A Janok Production;

 

General disclaimer;

The usual... Some characters and original storyline copyright Gainax

and affiliated companies.

 

WARNING

This is a Post-Episode 26 story, if you haven't seen up to Episode 26

of NGE I advise you not to read this story. You have been warned, so

no complaints.

 

**********

 

NEON GENESIS CHAPTER 2

A Fall From Grace: Out of Eden

 

VERSE 4

 

"I looked and there was a pale-coloured horse. Its rider

was named Death, and Hades followed close behind..."

Revelations 6:8

 

 

Gendo Ikari looked through the armoured glass into the NERV special

testing facility.

 

"So you have finally managed to complete it," said the man in beige as

he walked up behind Ikari.

 

Ikari glanced at his colleague for a second before looking back at the

giant standing in the room before him, "Yes, the missing piece was

provided by SA01. The unit is now fully functional."

 

The other man stood next to Ikari and looked out into the white room,

"So what are you going to do with it now?"

 

Ikari began walking towards the door, "It will be transferred to

Geofront 1, the seventh will test the prototype there," he looked back

over his shoulder at the man in beige, "You will handle the details."

 

**********

 

The cracking sound of hand meeting cheek filled the air.

 

"Perverted idiot!" she shouted before stalking down the hall.

 

**********

 

Her name was Megan Richards, she was 16 years old and he knew that she

was American, but beyond those three facts he knew next to nothing

about the raven haired enigma.

 

He had mentioned his curiosity to his friend Shiro and had asked if he

knew anything about her. Shiro then promptly jumped to the wrong

conclusion and hit upon the absurd idea that he fancied the girl. He

denied it of course but that just made the situation worse, and it

wasn't long before some very disgusting rumours were spreading around

the CTEC.

 

He lifted a hand to his face and felt the results of his curiosity.

He winced, and hoped it wouldn't bruise. He would look a real fool if

he went to his lectures with a purple and yellow, hand shaped mark

across the side of his face.

 

He also hoped that she wouldn't hate him.

 

Maybe I should go explain and apologise, he thought.

 

**********

 

"Why wasn't I notified about this?" demanded Professor Yuri Takai.

 

Commander Fuji leaned back in his chair and looked up at his irate

subordinate standing before his desk, "It was not required for you to

know about this project before now."

 

Yuri looked down at her commander, "What do you mean by that? I'm the

Chair Person of E-Project, I should be informed of all new Eva units."

 

Fuji tossed a brown file across the desk, "If you take a look at this,

I'm sure that you will see why this project is of a 'need to know'

basis. In fact I didn't hear about this myself until two days ago."

 

Professor Takai picked up the file and began to flip through it, "I

don't see anything unusual here that would require this amount of

security, everything appears to fit within normal parameters for an

Evan..."

 

Her eyes opened wide as she stared at the page she had reached, "My

God, what have you... I mean how... why... when..." she shook her head

as if to clear it, "My predecessor wrote that this was theoretically

impossible for us to achieve."

 

Fuji drummed the fingers of his right hand upon his desk,

"Theoretically yes, but as you know Professor, theories have the

habit of being broken. The prototype will arrive in two days, prepare

test facilities for it. The seventh has been selected as the test

pilot, prepare him as well."

 

Yuri nodded, "Yes Sir," she turned to go, but then hesitated, "May I

ask a question Sir?"

 

Fuji considered that for a few seconds and then said cautiously, "You

may ask, but whether you get an answer is a different matter."

 

"I see sir. Then may you tell me what Project-F is?"

 

Fuji sat straight up in his chair, his face had gone deathly pale,

"Where did you hear about that?" he demanded.

 

Yuri appeared quite startled at his response, "I read it in this file

sir. It makes reference to Project-F on page six."

 

She handed him the file, which he immediately opened at the offending

page. After glancing over it for a couple of seconds, he removed the

page, lit it with a match and dropped it in the bin by his desk.

 

Commander Fuji then looked at his subordinate, "Let me make one thing

clear Professor Takai, Project-F doesn't exist, you have never heard

of Project-F, and this little scene never happened. Do I make myself

clear?"

 

Professor Takai stood to attention, "Yes sir."

 

Fuji waved a hand in the air, "Very well then, you are dismissed."

 

**********

 

Once she had left, Fuji stared into emptiness.

 

"Do you think she is the one?" he asked.

 

The shadow detached itself from the wall, "It is a possibility, I

can't tell."

 

Fuji drummed his fingers on the desk again, "Why didn't you tell me

that reference to Project-F was in the file?"

 

The shadow remained in its dark corner, "We needed your response to be

genuine, we couldn't afford to allow her to suspect the name was

planted there."

 

Fuji still had a pale cast to his face, "But to release such top-class

information... I thought you were going to rely on the information

about the prototype to flush out the leak?"

 

The shadow glared at the man in the chair, "The existence of the

prototype will be common knowledge at this base by the end of the

month, any number of people could leak that information. On the other

hand only four people know about Project-F, five now including the

Professor. If the information is leaked we will know the source and,

even if the name is leaked, no one will know what it means."

 

Fuji seemed to relax a little in his chair, "I suppose you are right.

So what do I do now?"

 

The shadow threw a small object onto the desk, "You carry out the

instructions given on this, and then you wait."

 

**********

 

5 days later

 

"This candidate," Ikari paused to read the page in front of him,

"Shiro Tachibana, where would you class him?"

 

The man in beige looked over at his colleague who was examining

reports on the current candidates. It was unusual for Ikari to be

interested in such a minor pawn, he thought.

 

He considered his answer before replying, "He is a borderline case, he

is currently a 4th level candidate and he is very intelligent but his

attention has the habit of wandering off. Why do you ask?"

 

Ikari didn't bother to answer, "So if he was removed, he wouldn't

cause any set backs in the program?"

 

The other man seemed to struggle for a suitable answer to that

question for a while. He finally sighed and replied, "No, he wouldn't

cause any lasting damage to the program." He cast a piercing glance at

the other man, "Tell me though, why do you wish him to be removed?"

 

Ikari's eyes went out of focus as he looked into emptiness, "The tool

has grown an emotional attachment to him, we cannot afford to allow

such unpredictable variables to enter the equation." He clasped his

hands in front of his face, "It will also give us the opportunity to

sharpen our tool's blade so that he will be of more use to us."

 

The man in beige appeared to be troubled by his colleague's answer,

"Ikari, don't you have a conscience?"

 

**********

 

The voice blared out over the sound of the sirens, "A special state

of emergency has been declared, please proceed to your designated

shelter immediately"

 

**********

 

"Status report," demanded Major Veitch.

 

"The Angel is maintaining its position approximately 3kms beyond our

defence perimeter, the Magi believe it is waiting for us to make the

first move." responded a computer operator.

 

Major Veitch rubbed a hand over his chin, "This is damned peculiar,"

he muttered to himself.

 

The Angel had appeared about ten minutes earlier, and hadn't moved an

inch. There had been no warning of its arrival, one second the skyline

was clear, and the next a giant silhouette stood over the Ashino

lakes. Since then, however, the Angel had stood perfectly still. All of

the scans that NERV had carried out on it seemed to suggest that it

was dead, there were no electromagnetic signals coming from the object

beyond what was naturally coming from the surrounding vegetation, and

it wasn't generating an AT Field.

NERV, however, was not taking any chances; they had been tricked

before by an apparently dead Angel, that was how they had lost Unit 07.

Major Veitch shuddered at that memory.

 

"Eva status?" he asked.

 

"Unit 01 is ready for launch, Unit 06 is standing by in the 7th cage,

however it isn't advisable to..."

 

"Yes I know," interrupted Veitch, "We will just have to make do with

Unit 01 then." He took a deep breath, "Launch Eva!"

 

**********

 

He watched the Angel standing at the base of the mountain off to his

left. He moved carefully to the next boulder.

 

"Still no data," he said, "Your orders?"

 

An image appeared to his right, it was the Major.

"Approach the target with caution, if it makes the slightest move, or

you pick up any signals from it, pull back immediately; we cannot risk

damaging the EVA. Use your own judgement, if you can't withdraw, kill

it. Also be aware that you cannot raise your AT Field unless faced

with a direct threat, we mustn't provoke the Angel into action."

 

"Roger!"

 

The image blinked out.

 

He moved cautiously forward, keeping his AT Field under tight control.

The Angel still hadn't made a move, it just stood there, looking like

a giant marble statue. He had been surprised by its configuration, it

looked almost identical to the third Angel, except that this one was

white.

 

He had reached a position only 650 metres away from the stationary

Angel. There were still no readings being received. This was very odd,

he thought.

 

He caught sight of a sudden movement in the corner of his eye, he

tensed up, and as he did so he realized he had finally made the

mistake he had feared.

 

A sudden flurry of voices came over the comm. channel;

 

"He's raised his AT Field!" someone shouted.

"Shut it off! Shut it off!" came the Major's panicked voice.

"It's too late!" another screamed.

 

Before his eyes the Angel curled into a ball...

...and exploded.

 

EVA Unit 01 disappeared into the blinding white light.

 

**********

 

To be continued...

 

"Does a bird get caught in a trap if the trap has not been baited?

Does a trap spring unless something sets it off?"

Amos 3:5

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

Author's Note:

 

If you have any comments about this fanfic then gladly send them to

me.

 

Janok_Re <jreproduct@hotmail.com>

 

 

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