Chapter 43: Ghosts

Chapter 43:
Ghosts

 

Tokyo-3. The shores of Lake Ashi.

Ayanami Rei Trois continued to garrison herself within the Glass Egg in order to protect the replica Longinus. She called up Six through their mental mirroring.

Never mind me, Six. Go to Yomotsu Hirasaka.

<<You shouldn’t say that to someone who has her sights on you.>>

Six laughed. The battle on Yomotsu Hirasaka was intense. But the current situation had forced Six’s Eva-0.0, the most technologically advanced Evangelion in Nerv Japan’s arsenal, to deal with Trois’ little siege.

Trois noticed some kind of noise, and she turned her head toward the opening of the egg. She enhanced the auditory senses of her Eva.

Static.

<<……>>

<<I repeat…>>

A voice?

A distant voice, if it was a voice at all.

Where is it coming from?

It seemed to have come from inside the egg. But did it also come from all around her?

<<…account for the distortions…>>

<<Let’s hope…avoids entropy…>>

What did that mean?

Were the troops outside launching some kind of psychological attack?

<<Proceed.>>

Trois’ ruby eyes widened.

She knew that voice.

“Commander Ikari.”

<<……>>

“Commander Ikari!” She shouted, a wave of emotions flooding her. “Commander Ikari! Commander Ikari!!!”

How did she know? Later, she wouldn’t be able to explain it during questioning, but Rei Trois had kept the memories of the original Ayanami. She cried out his name over and over until finally…

<<Rei?>>

An answer.

 

<<Commander?>>

<<The shell is resonating…Dr. Akagi…cease operations…do not make a sound…>>

 

Trois had started talking to herself…and someone had responded.

The monitoring crew back in the command center heard it all. They’d been split into three. Two were in charge of broadcasting everything from Yomotsu Hirasaka and its surroundings, while one was tasked with negotiating with Trois.

“She’s talking to someone…and that someone is talking back!”

Fuyutsuki issued orders to the distraught crew in the middle deck. “Increase the volume inside the plug and filter out the noise.”

<<Rei…sent Eva-01…did he make it?>>

Misato, engrossed in the battle over the distant Pacific, immediately turned her head when she heard that voice.

“Hang on…what’s happening? Put this conversation on the main line!”

“Ikari…” Fuyutsuki murmured.

It was the voice of Ikari Gendo, the former commander of Nerv. Members of the staff old enough to serve under his command could vouch for this.

<<Yes, Ikari…Shinji is here,>> Trois answered.

Her voice was trembling, and she knew it.

“Has the intelligence division initiated their manipulation tactics?” Misato asked, just in case.

“No…this is physically impossible!” Hyuga showed her the source of the sound.

“The walls of the Glass Egg are reverberating to transmit the voice. But there’s no known technology that can do that!”

“How should we take this, Maya?”

Ibuki was on the floor. One of the security guards surrounding Kaji helped her to her feet.

“If that really is former commander Ikari…” she began.

Misato beat her to it. “I thought Lilith’s Chronostatic Sphere with Commander Ikari and all the rest was underneath Yomotsu Hirasaka now.”

Chief Ibuki of the science and engineering division nodded. “The Glass Egg is supposedly the shell of the Chronostatic Sphere that Lilith transported to Hakone from the previous world. Perhaps it’s resonating with no regard for distance.”

“The shell of the Chronostatic Sphere can resonate? But the accelerated flow of time—”

“It might be starting to tune itself to the outside. Perhaps the egg is about to hatch.”

<<…model…forming a singularity… We contained it, but did you manage to fix it completely?>>

Now came the voice of Dr. Akagi Ritsuko.

<<Yes. Chief Ibuki stabilized it,>> Trois responded.

<<I see…she did it…>> Ritsuko’s voice was tinged with emotion.

“Maya?”

By the time Misato turned around, Maya had left the command center.

“Contact security! Do not open fire at a lab coat-wearing woman heading for the Glass Egg! That goes for you, too, Six.”

<<Unit Zero Type-F, loud and clear.>>

Despite her carefree response, Ayanami Rei Six still trained her Field Piercer, the Angel’s Backbone, on Trois’ Eva from outside the mountain line.

Fuyutsuki was shocked. “Trois better not be planning on taking Dr. Ibuki hostage!”

Misato sighed. “I don’t think those girls—Trois and Maya both—would use human lives as bargaining chips. For better or worse, they don’t recognize the worth of an individual life.”

Misato asked Hyuga to call up the laboratory of Aoba’s former professor on the display. She still needed a scientific eye to assess the situation.

“She just wants to meet an old friend. That’s all.”