I originally had no plans on putting this up here. It was just a little idea rattling around in my head, but a bunch of people at Spacebattles liked it when I posted it, so I decided that this would make a good epilogue. Thanks to all who've read and enjoyed, because I enjoyed writing this.

NERV Alaska: Aftermath

Epilogue

The city was insane.

That was the only explanation for it. Everyone in the city was completely insane, and he was starting on a worrying train of thought that the very city itself might be as well. It was a ridiculous thought, but it was making more and more sense, which lead him to believe that maybe it was affecting him also. He hadn't noticed it too much in the beginning, but looking back he could see all the signs were there. He could see it even now as he got off of work for the evening, leaving the bar where he worked as a bouncer and occasionally as a back up bartender.

Everybody seemed too relaxed, for starters. This was a city that was regularly attacked by monsters. Why was it so relaxed? Sure, the Evangelions had a magnificent track record with dealing with the Angels, but even then he expected to see more tension, some anxiety over the next potential attack. But there really wasn't any, on the whole. The city just seemed like most any other city.

The next thing he noticed were the men hidden everywhere. The city was crawling with people sneaking around, people with training. If you didn't know what to look for you'd never notice it, but he knew where to look and what to look for.

Related to that was all the hidden surveillance equipment. He had managed to find seven cameras and five microphones during the few days he had been there, all hidden outside and in the strangest places. The weirdest had been in the park, placed in a tree near one of the benches. He'd only managed to find that one when a flock of birds took flight and rattled the branches, allowing him to see the glint of metal.

But all this craziness was exactly why Marcus had come to Tokyo-3. This was the Kingdom of Ikari, the only place on Earth where SEELE's power was not completely absolute, aside from Australia. But he wasn't going anywhere near that hell hole. Here, he could hide, keep out of sight and hope that he wasn't worth the effort it would take to kill him inside the city when SEELE eventually found out where he had gone.

It grated on him, having to leave the investigation behind. He and Lawson had only found about half the puzzle pieces. They still didn't know exactly who in SEELE was responsible for the destruction of NERV Alaska, nor did they know much about the cult under SEELE's control that had done the deed. But they were just two people, and despite what Hollywood liked to put on the silver screen two people against hundreds, if not thousands, were not going to win. So he had run.

The Ikaris likely knew he was in the city already, but they hadn't contacted him. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. If they had no more use for him then if SEELE did decide to eliminate him chances were they'd just leave him flapping in the breeze. But the other side of the coin, if they did have a use for him, meant that he wasn't in control of his own fate.

But if they did have a use for him, he might be able to find out more about Dream's death...

He growled and pushed down that thought. He could spin the angles until the end of time and it wouldn't make any difference. He didn't have the resources or the information needed to influence anything anymore, and thinking about it too much just sent him into a depression.

He went through the front door of his ratty apartment complex and made his way for the elevator, intent on getting some decent sleep for once, when two small but incredibly strong hands reached out from a ceiling vent and pulled him inside.

His first reaction was to struggle, which did absolutely nothing. Whatever was holding him was significantly stronger than he was. And then it began to move, the speed of which incredibly alarming and almost knocked the wind out of him. The grip of the... thing, because there was no way something this strong and this fast could be human, was not painful, but clearly he wasn't going to be able to free himself. So he went limp and hoped that he could avoid getting a concussion from this unpleasant and terrifying experience.

After several minutes careening through the air vents, bumping only a few times along the way, Marcus was deposited through a grate and onto the floor. It wasn't that bad of a drop, and oddly enough there were some pillows there for him to land on. It took him a few seconds to orientate himself, taking in the strange surroundings and the multiple liquid filled containers, but as soon as he cleared his head he jumped to his feet and drew his gun.

Which was promptly snatched from his fingers before he could blink.

"What the?"

"Heee~eeey now, it's kind of rude to point guns at your hosts, you know?"

Across from him, just a few feet away, was a young woman with pale, blue hair and red eyes. She was holding his gun, looking at it absentmindedly and smiling. That smile reminded Marcus of some kind of predator animal. She was dressed in some kind of strange, skin tight green outfit that hid absolutely nothing, leaving little for the imagination.

"You have good reflexes, though. Most people don't recover that fast from a trip through the vents."

It was the same voice that had said that, but it wasn't the girl across from him who had spoken. He looked up to see an identical face up in the grate. The girl pushed off and landed gracefully next to the other one. She was wearing the exact same kind of outfit.

"Ughh, commercial brand. I mean, it's alwaaa~aays a good idea to have lots of guns, but this kind of thing is way too small! It's so bland! You need something with more kick!"

"And more boom!" the other exclaimed.

"What... What are you?"

Their eyes seemed to glow, and Marcus wasn't entirely sure it was a trick of the light.

"I'm Hatchi!" said the one still holding his gun.

"And I'm Nana. Siyon reee~aally wanted to meet you, cause you do the sneaking stuff and she does the sneaking stuff, but we gots to do some serious stuff now, so she'll have to wait."

That statement did not reassure Marcus in any way, shape or form, and he briefly wondered if he could pull his secondary gun from his ankle holster before the two of them reacted. In the end he decided against it. If these girls could move as fast as he thought they could then they could take him out long before he managed to draw his weapon.

"Okay," he said evenly, trying to stay calm and only managing marginal success. He figured he'd push his luck a little and see what he could find out. "Next question. Where am I?"

"Fraid we can't tell you that."

"Yeah, cause this place is super secret, and Little Mommy would be really mad if she found out we snuck someone in here. Like, miming mad. Nobody wants to see Little Mommy miming mad."

"Fine, then why am I here?"

The smiles slipped, and both of them took on a serious, sorrowful expression. It seemed odd, on those faces. Marcus figured that these two typically didn't have much cause for feeling sadness.

"We had a friend who was really cool."

"Yeah, he helped us think up all kinds of awesome stuff that exploded!"

"But he's gone now. A few days before he went he sent us a data burst that contained a locked file, asking us not to crack it open. A few days after he died it opened up, and we got a message."

"It's for you."

They motioned toward a computer terminal, but Marcus didn't move. No, he couldn't move. Dream, they had to be talking about Dream! His thoughts raced around in confusion. Dream had left something for him? Why? Had he known something of what was going to happen? Had he known that he and Jack would have gotten involved? But then how were these people related to him?

These thoughts and more trailed through his mind, but overpowering all of them was a renewed sense of loss. This drove home, again, that one of his best friends was dead. He wanted to see his friend's final message to him, but at the same time he was too scared too move.

A gentle tugging on his hand broke him free of these thoughts. He looked down to see the one without his gun, the one who had grabbed him into the air vent, gently holding his hand and pulling. There wasn't any real force behind it, just a subtle urgency.

"Come on," she said softly.

Marcus let himself be led to the terminal and sat down. He waited for a few seconds before the screen flickered on, showing the the tired face of his friend. He was smiling a small, sad smile. The image made Marcus's breath catch. This was real, this was really happening. His friend had left him one last message before the end.

"Hello, Mark. If you're watching this then that means the worst has happened, and I am dead. You're probably really confused right now, but I'm sorry to say that I don't have all the answers. I can tell you a few things, though."

Dream ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

"Things have been really rough here, and I'm starting to think it wasn't all just an accident. There are too many coincidences, and they're starting to form a pattern. I'm not sure what that pattern is just yet, but I know there is a will behind it. If you're watching this, then you've gotten involved and looked into why I died. Jack's probably been helping you, as well."

The man smiled, and this time it was filled with genuine warmth. It took Marcus a second to remember how to breathe. It had been a long time since he had seen his friend's face, seen him talk instead of just listening over a telephone. But he knew that this wasn't his friend, not really, and he felt a coldness in his chest. It all just reminded him, with no mission or goal to distract him, that his friend was gone.

"That's good. I've always been sad that you two ended your friendship on such bad terms, so I hope you two have gotten past some of your issues. I've always felt that if you two could just talk to each other again, depend on each other for a while, that you'd get over the events that drove you apart. I hope this is the case.

"If you're involved, then no doubt you've managed to uncover a lot of the bigger picture. But if I'm right, then the adversary you're dealing with is huge, powerful beyond belief. You must have figured that out too, if you've come to Tokyo-3. You've always gone the subtle way with things, Marcus, and that's good. Everybody needs something to ground them, and you were our anchor back in college. But sometimes, Mark, the time for subtlety ends. This is for those times."

There was a hissing noise. Marcus looked to the side and saw the wall opening up. His jaw dropped as he saw the contents within.

"You always did prefer the marines in those games we used to play," Dream said with a grin.

Inside was a huge, robotic thing resembling some kind of armor. Its arms were thicker than Marcus's legs, and its legs were almost as thick as his waist. It was easily over seven feet tall, thickly armored and painted blue. It had a helmet with two red, synthetic eyes and a mouth that looked like some kind of breathing apparatus. On its thickly armored chest were two small lights embedded into the metal, and its back had some kind of pack with what looked like small, round rockets on the sides. It's hands were too huge for anything human to fit into them, completely robotic with no space inside for anything and proportioned to the size of the rest of the armor. And finally, on its shoulders, were huge shoulder guards that made the thing even more imposing, if that was even possible.

"I present the Mondschein Mark 4 Tactical Battle Armor! I've always played around with the idea, but there've always been other things to do and to be frank, my initial designs weren't worth much. But I've spent a lot of my free time working on this, my fourth design, and it's really shown through. It has its own internal power, rocket assisted jumping capability, and can take anything ground forces can throw at it without flinching! Well, besides rockets or tanks, of course. But it'll shrug off small arms fire like it isn't even there, and you can flip over a car with it. I sent this message, and the designs, to my two friends here and asked them to build it for you. I asked them not to alter anything too much, and for the most part I think they will have done so. They're really very nice young ladies, just a little eccentric is all."

Dream leaned forward, his face filling the screen.

"This is for you, Mark, when the time for subtlety is done and you're out of options. I may be gone, but I'll be damned if I let a little thing like that prevent me from helping you when you need it! When the time comes, use the armor."

Dream leaned back, resting his hands on the desk he was recording from.

"Good luck, buddy."

The image faded out, and Marcus noticed a dampness on his cheeks. He brushed away the tears quickly, but the feeling remained. His friend had thought of him in those final days, thought of what he might do and the trouble he might get in to. Marcus couldn't describe how he felt, not really. He was sad, yet he was also incredibly touched. The two mixed together into something very strange and unusual for him.

He got up and examined the armor. The thing truly was a monster, and Marcus had to wonder at what point such a thing would really be necessary. Then he remembered that girl back in Canada that had almost killed him so casually. Yes, he could see uses for such a thing, but it had to be used carefully. Going off on a rampage in it would be pointless, and even worse it would be dangerous.

He had completely forgotten the two girls who had brought him here, but they hadn't forgotten him. Marcus was reminded he wasn't alone when he felt a strong, demanding pull on his arm that almost took him off his feet.

"Come on! We want to show you the weapons we made for it!"

Marcus gave a nervous, and only slightly forced, smile and let the girls lead him around this strange place that was apparently their home and came back to what he had been thinking back before his abduction. Yes, Tokyo-3 was completely insane. But you know, that wasn't such a bad thing, in the end.

I've always loved the idea of powered armor. It's always been such a neat concept to me, and I love that we're getting closer to that in real life. The thing that sparked this little drabble was a Starcraft 2 trailer. The armor for Marcus is like a mix of Warhammer 40K Space Marine and Starcraft Terran Marine armor. I keep getting this awesome image in my head of Marcus in the armor duking it out with Emil who's wearing his own twelve-foot power armor that looks something like the Iron Monger armor from Iron Man.

So, I hope you enjoyed it. It was fun to write.