BATTERED AND POUNDED ON THE DERELICT SHORES

Sumire tapped on Misato’s office door. She had gone to Maya’s, but she had an office sign up saying she was resting and was to be left alone. She looked up as Misato’s voice hit the air. “Come in.” Sumire opened the door, walking in nervously since this was the one office next to Gendo and Ritsuko’s she was nervous about being in. She eased up her folder of electronic papers. “Colonel, I’ve just been told by the science division that the new software is ready for upload to all of the Nerv facilities worldwide. I wanted to tell Maya, but she’s sleeping and doesn’t want to be disturbed.”

Misato eyed her, taking the paper from her hand. Maya liked these way more than tablets as they could be filed, then stored in the Nerv database, and used over and over. “Yes, I ordered her to get some rest, as she had a very long night last night and didn’t get any sleep, which I’m sure you’ve heard about.”

Sumire nodded calmly. “Yes, I heard about it, though I have no comment to make on it, as I don’t pry in the private lives of others.”

Misato felt a wide grin form. “Really?”

Sumire nodded. “Yes, Colonel.”

Misato leaned back, putting her feet on the desk. “You know, I have a question I’ve been wanting to ask you.”

Sumire blinked in confusion. “Yes, Colonel.”

Misato raised her hand. “What did you say to Ritsuko, not in this meeting because I found that out, but what did you say to her originally that caused her to throw you into the dark zone doing maintenance on the Magi servers?”

Sumire breathed in deeply. “I told her she was a pathetic, cowardly woman who always blames others and does not look for her own failures as a person.”

Misato looked at her for a long moment. “Well, you’re not wrong. Clearly, you really hit her in her soft underbelly and she punished you for it.”

Sumire felt herself tense. “Has she ordered that I go back there after I told her to go fuck herself in the meeting?”

Misato looked up slightly. “No, she hasn’t, but next time let me say things like that for you; I would rather not give her any more reason to punish you, and I know you’re currently on anti-depressants.” She paused. “Also, if they clash with your other medications, please inform me, as that part wasn’t in your records.”

Sumire eyed her. “The Mexican division never saw it as relevant.”

Misato looked at her for a long moment. “Well, I have to note it, but no-one other than the bridge crew and higher staff can read about it.”

Sumire breathed in sharply. “No offence, but I would rather Ritsuko not get to read it. I’ve heard she’s homophobic, and I heard she backed up that vile bastard Yuki who still works here, and I’ve heard of the things that he’s done to people like me.”

Misato looked up slightly. “Ah yes, because you’ve been out of the loop for a long while, you probably don’t know that Yuki was fired some time ago, as his hate crimes came out in full and were no longer covered up.” She felt a sly smile form. “Asuka also beat the shit out of the guy, as he had taken out his hatred on both Mari and Kaworu by beating them, as well as her, many years ago. Safe to say, once he was discharged, he was sacked.” She raised her hand. “So, you have nothing to fear anymore from him, and you will be fully protected from any hate like that in future. Kaji has put a new protocol in place to ensure that all high-level bridge staff and pilots are safe from this issue in the future, and another’s in place for the general staff.”

Sumire narrowed her gaze. “I see.”

Misato breathed in deeply. “Trust me, Sumire: no further harm will come to you.”

Sumire breathed in, easing up her tablet, feeling the need to change the subject. “The hospital has said you can speak to Miki, but only via com, and the Prime Minister and his wife have refused to give you to her, along with her brother.”

Misato sat up in her chair. “Well, that’s something at least.”

Sumire put her hands behind her back. “Not that it’s any of my business, but that medication for dealing with post-traumatic stress in some people can make them not as sharp as they should be, as it’s a really powerful drug.”

Misato looked up, meeting her gaze. “You’ve had it?”

Sumire breathed in deeply. “Yes, after the incident with Gryphon in Mexico they gave it to me. I had a three-week run of it and I wasn’t always clear-minded on it.”

Misato put her hands together. “Tell me something, Sumire. Why did you join Nerv, as you were asked that question in Mexico, but you refused to answer it.”

Sumire put her hands behind her back. “For my country….”

Misato picked up a pen, pointing it at her. “No, that’s the official answer. So, let me ask again, why are you really here?”

Sumire felt a sneer form as she spoke with more anger then intended. “So I can bring an end to the vile terrorist groups who killed my grandmother as a child, because they bring nothing but suffering!”

She paused before speaking. “Because one day I want to put the man who leads Gryphon in jail. But I guess you’re going to tell me that revenge is pointless.”

Misato stood up slowly as she spoke calmly. “I’m here because I want to kill Adam, as he killed my father. I can’t belittle your need for revenge when I have a score of my own to settle.”

Sumire blinked in surprise, feeling her anger fade instantly. “I see, Colonel.”

Misato stepped out from behind her desk. “Now, if you would, I’d like to go to the science division and see what they’ve cooked up. I assume Kaji is already there.”

Sumire started walking as she spoke calmly. “Yes, Colonel. He is there now, waiting for you. I’ll take you there now.”

Out In The South Pacific Ocean

Gabriella sneered in anger as she spoke. “Get the ship out of the water now!” The deep loud creaking was heard as he Hatshepsut came free from the sea, its huge wings slowly opening as it floated above the surface. They had been stuck down there for hours in pitch darkness, sinking in to the darkest depth. It had taken ages to restart the S2 engine, since it had to be shocked like a human heart and theirs was a back-engineered version based on the Mars mission version, which was currently being tested. She watched as the controllers eyed the holographic panels. “What damage have we taken?!”

The controller breathed in. “There is a hole within the ship, Pharaoh!”

Gabriella watched as they brought up an image of a part of the inside, which had a massive area which had been blown apart. “How many people are dead?”

The controller breathed in as he eyed the reports. “There are twenty people missing… but there are no bodies. They’re telling me that all they found was this red liquid, like blood, all over these decks.”

Gabriella tensed in anger. “Must be their guts. Have them vent it out using the water spray….” She eyed the image. “This makes no sense. The explosion blew this area up, but didn’t blow right out creating a hole outside the ship.”

The controller turned to her. “There something else though. There’s a boy who survived. He was the only one to live in that deck area, but he’s not making any sense. He keeps telling us that he saw a horrible monster destroy the deck and kill those people. He won’t say how or even what he saw fully, he’s just in a state of shock it seems.”

Gabriella breathed in deeply. “How long will it take to repair the ship?”

The controller shook his head. “It will take hours, Pharaoh, and we will be exposed during that time as one of our main propeller engines to help us both fly and swim is damaged.”

Gabriella narrowed her gaze as she spoke coldly. “Have them clean those two decks, put the boy in therapy, and fix our engine.”

Christopher looked up nervously. “Grandmother, we’ll be exposed. If any ferry or battleship sees us, they could attack us.”

Gabriella sat down on a chair, eyeing him. “It’s a risk we will just have to take, and we still have weapons to blow them out of the water.” She put a hand on her face in frustration. “We had the destroyer of worlds in the palms of our hands, and now we’ve lost her.”

Achika tensed, trying to forget what she had seen. “Grandmother, I mean no offence, but maybe this wasn’t a good idea. You saw that thing, we all did. Maybe it’s better that it’s gone.”

Gabriella slammed her fist down hard as she turned her chair towards them. “Stop being cowards, both of you! It was an illusion. It wasn’t real, it was a projected soul image. Terrifying, yes, but still not flesh and blood!”

Christopher breathed in deeply. “But those people… There’s nothing left; it clearly ate them alive.”

Gabriella eyed the image of the decks, which were being washed, as she spoke coldly. “People can be replaced…” She paused. “It doesn’t matter though. It’s just a stumbling block on our plans, and I will have the destroyer back in our hands.”

Christopher eyed his sister, who looked just as concerned as him now. They were both shaken up. They had both seen some terrifying things in their lives, but they had not felt fear like this before. Maybe the reality was that some things you weren’t meant to see, and maybe you weren’t meant to see a death god in the flesh. Yet their grandmother now wanted to pursue this further, and that made him feel truly uncomfortable. He had at first believed that seeing a god would be like seeing heaven and the divine; now all he could think of was that he wanted to be as far away from that Pandoran box as he could get, and he knew his sister felt the same.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

8

Well, it rained long and hard partway through last night. I didn’t sleep well because of it. The only upside is, the water traps got filled. I don’t know if we just got lucky, personally, I mean what are the odds of getting that lucky? Asuka’s not awake; she’s slept through the night and it’s getting into the late morning, and she still hasn’t woken up.

I think the pain’s truly kicking in now for her. Since she has no painkillers, it was difficult putting alcohol on the cuts, as they clearly hurt. Her whole upper body from her neck, down to her waist and lower stomach is just full of bruises, both from being hit, and from the restraining devices. Her wrists are also bruised, as are her ankles, and she looks pale now and thin in the face.

I’ll have to wake her up soon, give her as much water as possible, and hope she keeps it down. Her left eye is behaving normally now, in that it’s going into its dimmed state when she sleeps. Oh gods, I just wish I could remember what happened to the both of us! It’s clear neither of us can remember anything after they used that device.

Every time I think about it, I get nothing, and it’s so frustrating. I hate not being able to remember; it feels so unnerving to me. I hate the unknown, and I hate not remembering anything, and I don’t know how a whole chunk of my memory could just fade like that, even though I clearly have not taken a blow to the head.

Rei breathed in as she carried on rubbing the old-world batteries with wire wool. They’d found lots in the kitchen draws. Finding ones that weren’t leaking was hard, but they had found a couple. She watched as the spark ignited on the burning material and wire wool. She threw it into the fireplace, lighting it again, then threw in a few broken pieces of furniture.

Something weird had also happened last night, and she had no idea if the rain had caused it, but the red vines, which had been on the walls on every side of the room, had grown overnight and were working their way towards the tub where they were sleeping. She had had to pull some of them back, which hadn’t been pleasant; they felt like flesh to the touch, and if you squeezed them you got the same blood on your hands as was found in the red sea.

She grabbed the nearest bottle of water as she stood up, walking over to Asuka, she leaned over shaking her gently. “Asuka.” She tried again, slightly harder. “Asuka!” She watched as the other woman’s eyes opened, though it clearly took a lot of effort.

Asuka spoke in a tired voice. “What is it?”

Rei raised the bottle of fresh, clear water. “I need you to drink this, Asuka.”

Asuka sat up slightly. “We have water?”

Rei breathed in, gently putting a hand behind Asuka’s head, helping her as she started to drink with utter gusto; she was clearly very thirsty. “Yes, I think we just got lucky, or maybe it’s one of those British things Mari talks about where it always rains.”

She watched as Asuka stopped, clearly running out of steam. She pulled the now almost empty bottle away. “We only have enough for two days. Maybe when you feel a little better, we can start searching the homes. I mean, someone must have a radio or Morse code device here. There might even be a still-working boat, as I saw docks not far from here, meaning we can get back to civilization.”

Asuka moved her hand up, taking hold of Rei’s arm. “You look tired. Did you sleep?”

Rei pushed her hair back, hating that it was getting messy. She so much wanted to wash, but red water made her uncomfortable and she just couldn’t bring herself to wash with it. “The rain kept me up though-out the night, but you slept through it.”

Asuka eyed the lit fireplace before turning back to Rei. She pulled up her blanket, feeling the slight chill of the cold. “Come lay with me. Sleep for a while.”

Rei looked around her for a long moment. A part of her wanted to carry on working, but the rest of her body was tired, and she could feel the chill. She breathed in slowly, getting into the tub. She lay on top of Asuka, circling up slightly as the woman put her blankets over her, holding her tight. “Yeah, maybe I should sleep a while.”

Asuka breathed in, feeling the other woman shuffle, getting more comfortable before she settled down, her green eyes slowly starting to close as much needed sleep took over. She lay back so her head was looking up at the tub’s old, long-broken shower head, which was attached to the tub via pipes. As she looked up at the large hole in the ceiling opposite, with its broken rafters which showed the bright blue sky outside, a set of birds flew over in formation. She breathed in, feeling a sad smile form. How strangely beautiful this place was, all in rot and decay, yet you could look up at an almost perfect sky.

Right now, she almost wished she had her digital scroll to draw this, yet the reality was that she wouldn’t be able to draw it anyway; her wrists hurt too much, which would make art impossible to sketch.

The whole being here gave her a strange sense of déjà vu, like she’d been here before, yet she knew she never had. Still, what did it matter? All that really mattered was that she wasn’t alone; she was with someone who loved her. If she’d have been washed up here alone, handling this would have been ten times worse, and she knew it.

In the here and now, they had water and food and each other’s warmth, so maybe she should just carry on looking at the sky for a while. She finished the water bottle close by, before resting again. She eased her hands up, putting them on Rei, hugging her gently, hearing that the other woman’s breathing was now lighter, which meant she was starting to drift into deeper sleep. The reality was that as scheisse as this was, it could be far worse and she knew it: they could still be on that vile underwater airship.

London’s Bethany Nerv base

Marcus stroked his white beard as he eyed the monitor, seeing that Alexandra was opposite him typing into her holographic panel. “So, let me get this straight, right, just so I’ve got this…. Nerv Japan found a way to track Asuka using Bardiel?”

Alexandra turned, adjusting her pressed suit. “Yes. I’ve installed the software they sent us, and it’s almost finished calibrating. They said that it has huge coverage.”

Marcus adjusted his uniform. “But Bardiel left Asuka. They said she was clean.”

Alexandra carried on typing. “I asked about that, as I didn’t understand it either, and I was just told that it’s classified. So I asked Geraldina over in the German division, but she knew nothing and said they told her the same thing.”

She carried on typing. “All major bases and lesser bases have been told to update the software. It’s taken five hours to calibrate in total. They said once all the software comes online, every base should get a world scan, but if she’s in a base’s region or owned lands, a marker should come up pinpointing her location.”

Marcus breathed in deeply. “Yeah, well I’ll be interested to see if this even works. I mean pilot tracking normally works by the plug suit, but this is all really weird.” He paused, watching as the holographic world map shot up. The results started to come though as the software came online at all the other bases.

Alexandra breathed in deeply. “Okay, bringing ours online now.” She typed, watching as it started to scan slowly as the other bases came up empty. “Frankly, I think this is a fucking waste of time. Tracking people worldwide is hard, let alone finding one single person.”

Marcus smirked. “Yeah, I don’t see this working…” He stopped as a marker came up flashing brightly. He pulled himself up in his chair. “Well fuck me sideways!”

Misato’s voice came over the com. “Britain Bethany base, we are getting a strong signal from you, please clarify location.”

Alexandra turned in her command chair, which was opposite Marcus’s. “Tracking it right now, please stand by Nerv Japan.” She watched as the map beamed in fully. “Asuka’s location is the abandoned South Georgia Island in the second impact ruins.”

Misato’s voice hit the air filled with shock. “She’s all the way out there? But that’s on the other side of the world!”

Marcus stood up sharply. “I’ll go and get her. I can get down there. It could take me five hours, but it’s faster than you coming down here. I’ll bring her and Rei with me back to Japan.” He paused. “We can upload this software into our handheld trackers, I assume?”

Misato’s voice came again. “Yes, you can.”

Marcus looked up slightly. “Time is now of the essence, Colonel. Those ruins are poisonous; it’s the vines, they make people very sick and can even kill them.”

Misato’s voice hit the air. “Yes, get them right now. We have no idea what the effects are of red vines on pilots. They’ve never had long exposure of any kind before.”

Marcus breathed in deeply. “I’m leaving now, Colonel. I will report back as soon as I have Asuka. Hopefully, Rei will be with her.” He turned, eyeing Alexandra. “Send the message I want my special Lockheed CL-1201 aircraft carrier with its special medical section prepped with a medical crew, and two Euro fighters to flank me, and I want the best SIS and SAS units we have in it in ten minutes!”

Alexandra turned in her seat. “I’ll get that for you now.” She paused, eyeing her screen. “Now go. As you say, we don’t have any time to waste; we both know what happens to people who go to that island.”

Marcus stroked his beard. “Yeah, you don’t need to tell me. I’ve dragged more dead bodies off that shit hole place than I can count. The wankers know it’s a restricted area, but they still go there and pay for it with their miserable lives.”

8

It’s funny, I’ve travelled so many worlds and planes and so many strange places in my eons of travel, but there are strangely some things that you can’t recreate on other worlds or parallel universes, no matter how hard you try, and one that seems primal and unique to this universe is its Mugicha.

The smell, the taste, the texture, even how they place the cup on your plate; the tiny details are always the same in this universe, but not in others, and it helps me remember better times. I don’t have to eat or drink, but sometimes I just do it for the sense of memories and connection of times passed – some happy, some tragic and sad. Yet those are my memories; they are important to me.

Hence why I’m sitting in a café on one of the Tokyo Three’s shopping areas, far from Nerv, watching as the people walk past the window and the world goes by slowly. I come back here every now and again since its creation, because it’s a way of reconnecting with who I was during my cycle, and remembering what it was to be human. It’s a distant memory now and not always easy to remember. I’m in my schoolgirl form, and for a change I’m letting them see me openly.

“Here’s your hot Mugicha.”

I turn, looking at the waiter, who eyes me for a long moment before speaking.

“You know, you remind me of the Evangelion Pilot Rei Ayanami. I bet your friends at school tell you that all the time though.”

I look at my tea for a long moment before speaking, as I never had school friends. I was always alone when I was human. The only friends I had were Shinji and Asuka, and in that first reincarnation they barely tolerated me and were mean towards me, yet the versions in this twentieth cycle have shown me nothing but kindness and compassion. “I don’t have school friends.”

He looks at me sadly. “Is that because of your condition? The walking dead syndrome? Because if it is, you shouldn’t let it get to you.”

If he only knew, I chose to be this way because I do not care about what others think of me, and if they do say cruel things, with a flick of my fingers I can make them forget they ever met or spoke to me. I can even whisper ideas into their minds and change their destiny to suit myself, though I don’t do it that often as I don’t believe in taking away free will; I know what it’s like to have my own taken and to be a tool in the hands of another. It’s always a strong memory for me that never goes away. I look up, replying, but it’s in a very deadpan tone. “I don’t care what they think.”

The older man, who is clearly kind, gives me a smile. “Things will work out, kid. You’ll see, they will.”

I watch as he leaves. I move my fingertips around the edges of the cup. It’s a trait my other human self does often as well, though her preferred hot drink differs to mine; it’s normally warm Sake, drunk traditionally. One thing though I do enjoy about being a god of sorts, is I can now eat anything just like she can. I’m not hindered by my insides breaking down anymore. The first time I made this pilgrimage, I just wanted to try everything. I did so with utter gusto; I even ate meat just to try it, even though it still does nothing for me.

After, I travelled the world, taking different forms, trying different dishes, which on alien and parallel worlds can taste so different, but unlike on those worlds where it was to try them for mere curiosity, on this one it was more about a homecoming; eating things denied to me in humanity and feeling linked to the world again in some way.

Now, as I sip this Mugicha, I’m instantly taken back to the days of walking to Nerv, going past run-down cafés, the smell of the petrol cars and trucks, and those fleeting moments of happiness, and I can feel myself truly enjoying the moment and just for a second forgetting that I am a god reborn. Remembering that I am just Rei, and there is another like me, but she is not me, as I am me.

End of part 33

Silvermoonlight