Intentions
By: Caiman
Part 11
DISCLAIMER: I still don't own it. Sorry.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: As always, at the bottom.
Reading: "" - Denotes speaking '' - Denotes thinking || - Denotes sound effects //// - Denotes translation
Oh snap! Here comes the pain!
INTENTIONS
Ritsuko stared at her monitor intently. Before her, in three separate windows, she had developed what was perhaps the world's greatest plan for vengeance. It was so intricate, so precise, that no one could escape the maw of this beast.
Uppance was coming. Soon, all would feel the Wrath of Ritsuko.
*****
The First Child woke up to see the very familiar ceiling of the NERV infirmary, and a face not unlike her own staring back at her.
At first, she thought that she was hallucinating and that this was some sort of extension of herself looking at her as if to find something wrong within her very soul and wanted to destroy her for her weakness or to perhaps take her place like one of those pod people in those old science fiction movies with the bad acting and even more terrible writing! What sort of sick psychological joke was this? Her mind was mutinying! Soon she would be existentially tarred and feathered by some sort of demonic mind- gnome or something! Oh the terr-
"REI, LOOK AT ME."
The pale-faced girl was snapped back to reality.
"Remember me?"
Rei regarded this older copy of herself for a moment before answering. "...You're not me are you?"
Yui regarded her younger copy in much the same manner. "Kinda, yes. But not in the way you're probably thinking."
"Ah, that's a relief."
A tiny smile crept onto Yui's face as she tilted her chair back. "So, do you want to tell me why you're stalking my little Shinji?"
Rei recoiled at the question. "Wh-what?"
"Well, there has to be a reason you were crawling around in the ventilation ducts."
Rei's skin became bright red. "Well, um, you see... it's kind of hard to explain..."
"No, it really isn't. You love my son don't you?"
The First Child's heart was pounding like mad. "I... I..."
Yui brought the chair back down onto all four legs. "Rei."
The girl looked up at Yui. "Hai?"
"You don't need to put it into words when it's written all over your face."
Rei was perplexed, to say the least. "O...kay..."
"But, dear girl, you aren't the only one who's smitten with Shinji. I know why my husband was so intent on making you, but it doesn't mean the game's over."
"But, what if it's meant to be?"
Yui's smile grew larger as the last three words hit her ears. "What makes you think that anything in this world is destined? What if there is more than one 'destiny'?"
Rei was in no condition to argue philosophy with a woman who had been thinking on these topics for over a decade inside a biomechanical behemoth, but she still persisted. "There can be only one by definition."
Yui stood up and walked over to the door. "Who said? Gendo? I love him to death, but the poor bastard is too stubborn for his own good."
The female Ikari stopped at the threshold. "Don't think for a second that anything is this world is decided. No man, machine, or scripture alone can shape the future."
Rei could only sit there, speechless, as the door closed.
*****
This was the one thing Aoba hated the most about his co-workers. They always ended up over at his place.
Shigeru surveyed the scene for a moment. Over in the corner, next to his television, was a sobbing (and trash-covered) Hyuuga. And sitting at the table was a binge drinking Maya. Both were wailing about their "one and onlys," and he had two shoulders to offer his fellow bridge bunnies.
"Miiiiiiiiiiisato! I'm so sorry! Forgive me! I'm such a chiiiiiiild! Waaaaah~!"
"Sempai, why won't you love me? Whyyyyyyyyyyy? It's my hair isn't it? My horrible, horrible hairrrrr!"
Oh, how he wished for a bone saw.
But at that moment, he would've settled for something that was one hundred and eighty proof. He sighed heavily as Maya chugged another one of his precious beers. The poor girl was all over the map on her feelings for her sempai, teetering on one side or another of "Fatal Attraction" and "Single White Female." Either way, Aoba was hoping to be in another room when Ritsuko found the boiled rabbit in an LCL tank.
As for Makoto, he was a lost cause. He had been sweet on Misato since the day he first set eyes on her. Luckily, he was chronically lacking in the mental testes to try anything too drastic to win her over. The long-haired technician knew that the day his friend tried to put the moves on Misato would be followed by the month of wailing and gnashing of teeth. He'd laugh at first, but then he would be the one who would need to pick up the pieces. People were so damned inconsiderate when it came to his feelings.
Aoba's reverie was interrupted when Maya decided to vomit on his lap and pass out on the table.
He looked up at his ceiling and echoed the moral of his life. "Love is a pain in my ass."
*****
Gendo Ikari was enjoying himself immensely.
If there was one thing he had come to love about Misato's apartment, it was the strange alcohol-swilling bird that lived within. Bird and man now engaged in a battle of wits as the two stared hard at each other. A moment later, a flipper was raised and set upon the table. The creature pushed its rook into Gendo's knight.
"Damn! A fine move, Pen-Pen!"
"Wark, wark-wark!" //Thank you, Zeke.//
Meanwhile, the two teenage inhabitants of the house looked on, dumbfounded. Not only was the penguin playing chess, but it was beating the Commander.
A distressed Asuka looked over at the younger Ikari. "Pen-Pen's beating your dad."
Shinji replied without looking over at the Second Child. "I know."
"You are aware that this is the guy who holds our lives in his hands?"
"Yeah."
"And that he's being outwitted by a drunken penguin?"
"Yeah."
"Aren't you a little concerned?"
"I won't be able to sleep tonight, if that's what you're getting at."
"Checkmate! A masterful performance indeed!"
The two Children sighed.
**Title Flash **
Intentions 11: Love/Destiny
**//\\**
"That's new."
Those were the words spoken by Misato Katsuragi when she first beheld the huge construct just beyond the NERV pyramid. She was still hung over something fierce, but at that moment she was drawn stumbling to the huge, silvery pillar. There, she saw Ritsuko hard at work at an adjacent terminal.
"Hey, Ritsuko..."
The Doctor's eyes widened. Quickly she spun around to face her old friend, concealing whatever was on the terminal's screen. "Oh, hi Misato! How are you tonight?" "What are you doing out here? What's that shiny pillar thing?" 'Lie.' "Oh, this old thing? It's a, uh, secret project. Very hush-hush."
Misato's eyes narrowed. "Bullshit."
"No, seriously!"
"We have huge underground complexes for that stuff. Why the hell would you being doing something top secret out here?"
Doctor Akagi knew the jig was up, but she decided to try to come up with one last excuse. "I wanted some fresh air?"
Sadly, it wasn't a very good one.
The Major's attention focused to the terminal behind Ritsuko. She gestured toward it.
"Let me see what you've got there."
'Play dumb.' "Uh, what?"
"On the screen, Ritsuko. Let me see what's on it."
'Downplay it.' "Oh, it's nothing. Just some dat-aaaaah!"
Misato tossed her friend to the side and put her nose to the terminal's monitor. "What is 'Ritsuko's Ultimate Hellfire Revenge'? Is this some kind of erotic fan fiction?"
The blonde woman scrambled to her feet and hit the big red button on the terminal before Misato could react.
The Doctor's face twisted into an evil grin. "VILE IKARI! THOU ART FORSAKEN!"
She laughed maniacally as a pink beam of light shot up through the ceiling of the dome and into the night.
*****
The news report the next morning would report that a pink beam of energy broke through 12th Street of Tokyo-3 at 12:02 AM JST. It soared over a thousand meters into the air, and then it bent back at a thirty degree angle and struck the penthouse of NERV Commander Gendo Ikari. The apartment was totally destroyed, with damage estimated to be somewhere in the tens of millions.
*****
Kozo Fuyuutsuki hated to see a grown man cry, but was by no means against taking that man's wife out to lunch.
At first, he was shocked to hear that his former student was somehow belched forth by Unit One. But, after considering all he'd seen and done in the past, he felt that this kind of thing was par for the course and accepted it. He was, after all, in the sort of profession where you had to shrug sanity off from time to time. Otherwise, you would go crazy.
The student-teacher couple went to a sandwich shop near the smoldering ruins of Gendo's apartment, both for the excellent faire and also to be in a position to tackle the forlorn Commander should he try to scavenge the smoking wreckage.
The poor bastard had made about eight attempts to get to his former apartment, and the NERV personnel were barely able to stop him each time. First they tried locking him in his office, then in the brig, then in a strongbox they bought at an antique parlor for that very purpose. Just in case he broke free of that, Asuka was sitting right beside the box with an assault rifle trained on the lid. And aside from the occasional potshot at Rei, she was doing a fine job of it.
The day's sync tests had revealed that Unit One had gone silent. Not only did it reject Shinji, but it seemed to be in some sort of restless hibernation. Despite the efforts of the NERV staff, the purple beast refused to budge. Ritsuko, now safely imprisoned in a Plexiglas cage, was hard at work developing a method to jump start the thing using Yui as the catalyst.
It was an interesting theory, but everyone had their doubts that such a kick start would do the trick. Of course, they all also had doubts regarding Ritsuko's stability. But then again, whenever somebody proclaims that "there will be a reckoning," that person doesn't usually come off as such.
Kozo and Yui sat silent while they waited for their sandwiches, opting to look out at the busy city streets than to engage in small talk. The time they had spent together always ended up like this. Just the two of them, quietly enjoying one another's company while they took in the world around them. Nostalgia hit Fuyuutsuki hard, as he recalled the hikes they used to take before the Second Impact.
"You were thinking about those days, weren't you?"
Fuyuutsuki looked up at his former student. "Of course I was. They were always like this."
"Yes, they were."
A moment of silence, and then their sandwiches were placed before them.
"Do you think we'll ever be able to go back, Kozo?"
"I know we won't be able to if we don't try."
"So much has happened, I wonder if we'll ever know that kind of serenity again."
Kozo smiled despite himself. "Probably not."
Yui looked at her old professor quizzically. "That's a discouraging thought."
"I suppose it is."
"What do you propose then, sensei?"
"That we try to find a serenity as close to that one as possible."
Yui brought her eyes up to meet his. "I know a good idea when I hear it."
That day, over tuna salad and rye, the pair made an oath to go hiking together again.
***End Part 11***
AUTHOR'S NOTES: First off, I want to thank you guys from spamming my inbox on occasion with positive reviews. You are the reason I'm trying once again to finish this project. Even after a year of no updates, you guys still appreciate Intentions. Thank you all for your support.
Also, big kudos to Random1377 for prereading for an old friend. Always appreciated, amigo.
As for the rest of the series, I'm not saying anything. It gets me in trouble more often than not. Expect I12 soon, but not tomorrow.
Questions and comments are always welcome at [email protected]. Take out the large angry letters, and no flames.
DISCLAIMER: I still don't own it. Sorry.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: As always, at the bottom.
Reading: "" - Denotes speaking '' - Denotes thinking || - Denotes sound effects //// - Denotes translation
Oh snap! Here comes the pain!
INTENTIONS
Ritsuko stared at her monitor intently. Before her, in three separate windows, she had developed what was perhaps the world's greatest plan for vengeance. It was so intricate, so precise, that no one could escape the maw of this beast.
Uppance was coming. Soon, all would feel the Wrath of Ritsuko.
*****
The First Child woke up to see the very familiar ceiling of the NERV infirmary, and a face not unlike her own staring back at her.
At first, she thought that she was hallucinating and that this was some sort of extension of herself looking at her as if to find something wrong within her very soul and wanted to destroy her for her weakness or to perhaps take her place like one of those pod people in those old science fiction movies with the bad acting and even more terrible writing! What sort of sick psychological joke was this? Her mind was mutinying! Soon she would be existentially tarred and feathered by some sort of demonic mind- gnome or something! Oh the terr-
"REI, LOOK AT ME."
The pale-faced girl was snapped back to reality.
"Remember me?"
Rei regarded this older copy of herself for a moment before answering. "...You're not me are you?"
Yui regarded her younger copy in much the same manner. "Kinda, yes. But not in the way you're probably thinking."
"Ah, that's a relief."
A tiny smile crept onto Yui's face as she tilted her chair back. "So, do you want to tell me why you're stalking my little Shinji?"
Rei recoiled at the question. "Wh-what?"
"Well, there has to be a reason you were crawling around in the ventilation ducts."
Rei's skin became bright red. "Well, um, you see... it's kind of hard to explain..."
"No, it really isn't. You love my son don't you?"
The First Child's heart was pounding like mad. "I... I..."
Yui brought the chair back down onto all four legs. "Rei."
The girl looked up at Yui. "Hai?"
"You don't need to put it into words when it's written all over your face."
Rei was perplexed, to say the least. "O...kay..."
"But, dear girl, you aren't the only one who's smitten with Shinji. I know why my husband was so intent on making you, but it doesn't mean the game's over."
"But, what if it's meant to be?"
Yui's smile grew larger as the last three words hit her ears. "What makes you think that anything in this world is destined? What if there is more than one 'destiny'?"
Rei was in no condition to argue philosophy with a woman who had been thinking on these topics for over a decade inside a biomechanical behemoth, but she still persisted. "There can be only one by definition."
Yui stood up and walked over to the door. "Who said? Gendo? I love him to death, but the poor bastard is too stubborn for his own good."
The female Ikari stopped at the threshold. "Don't think for a second that anything is this world is decided. No man, machine, or scripture alone can shape the future."
Rei could only sit there, speechless, as the door closed.
*****
This was the one thing Aoba hated the most about his co-workers. They always ended up over at his place.
Shigeru surveyed the scene for a moment. Over in the corner, next to his television, was a sobbing (and trash-covered) Hyuuga. And sitting at the table was a binge drinking Maya. Both were wailing about their "one and onlys," and he had two shoulders to offer his fellow bridge bunnies.
"Miiiiiiiiiiisato! I'm so sorry! Forgive me! I'm such a chiiiiiiild! Waaaaah~!"
"Sempai, why won't you love me? Whyyyyyyyyyyy? It's my hair isn't it? My horrible, horrible hairrrrr!"
Oh, how he wished for a bone saw.
But at that moment, he would've settled for something that was one hundred and eighty proof. He sighed heavily as Maya chugged another one of his precious beers. The poor girl was all over the map on her feelings for her sempai, teetering on one side or another of "Fatal Attraction" and "Single White Female." Either way, Aoba was hoping to be in another room when Ritsuko found the boiled rabbit in an LCL tank.
As for Makoto, he was a lost cause. He had been sweet on Misato since the day he first set eyes on her. Luckily, he was chronically lacking in the mental testes to try anything too drastic to win her over. The long-haired technician knew that the day his friend tried to put the moves on Misato would be followed by the month of wailing and gnashing of teeth. He'd laugh at first, but then he would be the one who would need to pick up the pieces. People were so damned inconsiderate when it came to his feelings.
Aoba's reverie was interrupted when Maya decided to vomit on his lap and pass out on the table.
He looked up at his ceiling and echoed the moral of his life. "Love is a pain in my ass."
*****
Gendo Ikari was enjoying himself immensely.
If there was one thing he had come to love about Misato's apartment, it was the strange alcohol-swilling bird that lived within. Bird and man now engaged in a battle of wits as the two stared hard at each other. A moment later, a flipper was raised and set upon the table. The creature pushed its rook into Gendo's knight.
"Damn! A fine move, Pen-Pen!"
"Wark, wark-wark!" //Thank you, Zeke.//
Meanwhile, the two teenage inhabitants of the house looked on, dumbfounded. Not only was the penguin playing chess, but it was beating the Commander.
A distressed Asuka looked over at the younger Ikari. "Pen-Pen's beating your dad."
Shinji replied without looking over at the Second Child. "I know."
"You are aware that this is the guy who holds our lives in his hands?"
"Yeah."
"And that he's being outwitted by a drunken penguin?"
"Yeah."
"Aren't you a little concerned?"
"I won't be able to sleep tonight, if that's what you're getting at."
"Checkmate! A masterful performance indeed!"
The two Children sighed.
**Title Flash **
Intentions 11: Love/Destiny
**//\\**
"That's new."
Those were the words spoken by Misato Katsuragi when she first beheld the huge construct just beyond the NERV pyramid. She was still hung over something fierce, but at that moment she was drawn stumbling to the huge, silvery pillar. There, she saw Ritsuko hard at work at an adjacent terminal.
"Hey, Ritsuko..."
The Doctor's eyes widened. Quickly she spun around to face her old friend, concealing whatever was on the terminal's screen. "Oh, hi Misato! How are you tonight?" "What are you doing out here? What's that shiny pillar thing?" 'Lie.' "Oh, this old thing? It's a, uh, secret project. Very hush-hush."
Misato's eyes narrowed. "Bullshit."
"No, seriously!"
"We have huge underground complexes for that stuff. Why the hell would you being doing something top secret out here?"
Doctor Akagi knew the jig was up, but she decided to try to come up with one last excuse. "I wanted some fresh air?"
Sadly, it wasn't a very good one.
The Major's attention focused to the terminal behind Ritsuko. She gestured toward it.
"Let me see what you've got there."
'Play dumb.' "Uh, what?"
"On the screen, Ritsuko. Let me see what's on it."
'Downplay it.' "Oh, it's nothing. Just some dat-aaaaah!"
Misato tossed her friend to the side and put her nose to the terminal's monitor. "What is 'Ritsuko's Ultimate Hellfire Revenge'? Is this some kind of erotic fan fiction?"
The blonde woman scrambled to her feet and hit the big red button on the terminal before Misato could react.
The Doctor's face twisted into an evil grin. "VILE IKARI! THOU ART FORSAKEN!"
She laughed maniacally as a pink beam of light shot up through the ceiling of the dome and into the night.
*****
The news report the next morning would report that a pink beam of energy broke through 12th Street of Tokyo-3 at 12:02 AM JST. It soared over a thousand meters into the air, and then it bent back at a thirty degree angle and struck the penthouse of NERV Commander Gendo Ikari. The apartment was totally destroyed, with damage estimated to be somewhere in the tens of millions.
*****
Kozo Fuyuutsuki hated to see a grown man cry, but was by no means against taking that man's wife out to lunch.
At first, he was shocked to hear that his former student was somehow belched forth by Unit One. But, after considering all he'd seen and done in the past, he felt that this kind of thing was par for the course and accepted it. He was, after all, in the sort of profession where you had to shrug sanity off from time to time. Otherwise, you would go crazy.
The student-teacher couple went to a sandwich shop near the smoldering ruins of Gendo's apartment, both for the excellent faire and also to be in a position to tackle the forlorn Commander should he try to scavenge the smoking wreckage.
The poor bastard had made about eight attempts to get to his former apartment, and the NERV personnel were barely able to stop him each time. First they tried locking him in his office, then in the brig, then in a strongbox they bought at an antique parlor for that very purpose. Just in case he broke free of that, Asuka was sitting right beside the box with an assault rifle trained on the lid. And aside from the occasional potshot at Rei, she was doing a fine job of it.
The day's sync tests had revealed that Unit One had gone silent. Not only did it reject Shinji, but it seemed to be in some sort of restless hibernation. Despite the efforts of the NERV staff, the purple beast refused to budge. Ritsuko, now safely imprisoned in a Plexiglas cage, was hard at work developing a method to jump start the thing using Yui as the catalyst.
It was an interesting theory, but everyone had their doubts that such a kick start would do the trick. Of course, they all also had doubts regarding Ritsuko's stability. But then again, whenever somebody proclaims that "there will be a reckoning," that person doesn't usually come off as such.
Kozo and Yui sat silent while they waited for their sandwiches, opting to look out at the busy city streets than to engage in small talk. The time they had spent together always ended up like this. Just the two of them, quietly enjoying one another's company while they took in the world around them. Nostalgia hit Fuyuutsuki hard, as he recalled the hikes they used to take before the Second Impact.
"You were thinking about those days, weren't you?"
Fuyuutsuki looked up at his former student. "Of course I was. They were always like this."
"Yes, they were."
A moment of silence, and then their sandwiches were placed before them.
"Do you think we'll ever be able to go back, Kozo?"
"I know we won't be able to if we don't try."
"So much has happened, I wonder if we'll ever know that kind of serenity again."
Kozo smiled despite himself. "Probably not."
Yui looked at her old professor quizzically. "That's a discouraging thought."
"I suppose it is."
"What do you propose then, sensei?"
"That we try to find a serenity as close to that one as possible."
Yui brought her eyes up to meet his. "I know a good idea when I hear it."
That day, over tuna salad and rye, the pair made an oath to go hiking together again.
***End Part 11***
AUTHOR'S NOTES: First off, I want to thank you guys from spamming my inbox on occasion with positive reviews. You are the reason I'm trying once again to finish this project. Even after a year of no updates, you guys still appreciate Intentions. Thank you all for your support.
Also, big kudos to Random1377 for prereading for an old friend. Always appreciated, amigo.
As for the rest of the series, I'm not saying anything. It gets me in trouble more often than not. Expect I12 soon, but not tomorrow.
Questions and comments are always welcome at [email protected]. Take out the large angry letters, and no flames.