Evangelion: Regenesis

Chapter Two – Everything You Ever Dreamed

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Once, Asuka Langley Shikinami had a doll.

It wasn't a very big one—just something around the size of a hand puppet—but the size didn't really matter. No, Asuka had cared about it because of what it could do. For her, other people were just horrible, and she'd tried to have as little to do with them as possible.

So instead, she'd had the doll. The doll was a receptacle… a support. For when things felt bad. For when Asuka hadn't gotten the praise she'd wanted and deserved. For when she'd just needed to talk, and being around people was just too unbearable for her.

Of course, things were different now.

For one, she'd lost the doll. Back, when Nerv was evacuating, things had been left behind, and Asuka had no say in what stayed and what went. And so, the tiny puppet had been forgotten in the ruins of the Geofront.

She didn't hate people. Not anymore. Not when there was Misato, who had helped her, and guided her, and respected her, despite everything that had happened. Not when there was Mari, who had accepted her, and coaxed her, and befriended her, and seemed like she was never going to leave. In the wake of the Ninth Angel, how could she hate people like that?

And lastly, she'd found something new to share with—to talk to when people wouldn't do, who wouldn't talk back or reveal her secrets to anyone else. Something that—when she really, truly needed one again—could be her doll.

The teenaged girl strode down the narrow side-passage, taking a route that had been set up during the ship's refit to allow transit to a certain location very quickly if needed. In normal hours such as these, it was mostly empty, so the girl wouldn't have to worry about running into anyone.

Asuka's pace began to slow towards the passage's end, before she stopped, confronted by a door. Her fingers wrapped around the handle, and twisted. It was unlocked.

And so, the Second Child pushed the door open, and entered.

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The chamber was a sharp contrast to the passageway. While the latter was small, and cramped, this place was truly massive in size—a room more than a hundred metres in both length and width, topped with a segmented roof that had been designed to retract, and expose its contents to the open air. A multitude of swinging catwalks and cranes branched off from the rim and centreline, criss-crossing over two great, rectangular pools that took up most of the room's floor. Each was filled to the brim, not by water, but by a reddish, copper-scented liquid.

That, and an eighty-metre-tall Evangelion Unit.

Asuka had entered close to the rightmost pool for a reason; it was the one that held the Evangelion she'd come to see. Slowly, the girl strolled along the right side, making her way down the edge of the rim to one of the catwalks. Both Evangelions lay on their backs, their feet pointed towards the bow of the ship and their heads towards the stern. That red liquid bath—LCL, an organic, oxygenated fluid used for many things related to Eva—immersed them almost completely, leaving only their heads and necks above its surface.

Unit 02, her Evangelion, was a colossus of red and white metal, the smooth plates sheathing its limbs and body designed to allow its athletic physique as large a range of movement as possible, while still providing optimal defense against attacks. Bits of other hues mixed in with the main swathes of colour—yellow around its deltoids and knee cap fins, black in the great rectangular wings on its shoulders and the armour bands on it biceps, and orange topping both pelvis and two-pronged forehead crown. Its helmet was narrow and squared-off, with alternating bands of red and white running off from its quartet of eyes. Even now, with the girl far more cynical at the world than her younger self had been, she still found something beautiful and proud about the cyborg.

As she took the crosswalk above its collar, however, the mecha's scars became far more apparent, all left over from Mari's failed fight against the Tenth Angel. The right side of Unit 02's face was slightly asymmetrical from the left, the upper section of it patched by a greyish, bulging section of metal—an artificial sensor array that replaced the eyes it had lost during combat. The lower eye was orange and flat, contrasting heavily with the domed green lenses of the other three.

However, even more obvious than the missing eyes was the mechanical left arm. The fight had left the original joint warped and distorted, and missing several nerve clusters, making it almost impossible to reattach the arm—and leading to its synthetic replacement. The prosthetic arm was the same length as Unit 02's flesh one, but clad in bulkier, grey-tinted armour, with matte black combat textiles covering the inner workings of the joints. A large brace encircled the shoulder joint, providing a mounting point for the mechanical replacement.

In a way, Asuka found it a little ironic. Unit 02's injuries were almost a direct mirror to her own most notable scars. While its right eyes were gone, and its left arm replaced, it was the Second Child's left eye that had been taken, and her right arm that had suffered the most from the Ninth Angel. She'd forgotten just how much of her body was synthetic or cloned tissue now…

Asuka shook her head. No, she hadn't come here to reminisce about her old injuries—she'd came here for the Eva. For Unit 02.

Sighing, the girl lowered herself down, sitting criss-cross on the catwalk before the cyborg's uneven visage. She took a breath.

"Well, I'm back," Asuka announced. She didn't expect the Eva to actually hear her—it wasn't like these things had conscious minds anyway—it was just instinct.

"…I've been… having dreams, recently," the girl said. "N-not just the nightmares, but… well, other things. Similar things."

Unit 02 said nothing.

"Like last night? It… it was about me and Shinji. He was pressed up against a wall, and I was…" Asuka swallowed, remembering just the barest flashes of the disturbing dream. "…strangling him. I don't know why, but I was. I mean, I don't hate him—it was his Eva that ruined everything, not that… soft-eyed idiot—but in the dream it was like we were completely different people or something."

"And then he turned into that purple monstrosity of an Evangelion," she concluded, scratching the back of her head. "And that was it." Asuka glanced up, meeting Unit 02's four-eyed gaze. "I don't really know why I'm having these things, or what's causing them again… I guess it's probably something about that damn Angel and what it did to me, but that doesn't explain why it's happening now."

"So what am I supposed to do?" she asked, looking for any sort of response from the two hundred and sixty foot cyborg. However, Unit 02 is far less talkative than her doll had been. Its green right eye flickers, the sensor aperture under the lens dilating a miniscule amount for just one second. And then nothing.

Asuka sighed. At the very least, the mecha was good at listening without asking questions.

"Anyways, moving on now," she said, circling around to something else.

"Mari's been acting… weird, recently," the Second Child began. "Not exactly normal, or anything, but… well, I guess a little more… caring, maybe? I mean, it's a given that she's pretty friendly and all, but this is different, you know?" Her head tilts inquisitively. "Do you have any idea? After all, she's been your pilot more than a few times before."

02 remained silent.

"…Guess not," Asuka mumbled. It's a little silly, expecting her Eva to actually answer her questions like it's a person—in fact, she'd probably freak out if the thing actually did talk back to her—but there's a sort of comfort in knowing there's someone to direct these rhetorical questions to, even if she still didn't have the answers she wanted.

"I'll just have to figure it out myself then," the girl said aloud, as she stood back up. Her right eye glanced over, catching another view of the synthetic lifeform, before she began to walk out. "See you later, nigoki."

She had just made it out of the door, when the combat alarm started to blare.

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[-]

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For a few seconds, Asuka stood frozen in place, the calls of 'all hands to battle stations' and 'hostile signatures inbound' washing over her like the ocean's waves. Then something buzzed angrily against her thigh, jolting her from her trance. The Second Child shoved her hand into the pocket, extracting the phone, and holding it up to her ear as she accepted the call.

"S-Shikinami," she announced into the microphone, mentally cursing herself for the unprofessional stutter. Misato's—no, Colonel Katsuragi's voice replied to her.

"Asuka, get to Unit 02! We've got inbound Teal Patterns—it's the Nemesis Series!"

With those last four words, the Second Child twisted all the way around, rushing back through the doors.

"Nemesis?" she asked, as she ran up a short staircase on the left, which led to the pilots' changing room.

"Nemesis," the woman confirmed. "They were spotted bearing north initially, heading right for us, before they disappeared under a cloaking cocoon a few seconds later. As far as we know, there's anywhere from two to five of them, so be ready for a challenge. Mari should be with you in a few minutes."

"Roger that. Shikinami out," she replied, and hung up.

Asuka suppressed a grimace at the news. The 'Nemesis Series' units had shown up a year after Third Impact—a mass-produced line of weaponised cybernetic organisms, seemingly cobbled together out of Evangelion pieces and controlled by autonomous means, which Seele had used to terrify and subjugate in the following years. There were three known variants thus far, each one big, ugly, and hideously strong. At times, they almost seemed more like someone's attempt at creating Angels—something supported by their borderline Blue Pattern signatures. A cloaking cocoon meant one of two things; either there was a fourth variant out in the field, or the approaching Units were Code 04c types.

Neither option was particularly appetizing for Asuka.

Continuing on with her task, the girl tossed her jacket onto the changing room's bench, and stripped off everything else but the eyepatch and A-10 clips. Before she could distract herself with the multitude of white scars and pale slash of synthetic skin that crossed her flesh, Asuka had already reached out to her locker, and withdrawn a beaten-up red and black one-piece; her Plugsuit. With years of practice under her belt, it only took half a minute and three muttered curses before the Second Child had fully donned the suit. As usual, the inactive garment was a little loose, seemingly too big for the girl's frame—until her fingers depressed a pair of buttons on her wrist, causing it to instantly seal flush against her skin with its characteristic zip-hiss.

"There we go," Asuka said to herself, turning to make her exit. As the girl started down the stairs, Mari passed by, grinning and breathing heavily. Absentmindedly, Asuka wondered just how far away the brunette had been from the hanger, and how fast she'd had to get here, before abandoning the line of thought. The Second Child glanced over her shoulder for a second.

…Eh, I can spare one moment for teasing.

"Hey, Fourth!" She yelled. "Just remember; it's putting on a plugsuit, not giving yourself a full body massage! Don't get up to any shenanigans in there like you did last time!"

"Oh, bite me, Princess!" Mari shouted back, her voice muffled by the doors. She clearly wasn't really angry—the brunette had spent more than enough time working alongside the girl to know when she was just prodding, and Asuka had made it pretty obvious. That, and Mari never really seemed to care what people thought of her habits.

Asuka smirked as she stepped out onto a walkway behind Unit 02, where a multitude of hydraulics had raised its back out of the LCL. The Eva's Entry Plug stuck out across the middle of the path, its hatch already open to receive her. The girl climbed over the side, and dropped into her seat. Above, the hatch sealed shut, swallowing her up in darkness.

Granted, it wasn't complete darkness. The inner walls of the Entry Plug glowed softly, shining a faint yellow light across its segmented, golden shell. Asuka reclined on a tapered, throne-like saddle, with a control panel up above her legs, and a large butterfly grip within reach of either arm. No longer troubled by the rush to get in the Eva, the girl let out a sigh, and closed her eye.

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"Evangelion Unit 02," she whispered. "Begin start-up protocols."

Smoothly, the Entry Plug retracted inwards, sliding into the cyborg's back before the armoured cover closed up. Tiny vents around the base and walls of the cylinder opened up, air bubbling out as copper-scented LCL started to pour in. Asuka took one last breath as the blood red liquid passed her head, and promptly exhaled, trying to expel as much air from her lungs as she could—otherwise, the first few lungfuls of LCL would be more than a little unpleasant.

Fortunately, when Asuka drew in her first breath, the discomfort was minimal. Her eye opened, sweeping across the now red-tinted interior, waiting for the sequence to continue.

She didn't have to wait long.

The golden walls of the Entry Plug turned transparent, and a spray of colours flashed along the outside, before finally giving way to the external feed from Unit 02's cameras—the segmented roof, the walls, the LCL bath… all of it. The fluid inside the Plug had been completely ionized, becoming as transparent as air, and nearly as weightless. A tingle ran up her spine, causing the girl to shiver involuntarily.

Here it goes. Last step.

Asuka took another breath, readying herself. She'd piloted before, yes, but things had sometimes felt… interesting, ever since the Ninth.

"Unit 02... Final links prepared… Plug depth locked…"

"Begin third stage connections."

ASUKA

And there it was. Unit 02 embraced her, mind and soul, its boundless strength flowing into her frame. Asuka felt the neural bond strengthen and solidify, linking the cyborg's controls directly into her. The LCL seemed to warm, as the lights and readouts on her throne flashed, and a holographic band popped into orbit around her head.

Asuka sighed, letting her hands loosely wrap around the enlarged control grips beside her as the electromagnetic belt tugged her a little closer into her seat. She knew their synchronization was confirmed, even without the instruments telling her so.

Even so, there was one thing left to do—so she could really confirm the bond. It was just a little habit she'd picked up after she'd finally been allowed to pilot again, mostly for comfort. Asuka let her right eye shut. A test.

She could still see.

A little smirk crossed the girl's face; Unit 02 had not disappointed. While she may not have had a left eye to use anymore, her connection let her see as if she did,

And it was because of that effect that Asuka noticed the rectangular hologram popping up on her left side a few seconds later, displaying the smiling face of one Mari Makinami on its surface.

"Hey! Ready, Princess?" the Fourth Child asked eagerly. From what Asuka could see of the other girl—which wasn't much, given the portrait-like nature of the holo-intercom's visuals—she'd made it into her own plugsuit; a cheerful pink and white affair with a black '05' stamped on the collar, in the same place Asuka's '02' marking was.

"Obviously," the golden haired girl answered. "I got here before you, after all."

"Yeah. Well, you know, just checking." On-screen, the holographic readout popped around Mari's head, the same way it had for her after the third stage link. Of course, Mari would be the sort of person to chatter while she synced with an Eva.

"Anyways, Unit 08 and I are doing fine over here," Mari reported. "We're good to launch whenever you are."

Asuka nodded.

"Then let's do it."

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[-]

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Naturally, launching an Evangelion had changed after Third Impact. Without the Geofront, the cyborgs couldn't just have their storage cages drained of LCL, and be fired into position by linear rail. Instead, both Unit 02 and Unit 08 were stored close to the upper deck of the Over the Rainbow, under a sliding cover that could retract away to let them enter or exit the storage pools. In order to aid them in this, both Units lay on a series of extendable hydraulic armatures, which could rotate them up to a ninety degree incline—after which it was a simple matter for one of the Evas to detach and walk about. It was a little slow compared to the launch catapults, but the short trip more than made up for that.

Unit 02 stepped away from its cradle, its steps confident and professional as it stood tall. Asuka didn't feel the weight of the Eva's power cable, but she knew it was there; a long, superconductive cord plugged into the small of her Unit's back, providing it with energy tapped straight from the Rainbow's nuclear reactors.

"So," she asked, directing her question to another holographic icon nearby. "About how long until these things finally show up?"

"Based on our data about the 04c model, the Magi predict that the Nemesis Series will hit the edge of the fleet in about ten minutes—more than that, if they aren't taking a straight path," Misato replied. "That should be more than enough time for you to arm yourselves and get ready."

"Roger that!" Mari said. Asuka just nodded at the icon.

"Mhm."

…Ten minutes, huh? I can work with that.

Now decided, Asuka turned her Eva to the right side of the ship, where one of the armament containers was attached—after all, only a complete idiot would try and fight something like the Nemesis Series without a proper weapon. With little effort, Unit 02 tugged on the access handle, and the rectangular slats on the container's front sprung open, revealing a small array of several different weapons. Before she made her choice, Asuka paused, and glanced over Unit 02's shoulder for a second.

As expected, Mari and her Evangelion were already on the move.

In some ways, Unit 08 was kind of like Unit 02's little sibling. Both of them were standard production models, and both used the same genetic base—giving both Evas a rather athletic build and a quartet of eyes—but 08 was clearly different.

While the basic shape of its helmet and armour were similar enough, Unit 08 had a flatter, more prominent forehead, a pair of fins over its ears instead of the nose horns, and a completely different optical setup. Instead of a quartet of sensors, two glowing, vaguely trapezoidal blue lines traced over its eyes, wider on the top and narrower on the bottom.

And, of course, there was its colour scheme. Unlike Unit 02, with its bold reds and whites, the younger Eva had a darker, more naval palette—a combination of slate blue and stormy grey, interspersed with a couple orange markings around its joints and chest. Altogether, it had the effect of making Unit 08 look kind of shark-like, and certainly more aggressive than Unit 02 did.

The blue cyborg stood over on the other side of the deck, bending over as it examined the contents of its own container.

"Let's see," Asuka could hear Mari mutter to herself. "Pallet rifle, pallet rifle, Thunder Spear that probably won't be easy to use right now, prog sword…"

"Just go with the rifle, Mari," the European girl interjected, turning back to her side and snatching the compact bullpup from its cushioned inset. The Type MM-99 Evangelion Large Caliber Assault Rifle—to use its full designation—wasn't necessarily the deadliest weapon in Nerv's arsenal, but it was reliable, extremely easy to use, and had the greatest ammo capacity of anything available to her, which made it a pretty good choice for fighting in an abnormal environment like the open seas.

"Eh, sure. Worst comes to worst, I can just ditch it and grab something nastier."

In her Eva's peripheral vision, Asuka saw Unit 08 shrug its shoulders, and grab a rifle as well.

"Mari," Misato said over the intercom. "Do I have to remind you that we don't have a massive number of weapons available at the moment, so-"

"Yeah, yeah," the Fourth Child interrupted. "Ditch the gun on a ship or something, not the ocean. I'm weird, not stupid.."

The slate blue Evangelion made a creaking noise like a sigh, and plodded over towards Unit 02.

"So what now, Princess?"

"Simple," Asuka answered, flipping off her weapon's safety. "There should still be a bit of time before the Nemesis Series shows up. We can just-"

Before she finished, the roar of an explosion cut in, drowning her out with its sheer volume. A shockwave crashed into the supercarrier's hull, nearly jolting Unit 02 off its feet as the ship rocked back without warning. Asuka slammed a boot into the deck, her head swinging up instinctively. Out near the front of the fleet, a plume of red water rose from the ocean's surface, consuming an errant destroyer boat in its blast.

Rising out of the epicentre was a massive cross of pinkish-white energy, its top crowned with rings of red and white that suggested an eye. The cross hung there, crackling and fizzing against the air.

In her Entry Plug, Asuka could hear snippets of sentences from the intercom, as technicians and personnel in the command centre read out their instruments.

"-minor damage to Rainbow and the others, but we've lost the-"

"Pattern Teal has been re-established! They've dropped their cloaking cocoon!"

"-recognised two—no, three signatures!"

Whatever the case, it was obvious that the predictions had been wrong—that the Nemesis units had closed in faster than expected. There was no time left to prepare.

They're here, she thought.

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[-]

As the glowing cross flickered out, a high-pitched shriek rang out from the depths of the vapour cloud.

"Asuka! Mari!" Misato yelled, snapping the girl out of her trance. The Second Child bared her teeth, quashing the shock she'd shown at the display of strength. A momentary flash of disgust crossed her mind as well, repulsed by the way these things had made her feel.

"All ships, open fire!"

Moments later, a hundred different turrets and missile cells discharged, unleashing a wave of projectiles into the middle of the cloud. It was more than enough firepower to reduce a city to ash and rubble…

And not a single one hit their target. A shimmering, iridescent wall of hexagonal barriers sprang up with a bell-like chime within the cloud, absorbing each and every burst of fire and shrapnel that landed against it. An Absolute Terror Field—the metaphysical barrier that made Evangelions and Angels almost invincible to anything short of each-other. Without another field to cancel it out, or something that could output enough energy to penetrate it, an AT Field would render any weapon useless against the one projecting it.

Fortunately, Units 02 and 08 were more than capable of doing just that.

Unburdened by the barrage, three churning shapes emerged from the cloud, travelling just under the surface of the water.

"Mari, get ready!" Asuka yelled, as the trio of Nemesis units swam towards the supercarrier, drawn by the Evangelions' own AT Fields. Closer and closer they came, relentlessly approaching as the roar of cannon fire petered off.

Come on, you bastards…

Another unearthly scream split the air, as the lead unit erupted from the water.

At times, Asuka forgot just how utterly bizarre the Nemesis Series looked—and fighting them only served to hammer in that impression. The unit's main body consisted of a massive disc covered in black metal, with an octagonal protrusion on both its dorsal and ventral surfaces, surrounded by a ring of thirty two red orbs. Eight ribbon-like tentacles sprouted from either protrusion, gleaming white on one side, and dull black on the other. The only thing to hint that this mess of flesh and metal was remotely related to her Unit 02 were the rectangular shoulder pylons—all sixty four of them, mounted along the rim of the synthetic weapon in the same configuration as the orbs.

"Now!" the Second and Fourth Children yelled simultaneously, their mismatched tones of aggression and enthusiasm mingling oddly. Asuka slammed Unit 02's AT Field into the Code 04c's own, before swinging her assault rifle up and yanking the trigger back. The muzzle flashed, spraying out battleship-worthy shells at several hundred rounds a minute. This close, the Nemesis Series unit was an easy target, and a number of shots managed to land—ricocheting and leaving pocks in the armour plating—before the Nemesis unit retaliated, lashing out with a few of its upper ribbons.

Instinctively, Asuka jumped, sending her Eva leaping over to a nearby ship before the limbs struck. The cyborg's feet crashed into the vessel's deck unsteadily, forcing the girl to grab onto a nearby gun turret to halt her momentum. Across from her, the Code 04c shrieked again, its tentacles having been deflected upwards and away from the ship by Unit 08's AT Field.

Baring her teeth, Asuka tensed her legs, and sprung again—using the height of her jump to pelt the top of the monster's disc-shaped body with bullets. The Nemesis unit pulled away from the ship, its lower tendrils churning the waters as they held it up. Its limbs flailed, swatting bullets out of the air as

Suddenly, another set of ribbons erupted out of the sea, shooting out with lightning speed. Unable to dodge while still in the air, Asuka pulled back her AT Field as fast as she could—just before the tentacles struck, knocking the Eva from the sky. In the back of her mind, Asuka could hear Mari shout her name. Unit 02 slammed into the Rainbow's deck, rolling back along the length of the ship until it hit a raised portion near the back. Asuka grunted in discomfort, and shoved the controls forwards, impelling Unit 02 to stand back up.

"J-just a crash, nothing's broken…" the girl muttered to herself. The power cable seemed still intact as well, given that no five minute timer had appeared in her heads up display.

However, now there was another problem; a second Nemesis unit—probably the one that had hit her—had surfaced, the air shimmering around it like a heat haze from the thing's AT Field. Shells from the surrounding ships detonated uselessly against the barrier, as the Code 04c and its sibling pushed onto the offensive, slashing at the slate blue Unit 08 with their tentacles. The Evangelion had discarded its rifle, focusing her Field against each blow just barely in time to deflect them. It didn't look very good for the Fourth Child, even if she was managing to hold out.

"Shit!" Asuka cursed. "Mari!"

"Gah!" the other girl yelped, as one solid blow sent the blue Eva stumbling back a step. Before the other Code 04c could strike, however, Asuka flung her arm up, frantically throwing her Eva's AT Field against the monster—just as a cluster of missiles soared in. Unprepared for the loss of its defense, the Nemesis unit froze up, before the warheads impacted, their detonation sending it crashing sideways into its sibling. Unit 08 looked up in surprise, before its head darted over to Asuka.

"P-Princess?"

"Idiot! Now, while they're stunned!" Asuka yelled, charging forwards to the front position again. She didn't have her gun anymore—there was no time to get it, anyway—but they needed to take this opportunity, before it was gone. With just a thought, Unit 02's shoulder pylons snapped open, unfolding in an instant to expose a pair of knives. Asuka reached up to grab them, unlocking the blades from their holsters and swinging them back to her side. "Take the one on the left!"

And with that, Unit 02 pounced, its power cable trailing behind it like a tail.

The Eva rammed its feet into the rightmost cyborg, momentum carrying both Unit 02 and the several hundred metre-wide NS unit down towards the ocean. The Code 04c's tentacles thrashed, throwing up a spray of frothy red water around them. Asuka screamed at it, as she reversed her grip on one of the knives and plunged it into the monster's dorsal surface. The rapidly oscillating blade punched straight through the armour, eliciting an alien scream from the Code 04c as dark red blood gushed from the wound. Without reprieve, the girl struck again, carving another bloody rent through the metal. Her right hand let go of the first blade, wrapping Unit 02's armoured fingers around one of the pylons on her foe's rim to steady herself. Still shrieking and thrashing, the Nemesis Series struck out with its tendrils, hammering several blows against the Evangelion's helmet and back—but this close to their base, the supple limbs couldn't build up enough momentum, reducing the strikes to muted smacks. However, one smashed down directly into the small of her back, crushing the plug for her Eva's power cable. Safety mechanisms activated, and the ruined mechanism blew off, falling away as a holographic timer appeared on the girl's right, counting down from five minutes.

Dammit!

Undeterred, Asuka pulled hard, hoisting the crimson cyborg onto the top of the armoured disk—and just in time. The NS unit's AT Field whined, before a rippling sheath of air pulled the bizarre entity fully upright once more. One of its lower tendrils whipped out of the water, its tip splitting into a rough imitation of a five-fingered hand that grabbed furiously at Unit 02. The girl let out a cry of surprise, dodging to the left before the ribbon-fingers snapped shut. As the tentacle drew away, anger sparked in the Second Child's eye.

"Hey, you jerk, that was close!" Asuka snapped at it, lips drawing back into a snarl. Admittedly, the Nemesis Series was their enemy, but that didn't mean that the fiery-haired pilot couldn't be pissed off at it for its actions. Glaring down at the disk below her, Asuka ripped out one of the bloody knives left in its flesh, dark red blood vaporising off the blade's superheated edge as soon as it touched the air. Now armed once more, the girl spun to her left and lunged, grabbing a pair of tentacles with her off hand. In an instant, Asuka swung low, slicing off both tendrils at the base in a single blow.

The other tendrils spasmed, frantically whirling about through the air as the Second Child reversed her grip—and struck to the right, driving the knife through one of the glassy orbs embedded in the black metal. The Code 04c seized up instantly, its limbs freezing at sharp angles for a couple of seconds—for the crystalline spheroid had been one of its Cores.

Another thing that brought the Nemesis Series closer to Angels was their internal structure. Unlike standard Evangelions, the NS units lacked almost all conventional internal organs; they had no respiratory system, no stomach, and no viscera—nothing except a high-pressure circulatory system, a fairly basic nervous array, and their Cores. Even then, a Code 04 wouldn't die with the destruction of the first two organs. As long as an Angel or Nemesis Series had its Cores intact, they could eventually heal any wound. To kill one, you had to destroy the Cores.

And that was just what Asuka was going to do.

The Second Child let loose on the Code 04c, striking at Cores with both her knives and Unit 02's armoured feet as fast as she could in the time before it recovered its wits.

One! Two! Three! Asuka counted out, as glassy spheres cracked and broke under the sheer strength of the Evangelion. On her right side, the countdown continued, nearing three and a half minutes. Should it reach zero, the girl knew that Unit 02's internal power cells would have dropped to ten percent charge, and the Evangelion would automatically switch to power-saving mode, effectively crippling her combat ability until she could recharge. She'd have to finish this one off quickly.

As the Nemesis unit quivered and shuddered, Asuka spared a momentary glance around her. The Pacific Fleet was mobilizing into combat formation as fast as they safely could, missiles and turret fire streaking across the sky. Some of these smashed down into the ocean, where a churning trail of water marked the third enemy unit—clearly kept down by the suppressive fire—while the remaining shots were aimed at the other, closer Code 04c to keep it occupied, while Mari took it apart.

Unit 08 leaped around the monster, hopping from ship to ship much how Asuka had. The Eva held an assault rifle in either hand, alternating between them to keep up a steady rhythm of fire as she tore regular holes in her foe's AT Field. Multiple pylons had been blown off, and several of its tentacles had bullet holes in them, but the Nemesis unit was still clearly operational—and very dangerous, given the smoke trailing from the nearby vessels.

Asuka had an idea.

"Mari! Get ready, I'm coming over!" the girl shouted over the intercom, grabbing hold of another bunch of tentacles. Her communications window popped open, bringing Mari's focused—and slightly maniacal—face into view. The bespectacled girl glanced over, and blinked a few times curiously.

"Huh? Princess? What are you…?"

The Fourth Child's question was promptly cut off, as Unit 02 yanked. Badly damaged by her efforts, the NS unit had no way of rectifying itself from the sudden jolt off its centre of balance—and promptly careened sideways, where it collided with its teammate in a clatter of metal and flesh. The girl's grip broke under the shock, and the crimson Eva fell backward, only caught by the fence of pylons.

"Ah!" she cried reflexively, as her Eva crashed into the wall of fins, throwing her against the back of the piloting throne. Asuka hissed, and winced as she pulled her body back upright towards the hologram. "M-Mari! Now! The Cores—shoot them!"

"I- right!"

There was a thump as Unit 08 leaped on top of a Nemesis Series unit, before the roar of gunfire split the air again. Not to be left behind, Asuka shoved herself forwards, and smashed Unit 02's foot down on a Core. She'd dropped her knives in the collision, but that didn't matter—these things just had to die.

Blood bubbled out of the dying Nemesis units, as the Second and Fourth Children shot, stomped, and tore them to pieces, bit by gruesome bit.

Just a bit more. Just a little bit more, and-

Asuka didn't get to finish that thought. Something appeared on the edge of her vision—flickering red and white and pink for a split second. Then the walls of the Entry Plug flashed white, and a terrible shriek drowned out everything else.

The next instant, a thousand spikes of fire tore into Asuka's flesh, metal shattering about her like balsa wood and broken glass. The girl doubled over in the seat, nearly curling into a ball as she clutched her chest. No amount of training could have prepared her for the agony that had surged through her body—as if a set of superheated, steel claws had been driven into her front, and carved a rent across her ribcage as the rest of her burned. But that wasn't even the worst of it. Asuka felt raw and exposed, like more than just the physical her had been hurt.

Sickeningly, the copper-tinted smell of cooked meat reached Asuka's awareness through the haze of pain—Unit 02's flesh, seared and blackened under its armour. The girl managed to uncurl a tiny amount, her right eye stuttering up towards the front of the Entry Plug. The cylinder's walls flickered, little patches fizzling out in static. A short ways away, another pink cross had exploded out of the water, staring down at her with its baleful red 'eye'.

An Anti-AT Field blast. That was… what had hit her. The pink cross—that's why they were so dangerous. All Nemesis Series variants on Nerv's record had the potential to make one, for a short period of time, and the last one must have hit her with it at point blank range. Even without the actual detonation, it was instantly lethal to normal, unprotected lifeforms… and agonisingly painful to anything like an Evangelion.

Absentmindedly, Asuka realized that her left arm was the only part of her that didn't hurt. Slowly, she looked to the left.

O-oh, thought the small, subconscious part of her that was still able to think through the pain somewhat. T-that's… why…

Where Unit 02's prosthetic arm had been, a melted stump of metal that had once been a joint poked out sadly from the Eva's shoulder.

Then something swung down, and slammed into Unit 02's stomach with a sickening crack. Asuka doubled over again, the pain that had unconsciously dulled itself spiking back to full force. An alarm went off in the Plug, whining insistently as muted voices started to shout over the intercom... not that Asuka knew what they were saying. Slowly, the ribbon-like tendril pulled itself out, scraps of armour and flesh falling from its tip.

Another tentacle crashed down on the deck next to her… and another, and another. The final one of the three Nemesis Series units loomed above her, completely unharmed, and quivering with alien malice. Along its underside, the Code 04c's thirty two Cores pulsed in harmony, building up the energy for another Anti-AT Field blast. It didn't matter that Unit 02 had survived one—in its state, the Eva wouldn't stand a chance against a second point blank discharge… nor would Asuka. With how much everything hurt, she had no chance of evading it, either. This was it.

This was going to be what killed her.

D-don't… wanna d-die… A part of Asuka whimpered, as the lights flickered and shimmered. I-I… don't w-wanna die…

And then a slate blue Evangelion slammed into the side of the Nemesis unit.

"Die, you fucker!" Mari screamed, her voice carried over an open channel.

Unit 08 let out a muffled howl, mirroring its pilot's fury as it tore chunks out of the larger cyborg's hull. The Code 04c's Cores sparked and flashed, still trying to charge another shot—only for the Evangelion to yank something from its shoulder pylon, and blow the nearest orb to pieces. Instantly, a gout of fire burst out of the NS unit's side, several other Cores detonating as the destabilized Anti-AT Field cascaded through its body.

"Stupid, ugly, son of a bitch! Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!"

"…M-Mari?" Asuka whispered faintly, as she leaned a little bit forwards. In response, another jolt of pain stabbed into her stomach, breaking the Second Child's momentary focus. Asuka yelped, and reflexively retreated, shrinking back into herself once more.

C-can't take it… can't, can't, can't, no…

Shakily, the girl's left arm reached out, and pressed her fingers to a floating hologram.

Instantly, the Plug walls shut off with a descending whine. Outside, Unit 02's limbs slackened and went limp, as the Eva's batteries dropped into power-saving mode prematurely.

Slowly, the tension and hurt bled from Asuka's body, as she felt her synchronization with the cyborg dropping. The pain of Unit 02's injuries had faded away like smoke as she'd withdrawn, but her connection hadn't fully broken—not enough that she'd lost the warm, comforting presence of the Evangelion. The only pain left was that which didn't come from Eva. The pain of the Anti-AT Field. The rawness.

But compared to everything before—the agony, the exhaustion, the overwhelming terror of the Nemesis Series bearing down on her—she could stand it.

.

A little while later, a pair of muffled thumps reverberated through the Entry Plug, drawing Asuka's attention. The girl's one, reddened eye glanced up, curious of the source.

"U-unit 02…" she murmured. "Camera feed."

The screens flickered on.

Unit 08 stood there, crouching down next to her Evangelion.

Mari.

The blue Eva had clearly been fighting messily, from the scars she could see. Its armoured body was scored and cracked in places, dark red stains caked most of its lower arms, and one glowing eye was flickering unsteadily. However, it didn't seem impaired in the slightest, its movements betraying no signs of fatigue.

An intercom window popped open in Asuka's view, displaying the Fourth Child's worried expression. At the sight of her, Mari's face lit up, clearly relieved that her teammate was still alive—if not completely well.

"Asuka!"

Joyfully, Unit 08 reached out, and scooped the red Eva up in its arms, lifting Unit 02 off the ground as gently as a several-thousand-ton armoured cyborg could manage.

The strawberry blonde sighed at the other girl's enthusiasm, the tiniest hint of a smile dancing across her lips.

"W-worrying about me again?" She asked. Mari just swallowed, and nodded in affirmation.

"…Y-you idiot," Asuka muttered, though her words lacked any demeaning tone to them. "Reckless, four-eyed idiot…"

The brunette shrugged nonchalantly at the comment, clearly far too glad to focus on the Second Child's 'insult'.

"Well… I'm not going to just let you die, Princess," Mari replied. "Not on my watch."

.

"And the… Nemesis Series?" Asuka asked, glancing away from the coms window. "W-what's happened with them?"

"First two were dead meat when number three took its cheap shot," the other girl said. "The last one… me and Unit 08 took care of it. They're all gone."

Another sigh of relief came from the Second Child, as she slumped back in her seat. In the corner of her vision, she saw Mari offer her a smile.

"Princess? I'm starting to run low on power now. You ready to go?"

Go. Back to the Rainbow. Back to the hanger, and the room, and the view—and away from the Nemesis Series.

No question.

Asuka glanced back over to Mari. Her head nodded.

"Yeah," she answered softly.

Slowly, Unit 08 turned rightwards, taking care not to jolt the Eva in its arms too much, or put undue stress on the already damaged ship. The Over the Rainbow was a few vessels away—a distance the slate blue cyborg was more than capable of crossing, even with its injured passenger.

The Eva's foot swung out, taking the first step forwards.

"Then let's go home."

.