going to be
before they get us out of here?"

Ritsuko stared into space for a moment, then glanced up towards the
lights on the ceiling, shifting her body slightly with an audible noise
from her shirt.  "The emergency power came on about twenty minutes
ago," she replied after a moment's thought, glancing back down towards
her clipboard almost idly.  "As soon as it came back on, they would
have sent a request for an alternate power feed from Tokyo-2."  She
paused.  "It depends on how mad Tokyo-2 is with NERV, I suppose."

"So we're going to be here for a while," muttered Misato in response,
slumping to the floor as Ritsuko gave a quick nod.  Inwardly, Misato
was cursing at the Japanese government - the war games had done a great
deal to smooth over relations with the military, but it had been cited
by a large number of anti-NERV groups as reckless endangerment of
civilian lives for a purpose peripheral to NERV's creation.  And even
if the Prime Minister was supportive of NERV, if he rushed in to help
them, it could be severely damaging to his chances in the next
election.  "And I thought that my biggest problem today was going to be
Kaji."

"Why are you so angry with him?" asked Ritsuko, cocking her head
slightly to one side and staring at Misato, a thin trail of smoke
wafting out of the corner of her mouth.  Misato said nothing, simply
turned her head towards the wall, but she had the creeping suspicion
that Ritsuko wasn't about to let the situation rest.  "After all, you
left him, not the other way around.  And you said yourself that he's
dating somebody else.  So what's the problem?"  She continued to stare
at Misato patiently, a thin smile on her lips as she waited for her old
friend to respond.

"-Everything-," replied Misato at length, still not turning her head
towards Ritsuko.  "He's irresponsible, unreliable, self-centered,
arrogant..."  She sighed, shaking her head and turning towards the
blonde woman, surveying her somewhat critically.  "Really, why in the
name of God would he be thinking about -dating-?  It's a step beyond
his usual irresonsibility into outright recklessness."

Unable to keep herself from laughing, Ritsuko stared towards the light
fixtures in the ceiling of the elevator, the same thin smile playing
across her lips as though she had a secret.  "I'm surprised to hear you
say that, of all people.  We both know that you're more... amorous than
I am."  Ritsuko tilted her head towards the other woman, and Misato
smirked weakly back.  "Personally, I don't see anything wrong with it.
It seems like entirely the right time to find some comfort."

"But that's not fair to the woman!" replied Misato, slamming her fist
against the wall of the elevator with more force that Ritsuko would
have expected.  "We've got a responsibility to this project, to devote
ourselves and our time to it.  If he's taking his job here seriously,
then he can't take a relationship seriously, and if he takes his
relationship seriously he'll fall behind here."  She paused for a
moment, Kaji's face drifting across her memory, remembering that she'd
tried to say much the same thing to her father at one point.  "It just
isn't right."

"You're being narrow-minded," replied Ritsuko rather firmly, a note of
resentment creeping into her voice.  "Maybe Kaji would find someone
that was just as devoted to their work as he was to his, someone who
wouldn't feel as though she was being deserted.  That could be
wonderful, almost perfect."  She paused for a moment, and Misato looked
towards the other woman, unable to figure out the expression in her
eyes, at once wistful and guilty.  "Someone like me, for example."

The comment struck Misato harshly, and she stared at her friend, trying
to figure out what she meant, forcing her mind to continue working
through the bitter cigarette smoke and the thick coating of sweat
tracing over her skin.  "You're enamoured with him?" she asked, cocking
an eyebrow slightly, hoping that she'd understood the scientist
correctly.  Then Ritsuko turned towards Misato with an oddly
condescending stare, and Misato suddenly made the connection, her mouth
falling partway open as she stared at Ritsuko.  "You... you wouldn't."

"Don't be naive," replied Ritsuko flatly, sounding even a little
insulted by Misato's response as she turned her head back towards the
clipboard, ignoring the anger growing across Misato's face.  "Even if
you don't want Kaji any more, he's a charming man.  Certainly more than
I ever expected."  She paused for a moment, then looked up at Misato
disapprovingly, appearing much older as if through a trick of the
light.  "Or did you want him for yourself, just like before?"

Misato frowned deeply, hurling herself to her feet and staring at the
other woman, suddenly feeling unspeakably violated.  It would have been
better, she realized, if it wasn't Ritsuko, if it was someone new,
somebody that she couldn't remember Kaji ever having met.  But the
knowledge that her best friend and her lover from college were together
seemed to taint her memories, almost like a backward-spreading cancer.
"It has nothing to do with whether or not I want him!" she snapped,
trying her best to sound determined.  "Ritsuko... how could you?  How
could you violate me like this, steal someone that I -"

"Stop it," snapped Ritsuko, glaring at the other woman with an
intensity that Misato couldn't remember having ever seen on the blonde
woman's face.  She felt a momentary rush of curiosity that both
terrified her and intruiged her as Ritsuko pulled herself up to face
Misato, trying to remain dignified despite the sweat draining through
her hair and the smeared makeup across her face.  "In case you hadn't
noticed, Misato, it's been -years- since then.  Maybe time stood still
for you after college, but the rest of us have been trying to -do-
something with ourselves."  She turned her head away from Misato, eyes
shutting.  "Or is that really what you think of me?  That I'm not even
fit to have what you've discarded?  A great friend you've turned out to
be."

"That..."  Misato's mouth hung half-open for a moment, wanting to say
something but unsure of what, then let her mouth close and shook her
head as she turned away from Ritsuko.  She wanted to know why it made
her so much angrier that it was Ritsuko instead of someone else, why
she felt as though she would have been able to deal with the situation
otherwise, but all she felt was a growing sense of abandonment in her
gut, and the desire to let all her memories burn away in a haze of
forgiving alcohol.

                                  ]++[

Neil had never quite understood why the field that protected the Angels
was called an Absolute Terror field, but staring ath the massive,
spider-like beast off into the distance, feeling the summer breeze whip
across his body like a harbinger, the name suddenly seemed to seem far
more appropriate to the sense that the beasts exuded if not the
function of the field.  Shaking his head, he turned back towards the
small recessed portion of the hill, fingers tracing along the edges of
the grass and slipping beneath them, feeling the grass pull away with
little resistance to reveal a single door with a metal handle set into
it.  Neil didn't even have to look at it closely to know that it bore
the red NERV insignia, and he turned towards the lower point of the
hill where Eiko and Niobe were searching.  "Guys!  I think I've found
something!"

Both girls stared at him for a moment, then ran up to Neil's location
as he gripped the handles of the door and pulled them out, feeling the
harsh resistance of something both designed to be used only in
emergencies and something that hadn't been well-maintained.  As the two
girls arrived, Neil felt the door give, and as the handles finished
coming out of the door he heard an audible pop as the door swung
inwards.  "Yep," he muttered, glancing down the dimly-lit shaft that
the door seemed to lead to, the surface of the corridor seeming
perfectly sheer.  "This is an entrance.  Or something."

"It's a high-speed entrance," announced Niobe, kneeling towards the
black hole and feeling a momentary surge of relief - they would be
getting to their machines first, something that she hoped would impress
Ryo slightly.  "They're usually used as emergency escapes instead of
entrances, but I've seen them before.  You get in and just slide along
with it."  She shrugged.  "Considering how far down the Geo-Front is,
it seems like a reasonable method of emergency entry."

"Super Fun Happy Slide," Eiko and Neil said in perfect unison, both
glancing at one another and blushing as Niobe looked back at them with
a disapproving stare.  Neil spoke first, his thoughts temporarily off
his continuing regrets with Nieve.  "I didn't think that they had that
show over here.  They translate it?"

Eiko sighed, then shook her head and smacked Neil lightly.  "I speak
English too, remember?" she asked, and Neil's eyes widened with further
embarassment as Eiko laughed gently.  "Don't feel bad.  I think that
they've translated most of the show, but for some reason the government
didn't want them airing it on television until after the whole thing
had been completed.  It might have been because of -"

"Angel attacking," Niobe said flatly, drawing both of the other
Children's attention back towards her as they flushed slightly.  She
shook her head, then jumped into the chute, and both Neil and Eiko
could hear a soft swishing noise as the fabric of her clothes rubbed
against the metal of the corridor's walls.  Both of the other Children
moved to the edge, taking a moment to stare into the darkness before
Neil took a deep breath and threw himself into the chute.

The tunnel was dimly lit, but only enough to slightly disorient Neil as
he felt himself plunge into a black field of nothingness, the tunnel
taking turns that seemed nonsensical and sending him hurtling along at
speeds he couldn't believe.  It reminded him slightly of the Eva launch
in reverse, and as the lights continued to flash against his eyes the
comparison seemed oddly apt, his body hurtling through the darkness
with no way of relating its position to anything, feeling only the
insane turns of the tunnel that seemed to conform to no human logic.
By the time that the end was in sight, his inner ear had been thrown so
far out that he fell to his hands and knees on the padded cushion
waiting for him, the entire room gyrating about his head as though he
were still on the slide.

Less than a second later, he felt something slam hard into his back
from a direction that he couldn't quite place due to the continuing
sense of vertigo, and as he was having difficulty even staying stable
on all fours he couldn't hope to do anything but fall as the soft
weight impacted against his spine.  He let out a small grunt as he felt
his body roll, only vaguely aware of movement, still feeling as though
he was descending towards the base.  Gritting his teeth, he shut his
eyes, forcing himself to remain stable until he felt his balance re-
assert itself, his body telling him that he was lying down on a padded
something, a warm weight lying on top of him.

Still disoriented, Neil didn't even begin to consider what that warm
weight might be until he opened his eyes to see Eiko lying on top of
him, body pressed against his, one hand clutching at his chest and head
resting only slightly below eye level.  Her fine black hair fell
loosely around him, and Neil suddenly found himself reacting to the
girl's presence involuntarily, his hands beginning to move towards
her.  Guilt surged in the back of his head, and he stopped himself for
a moment before grabbing Eiko's shoulders and shaking her gently.
"Eiko."

Opening her eyes, the girl glanced down at Neil, then her eyes widened
and she more or less hurled herself off the boy, acting as though she
was absolutely devestated.  "Gomen nasai," she blurted, seeming to
realize only a second later that she was talking to Neil and that he
didn't speak her language.  "I mean, I'm sorry."  They stared at one
another for a moment, then Eiko smiled, laughing slightly.  "Heh...
it's as though we were dating, isn't it?  Wouldn't -that- be something?"

Neil wanted to believe that the girl was only kidding on some level,
that she really did want to be dating him, but the tone of her voice
seemed to suggest otherwise.  "Yeah, that'd be something," he replied,
half-muttering, rubbing the back of his head and feeling a tightness in
his chest as though he'd lost something.  He opened his mouth to speak
again, then decided against it and stood, glancing around to try and
see where Niobe had gone, half-expecting that she'd already forgotten
about Neil and Eiko and was trying to get her Eva launched.

Instead, Niobe was standing only a few feet away, her stare somewhere
between angry and simply condescending.  "We have other things to be
doing at the moment," she said flatly, tapping her foot softly as Eiko
stood, her arms folded across her chest as she stepped to one side of
the entrance to one of Central Dogma's mazelike teal-gray corridors.
"I recognize where we are.  The locker room is just a little ways from
here.  Take a right at the end of the corridor, and we're there."

Eiko and Neil exchanged one last glance, then nodded, and Eiko took off
down the corridor, running past Niobe as Neil began to take off after
her.  Before he even got in the hallway, however, Niobe's arm had come
up to block his path, and he froze in place, wondering why the African
girl didn't want him to follow.  "Is something wrong?" he asked,
glancing down the hallway once again, seeing that Eiko hadn't waited
and feeling the same tightness in his chest once again.

"You have a girlfriend, don't you?" asked Niobe, sounding almost as
though she was playing the role of the disciplinarian.  Neil looked at
her reluctantly for a moment, then nodded, trying to read the
expression behind her stern blue eyes, why the girl was so angry with
him.  "I know full well that you were enjoying Eiko on top of you.  I
was standing right over here the whole time."  She paused.  "Don't be
an idiot, Third Child."

Niobe lingered for a moment longer, then turned on her heel, heading
down the corridor that Eiko had gone, leaving Neil in the entrance to
the corridor with his eyes somewhat blank.  He felt as though he'd lost
something from the tone that Eiko had taken with him, that she'd left
him even though he knew that he'd never really had her in the first
place.  The though felt awkward, and he closed his eyes for a second,
thinking of Nieve, the redheaded girl's quick expressions, her strong
emotions.  He thought that she might ease his pain, but he only found
himself feeling more guilty even as he though more about Eiko, wanted
her to take back her words, wanted even to ask her if them being
together was really so ludicrous.

"I shouldn't feel this way," muttered Neil, shaking his head as he
began running down the hall, trying to lose himself in the simple
rythym of his legs hitting the metal floor.  He wanted to apologize to
Nieve.  He wanted to have Eiko.  More than anything, he wanted to get
inside of the Eva and forget, to try and blot out the day for just a
moment, to lose himself in the simple act of moving the machine.

                                  ]++[

"Hold on a second."  Nieve peeked down from the grate that led down
into the corridors of Central Dogma, straining her eyes to try and pick
out a definite mark on the corridor walls, the task difficult under
normal circumstances and nigh-impossible with little to no light and
when staring out from a ventillation duct.  Frowning, she gave one last
glance, then stared back at Vash and Ryo.  "I can't tell.  I don't
think we've gone down at all since we got here, so I don't think the
air ducts are going to get any closer.  Maybe we can make the rest of
the way on foot."

The boys said nothing for a moment, and Nieve frowned, certain that
Vash if not Ryo was staring up her skirt.  At length, Ryo gestured that
he wanted to move forward to look, and Nieve moved forward far enough
for him to press his head against the grate, letting his red eyes flick
around the scenery and take in the details.  "That seems to be a
reasonable assumption," he announced at length.  "However, the grate is
sealed on.  We don't have any way to get it off."

Vash smirked, and he elbowed his way past Ryo, an admirable feat
considering that the ducts were barely large enough to fit a single
occupant crawling along.  "That's why you've got me here," replied Vash
with a smirk, winking at Nieve before slamming his elbow hard against
the center of the grate.  The sound of straining metal was heard, and
Vash slammed his elbow down once again, letting the metal strain again
before he hit it one final time and the grate went clattering to the
floor.  Pausing for a moment, he grinned broadly, gesturing towards
himself, obviously expected praise.

"If -you- hadn't done it, -I- would have," Nieve announced flatly,
shoveing her foot into Vash's face lightly enough to avoid actually
injuring him but hard enough to make it perfectly clear that it was
time for him to move.  He frowned, but she ignored him, pushing him
backwards until she had access to the now-opened grate hole, the
darkened corridor visible just beneath.  Taking a deep breath, she
wrapped her fingers around the lip of the hole and let herself fall out
of the grate, hanging for just a moment before she released her grip
and landed solidly on the floor.  It was the sort of training she'd
gotten more or less unintentionally after years in NERV, and she
smirked up at Vash, the boy's expression no longer so certain.  "Are
you coming?"

Scowling, Vash shoved himself through the hole, falling gracefully to
the ground and landing squarely, taking a moment to recover before
standing at his full height and glancing around.  "I don't recognize
this part of Central Dogma," he said flatly as Ryo landed lightly
behind he and Nieve, taking a few steps and looking around, arms folded
across his chest.  "And I've been all over this facility since I got
here.  We must be going the wrong way."  He paused, then smirked back
at Nieve.  "Looks like you should have let me navigate."

"No, then we'd be -lost-," replied Nieve, eliciting another minor glare
from Vash as she glanced around, fixing her eyes on the door at the end
of the hallway.  Storming over to it, she ignored Vash's quick call of
protest that the doors were sealed, simply searching for the emergency
access panel that she knew was there.  Her hands traced along the
surface to the right of the door for a moment, then she felt the slight
depression, and letting her fingers slip underneath the panel she gave
a tug and let the obscuring panel clatter to the ground.  "Now, we just
need to get this open, and then hopefully it'll be smooth sailing."

Behind the panel was the manual crank to open the door, and Nieve
grasped the handle firmly in her hands, putting her body weight behind
her and forcing the thing to turn.  Then she felt it refuse to turn,
and she frowned for a moment as she gave it another shove, trying again
to make the door start to open.  If the door made any movement, it was
negligible, and Nieve frowned, beginning to grow irritated as she
forced the handle again and felt it refuse to budge.  "Damn thing's
jammed," she muttered under her breath, forcing it once again, refusing
to admit that she'd lost control of the situation, knowing that it was
only a matter of time before the door began moving.

Then she felt another pair of hands slip in and remove hers from the
handle, barely giving her a chance to say anything before they began to
strain against the crank and slowly turn it.  She glared at Vash, but
he merely offered a smile, a warmer sort than the self-confident smirk
that she was used to from the boy.  "You can't do everything, you
know," he said, glancing towards the door and cranking until it was
open enough to fit a person through.  "You need other people."

"I would have gotten it," muttered Nieve, crossing her arms across her
chest and shoving past Vash through the door, feeling as though the day
was making her useless in every possible way as she walked ahead of the
boys through the corridors.  She'd lost control of the situation with
Neil in the morning, and now Vash was undermining her authority at
NERV.  Glancing around quickly, she gritted her teeth, trying her best
to remind herself of who she was as she whirled to face Vash and Ryo on
her heel, face hard.  "All right!  I've figured out where we need to
go!  We have to open that door, then we'll be ready to take the stairs
down towards the locker room!"  She gestured emphatically towards one
of the doors slightly down the hall, looking towards Vash and expecting
him to say something in protest.

Vash simply stared back at her, but Ryo stepped forward, the expression
on his face impossible to read as usual.  "That would lead us back to
the surface," he said flatly, stepping past Nieve even as she stared at
him in exasperation, trying to figure out if both of the boys were
conspiring against her in this.  "The door you're talking about is down
here, at the end of the hall."  He paused in both his walking and his
speech, cocking his head backwards towards the remaining Children.
"Vash, could you help open it?"

"H-hey!  I'm in charge of this operation!"  Nieve placed her hands
firmly on her hips, glaring at both Vash and Ryo as they headed towards
the door at the end of the hall.  "You two don't go anywhere unless I
say that you should!"  She remained in place for a moment, waiting for
the boys to turn and return to her, the sinking feeling in her gut
confirming what she saw when neither seemed to notice.  She closed her
eyes tightly for a moment, feeling an intense rush of anger through her
body before she started down the hallway, skirt swirling around her
hips.  "And I'm ordering you to open that door, like Ryo suggested!"

Both of the boys seemed only to take peripheral notice of Nieve when
she arrived at the door with them, Vash slowly opening the door with
obvious effort.  Nieve shoved past both of them as the door opened,
standing in the doorway for a moment as though she were about to say
something, then simply sighing and shaking her head as she started
walking in the direction that she knew the stairs lay.  She hesitated
only momentarily to check that the boys were following her, and she
felt her chest tense slightly with the worry that she really had let
herself lose control.  Shutting her eyes for just a second, she forced
the thought out of her head and kept walking.

                                  ]++[

"This is better than I'd hoped," Neil sighed, feeling the warm
stickiness of the LCL begin to lap at his ankles as the cockpit filled,
leaving out his internal appendix that it was also worse of some
levels.  By the time they'd reached the docks the staff had already
detected the Children within the building, the arrival coming just in
time as the Angel slowly advanced towards the center of the city.  It
was, academically, a good thing, knowing that the three Evas were going
to be able to engage the Angel, and as Neil felt the Eva's restraints
disengage he knew that he was doing the right thing.  But on another
level, the last thing he wanted to do was to feel the Eva's mind
tickling at the back of his own when he felt this guilty, already
sensing that distant red haze of battle.

EVA-01's retraints snapped away as the LCL finished flooding the
chamber and Neil felt the Eva's external form embrace his, waiting only
for the telltale lurch of the unit towards the launch bay.  It took
only a moment of waiting to realize that something was going wrong,
that the Eva wasn't moving.  "Um... er... Mr. Hyuga?" asked Neil,
trying to remember the name of the console tech that had taken over
Misato's job in her absence, glancing around the massive empty room in
hopes that there was simply some detail that would make everything
clear to him.  "Why aren't we being launched against the Angel?"

"We can't launch you," replied the young man's voice, and Neil frowned,
turning his Eva around to fast the closed door that normally slid
upwards to allow the Eva motion to the launch pad.  The door itself was
partially raised, just enough for Neil to kneel down and force it the
rest of the way open as the console tech continued to talk to him.
"We've only barely got the energy to keep powering the Eva units, much
less enough to operate our launch pads.  Luckily, the pads are equipped
with emergency ladders for your units - you'll just have to climb up to
the Angel."

As Neil stepped out from his holding bay, he glanced to his right to
see EVA-04 and EVA-05 approaching his position as well, Eiko flashing
him a quick thumb's up as he began to climb up the launch tube as
Makoto directed.  It was slow going, and it wasn't until after the Evas
were already in the tubes that Makoto revealed they would be using an
emergency exit located directly over Central Dogma, explaining that it
had the only door that they could open.  The launch tubes had always
seemed shockingly brief when being launched through them, but as Neil
worked his way up the emergency launch tube, hearing the other two Evas
climbing behind him, it seemed as though the corridors would go on
forever, lit only by the natural glow of the Eva's eyes.

Glancing up towards the top of the tunnel, Neil could see the sunlight
streaming in, that the hatch had already been opened.  "All right," he
shouted down towards the other pilots as he picked up his pace.  "Looks
like it's just a little further towards the surface.  Once we get
there, we'll be set."  He turned back towards the exit, focusing on the
shimmering light at the end, hands and feet moving resolutely, almost a
pleasingly monotonous action to distract him from himself.

Then the light at the end of the launch tube suddenly went dark, and
Neil's eyes went wide as he realized the Angel was moving over the tube
to block it, as if it had known they were coming.  A single eye stared
down at him from the bottom of a disklike body, and for a moment Neil
wondered if perhaps the Angel could only observe them before he noticed
that there was an odd orange rim forming around the Angel's eye.
Gritting his teeth, he forced as much power as he could into his AT
field, hoping to block off whatever the Angel was about to unleash.

Running into the Eva hangars, Nieve could see at a glance that the
others had already launched their machines, and she inwardly cursed at
herself for not having kept things under tighter control even as she
kept herself running down the catwalks that connected the huge
chambers, ignoring the empty rooms and heading toward her own machine.
"We're late," she muttered to herself, halting in front of EVA-02 and
staring at the red goliath for a moment before moving towards the entry
plug.  The white cylinder was already opened, and trying to suppress
her own anger towards herself she hopped into the cockpit, closing the
hatch on the top and easing herself against the nylon of the seat.
"I've got to keep it together.  Keep it under control."

As the entry plug began moving towards her Eva, she heard the crackle
of the radio's activation, confirming more than anything that the
others had managed to get to the hangar first.  "I'm glad you three
were able to make it," announced Makoto, the voice a slight surprise to
all three Children, Nieve able to figure out the implications as she
felt her entry plug begin to slide into the back of the machine.
"Captain Katsuragi isn't here yet - we don't know what's happened to
her.  The other three are trying to engage the Angel, but..."  He
paused for a moment as the LCL began to flood the Eva's cockpit without
warning, a slight yelp from Vash coming over the radio.  "I think
they're having trouble."

Still holding tightly to the ladder as though it were the only thing
that could save his life, Neil winced as he felt the searing heat of
acid inches away from his Eva, the octagonal ripples from the AT
field's activation bursting across the air around him as he felt his
vision blur slightly.  He couldn't see the Angel above him, but he
could hear the acid splashing outwards against the wall, corroding
through the ladder as his grip faltered.  "Eiko, Niobe, get back down
to the bottom!" he shouted, trying to give some kind of orders more out
of necessity than any idea of what he should do.  Struggling to get a
clear picture of the Angel, Neil saw the acidic orange liquid part in
front of his vision only momentarily, and his eyes widened as he saw
that there was a river of the stuff gushing out of the Angel's eye with
the force of a tidal wave.

For just a moment, Neil felt himself panic, the liquid hissing towards
him with a force that he hadn't expected, and his focus left the AT
field just enough as the liquid slammed into the field.  The octagons
rippled out for a moment, then the liquid tore through the field and
washed along EVA-01's face and chest, steam rising from the Eva as its
armor was corroded.  Neil felt only vaguely like screaming, the pain
too intense to even think for a moment, and any semblance of a grip
he'd had on the ladder vanished as his throat managed a strangled gasp
of pain, the Eva toppling off the ladder and falling backwards,
slamming its back into the side of corridor as it fell down towards its
comrades.

Neil distantly heard Makoto shout something to him, but he couldn't
make it out as he felt the harsh impact of EVA-04's shoulder flanges
against his legs, then felt the weight of the other machine falling
away from him as the world went into a hazy blur of yellow, silver, and
flailing purple limbs hurtling towards the bottom of a dark gray
corridor.  It wasn't until he felt the harsh shock of impact at the
bottom of the tunnel that his senses seemed to recover, the world
slowing down as he felt the force of the other two Evas falling on top
of him, forcing himself to ignore the lingering stinging in his skin as
he glanced up towards the Angel, seeing the orange liquid beginning to
trickle towards them once again.  "Activate your AT fields to full
power!" he shouted, not sure if Eiko or Niobe was listening as he
concentrated completely on the field, knowing that things would be much
worse now if the acid hit.

As she crawled towards the vertical shaft, Nieve could see a cloud of
what looked like steam rising from inside the shaft, and she felt minor
surge of panic, then forced her Eva forward faster, trying to reach the
shaft as fast as she could, knowing that Neil could very well be in
danger.  She was vaguely aware that Vash and Ryo were following behind
her, hearing the clanging noises as their machine climbed along towards
their destination, but she couldn't help but leave them behind as she
lurched to a stop just short of the vertical shaft, looking downwards
towards the tangle of Evas.  "Neil!" she shouted, knowing that he would
hear her through the radio regardless of her volume.

"Don't come into the shaft!" shouted Neil, hearing the acid hiss
against the combined AT fields of the three units at the bottom of the
shaft once again, all thoughts of guilt evaporating as he got the
unmistakable sensation that he was a fish in a barrel.  The orange
droplets were far slower than they had been when they forced the three
Evas to the bottom of the tunnel, but they seemed to have lost none of
their corrosiveness, and the moment the AT fields wore down he knew
that they didn't have a chance.  "Whatever's coming out of its eye,
it's lethal."  He grimaced as a droplet splashed against the AT field
once again, trying his best to remain focused and fight down the sense
of panic growing in his gut.

Nieve grimaced for a moment, then felt her hands tighten almost
involuntarily around the handles of the cockpit as she glanced over her
shoulder towards Ryo and Vash.  Both of them had heard the radio
conversation, of that she was certain, and she flipped a switch on the
handrests, grinning to herself as she opened a private channel to both
of them.  "All right, guys, we're going to have to deal with this Angel
ourselves.  Vash, you know how to throw a knife, right?"

Vash stared at the girl for a moment, looking somewhat indignant in his
little communication window as he nodded in response.  "Who put you in
charge?" he asked, sounding somewhat bitter.

"I did," she replied flatly, giving a quick glance towards Ryo's
display and making sure that he didn't seem to have any problem with
her being in control.  "Listen.  On my mark, Ryo, spread your AT field
as far as you can and place it at maximum power.  I'm going to enter
the shaft at that point and wedge myself in place so that if the Angel
hits anything, it's going to hit me.  Vash, when I'm in place, I'll
call to you, and that's your cue to throw your prog knife at the
thing.  Understand?"

Ryo simply nodded, while Vash seemed to suddenly take notice of what
Nieve was saying, the plan that she described obviously not the plan
that he'd expected to hear.  "Didn't you hear what Neil said?" asked
the boy, his face growing larger in the window of Nieve's display as
his Eva moved slightly closer to her.  "That thing's lethal!  You
should let me block the acid, and -"

"-No-," replied Nieve firmly, knowing that she had to remain strong
even if Vash protested, fully aware that any respect she had from the
boys hinged on that fact.  She rolled her Eva over so that it was lying
against the bottom of the connection tunnel, facing up towards the
Angel, her hands reaching up and gripping the lip of the entrance into
the vertical tunnel.  "My machine's designed for hostile enivornments,
and I'm willing to bet that this qualifies.  Ryo has the strongest AT
field, so he's got the best chance of spreading it wide enough.  And
you've got the strongest muscle mass in your machine."  She paused for
a moment, smirking.  "Besides, I've never been good at throwing knives."

Opening his mouth again as if to try another protest, Vash hesitated,
then simply closed his mouth and frowned, and Nieve closed the personal
channel as she gripped the lip of the entrace more firmly, bracing her
legs against the floor and letting herself wait just a moment.  "Ready,
Ryo?" she asked, glancing towards the boy's Eva and receiving a nod.
She gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, then let her fingers dig in
more tightly and tensed the muscles in her Eva's legs.  "-Now!-"

With a mighty push, Nieve's Eva seemed to rocket into the vertical
tunnel, swinging upwards in a red blur as she distantly heard the noise
of Ryo's AT field activating.  Slamming her feet hard against the side
of the tunnel with the ladder on it, Nieve wedged her heels in, forcing
the Eva to remain in place, suspended just above the tumble of Evas at
the bottom as the acid began to spray against her back.  It was still
sore from the prior day, but she forced herself to ignore it, gritting
her teeth and digging her fingers in more deeply, reminding herself the
acid was only hitting her AT field.  The smell of burning metal began
to mingle with the blood-scent of the LCL, and she closed her eyes,
waiting for Vash's machine to move.

Vash hesitated for just a second, trying to keep his hand steady as he
deployed the prog knife from his shoulder and gripped the blade between
his fingers.  Then he nodded to himself and hurled himself forward,
letting his machine twist as he lept out of the connecting tunnel into
the vertical shaft, the Angel visible at the top, orange liquid
spilling out from around its eye.  Time seemed to slow down for just a
moment, and Vash smirked involuntarily, feeling as though he'd become
his namesake for just a moment, just the way that he'd always wanted.
"Love and peace," he muttered, letting his arm snap upwards, fingers
releasing the blade of the knife and letting it spin towards the
Angel's eye.

Then time restored itself, and several things seemed to happen at once
as the dagger flew upwards without any sign of slowing.  Vash's machine
hit the opposite side of the vertical shaft hard, and the impact rocked
the shaft enough that Nieve's feet slipped, her lower torso swinging
back down and away from the wall, letting the acid fall freely towards
the Evas at the bottom of the shaft.  At the same moment, Neil's Eva
stood forcefully, holding 05 and 04 gently and its AT field redoubling
its power as the acid came racing towards it.  Then a second seemed to
finally pass, and as the first droplets of acid splattered against EVA-
01's AT field once again Vash's knife drove straight into the pupil of
the Angel's eye, the flow of acid suddenly stopping as though the Angel
had been genuinely surprised.

Another second passed, then the Angel seemed to jerk upwards as it
exploded, the waves of heat from an explosion hitting the Evas
assembled in the shaft but none of the actual force managing to touch
them.  Vash slammed his hands against the wall and shoved his heels
against the ladder, his Eva only slipping a small distance towards the
bottom before he came to a stop.  Then, almost on cue, the lights in
the tunnel itself came back on with a flickering glow.  "The power's
back," announced Vash, smirking slightly and breathing a sigh of relief
for all the Children.

"Yeah," replied Nieve, hoisting her Eva's legs up and climbing back
into the tunnel enough to avoid falling to the bottom, then relaxing
her focus on the Eva and smirking to herself.  She released the handles
of the Eva's cockpit, staring at her open palms for a moment before
closing them gently into fists, a warm sense of satisfaction slowly
flooding through her body.  "It is."  Her smile widened, and with one
quick glance back towards Neil she let herself relax, confident that
her setbacks were only minor ones as the other Evas began to climb
their way out of the pit.

                                  ]++[

Outro: Neon Epoch Evangelion is based off of -Shin Seiki Evangelion- by
GAINAX and company.  It is not intended to be a straightforward fanfic,
but it is building off the work of others, and as such it is done with
the utmost respect for the original works and their authors.
Basically, even though this is an original work, it's based off the
work of others, and if you read this, you should go to see the original.

Special thanks to all of the real Children - you know who you are.

Extra special thanks to Joe Augulis for his consultation on the
Japanese portions of the story.  He might not know much Japanese, but
that's more than I know.

Copyright 2002 Eliot Lefebvre.

NEXT EPISODE:
             Home is where you can feel secure.
             Home is where you can feel normal.
             Home is where you can hide your secrets.
NEON EPOCH EVANGELION 12: A NAME LIKE HOME
"I just wanted to feel normal again."

                                  ]++[

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