Chapter 36: Stray Children

Chapter 36:
Stray Children

 

MISATO’S VOICE came over Toji’s headset.

<<Toji—I mean, Acting Deputy Commander Suzuhara—I have bad news. We no longer have an ETA for Rei Six at Novaya Zemlya.>>

“No one was able to find Momo, I take it?”

JSSDF Lieutenant Colonel Kasuga had left his golden retrievers, Azuchi and Momo, in Little Rei Six’s care. But Momo had gone missing, and as a result, Eva-00 Type-F Allegorica’s launch had been delayed, despite the engineers’ rush to get the flight configuration ready on time.

A missing dog hardly justified not leaving for the mission, but even though Six had the knowledge of a seventeen-year-old, her body—and more importantly, the structure of her brain—was only that of an eight-year-old. Her priorities were different from anyone else’s. With her dog missing, she couldn’t concentrate on anything. And getting angry with her or yelling at her wouldn’t do any good.

<<No, we didn’t find Momo. Thankfully, she came to the decision for herself. She gave up looking, and we sent her out on a suborbital flight path.>>

Then what’s the problem?

“That’s a simple parabolic trajectory,” Toji said. “Whatever else happens, what goes up has to come back down. Right?”

Hyuga answered. <<Her graviton floaters kept accelerating after she reached the proper trajectory. And with all the electromagnetic interference, we can’t measure how long they’ve been like that. Actually, we can’t get any signals to bounce back at all. I don’t know if maybe her Eva got turned the wrong way and the receiver… Oh, damn it! It’s another message from Armaros. Why’d he have to send it now?>>

“What?”

So, Six must have lost consciousness.

Whenever Armaros sent his messages, Six lost consciousness and acted as his speaker. The last time Toji witnessed this was when Super Eva had flown for the first time. Her eyes lost their focus, and she became unresponsive to any stimuli, acting like an automaton that could only construct faltering speech. After some time passed, she regained consciousness. Would she awaken this time, or would she stay under?

“What about the autopilot program—” Toji began, but he cut himself off.

It would already be available, of course. But whether or not the Eva would use it—or use it properly—was another question. Evangelions were highly capable weapons but not always the most reliable at following procedure.

So, what, she’s going to be lost in space?!

“Can’t anything go right?”

His frustration and anger sent conflicting signals into Toji’s cybernetics. His left arm trembled and creaked.

Rei Quatre had gone rogue, Hikari’s sister—Kodama—had transformed into a pillar of salt, Rei Cinq had died between the Earth and the moon, and Shinji and Trois were missing. The ground under Tokyo-3 had sunk, stranding Hakone Caldera, and Asuka had come home completely changed…as an enemy. Would Rei Six be next?

It had been one loss after another.

Can’t anything good happen in this world anymore?

Seeming to read Toji’s mood, Misato tried to sound optimistic.

<<We still have hope. We don’t have any usable satellites in orbit, and our terrestrial omnidirectional signals can’t reach beyond the electromagnetic disturbance in the atmosphere. But get the stratospheric airplane network to turn their antennas upward, and we’ll broadcast signals to try to activate her plugsuit’s stimulant and AED systems.>>

If the Earth and the moon hadn’t gotten all screwy, it wouldn’t be any trouble to figure out what the hell is going on out in orbit. But they did, and it is. Misato-san is just putting on a happy face for me.

Toji removed his helmet’s face mask and head-mounted display and slapped himself hard on the cheek.

So, what, you’re going to make her worry about you now? Doesn’t she have enough to do without babysitting you? You get pissed because you’re seventeen and everyone still talks to you like you’re a child? Well, this is why! Even if you’re just an “acting” deputy commander, you’re still part of the command team—so do your job, Toji!

<<What was that noise? Did you hit a bird?>>

“It was nothing.”

That’s right, it is nothing. Six won’t let herself get killed this easily.

Without warning, the Flanker’s nose and the plating on the left side of its cockpit were shredded apart like a paper balloon.

Oh, crap!

Super high-speed munitions rarely ricocheted. When they struck their target at a shallow angle, the fast-moving projectiles tended to turn inward. But sometimes—this time—it happened. One railgun slug had happened not to disintegrate or ionize on contact with an Angel Carrier’s shield and had ricocheted toward Toji’s airplane. Even after the N2 Flanker’s gravity field had sapped the majority of the slug’s momentum, the projectile had split apart and pierced through the Flanker’s airframe.

 

The stray railgun slug had damaged the N2 Flanker’s nose and the floaters on the port side of the cockpit. The plane tilted and, unable to recover, went into a spin.

“Toji!” Hikari shouted from Heurtebise. She’d flagged his Flanker on her display and had been keeping track of him. She noticed his airplane’s distress immediately.

The Flanker kept spiraling down, but Hikari saw no sign that Toji had ejected. Then the plane disappeared behind the smoke clouds.

Hikari let go of her cannon.

The air warped around Heurtebise as the Eva grabbed the cross-shaped spear in front of it, dislodging the weapon from the ground. Hikari roared as she charged the nearest enemy.

The quantum wave mirror trucks couldn’t keep up with her. The crew in her control plane frantically called out to her to make her stop, but she ignored their commands.

The 550-ton, eighty-centimeter caliber cannon slammed breach-first into the ground. The impact detonated the loaded charge, and the eight-ton shell flew out from the barrel at a low angle.

The shell zoomed past the sprinting Heurtebise and struck the shield of an Angel Carrier, whose larval Shamshel was reaching out from its cocoon with two tentacle-like appendages. The shell failed to penetrate the shield but sent the carrier flying backward.

Hikari saw a small crack in the Angel Carrier’s shield, and she thrust the spear deep into the cocoon, vaulted over the carrier, and kept running into the smoke cloud.

The carrier hadn’t died, but the U.S. Eva was about to have a turn. As the carrier tried to get back to its feet, Wolfpack crushed the giant’s head with its powerful forelegs and then smashed both Q.R. Signum scales. The Angel Carriers had surrounded Wolfpack, but when Heurtebise took one down, the U.S. Eva seized the opportunity to break free.

Mari didn’t understand why Wolfpack had suddenly become so much stronger than before, but she didn’t care. It was only fair, considering the other side had two Torwächters—one of which was the Asuka/Eva synthesis Mari wanted to meet. Asuka/Eva embodied the perfect synthesis of numerous creatures, and Mari wanted that for herself—even if it meant, as Hikari had said, eating her.

The U.S. Eva ran into the thick smoke cloud after Heurtebise. Behind her, the fallen Angel Carrier was still writhing on the ground, but the nearby howitzers spat fire, turning the enemy into chunks of meat.

But striking out on their own inside the cloud, the two Evas wouldn’t have any more support from the cannons.

Heurtebise ran through the smoke. The clouds were too thick for her sensors to penetrate. Just before she made it out the other side, a spear-like object pierced her right-side wings at her waist. She kept running. Overhead, her shield repelled a corrosive liquid, and she pulled the spear-like object from the ground by sheer force.

The object turned out not to be a spear but a long leg that extended above Heurtebise’s head, where the four-legged larval Angel Matarael had lifted its own carrier. Catching up, Wolfpack leaped onto the Angel Carrier and knocked it down.

An intensely bright, long-range attack zoomed through the smoke and struck Matarael’s body. Luckily, the attack narrowly missed Hikari and Mari—but something was out there, waiting for them. Hikari recognized the Angel’s attack from a report she’d read, and she wasn’t surprised when two long, thin, razor-like ribbons snaked out and sliced through Matarael’s remains. A carrier bearing Zeruel’s larva was somewhere within the hanging smoke.

But where?

 

Toji felt an impact but not a fatal one.

Had his plane miraculously come down for a soft landing? He couldn’t see outside to tell what had happened.

His injuries announced themselves slowly.

The cockpit was surrounded by a box of armor plating sometimes called the “bathtub.” But the bathtub had been bent, and the metal pressed Toji into his seat, pinning him there. The twisted frame had completely crushed his cybernetic left arm. If he’d reflexively triggered the ejection seat before the crash, he might have been even worse off.

“Ow, ow, ow… I’m glad it wasn’t my right arm, but an artificial one can still hurt like hell.”

The liquid-crystal polycarbonate canopy was warped, and its clear surface had turned completely cloudy and white. When Toji tried to lift it, sharp pains shot through his chest and stomach, and he couldn’t put enough force behind the action. The canopy didn’t budge. But someone outside must have heard him making noise because the canopy peeled open like the lid of a tin can, and Toji could see outside once more.

Long, beautiful hair flowed above him. Between the pressure on his body and the sharp pain, Toji’s thoughts were a little hazy. The hair reminded him of when he was young boy, gazing up at the giant, carp-shaped windsocks in the field by his elementary school. Their bamboo poles, thicker than his own legs, had swayed and creaked, and as the carp banners danced about, his eyes caught flashes of sunlight between them.

“Oh, Soryu, did you catch me? Thanks.”

Holding the plane level, Asuka/Eva turned it back and forth. Was she looking to see where it was broken?

“Ouch. Ah, darn it. Don’t bother. This plane wouldn’t fly even if you threw it. So, do you want to tell me why you’re with the enemy?”

Toji couldn’t tell, but he thought Asuka/Eva was looking at him with worry.

“Didn’t you know?”

The sounds of a vicious battle continued around them. There were flashes of lights, shock waves, falling debris, but all that felt distant now. Amid the turmoil, Asuka/Eva stood tall and graceful.

As Toji wheezed for air, he thought he understood the nature of her behavior. Even with the black plate attached to her back, she wasn’t part of the enemy’s faction but remained her own self with her own perceptions and cognizance. Had she chosen to put the plate on?

“Look, Soryu,” Toji said, “ever since you became one of the big fish, I know it’s been hard for you to see the little things. But even though Shinji’s heart is beating inside that Victor’s chest—that doesn’t make the Victor Shinji.”

Toji was still by no means safe, but for whatever reason, he didn’t feel tense anymore. He could feel his body begging to black out.

I guess all we’ve been doing is nagging you about the little things. Probably makes it hard to listen. Probably…

Heurtebise came attacking out of nowhere. Asuka/Eva seemed startled but put up her A.T. Field just in time to deflect the spear.

“Asuka!” Hikari shouted with rage. She’d seen Asuka/Eva holding the broken N2 Flanker and had immediately flown into a blind fury.

“Let Toji go right now!” she shouted.

Far behind her, Zeruel’s long-ranged attacks continued to thunder. Maybe Mari was having a harder time finishing off the Zeruel carrier.

Asuka stood in front of Hikari. Beyond her, deep in the smoke clouds, Super Eva’s heart was beating. The Torwächter was still out there, and Asuka was protecting it. The other conventional forces were surely firing upon the injured giant, but judging from the steady heartbeat, their attacks were having no effect. Maybe the Torwächter had repaired itself enough to redeploy its power shield.

Hikari glared at her good friend through Heurtebise’s eyes.

Asuka/Eva shrank back, gingerly offering the broken plane.

“Let him go!” Hikari shouted again.

Startled into submission, Asuka/Eva gently placed the N2 Flanker on the ground. Then she said, “Ah…”

It was the first time she’d spoken since taking this form.

“Ah,” she pleaded. “Ah…”

Ah. A. The first sound born in every language—and the prideful girl’s first initial.

A, for Asuka.

“Stay away from me!” Hikari yelled.

Having been rejected by her friend, Asuka backed away into the smoke and disappeared.

Hikari was breathing heavily. She knew she wasn’t being sensible.

But all she could think of now was Toji. She just didn’t have any worry to spare for Asuka. And the moment Heurtebise had swung its weapon at Asuka/Eva, Hikari had felt her body become heavy. She could still hardly move at all.

She felt like Asuka’s mother was accusing her of bullying her daughter.

Heurtebise had been born alongside Eva-02. That is to say, the two units were created together, but only one had become Eva-02. Heurtebise had been discarded. Though no one would believe Hikari if she’d said it, she sensed the soul of Asuka’s mother dwelling inside Heurtebise, just as it dwelled within Eva-02. Though, in Heurtebise’s case, what Hikari sensed might only have been a lingering trace.

Heurtebise was moving again. The Eva knelt and lifted up the N2 Flanker.

Oh, that’s a relief. Toji’s vital signs are still all right.

“I’m sorry, Heurtebise,” Hikari said.

She’d betrayed her Eva’s trust. The presence within Heurtebise might never lend Hikari her strength as it had before.

“I’m sorry, Asuka.”