2010-07-15 - Behind The Curtain

It is Sunday, July 18, NCA 120, and you are in hell.

The NERV Geofront is the epicenter of one of the largest attacks ever to commence on an Earth city short of a colony drop. That the attacking force is governed by the Earth Federation itself will of no doubt be of great interest to whoever pieces together the aftermath of all of this and tries to understand what happened to this city -- and what happaned to NERV.

Outside, aboveground, the MP Evangelions rip and tear.

Now, below, deep within the Earth, roving packs of soldiers have been given authorization to kill without qualification. Everyone is a target. That Gendo Ikari is still alive may represent something of a miracle -- and that really has little to do with escaping bullets.

Having stumbled up from Terminal Dogma, Gendo keeps his forearm jammed into his coat, and staggers in the way that only someone who's recently lost a limb can manage, lightheaded and shellshocked. His glasses have fallen off somewhere.

"Commander Ikari!" someone squeals and he instinctively flinches even though the voise is much higher and more scared than a death squad captain's cry would be.

Maya Ibuki and Ritsuko Akagi are also refugees, the latter leaning against the former like a crutch as they move away from Central Dogma. The leader of NERV doesn't say anything to the pair of them -- he just grunts and keeps moving, as if to say, come on if you're coming.

Deeper and deeper they go. Ritsuko grows increasingly agitated but does her best to bite down on it. Maya lets out the occasional frightened whimper or even more frightened attempt to soothe the doctor. And Gendo Ikari, with his good hand, keeps using his passcode to go deeper and deeper and deeper.

Until they're in the core, now.

The boneyard.

The huge cross-shaped trench in the ground where the rotted skeletons of all the failed attempts at Evas lay.

From around a corner, a shadowy figure steps into the light. He breaths heavily, sporting some blood against his white dress shirt. He looks forward with intense eyes, stepping into the light. While he came to Nerv as a boy broken, he now stands with some pride in his step. Where he was once thin, Shinji now has some muscle on him that makes appear more average than stick-like. He stares at the party, clutching the pistol at his side. Shinji Ikari meets eyes with his Father. Finally on equal terms.

NOT LONG AGO

Misato Katsuragi fires a shoot over some turned over equipment. She ducks back down as the assassination squad fires a burst of rounds toward her position. "Tch...Damnit. They have the whole place covered." She looks beside her and eyes Shinji, hunched over in a fetal position. "Damnit. We need to get you to Unit 01..."

There was no other way.

"Shinji." Misato says in the most reassuring voice given the circumstances. She reaches into her jacket and pulls out a pistol, checking the magazine. A full clip. "Take this. I'm going to hold them off."

Shinji looks up with wide eyes, flinching as a bullet strikes their cover. "Wh,,,what?"

"Shinji! We don't have time for this anymore!"

Shinji stares, looking at the pistol like it was a concept he didn't fully understand.

NOW

"Father." Shinji finally breaks the silence. He has come a long way here. There is half a clip in his gun.

Sometimes, when two disparate groups of people want the same thing, complicated things can happen.

Such is the case here.

SEELE has deployed the JSSDF - one of the few operation Special Forces infantry unit left in the Earth Sphere - into NERV to stop Gendo Ikari... but they aren't the only ones with designs on the Commander of NERV.

ELSEWHERE

A four-man team of JSSDF soldiers hustle down a hallway, stepping over the still-dying bodies of a pair of NERV security guards. Two stop at a door and begin a breach and clear procedure while the other two proceed down the hall and around the corner, to the next door in the line.

They take position around it just as the men behind them give the all-clear signal, and breach a moment later. What they find is... unexpected; a strange four-legged robot is parked in the center of the room, pointing two massive machine gun barrels on its body on where a quartet of NERV personnel are lying on the ground, their hands on their heads.

At the sound of the door opening and the two JSSDF operatives bursting into the room, the machine suddenly spins on the wheels at the end of its four legs to face the door. "YOU ARE UNDER ARREST," it declares, in a Japanese robo-voice. "LIE DOWN ON THE GROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD. IF YOU RESIST OR FLEE, YOU WILL-"

While the machine is distracted, one of the NERV scientists on the floor springs to his feet and makes a run for a door on the opposite side of the room. Without a moment of hesitation, the robot spins on its wheels again to face the runner, and opens fire.

.50 caliber rounds literally tear the running man's body apart, spattering the three remaining NERV personnel with blood and gore. One of them starts screaming; an instant later, more gunfire rings out as one of the JSSDF soldiers panics and opens fire at the automaton. The gunfire deflects harmlessly off of its body, and it whirls to face the two soldiers and opens fire again.

All the remaining two soldiers see, as they rush around the corner to reinforce their comrades, is a wave of viscera erupt out of the open doorway.

HERE

Shinji clutches a pistol; Gendo Ikari is missing the corresponding hand. Finally -- the two men approach equal footing.

The chaos outside seems faraway and unimportant. All three escaping NERV personnel -- or, rather, Gendo and the two women who are following him, regardless of whether or not he really /is/ escaping -- turn to face Shinji when he announces himself. Maya, staring, wide-eyed and a little useless. Ritsuko, looking at Shinji as if she's looking /through/ him, quite a bit useless.

And Gendo, crippled, without his glasses, his uniform jacket open, smelling of LCL, steps forward. He makes no move to attack or disarm his child -- he also makes no move to welcome him. He simply walks forward until he's in a position where he can see his son without squinting or straining his eyes. A small distance separates the two. For a few long moments, no words are spoken.

Finally, Gendo speaks, his voice a low rumble. "Shinji," the man says, and then lowers his chin. It's not quite a bow of the head -- but it's not the imperious stare from on high that's no doubt been etched into Shinji's mind.

It is, in its own understated way, a perverse invitation to finally speak as father and son.

Shinji acknowledges the two women but is more focused on Gendo. As the man steps close, he almost flinches for a moment before his body becomes rigid. He mustn't run away from this. It has all been about this moment. Shinji stares at his father.

It has been a long time coming. This was the source of everything Shinji could see wrong with his life. This man was the first crack in the life he wanted. And yet, Shinji doesn't raise the gun toward his wounded father. He just kind of stares with slightly watery eyes that still appear ready to do what he has to. It has all lead up here and all he can say is, "Why?" He had a right to know why.

Why Nerv did all the terrible things the Getters told him about.

Why his mother was inside of Unit 01.

Why his mother still loved him.

Why Rei respected him.

And most of all, why did he neglect the last link between him and his wife.

Shinji almost fills sorry for his father. Because as much as he says he hates him, he actually loves him like any son loves his father. That was why it even stung now.

"He wanted to see your mom again."

Walking with a calm unbefitting someone in the middle of the closest thing the Earth has seen to Hell since the Middle Ages, Leo Stenbuck positively saunters onto the scene, approaching from whence Gendo and the women came. He's in full A-LAWS uniform, the greatcoat and his headband trailing behind him; his right arm hangs loosely at his side, and in the hand is clutched his golden revolver.

It is cocked.

"Am I right, Commander?" he asks, as he passes Maya and Ritsuko without even giving them a second glance. "You'll combine Lilith and Adam, and be reunited with your wife."

The young man slows to a halt a few steps away from Gendo and Shinji. The elder Ikari... at the end of the day, Leo tells himself, it's his fault that Rei died. If he hadn't forced her to pilot Unit-00...

"I sympathize," Leo says, with a smile. It is not a reassuring smile.

Before Gendo Ikari can answer, another teenager interrupts the proceedings. This is well on its way to becoming a dangerous trend. The beaten and exhausted Commander of NERV shows remarkable patience for someone who is having a James Bond prop pointed at him -- but then, even in the midst of all of this, Gendo Ikari will not lose sight of who he is.

When Leo finishes, Gendo gives him the sort of glare that results in a child growing up to have self-esteem issues, as can be seen to Leo's left. "You're more astute than I gave you credit for," Gendo notes, and then looks away from Leo, as if done with him -- despite having two guns aimed at him, Gendo still acts like he's the one who decides when these audiences come to a close.

Gendo reaches out to grab Shinji's shoulder. When his hand is nearly there he realizes his hand no longer exists, and the stump lingers in space for a moment before drooping back down to the man's side.

"I wanted us to be a family again," Gendo says, in his inimitable, toneless cadence. His voice is deep and frankly fairly menacing even now -- when it has the slightest hint of tenderness beneath its surface. "Without your mother -- I don't know how to raise you. I would have fixed that."

Ritsuko Akagi's knees buckle. Maya Ibuki struggles to continue supporting her.

Gendo Ikari uses his one hand to adjust his jacket. "I would have brought love back to the world."

The boneyard. The blackened soul of Project E - or perhaps, more like the bowels, where its useless refuse awaits processing. Destroying. But it can never be truly destroyed. Blasphemy...true blasphemy, can never be undone.

They are too busy with their own drama - their own, closing tale. They do not know that he is present. That he has always been watching. Glimpses in the hallways - shadows in the dark.

The eyes of the King.

The elevator to the boneyard floor from this high perch begins to ascend. It is quiet. It is unlikely anybody except perhaps Maya is of sound enough mind and faculties to notice that nobody actually called it up.

Or that there is a person on it.

But perhaps his speech will catch their ears. There is no great show of physical prowess. No crushing display of spiritual might.

Lord Genome, the Spiral King rides the elevator to the top, and stands patiently, arms at his sides, body swatched in pristine white robes and loose white pants.

"A great darkness has come to this Spiral star," the Spiral King declares, his voice deep, booming, commanding attention be paid. He takes a single step forward, asserting his presence.

The King of Earth says, "The magnitude of your ignorance is incomparable. I will have answers."

Eyes track - to Shinji, to Leo. Spiral-etched eyes narrow.

"You seek this man's life," he says, and it is just barely question-like enough to require an answer.

Shinji looks over when the voice is called. "-You-" Shinji says it with a new found coldness in his voice. It was odd not using that tone at the person who supposedly was his worst enemy but rather at Leo.

Shinji clutches his pistol, ready to use it when Leo trained it on him. He wouldn't hesistate this time. Not like on that JDSF member early. Leo was different in Shinji's eyes. He was the guy who hurt Rei. He was the guy who hurt Asuka. He was the enemy of Johnny Domino. He was pointing a gun at his father. This made Leo Stenbuck Shinji's greatest enemy.

"Why did you come back, bastard? You hurt Rei. You hurt her and then you took her Evangelion. You just take and take everything from Rei. From Asuka. From me." Shinji says, looking back to his father.

"Father,...I forgive you. You were never there for me. You left me all alone when mom left....You made me into the boy I was. A broken shell of a person who never could survive in the real world. I struggled so hard to walk and all I did was hurt myself. I hurt os many people trying to understand what it was to be a person and I hated you every moment for it. For making me live without any love. For leaving me to cry alone when I got hurt...But I forgive you." Shinji smiles a little. It is somewhat reassuring.

And then there was another man. A frighteningly imposing man who looked upon him like one would see an Ant. Despite this, Shinji remains somewhat strong, knowing that weakness would get him eaten alive at this moment. "No. He is my father. The last family I have left." His mother in the Eva. Rei was gone. Misato was no where to be found. Gendo was all that was left.

Leo's smile vanishes when presented with the hatred in Shinji's voice, but he doesn't respond in kind; his expression simply resets to something between a grimace and a mask of cool neutrality.

He doesn't defend himself... perhaps because he never gets the chance to. Lord Genome emerges, and Leo lowers the gun in his hand and turns to face the Spiral King.

It's funny, really. He wasn't scared, walking through halls of corpses, with gunfights often right around the corner. He wasn't scared when he was faced with Shinji Ikari - someone he's still certain is extremely, dangerously unstable - holding a gun. But this - an old man in a dress - is fucking terrifying.

Rather than answer Lord Genome's question, Leo decides to take measures to ensure that he doesn't get disintegrated. "Shinji," the young man says quietly, through gritted teeth. "Whatever you do, don't make this guy mad."

Shinji delivers the most important speech of his young life, pouring out his heart and soul to a man he was certain despised him for the crime of existence. Gendo Ikari listens to his son's feelings, and in return, when the boy smiles, the old man nods, with a "hmmh" of confirmation.

Leopards don't exactly change their spots just like that.

When Genome emerges, Maya shrieks, and stumbles. She drops Ritsuko, who lands on the floor like a leaden lump. Maya ends up on her ass, trembling, staring up at the Spiral King in wordless, quavering terror.

Gendo himself turns with the boys to face Genome. The man's eyes give away the game -- on the one hand, yes, he's afraid of one of the most dangerous forces walking the planet. Who wouldn't be? But on the other, it's all gone to hell. It's all failed, and his life's work has just gone up in a cloud of smoke. Everything's broken, and there will never be a second chance to fix it.

As it turns out, walking through those halls, Gendo Ikari did take the time to make his peace with death.

Gendo looks up at the Spiral King, but says nothing. If Genome wants something, he'll say so -- or he'll just take it. Negotiation is pointless, investigation equally so. So the NERV patriarch doesn't even try.

The Spiral King watches the most heartwarming show of the Spiral spirit - the drive to live and to love - that he has seen in thousands of years.

It very nearly costs them all their lives.

But he does not attack - stands, watching. Considering. Weighing. He has instated himself judge and jury of these crimes. Perhaps it is not so strange - perhaps, of all the men on Earth, the Spiral King alone is fitted to the task of judging a man whose sins weigh as heavy as Gendo Ikari.

"Then you will spare him," Genome says, rumbling, just...almost announcing the words that have already spoken. "The greed of the Spiral is truly without limit. You will spare a man who would cause unknowable suffering simply because he is blood. Truly it runs deep in you."

A step. Not toward Gendo. Actually, more like just...into the center of attention. Like a spotlight shone down on nothing.

Like a true judge, Genome has no interest in Gendo's peace. Or perhaps, he has sipmly already heard all he needs to. But eyes slowly track to Leo, eyes narrowing. Fear. But also--

"And you," he says. "What business have you, with this man?"

Shinji looks at Leo like he's the stupidest person on earth when he warns him about Genome. "He won't have reason to do anything if you show some respect." He talks in an even tone as if this is common sense. For once, Leo is the wuss and Shinji is the cool one...Even if Shinji fears Genome, he remains calm, making peace with the fact his life has some closure. Inside, however, Shinji wants to pee himself. I mean this guy just leaked murder over everything.

When his father acknowledges his words, Shinji feels relieved that everything is finally in the open. He knows he can face his mother again.

Shinji keeps his gun at his side, knowing the only one in the room that deserves to be shot is maybe Leo Stenbuck. He hasn't given up the idea either, knowing that Leo is probably thinking the same thing. That if Shinji didn't shoot him, Leo would kill him and his father. That was the kind of person Shinji mistook Leo for.

Shinji tries not to flinch when Genome responds, find it hard not to. He simply nods at Genome, trying not to be too defiant. He looks toward Leo when Genome addresses him.

Heh heh. 'Mistook.'

Leo only has time to shoot a quick glare at Shinji before his attention is drawn back to the newest arrival; he wilts a little under the specific attentions of Lord Genome... but after a moment, straightens his posture and sticks out his chin in something vaguely resembling defiance. This time, he does, technically, answer the Spiral King... but not directly.

Instead, he turns to face Gendo again. The gun remains at his side, however; the last thing he wants to do is have this turn into a violent exchange. Not with the Spiral King here. "Tell me where Lilith is," he demands. "And tell me how to transfer a soul out of it."

Maya Ibuki continues to quiver in fear behind Lord Genome, as Ritsuko closes her eyes and somewhat controls her facial spasms.

Gendo Ikari grunts when the boys bicker, not even looking at them. There's a time and a place. That place is 'never around Gendo, and certainly never around Gendo when Lord Genome may be about to kill everyone in the room.'

Then comes the big question and Gendo Ikari's answer, at first, is to look down at the stump that used to have a hand attached -- and, most recently, Adam. "Adam and Lilith have merged," Gendo says, flatly. "In Terminal Dogma. It is beyond my power now. The forbidden union is complete, and Lilith is in control."

Gendo's weary eyes turn toward Leo, to meet the boy's cold gaze with one of his own -- one that, at the very least, is solid proof that he's been doing this since before Leo was even a mistake in the backseat of an El Jupiter Camino. "You must make Contact," Gendo says, the capital 'C' somehow coming through. "Lilith will not come down to your level. You must go to hers. It will probably destroy you, whether you fail or succeed."

Spoken like a man who's given up and doesn't see the point in trying.

They are afraid. The Spiral King does not care.

Shinji is mistaken. The Spiral King is the enemy of all who live on the surface. But today, he has decided...that something else takes greater priority. But what? Does he know? No, he seems more in the dark than anyone. And yet, he...

Eyes pass to Shinji. Briefly. Sensing the quiver of the Spiral in him. But it passes, quickly. Leo answers his question with another question, and Genome tracks eyes to Gendo. Now, the answer becomes plain.

"Adam and Lilith," he says, rumbling. Names he has heard. The context, the meaning - his great mind churns, but he shows none of it.

Until he finally says: "You know so much. Yet you understand so little. Your ignorance blinds you." A glance - just brief, but with the weight of a thousand million suns - to Leo. "If he wills it enough, the Spiral will see to it. No force can stop it, once it has begun to spin."

And then he...turns the full weight of his attention on Leo. Frowning, steeply.

"And what," he asks - apparently unperturbed by talk of souls and gods - "do you intend to do, boy?"

Shinji looks at Leo, not sure what he wants to do. He just knows that he probably won't like it. After all, Leo was a selfish bastard who mistreated Rei. He was probably just going to fuck things up with his A-laws buddies. Maybe he'd try to screw Lilith. It wouldn't surprise Shinji considering all the things he's heard from people about Leo. "What are you doing, Stenbuck." Shinji's gaze stops on him.

"Don't you think you've done enough?" Shinji says, still holding his pistol tight. He remembers everything the Getter Team told him and he knows that whatever this is all leading to can't be good.

Translation: 'you're fucked.'

Fantastic.

Leo scowls at Gendo as Lord Genome muses over Adam and Lilith, only tearing his eyes away from the man after a few beats to glare at Shinji. "You don't know what you're talking about," he says, with a glare. "Don't talk like-"

And then, again, the Spiral King's attention falls on him. He doesn't have to speak for Leo to know; Leo doesn't even have to look. It's like that feeling you get when someone stares at you, ramped up to roughly the strength of being punched in the stomach, and it stops the young Spacenoid mid-sentence.

Leo licks his lips nervously. Nothing to it but to be honest, he supposes. "I'm going to rescue someone," he explains meekly, after turning back to face Lord Genome again. "Someone who I was supposed to protect, and couldn't."

Gendo accepts Genome's scorn and prophecy without comment. What can the man possibly say now, that a giant entity with the power to end all life is currently prying itself free of the crucifix he helped nail it to? Now that the facility has been turned into a war zone, the city into rubble, and the hopes and dreams of seeing his beloved Yui again...

"Shinji," Gendo intones, trying to stop another squabble from erupting. He sounds much wearier now -- as if the statements of the Spiral King drained something necessary out of his body, and now he functions solely on the habits locked into his form.

And to Leo Stenbuck and his fool's errand, Gendo says nothing. When Leo explains himself, though, Gendo betrays himself with a single, quiet snort of breath, as if the rhythm of his body just skipped a beat.

The King of Earth stares. It is so hard to read him. Impossible, perhaps. He gives signals like any other man...but unlike other men, he refuses to allow any close enough to view them.

"...you will use the Spiral in your blood," Genome announces, pronounces. Decrees? No, it's a...statement, not a proclamation. It is simply fact. Whatever that force he talks about is, he believes unshakably that it will be the guide to Leo's success. "...and I should destroy you all for it."

uh.

But he does not. He turns, shifting away, back toward the elevator.

"They will hear us," he says, and he is talking of no thing anyone here knows. "It will resound across the cosmos. You cannot fathom the damage you have done."

But he continues not advancing on Gendo - instead, toward Ritsuko and Maya, cowering away.

"...I leave that wretch to your law," Genome announces, staring down - remorseless. Emotionless. "He is no longer a threat." No...there's something there, isn't there, Ritsuko?

Something painful, because it's familiar. Because it's the same thing destroying Ritsuko. It's the same thing destroying Gendo.

He holds out a hand, allowing Ritsuko one chance to come under her own power. "I am the Spiral King, Lord Genome," he says. His voice is not soft, not gentle, it is like the edict of God. But it is...an introduction, just the same. "I will protect this world from the ignorance of its people. You will come with me."

Can she refuse that face? That face, which even better than anyone else in this city descending into hell, knows the truth of Absolute Despair?

Shinji gives Leo a look. Who the hell does this guy think he is?! He is about ready to start something when Gendo catches his attention. Despite the years of neglect, Shinji instinctfully just accepts the command, backing down. His father is right, it was better to just let Leo have his way for now. Especially with the scary man over there.

Finally, Shinji knows what Genome is doing and he almost wants to help Maya. She was a nice person....Dr. Akagi wasn't terrible? However, Shinji knows this is a bad idea especially when the mean sight of Genome makes him want to take cover. Imagine if this man did something.

Shinji does notice that Gendo is now in his hands. "Father, I'm sorry but after this I have to turn you over to EFA. I know you wanted Mom back just as much as me but you did a lot of bad things. You'll have to pay for that." Shinji looks at his father, looking somewhat grim.

Leo would shoot Gendo an angry glance if he weren't afraid to look away from Lord Genome. It's like staring down a tiger, or something. You're supposed to stare down tigers to keep them from attacking you, right?

Well, whatever. It's something like that. There were no tigers on Antilia.

And then Lord Genome turns away, and Leo lets out a breath that he had been holding, unintentionally, for God knows how long. His attention is on the women now, it seems, but... there's nothing Leo can do to help them. Genome doesn't have any reason to hurt them. They'll be fine.

Probably.

Leo turns back to Shinji and Gendo... and he is, at least, kind enough to let Shinji finish speaking before he interjects. "Shinji," he says sharply, "The battle will be here soon. If you don't want to die, you need to get somewhere safe."

"You," he continues, shifting his gaze to Gendo. He hesitates for a beat, his eyes flitting over to Shinji briefly, before he says, "Are coming with me, to Lilith. Don't worry," he assures Shinji, "I'll make sure he stays around long enough to see justice."

The Spiral King advances on Ritsuko to say hello and maybe have a nice chat, you know. The voice of Lord Genome is like the surface of the Earth splitting -- like walls crumbling -- like a world of cinder and broken bricks. Ritsuko's eyes open, and she looks up at the thing proffering its hand.

There is only a second of hesitation before Ritsuko accepts the hand-up. Her grip is weak and her limbs shift nervously like reeds wavering in a summer breeze. It doesn't matter if she's shaky, though, because the act is one that can't be taken back regardless. Her eyes meet the crazed stare of the Spiral King and for whatever reason, she's not afraid.

Suddenly, Ritsuko has a weight attached to her, though. A physical one, in the form of Maya Ibuki, wrapping her arms around the doctor's waist. "RITSUKO-SEMPAI!" she squeals, voice attaining a new peak in shrillness from the pure fear and excitement she's mainlining. "I -- Where you go, I go too, sempai!"

Apparently, Maya is so addled with terror that she thinks she can make this sort of demand of Lord Genome. Ritsuko looks over her shoulder as if she were trying to see a mosquito.

The more withering and lifeless stare, though, belongs to Gendo Ikari, who watches this and doesn't emote in the slightest. He doesn't even seem to take an interest, like he's watching it just because it's /there/ and it's /happening/, like a bizarre strain of couch potato.

Gendo's remaining hand touches Shinji's shoulder after his son delivers another speech. "I know," is all he says, before turning to Leo.

"And if I refuse?"

The King of Men guides Ritsuko to her feet--and peers, with force, at Maya.

Maya Ibuki.

The only one in this room with the courage to defy. The only one who is not steeped in absolute despair. He should break her. He should annihilate her. He should...

...

"Then come," the King of Spirals says, and once they are on their feet, turns to step back to the elevator. "There is much work yet to be done."

He waits for them.

The mere fact that he does so says impossible volumes. He doesn't know. He doesn't understand. He has left the fate of the world to these children. Why? What /does/ he know? Someone so old, so powerful...what perspective does he have that guides his actions?

Eyes etched with spirals peer out from hooded lids, saying nothing.

Shinji looks over to Leo and gives him a look. "My place is here. I don't expect someone like you to understand the promises I made. I can't run away from this fight when I have people I must protect." He checks his magazine and notices how much is left. He has to find Asuka and Kaworu. That was what mattered right now.

Shinji looks toward his Father, noding slowly. "Father, I'll go. You aren't in any condition to move much." Was Shinji doing something for his father? "Even if you did all of this, I don't want to see you die...I'm not that type of person." He looks toward Leo, wanting what Leo was going to do with the World destroying entity.

As the Spiral King departs with Ritsuko and Maya, something in the back of Leo's mind whispers that that, someday, is going to come back to bite him in the ass real, real hard.

Oh well. One thing at a time.

Leo has to admit that even though he doesn't much care for either of the Ikaris, it's... nice, in a way, to see them finally connecting, even if it is at the last. He never got along with his father, either, although not to the extent that he's seen between Shinji and Gendo.

But then, he never got a reconciliation before his father died, either. He was left only with the knowledge that he loved him, and that will have to do.

Shinji says he doesn't want to see his father die. Don't worry, Leo thinks.

You won't.

"Then go," is all the young man actually says aloud, turning his gaze back to Shinji. "Protect them."

That's all he has to say before he turns his gaze back to Gendo. "You won't refuse," he says bluntly. "If we stay here, we die. So start walking."

Ritsuko follows Lord Genome. Maya follows Ritsuko. When the elevator doors begin their lurch, the blonde scientist's face is relaxed, calm. Maya looks terrified, eyes wide, fingers twitching. "Semp--"

The doors slam shut.

"Shinji," Gendo says again. This time, the backbone has returned to the crippled man. His voice, honed into a sharp instrument after years of effort and withdrawal, booms despite its low volume. Gendo Ikari has mastered the low frequencies, making his words heavier than steel. "Don't worry about me. Find Unit-01." It's an order. What comes next is up to Shinji, but that much Gendo is resolute on.

And then the old man's eyes turn toward Leo again, and he doesn't move his feet one inch. There's not much of a bond between the two men -- there's not much of a bond between Gendo and anyone. But just this one, they seem to be on the same frequency. Gendo knows this and his stare reflects it.

It's not a challenge that Gendo Ikari presents to Leo Stenbuck. It's a surrender -- an acceptance -- a command.

THEN

Shinji leaves! Fix it in post!

NOW

As soon as Shinji is gone, Leo's shoulders sag; he's allowed to show a little fear, a little fatigue, now that no one is left to witness it.

Well, no one who'll be sticking around, anyways.

Even as his shoulders sag, his eyes stay locked on Gendo's. "I wasn't lying when I said I sympathized," he says quietly. "I know what it's like to lose someone you love... but you know that, of course."

"Don't worry," he continues, raising his firearm from his side. "You'll be with her again soon."

He cracks open the cylinder and tilts the gun backwards, letting the six rounds loaded inside - all nonlethal, judging from their coloring - slide out and clatter to the floor.

At the same time, he reaches into a pocket of his uniform and withdraws a single bullet, that he calmly loads into the cylinder of the revolver before snapping it shut with a quick flick of his wrist.

"But you killed a lot of people, Gendo," Leo continues as he swaps ammunition, an almost sad tinge to his voice. He never stops to give Gendo time to speak; he figures the man wouldn't say anything anyways, so why give him the chance? "All of this - everything happening above us - is because of you... not to mention Zerogouki."

"A little girl. /A little girl/," Leo repeats, anger creeping into his voice. He falls, then, into a brief period of silence; it's kind of paralyzing, knowing these are the last things he'll be able to say to the man. What is there to say, even? Does it matter what he says? Does it matter if he says anything?

Leo pauses only for a moment before he sighs heavily. "You've done a lot of bad things, Gendo Ikari," he says, shaking his head. He drops his gaze, briefly, to the floor... and when he looks back up, his expression has hardened. He lifts the golden gun in his hand to point at Gendo's forehead.

"Shinji might forgive you," Leo says coldly. "But I won't."

He pulls the trigger.

Call it anger, call it emotion, call it the magic of the moment, but Leo's aim is off. The bullet hits home -- this isn't remotely a question -- but it doesn't strike Gendo Ikari in the forehead. Instead, it hits him in the neck, splitting open his jugular vein, a cartoid artery, turning part of the connection point between mind and body into hamburger.

Throughout Leo's speech, Gendo said nothing. Likewise the preparation of the bullet. His passive acceptance of fate -- so much like the girl he allowed to get close to Leo.

Passive, though?

As Gendo's hand and stump involuntary rise to his neck, blood spraying everywhere like the death throes of an Angel, he mouths one syllable, unable to find the breath or the strength to turn it into a sound. He staggers backward, his legs turning to jelly.

Gendo Ikari's heel presses down on nothing. He slips. He would have died anyway, of course. But perhaps it was necessary to be certain. Gendo Ikari's last thought, as he topples into the massive cruciform trench, is of Shinji, and how he knows his son will be stronger for this, should be world be there to welcome him.

Then Gendo Ikari lands. His body breaks in various ways and never moves again. He dies among the wreckage of aborted Evangelions. One more set of bones -- one more life, failed in the name of NERV.

Leo lowers the gun back to his side and steps forward to the edge of the trench, to stare down at at least what he thinks is Gendo's corpse. It's sort of funny, really; there was so much buildup to such a short, simple thing.

It's not quite as funny that he just killed a man in cold blood, and doesn't feel a thing.

"Sayonara, Ikari-san," Leo says, as he reholsters his revolver. He stares for another moment, and then turns and begins walking away, back towards the Evangelion hangars. The gnawing feeling in his gut tells him he'll need Zerogouki for what comes next.

Or maybe that feeling's from something else. It's hard to say.

As he walks, he unbuttons his A-LAWS greatcoat, tearing it open like he's fucking Neo-Spiderman. He came prepared: underneath is not his usual teal A-LAWS tanktop, but rather the white of Unit-00's plugsuit.

As he exits the graveyard, Leo drops the coat to the ground in his wake.

Without looking back, he adds, "See you in Hell."