A Pair of Dragon Hearts (Part 1)

Lilith

"So . . . tell me again what this Renegotiation did to your Validation Quest," my red haired twin asks me earnestly. "That and just how exactly did your Quest got tangled up in mine?"

Truth be told, it took me more than a bit of effort to wrap my mind around all the particulars to just why ONE particular . . .requirement had been stipulated by that rather bizarre entity known as an Author. From what I understood the Rules and Agents had worn it down from a much less . . . palatable demand and honestly I am rather flattered (and . . . warmed) that Mina and Alan accepted me into the fold as they had....

But still in the end my departure from my Earth means that she shall no longer be spared the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. As a Home Base for me as Champion she would perhaps experience some rather odd things, but nothing that would/could end her.

Hm, I do have to wonder if the others know that Terra Prime lives a charmed existence? That had been hinted . . .

My train of thought gets interrupted by Rei, who looks rather bewildered herself by this business.

"Actually I am rather interested in that myself," Rei says softly as we stop by a nearby vending machine to get some refreshments for ourselves.

Given that by her genetic heritage she IS Nobel Prize level genius level intelligent (i.e. she has the same IQ as me since . . . well, she is a clone of Yui Akari, THE founder of Project E), it isn't as if she wasn't up to the task of "figuring things out". Problems that this is a rather unprecedented situation, according to what the other Champions have told us.

Then again, the life of a Champion seems to be having to overcome the unplanned and unexpected to complete our Quest. Then again . . . . why does it have to be ME and Reika who are the first to have their Quest changed in midstream? Once they're handed down the goal of the Quest isn't supposed to change.

Then again, I'd always been under the impression (delusion?) that once a Task was handed down from the Rules and Agents, it was by GOD set in something firm than the densest of stone! Something approaching pure neutronium, perhaps would be the best description of it!

It doesn't change. . . .until you complete the Task (or Quest). Being that the Task we Neon Evangelion Angels had . . . was what I thought it would be like (sort of) as a Champion. Just . . . higher stakes and more freedom of choice in just HOW we are to accomplish it, that's all.

I mean, I am VERY happy to no longer be bound and chained to fate as I found myself (to my HORROR) as I had been as an Neon Genesis Angel. However, this Champion business is a WHOLE new beast for me indeed for me to tackle. I'd expected something a little more . . . organized?

Then again, things sort of got out of hand and we ALL (Champions and Celestrials) are in unknown waters. And lucky ME, I'm not only sharing those unknown waters I've got . . . other things to try to sort out in my mind.

. . .

Meh, at least I had been able to get this chance to sort the issues that have been there since I discovered not only that . . .

No, let's just get down to it and handle things one at a time, okay?

Gathering my thoughts, I begin to explain. Being that by stipulations hammered out from the Renegotiation, nobody else of the family (or anyone else for the matter) had been . . . authorized to break the news of this matter to the girls here. If they had, both my Validation Quest and Reika's Validation Quest would have been null and void (with all the baneful fallout for the Halkins that would entail).

Reika

"First, since we now know that the Mentor Champion I was designated to have had some serious resources at her disposal," Cousin Lilith begins, stumbling over the last and coughing slightly. Quiet honestly I was a bit surprised myself to learn that this AK-47 should look like something that just stepped off a high end scifi movie which had NEVER been made in neither my world's nor Cousing Lilith's world's history.

Somehow Aunt Inquirer had (for want of a better word) spawned a machine intelligence that (as far as she, the droid, the Rules and the Agents were concerned) was her daughter. However, while AK-47 (High Priestess of some "Church of Silicon Valley", a religion for mostly Artificial Intelligences and hackers) may have been slated to have been slated as Cousin Lilith's Mentor, I fear that that no longer is the case!

WE are to be her Mentors! Not that we are adverse to helping her, mind you . . . but . . .

Could it mean what I think she's saying?!

Rei

"You mean that after this is over you're coming to Terra Prime with us?" Reika blinks, her eyes aglow with the thought.

Well, that's not exactly a given, having "Newbie" Champions going home to the Mentor's homeworld/reality after the Validation Quest's done. True, that is what is happening with Reika here: her going to Terra Prime to her new home/home base. That and she IS part of my family now, but still it is not impossible for Mentor Champions and Newbie Champions parting ways after Validation Quest are complete. After all, isn't Lilith supposed to stay here on this world, this being slated as her home base? Granted, Inquirer's and the Doctor's current state has her beside herself but from what I'd heard of the droid woman she'd be able to pull herself together and do the task given her. There really should not be any need for us after we part ways to start on separate Quests. Once done, we probably won't see each other again for a LONG time.

Pity the last, actually. I find that I am beginning to actually like her rather a lot. Yes, we did not get off on the right foot when we first met Cousin Lilith here but the misunderstandings had been pretty much bridged by now. I know that my sister shall miss her when she's gone.

"Actually, that is part of it yes," Lilith says hesitantly for reasons I cannot fathom at the moment. But right now I and Reika are MORE than a bit happy to hear. Lilith, former Second Angel and Mother of Humanity is coming with US! Before the coming of Alan and Mina, she (or rather the analog of her) had been the closet thing in Reika's mind to a mother. Felt some kind of connection towards her, anyway, beyond Lilith having been a source of genetic material.

It IS fantastic that she is coming along with us, anyway! Cannot wait to introduce Cousin Lilith to the rest of the family!

. . .

After so long having been without anything else like family or friends (and I do NOT count Gendo as anything proper) until "her" Shinji Akari came into the picture, I cannot fail to grasp why she's so "gun ho" about adding Lilith!

She seems a bit taken aback (as well as touched) as we crowd closer to her and actually hug her, welcoming her into the fold! That kind of behavior towards her had been rare indeed while living and working at NERV, I dare say. Even NOW, with only a few kind exceptions NERV personnel are avoiding her like the plague! Her and Reika, that is!

. . .

Ungrateful bastards, not even a thank you from them even after all Lilith and Reika had done! Can't wait to knock the dust of this place off of my shoes and get OUT of here, let me tell you!

"I should add that I'm going to be aiding you with your Validation Quest," Lilith adds, looking up at me and then over to Reika while still in the group hug. "You might want to sit back and listen. It's . . . involved."

We do sit and she is correct, it IS involved. Then, when she gets to the VERY end, if this world was still working on "anime physics", both I and Reika surely would have face faulted!

First, she explains that because of the rather HIGH caliber help she was getting from AK-47, what with her access to all the equipment and such from Star Wars (!), it meant that by need HER Validation Quest was to have been the stuff of legend. Made all the worse due to the fact that where Lilith's world had originally been slated to appear was the front lines of a MASSIVE Star Wars kind of battle . . . .between those of AK- 47's side and some kind of technology hating aliens called the Vong!

It would have been bad, you know, for Lilith. Titanic in the trials she would have faced, you see. That is how Quests work, a Champion is always faced with adversity in proportion to his or her ability (and those who they travel with). Being that due to some kind of Chaos Energy event (which I have a gut feeling had been engineered by that damnable Goth Author), her whole world got fused with Reika's! That also meant that soon her original Quest would have come into conflict with ours. Her Quest had been to bring about a simliar "meeting of the minds" with her world and others while OUR Quest was to keep Tabris and Rei I (both Fonts of Chaos Energy) safe until some criteria was met that we still are not privy to here! Little Rei and Tabris, being those Fonts, would have gotten in Lilith's way and due to the high caliber of adversity that Lilith was facing in HER Quest . . . it spilled over into OUR Quest.

No bad words towards my family here, but unless we were willing to use the most despicable and draconian of means there would have been NO way whatsoever in having succeeded in our Quest. Either Tabris or Rei I would have died (or worse) in the very least, or we'd have been surrounded with the piles of corpses of those who the Chaos Energy had turned against us!!

Neither chose appealed, shall we say!

Now? Due to what appears to have been some kind of outside interference--something about a beligerant faction of god like aliens rather sore for having their "grand experiment" in the Star Trek reality being yanked out of their grasp--the Challenge between Author and Rules got bolloxed royally (became pointless). Things still needed to be settled because once a Challenge is made, it cannot easily be put to rest. Instead, now Lilith’s Validation Quest has been rolled into Reika’s Quest. With US being her Mentor, the level of adversity has gone way down to something . . . more reasonable and we finally learn just HOW we must go about finishing this business.

Being that we are in such a high tech enviroment (space travel and all that), it means that certain things are a bit different from what Jarlath and friends faced when they had that business with THEIR Fonts of Chaos. Were Jarlath was dealing with a medieval world, that meant it just stayed on ONE planet. We are going to be doing some planet hopping through this mysterious Iconian Gateway that had been inadvertantly opened for us!

That means in the very least we need to tap the G-Man’s aid, being that he of all people seem most familiar with that alien tech.

But when Lilith gets to the last part here! . . .

Reika

“As a last swipe at me and everything good and POSITIVE that has come from today IT stipulated that I had to do something with Mina and Alan,” Cousin Lilith explained, shaking her head slightly. “I believe the proper term for that type would be, in the computer world, ‘troll’. He didn’t want anyone or anything to be happy and delighted in causing strife and misery to everyone around him.”

Which may explain just WHY all the tragic death of Captain Kirk had happened, maybe? If I recall correctly, Star Trek had been something of a happy, positive show. A show that I fear that Author couldn’t stand for that reason. Kirk’s death sure hit the Enterprise crew really hard there and probably explained why they’d been . . . less than friendly with the rest of us. They’re grieving and sometimes, from what I’ve learned through Rei sharing herself, those who grieve can strike out blindly at those around them.

“The Author had hoped by having the barriers between minds between myself and your parents that Alan and Mina would be repulsed by what they saw,” Lilith continues. “I know now that though they hide it well they do not . . . hold the various Yui Akaris in high regard.”

1. What? Didn’t I explain to my parents that “my” Yui Akari hadn't done the ONE terrible thing that "Commander Ayanami" had done?

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