Tie Up Loose Ends

Section 2! Ritsuko swears to herself. Mostly because of THOSE idiots the Newcomers here have been on egde almost since coming here!

Dr. Ritsuko Akagi

It had almost been amusing, in a way, how it came about. The Newcomers even appologized for making the Section 2 agents look like idiots when they'd bypassed the survillence equipment, but had absolutely REFUSED to do any such thing for calling Section 2 . . . words (said mostly by Elrondir but a few other contributions had been put in by others of the group) that shall not be repeated.

Bad enough that the agents on the scene had failed to heed shouted warnings about approaching dangers. Could have been something to do with bruised pride, but that didn't excuse the agents for what had happened, now did it? Not only did those agents who'd been escorting Reika get slaughtered, the kidnappers nearly escaped with the young girl. The whole thing has been leading to ongoing tension between the Newcomers and Section 2. Section 2 had their egos bruised by all of this and the Newcomers? Ticked off would be a good way to describe it. More than a few had been bumping heads with the head of Section 2 itself over several security issues (differences of opinion and such).

Not my department: Security. I'm just still--at least for the moment-- NERV's head scientist so I really don't deal with such matter . . . directly.

Oh, I did at least the physical aspect of security. You DO not want to know kind of idiotic (and simple) passwords those bozos had in their computer systems. I mean good god! If any halfway competent hacker ever decided to hack INTO the Magi system through their network all of NERV would have been drowned in bakelite before we even knew what hit us! Oh, I know that if I had my special firewall program up (the 666 Firewall) it would have stopped any such attempt at such foolishness, but it would have to be UP in order to do it. And we'd have to know to have it up. Being that we cannot have such an application up all the time (interferes with normal operations and cuts NERV off from the rest of the computer world), the idea had been to have . . . Well, never mind. An alarm bell (or intrusion software) that doesn't ring in warning when intruders are about is next to useless!

I mean it was PATHETIC. One guy actually had a password called PASSWORD!!

. . .

Can see that Elrondir had been right about Section 2's collective intelligence. Granted, Gendo had hired some skilled people within, but those types were for his special purpose. The rest was just "good enough" to be muscle, I guess. That and not much more.

Guess he didn't want a security force smart enough to get too suspicious about certain things?

As for me . . .guess he just knew how to bend me to his will, leading me on and ....

Argh, let's not go down that road again. Mad enough as it is how used I'd been there. Lets not go there any more for now!

Anyway, then there had been the recent string of embarrassing assassination attempts done by moles SEELE had implanted in none other than Section 2 itself. Honestly, I fear that if there is even ONE more slipup Misato is going to give each and every last one of them the pink slip!! Thus why security was now at an almost paranoid level...

Well, at least I was able to use my clout to get the other Children here. To override otherwise overly protective (and paranoid) Section 2 agents. Definitely to override overly protective mothers who shall rename nameless . . .!

What? They expect me to go and EAT the children or something? Do I come across as such a monster? I mean I know I did participate in some rather . . . regretful things but still. . .really!

Well, I want to see them and talk with them face to face. So here they are, in front of me. Yes, here in front of me to give me the third degree! Sigh, time to face the music. It is the least I can do. They deserve that much after the hell they've gone through. The hell that I in part was responsible for, you see.

Besides, if nothing else once I say it it'll be said. This is the last chance I'll have before we part ways, probably never to meet each other ever again. One MUST remember that soon enough what has not yet been revealed through the Newcomers shall be laid bare soon enough. When trade with other worlds like the one that Gordon Freeman hales from where our lives are a popular anime? Yes, if we of NERV want to have any kind of normal life we must make ourselves new lives. Either on other worlds OR . . . through various means afforded by recent technologies dumped upon my world!

Did you know that that Dr. Hashimoto actually has a business which not only promises to be able to completely alter the species, but the gender as well?! And a completely new identity to go along with it?

Some dark things that some of the Newcomes say sometimes this Hashimoto deals with some rather unsavory sorts which ENFORCES new forms and sexes upon others. Even goes so far as to dabble in mind alterations, erasing the old with entirely new identities.

And from THOSE quarters I and my mother had our best offers for jobs after NERV! I might not be exactly a beckon of light here, but still . . .that's not the kind of people I want to work for, thank YOU.

That may explain why my poor assistant, Lt. Maya Ibuki, is now the way she is now. Or maybe it was just an unlucky surge of Chaos Energy would explain why she's now a rather buxony, green skinned WOOD NYMPH!

. . .

At least a few well chosen, powerful spells from Sigin had broken that magic that made the poor girl a vapid, sex starved nymphomaniac! Christ, this Game 3 strikes me as being a VERY banal place if this is any indication.

Hm, anyway that's why I'm not taking any more time in doing this. Who knows? I might be changed into some sex starved monster in this upcoming trip. Or dead.

Know a lot ofUN people who press ganged me into this gig want me to disappear, never to return... Public service indeed!!

Then again, this sure as hell beats the idea of doing prison time or getting my license to practice medicine and scientific research revoked.

. . .

Why did I go off the deep end and almost strangle Yui? I mean it isn't like she deserved it! Not like I loved Gendo, when you get down to it. I mean, I thought I had at the time but still!

And while I'm at it, why didn't she press charges?

Sigh. Enough wool gathering. Yet another thing in a long series of things to sort out. God, what a mess! Let's get down to it already.

"Okay, to start off let us clear the air about 'my' Fourth Child here," I start off, gesturing to the native Toji of my world. Or more like the prosthetic arm and leg he now had to wear after nearly being killed by Unit 01 whilst it's Dummy Plug (an auto-pilot system for combat as it were) had been in control.

I explain that at the time I had been ATTEMPTING to kill two birds with one stone. Granted, I'm not the world's greatest humanitarian, but I had thought that . . . things would have been different. We had needed a new Child to pilot Unit 04 when it got here to Japan and viable versions of THOSE were in rather short supply. You see, they had to be willing to pilot the Eva unit and I would rather have that cooperation by their own free will than . . . brainwashing as Commander Ikari had suggested on using on his own son!

. . .

God, what did I ever SEE in that bastard?! Sigh, lust and his ability to twist a person's will to his own . . .

Well, with Toji here he wasn't exactly willing at first. Knew that much from his psyche evals we at NERV kept on him and his entire class. He was the best choice of the entire classroom, but not willing . . . at first. But when it came to light that his younger sister needed medical attention/treatment that only MY organization--NERV--could provide. And NERV is not a charity and even if I tried my damnedest I couldn't bend the rules enough to get that kid without doing what I did, so don't go there! The paperwork alone would have been a nightmare and a half and would have been struck down with a penstroke from none other than Commander Ikari himself. Even back then I knew the SOB well enough to not go that route. So we got Toji here as a EVA pilot in exchange for his sister being let into being treated by NERV's medics.

And what did I and he get for my efforts? Well . . . the EVA unit got possessed by an Angel and in the resultant battle afterwards Toji here (my Toji) lost an arm and a leg. That and . . .

Gendo had been so smooth and convincing in his pillow talk that night when I'd angrily brought it up about what had happened to the boy. I had been halfway ready, actually READY to throw up my arms and walk away from it all (not that such an act would have been HEALTHY for me). I at least was going to call off my relationship with Gendo (like THAT would have done enough to redress the wrong done to Toji here). But, all I know is that I didn't want what happened to have happened. But I bought into yet another . . . lie. I wanted to believe Gendo, at some level. Wanted to think that there was something inside that cold exterior . . . .for me to have.

Gendo had glibly lied about what had happened, but he had known it would have happened. He'd been pulling the strings . . . my strings. Everyone's strings at NERV. Always an excuse or convincing lie whenever I began to question too much. But in the end, his true purpose wasn't to save humanity (even some kind of group consciousness . . . a higher form). Not even in the end to save humanity but to risk it all in some mad bid to use Instrumentality to bring back All this and much more came out, in the end. And not at all to my satisfaction, damnit. There isn't enough TIME to do a proper job of it.

Cannot say that they were too terribly thrilled to learn that the only reason why they could pilot was--besides being born after Second Impact (important factor, that)--was that they needed to have certain . . . psychological issues. Oh, while those issues could have been treated or cured (eventually) it would have spelled disaster to all of humanity while the Angels were about. In other words, we needed the Children to be mentally unstable as they had been. . . but functional.

Oh, the yelling I get for THAT revelation from the pilots for THAT one! The young Asuka is led out before it gets too loud, fortunately. Don't want to upset the young girl, you know! I may be a lot of things, but I do NOT like hurting young children if I do not have to.

. . .

I don't know what they say about me out there in the wide wide multi- verse but at least I know that I am not monster enough to be . . . what? Like Stasha of the SS?

What? If they saw what I and the rest of NERV had to face with just "friendly" forces alone they should understand some of my actions! Why, just one incident alone only a short time ago with that one Angel who swallowed up Unit 01 should have been clue enough! Oh, they said that all those tanks surrounding us was just to support us against the Angel if we should fail? Hah, more like to pressure us for results! If we didn't do something and something soon they had hinted they'd open fire . . . on US! Talk about motivating! And so one wonders why I recommended dropping all those N2 devices into the Angel in order to try to destroy it?

Would have most likely kill "my" Shinji Akari, but not only would it spare the rest of the pilots from UN "motivation", Unit 01 was needed . . . for Instrumentality.

But . . . that's all water under the bridge and all that garbage. Unit 01 got out by itself. I pretty much looked like some kind of monster by SOME former friends, even though she knew about that UN threat made to us.

Nobody's happy about it. Not even me. Especially not me. I didn't propose it with any sense of joy, you know!

We . . . had all been pawns in this sick little game, you know.

Well, that said "my" Asuka and Shinji aren't happy about it all. The grownup versions of them look like they're not happy about what's been revealed today, but at least they understand. It had been either letting the pilots continue in their own personal hell . . . or watch as the world ended quickly (through an Angel induced Third Impact) or slowly as birth rates dropped to zero. As humanity's numbers dropped to zero either way unless Instrumentality worked and that was that.

"It was either evolution or death," I say, shaking my head sadly. I then wave at the elf right next to me. "Nothing else was going to do until Elrondir and the others came!"

Until the Newcomers came and turned everything upside down and backwards. NOT that I'm complaining!

!

Okay, just how in the hell did Elrondir just pop out of thin air? What, do we have to worry about magical rings that turn the wearer invisible and quests to throw said rings into volcanoes?

"Cloak of invisibility," Elrondir explains, answering the questioning looks he gets from us.

Oh. Magic. Still have to get use to that idea that it isn't just a fantasy but real.

God, yesterday I would have laughed at such things... Yes, laughed and giggled at such things between sobbing fits from the jail cell Gendo would have thrown me into if things hadn't gone weird with the Newcomers.

Uh, I learned from Tabris and Lilith what would have happened. Elrondir hadn't gone into details about this "nervous breakdown" he kept fearing I was going to have. Now kind of wish I hadn't squeezed it out of the former Angels.

"And it isn't like I and the others are going to trust those idiots in Section 2 to keep you and Tabris safe," Elrondir sighs, shaking his head slightly.

Yes, Elrondir had been most vocal in his distain of Section 2. So THAT is why I felt like I'd been watched by somebody ever since coming back down here!

"It's almost time," Elrondir says after giving me some kind of device that looks like a rather futuristic (but bulky) radio set. "We need to round up our other travelmate here, the 'Smoking Man', and then send you off."

1. "Well, before that I need to just finish this one piece of business," I say, pulling out a simple slip of paper and present it to "my" Toji.

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