“You were probably conceived there,” Pieter Langley said to his daughter Asuka at the dinner table.

There was Mauna Loa; the Rangers would soon be going to Hawaii for maneuvers. After the new Ranger pilot was chosen.

“You should have thought twice,” Edgar said, then shoved mashed potatoes in his mouth.

“What does ‘conceived’ mean?” Karin asked curiously. Her roast beef was being shaped into the outer cone of a mashed potatoes volcano as Barbara tried to get her to just *eat* it.

“It means we made Asuka there,” Pieter said quickly. “And then she grew inside her mother’s womb and nine months later, she was born.”

“It means they had seeeeeexxxxxxx on the side of the volcano,” Edgar announced.

His parents froze and stared at him; he was only eleven and they’d hoped he wouldn’t force them to talk about such things to him yet.

“Edgar, don’t be crude,” Asuka snapped at him, though now she couldn’t help imagining it and didn’t *want* to.

“Had what?” Karin asked, pouring gravy into her ‘volcano’.

“See, you get naked and…” Edgar began and his mother now put a hand over his mouth; they stumbled away from the table, wrestling around.

“We have pictures… not of the conception,” Pieter said quickly.

Asuka didn’t know if she wanted to look at her mother or not. “Okay,” she said softly.

“Mooooom,” Edgar wailed.

“Pieter, please go tell your son about manners,” Barbara said sharply enough to surprise Asuka.

“Yes, dear,” he said, taking Edgar and dragging him off.

“I don’t understand,” Karin said. She was only nine and still pretty innocent if you didn’t count playground violence.

In which case, she was more like Genghis Khan, to the aggravation of her parents.

Barbara now hugged her. “Don’t worry about it, dear.”

“Now, time for the volcano to erupt,” Karin said.

“No, not at…”

Barbara ended up covered in gravy and mashed potatoes and Karin soon ended up in her room while Barbara went to clean herself, leaving Asuka alone at the dinner table.

Which was okay by her.

To her surprise, Barbara returned in a flowery blouse which Asuka had never seen. Barbara was not prone to frequent clothing purchases, so this surprised Asuka. “New blouse?”

“I…. I guess you’ve forgotten this one. It hasn’t fit me for years, but now it does,” Barbara said proudly. “I’ve dropped forty pounds.”

“In four months?” Asuka said; looking closer, she could see it, but it had crept up gradually. “Is that even healthy?”

Barbara looked around, then leaned closer. “I know,” she said softly. “But Dr. Johannsen says I am perfectly healthy. I guess the exercise helps a lot.”

“Does father know?” Asuka asked, frowning more.

“He isn’t blind,” Barbara said, winking and Asuka now wanted to never imagine anything ever again.

“If you somehow wither away, Father will be really hurt,” Asuka said, surprising herself.

“I cut back my diet but not the exercise,” Barbara said. “I don’t want to get skinnier than this.”

Asuka tried to use her ring to feel out Barbara’s health, singing a song Radagast had taught her. Barbara shifted in her seat as she reached for her fork. “I feel tingly,” she said, then looked at Asuka.

“You seem to be in perfectly good health,” Asuka said. “But maybe I’d better ask Ritsuko to scan you.”

“I’m sure we don’t need to go that far,” Barbara said, then began cutting her roast beef.

“Mother lost a lot of weight before she died,” Asuka said softly and Barbara froze and looked at Asuka, trembling a little. “I’ll schedule it during your next shift.”

Barbara sighed. “Okay.”

Not that Asuka cared if she lived or died, but Asuka didn’t want to have to deal with her father freaking out and crying children *all the time*.

******************

Neon Genesis Silmarillion (an EVA/Tolkien Legendarium fusion)Book 3: Seven ThundersChapter 6: Land Born of Fire

******************

“Your health is flawless; no signs of anything beyond normal aging,” Dr. Akagi said to Barbara, who felt quite ludicrous in a plugsuit. But you had to wear one for the scan, even though it made her feel like she was in a porno. Despite how it actually covered almost all of your skin. “You have a slightly stronger soul than a normal adult of your age.” Then Dr. Akagi looked at the scan with some concern and Barbara heard the sound of a shoe dropping.

“I’m a nurse. If there is a problem, tell me.” Barbara tried to keep calm and not panic.

Dr. Akagi made a gesture and then called up another scan and ran some sort of comparison. “How very strange.”

“Strange how?” Barbara asked, frowning.

The words which followed might as well have been ‘etoain shrdlu’ to Barbara.

“What?”

“I’m sorry. There’s interesting similarities to your husband and Asuka,” Dr. Akagi said. “Probably purely coincidental and not unhealthy. I do not see any danger of a health decline, but I am concerned over how you could lose that much weight so fast, yet remain in good health. I’d like a complete list of your diet plan for study.”

“Mostly, I just ate less food and exercised more,” Barbara said hesitantly. “No tricks beyond trying to make myself not eat

all the time and eat healthy when I did, along with jogging and some aerobic exercise.”

“Better to be sure. Just get it to me when you can,” Dr. Akagi told her.

Barbara suspected Dr. Akagi was worried about something terrible and not telling her. But she tried to relax. They both said she was okay but now they made her worry she wasn’t. She had a headache the rest of the day that didn’t clear up until she slept.

*******************

“Sandi, you can’t exorcise your computer by shouting ‘Jesus’ at it,” Nancy said to Sandi, who was seated in front of her computer, looking frustrated at work.

“Well, I can’t get anything done while it’s busted,” Sandi said, frustrated.

“You can help me transfer these files pointlessly to the records people,” Nancy said, pointing to two wheeled carts full of binders.

“This is a huge waste of time!” Sandi said but she helped Nancy trundle the carts down the hall to the elevator.

“You can tell two old men run this organization,” Nancy said to Sandi. “They were born before computers and just don’t *get it*.”

“I know, some things here are super modern and some are weirdly antiquated. Why bother making hard copies of all this information?” Sandi paused. “I mean, yes, you want to back up data, but who is going to care in 2027 if the amount of gasoline the motor pool uses gets lost?” Then she looked guilty. “But I guess I shouldn’t complain about Commander Fuyutsuki. He made me some special gear for my dance lessons.”

Nancy looked at Sandi curiously. “Go on?”

“I… actually, it’s kind of classified. I think I could tell your boyfriend but not you, sorry,” Sandi said apologetically.

“Dammit, Sandi, don’t tease me like that!” Nancy said, then sighed. “You free Friday? You should grab one of your boyfriends and join us; we’re going clubbing.”

“Is Terrel’s girlfriend as hot as I hear?” Sandi said.

“She’s not his girlfriend yet,” Nancy said. “In part because Terrel is being a wuss about love AGAIN.” She sighed. “Anyway, grab a boytoy and join us.”

“Sure,” Sandi said. “Come on, stupid elevator!”

It opened and Commander Ikari and Commander Fuyutsuki stepped out. They both saluted and Commander Ikari said, “You are correct, her boyfriend is high enough clearance but she is not.”

They both froze up in a panic.

“And we back up various files because in 2004, NERV lost a huge amount of records to a combination of viruses and hackers,” Commander Ikari continued. “And neither of you is ranked highly enough to know more than that.”

“Yes, sir,” Sandi said, saluting weakly.

“And you should go to X-L-R-8 and see Five Corner Square play; one of the Program members, Rei Akagi, will be playing with them,” Commander Ikari said.

“That’s a kiddy club,” Nancy protested.

After a few seconds in his gaze, she wilted. “Yes, sir,” she said, saluting.

Sandi suddenly wondered, if like Beetlejuice, Commander Ikari heard everything said about him.

“Yes,” Commander Ikari said to her calmly.

He has to be joking but how could he… Sandi decided to think about sandwiches until she was *far* clear of Commander Ikari.

******************

“I would be glad to show you,” Rei said to Touji. “Everyone should have better defenses.”

They were at school; he’d stopped her before lunch, in the hallway.

“I can maybe show you some unarmed combat stuff,” he said hesitantly. He could definitely use some mental combat training and he preferred even trades to asking favors.

“Yes, I should strengthen my grappling, especially since my Ranger is so much stronger than my own body,” Rei told him. “And I want to get to know my fellow warriors better.”

“Cool,” Touji said. “Tonight, maybe. I’m free.”

They began making plans as they headed to lunch.

****************

“There’s not some kind of… soul plague… going around, right?” Pieter Langley asked nervously. He looked god awful in the plugsuit and resolved to finally go on a diet and get more exercise himself.

“We know of no such thing,” Dr. Akagi said as she ran a soul scan on him.

“It doesn’t indicate I am going to die, right?” he said nervously.

“Hmm, interesting,” Dr. Akagi said while he stood around, wishing desperately for more clothing and suddenly wondering

why Asuka hadn’t forced them to make the plugsuits more dignified by now.

“Which means?” he asked.

“We actually have an old scan of you in the records from long ago,” Dr. Akagi said. “Mother took it.”

“Yes. These things were less embarrassing then,” he said, wondering if he or they had changed.

“They were cruder,” Dr. Akagi said. “Still, your soul is actually a little stronger now than it was then.”

“Well, I was still very shaken up from Kyoko’s death,” Pieter said to her. He looked at the soul scan but it was all glittery motes of silver and gold in a human outline to him.

“I expect that Asuka’s presence has strengthened you both a little,” Dr. Akagi said thoughtfully. “Her soul blazes with exceptional strength; it’s also unusually similar to her mother’s, though from what little I know, they had a rather different temperament.”

“She was a lot more like Asuka before she gave birth, and then she just never recovered,” Pieter said, feeling the old ache. “Show me something like Asuka in my soul.” He wanted to feel closer to his daughter.

Dr. Akagi highlighted various motes; it was all alien to him but then showed him the data in the other scan, the one of

Asuka. It was all glittery light and it wasn’t even in the same parts of the body. “How can you tell?”

Word salad rained down on him; he didn’t even know what language she was using some of the time.

“I see,” he said.

“The interesting thing is that your wife has some of this similarity as well,” Dr. Akagi said, pointing to more shiny bits on a third chart; the monitor was now crowded. “Probably her rubbing off on both of you, spiritually.” She sounded intrigued by this.

Pieter suddenly wondered if Asuka was actually making Edgar more prone to chew on her by making him more cranky and he laughed.

“What?” Dr. Akagi asked curioiusly.

“Nothing,” he said. “So do we need to do anything?”

“Come in for a monthly scan. I will start some long-term studies,” she told him.

He hoped this was just caution and not her hiding something because she wasn’t ‘sure’, like one of his doctors had done once.

Better safe than sorry, though, he thought.

**************

“How could she impersonate me without even having met me?” Beleg asked Finduilas, who had ridden to his dwelling in King Thingol’s territories on her way to Valmar to see the Valar.

“She had probably observed dreams of you and may have access to the Narn I Hurin or some other story about Turin,” Finduilas said, frowning as she sat in a chair across a table, facing him. She sipped the blue wine he’d set out and frowned. “I can’t even understand what she thought she was doing.”

“Possibly practicing for a real infiltration,” he said. “Given that our kind does not dream normally, there is no way she could have anticipated encountering a real Elf in the world of Dreams, I would think.” He sighed, glass in hand. “But I know little of such things.”

“It would not be impossible to enter a reverie but the victim would know something wrong when things clashed with their memories,” Finduilas said, frowning further and having a little more wine. “She was good and she had a Ring and so did her mother. Who must have trained her, but we don’t know who she is. I hope the Valar will know.”

“Are you sure she was actually young and not just short?” Beleg said. “From what I saw during the Great Dying, humans have shrunk a lot.”

“You could see it in her face,” Finduilas said. “And I felt the panic of a child.”

“I will speak to Melian,” Beleg said, now sipping his wine. “If you have time…”

“No, I must go quickly,” Finduilas told him.

“Mother would probably notice,” he said wryly.

She buried her face in her hands. “Yes.”

“We will see him soon. I have seen it,” Beleg said softly.

“If the prophecies are true, he must return, but many things are happening unanticipated by us,” Finduilas said, rising and bowing to Beleg. “Thank you for your hospitality, my old friend.”

“Thank you for telling me; I will send news if I find any,” he told her and now showed her out; she soon was back on her horse on her way to Valmar and he gathered supplies to visit his King and Queen.

**************

“WaaRK,” Pen-Pen said to Asuka as she worked in her lab. She was studying penguin data, as she had no homework to grade today and she didn’t want to let this project drag on forever, though it seemed it might, the more she learned from Radagast. Because that taught her that what she’d done with Pen-Pen probably *was* some kind of miracle, though breeding smarter penguins was showing progress… and would take years.

Even with her rigging the odds.

“I am not worried about Barbara,” Asuka said firmly. “I am just making sure Father doesn’t marry someone even *worse*.”

Pen-Pen chirped in the way she knew meant he was laughing at her and she sighed.

“I’m here,” Shinobu said cheerfully, dressed in a giant penguin costume.

Asuka stared at it in disbelief.

“I’m ready for more training!” Shinobu said cheerfully.

She was teaching dances to the chicks; Asuka had noticed the chicks treated Shinobu like their mother, and she had done well at teaching them to dance.

Asuka had not figured out what the use of dancing penguins was, beyond fun, but Pen-Pen enjoyed working with her and she thought it possible you could maybe even train them to do things with their dancing, like help crops to grow.

So despite the silliness of it all, she rose and took off her lab coat and went to dance with Shinobu and Pen-Pen and the young penguins. This is science, she reminded herself, silly as it may seem.

****************

“It looks like a Pharoah,” Touji said, studying the picture of Unit-04. The helmet was Pharoah style, anyway.

“It’s being made in Egypt, at NERV-Cairo,” Commander Ikari said to the assembled Special Talent Program members. “And you should have seen the original design. Someone watched too many cartoons.” He sighed. “Anyway, no one will be commanding this with a wristwatch.”

“Damn,” Kensuke said loudly, then laughed when everyone looked. “Just joking.”

“It’ll be you,” Touji said softly to Olga.

“I hope so,” she whispered.

“You should come train with Rei and I; you’re gonna be up to your neck in mystic shit pretty soon if you do make it,” he told her and she laughed softly.

You know, she’s pretty cool; I wish I’d noticed sooner, Touji thought as he settled back in his chair.

Commander Ikari talked about the plan for the trip, which would be this weekend; it was a short jaunt, thankfully. “Then we’ll be going to Hawaii as some of you know and as no one else needs to know,” he said, looking straight at Kensuke.

“I can keep my mouth shut, dammit!” Kensuke said, frowning.

“I hope so,” Commander Ikari said, then continued the briefing.

**************

Conrad sat in Commander Fuyutsuki’s office, concentrating and shuffling cards. He was getting good at predicting random things… maybe too good. He wanted to be able to play cards with friends without cheating. But other events, he was very hit and miss.

Even with Commander Fuyutsuki’s ring heavy on his finger.

He could feel Commander Fuyutsuki’s calm and patience and it was a little scary; this meant any ringwearer knew his feelings all the time. Rei had to know how he felt, but she didn’t seem to either reciprocate *or* reject him and he didn’t know how to interpret that. She kissed him but she kissed other guys too and she liked him but he couldn’t tell how far that went.

He had a sudden flash, Kensuke standing on a wall… the wall around the city… and shouting, “FIRE THE WAVE MOTION GUN!”

Then a massive laser as big around as a telephone pole fired off at an onrushing giant humanoid figure wreathed in lightning.

And then it was just him and Fuyutsuki, who he told what he saw.

“It may be that one of Raiden’s kin will attack the Geo-Front. Kensuke has proposed some giant laser ideas using the fragments of the lamp we have obtained. I will have to look into that more seriously,” Fuyutsuki said.

The rest of the session didn’t get much in the way of results, to Conrad’s frustration. Too much of his life felt like that.

***************

“I have STP stuff this weekend, so I will be out of contact,” Kensuke told Mari over their usual videochat.

“Well, that sucks, I was hoping we could try and finally take down the Iron Duke’s stronghold,” Mari said, clearly disappointed, which made Kensuke’s gut churn. Things seemed okay since their fight but he was still kind of nervous about it.

“Sorry, dear, but I gotta do what I gotta do. And likely the next weekend is shot too.”

“DAMMIT!” Mari shouted in frustration.

“But we’ll see. Depending on how this weekend goes, I may or may not have much to do the next,” Kensuke told her.

“Oooooh, so this is time to see who pilots Unit-04!” Mari said excitedly.

“I can neither confirm nor deny,” Kensuke said, grinning.

“Are you good for tonight?” Mari asked.

“The raid will go through,” Kensuke said. “Green Diamond Mine AWAITS.”

They now began planning it out.

*****************

Himeko knocked Olga’s sword aside and tagged her shoulder. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “You’re not focused at all.”

Kaworu was busy doing homework nearby and watching them fight; Olga should have been doing homework but had been so jumpy that Himeko had tried to settle her down with a little exercise.

“I can’t talk about it, but I’ll be gone this weekend on a special thing for the Special Talents Program,” Olga said, sounding guilty. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you more.”

“You will do fine,” Kaworu said. “You are very good at fighting, strong, and brave.”

Olga blushed a little. “You say the sweetest things,” she mumbled.

“Well, blessing of the Creator on you,” Himeko said warmly to Olga, patting her shoulder. “I know you’ll make your father proud.”

Olga turned red, then smiled weakly. “Thanks.”

Nancy now walked in. “Himeko, I’ve been sent to kidnap you.”

Himeko glanced at Olga, who made a gentle shooing gesture. Himeko laughed. “Oh dear, I have been overcome.”

She soon was hauled away.

Olga sat down with Kaworu. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you more.”

“We all have secrets,” Kaworu said and sighed.

Asuka now showed up with Berthold in tow. “Mind if we join you?”

“That would be nice,” Kaworu said, rising and getting more tea and ricecakes.

“Sadly, I have to go do STP stuff this weekend, but we leave SATURDAY, so I was thinking we should go see Rei’s

band play, even if it has BERT in it,” Asuka said, marking Bert’s name with disdain.

“I would love to see Rei play,” Kaworu said.

“Okay, then I’m good too,” Olga said. Berthold gave her an odd look which made her a little nervous.

“Do you need any help?” he asked Olga.

“Yes,” she said mournfully. “I hate Latin so much.”

“Well, it’s the root of many languages, if not our own,” he said to her and was soon helping her out, while Asuka helped Kaworu with Chemistry.

After he fumbled his pen onto himself, Asuka said to him, “Are you okay? You seem nervous.”

“I am fine,” he said firmly.

“Don’t worry, Asuka only bites stupid people,” Olga said to Kaworu. “She won’t yell unless you’re rude.”

Asuka now looked embarrassed. “You’re a good man, Kaworu. You don’t have to be afraid.”

He made odd faces, then said smoothly, “It’s okay. I am simply surrounded by beautiful women and it’s enough to make any man a little jumpy, right, Berthold?”

“Yes,” Berthold said, though he showed no signs of being jumpy.

They continued studying and Kaworu gradually relaxed.

****************

“I’m afraid I’ll be gone this weekend, so you will have to entertain Nancy,” Ralph said. “I will make it to the club trip even if it’s a kiddy club.”

“I can’t help it, Commander Ikari *ordered* me to go,” Nancy said, frowning at her cards. “This is going to be one big disaster.”

They were over at Ralph and Terrel’s place as usual, playing spades with Nancy and Himeko against Ralph and Terrel.

Himeko said hesitantly, “And it’s too secret to talk about.”

“I can’t even tell Nancy,” Ralph said, looking frustrated and studying his cards.

Nancy laid down the three of clubs to start this round. “Fire away!”

Terrel slapped down the four of clubs. Himeko laid down the ace and Ralph tossed in the two of clubs.

“Well, I hope everything goes well,” Himeko said to Ralph. “And something happens you *can* tell us about.”

“I’ll be there too,” Terrel said. “So don’t get in too much trouble without us.”

Nancy’s eyes lit up and now Himeko felt *very* nervous. That never boded well.

***************

“I’m almost certain that the next Ranger pilot is picked this weekend,” Himeko told Kaworu later, when she was home and everyone had left their home.

“Me too,” Kaworu said. “Olga clearly hopes to become the next pilot and I hope she does.”

“She is a good girl,” Himeko said warmly. “I am pretty sure I know who all the pilots are, but I want to know who is making Rings for them.” She studied her hands, remembering Nenya and wondering if it had come to life. “Yet I do not feel the Shadow on them, so I hope this does not mean Sauron is secretly behind NERV.”

“It could be Curufin or perhaps the two missing Istari,” Kaworu said to her. “Or both. Given you’ve sensed several different Sons of Feanor coming in and out of the city.”

“Yes,” she said softly. “They do not seem to have sensed us, so our protections are clearly working.”

“I expect someone would have come looking for us by now if they did notice,” Kaworu said. “But Aunt Vaire, is, after all, one of the Valar.”

Himeko yawned. “I must sleep. It’s strange having to sleep,” she said softly.

He laughed softly. “It’s strange for me; sometimes I truly sleep and sometimes it is only reverie and I am not sure why.”

Then he noticed Himeko studying him intently.

“What?” he asked nervously.

“Frau Asuka seems quite devoted to her boyfriend,” she said pointedly.

“I know,” he said miserably. “But I can’t get her out of my head and the more I am around her, the more lovely and wise and strong she seems.” He flopped down on the couch, staring at the ceiling. “But I would not thrust myself into another relationship to destroy it.”

“You don’t want to end up like Finduilas,” Himeko said, leaning over the back of the couch.

“I know, I know,” he said, sighing. “Mother must have felt like this after Father seemed to reject her.” He sighed.

“I suspect that rite showed you someone you would like but not one meant for you,” Himeko said kindly. “Anyway, there is no need to rush things.” She yawned. “Except me rushing to bed.”

They soon were fast asleep.

****************

“I can’t wear that,” Melinda squeaked, looking at Hikari’s clubbing outfit (a green tank top and matching mini-skirt with black boots).

Hikari said, “Wear what you want, Melinda.”

“You should dress up for Lars some at least,” Kevin told her.

“But…”

“We’re off with the Scotts and Jiro and Gretta,” Melinda’s mother said cheerfully, wearing an old Metallica t-shirt with holes in it, three golden crosses of different sizes on three separate silver chains, a dark blue mini-skirt and high dark blue boots. “Have fun tonight!” Andrew Sarkowski was wearing a battered University of Kentucky t-shirt and tight jeans with sneakers as he followed his wife out.

Melinda made incoherent noises.

“I’ll help you find something,” Hikari said, leading her off to her closet.

***************

Rei had discarded Bert’s original costume suggestion because she knew he just wanted her as naked as possible and she didn’t want to encourage that side of him too much. Everyone had discarded Thorvald’s costume suggestion because no one in the audience but him would likely understand who the four Evangelists were (*Rei* wasn’t sure who they were) and that didn’t make for enough costumes for everyone in the band, anyway.

Instead, they had somehow all ended up as fifties bikers in white shirts, black leather pants and biking hats which Rei thought was distinctive without saying ‘we’re here to sleep with you’. Bert was disappointed but she knew he’d get over it.

Rei had also let Thorvald spike her hair up with gel, even if it made her look like a hedgehog; she had to give him *something*.

She could see a huge crowd of people their age and some older folk to her surprise; she easily spotted Lt. Aoba, Lt. Hyuuga, Frau Woods, Frau Blake, Frau Nagisa, and two guys and a woman she didn’t know. She supposed that Aoba had likely brought them here to scout out her band since they were part of the same warrior band at work.

Bert stepped up to the mike as everyone finished checking their instruments. “Welcome, everyone! This is Five Corners Square! GET READY TO ROCK!”

And then they launched into ‘Ballad of the Water Crossers’, a song which Thorvald had written based on some book Rei had not yet read, because she didn’t have time. She had too much on her plate to read everything he urged her to read. It was a lively song and Rei had voted for it over ‘Kyoko is an idiot’, a song she’d made clear to Bert was unwise to ever play publically because Touji would kill him.

And she’d help.

Rei sang the song and in her mind, she saw great ships, painted silver and black, and at the helm of one of them, a dark haired man, young and confident, clad in black and silver like his ships. As the ship sailed, the ocean gradually turned darker and darker and redder, until it was as if he sailed on an ocean of wine and the sky turned more and more yellow. A second sun arose and great purple birds now began to cross the sky, sometimes diving to seize fish.

It was the world of the books, she realized. She forced herself to stay here; she suddenly wanted to go and join him, Corwin, that was his name, and sail to distant places. The sea longing came upon her and it filled her voice and as everyone danced, she could see they felt it too.

“Hah, I told you so,” Thorvald said to everyone on their headsets. “Perfect opening.”

Rei balanced herself, half in the dream and half in the real and now the man himself in the dream began to sing the song and she suddenly realized that Thorvald had called down a song which already existed. Or maybe they were changing the dream and making this take the place of something extant but ill-defined.

But they surely couldn’t have enough power for that. Not unless this became a big hit; too many had read that book for them to change it, right?

She would worry about it later; she had songs to sing and those worries could wait.

*******************

Nancy pinched herself to be sure she wasn’t hallucinating. This band was actually pretty damn good and the Akagi girl’s voice was almost hypnotic. Then Ralph kissed her and she didn’t notice anything for a while.

Then the band took a break to drink some water and they all went to get drinks; she’d danced so much she needed a rest, anyway.

“I think we need to see how hard it is to get Himeko and Lucy drunk,” Nancy announced.

“It’s best not to overdo it,” Lucy said. “Especially not in a club.”

“Oh come on, Terrel would pretty much kill anyone who tried to mess with you and Himeko too,” Nancy said. “They could probably play catch with a mugger.”

This soon led to Himeko having to lift Nancy over her head to demonstrate, while Shigeru and Makoto stared in surprise.

“I’m stronger, but not enough,” Nancy said. “Or I’d do a fancy dance move with Ralph over my head.”

“We’ve been working out with Himeko and Terrel,” Ralph said, showing off his muscles, which were decent but not up to Terrel’s level. Or Shigeru’s when he showed off.

“Haha, look at this,” Sandi said, then rose and put one foot behind her head. Himeko studied her slippers curiously.

“Those are very nice,” Himeko said to her. “Hand-made?”

“Hand-made and they make me awesome!” Sandi said, now spinning on one foot and kicking out several times, then lightly leaping onto the table and spinning without knocking anyone’s drinks off. She then leaped into Makoto’s arms, nearly taking him down.

“Here, try this,” Nancy said, returning with a fancy drink. “Just one, Himeko.”

“Hmm, quite good,” Himeko said and drank the rest of it quickly.

“Now, if you want another…”

“Best not to drink too much,” Himeko said, and Lucy nodded.

This woman is a hard nut to crack, Nancy thought.

****************

“Large Orange Sign reading at that club as you predicted,” Andrea said to Commander Ikari on the bridge.

Commander Ikari tapped his cheek thoughtfully. “Continue to monitor; it should not lead to anything bad, but I would rather take no chances.”

“Yes, sir,” she said. Orange Sign wasn’t dangerous after all.

*****************

Melinda could tell two things. One, Lars was distracted. Secondly, she was pretty drunk. She hadn’t MEANT to get drunk, she’d just had one bottle, which was really some from Kevin’s and some from Lars’; they were both old enough to buy beer here. She couldn’t without an adult. Neither could Hikari, who had just had part of one of Kevin’s. But as she’d feared, she had gotten pretty drunk off just one.

It felt really good but part of her brain worried she’d do something foolish. Another part WANTED to do something foolish.

She wobbled. “I had too much,” she said, stumbling into Lars, her face into his shoulder.

“You didn’t drink very much,” he said, looking worried. “You shouldn’t be drunk; you had less than Hikari and she’s not this drunk.”

“I feel kind of floaty,” Melinda said and tried to climb up to his shoulders; she’d always enjoyed riding on her father’s shoulders.

To her surprise, he lifted her up and danced, holding her on his shoulders as she cheered and waved her arms, his hands holding her legs firmly. It felt wonderful.

Best of all, she hadn’t managed to mangle her speech all night, for which she was glad. Despite how worked up she was.

This is a wonderful night, she thought.

*******************

Rei had been outvoted on the song ‘My Baby Wants to Party All the Time’, but the crowd loved it; they didn’t do many covers, but this one was a big hit to her surprise; Bert sang it, though Rei sang most of their songs, having the best voice. But this was a guy song, really.

Rei was dancing, trying to let the music guide her as she knew Shinobu could do; she wasn’t as good at it, and it felt weird to jerk around like this but now she saw people in the crowd imitating her and got a huge surge of excitement that surprised her; she rarely felt this in touch with people but now it was like they were all one being, moving in unison and it was heady.

Heady enough that she danced through the next song, unplanned, before finally remembering to get her viola and PLAY, and even then, she felt this lingering surge of excitement.

By the end of that set before the next water break, she was so worked up that she could hardly believe it; she drank water like crazy, then said, “This is water, right?”

“Yeah, best not to get drunk during a concert,” Bert said. “Or heatstroke or anything.”

She felt drunk anyway; she felt like she could fly.

*******************

##Going to crash at the Scott’s tonight after dancing, see you tomorrow at lunch,## was the message from Melinda’s mom.

That was becoming common on her parents’ Friday night expeditions, she’d noticed.

“I’m thinking we’ll go to Hikari’s, grab some movies on Netflix,” Kevin said to them. “Won’t matter how late we’re up. Once the concert’s done, that is.”

“Sounds good to me,” Lars said, then looked at Melinda.

“Sounds GREAT!” she said.

Then the band resumed and they went back to dancing.

******************

Himeko felt confused, not sure if she was drunk or what, because she was keenly aware of Ralph and Terrel’s good looks and of Shigeru and Makoto being male if not so handsome and her body was giving her signals she should only get from her husband AND which she hadn’t actually felt in an incredibly long time, since Elves in the third phase of life stopped having the desire for sex! (She’d always assumed this was to avoid overpopulation, given that Elves live forever, so if they had children forever, you’d have a problem in the long term.)

I must be imagining things, she thought as she danced with Terrel, the music somehow teaching her what to do; it was a thrilling feeling, the kind you got at a good Elven revel. But even more intense.

The fact that the song was about making it with someone was probably to blame, she then realized. Akagi Rei was

singing it and looked hugely embarrassed, yet sounded rather passionate about it as well.

If she really had a ring, she must be feeding her own emotions into it…

That explained everything, so she relaxed a little. It was only feelings and couldn’t make her do anything.

At the end, when Rei stopped singing, the feeling died down a lot and Himeko felt vindicated. Especially seeing how many people were busy making out.

To her surprise, Lucy dragged her to the bathroom. “Don’t let me do anything foolish,” she said urgently.

“What?” Himeko said in confusion.

“Don’t let me sleep with anyone tonight. I just… I had a messy breakup recently and I’m wanting someone but I don’t just jump into bed with people, but I’m tempted and it could make a mess of everything and that song just keeps going in my head,” Lucy said urgently, leaning on the sink.

Himeko said, “Think of cheese.”

They ended up singing a silly song about cheese together and at the end, Lucy looked calmer. “Thank you. I’d better not drink any more.”

Himeko felt calmer herself. “Glad to help.”

“Nancy and Sandi… I mean, if you have trouble, they’re good friends, but they both believe in getting drunk and laid as much as possible,” Lucy said. “And I want my relationships to mean more than that.”

“The same for me,” Himeko told her. “Ready to go out before they worry?”

“I’m ready,” Lucy said and they headed out.

*****************

Olga danced with Kaworu; she wanted him but she was afraid to get rejected; she’d driven off a lot of people who hit on her and she couldn’t… he seemed to be warm and gentle with everyone and she didn’t know how he felt.

Asuka and Berthold, on the other hand, were busy making out like mad weasels on the dance floor and she was surprised Asuka hadn’t just stripped him naked.

Then her watch went off and she sighed. “I have to get home so I get enough sleep for the trip, dammit.”

He kissed her hand. “I will walk you home. I do not know if they will even notice we left.”

Olga told them, but they barely noticed, as she expected.

*****************

“Man, now I wish I could get up and jam,” Shigeru said wistfully when the set ended. “I’m kind of stunned.” In fact, he went up and shook hands with everyone in Five Corners Square. “Great job, everyone.”

“Oh wow, you’re in Angel Attacks, right?” Bert said, shaking his hand with enthusiasm. “You guys are great. You need to play more places I can actually get in.”

Shigeru laughed loudly. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Maybe this is why Commander Ikari told Sandi and Nancy to go, he thought. So the rest of us would come and see if they had potential. They’re certainly great musicians, anyway.

He hung out with them for a bit, discussing songwriting and playing, before they headed out; the rest of his band had come to talk to the kids as well, and then they all shook hands again and parted.

Not the waste of time I thought, he thought. But then, these kids all seem to do great things if they try; he couldn’t help but be jealous of that. But it was clear the best of them did work at it.

He thought about Sandi’s shoes and wondered if he could get a special guitar… that was worth bugging the commanders over.

“Unfortunately, I have to work,” he told everyone. “So we may have to wrap this up early.”

“Me too,” Terrel said.

About half of them had work to do tomorrow, so they headed out to get sleep; Shigeru had learned his body couldn’t just do without sleep like the old days. It sucked, but even with a ring, you had limits.

*************

Rei knew she ought to be at home, in bed, for the trip. Instead, she was in Bert’s living room, drunk and making out with him by the wall. It felt wonderful and she wanted more and she knew that she shouldn’t do this with someone she wasn’t in love with. She liked him but he wasn’t the one but he certainly felt good against her, arms around her, tongues clashing in joined mouths.

This was completely unworthy of an Eldar but right now she didn’t care, she was in the throes of emotions she always sat on and it felt so good.

And then her phone went off. ##Better come home or you will be exhausted tomorrow.## It was Mother.

Dammit.

Her eyes widened at her own thought and she hit the side of her head and Bert stared. “Rei, what’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry, I have to go, I have program stuff and Mother is waiting.” She ruffled his hair and ran. “I’ll see you later!” she shouted and ran home in a mixture of frustration at stopping and shock at her own actions.

What am I doing, she wondered.

The universe did not answer.

*************

Melian raised her hands over the pool and began to sing; she and Beleg were deep underground in a chamber lit only by tiny glowing crystals in the ceiling; pure water bubbled up here from below; it had many purposes and scrying was one of them.

Only now as the water began to glow did Beleg realize her hair, which had turned silver ages ago, now had multiple black strands scattered about it. Images began to form in the water, and now they could see a bunch of young men in odd clothing and a single blue haired woman with spiked hair. They all wore white shirts with only a very thin collar and no sign of buttons. Their pants were made of black leather and they all wore matching black hats of some shiny material which was not quite the same as their pants, with a short brim in front and some sort of silver badge at the middle of the forehead. Only the girl, whose hair was blue and spiked, did not wear the hat. They were musicians, clearly, though one of them had a very odd instrument, a miniature table segmented in white and black; he struck the segments and it made music somehow.

They could hear words but they were incomprehensible to both Melian and Beleg, though they would remember this. A huge mob of youths in strange clothing were busy dancing; this was clearly some sort of festival.

“They’re all so young,” Beleg said softly. “There’s hardly any adults.”

“Many of them likely were orphaned in the Great Dying,” Melian said softly. “It was especially the elderly and those middling in age who died, I think.”

“She does not look like an Elf to me, just an ordinary… well an ordinary human girl who dyes her hair,” Beleg said. “And dresses like a boy for some reason.”

“It is obviously a ceremonial costume, given the rest of the crowd does not match them and they all wear the same outfit,” Melian said. “But there is power in her voice, great power,” Melian continued. “I do not know the words, but I can feel it.”

“No sign of her mother but many are gathered here,” Beleg said. “Finduilas said her name was ‘Nolwecuruni’, though that is probably a usename.”

Melian made a come hither gesture at the water and for a moment, they glimpsed the girl’s hand and the ring she wore, and then the image collapsed and Melian sighed. “It is hard to scry all the way to Arda,” she said softly.

“It is not any of the known rings, I think,” Beleg said hesitantly; he knew them mainly by reputation.

“I will try something harder,” Melian said and began another song while Beleg watched the water churn.

They could see the night sky and in it, fifteen stars flashed brightly. Then one of them shone brightest of all. Melian laughed softly. “Irmo’s star, as we might expect of a dreamwalker.”

“She is somehow connected to Lord Irmo?” Beleg asked hesitantly, feeling in over his head.

“She must possess some of his lore, along with her mother and the other children Finduilas saw,” Melian said. She began to sing again and the stars came, but this time it was a different one. “Yavanna,” Melian said, sounding surprised. “I wonder now if perhaps they are both Aiwendil’s students. He never returned to Valinor either and would have knowledge of the lore of Irmo and Este as well.”

“But what was she doing?” Beleg asked, frowning.

“Beyond my power to tell without meeting her,” Melian said. “I expect she decided to experiment with her skills without her mother’s permission and got in over her head.” She shook her head. “Luthien did that all the time.”

“I know,” Beleg said, softly, remembering times past.

“I must attend to other business now, but I hope that helped,” Melian told Beleg.

It had simply raised more questions for him, but it gave him something to work with.

************

When Asuka’s alarm went off, she stumbled out of bed, rolled across the floor and whacked into the wall.

“WaaRK?” Pen-Pen asked, stumbling out of his sleeping fridge.

“I stayed up too late, drank too much, wonderful time but now I want to *DIE*,” Asuka said, very glad that… of course, the enemy would PROBABLY ATTACK while she had a hangover.

DAMMIT, she thought and stumbled off to shower.

****************

Melinda woke up in a strange bed and a strange room, totally alone. The sheets were a plain blue in color and the wall had a painting of an eighteen wheeler on the highway.

She’d had more beer at Hikari’s, and…

Hikari stuck her head in; she was in purple pajamas. “Come and get it, breakfast is ready.”

Melinda was still wearing her clubbing outfit, she now noticed. “Is this your house?”

“Yes,” Hikari said.

She was very surprised to see Kevin in a yukata at the breakfast table. So was Lars. “I would have offered you a change of clothes but you were asleep and wouldn’t wake,” Hikari said apologetically to her.

Breakfast was oatmeal, milk, fruit, and scrambled eggs and quite good.

“We didn’t…” she began nervously.

“You fell asleep on the couch when Kevin and Lars had a fifteen minute argument over whether Lars could stand to see Jaws VII,” Hikari said to Melinda.

Melinda gave a sigh of relief.

“Lars was in another guest room,” Hikari said.

Kevin just wiggled his eyebrows and Melinda turned red. She’d thought… eeeee.

“I don’t have a hangover,” Melinda said thoughtfully.

“You hardly drank any beer,” Hikari told her. “I don’t know why you thought you were drunk.”

Maybe I was just excited by the music, Melinda thought. That had to be it.

“I have to run after this,” Hikari told them. “So let’s eat; I’m sorry to make you go so quick.”

“It’s okay, we have to get home before Mom,” Kevin told her. “Though she will likely take a while.”

They now got down to eating.

*****************

“I’m sorry to impose,” Lucy said to Himeko in the morning as they got out of bed.

“It’s nice to have company,” Himeko said. She felt quite normal again and relieved. There had been power in the music and it must have gotten to me, she thought.

That girl’s power was incredible, probably due to her ring, but there’s something about her, Himeko thought. I need to find a way to get to know her better.

Lucy sighed. “Sandi is determined to turn me into her, but I’m happy being me. Most of the time. I mean, my stupid boyfriend cheated on me and I had to dump him, but it’s not like I haven’t been here before.” She sat on the edge of the bed, legs

dangling over. “It does get lonely, sometimes, but a girl has to think about her reputation, right?”

“It is best to be with one person and be loyal and true to them,” Himeko said, coming and sitting by her. “Be patient, and you will find the one meant for you by the Creator. You do the right thing.”

“Thank you,” Lucy said, giving a sigh of relief. “So you do medical work for NERV?”

“I am a physical therapist and I do not work directly for NERV, though all my patients are on NERV insurance, pretty much.” Himeko found it all very complicated and had to employ a secretary to handle all that. The complexities of getting medical care were amazing to her.

But she loved to help people; meeting so many different people with different stories and lives was fascinating to her. And it let her gather more information about NERV. Enough to worry her tremendously.

She was quite sure the Rangers were alive, but how could they be so big? Why did children pilot them? *How* could they control such creatures? She’d heard stories of the giant war forms used by the Valar during the most ancient wars, but how could humans create such things?

She didn’t know but had to find out.

********************

Shinji didn’t want a fight, but there was something amazingly cool about parachuting down and seeing the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx nearby as you dropped down into the desert; they’d built NERV-Cairo close to both of those and he hoped it wouldn’t result in them being destroyed.

This was the kind of thing Shinji *liked* about being a Ranger pilot. He got to see things he had only ever dreamed of. In fact, he’d not even dreamed of them much, expecting he would live and die in Hokkaido.

But here he was in Egypt, seeing the pyramids and everything! The endless Sahara desert spread out in golden waves to the west and south and out of them sprouted the many buildings of NERV-Cairo; the other planes with the potential pilots were landing there.

They then moved out to guard the facility, one of them at each corner. He was determined that nothing would happen to his friends like happened at Arkham. He would keep them safe.

Because it tore him up when they got hurt. Better he get hurt himself, like in Japan. Having Touji get hurt pained him. But he could suffer on their behalf; he was used to pain.

Spear in hand, he began his guard duty, while listening to Asuka grumble about her head; he and Touji had been *smart*; they’d played video games until ten while drinking water, then went to bed. So they were fresh, while Rei and Asuka both looked like something the cat dragged in.

Shinji felt proud of himself for that.

*****************

Kensuke tried to force his tense body to relax. Come on, he thought. I’m going to do it! I have to do it!

“Okay, synch level rising to… interesting,” Maya said.

“Good interesting or I will soon have another head interesting?” Kensuke asked.

“Exactly the same as Unit-03. That’s unusual that you’d synch exactly the same with both.” Maya sounded curious.

Kensuke deflated. “Dammit.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me so much if you were in 02, but this one isn’t even formatted yet,” Maya said thoughtfully. “Maybe we should test you in 02 and 03 now, just to see.”

“They have pilots,” Kensuke said, frustrated.

“Yes, but people get sick and so on and I would expect you to synch best with them. Yet… we’ll see,” Maya said.

Kensuke liked making stuff with Commander Ikari, but… Wait… “I helped make the rings for both,” he said hesitantly.

“Oooh,” Maya said excitedly. “All the more reason to test later.”

Dammit, I blew it again, Kensuke thought. On the other hand, if I can be the backup for every Ranger from this point on…

His mind spun as they went through a few more tests.

************

Hikari fingered the ring nervously, then reached out with her will. Okay, Ranger, let’s do it, she thought. She wanted this to work; wanted a Ranger of her own, much as combat scared her. So she could do more than just look for things and talk to birds and maybe push the weather around. She needed it.

Show me the way, she thought.

******************

She rode on the back of a great eagle; it felt right to fly so high above the land and feel the wind in her face. This was why she was born, to fly with the eagles. To be the Queen of the Sky.

A great green land of many rivers spread out below her, but they flew north, to where great mountains encircled a high plateau and then through the mountains as they towered around her; the cold could not touch her and their speed exhilarated her more than anything even her boyfriend could do.

And then she came to rest in a great aerie, and looking down, she could see back through the mists of time. Great Gondolin spread out before her, hidden in an ancient vale; it lay now in ruins in the waking world, but here it was whole and beautiful with its high towers and glittering gates and endless fields of golden crops. Most of the vale was farms to feed the city, where Elves worked hard side by side with animals. And in the mountains, the great Eagles kept watch.

She knew now where its remains lay in the waking. But how could they be in the Himalayas? But she would worry about that later. The Ranger was not for her, not yet. But her time would come soon.

Soon enough.

***************

“Seventy… eighty… ninety… one hundred,” Maya counted off.

Olga waved her fist in the air. “YEAH!”

“Congratulations,” Maya said. “Your training has paid off.”

“We’ll run some more tests, but it looks you’re the one,” Ritsuko said, smiling at Olga over the comm system.

Finally, she thought. She had wanted this for so long, all she could do was cry for joy.

****************

Captain Berg read the email and sighed, then wrote Olga a congratulatory email and planned to get a cake to celebrate with on her return. But he wasn’t happy. His little girl would be risking her life like her mother.

When he could not.

But to rail against a fate he could not change booted nothing.

He would have to live with it.

Somehow.

******************

Unit-04 came out and stomped around with everyone as Olga got the hang of commanding the Ranger. She high-fived Touji while everyone said congratulations.

She was on top of the world. It couldn’t get any better than this.

Nothing could go wrong now.

“Okay, looks like our foes decided not to strike this time,” Misato said over the comm lines. “We’ll run a few simple

training exercises and bring you home and chalk this up as a total victory.”

“We were about due to have nothing go wrong,” Touji said. “I expect Asuka will accidentally wake the Volcano God and we’ll have to throw someone in as a sacrifice.” He laughed.

“Edgar,” Asuka mumbled and Olga laughed.

Everything went smoothly to their surprise and they headed home without any trouble.

******************

Makoto was surprised to see Rei show up at their doorstep the evening of everyone’s return. “Hello, Rei, how are you?” he asked, letting her in. She looked odd, wearing a head scarf and dark sunglasses and a trenchcoat; it was cool but not really that cold yet.

She looked more normal under that in a blue blouse and dark blue skirt. She put the glasses in a shirt pocket. “How does it feel when you perform?” she asked softly.

He blinked. “Exciting. More so now; you really get carried away by the music; I guess we must be calling World Two into ourselves when we perform.” He got her some chips and tea and sat down with her. “You get carried away.”

“So it’s normal to feel a little wild with that kind of music,” she said hesitantly.

“Rock music is music for running wild to,” Makoto told her. “It’s why it’s youth music; you get older and you get more cautious.”

“We all know you’re such a rebel, Makoto,” Lucy said, coming out and leaning on the back of Makoto’s chair.

“And you,” he said dryly and they both laughed.

“It does make sense; I could feel the power of World Two,” Rei said softly, looking thoughtful.

“Did something happen?” Makoto asked; he’d noticed Rei had seemed kind of out of it during the mission.

Which had fortunately been rather calm and uneventful.

And that worried him, because it was abnormal.

“Yes, and I seek to understand it,” Rei said, not looking right at him, though she was fully present. “I think I will go make an experiment. That is the scientific way.”

She rose from her chair. “Thank you for the snacks and advice.” She bowed to them and departed.

Makoto hoped he’d been helpful but now he was worried.

***************

“Gambling music?” Conrad asked Rei. “Hmm, let’s see.”

They spent close to an hour assembling a sound track from his music collection and that of his sister and father; his sister joined them, curious as to what was up. “So what will this do?” Clotilda asked curiously.

“Make us more… there is not a proper word,” Rei said.

They roped in his father as well and played poker together just using a bucket of small change that Conrad’s father Arnold had. Rei could feel a little power, but most of it actually came from Conrad, not the music, though Conrad did even better than usual and soon wiped them all out.

“I’d think you were cheating but you won every hand *I* dealt,” Arnold said, frowning at the cards.

“Dad, I don’t cheat,” Conrad said urgently, sounding angry. “And I would not cheat *family* even if I was desperate.”

“Yeah, Dad, that’s kind of harsh but… Rei, what’s going on?” Clotilda said, swinging in mid-sentence. “I know Conrad’s training in psychic powers, hard as it is to believe…”

“I swear I did not rig this. I don’t *want* to rig this. I can’t play cards if I control the cards,” Conrad said, sounding pained.

“Let us play without the music,” Rei said.

While Conrad still dominated, he did less well. She was not sure if he was subconsciously influencing the cards.

Then she made them go again and this time, she began deliberately taking big risks, bluffing on a pair of twos, making huge bets, and generally abandoning her usual caution. Her luck soared and she shivered a little. It felt *good* to do it.

It couldn’t make her do anything but if she followed its lead… it rewarded her.

But not as much as Conrad; she tended to get lucky but not always and not to his degree.

Conrad said, “Rei, were you taking bigger risks?”

“Yes,” she said. “I was ‘gambling’ more and being less cautious. And this music all glorifies risk taking.”

“I… you can’t just change things with a soundtrack,” Conrad’s father said, frowning.

This time, they got him to do the risk taking; if there was a benefit, it was small enough they could hardly tell; a little more for Clotilda on her go-round. But *knowing* that person was taking risks was likely also biasing the experiment, Rei knew.

Probably for most people though, the effects would hardly be noticeable. And even Conrad had not generated a fraction of the power of the band.

It had to have been the music; going along with it felt good and she’d gone along with it. “Okay, thank you,” Rei said to them. “Conrad, can you help me get caught up on my homework?”

“Sure,” he said. “Though you’re probably better at most things than I am.”

Clotilda elbowed him and he stared at her in confusion. She rolled her eyes and shook her head and dragged his father off. Conrad rubbed his forehead, got his books and they started studying.

They studied for a while and then Rei licked her lips nervously. “Let’s dance.”

So they put on some music for dancing and danced around the living room, waltzing. Rei smiled a little. “I like this dance.”

“Hedda taught me,” Conrad said, then spun Rei around. “It’s a lot easier than I thought at first.”

“We…” She looked thoughtful. “Can you come study at my place tomorrow?”

“Sure,” he said, though he had the feeling something was going on. But he wasn’t going to turn down more time with Rei!

****************

Olga was not so much dancing as dragging Kaworu around his apartment, she was so excited. He was laughing and she was laughing and Himeko smiled and said, “I take it things went well.”

“Yes, I can’t talk about it, but I am so excited!” Olga said.

And Himeko could see she now wore a ring like the ones worn by Touji, Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Evelyn. And the news had indicated that Unit-04 had entered service.

One of them must be a reserve pilot, Himeko thought. Though it was not impossible that Rei or Evelyn had gotten it from their parent who wore one.

But who made the rings? She had to know. She suspected it must either be Sauron, Curufin, or one of the missing Blue Wizards. Or Radagast. He was missing too, having never returned from Middle-Earth.

It wasn’t Radagast’s style, but she had never met the Blue Wizards in her entire long life. Alatar and Pallando had both been servants of Orome, though Alatar had also studied under Aule and Pallando with Irmo and Este. Alatar had worked to slay the most powerful of Morgoth’s servants in the East and to lead armies against the servants of Sauron, while Pallando worked to found anti-Shadow societies of a mystical bent, who communicated in dreams. He had been an especial friend to the Avari. Their final fate was not known.

It could be them.

But she would not know, as she did not know their souls. And they likely had some way, like her, to hide their power. Her soul would seem no more potent than any human so long as she refrained from any great display of power. So she used her power subtly and watched and waited and studied whatever information she could; RangerWatch seemed to both know a lot and not know various things. But she assumed if NERV was halfway competent, they would be feeding it false information to throw off people like her.

She wondered how many other spies there were here and whether they were suspicious of her. She did her best to act normal but she made small mistakes all the time despite talking to many in the Halls of Mandos to try to blend in better.

It helped she was Japanese and her friends were eager to show her how to do things here and accepted any mistake as ‘foreign oddity’.

The friends she was lying to.

She felt her stomach churn at that. She hated to lie to them, but she had to. And she lied as little as she could.

It was strange to have friends. She had kin, followers, handmaidens… but not many friends. Not the way she did here; many an evening was spent with them now. Having fun, talking about their lives, learning things.

She was suddenly keenly aware they would all die soon. By the measure of an Elf. Though if the world was ending, who knows what might come. Quite possibly something would attack the Geo-Front and she would die herself.

“Himeko, what’s wrong?” Olga asked and she snapped back to the world outside her head.

Himeko found herself leaning on the wall, breathing hard, and now felt embarrassed. “I’m sorry, just remembering when my husband died,” she lied. Another lie. She wasn’t sure if it was wise, but human society did not easily accept the idea of being away from your lover without it leading to the collapse of your relationship. Not for the long term. And there would be no photos, calls, and so on.

She missed him, though. More than she’d expect. She *extremely* missed him at this moment. His quiet strength was something she could lean on.

But he was a terrible liar and what he had heard of the world did not entice him.

Olga came and hugged Himeko tightly and she leaned on Olga, drawing on her strength to right herself. “Thank you,” she said softly, feeling terrible for further deceiving this kind and innocent young lady.

She did what she must, but it bothered her. She did not like spying; whatever NERV’s leaders might be up to, their pawns,

at least, seemed rather innocent of malice. Beyond the pettiness of any young person.

Which would make it all the worse if she had to fight them.

****************

“Don’t mope, man, it’s sad,” Touji said to Kensuke as they studied together with Shinji.

Kensuke was wrapped in gloom and frustration after losing out again on his dream. This aggravated Touji because it was only common sense that the people best at hitting things got to be pilots.

Admittedly, this did not explain Shinji, but Shinji was getting better.

“Ken, we need you learning to make things for us, so we’ll be stronger,” Shinji said. “I would give you my Ranger if I couldn’t, but I can’t. I don’t like fighting.” He sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t blame you,” Kensuke said. “I just… I mean… Mari…”

“You want a Ranger to be cool for your girlfriend the Ranger Watcher,” Touji said. He could get that. “You’ll have ta settle for knowing the stuff she doesn’t.”

“The Iron Duke’s stronghold is going to be after next weekend, right?” Shinji asked, then made an odd head gesture at Touji.

Touji stared, trying to sense Shinji’s thoughts and failing; he might have a ring but he wasn’t good at that.

“Yeah, since you all are going to Hawaii while I watch and cheer,” Kensuke said, sighing. “I even made the ring for it, dammit.”

“*You* made it?” Touji said, impressed.

“I helped make it,” Kensuke said, sighing. “My one real win is the knife.”

“That knife *saved my life*,” Touji told him. “You should be proud of it.”

“Yeah, I guess it did,” Kensuke said, relaxing a little and sitting up. “You know, I should make everyone some kind of knife!”

“Yes,” Shinji said. “It would be a big help!” He made the head gesture at Touji again, then Touji felt Shinji touch his mind. ‘Back me up.’

OH. Touji said, “You totally need to do that.”

Kensuke now began talk about knife designs and soon the night was shot but they had him back in better spirits.

**************

Ritsuko normally would have been happy to go over to Misato’s for the evening, especially as she felt the need to brush up on her ancient languages after the encounter with Finduilas, but she had the feeling Misato was up to something.

How reading ancient poetry and discussing it could be a plot, she wasn’t sure. But Misato seemed a little smug.

They were seated at the bar at Misato’s; Shinji and Shinobu were quietly studying at the table.

Admittedly, it might be because Misato had substantially passed her in this department. She’d been working on it constantly and Ritsuko only worked on it in her spare time, of which she didn’t have much.

Finally, she said, “Misato, I congratulate you on your dedication to this.”

“Thanks. It’s… well, it’s useful for what we’re doing but it also makes me feel… Well, closer to Father,” Misato said softly, staring off at the wall picture of her younger self with her parents.

Ritsuko could understand that; she felt closer to her mother doing the same work than she often had when her mother was alive. She wondered if Rei was right, if her mother might be still in this universe, in the Halls of Mandos. Part of her wanted

that in hope of seeing her again and part was not very impressed by the stories of the Valar or trusting in their judgment or wisdom.

Also, her mother would probably mouth off to Mandos and end up in trouble.

Ritsuko laughed at the thought.

“Well, if Rei’s right, our parents may be hanging out in the Halls of Mandos, trading embarrassing stories about us,” Misato mused, then laughed softly.

Shinji looked over at them, and Misato said, “Oh, and Shinji’s parents too.”

“They wouldn’t know I am here,” Shinji said softly.

“Maybe,” Ritsuko said. “We really don’t know how much the Valar know if they are real.” She didn’t even know if that ‘Finduilas’ was the real thing or just a dream of her, or some dream creature in the form of Finduilas. But it was something that they needed to know.

*******************

“Soon, but not yet,” Mandos pronounced. “Whatever is going on, the bonds on Morgoth’s servants will have to grow weaker before the more powerful ones such as the Balrogs or Sauron or Saruman can slip through. We still have time.”

“Then what is she?” Tulkas asked.

The Valar sat in council and Finduilas stood before them in their great hall of meeting where the fourteen thrones of the Valar stood, ranging from great wooden chairs, finely made and comfortable to the stark stone throne of Mandos. A high arched ceiling which depicted the great song on which the world was modeled rose overhead in a great dome and many arched entrances allowed in light and visitors. A shining gem stood near the peak of the room, lighting it whenever the Valar met.

“Many Maiar are unaccounted for, neither present here nor gone to the enemy. Some may have awakened and chosen to act,” Vaire said, frowning. “And some of the Elves never returned to Valinor and faded. But if our enemies have recovered, perhaps they have in some way as well. Certainly the Dwarves have re-awoken from long slumber.”

“My children will do their share for the last days,” Aule said proudly. “And my dear wife’s as well.”

Yavanna smiled. “They have flourished here in the great lands reserved for them. I regret only that they do not walk upon Middle-Earth.”

“That time will come,” Mandos said softly. “I have seen it.”

Yavanna’s eyes widened and she smiled a deep smile and settled more comfortably on her throne, which was a living plant, carefully shaped to grow into a form suitable for sitting.

“Her daughter knew enough of the tale of Turin to impersonate Beleg and how to manipulate him, though I do not understand what she was trying to do. She must have thought it all a dream and yet why…” Finduilas looked intensely aggravated. “We met by chance, yet I cannot think it true chance.”

“Eru works in ways we often do not understand,” Manwe said thoughtfully. “She may well have sought a deeper understanding of the story by taking up a role in it as best she could, then realized and tried to flee once she knew someone else real was there.” He looked at Irmo and Este.

“I think mayhap she was an apprentice who overreached herself and had to be rescued by her mother who is also her master in this art, though I am wondering how her mother learned these arts,” Irmo said, frowning. “I do not remember anyone who is missing who would be versed in such matters. Not who would fit this story.” He looked at his wife, Este.

“It’s not impossible that Aiwendil taught some others what we taught him,” Este said to her husband. “And Pallando has some knowledge. If they have scraps passed down from them or others, it could explain knowing enough to get in over her head and not enough to get out on her own.”

“I do not think there was any true malice here,” Manwe said. “That being said, a child should not be wandering around the spiritual world by herself.” He shook his head. “We should

keep an eye out, but I fear she is more a menace to herself than us.”

Finduilas frowned, but nodded.

“Should you meet her again, try to approach her peacefully; we must learn more of what is going on,” Mandos told her. “But do not seek her out, for you yourself may well end up trapped instead.”

Finduilas nodded, though it was clear she had hoped for more vigorous action. “Yes, Lord Manwe.”

She then departed.

“This would tie into Galadriel’s observations,” Irmo told the others once Finduilas was gone. “She has seen child ringbearers there. And adults. Employed by NERV. Someone is making rings of power. And this must be one of them.”

Everyone looked at Mandos, who frowned. “I have seen nothing. Even I did not see much of what would come in these final days. Vaire?” he asked, turning to his wife.

“It is possible that Curunir has awakened and is making rings; we know he studied Sauron’s ring lore. But it is more likely that Palando and Alatar are up to something. We still do not know why they did not return or where they have been for so long. I believe it would be wise to send Olorin to look for them, as soon he can be prepared for the task; They are likely among the ruling council which controls NERV.”

“They could easily sway it to their will if they chose to do so,” Mandos said, nodding. “I suspect the Sons of Feanor have something to do with this as well.”

“They should be too faded to do anything,” Manwe said, frowning. “They would attack Earendil to steal the Silmaril, but it is hard for me to see them having the power to do so. Everything is faded, even us.”

“My wife and I are not faded,” Tulkas said, frowning.

“Even you,” Manwe said. “You are still young at heart but your might is not what it was in the Springtime of Arda. We put much of ourselves into the world, even as Morgoth did. Though our work has born beautiful fruit and his did not.” For a moment, there was silence and the heard the winds blowing outside, playing a melody, as Manwe’s hand bobbed like a conductor. “We will need a long rest after this, I fear.”

“I have grown stronger these recent years,” Tulkas insisted.

“I think the world is enforcing the rules which limit everything more weakly now,” Vaire said softly. “The tapestry is fraying.”

“And yet, I feel the spring coming,” Vana said urgently. “The seeds are planted and begin to sprout. Even as we come to the end, new life begins. A new springtime of Arda is coming; I have seen it.” Her voice was unusually definitive for her. “Only

if destiny breaks completely and the shadow triumphs will that not happen.”

“The Shadow will *not* triumph,” Tulkas said. “I should go down to Arda now; they need my strength.” He rose and began to pace.

“The main blow of Morgoth will come here,” Orome said. “We must learn more of what is happening in the world of flesh before we go rushing in. And not risk breaking Arda completely trying to help them. It is why we have sent agents to many corners to investigate.”

The usual round of argument over intervention now ensued.

****************

Conrad sat down at the table, surprised to find Rei listening to loud rock music and then more surprised to find her dancing as he set his stuff out; it was very strange to him, as he was used to her being dignified among chaos.

“Dance with me,” Rei told him, so he came and tried to dance; he wasn’t good at rock dancing while she seemed so graceful and natural at it but he was soon rather worked up as she danced close to him and caressed him in places he’d never been caressed and suddenly he realized that her mother wasn’t here, they were alone, and could do anything and he felt utterly panicked.

He tried to glimpse the future but he couldn’t see anything and he wanted to do things and he kissed her and she kissed back, touching him closely and then she pulled back, looking confused and he didn’t know if he’d fucked up or not. “Did you like it?” he asked softly.

“It was wonderful,” she replied, yet this seemed to confuse and bother her. “Conrad, you’ve kissed other girls, haven’t you?” she said.

“At Hedda’s parties,” he told her. And Hedda outside parties a few times. But he had the impression Hedda kissed all her friends interested in kissing. She also talked a lot about not believing in love; he got the impression her parent’s divorce had been rather scarring.

“Did you like it?” she asked hesitantly.

He tried to intuit whether she wanted him to say yes or no. But his powers, annoyingly unreliable as always, told him nothing. It was much harder without borrowing Commander Fuyutsuki’s ring. “I like kissing you the most,” he said, finally. He wouldn’t lie but he did prefer her. “But kissing feels good in general.”

“How do people ever figure out how they really feel?” she said, sounding frustrated.

“I… you can’t tell your own emotions?” he said hesitantly. How did that even work?”

“I should not find more than one person attractive, and I don’t… it isn’t destiny,” Rei said, starting to pace. “It seems like I can’t do anything right lately, and I can’t even tell why I feel these things or… It’s all so simple in the stories,” she said, now kicking the couch in frustration. “And it’s all so complicated in reality. Shinji and Shinobu just looked at each other once and fell in love and it’s all so perfect for them and I can’t even… there is no way the universe wants me to be with a bunch of men at the same time!”

Conrad stared. Something was wrong. Rei was not like this. Did she really want Shinji and was jealous of Shinobu? Or just jealous they had this easy, natural thing. He was, a little; he had no romantic interest in Shinobu, who was way more flighty than he wanted, but he was a little jealous they had it so good. The same for Touji and Evelyn or Mari and Ken.

“You don’t have a thing for Shinji, right?” he said, then regretted it.

Rei looked mortified. “I try not to think of that, even if he is handsome and gentle and…” She buried her face in her hands. “Finduilas is still in love with a man who has been dead for thousands of years and I can’t keep my brain on the same person for a DAY.”

Part of his brain told him to confess and part said it might well make her feel *even more guilty*. Also, cowardice. So instead, he embraced her and said, “It’s only human to notice that at our age.”

“I am not human,” she said urgently.

“You’re half-human,” he said, stroking her hair; he felt strange, seeing her like this. He didn’t like it. This wasn’t the Rei he loved.

But maybe I don’t know her at all, he thought, and it embarrassed him. They had fun together, but this was the first time she’d really shared the inside of her head with him. Was the Rei he thought he knew just an act?

He suddenly wondered if he really knew anyone. Or was everyone performing? Am *I* performing, he wondered. Certainly he couldn’t quite bring himself to confess to Rei how he felt about her.

“My human half brings nothing but trouble,” she said, rocking back and forth on her feet.

“If humanity is nothing but trouble, why bother to defend us? And isn’t your mother human?” Conrad said sharply, aggravated by her dumping on humanity, given he, well, was one. “Why bother inviting me over if you hate humans?”

Rei grimaced and stared at the floor. “I like you,” she said, sounding desperate.

“But I am human, so what’s wrong with being human?” Conrad asked, stepping closer to her.

“My body tells me to do things I shouldn’t be doing and the things that ought to happen don’t happen and people keep beating me who I don’t respect at all!” Rei said, words spilling out of her. “I am so weak when others need me to be strong and others who I care about keep getting hurt instead of me. I’m not good enough an Eldar and I don’t know how to be human without people dying due to my foolishness,” she said frantically, arms flailing about.

Conrad stared in utter shock, not knowing what to say. No one ever came to him with their problems. He and Hedda had talked a lot, sometimes, but he now realized it was always him sharing his problems and he suddenly wondered if he was shutting Hedda out or if she just didn’t trust him with her heart either.

But now that Rei was, he had no wisdom. He worried about being too fat, being alone forever, about whether his powers would render him unable to do what he loved without cheating. But he almost never cared about what was proper or destiny or anything like that. Other than not cheating.

“I guess part of being human is that you have to make it up as you go along,” he said, feeling lame. Kevin would say something funny, Shinji would probably just play music and make her feel good, but he… “Sit. Let’s play a game.”

“A game?” she said in confusion.

He sat her down and they played three rounds of poker, by the end of which, she was less agitated, but also poorer. “I don’t understand,” she said softly.

“You needed to calm down,” he told her. “No deeper meaning about life being a game, though I guess you do have to play the hand you’re dealt.” He frowned. “But it’s also human to kick against the hand you’re dealt.”

She put her cards down. “I don’t like wanting different things at different times and places. It’s not faithful. It’s fickle. I don’t like fickle people like Mari.” She ground her teeth at that name, though she said it herself.

“It’s not fickle to like more than one thing,” Conrad said. “I mean, I like card games, but I like watching sports and betting on it and I like playing video games and some board games, like Monopoly. I’m normally into rock music, but I like hearing you and Shinji and Asuka play. We don’t have to be all focused on just one thing. And it’s better to try lots of things now and see how you like them.”

He’d been okay to this point but now Rei was watching him intently and he began to unravel. “And don’t condemn yourself for experimenting. If you don’t try lots of things, you won’t learn if you like them. That isn’t fickle, it’s learning. Fickle is when you promise something and then you don’t deliver. When you cheat at something. When you tell someone you like them today and hate them tomorrow.” I’m probably just saying stupid shit, he thought. He didn’t want her to go hide

in a box, but he didn’t want her seeing every boy in sight either. He wanted her for himself.

But it seemed like that might just panic her.

More.

And he feared she’d reject him.

Which wouldn’t happen if he didn’t stick his head out.

She nodded slowly, then said, “I am sorry to suddenly ask you to solve all my problems, Conrad.”

“It’s okay, it’s what friends are for,” he told Rei.

“Tell me about one of yours and maybe I can help you,” she said, suddenly much calmer and serious.

“I weigh too much and I hate my body,” he said, then wanted to die.

“You have untapped potential and you are gradually getting better,” she said. “But I would be happy to have you exercise with me. Also, I think that Asuka’s step-mother lost a lot of weight somehow. Mother can probably help you. And you could exercise with me.”

“I would love to,” he told her.

“We can do a session before you leave tonight,” Rei said. “But we really should study.” She looked calmer.

They now got down to it.

******************

The next day at training, Rei struggled to get loose from Touji’s arms but couldn’t slip free; given his strength, there was no shame in it, as she was here to learn. Further, she could easily pin Evelyn, though Evelyn tried hard in a not very competent way. But she would learn. She had to. They had to be warriors to protect this world, even her or Conrad.

It spoke well of her that she was willing to try.

Then she and Evelyn took turns going at Touji’s mind; here, they were the masters and he the student, but he took it well; like her, he understood and accepted their relative strengths and weaknesses. She found it reassuring that he believed in her.

Then Kyoko came in. “Did someone declare ‘invade Touji’s head day’?”

They were in Touji’s room, flanking him on the bed as they all sat, legs dangling over the edge.

Rei probed gently at Kyoko’s; where Touji’s door was an open book even when he tried to defend it, Kyoko’s mind was smooth and well guarded; Rei was impressed. But she easily re-

directed Kyoko’s faint effort to probe back. Admittedly, without a ring, she likely could hardly reach out of her fortress.

Then Rei realized Kyoko was holding her out *without a ring*. She could see why they were being cautious about giving her one.

But her mind wasn’t flexible; it was a hammer or a wall, where Rei’s mind was a supple snake finding holes in the wall to slip through.

Then Evelyn tickled Kyoko and her defenses collapsed; Evelyn pulled her into a hug and ruffled her hair. “You should join us.”

“Sure,” Kyoko said excitedly. She sat by Evelyn and soon the exercises resumed.

*************

Asuka had not *wanted* to see a slide show of her mother and father at Mauna Loa, but somehow she and Berthold had been trapped into it and now she regretted he wasn’t going with her. Also, she couldn’t remember her father ever looking that good.

Barbara had a strange look on her face, while Edgar kept trying to leave. Karin, on the other hand, said, “Can I go with you, Asuka?”

“I’m sorry, dear,” Asuka said to her, ruffling her hair. “I can’t believe you have this antiquated machine.” It was a real slide projector! And he had hundreds of slides.

Not all Hawaii but now she had to watch pictures of her early childhood, her parents courting and all. Berthold seemed fascinated, so she put up with it, even when she had to see a picture of her dumping spaghetti on her own head.

Edgar laughed his head off and so did Berthold, though he then stopped. “Sorry, Asuka.”

Barbara laughed too and Asuka sighed and snuggled and prayed for this trip down memory lane to end QUICKLY.

Her father looked at a roll of slides, frowned and put it away, sighing.

“What’s that?” Karin asked.

“It’s when Kyoko’s health went downhill, the last photos of her,” he said softly.

“How can you want photographs of that?” Asuka said, frowning. “She looked awful.”

“I loved her and she died,” he said softly. “I can’t bear to look and I can’t throw it away.”

“It’s okay dear,” Barbara said, coming over and kissing his cheek. “If I wither away to nothing, then you can keep a shrine for me too.”

Asuka couldn’t tell if that was sentimental or a stupid joke, but she said angrily, “If you wither away and die and Dad has to marry some idiot, I will kill you.”

“Careful, that’s almost a compliment,” her father said, sighing.

“What?” Berthold said. “Oh, is this about the diet thing?”

“I’m stable now,” Barbara said hesitantly.

“Asuka needs to diet her fat head,” Edgar said irritably.

Asuka was about to snap at him, saw her boyfriend and reminded herself to be adult. “Berthold likes my fat head,” she said.

Berthold opened his mouth, shut it, then kissed her and Barbara cooed like they were happy babies and Karin smiled and Edgar grimaced.

“I’m running away so I don’t have to ever see the fat head again,” he announced and went to his room.

Barbera sighed and went after him, while Asuka’s father said, “Okay, let’s look at Mauna Loa, since you’re going to Hawaii and it’s likely where we made you.”

Asuka didn’t really want to know that.

*****************

Touji had a long trip to Hawaii and not much to do, even with Evelyn with him. So he spent the ride trying to practice the mental exercises Rei and Evelyn had been trying to teach him.

Without drifting off into thinking about Evelyn, sports, giant robots, and so on.

Focus, he told himself. Think of the green meadow. Populate it with flowers and bushes. Ring it with trees. Feel the sun on my skin and the wind blowing my hair. Mountains in the distance, the great Pelori which ward Valinor from the east. Leaves crunch under my feet as I move, though I am barefoot and I feel the grass and the snapping of twigs.

But that’s fine, it’s how a forest meadow should feel. Little white bellflowers pop up through the grass. I can hear the birds singing, and now soft scents come through the air; I know them well, for I know my lover’s perfume; she smells always of the spring, of endless fields of flowers, and especially of roses and daffodils.

Long brown hair trails down her back, thin strands bucking the pack and hanging down in the front of her green dress, which clings tightly above and spreads out in a great pool below, though her lower legs are bare and the skirt wide, so she might dance.

And I dance across the sward to meet her, listening to the music which played when first we met and now always meets when we come together in spring. Her lips are soft and she…

“Touji?” Evelyn said and Touji suddenly snapped back to reality. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said and decided to keep a tighter reign on his imagination; the last thing he needed was dreaming of that woman in front of his girlfriend.

He did the block dropping meditation instead; it was safe.

Until he got buried in blocks as they came faster and faster and Evelyn had to pull him out.

Stupid Tetris.

***************

NERV-Hawaii was on Oahu; Olga suspected that this was just an excuse for Hawaiian vacations, but they were ‘studying volcanoes’ and stuff. IE, they wanted to be in Hawaii for fun, in her opinion.

Admittedly, it was very nice and she couldn’t blame them. She wished Kaworu was here, so they could go swim together.

As it stood, they ran around through the ocean while distant crowds watched them and did a few things to show off, like

Unit-04 and 03 basically playing catch with Unit-02 while Shinji laughed. She was glad he was being a good sport about it.

They practiced paradropping with five of them; she had a Sword Wing all to herself now. But they hoped by January to have Unit-05 ready, which would ride with her.

She wasn’t sure why they had to come all the way out to Hawaii in order to do all this; it’s not like Europe was land-locked. But splashing around the ocean in a giant robot was *fun*. It was exhilarating to chase Rei around through the water, laughing and trying to get to target flags first.

It was like she was back in first grade when she was only a little bigger than everyone and it just made her better at games. When she could play with other kids and have fun and be normal.

She had friends. Not that she hadn’t had some before this, like Asuka and Heilwig.

But this felt different. It felt right.

Until the ground shook and the heavens cried out in agony and thunder cracked like the wrath of God unleashed and the crowd wailed and everyone looked around.

“What the hell, we didn’t even do anything we don’t do *all the time*,” Touji said, sounding pissed.

“That wasn’t us,” Kyoko said. “The Stars are shocked, but it wasn’t us.”

“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” Conrad said, shivering. He was riding with Olga and now he looked confused and a little sick.

“It’s not a Wraith,” Evelyn said. “I’m not getting a flash of anything.” She concentrated really hard, then grimaced. “Nothing.”

The echoes faded and nothing apocalyptic happened yet, but Kyoko said softly, “I can hear the stars better.”

“I can hear the music,” Shinji echoed her softly.

“None of the volcanoes here are going to blow, right?” Touji asked hesitantly.

“I’ll contact the authorities,” Shigeru said.

When nothing erupted, they ended up having to continue their current plans while the Bridge crew tried to see if they would be needed elsewhere.

*****************

“He sleeps within it,” Dr. Russet said to the others, carefully handling the container within which the Silmaril was cooling. The operation had been a total success, though apparently it had touched off another Incident.

But it was worth it to have their brother back.

“Ikari will be angry,” Keele said, frowning.

“He can live with it,” Ivanov said firmly. They were all conferencing via video from private chambers; only Russet was actually at NERV-Hawaii.

“How soon can we get him a body?” Warwick asked eagerly.

“Soon. I will head out of here and join Fang and we will see to it,” Russet said.

Only one more left to get, but they felt sure it would come to them soon and then their oath would finally be fulfilled.

*****************

Beleg was on his way to the Halls of Mandos when the sky shook and thunder echoed across the land; every bird in every tree took to the skies in a panic and now panicked animals began to run in every direction. He shivered, feeling a nameless dread.

They were coming faster now, it seemed; doom raced ever closer; no one knew how many times this would happen before the end, but it seemed every time it happened, things got worse. The night air seemed chillier now but he feared that might just be his mind preying on him.

He hoped one of Mandos or Vaire’s assistants could help him to understand that song and make sense of what he had seen. So many orphans, he thought, and shivered.

But nothing apocalyptic happened beyond rain, so he pressed on.

******************

Kevin was busy doing homework, wishing Lars and Hikari weren’t both gone, when the world shook and the heavens boomed and he fell out of his chair, then realized he’d broken his pen and just ruined a good t-shirt. “Dammit!”

“Don’t curse,” his father shouted from his office.

Then he heard his mother shriek and he ran to her bedroom, where she’d been reading a book but was now clutching her head and covering her eyes. “Make it stop,” she moaned.

Kevin sat down by his mother. “What’s wrong?” he asked urgently.

“It’s the Devil,” she mumbled. “He’s making threats again.”

She’d been having nightmares about this for months and Kevin was worried about it. But she insisted she wasn’t going crazy and he couldn’t decide if her going mad or the Devil really talking to her would be worse.

His father came in and they prayed with her and the vision stopped. But now he felt more determined to do something about this, even if she didn’t want him to get involved. Surely Rei could do something.

When she got back.

***************

Himeko was watching TV with her friends after a long day at work when the world shook. She clutched her head in pain; the world spun and she fell down, even as everyone else shook and cursed.

“Himeko!” Terrel said frantically, helping her back up as she shivered. That had felt horrible, even worse than when they’d heard the thunderclaps in Valinor. Also, Terrel suddenly smelled very good, which was quite odd.

“Jesus fuck, I’m going to have to go back to work,” Ralph said, getting up.

“Why?” Nancy asked.

“Because the HALO production system is going to freak out again,” Ralph said. “Like it did last time.”

His phone soon rang as Himeko tried to recover. She could feel Terrel’s concern for her, Ralph’s irritation and Nancy’s general confusion. Ralph paused, looked at Nancy, looking

worried, then said, “It’s okay, honey. We’ll figure out what’s going on.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted, but Himeko could feel her fear, easier than before.

“Do you need aspirin?” Nancy asked Himeko.

“Yes, please,” Himeko told her and soon took two and then relaxed a little. She felt strange again but it didn’t hurt so much. “Do you know what causes that, Ralph? Or can you not tell us?”

“We don’t know,” Ralph said. “Or at least, I don’t. But it makes HALO production go berserk.” Himeko could tell he told the truth. He kissed Nancy, then headed for the door. “Sorry, everyone, I’ll call you if I won’t be back for bed.”

Once he was gone, Nancy said, “It gets louder every time. We may go deaf eventually.” She grimaced and settled back onto the couch, leaning on the left arm of it.

Terrel turned on the news, but beyond reports of car crashes due to distraction via planetary thunderclap, there was no sign of what was wrong. Nothing had blown up or gone apocalyptic; everything seemed to be fine.

****************

“They have done it again,” Gendo said wearily to Fuyutsuki in his office. “More trouble when we least need it.”

“I know, but we knew this was possible. We cannot afford to fight them yet,” Fuyutsuki told him, then munched on the frosted cinnamon buns Gendo had piled in a bowl.

Gendo almost inhaled one angrily, then sighed. “There will be more trouble.”

*****************

Asuka wasn’t back yet, so Barbara had expected a quiet breakfast, even if she was tired from a late shift. But she wouldn’t let her children go hungry. Karin ate cheerfully, while Edgar looked exhausted and haunted to a degree which worried her. “Did you have bad dreams, dear?”

“I…” He looked at her, then at his hands and down at himself. Then he looked back up at his mother. “Did you have bad dreams?” he asked softly.

“I dreamed of having to stay on my shift until I died of old age, but otherwise, no, despite the thunderclap yesterday,” Barbara said. “Did it scare you?” she asked softly. It had gone off just before the kid’s bedtime. The babysitter had told her that she’d had a hell of a time getting the kids calm after it.

“Gretchen was kind of rough putting us to bed,” Edgar complained. “So you didn’t… okay,” he said softly.

Barbara said, “You don’t have to be afraid to admit you had a nightmare, honey.”

Edgar stuffed cereal in his mouth, looking at his hands again.

She had to send him to school but wondered what he’d dreamed of the rest of the day.

****************

Touji was glad to be home; long term stays in HALO were not pleasant; thankfully you somehow didn’t have to go to the bathroom in there but you started feeling kind of strung out, like you’d stayed up for two days, chugging coffee.

They still didn’t know why the world had decided to boom this time; he was just glad it was *not his fault*.

“I am going to be glad to sleep in my own bed,” Touji said to his sister as they crossed the parking lot of their apartment building.

“Me too,” Kyoko said. “Being in HALO starts feeling kind of freaky after a while.”

They got inside and were hit by a wave of the smell of sauerkraut. “You’re just in time!” Gretta said cheerfully. “I made sauerkraut, potato pancakes, carrots, and sausage for dinner.”

Touji knew enough to know that was maybe not the *most* German meal in the world but it would do. But it sounded good to him.

It tasted good too; in the middle of dinner, his father announced, “Gretta is moving in with us in November when her lease runs out.”

Touji’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”

Kyoko stared, eyes wide, sauerkraut dangling out of her mouth and down her lip.

“I’ve never lived with a guy before,” Gretta confessed. “But I will do my best to be a good roommate!”

Touji felt boggled; his father hadn’t even dated for years and years and now he’d started dating and she was moving in and… He didn’t know what to think.

“I suppose Uncle Hiro will spew his bullshit where he’s fine with Japanese guys dating European women, but he craps himself if I mention any guys,” Kyoko said sourly.

“I’m sorry, Kyoko, I don’t want to cause you trouble, but we decided this makes the most sense,” Gretta said apologetically.

“Well, it’s okay with me if you date as long as they aren’t too old or young,” Jiro said to his daughter. “I noticed you haven’t seen anyone since you and Bert broke up.”

“No one’s interested,” Kyoko said sourly.

Gretta looked thoughtfully at Kyoko, who now looked back at her warily like a deer which has just realized a bear is nearby. “I have some ideas,” she said.

Touji grinned, hoping this would be as funny as he suspected it would be.

****************

“Mom’s in damage control mode, I hope you don’t mind me eating with you,” Lars said to Kevin and Melinda’s parents at their dinner table.

“Not at all,” Andrew Sarkowski said. “You’re a good boy and we like you, right, dear?”

Kevin’s mother looked exhausted and gloomy but she said warmly, “Of course. I know I can trust Melinda with you.”

Melinda smiled brightly then ate more of her roast beef.

“I heard they were having HALO problems,” Andrew Sarkowski said to Lars, looking worried.

“Fortunately, nothing disastrous happened thanks to the new safety measures and responses to last time. They’re just trying to establish what the ‘new normal’ is, so they can resume normal operations,” Lars said.

“We’re having issues with fuel mixes,” Andrew Sarkowski said, frowning. “Irregular, unpredictable issues, the worst kind. It’s not so bad for some things but terrible for others *and* they all vanish as soon as I try to figure them out. *Bang*, everything is just fine. Until I leave.”

“You specifically?” Lars asked, frowning.

“Well, all of us engineers. Our techs report a problem, we check it and it cures itself. But you can’t rely on one of us being there out in the field. The last thing we need is for the fuel of a Sword Wing to suddenly burn easier or harder and so on,” Andrew said.

Kevin grimaced, as did his mother. “That sounds horrible, honey. Work’s been fine for me,” Louise Sarkowski said. “If anything, it’s been smoother than usual.” Then she yawned.

“Mom, you need to talk to Rei or something,” Kevin said, frowning. “You’re worrying me.”

“I’ll be okay,” she told him. “Praying helps.”

“Well, we need to pray more or something,” Melinda said. “I’m worried too.”

“We can pray together tonight,” Louise said, smiling a little, then yawning.

“I’ll help you catch up on what you missed after dinner,” Kevin said to Lars.

“Thanks,” Lars said. He tried reaching out to the ocean but it was hard to tell if anything had changed, so he worked on eating dinner.

*****************

Olga sat down on Himeko’s couch, sighing. “We don’t even know why it happened. Kensuke joked that a time traveler must have stepped on a butterfly but…”

“I wish we knew,” Kaworu told her, seated at the other end of the couch. “I collected your homework as you asked.”

“Thanks a ton,” she said, smiling. “Is Himeko over with her friends?”

“As usual,” Kaworu said. “So it’s just us.”

She scooted a little closer, then decided to just be bold, dammit. She deserved it. She got closer and put an arm around him. His eyes widened and he turned a little red. She grinned at that, then said, “Okay, show me,” and they got down to studying.

****************

The last thing Asuka wanted to see on getting back after a mission which had started out fun and ended in futility was to

see Edgar in the living room, doing homework. He looked up at her, looking tired, then said, “Asuka, you fight monsters, right?”

She stood in the doorway, unable to comprehend how he even needed to ask. “You’ve seen me on TV, you know!” she said angrily, forgetting it was supposed to be a secret in her anger.

“How do you stand it?” he asked softly.

“How…” She paused. “Have you been having nightmares about fighting monsters?” She frowned, wondering what was going on.

“One,” he said softly, then stared down at his homework.

It slowly sank in that he wasn’t being an ass, he really… something. Why was he so down?

She walked over to him. “What happened?” she asked softly.

“I thought… it seemed so real, but when I woke up, I was back to normal. I was older and I fought monsters and people died,” he said softly. “How do you keep other people from dying when you fight?” He looked haunted and it made her feel strange.

“We’re really strong,” she said softly, not knowing what to say to him. “I don’t know what I would do if any of the other Pilots died.” The thought made her feel sick.

“You could die any time you fight a monster,” he said softly.

“I refuse to die,” she said firmly.

“Refusing won’t change reality,” he mumbled. “You can’t just wish stuff to happen.”

“Have you told your mother about this?” she asked him.

“She doesn’t fight monsters like you,” he said softly.

She looked him up and down; no sign of injuries. Could a dream shake him up this much?

She had to tell Barbara and her father. It would probably piss Edgar off, but he needed… something. Parents knew how to handle this kind of thing. Or so she hoped.

“Did you win?” Asuka asked softly.

“I won but other people didn’t,” he said softly and she winced. “It was so beautiful, but I was just… I wasn’t good enough.”

“Fighting isn’t your talent,” she told him. “Your brain is.” He was smart. An ass, but smart.

“I guess, but they were counting on me,” he said to his notebook.

Definitely time to get his mother, Asuka thought, so she went to do so after telling him to wait. Best to let a parent handle this, she thought, hoping he’d be okay and feeling strange to wish something good for him.

**************

“I’m sorry to keep you at the lab, Rei, but I need your help,” Ritsuko told Rei.

“It’s okay, I want to be a better scientist,” Rei said. They were busy testing various principles to see if anything weird was going to happen, due to the great thunderclap.

Everything seemed normal but Ritsuko feared their knowledge of what *should* happen was somehow biasing the results.

“We need someone who is terrible at science,” Ritsuko said thoughtfully.

“Kevin, Touji, Olga,” Rei said.

“Hmm, yes, we could use Touji tomorrow. Perfect. And Olga too,” Ritsuko said. “Let’s go home.”

She could tell something was bothering Rei and finally, she said, “What’s wrong, Rei?”

“Am I a good daughter?” she asked softly.

“Yes,” Ritsuko said. “You’re the best daughter I could have.”

Rei smiled a small smile. “At least one thing is going well.”

“Most people are really only good at one set of things anyway,” Ritsuko said to her. “It’s not natural to do everything well. I am a great biologist but mediocre at physics and only decent at chemistry and I couldn’t paint a picture or a run a marathon or fight off a mugger. If you try to be the best at everything, you’ll always be disappointed in your performance. You do well in school, you are a good pilot, a great dream-walker, and a great daughter. So I am happy with you.”

“I keep losing,” Rei said softly.

“Everyone loses sometimes. It’s what you do when you lose that defines what you are,” Ritsuko said, now pulling into the parking lot of the apartment complex where they lived along with the Horakis and Misato and Shinji. “It’s okay as long as you learn something and do better next time.”

“Do you ever…” Rei began, then trailed off.

“Is this about your boyfriends?” Ritsuko asked, a little amused. They now parked and got out, heading for the elevator.

“They’re not… I just… I don’t know what I want,” Rei said. “None of them feel like my destined one but I want them anyway.”

“It’s okay to just have some fun,” Ritsuko said. “As long as you don’t do anything that can get you pregnant. Though I think your fertility is very low.”

“It was… we should probably check everyone, just to be sure,” Rei told her. “Things may have changed.”

Ritsuko rubbed her forehead. Another thing to worry about.

As if she didn’t have enough already.

******************

Megan sat in her room at NERV-Arkham, doing homework and listening to music; several tunes from some student band in Germany had gone viral and she’d collected all the ones she could fine. She was pretty sure one of them was Rei, but she didn’t recognize the others. Still, it was catchy music, especially the Ballad of the Watercrossers, which she found herself singing sometimes.

Earworm.

They should get a MeTube channel, she thought.

******************

Ritsuko studied the data in her office; she had run a general

health check on the Talents. They were all in incredibly good health in almost every way. As she’d expected, though she’d worried about HALO effects. But unlike many people, the Talents never seemed to have a problem with it, other than a few times strange things had happened, like that volcano mission.

Almost all of them had unusually low fertility, with Rei even more so by a long gap. Given they all had more Eldar genetics than the average person, that didn’t surprise her.

Lars, however, had somewhat more fertility; she’d warned him about this, though he’d already known from his family history. She was worried that he might well have even more trouble with that, given how much spiritual power he had now and how the world was increasingly accommodating of what people think will happen instead of what ought to happen by scientific law.

She suddenly wondered if she could make a birth control pill for men work simply by asserting her authority as a scientist to people who would believe her. Beyond the placebo effect. But it was best not to take that kind of risk.

Still…

*****************

Shinobu did not understand why Dr. Akagi had put her to work doing labwork; half the time, Dr. Akagi had to first give

her instructions, then explain all the jargon. Or why she was mixing chemicals, heating things, cooling things, and grinding things, THEN mixing them.

But she wanted to help, so she did her best; to her surprise, everything went perfectly as long as she didn’t mess up the instructions.

Fortunately, the lab apron already had many weird stains on it.

Squirting two gasses together was maybe the weirdest thing; you had a kind of big glass box with little tubes you attached other tubes to and then gasses fed into it from smaller tubs you attached to it. The gasses went in but despite her best efforts, it didn’t work. They were supposed to turn blue but they remained transparent. “Turn blue!” she ordered them but they ignored her.

Dr. Akagi made a weird noise and Shinobu cringed. “What did I do wrong?”

“You did well,” Dr. Akagi said. “Thank you very much.”

Later she asked Asuka about it. Asuka told her, “Neon is inert, you have to excite it with electricity to do anything and even then, it turns red-orange, unless you mix it with other gases.” She scratched her head. “Are you sure she said neon?”

“I thought she said neon,” Shinobu said hesitantly.

Asuka went to go see Dr. Akagi.

***************

“So she made the experiments do what you told her they would do,” Asuka said, grimacing as she studied the results.

“I need to test it with someone with little spiritual power,” Ritsuko said, frowning.

“Hikari’s Father, maybe? Or one of Misato’s boyfriends?” Asuka said. “They need to be scientifically ignorant too, right?”

“Yes,” Ritsuko said. “We already had proof that various urban legends were coming true, but these were not things that most people would even think to do. We have to find out how flimsy the world is getting.”

“I’ll help, of course,” Asuka said.

“Thank you,” Ritsuko said.

They began making plans for more tests.

********************

Master Fang peered down the shaft; a soft light was drifting up out of it, golden and silver in turns, like HALO. Except that HALO shouldn’t be at the bottom of a great crack in the earth

under a mine, opened by an earthquake at the very moment of the breaking of destiny they had carried out to save their brother.

“You were wise to call me,” he said to the foreman. By coincidence, a member of the Red Lodge had been in the work crew. But he knew this was unlikely to be coincidence. The hand of fate could be seen here.

But what on Earth could it be? He had to find out. It was time to take over this mine and investigate.

******************

Rain poured down on the tower in which Elrond and his family dwelt. A massive storm had hit from the ocean as often it did at this time of year; this one was especially powerful. So work was stopped.

What he and his wife had just done, however, was not usual. Elves went through three stages of life; in the first, you mastered your skills and found the person you would marry. In the second, you had children and as a necessary corollary, sexual desire. And in the third, you moved on and ceased to desire such congress and became, ideally, wiser.

But somehow idleness had turned to desire had turned to such congress. It was licit… they were still married, after all. But it had never happened before, even when idle. Not in a very long time, since the urge to have children had faded.

He could not even describe how wonderful it felt but… why? Why now?

Celebrian lay in his arms, lost in reverie, while his mind wandered and worried, trying to figure out what happened; it certainly felt like all their past times long ago, just better. They were closer now. This had combined the wisdom of age and the passion of youth and was all the better for it.

But it worried him; he was a thinker to start with and now he had a puzzle and as far as he knew, this had *never* happened before.

It couldn’t be his human heritage… he’d made his choice and his wife was a full Elf.

It had to be the thunderclap but the previous one had not done this. What was going on?

But search as he might, he had no answer.

**************

Legolas was not sure why it was necessary to blindfold him in the Halls of Mandos or why he’d been summoned by one of Mandos’ agents to start with. But when Mandos called, you came. At times they carried him; it was hard to tell how far or how fast, but he got a general sense of descending ever deeper.

The last thing he expected to see when the blindfold was removed was Lord Aule. “Good evening, Prince Legolas,” he

said gravely. “I trust to your discretion on what you will see, but what is not known cannot be taken from someone. And this must remain a secret until it is time for them to come forth. But you were a friend to my children before, as few among the First Children were.” He sighed with a great sadness.

Then he laid his hand on the wall and spoke; silver lettering formed and a door traced itself and Lord Aule pushed it open, leading him into a long hallway which lead to a great hall from which many hallways departed; high pillars carven with great deeds of the Dwarves held up the high ceiling and a dozen craftsmen were working here, further decorating it, as they watched.

“Lord Mahal!” one of them cried out, then they looked at Legolas in surprise.

“Have they been here the whole time?” Legolas asked softly. It was his understanding that Dwarves slept in the stone for a time, then were reborn. When they had died out in Middle Earth, they had simply slumbered, waiting for the end of time. Which must be fast approaching.

“Half slumbered here, and half in the mountains of Arda,” Lord Aule told to Legolas, then spoke to the craftsmen and passersby in the language of the Dwarves. Legolas could only half-follow it; he knew more of the secret language of the Dwarves than most people, but not enough to fully follow this.

“Lord Mahal, there is news,” one of the passersby said. “I am Agni Strongarm of the Blacklocks, but I have news from the Longbeards.”

“Is this Fritta of the Longbeards’ conception of triplets?” Lord Aule asked Agni, who was darker skinned than any Dwarf Legolas had ever seen, darker than the men of Harad, even. But Legolas had never seen four of the seven Houses of the Dwarves, and the Blacklocks were one of them. They had dwelt in the far eastern mountains, towards their southern end, he knew.

“It is,” Agni said, sounding surprised.

“I am taking Prince Legolas to see them,” Lord Aule said to Agni. “Everyone, this is Prince Legolas of Greenwood the Great, a Dwarffriend.”

Legolas did his best to greet them in Khuzdul, though he stumbled on the words and felt like a small child. They looked stunned, and then all began speaking at once, more than he could hope to keep up with.

“We must go swiftly,” Lord Aule said and hustled them out of there. “The friends of my people have been few in number, I fear, but you are well known among them. I didn’t even think about it or I would have used a more secret entrance.”

More secret than a door only the Valar can find, Legolas thought, amused. “Thank you, Lord Aule.”

He felt something strange, almost a gathering of power as they walked through long tunnels, up and down staircases and through several great halls where they got stairs and more attention than they had time for.

“This is much faster when you don’t have to stay solid,” Lord Aule muttered and Legolas smiled, though he did not comment.

The dwarves here were much like the ones he had known on Middle-Earth all those years ago. He even saw a few he had known in life, who looked surprised, but pleased to see him; seeing Lord Aule moving quickly with him, they did not intrude, however.

“Which houses are here?” Legolas asked.

“Half of each; half of each also have awoken on Middle-Earth,” Lord Aule said. “That is where Durin is.”

“In Moria?” Legolas asked.

“Sadly, no,” Lord Aule said. “But the mithril I hid away, forseeing this day dimly, is in the hands of those who walk on Arda. But they are not our worry.”

They came to a great workshop where hundreds of Dwarves bustled about, busy making armor and weapons. Legolas wondered where the smoke went; there were chimneys but given smoke was not pouring out of the Halls of Mandos, where did it go?

Everyone turned and bowed to Lord Aule if they could without disrupting their work, then returned to it. Lord Aule led Legolas through the room; it made him nervous with all the machines and fire and smoke; Elves did smithwork too but not this much all in one place.

But this was natural to them as the forest was to his people. The world needed both of them; he had come to learn that. The Dwarves were Children of Iluvatar as well.

What surprised him was two things, though one had been obvious on the way in, he just hadn’t thought of it. Gloin was actually younger in appearance than the first time he’d seen him, and Gimli looked no older than his father. The other Dwarves he’d seen had looked that way as well, as if they’d all been reborn into the height of maturity.

But Lord Aule had likely planned that.

The second surprising thing was that in the middle of a company of dwarves all making weapons and armor, they were carefully shaping gold and silver and setting gems into a tiara, three matching opals, carefully polished by Gimli, while his father shaped metal wire together to form the frame.

“Fritta will love that,” Lord Aule said approvingly. He wore long robes and reached inside them and brought forth two bracelets of wood, shaped to resemble flowing waves of water; three pearls had been set into each, capping the three waves which formed them. Then he pressed all three pearls at once

and the bracelets popped in half with tiny pegs now visible that held it together. “A gift from my wife.”

Gloin made incoherent noises, while Gimli curiously picked them up and popped them shut, then opened them again, studying them in confusion. “How do they hold shut?” he asked, open and closing the bracelets thrice.

“It is her lore,” Lord Aule said. “The pearls were caught by some of the fishermen on the eastern shore, though they knew not my wife’s intent.”

“Prince Legolas, it is good to see you again,” Gloin said. “Fritta will complain.” He sighed. “But that is my problem, not yours. If you two want to go talk, I will finish this.”

“I can wait,” Legolas said. “You seem nearly done.”

“Aye, nearly done,” Gloin said. “Which is good since this must be done by dinner.”

“Is she moody?” Lord Aule asked, sighing.

“She wakes up ravenous, eats, throws it all up, eats something else, throws that up, yells at her midwife, tries to tear her hair out, then curses me and all my ancestors and you and the Lord of Chains and Elves and Men and fish.” Gloin sighed. “I still do not understand about the fish.”

Lord Aule glanced at the bracelet and frowned.

“Oh, she’ll love this,” Gloin said quickly. “She has never seen the sea, but she loves pictures of it.”

“Never seen the sea?” Legolas said, amazed. “It is so close.”

“But we can’t leave,” Gloin said, then looked at his son.

“What of the others?” Gimli asked Legolas. “Have they returned yet?”

“Not yet,” Legolas said. “There are many strange rumors of events on Arda. Dragons are on the move and strange giant creatures the likes of which no Child of Iluvatar has ever seen alive before, for they perished in the wars before any of us awoke.” He looked thoughtful. “If there is some way to get a canvas and paints, I could paint her a seascape as you work.”

“Gimli can get you a slab,” Gloin said. “We do not paint on anything which will not last.”

The world might end soon but that would not change how Dwarves did things, Legolas knew and he smiled a little.

“Come with me,” Gimli said to him. “Hopefully, Mother is not out wandering the halls, insulting everyone.” He sighed.

“This isn’t normal, is it?” Legolas asked, worried.

“The sickness is common but not this strong; triplets are rare and it makes the morning sickness much worse for us, but

mostly it is because she’s rough enough without feeling sick,” Gimli said, then bowed to Lord Aule and led Legolas away in search of paints.

They had much to catch up on, though Legolas was still not sure why Lord Aule had brought him here, unless it was for this. But it was good to see Gimli again. He had known he would see him one day but he would always remember the day Gimli died; the aging had started to come on him and he had held a final party and simply lain down and gone to sleep forever, accepting death with grace.

Legolas had admired that. Many dwarves held on as long as they could and descended into dementia in the end or long pain and suffering. It was not their nature to let go. But Gimli had become a different Dwarf…

“She has gone down to Middle Earth, I have heard,” he told Gimli, realizing he would want to know.

“She… Has Valinor returned to the world?” Gimli asked hopefully.

“No one knows how and I know it only as rumor,” Legolas said. “I will have to arrange to smuggle you what you made.”

Gimli touched his shirt. “I have it,” he said quietly. “So she is one of a group of new Istari?”

“No one knows for sure. Of the five, one fell to the shadow and three never returned,” Legolas told him. “But Gandalf is still here, to my knowledge.”

“Three of the nine,” Gimli said softly as they now rounded a corner and went down a staircase. “But I would like to see the others too.”

“It seems likely we will see them, but I do not know if it will be a happy meeting,” Legolas said. He hoped that if Turin came, other men would return as well. He did not wish to spend eternity remembering people he could not see again.

They reminisced of days gone by as they quested for paint; it was both a pleasure and a source of melancholy for Legolas; to have Gimli here made the old memories even more real to him but it was also a reminder of everything they had lost. And even if the rest of the Fellowship returned, the land they had lived in was gone forever.

Even to eternity-loving Elves, change would always come.

END BOOK III, CHAPTER SIX