By E-Type.
Herein lies the Disclaimer. I don't own any of the characters portrayed in this story, I just borrowed them for a little while. Their respective owners can have them back when I'm done. No money is going to be made off of this anyway. Also, this story idea was found at http://ranko.anifics.com. It is listed under the The Dead Fiance. Everything other than the idea is written by me.
Chapter 3
"That's big," Ranma stated. He stood at the entrance to NERV, though this was only upper NERV. He gazed up at the immense structure, feeling a bit of awed. The building extended at least twice as high as the next tallest structure in the city. About a third of that was what look like a huge antenna, three interconnected poles arranged in a triangle a thousand feet tall. Ranma had no idea what they could be for, but it was geometrically pleasant enough to look at, at least compared to the rest of the building's in Tokyo 3.
"Yes, the NERV buildings scattered throughout the earth are the tallest buildings in history," Ranma's girlfriend stated.
Ranma looked back down at the entrance. "This isn't the way you usually come in, is it?" Ranma asked.
Rei shook her head no. "I usually use one of the pilots entrances scattered around, but since I was bringing you I thought I would give you the quick tour of the place before you meet everybody."
"So are you going to tell me what's actually going on, or what the pamphlets say?"
Rei remained silent, her gaze telling him that wasn't something she appreciated having shoved in her face. Ranma sighed. "Sorry Rei-chan, I just don't like not knowing the truth."
Rei nodded in understanding. She felt the same way, though being in the pseudo-militaristic NERV made things difficult. One of the reasons for her to be glad of who she was, but no matter how frustrated she might have gotten didn't make up for how much pain and suffering she had been through. Dying even just once was a terrible ordeal.
The blue-haired girl relaxed a bit when her fiance's arm slid around her shoulders and hugged her tight. His concern filled eyes looked into her red orbs, silently asking for permission to comfort her.
Knowing where she was at that she was being watched, Rei allowed the hug but nothing more. For now. "We need to start the tour," She said in her working voice, devoid of emotion.
Ranma nodded, refusing to remove is arm as the two stepped through the huge glass entrance, and very thankful that Rei didn't seem the least bit inclined to have him stop touching her. A glance up revealed just how thick the glass was, and behind that were recessed plates of some strong looking metal over a foot thick. Obviously designed to be able to slam down quickly to prevent something or someone from gaining entrance. Given it's the front entrance, Ranma doubted they would ever be used unless NERV wanted to prevent somebody from leaving, rather than entering.
After the massive lobby, stone and intricate carving being the main theme, several doorways dotted the main hallway, which then branched off to either side and continued on as one got farther and farther into the bowels of the complex. Down the right branch was obviously where the main business part of NERV was, as a security station looking like it had been ripped right from an airport checked bags and people as they proceeded through. This was where the majority of people were going, most of them looking like office workers, scientists, a few lawyers, the sort of people needed to keep NERV running at the forefront of military, medical and recreational technology.
Rei and her boyfriend went to the left, where the massive hallway tapered down a bit to end with a very sturdy looking wall, housing a massive door which was currently closed. Several viewing portals were spaced along the wall with slots beneath for weapons to slide (or fire) through, and two massive men with automatic rifles stood to either side of the door, eyeing them suspiciously, even though they were sure to know Rei Ayanami on sight, and probably knew who Ranma was by now thanks to the headsets whispering information in their ears. A third sat behind a little window in the wall just beside the door that Ranma assumed controlled when it was opened.
Rei stopped right before the door, not even looking at the huge men. "Rei Ayanami," She stated softly.
Ranma had been staring the three men down, so only just now noticed the small grille with three blinking red lights on it that his Rei-chan had been speaking into. The first of the blinking lights turned green after her voice was matched. The grill slid down to reveal a ten key pad.
Ranma was expecting a six or maybe eight digit code. He was rather startled when Rei started hitting buttons as fast as she could. Nobody else without a high-speed camera had a chance of following her movements. 75 numbers later the second light started blinking green.
A slot to the side of the keypad opened and a transparent red sheet of something slid out. Ranma's beloved stabbed it with her fingers, the flimsy looking substance stretching and molding itself to her hand perfectly until Rei had her hand even with the frame holding the stuff. A seconds pause and she removed her hand. The material took several more seconds for it to flatten itself out again, at which point it slid back into the wall. Another moment and the final blinking red light changed to green.
Wondering why the lights were still blinking Ranma looked at the huge men on either side of them. They both had little security wands out like the one's he had seen airport's use many times. It looked like they were going to do a final physical check before admitting them. As long as the goons kept their hands off his girl he would go along with it, as he knew these type's of things had to be done or the higher ups got pissed. He was trying to avoid doing that, at least until he met them face to face.
The wands passed over the both of them, though they stayed a good foot away from their skin, preventing any possible contact with either one of them. Ranma was very happy for that; he didn't have to waste time beating the guards down.
The two guards outside were now stone faced as they performed their duty, doing remarkably good impressions of a normal Rei. The one behind the little window was still eyeing them suspiciously, as he figured he could get away with it from the safe confines of his protective booth.
Rei turned her head to the side slightly, her red eyes boring into the guards as she willed him to open the doors already instead of making his companions do a completely fruitless search of her and her fiance. Being the dick that he is, the guard stared her down and refused to open the door until absolutely necessary.
Rei's eyes started glowing softly as she revealed to him the unspeakable evil contained within her. The guard pissed his pants and jammed his finger onto the open button so hard he broke both, too scared to even notice. The two still scanning were a bit surprised at this, but quickly put their equipment away and stood aside, allowing Ranma and Rei clear passage through the dark and foreboding doorway.
Rei walked right through, seeming not to notice how much effort had gone into making the entryway as intimidating as possible. A quick glance at Ranma, who's arm was still around her shoulders, revealed that she was aware, just far too used to it for it to have an effect on her. She was curious about his reaction to it, though.
She barely contained a blush as she discovered Ranma was staring at her, love and affection clearly shining in his blue eyes. He coughed and turned away quickly once he realized he had been caught staring, managing to do a pretty good job of hiding his embarrassment. He turned back, excuse ready when he saw Rei looking at him the same way he had been looking at her a few seconds ago. Overcome with self conscious happiness he pushed everything else from his mind and swept her up into a kiss.
The guard in his booth pissed his pants again. He was SO glad he hadn't tried messing with Ms. Ayanami's boyfriend. If the guy could kiss a girl who had THAT much evil in her gaze the guard didn't want to think of what he would do if he was just a little annoyed, let alone mad.
The absurdly thick door swung shut behind them, the previously subdued lighting coming back up to regular as the lock activated. Now Ranma knew why he hadn't been able to see anything through the doorway until now. Not that it had anything to do with him being distracted by his Rei-chan, oh no.
Rei had an inkling of what her boyfriend was thinking. She wanted to know for sure so she gave him a tap with her elbow. He looked at her to see a blue eyebrow shoot up her forehead. Ranma leaned over and kissed her cheek. Rei continued to stare at him, knowing how cute he thought she looked while doing this.
He finally told her. "I'd have thought they might put some of this stuff farther down, closer to where everything is actually going on."
Rei blinked in shock. How had he known that's where the real experiment's were being held?
Ranma laughed at her, causing the red-eyed girl to pout cutely. "Don't you watch any movies?" Ranma asked. "Everybody knows the good stuff is in the basement, or the center of the complex or whatever."
Rei tilted her head to the side. "I stopped watching movie's after we were separated. The memories hurt too much, especially as I was being prevented from seeking your presence again." She paused a moment before changing the subject completely, not giving Ranma a chance to ask more about her treatment at NERV. "The visible defenses are at the entrance. The more lethal one's are hidden."
It was Ranma's eyebrow that shot up this time. "More deadly than guys carrying machine guns?"
Ayanami nodded. "Those men can be killed very easily, as you yourself know. Other countermeasure's employed here are much harder to take out."
Ranma spent a moment reflecting on just how easy it would have been to take the guards out, either by killing them or just knocking them out. He would have had to act quickly, but he knew he could have taken them down before they saw he had moved.
"And those other countermeasures would be...?" Ranma asked.
"I can't tell you," Rei said tonelessly. "It's classified."
Ranma sighed and continued walking down the hallway. There were much more secure looking doors than outside the secured area lining it. And none of them said what they did. Only their names. It was strange. If somebody knew the position of who they wanted to take out, he would have thought getting their name would be easy. Maybe NERV ran things a bit differently than most places. Though he guessed that should have been obvious from the start.
The two proceeded some ways down the corridor, with no end in sight, when a somewhat smaller hallway split off of that. Rei, still with Ranma's arm comfortably around her shoulders, tugged them off the straight path and to this new one. Only a few steps into it Ranma realized that he was walking into a massive elevator, not a hallway.
Rei let a smile play across her face as she saw how startled her beloved was. It wasn't easy to do that, never had been, and she cherished each time she brought it out in him. "I don't even know why they made it this big, love," Rei whispered in his ear, having pulled him close as the massive doors closed behind them. "They've never moved anything down there this way that could possibly warrant it's construction."
Ranma nodded. "So they have another entrance that they normally use to get machinery down there."
Rei blinked. "That's not what I meant to imply."
Ranma grinned. "I'm right, though."
Rei continued to stare at him. Ranma's hand tangled in her blue hair, nodding her head for her. Rei glared. Ranma laughed.
"C'mon honey, I'm right and you can at least nod your head when secrets are already out in the open."
The head shaking turned into combing, the pigtailed martial artist running his fingers lovingly through his girl's silky locks. Rei purred. It felt so good when he did that! If she had a brush on her she would have whipped it out and handed it to him. That was the only thing that felt better, though she loved the feel of his fingertips on her scalp as well.
The two of them hardly even noticed the jolts the elevator went through as it descended, as the thing didn't just go straight down, it also went at a diagonal. Several minutes passed before Ranma realized something.
"Just how far are we going down? We've been moving at a pretty good clip for a while now," he inquired of his fiance.
Rei shrugged. "I never bothered to find out just how far down we are. I just know this elevator shaft is 2500 feet long, and it doesn't go to the bottom of NERV, but to the middle."
"Heh, no wonder you kept mentioning the top wasn't very much. I wonder what in the world they need all that space for?"
"Some of it is generator's that the city runs on." Rei admitted, grateful that this was common knowledge.
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "NERV is supplying the city's electricity just because it has that many generators? Sounds kind of odd."
"No, they do it because the generator's must be running most all the time to remain in good condition, and there would be no way for all that power to simply be turned into heat to dissipate naturally. So a deal with the city was struck, allowing them to hold their own plants at minimum output until such time as NERV needs all that juice and redirects it."
Ranma had to admit that made sense. When in need of a lot of power briefly, what are you going to do with it while not in use? Let somebody else lease it.
"So what's all the rest of it?" Ranma asked.
"Cruises quarters, meeting rooms, storage, my facilities take up a rather large section, the designers all live down here, the cooking and maintenance area is massive." Rei paused as she thought about it some, having obviously loosened up since they were alone while the elevator descended. Ranma wondered if they might have been able to speed up the trip had the designers not made it so overly large.
"Another very large part of it is the computer system. There are so many different type's for all the different research going on down here that a cooling system for the room vented directly to a shaft topside had to be installed. There have been so many attempted break-in's at that point it's ludicrous. Something that obvious will be guarded even better than the main entrance."
Ranma smiled, thinking back on a few of the places that he had managed to get in and out of for various reasons. "I don't know, I'm sure something in here isn't idiot proof."
Rei snorted, a distinctly unladylike noise. "Oh, idiots have gotten in here before. It's just once they accomplish that they usually aren't competent enough to make it back out again once they've triggered whatever it was they were trying to do."
Ranma chuckled. "And this is probably the most expensive security system ever devised, isn't it."
Rei nodded, snuggling in closer to her love. The elevator seemed to be going a little slower today. Rei assumed that a lot of stuff was happening and other elevators were using the shafts as well, thus making them slow down as the other cars intersected each other and the computer changed speeds to slot them together without colliding.
Rei knew the system was going to get hacked at some point, the setup was just too convenient for somebody not to try and use it for an assassination. Ayanami hadn't a clue as to why they had designed it as such, given NERV had the resources and space to build individual elevators for their every need. Obviously somebody had been wanting to show off their new elevator design, and somebody else at NERV had thought it would be cool, or politically advantageous, or something stupid like that to get the system approved.
"What are you thinking about, Rei-chan?" Ranma whispered in her ear.
Rei nearly jumped out of her skin, but was kept from doing so because she was in a rather close embrace with her boyfriend. Ranma almost got smacked in the face by the top of her blue head, though. "Um, sorry you got bored honey," Ranma muttered, though he was trying very hard to keep from laughing. That had been such a cute expression on her face when he had startled her!
Rei knew he had found something else about her that was cute, something she knew would annoy her but he would keep trying to pull off because it made him want to give her a big hug.
"If you're going to be a statue and then start whispering in my ear, make sure you give me a kiss first as warning," Rei told her Ranma.
The pigtailed martial artist leaned down and gave her a big wet one. Rei lost herself in the kiss. When the couple had finally returned to normal Rei managed to get her breath back and correct his mistake. "I meant a kiss on the cheek. Like this." Rei leaned up and brushed her lips against his cheek.
"Not like this." The blue-head wrapped her fingers in her beloved's hair and yanked him back down for another heart stopping kiss.
The elevator slowed noticeably, as if coming to the end of it's run. Rei reluctantly broke off her liplock. Releasing her arms from around Ranma, she grabbed his, the one that had been around her shoulder and was currently rubbing her back (and getting dangerously close to her derriere), and placed it firmly back around her shoulder, giving his hand a tender squeeze before dropping her hands to her sides and slipping on her work face.
Ranma was a bit startled by the change. He had seen her go into it before, and had been the one every time to get her out of it again, but he had never been hugging her like this when she turned frigid. It was scary!
Maya looked up from her control board. "Rei has arrived," She informed the room.
Gendo, sitting at his desk at the back of the control room, didn't make a sound. Ritsuko, Misato, and the rest of the bridge crew turned to face Maya and confirm. "It's about time," Misato grumbled.
Ritsuko let a smile cross her face. "Just because she doesn't come when you call her like Shinji doesn't mean you have to get so cranky when you have to wait a little while."
Misato scowled at her longtime friend. "That's not what I meant and you know it."
Ritsuko smirked. "Do you know what I was talking about?"
Misato turned away, hoping nobody would notice the huge blush on her cheeks. How Ritsuko knew she had no idea. That information was for her and Asuka to sort out, not for gossip among the bridge bunny's. She hoped, at least. She wasn't sure what Shinji would do if people started teasing him about having two girlfriends. She and Asuka had spent so much time getting him up to normal they would hate to see all their efforts dashed by a few harsh comments from the wrong person.
Indeed, from the way Ritsuko was smirking, Misato thought she might just have to corner the good doctor in her office some night and make sure she knows that such things are very personal, and not to be used in public teasing. Ritsuko read the look her college roommate was giving her and wisely backed down, for the moment at least.
Misato turned to Maya. "Is she coming in from the briefing room or up here?" She asked, gesturing at the rather expansive upper level that housed all the workstations for the bridge bunnies, overlooked the MAGI computers and the wall of monitors and displays of IMAX proportions.
"Ah, up here," Maya said after checking her board again.
Misato nodded and turned to face the door they would be coming through. She crossed her arms under her breasts and stood on one foot, unconsciously showing off her body in the tight black dress she was wearing. Her jacket wasn't any help in concealing her cleavage, as it hung open, her NERV id dangling from it's collar. Ritsuko looked at the operations director and smirked, thinking that maybe that wasn't such a bad idea. If Rei's boyfriend could be caught a little off guard, he should be much easier to read. Having a wall of beautiful women confront him instead of ornery old military men was always enough to throw people at least a little off.
Including herself in that general grouping of 'beautiful women', Ritsuko leaned back against a section of Ms. Ibuki's workstation, it being the perfect height for her to sit upon it's edge and hike up her skirt a bit, crossing her long legs, letting her lab coat open a bit and reveal the form fitting black skirt and blue blouse underneath. A whispered word in Maya's ear convinced the young women to lean a little farther back from her desk, showing just how short the regulation uniform's skirt was, and that Maya looked very sexy in her black stockings. Maya did her best to contain her blush, not having ever considered doing something like this to throw somebody off. Especially being apart of the 'beautiful women' of NERV bit.
"Where's Asuka?" Ritsuko asked in general.
"She's down in the pilots training room with Shinji," Misato grumbled, wishing she was with them. Everyone on the bridge knew of what was occurring between the late twenty something woman and her two younger charges, but they had all seen the video of them together and knew that it was far more than just lust going on between the three. While it was obvious Asuka and Misato would prefer to have Shinji all to themselves, as long as he expressed his love for both of them the two girls would tolerate each other. Especially after they found out that marriage law hadn't been some practical joke.
While still scandalous, it was obvious that the teens were getting to the age to make their own decisions, same as Rei was, but now it wasn't considered completely illegal for Misato to kiss Shinji. Thus all had kept quiet about what had been witnessed by cameras.
A light blinked on above the door and let off a soft ping, signifying that it was about to open. The girls properly arranged, minus Asuka, gave themselves a final inspection before turning their full attention to the door. Makoto and Hiyuba, the two male bridge bunnies, tried their best to keep from gawking at their coworkers.
It swished open with the same mechanical hum that all the powered doors in lower NERV had, revealing a normal looking Rei, her face completely devoid of any expression. But this time she sported a hunk at her side. While all those on the bridge had a vague idea of what Ranma looked like, having seen the spy photos of him from when Rei first met him, nobody was entirely sure of his exact looks now that he had grown up. The spy photos weren't of the best quality as they had been taken at extreme range, the young martial artist having an uncanny ability to avoid their best visual trackers seemingly at will.
A new spy photo hadn't been gotten, since the best cameras in the world would be photographing him as soon as he stepped within NERV's halls, a fact that Rei had made clear was to happen as soon as she returned to work from her brief leave to track her fiance down. While Gendo would have wanted the information already on the pigtailed martial artist so as to fit it into his plans, he knew that whatever the circumstances about him would be, the young man would have no bearing on the outcome of his scenario. Only the pilots mattered, and Gendo refused to believe that a mistake had been made by himself or his colleagues, most of whom were dead now. Misato just wanted to know what Rei's man looked like. She didn't want to compare him to Shinji, no, not at all.
The moment of stunned silence continued as Ranma stepped into the room, his arm possessively around his now emotionless-to-all-except-him Rei-chan. Those watching were stunned that Ayanami seemed to be completely at ease with the arm of the hunk around her (who everyone assumed was Ranma), yet still maintain her frozen emotions.
Rei and Ranma stood there for a second, just inside the doorway staring back at the main bridge crew. Ranma idly noted how all the women seemed to be in a perfect position to have something on display and wondered if they did that kind of thing often.
Rei's shoulders tensed ever so slightly. From her reaction Ranma knew that it was something the women did fairly often then, and he shouldn't worry about it. He gave her a squeeze of reassurance and was gratified to see her relax just a bit, though he knew nobody else had read her. The two groups stared at each other for a short infinity before Misato broke the silence.
"So this is Rei's boytoy, hmm?"
While not the most politically correct statement, it got people to come out of their self imposed staring contest, which is what Misato had intended. The only one who didn't react was Gendo, who's eyebrow might have twitched, but even the security cameras were unsure. Everybody in the room could see Rei's gaze shift from nowhere in particular to Misato, piercing her with those cold red eyes, somehow darker now, lifeless and uncaring, like dried blood.
Rei's soft voice rang out piercingly in the dead quiet of the command deck, even the computers seeming to have gone silent upon Ayanami activating her glare. "Ranma Saotome is not a 'boy toy', Ms. Katsuragi. He is my fiance, and unlike any relationships you might have been in, this is based on friendship and love, not lust and desire."
Misato looked like she was a second away from a memorable vocal outburst when Rei continued. "And unlike Mr. Ryoji I am reunited with my lost lover with joy and understanding. Mr. Ryoji went after Ms. Ibuki, although failing. Then he returned to you."
Misato's face had gone purple, matching her hair remarkably well, and most on the bridge were completely unsure of what to make of that. Rei hadn't ever spoken like that to anyone. As such, nobody was really sure of how to deal with the problem, especially because of how important the girl was to NERV and humanity, for the pivotal role she played in the upcoming angel battles.
"Of course, by that time you had your own replacement," She finished. Misato calmed noticeably, as thinking of Shinji always had that affect on the purple-haired woman. Rei knew this, which is why she had spoken her words in that order.
Gendo spoke before Misato could respond, much to everyone's surprise. "NERV will still be your top priority, Rei. You know why I let you find him in the first place, don't make it so he has to be lost again."
The command deck froze again, though this time it was in outright terror. While all those high up enough in NERV knew that Rei wasn't entirely human, or she would have no chance of doing what she did, almost none of them had actually seen the blue-head do her thing. Rei did her job in a sealed off room that was one of the only places in all of NERV, or Tokyo 3 for that matter, that wasn't visually monitored. One of the reasons for this was Rei could blow any camera out they placed in there, and there really was no point in keeping an eye on her, since nobody could get in or out once the only door was sealed for an operation.
Now they were confronted with an angel in their midst at full song. Her eyes were ablaze, a bright red glow giving them a depth never before possible. And the only thing they showed was anger. A halo of energy had appeared around the girl, bathing everything around her in red light that was entirely impossible. Even given Rei's unearthly appearance, the thing that really threw the NERV personal was Ranma. He stood calmly beside his girlfriend, arm still round her shoulders, completely at ease with the way the red energy arced up and down his body where it was closest to the glowing blue-haired girl.
Ritsuko and Maya turned to their displays, fingers flying across the keys to gather and record as much data as possible in the shortest time. Their mouths opened in shock at identical moments, their expressions comical.
Misato had already analyzed the situation despite her anger and fear, showing why she was chief tactician for NERV. She knew Rei at least respected her as her boss, but she had an inkling that the feelings were a little deeper than that, almost older sisterly. While she hadn't done much for the girl to get that type of a relationship out of her, it was plausible since nobody else had done ANYTHING for her. Adding to that was the fact the blue-haired girl's boyfriend was obviously not worried about what he was standing beside. If he wasn't worried, than she was confident Rei wasn't planning on doing anything more than scare people. Misato freely admitted to herself that the young woman was doing a remarkable job of that, though.
Gendo did his best to contain his reaction, but seeing the young woman all lit up for the first time, in person, was too much. A gasp escaped his lips, the only uncontrolled reaction he'd had in public since he had taken command of NERV all those years ago. While spectacular and impossible sights were far too normal for Gendo Ikari, he had never once had such an event directed solely at him. He really, really wished that trend had continued. If Rei glared at him any harder he would probably spontaneously combust. The disturbing thing about that thought was, with Rei's glare, that outcome was entirely possible.
"That is one of the reasons why I have come here today with Saotome-san," Rei said, her voice not any louder than normal, but it somehow filled the entire room, making the hair on the back of the neck stand up from the power contained within her soft feminine voice.
"Upon reacquainting myself with Ranma I have discovered that I hold nothing more dear to me than his love. NERV is in second place, behind my fiance. Do not try to tell me otherwise, or I will show you the foley of putting all your power and resources into that which you have no control over."
"Me."
This was the cause of Gendo's second public display of emotion. A strangled gasp came from between the thin line his lips had compressed into, punctuated a moment later by a soft comment of Foyuske's, made audible by the complete silence that still reigned over the bridge. "Told you so," The elder man mumbled blandly.
Ikari didn't even hear the comment, his mind raging with a thousand conflicting thoughts all being shouted at maximum volume. Some said to kill Rei and show her just who was in control, another said make sure all the data on Saotome was accurate before starting a war with the young man, as Gendo might not come out on top; another said to grin and give his blessing to the couples immediate wedding. That one he squashed into a fine paste as fast and hard as he could. There would be NO wedding until all the angels were defeated and he had achieved his plans, NERV didn't need the kind of publicity that would follow the marriage of a pilot, especially not with the first angels due soon.
One thought came to the surface, shining above all others in its obviousness. Patience. Gendo had all the resources, he held all the cards except one, he was in control. There would be no way that control could be wrested from him before his goals were realized, he had made sure of that.
The only question now was what to do with the annoyance known as Ranma Saotome? Since Rei would obviously not 'let' him go back to were ever she had dug him out of he would need a place to stay. Should he leave him for Misato to deal with and laugh at the trouble she would get in with both his own son and the Second Child? Assign him to Ritsuko and see how badly she would handle things? Direct Maya to take them on and see how far the newest member of the team is willing to go to be accepted? Or maybe... his thoughts are interrupted by the soon to be Mrs. Saotome's words.
"Saotome-san and I have already arranged for living quarters well within the accepted distance from NERV, you have no need to try and assimilate him. We shall be living as one." The glow had slowly decreased from around Rei's form, though she was still giving the room a distinctly red hue. "I must work today. We shall be in my cell should you need to contact me."
So saying Rei and Ranma turned and exited the bridge. Everyone there glanced at each other for a long minute before anybody spoke. Surprisingly it was Maya. "That didn't go at all how I expected it," She mumbled, it having been intended as a private comment.
Misato and Ritsuko snorted. "You can say that again," They both said, proving that they had known each other for far too long.
Maya blushed upon realizing she had spoken her thoughts, not having wanted to offend anybody.
Gendo directed such a glare at Fyuske that he gulped in trepidation. Ikari indicated to meet him in his private office before stiffly walking out of the room, not even bothering to tell anybody what to do upon his exit.
Misato and Ritsuko turned to each other, the former smirking. After a minute of staring the blonde scientist sighed and, reaching into her pocket, pulled out a 1000 yen and handed it over to the purple haired girl. The bridge bunny's blinked in shock, their mouths dropping open. The two had made a BET on Rei's reaction to what they knew Gendo would say?
Maya barely managed to stifle a giggle as she held her hand out as well. Ritsuko gave her a glare of death, reluctantly pulling forth another 1000 yen to drop into the smaller woman's hand. The rest of the bridge wacked themselves on the head for not thinking of doing that as well, most of them second guessing what they would have picked and thinking they would have won.
Ritsuko turned to leave, pausing for a moment to say, "I'm going down to check on the capacitors," before disappearing.
Misato giggled in delight as she tucked the bill into her cleavage, her current clothing having no pockets, showing the brilliance of clothes designers once again. Her giggle seemed a little forced, for indeed it was. Not everyday did one stare down a pissed of angel and live to tell about it. Misato's knees were still a bit wobbly.
"I'm going to the training chambers to tell the pilots about the new guy," Misato said, she having already guessed that this Ranma guy would start working for NERV at some point, doing something, simply because that's where his girlfriend spent almost all of her time.
She was gone before anybody had a chance to remind her that the days practice was pretty much over, and they would be heading up to meet her in a matter of minutes.
Ranma walked along next to his Rei-chan looking like calmness personified. Rei was the only one that knew how nervous he was about saying something wrong and getting her mad at him. Rei made sure they were in a safe spot in one of the side corridors before spinning around and glomping onto the pigtailed martial artist.
Ranma returned the embrace, glad that she was reverting back to being his girlfriend. Remembering the last thing that she had said before they left Ranma decided to ask about it.
"What was that bit about us going to a cell, anyway?" He asked softly, not wanting to startle her with sudden noise, given how quiet the hallway was, apart from their beating hearts.
Rei pulled her face from her boyfriend's chest, not wanting her voice to be muffled. "It's where I do my work. I call it a cell, since nobody can get in or out unless I want them to."
Ranma blinked, his hands rubbing her back. "What do you do in there?"
Rei opened her mouth to respond, froze, and shut it again.
"You can't tell me, can you."
Ayanami shook her head side to side.
"And now you're worried because you almost told me, whereas before you wouldn't have even opened your mouth before saying it's classified."
Rei's eyes widened in surprise as she nodded.
"So that tells me I should get hired here as your partner so you don't have to keep secrets from me anymore."
Rei shook her head 'NO!'.
"Why not?" He asked, surprised at her vehement reaction.
"Because Commander Ikari would have to hire you, or at least approve you before that could happen. Since the requirements for becoming a pilot are pretty much whatever the commanders feel like, there's no telling what might happen to you. I don't want to risk it, especially as I'll be able to tell you anything you want to know if you've already seen the equipment. I'm sure you could think of a way to get a glimpse."
Ranma grinned at her deviousness, something that he knew she wouldn't have done when he first met her. Ahh, the power of love.
Rei paused a long moment in thought even as they walked through many an identical corridor, though somehow Ranma got the feeling the security was increasing, despite the lack of any visual indicators.
"I do not know if you will be able to stay once I have to use my powers, though. We have no idea how much it affects a human body, and I don't want to find out with yours," Rei said.
"All this equipment in here and you don't know how it affects the human body?" Ranma asked in disbelief.
Rei nodded. "I have yet to show off how much better control I have of my powers. Before I met you I needed my cell or I might have wiped out the entire facility. Now I use that much power because it feels good to release it," she paused a long moment before admitting the real reason, "and it looks impressive."
"So, why don't you start now?" Ranma wanted to know.
Rei shook her head again. "I don't know, but my gut is telling me to keep the truth hidden for a little longer."
"So, doesn't that mean you just let the secret out?" Ranma asked, jerking his head at the walls, for he knew these had ears, unlike the earlier corridor.
Rei let a smile grace her lips, lighting up her face and making Ranma forget himself for a moment. "Because they can't hear what we're saying."
Ranma stared hard at his girlfriend for a moment before laughing out loud. "I see it now! I can't believe I missed it before. How did you come up with this one? I know it wasn't something we did together back then."
Rei shrugged depreciatingly, a hint of a blush on her cheeks from her Ranchan's praise. "I picked it up from a book that I was reading, stating that since sound requires air to travel, I figured if I could stop air no sound would get through. I was right."
Ranma nodded in agreement as he stared at the slight distortion that was the thin wall of frozen air. Basically a thin layer of vacuum, yet the air did not leave, simply stopped conducting sound.
It was a similar principle to his own vacuum blades, only they were used as a destructive projectile, while Rei's technique was for privacy. He wondered how much effort it took for her to pull it off. While well aware that he himself would never have the same amount of total power as his fiance, Ranma figured himself strong enough to do some of the things that she could. Eventually he hoped to be able to do all of them.
A few minutes of silence followed, the pair of them just walking together wrapped up in their own thoughts. Finally they arrived at a HUGE blast door. It was already open and it looked to be a good 15 feet thick of something that looked stronger than any metal he had heard of. There were huge 10 foot high barrels on either side of the door, lining the entire chamber the same distance apart as the width of the door.
Ranma glanced at Rei, wondering what in the world was kept in here. Before he could ask the question he got his answer.
"This is as small as they could make the door and still have it thick enough to withstand the pressures it's subjected to. I would prefer a much smaller chamber myself, but since they don't have anything that will work, I make do."
Rei turned to her boyfriend and went up on her tiptoes, kissing him softy. "I must enter. See you in a bit, love."
"You'll tell me what all you do in here once I get in, right?" Ranma asked.
"Of course," Rei said over her shoulder as she walked into the room.
Ranma kept his eyes on her, flicking between her soft hair, to her slender waist, to her shapely rear, to her perfect legs and back up again until the door finally shut a minute later and blocked his gaze.
Ranma glanced around, wondering if guards were going to jump out and attack him now that he was alone. When no huge and ugly men in uniform sprang from behind the walls he shrugged and started inspecting said walls, looking for a way to get himself to where his beloved awaited him.
Rei sat in a lotus position in the middle of her circle shaped cell, the center of the floor looking like metal, but it was actually a cushion. She spent long periods of time in here, she wasn't going to sit on hard metal.
The ceiling lit up as power went to the monitoring instruments contained there, also allowing her to communicate, at least when she wasn't practicing. Ayanami shook her head. It took them longer and longer to power that stuff up every time she came in here. She would have to see about getting some maintenance done before it failed when they really needed it.
A soft thunk sounded from behind her, something that she had never heard in the chamber before. A glance over her shoulder revealed Ranma, gently setting down a rather large metal plate. He glanced at her and smiled. "These things weight more than they look," He commented, even as he released his hands from the slightly curved metal.
Rei looked up at the hole he had left behind and frowned. "You'll have to plug that hole, love," she said. "A lot of energy goes through those walls and I don't want the place blowing up."
Ranma sighed. "Alright, I'll see what I can do." He turned around and jumped, sticking to the ceiling and poking around, trying to figure out how to get the plate to stay put while he was on this side of things. He smiled upon realizing how easy it was going to be. All he had to do was push the thing back into place and the clips would snap back into their holders.
A careful leap later and the matter was dealt with. Ranma ran over to his girlfriend and glomped her. "Is you I love!" He sing songed, feeling rather silly now that he was all alone with his woman.
Rei turned, grabbed Ranma, and bent him over backwards, leaning over him. She had reversed the traditional overacting kiss, her hands easily holding Ranma off the floor even as she lowered her lips to his. She watched in pleasurable amusement as Ranma's face calmed from surprise to pleasure, love, and back to pleasure.
The kiss finally broke and Rei let them drop, glad that she didn't have to worry about Ranma getting hurt from such a little thing. Rei landed atop him and snuggled in, pleased with how perfectly they fitted together. "Oops. How clumsy of me," She murmured.
Ranma chuckled and patted her head. The two snuggled for several minutes until Ranma spoke up. "So, feel like telling me what all this place is for?"
Rei shook her head, not bothering to raise it and rolling her face back and forth across Ranma's chest, making him laugh again. "I'm perfectly content to remain here for some time," Rei informed her bed.
"Oh, well, I'll just have to think of something to do to occupy my time while I'm being used as furniture," Ranma said as innocently as he could.
"Don't even think about it," Rei said in her serious voice.
Ranma sported an evil grin. "You never could get used to tickling, could 'ya? Hehehe."
Rei's head popped up and she looked at him with wide eyes. "This isn't funny, you better not be even THINKING about doing that!"
Ranma pulled her back down and kissed the top of her head, inhaling the wonderful scent of her blue hair. The pigtailed martial artist could almost imagine this is what the color blue would smell like. "Don't worry love, I won't do something like that to you unless you've gone into a coma or something and I really need to get you out of it."
Rei relaxed again, taking advantage of her warm, living bed. "I almost killed you that first time, don't be tempting fate like that."
Ranma shrugged. "How was I supposed to know you were incapable of being tickled?"
"I'm not incapable," She sniffed at him, some of her ego (from Ranma) starting to show. "It just generates a negatively proactive reflex response."
Ranma just grunted, not too sure of that. She had seemed pretty lucid at the time. Mad, but lucid none the less. Maybe it was the one thing in the world that she couldn't stand at all, even in the slightest. Ranma had a couple things like that about him, but he generally didn't kill anybody over it. Unless he didn't like them in the first place. When Ranma went cat you were pretty safe if he liked you already.
"So, about this room...?" He prodded again.
Rei sighed, knowing she wouldn't be able to hide things from him anymore. She still wasn't entirely sure how he was going to react to this, but he needed to know, for the events were about to unfold.
Asuka and Misato glared at each other while Shinji was out of earshot. The redhead was much closer in height now to the older woman than when she first showed up, but the purple haired girl was a few hairs up on her. She was using it to her advantage at the moment, staring her blue eyed companion down.
"Why are you bringing Shinji into this?" Misato demanded.
"Because he has a right to know!" Asuka answered in a fierce but hushed tone. "Rei's almost his sister, probably would have been if Gendo wasn't such a cold and sick bastard, and she's getting it on with some martial artist jock that can't possibly be good enough for her from what a few friends of mine have said."
"So just tell him the facts and let him come to his own conclusion about his sister's fiance. There's no need to prejudice him against somebody that he'll obviously be seeing a lot of in the future," Misato argued back.
Misato decided to try a different track. "When you and Shinji started dating, I was the one who told you it would never work out between the two of you. And it wasn't simply because I wanted him for myself! Everyone knows how completely opposite you are, and nobody thinks any type of relationship is going to work out between you two. When I pointed all this out and presented it to you, did it do anything at all to deter you?"
Misato paused a half second before continuing. "NO! It only made you want him more, if just to prove me wrong. Now look where we are, he's dating both of us and nobody can decide anything except we don't want to back down. And you know what's scary? I'm getting used to it. He spends so much time with each of us it almost seems like there's two of him."
Asuka couldn't help nodding an agreement, having noticed the same thing herself. She still wasn't buying the entire point of this argument, though.
Misato could see it, too. "So you see, if you tell Shinji everything you think you know about Ranma, he might just go about and see if he can prove you wrong."
"Now why would the baka do something like that?" Asuka demanded.
"Because he might think his "sister" has better taste in men than you give her credit for."
Asuka had to pause and consider that one. It could very well be true, now that she really thought about it. Shinji did think of Rei pretty highly, and she knew what people badmouthing Shinji made her do. It stood to reason that it would do the same to her boyfriend, though he would undoubtedly have a different way of dealing with it than herself.
Misato sighed in relief. She had finally gotten through to the girl.
"I'll guess we'll just have to show him ourselves then," Asuka declared.
"What have you got against him, anyway? He seemed alright when I met him," Misato only mentioned just how long she had met him in her head.
"Haven't you heard anything about him?" Asuka asked in disbelief.
Misato shook her head. "No, I don't usually follow people's personal lives when I don't have a reason to."
Asuka snorted. "Maybe you should start. You can learn a lot."
"I'm sure a lot of it I would rather not have," Misato retorted.
She was a bit surprised to see Asuka start giggling. "Yeah, you are right about that one."
Misato's eyebrows rose to her hairline. "And just what have your young ears been hearing?"
Asuka sidled up to the older woman and whispered. "I heard from Hikari that one of the girls in my class is dating two guys at once, yet she puts out for both of them so much that they don't even care."
Misato stared at the young woman in disgust. "And what, were you hoping to pick up techniques from her? So you could take care of both Ikari's or something?"
Asuka recoiled. "EEEEEW! Of course not!"
"So you're saying it's good to be a slut and you hope to emulate her?"
"NO!"
"Then what are you trying to say by telling me that?" Misato demanded, folding her arms over her chest. "I see no reason why you should even be faintly interested in a girl that has two boyfriends and manages to keep them inline with her body instead of her mind."
"You mean like what Shinji does with us?" Asuka stated softly.
"I suppose that's the same thing. But at least we both know about it, unlike those two guys. They're just happy that they're getting laid."
Asuka snorted again. "Ain't that the truth. Stupid males."
Misato shook her head. "You gotta admit, we sometimes aren't the brightest people in the universe either, Asuka."
The redhead giggled. "Yeah, I mean, we are both dating Shinji, and we both live with him, yet neither is sleeping with him (a miracle on your part), and he's the son of our boss, and he's a REALLY great kisser, and-"
Misato cut her off. "We could spend all day naming his attributes, both good and bad, so why don't we get this back to where we originally were talking about."
Asuka stood blinking for several moments as she tried to remember. "Oh yeah! Ranma!"
"So, you're going to let Shinji come to his own conclusion about his sister's fiance, right?" Misato said in an exaggerated manner, as if her companion couldn't keep anything in her head.
"Fine, fine. I don't even remember what I was saying that long ago." The purple-head gave the redhead a weird look. Asuka ignored it, not wanting to admit that she was wrong and had changed her mind.
They stood in silence for another couple seconds before Misato spoke; "Well, I guess we should get going then. We still have some stuff to do today."
Asuka nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we gotta get Shinji and go shopping!"
The two girls giggled in delight as they headed out in search of their bag holder and designated male viewpoint.
Misato's face appeared in front of Ritsuko at her desk. "We're going to go shopping, see you tomorrow!" The feed cut before the blonde could get a word in.
Growling low in her throat about the unfairness of her college roommate getting another boyfriend before her, Ritsuko opened up a file and noted that Misato, Asuka and Shinji had all left work early to go shopping. She scrolled back up through the document and noticed just how many times they did that. It was a private calculation she was keeping to see just how much time the three of them spent together.
Ritsuko was planning on trying to get all three of them married, since she thought it would be hilarious if her old roommate ended up in a threesome after Kaji had spent so much time trying to get Ritsuko herself to join them way back when. She just had to make sure that she got his expression on camera, it was sure to be a memorable one.
Closing the file down she brought up a different one, showing what she was supposed to be doing for the day. The only thing left was a practice session for Rei, but those could take several hours so it wasn't like she would be going home early as well.
Checking her watch made the scientist realize she was due down at the monitoring station in a couple minutes. Good thing Misato had called her or she might not have noticed the time until it was too late. She had a tendency to get absorbed in her computers like that, a trait most of those that worked with her found most aggravating.
"I've never seen you go full out Rei-chan, are you really that strong?" Ranma asked in amazement.
Rei-chan nodded. "If I spend a minute concentrating I don't seem to even have a limit, or at least I've not been able to reach it yet."
"That's pretty amazing. I keep getting better, but I'm always pushing my limit, expanding my abilities, not just learning how to channel the power available like you do."
Rei giggled. "Just one of the perks of not being entirely human."
"So, do you know what your other part is? Or why you were even told you're not human?"
"No, NERV never actually told me what I am. Nor do I know myself. I know what the name of the substance I was combined with is, but it has no meaning to me, and I doubt it does to anybody but the one who made me."
Ranma looked rather uncomfortable as his next words, but he got them out. "But, didn't N-NERV make y-you? Isn't it somewhere in all those computers?"
A nod was his response, the blue-head not wanting to delve into an unpleasant past that held no answers. She knew all she needed to know, and was confident that anything more on the subject would just hurt her.
"When are you going to power up next?" Ranma asked his fiance.
"I don't know," Rei admitted. "The schedule around here for me is pretty lax, since I can perform my function pretty much whenever I want with no consequence. The only variable to that is Doctor Akagi, who generally supervises my sessions."
Ranma thought back on his bridge encounter. "That was the blonde in the lab coat, wasn't it?"
Rei snorted. "Did you see any other people in lab coats present?"
"Well, no, but she looks pretty young to be running this whole place."
"And you look pretty young to be a master martial artist," Rei retorted. She proceeded to answer his question, however. "She runs under her mothers genius, though I mean no sleight to her knowledge by that statement. She was around everything that her mother worked on since she was born, so naturally she knows everything her mother did by now."
Ranma was silent for a long moment as he contemplated her wording. "Her mother's dead, isn't she."
Rei nodded.
"So, in the entirety of NERV, who has a mother still alive?" Ranma asked as gently as he could.
Rei was silent for so long Ranma thought for sure she wasn't going to answer. He had already progressed to the point where he was enjoying the silence when his beloved finally spoke. "You."
Ranma was lost for a second. "Me? What about me?"
"Your question has been answered," Rei softly said.
Ranma sat for a moment before realization dawned. His eye bulged and he went rigid as the implications set in. "I have the only mother alive in NERV?"
Rei nodded.
"Why?"
Rei shook her head. Ranma didn't know if she was refusing to talk about it or didn't know herself. Either way it was a moot point, he hadn't even been wanting an answer, it was just an outcry for something he thought impossible.
"Has anybody else noticed this?" Ranma asked.
"Most of the higher ranking personal know about it. Of course, they also know why that is so." Rei was still talking in her whisper, as if afraid to offend the dead or something like that.
Ranma pulled the girl into a tight hug, sitting cross legged on the ground she was curled up in a ball between his legs, her head resting against his chest while the rest of her was enfolded by his arms. Ranma knew she would probably lose all traces of this sad and open state as soon as a voice showed up telling her that she was to proceed with whatever thing she did with all her energy, and he wanted to try and get her back to normal before she bottled it all up again.
"Is there anything I can do to help around here?" Ranma asked, his lips brushing against Rei's ear and causing her to shiver.
"There might, but not officially as I've mentioned."
"You know I'll do anything for you Rei-chan," Ranma said. "What is it?"
"I don't want to tell you," Rei stated. Before her soon to be husband could protest she continued. "Because then you'll do it, and I'll be worried about you. I don't like to be worried."
Ranma stared at her for a long minute as he thought about what she had said. While it was true, and he knew it took a lot for her to admit that she would be worried about him, he didn't want to just let it rest as is. He wanted to help her no matter what, and most things that had been dangerous to him in the past had made him stronger. Surely this was no different. He shoved any consideration of how stupid that reasoning was out of his mind using one of his fathers prized (and very few) mental techniques. It was one Ranma tried not to use.
"So what is it? You know I'm not going to leave you alone about it until you tell me," Ranma said.
Rei sighed. "I know, which is why I should never have mentioned it. But you would have found something to do whether I told you I needed help or not."
"I can't help it, love," Ranma told her as he ran his fingers through her soft blue hair.
"I know," Rei assured him. "Don't worry about it. When the times comes I'll inform you of your position. Just please be patient, I don't want things getting out of hand this early in our relationship."
Ranma snorted. "And having Nabiki living with us while we think about having a three way marriage isn't getting out of hand early in our relationship?"
Rei blinked. "No."
Ranma blinked. "No?"
"No."
Ranma blink-blinked. "No?!"
Rei scowled.
Ranma cowered before those flashing red eyes, captivated.
Rei smiled.
Ranma melted.
Conversation dried up, the two simply cuddling until a feminine voice rang out from nowhere and everywhere.
"Rei."
Ranma suddenly found himself holding a freezing young woman. "Yes?" She intoned with all the feeling of a wall.
Ranma stood, still holding his girl, and gently placed her down in the middle of the room. She never seemed to move, but was suddenly sitting in lotus position, not a hair on her head out of place, as if she had never been in her boyfriend's lap, let alone for the past hour.
"Is somebody else in the room?" The voice asked again, sounded just a tad befuddled.
Rei glanced at her beloved, who quickly got the message. He scampered over to where he had made his entrance and tried to make an exit.
Rei turned her gaze from him, assuming that he would make it out just the same as he had made it in. "No."
"Take a look around you, there might be something in the chamber. I'm getting a couple of odd readings. A tool or something might have been left behind by the maintenance crew."
Rei's eyes almost widened in shock. They DID maintain the place? Why the heck was it always getting worse?
Rei glanced around, not surprised in the least that she couldn't see Ranma anymore, and noted the complete lack of anything out of the ordinary. "Are you still getting a strange reading?" She asked.
"It's gone down to nothing," the voice said. "But that worried me even more. We've never once recorded anything outside of ordinary, even when a tool was left behind once."
Rei's eyes did widen this time. She had wondered what had happened that day. It was a rather unpleasant memory. She had almost lost her life and her right eye from that incident. It was a couple bodies ago so the scars weren't there anymore, but she would never forget them. Or who she knew had caused them.
A moments silence passed before the voice spoke again. "Proceed with the test. We'll rerun the checks on the chamber as soon as we're finished here."
Rei allowed herself a small smile since they couldn't see her anyway. This would mean that she would get to leave much earlier than normal. She already missed Ranma.
"Beginning run," Rei murmured, knowing that her voice had been picked up even as the overhead lights changed to red. The walls hummed with energy as the huge capacitors spaced around the room charged.
"Ready," Rei spoke.
A half second later the walls spoke again. "Ready. Out."
The lights turned off, the rooms illumination coming from Rei as red energy swirled around her, looking like a whirlpool. White electricity crackled around the capacitors, zapping the walls, ceiling and floor, the energy ready to do its job.
Rei tilted her head back, mouth open and flaming red eyes wide. She drew a deep breath, held it for a moment and screamed.
The red whirlpool around her exploded. An unimaginable cacophony of sounds were drowned out by the sheer brightness and the power of Rei's AT field. The ten foot thick walls bowed outward, the capacitors were glowing white from the heat as they did their best to match Rei and contain her awesome energy.
After only a few seconds the room was silent again, the walls straight, the capacitors their normal dark gray, the room no longer bathed in red. Rei closed her mouth, lowered her head and drew a deep breath.
She was shocked to hear a scream almost identical to her own in its intensity erupt from behind her. She knew the observation equipment would be coming on any moment so they should be able to get some kind of reading on what was about to happen, for that was a scream only heard when energy of the gods was released through a mortal shell.
Rei turned around just in time to see a roiling ball of red energy explode, ripping up the ceiling and parts of the floor as it traveled towards her. She threw her arms up in front of her face, hoping that she had enough time to erect a strong enough shield.
Before she had even finished raising her arms Rei was hit. Her scream joined the other still echoing through the room as the power of god tried to rip her body apart.
End Chapter 3