V 1.10 22/02/2014 minor edits with some Beta help from Genesis D Rose and final edits Vandenbz!

[A/N] And so, back again. Yay. You know you enjoy writing something when you just jump right into the next bit the very next day. Hoping this one all goes as smoothly as it's been planned out, but there's really only one way to find out. Okay, where was I?

Chapter 3: Carving a Path

"Anything yet?" asked Asuka, leaning into the front of the VTOL to address the pilot.

He shook his head, "Nothing, ma'am. I've been trying to confirm landing clearance for the past fifteen minutes. No response."

Asuka gave a frustrated 'tch' and swung around to sit back in her seat, facing the two in the rear compartment.

Rei was sitting calmly in an upright position with her palms resting atop her legs, still saying nothing. Shinji was the same in terms of willingness to communicate, his head resting listlessly against the window.

While Rei may have been silent, she was at the very least visibly attentive to her surroundings, unlike Shinji, whose eyes remained vacant and showed little to no response to any external stimuli.

Asuka shook her head and turned her attention to the view outside. They had been circling the Wunder for some time now, unable to get into radio contact, "What is going on?" she groaned.

No response.

She turned her attention sharply to her companions, "Will one of you say something!"

There was a pause.

"Like what?" asked Rei.

Shinji said nothing.

Again, all Asuka could do was shake her head in disgust. She chose to then start swinging her foot idly back and forth, accidentally kicking the Third Child sitting opposite in the shin repeatedly in the hopes of provoking some kind of a reaction.

There came a reflexive twitching of the brow, otherwise she got nothing; not a protest nor a complaint.

Asuka stomped her dangling foot down and stood back up, swinging about to lean into the cockpit once more, "Bring us in to land."

"Ma'am?" enquired the pilot, glancing at her.

"You heard me! Something's going on down there and I want to know what."

"B-but we haven't been given clearance yet."

"Do we have a clear flight path?" queried Asuka briskly.

"W-well yes…"

"And do you know where the landing pads are?"

"Yes..."

"Then fly above it, and unless you're about to squash someone, set us down on it. This isn't rocket science."

"B-but…"

"I'll take any rap if it comes. Consider it an order."

The pilot nodded in compliance, "Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Land us on Pad C near the secure wing." She glanced over her shoulder, "Misato will want these two put somewhere safe until she can deal with them."

"Understood."

Asuka then turned about and reached over to buckle Shinji's safety harness. She glanced over at Rei, "Buckle up, you. We're coming in for a landing."

Ayanami blinked and then looked down, complying wordlessly after a second while Asuka went to secure herself in.

The Second Child turned her attention to the silent Wunder as they closed in on one of the upper landing pads, her brow clenching into a frown, "Just what the hell is going on down there?"

"I wouldn't know…"

"I wasn't talking to you, clone girl…"

-α-

Asuka hopped down onto the pad as the roaring of engines died down. She looked around, expecting someone to have come out to meet them, "Okay, what is going on around here?!" she shouted.

No response came except for that of her own voice echoing off the control towers. Even the Wunder itself was stationary, as if it were standing guard over something.

Asuka marched back over to the transport. She unbuckled Shinji and dragged him out with her. She paused just a few steps away once she realized they were alone. She let out a frustrated groan and looked irritably back into the transport where Rei still sat, "You too, idiot!"

Ayanami complied again without comment, unbuckling herself and following after. Asuka then leaned sideways to call out to the pilot, "Keep trying to raise the bridge."

The man nodded in response and Asuka headed onward.

They reached an outer door a moment later. Asuka was mildly confused when she realized that it was in fact sealed.

The Second Child picked up the nearby phone and pressed a few buttons. She listened for a second, only to be met with dead silence. She scowled at the handset.

"What?" asked Rei, deciding that the situation may be relevant enough to merit inquiry.

"Comm lines are down…" said Asuka, setting the handset back down. "Something's wrong here. The damage done to the Wunder wasn't that bad. Surely internal comms would've been fixed by now. What could've happened?"

Asuka activated the wall screen and brought up a schematic of the surrounding areas. Her frown deepened "Most of the sections around here have been sealed off. The quarantine wing and isolation sections are all closed down, but the doors between those sections have all been locked open. And beyond that…the doors leading to all other sections have been locked too. I can't tell if this is someone trying to lock something out…or lock something in."

Asuka continued frowning in thought for a second, "Come on, there's a door into the open section just up ahead. Since it's the only place not locked, we may as well wait there until they fix whatever the hell's gone wrong."

Asuka carried on down the walkway. The Wunder was far too quiet for her taste. Despite her size, the ark didn't exactly have a crew complement that was proportionate to her mass. Good help was hard to find those days after all, and what crew they could find was largely lacking in any experience, with many of them barely trained in operating their own equipment. It therefore didn't shock Asuka that an accident could have occurred, and guessed that it was just a matter of waiting until it got resolved.

Asuka then reassured herself that, next to the recent near-miss of the apocalypse, just how bad could any situation they encounter be?

-α-

Asuka entered the main foyer for that area. A transit car stood at one end. Two doorways were at the other, with another open door leading outside directly opposite them.

The door leading off towards the quarantine wing was sealed, while the one that led in the direction of the isolation section was wide open. The transit car appeared to have been locked down also.

But that wasn't what caught Asuka's immediate attention. She flinched into a defensive posture and instinctively put an arm out to usher Shinji behind her for safety. She then extended a hand backwards, indicating for Ayanami to move away also.

The floor was littered with downed security personnel, seven of them.

Asuka edged forwards and dropped down beside the nearest man to roll him over. His face mask was slightly dented, as if something hard had struck it with substantial force on one side.

Shinji spoke for the first time in a while, "Are they dead?" he asked with dull interest.

Asuka spared him a questioning glance before checking the man's throat. She then went to examine a couple of the others before standing back up, "No…" she said, dusting her hands down, "They're all unconscious." She then folded her arms and frowned, "Something beat these guys into submission."

"Like what?" asked Ayanami, "Are there enemy forces on board?"

Asuka shook her head slowly as she realized something from the pattern of the bodies, "No, this wasn't a group of enemies," she said, "Whoever, or whatever did this…it looks like there was only one of them."

Asuka's eye swept the floor and then up at the walls, "And it was something fast. Whatever this was, it took them completely by surprise." She nodded at the two men by the sealed door. One was face-down just a few paces away and the other appeared to have been knocked clear, "Those two were hit from behind. Something came out that door," her finger traced the downed forces, "knocked out the first man …then hit the second before he had time to react…"

Asuka eyed the bullet holes in the walls and ceiling, "Whatever it was got in too close for them to use their guns; must've gotten itself into grappling range to disrupt the aim," She dropped down to examine another, "No knife wounds either. No…whatever was responsible for this just weaved among them and dropped them all with…with some kind of blunt object, it looks like."

She examined the one on the floor between the two doorways, "This poor bastard got used as a human shield. Lucky for him his body armor soaked up all the shots. Then…" She looked sideways at a scuff mark on the wall, "Slammed right off of the wall as payment for his services. So: strong and fast then," She folded her arms and nodded at the two lying outside the only open doorway, "probably just clean pounced on those two, momentum got used against them and then just beat them when they were down."

She looked into the open doorway where the last two lay, "Those two would've been taken the second the door opened. Hit them left and right, no challenge. Guessing it left down that way right after…" she said, nodding down the open passageway as she bent down to pick up a discarded assault rifle.

Asuka's brow then furrowed in confusion. It was shocking to her how easily she realized she could track this, "How can you be so sure?" asked Rei.

"Because that's exactly how I would do it…" she replied, seeming almost visibly disturbed, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say these poor SOB's were attacked by…by some kind of human-sized EVA. There's no other way I can look at it: Close up melee combat; never stopping or relenting; as if you still had those sixty seconds on the clock. This thing must've fought like a berserker."

"You're half-right, princess…" came a voice from among the bodies.

Asuka looked up, and only then did she notice there was someone moving on their hands and knees amongst the forms.

A familiar figure in pink was padding around on the ground, "Glasses, glasses…" she muttered.

"Mari…" said Asuka, walking over and assisting her up.

Mari scrunched her eyes up and sniffed the air briefly in her direction, "Ahh, I thought that was you Captain," Mari then tilted her head to look around the redhead and sniffed again, "Hey there, Puppy-kun, welcome back." She then narrowed her eyes further as she spied Rei's outline, experimentally sniffing the air once more "I don't recognize that smell. Is that you, SEELE's girl?"

"Yes." Replied Rei simply.

"I don't…" said Mari uncomfortably, shuffling slightly "I don't suppose you have my spare…" Asuka cut her off however by reaching into her pack and irritably slapping into Mari's hand the spare pair of glasses she always carried around for just this circumstance.

Mari smiled and slipped them on, blinking her eyes as the world came back into focus.

She surveyed the room around them and then folded her arms, "Well… Doggy-kun certainly made a mess in here, didn't he?"

Asuka frowned, "Who?" she asked, eye flicking briefly to Shinji and back.

"No, not Puppy-kun, I'm talking about the other one."

Asuka frowned, "What other one, other who?"

"Well…" said Mari, leaning almost conspiratorially closer, "you know how that second Unit-01 appeared?"

Asuka nodded slowly, "Yeah…"

"Well guess where its pilot chose to turn up."

Asuka's expression became understandably shocked, "What? Are you saying that…"

Mari nodded, "Yup. Saw him as plain as day: second Shinji, identical to Puppy-kun, only bigger."

"Was this with or without your glasses?" muttered Asuka.

"Hey, everyone else saw him too," objected Mari, whose eyes suddenly brightened to a noticeable sparkle, "Oh, and there was an alien with him too! An actual, real-life alien!" said Mari, seeming rather inappropriately excited.

"An…alien?" echoed Asuka, now totally lost.

"Yup. Quite a pretty looking one too. Vice-captain Akagi doped her up and put her in a coma though. That made Doggy-kun mad, so he started causing trouble."

"This…second Shinji, you mean?"

"Yup, he was from the future, or an alternate universe…I'm not sure; wasn't really paying much attention to that part. He somehow came through at the end of Fourth Impact from what I heard, but like I was saying: He got really mad when Ritsuko nearly offed his blue friend."

"Blue…?"

"Yup, blue alien lady. Anyway, so: big Shinji gets mad and starts hacking the MAGI; messing up communications, locking things down. I hear the vice-captain got really angry about it. It was actually kind of funny. And then-"

Asuka blinked, waving her hands up to halt the onslaught of absolute insanity right in its path. "Wait, wait, wait…Shinji?" She asked.

Mari nodded.

Asuka stepped out of the way and pointed to the boy standing behind her, pinching and tugging on his cheek for emphasis, "This brat?"

Mari rocked on her heels slightly "He wasn't exactly a brat, but yeah…"

Asuka frowned, "Meaning what?"

"Like I said: He got…big."

"I thought you said he was an EVA pilot. How could he have gotten 'big'?"

Mari shrugged, "Who knows, maybe someone forgot to tell him the rules."

"There's…" came Shinji's voice from nowhere. Mari turned to him, "There's another me?" he asked quietly, going rapidly from silent to confused and scared, "What do you mean there's another me?" he demanded, his tone becoming desperate, "How can there be another me?"

Asuka noticed a rare softening in Mari's normally catlike expression, and her voice had become just slightly quieter when she spoke next, "Like I said: They say he came from another world. So he's a you, not you-you. There's only one you-you, and that's you…you follow?" Mari then looked to the open doorway, "And trust me when I say: This thing was a completely different animal from you, Puppy-kun."

"It's Shinji…" he murmured.

Mari patted him affectionately on the head, hugging him close with one arm, "You'll always be Puppy-kun to me..."

Asuka quickly pulled Mari aside, "Are you serious about all this?" she whispered, Shinji drifting vacantly back to Rei's side a second later.

"Very. For once, princess, I am not joking. You saw Unit-01 yourself, didn't you?"

Asuka could only shake her head, "But…but that's just mad…"

Mari could only nod with that grin of hers, "I know. Great, isn't it?"

Asuka rolled her only visible eye, "Fine. I'll play along for now. I'll at least accept that something beat these men up."

"Something did alright. I was here when it happened, after all."

"What were you even doing in this section anyway? I thought it was sealed off."

Mari nodded, "It was. Big Shinji sealed off all those sections," she said, nodding at both the closed and the open doors, "And so the Captain ordered everything in the surrounding areas be locked down also to keep him in one place, with only our security here in case he came out."

"Okay…and so you were here, why?"

She shrugged, "I have my own surveillance feeds. I saw he was coming and I happened to be close to this section. So I scaled the outside of the ship and crawled in through a vent. You know, my usual way of getting around."

"You mean that since radio and communications were down, you came to warn security yourself?"

"Nope, I just hid and waited for him to come. I wanted to see what he would do."

"Wait, you mean you could've warned them but didn't?"

"They might have shot at him. That wouldn't have been any fun at all."

Asuka just wiped a hand down the side of her face. It was useless trying to work out Mari's motivations at the best of times, "Okay, just walk me through it from the start. If we've got no communications then you'll have to be the one to brief me. And I'd appreciate it if you'd include all the stuff you know but probably shouldn't."

Mari nodded with a smirk, "You're the boss…" She then waltzed back over to the other two with Asuka in tow and then waved her hands in a slow circle, "So there I was…just minding my own business, having just gotten back from saving the world. – Not really your fault that one, Puppy, just bad communication on the part of the grownups- Anyways, I was walking along past the main engine compartment, when there was this big flash, and bam-"

"-is this going to take long?" sighed Asuka.

Mari pouted, "Hey, do you want to hear the story or not?"

"Just make it quick…"

Mari grinned, "Right…" and then her wicked expression seemed to darken, "But you're right: I probably should hurry."

"And why's that?" asked Asuka.

Mari nodded at the open door, "Didn't you see the readouts? The main outer door leading into the isolation section is still closed under Shinji's lockout, and everything else is closed with the exception of the doors between. That means there's only one place he can possibly be heading toward down that way, and nowhere else he can leave to afterwards except back the way he came."

"Your point?"

This time Mari indicated the sealed door, "And he locked that one behind him to make sure nobody got in to endanger his blue friend. Meaning, if he gets past the security outside the isolation section, and assuming he gets inside, what do you suppose he'll do next?"

Together, their eyes turned back to the open corridor as Asuka spoke, "He'll be coming back this way..."

The de facto Fourth Child nodded, "And with comms, radios, and alarms down, there's no way for security to know he's coming, or for us to know if he's coming back or been caught. His biggest victory was taking away our ability to coordinate against him."

And then Mari just smirked and went on with her tale, leaving the tension hanging in the air…

-α-

Minutes prior…

Shinji's footfalls were utterly silent as he approached the secured entrance. He timed himself, step by step. It was lucky the slippers provided with his fatigues had such nicely padded soles.

Security shield after security shield opened ahead of him as per the pre-timed sequence he'd set in motion, and judging by the number of guards he'd sighted on the security feeds, Shinji calculated that he would have just enough time to get from the quarantine area to the isolation section and deal with the people between before the doors briefly unlocked themselves.

It was all going to be a matter of timing. It was just lucky for Shinji that he'd been very well drilled in fighting against the clock. But then, it was only going to be troublesome getting to his Omnitool. Getting back again was going to be so much more straightforward.

"Six, five, four, three, two…" he counted as the main door approached.

Shinji snapped his fingers.

'Begin track 25…'

-α-

The guard frowned and began to look towards the sound of the door opening directly behind him. He didn't even manage to finish turning however before something hard slammed against the base of his neck and put out his lights.

The second man swung around, only for Shinji to twirl his weapon into an arc and smash him alongside of the head, dropping him too.

Shinji's heart thumped in his ears as both adrenaline and narcotics flooded through his system like liquid fire, drawing everything into such slow motion that every move felt like it had a full five seconds of pre-calculation.

The middle soldier was already turning about with his weapon rising up. Shinji lurched forward and down, under his aim and skidding right up into the guard's personal space. He then carried on the motion and flipped up so his back was against his opponent's chest.

Shinji grabbed firmly onto the man's trigger finger and then leaned back, arching the weapon upwards and unloading a stream of shots up the wall until the clip was empty.

Keeping his arm hooked around that of the soldier, Shinji pirouetted around so he was cleanly exposed to the other two.

With such an easy target exposed, they couldn't resist raising their weapons to open fire, only for Shinji to spin back around at the last instant and effectively aim the man at his friends. A burst of full-auto fire punched into his armor and the soldiers stopped as soon as they realized their mistake.

The impact of the bullets made the man fall slack in Shinji's arms, and so he tightened his grip and then lurched sideways, slamming him off the wall repeatedly until he was naught but an unconscious mass in his embrace.

Again things were slowing. Shinji rolled his blunt weapon up the back of his heel and kicked it into the air overhead as the man dropped.

Shinji planted his foot into the small of the falling man's back and sprang himself forward at the two remaining men. His hands then shot out and caught them flat in the face, knocking them both back, his knees landing in their midsections to absorb the force of the landing.

Shinji bounced off one hand and then flipped back to his feet. Catching the makeshift weapon out of the air, he flicked it down, left and right, cracking the men on their heads as they moved to push themselves up.

Neither got up again afterward.

Shinji backed up against the closed door and slapped the release control. Twirling his staff around just as the door opened, he clipped one guard unprepared on the back of the head before reversing the direction and doing the same to the other.

Shinji took a second to catch his breath, weapon under one arm as he rested his palms against his knees.

'Interlude…'

He needed to stay on the adrenaline high. Once he'd gotten started, Shinji knew that he had to keep going to prevent himself from crashing on a positively epic scale. Shinji felt his heart thudding so hard it almost sounded like someone was clapping.

His brow twitched.

In fact, someone was clapping.

And it was throwing off his timing. That was annoying…

"Hey now, that was very impressive. I must say: you really didn't disappoint. That was totally worth the wait."

Shinji caught the shadow of another figure in his peripheral vision. His bloodshot eye flicked out to glance at what at the very least appeared to be a teenage girl in an atrocious shade of bright pink, with pigtails…and glasses.

'Isn't it supposed to be a pink elephant, or a dragon that you see when tripping the light fantastic?' thought Shinji with dull annoyance.

Shinji tensed, and Pink-Pigtailed-Glasses-Thing raised its hands as it circled slowly into his path, "Come on, you wouldn't hit a girl with glasses now, would you?"

"Suppose not…" said Shinji with a shrug, who then quickly reached up before Pigtails could react and plucked her glasses right off of her nose. He then proceeded to fling them somewhere up ahead, shove the annoying hallucination unceremoniously aside with a palm to the face, and then carry right on walking.

"Heyyy…"

Shinji shook his head and marched onwards, "Huh…Well that was just weird…" He murmured, "I should probably cut down on the drugs."

He then felt something that sounded suspiciously like breaking glass crunch under his foot as he walked.

"Oh, that better not have been what I think it was!" came an annoyed shout from somewhere behind him.

Shinji snapped his fingers. Break was over.

'Begin track 26...'

-α-

With no more bizarre oddities appearing, Shinji assumed he'd stopped seeing things for the moment, at least he hoped that was the case.

Tension was keeping the adrenaline flowing as Shinji careened into a pair of guards who had been on patrol, clotheslining them both to the ground by leaping at them with his makeshift and increasingly battered melee weapon held out horizontally.

A lone guard stood at the next corner with his back turned. The Consort grabbed the man into a sleeper hold and then drove a knee up into his back to defeat his balance, permitting Shinji to increase the pressure until the man went slack in his arms. He then carried on, closing the doors behind him as he went to prevent the noise from carrying too far.

The final corridor leading to the foyer outside the isolation section had just two guards patrolling side by side.

Shinji was counting all the while. He couldn't wait for them to come to him. There simply was not enough time.

He had to risk it.

Shinji swung out into the open and began bolting the length of the corridor, staying low, rushing the pair head-on.

Step after pounding step seemed to take an eternity as Shinji closed like a panther charging its prey.

The distance closed…

Ten meters: No reaction yet, takes a second for the mind to process the information after all.

Eight and a half meters: The pair tensed; the slot machine of instinct starting to spin.

Five meters: The worst response, the one Shinji prayed they wouldn't have gone for: They reflexively raised their rifles to fire.

Three meters: Not enough time to reach them for close quarters combat. If Shinji dived low now they'd shoot him mid-skid; straight at them held the very same outcome.

There was only one choice: Them or you.

Shinji skidded sideways and drew his pistol so quickly that it was little more than a blur, firing off two shots at point blank range.

The noise was particularly deafening thanks to Shinji's slightly elevated senses at that precise moment.

The first bullet punched through a gap in the armor of the man on the right, tearing through his shoulder, the second caught the other clean in the upper right leg.

With the men's aims now thrown decidedly off, Shinji closed to within two meters; swung his weapon around, and knocked one man clean out before diving onto the man with the injured leg and incapacitating him with a bare-handed blow to the neck.

That had taken longer than he'd planned, and now there were noises up ahead. The rest had been alerted.

Shinji kept moving. It was now all or nothing. He dragged his staff up with one hand and a discarded assault rifle with the other as he sprinted on.

Eight were guarding the main doorway; eight stood between him and Tevos staying alive. It was, unfortunately, far more than Shinji was capable of handling solo at that precise moment.

Luckily that wasn't his plan.

A series of events then allowed fate to do that rarest of things; the one it saved for the rainiest and most desperate of days:

It smiled upon one Shinji Ikari.

The gunshots had alerted the men. That meant they were no longer in any kind of formation. By the time Shinji reached the open area, some were already funneling into the corridor.

Four were running at him head on, and so Shinji didn't bother to stop. He had precious little seconds left.

Shinji spun his staff into a full three-sixty circle, twirling about on his heels to build up momentum. He then hurled it at the legs of those charging him with a final twist of his midsection.

Two went down. Shinji then righted himself and weaved about the rest.

Three seconds left.

Shinji raised the assault rifle in one hand and fired a random spray of bullets into an arc ahead. Two guards flinched and dove for cover.

Two seconds left.

The door began opening. That gave one of the remaining two the instant of distraction that Shinji so desperately needed.

With the rest either down or distracted for just the briefest of seconds, it was now just one on one.

Last second…

No time for grace, nor an instant to spare for subtlety.

The last man standing found himself torpedoed into by the charging Shinji and knocked clean under the half-open door with him, which then immediately began to close again as programmed, slamming shut a second later to a hail of gunfire.

Shinji laid brutally into the still-winded man, punching him a few more times than was probably necessary until he went still.

The Consort slumped sideways and collapsed off the soldier, rolling onto his back as he fought for breath. He then raised a trembling hand up and snapped his fingers one last time, shutting off the music in his head.

The countdown had reached zero and the dance was over. It might not have been against a pair of twin Angels this time, but thankfully Shinji's timing had still been perfect nonetheless.

But then he never would've forgiven himself if he'd messed up during Ode to Joy…

Shinji continued to stare upwards at the dark ceiling in silence for a moment, his chest heaving as a cold sweat ran down his brow. "I wonder…" he gasped, pausing to swallow, "if Asuka would've been proud."

He glanced sidelong at the still soldier and couldn't help but chuckle ironically, "No, suppose she wouldn't. I screwed up the landing this time too."

Shinji inhaled through his nose and swallowed a large breath before heaving himself up, limping for the door nearby. He felt immensely weak as he mashed the door controls and opened the darkened lab.

The chill of the sterile, air-conditioned environment provided a small amount of refreshment and Shinji braced himself up against the door for a moment to survey the room.

His eyes swept the lab. The only lighting was that which came from a series of wall monitors and sealed tables with transparent tops.

The top of every table was lit from underneath, brilliantly illuminating the series of artifacts each contained, almost as if they were on presentation.

Shinji's eyes went from table to table, object to object. He then let out a brief, disbelieving laugh as a wave of almost crushing relief washed over him.

'Have I done it?'

-α-

Silence blanketed the Wunder bridge. The feed from the surveillance cameras filled the main display. The staff had only been able to watch in gawking silence as the thing that looked like the Third Child cut an unrelenting swath of destruction through their forces.

It ended as quickly as it started. The cameras flicked from the troops shooting at the sealed door to the inside of the isolation section. They watched as Shinji limped into the lab and rested back against the door inside.

Misato closed her mouth long enough to spin back around to where Ritsuko stood working furiously, "Ritsuko!"

"I'm almost in! So far I've only managed to gain partial access to the lab. I can try and disengage the locks so our people can-"

"-No!" she snapped, "Lock out those tables. No matter what happens, we can't let him gain access to that equipment!"

"Right!" she shouted, her hands literally a blur as she worked with more speed and intensity than she had in over a decade. Ritsuko's focus was so laser-like that it probably rivaled what Shinji's had been like just a moment prior, "I'm in. I can close the blast shields over the examination tables, but I'll have to do it one by one."

"Then do it!"

-α-

Shinji flinched as one of the tables suddenly hissed, and he watched as two thick steel doors began slowly sliding closed over the top of it before locking into place. He then watched as the display on the far left table began to flicker as it started to get overridden also.

'Ritsuko…'

"Oh no you don't!" roared Shinji, his hands instinctively going for the nearest heavy object, which in this case happened to be a large CO2 fire extinguisher.

Shinji tore it off the wall as one last well of strength surged up from within him, an unearthly bellow tearing from his throat. His vision hazed over to a cloud of red as his brain found god knows what remaining chemicals to keep its functions powered.

He made a beeline charge towards the second-to-left table, effectively running sideways against a bench for a few steps before propelling himself up into the air above it, just as steel began to appear at either side.

With the same intensity he'd possessed when he drove a progressive knife into the Fourth Angel's heart, Shinji brought the cylinder overhead and smashed it down through the top of the table, the steel blast doors catching it on either side.

Shinji landed with his feet braced against the closing doors as the cylinder began to cave. He spied Tevos' Omnitool: It was lying on its stand further back in the case, just out of reach. However there, between his feet, where somebody seemed to have haphazardly tossed it back into the case, as opposed to placing it further towards the back where it should be, lay Shinji's primary objective.

Now, Shinji didn't know who the untidy soul was that had neglected to put the object back in the case correctly, but he swore that, if he could, he would've gone completely and utterly Plan B on them for it.

A cloud of CO2 sprayed out overhead. Shinji's legs were briefly forced together and inch. He growled and forced back harder, regaining his footing.

Shinji reached down between his ankles and grabbed a hold of the object laying there as the metal began to compact further. Carbon dioxide sprayed out at close range, chilling Shinji to the bone.

The room was filled with the noise of hissing and growling as Shinji pushed with his legs and pulled with his arms as though his very life depended on it.

Suddenly, everything gave way. The cylinder compacted fully, releasing a cold blast of CO2 that propelled Shinji back through the air and had him sliding back onto the ground until his back hit the door once more. Something struck his forehead a second later.

There then came a gentle 'shunk' as the last of the blast shields finished closing.

Shinji waited for his vision to steady and then looked helplessly up to the ceiling with a dismayed groan.

However, the Consort's dismay lasted only until his brain managed to process the fact that the object that had clonked him on the dome, and that he now held vacantly in one hand, was in fact his own Omnitool.

Shinji looked in blank, gaping disbelief at the piece of gear in his grip.

Unscratched, unmarred and unharmed; beautiful Armali craftsmanship: worth every credit…illegal mods and all.

Suddenly, Shinji's breath began to heave. He thought he was choking. But then he realized he was actually laughing.

It seemed to start out as a struggling, amused chuckle before becoming loud and boisterous. And then, as Shinji pulled himself back up with the device cradled against his chest, he arched his back and just plain laughed.

Shinji may had been running off of adrenaline before, but now it was pure endorphin surging through him.

A malicious glint flickered over Shinji's eyes as he strode through the smoke and into the center of the room. He slowly slid the device back onto his left wrist where it belonged and tapped a control.

USER IDENTITY CONFIRMED.

PLEASE ENTER UNLOCK CODE:

-α-

Those on the bridge could only watch helplessly as Shinji patiently, slowly, tapped one key after the next and then brought his Omnitool back online.

Shinji turned his attention back to the tables in front of him and pressed a few controls on his Omnitool display. Misato then felt a distinct chill as Shinji turned and looked right into the camera.

He held his left arm up.

Despite her glasses; despite the surveillance feed separating them, Misato got the strongest sense that Shinji was staring directly into her eyes as he brought his right index finger slowly around, and then tapped a blinking control.

The holographic display seemed to flicker for a second and then, behind Shinji, every single blast shield began drawing back again. A second after that, all the tables themselves opened at once. The Consort then turned to calmly survey what was now freely on offer for him.

Shinji paused to look down and then began entering more commands on his device.

"Ritsuko…" breathed Misato as she turned to her, "Can you…?"

Ritsuko just shook her head as she regarded her own screen. It still showed the interface for the control systems in that lab, however it was now completely blanketed by swatches of bizarre, utterly incomprehensible alien code that seemed to writhe and change itself seemingly at random.

Misato could only turn back and watch as Shinji strolled calmly up to the tables before him.

He hooked the Councillor's dress over one arm and set it down on a nearby worktop. He then swiped his pistol up and set it down on top of the dress along with the Councillor's Omnitool, kicking the trashed CO2 canister aside.

Shinji seemed to slow then as he approached the final table. On it, lying sideways was a pair of boots, trousers, a waistcoat interlaced with armor segments, and finally, a folded white coat emblazoned with the emblem of a certain crime lady's syndicate.

Misato watched Shinji as he just sort of looked at it for a moment. His hand then drifted back to the device on his wrist. He flicked a control.

Misato, and indeed the entire bridge staff flinched as a sudden ringing of audio feedback echoed out from all around them.

"Misato-san…" came Shinji's voice, calm and collected from every single direction, and Misato turned to look at the screen; at the one who was addressing her.

However, even as Shinji spoke, his eyes remained locked on that emblem while his hands worked on his Omnitool, "I've restored internal communications and disengaged all ECMs. You will also find that all lockouts with the exception of those protecting the quarantine ward have been lifted. You should now have free reign to talk to your people."

The device on Shinji's arm seemed to then spread out as nameless parts and shapes began flickering around at blinding speed. A shape began to appear in their midst: a small, dark cylinder with red highlights was being woven into being.

Shinji reached over and picked up the pistol lying nearby. Amongst the smoke he then began undoing the buttons on his WILLE fatigues, "You have until I finish getting changed to tell your people now gathering outside to fall back."

"Your people caused this, Misato-san. You put Councillor Tevos into the state she's in now, and one way or another, I am going to save her and undo the damage you've done," his eyes flicked to her again, "And if you force me to choose between your people; the ones who did that to her, and Tevos herself, then I will choose her every single time. And you might hope that you can justify yourself as being in the right by saying 'Well Shinji could've just surrendered and we would've let him help his friend…', but no: that is no longer an option. My body is failing me, quickly, and if that happens before I get back to Tevos and start treating her properly, then she is as good as dead. Time is very much of the essence now."

"So here's what you can do, Misato-san: You can tell your men to stand back, or you can tell them to stand firm. I am more than happy for this to end without a single further incident of violence.

"But know this: if you try and stop me from saving my friend, then every drop of blood spilled here today will be on your hands." He narrowed his eyes right at her and swiped the glowing cylinder out of the air as the lights retreated back into the device. He then twirled the object between his fingers before slotting it into the back of his weapon and locking it shut.

A mechanical whine of something powering up could be heard over the comm link.

Shinji brought his M-77 up and aimed it at the camera, right into their faces effectively, "Councillor Tevos will live today, Captain, and if I have to climb over the still-warm corpses of your crew to ensure that happens, then it will be because you picked that outcome; it will be because Misato Katsuragi wanted violence. And on top of that, you will have also officially broken the first and only law of the Terminus Systems."

"You have five minutes to make your choice."

Shinji then pulled the trigger and a gunshot rang out over the comm link, cutting the image to static. Things then went quiet as the communication link was clearly cut off.

-α-

Shinji regarded the remains of the camera. It looked like his sidearm was working well enough. He angled it to check the heat indicator on the side. The results there were not promising.

The thermal clip he had manufactured was obviously of very basic grade, unlike the custom ones he normally carried around to help dissipate the Paladin's abnormally high heat output. He guessed that, at best, he would get two shots without cooldown before being forced to eject the clip and swap it out. But it wasn't like there weren't ways around that little issue.

Shinji cast the top half of his WILLE grey-green fatigues aside, glancing down at his Omnitool display as he continued to disrobe.

MANUFACTURING MODE

Construction Complete…

Omni-gel reservoir at 97%

Medi-gel reserves: 3

Shinji began slipping into his regular trousers as he started to punch in construction commands. He then set his Omnitool down as he bent over to pull his boots on.

He glanced up as a bandoleer unfurled itself within the construction field, each of the six segments within holding its own thermal clip.

Construction Complete…

Omni-gel reservoir at 74%

Shinji then unfolded his waistcoat and began clipping the armor segments into alignment before buckling the bandoleer over one shoulder and settling it into place.

He then locked his Omnitool back onto his left arm and began flicking through his database with a frown, "Now then, Tara'Zorah, where is that cute little schematic that you gave…ah hah…" he trailed off as he located the design that he'd never had any use for up until today, double-tapping the build control to select two instances.

Warning: Production request will reduce internal Omni-gel reserves to 0.7%. Please confirm if you wish to proceed.

Shinji hesitated as he folded his coat over one arm.

"All or nothing…" he murmured, and then hit the confirmation control.

The Consort unfurled his overcoat and then slipped his arms though, drawing it up and adjusting the collar as he watched his Omnitool work with detached interest.

He took a step forwards, glancing at his reflection as he pulled free the white gloves from the pockets and slipped them back on too.

'At least I look like me again,' lamented Shinji with a tiny smile. "Aria would've been pleased, I suppose..." he then added vocally with a weary sigh.

A double bleep by his arm drew Shinji's attention down and he caught the two completed objects out of the air just as the manufacturing system on his Omnitool shut down.

Shinji held the two gleaming, segmented silver spheres up in his hands, admiring them as they glinted in the darkness of the lab.

Tara had always said they would come in handy at some point. And while this was her own custom design, capable of operating independently of an Omnitool once constructed and programmed, the engineer had still labelled them as being 'A Quarian's best friend when out there in a big, scary galaxy fighting solo'.

That smile pulled just ever-so slightly tighter at Shinji's lips.

He would just have to see…

Shinji slipped one orb into each pocket. He then folded the Councillor's clothes over one shoulder and pocketed her Omnitool before heading for the door.

When he reached the isolation section door, Shinji pressed one last, particular control on his Omnitool before hitting the final override on the lock.

He wasn't surprised in the least to see what awaited him outside…

-α-

With the cameras in both the lab and corridor outside now down, all the bridge staff could see was an image of that wide, steel door, and the people now gathered out in front of it.

"Misato!" snapped Ritsuko, "We have twenty-six men in readied positions out there! You need to give the order!"

Misato stared at the locked entryway, her teeth gritted, hesitation clear and visible.

"There are gaps in his armor. No matter how advanced his sidearm is he's still only one person!"

"The only gaps being the ones around his throat and head you mean…" murmured Misato with disgust.

Ritsuko looked at her with disbelief, "You would put him ahead of the lives of your own crew? Misato, we must stop him now! You can't risk the fate of the world just because he happens to look like somebody you used to know!"

"You're out of line!" barked Misato, glaring at her.

"Am I!?" shouted Ritsuko right back, "The fate of the world may rest upon us regaining control of him. He essentially now has a master key to every single system on board this ship. Even if there is only a small risk of him utilizing that technology against us later, can you really take that chance when weighed against the lives of every person on this planet? Yes, we may have started this as he said, but there is nothing we can do to change that now, nor can we just surrender because of it."

No response.

"Misato!" she shouted, her tone bordering on desperation as she glanced at the screen and back.

"One chance…" she finally said.

"What?"

"One chance: Order them to give him one chance to surrender first. I won't just have him gunned down like some wild animal on first sight. We owe him that much for what we've done."

Ritsuko nodded, "Of course." She then brought a hand up to her earpiece to give the order, "Captain says target is to be given one chance to submit. Any resistance…" Ritsuko paused to look at Misato before continuing, "…shoot to kill."

"Understood, Vice-captain," came the voice of the Security Chief from the other end, "On my order only!" he could then be heard to shout out to the troops around him.

The two officers both turned back to the feed as the doors at the end of the room finally began to open…

They watched as a low cloud of CO2 poured out. Within it, half-concealed, stood a still, solitary figure clad in billowing white contrasted with black. His expression looked set in pure stone. Cobalt-blue eyes glinted darkly like ice in the night.

There had been an almost pathetic harmlessness about the elder Shinji the first time Ritsuko had seen him, clad in those drab green WILLE fatigues and slippers. And while she was aware that he might have been able to hurt her at the time if he so chose, that something; that air of vulnerability had still remained prominent.

But now that something had suddenly, drastically shifted, and it was telling Ritsuko Akagi something far different. Put simply, it was saying 'This person could kill me.'

Aria's consort stepped forward.

-α-

Shinji looked out ahead, his eyes calmly surveying his surroundings while over two dozen automatic weapons clicked as rounds were chambered and safeties were taken off, each aiming right at him.

'Now where have I seen this somewhere before?' mused Shinji idly.

He was completely encircled by the WILLE forces who were utilizing hastily thrown up barricades and riot shields as cover to box Shinji in. No emotion was clear in Shinji's eyes. He just continued to survey, left and right.

"Drop your weapon!" came the predictable demand from the one in charge.

Shinji's eyes flicked to the Security Chief. He actually wouldn't have been able to mark him as the one in charge unless he'd spoken. They were all faceless, every last one of them, eyes and expressions hidden behind masks so they couldn't be seen by those they gunned down.

Shinji wondered briefly if that was something to help make their job easier; so that they could sleep better at night. It was just a shame their little safety blanket tended to be a two-way street.

Shinji's left ring finger flicked down and tapped a control on his Omnitool.

Misato flinched as Shinji's voice resonated out from all around her once again, "This is your choice, Misato-san?" he asked, a brief note of sadness creeping in there.

"You don't need to respond," he then added with quiet, almost gentle reassurance, "it's okay... For what it's worth, I'm sure they'll forgive you too. However, nothing will change the fact that, when it all comes down to it…you did this."

Shinji then killed the link, unknowingly leaving a very pale-faced Misato standing in dead-silence on the bridge, her breath caught in her throat.

"One step!" shouted the man again, "You take one step and we will open fire!"

Shinji turned his attention to the troops now. He felt they deserved that much at least, "Is this your choice too?" he asked out loud, performing a slow, sweeping glance about so he'd at least registered the existence of each individual man, "Is your choice, as free-thinking, adult men…to stop me from reaching my friend?"

There was a tensing of the weapons, but there came no response; no sign of surrender; no move to let him pass.

The choice was made.

"Well then…" whispered Shinji, his hands slipping slowly into his pockets and sliding free two silver objects. He raised his right foot up slightly, "…that really is…" moved it forward an inch, "...unfortunate." and then set it down again.

"Drop him!" came the roared order.

The first shots fired from the deafening blast of synchronous gunfire actually struck Shinji's armor. They were, as expected, quite ineffectual.

Ironically, the ones that struck home on his neck and cranium were even less so.

Those slammed right into his fully powered kinetic barrier.

Shinji took several steps forward, ensuring he was the focal point for the continuous stream of gunfire. Never did he move beyond that. He just looked about himself, observing for a moment longer.

But that moment had to end.

He then lowered his hands to his sides and flung the two objects contained within high up into the air with one fluid motion.

Most of the men looked up, following their path as the two glinting silver orbs sailed over their heads.

"Grenades!" cried one of the men, and most of the soldiers around the impact points jumped down behind cover.

Then they bounced, and rather audibly at that. They bounced several times as it so happens, over and over again. The gunfire drew briefly to a halt as the orbs rolled to a seemingly harmless stop at two points near the middle and back of the room.

And then, with a dual and almost comical pop, the spheres opened.

The men frowned as two glowing blue, almost transparent disc-like objects shot up and then just hovered there, orientating about and scanning their surroundings with sweeping searchlights.

Murmurs of confusion filled the air.

And so, after marking their master as the only friendly in combat zone, the pair of quarian autocannon turrets orientated about once more, this time with intent as they began painting targets, priming the ammunition type their master had selected in his usual style.

There came a quick whine an instant before the two mass accelerated cannons unleashed a stream cold destruction directly into the line of men within their path.

Primitive armour and flesh were punched through like paper. Some shots tore clean through several people at a time before embedding themselves in walls, reducing whole lines of soldiers to mere fragments of scattering ice crystals.

Cries of terror and confusion filled the air as the troops desperately aimed their fire on the turrets. But primitive, chemically propelled slugs meant absolutely nothing to even the weakest of kinetic barriers.

They may as well have just been throwing their bullets at them.

The turrets spun in the air and fired, spitting death indiscriminately and without mercy. Some men turned and fled, but the targeting sensors marked and picked them off regardless. Machines had no concept of the Rules of Engagement, and an open back just represented a more easy and appealing target.

Still Shinji didn't move. He was only forced into action when the leader of the squad, who had thrown himself to the ground for cover, realized that the turrets weren't firing in the Consort's general direction.

He pulled a buck knife free and lunged at Shinji with a deafening roar.

The turret orientated about to take out the target as it crossed into a safe line of fire.

Shinji however, got there first...

The man seemed to hang in the air before Shinji, knife primed for the plunge. The Consort's hand whipped up however and fired a single shot at point-blank range. As expected, the man didn't drop. He simply exploded in mid-air, raining hyper cold shards down over Shinji's shoulders.

The Consort's eyes flicked ahead when more tried charging. He fired again, picking one off without a second thought.

The next man had a window of opportunity when Shinji's Paladin flashed its error and force-ejected the thermal clip.

Shinji pulled his Omni-blade free instead and just slashed out in an arc, carving straight through armor like butter and cutting directly into flesh. As the man fell back, screaming in pain, Shinji flicked a new thermal clip free from his supply, locked it into place, and then took out the man while he was still down.

Shinji picked up the Omni-blade lying in the pile of ice and kept it ready in his left hand. His gun arm throbbed its objection however as he repeatedly fired the heavy pistol one-handed, but it wasn't like he needed much accuracy in his aim anyway.

Another man came, and then another, but Shinji just picked them off without mercy. There was no need to worry about enemy armor or barriers in this scenario. No, every single shot was a simple, point-blank, one-hit kill.

The rest were all but slaughtered in short order. With no escape route, the majority was just plain executed by the turrets, and Shinji had fallen into a quick pattern of shooting, deflecting close quarter's assaults and swift reloading.

By the time the turrets fell silent, Shinji was down to his last thermal clip, the rest lay discarded in a circle about his feet.

Throughout the entire encounter, he hadn't moved from that one spot.

The air was filled with smoke, but the usual heat of battle did not radiate around the room. Instead, Shinji's breath hung clear in the air, his skin was coated with a thin but noticeable layer of frost. The foyer had been turned into a literal freezer thanks to the remnants of the dozens of men lying scattered about him.

A groan sounded off to one side. A man was shifting on the ground, his right leg and arm had been blasted off and reduced to rapidly melting frozen stumps. He choked on his own breath and blood, and was most likely an agonizing moment away from death due to the ice crystals in his blood as he reached out, desperately trying to grasp hold of his discarded weapon with his one remaining arm.

Shinji didn't even bother to look, he just extended his weapon to the side, squeezed the trigger, and the temperature in the room dropped by a few more degrees.

The last sound of the battle was Shinji's weapon ejecting its final clip, spent like the rest.

Shinji unbuckled his bandoleer and let it fall to the floor at his side. He then stowed his weapons away and strolled forwards.

Sensing the combat situation to be over, the turrets drew up to their master's side.

Shinji held his hands out, palms up and the turrets retracted back into their spheres and dropped nimbly into his hands once more. He then looked briefly around at the field of cold, jagged crystal that surrounded him as he stowed the orbs away.

He then turned his attention ahead once more and just started walking, "Congratulations, Misato Katsuragi…you just fucked with Aria."

Shinji glanced just one last time over his shoulder when he reached the foyer entrance, "Perhaps 'still-warm corpses' was the wrong expression…"

-α-

To be continued…

[A/N] And we are done for this chapter. Sorry if there wasn't much more to it this time than 'Shinji beats people up and then shoots at stuff for a whole chapter' (and no, that wasn't the working title) if that's not your thing, but I think it had to be done in this instance. And while I'm aware this was shorter than some of the others, it was in fact originally one much longer chapter, over twice as long as it happens, but I've decided to merge that into the next chapter and rewrote this into one, since I felt the narrative just worked better that way and the tones of the two halves didn't quite mesh as much as I wanted. (Actually, I just looked at my counter and realised that this 'half' ended up at about ten thousand words, so not too bad I guess). On the bright side, means next chapter will probably be out sooner. Ah, fun. Until next time.

Catch you in Chapter 4: The Negotiator