Kaiju Slaying For Death and Profit Ch 14

Wowee. Sorry for the late post. Was busy all of Saturday.
Good news! Unlike last week where I worked five twelve hour shifts. This past week I only worked three twelve hour shifts! The other two were nine hours! So I was able to make use of the saved brainpower to write this chapter.
I will admit, this chapter fought me. It didn't want to get written, but I persevered. I thank you for your patience.
That said, hope you like this chapter. let me know if you do in a comment.
=][=
Fuyutsuki Kouzou strained to hear himself shout past the ringing in his ears. “Who discharged their weapon in the control room!?”
But as the useless question left his lips, his brain had already moved to the important detail. That had been three shots.
One may be a negligent discharge, but three in rapid succession? None of the technicians working in the Control Room were issued fully automatic weapons, meaning an idiot managed to get past the nearly obscene amount of screening, or far simpler and more likely, it was deliberate.
Judging by the lack of further gunshots and the sounds of the growing riot on the lower level, the issue had been handled one way or the other.
“Fuyutsuki, investigate.” Gendo demanded, making him withhold a sigh.
Without a word, he made his way downstairs and saw that just about every man and woman in the control room had piled on one of the technicians and were in the process of beating him to death, at first, he’d expected the security officers to take control of the situation, except they instead joined in on the beating. “Enough! What the hell is going on here!?”
It was then that he spotted it, Ikari Shinji, kneeling on the ground, a technician knelt next to him with an open first aid kit, pressing a gauze sodden with blood tightly to his side.
“Ika-Shinji, report!” He barked.
The young man smiled. “Exactly what it looks like, a schoolyard scuffle.” He coughed and a not insignificant amount of blood ended up on the floor in front of him. He looked dispassionately down at it and took a deep breath that audibly gurgled in his chest. “Oh, I’m pretty sure that’s bad. I should have shot myself with smaller caliber bullets, you know? Build up my immunity.”
“Can you be serious for two minutes!?” Kouzou demanded.
“Oh, you don’t want that.” Shinji said with a blood speckled grin. “After those two minutes are up, I’ll never be serious again. I’ll have to pick and choose the best time for serious now, maybe do it in two to five second increments, really be miserly with it, it’s gotta last me for the rest of my life.”
“Takeru walked up to Shinji, pointed his side arm, shouted ‘God is great’ and shot him.” The technician, Kaede if he recalled her name correctly, said. “Shinji reacted in time to knock the barrel down so the bullet hit him on the torso instead of his head. Takeru managed to pull the trigger two more times before Shinji hit him across the jaw and sent him to the floor, everyone else jumped Takeru before he could get up. Shinji has been shot three times, I do not see an exit wound, I believe his lung may be punctured, I’ve already called for a medic.”
“You talk very fast, and has anyone told you you’re very pretty? You’ve got that ‘girl next door’ look going, it really works well for you. How do you manage to make your bangs curve forward like that? It’s really unique.” Shinji said with a slight slurring to his words, and only now did Kouzou realize his pupils were heavily dilated.
“I gave him something for the pain.” Kaede said. “It seems to have made him rather…loose lipped.”
“I’d ask you out, but I’m pretty sure I have a girlfriend, and I’m not sure if she’s bisexual enough yet to join me in seducing you.”
Kouzou left the two behind, turned and shouted. “Stop! I need him alive!”
Unfortunately, by the time the mob calmed down enough to listen, the assailant had very literally been trampled to death.
=][=
Ritsuko tried not to fidget as Director Ikari glared around the table.
“How did we miss this?” Director Ikari demanded. “Our power compromised, one of our pilots nearly assassinated, and the lower levels-!” He cut himself off and grit his teeth.
Someone had done the impossible, someone had exfiltrated NERV HQ with a hoard of semi-sapient clones of Rei, in complete stealth. Not only was Pilot 00 no longer disposable, the Dummy Plug system project was dead in the water mere days before completion of the manufacturing pipeline. They currently only had two of the machines ready, and seeing as to they were one-use devises and prototypes at that, their existence was a cold comfort.
Vice Director Fuyutsuki sighed and asked. “What’s the condition of the pilot?”
Ritsuko stood and answered. “Shinji’s surgery went well, the lung had collapsed by the time the surgery team began treatment, but once drained and sown it reinflated without issue. The three bullets were lodged in his ribs, two of them on the front, breaking two ribs and causing sympathetic fractures elsewhere in his thoracic cage, and one in the back. We are lucky that only one slipped between his ribs to damage his organs and that it missed the heart entirely, were it not for his tricho-dento-osseous syndrome he’d have been shot in the heart. Of note, he was much less resistant to opioids compared to last time we had to medicate him, its my current hypothesis that a recent high synchronization with an Eva boosts the body’s resilience against toxins…somehow. He’s expected to make a full recovery, I’m told he’s already ambulatory and, for once, politely complaining about hospital food. He should be counted as walking wounded and should be well enough to resume synchronization tests in a month. I expect he will be back to full functionality in six to eight weeks.”
Vice Director Fuyutsuki nodded. “Good.”
Gendo leaned forward. “Can anything be done to speed Pilot 01’s recovery?”
Ritsuko suppressed her surprise. “There are some experimental treatments bu—”
“Do it. We need him back to fighting fit before the next Angel arrives.” Gendo demanded.
“Sir, I must protest! The potential long-term effects—”
Gendo cut her off with a slashing motion. “Are inconsequential if our endeavor fails in the short term. Do it.”
“Yes sir.”
Vice Director Fuyutsuki piped in again. “Were the Magi damaged by the power outage?”
Ritsuko tramped down her anger and flipped to a different page on her clipboard. “The Magi themselves are in good condition thanks to all available power being redirected to them. After I was flown back to base, I was able to run decoy programs on the Magi, hopefully at least somewhat obfuscating the order in which our systems came back online.”
She answered more technical questions, giving her findings on the specific form the sabotage had taken, before the topic shifted to what she considered to be the Progress Meeting’s most worrisome topic.
Misato stood. “After this incident we conducted an investigation into NERV’s ranks, as of last count we have six missing personnel, one dead, three who were battered and left unconscious with enough anesthetic in their system to keep them down for a few hours, but largely unharmed. The only link we could find between five of the missing personnel and Hayashi Takeru, was that they were members of the religious organization called ‘Seekers of Revelation’ best known for their humanitarian works and, more recently, relief efforts for those affected by Angel attacks. We are beginning an investigation into their activities. Sato Momoe worked as a nurse in the lab, she has gone missing, but I have my doubts as to her involvement, she was last seen heading to the office of Watanabe Kenzo, where we found signs of a struggle and some blood.
“It seems likely that the five missing NERV employees were religious extremists and launched this attack to take advantage of the chaos after an Angel attack to achieve whichever goal they had, with Hayashi Takeru attacking Shinji as a target of opportunity. Sato Momoe is either involved or ran afoul of this group. She is missing, presumed dead. The three battered technicians have already recovered and are back to their duties, we have them under observation in case their seeming innocence is a ruse.”
“This is utterly unacceptable.” Gendo snarled. “Major, you are to work with the Intelligence Division, do whatever you need, requisition whatever you require, find the ones responsible and eliminate them.”
“Yes sir.”
“To think NERV is brought low for the first time, not by the monsters seeking to end humanity, but by our fellow Man.” Vice Director Fuyutsuki said with a wry grin. “It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic…Doctor Akagi, what is the status of the Evas after our last operation?”
Ritsuko sighed and flipped to the correct page on her clipboard. “Unit 02 suffered some damage, and the localized Type-D gear needed to be scrapped, but thanks to Rei’s unprompted actions we were able to recover Unit 02, Unit 01 suffered some damage as a result but…”
=][=
Asuka Langley Soryu walked through NERV HQ with her head held high.
She’d done it, she’d proven herself.
She was now the Pilot with the second most Angel kills in the world, her record currently sitting at 1.5, one of only two people in the world with a solo kill.
Asuka had redeemed herself. In her own eyes as well as the eyes of NERV!
Sure, she hadn’t quite managed to stick the landing, needing the First…needing Rei to save her.
But that didn’t matter cause it had nothing to do with the Angel kill.
And now, now she was going to the Third, and she would force him to recognize her greatness!
He got lucky! Did he fight a fish Angel a kilometer deep in magma? No! He’d had it easy!
That big nepo baby got to fight on firm ground! With a whole city full of defenses to back him up!
He was weak and he knew it! He ‘killed’ the twin Angel? No, Rei killed the twin Angel! He was only involved!
He wasn’t all that! He’d had no right to mock her for what she thought were going to be her defiant last words! And now he’d gone and got himself shot!
Which was bad, if only for Rei’s sake. If Mr. Kaji got shot, Asuka would be…distraught. And she’d do her best to nurse him back to health.
Now, Asuka was going to go see him, hurt as he was, and her superior presence and immaculate genes, could only serve to speed up his healing.
She would also wish him a speedy recovery. Maybe get him a bottle of water.
Because she was magnanimous like that.
And for no other reason.
She prepared to announce herself, taking a deep breath as was right and proper before any loud declarations. Only to pause as she heard voices inside.
The door to the Third’s room was slightly ajar, allowing for hints of a conversation to float out and Asuka to peek in.
She could see the big oaf laying on his hospital bed, the room full of flowers, chocolates, sodas, and other get-well gifts, but what surprised her most was the head of blue hair resting on his chest as Rei lay next to him, on the side opposite where he got shot. His arm wrapped casually around her waist.
“Don’t care.” Rei murmured petulantly, hunching more tightly against the big oaf’s side.
The Third sighed exaggeratedly. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Hold me.” Rei demanded calmly.
“Besides the obvious, dummy.” Shinji said with a fond chuckle.
Asuka felt her face burn bright red. Which was patently ridiculous! She’d gotten a front-row seat to people fucking since she was five! They were cuddling! And it wasn’t even after a steamy make out session, he was too hurt from getting shot and might pop his stitches!
This was completely tame cuddling!
But if so…why did it make her chest hurt to see it? Why was her mouth suddenly dry? Why was she clenching her hands so hard so she wouldn’t reach out to grasp this thing she so desperately wanted?
Asuka turned around and stalked away, biting her lip hard enough to distract herself. Maybe she’d see what Misato was up to.
=][=
Some part of her understood that she was different.
Not just different from other people. She’d known and felt that all along. No. She was different from before Shinji came into her life.
He was involved in many of her ‘firsts.’
The first time she felt the warmth of another.
The first time she consumed something other than vitamins and hyper-condensed caloric capsules.
The first time she ate something warm.
The first time she drank a soda, it had foreign letters. She had, through some effort, learned her new favorite drink was called ‘sunny little apple.’
The first time someone risked life and limb, so she would not be the one to face such a danger.
The first time she felt joy, and pride, and happiness, and more, after being praised for a job well done. When she gave him the small piece of the Angel she’d been able to smuggle away from NERV.
The first time the fog in her mind lifted.
Considering she was still medicated, that she could feel her medications trying to turn her back into the placid little doll that Director Ikari and Doctor Akagi had, over time, turned her into. This was a more overt change, one she appreciated, but struggled to understand.
She wasn’t his doll. Nor anymore. She could choose whose doll she was, and she was not Director Ikari’s.
She could choose whose doll she was, and she had chosen Director Ikari’s far worthier son.
Director Ikari could debate, he could cajole, he could make the truth sound like a lie, and the most terrible lie ring like indisputable, self-evident truth.
Shinji was not as good with words as his father was.
He could be.
He had the same capacity to lie with the truth. To lead another by the nose until they arrived at the conclusion that served Shinji the best, and he’d make them think all the while that it was their idea.
But Shinji chose not to do that, not for anything he considered important. For those he considered important, he let his actions speak for him.
And now…now she’d almost lost him. Someone had nearly torn him away from her forever. And for both his safety and her own, she could not afford to show him that she was his.
Shinji’s father had taken an osprey to the grave of his dead wife, on the anniversary of her death.
Shinji had come too.
Shinji hurt.
He hid it well, but Rei could tell that he hurt. In the furrow of his brow, in the downward curl of his lip. He obfuscated his hurt with anger, anger he directed at his father.
They said things to each other, standing over that empty marker that pretended to be a grave.
Angry things. Hurtful things.
The son shouted them, the father murmured them.
Both of them meant the things they said.
Both of them lied.
Both of them hurt each other because they had forgotten any other way to interact.
Or, perhaps, they never learned any other way.
They parted in bad terms.
Shinji’s anger quelling for a moment as he spotted her through the canopy of the Osprey.
Director Ikari climbed onto the vehicle and instructed the pilot to leave before he was seated. He sat next to her, close enough to make her uncomfortable. Mere months ago, such proximity would have felt natural to her. A fact of life. Nothing of consequence. Unworthy of mention.
It was only until Shinji did it, that she’d finally understood what that proximity was meant to be, until he filled a yawning void that she’d been unaware of she carried within her.
Director Ikari composed himself, turned to her and with a very natural smile asked. “So, how is it going, Rei? How do you feel?”
Rei wanted to tell him to stop talking to her. To let her leave, to walk with his son so she could bask in his warmth. Revel in the touch of his callused hand. To lose herself in the baritone of his voice.
To once again feel complete, and warm, and safe.
But she couldn’t. Not without letting Director Ikari know she was no longer his doll. She could only afford short indulgences, only when going without was too painful to bear.
“No problems.” She answered, hiding the anger, the resentment, the betrayal. Hiding everything she felt. Because to do otherwise would only result in him taking a firmer stance against Shinji. “I’m going to see Doctor Akagi tomorrow, and I’ll go to school the day after that.”
“Good.”
They continued conversing, about work, about meaningless things. He in reminiscence of someone he had long ago lost. Speaking at her, not with her.
Her?
She made him think she was still his.
Because that is what was best for her Shinji.