Kaiju Slaying For Death And Profit Ch 34

Good evening y'all.

Sorry for the late post, I thought this chapter was done yesterday and all I needed to do was one final editing pass. 

But then Maya went and said 'no.'

It's a shame too, before Maya went and inserted herself, the chapter was coincidentally, exactly two thousand two hundred and twenty two words. It was beautiful!

But the chapter was made better so I'll shut up.

As usual, please let me know if you liked it in a comment! Or don't, cause I remain not the boss of you.
Also, look forward to next week! So Excite!
=][=
“A nature preserve devastated, several hundred million yen in damage to the outermost areas of Tokyo-3, contamination in nearby farmland, two wounded Evangelions, one completely inert Evangelion.”

NERV shook, a nearly human roar resounded through the facility, overwhelming the sound of shattering steel. Alarms sounded, containment measures were implemented, the facility shook some more, but a few seconds later the alarm cut off with the announcement that Unit 01 was contained again.

“And that keeps happening.” Misato finished with an exhausted sigh. “What’s the timetable for the Evangelion’s being mission capable again?”

Ritsuko sighed and flipped to a page on her clip board. “Unit 02 will be back in play by the end of the week, but Unit 04’s lower leg will take significantly longer to regrow, not to mention the fact that when it went berserk, Unit 01 all but caved in its thoracic cage.”

Misato rubbed her temples and asked, “What happened to Unit 00? The damage it suffered was not that extensive.”

Ritsuko sighed and flipped to a different page on her clipboard. “As best as we can determine, the Angel’s corruptive tissue reached and infected Unit 00’s core, this is, literally, the first we see that this can even happen. We have no data that we can compare this to. Our best guess is that the infection resulted in the death of the Eva’s core.”

Misato ground her teeth; Since when did Evangelions have a Core? She’d thought that was an Angel thing.

Clearly, she’d been wrong.

“Well, when will it be fixed?” Misato demanded.

“At this point.” Ritsuko said with a sigh. “We’d be better off salvaging what parts we can from Unit 00. It is the prototype, none of the cores from the finalized production run will fit it.”

Misato swore. “Now we’ll have two Pilots in reserve.”

“More like dead weight and a spare.” Ritsuko murmured.

“That girl killed an Angel, Show some respect!” Misato snapped, making Ritsuko flinch.

“R-Right.” Ritsuko said.

Misato took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Sorry, I’m—” The facility shook again, steel shattered, alarms, countermeasures were announced, several tense seconds later the announcement that Unit 01 was contained rang through the facility again. Misato took another deep breath and started over. “Sorry, I’m a little on edge.”

“N-No, that’s completely understandable, and I was out of line.” Ritsuko said.

“Where is the Vice-Director anyway?” Misato asked. “He’s always loath to miss these meetings.”

“He’s off talking with the heads of NATO.” Ritsuko said, clicking her tongue. “I do not envy his job right now.”

Misato sighed. “So, word on our Pilots?”

“Shinji is still unconscious.” Ritsuko said after flipping through her clipboard. “Mister Nagisa is alive, well, and awake, but he’s showing signs of shock. Rei remains her usual unflappable self, I checked her vitals after she was retrieved, but Shinji took priority. Her monthly physical was scheduled for today, so I’ll do a more thorough examination then.”

The facility shook again, steel shattered, alarms, countermeasures were announced, several tense seconds later, the announcement that Unit 01 was contained rang through the facility again, the off-shift at maintenance was hurriedly called back into service for emergency repairs at the cryogenic facilities, technicians and welders from other facilities were ordered airlifted in. Misato sighed. “I could really use a drink and a cig right now.”

“Working hours~” Ritsuko said in a sing-song voice.

“Bite me.”

=][=

[You will explain yourself this instant!] Monolith 08 snarled.

Kozo sighed. “Must I?”

[Your flippancy is neither welcome nor appreciated, Professor Fuyutsuki.] Monolith 09 said, his voice far calmer and, therefore, far more dangerous. [What. Happened. This was not in the predictions of the Dead Sea Scrolls.]

Kozo chuckled at being called ‘professor’, what a nostalgic title. He shook his head and took a deep breath. “With all due respect, SEELE had access to the ROM files almost as soon as the event ended. Things moved too quickly, it did not even occur to us that Pilot 01 might lose control of Unit 01, causing it to go berserk and eat an S2 engine.”

[The safeguards that were implemented into Unit 04 must be installed into Unit 01.] Monolith 04 demanded. [Such power must not be allowed to roam freely.]

As had become depressingly common, the whole facility shook, a familiar too-human roar of incandescent rage ghosted through the room that was literally shielded against sound. Kozo chuckled. “Good luck with that.”

[Gendo should have been more careful.] Monolith 05 growled.

[Director Ikari is currently still in surgery for the fifteen gunshot wounds.] Monolith 01 snarled. [While this body knows that I hold little love for the man. The fact remains that, for once, we cannot lay fault of what happened at his feet. Unless you are willing to argue that he contrived to get himself shot purely to throw this body off his scent?]

Kozo did not allow the faintest twitch of his expression.

That was exactly the kind of thing Gendo would do.

Which made the fact that this had caught them completely off-guard all the more vexing.

“In retrospect, we should have transferred Aida Hajime to another facility.” Kozo sighed.

[This oversight has cost us dearly!] Snapped Monolith 03.

“I am aware.” Kozo said. “Least of all because of Unit 01’s propensity to break containment. It’s a miracle that there haven’t been any fatalities.”

[Get the Evangelion under control.] Monolith 02 demanded. [And inform Director Ikari that he will stand in front of this body and explain himself the moment he is ambulatory.]

The monoliths disappeared as the call was cut.

“Always leaving me with the scut work.” Kozo sighed.

Once again, the facility rumbled with Unit 01’s displeasure.

As alarms rang and Unit 01’s roars once again reverberated through NERV headquarters, he couldn’t help but ask. ‘Is this what you wanted, Yui?’

=][=

“Now open wide and say ‘ah’.” Ritsuko ordered, examining the back of Rei’s throat as the girl did as she was ordered. Ritsuko leaned back and made note of her findings. She suppressed a yawn and took another swig of her coffee.

By her count, it had now been twenty-two hours since she’d last slept. Stupid Angel attack coming at the worst possible time. Stupid Unit 01 activating without a plug.

She resented having to obsess over the clone’s health, Gendo even demanding an update on Rei’s health the moment he woke up from his surgery.

He had, eventually, asked about Ritsuko’s own health, as well as the state of things overall. Truth be told, it had been a while for her. Hell, it had been months since she’d felt her usual drive toward the older man.

No, lately, whenever her mind wandered, it often found itself drifting toward…She shook her head, got the stabilizing injection, and administered it to Rei who took it with a slight wince.

“Are we done yet?” Rei asked, undoing the tourniquet with uncharacteristic haste and impatience. “I want to go be with Shinji.”

Ritsuko’s head throbbed, she looked at the nude girl sitting placidly on the examination table. Rei had suffered a few bumps and bruises, and her skin was irritated in places, but she’d otherwise seemingly suffered no side effects of the battle she’d just lost.

Ritsuko let out an exasperated breath. “You can leave once I’m finished.”

“I want to leave now.” Rei insisted.

Ritsuko scowled at the girl, she’d never talked back before. Truth be told she was almost done, but she wasn’t about to let the uppity clone get any ideas. She went to the drawer she used anytime Rei had needed a reminder of her place and drew a speculum. “No, lie back, it’s about time I did a pelvic exam.”

Rei scowled as she glared at the medical instrument.

“The longer you put it off, the longer it takes.” Ritsuko said as she put on gloves. It would do the uppity clone good to squirm for a while. Spending so much time with Shinji seemed to have given her ideas, Rei needed a firm reminder that she was nothing more than a tool. An expensive tool to be sure, but a tool nonetheless.

She’d already started on a new batch of Yui clones, Rei was not, had never been, and would never be ‘unique.’

“No.” Rei said, bringing Ritsuko up short.

“Pardon?” She demanded.

“I said no.” Rei stated, now glaring at Ritsuko. “You don’t need to do that exam, you just want to keep me here longer.”

Ritsuko scowled. “You’re not the medical expert here Rei. Lay back and spread your legs.”

“I’m leaving.” Rei said, hopping off the examination table.

“The hell you are.” Ritsuko snapped, halting the girl’s movement by slapping her palm onto the girl’s chest. “You’re done when I say you’re done. Get back on the table.”

“No.” Rei said dispassionately. “You don’t get to touch me there anymore.”

Ritsuko’s ire grew. She ran herself ragged fixing the Evangelions, running maintenance on the Magi, literally inventing new fields of medicine in order to treat the injuries their dumbass ace pilot suffered, personally programmed each Evangelion, created new technology at the behest of NERV and SEELE, took care of mountains of paperwork.

She did all the thankless tasks put before her, receiving lesser and lesser rewards for her efforts. On top of all of that, she had to be ready to drop whatever she was working on to check the health of this stupid, replaceable, useless clone.

And now the stupid doll thinks it can talk back to her?

“You’re just a doll.” Ritsuko snapped. “A doll the Director is using for his purposes, and it’s somehow my job to make sure the doll is healthy. You may think that you have the Director and Shinji both wrapped around your finger, but at the end of the day, you’re still just a stupid doll. So get on the table.”

Rei glared. “I’m not your doll.”

Ritsuko snarled and pushed the small girl back, forcing her onto the table, her pained expression giving Ritsuko a heady feeling of elation. “You seemed to have forgotten that we are finished when I say we’re finished!”

“Let me go!” Rei hissed.

“You need to remember your place. You’re just a doll!” Ritsuko snapped. “A doll who somehow forgot she’s supposed to be quiet and do as she’s told!”

As she wrestled the girl’s ankle to the restraint built into the bed, Ritsuko realized exactly what it was that she was doing. Disgust at her own actions clawed up her throat so savagely that when she swallowed, she could taste a whiff of stale coffee and gastric juices on the back of her throat.

She let go of Rei and flung herself back, Rei hunching into herself and breathing almost as heavily as Ritsuko.

“I…I…” Ritsuko began, not able to bring herself to look at the girl. “I just… leave, Rei. I’m s—,I don’t…Leave, we’re done. Go be with Shinji.”

Quietly, obediently, Rei put her clothes back on and left.

Ritsuko barely managed to get to a chair before her legs gave out. She cradled her head and took deep breaths.

“Goddammit all.” She muttered, then stifled a manic laugh that tried to break through her lips. “I’m turning into my mother.”

=][=

In retrospect, Maya realized that it was a good thing that she was appointed as Mr. Shinji’s Guardian.

Yes, once his mind returned she didn’t do any ‘guardian’ things, as often as not spending her time kneeling between his legs, on the bed with her face down and ass in the air, beneath him as he bent her into whatever position he wanted her in.

On the table…

In the shower…

Over a chair…

In the air, his arms carrying her without strain…

And that’s not counting the many times Rei entered into the equation.

Or Rei by herself for that matter.

It really was the quiet ones you had to watch out for.

Point being, even if she was a bit of a sham in the position she held, she was glad she held it, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to drop her work and be in the infirmary room with him without plenty more raised eyebrows.

Mr. Shinji slept peacefully in the bed, and it was sleep; his brainwave patterns did not match or even resemble the readings they’d taken when he went into a coma.

They could all be reasonably certain that this sleep was the result of exhaustion. Not that anyone could blame him, the fight they’d glimpsed through the view screen had been brutal.

And that’s not counting the 1200% synchronization. Maya had mourned, after all, the last Pilot to reach a comparatively ‘measly’ 400% melted.

The other one that merely achieved 320% went insane and never recovered.

And while Mr. Shinji had a history of reaching insanely high synchronization with…few side effects, 1200% was not thought to have been even theoretically possible. Maya would not believe it had she not been manning the station at the time, she’d chalk it up to mechanical failure or miscalibration, except she’d personally supervised both the maintenance and the calibration.

So, Mr. Shinji had, as had become his habit, done something completely unreasonable, scientists the world over would build entire careers out of figuring out the exact mechanics of what it is he did, killed the monster trying to wipe out humanity, and did it mostly unscathed.

By all notions, Mister Shinji was just like that. To him, the impossible was merely an inconvenience.

She just had to wait for him to wake up, and when they got home, Maya could give the returning hero his just reward…

Maya shook her head and got her thoughts out of the gutter. She needed to be ready in case Mr. Shinji needed anything.

She jumped and squeaked when the door banged open.

Rei marched inside, her face set in its usual placid mask. Maya was fairly certain most would not notice anything amiss, but after her…relationship developed with the young woman, Maya could not miss the tension in her shoulders.

“Rei? What’s wrong?” She asked and was surprised when Rei sat down on Maya’s lap and pulled Maya’s arms around herself, she then sat sideways and rested her head on Maya’s shoulder, what concerned her most was that the younger girl was shaking. “Rei?”

“Please, just hold me.” Rei said quietly. “I want to feel safe, and Shinji needs to rest.”

Maya tightened her hold on Rei, who at first tensed, then all but melted into Maya’s embrace. She muttered, “Warm.” Then fell promptly asleep.

Maya made a humming sound, then hoped nobody would come in. They’d worked too hard on making certain their…unique arrangement did not become public knowledge, it would be a shame for rumors to start because of something wholly benign.

She’d get the details on whatever had spooked the normally unflappable girl later.

=][=

Somewhere, the twelve most powerful men in the world spoke in absolute certainty of their privacy.

[But Ikari has Adam and an unbound Evangelion with an S2 drive!]

There was a short, furious silence. For while they were all equal, they all knew who among them was First among equals.

The twelve men cut communications.

Some would call them monsters for what was to come, for doing that which was needful. But they would be eternal. It may take some time to set the historical record straight, but when all was said and done, they'd be rightfully revered as Humanity’s eternal shepherds.

The twelve men so terrified of death they’d force thousands of others to pay the price for their hubris consoled themselves with these comfortable lies.