A Janok Production; General disclaimer;The usual... Some characters and original storyline copyright Gainaxand affiliated companies. WARNINGThis is a Post-Episode 26 story, if you haven't seen up to Episode 26of NGE I advise you not to read this story. You have been warned, sono complaints. ********** NEON GENESIS CHAPTER 2A Fall From Grace: Out of Eden VERSE 5 "Whether it pleases us or not, we will obey the Lord our God...All will go well with us if we obey him."Jeremiah 42:6 He pushed the boulder out of the way and looked around at the area hehad cleared, nothing. Not even a trace remained.He looked at the other members of the NERV rescue teams scouring theremains of the mountainside, they appeared to be having no luckeither. He looked at the other side of the crater, which was still buriedunder thousands of tons of dislodged mountain. It would take weeks ofcontinuous effort to shift all of the rock there, and it was doubtfulthat they would find anything under there anyway. Over a hundred NERV personnel moved over the debris pile. Some, likehim, cleared piles of rock away from areas the searchers using metaldetectors and other instruments had indicated, while those samesearchers went off to look for other sites to examine. No one had found anything yet, it was turning in to a hunt for theproverbial needle in a haystack. He sighed and bent back down to clear some more rubble away. As he didso he caught sight of a glint of light shining off something in thesoil. He took a closer look then jumped to his feet. "Captain!" He shouted, "I think I've got something here sir!" The captain turned and hurried as fast as he could across the rubble."What is it?" he demanded. "I've found this sir," the man said pointing to the object on theground. Lying on the ground was a tiny splinter of purple metal. ********** "Beginning entry,""LCL electrolysed,""Commence first connection," He was sitting inside an entry plug. The LCL felt cold against hisskin. "How does it feel?" came a voice over the comm. channel. He tried to put his feelings into words, "It feels... strange," hefinally responded. "Like incompatibility?" came another voice. "Not exactly, it..." he paused for another few seconds to find theright words, "I'm feeling uncomfortable... but it isn't rejecting me,"he hastened to add. "It feels more like I'm not really welcome here,and am just being tolerated..." he trailed off. The plug was silent for a while, then one of the voices cut back inagain, "Are you sure it isn't rejecting you?" "Of course I'm sure. Unit 07 rejected me remember? I don't feel thehostility I sensed from Unit 07, or the welcome comfort I receivedfrom Unit 08. This feels sort of like indifference, like it doesn'tcare about me one way or the other." A man's voice cut in on the comm. channel, "Can you please stoptalking like those things are alive, it unnerves me. They're justmachines after all." He then heard a heated conversation coming over the comm. channel fromthe control room, "Major Veitch, this is a scientific examination. Youare here only as an observer, and you will keep your opinions toyourself. If you cannot do that then I suggest you leave." "But Professor Takai, all I said was that it was a machine. What iswrong with saying that?" "I will tell you what is wrong with that! What is wrong is..." The comm. channel went dead. He sighed. They were always doing that, cutting the comm. channel wheneversomeone was about to say something interesting. He shivered and realised that he had not mentioned the fact that theLCL felt cold. Maybe it's for the best, he thought, If it was physically cold someonewould have picked up the anomaly on their monitor. They would just sayhe was imagining it, that he was paranoid, or that he was just nervousabout piloting an EVA other than his Unit 08. It was another minute before Professor Takai's voice came back, "Wewill now continue with the experiment," she said, "Begin the secondconnection." ********** The two men sat alone in the train carriage as it passed over thegeofront. "About Unit 01s accident, how will you present that to the committee?"asked the man in beige. "With the facts; it was pilot error," responded Ikari. "But... this was a major catastrophe," "It was of no consequence to us, Unit 01 may have been lost but thetransfer to the prototype had already been completed. Thisinstallation and the prototype will be sufficient," said Ikari in acalm voice. "But the committee is in a total panic." "All the better for us, it will make it easier for them to pass thenew plan." ********** The screaming reverberated down the corridors of the NERV medicalfacility. Two nurses visibly winced as they walked past the patient's privateroom. One of the nurses had black hair, while the other was a blonde. The dark haired nurse sighed, "She's awake again," she noted to hercolleague, "Can't we sedate her?" The other nurse shook her head, "No, the doctor said to wait anotherthree hours to avoid injuring her." The dark haired nurse sighed again, "She's been screaming ever sincethe all clear sirens sounded yesterday, its really wearing on mynerves. I don't think I can stand much more of it." The blonde raised a hand to her forehead "I know what you mean." "That young man hasn't been to see her in quite a while now has he,"the dark haired one pointed out. "I've seen him come to the hospital every day, but security won't lethim see her... He won't be coming anymore though." The dark haired woman looked at the blonde walking beside her,"Why's that?" The blonde's face turned sad, "I heard he was killed in the battleyesterday." The dark haired nurse stopped dead in her tracks, she looked back atthe red haired girl's room, sighed and shook her head. She turned backand quickly followed the other nurse out of the vicinity of thescreaming. ********** The six men sat around the large black desk in the darkened room.The only illumination was a different coloured glow surrounding eachman. "This is a disaster Ikari," said the man at one end of the desk, "Theloss of Unit 01 is unacceptable, we have been tolerant with you thusfar, but this is too big a deviation from the scenario," he looked atGendo Ikari who sat opposite him, "Well? Do you have anything to sayin your defence?" Ikari kept his hands clasped in front of his face, "I have nothingelse to say. I warned you that this would happen and I offered you away out, you refused. There are only two options before you now;remove me and lose all hope of regaining control of the situation, orcarry out the proposal I have given you. It is your choice." The five other men glared at him. "Very well, we will discuss this," said the chairman before the fiveholographs blinked out. Ikari was left alone in the black room. Five minutes later the chairman's holographic image reappeared, "Wehave decided. We will continue with your plan for the time being, butremember Ikari, we are watching you." The holographic image disappeared and Ikari found himself once againat his desk in his spacious office.He opened a drawer in his desk and picked up the phone, "The old menhave approved the plan, pass the order." ********** "So it's confirmed then," she said after she finished off the apple. "Yeah," he sighed, "The third pilot, Shinji Ikari, is now officiallydeclared dead." "Huh, good riddance I say," she gave a wicked smirk, "All the moreglory for us." He looked at her as if she was insane. "What are you staring at me like that for? You hated hero boy as muchas I did." He glanced down at his plate on the table in front of him, "Maybe," hesighed, "But that is beside the point, I wouldn't wish that fate onanyone. Besides, it leaves us in a very sticky mess." She shrugged off his concerns, "Yeah? Like what? You worry to much." He lifted his eyes and glared at her, "You don't worry enoughapparently, or do I need to remind you of the situation," he waitedfor her to respond, but when she didn't he carried on, "We are theonly two remaining EVA pilots, there are no backups, and even if theyrecruit some new pilots tomorrow they will still be rookies, not thetype of person I would like watching my back in a battle. Also we onlyhave one battle ready Evangelion, and even that one is defective..." "Hey!" she cut in, "That's not my fault! It was the previous pilotwho messed it up." He raised a hand to acknowledge her point, "It doesn't matter who's toblame. What matters is that my Unit 08 is out of action until it'srepaired, and your Unit 06 is so sluggish it will be hard pressed towin a battle." She stayed silent but kept her face set in a scowl of displeasure. "You have to admit," he said to her, "That as much as we hated him,Ikari was a great pilot, and he saved our hides many more times thanwe saved his. On a social level I don't care that he's gone, but as apilot I would say that our chances of survival have been greatlyreduced." "Maybe," was all she said. ********** The three NERV officials standing before the commander's desk did notlook surprised by his announcement. "How long do we have?" asked Professor Takai. "Only until the next Angel attack. If you want a more definite timeschedule than that you're quite welcome to go ask them," CommanderFuji replied with more than a hint of sarcasm. Major Veitch rolled his eyes. Depend upon a crisis to bring out theCommander's funny side, he thought. "As we don't know how long we have, we must move as quickly andproductively as possible. Which means that we will begin bytransferring anything that is irreplaceable, such as research data andsamples. At the same time begin reassigning all non-essentialpersonnel, but do it in small groups at a time, and in such a way asto prevent the spread of panic. It will make it easier to move the keypersonnel in an emergency. A more detailed plan of what is required isgiven in your briefing documents. Is there anything else you wish toraise?" Yuri Takai cleared her throat, "What of the Magi sir?" Fuji leaned back in his chair and smiled a brief smile, "Do not worryabout the Magi, they have all been backed up and a duplicate system isnow in operation at our destination." Major Veitch took a step forward, "And the Evangelions sir?" Fuji nodded his head, "They too are being dealt with. EVA Unit 08 hasalready been transferred and is being repaired there. Unit 06 is toremain here to 'protect' us from attack. The prototype... well, let usjust say the prototype has a special purpose." He looked at his three subordinates, "You have your orders, get towork. Time is of the essence." All three acknowledged his order with either a salute or a nod,depending on their station, and quickly left the office. Fuji stood up and walked to the window. He looked out over his commandand sighed. The abandonment of Geofront 1 had begun. ********** To be continued... "And now I have told you, but you are disobeying everything that theLord our God sent me to tell you. So then, remember this: you willdie in war or starvation or disease in the land where you want to goand live."Jeremiah 42:21-22 --------------------------------------------------------------- Author's Note: If you have any comments about this fanfic then gladly send them tome. Janok_Re <jreproduct@hotmail.com>