White Summer, Black Mountain Side
By Rob Barba
I'm writing something that uses characters that don't belong to me. In this case, it's Neon Genesis Evangelion. We all know who they actually belong to, so I won't go into it.
The ocean beckoned.
Ayanami Rei looked at it, sitting there, turning up her stereo as she sat on the beach at Zushi, the radio set to the American military station in Tokyo, playing some song by a 70s British band. She brushed a strand of her long black hair out of her eyes, allowing those brown eyes to glitter in the sun like precious gems. Overhead, a squadron of albatross danced in a festival of aerobatics, weaving in and out of the sun like a polished team of precision aircraft.
She laughed, a musical sound as she watched her personal airshow divebomb their way towards the surf in search of another fish. As they seemed to split off in perfect sequence, she shouted out, "Bravo!"
A voice at her side called out, "Well, I wasn't expecting to get that much of a response for getting the sodas." A handsome and well-built young man sat down at her side, handing her a soda. His long black hair ran down his back like a spill of night, his deep, dark eyes expressing emotions that only she could understand. "However, if you wish to cheer me on for getting you a Coke, be my guest."
Rei's response was to lean over and kiss him, warmly and affectionately. They stayed that way for a second or two, until need for breath forced them apart. "I love you, Shinji," she said as placed her head in his lap, as they both watched the roiling ocean. She stayed that way for a few more minutes before she spoke again. "Do you think your parents will like me?" she asked him, sitting up and indicating she wanted an answer.
Shinji smiled. "Why not? I love you, and I wouldn't have asked you to marry me if I didn't."
Rei fidgeted uncomfortably. "Yes, but I'm an orphan. I don't know my past. All I know about myself is a childhood of being raised by the nuns at the All Saints' Orphanage in Nerima. I was lucky enough to win that four year scholarship to Stanford, where we met."
"And that was the happiest day of my life," he said, beaming. Shinji leaned over and kissed her tenderly on the forehead. "Rei-chan, you're worrying too much. My mother will love you, and my father's a saint--he's more like a friend than a parent sometimes. They'll accept you with open arms, sweetheart. Trust me."
"I always have," she said, snuggling up against him. "I always will."
They sat and watched as the night grew dark, finally until the stars glittered in the nocturne above them, a diamond spray on a field of velvet. As both got to their feet, picking up their beachside accessories and readied to head back to Shinji's car, she focused her face on the man she loved. She reached forward and kissed him, and he returned that kiss, strong and sensual. The various beachside equipment went back down on the sand, joined a second later by the blanket, and their clothing.
As they made passionate and gentle love on the beach, Rei felt the stars to be a thousand blessings, each the culmination of this young musician she met in another country, a man with enough passion and imagination to take her away from her fascinating, yet solitary life of a dedicated student of biology. As they lay, spent and exhausted, hours later in the comfort of one another's' arms, Rei gazed once more into the eyes of the man she chose to spend the rest of her life with.
He caught that loving gaze and returned it. "I love you, my dearest treasure of my heart."
The words she spoke were never truer. "And I love--"
* * *
"--you should be more careful, Asuka-chan," Ikari Rei told her only child. "This is dangerous ground, and you need to stay with either your father or with me, understand?"
"Hai, Okaasan," the rambunctious five year-old said in the sing-song voice of child who was having the time of her life. At five, with her soft brown hair and green eyes, Ikari Asuka resembled neither of her parents, rather taking after Shinji's mother. Also, the way the child was an eternal bundle of energy, she was not likely to follow in her father's footsteps as a world famous cellist or her mother, the relatively famous biologist.
From behind them, Shinji laughed. "She's just having the time of her life, dear," he replied. "I think we all needed this little getaway." Rei lovingly looked at her husband, thanking his brilliance for this idea. Age had given him a sophistication that he'd not had back when they were in college. His hair now short, he looked still a bit of a rogue, but at least a civilized one. The rogue in him said when she'd won the a UNICEF award for her research in childhood diseases, it was time to take time off and go on a family trip before the scientific world inundated her life. So, the next day they packed their bags and headed for the beautiful mountainside country around Fujiyama.
She smiled inwardly as well. The ryokan they were staying at tonight belonged to an old high school friend of hers, and the room they were given was perfect. She'd have to thank Ritsuko for the extra touch when she saw her again, especially if tonight worked out the way it was.
As if on cue, a pair of hawks reached for the sky climbing into the breathtakingly blue skies. They danced an airborne ballet, an avian measurement that reminded her of a quiet time she and her then-fianc�e shared nearly seven years ago. Now, as then, she laughed and called out, "Bravo!"
"Sorry, but I forgot the sodas this time, love." Apparently, she wasn't the only one who was reminded of the past.
However, the future made its presence known as little Asuka pointed into the sky and said, "Okaasan! Otoosan! Look! Birds!" With a child's wonder, she squealed in joy as her father picked her up and hoisted her onto his shoulders. "Wow! Aren't they great?"
"Yes, yes they are, himechan," Shinji answered his daughter. "And I'll bet you want to be a pilot, so you can fly your airplane with them, right?" After all, this was the career goal that the child had solemnly had decided on.
However, little Asuka shook her head and said. "No...I wanna be a astronaut! I wanna go to the moon! An' I'll take you an' Okaasan with me!" The child announced gleefully. "Just watch! You'll see!"
"Of course, A-chan," Rei said, her voice as light and airy as the clouds themselves. "And your father and I will be more than proud of you." As they continued to move on through the trail, Rei began to hum her favorite song--that old 70s song that she heard once on a radio in Zushi way back when.
That night, The Littlest Astronaut was asleep in her little futon, dreaming of rocket launches and satellites. Over at the table, her parents watched her as she slept the sleep of angels.
"She's such a dear," Shinji remarked, "just like you, my love." He reached over and kissed her playfully on the nose.
She inclined her head, brushing his lips with hers, and replied, "and soon there'll be another one to share our joy with."
Shinji grew puzzled for a second, then wide-eyed as realization filled his mind. "Rei, you-you're...?"
She nodded. "You're going to be a father again, love. I'm about seven weeks into my term." She went over to his side and snuggled against him like she'd done many a time. "I'm hoping for a boy, this time," she said, as she looked down at her belly, which had yet to show any indications of the cycle of birth. "And I'm sure he'll be as rambunctious as our little A-chan."
"You really think she'll be an astronaut?" Shinji replied, his eyes smiling the joy of a father-to-be once again.
"She'll be whatever she wants, and we'll be proud of her accomplishments, sweetheart. She's our child. She was born to reach for--"
* * *
"--the year and a half that I'll be on the Mars Mission," Captain Futuyuki Asuka, JASDF, told her parents. "I train with the Americans at NASA for about six months or so, then we climb aboard the US space shuttle Challenger II which will get us to the ISS, then to the field training site on the Moon. From there, we'll board the new US deep-space shuttle Evangelion, which will put us in LPO around the planet. It'll drop a lander, and we'll spend a month there doing research and soil samples. " Her green eyes twinkled as she laughed, her chestnut bangs drooping into her eyes. "It'll be like a beach blanket party. It'll be fun!"
"But are you sure it's safe, sis?" Ikari Kaji wrote down the words as he interviewed his sister for the newspaper he worked at. This was the news story of the decade, and with his older sister Asuka leading the Japanese contingent, for him to get the story was a cinch.
"I'm sure your sister is more than adequately trained for this," Shinji said, running a hand through his salt and pepper hair. He'd recently taken a sabbatical from his position as conductor of the Imperial Symphony Orchestra, just to spend the time with his family before his daughter headed for the stars.
Sitting next to him, Rei's eyes twinkled, belying her age. She'd also taken time off from her research, and although she was knee-deep in the finishing stages of the cure for cancer, her research lab associates felt it was more important that the Nobel Science laureate spend time with her family as well. "I can hardly imagine all of this is so true. I remember when you were just a little one, scampering around and telling everyone that you wanted to be an astronaut."
"Well, I'll always be your little A-chan," she said in a fairly good imitation of a child's voice.
"That's you," Kaji teased his older sister. "The first child, the Wonder Girl. Figures you'd go to the stars. You've always been a little light in the head."
"You're just jealous that I go places and you don't." She laughed then added, "but that's okay. You'll always still be my pest of a little brother."
Shinji and Rei merely looked at each other with that "It's the kids" look, then chuckled.
That night, the Ikari family sat on the patio of their house, a little villa in Miurakaigan, a forested area overlooking a splendid view of the ocean. In the background, was the stereo playing, with of course, Rei's favorite song. Over the years, she'd associated that tune with her life, and the life she shared with her family; it therefore seemed appropriate that she should play it while she was here with her loving husband and two children. With the stars as their audience and the stereo as their orchestra, the four watched the constellations and the heavens, a place that Asuka would soon be amongst. The four of them continued to chat and talk happily.
"So, I forgot to ask, gomen," Kaji said, "but how's your family doing, sis?"
"Oh, Toji's fine. He's getting used to Houston, but he misses Japanese baseball. I think he's just being silly as always, but living in America always does that to people, I guess. Little Misato is having the time of her life, but she's just an absolute terror! I swear I couldn't have been that bad when I was younger, was I, Mom, Dad?"
"Of course you weren't, dear," Rei said in her patient mother's tone. She then noticed that her oldest child was actually wistful in her tone. "You look so sad, A-chan. What's wrong?"
Staring at the stars, she said honestly, "I wish I could take you with me to the moon. I know that it was just a child's promise, but it's one I wish I could keep."
Shinji remembered the words that she'd said, nearly thirty years ago. "But sweetheart, you've made us so proud. You're actually going to the moon! And, you'll be the first Japanese person, no--the first woman on Mars! That's the accomplishment of a lifetime, and we're so very proud of you."
"I know, but that promise was very important to me, and that's something that you two taught me, that an Ikari should always keep one's promise, to never run away from responsibility and always carry though."
"But you'll be going for us, dear," Rei responded. "Besides, your father and I are too old to be going into space. Don't worry, darling--we'll wait right here for you to come back."
"You promise?" Asuka said, in that girl voice of hers again. "I'll be gone for a year and a half, after all, and probably won't be back in Japan for at least two years."
Rei smiled. "Of course, my little A-chan. We'll always be here for you, because we love you. Your father and I will wait here on Earth for you to come back, even if it takes--"
* * *
"--forever...." Ayanami Rei said, her bloodied and bruised face currently bandaged, her red eye staring into the harsh, sterile light of the operating lamp before her senses were overwhelmed, shutting her down. She rasped once, then slipped into unconsciousness.
"She's finally stopped," the doctor said in relief, his voice being picked up by the ambient microphones in the trauma room.
Commander Ikari, staring through the glass in the observation deck, watched as an operation team patched up the first child. He said nothing, merely sitting in the seat provided for him. At his side was a stack of papers, detailing information about the antics of the Second Child while she was overseas, and the recently arrived Third Child--his own son.
That, however, was not the issue at hand. The problem was the reactivation tests for Unit 00. Not only had Ayanami been injured in the incident, but the normally harmless LCL was said to have had a hallucinogenic effect on her. She'd been babbling about birds and beaches and mountains and the moon for a few minutes, only to whisper that final word and go silent. From what the microphones picked up, she'd unintentionally begun to drive the trauma team on the edge. However, now she was quiet, and with that, the medical attendees could more happily tend to their duties.
Satisfied that everything was in order, he went to attend to other affairs.
Later that afternoon, Rei tried to explain her experiences to Ikari: "I do not remember much...all I can remember is a flash of light from the moment the system failed, to the flash of light when I was in the operating room." She looked down at the blankets as she sat up in the bed in the hospital room. "There is nothing much else that I remember."
"I...see," was his only reply. "Well, then I should let you rest. I will see you tomorrow, Rei." Ikari turned to leave for the door, even as she said her goodbyes.
However, as he was closing the door from the other side, he heard something that froze him in his tracks.
Rei had begun to hum, and that in itself was unusual. But what made it more so was the song: "White Summer/Black Mountain Side," an old song from a British rock band from the 1970s called Led Zeppelin. It had been Yui's favorite, though he never knew why; he only knew that she considered it "the soundtrack of her life". But why would a clone with a theoretical age of 14 be humming a song she could never have had the chance to learn, a song that had been old even before her genetic donor had even been born?
Ikari Gendo wanted to know the answer to that, but the truth of it was, Ayanami needed her rest. As much as he wanted to know the answer, it could wait. It could wait until the next day.
He never got the answer. She never remembered humming the song, nor had even heard of a "Lead Zeppelin," maybe other than in a historical context.
* * *
The sanitation engineer was the only one to discover it. Cleaning up the trauma room after the afternoon's events, he was swabbing and sterilizing the floor, when he noticed a little something on the floor...something that under no means should be there. At first, he thought he should notify NERV Central; after all, it could be a sign of the Angels. He picked up the items and turned them in to the laboratories for further identification.
Two days later, a clearly puzzled and confused Operations staff handed their report to Commander Ikari. They said that the objects scanned under several methods were completely normal, despite the odd circumstances in which they were discovered. As Ikari Gendo read the report, he too grew confused, though it never registered on his face, nor did he admit it to anyone. He ordered the research team to silence, the report destroyed, the matter dropped. However, in an equally confusing decision, he ordered that the items themselves be turned over to the First Child, for her personal disposition. Two days later, they sat in the room of Ayanami Rei, gathering dust like so many other things in her sparsely-decorated apartment.
As Ikari sat in silence, he didn't know how to explain it, but he knew that it was beyond explanation, beyond maybe even the Angels. The truly inexplicable part was not the beach-like sand, or the fresh-smelling sprig of pine...
...no, it was the gray rock and white note in a clear canister. The small gray rock identified to be of the same makeup as the rocks brought from the moon back in the middle of the last century. Or the note that enigmatically read: TO MY LOVING PARENTS: I COULDN'T TAKE YOU TO THE MOON, SO I BROUGHT IT TO YOU. YOUR LITTLE A-CHAN.
Author's Drug Trip:
Another one of those fics I have no idea why I wrote. Why did I choose that particular song? Again, no real reason. This seems to be the modus operandi for me during my post-TOS recovery period--and for those of you who are wondering, yes, TOS Zero is underway (unless you're in Asia, where it's TOS Alpha. ^_^). Lastly, I'd like to thank my victims...um, pre-readers, Lurker and Godboy, for reading this and not recommending detox for me afterwards.
--Rob
