Chapter 31: Skeleton Key

Chapter 31:
Skeleton Key

 

THINGS WERE HEATING UP in Tokyo-3.

“Stop it! What do you think you’re doing?!”

Normally, Seele/Kaji/Kaji could keep Quatre’s mutant Eva in check.

“You don’t expect me to just sit here and negotiate.”

But now the mutant Eva was running amok in HQ.

“She can take the Longinus replica herself if she knows where to look.”

“Is this your idea of a negotiation?!”

Guns surrounded Kaji in the cafeteria as Quatre had her field day.

“We haven’t even begun negotiating. Either way, I have nothing to do with this. I can no longer control the black scale. If you have any complaints, direct it to the puppet!”

Quatre’s Eva jumped down the hole in the center of the top deck, surrounded by anti-air units pointed at her. She plummeted past the dome of the sarcophagus that contained the old Geofront and broke through the underground complex with her halberd.

“Southeast containment unit six.” Fuyutsuki started directing the command center as he read the status board. “Unit Zero, Trois. Prepare for combat in enclosed space. Proceed to containment unit six via routes three through six.”

“This is Trois. Acknowledged.”

The earth shook through the earthquake-proof structure. An underground explosion.

“Quatre’s Mutant Eva has arrived at Containment Unit Six!”

“Drown her in fast-acting bakelite as soon as she breaks through! That mutant can teleport whenever she wants.”

Hyuga relayed corrections to Trois, who was rushing to the scene.

“Command to Trois. You seem to be stopping above route six. Everything okay there?”

Trois wasn’t on the sixth track of the linear transport rail. She was walking along the track of route three. A secret cargo train approached her, one that wasn’t in the diagram of the higher-ups. She forced it to stop with her Eva. The car went off the tracks. The heavy refrigerated box it was transporting broke open, releasing cold vapor. Trois reached in and found what she was looking for. The replica of the Lance of Longinus vibrated in her hands.

“They transported it as soon as you told them where you were going.”

<<You could make it as a thief. Granted, you’re not as talented as I am.>>

Quatre smirked perversely over the mental mirroring. Trois had leaked the lance’s location to Quatre, since she wanted to smoke it out. Her plan had gone off without a hitch. Quatre’s mutant Eva escaped from the foot of Mount Kamiyama under the fire of heavy artillery. She spread her black wings and flew over the caldera.

<<That was excellent, Trois. But what now? And what about the small one?>>

<<Aaaaah! I—can’t—hear—yoooooou! I didn’t see anything, either!>>

The Eva-0.0 Type-F Allegorica proceeded to the Komagatake sniping post at a deliberately leisurely pace.

“Ikari-kun and the others are fighting right now. This might be the skeleton key to either make or break the world. I will not let it be used as a bargaining chip for Seele.”

In the end, Trois’ Eva-0.0 couldn’t escape the Hakone caldera. She took the Lance of Longinus replica and ran to the Glass Egg that hovered over the shores of Lake Ashi. The impervious object had once been the shell of Lilith’s Chronostatic Sphere in Central Dogma.

And so, Trois barricaded herself inside it.