First Vessels for Souls, now Fonts of Chaos . . . . (Part 2)

Time returns to the G-man after the Rule leaves. The mysterious man then waves off any questions directed at him, stating that he has done this because of . . . an outstanding obligation. That and he frankly states that he's going to send us ahead to take care of some kind of needful business for him.

"It's a time travel thing," he says simply to Rei. "Something of one of those 'causality loop' paradox. Now ask me no more because I am NOT going to explain any more than that or risk a rather . . . unpleasant consequence for not only myself . . . but a lot of others who . . . Well, you shall see."

Being that this man is now the only means of getting BACK to where they need to be, both Reika and Rei mutter agreement and wait stoically for the G-man to do his stuff. after this business the G-man wishes to be taken care of (if it isn't TOO objectionable . . . isn't like they don't want anything from him as well so it's a give/take relation here for diplomacy. . . whatever).

"I'll meet you up with you here in a moment," he adds before everything fades to black for a moment. "It shall become clearer to both of you soon enough."

But just as everything is coming back into focus, something just occurred to Reika.

Reika

As for WHO we must protect from dieing (the object was to keep not one person but TWO alive) . . .

I . . . have NO earthly idea who this Tabris person is supposed to be, but whoever it is I see that my sister recognized it. Recognized it and finds him . . . objectionable?

As for the other?

. . . .

I find that I am struck dumb for a few moments in shock, but in the end I find that it makes a sort of sense really. That and . . .

Don't ask me just WHY I find it amusing to the point where I'm actually crying enough and shaking . . . .easily mistaken for grief I find out (re: 62133).

"It's okay Reika," the older blue haired and winged woman whispers softly and lovingly to the crying one in her arms. "I'm here."

Anyway, I miss the first few things that my sister said to someone behind me, but I find that I can no longer hold my silence.

Looking a little surprised and confused, my sister stares at me as I finally can hold it in no longer.

Peals of light, airy laughter (it feels so GOOD to actually laugh) fill the room as tears of mirth run down my cheeks.

In retrospect I guess it shouldn't have stuck me so deliciously funny, but at the time I could not help myself.

First we have the Third vessel (a mere vessel no longer and I am NOBODY'S puppet). Then we have the Second coming and helping me become whole again.

Now we have to go and help a version of my first incarnation. The first incarnation of ME! I know that in some ways it is a really eldritch situation, but then again it is so PERECT! I'm actually going to help to help a young girl who if fate hadn't intervene would have died at the hands of a jealous lover of a worm known as Gendo Akari! Basically, in a sense it is second chance and . . .

"God helps those who help themselves," I sigh, finally bringing myself under control. Even IF "you" (or rather the analogs of "you") are the actual source of a lot of mischief and mayhem....

We're going to be helping people who are going to be the source of a lot of the pain we're going to be facing. The irony!

. . .

Again, later I shall be hard pressed to explain to others why I laughed so. You had to be there. You had to be me, to fully appreciate it.

Rei

"I'll explain later," my younger sister smiles slightly (the patented Ayanami microsmile, Elrondir had called it at one time with me).

Heh, and here I thought she'd been crying because of the sudden realization that once this all was said and done she would never be able to see "her" Shinji Akari again! It would be decades at least before she would even have a small chance at walking upon the sands of this reality again. By the time she would be allowed to do it, it would have to be that everything had changed. It would have to be everyone she'd known was now gone and everything and everywhere she'd gone had changed into something . . . . different. Time taking it's toll and all that, you see.

She loves her Shinji, I know this, but now I don't understand! While she might not love her's like I loved mine (I still love him like a son), I know that she held him dear to her heart.

When it finally hit me that in all likelihood that I would never see mine again I'd . . .

. . .

Been very upset and sad was a way to understate it. Thank goodness for family and friends back on Terra Prime. So why the frell is she not only NOT crying, but laughing?! Jeez, I know I wanted for her to be able to blossom and develope into her own potential, unique, but THIS is a bit much! Why is she laughing?

. . .

Because she doesn't get it yet! Well, we'll cross that bridge when we cross it. Whatever the case I DO want to know just why she found it . . .

"I am . . . .glad you find this situation so amusing," a gravelly, familiar sounding voice. "Glad I could be able to have been able to provide a few . . . laughs to lighten a very dreary day. Now, all that said do you mind if I ask . . ."

"What the f*ckin' hells going on?!" one rather overweight balding security guard calls from the side, having apparently come from somewhere through an opening in this fenced off area.

. . .

Fred?!

Yes! I did happen to take note of not only the fact that a soldier had the G-man at knife point. Somewhere along the lines while talking with the Rule I know that this was an EARLIER version of the very same man we'd met just moments earlier (time travel headaches). Meaning that I wasn't concerned about it enough to turn away from what I'd THOUGHT was my sister being in need. After all, if we had met a FUTURE version of him, barring a situation of him coming back through arcane means, then the G-man was safe enough for now! His plight could wait. My sister's could not.

But now, even WITH the distraction of a bunch of stragglers coming into the scene I just gave the knife holder I finally actually LOOK at the man's face . . . I know the voice sounds JUST like the man I'd left behind (my friend who helped me so) back in my Tokyo 3, but I'd dismissed it as being impossible. Things like that just do NOT happen to me, I mistakenly felt. Feh, I've got to learn to NOT think like that. Champions have the oddest things happen to them, all the time! See, I just got a look at the man holding a knife (!) to the G-man's neck. It can't be him! It has been twenty years but he still looks JUST like he had when last I saw him! Oh, he's now of higher rank (it has been 20 years), but why in the world has he not aged at all?!

"Rei?" Fred blinks.

Yes, he had been well aware of someone having come into this zone. Had even noticed that the voice sounded chillingly familiar (albeit a bit older sounding) to his old friend from two decades ago. Not like he'd lacked for the sound of Rei's voice, what with what he'd known was an . . . look alike stepping into "his" Rei's shoes.

But looking, something told him that THIS blue haired, red eyed woman WAS "his" Rei. As a successful Dragonslayer, Fred Takahashi (formerly known as D'Honaire) learned to LISTEN to his gut instinct. It had saved him on more than a few occassions and it had been whispered that this almost psychic ability came from . . . . midnight tryst with some of the more human seeming Fey folk back long ago in the D'Honaire bloodline.

That said, he was still asking himself a lot of questions as he turned fully and nearly dropped his knife in surprise.

Just how in the Hell did she get here?

Why was she so young? Twenty years have past and while he had not aged due to his curse, Rei should not be so young as to be young woman in her late teens still here!

And just WHY does she have wings like an Angel?! The idea that there could be "humanform" versions of the alien invaders called Angels had been dismissed long ago by Fred, so the idea that Rei could have become one (and thus the wings, in a round about fashion) never entered into the equation.

That and that part of the letter left to him by Rei twenty years ago got censored, so this is all a very new shock to our dear Fred here!

The younger looking woman with the red wings and hair (and shockingly green eyes) also looks like what "his" Rei had looked like when they'd first met (that same blasted stiff school uniform).

The first two questions can be answered by his own life experiences and knowledge garnered through various means back whilst still a Dragonslayer. Dimensional shifting and different rates of passing of time in the Fey realm weren't new to him, but the last was throwing him for a loop here!

"Okay, what's with the albino's with the wings?" the same overweight security guard (Otis) butts in, pointing at both . Totally ignoring the taboo of the knife to the throat of the G-man, Otis had zeroed in on THIS instead. Totally ignoring a fellow security guard (who's nametag Rei notes as reading as "Barney Calhoun) and a Marine corporal named Adrian Shepard who are now pointing and saying something to each other, in somewhat agitated conversation in what they'd been witness to here. Whatever the conversation is, however, Rei cannot hear it. Too far away and the bullet proof glass too soundproof, you must understand. The real kicker here is that Otis fails to notice the nuclear bomb that Fred stop the G-man from blowing this place up.

Yep, Otis the guard here is the type that gives his fellow security officers a bad name!!

1. "Otis," Fred snaps angrily. "What part of 'stay BACK' until I said it was okay did you not understand? I'm in the middle of something here, for god's sake!!

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