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 2

 

'Then the Lord God said, "Now the man has become like one

of us and has knowledge of what is good and what is bad..."'

Genesis 2:22

 

 

He stared at the door for a few seconds took a deep breath, and

knocked politely.

 

"Enter," came the deep voice from behind the door.

 

He pressed the button and the door slid open, "I have the tactical

operations department report on candidate 312 sir," said Major Veitch

as he walked into Commander Fuji's office.

 

The Commander sat behind his large desk in his overly large office,

the Major had heard that it had been designed to be this big by the

former commander of NERV HQ, for some reason known only to himself.

To the side of the desk stood the Chairperson of E-Project, and the

Chief of Intelligence section 2.

 

"Good," Fuji said, "I have already received the Medical, Science,

and Intelligence reports, and have already had plenty of time to

review them."

 

Veitch visibly winced as he handed over his report, "I'm sorry I

didn't get this to you sooner sir, but I had trouble looking up

files on the subject, either there were no files on Candidate 312

before 3rd Impact or they have all been deleted, the earliest files

available date back to only about three and a half months ago"

 

The Commander flipped through the report for about half a minute

before looking back to the Major, "Don't worry Major, there are

files on this candidate, but they have been... classified."

 

The Commander turned to the two to his right, "Thank you for

delivering your reports, you may go."

 

Veitch turned to leave with the others, but stopped when he heard

the Commander's voice, "Wait behind a minute please, Major Veitch,

I would like a word with you."

 

"Yes sir," he replied.

 

Fuji flipped through the Major's report and waited for the other

two to leave before talking to him again.

 

"So Major, what do you really think about this situation? I can tell

by the tone of your report that you aren't exactly happy, and that

you haven't said all that you wanted too either. Don't worry about

what you say here, this is all off record and what you say will not

be counted against you."

 

Veitch shuffled his feet on the floor and glanced around uncomfortably.

He drew a deep breath and began, "I know that we have no evidence

beside the testimony of one wounded soldier and against that we have

all of the test data saying that the candidate couldn't have caused

what happened and the unanimous opinion of the Magi saying that it

was all coincidence but..."

 

Fuji looked at him intently "Go on, but..."

 

Veitch took another deep breath before proceeding, "I don't know sir,

it just feels... wrong." He paused for a second, trying to put his

thoughts in order, "First we have a 1st level candidate straight out

of his reintegration program running into some new type of Angel,

which somehow bypassed our security and got into the geofront with

not even a single alarm raised. This Angel then promptly decides to

attack this one candidate, when it could have chosen to attack a more

important target such as NERV HQ. The candidate then runs into a

security detail and according to one creates a "force field" which

sounds to me an accurate description of the second AT Field we

detected, and to top it all off, the candidate then promptly faints

and conveniently forgets everything that happened to him after the

alarm sirens sounded. That just happens to be a few too many

coincidences for me."

 

The Commander considered this for a while, then replied, "Your

arguments are quite impressive Major, but I am afraid that all of

the available evidence disagrees with your opinion. I would advise

you to drop this matter and from now on leave such concerns to

section 2, you are dismissed Major"

 

Major Veitch promptly stood to attention, "Yes Sir," he said as he

saluted, he turned and marched stiffly out of the office.

 

When he had left, a shadow detached itself from one of the dark

corners of the room behind the Commander's desk.

 

"You were listening?" Fuji asked rhetorically, the shadow didn't

bother to  answer. "What are the Director's orders concerning the

candidate?"

 

Fuji could feel the shadow's eyes boring into his back "This incident

occurred as it was recorded, an Angel broke into the geofront, but was

brought down by NERV personnel before it could cause any damage, the

candidate's involvement went only so far as that he was the first to

sight the Angel. Nothing more than that occurred. As to the future

position of the candidate, the Director's orders are unchanged."

 

Fuji thought his way through the implications of that for a while,

before asking his next question, "And the Major?"

 

"Nothing is to happen to the Major, he poses no problem at the

moment, but keep a close watch on him, if it becomes necessary,

you know how to deal with the situation."

 

Fuji sighed "Yes, I do."

 

**********

 

Michael finished packing his bag and looked around the austere

Hospital room.

 

If it is supposed to be a place of healing, why have they made it look

so depressing? he thought to himself.

 

He took one last look at the room they had kept him in for three days

while they had repeatedly ran tests, and asked him questions about

something which had happened to him but he couldn't remember.

 

Oh well, he thought, I'd better get to that test centre, I'm

already three days late for my appointment.

 

He walked through the door and started walking down the corridor

to his left. He had gone only perhaps twenty paces when he heard a

voice behind him, "Hey, wait up!"

 

Michael turned to see another boy of perhaps 16 running towards him,

when he had finally reached Michael he stopped, paused a minute to

catch his breath, then said, "Hi, you must be Michael Kysler. My name

is Shiro Tachibana, I have been instructed to show you the way to the

CTEC."

 

Michael looked at him, a puzzled expression on his face, "CTEC?"

 

"Oh, sorry, I forgot you were new, CTEC: Central Test and Evaluation

Centre" responded Shiro, "If you have no objections, I'll show you the

way now."

 

"Sure go right ahead."

 

**********

 

As they walked through the many streets Shiro pointed out the many

sites and explained the purpose of many of the buildings around.

From what Michael could piece together from his lessons and Shiro's

observations he found that the Geofront had originally been selected

for use as a military installation with most of the accommodations of

the work force and their families being on the surface in the city

named Tokyo 3, Michael involuntarily looked up at the cave ceiling

and shuddered again at the thought of all that rock hanging over him.

There wasn't any purpose in looking up however as the once proud city

of Tokyo 3 was now nothing more than a bunch of ruins in a dirty mud

puddle, which could be laughingly referred to as a "lake".

During the 14 years of Man's absence from the planet nature had

reclaimed much of the surface with brutal efficiency, leaving the

surface much too dangerous for Man while he was trying to rebuild

civilisation. Therefore as many people as could fit into the

geofront safely had retreated to this haven, converting many of the

old military buildings into accommodation.

 

As Shiro continued his commentary on the places that they passed,

Michael phased him out of his thoughts, giving only grunts when he

felt Shiro required a response to his ramblings.

 

Michael was too busy trying to set some order to the myriad thoughts

which were running through his mind, there seemed to be many more

questions than answers.

 

Why had third impact occurred?

What happened to cause fourth impact?

How could the race of Man survive in a disembodied state for 14 years

and then suddenly return to where they started from?

Why couldn't he remember his life before third impact?

What happened to him the day he left the re-education centre?

How...?

 

He shut out the whys, whats, and hows and instead tried to focus on

what he did know. He knew that third impact had been an attempt to

make man into God, and that it succeeded (He knew that from the few

remaining memories of that existence, and what little the people

told him during his reintegration program), but beyond that he knew

very little about it.

 

He then began to think about fourth impact.

Well I don't know a lot, but what I can make out is that fourth

impact...

 

A voice interrupted his train of thought, "We're here."

 

Michael's eyes came back into focus and he looked around, "Huh? What?"

He saw Shiro standing in front of him, and beyond him a large

building surrounded by a well-guarded perimeter fence, "Oh right,

this must be CTEC."

 

Shiro gave him a funny look, shook his head and grabbed his arm,

"Come on, we're already late as it is."

He then started dragging Michael to the gate before he could even

think of responding.

 

**********

 

A fist slammed down on the desk, "Let me in there dammit!" The

twenty year old shouted at the female NERV security officer behind

the desk.

 

The woman calmly looked up at the dark haired young man in front of

her, "I am sorry sir, this is a restricted area, authorised personnel

only."

 

"I'm an EVA pilot, how much more authorization can you get than

that?" the man gave her a glare which would probably scare a normal

person half to death.

 

However, she was not just an ordinary person, she was NERV Security,

"I'm sorry sir, ordinarily I would let you in there, but these

orders come from the highest level. I can't let you through."

 

The pilot just stood there for a minute, clenching and unclenching

his fist, the rage building in him visibly. He then spun round and

smashed his fist into an unoffending wall, "Damn him!" He shouted,

"Why can't he leave my life alone?"

 

He promptly stormed out of the security office at the NERV Medical

Facility, and marched down the corridor. When he found an empty room

he entered and leaned against the door.

 

He took a silver locket out from under his shirt, opened it and

looked at the picture of the red headed girl inside.

 

"Asuka..." he whispered.

 

**********

 

A woman with long dark hair, wearing a beige NERV uniform with the

letters "CTEC" printed under the normal NERV insignia, looked up

and smiled at him, "Ah the wandering student finally arrives," she

said in a friendly tone, "you've missed most of the induction course,

but lucky for you, classes won't start until the day after tomorrow."

 

Michael could only stand there and say, "Err... yes."

 

She grabbed his wrist and placed a small object in his hand, he looked

down to see a key card lying on his open palm, "You are in room 438

on the eighth floor, you have half an hour to settle in, then you

must report to lecture hall 5, I hope you will be happy here."

She smiled at him again, then turned back to the stack of papers

on her desk.

 

Michael turned to Shiro who was standing at his side, "Can you show

me where my room is please?" he asked.

 

Shiro was looking at the woman behind the desk (who was now humming

to herself as she worked), with a strange expression on his face.

The expression disappeared when he heard Michael's voice, "Sure, just

follow me," he said before walking towards a nearby elevator.

 

As they left the elevator on the eighth floor and walked through the

various corridors leading to Michael's new room, the two passed by

many girls and women, many of whom wore smiles on their faces.

Michael took note that the strange expression had appeared on

Shiro's face again. Michael could sense Shiro wanted to say

something, but he kept quiet.

 

When they reached Michael's room, Shiro showed him the amenities,

the tiny bathroom, the bedroom, the central living area and the

small kitchen area. After he finished talking, Shiro hopped from

one foot to the other looking like he was about to burst, which he

inevitably did;

"WOW!" he exclaimed, "With a talent like that, I think we can become

fast friends." He seemed to consider what he had just said and added

hastily, "Of course I was going to be your friend before I noticed

your talent, you understand."

 

Michael was taken aback by the other boy's enthusiasm, "Hang on, your

going too fast for me, what is this talent your babbling about?"

 

Shiro just stared at him for a few seconds, "Your really naive

aren't you." He scratched the back of his head, "Maybe that's what

attracts them?" he mused to himself.

 

Michael was starting to get annoyed, "Stop messing around; just tell

me what your babbling about."

 

Shiro shook his head and sighed, "Very well," he paused dramatically

for a second, "You, Michael Kysler, are a genuine babe magnet."

 

Michael stared at him for a few seconds and then burst out laughing,

"You can't be serious," he managed to say between chuckles.

 

"Its true," came the reply, "Didn't you see all the women we passed?

Most of them wouldn't even bother to give me the time of day, but as

soon as you show up they start grinning like they were high on

something."

 

"I still don't believe what you're telling me. This is just a

coincidence, its probably just that you've upset them in the past

and they smile at everyone but you."

 

Shiro seemed to consider that for a moment, "Huh, maybe your right,

but I think I'll hang around with you anyway, just in case."

 

He walked to the door and opened it, "You just settle in here, I'll

be back in twenty minutes to show you to your lecture hall."

 

**********

 

A Biohazard Lab somewhere in Central Dogma:-

 

"...autopsy of the Angel like being killed inside the geofront.

Current designation of sample: SA01. Contrary to earlier assumption,

SA01 shows no closer resemblance to the conventional Angels than to

Man. SA01 shows a previously unseen genetic and waveform pattern,

totally unlike the patterns of Angels or Humans. Preliminary analysis

of SA01 showed absence of organs generally assumed to contribute to

the generation of AT Fields, however, secondary evidence proves that

SA01 was capable of generating such a Field, or something similar."

 

The person who was talking picked up a scalpel from a tray, and turned

to the corpse on the table.

 

"I am now making a lateral incision..."

 

**********

 

To be continued...

 

"The second horror is over,

but the third horror will come soon!"

Revelations 11:14

 

 

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

 

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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