31_days fic: :: Needs stiff drink::
First time I've described an Angel attack in any depth: most of the time when they happen, Sabia is either sequestered in her office or in a civilian employee bunker (well, wait for the "Day Tokyo-3 Stood Still" bit...). This fic literally took me this long to write:
Title: "Imperative Sentences"
Day/Theme: Sept 12) I’ll tap into your strength
Series: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Character/Pairing:
Rating: PG-13. It tees off from the "mind-rape" episode.
Author's Note: Set during the end of or just after Episode 22. This was a tough bit to write, considering the intense emotions and the level of tension involved. I think this is the first time since I've started writing "Neon Enoch Evangelion", aka the ambitious NGE project, that I've actually shown just what Sabia is doing for work. Also, this is the longest bit I've written yet, so you might want to get yourself a drink and some goodies of your choice.
The attack sirens disrupted what had been a routine morning of writing in her journal and checking her messages from home. A heavy rainstorm fell over the city, keeping her indoors. Sabia would have gone for the civilian shelter, but something told her to remain in the apartment and watch the sortie that would follow.
The incident that had caused her banishment had heightened her senses, and she could feel the presence of the Angel, even though she could see nothing. But she felt a glowing presence somewhere far overhead and she almost thought she could hear, not a voice but a vibration, as if the entity had probed the air, making use of a bass note too low to be heard with the ear.
As she sat by the windows, peering through the mist and the rain, she could make out a red blotch in the near distance, above the tops of the retracted skyline. Must be Unit 02, she thought. The blotch lunged into action, charging at its unseen foe.
At that moment, a beam of intense light -- or what looked like it -- broke through the clouds, lighting up Unit 02. The Eva jolted in its tracks and the rifle reports told her it tried to fire on the Angel. But suddenly the giant robot cringed, dropping its weapon and clutching its head, writhing in pain. The bass note seemed to intensify, till she had to tear herself from the window and find refuge in the windowless bathroom.
Is the Angel trying to probe the Eva unit or the pilot, and did it sense me somehow? Sabia thought. She filled the sink with water, tied back her hair, and peeled off her blouse before plunging her head into the water, up to her eyes. The water would help to buffer her mind against any attempt at a psychic probe. She did not fully withdraw her head until she the bass note suddenly stopped.
"Looks like I'm going to have some work to do later," she said, reaching for a towel to blot her dripping hair. But her quip to herself filled her with foreboding.
*********************************************************************
It wasn't until later that evening, when Fuyutsuki arrived at her apartment, bringing the audio files. His lean face had a greyish cast to it and his eyes looked haggard.
"Before I turn over these files, I had better warn you first: the audio is full of noise. I don't want to give out too many details, but the pilot was severely injured during the sortie," he said, handing her the disk.
Sabia took it. "I think I have an idea of what happened. That beam of light was no beam of light."
He regarded her grimly. "That's putting it mildly. She's in quarantine because of possible contamination. Anyone who didn't know better would think she's suffering from severe combat fatigue."
Sabia opened the ROM drive on her laptop and inserted the disk. "But it's more than that."
He looked from the monitor to her face. "It's something no one should have suffered, least of all her. I don't have the clearance to discuss the details of Miss Sohryuu's past, but she had a difficult and traumatic childhood."
"Leading her to become a diffcult young woman with a traumatizingly bad temper," Sabia said, closing the drive and reaching for a pad of paper as the autoplay opened the audio player.
The first few minutes were uninteresting: muffled orders and chatter on the communications link: the audio techs had clearly tuned out the less important channels. But then the white noise started to grow more obvious, swelling to a definite voice. She started jotting notes, but afer a few lines she had to stop and look at what she had written
"Open up to me, let me through, I order you..."
"What are you, creature of Lilith? Tell me, I order you."
"How are you made? Tell me, I order you!"
Te voice changed from speaking in Enochian to speaking in German, then went suddenly silent, except for the muffled noises that were clearly Miss Sohryuu's -- no, Asuka's panicked screams.
Sabia paused the playback and put the headset down; she gripped the sides of her head, trying to quell the headache that suddenly started pounding in her temples.
"What is it?" he asked, leaning closer, but stopping at a safe distance.
"It's... it's nothing, I think I'm getting some kind of empathic feedback," she said. "The voice you hear... it's something more than just the Angel using the white noise, it's as if it's in between an EVP and actual sound. It's speaking in a imperative voice, but it's a higher form of command. I've only heard this form used in rituals. Grigori priests alone are allowed to use it, and even then, it's only used in the most solemn ceremonies."
"As if it were conjuring a pathway into Soryuu-chan's mind," he said, thinking out loud.
"It's a miracle that she survived it at all," Sabia said. She pointed to some of the text she'd written down. He leaned over her, e "These suffixes add extra emphasis, turning simple spoken commands into something along the line of an energy field. I've seen some Grigori who could add so much power to these words, they could open portals or rip holes in the space-time continuum."
"The scans described the angel's attack as something similar to an AT Field. Could it be a verbal form of one?" he mused.
The throbbing only grew worse and she felt the tightening across her skin which she knew signalled that her AT Field had started to extend. "Your guess is as good as mine," she said.
She felt his gaze on her and he moved into her field of vision. "Miss Valiant... Sabia, are you feeling all right?"
"My head is killing me," she said.
He reached over and pressing a few keys on the laptop, minimized the document. "Perhaps you had better take a break from this before it gets worse." He stepped out of her sight range and she heard him rummaging in the bathroom. He returned a moment later, carrying a paper cup of water and a few asprins cupped in the palm of his hand. He set the pills and the cup down on the top of the desk where she could reach for them, but he moved aside before she moved.
"I don't think the AT Field is going to taze you, but I wouldn't want to risk harming you. Section 2 would be on me like harpies if you had a hair out of place," she said, with what she meant to be a humorous smirk.
The corner of his mouth quirked a fraction of a millimeter. "Section 2 doesn't know anything about the incident in Ikari's office," he assured her. "Officially, you're not allowed inside the GeoFront because of -- how did they phrase it? -- 'less than appropriate conduct with a party related to a data leak'."
She glared up at him. "You linked my name to Kajii's?!" she demanded, managing to laugh at the absurdity.
"We had to throw them a bone to keep them from asking questions," Fuyutsuki said. "I was willing to be the one to admit to ...being part of that less than appropriate relationship, but Ikari wouldn't hear of it."
"Dammit, you know that's going to make people talk even more about you and me and what isn't going on between us," she said, reaching for the cup and picking up the pills.
"Then we have a ready made cover. Let them keep talking about it and perpetuating it."
"'If you lie loud enough and long enough, people will believe it'," she said and put two of the asprin into her mouth, washing them down with a sip of water. "Shouldn't I be taking only two, considering my height and weight?"
"There wasn't any migrane-strength asprin, so three will do for now, just don't take that dose again for another six to seven hours, if you need to. You're a young healthy woman and since you neither smoke nor drink, it's a risk you can take, though it shouldn't be pressed too much," he said, clearly speaking as a physician, but she thought she could detect a deeper concern in his tone and in his eyes.
She took the third pill. "So what else do you prescribe, Dr. Fuyutsuki?" she asked.
Another hint of a smile showed in the corner of his mouth, reaching his eyes this time. "I would reccommend that you allow yourself the rest of the night off and that you get a good night's sleep. If there's any sort of shielding or meditation techniques that you know, I would urge you to make use of them before you attempt to work on these files again. I'll inform Commander Ikari that it may take some time for this file to be delivered. Just be careful not to let anyone see those contents."
Back to his usual official self, she thought. Out loud she added, "About the only visitors I get are family members, but they know enough to keep their hands and eyes off my work. I bump into Shinji in the hallway once in a while, but we don't talk much, and he doesn't ask much about the work that I'm doing."
"It's for the best if you kept it that way," he said.
"Of course..." she said. A thought rose in her mind as he got up to depart. He paused, eying her.
"What is it?" he asked.
She sighed, folding her arms over her chest. "It's just that it was a lot easier to keep this under wraps when I was still in the GeoFront."
"If I had the capacity to do so, I would wipe clean the slate and let you return there, no questions asked. But I don't have the authority to overrule Ikari's orders."
"I know. I just... I miss the place." I miss you... she thought.
"If it is any comfort, there are plenty who miss your presence," he said.
"Ikari isn't one of them, though," she said, veiling her intention with a joke. He managed a smirk. "Don't linger here on my account: I'll be all right."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Ikari hasn't pushed you away merely because of what happened when your AT Field clashed with Adam's, he thought as he descended from her apartment. He sent you away because he sees in you what we both saw in *her*...
Title: "Imperative Sentences"
Day/Theme: Sept 12) I’ll tap into your strength
Series: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Character/Pairing:
Rating: PG-13. It tees off from the "mind-rape" episode.
Author's Note: Set during the end of or just after Episode 22. This was a tough bit to write, considering the intense emotions and the level of tension involved. I think this is the first time since I've started writing "Neon Enoch Evangelion", aka the ambitious NGE project, that I've actually shown just what Sabia is doing for work. Also, this is the longest bit I've written yet, so you might want to get yourself a drink and some goodies of your choice.
The attack sirens disrupted what had been a routine morning of writing in her journal and checking her messages from home. A heavy rainstorm fell over the city, keeping her indoors. Sabia would have gone for the civilian shelter, but something told her to remain in the apartment and watch the sortie that would follow.
The incident that had caused her banishment had heightened her senses, and she could feel the presence of the Angel, even though she could see nothing. But she felt a glowing presence somewhere far overhead and she almost thought she could hear, not a voice but a vibration, as if the entity had probed the air, making use of a bass note too low to be heard with the ear.
As she sat by the windows, peering through the mist and the rain, she could make out a red blotch in the near distance, above the tops of the retracted skyline. Must be Unit 02, she thought. The blotch lunged into action, charging at its unseen foe.
At that moment, a beam of intense light -- or what looked like it -- broke through the clouds, lighting up Unit 02. The Eva jolted in its tracks and the rifle reports told her it tried to fire on the Angel. But suddenly the giant robot cringed, dropping its weapon and clutching its head, writhing in pain. The bass note seemed to intensify, till she had to tear herself from the window and find refuge in the windowless bathroom.
Is the Angel trying to probe the Eva unit or the pilot, and did it sense me somehow? Sabia thought. She filled the sink with water, tied back her hair, and peeled off her blouse before plunging her head into the water, up to her eyes. The water would help to buffer her mind against any attempt at a psychic probe. She did not fully withdraw her head until she the bass note suddenly stopped.
"Looks like I'm going to have some work to do later," she said, reaching for a towel to blot her dripping hair. But her quip to herself filled her with foreboding.
*********************************************************************
It wasn't until later that evening, when Fuyutsuki arrived at her apartment, bringing the audio files. His lean face had a greyish cast to it and his eyes looked haggard.
"Before I turn over these files, I had better warn you first: the audio is full of noise. I don't want to give out too many details, but the pilot was severely injured during the sortie," he said, handing her the disk.
Sabia took it. "I think I have an idea of what happened. That beam of light was no beam of light."
He regarded her grimly. "That's putting it mildly. She's in quarantine because of possible contamination. Anyone who didn't know better would think she's suffering from severe combat fatigue."
Sabia opened the ROM drive on her laptop and inserted the disk. "But it's more than that."
He looked from the monitor to her face. "It's something no one should have suffered, least of all her. I don't have the clearance to discuss the details of Miss Sohryuu's past, but she had a difficult and traumatic childhood."
"Leading her to become a diffcult young woman with a traumatizingly bad temper," Sabia said, closing the drive and reaching for a pad of paper as the autoplay opened the audio player.
The first few minutes were uninteresting: muffled orders and chatter on the communications link: the audio techs had clearly tuned out the less important channels. But then the white noise started to grow more obvious, swelling to a definite voice. She started jotting notes, but afer a few lines she had to stop and look at what she had written
"Open up to me, let me through, I order you..."
"What are you, creature of Lilith? Tell me, I order you."
"How are you made? Tell me, I order you!"
Te voice changed from speaking in Enochian to speaking in German, then went suddenly silent, except for the muffled noises that were clearly Miss Sohryuu's -- no, Asuka's panicked screams.
Sabia paused the playback and put the headset down; she gripped the sides of her head, trying to quell the headache that suddenly started pounding in her temples.
"What is it?" he asked, leaning closer, but stopping at a safe distance.
"It's... it's nothing, I think I'm getting some kind of empathic feedback," she said. "The voice you hear... it's something more than just the Angel using the white noise, it's as if it's in between an EVP and actual sound. It's speaking in a imperative voice, but it's a higher form of command. I've only heard this form used in rituals. Grigori priests alone are allowed to use it, and even then, it's only used in the most solemn ceremonies."
"As if it were conjuring a pathway into Soryuu-chan's mind," he said, thinking out loud.
"It's a miracle that she survived it at all," Sabia said. She pointed to some of the text she'd written down. He leaned over her, e "These suffixes add extra emphasis, turning simple spoken commands into something along the line of an energy field. I've seen some Grigori who could add so much power to these words, they could open portals or rip holes in the space-time continuum."
"The scans described the angel's attack as something similar to an AT Field. Could it be a verbal form of one?" he mused.
The throbbing only grew worse and she felt the tightening across her skin which she knew signalled that her AT Field had started to extend. "Your guess is as good as mine," she said.
She felt his gaze on her and he moved into her field of vision. "Miss Valiant... Sabia, are you feeling all right?"
"My head is killing me," she said.
He reached over and pressing a few keys on the laptop, minimized the document. "Perhaps you had better take a break from this before it gets worse." He stepped out of her sight range and she heard him rummaging in the bathroom. He returned a moment later, carrying a paper cup of water and a few asprins cupped in the palm of his hand. He set the pills and the cup down on the top of the desk where she could reach for them, but he moved aside before she moved.
"I don't think the AT Field is going to taze you, but I wouldn't want to risk harming you. Section 2 would be on me like harpies if you had a hair out of place," she said, with what she meant to be a humorous smirk.
The corner of his mouth quirked a fraction of a millimeter. "Section 2 doesn't know anything about the incident in Ikari's office," he assured her. "Officially, you're not allowed inside the GeoFront because of -- how did they phrase it? -- 'less than appropriate conduct with a party related to a data leak'."
She glared up at him. "You linked my name to Kajii's?!" she demanded, managing to laugh at the absurdity.
"We had to throw them a bone to keep them from asking questions," Fuyutsuki said. "I was willing to be the one to admit to ...being part of that less than appropriate relationship, but Ikari wouldn't hear of it."
"Dammit, you know that's going to make people talk even more about you and me and what isn't going on between us," she said, reaching for the cup and picking up the pills.
"Then we have a ready made cover. Let them keep talking about it and perpetuating it."
"'If you lie loud enough and long enough, people will believe it'," she said and put two of the asprin into her mouth, washing them down with a sip of water. "Shouldn't I be taking only two, considering my height and weight?"
"There wasn't any migrane-strength asprin, so three will do for now, just don't take that dose again for another six to seven hours, if you need to. You're a young healthy woman and since you neither smoke nor drink, it's a risk you can take, though it shouldn't be pressed too much," he said, clearly speaking as a physician, but she thought she could detect a deeper concern in his tone and in his eyes.
She took the third pill. "So what else do you prescribe, Dr. Fuyutsuki?" she asked.
Another hint of a smile showed in the corner of his mouth, reaching his eyes this time. "I would reccommend that you allow yourself the rest of the night off and that you get a good night's sleep. If there's any sort of shielding or meditation techniques that you know, I would urge you to make use of them before you attempt to work on these files again. I'll inform Commander Ikari that it may take some time for this file to be delivered. Just be careful not to let anyone see those contents."
Back to his usual official self, she thought. Out loud she added, "About the only visitors I get are family members, but they know enough to keep their hands and eyes off my work. I bump into Shinji in the hallway once in a while, but we don't talk much, and he doesn't ask much about the work that I'm doing."
"It's for the best if you kept it that way," he said.
"Of course..." she said. A thought rose in her mind as he got up to depart. He paused, eying her.
"What is it?" he asked.
She sighed, folding her arms over her chest. "It's just that it was a lot easier to keep this under wraps when I was still in the GeoFront."
"If I had the capacity to do so, I would wipe clean the slate and let you return there, no questions asked. But I don't have the authority to overrule Ikari's orders."
"I know. I just... I miss the place." I miss you... she thought.
"If it is any comfort, there are plenty who miss your presence," he said.
"Ikari isn't one of them, though," she said, veiling her intention with a joke. He managed a smirk. "Don't linger here on my account: I'll be all right."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Ikari hasn't pushed you away merely because of what happened when your AT Field clashed with Adam's, he thought as he descended from her apartment. He sent you away because he sees in you what we both saw in *her*...