Fic: [Evangelion] Third Genesis
Title: Third Genesis
Series: Evangelion
Type: Continuation
Links: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1321921/43/Third_Genesis
Part Thirty Nine
It was another busy morning at NERV headquarters, two women walking out the elevator and up the hall. Himiko Yamada smiled warmly as the ash gray haired young woman followed Misato into her office. "I have the report from the JSSDF on the attack on NERV shortly before Impact," she said respectfully as she set the documents on the desk.
"Is anyone actually taking responsibility?" Misato Katsuragi asked dryly, the black haired woman sitting at her desk as she flipped through it.
"Do you really think I'd read a confidential report?" Himiko asked innocently.
Misato gave her a look, "Yes, actually."
Himiko shrugged as she gave in, "Supposedly, the general responsible for ordering the attack thought he was operating under legitimate orders."
Misato snorted in disgust, "Including shooting defenseless lab techs and personnel who surrendered?" She found the conclusions page and read, "Well, at least they're dismissing the bastards. Any chance they'll face trial?"
"Reading between the lines, no," Himiko admitted.
Both of them knew that pressing charges would open up the whole complicated situation of what the entity formerly trapped in Terminal Dogma had done to people's minds in and around Tokyo-3, and what had and had not happened there. The government seemed willing to just let sleeping dogs lie, in this case.
"Asuka's going to be pissed," Misato predicted. In fact she was angry too, even though she was older and understood the political realities.
Changing the subject Himiko said, "Simulations and trials for Archangel are scheduled today, and NERV staff are starting testing Unit-02 with synch scans of pilot candidates."
"Hmm," Misato grunted. She still wasn't sure it was a good idea to look into finding a new pilot for Unit-02. Still, the Evangelion cost enough to bankrupt a small country, and not piloting it seemed a criminal waste. Besides, if they didn't find a pilot it was quite possible the Japanese government would do it for them.
Himiko added gently, "I've uploaded your schedule to your desktop, but we can rearrange things as necessary."
"Thanks," Misato smiled back as she flipped open several files while also booting up her desktop and Himiko excused herself.
Walking out to her desk Himiko went through the messages, sorting material before passing it on to her boss. Urgent stuff was tagged first, then standard day to day stuff and the final pile was unsolicited materials which could be reviewed or ignored.
Aoba Kinushima stuck her head in the door, about a hour later. The brown haired woman was warmly charming, but Himiko found it hard to approve of her. Part of it being the whole working with someone who you're dating thing, she knew.
"Hi, Himiko," Aoba smiled, "is Misato busy?"
"I think she'd fit you in," Himiko admitted as she waved for her to go in. "Just don't take too much of her time, all right?"
"Will do," Aoba agreed as she walked across the outer office, opened the door to Misato's room and headed in.
Himiko shook her head wryly, glad the office was sound proofed. Not that she seriously expected the two of them to DO anything too naughty in there, but she didn't want to take chances. She answered the phone automatically, "Commander Katsuragi's office, you are being recorded for security purposes. How may I help you?"
"Hey," Asuka answered warmly, "just checking in. What's this I hear about our classes being tested as Evangelion candidates?"
Himiko smiled slightly, having become friends with the young woman since she and Rei spent so much time seeing Misato. "What the science teams are doing is just recording synchronization tests," Himiko said, "so we can run them through your Unit-02."
"I'll try to keep Aida restrained," Asuka said dryly as she added, "I think he's wanted to be a pilot nearly forever."
"No idea what it's really like?" Himiko guessed.
"Actually, he's known Shinji from the beginning," Asuka admitted. "But he's a military otaku, not to mention into robots so...."
"Well, hopefully he won't qualify," Himiko suggested wryly, the two talking a bit more before Asuka had to go back to class.
Actually, NERV already had the majority of the classes' data from covert testing at the school, but Misato wanted updated test data. There were a number of new students in the rapidly growing city, after all. And Misato also wanted to be more open with the public about what they were doing, unlike under Commander Ikari.
About half an hour after Aoba arrived the woman slipped out of Misato's office, now looking slightly rumpled. Himiko noted with some amusement that her normally neat hair was messy, her lipstick smudged and the buttons of her uniform shirt were done up wrong.
"Ms Kinushima?" Himiko said as she was making her way out.
"Yes?" Aoba looked sheepish.
Deciding to bring up the most obvious thing she pointed, "Your shirt?"
Aoba looked down, blinking as she realized that the buttons were in the wrong holes. Blushing she turned towards the door away from Himiko and quickly undid then redid up her buttons. "Thanks," she said as she headed out.
"You're welcome," Himiko chuckled as she went back to work.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"This is so cool!" Kensuke Aida yelped, the light brown haired boy nearly bouncing up and down as the students lined up for the testing.
Toji Suzuhara shook his head from where he waited by Asuka and Rei. "No, it's not," he said flatly,. "trust me."
Hikaru sighed as she waited behind Aida, her short brown hair flowing around her face. "We aren't going to be dunked in that LCL stuff, are we?" she asked, remembering Toji describing vividly his vomiting up LCL during his Evangelion training.
"Nothing so dramatic," Ritsuko Akagi said, the second in command of NERV's science departments looking rather amused. She had recently stopped dying her hair, so while it was mostly blonde the dark roots were growing in. She smiled comfortingly at Hikari, "We'll be putting connectors similar to the ones Asuka wears to get a reading of your neural activity and pathways. That's all."
Aida pouted, "But I wanted to get dunked in LCL."
"Want us to throw you in the pool instead?" Asuka offered wryly.
"It's not the same," Aida shrugged.
Rei was looking up at Toji, her red eyes faintly curious. "Mr. Suzuhara," she asked, "why did you refuse to undergo testing again?"
"I think I've given enough to NERV already," Toji shrugged, gently tapping his artificial leg with his cane. He had refused the teacher's polite request to get in line, and eventually the principal had been called in. Surprisingly when Ritsuko found out what the fuss was about she had backed Toji, getting the school officials off his back.
"Besides," Asuka added, "it should be his choice about being tested." Under her breath she added, "No way do I want to be fighting beside a draftee."
Aida's turn came, and he was nearly quivering with excitement as he was put in the chair by the portable diagnostic equipment. The clips were each carefully wiped down with a disinfectant then attached to his head, Ritsuko monitoring the readings on a nearby terminal. She studied the readings for a moment, then she made a face.
"Please try to calm down," Ritsuko told him severely, "if you're too excited, I can't record a good baseline reading." She smiled wryly, "Try taking a few deep, slow breaths." Eventually he calmed enough for her to get a reading, then the procedure repeated with each student.
Hikari finished her teasing, then joined her friends. "Wearing those clips was odd," she admitted as she rubbed her temples, "it felt like something was tickling my brain."
Having the most experience Asuka answered, "You get used to it, after awhile."
"It's worse in a plugsuit," Toji said dryly as he remembered, "it's like your nervous system gets plugged right into the Evangelion."
Aida was looking at them thoughtfully, "And you're telling me it's not cool?"
"No, it is not," Rei answered calmly as she looked him in the eye. "Asuka was blinded and has significant scarring, Toji lost his leg and also bears scars, and I," she hesitated over how to put it, "have suffered substantial neural changes."
"Not to mention Shinji's nervous breakdown," Toji tossed that in.
"Huh," Aida seemed somewhat subdued as he processed that.
Asuka and Rei moved off a bit, standing close together. "I didn't expect to hear that, coming from you," Asuka admitted.
"I pilot the Evangelion willingly," Rei answered quietly, "but I do not want a pilot fighting beside me who does not grasp the risks we take."
"Me, too," Asuka agreed, reaching out and gently squeezing her hand.
As the number of students wound down and she determined her helpers had things well in hand, Ritsuko walked over to where the group of five teens stood. "Mr. Suzuhara, it's been awhile," Ritsuko said just a bit nervously, stuffing her hands in her lab-coat. .
"Yeah, I think you visited once when I was in the hospital," Toji answered flatly, his expression somewhat antagonistic.
Meeting his eyes Ritsuko said, "I know Misato has apologized on behalf of NERV, but I feel I owe you a personal apology as well. I could have and probably should have opposed you being pressured to be a pilot, and I'm deeply sorry. My only excuse was I was too blinded by Gendo Ikari to do the right thing."
"Like I told Misato, I may not forgive you guys, but I'm willing to put it behind us," Toji answered. He stepped close to her as he added, "But if your gang of crazies hurts any of my friends, I'll kick your asses."
"Toji!" Hikari protested.
Ritsuko, surprisingly, smiled as she answered, "Fair enough."
"It's a really bad idea threatening NERV, you know," Aida said nervously as she walked away. "People used to disappear after doing that!"
"Misato wouldn't do that," Toji shrugged.
"No, she'd just shoot you," Rei offered mildly, her tone of voice not indicating if she was joking about it or not.
"Or worse,." Asuka agreed, remembering with a faint shudder the recordings of Misato's last stand in the Geofront when the JSSDF forces attacked. After seeing that she would never take the woman quite so lightly again.
"Seriously?" Toji blinked.
"I wouldn't put it past her," Asuka shrugged.
To be continued....
Notes: I haven't mentioned Misato's badassery in End of Evangelion earlier, so I wanted to work it in somewhere. I also wanted Rits to apologize go Toji, too, since she was directly involved with him getting hurt. This was also going to be a entirely Himiko focused chapter, but I figured I should split it with the school bit.
Series: Evangelion
Type: Continuation
Links: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1321921/43/Third_Genesis
Part Thirty Nine
It was another busy morning at NERV headquarters, two women walking out the elevator and up the hall. Himiko Yamada smiled warmly as the ash gray haired young woman followed Misato into her office. "I have the report from the JSSDF on the attack on NERV shortly before Impact," she said respectfully as she set the documents on the desk.
"Is anyone actually taking responsibility?" Misato Katsuragi asked dryly, the black haired woman sitting at her desk as she flipped through it.
"Do you really think I'd read a confidential report?" Himiko asked innocently.
Misato gave her a look, "Yes, actually."
Himiko shrugged as she gave in, "Supposedly, the general responsible for ordering the attack thought he was operating under legitimate orders."
Misato snorted in disgust, "Including shooting defenseless lab techs and personnel who surrendered?" She found the conclusions page and read, "Well, at least they're dismissing the bastards. Any chance they'll face trial?"
"Reading between the lines, no," Himiko admitted.
Both of them knew that pressing charges would open up the whole complicated situation of what the entity formerly trapped in Terminal Dogma had done to people's minds in and around Tokyo-3, and what had and had not happened there. The government seemed willing to just let sleeping dogs lie, in this case.
"Asuka's going to be pissed," Misato predicted. In fact she was angry too, even though she was older and understood the political realities.
Changing the subject Himiko said, "Simulations and trials for Archangel are scheduled today, and NERV staff are starting testing Unit-02 with synch scans of pilot candidates."
"Hmm," Misato grunted. She still wasn't sure it was a good idea to look into finding a new pilot for Unit-02. Still, the Evangelion cost enough to bankrupt a small country, and not piloting it seemed a criminal waste. Besides, if they didn't find a pilot it was quite possible the Japanese government would do it for them.
Himiko added gently, "I've uploaded your schedule to your desktop, but we can rearrange things as necessary."
"Thanks," Misato smiled back as she flipped open several files while also booting up her desktop and Himiko excused herself.
Walking out to her desk Himiko went through the messages, sorting material before passing it on to her boss. Urgent stuff was tagged first, then standard day to day stuff and the final pile was unsolicited materials which could be reviewed or ignored.
Aoba Kinushima stuck her head in the door, about a hour later. The brown haired woman was warmly charming, but Himiko found it hard to approve of her. Part of it being the whole working with someone who you're dating thing, she knew.
"Hi, Himiko," Aoba smiled, "is Misato busy?"
"I think she'd fit you in," Himiko admitted as she waved for her to go in. "Just don't take too much of her time, all right?"
"Will do," Aoba agreed as she walked across the outer office, opened the door to Misato's room and headed in.
Himiko shook her head wryly, glad the office was sound proofed. Not that she seriously expected the two of them to DO anything too naughty in there, but she didn't want to take chances. She answered the phone automatically, "Commander Katsuragi's office, you are being recorded for security purposes. How may I help you?"
"Hey," Asuka answered warmly, "just checking in. What's this I hear about our classes being tested as Evangelion candidates?"
Himiko smiled slightly, having become friends with the young woman since she and Rei spent so much time seeing Misato. "What the science teams are doing is just recording synchronization tests," Himiko said, "so we can run them through your Unit-02."
"I'll try to keep Aida restrained," Asuka said dryly as she added, "I think he's wanted to be a pilot nearly forever."
"No idea what it's really like?" Himiko guessed.
"Actually, he's known Shinji from the beginning," Asuka admitted. "But he's a military otaku, not to mention into robots so...."
"Well, hopefully he won't qualify," Himiko suggested wryly, the two talking a bit more before Asuka had to go back to class.
Actually, NERV already had the majority of the classes' data from covert testing at the school, but Misato wanted updated test data. There were a number of new students in the rapidly growing city, after all. And Misato also wanted to be more open with the public about what they were doing, unlike under Commander Ikari.
About half an hour after Aoba arrived the woman slipped out of Misato's office, now looking slightly rumpled. Himiko noted with some amusement that her normally neat hair was messy, her lipstick smudged and the buttons of her uniform shirt were done up wrong.
"Ms Kinushima?" Himiko said as she was making her way out.
"Yes?" Aoba looked sheepish.
Deciding to bring up the most obvious thing she pointed, "Your shirt?"
Aoba looked down, blinking as she realized that the buttons were in the wrong holes. Blushing she turned towards the door away from Himiko and quickly undid then redid up her buttons. "Thanks," she said as she headed out.
"You're welcome," Himiko chuckled as she went back to work.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"This is so cool!" Kensuke Aida yelped, the light brown haired boy nearly bouncing up and down as the students lined up for the testing.
Toji Suzuhara shook his head from where he waited by Asuka and Rei. "No, it's not," he said flatly,. "trust me."
Hikaru sighed as she waited behind Aida, her short brown hair flowing around her face. "We aren't going to be dunked in that LCL stuff, are we?" she asked, remembering Toji describing vividly his vomiting up LCL during his Evangelion training.
"Nothing so dramatic," Ritsuko Akagi said, the second in command of NERV's science departments looking rather amused. She had recently stopped dying her hair, so while it was mostly blonde the dark roots were growing in. She smiled comfortingly at Hikari, "We'll be putting connectors similar to the ones Asuka wears to get a reading of your neural activity and pathways. That's all."
Aida pouted, "But I wanted to get dunked in LCL."
"Want us to throw you in the pool instead?" Asuka offered wryly.
"It's not the same," Aida shrugged.
Rei was looking up at Toji, her red eyes faintly curious. "Mr. Suzuhara," she asked, "why did you refuse to undergo testing again?"
"I think I've given enough to NERV already," Toji shrugged, gently tapping his artificial leg with his cane. He had refused the teacher's polite request to get in line, and eventually the principal had been called in. Surprisingly when Ritsuko found out what the fuss was about she had backed Toji, getting the school officials off his back.
"Besides," Asuka added, "it should be his choice about being tested." Under her breath she added, "No way do I want to be fighting beside a draftee."
Aida's turn came, and he was nearly quivering with excitement as he was put in the chair by the portable diagnostic equipment. The clips were each carefully wiped down with a disinfectant then attached to his head, Ritsuko monitoring the readings on a nearby terminal. She studied the readings for a moment, then she made a face.
"Please try to calm down," Ritsuko told him severely, "if you're too excited, I can't record a good baseline reading." She smiled wryly, "Try taking a few deep, slow breaths." Eventually he calmed enough for her to get a reading, then the procedure repeated with each student.
Hikari finished her teasing, then joined her friends. "Wearing those clips was odd," she admitted as she rubbed her temples, "it felt like something was tickling my brain."
Having the most experience Asuka answered, "You get used to it, after awhile."
"It's worse in a plugsuit," Toji said dryly as he remembered, "it's like your nervous system gets plugged right into the Evangelion."
Aida was looking at them thoughtfully, "And you're telling me it's not cool?"
"No, it is not," Rei answered calmly as she looked him in the eye. "Asuka was blinded and has significant scarring, Toji lost his leg and also bears scars, and I," she hesitated over how to put it, "have suffered substantial neural changes."
"Not to mention Shinji's nervous breakdown," Toji tossed that in.
"Huh," Aida seemed somewhat subdued as he processed that.
Asuka and Rei moved off a bit, standing close together. "I didn't expect to hear that, coming from you," Asuka admitted.
"I pilot the Evangelion willingly," Rei answered quietly, "but I do not want a pilot fighting beside me who does not grasp the risks we take."
"Me, too," Asuka agreed, reaching out and gently squeezing her hand.
As the number of students wound down and she determined her helpers had things well in hand, Ritsuko walked over to where the group of five teens stood. "Mr. Suzuhara, it's been awhile," Ritsuko said just a bit nervously, stuffing her hands in her lab-coat. .
"Yeah, I think you visited once when I was in the hospital," Toji answered flatly, his expression somewhat antagonistic.
Meeting his eyes Ritsuko said, "I know Misato has apologized on behalf of NERV, but I feel I owe you a personal apology as well. I could have and probably should have opposed you being pressured to be a pilot, and I'm deeply sorry. My only excuse was I was too blinded by Gendo Ikari to do the right thing."
"Like I told Misato, I may not forgive you guys, but I'm willing to put it behind us," Toji answered. He stepped close to her as he added, "But if your gang of crazies hurts any of my friends, I'll kick your asses."
"Toji!" Hikari protested.
Ritsuko, surprisingly, smiled as she answered, "Fair enough."
"It's a really bad idea threatening NERV, you know," Aida said nervously as she walked away. "People used to disappear after doing that!"
"Misato wouldn't do that," Toji shrugged.
"No, she'd just shoot you," Rei offered mildly, her tone of voice not indicating if she was joking about it or not.
"Or worse,." Asuka agreed, remembering with a faint shudder the recordings of Misato's last stand in the Geofront when the JSSDF forces attacked. After seeing that she would never take the woman quite so lightly again.
"Seriously?" Toji blinked.
"I wouldn't put it past her," Asuka shrugged.
To be continued....
Notes: I haven't mentioned Misato's badassery in End of Evangelion earlier, so I wanted to work it in somewhere. I also wanted Rits to apologize go Toji, too, since she was directly involved with him getting hurt. This was also going to be a entirely Himiko focused chapter, but I figured I should split it with the school bit.