The Brigadier and an (Apparent) Time Skip…

The Brigadier

"Your soul," she whispers softly in Japanese, reverently. "It shines so brightly!"

"Yui?" I hear the White Witch mutter to herself, barely audible (and only heard by me apparently due to some kind acoustic characteristic of the room). And later, when asked about who this "Yui" person is . . .it will haunt me for the rest of my days...

And then next thing I knew, she and the other "Champions" disappeared into thin air...

Much later, over lunch with a fellow UNIT officer . . .

It always seems to come up in conversation when chatting with my peers here at UNIT, the Incident. Namely, how a young woman somehow managed to get the MASTER of all people to actually save the Earth from destruction.

Even she had admitted to him that it had been a VERY risky gambit, but it had worked (albeit the Earth, my Earth, was in some kind of pocket universe that was connected to the Earth that had been found in the Narnia Chronicles). Or rather, an Earth that seemed to be the same as the one found in the Chronicles of Narnia up to a point, but with the makings of what would have been the Earth as seen in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Not on OUR watch will that world come to be, thank you VERY bloody much! Between US and the fact World War 2 came to a screetching halt pretty much soon after the Isreali's dropped an atomic device on Berlin . . .

Why in God's name was the Passage leading the the Narnian Earth world connected in the Middle East not only locaetd in Isreal connected to Axis occuppied lands, but the place called Auschwitz.

God above, was it any wonder why the Isrealis went bezerk...

Well, if nothing else, besides the shock and awe (and FEAR) that brought a quick end to WWII before Oceana . . .pardon . . . before the United State of that other world could get involved it also made a LOT of Isreal's Arab neighbors . . . more cautious around their Jewish neighbor, and leave at that.

On a much less . . .violent note, at least our Yanks now believe us about the Yanks of our world believe us after a few incidents and are doing a more active part in making well sure that 1984 does NOT come about, by at least making sure the elements in that other America which lead to Oceana's formation meet . . .ends that need not be talked about right now.

. . .

I do so much prefer the field of combat, bloody though it can be, in a lot of ways to this cloak and dagger business BUT I guess I should say that I chose to join UNIT. UNIT stands for (despite attempts to change it’s name) for United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. It means that as distasteful as it seems to be for me at times, UNIT (and me by extension) are somewhat involved in the "Grand Game". God help me… I sometimes wonder if there are other analogs out there with their UNIT who are not so involved in shadowplay as this? I mean there had been that one analog of myself who was a thug and coward: a man from a place where England was a dark shadow of itself and my analog was a "Brigade Commander".

At least up until they managed to blow themselves to Blazes with their version of "Inferno".

Hrmph, anyway . . .

"Sarah Conners had looked a bit shell shocked about it," I explain to my associate for what seems the millionth time, despite it having been thoroughly reported and the reports distributed throughout UNIT for those in the need to know. "Muttering something about Rules and Agents and something about a wedding between her son and Yuki before she (and that Terminator chap that somehow got stuck with the rather unflattering name of "Arnold") got magically whisked away to places unknown by the Great Lion. To 'recuperate' from shock was the given word from Aslan over the matter and a warning to "not try to pry into their private matters" was all that was said."

Pausing slightly, I tilt my head a bit in consternation as I recall something rather telling.

Sarah and the Terminator had looked rather discommoded over whatever that matter had been so perhaps . . .it would be better left alone,. "That way lies madness" and all that, which sounds like an odd thing to say for a long time member of UNIT, but still!

But that said...

What an odd scene that was, back then... Even back then, not aware of all it's meaning and content I sensed something in the making. Something almost mystical in nature, a term I would usually not brandy about in normal conversation but just so fits with those . . .rather unearthly young girls who used to pilot giant combat platforms known as Evangelions.

Ah, but I see in you eyes that you've probably know something about the now rather famous First Child of the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" franchise? From some online article found on your Internet? Seen the movies? The books? The anime? Perhaps if you hale from my Earth you saw it on the BBC in all it's rather . . .controversial glory?

Bear me a moment while I explain something. When we at UNIT first caught wind of the Master's plans of yet another foul plot, we threw around a LOT of resources to follow any and every lead we could find to cypher out what it was and head it off before it could come to completion. Eventually we found out that that Rogue Timelord had planned on using the American's VLA, but we also learned that before that the man had been attempting to garner a favor from a reclusive Yakuza figure with a panache from a Japanese magical girl series called "Sailor Moon". Something to do with a bit of stolen biotech, a revolutionary form of human cloning . . .which eerily turned out to reflect something of the origin's of the First Child but at the time had been thought to be nothing more than a false lead. Odd, how the investigators somehow made the leap of logic in their investigations about that one aspect of vague rumors of an anime which seemed to have been doomed to never seeing the light of day due to financial difficulties until some UNIT investigators posing as foreign investors. MUCH odder still was that rather violent encounter we at UNIT had with the living, breathing versions of people from that anime!

Then again . . .Rei had tried to at least use diplomacy before violence ensued...

Ah, but I go on a tangent! I do apologize but I find that this line of conversation dredged up old, odd feelings (and a little resentment).

"That particular line had all to do with the nature of the ‘soul’ that resided within that particular ‘vessel’ known as the First Child," I begin after a brief pause, looking at the officer who’d asked about that directly. "Now, we have due to UNIT’s odd involvement to certain anime’s know about her odd nature, being a modified clone of one Yui Ikari with a dash of genetic materials from the ‘Second Angel: Lilith’. We all know this by now, or we should."

By the looks I get from that one I see they have gotten at least that part of my report on that odd affair which has lead us all to current events nowadays.

Not everyone knows just how bloody ODD things had been to lead to this odd situation my Earth now finds itself enjoying. The world at large knows a lot, but not EVERYTHING.

To think that there are realities out there that could take the very essence of a person and with some kind of odd scientific means could stuff it into another body, and misuse it so grievously as NERV had done as they’d apparently done with the First Child to lead to the . . .bitterly sad young girl I witnessed when previewing Neon Genesis to at least get a better grip on Rei and her sister’s character.

To see what makes them tick or barring that to understand what made them tick so loudly.

Why DID that request from Aslan from them for help with a bit of "overwatch" come in through a "magic mirror" the Great Lion lent, if they then opted on just ignoring us afterwards after it was all said and done? I and other felt slightly slighted and I mean right or wrong we could have made thing . . .

Bah, nevermind!

"This has to do with just who’s soul had been emplaced with the First Child?" another officer asks, looking as if he’s not believing (or not wanting to believe) this conversation has turned from mostly concrete things to more esoteric/ethereal/airyfairy matters; matters that were addressed (in a rather horrifying manner if one things about it), in the anime. "Current theories on the internet point towards the soul originally having belonging to Lilith."

"Yes, and one of Rei’s sisters just happened to be named Lilith," I agree, nodding and frowning slightly. "By what the White Witch tells, some of the First Children there are indeed vessel holders of their respective world’s Lilith. One went and actually renamed themselves Lilith to reflect that reality.

"Thing is, like some camps on the ‘net favor alternate sources for the First Child," I continue. "Namely, the possibility of the soul coming from another person or source entirely or perhaps Yui Ikari herself. Through some kind of mystical means, that magic user was able to tell that in this particular case the soul within that particular young First Child I only saw briefly . . .had been of the later kind."

Which makes the horrid treatment and living conditions the First Child lived through and under all the worse, considering the drastic and vile means that . . .bastard. The man named Gendo Ikari went through and did horrible things in trying to eventually GET Yui Ikari out of Unit 01 but. . .

Yes.

"Yes, and the White Witch of Ainran told of how she had dabbled in certain schools of magic dealing with similar things . . .before renouncing such Dark things when she got religion from that ‘She who is Hidden’," another muttered, recalling that rather sore subject which he rightly regretted EVER having broached with her. It having been something of a hot button and all

"Sir!" a young faced Lieutenant says loudly, dashing into the room in a hurry. "That ‘magic mirror’ just went active and someone named Rei was calling for your presence?"

As it turns out, the reason for the hurry had been the "mirror" in question had been packed away in storage in a wayward corner of UNIT. It’s activation had been . . .violent. No injuries but it had "activated" with the force of a small bomb, completely bursing open the crate it had been packed within, and making quiet a mess of the storage room (and scaring the bejesus out of the guards doing their rounds outside when it happened).

1. That and a BIG Talking Lion just showed up, suggesting (strongly) that the Brigadier should (really should) answer this call.
2. Hm, interesting but let us go back to the adventures in that mirror image of Narnia? What has the gryphoness Astra and others been up to there, eh?

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