PREEMPTIVE DISCLAIMER: I, Mainblag, do not own Godzilla nor Evangelion. The copyrights on Godzilla and related monsters are owned by Toho Company, Ltd., and the copyrights on Evangelion are owned by Gainax and Khara.
I would like to give thanks to Fyrstorm, writer of Not The End, for being my primary proofreader.
Godzilla/Evangelion: God Can (Not) Save You
Chapter One: Under a Burning Sky
.
August 12th, 2015. The Arctic Ocean.
"No you don't!"
In the cold Arctic air, sitting above the even colder Arctic Ocean, a battle raged.
"Get back here!"
Mari Makinami Illustrious was not having it- not today. Hell, especially not today. The pilot slammed her right joystick forwards, causing Evangelion Provisional Unit-05 to do the same with the lance it held. The sound of metal tearing split the air as her lance plunged through the Second Angel's throat, pinning it to one of the sealing pillars on Bethany Base's perimeter, and stopping it dead in its tracks. Its rocket boosters depleted, Unit-05 spun its mechanised legs up, and clamped onto the pillar as well- Mari didn't plan on letting that oversized snake escape anytime soon.
For a moment, the Angel- 'Hofniel', they'd called it- was still, almost frozen in place. But not for long. With an unearthly howl, the serpentine monster's head twisted around to face her, and its eyes flashed. Unable to move out of the way, Mari could only hiss in pain as a beam of light punched through one of her Eva's legs, overloading the internal circuitry into a fused mess. In her mind, she was almost ready to seize up and fall. But those legs were metal, not her own. She knew that well enough.
"Shit!"
A mess of thoughts raced through her mind, millions of neurons snapping and firing like tiny firecrackers popping in sequence... until they all came to the same conclusion- the one she'd come to throughout every training run, with every bit of footage she'd seen of Angelic combat.
Kill.
A wild grin appeared in her mind, before the corners of her mouth contorted into that same shape.
"...This'd really hurt," Mari snarled through gritted teeth as she pulled herself up the sealing pillar. "If it wasn't so much fun!"
With that, Unit-05's other arm lunged out, and snapped its clamp-hand around the Angel's core. The hydraulics compressed, applying more and more pressure to the crystalline organ... and yet, gripping the blood-red marble with all her might- it wouldn't break.
Mari spared a glance at the timer- only to realise the Eva had just over thirty seconds left before its batteries ran out.
"Time's almost up… I'll have to make this snappy," she muttered. "Even though the stupid arms weren't even synced properly, and this damn thing's starting to fall apart on me!"
Another beam erupted from Hofniel's eye sockets, and tore the rest of the Eva's four legs from its body. Their mostly empty fuel tanks caught alight and burst, spraying the two fighters with fragments of superheated metal. Over all of it came the crackle of grinding bones and the howling Arctic wind- as Mari realized she was on the brink of defeat.
She wouldn't allow that. She couldn't allow that- never in a million years.
The pressure in her head rose, the almost incessant nagging growing louder.
"Fine! Here, you want it that badly, I'll just give you the arm!" She shouted, relinquishing control of the right arm to the elements that she couldn't govern herself - that being the Eva itself. The limb jerked away from the lance, then suddenly swung back upright, clamping down hard on the core with redoubled strength. Its mouth split itself open, letting out a growl in anguish.
"That's enough!" the problem child shouted, pushing the control lever as far as she could reach in the entry plug. "Just...fucking...die!"
The core snapped. Like a glass marble, that which brought life to the Angel shattered into a million bits.
Before Mari could do anything more, the entry plug shot out of Unit-05, locking into an escape rocket before she found the capsule being flung away. With one last gasp of air, the Evangelion vaporised itself in a bright white fireball around Hofniel- followed shortly after by the Angel's own self-immolation. The rampaging blast of fire swallowed up Bethany Base, and tore it apart.
Above the carnage, a pair of energy crosses soared into the sky.
The debris from the base sank into the LCL-tinged Arctic waters, the red fluid settling in the cold, now considerably less traversed sea. As sections cracked and crumbled from the pressure, some fell off of a cliff undersea. Chunks reached the rocky surface, but others hit something else entirely.
On the Arctic Seabed, something stirred.
.
"Target obliterated," a pilot on a distant airplane observed. "Unit-05 has been vaporized."
Unlike the base, the plane was well ahead of the shockwaves from the two blasts.
"The pilot appears to have ejected," the copilot added.
Heh, good job, Mari.
"So, Unit-05's self-destruct program triggered without so much as a hitch. It's all going to plan," Ryoji Kaji said to himself. "Still, it's a shame we have to use these kids to do the grown-ups' dirty work." Casually, the man thumbed a small device before stuffing it in his pocket. The Key of Nebuchadnezzar - to think that thistiny thing was as important as it was. He thought back to the plan- while he traveled north to smuggle this miniscule, man-shaped key out, his partner in this plan would travel south, to the opposite end of the Earth. The end result would-
"Mr. Kaji?" One of the pilots asked, leaning back to look into the cabin.
"Yes?" Kaji stood up straight, keeping a warm smile as he walked up to the cockpit.
"We've located the ejected entry plug, but…" the other pilot said. "Well, the plug's SONAR system is detecting something. It seems…" he leaned to the side, punching a few buttons on the control panel "...that we have a bogey."
Kaji's smile faded from his face. As he leaned forward to look over the tracking map, he removed his hands from his pockets and stretched his arms over his head.
"Nothing on visual," the co-pilot muttered. "Switching to Infrared-SONAR overlay."
As the monitor flickered from a normal camera to a map of muted-colors and heat, it became glaringly obvious that something big was down there, and it clearly wasn't Hofniel or the Evangelion.
Something that put out a lot of heat.
"Any idea on its blood pattern?" Kaji asked, only to be met with a swift shake of the pilot's head. The agent blinked, then realized the stupidity of his question. Annoyed with himself, the man let out a groan.
"Of course not, Ryoji, we don't have MAGI on airplanes yet." he muttered to himself. Turning back toward the cabin, Kaji walked back to his seat, slumping down with gritted teeth and furrowed eyebrows.. "Keep an eye on it regardless, 'kay?"
He mulled over the infrared display in his mind, trying to piece together some logical explanation for what he saw.
Damn...hang in there, problem child.
.
With a hiss of decompression, the entry plug unsealed, releasing a gust of warm steam across the cold arctic sea.
Mari crawled out of the cylindrical piloting chamber- now bobbing freely in the water- and staggered up on bent knees. The girl gave a hacking cough, and bent forwards a little as the last remaining droplets of LCL left her lungs. Slowly, she looked up. Illuminating the dark skies were two violet crosses, shimmering with residual energy from the blasts.
"Ow...that hurt…" Mari sat down on the floating entry plug, holding her side. The girl pried her helmet off with her other hand, and winced as her back straightened out. "Syncing with an Eva is even more brutal than they warned me." Her eyes wandered over the skies, scanning for the airplane flying in the distance.
"Well, I'm alive, so it's all good."
She removed her hand from her side, gazing at the double crosses. "Still, I do feel kinda bad about using these adults to get what I want." she chuckled, gazing toward the dark seas around her, before returning her gaze to the bright beams. "Bon voyage, Eva Unit-05. You served us all well."
She sat there in silence for a brief moment, only to feel a wave cresting. The Eva pilot shifted her glasses up her nose, trying to get a better focus on the waves, only to spot a large bulge in the surface of the water heading right past her. She scooted back, fully aware of her vulnerability outside of the plug. Just below the surface of the water, she could see…something.
"What the…?" Mari muttered in confusion as she watched that something peek over the water's surface.
Jets of boiling steam shot up into the air like spires around it. Mari leaped back with a yelp, shielding her face as the scalding water dissipated, leaving the ocean bubbling and seemingly glowing an ambient white.
.
The seaplane touched down just over a meter from the entry plug. Kaji leaned out of the doorway, holding out his hand. Reluctantly, Mari took the leap, grabbing onto Kaji's arm and pulling herself into the plane.
"Glad you're alright, problem child," Kaji said, patting the Eva pilot on the head before bolting the door shut. "Clear to take off again." he sat down in a chair and closed his eyes.
Mari slumped down in a chair as the plane tilted up in take-off, stretching out her arms above her head. "That was one hell of a fight, wasn't it?"
"Was it really?" Kaji asked with slurred and tired words, his eyes still closed.
"Mhm."
The skies were a deep maroon, bordering on black, with thick clouds rolling and churning. In a distant corner of the cloud layer, rain had started to pelt the surface. The distant sound of a rainstorm over Siberia…
"Hey, Kaji, 's there something the matter?" Mari said, leaning on the back of his chair and gently prodding his forehead.
He yawned, rubbing his face out of tiredness.
"Look, Mari, I'm trying to get some rest before we rendezvous with the fleet." his stubbly face was pale from lack of sleep. "We're landing at about 0820 hours or so, so you'd best want to catch up on-"
"There's one thing that's puzzling me, though, Kaji," Mari said, prompting a raised eyebrow from Kaji. "There was...something in the water, I'm not sure what."
Me neither, problem child.
"Hmm," the agent mumbled, his eyes slowly drifting shut. "Might've just been from the Eva. Just get some sleep. Big day tomorrow."
"Alright." Mari said with a twinge of defeat in her voice, walking off to further rows.
The man's eyebrows furrowed as he took his rest.
.
0850 hours later. The Pacific Ocean.
The seaplane landed off the port-side of the ship, water splashing off its pontoons. A gangplank was swung down from the vessel, latching just under the plane's door. The door shunted open, and the two disembarked. It was Mari who first boarded the ship, finally out of the too-tight plugsuit and in some normal clothes, charging aboard and hopping aboard, landing on two feet with a salute and a smile.
A figure stood before her, donning a pale yellow sundress, foot tapping in such a manner that screamed 'unimpressed'. Mari fixed her glasses on her face, the figure coming into focus. The smile she wore proudly on her face faded.
"Guten tag!" Asuka Langley Soryu, the Second Child, greeted Mari with an air of annoyance. The redhead leaned forward, her tone quickly shifting as her grin turned into a scowl, grabbing Mari by the collar and dragging her into the hangar bay of the Over The Rainbow. "You're late, problem child."
"Oh, I'm so intimidated." Mari rolled her eyes, much to the German's dismay. "By what, five minutes?"
"Over half a verdammt hour, you idiot!" The Second Child shouted as a wave of seawater crashed up against the side of the aircraft carrier. The two yelped as the air grew salty with the introduced Pacific mist, and moved further inside the ship, each of the two covering the other. Kaji scrambled aboard through the spray, and the crew of the pre-Impact aircraft carrier closed the bulkhead.
"Cram it, Princess," Mari said while walking down the hallway, navy men shuffling along past without as much as a glance in their direction. "What're you doing here, anyways?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Asuka sneered, crossing her arms. "You didn't see the giant tarpaulin on the flight deck?" Mari shook her head, earning a groan from the Second Child.
"They're transporting my Evangelion to HQ!"
Mari paused for a moment. "Oh."
"And I thought you were testing in your Provisional Unit!" Asuka said, keeping her chin up. "Why aren't you still at Bethany Base with your IPEA friends?"
"Oh, heh…right. About that..." Mari chuckled, embarrassedly scratching her head.
"Let me guess, it's too cold?" Asuka stood up straight, grinning smugly at the brit. "I thought you British folk were used to the cold, what with it always being that way!"
"Excuse you!" Mari snapped, turning on her heel to face Asuka. "I am perfectly fine with a bit of chill. The problem is that my Eva was obliterated!"
Asuka stared, somewhat wide eyed and very dumbfounded, before nearly doubling over in laughter.
"HA! You've got to be kidding! Obliterated? Really?" She looked up at Mari, who was glaring at the German pilot. Realization hit her like a freight train. "You've got to be kidding."
Mari sighed and shook her head.
"'fraid not, Princess." She shrugged.
"...What?!" Asuka leaned forward, screaming in Mari's face.
"Unit-05's self-destruct went off; I barely got out of there intact."
"I- you don't just blow up your Eva! Th- d'whaa? You don'tjust... do that! You... idiot!" Asuka shouted, much to the dismay of some of the crew who promptly covered their ears. Mari rolled her eyes.
"Well, obviously not," the brit snorted sarcastically. "It went off without my permission; I was just focused on the angel. At least it got the job done." Before the Second Child could retort with another volley of enraged screams, Mari pressed on. "Anyway, hear me out here- that's not the only weird thing that happened."
"Huh?" Asuka was caught off-guard.
Mari's eyes glinted, a wild grin flashing on her face. Asuka's bewildered expression twisted into that of concern and nervousness.
"Listen," she began, "when I was out in the ocean- after I'd ejected, you know- I saw something."
"...Something. Right," the Second Child snarked back, her expression now particularly bemused by the bland description. "And am I going to hear what this so-called 'something' is?"
Mari smirked.
Bingo, Princess. Got you now- Hook, line, and sinker.
"Sure. But I think it'd be a bit more, I dunno, appropriate to talk about over some food." A loud grumble rumbled through a short section of the corridor. "I...haven't eaten since before I boarded the Eva."
The Teutonic Terror grinned, her eyes burning with intent on prying this info out of the brit.
The walk to the mess hall was long, if not a little bit tiring, but that only made their hunger grow substantially. The pair lined up, grabbing trays, utensils, and dishes, and were served - Mari a sandwich, Asuka a chicken wrap. They seated themselves at a small table next to the wall.
"So," Asuka began, leaning over her lunch as Mari began eating. "Care to explain what the illustrious Ms. Illustrious saw that spooked the devil out of her?" A leering grin stretched across the German's face.
Mari's eyelids lowered; unimpressed and annoyed.
"What?" the redhead asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
"Well, at least wait 'til I'm finished eating, princess," the Brit responded, earning a harrumph from Asuka. "Did they not teach you manners in Germany? Thought they were big on that whole shtick." The brunette grinned as yet another huff came in response. "I'm not exactly sure what I saw, to be perfectly honest." she took another bite - smaller this time, to keep the conversation going at a steady rate.
"Could you be any more vague?" Asuka sat back in her chair and took a bite out of her chicken wrap. Disgusting! They call this food?
"Of course I can." Mari retorted. "It was sorta like...like a whale, yknow? Yeah, like that."
"A whale."
Eh, not even the mighty UN can meet the greatness of German cooking. This'll have to suffice, I guess.
"Yes."
"...Well, you've certainly gone off the deep end. Congratulations." Asuka replied dryly, slowly clapping her hands. "But seriously. A whale?"
What is this even supposed to be?
"Well, it was like a big mist, yknow? Like something was rising out of the water and creating a bunch of steam."
"Okay, I'll bite. A whale. In a sea incapable of supporting most marine life." Asuka leaned back in her chair, taking another bite.
Egh. I can't even taste the chicken.
"Well, okay, not really a whale," Mari said, finishing up her half-sandwich. "More...like, y'know how if you put something that generates a lot of heat in cold water it'll boil a lot?"
"Like a nuclear reactor?"
"Yes, exactly!" Mari exclaimed, hitting the metal wall. "Like that. But not glowing and, as far as I know, not radioactive."
Asuka sat, mid-bite, puzzled, both by Mari's description, and why they gave her the egg and bean wrap instead of the chicken LIKE SHE ASKED FOR, THE DUMMKOPF-
"You're still with me, right, Asuka?" Mari snapped her fingers in front of the redhead's face, breaking her trance.
"Wh-huh? NO! I wasn't-" Asuka stumbled in her speech before groaning, leaning on her elbow with her hand on her cheek. "What is it?"
"Nothin'. Just making sure you were still paying attention." Mari smiled, a toothy grin. "So, you get what I mean?"
Asuka sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I can't make heads or tails of it either way."
At least I ate something.
"Right…" Mari said, wiping her face with a napkin. "So, are we done here? Y'know, with eating?"
"Yeah. I guess you'll wanna know where your quarters'll be, right?"
Mari nodded. With a sigh, Asuka stood up and pushed in her chair.
"Follow me then."
The pair stood up, discarding their plates and leaving their trays atop a stack of dirty ones, before leaving the mess hall.
The walk back to their quarters didn't take all that long. The doors were marked with little placards with the names of the crew. The NERV and IPEA personnel, including the Eva pilots, had small red stickers on their placards - a means of denoting the regular crew from so-called 'special persons' aboard the ship. The two pilots gave each other nods as they turned to enter their separate quarters.
"Oh! I just remembered!" Mari snapped her fingers with excitement, startling Asuka slightly as she pulled open the heavy iron door to her room.
"Huh? What now, Mari?"
"It did have a sort of ambient whitish glow after it submerged."
"You really are delirious, aren't you?" Asuka groaned, leaning out the door. "Whales don't glow."
"Well what if it wasn't a whale?" Mari posed a counterpoint, only to be met with an irritated growl and a loud slam. The IPEA pilot sighed, pulling shut the door to her room.
"Well...what if it wasn't?"
Half an hour later.
The ponytailed man sat in the galley, hunched over his meal. Standard UN naval meal - an egg and beans wrap. It was a bit sloppy, but it was tasty. More than that, it was filling too. The seats weren't bad, either; foam padding with that sort of quasi-leathery covering which always flaked up and peeled away with use. It was easy on the back, and with how uncomfortable it was to sleep in an airplane seat, this was much appreciated in the mind of the inspector.
It was nice to relish in these simple things, Kaji thought, peeling back more. Especially with the job I have.
As a side effect of his job, Kaji tended to be rather perceptive of things- including the captain approaching from the corner of his eye. Besides, he wasn't particularly quiet in his approach either. Kaji swallowed a bite of food, clearing up his throat.
"Captain." he nodded, his thinly bearded face displaying an asymmetric smirk. He shifted in his seat
"Inspector," the uniformed man replied, tipping his cap before sitting down. "How've you been?"
"I've had a rougher day than usual," Kaji replied, before taking another bite. Yum.
"I heard. The loss of an Eva Unit, right?" The Captain never truly found the Evas to be useful. As far as he was concerned, they were just child's toys, and the Second Child - after all, that's what they were called, weren't they? - just about proved that notion to him. She always seemed just like a spoiled child: bratty, immature, and worst of all-
The man nodded, sipping a cup of coffee, interrupting the naval officer's train of thought.
"Among other things," Kaji muttered.
The Captain furrowed his brow. He had been a seafarer for roughly forty years; not much surprised him. But as much as he hated to admit it, he had some interest in Eva operations ever since their earliest offensive deployments.
"What sorts of 'other things'?" he asked warily, leaning back in his chair with skepticism.
"Well, there's the issue of trying to retrieve important files from the base before my daring escape," he grinned, eliciting a chuckle from the captain. He folded his arms, leaned forward, and continued. "But, there was one other thing. I doubt you'd believe me if I said what happened, but it certainly happened."
The Captain raised a bushy eyebrow, then chuckled. "Alright, then." He folded his hands. "Humor me."
"Right…" the man said and began speaking.
The tall tale began. The Captain - usually frustrated - relaxed at the story's start, shifting in his chair as the unshaven man gesticulated and demonstrated what he saw of Unit-05's actions with his arms alone. However, as the story continued, he grew more and more concerned. Something didn't seem right. Something was missing.
"You said you saw some sort of thing on the tracking screen?" The Captain asked, leaning forward on his elbows.
Kaji chuckled, shrugging slightly. "Yeah, what about it?"
The Captain's mouth grew taut as he looked to the side, before looking back at the inspector before him. "Do you remember what it looked like? I'm curious."
Kaji nodded, plucking a napkin from a dispenser on the table and pulling a pen from his pocket. As he began to sketch, the Captain watched as a distinct form took shape - one which looked unsettlingly familiar to the old seaman.
"No. You're kidding." The Captain's hands hit the table, sweat beading on his brow.
"Not at all." Kaji leaned back. "That's what I saw."
"You've got to be kidding!" He stood up, voice shaking slightly. "I've...got to get going. It's been a pleasure dining with you, Inspector Kaji." He rushed back to the bridge, dabbing at his forehead with the back of his cap.
"Uh- okay then!" Kaji said, waving, before sitting back down with a blank stare to his food. He looked back up, only to find the other sailors in the mess hall staring at him. "What did I say? He couldn't believe it."
The quiet that filled the mess hall ceased in a moment as the sailors began eating and chatting, the cooks returning to cook. With a bite, a thought waved over the agent.
"Was it really that bad a drawing?"
He went back to eating, staring lazily off to the side at the napkin drawing he made with suspicion.