"I was a Teenage Draka Evangelion Pilot." An extract from the _Autobiography of Ikari Shinji ag Katsuragi_. Available for transducer download or in the special printed edition (12.5 Aurics, all profits go to the Archonal Society for the Conservation of Extraterrestrial Wildlife) wherever fine books are purveyed to the Race and their loyal saafn. Samothracian edition coming soon. *************** A Neon Genesis Evangelion AU/ Domination of the Draka AU crossover *************** Lime warning. WAFF warning. Poly warning. Yuri warning. Het warning. Bi warning. May-September warning. Alternate universe warning. Canonical violation warning. Non-original flavour warning. Cute Draka warning. Yours Truly warning. ***** Servus may find this disturbing. Overlord discretion is advised. *************** Disclaimer: The characters and situations of the Domination of the Draka are copyright S.M. Stirling; the characters and situations of Neon Genesis Evangelion are copyright Anno Hideaki and Sadamoto Yoshiyuki. They may not be used or reproduced commercially without permission. The use of these characters and situations is not to be construed as challenge to said copyright. They are merely borrowed for this work of non-commercial fanfiction, from which the author derives no financial benefit. ***** If you like this, go read S.M. Stirling's Draka books (and the Fifth Millennium and Nantucket books, also). Go read Sadamoto's Evangelion manga as well. Ann Marie Talbot's fan novel _Erin_ (co-authored with Mr. Stirling) is also very good. Look for it on the Draka Fanfic Page. Check out my friend Suika's stuff as well (http://www.mac.com/ssfr) Her comments helped me fix some big holes in the earlier versions of this story. *************** No genetically engineered post-humans were harmed in the making of this fanfiction. *************** Day 0 The blonde girl growls, an impossibly deep sound from such a small person, a head shorter even than me, and flips herself up and around, her braids whipping about and her heels scything towards me, too fast to follow... Except that somehow I do, and catch her by the ankles, sending her spinning. She _bounces_ off the wall and rolls to her feet. I feel more than see Asuka and Rei moving to flank me, backing me up, and I wave them off, only dimly realising that I'm acting like someone else, not Shinji-the-whimp. The thought flows away like water and the two meter circle the stranger and I make widens to fill the universe. She smells odd. Good. Alien? Familiar? Her nostrils widen, and, microseconds later, her pupils. And then, abruptly, the raging mask of her face explodes into a smile. "Coz!" she cries out. "Suhvss!" I'm caught tight in her arms, and she in mine, and she's kissing my cheek and making more joyful noises that I can't understand, and she's crying and laughing all at once. "So, nothing like a nice little fight by way of foreplay, eh, Shinji?" Asuka snarls, and turns away to walk out the door, and there's another tangle of movements, and a shout of "Cozine!" and the confusing stranger has clamped onto both Asuka and Rei and is kissing them. There is an odd quality to the air, as if some sort of perfume has got into the ventilation system, and three sets of eyes catch mine, and we fall together, and it doesn't matter that our new friend doesn't speak the same language, because we all smell the same and that means we are the same kind and we aren't alone anymore. The door opens. "Shinji! Asuka! Time to go-- what the Hell?" *** Year -22 "Hold this." Akagi Naoko shoved a tray of cell cultures at him. What am I, Katsuragi Hideo thought, one of your lab techs? If she'd been in one if his trenches, he would have at least said "please." She picked out a tube and placed it in one of her machines. He didn't know what it was called. Some ghastly device for picking apart the last remains of a metahuman time traveller. He hated the silence. "I still say we should have negotiated." "Nonsense. It would no more have bargained with us than would a farmer with cattle." "She could have taught..." "_It_, Katsuragi. It wasn't human." "Nonsense, Akagi. She painted, she wrote..." He'd found a site report among Ingolfsson's papers, recognisable -- despite the unfamiliar format and mutant Anglo-German language -- as a pharaonic fortress which in this world had been washed away by the rising waters of Lake Aswan. She'd laid out her notes and maps like an illuminated manuscript in inks of gold and indigo, working by hand and, evidently, from memory. He fancied she'd been homesick. "_It_ was a monster who would have enslaved us all. I'm just glad there was a decent sample left when LeFarge and it destroyed each other. The data I've acquired will revolutionise our knowledge of genetic engineering." *** Day 0 "Too many tests," Asuka says. "Why can't we just take the Eva out and _play_?" Play? With a five story humanoid war machine designed to fight invaders from another reality? If she'd said something like that when we first met, I would have thought she was insane. Of course, now I think it's rather fetching. Which may be a sign I've parted company with sanity myself. "Play?" Rei says. "Yes." "Go? Or chess?" "Tag, actually." "Tag? As in labels?" "You've never played... you've never even heard of tag, have you?" "No." Poor Rei. I guess this is what comes of being raised by my father. Maybe being farmed off to my aunt and uncle wasn't so bad. "I'm sorry." Asuka hugs Rei and whispers something in her ear. As she lets go, she taps her gently on the nose and says "You're it!" For the next half hour or so we chase each other through the warren of halls and tunnels. It's just as well NERV is staffed far below the levels one would expect of our first line of defense against invaders from... wherever it is. With more people around, we probably would trample someone. At last we half-collapse in one of the big empty rooms on the other side of the complex from the hangars and labs. "That was fun, wasn't it?" Asuka says. "Yes." I've gotten used to Rei's smile, but this is the first time I've ever seen her grin. "You know," Asuka says, "we're all alone. Just the three of us." She holds out her hand, and Rei and I take it in our own. I wish I could be sure there isn't a security camera somewhere, but-- *Crack* The sharp sound is accompanied by a flash of light, and for a moment I wonder if this is another new ability. If so, I can't say I'm pleased. It's bad enough to have to worry about breaking things by being careless with enhanced strength, without worrying about destroying them by absently not wanting them. Even as I think the thought, it is driven from my mind by the distraction of a shifting glowing three-plus dimensional patch of something that shouldn't exist, much less be visible, like a net woven of moebius strips, just below the ceiling, some three meters up. And even more impossibly, something, no, someone is tumbling from the spot, like a character in a science fiction anime or a Hong Kong action movie. Whoever it is breaks their fall with a graceful roll that carries them halfway across the room and ends in a standing crouch. "Nine point eight, maybe ten," Asuka mutters. "This may be the best Angel yet." "It's not an Angel," I say. They feel different, like ten thousand nails on a thousand psychic blackboards. This is a person, as much a human being as any of us. Tiny, lithe, blonde hair in four braids tumbling down the back. Dressed in form-fitting black tunic and trousers. Female. "Yes," Asuka says, "but what the hell is she?" *** Day -14 It's early evening, and for once there's a breeze. A midafternoon thunderstorm has washed some of the grime away, and Tokyo-3 glows in the light of the setting sun. It's one of those rare moments when this city is beautiful, like the first time I saw it from up on Misato's favourite hill. She's whistling a jaunty little tune that I think was a pop song back when she was our age. Funny; in this light she could almost _be_ our age, with the air current stirring her loose purple hair about her shoulders. I shouldn't think about that. I glance at Asuka out the corner of my eye, and she's looking at us, looking at me, and smiling. She really is a normal girl, isn't she? Well, close enough. When she's in a good mood, I like her better than a normal girl, anyhow. She sees me looking, and tries to frown, but she doesn't try very hard. There's a bar, and Misato is eyeing it. Maybe Asuka and I should head on home. It's nice to be with her when she's like this; we talk, just about little things, and once when we were sitting at the kitchen table she put her hand next to mine, our fingers touching, and didn't pull it away. Not that I'd mind if Misato dragged us into the bar; the one time she did there were some old guys telling stories about the wars after the Impact, guys who'd been at Sakhalin and Aachen and Portland and Petrograd, some of them on opposite sides. It was a good night, but my father called her into his office the next day, and afterward I heard her crying in her room when she thought we were asleep. She's apparently thinking of that as well, and for a moment her eyes are sad. Then she chirps "Want to go for ice cream? My treat," and, without waiting to hear an answer, leads us down an alley. "We'll just take this shortcut, and --" "Sir.... please. No. I...." We should call the police, I suppose, but Misato's already charging round the corner. Asuka and I follow. "Back away from her, shithead.". Misato's drawn her pistol-- sweet gods and buddhas, I didn't know she was even carrying it-- and she's got it locked in a two-hand grip. Aida would love to see this, of course-- Misato in her shorts and her tank top and her loose open shirt with a gun in her hands. Or maybe not; I think her wolf-grin would frighten him. The girl's younger than me, I realise; her blouse was skimpy to begin with, and now it's torn open down the front. I look past her, embarrassed. She's got one black eye and a bloody lip, a handprint red against her thick white makeup. "Dreck," Asuka mutters. The man hesitates. Will he use the girl as a shield? Run? I can feel Misato's hunger to burn him down on the spot. His eyes are wide, and there is a sudden sour stink of fear-sweat. He shoves her towards Misato, trying to foul the weapon long enough to cover his escape. She steps aside, losing a crucial second, and he bolts past Asuka. Her foot swings out to trip, and her arm in opposition to push him forward off his feet. Shit, she's directed him towards me. I'm no fighter-- what am I supposed to do? As I'm thinking about it something takes over, the way it does sometimes when I'm piloting, and my body steps aside, twisting and turning and grasping with one hand as the other forms a fist and hammers down behind his ear. The sound is indescribably unpleasant, a meaty crunch, and he falls quite suddenly flat. Afterward there's quite a bit of commotion as the police are summoned, then summarily dismissed by the NERV special agents who seemed to climb out of the brickwork. One of them takes the detective in charge aside for a brief whispered consultation, and I hear the words "self defense." Misato and Asuka are talking with the girl, and I step back; books always say they don't want men around at times like this. After a moment a hand snakes out to take me by the arm and pull me over; it's only later that I realise it belongs to Asuka. One of the security types has given her his-- no _her_, I realise, seeing that the one in shirtsleeves is a woman with blue eyes and a long red queue-- black suit jacket, and she's holding it closed with clenched fingers. Her eyes are flickering back and forth between the three of us, and at last she says, barely more than whispering, "Thank you. All of you." The woman takes her by the hand and says in a gentle Kansai- accented soprano-- incongruous with her scarred face and the heavy flechette pistol in her shoulder holster-- "C'mon, honey, I'll take you somewhere safe." We follow them out of the alley, past the EMTs who are gathering up the fallen man. "He wasn't dead, you know," Misato lies. "I'm sure you just got him in the right place to knock him out." "A lucky shot," I agree. "Of course. It's not like I'm a martial artist." Asuka doesn't say anything. Hours later, I'm lying awake in bed, too jittery to sleep. My mind replays the step-grab-turn-strike, and I feel my lips draw back from my teeth. And afterward the girl looks up at the three of us, and says softly "Thank you, my overlords. I am at your service, if you wish," slipping the ruins of her blouse off pale shoulders-- _No_. That's horrible. My mental picture of Misato ruffles her hair, saying "You're too young, little one. We'll take care of each other just fine, won't we?" Ignoring both the corpse and the audience, she turns to Asuka and me, pulling us into an embrace that smells sweetly of sweat and musky adrenaline. Gods, I'm a pervert. Cold water, that's what I need. Asuka's sitting in the living room, staring out the sliding doors that lead to the balcony. The room is flooded with moonlight. She starts slightly as I sit down beside her. "Oh. It's you." "Yeah. You can't sleep either?" "No." She smells nice, and I find myself very interested in the way her neck rises up from the collar of her long blue t-shirt. Somehow I think she'd like it if I nibbled there, up to her ear and down again. She turns her face toward me. "Shinji? Do you ever wonder why we're here?" "Ah, sometimes. Why?" "Right now I don't want to." Our lips meet, and her arms go around me. She leans forward, pushing me back, which is exactly where I want to be-- Misato's door slides open. "So, guess I'm not the only one who can't sleep," she says. She looks at us, and flushes, and I realise it's not embarrassment, but the same kind of flush that's on Asuka's face; her breath and her heart pulse in time with ours, and in a few seconds she's going to throw herself down on the couch with us, and... She shakes her head, as if throwing off the spell. "Well... you two want some hot sake? It always helps me calm down." "Sure," Asuka says. We're still holding hands, and she lets go, but with a gentle little squeeze, not the jerking away I would have expected. "Shin-chan?" "Please." I know I'm underage, and shouldn't drink. But maybe the alcohol will stop me thinking how Asuka's thin shirt shows there's nothing besides herself beneath it, and how loosely Misato has tied the belt of her robe. It doesn't. But it does make it easier to not do anything about my thoughts. The three of us sip from the small clay cups as the moon makes his way across the sky. *** Day -11 "Since the recent incident," Akagi Ritsuko said, indicating a red band in both graphs with her laser pointer, "the changes observed in the Second and Third Children have accelerated. The aggressive and sexual complexes, particularly. In addition, growth hormone levels are now well above the norm." Fuyutsuki shook his head. "I continue to question the wisdom of this experiment." "Your objection is noted, Professor." she thought. Commander Ikari Gendou steepled his fingers. "How long before the physical changes begin?" "Their form and degree is uncertain, due to the hybrid nature of the subjects." "You have prepared an extrapolation from the available evidence, Doctor Akagi." "Yes." She fought to control her flush. Damn her pale skin. And damn Gendou as well. She called up a set of images given Akagi Naoko twenty three years ago by a man from the future of a different past, and wondered, as she always did, why this Kenneth LeFarge had signed his notes to her mother "Te amo, Ken." "Here we have a full-body scan of a mature H. Drakensis. Note the non-human muscular structure and the subcutaneous armour protecting the joints and internal organs. We do not believe that the Children will acquire the latter; however, compare the former to this scan from the Second Child's most recent medical. And here we have her scan from three weeks ago..." *** Year -21 Misato hated the hospital. It smelled bad, like soap with something sour underneath. People kept pricking her with things and sticking her in scary machines and doing other things she didn't understand. She had to stay in bed, and she wasn't sleepy. "Hey, Mi-chan." "Daddy!" "Pipe down, punkin, there's lots of people trying to sleep. I want you to meet a friend of mine. This is Doctor Akagi, and she's going to help make you well again." The tall lady was pretty, but somehow she was kind of scary, too-- she smiled, but it never reached her eyes. But if she was Daddy's friend, she must be okay. Misato remembered her manners. "How do you do, Doctor?" "Hi, Misato-kun." She had a big needle full of red stuff. Misato'd thought the other needles were big, but this one made them all look like little baby needles. "Don't be afraid, Mi-chan. Doctor Akagi's just going to give you a shot. It's going to hurt, but then it's going to kill the bad things in your body and make you well again. So don't cry, 'cos some of the kids out there are little, and you might frighten them. Okay?" "Ummm, okay." "Good girl. That's my brave little soldier." "Roll over on your stomach, please, Misato-kun." Ouch. Shots there were the worst ones of all. She bit down on her pillow so she wouldn't scream, the way soldiers bit bullets. They let her out the next week. Her doctor seemed surprised, and she wished she could tell him about Doctor Akagi and her medicine, but Daddy'd made her promise not to talk about it and she always kept her promises. The next few weeks she started noticing funny things, like how all of a sudden she was stronger and could run faster and further and when they played softball in gym class she could always catch the ball, no matter who threw it or where it came from. And all the gymnastics stuff that used to be so hard was _easy_ now. She thought maybe that was just what happened when you got over being really sick. After a while, she learned to hold back; it made the other girls sad when they couldn't do the same things. *** Day -12 It's strange to be back in the classroom as if nothing had happened. Horaki is chattering away about the movie she saw Sunday, Asuka has plastered a smile on her face and is trying to reply with something more than monosyllables. Suzuhara is watching Horaki, with an expression that makes me think of Aida's last month when a UN ground-attack tiltrotor made an emergency landing in the schoolyard. Aida is lost in a technical manual. And me, I'm watching Asuka and thinking about last night. We sat up and drank sake again; I'm kind of used to it now. It doesn't make me drunk and stupid, not the way I thought it might, and it's good to share something with my roommates. We fell asleep for a little while before we went to bed; Asuka laid her head on my shoulder, and Misato put her arm around me. If Rei had been there, I think... it would have been right, somehow. There's something about the four of us, something we have in common, more than NERV and Eva. Maybe it's that we don't have anyone else to belong to. Speaking of Rei, she's reading something I don't recognise. Looks like a doujinshi, with five girls hugging each other on the cover. I recognise the characters from Ranma «, which is a classic manga from the last century. The title is in English, for some reason; I think the word means "suggestion." She looks up for a second, over at Asuka, and I think she smiles. Then she looks at me, and I know she did. We're free in the afternoon. Last week, Asuka would have gone off to the mall with Horaki, and I would have followed Suzuhara and Aida around or gone to the library and stared at a wall for a few hours. But today it seems natural to leave school together, not headed in any particular direction. After a few minutes we catch up with Rei, and the three of us walk for a while. Eventually we fetch up in a park, where we sit by the artificial waterfall and watch the carp in the pond and the birds in the cloned pines. We don't need to talk for a long time. At last, as the sun is beginning to set, Asuka stands and stretches. "We've got to go home for dinner," she says. There's nothing for me to do except stand up as well. Then she adds "Would you like to come and eat with us, Rei?" "I must report to the Geofront," Rei says. And then, with one of her rare small smiles, "thank you." Somewhere I find my own reserve of daring. "Would you like to eat with us tomorrow?" "I... I would like that." *** Day 0 "Who is that? You know you shouldn't bring your friends from school in here. And what are you four up to, anyhow?" Misato's nostrils are twitching, too, and I realise all of a sudden why I like her so much, and always have. We smell the same. Just like Asuka and Rei and this new girl. Speaking of whom, she's got to her feet, and unlike Asuka and Rei and me she's not trying to put her clothes back into place. It's almost as if the black tunic sealed itself up of its own accord; I know all too well that it was open down past her navel mere moments ago. I think Asuka wishes her uniform would do that-- she's still fumbling with her blouse, and the straps of the jumper are getting in her way. I think that our new friend is going to grab Misato and kiss and cry all over her the same way as she did with us, but she pulls herself up short at the last moment and bows very slightly with her fist over her heart. "Suhvss, aalt'zine," she says. And much, I think, to everyone's surprise, including her own, Misato pulls her in for a short, hard hug and a quick kiss on the lips. For a second it looks as if she wants to follow up on the gesture, but she stops herself. "How about we try and figure out what's going on here? Slowly." Asuka nods, more or less covered at last. "Yes, Katsuragi-san," Rei says. Even the blonde girl, who doesn't speak any language I've ever heard, seems to get her drift. *** Day -7 Ritsuko told herself. It didn't work. She still saw her old roommate sitting there in that ridiculous port-coloured sports bra and black lace panties. "Rest your hand on the gauze pad, please." Misato shook her head. "This is stupid. You've been taking my blood every week for... God, it must be ages. What do you want?" "It's procedure. You live with the Second and Third. Any changes in their environment could have subtle effects on their piloting. Monitoring you is just a safety precaution." "Come on. It's me... your old roomie. Couldn't you just use some of last week's sample?" "No." Ritsuko said firmly. "Please?" "Consider yourself lucky. Their blood gets tested three times as often." "Poor kids. No wonder they're always in some kind of mood." "Put your finger on the gauze, _roomie_." "All right." Ritsuko seized Misato's wrist and brought the needle round with her other hand. "Oww! You didn't have to stick it that _hard_." "Yes, I did. And you shouldn't remind me of when we roomed together. That makes me think of the night I came home to find you and Kaji in _my_ bed." "Well, mine was full of laundry." "Go on, Misato." "We didn't do anything but sleep. And I said you were welcome to join us." "_Don't_ remind me. Put on your clothes and get out of here." As soon as the outer door was safely closed, Ritsuko let out a long sigh. "Sempai?" Maya called through the thin inner door. "Did you say something?" "Nothing, Maya." She stepped into the lab. "Would you run this sample, please?" Maya blushed, and gently took the little plastic vial from her hand. "I'd be happy to." *** Year -14 "I'm ready, Gendou." Momentarily, a frown crossed his face. His wife... the only person he'd ever loved. His unborn child... maybe he'd learn to love the new life they'd made. Should they take such a risk? "Are you still sure, Yui?" She sighed. "Yes. Katsuragi's daughter has managed just fine, hasn't she? Doctor Souryuu is having the same material added in vitro. And we'll give the chimera-- Rei, as you insist on calling her-- a dose as well. Remember what we learned from Ingolfsson's notes?" He winced, remembering the arguments with Akagi Naoko, who continued to nurse an unreasoning hatred for the invader they had fought nearly a decade past. He had never developed Katsuragi's posthumous affection, but he'd never seen the sense in refusing to acknowledge that in spite of her modifications Ingolfsson had possessed emotions, desires, hopes, and dreams, even affectionate attachments; more of the last than he had, probably. He'd burnt incense for her, and lit candles in a couple of Christian churches, just in case. "Yes. These Draka have a biological need for small-group bonding. The Children won't be Draka, exactly, you do realise?" "Close enough, I hope. Close enough to defeat our _real_ enemy." "Amen." Yui's lips quirked. "Amen." *** Day -30 Ritsuko hated the Commander's office. Most of the Geofront was heated to a decent temperature, enough that she could almost forget the hundreds of meters of rock and earth and concrete above the city-sized artificial cavern. This room, however, was chilled to the very edge of the human comfort zone, low enough to leave her wondering if Gendou himself might have been biomodified. He steepled his white-gloved hands on the featureless onyx plane of his desk. "Tell me your interpretation." Ritsuko's palms were sweating, as usual. At one time, she'd wondered if a similar problem explained the Commander's gloves. Since then she'd seen him barehanded often enough, and there hadn't been any sweat, even in the heat of passion. "Well, it is possible that Captain Katsuragi has acquired some new disease, or that exposure to LCL or other environmental contaminants..." "I can speculate for myself. What is your professional opinion, Doctor?" She took a deep breath. "My _professional_ opinion is that we lack sufficient information. My gut instinct, however, tells me that Captain Katsuragi is going through another sequence of rapid development, similar to that recorded after her initial dose of the altered genetic material. Curiously, this spate of development is tied to the presence of the Children within her apartment, the earliest stirrings occurring shortly after the Third moved in with her and the pace of change increasing rapidly with the residence of the Second." "In the Ingolfsson Papers, reference is made to pheromonal interaction between members of the species Homo Drakensis. Have you investigated the possibility?" "Day-to-day pheromonal sampling of the individuals in question would be difficult without risking exposure of Project Drakon. However, their identical levels of five hormones, three of which are to the best of our knowledge unique to those possessing H. Drakensis genes, are highly suggestive." Some hours later, working alone in the lab, a thought came to her. She tried to get back to work, but the thought wouldn't leave her. Was _that_ what Gendou had intended from the beginning? And was his decision guided by supreme manipulative coldness, or some odd version of a father's desire to see his son married? *** Day 0 We leave the Geofront by one of the lesser-used exits, not so as to hide so much as because it feeds out near a coffee shop with large, well screened booths, one which at this time of day will be empty save for a few couples of students looking for a private place to snog. Misato and Asuka order coffee, and Rei has tea. I am considering how to figure out what our friend wants when she says "kaa-fay, play'." She seems happy with the cup the Filipino man behind the counter gives her, although she promptly adulterates it with milk, sugar, a splash of chocolate syrup, and a drop of hot pepper sauce. I flip a mental coin, come up heads, and have coffee myself. She is curious about everything, and trying very hard to hide it. I see her eyes dart back and forth, taking in the worn vinyl-topped stools, the wooden counter, the glass cases of pastry. She keeps glancing back to that last, and I wonder if I have enough to buy her something, and hope I won't make Asuka and Rei jealous if I do, when Misato asks for a platter of assorted brioche and hands over a wad of cash. Sitting down, it's time to start playing the "what-do-you-call-this" game, the way people in books always do when they run up against a language barrier. We get through names-- she calls herself Signy-- then eating utensils-- Signy knows both chopsticks and Western implements-- crockery, furniture, and body parts. The last gets awkward; wherever Signy's from, she doesn't get embarrassed about the same things we do. Fortunately, Asuka has a glossy magazine in her briefcase, some German thing with lots of advertising. "Horse." "Ferrd." "Car." "Steamuh." "Elephant." "Ess'n." Asuka's eyes widen, and Signy laughs and gives her a quick squeeze around the shoulders. "Frlaag mey po' jaashn, daalen. _Pakidair'_." "I think it's a mixture of German and English," Asuka says after a while. "With a lot of French, and some other things." "Ya," Signy says. "Doytsh ond Inglis ond Fransay ond Narrska. _Taal_. _Taal Drakysh._" I should feel left out, as even Rei has better English than I do, and Asuka's is rusty but near-native, and her German is of course perfect. Misato turns out to speak French, and Signy has to hear a word of Japanese only once to learn it. But somehow it doesn't matter, maybe because my own memory seems to be improving, or maybe because Asuka's got one arm around me and the other around Signy and Rei has twined her fingers with mine and Misato doesn't seem to mind that she hasn't had a drink since breakfast. *** Day -10 His former student did him the courtesy of coming out from behind the heavy black desk. Gendou's manners had always been good in their frosty fashion. "You have concerns, Professor?" Another courtesy; UN paramilitary rank would assert Gendou's superiority over his old mentor. Fuyutski shivered, despite the wool suit, silk shirt, and heavy undergarments which would have put him at risk of heatstroke in the city street far above their heads. "What have we done?" "If all goes as planned, we have saved the human race." "Did you ever stop to consider if we were on the correct path? If... something else might avert the Angels? If perhaps we have wasted the lives and destroyed the very humanity of three, no, _four_ innocent children?" "If you mean to include Major Katsuragi, she would, in all probability, have died in childhood without our alterations. Even had her disease been arrested through ordinary means, the energy of Impact would no more have spared her than it did her father." If Gendou's expression had been cold and flat, it would have merely disturbed. The proud glimmer in his eyes was something Fuyutsuki had only seen once before, on the ancient cruel face of Gwendolyn Ingolfsson. "At the price of her identity as a member of our own species. Had she been offered a choice, would she have taken it?" "Irrelevant. It was necessary." Fuyutsuki had used that line himself, twenty-two years ago, a few hours after ending four decades of non-violence. It hadn't been a comfort then, either. "So I pray." *** Year -6 Ritsuko logged out and sat back in her chair, resisting the urge to rub her eyes and stretch. The supremely professional Commander Ikari might think it studentish, or unmilitary, or any of a half-dozen other negatives. Promotion in the quasi-military structure of the UN research and development agencies rested on more than mere scientific ability. "Well," he said, "what do you think?" "I am..." she was at a loss for words "amazed. Stunned. Delighted. This material is revolutionary. Beyond even the most recent developments. How did you put this together without it leaking into the broader scientific community?" He steepled his white gloved hands. "You aren't annoyed?" "Why?" "The avenues of research this opens up will lead us places I had never dreamed to see in my lifetime." "Excellent. Many scientists would be unhappy to think they had spent years... knapping flint, you might say, while others were forging iron." "A childish emotion. I look forward to building on this material. Tell me, Commander, how long has the project been going on?" "Sixteen years." "Remarkable. The methods and equipment have the feel of a significantly more mature technology." "It is. We estimate that some of the processes may have been in use more than three hundred years in their place of origin." She fought to control her face. "Oh?" "Did you think that Professor Fuyutsuki, Doctor Katsuragi, your mother, my wife, and I developed all this on our own, stealing time in undergraduate laboratories in the middle of the night? No. The salvation of the human race is the spoils of battle." "Amusing. So, this came from a downed UFO, perhaps?" "No. A cross-time invader, actually. Her name was Gwendolyn Ingolfsson, and she was killed by an enemy from her own time and history. We used the notes left by both, combined with samples taken from Ingolfsson's remains, to bootstrap our technology into the twenty-fourth century." "You're serious, aren't you?" "Log in and call up file AlephTet1003975." What else could she do? The file described human experiments: a six-year-old child, injected with altered genes and cured in the early stages of leukemia, and three healthy fetuses given the material in vitro some eight years later. Curious, she called up the specifics on the child. The computer displayed a three dimensional portrait of an ordinary purple-haired little girl; a few keystrokes brought up composites of muscular and skeletal scans, and a few more took her through time, as growth patterns and anatomy were subtly altered from the norm. Idly, she glanced at the face of the twenty-two year old image. Impossible. She called up the full identification, not just the string of numbers that identified this person as an experimental subject. There was no thought of control now. This was... outrageous. "Do you mean to tell me I _roomed_ with a _mutant_ for two years? That I ate with her, drank with her, went to class with her, listened to her dumb stories, slept in the lounge when she left her laundry bag on the door knob, and let her cry on my shoulder when her stupid boyfriend screwed some bimbo? Well?" The Commander chuckled. There was little humour in it, but much chromosome-deep confidence and titanium-alloy will; it was simultaneously the most irritating and the most arousing laughter Ritsuko had ever heard. "Yes, actually, I do." "Damnation." "With luck and skill, we all shall avoid that fate. You have proven yourself in Project Evangelion, Doctor. I bid you welcome now to Project Drakon." *** Day - 7 Everybody's out in the school yard-- it's lunch time, and too hot to be inside. Asuka and Rei are sitting with Horaki, and I'm with Suzuhara and Aida. I think Suzuhara'd rather I were Horaki. That's fine by me; I'd rather be with Asuka and Rei. In fact, why don't we sit together? Because girls and boys are supposed to clump together with their own sex in these little groups and pretend they're not spending most of their time checking their opposite numbers out. Silly custom. "Man, that chick is weird," someone says. I glance around, and see it's one of the guys I don't really know. Perfectly ordinary kind of kid, not too tall, not too fat. Suzuki or something like that. He's over across the yard. I don't know why he's talking so loud. "Ayanami? Yeah, she's definitely not cute.." That's a tall spindly guy named Yamazaki. Don't really know him, either. From the sound of it, I don't want to, either. "Oh yeah, she's strange, too, but it was the foreigner I was talking about." I lean against the fence, idly wrapping my hand round the post next to me. "Weird? Man, she's gorgeous." "Yeah, and none of us'll ever get near her." "Damn straight," I mutter. A week ago, I wouldn't have cared what they said about my fellow pilots anymore than I would have cared what they said about me. "Imagine what it'd be like, though." I can see Asuka frowning, and Rei looks... well, most people would say she looks the same, but I can tell she's not happy. Horaki and Suzuhara and Aida are acting as if they can't hear a thing. "I hear she only digs older guys. Yamata says his older brother saw her at a soapland." I hear something crack, but there are more important things to deal with. "Well, Ayanami's a lesbian, you know? I hear someone caught her with Honda-sensei in the showers last year-- " The three of us move as one, rising up and crossing the schoolyard. "I beg your pardon?" Asuka says politely. "Uhhh, what is it?" Suzuki says. His adam's apple is shaking; I almost knuckle-punch it just to end the irritating movement. "I think you said something rather rude about my friends," I say. "We weren't talking about anything," says Yamazaki. "I was never in the showers with Honda-sensei." "Errr..." "And Yamata's older brother must be even more of a worthless lying fat prick than he is," Asuka adds. "How the fuck did you hear-- " Suzuki has an irritating voice; I glare at him, and his jaw drops open, then closes with a snap. There's a commotion back where we were sitting. I look over, and notice one of the fenceposts has fallen down. It's odd, as they're galvanised steel set into concrete, and nearly new. "Shit," Yamazaki mutters under his breath, then drops to his knees and knocks his forehead on the ground. "I... I am very sorry." Suzuki stands frozen until Rei makes a little snarling noise in the back of her throat. He kowtows, also. I can't help but think how lovely their faces would look smeared across the nearest brick wall, but manage to restrain myself. I don't think Misato would enjoy filling out the paperwork. Asuka and Rei and I walk back to where we'd left our lunches. People are staring. I didn't think we made that big a deal with the two jerks. Suzuhara is dead pale, and avoids looking at us. Horaki's face is blank. Kensuke grins. "Ikari, my man, I didn't know you could do stuff like that! Is it some kind of martial art? Could you teach me? Or did NERV give you cyber implants?" "What?" "The fencepost! You squeezed it, and it broke. It was cool!" "No, I didn't. It was just weak, that's all." "Right," Asuka says. Rei nods. "Yeah," Suzuhara says, getting his colour back. "My Pa used to run a factory made stuff like that. Sometimes there's faults in the metal, and you can't eyeball 'em till they go." He laughs. "Marduk prolly got these from the lowest bidder, cheap bastards that they are." "Oh," Aida says, sounding disappointed. I think to myself. Horaki will have the explanation spread round the school within half an hour. I just wish I couldn't see the prints of my fingers in the metal. *** Year 10 Signy Freydisdottir de Coverley ag Katsuragi: Our Shinji wants me to write this. I think it a silly idea; haven't I told him the story often enough? But he would insist. Being raised by a different species gives our people funny habits, I think. Endearing ones, granted, but funny. Like how long it took to make sweet Misato to realise that fourteen years isn't very many. Why, it was a whole forty-eight hours, and we had to-- Stop that! Not to mention that she's still charmingly shy. In any event, I was on a... field trip, you would call it, I think. To one of the research stations in North America-- I don't know what the place would be called in your world, and I doubt it would mean anything to you if I did. I was taking advanced physics-- dare I admit it was only to see more of the lovely fencing team captain, Marit Felicedottir ffoulkes?-- and somehow the professeure wrangled us a visit to study molehole generators. And, as Fate would have it, there was a catastrophic failure. A djinn in the works. An act of Odinn, or maybe Loki. Who's shy now? Yes, I admit, I was looking at Marit's rump, and maybe I was slightly distracted. I'm only Draka, yes? You tripped, didn't you? You want to scribe this, daalen? Ja, sure. So Signy broke the wormhole generator, and she fell through the universes and met Sweet-idiot-Shinji and Wonderful-sexy-girl and Mi-chan and Yours Truly and we all made mad passionate love. Then we saved the world from the Angels and Shinji's psycho father. Then we made mad passionate love again, and afterward we thought about taking over the world because that's what our Draka genes tell us to do, but we realised we'd have to rule the world once we took it over and it's more fun to make mad passionate love than to spend all your time running things. The End. Asuka! That's not-- mmphhh. Mmmmm. Ahhhh. Freya b'vaar mey! Ah, sweethearts? The... ack, waitaminute... *** Day -7 Asuka, Rei and I leave school and head for the park. We find a little clearing amid the pines, and for a while no one says anything. Then, at last, Asuka says "You did that, didn't you, Shinji?" "Yes." "How?" "With his fingers," Rei says. Asuka and I look at each other for a moment, then burst into helpless laughter. Rei's eyes widen slightly, and for a moment I fear we've broken her heart. Then, tentatively, as if experimenting with the sensation, she chuckles. "Did I say something 'funny'?" "Yes." "This is good?" "Yes." "I think that makes me... happy." *** Day 0 We manage to get a few things figured out by the time Signy's stomach starts rumbling. She's not from somewhere else, but rather some_when_ . Asuka, who knows the most physics of any of us, says something about wormholes and the "many worlds hypothesis," which I have heard of, and "quantum tunneling," which I haven't. "Ya, _mol_-holes," Signy says. "I on... trek. For school. Visiting... lab'twaar. Something go wrong. Big, no, _very_ wrong." Apparently she's here by accident. And when she fell into the Geofront, she was frightened. Her people don't get frightened easily. And they only know one way to deal with their fears. "I sorry, Shinji," she says, "If I not afraid, I smell right away you Draka, too. And friend. _Cute_ friend." She smiles, and the light from the single lamp catches the thin silver ring in her nose and the rubies in each ear. Rei's lips quirk into a gentle smile, and Misato sighs.. Signy uses a map in Asuka's magazine to show us that her ancestors were from Europe and America, and were sent to South Africa-- "No choice." she says, miming a chopping gesture with her hand-- and how they eventually conquered the world. She talks about something that sounds like genetic engineering-- "make us stronger, faster, see better, smell better." All so far so good, except for one thing. She insists that Asuka, Rei, Misato, and I are also "Draka," if unschooled ones. It's hard to argue with her; recent events indicate _something_ is going on with the four of us, and we do seem to have a remarkable lot in common. The only problem is that none of us can come up with even an unconvincing explanation of how we might descend from people on an alternate timeline We find a ramen place, where Signy eats an astounding amount. We all do, actually-- I'm not sure why we've been so hungry these past few weeks. And I don't really care. We wander home, pausing every so often so Signy can look at something: a vending machine, a payphone, a soapland-- difficult to explain-- a pair of stray cats hunting in the untrimmed bushes of a small park. There's no question of taking Rei back to her place, or finding an hotel for Signy. She seems confused to discover that Misato and Asuka and I have separate beds, and when offered the couch she visibly droops. Asuka saves the day by pulling her own futon and one of the spares out into the living room. Signy kisses her on the cheek, and Rei takes her hand for a brief squeeze, and somehow I can't bear the thought of sleeping without them. Misato opens her mouth, then closes it, shaking her head slightly, a wry small smile on her face. She goes to her room, leaving us to figure out arrangements. Signy looks puzzled, and slightly hurt, and Rei hugs her. I go off and change to boxers and t-shirt. Asuka's alone, sitting crosslegged in her nightshirt, reading a book, when I come out of my room-- apparently Rei and Signy are in the bath. I sit a careful distance away from her on the futon, but she crawls over to me and plonks herself in my lap. This should be awkward, as she's taller and somewhat heavier than I, but we manage well enough, and sit quietly together until our friends return. Oh. My. Signy apparently didn't bring any night clothes. What am I saying? If she wore them, she would have borrowed something. She certainly doesn't seem to think anything of being undre-- let's be honest-- _nude_. My, she's beautiful. I've never... well, sort of, but never like _this_. Asuka is squirming in my lap. Her shirt is unbuttoned, and my hands are... she's going to kill me. Except she's the one who put them there. Signy settles before us in seiza and leans down to kiss my fingers and Asuka's skin beneath them. Rei turns off the light, and joins us. Momentarily, I think *** Day -3 We hurry to make it home in time to keep Misato from trying to cook dinner. A few days ago we didn't, and even she couldn't eat the results. She's in the shower when we arrive, singing the theme song to an old anime called "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon"; as usual, she's left the door open. Rei chops the vegetables while I bring out the wok and Asuka starts the rice cooker; after a moment someone starts to sing along with Misato. It takes me another moment to realise that it's Rei. Asuka and I put our arms around her shoulders, and when Misato walks into the kitchen a few minutes later she hugs all three of us. "My goddess, am I glad to see you." "Rough day at work?" "Yeah. Ritsuko was on vampire mode again." I wince sympathetically, and Asuka makes a face. Doctor Akagi can be callous when she's in a bad mood, and I think she takes things out on Misato. Rei frowns slightly, which means she's quite disturbed. "It wasn't that bad, really, but... I'm afraid I broke her table." "How?" If it's the one I think she's talking about, it's made of steel and strong enough to hold a rhinoceros. "I squeezed too hard." "Oh." "And what bothers me," she drops almost into a whisper, "is that she didn't seem surprised. I mean, she was mad, but it was almost like she'd been expecting something like that to happen, and wished she'd ordered a stronger table." "You know." I'm not asking a question. "Yes. There's a security camera on the school yard." She rummages around in her purse and comes up with two thirty centimeter lengths of heavy bar stock, handing them to Asuka and Rei. "Would you two mind bending these?" Rei makes a perfect circle and Asuka twists hers into a heart. "For the love of God," Misato whispers, "what is happening to us?" *** Day 1 I wake first, and find that I've managed to wind up at the bottom of the pile. Asuka and Rei have clasped me between them, and Signy, not to be outdone, has spread herself over the three of us. Her breath stirs my forelock and tickles my nose. Odd how a person so dangerous could also be so... sweet? Yes. Sweet. "Gud Marr'n." Her eyes open, and she lips the tip of my nose. Asuka stirs slightly at the movement, nuzzling my shoulder, and Signy and I kiss her fully awake. Rei's eyes open, and all three of us concentrate for a moment on her. "Fun this... I mean... this is fun, but should train, yes?" Signy says at last. "Hmm?" "Morning, it is. Should get up and go to _zaal_. Play-fight." She's got an appealing grin, like a cute warrior manga character come to life, and the little diamonds sparkling in her longish canines only add to the effect. "_Zaal_?" Rei says, curious. "Dojo," Asuka says. "Where is this dojo?" "Ah... we don't have one," I say. "What?" Signy shakes her head. "Not in this big building?" It took nearly an hour to convince her that the apartment building isn't our _domenn_ and that we don't have any _suudraa_ under our rule a state of affairs she finds intensely odd (even worse than Draka doing housework, I think, is the idea of _suudraa_-- servant caste-- without Draka to protect them). I have a bad feeling explaining this is going to make that discussion look easy. Tea will help. I disengage myself from the tangle of limbs and pad over to the stove. After a moment, Signy follows me, and wraps her arms around my waist, which is a little distracting, but I manage to put the kettle on. When the others follow it becomes even more difficult to not make something excessive out of the situation. Misato stumbles by on her way to the bathroom. "Morning," she mumbles. I feel sorry for her, as there are bags under her bloodshot and half-closed eyes. "Tea?" I ask her. "Umm, sure," she says, so I bring her a cup. "Oh, Shin-chan, ah, you're... very kind. Thanks. Really." She moves very quickly toward the shower cubicle, and a bit of the tea sloshes on the floor. She's kind of red looking, I note-- too much sun? I wonder why she's so tongue-tied, then I glance back at the rest. Right. Everyone who was wearing clothes at the beginning of last night's slumber party lost them within minutes. And none of us put anything on after getting out of bed. Asuka is laughing and blushing and trying to cover certain parts of herself all at once. Rei has a faint smile on her lips, although I wonder if she understands the emotions involved enough to find them funny or if she's just enjoying watching Asuka squirm. Signy is looking back and forth between them, her brows wrinkled. Surprisingly, I'm not embarrassed. Why, I'm not sure. Except... it's certainly an interesting way of getting back at Misato for hanging about the house in her skimpy outfits. Not that I really mind that, to be honest. Eep. What's happening to me? I'm not like this. Well, maybe in my wildest dreams. Wildest dreams... "Gods!" "Shinji?" Asuka's still kind of red, but the semi-hysterical laughter has died out. Signy and Rei look up from the paper they've laid out on the table. Interesting. I think Rei's trying to teach her to read Japanese. I'd say she's out of character, say we're all out of character, except for one thing. It feels _right_. As if we had been out of character before, and are now ourselves again. "Just a minute," I say, and head for my room. There's the right notebook, I think. I've never admitted to anyone that I keep these. Shinji, the boy who doesn't care? Keeps journals? Writes down his dreams? Draws? Well, there's no time like the present. "Look," I say, thrusting the open page under everyone's noses. "I'm honoured that you draw me so nicely," Signy says. "Maybe do one with pretty Asuka and kind Rei, hmm?" "Umm, Signy," Asuka says after a few seconds' pause, "that date is last year." "Oh." Across the apartment, Misato turns the shower off. Time to get dressed and face the world. *** Day 2 Signy finishes the form with a rapid pinwheeling that returns the stick to her belt, where a sword would hang. "Now you try," she says, tossing me the length of rattan with her right hand while snapping off another with her left. "Han hup har ha!" I fumble the stick into guard position, barely in time. It's not fair; she's trained since she could walk and I'm just starting yesterday. Asuka is asleep with her head in Rei's lap; the latter is sketching so quickly that I half-expect to see smoke rising from the pencil and paper. "Hey! Shinji!" shouts an all-too-familiar voice. "What're you doing? And who's the babe?" "Barrn m'callen ey?" Signy snarls, her grin quite suddenly gone. "No! Friend! Don't kill." "Oh, I not kill," she says. "Just teach... lesson in manners." "Don't break anything." "Not worry, sweet Shinji." I have a bad feeling that in her language "sweet" means something closer to "endearingly squeamish." *** As Stirling fans might have noticed, Signy's home timeline isn't the world of _Marching Through Georgia_, _Under the Yoke_, _The Stone Dogs_, and _Drakon_. The Gwendolyn Ingolfsson who provided our heroines and hero with their Draka genes was from a timeline closer to Signy's, but much less benevolent. In case anyone might think otherwise, this isn't "what I think the Draka are actually like." Signy is meant as a sort of appreciative parody: Homo Drakensis as filtered through the sensibility of "magical girl" animanga. Perhaps there's also a bit of my own skepticism of the idea of engineering people for a given role coming through. The Ranma doujinshi that Rei is reading on Day -12 is an imaginary manga version of Suika Roberts' prose fanfiction _Tip_. You'll find it in the drafts section (as of July 02) of her site (follow the links from http://www.mac.com/ssfr). I recommend you read it-- it's a very sweet and nicely written lemon.