6impearfics Off to a thunderous start
This took me a couple days to complete, but I'm quite pleased with it.
Title: Thunder from Paradise
Fandom: Neon Genesis Evangelion (part of an on-going project)
Character/Pairing: Kozou Fuyutsuki/OFC
Prompt List: Sin and Salvation
Prompt: 2. Anathema
Rating: PG-13 (mild violence)
Word Count: 2,108
Author's Notes: Part of the three part epic "Neon Enoch Evangelion", aka the ambitious NGE project that I've been hammering away at. Takes place during the month-long period covered in Episode 20 of the anime
Summary: Sabia finally tells Enniel the little that she knows about what's going on at NERV, but it's too late by his timeline, though not too late for her to find comfort from an unexpected source.
Life went on, even in the middle of a crisis. In theory, it should have been autumn, but the only tangible sign was a slight diminishing in the heat of the day.
Two weeks had passed since the commander's son had vanished inside of Eva Unit 01. Thankfully, while NERV cleaned up the wreckage in the GeoFront and rebuilt the cap of the pyramid covering Central Dogma and while Dr. Akagi scrambled to find a means to salvage Shinji, no further Angel attacks had occurred. This meant Sabia had little work to do, which gave her time to continue programming the translation software and browse through bookstores in Tokyo-3.
On one of these trips topside, as she was browsing a shelf of manga, she heard someone clear their throat behind her. She turned to look up and found one of Enniel's guards standing behind her.
"Mr. Prussot is in the city and he would appreciate your company," the guard said.
"What did I do to deserve being graced with his presence? I figured he'd just send Othmar to check on me," she said.
"He's here on business," the guard replied. Having a sinking feeling that her line of credit was being squeezed, she replaced the books she had been considering and let the guard escort her out into the street to the car that awaited them.
As she entered Enniel's suite, she heard water running in the bathroom. The door to the bedroom stood ajar, but for once, the bed was empty, no sign that he had had any company that night or morning. Good heavens, is he abstaining? What's up with that? she thought with a laugh.
The water shut off and she heard some rustling in the bathroom. A moment later, Enniel emerged, pulling on a white terry cloth bathrobe; she averted her eyes, but not before she got a glimpse of a long lateral scar across his skin just above his groin.
"Ah, so you came after all," he said, taking a towel from around his shoulders and blotting at his dripping hair.
"I was expecting Othmar, to be honest," she said.
"Well, it was better that I sent for you in person, since I was in town seeing about the money pit in the first place."
"Seeing about the what?"
"NERV headquarters: it's become something of a financial liability with all the damage that's happened. I hope Ikari pays me back for his son's little tantrum, but let's hope I can balance the books somehow and in some other way very soon." He looked at her significantly.
"So is that what you called me here for?" she asked.
He put his head on one side, giving her a "come now, child" look. "I'm a busy man: you know I haven't much time these days for social calls, even to family members."
"If you're asking me if I've managed to get any closer to Ikari, I'm afraid I have to disappoint you: he's suspicious of me at best."
Enniel frowned. "And at worst?"
"He avoids contact with me as much as possible. I think he has his reasons, though. I think he senses something in me."
Enniel took a step toward her. "And what would those reasons be?"
She'd opened the door, now she had to walk through it. "A few weeks ago, an Angel in a virus-like form broke into my laptop. I got spooked and... I wound up spreading an AT Field."
Enniel stood perfectly still for a moment, so still that he might have been a marble statue. Then his pupils started to contract to slits and she felt his own AT Field flare. "Did anyone see you do this?"
"No, but that was when I shorted out the laptop that I replaced. I'll pay you back from my salary, the little that I get."
Enniel's lean form seemed to loom up over her, though he had not moved a step. "This has nothing to do with money and everything to do with keeping certain matters hidden from those who have no right to know," he said, switching to Enochian. "Tell me that you haven't let anyone see this ability you possess."
She replied in the same language, "I've been careful, but I think there are some who sense something."
In the coldest voice she had ever heard from him, he asked, "And who are among the personages who find you suspect?"
She forced herself to stay focused on his face as she replied, "He is not the only one, but I believe the one who suspects me the most, perhaps because he can sense it reflecting off something similar that I sensed in him, is Commander Ikari."
Enniel's eyes burned like coals. Before she could dodge out of his reach, he grabbed her by the throat, pulled her up to his level and slapped her across the left side of her face. "Failure! Idiotic bitch! Why did you not tell me sooner?! It took you this long? You had so many options and oppurtunities, why could you not use them!" he snarled.
"Let me go, you're hurting me," she gagged.
"You had so many oppurtunities, and considering what you are, you could have utilized them to the utmost; you could have penetrated his circle and found a way into his arms. You know that is the most ideal way to catch a human male off guard. What kept you from doing that? What distracted you?"
"Let me go, can't breathe," she panted.
His gaze softened but did not lose its fury and he lowered her to the floor. Cupping the back of her head in one hand, he tilted her face up to his. "Do you think that I wanted to harm you? Do you think I enjoyed striking you? I would not have done this if you had not provoked me."
"Let me go," she begged. "I'm not your plaything."
He did so, his hands lingering more than felt comfortable. He looked her in the eye for a long while, then turned away. "Go...You are released from your task. Do not show your face to me. I will not send for you," he said, his voice cold with frustration.
She did not need to be told twice: she fled the room and did not slow down till she had reached the street.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nearly a week had passed since the last time he had crossed paths with Miss Valiant; the Committee had been furious for more than a few reasons and it had taken several sessions for both Ikari and Fuyutsuki to finally tamp down the brush-fire of criticisms that had raged. He had even taken a few days to retire to a small cabin he kept on the far side of the mountains, just to put some distance between himself and NERV till the solitude and the quiet of nature had settled his jangling nerves. Add to this, Ikari seemed more concerned about the Committee's reaction than about the status of his own son, still trapped inside Unit 01.
Has Yui taken her son back into her to protect him? he wondered, as he strode along a corridor, putting distance between himself and Ikari's office. But from what? From the Angels? From his own father?
He spotted Miss Valiant approaching, her pale hair loose over the left side of her face, her head bent. He noticed something angry and decisive about her stride, but her upper body made him think of an ancient manuscript painting of the Expulsion from Paradise, of Eve turning away from the haven forfeited.
"Miss Valiant?" he called.
She paused and turned to look up at him, her eyes burning with pain and anger. A large bruise marred the left side of her face, the purplish-red blotch more glaring and livid against her pale skin than it would be on a darker-skinned person. As he drew closer he realized the bruise resembled a hand, possibly a man's from the size of it. The marks of the fingers, long and thin from the pattern of the bruise, splayed across her temple and part of her forehead and the palm spread across her cheek and the side of her jaw.
He tried not to stare. "Miss Valiant... are you all right?
She looked away. "Fuyutsuki-sama, I'd rather you didn't see me like this."
He stepped closer, then carefully putting a hand under her jaw, turned her face towards him. "What happened to your face?"
She hesitated, then spoke, bitterly. "Enniel Prussot did this."
"But why would he harm you?" he felt his free hand clench defensively where she could not see it.
"We got into an argument and he slapped me."
He narrowed his eyes. "Does he do this often?" Defending the fair maiden? Even if you could fend him off, even if you could reason with him, he could find ways to circumvent you or even cause you to disappear.
She shook her head. "No, not with me, as far as I know," she said.
That didn't sound right. "What do you mean, 'as far as you know'?" he asked, trying not to let his statement sound like a demand.
"I won't deny Enniel is a very dangerous man. I know what he's capable of doing. He's like a Mafia don who went civilian but kept the same level of ruthlessness."
"That wasn't unusual after Second Impact, and in some ways, it's probably one of the few ways the world as we knew it could be rebuilt as quickly as it was."
"And we both know he had both hands involved in that," she said. "It's just... he's always been kindly to me. He's hardly raised his voice to me."
"And yet, in one gesture, he shattered your trust."
She nodded, tears showing in her eyes. "He's all the family that I have, and this is how he treated me." She turned away, her shoulders shaking with anger and with her quiet sobs. "I just... I don't remember much about what happened to me... before he took me in... when my parents died... but I can't help feeling... this isn't the first time he's done this to me."
His instinct was to put a comforting arm about her shoulders, but propriety told him otherwise. "You were in that train accident which claimed the lives of your parents, weren't you? That alone could have caused you to have amnesia. Do you remember your family being close to Prussot?"
She wagged her head. "My parents worked for him, but I don't really remember if we were close. I'm assuming they were, but I don't remember any details."
He reached into his sleeve and took out a handkerchief. She eyed it, then took it and blotted her eyes. "If he sends for you again, I will see that he is denied any contact with you," he said.
"That won't be necessary," she said. "He... he told me never to contact him again."
Orphaned again, though that may not be such a bad thing to happen to her, he thought. Out loud, he asked, "If I might inquire, what happened to anger him enough to strike you?"
"It's... it's personal, but it's not what you think," she said. "There was a time when I was younger and more naive when it would have been a romantic dispute that got out of hand, but he never reciprocated those feelings I had. That and he was away on business for the better part if a year, so those feelings died away." She looked at him, then dropped her gaze modestly. "Why am I telling you all this?" she asked, embarassed.
"You needed the sympathetic ear of a concerned friend into which to pour out some of the floodwater of sorrow in which he tried to drown your heart," he said. She started to hand back the handkerchief. "Keept it, Sabia-chan, you need more than I."
She bowed slightly. "Thanks... thank you."
"If you don't mind me turning clinical, I'd strongly suggest that you apply an icebag to that bruise. It looks horrible, but it could have something to do with your skin tone."
"Or near lack of it," she said. "It hurts a little, but not as much as it did. I think my ego is bruised worse."
He thought he heard footsteps around the angle of the corridor, but the moment the sound caught his attention, they stopped.
"Did you hear that?" she asked.
"I think we have an interloper," he said.
"I'd better get going then," she said, excusing herself a little more quickly than was necessary, or that he preferred.
Title: Thunder from Paradise
Fandom: Neon Genesis Evangelion (part of an on-going project)
Character/Pairing: Kozou Fuyutsuki/OFC
Prompt List: Sin and Salvation
Prompt: 2. Anathema
Rating: PG-13 (mild violence)
Word Count: 2,108
Author's Notes: Part of the three part epic "Neon Enoch Evangelion", aka the ambitious NGE project that I've been hammering away at. Takes place during the month-long period covered in Episode 20 of the anime
Summary: Sabia finally tells Enniel the little that she knows about what's going on at NERV, but it's too late by his timeline, though not too late for her to find comfort from an unexpected source.
Life went on, even in the middle of a crisis. In theory, it should have been autumn, but the only tangible sign was a slight diminishing in the heat of the day.
Two weeks had passed since the commander's son had vanished inside of Eva Unit 01. Thankfully, while NERV cleaned up the wreckage in the GeoFront and rebuilt the cap of the pyramid covering Central Dogma and while Dr. Akagi scrambled to find a means to salvage Shinji, no further Angel attacks had occurred. This meant Sabia had little work to do, which gave her time to continue programming the translation software and browse through bookstores in Tokyo-3.
On one of these trips topside, as she was browsing a shelf of manga, she heard someone clear their throat behind her. She turned to look up and found one of Enniel's guards standing behind her.
"Mr. Prussot is in the city and he would appreciate your company," the guard said.
"What did I do to deserve being graced with his presence? I figured he'd just send Othmar to check on me," she said.
"He's here on business," the guard replied. Having a sinking feeling that her line of credit was being squeezed, she replaced the books she had been considering and let the guard escort her out into the street to the car that awaited them.
As she entered Enniel's suite, she heard water running in the bathroom. The door to the bedroom stood ajar, but for once, the bed was empty, no sign that he had had any company that night or morning. Good heavens, is he abstaining? What's up with that? she thought with a laugh.
The water shut off and she heard some rustling in the bathroom. A moment later, Enniel emerged, pulling on a white terry cloth bathrobe; she averted her eyes, but not before she got a glimpse of a long lateral scar across his skin just above his groin.
"Ah, so you came after all," he said, taking a towel from around his shoulders and blotting at his dripping hair.
"I was expecting Othmar, to be honest," she said.
"Well, it was better that I sent for you in person, since I was in town seeing about the money pit in the first place."
"Seeing about the what?"
"NERV headquarters: it's become something of a financial liability with all the damage that's happened. I hope Ikari pays me back for his son's little tantrum, but let's hope I can balance the books somehow and in some other way very soon." He looked at her significantly.
"So is that what you called me here for?" she asked.
He put his head on one side, giving her a "come now, child" look. "I'm a busy man: you know I haven't much time these days for social calls, even to family members."
"If you're asking me if I've managed to get any closer to Ikari, I'm afraid I have to disappoint you: he's suspicious of me at best."
Enniel frowned. "And at worst?"
"He avoids contact with me as much as possible. I think he has his reasons, though. I think he senses something in me."
Enniel took a step toward her. "And what would those reasons be?"
She'd opened the door, now she had to walk through it. "A few weeks ago, an Angel in a virus-like form broke into my laptop. I got spooked and... I wound up spreading an AT Field."
Enniel stood perfectly still for a moment, so still that he might have been a marble statue. Then his pupils started to contract to slits and she felt his own AT Field flare. "Did anyone see you do this?"
"No, but that was when I shorted out the laptop that I replaced. I'll pay you back from my salary, the little that I get."
Enniel's lean form seemed to loom up over her, though he had not moved a step. "This has nothing to do with money and everything to do with keeping certain matters hidden from those who have no right to know," he said, switching to Enochian. "Tell me that you haven't let anyone see this ability you possess."
She replied in the same language, "I've been careful, but I think there are some who sense something."
In the coldest voice she had ever heard from him, he asked, "And who are among the personages who find you suspect?"
She forced herself to stay focused on his face as she replied, "He is not the only one, but I believe the one who suspects me the most, perhaps because he can sense it reflecting off something similar that I sensed in him, is Commander Ikari."
Enniel's eyes burned like coals. Before she could dodge out of his reach, he grabbed her by the throat, pulled her up to his level and slapped her across the left side of her face. "Failure! Idiotic bitch! Why did you not tell me sooner?! It took you this long? You had so many options and oppurtunities, why could you not use them!" he snarled.
"Let me go, you're hurting me," she gagged.
"You had so many oppurtunities, and considering what you are, you could have utilized them to the utmost; you could have penetrated his circle and found a way into his arms. You know that is the most ideal way to catch a human male off guard. What kept you from doing that? What distracted you?"
"Let me go, can't breathe," she panted.
His gaze softened but did not lose its fury and he lowered her to the floor. Cupping the back of her head in one hand, he tilted her face up to his. "Do you think that I wanted to harm you? Do you think I enjoyed striking you? I would not have done this if you had not provoked me."
"Let me go," she begged. "I'm not your plaything."
He did so, his hands lingering more than felt comfortable. He looked her in the eye for a long while, then turned away. "Go...You are released from your task. Do not show your face to me. I will not send for you," he said, his voice cold with frustration.
She did not need to be told twice: she fled the room and did not slow down till she had reached the street.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nearly a week had passed since the last time he had crossed paths with Miss Valiant; the Committee had been furious for more than a few reasons and it had taken several sessions for both Ikari and Fuyutsuki to finally tamp down the brush-fire of criticisms that had raged. He had even taken a few days to retire to a small cabin he kept on the far side of the mountains, just to put some distance between himself and NERV till the solitude and the quiet of nature had settled his jangling nerves. Add to this, Ikari seemed more concerned about the Committee's reaction than about the status of his own son, still trapped inside Unit 01.
Has Yui taken her son back into her to protect him? he wondered, as he strode along a corridor, putting distance between himself and Ikari's office. But from what? From the Angels? From his own father?
He spotted Miss Valiant approaching, her pale hair loose over the left side of her face, her head bent. He noticed something angry and decisive about her stride, but her upper body made him think of an ancient manuscript painting of the Expulsion from Paradise, of Eve turning away from the haven forfeited.
"Miss Valiant?" he called.
She paused and turned to look up at him, her eyes burning with pain and anger. A large bruise marred the left side of her face, the purplish-red blotch more glaring and livid against her pale skin than it would be on a darker-skinned person. As he drew closer he realized the bruise resembled a hand, possibly a man's from the size of it. The marks of the fingers, long and thin from the pattern of the bruise, splayed across her temple and part of her forehead and the palm spread across her cheek and the side of her jaw.
He tried not to stare. "Miss Valiant... are you all right?
She looked away. "Fuyutsuki-sama, I'd rather you didn't see me like this."
He stepped closer, then carefully putting a hand under her jaw, turned her face towards him. "What happened to your face?"
She hesitated, then spoke, bitterly. "Enniel Prussot did this."
"But why would he harm you?" he felt his free hand clench defensively where she could not see it.
"We got into an argument and he slapped me."
He narrowed his eyes. "Does he do this often?" Defending the fair maiden? Even if you could fend him off, even if you could reason with him, he could find ways to circumvent you or even cause you to disappear.
She shook her head. "No, not with me, as far as I know," she said.
That didn't sound right. "What do you mean, 'as far as you know'?" he asked, trying not to let his statement sound like a demand.
"I won't deny Enniel is a very dangerous man. I know what he's capable of doing. He's like a Mafia don who went civilian but kept the same level of ruthlessness."
"That wasn't unusual after Second Impact, and in some ways, it's probably one of the few ways the world as we knew it could be rebuilt as quickly as it was."
"And we both know he had both hands involved in that," she said. "It's just... he's always been kindly to me. He's hardly raised his voice to me."
"And yet, in one gesture, he shattered your trust."
She nodded, tears showing in her eyes. "He's all the family that I have, and this is how he treated me." She turned away, her shoulders shaking with anger and with her quiet sobs. "I just... I don't remember much about what happened to me... before he took me in... when my parents died... but I can't help feeling... this isn't the first time he's done this to me."
His instinct was to put a comforting arm about her shoulders, but propriety told him otherwise. "You were in that train accident which claimed the lives of your parents, weren't you? That alone could have caused you to have amnesia. Do you remember your family being close to Prussot?"
She wagged her head. "My parents worked for him, but I don't really remember if we were close. I'm assuming they were, but I don't remember any details."
He reached into his sleeve and took out a handkerchief. She eyed it, then took it and blotted her eyes. "If he sends for you again, I will see that he is denied any contact with you," he said.
"That won't be necessary," she said. "He... he told me never to contact him again."
Orphaned again, though that may not be such a bad thing to happen to her, he thought. Out loud, he asked, "If I might inquire, what happened to anger him enough to strike you?"
"It's... it's personal, but it's not what you think," she said. "There was a time when I was younger and more naive when it would have been a romantic dispute that got out of hand, but he never reciprocated those feelings I had. That and he was away on business for the better part if a year, so those feelings died away." She looked at him, then dropped her gaze modestly. "Why am I telling you all this?" she asked, embarassed.
"You needed the sympathetic ear of a concerned friend into which to pour out some of the floodwater of sorrow in which he tried to drown your heart," he said. She started to hand back the handkerchief. "Keept it, Sabia-chan, you need more than I."
She bowed slightly. "Thanks... thank you."
"If you don't mind me turning clinical, I'd strongly suggest that you apply an icebag to that bruise. It looks horrible, but it could have something to do with your skin tone."
"Or near lack of it," she said. "It hurts a little, but not as much as it did. I think my ego is bruised worse."
He thought he heard footsteps around the angle of the corridor, but the moment the sound caught his attention, they stopped.
"Did you hear that?" she asked.
"I think we have an interloper," he said.
"I'd better get going then," she said, excusing herself a little more quickly than was necessary, or that he preferred.